Your smiles are the reason I don't trust you

- Ludwig Ahgren

"Lord Xiong," Percy acknowledged with an incline of his head, not sure how the customs were here. Judging by the east asian sounding name, he assumed they were similar to that of the more east Mistrali lords.

"Lord Perseus." Xiong acknowledged back, inclining his own head just as much as Percy had to him, but not an inch further he noticed.

Hei Xiong waved for him to sit down and did the same, sitting behind his desk. The 'lord' title given to him hadn't gone unnoticed either. Xiong was aware of his status in Mistral, then. Which also meant it was possible he was aware of his exploits in Windpath or other settlements. Either way, his offer would be the same. It shouldn't affect much.

"I must admit I'm not sure why we're here, Lord Perseus. Your interests are in Mistral, what business would you have with the clans and families of Vale?"

"Please, call me Perseus," he led, wanting to do away with the formalities but not quite willing to reveal his pseudo second identity. "And I think you know why I'm here. You're a smart man. I'm looking to cooperate with the locals here, and yourself being from such a large clan meant you were a good place to begin, in addition to the fact that you're Mistrali, and already doing business with me."

"Forgive me lord, and understand I mean no disrespect when I say this, but the families of Mistral have attempted to come to Vale before. Many times, in fact. It has never succeeded. While my heritage owes its loyalty to you and you are welcome as a guest as long as you wish, you lords in Mistral lack a… subtlety that is required to maneuver here in Vale. Cooperating with you or another lord in any way would only lead to the death of my clan, and so I must cordially decline."

Well, that was the most polite 'go fuck yourself' he'd ever heard. He thought the few politicians he'd dealt with were wordsmiths, but this guy…

Either way, it was clear he wasn't getting through to him. He sat there thinking for a moment, considering showing him a few zeroes and seeing if his tune changed. He was pretty set against it when the guy standing in the corner apparently had gathered the courage to speak.

"But father, this isn't just another lord. It's Perseus. He took windpath before he was a man, surely he'll bring us great glory in Vale-"

"Silence boy!" Xiong snapped, and Percy awkwardly averted his gaze to spare them some embarrassment. "Take yourself out of this room, Junior. We'll speak when I'm finished with the meeting."

'Junior' nodded tersely, face bright red at being rebuffed in front of such a well-known guest. Tense, he walked out of the room. Percy half expected the doors to the office to slam shut for a moment, but they clicked closed softly.

"I apologise for my son, he's… learning." Xiong apologised, straightening his tie and adjusting in his dark crimson suit. "However, my decision remains final. As I said, nothing good can come of the great families intervening here. I hope I haven't caused you offense, Perseus."

Percy shook his head, hiding his displeasure and the plan growing in the back of his mind. "Think nothing of it, I appreciate your hospitality lord Xiong."

"Please," a greasy smile spread across the old man's face as he stood. "Call me Hei."

He'd had to wait a few weeks, to avoid any suspicion. He'd gone silent to make it appear as if he'd left the city. He'd found other ways to occupy himself. He found a nearby gym, met with a few investors discreetly, and even browsed the market for a bit. He didn't understand what most of the numbers meant, but it was interesting to find out how much what was worth and why regardless.

But after those few weeks, he let the job be done.

It was surprising how well she'd handled it. He figured that as someone who hadn't been born to be a soldier for a bunch of childish gods, there would be some after-effects of killing a man in cold blood, but Ren seemed just the same as always after the fact. Then again, she had been raised on the frontier, surviving in conditions worse than he'd been through at that age, at least for anywhere near the same amount of time.

But that was a discussion to have later. Now, one funeral (which he'd been invited to, funny enough. He'd made a show of flying out on a bullhead and then flying back in on the same bullhead to arrive) and a few weeks later he was sitting in the same room. The scene was different this time, however. Hei Xiong Junior, while not as imposing or serious as his father, was still in a rather solemn posture. His father, after all, had just been assassinated by an unknown assailant. It was a good thing Percy had come back to town for the funeral, so that he could lend the new Lord Xiong some advice.

