248Beta Reader: Blackhawksniper
Chapter 20: Higher Kill Count
Emerald Forest
Beacon Initiation
"Ow." The sound of Weiss's voice didn't escape Jaune's notice. "Not again."
"Is everything okay?" He asked.
He didn't have to be facing Weiss to know that she was having a hard time in the forest. Clearly she hadn't trained in wild environments. Her movements weren't efficient. Her posture wasn't flexible. Her attitude wasn't calm.
"Yes, I'm okay." He could sense strain in her voice. "Don't worry about me."
He wouldn't persist for now, because ultimately, it wasn't a problem. There weren't any Grimm around, and that meant traveling was much faster, not that they were going fast to begin with. They still had to find other teammates. By now, pairs had more than likely been formed. It was just a matter of finding another pair to work with.
He hadn't seen any of Weiss's skills in battle, so there was no telling what he was working with, even if his warriors intuition coupled with an experienced eye taught him to do some guesswork. Jaune was split between trying to find a perfect team and simply just working with what came his way. This entire test wasn't something he had much control of. It was only by luck that he and Weiss had become partners at all.
Jaune suddenly halted, his rifle now held more upward. He held a hand up, and Weiss's footsteps stopped. Good, at least he didn't have to tell her what that meant.
"Contacts." Jaune aimed into the bushes. "Ursai and Beowolves. I count at least eight. They're surrounding us."
The conscripted boy could sense Weiss's alertness, but didn't choose to comment on it. He would reserve judgement on her once he saw how she fought.
Jaune fired a burst into the bush, and was rewarded with the sight of ashes rising from somewhere behind the green lush. Another dove and tried to slash at his throat. Jaune, with seconds to come up with a move, purposefully ducked. Weiss was right behind him and he intended to see what she did.
She used what appeared to be a glyph of some sort to freeze the Beowolf in place before casually impaling the Grimm through the head. The dust scattered before the body hit the ground fully. Jaune, from his position on the ground took another shot at an Ursa, a burst blinding a medium-sized Ursa. Weiss's head whipped to the Ursa and she used her glyph semblance again, freezing the Grimm before charging, shattering it into pieces.
Sensing something on his six, the boy lifted his prosthetic arm to counter the strength of another Beowolf, tripping it in the process, getting up, and putting some shots into its throat. An Ursa was barreling down upon him, and he lifted both arms to engage in a pushing war. That only lasted for not even a second as a large ice splinted separated the head from the body. A Beowolf approached Weiss from behind. Realizing that he was out of ammo, he hefted Crocea Mors and threw the blade point-first into the eye of the Grimm.
Weiss's eyes followed the sword, and she only pushed the weapon further into the Grimm to make certain that it would die. Once she was sure it was so, she removed the blade, holding the blade in her free hand.
With a moment to breathe, Jaune moved to reload his rifle. The clip was barely slotted into place when he was forced to use the butt of the rifle to stagger a Grimm before letting a blast of aura energy through his palms. The head exploded clean off. After pulling the bolt and letting snap back into place, he quickly surveyed the area. Just ashes and dissolving bodies around them now.
And hopefully, he'd convinced Weiss that he was on par with her and nothing more.
"You fight well." Weiss stepped up and handed him Crocea Mors. "Very versatile if I do say so myself."
"You do too." Jaune meant it as a partial truth. "Although I do have to say, fencing styles have never really been used against Grimm."
"I suppose not." Weiss sheathed her weapon. "But it's been my standard fighting method for most of my training."
"Grimm don't play by rules." He gestured to the last body. "They kill, and whether you know it or not, they can get smarter. A word of advice: don't stake your life entirely on preconceptions and past experience."
He watched her, seeing if she would react and if she did, how she would react. He had to look closely in order to see the slight dimming of her eyes, the constant mouth movement indicating that she didn't know what to say, and hands locked together in front of her. She looked like she was trying to somehow cover herself, make an excuse, try not to show emotions. He felt like frowning, but he didn't
He didn't want her to do that either.
