Ch. 24 Back at the smithy

"Jaune! Wait up!"

"You're the one who made this a race…"

Ruby pouted as she caught up to Jaune. This was supposed to be an easy victory for her, but Jaune somehow managed to not just keep up with her petal bursts but even pulled ahead whenever she tried to leave his sight and ran ahead.

"Well, I didn't realise there's no path, I thought people walk to Velia all the time!"

Jaune just smiled down at her from the crest of a hill. He knew a few shortcuts here and there and while he knew he couldn't beat Ruby in a sprint, she couldn't be sprinting for hours at a time. With a solid pace Jaune managed to more than keep up with her.

"Only huntsmen like us really walk between the settlements, Grimm patrolls and all that. Most people either take a boat or fly via bullhead."

"Why not? Is it the Grimm?"

"Not really, but that doesn't make it easy to walk all the way. For us it's an all day hike or a few hours running, for civilians though… Unless you want to go on a camping trip it just isn't worth it."

"Wait, so are there Grimm… or?" Ruby was confused, there was no way normal people would camp in the forests on Patch, was it safer here?

"There's always a chance of one or two, though it's been a while since any got anywhere close to the settlements. Huntsmen and patrolls normally take care of them before it comes to that…"

"...when was the last time?"

"What?"

"When was the last time they got to the settlements?"

"It was during my grandma Joséphine's time as Noreia's chief huntress, so… forty… fifty years ago? Apparently there was a plague of some kind and the negativity drew in a stampede. Grandpa Donie helmed the old barricade and grandma shot flocks of Nevermore out of the sky. Dad told me the story when grandpa Donie died… Grandma fell in service years before that, so I never knew her."

Jaune had a peaceful smile as he reminisced about his family's legacy. Ruby didn't really have anything to say, though she did want Jaune to continue, so she went with their favourite topic, one that had them on this journey in the first place..

"Do you know what weapons they used?"

"Yeah, my grandma, Mary-Josephine Arc, was excellent with a bow. She used a bladed compound bow called Tempest Crown, the older folk still call her "The Storm" because she used wind and electric dust to cause literal thunderstorms. Grandpa, Donatien Alphonse Arc, used Crocea Mors. It's an ancestral blade of the Arc family, the one in the display case in the hallway by the stairs. It's a pretty much indestructible blade and the mechashift sheath-to-shield predates modern mechashift by about two centuries."

"Two centuries!? And you didn't show it to me?"

"Honestly slipped my mind, remind me when we come back and I'll show you."

"I'll hold you to that."

=O=O=O=

Cobalt was sitting on his porch watching the forest when a flurry of rose petals burst through the foliage, revealing a short girl in a black combat skirt and a grey button-up shirt.

"Ha! I won! In your face Jaune!"

And true to her cheers, Jaune emerged soon after.

"Yeah, yeah, you win."

"You'll be baking a cake when we get back!"

"Yup, that was the bet…"

"I'm thinking red velvet."

"Oh come on, red velvet is overrated!"

"But it looks so pretty!"

"I said I'd bake a cake, not that you'd get to choose. How about a lemon tart."

"Spoilsport."

Cobalt chuckled as the two bickered. Dorè mentioned she was his team leader, but to Cobalt there seemed to be something more. Then again, all in their own time, Dorè and Juniper were practically living together before Dorè realised they were in a relationship.

"Hey there Cobalt, didn't see you there."

"Distracted by your team leader were you?"

"...She can be pretty distracting when she wants to."

This broke Ruby from her reverie and earned Jaune an elbow to the side.

"Ehm… Right, Cobalt, this is Ruby Rose, leader of team RNJR a prodigy huntress and a better material scientist than y-off"

This time Ruby wasn't trying to be subtle and put as much force as she could into the gut punch.

"Ignore his nonsense! Master Fèvre, I'm a huge fan! Can I get your autograph?"

Jaune couldn't help but smile through the pain. He was wary of Ruby's anxiety flaring up, but she was doing well. Getting punched in the gut was totally worth it. And the cake bet…

"So Dorè wasn't exaggerating when he called you a gun-nut."

Cobalt was eyeing the folded up warscythe on Ruby's back

"Wait, you spoke with dad? He was here?"

"He spent the whole night rambling about how proud he is of his son and his team. He missed the last boat too."

Jaune's face betrayed recognition and understanding, Ruby meanwhile sported a slightly confused expression as she put the pieces together.

"Wait, is that why he was sleeping on the couch?"

"Not the first time he ran home through the forest so mom didn't realise he forgot to go home in time. Mom always figures it out, thus the couch. I wondered what he did this time."

=O=O=O=

"Now you have to understand that I find all modern mechashift to be unnecessarily complex. This though… This takes the cake. And the… variable mass alloy was it? Lass, this is an extraordinary piece of work! Not to mention you actually figured out the kinks in the gravity dust alloy. I can't believe you actually did it!"

"I mean, I based it on your research…"

"Yeah, and the only reason the research went fully public was because Atlas considered it incomplete and a failure, as did I for that matter. Look, you solved the lattice collapse issue entirely on your own. This is absolutely outside of the research scope. I have to agree with Jaune on this one, you should absolutely patent and publish this, not only to take credit but so others can use it. Honestly this might be enough to get you a title of recognition."

"Told you."

Jaune was grinning as his master confirmed what he'd been telling Ruby for a while now.

"Just think of the applications! Just the momentum increase could be used to directly transfer aura to power."

"Yeah, Ruby actually proposed a smithing hammer. It's what I had you order those materials for, among other things."

"Is that the "gift" you mentioned?"

"...I mean it's no replacement for Sorrow's Song. but I figured you'd appreciate it more than a sword you'd need to fill with aura all the time."

"Right you are."

