Chapter finished.
Sorry that it's later than usually but exams are killing me.
Speaking of them, the updates might be a bit scarcer for the next month because of that. There won't be any brake but the time between them would be longer than in any other time. Anyway.
Reviews:
tsun - I don't know what can I say in response aside that I'm sorry that my story didn't meet your expectations because of being too dumb. I try to improve.
trying to be so oh original - Oscar will play into this in some way but not yet.
X3runner - Don't worry, Chocolove will be interacting with the crew later (Or at least I hope he will).
Gamelover41592 - Thanks, like always. :)
The small town of Kousa was a peaceful and boring village. There were no bandit tribes praying on it nearby, no rogue huntsmen using the village as a hiding place and no Grimm nests threatening the lives of the villagers. It had its benefits of course, the ability to live most of the life without worrying about dying an early death was one of them for sure, but there were things about which everyone living there complained about.
Living there was beyond boring! The only entertainment that could be found in the village most of the time were occasional trades with the neighboring settlement and that wasn't really thrilling for ordinary people.
For these reasons, when what looked to be a traveling performance group started giving a show right next to the tavern in the middle of the town it didn't take long for a small crowd made out of at least half the village to gather around them.
The show seemed to be a typical story about an innocent old lady being attacked by a crazy faunus and four young and bright huntsmen doing everything they could to stop the evil villain.
It wasn't anything special but it certainly was better than wasting a day by doing nothing aside from looking at the fields and forests outside the village in search of any wandering grimm.
The long haired boy was trying to say something to the audience but his words were quickly overwhelmed by shouts and cheers from everyone around. It was probably him trying to quiet them down to allow others to enjoy the show but it was clear that it wouldn't work.
The crowd, no matter how small it was or how the show itself was mediocre at best, was going wild and no plights to calm down from the performers was going to stop that.
...
At the fight...
...
Despite their threatening appearance the grimm looking shadows weren't actually that dangerous. Or at least they weren't immediately, Jaune didn't want to think how bad the situation would become if they allowed Tyrian to create hundreds of them.
If the crazy scorpion faunus was capable of doing that in the first place that is. Furyoku, while powerful, was still a limited resource and sustaining those should be consuming quite a bit of it.
For now with only a bit more than a dozen of them, there really weren't too many things he should worry about. Sure, these constructs were additional enemies that could easily hurt them if they weren't careful but there was one critical flaw in these shadows that made them no issue to deal with.
They were slow and visible. They moved so slow that they might as well be completely stationary and they wouldn't notice a difference, even Whitley could run circles around them and the young shaman wasn't that accustomed to quick movement during the fight in the first place.
"Argh!" He shouted as his halberd went through one of the shadows near him. He tried to ignore the loud cheer the crowd around them made as they saw him putting all of his strength into a strike against an invisible, for them, foe.
The shadow constructs made out of spiritual grimm fire shouldn't have been too durable but he didn't want to put himself in danger because of underestimating an opponent's Over Soul. It wouldn't cost him too much to use more of his strength against them anyway and the audience thinking that he was putting on a show was only a small bonus that meant that they wouldn't attack Tyrian thinking that the crazy man was some common bandit.
He started to turn around as he saw the shadow split in half because of his slash but he stopped himself after noticing the top half of the shadow slowly burning with a familiar black and white flame before instantly reappearing back on its body.
His tongue clicked as he jumped back from the construct to gain some distance. Of course dealing with these creatures wouldn't have been as easy as just killing them. It would be very easy to deal with Over Soul if that was the case, every other shaman could simply use some area of effect attack to deal with them.
Though from the way Tyrian was only loudly chuckling in place while sending the shadows from around him to deal with them and not using their momentary disorientation to attack them together with his shadows, it wouldn't surprise him if the scorpion faunus had never fought against other shamans at all.
Not every shaman had the experience of fighting against other people capable of forming Over Soul and if their crazy opponent was one of those types of shamans he wouldn't have anything against that.
"Ignore the shadows, they are a distraction for us at worst, and focus on Tyrian, he's the one we have to defeat!" He shouted some basic commands to his friends giving more reasons for Nora to call him their leader later but for now he didn't concentrate on that.
As a reply he received a couple of quick nods from his friends aside from Nora who gave him a confused and lost look. From her perspective it must have looked like they were just swinging their weapons in a random direction just like their audience saw them.