Said Lord Xiong poured him some wine and reclined back in his chair, sipping it idly. Where Xiong had once stood now stood an older man, maybe three times Percy's own age.

"Thank you for agreeing to meet with me," Lord Xiong began "And thank you for your kind words at my father's funeral."

Ah yes, his short speech. He had felt a bit of guilt, lying at a funeral, much less about the deceased, much less when he had been responsible for their death. But as far as he was concerned, anyone in this business was just about asking for it. As much as he'd morally justified his actions to himself, he'd spilt far too much blood by his own hands or by his orders all in the name of profit to possibly lament his own potential death. That'd make him a hypocrite. And despite whatever else he may become, he didn't want to be a hypocrite.

"My pleasure." Percy responded instead of voicing his thoughts. "Your father, despite his reservations about allowing the Xiong clan to fully return into the fold of the homeland, was still a business partner for many years, and a good friend for the short time I knew him personally. It's only natural I meet with his successor in person, and to welcome you as the new Lord of the Xiong clan." months of spending far too much time around politicians, businessmen, and criminals had changed his vocabulary. Likely for the better, depending on who you asked, but Percy didn't enjoy it much. It'd diminished a bit during his vacation on the frontier, but sure enough as soon as he was back to dimly lit and smoky offices he was speaking like a politician again.

"I want to let you know how thankful I am that you've decided to throw your support behind me at a time like this."

"Of course! It's what Hei would have wanted, you are his son after all. And besides, we have some common interests either way." Man, reevaluating the morality of his decisions didn't make being so dishonest so frequently feel any less scummy.

"Common interests?" His eyebrows rose from behind his sunglasses. How he could wear those things all day and in such a dim room was beyond Percy. How'd the old adage go on earth? Only two types of people wore sunglasses inside; blind people, and assholes. Of course he figured that was discounting people who were only going to be inside for a moment, or who were wearing them to improve their vision and had forgotten their contacts, or— okay, the point is that Hei Xiong junior was probably the asshole variety.

Percy nodded. "Don't get me wrong, I would help out anyway, I considered Hei a friend towards the end of his life. But I'd just strengthened relations with the Xiong clan — we changed from business partners to affiliated groups in the last month, and within the same month someone in Vale struck at one of my business partners in the most serious way possible. I need to make sure an example is made, and that you yourself don't come to any danger."

"Don't worry about my protection, we've stepped up security a lot since dad's… well, since that happened. But would you really do that? You'd help us get back at the ones that killed my dad?"

"Junior, we can't accept-"

"No!" he slammed his hand on the desk, turning to face the man in the corner who had spoken. More likely than not he was the late Lord Xiong's former right hand man. "We're not going to sit here and play politics while my father's murderers walk free and unharmed. If Lord Perseus is generous enough to offer his help, we have to take it. I owe my father that much."

Despite how early (and apparently unready) he'd been thrown into the position of boss, the new Xiong apparently wasn't one to let an advisor tell him what to do if he'd made up his mind. That could either be very bad for the Xiong clan, or very good. Either way, it was good for Percy. Either the Xiong clan would make a valuable and powerful ally, or a useful tool. Whichever the case Percy would be here the whole way to make sure it turned to his advantage.

"Do you know who did it, Lord Xiong?" Percy asked after a few moments of silence.

He settled back into his chair and pulled at his vest, ridding it of creases. "Please, call me Junior," he began, "and… no, we're not sure. I was hoping you may be able to help us on that front."

Percy nodded, pulling out his scroll and pretending to text someone to look into it. But of course, he already knew who was responsible. All that was left to do now was to find out who to frame. "I'll have my agents look into it. In the meantime, is there anyone that could want to do this to the clan? Any enemies, recent deals gone wrong, anyone that would benefit greatly from his death?"

