I am crossposting this story from other sites, but I suggest hopping on Questionable Questing if you would like to see some character portraits. Or join me on Discord, server code is vN7sTYhEp6

  I will be posting four chapters daily on this site until it catches up with other sites.

  Earlier,

  Herbert Montgomery had lived a good life. He might not have been as successful in his career as the rest of his peers or his brothers, but he succeeded enough in life nevertheless. True, his family life might not be the best, as out of two failed marriages, he only had one estranged daughter whom he had not seen in years, nor did he even get to meet his grandchildren. Yet, he did manage to nd the cushy job of babysitting his friends’ up-and-coming officers in the rich and peaceful region of Celdic. That it was due to him kissing ass with many of those friends and infting his family’s contributions and achievements to his own benefit was left unsaid. Even then, what was wrong with using every tool at your disposal to get what you want? Celdic even had its own military from when it was a fief of some nameless noble house that had long since gone extinct, and the Dragoons have shown they were superb at doing all the work for him, despite them being so few in number.

  In his fifty-eight years alive, he had never been wrong in the way he did things, nor did he truly regret his life choices, even if, in hindsight, some of them may not have been the best. His mother always told him to be confident, and people will have to listen to you, especially if you were in a position of authority. It is why he craved such roles and always made sure to be pced in a leadership position, even if he was a big fish in a small pond like Celdic. Everyone had to accept his decisions, and he always made sure not to push too far to avoid needless backsh.

  ‘Until today,’ he thought glumly as he stared at the three adventurers destroying some of the most dangerous Grimm he had ever seen. This was not what he thought would happen when he heard a Grimm horde forming here! He thought it would just be the random fodder Beowulf or Creeps, maybe the occasional Ursa and Deathstalker. A perfect opportunity to show off his leadership and smarts to the officers assigned to him, so they would put in a good word for him just as he will be doing for them. For so many of the Grimm to be the Major or Alpha variant? Inconceivable.

  Herbert was silently gd that Brocket convinced him of making a stand here at the entrance instead of his original pn of taking the fight to the Grimm. Why should they go chasing after those monstrosities? Let them come to us instead, come to their doom.

  Speaking of the good Lieutenant, he had to leave to protect their base, and inwardly, Herbert didn’t want him to go. He had proven to be good at his job, and suddenly, Herbert found himself in sole command of the first true conflict he had ever faced.

  “Who the hell does that brat think he is? I don’t care if his grandfather was some famous chump; he’s an old fossil by now. How dare he speak to you like that? Are you seriously gonna let him get away with that, Bert?”

  Herbert stared at one of the young fools he was forced to babysit. Henry Winchester was an egotist like most of his family. After failing Beacon’s initiation, he used his family's influence to fast-track his enrollment to Vale’s officer academy. Five years ter, he barely graduated, and Herbert was forced to take him in as one of many favors he owed his father, Major Winchester. He so wanted to sp the fool for calling him so familiarly; he was older than his father, dammit!

  The rest of his officer friends also looked at him disdainfully at his supposed meekness.

  Herbert sighed helplessly as he thought about Jaune Arc, who so btantly humiliated him in front of his men. He should be enraged and spitting fire at the young upstart. He should have shouted and berated him in front of everybody, just like he did to that nincompoop engineer from earlier; but… that look. The way he could seemingly see right through his soul as if he knew his darkest secrets and biggest fears. Herbert couldn’t even bring himself to feel anger at the young man, for he was technically right. He didn’t really mean to disparage Sylphid and could at least acknowledge that the faunus girl did her job well enough. Despite being part animal, the girl maintained a professional and polite demeanor and clearly knew how to behave around her betters, so maybe he could just let it go?

  “…Well, Bert? Nothing to say for yourself?”

  The Guard Captain was about to rebuke the young man for his rudeness; hedonistic comrades or not, they were in the middle of a combat zone, and he should know better than to question his superior like that, especially in front of the foot soldiers.

