49 Blood drenched sands end

The Sand starts shaking beneath their feet and the sound of wings flapping start to approach in great numbers.

The first act that was played by the caravan guards and the bandits and the second act played by the tourists and the bandits have come to an end. Now it was time someone else to take the stage.

With how much negative emotions the raided caravan has been emitting for the last few minutes, it would be a surprise if they didn't make an appearance.

Anger, fear, pain, betrayal. They served a siren blaring into the unknown, calling to those who hunt sentient beings.

The Grimm have finally decided to appear, after biding their time and waiting for the conflict to come to its conclusion.

From the sands beneath the feet of the three last survivors from the fight, tremor can be felt that quickly got stronger.

Jaune jumped to the side while Neo picked the leader by his feet and started dragging him towards where the hostages taken by the bandits were.

Then, a mound of sand suddenly appeared where they were. Gradually, the sand slid of, showing an deathstalker ready to strike.

Compared to the one in the show, it was a bit smaller and had a flatter shape that is better suited to burrowing in the sand, showing that it's a variation on deathstalker template that is better adapted to the desert.

But it still had everything you'd expect, two sharp pincers, a stinger at the end of its tail and a bunch of red menacing eyes.

But it wasn't the only Grimm to ermerge, as the sound of other Grimm unburrowing from the sand could be heard all around the caravan while overheard, many carrion had formed a ring around the caravan by flying in circle, finally ready to strike after a long wait.

Seeing the carnage that was about to commence, Jaune amplified the destructive aspect of his aura and unlike his previous calm and neutral expression while fighting the bandits, he now showed a ferocious expression while taking an aggressive fighting stance.

Now he didn't need to worry about taking prisoners to interrogate, nor does he need to continue being conservative while using his aura since they are what he's been saving up his strength for.

Now he can use his full power without any restraints. What he's been waiting for.

If the leader was still there to see the current appearance of the kid that slaughtered his entire group with a poker face, he would reconsider his previous assumption that he is the more level headed of the two, it was just a matter of them not even being worthy adversaries in Jaune's eyes.

But to ensure the Grimm would focus solely on him and not on Neo and the rest of the prisoners. He would need to become a more attractive target in their eyes.

Which was quite a simple thing to do, all he really needed was to let loose all the negative thoughts that he learned to control and suppress.

And Jaune, had a lot of them.

Mainly his fear, fear for the family he's come to love, fear for the future which despite all his knowledge remains uncertain abd fear of what he must become, in order to defeat Salem.

But also a deep rage towards whoever or whatever is responsible for his possession into this world and loss of his past life identity.

And this is enough to send all Grimm into a frenzy, all rushing towards him, all unable to resist such alluring bait laid before them.

The first to make a move was the Deathstalker right next to him.

It lunged towards Jaune with both its pincers ready to cut him in half.

And seeing the very predictable attack, Jaune simply stepped aside and let it go past him.

But as it missed its target, the Deathstalker instead of trying to attack again, immediately burrowed itself again on the sand, readying for the next strike.

But Jaune didn't have much time to muse over it as with the sounds of wings flapping, the carrion quickly swooped in to join the fight.

They stayed on the air, hovering just above him and started spitting acid through their beak towards the one bellow them.

"Hmph."

With a scoff, he decided to show these birds how wrong they are to think that they're safe while in the skies.

He first used 'flash-step' to dodge all incoming projectiles and sent a 'crescent moon slicer' that cleaved through the tightly packed birds.

The remaining acted true to their instincts and stayed farther away, probably waiting until I'm tired and wounded before trying again.

But after those two retreated, another one quickly approached to join in the fun.

With a sound of something being dragged through the sand, Jaune turned back to see a king Taijitu slithering towards him, its appearance different from the ones he fought before by the hood it had resembling a king cobra.

So after emotionlessly staring at him for a few seconds, it too moved in too attack.

The black head charged towards him with its unhinged mouth wide open, probably trying to swallow him in one go.

Seeing this, he sprints towards the approaching head and a few seconds before entering its mouth, Jaune jumps, landing landing right above its head.

And before it gets the chance to try to shake him off, he stabs his sword right into its head, completely piercing the scales and making the beast writhe in agony.

But he still wasn't done, he took the embedded sword and started dragging it across as he ran on top of the King Taijitu's body across its length.

His sword reinforced with Aura and his own strength that has been enhanced with the destruction aspect were enough to to the job effortlessly.

