Here we are. It took a bit longer than the previous one.
Reviews:
Avalon gx - I will think about this maiden idea. :\
Loveless - I don't think my fight scenes can compare to the fights from jojo although if you like the music you can always put it in the background while reading it. Jaune will upgrade his gear although I already have it planned and it may be a bit more significant scene than you think. I always thought of the Great Spirit as of this emotionless yet beneloved entity who's sentience can't exactly be compared to how normal people think. So i don't think it could hold the grudge in the way we would.
Guest - I don't think so.
shaolin story - They certainly would my friend.
Guest - Glad you are excited. Here's another one.
X3runner - Does she? I really want to write most of the characters in character although I'm not sure how is it going by far so thanks for the info.
Justarandomdude - Yeah, being almost murdered by your own family can lead to an enlightening realization.
NinjaFang1331 - thanks. :)
Raven smirked in satisfaction as she watched the fight finally starting to get interesting. Maybe, being one of the judges of the tournament wasn't going to be as boring as she thought it would be.
It was a fight between beginners so she didn't come here expecting much from the combatants but when she saw how passive both of the fighters were acting she slowly started to suspect that they thought that the purpose of the shaman fight was to bore the judge to death.
Thankfully with a single attack aimed towards the audience made by Whitley the situation changed completely. It appeared that a threat to the lives of innocents was enough for Summer's shaman to start fighting for real.
Of course the little Schnee brat at whom the attack was aimed was never in any real sort of danger. Bandit queen she might have been but she still was a judge of the tournament so she would stop any of the attacks that could hit the bystanders.
With her power it wasn't even that difficult to do so. Compared to the strength of some of her bird spirits the metal that little Schnee shaman was playing with was nothing more than a thin wire that would snap the moment it met her attack.
Luckily, she didn't have to do anything as the Arc boy took it upon himself to intervene before she had to do anything, gracefully relieving her of the responsibility that would force her to stand up from her comfortable position and giving himself a motive to make the fight more interesting by doing so.
She laughed a little as she noticed the blond shaman using Summer's ability he got thanks to his Over Soul to vanish and keep a pressure on the Schnee brat.
It truly was an entertaining fight for her.
Meanwhile Jaune has just reappeared right next to Whitley with a swing of his halberd already being made the moment his body started to show itself. He put all of his force behind it and used all the momentum he had from the teleport to waste as little of time as possible before the hit.
A loud clank sound echoed through the cliff side of Beacon as his halberd was deflected by Whitley's metal wall that appeared at the last second for protection.
He winced a little as the rebound from the clash shook his body aggravating the wound he had on his shoulder.
The bunch of the small cut wounds he had all over his body from protecting Weiss weren't really an issue when it came to a fight as they could be seen at worst as a small inconvenience but the stab wound on his shoulder he got from the one blade he couldn't block was causing him some really painful reminders that his body wasn't perfectly fine at the moment.
He gritted his teeth trying to ignore the pain he felt and skillfully covered himself with the cloak from his Over Soul to disappear from his position. Despite the fact that he was the one on the offensive at the moment he still couldn't stay in one place for too long in case Whitley tried to strike him as a retaliation.
Reappearing a few meters above Whitley with a flurry of petals not even a few seconds after vanishing he turned the bladed part of his halberd downwards and held it with his uninjured arm to let gravity take care of his attack.
There was no point in worsening the wound on his shoulder by needlessly swinging his weapon with all of his strength every time he wanted to attack.
A large metallic cone made out of dozens of different steel components started to envelop his opponent to meet his halberd head on. The speed at which the metal was appearing wasn't anything impressive but he knew it would be fast enough because there was no way he could increase his falling speed in the position he was in right now.
He frowned in annoyance and worry as his halberd was stopped by a giant barrier of metal. Immediately after he was able to touch it with his feet he kicked it with all of his strength to launch himself as far away from it as he could.
There were countless things that Whitley could possibly do in that situation to skewer him with dozens of sharp objects and he didn't want to experience any of them.
It didn't take long for him to land on the ground with a simple slide to lighten the falling impact after he jumped away from the metal barrier around his foe. Thankfully, there weren't any metal spikes on the place he landed because if there were, the fight would have ended right there.
He huffed a little in relief while straightening himself as he watched the metal around Whitley slowly disappear.
Being the one on the offense in a fight against Whitley had surprisingly just as many benefits as drawbacks. Although in both cases there really was only one that mattered.
Whitley was the one on the defense. It was both the advantage and the disadvantage of that situation and just a thought about that made him want to sigh in helplessness of it.
On one hand it meant that his opponent had to be focused on defending himself from his attack which made it almost impossible for the young Schnee to even try to attack him making the battle slightly more manageable.
On the other hand it meant that his opponent was always prepared for his attempts at attacking him so from the moment he started being on the offensive he didn't land a single clean hit as every time he tried a metal wall or barrier would stop him from delivering a strike.
At least Whitley still wasn't too afraid of attacking and there were situations where he almost got a hit thanks to that.
