The red blip on his minimap was on his location in an instant. The massive form of black fur and bone plates had lunged at him before he could react, initially at least, as the beast' vicious claws and fang were about to rip his body to shreds, time slowed down.
His body was flooded with adrenaline within a heartbeat, his body had already been nervous and afraid, the appearance of a monster just pushed him over the edge.
If Jaune was limited to relying in his physical brain, then he might've been blinded by the adrenaline fueled panic, but his mind was on the outside and only loosely connected to his body. To him, the adrenaline just increased his mental processing speed.
So basically, he was able to control his body to just barely dodge the deadly lunge. As he observed the monster flying through the air, inches away from his body, he was able to realize he could see something else linked to the beast.
[Grimm: Beowolf] - [Rank: D (Lv. 4)] - [HP: ???] - [MP: ???]
[STR: ?] - [END: ?] - [AGI: C] - [MGI: ?] - [CHA: E] - [LUK: ?]
'Is this Assess? I guess it's pretty helpful, but not really. I would need a little bit more information to determine if I should fight or run away.'
Although he wasn't certain if he should fight or flee.
[Name: Jaune Arc] - [Rank: D (Lv. 1)]- [HP: 100/200] - [AP: 2038/4000]
[STR: E] - [END: D] - [AGI: E] - [MGI: C] - [CHA: D] - [LUK: B]
After taking a quick glance at his own 'Parameters' and seeing his 'AGI: E' he immediately discarded the option to run away. He couldn't be sure, but he was almost certain the Grimm would be able to outmaneuver him if he had his back turned to it.
He forced himself to push past his fear, he drew out his family sword and extended his sheath into a shield. He was a complete amateur when it came to fighting, so even though he was in full control of his body, he couldn't imagine more than two moves he could use.
In his left hand was a shield he could block with.
In his right hand was a sword he could slash with.
The only freedom he could imagine with was the angle at which he could slash with.
'Ah well, it's not too bad. It's nice and simple.'
While he was consoling himself, the Beowolf had finished regaining its bearing after being dodged, it swung its large bone-masked covered face around. Its vivid red eyes seemed to stare into his soul, as it ran forth and raised a claw tipped paw.
The path was clear, so Jaune waited just right before he was about to be hit, then he ducked beneath the swing and slashed at the Grimm's gut. His blade bounced back as the monster continued to charge forward.
He pivoted on his foot and used the sword's momentum to carry him back and away from the wild charge. The Grimm crashed into a small tree, destroying it, and quickly turning around to face him once more.
The red eyes seemed to glow brighter, the beast was ready to take its hunt seriously.
[Grimm: Beowolf] - [Rank: D (Lv. 4)]- [HP: 794/800] - [MP: ???]
[STR: D] - [END: D] - [AGI: C] - [MGI: ?] - [CHA: E] - [LUK: D]
The STR, END, LUK, and the HP were revealed to him.
'We have the same END, but the Grimm's STR is higher. And its HP is huge compared to my own. Did I do just 6 damage to it? I guess I'll have to take this fight seriously too.'
Jaune used Boost and Reinforce and focused intently on controlling his body. When the Grimm charged forth again, he noticed that it wasn't taking large strides, instead it seemed to be taking measured steps. So he was prepared to take quick steps back and he narrowly evaded a flurry of deadly swipes.
As the Grimm paused, he dropped his shield (since he probably couldn't block a direct hit) and gripped his sword with both hands as he slashed at his opponent with a heavy hit. His blade barely scratched the beast, before he was forced to dodge a counter attack.
[Grimm: Beowolf] - [HP: 766/800]
He took advantage of his hyped up mind to do a few calculations as the Grimm prepared its fourth attack after being dodged three times, or more if you count every swipe during its flurry.
'4, 10, 10, 4. 28. I did 28 DMG that time with Boost, Reinforce, and doubled handed. That's more than a 1/4th of 100. 4 strikes could take down about 100HP. It has 700HP. 4 x 7 is 28. I need to hit it 28 times with the same attack. 1 attack, 2 spells, 200 AP. I have 1800 AP left. 1800 divided by 200 is 9. I can only do 9 attacks before I'm out of AP.'
Unfortunately, his mental math concluded that he would be 19 hits too short to defeat the Beowolf with his enhanced heavy strikes.
Still, that didn't mean he had to throw in the towel right now, he would think about what to do when the time came. For now he was able to dodge and then take advantage of the brief window of opportunity the Grimm left open when it missed to attack it back, like right now after it missed downward swing at him.
