Chapter 8: Fist 4: Grimm-lands
Fist 4: Grimm-lands
"The way of the sword?" In a Japanese restaurant, two young apprentices looked at each other.
"That's right! I believe that if you practice swordsmanship, you'll achieve great things," Laian exclaimed with excitement.
Jaune looked at Laian before slowly chewing his food.
"I'm not sure, Laian. I'm a martial artist, and using a sword doesn't really fit my style," Jaune replied. But Laian insisted with enthusiasm.
"Come on, Charanko! I know you have the talent. Even my master could see it. Just give it a try. I'll teach you!" As Jaune looked at his fellow hero, he couldn't help but smile.
"Well, as fellow heroes and both apprentices of Class S heroes, I think there's a lot we can learn from each other. How about you let me teach you martial arts?" Jaune suggested.
Laian blinked, initially confused, and was about to refuse, but then reconsidered and nodded.
"Only if you let me teach you swordsmanship."
"You're quite stubborn. Alright, you teach me, and I'll teach you. Deal?" Jaune extended his hand, and Laian shook it firmly.
"Deal!"
Neither of them knew that the future held great significance for both of them with this little agreement made in a small restaurant on an ordinary night.
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Jaune opened his eyes, dreaming of the past was not common for him. He stretched his body, looked at the still-dark sky, and decided to start his preparations.
After leaving the village, he had traveled about 5 kilometers before deciding to find a place to spend the night and recover from his previous battle. If he had been in perfect condition, he probably would have gone further.
Surprisingly, he didn't encounter any Grimm on his way, and he wasn't sure if it was due to good luck or how close he still was to the settlement.
Regardless of the reason, it was time to venture deeper into the Grimm lands. Jaune quickly had breakfast with the rations he had brought and descended from the tall tree where he had spent the night.
Sleeping on a tree was more comfortable than you might think when you knew how to do it.
As soon as he put his foot on the ground, his senses began to scream. Without hesitation, he leaped to avoid a clawed hand's strike that could have taken off his head.
"So, there you are," Jaune said, looking around and noticing several dark figures surrounding the tree where he had been resting.
The Grimm, resembling a werewolf, growled in annoyance at its failed surprise attack.
"I guess the warm-up begins now," for some reason, this situation excited Jaune.
He might be a hero, and the strength he had gained once was for the greater good. But Jaune was also a martial artist, and enjoying a fight was a part of him.
A fight where no one was in danger, and he didn't have to worry about his opponent's life? That was pure fun.
The Grimm lunged at him in a coordinated pack attack, their wolf-like appearance was more literal than expected. They were all faster, more agile, and stronger than Jaune, any of them could have killed him if a single one of their claws landed a proper blow.
A single mistake, a single moment of carelessness would mean the end.
Indeed, Garou seemed to have infected him more than he thought as a toothy grin formed on his face at the prospect. One mistake, and it was all over, his third chance at life finished.
He should have had doubts, fear, or something of the sort.
Instead, his hands rose, and his fingers took on the form of claws.
Tiger Fang True Fist!
As if they were a tiger's Fangs, each of his fingers tore through the black flesh of the nearest Grimm.
His fingers, sharp as fangs, dug deep, and with a motion that mimicked the bite of a fierce tiger, the head of the first Grimm that attacked him soared into the air.
The Grimm, soulless creatures, did not falter at the display of brutality.
Instead, they lunged at him fiercely, increasing their speed.
Red eyes gleamed with malice, and white bone plates shone in the dawn on the horizon.
Jaune's body contorted, narrowly dodging every attack, reading the trajectory of each enemy around him and relying on his sixth sense to evade blows he couldn't see.
A sense he had developed after years of training and life-or-death battles.
People called it by various names: premonition, danger sense, sixth sense, survival instinct.
Regardless of the name given, one thing was real; when you developed it to a certain point, things like sight, smell, hearing, and touch became inconsequential.
Jaune didn't need to see his enemy to know that a fatal blow was coming towards him.
