Yo!
Extra chapter here, because I was both bored and feeling generous. FF dot net is being weird with my formatting tonight so if anything's weird let me know.
Anyways, without further ado, and whatnot.
Start Chapter 28
Adam Taurus is a master swordsman; that is something Jaune catalogues instantaneously. His blade flows through the air like the wind, slicing across Jaune's shield and sheering a shallow cut through the metal in the time it takes Jaune to breathe.
That breath is far from easy, especially given that Jaune's diaphragm has only had a minute or so to recover from being kicked in by Adam as he'd knocked him back into the mansion. By the time his boot touches down onto the floor, Adam is already coming at him with another strike. This one he matches with Crocea's blade, but it rattles the muscles in his arm when it hits, the floor below him groaning as he's forced backwards a foot or so.
He grits his teeth and channels his aura with his semblance into his arms, using that newfound strength to surprise Adam into giving ground. The man falters briefly, clearly not having expected such from him, but he recovers momentarily, managing to get a foot inside of Jaune's guard, and sweeping his legs out from under him.
Jaune is thankful for his greater than average aura, which allows him to tank the stab that Adam hits him with center mass mid-fall, sending him careening backwards out of the hallway. He is knocked into a more centralized room, his back hitting the guardrail of the second story that overlooks the western wing below them.
Jaune hisses with pain, but knows that staying locked against the guardrail is just about the last thing he wants right now. He is able to get up just in time, dodging out of the way of a red and black slash that seems to sap the very color from the world for a brief moment. It flays the wood of the guardrail like butter, causing it to quite literally disintegrate into rose petals in the space where it had been hit, and continue to degrade long after the slash has passed it by.
Jaune decides rather quickly that he does not want to be hit by that.
He is on his feet by the time Adam can dash into him. The man is quick, lightning quick; faster than Ren or Blake and perhaps even coming close to matching Ruby. He also makes up for Ruby's frailty, having none of those same problems, for as Jaune somehow manages to smash his shield into the man's face on what he feels is a lucky hit, a blow that had knocked some of the man's forces unconscious, he merely grunts in pain, before pushing forward, back into the fight.
This is not a fight Jaune can win by himself. He knows that rather simply.
As opposed to when he'd been fighting Ironwood, as well, it is not a fight he has to win by himself either.
The situation had been different. He'd been guarding Cinder and his team at their most vulnerable, knocked unconscious from a bullhead exploding next to them. Now, he is still guarding something, but he is guarding fully armed combatants. Ghira, Sienna, and Blake are all rather capable fighters, and given they're being kept in the center of the formation, they're all full on aura as well.
Kali herself is somewhere deeper, reinforced more heavily, so he won't have to worry about her.
And so he makes a simple deduction.
He will lead Adam towards his allies.
But first...
"ADAM'S HERE!" Jaune shouts to whoever will hear him as loudly as he possibly can, even still blocking another strike from Adam with his sword. "SECOND FLOOR, WESTERN WING!"
Adam actually sneers as he slams his blade down on Crocea Mors' shield, not giving Jaune a moment of quarter, rattling him all the way to his teeth.
"I'll give you that you're at least wise enough to know when you're outmatched. Shame it won't matter."
Adam is about to cut down at him once more, to try and force him into the guardrail behind him to pin him there.
So without any resistance, Jaune lets him.
Adam looks a bit surprised when Jaune allows himself to be forced backwards with enough momentum to fracture the already weakened guardrail, which the man himself had used what was presumably his semblance upon. It had disintegrated a good deal of the wood, and damaged it to the point that it hadn't had enough structural integrity to support the few hundred pounds of force suddenly thrust upon it.
Jaune is prepared for it though, righting himself so that he's falling forwards, and rolls as he lands upon the ground below. He'd hoped that might buy him a moment, but Adam Taurus does not allow him that, forcing him to narrowly dodge a follow-up stab into the floor.
The man sweeps upwards, cutting a horrible gash in the wood as he makes to attack at Jaune's legs, but he jumps over the strike, trying to pull a move that is, admittedly, likely beyond him, and swing at Adam midair while doing so.
