Chapter 14: The Tempest of Fears
The smell of the rain on the winds grew as Jaune came back to his team from helping Qrow. The words Qrow spoke to him directly were weighing heavily on his mind. His eyes first laid back onto the person Qrow had alluded to: Ruby Rose, his leader. Jaune watched as the beast they were fighting just got showered in bullets from Crescent Rose. Ren and Nora were taking a beating as Ruby was running around in circles around it, dodging the attacks of the Nuckelavee.
'That's it! If we keep the Grimm needing to turn around; there's no way it can hit us with those wacky arms!' Jaune thought to himself before deciding to take action. "Guys!" Jaune knew if he didn't shout, Ruby wouldn't understand it. Ruby's had a knack for being more vocal than just taking physical cues for attacks… something Jaune had tried before but failed. "We need to run in a circle!"
Jaune could see that Ruby was confused. "Ju-just follow my lead, Ruby." With a swift nod from the little redhead, Jaune took off, trying to run as fast as he could to avoid the arms before coming in to swipe at the right leg of the beast. The sounds of Crescent Rose kept firing from behind and eventually around him as he saw Ruby encircle another time. Ren and Nora followed suit; focusing on the other side. If they got all four legs hit…. They could have a winning shot at defeating this abomination.
Explosions were heard from Magnhild and it's owner as the sounds of the flailing beast struggled to catch up. More attacks were swung, Crocea Mors slashed through the horse's legs before the horse finally took charge for once and kicked Jaune square in the chest, throwing him back across the cobblestone. Within moments he had tumbled all the way into hitting Ruby's legs.
"Oof." Ruby said for a moment before turning her attention to what hit her. "Jaune!" Ruby shouted as she kneeled down to look over Jaune for a moment.
"I'm fine, I promise." Jaune said, shaking off a little dust. "Are you?-" Jaune stared at Ruby for a moment before a loud boom was heard as a wave of sound crashed into them both. "-Okay."
The storm had arrived. Soft raindrops started to flood their view; luckily it dosed any dust clouds the Nuckelavee would have wanted to make. Jaune sighed as he put his sword away as he got up.
"What are you doing?! This is no time to stop! Jaune?!" Ruby shouted, confused and worried for her partner in this fight. Within a second though; things changed as he pulled the sword out while still in the sleath. With a click; the two formed a longer sword blade. Jaune just turned to focus once more on Ruby as he smiled. His smile grew when Ruby returned one and they both set out to face the monster once more.
Ruby had the easy part; she was the main distraction while Ren and Nora recovered a little. Ruby took the idea of a distraction easily as she hit random parts of the bony white parts of the creature, making sure to aim for the eyes. Jaune rushed the legs; trying and successfully slashing both front legs at the same time; causing the thing to squeal and wail once more; this time from both mouths. Once the legs were reattached, the beast skittishly ran to a safer location in the court, the impish body falling forwards; as if to rest itself weirdly on top of the horse's neck.
All eyes were on the beast as an ear piercing scream exploded from it as what looked like fins erupted from the back of the humanoid part of the beast. If the beast could smile; it would be doing so right now as it's arms twitched and suddenly started to swirl around violently, knocking everyone over. Everyone slid due to the wet cobblestone, which made them lose traction. As soon as they were far enough away, the beast recalled its arms and started to wail, the same wail it had done earlier, causing Ruby, Jaune, and Nora to all put their hands over their ears.
The thoughts returned to him. Give up. Give in. Jaune couldn't shake it this time. He closed his eyes and covered his ears trying to protect himself. The voice kept creeping in though. Give into the sorrow. Give up. You all are worthless. Jaune opened his eyes; he noticed his sword had dropped uncontrollably. He wanted to move but couldn't. All his body wanted to do was listen to the Nuckelavee's words; give in. His eyes drifted back and forth, trying to force the rest of his body to turn to Ruby, but couldn't. Give in, your aura's weakened. Give out, you're alone. Listen to the drum of sleep. Join it.
No. There was no way he would surrender to such a concept! He was Jaune Arc, and his job was protecting Ruby and his team until he died on his terms.
The sounds of gunfire and the Nuckelavee stopping it's wails made him blink, he turned to see Ren had been completely unaffected by the beast; perhaps his semblance caused that? Well no matter; Ren honestly was a lifesaver right now. Jaune reequiped Corcea Mors as he watched Ruby do the same with her Crescent Rose.