Sometimes he had to remind himself that unlike his other friends Nora wasn't capable of interacting with spirits. The idea to attack Tyrian directly while trying to avoid something she couldn't perceive wasn't exactly the safest option for the bubbly red haired girl.
"Nora stay in the back and use your grenade launcher to shoot the places we signal you at!" He shouted again. "There are about a dozen weird shadow-like ghosts near us and we could use your explosions to deal with them for a few moments."
"Understood our ghostly leader!" Nora answered with a giggle. "I will be the artillery! Just point me where to shoot!"
He didn't wait to see if she went back to keep her distance knowing that if something bad were to happen to her Ren would immediately react to protect and help her. The wind shaman was subtly keeping an eye on his friend since the very beginning of the fight if something were to happen Ren would notice.
His vision was temporarily gone as the white cloak from his halberd covered his entire body and made him vanish in a wild flurry of rose petals. Loud gasps entered his ears as he did that, he wasn't sure what his teleportation looked like to normal people but from what he heard from Nora it looked bizarre.
An unconcerned shrug was the only response he could give to that. His Over Soul's main ability was too useful to ignore simply because it looked unnatural to people who weren't shamans. They would most likely think that it's just some really weird semblance anyway.
Sadly, a weird semblance excuse would never work if someone were to see him talking to Summer or any other ghost in public. They would just see him as a weirdo in that case.
The time he had to contemplate wasn't long though since not two seconds after the flurry of petals enveloped him, he reappeared a step away from Tyrian with his weapon already starting to swing. His friends weren't as fast as him but he knew that they would either join in the attack right after getting closer just like he did or support him from a distance.
A swishing sound of a quickly moving weapon appeared to be enough to make Tyrian react as the crazy man immediately leapt backwards with a quick and imprecise salvo of bullets from the wrist blades aimed roughly at him.
Majority of the shots weren't even close to where he was and those that would have hit him and done some damage were stopped by both him quickly twisting his weapon to the side to cover as much of his body as it could and a thin steel wall that Whitley hastily created to protect him.
He would have to thank him for that later.
The wall of steel quickly burrowed underground giving him an opportunity to counter attack. He took it with an abrupt dash forward and a silver light glowing out of his halberd.
"Ha ha ha!" Tyrian chuckled while barely dodging his slash. "What an interesting weapon you have here. Tell me, do you also follow the guidance of the many vengeful followers of our goddess!?"
He decided against answering the crazy man's question in favor of continuing his assault. His strikes were rapid and precise, just as Summer's fighting style taught him, but none of them connected.
Tyrian ducked and dodged all of them without any issues. It didn't matter how he swung or thrust or if Whitley and Ren helped him with their wind and steel, their opponent was skilled enough to avoid all of that.
There might have been a chance that Summer would have been able to keep up with the man if they were to use spirit integration but he would have to be mad to actually try fighting against another shaman without using an Over Soul.
The weird thing was that Tyrian wasn't trying to hurt him in any way during their exchange though. There were some shots being fired in between the dodges the scorpion faunus did but all of them went in random directions, almost always missing him and his friends.
Sure, it meant that Whitley would have to pay attention to where the shots were going to stop them with his steel but it didn't give them any more troubles beyond that. It was almost like these attacks weren't meant to hurt them on their own.
"Jaune! Watch out!" He heard a concerned shout from Whitley just as he began lifting his weapon for a diagonal strike.
"Wha-!?" Just before he could react by dodging back a thirty or so shadow hands grabbed him from all directions. They weren't strong on their own but when he was grabbed by more than thirty of them it felt as if he was being held in place by a small army.
He quickly looked around while wildly swinging his arms to see what was going on and try to push some of these shadow constructs away.
Dozens of grimm colored shadows surrounded him. They were coming at him from every direction, obstructing his view and blocking his sight of the human crowd that was watching their fight. He was pretty sure that at this point there were more of these shadows than actual people near the tavern.
When did this happen? He was sure that not a minute ago there were a little more than a dozen of them and so many of them shouldn't have been created so quickly from how little of these grimm looking flames there were.
He glanced a little lower to see if the flames from the beginning of the fight spread further only to loudly gasp at what he saw. Nearly the entire ground around them was covered with seemingly random patches of this flame.
After a short moment of thinking he realized that the places where the fire spread to were the places where Tyrian shot at. Was that the scorpion faunus's plan from the start or was it just some random result that came as an effect of the man's crazy fighting style?
