Chapter 2: Inescapable Fate

Their surprise to such a reveal was short lived as the roar of the Beringel grimm made the hunters and huntresses snap back to the attack that was still happening. Team RNJR stood near each other as they protected one another, but they could also feel the tense aura coming from their beloved knight.

"Well, this village has definitely changed…" The tall blonde figure in front of them began speaking, his tone was stern and unflinching while the Beringel grimm slams its giant hands against the bone armor on its chest to intimidate them. A simple adjustment to his right hand and team RNJR could hear the small mechanical noises coming from the weapon this man carried.

Now in full view to the team, The man's weapon by mere look seemed to be a mixture of a single-edge mechanical blade with a revolver barrel between the hilt and the blade. A black leather hilt with a single metal line protecting one side of his hand as a metal trigger can be seen at the top of the hilt, and through the barrels of the revolver wheel they could see a red glow within the cartridges. The blunt side of the gunblade had multiple pieces and covers, and Ruby figures out the weapon can be shifted, similarly to how Cresent Rose can shift to a smaller size.

"...But not at all for the better," the man finished, just in time as the Beringer decided to charge at full speed towards the man. With a swift move of his arm, he wound up his gunblade to his left and with an impressive level of accuracy he swung the blade horizontally at the unprotected parts of the Beringel's stomach. The swing was further enhanced by the sudden explosion which came out from the blade which sent the Beringel tumbling to the side.

Not wasting any time, he gave chase to the Beringel, as it barely had time to recover, and it retaliated by grabbing a nearby hunk of wall from one of the houses that were damaged by the grimm attack and threw it at the man.

Further showing his level of skill, the man was quick to slash the piece of debris in half without slowing down and leaped towards the Beringel. Once again, a similar explosion was seen as he successfully cut off the grimm's arm through its thick hide, a feat that was quite impressive as said grimm were already extremely hard to take down, let alone being able to sever one of their limbs.

As the grimm roared in pain, the man quickly twirled and prepared a follow up swing aimed directly at the grimm's neck. Unfortunately, the Beringel was barely able to adjust itself to avoid the deadly finisher to its neck by leaning backward. Regardless, the man took a step forward to close the extra gap and with another explosive hit to the chest, the Beringel was sent backwards in a cloud of ashen smoke.

By now, the bladed part of the weapon was a bright red color, showing that the constant use of the special cartridges were overheating the weapon. Seeing the grimm slowly starting to turn into darkened ash, the man smoothly reloaded his weapon with a simple flick of the wrist to open the barrel of the revolver within the weapon which ejected the now empty cartridges and were quickly replaced by new ones.

Now that the heavier grimm was dealt with, the man looked at team RNJR who were still mostly standing there in pure awe as such display of skill and strength. With a stern look and with a commanding voice gave out an order. "What are you lot standing there for? Check and clear the village for any remaining grimm, then report back to the south entrance once everyone is safe."

With that, team RNJR were very quick to nod in response and spread out. Yet, during their leave, Ruby did noticed Jaune was visibly shaken at what just happened. But she simply assumed it was because of the Beringel that almost got him.

"Jaune? Is everything alright?" Ruby asked, making sure he was okay before they spread out.

"H-Huh? Yeah, yeah everything is okay Ruby," Jaune responded as he shook off whatever was in his mind, at least for that moment. "Come on, there shouldn't be that many left," he reassured her with a small smile.

A smile that Ruby knew all too well was a fake one.

"Jaune, who was that man? He called you 'son', so is that your fa-" But before Ruby could finish off that sentence, she was quickly stopped by Jaune. Who quickly turned back with an angry expression.

"No, that man...I would never call him my father." His anger quickly died out to a more saddened look. If there weren't any remaining grimm around, Ruby would seek out more answers but for now they had a village to clear.

"Thank you so much for saving this village," a much older man said, dressed in long purple robes that had a simple flowery design on them, but still having that chieftain look as he was the only one who wore such clothes. Giving a small bow to team RNJR and the tall blonde man in front of them, his weapon now shifted to a smaller size and perfectly holsted on his back.

