A/N: And another one. Enjoy!
Most of his life, Jaune was considered somewhat of a genius, even though it was really alchemy that allowed him to be so. And so, most of his life Jaune had it easy, understanding things that were taught to him (usually he had to teach himself a lot of things) and it wasn't very often that Jaune was either speechless or dumbfounded.
And so, Jaune was able to get a little bit of practice in as Mirisu started to laugh, pointing at him with a deadly sharp finger.
"Oh, I should have brought a camera or something! That look on your face… absolutely delicious." The purple-haired girl grinned maliciously, placing her hands on her hips, posing almost seductively. Despite still being dressed quite modestly, it still brought attention to her chest and hips, areas that made it difficult for Jaune to look her straight in the eye.
"W-what are you?" Jaune asked, hands clenching. Mirisu frowned at Jaune, eyes big, pretending to be wounded by the question.
"Aw Jaune. You can't ask that to a girl. It's kind of rude." Mirisu nodded, looking at her fingers, which had momentarily turned back into normal human fingers. Jaune took a step away from the girl, mind racing, thinking of a way to survive this.
Professor Goodwitch was still trapped behind him, knocked cold. The only way out that Jaune could see was behind Mirisu, and Jaune had a feeling that she wasn't going to just let him walk past with his professor in his arms if he asked nicely. Jaune had a tight enough grip on Crocea Mors that it was shaking, nothing too dramatic, but enough that Mirisu could see.
With another smirk, the girl took a step closer, causing Jaune to fall into a stance that he hadn't used ever since he began fighting with his sword. Sword raised high, body slanted, Jaune kept his shield forward and his legs bent slightly, so that the sword could cover almost all of his body.
"Aw," Mirisu pouted, putting a finger on her lips, tilting her head sideways. "I think it's a little rude to point weapons at a lady, isn't it?" The finger trailed down to her collarbone, striking another seductive pose. Jaune still didn't say anything, mind continuing to race along to find a solution.
"Could you kindly step out of the way and let me through?"
Mirisu's eyebrow rose, and she gave a short laugh. "Oh, so you can be polite. How sweet. You know what? Go ahead." With that, the girl stepped to the side, sweeping her hands majestically to show Jaune the door, almost bowing to go along with the motion. Jaune blinked in surprise, keeping his shield up. Slowly backing up again, he tried to get closer to Professor Goodwitch.
Mirisu thrust a hand out, a single claw extending at incredible speeds.
Jaune hadn't fought with his shield in a long time, but it didn't take a genius to use one effectively. And after training for so many years using just his metal arm as a shield against his father, Speed Demon Nicholas Arc, the shield was a lot easier, being a lot bigger. It didn't take much to raise his arms a little higher to protect himself.
A quiet thud echoed behind Jaune as the claw landed a ways away from him. Jaune gave a quick glance backwards, to see that the finger had buried itself a few inches away from where Professor Goodwitch lay.
"Oh, but I think she can stay here."
Jaune was stuck, frozen. He had several options, none of which were savory to choose from. He could leave Professor Goodwitch behind and gather up the rest of his team, but Jaune didn't even know if Mirisu would actually let him leave. He also didn't know what she would do with the professor if he just left here. He could stand here and fight… but that didn't seem like a good idea either. Or…
"Why're you doing this?" Jaune asked. Mirisu withdrew her claw, before using it to tap against her lips. Shrugging, she smiled at Jaune.
"Because it's fun. Now, what's your choice? Leave? Or stay?" She wasn't having any of it, not bothering to answer any of Jaune's questions, perceptive enough to know when someone was trying to stall for time.
Looking around, Jaune could see the animals surrounding him again, many of them having woken up after Mirisu had crept down. Almost none of them made a sound though, simply staring at the girl.
"Do you like them?" Mirisu noticed his glances at the creatures, a pleasant thrill running down her spine. "I made them myself. Found them from around here, and though 'oh, they must be so bored with it all'. I mean, I certainly am." This time, when the girl smiled, Jaune swore he could see teeth as pointed as icicles.
"Many of them objected. Violently." Mirisu's voice sounded sulky, as if she was a little girl who owned a disobedient dog. "So I tore out several vocal cords." Again she smiled that horrifying smile. "I don't know if it was painful or not. Probably because they couldn't really scream."
Every word that came out of the girl's mouth chilled Jaune to the bone more and more. Things were starting to fall in place for him. For the last hour or so, Jaune had been desperate to find the missing puzzle pieces that would unlock the bigger picture. Now he's been thrown handfuls of the pieces at the same time, and it took a lot of scrambling to straighten the image out.
"I'm still waiting for that answer. If you don't choose soon, I'll choose for you, Alchemist."
Jaune's heart picked up speed at the mention of alchemy, his hands starting to grow a little clammy.
"The stone in the middle of the fountain." Jaune decided to ignore the warning for now, sure that he could protect himself if the monster standing in front of him decided to lose patience and pounce. "That was a philosopher's stone, wasn't it?"
Mirisu growled lowly, a little upset that Jaune hadn't chosen yet, the tips of her fingers slowly forming into the pinpoint pricks.
"Of course it was. Those idiot villagers always did wonder why so many people died so often." A little laugh.
"Wait." Another puzzle piece thrown at him, this one not looking like any of the other ones sent his way. "What do you mean?"
"Huh?" Mirisu looked confused, before her eyes widened in realization. A short burst of giggles flew from her throat.
"Oh my. She was worried about you? When you don't even know about information as basic as that? Ah, she truly is overestimating you." Mirisu shook her head, almost in disappointment. "Well, nothing to worry about now. Time's up."
