My writing schedule worked! (Or at least half of it because my university changed my timetable in the middle of the week again. I still don't know if it will work out for the next weeks.)
So here's the chapter.
Reviews:
Guest - Let's go!
X3runner - good to know that the character development is to your liking.
Gamelover41592 - It could always go worse.
If one were to think about a battle between two teams of shamans they would probably envision a destructive fight wrecking the entire battlefield and a bunch of invisible to the naked eye attacks flying through the air.
Technically it was what was happening in their fight as well but for some reason it wasn't nearly as impressive.
A light grunt escaped Jaune as he easily blocked a small fire projectile that was flying at him. The moment his halberd came in contact with it, the projectile immediately dissolved. There was no strength behind it that pushed him back in any meaningful way nor were there any tricks that made blocking it difficult.
It was so weak that it almost made him feel bad for defending himself from it. That feeling was amplified by the fact that the person who was shooting at him didn't look older than twelve.
Knowing that he wasn't really in any immediate danger, Jaune quickly took a glance at how his friends were faring against their opponents to expectantly see them having as little issues as he had.
Whitley was easily using his steel to prevent a green haired girl from attacking any of them in any way while efficiently fighting and even winning against another one of their opponents.
Meanwhile Ren effortlessly fought against three enemy shamans while still experimenting with his new Over Soul. Apparently the wind shaman was able to shoot weaker arrows from his wind bow without having to throw his dagger away every time he did that, good for him.
A small sigh escaped Jaune as he dodged three fire projectiles and let them hit the ground behind him.
At least the villagers didn't think their fight was some weird performance this time. With all the destruction to the ground and random trees the stray shots were causing it was easy to understand that you could get hurt if you were to come too close.
It didn't stop Nora from being right in the middle of this fight and cheering them on however. Not like she was in any real danger anyway, he could easily protect her from any attacks from their enemies and he was pretty sure she would be able to deal with some of their weaker opponents on her own.
The idea of an ordinary person being able to defeat a shaman who held almost every advantage possible in their situation would probably make his fellow 'true' shaman whine in resentment but he digressed.
His point was that despite their number advantage and them being the aggressors their opponents were clearly outmatched.
After almost all of his fights being against people who were either stronger than him or at worst similar to him in terms of power, Jaune wasn't really sure what he was supposed to do now.
Logic and battle experience he had gotten from Summer was telling him to make use of his advantage and defeat his foe as fast as possible else they somehow manage to think of a way to turn the tides around.
The idea was good and if he were to fight against any other of the five people they were fighting he would have already done that but he would rather lose that fight they were having than swing his weapon at a little girl who looked young enough to be in an elementary school.
Sadly the option to simply give up and share their knowledge with the five shamans had been gone the moment the fight had started.
"Do we really have to fight?" Jaune said with a little whine as he evaded a small barrage of fire projectiles. "I already told you what you want to know and we don't even know each other. There's literally no reason for us to be fighting."
"Don't think you can trick us boy. You might think of us as worthless because you happen to be winning right now but we aren't idiots, there's no way such an obvious lie would work." The apparent leader of their enemies said after being thrown around by the wind from one of Ren's arrows.
Jaune wanted to grab his head and scream his frustration away after hearing that.
What lie?! When did he try to trick anyone?! Did that woman assume he was lying to them just because they were competing in the same tournament?! What would be the point of that?! There wasn't any rule saying that only a limited number of shamans were able to pass the second round of the tournament as far as he was aware.
From a corner of his eye he noticed Nora grinning widely and giving him a thumb up sign for some reason. Knowing her, she probably thought that this was all a part of some plan he had to make sure there was no way for them to reveal anything to their opponents.
Or maybe she was just fooling around at his expense, at this point he couldn't be sure of anything when it came to Nora.
Suddenly he found himself missing opponents like Tyrian. At least when he fought against the scorpion faunus there wasn't any trouble about trying to convince him that the fight wasn't necessary, that insane man fought for no reason at all.
"I must say Jaune, your plan worked better than I thought it would." Whitley said with a small grunt as he pushed the red haired girl using a hammer into another one of their enemies.
Of course Whitley misunderstood it as well. The young Schnee was so competitive about the tournament that the idea of simply sharing his knowledge to a possible opponent to avoid unnecessary fights had never entered his mind.
