Okay so, there are a few major issues with this one. It's something of an in-between chapter. I'd originally planned the fight with Lau and then the fight with the next boss in two different chapters, but it just didn't feel like I'd be giving either a good conclusion. So, the plot changed slightly, and with it came a LOT of rewrites.
I'm not very happy with the quality of this chapter. I'm still finding it hard to write multiple POVs, so here's a question for y'all. Would you prefer the other POVs to be done as standalone chapters or do you prefer this sort of story cadence instead?
Do let me know in the reviews, I'm willing to give both a try but I'm not the best judge of my writing.
Clover did not expect the atmosphere in Ingress to be so… intense.
The gates were opened by hand cranks, signifying a lack of dust. Every house had darkened windows, yet people were out and about. There was far too much activity for a frontier settlement, and it only took one glance to see why.
The western gate was being barricaded. Hardy men carried crates as large as themselves, filled with anything considered 'heavy', from rocks to old furniture.
He'd extracted little tidbits of information from Jaune on their trek here, and things were dire.
Ingress was preparing for a siege.
"You must be from the specialist team."
The man walking up to him dwarfed even Vine, who was 6'6. He was dressed immaculately. The logistics of how someone his size found a suit that fit him were baffling to Clover. He had neatly side-parted hair and an immaculately trimmed beard, both white with age. He carried a massive Axe on his back. It was not a mechashift weapon, and he could only guess how ancient it was.
"Clover Ebi from Atlesian Ace Ops, I presume you're Mayor Ramos?"
The man shrugged. "I'm the only one wearing a suit, so, yes. Mayor Ramos Anton, at your service." The man offered his hand, and Clover took it, noting the size discrepancy. "Back in my day, they called it the Mantle Specialist Unit. Then again, you're a whole different country now."
"New masters, new names, sir. You know how it goes." Clover chatted back, noting how Ramos' name didn't follow the colour rule. A war veteran, then? The mission briefing didn't go over this.
"Know it better than you'd believe, son." Ramos huffed. "So, I assume you got a good look at that destroyed dust transport of yours?"
Clover nodded. "My team's working on black box recovery as we speak. We're working under the assumption that the militant group known as the Legion stole the dust shipment?"
Ramos nodded. "Aye, there was a scuffle that ended up in the loss of one of my beloved friends. I suppose you know of that too?"
"Diamante Zeiss. We heard. Our…guide was quite informative." Clover stated.
"Ran into Jaune, I take it? If he was East of the settlement then I'm pretty sure he went after the Megoliath herd." Ramos stroked his beard, lost in thought. "I assume he wasn't injured when you found him?"
Clover shook his head. "We saw him take down the herd in front of us. I don't think he took a single scratch." Clover scratched the back of his head, "
Ramos burst out into laughter, confusing Clover. It took him a few moments to regain composure.
"That brat's making true on his promise. I guess I gotta hold up my end of this bargain." Ramos spoke.
"Philia! Sam! Get the western gate fully barricaded by sundown! Then get your families over to the council building! We'll divert the rest of the power from the houses to the western wall guns and the hydroponics plantation! Get on it!" He shouted to two settlers running past them. To Clover's surprise, they didn't complain once.
They listened to Ramos like privates listening to an officer. Not a grunt of annoyance, not a hint of fear. The man just told them to enact a lockdown. The settlements he'd been to before? Even the mention of a lockdown would send them into panic.
Panic is the killer, it's the breakdown of civilization. It's what invites the Grimm in. It's why many settlements were removed from the maps over the years.
"Settlements on the frontier are made of different stock, I see." Clover posed it as a statement, but the question hidden in his words was easy to catch on to.
"The people of the frontier are born with one foot firmly locked into the jaws of death," Ramos spoke, ushering the two settlers on. "We make sure even the layman knows how to defend himself if things ever get bad because they often do. This isn't their first rodeo."
"I could tell by the state of the walls," Clover remarked. "While not a professional repairman, I can see how many times they've been patched together, that too very well."
Ramos chuckled. "Aye, they break through the walls often. Not so much these days, but back when we were a new settlement, we'd be fighting Grimm every month. That's the price of settling here."
"Then why settle here? Atlas can use men of this calibre." Clover countered.
"Your answer is part of your question, son. People here have migrated back to Atlas often. Some have gone back, spent some time suffering in Mantle, and then come back as well. Atlas can put us to good use, but the men here are free men of the frontier. Even when beset by the enemies of humanity, we refused to be used." He started walking off. Beckoning for Clover to follow.
"You'd choose death over servitude?" Clover asked, genuinely curious.
"The frontier towns are populated by those who chose to leave Mantle of their own volition. There are men and women here who have spent every minute of their lives within these walls. They have all learnt to live together, to build together. There are no slaves here, no discrimination. Just a band of people who work together to survive. You don't get that in the cities. You don't get that anywhere." Ramos finished, walking over to what Clover presumed was the Council Building.
"Now, why don't you come in so I can talk you into delaying your mission for a few days?"
Jaune was introspective.
He'd been 'farming' for a little over a week, ever since that conversation with Mayor Ramos. His original idea was to locate packs of Grimm and eliminate them, but this wasn't ideal. He'd wiped out every mission on the mission board before this began. Those accounted for all notable Grimm within a fifty-mile radius of Ingress.
Added to that, the Legion kept the area around their headquarters clean. That effectively doubled the no-Grimm region. Even when he went further northeast, the best he found were younger grimm that had strayed too far from their pack. A stray sabyr, an unlucky manticore. The best he'd found this way was a juvenile megoliath. After a day of no real gains, he had to get creative.