He slashed at its arm that was wrist deep in soil.
[Grimm: Beowolf] - [HP: 738/800]
Jaune sidestepped to the right to avoid a left claw swipe, and then ducked when the Grimm swung its spiked arm back, he managed to slash at its leg as he hopped back up.
[Grimm: Beowolf] - [HP: 710/800]
He had to carefully select when to attack, he couldn't waste his Aura just to dodge, so he only used his spells when he knew he could land a hit. He danced through wild swipes and wrathful lunges, he danced over the forest terrain of protruding rocks, roots, and even small pits.
Then when the Grimm stumbled over a large root, destroying it, he slashed in the second it was off-balance.
[Grimm: Beowolf] - [HP: 682/800]
The Grimm's attack grew with more ferocity, and after it succeeded at cornering him against a large tree, he was forced to risk kicking off the tree and diving between its legs. If Jaune was limited to using his eyes, he wouldn't have been able to roll and kick himself up as he slashed at the back of the Grimm, just between its bone plates in under a moment.
[Grimm: Beowolf] - [HP: 654/800]
Something was becoming apparent, he could feel sharp winds biting at his exposed skin as he barely dodged attacks. When he found an opening to exploit, immediately after he slashed he was forced to position himself awkwardly and had to Reinforce his shoulder armor to take a hit.
He had managed to position himself to use the sudden hit to knock him away from any follow up, but still, time was speeding up, his adrenaline, his advantage was wearing off. Jaune was slowly losing his fear as he evaded attacks and landed his own without any training. He had lost about 10 HP from that single hit through his Reinforced armor.
[Grimm: Beowolf] - [HP: 626/800]
He had decided to take more risks. The majority of the beast's attack power came from its strength, and for the same reason he dropped his shield, he knew he could take a hit, however, the claws and spikes were just weapons.
Basically, he was fine having his armor, clothes, and skin, scratched if he could get a hit in. The sharp appendages did little damage if he wasn't hit with any strong force behind them.
After barely dodging a few swings and bites, he let a spike graze his cheek as he stepped in and slashed at the beast's neck as it charged past him.
[Grimm: Beowolf] - [HP: 570/800]
Jaune had felt something special about that slash, a sort of extra power, and as he looked at the Grimm's HP, he could tell he had done double damage with that hit. And as he hopped back, he felt a bit of lag between his intentions and movement.
He could feel his lungs struggling to take in air, and his muscles were starting to spasm lightly, he ignored those stimuli and raised his sword.
A moment passed, a heavy breeze shook the branches and leaves drifted down. Time was flowing normally, he couldn't rely on his accelerated perspective anymore, but that was okay, he had already familiarized himself when the monster's attack patterns. He would just need to dodge and attack faster.
The Grimm wasn't attacking, the red fury in its eye sockets dulled and an orange color swirled around, it stared at him, at its own light wounds, then it ran away.
'What?'
Unfortunately, that behavior was completely unexpected. However, even if he did expect it, he had already placed enough distance between them to make an attack as it ran away impossible.
'I should probably look into ranged options.'
If he didn't have to get close to the enemy to attack, he wouldn't have to work so hard to dodge an attack in turn. The last thing he could see was the enemy's Assess screen as it fled.
[Grimm: Beowolf] - [Rank: D (Lv. 4)] - [HP: 570/800] - [MP: ???]
[STR: D] - [END: D] - [AGI: C] - [MGI: ?] - [CHA: E] - [LUK: D]
[Skills]
[Active] - [0/0]
[Passive] - [1/2]
[Spells] - [0]
The screen disappears when he couldn't even see the Beowolf's tail anymore.
As the battle ended, his brain and body almost gave out, but his mind was still in perfect condition to control himself.
Jaune walked across the battlefield and picked up his shield, he closed in and clipped it to his waist, but he didn't sheathe his sword yet. He was still in enemy territory, he had to be ready.
[Achievement Accomplished] - [Turn the Tables: Defeat an opponent of a higher rank.] - [Reward: 10 SP]
[Tutorial Quest Completed] - [Winner: Win a fight.] - [Reward: 10 SP]
[Achievement Accomplished] - [Bigger Beast: Scare off a Grimm.] - [Reward: 10 SP]
'Oh, sweet. Anything I can buy right now?'
