A/N (10/28/2021): Fixed continuity error with chess board.
A/N: Damn, you are right dear reviewer. It might be interesting to arm him with a fork at some point, but of course, it has to also be a gun.
I hope you guys enjoy this chapter and review please! Put down your thoughts / theories! I love reading them.
Beta: Path of a Writer
/-A Requiem for a Gamer-/
An Ursa struck the armored woman, sending her flying. She slammed into a tree, before falling to her knees. The warrior struggled to her feet, her left arm hanging uselessly to her side. Pain told her that several of her ribs were broken. Blood soaked through her torn clothing and sundered armor.
The bear-like monster moved with inhuman agility, easily running into range in a split second without giving her a moment to breathe. She stepped to the side, ignoring the sharp stings from her chest and shattered arm. The Grimm narrowly missed her, and using the opening, speechlessly, she thrusted her spear. At the point of contact, it burst into an explosion of fire.
The monster's other arm came around to smash the woman into the ground, uncaring of the glaring wound on its side.
Her spear rolled out of her loose hands.
The monster roared in victory.
"Would you mind leaving that person alone?" An elderly man with a cane stood at the edge of the forest. "Quite inappropriate behavior, I'd say."
Snarling, the Grimm turned towards the new arrival. It took a moment to judge the newcomer, before it charged once more.
It paid no heed to the unnatural clouds that gathered above the moments ago clear night skies.
A flash of light, and a boom of thunder. From the sky, a seemingly endless torrent of lightning beared down upon it. The first millisecond of the arcing electricity killed it, the rest disintegrating its body before it could naturally dissipate.
She couldn't believe how much Dust would have been used to create such a display. 'Or perhaps, it wasn't Dust', she had thought, as the man floated towards her battered body, several inches from the ground. He touched the end of his cane to her body. Encased in a green glow, her wounds began to heal.
"Who… What are you?"
"I am but a humble wanderer." He smiled disarmingly. "I have seen your bravery, child, and it should be rewarded. I have been looking for a long time for a certain type of person to offer them a gift."
"A gift?"
"Child, do you believe... in magic?"
/-A Requiem for a Gamer-/
"Aura isn't magic, Jaune. You can't just wave your hand and use it."
"What if I instead," Jaune narrowed his eyes in thought, "I also say 'keeeyawww!'" Jaune's fist hit a tree.
"No…"
"What about… Kawaaaah!"
"No," Ruby plainly stated, tiredly. "...Not that either. The word you say isn't the problem."
"Kawawawa!" Said Jaune, kicking the tree.
"No, no no. You need to… Uh… Put more spirit into it!"
"Kameeeee - hameeee - haaaa!"
"I told you, it's not the word!" Ruby sighed. "I don't get why it's so hard." Stepping beside him, she made a quick and light punch into the tree. Although there weren't any more cracking tree trunks, there was still tree abuse, as she left a small, but still noticeable dent in the bark. "You just go woosh and zoom, and it goes bang!"
"Ah yes, woosh, zoom, bang." He deadpanned.
"You know what I mean!"
"No, I don't." Jaune rubbed the rim of his nose. "How about maybe teaching me to use guns? I just point it at things and pull the trigger, right?" He made some finger guns and made some 'pew pew' sounds.
Her face met the palm of her hands and she whimpered.
"...Er, Ruby…?"
"No!" She screamed at Jaune. "No, no, no!"
Jaune counted his fingers. "Four no's… don't they cancel out, and make a single yes?"
"One, where would we even find another gun in this forest?! Two, managing the recoil is a very important part of weapons. Anti-Grimm weapons are rated for tank-busting! Again, years of training! Three, the 'no's are independent!"
Jaune paused in thought. "I see. You are right, it did sound like two separate sets of 'no's. Can I at least try out Crimson Ro -"
"No way! You'll break her!"
"What… I'm not that bad."
"Yes, you are!"
"I'll be gentle!"
"Yeah, right, and look what you did to your sword!"
They both gazed at the slightly bent weapon at the side, resting on a stone. He was unable to put it back into his sheathe due to its physical state
"Point made."
"Stay away from my baby!"
"Alright, alright!"
Ruby stopped hugging her weapon protectively and recollapsed it onto her back. "I think we should give up at this point… If a fight happens, lemme do most of the work, okay?"
"But - "
"Jaune, just because you got lucky, and it turns out you have even more Aura than the Headmaster drinks coffee doesn't mean you can just get knocked around forever. If you are not careful, they will get through your Aura no matter how thick it is."
