He had to hold back a grimace. The look of contempt on Blake's face gave him the shivers, just like back when they were students. Sure, she never directed that look at him back in the day, but he remembered the scowl that she constantly wore after the Breach. It was not a funny expression

And now he was the direct victim of it. Well, him and Ilia, he supposed. But she was probably used to it.

He decided to swap out the blade of Crocea Mors for the lighter, faster dagger named Mors Celeri. Speed was the name of the game, so he needed to keep up.

Blake raised her weapon again, ready to shoot. Show time.

Jaune covered himself with his shield, letting the bullets ping uselessly against it, while Ilia dived over the projectiles and rushed in for a stab.

Predictably, the cat faunus had no problems avoiding the attack, transforming her weapon in its katana form and lashing out against her former friend.

While the two clashed, Jaune took the chance to try and sneak up behind the Turned for a backstab. It didn't work.

Blake's head snapped to him like an owl, transforming her weapon again in its kusarigama form and spinning it in a circle, forcing both him and his ally to disengage. Her attack wasn't over though.

Using the momentum of her attack, she leaped and threw Gambol Shroud at Ilia, who didn't have time to dodge this time around. In a surprising feat of strength (but not really. She used to be able to lift Yang using her weapon after all), she wrapped her kusarigama around the chameleon wrist and bodily yeeted her across the room, making her collide with the walls of the dojo.

He stared at the incredible feat of power and control that he just witnessed.

… Well, shit.

Faster than he could blink, Blake was upon him. Only instincts allowed him to jump sideways and avoid being turned into a Jaune sized Pincushion. She was relentless in her pursuit, having apparently decided that her katana and his body just HAD to become acquaintances. Her body became blurry from how fast she was going and he couldn't keep up anymore.

His aura started dropping, so he decided to be stupid. He ignored her strikes, tanked a couple more and attacked with his dagger, to either score a hit or force her back off already.

Surprisingly, Blake took a couple of hit before deciding to back flip away (and almost smacking him in the jaw while she went), giving him time to take two Boosters and top himself off.

He never met someone so bloody fast. He doubted that even Pyrrha could keep up with this level of speed. Her attacks weren't terribly damaging though.

… If you didn't get slammed around, he thought while looking at Ilia, who was struggling to get up.

He had to find a way to get to her and hand her some healing. On their own, they were two sitting ducks. But he was pinned down. The only thing that he could do was hold his ground and hope that the chameleon found the strength to get up on her own.

Fortunately enough for him, that's exactly what happened. During another of Blake's assaults, his ally finally joined the fray once more. And this time, their opponent was not ready.

Ilia's whip hit her right in-between her shoulder blades,making her size up and giving him the chance to perform a Visceral for some actual, tangible damage. Blake took a couple of seconds to get up, which gave him the time to hand another two Boosters to his companion, who nodded gratefully.

When Blake was back on her feet, her contempt had become a full on scowl of disgust and hatred.

Great, they managed to piss her off. Just what they needed.

Not willing to give her a chance to recover, he ran up to try and deal more damage while they had the chance. He clutched his dagger and buried it deep within her heart…

Only for his enemy to disappear. Ah, right… Semblance.

Cheater.

Blake had decided to step up her game. She recovered completely from her afflictions and she was instantly back on them… only that this time, there were two of them.

The two cat faunuses attacked simultaneously, often swapping between each other to confuse them. As a response, Jaune and Ilia stuck together, back to back and defended themselves and each other, using his shield to block and her whip to chase their opponent away with range.

Blake tried a multitude of different strategies, mainly focusing on her katana and kusarigama. But never her gun.

Either she ran out of bullets… or her clones cannot shoot like she can.

But, as for that moment, she had the upper hand.

Mors Celeri had done well up until that moment, but now he needed to switch. This wasn't the first time he had been double timed like this, the Malachite sisters had pulled something similar all the way back in Vale.

He just had to observe… he needed just a second where the two Blakes crossed paths, in order to hit them both.

Ilia provided the chance, whether she intended it or not. She abandoned her position behind him, probably thinking that she needed to do something.

The consequence was that both Blakes saw the easy prey and ignored him to focus exclusively on her. For no more than five seconds.

Just as quickly as the cat faunus decided that he wasn't in her radar anymore, he switched weapon to the greatsword form of Crocea Mors and slashed.

The clone was immediately destroyed, while the real Blake was thrown in the air by the force of his attack. Ilia immediately capitalized, wrapping her whip around their opponent's ankle and slamming down with all her strength, leaving a nice Blake shaped hole on the floor.

