For my lovely Readers from Chapter 60…
To LoamyCoffee, Jack does have his softer side, and now that Jill's well again, and some of the pressure is off, he can "let go" of some of that pent up anger. And Team RWBY in Canon has their own mascot in terms of Zwei, so it just so happens that in GS, the "stable" is a bit more diverse; it always bugged me how Zwei was super-powered, but they never touched up on that. Ever. Again. Ever. I mean, fairy tales are filled with magic and/or talking animals, but Ruby only used the whole "even animals have Aura" thing one time...
As for that batch of lines from TFS, it just seemed like the sort of dialogue that Jack would use while "shitposting"~ I obviously fudged with the numbers a bit, but in principle it still lines up pretty well; especially since Bandits and Highwaymen in Fantasy settings seem to come with pre-packaged lines that get used over and over~
As for Ren's lines, he was always soft-spoken in Canon, but this one's a bit flushed out in comparison, and it's always fun to have him play The Straight Man for all of Team JNPR's wackiness.
To grx1318, yeah, I thought I made it really obvious with the "spiky white collar" that the mama was a Jolteon. As for the "Evolution" of Spirit Beasts, maybe I'll pad out this chapter with that sort of talk before we move onto the main course. Dust is "Nature's Wrath" in crystallized form, so Evolution Stones being like an "allotrope" or something is perfectly feasible with the worldbuilding.
As for Jack having a "adorable yet deadly Fairy" for a pet, part of it is because he's finally "saved" his adoptive sister from her condition, and now he has the emotional bandwidth to truly "unburden" himself and be a little more selfish, on account of no longer having to funnel money for expensive Ingredients in a bid to activate her Gourmet Cells. Like how those characters in anime who are "motivated" by curing the "uncurable disease" of a family member finally have free time open up.
On a very meta level, it isn't all that unlike how it feels to be "done with college and night classes" in the sense that there's "no more school", just my work life and personal life. Though I'm surprised you didn't make a Flareon/Yang comparison, especially since they both have really big hair and light themselves on fire. Blake & Umbreon feels a little on-the-nose, and Ruby would just be an Eevee with a red scarf or a tiny hood.
As for Jack and DBZA Frieza…~
(Frieza: You're an ass!
(Jack: And the universe is my couch cushion; what's your point?
(Frieza: . . . How would you like a job?
(Jack: Okay. But only if I get overtime after 40 hours; time and-a-half-and-a-half over 60. And you need to be able to match my 401K.
(Frieza: Bitch, please, I own Space Las Vegas. Money is not an object for me.
(Jack: Cool beans. When do I start?
(Frieza: Right now. Go conquer your planet.
(Jack: 'Kay.
That's just a tiny snippet of a "What If…?" mind you, but I can imagine "Slayerverse Jack" and "Abridgedverse Frieza" playfully ribbing at one another and exchanging witty reposts like co-workers in an environment where HR (or AR/"Alien Resources" as the case is) doesn't have any say in what they are or aren't allowed to say to one another.
Mind you, Jack would need to bring enough power "to the table" to get a minute of Frieza's time, but I can see them being pretty good co-workers like how Frieza was with Zarbon and Dodoria and the Ginyu Force.
Minus that thing where she thought Zarbon was gay. And also destroying Dodoria's homeworld.
To Loamy Coffee in Chapter 61… I love Soul Eater, and it seemed too perfect not to blend into RWBY, so I'm glad I'm able to use "Plasmology" as an exposition tool without being an out-of-nowhere infodump, since it IS a graded class of theirs. In Jaune's case, he was totally ignorant about Aura, so it only makes sense that there'd be studies in how Aura is used; how else would Atlas be able to make a machine that forcibly transfers one person's Aura into another person's body? And Fuga: Melodies of Steel (a favorite game of mine on Steam) is way big on Soul Power being used through a mechanical apparatuses, what with the "Soul Cannon" being literally powered by exhausting the soul of a child in exchange for firing what's basically a vehicle-mounted "Pocket Death Star" super-turbolaser blast. But I digress.
As for Yang's egg, I already have the hatching scene played out~ I've actually had that pre-written for a good while; a benefit of actually planning this stuff in advance instead of flying by the seat of my ass.
As for the Toriko angle… In terms of their beds and sofas, I'm sure that like how Toriko was able to use electromagnetism to fight the ultra-high gravity of Heavy Hole (yes, that's literally how he did it before learning [Enbu] and how to "push away" Gravitons), that those with Gourmet Cells can also "repel gravity" to some extent. All the biological functions always fascinated me, which is what kept me coming back to Toriko over and over.
That aside, I highly recommend the Toriko videos by The PsycheWard on YouTube.
Aaaand… That's about it really. A little lackluster, but I choose to believe that the Email Notifications not working (AGAIN!) had some hand in this lukewarm reception to my two prior chapters.
My advice would be to get the official App. Doesn't seem to be any problem with Notifications on THERE.
Also, while Giant-Slayer: New World will still be getting a double update, the other chapter before I move onto Vigorous Vitality will come out in a week so there's time for Readers to drop Reviews on each.
*NEW WORLD*
With their "new" gravity sled letting them carry their loot (and prisoner) far faster through the wilderness, it was barely any effort at all for them to get to the next population center; a small general-purpose settlement that acted as a waypoint for travelers between settlements.
Space towns and villages too-close to one another, and the negativity of one would attract Grimm to all the others in the cluster; space them too far apart, and reinforcements from one wouldn't be able to reach another in time for it to really matter. It was only in recent years that Humans began to find the "golden ratio" of living out in the Frontier while still maintaining an equilibrium with the main Kingdoms that the settlers emigrated from.
And as it turned out, Jack wouldn't need to call in to Vale proper at all to receive payment on the bounty. As far as Vale was concerned, the whole "Hand-Snatcher" thing was an "unsubstantiated rumor concocted by settlers to exacerbate the threat level of a local menace". They still put a bounty out on a guy because he was a threat to the commonwealth, but not the sort of money that one with the power to make people's hands disappear should've been worth in Team JNPR's opinion; uninformed as it was.
Thankfully, however, "Handless Hannibal" was enough of a menace in the Frontier to the far-north of Vale, that the villagers were more than willing to inflate the market value of all the goods (read: spoils) that Team JJNPR had brought to the negotiating table. When Jaune asked what was going to be done with the bandit in question…
"Well, obviously we're-"
The village chief stopped short when Jack slowly, and quite visibly, mouthed a set of words to him. That the four Humans deferred to his leadership and that he seemed the least-exhausted out of the lot of them, a sign of someone used to hiking through the Frontier, made the man change his tune.
"Um… Do you really want to know the answer to that question?"
"So you won't take him prisoner then…?" Jaune offered a bit weakly.
"Fft, why? You gonna stay behind and give him your rations?" one of the villagers scoffed, making Jaune feel very foolish if the blush creeping out from under his visor was any indicator.
"Will you be staying with us for the evening?" another of the villagers inquired.
"Unfortunately not. We still have more ground to cover, and, these greenhorns need to learn what 'roughing it' really means," Jack replied.
"Oh, so you're babysitting, then," the local chief nodded.
