Here's the chapter!
A bit later than usually (For some of you it probably isn't Friday anymore) because I had no internet for two last days and only just now I got it back.
Reviews:
Reader - I actually already used Tock in one of the chapters. (The Tyrian fight) As for general Laguna and others, I'm not sure if there will be a chance to. I might be able to fit them somewhere in the third round of the tournament as the spirits of some throw away oponnents in the tournament.
Guest - Just you wait buddy.
Gamelover41592 - Thanks.
X3runner - Nah, not spiritually aware people see Jaune using his Over Soul as just him disappearing in a really bizarre fasion.
Running towards the burning giant that was Hao's guardian spirit only made the monster even more imposing. The spirit easily towered over every building in the area around it and there probably wasn't a single shaman in Argus who wasn't aware of the giant spirit.
Most of the shamans however chose to run away from the giant rather than go towards it, however.
It was the only logical thing to do after all.
What sane person would willingly stay close to a being like that, let alone charge at it? Being wary of the fire was a natural human instinct that everyone had so a burning giant of spiritual flames suddenly appearing in the middle of a rundown street would obviously make anyone terrified.
Jaune grunted as he and his friends pushed past another group of shamans who chose to make a smart decision and were running away from whatever Hao was doing. Unsurprisingly they had yet to see anyone moving in the same direction as they were.
Apparently they were the only ones mad enough to not run away from Hao's spirit.
"Any plans for taking down Hao, leader?" Ren asked as his dagger had already been enveloped with an Over Soul.
"We go there and do our best to move as many people as possible out of harm's way, while trying to get Hao's attention off the person he decided to kill this time." Jaune grumbled while ignoring being called a leader once again, there were more important things to worry about than that at the moment.
All of them, or at least every one of them who met Hao, knew very well that they wouldn't stand a chance against the frightening shaman in a fair fight. The most they could hope to do was distract the powerful shaman for long enough to save his prey and maybe wait until some real strong shamans would notice what was happening and try to take on Hao.
Jaune already could think of at least an entire shaman team who would be willing to battle the long haired shaman.
Where are the X-Laws when you need them? Jaune thought to himself angrily.
While he didn't know if the Iron Maiden Jeanne could actually defeat Hao, he was pretty sure that she would have a higher chance than any of them would. With the rest of X-Laws to help, she might have even managed to save all of the people in the area.
Unfortunately Jaune didn't have the time to complain about the lack of powerful shamans in Argus as he and his friends had already arrived at the scene of carnage that was Hao's execution of someone.
"Lilirara!" Jaune gasped upon seeing the half charred person that was being casually held by the flame spirit.
He should have expected that she was Hao's target in this city. The monster probably came to Argus solely to finish off the five shaman warriors he somehow killed during the previous Shaman Fight.
"Oh? I didn't expect you four to be here." Hao said playfully while looking at them and childishly kicking his legs from the shoulder of the fire spirit. "Did you have any business to do with little Lili here? If so then I'm sorry to tell you that but I don't think she will be able to humor you anymore."
Jaune gritted his teeth and instead of hopelessly looking at the dying Lilirara, he looked around in hopes of at least finding the wooden dolls that were mediums of her five spirits.
It didn't take long for him to find them and realize what had happened before they arrived. One small pile of ashes here, another charcoal black piece of wood there, and a badly hurt spirit of an old shaman warrior rushing towards them didn't leave them much to wonder about what was going on.
"Run away, kids! You don't stand a chance here!" The wounded spirit shouted while flying towards them.
Before Jaune could decline or comply however, a small crystal attached to a long wire flew past his head and aimed directly at Hao, taking away their only chance to decide.
"Die you monster!" Lyserg screamed hoarsely as his pendulum flew at the face of the person he hated the most in this world.
In response to the crystal pendulum flying directly at him, Hao didn't even react. He didn't turn his head nor tried to dodge out of the way, the only thing that happened was a small whirlwind of fire appearing right beside him and effortlessly stopping an attack that could pierce through ordinary steel as if it was nothing.