A shout of anger emanated from the opening, the cat faunus jumping out, livid with anger.

She was getting serious this time around. With a deep breath, she held her katana in front of her face, focusing her Semblance once more… and splitting up again.

By the end of it, both him and Ilia were staring at a whopping ten Blakes, encircling them. And they also moved, so the real one's location was unknown. He quickly split his own weapon back to sword and shield, just in the nick of time.

One of the Blake's moved to attack him. He raised his shield to block…

But the copy vanished on impact, being immediately replaced back into the circle. Another one attacked and disappeared as well, followed by a third. The fourth one… was the real deal. She strikes while he was distracted with the third copy, scoring a hit on his left ribs. Before he could retaliate, she jumped back between her copies, instantly making them lose track of her.

It was a carousel of death, and they were stuck right in the middle of it.

A grunt of pain to his side signaled him that Ilia also got hit. They needed something… anything!

A plan suddenly sprung in his mind. It was a terrible plan, borderline suicidal even… but they had no choice.

He screamed at Ilia to be ready to jump when he said so. She looked confused, but nodded all the same.

He bided his time, patiently waiting for an opening where neither of them were being hit. Wait for it… wait for it…

There!

He gave the signal and threw an Ice Dust Bomb up, as hard as he could while raising his shield up above his head, almost as if reading to block something coming from the ceiling. Ilia caught on quickly.

She jumped up, took hold of the bomb and chucked it right at his shield.

The effects were instantaneous. His weapon was fine, the damn thing was basically indestructible and he took some damage, but nothing that he couldn't recover from…

But Blake took the brunt of it. The artificial cold expanded, destroying her clones and leaving the cat faunus half frozen.

Jaune didn't waste the chance, bounding up to her and hitting her with a powerful five hit combo.

He was so focused that he failed to notice, her pistol being pointed at his stomach.

He couldn't do anything to defend, eating the rest of the bullets in her chamber. He got greedy again, damn it!

Luckily, Ilia was there to cover him, stabbing her former friend repeatedly… until the cat faunus collapsed, her aura broken.

Taking another couple of Boosters, he walked up to their defeated opponent, weary of a last second surprise. But there was no need.

She was back to normal. Her eyes and skin were like they used to be. Death takes away everything…

Including the infection.

Ilia used her lap as a pillow for Blake, while he dropped down by her side. She looked at both of them… and smiled, before fading away. Not a single word was spoken.

Honestly, the most Blake thing he could think of.

But… she was dead. Free from her shackles, finally.

.

.

.

LEGENDARY HUNTRESS FALLEN

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.

.

Obtained: Faunus Equalizer's Aura

Both Jaune and Ilia remained seated for a good ten minutes, catching their breath and grieving, in their own way. Him silently, while she allowed some tears to flow down her face.

He was halfway done, he realized.

Yang and Blake were gone. Only Weiss and Ruby were left… along with whoever else got corrupted in the meantime.

With a heaving sigh, he got up. He needed to find the Relic now, on top of locating Kali and Ghira Belladonna. Afterwards, he could take a small rest.

He allowed Ilia to stay put while he started looking around for his objectives. There were no doors, no hatches or anything like that. He looked better at the wall. It couldn't be… that would be stupid, right?

He didn't care. He was desperate at this point. He started knocking on all the walls, trying to see if one of them was a fake.

It took a good three minutes to circle the entire room, but just as he was about to give up…

The wall that he rapped his knuckles on gave a different sound. It slid backwards and opened up vertically, revealing a staircase.

Bingo.

He called Ilia and together they descended.

"Ms and Mr Belladonna?! Are you in here?! Answer me if you are?!"

She repeated the same message for a while while they walked, passing by various locked doors.

"I… re! We… re!"

Someone responded. The two accelerated, until eventually reaching the right door.

Locked as well. Frustrated, Jaune decided that enough was enough and kicked the door down.

There they were. Both alive and safe. Ghira was knocked out, but Kali was awake and well.

Ilia's relief was palpable.

"You're alive! Thank the gods! Are you hurt?! Is Mr Belladonna okay?!"

He allowed his ally to check on Blake's parents while he looked around the room. It looked like a storage… or a bunker, more like, full of water, canned food and other essentials for survival.

Where they preparing for something?

He heard Kali Belladonna speak, tuning himself back into the conversation.

"I don't know what happened! Just that, one day, Blake came back looking like a pale imitation of herself. It looked like she was struggling with something. She told us to lock ourselves inside the cellar, here… and gave us this, to protect".