Negativity drew Grimm to him, and with the system, he could weaponize that knowledge.
Grimm Lure
Allows the user to amplify their negative emotions, attracting Grimm
Can be toggled off and on
The ability was simple in description, but what it didn't explain was that the worse the emotion, the more powerful the lure.
He originally experimented with the hatred of betrayal. It was something he was well-versed with. Starting from his parents, who'd denied him the same training they happily provided to his sisters. Moving on to his betrayal at Beacon, and how recent that sting felt.
It was successful, but far less than he predicted. He was just not a spiteful person. Sure, he hated those who had slighted him, but his hate was superficial. He simply wanted nothing to do with them anymore.
So he went with hopelessness.
At first, he didn't realize just how used he'd gotten to being hopeless. From when he was eight, the age at which all his sisters had begun training. They had two mothers, one father, and an entire clan to help teach them. He'd been deemed unfit for it. Both he and his second eldest sister, the daughter of his father's third wife, a civilian, were unfit to be huntsmen.
Seeing his sisters set records as junior huntsmen, seeing the eldest outdo even the first and second mothers, seeing them become an elite huntsman unit contracted only for the toughest of jobs…
Seeing them live his dreams, right after he was denied the same…
Yeah, he had baggage, he knew that. Once this emotion was amplified, the Grimm knew the same.
Day in, day out, he was assailed by any and every Grimm around him. From the smallest of Imp to the largest of Megoliath. It was like being in the forest again, except this time, his growth wasn't one-dimensional.
Leveling was still hard. For ten days, he'd fought. He'd easily shred through thousands of Grimm, and for all that hard work, he'd barely edged past level 50. The growth on that end was minuscule, and he couldn't figure out a way to improve it outside of diving into the sea and tussling with Feilongs.
On the other hand, he learnt many new things about his skills.
The first was that the system was a cheat code. While it gave single-line explanations for what a skill did, it didn't explain the sheer depth of what a skill offered. While on the surface, a passive like Swordsmanship offered him nothing more than a percentage increase to damage done by bladed weapons, the benefits of the skill ran far deeper.
The more he used bladed weapons, the more he learned about them. Just by fighting Grimm with a sword, he was also learning how to fight men with a sword. Instead of having to learn two disciplines, the skill improved all aspects of his swordsmanship.
This brought him to the next aspect he'd discovered, skills had levels too. While they weren't player-facing levels, his skills got better as he used them. He'd capped out Critical Chain and Blink. The first went up to ten consecutive hits every fifteen seconds of cooldown, while Blink, his only mana-using skill, went down to ten mana per usage.
While levelling his Aura skills, the common trend was the reduction of the skill's cost. While originally, he could fire two or three Aura Blades with his 1500 Aura points, by the time he hit the skill's peak.
Of course, due to another revelation, that no longer mattered.
Similar abilities, when mastered, could combine into what the system referred to as 'Legendary' Abilities. And over the week, he'd gained a few of them.
Critical Chain and Aura Blade have combined!
New Legendary Skill
Vorpal Blade - Level 1
A skill developed by the sword saint of the Karvas plains to combat the mighty Kuberans. When mastered, it is said to be able to completely bypass armor, something the Kuberans were famed for.
Triples the length of your blade, 40% armor penetration. 100x base damage
Cooldown - 30 seconds
Aura Cost - 500 AP
It was a pricey skill. At his current Aura recharge rate, he couldn't use four Vorpal Blades back-to-back even considering the two minutes of cooldown. Plus, As useful as it was offensively, the defensive uses of Aura meant he always wanted to keep the majority of it unused.
He'd been working at levelling it up, but progress was slow. Even when using it at least once per engagement, he'd only gained four levels, each cutting down the Aura cost by 5 points.
Vorpal Blade was a trump card, and he'd have to use it sparingly.
Steps of the Assassin and Free Running have combined!
New Legendary Skill
Tread Of The Mountain King - Level 1
A movement method revealed to the venerable Mountain King after ten years of meditation. He utilized it to assassinate the Red Court while they were in session. Some say that not a single sound was heard till the massacre was over.
Active - Nullifies Movement Sound, +200 to move speed
Passive - Nullifies Presence when leaving an opponent's line of sight, Steady footing
Active Cost: 100 Stamina per minute
Unlike Vorpal Blade, this skill could be used for at least ten minutes before he ran out of stamina. The problem was that unless he levelled up during combat, once he ran out of Stamina, he'd be a sitting duck.
Stamina didn't regenerate fast unless he was resting, which meant that he had a shelf-life on just how long he could fight someone. The fifty-three points of endurance helped, but with how every action he took in combat drained Stamina, he'd have to use the active sparingly.
That said, even the passive was a game-changer. He could blink behind an enemy and they'd lose track of him completely. Facing stronger targets, this manoeuvre was incredible.
And then, there was the final revelation.
He could make spells.
He felt it the first time he touched the Fire Dust crystal in Diamante's house. He'd gotten a prompt asking him whether he wanted to absorb MP from the crystal. It wasn't until he realized that the only MP-using skill he had was Blink that he realized that he'd never tried to leverage his MP as an offensive resource.
He thought back to when he'd learned Blink. He thought it was a byproduct of levelling up. Yet, he'd never gained a skill for levelling up before. He ignored it because there was no precedent to the contrary. Now, with more knowledge about the system, he knew better.