Junior's eyebrows furrowed. "No, that's what's so confusing. The clan is a well respected bedrock of the underworld in Vale, and there hasn't been a conflict between two families in years. Since before I was involved in the family business, certainly. We have rivalries, but we've had those for as long as the clan's been around. There's no reason for them to strike now."

Percy nodded. "I see, then someone got antsy and decided to stop waiting for an excuse. Hei must have been very good at what he did not to give them one. All that's left now is to look to who's in the best position to benefit from this. Soon, we'll be finding out who's the most prepared to move against the clan and its interest. Whoever it is…"

"Has to be the one that killed my father."

Percy solemnly nodded, taking a sip of the wine. He'd never been a wine person but he had to admit it was good, relatively speaking. "All we can do is wait and prepare. I'll provide you with contacts and information, but anything else is out of my hands. If I bring my men here, it'll raise a lot of flags."

"I understand," Junior muttered, rubbing a few of his beard hairs between his fingers. "The moment we discovered my father's body we were preparing for war, so I suppose there's not much to do but wait. For someone to make a move, or for your men."

Percy nodded in agreement. He was glad he wasn't actually relying on his information network in Vale, because while it was still nice it was nothing compared to what he had in Mistral. Thanks to Roman's contacts the Malachites were working to fix that, but getting informants in even a majority of families in Vale in a month was a tall order. One that even the Malachites, their lifetime of training, and their incredible skill set couldn't fill.

"And so we wait." he agreed.

Percy returned to the hotel in the meantime, looking to relax for a bit after the funeral and get his future plans in order. When he reached his door it was to Ren standing dutifully in front of it, waiting for him to return.

"Ren." Percy greeted with a polite smile, swiping his scroll in front of his door and stepping in after it slid open. "Come on in. What's up?"

"I just wanted to know if there were any more services you required of me before I depart, lord."

Despite his evaluation that Ren hadn't changed he supposed that wasn't completely true. She'd been fine after the fact but she acted different now. She stood taller, held herself a bit differently. More confident. He wondered what sort of messed up culture fostered the kind of environment where assassinating your first target was a rite of passage.

He briefly considered keeping her around to kill whoever he ended up framing for the death of the dead lord of the Xiong Clan, but decided against it pretty quickly. He'd already had her do more than he wanted to, and despite how much it'd get him into Junior's good graces to deliver him the dead body of his father's presumptive murderer, he'd find ways to get into Junior's good graces without using Ren for murder any longer.

"No Ren, thank you. You've done well. I should be asking you if there's anything I can help you with."

She shook her head, having learned quickly not to bow to him. "Of course not. If you no longer require my services, I shall contact my clan and inform them of the completion of my mission. I will return to Mistral tomorrow."

Percy hesitated, thinking about the potential consequences of what he might be about to do. "Look Ren," he walked over to the wall and opened the hotel vault quickly, pulling out one of his burner scrolls and relocking the vault. "I understand you don't want help now, but promise me that if it's tougher than you can handle, or if you or your friend are in serious danger, or if you ever want out," he opened the scroll and created a contact, the only piece of information on the scroll that hadn't come with it. It was his personal number. "That you'll call the top number, okay? And if I don't answer, call the second number, he'll help you." he said, inputting Shiro's number as well in a second contact.

Percy held the phone out but Ren hesitated, looking supremely uncomfortable with the situation. He thought he'd been able to get through to the girl at least a little in the last few weeks, but she still didn't want to take the phone. She was too brainwashed. As far as he could tell, the only personality she had which wasn't defined by the clan was her friend, Nora.

Well, it would be as good of a try as anything. "Your friend Nora, Ren. Is she in the clan?"

Ren stiffened, but answered anyway. "No. The Onyx Vipers clan only allows men to enter its sacred trust."

"But you're-" Oh. Oooohh. Well, that was a bit of a shakeup. Hardly the largest reveal though, Luke leaving him to die in the middle of the woods had done a bit more of a number on him. "Got it, well, think of your friend. Think of Nora. If you, either of you need my help, I'm a call away."

