Chapter 18 - Penalty Quest

– Ruined Fortress –

Jaune awakens in a destroyed fortress. But not just any one, he recognizes it as the fortress he fought Iron in! He looks around seeing nothing but desert around him. Only this time he has reinforcements fro what he is about to endure. He goes to summon his army but gets a notification.

~Due to Salem's influence the skill standing army is locked, and the Penalty Quest has become an A ranked Dungeon. Prepare yourself Player Jaune I am fighting back against her influence, survive for 2 hours and I should be able to extract you from the Penalty zone. Use all your powers you can to survive, she will no doubt be aiming for you will all the A ranked Grimm she can.~

Jaune huffs in annoyance and, with a hint of fear clouding his mind, he begins to panic a bit. He then remembers how he promised his friends he would be back, so with a new steeled resolved, and focused will,he then brings up his stats to see what he can use to help him survive.

Level 125

Exp: 93%

HP: 150,000/150,000

AP: 62,500/ 62,500

Fatigue: 0/100%

Class: Master of Knights

Stats:

STR: 170 (+50) (+16 ally boost)

AGI: 170 (+25) (+16 ally boost)

VIT:170 (+40) (+16 ally boost)

INT: 280 (+16 ally boost)

SENSE: 170 (+15) (+16 ally boost)

Points available: 61

Current shop points: 108,251 points

Physical dmg resistance: +47%

Skills:

-???- : ?????

Inheritor: Access to system, over level 20 access to shop

Knight Master: +1 to all stats per ally under users command

(Locked Skill)

Standing army II: Gain ability to summon an army of knights under the users command, points available 2/280, basic unit lvl 48: 12 (6 sword, 4 bow, 2 healer) (4 pts per), commander units lvl 46: 2 (1 Great knight, 1 Sniper) (25 pts per), heroic unit lvl 58: 2 (Iron, Baruka) (90 pts per)

Commander Units:

Great Knight (Passive: +5% to all ally melee units dmg, stacks with other commander abilities)

Sniper (Passive: +5% to all ally ranged units dmg, stacks with other commander abilities)

Heroic Unit Baruka Title Holder: Baruka Master of the North

Heroic Unit Iron title holder: Iron the Shield of the Light

Arc Bloodline: +400 to AP per level

(Locked Skill)

Expert sword arts lvl 4: 11 times dmg with swords

Unarmed Combat Expert lvl 3: times 10 dmg with unarmed blows

True Warriors Aura lvl 6: +60 to Str, Agi, and Vit for however long this aura is active, heals 1400 HP per minute, cost: 1000 for activation, additional 100 per minute used.

Knights Rallying call lvl 6: +30 to all stats of every person you recognize as an ally within 200ft of user, Lower the physical abilities of foes by 30 points within the area of effect. Costs 1000 AP, lasts 5 minutes.

White Knight Body Armor Rank A:

+15 str

+15 vit

+11% physical dmg reduction

White Knight Gauntlets Rank A:

+10 str

+5 sense

+8% physical dmg reduction

White Knight Sabatons Rank A:

+10 vit

+5 agi

+8% physical dmg reduction

White Knight Basic Helm Rank A:

+10 sense

+10 agi

+5% physical dmg reduction

Rank S Crocea Mors (Seal level 4)

Bonuses: +320 to dmg

+25 str when equipped

+15 vit when equipped

+10 agi when equipped

+15% reduction to physical dmg when equipped

Jaune huffs at the lack of development his skills have had but he notices that his level is close to a growth. As he says this he notices a timer appear showing.

2:00:00

1:59:59

1:59:58

1:59:57

Jaune then readies his blade and shield as he sees the time count down before he hears a roar sound out from the fortress and sees a shadow blade appear on the top of the wall. It roars out and charges Jaune while summoning up a light fog to disorient him. However having seen this pattern of attack before Jaune activates his aura skill to boost himself. He rushes forward and attacks the shadow blade.

It tries to block him with a rotation of its torso creating its blender attack but Jaune saw it coming and leaps over it, cutting through its head right down the middle. Jaune lands while smirking as he says, "Damn, that was eas-!"

He is shocked to see the Shadow blade Grimm suddenly have shadow tendrils come out of each side of its split skull and stitch itself back together as the tendrils merge the skull shut once more. The Grimm roars out from its repaired head and turns to attack Jaune once more. Jaune sweats from seeing that realizing he is dealing with a true A ranked Grimm, one who has unlocked regeneration. Jaune thinks to himself while dodging another flurry of blades from the Shadow Blade, Okay so simply cutting through the brain area won't kill it. So I guess I'll need to dismember it. Otherwise I ain't surviving this!

Jaune pushes himself to use all his strength as the Shadow Blade comes in to try and tear him apart. He ducks under its next slash and strikes its legs managing to cut off the left one. Jaune turns quickly after running past it to see it use the inner arms on its middle area to make it balance like a four legged animal. It roars out despite the loss of balance as it charges Jaune. Rushing at him like a rhino it readies its blades, but as Jaune readies his own stance to intercept its charge his senses pick up something else behind him and he leaps off the wall.

Right after he does so, he hears a loud crash as something demolished the section of wall he was just on.

He looks back after landing to see the Shadow blade is currently reattaching its severed leg and it has a new friend. An adult Goliath with a heavy looking mace ended trunk as its main weapon along with spiked tusks.

Jaune sighs as the Goliath trumpets, "It's like she isn't even trying to hide the fact that she wants me dead when she mutates the Grimm this way. I wonder if this thing has a healing factor as well? Only one way to find out."

