RWBY - Grimm Tidings Chapter 1: The Trial (Magnus Aurin - Gold Trailer), a rwby fanfic

Author's Note : Hi all, and welcome to the first chapter of which I hope will be a recurring series. This is an intro story I wrote for my RPG group for my character in our RWBY game, Magnus Aurin. I got introduced to RWBY via ScrewAttack's Death Battle with Yang vs Tifa and started watching the show back at the beginning of December, so if there are any details I've not got quite right or need more work, please let me know. As I've said, I'm aiming to possibly make this a continuing story with adaptations of how the sessions go (which are all set concurrently to the series so game-wise we've recently got to around the end of Vol. 1) so any critique or comments you have about the story are more than welcome. I've also tried to incorporate music where I can to try and give it a little bit more of the feel of the show with battle scenes etc. Enjoy!

Principal's Office -

There was a loud knock at the door, the sound echoing through the dimly lit room.

"Come in." the voice said, not even looking away from the monitor that was active on his desk. As he did so, the massive doors creaked open and a figure began to walk from the door, down the hallway to the desk at the other end, his footsteps echoing as his heels connected with the marble floors. The sound continued for a while before the man finally reached the desk.

"You wanted to see me, Principal?" the man asked.

"Yes." the shadowy figure replied, leaning back in his large chair. "Is he ready?"

"Aurin, sir?" he asked, continuing once the Principal nodded in confirmation. "As ready as he'll ever be, sir. He's one of my best students."

"That may be so.." the principal stated, matter-of-factly. "But is he *really* good enough for Beacon? You know this school has referred people there in the past, and few of them have lived up to the praise we have given in their transcripts. I was surprised that Ozpin even bothered to return my call this time around...we don't exactly have the sway with him that I've heard *Signal's* had recently." he continued, a sense of envy slipping out at the mention of Patch's combat academy.

"Definitely." the man said, his tone suggesting he was almost certain. "I've been here for many years and I've never seen anyone show the kind of aptitude he has so far. If anyone deserves to be there, it's him."

"Very well..." the Principal said. "You've had your say on this...now it's down to him. Actions speak louder than words, after all."

With that, he pressed a button, activating the intercom system. "Magnus Aurin, please report to the Training Arena."

- Lockers -

"I repeat, Magnus Aurin, please report to the Training Arena."

The corridors had fallen silent for the announcement, before suddenly exploding into a cacophony of chatter among the students as they began to debate the various reasons for the announcement. Was it a punishment...or something else? Everyone seemed to be excited and interested about the news...everyone but one person.

"Did you hear that Magnus? They want you in the training arena.." an voice quickly blurted out from behind Magnus's locker door. He sighed and closed it, looking at the girl who the voice belonged to with a completely passive expression on his face. Her blue eyes, which complemented the green-blue tint to her hair, were wide with excitement.

"I heard, Cyanne." he said, picking out a large cylindrical hilt from his locker, along with a small bandolier which he put on, the black leather strap standing out against the purple velvet that ran across the upper section of his jacket before merging into the black of the lower half. "I'm sure it's just another training session. This is a combat school after all."

He adjusted his wool-lined collar, bringing it down across his jacket front, before adjusting the band that tied his golden hair back into a small ponytail.

"Aren't you the least bit curious though, Mag?" she asked, ignoring the fact that she knew he hated being called that.

He shrugged as he closed the locker and turned to walk towards the arena as she followed. "It's training. If anything more comes along with it, I'm sure they'll inform me."

"Man, you never get excited about anything." Cyanne sulked. "You're no fun at all."

"And yet you still choose to associate with me." Magnus smirked. "I must be doing something right."

Cyanne smiled back. "I guess." she replied, before stopping with a yelp.

"Eep!" she exclaimed. "I almost forgot I've got a meeting with Miss Rojo today..I'd better not be late or I'll end up with another monster research assignment for sure!". She gave Magnus a friendly pat on the back before bolting down the corridor in the opposite direction, a cloud of dust being kicked up in her wake.

"SEEYOULATERGOODLUCKBYYYYyyeeee!..." the voice trailed off as she went out of earshot.

Magnus snorted slightly in amusement. Cyanne had been a good friend these last couple years, one of only a few he had at the school. She was right about one thing however...this was somewhat peculiar. Magnus normally knew well in advance when he was going to have additional after-school training...but not this time. Maybe there was something more to this than first met the eye.

"Well...no point concerning yourself with it now Magnus." he said to himself, gripping the hilt tighter in his hand as he looked at the door to the training arena before him, before adjusting the gold bracers that adorned the forearms of his jacket.

"...Here we go."

The principal and teacher looked on as the monitor displayed the interior of the training arena, and the sight of Magnus entering the arena from the doorway.