"I agree." Ren said with a nod before firing a single wind arrow.
One time his friends were agreeing on something and it was because of something he didn't mean to do. If he wasn't busy being annoyed at the situation as a whole he might have laughed at that.
"Yeah, that's exactly what I wanted to do. That's not like I wanted to avoid a pointless fight like that." Jaune murmured to himself dejectedly. He swore he could feel Summer laughing at him from the Over Soul.
Sadly he didn't have the time to brood as a girl with a spiritual claw as a weapon dashed at him.
With a single step Jaune swiftly got out of the claw's way and immediately delivered his counter with the blunt part of his halberd. He wasn't going to kill for such a petty reason as squabble for some information.
None of his friends would either if the way none of them attacked in a way that would heavily injure their enemies was to indicate something.
"They are toying with us. I knew we shouldn't have attacked them in the open." The blond lady mumbled something with irritation before extending her arm forward and shouting. "Get back, girls! It's time for us to implement the plan 'Magnifique'!"
"We are using 'Magnifique'?!" The girl with light brown hair said with a gasp. "Why? We still have the advantage here, none of us are out yet!"
A bunch of protests from all the other girls they were fighting followed right after. Whatever that plan was it must have been the last ace up their sleeves otherwise they wouldn't be so opposed to using it.
"Girls." Their leader sighed. "You have to know which fights you are capable of winning and if you truly do not see how outmatched we are right now then there's no way for us to get anywhere in this tournament."
"Boss?" The youngest one, the one who was shooting at him earlier, asked with some tears in her eyes.
"Now, get back girls." The blond lady commanded while jumping away as well. "We might not be able to match them in a fair fight but it doesn't mean there's no way for us to win."
Hearing their boss say it, all of their opponents quickly followed and made some distance between them. Neither he or his friends moved to stop them, if they really wanted to do so then he was sure they would be easily able to do that but none of them saw a point in that.
Whatever that secret plan was, he doubted it would be worse than fighting against Tyrian who used three different Over Souls at the same time and if it somehow was then he could just teleport away while Whitley protected everyone else with his steel.
"So what's this Magnifiquant thing?" Nora asked him of all people with a raised eyebrow.
He shrugged in response. How was he supposed to know? It was the first time he ever fought against these people as well, he didn't even know their names for spirits' sake!
"Maybe it's their secret code for running away or something?" He suggested, being just as clueless as Nora was. It wouldn't be a bad thing if it was, it's not like they would gain anything from defeating some random shamans that they only just met.
"I doubt it." Whitley chipped in to their conversation.
"Why do you think that?" Jaune asked with a raised eyebrow. It wasn't like his friend had any more idea what their opponents were doing than he had. Honestly he was a little bit surprised that the young Schnee didn't try to stop it in any way. He knew that's what would happen if he had tried doing something like that when they fought the first time around.
Whitley responded to his question by merely pointing his finger forward.
Knowing that his friend wouldn't point at something meaningless, Jaune looked at the place Whitley wanted him to see.
Where normally he expected to see their enemies readying their attack or doing whatever the 'Magnifique' plan was supposed to be, he instead saw a thick cloud of smoke rapidly gathering in a small whirl covering everything behind it.
He knew what it was. It's the illusion making Over Soul that tried to trick him into giving the information about Tribes Village away!
It looked way thicker than it had back then. He didn't know what that meant but if there was a single thing all the Over Souls he saw had in common it was that the more Furyoku was concentrated in a single place the more significant the results would be.
What would be the effect of putting more Furyoku into an illusion based Over Soul anyway?
Stronger illusions? How would that work?
"Ren, can you try dispersing it with one of your arrows?" He asked politely, deciding not to risk too much on their confidence. They might be able to block or dodge any attack their opponents send at them but he wasn't sure how using steel to block illusion would work.
"Already on it." Ren said shortly before letting go of a wind arrow and letting it fly directly at the thick cloud of spiritual smoke.
Surprisingly, or maybe unsurprisingly depending on the perspective, while the arrow reached the cloud of smoke without any issues and pierced through it just as easily, the cloud of spiritual smoke reformed itself as quickly and easily as it was dispersed.
"It didn't work." Jaune clicked his tongue in annoyance.
It looked like he would get the answer for his question about stronger illusions.
