Arc Of Embodiment (Hiatus) - Chapter 60

Jaune and Ais were facing each other. Ais has her weapon Desperate drawn from the scabbard, she was ready to dash towards Jaune and she did. When she was close to Jaune she pulled back her sword and thrust it forward, but it never hit Jaune as he was five metres away from her.

Everyone watching the spar was just as confused except for two, Jaune was about to be hit by Ais sword, but he suddenly appeared five metres away. Loki and Hephaestus saw that Jaune used footwork to appear five metres away, but it was so fast that they nearly missed it.

Jaune may have set his strength to match Ais, but with his Martial Arts techniques, he can surpass it without strengthening himself. What Jaune just did earlier was Bo-Bup, a technique that allows the user to appear behind, next to, above, etc…their opponent instantaneously, but instead, Jaune used it to move away from her, making it look like she never approached him.

“What the hell was that…?” Bete asked.

“I don’t know…it might have been magic?” Tione said.

“No, it wasn’t. From what I can see, it was footwork that allowed him to move instantaneously,” Loki said. She may not be a Goddess that is known for fighting, but she is a Goddess nonetheless, she was able to recognise such feats due to observing other Gods in Heaven.

“What?! I’ve never heard of something like that, not even a Level 7 has that kind of movement ability unless they use magic,” Tiona said.

“And that what makes Jaune different, he didn’t use the Dungeon to get stronger, and from watching this fight, I can most certainly say that he will win,” Loki said seriously while shaking her head.

Everyone then continues to watch the spar, they knew that Jaune was strong, but they believe with him restricting his strength, then Ais has a chance. Jaune just kept dodging Ais attack with ease even in a state of him limiting his already limited strength.

“So, this is all the Sword princess is capable of…I thought that you would be better. Your swordsmanship is subpar. Against monsters, it would be alright, but against someone like me who has experience fighting people, then you aren’t that capable,” Jaune said to Ais. In turn, Ais got angry, to call her swordsmanship subpar is not just an insult to her, but also her father.

The words of Jaune caused Ais to be more aggressive, she was angry. This was the first time that Jaune has seen Ais angry before, he doesn’t even remember if he’s seen her get angry in the show. Jaune did this on purpose, he can tell that Ais swordsmanship was great, the problem was her fighting style, it was aggressive and brutal, it was good for going against monsters, but weak against people, especially when she isn’t customed to fighting people.

Ais was thrusting her sword as fast as she could towards Jaune but can tell it wouldn’t work, her speed isn’t enough to catch Jaune, therefore she decided to use her magic Ariel and its variation Lil’ Rafaga.

Unfortunately, it was useless against Jaune as he was still able to move faster than her and avoid everything she throws in his way. The fight has gone long enough, and Ais was not getting even close to hitting him, hence, he decided to end the fight. The moment Ais got close to Jaune, he decided to use a front kick and hit her hard, which caused her to be sent flying. With this hit, Jaune made sure to knock Ais out to truly end the fight.

“Well, that’s that! See you here tomorrow” Jaune said. He then remembers that he knocked out Ais. He then looks at her Familia.

“Uhm…Can you tell her to be here tomorrow?” Jaune said.

The next morning, one can see Ais and Jaune walking together. Jaune is a bit weirded out as Ais was quite close to him.

“You know when I said you’ll be staying with me, I didn’t mean literally stay by my side everywhere. I only wanted you to stay with me while I’m training my friends in the dungeon,” Jaune said.

“I know…However I want to know why you’re so strong, how did you achieve such a level without the help of the dungeon? The only way for me to find out is to observe you,” Ais said.

“Or you can just ask me to help you get stronger, besides it feels weird being observed all day,” Jaune said.

“…” Ais didn’t have any words to that. Nonetheless, she continued to follow Jaune, while remembering the spar the other night.

Jaune and Ais were walking towards the Hostess of Fertility. Ruby and the others have yet to awaken as twenty-four hours have yet to pass. Jaune wanted to have breakfast first then head over to the dungeon to find a good spot for them to camp on each floor so that they may stay over in the dungeon for a while.

Not long later, Jaune and Ais arrived in Hostess of Fertility, they then made their order and asked for some of the order as a take out. While Jaune and Ais were in the pub, the people who remembered what Jaune did the other day went quiet and avoided eye contact as they didn’t want to piss off Jaune. One thing they did notice, was the fact that Ais seemed to be following behind Jaune quite closely.

The people knew that Jaune was strong, but for the Sword Princess to be following him around was weird to them as she is considered as one of the strongest in Orario and the way she was following Jaune didn’t seem normal, but they didn’t voice out their suspicion as they didn’t want to feel what they felt the other day.

After getting their order, Jaune and Ais eat while waiting for the take out. The entire time that Jaune was eating, he was being watched by Ais, who doesn’t seem to be eating her food. Staring, that’s all Ais was doing, but after a few minutes, she finally started eating.

When Jaune and Ais arrived in the dungeon, Jaune made notes on multiple locations that are viable as a campsite for a big group like his. Ais saw this and didn’t know why Jaune was taking notes of the area, but Jaune noticed her confusion so he explained.

“The area that I’m taking notes of, is the area that I believe is safe to camp at,” Jaune explained.

“Camp?” Ais asked.

“That’s right. When my friends enter the dungeon, we won’t be leaving for at least a few days. They’ll be fighting for a long time to push their body past their limit, the best way to do that is to be in an environment that forces them to push past their limit, such as this dungeon,” Jaune said.

Ais understood what Jaune was saying, but she knew that it was quite risky, even her Familia has to have multiple first-class adventurers when they venture in the dungeon for a long time…It was then that it hit her, Jaune wanted to help train his friends, but they plan to stay in the dungeons for a few days at a time, she realised that Jaune wanted her help to watch over his friends and keep them safe.

Jaune and Ais dungeon diving were able to lead them to the 59th floor. Jaune was happy to see this floor, as he knew that this floor would truly push the body of the other past their limit due to the harsh environment, and without Aura, they won’t have extreme climate protection. After the survey, they returned to Jaune’s base.

Jaune was thinking about Hephaestus, he wanted to speak to her and ask why she wanted to meet him last night since he didn’t have time to speak to her after the spar as she left with the others.