Here's the chapter!
Reviews:
Pedro Alonso Buby Huayanay Zamudio - Thanks for the review. I already have another Over Soul for Whitley planned so I probably won't be going with the metal gauntlets idea.
Kolomte'49 - Sadly my shortcomings as a writer made me unable to really write a good fall out of all of that. I will try to make it less like a one big culmination point and more like small snippets of character interaction throughout the next few arc of the story.
adislt - Thank you, and you will see.
NinjaFang1331, Gamelover41592 - Thanks for the reviews.
Jaune woke up to sounds of shouting, grumbles and items being thrown around for some reason.
He wanted to say that the scene around him was surprising or unusual but he just couldn't. After spending a couple of weeks with Nora, Ren, and Whitley, waking up to loud noises and chaos was considered quite normal for him.
The general discontent and anger he heard in their voices might have been something different but with the suspicion that his friends might have gone through the same weird dream he did, even that wasn't too abnormal.
A loud groan cut through all the noise as Jaune tried getting up to alert everyone that he wasn't sleeping anymore.
Everyone quietened down for a moment to look at him, some with worry others with impatience, but the momentary silence was almost instantly replaced by a loud noise of everybody rushing to help him up.
"You finally woke up!" Someone said as the small crowds made up of his friends tried to help him get up. Jaune couldn't quite tell who said that in the mess of people around him, it could have been Saphron but it could have been Ruby or even Nora just as well.
In the end the one to grab him and get him on his feet was Whitley who used his Over Soul to give him something to grab onto while standing up.
Only after being up and awake again did Jaune finally see that they were back at his sister's house. Their ordinary friends must have moved them here in worry after they collapsed because he sincerely doubted that Lilirara would have been kind enough to do that herself.
"Let me guess, you also had the dream of the previous competitors being killed by that Branwen bastard?" Whitley used the fact that the attention was at him to ask a question.
Jaune looked at the young Schnee with a small and tired smile to confirm his suspicions. He didn't need to be a genius to figure out that his friends had the very same dream he had while unconscious.
The frowns that appeared on both Ruby and Yang's faces didn't go unnoticed by him either, although he had no idea where did they come from. He knew that they were related to the Branwen clan from both Summer and Raven but he didn't know why they would react like that to something their ancestor of five hundred years ago had done.
He never did have the biggest attachments to the family bonds though so it might have just been him who was the weird one here.
"Which one were you?" Another voice cut through the room as Lyserg looked at him with narrowed eyes.
"Which one? I don't think I understand your question." Jaune looked at the green haired dowser in confusion. "Didn't we all have the same dream if we all know exactly what has happened in it?"
"We did have the same dream but everyone was connected to a different person while asleep. For example, Whitley and Chocolove felt everything the first ones to die felt and the moment the people they were connected to died they woke up." Lyserg answered patiently before narrowing his eyes slightly.
"Since you slept the longest out of us, I assume that you were connected to the leader?"
Jaune laughed wryly for a bit in response, Lyserg guessed it on the first try. Before he could answer out loud and confirm the dowser's assumptions however, he felt a sudden stinging sensation on his head as someone lightly hand chopped the back of his head.
"Whatever you want to talk about, do it later." Saphron said after retracting her hand back from the playful attack she had done. "Now you will explain to me exactly what had happened back there with the person who you all claimed to be looking for and afterwards I will make us some breakfast because dad's about to arrive."
"What?!" Jaune immediately shook upon hearing his sister's words. "Dad's coming already? How long was I asleep for?!"
Some of his friends shifted a little after hearing his questions but Saphron merely grinned a little in excitement. Jaune reuniting with the rest of family was a very important moment for her and she couldn't wait for it to happen.
"Yup! Clement will be here in at most an hour." Saphron nodded happily and Jaune couldn't help but to frown a little in guilt at how chipper she seemed. "Before that though, tell me what was going on with that Lilirara person and don't you dare lie to me, brother. I had to drag you through the entire Argus and I would appreciate to know what's going on."
No sound followed the demand of his sister, all of his friends were aware of his sister's reluctance to accept the spiritual and his failed attempts at convincing her. They all knew that if it was possible, he would want for his family to know and accept his life as a shaman.