"Wait what? What do you mean by replacement?"

Jaune cringed as the topic he'd deliberately avoided came up. Ever since all the way back when they first met he'd never actually mentioned the sword by name.

"Ah right… I kinda broke Sorrow's Song."

"You did WHAT!"

=O=O=O=

Sorrow's Song hung mounted on a display plate with a plaque informing anyone reading it that this was "Sorrow's Song, the last test of mastery to Jaune Arc" together with the date of 28th February of this year.

To say Ruby was emotional when she saw the broken blade would be an understatement. It wasn't all negative emotions though. Sure, her heart stung when she saw any weapon broken like this. That was in addition to the fact that she was deeply familiar with the circumstances that produced said blade.

But there was a bright side, a feeling of pride that this very blade served as a reminder of her boyfriend's accomplishment. He didn't just break it, he did so by forging a blade stronger than it.

The demise of Sorrow's Song and its final task. A test and a stepping stone for a young craftsman. Ruby couldn't help but wipe tears out of her eyes as she traced the break, as her mind conjured parallels with Jaune's scar.

Jaune himself wasn't entirely calm either. He didn't know Cobalt had displayed his accomplishment like this and actually seeing the sword again served as a reminder of how far he'd come in the past few months. From an apprentice to a full fledged blacksmith to now a huntsman in training. He'd unlocked his semblance and gotten accepted to Beacon. He'd made friends, got a girlfriend and gotten so much stronger.

Jaune was reminded of the willow tree, of the carved J with a blank space next to it. What was he now. A sword? A shield? An anvil? A hammer?

"Oh yeah, the hammer…" Jaune mumbled under his breath as he shook himself from his musings. It was time to get to work. The day was halfway gone and there was still so much he still wanted to do.

=O=O=O=

"Are you sure Cobalt? I'm sure the second try will be better."

"Oh yeah, to me this is just a tool. I will use it and once it comes apart I'll replace it. To you though? You may end up using it for the rest of your life, no?"

"Right… With this we've confirmed that a hammer like this counts as a weapon."

"So make sure the second try is the best you can make right now."

Jaune just nodded. The first time around he had followed Ruby's instructions on how to make and work the alloy. This was a familiar process to them ever since Ruby started teaching him about building mechashift weapons. The second time around Jaune knew what to do from the get go and could plan a little better. After all, there's nothing like hands-on experience.

Jaune pulled the second billet from the forge and started working.

The overall shape would be similar enough - a Mantle style cross peen with a chisel like pein on one side and a rounded flat face on the other. The Mantle design was more rounded and curvy than the modern Atlesian angular design. It was a design Cobalt preferred and had become Jaune's go to hammer that he could do everything with.

Though Jaune decided to make the blade like part of the hammer a little narrower, enhancing its potential to crack Grimm bone-plate armour in combat. The rounded side of the hammer remained about the same as on the first one. Though Jaune endeavoured to make it a little cleaner since the one he gifted to Cobalt was a little deformed around the bottom edge. A defect of this scale didn't really matter too much on a tool that would develop them through use anyway, but with Jaune's semblance they would become pretty much permanent.

Jaune worked swiftly, but carefully. While the dust was stable for the time being, working the metal for too long could end up removing the stabiliser. As per Ruby's instruction, there was around three percent of dust by weight in this alloy, an absolute maximum for this kind of alloy. That was no small amount of dust, especially the gravity kind.

As for decorating the tool, While Jaune was content with leaving it blank, Ruby insisted on carwing some decorations on it. It wasn't a bad idea, but Jaune didn't want to risk the end product by engraving something too complex, so he ended up going with two crescents (the Arc family emblem) on one side and four arrows converging on a central point (the symbol for gravity dust) on the other side of the hammer head. Deciding that the wooden handle deserved some attention too, Jaune settled on a wraparound pattern of criss crossing lines burned into the handle.

As Jaune drove a wedge into the wood, securing the head on the haft he thought of the whole process and contemplated a name for the newest addition to his Arsenal. There were a few themes he could have gone for, but in the end, perhaps simple was for the best.

Jaune put down the hammer he used to shape this one and focussed on his aura, letting it fill the new hammer.

The gravity dust in the alloy felt hungry for a lack of a better word. Ruby had warned him of this, but Jaune believed it was for the best to go with the maximum potential increase in mass, so as to ensure it could scale with his strength for as long as possible.

The hammer had its fill and Jaune could barely lift it above his head. Its mass had increased considerably, but Jaune knew he could push it further if need be.

Both Cobalt and Ruby observed the process with bated breath as Jaune finally spoke.

"Percusio Gravi, I name thee A Heavy Blow in the ancestral language in which all weapons carried by an Arc are named."

As he spoke those words he pushed his aura once more, increasing the hammer's mass tenfold in a fraction of a second. A single impact on the anvil rang out in the workshop as Percusio Gravi dismantled itself and joined Jaune's aura, an indent left in the steel anvil.

There was silence for a bit before Cobalt raised his voice.

"Was that necessary you daft moron!? I swear, you and your propensity for the dramatic."

Jaune had the decency to look sheepish at the admonishment from his master. He may be an apprentice no more, but that didn't mean Cobalt couldn't scold him like

he still was.

It was worth it though as Ruby's eyes sparkled with awe and childlike wonder.

=O=O=O=

Author's note:

I based the hammer on a Swedish cross peen hammer which in my opinion looks a lot cooler than a typical rectangular cross peen.

As for how come Jaune was able to make one so fast, well it's a hammer not a sword, the alloy is not his high dust alloy and he is steadily improving his skills.

Now with Percusio Gravi hell be able to work even faster.

Anyway I hope you enjoyed and are looking forward to the next chapter: Ch. 25 Experimental alloys