Winter Break 24

Jaune was busy being slapped around by his family and continued to get back up every single time to try again. His swordsmanship was constantly improving along with his Aura control.

He had managed to reach Level 2 with his Advanced Aura Control and was able to make small, 2ft, Aura Constructions in the shape of Grimm's Bane. He even made an Aura Construction of a standard-sized Heater Shield although it was rather weak. The more compact he made it, the less strain was put on the construct.

Alongside improving his Aura Control, Jaune got his Swordsmanship and Shield Proficiency up to Level 25, earning him 2 new abilities.

[Intermediary Swordsman: Increase all damage made with Swords by 15%]

[Intermediary Shieldsmanship: Decrease damage received when blocking with Shields by 15%.]

"At least it isn't beginner proficiencies," Jaune thought as he continued to train with his family in fierce combat.

The night he gained the new abilities was just as fun for Jaune. He continued to train his abilities like a madman, growing addicted to the feeling of rapidly growing stronger.

After dinner, he joined his girlfriend in the workshop. While forging with Ruby, they discovered they could increase their Skill Proficiencies by making Ingots out of their failed creations.

Within the couple days since they started this training, they increased their Blacksmith Level to level 75 and 90 earning them both a Perk.

Jaune received the Journeyman Blacksmith Title while Ruby got the Master Blacksmith Title. 

[Journeyman Blacksmith: Increase all parameters of created objects by 30%; Decrease Forge Time by 25% for a single piece of work per day.]

[Master Blacksmith: Increase all parameters of created objects by 50%; Decrease Forge Time by 35% for a single piece of work per day.]

Jaune and Ruby noticed a decline in Exp for the things they were crafting, the higher the Proficiency Level, the more demanding the grind became.

They also brought their Dust Symbology up to level 10. They were anxious to see what Perk would be granted when they reached a Proficiency Level of 25.

The days passed and before they knew it, they had spent 10 days at the Arc household. Jaune only stopped excessively training on the last day to spend time with his family and team.

He showed them around the village to which they discovered was full of goodies they had never seen before. It was like the Arc family had produced more interesting things than Atlas.

What surprised Weiss the most was the fact that the Arc Sisters seemed to own their own business. 

"Wait, so all of the Arc sisters own a company here in town?" the Heiress replied with a shocked expression.

Jaune nodded his head, "Yeah, Saphron, Noire, and Violet are all co-owners of the local Hunter's shop; Arc's Hunting Goods and Fashions. Ash owns a grocery outlet Soulfoods. Amy owns the Hunter's Den; the most famous bar and Inn at Domremy. Claire owns a transportation company; Crescent Moon Shipping. Lastly, Rouge owns the local library; Arc's Emporium of Books and Tomes."

Everyone was a little shocked. Nobody realized that Jaune's family was so, well off.

With a smaller community of like-minded individuals, and the Arc's teaching, funding, and resources aiding them, even Weiss had to admit that there were some very high-end shops at Domremy able to earn them quite a sum. 

Jaune's family wasn't Weiss-Level Rich, but he certainly wasn't poor by any standards.

For instance, the Hunters Goods and Clothing shop that sold Dust Symbol enhanced clothing. The Dust they imported from the nearby mines were top quality, even the rarer types of Dust were sold much cheeper than what you'd find in Atlas. 

There were weapons, armor, traveling gear, clothing, and many different supplies that could aid Huntresses and Huntsmen in their quests, and since Domremy was on the frontier of the Grimm Lands, many Hunters pass through here to and from work.

Shaking off her disbelief, Weiss insisted that everyone buy new clothes for the snow they would have to deal with in Anima. As well as improve their current outfits with Dust enhanced clothing.

Everyone but Jaune was impressed at how quick the workers took measurements and prepared an outline of their Dust Symbols. Normally they would need to have Hunter Licenses in order to purchase Dust Enhanced Clothing, but since Jaune was the Heir to the Arc household, they put a rush job on their orders.

Weiss saw how they treated Jaune and how uneasy he was with their attitudes. They treated him, well, like Weiss was treated on a daily bases back home.

Girls threw flirtatious glances at him constantly. However, she could only see the same desire, greedy, and lust-filled stares that people gave when they were interested in status rather than a person's personality.

Ruby, needless to say, grabbed Jaune's waist and hissed. Yes, you read that right, she hissed at the other girls. 

