Heat Culture 006 (Patreon)

 Jaune grunted as received a face full of dirt, Crocea Mors tumbling from his grasp.

A melodious laugh filled the air, doing nothing to take the sting out of another defeat.

“Do you know what you did wrong there?” Pyrrha asked, her voice filled with amusement. Jaune didn’t respond at first, content to just lay there on the ground. It was a nice piece of ground if he did say so himself. “Jaune?”

He sighed, pushing himself up to his knees. “I fell for your bait.”

She smiled. “And?”

Jaune tried to hold onto his feelings of malcontent but it was impossible when faced with such a compassionate face. Though it wasn’t just that; losing to Pyrrha was not something to be disappointed by. Even the most egotistical person could avoid having their pride wounded when they lost to such a fighter.

It wasn’t that it didn’t frustrate him because it did. He wanted to be better. He was the leader of Team JNPR, so he felt a responsibility in that regard but even though he had been training to be a Huntsmen since he was young, when his parents caved to his desires, he had nothing on Pyrrha. She had fought in professionally sanctioned bouts since the age of thirteen. Fighting on the pro-circuit meant that she wasn’t just fighting against other trainees or even people in her own range bracket; she’d been competing against fully trained Huntsmen and Huntresses.

And winning.

The gap between her and everyone else here was immense.

“I overextended,” he said, climbing to his feet. Looking down, he saw that his breastplate was covered in dirt. “Like an idiot, I thought I had you and was overeager.”

Pyrrha’s eyes sparkled, her tail swishing behind her back. “That is one way of putting it, yes.”

“Har har,” he fake laughed, unable to keep the grin off his face any longer. “How many times is that now? I think I’m zero and fifteen today. A new record.”

He went to brush the dirt off his armor when Pyrrha beat him to it, stepping forward and dusting it off with her hand. A mild spicy scent tickled his nose, something warm and rich. It was coming from her lush crimson hair.

“You’ve been working really hard,” she commented, peering up at him happily. “And you are improving a lot.”

He knew he was. Their class was actually very talented and when he arrived, even with all his schooling, he’d been in the lower half of the class. Constantly training with Pyrrha Nikos had a dramatic effect on his growth, though. As the Inter-Academy Championship approached, he was closer to the top spots than ever before.

It was a bit of a bummer that all the people ahead of him were his friends.

It wasn’t like he couldn’t beat any of them. He had scored victories before in Combat Class but he was still just a little bit behind in certain areas. Against really swift fighters like Weiss, Ruby, Blake and Li, he struggled. Especially against Weiss, her semblance just being ridiculously broken. Their downside was that if he did manage to hit them, they took a lot of damage. They were less durable than he was, and he’d scraped some wins by overwhelming them with his physical strength. The problem was that it didn’t happen often. Against harder hitting opponents like Yang and Nora, he fared much better. He had a lot of aura and he could match their physicality. He was able to tank their blows and return the favor, and a lot of the time, it was a battle of attrition.

A battle of attrition against Yang wasn’t really the brightest strategy considering her semblance but his own semblance was suited for that type of combat. He was one of the few that could outlast her ferocious assaults, and that was where he’d picked up a couple of wins even though she was considered the best fighter in their year after Pyrrha, and maybe Weiss.

Pyrrha was the one fighter he hadn’t scored a win against. Not a single one. He wasn’t alone, though. Pyrrha hadn’t lost a fight in years at this point. No one in their class had come close, and professional Huntsmen twice her age had failed.

It felt like an impossible task.

Even if he could raise his skill level to match her, which in itself was a feat worthy of praise, he would then have to figure out how to combat her semblance. When someone could simply wave their hand and strip you of your sword, disadvantage wasn’t a good enough word to describe it.

And that wasn’t even getting started on the fact that he wore plate armor.

Jaune laughed.

Pyrrha shot him a curious look. “What’s so funny?”

He shook his head. “Nothing.”

