The moment the word left Jaune's lips, the air around him seemed to loosen, like a held breath finally released. The tension in the sim room shifted from reverence to electric curiosity, and his friends closed in without even realizing they were doing it.
Two meta runes.
That alone was enough to make people contemplate.
Most operatives spent their entire awakened careers cultivating reliable and well understood runes. Defensive type augments, mobility boosts or even elemental and projections. Meta runes were rare because they demanded a great degree of comprehension rather than brute force muscle memory. They required a person to understand how exactly that concept of power behaved, not just how to swing the rune.
And now, Jaune had made two.
Yang was the first to break the silence. She crossed her arms and leaned back on her heels, golden eyes flicking over him with open interest.
"Okay," she said. "Plunder is definitely not a subtle name."
Weiss nodded faintly, analytical already. "It implies theft or appropriation."
"So," Yang continued, grinning, "what exactly does it steal?"
Jaune opened his mouth.
"Wait," Ruby suddenly said, stepping forward with a finger raised, eyes bright with that familiar spark of runaway analysis. "A meta rune named Plunder? Stealing? We've seen something similar like that before."
Everyone turned toward her.
"Roman Torchwick, remember?" Ruby said. "When we fought him?"
Jaune grinned slightly, remembering the fight. It was problematic, sure. But fighting Roman had been... almost fun, in a sense. Especially that final beatdown that Yang had given him. It was just too bad about the things that happened afterwards.
That wiped away Jaune's smile very quickly.
Ruby paced once, gesturing as she spoke, thoughts spilling freely. "Roman was able to steal my runic energy. He took my speed boost mid fight and used it on himself. That wasn't just disruption. That was straight up power appropriation."
Oscar blinked. "That was his rune?"
"Yeah," Ruby replied. "I think it was called Steal. He literally took my acceleration and ran away with it."
She paused, eyes flicking back to Jaune. "So I'm guessing that Plunder could probably do that too? Steal runic energy. Maybe even physical objects, like how Roman was able to."
Jaune inhaled, ready to explain.
However, Pyrrha spoke before he could respond.
"Hold on," she said, brows drawn together in genuine confusion. "How was Roman able to do that?"
Ruby turned to her, slightly sheepish. "Oh, right, I forgot that we didn't really explain in detail what exactly happened during that fight."
Pyrrha shook her head slowly. "Well, I can sort of guess based on the clues but I wasn't really expecting that. Is that the reason that Jaune doesn't have Sword imbued into Crocea Mors anymore?"
Ruby nodded. "Yeah. It was a whole thing. I'll explain it more later."
She looked back to Jaune. "So, was Roman your inspiration?"
The question hung there awkwardly.
Jaune stared at her.
"No!" he said, perhaps a little too quickly. "Well... not entirely, I guess."
That only deepened the confusion. Ruby stepped forward, lips pursed.
"But you said you were inspired by the Nightmare system?" she asked. "Roman's ability was similar right?"
Yang nodded. "Yeah. Roman could only steal some types of runic energy. Others would've caused him to explode."
Ren folded his arms, watching quietly. "Hmm... I suppose the difference matters."
Jaune felt words stacking up in his throat, explanations colliding before he could organize them. He raised a hand slightly, trying to slow the momentum.
"Okay, so what Plunder actually does is…"
Nora tackled him from the side.
"YOU DID IT," she shouted, arms wrapping around his neck as she leapt onto him with unrestrained joy. "TWO META RUNES. I KNEW IT. I FELT IT IN MY BONES! Yang, you owe me fifty!"
Yang groaned, muttering something like she knew it was a losing bet.
Jaune staggered, barely keeping his footing as Nora shook him enthusiastically.
"This is historic," she continued. "I am hugging a future legend. Do legends get snacks named after them? Because I want a Jauney Bar."
"Nora," Ren said mildly, though he was very clearly amused. "You are choking him."
"That's how you show affection!"
Jaune coughed and activated Weakness instinctively, just a brief flicker. Nora's grip loosened immediately, her limbs going slack.
"Hey," she protested as Jaune slipped free. "That was rude."
"Necessary," Jaune said, rubbing his neck.
He raised his voice slightly. "Okay guys please, let me explain."
The room quieted.
Not completely. Nora still hummed to herself while Yang looked entertained. And Ruby was practically vibrating with unanswered questions. But they were listening, for now.
Jaune exhaled slowly.
"I haven't tested it yet, so I don't truly know" he said honestly. "But I can feel what it should be able to do."
He tapped his armored chest lightly. "Plunder feels… in a way, similar to Weakness. In structure at least. It latches onto something and imposes a change. Except instead of simply forcefully lowering a stat, it pulls it away."
