The tournament rolled forward with the indifferent certainty of an inevitable clock. Slowly ticking its way towards the end of the event.
The next few matches unfolded in a blur of light and sound, steel runic energy, cheers and groans rose and fell like tides. Vale stepped back into the arena against Menagerie and Vacuo met Mistral once more. There were flashes of brilliance, moments of stubborn resistance and clever exchanges that earned applause. But when the dust settled, the results were simple.
Vale fell to Menagerie and the other Mistral team fell to Vacuo. There was no dramatic reversal or a last second miracle.
Inevitable outcomes.
Jaune enjoyed sitting beside Yang and the warmth of her presence but enjoyment would not win this tournament.
Understanding would, which meant he need to properly theory craft with Pyrrha.
He rose from his seat.
"I'll be back," he murmured to Yang.
She arched a brow knowingly but waved him off with a faint smirk. "Go strategize, general Jauney."
"Ha. Ha. Very funny."
He stepped down to Pyrrha's row, and she turned slightly at his approach.
"You saw it?" he asked quietly.
Her green eyes held focus. "Yes."
They did not need to clarify which match.
"That speed, he exhibited" Jaune continued. "It wasn't just simple acceleration. I think it was the product of his Meta rune."
Pyrrha nodded faintly. "Hmm. Meta rune makes sense. Honestly, from what I can tell, it resembled thermal expansion."
He exhaled, relieved that she had arrived at the same conclusion.
The air was being displaced around him. If he rapidly increased localized heat in controlled bursts, he could create explosive propulsion."
"Like turning each step into a pressure launch," Jaune said.
"Exactly. But... what's crazy is his control over it."
They fell silent for a moment, both watching the empty arena floor as if the memory of the match were still playing across it.
"He one shot them," Jaune said quietly.
Pyrrha's jaw tightened just slightly.
Coco Adel and Yatsuhashi Daichi.
Those two names once carried the weight of senior authority in LUCID's halls.
They had been second years and he had been a first year. They had seemed impossibly distant with their incredible strength.
Now they were third years.
And he was a second.
Time had layered itself quietly.
They had grown stronger. That much was obvious. Their forms were sharper and even their coordination was more refined.
But it had not been enough.
"His rune wasn't just limited to himself," Jaune said slowly.
Pyrrha's eyes shifted toward him.
"You weakness sense?"
Jaune nodded.
"He didn't just heat himself for propulsion. True to the nature of a meta rune, he was able to heat them up as well."
Pyrrha's expression darkened slightly.
"Oh. That's going to be a problem."
"It was subtle," Jaune continued, thinking it through as he spoke. "But both Coco and Yatsuhashi internal temperature shot through the roof, which caused them to slow down before that final exchange."
"Rapid internal temperature shifts," Pyrrha said. "If he can induce uncontrolled thermal expansion within an opponent's body, even briefly, it would disrupt muscle control, circulation and reaction timing."
"And it make his already incredibly strong strikes hit harder because their bodies are already destabilized," Jaune finished running a hand through his hair.
Pyrrha inhaled slowly, then exhaled through her nose.
"Meta runes," she muttered under her breath, the word edged with a slight annoyance.
Jaune could not help the faint smile that tugged at his lips.
It was rare to hear irritation slip through her composure.
"Any ideas?" he asked gently.
She considered the arena floor, her gaze distant but sharp.
"If his power relies on heat and expansion, we'll have to somehow counter with stability," she said. "I could create a sufficiently large shield that might be broad enough to cover both of us. If he accelerates into it, the force would rebound against him."
Jaune tilted his head slightly.
"A turtle strategy?"
She allowed the faintest hint of a smile. "Yes. I can even modify the shield's surface to generate counter force. Spikes, perhaps, enough to punish direct contact."
Jaune imagined it. A massive defensive barrier. The two of them sheltered behind it while the speedster hurled himself forward.
On the surface, it sounded viable. But his brow furrowed.