She pouted. “Come on, tell me.”

“Just thinking about the mountain I have to climb, that’s all.”

Pyrrha tilted her head, her foxy ears twitching. “What does that mean?”

“It means I’m in for a hell of a hike but don’t worry, I won’t give up until I’ve reached the top. No matter how long it takes.”

Pyrrha poked him on the chest, her sharp nail rasping against his armor. “You are speaking in riddles.”

“Yup.”

“Fine, don’t tell me,” Pyrrha huffed playfully, turning away. She then made a sound of surprise. “Um – I think maybe we should help Nora.”

Jaune blinked, following her gaze – and then started laughing.

He wasn’t sure how Li had managed it but Nora’s head was stuck between the split trunk of a single tree, the cow faunus furiously trying to pull herself free but unable to due to her horns. Even though Nora was a powerhouse and Jaune had seen her punch through trunks thicker than this one, her position granted her zero leverage. She was well and truly trapped.

Instead of helping to free her, Li was simply watching with the biggest smile Jaune had ever seen on her face.

“Yeah, I think that is a good idea,” he said, walking over with Pyrrha.

“Li!” Nora hollered, pounding her fists against bark. “Get me out of here!”

“Do you surrender?” Li asked.

“I’ve already said I surrender ten times!” Nora screamed, bucking wildly. “Now get me out!”

“Hmm,” Li made a big show of thinking about it. “I don’t think you mean it.”

Nora swore loudly.

“What’s going on?” Jaune asked, very much not looking at the way Nora’s combat skirt teasingly flitted around her plump thighs as she struggled even more vigorously than before. “How’d this happen?”

Li looked at him proudly. “I trapped her.”

“I can see that.”

Pyrrha walked over to Nora’s side and placed a hand on her back, causing her to cease her struggling.

“My horns are stuck,” she complained.

“Stay still,” Pyrrha told her, moving around the tree. “I’ll try to dislodge them.”

It was more difficult than it appeared. Nora was wedged in there tightly, her curved, pointed horns digging into the bark further than expected. Pyrrha tried to pull her through and then lift, but all that did was stretch her neck when it couldn’t stretch any more.

“Owie, owie, owie~!” Nora flailed. “Pyrrha, stop! That hurts!”

Pyrrha let go. “Sorry!”

“Hold on, if you try that while I lift her from this side, we might be able to get her out,” Jaune called, approaching Nora from behind. She squealed when his arms slipped around her waist, hands cupping her belly.

“Jaune?”

“Don’t worry, I’ve got you. Okay, I’m going to lift her from this side and I want you to try and work her horns free and tilt her head upwards.”

Nora was light as a feather, Jaune easily picking her up. The position was a little awkward, though. Her rump was right against his crotch, rubbing him in a very distracting manner but he didn’t have time to enjoy unintentionally dry humping his girlfriend.

“Ahn~!”

He almost dropped her. “Please don’t make sounds like that.”

“I can’t help it!”

Pyrrha grasped her horns on the other side and pulled, twisting a little.

“They’ve sunk in quite a lot,” Pyrrha commented, looking impressed. “How in the world did you even end up like this?”

“Li tripped me!”

“I tripped her,” Li confirmed.

Lifting her higher, Jaune braced one foot against the gnarled roots protruding from the dirt. Making sure he wouldn’t slip, he straightened his leg and pushed up, changing the angle of Nora’s body, her butt now higher than her head. Pyrrha made a sound of victory moments before Nora slipped up and free, the sudden shift in weight sending Jaune tumbling back onto the ground, Nora landing on top of him.

“I’m free~!” she cheered, squirming on his lap. “Thank you, thank you, thank you~!”

Jaune grabbed her hips, halting her movements before they could cause him a very awkward problem.

“Can you get up? I think a root is poking me in the spine,” he complained, feeling something hard and knobby pressed into his lower back. Nora scrambled off him, offering a hand. He took it gratefully and she pulled him up effortlessly.