"To you?" Weiss said.
Jaune nodded. "That's my understanding."
Pyrrha's eyes widened. "So it steals away strength and gives it to you. As in stats?"
"Yep."
A pause.
"…Can we see it in action? Try it on me." Pyrrha asked.
Jaune frowned ever so slightly.
"Probably not a good idea, so no." he said immediately.
Pyrrha tilted her head. "Why not?"
Jaune clenched his hands. "Well, for one, I don't know if it's permanent."
Silence fell heavier this time.
"If Plunder can truly steal stats permanently," Jaune continued, "I don't want to find that out by taking something from one of you."
Ruby frowned. "Jaune…"
"I'm serious," he said. "If I take your Body, Aura and Will stats away permanently, whatever it ends up targeting… what if I can't give it back?"
Ren shook his head slowly. "It's highly unlikely that your rune will be able to do that."
Jaune looked at him.
"Meta rune effects are resisted by aura. Which means her aura will naturally fight against the power of your rune." Ren explained. "Besides, the rules of reality itself enforces equilibrium. This applies to both the Dream Realm and the Real world."
Weiss nodded. "Considering that your rune isn't even at comprehension level, let alone mastery level, permanent stat deprivation is very unlikely to happen. Don't get me wrong, we clearly haven't seen its effects, but that's usually the case for meta rune phenomena."
"What's far more likely to happen is that Plunder operates as a temporary siphon. Similar to Weakness in that sense. When you disengage, the stolen values will probably return."
Ruby brightened. "Yeah. That tracks. Roman couldn't permanently keep my speed either. It ran out after a few seconds."
Yang shrugged. "And your rune is not like that Perpetuity, rune either. Or a Supreme one like one of the relics for that matter. Speaking of Perpetuity, I'm kind of wondering how that Rune works. I know it makes Imbuements permanent, but it's just super weird to think about. A rank 1 able to do all that? Just seems kind of absurd, to be honest."
"Not sure. I'm more wondering about how that Arias guy was able to displace everyone in Belmont into the Dream Realm. That just seemed way over the top and we still don't really have an answer. Perpetuity might have played a large role there." Ruby analyzed.
Jaune listened, shoulders slowly relaxing.
"So, anyway..., worst case, Pyrrha feels a little weaker for a bit." Ruby gave Jaune a thumbs up.
Pyrrha smiled gently. "I trust you."
Jaune hesitated. Then he raised both hands. "Alright, alright. I'll test it."
He turned toward Pyrrha. "You ready?"
She nodded, steady and receptive.
"Yes," she said simply.
The sim room seemed to lean inward as Jaune took a breath and reached for the power of Plunder for the first time.
Immediately, something unseen latched outward from his rune, like a tether of invisible force that crossed the space between them in silence. It wrapped around Pyrrha, almost gently in its embrace. It was loose and careful, like it was trying not to startle her.
Yet the sensation itself was anything but gentle.
She stiffened, breath hitching wildly as a chill seeped through her skin, into her muscles and bones. It was different from the crushing weight she had felt under Weakness before. This was a different sensation. Colder, and perhaps more invasive, drawing something deep inside of her out.
Jaune felt the effect on himself immediately.
Strength flowed into him explosively. It was an unmistakable feeling, reminding him of the sensation of spending rune fragments to raise a stat through the Nightmare system. That same sense of expansion and capacity widening. Yet, there was a crucial difference. This strength did not seem to settle as naturally. It felt layered on top of him, like energy wearing the shape of muscle and will rather than something truly born from his own soul.
Borrowed.
Stolen.
Plundered.
Pyrrha rolled her shoulder, wincing slightly. "That... certainly does not feel like Weakness," she said, voice steady but strained. "Instead of a... heavy blanket, this feels more like—like… a suction tube? I'm not sure how to really explain it."
She grimaced. "But it feels like something is being siphoned from me."
Ruby leaned forward sharply. "How do your stats look?"
Pyrrha nodded and raised her hand, summoning her interface. "All of them dropped."
She swallowed. "Aura, Will, Body. They are all at nine."
Jaune's eyes widened. He pulled up his own system window immediately.
.
[Jaune Arc]
[Rank: 1]
.
Aura: 11
Will: 11
Body: 11
.
Runes: 0
Rune Skills: [Weakness], [Plunder]
.
"Mine increased to 11 each." Jaune stated.
The room erupted.
"Nice, so it works as you said." Yang said flatly.
"You broke through the cap of 10 stats, which means it functions pretty much like an enhancement rune then." Weiss analyzed.