A frown appeared on his face as he noticed another volley of long metal blades flying at him. There went his moment for a breather, luckily it didn't seem to be too hard to dodge.
With a single flick of his weapon he covered himself with the cloak from his Over Soul and disappeared.
At the same time the entire audience, despite the fight becoming way more tense and entertaining to watch, was looking at Weiss with a clear concern visible on their faces.
Since Whitley attempted that attack on her earlier, she hadn't moved from the place she stayed at all. She didn't even turn around. Nobody knew what was going through her head at the moment and none of them knew what they should say to Weiss as well.
If one were to look at her face then they would see how unnaturally pale she was at the moment. She looked as if someone took her life out of her yet her whole body was shaking.
It wasn't the attack itself that left her in that state but it was one of the reasons for her reaction. What really shook her to the core like that were two grave realizations that came with that attack.
The first one was that there might have been some grains of truth in Whitley's delusions or at least despite those delusions her brother had some mysterious power that made the fantasy Whitley was living way more dangerous for him and her.
The second one was that through her actions and the way she treated him, her own sibling was desperate and emotional enough to not only consider hurting her but to actually launch an attack at her.
What had she done? Did she really not realize how her younger brother must have felt his entire life?
Regrets filled her mind as she took a step back with a loud breath to try and calm herself. It didn't work as the world around her began to slowly spin from the stress overflowing through her body.
"Weiss! Calm down, it's a small wound! Are you alright?" Her partner who she criticized for becoming the team leader instead of her not that long ago said in a worry while quickly dashing behind her to make sure she wouldn't fall down.
She wasn't alright and normally she would have scolded her friend for asking an obvious thing but she found herself unable to do that at the moment. Her breaths slowly returned to normal and she stopped shaking as she began standing straight with the help of Ruby.
Despite her physical condition slowly returning to normal, she was still in a panicked state and her mind was still in turmoil.
"What was that?" She asked quieter than she would like while stiffly turning around towards the fight.
Her question was met with silence from her teammates as they didn't know or weren't sure as well and a small yet visible wince from Ren who looked as if he was thinking about something. Realizing that her inquiry wouldn't be answered anytime soon she decided to see what was happening in the fight they came here to watch.
When she saw the blond boy who was fighting her brother jumping from the air or dodging away because of a swing Whitley did a few meters away from him while being covered with dozens of bleeding cut wounds around his body she slowly moved her hand to touch the cut she had on her neck.
She didn't know how it happened. One moment she was casually leaving the fight to go back to her dorm and study and another her Aura was suddenly pierced by an attack she couldn't even react to and a random person she didn't even know that much was standing behind her covered with injuries after blocking most of the attack that hit her.
If Jaune didn't try to protect her then she could have died with her brother being her killer.
She gulped loudly after thinking about what could have happened before wholly concentrating on the fight as if her life were depending on it. If Whitley delusions actually had some truth to them then it might as well be.
Jaune grumbled quietly as he jumped out of the way of another barrage of spikes from the ground. Immediately after that, he covered himself with the cloak from his weapon and vanished.
In spite of his best efforts, he still didn't manage to actually break through Whitley's impenetrable defense. There simply was no way for him to break the steel created by his opponent with his own power.
Fortunately, he began to notice a pattern to Whitley's powers or maybe a peculiar limitation would have been a better way to describe what he observed. It didn't give him much hope of actually countering his foe's Over Soul but at least it should allow him to get a chance to attack.
He reappeared right next to Whitley with a quick swing of his halberd.
Whitley jumped out of the way in surprise without even trying to raise any defensive wall with his Over Soul. There wasn't enough time to cover himself with steel and dodging away allowed Whitley to have a chance at a counterattack.
At least that was most likely what his foe wanted him to think the moment he dodged away. Unfortunately for Whitley he already suspected that Whitley had such a weakness in his Over Soul and that example merely confirmed his suspicions.
There's a limit to how much and how far his opponent could create his steel. On top of that, it seemed that these limits were closely related to each other and if one of them was reached then the other limit would be met as well.
Whenever Whitley attacked him from afar there was always a need to dissipate the metal he created before protecting himself from his attack. It worked the other way around as well and every time Whitley used a lot of steel to protect himself from every direction he would never attack despite there being some incredibly good occasion to get a hit on him.
Jaune didn't know what exactly the limit of it was so for the last few exchanges he always tried to probe Whitley into action so that he would have more examples of the limit being met.
It would have been way easier if he knew what were the reasons for such a restriction but for now he only had a few half-baked theories that could at most be summarized as his opponent having too little Furyoku or experience. Sadly at the moment these theories didn't help him that much.
He frowned a little when he saw Whitley starting to thrust at him with his saber. Knowing that it most likely wouldn't be just a normal stab and that some steel barrage of either blades, spikes or needles would follow right after, he decided to make use of his Over Soul and teleport away.