She then pointed dramatically at Li, pouting furiously. “That wasn’t very nice!”

Li still had that massive smile on her face. “I thought it was a little funny.”

“Grr – I’m going to get you back for that,” Nora promised, nodding. “Just you wait.”

He wasn’t sure but it felt like they were bickering a lot more than usual the last couple of days. Now that he thought about it a little more, Li seemed to be the instigator as well which was… odd. Nora was typically the one that started things between them like trying to steal pieces of her food, or using her shampoo without permission and not closing the lid on the bottle, or just teasing her in general. Li was very much a reactor, retaliating to Nora’s provocations.

Jaune could count a half dozen instances where she’d recently been the aggressor.

Like yesterday, in a wild reversal of their usual roles, Li had taken Nora’s glass of milk and downed it knowing that it would elicit a reaction. If there was one thing you didn’t do, it was deprive Nora – and Ruby, for that matter, but that was a whole different story – of their milk. She didn’t even share her milk with Jaune and she shared everything with him, if he simply asked.

Another case had been Li commandeering Nora’s favorite blanket, the one she liked to use whenever they watched movies in their room or when she actually decided to sit down and do her homework last minute. It was a small throw blanket with a black and white spotted pattern, the type of thing you can purchase from any retailer but it had been a gift from Pyrrha when they’d gone shopping together one time. That hadn’t gone down particularly well and it took Jaune longer than it should have to convince her to let Nora have her blanket.

You’d think that would be the end of it but Li had then proceeded to call it Nora’s ‘blankie’ and had driven her partner insane calling it that ever since.

There were other, smaller instances as well that were beginning to pile up. He wasn’t sure what the deal was but it didn’t seem malicious or like she was trying to be mean, per se. It was the type of thing a bratty younger sibling would do but the weird thing was that Li was usually the mature one between them. Jaune had never seen her act this way before.

Jaune shared a look with Pyrrha.

“Heya guys~!” a voice called out and turning, Jaune saw Ruby skipping their way. She wasn’t alone, Blake trailing after her with hunched shoulders.

Jaune quickly forgot all about the current enigma that was Li Ren.

Even though several days had passed, it was still a little hard to look Blake in the eye. Even though she was back to normal, her heat clearly having passed, his stupid mind liked to conjure inappropriate thoughts whenever they were within touching distance of one another. He wasn’t the only one feeling awkward, either. Blake briefly met his eyes before looking away shyly which only made him more aware of her because of how damn cute it was.

It was a vicious cycle.

Jaune cleared his throat. “Hey Ruby, Blake – what’s up?”

He noticed that they had their weapons with them.

Ruby came to a stop in front of him, bouncing up and down happily, rocking from heel to toe. “We saw you guys over here and wondered if you wanna train together?”

“Sure,” Jaune agreed at once. “More the merrier, right Pyrrha?”

She nodded. “Of course.”

Ruby beamed. “Awesome. Uh, how about you and Blake spar? Yep – and, uh – I’ll spar with Pyrrha.”

Jaune frowned. That had been rather blatant. “Ruby?”

Silver eyes darted around nervously. “Yep. Pyrrha, come on – I’ll beat you this time, I swear,” and then with a cascade of rose petals, she grabbed Pyrrha’s hand and vanished in a whirling blur. Jaune blinked.

Blake groaned, covering her face.

What was going on here?

He heard the sound of bone clacking on bone, and turning, he saw that Nora and Li were locking horns. Nora was the stronger of the two and was pushing Li back, no matter how hard the goat faunus dug her feet into the dirt. Disengaging, Li reared up and charged forward, Jaune wincing as their foreheads slammed together and they both wobbled, a little dazed by the impact but unharmed.

“Riiiight,” Jaune sighed. He eyed Blake. “I guess it’s me and you.”

Blake fiddled with her fingers, “We don’t have to, if you don’t want to.”