Blake, who had been quiet at the edge of the room, finally spoke. "But... ten percent?" she asked calmly, a little confusion emanating from her voice. "It only took ten percent?"
Everyone looked at her.
"I'm just saying... if Pyrrha's stats dropped from ten to nine, then that's a flat ten percent reduction," Blake continued. "Which means Plunder seems to only be able to transfer a fixed amount."
She tilted her head slightly. "That just seems… a little low. Especially for a meta rune."
Yang shrugged. "Blake's right. It's cool, don't get me wrong, but I was also expecting something a little more dramatic."
Ruby frowned. "Maybe it scales later?"
Jaune shook his head slowly. "No, since I don't have fine control over it yet, this means Plunder is operating at full output."
Weiss crossed her arms. "Then Blake is definitely right. It's a little underwhelming for a meta rune."
Nora bounced on her heels. "Hey, don't diss Jauney's rune. Maybe it's just warming up?"
Ren nodded thoughtfully. "Meta runes often reveal deeper behavior through interaction. Maybe there's something else you're missing?"
Jaune frowned, staring at the numbers hovering in his vision. The strength was there, undeniably so, but something felt incomplete. Off.
"Probably. Because... this doesn't feel completely right," he murmured.
He looked at Pyrrha. "Sorry, Pyr. Could you bear with me for one more thing?"
She hesitated only a moment before nodding. "Go ahead. I'm all for being a training dummy today."
Jaune inhaled and reached for Weakness, layering it with Plunder over her.
The rune answered eagerly and the effect was immediate and violent.
Pyrrha gasped, knees buckling slightly as a sudden oppressive weight slammed down on her. Her expression twisted as her body fought against the invisible suppression.
At the same time, Jaune's world exploded.
Strength surged,. even greater than before
His muscles tightened, and his aura flared instinctively as power flooded his system in a rushing wave that made his breath catch.
Jaune's system window updated mid surge.
.
[Jaune Arc]
[Rank: 1]
.
Aura: 13
Will: 13
Body: 13
.
Runes: 0
Rune Skills: [Weakness], [Plunder]
.
Pyrrha gritted her teeth and summoned her interface again, eyes widening.
"Seven," she said hoarsely. "All my stats are at seven."
Silence fell like a dropped curtain.
Six points.
Jaune stared at the numbers, heart pounding. Six whole points of difference between them. That was not just an advantage. That was straight up domination.
In a fight, this would be catastrophic.
Ren was the first to speak. "Rune synchronicity."
Weiss nodded slowly, eyes sharp. "Weakness suppresses twenty percent at parity. Plunder siphons ten percent baseline."
Ruby's voice was hushed. "And when the stats are suppressed, Plunder can steal what Weakness suppresses."
Yang whistled softly. "Whoa... now that is a meta rune."
Nora grinned. "You are eating the power that's being suppressed by weakness?"
Jaune felt dizzy.
This was it.
This was the interaction he had been missing.
Weakness did not destroy stats. It blanketed them. Buried them beneath enforced limitation. Plunder did not care whether power was active or suppressed. It only cared that it existed.
Together, they rewrote the flow of combat.
Suppress twenty percent, and steal ten percent naturally. Steal the suppressed twenty percent as well.
Thirty percent gone.
Thirty percent gained.
The sim room felt too small all of a sudden.
Jaune released both runes at once.
The tether snapped away. The crushing pressure vanished.
Pyrrha sagged in relief, drawing a deep breath as warmth returned to her limbs. "Okay," she said faintly. "That was… a lot."
Jaune felt the borrowed strength drain away, leaving him slightly hollow and unsteady. His stats slid back into place, familiar limits reasserting themselves.
Ruby let out a breath she had not realized she was holding. "That's amazing!"
Yang laughed, a little breathless. "Yeah. Remind me not to fight you when you are serious."
Weiss stared at Jaune with something close to reverence. "That's… obscene!"
Ren nodded slowly. "In combat scenarios, that difference would decide battles instantly."
Oscar swallowed. "Is that even fair?"
Nora clapped her hands together. "Fair is overrated."
Jaune barely heard them.
He stood there, one hand cupping his chin, eyes unfocused as his thoughts raced.
Pyrrha stepped closer, concern softening her expression. "Penny for your thoughts?"
Jaune exhaled slowly.
"I still feel like I am missing something," he said. "There is another layer to this. Something I'm not seeing yet."
He glanced inward, toward the quiet presence of Plunder coiled within his soul.
Ren hummed for a moment then came up with a suggestion. "You can apply Weakness to multiple opponents at once right? Maybe try that with Plunder too?"
.
.
AN: This is where Jaune finally becomes overpowered.
Advanced chapters are available on patreon.