After they all promised to never talk about what happened in the church and Qrow sharing some of his booze, the group took a final walk through the cleared majority of the Vytal Memorial Park. It was peaceful, serene even. Old buildings weren't covered in dense jungle, sand, snow, or ash, they were merely remains of a battle long past. The Grimm that engaged them were easily cut down. Without something to spawn more of them, they lacked numbers.
"Hmmm, I wonder, why do humans keep graves like these up?"
"To remember the dead." Was Qrow's answer.
"To remember our past." Was Winter's.
"To remember what awaits us." Was Jaune's.
"Hmmm." Talos remained silent on that for a moment, but accepted the answers they received. The group was taking a break before tackling the Colosseum. While there was no guarantee that it'd be a tough fight, given that it managed to take over the entirety of Vytal, which was the size of a moderately large city, it had to at least be somewhat dangerous.
Eventually though, they had to go to the center, where the Vytal Colosseum was.
"Huh, this is what the Amity Arena is based off of?"
"Yep." Qrow whistled, looking at the complex stonework and large arches. Parts of it were crumbling, whole section of it had collapsed, but most of it was still standing. "Centuries ago, this was the centerpiece of an empire. A century and a half ago, Valeans found it and built a city around it, rebuilding it. And decades later, another city would fall, but it stayed up." Qrow felt the wall, which definitely held the scars of age. It was weathered, with multiple layers of paint and pigment flaking off of the walls.
"When all side realized the war was unsustainable, both in resources and in popularity, they met in the ruins of the Vytal Colosseum." They were walking through the long halls that went around the large walls of the circular arena. They went up stairs, passed by ancient barracks, and occasionally looked at plaques detailing some history. "And it was in the center, where they had organized peace. It was here, where the Great War ended." Winter kept her hand on her saber. They hadn't encountered any marks of infection yet. But they could all sense something in the middle of the arena.
"And so, the modern era came upon us." And light met them as they walked out into the audience stands. Grand rows circled around the arena in the center. Tens of thousands of people would be in there, cheering, watching, and talking as fights were had in the arena, as speeches were made, as competitions were had. The arena was a relic of the past.
And in the center of it was a lion, fallen over, their chest cut open and leaking pitch black tar that crept in the four directions of the quarters. Except, the tar was receding back into the lion. Talos gripped onto their head and grunted as the voice grew louder and louder.
"I-I-I-It's saying something. I-It." Talos stopped before directly translating. "History repeats, the cycle continues. Wars are fought, then ended, then fought anew. Nations fight with others and themselves for minor deviations and the want of shiny rocks. War will come, for the wound of the past has never healed. It was merely closed. And it shall be torn open again." Talos began hyperventilating as they were let out of that trance. Qrow and Winter were wary, while Jaune was worried and came over to help Talos up again. "I-I'm sorry, it seems that the Elderkin is consolidating their influence. We must stop it. Now."
And so, the group of them ran down the audience stands of the Arena to begin to engage the Festering Scar. The slain lion on its side began twitching as the tar filled its insides once more. Its claws began to erratically come out and scratch at the air. Its hind legs tensed up as life and control filled it once more. Its eyelids opened and began bleeding the tar-like fluid. The lion began to grow in size, from the size of an Ursa Major, to that of a bullhead, to that of a truck. And then, it turned itself over and stood on four legs.
At that point, Jaune, Winter, and Qrow had dropped into the arena while Talos stayed in the stands to act as fire support.
The Festering Scar's black pus began bubbling as it dripped from its underside wound. The mane of the Festering Scar lit aflame, turning into a great plume of fire. Qrow gulped, sensing its power. Winter's grip on her saber tightened, this might be harder than anything they'd faced before. Jaune sweat, as his effect as dead weight was going to be more prevalent than before.
And then, the Festering Scar pounced. It leaped, kicking up clouds of dust, and smashed into the wall trying to squash the group. Qrow transformed and flew up while Winter flew to the side. Only Jaune, who didn't have the speed to dodge, held up his shield and felt himself being smashed between the lion of war and the ancient brick wall. He was smashed through it and was only saved from further attacks when Qrow fell down with Harbinger in hand. Though it barely made a scratch on the hide of the lion, it was enough of an annoyance to get its attention, allowing Jaune to rise from the rubble and charge back in, Crocea Mors in hand.
He felt fine, honestly. He came towards its side and avoided its wailing tail, the tip of which was akin to a large morningstar. He tried to stab it in the hind leg, only to find that its flesh was tough enough for Crocea Mors to barely get past the tip. Its leg kicked him, forcing him to put up his shield and simply go flying with the force. At least he didn't take too much damage, merely knock-back. Winter had come by and was making slashed at the Festering Scar, though it kept those scratches short, fast, and cautious to try and pinpoint a weak area they could target.