"It is our duty to protect, no need to thank us," the man responded, giving a nod instead of a bow before the older man took his leave alongside other guards as they headed further into the village.

Now with almost all of the villagers and guardsmen helping within to repair parts of Hingashi, the younger team of hunters and the experienced man were left alone just outside the south entrance. Slowly turning around to face the team, all of them seem to straighten up as a sign of respect while Jaune was caught flinching at first before doing the same.

"Good job out there, you saw danger and took it upon yourself to deal with the threat," The man started to talk, walking towards the team and stopping a good distance in front of Jaune specifically. "Some of you surprised me more than others." Even if the sentence could be seen as positive to some, the feeling the rest of team RNJR felt nothing but venom between the two blondes.

Giving a small gesture to Jaune to step forward, a step that Jaune very visibly hesitated to take, the man continued talking, "To see you again, in such a relatively dangerous situation, you either did man up in the end or become more suicidal and desperate."

Such harsh words weren't taken lightly by the rest of the team, but a small look from Jaune as he looked at them over his shoulder, made them stand back for now. "I have been trai-"

"Do not interrupt me Jaune, I am not done talking." The man cut off any other chance of Jaune speaking, starting to walk around him as if inspecting his new armor, but most importantly…

The 'new' weapon he was carrying.

"You tempered with the Ancient blade of the Arcs I see? Couldn't be bothered to perfect the training with it so you just decided to upgrade it as you see fit after you stole it from its glass casing?" The words from the man were starting to shift more towards anger, his expression confirming it as the rest were able to see his face once more after he circled around Jaune once.

"I-It needed an-" The speed and strength that came from the heavy backhand Jaune received was enough to not only knock him completely off his feet and towards his side as he fell to the ground, but to also shock the rest of team RNJR.

"That blade was a symbol of the Arcs, a blade that has been passed down generation after generation. And you decide to soil such honored tradition by tarnishing it with other materials?!" The man screamed down at Jaune, who held his hand against his bruised cheek and didn't even looking at the man almost on top of him, clearly not expecting the sudden attack as he had his aura down.

And for some reason, the red bruise was not being healed by his aura.

"Hey! What do you think you are doing to Jaune?!" Screamed Ruby, in her hands she already had Crescent Rose in its sniper form. She wasn't the only one who had her weapon out, as Ren and Nora un-holstered their own respective weapons.

"Who are you? If you are related to Jaune, then explain why you did you hit him?" Nora exclaimed, tightening the grip on her hammer as she did so.

The man slowly straightened up, turning towards the rest of the team with an angered expression and clearly unbothered by having weapons aimed at him. Even taking a step forward which instinctively caused everyone to move back a step or two.

"My name is Felix, Felix Arc, and I do whatever I want to my failure and now disgrace of a son," Felix replied, the way he kept insulting Jaune and how he assaulted him were really pushing the team to an edge they didn't want to cross.

"S-Stop! This is between you and I, don't involve my friends in this you coward!" Jaune yelled out, slowly standing back on his feet and glaring at the man with as much intensity he could muster, ignoring the voice in his head telling him to feel scared and to fall back.

At the sound of Jaune's voice, Felix looked over his shoulder and towards Jaune. Time seemed to slow down as the taller man reached within his dark blue and gold edged leather coat. Such movement was instantly caught by Ren first, seeing how underneath the coat, the man had a special form fitting type of armor.

Black colored armor pieces all over Felix's chest and stomach area, perfectly covering all of his vitals and providing extremely good protection. A large utility belt that contained various pouches and ammo belts that extended down to the man's thighs, but what really alerted Ren and soon enough Ruby, was the large hunting knife he was starting to unholstered.

"Jaune!" / "Watch out!" Yelled Ren and Ruby at the same time, giving Jaune just enough time to barely raise his arm out and blocking the overhead slash with his armored forearm.

The slash was hard-blocked as a few sparks flew from the contact with the armor. Jaune's arm did faltered for a millisecond but was strong enough to completely stop the attack. "Look at you…" Felix replied, moving forward just a little as he placed more weight behind the hunting knife, causing Jaune to struggle to keep it in place. "...Someone has gotten stronger"

Sadly, the compliment was only met by Felix flipping the knife to the side which caused Jaune to stumble forward. As he was caught by Felix and used the momentum to throw Jaune over his shoulder and closer to the rest of RNRJ. Which at this point had enough of staying back.