“Why wouldn’t I?” he asked, focusing his mind.

Blake peered up at him through her eyelashes. “Really?”

“Yeah, come on – Crocea Mors is over there,” he pointed several feet away where Pyrrha had disarmed him earlier. “Pyrrha already beat me up today so you can finish what she started.”

She laughed. It was quiet but it was there.

Jaune walked over to collect his sword.

“Before we begin,” she said as he bent over to pick up his weapon, “I want to apologize.”

Jaune turned to face her. “Apologize?”

Her cheeks flushed lightly. “Yes. For earlier in the week. I… wasn’t myself and may have acted inappropriately.”

“Oh, uh, right.”

Jaune busied himself with the blade in his hand, inspecting it like it was the most interesting thing in the world.

“I – I shouldn’t have,” Blake said haltingly, voice wavering. “But…”

Jaune closed his eyes, firming his resolve. When he opened them, he met her head on, slamming his sword back into its sheath with a loud smack. Blake jumped.

“It’s fine,” he said.

“What?”

“It’s fine,” he repeated, waiting for her to meet his eyes. This time she held his gaze and he didn’t look away. “I… know.”

“You know?”

“You were in heat, right?”

Her ears flattened against the top of her head, her tail becoming rigid in surprise. “You knew?”

Jaune rubbed the back of his neck. “Yeah. Uh, I may be human but… I get it. You couldn’t help it, right?”

She nodded slowly.

“It isn’t like you did anything bad, Blake,” he told her. “You just rubbed your face on my arm a little bit. Sure, I was surprised but it isn’t a big deal.”

“...you mean that?”

“Of course I do.”

“But what about…” her gaze shifted to the dueling pair, still locking horns. Li had managed to gain the upper hand despite her lesser strength, coming at Nora from an odd angle. Jaune watched as they both tumbled into the dirt.

“Li didn’t mind either,” he reassured her. “She understood. She would understand more than I would, right? She has to go through this as well.”

“...but you know how we have to deal with it, don’t you?”

Did she really have to ask that? There really wasn’t a point in lying. It wasn’t a secret. They taught about it in school and human or not, he’d received the same education as everyone else.

“Yeah.”

Her face turned scarlet.

Jaune tried to ease her embarrassment. “Blake, it’s fine. It’s a completely normal thing—”

“Please, shut up,” she moaned, covering her face.

“Uh, right, okay.”

Yeah, maybe staying quiet was the best thing to do. Jaune pulled at his collar, feeling a little hot.

“Aha~!” Nora cheered. “I win~!”

Nora had mounted Li, completely pinning her to the ground. Li tried her best to squirm free of Nora’s hold but it was hopeless, her arms locked together above her head.

“Let me go!”

“Nah uh! Not until you say sorry!”

“Nora!”

“Ahahaha – say sorry, say sorry!”

Well… Nora was certainly having fun getting some payback. Though the position they were currently in with Nora pinning Li’s pelvis down with her own, knees on either side of her hips and leaning forward to keep a hold of Li’s arms, it placed Nora’s chest right in her face. She was in danger of smothering her childhood friend with her…

Jaune burned that image into his brain before looking away.

“Right,” he said loudly, causing Blake to jump. “How about we get some training in? Yeah! I’m super pumped up for this.”

Blake shot him a strange look from between her fingers. “Jaune, are you okay?”

“Fine. I’m perfectly fine,” he nodded. “Yep. Fine.”

She giggled. “If you’re sure…”

“I am. Now come on, Ruby left us here like a little devil so we might as well roll with it. Just, uh – go easy on me, will ya?”

Blake smiled, though it was more of a smirk than anything else. “No chance.”

