Ch. 93 The spread
As Qrow cut down yet another group of Grimm a thought occurred to him. This was easy. Too easy even. Still they were making good time thanks to it so nobody voiced their concerns, least of all the young ones.
The Grimm they encountered during their time in the urban ruins were fairly standard. Not Elder Grimm, just normal grimm with the occasional Major sprinkled in. However, as they left the urban environment and got closer to the broken mountain Glenn, the Grimm felt… strange. Primal and impulsive, immature almost.
Qrow only encountered Grimm like this a few times and the most recent case being connected to this place didn't feel like a coincidence. Still decades of bad luck taught him better than to give shape to his hypothesis, let alone voice them.
No matter though. They'd know exactly what they're dealing with soon enough.
"Sky! I want you to watch our back. Keep our route out of here open."
"I can do that. If there is a horde there I'd rather know we can run away if we disturb them."
Qrow took a moment to wonder whether it was cowardice or pragmatism that made the team leader agree so readily. They have been hanging out with Roman for months though so perhaps it was just some of that cautiousness of his rubbing off on them.
Neo was the first to crest the horizon of the crater, She remained silent, though it wasn't for a lack of trying. Cardin was the first to see her, frozen, hands covering her mouth as if she was afraid her voice would return and give her away to whatever it was she saw.
He almost called out to her before realizing he probably shouldn't.
When he too finally laid his eyes on the deep black abyss of Grimm matter he had half a mind to grab his girlfriend and run. Before he could shake the feeling off or act on it he felt a firm hand on his shoulder, allowing him to tear his gaze away from the sight.
"A nasty sight I know… this wasn't here last time I was here." Qrow spoke. Quietly, yes. But firmly without whispering.
Cardin forced himself to look back ahead at the Grimm darkness. He sought Neo's hand only to find her fingers were searching for his as well. As he interlocked his fingers with hers he found the strength to raise his voice above an inaudible whisper.
"What is this?"
"A Grimm pool. I once traveled into the depths of the Dark continent for a mission. We saw it back then. A pool of living Grimm matter. Grimm spawning pools Ozpin once called them. It's where they come from, that much we knew for a while, though we always thought the young ones around here were spawned from the migrating Goliaths and the like. The Wyvern was one such source…"
The gaze of the three of them was attracted to sudden movement in the liquid. The black stuff moved in a grotesque organic manner, occasionally looking like muscle and sinew mowing beneath a thin oily film. Other times they could see bone white teeth snap out at nothing, the strong and swift jaws reminiscent of crocodiles snapping at their prey.
Neo tugged at Cardins hand, getting his attention and pointing to a spot on the distant shore far away from them. There from the roiling, tensing and bubbling surface of the black liquid rose a beastly figure of a Grimm. It was a Beowulf, its body pitch black save for the Grimm red eyes.
Within seconds of the first one more came out, eventually forming a full pack of thirteen. They shook off the oily remnants of the spawning fluid from their fur and the biggest one howled, being momentarily joined by all the others.
"I think that's our cue to leave." Qrow spoke up again, drawing Cardin's eyes back to him,
It was only then that Cardin realised Qrow was holding a scroll, recording the sight before them.
"Glynda should see this as soon as we can get back into CCT range. We can't wait for them to get the Beacon CCT tower back online so get a move on you two. We're joining Sky and then hauling ass back to Vale."
As Qrow started picking up speed Cardin and Neo both realised they wouldn't be getting any more answers to their questions. Not until the mission was finished.
=O=O=O=
Solei sat on a bench outside the Arc manor.
The spar between her brother and his wife was a spectacle she had recently taken to watching every evening. She thought it was a bit silly to spar when there were Grimm crawling into the vale surrounding the lake. No major incursions happened so far thanks to the fact that the huntsmen, her father included, patrolled the outskirts and tackled any Grimm that did manage to cross the mountains.
There were far too many of them for comfort though. Grimm were historically unable to cross the mountains. Ever since the passages into the valley were collapsed there were almost no Grimm around the settlements. In the past few weeks though they got more land dwelling Grimm making it in than they got in years prior. Something was brewing and all the Arc girls could feel it coming.
Their father was almost never home for longer than five hours at a time and that included the four hours of sleep he granted himself. Jaune though was even worse. While he spent more waking hours with his sisters than their father did, that wasn't to say he spent more time at home. In fact Solei wasn't sure he slept since the day he arrived.
She watched as Jaune switched the weapon in his offhand again. He held a massive hammer with an engine for a head in his right hand, a weapon Solei knew to be Jaune's bike running at close to full capacity and adding power and speed to his movements. His left hand held a fairly crude looking sword. The edge was sharp as could be and the blade was straight but that was about it when it came to craftsmanship.
It was one of his recent creations, one of the ones he made every time he left the valley for a day or two. The weapons he made then were clearly showing the rush with which they were forged, the blades' surface covered with imperfections and even breaking at times when they came into contact with Ruby's scythe.
Ruby had shown her the rough area Jaune was traveling to on a map and it wasn't exactly a distance that could be safely covered in such a short time, let alone with time to spare to work on forging weapons so it was clear that whatever method Jaune did use implemented shortcuts.
