章節 87: Comparisons, after the spar and the beginning of negotiations.
I've resumed posting Hunter's story for anyone interested. Just head over there; I posted a chapter these past few days, and the next one will be out tomorrow or the day after.
Well, as always, if anyone wants to support me or just read 3/7 chapters of my two stories, that's possible on my (P)(A)(T). If not, I still appreciate you reading my stories, thank you very much!
That being said, good night and happy reading!
PS: Some people messaged me asking to create a Boost; I'm figuring out how to do that since I didn't even know it existed.
[...]---[...]
POV: Jaune Arc.
After Nora finished her shower, it was Pyrrha's turn, then Ren's, and I ended up being the last because I had some things to organize.
"Are you sure you're okay, Nora?" I asked, concerned.
Nora had been out of the shower for some time, and even though she looked better, happier, to us three who lived with her every day, there was evident hesitation in her eyes... Fear.
Even Ren seemed to carry some of that fear, that trauma. These two hadn't talked much about their past, but I'd have to be foolish and blind not to notice that it involved something like that.
"I'm fine, don't worry, fearless leader!" Nora spoke cheerfully, a joy not entirely feigned but a bit forced.
"You guys talked to that Huntsman, didn't you?" Nora continued before anyone could say anything. "Devas, wasn't it? He said it was unintentional?" She asked.
"He did, he said that." I sighed in agreement. Devas seemed like a decent guy, and I believed him when he said he didn't know how that strange mask's aura affected others besides him.
But still, I was... Not angry, but annoyed that his mistake had affected my team so much.
It was kind of strange that I was the least affected, even Pyrrha had been worse off than me.
"So it's okay, see, it was all a misunderstanding." Nora dispelled my worries and began to bounce away in the way only she could. "Come on, let's go, I saw on the CCT that something's happening in Professor Goodwitch's room!" She exclaimed as she went off.
I raised my hand towards her, but Ren stopped me from speaking.
"I'll talk to her later, leave the matter for now, please." He placed his hand on my shoulder and looked at me, then at Pyrrha. "It's something that happened in the past, that aura brought back some memories." He affirmed.
"Can I help with anything?" I asked. I knew it was their personal matter, but I would like to help if I could.
Ren shook his head.
"We can talk later, Nora won't be against you and Pyrrha knowing what happened." He sighed. "I'm not either, we're a team after all." After finishing speaking, he didn't wait for my response and began to walk after Nora.
I looked at Pyrrha, who shrugged and waved, starting to walk.
"Let's go, I don't want to know what Nora will do with this mood if Cardin annoys her." She started to follow them, and I wasted no time in following them, feeling more relieved and happy that Ren, and possibly Nora, were comfortable talking about the past with the whole team.
[...]
We didn't take long to reach Professor Goodwitch's room. I noticed it was quiet, which was strange, considering Nora had said there was something going on.
I understood the reason for the silence as soon as the doors opened.
"Is that Yang?" The question was rhetorical, but Pyrrha, as polite as she was, answered me.
"Yes, and she's sparring with that guy." By "that guy," she meant Devas.
Spars were common, more than common actually, but this must have been the first time I saw a Huntsman sparring with a trainee Huntress.
Probably not just me, as everyone was silent as they watched the fight... Was this safe? Wasn't that Professor Ozpin and Goodwitch?
I nudged my teammates and pointed at the two.
"Let's sit and watch." I started walking. If Ozpin and Goodwitch hadn't interrupted the fight, then it was all right here.
As much as I wanted to ask various things to Team RWBY, I felt like this wasn't the time, so I pulled my team away.
We sat a few rows away, a bit closer to the arena.
"Are you okay?" Ren asked Nora, both of them sitting to my left, while Pyrrha sat in the seat next to mine, on the right.
"I'm fine, don't worry, Renny, I'm not made of sugar." With the amount of pancakes and caramel syrup she poured on those things, I doubted that statement a bit.
Ren didn't insist, especially after Nora "booped" his nose with her finger and gave a slight giggle.
