Distortion

The two combatants stood across from each other, weapons ready and auras flaring. The leader of Knightingale standing across from the Beast of Mistral. Valter was staring at Jaune with sadistic glee while Jaune stared him down through his mask with nothing but hatred. At an unknown signal, the two charged at each other. Valter had Pride and Envy at his sides as he ran. Jaune had Tourmentage Tordu in his right hand and to the side as he did the same.

Jaune jumped into the air and came down with a two handed swing. Valter crossed his daggers and caught the blade, the ground below him cracking severely. Valter's arms were shaking from the strain but his smirk just grew. Jaune growled as he tried to push past his blades. That was when his arms stopped shaking and Jaune was thrown back by a sudden boost of strength.

He landed a few feet back before he charged back at Valter, who met him halfway and the two were exchanging slashes at an unreal speed. The other three could only see the flashes and sparks of the weapons. Nora turned from the fight to the only other person besides Ren. Onyx was still crouched in the tree but his bow was now loosely held in his grip at his side, "Hey, you!"

Onyx just turned to her. She could see his blue eyes under his Beowolf mask and with the way he tilted his head, she was sure he had an eyebrow raised. "You work for Jauney, so why aren't you in there helping him!?"

He just stared at her before he tilted his head back and barked out a laugh. He turned back to her and raised his mask up so it was on the top of his head, "Are you serious? Jaune doesn't want or need my help." He had a small smirk before he turned serious and turned back, "This is a deep seeded grudge with him. He won't allow anyone to interfere in it. Not me, not you. Not even Raven. He'll fight this battle alone, even if it kills him."

Nora's eyes widened and so did Ren's. They then turned back in time to see Valter jump back with enough force to shatter the ground underneath him. Jaune drew Souffrance Eternelle in response and quickly rapid fired all his shots at him. What was impressive was how easily he batted away every shot with his daggers before shooting across the clearing with a speed almost up there with Ruby's. Jaune managed to holster his revolver right before he caught a kick to the side of his head.

Jaune slid across the ground on his shoulder before he flipped to land on his feet. He was still slowing down when Valter had his daggers in their revolver forms and was firing fire Dust shots at him. Jaune quickly sent his aura into his blade and as it started to glow black, he started to catch the bullets with the broadside of his blade. The bullets didn't explode or bounce off, they just vanished.

Valter stopped in confusion and Jaune swung his blade, releasing a wave of flames at the Beast. He quickly jumped, shattering the ground again, to get over the wave of flames. He stopped when he saw that Jaune's left hand was extended. He felt the heat and looked down in time to see the flames surrounded by a black aura and twisted into a spear of fire. He caught in the chest and was sent into the air.

"Ren, was that…" Nora asked

He nodded, "Ms. Goodwitch's Telekinesis and the same thing he did against Cardin's explosion."

"So, you two know about that?" Onyx asked nonchalantly. "Didn't think he'd show that off so easily. The red metal of his sword is a special metal, it can absorb energy and temporarily stores it as long as there is aura running through it. Guess it works with fire as well."

Jaune shouted and jumped after his prey. When he was above Valter, he spun his body and brought another two handed swing to his chest. Lucky for him, he crossed his daggers over his chest to stop the blade but the force was strong enough to send him plummeting to the ground. He spun his body around and landed on his feet, creating a crater. His aura was weakened but not as much as one would think. He looked back at Jaune with a smirk. He threw off his green cloak before he shot back up to him in an impressive burst of speed. They clashed in midair and their weapons were locked together.

Jaune realized too late that Valter was only using one dagger to hold him off. That's when his other hand grabbed his collar before throwing him to the ground. As he was falling, he swapped his sword to his left hand and drew Sommeil Eternel before firing two shots at Valter. The first was deflected by his dagger but the second hit his chest. His armor protected him but his aura weakened further. With that done, Jaune used Telekinesis around himself, slowing himself down.

When he reached the ground, he quickly rolled out of the fall to displace as much of the impact as he could but still took some damage. He was still crouching when Valter landed on top of him. Jaune was on his stomach as Valter was on his back. Jaune let slip a groan of pain as he felt one of his daggers in his left shoulder.

