Chapter 7: Proof of Worth
Whew… been a while, huh? 1+ years. Yeah, that's what procrastination can do for you. Do I regret accepting the temptation?
No… no I do not. Why you ask? Ha! If only you knew person looking at the screen. If only you knew.
What I'm trying to say is that I'm fucking lazy and shit has been going on. Sorry about that.
Here ya go.
"Now then, shall we get started with this or do you two need more time?" Embrah asked, deciding to make himself comfortable by sitting on the grass and waiting for Blake and Weiss to finish up their game plan. Going on for about a few minutes, Embrah didn't mind it. In fact, he's happy that they decided to do so, since having to just dodge out the way from wild and uncoordinated movements was not really something he like seeing in a team. Especially if they are trying to achieve one specific goal in mind, such as trying to land a single hit on him, which in reality isn't all that hard. Just need to know exactly what to do.
Just like how the rest of team CRDL tried to do; they made the right choice of going in as a group instead of individually, seeing as the entire team stepped forward to participate, but failed to make any headway of touching him, opting to rush him as a unit in an attempt to knock him off balance. But just as easily as with their leader, they had no sense of planning against him at all. That's something that can get not only both the individual of the team in serious placement but also any outside variables around them, such as civilians or property damage in some cases. Leading them to eventually use up their moves, lasting the longest so far, though not at all that much of an achievement for the game.
But he will give them credit where credit is due, as not only did the three teens stick together instead of going up against him single-handedly, they also had the smarts to keep their distance whenever they missed an attack as to not be countered by him.
And now the two girls from RWBY stepped up to the plate next, choosing to discuss strategy before attempting anything that could lower their chances at success. Again, a good idea, as Embrah took the time to relax a bit.
'So far from what I've witnessed first-hand, the entirety of CRDL needs some lessons in pre-planning before going into battles for their first assignment.' As the two planned, he had his own inner thoughts about the teams so far. 'Especially from Cardin, as he doesn't seem to believe that he needs to, which is a big no. But, that's to be expected for someone like him with his personality. Confident, commanding, forceful. Truthfully, it's not a bad thing to have these characteristics for the most part if you're in a position of leadership, but some tweaking is definitely needed, for both him and his teammates.'
He looks over to the said mentioned team, seeing them all also resting near a tree a couple of yards from everyone else, either taking a nap under the shade who Russel and Sky are currently enjoying or watching them from afar as with Cardin and Dove, the former looking all the more cross than he had been before and the latter with a low leer, although Embrah could see some form of interest within his features.
"We're ready, Bridger."
He turned to see both girls finished with their talk and have positioned themselves in their own formation, Weiss in front with Blake a few feet behind.
Embrah flips onto his feet, brushing the grass off his pants. "Alright then, let's get this started. Hope you both do better than the other four."
"Don't worry about how we measure up against them. Focus on what's in front of you if you want to stay our instructor." Weiss pointed her rapier at him, positioning herself in her familiar stance.
"I look forward to you calling me Mr. Bridger or whatever you want." He says smiling.
She scowls at him, rolling her eyes.
'Looks like she's going to come for me first.' He looks at the black-haired girl behind Weiss, who seems to be taking the backseat to this first move, 'Hmm, let's see what they will do." He spreads his legs until they were shoulder-length apart with his right foot in front, facing Weiss with his hands to his side, preparing for any action.
The heiress grips her rapier to the side, point facing down, a light-blue glyph forming underneath her feet. Weiss narrows her eyes, bending her knees before darting forwards at blinding speeds, closing the distance between the two quickly. Embrah readies himself for her incoming attack, his own knees bending to make a fast escape, only to see her extend a hand at him. He quickly looks down to see the same glyph appearing under him. He instinctively jumps to the side before it could activate though it seemed that was what Weiss was counting on, as she used the glyph that was under him to change her direction to where he pushed off to, aiming a thrust to his gut before he could balance out. Embrah, seeing that his feet were starting to touch the ground, immediately pivots his left foot so that he spins off more to the side, placing and forcing a hand on her arm holding the rapier to divert Weiss' attack.