He needed a skill that allowed him to disengage fast, and the System gave him Blink.
He needed a skill to enhance his damage output against armored Grimm, his system gave him Critical Chain.
So when he wanted a skill to use his MP offensively, the system obliged again.
A New Legendary Spell Has Been Unlocked
Fulmination - Level 1
A spell used by the lord of the Levin as his only offensive magic. A versatile and deadly spell that converts Mana into bolts of lightning based on the amount of mana used,
At the peak of his power, The lord of the Levin was said to have decimated the great capital of Chrave with one casting of this spell.
Can be used through a conduit.
MP cost: Variable
Offensively, Fulmination was as powerful as he needed it to be. He could even use the blades of Dies Iraes to cast it. He could even coat Goliath's Ivory with the spell and turn his normal attacks into crowd-control, making up for the loss of Aura Blade's secondary effect.
Plus, when he used all his Mana and every blade of Dies Iraes as a conduit, he could do what he'd done to the herd of Megoliath east of Ingress.
With that kind of power, he could believe that someone once used this spell to nuke a city.
The creation of this skill, as well as the fact that each legendary skill came with a description that referenced people and places that he'd never heard of or could find references to anywhere else reminded him just how little he knew of the system.
There was also the fact that he'd gained a skill when Lau had punched him across the graveyard.
Unarmed Combat
Passive: increase the damage of all unarmed attacks by 50%
It was like Swordsmanship in how it not only increased the damage his fists did but also helped him get better at unarmed combat. Weirdly enough, he was getting fifty per cent extra damage from it, far higher than the 30 per cent he was getting from Swordsmanship, even though he'd had swordsmanship far longer.
It was something he'd have to look into with time. For now, the System had given him a quest.
He'd gotten used to the daily quests that the system gave him. It was just a self-improvement quest, a massive number of exercises, which - on completion - would give him a stat point.
After hitting level 30, these quests had gone away. There wasn't any precedent for any other types of quests, so Jaune had stopped worrying about it, even though he missed the free daily stat point.
It was after sealing the deal with Mayor Ramos that the quest window reappeared.
Promotion Quest
To Fell A King
The Legion has evolved from a fringe militant group into a threat to world peace. They must be eliminated before they become a threat to you and yours
-Eliminate Legion members - 6/221
-Eliminate Lau Ka Long - 0/1
-Eliminate ? - 0/1
Rewards - 250,000 XP, Job Change, Legendary Weapon
Prerequisite - Level 50
The criticality of the quest aside, this answered a question Jaune had since the system first appeared in his life. In his status window, the 'Job' category was always empty. By videogame logic, it made sense, but that brought him to a troubling question.
Was this situation orchestrated by the system? Would he have been given a different quest had he stayed in Vale?
Was the System influencing the world or was it just reacting to his circumstances?
He couldn't answer such a question, and he was sure the system wasn't going to provide him any clarification, so he just dropped it for now.
After all, he had a guest. A single activation of Eyes Of The Golden Emperor was enough to confirm who it was.
"You can come out now, Winter."
WINTER POV
It was still hard for Winter to associate the man who stood in front of her with the man in all the media photos.
Expulsions at Beacon were far from rare. The most prestigious huntsman school also had a prestigious record of dropouts. Not everyone could make the cut when their competition was the cream of the crop. Between those who got expelled and those who died, only about half of any batch of students ever graduated from the damned place.
Expulsions based on falsified records? That was a new one.
When the person who is expelled comes from a legendary huntsman lineage known for the success of some of the most impossible-seeming missions, suddenly, that's front-page news.
She did not doubt that many falsified records had passed through Headmaster Ozpin's hands over the years. The chance of him not catching on to them by now was beyond low. After all, he'd never let a poser through before, at least not one that would be discovered so quickly.
The media had let him off easy. It was his first mistake after all. Why would the youngest child of a distinguished family such as the Arcs need to lie to get into a huntsman academy? It was a rare reminder that even the ever-perfect Professor Ozpin was - in fact - still human.
But Winter knew better. Even when the news broke, she'd confirmed it with Weiss. Weiss had claimed that Jaune could barely even hold his weapons straight, much less fight with them.
Weiss wasn't as great a judge of potential as Professor Ozpin, what a shock.
Now that she'd seen what Jaune Arc was capable of, there was no doubt in her mind that Professor Ozpin knew that his transcripts were fake, yet still offered him admission into Beacon.
Had she been in his place, had she known what he knew, she would have made the same decision a hundred times over.
"You can come out now, Winter."
His voice was measured. It wasn't cold. It was not a request either. The way he nonchalantly dismissed her stealth capabilities was concerning. Still, his tone held no ill will. As she walked out, she noticed that his irises were lit up with a golden hue. The light faded momentarily, but damn did that look good on him.
"When did you catch on to me?" She asked, genuinely curious.
"Since you scaled the west wall" Jaune answered, shrugging. "I originally thought it was Harriet following me. She seemed the most adapted to stealth out of your lot, but you're no slouch yourself."
Winter sighed. "We had classes when I joined special ops. Harriet's our hare. She's fast, but she doesn't have the mentality to be a stealth operative. As such, I fit the role nicely."
Jaune chuckled, "Giving away your group's weaknesses so easily? You have yet to ascertain whether I'm a friend or a foe. Am I not a criminal in Vale right about now?"
Winter shook her head. "Not a criminal. Your family settled the matter with Beacon in exchange for your whereabouts. You know they're hunting you, right?" She tried to deflect the topic of whether he was friend or foe, and for good reason.