He wanted to ask Ren to shoot at their opponents instead of the smoke this time but it wasn't that easy. The smoke cloud his friend already shot at was exactly at the same place their opponents stood earlier yet there was no one there.
Their opponents were covered by a thick cloud of illusions, there was no way any of them could see past it. At this point their enemies could be anywhere and they wouldn't be able to see them.
"Why are you all standing and doing nothing?" Nora asked innocently while tilting her head. "I know they are standing still to prepare that Magnifiquant thing but what's stopping you guys? They are just standing there."
All of their heads immediately snapped towards the red haired huntress in training.
"I-Is everything okay?" Nora asked while taking a step back, confusion filled her voice as she looked at them with a shaky smile.
A loud thump sound was heard as Jaune's hand suddenly found itself on his forehead. Spiritual illusions didn't work on Nora since she couldn't even interact with spirits let alone see mirages made by an Over Soul.
There wasn't anything to fear from the leader of their opponents since Nora countered her on her own. It also made him feel a bit embarrassed for being worried about the prospect of his friends being tricked by the enemies but that was beside the point.
"Yeah everything's alright." Jaune said with a small chuckle before pointing somewhere in the direction their opponents could be right now. "These guys made quite a thick wall of smoke between us so we have no idea where they are nor what they are doing. Can you help us with that?"
Realization appeared on Nora's face when she heard that. The energetic huntress then nodded with a wide grin before quickly turning slightly to the side and making a scene of looking for their enemies.
He knew it was only a scene of looking for them since there was at most a few meters between them and the enemies, that was if the plan 'Magnifique' wasn't the five girls just running away from them because if it was then they could be already outside the village as far as he knew.
"They are right..." Nora said before taking a dramatic pause to twirl her pointing finger a little.
His eyebrow rose a little at that, she really was playing it up considering that they were in the middle of a fight.
"There!" Thankfully after a short while of playfully raising the tension, Nora promptly pointed her finger at one of their sides only to slowly move it a bit to the side a second later and then to continue moving it from one side to another.
"If you want to play some weird pointing game then you can do it later." Whitley scoffed. "Now hurry up and show us where our foes are so that we can end this joke of a fight as soon as possible."
The younger shaman's words seemed to anger Nora a little as she pouted and crossed her arms right after hearing them.
"I was showing you where they are!" Nora said. "All they are doing is slowly going in circles around us while observing us and running away the moment any one of us turns their head towards them."
That certainly sounded unimpressive and wasteful. So much Furyoku was gathered yet all it was used for was a giant smoke screen to sneak around them. Frankly he was disappointed.
"It's almost like they are trying to find an angle from which we wouldn't be defending ourselves and attack there all at once." Nora added with a shrug. "Honestly from my perspective it looks kinda silly."
He could imagine but he also wasn't in position to judge how their enemies looked right now.
One of the main reasons he was so thankful for all the fights during the first round of the tournament happening in mostly deserted or hidden locations was because he knew how silly he looked like for ordinary people when using his Over Soul.
"They saw us through!" A loud female voice echoed through the smoke after Nora once again pointed her finger at their foes. Its tone was full of despair and if someone were to listen more carefully they would be able to hear shaking.
"Are you serious?!" Whitley shouted in response, somehow managing to sound offended at both the enemies and Nora at the same time.
Jaune only let out a short chuckle at that. He could imagine that fights like these weren't something Whitley had in mind when picturing the shaman fights back when the second round of the tournament started.
To be fair it wasn't something he imagined to be doing either.
"Let's just get this over with." The young Schnee said with a groan. "I will trap them in place so that you guys can finish them off with a single attack, alright?"
Surprisingly Whitley's request didn't start a fight between him and Ren, who simply nodded and began preparing his bow. It looked like the wind shaman of their team was tired of this fight as well.
With a single stab to the ground two thin walls made of pure spiritual steel quickly rose from the ground trapping everything that was in the direction Nora was pointing to inside them.
While the walls were thin enough that both he and Ren could have easily pierced through them with their Over Soul, all of them knew that they were more than enough to prevent their foes from moving past them.
"Finish them Ren." Jaune said casually while leaning back a little. "Just make sure to not hurt them too much, okay? It's not like they will be a threat to us if they are able to quickly recover after the fight."
A simple nod from Ren was more than enough for him to know that his friend understood his intentions.
