Author's note: Been a while, huh? Season 3 Chapter 2: Fist of the Grimm Lord
So said the one who had called himself Behemoth. The monstrous figure stood level with Jaune himself, his powerful frame composed of bone and rock-like muscle. Red eyes glowed, set in a head that seemed half human, half something else. In truth, despite his jet black body, he looked nothing like a Grimm. His form resembled the ancient demons portrayed in works of art.
"Her son? Don't lie. The child of a goddess cannot be Grimm," said Jaune.
"All livings beings are as children to the gods. And sometimes it is up to a son to avenge the injustices heaped on his mother."
"That was a long time ago," said Jaune. "Those humans are long dead. Either that… or turned into…"
"Us. The Grimm. Is that what you wanted to say? A fitting fate. We were taught humility, and loyalty. But the ones who survive, nay, even their descendants, they must learn the same lessons. You will all bow to your better."
Jaune shook his head. This Grimm, as intelligent as he seemed, could not be reasoned with.
"Salem should have learned her lesson. Life cannot be put through suffering to please one's ego."
"Enough talk, Godfist. I've heard a lot about the legendary Fist of the North Star, but so far, you've only disappointed. Come, prove me wrong, and show me that your truth surpasses mine… with your own hands."
"Is there no other way?" asked Jaune.
"It must end in blood."
"So be it then. From this point on, it's a fight."
Roaring out loud, Jaune flared his Aura, deepening each breath in the manner of dragons, channelling the true strength of his Aura and body.
Letting his arms hang loosely by his sides, he dashed forward towards the Grimm, cratering the ground with the force of his step.
Behemoth was strong and fast, and had good reflexes. Furthermore, his body was immune to the vast majority of Hokuto Shin Ken, having no internal organs, blood vessels, nerves or circulatory system. The best Jaune could tell, he was composed entirely of skeletal and muscular tissue, along with eyes. He did not have any visible ears or nose either.
In other words, many of Jaune's best weapons were of no use against him. He could not destroy his body the way he would a human's. He would have to break it down blow by blow, instead of with pressure point strikes, which meant… it would come down to a toe-to-toe slugfest.
Behemoth's fanged teeth bared themselves in a wide grin as Jaune dashed around, angling to come in from the side, and rushed at him.
As the blond Godfist struck out with a jab, the towering Grimm bobbed his head to the side, countering with a lead hand jab of his own.
Boxing counter?
Jaune's rear hand was up, and managed to stop the jab. He angled to the side slightly, and attacked with a right cross. To his surprise, it missed completely.
Behemoth had ducked.
Less than an instant later, pain exploded in Jaune's solar plexus, his Aura flashing as it strained to absorb what seemed like the force of a freight train.
Ducked the cross, and countered with a body blow? Shit, his boxing isn't a joke!
But Jaune was not the Successor for nothing. He had heart and grit, and remained standing, with his guard up. Grabbing the Grimm's head, he pulled him into a clinch.
"How about this?"
He followed up with knees to the ribs from both sides, smashing into Behemoth's ribs. After five hits, he proceeded to a knee strike to the Grimm's chin. It felt like trying to pound an anvil.
"Hahaha… haha… hah… hahaha…"
The low sound of chuckling was heard, then a fist of iron crashed into Jaune's liver. His Aura pulsed.
A second hit, to the ribs on the opposite side.
A third. A fourth. A fifth.
Each punch rocked Jaune to the core, weakening his clinch on the Grimm's head.
"More… More…. MORE!"
With a powerful upwards wrench, Behemoth pushed his head up, breaking out of Jaune's clinch. The move left the blond's hands outstretched, his body unguarded.
"Jackpot."
The Grimm unloaded with a gatling combo, hammering left and right alternate punches to the Jaune's body.
Around ten hits in, Jaune's Aura crumbled.
"YIIIIEEEEES!"
With a cry of elation, the Grimm raised his knee, executing a strike that would make any Nak Muay proud.
Jaune felt his jaw being nearly disconnected as the force of the hit launched him twenty feet back, until he landed on the ground, tumbling backwards roughly till he finally came to a stop.
Every inch of his body hurt, and he struggled to get to his feet.
He's good… ridiculously good. It's not just the insane physical strength and toughness. He has legitimate fighting technique… each of those strikes was the real deal. This isn't good.He raised his head to see Behemoth still standing twenty feet away, waiting patiently for him to get up.