"It's not a requirement, Weiss." Jaune stepped forward slightly. "It's a suggestions. I've given my advice. Take or leave it however you like it."
Jaune wasn't fully ready to give Weiss any more caring. He wanted to help her, but she still had to prove herself to him. There were a great number of things he could've called her out on, but chose to remain silent about them, instead simplifying her combat shortcomings. Call it misguided emotions, dangerous use of emotions, or unchecked emotions, but the blonde-haired boy wasn't about to give up on her.
Again, another weakness, trusting in someone he didn't know well, even if his instinct told him to trust her.
The sound of more gunfire echoed. He couldn't waste anymore time, and they had to keep moving.
"We must go." He resumed their path. "The Grimm will have our trail by now."
"Of course." She sounded unusually complacent. "If you say so."
So maybe she was a little more emotional than he wanted her to be, but wasn't this exactly what he signed on for? These teenagers were civilians and warriors. Jaune was a warrior and nothing else, so he had no life to go back to. Sometimes, he wasn't even sure if he could have his own life if he desired it. However wrong and illegal it might be, he belonged to the Atlesian Council. He belonged to Atlas.
It was the wrong time to be debating his questionable position.
"I think there may be a water source somewhere up ahead." Jaune tried to fill the void with something. "We can rest and figure out where the closest pair is."
"How do you know that there's a water source coming up?" Weiss moved to Jaune's right side.
It was instinctive for someone to ask what they didn't understand, and the only reason he was even certain at all was that the geographical maps from his maps said there was a water source up ahead. Whether it was drinkable or not they would find out soon enough.
But he'd settle for a different response. "I've been noticing a fast-moving stream of water. I'd wager it leads somewhere, a larger pool of water."
"You mean that stream over there?" She pointed a finger.
"Yes."
Weiss picked up her pace "Do you think others will follow it?"
He shrugged lightly. "Maybe, but who knows? I will keep an eye and ear out as well for other potential spots."
"You certain seem at home here in the wilderness." Weiss sidestepped a rock. "Not at all what I would expect."
"It came with the training." Jaune spoke back to her. "If you cannot be adaptable, you will fail at one time or another."
That statement might've not held much meaning in this moment, but he did mean it and he was certain that he was going to have to hammer a bit of that into the minds of his future teammates. It was for their sake.
He'd also truncated the true extent of failure. The last thing he needed anyone to hear was that failure meant consequences that would motivate him to be better, not that he'd ever pushed his former overseer that far. He had too much respect for Jennings and Ironwood to simply just disobey because it was grueling training.
No, he wasn't normal, but that didn't mean he couldn't let others be so. It was his duty after all, to do what others were unable to do or were unwilling to do.
(X)(X)(X)(X)
"Chalk another one up!" Yang felt so alive when she was taking down Grimm. "Feeling the thrill!"
"Do you always make it a habit to be this rambunctious?" Blake emerged from a cluster of small trees. "Not that I don't appreciate the energy…"
"Just trying to keep up the good spirits." Yang pumped a fist into the air.
"Yeah." Blake was thrown for a loop. Then she saw something out of the corner of her eyes. "Hey, what's that over there?"
The two girls stood side by side as they looked on to see their discovery.
Down below was a large valley. It looked like a Grimm nesting site given the high concentration of Grimm in the valley. Small black streaks across green grass could be seen moving in rough formation. It was like looking at a plague infecting the very soil.
"Think this is what we're looking for?" Yang asked with a genuinely interested gaze. "I've never anything quite like this."
"Neither have I." Blake licked her dry lips. "There's no way we're going to be able to cut through all of those Grimm."
"Wow, you read my mind partner." Yang put an arm around Blake. "Go in, guns and blades blazing."
"Not quite." Blake grimaced a bit with the contact. "I think this is why we need to form teams."
"So we signal the others?" Yang crossed her arms in thought. "I think I might be able to do something about that."
The brawler began to reach into her belt to grab something. The disguised Faunus girl watched on as Yang took out a few of her shotgun shells from her weapons, then began to switch shells.
Blake cocked an eyebrow. "What are you doing?"