"I guess." Jaune really wanted to use these newly acquired superpowers of his. Who wouldn't? But having to actually learn to use them at all was a bother. "Back to our main objective then. Where do you think we should search?" He took a look at his surroundings. Bushes, grass, and trees, both old rotting trunks and newly made stumps. They were once again someplace in the forest without any clue about where to go.
Meeting up with Pyrrha and Weiss made it much easier to do multiple things. First of all, the discussion between the game characters made it simple to discern that the objective of initiation was to grab as many 'relics' as possible, rather than a single one. Weirdly, everyone else seemed to think that it was new and strange. Supposedly, Beacon usually had the same initiation every year, with little to no rule changes. Jaune thought maybe it had something to do with the gods, or maybe it was setup for this story itself? After all, it felt like one of those hooks. Something is different this year, chosen one, bla-bla, leads to plot. Simple but effective.
Anyways, after some discussion between the four of them, they decided to work together in order to get much more relics and split them between the two duos equally.
'Relics' though, didn't that sound familiar?
Secondly, the meeting between the four of them allowed him to find that he had an enormous amount of Aura, far off in the top 1%, because why not… cliche chosen one plotlines. And how did they figure it out so fast? By adding each other on social media, of course.
…
What did I expect?
...
However, by some godly miracle, it was named 'Anima' instead of something along the lines of 'Aurabook' or 'Instadust'. He didn't have time to explore it, so only figured out the squad features. He was able to view his teammate's Aura levels as a percentage bar and send them messages using voice commands or text.
Ping! Ping!
Jaune glanced at the edge of his HUD to see what interrupted his recollection, before realizing it was actually his and Ruby's phones, this 'Scroll' thing as she had referred to it as. They took them out to see a message from Weiss.
"Come," it said simply.
They exchanged a tired look with each other. Selecting Weiss' location tracker on their Scrolls they followed her signal.
/-/
That's… a lot of Grimm. Thought Jaune.
"That's a lot of Grimm." Said Ruby.
"Oh my." Commented Pyrrha.
Weiss adjusted her footing on the branch she stood on, near the top of a tree just like her temporary teammates. "It sure is, but the rewards are just as great as the challenge. Pyrrha, I believe I also see your spear."
In the distance before the four of them was another set of ruins. Two open-roof decrepit stone buildings were connected by a bridge over a deep crevasse and were absolutely crawling with Grimm. In the middle of the bridge was a pedestal made of some kind of crystal. Atop was a chessboard with chess pieces placed on it. Pyrrha's spear was conveniently embedded in the ground nearby.
"I don't think we can fight that many, even if most of them are Beowolves."
"I think my arm will get numb swinging my scythe that much."
"Not to mention the wasted Dust."
"Maybe we can sneak in?"
Weiss glanced at Jaune. "And how do you suppose we do that?"
He lowered the broken branches he was holding as camouflage. "Maybe Ruby can teleport in and out?" His bent sword had been manually straightened by Ruby and barely fit in his sheathe. Maybe he shouldn't have forced it back in?
"Can't," Ruby shook her head, sitting on a branch above her partner. "It's too far."
"Yeah, I give up."
"You gave one idea!"
"Weiss, then I suppose you have ideas?"
"Hmph, of course! This is a classic combat situation that we have learned in prep school."
Ruby instantly caught on. "Oh, I see! The ol' switcheroo!"
"This is one of the first ones we learn, I'm surprised the child remembered it before you two." Pyrrha and Jaune both could only shrug.
Ruby scowled. "If I'm a child, then what are you? You're not even as tall as me." She shot back petulantly.
What a terrible comeback. Jaune thought.
Weiss became surprisingly flustered, contrary to his expectations. "H-Height doesn't matter! Maturity and grace is shown through behavior."
"Hey, but you called me names first! That's clearly childish behavior."
...What's even with this argument…
Pyrrha stepped in, hopping onto a branch between them, somehow still keeping her balance. "Now, now, Weiss, I'm sure that Ruby didn't mean anything, and you are being a little antagonistic…"
"You weren't there when she blew me up!"
Pyrrha turned to Ruby curiously. "You blew her up?"
"No! She blew me up! I'm the victim!"
"I'm the victim! She knocked over my suitcases and incurred serious damage to my property!"
Pyrrha looked a little unsure. "Why don't you both apologize, then? It sounds like you are both partially at fault. Why don't we calm down and..."
Well, he might as well pass the time by scrolling through menus if they were going to argue. "Status Menu." He took a few moments once again trying to figure out how to distribute his status points, before remembering about the fact that time was stopped and exited the menus.
The three of them turned to Jaune.
He turned back to look at them.
"Did you say something, Jaune?"
"I didn't."
