"May I have your attention, please!", he said aloud. Slowly, about them got quiet. "As you all know, today was a strange day. First, the bell, then the random flight drop exercise. However, this was done for a reason. Anyone you passed through the front gate with, those people are your teammates."

A few voices went about, even whispers and a rumor.

"If you came through alone, you are alone."

A few whats passed around, along with other yelps of worry.

"No ifs ands or buts.", he continued on his way aroudn the pool. "You are alone.", he pointed to a gilled faunus. "You are alone.", he pointed to a random girl in the crowd. "You are alone.", he pointed to Elizabeth.

"What?!", she yelled.

"Did you expect any different? You abandoned your friends for what you would think is a loophole. I have control over where you will be in our ranks, and you made a mistake."

"But..."

"Surely you can find a way to survive on your own without aid from anyone else, as you've shown. A boarbatusk should be no match, hell, no beowolf will get close to you. How easy do you think an ursa will be? An ursa major? A deathstalker? A goliath?"

"But-"

"No ifs, ands, or buts. You are all students of this academy training to put your lives on the line and not a single one of you decided to group up. Ninety percent of you did not enter the gates together. There are a total of six teams that are composed of more than one person. Quinn. Icarus. You are Team IQ. Allexis. Ivan. You two are team AI. Travis and Illyia, you two are team Titanium. Marcus, Issac, and Anna. You are team MIA. Yout wo helped an injured man with a broken foot. Impressive. Kimberly and Malleck, you two are team Kilometer. Rex, Olivia, and Rorrn, you will be known as team Roar. The rest of you are solitary units as a team. Your first name is your team name. You are your leader, and you are your recruit."

Silence. Here and there talk went about. Declarations of disbelief, questions if he was serious, complaints.

"Enjoy your Weekend. You deploy Monday."

Professor Marlton sighed, turning and returning the direction he came from.

Icarus looked at Quinn. "I'm sorry, I...didn't know."

"Look don't apologize.", Quinn pulled himself out of the water. "Enjoy your time here, I'm going talk to the professor."

"No you won't.", Marlton stopped him. "Unless you wish to be as independent as everyone else? Your own room, your own team, your own title as leader."

Quinn thought on that a moment, then moved over a slight inch, wearing his normal attire and six different weapons, rather than the swim suit he bore a split moment before. He changed. "I'll take that risk."

"Is that a challenge?", Marlton turned to Quinn.

"I don't challenge my superiors. Heck, I fear my superiors. Engaging with my superiors only earns bad results and punishment."

"Well, you just lost your only teammate."

"And I'm willing to take that risk if it means helping the majority of students here to actually become a hunter. Or huntress.", Quinn crossed his arms.

"And how would you change my mind about the matter? I'm obviously appauled that no one helped a fellow teammate. Sixteen people returned injured, counting the fellow that is part of team MIA. Congratulations on being the leader of team Quinn. I'm sure you will accel much better than anyone else, especially with so many intimidating weapons at your side to flash at anyone you meet.", Marlton turned, resuming his path.

"Alright. Then what can I do to change your mind?"

"Nothing.", Marlton continued.

"I don't believe you."

"Nothing you can do will change my mind."

"Then lets make a bet. Freshman versus Academy President."

Marlton stopped. "Hm. I like the sound of that. A freshman stepping out of line. I guess I could discipline you properly, as is my job.", he turned on his heel, grinding the concrete below his foot. He approached Quinn, standing directly in front of him.

"I'm a freshman. I know nothing. So, you draw the terms."

"And the anti-up?", Marlton asked.

"Teams. If I am successful. You team everyone up accordingly. I won't rub it in your face that names for each team are going to be a pain."

"Indeed they are. And if I win, the terms you are asking for are much, much...much...lower than what I will get out of it."

"I am fifty percent dragon. I will endure it. And to pay homage to dragon kin, I won't complain about it."

"A dragon? Interesting." Marlton fell silent. He was obviously thinking. When he turned, he sighed. "Report to the courtyard. I'll be waiting. In a few moments, I will announce to everyone to report to the courtyard to watch."

