Jaune's arms felt like lead as he reflected the scythe for the umpteenth time. Every Night for the last week, he and Ruby had combined their guard shifts in order to spar at night. The resulting hours had been a practice in self punishment for Jaune. Every time, he would find himself pushed to the brink to even defend against Ruby's superior speed. He wasn't complaining of course; the break neck pace meant that he saw improvements practically every time they sparred. He had only been hit directly about a dozen times tonight; there was barely even any blood.
Ruby stopped a few feet in front of Jaune, her hair slick with sweat. Breathing heavily, she considered her haggard opponent. While he was still far behind on offence, his defense had certainly grown. Ruby was tiring herself just hitting him so often.
Ruby had quickly found that she was not the natural teacher that Pyrrha had been. The ability to explain fighting in a step by step manner simply escaped her. As a result, Ruby had chosen an alternative method, trial by fire. Every night, she would go until his aura was practically zero. It took just a little bit more out of her every time, which she assumed meant that Jaune was progressing. Tonight Jaune had managed to last for over an hour, but that was simply because he had adopted a purely defensive strategy over the last few nights. As inexperienced a teacher as she was, Ruby knew that would get him nowhere. She had to change things up if he was going to keep improving.
Jaune sat behind his shield uncertainly, waiting for the scythe wielder to resume her assault. Even so he was unprepared as his shield was ripped from his arm, replaced by a shower of rose petals.
"Alright Jaune," Ruby tossed his shield behind her, burying it in snow, "So what are you going to do now?"
Ruby redoubled her assault, Jaune rapidly backpedaling as he desperately parried Crescent Rose. A particularly heavy backhanded swing by Ruby knocked Jaune to his knees.
Jaune watched as Crescent Rose descended on him, looking for the finishing blow. He could barely even lift his arms; even if he could he wouldn't have the strength to block a direct swing. He stared through a thick veil of exhaustion as the scythe fell towards him… and then seemed to grind to a halt. Jaune felt a faint strength return to his limbs, and his arms began to move before he even really knew what they were doing. Crescent Rose began its travel anew, but now found itself grating along Jaune's bracer. The blade slid harmlessly past Jaune's head as he ducked beneath Ruby's swing, extending his other arm to stab at the young huntress. The point of Crocea Mors found her aura, flashing for a brief second at the contact, before Ruby was again replaced by nothing but rose petals.
"Jaune? What was that?" Ruby questioned from the other side of their makeshift battleground.
"I-I don't really know. Your scythe was just moving so slow and I - I…" Jaune's legs gave out beneath him, leaving him passed out in a snow drift. Ruby sighed, then picked up her friend. She made the short walk to camp and laid the exhausted knight in his bedroll.
Jaune awoke to the morning sun's harsh gleam in his eyes. He stirred restlessly, but immediately regretted it; while his large aura had healed the majority of his pains, he was still certainly sore from the previous night. Jaune lay there motionless, attempting to summon the will to stand. After a few seconds of concentration, he noticed soft murmuring from around the campfire.
"So do you really think you saw it?" Nora whispered excitedly.
"I don't know," Ruby said in exasperation, "I mean it had all the signs, but I didn't see him do anything really. I saw a flash in his eyes, and that move would have been difficult even if he had been fresh. But that was it really, there was nothing else to it."
"Some do manifest in much quieter ways than super strength and speed, Ruby," Ren reminded her gently.
Super strength? Speed? They couldn't mean his semblance. Jaune thought back to the previous night. He had managed to block Ruby with that last strike. He remembered the electric feeling that had come with it, but he hadn't done anything particularly noteworthy. No, the rush must have been adrenaline, nothing he had done denoted a semblance.
"Well I guess there is only one way to find out!" Nora said as she leapt away from the campfire, reaching for Magnhild.
"NORA!" Ren roared, but he was too late. Nora was already flying towards Jaune, her war-hammer arcing towards his head.
"JAAUUUNNEEE!" Nora sung happily as she came hurtling towards her leader.
Jaune's eyes snapped open, barely moving fast enough to avoid getting his head turned into paste. As he struggled to his feet, Nora's second swing caught him in the sternum. He soared gracefully through the air before his momentum was stopped dead by a tree. Lungs gasping for air, Jaune got back on his feet as Nora charged him once again. Jaune realized that if he did nothing, Nora would end up seriously hurting him. But he had nothing to defend himself, Crocea Mors still wrapped snugly in his bedroll. Utter fear ran through Jaune as Nora's hammer once again traced a path towards him.
Jaune felt a familiar surge of energy, and the hammer began to slow. Jaune watched in fascination as the hammer ground to a near halt, Nora looking as if she were moving through molasses. Jaune could still feel the energy running through the hammer, could tell its speed and trajectory. He knew what to do.
Ren and Ruby had stepped forward to stop Nora before she hurt Jaune, but both watched in fascination as their help became unneeded. Jaune evaded Nora's strike with seemingly ridiculous ease. As the swing carried her around, Jaune pushed her slightly to throw her off balance. Nora used the change to jump away, swaying slightly to regain her balance once she landed. She stared appraisingly at Jaune before rushing in again, swinging with renewed vigor. The scraggly blonde evaded or blocked almost all of her strikes, but it was becoming noticeably more difficult to anyone observing. Nora eventually added a grenade powered swing to the mix, forcing Jaune to do an uncharacteristically tricky flip. Unfortunately, Nora had anticipated his move.
Jaune was three fourths of the way through the flip before he realized his mistake. Nora's foot was hurtling towards his defenseless form. Or at least, he assumed it would be hurtling if it weren't so slow. However, try as he might, he saw no way out. Frozen in the air as he was, there just wasn't anything he could do but absorb the kick. He pulled his arms in front of his face for defense as everything resumed its normal pace. Nora's kick connected, burying Jaune in a snowdrift ten yards away. When he eventually clambered out, his team was surrounding him and smiling.
"Jaune, that was so cool!" Nora squealed, "How were you doing that?"
"It seems you have your semblance, my friend," Ren said quietly as he offered his hand to the struggling knight. "I would like to hear your side of it, from out here it looked quite fascinating."
"Sorry about Nora, Jaune," Ruby mumbled, "let's get you back by the fire."The group made their way back to the camp. All three sat quietly around Jaune as he attempted to explain what he had experienced between mouthfuls of breakfast.
"Fascinating," Ren said as Jaune completed his explanation. "Ruby, does that sound like your speed at all?"
"Not really. Whenever I start moving, everything becomes kind of a blur," Ruby thought for a moment, " plus he said he was moving just as slow as Nora."
"True," Ren sat perplexed as Nora and Jaune cut into a fifth bag of rations, " I've never heard of a semblance quite like this. Simply put, it seems that Jaune has near limitless reaction time. From what he said, it sounds like it almost turns a fight into a game of chess. He can take as long as he wants to make a decision, but as was the case with Nora's kick he can obviously still be checkmated. This could prove invaluable in our mission. Good work, Jaune."
Jaune paused for a moment to let the information to sink in. It was certainly a bizarre semblance, but it had allowed him to go toe-to-toe with Nora and survive. Jaune stared at his friends, Ren still thinking and Nora barely taking time to breathe as she ate. Ruby was staring happily into the morning sky. Jaune looked down at his hands. They had grown coarser since they began, stronger. He could make a difference now, he was strong enough to defend himself. He was strong enough to actually help these warriors. Jaune stared up into the sky, a sad smile dancing across his face. I just wish she was here to see it.