The only thing Whitley's sword met as he was using his Over Soul was a flurry of rose petals swirling in place as he started to reappear right behind Whitley. There wasn't any point in not using an occasion given to strike at this point in the fight when he already was putting his foe under a lot of pressure.
At almost the exact moment he tried to attack Whitley from behind a small sea of spikes suddenly erupted from the ground around his target as a saber stabbed the earth after a missed thrust.
Of course Whitley would make sure to protect himself right after a missed strike. He had been attacked in similar ways at least a dozen times at that point in the battle.
Jaune hummed in though as he jumped up to not be immediately skewered by the spikes under him before quickly twirling his halberd to teleport out of the way.
After landing on the ground a few meters away from the forest of spikes that was now surrounding his opponent, he casually spun his halberd to get a better grip on it. A small wince appeared on his face as he did that though as his shoulder reacted in pain to the sudden change in movement when he gripped his weapon too hard.
He took a quick glance at the most severe wound on his body to see one his hoodie's arms being colored a bit darker than the rest of it because of the blood that was slowly flowing out of the stab wound. The fight would need to end quickly if he wanted to have any hopes of winning it.
He looked forward to see how his opponent was faring to see a young white haired shaman charging at him with a frown on his face and a saber ready to strike.
The best word to describe his reaction at that moment would have been 'surprised'. He couldn't wrap his head around that decision of his foe. Whitley's fighting style was way more stationary and defensive than his so charging at him would put Whitley in a clear disadvantage.
What was Whitley trying to do right now?
A quick shake of his head was enough for him to snap out of his befuddled state. If his opponent wanted to make the fight easier for him by giving up his biggest advantage then who was he to not make use of that?
There was always a possibility that the reason for that decision was simply because Whitley's Furyoku was being slowly depleted so he smiled a little before charging forward as well.
After a few seconds they met in the middle of the area with a quick clash of a halberd and a saber. A loud sound of metal hitting a metal echoed only to be heard by barely half of the people present.
Their weapons deflected off each other and Jaune's halberd shot upwards together with the arm he was holding it with while Whitley's sword pummeled to the ground.
The blond shaman frowned a little when he saw his opponent falling to the ground with his weapon. If Whitley truly charged at him because of the lack of Furyoku then the winner of the fight had already been decided.
There was no way for the young Schnee to raise his sword fast enough to block his next attack in the position they were in at the moment. Was this entire situation a trap?
With a slight suspicion present in his mind he still decided to utilize the chance for an attack that was given to him and with a simple yet precise movement of his hand he swung his weapon downwards.
Even with the silver halberd falling directly at him, Whitley didn't panic for a single second and instead of dodging away he slashed at the ground right next to Jaune's feet while activating his Over Soul's ability in the meantime.
Noticing that his opponent was trying to do something and realizing that his suspicions were correct, Jaune gritted his teeth knowing that he wouldn't be able to use his ability to teleport and dashed forward tackling both him and Whitley away from the dozens of steel blades that just erupted from the ground they where they clashed.
It appeared that his presumption about Whitley having little Furyoku left was wrong.
After his tackle both of them tumbled a few meters on the ground before stopping. He visibly winced in pain after he stopped before slowly trying to stand up while briefly checking if any of his wounds were in worse condition than they were before.
For Whitley that tumble meant at most a couple of bruises on his arms but for him it could lead to a long rest in a hospital if too much earth were to enter the cuts all around his body.
He let out a short breath in relief after confirming that nothing too serious happened to him before turning towards Whitley with a small smile to ask him if he were alright out of a habit. Sure, they were enemies at the moment and he certainly wanted to beat some sense into the white haired boy but showing compassion for other people after an accident like this was a basic human instinct that he didn't bother changing.
Just as he turned his head and was about to open his mouth to ask the question, he instead yelped in surprise as he saw Whitley standing right before him with his saber already prepared for a heavy swing.
"You could have at least given me some time to stand up properly, You know?!" Jaune yelled with a small whine while using his halberd to shield himself from Whitley's strike.
Fortunately for him Whitley's strikes, while certainly polished and practiced, were still as predictable and unambiguous as ever so it wasn't too difficult for him to hold his halberd in such a way that the sword that was flying at him would collide with the Flat side of his weapon's blade.
Regrettably for him that simple slash wasn't all that the Schnee shaman had put behind that attack as soon after the saber collided with his halberd several steel blades extended from the place they jumped away from towards him.
Seeing a copious amount of deadly sharp objects flying towards him, Jaune decided that getting out of their way would have been the best thing to do in that situation so he pushed his weapon outwards to push his opponent away and jumped backwards before using his Over Soul to disappear.
"Do you really have to take this fight so intensely? Calm down a little. I'm not going to kill you after I win." Jaune said after reappearing a few steps away while holding his neck and being glad that the previous attack didn't hit him.
His question earned him a scoff from the young shaman before him since for Whitley the answer was obvious.
"Aren't you the one who's taking this fight too lightly instead? What happened to that drive you had just after I attacked my sister?" Whitley asked with a frown while pointing his sword at him before adding with a sneer. "I don't know about you but I am in this tournament to win and I will do everything I can to make sure that it happens."
