I'm back! (Honestly earlier than I expected to be gone.)
Reviews:
kamenkuma23 - I'm guessing with confusion and fear.
Guest - Let the puns begin!
Avalon gx - I guess I really should look into the khakhara, huh? Also, thanks. You did make me laugh.
X3runner - A mistake on my part. It isn't too important in the long run since Ruby crew are still following and searching for the Jaune crew (only their motivation is changed a tiny bit) so I will probably leave it how it is. Let's say that since Lyserg wasn't aware that Jaune was hiding the existence of Summer he unknowingly told them about Summer being Jaune's guardian spirit while they tried to convince him to help them find Jaune.
Gamelover41592 - Thanks as always. :)
Following the path that Nora decided was the way towards team RWBY proved to be more tiring than Jaune originally had expected it to be. It wasn't because the road was difficult on its own as the path they were walking on was almost entirely surrounded by peaceful fields and forests.
The issue came from something else instead.
"How about team JNWR or January in short?" Nora practically shouted into his ear as she cheerfully skipped on one of her legs while walking forward in the direction that nobody knew where it would lead.
"I told you already, Nora." He sighed. "I'm not the leader of this team and I don't think that Whitley would be happy with his entire name being reduced to a letter that isn't even present in it."
As he found out in the last couple of long hours, his friends made terrible companions for long travels. The conversation he had with Nora about their team name had lasted for the last four or so hours and the only reason it wasn't the only topic they had during their entire journey was because Nora would talk about pancakes whenever the conversation strayed from it for more than a single second.
"He will have to deal with it then." Nora shrugged. "The same thing happened to Weiss with team RWBY and I don't remember hearing her complaining about it too much."
He hummed quietly to acknowledge that he was paying attention while ignoring the fight that was about to start between Ren and Whitley just behind them.
Somehow, talking to Nora wasn't the most demanding thing he could be doing to pass the time at the moment. He could be trying to stop his shaman friends from turning every conversation they had into a brawl with spiritual attacks capable of leveling a forest being thrown around like pillows in a pillow fight for example.
He was pretty sure he had just heard Whitley command his grandfather to form an Over Soul. There wasn't even Summer near him to help him as she went forward a few minutes ago to see if her daughters were there because she was tired of waiting.
"Can you guys please stop fighting for a single minute?" He asked with a tired huff as he turned around to see two of his best friends being at each other's throat with their weapons ready to strike if a real battle were to start.
They wouldn't do that of course, or at least he thought they wouldn't do that, but the constant threatening and harassing with weak attacks was starting to get on his nerves a little at this point.
"He started it!" Both of them shouted while pointing their Over Souls at the other like some children that were forced to stop their fight in school by a teacher. A small giggle he heard from Nora beside him told him that she saw that resemblance as well.
"We aren't even a single day of walking away from the place every shaman who fought in Vale was dropped of and I'm certain that there had to be at least one strong shaman capable of passing the distance we did in a matter of minutes who wouldn't mind getting rid of the competition that was dropped with us." He scolded with annoyance. "Wasting our Furyoku like that is only going to make it easier for them!"
His friends balked a little backwards as he was saying that and the short moment of silence he got thanks to that was the greatest thing to have happened to him since passing the first round of the tournament.
"Sorry." Ren and Whitley mumbled while looking away from him.
"See!" Their apology didn't have any impact on him as at almost the same time they said it Nora shouted with a finger pointed at him. "I told you that you are the team leader, Jauney!"
"Stopping a single fight between my friends doesn't make me a leader of any team, Nora." He answered with a roll of his eyes. Why was she so insistent on them being a four man team like in Beacon was beyond him.
"Keep telling yourself that our ghostly leader." The red haired girl answered, before mumbling something under her nose right after. "I will make you see the truth one day."
In the time it took him to dismiss Nora's weird idea of him being the leader of anything, Ren and Whitley managed to calm down and release their Over Souls, making their guardian spirits float right next to their heads. Nicholas Schnee and Li Ren meanwhile were quietly looking in the direction Summer left some time ago getting their shamans' attention.
