Usually I'd give a little update on what's going on in my life but lately there hasn't been much to say in that regards. So just enjoy the chapter I guess.


The fight Penny had thought would be over with quickly turn out to be a more hard fought one then she thought it would be. She had nailed the Grimm Knight with a condensed energy wave that could reduce most Grimm to ashes and yet it fought as if it hadn't taken any damage at all. Grimm were mindless monsters that that would fight until they were dead but even then when injured they showed signs of slower movements. They could ignore pain but the body still had to compensate for the injuries. The Grimm Knight on the other hand seemed to be the exception to that rule.

Penny's blades spun in a complete arc around her body slashing at the bone like shield before she jumped into the air, pulled her swords in front of her and shot them down all at once. The Grimm raised it's shield and stopped everyone of her blades easily but felt them dig deep into the bone. Then when Penny's blades got stuck in it's shield she pulled on her blades wires and shot down, double kicking the Grimms shield with all her weight behind it. The force of her strike shattered the ground beneath the monsters feet and dropped it to one of it's knees.

The Grimm growled angrily and pushed back, throwing Penny off it's shield and away from it. The young huntress in training didn't get very far because as she back flipped through the air she suddenly had her form yanked to a stop harshly, then back to her enemy the next moment. The Grimm used it's bone like sword to pull on the wires connected to Penny's swords to reel her back in. Unable to stop herself, Penny crossed her arms and focused her aura just as she was knocked out of the air by the Grimms shield.

Her aura level dipped as she crashed and broke through a hard stone houses wall. Dust kicked up from her crash and just as she was about to get to her feet and dislodge her blades from the Grimms shield she felt the wires on her back get pulled once more. Like a fish on the hook, she tried to resist but didn't have the time to center herself for a meaningful struggle. The Grimm was relentless as it repeated the process of pulling her in and knocking her away like a kid with a paddle ball toy. If this continued she'd end up spending up what aura she had left until the damage bypassed her aura entirely. Penny's mind worked in overdrive to come up with a solution to her current dilemma.

Disconnecting the wires she used to control her blades was certainly an option but then she'd be forced to fight the Grimm barehanded. It was possible of course but her chances of surviving the encounter were at 15% at best. The odds were too stacked against her to take that risk, plus if she failed her attempt to save Jaune, all this would be in vain. She couldn't let that happen. In his present state he wouldn't stand a chance against this Grimm but she knew he would try anyways. That was just the sort of guy he was and she really admired that about him.

Penny crossed her arms to protect herself from the Grimms next shield strike but her eyes widened as the Grimm aimed it's blade straight for her face. At the speed she was going Penny wasn't sure how much damage she would take from that attack. Would her aura hold? If it did would the swords strike damage anything within her body? She readied herself for any possible when the Grimm creature thrusted it's bone sword towards her eye.

It felt like time had slowed as the creatures blade came closer but then another figure came into view, one Penny knew well enough. Ciel flew in front of Penny and punched the bone sword with her gauntlets to change it's direction. It all happened so fast but Penny's reaction time was faster then the Grimms as she uncrossed her arms and got ready to punch the Grimm in the face. The Grimm had over extended and left itself wide open as Penny's punch smashed into it's face, cracking it's mask in one go.

The beasts head snapped back and it stumbled away but found it couldn't get very far as something hit the back of it's legs. Ilia grunted as she pushed with her body allowing the Grimm to flip over her and crash on the ground. It was kinda fun to realize that a move she learned back in grade school actually worked here in a real fight. The momentum was in their favor as Penny hit the floor, rolled over to on knee and pulled on the wires that the Grimm was now tangled up in.

This time the Grimm was at her mercy as Penny's wires now traveled between it's legs to where it's crotch should have been. She was strong enough to push and pull bullheads with easy which made the Grimm nothing more then a puppet for her to manipulate. Penny yanked the wires and flipped the creature into the air with an incredibly forced front flip. With another pull the Grimm crashed on the ground, shield first with it's face slamming into it shortly after. It shattered the floor with it's weight before Penny dragged it with her wires in another direction and gave it a taste of it own medicine.

Another house found itself renovated as the Grimm crashed into it like a wrecking ball. Stone and furniture destroyed as it body wrecked everything in it's path. Then just like with Penny the Grimm couldn't even get up to collect itself before it was pulled by force back out into the streets. Penny was in no way done with it as the Grimm flew towards her. Once the creature was close enough she spread the wires out and ripped the swords from the Grimms shield sending black blood spraying out over the stone and snow. She stepped to the right and pulled her blades around her body and swung them in a arc as she jumped diagonally to the left. The inside of the Grimm's elbow was unprotected by the bone plated armor it had, making it the prime target for her to cut through and sever the Grimms shield arm.

