(Jaune's POV)

"Oh Shit!"

My back hit the ground hard. Mike stood over me with a shit eating grin on his face. "I told you Jaune, don't worry about what your opponent is going to do. Worry about what you're going to do to attack."

It's been close to a month since I started training with Mike and I feel so much stronger than I was before. I felt that every time that Mike hit me, the blow didn't hurt as bad as it did the time before and didn't damage my aura as much either. When I connect a punch onto Mike's palm, I feel myself hitting harder each time. We have just started this months training and Mike said it was going to be about unarmed combat, survival and something he wasn't going to tell me. I shuddered when he wouldn't tell me what the third training regiment would be but shoved that to the back of my mind.

"Alright Jaune, now I want you to come at me as hard as you can. Keep me pressured. I won't actively try to attack, but I will counterattack if you leave yourself open. Got it?"

I nodded and got into the southpaw stance he taught me when we started hand to hand combat training. Mike told me that a huntsman should always be able to fight. Whether they have a weapon or not.

I came at Mike leveled in my stance. I threw out a few quick jabs which Mike dodged easily. I kept pressuring him with a flurry of jabs and then try a hard right hook. Mike catches my fist in his hand "Damn Jaune! That was a hard hook! If I didn't catch it that could have knocked me down!" I smiled in pride and then attempt a feint punch which Mike actually fell for. I capitalized on it and did a low leg sweep. My right leg connects with Mikes and he started to fall when I felt my arm getting pulled down with him. Before I knew it, I'm on my back again and Mike has me in an armbar.

"That was a good feint Jaune. The only problem was you telegraphed it. I saw it coming before you even attempted it."

I curse myself, "How did you know it was coming?" Mike released me from the hold and pulled me up.

"I saw it when your stance changed. When you started your feint, I saw your stance change a bit. Your upper body stiffened and it telegraphed that you were either going to throw a punch or do a feint."

"Damn. I thought I had you."

Mike smacked me on the shoulder, "Jaune you're doing amazing. You're easy to teach and since you listen to what I say, you grasp the concept and improve on the fly. That low sweep hurt my leg! There's already a bruise forming there." He lifted up his pant leg and sure enough, there was a purple bruise forming.

"This is proof of how strong you already have become Jaune. You will only continue to get stronger as your training progress's. Hell, your body has already gotten more muscle definition in one month! You have abs now and when you started you didn't have any at all! You barely had much muscle to begin with."

I looked down at my body and he wasn't wrong. My body feels ten times stronger than it did when I was at beacon. I now had a six pack and had overall a lean, muscular build. I wondered if Pyrrha would like how I looked now but dismissed the thought before I started to get carried away.

I shook myself from my thoughts and started, "Mike I was wondering-" I stopped talking when Mike turned around to look at me. He had his shirt off and was drying himself off with a towel and I noticed there was huge scar across his chest. Mike saw me grimace at the sight of his scar and sighed.

"I knew that you were going to see it eventually. Might as well sit down and take a break Jaune. This is gonna be a long story."

I nodded and sat down, ready to listen to his story

(Flashback, 4 years before Mike met Jaune, Mike's POV)

I found myself walking down a road for hours. I was on my way to Mistral and it was proving to be pretty frickin boring. I sarcastically said in my mind for something exciting to happen and then not a moment after I thought it, I was suddenly surrounded by ten bandits. Me and my big mouth.

The guy who looked to be the leader of the group smirked at me and said, "You know traveling by yourself is dangerous little guy. Someone might try to hurt ya!" He pulled out a dagger and the rest followed suit. I sighed and put my travel bag onto the ground and stared at my attackers.

"Now if ya give us all you have then we might let you live. Sound like a deal?" The ring leader droned on

I retorted, "If you value your lives, you will go now and leave me the hell alone. If not." I unsheathed Yacidian and the sun glared off of it.

"You will die. Here and now." A few of them looked afraid while the ringleader scowled and yelled, "Kill the bastard!"