Seems like she was better, that was good, seeing her down was weird.
The fight was evenly matched, which was strange, since I had seen Yang fight and comparing it to what Devas had done this morning, it was strange she hadn't been flattened in seconds.
But I knew how to recognize when someone was holding back in a spar, Pyrrha kind of did that every time we fought, so I was used enough to recognize it with a glance.
What was strange was that Devas's punches seemed... amateurish? Pyrrha had scolded me for punching like that a few times, which was strange, was he so focused on using a halberd that he ignored the rest?
I realized this within minutes of the fight.
"That..." Pyrrha widened her eyes.
"What?" Ren murmured, somewhat incredulous.
Nora's reaction was just to lean forward, with her mouth slightly open in shock.
Even though I didn't have the vision my friends had, or their experience in combat and fighting, it was still obvious to me that what Devas was doing wasn't normal.
The best comparison I had for what was happening in front of my eyes was those timelapse videos I saw on the CCT of seeds.
If at the first moment I laid eyes on the fight Devas was like a seed, an amateur, with every passing minute he grew more and more, as if time were accelerated, until he began to overpower Yang completely.
What the heck was this?! How ridiculous!
Was this his Semblance or something?! If it was, damn, I thought Pyrrha's was overpowered, but this guy's took all possible prizes.
"She's stuck." Pyrrha spoke without taking her eyes off the fight. "She can't attack, nor escape, just defend."
I... wasn't sure if that was entirely correct, to me, even though Yang was starting to lose, I still thought she could fight back.
But well, I trusted Pyrrha more than myself for anything involving combat, so she was probably right... In fact, I trusted Pyrrha more than myself for many things, but that wasn't the point.
"Is she laughing?" I wasn't the first to notice, nor the first to ask, since I could hear Devas asking the same question, but directly to Yang.
"Are you laughing?" His voice, even at this distance, maintained that calmness he seemed to have, the serenity, but contained a hint of confusion.
It seemed like even he didn't know why Yang was laughing, and his confusion only increased when she answered.
"You're amazing, did you know that?" Even amidst the blows, with the sound of every punch, with Yang's Aura pulsating in yellow whenever Devas hit her, still, the smile on her face was beautiful.
I almost blushed at a compliment that wasn't for me, it was so sincere, so pure.
Frankly, I had no idea how Devas wasn't embarrassed, maybe he was already used to such compliments? I didn't know, maybe not, but his only reaction was to seem even more confused, something that seemed to make Yang even happier, who seemed even more cheerful and relieved.
I didn't know why, but she seemed relieved to me, content, as if she had finally received news she thought was horrible, but was good, as if a weight had been lifted from her shoulders.
This... Were we supposed to be seeing this? It seemed a bit too much like a love confession for my taste.
Still, I seemed to be the only one bothered, Ren and Nora were so focused on the fight they barely seemed to blink, Pyrrha, on the other hand, if they had told me she was a statue, I would believe it.
She hardly moved, and that was just her breathing, it was as if her whole being was focused on that fight, from her angle of vision, on Devas.
I might have thought she could be interested in him, sure, if she didn't have the most analytical gaze I had ever seen in my life.
I knew Pyrrha was talented, but if this was the focus she had to learn, to improve, I would be surprised if she hadn't won all the championships she won.
Seeing the focus my whole team seemed to have to extract the most from the fight in front of us, I had only one choice in this scenario, to do the same as everyone else and turn my attention back to the fight, just in time to see Yang whistle, after moving a few inches away from Devas's punches.
The moment Yang whistled, the ground beneath Devas's feet glowed, a glow I could recognize, after all, it was the same glow that appeared whenever my team sparred with Team RWBY.
"To know what Team RWBY is capable of..." Devas spoke, even before Weiss's Glyphs activated. "I should have figured it was something like this." He didn't seem angry, maybe amused, if the slight smile on his face said anything.
If he hesitated for half a moment to react, it was much, even before a third of the Glyphs activated, Devas had reacted and jumped backward, at the same time he threw a punch towards his own back, before even turning his whole body.