"He looks confident." the Principal said, looking back to the teacher, who nodded in reply. "Let's see how this plays out."

With that, the Principal pressed three buttons on a panel on his desk, each of which appeared to correspond to a section of the floor in the arena. Large plumes of smoke spewed out from these sections, beginning to obscure the view of the camera, and the Principal could see that Magnus had raised one of his arms in an attempt to shield himself from the smoke.

Magnus looked at the columns of smoke, wondering what was going on. However, almost as soon as the smoke had begun, it stopped and had begun to clear. As Magnus peered into the dissipating smoke, he saw the shadows of four figures appear. As the smoke continued to recede he saw that each of the four figures was masked, and armed with a blade.

Before he could question this further however, a voice came over the intercom.

"Mister Aurin." the Principal began. "Thank you for joining us. I have heard from your teachers of your good performance in your classes and have decided to put these assessments to the test."

Magnus listened to every word, his hand gripping the hilt tighter as he readied himself mentally.

"As you are well aware, this school has always rewarded the student with the highest overall scores for the final year of study with a referral to Beacon Academy. Each of the people that stands before you now has previously earned that honour. Not all of them were successful in their application, but some of them are giving up some of their valuable free time between years to assist us in this exercise."

Magnus looked at the four figures. He could not see their faces due to the Kabuki masks that they wore, but he could see that all of them appeared to be older than he was. The tallest of them appeared to be well over 6 feet tall, and wielded what looked to be a longsword which appeared to fork off at the point of the blade, with a barrel built into the centre of it. A quick glance at the others showed that each of them also carried bladed weapons...the one to the left wielding a daisho, another longsword in the hands of the rightmost student, and the final student , a female, stood alongside the larger one, a ko-naginata in her hands.

"Your task in this exercise, Mister Aurin...is to defeat all four of these students." the Principal continued. "This battle will be contested under standard training conditions, so all of you will be monitored. When a combatant's aura is depleted, they will be eliminated from the exercise. When one side has been completely eliminated, the exercise will end. Do you understand?"

"Yes, sir." Magnus stated calmly. "I am ready to begin."

The Principal raised an eyebrow "Eager one, isn't he?" he said to the teacher before reactivating the intercom. "Very well...BEGIN!"

He pressed a button and a buzzer sounded, signifying the start of the exercise. Magnus paused for a moment, surveying the four in front of him, when one of them began to speak.

"Pah!" the rightmost student spat, mockingly. "*YOU* are the one they're making all the fuss about? Don't make me laugh."

"I'm not here to make you laugh." Magnus retorted, readying the hilt in his hand. "I intend to eliminate you."

"Really?!" the student laughed again. "Watch out guys, we've got a badass over here. What do you intend to do, shine that little torch in my eyes and hope I don't hit you?"

Before Magnus could respond, the student let out a roar and charged him down, longsword ready to strike. Magnus watched as time began to slow down...something he had gotten used to over the years as he had started to grasp the nature of his semblance. He could see every miniscule movement that the student was making as the thought processes worked their way from his brain to his muscles, moving them to make a strike at his intended target.

He was going to strike at his left side. Magnus rolled right, extending out his right arm and pressing a button on the hilt he carried, as it extended out into a shock blade of sorts, electrical energy crackling around the tip of the weapon.

"This is no torch." Magnus stated as he swept the weapon at the student's legs, sweeping him off his feet from behind in one quick motion as he passed, the other students looking on stunned at how easily he had both avoided their ally's attack and countered it in one swift motion.

"You little..." the student muttered as he rolled back to his feet and attempted to deliver another downward swing which was parried by Magnus, followed by two more that met the same fate. A fourth strike was attempted, which Magnus swept into a full circle with his weapon before delivering a swift kick to the chest, knocking the student back onto his backside with a thud.

Magnus adjusted his stance as he awaited the student's next move, the hum and crackling of the electrical pulses in his weapon filling the air around him.

The student looked around to his three allies. "Are any of you going to step in here or what?" he asked, exasperated that none of them had come to his aid during the initial exchange. The student armed with the daisho went to take a step forward, but the larger one placed his longsword in his path, shaking his head. He then motioned to the female student to go and assist.

The female student ran over to her downed ally, helping him up while keeping her ko-naginata pointed firmly at Magnus to prevent him from attacking . Magnus smiled slightly as he allowed them to get back to their feet. He looked up briefly at the screen in the training arena. His initial attacks had done some damage to his first attacker, but not enough to take him out of the equation yet. Now he was dealing with a ko-naginata as well he needed to pick up the pace, and fast.

"Looks like the situation is getting a little...heated." Magnus stated.