Only Qrow was brave enough to face the Scar head on, where he'd have to deal with its mouth full of razor sharp teeth and mane of flames. Talos was sticking to throwing javelins, occasionally throwing in a chakra or sword for the sake of it. In the months since they'd last met Jaune, they've been stocking up on material to use as weaponry. In particular, they've been stocking up on bones. Animal bones, some human ones, even experimenting with minerals from rocks. As a Geist, anything their possessed was considered part of their body. And with aura, they could more effectively manipulate those parts.
Winter wasn't having any luck on the sides, but noticed how Jaune had suddenly tried slipping under the Scar and came to the same realization: The open wound on its chest was probably the weak point. She lowered the angled for her glyphs and slide across, taking some slashes at the open and bubbling gut of the Festering Scar, moving quickly away before the liquid could drip on her. Jaune, meanwhile, used his shield as an umbrella while rapidly stabbing into the darkness, though he found that his blade stuck into goop instead of any flesh.
Meanwhile, Qrow was doing a fine job of not dying. Considering that a scratch from the Scar's claws could tear through steel beams and it was quick enough to almost catch up to him, that was a feat in of itself. He noticed what the kid and Ice Queen were doing and kept on playing bait, it was about time he did it anyways. Meanwhile, while poking at the insides of the Festering Scar through its belly slit, Winter thought about why it seemed like the Scar wasn't reacting. Then, she came to a conclusion based on what she saw before.
"Jaune! The real body is the tar! The skin is just a husk!" Jaune and Qrow heard and nodded. At that, Jaune leapt from the bottom and to the side right and began stabbing to get the attention of the lion. Qrow, doing the same math that Jaune did, realized that his scythe was probably their best bet of ripping the lion's skin off of the monstrosity. So, with little else, Qrow ran towards its flank as soon as it put immense pressure onto Jaune, who had the help of Winter in blocking and dodging its blows, and turned Harbinger into its scythe configuration. The hooked blade latched onto the edge of the skin, where its hide was cut. Then, with the help of glyphs, Qrow ran upwards and tugged.
And tugged.
And tugged.
And soon, black liquid spilled out at a higher rate, at a higher intensity. He had ripped it off about halfway, until-
Click!
A gun barrel popped out of the tar. Qrow turned into a bird and flew away in an instant as machine gunfire rang out, filling the space he just occupied with lead. Qrow reform and landed safely with the others just in time to watch as the Festering Scar took a transformation. With its skin halfway peeled off, it looked like it was bleeding ooze heavily. Where its legs used to be, there were thin mechanical limbs that stretched out of the pit that was its true body. And coming out from the wound like a bouquet were guns. Rifles, machine guns, smgs, pistols, shotguns, and all types of firearms were poking out of its side like the Arsenal Drake from before. And the flames that consumed its mane spread halfway to where its chest used to be, coating the Festering Scar with fire that made it inadvisable to touch.
And then, it began firing. Like the Arsenal Drake before it, the gunfire was intense and hard to deal with. Winter summoned a glyph just in time for Qrow and Winter to head to its side which wasn't covered in firearms. Jaune, knowing himself to be slower, simply kept up his shield and acted as bait. The Festering Scar, in retaliation, simply pounced on the helpless boy, taking off the pressure of the storm of lead, but instead giving new pressure in the hundreds of tons weighing on him. It also shifted itself in order to both slam into Jaune and also continue to fire on Winter and Qrow. Talos had also been subject to sniper and machine gun fire, to which they simply ran around the arena as the remarkably inaccurate fire blasted holes into the stone rows they were standing on.
Regardless, Talos sighed. They had targets now, approximately 1735 targets. All of them incredibly small. Well, it wasn't like they needed accuracy, just numbers. So, bending over into a huddle, they conjured forth thousands upon thousands of bones and stretched them thin. And with a crunch, they burst forth and arched their back so their whole frontside faced the sky. And suddenly, bone javelins flung out of their opened chest before the bone plate armor closed up once more. The hail of javelins flew through the sky before strafing towards the armed side of the body. Plenty were shot down, shattered and falling to the floor, but much much more flew and hit the side of the Scar, either poking into the ooze or hitting a gun, jamming the barrel, and causing them to misfire.
"That's the last of my reserves. I'll have to save up more." Talos remarked, before wondering once more. Anything that was a part of their body, huh? They did have the abilities of a Geist and all. They looked over and with the help of aura, they smashed the stone of a withering pillar to pieces. Grimm flesh came forth and began sucking up the rocks and pebbles and dust. They pooled up in their body before Talos began to morph them. And soon, in their hands, appeared a stone spike, one which Talos had no problem firing at the Scar.