She took out the Lamp of Knowledge.

Ilia gasped.

"Jaune? Is that…?"

He nodded. The final prize… right beneath Turned Blake's nose.

Kali stood up and handed him the Lamp.

"Here. Take it. I don't know what you are supposed to do with it… but I don't want to see this thing ever again".

.

.

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RELIC CLAIMED

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.

.

Two down, two more to go. At least he didn't have to pillage a grave to get it, this time around.

"Our daughter… where is Blake? Where is she?! I heard fighting just a while ago… was that you?!"

Ah… right. He had to become a bearer of bad news once more.

With a small sigh, he once more explained an abridged version of everything that was going on, including the infection and consequent fate of Blake Belladonna.

Kali fell onto her butt, distraught.

"Infected… dead?! She's… no. No… nonononono…! She can't…! She can't be…!"

Jaune quickly added the fact that her death wasn't permanent, so that the older woman wouldn't fall in despair.

"Brought back to life? It can be done?! Are you sure?!"

He nodded. It had to be true. That knowledge was the only thing that allowed him to keep moving forward.

Kali turned to Ilia.

"Do… do you think that…?"

She sounded so vulnerable… she never met the woman in person, but Blake always described her as a strong person, with iron will and even harder determination in seeing things through.

It was… disheartening to see what the death of one's child could bring.

"Jaune said so. And I trust him. He only has the best intentions at heart for Blake. Her… and the rest of his friends".

Kali looked lost for a moment, but eventually nodded.

"Okay. All right… if… if you think so, then I will trust your judgment. What happens now?"

Now, he had to teleport them to safety using the Proof of Passage. First Kali, then Ghira, then Ilia and finally himself. All the way back to Beacon.


Taiyang was quick to take over from there, making sure that Ghira received proper medical attention while he went down to Gunmetal for some more upgrades.

Obtained: Crocea Mors +5

Obtained: Mors Celeri +3

Afterwards he crossed the portal with Ilia and decided to do the same thing that he did while in Vale.

He handed her the Relic, for safekeeping.

"You want me to keep it? I… are you sure? This is a big responsibility that you're leaving on my shoulders".

He nodded. He trusted her, after everything they went through together. He just couldn't keep the thing on himself, not while going off and putting himself in more and more danger.

Somewhat reluctantly, the chameleon faunus accepted the Relic, knowing that it was the smartest thing to do.

"Here, take these before you go. It's not much, but I hope that it will be useful. Be safe Jaune… put an end to all of this. We're all counting on you… including Blake".

Obtained: Aura Boosters X5

Obtained: Lightning Dust Bomb

She disappeared into the shadows once again, like before.

Jaune took a deep breath. Mistral was done, at least for now. It was time to move to the next kingdom.

He summoned Blake's aura, a sleek violet color, dark enough to almost look black. It danced gracefully on his palms, almost as if attempting to comfort him.

Aura once belonging to Blake Belladonna, Princess of Menagerie and Heroine of Beacon. Contrary to her teammates, the infection did not take over Blake straight away. She just had time to go back home and hand the Relic to her parents, before succumbing to the darkness. But even while corrupted, her desire to protect them remained.

Use this Aura for a superior purpose and save Remnant!

Jaune Arc took a deep breath…

And inserted the aura into the slot.

Hello?! Is this thing on?! It is?! Noice.

Welcome back, dudes and gentleladies, to another (late) episode of Auraborne, the show where not everyone dies a horrible death after all!

The Mistral Arc is officially done and dusted and the Atlas Arc is upon us. Which means that I have to go watch Volumes 7 and 8 again and actually try and remember what happens, because I sure as hell forgot immediately after watching them the first time around.

They were both so boring…

Disclaimer: August will be a month of rest and relaxation for me, which means that, most likely, updates on this story will stop after the next chapter. I won't deny the possibility of maybe updating if inspiration strikes, but for the moment, I need to stop and destress before I burn myself out again.

Review Responses!

Uvuvwe (I am not writing all that, sorry): That… is some very high praise, damn. Thank you so, so much dude, your compliments are very appreciated. Yeah, Soulsborne and RWBY crossover fics are all the same thing. Everyone depicts the end of the journey, but nobody takes the time to… you know, go over the journey, which is the most important part of the series imo. I will take your suggestions into consideration, some more atmosphere is always a good thing.

merendinoemiliano: Thanks my friend, always appreciate your input on the action scenes. They are always the point where I'm the most insecure about.

That's all folks! Ta-ta for now!