Knowing that his friend wouldn't cause too much damage to anything and that he could leave the end of this fight to Ren, Jaune stepped away to make sure he wouldn't be in the way of the arrow. He still didn't know the exact range of effect the wind shaman's new Over Soul had and he didn't want to needlessly risk being hurt by it.
Wind slowly swirled to a single place as Ren pulled the invisible string of his air bow. A small vortex of air started to appear between one of the wind shaman's hands and the dagger he held in the other.
The vortex twisted and shrank until it became a nearly invisible arrow ready to fire.
Its power wasn't anything impressive compared to the dagger Ren fired when he formed this Over Soul for the first time but it formed way quicker and took less energy than the dagger. Jaune knew that if Ren had the access to such power during their first shaman fight, there was a high chance he wouldn't be taking part in the second round.
With a calm breath Ren straightened himself and prepared to fire. He knew where the enemies were and there was no way for them to move out of the way with two steel walls blocking all the direction they could use to dodge away.
"D-Do you really think a weak attack like this is going to defeat us?!" One of the girls said in fear. "W-We are the team 'Tres Magnifique', you know? There's no way we will lose so easily!"
A wry smile appeared on Jaune's face as he heard that. Normally he would have already tried to befriend them or at least leave them alone since there was no reason for them to be fighting in the first place but at this point as he was certain those five would continue to bother them to no ends if they left them be.
If they finally see how much weaker they are compared to them then they would leave them for certain.
"Don't worry!" He shouted reassuringly. "Ren will try to limit his strength! You won't get hurt too much!"
His shout didn't seem to reassure very well because almost immediately after he said that, loud shouts shrieks of terror echoed through the battlefield.
Rude. Jaune rolled his eyes. They might be enemies but he and his friends weren't cruel, there wouldn't be anything too harmful done to them for losing. It's not like they were hurt in any significant way by the 'Tres Magnifique' either.
"So petty." A loud childlike voice suddenly resounded playfully through the entire village and Jaune immediately froze in place.
He knew that voice.
Memories of a fire giant so hot that he could barely breathe in its presence came to the front of his mind and he instantly acted. They couldn't afford to stand in place if that person was here.
Instantly, before any of his friends had a chance to react, he grabbed all of them and threw them to the ground to protect them from the disaster that was bound to happen.
"What are you doing?!" Whitley asked slightly annoyed at being pushed around but he didn't get the answer as Jaune was too busy preparing for the worst.
Just as he expected, countless waves of flames started appearing everywhere around them. They burned all the smoke they came in contact with next to no issues at all, quickly clearing the barrier that they only could get through thanks to Nora.
"W-What's going on?" Nora asked shakily. She wasn't capable of seeing anything that was happening but even she could feel the drastic increase in the temperature from the fire spirit forming right before them.
"It's Hao." Jaune answered briefly while narrowing eyes at the giant humanoid shape that the flames were converging into and a silhouette of a young boy sitting on top of one of the buildings.
A cheerful laugh echoed through the battlefield as a young boy on top of the building started to kick his legs in amusement.
"Who are you, brat?!" The red haired girl who was their enemy not a few seconds ago asked rudely.
"We meet again, Jaune." The boy said with a wide smile, completely ignoring the question. "I see that you still are wasting your time on meaningless fights and conflicts. Sadly, I cannot say I'm disappointed as that would imply that I expected you to strive for something more."
Shortly after Hao said that, his friends managed to slowly get up from the ground and slightly protect themselves from the stray flames with their Over Souls.
"Oi! Answer the question!" The red haired girl commanded with anger after being ignored. She was being held down by some of her teammates and even her leader tried to calm her down but it didn't appear to be doing much.
"Can you be quiet for a minute?" Hao asked with fake politeness. "I'm trying to talk with someone else. I don't care for you five."
"Hey!" Few loud shouts echoed as a certain team of five had taken a hit to their pride.
"Also..." Hao added with a frown before pointing somewhere near the team of five. "Please get rid of that insignificant illusion of yours, I find it quite annoying."
"Wha-?" The blond lady started to ask only to immediately stop as the fire giant moved its hand towards her.
The hand was moving slowly and the blond lady easily moved out of its way by simply dodging to the side. It didn't matter however since she wasn't the target of the attack in the first place.