"Crud!" Jaune cursed upon seeing the pendulum stopped in place before jumping away with all the might he had in his legs. "Spread out, quickly!"
None of his friends doubted the blond shaman for even a second and with a brief nods they quickly followed the order. Sure they might be dividing their strength by doing that but even if they were to combine all of their power in one they still likely wouldn't be able to match Hao straight on.
Almost insultingly yet certainly not unexpectedly, Hao didn't look particularly bothered by the obvious declaration of a fight from them. Instead, he only looked at them with a bored expression and lazily waved his hand to command the fire spirit to take care of them.
After receiving the order, flame spirit threw Lilirara away like an old toy that nobody wanted and took a step forward before starting to swing widely with an almost disinterested manner.
The swing wasn't fast, fierce or even strong. It was clear that Hao wasn't bothered to take them seriously and was only toying with them to indulge in their hopes at accomplishing something.
Good, it meant that they could maybe leave this fight alive and with at least a single spirit saved as well.
The scorched body of Lilirara looked way too mutilated for her to be alive and the lack of her spirit nearby could mean only one thing. Hopefully they would be able to save the warrior shaman spirit instead.
A giant wall of spiritual metal spikes erupted from the ground as Whitley tried to block the slow swing from the flame spirit.
It didn't last long but it did manage to stop the arm of the Spirit of Fire for a second or two which allowed Jaune and Ren who were on the arm's path to easily move out of the way.
"I see you guys have gotten a little bit stronger since the last time I saw you." Hao raised his eyebrow while looking at the remnants of the melted steel wall that stopped his spirit for a short moment.
Whitley grunted in anger before jumping back. If they truly became stronger and their best attempts at blocking Hao's attack only lasted a second or two then it only punctuated how weak they were compared to the really strong shamans.
Before Hao could order his fire spirit anything once more, a small volley of wind arrows was fired at him.
The fire spirit lazily raised his hand to block the barrage of arrows, treating them less like an attack and more like annoying rays of sun.
These arrows weren't the strongest Ren could fire and even if they were then the only thing that would have changed were the effects the arrows had on them. The most that the wind shaman hoped to accomplish with that was a few seconds of a brief distraction.
Seeing the chance given to him by his friend, Jaune used his Over Soul to appear directly next to the powerful shaman and swung at him with all his might.
"Silver Arc." Jaune grunted as the blade of his halberd glowed silver with power.
It was his strongest attack as of yet, the arc of silver that would have formed out of that swing would have been strong enough to cut through buildings and Hao was about to take its entire power head on. With the attack being thrown so close, any other shaman would have tried to dodge it even if they were capable of blocking it.
Hao merely raised his hand and with some fire around it that would protect him from getting any unnecessary scratches, he caught the halberd without any troubles.
The fire and Hao's hand pushed at Jaune's Over Soul relentlessly and no matter how much the blond tried to break out of Hao's grip, nothing was happening. In the end with only some more strength put into his hand and some concentrated fire, Hao effortlessly broke Jaune's Over Soul.
"You know, despite my years of knowledge I still have no idea what you are hoping to accomplish here." Hao said with a bored tone before lightly throwing Jaune off the Spirit of Fire.
Dozens of different attacks were being thrown at Hao the entire time and in the chaos of battle only Ren was able to use his Over Soul to help Jaune to survive the fall.
As Jaune hit the ground, his wooden staff that he always used for Over Soul landed somewhere under fire spirit's feet. There was no way he could go there and get it back to reform his Over Soul.
"Jaune! Are you alright!?" Summer shouted in concern while watching the blond shaman slowly get up from the ground. Thankfully Hao didn't burn her when he broke through their Over Soul.
"Could have been better." Jaune groaned in response while quietly watching the medium he always used for Over Soul lying far away from him. "Do you have any idea how to fight a spirit like that without an Over Soul? My shaman knowledge is coming a bit short here."