That broke her- his hesitation, and he reached out to take the scroll from Percy's hand.

Percy patted the boy's shoulder. He didn't need to say anything else, it'd do Ren no good. He was already hesitant, he'd made the choice, that was all Percy could ask for. Now all he had to hope was that his scroll rang sooner rather than later.

"Don't worry about calling your clan, I'll arrange a ride. Be safe for me, alright Ren?"

The quiet boy just firmly nodded, and it seemed that was the end of the conversation because at Percy's nod, he turned on a heel and walked out of the room.

As he watched the retreating form of the young boy disappear around the corner, Percy wondered if he'd ever see him again. And, if he did, exactly what the circumstances could be.

It took all of about 12 hours before someone made a move. They waited until a bit after the funeral, probably to avoid the atrocious reputation that would come from moving in on a family while the former head of the family wasn't even in the ground yet.

It was another Mistrali clan, almost similar to that of the Xiong clan, that struck first. They'd been pretty close when Junior's father was running things, so the Koryu clan's taking over of a dockyard the Xiong clan owned was seen as a betrayal on top of everything else.

In the following hours other reports came in of gangs, clans, and families making minor moves across the cities. None of it mattered. Because while they picked at the edges of the Xiong clan, Percy had also gotten 'info' that the Koryu clan had been planning the attack to happen tonight for some time now. And like that, it was over.

The Xiong clan stuck back with force, far beyond what anyone expected. It was the bloodiest affair of the century for the Valean underworld. The Xiong clan went to war with an enemy who was expecting a quick skirmish. By the end of the night, the Koryu clan leadership had been wiped out and its remnants left to scatter.

At Percy's urging Junior agreed not to take any of the former clan's territory or wealth for himself. It would be apparent to anyone who was paying attention that he hadn't wiped out a clan in a night for personal gain, but to send a message.

Come morning, the Valean underworld had stopped attempting to encroach on the territory of the Xiong clan. Now Percy had a wide open Valean underworld before him, with a cowed novice (but meteoric in his rise) thief, and a pliable clan leader, Percy had nowhere to go but forward. And in the background the conflict between the White Fang and the SDC would escalate, he was rapidly developing more of Mistral (even if he had nowhere near enough money to industrialize the entire city of more than a hundred million.) and the MTC was rapidly expanding, through illegitimate and legitimate means both, though the legitimate side of things had not proven to be very fruitful… Either way, he had faith that would change with time. And Shiro was hard at work getting them rights to mine in Vacuo on top of it all, and they'd even briefly spoken about poking at Atlas with their spy network, though that was put on the backburner unti Vale was mostly taken care of. Things were looking up in general, and for the first time in his life, all he had to do was wait for the pieces to fall into place. He wouldn't be completely idle of course. He'd be keeping things moving in Vale, he'd be working to improve himself, his swordsmanship and his abilities, but for the most part… he'd be waiting. And wait he did.

"Yang!"

"What? You're the one that decided to charge him."

"You were supposed to back me up!"

Yang rolled her eyes and plopped herself on a folding chair. "How was I supposed to know you were going to go in? I'm not telepathic!"

Ruby huffed, throwing herself down on the chair furthest from her sister, right next to Qrow, who promptly used the opportunity to rough up her hair.

Ruby meekly complained as Percy himself calmly walked back to the grouping of chairs and sat down between Taiyang and Yang. He picked up a refreshing drink from the table (something with vodka, but he had no idea what it was called) and took a long sip.

"Thanks for sparring with the girls. They're both top of their class, which means the only ones they spar who can beat them are Qrow and I. I'd have them spar with some older kits, but you know, bias and all. It's just nice to let them get some variety while they're still so early in their training."

Percy gave him a small nod and a smile. "My pleasure. Thanks for having me."

Tai nodded back with a similar smile. "Any time."

They turned back to the yard as Ruby pried Qrow off of his seat to stand up. With a beckoning wave from Qrow Yang reluctantly stood, pushing herself from her seat with a groan.