With emotions radiating from them that approximated a smile, Talos began firing off more stone projecties with renewed vigor.
Meanwhile, Qrow and Winter weren't having as good of a time.
"You know, I've always wondered why they create terrain for most of the fights in the Vytal Tournament. It's only now that I realize why." Qrow dryly remarked.
"Oh, and pray tell, what is it?" Eyebrow twitching, Winter was holding up a glyph against the barrage of gunfire. Honestly, it wasn't even taking that much of a tole on her, it was just annoying being forced to sit back waiting behind a shield. She wondered how in the world Jaune did it.
"Because of this. Seriously, with the amount of guns people have, everyone would have to have a portable wall in every match to avoid this happening."
"I suppose so." Then, the hail of bone came and rained upon the bouquet of guns, giving Qrow and Winter the opportunity to rush in and try to destroy the weapons. Though, as soon as a few guns misfired, new barrels just came sticking out. And even mechanical arms and hands came out, acting as additional limbs to stand on while also swatting at the two hunters trying to go around and attack its unguarded flank. They were adept enough to twist and turn away from the extra limbs. Winter took the underside, slashing furiously at the guns present, while Qrow ran up, tearing up firearms as he went while avoiding the flames, and finally giving another tug at the skin.
They weren't disappointed when the skin gave way and was torn off once more, this time fully coming off, revealling the Festering Scar for what it truly was: A writhing blob of black blood of unimaginable depth. Thousands of mechanical bare-frame arms stuck out of it, providing leg after leg for the now flayed beast. And then, it took form once more as Talos continued to fling projectile after projectile at it and Qrow, Winter, and Jaune engaged its arms in combat.
Talos continued to make use of stone, metal, and wood to create weapon after weapon before tossing them at the Scar at high speeds, though it merely made a small splash whenever it hit the goop. Otherwise, it scratched and bent the metal limbs that continued to grow out of the blob, the limbs that served as yet another protective shell.
Talos sighed and pulled their spine blade out, might as well get in on the action properly.
Meanwhile, Jaune wasn't having the best of times. Fighting the Scar was turning out to be incredibly difficult, mostly because there weren't many ways to do damage to it. Destroying its metal shields merely made room for more of them to pop out. And its guns were incredibly annoying to deal with. Qrow and Winter were having similar thoughts, but Jaune, as the least experienced out of them all, was having it especially rough given how the attacks were coming from all angles. When Talos joined the fray, Jaune began to analyze the Scar to find some sort of weakness.
In the center was that ball of dark goop, which acted as a core. The metal was rather cheap and somewhat brittle, from what Jaune could tell. And the guns were all from the days of the Great War, so the ammo wasn't as advanced as, per say, an Atlesian machine gun loaded up with gravity dust rounds. It was just painful and annoying to deal with. A swing with Qrow's scythe would probably be able to tear off one of the arms, but then it'd just regrow. And Winter's glyphs were versatile, but without dust, they weren't exactly the best at offense. Meanwhile, Talos seemed to have a small landfill's worth of materials stuck in the-
Wait, maybe.
"Talos!" Jaune yelled while blocking gunfire and avoiding getting crushed by the metal fists. He knew he had gotten their attention when their head perked up. "Did you absorb any lightning dust!?"
Talos thought about it while avoiding the fire and slicing at the frames of the arms smashing into them. It took a moment of searching inwards to find an answer.
"Yes, what of it?" For some reason, their voice sounded like a whisper despite being loud enough to be heard over the sounds of metal smashing, bending, and groaning. As well as the sounds of Qrow and Winter grunting with every strike.
"GIVE IT TO WINTER! She'll know what to do!" Talos nodded and gripped their hand into a fist before producing one moderately small lightning dust crystal. It looked remarkably pure as well, with a bright and vibrant yellow instead of a dull one, on top of being almost totally transparent. Talos tossed it over to Winter, who instinctively caught the small object, and whose eyes widened when she realized what it was. Without wasting a second, she got Qrow's attention and used a bit of the lightning dust's energy to create a time dilation glyph under Qrow.
And then Qrow did what Qrow did best. Using the speed and his scythe, he ran onto the arm of the Scar and began bolting around the blob, tearing through metal, severing it from the arms that held it up, and eventually, causing it to fall to the ground with a loud and wet squelch. The blob became a puddle which bubbled and grew eyes. Grimm eyes.
Smoke began to billow out of the Grimm stain on the arena floor. A pillar rose, made of contorted flesh, bone, and eyes. Guns stuck out of it and at the top, it opened up to reveal a chain gun. A chain gun that began spinning. A chain gun that tilted downwards to look at the challengers to the Scar's authority, revealling eyes in the barrels. Eyes that gave way to proper chambers, which showed old lead. And then, it began to fire.