With his statement said, Whitley quickly flicked his saber to launch a couple of steel spikes at Jaune before charging forward for another direct confrontation.
Jaune frowned a little in thought after he heard what his opponent said. The projectiles that Whitley had sent at him weren't that fast or complicated to dodge so he didn't put much of his mind to avoiding them and focused on his opponent instead.
On a first glance what Whitley said might have been obvious, there was nobody who joined the Shaman King Tournament and didn't have at least the tiniest desire to win. Despite claiming that the only thing he wanted out of the tournament was to meet as many other shamans as possible by getting to the highest round he could, he also sometimes wondered what he would do if he somehow managed to win.
Becoming literally the next god was quite a prize after all and he would be damned if he didn't wonder what it could allow him to do.
The thing that made him lost in thought though was the motive his fellow young shaman had for fighting so hard. There were many desires one could have and if one was a shaman then these desires might as well be multiplied but only a few of them would require one to be omnipotent to achieve them and judging from how much his opponent wanted to win, the thing he wished for needed him to actually be one to attain it in his mind.
"What exactly are you fighting for..." Jaune whispered more to himself than to anyone else while deep in thought as his opponent arrived right before him.
Meanwhile the members of team RWBY in the audience who also heard that entire conversation were confused. The only reason they were here was because they thought that something interesting was happening outside at the moment and had absolutely no idea what the stakes were in the fight the two shamans were having.
Weiss frowned worriedly as she tried to understand what exactly her brother was talking about. She didn't remember Whitley ever being so invested in anything and it for sure was the first time she heard about her brother treating some competition so seriously.
Although there might have been some cases of Whitley talking about it before and she just ignored it by labeling it as another one of her younger sibling's many delusions.
She gritted her teeth in some fear while recounting how an invisible attack sent by her brother pierced through her Aura and almost killed her. She slowly started to regret the way she treated him her entire life.
Weiss abruptly shook her head to get rid of unnecessary thoughts. She still didn't know what the prize of that apparently real secret tournament was to make her brother care so much about it and none of her teammates seemed to be inclined to take their eyes away from the fight to try and find the answer for that question for a second.
How much would she give for her team to have at least one more sensible person beside her?
Seriously, two people capable of breaking through someone's Aura with a single attack from their weapons are fighting to near death for a mystery prize that they didn't know about and the thing her team wanted to do was to watch the apparently 'cool' fight that was happening at the moment instead of trying to learn why they fought.
She didn't know whether she was supposed to be disappointed or angry at them. Clearly though, she shouldn't be relying on them to find that reason.
If only there was anyone here who could have told her what exactly they were watching right now.
Weiss suddenly jumped a little in realization as she remembered that there was in fact a person who could tell her what was going on. She quickly turned her head towards Ren and Nora with conviction in her eyes.
These two were here before them and most likely would have watched the fight even if her team didn't come here as well. They had to know what that shaman tournament was and they might have even been a part of it as well.
"You!" She shouted with a slight anger in her voice while grabbing Ren by his shoulder to get his attention.
Based on the fact that the entire audience and maybe even the combatants themselves were currently looking at her with confused gazes, the way she used to get attention worked quite well.
She faked a cough into her fist to diffuse some tension she accidentally created before looking straight at Ren to make sure he was paying attention to her at the moment while awkwardly ignoring the stare a certain redhead Valkyrie was giving her.
"Explain what exactly is the battle that's happening right now all about." She demanded with a sharp voice making her teammates finally stop observing the fight for more than a few seconds.
Her demand was met with a few long seconds of silence as Ren stared at her with narrowed eyes while wondering what he should do before a short sigh of resignation escaped his lips.
"The fight that you are seeing is the first round of the Shaman King Tournament. It's a secret tournament between people capable of forming bonds with spirits known as shamans where the winner gets the prize of bonding with the Great Spirit and becoming the Shaman King." Ren calmly answered without breaking the eye contact he had with Weiss for even a moment.
Unfortunately for him the answer he gave didn't mean much for people foreign to the spiritual world so with another long sigh he decided to give another more comprehensible answer.
"In other words, the winner of this tournament will become the next god." Ren solemnly said while ignoring all the shocked expression team RWBY now had on their faces.
The moment Weiss heard those words she had to take a few steps back from the gravity of the situation her little brother was apparently in. If what Ren said was even partially true then it wasn't strange that Whitley reacted the way he did when she mocked the fight earlier.
While she still wasn't entirely convinced that what was happening right now was fully real, she knew that even if only the people involved in it believed it then the tournament could already be considered important.
"I guess that explains why you always insisted on practicing those unreasonable skills. Huh, Whitley? If I were in your place then I would have probably ended the same way you did." Weiss muttered to herself louder than she would have liked not knowing that her words shook her brother's entire body when he heard that.
That reaction nearly cost Whitley the entire fight though as in a short moment of distraction he almost didn't notice a silver halberd flying at his head as a result of Jaune's swing.