Percy chuckled. "How is it that Ruby has so much energy? I get she's still a kid, but she's energetic like no-one I've ever seen."

Tai chuckled. "I share the sentiment. She's always been energetic, but it really started to ramp up when she unlocked her semblance this year."

"Ahh. Speed, right?"

Tai nodded. "Yep. She's still practicing, which is why I made sure she doesn't use it in spars, but it's certainly a versatile one."

Percy let out a low whistle. "And unlocked at twelve nonetheless, within the year she unlocked her aura. Talk about luck."

Tai decided to stay silent, and Percy joined him. They observed the spar in front of them, if you could call it that. It was really just lessons being taught. Qrow was moving quick by normal standards but he was at ease as he batted the both of them back and smacked their ribs with the staff of his scythe.

"Never at a normal school would you see kids so eager to study like this." Percy mused, taking another sip. "They're good kids, Tai. Motivated, too. And considering they're kids and not power hungry, their hearts are really in the right place."

"Yeah, they really are something else. Their mom would be proud." Tai mused, almost to himself. Percy stiffened slightly, not sure if he should ask about it or just leave the subject be.

Before he could his decision was made for him when someone else spoke. "She is."

It took all of Percy's will not to leap out of his chair as Monty appeared in the vacant one next to him, where Yang had been sitting.

"Nobody else knows I'm here." Monty placated.

Well, that was a relief. That'd be a hard one to explain. But that didn't explain what Monty was doing. Did he plan to have a one-way conversation while Percy just sat there awkwardly?

"Sometimes you forget that I can look into your mind, too, just because I don't do it often."

Percy stopped himself from tensing just before it'd be noticeable from Tai's periphery. He wasn't a fan of his thoughts being peered at, not at all.

"Fine, have it your way. I won't look into your mind, but then I won't know what you're saying. It will be a one sided conversation."

Better than having his thoughts violated.

Slowly forcing himself to relax again, Percy began paying more attention to the fight. It hadn't changed much — Qrow was still just kicking them around and telling them what they did wrong, and how to not do it next time. Percy watched as Ruby was the first one to give up, waiting until the next time Yang went to punch him, Ruby launched at his leg in an enormous bear hug. Yang ended up in a nearby bush as Qrow shook his leg around but couldn't get the madly cackling girl off, giving Yang enough time to get back up and tackle her uncle, sending them all sprawling to the ground in a heap, fighting and struggling slowly giving way to laughter.

"I have to admit those two are some of my favorites." Monty said. He'd procured a mug of coffee from thin air and was now sipping it as he gazed at the two with something Percy could only really call pride. "Treat them well, and you'll do just fine Percy." he assured. And like that, he was gone.

Percy withheld a long sigh. Monty was as elusive as he was mysterious, in a very… normal sort of way. That had been the first time they'd 'spoken' in a couple of months and he was gone in a few seconds. The last time he'd at least stayed for a meal, but this time he seemed in a particular hurry to get out of there. It was weird, having someone like Monty around. That was for sure.

But more than that he was puzzled by Monty's words. This was the first time he'd really seen Monty have any sort of emotion about someone. Everyone else may as well have not existed to him.

Except there was that one other time, when Percy had been on a scroll call with someone. He thought back to the time a year back, trying desperately to remember who he'd been speaking to.

That's right! It'd been Qrow. And in the background…

"Yang and Ruby…" Percy muttered under his breath.

"Did you say something?" Tai looked at him oddly, and Percy briefly pulled from his thoughts to shake his head.

"Sorry, just talking to myself."

Tai shrugged and accepted it, but Percy's attention was soon drawn again.

"Dad, why don't you ever fight Percy? We've seen him fight Uncle Qrow tons of times, but you never fight him."

Percy was about to respond in the man's defense when Tai spoke up.

"There's no use fighting someone I know I won't beat. I'm not like you girls, with the world at your feet and everything to learn. If I get put in the dirt, all I get for my trouble is a bit of back pain."