[You can unlock all your innate spells for 30 SP (3 x 10 SP)!] - [Loud Shriek (Lv. 1): Use 100 AP for a low chance to inflict 'Stun' or 'Confusion' on a single target.] - [Fresh Prey (Lv. 1): Use 100 AP to apply 'Target Focus' on self for 1m.] - [Rally (Lv. 1): Use 100 AP to slightly increase the STR and END of Allies for 1m.]
'Sure, if that's all I can get.'
The spells didn't seem amazing, but he was hopeful that by buying out the shop it would replenish with better abilities next time. He gazed at the now pitch-black jewel on his necklace, the revival ability was easily the most broken thing he had at his disposal right now.
Jaune stretched his sore body, then he use Heal and spent 100 AP to recover 10 HP, his exhaustion completely vanished, but now he was down to 441 AP.
'…'
His mind raced, but he couldn't think of a way to survive another fight.
A blip on his minimap appeared. He hadn't used Detection since the previous scan faded away. it was moving towards him, however he didn't panic, the color of the blip was white. The same color he saw when used Detection on the students at Beacon, so basically it was a non hostile and a previously marked person that had appeared.
A woman with red hair and a set of bronze armor strode into the scene, and when her green eyes met his blue pair.
[Quest Completed] - [Initiation Evaluation (2/6): Gain 1 Partner.] - [Reward: 10 SP]
["Oh, hey cereal girl, guess we're partners!" And approach her slowly.]
["Head's up!" And lunge at her while swinging your sword.]
["Pyrrha Nikos? Sweet, I got the best partner!" And do a little celebration dance.]
'Seriously, why do I always get a violent option? And an option that sounds good but is tainted by acting awkward? Whatever, at least now I have a safety net.'
Jaune wiped away a light sweat from his brow. "Oh, hey cereal girl, guess we're partners!" He called out to Pyrrha as he walked slowly over to her position.
Her eyes widened considerably before she maintained her composure and she smiled politely. "Guess we are, aren't we?"
[Name: Pyrrha Nikos] - [Rank: B (Lv. 8)] - [HP: 800/800] - [AP: 7784/8000]
[STR: B] - [END: B] - [AGI: B] - [MGI: B] - [CHA: B] - [LUK: E]
[Skills]
[Active] - [3/4]
[Passive] - [2/8]
[Spells] - [5]
He read the Assess screen that popped up in front of her, and only when he was done did he realize that if she couldn't see the screen it just looked like he paused and stared at her for a bit. "Yep. You seem strong enough. Let's get going." Then he began walking away, hoping to play it off.
Unfortunately, his body still felt embarrassment, so he had to work to remove the blood rushing to his cheeks.
[Main Quest] - [Initiation Evaluation (3/6): Navigate through the Emerald Forest.] - [Time Limit: 4h40m] - [Reward: 10 SP] - [Penalty: Expulsion]
'Did I just spend 20 minutes during my fight? Whoa.'
"Jaune, right?" Pyrrha called out as she easily caught up and kept pace with him.
["Arc. Jaune Arc." And scoff.]
["No, I'm not." (Lie).]
["And you're Pyrrha, right?" And hold out a hand.]
"And you're Pyrrha, right?" He didn't even give the other options a thought, after speaking he held out his hand for a handshake.
"That's right." She took his hand with grace and firmly shook it. "I look forward to working with you."
["You have a soft hand." And rub her hand.]
["You have a rough hand." And yank your hand away.]
["You're kinder than some other people." And grimace slightly.]
'The contrast interruption is starting to get annoying.'
The options weren't ever difficult, they were just starting to become a slight annoyance.
"You're kinder than some other people." He said as he recalled Yang's painful grasp, and grimaced slightly.
"Really? I'm not that different from most people."
A dialogue selection didn't pop up. "Yeah really. I only met one other girl here who was as kind as you, but she did seem a bit more friendly than you."
If they weren't currently waking at the same pace, he might've not caught how she paused for the briefest of moments before she took another step.
"Hmm." Pyrrha hummed in response and her eyes drifted off to the surrounding trees.
['Bond Up Conversation' Failed.]
'What? Did I say something wrong?'
A prolonged silence occupied the air. Pyrrha didn't seem like she was about to speak again. And Jaune was too nervous that he would fail to try again.
'Um, anything I could buy right now?'
He did get some more points.
[No.]
'Oh.'
AN: This chapter was combat heavy, so it's a bit longer.