Whirlwind Iron Cutting Fist!
His left hand moved, and the air whirled as two Grimm that had tried to attack him from behind found themselves face to face with his palm, his fingers guiding the highly compressed air currents into a spiral of death.
Everything in front of that palm was cut into several perfect circles.
But it didn't come without a cost, Jaune's fingertips and nails broke.
Blood shot out and Jaune withdrew his hand.
"Tch! I only used it a little and it already caused me so much damage."
Despite the wound, Jaune didn't stop. His bleeding hand moved through the air, precisely spreading his blood into the eyes of several Grimm, temporarily blinding them.
At the same time, his leg moved like a flowing stream, easily deflecting an incoming attack.
His body danced in the air with agility, and his knee descended onto the head of a Grimm, crushing its skull.
He clenched the fingers of his right hand and hurried towards a group of three Grimm, his hand like a needle stabbing towards their bodies.
Pressure Point Killer Fist!
For beings made of darkness, their bodies maintained a certain level of animal anatomy.
Jaune had sensed it at the beginning of the battle, and his recent attack had confirmed it.
The bodies of the three Grimm fell to the ground like puppets with cut strings.
Their pressure points destroyed, as well as their joints.
They weren't dead, but unless they had some kind of super regeneration, they wouldn't be able to get back up.
In every sense, they had been crippled.
Exhaling, Jaune looked around, still surrounded.
He took a deep breath and prepared to continue the fight before noticing something inside him.
Indeed, of all the things he could have gained from Garou, perhaps the most significant was something that another Class S hero had possessed.
Fighting Spirit!
It was something Jaune had faintly grasped before, but he hadn't fully understood it until his fight with Garou.
It was too mysterious and elusive to learn in a traditional way; either you obtained it or you didn't.
It was probably one of the most important factors in why he managed to hold his ground in his final battle, even managing to catch up and keep pace with Garou.
And now he felt it inside him, wanting to burst out.
He had to suppress it. If he let it come to him now, his strength would start to increase significantly, and he would probably destroy all the Grimm in front of him in no time.
But that would also have a serious disadvantage later on. His current body couldn't withstand the power of the Fighting Spirit.
The exhaustion that would come afterward would be a death sentence if he stayed outside of a settlement
"When I become stronger, when I am stronger, I will use you." Calming that indomitable spirit within him, Jaune continued the fight, this time being more methodical and cautious.
His body pumped with adrenaline with every punch and kick. A well-directed elbow sank into a Grimm's face, and a precise kick broke another's spine.
This fight was like entering a pack of wolves, except these wolves had no fear and didn't retreat even as more and more of their own died.
"Aaaauuuuuuuuuuu!"
It was then that the alpha decided to appear.
Jaune barely dodged in time, a claw grazing the side of his arm and blood splattering.
It was fast, much faster than any other Grimm present.
It was also larger and had more of those bone plates covering its body.
Jaune didn't rush to attack, and neither did the alpha. They both looked at each other cautiously, sizing each other up.
Suddenly, Jaune's body flickered in a display of unprecedented speed, even to a trained eye it would seem as if his body vanished into thin air.
Flashy Fist!: Senkōken!
The alpha didn't even have a chance to blink before a dozen strikes hit its body from all directions.
The white plates on its body shattered upon impact, and a growl of pain escaped its jaws as its body twisted in a quick motion that pushed Jaune away from continuing his attack.
"Not fast enough, tch!" If Flashy Flash were present, he would probably be indignant at the blatant use of one of his techniques.
In truth, Jaune had long ago copied to a lesser extent the fighting style of the fastest Class S hero.
He simply hadn't used it because he didn't want to antagonize the guy, and he hadn't fully mastered it.
It was again thanks to Garou, who fought against Flashy Flash and defeated him while stealing his techniques, that Jaune ended up fully learning Flashy Flash's moves.
"Everything keeps coming back to you, you bastard." Jaune was strong on his own merit; many of the martial arts he had learned were the result of his hard work.
