Winter Break 32
Ren smiled as he transformed Storm Flower into the submachine gun, and his bow into his sword, "One for each hand. Thanks for thinking of me, Ruby."
"Really, it was nothing,"
"It wasn't 'nothing' Ruby. It was a lot of hard work. We had to remake everything," Jaune rolled his eyes.
"Take credit where credit is due," Blake followed up.
"I can fly like a witch now! Halloween is going to be so fun!" Nora laughed.
"Thanks…guys! Really, it was a lot of fun for me," Ruby rubbed the back of her head with a shy expression.
After eating, Jaune got to work packing up everything in his inventory, he even took the patio.
"So, it's time to head back, huh?" Yang stretched as she got on Weiss' horse.
"Yep, it's back to Argus!" Ruby said with a smile.
"Yeah, I think Sun should have clued his team by now," Blake yawned.
"Alright, let's go kill a bunch of Grimm on the way back!" Nora patted her weapon.
"Sounds fun, besides, everyone just got a bunch stronger. We need to adapt to our new strength," Yang nodded her head.
"You just want to test out your new weapons," Blake rolled her eyes.
"Well, that too," The blond brawler laughed.
"It is a good idea to see how much stronger we've all grown. We wouldn't want to overuse our strength on anything. We might end up killing someone in a spar," Pyrrah commented.
"Especially Yang and Nora," Jaune followed up.
"Hey!" Yang and Nora shouted in offence.
Jaune chuckled before he looked ahead and said, "If we push it, we might be able to gain 2 levels before sun down."
And so, team JNPR and team RWBY proceeded to make themselves a Grimm's worse nightmare.
Blake scouted the enemy forces, letting the group know what they were walking into and giving them enough time to come up with plans that didn't waste energy.
Ren cloaked them in a Tranquil Aura that kept the Grimm from sensing them, allowing everyone to attack like an unseen force.
Jaune used his Amp Semblance to boost everyone before battle. He killed without wasting any stamina or energy and made sure the re-amplify his teammates Auras whenever they dropped back down near 100%.
By over-boosting their Aura's when they were at full capacity, they could fight for even longer than before. Jaune just had to get the timing right, and he was improving with every use of his Semblance.
Ruby's speed and ability to attack in petal form made quick work of any Grimm in caves. She would shoot inside one and her rose petals would tear through them like a bullet hitting a wet paper bag.
Weiss' magic allowed her to use new ways to amplify her Dust weaponry. She was slinging spells and shooting Dust Combinations to increase the magic's lethality.
Nora smashed groups of Grimm while making herself stronger through the use of lightning magic. She swung her hammer with such strength, that she carved out a section of a cave wall and left the surface so smooth it looked polished.
Yang found herself laughing at how easy it was to make Grimm heads explode. She used her new Gauntlets and Grieves and infused them with her Aura to make each blow explosively powerful.
Pyrrha became a living weapon against the Grimm. Jaune and Ruby made her 7 seven inch orbs out of Adamantium that she used her Semblance on. With those seven orbs, Pyrrha could manipulate them in any way she saw fit. She could turn them into projectiles, she could block with them, change their shape, and even combined them. Akouo had new rail gun features, her long spear opened up new methods of attacking, and with far more Aura than she used to have, she became unstoppable.
Even Jaune had doubts whether or not he'd be able to defeat her in his prime.
After their first level up, the group was surprised to see how much a high stat gain became.
Instead of 4 to 5 being a high roll, the new high gain was 7 to 8 with 10 being peak roll. The new lows were 3 to 4. The standard gain for Aura and Battle Power had doubled.
On top of having higher stats, Jaune's new ability to allow his teammates to absorb some of the excess Aura he amplified that was doubled by their moondust pendants, everyone had jumped around 250-300 points in Aura.
However, since Jaune's Aura pool was larger, so were the gains. The blond knight looked at his new stats in utter shock.