"It wouldn't work," he said quietly. "He doesn't need to hit the shield first," Jaune said. "He can just heat us from outside."
Her eyes narrowed slightly.
"He heated Coco and Yatsuhashi without direct contact," Jaune continued. "That was what destabilized them. The propulsion is only one part of his rune. The external application is the more dangerous one."
Pyrrha's shoulders lowered a fraction.
"If he can induce thermal expansion inside our bodies," Jaune went on, "a shield won't stop that. We'd just be hiding while our muscles seize and our reactions slow. And once that happens, one punch is all he needs."
Silence settled between them, heavy but thoughtful.
Around them, the crowd buzzed with renewed excitement as the next bracket prepared to unfold. The noise felt distant.
Pyrrha closed her eyes briefly.
"Can your weakness counteract it?" she asked at last.
Jaune shook his head.
"Probably not. I can't weaken intangible things like heat. Mostly strength and the like. Its different on objects compared to living things with Aura. Though, maybe for myself it might work. For you, your Aura will get in the way."
She exhaled softly.
"Meta runes," she said again, this time with more resignation than annoyance.
Jaune smiled properly now.
"For someone so composed, you really don't seem to like those."
"Well," she replied evenly. "They're powerful and fun to fight against but they are also incredibly problematic, with the unstoppable aspect of their abilities."
He chuckled under his breath.
"That is fair."
They stood there together for a moment longer, both staring at the arena as if it might surrender answers under sustained observation.
"Hmm," Pyrrha said finally. "How about Plunder?"
Jaune shrugged. "If plunder was at comprehension, I'd probably be able to steal away the runic energy of his meta rune towards..."
She glanced at him sidelong, wondering why he paused.
A faint smile bloomed on his face.
"Hmm. I think that I have a plan."
Pyrrha tilted her head slightly, green eyes narrowing with focused curiosity.
"What is your plan, Jaune?"
He hesitated for half a heartbeat, because he doubted it and because he was still arranging the pieces in his own mind.
"Do you remember how I can teleport my swords back to my hand if I throw them?"
She blinked once, then nodded. "Yes. You've done so several times. It looks almost reflexive at this point."
"Right," he said, rubbing the back of his neck. "I've been thinking about how that actually works."
A faint crease appeared between her brows.
"You don't know how it works?"
"I know what it does," he clarified quickly. "But I've just been wondering about the mechanism."
Pyrrha tiled her head cutely. "Right..?"
Jaune exhaled slowly, searching for the right words.
"When I use Plunder on another person," he began, "to everyone else it just looks like their physical capabilities drop, like their stats are reduced."
She nodded. "Yes. That much is observable."
"But to me," he continued, tapping lightly against his chest, "it doesn't feel like a simple addition to my own stats. It feels like I'm attaching something to them."
Her gaze grew curious.
"Attaching?"
"A tether," he said. "Intangible and invisible and it links them to me."
He paused, measuring her reaction.
"They can't feel it as a tether. To them, it just feels like their body is being interfered with and their stats are being reduced."
Pyrrha absorbed that quietly.
"And the tether can't be removed right?" she asked.
"Not normally," Jaune replied. "It's part of the meta rune's effect. It locks on and stays there. The only people who could forcibly break it would be someone with an absurdly higher Aura value than mine. Rank Two or Rank Three."
He grimaced faintly.
"I'm Rank One. So for most people here, once the tether attaches, it stays."
Pyrrha inclined her head slightly. "I'm still not really understanding where you're going with this."
Jaune raised his hand in a placating manner before continuing, warming to the explanation.
"Well, think of it this way, when I plunder someone's strength, I'm not just lowering it. I'm siphoning it away along that tether. It's like an invisible line that continuously feeds into me."
He flexed his fingers unconsciously.
"But the swords, those are not people. That's the weird part."
"When I throw my sword and call it back, I don't feel a tether reach out to it. It's different. There's no continuous link."
"How does it feel?" Pyrrha's expression remain in curiosity.
Jaune frowned slightly, concentrating.
