[Mistral]
As the Bullhead hovered over the massive forest, I did not hesitate to jump from it. Using the Hardlight dust in my shield to create a pseudo parachute, I slowed my fall before landing with a loud noise.
Enough noise to announce my presence to anything in the forest, just as I wanted.
Salem tended to move secretively for the sake of efficiency, just like Ozpin. That meant that the sudden arrival of an unknown would cause whichever agent she sent to either kill or steal the Summer Maiden to panic, since they would be under orders not to expose themselves too much. That Panic would lead to mistakes that I could exploit for an advantage.
Of course, this is all assuming that the Summer Maiden is indeed under attack. If she had instead decided to run away like the Spring Maiden from my time, then all of this planning would have been for naught, and I would have traveled all this way for nothing.
But I knew my luck better than anyone, and I knew that anything that can go wrong will go wrong in my vicinity.
Taking no chances, I immediately activated my Semblance.
Aura flooded my senses and amplified them to levels that even a Faunus with the most sensitive senses in the world would be jealous of.
When my Semblance had first evolved into its current form, I had thought that the Ever After had finally managed to corrupt me completely. It was only after panicking for a whole hour that I remembered that one class from Oobleck mentioned that Semblances sometimes evolve and become stronger. To be fair, though, I was partially insane at that time, so I might have overreacted to the new situation.
When a Semblance evolves, it becomes a stronger version of itself while also keeping its former power. Just like with Ren, where his semblance, which involved muting the emotions of himself and those around him, evolved into allowing him to literally see emotions.
My semblance evolved in a similar way. While before, it was only capable of amplifying the Aura and Semblances of others, it is now capable of amplifying literally anything about myself and others that I choose.
Pain filled my chest, remembering the last few moments I spent with my friends before I shook my head and concentrated.
As the seconds ticked by, I slowly tuned out the ambient sounds of the forest, searching for any sounds or scents that were foreign to the ecosystem. And sure enough, I felt it.
A gentle wind carried with it the ever-familiar scent of blood and the distant sound of clashing weapons.
Flooding my body with Aura, I increased my overall abilities by several folds before shooting in the direction with speeds that would make Ruby from her first year at Beacon look slow.
All the while, I kept a careful grasp over my Aura, making sure not to overdo it and expose myself to the enemy before I ambushed them. My semblance became very flashy after evolving, giving off light like an electric bulb in a dark room. Fortunately, it only happens when I really get serious and amplify myself past a certain limit.
In a few short seconds, I had already arrived at the source of the noise to find a massive Grimm that looked like an amalgamation of a Beowolf, an Ursa, and a Beringel fighting two women, one of whom looked extremely injured.
Without wasting time observing the woman, I charged the Grimm.
But somehow, the damned thing sensed me and turned around, making my sneak attack lose its lethality. Still, I managed to plunge my sword right through its massive Gorilla-like arm, causing it to thrash about in pain and fling me from its body.
"I'll distract it, head south-east. There is a Bullhead waiting there."
"W-Wha? We can fight-"
I did not turn around as the sound of a blunt object hitting flesh rang out behind me, followed by the noise of a pair of feet running from the location. Judging by how heavy the footfalls were, whoever was running must be carrying the other woman with them.
Now, with no one to care about, I can fight without distractions.
However, the strange Grimm did not even attempt to fight me and tried to jump over me, probably to follow the Maiden and her partner.
Of course, I would not allow something like that.
Taking advantage of its leap, I flooded the sword with Aura and slashed upwards, creating a blade of Aura that slashed through the thick hide of the beast and spilled its guts.
While this Grimm was a tough one, it was still nothing compared to the monsters of the Ever After.
Showcasing the tenacity of its species, the Grimm still stood up, albeit on wobbly legs, and turned towards me.
'Must….Capture…Girl. No….Distractions'
Shock and horror ran throughout my body as I finally realized just what I was facing as the beast once again tried to turn towards the direction of the escaped woman, still trying to carry out its mission.
This thing, it was like the Hound that kidnapped Oscar, the thing that Ruby told me about before we made that bridge from Atlas to Vacuo.
My shock and horror were soon replaced with rage and disgust.
If Ruby were caught during Atlas, or back during the fall of Beacon, would this have been the fate awaiting her?
I could already see the wound I gave it starting to heal as its black flesh started to knit itself closed.