"Do you see something?" Ren asked his father calmly while trying to see what could be happening in the direction they were looking at and completely ignoring Jaune's whines at the accusation of leadership Nora was throwing at him.
"I think I can see Summer returning back from her scouting escapade." Nicholas answered before Li Ren could as the old man was also able to see that.
The old Schnee's words immediately brought Jaune's attention back. If Summer was coming back then she either found nothing at all and they were going in the wrong direction the entire time or she found the place team RWBY could be at. Either way they wouldn't be walking without any information about their direction anymore.
He really hoped that it would be the latter though. If they were going in the wrong direction the entire time then there was no possible way for them to find team RWBY anymore. At the very least there wasn't anything that he could think of.
It didn't take too long for Summer to reunite with them as she didn't have to worry about avoiding any obstacles or keeping up with someone slower than her thanks to being a ghost. Sadly for him, she wasn't fast enough to come back before Ren and Whitley could start bickering again.
Thankfully, this time he wasn't the one who had to interrupt them as they stopped on their own the moment they noticed Summer rushing to meet them.
"I found a village!" Summer shouted before they could ask her if she found anything. She looked animated but not necessarily excited about finding it since it didn't automatically mean that her daughters were in there. She still seemed to hope that they would be there, though.
"How far is it?" He asked.
"Not too far." Summer answered. "I'm sure that if we move in that direction for a few more minutes we will be able to clearly see it. The village doesn't seem to be that big but if my daughters fell down around here like Nora said then they likely saw it and decided that it would be a perfect place to find out where they were."
That meant they now had a clear direction to go towards and it would be a town of some sort as well so Whitley shouldn't be too annoyed because of them going there. The young Schnee was the one who wanted to go towards a village from the start after all.
He quickly looked at his friends to see if any one of them wanted to comment something or argue about going there. After being met with silence and expectant looks directed at him from his companions, he smiled lightly before saying.
"Alright. In that case, let's go visit that village."
The remarks about him being the team leader that Nora said with a smirk right after he said that were completely ignored by him. No matter what she believed, he wasn't a leader of anything!
...
A few hours later...
...
After a somewhat long but incredibly tiring journey, they were finally standing right before the entrance of the village that Summer pointed them towards.
The town didn't look special at all aside from the fact that it seemed to be almost newly built or repaired based on the fresh looks of the building they were able to notice at the town's borders. It really wasn't that strange since dozens of small towns and villages were built and destroyed every year on Remnant.
In Jaune's life alone he saw many villages similar to that one in Vale. During his many travels after running away from home at the age of seven there were a few times when he left a village for some months only to meet with the ghosts of the people he knew when they were alive after returning.
He glanced to the side and raised one of his eyebrows up to ask Ren and Nora if they knew or were in this village earlier. Just as he expected, both of his friends shook their heads in response. They have never been here.
"There's no point in standing here. Let's go inside!" Summer hurried them while flying towards the town center.
"She's right." He sighed. "Let's go and see if we are able to at least find out where we are in Mistral."
All of his living companions nodded in response, treating him like a team leader he clearly wasn't. Ren would have been a way better person to lead them if they really needed to have a leader at all.
Walking through the wide roads of the village was a calming experience. There was a lot less noise in here than in Vale but that was a given since Vale was the capital of an entire kingdom and at the moment they were in such a small town that they weren't sure where it was. The one thing that really was making him enjoy the moment though was the fact that Ren and Whitley stopped reaching for their Over Soul every other minute.
It didn't mean that they weren't bickering since they were quite keen on doing that but now that they were in the middle of a village where a fight between them could endanger innocent people, they reached a temporary armistice.
He could only hope that they would have to stay in this village for as long as they possibly could.
"What's the plan, our ghostly leader?" Nora asked. "Are we simply going to go around and ask some random people whether they saw anyone from team RWBY or do we have some strategy in searching?"
"We will be using my tried and tested strategy to locate people that I developed over the last ten years of looking for other shamans during my travels." He answered with some strange pride in his voice.
A quiet sound of awe came from Nora as she already began imagining what was his method. He couldn't fault her for that since it was an impressive method that up until now has never failed him with finding a specific single person.