She doesn't let up at that, however as she swings her sword in a wide arc behind her, causing him to flip over it. She turns and quickly thrusts at him as soon as he landed, only for it to miss by mere inches as his arches his back to avoid the strike. He straightens back up just in time to see her coming up and avoids the barrage of stabs covering his vision, shifting his body slightly letting each pass his person. He then jumps back, gaining some space between him and the heiress.
'She certainly has a good handle on her semblance, but it's to be expected from a Schnee.' Embrah thought.
Weiss stares at him before sighing and turning back, walking over to her teammate, who tagged herself in after.
"Not gonna continue, Ms. Schnee?" Embrah called out.
"No, I've seen what I needed to. Now, it's my friends' turn to do what she needs to do." Weiss answered, standing akimbo. "As I know she will. Isn't that right?"
"No doubt about that." Blake responded, taking out Gambol Shroud from its sheath.
"Good luck to you then." He nods at the dark-haired beauty, taking his stance from before once again.
No preparation needed for this bout, as Blake started off right away, rushing towards him, her blade flashing in the morning light. Clearing the distance very easily similar to her partner, Blake goes for a slash aiming for his midsection. Embrah moves to move out of the way backward, but as he has known from reading their files, it's exactly what she would have been expecting of him, as she seemingly disappears from his sight. He quickly hops off the ground, flipping over and seeing Blake just crouched under him, the blade currently in the area he had previously occupied. She retaliated by shifting her weight on her foot and swung an underhand slash upwards at him as he was landing. Embrah grabbed her wrist in one hand in mid-flip, twisting it making her let go of the weapon while using the other to push off from a kick aimed for his head.
He lands behind her and twists his body off the ground yet again as she makes for another slash for his legs, having to use her cleaver-like sheath in her blades' stead. He lands and makes to get away from her, having stopped to feel something wrapped around his leg, looking to see it being a black ribbon. He glances at the other end of it to see Blake holding the sword portion of her weapon, noticing the ribbon being connected to the butt of the gun attachment.
'Oh, how did I forget about that.' Embrah mentally facepalms at his mistake. He's pulled from his thoughts figuratively and literally as he is sent towards Blake as she moves to deliver her strike with both weapons in each hand. He takes a quick deep breath and using his hands pushes against the still ground, positioning himself to be facing the sky. Blake, seeing him doing so, gives one big push with her leg and closes in on him, bringing her attack at an X-slash. Embrah takes advantage of this and exhales hard, twisting once more after getting closer to her, sliding on the ground between her legs, reaching down and gripping the ribbon wrapped around his leg and pulled on it, causing Blake to have a short mini tug-of-war with him. He lets go and hops on his feet, while Blake stares at him from a distance.
She nods to her self and walks back to Weiss, who was watching the fight with extreme focus.
'Taking little glimpses at what I can do and formulating a complete strategy from the findings of their fights. Good on them for doing that.' Embrah internally complements the two girls.
"So, you two get what you needed?"
Weiss looks at him, a now noticeable smirk on her face. "Yes, we have. Now I hope you are prepared for this, as you won't be able to get off scot-free this time."
Embrah cracks his neck, smiling himself. "We'll see, Ms. Schnee. We'll see."
From where the other teams were watching, they have gotten to view their classmates and their soon to be instructor go at it in their game and so far, they've come to a similar conclusion.
"Man, so far from what I've seen, he's pretty good. Ugh, maybe I should've gotten in there." Yang pouts, feeling left out of the show she and the rest were watching. "But, seeing how things are now, not really impressed in just dodging."
"I'm going to agree with you on that Yang," Pyrrha said. "While he may be very adept at avoiding proper hits to his person, he hasn't shown us anything to solidify himself as being a good choice for an instructor." Her tone shifted a bit on that last part, being noticed by her partner.