"How about you and Uncle Qrow both fight him then?" suggested Yang, a devious smile on her face as she pulled a single twig out of her hair.

Percy rolled his eyes, not looking to take on the father and uncle of the girls in front of him at the same time. "Come on, I'm not that-"

"I'm down." Qrow interjected from across the field. As if anyone had asked him. Punk ass bird.

Tai shrugged. "Could be fun, actually. If you're okay with it, Percy, I'll do it."

Seeing no other option, Percy himself shrugged. He didn't really get the chance to spar anyone anymore, other than Shiro on the odd occasion they both felt like it. But Shiro was rusty — he hadn't returned to being a huntsman since his leg injury — and he was only one person. He didn't mean any offense to Shiro, but sometimes he felt like fighting against a training dummy might be about as effective.

So when one of the strongest huntsmen in the world and his brother (Percy still hadn't figured out how they looked so different) wanted to take on Percy two on one, it was a unique opportunity.

Standing, he uncapped Riptide and readied himself. The blade appearing had long since become normal to Qrow's family, with Percy having visited a few times in the last couple of years. He made the offer to visit Qrow instead of the other way around every time one of them brought it up so that Percy wouldn't have to fly all the way back to Mistral to pretend he wasn't meddling in Vale's affairs.

Clearing his head of unrelated thoughts, Percy focused on the fight before him. Would he win? Probably. But he hadn't had to fight for a win since Raven. And this one… this one he'd have to fight for.

At Yang's signal they began, Percy whipping forward to catch one of them on the back foot. While he had no illusion he could get one of them out of the fight so early, getting one on their ass and out of the brawl for a few seconds was good enough for him at the moment.

Wincing a silent apology Percy focused Tai, body checking him and sending him flying back a few feet. Qrow was too fast for that, and knew Percy too well to fall for it.

Momentarily one-on-one Percy turned to attack Qrow, but the huntsman pulled back, not giving him the chance. Percy cursed, Qrow had predicted his — admittedly surface level — plan. Well, if Qrow wanted to play the waiting game then Percy knew just how to turn that against him.

Percy backed up slightly and waited for Tai to recover and both of them to form back up. Dashing forward, Percy went for the same tactic again but this time dashed at Qrow.

Qrow would have easily dodged out of the way — if he were Percy's target. Instead Percy took a quick sidestep to once again slam into Tai shoulder first.

To Taiyang's credit he managed to see it coming and evade most of the blow, mitigating the effect and making it so that it only hit his shoulder, spinning him onto his back instead of tossing him several feet back. It was a good effort, considering how fast Percy had become. But unluckily for Tai, his prone figure being closer only helped Percy.

As predicted Qrow began to hop back, putting distance between the two while his partner was down. Instead of pursuing or backing off like the last time, Percy instead pressed his advantage, slashing Riptide down onto Tai with an overhead arc.

The blonde managed to intercept the blow with his forearm, limiting the damage of the blow to his aura but not eliminating it. With Riptide's sharpness and Percy's strength, he was surprised Tai's aura hadn't shattered in one blow. Either way, it had to be pretty low by now. Not red, unfortunately, or his scroll would have sounded in alarm.

Dashing back just in time to dodge the retaliating strike from a scythe, Percy brought up his own blade to strike back at Qrow. Qrow, however, managed to angle his scythe between the two and blocked the blade.

Percy pressed the fight on Qrow, forcing him to sacrifice some Aura to avoid losing his footing, until he sensed Tai making a move behind him.

With one final reach of a stroke Percy forced Qrow away and then turned on his heel as quickly as he could, placing Riptide in front of his face and blocking the incoming punch. Said punch threw him back several steps into Qrow, who dodged out of the way and swung his scythe like a baseball bat, the tip going right into the small of Percy's back.

He let out an involuntary cry of agony as his mortal weak point was targeted. Aura or no aura, curse or no curse, that particular part of his back was sensitive.