Chocolove McDonnel didn't count since he found him and the only reason he couldn't catch him the first time was because he somehow got away.
"Wasn't I and that fake shaman here the first two living shamans that you ever found though." Whitley said with doubt present in his voice after moving his attention away from the said fake shaman next to him.
"That's a completely different matter." He coughed into his hand awkwardly. "Back to the point, the first thing that we need to do is to find a place to spend the night. Our search will most likely take more than a single day and even if it won't we will probably stay here for at least a single night to recover our strength after the whole day of travel."
"I'm not going to argue with that." Whitley answered.
"Neither am I." Ren answered as well, unknowingly starting another verbal fight between these two.
Another tired sigh escaped him today as he watched his two friends start bickering again. The giggling from Nora who found the constant fights funny didn't make it any better.
In his tiredness he barely even reacted when a dangerous looking scorpion faunus with two spirits following behind him moved past him after lightly bumping into him with his shoulder. His friends being seconds away from unleashing their Over Souls at each other was more important issue for him to deal with.
...
Half an hour later...
...
Finding a tavern to sleep at wasn't that difficult. All it took was a couple of questions for the way asked to a few of the villagers and they found themselves inside the place they would be spending the night with their rooms already ready and paid for.
At first when he heard the price of the rooms he had considered spending the night at some out of the way benches to save the money for food and water but these concerns were quickly thrown out of the window after Whitley paid for the rooms and gave the owner of the tavern a tip large enough to allow a normal family to live without working for days.
The smug grin on the young Schnee's face right after that was nowhere near enough to stop him from declaring Whitley to be the greatest person on Remnant.
They were all currently inside his room. Summer returned to them just before they entered the tavern after she didn't manage to find any lead on her daughters' whereabouts. It wasn't a big room but thanks to the fact that almost half of them were intangible it didn't feel too cramped in there.
Whitley paid for four rooms earlier so that none of them would have to share but he still needed to tell them his plan for finding whether team RWBY was here or not and it would be pretty hard to do if they were separated by walls of their respective rooms.
"Ughh." He groaned from tiredness while colliding with the soft mattress of his bed.
Just because he had to share the plan with his friends didn't mean that he wanted to do that more than falling asleep in his bed. He was sure he could hear them rolling their eyes at his antics though.
"I know how you feel." Whitley said while sitting down on his bed and shoving him slightly to the side. "After walking through the entire forest with that fake shaman here, I also want to do nothing else but to lay down and sleep until morning."
A short denying grunt could have been heard from him as he didn't have the strength in him to hold a full conversation right now. Based on what he was hearing Whitley wasn't aware how he felt at all.
"I'm pretty sure you were the one who caused us the most troubles during the trip." Ren said coldly with narrowed eyes.
If they were listening to him then they would have been able to hear a pleading whine as he was already sensing another fight starting between those two. He began to lift himself up to make sure that another fight wouldn't start not even a minute after entering his room.
"Guys, leave the fighting for later when we won't be in Jaune's room!" Nora shouted.
Her voice had never sounded so pleasing to his ears before, especially since right after she said that, he couldn't hear any more fights in his room. He didn't have anything against some friendly bickering between friends but what was happening between Ren and Whitley was slowly becoming more similar to how two enemies would treat each other.
"Why are you two so antagonistic towards each other in the first place anyway?" He decided to ask out of curiosity. "I don't remember you two fighting against each other during the first round of the tournament."
Right after asking that question, he cowered a little as almost everyone present looked at him as if he was an idiot. The only ones who didn't were Nora and Summer but they were as confused as he was.
"Jaune." Ren started with some uncertainty in his voice. "You do remember that the first time we met Whitley he literally tried to kill me, right? The only reason he didn't was because you stopped him."
"If I remember correctly then I'm sure that I already apologized for that, fake." Whitley answered with a roll of his eyes as if he didn't understand what Ren's deal was.
"Then there's that." Ren said with an annoyed sigh. "You still insult me by calling me a fake shaman at every opportunity you can find. That's all without mentioning how rude you act all the time of course."
"I might regret trying to kill you earlier but I will never respect you for throwing away the shamanic tradition for some weak soul barrier to protect you."