He readies his sword and shield again as both Grimm creatures leap from the wall and crash near him. The Goliath in front and the recently healed Shadow Blade behind. Both Grimm growl and snarl at him as he eyes the Goliath and keeps his senses on full blast to avoid losing track of the sneakier Grimm.

Jaune prepares his shield to face the mace end of the Goliaths bone weapon while keeping his sword arm loose and ready to counter either Grimms attack.

The Shadow Blade charges first with its claws coming down on Jaune's head. Jaune turns rapidly and manages to block the claws only to gasp as he sees the Grimm forcefully turn its blade arms against their normal joints to make them reach around and try to stab him from behind. While continuing to block the claws he brings his sword around and sweeps the blades aside successfully while also beginning to push back against the Grimms full bulk. As he pushes though he hears and feels the Goliath has taken his distraction chance to come rushing up full tilt at his unprotected back. Jaune grits his teeth at this then realizes that the Shadow Blade is doing its best to push back against him as well. It seems to have a plan to keep him pinned then jump at the last minute as it is a flank type fighter instead of a tanker like the Goliath. With a smirk at figuring it out Jaune pushes at it's strength level keeping himself from getting too tired right as the Goliath reaches them and begins to bring its mace trunk weapon down to crush Jaune.

Jaune suddenly tips back on his feet catching the Shadow Blade off guard as it still has a grip on his shield. He grabs the claws and flips it backwards over himself right into the path of the incoming mace head. The Shadow Blade is crushed under its own allies attack as Jaune rolls away in time from the blow. The Goliath flinches a bit after ending it's allies existence and looks for Jaune. Only to find Jaune standing 10 ft from it and readying his sword with a pulsing amount of aura coating his blade. The Goliath charges at him to try and take him out before the young knight could take him out. Soon though Jaune had charged his attack and unleashed the skill at the Goliath. A large wave of pure white Auric energy comes flying out and meets the mace head and tusks of the Goliath, it struggles against the natural bone weapons for 3 seconds before cracking them and slicing clean through them. The Goliath is bisected from the attack and Jaune pants a bit at the huge cost of Aura. But the Goliath slides in half its top away from its chest and legs as it fades away.

He pants a bit while trying to regain his breath while also trying to recover some stamina and aura points. He checks the timer to see that fight didn't last as long as he thought causing a bit of frustration to well up inside.

1:51:32

"Ugh okay, I am getting stronger, but I have to wonder what else there is for me to have to survive against. I doubt Salem would send two A- ranked Grimm at me and call it good."

Right after he says that he suddenly feels a chill rush up his spine as he looks at the other end of the courtyard and sees large humanoid shape standing large and tall while glaring at him with bright red eyes. It stands close to 40ft tall. Jaune gulps as he recognizes this creature from a textbook about forgotten Grimms, it is the Titan Grimm. He goes into his stance as he says, "I hate it when I'm right about these types of situations."

The Titan Grimm is a powerful A rank bordering A+ rank, it is said that if one can fight it and kill it on their own they are a powerful elite level Hunter. But the powers of this Titan are very annoying and its size and strength makes it a hard fought kill. It is a solid 40ft tall walking fortress with muscles so strong and large they can crush Atlesian paladin mechs with ease. Huge red carapace armor covered it from head to toe and makes it look like a large bipedal crab creature. Its large forearm shields can also shift and change to cover its fists like large armored boxing gloves and it can also bring them around as make shift shields should it require it. The final straw that makes it so annoying to deal with would be how it has a more powerful ability to the Shadow Blade. It can regenerate its body even if it was split in half. As long as you don't completely separate it or destroy the slashed body piece, it can stitch itself back together.

Jaune huffs as that last piece of information hits him from his memory, it will be tougher to fight this thing than even the Shadow Blade and Goliath combination. In that fight the Shadow Blade was swift, deadly, and could regenerate, but its strength and defense was its lacking point. The Goliath was the opposite, strength and defense in spades, but no regeneration and slow moving. Compared to them this Titan was a huge upgrade. It had defense and strength, stamina, higher regeneration, and more deadly weapons than either of the previous Grimm. The only weakness he could see on it was the slowness of its body and the gaps in its armor that he could slash through.

Jaune readies another aura crescent like what he just used on the Goliath. The Titan rears its arms over its head and has its two large forearm shield guards form into twin kite shields ready to block the incoming attack. Jaune pumps a bit more power into his blow before letting it loose. The arcing wave of energy flies off at 30ft long from tip to tip and hits it square in the shields. The Grimm roars in effort to fight against the blow before an explosion of darkness and light goes off.

Jaune is flung back and uses the momentum to dash even further away from it before looking back at it after gaining a solid 50ft from the giant. However what he was hoping for didn't look done. It was injured, there was no doubt about that. But the damage had been mitigated somehow by a shadow aura over its shields. The shields themselves had a large horizontal cut in them surrounded by so many cracks in it, that it was a wonder on how the shield was still in one piece. But the answer soon comes in the form of bad news for Jaune he gasps loudly as the shadow tendrils of regeneration come out and mend the large cracked gash in the Titan. Once it's shields were back up and fully healed the Titan roars out in glee at having gotten one over on Jaune.

Jaune grunts in annoyance and slight fear at how he will take this high powered Grimm down before glancing at the clock again.

1:47:25 Remaining

Jaune felt like slapping himself to avoid being a dummy at his own impatience, he just began this fight. Of course the timer wouldn't have lost that much of its remaining time with that short exchange and the resulting explosion. Jaune knew he would have to play the long game with the Titan Grimm. Either he gets a chance to behead it and obliterate the skull, or he would fall to his own exhaustion and fall to the Grimm. And he made a promise to himself and his friends that he would always come back to them. Plus he knew he needed to make sure Pyrrha, Weiss, Yang, and Velvet had someone to hold after this was all over to show them he made it back safely to their loving arms. He couldn't let their reunion be him coming back as a corpse.