"I'll show you heated, you snot-nosed brat!" the first attacker yelled as he rushed in again. Once again Magnus's semblance kicked in and he was able to successfully dodge his strike, planting his weapon into the ground and flipping back, delivering a kick to the jaw which staggered him before slamming his weapon firmly into the right side of him. The student winced in pain as the shock travelled through his body, but Magnus had little time to do anything before he saw the ko-naginata being jabbed in by the other student, which he had only just managed to evade by leaping backwards.

"Yes...definitely heated." he replied as he stepped back a bit, opening one of the pouches on his bandolier and producing a small orange vial. "I think it's time I replied in kind."

With that, he inserted the vial into the hilt of the weapon, and seconds later, there was a slight click.

"What was that supposed to do?" the student with the ko-naginata laughed.

"Guess he needed to change the batteries in his little fly swatter." the other retorted, although more out of bravado and trying to pretend he hadn't been hurt more than anything.

Magnus smirked as he heard the comments of the two students. "I already told you...this is no torch, and it's certainly not a fly swatter." he began, as he held the weapon out in front of him horizontally, the shock blade facing to the left of him. With the flick of a switch under his right hand, a second blade extended out from the handle, electrical energy crackling along it much like its partner.

"This is Crozius Aurelia..." he said, as he span the weapon in a full circle before pressing a third button on the hilt. In an instant, both blades ignited in a flash of orange flame as the dust crystal ignited, the sound of the roaring flame mixing with the still crackling electricity coursing through the weapon as he readied it. "...and this is your end."

The Principal raised an eyebrow as he saw the staff ignite, and the stunned look on the face of the two students who faced it. "Well..." he looked over to the teacher, who had a smile on his face.

"Prepare to be astounded, sir." the teacher replied.

(Author Note : This is where the music cues in. As I can't link to it I recommend "Nervous Testpilot Feat. WLF - Total Focus (Frozen Synapse Focus - WLF 2013 remix)" on Youtube, as this was what I had playing as I wrote this part. Credit to nervous_testpilot for the music!)

Magnus began with a butterfly spin, holding the now fully deployed Crozius Aurelia in front of him to block the opponents blows, before beginning a series of staff strikes to both opponents. Keeping his eyes firmly locked into the battle, he blocked shot after shot from the now panicked opponents, using the openings that he was finding to deliver strikes of his own. The ko-naginata attempted to stab forward again and Magnus flipped backwards, bringing Crozius Aurelia in an upward arc, causing the student to lose balance slightly as the weapon was forced upwards with it. This gave him the opportunity to deliver a legsweep, which sent her sprawling to the ground.

Magnus followed through on the legsweep, returning to his feet as he span Crozius Aurelia in his hands to parry two strikes that the other student made. A third strike came in , a straight stab that he span himself around, before delivering his own strike to the side. The pain flashed across the student's face as the burning, electrified shock blade made contact with his body. The strike seemed to incapacitate him, which was all of the opening that Magnus needed to deliver another two quick strikes to each of his sides, sending the student to the floor, his aura depleted. A buzzer sounded to indicate his elimination from the battle.

"One down..." Magnus thought, as he turned to face the remaining aggressors, including the girl who was just getting back to her feet. "Three to go."

The larger student nodded to the student armed with the daisho, and he readied his swords and charged straight into the combat, hoping to give his ally the distraction she would need to make her attack. Magnus span back out of the way of the charging students and attempted to ready himself for the next assault.

The girl with the ko-naginata came forward again, jabbing forward to try and destabilise Magnus. On the third attempt, Magnus brought Crozius Aurelia down on the ko-naginata, pushing it down towards the ground. Using his semblance, at the exact moment the blade hit the ground, Magnus stepped onto the tsuba of the ko-naginata and took two quick steps up the staff before jumping off, now safely past the blade and delivered a hard shot to the ribs with Crozius Aurelia causing her to crumple to the ground. A moment later, a second buzzer sounded.

"Make that two." he noted to himself, turning to give his full attention to the dual-wielding student. The student began a flurry of motion with their blades, matching his attacks with Crozius Aurelia strike for strike. He spun away, trying to give himself some room to try and find an opening in his opponent's offense. As he studied briefly, he saw that the attacker's movements were indicating a lot of upper body strikes. If he was going to find an opening, he'd have to go low.

With that, he swept out with Crozius Aurelia, hoping to make contact with his legs. The student jumped to avoid it, but had momentarily dropped his swords down to his sides in order to make the leap. Continuing the motion into a second spin, he raised his staff to head level and delivering a shot to the side of his opponent's head, stunning him enough for Magnus to follow up with a crushing strike to the shoulder which caused him to go down hard. A third buzzer sounded, and as Magnus looked up at the scoreboard, he saw that the third foe had fallen. Only one man remained on the other team.