"So what now?!" Nora shouted as Jaune saw her picking back up Magnhild. "Lead the way you two!"
Jaune turned to Ruby, pleading for her, after staring at him for what seemed like minutes with her silver eyes to answer only for her to respond with. "Lead the charge Jaune."
Jaune gulped as he started to think for a moment. The rain was not helping him think as it softly fell on his head. "Right! Let's try to keep doing the Circle tactic! Only this time; me and Ruby will be running in different rotations, and if this thing twists it's arms again; it will give us time to prepare to swing at the arms!"
Ruby nodded at him. "Plus I'm gonna try to avoid it this time!"
Jaune smiled. "Let's go RNJR!" With that he started running; with Ruby going the other way as him, Nora followed a few moments later trailing Jaune, with Ren eventually starting to trail Ruby around the beast, all of them but Jaune firing upon the beast when they had the opportunity to do so. "Ren, we need you to protect us if it wails again!"
Ren nodded; only for the beast to understand what they meant and started to whip up it's arms again, though it did not start twirling yet, it paused and waited for a moment.
"Guys, get ready!" Ruby cried out, as the Nuckelavee's left arm stretched out and started swinging. Not at Nora, nor Ruby, not even Jaune at the command. No; it understood who Ren was. Ren stood his ground only for at best a few seconds before the beast fully latched onto him and threw him into a building. It's right charged forward; picking Ren up off the ground and slamming him into the building.
Jaune turned to the others as he kept running. They all saw that the left arm was already winding back to strike at the now pinned Ren. "Ruby!" came Nora's voice as he watched them both get ready on the other side of the beast. Nora bounced onto Crescent Rose as the beast flung its arm at Ren.
Slam!
Everyone watched as the Nuckelavee's arm latched onto Magnhild, causing it to alter its course and slammed into the building above Ren. Jaune couldn't make it out; but Nora clearly said something to Ren before crossing her legs. The beast wailed from its mouth it's normal cry and still holding onto Magnhild started to fling Nora around before flinging her off for the final time; sending her crashing hard into the wet stones, her aura shattering upon impact on the second bounce. Nora was down.
All attention turned to Ren as he went to town on the arm holding him, trying to free himself from the beast's clunches. He was screaming in anger at the beast, and Jaune could only show empathy towards his friend. Ruby gave Ren a helping hand as she slashed the back legs of the horse once more with Crescent Rose, causing it to squeal and let go of Ren. Ren took the time then to charge for the beast. Screaming and attacking with no real strategy.
"Ren!" Jaune shouted; realizing what his friend was doing, he was flailing trying to hit the Grimm, not for himself, but for Nora. "Knock it off Ren!" Ren couldn't respond, as within his bloodlust, didn't see that one of the beast's arms were closing in on him. With a swift grab Ren was in the air and within moments splashed onto the ground dropping his weapons before the Nuckelavee tossed him aside; landing him next to Nora, who had propped herself up against a wall and Magnhild to try to regain aura. Ren's aura was nearly depleted by his actions; he was effectively out of combat.
Jaune gritted his teeth; within moments half of the team had been knocked out; leaving him and Ruby to fight on. The horse neighed a little hoarse as it retracted its arms back. Before slowly starting to rub one of its hooves on the wet stones; trying for traction. Jaune gasped and transformed his weapon back into its normal sheath and sword mode. He knew exactly what this was. He had seen horses do this back home in Domremy. It was about to charge, as it looked directly at Ren and Nora.
Jaune ran. It was the only thing he could do to save his friends, even though he saw Nora duck under on the building dragging Ren with her. It was too late to change his mind. He needed to protect them. With a swift move, he pulled Crocea Mors out and tugged on his sheath; transforming it back into its shield form. He waited as the beast thundered down towards him, bracing for the impact the moment it hit him.
Wham!
Ruby just watched from across the field as Jaune used all of his strength to hold the Nuckelavee back; his shield cracking under the hoove's pressure. Ruby knew she needed to help her best friend out, but how? How could she help him. She figured out how, she started to run and use her petals to run right up to the Grimm. Transforming herself back and using the momentum she had gained, she slashed under the horse's stomach, the sounds of bones cracking as the beast squealed from the attack. She came to a stop next to Jaune and smiled at him, that had nearly taken the wind out of her.
