Jaune Arc: Fate System

Chapter 12: Gathering Relics

Professor Ozpin is watching the live feed of the students on his scroll, overlooking the Emerald Forest while at the top of Beacon Cliff.

He was thinking about what Salem's current moves might be. After seperating and starting this shadow war with Salem that is still being waged for thousands of years, Ozpin has become weary. He has not met Salem for more than a thousand years and he had been unable to think of what her moves or thought process are like right now.

Although he had achieved several victories throughout the years, he could truly never vanquish her due to her accursed immortality. Ozpin also knew that from the beginning of the shadow war to now, he knew that Salem always had the advantage between the two of them; from land that she could access, to the number of grimm she controls, to the magic she possesses, and to her longevity.

While in Ozpin's hands are that he had almost no place to operate into, which is limited to the four kingdoms, most of the people and faunus he needs to protect are civilians who have no combat experience and the only one's who can fight are divided by their own goals and ideals. The people's negativity also attracts the grimm, which greatly setbacks Ozpin's progress. And even his magic has been dwindling ever since he first reincarnated, and although he gained several semblances from his past lives, not all of his past lives had semblances, some of them didn't even possess aura.

The only reason that Ozpin can think of why Salem hasn't conquered Remnant yet, is because almost all of the older grimm still follow the grimm kings, the first generation of grimm to be created. And Ozpin can attest to their strength as he fought a grimm king once, when he was still Ozma. Their fight lasted for 6 days, and although he won, it was a hard fought battle. He sighed in relief when he remembered that the grimm kings were less than 10 back then. He knew that even Salem would have trouble facing off against one of them. Ozpin was glad that the grimm kings have no desire to attack the only remaining settlements left to the humans and faunus.

Throughout the years, Ozpin has been getting worried and scared about the possibility of his defeat, which would ultimately lead to Remnants end. He didn't care if he died, as he already lived long enough, what he worried about are the innocent souls that would be accompanying him in death should he fail. But now he found hope, in the form of one Jaune Arc. From the reports which Glynda gathered from Ruby Rose, he knew that Jaune Arc is incredibly strong and fast even without aura, being able to shatter the entirety of Roman Torchwick's aura in a single punch, to blitzing a group of faunus who have naturally higher senses than ordinary humans. And Jaune's display of power just now cemented Ozpin's suspicion about Jaune being related to the mysterious person who eliminated an army of grimm from years ago, it might even be him. Ozpin is glad that someone as strong as Jaune is combating grimm, but it's still to early to place all of his hopes on one person. For now, he's only going to watch from afar.

As he was contemplating about his future plans, he never noticed Glynda approach him.

Glynda Goodwitch was watching the students through her own scroll. Once she saw all of them have found their own partners, she walked to Ozpin to discuss about the formed pairs.

"The last pair has been formed, sir. Nora Valkyrie and Lie Ren. Poor boy... I can't possibly imagine those two getting along. Still, the pair that we should focus on are Jaune Arc and Pyrrha Nikos. Jaune is a potential target of Salem while Pyrrha is the potential candidate to receive the remaining half of the fall maiden's power." Glynda said to Ozpin in a worried tone, her concern for the young students running high. She still haven't gotten over it when she saw the large number of grimm rush into Jaune's direction.

"Let's just wait and see what happen's, we can plan after we gathered enough information. For now, we wait." Ozpin said calmly.

Glynda didn't like that answer but calmed down nonetheless, she would only make it worse if she began panicking. "At their current pace, they should reach the temple in just a few minutes. Speaking of which, what did you use as relics this year? Professor Ozpin?"