Not waiting for him to use his other, Jaune used a pulse of his Telekinesis to throw the Beast from his back. When he was free, he rose to his feet and spun around. Jaune fired another shot but Valter deflected it. Jaune swung his sword left handed and some of the rocks that were dislodged from their fight rose with his Telekinesis and flew towards him. Valter deflected most of them and managed to land with his feet planted on the tree he was flying towards. He just turned to Jaune with that smirk still on his face before jumping towards him again.

Jaune growled before using his Telekinesis to pull his sheathe off his back and onto his forearm, deploying Désespoir. He charged forward and shield bashed the false knight to the side. His arm burning in pain but he ignored the stab wound for the moment. He collapsed his shield back down before sheathing his sword and deploying Haine. With a scream he swung another two handed horizontal swing and Valter tried to stop the greatsword with his daggers but he was still sent flying from the blow.

Jaune would've followed him but his arm was still burning. He held his greatsword in his left hand as his right hand felt his wound. He winced and pulled his hand back. There was no blood on his glove. 'The fire Dust he uses must've cauterized it. So, why is it still burning when my aura is trying to heal it?' he thought to himself. He rubbed his fingers together and he saw that the glove had a clear residue on it. He brought it to his nose and smelt it. It had a distinct sour scent to it and he realized what it was. "Poison."

He heard a chuckle come from Valter as he was getting back to his feet, "Very observant. Not many people have figured that out. So, how did you?"

Jaune wipe the poison from his hand as he answered, "A friend of my has a specialty for poisons and he taught me much. Not many use it while their victim's aura is still intact."

Valter nodded, "True. Aura can fight off most poisons, so you have to inject it into them when their aura is depleted. The poison I use is corrosive. It could normally kill someone in less than a day but I would have to inject it directly into an internal organ for that effect. So, I found another use for it." His sadistic smirk widened just slightly, "By using my strength to bypass aura, the poison in the wound corrodes the flesh and it takes the aura significantly longer to heal it."

"That would also cause the person to keep bleeding though. So, you use fire Dust to cauterize the wounds to stop that. So, you weaken your opponent but don't kill them outright." He rolled his shoulder slightly to test it, it was burning still but lessening. When he got close enough, he could siphon off more aura and try to heal it quicker. "Now I see why Jasper lost to you." He said with an edge as he took Haine into his right hand again.

"He definitely was one of my tougher fights. And this one is shaping up to be just as good." He the took his two dagger and connected the pommels together. The two weapons stretched to form a shaft and the blades lengthened as well, forming a double bladed spear. He spun it in his hands before he dropped into his stance again. "Let's start Round 2!" He shot forward with his spear blade ready to run Jaune through.

Jaune charged but at the last second, stepped to the side, just out of the path of the spear. He then retaliated with a downward swing with his greatsword. He was shocked to see Moonstone just raise the arm that wasn't holding his spear. 'Is he planning to catch the blade with his forearm?' And that he did, his aura barely reacted to it and Jaune felt his swing just stop, like he hit something extremely solid. He couldn't think about that because he had to jump back form the spear blade coming to stab him in the face or neck.

Jaune quickly jumped back and as soon as his feet touched the ground, he jumped into the air. He swung his blade down and used the force of the jump and gravity to add more power behind it. This time, Valter raised his spear and caught the blade with the shaft of his weapon. Jaune smirked at that and hit the switch on his sword. The blade was shifting back into its sheath form. But since the blade was caught on the shaft, when the larger section of the blade tried to reconnect with the smaller third, it shot the sheathe forward. It came off part way from Tourmentage Tordu and into Valter's face.

Valter's head shot backwards, unprepared for the impromptu projectile hitting his face. While he was distracted, Jaune pulled his sword off of the spear and pulled it to his lower right. As he was preparing, the sheathe flew off his blade and that was when he swung upwards. His flamberge scrapped across Valter's chest plate and sent him into the air. He thrust his left hand forward and with a shout, his Telekinesis sent him through a tree.