Just when the fire hand was about to reach the place the leader of the 'Tres Magnifique' stood at, it turned a little to the side to grab not the shaman responsible for the illusion but concentrated smoke itself.
A loud scream of pain was heard by every shaman present as a smoke pixie appeared from the smoke grabbed by the fire spirit. Sounds of crashing and burning were the only noises accompanying it as everybody watched a spirit being burned into non-existence in the hand of the flame giant.
"Stop." Sharona whispered with some tears in her eyes before gritting her teeth and turning towards Hao.
"I said, stop it you monster!" She shouted with all the strength she could to try to help the spirit that had been helping her since the very beginning. The fury and anger in her eyes were so deep that even the strongest of them were shaken by it.
The moment those words were spoken everybody instantly moved to action. It didn't matter that not even a minute ago they were fighting against each other or that they just met that day every shaman present agreed that incinerating a spirit was taking it too far.
Myriad of different attacks flew through the air, wind arrows mixed with flame projectiles, steel spikes erupted from the ground and pushed melee fighters forward, the petals from the sky gathered right next to the burning pixie as everyone ran to help the burning pixie.
Yet despite all of that, their attempts at saving the spirit were instantly halted by a simple lazy wave of the spirit of fire's hand.
Spiritual steel melted in seconds. Currents of wind were distorted and nullified. Bodies of everyone who came close were thrown dozens of meters away to crash on buildings or trees.
They were completely outclassed.
Before anyone could get back up and try again, the smoke pixie was already burned to ashes and devoured by the flame giant.
"What a weak spirit." Hao remarked calmly. "She wasn't even strong enough for my spirit of fire to increase his power a little bit. I guess I shouldn't have expected much from a guardian spirit of a shaman as pathetic as one of you."
Complete silence overwhelmed the village.
Nobody said anything yet after a few seconds a quiet weeping was heard as the blond woman to whom the late cloud pixie belonged collapsed to her knees.
"S-Sharona." All her teammates rushed to comfort their leader.
"Don't be so dramatic." Hao rolled his eyes. "With such a mistake of a shaman that pixie wouldn't get anywhere in this lifetime anyway and now her existence was used to strengthen the guardian spirit of the future Shaman King. You could argue that I did her a huge favor."
"Y-You-!" Sharona tried to shout through her weeping but she stopped herself when an innumerable amount of steel spikes all of a sudden erupted from the earth and flew at the boy sitting on the roof.
The spikes covered all the ground around them. There were so many of them in fact that if a shaman were to fly on a Bullhead above the village and look down the only thing they would be able to see would be a sea of white covering more than half of the entire village.
Seeing what was happening, Jaune quickly turned his head away from Hao to look at Whitley who at the moment was kneeling on the ground barely able to catch a breath. It was way more steel than the younger shaman had ever created during their previous fights and it clearly was taking its toll on the young Schnee.
"Don't bother." Hao scoffed at the steel shaman's attempt before waving his hand a little to summon a huge wave of fire around him. "With so little strength you have you could create spikes from every possible place on Remnant to throw them at me and I still would have enough Furyoku to stop it without any effort."
Just as Hao had said, despite the spikes being innumerable and coming at him from almost every direction the moment they so much as touched the fire around Hao they immediately melted into mare droplets of liquid steel before vaporizing completely seconds later.
"H-How?" Whitley asked from the ground.
"This guy's a monster." Jaune grabbed the younger shaman by the shoulder to calm him a little before shaking his head a little. "If he wanted to, he could kill all of us in a blink of an eye and we wouldn't be able to stop him."
A look of sheer terror and disbelief appeared on Whitley's face after he said that. Killing Hao was the sole reason X-Laws joined the tournament in the first place yet despite all of them being way more powerful than any of them were they also couldn't put a single scratch on that monster.
Heavily swallowing whatever spit gathered in his mouth since Hao appeared, Jaune shakily turned around to face the terrifying boy who was sitting on the roof of the building and kicking his feet in boredom.
"W-What are you here for?! I thought you said that you weren't interested in me!" He asked loudly.
"It's because I'm not. I was merely passing by but after I noticed a bunch of ants fighting for some petty reasons I couldn't help myself but to come see what's going on." Hao answered.
That answer ignited the flames of fury in everyone.
Only passing by?! A bunch of ants?! Did that person just come here, wrecked every single one of them, killed one of their guardian spirits and almost destroyed the entirety of the village because of boredom?!