Once more, they were forced to run. Qrow bolted right towards it, Harbinger in hand and ready to cleave through the pillar of the Festering Scar. Meanwhile, Winter had used her glyphs to accelerate herself besides Qrow, intent on cutting it down as well. It had bent over to tower over Jaune and Talos, who weren't quick enough to move away. Talos, however, had his spine whip and grappled onto the head before it could pull back. Jaune noted his uselesness once more before sighing.
"C'MON! KEEP UP THE FIRE!" He yelled, channeling Wolf Gaze to get its attention. The Scar noticed and focused its artillery-shell sized fire on Jaune. Nearly a hundred shells fired per second. Most hit his shield. Every hit was another inch he was dragged back due to the sheer force and size of the shells. And still, Jaune kept his shield up. If he had to be the decoy dummy that got beat up, so be it.
Talos, meanwhile, was up on the Scar's head (for lack of a better comparison) and was trying to find a way to deal with it. Then, it noticed the bullets that were heading to chain gun to be fire. A thought came to their mind, which Talos acted on by simply taking their spine blade, and cutting the chain of giant bullets, thus severing the Scar's gun from its ammo. For this move, the Scar simply flailed about wildly to get rid of Talos while trying to reattach its ammo, given that since it couldn't fire anymore, why waste time focusing on the shield bearing one.
Jaune grunted as he recovered from the barrage, his aura pretty much fine after the event. All the while, Qrow and Winter were dodging gunfire while advancing quickly towards the base of the pillar. While Qrow used his avian form to avoid stepping in the goop, Winter liberally used her glyphs as platforms to spring off of as she dashed and slashed and thrusted at the pillar, carefully striking guns and unarmored points in order to systematically remove the Scar of its tools.
Talos, with much effort, actually managed to wrap the spine bladed chain around its neck on the low point of one of the Scar's bucks. And when it flailed backwards, it gave force to the chain, which cut into the (equivalent to) neck of the Scar, making the puddle below bubble and gurgle in pain. Suddenly, more and more pillars rose up and, catching them by surprise, grappled onto Winter and Qrow. Jaune, who was advancing towards the bunch, suddenly had two fully grown adults thrown at him, their auras sputtering. He had to lower Crocea Mors just so he didn't accidentally stab them (Even though aura would've protected them). Before he could recover, Talos was thrown at him as well, falling to the ground with a thump and grunt, their aura sputtered.
Qrow and Winter were still recoiling, but a large tentacle suddenly thrusted forward to try and get his friends while they were down. Jaune stepped forward with Crocea Mors and sliced it in two in the middle of its advance.
Only for the two halves to continue moving, this time towards him.
A hand gripped onto the tentacle further down before it could reach his eyes. Qrow's hand suddenly yanked on it. But the tentacle changed its focus with that. Jaune, who had stumbled backwards with the sudden advance of the two ended tendril, watched as Qrow was grabbed, squeezed, and smashed into the floor before a barrage of gunfire hit him. His aura sputtered and flickered before shattering. He began bleeding, a small puddle of crimson on the floor before him. His chest and legs were heavily wounded and filled with holes.
"Summer, comin' to see ya again. Sorry for being such a fuckup." Qrow was muttering now, eyes staring beyond.
Jaune's breathing grew heavy. Another dead. Another gone. Winter had gotten up, gasped upon seeing the body, but she recovered and charged forward with her saber. Jaune tried to help, but she was slammed by a mechanical arm and gunned down, her aura sputtering as well before shattering. Jaune couldn't scream.
"Sorry Weiss, Whitley, for not being there for you." Winter was down for the count as well. Talos tried getting up, but he was smashed as well, splattering into a puddle of cracked bone and Grimm flesh, the only identifiable mark of Talos was their leather jacket and barely kept together mask. And out rang a wispy and broken voice.
"S-s-so much, to see."
"No, no no nononononononononononoonononononononononono." Jaune was muttering, more dead, more to bury, more people whose families he would have to call. More grieving. More tears. More funerals. All because of his weakness. He was hyperventilating, tears running down his cheeks. The Scar merely looked on with half-hearted interest as the boy reached to all of his broken and dying friends, listening to their last words, and praying to whatever being would listen that they get another chance.
The Scar's guns began poking out of its flesh, ready for its final attack to end it all. Enough lead and gunpowder to tear through a city, enough metal to exterminate an army, and enough guns to arm one.
A light flowed from Jaune's hands and began to flow into his three fallen comrades. The bright light they were walking into was replaced by a different one, one that conveyed a spectrum of emotions.
Fear.