Percy lost his bearing to the pain for a moment. A moment which cost him.

Tai hit him square in the nose with a haymaker, sending Percy sprawling flat onto his back, disoriented. He barely managed to lift Riptide in time to catch the tip of Qrow's scythe on the flat of his blade. Rotating his hold on the sword he hooked Riptide into one of the grooves on the scythe and pushed. Despite his weaker leverage in his position, he was still stronger than Qrow. The scythe was forced back out of his face. Precious seconds. If he hadn't managed to get Riptide in position when he had, it would've been over. Monstrous aura or not, at some point there just wasn't a way to get the momentum back.

Tai made to stomp on his leg, but Percy raised it to instead block the boot with his shin. Tai, it turned out, was stronger than Qrow. But despite the even worse positioning, he wasn't strong enough.

With a heave Percy shoved Tai's leg back and rolled to a standing position before Qrow could press the advantage, backing up cautiously and raising Anaklusmos defensively. He had almost lost. He knew his training wasn't the problem — he was in better shape than he'd ever been, and he trained every day. But he hadn't gotten his skills through training. He'd gotten his skills from walking face first into impossible odds and crawling out the other side, his life hanging on by a thread. Sure the swordwork training helped at first, but… no amount of hacking at a dummy could get that edge back to him.

He decided right then and there that he hated losing. More than that, he hated that losing had become a possibility again. He'd spent a year doing nothing but cleaning up the rabble and hitting trees, taking victory after victory. He hadn't lost since he first unlocked his aura! No, the feeling of losing wasn't one he liked at all.

"Damn Percy, you're not as good as you used to be. Maybe you're getting rus-"

Percy didn't bother letting Qrow finish his smack talk, leaping forward with speed again and striking at where Qrow had been a second ago. But when the counter-attack came he was prepared, taking a cautious, defensive stance and weathering the light hit. When he'd first fought Qrow he was used to fighting for his life. But Qrow's words when he'd been training Percy had gotten to him far more than they should have — act like you're invincible, because you are. Your aura is too strong for anyone to break. By the time they break through your aura, you'll have broken through theirs three times over — he was a survivor, not someone who recklessly jumped into the fray when he was fighting challenging opponents. The blame wasn't all Qrow's, of course. Percy himself had chosen to listen. And besides, it was some pretty sound advice. It had been the logic he'd used to cut down monsters by the dozen back on earth, and to cut down the Grimm here in no small numbers either. Because no matter how many of them there were, he was better. He could walk away without a scratch. But not these two, not two veteran huntsmen who, from what he had gathered, had once been partners and knew each other like the back of their hands. Here, he had to fight to survive.

Qrow lightly prodded him to test his defenses and Percy responded with a vicious swipe up which caught the underside of Qrow's forearm, scoring damage on his aura.

They continued like that for some time until Percy allowed Tai to sneak out of his periphery to his right. Qrow had jabbed at him to take his focus, something which earned Qrow a stab at his thigh in retaliation. Normally Qrow would have taken the hit and kept his footing, but this time he awkwardly hopped back to avoid the stab. Because he knew Percy wouldn't be pressing the advantage. He'd be too busy dealing with the brawler at his back.

Turning in one fluid motion Percy sliced upwards, running Riptide along the entirety of Taiyang's front and ripping his shirt in pieces. The satisfying noise of an aura shattering rang out, and Tai backed up, stunned, still standing but staring at where Percy's blade had run a long line from his pelvis to his collarbone. If not for aura, he'd be cut open like a baked potato.

Quickly turning back Percy pressed his advantage on Qrow, coming down on the scythe-wielder with a powerful overhead strike which shattered his guard and forced him onto the ground.

Instead of sacrificing aura for further progress Percy instead swept Qrow's scythe aside, noticing from the corner of his eye that it had begun turning back into a longsword.