"In as such," Jaune was willing to admit.
If it'd been just Team JNPR on that forest path, not counting the fact that they'd have taken far-longer to resolve things in Lambert, but without Jack's fighting ability which wouldn't have been out of place in a Killing Intuition game, things would've gone far differently. Maybe the bulk of Team JNPR could've fought them off, but if even one of them had been taken hostage, well…
He'd never actively red "H-Manga" himself, but he knew enough about the themes on display in some of them from his peers at his civilian highschool to know that he would never want his mother to catch him reading some of the… darker, material.
"Well, I hope the trades we've made are amenable," the chief hummed.
"I mean, what're we gonna do? Carry all this crap to the next village on the route and hope for a better price?"
"Hah hah! You'd be surprised how many try!" the chief chuckled. "Well, safe travels, Team Juniper."
"And a safe living to you as well," the Faunus returned as Team Juniper, now with fresh supplies, continued on their southward route.
*NEW WORLD*
After a few more hours of hiking, some of it on the beaten path, some of it on a path they literally carved out for themselves, Team Juniper settled in by a river to camp for the evening.
While they could've powered through to the next town, even after their little detour, part of their "work training" under Jack's purview was getting used to the idea of camping out in the open, instead of in a dedicated shelter. Not only did this include setting down camp, and in a setting that was passably comfortable, but it also necessitated the effective use of one's time when not traveling.
Jaune with his Lunar Lance fished for, well, fish, not only questing for additional rations, but also getting used to the unique Weapon ÄRM. The fishing line wasn't controlled by a non-existent reel, but by feeding spiritual energy into the ÄRM and controlling it with his thoughts. Something else he'd learned was that the moon-shaped hook also acted as its own lure, though whether it was because of "magic" or just because fish liked shiny things, Jack didn't elaborate. Something else he was also taking some time to get used to was the fact that not only could he make it change direction in mid-air like a multi-axial rocket-propelled flail, but also move up against the current of the river.
The line between "Magic" and Aura got a bit blurry, so this was excellent training for both.
Nora's use of her free time was less… useful. With her Battle Hammer, she smashed rocks for little more reason than because she could; sure, she said it was to get used to wielding a one-handed hammer with a head that size, and also to flatten some ground for their use, but it was flagrantly obvious that Nora was enjoying herself way too much to be purely in it for the training.
At least she was having fun with her new toy.
Pyrrha, like Jaune, was training with her new ÄRM, the Ring Dagger, which was exactly what it sounded like; a dagger that could turn into a ring, and a truly frightening weapon for a would-be assassin as long as no-one looked too closely at the then-currently-unseen assailant's fingers. The red-head practiced not only throwing it after Jack gave her a crash course in knife-throwing, but also on recalling it to her hand with her [Polarity] ; with its comparatively lesser weight, the dagger returned to her grasp far-swifter than her other weapons, thus requiring its own adjustment period.
Even if her Semblance wasn't "openly acknowledged", it was more or less an open secret at this point that people at-the-very-least suspected her Semblance was some kind of [Telepathy] , [Ferrokinesis] , or [Magnetism] . After all, what were the chances that her xiphos would return to her hand every single time she threw it at some poor fool's head no matter the angle?
As for Ren, he had gone off into the woods with Jack to forage for the evening's dinner. While they still had plenty of foodstuffs from the villages they'd done business in, Team JNPR needed to get used to the idea of butchering a carcass and cooking by a campfire to stretch out their supplies as much as possible. While it was true that Professor Peach had prepared them somewhat, it felt more like the "namby-pampy" sort of cooking that people did at camp grounds which were essentially just glorified parks. Until you were literally cut off from supply lines and forced into self-reliance, you couldn't truly prove yourself in this regard.
*Rustlerustlerustle*
"Belts off, lads and ladies. Dinner's here!"
*WHUMP!*
"Jack… What the hell is this?" Jaune goggled as a giant ten-foot salamander was laid at their feet.
"Teriyaki Salamander, Capture Level 3," Jack answered as Nora and Pyrrha gawped at the giant red-colored salamander, its body streaked laterally in places with what looked like a thick, viscous sauce.
"So it's basically a giant salamander that's self-flavoring?" Nora asked, wiping her chin at the massive side of meat before tossing a log into the growing fire.
"They don't call it 'Teriyaki' for nothing."
"Still, though, wouldn't making itself more-delicious for potential predators hinder its survival…?" Pyrrha asked, trying to wrap her head around it.
The idea that someone could become super-human with a power other than Aura was still something she was struggling to fully comprehend.
Like, what was the reason that sort of power was being… compartmentalized from the general public? If everyone got that strong, even without Aura, wouldn't it be better for everyone?
"That's the double-edged kitchen knife of Gourmet Cells."
"Oh great. He's lecturing again…" Jaune groaned.
"In exchange for Gourmet Cells making animals more-delicious to potential predators," Jack began lecturing as he strung the critter from a tree and started to butcher the carcass, "they become stronger, faster, larger, and live longer, which in turn enables them to hunt bigger, more-delicious prey. The food chain runs both ways, and Gourmet Cells basically raise the 'Stat Cap' of their hosts, in video game terms. It's why Ingredients with Capture Levels higher than 1 become more and more fantastical to the… uninitiated."
"I feel like you were about to call us something else…" Ren deadpanned.
"Hey, you're the ones who spent your lives coddled by your walled cities, never knowing danger a day in your lives," Jack said before shooting Ren and Nora meaningful looks. "With certain exceptions, of course."
"Wait, do you have secret mind-reading powers and you haven't told us?" Nora asked warily as she shielded her head with hear arms.
"No, of course not," Jack waved off.
"Oh, good."
"I had a guy run background checks on you."
"Background checks?!" Jaune gawped.
"It's important to know who you're working with," Jack shrugged. "In your case, the only thing I didn't hear from your own lips were the contents of your interweb search browser."
"Um, there was a typo in there-"
"Yes. Of course. I believe you."
"Then why did you wink at me like that?!"
"I don't know what you're talking about."
"Ah-ugh! See! You did it again!"
"Enough yammering!" Nora cut in. "Let's cook this turkey!"
"Oh goddess, I wish we had turkey," Pyrrha sighed as she stared at the amphibian body.
Sure, the thing smelled like teriyaki dipping sauce, but her eyes were telling her that the thing was still covered in "slime"…
*NEW WORLD*
As it turned out, Jaune's Lunar Lance wasn't only good for catching fish, but also for hanging up carcasses for butchering; especially with the ability for its hook to change shape after the blond had expressed how he wished the hook "was bigger". After cutting off its tail to let the blood let, Jack helped Team JNPR more-effectively gut and skewer their fish as an appetizer for a teriyaki grilling party.
When the succulent scent of teriyaki-flavored salamander began to waft off into the night however…
*Grrrrrrrr*
"BEO- I mean, REGULAR WOOOOLVES!"
"Jaune, how are regular wolves freaking you out as much as Grimm?" Ren deadpanned as the large hounds began to surround their camp.
"I-I mean, there's a lot of them, and I feel like I should at least vocalize my concerns," the blond muttered as the predators circled the camp, muzzles salivating at the grilling meat.