Jaune was sure that if he were to ask any of his friends to help with his explanation then they would have easily assisted him. The only problem was that even that hardly guaranteed that his sister would believe him.
"She's a person who can interact and get help from different ghosts or spirits, a shaman just like me. My friends and I lost consciousness back then because she used her spirits to show us their deaths and convince us against competing in a certain secret tournament all of us here are a part of." Jaune answered quietly, trying to explain what was happening in as simple of a way as possible.
"I told you to not lie to me, Jaune." Saphron said with disappointment so clear in her voice that it made Jaune flinch with every word.
No one said anything for a few moments as everybody watched the blond shaman struggle under the sheer disappointment and lack of trust his older sister was showing him. Whitley looked ready to either leave, argue or attack at Jaune's behalf and the only thing that stopped him was a stern warning from Nicholas Schnee and Ren.
"I'm not lying." Jaune's whisper finally broke the silence. "All this time when I talked about ghosts and spirits, I was telling nothing but the truth. It was just you and the rest of our family that refused to believe me. I'm tired of you guys always writing my shaman powers off as disillusions, lies, and my imagination. Please Saph, do you really think that I would lie to you or continue any disillusions after an entire decade?"
A frown graced Saphron's face as she tightened her fists. Jaune didn't even want to try guessing what she was thinking about, although a pessimistic part of his brain imagined nothing but contempt that could be in his sister's head.
"If I may speak in your brother's favor." Weiss, of all people, decided to speak up and after Saphron turned her gaze towards her silently, she continued.
"I'm aware how difficult it is to believe what Jaune's saying and if it was a month ago then I would have agreed with you about our brothers and their friends being delusional but even if you don't believe that ghosts exist, there is something to their claims of supernatural. I would have probably been dead right now if your younger brother didn't have his unnatural powers."
Whitley winced a little in guilt at the reminder of the emotion clouded choice he made back during the first round of the tournament and everyone else simply watched in an uncomfortable silence.
"Prove it, then." Saphron demanded with an angry sigh. "If what you're saying is really true then show me that unnatural abilities that supposedly saved your life."
Everybody turned their eyes towards Jaune who could only shift from one leg to the other awkwardly. Summer soon flew up to him in her spirit ball mode with an expectant look on her face.
"Alright, if it really will make you believe me." Jaune said before haphazardly forming his Over Soul.
Rose petals started slowly falling from the ceiling, creating a bizarre sight of red rain inside of a building. It looked beautiful for every shaman in the house but non spiritually aware people didn't see the difference.
Jaune looked up in surprise after seeing the rose petals inside the building. Did his sister's home not have a roof? It would have been incredibly inconvenient during the winter or rain.
To his bigger surprise the ceiling was still there and his petals were simply phasing through it like it didn't exist.
"That is new." Lyserg said in small wonder, remembering his fight against the blond shaman when said blond had to destroy the entire ceiling in order for the petals to enter the building.
"So, are you going to just stand there and do nothing or are you going to show me your 'shaman' powers?" Saphron asked impatiently, making Jaune laugh a little in embarrassment as a response.
A little twirl of his Over Soul was enough for him to cover himself with the cloak and trigger the condition for his teleportation ability. All the shamans in the room saw a flurry of rose petals swiftly gathering around Jaune and around a single petal right behind Saphron, while all the ordinary people saw was Jaune disappearing all of a sudden with no explanation.
Not a single second after vanishing, Jaune reappeared in a whirlwind of petals right behind his older sister.
"Is this proof good enough?" Jaune asked while tapping Saphron's back with his finger to get her attention.
"Wow, you can teleport." Saphron answered with a roll of her eyes, completely unimpressed. "Sure, it's impressive and all but there exist many way more useful semblances or whatever their called. It's nothing too unusual."
Jaune sighed a little wistfully. The semblance excuse was always useful when they didn't want to explain their unnatural powers to others but it became quite an issue while trying to prove their powers to others.
"Oh, for spirits' sake." Whitley clicked his tongue in annoyance before quickly walking up to Jaune. "Semblance is something only Huntsmen have and Jaune doesn't even have his aura unlocked."
"What?" Saphron asked in surprise.
"Here, I will show you if it's what it takes for you to stop being dumb." Whitley said while reaching out for his saber to lightly scrape his friend.