It does not work. Adam catches his sword midair with his off-hand, and strikes at Jaune's arm with his sword arm the moment he's recovered.
Crocea Mors, much like when he'd been fighting Ironwood, is knocked from his hands, spiraling onto the floor a good few meters away. He curses beneath his breath, but can't afford to overly focus on such a thing, not when Adam does not give him a moment's breathing room. He is on him without a word, without mercy, without a single breath, and it is in that moment that Jaune realizes something.
Adam has not stopped. Not a single time.
He has been continuously charging him for well over forty seconds at this point. That doesn't sound like a very long time, but fighting for such a period without taking a single moment to rest is...
Well, it would take out just about anyone from their class at Beacon, that's for sure. He'd tried doing some of Nora's oxygen retention drills, attempting to run a hundred meters without taking a breath, and...
Yeah, no, he'd nearly fainted three or four times before he'd thrown in the towel.
Still, some of that had been helping Jaune to maintain his form now. But the difference between himself and Adam now is that he isn't attempting the same constant offense that Adam is. No, Jaune is putting up his shield and taking breaths, taking hits, yes, but keeping a steady, if faltering, defense.
Adam is putting his all into a single assault, betting everything that he can finish Jaune off before he can breathe.
He has to capitalize on it.
And so Jaune takes in the space around him. Not much is of aid. There is a carpet beneath him which is letting him dig his feet in a bit more thoroughly than he'd been able to do on the hardwood floors upstairs, and there are a few bookshelves nearby, alongside potted plants and a variety of other traditional home décor items, but...
Jaune's brain provides him with a rather decent idea when he sees a nearby doorway, and realizes it leads into a single long corridor.
A single point of entry.
A single point to defend.
Jaune pushes himself backwards, mentally noting that his aura has already dwindled down to forty-five percent. He needs to be careful; he can't keep this up forever.
But he shouldn't have to, at least hopefully. Hopefully, someone has heard his call. He needs to buy about a minute, in his estimation.
That is if Cinder doesn't burn the entire place down to get to him first.
That thought brings a smile as he pushes himself into the narrow doorway, holds Crocea Mors' shield with both hands...
And waits there.
Adam Taurus sneers, but just as Jaune had suspected he might, he does not rest, as what might be smart.
Jaune has taken a point of absolute defense, a point that he can perhaps manage to defend against even someone of Adam's caliber – or, well, hopefully, unless that disintegrating move is significantly more powerful than he thinks it is – and so it would make sense for the man to back away, to give ground, or to perhaps retreat for now.
At the very least, he should take a breather.
But Jaune recognizes that Adam is desperate to be quick about this, and a part of Jaune knows why.
He knows the men keeping Cinder busy can't do it for long.
It is a rather simple thing, really, when Jaune thinks about it a bit harder. But the truth is that Cinder is simply above everyone else in this building. She had barely been bragging when she'd said she could enter into the White Fang's stronghold by herself and likely emerge victorious. The Maiden's fire, combined with her expert-level combat abilities, mean she is a force of nature more than a combatant.
Those who have her ire, currently, Jaune is actually mentally saying a prayer for. Hopefully she doesn't hurt them too badly trying to help him.
Adam is on him before he can spend too much more time thinking on this, but not in the way he had been before. No, now his body goes black, his hair glows red, and Jaune has just a second to wonder exactly how powerful the blow that's coming is before the hairs on the back of his neck stand up, and the color in the world seems to disappear.
Some part of him, a part of him that he doesn't even recognize, reaches out and channels his semblance in a very specific way.
And then Adam cuts the world in twain.
To say that the blow hurts would be a bit of an understatement. Jaune has been tortured by a shock collar through his connection to Cinder his entire life. He has dealt with her fears, her feelings, and even the pain of having a bullhead explode only a few meters from him.
This is somehow more intense. Somehow greater.
It is as if his very being is in a war with a foreign entity to continue to exist. As if every second it is clawing and biting and hacking away at him, trying its very best to erase him from this world. And yet...