  “Captain!”

  A worried shout came from one of the men as he pointed upwards. Herbert and his band of sycophants stared at the massive avian figure that somehow evaded all their senses and was perched on the cliff gring balefully at them. It was one of the rgest Nevermores he had ever seen, almost as rge as an Airbus! The avian Grimm flexed its wings as it seemingly feasted on the feelings of fear and worry emanating from them.

  Herbert could feel his stomach drop at the sight of the creature, “Everyone, get to cover!” He didn’t wait to see if the men followed his command as he hid under the metal shielding of the cannon near him.

  The Nevermore screeched at them in rage at his warning and unleashed a hail of dark pinions at them. Herbert looked in horror as the hardened feathers impaled some men who couldn’t find cover in time. Many died instantly with the feathers decapitating or bifurcating them; others screamed in agony as they lost a limb and would bleed out if no aid was administered.

  “W-w-w-what should we do? T-This was s-supposed to be a cakewalk, Bert! You assured me that it was gonna be an easy day. M-my father will hear about this, do you hear me?!”

  Herbert ignored his ramblings as he tried to galvanize the men, “What are you waiting for? Shoot that damn thing!”

  The surviving men fired their rifles at the beast, but the bullets barely seemed to annoy it. Naturally, he stuck to cover and peeked from a small gap in the shield.

  The Grimm screeched angrily again and unleashed another hail of feathers. This time, the men were ready and quickly got to cover behind sandbags and other fortifications. There were still some injuries, but at least no one died this time.

  “Don’t ignore me, Bert!”

  Herbert Montgomery was reminded of his cover mates, and turned angrily at the whinging man, “Would you shut up, Winchester? I’m trying to figure out how to save our behinds here!”

  Another officer piped up, “That thing seemed impervious to rifle fire. How will we kill it?”

  Herbert silently contempted as the men tried to shoot the Nevermore, and it, in return, continued to fire pinions at them. He sneaked a gnce at it and noticed the damn bird hadn’t moved a spot from where they first discovered it. It was slightly ahead of them in the gorge but too high up for the machine guns to get a good angle. Maybe if the men could dismount the guns, it might have worked, but they were in the middle of a break, and the wretched Grimm had targeted the few men by the machine gun nests in its first volley.

  It scared him. It scared him a lot, this terrible situation they found themselves in. Will they be stuck here as target practice for a clearly intelligent and cruel Grimm? Why did that Nevermore decide to attack now of all times? Did it intentionally wait for this moment? Right when the Adventurers moved in to attack some of the most dangerous Grimm he had ever seen and when Brocket and his Dragoons returned to secure the base.

  He was confident that a single one of the adventurers could destroy that Grimm easily; his mind went to that glorious Lightning Bolt thing that Valestein did. Perhaps it wasn’t a good idea to ogle the young dy’s knockers so much? Hell, he would rather Brocket or his dragoons were here as they were actually trained to kill beasts like that, unlike him, whose major was in administration, and the troops were usually used to discourage bandits and the stray Grimm.

  Something of that size? That needed a Huntsman!

  There was no putting the moon back. He had to do something, or else the men, his men, will die. He stared in anguish as one reckless –brave– soldier led two of his mates in an attempt to retrieve a machine gun, only for him to get impaled by a pinion. At least his friends managed to escape.

  The bullets did nothing to the thing. Machine guns were out, and he had generously – foolishly– given away the two ACPs to Brocket. Those grenade unchers could have made a difference. He leaned against the metal surface of his hiding spot as he tried to control the shaking of his limbs and to think of how to save himself and his men. There was no retreat. They were extremely lucky so far, the Nevermore had not targeted their horses, but there were only a few of them and dozens of the men, and he couldn’t bear leaving them behind.

  Suddenly, his eyes fell to a closed box of ordnance, seemingly staring at him. ‘The cannons!’