"Guts… and honour… I never thought I'd see that from a Grimm…"
"You will show me more, Godfist. I am not satisfied yet."
"Then how about you try this on for size?"
They were interrupted by a third voice, belonging to a newcomer.
Taken by surprise, Behemoth was unable to dodge as a sword the size of a person was thrown at him.
The Dragonslayer Mark II smashed right into his mouth with pinpoint accuracy.
Factoring in the weight of the sword, around 200 kilograms, and the speed at which it had been travelling, the momentum would have reduced an ordinary human to a fine red mist.
Behemoth did not even have a broken jaw.
The throw had failed to even knock him off his feet.
Lily Arc stared at him, half in bewilderment, half in anger.
"What the…?"
The Grimm stood with his teeth firmly clamped down on the tip of the sword. At the last moment, he had stopped the blade by biting down on it and catching out of the air.
"That's… impo-"
Swinging his legs, hips and torso, he threw the sword right back, with his neck.
The Dragonslayer spun wildly in the air, and Lily barely had time to duck to avoid being cut in half.
With a terrifying whistling sound as it cut through the air, the sword crashed right into one of the school buildings, which were empty at this time of night. That was all for the better, since it ended up going right through the entire ground floor, through all the support pillars in its way, causing the whole structure to collapse.
"What in the hell…"
"You interrupted our duel, wild one," said the Grimm, looking Lily in the eyes.
"LILY, GET OUT OF HERE, NOW" shouted Jaune.
He got to his feet, ignoring the pain, and took a step towards Behemoth.
Before he could do anything more, multiple reports rang out.
Sniper round. Submachine gun fire. Shotgun blasts. A grenade, which exploded right against Behemoth's chest. And finally, a blast of freezing energy from a glyph, coating him.
Teams RWBY and NPR and arrived.
"Jaune! Are you okay?" shouted Weiss.
"No, no, no, get out of here now, get help!"
"What? He's frozen, it's ok…"
Weiss began to walk towards Jaune.
"No, you don't understand, he's…"
Through the smoke and vapours, two eyes glowed red.
"You dare… interrupt our duel?"
The ground shook. Once.
The cloud of dust and smoke was blown away in a flash.
Behemoth was on one knee on the ground, his fist driven right into it.
A crack expanded outward from that point.
It spread rapidly, quickly reaching teams RWBY and JNPR, who moved out of the way, just in time, even the very earth split in half, a widening chasm growing between the newly created halves.
Tremors rocked both halves, and all across the grounds, trees came down. Alarms went off. Glass was shattered.
The punch had split the entire Beacon campus in half.
"What in the blue hell…" hissed Yang.
"He… broke Beacon?" wailed Ruby.
The rest of them were speechless, Jaune included.
Ridiculous… does his strength have no limits?
"Alert. All personnel, arm yourselves and deploy."
The announcement was loud and clear, and within seconds, the shattered grounds were covered in Beacon students and teachers, all carrying their Hunter Arms, in ranged form, trained on the lone Grimm.
"STAY BACK!" shouted Jaune.
In truth, even he didn't know why he said that: to prevent Hunters from dying pointlessly, or because this Grimm with honour needed to be fought fairly.
"Souther, don't space out!"
From above, Ozpin attacked.
He descended with a cane strike on the Grimm, who effortlessly blocked with a forearm and seamlessly transitioned into an overhead backflip kick, which Ozpin went with, flipping through the air to land next to Jaune.
"What kind of monster is this?" said Goodwitch.
"She succeeded," said Jaune. He had seen the signs long back, when he had met intelligent Grimm during the Initiation. Behemoth must be what Salem had been trying to achieve: an evolved form of Grimm that possessed not only incredible power, but also the intelligence and fighting skill to match.
Ozpin's eyes widened.
"This creature… can you defeat it?"
"Him. And I'm not sure. If I used my Semblance, I might be able to do it…"
Ozpin looked at him a second longer, then turned to Glynda.
"We need to evacuate. Have we gotten Amber out of here yet?"
"Affirmative. We moved her out once the alarm sounded."
"Good. Get everyone else out. Souther and I will handle the rest here."
Glynda gave the signal, and Beacon's students and teachers began to evacuate.
However, a few remained behind.