But it was undeniable that Garou had helped him perfect each of them in their fight.
Just as Garou further perfected his "perfect" martial art thanks to Jaune.
For that reason, Jaune had no qualms about using the things he had gained from Garou, even if he didn't like the guy.
"I learned from you, and you learned from me, so it's only fair that I use it all, right?"
Still, feeling a twinge in his left foot, Jaune grimaced. Using Flashy Fist wasn't suitable for him at the moment.
"So, no Whirlwind Iron Cutting Fist, Flashy Fist, or Fighting Spirit. Probably any other flashy flash move is off-limits for now."
This warm-up was proving quite useful so far. Testing what he could and couldn't do at this moment was very helpful for him.
However, his body had already suffered enough injuries; it was time to end this.
Jaune dodged an attack from the alpha, who had rushed in, thinking he was distracted.
His body leaped into the air and hooked onto a straight and sturdy branch.
Jaune felt it with his hand before tearing it off and descending back to the ground.
It was long enough, and the weight was suitable.
"Maybe that dream had some meaning? Or am I just being nostalgic?"
Setting the branch aside by his hip, Jaune held it like a sword about to be unsheathed.
Iia of Certain Kill!: Hissatsu no Iai!
Then the air stirred, and all the Grimm in front of him were cut into pieces by the blades of a sword moving at inhuman speeds.
Blades of air extending beyond their bodies, cutting through trees and rocks as they passed.
The branch in Jaune's hand exploded, and his fingers twisted as if they were about to break, with blood splattering from his broken nails.
"I'm sorry, Laian. That was a rather embarrassing display of your move." Looking at his hand with disappointment, Jaune relaxed and looked around at all the dead Grimm dissipating into black smoke, except for the ones he had left crippled.
He took out a pack of bandages and began carefully covering his wounds.
Once he finished, he walked towards the Grimm that were still alive, writhing like worms with all their useless limbs.
"I wonder... Can I eat them?"
As Charanko, there were many times when he ended up devouring the monsters he killed, mainly those that had an animal or plant-like appearance.
The Grimm seemed to be made of dark energy, and their bodies dissolving upon death was the clearest indication of this.
However, as demonstrated with the Grimm in front of him, while they were alive, they mimicked the biological structure of a living creature quite well.
So, if he kept them alive, could he eat them? And what would happen if he ate them and then killed them? Would the energy they were made of have any effect on him?
Would they taste good?
Thoughts swirled in his mind.
To do it or not to do it...
"No, you're too ugly, not appetizing at all," he decided not to tempt his luck. It would be unfortunate to be the first martial artist to die from a stomachache.
It wasn't worth it.
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The water currents washed over his body, the sound of the waterfall was like a soothing melody.
And a nostalgic one.
Breathing in a rhythmic pattern, his body released streams of heat that turned into vapor upon contact with the crystalline liquid.
His heart pumped his blood in a special pattern, and his skin reddened.
The wounds he had gained on his body were forcibly made to close, and the speed at which his cells regenerated increased thanks to the deployment of special techniques for treating injuries.
It was nothing like super-regeneration; the wounds were still there, just closer to healing than before.
Sighing slowly, a stream of air, akin to an arrow, shot out from his mouth under pressure.
In the distance, a tree suddenly gained a new hole.
If he were Charanko, using these techniques in the midst of battle would be a piece of cake. Jaune, on the other hand, had to find a secluded place, meditate deeply, and use all his concentration to help his body accelerate its healing.
Disappointing but expected.
Jumping from the spot in the middle of the waterfall, he looked up at the blue sky. The day was just beginning, and there was much to do.
He took out his map and, using his experience, marked the location where he found this small waterfall. It was truly lucky that he stumbled upon something like this. It would certainly be a good place to return to if needed.
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Fighting, fighting as if every moment were the last of your life, pushing your body to its absolute limit and still continuing to fight.