Anxiety.
Melancholy.
Hope.
Dread.
Loneliness.
Family.
Jaune looked up, thinking that he was about to die, but was met with a white glyph larger than he normally was used to, held up by who he thought was dying. But looking down, their blood had receded. Qrow's wounds were actively sealing themselves. Winter's were as well, additionally popping out the bullets from her flesh. Talos' mask rose as flesh and bone gathered up once more to form a familiar figure. They got up slowly, stretching their muscles, groaning as if they were just sleeping and not dying a few moments ago.
"B-b-b-bu-but, how?" Jaune's tears flowed further, he dared to hope that this wasn't a dying dream, that they were actually alive, and not dead because of his failure.
"Kid." Qrow's smile was manic and thankful. He had just stared death in the eye. Wasn't the first time, but it was sobering all the same. "It's going to take a lot more to kill me than that."
"Strange, I feel remarkably powerful. I was just brought from the brink of death, yet I feel ready to fight an army." Winter stretched her muscles, finding that her aura had been completely refilled. "And my glyphs-" As another barrage of tentacles came forth, Winter casually flicked her hand, causing dozens of glyphs to appear at once, all blocking a tendril each. "-It seems like you are very fortunate, Jaune. Your semblance seems to both be able to restore the aura of others, but also enhance our own semblances." Winter smiled.
Jaune was speechless, did his semblance allow him to save his friends? Well, it wasn't flashy, but honestly, if it allowed him to save more people, he'd gladly take it over something like super strength or speed. Seeing that the Scar was unleashing a relentless assault of spikes and tentacles, Jaune clung to Talos' hand and pumped it full of aura, trusting them to know what to do. And indeed, they did.
Their armor fell, leaving Jaune only clinging to a severed arm, as the flesh and bone spread like a goop, allowing Talos to possess the entire coliseum. And as the offending tendrils came forth to try and skewer them, giant spears and swords of stone with remarkably more detail than Talos was usually capable of making instantly flung out of the massive shadow Talos cast. Weapon after weapon came out, cutting tentacles after tentacle, and eventually the shadow consolidated into a giant looming hand with a bigger stone sword that bore down on the Scar pillar, tearing it in half.
Then, all of the flesh came back into the armor, newly sealed, and Talos was back to normal once more. They seemed a bit tired, but no worse for wear.
Suddenly, the hundreds of guns on the Scar began firing towards them. Jaune clung to Winter, who smirked as her capabilities were magnified. With a snap, the four of them disappeared as she whisked them away with the usage of glyphs. With another snap, the entire floor of the arena was covered with acceleration glyphs. Qrow smiled at the prospect of even more speed as he and Talos readied their weapons. Jaune clung to Winter to maintain the effect. And then, they went on the offensive.
Qrow pulled out Harbinger in its scythe form and began rapidly dashing around the pillar, cutting deep into its flesh with every dash by it. Talos extended their spine blade and essentially began flailing around a bladed whip while moving around at sonic speeds. Blurs of grey, red, white, and black were blitzing across the glyph covered landscape. Meanwhile, Jaune and Winter, who for better or worse had to keep holding hands, made use of what little resources they had. Jaune cracked open a flare and handed a handful of cheap fire dust to Winter, who smiled at the sight of opportunity.
Crushing it in her fist, hundreds upon hundreds of extremely detailed glyphs appeared in the sky, facing towards the Scar. Her fist moved, thus moving all the glyphs to a singular point, a singular focus. They were lined up and all facing downwards. And with a snap, a fire was lit. A jet of flames hotter than lava suddenly burst out of the massive glyph structure, thoroughly melting the already cut and bruised body of the scar. Talos and Qrow noticed what was happening and moved away from the main pillar, lest they get scorched, and instead got to pruning the thousands of smaller tendrils.
With the main pillar melted, Winter snapped, making the hundreds of hot red glyphs moved to surround the remains of the Festering Scar's main husk, before hundreds of tiny, yet incredibly hot flames torched the already very mangled body. Jaune was beginning to feel aura fatigue with the sustained draining of his power. Talos only took a few seconds, but Winter was using it for far longer to do so much more.
"Move, all of you, to here." Winter's voice was calm and even, but it was loud enough for Qrow and Talos to notice and retreat back. As her final act, Winter moved all of her glyphs to them and lined them up. Then, they spun and turned black. Aiming towards the torched, half melted, and still wriggling main tentacle, she pulled it back. After a few seconds of feeling the force in it grow larger and larger, she finally let go.
And with that, she essentially shot a pulse of wind at the remnants of the Scar's husk. It had so much force that it instantly obliterated it, causing it to explode with black dust.
It seemed like that was it, that it was all over.