"Hold on." Yang didn't look away from what she was doing. "Okay, let's just hope that this works."
Blake narrowed her eyes. "That what works?"
Raising her right hand into the air, Yang fired off a shot. Nothing seemed to happen at first, until both girls looked into the sky to see that it wasn't a dust round, but rather a flare round.
"Hope somebody sees that." Yang leveled her fists. "Because we'll have Grimm incoming soon enough."
"You sound worried." Blake brandished Gambol and Shroud.
"I'm good." The blonde did a final check on her gauntlets. "But even I'd hesitate against Grimm odds like that."
"Well, you'd better make your peace." Blake shifted her weapon. "Because we've got Grimm coming our way."
Yang used her gauntlets to charge forward, unleashed a combo of moves to take down the various Beowolves gathering. One uppercut, one point-blank chest shot, one in the mouth, three arm snappings, and a hell of a lot of noise. The brawler seemed to be really enjoying herself.
Blake followed up with cover fire, occasional slingshot attacks, and distraction attacks. Keeping her moves minimalistic, she never allowed herself to remain in place for more than a second or two. These Grimm were the easy ones to take down. The real challenge would come when they came in greater numbers. When that would happen was anyone's guess.
Another tried to get her from behind. Blake knew this tactic and sent a shadow clone to distract the Grimm before sending her sword into its eye. She only had inches of space between the next paw that tried to slash at her. The rush of wind as the strike missed her was followed up with a scissor kick to a Beowolf. Switching Gambol into a reverse grip, Blake impaled swiftly. Rolling back to her feet, she surveyed her surroundings.
Yang was attracting far more Grimm; no surprise there seeing as Yang was hardly being quiet about how she killed Grimm. Add that and a healthy dose of flashy moves and she was a living Grimm beacon.
What have I gotten myself into. All this time, she'd been trying to avoid that other blond kid. And now, she'd traded him for… this. Blake, you really should be careful what you ask for sometimes.
No time for regrets now. The Grimm were coming in full force, and now it was time to learn teamwork from her new partner.
Partner.
Not him. I can't. Not now.
"Hey! Don't be a stranger!" The sound of a shotgun caught her attention. "A little help would be nice!"
And getting use to that is going to take some time. Scratch that, it's going to take a lot of time.
Loud and proud seemed to be Yang's motto. To each her own, Blake suppose.
She weaved in a zig-zag to confuse an Ursa before taking it out. Another Beowolf brought out claws. She responded with Gambol parrying before slicing an arm off, then a head to top it off.
The next thing Blake did was to create two shadow clones to confuse two more Ursa that were closing in. As she predicted, the Beowolves went for the dopplegangers, and that was more than enough time for her to cleanly sever them into two parts.
Noticing that she and Yang were being separated, Blake began to sprint closer. Any distance between them now might cost them. With so many Grimm likely on the warpath, they couldn't afford to be divided now. As confident as the Faunus was in her abilities and as confident as her partner seemed to be, now wasn't the time for overconfidence. That was the downfall for many.
Blake was just in time to see Yang casually blow off the head of two Beowolves at the same time, their bodies dissolving into blackness.
"I am ON FIRE, BABY!" Yang shouted to the whole world. "Ain't nothing that's gonna stop me!"
"Quite a sight." Blake tried to be nice, but found it a bit difficult. "Let's just hope your boasting actually means something."
"Girl, you don't know me well." Yang spun around with a wide grin. "I'm only the most interesting person you'll ever meet."
"Debatable." Blake countered calmly. "But we can talk more about it later. Right now, we catch our breath before more of them show up."
A moment of silence came over the two of them as they collected themselves as best they could. They were both still stocked with dust ammunition as well as still possessing a healthy percentage of aura. A bit of air in the lungs was also much appreciated.
It wouldn't last long though as both of them felt a chill in the air, followed closely by collective roaring from the valley.
"Wow, now THAT is a lot of Grimm." Yang whistled, her finger tracing their pathway. "And they're heading this way."
Blake took to her partner's left side, eyes moving all around to track the movements. There was a collective black wave of darkness against the bright colors of the world in front of them.