With a new determination and a fire glowing in his eyes, (literally), he was ready to go for a full round with the Titan. The large Grimm roared and began to take large thudding steps towards the puny huntsman who refused to run from its strength and ability. It raised its shields up to slam down on him as it charged as fast as it could to him. It reached him right as a white glow of his aura covered him for a brief moment as it slammed both shields down hard enough to make a crater with cracks reaching 60ft away from the crushing site. It raised its shields expecting to see a blood puddle but there was a lack of blood and body parts. It looked around noticing a fading dust trail from the dirt and sand in the courtyard as it turned to look behind itself to see Jaune had dashed between its legs and stopped on the other side with a new aura crescent slash charged up and ready for use.

The Titan grinned and stepped toward Jaune knowing its shields could withstand the blow before its knee gave out. It slumped to both of its knees only to look back and see both of its legs had been cleaved right off at the knee joint. It flinches as it realizes that Jaune hadn't just dashed under it, he had also taken the chance to use his blade technique to chop it up into chunks. It went to prepare some sort of defense but Jaune had already leaped up into the air to come down with his blade into its skull. It was cleaved from the top of its armored head, to the neck, but Jaune's blade didn't stop there. Pumping a steady flow of Aura he made his sword elongate into a 30ft long blade reaching the other side and poking out the back of the Titan.

He went down past the neck and down into its chest, he slowed down a bit as he hit the thicker armor plates of the torso but simply doubled his aura output to recover his speed of descent and cleaved all the way through. He ended by kneeling on the ground panting hard with his sword aura fading as he stopped feeding it. The Grimm fell to its left side… and its right side as it fell right in half into two pieces. Jaune bean charging up another blow as he knew what was coming. Both halves grew large shadow tendrils that began feeling around the two halves to regenerate itself once again. But Jaune was waiting for this moment.

With it's energy being directed to healing its defense shadow aura was down to minimum. He came around and slashed like a madman while running past each half making sure both halves, and all the tendrils, were minced.

His action done he cut off the aura blade and panted hard while looking at the now fading Grimm Titan.

He pulled up his HP and Aura.

HP: 133,320/150,000

AP: 34,600/ 62,500

1:21:11 Remaining

Jaune smirked to himself now knowing he had survived almost half the time needed to in the Penalty zone Salem made. But he was also concerned at how fast his Aura was draining. He was recovering quickly thanks to his high stats but it was almost down to half after only two fights with 3 A ranked Grimm.

He sighed as he heightens his sense stat to be maximum in case any other surprises were in store for him.

Right as he does so he suddenly sees a thick black fog encompass the entire courtyard and most of the fortress.

He looks around before hearing an echoing and creepy clicking sound. Like a large pair of bones was being hit against each other, only in a specific pattern. He prepares himself as he watches carefully and makes sure his sense stat is keeping its radar up.

He barely feels it in time as he jumps up to avoid a large bladed leg similar to the Wendigo but twice as large and designed like an actual bone blade this time instead of a bone spear.

He dodges the first one but while he was in midair another suddenly comes down and slams into him. Thankfully his A ranked armor and aura take the hit but it still drains him by a solid 2,000 points to block that fully. He rolls to his feet only to be hit by a spiked leg? Tendril? Mandible? It was hard to tell thanks to how fast and hard it hit. It felt like a serrated whip had hit him across his body and dug in deep into the exposed gaps in his armor.

He stumbles to his feet as another trio of attacks come in. He ducks the first this time, blocks the second, and deflects the third with his sword. Or so he thought, the minute the attack hit his sword it seemed to twitch on contact and wrap around his blade trapping him.

Jaune tugs to force it to release him but he is stopped when he notices the whip is connected to something in the fog that is now only 30ft from him, barely outlined thanks to his keen senses.

It was big. Very big, and at least 30ft tall, not as tall as the Titan but still intimidating. It seemed to have a large spiders body with 8 legs that all ended in large 7ft long large sword blades similar to serrated wo dao swords. The main body seems to be thin with only a few bone armor pieces in it. The real tricky part is how it seems to have two long arms and a pair of long spiked tendrils like the one wrapped around his sword currently. He can't make out any other details except that the head seems to be similar to a humans skull at this point.

Jaune can barely see any other details before one of the front legs comes around trying to slice him from behind. He leaps over it while kicking off the tendril that has his sword trapped while also charging his blade with aura. The trick works and he cuts through the tendril like a hot knife through butter. The creature lets out a disturbing warbled screech of pain from that as Jaune rolls back from the Grimm.

It goes back deeper into the black fog and Jaune heightens his senses once again.

He hears the clacking of its legs on stone, then a scrape of claws on metal from somewhere behind him. He quickly turns to that sound then glances to his left before ducking. He just barely avoids a trio of the creatures leg blades coming at him that would have shredded him into 4 pieces. Rolling forward from the duck he also dodges a slam from a pair of large clawed hands the Grimm apparently owns as well. It had tried to twin hammer fist him into the ground but he managed to get out of danger in time.

It draws its hands back into the fog right as Jaune charges his blade with more aura for an aura slash. But it withdraws too quickly, now he has a light hum coming from his sword, shocking him as he has never held onto a charge of the flying crescent slash, I think this might have a few… practical uses in battle. Especially for a power boost! But for now, I'll need it to survive!

