A Simple Bet Between Friends

Chapter 42

Jaune did his best to keep up, attempting to ignore the burning in his chest. He didn't ask Pyrrha to slow down however, if anything, he wished she'd go faster. If only so he would then have to do the same.

They had elected to take one of the side paths around the school in an attempt to avoid some of the larger packs of Grimm that might have otherwise slowed them down. It allowed them to avoid any combat but made the distance far greater. By the time they arrived at the area containing the cafeteria Jaune was beginning to think his lungs were on fire.

He would have rushed in, were it not for a hand gripping his shoulder.

"Take a second to breath," Pyrrha said, face red from the exertion of running around half of the school grounds. "You'll need your strength to fight."

Jaune reluctantly nodded, leaning on a wall. He took the moment to scan the nearby buildings and streets, all of which were completely vacant. It took him a moment to realise what was wrong with that statement.

There were no Grimm or White Fang. The Grimm he could write off, it made sense that they wouldn't stick around in an area without civilians. They would go further in to find themselves prey to hunt.

The White Fang were not so easily written off however. They may have still been monsters, but they had the capacity to think, and it made no sense that they would leave the area empty. Realistically, they should have stayed out of the path of the Grimm by keeping to the outer sections of Beacon, or at the very least they should have left some people at places they had to have known people would flee to.

They hadn't, and the only reason that made sense was that they had been told not to.

"Do you know anything about whoever it was that Blake ran after?" Jaune didn't recognize the name, but if it was somebody in charge of the White Fang it wasn't difficult to guess that they would have been dangerous.

"I heard his name mentioned a few times back in Mistral." Pyrrha said. "Adam Taurus was believed to be the leader of the Mistral branch; he was very high on the wanted list as I recall." She also gave him a brief description of what she had been told he looked like.

Jaune cursed under his breath. "Any idea how strong he is?"

Pyrrha shook her head. "Not really, though he did manage to avoid capture for quite some time."

"We'd better hurry then, no telling what kind of danger Blake may be in." He paused to check their surroundings once more. After he was sure it was clear they broke cover.

The cafeteria had seen better days. Although the food fight had done its fair share of damage, it was nothing compared to this. The building was falling apart, holes and craters littered the surrounding area and fires burned inside.

It was honestly a miracle the building was still standing. The sounds of combat from within both worried and reassured him. Combat meant that at least somebody was still fighting, and raised the possibility that Blake was still fighting.

Finding a proper entrance took longer than he would have liked, though in all actuality it was likely only a few minutes. The actual doors were mostly blocked off by rubble or sealed shut. Finally, they spotted a section of the wall that had been broken and they cautiously entered the building.

Just in time to hear Blake cry out in pain and watch her aura crack away.

The man who she was fighting had his back to them, a mistake Pyrrha was quick to take advantage of. She tossed her shield in his direction and it made it about half way before the man noticed, by the time it had crossed the distance he was no longer standing there.