Blake really was a bad matchup for him. The next hour was spent desperately trying to land a hit on her as she flipped and danced and dashed all around him, her shadow clones only making the entire prospect that much harder. One thing in his favor was that without a ring out win condition, Blake was only able to chip away at his aura, using her speed and grace to move in and out, avoiding the keen edge of his blade. It was a frustrating fighting style to go up against but Jaune kept his cool, calmly assessing her as she came in for another blitz.

Gambol Shroud rasped across the face of his shield, Jaune tensing as he pushed her away. Crocea Mors flashed through the air and found her neck, only for her image to fade into black smoke. Ducking on instinct, he felt her pass above his head in a vicious lunging kick, the air ruffling his hair.

That had been close.

Fighting Blake was much like a dance, in truth. Whenever he stepped forward, she stepped back. Whenever he lunged, she spun aside. Her blade caught the edge of his shield awkwardly, jarring her arm and picking his moment, he slashed at her with a powerful crosscut. Again she avoided his attack, stepping just out of range before retaliating, kicking at his legs. His aura flared in protection, pain shuddering through his knee from the brutal impact but his stance held, forcing Blake to retreat one more.

Their next exchange was a flurry of sword strikes, their blades connecting with loud metallic clangs. Whenever he tried to close the distance, she was always one step ahead of him. Crocea Mors missed her by a hair as she flipped away, her foot nearly clipping him in the jaw.

Jaune sighed, resetting his feet.

Blake smiled at him, her eyes taunting. “Almost.”

She wasn’t a trash talker like Yang was, or even cheeky as Ruby could be, but her one liners were much more annoying. Jaune didn’t rise to the bait, waiting for her to come to him. Blake was faster than he was, more agile and with keener senses. Her semblance made her unpredictable, capable of hiding her true movements and allowing her to attack him from odd angles.

Other than raw strength, she was better than him in almost every way. His swordsmanship was better than hers but it didn’t matter if he couldn’t utilize it. His reach was longer but again, it didn’t matter if he couldn’t capitalize on the advantage it gifted him. His only avenue of victory was his mind.

Jaune wasn’t the most intelligent person around but one thing he was good at was thinking on the spot, even in the heat of battle. He was the best in their year at battle strategy but those classes focused on teamwork and command of a squad. But the thing that made him good at it could be applied in a one-on-one scenario.

Pattern recognition.

Her shadow clones made her unpredictable but there were other ways to see through her fighting style. When avoiding attacks, Blake tended to use as little movement as possible. Part of it was to frustrate her opponent, making them miss only just each time, goading them into overcommitting in an attempt to land a blow. It was the same thought process Pyrrha used when leaving openings to bait attacks.

It made her positioning predictable. If he swung at her from top down, she would step to the side. Blake was right handed so she tended to move to the right, giving her a strong pivot foot to counter attack if she wished. At least, that is what she did against other opponents. Against Jaune, it didn’t work because of his shield. Her right was his left, placing it right between them, protecting his body without even having to move it. So against him, she stepped left.

Stepping left made it difficult for Jaune to follow up. He could, it just made it awkward. It took time to bring his sword back in that direction, so it only left him one option; a shoulder charge. The problem was that it left him wide open to stabbing attacks. Stepping left aligned her blade with his body, so it was only a simple movement to lunge and skewer him.

If he started with a crosscut, right to left, she stepped back to create space. Again, this left him vulnerable to counter attack but the increased distance meant that even with her swift speed, she couldn’t easily cross the distance. Occasionally, she may attempt to ensnare his arm with her ribbon. It was a move she’d performed on him before in class to great effect – the first time. After that, Jaune had learned how to counter it and Blake quickly realized that any move that allowed him access to grab her, be it her body or anything attached to her was a bad idea. Blake had little counter to his physical strength if he got hold of her, and he had been training with Pyrrha and Nora enough that his grappling was above average.

If he tried to charge her, it was a simple effort for her to avoid him using her clones. Whenever he destroyed one of them, she liked to attack from his blind spot. Since he had so much aura, that was her opportunity for a punishing blow, so she aimed to cause the most damage. The back of his head or neck were the popular options.