He looks around as he hears its strange noises repeat around him before he sees the hulking shadowy form of the Grimm come closer. His senses scream at him to dodge as he quickly uses aura charged legs to leap to the side. Just in time to avoid a pair of the spiked tendrils from trying to skewer him from below. He looks to the shadow as he lands a bit away to see it was able to use the dark fog to hide its ability to shoot it's tendrils into the ground as underground spears.

It withdraws its attack once more and retreats into the fog again. Jaune clicks his tongue loudly in annoyance as the Grimm hasn't been able to land a clean hit on him but he hasn't been able to get a clean hit or view on it either. He decides to sheath his sword and put his shield into scabbard mode and reenact a scene from an anime he saw once, while keeping the crescent slash ready for immediate use.

The Grimm decides to change the strategy and try to intimidate him. It skitters all around him making Jaune's eyes dart back and forth trying to track it. When he hears it pass him for a third time without an attack coming for him he finally realizes its plan and decides to cut off all view and focus on his finely tuned senses from his stat. He listens, the skittering gets closer, he fights the urge to open his eyes and instead listens for its sounds, and even tries to keep track of the wind rushing past him. He even opens his senses out further to try and see if he can track its energy signature similar to how he tracks aura. It is rough but he eventually sees a huge black blob in his minds eye coming closer and closer to him as he hears it come closer.

It finally comes right behind him and raises on its back 4 legs.

Jaunes eyes snap open and he turns, only to see a huge gaping maw that is close to 15ft high opening up right behind him with a row of teeth on each side of said maw. He gulps nervously but continues his blade slash. The attack flies from his sword right into the Grimm and cutting into the open maw in front of him. It rears back with a disturbingly human like scream of pain that sounds like a wounded human who lost their leg.

He ignores the shudder of fear that image brings to his mind and notices the fog has stopped and is fading.

He finally gets a clear look at his attacker and recoils in disgust at it. It did look like a spider, the ends of each leg had that large blade on it and it had a humanized skull on it, but that is where it stops being familiar. The rest of it was like something from a nightmare. Its eye sockets had large spikes inserted into them acting as eye guards and also as extra weapons. It did have a pair of spiked tendrils, a pair of clawed hands, but also a pair of sharp pincers as well. Its skull could split into 3 lower jaw pieces to better rip and tear apart its meals. Then it also seems to have that large maw on its belly that was healing over from his intense hit. (For a clearer image look up RWBY: Team DARK Hunting the "Nightmare")

Jaune gasps remembering this Grimm being in a textbook similar to the Titan. This one was called the Nightmare, responsible for wiping out an entire team of fully trained hunter using its skills, tricks, combinations, and its ability to stealth kill effectively. In the book it was ranked as a solid A+ rank thanks to its healing ability and its annoying durability. Not from being able to tank attacks, but from being able to regrow entire limbs. The recommended way to fight it is to destroy the head as thoroughly as possible. The head is where its core energy source was.

However to do that Jaune had to reach it. And this thing probably wouldn't stand still so he could climb it and hack its head off.

As he pondered his dilemma the Nightmare growled and unleashed a fresh wave of pitch black fog from its maw. Flooding the area with its darkness. Jaune heightens his senses once again and readies another crescent slash charge before he suddenly yelps in pain as a tendril hits him from the front scratching his armor and his joints. He steadies himself before he gets a pincer around his middle from behind and looks back to see a second Nightmare bringing around its other limbs to capture Jaune and prepare to eat him as it lowers him to its belly to eat him whole.

He sees the other pincer, the two tendrils, and the twin clawed hands all reaching for him at once trying to keep him from fighting back. He grunts and charges his blade further swinging at all the limbs coming for him at once. The hands and tendrils are cleaved right off the bat while the pincer stops the blade but the blade leaves a large crack that almost breaks it off all the way.

The Grimm screeches out in pain from losing 4 limbs and almost a fifth. It goes to crush Jaune with its remaining pincer but it suddenly finds it can't close it's claw. It looks closely at Jaune and finds that he managed to bring up his scabbard and expand it to lock its pincer open. It raises two of its front legs to try and skewer Jaune but he prepares a surprise for the Grimm.

Jaune suddenly glows bright with his aura as the Grimm screeches in pain from the brightness of the light. As it rears back from the aura burst, Jaune surprises it again by turning his shield and flinging it up by a strap. It comes up in a deadly arc of sharpened white steel edge honed to a fine sharpness that cuts the pincer in half at the joint. Now freed from the Grimms grasp Jaune uses his new found freedom to charge up the stump as the Nightmare tries to finish its previous attack and stab into him with its front twin legs. However thanks to his speed Jaune manages to run up its body in time and make it to its back. The Grimm growls and calls out its friend with a distress roar as Jaune prepares his sword for another crescent aura cut. However he sees that the Nightmare had one more trick to play, as he brings his sword up to perform the cut he suddenly notices a long seam in the Nightmares back that begins to tremble.

Jaune delays his attack and simply charges it up in an Iaido style quick draw stance as he sees the seam begin to open up.

Only to once again be staring at a gaping maw filled with teeth as the seam snaps open all at once. Jaune gasps as he is without a solid footing to balance on and begins to fall into the mouth. The Grimm chuckles evilly before Jaune grins himself as the mouth swallows him and then suddenly closes on him with a loud and metallic snap.

The Nightmare hums in glee at his new meal, then suddenly chokes. It gurgles a bit then stumbles as its face morphs into a frown and it begins to look at its body. A long, pure white aura blade erupts from its stomach and swings back slicing it from stomach to rear. Then the blade comes up and around slicing through its whole back then finally down and through the skull completely. The Nightmare gurgles once more before it tries to reach back and get at Jaune. Only for its two halves to slide away from each other.