  He turned to the officers hiding with him. There were only three of them, and none would know how to use that damn thing. He needed his actual men, the few elites who were trained to operate these cannons provided by Vale HQ, not the little shits he was forced to babysit.

  He turned towards the battle. His men were entrenched now, and the Grimm had been unable to kill or wound any more of them. Herbert looked around until he found the team he was looking for, they were staring right at him, and he suddenly noticed that they were not the only ones. He was their sole commanding officer, and it was to him that they would look for guidance in a situation like this.

  This both pleased and scared him.

  It didn’t take long to get the men to understand what he wanted without shouting and drawing the Grimm’s attention. The soldiers continued to fire at it to distract it, while the gunners sprinted as fast they could toward him once they saw the Nevermore spraying pinions at another group in vain.

  “Good job, men! Quickly load the cannon. If that stupid bird doesn’t move from its perch, we won’t look a gift horse in the mouth.”

  “What rounds should we use, captain?” The gunner pointed towards several boxes of different shells.

  “The strongest one, obviously! Let’s kill that thing before it kills us all.” Herbert was starting to lose patience; what difference did it make?

  In less than a minute, they had the cannon loaded and pointed right at the Nevermore. The beast still arrogantly remained on its perch on top of the cliff as the men’s bullets did nothing to it, if they even hit at that distance. Herbert Montgomery moved next to the gun barrel as he pointed his hand at their target and called in a loud voice that attracted the attention of the surrounding men.

  “Keep firing at the bird, men. Gunners, Open Fire!”

  He instantly regretted that order as a humungous boom erupted right next to him and knocked him off his feet. He moaned in pain and felt blood trickle from his ears as he had forgotten to cover his ears, and a loud pinging noise was the entirety of his world. He could feel his meager amount of Aura healing him and someone holding him up.

  Even if he went deaf, he could still see their aim was true. The Nevermore had lost a wing and a leg, but it was still alive. Nevertheless, it was harmless now and would probably retreat. His main focus was on the fact that an entire section of the cliff was blown apart. Maybe their aim wasn’t that true after all?

  Herbert noticed someone grabbing one of the gunners and shaking them as he pointed first at the cannon and then at the cliff. He was still recovering from the shockwave; just what kind of round did they use for the cannon to be so loud?

  He felt whoever held him pce earmuffs over his head, which instantly made him understand what they wanted as he noticed the one urging the gunners to shoot was Henry Winchester.

  “No…don’t–”

  Another powerful shockwave from the cannon nearly swept him off his feet again, and the entire part of the cliff that the Nevermore was on was blown apart. The Grimm was no more, but a gaping hole could be seen in the cliff. Henry Winchester removed his earmuffs and whopped like a moron at a job well done. Herbert could only stare at the hole as the dust cleared, from where he could see several ominous red glows slowly moving out of it. The hole had opened a tunnel to a cavern, and its inhabitants were none too pleased with the wake-up call.

  He threw away his earmuffs and shouted to the men, yet he could barely hear his own voice. The men looked confusingly at him, so he gestured wildly at the hole where the red glows revealed themselves to be Sulfur Fish. Hundreds, if not thousands, were flowing out of the hole and would swarm them if nothing was done. The men stared bnkly at the insect-like Grimm, as if they couldn’t believe they weren’t out of danger yet.

  Herbert dragged the nearest man and shoved him towards the machine gun nests. That finally got the men out of their stupor, and some started firing at the encroaching Grimm. Those who managed to get to the machine guns immediately tried firing only to face the same problem as earlier. Montgomery was gd that the men at least had the wherewithal to dismount the machine guns, grab the ammo boxes, then retreat to where the cannons were.

  He was starting to hear better now, his Aura thankfully doing its job, though he felt like he had lost a good half of it. Not that it would make much of a difference, for he barely had any in the first pce. It was a miracle when he managed to unlock his Aura as a cadet.

  “Form a defensive line around the cannons. Gunners, get that other cannon operational, and by the Maidens, don’t use the explosive rounds! See if we have shrapnel or cluster munitions.”