They'd all seen what he could do, and as far as they were concerned, that wasn't the limit of his capabilities. If they did deem him a foe, what could they possibly do to him?
Jaune sighed. "The hunting party's out, then? Got any idea who's been sent to drag me back to home sweet home?"
Winter internally breathed a sigh of relief. "From what I heard, other than your father, everyone else is involved."
Jaune was silent for a moment, taking it all in, and then he laughed, surprising Winter.
"Wew. All that? Just for little 'ol me? They shouldn't have." Jaune finally stopped laughing, his face slowly settling into a wistful expression "That's gotta be the most attention they've ever given me.
"That's what old families like ours do. When you're with them, you're a tool. When you leave them, you're an enemy." Winter spoke.
"Speaking from experience, huh?" Jaune asked.
Winter sighed. "My father… is a stain on this plant."
Jaune chuckled. "That's a strong start."
Winter nodded. "It may be so, but it is true. To him, we three siblings were always tools. He was livid when I decided to become a huntress. He even went so far as to cut me off from the family." Her fingers tightened into a fist, her face locked in a rictus of anger. "The four years I spent in Atlas academy, he groomed Weiss to be what he wished I'd be. By the time I became a specialist and father wanted me back, I fear the damage was already done."
Jaune shrugged. "Her snobbiness aside, I feel you might be overestimating how much your father got his hooks into her."
Winter nodded. "That's true. She went through a lot to become a huntress. My father did not want to see both his daughters rebelling. You know that scar above her eye? That was all because of father's little test."
Jaune nodded. "All my sisters had to spend a week in the valley beyond the arc estate to prove they were good enough to enter huntsmen academies. Guess our families think alike."
"Isn't the Arc estate deep into the western outskirts of Vale?" She asked.
"Yep, and you know what kind of Grimm prowl those lands." Jaune stated. "Alpha Beringels, Goliaths, the works. I saw each and every one of them pass the test. As a kid, it was awe-inspiring."
"I'm willing to wager you had a pretty easy time with your own test," Winter spoke. She'd seen some of the Arc family in action early on in her career, and she couldn't help but agree with Jaune. A certain aura of awe followed wherever that family went. "Considering how powerful you are, it should have been a cakewalk."
It was Winter's method of probing for information. She wasn't expecting Jaune to answer, but the nonchalant shake of his head showed that he didn't care, at least not enough to not answer.
"Wasn't even allowed. My father has three wives, you see. The first and second wives are renowned huntresses. My sisters born from them had the genetics to be huntresses. Trust me. They're terrifying." he sighed, his shoulder slumping. "Me and Saphron, however? We're born of his third wife, a civilian. Neither of us was ever considered 'huntsman caliber'."
Weiss was silent for a moment. She didn't know what she expected when she asked that question, but this really wasn't it.
"Were… were you three pariahs in your family?" Winter dared ask.
Jaune made a dismissive gesture. "No, not at all. My dad wouldn't take another wife unless his other wives agreed to it. They love Mom, they adore Saph as well. Plus, they're super protective of me, all ten of them. Hell, I remember when Saph came out as gay. The amount of support she got was heartwarming as hell. Plus, Me, mom, and Saph are the only three people in the family who know how to cook. No one fucks with the chefs."
"That's… nice to hear. Still, it's a bit of a shame they didn't let you follow your dreams." Winter replied. "I would've gone on the warpath had Father forbidden Weiss from joining Beacon."
"It's no wonder how much Weiss tries to emulate you, even though it's slightly faked,"Jaune replied. "She'll grow out of it though, everyone does."
"You… don't seem to hate her. Wasn't she the most vocal candidate for your expulsion?" Winter asked, genuinely surprised at the lack of vitriol in Jaune's tone.
"I don't know. Am I angry at her? Yeah, of course I am. I'm angry at the fact that none of them thought I was worth taking a chance on. I'm angry that they betrayed my trust." He looked down at his hands, an apathetic expression on his face. "But to 'hate' someone, I'd have to care about their opinions a lot more. They're not worth my mental anguish."
Winter didn't know how to respond to that. How did one reply to that?
"Either way, I'd rather have nothing to do with her in my life. That goes for all of them." Jaune reasoned. "I also need to apologize to you for my initial reaction to you. I shouldn't judge you based on your sister's actions. You're awfully open, for someone I just met a few hours ago."
Winter smiled. "My entire team would disagree with you." And it was true. For some reason, she had told this absolute stranger of traumas she wouldn't even share with her own sister.
Of all things Winter was susceptible to, a pretty face wasn't one she was aware of, not till today.
"Then we'll agree to disagree." Jaune finished. Just in time too, as the buzzing of his scroll diverted his attention.
"It seems we're been summoned by the Mayor." Jaune stated.
"We?" Winter asked.
"Yep, it's time to find out whether I'm a friend or a foe." Jaune smirked at her.
She wasn't as good at deflection as she thought she was, it seemed.
"Ah, welcome back, Jaune." Mayor Ramos waved him in. Winter followed in, receiving a nod from Clover.
"And you must me Miss Schnee. It's my pleasure to meet such esteemed company." the mayor continued, beckoning her to an empty seat.
Jaune looked around. Everyone vital to the plan was in the room. The entire ace ops team sat together, with Winter joining them. Then there was a gap, followed by Jade, who was sitting in an armchair way too large for her, holding tight to her rifle.
