Chapitre 89: Ch 4: Heroes' Arrival
*Pi Pi* "Gross!" Jaune complained as he walked through yet another spider web, trying to spit the stringy taste out of his mouth.
"If you can't keep a steady Aura shield up around your body, then keep your mouth shut. Or do you like flossing that much?" Ray teasingly advised his friend.
"I can't help it. You keep distracting me with all those questions." Jaune complained.
"Which is why we are here. You've made great strides in consciously controlling and strengthening your Aura, Jaune. However, your lack of experience shows in your inability to activate and maintain your Aura unconsciously. We are going to fix that." The younger huntsman reminded him.
"How? By making me eat cobwebs while reenacting a quiz show until I get it?" Jaune sarcastically asked. They had been walking for nearly an hour through this forest near the border between Vacuo and Vale, and, as far as Jaune could tell, they had been moving in one big circle since leaving the main road.
"That." Ray nodded in confirmation before a small familiar sadistic smile tugged up the corners of his lips, sending a chill down Jaune's spine. "And those." Jaune turned his head to look where Ray was pointing.
*KYAAAA* Jaune squealed like a little girl and leaped back towards Ray and away from the flood of abominations scuttling towards them. Dozens of fist-sized jet-black spiders with eight glowing red eyes and legs capped with sharp white bone spikes blackened the damp leaf-strewn forest floor as they raced towards the disgusting blond.
"What the hell are those!" Jaune screamed as he back-peddled, reaching for the reassuring frame of the boy who should have been right behind him, but his grasping hands met only empty air. Jaune whipped his head around frantically looking for his partner before a calm, relaxed voice sounded from above.
"Arachne, spider Grimm and the purveyors of this fine spider silk you see decorating these woods." A carefree Ray explained as he casually swung his leg beneath the branch he was sitting on and gestured at the numerous fine cobwebs stretching between the trees and sparkling in the scattered rays of sunlight. "Normally, they are one of the more tolerated species of Grimm since their silk is so valuable. However, this cluster has nested a bit too close to the main road between Vacuo and Vale. So, we've been tasked with clearing them out before they become a problem."
"Oh, come on!" Jaune complained as he started hopping from one foot to the other like he was playing a game of Hot Foot with a look of disgust on his face as the overgrown spiders splattered beneath his hiking shoes. "You couldn't have given me a little warning!?"
"Keep your Aura up." Ray warned while stifling a yawn as he leaned back against the trunk of the tree he was sitting in and closed his eyes to enjoy the soft sunshine and gentle breeze wafting through the leaves.
"Huh? Whaa!" A confused Jaune started to turn and ask why he was reminding him of something so obvious when several of the Arachne surrounding him shot silken threads out of their spinners at him. The thin yet durable sticky threads clung to him, twining around him and hampering his movement as Jaune futilely tried to pull it off himself even while their brethren continued to swarm towards him. But no matter how hard he tried, who couldn't remove the hair-thin threads they clung to him relentlessly. Even when he tore a piece off his legs or chest, it would only become stuck to his hands instead.
"A little help here!" Jaune called out to the far too relaxed man above him as more and more spider thread looped around him, starting to seriously get in his way.
"Keep your Aura up." Ray advised again as a stray Arachne tried to shoot its thread at him but failed to make it stick.
"What is th- Oh." Jaune started to angrily ask before he noticed the slight bluish tint surrounding his friend and teacher. Realizing what he meant, Jaune pushed his Aura out slightly to form a shell around his body rather than just holding it inside himself to reinforce his body like normal. Creating an Aura shell was much more mentally taxing than the physical enhancements Huntmen typically used without much benefit. However, it was precisely because of that mental burden that it had been one of the first Aura Manipulation techniques Ray had taught them. Almost every Aura Manipulation class had started with Ray calling "Auras up!" to observe their progress.
Immediately, Jaune was enveloped in a faint white glow as his Aura surrounded him pushing the annoying spider thread off of him. With their threads unable to stick to the formless Aura protecting Jaune, the small Grimm were no longer much of a threat to the inexperienced but well-trained huntsman and put up little resistance as he rampaged through them.