Name: Jaune Arc
Age: 17
Title: Heroic Soul: +100% to Aura Growth, +50% to Physical Growth.
Class: Arc Knight - Level: 02
Overall Level: 022
Experience: 12,111,100
Experience needed until the next level: 17,515,755
Condition: 75%
Constitution: 111->->->118 (+7 from Level Up)
Defense: 127->->->137 (+28 Armor) (+10 from Level Up)
Intelligence: 64->->->72 (+8 from Level Up)
Focus: 80->->->85 (+5 from Level Up)
Mana: 0
Battle Power: 522->->->670(+48 from Level Up) (50% Increase from Title Effect)
Aura: 15,396 ->->->15,992(+210 from Level Up) (x3 Aura Growth from MD Pendant and Title Effect)
"We could probably keep going, but it will take all day to level up again. I guess Mount Glenn will be our next hunting spot," Jaune said as he selected a new skill.
[Physical Amplification: Semblance gains the ability to permanently apply amplification to the properties of physical objects. Can only be used once on any object.]
Ruby laughed as she selected her new Semblance Mutation, "Praise the sun!"
[Photosynthesize: You can absorb sunlight to steadily improve Aura Levels and restore condition. 0.01% per minute.]
"What are you, a plant?" Yang joked as she selected her new ability.
[Tempered Flame: Adds Fire Attribute to Aura and Reduces Aura Consumption by 50%]
"Now I have water and wind magic!" Weiss bragged.
[Green Magic: Able to cast the basic spells of wind and lightning magic. Wind Bullet, Wind Sphere, Wind Wall, Lightning Bullet, Lightning Sphere, and Lightning Wall are now available.]
"This looks useful," Blake poked her screen.
[Shadow Aura: Gain Shadow Attribute to Aura. Increase Aura Output in Shadow by 50% and 100% in total darkness.]
"I can finally get another Alchemy skill," Ren commented.
[Moderate Potion Recipe List: Gain the information on how to craft 30 different potions.]
"Awe yeah! Come to mommy!" Nora said as she used her token.
[Penta Strike: Creates four additional Aura Hammer Heads upon striking.]
"I think this one suits me nicely," Pyrrha smiled.
[Enhanced Magnetism: Able to manipulate metals and magnetic fields with 50% less Aura use.]
After everyone showed off their new abilities, they called it quits for the Hunting and returned to the village they rented the horses from. They paid extra because they had them out a little longer than originally planned, but it wasn't much to them.
They then made their way back to towards Argus on their bikes and car.
While they drove, Jaune picked up something strange happening near the outskirts of the plains. Hundreds of Grimm were rushing towards Argus, almost like they were being chased by something.
"This…oh, crap. We might have over hunted and woke up an Elder," Jaune said as he felt a sense of dread coming from the largest Grimm.
"Is that a…Knuckleave?" Weiss called out.
"Of course it is," Ren gritted his teeth.
"None of that matters, it's pushing the pack towards Argus, so we have to stop it. It's an Elder, so it has a bone exoskeleton armor. Use Aura enhanced attacks if you want to bust through it," Ruby called out as they drove ahead of the dust storm being kicked up by Grimm fleeing from the Berserker.
Jaune thought of the Grimm reaching Argus and endangering his family. As he gripped his fists on the throttle, the blond knight started to glow with a soft golden yellow color.
"Uh…Jaune? You're glowing…"
"I'm not going to let anyone down this time! If a hero's path is mired with danger, I'll become strong enough to overcome it!"
[Limit Break Semblance Unlocked!]
[Limit Break: For every point of Aura used, increase strength of Aura based effects by 1% Current Limit 500 Aura Points. This Semblance can only be activated once a month.]
Jaune smiled as he pushed his bike to top speed, "I got a plan. I'll have to test it out, but I need you guys to trust me on this."
"Okay, what's the plan?!" Pyrrha called out.