Only when Blake swapped places with her own clone did I realize she had also attacked him.
Without taking my eyes off the fight, I noticed, from the corner of my eye, that Professor Port wasn't interfering in the fight, neither was Professor Ozpin or Professor Goodwitch.
Team RWBY must have warned them about this "ambush" so they wouldn't react, especially Professor Goodwitch, who would never admit to something like this in her classes.
The moment Devas punched Blake's clone, it exploded into an ice explosion that I've had the displeasure of experiencing a few times whenever I ended up facing Blake head-on in our spars.
Devas reacted much better than I did, even though he seemed surprised. He managed to raise his arm in front of his face, protecting himself, and barely seemed affected by the Ice Dust.
Normally, I would say something about his ridiculous reaction time, but my brain was too focused on the fight to think about anything else at that moment.
So much so that I only realized Devas was talking to Blake when she shot at him.
"Is everything half-gun here?" YES! FINALLY, SOMEONE WITH THE SAME OPINION AS ME!
Why did everything seem to be half-gun? Ruby's scythe? It was also a rifle. Yang's gauntlets? Shotguns. I even saw one of the second-year students' bags transform into a minigun! That didn't make any sense!
Devas reacted to Blake's shot almost instantly again. He had good Aura control.
For some reason, Blake didn't run up to him, neither did Yang. I realized why when Weiss's voice echoed.
"Envious?" She asked in a melodious tone.
Along with her voice, dozens of ice projectiles accompanied her.
Devas not only dodged practically all the projectiles but punched those he couldn't dodge, shattering them back into the dust they were made of.
That didn't make any sense, how did he go from looking like a complete amateur to this?! Is it something he ate? Would he share with me?
"Maybe a little..." Devas responded to Weiss's question naturally, shaking his wrists a bit to rid them of the Ice Dust remnants that had clung to his fingers, and looked directly at Weiss, before freezing, as if he had seen something unbelievable.
"What?..." I won't lie, I may have felt a bit jealous of how just a simple look from Devas left Weiss embarrassed, but I'll never say that out loud...
"You're wearing a skirt... And high heels?" So that's why he seemed incredulous... I thought he was like me, who was left speechless when I saw Weiss's beauty for the first time, but it seems I was mistaken.
"Please tell me you didn't have time to change..." His voice, for some reason, seemed to be pleading for Weiss to confirm this fact, and that this wasn't her battle outfit.
"Yes?" Weiss confirmed the first question. She was wearing a skirt and high heels, but denied the second. "This is one of my battle outfits, what's the matter? It's an automatic battle skirt and Huntresses' heels."
I could understand a bit of the reluctance that appeared in Devas's eyes.
I had seven sisters, and as one of the youngest, I had already been used as a doll, more as a guinea pig, by them. I had walked in high heels, it sucked. How Weiss could fight wearing those things was a mystery...
The worst part was that I had lost every single fight against her, even when she was wearing those things on her feet!
"I..." his voice was that of a man who wanted to speak, explain something, but knew it was in vain, just like I always did when I tried to deny being my sisters' guinea pig.
"Forget it, I feel like even if I explain, it won't change anything, so forget it." And just like me, he gave up.
Devas had barely finished speaking before he reacted, for the first time in the fight seeming alarmed by something. He widened his eyes, looking to his right, and threw his upper body backwards.
My brain barely processed the next events, they were so fast, but I was sure that if it were me in his place, Ruby's scythe would have taken more than half of my Aura with that blow, and if I didn't have Aura, it would have split me in two.
It was strange how Ruby seemed to be the most innocent of all the girls on her team, but she had the most monstrous weapon...
"Sorry for the delay, girls, Devas." Don't smile like that, so innocently, carrying that giant scythe!... And where did that axe come from? Did Ruby make a new weapon?
Devas took advantage of the few seconds of calm to start stretching, completely changing the fighting style he was using, throwing the guard away and letting his body relax, jumping and moving his shoulders along with his arms to stretch.