But knowing all this and taking advantage of it were two different things. Due to her superior speed and reflexes, he couldn’t just react to her movements. He needed to anticipate and believe she would be where he thought she’d be. It was a risky way to fight, at odds with his methodical style but if he ever wished to improve his odds, it was a risk he’d need to take more often.

That or add something else to his arsenal. A ranged option or Dust, perhaps. Jaune thought the latter held more promise. Maybe he should speak to Ruby or Weiss about it. They might have some ideas.

But now wasn’t the time for that.

When Jaune next attacked, he watched the way Blake moved. As predicted, she dodged as he expected. When he stabbed at her, she knocked his blade aside and lunged forward, a spinning kick slamming into his shield and forcing him back a step. Lunging for her, she backpedaled, a clone taking her spot that was quickly destroyed. Jaune ducked on instinct and again, Blake passed over him, though this time she had mecha-shifted her blade into its pistol form, firing at him as she passed over. Several rounds slammed into his skin, aura shuddering.

If she couldn’t land that decisive blow, then she’d chosen to chip at him where she could. That was the beauty of fighting a thinking opponent. He could recognize all the patterns he wanted but people weren’t so easily figured out. Unlike the Grimm who were largely mindless, faunus, humans – they were thinking creatures.

But Jaune believed he had enough to make his play.

They came together again, this time Blake on the offensive. Jaune blocked a series of vicious kicks and slashes, his shield moving expertly to bleed off the force of her attacks. Then Jaune moved, stepping forward and watching as she stepped back and then to the left as he swung down. Jaune was already retreating as she lunged for her counter, the tip of her sword jabbing at his face but missing by an inch. From this position, he slashed at her with a backswing, and Blake hastily moved back.

Give and take, give and take.

They exchanged blows, Croces Mors and Gambol Shroud clashing. Blake grimaced from the force of his swings, disengaging. Using his semblance to amplify his next move, he dashed straight at her, thrusting.

A clone took her spot, impaled on his blade but he was already moving. Blake made a sound of surprise as her foot connected with the surface of his shield, Jaune having spun around to meet her. Her expression filled with panic as she backflipped, pushing off his shield and landing closer than expected.

She only just managed to sidestep his overhead slash, moving left on instinct, amber eyes widening as he let go of his sword, his swing only at half strength.

“Ah!” she grunted as he slammed into her in a brutal tackle, riding her to the ground.

Blake flailed like an ornery cat but it was futile, his hands grabbing her wrists and pinning her to the ground. Much like Nora had mounted Li, Jaune used his greater weight, size and strength to subdue her, Blake bucking uselessly.

“Gotcha!”

Blake panted, bracing her feet against the ground in an attempt at raising her hips to throw him off but he was too heavy. Jaune leaned more of his weight against her, their bodies almost flush, her struggles dying down.

She was beaten.

Jaune gazed down at her, their faces no more than an inch apart. Her hot breath gusted across his lips, her amber eyes wide. Being so close, he could make out the subtle hues of color that made up her iris; vibrant golds, deep yellows, even a hint of orange. It wasn’t so prominent as earlier in the week but he could make out the odd shape of her pupil, almost elongated, not quite slitted.

A hot flush rushed up her neck and engulfed her face.

“Ahahahaha,” Nora laughed and when Jaune turned to look her way, she was clapping happily. “You got her! Jaune-Jaune wins~!”

At some point, she’d gotten up off Li. The pair stood together, watching.

The expression on Li’s face was one he hadn’t seen before.

Her beautiful eyes were half-lidded, her mouth slightly open. Her pink tongue darted out, wetting her lips, a healthy rose complexion giving luster to her pale, high cheeks. It was the type of look a woman gave a man, a little sly, a gaze inviting action; it was provocation in a glance, an urging.

Bedroom eyes.

They pinned him in place.

All of a sudden, he felt quite in danger.