"It's called Aura and back when I unlocked it I didn't even know what a shaman was let alone know about being one!" Another fight seemed to be about to start as Ren tightened his fists while saying that.
"Stop!" Summer shouted. "If you want to fight it out during the next round later then I don't care but right now we are looking for my daughters and I will not allow you wasting our time for your argument!"
He was glad that Summer was a ghost because if she wasn't then they for sure would have been thrown out of the tavern for making too much noise so close to the evening. It was enough to quieten his friends down for a little bit though so he wasn't going to complain about that.
"Jaune, the plan!" Summer commanded after turning her head away from their friends to him.
"Of course." He answered with a little fear in his voice before straightening and sharing his plan. "My strategy for finding people is actually quite simple considering the situation."
"First, we wait until it's dark and everyone's going to sleep, if team RWBY brought any money with them then it's a likely possibility that they will go to this tavern to spend the night as well and we will see them when the night comes. If not then they would still stay in the village because it would be safer to spend the night here rather than in the wilds. Second, the moment we are sure everyone's asleep, the ghosts will use their intangibility to look through every possible place where Summer's daughters could have spent the night."
"Any questions?" He asked.
His friends weren't too excited about this plan but they weren't against it either so his question was only met with a couple of shrugs. It wasn't like they had any better idea so his plan would have to be enough.
"Good. Then go to your rooms and rest because I'm going to sleep." He said shortly before collapsing into his bed and closing his eyes. The sound of movement and creaking of the wooden floor of his room were nowhere near enough for him to open them again.
...
The next morning...
...
The food they were given in the tavern as a breakfast was surprisingly good. It wasn't anything spectacular if Whitley's expression while eating it were to be any indication but it was better than many of the meals he had the opportunity of tasting across the years.
Nora appeared to be enjoying it as well considering how she was devouring plates of pancakes as if they were a light salad.
The sun had risen about an hour ago but their spirits hadn't returned from their search yet. Considering the fact that he already saw a couple of people aside from them being awake, that didn't make him think that Summer's daughters were here.
He sighed lightly as he took another bite of the scrambled eggs he ordered for breakfast. There was a small possibility that team RWBY entered this town and decided to move forward during the night but he doubted that would be the case.
They would just have to accept that they wouldn't be able to find team RWBY that easily and maybe start looking for the Tribes Village instead.
It's possible that Summer and the rest of their spirits found some of their possible opponents which wouldn't be ideal. It was one of the closest villages to their drop off point and the chance that few of the shamans from Vale moved in the same direction as them wasn't zero.
"Nora, please stop eating like that. You are scaring other guests." Ren said lazily through his sleepiness with a yawn.
They had woken up just before the sunrise to make sure that they would be able to meet with team RWBY before they left the village in case Summer and the rest found them. Seeing that they already were awake for more than an hour, he regretted this decision.
"I have to eat as much as I can before our ghost friends return." Nora said in between devouring the pancakes before her. "It's not like we have to worry about the budget now. Whitley's the one who's paying for it."
"Just because he's the one who's paying doesn't mean that you should waste the taste of the food by not even chewing it." Ren answered with a subtle roll of his eyes only to be met with incomprehensible grumbles from Nora in response.
He let out a small laugh at the small exchange between his friends while Whitley snorted a little while looking away from them to make sure he wouldn't be seen.
"Hurry up with your meals." Whitley said while narrowing his eyes to try to see clearer. "My grandfather is coming back with your guardian spirits."
Hearing the young Schnee say that both he and Ren turned towards the direction where Whitley was looking to confirm that. Unsurprisingly three familiar to them spirits were slowly flying towards them while in their spirit ball forms.
"I knew it!" Nora shouted while pointing her finger at Ren as if to accuse him of something. "I knew I had to eat quickly to be able to finish my pancakes but you refused to believe me. Now I won't be able to finish all of them."
"You ate over nine plates of pancakes, Nora." Ren answered. "It's way more than enough for a breakfast."
"Well, I wanted to eat fifteen of them." Nora said with a pout.
Their little conversation gathered the attention of everyone who was eating breakfast around them. It wasn't even because of them talking to ghosts that were invisible to everyone else. His friends were just that attention grabbing.