Whitley's slash wasn't fast or hard to dodge, it wasn't even an attack, but Jaune didn't move out of its way. Small cuts and bruises were something he was so used to that he barely felt it anymore and if it had a chance of convincing his sister then he might as well stay in place.
A few droplets of blood hit the floor as Whitley's saber met Jaune's hand. The cut was shallow and barely noticeable, Jaune would have probably hurt himself more if he accidentally cut his finger on a kitchen knife during cooking, yet it was still enough to show that there was no Aura in him that could stop it.
Or at least to show that he wasn't using any Aura at the exact moment of the cut but if his sister was really going to deny his words so much then there was nothing he could do to convince her.
"B-But that's impossible." Saphron said shakily while wildly pointing her finger at them. "Y-You guys are trying to trick me! Jaune, quickly use your Aura to heal that wound, it shouldn't be too difficult for you!"
Jaune sighed in response but before he could answer his sister the creaking of the doors made him turn around to see who had entered.
"I came back at the wrong time, didn't I?" Terra asked from the doors with a bag full of food in one of her arms and her child in the other. "Also, Adrian's acting weird again, Saph. Maybe we really should go to the doctor to see if there's something wrong with him."
"Is he doing that again? I thought it became better after the last time." Saphron said with worry filling her voice while looking at her son.
Adrian though didn't seem to notice his mothers' worry towards him and was instead looking up in wonder while wildly swinging his arms as if trying to catch something. If he was asleep then everyone would just assume that he had a weird dream or a nightmare but he was wholly awake now.
"He looks fine to me." Ren said calmly and every shaman in the room agreed.
The newborn wasn't swinging his arms around without any reason. With every clumsy swing he appeared to be trying to catch the rose petals that Jaune's Over Soul created. Sure, it might have been a little silly since the petals always passed through the human body but a child as young as Adrian might have not made that connection.
It was not until they remembered that those petals weren't supposed to be seen by ordinary people that the shamans and the spirits in the room realized everyone else's confusion.
"He is-" Jaune started murmuring but was stopped and had to wince because of a loud squeal from his guardian spirit who broke off their Over Soul the moment she noticed Adrian interacting with the rose petals.
"He's spiritually aware!" Summer shouted before rushing off to gush over the young child.
"Yeah, thanks for that Summer." Jaune said through a wince. "I really enjoy loud and high-pitched screams going off right next to my ears. I feel as if my ears are going to die."
The only answer he got from his guardian spirit was a loud sorry as she became too focused on the young baby. Her precious daughters were right over there yet she still focused just as much attention on gushing over a different people's child, if Ruby and Yang could see her then for sure they would have felt flabbergasted.
"Did you say something?" Saphron asked after hearing Jaune's complaints at his guardian spirit.
"Not much, it's just that your son is spiritually aware as well." Jaune pointed at the newborn. "Look, now that I stopped using my Over Soul, he should go back to normal as there are no more petals falling from the sky."
"Falling from the sky?" Saphron looked at him with a conflicted expression on her face. On the one hand she still wanted to deny her brother's claims of the supernatural but on the other now that those matters involved her son and she had seen some proof of its existence it became really tempting to ask her younger brother for help regarding her own child.
Jaune had seventeen years of experience in dealing with those types of things and they were family despite not seeing each other for ten or so years, of course he would help her, right?
A loud rumble in her wife's stomach interrupted Saphron from asking anything more.
"It's cool and all but can we please get to making breakfast already? I haven't eaten anything since you guys came back all battered and bruised yesterday and I'm starving." Terra said before going to the kitchen to make herself and the rest something to eat.
"Yes, of course. Now that you mention it; it is a good time for breakfast." Saphron quickly nodded before following her wife and taking all the guests with her.
...
A short while later...
...
The atmosphere on the table in the Cotta-Arc household was weird.
It wasn't uncomfortable, or at least it wasn't as terribly uncomfortable as it was back in the pancake house yesterday, but there clearly was some unspoken tension in the room as everybody mostly focused on eating.
Some of them like the Schnee siblings or Ren and Nora were in their own world filled with some bickering and trying to make sure that Nora didn't devour the entire supplies of eggs, milk and flour by eating pancakes alone.
Jaune winced as he saw his orange haired friend finish her fifth plate filled with pancakes before asking for more. He really pitied his sister who would have to buy quite a lot of cooking supplies later.