Luckily I didn't blink, or I would have missed his move.
Devas moved between the jumps, totally out of rhythm, and flew towards Wiess quickly.
He was fast, I'd guess as fast as Blake or Ren, which was much slower than the owner of the rose petals that had appeared all over the arena.
"Plan D-Three." Her voice echoed through the arena, coming from meters away from where Ruby was at the moment, on Devas's back.
Saying that I had seen Ruby move would be a lie; she was little more than a red blur to me, and that was just her cape trembling as she moved.
Devas, on the other hand, not only reacted but managed to defend himself, somehow elbowing Crescent Rose's handle, of all things.
He hadn't even changed expression with that thing's giant blade inches from his face. Was that what a real Huntsman was like? Or was he made of stone?
The next few seconds of the fight were fast, some faster than I could keep up with or understand, but even without fully grasping what was happening, I could see the coordination of the entire RWBY team.
They didn't even seem to look at each other before acting; their bodies just moved together as they followed the plan Ruby had shouted, a plan that seemed tailor-made for Devas.
Did they know him so well that they could come up with a plan to take him down? The answer was yes.
Devas, on the other hand, didn't seem to know the RWBY team very well, at least not how they fought, but he made up for the lack of knowledge with reflexes and instincts that were a bit frightening.
It was like watching a massive predator hunt; while his presence was absurdly large, he made no sound, his movements silent.
It was a strange contradiction that confused me more than I'd like; the RWBY team didn't seem to find it surprising, as they didn't seem taken aback by this fact and continued to attack Devas without letting him rest.
He didn't seem to mind much, reacting to every blow, whether it came from Ruby's scythe, Blake's clones, or her katana.
The only blow that seemed to affect him was when Blake's clone exploded with Wind Dust after being cut by Crescent Rose, which Devas had managed to take from Ruby's hands.
He moved the scythe fluidly, a movement that even reminded me of how Ruby herself wielded the weapon, and cut the clone in two... Then the clone exploded, sending Devas flying away.
I knew from experience that these clones didn't hurt as much as the ice and fire ones, but the fall did.
Devas didn't have to worry much about the fall, as he reacted quickly and plunged Crescent Rose's blade into the ground, stopping his momentum... Before being sent flying back by Yang's punch.
I wondered why she seemed to be hitting so lightly; it seemed like she was waiting for the right moment to deliver a single strong punch.
At this point, I wasn't even surprised when Devas managed to defend himself, even though he was caught off guard, but as much as he managed to block the punch with his arms, causing his Aura to pulse in a gray glow all over his body, he was still sent flying away.
Before both of his feet even touched the ground, in the center of those clusters of Glyphs that Weiss had started making some time ago, resembling matrices of runes that I had seen in my video games, all the Glyphs had been activated.
"Freeze!" the synchrony and echo in the voices of all the RWBY team kind of startled me a bit...
Devas seemed like he was going to react, to escape whatever the RWBY team had planned for him, but for some reason, he seemed to restrain himself at the last second, accepting defeat... Then he was instantly frozen in a prison of ice.
I knew Weiss could sing; I had listened to some of her songs that Nora had recommended to me, but it seemed she had a talent for sculpting too.
Devas' prison, if I may say so, was beautiful; a huge sculpture of two male human hands, judging by the shape, holding together a huge ice sphere, as if holding the world. Devas was trapped inside this sphere.
In the hands of the sculpture, and even in the sphere, I could see that there were dozens, maybe hundreds of Weiss's Glyphs; I had no idea how to begin to recognize them, so I didn't know what they did, but it was probably to reinforce the entire structure of the prison.
The whole scene seemed like something out of a superhero story, where the heroines, who were the RWBY team, had defeated the villain, who was Devas, and looked at him imprisoned from afar together.
Even Devas seemed to think so.
I didn't know if it was because of one of the Glyphs, or if it was something Devas himself had done, but his voice echoed throughout the classroom.