"Although I think I will have to go now." Hao smiled playfully. "I still have to see where that parasite from Beacon is going to end up after dying."
The word 'Beacon' immediately got Ren's and Nora's attention.
"What do you mean by 'parasite from Beacon' and 'after dying'!?" Ren asked angrily, subconsciously making the wind around him blow viciously by doing so. "What did you do!? What happened!?"
"Shouldn't you be the one who knows what happened?" Hao asked with a chuckle. "I only know that the spirit of that old parasite was once again thrown into someone else to steal another body. I care too little for the puny Huntsmen to bother with observing what's happening at Beacon."
"W-What?" Ren asked, being as confused with that answer as everyone else was.
"Of course you have no idea what I'm talking about. That old man wouldn't share his secrets with some random students." Hao sighed and shook his head. "Well, good luck with whatever you are doing. I will be going to see how Ozzy is doing, see you later!"
With his boredom temporarily satisfied Hao jumped off the building only to land at the shoulders of his fire spirit and lift high into the air before flying west.
Nobody said anything as all of them watched the monster who nearly killed them for no reason fly away. All of them had already released their Over Souls since none of them were in a condition to fight and everybody knew it.
After a few seconds of everybody trying to decide on what to do next, Ren suddenly dashed to Jaune and grabbed him by the shoulders in a frantic hurry.
"Jaune, we have to learn what happened to Beacon."
...
A village away..
...
That couldn't be possible.
They've been away for less than a month and the school was perfectly fine before they left. It wasn't possible for anything to happen to such a great place in such a short time, it just wasn't.
So how did this happen?
Why did it happen?
"Panic and despair is spreading through the city of Vale as another rescue mission brings yet another seriously injured team out of Beacon. The exact cause for such state of affairs is still unknown to the general public but leading theories speculate that it was an act of terrorism." Voice of the famous reporter Lisa Lavender spread through the quiet alley as team RWBY hunched over a single Scroll in a grave silence.
There were no comments made by any of them as everyone just looked at the news report with hollow expressions, their minds simply couldn't comprehend the greatest huntsmen academy falling without them noticing.
Things like these simply didn't happen.
All of the Beacon teachers were seasoned huntsmen and huntresses, for them to lose in battle would mean that the people who attacked them were at least as strong as the strongest of huntsmen.
"None of these theories however can conclusively state what would be the reason behind the attack though some speculate that it might have been an assassination of the famous huntsman and headmaster of Beacon Sir Ozpin as he was the only person found dead after the accident as of now. Investigations are being made to find any clues as to who might be responsible but no leads were found yet."
The voice continued as team RWBY put the Scroll away and collectively took a couple of unsteady steps back.
"A-Are you alright?" Chocolove asked the team of huntresses while grabbing two of them by the shoulders to make sure they wouldn't fall down.
"Y-Yes." Yang leaned on one of the buildings. "We have to go back to Vale as fast as possible."
Yang's declaration got two nods from Weiss and Blake who already started moving towards the exit of the village. They couldn't be wasting time in Mistral when they were needed in Vale.
The only one who didn't move yet was Ruby who still stood in place as if petrified by the news.
"Snap out of it, sis." Yang lightly shook her younger sister. "We have to get going. Standing here and mourning won't accomplish anything."
Seeing that her sister wasn't reacting, the blond brawler grabbed her younger sister a little more forcefully and started to drag her away. They could mourn the loss of their headmaster later but now they had to hurry.
With her sister in hand Yang quickly pushed Chocolove out of the way and hurried to catch up to the rest of her team who were already outside the alley.
"Will going back to Vale accomplish anything for you though?" Lyserg asked coldly as the blond huntress passed him.
The quick steps of the entire team RWBY abruptly halted as those words entered their ears. With a single shift of their bodies they quickly turned around with frowns on their faces to face the green haired dowser.
"What did you just say!?" Yang demanded angrily, her eyes momentarily turned red as she unknowingly activated her semblance in the fit of rage.
"I said what I said and you most likely heard me correctly." Lyserg sighed. "What is you coming back to Vale going to accomplish?"
If Yang wasn't in a hurry then she would have already started a fight against that green haired brat. She didn't care that she would have most likely lost, getting one good hit and maybe breaking a bone or two would be satisfying enough for her.