Treating your life as if it were trash and ignoring any injury, even if your bones crack, even if your muscles tear, and you feel like you could fall unconscious at any moment.
That was Jaune's life for the past three months.
Every moment felt like dying.
Every second felt like being burned alive.
But his will never faltered for a moment.
His spirit never surrendered even when his body begged him to.
And for every moment of pain, for every drop of blood, came the reward.
Strength!
Jaune's body launched forward like a ballistic missile, the ground where he had previously stood sank and a crater formed.
His agile and swift figure met with a massive twenty-story tall creature, resembling an elephant, the Grimm called Goliath roared and charged with all its might towards the human who dared to oppose it.
There was a moment of silence before a powerful shockwave was generated from their point of impact.
Jaune's fist overcame the massive bulk of the Goliath, causing the Grimm to twist backward, its head sinking into its body and its extremely durable white bone plate shattered into a thousand pieces.
Exhaling a large amount of air, Jaune looked around.
An entire pack of dead Goliaths, many other Beowolves, and a ... variety of different types of Grimm starting to disappear into black smoke.
He hadn't expected to come across such a large and diverse group of them. His body hadn't been prepared for this kind of large-scale combat, and he had to use Gousei Kohou: Awakening Breath to level the playing field and win against all of them.
Now he felt like he was on the verge of collapsing, but he forced himself to remain standing.
Wiping the blood from his mouth, he looked towards a place not too far away.
A group of people was hiding behind some ruins.
Slowly, they began to emerge, looking in astonishment at the dead Grimm.
"Are you okay?" Jaune looked them up and down, searching for any injuries, but he found nothing.
In truth, he had to exert himself so much because a group of civilians had been too close. A small settlement had been attacked by Grimm, and if he hadn't arrived in time, it would have been destroyed.
"Are we okay? Look at yourself! By Oum, how are you still standing?" An eighteen-year-old woman exclaimed with clear concern in her voice, though her face and clothes were somewhat dirty due to all the commotion, her beauty shone through.
"They're just superficial wounds," Jaune brushed aside his concern.
"No, she's right. You need treatment, son, please let us help you." The one who spoke was an older man, slightly overweight with a thick white beard, the leader of the settlement, Jaune assumed.
Jaune almost declined again, but a sudden dizziness told him that refusing the help would be too reckless at this moment.
"Please, it's the least we can do," the woman spoke again, and Jaune reluctantly decided to accept.
Just for a few days, he needed a place for his body to adapt to his new strength and heal completely.
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"You don't have to do this," in a white room filled with the scent of medicine, Jaune looked at the young woman tending to his wounds.
"I have to. With the settlement's doctor dead, I'm the only one who knows how to treat injuries." The woman cleaned the deep cuts on Jaune's body and gazed at the numerous scars on his arms.
For someone who didn't seem to be more than 14 or 15 years old, his body was in good shape, and considering all the wounds on him, it was obvious why.
"Why aren't you using your aura to help heal yourself?"
"Aura?"
The young woman suddenly stopped, a foreboding feeling washing over her.
"You know, aura, what helps hunters fight against Grimm? The soul's power that protects them and enhances their strength?"
'So that's what it's called.' Jaune filed away that information and shook his head.
"No, I don't have that thing."
And the woman's foreboding turned real; her face paled to the extreme.
"H-How did you fight against Grimm?" Her incredulity made Jaune shrug.
"Martial arts and a lot of determination?" The shy smile with which he said that made the woman snort.
"If that were all it took, this world wouldn't be infested with them." Her incredulity was understandable, but Jaune didn't really care if she believed him.
"Believe it or not, that's the truth."
"Seeing your wounds and how you killed an army of Grimm with your bare hands, I have no choice but to believe it." Jaune smiled; of course, actions spoke louder than words.
The woman sighed and gathered the few loose strands of her white hair that had been disheveled in her ponytail.
"Don't move too much, okay? Even though I've cleaned and stitched up all the external wounds, you should still have internal injuries. If I had the right equipment, I'd like to run some tests to determine the severity, but given the circumstances, we'll have to wait," the woman cautioned.
