Chapter 8: Vorpal Soul
(((Narrator)))
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Following Coco Adel's lead, they retrace their track back the Soren's last visit. The Club.
There, Coco had a conversation with Xiong. Xiong run an info broker side gig, so it is often for people to come to him to know stuff.
"Soren just asked me if there's anyone new coming into town recently, so I did. Those Faunus boys had a bender back in the big city, and brought back some poor gal. Kidnapped, it seems. They confined her in their apartment, doing who knows what.", Xiong revealed to them after receiving a roll of money from Coco.
Jaune feel disgusted. He knows Oldtown is only a little bit better than the slums, but still, the fact that some poor girl had been kidnapped and no one a damn thing about it leave a bad taste in his mouth. Soren keep the Center and Westgate in peace through the sheer force of his reputation, but the fact he wont interfere with the matters of other gangs, unless they're stupid enough to piss him off somehow, means that whatever going on within the other territories will not be punished.
"I see.", Coco sips her drink. "May I get a description of her appearance?"
" medium length blonde hair, quite tanned, medium height."
"Hmm. Anyway thank you for tip Xiong."
Coco finished her drink and leave The Club with Jaune in tow.
"It looks like she is a newborn. Her turning must have been accelerated from her abuse.", Coco began to clarify her deduction. "Newborn vampires always try to resist at the start. Their thirst is immense at this stage. However, this is good. Let's go upwind, Jaune."
The duo walked out to the northside of the town.
"There's quite a number of people had been missing from the Euphoria gang. We have to assume them to be thralls now. Now Jaune, if you will be so pleased, slit you palm."
Jaune looked at her incredulously.
"What?! Why?!"
"Why else we have gone upwind, hmm? To bait the vampire, obviously. Vampire can smell a drop of blood from a mile away, so what will happen when a newborn vampire whom still thrashing over their thirst would do when they smell fresh blood?"
"Going berserk?", Jaune answered him with his brilliant tactical mind.
"Indeed. We will provoke the vampire to come to us."
"Okay then. You're the expert here."
Jaune took out a pocket knife, and poke its tips to his left pinkie. Just a tiny poke. Then, he squeeze the tip of his pinkie to force out a drop of his blood.
They waited for a minute before Jaune asked, "Are you sure this is working?".
To which Coco replies. "Probably?"
What did you mean, probably?!! This whole operation is your idea!
From the start, Jaune had felt a little bit suspicious over Coco Adel's legitimacy. She wear sunglasses at night for fucks sake! Also, while Coco dress like a fashion goddess, do vampire hunters really fight in heels?
"Coco, I don't know who are the Adels, but I am not sure if you're really good at this. How many vampires have you killed?"
Coco looked away from him.
No… no way, right?!!
"Coco, this is serious! Are you really an Adel?!"
Then, Coco looked at Jaune sheepishly.
"Okay, okay. My surname really is Adel."
Jaune squinted at her. Jaune may not had been the smartest cookie in the room, however he grew up with seven sisters! He can smell bullshit from the female gender 10 miles away!
"Just not that Adel, aren't you?"
Coco looked away from him.
"You damned idiot! A fraud! Do you have any idea the magnitude of a mess we are in?!!"
"Teehee~", Coco strike a ditzy pose by sticking her tongue out stand on one leg and airheadedly place a knuckle on her head. "You got me! I had heard words from Team RWBY about Soren Coldforge, asshole and dipshit but nonetheless a strong and probably rich guy. So I figure, huh, my surname is Adel, maybe I can make contact with him. One can really use the favor of an old Drifter family like the Coldforge afterall."
"You can at least fight, right?!"
Coco looked away from him.
"Right?!!"
"Look buddy, I can't fight for my life but who needs to when you have this!", she flicked her briefcase and it transformed into a machine gun. "Striga, fiend, nevermore whatever, with this bad boy, nothing can get past me. Besides, you're his partner, right? If anything goes wrong, you had it covered.", Coco patted him on the shoulder.
"I only started learning to use Aura since a month ago!"
"Eh?"
Before the argument can go any further, a shrill of screaming pierced the air.
"It's coming!"
The vampire jumped over the town wall, gliding as if she is carried by the wind itself. Behind her, three thralls follow her closely.
"Its showtime!"