Jaune was breathing raggedly as he slowly lowered his arm. "That should keep him down for a few." He said out loud. He then turned to pick up his sheathe that was on the ground, five feet behind him. He could tell his aura was down to about three-fifths of his maximum aura. Even with the aura he was siphoning, he was burning through quite a bit of it.

As he was reaching down for his sheathe, he felt his instincts screaming at him. He turned but wasn't quick enough to stop the armored fist from impacting the side of his head. It felt like he was hit with a cannonball. His eyes moved to see that Valter had that same sadistic smirk as his fist collided with him. Jaune was sent flying and his mask came off as he bounced off the ground before rolling across it.

Jaune was groaning as his aura tried to dull the pain coming from the side of his head. He was trying to get back to his feet but his whole head felt like a jumbled mess. He heard Valter chuckling and walking closer, "I thought you'd at least know to not turn your back on an enemy until they are dead." Jaune's eyes slowly panned over to him standing beside his mask. His eyes widened, "Looks like I got my prize."

He started to reach down to pick up the Dragon mask but as his fingers were a few inches from it, his hand stopped. No matter how hard he tried, his hand wouldn't move an inch. Then there were over a dozen cracking sounds. He screamed in agony as he grabbed his wrist. His gauntlet's armor was shattered and his fingers were the definition of broken. They were crooked and pointing at weird angles. He then noticed the black glow around his hand and quickly looked back at Jaune.

He was now on one knee with his left arm extended and his fist clenched. He had a snarl and a furious fire in his eyes. "Don't. Fucking. Touch. That." He hissed as his Telekinesis slowly started to extend from Valter's wrist up the rest of his arm. "Maybe I'll break the rest of your bones for even thinking about touching my mask."

Before he could make good on his suggestion, Valter quickly threw his spear at him. Jaune quickly deflected it with his flamberge but lost his concentration on his Semblance. At that moment, Valter cleared the distance between them with a leap and grabbed his spear before kicking off of Jaune, creating space between them.

Jaune rolled from his back and onto his feet. He used his Telekinesis to pull his sheathe and his mask to him. He placed his sheathe on his back and put his mask back on. He looked back over to Valter and saw him with his jaw clenched. He saw that his fingers were slowly moving back into place. Curious, Jaune focused on sensing his aura. He could see that his aura was concentrating on his hand but it was different from what he was used to seeing. Instead of looking like his hand was covered or cloaked in his aura, Valter's aura looked to be more internal. Like his aura was a liquid slowly filling his hand. Also, he noticed the same phenomenon in his legs. But when he looked closer, he could see the aura slowly draining from them and moving to his hand.

"Is that your Semblance?" Jaune asked as he popped his neck. Valter just looked at him and he continued, "Your aura isn't acting like aura normally does. The only time I've seen aura act differently is when someone uses a Semblance. So, I'm guessing your Semblance is some sort of healing factor."

He just shook his head with a chuckle, "Close but no. My Semblance is a whole lot more than just healing. It's been a while since someone hurt me like this, so I'll tell you. My Semblance, Blood Bond, highly saturates my blood with aura and allows me to manipulate it. And by sending enough of my blood to certain body parts, I can vastly increases my strength and speed. But it can also harden my skin or accelerate my healing with higher concentrations." To prove his point, he clenched his hand that was now fully healed.

Jaune was tilting his head back and forth, "Quite the ability. Let's see if it saves you." With those words said, he finally finished switching his Semblance from Telekinesis to Distortion. As much as Telekinesis was useful, he was using too much aura using it. His Distortion didn't use as much and he had more experience with it, it was the logical choice at this point.

Jaune dropped into his stance once again while Valter did the same with his spear. The two charged each other again. As Valter thrust his spear forward, Jaune flipped over the weapon and him. He landed on one knee behind him and swung at his left side. Valter spun and caught the blade on his spear's shaft. He noticed the black flames along the blade just before he was launched away by Jaune's Semblance. Jaune quickly switched his sword to his left hand and drew Sommeil Eternel before charging the Beast once again.