"Nora, hold my meat."
"Ha! Phrasing!" Nora whooped as Jack handed her his plate and strode towards the largest of the wolves; a real beast of a lupine with a scarred-over eye and clearly the leader. The Faunus and beast's eyes locking, the prior's aggressive posture drew the latter forward from the pack.
"You know, now that I think about it, normal wolves aren't too frightening… Anymore," Jaune deadpanned at himself once he really stopped to think about it.
*BARK!* the "Alpha" Wolf barked as it leapt forward with fangs bared.
"IRON REAVER!"
"Ooh, haven't seen that in a while~!" Nora cooed as Jack slashed the alpha's head off with an upward claw swipe, scattering 'chunky salsa' into the air and ending the battle as-quickly as it began.
In any fantasy setting, this would've been the point where the rest of the pack scattered. However, animals didn't have a strict hierarchy like human armies did. If a pack of wolves were hungry-enough, they'd fight for their scraps to the bitter end, which was why even when Jack narrowed his eyes at the rest of the wolves and let his battle aura loose, that they did not yield.
"Alright, your funeral," Jack said flexing the claws on his other hand, Vivi looking positively tiny before the larger predators moving into a phalanx.
*VEE!* Vivi yipped as she slashed a paw across the ground, kicking up sand and blinding the ones on the left before striking them with a quick full-body tackle.
"BLADES OF BLOOD!" Jack howled, his Aura and the wolf's blood on his hands sending crescent arcs cutting through the air.
"Ring Dagger!" Pyrrha called out with a little less enthusiasm, but nonetheless the same resolve as she send out her Weapon ÄRM, a flex of her [Polarity] giving it an extra boost into another's eye with the force of a crossbow.
"Battle Hammer!" Nora whooped as she threw her Weapon ÄRM at another, a pained yelp leaving its muzzle as aforementioned anatomy was broken into gravel.
"L-Lunar Lance!" Jaune called out shooting his glowing fishing line around another's neck and drawing it in before skewering it with his sword.
"I have nunchucks," Ren announced frankly as he bopped another on the muzzle, treating the whole thing as more of a chore than an outright fight.
*NEW WORLD*
The battle was both swift and painful, though for the bulk of Team JNPR, it was the first time they'd ever killed anything that wasn't a Grimm or a Bandit. And honestly, after going to school to learn how to fight literal monsters, Jaune at the least suddenly realized that "ordinary" animals weren't so frightening. If you got sloppy and let them get their jaws around your neck, they'd kill you for sure, but "normal" stuff…
"Jack, have I ever told you that you legitimately frighten me?" Jaune whimpered as he watched Jack skin the wolves with his bare hands and claws.
"You could stand to say it more~" Jack grinned as he hung his prize on a rope between two trees like sheets on a clothesline.
"Hey, Jack, don't those wolves seem a little… skinny to you?" Pyrrha asked as she eyed another of the corpses, pressing her hands into its side and feeling bone.
"Well, why do you think they attacked us?"
"They're wild and don't know how to fear people?" Nora suggested.
"Also yes," Jack nodded. "But really, maybe we stepped into their territory, or something bigger and meaner chased them out of theirs. What's important, is you didn't get all squeamish like a bunch of pansies at the thought of killing a bunch of animals."
"I mean…" Ren said looking at the Teriyaki Salamander he and Jack had brought back to camp, the offal resting in a hole ready to be covered. " . . . Shouldn't we be worried about what might have chased them out of their own home?"
"Well, no-one here had a beast-talking Semblance so, it's not like we could've asked them which was which," Nora hummed. "What do you think these pelts will be worth?"
"Not as much as if they were fully tanned, but, you know, villages are always in need of meat and furs," Jack shrugged as he used a shard of Ice Dust to freeze another bundle of meat inside gallon bags.
*NEW WORLD*
Later into the evening as all of the day's light vanished…
"Hey Jack, can you answer a question for me that isn't this question?" Pyrrha asked once the others were asleep, having volunteered to join him on first watch.
"Ah, you're learning~" the Faunus grinned her way. "What's on your mind, Pyrrha?"
"Vivi… Why did she and her siblings look so… different than their mother?" she asked watching the fox-shaped Spirit Beast 'guard' Jack's unoccupied sleeping bag.
"Tell me…" Jack hummed as his amber-colored eyes panned the forest depths. "How much do you know about Spirit Beasts."
"Far, far less than you, I imagine," the red-head conceded dryly.
"Hm… Have you ever played one off those 'Collect 'em All' games with the fantasy creatures in them?"
"A game company tried to get me as a spokesperson for one of their titles, but my manager vetoed the idea. Said it would 'damage my brand to be associated with something so juvenile'," she answered, a shudder going through her as she remembered the Pumpkin Pete's commercials she'd done instead.
"Well, games like that are based on stories about real-life Spirit Beasts," Jack answered. "You go far enough down the line and the anecdotes are completely fantastical, but all those stories come from a nugget of truth at their origin. Like Grimm, Spirit Beasts come in all shapes and sizes, and grow stronger with time. Some even believe the Spirit Beasts are the antithesis to the Grimm, but no-one can agree which came first, or if their evolution is causally related to one another," he began lecturing. "Some Spirit Beasts are able to undergo massive growth spurts to exhibit further power, all the way from the mundane to the forces of nature that people mistook for angry gods. The sort of Spirit Beast that Vivi is… They have the ability to adapt to any environment; or at least as the story goes."
*Veeeeee…* Vivi whimpered sadly, Jack going over to her and stroking her head. The tiny Spirit Beast letting out a pleased purr as she leaned into his touch, the scene gave Pyrrha a gooey center.
"Different cultures call the same Spirit Beasts different things, but what we encountered at Lambert would've been known as a 'Jolt Fox' Spirit Beast, capable of absorbing lightning from thunderstorms. There are variants that are masters of heat, those that can live underwater, those that can live in ice. All sorts of places really. If Vivi spent enough time… anywhere that wasn't a run-of-the-mill forest, she could change into something completely different from her mother, but some Spirit Beasts react to certain materials, like Materia, especially-potent Dust, or even certain Semblance. And don't even get me started on the ones that manifest through material objects like teapots, chandeliers, bells, and so-on."
"Hm. I can see why real-life Spirit Beasts would inspire the collectible monsters in games," Pyrrha nodded. "What do you think Vivi will become?"
"Hard to say. Some Spirit Beasts can 'evolve' based on positive or negative emotions, or even the orientation of celestial bodies, but a Spirit Beast willingly traveling with a Human or Faunus is rare-enough that people just put more-effort into studying the Grimm instead."
"Hoh? So there's stuff even you don't know about?"
"Says the girl who didn't know anything about anything," Jack quipped back as he returned to his post. "Most population centers are by the coast, or the rivers, but even if humanity's begun putting settlements down at major resource caches, fact of the matter is, around 90% of the Frontier remains unexplored if not abandoned outright. Mapped in broad strokes? For sure. But the Survey Corps. has enough ground to cover that they'll never want for work for a hundred years, maybe two."