"What will I be doing?"

"When we get there, you will find out."

And it was but a moment's time later to Quinn. He were outside, Professor Marlton but twenty paces away, and each student had been gathered to watch, all as he promised. To be honest, Quinn felt intimidated. Slightly. The worst he could do is to let that intimidation matter, or show it at all. Him versus a veteran of war. A hunter for decades. He could kill Quinn where he stood in one blow and it wouldn't be more than a flick of the wrist to Marlton.

"As I told you, you'd find out when we got here. So. Disarm me."

"Say again?", Quinn clicked the safety off of each of his weapons.

"Disarm me. In any way necessary. Blow my arm off, decapitate me, put a claymroe through my chest. I dont' care. Disarm me."

"Really?", quinn asked.

"And if you use your ability to slow or stop time in any way to succeed, you will fail. This has been recorded previously and a message given to my secretary to deliver to my superiors so that a replacement can fill my place and the proper instructions given. Each separate team will stay separate, no change. Proper precautions should you actually kill me..."

"Alright. Before I begin, tell me. Who said I was going to cheat my way to victory? I don't recall even acknowledging that I could do that. In fact, I often forsake my ability and completely forget about it because...I simpyl don't care. So. Professor Marlton. As you said, I'll disarm you. Fairly. No doubt you'll fight back."

"Indeed.", Marlton replied. "Get on with it."

Quinn took a deep breath, conducted a second check on what weapons he was holding, and rested one hand on his carousel of blades, ponddering the ebst approach he coudl take on all of this. Gauntlets, greaves, and Skofnung, as is his favorite setup. And an additional revolver, copied to be an exact replcia to Skofnung settled in the second holster on his hip. His Chokuto was the first thing to come to mind. Or should he start with his Cleaver?

"I'm waiting."

Quinn let his hands rest at his sides, "Come at me."

"I think not."

"Well, one of us has to do something. Either I end up immobile, or you end up disarmed."

"And dragons are about the most stubborn living creature alive."

"Didn't know you believe in dragons."

"Didn't say that...", Marlton clenched the clutch on his cane. The top popped up, and he pressed it back in place. A second later, one of the weapon lockers launched, straight from his office, landing beside him. The weapon was presented by a set of mechanical arms. A rifle. Particularly, a heavy rifle. Really big. Able to dwarf even Quinn's own Rail Rifle. And most of it's body were crafted from blade edges.

"Of course, I was hoping you'd try to take my cane, but it seems I shouldn't play around. You want me to come to you, then I'll come to you.", He slammed the butt end into the ground. The rifle fell apart, then rearranged itself magnetically into a rather large blade. A greatsword it were, and the chamber, still locked into the handle. One round fired, and he charged Quinn Like a rocket.

A loud clang erupted into the still air as Quinn countered with his own greatsword in an equal move. Round for round. He fired one to swing, countered Marlton's own, fired another and spun around to counter yet another. They were literally a mirror match. Each wielding what had to be exact specs for the same sword and the same firing mechanism.

Marlton kicked Quinn, then aimed his weapon at the half breed. Before he could pull the trigger, Quinn had his second revolver drawn and just grazed Marlton as he side-stepped the round. As if it were a sword swing. He whiped the blood off his cheek, then spun his sword in hand, lunging forward. The next hit, he fired one round, met Quinn's blade equally, but instead of bouncing back from the sheer force, it shattered. As he spun around, he met Quinn with a rifle barrel and pulled the trigger much higher than he had aimed. Marlton Swung at Quinn with a simple right hook, throwing him away just a step, and Marlton himself back stepped just as Quinn brought his sword down on him, narrowly escaping an untimely death.