As each piece falls away and collapses to the ground Jaune is revealed panting hard from his sudden release. He falls to the ground safely while covered in some scratches from the teeth he just endured. He readies his sword as he uses his healing/boosting skill to aid his recovery. Looking around and sharpening his senses to the limit he notices the incoming Grimm that was aiming to help aid its fallen brother.

Jaune leaps up and over the charging blade museum and leaves a long aura blade in its path from where he leaped up into the air. It accidentally charges right into the blade and Jaune pours every ounce of aura he can spare into it to make sure to maximize the damage and ensure that it won't break. The Nightmare crashes right into the blade and bisects itself as it continues a good 50ft past the blade before falling into two pieces.

Jaune puffs out a huge burst of air as he falls and rolls onto the ground in partial exhaustion. He looks up his stats and the remaining time.

HP: 95,870/150,000

AP: 10,300/ 62,500

0:43:45 Remaining

Jaune huffs in annoyance at the slowness of the timer and his dwindling endurance as he also notices his growing fatigue from all the big and energy consuming moves he has had to pull off to stay alive.

Fatigue: 59%

Jaune looks around as he hears another growl, but this one seems sinister and more like a beast than the last few Grimm he has faced.

He looks around before hearing a quick gallop of clawed hooves coming at him from his left side. He quickly raises his shield only to be flung back from the force of the hit as he crashes into the wall of the fortress itself. He picks himself up and sees a rare and powerful monster of legend. A Nuckelavee! It was ranked as A++, borderline S rank, in the Grimm textbook from Ports class!

The powerful Grimm hisses out a large cloud of steam from both its humanoid mouth and its horse mouth. The Grimm stood at an astonishing 20ft tall. Its humanoid body on top with large horns similar to a pair of long demon horns, having its ribs opening and closing like a set of teeth, and a hardened breastplate on its chest. It's long 10ft long arms ended in hooked 4ft long fingers with bone plates and long claws on each digit. It also seemed to fuse to the horse body it rested on once you looked down at its hips. The horse, if it could even be called that, seemed to have a pure black shadow body with a partially revealed Grimm skull that made it seem like someone tried to skin it. Its body was well muscled and had large bone hooves on the back legs with a pair of clawed hooves on the front pair of legs. Both sets of heads were staring at Jaune with a rare look, unbridled hatred and hunger.

Jaune knew immediately that this Grimm was Salem's personally designed champion for her penalty quest. Especially since he felt personally attacked after Ren and Nora shared what happened to their village at the hands of a Nuckelavee Grimm. Jaune readied his sword, his aura, his passive healing skill, and stared the Grimm down while yelling, "You look a lot like a Grimm my friends suffered from! This just got personal! Get yourself ready you monster!"

The Grimm first cocks its head at a sickening angle that would have broken any normal persons neck. Before its mouth opened up and a raspy disgustingly human like laugh escaped its maw. Jaune shudders in disgust at the display before his eyes widen in fear and anger at it suddenly speaking, with Salem's voice once again. "To think you would actually manage to reach this final challenge in the penalty quest I made for you. You have grown stronger than I thought possible. You are a mere shadow of your previous user. But you are growing stronger. Which irks me."

The Grimm takes another 3 steps forward with its horse half huffing out black smoke to intimidate Jaune. He adjusts his stance while keeping an eye on its whole body. The humanoid head opens its mouth again to speak once more in that ethereal voice of Salem, "You are irking me! I actually have to put in effort to try and snuff out your life force! And I hate it when mortals such as you fail to fall to my efforts! So you can just die for me! Much like that village of Aura fist users I had another of my Nuckelavee creations destroy. These types of Grimm are hard to make but so efficient when you want mortals dead. They barely stood a chance. At least I was able to gain satisfaction when I took out their leaders. A pair of lovers or spouses or something."

Jaune freezes as he hears her tale before his head tilts down a bit remembering Ren and Nora's history, he then asks while his hair bangs cover his eyes in shadow, "What did you do to those 'mortals' that were husband and wife?"

Salem cocks the Grimms head to the side again before she laughs cruelly in sadistic glee, "Oh you want to know? Well I had my cute Nuckelavee creation take its time killing them. The wife went first, her screams as I had my Grimm slowly apply pressure with its front hooves was satisfying with every crunch of a freshly broken bone or the popping of an organ was music to my ears. Though it was sweeter to know her final words were in defiance to me saying something like, 'At least me son and daughter are safe' Then I got pissed off, mostly from being reminded of my daughters deaths and had the Grimm crush her skull under its hooves."

Jaune grits his teeth as both Salem and him fail to notice his eyes begin to waver and glow with the soul energy of the Monarch of Light.

Salem continues her trip down memory lane while tilting the Nuckelavee's head to the other side as her eyes glance to her left, "And her husband and surviving village members were so angry at me for doing that slow and painful death to her while they were recovering from their injuries that I had fun tearing them limb from limb. The husband was the most stubborn. Even after I had my darling Grimm bite off a leg and rip an arm from him. He still hobbled while pulling back an arrow with his teeth and holding his bow in his remaining arm. I won't lie, he was so like my husband Ozma… I hate Ozma! So I had the Nuckelavee endure the arrow to prove how useless his struggles were and then had his head ripped from his shoulders slowly and painfully. Like pulling and twisting a dolls head off to see inside. My what a fun day. I must thank you for that trip down memory lane. I wonder if I can find those brats that escaped. One had a streak of pink in his hair like his mother, while the other was an orange haired girl I believe. Maybe I can make them watch as I twist and pull the other apart one piece at a time? Oooooh! That would be fun!"