Except it wasn't.
Out of the slowly shrinking puddle of black ooze came a truly ridiculous stack of explosives. A tower of plastic explosives, dust barrels, fuel tanks, grenades of all types, and even quite a few fireworks popped out of the puddle, with the biggest bomb (a giant plastic explosive) having a large and visible timer set to 10 seconds.
"Oh. Winter? Can your glyphs take care of that?" Winter considered it for a moment but looked towards Jaune, who had been drained already with how much Winter had abused her semblance.
9.
"I'm afraid Jaune might not be able to sustain that." She sighed, she probably shouldn't have been as liberal with her powers.
"Sorry, I only got room for one more, then I have to stop to avoid it shattering."
8.
"Hmmm, maybe we can carry it away?" Talos shrugged, having no other ideas.
"Yea, no. Unless you have a way to fling it in the ocean or air, disposing of it is practically impossible. And diffusing all of them in ten seconds is even less likely." Qrow sighed, just his luck.
7.
"I suppose we may run, but that'd end with the destruction of the entire area. And I'm fairly sure that the Grimm would survive." Winter was right.
"Well, survival comes first. Though, we'd have to be pretty god damned lucky to avoid getting hit by the blast this'll cause." Qrow grimly chuckled.
6.
"Wait." Jaune wasn't one to leave things half finished.
"Hmm, what kid? We're not going out in a blaze of dying glory. First of all, this isn't a cause remotely worth dying for."
"I must concur."
5.
"No, no, no. I think I have an idea."
4.
"Really? Well spit it out."
3.
"No time to explain. Qrow, do you trust me?"
2.
"Uh, sure?"
1.
"Then may fate have mercy on us." Jaune took Qrow's hand forcefully and pumped aura into it while also using it to fuel Qrow's semblance, which he was also amplifying. In desperation, Jaune must've overdone it, because before the bombs could go off, a series of events happened. A wire short circuited, a fuse suddenly went out, explosives expired, timers glitched, a cat fell off a pipe, a Grimm fell off a cliff, a child was caught sleeping in class, a man was caught cheating, a woman's book fell into a lake, a girl's mechashift weapon jammed, a man's coffee was spilled, someone had their paperwork spilled on with coffee, a woman's ice cream fell onto the floor due to being bumped into by a man, a man was suddenly attacked by someone wielding a rapier, a queen choked on her wine, a man accidentally shoved gravity dust into their arm and began floating uncontrollably, a woman's campfire suddenly went out, and a few billion other small, somewhat inconvenient, but unlucky things happened at once as the whole world, just for a second, experienced what it was like to be Qrow.
And the bombs were rendered inert. Once again foiled, the explosives fell back into the puddle as it was closing. The Scar was escaping.
"Oh no you don't!" Jaune ran wildly and leapt into the rapidly shrinking pool.
"""No!""" His friends cried out, unable to stop him. Talos, using some quick thinking, created a small latch and twine out of some materials in their own body that darted and stuck to Jaune. Like a tether for a man going into the sea, it sunk into the ooze with him.
Meanwhile, Jaune swam deeper and deeper into the pit of pitch black ooze, eyes not stinging despite the assault, not feeling wet despite his surroundings. In the odd darkness, he could see perfectly. He could see weapons, bombs, the dead, oh so many dead. But in the center, he could see where it all came from.
A beating heart with a massive scar was leaking out all of the Grimm creations of the Vytal Memorial Park. And what does one do when they see a rip?
They patch it up.
So, picking up the convenient string attached to him, he began sewing up the wound. His aura was progressively eaten at by the black ooze that sought to destroy him, but his hands worked quicker. The ooze became weaker and weaker as its source, its core was sealed. And soon, the ooze was actively waning in power as the open wound of the war was closed once more. Jaune saw the light in the distance begin to close and desperately swam upwards in an attempt to reach the surface once more.
To its credit, the ooze tried to stop him, but he strategically used Sheep and Wolf gaze to elude and gather the attention of the ooze. He was grabbed by the leg just as his arm reached out of the barely puddle sized exit, but before he could be pulled to his demise, a hand gripped his, and tugged.
With the efforts of three fully grown people, he was pulled out of the ooze just as the portal closed. He fell into a heap with the others, sweaty, tired, and breathing heavily.
It was over, it was finally over.
Vytal Memorial Park had been cleared of Grimm once more.
"Alright, alright! Stop telling me I was stupid, I get it." Jaune murmured into his glass of soda (Winter, despite agreeing that half of what they saw in the park was incredibly odd, refused to give Jaune or Talos alcohol. Jaune on the grounds of age, and Talos on the ground of uncertainty regarding biology).