Summer turned towards the flame giant, the figure of that creature still as imposing as ever, and could only sigh in worry as the unending barrage of wind arrows, steel spikes and pendulum's wire didn't seem to have any effect on that monster.
"I'm as short on ideas as you are." Summer admitted sadly. "If any huntsman had to deal with a monster like this when they were alive then they would have been dubbed the hero of Remnant the moment they tried to fight."
Yeah, if huntsmen could deal with creatures like these then the gods wouldn't have been chosen from among shamans.
Another giant wall of steel spikes broke down under the Spirit of Fire's arms as Hao chuckled at the whole fight in an almost childlike manner. They were nothing more than a way to pass the time for the powerful shaman.
"Hey, kid!" A voice called out to Jaune from behind. "You alright!?"
When Jaune turned around to check who called out to him he saw the single wounded spirit of Lilirara's that survived until now.
Jaune had to hold himself back from chuckling self pityingly at the ghost's worry. Almost a third of him was burned by the fire spirit and it was clear that the man was far from being in a good state yet he still was worried for them.
"Run away." Jaune said.
"What?" The wounded spirit asked in confusion at Jaune's order.
"Look for the Cotta-Arc family household, it's at the other side of Argus and Lilirara's student should still be there so you will know that you are there when you find her." Jaune tilted his head backwards. "We only came here to try saving whoever Hao decided to kill this time and you are the only one that's left so don't worry about us and go there. We will stall him for long enough for you to go there and hide."
"But what about you guys?!" The ghost asked. "You can't convince me that you will be fine when fighting a person like that! You will die here!"
The wounded ghost was probably right and both of them knew it, especially since he had already died at the hands of the very same person before so he more or less knew his power. To be fair it didn't take a genius to notice how outclassed they were here.
"Don't worry." Jaune glanced at the sword hanging off his belt. "We still have a few tricks up our sleeves."
The wounded ghost looked conflicted. It was clear that he didn't mind doing everything except leaving them alone to fight a monster like Hao, not that Jaune could blame him since he was basically asking the ghost to go to safety instead of fighting.
"Alright." The ghost said after a few seconds of hard thinking. "But you kids have to do everything to survive, understand?"
Jaune simply nodded in response and didn't bother to look if the wounded spirit was really flying away. His eyes were entirely focused on the giant flame spirit they were fighting.
"Are you ready to test out a new medium for our Over Soul, Summer?" Jaune asked with a small shaky grin while grabbing Crocea Mors with one hand and Summer in the other. It would be the first time he would be trying to use a different medium for his Over Soul and it's during a fight against a monster like Hao on top of that, it was hard not to feel nervous about it.
"I don't think we have a choice to be not ready, Jaune." Summer answered.
No, they didn't. Based on how Hao was throwing all of his friends around as if they were nothing, if he and Summer stood by and did nothing their fight, if whatever was happening could be called that, would end in a matter of seconds.
With his teeth gritted and muscles tensed, Jaune brought his guardian spirit and the sword of his father together.
"Summer! Over Soul to the Crocea Mors!" Jaune shouted as Summer began merging with the still sealed sword in his hand.
Air around them swirled and shook as Furyoku desperately tried to form into something in Jaune's hands. The process of forming an Over Soul seemed harder than any time before, whenever the spiritual energy was about to take a stable form it would quickly turn into formless mess right at the very end before repeating the process.
It was almost as if there was no form or property that his Furyoku could decide on.
In a sense they were quite lucky that their opponent was Hao because if any other shaman were to see his struggles then they wouldn't have wasted a single second before instantly taking the opportunity to attack. As it was the only thing Hao did after noticing what was happening was glance at them with passing curiosity and decide to leave them alone.
Hao probably believed that even with a new Over Soul there was no feasible way he could be defeated by them.
To be honest, Hao was likely right.
