Rough back (nerve) pain again this morning, so I may go to the doctor tomorrow on a no update day to have it looked at.

Also, freezing my account because they think I am a "politically exposed person" was not on my bingo card lol. Now they need proof I'm not involved in government or the political or voting system in some way.

Please tell me this isn't stupid American politics forcing itself on me. I'm not American. I like not having to deal with that nonsense!

Chapter 27

Weiss wasn't used to walking so far on foot. That much was obvious from how quickly she became covered in sweat, panting and stumbling over roots as they made their way into and through the forest. It started well enough, with her following him in bitter silence over the loss of her horse, but it only took two hours before she started to flag. In fairness, they'd been running from Raven long before that so it was well over eighteen hours since they last rested, but most of their travel had been on horseback. In fact, it looked like most, if not all, of Weiss' travel prior to that had been on horseback as well.

Jaune told himself that wasn't down to laziness. Weiss had to quickly respond to issues in various places, and that required being mobile. Villagers couldn't afford to wait on her when Grimm were close. A Bullhead or other vehicle would have made more sense but those had all been dragged into the war effort. Since cavalry charges would be slaughtered by a single machinegun placement, huntsman and huntresses were given mounts. It made sense, but that still didn't excuse what was a crippling lack of endurance.

Was that common in huntsmen? He didn't want to sound egotistical again, especially with something he didn't know much about, but maybe their combat styles against Grimm relied more on short blasts of extreme activity as opposed to drawing fights out. Stamina might not have been prioritised so much as speed and flexibility. Physical stamina didn't improve aura reserves after all, and the academies wouldn't see any point in someone being able to fight past their aura reserves. Either way, they couldn't continue like this.

"We'll make camp here."

Weiss didn't respond and simply limped past him to slump at the base of a tree. She fumbled out her canteen and took a long drink, then poured some water over her hair and face. Jaune winced at the wanton lack of water since even if they could find a river, there'd be no guarantee as to its freshness. Since Weiss was too tired to speak, he kept going.

"We shouldn't start a campfire behind their lines like this. They must have noticed we vanished by now. Hopefully, they'll be too busy with Atlas to worry about us, but that doesn't mean Raven and her group aren't out there. Can you circulate aura to regulate your body temperature?"

Weiss looked at him as if he'd asked whether she could poop diamond. "What…?"

"Never mind." He removed his travelling cloak and bundled it up, then tossed it at her. "Use this as a blanket."

"Explain it to me," she croaked.

"I'm not sure what that'll achieve. You're too exhausted to focus on aura exercises and you need rest."

"Just talk. Distract me. Keep mind busy." Weiss gasped a little. "I won't be able to fall asleep."

That was a different matter, then. It was a shame he didn't have any aura exercises to put himself or someone else to sleep, though he did have meditative ones which were closer to relaxing the mind and body so sleep would more easily take hold. Anyone could learn those, though. A lot of people did according to Master Ren. He couldn't fault Weiss having a lot of stress on her mind however, and if hearing him talk theory would help distract her then he could oblige. Jaune sat cross-legged before her and indicated she should lay down. Weiss, too exhausted to argue, pulled the cloak over her and bundled her bag under her head. For all intents and purposes, he felt like a father telling a story to a child before bed.

"Aura is energy as you know," he began, in a slow and quiet voice. "Some call it the energy of the soul, others the energy of the body – but everyone agrees it is a form of energy within the body. It fuels Semblances and protects us as aura, burning away in the process. Not unlike dust or firewood. Like all forms of fuel, however, there is a small amount of wastage. Wood burns as fire but produces smoke and sound, which may be miniscule amounts of wasted energy but they still exist all the same."

"Thermal energy," she whispered. "And kinetic energy. Physics. I didn't expect a physics lesson in your martial art mysticism."

"Can you really call it mysticism when you've seen what I can do? Menagerie, too. We're not magical, Weiss. We're not wizards. All we're doing is using our aura in a way most of you have forgotten. This is a science. It's one that has been practiced for centuries before Atlas even existed. You only call it mystical because you've forgotten it. Because your new way is quicker, cheaper, and more efficient. That's normal," he said, before she could protest. "In the same way everyone used to know how to farm their own food and make their own bread but now buy it from supermarkets. What was common knowledge two hundred years ago isn't now."