Weiss followed up the previous conversation. "Anyways, I think that Ruby and Jaune can set up a distraction. If your semblance is teleportation, then getting out should be easy. When most of the Grimm move towards them, Pyrrha and I will go after the relics and her weapon."
Ruby shook her head. "I can sort of teleport, but only myself. Jaune… probably doesn't have a movement based semblance?"
"Well, out with it, Jaune, what is your semblance?"
He shrugged.
"You don't know your semblance?" Weiss raised an eyebrow at him. "That's certainly odd, but not impossible, like Pyrrha."
At that, Jaune noticed Ruby scowling for just a second, before the expression disappeared.
"Was your flight through the forest not due to a semblance mishap?" Pyrrha asked.
Ah, is that the name for extra powers like Ruby's swirly petal thing?! "Oh no! It wasn't due to my semblance." Jaune said. Though I wouldn't mind flight as a superpower, since Aura itself already gives superhuman strength and superhuman durability. "I just took the full brunt of a…" He took a moment to recollect the name that had appeared on in HUD as it has long disappeared by now. "...Ursa Major, I think it was? An Ursa Major's blow to the chest." He assumed that Grimm's Echoes should be correct, unless the God of Light was trolling him again.
Pyrrha tilted her head. "A blow that sent you flying that far and that fast? I could barely stop you. Are Ursa Majors usually that strong? I haven't fought many of them, since there aren't as many in Mistral."
Ruby twitched. "No, that was all because it was unmitigated." She explained.
There's defensive techniques too? Good to know.
"It caught him by surprise? Are they ambushing Grimm, like Beowolves?"
"Yes." She answered flatly. "He was caught by surprise, from the front." The last part was said underneath her breath, but since Jaune was near, he heard it. He laughed awkwardly.
Pyrrha took out her phone. "An undeflected impact like that sending him flying across the forest, toppling countless trees and devastating the natural ecosystem, took only 7% of his Aura?"
"What can I say, I have a lot of Aura."
"That is a surprisingly deep Aura pool. No wonder you were accepted into Beacon."
Ruby looked away, crossing her arms, clearly stopping herself from saying something. For someone who disliked Weiss, she sometimes acts a little like her.
"Then, why not leverage it? Maybe you can try the same thing in order to escape the Grimm." Pyrrha suggested.
"You mean I should let myself get hit in order to get flung away?" He blinked. That was certainly… An idea.
"They are mindless after all. The same strategy should work twice."
"I approve of this plan." Weiss nodded. "Well formulated, simple, and even includes some side benefits. Then, it's set, you two will distract the Grimm, then escape on my signal, which I will send after we collect Pyrrha's lost weapon and the relics."
Side benefits - Hey! "Okay... But what if I don't want to get hit?"
"It'll be ok, Jaune." Weiss nodded. "It's like a bandaid, you'll just need to rip it off quickly."
"W-Wait, but what if it goes through my Aura or something?"
"Your Aura seemed to be luckily the automatic type, so you should be fine…" Ruby hopped down from her branch onto his. She did look worried.
It's final, I hate this plan. He thought as a game window opened up before him.
[Common Objective Revealed]
[Objective]: Kill one Beowolf.
[Accept] [Reroll for 100$, 5/5 remaining]
Jaune looked at it in surprise. It… it was so normal! After the complicated question of why his body was even here, and all the stupid menus and trash UI, he was extremely thankful every time something normal happened.
He accepted it.
And then, he instantly regretted it. I should have used that time to check out what the Grimm Echoes are! Just in case they aren't random letters this time.
"Echoes Menu."
Ping!
Nothing appeared in front of him.
"Hm?" Ruby turned to him. "You said a weird thing again."
He frowned. "Echoes Menu." He repeated, this time louder.
Ping!
Nothing, again.
"Jaune?"
He glanced at the edge of his vision as he noticed that something had popped up.
[System]: Pause is disabled in combat.
[System]: Pause is disabled in combat.
Oh.
"Get down!" He called.
"What? Get where down? Down the tree? Why?" Ruby stared at him like he was insane.
"Right, right," He smacked himself. "I mean we're getting attacked!"
Everything was silent for once, except for some crazy woman's cackling in the distance. Something about sloths.
"...We're not getting attacked." Weiss slowly said.
Ruby and Pyrrha cautiously took out their weapons. Seeing that, so did Weiss, even if she didn't look convinced.
He frantically looked around. Because of their position, most of the forest floor was blocked by foliage. They had no idea what could be down there. He tried unsheathing his sword, but due to its state, it grinded against the sheathe. Shouldn't they be at least able to hear the enemy, if they were approaching?