It looked adorable until he realized that this little girl had more Grimm kills under her belt than the entire ace ops team combined.
He took the seat next to her, pointedly ignoring the fact that everyone's gazes were locked on him. "Update me on the situation."
Ramos didn't lose a beat as he pulled out a map so old that the edges of the paper were starting to go yellow. He draped it over the table with the practised ease of someone who'd done this a million times.
"Jade's been performing recon around the Legion base. They've gone into prep mode ever since the attack on the dust shipment. The base is on full lockdown." He pointed at the location of the base on the map. "The base was an old SDC outpost they repurposed decades ago. The base is built on this cliffside and hence is pretty defensible."
"So much for hoping it would be in the valley. A good landslide would have helped us quite a bit." Jaune commented.
"A location like that would have never survived the sheer number of Grimm attacks this place has seen over the years," Clover added. "We were briefed on the location. It's got the legacy SDC armaments. The same make of turrets you'll find on the walls of Ingress, an advanced warning system, guard towers dotting the perimeter, the works."
"Add to that around two hundred odd trained huntsmen and you have a veritable fortress. I can see why Lau believes he can hold his own against the Atlesian armada" He finished, glancing over at Jaune.
"Wait, there are only two hundred soldiers in that fortress?" Harriet asked, a little confused. "I can run through them all in an hour."
Clover chuckled. "Not soldiers. Atlas... undersold the capabilities of the fighters that comprise the Legion. Ramos gave me a rundown on the combat capabilities of some of the men and women in there. These guys aren't ordinary bandits. These guys are veteran huntsmen, most with careers that would make us seem like cadets."
"He's right" Jade spoke. "The place is filled with experienced fighters, huntsman that would be considered elites if they were part of a legitimate organization." She leaned in closer. "Even if we got to the base, getting to Lau would be hell. "
"Well, if we can't take him on, what the hell is the plan? He has enough firepower there to fight a siege for weeks. We'd be hard-pressed to bring him down, even with all of us together." Harriet complained. "The guy's a beast in the field, I can't imagine fighting him alone."
Clover smirked. "Funny you mention that. Jade's got an idea for how to lure Lau out."
All eyes turned to Jade. If she felt any pressure in the moment, she didn't show it. She turned to look at Jaune. "When I... killed the men that murdered da, Lau left the base to make graves for them. It's... the only time he left the base."
"How sure are you that this plan would work? Even with Lau out of the picture, the base is still filled with enemies, no?" Jaune asked.
She nodded. "That's true, but we'll be focusing on getting you in. From there on, you'll be able to wreak havoc without any interference. Lau is the most powerful person in the Legion, with him gone, I think you could clear out the Legion." She shrugged. "That's just a hypothesis."
"And the Atlesians would just let me do that?" He asked, gesturing to the ace ops.
Clover shrugged. "We were sent here to do recon. If not for Ramos warning about Lau's trap, there's a big chance we'd all be dead... sacrificed to spark all-out war between The Legion and Atlas."
Harriet sighed. "Our intel was... pretty shit, I'm not going to lie. Just getting a rundown of Lau's capabilities was enough to put a lot of things in perspective." She rubbed the bridge of her nose, likely thinking of all the possible outcomes had she gone into combat with Lau.
"So what? Are we gonna send in one person to deal with this? Marrow asked, confused. "We're the ace ops, dammit! I know Jaune is strong, stronger than any of us in here, but he's younger than most academy graduates! We've got more experience fighting in teams, and more experience with larger operations. We should be going in together."
"We'd just get in his way." It was Winter who chimed in this time. "He took out a herd of Megoliaths single-handedly. If he needs assistance, we wouldn't be much help."
Jaune chuckled, taking in Marrow's frustration. "Don't worry, guys. I think this plan requires all of us. Just not how you'd think."
Everyone looked at him. Even the usually stoic Vine seemed curious about what he was saying.
He glanced over at Jade. "The patrol team. We can take out the entire patrol team in a single go, right?"
She nodded. "They're a team of six. Even with all their experience, I don't think they can do much against you."
"Then they will serve as our entry point." Jaune turned to look at the map. "Once Lau's out and I'm in, the Ace Ops team will move in and cut off all exits. Not a single member of the Legion can leave. We can't have Lau returning mid-battle. In case he does, I'll need the Ace Ops to take over culling the Legion while I try to intercept Lau. Under no circumstance are any of you to engage Lau, is that understood?"
Jaune's voice had become so commanding, that even Marrow had no complaints.
Clover smiled. "And I presume we can just leave the cleanup of the Legion to you?"
Jaune nodded. "The Legion has demonstrated themselves to be an existential threat to the settlements and to peace on this continent, I cannot let that stand. It will not be an easy fight, but I will make sure this ends in their total eradication."
Everyone looked on in shock, all except the mayor.
"For Ingress, and for Diamante."
Jade POV
There was something to say about the willingness to take a life.
Jade had come to terms with it very recently. She'd been killing Grimm her entire life. Between her and her da, they'd taken down hundreds of Grimm. Everything from a Sabyr to a Sphinx, she'd killed.
Yet till last week, she'd never hurt a human.
The men that murdered her da were different, in a sense. She saw no reason to not hurt them. The same could not be said about the men and women in this fort.
It was hypocritical the way she'd told Jaune to burn them all. In her rage, she'd forgotten for a moment that they too were humans. Humans, no less deserving of a peaceful life than the men and women who lived in Ingress.