Speaking of his sister, Saphron appeared to be the most shaken by their previous conversation. She might have answered every question anyone asked her and even held a few conversations with Pyrrha or anyone who tried to talk to her but Jaune could clearly see how hollow her eyes looked.
He couldn't imagine what emotions were going through her head. Doubt and worry were probably a given but aside from that it was all a mystery to him.
A cruel part of his brain was telling Jaune that his sister was for sure feeling regret and shame at her prior behavior towards him but he refused to acknowledge that. There was already enough conflict in his family and he wasn't about to add more to that.
No matter what these emotions were, they appeared quite silly when compared to all the gushing Summer and her daughters were directing at the small Adrian she held in her hands. Although, Summer might have been focused more on her daughters than on Adrian at the moment.
A small chuckle escaped Jaune as he took the bizarre situation that was this entire table in.
Maybe it wasn't as bad as he feared it would have been.
"Did something funny happen and I didn't notice? I don't remember telling any jokes." Chocolove asked from the other side of the table.
"Nah, I just find this moment to be endearing." Jaune answered dismissively before leaning on his arm a little. "You still didn't tell me exactly how you became a shaman. The last time I saw you, Summer almost scared you to death by acting really creepy."
"Well you see, it's a funny story actually-" The comedic shaman started to tell his story only to be quickly cut off by a loud fake cough made by Lyserg to get their attention.
Every shaman at the table immediately quietened down and turned towards the green haired dowser. All of them knew what was the topic Lyserg wanted to breach by getting their attention.
"I think we are ignoring a really important issue right now." Lyserg said plainly. "Can we please go back to our conversation about the dream? I believe that it's a bit more relevant to us than Jaune's family life."
When the words resounded through the room even those of them who weren't shamans started to pay attention.
"What is there to talk about? The competitors of the previous Shaman Fight were slaughtered by the judge of the tournament using that damned familiar fire spirit that can burn ghosts. They were lucky to become spirits after a confrontation with that monster." Whitley scoffed.
"Supposedly something similar is about to happen to us if we are to continue with the tournament." Ren added with a grave tone.
The wind shaman's words put all of the not spiritually aware people at the table into a small frenzy as every one of them started to worry about their loved ones who were participating in that secret tournament.
"Jaune, is what you guys are saying for real!?" Saphron asked in panic. She just reunited with her long lost brother and, even though they still weren't on the best of terms, she didn't want to lose him. "If that's the risk then quickly give up and come back to live with the rest of our family! Dad will kill you if he hears that you are stupidly risking your life like that!"
Jaune winced the moment his dad was mentioned. It was around the time Saphron said that he would arrive so the older Arc could enter this room and surprise him at any moment.
"Yeah, no joke." Chocolove leaned back on his chair with a thoughtful expression. "If that's what awaits us at the end of this round then I will gladly resign from the tournament. Being a shaman king is great and all but it's not worth losing your life for it. Come on, are you guys with me?"
The answers to Chocolove's question were unanimous.
"No."
"I'm not."
"Nope."
"I will continue with the tournament."
Chocolove and all the non-shamans were flabbergasted at their answers. None of them could imagine a reason good enough for the shamans to march into a certain death like that.
"But why?!" Chocolove asked loudly.
"Because nothing like that is going to happen to us." Ren answered with a tone as grave and morbid as the one he used earlier. "The person who did that is Hao and he isn't a judge of the tournament anymore. Though how he survived five hundred years is beyond me."
Chocolove blinked a couple of times in confusion.
"Okay, who is this Hao person and how are you so certain that we aren't going to encounter him ourselves?"
Saphron, and Summer's daughters quickly nodded in agreement with Chocolove's question before leaning forward in curiosity while awaiting the answer. Ruby and Yang seemed to be even more interested than usually.
"Oh, we are going to meet him alright. The only thing we said was that he isn't a judge anymore, he's actually one of the competitors like us." Whitley answered with a shake of his head.
"If he's a competitor then how are you insisting on continuing?!" Chocolove quickly stood up as his emotions got the better of him. "There's no point in fighting against someone like when it's certain that he will become the next shaman king!"