"The Survey Corps… I think I heard about them. They're one of the courses taught at Beacon, aren't they?"
"Beacon Academy teaches a lot of subjects, so I'm sure you're probably right," Jack hummed as he plucked a stone from the ground, dropped it into a sling, and started spinning it at his side.
The stone leaving his sling with practiced ease and hitting something with a meaty *CRACK!*, Pyrrha realized once again how far ahead of them as a Huntsman that Jack really was.
Sure, she by herself had the skills to match a graduate Hunter in pitched combat, but the actual minutiae of the job were still something in which she was sorely lacking.
It excited her that there was still so much room to grow.
"Jack… Thank you for looking out for us."
"Thank Jaune. He's the one paying for my services."
"And like that, the magic is gone…" the red-head deadpanned.
*NEW WORLD*
The following morning…
"Minegarde Town…" Pyrrha hummed as she read an antiquated sign above the gates of the village they approached. The walls were quite robust, fortified with stone and surrounded by cheval de frise made of local wood; obstacles meant to stop cavalry, but also quite effective in slowing down careless Grimm and other large fauna. In addition, there was a helpful directory to help people towards the village square, market, armory, inn, tavern, the warehouses, and the modest airfield.
"The largest hunter/gatherer village in the area," Jack nodded. "Bishokuya love it because it's a good waypoint for airships and is surrounded by lots of wild game-"
"Holy shit, is that Cardin?!" Jaune gawped as he pointed into the village gates, the rest of his team whipping their heads around to see a familiar head of burnt-orange hair. What wasn't familiar was the sling on his arm, the limp, and the fact that he was decked out in 'villager's clothes' instead of plate armor.
"Jack…?" the ex-bully blinked as he adjusted a bundle of supplies with his good arm.
"What the hell happened to you?" the Faunus blinked after the guards let them pass.
"Well, I'd like to say 'you should see the other guy'… but I think it'd be better if you came with me," Cardin said angling his head deeper into the village.
*NEW WORLD*
"REINHARDT?!" Nora gasped at the sight of the hulking power armor-clad Crusader after Cardin led them into a warehouse next to the airfield; one that was acting as an impromptu field hospital, filled with the wounded, the air saturated with the moans of the miserable.
"Ah, if it isn't the little hammer-girl," the scar-eyed man chuckled as he leaned against the wall in full armor. Armor that was pock-marked with indentions that frighteningly resembled teeth marks, his giant rocket-powered hammer almost bitten completely in half off to the side. Around him were the rest of Team CRDL, all in worst states than their leader.
"What are you all doing here?" Pyrrha asked worriedly.
"There was a monster sighting, and we came to Minegarde with Reinhardt as part of our work studies," Cardin answered as he opened the bundle of supplies, helping feed Dove while Russel and Sky made due by themselves.
"Um, don' t you mean a Grimm?" Jaune asked worriedly.
"No, he means a monster-monster," Sky huffed, sporting a broken leg and arm on opposite sides of his body.
"I've never seen anything like it," Russel shuddered, bandages wrapped around his torso and ribs.
"Well, that does tend to happen when you leave the Kingdoms," Jack said as he began to look around. "I take it those are the Dismantlers over there?" he asked pointing to a cluster of 'working men' with really large knives and saws.
"Aye. Can't let even a scrap of that beastie go to waste. Not after what it did to that new village," Reinhardt answered.
"What village was it?" Pyrrha asked.
"It was young, didn't even have a name yet," Dove choked out, covered almost head to toe in bandages and splints.
"Anyone get a good look at the thing?" Ren asked, Reinhardt unclipping a holo-emitter from the side of his armor and displaying-
"A murder pickle?" Nora asked with a head-tilt at the image on display; an enormous green theropod with a pronounced chin.
"Nora…" Ren groaned as the wounded shot her caustic looks.
"It looks like… a dinosaur…!" Pyrrha gasped.
"More like a 'dragon'. Dinosaurs would all have altitude sickness in our modern atmosphere," Jack corrected, suddenly growing deathly serious. "How much damage were you able to cause?"
"Not as much as I wanted," Reinhardt admitted, his Crusader armor protesting as he made to get up.
"Reinhardt, don't you dare!" Brigitte chastised angrily as she wrenched open a maintenance hatch and ripped out a fistful of wires, causing the Crusader to fall back against the wall with a meaty *THUD!*
"BRIGITTE!"
"No, Reinhardt! You go out there again and you will die!" the red-head growled, tears pouring out of her eyes.
"So, um, all those teeth marks… came from this?" Jaune asked as he pointed at the rows of indents on Reinhardt's armor, and then at the thing on the hologram.
"It did, and the battle, WAS, LEGENDARY-"
"HOLY COW, ARE THOSE CATS WALKING~?!" Nora gushed as she drew everyone's attention toward a small parade of bipedal creatures resembling cats that were carrying first aid supplies.
"You act like you've never seen a Palicoe before," Jack deadpanned.
"Jack. That cat… is… WALKING!" Jaune gasped exasperatedly as he repeatedly gestured at the light-haired cats.
"Right. Greenhorn," the Faunus said dismissively. "Anyway, back to the Brute Wyvern…"
*NEW WORLD*
While the bulk of Team JNPR attempted to keep Nora from pissing off the villagers and angering the "helper-kitties", Jack convened with Reinhardt and the least-injured monster hunters to actually get a bead on how-close to being defeated the giant monster, the Deviljho, actually was.
Unfortunately, the hologram that Reinhardt showed off was "old news", because while initial reconnaissance cited the Brute Wyvern as a Deviljho, in actuality, it was of the "Savage" variety. And if there was one thing that killed "Monster Hunters" more than any other, it was spotty intel; intentional or otherwise.
"So basically, a Deviljho on steroids."
"Y-Yeah…" Cardin answered Jack's summation. "I'm amazed I survived after it got its teeth around me…"
"Well, you can thank Reinhardt and his big fucking hammer that you did," Jack hummed as he eyed the man's weapon. Great against Grimm, but anything on the higher end of the Human World's power scale and… not so much.
"So… Think you could take him?" Cardin asked as he angled his head at the newer hologram, which showed the 'Savage' Deviljho in the middle of biting an armor-clad man completely in half, its scales darker in shade and a powerful 'battle aura' wreathing it.
"Not in a drawn-out fight. I can't use my Semblance anymore, puts too much stress on my body, so I'll have to hold out long-enough to find that one moment where I can finish it off in a single, decisive blow," Jack answered.
"Do you think they'll be able to help?" Brigitte offered as she pointed at Team JNPR, who'd finally gotten a 'helper-kitty' for Nora to cuddle with so she'd stop pestering all of them.
"Maybe in the distracting part," Jack admitted.
"Should we wait for reinforcements?" Cardin suggested.
"Maybe everyone else is willing to as long as this thing doesn't head for Minegarde, but I can't in clear conscience let this thing depopulate the entire ecosystem just because it has the munchies," Jack groaned as he rubbed at the back of his head.
"I still say I could take him," Reinhardt muttered.
*Clang~!*
"I don't think Human heads are supposed to make that sound," the Faunus deadpanned.