Following through with the swipe to keep Qrow's blade to the left where it couldn't hurt him, Percy lifted his left foot and stomped as hard as he could on Qrow's left arm, getting nothing more than a grunt in return but sacrificing his footing to keep Qrow's arm immobilized. This would ordinarily have given Qrow the chance to attack his right leg and destabilize his left with a jerk of his arm, causing Percy to fall to the grass. Instead Percy gathered all the strength he had in him and threw all his weight behind a swing at Qrow's face. Considering he was already leaning to the left to keep his foot on Qrow's arm, and that Qrow was in an awkward position leaning up from the ground, Percy's punch was in a perfect position and met Qrow's chin with devastating force.

His aura hadn't shattered, but it may as well have. He was shocked from the punch, the force likely knocking his brain around enough to stop it working for a moment. A moment is all it took, Percy whipped his left hand around and slashed at the point just above Qrow's collarbone on the right side of his neck, digging in.

Percy withdrew the blade slightly once he'd gotten the hit in, hearing the loud beeping of Qrow's scroll signalling his aura was in the red.

"Good fight." Percy said, reaching down to give Qrow a hand up. It took an awkwardly long amount of time before Qrow was coherent enough to take him up on the offer, grasping his forearm and letting Percy haul him to his feet.

Even standing he wobbled slightly, almost falling over.

"Damn kid, you can throw a punch." Qrow groaned, rubbing the side of his face.

Percy smiled slightly. "I like to think I throw a couple good ones every now and then."

"Good fight." Taiyang echoed Percy's earlier words, coming up to shake hands with Percy.

"Sorry about the, uh, you know." Percy stared at where Tai's shirt had once been.

Tai waived it off. "Don't worry about it. I know as well as anyone that clothes can get damaged out here, it's nothing expensive. Besides, I think I'd rather have to buy a new wardrobe than get the other treatment." he laughed nervously, glancing at Qrow who was still wavering slightly in place, being supported by Percy whenever it looked like he might fall over.

Percy scratched the back of his head nervously. "Yeah, I kinda didn't wanna lose."

Tai snorted. "No kidding. After that punch to your nose I figured we had you dead to rights, but you're a tricky one."

Percy was about to respond when he had his own trouble keeping balance, a small black and red blur launching into his abdomen and headbutting his diaphragm, knocking the wind out of his lungs. He toppled over onto his back, Ruby following him the whole way.

"That. Was. So. Coooool!" she squealed from on top of him, beginning to shake his shoulders and ask him questions at the speed of light.

Yang, while much calmer in her approach, approached all the same. She walked up to Ruby and shoved her off of him, told her to stop being so annoying… and then proceeded to ask him her own menagerie of questions.

Despite how much he hated how close he'd been to defeat, he had to admit it was nice to really fight again. He'd have to find some info on some particularly dangerous grimm to go hunt… yeah, that'd be nice. Before he did that, though, he had one — two — other things to take care of. And one of them was staring down at him in irritation.

"Hey, are you ignoring me?"

Well you know the drill by now. Sorry it took so long etc. etc. But I haven't slept since the 15th cause I've been writing, so I still consider this just a bit later in the day, not... late. Okay, sorry.

I actually had this prewritten for once, a whole chapter and everything, but then my dumbass decided I wanted to add the entire second half of the chapter instead of what it was going to be before. So I had to go write that last minute.

The next chapter (and a half?) are up on pat-reon, lowest tier at $3/month. If you do end up pledging to read the next chapter, just a heads up that you need to also read the second half of chapter 29 on there, as it's after the contents of this chapter 29. So I guess you guys are just getting a really long chapter 30. Based on feedback so far it was a good one, so I hope that the extended length on top of that can make up for some of my lack of punctuality recently.

Also a link to my discord is on my profile. Please join and come visit me, I need more friends. Please thanks. ((also you get to yell at me there if I don't update on time, instead of in the reviews))

Next chapter December 1 (Honestly at this rate I might as well put the day after as the scheduled date. I'll try and make sure to have it ready for ya'll by then so I can post it nice and early next time.)