"Nope." Qrow scowled at the young hunter as he tore into his barbecue ribs. The group, after taking a breather, had left Vytal Memorial park as fast as humanly possible. After Winter checked in with mission control and Qrow reported to Ozpin, they all met up in a diner to have one last meal together. One where the food wasn't the same fucking mashed potatoes with the same gravy. Honestly, Jaune hadn't had handmade food in so long that the stuff he was eating tasted like heaven. And they ordered a lot. The whole table was covered in a variety of dishes. The restaurant prided itself on having a diverse menu and they weren't lying. On the table was Western Mistrali sashimi, Eastern Mistrali curry, Vacuan kebabs, Valean sweet loaves, Atlesian steaks, salad made up of vegetables from Menagerie coated with dressing invented by the Faunus owner of the shop, and other dishes. "Look, you did good, but still, that was stupid."
"I get it." Jaune groaned even as he ate his own pulled pork sandwich.
"This is rare, but I completely agree with Qrow. Your recklessness almost had you killed. While there would always be another opportunity to deal with a Grimm, there's never a way to revive the dead." Winter sighed as she neatly ate a Vacuan kebab. When taunted by Qrow about why she didn't eat any of the Atlesian food, she replied, "If I wanted to eat that, I'd go to Atlas." As growing up in the Atlesian upper class, she was more than used to expensive foods. And in going to Atlas academy and also being part of the military, she was also used to less expensive foods. She said she did enjoy french fries, though she said she liked it with mayonnaise.
Jaune had to force Qrow to not pick a fight with her over that.
"Yea, yea. Alright. You've been telling me this for hours." Jaune sighed. Their dinner, lunch, breakfast? Oh whatever, active hunters burned thousands upon thousands of calories every day. This was just a full-day meal. After a few more remarks, their conversation drifted to other matters.
"Your semblance is rather rare, Jaune. People with medical semblances are often highly sought after." Winter had a point. With his semblance, he could effectively serve as a battery pack for anyone needing some aura. And given the effects of amplification, he could multiply the effectiveness of whoever he used it on. Though, it was limited by the fact that he needed to touch whoever he was boosting. And that was to say nothing of the medical applications. But, alas, he could never be tied down to a hospital. And perhaps that'd be for the best, providing a healing touch to those in the front lines suited him.
"Also, kid, boosting my aura was a pretty good idea. Even if it meant I accidentally butt dialed the kids before cursing up a storm at you." Qrow somehow said that with a straight face. Jaune chuckled a bit, remembering hearing some girls' very astonished voices when they heard their uncle swear up a storm because of Jaune being a 'moronic self-sacrificial idiot who would fucking jump off a cliff if someone asked him to.' Among other, more profanity filled things. "Though, it seems like everyone is having a worse day now." Seriously, the bar had a few people griping over various small misfortunes they encountered.
"Hey, we didn't blow up, so it's probably fine." Yea, Jaune might've went overkill on that final 'bad luck bringer' move.
"Hmmm, taste is an odd thing." Oh yea, Talos managed to graft a tongue and made it fully functional. On the topic of Talos, they might've had to get them a hoodie and pants and shoes and a mask in order to hide their Grimm nature. The cheap clothes clad figure tentatively tasting exotic foods before scarfing them down like a wild beast would've looked odd if it weren't for the fact that they were huntsmen, thus most irregularities were passed off as quirks of being one of the few willing the fight the Grimm.
"I really wish I could cook your first meal, but this is pretty good as well." No kidding, it was probably the fact that he was getting really sick of those potato rations, but the food was great and definitely worth the lien.
"Indeed. These sensations, they're odd. The shock is reverberating throughout my entire body."
"Ok One Eye, didn't need to know." Qrow rolled his eyes as he chowed down on some fried chicken before washing it down with some light beer. Good food and company didn't deserve to be forgotten, but his body yearned for booze. The beer was pathetically weak, but it worked. "Actually, you got me thinking, you know that spine blade of yours?"
"Yes?"
"What'cha gonna name it?"
Talos thought for a moment. "I suppose a succinct and informative name would be a combination of its original nature and what I changed it to become." Talos thought meaningfully for a moment before shrugging. "These spines are also called vertebrae, aren't they? Then I suppose it only makes sense that I name mine Verteblade." Qrow was silent for a moment before sighing.
"God damnit, could've named it something cool! Like Ripper! Or Death Crop!"
"Talos, I would recommend you not follow Qrow's remarkably edge naming advice."
"Hey! Who ya callin' edgy!" Jaune rolled his eyes as the two devolved into a familiar argument surrounding Qrow's naming (he named his sword Harbinger, for gods sake) skills.