His aura, his semblance, counter it. It is so close, so very close, and yet...
His aura has somehow been placed perfectly, in a line mirroring the exact angle that Adam has cut across him with. It is...
He had not done such a thing. He knows that. He had intended, of course, to shore up his front via his semblance, but this had been to a degree he knows he is not capable of currently. His aura had been channeled nearly perfectly, focused in a single line.
Whatever it is...
It is almost like magic.
That feeling in the back of his skull, where the basin of his magic supposedly emanates from...
It is giving off a dull hum...
Jaune decides he can afford to consider the logistics of his recent string of miraculous abilities once they're safe.
First, he has a certain terrorist leader to deal with. Mentally, he does a quick check of his aura after tanking that hit from Adam. It has taken a fairly massive dip, down from forty-five to twenty. He's well and truly in the red, and he understands he can't exactly take another of those hits.
Then again, he imagines Adam doesn't have the energy to hit him with another, at least not so soon. He'd had to stand in one place and charge for a moment as well.
And the thing Adam needs now is...
As if on cue, Adam Taurus' entire being shakes, and a gasping breath, like he's barely made it to the surface of the water in time to avoid drowning, pours from out of Adam's lips.
And Jaune understands that that's his window.
He pushes outwards with his shield, charging right at Adam before the man can fully recuperate on oxygen. His shield bashes into the man, forcing him back, and though he understands that Adam's aura is likely still in the high seventies, at the very best, he has enough room to roll to the side, pick up Crocea Mors, and take a defensive stance.
Adam, meanwhile, still needs time to recover. He's panting as he steps not towards Jaune, but away, gulping down air in an attempt to give his lungs something to work with, and likely to not pass out. That would spell his end.
Jaune wishes he'd possessed more aura – or just raw battle skill – than he currently does, because he could push in right now and take advantage of this moment of weakness. Alas, it is all he can do to push himself into a corner, to try and find a good place to defend from–
And then a black shadow descends into the space, rending down on Adam's form and launching the man backwards into the back wall, where he splinters the wood heavily enough that a small hole forms, letting in the cool night air.
And Jaune smiles in relief.
"Sorry I'm late." Blake speaks out, albeit in a dangerous tone, clearly unhappy to see a certain someone. "Once I heard you call–"
"You're here now." Jaune doesn't want them to waste time talking. "That's good enough."
He cuts right to the heart of the matter. "Can you take him?"
"No." Blake doesn't hesitate. "Not in a one on one, unless you've done significantly more damage to him than it seems you have."
Jaune shakes his head. "I've taken maybe twenty-five percent of his aura, at best. Realistically it's less than that. I'm down to around twenty percent myself."
Blake nods her head. "I took a few stray rounds getting here. I'm hovering around eighty-five."
He acknowledges that, trying to make a mental calculation of what they'd need to do to win this fight. If Blake's willing to admit that in her current form, she can't beat Adam, then that means that they can't beat Adam. It is not like the two of them have worked well together in the past. There's no teamwork built between them that would amplify either of them.
...Amplify...
"Blake, come here."
She does so, making sure to keep her eyes on the still recovering Adam while she does it. Without saying a word, Jaune places his hands on her back, and pushes a bit of his aura into her.
It's not much. Maybe ten percent of his total aura, bringing him down to ten remaining. Still, as he understands it, he has a lot more aura than the average person, which makes ten percent for him a much larger total than for the average person.
Hopefully for Blake it is enough of a boost.
She turns around, nods her head at him, and then goes to work.
It is clear immediately from the way that Blake and Adam trade blows that this is not the first time they've fought one another. In fact, Jaune's willing to bet that the two have fought – or perhaps more accurately sparred – hundreds of times throughout their years together in the White Fang.
Unfortunately, that particular statistic does not bode well for Blake. In the same way that Jaune had begun to edge out victories against some of the other members of Beacon in Glynda's class, but had never managed anything close to a win against Pyrrha, Jaune doubts that Blake can pull off an upset over Adam.