Twelve Beowolves charged through the leaf cover, snarling, without any warning.
Jaune focused on the three that went for him. His sword was still stuck, so he went instead for a flailing kick. That was an obviously bad idea in hindsight, as his remaining foot slipped. He fell backwards, headbutting a Beowolf that was going for Ruby before bashing his head against the branch. His foot missed his intended target, but his flailing arms did catch something.
That being Ruby's foot.
[System]: Gained 4.2 XP.
[Common Objective]: Killed one Beowolf.
[Mission Complete]
[Loot]: Common Equipment Loot Box Awarded!
With a high-pitch yelp, his partner fell with him. However, she reacted incredibly fast, readjusting her fall in order to bring her scythe to bear, using a few well placed shots to spin around. The Grimm that chased after the two of them were decimated in just a few swings of her weapon.
He tried to do the same thing, but his headfirst fall was difficult to change. Again, changing your orientation in the air was surprisingly difficult without anything to push off. Then, suddenly, there was a thump and his vision turned black.
"Whmm thmm hmm thmm lmmm?" He tried to say, but it was muffled. Jaune tried to bring up his hands to his face, but they were blocked by some kind of flat object. "Hmmmm?!"
Someone grabbed his legs and pulled him out of the ground.
"Oh, thanks Ruby."
"I didn't even think that was possible…"
Me too. He stared at the hole in the dirt his head was in.
Around them, five more Beowolves stepped out from the bushes. Ruby readied her scythe.
"Stay behind me, Jaune!"
"They've got us surrounded - there's no point!"
The Beowolves leapt.
Jaune yelped as he ducked under several paws. Their attacks were much better coordinated than he expected and he took several glancing blows across his body. Trying to make space, he back peddled away from Ruby and into the bushes, where he unexpectedly tripped over a log. He fell into a bush, his back snapping every single twig as he went down like a deadwood.
He blinked. Beside him, in a hollow area inside the bush, was a bunny scared out of its wits.
It beeped.
What?! Do rabbits beep?
Before he could react, it leapt away, out to where the Beowolves were.
"Bunny!" He called, quickly jumping after it.
The Grimm that was chasing him was instantly on him, bashing him over the head and sending him sprawling on the forest ground. Still, he was determined, and blearily searched around for the cute animal. There! He found it sitting on the floor, flopped over on one side. "Bunny!" He scrambled over it and covered it with his body.
A Beowolf bulldozed into him and he was flung away, smashing into a tree. "Ack!"
Something shrilly beeped.
Turns out, he had grabbed the bunny instinctively and was now protectively holding on to it. It was struggling to get out of his grasp, terrified. "Don't move, I'm protecting you!" He hissed at it.
Distracted, he wasn't able to dodge when the Beowolf from before decked him across the face. He stumbled backwards, but this time he wasn't able to get a break as another Beowolf dealt a staggering kick to his back, sending him flying. Yet again, there was somehow another one, sending him stumbling to yet another Grimm.
Ping! Ping! Ping! Went messages in his HUD. Did Jaune know he was getting attacked? Really, he wasn't so sure.
Slowly, it turned into some kind of demented human pinball machine. The Grimm kept him bouncing between them in an inescapable combo, maxing out their combo multiplier without Jaune being able to do anything except scream and grunt at the same time with the bunny in his arms. If he let go and tried to defend himself, what would happen to the poor bunny?
"Beep!"
"Arrrgh!"
Of course, Ruby came to the rescue, tearing through the monsters with ease.
"Thanks…"
"You idiot!" She screamed. "Let the rabbit go, now!"
"Alright, alright!" He did so. "I was just trying to protect it!" It ran away from him as fast as possible.
"Are you stupid?! The Grimm ignore animals!"
Jaune blinked. "...Really?"
"You could have gotten both you and the bunny killed, Jaune!" She looked absolutely distraught. Sticking her hand into her dress pocket - wasn't that a miracle - she took out her Scroll, almost dropping it in her rush. "Who knows how low your Aura is - "
"Ah, I only lost 9%."
Ruby stared at her phone.
"Heh, thank god for large reserves, eh?"
"9%?! That's - That's absolutely ridiculous!" She pulled a perfect impression of Weiss, if he'd say so himself. "It doesn't matter. Jaune, every time you lose Aura, you are approaching death. Do you know what that means?"
"Yes, yes I do. I - I was just worried that the bunny would get caught in the crossfire!"
"Right. I'm sure that was your reasoning." She pulled at her hair, bending down into a crouched position. "I get it, Jaune! The desire to want to save people, but you also need to think! Think, Jaune!" She yelled at the ground. "It's people like that who just… Ahh!"