The first one to break the standoff was Nora, who jumped over Jaune with her hammer overhead and ready to smash the man down with her weapon. Quick on his reflex, Felix side-stepped the hammer strike and ducked at the follow-up horizontal strike which was clearly aimed at his head.

Being a lower position, he took the chance of the second missed strike from Nora to swipe at the side of her knee which instantly broke her balance as she faltered. Felix was instantly going for a second kick to knock Nora off the fight, but was intercepted by Ren's own Aura empowered kick and successfully mitigated and countered the kick.

Having his attack countered, Felix dashed back to regain some distance from Ren. Following his instincts as he sensed danger aimed at him, Felix swung his hunting knife diagonally and was able to block one of Ruby's sniper shots. Ren on the other hand, took the opening that he saw when Felix blocked the shot to dash towards him with Stormflower. Swinging the twin blades horizontally towards Felix only for them to be swatted down by the man, not expecting the sudden counter, Ren was now left open and took a heavy hit to his side by one of Felix's knees. Knocking not only Ren back quite the distance towards Nora, but also any air that he had in his lungs.

Ruby switched Crescent Rose to its Scythe form after seeing Ren get knee'd and landing on Nora, giving the weapon a good swing so it was aimed behind her. Firing the weapon and combining her semblance to almost instantly close the gap between her and Felix.

She aimed Crescent Rose in a diagonal angle and ready to strike Felix from the flank, but there was a moment of hesitation, was she really about to slash Jaune's father?

Well, it turns out that moment of hesitation was all Felix needed to reach for his Gunblade and fully parry the oncoming slash, he followed up by slashing upwards at Ruby who was fast enough to rise Crescent Rose and barely block the hit. But blocking hits such at those wasn't something she was able to do properly as her grip on her weapon loosen.

Seeing the chance to continue the attack as Ruby hasn't fully recovered, Felix shoulder check was enough to fully knock the Scythe user off balance and completely open to horizontal slash which damaged her aura and knocked her back, letting go of Crescent Rose as she landed on her back.

Now disarmed and fallen, all Ruby could do is crawl back momentarily as Felix leaped at her with his weapon high in order to slash at her one last time. Letting out a small scream as she protected herself with her arms from the incoming hit.

But the hit never connected, at least not on her.

The sound of metal against metal was all she could hear. Looking up to see Jaune standing protectively over her with his shield out, perfectly blocking the slash and even launching Felix back with a shield swipe to get him off of him.

"I told you, leave them ALONE!" Jaune yelled, his sword arm giving a slight glow as he Shield charged towards Felix, he intercepted the shield with his Gunblade but wasn't fast enough to the instant follow up thrust from Jaune's sword. Due to the empowered attack at his armored stomach, Felix stumbled back momentarily.

Not expecting Jaune to put nowhere near enough strength on that attack, Felix felt some of his air knocked out and before he could recover properly, Nora was already on him and landed a hard hit on chest. Even when blocked with the flat end of his Gunblade, it did little to mitigate the knockback of her attack.

Sliding back from Nora's hit, it wasn't enough to knock him off his feet. Felix looked at the duo as he expected either of them to follow up on each other, but the sudden smg fire from Ren's weapons was enough to land a few good shots at Felix's armored legs as he kept falling back.

With an annoyed grunt, he felt his stance starting to weaken from the constant fire from Ren. It wasn't until a successful sniper shot from Ruby aimed at the exact same shoulder he hit her with, was enough to break his guard as he stumbled back fully.

Seeing the opening against Felix, Jaune charged in once more with sword ready to slash at him with all of his aura boosted strength.

Unfortunately, Felix recovered much faster than Jaune anticipated and caught a glimpse of an angered and vengeful expression. But Jaune's reaction time wasn't fast enough to fully block the oncoming attack he was about to get hit by.