"It's precisely because he is certain to become the shaman king that we want to continue to fight." Jaune sighed tiredly. "Hao is not a good guy. If a person like him were to attain the power of the Great Spirit without any issues then the Remnant might as well be destroyed. We might not be able to defeat him right now but with every fight or struggle we are slowly getting stronger and closer to having a chance at winning. In the end we might still end up being too weak but even then we at least will be able to tell that we tried."
No one added anything to that as everybody focused on steeling themselves mentally and wondering whether it was really wise to leave such a daunting task to the few of them when they barely could be considered as shamans when compared to the big powers in the tournament.
"Jaune..." Saphron gritted her teeth and looked down on herself.
"That's great and all but we still have no idea where to even look for the Tribes Village." Chocolove relented with a sigh.
Groans escaped almost all of them as they remembered that Lilirara didn't quite give them the direction they came here to get in the first place and merely threw them into a hellish dream of the previous shamans' last moments.
"If you want I can try to convince the teacher to at least share some knowledge with you." Pyrrha offered politely and quietly, feeling guilty over how her teacher had treated the few people she could easily call her friends if only she had more time to spend with them earlier.
"You don't need to." Jaune waved his hand lazily. "I doubt that you would be able to convince her anyway. She looked quite determined not to tell us anything and it's not like we didn't learn anything from that dream. At the very least we have some clues on the village's location now."
Pyrrha whimpered a little in embarrassment while all the shamans at the table looked towards Jaune in surprise.
"What do you mean by that?" Lyserg asked in a demanding tone.
"We know that the Tribes Village is somewhere at the coast with a huge desert in Mistral, if you ask me that is quite a useful clue." Jaune tilted his head a little in confusion. "Did you not notice where the entire dream was taking place?"
All of his friends looked at Jaune with their eyes wide open.
"No we in fact did not notice that, on the account that we were too busy being burned to death by a giant flame spirit!" Whitley said incredulously and the rest of them quickly nodded.
"A coast bordering a huge desert, huh?" Terra wondered for a few seconds. "It would probably be the east coast then. You guys are on the wrong side of Mistral right now, better hurry up with getting there."
Jaune and his friends smiled at the new information they had about the location of the Tribes Village. They finally had an idea on how to get to their goal that didn't involve asking a third party for help.
"Terra..." Saphron hissed at her wife.
"Don't be like that, Saph. You heard how important their journey is yourself. Do you really believe that they would stay here for long when the fate of the entire Remnant is possibly at stake?" Terra rolled her eyes.
A loud and rapid knocking came from the entrance before Saphron could answer. The Arc siblings immediately stiffened, they knew exactly who it was and while one of them shook in nervousness the other shook in excitement.
"I'm coming!" Saphron shouted before standing up from the table and rushing towards the door.
While the people at the table couldn't really see what was happening at the entrance of the building since it was being obstructed by Saphron and the doors, they still could hear everything quite easily.
The creaking sound of the doors being opened was followed by an impatient yet mature voice of the Arc family patriarch. It was clear that the man was holding himself from instantly rushing in and catching his son.
After a rather brief conversation that was still hurried by the older Arc, Saphron finally made a way for her father to easily enter the building.
Clement Arc was a man well into his forties or maybe even fifties, Jaune didn't quite remember his father's age too well, his physique was wide and well built but still on the leaner side than some people. It was the body of an experienced and healthy huntsman, yet the moment Jaune saw it he couldn't help but frown a little at the state his father was in.
Jaune's father was weakened and unkempt when compared to the last time the blond shaman saw him. His face sported a new obviously, uncared for beard and a couple new scars that Jaune didn't remember him having. The new scars weren't exclusively kept to the face either, neck, arms, or any visible part of skin on Clement's body donned new badly healed injuries.
Guilt swelled in Jaune's stomach. It was because of him, his father looked so much worse than he remembered solely because he had run away from his home back when he was a young child. Whether it was because Clement kept restlessly looking for him in hopes of reuniting the family or if it was because the man turned to hunting Grimm to keep his mind occupied and relieve the tension, it didn't matter when both of these reasons were directly related to him running away.
It felt terrible to face the consequences of his actions after so many years.
"J-Jaune..." A tear fell from Clement's face as a wide relieved smile appeared on it.