[A/N: Honestly, I could see Ruby getting possessive over Jaune like this since she'd do the same for Crescent Rose.]

Blake could only shake her head. However, it didn't seem that she was offended by Ruby's actions, only a little displeased over the fact Ruby wasn't hissing properly.

Ruby then dragged Jaune off to look at the weapons and army displays.

Yang was checking out the clothes and enjoying the fashion-style Violet had. She still couldn't believe that Jaune was her twin. The fact that Jaune's fashion sense was a little lacking, she had set her expectations rather low for what she could expect from Violet's work.

Pleasantly surprised by the selection, she looked over to Jaune and shook her head as she thought, "I'm glad he grew out of that phase, actually. The images of the memories I got of Older Future Jaune I could tell he wasn't that badly dressed. Must have been a late bloomer, or at least he got some help."

The blond brawler then gave him a once over, "Well, at least he's dressing well know."

Nora was looking at the heavy weapons and explosive for her grenades while Ren was gathering the supplies they would need for the journey to Kuroyuri.

Pyrrha was looking through the Hunters catalog for Symbols and trying to decide what to add to her armor.

Ruby and Jaune explained that they weren't high enough level to alter everyone's equipment with Symbology. In fact, the apprentices at the Hunters Shop were at a much higher proficiency level when it came to enhancing their their gear, Jaune's sisters included.

The two Faunus and Weiss were looking through some Dust Ammo selections. Sun wanted to go buy the bananas Ash grew but chose to stand by Blake and even purchased some Shotgun rounds. Although, Jaune swore he saw her pinching Sun's arm a few times.

After shopping around for a while, everyone's orders were done and they all changed.

Jaune upgraded his Light-Armor set with several Reinforcement Symbols made with Earth and Metal Dust.

Ruby changed into something that seemed close to what she wore when they traveled as team RNJR, the top was a thin white long sleeve with a high collar, a black and red corset/dress, black rose pattern tights, and long boots. She also wore a thick bear fur cloak under her signature red cloak.

Yang wore a long yellow coat with fur around the collar, with a single long flap that covered her bottom and draped to the back of her knees. For pants, she wore long tight jeans that accented her hips, a pair of leather long boots and lastly a pair of tan gloves.

Weiss wore a long dress with a slit down the side, a long white and green jacket that had fur on the inside, as well as a White Fox Atlassian round-style hat. For boots, she wore long knee-high boots that had more fur around the top

[By Atlassian, I mean a Russian-styled round fur hat.] 

Blake wore a thick grey cloak over white long coat jacket. She had black jeans and knee-high black boots. She even decided to wear a ninja mask that she could easily remove and let hang around her neck like a scarf.

Pyrrha had on a long bronze jacket that had a red stripe running along the zipper. It reached the back of her knees and fur around the collar. The rest of the outfit was rather simple, black jeans, leather gloves, and knee high combat boots.

Ren wore a long black and green cloak over long sleeves Anima styled shirt that had two flaps for the front and back. His arms and hands had a set of thin, black, archer gloves that had a pink pearlescent gradient near the finger tips. His pants were grey and his boots black with the same gradient pink glow around the tips of the toes.

Nora wore a long bright pink hooded coat with fluffy fox fur on the inside. Underneath, she wore a form-fitting winter sports shirt and pink jeans. Her boots had small hearts on the tip of their upper toe, and lastly, Pink fingerless gloves that had heart cutout around the cuff.

Everyone left satisfied, they went from place to place checking out the various sites that the small village of Domremy had to offer.

Blake went off to check out the library, Yang wanted to check out the Hunter's Den she even dragged Pyrrha along, Ren and Nora went off to eat local cuisine. Ruby and Jaune were left alone to walk about and even stopped by a few food shops.

After checking out some of Jaune's favorite views they sat around a lake and spent the rest of their time cuddling with some light making out.

This was Jaune's last day to train, and when he returned, he was met with his family holding their weapons and armor.

Even his mom was in full gear, and not her back up sword that she took on her hunt, she was wearing light armor with patches of steel woven into the fabric, a breastplate, as well as sectioned plate around the top of her gloves, arms and shoulders. A long dress split at the center of her waist revealing a chain mail that reached her ankles. She had on metal boot leggings that were knee-length and sectioned to provide maximum mobility.

At Gwen's hip was two swords, one was the same sword he offered to improve, it was a simple gun-sword with two barrels on each side of the blade's fuller. Crocea Amour, Yellow Love.