"We will help the people who were hurt there!" Yang shouted instead. "Besides, it's our responsibility to be there when our school was basically destroyed!"
"And how will you help these people?" The green shaman asked with a raised eyebrow. "As far as I know none of you are trained medics that would do a better job at patching things up than a doctor would. None of you are knowledgeable about buildings and infrastructure to repair the school itself either."
"W-We, we..." Yang took a step back while stuttering. "We are going to find the people responsible for it and bring them to justice!"
"How will you do that then?" Lyserg asked again. "Beacon was destroyed at least a whole day ago and the people responsible for it might be anywhere on remnant at this point if they know what they're doing, not to mention that getting back to Vale would take you another couple of days for the culprit to run away."
"Then you will help us! You are the dowser after all." Weiss said with a sneer as Yang didn't have the answer.
"I will not." Lyserg said calmly and when he saw three fourth of team RWBY angrily reaching for their weapon he elaborated with his arms raised. "It's not that I don't want to but I'm simply incapable. I have as much idea who's responsible for the fall of Beacon as you all and without at least some information about the target I cannot lock onto them with my Over Soul."
"Y-You..." Yang stuttered a little not knowing what to do before looking up at the green haired dowser in anger.
"Then what do you say we do! Ignore what happened and be on our way without even mentioning what happened there?! We can't just pretend it didn't happen, we have to do something!"
Seeing that his friends were about to start a fight, Chocolove quickly moved to separate them in case one of them were to throw a punch.
"H-Hey. How about we calm down a little for now and think about what we can do later?" The ex-gangster asked. "Believe me I want to go back to Vale and see what happened as much as you guys but let's not make any hasty decisions yet, okay?"
"I-I..." Yang let out a breath shakily before calming down a little. "Yeah. I guess we should think about it for a while. I'm sorry for lashing out on you."
The blond brawler shifted awkwardly a little knowing that the way she had almost started a fight with one of her companions didn't help the situation at all. A quick glance at her teammates told her that her team thought so as well.
"It's alright." The black shaman said with a genuine smile. "Now, despite how devastating the fall of Beacon might be for all of you, I unfortunately have to agree with my green colored friend's decision to not go back to Vale"
"What?!" Screamed almost the entirety of team RWBY.
"Hear me out." Chocolove said quickly while raising his arms to show that he didn't mean harm. "I'm not saying that I don't want to return to Vale but I have to acknowledge how none of us would be of any actual use there."
"We've heard all of that already." Blake said with a frown and a scoff. "What's your excuse for refusing to help us then?"
"On top of that." Chocolove ignored the question to continue his statement instead. "While you might think that the fall of Beacon is of the most importance at the moment, I have to point out that me and Lyserg are both taking part in a tournament so important that it makes Beacon being destroyed look like a child dropping their ice-cream in comparison."
The moment team RWBY heard those words all of their eyes collectively widened in a sudden realization. They've been so focused on sneaking into the Shaman Fight to look for Ruby's and Yang's mother that they had forgotten that the price for winning it meant becoming a god.
"Of course." The Chocolove added with a light smile. "If you really want to go back then nobody here will be stopping you. Although in my opinion such a big decision should be left to the leader."
It was another good point that was brought up by their shaman companion. All of them had already started to move without even asking Ruby, their team leader, for a decision.
They shouldn't have done that.
Team leaders existed for a reason and making big decisions without asking them went wholly against it.
With some amount of shame for their previous actions, Weiss, Blake and Yang slowly turned towards the youngest member of their team who snapped out of her petrified state at some point during the conversation.
"So..." Yang drawled while looking at her younger sister. "What's the plan, sis?"
After a few silent seconds of hard contemplation and weighing the pros and cons of each choice, the young leader of team RWBY said with resolve in her voice.
"There's nothing we can do at Beacon anyway. We keep looking for Summer."
And cut!
The school blew up, Ozpin was send to another body and the tournament continues as if nothing happened. It's not like the Great Spirit is going to stop the Shaman Fight for some terrorist attack, right?
On a sidenote if you felt that the previous chapter and the first half of this chapter felt a little bit fillery or just worse it might have been because they kinda were.
Not because I made them like that on purpose but I already planned for the fall of Beacon to happen around here and by the time I was about to write it I realized that I made the first few chapters of the second round take place in the span of at most three days.
See ya later!