Winter Break 19

Lance grinned as he jumped back into combat, the two continued to spar for a full hour, Jaune was thrashed and beaten when he finally made Lance break his first sweat.

Ben slapped his son's hand and said, "Tag in."

Lance shook his head as he handed over the sword. It didn't take a mastermind to know Jaune was about to get a fierce beating.

A massive Aura poured out of Ben as he pointed his sword at his grandson. 

Jaune felt a cold sweat trail down his spine as the old man began speaking, "I hope you're ready for a history lesson."

Jaune lifted a brow as he saw his grandpa's muscles flex like rippling steel. 

"Like all Arks, we are born with a great amount of Aura, even more so after Lance passed the trails."

Ben lifted his arm back. 

"In fact, the only ones to pass the Trials of the Round Table gave us three pseudo blessings to our bloodline. Haven't you ever wondered why Arcs are able to continuously produce heroes?"

"I have thought about that. At least 99.99 percent of our family members are all talented heroes. I just chalked it up to good genes," Jaune shivered as he felt just how powerful his grandpa really was. 

The sword ready to crash down on Jaune's defenseless head when Ben said, "The trails began during Ozthur's era. In that time, only 3 males of the Arc Clan have succeeded in passing. The first was Ozthur himself. His blessing gave the Arc Bloodline the ability to grow their Aura's endlessly. So while the Aura of most stop growing at 24, ours doesn't. The second was myself. I gave our bloodline the perfect body for learning martial arts. The last person to pass was your father. His blessing gave us all incredible adaptive abilities."

Jaune saw his grandpa's Aura start to form a suit of physical armor. It was an oldie-styled full plate, yellow-colored, knight's armor.

"That's…well I guess that explains why I was able to catch up to everyone without as many years under my belt."

He felt that his grandpa had gotten dozens of times stronger as a yellow Aura flooded the area.

"Is that Grandpa's Semblance?" Jaune thought before asking, "What does this interesting story have to do with me?"

"You see, when you pass the test, an aspect of you will be downloaded into the genetics of all existing Arcs. Ozthur's unnatural Aura levels, my physique, and your father's genius. What will you add, you should think about that."

The Armor finished forming and glowed with a radiant yellow light. All of Ben's Aura was sucked inside the full-plate when Jaune realized he could no longer sense it."

"You know, I came to the same idea you have when I was younger. In order to best make use of our powerful souls, I honed my vessel every day. I pushed myself to the limits of what was possible for physical strength alone."

"I'm guessing I'm about to find out just how strong you are…" Jaune let out a nervous chuckle.

"I worked hard…So please, don't hold it against me…and just…don't die on me, my boy." Ben swung down tearing through the air at a frightening speed. 

"Oh, crap baskets!" Jaune thought as he raised his sword to defend. 

The training swords slapped into each other with such force that it made Jaune feel like he was competing with a dust powered train.

Knowing he couldn't hold up, Jaune tilted to the side and attempted to redirect the force of the blow.

"Trying to deflect, huh?" Ben laughed as his wrist twisted and cut through Jaune's practice sword like butter.

The last thing he remembered before everything went black was a painful sensation on the side of his neck and his grandpa laughing loudly.

Water splashed on his face as he woke up mere minutes later. 

Grandma Joan was smiling as she put a bucket down next to his head, "Come, on, it's my turn."

Jaune thought it would be easier than grandpa, mainly because she wasn't an Arc in blood. However, he was dead wrong. Good old grandpa Arc used his semblance to give her the same knight's armor, and one hell of an Aura boost to alongside it.

"It's been a while since we've done this," Joan chuckled.

Ben smiled and said, "Yea, not since the uprisings in Mistral a dozen years back."

Jaune sighed as he thought, "Man this is going to suck. Yang will tell everyone that my own grandma beat my ass."

He bit back his fears and charged towards his grandmother, she used a sword cane with a straight handle, her speed was monstrous as she appeared next to him before he could blink.

Joan chuckled at his surprise, "Fitting right, this is my Semblance's ability; it's called, Blink. Essentially, it's a instantaneous burst of speed the borderlines on teleporting. Aura consumption's a hassle though, but with grandpa's armor equipped..."

"It's makes for a hell of a combo!" Ben shouted as he lifted his head back and laughed.

Before he could say anything, Jaune's combat instincts told him to run away, but his pride told him to man up.

Jaune grit his teeth as he used his Quick-Step to try and add it into his swing. 

Joan easily tapped his sword aside and hit him in the stomach, "Oho, are you sure you never took lessons from us in the future timeline? Your talents really mirror our own. You have a bit of your father's skill, a bit of grandpa's strength, and some of my speed."

Jaune dashed towards her with another quick step, "You know she used to be called Speed Demon in her Hunting days!" Ben informed his terrified grandson with a loud shout.

Jaune felt a burning sensation against the back of his head, then his spine, and lastly, his legs. It a weird way, it almost felt like Joan was fixing his posture.

"Arms tight, look forward, spine straight, legs in the proper stance." Joan's voice called out as she hit him several times.