It didn't mean that they couldn't distract him a little to buy more time for the wounded spirit to hide or a more powerful shaman to arrive and help them, though. If there was only a few seconds to be gained from a new Over Soul then it was more than worth it.
After a few long seconds of a desperate struggle to form something with his Furyoku, Jaune actually managed to create a new Over Soul as a blinding shine of silver light exploded from the Crocea Mors in a wide angle.
Jaune found standing difficult as a now giant silver shield that had Crocea Mors's sheath in its core appeared in his hand with the explosion. Somehow at some point during the Over Soul's creation the scabbard of the old sword expanded to form a small shield itself.
Of course a flashy scene like that didn't go unnoticed by the shamans in battle. Almost all of his friends stopped their assaults to look at his new Over Soul in a slight awe and even Hao once again glanced at him with some curiosity.
That curiosity however quickly turned into a look that resembled something more similar to disappointment.
"Really that's all?" Hao asked and his voice sounded underwhelmed. "You took all this time to create a new Over Soul, you even used a new medium for that, and the only thing you have to show for that is some big silver shield that's somehow weaker than your previous weapon? If I expected something from you, I would be disappointed."
"W-Wha-?" Jaune stuttered only to stop himself and start to dodge the moment he saw a giant hand made out of fire slowly moving at him.
Dodging with a giant shield in hands as Jaune had just learned wasn't quite as easy as relocating away with a halberd that allowed him to teleport and despite the fact that he was in the middle of a really stiff roll a single flick of the Spirit of Fire's fingers still reached him, sending him flying.
The shield might have taken some impact from the flick but Jaune didn't really feel the difference when his Over Soul broke at exactly the same time it had met the fingers of the burning giant.
In the end that shield Over Soul of his lasted shorter than it took to create it.
Maybe shields just weren't his things.
"Jaune!" Whitley shouted in concern before quickly stabbing the ground to create a giant dome of steel around the blond shaman. It wouldn't last long against the force that was the Spirit of Fire but it should still give Jaune some safety at the very least.
Jaune groaned as he tried to stand up, everything hurt him. He couldn't quite tell if there was anything broken yet but he wouldn't be surprised if some bones were with how he felt at the moment.
"Be careful, Jaune!" Summer said in worry while watching the young Arc try to get up despite the pain. "Just lay down for a moment or two, without a medium we are useless in battle and you felt how experimenting in the middle of combat turned out, didn't you?"
"We can't just rest here and wait until the rest thinks of something! They could die out there!" Jaune shouted through tightly gritted teeth while getting up from the ground.
"And you will die there for sure if you try fighting as you are!" Summer shouted in response. "How are you planning to fight anyway? We both saw how the idea of using Crocea Mors went."
Jaune opened his mouth but before he could say anything a giant hand of fire melted through the top part of the dome. It was sadly unsurprising for how short the Whitley's steel dome stood.
The battlefield changed strikingly little compared to how it looked before Whitley tried to protect Jaune from the fight. Hao still was only toying with them while sitting on the shoulder of his spirit, he didn't even bother to move it so the flame giant stood in the same place as well.
Although it did look like Hao was slowly getting tired of them.
There were noticeably fewer childish laughs from the powerful shaman and every few seconds the freckled boy would glance at the gates of Argus with a way more interested expression.
It appeared that someone way more interesting than them was entering the city.
"Where are you looking at!?" Lyserg shouted with a sneer before throwing his pendulum at Hao's face once more.
"It seems that our little squabble here brought the attention of some really interesting guests." Hao murmured while leaning back to dodge the flying pendulum. "You wouldn't mind if I had some fun with them instead of you, would you? Little Jeanne and her servants are certainly more interesting to play with than you guys."
The Spirit of Fire turned around in the same direction Hao was looking but didn't move there yet. If the people that had just arrived were truly the X-Laws then they would come here to fight Hao on their own.
"We've finally found you, Hao." A soft female voice echoed through Argus. "Please prepare yourself to face the punishment for everything you have done."