Another tree became a victim of her scythe.
"Ruby…" He tried to sound reassuring.
Her head tilted back up in order for her eyes to meet his, and suddenly he realized just how worried she was.
"You need to think before you act, Jaune!"
"I did! As far as I knew, I had no other choice - "
"No other choice? …That's what they all say."
Jaune was kind of annoyed. Wasn't she overreacting? Everything turned out okay.
"I hate that kind of person."
"Ruby - "
"I hate them." She scowled, kicking a rock. "I hate them… People who tell you they'll come back. People who make promises they can't keep. People who sacrifice their lives, without thinking at all of everyone they leave behind!"
Jaune broke their gaze. He'd made her cry. It wasn't a flood or a stream of tears down the face, but just the small pools at the corner of her eyes somehow made him feel just as bad.
"Have you thought about your family, Jaune? What they'd think if they heard the news of your passing from two officials knocking on your door? The pain and trauma you would leave them with for the rest of their lives?"
He was silent.
Ruby wiped away her tears. "I'm sorry. That was a bit much. I know you have your reasons. I came early to Beacon too. I'm not sure why the headmaster... maybe I'm not ready either. For all of this."
She put on a weak smile.
Looking at her, he felt like he should say something.
[Relationships]: +5 reputation with Ruby Rose.
The moment passed, however, as Weiss landed on her feet beside them before anymore could be said or thought, followed by Pyrrha.
"Oh, hey Weiss. Pyrrha." Ruby acknowledged quickly, obviously ready to move on from their conversation.
"I see you've dealt with your fair share. Hopefully, the rest of the Grimm haven't noticed us. If so, then we should be able to to proceed with - "
The roar of thousands of monsters proved Pyrrha wrong.
"New plan. We run." Weiss didn't have to say it, Jaune was already sprinting like his savings depended on it. Through the trees, hundreds of Grimm poured through, like a black tide of seething, boiling, rot.
Is it really okay to leave that thing with Ruby like that?
He ignored the pings and dexterity rolls that had appeared from the damage he had previously taken, focusing on the only thing he could do. Run. Thankfully, he actually had an ability for just this moment.
"Sprint!" He squeezed out between breaths. While he was not that unathletic in real life and so was this body, running at max speed without any kind of pacing drained his stamina quickly.
I'm sorry I dissed you when you appeared, please work.
Around him, his Aura lit up, flashing white, before fading.
[Sprint Activated]
Out of nowhere, something invisible seemed to slam into his back, sending him flying forward into a tree. Devastating the trunk, his body was caught by Pyrrha as she passed by before he could get left behind.
"...Thanks Pyrrha. But this is kind of humiliating."
She held him under her right arm as if he was a disgruntled child.
"Sorry!"
Weiss was shocked. "Was that an Aura Dash, the technique long lost after its last master choked to death on a fish bone before he could teach his disciples?! Why? How did - Nevermind, let's focus on the matter at hand. I don't think all of us can outrun them." She said without even a pause, as she sprinted a good distance behind him, Ruby, and Pyrrha. How was she able to run and talk without running out of breath?!
"Yeah, they're gaining on us." Ruby, who was beside him, said, somehow turning halfway around to look behind them, then face forward again, all without any loss of speed. "What do we do?"
Weiss sighed. "Ruby, you can teleport, why don't you go and see if you can find other huntsmen. While I loathe to share the relics with others, I don't think we have a choice."
...Wait… Wait! Relics - isn't that what Salem called the crown thing?!
Jaune smacked himself.
Brain, not the time!
"I'm not going to leave you guys!"
"I'm sure we can hold our own."
Ruby glanced worriedly at Jaune, not so sneakily.
Suddenly, someone yelled out in exhilaration above them. Jaune couldn't turn his head far enough to see the person, but it was moot as two blasts of shotguns later a blond woman landed beside Ruby. The base of her outfit was composed of a tan leather jacket, yellow crop top, black spandex shorts, and boots, with a bunch of extra fashionable items attached in contrast to Ruby's more simple attire. His eyes drifted to her arms though, where a pair of familiar gauntlets lay. Wasn't that part of the god's rock-paper-scissors event?
"Hey, heard you guys wanted help!" She grinned. Then, she winked at Ruby. "Citizens, I am here!" She said in her deepest heroic voice.
"Yang!" Ruby groaned, but was clearly relieved. "Not the time!"
I get that reference! He then frowned. ...Doesn't this have strange implications?
Another person fell, this time landing beside Jaune. The person rolled to break his fall, before gracely getting back onto his feet and kept running without missing a step. The man wore a long-sleeved green tailcoat and white pants. In his hands were a pair of small bladed guns.