Because he knows her. He knows her semblance, her habits, her best attacks, and her tells. He knows, likely, the limits of her aura, and the way that she generally wants to approach combat.
And he likely knows her weaknesses as well.
In the same way that Pyrrha had long since known how to defeat him in an actual fight – even if she'd always been kind enough to do so in other ways whenever they had been training – Adam knows exactly how to deal with Blake. He might take a few hits in doing so...
But Jaune doesn't think there's a universe that Blake emerges the victor in this battle.
Which means they're waiting on backup.
"WE NEED BACKUP HERE!" He shouts, trying to get more people to run towards them. "ADAM IS HERE. IT'S JAUNE AND BLAKE!"
Hopefully someone will come to their aid. The positive to Blake and Adam knowing one another so well is that all of what Jaune's said about Adam is also true for Blake. She also knows every little thing about the man, and exactly how to last as long as possible in a battle with him.
Unfortunately, Adam has now recovered, and seems a little more intent to talk, now.
"What's the matter, Blake?" Adam leers as he leans forward, his sword pressing against Gambol Shroud. "Not capable of facing me on your own?"
Blake snarls as she pushes him back, pirouetting in midair and utilizing a new technique that he's not seen from her before, some sort of dust-enhancement to her moves, for she fires off a few waves of gravity-based energy at Adam. Unfortunately, those blows are absorbed on Adam's blade, and Jaune gets his first real chance to study the man's semblance.
He builds strength from concentrating, and then unleashes that strength with a slash. That had been Jaune's initial hypothesis upon seeing it. But now, he is figuring out that the concentration is likely to build up his attacks when he has little energy to work with. Blake has provided him ample energy from those gravity waves, and now...
The air glows black around them, and Jaune is about to yell out for Blake when her entire form is cleaved in half by Adam's slice.
He has a moment of sheer, absolute panic filter through him before Blake's clone evaporates, and she lands on the floor, unharmed.
A breath of relief pours out of him, even as he tries his best to keep scanning, to keep trying to come up with something to turn the tide.
Of course, the sound of the ceiling above him creaking is the only warning he's given before it collapses in on itself, and Jaune has half a moment to lunge forward, narrowly avoiding death-by-falling-roof as the disintegrated material that Adam's semblance had struck falls to the floor.
Unfortunately, it has also blocked off the entrance to the room, barricading the doors.
Jaune notes that that is quite bad.
Blake seems to think the same, if the way she grimaces when she glances at the door out of the corner of her eye is anything to go by. Adam sees this, and lets out a nasally laugh, one that has both he and Blake eyeing him.
"Ah, upset that your method of escape is cut off?" Adam flicks his blade around casually, seemingly completely confident now that their chances of obtaining reinforcements anytime soon are significantly reduced. "I suppose that makes sense. It's all you've ever been good at, isn't it, Blake? Running away."
He watches as Blake's faunus ears stiffen.
"I suppose that's why you're here in the first place, isn't it?" Adam spreads his arms in a challenging manner. "Because you ran away from her? My, my, even your soulmate, Blake? Not even she could entertain you enough to–"
"Shut your mouth!" Blake screeches, and Jaune mirrors her as she charges forward, throwing caution to the wind.
It is the exact opposite of what they should be doing. Which is hunkering down as best they can and attempting to wait for backup. Adam is, by Jaune's understanding, the strongest fighter among the White Fang. His being here means that he is not elsewhere.
In theory, that should mean they're winning everywhere else.
In actuality... well, Jaune has no idea the sheer number of White Fang they're dealing with. If they've pitted the entirety of the organization against them, then this could be a very drawn-out siege. If not...
Well, this very well may be the most important battlefield of the evening.
Jaune calls out Blake's name, trying to convince her to stop, but it's too late. She's already flipping towards Adam, Gambol Shroud's sword and sheathe both directed offensively towards Adam. She cuts down at the man with enough strength to bow the man's legs, but that strength seems to only enhance the man's semblance, making his mask and hair glow red for a moment.