  If someone had asked Herbert how he could lead a good defense against an insurmountable enemy with troops that hated his guts, he would not know how to answer. It took some urging and cajoling, but he managed to get even his pampered officers to grab a gun and start shooting at the damn things. The vermin like Grimm appeared to be endless, and they had already managed to destroy some machine guns that couldn’t be dismounted fast enough. The men had let the horses flee from the battle, hopefully, they would be recovered by Brocket ter. Then, they quickly formed a perimeter with sandbags and other debris as fortifications around the cannons, which were used to devastating effects, though thankfully not as loud as earlier.

  Yet…it was not enough. Herbert had never been so terrified in his life. The stench of death and the screams of the dying were getting to him. The Grimm did not care about their own casualties and continued to climb over the disintegrating corpses of their dead to try to reach them. His men fought bravely, and he truly felt proud of them, but there were simply too many.

  Was this…was this all his fault? He was the one who insisted on attacking this pce. Brocket’s dragoons had warned him that it was a dangerous endeavor, and the lieutenant himself advised waiting for Beacon to send a proper team. He couldn’t let that chance go, though. The chance to show off to his officers, who would then report to their fathers and friends; then maybe, maybe, he would finally get that promotion and the accodes he deserved and stick it to his brothers. He couldn’t even use the fact that Vale and Beacon were busy with a Grimm Invasion, as he hadn’t known about it when he insisted on coming here.

  Herbert continued to shoot his standard-issue revolver at the encroaching Grimm, their small size would normally make them hard to hit, but their rge numbers rendered that issue mute. One of the Sulfur Fish jumped over the men in front of him in a suicide rush. Unfortunately for Herbert, it nded right in front of him and shed out with one of its tails, destroying his gun and breaking his hand.

  He yelled in pain as his Aura was shattered. Herbert would have died in a follow-up attack if not for one of the younger gunners stabbing the vermin Grimm with his dagger.

  “Hold on, Captain! We’ll get you to cover.”

  Hebert could only moan in pain as the young man called for another soldier to help him to where they had set up an impromptu triage. To his annoyance, he found Winchester and his two stooges acting as medics instead of fighting despite having access to their Aura. He was about to shame them into combat when a sudden lull in the fighting occurred.

  He turned around, holding his injured hand close to his body. Herbert blinked, then blinked again, rubbing his eyes with his good hand. The entire Grimm swarm had seemingly stopped attacking, and as one turned towards the Gorge where a figure seemingly appeared out of nowhere and flew like the wind through their lines. With one slice of her gunswords, a dozen of the Sulfur Fish were sliced apart. Before the other Grimm could retaliate, she would be a dozen feet away, slicing at another group, leaving a grenade in her previous spot to explode in their faces. She danced like the wind, like the mischievous fay of olden, her deceptively small size hiding deadly precision. With every jump, a gust of wind would knock the Grimm on their backs, their small sizes becoming a disadvantage. The Grimm had gone utterly mad in their rush to get to her, to kill her, yet she was always several steps ahead, seemingly made for this type of combat against endless swarms of retively weak Grimm.

  “…a Maiden.” To the end of his days, Herbert would deny the word that slipped from his lips at the scene. Yet, many of his men would insist that he was right as they too had thought the same; Sylphid truly appeared when they needed her most and killed their hated enemy using the elements, just as the Maidens of old were said to be capable of.

  Herbert had no idea how she managed to grab all of the Grimm’s attention, probably the same way she dragged the entire horde earlier in the day, but he won’t waste this chance.

  “Are you all going to watch as a little girl takes all the glory? Kill the damn vermin! Shoot, shoot, SHOOT!”

  With Jaune,

  He dodged yet another boulder thrown by one of the Beringels. They’d been relentless since he opened up from distance with a full cylinder of FDR at one of them, thoroughly ignoring the Geist and Cenitaur. He didn’t manage to kill it, but considering the terrible smell and screams of agony, it was a close thing.