"Something wrong, Pyrrha?" Jaune asked in concern, his voice hushed only for her ears to hear.
"It's nothing." She smiled at him, the gesture not really reaching her eyes, but Jaune doesn't notice it.
"It's to be expected, as he isn't trying to fight back at all." Ren states. "It is good to see how well he is able to see and evade attacks from us and to see where we would lack in that sense."
Yang smirks. "Yeah, and now we get to see something really good." She has her attention at the three currently in battle, specifically her teammates.
Both girls readied their weapons, Weiss now behind Blake as she positions herself accordingly to their plan. Blake takes her weapon, both blades out, taking a stance with the katana part in her right hand facing Embrah, body low, who in turn takes his stance as well, albeit similar to her own.
They stare each other down, Blake waiting for the moment for her action to be taken. It came thanks to the wind, causing Embrah to close an eye due to some dust, letting Blake be able to shoot forward, bringing in both her blades for a horizontal slash. Embrah moves to avoid it, opting to use her charge against her by shifting his body weight over to his right to let her go past, only for Blake to stop her attack, pushing off the ground and moving back to where she came from instead. A large glyph appears underneath Embrah, but instead of it being the light-blue color from before, it was now black, Embrah quickly tries to leap over, but not being clear the entire thing, his heel catching the edge of it.
He feels himself being pulled towards the girls, and he lets it happen, flying at them. He sees Blake had her own glyph under her, it being in pale gold, which was seemingly seeping into her. She turns and unleashes a barrage of swings and slashes in his direction not moving from her position, having the glyph amplify the intensity of the slashes, launching them at him. He takes both his hands and slams them on the ground hard, pushing himself off into the air, barely missing the slashes by a hair's breadth.
He sees that Weiss was off to the side preparing some glyphs but had no time to figure out her intention as Black rushes at him, bringing her swords in for an upwards slash. Embrah waits for her blades to come within a few inches of contact before reaching out and griping both her hands with his own, twirling mid-air and sending her away from him. He lands and turns his sight to the heiress, and just in time, seeing that she had a dozen glyphs summoned and ready to be used. Smirking, she changes the chamber of her weapon and combined the ice dust with her glyphs and sent small projectiles of ice through them, making the ice grow to the size of bowling pins and increase in speed towards him, as he was still in the air.
Embrah seized up and hunched his body inward as the ice made contact with him.
Weiss smiled smugly at the sight. "Well, looks like he wasn't as good as he has set himself out to be."
Blake, who had recovered from her being thrown, walked up near Weiss with a surprised expression on her face.
"Yeah, you might want to check again."
Weiss looked up to see that Embrah had come into contact with her ice attack, but with him having some of them caught between his fingers and the rest shattered and scattering to the ground. He lands and brushes himself off.
"And, seems like that makes three, I believe. Good try, girls."
"But, that's never happened before. It shouldn't be possible." Weiss stood there shocked to see that anyone could have caught and deflected her attack with no damage at all, not because she wouldn't have been prepared to have someone do something to avoid it, but for him to actually catch the ice with his bare hands is something she couldn't comprehend.
"What's the big idea of him catching them? It's impressive but not all impossible." Blake stated.
Weiss looked at Blake. "The problem isn't the fact that he caught them. It how he isn't suffering any burns at all from it."
"Burns? But it's just ice."
Weiss looks Blake in the eye. "I guess most people wouldn't know everything about dust, but seeing as you'd probably haven't been in school for long in the past might be the cause of it."
Blake just nods.
"When handling dust, it can be harmless in its raw state, which goes for both dust crystals and powder. But, when it's broken down by any means, whether by use of weaponry, part of a semblance or for industrial and construction purposes, it can be very dangerous to handle, especially with your bare skin. Just as I said before, he shouldn't be able to hold on to the ice like that, as they are far colder than regular ice to the point of burning you to your bones."
