A/N: Woo hoo! Next chapter! Enjoy!
Jaune leaned as fast as he possibly could, the blade only able to make a shallow cut on his shoulder. Falling to his side, Yang sprung, fist thrusting out to attack the assailant. It met resistance against the face of the attacking man, flinging him backwards.
Jaune had just enough time to stand up shakily and draw his sword when several people rained down on the group, not a single word or sound heard as they dropped down. On the other side however, there was a lot of confusion and shouting, as Unit ARC tried to figure out what was happening and how they could have gotten such a jump on them.
Jaune in particular was stunned, so much that he was being pushed back by a pair of swordsmen, a girl and a guy with no expressions on their faces, their pupils glowing purple.
How did they slip past the shout? Doesn't that show everything around me with a beating heart?
Vedrahgol was quick to answer.
How else do you think they did it? Their hearts aren't beating, Maldovah. Now concentrate!
Jaune ducked under the blade and drew in a breath, shouting, "Fus Ro Dah!" blasting the two backwards and slamming them into trees. Taking the brief respite, Jaune turned to see Yang taking on three people, dodging and weaving through them while occasionally blasting them backwards with a punch or shotgun blast. Jaune went to help Yang, but was intercepted when the pair that he had just blown back fell on him again, forcing him to pull out his shield and deflect a blade, jabbing out with Crocea Mors. Cursing at himself, Jaune decided that he was going to need to dispatch these two before having to worry about anyone else.
Parrying one blade, Jaune slammed his shield into the chest of the male swordsman, pushing him back long enough for Jaune to swing the flat of his sword at the female, striking hard enough to stagger her back, Jaune hearing an audible crack as he broke her neck.
With one out of the way, Jaune turned his attention towards the man, who charged recklessly at Jaune, who smartly sidestepped and smacked the guy across the face with his pommel, sending him onto the ground. As his blood started to pump, Jaune let out a vicious snarl and stomped onto the man's neck, hearing a faint snap.
Yes!
Jaune faltered as he realized what he had just done, horrified when he felt a surge of satisfaction in doing it. He had just killed a person, and he felt stronger and keener for another fight than he's ever been. The thought of that made a part of him sick, but mostly just hungry to get into another fight.
As indecision wracked his body, he didn't notice when the swordswoman stood up and jabbed him with her sword, the tip sinking into his lower back. A pained gasp escaped his mouth and he twirled around, reflexively letting out a shout and setting the woman on fire, who simply ignored the flames and continued to attack Jaune.
What the hell are these things?! Jaune raised his shield to block the blade, stepping back to avoid getting too close to the flaming woman.
They are the undead. Imaar must have used necromancy to resurrect your fallen soldiers, bending them to do his bidding.
The sword swings started to slow down as the fire finally started to affect the woman, if only because it was burning through the muscle and tendons that allowed her to swing and use the sword. Jaune used that opportunity to use a shout on her, blasting her backwards once more, except this time, when she hit a tree, she exploded into a purplish dust. There wasn't any time to relax though, as Jaune faced the male swordsman, broken neck and everything, when the knight turned around.
Imaar can bring the dead back to life? How's that even fair?
Vedrahgol let out an amused chuckle, shaking his enormous head. It is funny how you think a war can be fought fairly.
Jaune let the sword graze against his shield, using the vulnerable motion to step forward and bash the zombie swordsman again, sending him back a few paces. Jaune didn't let up on his pressure, and stepped forwards once again, holding Crocea Mors in both his hands, thrusting the sword deep into the chest of the undead man.
The swordsman wailed, opening his mouth as he exploded into dust. What Jaune didn't expect was flames to also explode from within the body, expanding outwards before fading completely.
When he turned to look at the his teammates fighting, he saw several of the undead Huntsman on fire, not even bothering to fight at that point, instead fleeing into the woods. The fire seemed to have brought a fear that Jaune didn't know zombies even had. Everyone else looked at him, disbelieving stares on their faces. The dragon hunter pointed at the fleeing mass.
"Those guys are dead and are under Imaar's spell! We can't let them get away!"
The unit mobilized under Jaune's command, no hesitation in their movements as they gave chase, intent on weakening the Dragon Priest's forces.
It wasn't a long chase, as the undead turned back around to fight again once the flames subsided, intent on bringing the group down. That didn't happen, as Unit ARC knew they had the beings on the back foot, and as Jaune impaled a few more walking corpses, the unit discovered that every time he did so causes an explosion that threw flames outwards, sticking onto any of the undead and causing them to go into a mass panic, something that didn't catch Unit ARC off guard again.
As they got rid of the last of the zombies, Unit Arc fell off their feet, exhausted at the suddenness that had just occurred to them.
"How did that even happen?" Weiss asked, wiping some sweat off of her forehead. "I thought your semblance could see things like this." The tone was slightly accusing, but Jaune didn't think anything of it, knowing that he had messed up.
"Yeah. Apparently the undead don't get noticed by my shout. Which sucks." Jaune rested his forearm over his arms, panting.
"Wait a second. Are you saying that we just fought zombies?" Nora's tone was incredulous, but there was a sparkle in her eye and a grin on her face. Turning to Ren, she shook him hard. "Ren! We just fought zombies! We're zombie hunters now!"
Jaune nodded, agreeing with Nora somewhat, which was the most anyone could ever agree with Nora. "Yeah, they're zombies, to put it in simpler terms."