How badly did it hurt to have your arm cut off? To have the nerves that connected to your brain suddenly sliced through and know longer functioning? It must have been intense and painful beyond belief, those preconceived notions did not apply here as Penny quickly remembered what they were dealing with. The Grimm hit the floor then rolled over to it's knees just as Ciel and Ilia moved to take advantage of the situation. Black ink sprayed from the Grimms back and changed into wings which it used with one wing beat to blow the two away.

It was going to try and get away, if it was as smart as she believed it was then escape was only natural after receiving such damage. Penny's eyes took in everything the creature was doing in case she was correct.

The Grimm placed it's left foot on the ground and lowered it's head slightly. her guess was spot on and if the Grimm was going to take off through the sky then using it's previous launching speed and limited maneuverability was the way to go. She predicted it's flight path and speed with her previous data, aimed five of her swords and launched them just as the Grimm pushed off the ground. With how much force was behind the launch, Penny found herself being yanked into the air before she fired a few more blades into the ground to anchor herself.

Out of the 5 blades launched only 2 found their mark with one digging into the Grimms left calve muscles and the second in it's thigh just above the first. The bone plates that protected it's body were cracked from when Penny slammed it around earlier. In that brief second, luck happened to favor her and the sharp edge of her swords pushed through the cracks and into the muscle underneath.

Ciel thought for sure the Grimm had escaped but her eyes widened in surprise at seeing Penny dangling in the air while keeping the Grimm from flying away. The creature swayed from left to right hoping to shake itself free with little success. Looking to her other teammate, Ciel and Ilia nodded to one another and moved to help. The Grimm saw them coming and decided to do the unthinkable in that moment.

/

Back with Jaune, he could hear the fighting and see the plumes of smoke coming from buildings a few roads over. Penny must've been giving that monster one hell of a fight, but then again she was actually the strongest one on their team so it kinda made sense. Even still, his team was in danger and he needed to help them. With that in mind he struggled through the pain that wracked his body as he made his way over to the blade half of Crocea Mors. Fighting in his condition would be suicide but then again he just couldn't do nothing.

If only he had enough aura to activate his semblance so he could heal himself, he'd be able to rejoin the fight and help. Trying to get around on one leg sucked but even more so when he tripped and couldn't move his broken leg to stop himself from falling. Sure he had his good arm but instincts from years growing up had him moving both arms to stop himself. You could only imagine just how that must have felt for him to land on his broken arm with his whole body weight. A scream ripped itself from his throat and he rolled on the ground while holding his arm to his chest. Even doing that much hurt like hell.

The pain subsided after a good few minutes but even then it pulsed with pain that brought tears to his eyes. He never felt as useless as he did now. Throughout his rolling around on the floor he found himself just in arm's reach from his blade and reached out for it. He grabbed the handle and drew it to his chest, next to his arm as he laid there on the floor. He closed his eyes and figured that if he couldn't do anything right now he would wait for his aura to recuperate until he had enough to heal himself.

Aura was such a useful thing, now if only he could get it back faster when it was this low. Heck he'd settle for being able to reabsorb the aura he put in his blade right about now. "..."? His eye's snapped open and shot down to the sword in hand. Naturally he didn't have the power to reabsorb his aura but that didn't mean the power within couldn't be used to his advantage. Jaune gritted his teeth and pushed himself up into a sitting position. Then moved on to sheath his sword before placing it on his lap. Now he just had to remember what Penny's dad once told him a few months back.

If he remembered correctly his aura and the aura within his blade apparently harmonized with each other and grew stronger when they were connected. With a little luck maybe he can use that to help him here...somehow.

Jaune racked his brain for an answer but couldn't figure out why it wasn't working if he had his sword so close to him already. If his aura was harmonizing like Petro said then surely he would have felt something by now, right? He pull out his scroll to check his aura meter. Nothing had changed and his aura drifted between 2 and 3 percent at most. Jaune pocketed his scroll and grabbed the handle of his blade and picked it up. He held the entire thing up right before his eyes and stared at the white and bronze sheath of his.