Thankfully for the white haired shaman he managed to quickly get his mind back into the fight he was having and barely dodge the swing that was aimed at him.
Whitley scoffed a little while jumping away from the blond shaman's reach and using his Over Soul to create a bunch of spikes in the place he just stood. He didn't have much hope that it would do anything substantial against Jaune as he already witnessed his opponent skillfully dodge dozens of attacks like these.
After the fight ends he would need to practice and come up with new ways to use his Over Soul because what he had at the moment was quickly becoming predictable.
Predictably, with a single use of his teleportation ability Jaune easily got out of the spikes' way without worrying too much about any other traps laying around. That incredibly convenient ability his opponent had was quickly starting to annoy him.
He grunted a little before looking around to see if his foe was anywhere beside him to deliver another one of his sudden attacks. Luckily with how flat the area around them was it didn't take him long to spot Jaune and turn towards him with his guard raised.
Almost immediately after he prepared himself for another charge at his opponent, Whitley frowned visibly in confusion.
After Jaune reappeared he didn't do the sensible thing like charge at him or raise his halberd in preparation for an attack. Instead of that his foe merely stabbed his halberd into the ground before leaning on it.
If one were to look correctly then they might have even noticed that the blond shaman was contemplating or thinking about something rather than paying attention to what was going around him. He acted as if there was something more important to do at the moment than to focus on the battle they were having.
"Oi! What do you think you are doing right now!?" Whitley shouted with some acidity in his voice as he felt that he was being mocked.
Sadly for the young shaman from the Schnee family his opponent didn't seem to pay too much attention to him at the moment. To add an insult to injury, Jaune even scratched his head a little while looking at the sky and being lost in thought.
A few awkward seconds passed slowly as Whitley waited for an answer from his opponent.
"Hey! I'm talking to you!" He shouted once again to get the blond's attention.
Another few seconds passed without any answer from Jaune. He swore if the silence was going to last for even a few seconds longer then he would launch the biggest barrage of blades, spikes and spears he could conjure with his Over Soul at that blond idiot.
Thankfully it didn't come to that as after quietly humming something to himself Jaune finally noticed Whitley's slowly rising irritation and decided to explain himself.
"Ah! Sorry! I was just thinking about something." Jaune said with a small giggle as he scratched the back of his head with some embarrassment. At least the blond shaman had the self-awareness big enough to realize that he should feel embarrassed at that moment.
"I could see that." Whitley grumbled to himself in a response before pointing his saber at his opponent and loudly saying with fierceness in his tone. "I don't know what is so important that you have to think about it right now but know that this is a fight and I will use every advantage you give me to win."
With his declaration being said, he bolted forward while subtly stabbing the earth a couple times to send a few volleys of spikes from the ground at his opponent.
He was so focused on his assault on the young Arc that he didn't notice that despite dozens of attacks flying him from the ground the blond shaman still didn't look concerned for a second and he even genuinely smiled a little instead.
It wasn't surprising that Jaune was capable of dodging that attack as he already did something similar many times during this fight already. What was unexpected though was the words the young Arc uttered after completely avoiding all of the assault.
"I think I know why you want to win so much." Jaune said with a wide and honest smile while balancing himself on one of the spikes he grabbed.
"What!?" Whitley shouted in response before staring directly at his opponent with his eyes wide open. He didn't have a clue where that certainty in his foe's voice came from. He was sore that he never said anything that could lead anyone to that.
Was the entire time that blond idiot spent on thinking used to try to find out what his goal in the tournament was?
"At first it was quite difficult to figure out but after seeing your reaction to what Weiss said, it became obvious to me." Jaune explained further before jumping down from the spike he was holding.
"W-What?" Whitley said with a stutter as he took a step back.
His action caused Jaune to smile even more as the blond shaman quickly used his Over Soul to vanish before reappearing near him to make sure others wouldn't hear what he was about to say.
"After wasting all your life chasing after a dream given to you by a person only you could see." Jaune said quietly while carefully blocking Whitley's hastily strike and gently redirecting the young Schnee's sword out of the way.
"After trying your hardest to improve at something that the rest of your family didn't even believe existed." The blond shaman continued with a short dodge to still be within a hearing distance from Whitley.
"All you ever desired was to be acknowledged, right?"
The attack that Whitley did as a reaction to that was enough for Jaune to be launched to the opposite side of the cliff side. It looked like his guess was quite correct.
Soon after he touched the ground, Jaune looked towards his opponent to see Whitley running at him with gritted teeth and a sword dangerously ready for an attack. The Schnee shaman didn't even use any of his abilities during that charge, most likely wanting to simply get close to him.
It didn't take long for the white haired shaman to reach him and their tussle quickly returned to how it was just before he stopped to think about Whitley's reason to fight. Though after a few blocked or countered slashes he noticed that his opponent's attacks were way more vicious than usual. At least there weren't any steel spikes coming out of the ground to accompany them.
