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Ursa Major
Level 38

Ursa Major

Level 41

Ursa Minor

Level 29

Ursa Major

Level 39

"Oh, for fuck's thake!"

Sometimes, I wonder if there's a hidden luck attribute in my semblance, and how low my luck stat would be. It was crazy how much trouble I always managed to get into, sometimes through no fault of my own. Honestly, I should have expected something like this. Motion sickness and allergies weren't bad enough, no, we need to add a couple of Grimm into the mix as well.

I didn't have time to wash the sap off before the Ursa would be upon me, and I don't think they'd be very keen on waiting for me to finish. Grimm just weren't polite like that, assholes. As fast as I could, I backed away from the group of monsters, running parallel to the river as I started deploying my weapons. Crocea Mors was unsheathed in a moment, the blade almost singing as it came out. Meanwhile, I kept running, buying myself time to strap my shield to my off-hand and cast Chitin Shield.

"ACHOO!" Another sneeze almost made me trip as I backpedaled, and I struggled to keep my balance while the monsters approached. I barely noticed the boy who was now standing just a foot or two away from me. It was Cardin Winchester, the large, brown-haired boy I'd gotten in trouble for hitting just the day before.

It was strange, the large boy was usually confident, almost to the point of arrogance, and he almost looked like he was shaking in his boots now, faced with the group of Ursa. The reason it was so strange was because I knew Cardin wasn't exactly weak. Sure, he had only beat me by ring-out in Combat class, and I was confident that I would have won otherwise, but he had still held his own. So then why was the boy afraid?

It didn't make much sense, but there was no point in dwelling on it, the beasts were upon them. I lashed out at the nearest Ursa, smashing aside a paw and ramming the pommel of Crocea Mors directly into the center of its faceplate, cracking the white armor and taking a good chunk of its HP bar with it.

I didn't have time to capitalize on the dazed Grimm, however, as another of the Ursa took a swipe at me and I was forced to dodge lest I lose a ton of aura. Meanwhile, I could make out Cardin in my periphery. He was facing both the strongest of the Ursa, but also had the sole Ursa Minor hounding him, while I had the two lower leveled Ursa Major in front of me.

The boy still seemed afraid, and as I blocked another blow with my shield and redirected a hit from the other, I saw how he was just trying his best to dodge, never striking at the monsters attacking him. It was working for now, but as much as I had a reactive style of fighting, I also knew that Cardin wouldn't be able to stay on the defensive forever. He would grow tired, while the Grimm wouldn't. He needed to attack.

"CARDIN! GETH YOUR HEAD IN FE GAME AND ATTHACK!" I shouted out, lashing out at one of the Ursa and carving a line into its flank, taking almost a quarter of its HP bar away with the heavy blow.

Next to me, Cardin froze up at the sound of my voice. It was only for a moment, but when you're stuck fighting two Grimm at the same time, a moment is all it took. I saw the blow coming clear as day, while the other boy was stood still, looking at the Ursa Minor, the larger threat had snuck up on him and was in the midst of slamming one heavy paw down onto Cardin.

It was almost like it happened in slow motion, as I dashed forward, cursing my low Dexterity score as I tried to intercept the blow with my shield. I barely managed to catch the heavy strike on my shield, briefly catching a glimpse of Cardin's wide, surprised eyes as the attack was stopped dead on the black surface of my shield.

But, in saving Cardin from what might just have been a debilitating strike, I had made the same mistake as he had. I had left my back open and taken my attention off my own opponents. Nearly 2000 pounds of muscle, fur and bone armor crashed into me in a brutal shoulder-check, launching me from my feet and taking almost half my aura with it in a single blow.

"JAUNE!" I rolled with the attack as the sound of gunfire suddenly filled the clearing. When I scrambled back to my feet, I reassessed the situation. Cardin was still on his feet, but he was actually fighting back now. His mace crashed into the Ursa Minor in a heavy blow, taking almost half of the monster's health with it.

Meanwhile, I finally located the source of the gunshots. It was Blake, the black-haired member of team BASN flipped, hopped and dashed around the 3 remaining Ursa as if it were child's play, distracting the monsters while I got back to my feet. She wasn't doing much damage with the few hits she managed to get in, both with her bullets and the occasional slash of Gambol Shroud, but she hadn't been hit once.

For a moment, I just stood there, admiring the way Blake fought. It was elegant and fluid in a way that I doubted I would ever be. Since I had started out, I had always been focused on Strength and Endurance. A wall that the Grimm wouldn't be able to break down, standing strong in the face of an attack and hitting back even harder. I had been adding more points into Dexterity recently, but that was mostly so I could keep up with the faster opponents I was now facing. My style still hadn't changed.

Blake, on the other hand fought with precision strikes and refused to let anything even touch her. I doubted she was as durable as I was, but did that really matter if she never took a hit in the first place. I didn't have time to ponder the answer, as another sneeze broke through my train of thought.

"ACHOO!"

It was enough to snap me out of my reverie, and I charged back into the fray, looking to take some of the heat off of Blake. Just as she had taken the heat off of me while I'd been down. When the largest Ursa went for a strike on the black-haired girl, she made to abandon the slice she had been throwing at one of the other bear-like monsters, but she didn't have to.

I didn't try to divert the strike, I was too far away to get between them. Instead, I ran full tilt into the side of the Ursa itself, shield first. The blow rocked the giant creature, almost knocking it off of its feet entirely and letting Blake continue her own strike without leaving herself exposed.

+11398 DUST

The Grimm began dissolving as Blake's attack hit it right in the unprotected part of its neck, but I didn't have time to celebrate. The Ursa I had crashed into was back on its feet and facing me once again. I simply held my stance, waiting for an opportunity to present itself, trusting in Blake and Cardin to keep their own opponents busy while I fought the strongest foe.