Something was missing. He didn't know what exactly, but for some unexplained reason he knew he was missing something vital. "Okay let's rewind things a bit" he whispered deep in thought and remembered the first time he used his aura slash. He didn't use his semblance the first time around but still managed to do some impressive damage in the testing area. He remembered just swinging his sword and that being the end of it really. Then again he was at his max in aura capability during that swing so maybe that played a factor.

Jaunes let out a sigh a moment later as something clicked in his mind. The very next moment a smile spread across his lips as he found the solution to his problem. "I am such an idiot". He wasn't the smartest person alive but even he couldn't believe he missed something so simple. The answer was his aura all along. He'd been at full power and therfore had his full body covered in it, which connected his blade and him together. The aura tech cut off a certain amount of aura it needed, but that didn't mean it blocked out any additional aura completely. With that in mind Jaune closed his eyes and focused on the aura within himself.

"Come on, if your apart of my soul then you know why this needs to work".

Jaune focused within himself and tugged on what little aura remained, it resisted at first but that was to be expected. He focused harder and stretched out a small thin thread of aura from it's source and snaked it along his arm and into his hand. The connection was so thin he worried it might snap without a moments notice. Beads of sweat dripped down his face as he blocked everything out and focused solely on this small thread. After the longest minute of his life the young Arc managed to connect the two sources of aura together and instantly felt the difference.

It was almost like a heartbeat that came out of nowhere. It surprised him and almost made him lose the connection entirely. It would have been a disaster to say the least but he managed to hold on well enough. One second became two and the small thin thread that connected the two aura sources grew in strength. Jaune could feel his aura growing slowly but surely as the seconds ticked by. After a good three minutes he opened his eyes, "that should be enough" he whispered as he activated his semblance and began to boost his reserves.

Jaunes arm and leg that had previously been broken and swollen started to straighten out and reduce in inflammation. Within the next five minutes he was up on his feet and shaking his body parts as if he hadn't been hurt a moment ago. He placed his sword at his side before pulling out his scroll to check his aura level. The aura meter stood at 69 percent which was decent since he'd been more focused on trying to heal himself then recover his aura after a certain point.

The question now was did he take time to restore his aura reserves completely first or go help his teammates with what he had now? The answer was an easy one and he raced down the street he last saw his team going. It turned out the fighting had taken them away further then Jaune had thought as he passed by broken streets and destroyed buildings. What he came to though was an odd sight of Penny suspended in the air with her blades holding her from flying away with the Grimm. Ilia and Ciel were closing in on the Grimm creature right before it shocked them all by chopping it's own leg off to allow itself to fly away.

Yet again he couldn't see that Grimm Knight as any ordinary Grimm because such self preservation was more akin to that of human or faunus then a Grimm. Grimm fought to the death most of the time but for one to prioritize it's life like that was unheard of.

With the Grimms departure Penny dropped to the floor and cracked the hard stone with her body. Greenish aura crackled but held strong as the red head pushed herself up in a sitting position and stared after the Grimm as it flew away. She regretted not being able to finish it off when she could've but couldn't dwell on it more as her team rushed over to her. Ilia and Ciel was expected, but when she saw her team leader join them she couldn't hide the surprised look on her face. "Jaune?! How? Your arm and leg were seriously injured and-"

Jaune chuckled and placed a hand on her shoulder as he knelt down next to her, "I'm fine Penny. Actually it's thanks to you that I had the time to recover at all so thanks for that". For the first time in her life she found herself speechless and unable to even look him in the eyes. It was strange since she knew her voice box was fully operational and her eyes also had no problems to speak of. She could feel his eyes on her and when he moved his hand from her shoulder to her arm to help her up she could feel her mechanical arms freeze. She never knew anyone could draw such a reaction from her like that.

She'd need her father to run a diagnostic on her when she got back to Atlas.

"Glad to see your all okay" Jaune said with a small smile. Ciel shrugged her shoulders but Ilia let out a sigh, "we didn't do as much as Penny, in fact we just provided support while she did most of the fighting". From Jaunes perspective they all fought that monster together so it didn't matter how much they did cause in the end they won. Unlike himself they managed to actually put up a fight where he only managed to survive just a few seconds longer then expected.

"We still have a problem" Ciel said before they could get off track "we abandoned the walls defense to come here. I believe we should return to our post if it hasn't been overrun already". Jaune nodded in agreement and was about to give the order when a thought crossed his mind. What about the other gate? If the same thing that happened to their gate happened to team FNKI's then there'd be no point in going back. He placed a hand on his sword and lost himself to his thoughts.