"Don't worry. He has a plate in his head," Brigitte replied twirling her wrench in her hand.
"That's hardly any better…"
*NEW WORLD*
"Before we go monster hunting, I have to know… How are those cats walking?" Nora inquired in all seriousness.
"Palicoes, and if you put them on the same level as domestic house cats, it's like if the N-word and the C-word had a baby and it was raised by all the bad words for Jews," Jack said frankly. "Look, other than the fact that they have bigger bodies and bigger brains and don't have the larynx to speak the same way we do, I don't know what to say that won't sound condescending to them."
Nearby, one of the now-identified "Palicoes" gave an appreciative nod and a *Meow*
"So they're little furry people, basically," Nora hummed.
"That… is actually pretty spot-on to how I feel," Jack conceded. "Mind you, apart from Vacuo, the rest of the Kingdoms don't recognize their sentience, so most of the time you'll only see them in out-of-the-way places like this, or freak shows where no-one knows any better."
"That's… That's horrible!" Pyrrha gasped affronted.
"Yeah. It's why there's a standing bounty on anyone using Palicoes for profit," Jack hummed. "I've actually smuggled a few out of such places myself, so I can tell you with confidence that communicating with them… It's more about their 'feelings'. They can understand your words just fine, it's reciprocating their meaning that's the hard part."
"Little fur-people, got it," Nora nodded pantomiming note-scribbling. "Next question: How the hell're we supposed to beat the thing that filled an entire field hospital?"
"Think of it like Grimm Souls. You hit it lots and lots and lots of times until it dies, and you juggle that with trying not to die as food."
"And wouldn't that be ironic…" Jaune grumbled.
*NEW WORLD*
Following that declaration, Team JJNPR proceeded to piss away half an hour of their lives debating whether dying as food was technically "ironic".
Eventually, however, they did get their shit together, and after bartering the wolf pelts and leftover meat from the day prior for additional supplies, ventured into the town's tavern for what could possibly be their last meal.
"COOKING KITTY!" Nora squealed happily as she watched a buff Palico in an apron and a bandanna cook giant steaks atop a massive skillet, wielding what basically looked like a buster sword with the forward half broken off. Scattered through the rest of the tavern were massive stone ovens vaguely stylized after cat heads, and Pyrrha wondered how the Palicoes were cooking next to all that heat and not passing out from heatstroke.
"Alright, gang, grab yourself a meal card and stock up. You're going to need a full belly if you wanna go monster hunting," Jack hummed as he went to the counter, bartered with the old man behind it, and received a wooden plaque with symbols carved into it.
Team Juniper, not innately familiar with the menu, took their time and saw that the portions were all quite large; both from the looks of the menu and what the other diners were eating. After finding a combo they could all agree on, under the pretense that they could get seconds if they were still hungry, they took a wooden plaque and went over to where Jack was sitting.
By the time Team Juniper had joined him, Jack was already in the process of sating his appetite with a whole pot of roast beef and vegetables, a thick lobster soup, a number of kebabs skewered into half a pineapple with a wedge of cheese on the side, a monstrous pan filled with prawn and mussel fried rice, and set to the side almost as an afterthought was a large tankard of beer, possibly mead.
It was enough to feed a family of four, but Jack was downing it like a champ.
"Where does it all go?" Pyrrha blinked, watching with morbid fascination as a volume of food that had no place fitting inside a human body disappeared before her very eyes.
"In his mouth, duh," Nora scoffed before turning her attention back to the 'cooking kitties' at their work stations, the lot of them adding a flair not unlike show cooking with the added benefit of being done by adorable cat-like beings.
In the end, Team Juniper split a massive pot of beef stew, a large gratin, a basket of bread, a wedge of cheese, a bundle of sausages, and a rich creamy soup.
Jack on the other hand got seconds in the form of a whole baked fish, a thick tomato soup, four baked potatoes with butter wedges, a thick steak kebab, a wedge of cheese, and another tankard of… something before he hulked out with his Life Return, only drawing a momentary look from the other patrons before they returned to their own meals.
"Aaaaalright," Jack hummed as he did some stretches, Pyrrha still trying to wrap her head around the fact that people could grow taller, broader, and larger of muscle on command. "I'll be waiting by the front gate. Make sure none of that food goes to waste; those Palicoes worked very hard to make it."
"Right, right," Jaune hummed, assuming that the bipedal felines were probably hypoallergenic if they were allowed to work in the food industry.
*NEW WORLD*
"Hey, Jack, are you sure we should've eaten all of that food?" Pyrrha inquired as they left Minegarde behind them. " . . . Are you sure you should've eaten all of that food?"
"All this extra bone and muscle has to come from somewhere," Jack hummed as he towered over him.
"So after this you're just going to… 'bunch yourself up' again?" she asked.
"It's more energy-efficient," Jack replied. "That and it's more intimate."
"You mean for the-"
"Yes, Nora, I got what he meant," Pyrrha said putting a hand to Nora's mouth. "But really though, are any of our weapons going to do any good against something that could give Mr. Lindholm a hard time?" she asked looking down at her weapon, which felt gravely inadequate to the task at hand.
Especially after she saw how fucking big the "Savage" Deviljho was compared to an ordinary hunter.
"They're more to annoy the big guy than to actually hurt him," Jack hummed as his gaze panned from side to side.
"Okay good, because I felt like this was this was closer to attacking an APC with a butter knife-Wait!" Jaune paused. "WHYYYYY are we here?"
"To kite him over to a battleground of my choosing," Jack said as he looked over his shoulder. "Alright, this should be far-enough."
The Faunus withdrawing a pewter signet ring from his pocket and affixing it to his left index finger, Pyrrha spied how instead of a gemstone set into it, there was instead a piece of jagged dark-gray rock.
The next moment it exploded into starlight, and when it cleared, the whole of Juniper's eyes went wide as saucers as they beheld Jack wielding a massive axe that was taller than he was; even in his bulked-up form. The blade was an enormous, jagged-edged sheet of rock held to the long two-handed shaft by massive brackets, and looked like something that could not so much cut a car in half as it could outright shear it in two…
"Now that's a big axe~" Nora swooned.
"How…? How…?!" Jaune gawped as he goggled at the size of the thing, a shadow literally cast over the four of them, it was so massive.
"Magic, duh."
" . . . Fair, I should've seen that response coming, but what I want to know now is… HOW THE HELL WILL YOU ACTUALLY USE THAT DAMNED THING?!" he shrieked, actually pulling at his hair and sparing Pyrrha the need to do so herself.
" . . . "
The next moment Jack held it completely sideways in a two-handed opposing grip, his hands shoulder-length apart, and to JNPR's astonishment, the shaft of the massively unbalanced blade formed a perfectly perpendicular line with the ground.
"Modern-day Hunters channel their Aura into their weapons in a way that honestly, is downright wasteful," Jack said as he gave the enormous blade a baton-like twirl, letting it rest atop the back of his outstretched hand. "Weapon ÄRM on the other hand are near-perfect conduits for spiritual power, and respond to your will like an extension of your own body."