"RWBY! JNPR! What are you doing? Evacuate! Now!" she shouted.
"But Jaune's still here! He can't fight that thing alone!"
Meanwhile, Ozpin shouted too.
"Souther! Don't be distracted! We need to stop him, here!"
Jaune nodded.
There was nothing else to be done but go all out. He activated his Semblance.
Will of the Aura King.Reaching out with his power, he touched Behemoth's Aura, his Ki, and attempted to draw it out of him, into himself, which would drain the Grimm of his strength.
Almost immediately, the massive being dropped to one knee.
"Urghh… curses. What are you… doing to me?"
Ozpin gave him no time to ask further questions. Summoning magic to increase his power output, he charged right at him, and blasted him with emerald energy, right into the Beacon tower.
Glynda followed. She had figured out what his plan must be, and so did Jaune, who needed to stay in range in order to continue to weaken him.
On the ground floor of the tower, Ozpin fired a blast of energy downwards, causing the the room to collapse, which dropped Behemoth a hundred feet below, into the reinforced basement where Amber had been kept on life support.
"Now!" shouted Ozpin. Glynda used her telekinesis to repair the floor. She then proceeded to cut the wires to the lift.
Her expression became strained. What she was attempting now was the most difficult feat she had ever tried.
The sound of screeching metal was heard. And soon enough, the tower dropped into the ground, embedding itself partially.
She had collapsed the support beams on the lowest level, causing the rest of the tower to drop down on to it, since there was nothing to hold it up anymore.
Utterly spent, she breathed hard.
Ozpin himself looked wary, but straightened up.
"This victory… came at a price."
"No…" said Jaune.
Growing horror engulfed him.
Around midway through, the Grimm had started to resist his Semblance.
He had managed to steal half his Aura, but no more.
And Jaune could sense the other half.
Behemoth was still alive… and pissed.
"No… way…"
Teams RWBY and NPR were still watching, and it seemed to them, the tower was rising up.
"No way…" said Nora.
But it was true.
Jaune, who could see clearly by sensing Ki, could observe everything as if visually.
Down below, Behemoth had not only held up the entire weight of the Beacon tower, but was now lifting it up as he rose from one knee, to standing tall on both feet.
Jaune desperately pulled with all his might, trying to tear away his Aura, drain him, so that he'd collapse under the weight.
But even at half his strength, the Grimm held firm.
And then, to Jaune's utter shock, he started to take his Aura back.
"Impossible…"
Jaune could sense him.
Below the earth, he had transitioned to holding up the tower with one arm.
The other was wound down and back, fist clenched, in preparation to punch upwards.
His Aura began to flare. The massive energy that had been almost immobile before, came alive now.
"Run," was all Jaune said.
"Souther, what…"
"RUN!"
With no further arguments, everyone in range sprinted dashed, or flew away as fast as they could.
When they were around five hundred metres from the tower, Jaune heard a voice, from below the earth.
"Shin Shoryuken!"The tower was split up the centre, crumbling into thousands of tons of rubble that rained down on the ground, as a single figure ascended upwards, arm held outstretched above him, fist clenched.
Behemoth had destroyed the Beacon tower with a rising dragon uppercut.
Glowing red Aura surrounded him, as he ascended like a meteor into the sky, before ultimately dissipating as he landed on the ground, amongst the wreckage of the tower.
"No. Frigging. Way", said Yang. "How can anything have that sort of power…"
The rest of the crew couldn't bring themselves to speak.
Before they could, Behemoth covered the distance separating them.
Jaune, tired as he was, couldn't react as the Grimm reached out and grabbed Weiss by the throat.
"This one... Has your scent all over her, Godfist. I am not satisfied with our duel today."
"No, stop!"
Behemoth's arm flashed red with some kind of pattern for a moment, and a glowing red brand appeared on Weiss's chest.
He released his grip, and she fell to the ground, gasping for air.
"You asshole! What did you do to her?"
"Nothing… yet. That brand… it means that in fifty days, she will die. Don't worry, it will be painless."
"You BASTARD!"
"Patience, Godfist. There is a way to save her. Come find me, and fight me. Fair and square this time. If I die, the seal disappears, and she lives."
With that, Behemoth took to the skies with a massive leap, leaving behind the ruins of Beacon Academy, and a Godfist in turmoil.