"Ren?" Jaune recognized. He tried to get a better look, but Pyrrha's grip on him prevented it.
"Hm? Have we met before?" It was the same soft voice he remembered.
This was so weird, meeting all these different versions of people he knew. Pyrrha might be the only one he hasn't yet met in reality, and Ruby… Well, he hasn't seen her for a long time, so she didn't really count. "No. Sorry, my mistake. Hey Pyrrha, can you let me go now?"
"If I let go, I don't think you'll be able to find your footing at this speed." She answered apologetically. "Sorry!"
[Echoes]: Lie Ren UNLOCKED
"This isn't time to be chitchating yet." Weiss admonished. "Unless the two of them have semblances meant for large scale devastation, I don't think this is enough."
Ren looked at the whole group. "My semblance can't affect this many people."
Ah? Does he have a teleportation semblance too?
"And I just get stronger the less Aura I have." The person named Yang said. "If there was less Grimm, then maybe your semblance would help, Ruby."
Huh? Wasn't her semblance the Shunshin-like thing?
"Actually, I think I have an idea." Ruby looked determined. "Weiss, you have your family semblance, right?"
"Of course I do!"
"Wasn't there a speed boosting glyph?"
"Yes?"
"Maybe, if we combine our semblances, maybe we can push the Grimm into the big hole!"
"Push thousands of Grimm into the crevice? Didn't you have a teleportation semblance? Not to mention we're now even further away, making it even harder!"
Weiss, I hate to agree with you, but you are totally right! What is Ruby thinking?
Ruby tried looking for words. "My semblance isn't teleportation. What actually happens is that I turn into rose petals."
"And how does that help?" Jaune gasped out.
"Let me finish! After I turn into petals, I am followed by wind wherever I go."
Ah! Jaune remembered that.
"The faster I move, the stronger the wind. If you can boost me further, maybe we can deal with all the smaller Grimm after us."
"And you can blow them away that far?" Weiss asked skeptically.
"We're going to have to make a wide-turn and return to another side of the crevice so that I don't need to push them as far, which will give us less time since they'll have more time to catch up, but I think it'll work!"
Less time, so they'll have more time… what?
"Why don't you two try it out here? See if the semblances interact?" Pyrrha suggested.
"Right!" Weiss did something behind him that he couldn't see. "On three!"
"Okay!"
"1, 2, 3!"
A few steps ahead of Ruby, some kind of white glowing magic circle appeared. The symbols on there were alien to him, though at this speed he also couldn't see much. The grass sticking out between the space between the lines was blocking some of this 'glyph' from his view.
Ruby stepped over it without doing anything.
"What are you doing?!"
"I thought you were going to do it on 'Go!' Like, '1, 2, 3, Go!'"
"I said on three, you dunce!"
Yang snorted.
"Let's try again. I think the Grimm are gaining on us!" Sweated Jaune. He couldn't look back, so had no idea of the distance between him and losing 50% of his savings.
"Alright, on three."
"...Three, right? Not 'go'?"
"Of course it's three! That's what I said!"
"I'm just confirming!"'
"1, 2 - "
"I wasn't ready!"
"Well, are you ready now?!"
"Yes…"
"1, 2, 3!"
The same glyph appeared before Ruby, but this time she acted. Moments before stepping on the glyph, her body dispersed into a flurry of petals that blew far, far away from the rest of the group. She recollected herself in the distance.
"Did it work?" Yang yelled.
"No! ...I think."
"What?!" Jaune exclaimed.
"What do you mean, 'you think'?" Pyrrha asked nicely.
Weiss was the one to reply. "No, I know it didn't work. I didn't feel the glyph catching you. I think it might be because this glyph was made to accelerate people with Aura, not objects. I believe while in the form of those petals, you count more as an object than a person. While I have one for objects, I haven't memorized any that affect objects imbued with Aura."
"Then what do we do? Keep running?" Jaune asked.
"You are the only one not running." Weiss pointed out, before returning to the previous topic. "One thing I can do, however, is synthesize an entirely new glyph on the fly."
"That sounds difficult…" Ruby said worriedly.
"I have full confidence I can do it."
"...If you say so!" There was a pause. "It looks like we don't have much more time! Should we start turning back now, and start making that wide turn? Er… what do you guys think?" Ruby awkwardly asked the rest of the people there, yelling from her position.
"I'm up for it. Sounds fun!"
"If my partner is in, then I guess so am I."
"I believe in both of you." Said Pyrrha.
She's pretty nice. Too bad she's also a weirdo.