Coco pressed the trigger and sprayed the gliding vampire full of holes. It crashed unto the ground like a fallen honeycomb, blood splattered as if it's a full-bellied mosquito get smacked with vengeance.
"See? Easy peasy!"
"You do use silver bullet, right?"
….
……..
………….
Coco faced away from him.
"You useless fraud!"
The three thralls surrounded them. Blood flow in reverse, flowing back into the vampire. She rise up unnaturally, as if by an invisible force and the holes across her body rapidly closed without scarring.
She hiss like a snake. Her eyes bloodshot, almost glowing even. She bare her fangs, piercing through her gums over her human teeth
[A/N: to know what the vampire fangs looks like, look up some vampire clips from the Supernatural tv series on Youtube ]
Coco pressed her trigger once again, however, Gianduja's firing mechanism had jammed
"Damn it! I knew I shouldn't have used that cheap gear oil!"
"You what?!"
"Hey, it's not cheap to look this good, you know."
Remember Jaune, never cheapskate in prepping your weapons.
That asshole! He knew it all along, did he!!? He knew Coco's a fraud!
And he decide to throw him to the wolves!
You wouldn't be so grateful later, Jaune.
He's at least watching over them, right?! He will bail them out, right?!
Jaune gulped in his pooling saliva. Whatever it is for now, they're on their own.
The vampire hiss a command, and thralls jump over them.
[Simple Sign: Slow Waltz]
In a quick thinking, Jaune touched the ground and casted [Slow Waltz]. The Thralls looked as if they're suspended mid air, as if time had stopped.
For one seconds.
Enough time for him to drag Coco out of the circle.
"WE NEED TO RUN! KEEP SCREAMING, COCO!"
"WHY ARE WE NOT RUNNING BACK INTO TOWN?!!"
"ARE YOU CRAZY?!! VAMPIRISM CAN SPREAD WITH JUST A SCRATCH! DO YOU WANT TO INFECT THE ENTIRE TOWN?!! I CHECKED BY THE WAY! VAMPIRE CURE IS EXPENSIVE AS HELL!!"
Leaving behind Gianduja, that useless piece of trash, they circle around the city wall screaming for help, all while the vampire and thralls are hot on their tail.
"C'mon Soren! Save us! You can't expect me to fight the vamps, aren't you?!"
However, Jaune saw a figure standing on top of the watchtower, behind his back is the scenic broken moon. He could barely tell who he is, but the fact that the shadowy figure is waving at him casually, he can make a guess.
"At least take out some of them!!!"
It looks like Soren, who had been observing the ruckus had decided to cut them some slack. Jaune heard two gunshots, and two of the thralls was taken down by silver bullets through their hearts. Unlike how it had been told in stories, the thralls did not disintegrated into ash. Rather, they just fall dead like any normal corpses.
"Coco! Let's split! The vampire is after me, so if we split, you only have to deal with the last thrall!"
Jaune had expected Coco to counter his idea. But instead, she couldn't dip even faster the moment she heard the word split.
That goddamn fraud! At least show me some concern! She didn't even say thank you!
Jaune stopped running and the vampire lunged at him. He barely dodged out of the way. Aura may protect him from the elements, but he still has a long time to go to perform the defensive aspect of Aura. All he could do is just flooding his body with Aura and enhance his physical attributes.
The vampire lunged at him once again, and Jaune dodge out of the way again.
"Gale Strike!"
Switching from Aura to Mana in a hurry, he swing the Vorpal Blade horizontally. A strong gust of wind hit the vampire in the back and sent it 30 meters away .
[Slow Waltz]
He touched the ground and deployed the spatial trap. To start with, Slow Waltz is a proximity trap that activates when a creature signature enter its radius. Jaune's Slow Waltz has the radius of a meter with 1 second effect. He jumped back out of the radius and wait, his Mana at the ready.
The Vampire, still maddened by her thirst rush toward Jaune with great speed. 25 meters. 20 meters. 15 meters. The distance between them is rapidly decreasing.
Jaune charged Vorpal Blade with Mana.
The vampire lunged when she comes into range, and the Slow Waltz activates as she enters the range.
"VORPAL STRIKE!!"
Jaune rush forward with an overhead slash. However his timing is off. The Slow Waltz ended 0.1 seconds just before he cleaved through the vampire, and she dodged to her left.