"It feels like… snapping."
"Snapping?" she repeated.
"Like I designate it, and then the rune folds the distance. It doesn't drag the sword through space but relocates it."
"So essentially—"
"I'm saying it's not retrieval," Jaune finished. "It's displacement. The sword teleports through space to reach my hand."
He paused.
"And maybe time, too. Just a little. It's pretty much instantaneous."
He suddenly smacked his forehead lightly.
"I've been using a space time function without thinking about it."
Pyrrha stared at him with dawning comprehension.
"Your rune possesses a full on spatial distortion component," she said carefully. "A minor one, but it's undeniable. I... didn't really realize either."
Jaune nodded.
"Seems like it."
She inhaled slowly, processing.
"That is extraordinary, Jaune. If you reach comprehension..."
He gave a small shrug, as if unsure whether to accept the compliment.
Then she blinked once and tilted her head again.
"Well, alright. While that is fascinating," she said. "What does it have to do with the meta rune heat user? Either way, you can't plunder his runic energy and stop the heat from appearing within our bodies, right? After all, we theorized that you'd only be able to do that at comprehension."
He smiled faintly and Pyrrha waited for his explanation
"You're right I can't plunder runic energy directly from inside someone's body," Jaune said. "If the rune is actively being channeled internally, my Plunder can't breach that. Your Aura would get in the way and the system will reject it."
She nodded. "Yes. That limitation is clear."
"But," he continued, lifting a finger slightly, "what if I'm not plundering the runic energy or stats themselves?"
Her eyes sharpened.
"The heat," she said quietly.
Jaune nodded.
"That guy converts his rune's energy into heat. The energy inside him? I can't touch that. But once it leaves his body and manifests as heat in the environment or inside us, it's no longer raw runic energy."
"It is a physical phenomenon," Pyrrha breathed.
"Exactly. Heat has no weight. It's not a solid object. It's just energy distributed in particles."
He gestured faintly toward the arena floor.
"I can't plunder something larger than me in mass. That's one of my rune's constraints. But heat? That doesn't have size in the same way. It's not a boulder or a wall."
Pyrrha's breathing slowed as she followed the logic.
"If he attaches heat to us," Jaune continued, "and tries to destabilize your body the way he did Coco and Yatsuhashi, I won't try to steal the source."
He tapped his chest.
"I'll steal the effect."
Her lips parted slightly.
"You would plunder the thermal energy itself."
"Right after it manifests."
He grinned faintly.
"I don't need to rip it out of him. I just need to grab it once it exists outside his Will."
Pyrrha's eyes widened properly now.
"You would be siphoning away the heat as it attempts to destabilize us."
"Or even better," Jaune added, excitement creeping into his tone, "I could redirect it. If my tether locks onto the thermal output, I might be able to pull it into myself in a controlled way. Or disperse it."
Her mind was clearly racing now.
"And because heat lacks defined mass," she said slowly, "your size limitation may not apply in the same way."
"Exactly."
Silence fell between them for a long moment.
Then something shifted in her expression. Her eyes brightened and a grin bloomed across her face, sudden and radiant.
"That," she said softly, "is brilliant."
For a split second, Jaune forgot how to breathe.
The stadium noise dimmed at the edges of his awareness. The grin transformed her features in a way that caught him entirely off guard. This girl was just too damn gorgeous.
"You would nullify his greatest advantage," she continued, energy returning to her tone. "He attempts to destabilize us, and you turn it into nothing. Or better yet, into fuel."
Jaune blinked.
"Fuel?"
"If you siphon the heat," she said, eyes alight, "you could convert it into usable stamina. Even a slight enhancement. You could possibly feed off his offense."
His heart kicked once in his chest.
"I hadn't even thought that far."
Her grin sharpened playfully.
"That is why we theory craft together."
He laughed under his breath, a quiet, stunned sound.
"Yeah," he admitted. "Guess it is."
There was a path to victory now.
.
.
AN: Advanced chapters are available on patreon