Her real weapon was called Clair De Lune or the Moonlight Trident. This long trident had three spiraling drill prongs at the end and could turn into a fully automatic rotating triple barrel sniper rifle. 

Using .950 Calibur bullets, this behemoth of a gun was no joke. It used 240 grains of high purity Fire Dust to push a 2,400-grain bullet 2,100 feet-per-second and is capable of firing 30 rounds in 3.75 seconds.

Ruby began geeking out as she stared at the weapons, but before she could ask, Gwen said that this was a bit of a family tradition, Jaune needed privacy to prepare their little gauntlet.

Jaune was promised to record the whole thing. It's just where they had to go was a private sight that belonged to the Arc Clan and tradition dictated that only an Arc may step inside.

It was a small shrined dedicated to their ancestor Julius Arc. Inside was an old-school combat arena, only practice weapons and a wide-open dirt pit surrounded by walls that smelled of dry blood and sweat.

With his parents finally letting him use Crocea Mors and the Pale Moon Shield, Jaune equipped his gear before facing her father with a more confident stance.

Jaune stood across from Lance with his sword pointed over his shield, his stance was firm, and Lance could see that Jaune's form was flawless.

"So this is the self-made style you bragged about yesterday?" Lance pulled out his sword, Crocea Secace, Yellow Sequence.

The sword was a long sword, around a half foot bigger than Crocea Mors, the guard was in the shape of a golden cross and the hilt was had a rounded pommel and wooden grip.

Jaune then saw his father's shield, Gibbous Moon.

The shield was slim, only about three arms lengths wide, and long enough to reach his shoulder, it was sectioned at his wrist, elbow, and shoulder.

Jaune stared his father down as Lance took the traditional stance of the Arc form of Swordsmanship.

Jaune pressed his feet forward and dug his heels into the ground. His legs flex as he focused his Aura into the tips of his toes and he readied himself to strike at a moment's notice.

Lance held his sword back with one hand and activated his shield's buckler formation.

His shield shifted into a round shield that was rested just above his forearm and had the Arc Symbol painted on it.

Without any grandstanding, the blond knight lept forward and stabbed out from behind his shield. 

Lance grinned as he pulled his arm in and slapped away Jaune's sword. However, when he did, he found that Jaune's sword ended up on the inside of his arm and was now charging at him with a shield.

Jaune pressed a switch on the shield's grip and caused his 8 Sheaths to spread out to the sides and take the shape of a tower shield.

Lance raised his foot up and kicked himself off of Jaune's tower shield and back flipped through the air while pressing a switch on his sword.

The Sword shifted from blade to spear as he struck down at Jaune's head. The moment he swung, small jets of Aura shot out three indents near the blade. Like a rocket, Crocea Secace exploded with great force.

Reacting quickly, Jaune dropped his shield into the ground and pulled out his pistol.

He fired half a dozen rounds from behind the cover of the Pale Moon Shield and managed to force Lance stop his attack to knock away all the bullets with rapid stabs and swings of his spear.

When lance landed on the ground, he twisted the end of the Crocea Secace pommel and changed it into a great axe before swinging it at Jaune with all of his might.

Jaune picked his shield up and placed it to the side of the blow while pointing his gun at Lance's head.

Lance quickly responded by placing up his own shield and the two took each other's blows.

A loud clang echoed out as Lance felt a powerful impact against his buckler. While the Aura shot push the Arc Patriarch's arm back, Jaune's shield arm felt like it was struck by thunder and his feet dragged across the dirt by five feet or so.

Lance grinned before pushing his pommel in and switched the great axe to a great sword.

"How many forms does that weapon have?" Jaune thought, "I guess it isn't called Yellow Sequence for nothing."

Jaune picked up his sword and placed it into fire sheath. He then tapped a switch on his shield to transform it into his greatsword form.

He placed the sword by his side, his entire body exposed but set up for a single powerful swing, a true all or nothing stance.

Lance placed his arms up with his sword tightly in his grips. His front foot crept forward as he started to close the distance between their areas of reach.

The moment they overlapped, Jaune focused his Aura causing brilliant flames to erupt in the outward direction he was swinging. The jets inside Lance's great sword helped him increase the swing's descent as he ran a single hand down to the bottom of his pommel.

The teenage Arc couldn't help but think that his father looked like a master woodsman cutting a log.