Either way he had to move away or else he would drown under the sheer number of these shadows.
"Nora, shoot at me with your grenades!" He shouted before spinning his weapon above his head to keep the shadows away. "Don't worry about me! I will teleport away!"
"Got it!" Nora answered with a smirk and a loud cheer from the audience who thought that they were about to see some cool trick. The red haired girl then loaded her grenade launcher with some random explosives and aimed directly at him.
If it was any other situation he would have worried for his life at the moment but right now he would worry if she didn't do that.
Just as Nora pulled the trigger on her weapon the cloak from his Over Soul fell on him, covering him entirely and made all of the rose petals nearby swell towards him to make him disappear in a small storm of flower petals.
He reappeared right next to Ren and Whitley to see the explosion from Nora's go off a few steps away from Tyrian. The giant pink eruption of Dust was met with a loud applause from the crowd around them who looked at them with amazement in their eyes.
The Dust cloud quickly dissipated revealing lightly bruised Tyrian, who used both of his wrist blades to protect himself from the impact, and almost untouched small army of grimm looking shadows that slowly began turning towards them.
Of course physical explosions wouldn't do much against those spiritual constructs. What was he expecting? At least the strength of Nora's weapon proved to be enough to hurt Tyrian.
"Now that wasn't nice." Tyrian said with disappointment in his voice. "You don't see me throw random explosives at you during our fight of faiths. Even if it would make for an entertaining fight to pass the time."
The scorpion faunus took a quick glimpse at the old lady and the crocodile faunus that were currently looking at them with some mysterious curiosity before smiling with a deranged smile that would only bring bad news.
"If you already broke the sacred rules of the holy battle between faiths then I'm sure you wouldn't mind if I do the same and ask for help from someone outside of my religion." Tyrian mumbled before looking directly at the ghost that was following the old lady.
"Oh vengeful spirit hear my words." Tyrian spread his arms wide open while slowly walking towards the ghost of the crocodile faunus. The shadows from his Over Soul gathered right behind him stopping them from getting close and interrupting him.
"He's about to get help from the third spirit." Whitley scowled. "We have to stop him!"
Whitley followed his words by swinging his saber upwards from the ground, creating a wave of steel spikes that moved towards the insane shaman they were fighting. The attack, while strong, wasn't nearly enough to reach Tyrian who protected himself by making all of his shadows stop the spikes from extending from the ground with their bodies.
"These heretics wish to stop me from helping you achieve the goal that's keeping you connected to that old and worthless human. Please guide me with defeating them so that I could kill your object of ire for you!" Tyrian said with an insane chuckle at the end while ignoring their attempts to stop him.
The ghost looked towards them with an intrigued expression on her face. That expression looked surprisingly threatening when juxtaposed to confusion and worry present on the face of the old lady they were trying to protect.
"Ha!" The ghost laughed loudly. "If all you want from me is help in killing those brats then you didn't even have to make that bizarre speech for me to do so. Just remember to kill that old hag later!"
The spirit turned into a spirit ball form and flew directly at Tyrian's body, already preparing to create an Over Soul. He could hear some curses from Whitley who was now worried that the fight was going to become harder than it was before and frankly, he agreed with him.
"The name's Tock. Let's kill some people!" The dead woman said loudly before merging with Tyrian's coat.
The wind around the scorpion faunus began to gather and swirl under the pressure from the Furyoku that was forcing a spirit and an object to combine. Soon a bright green energy began coming out of the entire cloak and if he was seeing things correctly two spiritual clocks started to hang from the sides of the cloak.
A successful creation of a new Over Soul was followed by a mad cackle from Tyrian who after a quick checkup on his new spiritual armor suddenly dashed at them with all of his might and weapons shooting in roughly their direction.
"Crud!" Whitley shouted while quickly creating a wide steel wall between them and their opponent.
That wall didn't help them for long however, because the moment Tyrian reached it, he easily jumped over it with the help of his scorpion tail that was used as a spring.
With Tyrian directly above them and spraying bullets around them with his weapon, slowly spreading the grimm fire with every bullet that hit the ground, they couldn't stay in place for any longer.