Valter had barely stopped when Jaune's blade clashed with his spear. The swordsman delivered a series of fast but devastating slashes, keeping him on the defensive. Jaune managed to get enough of an opening and he quickly fired two bullets that were enhanced with Distortion. The first impacted the center of his chest plate, sending him flying backwards. The second hit just afterwards, sending him flying even faster and doing significant more damage to his aura. He stopped when he smashed through another tree before it pinned him to the ground.

Valter quickly started to use his Semblance, sending his blood into his arms to increase his strength. He started to lift the fallen tree off his chest but as he was doing that, he saw a shadow cover his head. He looked up to seeing Jaune coming down with his blade ready to impale him. He had no choice but to send even more blood into his arms and shoved the tree off him and directly at Jaune.

Jaune just aimed his heavy revolver at the tree and fired another of his Distortion-enhanced bullets. It shattered the tree and kept going. Too bad Valter had already moved from that spot and was running to get behind Jaune's airborne form. As he was doing that, he quickly shifted Envy and Pride back into their dagger forms. The extra reach wasn't helping him and he needed more speed.

He quickly jumped towards Jaune's back while he was still airborne and was pumping more blood into his arms, increasing his strength as high as he could. Jaune turned and in turn, channeled Distortion through his blade. The two adversaries swung with all their strength. Valter was swinging from either side of his hip with a reverse grip simultaneously for and x-slash. Jaune pulled his flamberge over his left shoulder for a downward slash. The two fighters' blades met for all of a second before Valter was sent flying into the ground as Jaune finished his swing. All the strength Valter used only multiplied the effects of Distortion.

Valter collided with the ground hard enough to kick up an obscene amount of dust and leaving him lying in a crater. As he was breathing raggedly, his black-red aura shattered. His arms were shaking in pain from overexerting his Semblance and his chest plate took so much damage that there was severe cracking across the entire thing.

He couldn't remember the last time he was pushed this far into a corner. But that just made it more exciting. He grit his teeth and slowly pushed himself into a sitting position. He froze when he heard something land next to him. He looked up to see Jaune pointing his gun directly at his head. "It's over. Hand over the mask before I put a bullet in your head and take it from your corpse." he said in a frigid tone.

Valter's shocked yellow eyes stared into Jaune's cold blues. He then started to chuckle before it devolved into full blown laughter. He slowly stopped and sighed, "Have to admit, this was the best fight I've had. Not many people have gotten me like this and on top of that, you don't look any worse for wear. Honestly, I wouldn't mind dying by your hand." He had a genuine grin instead of his smirk now.

Jaune tightened his grip on his gun, "You telling me to kill you?"

He shook his head, "No. I would rather die in the heat of a glorious battle before my body can hit the ground. But in the shape I'm in, I won't be able to have that. So, with great reluctance, I will have to decline that offer. So, I'll keep this mask, to insure you will come for me again." His grin turned back into a smirk.

Jaune growled in anger, "Like hell you will. You aren't going anywhere."

He gave a weak chuckle, "You forget, experienced predators know when a prey is too dangerous for them. They know when to retreat." With those words, his daggers turned into revolvers and he used its secondary firing mode. Both guns released all their fire Dust in one shot. They released two massive fireballs that struck either side of the crater and erupted, filling the crater and consuming them with intense flames.

Onyx, Ren and Nora saw the tower of flames erupt from the crater. "Jaune!" they all shouted in shock and concern. Before any of them could move, two figure burst from the flames. The first took off into the forest while the three focused on the second. It was still covered in flames and looked to be kneeling on the ground. That was when black flames burst from it and the regular flames were extinguished, revealing Jaune. Luckily for him, he triggered Distortion as soon as he saw the flames. It wasn't enough to protect him completely but it stopped him from potentially being incinerated. His clothing was singled and heatwaves were coming from his armor and weapons. His aura took a big hit but he was alive.

He pushed himself to his feet and coughed before shouting, "Onyx, the flames!" Onyx jumped from his tree branch and into the air. When he was above the pit, he fired two Ice arrows. They hit the bottom and released the Dust, the ice quickly evaporated but the flames were extinguished by the water. He landed next to Jaune as he looked into the pit, seeing nothing but water. He shook in anger, "He got away."