The next moment like something possessed, the massive boulder-like axe began to spin around his extended hand like a propeller blade, the Faunus grabbing onto it mid-twirl and swinging it out to the side, kicking up a powerful wind before he leapt into the air and spun it beneath him like an upside-down helicopter blade.
"Okay, now he's just showing off…" Jaune deadpanned as Jack twirled the enormous blade around his entire body like a nunchaku showcase, the monstrous blade kicking up a powerful wind before he completely obliterated a nearby tree.
Not "cut". He just smashed right through it.
" . . . Okay you could totally kill a dinosaur with that," Nora hummed.
"Once again, not actually a dinosaur," Jack hummed.
"That's your takeaway?!" Jaune sputtered. "Not that you could split an Ursa in half with that thing?"
"I mean… Also yes," Jack admitted. "Of course, using any kind of ÄRM too close to people will just get a big old target painted on your back. You hear some outlandish story about some guy or some lady, and odds are they've got an ÄRM in one hand, and something to use as a decoy in the other."
" . . . So your plan is to split the thing's head like a ripe melon?" Ren inquired as he eyed the 'Boulder Axe'.
"More like I intend to ring his bell if I can get a clear shot at it," Jack answered as he propped the massive weapon up on one shoulder before reaching into his pocket with the other hand and drawing out a paper bag. "Now, take this seasoning and make yourselves smell delicious."
" . . . . . . "
" . . . "
"What the-"
*NEW WORLD*
"MURDER PICKLLLLLLLLLLE!" Jaune cried as he and Nora ran for their lives from the massive… thing, eating its way through the area's food web, the Savage Deviljho's footfalls making the ground quake with every step, its every muscle swollen with power, its ravenous appetite threatening to frighten their souls straight out of their bodies, and the 'battle aura' spilling out of its back like a mantle causing his every survival instinct to squeal like a little girl.
That or a pig to the slaughter…
Really, the plan had been simple. Take some savory spices, smear it under their joints like baby powder, gallivant through the woods while "sounding delicious", and then drawing the thing towards Jack who had situated himself in a clearing atop a large rock formation highlighted by a green flare. It didn't matter what direction Jaune & Nora or Pyrrha & Ren "kited" the thing toward him from, he'd hear them coming from quite literally a mile away with how the thing plowed through the trees in its path instead of junking between them.
"Do you think I'd die if I tried to take a selfie right now?" Nora inquired.
"YES! YES, I THINK YOU WOULD FUCKING DIE!"
"Well excuuuuse me for trying to live a little!" Nora snapped back. "Also, you're slowing down."
"WHY DO I HAVE TO SMELL DELICIOUUUUUUUS?!"
"Wellllllllll…~"
*NEW WORLD*
"I can't believe Jack is having us be live bait…" Pyrrha grumbled elsewhile as she walked through the forest with Ren, keeping Jack's smoke signal within sight.
"I can't believe how delicious I smell," Ren hummed sniffing his pit. "Of course, I'm also worried about the wash…"
"That's what you're worried about?!" Pyrrha gawped incredulously.
"It's a perfectly valid concern," Ren hummed lowering his arm. "Besides, aren't we pretty much bait for the Grimm, like, all the time?"
"This and that are different…" Pyrrha grumbled, wishing the smell of spices on her neck and bosom didn't whet her appetite in spite of the fact that she was quite sated.
" . . . But are they, though?"
Pyrrha raised her finger and made to speak up when the echo of someone screaming- "PICKLLLLLLLLLLE!" -wafted into their ears on the wind.
" . . . "
"I think they found it."
"Yeah, no shit," Pyrrha sputtered as she turned on her heel and ran for the green flare. "Come on, we have to help them!"
"Right, because wouldn't it be so ironic if they died as food?"
"Oh, don't you start that again!" the red-head snapped back.
*NEW WORLD*
Cue Toriko OST – Heavenly King Battle
" . . . There they are," Jack exhaled as the barest of shudders made the boulder he was perched upon tremble.
The Faunus slowly turning to face where Jaune and Nora had successfully draw the Savage Deviljho's ire/appetite, he let out a long exhale before telling himself- "Alright, Jack. Let's get this done."
Pumping himself up, his heart pounded in his chest like a war drum, blood surging through his veins; like an engine warming up to peak RPM, little by little he began to draw his body's full power out of itself. His Semblance would've left him shortchange the process and go from nothing to 100 in a second flat, but using his [Burst] was incredibly bad for him, especially now, so he had to take the long route. Veins swelling against his skin alongside his muscles, his baggy clothes straining to contain it, his jade eyes bled to amber, then to baleful crimson, his pupils narrowing into fine slits as the sound of Jaune and Nora's terrified cries reached his ears.
"I… would like… to… RAAAAAAAGE!" Jack roared at the top of his lungs, the air whipping around him as his muscles filled his clothing to peak capacity. Adjusting his grip on the haft of his Bounder Axe as the sounds of trees being bulldozed began to reach his ears alongside the screams, the pressure he was putting out made the boulder he was perched on shudder before he took flight right as the Savage Deviljho broke through the tree line behind its prey.
Jaune and Nora, still terrified beyond the capacity for rational thought, had just enough bandwidth remaining to go left and right respectively around the now-ruined boulder, leaving Jack's monstrous weapon and the weaponized monster on an intercept. Boulder Axe whistling through the air as thunderous footfalls made the woods around them shudder, the enormous weapon found itself on an intercept course with the thing's head; something that'd have killed most.
However, though its insatiable hunger had driven it completely feral, the Deviljho before them wasn't so-enraged it didn't remember how to respond to a surprise attack. One powerful leg digging into the earth as it spun on its heel, its enormous, powerful tail came around on an intercept of its own, a deafening *BOOOOOOOOM!* causing the surrounding trees, as well as Jaune and Nora, to whip backwards and kick up a plume of dust that could be seen all the way from Minegarde.
"Did… Did he get him?" Jaune asked from where he and Nora were cowering.
*Whoooooooosh*
*THUD!*
" . . . Nope," Nora popped as an enormous piece of the Savage Deviljho's tail flattened him like a house falling out of a twister.
Pyrrha and Ren for their parts came into the edge of the clearing by the time the dust settled, beholding their temporary team leader doing battle with the massive "Brute Wyvern", and even with how big his Boulder Axe was, it still seemed inadequate for the massive dinosaur-like beast, the pressure the two of them were putting out threatening to flatten them all.
More than Jaune was, at least, whose feet kicked out underneath the severed piece of Deviljho tail quite humorously if everyone else wasn't already terrified beyond the capacity for rational thought.
"RAAAAAAGE!"
*SKREOOOOOOOONK!*
The Savage Deviljho's muscles throbbing with power, its neck and shoulders practically glowing red against its darkened skin, with a whip of its powerful neck, it sent the bony spikes on its chin into Jack's next strike, the two meeting with a powerful *CLANG!* that sent the Faunus skidding back. Throwing his axe back over his shoulder and using it like a pole vault, the Faunus carried himself away from the Savage Deviljho before its mighty jaws could clamp around his body. With a single powerful movement, the Faunus delivered an explosive force into the ground at his feet enabling him to bring his Boulder Axe into the side of the thing's skull, drawing blood and sending it reeling, but failing to fell it. Though a good chunk of its tail had already been severed, compromising its balance, the Brute Wyvern had been quick to adjust, the battle aura spilling out of its body intensifying in power as it and Jack squared off once more.