Jaune and all of his friends looked towards the source of that voice with stupefied yet relieved expressions. They couldn't see the Iron Maiden of course since they were quite far away from Argus's gates but even from that distance they knew that she was their only real chance at coming out of this fight unscathed.
A sound of fired gun resounded from the direction the X-Laws were and a small squad of giant metal angels suddenly appeared high in the sky.
The angels didn't waste any time and instantly targeted the flame giant for a charge.
Jaune let out a small huff of relief while Lyserg looked at the angels' charge with awe in his eyes. They were the only ones of their group that actually experienced the sheer power X-Laws' guardian spirits could have.
One of those angels was more than enough to deal with a small team of shamans without any help. An entire team of these spirits should have been enough to defeat any foe in the tournament.
For the first time since the fight began, Jaune and his friends saw Hao actually move from his spot as the freckled shaman jumped with his spirit right over all of the metal angels.
The powerful shaman couldn't just play with those angels the same way he did with them.
Seeing a huge fire monster jumping over a small brigade of flying angels without any problems was frankly a bizarre experience. Logic stated that a being so large shouldn't be able to move so nimbly yet it was exactly how the Spirit of Fire moved.
Right after jumping over the angels, Spirit of Fire took a step to the side to dodge a retaliation strike from the slowest angels at the very back of the charge before counterattacking with a simple wide swing to throw the group of giant spirits into disarray.
The moment angels tried to get back and attack, an intense wave of flames washed all over them.
Jaune gulped as he saw the fight between Hao and X-Laws' spirits. It was clear that despite treating the angels a bit more seriously than them, Hao was still playing around, if he was a bit more serious then there wouldn't have been any fight at all.
Young Arc didn't want to think about Hao's true power that he would use while not holding back.
It was quite possible that if Hao fought seriously for once, there wouldn't be a single person in the world that could contend against him. If nothing was going to change then the Shaman King position could just as well be decided already.
A few angels were thrown back through the roof of a building while another couple of them tried to block an attack from the Spirit of Fire and stop Hao from causing more destruction.
It didn't go well.
The fight, while clearly closer and more intense than whatever they were doing, quickly turned into a scene similar to the one that was happening previously. Sure, Hao was moving around this time and had to actually expend some strength to damage the spirits but in the end he was still treating it as lightly as if it wasn't a real fight. To be fair with Hao strength it quite likely wasn't.
The X-Laws themselves soon arrived at the battlefield with uneven breaths as if they ran the entire way here. Their white cloaks still as clean as ever and blowing on the wind generated from the clashes between their angels and Hao's fire spirit.
The only ones that have yet to arrive at the scene were Marco and Iron Maiden Jeanne which, considering the fact that Jeanne was probably still trapped in her torture device, wasn't that surprising.
"What are kids like you doing here?" An old and balding X-Laws member asked with a frown right after arriving.
"We saw Hao summon his fire spirit here and couldn't just stay back without doing something." Lyserg answered with a scoff before anyone else could say anything. "This guy's a monster that needs to be killed."
Jaune looked at his green haired friend with a clear concern in his gaze while the balding X-Laws member only looked slightly amused and interested at the younger shaman's desire to kill.
"It's good that you have a good reason to fight, kid." Another X-Law said with a small nod. "We still have quite a few swords in our armory, would you like to join the X-Laws kid? We could use another pair of hands."
Jaune's head snapped at the X-law who just offered the green haired dowser to join. Were they really trying to recruit someone as young as Lyserg in the middle of a fight?
Luckily Lyserg didn't seem too interested yet and the only thing he did was observing how X-Laws fight with some curiosity. It was clear that the dowser was at least somewhat curious about the X-Laws but there wasn't any desire to join yet.
"Please stop trying to recruit every shaman that has any malice towards Hao into X-Laws, John." Yet another X-Law said with a tired groan at their companion's behavior. "You aren't even a person who can make decisions like these."