Quinn traded his greatsword for his hammer, unrolling the weapon in a timely gesture that allowed him the perfect upward swing, knocking Marlton's sights much higher once more. It helped him dodge a second bulet and gave him the perfect opportunity to land a direct hit, throwing Marlton into a roll. Quinn was on him a second later, hammer coming down when Marlton rolled onto his back, Rifle aimed high. If Quinn didn't pull the trigger, he'd have taken one of those rounds dead center. Instead, he threw himself onto the ground past his target. Back on his feet, he blocked one hard downard swing of Marlton's balde with his gauntlet, then nearly fell backwards as the professor fired another round to swing his sword overhead far. Next land shattered his blade, and he leapt backwards, ejecting his rifle clip for a fresh one.

Quinn took a few breaths, then sheathed his greatsword to bring his fists into play. One hand grabbed a large tank shell from his hip, and he tossed it up, meeting the large round with a hefty punch. However, Marlton simply shattered the tank round with one of his own, and basically took down the remainder of Quinn's tank shell armory with the rest of the clip. Four shells, four rounds, Marlton traded his clip for another fresh one. Before the smoke could clear, he was already over Quinn's head, coming down with a swing from his battle axe, missed the half dragon, and fired a round to wrench the weapon free for another swing. Quinn countered with his own halberd, firing one round to knock the weapon away, another to swing his weapon upward, then a third to land the hit on home. Marlton tossed it aside with another round, even blew apart the halberd's head.

One thing went through Quinn's mind as he drew his second revolver. Will that hinder his ability to use Skofnung? Each round aimed at the professor was simply flecked off with a thin sword blade Marlton had pulled off his weapon. He fended off the last round and threw his weapon for a spin, firing a round that shattered Quinn's second revolver like glass. As Marlton loaded another round into the chamber, Quinn retaliated with his cleaver, having drawn it and placed it dead center of the professor's rifle with pure intentions to just slice it in two, but it did not even leave a nick on it's barrel. Marlton fired a round to pull his weapon free, spun about, then hit Quinn with the butt of his gun, knocking the half dragon down.

As Quinn slowly rose, he sheathed his weapons, all of them, then took a few leaps back. Reverse Somersaults until he were a great distance from his enemy. Marlton was given a much better advantage and clipped a scope to the top of his rifle. One round slid into the chamber, and he fried, missing. He angrily loaded another one in as Quinn drew his own rifle, then fired it home. Shattered his cleaver. The next round broke off one of his gauntlets, but it didn't deter Quinn as he pieced his weapon together completely. Next round, Quinn met it with his Chokuto, sliced the bullet in two, then sheathed the blade, dashing forward. He had to close the gap before Marlton reloaded. Each step was only punctuated with shotgun rounds.

Once Quinn had come up on the professor, Marlton had reshaped his weapon back into a greatsword, fired one round, then met Quinn's finished rial rifle in a shattered cloud of sharp magnetic metal. When he swung back around, Quinn kicked Marlton's rifle to the side, then spun back around the other way to land a kick to the side of his head. As the professor rolled back onto his feet, Quinn slotted a depleted revolver cylinder into place and slid all eight rounds into the chamber, holding the trigger for it to charge. Marlton swung his rifle up, and fired a round, msising it's target and blowing Quinn's left greave to pieces. When he had the next round loaded into the chamber, he aimed at Quinn's weapon and fired again, onyl to hit his second gauntlet. Emptied out, Marlton jumped past Quinn to reach his weapon locker, narrowly Dodged Quinn's Chokuto, and grabbed a fresh magazine just as Quinn was upon him. It was loaded into it's mag well immediately and just before he grabbed the loading bar, Quinn put his foot down on the rifle barrel, put his own rifle's barrel to the firing mechanism of Marlton's own and fired.

One super charged, hyper velocity round fired from the chamber, cleared the distance within the barrel within an infinitesimally small fraction of a second and pierced the toughened metal of Marlton's rifle, shattering it like glass. Upon impact, the round detonated, twisting the barrel end of Quinn's rifle and throwing him down.

Marlton slowly rose with his broken weapon in hand, the only thing remaining in one piece to be the butt end and the grip. Quinn placed one revovler round in his wrist and Marlton dropped it, unable to even keep a grip on it.