"SHIT!" Jack swore as the thing unleashed its breath-attack mid-charge; a noxious-looking haze of black smoke tinged with crimson lightning that the Faunus dodged at the last second, his cargo pants and sandals slightly burned, his Aura taking a decent shave.
"Come on, gang! We gotta go help him!" Nora grunted as she lifted the Deviljho Tail chunk off of Jaune, allowing Ren and Pyrrha to pull him out. "Lock and load, ladies! We're hunting dinosaurs!" she said cocking her Magnhild.
"Nora, that sounds like a good way to piss that thing off," Jaune said as the thing suddenly unleashed a rolling haze large-enough to cover half the clearing, Jack throwing his Boulder Axe clear before leaping into the air, kicking off that air, and popping his claws before unleashing a powerful cross-slash that flew through the air and struck the Brute Wyvern's face.
"Too late! Already committed to it!" she said hefting her war hammer. "Pyrrha! Gimme a leg up!"
"R-Right!" the red-head nodded as she crouched low with her shield overhead. Nora letting out a mad giggle as she brought her hammer down, right as the red-head pushed up with all her strength, Nora pulled the trigger on her Magnhild, sending her sailing high into the air, the Savage Deviljho turning its attention to the blur of pink and white and nearly losing an eye for it.
Nora at the apex of her flight, shelled the Brute Wyvern with White and Yellow Dust grenades, kinetic and explosive blasts peppering the thing's thick hide and making it shudder. Right as the ginger-haired girl came down with a powerful somersaulting avalanche strike to the top of the thing's head, Jack's own weapon bit deep into the thing's neck, practically bathing him in crimson.
"Ugh, that is just wrong-sick…!" Jaune retched as Jack shook the blood from his face, only to catch what remained of its tail to his face. The Faunus sent flying deep into the woods, with a guttural howl that shook the whole forest, the Savage Deviljho's muscles swelled even larger than before, actually clamping its bleeding neck shut with brute force alone. "AND THAT'S EVEN WORSE!"
The thing's bloodlust washing over them once Jack had left its sight, the Savage Deviljho then turned its full attention onto Team Juniper, the battle aura rising off its back practically smothering them as its thundering footsteps left craters in the ground. Its jaws salivating even as blood trickled out of the puckered wound in its neck, Ren called out his Semblance, his colorful clothing and hair growing monochrome, as did Nora's when he touched her, the two rising to their feet even while Pyrrha Nikos quavered in fear.
"N-Nora!" Jaune called out as he forced himself to move, shoulder checking Pyrrha towards the red-head, the color-muting washing over the 'Invincible Girl' leaving him alone to feel the apex predator's wrath.
"Jaune!" Pyrrha cried, only for Nora to throw her and Ren over her shoulders as the thing unleashed another breath attack, the two just barely grabbing onto Jaune as the last of the living grass in the clearing died.
"R-Ren?!" Jaune gawped as he felt his fear leave him.
"Talk later," Ren said as his eyes darted about before turning them upward. "Team, we need to distract that thing for just a little longer."
"Why? What do you see?" Jaune asked following his gaze, watching the Faunus kicking himself higher and higher into the air with his Moon Walk, rings of smoke in his wake while he wove tactical hand signs from Roland's class.
"I-If we need to distract it…!" Pyrrha said as she disentangled herself from Nora's grip, the red-head turning her weapon into javelin and taking aim at the thing's eye before sending it off with a *BANG!*
To everyone's shock however, the monster they were fighting simply snapped the thing up out of the air like a stick of pocky, Pyrrha's Miló protesting for a mere moment before it was snapped in half, sticking out between the thing's teeth like a broken toothpick.
"What… What… What the FUCK!?" the normally-proper girl gaped incredulously as tiny T-Cogs fell out of her weapon and onto the ground, the corner of the Brute Wyvern's maw quirking almost tauntingly at her.
"Something that big has NO BUSINESS moving THAT DAMN fast!" Jaune too sputtered incredulously, Nora peppering the thing with smoke grenades right as Jack allowed himself to freefall.
Wind whistling against his ears, the bangle on his wrist exploded into starlight before two massive gauntlets, big enough to wrestle the thing down like a lizard in a terrarium, manifested "above" him. The enormous shadows descending on the Savage Deviljho, with a powerful flexing of its legs, the ground at its feet cratered and it swung its massive spiny chin into the coming strike like an uppercut.
The resounding *THOOOOOM!* of the resultant impact kicked up an equally massive cloud of dust, throwing Team JNPR completely off their feet and into the foliage, while those back in Minegarde caught mid-stride almost stumbled off their feet.
*NEW WORLD*
With pictures of the Savage Deviljho looking like it'd had "all its blood punched out" sent to Minegarde, as-swiftly as could be arranged, a robust-enough airship to lift the thing from its crater was dispatched in the wake of the Transport Hornet sent to pick Team JJNPR up.
When asked how the hell five dust-covered "kids" did what multiple hunting parties and a fully-armored Crusader could not -and then some-, Jack simply replied that it was a "trade secret"; a common-enough excuse for those that didn't wish the secrets of their strength exposed to less-than-reputable people with less-than-reputable intentions for such secrets.
In addition, Jack negotiated for the upper half of prime salvage given they actually had brought the thing down, with the remaining half split among the living and the dead back in Minegarde itself.
"Salvage?" Pyrrha blinked as she cradled the remains of her javelin/xiphos/semi-automatic rifle in her arms; some of her beloved weapon, even now, was still lodged in the massive theropod-like creature's teeth…
"Like in the fantasy novels where they strip fantastical beasts for parts to make their showy clown-suits," Nora hummed matter-of-factly.
"She actually is correct on that part," Jack agreed. "The body of a Brute Wyvern, let alone any other sort of 'Monster' is valuable for its scientific uses alone, but the problem is, you need so many people and so much ammo to kill one, or so-many pricy specialists, it's kinda hard to break even."
"Hey, speaking of which, how come my grenades did so-little damage?"
"Like he said before, with anything beyond Capture Level 3, most conventional arms 'cease being useful at all'," Ren recited from his seat. "Speaking of which, what Capture Level is that thing?"
"Somewhere below a 20… I'd guess."
"I'm sorry, twenty!?" Jaune gawped incredulously at the low number.
"Out of CL 100, yes," Jack replied.
"Oh my god…" the blond shuddered as he tried to imagine what that would look like.
"Mind you, for a 'Brute Wyvern', the Savage Deviljho is pretty up-there," Jack hummed. "Of course, you get into the realm of Elder Dragons with wilder elemental attacks, aaaaand…"
"I'm sorry, 'Elder Dragons'?" Pyrrha asked.
"Just another classification of 'Monster'," Jack hummed. "You've got Brute Wyverns like that big fella there," he said gesturing to the limp-necked carcass being carried behind them, "Bird Wyverns, Flying Wyverns, Piscine Wyverns… Really, I could guest lecture, but it'd all be second-hand. I don't have enough of a death wish to go after those things for a living, and the money isn't great..."