"Jaune"?

He snapped out of his thoughts and looked to the red head. "Alright we'll head back to our post except for you" he said pointing a finger at the red head. Penny looked confused but waited for the blonde to elaborate. "I have a different assignment for you. I need you to head to the other gate and provide team FNKI with support". His team made to argue but Jaune silenced them all by raising his voice and yelling "ENOUGH"! The girls mouths snapped shut and Jaune used the chance to explain why he was giving this kinda order. "You've all seen what I can do with my semblance, how I cleared the sky of Grimm and kept our airspace clear".

The three of them couldn't forget, the image of one person releasing so much power at once would have frightened them if it wasn't someone they knew. The looks on their faces were confirmation enough so the blonde continued. "With that smart Grimm gone, now is our best chance to deal with that hord in the front but it won't matter if we lose the back gate and get overrun. You all saw the front gate open without permission, well I'm worried the same thing happened to the other gate. They don't have a Winter over there so it could be worse for them".

He looked directly into the red heads eye's and asked, "that energy blast you shot before can you do it again"?

She nodded to the question, in fact she could fire several more of those blasts in rapid succession if needed. Jaune faces split with a smile, "perfect. Then what I need you to do is seal off the back route to those caves with an avalanche". The others looked shocked by his request. "Wait what about the caves? Did you forget that's where Shelters main source of income comes from" Ciel asked. Jaune met her gaze with a stern one of his own, "so long as their alive tomorrow they could always make a new whole in the mountain again. If we're all dead though it won't matter anyways".

Jaune looked back to Penny and shared a nod with one another before breaking away and heading to their destinations.

"I hope you know what your doing" Ciel asked.

Honestly he hoped he did too.

/

The gates on their side hadn't fully opened thanks to a really smart technician who had found a way to bypass the gates command with an emergency lock protocol. The gate now had a small crack in it that allowed only a single Grimm to come through at a time. More could have possibly squeezed through but the rows of Grimm behind them kept pushing the ones in front against the walls. Flynt stood on top of the wall and split himself in to 4 with his semblance. Aiming his trumpet down he fired a shock wave that brought the Grimm in front to a halt.

It was thanks to him that more of the Grimm weren't coming through. His occasional shock waves kept the Grimm from wriggling their way through the small crack and allowed the Grimm in the back to push the ones in the front forward when they stopped moving. He just had to time his shots well and the soldiers helped by shooting the Grimm in the back to keep the line going. The only problem was the stamina it took to keep this up.

Flynt's lungs were on fire but he knew better than to complain about it as he blasted another shockwave down into the Grimm. If only the turrets didn't turn on them, they could have used those heavy gun to cut down on some of these Grimm. Another shockwave froze several Grimm in the front and allowed the ones in the back to push them forward into the wall pinning them there. "Damn it" he wheezed "they just won't stop coming".

Commander Rudolph placed a hand on his shoulder and pulled him away from the edge. "Take a breather, I'll take it from here until you've recovered enough". Flynt wanted to ask what the commander had in mind but they were both stopped when a red headed figure that Flynt remembered from Jaunes team arrived. Penny turned to the two of them and gave a salute. "Penny Polendina reporting with orders to end the Grimm threat at this gate". Flynt and commander Rudolph had the same reaction as they opened their mouth. "Huh"?!

Penny turned to the Grimm hord for a second before she looked up at the mountain on either side. The amount of force needed, the structural integrity of the mountain and the probability of the falling snow and rocks were all factored in her mind at superhuman speed. With her calculations factored, Penny summoned her blades and had them rotating in front of her as she took aim at a spot on the mountain. It was Jaunes orders and she was confident she could pull it off.

Penny drew her arms back then threw her fists forward and released a powerful green energy wave that smashed into the mountains side. She slid the energy wave across the mountains surface and caused boulders and snow to fall into the passage way leading to the caves. Focusing on the task at hand Penny stopped her attack, aimed at another spot on the mountain and started up again. Many of the soldiers stopped what they were doing to see Penny work her magic.

Nearly 10 minutes later and the Grimm hord was crushed beneath large boulders or blocked off from the gates leaving the last few to be picked off. Penny turned to the Flynt and commander Rudolph and gave them the peace sign with a large grin that was honestly kinda cute in Flynt's eyes.