Whitley was clearly lashing out at the moment. If he wasn't then he wouldn't be forgetting to use his Over Soul or try to be more defensive.
He winced a little as he blocked another forceful slash that Whitley delivered, making his shoulder hurt again. It didn't take him long to come to regret his previous decision of voicing out his suspicions.
He really should have expected a reaction similar to that one.
"You are right." Whitley grunted as his saber slid off the halberd that blocked his previous strike before continuing with a straight thrust right after. "Now that you know, you should be aware that I am going to do everything to win!"
The thrust was once again met with a flat side of the halberd but the force behind it was enough to send Jaune a couple of steps back and throw him off balance a little.
By the time he regained his balance and was able to comfortably take a look at Whitley, his opponent was already in the middle of doing an upwards slash to send a wave of metal spikes at him.
Knowing that there was no way for him to avoid it on his own, he decided to relocate using his Over Soul.
The position he reappeared at was right next to Whitley so that he could easily deliver his counter attack without worrying too much about his opponent having the time to prepare any defenses.
His swing was met with a single metal spike hurriedly appearing right next to the young Schnee at the very last moment. The rebound from the clash hurt his shoulder a little but he ignored it and tried to deliver another quick strike.
It was met with a parry from Whitley which surprised him a little. Up until now almost every time his attack had been blocked was because of the effect of his foe's Over Soul so he frowned a little when it wasn't the case that time.
It meant that either his opponent was getting better at predicting how he fought or he was getting slower because of the wounds on his body. No matter the case the battle would have to be ended soon if he didn't want to lose.
Seeing that Whitley was preparing for a counter after that parry, he jumped away with all of his strength to put as much distance between him and his opponent as possible. Which ended up to not actually be that far considering that he was clearly tired from the fight already.
It still was far enough for him to be safe from direct melee attacks though.
"You know, you are an amazing shaman." He offhandedly remarked while stretching one of his arms to get a better feel for it.
"W-What?" Whitley asked in confusion after hearing that. He even lowered his saber a little, subconsciously knowing that it was safe to do so.
"I'm just saying. Even if none of your family care or understand your duty, know that this shaman is impressed by your skills." Jaune answered with a wide smile while leaning back a little.
Truthfully, he didn't expect much from that conversation since he knew that it wouldn't be nearly enough for him to get rid of Whitley's resentment but after seeing how merely a mention of his goals made Whitley lash out like that he chose to try.
Imagine his surprise then when after he said that, Whitley stared at him with wide eyes and his mouth agape.
His opponent's lips opened and closed a couple of times as if to say something but no matter how much he tried to listen no words could be heard from them. Then after a couple of seconds of such silence of staring at each other a quiet scoff could be heard from Whitley as the young shaman turned his head to the side.
"How about we end this farce and finish this fight with our next exchange?" Whitley said with some respect hidden in his voice as he narrowed his eyes at Jaune's state after recovering from the previous question.
There wasn't even a mention of their previous conversation but he knew there didn't need to be any. He didn't say anything about it as well, instead he grinned lightly before spinning his weapon to change his stance and prepare for a finishing strike.
"Let's do this then." He answered with a wide grin.
With that declaration heard, Whitley smirked a little before slashing his saber upwards to create a huge shield made out of steel before him. Unlike every other time during the fight when he made metal barriers to protect himself, this time the shield he created wasn't an entirely flat wall.
Dozens or so connected to each other giant metal shards were standing in front of Whitley creating a semi-circle shaped protection that covered more than one hundred and eighty degrees around the younger shaman.
Based on how it was created by quickly creating every shard separately the young Schnee appeared to have the ability to control and expand it as well. The only reason Whitley didn't protect his entire body with it was because it would have been a waste of Furyoku at that point.
Why should he cover all of the possible angles of attack at all times when he could simply move his shield to protect weak points in his defense when it was being attacked?
A wry smile appeared on Jaune's face after he saw the impenetrable barrier appear between him and Whitley. There was simply no way he could get past it with the strength he had.
"This is the greatest combination of defense and offense I can create. You better show me all You've got as well because if the skills you displayed up until now were your best then even if You somehow defeat me, You won't get far in the tournament." Whitley shouted.
A strong feeling of doubt washed over Jaune as he heard what Whitley just said. He knew that obviously, one couldn't watch Iron Maiden Jeanne in action without realizing that, if he didn't then he wouldn't have been training so hard for the last few days but there really wasn't much more he could do at the moment.
Most of his fighting style revolved around using his Over Soul's ability to dodge and get out of the danger's way while waiting for that one moment when he could finish his opponent with a single clean strike.
He couldn't do that here though.
Whitley's steel was way too hard for him to break and he couldn't get a clean finishing hit if there simply wasn't a place to strike. If he didn't know any better then he would have said that his final first round opponent's Over Soul was specifically designed to counter him.
The worst part of it was that his match-up being Whitley could very likely be on purpose, especially since supposedly the one who was responsible for the combatants' of the tournament was the Great Spirit themselves.