"That's not disheartening at all." Weiss frowned at the thought, before turning her attention fully on Jaune. "And what was that that you were doing? How come every one of those things exploded when you stabbed them?" Jaune glanced down at his sword, which dully reflected the sunlight hitting against it.
"I have no idea." Jaune said, consulting his dragon-soul, who didn't seem to have a concrete answer either.
It is a weapon of the Divines. I have a hard time figuring that stuff out.
"Well, whatever it is, I'm glad we have it." Yang breathed out, leaning against Jaune. "We'll just get Jaune to handle the zombies next time." Jaune cast an playfully annoyed glance at her, shoving her softly off of him with his shoulder.
"Maybe we should just get you angry and throw you in the middle of them all, seeing as how fire seems to set them off." Jaune shot back. Yang chuckled at that, lightening the mood of the group, who smiled along, happy that they had all gotten out of that in one piece.
Pyrrha stood up abruptly, startling Cardin, who sat next to her.
"I think I'm going to go have a lookout to see if there are any more of them out there." Without another word she disappeared into the woods, leaving everyone to raise their eyebrows in question.
Obliviousness was one thing that anyone could attribute to Jaune, but even he was getting an inkling of what was wrong, and got up to his feet too.
"Actually, I think I'll go and make sure Pyrrha's alright." Jaune said softly, getting an encouraging nod from Yang. As he disappeared into the woods to follow his partner, Yang looked around the site, before exhaling loudly and letting her body fall completely to the floor, completely tucked out.
"Pyr, wait!"
The Amazon stopped in her tracks but didn't turn around, hand resting on one of the tree trunks. Jaune's boots crunched against the fallen leaves and he went to catch his breath. It hadn't taken long for him to catch up to Pyrrha, but he had already been winded and tired from the fight that they all had, and wasn't completely recovered yet.
When he was finally able to speak without sounding like he was drowning, Jaune stood up straight looking uncertainly at his partner. "Are you alright Pyrrha?" He asked carefully, taking a step forward.
There wasn't a vocal answer, but the Amazon nodded, not moving an inch otherwise. Jaune frowned at that, and took another step closer.
"Pyrrha, please turn around and talk to me."
"…Why?" Came the quiet reply, voice shaking slightly as the girl talked. One step was followed by several more until Jaune was close enough to touch Pyrrha, resting his hand on her shoulder softly, his tone matching in gentleness.
"Because I can't be sure you're alright unless you look at me and talk to me." Jaune said, trying to coax her to turn around. He ignored the rushing of blood that commanded him to just spin her around and berate her for worrying him like that, knowing that doing so would only worsen the situation.
Pyrrha shook her head, hand turning into a fist as she scraped the bark off of the tree with how hard she was gripping it. Jaune continued to try and convince her to turn around.
"Pyr, please. If you aren't going to turn around, at least talk to me. That's what partners do, right?"
It took a little while longer before she spoke.
"I'm alright Jaune. Please, I just need to be left alone." Jaune didn't even believe that, hearing her voice shake so much that her words were practically vibrating, and her whole body shaking too.
"No you aren't Pyrrha. Please, just talk to me." Jaune repeated, hand gripping tightly for a second. She spun, angry tears on her face and she snapped at him.
"How would you know if I was okay or not?! You've been too busy to pay attention to me!"
Jaune flinched at the outburst, but wasn't able to say anything in his defense.
"I'm supposed to be your partner! Your friend! But… It seems like I'm always the last person to find out anything about you!" Pyrrha stepped forwards and pushed Jaune, causing him to flop onto his behind.
She stood there, trembling as tears spilled from her face, making Jaune feel worse and worse by the second. Standing up, Jaune reached out and hugged her, hoping that it would help, if only just a little.
"I'm sorry Pyr. I sorry. I don't mean to be like that." Jaune whispered quietly, letting Pyrrha shake and sob. Neither said a word while this happened, Jaune just allowing her to let it all out, simply stroking her back and occasionally whispering apologies to her. Finally she was able to calm down, and stepped back away from Jaune, rubbing the tears of out her eyes.
"I-I'm sorry Jaune." Pyrrha was always one quick to apologize, not wanting to hurt anyone through any action of hers. "That was wrong of me to say. I know you've been having your own problems and I shouldn't assume that you should tell me everything about what's happened to you."
The knight shook his head, frowning at the fact that Pyrrha was still pushing the blame onto herself even when it was all his fault.
"Don't blame yourself Pyr. You're right, I've been holding back on you and I hadn't even noticed. I'll be better. I promise." Jaune nodded, smiling at her. Pyrrha smiled back tentatively.
"And an Arc never goes back on his word." She completed for him, knowing exactly what he would say next. The boy chuckled, nodding in agreement. They stood there quietly for a minute, before Jaune spoke again.
"Pyrrha, about… Yang and I…" Jaune wasn't sure how to start this, and looking at Pyrrha's hurt face, he wasn't sure he wanted to continue. Pyrrha was quick to relieve Jaune of this though, shaking her head and smiling.
"I'm glad that you've found someone for yourself Jaune. I'm… happy for you." The smile on her face wasn't entirely convincing, but Jaune was forced to let it go, happy that she was just talking to him. Nodding Jaune tilted his head to the side, pointing to where their group of friends were.
"Come on, let's get back to our friends."