"Please be quiet, guys. Other people are also trying to eat here and we don't want them to be bothered by our conversation." He said, trying to keep the attention away from them. It wouldn't do them much good if others were to watch as they talked to the people they couldn't see.
Their guardian spirits arrived next to them shortly after. They didn't hurry but they certainly wanted to meet up with them earlier rather than later if only to make sure that they were safe and able to form their Over Souls in case of a fight against other shamans.
There wasn't much excitement on their faces so he didn't expect them to have found anything on team RWBY. If they did then Summer for sure would have been flying with all of her speed while shouting about how they should meet up with them as soon as possible.
"Did you find anything?" He asked.
"I haven't found anything." Li Ren answered with a shake of his head.
"Me neither." Nicholas added.
Summer stayed silent while looking as if she was deep in thought making him slightly raise his eyebrow at that. It certainly wasn't team RWBY that she found but based on her reaction she must have found something out.
"Summer?" He asked again.
"I didn't find my daughters but when I was flying by the entrance of the village I saw an old woman walking through the gates with a spirit following closely behind her." Summer said.
His guardian spirit's answer made all of them, aside from Nora who was busy with finishing her pancakes, go tense. If a spirit was following someone then it was highly likely that it was a guardian spirit of that person and that would mean another shaman.
He wasn't sure if he wanted to fight against another shaman so early into the next round. It had been barely a day since they were dropped off.
"Another shaman?" Whitley asked.
"It could simply be a spirit that follows that woman because of being related to her in some way." He answered, holding onto hope that they wouldn't have to fight so early into the second round.
If that woman was an older person then they could be an incredibly dangerous foe on top of that. Furyoku, unlike strength, didn't become weaker with age since it wasn't a physical muscle but a spiritual energy instead.
"Or maybe, It's a malevolent spirit that tries to haunt some traveling granny." Nora said absentmindedly in between her chewing.
"Yeah, or that." He agreed. "I personally would have preferred dealing with an angry spirit much more than trying to fight against a possibly powerful shaman that we don't know anything about."
Both of his shaman friends nodded in agreement. Helping lingering ghosts pass on into the afterlife was a shaman's job already so doing that to a spirit that was evil wasn't too far from their capabilities.
"What did that grandma and that spirit look like anyway?" Whitley asked.
"She was short and had artificial eyes, probably because of an injury." Summer answered. "The spirit behind her was a crocodile faunus that looked to be around my age, although I have no idea how old she actually was since spirits do not age."
They nodded in acknowledgement. If that woman really was as old as she looked then it wasn't impossible that the spirits following her was her old friend that died when she was younger.
It would have been tragic if the old lady couldn't see her friend that was traveling with her but situations like these happened quite often outside the capitals of the kingdoms and wouldn't be able to do much about it.
Silence came over them as they started wondering about the possible foe or the pitiful old lady that could have been the person that entered the village at night. The only thing that could be heard from their table was Nora munching while finishing her last pancake and looking at something to their side.
"Is she the person we are talking about?" The orange haired pancake devourer said while pointing her fork at a small old woman who was walking by.
Their heads immediately snapped towards the direction Nora was pointing at to see a pair of people perfectly fitting the description that Summer gave. Upon seeing them he noticed that despite the ghost flying rather violently and rudely the old lady was completely ignoring her.
It wasn't the way a shaman would be acting if a spirit was behaving like that near them. There for sure would be some reaction to seeing ghosts practically flying circles round her if she was able to see that.
"She isn't a shaman." He stated with relief clear in his voice. "Summer can you go and ask that spirit if she would want our help with anything? It wouldn't sit well with me if we didn't help her go into the afterlife."
"Sure." Summer gladly nodded before flying off to talk with the lingering spirit.
The spirit and Summer were too far away for him to be able to hear the conversation and when he quickly glanced at his friends to ask if they were able to hear anything, they shook their heads in denial. Everyone aside from Nora, that is, who couldn't have heard the conversation if it was happening right next to her because of her lack of shamanic powers.
He could still see them talking though so he would get some information from watching what was happening.