"But back onto aura and thermodynamics." He took a short breath. "Aura burns off excess energy like normal fuel. Your glyphs are visible to the human eye, so that's evidence some aura is being lost as light. And you can show aura on your skin with enough of it, which is again aura seeping out as light. So, if you circulate aura within your own body, some of that is also transformed into light and heat – you just can't see it because it's glowing in your body. You can't even really feel it, but it can sustain your internal temperature. And the aura itself isn't wasted because it's being circulated inside you in a closed loop. Some is lost to make the heat, but the rest is fine, and the loss isn't really a loss since you're receiving the heat you want. Mostly, anyway. The aura lost as light is lost, but it's a fraction at best. If I keep my aura circulating, I'm burning maybe 1% of it every six hours. A fair trade…"

Weiss' breathing evened out. The girl had fallen asleep. Jaune quietly stood and paced to the edge of the camp, seating himself at the base of a tree that would give him a good view back the way they had come. Closing his eyes, he meditated as Master Ren had taught him. Back then it had been a necessity to escape nightmares about his family. The body craved rest, and if you could quieten the mind just enough, the body would soon take over.

It took him only minutes to lull himself to sleep.

/-/

It was aura flickering against his skin that woke him.

Subtle, slight, like the kiss of a morning breeze or rain so fine you weren't sure it was raining at all. It made the hairs on his arms tingle. Jaune opened his eyes but remained still, curious as to the alien sensation. He'd never felt anything quite like it, and the only thing he knew for sure was that it wasn't his aura.

Nor Weiss', as a quick glance revealed she was still fast asleep. It had been only four hours or so judging by the shifting sunlight. No Grimm had challenged them but that didn't feel unreasonable. Any Grimm here would have been drawn to the battlefield slaughter, and it was unlikely any existed at all because Menagerie wouldn't want Grimm at their backs. On both sides, Grimm close to the front lines were presumably hunted down. The forest was still. Calm. Sensing nothing more, Jaune closed his eyes once more and began to meditate his way back to sleep.

A fresh ripple. There was no motion of leaves moving or swaying, but the aura tickled his body like a breeze again, snapping his eyes open wide. Once might be an accident, but not twice. Though he could not see aura, he could visualise how it rippled and came from a direction as one could judge wind by touch. He could also feel how it carried on around them but did not where it had struck their bodies. Where it had struck their aura and been impeded. Stopped in its tracks.

Jaune moved quickly and took Weiss' shoulder, shaking her awake. "Wake up," he whispered. "We're being tracked."

It took an agonising amount of time for her to wake and understand him. Her eyes were bloodshot. "W… What…?"

"Someone is tracking us. We have to go."

"Branwen…?"

"No. It's someone who knows how to use their aura like I do. They're sending out aura like a sonar, and sensing where it collides with our own. They're narrowing down our location and coming here."

A fresh wave tickled over them as he finished saying it. He couldn't tell if the person was closer or not, but it definitely felt more focused, like they had stopped sending it in a wide circle and begun to tighten the cone. It was obvious Weiss didn't feel a thing. But she trusted him enough to scramble out from under his cloak.

"You can do that?" she asked. "Why haven't you been doing it to find if Raven is still following us?"

"I can't. I've no idea how this works or how to start doing it." Her surprised expression had him explaining. "I'm a beginner when it comes to this, Weiss. And every sect has its own techniques and skills. I can feel what's happening and make an informed assumption as to what is going on. That's all." He tilted his head and closed his eyes. "And it's getting closer."

"How—?"

"Less time between the waves. Less distance to travel."

Weiss cursed and picked up her bags. Jaune took his. They were still tired but four hours sleep was just about enough to ward off collapse. It wouldn't keep them going, but hopefully they could dodge the person or shake them off their tail. Jaune helped Weiss out the camp and turned them south, at an angle off from their existing path.

He wasn't sure how much help that would be. If they could always detect their direction, then weaving and picking new trails would just tire them out, while their pursuer could take the shortest, direct path to their current location. Though if they can burn aura for energy like I can then it won't matter anyway. They will keep walking for twelve hours straight, long after Weiss collapses.

/-/

They knew she was onto them.

Blake felt their movement in how the feedback from her aura had shifted positions on her mental compass. Just a few degrees, but when the feeling was deep in your soul those microscopic changes might as well have been chasms. The ribbon she had wrapped around her left and black arm, and stretched loose between her arms, began to quiver and shake, prickling and poking up in places, like markers on a cloth map. Those brief spikes represented where her aura had collided with something and, since aura could permeate almost any object, that meant it hit someone else's aura.

While there was always a chance they had just up and decided to break camp, she doubted it. Most people slept the night and moved in the morning light. This would be an odd time for them to move. Much too convenient for it to come minutes after she started using the Guiding Ribbon Compass technique.

"So, you're someone who can sense aura. You can't be a deserter or Samson would have recognised you." Blake's eyes tracked the ribbon before her, reading the tiny vibrations across the cloth. They guided her feet, which picked their way over and around stones and fallen logs. "You're not from our sect either, or you'd know how to hide from it."