Even so, there seemed to be almost no end to the swarm of overgrown spiders. For several hours, Jaune danced from one foot to the other, stomping the arachnids beneath him without giving them a chance to bite or climb onto him while occasionally swinging his sword and shield to bat and slice aside cleverer Grimm that tried to drop down on top of him from the branches above. Several times during his massacre Jaune accidentally let his Aura sink back inside due to having to multitask on so many things and the monotony of the fight. But as the battle progressed, the gaps between him getting distracted and dropping his Aura became longer and longer. The immediate feedback of being blanketed in sticky, uncomfortable spider webs whenever he stopped continued to drill into his subconscious the difference between having his Aura protecting him and not and the necessity of always having it up.
*Phoo* Jaune exhaled, whipping the sweat from his brow, "That's the last of them."
A look of disappointment pulled down Ray's relaxed face as he watched the pleased blond admire the numerous clouds of dissipating black smoke and ash around him that he had caused. [He really needs to pay more attention in Professor Port's class. Arachne clusters always have a queen. And in a cluster with this many juvenile Grimm, the queen is at least an Alpha.] Ray thought as his eyes drifted upward towards the subtle signs of movement in the canopy above. He could have warned Jaune about what was coming, but the best lessons are the ones that stick with you, and nothing is more memorable than a painful lesson.
"Hey, Ray-" Call it fate, luck, or plot armor, but whatever the reason, just before a glob of spider thread was about to blindside Jaune upside the head, the young man turned at the last second, causing the attack that would have enveloped his head, blinding him, to splatter harmlessly next to him.
"What tha!" Jaune exclaimed as he quickly dropped into a fighting stance, warily scanning the canopy above for signs of his hidden attacker. But as any good fighter knows, "when your opponent looks high, aim low.". This simple tactic was well understood by carnivorous and Grimm as well. So while Jaune's attention was focused above his head, a new Arachne, this one the size of a large dog, darted out of the underbrush and launched itself at his unguarded back.
Thankfully, all the intense training he had endured these past months hadn't been in vain. Sensing the threat approaching him from behind, Jaune held his shield close to his chest as he quickly spun to the left. Catching sight of his airborne assailant, Jaune swung his shield out and bashed it in the face, stunning the arachnid and pushing it back and up, not giving it a single chance to react before slicing forward with Crocea Mors and lopping its many-eyed head off.
"Great, they get bigger." Jaune grumbled to himself as he sidestepped another glob of spider thread aimed from his blind spot, having caught the whistling of air as it barreled towards him. He didn't even bother glancing up at where he knew Ray was still relaxing. The younger but more experienced man had made it clear this was his fight and his alone.
Size came naturally with age for Grimm, and so did experience a trait these Arachne clearly displayed as they continued to hide in the dark canopy above and take potshots at the dancing blond below. Jaune was able to avoid taking any direct hits, but the mess of sticky slick webbing that was coating the ground forced him to keep moving in search of reliable footing.
[They're driving me deeper in.] Jaune thought in annoyance as a brief flash of lightning illuminated the increasing gloom of the forest shining off the now thread-sized strands of silk dangling from the trees and underbrush. Ray was also following him through the canopy, practically unmolested compared to him, who was dancing and weaving through underbrush and ambushes. Whenever one of the dog-sized spiders tried to attack him with thread or body, one of his Storm Tears would pierce through them and illuminated the dimming forest in a flash of azure lightning.
Jaune was trying to imitate him, sending crescent waves of concentrated Aura out of his sword to counter the web bombs hurling at him and deal with the spider behind them. However, with his faulty Aura Sight that he couldn't maintain, he could barely even see what was there, let alone identify the gaps that would indicate the presence of a Grimm. So, beyond a few lucky shots, his retaliations were proving to be little more than a waste of Aura.
However, he never gave up. As Pyrrha often told him, he had a lot of Aura, an annoyingly large amount according to Ray, and he could feel his control and understanding steadily improving under the pressure of battle.
"There!" Jaune shouted as for a moment he saw the unmistakable outline of a giant spider within the ambient Aura of the forest above him. Leaping to the side to avoid another web ball, he swung his sword through the air towards the distant arachnid Grimm. A crescent moon of white Aura shot out of his blade and sliced cleanly through branches and surprised Grimm alike. Now he was getting somewhere.