"Hey, I'm sure that Marco would have agreed with my decision here." The X-Law member, John, said with his hands raised defensively. "Those kids got some spite if they tried to fight Hao with only a few of them."
Two giant angels covered in flames suddenly fell down right next to them, making quite a shock wave from the collision with the ground.
"You know I feel somewhat offended that you are so confident in yourself that you think that you can casually talk with each other while I'm here." Hao said in his childish voice as the Spirit of Fire followed behind the two angels he threw to finish them off.
"Shit." The X-Law cursed before throwing himself away from the angels. "Watch out kids, he's going to crush you!"
None of the Jaune's group needed the warning to immediately run as far away from the place Spirit of Fire was moving towards as possible. They might not be equal to the X-Laws in strength but they weren't stupid.
Hao finished the two angels off in a matter of seconds and right after doing so he turned around to face the rest of the angel squad that attacked him.
"Raphael!" John, the X-Law, screamed in pain as he watched his guardian angel be turned into ashes. "You will die for that you bastard! Marco and lady Jeanne are going to take revenge for everything you've done! You hear me!"
The curses and loud declarations of revenge went nearly completely ignored by Hao as the monstrous shaman looked at the remaining angels with an almost childish grin on his face.
"Do you really think that little Jeanne of all people stands a chance against me?" Hao scoffed as if being offended by the possibility of anyone being his equal. "Sure, she might be a little bit interesting but compared to me she's nothing more than just an ant."
Four spiked chains appeared all of a sudden out of thin air and wrapped themselves around the arms and legs of the fire spirit. All the X-Laws smiled in relief and Jaune chuckled nervously, there was only one shaman who used torture devices like that as an attack.
"Don't you know that overconfidence is the first step to losing, Hao?" A soft female voice echoed through the battlefield as a blond haired man with glasses slowly pushed a human-sized torture device into the area.
"Lady Jeanne!" The X-Laws shouted with awe in their eyes.
Meanwhile almost entirety of Jaune's group looked at the torture device in confusion. Jaune and Lyserg were the only ones of them present who had actually seen the Iron Maiden before so unlike the rest of their friends they weren't as shocked.
"Is it really overconfidence if all I'm saying is an undeniable truth?" Hao asked with a scoff, seemingly unaffected by the Iron Maiden Jeanne's arrival at all.
The Spirit of Fire gradually pushed on the chains until they couldn't hold him any longer, freeing himself from the torturous bind of the Iron Maiden before immediately jumping back as a giant guillotine was about to hit him.
"You will fall to us, Hao." Jeanne said softly as she saw her opponent dodge her attack.
The iron maiden in which Jeanne lay shifted slightly and the forward part of it began to slowly move outwards. The Iron Maiden Jeanne was leaving her entrapment to fight, it was something that not even the X-Law members thought they would see before the final round of the tournament.
The moment the doors of the iron maiden opened wide enough for Jeanne to leave, it was like a spell was cast on every person present.
Beauty of Iron Maiden Jeanne was beyond anything most of the people had ever seen, the gracefulness in which she slowly took the first steps outside the torture device would make the most experienced dancers ashamed, the cleanness and purity her presence exuded were only enhanced by the paper white hair on her head. She looked younger than all of them yet nobody felt as if they could treat her as an equal to them.
Looking at Jeanne was like looking at a goddess.
"Beautiful." Somebody whispered, though with the same thought going through everyone's heads it could have been anyone.
"Oh, and here I thought that you would be too cautious to face me head on." Hao said crudely from the shoulder of his spirit. "Looks like I was right to consider you as one of the few interesting people in this Shaman Fight. Come on, show me what you got!"
Hao didn't have to wait for long as the moment Jeanne stepped out of the iron maiden she raised her hand to the sky and a small storm began to gather from the amount of Furyoku that was being gathered at the mask of the iron maiden that Jeanne used as a medium.
"Ancient god of justice, Shamash, descend and punish this sinner for me."
