Cards of Remnant

Chapter 21: Exams - Take A Chance - Part 2

"Hey, honey. How are you doing?"

"Fine, mom. Just going over my deck. Gotta make sure he doesn't steamroll me too easily, right?"

"... Jaune, I know you were really excited when that acceptance letter came in… but you didn't even have your aura unlocked. Beacon isn't like a duel combat school. Do you really think you're ready for it?"

"... what other option do I have? Stay here? Be the laughingstock of Ansel forever? The shame of the Arcs?"

"You're not a shame of the family, dear."

"Tell that to anyone who doesn't live in this house. It'll give them a good laugh."

"Dear…"

"It doesn't matter if it's dangerous. If I don't go to Beacon, I'm never going to be worth… anything. So I'm dueling dad, even if I can't beat him."

"... well, this might help then. A package from Saphron. I think it's your birthday present."

"Eeee! Really?!"

"Maybe it'll help your deck. I'll leave you to strategize."

"Thanks, mom! Oh, I hope it's the Gagaga Samurai foil she told me about… what's this? Some sort of key?"

..............................................................................................................................

"Jaune! Are you okay?! Can you hear us!?"

"Get up, Jaune! You've gotta get up!"

"Rise up! Please, rise up, Jaune!"

In contrast to the frantic pleading of Pyrrha Nikos and Jaune Arc's other friends, Mercury struggled not to pull out his comicbook and get back to reading after the blond student he was supposed to be proctoring had smacked back against the hardlight dust wall and crashed facedown on the floor.

Honestly, what kind of moron was this guy? Who tried to use an Extra Deck summoning method they hadn't mastered in a real duel? What did he expect would happen? Mercury's father was a piece of work, but he'd made sure that his son knew, among other less pleasant things, to never try and overextend himself on a whim. The backlash of a failed summoning could wipe out a duelist's entire aura reserve, maybe even cause serious injury if they didn't have much. Frankly, Mercury was amazed the idiot's hadn't broken from that stunt.

"Professor Port!" Weiss Schnee called from the stands. She may not have been frantically pleading with the blond to wake up as Pyrrha and Ruby had been, but concern for him was still written over her face. "Is he–"

"His vitals are stable," the mustached teacher proclaimed to the crowd, observing the testing arena's medical readout on his scroll. "His aura is down to forty percent, but it is safely above the red."

Forty percent? How much aura did this clown have? No normal person should have had more than twenty after a blast like that.

"He has a minute to rise up and resume the duel. Still, we should make sure he truly is okay," Professor Port muttered, eyeing his downed student in concern. "Mercury, my boy! Check his pulse!"