Blake doesn't let up. Her clone solidifies into ice as she dashes through Adam, landing a strike on his back that, admittedly, seems to do some real damage. Unfortunately, the air of surprise that this new dust ability has earned Blake does not last long, for as she attempts the same general maneuver using fire dust to leave behind an exploding clone, Adam is faster.
He slams the butt of his sword into the back of Blake's skull, sending her careening back towards Jaune even as her clone explodes in the background. To Jaune's dismay, the embers catch on some of the splintered wood that Adam has been damaging during the prolonged battles taking place in this room, kicking up a small blaze.
Adam looks down at the growing flames, and sneers.
And then he steps towards them.
"Your very home, burning around you, Blake." Adam shakes his head, sighing emotionlessly. "I said I would take everything from you for what you did to me, didn't I? I suppose this is only making good on my word."
Blake seems to panic at that, and Jaune is only just in time to place a hand on her shoulder, to hold her there before she can make another error.
"We need to play this safe, Blake!" He tries to implore her. "Buy as much time as we can!"
Blake looks to want to retort, but before she can, Adam is charging at them. Seemingly effortlessly, he knocks the blade of Gambol Shroud from out of Blake's hand. It is Jaune's fault for distracting her, however briefly, and he knows that. He tries to dash inwards, to buy Blake a second to recompose herself, but it is for not when the man kicks Jaune straight in the stomach.
For the second time in roughly ten minutes, the air is emptied from Jaune's lungs.
He clutches his chest as he tries to remain standing. Blake is being attacked while he's attempting to recover, and he knows that if he doesn't get in there and do something, then–
There is a sudden sound that Jaune hears, then. Like the groaning of an engine steadily growinglouder and louder.
Blake deflects a single blow from Adam, but that alone is not enough. The man is relentless in his pursuit, striking again, and again, and again.
The noise is growing louder, like whatever it is making the sound is rapidly approaching their location. The sounds of yelling outside are growing more fevered, more intense. Jaune hopes that whatever it is, it isn't White Fang.
He forces himself to stand, even though he can't really breathe. Adam had managed it, hadn't he?
He'll have to try to do the same.
Blake actually scores a good hit, then, buying herself the smallest bit of breathing room. In but a moment, however, Adam closes in, suffocating Blake with a series of deadly blows, precision pointed at what Jaune can only imagine are her weakest points.
The noise hits a fever pitch, now, sounding like it's coming from directly above them. He hears the sound of rushing air, the sound of...
What is...
Adam knocks the sheathe of Gambol Shroud from out of Blake's hands, and for a moment, Jaune's heart stops.
"IT'S OVER, BLAKE!" Adam shouts, drawing his sword back into its sheathe, and channeling all of the energy he's been building up within him.
Blake's face pales.
And then a meteor breaks through the ceiling.
It is a rather difficult thing to comprehend, the golden figure which knocks all of them backwards, causing Adam to stumble, his final blow going wide, and instead cutting into the walls of the Belladonna Mansion, missing its heiress entirely. That same blow knocks Blake off her feet, causing her to have to look up from a position on the ground a few seconds later. In that moment, her eyes widen and fill with tears as she sees just what it is that's come.
Jaune himself can only laugh, because now he's remembering a certain section of his dream from yesterday, when he'd woken up from whatever form of unconsciousness his missing aura had caused.
He'd witnessed a battle between a black cat and a bull. It had not been going in the black cats favor. Or, at least, not alone. But the black cat had not fought the bull on its own. No...
No, it had been accompanied by a golden dragon.
"Don't worry, Blake." Yang Xiao-Long huffs out as she stands from the crater she's created in the center of the room, a murderous glint in her crimson eyes.
"I'm here."
End Chapter 28
So brief timeline, since Yang getting here might be kind of sudden, but:
-Blake calls Yang like first thing this morning, around nine or ten-ish.
-Yang immediately goes to get Ruby and her dad, they get a personal flight to Menagerie charted (more on that next chapter).
-Adam's forces wait until nearly half a day has passed, around two or three in the morning, to attack.
So yeah, that's how Yang got here in time to participate. I just wanted to cut off any potential questions about that.