At first Summer looked concerned and sorry for the spirit she was talking with but after a few exchanges of sentences she must have become surprised based on the way her entire spiritual body quickly moved backwards from the ghost she was talking to. That shock quickly turned into anger as she raised her arms and voice allowing them to hear some barely understandable words.
"...are mad!" He heard her shout as she began returning to them with a furious expression on her face.
"Oh, ho ho." An amused voice laughed from behind them.
"Wha-?" He and his friends asked while instantly turning around and readying their weapons.
Behind them stood a brown haired man with a long tail of a scorpion coming out of his back. His yellow eyes were filled with glee as the man ignored them to watch Summer flying back to them with anger.
"Who are you?" Whitley asked in a commanding tone while pointing his saber at the scorpion faunus.
"This cloaked spirit sounded so angry, so furious! I wonder what is the reason for that. Could it be that she also despises the vengeful spirits who praise someone other than my goddess? Tell me boy, is this resentful spirit the follower of yours?" The man said, ignoring the question entirely.
He swallowed loudly and decided to ignore the man's question as well. His hands reached for his walking stick to have something to protect himself with and he started to slowly move away from his seat and the man next to him.
That person seemed dangerous.
It wasn't comparable to the danger he felt when watching Iron Maiden Jeanne or Hao use their Over Souls but it was still a threat that could kill him if he wasn't careful. He wouldn't mind Summer hurrying a bit more to meet with them right now.
"Don't worry, I don't want to kill you, yet." The man said with a small giggle not reassuring him at all.
"I hope you will forgive me for being cau-""I can't believe that crazy woman." His answer was cut off by Summer loudly complaining about the conversation she just had.
Eyes of almost every person present turned towards his guardian spirits who just arrived and looked absolutely livid because of the talk she had. Normally he would have been curious what caused Summer to be angry like that but there was more important matter to focus on now.
"What's going on here?" Summer asked with confusion after seeing the tension at the table.
"Nothing much." The scorpion faunus answered with a wide smile. "I only came here to greet fellow spirit seers and ask a couple of questions. I promise you that I'm no threat to any of you and am just curious about that vengeful spirit."
Summer obviously didn't trust the stranger at all and the moment she heard him speak turned into her spirit ball form in case a fight were to start and he needed to form an Over Soul with her.
"I see that you still think of me as an enemy." The man said regretfully. "How about I will tell you my name as a sign of good will. My name is Tyrian Callows and I'm the one and only follower of my glorious goddess that is capable of witnessing all the vengeful messengers gathering around her."
Whitley narrowed his eyes at that introduction undoubtedly noticing the same thing he did.
Tyrian didn't call himself a shaman and referred to someone as a goddess because of a bunch of spirits following her around. That man not only wasn't a competition but he didn't even know about the shamans. It was likely that the scorpion faunus was insane on top of that.
"Alright. I will tell you about that woman." Summer said cautiously. Tyrian's introduction didn't make them trust him more than before but after hearing it they understood that it would have been safer for them to tell him what he wanted than to try fighting him and risk injuries.
"Good." Tyrian remarked with a mad glee while leaning forward to listen.
Summer gulped a little when she saw the scorpion faunus slowly leaning towards her. It spoke much about a person when literal ghosts were uncomfortable because of them. He could only hope that the man would leave them after learning what he wants.
In the worst case scenario that the stranger decided to fight them, they held a number advantage so they should be able to overwhelm him before the fight could become too dangerous for them. That was of course provided Tyrian didn't have astronomical amounts of Furyoku big enough to destroy mountains as if they were nothing.
He hoped that would be enough for them to be excused for losing or running away in that case.
"I have no idea why you are so interested in that dead psycho but I would suggest against interacting with her." Summer started guardedly, getting all of their attention. "That woman is not only crazy but also vengeful."
He and Whitley frowned after hearing that, they already had an idea where this was going. It wasn't common to see situations like these where the ghost only stayed on Remnant because of vengeance but they certainly happened.
Tyrian on the other hand started to look intrigued and interested the moment he heard that obviously knowing or suspecting what was happening as well as them. It unnerved him a lot how the scorpion tailed man reacted to what, if he was guessing correctly, was a deadly haunting with curiosity.