And so, they went with that plan. Led by Ruby, they slowly began turning right, until they made a big loop all the way back to the crevice. Along the way, Weiss tried making a few glyphs, but they were all failures.
They stopped a good distance away from the edge, where it was mostly clear of trees.
Jaune was finally allowed to get to his feet back on the ground. "Thanks again, I guess, Pyrrha."
"No problem."
"I know I am so close." Weiss spoke, speaking of her glyphs. "I just need a little more time. Can you all protect me while I try to figure it out?"
"You sure it'll work?"
"Trust me."
"...Erm..." Ruby hesitated.
"Say yes."
"...Yes?"
"They're coming." Pyrrha warned. Armed with a single shield, she stood protectively between the group and the forest.
Jaune cracked his neck. "Hey, no worries. I've got this, you've got this, we've all got this. Probably."
"Worse comes to worse, we can jump into the fissure." Ren commented, looking down into the ravine. "I don't think the Beowolves can survive a fall like that, but we can due to our landing strategies."
...I suppose I also have a landing strategy now, so I don't need to worry either, even if it's not very… sophisticated.
"Let's try forming a wall then, like in one of those civilian protection drills we did." Ruby stepped up beside Pyrrha, about fifteen meters away. "I'll take this space and I'll make sure no one gets through."
Jaune and Ren stepped up too, making a half circle formation around Weiss, with their back towards the crevice.
"Wait, wait! Not you Jaune." Ruby hurriedly said. Their gazes met.
"Why not?" Yang asked curiously.
"Er… Erm… We need someone to kill any stragglers that get past us! Multiple layers of interception, like anti-aircraft shrapnel cover! Yeah, that's the reason! Jaune, stay on the inside, okay?"
Jaune sighed. He nodded and stepped back. He tried pulling out his sword again. Now that things were a little more calm, he twisted it there and fro and with a little more work and a shriek of metal, it was out. He was not putting that back in again until it was fixed.
The mob of Grimm poured out from the trees. That was quite an apt word, as the Beowolves clambered and stampeded over each other without care. While the fact that they were squished together was an advantage for the huntsmen, their numbers made quite the intimidating sight.
He gulped.
The four huntsmen before him readied their weapons.
Jaune watched as the first of the Grimm met Ruby. Her scythe easily blended them into chunks, before firing off a blast of her scythe in order to redirect it into another unsuspecting Grimm. A third beowolf, having seen the slaughter, decided to change its mind and head towards Ren, who stopped it with several well placed shots in its skull. Several Grimm took the chance to use their brethren's body as cover and charged at him. They struck at him, but Ren twisted his body and evaded all of them, his complicated footwork swift and elusive. It's in this chaos that Yang leapt in, flanking the enemy. Ren, without a word, swapped to his partner's position, intercepting a beowolf that tried to run past while she was distracted.
It was surprising at how good at teamwork they were, even though they had just met. There were still mistakes here and there, like a stumble there, or a misfire there, but if he didn't know better, he would have thought they had trained together their whole lives.
Then, his gaze drifted to Pyrrha. She was in charge of the left-most section and was entirely holding it off on her own, giving truth to her moniker of invincible girl. Even while armed with just a shield, she was eviscerating the Grimm en masse with insane ricochet skills that were impossible in real life. The edge of her shield was like a blood-thirsthy blade, homing onto the throats of Grimm no matter what they did. It was one thing seeing these incredible acts on TV and another to watch it live.
It was due to his state of distraction that he didn't notice a single beowulf get past Ruby.
Silent and rapid, the moment he noticed it, it had already gone past him. He spun around to try to catch it with his blade, but the Grimm, for some reason, headed straight for Weiss, ignoring him. His eyes went to her, who was so focused on her glyph, completely unaware of it.
"I've got it!" Petals coalesced into the form of Ruby, who took off its head just before it could reach Weiss. Jaune didn't have time to sigh in relief, however, as an Ursa had charged in from the gap Ruby had left in the perimeter, throwing him aside and, with mindless rage, bulldozed towards the middle. Ruby, having overextended, could not bring her scythe to bear in time to deal with the second threat.
Unlike the time a similar - though stronger - Grimm had attacked Jaune, it did not fling her upwards. Instead, it smashed her down straight into the ground, resulting in all the kinetic energy being released at once. Her body hit the ground with enough force to dent the earth with her contour, and her head was snapped back into ground with a sickening crack. Her scythe fell to the side.
The Ursa wasn't able to do any more, as Jaune got back up and shoved the big five meter tall muscular abomination barely out of the way. His hands were around it's surprisingly fluffy midsection and he pushed with all his strength in order to distance it further away. "Come on!" Still, all he was able to get was the strength of a regular person.