  Fire Dust was amazing! He just needed to shoot it at the Grimm and hit the fleshy part, and it will keep burning for minutes on end. Now, having shot the ape-like Grimm ten times with FDRs in each limb, torso, and head, it certainly wasn’t having a good day, and its partner was adamant on its revenge.

  He intended to provoke the other Beringel to chase him before taking it down with Crocea Mors. Unfortunately, the Geist had dominated its lesser kin and had it throw rocks and boulders at him instead. Meanwhile, the Cenitaur had apparently lost its burrowing ability and started spraying clouds of acid at him. Fshbacks of the acid cloud the Drake spewed at him had him running as far away from it as possible, only to dodge another boulder thrown by the Geist this time.

  It’s been a few minutes since the Cenitaur had emerged from the ground, and Jaune had managed to check on Sara. She was alive, thankfully, but obviously hurt. He could feel pain and annoyance from their link, yet also an inkling of mischief as she had somehow burrowed underground and slowly made her way toward the Geist. He wasn’t certain how they both could seemingly communicate with each other through the link he created, even if it was just vague feelings and basic thoughts, but he didn’t care. He will take any advantage he could get against an essentially invincible enemy.

  He could tell that Sara wanted him to get the Cenitaur close to the Geist for some reason, but that’s the extent of her pn that he could gleam. The only way for him to do so was to attack the Geist directly, but that would be suicide! He doubted anything less than putting half his current Aura into Crocea Mors for a Crescent Wave would harm that thing.

  The Cenitaur had seemingly gotten tired of spewing acid and charged at him. At the same time, both the Beringel and the Geist had thrown the st of the avaible boulders that the two ape Grimm had prepared. He dodged the boulders by counter-charging the Cenitaur, drawing Crocea Mors in the process, and stabbed at its bulging green abdomen. The Cenitaur hurriedly lowered its bded hands to block, only for Jaune to feint and stomp hard on the ground, switching directions to charge at the Geist instead. The Cenitaur hissed in anger at being pyed the fool and charged after him while the Geist was caught ftfooted as it was in the process of smashing more rocks with the Beringel. Jaune knew there was a slim chance of taking down the Geist, even as he fired a testing shot at its exposed eye, only for it to near instantly shift inside as he pulled the trigger.

  That was fine, though, as it had confirmed to him that the Geist needed to actually see to properly attack and that the eye was an obvious weak point. He used its blindness to target the Beringel instead, firing the rest of his cylinder at its torso. Its agonizing screams as it was set on fire were music to his ears, especially as he noticed the other Beringel had finally died from its wounds.

  The sound of splitting air as something heavy moved at high speeds was his only warning before he jumped as high as he could, barely dodging the Geist blindly swinging a massive arm made of rock that would have sent him flying to the cliffs. Jaune cursed as his higher STR had caused him to jump much higher than he would have preferred. His airtime allowed him to reload his revolver, but it also allowed the Cenitaur to stop next to the Geist below him. He was stuck, and they knew it. In a matter of seconds, he would be—

  ‘Right about there.’

  Suddenly, a massive earthquake erupted, and the ground for hundreds of feet under both Grimm colpsed under their weight, both Grimm falling for about fifty feet in a giant cave-in. The aspiring Huntsman could hear the Cenitaur hissing in annoyance; clearly, the fall barely did any damage to it. Jaune didn’t have long to watch before he fired his gun sideways, the recoil propelling him away from the huge crater to nd on its edge.

  Looking back into the crater, he could tell who the culprit was from the Aura residue and Jaune could feel both satisfaction and wary determination coming from his link with Sara. He had to dodge another spray of acid from the Cenitaur, to which he replied with a few rounds of FDR to its bulging belly causing it to hiss in pain. The Geist, however, simply looked around warily as if expecting a trap.