She knew Jaune had never taken a human life. There was a certain sickly feeling that stuck to those who killed for a living. She knew it well, she'd felt it on her da. She felt it off Mayor Ramos. She felt it off herself.
She didn't feel it from Jaune. Yet, here he was, preparing to kill hundreds to save her people, to keep his promise to her.
Jaune was an outsider.
And he cared enough about a bunch of strangers to die for them. To kill for them... for her.
She felt guilty. When her da took him under his wing, she felt slightly jealous of him. It took her years to convince her da to teach her how to hunt. Yet this boy just waltzed in, killed a few Grimm, and her da was enamoured with him.
It wasn't till da died that she realized why.
Jaune was different. He was kind, but firm. He was powerful to a degree that felt ridiculous. Yet he was humble. He was the kind of guy who'd bake you a tray of cookies and talk to you about your day, then turn around and raze through hundreds of Grimm without missing a beat.
It... confused her.
She'd come to accept that he was a good man. Now, she had to deal with the guilt of the fact that she wanted him to eradicate the Legion for her sake.
He was a good man, and she was sending him to slaughter. She was sending a man who wasn't from Ingress, wasn't even from Atlas, to go and massacre an army of people he'd never met.
It shouldn't have bothered her, she'd known him for barely a month and had only spoken to him for a fraction of that time. Yet he had become indispensable in her life. He'd stepped into da's shoes without missing a beat. Instead of a grandfather, she'd gained an elder brother.
Somehow, over a week and some change, he'd gone from an outsider intruding into her family to... well... family. Someone she could count on, someone who cared for her well-being, someone she did not want to lose.
And here she was, gambling his life for her revenge. Even though the stakes were higher now than just petty revenge, it wasn't fair of her to ask what she did of him. Yet, he didn't complain. He even went as far as to compliment her on her plan.
He called it 'well thought out', completely disregarding the fact that it boiled down to him betting his life against hundreds of trained huntsmen. It made her feel sick.
Her grip tightened around her rifle as she looked down the scope. The patrol team were right on time. By the time today was over, Jaune would feel the same as the rest of the killers she'd met. The thought aggravated her. She did not want to be the one to soil Jaune's purity, but try as she may, there was no going back now.
This was her idea, her plan. She shouldn't be doubting herself now.
"They're here, I can see them."
She saw him nod out of the corner of her eye, and then he disappeared. He appeared behind a tree a few yards away from them. If she didn't have a birds-eye view of the area, she'd have completely missed him.
The patrol wasn't as lucky.
She chambered in the wind dust bullet that she'd requisitioned from Winter. She looked back at Jaune one last time before aiming at the ground between the spread-out patrol. Jaune trusted her plan. He trusted her, and she wouldn't let her new brother down.
"Commencing hostilities."
"You'll have to kill at some point, you know?"
Diamante's words came unbidden to Jaune's mind as he put on his mask. The one legendary item he'd gained after killing the Megolaith herd.
Mask - The Mark Of The Unmaker
+10 to all stats
+10% Mana Regeneration
+10% Aura Regeneration
Mask worn by the great unmaker. Legends say that if you ever got close enough to see his eyes, your life was already forfeit.
Passive: The man with no face
Enemies below your level find it hard to sense your presence
Rarity - legendary
It was a featureless mark, save for the cut-outs for his eyes. It was stark white and lacked any mechanism allowing it to stick to his face. Yet, it sat on his face perfectly. He couldn't even feel it once it was on.
He took a deep breath as he saw Jade chamber her weapon. He didn't want her here. He didn't want her anywhere near the massacre that was about to happen, but he didn't get to dictate her life. She'd already shown more maturity than anyone he'd met at Beacon. In his eyes, she was a full-fledged huntsman.
She wanted in, she made the plan, and he'd follow it.
The dust round flew, and it was a testament to how much he'd grown that he could track its trajectory in real-time. He saw as it impacted the snow-covered ground, releasing a circumaural gale that pushed the patrol further from each other, kicking up a snowstorm.
He saw the patrol trying to regroup, but visibility was zero. Seeing his chance, he moved. Unlike them, his vision was unimpeded. He blinked forward, appearing next to the leader of the group. Just like with a herd of Grimm, cutting off their leader would lead to disarray.
He paused for a second as he locked eyes with his prey. He saw the look of bewilderment on the man's face morph into one of abject fear as Jaune's sword lashed out.
"When you face a situation where you have to kill your fellow man, there's only one thing you can do."
Before the man could utter a word, his head was removed from his body. Diamante's words continued to surface in the back of his mind, unbidden, yet not unappreciated.
Before the man's head could hit the ground, Jaune moved again. One move, one kill.
Six seconds, six lives snuffed out.
As he sheathed his sword, he took in a deep breath. He knew the system helped him control his emotions to some extent, but, he found it unnecessary this time.
"You cut it all out. The guilt, the disgust. Remind yourself that your actions have a reason, and that will carry you through."
The guilt didn't surface. The disgust didn't come. Instead, a calmness he hadn't felt since he arrived in Ingress settled into his mind.
These weren't Grimm. They were men. Yet they were part of a plot that would see the continent in flames. Did that not make them monsters that even the Grimm couldn't compare to?
What did that make him?
His hands shook for a moment, his calm facade broken by the slightest tremor. He gripped the handle of his blade tight.
These weren't Grimm, yet... they had to be dealt with all the same.
And he was the only man who could do it. This was just a taste of what was to come. Once he got into their base, he'd be on his own. His hesitation would only spell defeat. Faltering was not an option, and neither was defeat.