With a single command a huge nearly entirely white spirit with a lizard tail and an open book before it appeared next to Jeanne. There were no emotions to be found on the face of that spirit as it looked with indifference at the Spirit of Fire it was facing.
It was Shamash, a spirit of justice whose identity preceded even the brother gods that were so famous through Remnant. In the current era there were few spirits that could rival it in strength.
"So you found one of those old guys, huh?" Hao asked with some interest towards the ancient spirit. "I must say, it's been centuries since the last time I saw one of those god level spirits. They all hid away after the previous shaman king decided to put his two little sibling spirits as the ruling gods."
Neither Iron Maiden Jeanne nor Shamash wasted any time on meaningless chatter and instantly summoned a giant cage around Hao and his Spirit of Fire with the intention to kill.
"Still as hasty as ever, I see." Hao shook his head in the cage before the flames exploded out of the Spirit of Fire, expanding the cage outwards as it struggled to hold the power of Hao in a single place.
The cage finally broke after about half a minute of struggling against Hao's flames but with it gone a real fight could start as Shamash began summoning dozens different torture and execution items with the intent of trapping Hao in them.
Guillotines fell from the sky, chains coiled from the ground trying to catch the Spirit of Fire, execution chairs and spiked cages appeared out of nowhere right as Hao swiftly flew in between all of the attacks dodging them perfectly.
The battle lasted in a similar manner for a good couple of minutes and all the people who had tried to fight Hao earlier could only look in amazement at the fight throughout the entire time it was happening. It was the first time they saw Hao having to actually put some effort into a fight and the reason for that was a single young girl that had just left her entrapment.
"What power..." Lyserg said with his eyes wide open as he saw some achievable hope in killing Hao for the first time in his life.
"Yeah, it still amazes me how lady Jeanne can stand up to mister Hao even if only for a while." A kind sounding voice of an older man said from behind the group as slow steps echoed through the area. "It's a pity that the fight is about to end."
Everyone turned to see who the new arrival was, only for more than half of them to instantly tense the moment they saw the man.
"Luchist?" Jaune asked with some uncertainty, trying to remember the name of the older man.
Luchist and Marco were the first X-Law members Jaune had met so he found it a little bit strange that he hadn't seen the black haired man with the rest of the X-Laws yet. At first he thought that it was because Luchist had some different task to be taken care of in Argus while the rest of the team fought against Hao but after seeing the way all of the X-Law tensed when he appeared, Jaune knew that it wasn't the case.
"The one and only my friend, Jaune." Luchist said lightly while nodding towards the young blond shaman. "Tell me, has the tournament been treating you well after we parted ways back in the first round of the tournament? I remember you being in quite a trouble back then."
"What are you doing here you traitor!?" Before Jaune could answer anything, all of the X-Laws present shouted angrily at once and prepared for a fight.
"Calm down you people, I'm not here to start a fight. In fact, I'm here to do the opposite, we've already accomplished what we wanted anyway." Luchist said with a fake smile as he slowly walked past all the X-Laws and marched towards the fight.
Nobody stopped the X-Laws traitor, either because they knew that they wouldn't be really able to do so in a fair fight or because their guardian spirits had been killed by Hao.
"It's good to see you still following Jeanne so diligently, Marco." Luchist said with a kind smile directed at his former colleague before turning towards the fight and shouting loudly.
"Mister Hao, we've already found and got rid of the last of the spirits you wanted taken care of! You can stop playing around with all of them and be on your way to the Tribes Village, there will be a chance for a fun fight during the third round!"
The moment Hao heard that, he momentarily stopped in place, nodded with a pleased smile and commanded his fire spirit to quickly get rid of all the remaining torture devices that Jeanne was sending at him.
"Well, if little Lili and all of those five old warriors are dead then there's no point in staying here any longer. Let's go to the Tribes Village." Hao chuckled lightly as he felt all the stares from the shamans around him before turning towards Iron Maiden Jeanne. "I hope we will be able to continue our little contest here in the third round."