The Vorpal Strike cleaved the ground, digging a 2 meters long trench. He missed!
Jaune is overwhelmed with fatigue. His stomach hungers for food, demanding for the Dust within his body to be replenished. He forces himself to stood, frantically looking left and right, seeking the vampire.
Then, fangs sank into his neck!
"Ahhhhkkk!!" Jaune screamed in pain, but quickly enough, he is overwhelmed by pleasure instead. His brain registered that this is wrong. He is being killed as the vampire greedily sucked out his blood. However, his body betrays him, succumbing to the intoxicating venom of the vampire.
Then, someone kicked the vampire off his back. He drunkenly looked up.
"Velvet?", he slowly recognized the rabbit in nun outfit.
"Damn you Soren… To think you forced my hands… I swore to never hold a blade anymore!"
"Wha??"
Velvet picked up Vorpal Blade.
"Fine! You made me broke my oath! When Goddess Lumierre asked me who forced my hand, I will drag you into hell with me, Soren!", Velvet yelled to the distance.
Jaune doesn't know what's going on, but Velvet then parry several claw strikes from the maddened vampire. With a Gale Strike, she send the vampire away again.
"Look closely, Jaune. This is how you use this blade."
[Armament Arts: Vorpal Soul]
Blue-white flame burst out of the sword. Maybe it was the pleasure venom messing up with his head, but Jaune has this thought in his mind
The blade is beautiful.
The vampire stop her run toward Velvet. Her instinct tells her to run.
However its too late. With a single leap, Velvet closed in the vampire.
[Vorpal Strike]
Blue-white flame roared as it engulfed the vampire. The holy flame vaporized the vampire in an instant, leaving behind nothing but a pool of melted snow.
Jaune's vision grew dark, and he fall unconscious.
(((Jaune Arc)))
I woke up groggily. I feel like I just had the worst hangover ever. I never even had hangover before!
"Oh, you're awake.", a familiar voice greets him.
"Velvet?"
"Before you ask anything, have this cure."
Oh yea, didn't I got bit by a vamp or something.
I drink that cup of black goo. God! That tasted like rotten fish! Gahhkk
I gagged and want to vomit it out, but I force myself to swallow. I don't want to turn into a vampire!
"So, what happened last night."
Velvet is very unamused.
"Soren decide to play chicken with me. He told me that you're hunting a vampire with her thralls with a fraud and force me to break my oath."
"Oath?"
"Yes Jaune. I'm a nun. Well, ex-nun now. The Goddess has abandoned me, but well, she at least let me keep this chapel to take care of the kids."
"Wait, you can actually talk to the Goddess?"
"Not literally. I sworn to never hold a weapon ever again in the name of the Goddess, but I had broken it to save you."
I gulped. Fishy taste or not, I gulped.
"Sorry Velvet."
"Don't be. It's Soren's fault to throw you to the wolves. Didn't I warned you to not expect Soren to act like a proper human being?"
"Yea, I know. Even then, it is under control, right?"
Velvet is silent.
"Right?"
"Jaune. Be careful. Soren has a hard time to understand regular human limit, so he usually just doesn't get anyone involved with his hunts. I once seen he fight a fiend and got slashed in the stomach. His intestines spill out and all that. And you know what he do?"
I gulped.
"He just quickly scoop his intestines back in, stitch his stomach with a wire haphazardly, and splash potion to heal up the cut and jumped back into the fight. This is not a man who understands how fragile people really is, especially beginners like you."
Wow. Okay. I know he is crazy but… that's metal.
"When I see you're bit and he still wont make a move, I knew I had to takeover. If you really want to stick around with Soren, you need a safeword with him. Or an emergency sign. He doesn't understand how screwed you are really."
"Again, sorry Velvet. Truly."
"Fine. You're forgiven. Now rest. Tomorrow, I will teach you to at least use [Sword Aura] with the Vorpal Blade."
"Really?!", I jumped in excitement. "You mean like that flaming sword thing like you did yesterday?!"
"No. Not exactly. That is an advanced technique. Sword Aura is the foundation of Armament Arts. You can say it's a special move that is done with advanced Aura control. By spring, I will make sure you can use the most basic Arts."
"Okay Velvet! I look forward for it!"
"Now go to Oldshore. Get yourself some food, would you?"
I nodded and dress up. I really need to get this rotten fish taste out of my tongue.