It most likely wasn't a good thing if the afterlife itself was suggesting him opponents that were designed perfectly to defeat him. Maybe it was just another test made by the Great Spirit?
The idea lifted his spirits a little. It was better to think of it as a form of test than being screwed by the strongest Spirit to exist ever.
He sighed to stop thinking about unnecessary things before narrowing his eyes at the shield that was protecting Whitley. It looked as if moved slightly while he wasn't paying attention.
Was the younger shaman preparing for an attack?
His eyes widened in surprise when his suspicion was proved to be correct not even a second later with a multitude of spears and blades quickly extending in his direction from the shield. As if that wasn't enough a huge wave of spikes started coming towards him from Whitley's side as well.
He reflexively jumped back to gather some time for himself. There obviously was no way he could take that attack head on but dodging it away would lead him nowhere as his opponent could simply turn around.
The only practical thing he could do was to somehow overpower it with his own attack.
If only he had anyway to do it that is. His offensive options were as limited as Whitley's mobility options, if not even more than that. Whitley could use the steel he creates to move around or use as platforms but his halberd could at most be used to cut things.
There must be a way for me to bypass his defenses. He thought to himself with a scowl as he rapidly ran backwards to create the biggest difference between him and the attack.
A bunch of different ideas quickly went through his head but all of them were rejected almost as soon as he thought of them. None of them would work against an opponent who could literally cover himself with steel so hard it was impossible to cut.
Suddenly he stopped in place as a realization came to him. Every time he fought he always tried to find the easiest way out or outlast his opponent by being defensive. He didn't meet an attack head on even once in his life as a shaman.
Was that why he was so weak?
Was it because he didn't challenge himself directly and instead focused on finding other methods of winning?
He gritted his teeth as he heavily planted his legs into the ground. If Summer could communicate with him in her Over Soul form then she would have most likely screamed at him to move away but he didn't care.
The bladed part of the halberd touched the ground as he grabbed his weapon by its end with both of his hands. If he was about to clash then he was going to use as much power as he could.
He closed his eyes as he focused on the Furyoku he could control. It was actually the first time he was trying something like this, every time he used his Over Soul before now he always did it by instinct alone, letting his energy form his Over Soul's effect by simply merging it with his guardian spirit without thinking too much about it.
This time it had to be different though. He couldn't just instinct his way through creating a new and powerful attack to save his life.
He needed to focus.
Finding an energy pool that he could only describe as spiritual somewhere within him, he decided to use it in the only way he had the time for at the moment. By pouring as much of it as he could into the blade of his weapon.
It had to do something, right?
A dazzling silver light slowly started to shine from his weapon as the energy started to gather inside of it. The light soon started to affect the area around him. Small rocks rolled away from him, wind gathered at the tip of his halberd and his weapon started to seem heavier than before.
The last one could have been because of his tiredness or wound though. He wasn't at his best at the moment.
Knowing that he was on the right course he tilted his body to the side to make his next slash as powerful as he could and waited for a second.
When the steel barrage before him got so close that he could touch it if he were to extend his halberd forward, he decided it finally was the time and with his muscles tense and teeth clenched he swung his weapon with all the strength he could muster.
"Silver Arc!" He grunted the name of the attack as if it could help him in any way.
A huge arc of silver light was launched forward, cutting through all of the metal objects it passed through and throwing away every spike or weapon it didn't pierce. The ground on its path lifted itself upwards as the force behind the attack pulled the wind behind it.
The power behind that attack was almost unimaginable to those who couldn't experience it first hand and were only able to observe from afar.
Waves of wind pushed against the audience throwing everyone present off balance. Light from the arc blinded those who could see it and even those who couldn't, were capable of understanding that something terrible would happen to them if they were to stand in its way.
In less than a second after being launched, the shining projectile cut through the entirety of Whitley's attack and arrived right before the shield protecting the younger shaman.
Up until now, there never was a single attack that could manage to pierce through Whitley's steel or at least there weren't any among those that he tried to block, he wasn't that confident in his abilities to try stopping the attacks of his examiner. Beyond that, the defense he put before himself was the strongest and the thickest shield he could reasonably create without losing from the depletion of Furyoku.
Because of those reasons in Whitley's mind there was simply no way for anything to be able to harm him in the position he was in.
Yet even with all of those facts about the steel shield before him being true, the moment the silver arc of light came in contact with the barrier he put in place to protect himself half of it launched itself upwards from the energy his opponent's attack generated when the object was cleanly cut in half.
With nearly all of the steel he created flying high in the air, he flew as well. Although unlike all of the other things thrown around by the silver projectile, he was pushed backwards as he tried to duck under it only to be pulled by it's overwhelming strength.
"Whitley!" He heard a gasp from the audience as he flew through the air.
Was it his sister?
He couldn't quite tell from the position he was in, being thrown around by a supernatural attack capable of cutting through materials harder than strongest known metal on Remnant tend to do that to people. If he were to be honest, it would be quite surprising if this was really her. He had almost killed her not even half an hour ago after all.
