Relic of the Future: Chapter 4

The Nevermore dove down towards something.

He was already moving to intercept it. To hell with caution and to hell with the future – he'd come back to change it, not to sit back and watch the same tragedies repeat themselves. If he was going to save his friends, then he'd damn well try and save someone else's too.

"Oi!" he screamed at the top of his lungs. "Over here you stupid bird. Come and fight someone a tenth your size!"

[...]

Up above, the Nevermore screeched and dove down towards the location.

No. He wouldn't let it happen. His feet hammered quicker, moving from grass to tile and slate as he hurtled to intercept the monster which had seen something below. It landed, and for a moment he thought the survivor lost. Until, to his shock, the Grimm seemed to pause. It was confused, uncertain, glancing below as though it had lost its prey.

Jaune crashed into it a second later. His body bowled the beast off its talons and down into the ditch, where they splashed into water only a foot or so deep. It screeched and clawed at him, buffeting his body with its huge wings. He ignored it, scrabbling for the sword he'd dropped in his fall and bringing it up above his head. "Die!" he roared, thrusting it down into the monster's breast. The blade bit deep, cutting through feathers, skin and muscle. Even then, the Grimm's struggling didn't cease and it bucked him off.

Water splashed around him as he rolled aside, recovering quickly and staggering back after his quarry. The Nevermore had managed to get back onto its feet unsteadily, but the water was weighing it down, preventing it from taking off. He slipped under one of its wings when it flapped and cut at the tendons connecting the limb to its body. Again it screeched and fell, splashing down on one side and spraying him with blood-tinted water.

There was no mercy to his attack; it was more a butcher's work. He hacked and slashed at the thing until it stopped moving, and then hacked some more until it had started to dissolve entirely. After a few seconds he paused, aware of the water that sloshed around his ankles and his own harsh breathing, more fevered pants than anything.

—Relic of the Future: Chapter 4