Joan continued to speed around him, hitting Jaune until he took a particularly bad hit to the back of his head, forcing him to collapse in a pool of sweat.

"Come on, is that all you can do?" Joan shouted at her exhausted grandchild.

Jaune was breathing heavily, taking in every breath of air like it was his last. He felt the hilt of the training sword and gripped it tightly as he forced himself back to his feet.

Joan smiled and said, "Good, now defend yourself!"

The young knight raised his sword and met with his grandmother's sword cane.

After a few dozen minutes of his Granny's teachings, Jaune was knocked down again. His legs trembled and he stood up and took a deep breath.

"Ohh, you can still stand after that hit? I'm impressed. Take a ten-minute break," Joan announced as she placed her cane front and center.

"No need...wheeze...Granny," The heir to the Arc Clan said as he stood up straight and closed his eyes.

"You're about to see why I was called the Immortal Paladin when I lived at Atlas," Jaune took a deep breath and used his Semblance to amp his own Aura levels, once it recovered to max. 

His wounds healed, his stamina returned, and his body was flooded with power. Jaune opened his eyes as stopped his Semblance and grinned.

"Oh!" Joan's gasped.

"Huh?!!" Lance's eyes widened.

"Holy Shi!!!" Ben paused then began laughing, "His Aura is able to heal his own Aura! Not even you can do that, Lance!"

Lance nodded his head, "My burst allows me to use a limited additional pool, but I still have the same missing Aura when I return to normal."

"So what's the downside? I doubt your immortal, seeing as you died," Joan said lifting a brow in the process.

"Yeah, every time I recover this way my Aura comes back with diminishing gains. I think I can refill about 10 times before I can only heal half of my Aura levels. From there, I can hold on to 50% of my reserves for about 30 to 50 more uses. After that, maybe I'll be able to maintain 30 percent of my Aura for about a hundred full uses." Jaune scratched his head.

"Good, this means we can train even longer." Joan grinned as she raised her weapon. 

She then continued to coach him as their weapons collided, and after teaching his the basics of the 10 styles of Arc Swordsmanship, Jaune was finally allowed to rest.

Ten new skills showed up in his skill list under a sub-category called Traditional Arc Swordsmanship Techniques and Shieldsmanship. 

Deflection, Reflection, Block, Bash and Restrain were the five Shield maneuvers, while Thrust, Slash, Smash, Counter, Disarm, and Weapon Break were part of the sword move set.

Jaune saw the moves as very simple, but when thought about, it was all that one could do when it came to the sword. They weren't fancy super moves but the rudimentary stances. There was nothing special about, at least not until Aura Swords come into the mix. Only then, did these seemingly simple movements truly become deadly.

In the traditional sense, Shields styles were only used for defense, Jaune had turned a defensive style into an offensive one, and did the same for his swordplay making the swords offense pure defense. He decided to call these two stances Fixate and Shield Throw.

A ring went off in Jaune's head. 

[Sword Proficiency Level Up! 

[Arc Sword and Shieldsmanship current Level: 19.] 

[Current Progress till next level: 2%.]

Jaune scratched his head as he wondered what Sword Proficiency did. He has been training his body nonstop since he came back and barely had time to commit to his swordsmanship training.

However, only after one day of training with his family, Jaune managed to bring his Sword Proficiency up to by 9 levels.

After leveling it up, he didn't really feel all that different, he stood back up and held his sword in his hand and was suddenly filled with inspiration. Many problems he had about his own form were being resolved as he continued to ponder over them.

Falling on his back, Jaune smiled at the fact he added the eleventh and twelve styles to the Arc Swordsmanship all on his own.

"This system is awesome!" Jaune thought with an excited expression.

Once his stamina recovered, Jaune continued to train until his arms fell like they were going to fall off. When he finally did collapse for good, Jaune's whole body felt numb, in pain, and soaked in an unhealthy amount of sweat.

He knew the soreness from muscle growth would fade quickly thanks to his War God's Blessing. However, he felt like shit and would continue to do so until he slept.

Lance and the rest continued to train with him giving him almost no time to spend with his family and friends, but he didn't let that get him down. This is exactly what he came here for.

As the morning came after a full night of non-stop training, Jaune forced himself back up and continued to swing his sword until the sun was over his head.

He had managed to push his Sword and Shieldsmanship Proficiency up another 5 levels and was halfway to level 25.

Meanwhile, Gwen had taken on training everyone else. She was rather good at it too. Of course, with the experience of raising eight kids, she was bound to be a natural teacher.

Yang was currently experiencing this first hand as she was suddenly thrown towards a nearby tree.

The blond brawler hit the tree, knocking it over and creating a dust cloud before she shouted, "Dang, Mrs. Arc." 

As she walked out of the haze of dust particles, Yang showed that she had more than couple of bruises on her body, "You should work for Beacon."

Gwen chuckled as she quickly appeared in front of her future in-law. She then twisted her arm and sent Yang flying into a rapidly approaching Ruby.

The two smashed into each other when Ruby shouted, "Weiss, run!"