"Looks like it's just me and you now, big man." Magnus called across to the largest student, who had not moved much the entire time. "How about we settle this one-on-one?"

"Fine by me." the final opponent smiled, as he readied his sword. Lightning crackled between the two prongs at the tip of the blade, and Magnus could see what looked to be a dust chamber at the hilt of the sword.

"A big man AND a dust user...this should be a challenge." he said to himself as he evaluated his options for attack. When he felt ready, he spun Crozius Aurelia in his hands again, before holding it to one side, beckoning the big man forward with his other hand.

"Oh you want me, huh?!" the large opponent yelled as he began to charge forward like a stampeding animal. "You're gonna get all you can handle,you little punk!"

Magnus watched as the big man charged him down, the electricity crackling through his sword much like it was on Crozius Aurelia. He waited a little longer as he mentally made his plan of attack. As he came closer, Magnus struck. Just as the big man was about to take the first swing with his sword, Magnus darted around him, jabbing at his legs with the ends of Crozius Aurelia.

The big man howled in pain, as the first couple of strikes went in, attempting to turn and swing at Magnus. However, whenever he attempted to strike out with his sword he was unsuccessful, as Magnus was already behind him again, continuing to jab at his legs with Crozius Aurelia. Every time he tried to counterattack, Magnus would use his lighter frame and his quickness to get behind him, again attacking the large student's legs in an attempt to prevent him from making any kind of meaningful attempt to hit him. After several passes the big man fell to his knees, clearly in pain from Magnus's constant assault. Seeing this Magnus began a run of his own before planting Crozius Aurelia into the ground, using the momentum to propel himself forward to deliver a thunderous flying knee strike to the student's temple. The top of the golden kickpad that covered Magnus's boots pressed into the student's cheek as he made impact, knocking the big man unconscious.

The final buzzer sounded. Magnus was victorious. He picked himself back up to his feet, pressing the buttons on his weapon to snuff out the flames and then retract both ends of Crozius Aurelia back into the hilt.

With that, the doors opened at the far end of the arena and a man in a suit stepped out applauding. It was the Principal.

"Well done, Mister Aurin..well done!" he said, still clapping. "This is simply extraordinary! I will admit I had my doubts but my boy, you have put them all to rest."

"Thank you, sir." Magnus said, as he wiped the sweat from his brow. "The exercise is over?"

"Yes, my boy.." he continued "..but not only that, but your time here is at an end too! You have passed your final training exercise."

Magnus looked surprised. "Really?" he asked. "That was it?"

"Of course! If you can defeat four of our best and brightest from this school's illustrious history with not so much as a smidgen of help from outside forces, then I say you are more than deserving of this..." the Principal produced a scroll that appeared to have a document on the display.

"What's this?" Magnus asked, having an idea of what it could be but not wanting to believe it.

"Why, my boy..." the Principal began, chuckling. "It's a copy of our referral and your transcripts! You're going to need to give these to the staff on the transport if you're going to go to Beacon, after all."

"B...Beacon?!" Magnus stammered slightly, taken aback by the mention of the Academy. "I'm going there now?!"

"No, of course not now..." the Principal chuckled again. "That would just be sillly. The transport leaves in three days' time at 0900. All of the information you'll need for the transport crew is on the first page of your documents there."

Magnus stood there in silence for a moment to let it all sink in. He was finally getting the chance to go to Beacon and train to become a Huntsman..something he had wanted to do for as long as he could remember, and now he was getting his chance. What greater way was there to test your skills defending the people from creatures such as the Grimm?

"Thank you, sir..." Magnus began. "For everything. I promise I won't let you down."

The Principal smiled and patted Magnus on the back "I'm sure you won't, my boy. After a display like that, I have every confidence that you'll do well in your studies. Now, go and take it easy until the big day...you'll need to get ready, after all."

"Of course...thank you again, sir." he said, as he adjusted his jacket and bandolier making sure all of the pouches were securely fastened before turning to leave.

Even though he had succeeded in getting referred to Beacon, there would be a lot to do in the next three days. He'd need to get everything packed up that he needed, tie up any loose ends that he needed to...and also say a couple of goodbyes. First to his mother, who he knew wouldn't be completely happy with it...all things considered...but would at least be supportive. Once he had done that, then that left Cyanne. He wondered how she might take it, as she had been one of the few people at school that he had considered a friend, and someone that was always there wherever he went. He wondered how different it would be not having her around, and whether or not he'd be able to make any friends like her once he settled in at Beacon.

One thing was for sure though...things were certainly going to get interesting in the next few days.