As for why he was doing it, she tried asking Ruby and all she got from her was a sad look and a cryptic "He's got reasons…"
Finally the spar ended. The reason being, as always, Ruby's exhaustion. Not Aura exhaustion mind you, Jaune was actually fairly obviously putting himself on the defensive, rarely if ever truly attacking Ruby. No, Ruby was just plain tired after running around the valley exterminating Grimm all day.
As Ruby passed her on her way to the house Solei was about to follow her when she noticed her dad making his way up the path to the house. She decided to wait to greet him, but instead of walking towards her, he stopped next to Jaune and after a silent conversation the both of them mounted Jaune's bike and rode off in the direction of Velia, though she had a feeling they wouldn't be stopping there.
=O=O=O=
"Son…"
"Dad?" Jaune answered as his father suddenly approached him.
"A word if you will…"
"I was planning to leave soon though."
"That's fine, I'll come with you. You're not the only one that can go a few days without sleep."
Jaune cringed a little at his father's blunt words. It suddenly became quite clear what he wanted to talk with Jaune about. And that he wouldn't take no for an answer.
"Alright. Hop on, guess I'll fill you in along the way. Equinus di Ardera Ventis." Jaune answered and summoned his bike beneath himself, waiting for his father to join him before revving the engine up.
"That would be much appreciated. I wasn't looking forward to interrogating you."
From anyone else that might have sounded like hyperbole. The older Arc however meant every word of that statement literally.
As they gained speed Jaune expertly navigated the now familiar path through the forest around the lake.
"Okay. I guess this is about my… lack of sleep?"
"Partially. Don't think we haven't mentioned the lack of quality of your work as of recent. I can guess at why you'd take such drastic measures but…"
Jaune frowned but didn't say anything as he navigated the bike through a particularly tight turn. He had gotten very used to speeding through the path, his father however tightened his grip on him as the bike lurched suddenly. Before Doré could complain about Jaune's reckless driving though, he spoke up.
"Well, in truth the two are a symptom of the same issue, or rather my attempts at fixing it."
"That so?" Doré asked, his voice carrying clearly even over the noise of the jet engine.
Jaune took a moment to compose himself, briefly considering how to broach the topic. Eventually though he opted for as blunt an explanation as he could.
"I'm dying, dad."
There was a minute of silence as Jaune thought about what to say next and his father processed the information.
"I've learned a lot. A few things beyond what I'm willing to put my family through, even you, dad, shouldn't carry the burden of some of the things I came to know. That knowledge though gives me a pretty good idea of what exactly caused my current problem and gave me some insight into how I can fix it."
"...Jaune. You're dying?" Doré finally asked, only just processing that information enough to react.
Jaune nodded "Yeah, my Aura got so big that it's killing me. I essentially suffer from dust poisoning, except it's my own Aura that's crystallising in my veins."
"And your solution is more Aura? Isn't that what's killing you?"
"The hope is that with enough of it my Aura will… I guess implode would be a good explanation. Collapse in on itself and compress."
"That makes no sense, Jaune. You should stop while you still can."
"That's the thing dad, I can't stop. When we left Atlas I maybe could have lived for a few years, when we left Mistral I managed to shorten it to months."
Doré's eyes narrowed. If what Jaune was saying was true then he might not love to see the wedding ceremony planned for the end of the week.
"So what about now? How long do you have left now?"
"Undetermined. My bones have started crystallising. The worst of it is my left hand and my sternum. I already tried to remove some of the crystals in the hopes of slowing the progress to dubious success. My arm will probably fully seize in a month at most. My rib cage is a bigger problem right now though. If it spreads further it could hinder my breathing, alternatively if it simply grows bigger it could pierce my lungs or heart. A few weeks from now I'll probably have to try and remove it. My aura could potentially even let me survive the removal. I've already started forging a replacement sternum so I might survive that."
"That… Jaune do you even realize what you're saying? Does Ruby know?"
"Not the full extent of it, no. I didn't have the heart to tell her. I know it's pretty shitty of me but I just can't find it in myself to burden her with something she cannot help me with. Not even the Infinite Man could give me an easy answer… but you don't need to concern yourself with that. I think I have a plan that will keep me alive."
"Jaune, from what you're saying you could drop dead any day now!"
"It's not that bad, not yet anyway. I've been keeping my Aura as depleted as I can which is helping slow down the spread… or was at least, I have a lot more Aura now than when I arrived here and burning it all is becoming less viable. I don't even sleep in a vague hope that it'll cause some more damage for my Aura to chew through. Even the forging of my weapons is about as dangerous to me as it could be. I think no other person could survive the process more than once, let alone the hundreds of times I've repeated it. The dust is unpredictable and partially active whenever I melt the metal…"
Doré was silently listening to Jaune explaining the entire process as he digested the news. Soon though his mind turned to the road.
They were making progress fast, faster than he'd expected. They were already climbing uphill, occasionally nearly vertically and despite that they barely lost any speed. At this pace they'd arrive at the crash site soon after sundown.
=O=O=O=
Author's note:
Jaune is dying, but don't worry, he has an idea to fix it... I wonder how well that'll work out. As for Qrow and the gang, well I guess it's not all good luck despite Jaune's best efforts with Lucky Break.
As usual as of late, I've left this note up to the last minute so excuse me for being curt. In fact it's probably going to get worse before it gets better since exams are coming up.
But hey if you want to support me you can do so on P a treon . com (slash) OlympianScribe
Anyway I hope you enjoyed and are looking forward to the next chapter: Ch. 94 Vital's Folley