The only ones whose expression didn't change were Ren and Nora who didn't have enough experience with shamanic life to realize what was going on there.
"When I asked her what was keeping her on Remnant and if we could help her move on in any way, she said that she would pass on the moment the grandma she was following died a painful death." Summer scowled. "Can you imagine that?! She even argued that it was because the old lady was the one who killed her after she cut off her silver eyes."
By the end of it, Summer was visibly scowling while the dangerous stranger with whom they were talking started to giggle happily while seemingly lost in thought. He didn't dare to assume that man wasn't paying attention to them, especially if he was capable of forming an Over Soul.
It wasn't confirmed whether Tyrian knew how to form it or if he knew that there was a possibility of doing so but he certainly didn't want to test that by attacking first into a man they didn't know anything at all.
"Yes, it has to be it! It's my goddess work for sure!" Tyrian cackled loudly while looking at the sky. "She had to be the one who ordered this little crocodile to hunt for the silver eyes and allowed her to stay on this world as a vengeful spirit!"
He didn't need any more proof to see the obvious, the man before them was absolutely insane. And now that insane man started walking towards the old lady they were worried of earlier at a sluggish speed.
"It's my job to help that poor spirit to move on and start following our goddess again instead." Tyrian laughed as he gently pushed them out of the way and moved past them.
They didn't react until the man was already behind them and more than an arm's reach away. It was from the shock from the information Tyrian's previous statement entailed but it was a good thing too since they wouldn't have been able to do much to the man if they were killed before being able to form their Over Souls.
"Hey! What do you think you are doing!?" Whitley shouted while turning around and merging the spirit of his grandfather with his saber at the same time.
He and Ren followed right after with Ren already beginning his assault with a sideways push of wind meant to throw the scorpion faunus to the side and stop the advance. The wind surged violently from behind them in a curved arc aimed directly at Tyrian.
It didn't work as Tyrian bolted forward with a mad giggle the moment Whitley's shout entered his ears. He didn't know if their now enemy was aware of Ren's attack or just dashed forward because of Whitley's warning but it didn't matter when their foe was already rushing to kill an innocent traveler.
"Damn!" He cursed loudly before quickly dashing to chase the scorpion faunus. "Whitley, quickly use your steel to stop or slow down Tyrian, try to obstruct him as much as you can. Ren, cover me in case he forms an Over Soul."
Two quick nods met his abrupt commands and Whitley already stabbed his sword into the ground to make use of his Over Soul while Ren moved closer to him to cover him from unexpected attacks.
"I will go there and try to fight him up close. Nora, you stay far away and in case he doesn't know about Over Souls we swap. You are better at fighting huntsman opponents in a direct fight than me." He added with a quick nod to Nora before noticing that the rose petals that were falling from the sky because of his Over Soul began approaching the ground and disappearing in a flurry of them.
As he was vanishing he heard a confirmatory yell from Nora but he didn't pay too much attention to it, being focused on Tyrian and the fight instead.
The air loudly swished when he reappeared with a quick slash of his halberd but their enemy managed to jump out of his way before his weapon could reach them. Tyrian didn't have the time to rest though as his dodge was stopped by a thick steel wall that suddenly appeared from the ground.
"Hugh." Tyrian grunted as he collided with the wall before quickly turning his head to actually see what he collided into. His eyebrows rose in surprise but Tyrian didn't have the time to be startled because a deadly hurricane was flying at him from the other side.
A single jump was enough for the mad faunus to avoid it, allowing the wind to crash into the metal wall while lifting himself on it with one of his hands and having a manic smile while doing so.
"Ha ha!" Tyrian laughed in joy, getting the attention of every pedestrian that wasn't already watching their fight from a safe distance on them.
He didn't notice that earlier but their little exchange startled nearly everyone around them with the only exception being some people who were still asleep in the houses next to them and, for some reason, the old lady who they were protecting at the moment.
"You kids are really interesting!" Tyrian said while sitting down on the steel wall Whitley made earlier. "It's the first time I'm seeing someone aside from me that's capable of using goddess's messengers as weapons! How about I go all out too?"