Before the insane shaman could hit the ground all three of them dashed away in different directions in such a way that when the man would land he would be surrounded by them. Ren and Whitley still wouldn't be in the best position for a fight as their opponent would be too close for them but with all of them in different directions at least they wouldn't have to worry about being taken down by a single barrage of bullets.
Just as they expected, Tyrian landed in the middle of them. A wide steel wall that Whitley didn't bring down stood behind, Ren and Whitley themselves were at the sides and he was directly in front of him.
Audience was cheering because of that impressive jump but he ignored them instead focusing solely on his opponent. He hesitated a little before charging for a direct fight. They couldn't afford to stall when the shadows would soon spawn from the fire that was spread around them.
He started with a quick swing already expecting that it would be dodged just like it was before but knowing that Ren and Whitley would either cover for him or help with the attack.
What he didn't expect however was for Tyrian to stand in place and instead of dodging simply flick one of the clocks on his sides and meet his attack head on.
His swing was stopped but unlike the previous time it wasn't because of a grab from multiple shadows that just began spawning around them. It was stopped by the new Over Soul that Tyrian had.
Before he could react and bring his weapon back Tyrian grabbed it and pulled it back making him stumble forward with it. His stumble was ended shortly by a fast moving knee colliding with his stomach and launching him backwards.
He probably shouldn't have attacked so forwardly with his weapon when his opponent had just got a new piece of equipment that apparently gave him more protection but there were more important things to worry about now.
Such as the fact that Tyrian was already rushing at him to continue his attack without giving him any chance to get back up. He instinctively raised his halberd before standing up to protect himself from any too brash attack that could be stopped by simply extending his weapon.
Thankfully, it didn't come to him fighting against possibly huntsman trained shaman while half crouching because just before Tyrian could attack him a huge gale of wind caught his attention from the side.
With a quick snap of his head, Tyrian quickly locked his eyes on Ren, scoffed, and changed the target of his assault with a barrage of badly aimed bullets, probably assuming that he wouldn't be a threat anyway because of the many shadows that were coming towards him.
He would need to cut through them to get back to the fight but it shouldn't take too long for him to do that. Ren also had help from Nora and Whitley at his disposal so he should be fine for a few moments.
A couple of wide swings and dodges was more than enough for him to get away from the small army of shadows that was trying to kill him through the numbers alone but just when he was about to get back to the fight and take Tyrian's attention away from Ren suddenly a heavy flying object collided with him throwing him to the ground once more.
"Ughh." He heard a pained groan from the object that was thrown at him earlier and one that was now laying on top of him. When he looked to see what made this sound he noticed a lightly bruised Ren hurriedly trying to get up from him.
Despite the huntsman training Ren still wasn't a match for Tyrian in a fight. Although it could also have something to do with the fact that Tyrian had an impenetrable armor on his body on top of his skill.
"I take it, the fight didn't go too well?" He asked half-jokingly only to receive another groan from Ren who pushed himself up and jumped back to be as far away from Tyrian as possible before raising his arms in some basic stance.
He narrowed his eyes in concern as he glanced over his friend's hands to see that the Storm Flower that Ren usually used for his Over Soul was gone.
After getting his footing back and raising his guard to protect himself from the attack Tyrian, no doubt, was already launching at him, he looked at the place where Ren fought to see both of his friend's pistols laying on the ground and being protected by about twenty shadows.
These were the items his friend used as a medium. Without them there would be no way for Ren to form his Over Soul again. At least it would be impossible without finding a different medium for it.
He would have to help Ren with getting them back. One couldn't really fight against a shaman with Aura and huntsman training alone.
There wasn't any time for him to think about it however as a heavy fist with spiritually enhanced wrist blades already struck against his guard, pushing him back a few steps.
"Eyes on the fight my friend!" Tyrian loudly cackled while almost effortlessly breaking through his guard and ignoring any slashes or thrusts he made in retaliation.
If before they had been simply outmatched by the scorpion faunus then the moment Tyrian unleashed his third Over Soul all the chances they had to harm him were practically gone.
Attacking the parts of Tyrian's body that didn't have the Tock's spiritual cloak on them was ineffective as well. Every time their attacks were to meet Tyrian's unprotected head, hands or any other part of his body not covered by the green cloak, the energy from that Over Soul would simply move as if it was alive and catch their hits.
The only thing he hoped for now was that there would be some time limit on this ridiculous defense. These two clocks hanging from the sides of the cloak had to be there for some reason, right?