At this part Jaune finally loses all semblance of control he had as he roars out, a white tower of aura shooting out from his very being as his heart is glowing brightly from his chest. Salem's Grimm actually looks at him with wide eyes and a shocked expression that has grown slack jawed.

Suddenly the burst of energy comes out in a large wave of energy and slams into Salems Grimm vessel. Throwing the Nuckelavee back at least 50ft as Salem panics, "No! He couldn't have fully resonated with the Monarch! He is still too weak! He can't have! *gasp*"

She looks at Jaune as he is floating off the ground a good foot with his aura now a blazing aura around him as if he was standing in a bonfire. His eyes were pure white as he roars out and yells, "SALEM! YOU HAVE GONE TOO FAR NOW! TO HURT MY BROTHER'S FAMILY! TO THREATEN MY NEW SIBLINGS! AND TO PROMISE PAIN AND TORMENT ON THOSE I HOLD DEAR!"

Jaune whips his hair back and shows energy flames flowing out of his eyes as he glares so hard at Salem that she feels she should be ashes at this point, and he says quietly in a cold calculating fury, "THAT... is unforgivable."

Jaune launches himself forward while in midair right at Salem's host Grimm, she panics and swings her arms out to ward off the current holder of the one she fears. But Jaune saw the panicked move from a mile away and weaves right between the twin clawed arms and draws his sword. The sword while surrounded by the aura seems to have grown to be a full 6 and a half feet long with an interesting interlocked pattern on it pulsing with energy. The sword even when made up of aura seems to be solid and comes around with Jaune swinging it full force while boosted by all his available skills putting him at an undeniable 200+ on average. However unknown to Jaune thanks to his sudden connection to the full power of the Monarch his stats have temporarily reached 400+ on average. Salem's Grimm screams out a long and anguished cry of pain from the cut as Salem also feels the cut to her very core of her Monarch soul.

– Grimm Castle –

She pulls back from the Grimm on instinct with a loud scream of soul searing pain, as she collapses in her throne room with a smoking phantom of a cut across her body going from her bottom left hip to her upper right shoulder. She grits her teeth as the wound is slow to close thanks to the power of the Monarch of Light being infused with the cut. Salem stumbles to her throne to focus on recovering from the deep soul searing gash. She slumps into the throne and looks at her soul, gritting her teeth to see the damage done to her, Damn that brat! He is so young yet forced such a grievous wound on me! With this damage done to my Monarch soul I'll need to pull back all my influence and power back into myself to recover for at least a month straight! But fine! If I can't beat him with my Grimm pawns. Perhaps I shall use my mortal pawns and bishops on him! He will fall once everything he holds dear to himself is taken away piece by piece! Prepare yourself little false Monarch of Light! I will defeat you!

Salem orders her pawns to fully prepare themselves for the upcoming Vytal festival while she seals off her throne room and goes into a deep trance of healing for her soul wound for the next month or two.

– Back with Jaune –

He flies for a few feet after cutting the Grimm and falls to the ground. He pants hard while his body is suddenly drenched in sweat. Looking back as he picks himself up he sees the Nuckelavee is still standing, but with a lot of dark smoke escaping it as if its very being had been rattled to its core.

Getting up on shaky legs Jaune glances at his stats and time remaining.

HP: 71,120/150,000

AP: 1,800/ 62,500

0:23:45 Remaining

Fatigue: 79%

Whatever that was that took hold of him, cost him a lot in terms of energy to fight and his ability to defend himself. But he looks at the Nuckelavee as it shakily turns towards him and begins to pull itself together. It seems to be healing a little as some of the particles were returning to it and beginning to repair the damage of his last attack.

Jaune grunts as he gets back to his full height while still dripping sweat from the effort, but the Nuckelavee looks like it won't be giving him much of a break as he sees it finish its healing as it begins to flex its body. Jaune looks at the store and finds he is able to access it again. He grabs some aura potions and a health potion to fully recover himself briefly in the time he has to heal. Before he draws his blade and readies himself as the Grimm charges.

He misses a notification from the system as he counters its charge with a charge of his own. The Grimm roars out in challenge as Jaune comes at it.

The two clash and fling back from each other. Jaune finds it is naturally a little stronger than him by a good 20-40 points in all physical stats. But he quickly makes up the difference with his boosting skills. Soon the two fighters are dancing around each other. One lands a swift cut on the others shoulder. Their claws and armor clash and create sparks all over. Their main weapons grind against each other trying to break the other.

And after a good 5 minutes of non stop combat they break apart. Jaune is finally in the 80+% range of fatigue, while the Grimm is feeling the side effects of its rushed healing. They look at each other with eyes full of a promise to finish the other as they charge once more.

Jaune puts all his remaining aura into the blade while the Grimm channels some of its essence into its arms to double their size, length of claws, and their durability. Both fighters swing their weapons at the other hoping to kill the other.

The weapons swing and both fighters are now 15ft past each other. Jaune suddenly has a huge spurt of blood come out of his chest in an X shape. The Grimm grins as its claws are covered in blood but it then falters as its form suddenly seems to fall to the ground a good 3ft. It looks down only for its human head to fall off next. Following its horse legs that were removed at the knees. And soon more of it falls like a crumbling Jenga tower.

Soon the Grimm is in pieces and it is disintegrating. Jaune slumps to the ground seeing he only has 5 minutes left on the time now. He checks the notification he missed earlier.