"Ruby!" Yang fired off a shell behind her at the Ursa while Ruby was dazed for a few moments. Exploding against it, it sent the monster flying off the cliff. Jaune had barely dodged out of the way, even though he got an early warning that the Grimm completely ignored. He didn't care though, instead running off to check on Ruby. Incredibly, she had already recovered her scythe and was headed back into battle.
"Hey, Animus, how's my aura?" He heard from her as she sped by.
A mechanical voice came from her dress pocket. "Your Aura is at 56%."
Wasn't her Aura at almost 100% earlier? That hit took 40%?! Jaune suddenly realized that though Ruby had great offensive skills, could it be that she was a glass cannon? A similar hit had barely taken 7% off him. It really put into perspective how much HP he had in comparison. And what happens when you hit 0% Aura? Do you instantly die?
...What happens if Ruby dies?
His fingers wrapped tightly around his sword.
He needed to figure out how to use Aura and fast.
/-A Requiem for a Gamer-/
Jaune stared at the ceiling of his room. He laid there uncomprehendingly, his entire body relaxed since he had just woken up from a long rest.
"Was that really the best time?!"
/-A Requiem for a Gamer-/
"When man was first born from dust, he was gifted with great love and affection, for we were born into an unforgiving world."
The old man carved lines into the ground with his cane. Looking up, he saw the woman occasionally glancing around them and he reassured her. "Do not be afraid, my wards should keep the Grimm at bay." Then, he took a breath, before restarting from where he left off. As if on cue, multiple Ursas attempted to breach the perimeter. They were instantly disintegrated by an invisible force field.
"The trees would not bear fruit. The sky was dry and would not rain. The lakes were filled with brine."
As he continued sketching, it became apparent that his flowing, sweeping lines were a type of calligraphy. They built on top of themselves, becoming more and more complex patterns.
"So, the God of Darkness extracted part of their essence, and gave us the Gift: a sentient, living force called Magic."
The lines dimly glowed.
"Yes, it was exactly as it sounds. Every man, every woman, every child was given a spark of godhood."
The battered woman walked to the edge of the glyph. Without a word, she pointed at one of two spots, where the lines converged.
"...Every single one of us had the power to bend nature to our will. To form something out of nothing, to deny emptiness. To construct great monuments that could stand till the end of time." He paused. "...Do you really have no questions?"
She lowered her arm. "No." She stared at him blankly. There was little in her gaze that indicated even the smidgeon of care from her. As if learning about the origins of this world was as dry as memorizing the multiplication table, or maybe she thought that he was spewing nonsense. Then she pointed at the spot expectantly again.
"Yes, please sit there." The old man sighed into his palm.
Stepping over the glowing symbols, she kneeled down on her designated spot. The old man sat opposite to her, in the remaining one. He placed a dagger between them. "In order to complete the ritual, you must stab yourself in the stomach with it, once I - Not now!"
The woman stopped, the weapon inches from her abdomen. She tilted her head.
"Put it down!"
She dropped it.
"...Once I activate the magic circle, then you may do so." He placed his hands onto the ground beside him. The air was filled with an ethereal glow.
He continued from before. "You might be wondering then, how we got here. How our towers that reached ever higher fell. How our kingdoms lay in ruins. How everything returned to the dust we were made from.
"How we lost paradise."
He watched the stars above. The old man took a moment to breathe in the humid night air. As it filled him, he thought about the events that led him here. About his mission, about his mantle that the gods gave him. He remembered his times as a hero, defeating the monstrosities that plagued the land. He remembered Salem and he remembered their long, happy days together. And finally, he remembered everything she did in her grief once he died an untimely death.
He smiled sadly.
"We lost it all, because we wanted to be happy." His gaze met hers. "And that was too much to ask from this cruel reality."
A twig broke.
The old man snapped his head toward the sound. He peered into the darkness. All was silent and still.
He brought his cane to bear.
A quiet blur.
Fire burst from his hands. A black shape was enveloped in flames. The flash revealed a Grimm's disintegrating humanoid form. A wolf-like one she had never seen before. Red eyes flashed to the side. He dodged. A claw caught him mid-evasion, carving bloody trenches into his back. "Magekiller Grimm?! Impossi- " Then, a third, final figure descended. Its savage claws outstretched. She had no time to call a warning.
Blood sprayed, splattering onto the woman's face, her expression frozen in incomprehension.
/-A Requiem for a Gamer-/
A/N: Turns out… this chapter has a part 3!
Next chapter: August 29, 2021. Note that the chapter after that one might be delayed by a month.