But before he could reach the second head, he was forced to jump off as the white head sprayed at him a stream of venom.

This variant of the King Taijitu differs from the other ones in more than just its appearance, as it uses a different method to deliver its venom.

At the cost of having a slightly weaker potency, it gained the capability to spray it at a large distance.

So seeing that this head wouldn't carelessly attack like the other, he naturally had to come up with a different strategy to deal with it.

Overall, the loss of one of the heads doesn't affect the other as they're independent, it just means that it now has to carry dead-weight with it when it moves.

But it doesn't change that the threat has been reduced by half so far.

When dealing with similar Grimm before, his go to strategy was to use obstacle to entangle and mess up with the heads coordination and trying to destroy both halves in a single go.

But with one of the heads taken care of, things become much simpler.

He changed how he was holding his sword into a reverse grip and got into a stance like if he was throwing a javelin.

And as soon as the giant snake opened its mouth to send another stream of venom, he immediately went into action and threw his sword with all his strength.

Crocea Mors flew through the air and hit the snake right on its open mouth, piercing the back of it.

The snake started flailing around and gagging trying to get the sword out, but it was simply stabbed too deeply and the snake had no limbs to remove it by itself.

Jaune didnt waste this opportunity and moved in to deal with it in close combat.

Performing a 'flash-step', he approached the abdomen of the King Taijitu in an instant and struck with his shield, ramming it into the snake with a lot of force.

The aftershock of this strike traveled through the snake's body and caused it to spit out the sword high into the air. Before collapsing onto the ground.

Jaune then took a few steps backwards and after waiting for a few seconds, he extended his arm to the air and Crocea Mors came falling down into his hand.

He did a brief twist with the blade to shake off all the grossness that was now clung to it while inwardly giving an apology to his ancestors for his reckless use of the family's relic.

But seeing the snake on the ground, he didn't let the opportunity slip away and quickly advanced towards its head, driving his sword right through its eye.

While doing so, he concentrated some Aura right in the tip of the blade, so when it was inside its head, he used 'aura detonation' to cause the sudden expansion of the Aura accumulated there.

This caused an effect similar to an explosion being set-off inside of it, making the entire head of the snake implode in a gory mess.

But Jaune didn't mind it too much as soon after a Grimm dies, all parts of his body will simply disappear, so the mess will simply clean itself.

A few seconds after, something burst through the sand once again, Jaune didn't even turn to look towards it and simply swung his shield into position to defend itself as fast as possible.

And just as he did so, he felt a great force coursing through his body before he's thrown back, which causes him to be launched a few meters before regaining stability.

Looking towards the position he was at, he could see the tail and stinger from the Deathstalker out of the sand while the rest of its body remained buried beneath.

Feeling that its target wasn't impaled as it was expected, the tail lashed out again, accurately tracking his location through either vibrations or the negative emotions he's purposefully releasing.

As the stinger approaches him from the front, he leans back and narrowly dodges it, before rolling to the side as the tail slams on the ground, trying to crush him.

Seeing his attacks being ineffective, the Deathstalker starts doing wide sweeps instead with its tail to catch him, but Jaune either leaps over or crouches to avoid the attacks.

Seeing that the Deathstalker didn't feel like getting out to face him and would rather continue hiding and doing sneak attacks, Jaune decided to force it out, since now it wasn't very dangerous but it would be very annoying once the others arrived.

Taking a deep breath and momentarily purging the negative thoughts from his mind, he concentrates on the enemy and holds his sword with both hands while he awaits the next attack.

To do so, he even unfolded his shield and returned it to his waist in the form of a sheath. Acquiring greater power and precision with his cut while leaving himself more vulnerable.

And when the stinger once again sprung towards him, he stepped aside while doing a upwards slash with his sword.

And after a few seconds, a sound was heard not far from there.

*Thud*

It was the stinger that had fallen on the ground.

Normally, even with his current strength, the armor of a Deathstalker is still too much to deal with with his strength and enhancements with Aura.

His strength is that of an 'auraless' adult, which is unusual for a 10 year old, but compared to the Beacon initiates that were already on the realm of superhuman, he still has a bit to go.

The soulfire certainly could, but considering the toughness of the carapace it would cost a lot of Aura to destroy it, so he rather use it as a finishing move.

But there is still a way to damage it without the necessary brute strength to destroy the armor.

The armor is not a single continuous solid plate like a turtle shell, instead it was various smaller interlocked plates, which gives mobility but creates vulnerabilities.