"You girls are really amazing." If Yang, when she had praised him before, seemed sincere, Devas seemed certain; it wasn't a compliment, to him, it was a fact.
The RWBY team didn't have time to react to Devas' praise; no one did, actually, because after he said those words, a sound echoed throughout the room....
It was a simple sound, something so common that my brain already filtered it out as white noise, but I realized I hadn't heard Devas make it at any point during the whole fight.
... The sound of breathing.
"Crack!"
Devas touched the ground without making a sound, leaving the shattered pieces of ice to be the only noise in the whole room.
If before, the whole room was silent, now it was more than that, it was eerie; it was as if Devas' simple act of breathing once had turned everyone to stone, their muscles frozen, just like Devas had been before.
The least affected were the girls from the RWBY team, who looked at him as if they were already expecting him to break free, but still with a slight shock in their eyes.
Ruby was the one who broke the silence.
"It was Yang's idea!" she pointed at her sister, who had the look of a betrayed person.
I felt like laughing, I couldn't, my body wouldn't let me, but Devas, on the other hand, didn't have that problem and chuckled quietly, amused, and uttered two words.
"Second round?"
[…]
POV: Devas Asura.
"No!" Weiss reacted as if I had offered her the amazing opportunity to skydive from the stratosphere without a parachute.
"Uh, I mean... No," she coughed lightly into her hand and continued. "I'm afraid our Auras are low. The battle this morning took a lot out of us, and this sparring seems to have drained the rest." She spoke calmly; everyone else seemed to agree.
I could sense their Auras; giving the correct percentage was something I couldn't do, but they all seemed to be above half, even if just slightly.
I didn't say this aloud; I just looked at the giant panel behind me, which showed Yang's Aura at fifty-one percent and had the gauge in green.
"It looks half full to me." I raised my hand to my eyes, as if I were seeing something far away.
How I managed to keep a straight face was a mystery, but I did.
Yang, who was slowly moving both hands to the back of Ruby's neck so she could see, stopped her movements and turned her neck so quickly to look at where I was looking that her Aura pulsed, as if she had been damaged.
The way her Aura dropped by one percent, leaving the gauge yellow, told me she would have really been hurt if it weren't for her Aura.
"See, fifty percent, my Aura's already in the yellow, halfway empty." Yang spoke quickly. Funny, for once I was the guy with the glass half full. "Unfortunately, I won't be able to push myself further, after all, the Vytal Festival is right around the corner; training little is bad, but overtraining is even worse!"
I knew it was an excuse; everyone knew, but I didn't press it.
Fighting against Team RWBY using everything I had could be fun, but it wouldn't really be training. I also didn't want to lay all my cards on the table while being watched by Ozpin and the others.
I had noticed them even before they entered the room; I didn't even need the minimap, after all, Ozpin was one of the few with magic.
And speaking of the devil...
"Well said, Miss Xiao-Long, training is good, but pushing oneself too many times can cause serious health problems." He was good; his face didn't even twitch as he said those words, but the amusement in his eyes was undeniable.
I ignored Yang, who seemed to want to bury herself in a hole, and turned to Ozpin, who was staring at me.
"I'll take advantage of everyone's attention and introduce you to Devas." He pointed at me with his cane. "He's an acquaintance of mine who came to visit Vale; fortunately, that turned out to be today, which allowed him to assist in the unfortunate accident that occurred this morning." I wished I could say he was lying through his teeth, but that would be a lie.
I had met Ozpin today, so I fell into his "acquaintance" category.
I had come to Vale to help Team RWBY, but saying it was a visit wasn't incorrect, and the rest of the sentence was just him narrating the events that happened this morning. The guy was good.
When Ozpin's voice died down, all the other students seemed to remember that they were alive and could speak.
I just wished they hadn't all spoken at once.
"Devas, is that some kind of color?" It isn't.
"The Deer Huntsmen? Is that him?" I've never heard of this man in my entire life.
"He has a nice body~" Thank you very much for the compliment... male voice... But I prefer women.