"So basically, just really big lizards that can put most Grimm to shame," Jaune hummed.
"Not just lizard. There's mammals, insects, and crustaceans too. Not to mention all the shit they don't even have names for."
"Because of course there are…"
*NEW WORLD*
With the successful hunt of the Savage Deviljho, Minegarde's dismantlers, as well as those that'd survived fighting the thing, began the celebrations in earnest.
Most of its muscle was utterly useless as food apart from that which was closest to the bone, though the meat which couldn't be eaten would make for excellent composting. The skin was practically like armor and low-key bulletproof by itself, but add its conductivity to Aura, and it could surpass most conventional body armors; with a price tag to match. Some of the offal was an acquired taste, with the smaller bones making for excellent soup stock, though the more-intact of the lot like teeth, spines, and nails could be used to make Bone Steel, which also conducted Aura better than more mundane metals. Its eyes and blood could be used by snake oil salesman to espouse pharmaceutical properties, though the brain, if adequately preserved, could hold immense scientific value.
Unfortunately in this case, however, Jack's final strike turned its neural tissue into "brain soup", despite the fact that its skull and jaw were relatively intact...
By the time Team JJNPR felt like getting up to do anything again, night had already overtaken Minegarde, but with all the lanterns and partying and cooking, it was more like a festival than the calm after a fierce storm.
"Wow, that is… quite the smell," Pyrrha hummed warily as she sniffed at the usable meat being cooked. "Soooo… what, does the rest of the meat taste like shoe leather, or something?"
"Comparing it to that would be an insult to skilled cobblers everywhere," Jack hummed as he got himself a steak. Or at least something that passed for a steak.
"So uh… What kind of cut can we expect?" Nora inquired.
"Do you want money, or do you want 'stuff'?"
"Stuff, please," Nora nodded enthusiastically.
"Then it's a good thing I negotiated for the best cuts of skin and bone. Figure it's time to upgrade my armor. And best part, it's already green to boot," Jack nodded appreciatively. "Well, not green-green, given it was in 'rage mode' the entire time, but, you know what I mean."
"So, what's the weirdest part a girl can eat around here?" Nora asked.
"Oh, they're grilling up the heart right now," one of the villagers said pointing to the center of the village where the massive hunk of cardiac tissue was resting atop a bed of ice, with slices being taken out of it for those brave-enough to try.
"Um, I think I'll pass…" Pyrrha said putting a hand to her mouth.
"Lightweight," Jack, Nora, and Ren all hummed before turning to one another and letting out a light chuckle.
"What, you've all eaten heart before?" Jaune asked.
"Hearts are an excellent starting point if you want to get into offal. Once they're prepared, the larger ones look nothing like the original organ, and generally, the taste is akin to a mild version of the animal's prime meat, just with a hint of iron," Jack hummed.
"That and the spiritual side of it," Nora hummed. "By taking in the heart, you assimilate the animal's strength, courage, and vitality, forging a spiritual connection with the animal and expressing gratitude for the sacrifice made."
"Which, after all of Dr. Stein's lectures, could be quite literal instead of metaphor," Ren added as the three of them walked off, getting in line right behind Reinhardt, Brigitte who he'd dragged along behind him, and Cardin whom had been dragged behind her.
"Soooooo… I hear you used Jauney-boy as live bait," the red-head hummed.
"I used all four of them as live bait~" Jack grinned.
"So uh… When're you going to go back to normal?" he asked looking up at the Faunus.
"This is my 'normal'. The other one is a power-saver," Jack replied.
"That, and, not all girls are into giant walls of muscle," Brigitte hummed aloud.
"Hey, I'll have you know the young ladies love a good wall of man-meat," Reinhardt huffed. "And I have a number of wildly inappropriate stories to back that up!"
"Ugh, gross," the brunette retched.
*AN*
In case it isn't obvious, I've been itching to do a Monster Hunter crossover in Giant-Slayer for like… ever. Especially that whole "Murder Pickle" joke which I definitely did get off of Honest Trailers on YouTube.
While admittedly I've never played any of the games, from a distance, I've always loved, well, the Monsters. The fact that I've already blended Toriko into the world of RWBY helps with the crossover because all of the Monsters are basically really aggressive "Ingredients" that happen to look less-delicious than the animals that literally look like they're made of food. And while in terms of "Power Scaling" they don't come anywhere close to the "Capture Level 100" Ingredients like the [Gaoh] , [Invite Death] , [King Octopus Kong] , and [Mount Turtle] , let alone the [Four Beast] which were all the pinnacle of the Human World Arc before the "Gourmet World DLC Expansion", in terms of Toriko scaling, the "cast" of Monster Hunter would all be pretty damn terrifying by Human World standards. Especially since "conventional firearms" would do next to nothing to the bigger ones.
Of course, I wrote this as more Toriko than pure Monster Hunter, hence no "hundred-hour loot treadmill" in-universe. So basically, instead of the eponymous monster hunters taking their "pound of flesh", they instead walk away with "the entire corpse" in the words of Loki Odinson.
Anywho, here's a little something extra that'd have mess with the "flow" of the main story if I hadn't segregated it.
*Deleted Scene*
"I can't believe I'm about to eat a dinosaur heart," Jaune said looking down at his place.
"Once again, not a 'dinosaur'," Jack chided.
"Felt like a dinosaur to me…" Reinhardt said rubbing his bruised side. "At least only us old-timers came out worse for wear."
"Hey, I actually got squashed by the damn thing!" Jaune protested.
"Then how are you still alive?" Cardin asked with a raised brow.
Jaune moved to speak up, but Jack's pointed look hade him withdraw his statement.
"Anyway, let's dig in!" Reinhardt grinned with a clap of his hands.
"We give thanks for the world's bounty," Jack prayed in turn, the rest of Team Juniper mirroring the motion before calmly, excitedly, or begrudgingly partaking.
"It tastes… I guess it could taste worse," Jaune hummed.
"It's certainly… interesting," Pyrrha added.
"And like this, I am now part-dinosaur," Nora nodded eagerly.
"Umu," Ren nodded.
"Not half bad," Cardin hummed to himself.
"Probably an acquired taste, though," Brigitte hummed.
"I am… UNSTOPPABLE!" Reinhardt bellowed at the top of his lungs as he leapt up from his seat and flexed a Double Cobra, most of his clothes exploding off his body with a- *SHRIIIIP!* -as they swelled to half again their normal size.
Which, for a man of Reinhardt's stature, still left him pretty damn big.
"What the heck?!" Brigitte cried as her godfather suddenly packed on a hundred pounds of muscle in an instant.
"Huh, that Ingredient must've been compatible with him," Jack hummed stroking his chin between bites.
"Now that's a murder pickle."
"Nora…" Ren sighed as he averted his eyes from a certain other part of Reinhardt's 'swelling' hidden behind what little remained of his clothing, a number of village girls fainting outright our shielding their eyes while one giggled between her splayed fingers.
"Don't worry, the swelling should go down in a few hours," Jack stated before turning back to his own meal.