That's especially true for the tail which needs to be very flexible in order to allow it to attack in many angles.

So a precise strike focusing on this weak spot would allow the attack to mostly bypass the defenses and deal a lot of damage, but unfortunately the vital spots are very well protected and such weak spots don't exist and the other weak spot that is its underbelly is very hard to reach.

And just as Jaune predicted, the loss of its tail was sufficient 'persuation' for it to 'come out to play'.

*Shriek*

With a loud noise that made it clear how much it was pissed off, the Deathstalker finally unburrowed from the sand and showing its very disturbing face.

And as it did so, it didn't hesitate to attack with the weapons that it still had: its pincers.

But Jaune already had to work to get it out of the sand, so he won't let it have the chance to burrow again and continue to annoy him, so he decided to kill it decisively, even if it meant using more aura.

So seeing the raged filled aggression of his foe, he continued forward without any regard, seeking only to deal a fatal blow instead of slowly and methodically wearing it out.

So as he got into the Deathstalker's attack range, he immediately used 'flash-step' to dodge the pincers and reach its head and when he did so, he sheathed his sword and used 'dragon claw' to pierce its armored head.

The attack however didn't go deep enough to prove fatal, but that wasn't a problem since his purpose is just to use the hold he's gotten over the Grimm to prevent it from getting away.

So in his other hand, white flames started to manifest, though emitting no heat and having a more spiritual feel to them.

The Grimm, probably sensing something dangerous, stopped its motion of trying to bisect the human that was right in front and instinctively tried to retreat. But with his tight grip, Jaune just went along with it while holding to its head.

And so, thrusting his hand covered in Soul fire directly into the Grimm's head, his arm managed to pierce all the way to the other side, like there was no resistance at all.

So with one last shriek, the Deathstalker dropped to the ground and started disintegrating and Jaune got of it and assessed his current Aura situation.

Though Soul fire has a basically unlimited damage potential as long as his aura is enough to support it, it takes a toll on his reserves despite having multiple times the Aura of others, so he only uses it to finish opponents that would otherwise take too long like a Deathstalker.

This very small use of it already shaved off almost 10% of his maximum, that is equivalent to more than an average person's total.

But he didn't have much time to reflect on his Aura expenditure as the ground beneath his feet started showing signs of movement, promoting him to unsheathe his sword and unfold his shield.

And before he had time to dodge away from it, the 'thing' was already closing in for his head.

But he was able to unfold and raise his shield to block it, causing a loud noise from the sheer impact.

From behind the shield, he could see four large teeth clamping down at the edges of the shield, but those teeth were coming from four different directions, with enough strength to visibly warp the shield.

He didn't dwell much on that and quickly striked at whatever was holding on to his shield with a quick sword slash.

So with a clean vertical cut, the rest of the Grimm fell to the sand, revealing a long cylindrical body, just without its head that was still clamping his shield despite being severed.

'Blind worm.' He concluded without any difficulty, a worm like grim with four enormous teeth that are extremely powerful and as the name implies, cannot see and hunts through vibrations.

And more importantly, the smaller variants like the one he just killed usually come in groups.

So he immediately decided to leave the ground where they can easily sense and overwhelm him and find a safer spot to fight.

So infusing aura into his legs, he performed a long leap, landing at the top of one of the carriages from the caravan.

No longer in direct contact with the sand, the worms could no longer track him through vibration, but the aftermath of having landed on top of the carriage still attracted them.

So dozens of worms unburrowed from the sand and started viciously attacking the carriage, tearing it apart piece by piece.

*Swish* *Swish* *Swish*

But he wasn't safe as the sound of projectiles approaching from abovecould be heard, leaving him barely any time to protect himself.

But using his shield, he's able to protect himself from the oncoming attack by hiding beneath it.

Though he notice that what he was defending against was a liquid and when it spilled on him, it started reacting and slowly working through his Aura.

Conforming that the flying bastards had returned and they were ready for round two.

Acknowledging that the roof of the carriage was too small to properly dodge the attacks, the ground was a bit too hazardous with all the worms, continuing to defend would probably result in his shield being scrapped by the continuous acid bath without giving him a chance to counterattack and the carriage he's standing on would eventually break apart with the combination of the worms below and the carrion above, he quickly came up with another method to get out of the situation.

Judging the distance of himself from the other carriages, he decided to leap towards the next one, before the one he was currently on gave in.