~Due to the Monarch of Lights purifying slash, Salem was purged from the Penalty Quest! Now the system can keep her out of all future quests and dungeons for at least 2 months!

All skills unlocked!

All system features unlocked!

Can now summon army again!

I said you can summon your army!

Player Jaune!

Don't you want help?

Dang! Never mind! You had it!~

Jaune felt his eye twitch bit by bit as he sees how he had his army back but failed to notice due to being too focused on beating the Nuckelavee. He sighs in exasperation as he falls to the ground exhausted. "So I could have had backup in that final fight eh?"

He soon hears Iron's voice, "Yes sir my young master! But I figured to stay quiet and not interrupt your fight! After all you did learn some good moves from it and new ways to use your shield and powers!"

Jaune chuckles ruefully and says, "Please don't make a habit of that please?"

Iron pauses, making Jaune quirk an eyebrow, "No promises."

Even the system chimes in, ~Can't promise anything either. Depends on you.~

Jaune stares at the notification before slamming his head against the ground and smiling in surrender, "Eh… Fair enough."

He checks the remaining time and sees it go to the final countdown.

He chuckles as it reaches zero from his fatigue and imagining how his friends will react to his state of injury and exhaustion, as the fortress and the walls all fade away.

– RWBY Dorm –

Everyone was anxiously awaiting Jaune's return before a magic sigil appears, they all hold their breath as they see a familiar mop of blonde hair emerge from it. Soon everyone has smiles on their faces… that turn to horror as they see the rest of him emerge.

They see the large X shaped gash on his torso and his tired eyes, and how his aura has re-synced with their scrolls and is showing how he has barely 5% left. They see him begin to falter as they also see all the bruises he is covered in along with the smaller cuts and gashes all over his body. Not to mention the dents his high ranked armor has and the nicks his shield and sword now bear from all the hard fights he had.

He is about to slump to the ground before Yang and Pyrrha both rush up and catch him. As they lay him down Ruby and Weiss are removing his gear while Velvet gets to healing him of his wounds with her new beginner healing type magic.

Everyone is speaking in panicked tones and questions are flying at each other at a rapid pace. Jaune chuckles stealing their attention. They all look at him in worry before relaxing as they see his wound is closing thanks to Velvets efforts and they all begin to ask him what happened.

Weiss opens up and asks, "Jaune! What happened?! You're all torn up! Tell us you are going to be okay!"

Velvet is shaking while focusing her efforts on healing magic. Pyrrha is beside herself as she has Jaunes head in her lap to cushion him while petting his hair and is sniffling and sobbing at his current state of being. Yang is next to ask, "Tell us you are okay! Please! We need to hear it!"

Ruby and Ren have finished appraising his now torn up armor and shake their heads saying, there isn't much they can do to repair the armor at the moment. They might be able to salvage and re-purpose the remaining metal but it is too torn up and twisted to be repaired as is.

Soon everyone turns their focus on Jaune as he coughs out a bit of blood making them wince as he breathes a bit raggedly, but is slowly steadying his breathing as the healing continues. Jaune then smiles at them all, "I'm okay… Just tired..."

Pyrrha smiles through her tears and hugs Jaunes head against her own as she bends down to kiss all along his forehead and cheeks. Velvet is crying happily now knowing her efforts in learning healing magic were not wasted. Weiss is holding Jaunes hand tightly with both of hers crying happily while also still trying to glare at him through the tears cascading down her cheeks. Yang is so happy she slumps in relief from her standing spot where she was pacing in nervousness from seeing Jaune so banged up.

He explains to them bit by bit what happened as he calms them down. They all gasp and awe at his story of the Grimms he fought. The battles he endured. And the final confrontation with Salems Grimm vessel. They were all angry at her taunts, the memories of her cruelty being so pleasing to her mind, and for Ren and Nora who were both flaring their auras in grief and anger at how the evil witch described the loss of their village from her point of view.

Jaune then told them all how he managed to wound her deeply with a burst of his true potential. But also how it left him drained just pushing his body to double its current limits. And that was barely 40% of the Monarchs true might. They all startle at that but all smile now knowing that Jaune truly is special and has indeed earned their respect.

He then explains what he did to get such a bad wound and how tired he was from the ordeal. And all without his army to aid him in it. He managed to survive an A Rank dungeon, albeit as a Penalty Quest, but he still did it. They all congratulate him and even Ren and Nora can't help but hug their brother figure for avenging their family and village even a bit by putting Salem out of commission for at least a month.

After letting the trio of honorary siblings hug it out for a bit, everyone begins to talk about what they can do to prepare for reaching Jaunes level through their training and Jaune decides to check on his system.

Hey System, did I gain any good rewards from beating that Penalty Quest and surviving Salems newest attempt on my life?

The system seems to be loading for a bit before reply finally comes in.

~Yes you did my Player. I believe you can enjoy these rewards to help with your journey to more strength and to hold Salem and her forces back.

You have survived a Penalty Dungeon controlled by Salem!

Gained 22 Levels!

Gained +50 bonus stat points!

Gained Quest Clear rewards: 200k for shop, +30 Stat points, +10 levels, one repair gear kit, 1 S rank gift box.~

Jaune grins at this as Velvet helps him sit up from finishing his healing.

Everyone notices his grin and Ren asks, "Jaune? You okay? Why the grin?"

Jaune answers him with a simple smile, "Mind handing me my gear? I got my rewards for surviving Salems ambush!"