"Hmmm, yes. Verteblade, it is a fine name." Talos shrugged, moving on from that topic before turning to Jaune. "Anyways, as a Grimm, I technically do not need to eat. But the intact stomach I started with now allows me to break down these consumables into raw material. Though, I don't know how to exactly use proteins or fibers." Talos shrugged, it wasn't really anything worth considering for now. Honestly, they were mostly eating for the sake of the experience. Taste was truly a marvelous sense. So much flavor, so much depth, so much variety. It was like their first foray into grafting the sense of smell.
"Hmm, yea that's something to think about." Jaune was also curious as to the extent of Talos' abilities. Their situation was rather unique, at least so far as Jaune knew. Jaune had always been a thinker when it came to abilities. With his semblance being useless in combat, except for enhanced durability and support (and, he would learn later, dust efficiency), and previously just not having one, he had to constantly think about how he fought. Combine that with the fact that he was always on the road and the product was him right then: A practical fighter made for long term fighting and survival. The usage of Qrow's semblance to effectively short circuit the bombs was a stroke of genius on his part and also a masterwork of insanity, putting the lives of him and his friends in the hands of fate, who Jaune was half sure wanted to constantly screw everyone over.
"Oh yea, kid, didn't you say you were going to your family after this?" Qrow had ended the argument with the agreement to disagree. Or, to put it more accurately, Talos pointed out that their foot was getting cold.
"Yea? I wasn't lying. It'd be nice to see them again. Though I'm pretty sure dad and, actually no I'm pretty sure everyone is going to try and strangle me when I get back." Qrow laughed readily at that.
"Oh yea, kid, I do not envy you there. I know how ferocious Nick can be and hoo boy! You are a dead man."
"Oh yea, dad has really thick skin, but when he gets mad, it's terrifying! I mean, one time, me and Lavendar pranked him by putting a thing into Crocea Mors that makes a fart sound whenever he takes it out. He was really pissed that when he pulled out his sword during a fight, the only thing his opponent could do was laugh as he did it a few more times, only to get more noise!" Jaune chuckled at the fond memory. He had to do so many chores to work off that one. Winter snickered as well while Qrow did a boisterous laugh at the sheer absurdity of Nicholas Arc, fearsome and stoic fighter, letting it rip whenever he pulled out his sword.
"That reminds me of a problem that commonly plagues hunters who take up relations with non-hunters. Or really, the problem regarding social isolation amongst hunters. The fear of a loved one accidentally misusing their strength." Winter sighed and shrugged. "It's actually quite the larger problem in Atlas. Sure, the huntsman population is the same relatively speaking, but at the end of the first year of standard military academy training, all recruits have their auras unlocked. So the pool of individuals with aura is greatly expanded. And so is the amount of people who feel isolation from their loved ones or civilians due to having aura. However, being in the military means that isolation is often remedied by being in the company of others in the same circumstances."
"That sounds like a really sick way to make soldiers loyal to the military."
"It is what it is. Unless you'd advocate for sending soldiers without aura to fight against Grimm?"
"No, no, that's pretty dumb. Anyways, enough downer talk! We're here to celebrate!" Qrow smiled as he raised a glass. Eventually, after explaining to Talos what the gesture meant, they clinked cups and went about the rest of their meal drinking, eating, and talking. Talking about experiences, laughing about the weird hell they had experienced for around a month, talking about what they'll do next, and all sorts of things. Every single one of them had a smile on their face. Winter, for once more finding the familiar sensation of downtime with a team. Jaune, for finding companions to talk to in this crazy, crazy world. Qrow, for distracting him from the weight of his responsbility and the developing game of eternal chess. And Talos, for the warm feeling he felt at this new experience.
Truly, good meals and good company make for good times. And for people like them, who almost lost their lives more times than they could count, they had to make it last.
Ok. So this 5 chapter arc was kind of, how do I say? Batshit insane. But it's over! The next chapter will be Jaune going back to visit his family, the one after that will almost definitely be him getting some upgrades to his gear, and then? It's free game! Well, after he gets upgrades, I'll start doing stuff outside of Vale. I have some ideas for Mistral and Vacuo, none for Atlas though. Might for into forums and steal Solitanian fan myths for funsies. Or just steal shit from Russian mythos.
For Talos' powers, I explained it in the story itself, but as a note, it can honestly be seen as either a part of their Grimm heritage, of their semblance, or even both! Their semblance could be 'Mutilation' which allows them to morph their own body, or it could just be a part of being a Geist and possession and shit. Or it could be Talos being able to possess things and then, with a semblance, being able to morph them into different shapes. Either way, the capabilities remain clear.
Also, Yeap, Jaune's semblance is the same! Honestly, kind of fits. It's simple, but it gives him extra survivability and more ways to help people out in the frontier.