Using the brief time window of time he had before the attacks resumed to send another 'crescent moon slicer', cleaving several birds.

And when they tried to bombard him, he simply hopped to the next carriage, avoiding the attacks.

So he continued thining their numbers using a hit and run strategy.

But it seemed that they weren't going to retreat again this time, seeing their numbers dwindle, they opted to swoop down and attack from up close, which despite their higher propensity to attack at a distance, was still something they were capable of.

So while part of the remaining flock continued to attack at a distance, the rest tried to pin him down for their allies to do their work.

A noble sacrifice, but ultimately a meaningless effort as they had just made his job easier.

As one group approached, he temporarily put away his shield to free one of his hands to use some of qthe barehanded fighting techniques he's learned. So reeling his arm backwards, he stores energy for his next attack and when the carrion get in the perfect position, se launches it forward, creating a wave of air pressure strong enough sweep through the opponents and send them into disarray.

Sensing that the next volley of acid was coming, he jumped towards where he sent the 'air pressure fist', and as he flew through the disorganized Grimm, waving his sword and fist all around. Slicing and sending those hit by his punches crashing to the ground.

As he came out from the flock, he grasped one last carrion by the wing before he landed, using the force to slam it to the roof of the carriage.

This earned a shrill cry from the Grimm, a very unpleasant noise that Jaune found somehow even more annoying than the sound they normally make.

So to shut it up, he stepped in its stomach, presenting it from making any further noise and violently pulled the wing, ripping it off completely.

And it didn't take long for them to follow him and try this tactic again and again, which left their number be thinned very fast.

In the end of it, the Grimm presence in the air had mostly vanished, with the few carrion left posing almost no threat, leaving only those in the ground left.

Which was quite tricky considering there was no way to know their exact number. But either way, he had to get rid of them all the same.

And the worms that are gnawing on the carriage he's currently on are good place to start.

So jumping back to the ground, upon landing he was immediately attacked by worms that were waiting for him, but this time he was already expecting it, so without any drama he started dealing with them.

Chopping them up like sushi with his sword and grasping their cylindrical bodies and squeezing them with his hand.

Using his heightened senses, he can also feel them under the sand when they're about to attack, which prompts him to stab his sword into the sand, killing them before they get a chance to act.

As they continued to appear, they seemed endless in number but to him this wasn't an issue since from bandits to the Grimm, the fighting only made him winded at mostand cost a bit more than half his Aura. He still had plenty of fighting left in him.

So with the biggest problems already dealt with, he carved his way towards where Neo was at, to see how the situation is on her side.

...

*Screech*

A last dying sound is heard from a blind worm that had been stabbed to the ground, eliciting the sword impaling it to be twisted, finally ending its life.

That was the scene Jaune witnessed when he approached where Neo was hunkered down with the bandit leader and captured caravan hands.

From the surrounding corpses strewn around, it could be seen that a few prisoners had already been killed by the oncoming Grimm horde and that was already to be expected.

Protecting a large number of people alone is very hard, especially for Neo that doesn't perform the best in head-on engagements and has limited experience with Grimm in general.

But that was much safer then keeping her near him when he was attracting all the 'agro' of the horde. Especially when it comes to the larger specimens, her lack of raw power to go through their defenses becomes much more of an issue.

That could also be said about him as well, but he has the soul fire, which is basically a cheat. At the cost of Aura related to the toughness of the object, he can destroy anything of his choice as long as it touches the white flame.

Approaching her, Jaune claps his hand to get her attention, approaching her carelessly while she's so battle alert could end with him being accidentally stabbed.

When she snaps her head to look at his direction, she initially shows an icy and ferocious expression, but it quickly melts into a look of elation and relief.

"So how are things on your side?" Jaune then breaks the silence.

Hearing this, Neo shows a nervous expression as she glances around at the bodies of those that died.

"I am referring to you, not them." Jaune clarifies.

At this, she simply shrugs as if saying, "no problems" while refusing to elaborate any further.

But with his Aura sensing capabilities, he can feel clearly that her Aura was at the bottom even after him having amplified it earlier. At this point some damage could start getting through the Aura into the body.

But her body language didn't show any big abnormalities which could be attributed to a serious wound, so he just let it pass.

But now that he knows that she's fine and the first wave of Grimm was taken care of, it's time to take their spoils and make a retreat before more show up at this place.

"Time to find out if whatever they were carrying was worth all this trouble to find out."

So the two of them, set their sights to the prisoners that were nearby.