Timed Battle

The basic premise of my plan was simple and time-honored—I was going to heal myself liberally at the vaguest hint of danger to try and stay alive in a situation where I otherwise shouldn't. Countless fierce opponents had been slain through such clever and careful use of items and abilities to restore the brave warriors who fought them.

In games, that is. I'd done it myself a fair number of times, tackling much stronger enemies with a load out of potions and other restorative items to keep myself going while I whittled them down. It really was a time-honored strategy in that regard and I'd beat a fair number of, in my opinion, amazing things that way.

Granted, I usually died a few times before I did it right which was the type of thing that did little to reassure me when I couldn't push a button and go back like nothing happened. Whatever I did, the fact remained that Penny had kicked my ass with what amounted to a casual backhand—if I managed to survive more than two of her attacks in a row, I'd be absurdly lucky. Especially considering the way she'd kicked my ass, knocking me down and tossing me halfway across the town. Once this battle really began and she realized that one hit wouldn't be enough to stop me on its own or if she put in more of an effort, if I went down again…

The margin for error here was very, very slight. Too slight. Basic probability and simple observation made it pretty obvious that the odds were not in my favor here; I'd barely noticed that first attack, much less reacted to it. Now that I was on guard and had some grasp of the attack's nature, I might be able to take advantage of the brief warning Sense Danger gave me, but never get hit? That seemed unlikely. The skill would strip away the advantage of a surprise attack if I kept my wits about me, but that wouldn't matter if she could still hit me anyway.

So I turned to my power, bullshit as it was.

Beyond healing, Soulforge Restoration had a few other powers when used with a Dust crystal—a restoration of MP among them. Because I'd leveled up the skill a fair bit, I could restore enough to make that very useful—and to get me out of a sudden predicament, in the eventuality that I found myself in yet another bind.

Arguably just as useful were the…variable effects it could produce. A mere side note in the profile I had seen a month ago, I hadn't been able to test it until I'd begun training with Adam and Blake—but when I did, I'd understood.

Soulforge Restoration was, in the end, all about the transfer of Aura. It was more complicated than that—it took a great deal of precision, precise control, and careful direction to achieve the desired result, and many other things, but the base concept was that a person's Aura would attempt to protect and heal them. Or, arguably, to keep them in their normal state or return them to it. A person's Aura is an expression of their soul and a person's soul is an expression, or maybe reflection or embodiment or a number of other theories, of that person. If a person was wounded, their Aura would try to heal them back to normal, whatever 'normal' happened to be.

It was for this reason that healing was a relatively rare ability. You can't simply pour your Aura into another person to top them off and assist them at healing, because the answer to the question 'Who is Jaune Arc?' was different than 'Who is Adam Taurus?' or 'Who is Blake Belladonna?' In a fashion very similar to different blood types, a transfer from one person to another rarely took. The odds of it ending badly were far lower because people usually just shed Aura they wouldn't use, but there were rare cases that…well, hadn't ended well.

For a transfer to occur, one of two things had to be true. The target and recipient had to possess the same Aura—that is, be the same person—in which case there was no problem. When I healed myself, it was simply a matter of directing my Aura to its purpose; especially easy in my case because I didn't actually receive physical damage, I just lost HP. I just cast the spell and didn't even need to direct it to important areas like someone else might need to if they hurt themselves.

If you aren't capable of healing yourself effectively or lacked the Aura to do so, however, you're probably out of luck barring tremendously strange and unique circumstances. People were unique which meant you weren't going to stumble across a person capable of giving you a magic blood transfer easily. I was Type Jaune and I was the only person who was Type Jaune.

Healing, however, remained possible. If you thought of different Auras as different blood types, you could think of healing as producing Type O blood, stripping away all the things that would cause another person to reject it and rendering it into a pure state that could be consumed and processed by anyone. Reducing it to a blank slate, effectively.

And using it with Dust was like shining light through a crystal, drawing up all the power within to color that energy, but not in a way that would cause a…reaction. Tricky to do, but Aura seemed to react with Dust in a number of unique ways and it would accept things from it that it wouldn't take from another person. And because Aura was all about trying to protect and maintain, if you added the power of yellow Dust—of lightning—to your soul…well, suddenly the answer to the question 'Who am I?' became, in small part, 'lightning.'

I felt myself grow faster as the effect took hold, my heart beat feeling steady even though it pounded thunderously in my chest. The world around me seemed to actually slow as I moved, sharpening into sudden clarity as I quickened. I wasn't the only person would could do something like this by any means but using it directly on oneself was a rather archaic method of enhancement. Most people capable of it, like Weiss, channeled it through a weapon or some other item instead, but this was the only way I knew how to do it.