I'll need to destroy its core, the unfortunate person inside it, to kill the beast.
"…I am sorry, whoever you were, you did not deserve this. May you rest in peace."
I plunged my sword back into the scabbard and activated its other form.
The sheath expanded, its sides projecting bladed edges made of hardlight dust. Transforming it into a massive Claymore.
The monster, sensing danger, tried to turn back and attack me, but failed as my blade plunged straight through its head, thanks to my amplified body surpassing anything that it had ever faced.
Finally, the beast stopped and started to fade, revealing a human woman with silver eyes just like Ruby but with white hair.
Judging by how her body was nothing more than patches of skin and a skeleton from below her neck, she must have been inside that monster's husk for a long time now, possibly a decade or more.
Turning my sword back into the Sword and sheath combo, I headed toward the direction that I sent the woman in while calling out to the Bullhead pilot.
"Juniper here, area secure. Shoot flare to share your landing site."
"Copy that. Sending out Flare. You better get here fast, Sir."
"What happened? Mason?"
"Sir, one of the women appears to be dying and…Do you know who you just saved?"
"Negative. But I'll see when I get there."
"Copy. Over and Out."
The moment I disconnected the call, a flare shot into the air, giving me the exact location of the Bullhead that Ironwood sent to retrieve me and the Maiden once my mission was complete.
Once again, I amplified my body and shot towards the direction, arriving at the location in a few seconds time, only to feel shocked for what felt like the hundredth time today.
Mason, the pilot of my Bullhead, had a sword pointed at his neck by a black-haired, red-eyed, beautiful woman. But it was her uncanny resemblance to Yang that exposed her true identity.
Raven Branwen, the bandit queen.
Suppressing my rage, I turned away from the situation and tried to look for the other woman who was presumably the Summer Maiden.
The only reason I did not cut down this coward and traitor where she stood was because of the simple fact that Yang would never forgive me for dirtying my hands with her worthless blood.
Despite trying to find the other woman, I found nothing, leading me to have no choice but to confront Raven.
With a swing from my amplified body, I directly shattered her blade, then I attacked her midsection with a palm strike. Then, I targeted the Dust sheath that she used to forge her swords and struck it with another palm strike while also flooding it with Aura, imitating Ren's martial arts.
The sheath promptly exploded as the many different types of Dust stored inside the sheath activated at once and detonated like a bomb.
Raven did not even have the time to shout in pain before her Aura shattered completely, and she went limp on the ground.
"What happened? Mason."
"She tried to use her semblance to take away the other woman with her. Since our mission was to bring them back to Beacon, I could not let her do that, so she threatened to kill me if I did not comply with her."
Huh? That does not make sense. Unless….
"…You locked the doors to the med bay with your biometrics, didn't you?"
"Of course I did, sir, I know who that woman is, and there was no way I was allowing her to touch the mission objective."
…You know what? I like this guy's instincts.
"Good work, Mason. Open the Med bay, I'll heal the woman. As for Branwen here, use the Aura suppressors and inform Ironwood that we'll be bringing back a criminal with us."
"Yes, Sir."
Stop with that salute. I am not some Specialist! Wait, technically, I am a Specialist since that is what Ironwood registered me as in my Huntsman profile, so that I would have Diplomatic immunity. Still, don't salute!
Keeping my face stoic so as not to reveal my discomfort, I opened the unlocked door to the med bay and nearly fell to the floor in horror.
Is this 'Shock Jaune into an early grave' day?
Sleeping on the med bay with painkillers and saline dripping into her veins was a woman who looked exactly like Ruby, except that she looked older and tied her hair together instead of cutting it short like Ruby.
Combined with the weapon leaning against the wall that looked like an Axe with a Mecha shift function, which matched the descriptions of what Ruby used to tell me about back in Beacon, there was no need for me to even see the Huntress ID displayed on the computers that were monitoring her Vitals.
Without wasting any time, I immediately got to work and placed both my hands on her stomach, which looked like someone had carved out a large chunk of her flesh with a rusted sword. Flooding her body with my Aura.
I separated my Aura into two segments, one focused on reinforcing and supercharging her Aura, while the other part worked on amplifying her physical body's natural regeneration. By the time I am done, she will probably still have scars, although they will barely be noticeable.
"….You are not leaving your daughters this time, Summer Rose. I will not allow it."
I will not allow my friends to go through that grief again. This is an Arc's promise.