And with that, her claws weaved forward, intending to pierce through Jaune.
Raising his shield, the alchemist blocked almost every claw, one flitting through and striking his ankle, aura flaring briefly to protect that spot. The force that struck Jaune's shield surprised him, pushing him backwards and making him lose his balance briefly.
It was enough for the girl, who let her other hand burst forward as her first set of claws retracted. Jaune scrambled to clap his hands together, placing a few fingers onto his shield, causing it to expand large enough to cover his whole body. Unfortunately, it made the material as a whole thinner, allowing the claws to puncture through after a brief second of impact.
That was enough for Jaune, who had unstrapped his arm from the shield and clapped his hands again, placing them on the floor and bringing a section of it upwards, crashing into the ceiling, a much sturdier form of protection as he ran up to Professor Goodwitch, bringing his sword down with a clang, breaking a chain that held one of her limbs.
A resounding roar announced the entrance of Mirisu through Jaune's makeshift wall, carving a hole that she gracefully stepped through. Once she caught sight of him, she once again let loose, five fingers elongating and attempting to make a Jaune-kebab.
Sacrificing defense for offense, Jaune knelt down and slammed his hands against the floor, wincing a little as all five fingers crashed into him. A scream was heard from Mirisu, as a pole of earth rose to the ground and planted itself onto the chin of the girl, blasting her backwards. Jaune staggered into a standing position, Once again taking advantage of this time to transmute another wall separating Jaune and Professor Goodwitch from Mirisu, as well as striking another chain off of the teacher, allowing her the freedom of both her arms. The professor crumpled to the ground, nothing to hold her aloft, still knocked out cold.
Again, Mirisu blasted a hole through, looking a little peeved. Jaune however, was totally prepared, throwing something he had transmuted after he succeeded in striking the second chain at the purple-haired girl. The object exploded, a flash of light and deafening thunder released in her face, making her howl, more animal than woman.
While the sound did chill Jaune's blood, he took the time to do another transmutation, creating another rise of ground that blasted her back, this time also plugging the hole in the wall almost perfectly.
"That should hold for a little longer." Jaune muttered, before returning to the task of striking the rest of the chains apart.
"Enough of this." Jaune almost jumped in surprise as Mirisu spoke from behind. Slow to react, the girl backhanded him hard enough that he flew to the side, crashing against a wall of cages.
Again, aura protected him from any fatal injuries, but it still sure as hell hurt. Jaune groaned pitifully, trying to stand up before the claws flew over and struck him, nailing him onto the wall for a brief second, his aura protecting him enough so that he was punctured through. Again, before he could react, it happened again. His aura dutifully protected him, but flared a little weaker than before.
"Hmph. I still don't see what she's so worried about. You're barely fun enough to play with."
The claws struck him while he was laying down this time, making him grit his teeth in pain. Jaune didn't move from his position though, curling himself into a ball.
"Oh come on." Mirisu rolled her eyes as she stepped closer to the boy. "You can't possibly be giving up already. Man what a pushover." Bending over, she pulled him up into standing position, where Jaune smiled and opened his hands, releasing a bunch of gravel, transmuted to be a little sharper than natural, into Mirisu's eyes.
"Argh!" Mirisu staggered back, eyes blinded. While she did have fast regeneration, it was hard for her eyes to recover if the specks hadn't been removed yet. Feeling a sharp pain on her lower chin, she stumbled back even further as Jaune punched her.
Taking advantage of the blinding, Jaune didn't waste any more time trying to fight someone who would clearly outmatch him, Jaune ran towards Professor Goodwitch.
A sharp pain from one of his calves stopped him, making him topple over screaming. Jaune twisted his body to see one of Mirisu's claws cleanly stuck into his legs. The girl grinned, looking a lot less sexy with blood and gravel on her face as she blinked the obstructions away, some of it sticking onto her teeth.
"Alright." She breathed a little heavily, eyes glowing an unearthly color. "Not as bad as I thought you were. Still annoying. But something I definitely should put down now." Another claw sunk into his shoulder, causing him to scream again.
"And once I finish with you," She panted heavily, "I'll have some fun with your precious teammates." With a little twist of her fingers, Jaune was sent screaming again, vision swimming in and out of consciousness.
"No one messes with my students."
"Huh?" Mirisu looked up, not having much time to do anything else as an enormous ball of debris smashed into her body, sending her flying, her claws retracting out of Jaune.
"Wow—ow!" Jaune yelped. "Pulling out was way more painful that I thought!" He said, gritting his teeth.
"No time for jokes Mr. Arc. We need to get out of here." Jaune looked at the upside down Professor Goodwitch, no wait, he was the one upside down.
"Do you think you can beat her?" Jaune asked, hopeful. The professor frowned, shaking her head.
" I might've been able to, but she had injected me with something earlier. I can't seem to focus my powers enough to fight at full strength." Jaune nodded slightly, able to see the slight shaking of the professor's hands.
Okay. That was okay. With Professor Goodwitch awake, Jaune had another avenue of escape.
"Okay. I have a plan."
"I'm sure you do Mr. Arc. I hope it won't get us both killed?" Professor Goodwitch's eyes roamed, making sure Mirisu wouldn't pounce without them knowing. Jaune winced at the question.
"No. Er. Probably not." A small pause. "I'd give a 50/50 chance. Or maybe—"
"Please Mr. Arc." Professor Goodwitch sighed out, eyes closing briefly. "Just tell me what I need to do before our chances get any lower."
And so he told her.