"That is a suicide run if I ever saw one." Blake didn't like the odds one bit. "Maybe a strategic retreat would be a good idea."
"No way, we can't back down now." Yang looked at her scroll. "The relic has to be somewhere here. Ozpin said it himself. Team effort."
"Then we should retreat and find another pair to help us." Blake tried again to reason. "We aren't enough."
"We're gonna have to be enough, because here they come now."
(X)(X)(X)(X)
"Ren did you hear that?" Nora stuck her hand up to her ear. "Sounded like the sound of awesome!"
"Awesome doesn't have a sound, Nora." Ren replied in his even tone. "Haven't I told you that before?"
"Gunfire and crashing stuff!" Nora chirped back in response. "Those are examples of the sounds of awesome!"
Ren's lips tugged a bit at the corners at his partner and friend's insistence. Whenever the girl set her mind to something, there was no use to change it. Years of time with her had taught him that much about her. Not that he didn't know about such things when they were children; he was always a quiet child, never one to be a talker. It was part of the reason why he could impart wisdom to people about things normally not known to a teenage boy his age.
But for all of his knowings of Nora, one thing Ren couldn't pinpoint so much of the time was if Nora was this happy because this was who she was genuinely happy or that she had other reasons to be happy. Some might say that he shouldn't question his best friend's source of happiness just so long as she was genuinely happy. Ren disagreed with this assessment, as his connection with Nora was far more than what people perceived it to be. He didn't really mind that people misunderstood.
What he minded was that they were so sure they knew him and her as well as they thought they did. Nobody knew them like they did.
End of story.
"I still think awesome is a thing!" Nora bounced on one foot. "I mean, c'mon, you're awesome times ten!"
"That's entirely a matter of perspective," Ren asserted, a smirk on his lips. "But the thought is appreciated nonetheless."
Accepting this as happily as she could, Nora just hummed a little toon as they both strolled through the woods, with Ren being more alert to danger than his partner and best friend. They were exposed and easy to spot. They could travel through the trees, but that might reduce their own visibility.
"So Ren, what do ya make of the blondie?" Nora did another hum. "He seems a bit like you."
"So does that make him a good person?" Ren knew the answer, but he still asked the question.
"Of course!" Nora looked at him like he was asking a stupid question. "Anyone who acts like you in any way is awesome in my books!"
"But what makes you think he's like me at all?" Ren asked back. "Certainly, he's quiet and thoughtful, but a lot of people have those things too and aren't like me."
"Call it a feeling." Nora shrugged her shoulder. "Looks like an awesome guy."
Ren grunted his acknowledgement of Nora's words, but they didn't tell what he was really thinking.
Ren knew how to look at a person and see them for who they were. It was a self-taught skill that had served him well in his life, and that skill was telling that while on the outside, that Jaune kid seemed fine, something told him that there was something much more… deadly behind that outer look.
Nora taking a liking to the fellow student wasn't a bad thing. Both of them could always use another friend as they didn't have many of those in their lives. With this one though, he wasn't sure how to approach it. A friendship was based on mutual trust, they both knew, but not everyone placed friendship in that definition.
Jaune, he didn't seem the type to want friends. He seemed the more lone wolf type, or he seemed the type to keep the company of a select few. If the latter was the case, then he earning his trust would be hard.
Ren was getting ahead of himself. They weren't teammates and they weren't friends. Both him and Nora were simple acquaintances to him. The time for deciding friendship would come later.
Nobody was nearby as far as Ren could tell. Although he wasn't using his senses to their absolute peak, he could "see" enough to be be able to alert Nora should the need arise. Because Grimm weren't truly alive like Humans and Faunus were, he would have to rely upon more conventional skills to keep a watch out.
That's when he made his first mistake that day. In his own musings, he had failed to keep proper track of Nora and she'd unintentionally given him the slip. Ren didn't wish to pin blame on Nora, but even he had to admit that her behavior could get her distracted easily; she was adult and could be serious when the situation called for it. That was something even people who knew her had a hard time believing.
