A Hero's Dilemma

Chapter 14

Here we go.

No Short Story this time around, as I didn't want this to take any longer than it already did. Sorry about that.

Enjoy the chapter.

Cover art by: Notgustiarp

Chapter 14

His knuckles slammed into his opponent's guard, fueled with hopes of ending things quickly. But feeling it connect had him grimace as their Aura shield seemed to work just fine-lucky them. The hard light barrier shimmered as his punch was absorbed though they didn't seem prepared for the momentum still carrying through.

Knocked away and undoubtedly surprised, it gave him enough time to finally fully take them in. With an unbuttoned dress shirt sporting an outrageously popped collar, his lack of a proper shirt and exposed abs severely weirded him out. Thankfully, he had a pair of blue shorts and some beaten up black and yellow running shoes.

But he only really paid attention to that yellow tail swishing in the breeze.

"You know," he eyed them warily, "if you come quietly, we could end this right now."

Hopefully, the new bruise he was nursing would-

"Man, Valean cops don't play around, do they?" The Faunus mumbled dumbly. Even as the bruise on his arm visibly healed with each passing second.

They stopped for a second as two blue eyes-one set lightly glowing stared dumbly at each other.

"...Cop?"

Did he look like a cop? He looked very much twelve...

It took a moment of stunned staring before the guy-kid. Cause he was definitely another kid like himself. Thankfully he got the message, though.

"Oh? Guess I'm off, my bad. Let me try again-Uh, you Vale Huntsman sure are something else!"

He smiled from ear to ear, and the emotions he was getting didn't seem like an act either. This kid was just a little-well he didn't wanna say slow, but it felt right here.

So it caught him completely off guard when they suddenly rocketed forward, leg cocked back.

"Which means I can't hold back!"

Ducking out of instinct, the world slowed to a crawl as his Semblance kicked in.

Yet his opponent just kept getting faster.

Whiffing that initial kick, the thief maneuvered in the air to land on his hands and launched yet more wild kicks. Dodging them was just like avoiding Summer's sword strikes, but unlike her this guy was aiming to crack his skull open.

It's not fair.

Another kick but this time Jaune dodged into his guard when it missed. Slamming his knee into the Faunus boy's suspended head didn't have the same effect had the roles been reversed. Instead of knocking his head clean from his shoulders, their Aura shield turned it into a love tap.

If only it worked like that for me...

The strike still flung the thief away, but it seemed they were ready for it, managing a perfect landing.

"Jaune, neither one of us wants to have you fight. You've done more of that in one battle than most do in their entire lives."

Returning to his stance, he watched in case of further attack, but It didn't seem necessary.

The Faunus cradled his head as he wobbled unsteadily on his feet. Seeing the opportunity, he needed to end this quickly before they recovered and potentially got off a lucky hit-as that's all it would take to down him.