"ENOUGH!" With the familiar sound of a trigger being pulled, Felix hard-slashed horizontally towards Jaune's sword and shield. His sloppy guard was nowhere enough to block the blast from Felix's gunblade and sent the young Knight flying back to the rest of his team in a trail of smoke.

The rest of the Team could barely react as well when they heard the trigger and noticed the three small fireballs coming right at them. More precisely, where they stood as the small explosions sent everyone including Jaune back a fair distance and to their backs.

The smoke cloud created from such attacks was barely dissipating when they saw Felix leaping towards Jaune with a flip, having used another catridge to boost his speed as the blade had a red hot trail emanating from it.

But the sound of what could be described as a double-barrel shotgun was fired, knocking Felix out of the air and sent rolling to his side a few times.

"You kids always seem to be getting in trouble." The sounds of gears soon followed at Qrow now stood at the other side of the road. Shifting his weapon to its sword form.

Slowly moving in front of the team, they could hear a chuckle from Felix as he used his Gunblade to help him stand back up. "Well well, I really didn't expect to see you here Qrow. I never took you for a babysitter"

"Uncle Qrow! Do you know this man?" Ruby quickly asked as she started getting back up, Ren and Nora followed closely and helped Jaune who seemed to be struggling to even stay on his feet.

"Felix Arc, a close-minded bastard who would only blabber about how successful his family was. Unfortunately for all of us, he is a really skilled close-minded bastard" Qrow responded, his eyes not leaving Felix for a single moment as he responded.

Breathing a bit heavily, Felix stood back up with a combat stance once more, "Come on Qrow, let's do this, just like when we were students at Beacon," he said with a smirk.

"You are out here fighting young huntsmen in training Felix, by the looks of it you were losing for a moment there," Qrow replied with a confident tone, letting his weapon rest against his shoulder as if he was inviting Felix to try and jump at him.

Before Felix could try and reply, Qrow continued. "Leave them alone Felix, we both know how a fight between us always ends. So just cut your losses and walk away while you still can."

Letting out an annoyed grunt as Felix saw how team RNJR was starting to get back up properly, he gave a light swing which caused the weapon to shift into a more compact size as he placed it on the holster on the back of his coat. "Your sisters are nearby Jaune, I am sure they will be glad to see their dear brother who abandoned them a year and a half ago," Felix taunted, dusting off any remaining dirt on his coat.

"We will all be waiting for you soon, two of your sisters and I are stationed in Doma. If you want to take a detour to see us all again, because you might not get this chance in a long..long time," He finished before starting to walk away, leaving Qrow and team RNJR to themselves.

As soon as he was out of view, Qrow compacted his weapon and holsted it on his belt before checking in on the kids. "Easy there, you guys took a bit of a beating there."

"I don't get it, it was almost like he could predict where our attacks would be for most of that fight" Ren questioned, rubbing his side that was slowly getting healed by his own aura.

"Jaune what was that?" Ruby asked with a heavy concerned and pained expression.

"And why did he hurt you like that?! What kind of parent would attack their son like that?" Nora 'asked' loudly, shifting her weight to her left knee as a bruise could be seen on her right where she was kicked.

"One at the time please…" Jaune replied to the questions being thrown at him, still struggling to keep himself up on his feet. He almost did fell to his side before Qrow was fast enough to catch him.

"I think we all need to rest first and check for injuries, if Felix is even half as strong as he was back then, then those bruises might last a while," Qrow said to everyone, all of them slowly starting to feel the pain from their own injuries now that the adrenaline was starting to wear off.

They knew that going back to the recently attack village of Hingashi might not be the best idea, especially now that they are focusing their work mostly on repairs and defenses. But thanks to Jaune's knowledge of the land, he guided them to a safe resting area where they could set up camp and attend to their injuries.

He knew it had a long night ahead of him.

A/N:

/Hey, DarkZexi here to apologize for the huge delay on Chapter 2 of ABL. It was a pain to find time to write and being content with the story during the holidays while having family constantly on my back.

Eitherway, I hope you all enjoyed it and any comments and likes are really appreciated. The next chapter won't take too long, I promise.