Sighing to himself and banging himself with a metaphorical hammer, he gave chase, seeing that Nora had left a path that allowed him to follow, but she was one fast girl and even if he could find her path, that didn't mean he was going to catch her quickly. He just knew where she went.
Calling upon his senses, Ren made sure that he could find Nora's powerful aura presence in the thick of the forest. He was intimately familiar with her aura and he was particularly attuned to her presence. Finding her was much easier than finding someone he didn't spend as much time with, and it certainly helped that he and Nora had experimented with aura together more than a few times.
What did Nora find that was worth her attention.
Another student?
A clue to the artifact?
Grimm?
Whatever caught her fancy, he needed to make sure that she wouldn't go and do something too dangerous. That girl being who she was, she could sometimes overstep the boundaries. They both had enough scars to prove it, though not ones that anyone could see from what they were wearing now.
Those were scars for just the two of them to know about.
He heard an explosion, close if his ears were telling him correctly. That had to Nora and one of her grenades. He pushed his running speed to a sprinting speed. He needed to make sure that things were okay as they could be.
He expertly weaved through some tree branches in his path, leaving only a fraction of an inch between himself and the tree appendages. Years of training were now coming into play as he moved as fast as he could with obstacles to get around.
Another explosion, this one followed by another. Rapid succession fire of grenades had to be from Nora. The sound of the launching sounded like her weapon firing them.
Just let this be another of the girl's crazy joy rides.
"WOHOO!"
That was her alright.
Ren emerged into a slight clearing, seeing that Nora had already disposed of some Ursai and was currently trying to battle an Ursa Major. The smell of smoke and fire told him that she had already used her explosives to great effect.
"REN!" Nora called out to him. "FOUND ONE!"
"NORA!" Ren was genuinely frustrated. "WHAT DID I TELL YOU?"
She ignored him in favor of the more pressing fight on her hands. Dodging a paw, she swung and landed a direct hit on the head, which caused the Ursa to collapse to the ground. It groaned in pain, then forced itself back up again, growling in a challenge.
Ren moved in and took some shots. If it were a lesser Grimm, it might've already been dead, but this one took the shots and managed to hit back. The green-clad ninja narrowly eluded long claws before digging the blades of his weapons into head, causing him to become an unwanted rider.
The Ursa began to swing all around in a bid to be rid of him.
Nora seemed enthusiastic
"No fair!" She cried out. "You get to ride a Grimm, Renny!"
"NORA!"
Refusing to let his weapons go, Ren continued to hold on, all the while being flapped around like a piece of paper in the wind.
Just what in Monty Oum's name was he doing? This was supposed to be Nora's spiel, not his.
His day couldn't get worse, he told himself.
(X)(X)(X)(X)
"Is this water safe to drink?" Weiss stood next to her partner. "This is out on in a forest of Grimm."
Raising an arm, Jaune activated his wrist scroll to begin scanning for any sign of contamination. She watched this with fascination. She had only seen a few scroll models that were like this. There wasn't even a screen, but a holoprojector.
"The scan comes across as clear." He kneeled down to take a closer look. "And I do not see anything living in here either. That is a good sign."
The heiress watched as the boy splashed some water on his face and breathed in deeply. She looked at the water, then back to him. It looked like he was enjoying this brief moment of recharge. It was the first time she had seen him lose some of his seriousness, though he was still not without it.
More than anything, she wanted to enjoy the water with him.
"Is something wrong?" That was the second time today that he'd asked that. "You can rest for a minute. My senses are still active. No Grimm or students will ambush us."
"I don't know." Weiss regarded how she was dressed, a slight blush dusting her cheeks. "I feel that I'm not appropriately dressed for… I feel it inappropriate is all."
"You are here fighting in a forest full of Creatures of Grimm." Jaune shook some water off of himself. "You should be more worried about blood than of some dirt, Weiss."
Well now that he put it like that, she felt just a little bit embarrassed. He seemed to have this exceptional ability to make her rethink her logic, although that wasn't really what she meant, but better to not give him the idea.