His body flew through the battlefield, passing both Ren and Whitley only to stop near Nora who was nervously looking at her friend barely keeping up with the crazy man that was their opponent. She wasn't even aware that Ren didn't have his Over Soul activated anymore.
A pained sigh escaped him when he heard a loud cheer from the crowd encouraging him to get back to the fight. How was it possible that apparently the entire village was watching them and thinking it was some show was beyond him.
"Nora!" He called to get the attention of his friend. "Tyrian's got some weird defensive Over Soul that blocks all of out attacks. It's possible that the only attack that are blocked are spiritual attacks made by Over Souls but It's only a loose idea for now."
He didn't need to finish what he wanted to say because he could see that Nora had got the idea about what he wanted from her and was already aiming her grenade launcher at the crazy scorpion faunus.
"Just make sure that you guys aren't in the blast radius and he will explode!" Nora answered with an excited smirk.
A quick nod was the only thing he had time to give her in acknowledgement as he dashed forward to get back to the fight where he saw Ren being pushed back by the aggressive assault from their enemy and Whitley trying to stop that by creating steel spikes and barriers in between those two.
Just as his friend was about to be struck by their opponent's wrist blades he arrived in front of him and caught the weapon with his halberd. It was enough for Ren to retreat far enough to not be in any danger from both Tyrian's wild strikes and the explosion that was about to happen.
Knowing that if he were to dodge back Tyrian wouldn't think twice before rushing at him again, he decided to strongly grab his weapon with both of his hands and push forward to try to knock Tyrian down for a second.
It wasn't going as well as it could have since the person he was trying to knock down was not only stronger and more skilled than him but also had an additional limb that could be used to damage him.
Luckily, Whitley and Ren quickly realized what he wanted to do so they began to help. The help was more from Whitley than from Ren since his wind controlling friend lost his usual medium but the steel that kept Tyrian's tail and pushed on the man's legs was enough for him to make their foe trip.
"Now!" He shouted to Nora while covering himself in a white cloak from his Over Soul. The projectile was launched before he got the chance to disappear but with the petals flying towards him, he would be able to easily get away from the grenade on time.
A rather loud explosion was the first thing he heard after he reappeared right next to Ren and Nora. It wasn't necessarily big, he already saw a bigger and more damaging explosion, but it was entirely physical so now even the crowd was able to see that.
'Ohh's and 'Ahh's could be heard from their audience as the dust cloud from the blast started to dissipate. He heard Whitley click his tongue in annoyance as they looked at the effects of that attack and he shared his younger friend's annoyance completely.
While the dust cloud was thick and easily covered everything behind it, they still were able to see a rough silhouette of their opponent standing up. It was more than enough to know that physical attacks wouldn't work on Tyrian either since as far as they knew one couldn't have activated both Aura and an Over Soul and nobody would be able to survive explosion head on without some form of defense.
"Any other ideas, our ghostly leader?" Nora said with a hollow chuckle as even she started to become concerned about their chances to win this fight.
"None at all." He answered with a slump of his shoulders before looking at their opponent with a reluctant expression on his face. "I guess, Whitley and I will keep him busy while you stay here with Ren to know what's going on. We might be able to simply outlast him by having more Furyoku but I wouldn't hope for that too much. In the meantime, make sure you find some different item for your Over Soul, Ren."
With one last look at the crazy man that already began charging at them, he quickly swung his halberd and wrapped himself with the white cloak to teleport without waiting for his friends' responses.
Despite reappearing with a wide and powerful swing, his reappearance was ignored entirely as Tyrian merely took his halberd with one of his shoulders and countered with his wrist blades. Thankfully an intervention of a couple small steel walls thanks to Whitley prevented him from being hurt too much.
A nervous gulp went through his throat as he saw Tyrian charging at him while preparing his weapons for an attack. He really didn't have any idea on how to beat that crazy scorpion guy in their situation.
He could only hope that one of his friends would think of something instead.
There had to be something they could do to win this, right?
...
With Ren and Nora...
...
The crowd cheered loudly as they watched his friend thrown around by the monster they were supposed to defeat. If Ren didn't know how it felt being unable to see the spirits then he would have been cursing at these pedestrians throughout the entire fight like Whitley seemed to be doing right now.
It wouldn't have helped them with the fight at all but at least it would take his mind away from how useless he was at the moment.