  It was right to be wary as a metal spike impaled itself on its back. The Geist didn’t actually feel the impact due to its massive size, but Jaune instantly knew what would happen a second before it did. A humongous amount of Lightning was discharged from a small cave where Jaune could barely see a fsh of purple then a massive thunderbolt bsted out. It first struck the metal spike still embedded in the Cenitaur when it was just a Centinel, instantly annihiting half its body, and then continued to the other spike embedded in the huge rock golem.

  The resulting explosion was so bright it caused Jaune to cover his eyes, yet he felt something smash into the ledge near him and then a groan of pain. He quickly turned to find an utterly spent Sara on the ground with her Aura fshing before shattering like gss, her coat in tatters, and half her dress burned, exposing her stomach and parts of her cleavage. None of that even registered to him as he instead focused on her clearly dislocated shoulder and bleeding head, where her hair had fallen off her bun and was in disarray. He hurried to her, his med-kit easily appearing from Storage, and administered first aid.

  Jaune first had to ease her grip on her weapons, for, despite the terrible shape she was in, she never let go of them, and they were in surprisingly excellent condition for the punishment they had to endure. They must have been made from some superb material, though he noticed the Earth and Lightning vials in the gun were completely empty while everything else was also almost depleted. With care, Jaune deposited them in his Storage, though he had to spend some Aura to fit the sword in. He then carefully turned her on her back and examined her wounds.

  “Sara, if you can hear me, make some noise.” A groan came from her mouth that sounded like Ace and Joker, and he nodded, “Don’t worry, I’ve stored them away. I’m going to try to treat your wounds now. Bear with me for a moment.”

  Most of her injuries were internal; he could feel two broken ribs, and a few more were bruised. Her shoulder needed to be set, and after a murmured apology, he quickly set it back in its joint, causing Sara to flinch silently.

  ‘Tough girl’

  A bit of cleaning and gauze over her head injury, and that was all Jaune could do for now as he wasn’t a trained medic. What he was sure of, was that Sara wasn’t in any real danger; her main issue was she had used up all of her remaining Aura in that massive attack, though he suspected it was a case of her crash nding and her Aura absorbing the damage. He did coax her to swallow some painkillers with water but refrained from giving her anything stronger as they were still in a combat zone.

  Speaking of, he turned towards the crater only to find molten rock everywhere with no sign of Grimm. He unconsciously whistled at the apocalyptic scene, barely believing that the woman on the ground was responsible for it.

  “That was the most badass yet reckless thing I’ve ever seen in my life. I can’t believe I’m the one scolding you for this, Miss older-and-more-responsible Adventurer. How much Dust did you spend to do that? Are those spikes stored in your gun? Does any metal spike work, or does it have to be specially treated? How did you even come up with that cave-in? Is that why you weaved Earth Dust in your coat earlier?”

  A pained chuckle came from the older woman’s mouth, but it was accompanied by a wet cough and a spit of blood. “At least it was epic, yeah? Also, too many questions, this ain’t a school, and I ain’t a teacher, dammit. The world would end if I took a job teaching brats how to be responsible adults.” She giggled uncontrolbly at the thought, even through the pain of her broken ribs, “I’m just gd I didn’t lose a tooth or something. Or a few brain cells. At least, I hope I didn’t.”

  Jaune shook his head in disbelief, “Nah, Somehow your injuries are retively light… A miracle I would say. You just need to rest and recover your Aura, and then you would be good as new in a couple of days.”

  Sara snorted, “a couple? Maybe you, Mr-I-have-more-Aura-than-any-living-being-should-ever-have, but us mere mortals would need at least a week to heal the broken bones alone even with Aura.” She tried moving her limbs, only to falter, “Yep. Hairline fractures on my shins, a sprained ankle, and too many bruises to count. And I might have cracked some of my fingers.” She lifted her left hand to show her pinky had gone blue. “You’re a terrible medic, by the way.”

  Jaune sighed as the woman cackled painfully at his expense. Despite not having any Aura, he could still sense her emotions and there was nothing malicious about her comments. Just good humor. Speaking of, “Humor me though, since you are sort of my mentor here, was that your Sembnce?”