Colliding with the ground wasn't as painful as he thought it would be. It seemed that trying to duck under that strike was the correct choice in the situation he was in. If he didn't do that then at best the fight would have ended at that moment with his loss and most likely he would have just died.
Gritting his teeth he pushed the ground with all of the strength he had left to get up as quickly as he could. He was still able to win that, he just needed to stand up.
The victory of this fight didn't belong to him though because the moment he glanced in the direction his foe was supposed to be, the only thing he saw was an edge of a silver blade being held right before his face.
No words could describe how much he hated that cursed teleportation ability Jaune liked to use so much at the moment.
"Yield!" The blond shaman commanded with a stern look on his face.
A quiet sigh escaped him after hearing those words. There wasn't much he could do here, was there? His final fight would have to be a loss. At least he still had one win and a draw on his record, maybe it would be enough to allow him to the next round?
"I give." He answered calmly with his arm raised to show he wasn't a threat anymore. A second fight with Jaune Arc has ended and he still didn't win once.
A couple seconds passed before his declaration reached and was processed by everyone around them. A loud and happy shout was heard from the audience as a familiar looking red haired girl jumped into the air in excitement.
The single shout quickly turned into an incomprehensible noise as the rest of the small crowd watching them started to loudly talk to themselves as well. For some reason his sister's team was celebrating as well even though as far as he was aware none of them had been capable of witnessing what had just happened.
A loud cough from their judge was enough to silence the commotion that was apparently happening.
"As a result of the Schnee brat giving up, the winner is Jaune Arc." Raven said lazily with a wave of her hand before standing up and stretching a little. He decided to politely ignore the way she called him in that winner announcement.
Said winner exploded with glee and laughter right after. His Over Soul broke away as the blond shaman collapsed on the ground with a wide smile on his face with his guardian spirit bouncing around him in happiness.
"Looks like my job here is done for now. You will be given your further instruction by your Oracle Bell so I'm leaving. Bye." The judge added before turning around, going a few steps forward and taking out her sword to do something while completely ignoring some blond lady behind her who was glaring at her with so much hatred and hurt that she could probably fuel a city with it.
He sighed loudly as he saw that scene before glancing around to see that other people here were in about as many confusing states as that blond lady. Even his sister was among them as she looked at him with a frown on her face and one of her hands extended in his direction.
How was it possible that he was somehow the only normal person here?
"Hey, judge! I've got a question!" He rudely called to get the attention before asking without waiting for confirmation from the leaving judge. "Before this fight I already had one win and one draw. Does it mean that I qualify for the next round?"
"Didn't you hear what I just said? Your Oracle Bell will give you the info!" Raven said while going through a portal she created with her blade. She didn't even turn around to see them.
The moment their judge left, the Oracle Bells of every shaman present suddenly made a loud beeping sound to notify them of a new message. He huffed a little when he heard that before reaching for one of his pockets.
He grabbed the outdated scroll their judges insisted on being an ancient communication device made by the Great Spirit themselves before holding it right before checking what was written on it.
"CONGRATULATIONS!"
"WITH A SINGLE WIN AND A SINGLE DRAW WHITLEY SCHNEE QUALIFIES FOR THE SECOND ROUND OF THE SHAMAN KING TOURNAMENT"
It looked like his winning streak was enough for him to go further in the tournament.
He smiled in relief before slowly standing up and preparing himself to leave. There was no point in staying here any longer, he still had to read the rest of the message and a night of sleep sounded particularly appealing for him at the moment.
After stretching a little to reassure himself that everything was alright with his body he started making his way back. He was walking in an uncomfortable silence. Nobody tried to stop him and he already somewhat knew how to get back so didn't have to ask anyone for anything.
Out of the corner of his eyes he noticed that his sister looked like she wanted to say something but he ignored it. She most likely still didn't believe that what he was doing was of any importance so there was no point in hearing her out.
He suddenly stopped in place as if he remembered something before quickly turning around towards his opponent. A bunch of lien found themselves in his hand as he reached into a pocket before extending them towards Jaune.
"I apologize for the undeserved hit you had to take when you were protecting my older sister. I think that these lien will be enough to cover any medical expenses you will have to take because of that." He said with a small grin while pushing a few thousands of lien into the blond shaman's hands.
"Also, I hope we will be able to have a rematch later in the tournament." With those words said, he once again began walking towards the gates of Beacon to find a bullhead that would allow him to come back to Vale.
"Whitley..." A quiet whisper escaped his sister as he passed her but he didn't turn to face her.
He still had the tournament to win after all.
Chapter finished.
The battle ended, our heroes and not heroes get to go further, team RWBY is intrigued and Oracle Bell are still just outdated scrolls.
Next chapter is going to be most likely the final chapter of this arc and then off to America arc! I can't wait to start writing about it, that arc was my favorite in the original anime and it wasn't too bad in the manga as well. That's also where I think that the true story of Shaman King anime always began.
I'm so hyped!
Wait, what do you mean there's no America on Remnant?