Why hide at all, then? It was rare to meet another sect in today's day and age but relations between them weren't necessarily bad. There was always respect, sometimes even stories and sharing of secrets, or even a good-natured spar. Blake was a little too tired for that but the few practitioners she had met in her life had been amicable sorts.

Except for the Lotus Temple sect member in Vale. Blake seethed at the memory, and the cloth before her rippled agitatedly in reaction. She calmed herself, releasing the feelings in a deep breath. One last ripple and then calm, before the cloth began reacting to her aura pulses once more. Better. Her mother would chastise her if she saw her fumbling such an elementary technique like this because of a lack of discipline.

They might be worried about the war, she thought. Our forces would not challenge or harm another sect, but the same can't be said for Atlas. They'd probably try and draft them – or even assume they're aligned to us since we fight the same way.

The same way. Blake scoffed. No one who knew anything would look at their sect compared to another and call them the same, but those outside would lump it all together. Like calling swordplay and spearplay the same or saying all Vacuans looked alike. Offensiveness born of ignorance, or even laziness. Atlas loved to dismiss anything they couldn't make immediate use of as nonsense.

"Even so, you should know I'm not from Atlas if you can feel what I'm doing, which begs the question again: why are you running away from me?"

Blake broke into a slow jog.

"I guess we'll soon find out."

/-/

The waves of aura came faster.

Much faster.

"Crap." Jaune shoved his way in front of Weiss and knelt. "Get on my back."

"What!?"

"Now! They're running. We have to run as well."

"I can ru—"

Jaune growled and pushed back, banging his rear into Weiss' knees and pushing up with his own. Weiss yelped as she was swept off her feet, arms wrapping around his neck automatically for grip. That was good enough for him. Jaune burst forward at a decent clip, not quite a sprint but at a pace faster than jogging, with time enough for him not to trip and break both their necks.

"This is ridiculous!" Weiss hissed into his ear. "I can run faster than this!"

"Not for as long, you can't."

Recalling the way he'd kept up with her on horseback, Weiss didn't argue it. "Can all of you do that?" she asked. "Or is that some secret specific to you?"

"We're about to find out."

"You don't know!? What do you know?"

Precious little. Master Ren hadn't explained it, or he hadn't had the time to explain it. One or the other. Jaune didn't know what was a secret of their sect or what was common knowledge, or even how to find other sects. All of those might be things he meant to teach Jaune in time, before Cinder and her ilk killed him.

For a while the waves of aura became less regular, indicating they were making distance, but then they began to speed up again as the person gave chase. They soon grew even closer, forcing Jaune into a faster run, one that had Weiss holding on for dear life as he bounded through the forest with great big strides.

It wasn't long before it became clear Weiss could not have kept up for so long. Running for half an hour straight without once slowing was technically possible, but unlikely. Jaune kept going past the hour mark, and then on into the next, at a speed not even a marathon runner could have kept up. It was astounding to Weiss, who he could hear commenting on the impossibility of it all. The problem was that the person chasing them wasn't so impressed. Not when they were keeping pace.

Just my luck that this isn't a secret technique of ours. There goes any hope of outrunning them.

They reached the edge of the forest and ran free of it, out onto a plain and toward a road in the distance. They'd covered miles already. On his back, nestled against his pack, Weiss craned her head back and gasped. "I see her! It's only one person!"

Only one person who was capable of running him down. It didn't need to be two when they were almost certainly more experienced at this than he was. They also weren't weighed down with a passenger like him. He fact it was a she didn't help his nerves any. Sure, Menagerie had to have more women than the one who tried to kill him in Vale, but his luck had been rotten of late.

"Describe her to me."

"Black hair, lots of black. I can't make out every detail."

Lots of people wore black. Lots of people had black hair.

Jaune pushed himself harder.

"She's gaining on us!"

Damn it all. He had the basics – basics and the weight of a backpack and a person weighing him down. Unless he found a way to invert gravity— wait.

"Your Semblance!" he said. "Help!"

Weiss cursed, more at herself for not thinking of it, and yanked her rapier from her hip. Balancing on his back while he was running as fast as he could wasn't easy, nor was aiming backwards, but she managed to do something behind him. Jaune wasn't sure what because he wasn't about to look, but he felt and heard the discharge.

And the boom behind.

Sadly, Weiss' squawk told him it wasn't good news. "She punched through a wall of ice without slowing! Didn't even punch or kick it; she just ran through it!"

Jaune's mind casually came up with possible answers. Even assuming no technique, someone with enough aura and momentum could pull it off, especially if she could shape her aura in front of herself like a spike or drill. He couldn't, controlling that much aura outside his body being well beyond his ability, but she'd used aura in her ribbons when she fought him before, so she might have been capable of it.