  “Ugh, so persistent, why can’t a dy keep her mystique?” She compined petuntly as she stopped ughing, only to be met with a raised eyebrow. “Fine, fine. It was all Dust. Like, literally all of my Dust. Four thousand Lien worth of High-Quality Lightning Dust, just POOF. Gone. Sure, my Sembnce helped, and I was damn lucky to find all those tunnels underground. Probably made by that mole Grimm from earlier. All it took was some clever use of Earth Dust to soften the rocks into sand, then some glyphs here and there to stop them from colpsing prematurely. The Earth Dust in my coat was for emergency defense. It helped protect my back when I smashed into the cliff with that boulder. Thanks for the save by the way, I should have been more careful of that Centinel, especially right after Fie’s warning.”

  Jaune nodded as his eyes unconsciously wandered over her half-naked body, “Don’t mention it. Thanks for saving me as well. Now what about that Lightning Bolt thing? You said your Sembnce turns your Aura to Lightning, you didn’t mention it turns your whole body into it.”

  Sara grinned at his almost accusatory tone, “I would be a fool to tell anyone the full extent of my abilities. You’re mistaken though, I didn’t exactly turn into lightning. Using all the Lightning Dust I weaved into my clothes, along with a few of my spare crystals and the one in Joker, I generated so much of it that you couldn’t see me underneath it. A special Propulsion-type Glyph, that is an original creation of mine based off the standard Propulsion Glyph and enhanced by my Sembnce, unches me at near Lightning Speed, pun intended, towards those Spikes that I had treated with my Aura. I’m basically blind or at best get severe tunnel vision in that state, so those spikes are my beacons, as even with my terrible Aura sensing, Its enough to home into them. I gotta be careful not to impale myself on them, which is why they are blunt on one side. All of that Lightning is then channeled through Ace and explodes out through a stab. Considering how hot Lightning is, it has proven to be extremely potent against anything I’ve used this move on. Unfortunately, I had too much momentum and ended up bsting right through the Golem and into the crater’s ledge, shattering my Aura. Does this answer your question, my nosey apprentice?”

  To say that Jaune was impressed would be an understatement. He had never had the time to learn Dust Casting or Glyphs, but then again, these kinds of skills are almost exclusively taught in Huntsmen academies and Gramps had never shown him any. He did remember when he was a kid, that his grandmother would show off her skills when she visited, but his memories were vague. Regardless, This was even more reason for him to enroll in Beacon and learn more about the stuff to compliment his skills.

  “Nope, thank you for the impromptu lesson. By the way, did you notice that we could sort of read our thoughts during the fight?”

  “Hmm, could be. I did know exactly where you were, and that couldn’t have been my Aura sense. You tell me, did you do something before the fight?”

  Jaune wondered if the Aura link he established was the reason. Was it part of Search? Or could it be another aspect of his Sembnce? Something to discover ter. A wave of weakness hit him, but it passed quickly. His boosts had ended.

  “Not sure. Anyway, can you stand?”

  “Let’s see.” Sara struggled to stand and waved away a helping hand as she gritted her teeth and forced herself to her knees before standing straight. Jaune finally acknowledged that even bloody and beaten, the woman was still incredibly beautiful with her waist-length hair flowing in the wind; the slight trickle of drying blood from her smirking lips to her chin gave her a feral sort of charm. Especially with how alert her eyes were despite the pain she must be in. That was all disregarding the fact that she was practically half-naked with how little of her clothes survived. You could almost believe that she was all ok, and ready to continue fighting.

  Yet, Observe was telling him a different story.