He glanced to where his weapons were currently laying to see them being protected by over forty of these damned shadows. At least he didn't have to deal with them while staying at the back with Nora since they appeared to focus more on trying to hurt the people who were fighting against Tyrian in melee or defending his weapons rather than attack those who were away.
There was sense to it. These constructs moved so slowly that anyone who was away from them could easily moved to a way better position if they saw a bunch of these things walking their way and if they were to attack from the distance then the sheer number of them would be enough to work as a thick wall capable of blocking most of the attacks.
If he had his Over Soul active then at the very least he could have been using the gusts of wind to push Tyrian around or protect Jaune from danger. Sadly with the Storm Flower out of his reach there wasn't much he could do about it.
"How are they doing?" Nora asked with a seemingly cheerful expression on her face. It wasn't, he knew Nora for almost his entire life so he could easily see when she was only pretending to be in a happy mood.
Though, with the situation being as it was, he doubted he would even need to look at her to know that her cheerful tone wasn't really honest. It was just how bad the fight was going.
"You can see it yourself, Nora." He answered sorrowfully while looking past the crowd of shadows slowly moving towards his friend. "Barring the sluggish shadows trying to catch Jaune off guard, everything's happening exactly how you see it."
How much he wished that wasn't the case? He already knew from how Nora talked about some of his fights during the first round of the tournament that for normal people it's sometimes difficult to actually tell who's winning the fight without being able to see Over Soul clashing or dissipating.
Sadly the only thing that was different if you were capable of seeing the spirits in that fight was knowledge that Tyrian's coat was glowing green and that an army of shadowy figures was slowly approaching anyone who was brave enough to fight against the crazy man at close.
"Why aren't you going in there to help in the fight again?" Nora asked nervously with a small and hollow giggle at the end, clearly she was just trying to think about anything other than how bad their situation was right now.
"Because I lost my weapon and there isn't any item nearby that would allow me to create a useful Over Soul in a fight." He answered with a sigh before taking a quick look at his father, who left the Storm Flower the moment he was disarmed, to see him deep in thought.
"What about your dagger?" His dad said after a moment of contemplation.
"My dagger?" He asked with some confusion in his voice, not knowing what his father was referring to at first before opening his eyes wide open in realization. "Of course! The dagger you gave me when the Nuckelavee attacked our village!"
Immediately after, he began searching through his pockets looking for the dagger passed down to him when he was younger while ignoring the confused stare from Nora. He knew he had to have it, even if it wasn't of much use before, he always kept it somewhere on him.
Maybe it was because the main value of this item was it being the last memory he had of his father and with his dad lately becoming a constant in his life he didn't pay too much attention to it but he nearly forgot about it.
"Here it is." He said with a clear relief in voice while pulling the dagger out from under his clothes.
"Of course!" A small gasp left Nora as she saw him extend the arm he held his dagger in forward and grab his father with the other.
He had never formed an Over Soul using a different item than Storm Flower as a medium so he wasn't that confident it would work well. It would have to work though because at this point he didn't have any other option to help with the fight.
"Father! Over Soul to the dagger!" He shouted as he brought his hands together to begin the forming of his Over Soul.
Unlike how Jaune first described it to him, the process of creating an Over Soul wasn't actually as easy as pushing a spirit into an item and hoping it would work. There were many parts of it that if prepared incorrectly would result in a weakened or failed Over Soul.
Many of these elements, such as the medium for example, weren't even completely understood by him so when the wind around him started to fiercely gather near the hand in which he held the dagger, he didn't panic at all. The fact that something was happening at all was enough for him to know that his attempt wasn't wasted.
"Wow." He heard the crowd and Nora gawk as they likely noticed the small hurricane that was rapidly forming in his hands.
They probably didn't know it since for them the wind was unseeable and only the effects of it could be noticed but for a shaman like him who could clearly see the green spiritual aura around the movement of the wind it was obvious to see the shape that the wind currents were trying to create.
The currents of wind suddenly calmed down as the form of his new Over Soul finally came to be. He kindly ignored the disappointed complaints from every non-shaman around him as he looked at the weapon he now had in his hand.
In his hand and around the dagger he used as a medium a seemingly unstable bow made out of the wind itself was formed. His new Over Soul wasn't a bow in the same sense his friend's silver halberd was because even if someone was a shaman they wouldn't be able to see any object in his hand.