"Is he going to be a new teacher?" What?...
I wasn't too surprised when Ozpin chose to respond to that specific question, all the students falling silent to listen.
"I'm afraid Mr. Devas didn't come to Beacon looking for a job..." He looked at me, basically saying: Well, I hadn't thought of that, but I'm not against the idea, are you going to accept?
I ignored Ruby, who had the most excited eyes I had ever seen on a living being, and nodded to Ozpin.
"Don't you have something more important to discuss with me?" If I didn't know what to say, ignoring the subject always worked!
Stark seemed to agree, Jiraiya too, which frankly was kind of bad in this case...
To my relief, Ozpin agreed, not continuing the subject further.
"Yes, good reminder, do you have some time?" He asked, turning to look at Team RWBY. "Or do you plan to continue with another spar?"
The way Team RWBY froze at the question amused me.
"No, it's fine as it is." I declined, to the relief of the four. "Let's go, is there somewhere we can talk?" Anywhere but your office.
I must have been able to convey my thoughts somehow, as it wasn't Ozpin who responded, but Santa Claus, Port.
"You two can use my office, it's the closest from here, don't worry, make yourselves at home." He chuckled, patting his belly and waved casually.
Nice guy, kind of weird and caricatured, but nice.
I nodded to Ozpin.
"I'm afraid I don't know where things are around here." This school, which was the damn size of a castle, was huge.
Even though I had my Minimap, it didn't give the names of the rooms, just where they were. If I were to look for each one, it would take some time.
"Let's go then." He put his cane back on the ground and started walking out of the room we were in.
No student tried to stop us from leaving or asked anything else, even though I could hear whispers, gossip, questions like what was that body wrapped in chains, why was Team RWBY following us.
None of the four seemed to want to answer that question, not Ozpin, Glynda, and certainly not me, who was looking at the Minimap for the three red dots I had seen when the invasion ended.
I thought I might seize the chance to find them again because of the fight, especially since Yang decided to come to a crowded classroom, which only became more crowded as the battle continued, but it seems I was mistaken.
I couldn't see the three of them in any corner of the Minimap. It seems they were outside the school, in the city probably. Well, I'll look for them later.
It didn't take us long to reach Port's office. Inside it was... Different from what I imagined, it looked pretty normal, tidy with some weapons and portraits on the wall, but normal, with some books too.
I pulled out a few chairs from the VoidBag as soon as we entered, since there were only three in the office.
After we sat down, the first thing Ozpin did was take my phone out of his pocket and hand it to me.
"Thank you." I thanked politely and held the phone in my hand.
He just nodded and got straight to the point.
"I'm not going to beat around the bush here, as much as I want to trust you, I'll need some kind of concrete proof." He spoke calmly.
"What kind of proof?" I asked, turning on the phone. "More videos from the stream?" I waved the phone. I had locked everything so they couldn't mess with anything. "Or something else?"
James spoke before Ozpin could respond to me.
"An invitation to watch this so-called 'stream' would be the best way to confirm the truth of your claims." He explained with an emotionless face.
Ozpin sighed as soon as James finished speaking.
Weiss did the same when I leaned back in the chair, mimicking Gilbert's pose and waved my hand forward.
I only had a few invitations to the stream and didn't want to waste them randomly... If James wanted an invitation...
"What's your offer?" I let a slight smile appear on my face.
... He would have to negotiate...
[...]---[...]
A rather mellow chapter, the end of the spar, a few amusing scenes (at least I thought so), and the beginning of negotiations...
Regarding the chapter, I've put it from Jaune's point of view to make another comparison between someone narrating in the fight and someone outside of it.
Oh, and it's Jaune's last POV for a while, but he'll be back.
As always, if you have any questions, just comment, and I'll respond the best I can without giving spoilers.
With that said, good night everyone, and happy reading!
PS: Any ideas about Devas' Semblance?
PSS: I had to re-watch RWBY Volume 3 to remember some things for the arc, hence the delay in the chapter, sorry!
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