  Sara Valestein

  Stats:

  Aura Points: 0/1,853 (111/hr) DEBUFF (37/hr)

  Aura Control: 105%

  Strength (STR): 32/76

  Vitality (VIT): 26/84

  Dexterity (DEX): 67/117

  Agility (AGL): 56/102

  Perception (PER): 68/78

  Intelligence (INT): 73/82

  Skills:

  Searing Fsh: Shoots an Aura treated metal spike at a target before channeling lightning through her body, clothes and into her sword to turn herself into a woman sized Lightning Bolt. Can use Dust to greatly amplify the power of her attack. Can channel as much Aura and Dust as she can handle for greater effects. Needs the Sword Ace to be charged with Lightning Dust.

  Status Effects:

  Aura Exhaustion: Aura recovery reduced to a third (12 hours)

  Slightly Dazed: “I’m seeing stars…and a tweety bird….is that a bck cat?” Slight reduction in INT and PER (3 hours)

  “Here.” Jaune produced the shirt he wore yesterday from his Storage. Sara chuckled, yet winced as her ribs poking her lings reminding her that, yep, they were still broken.

  “Took your fill of this hot bod? Especially after you touched me in such intimate pces.” She joked even as she accepted the rge shirt that fell down to her thighs and gingerly put it on.

  Jaune huffed at the older woman, “Well, you’re clearly in much better shape than I thought if you are lively enough to flirt.”

  The injured woman giggled again before she gingerly moved toward the ledge to take a look at the destruction she caused. She frowned before slowly turned towards the young man near her.

  “Uh, Jaune? We have a problem.”

  “What is it?”

  “That Geist isn’t dead.”

  Jaune quickly turned to the crater to find that, yep, the Geist was somehow still alive and had somehow hid from him earlier. It was in the process of rebuilding its body from the debris lying around. As they stared at it, it formed a smaller yet still massive body made from molten rock and roared in their general direction. Its red eye, pced on a rocky head this time, balefully shining in hatred and malevolence.

  “…well, fuck.”

  “Language! Although, I do agree that the situation does, indeed, appear to be fucked, my dear Wunderkind.”

  “…Pn?”

  Sara hummed, “Seeing that I am all out of Aura and Dust, and can barely stand on my feet… Carry me like a princess and run away with our tails between our legs?”

  Jaune sighed and rubbed the bridge of his nose. He still had about 1500 AP, but with no way to destroy such an irksome enemy, aside from draining all of his AP in an all out attack hoping he would nail its real body; All he would be able to do was dey the inevitable. He could tell that Sara was putting up a strong front; his senses told him that she was worried and slightly afraid in her moment of weakness. He could rete, as his mind drifted to his time in the cave.

  He inwardly shuddered before sighing again. Jaune moved behind the older woman and carried her in his arms, smirking at her surprised yelp, “As good a pn as any.”

  The Geist roared again as it finished reforming and lumbered towards the edge of the crater, clumsily climbing to the ledge only to see its hated enemy running as fast they could back towards the entrance of the Quarry. It rationally knew it should take this as a chance to rest and recuperate, but the sheer hatred it held for humans, especially that purple-haired one for making it feel such unimaginable pain, overcame its rational thought. It roared in rage and ran off in pursuit.

  I bet none of you expected a Montgomery pov, right? I hope you enjoy how contradicting he is. People are a lot more complex to simply paint them in bck and white.

  Fie comes to the rescue. You will notice that she isn’t really good against powerful enemies, boss monsters so to speak, but she is excellent in crowd control and against swarms of fodder. Let’s just hope the Sulfur Fish don’t combine or something (GASP! Did I just spoil it?)

  I subtly expined in earlier chapters why people in a world like Remnant need to always keep an upbeat attitude. Sara embodies that ideal even as she is a complete train wreck. Jaune unconsciously finds himself emuting her, as she is his mentor and role model during this arc. When he found himself alone st chapter, he started panicking. Once he reconnected with Sara, he calmed down and brought out his A-game.

  Bear in mind that he is still weakened from his Sembnce overuse. If you remember from chapter eight, his Aura recovery is at 50% right now, so he can’t afford to waste Aura on attacks or boosts that won’t help him against a specific enemy. Retreat is always an option.