Instead, if one were to look really carefully, they would have been able to see hundreds of small wind currents moving in a bow-like pattern with the dagger in it's center.
After a brief moment of stillness during which he looked at the bow in his hand to make sure it wouldn't dissipate in a second he let out a breath of relief. The gambit of using the dagger as the medium worked, now the only thing that was left for him to do was get back to the fight.
With a satisfied smile on his face he took a quick look at the fight to see his friend being tossed around by their foe while Whitley was trying to do everything he could to help while limiting his strength because of the crowd around them
A frown appeared on him as he saw that. If they wanted to win then they would have to do it in a single strike because if they stretched it out for too long then Tyrian might get desperate and harm the innocent people around them.
The situation was getting worse as the shadows that earlier were protecting his Storm Flower began moving towards him and he still didn't even know how to use his new Over Soul.
With a small frown on his face he quickly looked at his weapon. It was a bow. Although it wasn't the same as his Storm Flower and he wasn't a weapon specialist, he still knew how to use a simple bow. The fact that this one was spiritual and made out of air shouldn't make too much of a difference.
He extended his arm forward, straightened his back and took a stance he roughly remembered his dad taking whenever he was shooting from a bow.
His arm was aimed at their enemy yet he wasn't sure how to proceed further. There weren't any strings on the currents of winds that made his bow and he certainly didn't have any arrows to fire.
What was the point of having a bow when there wasn't anything he could fire with it?
"Renny?" Nora nervously chuckled. "What are you doing?"
"Thinking." He answered shortly before narrowing eyes at the dagger in the center of the bow. Was it possible that he had to use the dagger as an arrow? It wouldn't have been the first time an Over Soul required the medium itself to be used to do anything.
Not having any other idea on his mind, he decided to trust his gut and brought his other arm to grab the dagger like an arrow, hoping that the wind bow that was formed around it would stay in the hand he held it earlier.
The moment he grabbed the dagger and tried to move it back a little to test his theory, he felt a significant amount of pressure trying to keep it in place. It was almost like a strong string from a bow was refusing to be stretched.
He grinned slightly as he put more strength into his movement. It looked like his idea was the correct one.
After extending the invisible string of his bow up to his shoulder he suddenly stopped. He wasn't sure if it was because he was simply tired or maybe his lack of Furyoku was the issue but the strength needed of him to draw it further was too big for him to extend it fully.
He doubted it would matter though. If his next attack wouldn't be enough then nothing he could do would be of any use since he already could feel that it was his all. Not to mention that after he fired he would lose his medium again.
Letting out a quiet grunt of effort, he released the dagger.
The air around him burst in every direction as dozens of streams and currents of wind followed the dagger that soared through the air at speeds far greater than any Dust bullet ever could.
The audience instinctively covered their eyes when the huge gusts of wind pushed them a few steps back.
All of the spiritual shadows that were standing in the way of his dagger dissipated as the wind blew them away and left nothing in their place. Nothing could stop the arrow he unleashed as it even pierced through a steel wall that Whitley didn't have the time to hide.
In less than a blink of an eye it reached Tyrian who didn't have time to dodge it and had to take it head on with his cloak Over Soul.
The arrow he just fired was neither the strongest attack he witnessed nor fired, if he were to compare it to Jaune's Silver Arc or the huge hurricane he did during his first shaman fight of the tournament then the destructive power behind it wouldn't be that impressive, but none of the other powerful attacks he came in contact with were nearly as condensed and precise as this one.
Tyrian's cloak tried to stop it and it even succeeded for a split second but what was an Over Soul if not a construct made out of Furyoku?
What did it matter that one had an ability that made them invulnerable when it was still fueled by the same energy that every other Over Soul was and how could Tyrian's Furyoku compare when it was spread all over the body while his was entirely focused on a single tip of a dagger?
It's simple.
It just couldn't.
A short scream of pain echoed through the village as Tyrian was hit with an attack strong enough to shatter some of his bones only to be immediately muffled by the loud cheers of the audience who watched the heroes of the supposed show win.
"Well." He huffed tiredly as Nora caught him when he almost fell down from the sudden lack of Furyoku. "That worked out."
Now they only needed to somehow convince the crowd around them that it wasn't a show and they really were fighting against a dangerous madman that could have killed them and the people watching at any moment during the fight.
He would gladly leave all of the explaining to Jaune.