They charged me all at once. When they were about to reach me I jumped over all of them and readied my blade. One bandit came at me with a sword and did a clumsy slash that I parried to the right and slashed down onto his shoulder. Yacidian cut through his shoulder all the way down to his ribs. Blood started to gush out of the wound and another rushed me with an ax. I caught the ax in mid air and broke it in half. I then impaled the bastard with my blade and tore it back out. Another tried to rush me from behind and I Swung my blade around in a spin strike and completely bisected the third guy. The three were on the ground dead and the rest of them started at their three friends I just killed.

"Heads up! This ain't no greenhorn!" The leader yelled. I rushed him and did an overhead strike which he dodged to the side and tried to counterattack with a jab. I locked the handle of his knife between my arm and twisted it out of his hand. I then grabbed the knife, flipped the blade down and stabbed the guy in the shoulder with his own knife.

"AGH! You son of a bitch!" The leader was still alive somehow. He must've had his aura unlocked while the other two I killed didn't. Two female bandits rushed me with knives to defend their leader while the others tended to his wounds. They worked together fairly well and had me pressured for a bit, but one of them overextended themselves and I caught their wrist in my hand. I pulled her forward and stabbed her straight through the stomach with Yacidian.

"SISTER!" The other screamed and started to slash at me recklessly with her blade. I sidestepped her and brought my elbow down on her head. She fell to the ground in a heap and tried to get up, but I stomped on her back. "I warned you all what would happen. Now four of your friends are dead and your leader is wounded. I will show no mercy to those who will take lives and loot their corpses." The girl at my feet was trying to reach her dagger wen I stabbed her in the back. She gave one last gasp and went limp. I stared at the rest of the group.

One of the grunts spoke to the leader, "Boss, you need to get back to the clan leader and tell her about this guy. I think she's the only one who can kill this guy." The ringleader nodded and said to leave while he held me off. The grunt started to argue when the leader told him to run now. The other four carried their dead friends and the leader stepped forward. "You may kill me you rat bastard. But you won't survive against the clan leader." He charged me and pulled the knife from his shoulder. He jabbed the knife at me with rapid strikes to prevent me from swinging Yacidian. I kicked him in the stomach and launched him away. I then leaped onto the guy while he was in the air and smashed him to the ground. I lifted Yacidian over my head and stabbed him in the stomach.

He made gurgling noises as my blade was embedded inside of him. He then started to chuckle darkly, "Jeez kid, you are ruthless! *cough* The clan leader will probably try to recruit you since your so strong. All I have to say is this. The strong survive and the weak die. You were stronger so you deserve to live." His head fell to the side and he was gone.

I stood up and sliced my blade through the air to clean the blood off of it. I continued to walk down the path for another hour when my instincts screamed at me to duck. I narrowly dodged a large blade that was aimed for my head and rolled off to the side. I looked up to see who my attacker was. It was a tall woman with black hair and a Grimm mask on her face. She held a long odachi and had a rotating dust chamber sheath at her side. She swiped her sword to the right and took off her mask.

"My name is Raven Branwen. I am the leader of the bandit clan whose members you killed."

I looked at her with serious eyes, "I killed them because they tried to kill me." She had blood red eyes that bore into me with intensity. She spoke again, "You are extremely strong for someone your age. From what my subordinates said, you didn't take a single hit from any of them even though you were outnumbered and didn't hesitate to kill."

"I didn't hesitate because my father taught me that life was precious. He taught me that those who would willingly take life for no reason should be killed without hesitation."

"I look at it differently. The weak die. The strong survive. Those are the rules. You are strong so you lived. My subordinates were weak so they died."

I looked at her with hate. "Get to the point already. Why did you track me down? Are you out for revenge?"

She smiled darkly and said, "I came here to recruit you to my clan. You are powerful for someone so young. Will you come with me?"

I drew my blade and spoke, "Does this answer your question?"

She smirked again and got into a stance, "Then I will make you come with me by force."


Early chapter! Also thank you to everyone who has followed! This story has almost passed 1,000 views already in only 5 days and that is HUGE! Before anyone starts ragging on me about Mike vs Raven I'll just tell you this right now. Mike is not going to win. He's gonna lose. That's all i'm telling until I update! One last thing! Letters to Pyrrha will end in the next chapter tomorrow. It will be on hold until volume 5 comes out but this will take center stage for updates. Thanks again for the love! R&R please! Til next update, Noble out!