"Frist we get ahead of that army of Grimm. Then I amplify your Aura's with the assistance of my new Semblance. Hah! I have two Semblances I can use!"
"Is that why you're glowing gold?" Ruby asked.
"Yeah, you're stealing my thing!" Yang shouted as they all started speeding up.
"Well, to be fair. Jaune's color is gold and yours is yellow," Ruby couldn't wait to see what Jaune was going to do.
They all managed to ride ahead of the wave of Grimm and stopped with them enemies about five minutes out.
Jaune stepped off his bike and sacrificed 500 from his Aura pool to enhance his Amplification Semblance by 500%
With a five times boost, his maximum Aura boost went from 15 to 75. Jaune then amped everyone's Aura and the noon night sky lit up with eight colors.
Streams of energy erupted from everyone's bodies as they felt their Aura's jump into the tens and hundreds of thousands. Ruby went from having an Aura level of 2049 to 153,675.
Once they absorbed the excess from their amplified Auras, everyone would gain a substantial boost in Aura. Ruby would gain approximately 1536 points to her Aura in one go.
Jaune then used it on himself and felt his Aura shoot up to 1,199,400.
Jaune's Aura stood leagues above everyone else's as he got ready to swing Grimm's Bane.
His seven foot Aura sword suddenly stretched out in a seventy foot glowing gold blade as he swung out and released a massive Blade Beam that tore through a quarter of the Grimm.
With another stroke, Jaune chipped away another quarter of the hoard while rapidly depleting his own Aura.
With two more stoke, the whole Army of Grimm fell to ash and only the Elder Knuckleave remained, although not unscathed.
It's entire body was singed and most of its armor was burnt and brittle.
Jaune fell to his knees, panting heavily as he looked to his party and said, "He's all yours!"
"HOLY SHIT!" Yang yelled with wide eyes.
"Dito…" Weiss said with a slack jaw.
"There's no destruction but the Grimm…is it me or are plants growing…" Blake looked around in wonder.
"Wow…" Pyrrha mumbled.
"Our fearless leader is the best!" Nora's eyes sparkled.
"Are you alright?" Ruby asked as she helped him to his feet.
"Yeah, just a little winded. Don't think I haven't released that much Aura in one go in a long time. I just a need a minute or two to rest and get my energy back."
"We'll take care of this guy," Yang slammed her fist into her palm.
"I've never felt this powerful before! I feel like I can blow up a mountain!" Nora stood beside the blond martial artist.
"Take a break, oh fearless leader. We'll take it from here," Ren said as he drew his bow back.
"Take care of Jaune," Pyrrha said as she smiled at Ruby.
"I will," Ruby nodded her head.
The group minus Ruby jumped into action, rushing towards the Knuckleave with a intense burst of speed they've never felt before.
Yang moved so fast, her fist ignited alongside her flaming Aura as she tore through one of the monster's legs.
Even in its damaged state, the Elder Grimm stood its ground and swiped out with its stretching arms.
Pyrrha blocked it while Ren shot solid emerald green arrows made entirely of Aura. The gem like arrows through its joints and pinned its hands to the ground while Blake cleaved off its hind legs with Weiss.
Pyrrha then used her long spear to stab through its stomach and pin it to the ground while forming a large bullet by combining her Rail Beads. The bullet glowed with red electricity while Nora used a Penta Strike on the monster's face, killing it before the red haired Spartan could launch the attack.
As it vanished, Ruby chuckled and said, "How's that for overkill. It's like a team of yous."
"My new Semblance is broken as fuc…"
"Watch that mouth, mister. Just because I let Yang slide earlier doesn't mean I'll let my boyfriend cuss."
"I'll give the Lien, Broken as Fuck!"
[Elder Knuckleave Slain]
[5,000,000EXP Awarded!]
"Huh…with the army you wiped out and the Elder Knuckleave, we earned about 20 million EXP. I wonder how much an Ancient Grimm will give us." Ruby commented as she looked at the notification window.