Pyrrha, Yang, and Ruby all bring it over and lay them to Jaune before he summons the repair kit and activates it. The Repair kit opens and a bunch of high tech looking tools enhanced with magic get to work, breaking the pieces apart, reforging them midair, and putting them back together good as new. The tools even shine up his armor and weapons for an extra good measure service.

Everyone is gaping, even Jaune, as the tools return to the tool kit and they break apart into a bunch of magic dust. They see the now gleaming armor set and weapons before they all look to Jaune as he glances at them then back to his gear. With the most eloquent response he can give he goes, "I didn't expect that one." As he shrugs.

They all chuckle and continue their plans for upping their training regime. Ruby is asking Jaune if he can buy her a permanent magic tool kit from his shop after that display of magical engineering they just showed her. Jaune chuckles a bit then says he will look into it prompting Ruby to go back and rejoin planning their training going forward.

Jaune huffs in exhaustion as while he is much better now, he is still mentally exhausted. He opens up his stats and checks it after all of his level ups.

Level 157

Exp: 97%

HP: 214,000/214,000

AP: 78,500/ 78,500

Fatigue: 82/100%

Class: Master of Knights

Stats:

STR: 202 (+50) (+16 ally boost)

AGI: 202 (+25) (+16 ally boost)

VIT:202 (+40) (+16 ally boost)

INT: 312 (+16 ally boost)

SENSE: 202 (+15) (+16 ally boost)

Points available: 141

Current shop points: 379,780 points

Physical dmg resistance: +47%

Skills:

-???- : ?????

Inheritor: Access to system, over level 20 access to shop

Knight Master: +1 to all stats per ally under users command

Standing army II: Gain ability to summon an army of knights under the users command, points available 34/312, basic unit lvl 48: 12 (6 sword, 4 bow, 2 healer) (4 pts per), commander units lvl 46: 2 (1 Great knight, 1 Sniper) (25 pts per), heroic unit lvl 58: 2 (Iron, Baruka) (90 pts per)

Commander Units:

Great Knight (Passive: +5% to all ally melee units dmg, stacks with other commander abilities)

Sniper (Passive: +5% to all ally ranged units dmg, stacks with other commander abilities)

Heroic Unit Baruka Title Holder: Baruka Master of the North

Heroic Unit Iron title holder: Iron the Shield of the Light

Arc Bloodline: +400 to AP per level

Expert sword arts lvl 5: 12 times dmg with swords

Unarmed Combat Expert lvl 4: times 11 dmg with unarmed blows

True Warriors Aura lvl 8: +80 to Str, Agi, and Vit for however long this aura is active, heals 1600 HP per minute, cost: 1100 for activation, additional 110 per minute used.

Knights Rallying call lvl 8: +40 to all stats of every person you recognize as an ally within 200ft of user, Lower the physical abilities of foes by 40 points within the area of effect. Costs 1200 AP, lasts 5 minutes.

White Knight Body Armor Rank A:

+15 str

+15 vit

+11% physical dmg reduction

White Knight Gauntlets Rank A:

+10 str

+5 sense

+8% physical dmg reduction

White Knight Sabatons Rank A:

+10 vit

+5 agi

+8% physical dmg reduction

White Knight Basic Helm Rank A:

+10 sense

+10 agi

+5% physical dmg reduction

Rank S Crocea Mors (Seal level 4)

Bonuses: +320 to dmg

+25 str when equipped

+15 vit when equipped

+10 agi when equipped

+15% reduction to physical dmg when equipped

Jaune hums to himself and his now impressive amount of stat points. He was so tempted to put them all into his int but then stopped. Ass tempting as it is to increase my army. This last dungeon has shown me that I can't rely solely on my army, skills, or my gear. I need to make sure I can actually grow myself faster as an individual. If I don't I could die at any time by simply meeting someone who is faster, stronger, or tougher than me by even just 20 to 30 points in any of those stats. It's a moot point if that is their only higher stat and the rest are garbage but the fact remains. I need to be well balanced. I put that off too long.

With his mind set on balancing out he begins to apply his stats to equalize his long ignored stats that definitely needed a boost.

Stats:

STR: 232 (+50) (+16 ally boost)

AGI: 232 (+25) (+16 ally boost)

VIT:232 (+40) (+16 ally boost)

INT: 312 (+16 ally boost)

SENSE: 232 (+15) (+16 ally boost)

Points available: 21

Nodding at that growth Jaune then saves his remaining points until an emergency. He then also checks his new gift. The S level gift box to see what was inside it.

He brings it out of his inventory making his friends all notice it as the box was literally glowing gold as it was a golden box with silver wrapping.

Jaune breathes in as he feels the energy pulsing out from it and begins to open it as Blake can't help but ask, "Jaune? What is that?"

Jaune answers back with awe in his voice as the box unfurls, "A chance to grow more."

Everyone holds their breath to see what the gift box grants Jaune as he holds it out in his hand and finds…!

A plain black key that has no distinct features or anything special except the color.

Everyone looks at each other confused at such a lack luster gift. As Weiss goes to ask Jaune what it was her voice is caught in her throat as she sees Jaunes face. Jaune is grinning ear to ear with a look of pure joy on his face at seeing what the key was.

He looks at them all and says, "Guys! This key is definitely worth the S rank gift box and that quest I just endured!"

Everyone leans in close to see what Jaune means as they all soon feel the huge amount of energy literally oozing from the single key in his hand. Velvet even holds her hand over it to feel the amount of pure magic energy flowing out of it in the form of support magic that she specializes in.

All of his friends look at him and are all asking the same thing with their eyes, 'What does the key do?'

Jaune grins as he goes from gazing at them to the key and knows this will help them prepare to fight Salem, member to member, and champion to champion.