I drew out three other crystals—red, blue, and green for all three basic types of Dust. They were by far the most common types of Dust as well, at least in terms of what formed naturally, which is why they were all I found at a glance. Odds were that there were a few natural examples of other types somewhere in here, but I was in a rush.

The Status Effect, "Firepower", has been created. Duration: 20 seconds.

The Status Effect, "Regeneration", has been created. Duration: 20 seconds.

The Status Effect, "Feather Fall", has been created. Duration: 20 seconds.

With each casting of the spell I felt more of my power returning and new power growing in leaving me feeling mighty and strong. Of them all, Firepower was probably the least useful as a general offensive boost. Haste's effect was obvious, as was Regeneration's; quickening me and improving my healing ability respectively. Feather Fall mainly just meant I wouldn't take damage from falls, but it worked on being thrown into stuff, too, which I thought would be depressingly handy soon. All told, though, they were tremendous boosts to my power and left me feeling almost giddy.

Beyond the quick tests I'd done, this was my first time really using this technique. This wasn't a tactic I made use of regularly—I couldn't afford to. There was no deeper meaning or moral explanation to that; I just literally couldn't afford to. Dust crystals were expensive, selling for anywhere from over a thousand to five or ten thousand lien a pop, depending on size, weight, and type. The dust form was cheaper, but my power needed crystals and I didn't want to draw attention by dropping a huge amount of money to empty out a shop, much less rob it. And for a twenty second boost for a single use…I wasn't made out of money. The White Fang had gotten me a set of crystals on short notice that I'd been saving for a particularly awful day.

Given that all this Dust had been mined with Faunus labor and slavery, though, I figured it was fine to steal some of it to help save them. I lifted the box with a sudden heave and poured it straight into my Inventory and considered going for seconds—but time was running short and I had another thing to do. I'd come back for more later, if I could.

I turned to my status screen and, with a series of rapid button pushes, raised both Vitality and Dexterity above fifty.

The skill 'Iron Body' has been created through VIT rising above 50.

Iron Body (Passive) LV1 EXP: 0.00%

An ability given to those rare few born with surpassing vitality. The user possesses a body with great resistance to harm and unending strength to endure.

50% Increase to Stamina recovery rate.

20% Decrease in Damage from physical attacks.

10% Increase to total HP amount.

10% Increase to total Stamina amount.

30% Increase to VIT related skill effects.

The skill 'Amazing Grace' has been created through DEX rising above 50.

Amazing Grace (Passive) LV1 EXP: 0.00%

An ability given to those with tremendous mastery of their own bodies. The user possesses refined control and coordination, displaying elegance in everything they do.

50% Increase to Movement Speed.

30% Increase to Attack Speed.

10% Increase to Evasion.

30% Increase to DEX related skill effects.

I shuddered as the windows appeared, feeling my body shift and change as the power took hold, before suddenly relaxing with an exhale. Flexing my fingers, I looked down at my hand as I abandoned the improved defense of my Metal Aura and replaced it with Air. With Lenore, Dreary Midnight, and my Elementalist title, my Air Affinity was at forty-five, far higher than any of my others, but I'd gone with the reduced damage from Metal at first for the damage reduction since I didn't know what to expect.

But it wouldn't be enough to reduce damage against Penny. I needed speed, needed to stay ahead if only for just a little while. With my Aura drawn around me, my body enhanced, and the power Dust giving me strength, I was as ready as I'd ever be.

Although, it really seemed kind of unfair that even with all of those advantages, I was still going to be fighting an uphill battle. I was breaking out everything I'd kept up my sleeve just to try and stay alive for a little bit longer.

I suppressed a sigh before taking a deep, resolving breath and turning to face the entrance my body had made, for all appearances waiting calmly. Only seconds having passed since my impromptu entrance, but even that short pause meant Penny had taken her sweet time waiting for me and I wondered if she was dragging her feet or if she just knew I wasn't trying to run. Or perhaps she was just letting me stew in my thoughts, allowing the tension to build and wear me down following a display of her tremendous power. That seemed a bit manipulative for Penny to do consciously, but perhaps she was doing it without thinking, trying to get me to stop fighting without hurting me too bad.

When she stepped around the corner a moment later, I met her eyes, gauging her with my four eyes as she stared back at me. If not for my mask, the moonlight would have shadowed her figure and the silence lingered for a moment. I wonder what she saw when she looked at me and I smiled at her widely for lack of anything else to do, touching a hand to my chest.

"A fair first blow," I said with confidence I couldn't feel. "But perhaps a bit more care would be in order? What if I'd hit one of these containers? Dust can be quite…volatile."

Slowly, she turned to face me, expression a mixture of sorrow, revolve, and surprising ferocity.

"Do you surrender?" Penny asked at last.

I rushed her by way of replying.

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