"Yes!" *wah* Jaune cheered and pumped his fists before barely dodging another web ball aimed at his feet. With his first success, Jaune's Arua Sight became more and more reliable and steady. By the time only one of the two dozen full-grown Arachne were left, Jaune could confidently say that he had successfully broken through to the Aura Sight realm and built a solid foundation.
"It's over." He screamed in triumph as he leaped through the air on Aura enhanced legs and bisected the last Grimm sulking in the shadows.
"The Grimm aren't the only things you need to watch out for in this forest." Ray warned him once again too late. A confused "huh?" was all Jaune could manage before he landed face-first in a giant web constructed of threads as think as his ropes.
"Oh, come on!" Jaune cried as his struggles to free himself served only to wrap the constricting ropes tighter around him. [Wait, ropes?] Jaune's flailing froze as a chilling realization hit him. If those fist-sized Grimm were responsible for the hair-thin webbing he first encountered, and the dog-sized ones built the thread thick strands, then what was responsible for these cords of silk as thick as a rope.
He got his answer all too soon. As the web he was trapped in continued to tremble even after his struggles ceased, Jaune's gaze was drawn to his left, where he spotted eight glowing red orbs of malice barreling towards him.
"No. No. No!" Jaune shouted as his struggles renewed, desperation spurring his body and mind into overdrive as he sought a way to escape his bonds and earn a chance to fight for his life against the car-sized spider bearing down on him. In desperation, he flared his Aura violently all around him. The white glow surrounding him growing in intensity and storming violently about him with the ferocity of raging rapids as he focused all his strength, desperation, and will to live into the mysterious soul-born energy.
Miraculously, it worked. The force of his Aura pushed the constricting ropes away, and, though unfocused, the rough waves raging across his Aura shell ground and shaved away at his silken bonds till they snapped. Dropping him to the forest floor below just as the Alpha Grimm's dripping mandibles snapped shut above him.
*SkRiiiiiiiiiiii* The monstrosity shrieked in rage as its prey destroyed its home and escaped. Forelegs raised to skewer the defiant morsel before it and hungry maw gaping wide to swallow him whole. The Arachne scuttled through the hole Jaune had made in its web and launched its self at him. Steeling himself, Jaune steadied his footing below the descending monstrosity and raised Corcea Mors defensively before him. He would only have one shot at this. He had spent all of his Aura getting free. If he took even one hit from this thing, he would be dead.
*Ha Ya Haya* Jaune exclaimed as he parried a stab from one foreleg while blocking a strike from another with his shield before thrusting his sword forward between the gaping razor-sharp mandibles of the Arachne before him and into its dripping maw, killing the car-sized spider Grimm instantly as his steel pierced up into its brain.
*haa haa haa* Panting hard, the tired blond huntsman in training pulled himself out from under the dissipating carcass. He scrambled back to his feet, keeping his weapons raised, poised to defend himself, as he scanned the dimly lit forest laced with ropes of spider silk warily.
[Fool me once, shame on you. Fool me twice, shame on me. Fool me three times… well I don't really know, but it would definitely involve Ray, a lot of lighting, and me regretting my life choices.] Jaunce's thoughts were interrupted by the sound of clapping up above, but he refused to drop his vigilance, spreading out his improved senses even as he directed his focus to the swooping shadow dropping down from above next to him.
"Nice job." Jaunce jumped slightly as his classmate congratulated and slapped him on the back. He had completely forgotten in the laser focus of his struggle for survival that he wasn't alone. "Now, let's get out of here. Your final lesson is waiting in the village up ahead."
Following Ray's lead, the two travelers soon exited the forest in sight of a towering stone wall. "We have arrived." Ray announced as they walked through the open gate in the center of the robust bulwark
L’AVIS DES CRÉATEURS 
TJ_Watkins
TJ_Watkins Sorry for the delayed release. The fight with the Arachne was originally going to be just a paragraph of Jaune think over what they had gone through to get here as they entered the village, but I changed my mind at the last second.
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