Onyx nodded, "Yeah. I saw him take off into the forest. I would chase him down but he may just set the forest ablaze to stop us. I only have one more Ice arrow and no Water arrows so I wouldn't like that outcome. Plus, you aren't in great shape either. We may wanna head back to base, boss."

Jaune just shook before he looked to the sky and screamed in anger and anguish. When he stopped, he stared at the ground and was breathing raggedly. After a few seconds, he sighed and put away his gun. "Let's get out of here." He shifted his sword to his right hand and was about to open a portal when he heard two people walking over to them. He stopped and turned to see it was Ren and Nora. He sighed in exasperation, "Of course."

Nora took a hesitant step forward, "Are you okay, Jaune?"

He just stared at her and removed his mask, "Fine. Sore but I'll live."

She nodded with a small smile and Ren asked his own question, "What happened to Pyrrha? Last time we saw her, she went through your portal."

"She's back at my base. She is an interim member of Knightingale now." He responded nonchalantly.

That just shocked the two and Onyx couldn't help but chuckle. Jaune sent him a mild glare but he just shrugged with a smirk. "She joined you?" Nora asked and he turned back to his shell-shocked ex-teammates.

"Yeah, she did." Jaune replied. He didn't see any harm in telling them. Even if they go back to Beacon, what would Ozpin do? He had no idea on what they were doing or where they were. "I tested her and she proved herself to me and did something I thought was impossible. So, I told her the truth about this world and the war going on in the shadows and she decided to join us. To fight against it." He said with a voice full of conviction.

The two looked at each other. They were holding a silent conversation. Ren looked reluctant but he couldn't deter Nora. He closed his eye and sighed in resignation. Nora beamed and turned back to him. "We wanna join too!"

Onyx looked shocked while Jaune just blinked with a neutral expression. "Not gonna happen."

Nora deflated slightly, "But why?"

"Unlike Pyrrha, you two actually betrayed me. I am not about to put my trust in you two so you can do so, again." The two flinched at his tone and the memories of what they did. "Plus, why would you two even want to join me?"

Ren placed a hand on Nora's shoulder, "We wanted to help you. To bring you back. That's why we set out to find you. But, if Pyrrha has joined you, there must be something serious going on and maybe you aren't as lost as we originally thought. We were once Team JNPR, we should be the ones to stand by your side once again."

Jaune just looked at them. He didn't trust a word they said, he had no reason to. But, he couldn't risk opening a portal and them following him back to the HQ. That's when Onyx spoke up, "Why don't you test them?" Jaune looked to him. "Test them like you did Pyrrha. If they pass, you can make them interim members as well, see if they're trustworthy. They fail…" he just shrugged with that.

Jaune just thought it over. It made sense and even if he didn't hate them, getting some payback would be almost therapeutic. And he had a good idea on how to test them. He smirked and turned back to them, "You have a good point, Onyx. So, what say you two?"

They didn't have to look at each other as they nodded. Jaune then spun and opened a portal, he looked over his shoulder at the, "Follow us then." He stepped through after sheathing his sword with Onyx following right after.

Nora and Ren walked through the portal and were beyond shocked by where they were. Kuroyuri. The ruined remains of their old home. They each felt their heart sink at the realization what Jaune had in mind. They both looked around when they felt a cold feeling in the air. They turned to the tree in the center of the town. Jaune was standing on one of the higher branches with his black aura flaring furiously. While Onyx was seating on the same branch only a few feet away from him.

He stopped after a few seconds and a cold smile stretched across his lips. They then heard a very familiar clopping sound and a sense of dread overtook them. Nora's eyes went wide as Ren fell to his knees in shock. "Ren?" she asked, scared.

"No." he said just above a whisper. "No." From around the corner came the Grimm from their nightmares. The Nuckelavee. This was their test.

A/N- Not much to say on this one. Jauneforever, as per usual, was the Beta Reader for this chapter. Go check him out if you haven't already. Hope you all enjoyed and I'll see you all in the next update!