"Heavy's the head that wears the crown. Isn't that right, Lau?"
Clover POV
Clover didn't think he had an ego, yet he still felt emasculated by their current situation.
He'd completed more than three dozen missions as the leader of the Ace Ops. Each of those missions had been planned to perfection. Each had gone off without a hitch, each had resulted in the capture of multiple hardened criminals.
His track record was perfect, his skills impeccable, his luck unbeatable. He knew that Atlesian intel was not always accurate. He and his team had always excelled at gathering information in the field and getting missions done.
Never had he run into a situation where his intel was so bad it made the presence of his team obsolete.
It was like being stuck in a war between two forces so far beyond them that they had no place in this conflict.
That young blonde boy who'd had his first kill a few hours ago was their only real hope, yet he terrified Clover. That amount of power in one so young should have been impossible, but that kid wielded it like it was natural to him.
And even as he stood there, contemplating what had occurred, the kid in question appeared behind them.
"Jade has confirmed that Lau is now beyond visual range. We have two hours at a stretch." Jaune spoke. It was terrifying to see how the young boy had shut down his emotions far better than a professional. His mask hid his face, but the lack of tone in his voice was cold, colder than it had any right being.
"Acknowledged." Clover nodded, reaching his hand up to activate his codec. "Team, you have your positions. Neutralize any target that tries to escape the base."
Jaune sighed. "I wish there was another way."
"Believe me, Jaune. The second option we have is the total annihilation of the region. In case you're unaware, I don't have it in me to let that happen." Clover answered. He had ignored directives to make this mission possible, but General Ironwood would understand. What he wouldn't take kindly to were the discrepancies in the mission intel, and how it almost cost him his best operatives.
Speaking of operatives.
"You ever given a thought to serving the military, Jaune?" He asked, hoping to lighten the mood. "We'd be glad to have someone with your talent."
Jaune didn't take the bait. "Not particularly. Plus I'm not exactly well-liked in the kingdoms right now, am I? Pretty sure you don't want the bad press."
Clover wanted to tell him that for a huntsman of his calibre, any nation would bend over backwards. He wouldn't even need to join them, just be allied to the extent that the nation didn't have to worry about him going postal on them.
Power of that level can change the world. While what little he knew of Jaune was enough for Clover to consider him an ally, he knew the rest of the world would see him as a threat. He needed good PR, and with the Atlesian military, he'd have that, all the while being good PR for the military right back.
He didn't say anything of that, though. This wasn't his choice, this was Jaune's. "If you ever want a change in career path, I'm sure the military will have you, Jaune."
Jaune chuckled, finally loosening up a little. "We'll see about that. I for one, wouldn't hold my breath over it." Jaune spoke, walking forward towards the base.
"This won't be pretty." He whispered. "It won't take too long either."
Before he could continue, he glanced up at the cliffs around them. He was about to ask how Jade would be watching when he realized she'd be in one of the vantage points he'd mapped out. She was out of the way of trouble, and there was no doubt in Clover's mind that Jaune wanted it exactly that way. Jaune aside, the level of professionalism, intelligence, and skill he'd seen from Jade was astounding.
As sad as he was that a child like her was not only subjected to but accustomed to the reality of life as a huntsman, it gave them the chance to recruit someone who had the abilities of a top-tier hunter, and that was before she ever hit her prime.
There were people in the military who were four times her age and were nowhere close to her level of intelligence and skill. Given the right training and opportunities, she could be the next face of the Atlesian military, and even a safeguard if Jaune ever did go rogue.
That was his main fear. He'd fought strong people in his life. He was considered among the strong himself. He was surrounded by some of the best and brightest huntsmen in Atlas, yet the moment they heard what Lau was capable of, all they could do was back off and hope Jaune could do it all himself.
Such a gap in strength was unthinkable to him. If someone had told him three days ago that there's a lanky Blonde kid out there who can decimate a herd of Megoliath by himself, he would have called them crazy.
Then, he saw it with his own eyes. it was a humbling experience, a reminder that this world is far, far larger and weirder than he gave it credit for.
He was brought back from his thoughts when he heard the first gunshots.
"Showtime, then." He said, bringing his hands together. The base was about half a click away.
"Time to see what Jaune Arc can do."
Human life is precious.
That wasn't a lesson for Huntsmen. It was one for civilians. It was a lesson that was taught to him by his mother, the civilian of the family. It was a lesson taught to Saph. It would be a lesson Adrian would be taught as he grew old.
It was also never a lesson taught to his other sisters. Their mothers were huntresses, and they were to follow in the tradition as well. Genetics of that level could not be wasted, and the Arcs were not known for being wasteful.
They were - instead - taught a different lesson.
The life of a huntsman is cheap.
It was what got them through the brutality of their training, their missions, their successes and their failures. He'd seen it far too often, especially in the early days of his sisters' careers. He'd seen them walk into the house, their shoulders sagging, their eyes cold, their ability to speak reduced to scantly whispered phrases and false claims of 'being okay'.
It was at times like this when the support structure of the Arc family was at its strongest. He'd seen the sisters flock together. He'd been part of the recovery process far too many times to count. The youngest brother, who they were working to protect.
It was a known fact that the family loved him. They loved Saph too, and their mom just as well, but that meant the entire family worked to protect them. They were a tether for the family, and that tether became his chain.
It was the very day he was taught that human life is precious, that he should have understood they never meant for him to become a huntsman.