So that crazy man also knew how to form Over Soul despite not being aware how they're called. It was at most thirty hours since the second round started, how was it possible that they already got into a fight with another shaman? One unrelated to the Tournament on top of that.
"Come out my fellow believer. We are spreading the glory of our goddess today!" Tyrian said while reaching for his pockets to reveal two small stone objects that looked a bit like miniature graves.
Two covered by robes spirits flew out of the tiny graves before immediately turning into spirit ball forms and stopping right before Tyrian's eyes so that their master could form his Over Soul as quickly as possible.
"Bless my weapons goddess's messengers and turn them from Queen's Servants to Queen's Knights!" Tyrian shouted crazily as the spirits began merging with the hidden wrist blades on the scorpion faunus's hands.
Right before their opponent's Over Soul could be finished a dozen of steel spikes came out of the ground around the metal wall Tyrian was standing on to impale him.
"You sure are impatient my new friends." Tyrian said while jumping off the wall and away from the spikes, finishing forming his Over Soul during the jump.
Tyrian's wrist blades began burning with white and black flames as the spiritual energy from the spirits enveloped them to create the Over Soul. The fire wasn't formed in any particular shape but the colors of it closely resembled the Grimm.
Whitley clicked his tongue at the unsuccessful attack in irritation before bringing his saber out of the ground and into a guard. They didn't know a thing about their enemy's Over Soul and it wouldn't be strange if these wrist blades were to have a ranged attack.
Knowing that his friends would cover him, he dashed forward to meet their foe head on. Silver color flashed as he swung his halberd creating a lesser version of the attack that had won him the fight against Whitley.
The small arc of silver was easily dodged by Tyrian who jumped over it but he didn't care for it as that attack was so weak that it wouldn't do much even if it hit. It was nothing more than a distraction.
He reached their foe not two seconds after and his target was still in the air after the jump. Unless, Tyrian's Over Soul was like his and it allowed the man to teleport then there would be no dodging his next attack.
The blade of his weapon went behind his back as he began preparing for a heavy strike. He could see the steel rising around him and hear wind swirling above as his friend made sure that their enemy wouldn't have where to dodge in case his Over Soul granted him an ability to do that.
Tyrian's eyes widened in either fear or excitement while his arms moved forward to intercept Jaune's attack. On the ground it would have easily been enough to block the attack but in the air without the footing it was nowhere near enough.
The halberd moved. His body shifted a little too as he leaned to the side to put his everything into the swing.
It wasn't the Silver Arc nor it would have been capable of cutting Whitley's steel but with how much force he put into it nothing on Remnant should have been able to leave unscathed after being hit by it.
The silver edge of his weapon flew as it closed on Tyrian's body only to suddenly stop. It wasn't deflected for there was no rebound and it didn't hit either as there was no sound of collision.
It felt more like it was grabbed.
"What?" He asked before looking at his weapon for some explanation on what happened.
There on the hilt of his weapon just before the blade four shadow-like hands were tightly holding onto it and preventing him from moving his halberd any further. When he glanced a little further to see what was the origin of these hands he saw two grimm-like human shadows extending out of the black and white fire of Tyrian's Over Soul.
Being aware of the danger of this situation he immediately used all of his strength to pull his weapon back and jump as far away from Tyrian as he could. Luckily nothing stopped him from doing so.
"Already retreating? The fun is just beginning!" Tyrian said while tilting his head before loudly giggling as the fire from where the two shadows came from began slowly spreading to the ground around him.
Not long after the fire reached the ground, more of these shadows began appearing out of it. Each of those shadows was featureless aside from the colors closely resembling grimm.
So the first shaman they were fighting during the second round of the Shaman Fight not only wasn't taking part in the tournament itself but also had an Over Soul capable of creating his own minions.
Why couldn't he get a simple opponent to fight for once?
And cut!
Another two chapter fight but I guess there wasn't much of fighting this chapter.
I planned this entire chapter to be roughly two thirds of one larger chapter at first but after deliberating for a while I decided that I will put the rest of the fight and the resolution of it as the beginning of the next one it would also make writing next few chapter a tad bit easier for me.
See ya later!