The Spirit of Fire knelt down to gently pick up Luchist from the ground and put him on the opposite shoulder to Hao before turning towards the walls of Argus and lifting off the ground to fly away.
Shamash tried to stop the flame giant with his torture items but a huge wall of flames made by the spirit pushed back all of his devices.
"The Tribes Village is located at the easternmost border of the continent. A mountain with a flat top will be right next to it." Hao said as the Spirit of Fire flew up. "Make sure that you arrive there in the time limit! I wouldn't want to lose the opportunity to have some fun with you solely because you were too slow!"
In the end Hao comfortably flew out of Argus leaving all the shamans present either confused, angry, or both.
While most people instantly began to wonder why Hao had given them the location of Tribes Village so willingly or tried to make sure that they wouldn't forget this location, Jaune instead began to shake in fear as he remembered Luchist said that they got rid of the last shaman warrior.
He told the ghost to hide in the Cotta-Arc household. If he was found then didn't that mean Hao's followers managed to find his family?
"I have to go." Jaune said briefly before shakily turning around towards the direction his sister's house was at and beginning to run.
"Hey Jaune, where are you going?" Ren called out to his friend in concern before running behind him.
With Jaune and Ren already on their way, the rest of their small group also turned around and ran after them. The only one who stayed behind with the X-Laws was Lyserg who after witnessing the strength of Iron Maiden Jeanne chose to talk to the X-Laws for a little bit.
...
On the other side of Argus...
...
As they arrived closer and closer to the Cotta-Arc household many different thoughts were going through Jaune's head.
Did Luchist find the old ghost at Saphron's house, or did he get rid of him before the old ghost even arrived there? If it was the former then did his family and friends there even tried to stop him from doing anything?
One thought was louder than any of the others however.
Was his family safe?
Fortunately his worries proved to be false by a loud shout of his older sister as he violently opened the main door of the building in a manic hurry.
Everyone was safe, a little bit confused at his frantic look but physically and mentally fine. All of them were quietly sitting in the living room and passing time by playing with little Adrian in the middle of them, even Clement Arc was somewhat happily entertaining his grandson.
The ghost of the old shaman wasn't among them though. It looked like Luchist wasn't lying about taking care of the last spirit.
"Is everything alright, Jaune?" Clement asked calmly while watching the states Jaune and his friends were in. To say that they were exhausted would be an understatement, they looked as if they've just across the entire Remnant.
"Did any suspicious looking man come in while we were away?" Jaune ignored the question asked by his father and quickly asked his own.
A couple of confused looks were directed his way as Saphron and a few others blinked in bewilderment.
"Well there was this tall man in black that came in for a moment a while ago." Saphron said while making a thoughtful expression. "He seemed a bit dangerous at first but after he explained that he was here only to ask if everyone was alright because of the commotion he turned out to be not that bad."
Jaune clicked his tongue in anger, so one of Hao's followers really was here. At the very least he was sensible enough to not have hurt any one of his family or friends, there would have been much more than a simple click of a tongue if something more had happened.
"Well, it's alright if all of you are fine." Jaune huffed as he collapsed to the ground from the released tension. "Also we have already gotten everything we needed in Argus so we will be leaving the moment we rest a little."
Now, if Jaune wasn't so drained from everything that has transpired that day and actually bothered to think for a moment or two then he would have easily realized the implications of what he had just said and wouldn't have been so surprised at the loud outburst from his father that followed right after.
"What?!"
And... Cut!
What did you all expect that just because Jaune got his family's sword he would actually get a new cool Over Soul with it?
Nope! It's not that easy, it was the first time Jaune really held a sword as Summer's training and muscle memories only really covered staffs and glaive weapons, he wouldn't know what to do with a sword and shield even if he could use his Furyoku to use them as a medium.
Don't worry our hero will get his new Over Soul soon.
Anyway, see ya later!