(((Soren Coldforge)))
"Wassup Lumierre, you fake bitch."
I greeted the worn down statue of Lumierre, Goddess of Light and Kindness. Well, 'Goddess'.
"I'll appreciate for you to not mock a goddess in her own house.", Velvet admonished me as she came downstairs."
"Please, Lumierre likes delinquent-type like me. She gets off from 'I can fix him' projects. If anything, she just think I'm cute."
"What is up with Coldforges with their rudeness toward divinity?"
"We don't believe in gods that bleeds. That's all."
The ex-nun rabbit and the mad hunter that is me stood in the middle of the rundown chapel. Both of us are in edge, seeking each other's opening.
"Glad that you're back, Velvet. It's a nice touch that you still keeps on the nun's clothings. A rabbit nun, now that's a porn idea if I hear one."
"As blasphemous as ever, Soren.", Velvet shakes her head "Still, that's a dangerous game you played yesterday. He almost died, Soren. I don't know whose worse, you…"
Velvet clenched her fist.
"Or Jaune."
I just smirk.
"Not even a peep. Not even the slightest sign of trauma. He looks so normal, act so normal, but nothing is normal about his reaction toward you and the hunt. He didn't even blame you one bit."
I took a sit on one of the many benches in the chapel.
"Yea, I noticed. A regular person would have run away the first time he seen me killed. But Jaune, he has a madness inside of him. Normal people don't jump into the danger for fun and adventures."
"Like you."
Jaune Arc is a weird fellow. Over and over again I try to discourage him, but he pull through it all like an idiot bull. He just won't quit. If nearly dying to a vamp doesn't budge him, then there's nothing I can do anymore.
Guess I really am stuck with him afterall.
Jaune Arc is weak and out of his depth, but he has something that most Hunters don't have.
The ability to stare straight into evil and not breaking. As long as he has that strength of a heart of his, he will do well as a Drifter.
"So, I guess you will be teaching him now."
Velvet folded her arms. "Combat comes to you naturally.", well duh, sue me. "Someone like you couldn't teach a thing about fighting to someone like Jaune. I will teach him to use Sword Aura and he will achieve it the day you fly out."
"Hooo.", bold claim, Velvet. "You think He can crack Sword Aura in just three months?"
"That's right. You did it in two months. I can't see why Jaune Cant do it in three."
"Well, certain temperaments do affect how fast can you figure out certain techniques. But, do you really think Jaune is the type that can wield Sword Aura in just three months?"
"I know he will."
I shrugged. "It's a bet then. If Jaune couldn't figure it out until the deadline, I'm ditching him. Maybe you can raise your kids together. I worry for your love life, Velvet."
Velvet blushed over. "I'm not into him that way, okay! We only know each other for a month!"
"You sure have a lot of faith for him, though."
"Shut up! Sometimes I forgot I am actually older than you. Why do I keep letting you bully me around?"
"Eh please, you're only three years older than me. Besides, I don't believe in the idea of respecting someone just because they're born earlier than me."
"Whatever. Still, just having Jaune leave with you is not really a win. I demand something else for my winning bet."
I cracked my neck. "Yea yea, what?"
Velvet smirked. Ah shit, what did you do?
"See for yourself, just outside the door. I just called, let's say, an old friend."
I walked out the door and saw the red cloaked girl, accompanied by that….
That fucking traitor.
"Long time no see, Soren.", the gruff middle aged man greeted me.
"Fucking Qrow of the Branwen clan. Ah, I forgot, you're not part of the club anymore, right? The fuck did you want from me?"
Ruby Rose gulped her saliva and Qrow and I has a Vacuon stand-off.
Fucking Velvet. It's always the sweet girl that the most petty in revenge.
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Tldr: Dude with bunny hoodie gets a bunny sword, sponsored by Pumpkin Pete. Get a hickey from a mosquito with boobs and saved by a fetish-hybrid cosplayer.
Fetish-hybrid cosplayer decide to become Mr Miyagi.
Now, murderhobo OC has the greatest crisis of his life, meeting the dad of the OG series MC. Yes, this fanfic subscribe to Qrow is Ruby's dad theory and TaiYang is a stupid character anyway. His daughters are off to fight the queen of the Grimms and what did he do? Watering flowers at his backyard. What a fucking deadbeat.