I'm someone with three or so years' experience, while she was born to the master of an entire sect. She's had her whole life to learn this. There's no telling how much she knows.

"I'm going to make you faster!" Weiss hissed. "Prepare for it. The shift in momentum will be jarring."

A white glyph appeared under his foot a second later – and she was right: it was exceedingly jarring. Jaune's foot pushed off the ground as it had every step before, but suddenly three times faster. If he'd kept moving his other at the normal speed, he'd have missed his next step by a good margin, tripped, and shattered his face on the ground at intense speed. It was only her warning, and the faint experience he'd had with it in their spar, that let him adapt.

The world blurred by with every step, each propelling him with an unbelievable speed that Jaune doubted he could manage no matter the technique. There were limits the body just could not reach, and he had to close his eyes against the sheer force of the wind resistance. It was blinding him. Such speed wouldn't even be feasible if not for the road they'd reached, and Jaune had to trust that was relatively even. It should be. His feet stamped down on a glyph every time, dragging them away and away, outstripping the pace their pursuer could hold.

Even crazier was that it took him no extra energy, no aura or stamina. He wasn't doing anything to go faster; it was Weiss' Semblance that was defying the laws of physics. And she accused me of mysticism before. How arrogant are these people that they'll call my skills magic but write this off as normal?

"We're getting away!"

"Of course we are," he gritted out. "We're running faster than a rocket!"

Not entirely accurate, even if he'd never seen a rocket in person, but they were definitely in excess of sixty miles per hour, which was ridiculous enough as it was to manage on foot. An athlete couldn't make thirty on a 100m sprint they'd prepared all their lives for, and here he was keeping it up for a full minute.

"How long can you keep this up?" he asked.

"Five minutes. That's all." Weiss sounded pained as she said that. "This is more taxing than it looks."

Did she think this looked easy? He could feel how her aura seeped into his feet and propelled him but feeling it didn't mean he could replicate it. He could twist it, as he had before, but this glyph of hers really was esoteric nonsense. "Keep it up, then. Hopefully five minutes of this will be enough to convince her to leave us alone."

If they were lucky, their pursuer would assume they could keep it up for longer.

/-/

Blake came to a slow jog, a walk and then a stop, catching her breath as the figures shot ahead with unnatural speed. That was not a technique she knew, though they'd saved it for the open ground with good reason. Definitely fleeing her, then, and with good reason, for she'd spotted the blue outfit the man wore. Blue might not be exclusive to the Lotus Sect, but that combined with the fact he ran away made it more than likely.

Of course he'd be here. Those monsters would take the chance of the war to further their twisted aims.

But the other…

Blake moved to where the man's foot had fallen, where she could feel the traces of aura from what was likely a Semblance from the one being carried. They obviously weren't from any sect if they couldn't run on their own, so presumably a huntress. The lingering trace of aura around a footprint was not something she could see, but Blake stretched her ribbon over it and concentrated.

Again, she bounced her aura off the traces left behind that had yet to permeate into the soil. The result had the cloth spiking where the aura was strongest, creating a faint stencil that she could push her finger against and into the mud. In a sense, she used her ribbon like a stencil by which she guided her finger in the mud to trace the pattern. It wasn't exact because the aura was already fading, and because tracing via a cloth and her finger was not exactly accurate. But it didn't need to be exact.

The snowflake was recognisable either way.

"Schnee glyph," she hissed, as a fresh fire lit within her.

Before, she had wanted to hunt the sect member down and exact vengeance for the crimes the Lotus Sect had committed, but she would have grudgingly let him go in favour of focusing on the war. The bigger picture. Now…? A Schnee behind their lines, accompanied by one of the greatest enemies of their world; a scourge that every sect across Menagerie, Mistral and Vacuo would rather see dead…? That wasn't something that could be ignored.

"Of course the Schnee would work with people like them. Each has been capable of travesties on their own, but together? Who knows what they can pull off if left alone." Blake rose and kicked mud over the hated symbol. "You can outrun me, but you can't escape me. And you're in our territory now."

Unlike Atlas, their rearguards and reserves were capable fighters on the level or just below that of professional huntsmen. They weren't helpless soldiers given guns and a quick bootcamp, but warriors that could stand up to the Grimm one and all. They had connected communications too. Once she had the word out, every faunus this side of Mistral would be on the lookout for them.

"Mistral," she muttered. "That's where they'll want to get to." Blake turned away from her pursuit. "They're heading south now, but only to escape me. They'll cut west and try to make it to safety in Mistral." Blake judged her direction and smirked, leaving the trail. "I don't need to follow you if I know where you're going."

The Lotus Sect would pay for their crimes.

The Schnee, too.

Next Chapter: 25th February

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