And it was today he realized that had he been brought up thinking of huntsman lives as a cheap commodity, he'd be far better off.
His sword rose, and another head was separated from a body. The huntsman next to the woman he'd just killed barely had time to respond before Goliath's Ivory was plunged into his heart.
These were all trained warriors, each with hundreds, if not thousands of Grimm kills under their belt, but in the end, they were still basic huntsmen. They weren't Lau, they couldn't even see him move. The few who could didn't have the strength to block his blows.
They were smart, they tried to group up. Had he not taken out the alarm pylon, they would have activated that too, but there was an empirical truth when it came to war. No amount of smarts could stop a force that exceeded your own by a margin so absurd you couldn't even fathom it.
They died in droves just to get a hit in on him. It did them no good. They couldn't hit him hard enough to cause him to falter. Their heavy hitters and dust made no difference, he could dodge it all easier than they could breathe.
Is this how Lau felt during the war?
Another huntsman rolled out from behind cover, holding some sort of fancy Dust launcher. That weapon had the potential to hurt him, but the gap between potential and ability was not something easily bridged.
"Fulmination."
A bolt of thunder shot out from one of the blades of Dies Irae, searing a hole straight through the man's torso. The electric discharge from the spell was enough to cause the Dust in his launcher to ignite, taking out the building next to him in a ball of red fire.
Jaune wondered just when things changed this much. A few months ago, even the weakest of these huntsmen would be a challenge too great for him to surmount.
He sped up, launching a vorpal slash at an incoming group of Legionnaires. He stepped right past them, carried forward by the momentum of the attack. The sounds of their bodies hitting the floor was enough for him to know that his attack was overkill.
He wondered how the Ace Ops members would treat him after this. How they'd see his actions. How Jade would react to seeing him covered in the blood of his enemies.
The thought frightened him, but not as much as the thought of letting Lau succeed.
Two hundred or so lives for the price of thousands, maybe even millions. It was a compromise he'd make any day of the week, but that still didn't make it an easy compromise to make.
It reinforced his original promise. This world needed huntsmen to fight Grimm, and then more huntsmen to fight those huntsmen.
Lau wanted to make a nation for huntsmen, he'd make a world without them.
He swore on every life his sword would take today, Lau's included.
Calling it a bloodbath couldn't do it justice.
It wasn't even a slaughter. There was a difference between those two words. The huntsmen knew they were going to their deaths. The way they threw themselves at Jaune made that clear.
They came at him with every strategy imaginable. Numbers, distance, traps, emplacements. It was all tried, and it all failed.
It wasn't just their failures either, it was how easily Jaune bypassed their defences. How he made his way to the strongest fighters in the base like it was a cakewalk. He never looked winded, not even when it all ended, with him standing in front of a burning pile of corpses.
"Jade, report, do we have a visual on Lau?" he spoke into his codec.
Jade did not respond.
"Jade, can you hear me?" He asked again. This time, there was a reply.
"N-negative. You... you barely took twenty minutes. Jaune, they were throwing themselves at you." Jade spoke, fear and awe laced her voice in equal measure, as a feeling of dread started to overtake Jaune.
"Clover, did any of them try to escape?" He asked.
"Negative. Not one runner." Clover answered. "Even when given a chance, they just went for you. Jade's right, this isn't normal."
It was then that Jaune noticed tiny motes of multicoloured light start to escape from the burning bodies. They rose to the air, then started to float away northward, passing straight through the walls of the base.
"W-what is that?" Jaune questioned.
"Jaune! That's Lau's semblance! Remember he steals a part of his companions' aura on death!" Jade shouted over the codec.
"But Lau's in the East... why are the motes headed North?" Winter asked over the codec, alarm in her voice.
"No...no! It can't be!" Jaune couldn't believe it. The way they were all attacking him, knowing full well they couldn't hope to win.
"They were sacrificing themselves to make Lau stronger! That makes no sense! He needs them for his campaign in the north!" Jade shot back.
Winter's voice overtook all other attempts at conversation. "No. No! All he needs to do is take down whatever is in the mountain! He can then activate the law of conquest!"
"What do you mean by that?" Jaune asked.
"It's an old wartime law that states that the liberator of an uninhabited, Grimm-infested area of land is considered as the legal owner of that land. It's the same law that the SDC was built on!" Winter shouted, "If he gets those mountains, he gets some of the most valuable deposits of Dust the world has ever seen!"
Jade's voice cut through, filled with venom. "So... they sacrificed themselves so that he could carry on with that stupid dream of his?"
Jaune was silent for a moment. Lau had played them.
"They played us." He spoke, anger starting to form in his mind. "This wasn't just to draw the Atlesians in. Lau just needed enough time to kill the Grimm in the mountain, so that he could stake his claim. So that he could make it the staging ground for his very own nation." He took a deep breath, his fingers clenching into fists. "He made me shed the blood of over two hundred people just so he could play as king in his pretend kingdom."
"His deeds will not go unpunished. I will make sure of it."
Does the ending feel rushed? I sure hope not. If I included the next major scene into this, the chapter would have ballooned past 15000 words and would take a few more weeks to come out.
The next chapter is going to be one long fight scene with multiple phases. It should make up for how little time it took Jaune to take down the Legion base.
Part of that is to showcase the level of his growth. It's also a setup for the kind of enemies he's going to be facing going forward.
The intro arc ends next chapter, and then we get a glimpse of the state of the world, and more importantly, the state of Beacon.
Please look forward to it!
- Cold Daylight