I've resud 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 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: So people ssaged 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 so things to organize.
"Are you sure you're okay, Nora?" I asked, concerned.
Nora had been out of the shower for so ti, 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 seed to carry so 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 sothing 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 agreent. Devas seed 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 .
"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. "Co on, let's go, I saw on the CCT that sothing's happening in Professor Goodwitch's room!" She exclaid as she went off.
I raised my hand towards her, but Ren stopped from speaking.
"I'll talk to her later, leave the matter for now, please." He placed his hand on my shoulder and looked at , then at Pyrrha. "It's sothing that happened in the past, that aura brought back so mories." He affird.
"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 ti 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 sothing 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 .
"Yes, and she's sparring with that guy." By "that guy," she ant Devas.
Spars were common, more than common actually, but this must have been the first ti I saw a Huntsman sparring with a trainee Huntress.
Probably not just , 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 ti, 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 caral syrup she poured on those things, I doubted that statent 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 soone was holding back in a spar, Pyrrha kind of did that every ti we fought, so I was used enough to recognize it with a glance.
What was strange was that Devas's punches seed... amateurish? Pyrrha had scolded for punching like that a few tis, 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, sowhat 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 that what Devas was doing wasn't normal.
The best comparison I had for what was happening in front of my eyes was those tilapse videos I saw on the CCT of seeds.
If at the first mont I laid eyes on the fight Devas was like a seed, an amateur, with every passing minute he grew more and more, as if ti were accelerated, until he began to overpower Yang completely.
What the heck was this?! How ridiculous!
Was this his Semblance or sothing?! 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 , 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 sa question, but directly to Yang.
"Are you laughing?" His voice, even at this distance, maintained that calmness he seed to have, the serenity, but contained a hint of confusion.
It seed 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 complint that wasn't for , it was so sincere, so pure.
Frankly, I had no idea how Devas wasn't embarrassed, maybe he was already used to such complints? I didn't know, maybe not, but his only reaction was to seem even more confused, sothing that seed to make Yang even happier, who seed even more cheerful and relieved.
I didn't know why, but she seed relieved to , 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 seed a bit too much like a love confession for my taste.
Still, I seed to be the only one bothered, Ren and Nora were so focused on the fight they barely seed to blink, Pyrrha, on the other hand, if they had told 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 seed to have to extract the most from the fight in front of us, I had only one choice in this scenario, to do the sa as everyone else and turn my attention back to the fight, just in ti to see Yang whistle, after moving a few inches away from Devas's punches.
The mont Yang whistled, the ground beneath Devas's feet glowed, a glow I could recognize, after all, it was the sa 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 sothing like this." He didn't seem angry, maybe amused, if the slight smile on his face said anything.
If he hesitated for half a mont to react, it was much, even before a third of the Glyphs activated, Devas had reacted and jumped backward, at the sa ti 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 sothing like this in her classes.
The mont Devas punched Blake's clone, it exploded into an ice explosion that I've had the displeasure of experiencing a few tis whenever I ended up facing Blake head-on in our spars.
Devas reacted much better than I did, even though he seed surprised. He managed to raise his arm in front of his face, protecting himself, and barely seed affected by the Ice Dust.
Normally, I would say sothing about his ridiculous reaction ti, but my brain was too focused on the fight to think about anything else at that mont.
So much so that I only realized Devas was talking to Blake when she shot at him.
"Is everything half-gun here?" YES! FINALLY, SOONE WITH THE SA OPINION AS !
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 so reason, Blake didn't run up to him, neither did Yang. I realized why when Weiss's voice echoed.
"Envious?" She asked in a lodious 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 sothing he ate? Would he share with ?
"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 sothing 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 seed incredulous... I thought he was like , who was left speechless when I saw Weiss's beauty for the first ti, but it seems I was mistaken.
"Please tell you didn't have ti to change..." His voice, for so reason, seed to be pleading for Weiss to confirm this fact, and that this wasn't her battle outfit.
"Yes?" Weiss confird 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 sothing, 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 , he gave up.
Devas had barely finished speaking before he reacted, for the first ti in the fight seeming alard by sothing. 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 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 in two.
It was strange how Ruby seed 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 co 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 ters away from where Ruby was at the mont, on Devas's back.
Saying that I had seen Ruby move would be a lie; she was little more than a red blur to , and that was just her cape trembling as she moved.
Devas, on the other hand, not only reacted but managed to defend himself, sohow 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, so 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 seed tailor-made for Devas.
Did they know him so well that they could co 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 movents silent.
It was a strange contradiction that confused 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 ca from Ruby's scythe, Blake's clones, or her katana.
The only blow that seed 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 movent that even reminded 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 montum... Before being sent flying back by Yang's punch.
I wondered why she seed to be hitting so lightly; it seed like she was waiting for the right mont 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 so ti ago, resembling matrices of runes that I had seen in my video gas, all the Glyphs had been activated.
"Freeze!" the synchrony and echo in the voices of all the RWBY team kind of startled a bit...
Devas seed like he was going to react, to escape whatever the RWBY team had planned for him, but for so reason, he seed 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 so of her songs that Nora had recomnded to , but it seed 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 seed like sothing 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 seed to think so.
I didn't know if it was because of one of the Glyphs, or if it was sothing Devas himself had done, but his voice echoed throughout the classroom.
"You girls are really amazing." If Yang, when she had praised him before, seed sincere, Devas seed certain; it wasn't a complint, to him, it was a fact.
The RWBY team didn't have ti 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, sothing 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 , 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 an... 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 seed to agree.
I could sense their Auras; giving the correct percentage was sothing I couldn't do, but they all seed to be above half, even if just slightly.
I didn't say this aloud; I just looked at the giant panel behind , which showed Yang's Aura at fifty-one percent and had the gauge in green.
"It looks half full to ." I raised my hand to my eyes, as if I were seeing sothing 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 movents 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 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 tis can cause serious health problems." He was good; his face didn't even twitch as he said those words, but the amusent in his eyes was undeniable.
I ignored Yang, who seed to want to bury herself in a hole, and turned to Ozpin, who was staring at .
"I'll take advantage of everyone's attention and introduce you to Devas." He pointed at with his cane. "He's an acquaintance of mine who ca 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 t Ozpin today, so I fell into his "acquaintance" category.
I had co 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 seed to rember that they were alive and could speak.
I just wished they hadn't all spoken at once.
"Devas, is that so kind of color?" It isn't.
"The Deer Huntsn? 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 complint... male voice... But I prefer won.
"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 co to Beacon looking for a job..." He looked at , 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 sothing more important to discuss with ?" If I didn't know what to say, ignoring the subject always worked!
Stark seed 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 so ti?" 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 .
"No, it's fine as it is." I declined, to the relief of the four. "Let's go, is there sowhere we can talk?" Anywhere but your office.
I must have been able to convey my thoughts sohow, 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 ho." 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 nas of the rooms, just where they were. If I were to look for each one, it would take so ti.
"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 seed to want to answer that question, not Ozpin, Glynda, and certainly not , 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 co to a crowded classroom, which only beca 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 so weapons and portraits on the wall, but normal, with so 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 .
"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 so 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 ss with anything. "Or sothing else?"
Jas spoke before Ozpin could respond to .
"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 Jas finished speaking.
Weiss did the sa 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 Jas wanted an invitation...
"What's your offer?" I let a slight smile appear on my face.
... He would have to negotiate...
[...]---[...]
A rather llow 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 soone narrating in the fight and soone 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 comnt, 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 Volu 3 to rember so things for the arc, hence the delay in the chapter, sorry!
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