Unlike Saphron and Ruby who rushed at him the moment they saw him however Clement didn't run or dash to him, instead the man walked towards the table with slow and shaky steps, not daring to look away from him for even a single second as if being afraid that he would disappear if not being constantly observed.
Summer and her daughters that stood between them slowly and gracefully moved out of the way, not daring to get in between of this reunion.
"H-Hey dad." Jaune said shakily before clumsily standing up to greet his father.
Before he could extend his hand in greeting however, Jaune was quickly pulled into a tight hug that was impossible to break out of. Streams of tears hit Jaune's shoulders as Clement 's emotions leaked out completely and he started weeping.
"I came for a visit, dad." Jaune whispered while returning the hug.
"Thank you." Clement whispered in response before tightening his hug even further. "Thank you so much."
Clement kept repeating his gratitude as Jaune tried his very best to calm the old huntsman down a little. Nobody in the room outside of them dared to make a sound, all of them simply watched the scene in silence.
"Ohh, this is so heartwarming, Renny!" The silence was broken by Nora who awed with her eyes slightly wet from the scene.
"We have more guests, I see?" Clement said after finally releasing his hug before coughing a little in embarrassment. "I apologize that you had to witness such a sight from this old man, I was so focused on my lost child that I didn't notice all of you. Are you all my son's friends?"
"You bet it, Jauney's dad!" Nora answered for all of them with a grin and thumbs up. "We all are like the closest and bestest of friends here and Jaune's our great ghostly leader!"
"Ghostly leader?" Clement asked in confusion.
"Please ignore her dad." Jaune shook his head ignoring a loud 'hey' from his orange haired friend. "Nora is kinda eccentric. It's quite hard to keep up with all of her bizarre ideas."
"I will keep that in mind." Clement gently ruffled Jaune's head in response.
With Clement here and everything somewhat resolved they could return to their breakfast with the new guest, although before that happened a small storm of rose petals suddenly rushed towards them.
"So you are Jaune's dad?" Ruby asked a bit too loudly after stopping right before him and awkwardly extending her hand forward. "Nice to meet you! I heard that you are a huntsman, can you tell us some of your amazing stories?"
Clement looked at his son questioningly and the only answer he received was a shrug.
"I wouldn't mind telling you about some of my missions but looking at you all I think that it wouldn't be anything too impressive compared to what you guys have been through." Clement coughed. "Also before I do any of that, I would like to spend some time with my son first. I haven't seen him in years. How about tomorrow or the day after?"
Guilt once again washed over Jaune, they likely wouldn't be in Argus by that time. He couldn't believe that he might end up running away from his father again after just a single day of reunion.
"Ugh..." Ruby started awkwardly but after seeing Jaune subtly shaking his head at her in fear, she quickly yelped and decided to omit the truth. "Yeah, I won't mind waiting for a day or two. The family is always the most important."
"I'm glad that you understood." Clement smiled kindly before lightly pushing the back of his son. "Now, let's get to breakfast. I haven't eaten anything since I heard from Saphron that my son's back."
"You really were in a hurry to get here, huh?" Jaune gulped loudly.
"Of course! Do you know how scared I was that you would run away once more before I get a chance to see you? There's no way I could live with myself after missing out on seeing you again." Clement grinned widely.
"Yeah, I can imagine."
Jaune didn't dare to maintain eye contact with his father for much longer.
...
On the other side of Argus...
...
Lilirara looked out the window of her house and watched the crowds of people traversing through the port city in hopes of finding something. It unnerved her quite a lot how many of those people were the visitors and shamans at that.
No matter how much she tried to think about it, she could never understand why so many people would be willing to throw away their lives because of a single tournament. The prize of becoming a god, if it was really a prize and not just some bait to lure all the shamans to participate in the butchering, was nowhere near worth dying for.
What was the use of a promise of unlimited power if you were going to die while trying to get it anyway?
She did notice a few shamans who actually had a chance at actually fighting against those devilish judges however, they were only a few of them and she hadn't seen them do anything to prove their power yet but they were there.
Sadly, the vast majority of shamans arriving in Argus were even worse than those brats who helped Maria. Weaklings like them were going to be slaughtered, if not by the judges after finding the Tribes Village then by other fools who believed that there's a point to that tournament.
At the very least she hoped that her presentation of what happened back in the day five hundred years ago would convince those kids against continuing with that damned tournament.