The blond shaman was their team leader after all.
...
A few hours later...
...
When Jaune explained the circumstances of the chaotic fight they had to the old lady they helped, who's name they learned was Maria Calavera, he expected the reaction to be confusion followed by disbelief and questions on their sanity.
It would be a rather ordinary reaction to someone claiming that a deranged killer capable of controlling spirits tried to kill you.
With that in mind, he was incredibly surprised when the only response Maria had to their was an unconcerned shrug and a claim that she was already suspecting something like that to be the case.
"Don't act so surprised young man. I lived a long and eventful life and just because I can't see the spiritual side of the world doesn't mean that I don't know about it." Maria said while taking a bite of an apple and calmly watching someone who looked like a militia captain scolding the city guards.
It was likely because they were incompetent enough to let a dangerous huntsman enter the village unchecked.
It hadn't been easy to convince people that they weren't some traveling circus group. The first time he told them what supposedly happened he was met with a loud applause and small gratitude for explaining the more difficult to understand plot points in their showing.
Luckily, after using a convoluted explanation of a weird semblance and foreknowledge, they managed to convince the villagers that Tyrian wasn't some traveling actor that was putting on a show with them.
"Besides." Maria added between munching getting his attention back. "My friend already warned me that situations like these might happen around this time because of some secret tournament requiring people to find some place called Tribes Village."
He and his friends immediately perked up the moment they heard the familiar name. They hadn't searched for long but they were aware that the Tribes Village couldn't be a known place because if it was then there wouldn't be a point in the current round of the tournament.
"Miss Calavera, you mentioned that your friend knows about the Tribes Village, is it possible that you know about it as well and could give us some information about it?" Whitley quickly asked before he and Ren had a chance to do so.
"Hmm..." Maria thought for a few moments before waving one of her hands. "Nah. I never bothered to ask her about it. Sure, it sounds interesting but it would be pointless knowledge for me. You would get better results if you asked her yourself."
He didn't know what he expected. Of course, ordinary people wouldn't care for the matters of the shaman world, they hardly affected the everyday lives of ordinary people at all.
"Then will you at least tell us your friend's name and place where we could find her?" Ren asked politely. "It might seem trivial to you but it's really important for us."
In response Maria narrowed her eyes at them and carefully looked through them as if to judge their characters and decide whether they would harm someone with that information.
After a few long seconds of looking at them Maria finally leaned back and determined that she knew her answer.
"Alright, I suppose I can tell you." She huffed. "Consider it as a thank you for that battle you fought for me earlier."
All of them nodded and proceeded to lean forward to make sure they wouldn't miss anything that Maria would say. They knew it wasn't info on the Tribes Village itself but a lead was a lead and couldn't afford to miss it.
"Go to the port city Argus, it's about three weeks away from here but you should manage. There you should be able to find my friend little Lili, her full name is Lilirara and if you know of at least a few of the old shamanic traditions, you should be able to recognize her. Tell her that I sent you and she should gladly help you."
They nodded once again, engraving the information into memory. It didn't tell them anything about Tribes Village or whereabouts of Summer's daughters but they had a direction to go towards now.
"Thank you very much for this." He nodded in gratitude before standing up. "We are leaving the moment we finish our meal. There's no time to waste in this village. We only have three months and by the time we reach Argus it will become two."
They weren't going to travel aimlessly anymore.
"I don't want to dampen your motivation, Jaune." Summer started before shifting a little. "But do you even know in which direction Argus is?"
A loud laugh resounded around him as all of the spirits and his shaman friends exploded in laughter at his embarrassed expression.
"Ugh..." He turned around to look at Maria in hopes she would help him by pointing in the correct direction.
It seemed that his wordless plight for help worked because Maria quietly snickered into one of her hands before pointing towards one of the entrances of the village with a small smile.
"It's north of here and right next to the ocean, you should be fine if you just walk straight in that direction."
With the direction and goal known he nodded his head, scratched his head and loudly laughed before sitting down again and immersing himself in a tiring yet entertaining conversation between him, his friends, and Maria.
He could only hope that the road to Argus was going to be as fun as their current talk was.
Off to Argus we go!
On a completely unrelated to the story note that certainly won't affect it in absolutely any way, do you have any idea for a good name for Papa Arc?
Again, completely unrelated and not an allusion to what I want to do later. Don't read into it.
Seriously, don't.