"That's clearly no ordinary girl" the commander grumbled. Team FNKI's leader couldn't have agreed more with the man's statement even if he tried. Power wise the red head was in a league of her own and judging from how she handled saving the gate alone he wouldn't put it passed her to have a few other tricks up her sleeve. That did beg the question though, did Jaune send her here knowing she could do what she did? Penny did say it was on Jaunes orders that she came over here so it was highly possible that he did.

Team AASP (Aspire). They were in the news a while back because of the terrorist Adam Taurus but other then that he never heard of them before. That they were trained by the Ace Ops in secret should have been a red flag that there was more to them then he originally thought. Was their inexperience a lie? He wanted to say no but couldn't fully commit himself to that answer.

"Penny what's the situation at the other gate? If Jaune sent you here then he must have things handled on his end, right" Flynt asked. Penny looked to the horizon just in time for a white pillar of light to start shining like a beacon. "I believe my team leader is handling things as we speak" she said before pointing in the direction of the bright light. Commander Rudolph and Flynt followed her finger and marveled at the light. "What the hell is that" one of them asked.

Penny smiled as she answered, "our leader".

/

Jaune and the rest of his team arrived a little while ago and saw the state the wall was in in their absence. It wasn't looking good and Grimm had started to climb their brethren to get over the top of the wall since Winter kept them from getting through her ice wall. The soldiers on top of the wall were switching between shooting down Grimm to bashing those that got too close with their weapons to knock them back down.

"Jaune you got a plan right"? Ciel asked, the growing worry evident in her voice.

He closed his eyes and drew his sword, pointing the blade towards the wall. "I was hoping to stand on the wall and release aura slashes from there but the Grimm are far to close to do that now. Our best bet is an attack that wipes out all of them in a single go from behind the wall. It'll compromise Shelters defenses but if all goes according to plan they will be sacrificed for the betterment of all. I need the two of you prepared to evacuate the soldiers when I give the signal".

Ciel watched him with a careful eye, "not to doubt you or your plan but, do we have something that powerful"?

Jaunes mind went back to his training days with the Ace Ops before the rest of his team came together. He remembered the little experiment where Clover had him boost his aura to the limit to see how much power he could generate. The room had lit up like it had a sun within it but even then he felt like there was no limit he couldn't reach. Because it needed him to be stationary they deemed it unusable for combat. That was not the case here. Here he had all the time in the world and with the knowledge of being able to harmonize his aura maybe he could do even more.

The air around Jaunes body changed and Ciel froze, Ilia instinctually jumped back from the cause that had her alarm bells going off. She knew Jaune would never hurt her but even then she never had something like this have all the hair on her body standing up. It was a fear without reason and she couldn't help but wonder how someone like her team leader could stir that within her. Her eyes narrowed as white hue took over Jaune body and steadily grew brighter with each passing second.

"You don't have much time so start evacuating" the young Arc said as he released a steady breath. Ilia and Ciel got the message and ran on ahead with Ilia still keeping a watchful eye on him until she got a good distance away. Jaune opened his eyes and stared down at his blade. Building up his aura had become something he practiced daily for faster recovery time but this was insane even to him. Harmonizing his aura with the one in his sword, using his semblance on top of that was giving him results that would have even Pietro Polendina standing up for.

If that was the case then maybe now he might be able to find his limit. He kept building, kept focusing, kept his breath steady for one single outcome. It was kinda funny, his semblance was one that created and yet here he was going to use it to destroy. How long had he been building up his aura he couldn't say, but for some reason he felt pretty good, hell better then good actually. It was only when he saw soldiers passing him by while trying to give him a wide birth that he realized that his time to act was almost on him.

The last to run by him were his teammates along with Winter bringing up the rear. She yelled something at him but he couldn't hear it thanks to the vast calm he was feeling. He had something he needed to do and he knew that but he was feeling incredibly good at the moment and didn't want to lose that feeling. It took a monumental amount of will to shake himself from the calm. He raised his sword and dumped almost all he had into it before he swung. What happened next he couldn't even see since the world was engulfed in a light that blinded him from seeing.

When the light vanished there was nothing left. No wall, no Grimm, just a whole lot of empty space with a clear view of the tundra.

Jaune took a step forward and smiled. He had done it and they were safe. Looking down at his sword his eyes widened to see it had blackened like it had been burn by an open flame. The young Arc shook his head and released a sigh, "I hope Doctor Polendina can fix it when we get back".


The power of the sun in the palm of his hand. With this a new legend was born.