A smirk appeared on her face as she thought of the kids that Pyrrha brought to her. They probably were going to be scared for the rest of their lives from simply witnessing the Spirit of Fire manifesting its Over Soul form.
Good, it was better to be traumatized for the rest of their lives than dying and having your soul consumed by the fire.
"Uhm, Lili?" A familiar voice called out to her from behind.
"What is it, Jura?" Lilirara didn't need to turn around to know who it was. After living her entire life being taken care of by the spirits of five great warriors, she could recognize each of them simply by their voice.
Jura Callows shifted a little in his spirit ball form. Despite being the elected leader of all five of the spirits responsible for taking care of Lilirara, he was probably the least comfortable with talking to the shaman woman.
"Don't you think that you were a little too hard on those kids from yesterday? I know that you don't want them to meet the same fate as me and my friends had, but making them live out our deaths was a bit cruel." Jura asked.
"You are underestimating those brats." Lilirara sighed at her spirit's question. "They traveled through the entire Mistral to get here in a couple weeks, if we were to try using a different method to convince them then we only would have ended up making them more determined to stop the tribes."
The spirit fell quiet for a moment and joined Lilirara with the crowd watching. Seeing so many shamans gathered in one place and no fights happening was truly an unusual experience.
"Will you tell some other shamans where the village is?" Jura asked curiously while observing the particularly stronger shamans in the crowd.
"Maybe one or two of the stronger ones." Lilirara admitted with a short nod. "Those at least will have a chance at surviving the fight against the members of the tribes."
During their short exchange of words, neither Lilirara nor Jura noticed a young long haired boy with freckles on his face looking at them from the crowds with an eerie grin that looked almost cruel.
"I have to say though, some of those shamans seem truly frightening." Jura remarked as he observed the crowds. "If we had to compete against people of this caliber during the previous Shaman Fight then we likely wouldn't have even made it to the second round."
"Hm." Lilirara hummed in acknowledgment while looking out the window only to stiffen after seeing familiar spiritual flames appearing around someone in the corner of her eye.
The temperature suddenly rose to an unbearable level and nearly every shaman in the crowd started to run away in fear of being engulfed in the flames that started appearing out of nowhere.
"What!?" Lilirara shouted while quickly standing up in panic. "That spirit shouldn't be here! Jura, quickly gather everyone we might end up dead after this morning!"
Lilirara's command was heard by nobody as Jura was already looking for every one of his friends before she even asked for anything. They were likely about to die and there wasn't any time to waste on waiting for orders.
With the spirits in the process of gathering, Lilirara rushed down the door to face the shaman with the Spirit of Fire. The moment she opened the door however, she had to wince as a wave of scorching heat pushed her back a little.
"Who are you!? How do you have this spirit!?" She asked the young boy.
"You've been practically raised by those five guys yet you don't know who I am? I'm almost offended, Lili." The boy chuckled lightly before narrowing his eyes at the area right behind Lilirara where her five spirits just arrived.
Lilirara took a shaky step back. It was impossible, five centuries have passed, there was no way the Branwen judge who killed her guardians could have survived for that long.
"Y-You-" Lilirara choked in fear as the flame giant that was Spirit of Fire finally formed from these spiritual flames that scared everyone.
The freckled boy, despite looking young and frail, felt as if he was the biggest threat in the world. All the shamans could only look in fear from afar and none dared to intervene, they all knew that they would die the moment they tried.
"Don't worry, I will make sure that you and your ghosts are completely erased out of existence so there won't be much pain to be felt." The boy said with a terrifying grin before pointing his finger forward to order the Spirit of Fire to attack. "You shouldn't have learned about the location of Tribes Village, now I have to eliminate you to get rid of all the weaklings from the tournament."
Lilirara didn't wait at all before creating her Over Soul with the wooden dolls and sending them at the flame giant. In the end they might not have amounted to much when fighting against a shaman of that power but there was no way she would die without a fight.
...
In the Cotta-Arc household...
...
The clicking of tableware and sound of chewing were the only sounds that could be heard through the rapid and loud conversation between Jaune and his dad at the table as everyone focused solely on watching the reunion between the Arc family.