That wind thought came back to bite her as the Nuckelavee started to focus on her now. It tried to slam down it's arm only for it to fall onto the ground as it landed in a bush of rose petals. The rose petals moved in the wind and reformed behind the abomination. With a warning shot; Ruby aimed at the back of the skull of the humanoid body.
The beast turned around and roared an hellish, nearly blood curdling scream as it reached out for Ruby, only for her to repeat herself; with each attempt by the Nuckelavee, she dodged them and returned the attacks with her own bullets. Ruby started to use buildings to her advantage to damage the beast's arms when they tried to slack her. If she could distract it; she could give them time to prepare.
Jaune turned back under the building to see Ren and Nora still talking to each other; with Nora returning Ren's knife to him as they started to pull themselves out from under the abandoned building. Ruby sooted alongside them, looking at all three of her teammates for a moment. She and Jaune needed to do the heavy lifting, as they all watched a strike of lightning hit the one of the buildings. Nora smiled at the others. "Can you all get it in one spot? She pointed to the tower she and Ren were pinned to earlier. "I have an idea."
Ruby smiled, she had a semblance of an idea of what Nora was doing. "Me and Jaune can get the arms. Ren?"
Ren looked at his knife. "I can take care of it once the horse is dealt with."
Nora's face grew a smile it had not had all day. "That's what I'm here for!"
Ruby nodded. "Alright RNJR! Let's go!" With that the team split up, Ruby grabbed Nora and slowly carried her up towards the tower, while Ren played distraction for Jaune to get in position. Once Nora was situated though, Ruby saw that clearly there was an issue in their plan.
Jaune wasn't able to handle it alone, he was really struggling. Ren tried to get it's attention but the beast focused on Jaune. 'No!' Ruby thought to herself as she saw Jaune get picked up and thrown towards one of the buildings, hitting with a loud crack. Ruby zipped down as a ball of rose petals from the top of the tower. She reformed a lot closer to the Nuckelavee and rained a shower of bullets; some of her last into the beast to catch its attention once more as she transformed Crescent Rose to use it as a hook to swing under the beast, dealing damage as she flew under.
Ruby landed again as the beast turned to her and lashed out onto her instead, causing her to return to the tactic of trying to use the buildings to slow the arms down. Eventually she had managed with Ren's help to get it below the tower while Jaune rested. The beast swung at both of them; nearly knocking Ren out again. 'No; we can't end this here, not like this!' Ruby thought to herself as she watched in horror, as she got up and started to swing at the beast. She needed to slow it down.
The Grimm stared at her, clearly still in pain at her attempts on its legs, but returned to face Jaune. It turned to face him directly as it groaned. Its arms' lashing out towards Jaune. 'No!' Ruby's heart was racing as she realized what it was doing. Ruby felt her heart stop for a moment as Jaune was thrown from his spot and into the tower where Nora was standing above, his aura shattering as he groaned in pain, his sword having been thrown. He was defenseless. 'Anyone but him, take me instead!' Ruby gulped and transformed into her petal form, hoping to beat the arms when they struck again.
There was no way she would let him get hurt seeing how it utterly demolished Ren and Nora. She had failed Ren and Nora already. She needed Jaune; she needed him safe. Her mind now had one thing on mind. Protecting Jaune from this beast, the others could wait. Uncle Qrow could wait. Jaune needed her.
"Jaune!" Ruby's voice was heard as she reformed in front of him, arming herself to protect him. The sounds of thunder above were met with a sudden flash. The whole world was engulfed into a white void.
Jaune opened his eyes; an arm was inches from in front of him and Ruby, it hit the floor with a loud crack as if it was made of stone. He just opened his hands as Ruby's figure slowly tipped backwards, he caught her softly in his arms, as she closed her eyes, her eyes having a silver glow to them. Qrow would have to tell them just what did she just do, this was not her semblance, nor anything he had seen aura do before. His eyes trailed up the stone arm to see the Nuckelavee's whole horse section and most of its arms were now stone. The beast was screaming in pain.
The pain from its screams was horrible but Jaune pushed through, as he heard Ren shout. "Nora!" The ground shook as Nora slammed Magnhild into the back of the horse; cracking the thing in half as Magnhild came to rest. The Impish body struggled to move as Nora came around for a second round. Nora slammed down the horse head, turning it to dust. The rains kept coming down as Ren took center stage.