Careful not to scrape her knees, she touched the water with her fingers, feeling the coolness against her skin.
It felt nice.
She then dipped another hand into the pool, lifted some water from the body, then splashed her own face.
The cool water felt so nice.
The two of them spent the next few minutes using the water to splash themselves or take some drinks from it with the help of Jaune's canteen. He drank some, wiped where his mouth had been, then passed it to Weiss, who accepted it with a small thanks, to which he nodded only.
After, Jaune had taken a sitting position with his legs crossed and his body leaning over the pool. He didn't look like he was trying to meditate.
Weiss hadn't seen much of his face during this initiation, but judging by how he talked, she guessed that he was just as neutral-looking as he sounded.
He hadn't even looked at her once the entire time they had sat down. Normally, people couldn't take their eyes off of her, and that annoyed her to no end. Now she was annoyed in a small way that he wasn't looking.
Was something wrong with her?
Did he lean towards the other way?
Did he not care about that kind of thing at all?
"You can look at me, Jaune." Weiss decided to be blunt. "I don't bite."
"I do not mean to ignore you." Jaune finally looked at her. "It's just that… you're a different breed of person from me."
That was something she had heard often, but the phrasing, to her ears, was more than what it appeared to be at first glance.
"What do you mean by that?" Weiss looked at her reflection in the pond. "What kind of person am I to you?"
"An angel." Jaune seemed to have already come up with a name for her. "A snow angel."
It could've been just another name to flatter her, to get her attention, but knowing what she did about her partner, the heiress assumed that he meant what he said. His words were so innocent and she wondered if even he knew what his words could be interpreted as if the wrong ears heard them.
"A snow angel?" She repeated his words so that she was certain. "Why do you think I'm an angel?"
"Because you are not just a normal person." He placed his hands on his knees. "You are the heiress to one of the most important companies in Remnant. Expectations upon you are many, too many for a normal person to burden. Your physical body has been deemed attractive, almost angelic, and I can understand why. In more simple terms, you are beyond human."
Weiss didn't like being called all these things. She was use to it, frustrated by it, but now it was for a different reason. No, she wanted a friend, not someone who thought themselves to be lower than herself.
"But I'm still Human." She felt her emotions rise. "Just as much as you are."
"I certainly hope you that you will never be like me in any way." Jaune laughed a robotic laugh. "I hope no one ever is like me."
She grit her teeth. Now she was to blame for putting words to a person that said person didn't want to hear.
It would seem that they were on equal footing now.
Jaune stood up, stretching his body in the process. Weiss followed his example.
"We should leave." He pointed his finger to a point on the horizon. "I think the temple is somewhere there."
She couldn't tell if he was simply avoiding the issue or if he just didn't want to waste more time, but couldn't stop her next words.
"I'm sorry about what I said." Weiss felt her courage tested for the first time in a while. "If I've offended you, I didn't mean it."
"Don't apologize, Weiss." Jaune sounded almost tired. "I don't need an apology nor do I want it. I understand what you said and I don't like you any less."
They were back on the path to the relics.
Weiss Schnee didn't know much about Jaune Arc, only the certainty that normal conventions of social interactions had mixed results with him.
Or maybe she herself needed to work on her delivery.
Whoops, guess what I forgot for months on end? Ah, shit, me and my schedules. My mother always tells me I should find some way to make my writing hobby into a career. I might actually listen to her.
So my personal life aside, this chapter set down some groundwork for teams and character development. This will, in turn, make future chapters more integrated and intimate. You'll all know what that means later.
Although Blackhawksniper wasn't able to beta-read this chapter, he's still the beta-reader for this story, so I'll give him credit and fix errors as I read them, so excuse any grammar problems.
Finally, there's a poll on my profile page for future story ideas that I've come up with. If you're interested in seeing of those stories come to life, vote for your favorite. Just refer to the story descriptions at the bottom of my profile page for details.
So what's the buzz? Are you guys happy that this story is still alive?
I hope you all were entertained by this chapter, and remember:
"Fill your paper with the breathings of your heart."
William Wordsworth
Peace!