Focusing entirely on your family while having guests might have been not the most amiable thing to do but Clement Arc didn't care. The only thing that mattered to the old Arc at the moment was his son and he wouldn't mind spending an entire day talking to him while ignoring everything else.
Jaune seemed to be of similar opinion as the moment he started a conversation with his father, the rest of the world seemed to disappear.
Sure, talking to Clement might have been a bit awkward at first considering that he hadn't seen the man for ten whole years but they quickly found common topics in their adventures throughout the world.
At the beginning of their talk, Jaune was a little bit confused at the topics his father seemed to want to talk about. Clement didn't see him for so long and the thing he wanted to talk about were mundane topics like what he was up to?
That seemed strange.
Quite quickly though, Jaune realized why his father was choosing topics like those. The man was afraid that if he were to do something wrong, he would once again run away with next to no warning.
Jaune wasn't sure from where his dad got that idea but it might have something to do with him. Maybe the fact that he refused to keep eye contact gave away that he would likely try to run away with his friends and continue on his quest to the Tribes Village.
"I can't believe you've been through so much and none of us knew about it." Clement said while stretching his back as it became stiff from all the sitting and doing nothing but talking. "You could have called us for help, you know? I'm sure that any one of us would have gladly helped you and you wouldn't have to ask random strangers for directions and other aids. What if they used that trust you gave them to hurt you in some way?"
Jaune smiled lightly in response. His father had absolutely no idea about the supernatural world and he would likely be even harder to convince of it then Saphron was, therefore Jaune quietly omitted that those kind strangers often were kind to him because they were already dead and couldn't really hurt him.
"I'm sure I would be fine even if that happened, dad." Jaune rolled his eyes a little. "I may not look like it but I've grown strong during my journeys. Right now even professional huntsmen wouldn't be able to easily defeat me."
Mostly because they wouldn't be able to detect or counter his Over Soul but that was besides the point.
"Overconfidence is never a good thing, Jaune." Clement said with a short laugh before using his hand as a provisional fan. "Is it just me or did it suddenly become really hot in here?"
A confused frown appeared on Jaune and the rest of shamans in the room. They also noticed that something was wrong with the temperature as despite it being relatively warm during the day it still shouldn't be so hot as it was now.
Muffled screams of terror entered their ears as people form the other side of Argus ran away from something.
All of them turned towards the window to see what was going on only to witness a giant made out of flames rampaging in the distance on the other side of Argus. The moment those of them who had the experience of dealing with Hao saw that, their blood ran cold.
How was it possible that monster was here?
"What is going on?" Clement asked with a weary tone, probably assuming some Grimm or rogue huntsman attack. From his perspective the only thing that happened was a sudden raise in temperature and people screaming for some reason.
"We have to go." Jaune said through his gritted teeth before nodding toward all of his shamans friends. "You guys stay here, it's too dangerous for ordinary people."
While Clement was left wondering what his son meant by calling them ordinary people, all the others nodded slowly as if afraid that something threatening could happen. The young girl that asked him about any huntsman stories he had even reached for her weapon.
During the single moment of his father's confusion, Jaune already rushed towards the door and almost left the building only to be stopped at the very last moment when he was grabbed by his arm.
"Jaune, what are you doing?" Clement asked shakily, afraid that his son would abandon him again.
"Dad..." Jaune tightened his fist before pulling with all of his strength to break his father's grip. "I have to go, something really serious is happening and if I stay here doing nothing many people may die."
Clement's hand shook a little from the recoil and he gritted his teeth before grabbing the weapon he had on his belt and throwing it towards Jaune.
"Catch."
Jaune did as he was told and looked at his father questioningly, hoping that the man would elaborate.
"You are going out there to save lives, right?" Clement asked before continuing after receiving a nod from his son. "I might not know what is happening or why you believe that we should go out there to help but I'm going to trust you. This sword in your hands is called Crocea Mors, Arc family used it for generation and it's a sword that saved countless of lives."
"W-Why?" Jaune asked while looking at the heirloom in his arms.
"Use it well." Clement answered simply before sitting down and allowing his son to go.
And cut!
You know the more I write the more I fell like I have no idea how to write a well made emotional scene. I just start writing them and then right after I begin or somewhere in the middle of it go "Okay, now what's next?".
I hope it wasn't as bad.
See ya later!