The Nuckelavee was in horrible pain, as it's Impish body realized it was done for. Parts of it were still stone, and it had lost its legs and horse companion. Ren grabbed the knife his father had given him and walked in front of Ruby and Jaune. The beast gave out one more groan from the knife being pulled out. Eyes met for the first time in years. Ren grabbed the knife and got it ready.
'For my mother.' Ren slashed open the right arm of the beast; freeing it and turning the whole thing into dust as the beast groaned more.
'For my father.' Ren slashed the left arm open; and Jaune watched as the arm slowly crumbled in front of his eyes.
'For all those that you've slain.' Ren thought as he slashed the beast across the chest. It was flailing helplessly around; trying to avoid being hit again.
Ren took a breath. "For Ruby and Jaune." He grabbed a hold of one of the antlers of the Nuckelavee and sliced right through with a long slice.
"For Nora!" Ren shouted as he repeated it on the other antler; however leaving enough room to hold onto it still as he took one another breath and closed his eyes.
"For myself!" He shot his eyes open and slammed the knife into the neck of the Nuckelavee; slicing the head cleanly off with a loud wail. The whole Grimm slowly started to transform into a cloud of black smoke. Ren took a sigh of relief; there would have been no other way to stop the beast without Ruby's help. He dropped the knife and instantly felt Nora hug him as they tumbled in the rain.
Jaune sighed as he got a hold of Ruby; putting her on his back; he carried her to her uncle. He sighed to himself. There was no way they could carry both Ruby and Qrow to Mistral at this rate.
A voice cracked out. "It's quiet…" Qrow's eyes opened to stare at Ruby and Jaune. He gasped a little as Ruby was put next to him.
"S-she's asleep, she did something that froze the Grimm." Jaune couldn't stop the tears from falling from his eyes; as he tried to rub them.
Qrow just looked and smiled. "You did good then kiddo."
Before Jaune could reply there was the sound of a whistle. Ren's voice came from around the corner. "Guys!"
Jaune turned and lifted both Ruby and Qrow up, clearly struggling to carry both of them as Ren pointed. There running to them was a taller man dressed up in hunting gear.
"We heard the screams and the smoke; is everyone ok?!" the man shouted as he gazed over the group, his mask hid most of his face, though a scar was clearly visible starting from his right ear going down past the mask.
Nora looked at Jaune, she was slowly coming to terms that they had won but still needed to get Qrow and Ruby to safety. "We've got two wounded, one needs medical treatment as soon as possible, he's poisoned."
The man nodded and pulled out his scroll. "I found the reason for the screaming and the smoke; there were a bunch of students fighting something here. They need medical treatment though, it's bad." The man smiled. "Come on; I'll carry the man who's poisoned for you all; you all must be tired; just what did you face?"
Ren picked up his weapons as he squatted down to latch the knife to his shoe, tears of joy falling from his face. "The Nuckelavee."
The man sighed. "Well; bless you all then. The Nuckelavee's been trouble around these parts for nearly a decade and a half. You've done Mistral a favor; I'm sure the council can reward you all, must of been quite the walk as well based on how dirty your outfits are."
"We… just want to get to the city right now." Nora said as they made their way to the back skirts of the city; there was a locomotive in steam, with a load of cars behind it.
"Welcome aboard." The man said as he pulled open the front boxcar, which looked and felt like it was gonna come apart. The only real markings on the car was the logo of the long since gone Mistral Trading Company still a soft faded white on the blue boxcar, clearly this car had seen years of work for how rusty it was. "Get in, by train we're about 30 minutes from the hospital, we'll get this Huntsman to it."
They all got into the boxcar. Jaune propped Ruby against a wall as they set off towards Mistral. Ruby's hand stirred once Jaune put his own hand into it. He wasn't exactly sure what Ruby did or even if she was ok, but he knew he had to be there for her; no matter what happened. Qrow had a lot to talk about once he woke up, at least when Ruby woke up. If she would wake up soon. Jaune sighed to himself as he looked over to Qrow across the room. He just hoped Ruby would be ok, at least her hand stirring was a sign.
Ren and Nora just looked at each other as the trees brushed by. Ren slowly gripped onto Nora's hand, and once they met eyes, Nora scooted closer to him. Both giving each other gentle smiles; they had finally defeated the Grimm that haunted their past, the thing that had brought them together; now they could move forward. With a whistle they turned to see a "Welcome to Mistral Yards." sign and beamed.
They had made it, as a team. Team RNJR.