I didn't have to wait long for it to attack, the Grimm's aggressive nature betraying it as it charged. I went to bring up my shield, but at the same time, I felt another sneeze building up. 'Not now, come o-'

"ACHOO!"

The sneeze came just as the Ursa's paw made contact with my shield. Distracted, my parry didn't have the power behind it that normally allowed me to bat aside strikes like this one. So, instead of pushing the Grimm off balance, I went flying instead. The damage was minimal, only taking a small chunk of my aura with it, but it did leave me on the ground as the monster charged me again.

I barely managed to roll back to my feet, and I slammed the black surface of my shield into its faceplate with a mighty CRACK, dazing it for a moment. Before it could recover, and with none of its fellows to distract me, Crocea Mors flashed out and severed its neck in a single strike, instantly taking the beast from a little over half health down to 0.

+ 13928 DUST

As the Ursa began dissolving, I looked over to the rest of the fight, but I needn't have worried. Blake was dancing around the last of the Ursa Major, its health bar nearing empty as she gave it a death by a thousand cuts. Meanwhile Cardin had the Minor on the ropes, the Grimm barely able to react to Cardin's sweeping blows as one of its legs had been crushed, the result of a full-force strike from the mace.

+ 4398 DUST

+ 11468 DUST

Both of the Grimm went down, leaving behind dissolving piles of dust. Blake simply stood there, a strange sort of look on her face as she sheathed her weapon onto the small of her back. Meanwhile Cardin just dropped down to the floor, panting and wheezing as he lay there.

"I could have died." I heard the boy whisper as he looked at the sky with unfocused eyes. His skin paling further with each breath.

For the moment, though, I ignored it, and made my way over to the river.

"ACHOO!" Another sneeze left me, and I sniffled as I got to the water. There was still sap all over me, and I didn't fancy winning a fight against the Grimm, only to go into anaphylactic shock and die because of some stupid allergies. I wasn't sure how bad the allergy actually was, but if having some on my hands caused it to break out into a rash and made me sneeze like crazy, I wasn't keen on finding out what would happen if I left some of the stuff on my face for a longer period of time.

I didn't even try to wash it off normally, the sap had dripped down from my face into my clothes and covered a large portion of my torso as well. Judging from the itchy feeling, I hadn't been spared any of its effects either. Instead, I just waded into the shallow water and lay flat on my back, dunking myself into the stream properly, rubbing myself all over to try and make the sticky purple liquid dissolve faster.

I had to come up for air a couple of times, but after what must have been 5 minutes spent underwater, I was pretty sure I'd gotten it all off and I got out, dripping all over the grass. It was cold, the weather in Vale's autumn definitely unsuited to outdoor swimming, but better that than finding out what happens if I spent any longer with that sap on me.

I could still feel the slightly itchy spots where I had broken into a rash, but it was much more manageable now that the sap was gone. The sniffles were gone too, which was a huge bonus in my books, but now it was time to actually deal with what had happened.

It wasn't just Cardin, Blake and I at the river anymore. The rest of team BASN was coming through the trees now, VLYR hot on their heels.

"Jaune! Are you alright?" My partner sprinted into the clearing, her skin was still pale and there were still bags under her eyes, but all other signs of her exhaustion had vanished. She appeared in front of me suddenly, checking me over for injuries before I could even respond.

"Uh, yeah. There were a couple of Ursa, but Blake, Cardin and I took care of them." I told her, conveniently leaving out what Cardin had been doing there in the first place. To be honest, I hadn't clocked it during the fight, but the jar of sap that had hit me had come from around where Cardin had been standing, and there hadn't been anyone else near the large boy, so it must have been him who threw it. I'd just have to bring it up to Goodwitch later.

Nonetheless, I kept that to myself. I'd deal with it if I had to, but there was no sense in making Pyrrha even more worried than she already was. Meanwhile, Weiss was similarly fussing over Blake, who was still stood where she had finished the last Ursa, almost frozen in place. While it was clear to see that the dark-haired girl was uncomfortable with her partner's fussing, I couldn't help but smile at the scene.

As much as Weiss could be an annoying nag, she clearly cared about her partner, despite the obvious dislike the taller girl had for her. Not only that, but it was also clear to see that Blake's initial dislike for the Schnee heiress was dwindling rather quickly. As much as we still had our little issues, the team really was coming together now.

A gust of cold wind broke me out of my reverie, though. Stood there in my soaked clothing, I couldn't help but shiver. My balls were freezing off.

A/N: Hey everyone! Hope you guys enjoyed the chapter. It was mostly action this time around, setting the scene for the next chapter which is very heavy of dialogue and is where team BASN really comes together as some of their issues are solved. Anyways, let me know what you guys think.

To the Hirsja: If Remnant frowned upon racism as much as your post seems to indicate, then why is racism so prevalent, and why is nothing done about Cardin sooner in the show? If there was any evidence of racism being tackled properly, or Cardin actually being punished for bullying other students in Canon, I might be inclined to go and change the punishments. But as far as I know, that simply isn't the case. And besides, anti-racism rules/laws are all but impossible to enforce anyways. The country where I live has anti-racism laws, but that doesn't stop people from discriminating, it's simply too blurry of a line and too hard to prove.

As for the guest saying that Cardin could have damaged Velvet's hearing permanently by pulling on her ears, no, he couldn't have. Rabbits have sensitive ears, but that sensitivity stems from the internal mechanisms of the ear, not the outer shell which funnels sound waves into the ear canal. Pulling on a rabbit's ear is painful, yes, but unless you rip it off or damage the ear canal in some way, there won't be any damage to the hearing. Just like a human, pulling on someone's ear won't do any damage to their hearing, it just hurts.

As always, have a good one!