Jaune shifted his body despite the irritated look he received and tested the stitches. They restricted his movement a bit, but he had no intentions of fighting in the next few days. They could stay until he recovered.
"Wait?" Jaune asked, and the young woman nodded in response.
"Before you arrived, we requested help through the CCT. Normally, that would be futile due to the large number of Grimm and how close they were to destroying the village. But with your help, we managed to hold out. So, we're hoping the Kingdom of Vale will send huntsmen with rescue equipment and aid."
Jaune furrowed his brow; that could complicate things a bit.
He didn't want to deal with huntsmen for now.
"How long do you think it'll take for them to arrive?"
The woman lost irritated look in his.
"One? Two days at most," she responded thoughtfully.
"And how long would they stay?"
"If the settlement can be saved, they'll clear the Grimm in the vicinity and help with rebuilding as much as possible, so two or three weeks at most. If the settlement is deemed lost, they'll assist with the evacuation, so it could be less time."
It seemed like his rest plan was ruined.
Oh well, one or two days should be enough for him to recover.
For now there was something else he needed to know.
"About that Aura, tell me more"
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"This is the sixth one in the last four months."
In a boardroom, several veteran Huntsmen gathered, discussing recent events in the Vale territory. The words were spoken by a well-built older man with neatly combed gray hair.
Ozpin, the head of Beacon and the leader of all the Huntsmen in the Kingdom of Vale, nodded in response to the Huntsman's words.
"Sightings of this 'hero,' as people call him, have increased in the vicinity of the less secure settlements."
The topic they were discussing had been brought up a few times before without much attention, but it was beginning to gain more and more significance.
"They say he fights with his bare hands and bleeds as if he doesn't have an aura," one of those present said.
"Some claim he has already single-handedly destroyed entire Grimm armies," another commented.
"Are these rumors even remotely accurate? I mean, it sounds quite fantastic if you ask me"
Ozpin looked at the last man who made this statement before nodding to Glynda by his side.
The blonde woman adjusted her glasses before taking a step forward and deploying a projected screen.
Everyone in the room fell silent as they watched.
In the video
A distant settlement found itself surrounded by Grimm on all sides.
The Huntsmen on the scene were exhausted, and the defenses were rapidly falling.
Desperation hung in the air, and the people started to panic.
Then it happened. From a side where the horde of Grimm was thickest, there was a blurry movement, and as if cut by a spiral blade, hundreds of bodies were separated into perfectly circular pieces.
Someone exclaimed in amazement, and the camera on the scroll tried to focus more accurately.
It was like a blur; wherever it went, the Grimm were decimated in an instant.
With its mere presence, the tide of the battle completely changed. Where death was once certain, victory now loomed.
The spirits were clearly lifted, and the people in the settlement started to help. When all was said and done, the figure stopped moving at those extreme speeds and stood in the midst of literal mountains of Grimm corpses.
The camera managed to capture its figure in more detail thanks to that.
Its clothing was torn and battered, dried blood and dirt clung to it like a second skin.
Its hands were covered in bandages that were once white but now displayed a deep crimson hue.
A torn and tattered gray cloak concealed most of its features, yet glimpses of blonde hair and a bright blue eye were briefly visible.
For a brief moment, its features were visible, and everyone in the room watching the video exclaimed.
"He... he's too young."
"His gaze sent shivers down my spine! Those eyes belong to a huntsman!"
"Do we know his name? Who is he? Why is he in that condition? What's with his aura?" More and more questions were asked, but answers were nowhere to be found.
Ozpin looked at the image with interest, a warrior, a hero, who destroys Grimm armies and helps less-protected settlements, a lone figure who has been wandering throughout Vale.
Initially, the rumors seemed exaggerated, but with these images, all doubt dissipated.
"Who are you?"
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Weekly Power Status
-- Power
Ranking 
-- Power
stone