Weiss looks at Embrah as he nods towards them, making his way to the others.
"Even with aura," Weiss continued, "he still should've felt the effects from it."
"Guess that proves he knows a lot more about certain things than we do." Blake says.
"Maybe so."
Both girls made their way towards the group, who were, for the most part, all there. Excluding two members of CRDL who were still enjoying their little nap.
"Ok, that was pretty exciting," Embrah said, cracking his fingers. "Now, if I'm not mistaken, there is one more person I've yet to go up against." He turns to the last person to challenge him. "Lie Ren, right?"
Ren stares at Embrah with a blank expression and not saying any response.
"Umm, Ren? You alright, buddy?" Jaune asked, seeing that his teammate was silent in not responding.
Ren walked forward to Embrah, stopping a few feet in front of him.
"Just from how I've seen with the previous examples from your game, I can say that I wouldn't be able to land a proper hit on you, or at the very least it would take me more times to do so. So, I decided to forfeit the challenge of just trying to land a hit on you." Ren states to him.
Embrah hums to himself. 'Pretty surprised to hear someone say that. He has good judgment. But…'
"Although," 'There it is' "I would like to propose that we do something different from the others, if this is okay with you, of course."
"Different you say?" Embrah asked with an arched brow.
"I feel like it would be more beneficial to see you in action when it comes to actual combat. Not just for myself but everyone here. I request a short spar with you, if that's not an issue for you, of course."
Embrah ponders this request. 'I suppose that's fair to do so, considering that just avoiding wouldn't really be a sound argument of me being a skilled instructor.'
"Very well, I accept."
"Thank you for your cooperation." Ren bows.
"Aww what!? You can fight Ren but not me? And I asked first." Yang groans and pouts at Embrah, not really but kinda feeling betrayed of not getting the fight she wanted.
"Mmm? Oh, apologies Miss Xiao Long, but you should've volunteered when I offered you all to challenge me. To which I'm surprised you didn't do so." Embrah replied.
"Why wouldn't I? If you were chosen to be teaching at Beacon by Ozpin himself, I've got no reason to complain or object. Cause of that, I'd as well give you a chance to see how you'll teach us in the long run." Yang explains, then with a smirk. "Hope you can live up to expectations."
Embrah smiles at her for her reasoning for trusting him with their curriculum. "Well, I hope that I don't disappoint you then."
"Can I fight instead though?"
"You should've volunteered at the beginning."
"Damn." Yang pouts at that.
"But anyway, I'll fight you Ren, but obviously I have to place some ground rules."
"Of course," Ren nods. "I didn't think otherwise."
"Good. First, I want you to give it your all in this match. Second, the time limit will be two minutes as to not waste too much time doing this. And lastly, for myself, I won't be going all out in this match for your own safety. Is that clear to you?"
"Hold on. You'll be holding back? Don't make me laugh!" Cardin interrupts. "You think that you're that skilled that you need to give yourself a crutch against us? Isn't that a narcissistic view."
"You're one to talk, Winchester. You should be the last person to talk about narcissism." Weiss interjects.
"I'm the last person? Look who's talking, Ice Queen. You're literally the walking definition of the word coming from Atlas, especially coming from a Schnee."
Weiss glares at him but feels a tug on her sleeve as Ruby shakes her head silently telling her not to do anything unnecessary, but not before giving her own look towards Cardin. Weiss takes this into account and holds herself steady.
"While I admit to being in that form of behavior before and aware of my actions, I at the very least make an effort to change for the better, both for myself and my team." She looks at Ruby saying the last part. "You should follow in example."
Cardin growls.
"That's enough." Embrah steps in. "To answer your question, Mr. Winchester, yes I do need to give myself a crutch against you for multiple reasons, some that should be obvious to you. But for one of the most important ones, I am a teacher at Beacon Academy. I shouldn't be using my full strength on the very students I'm supposed to be helping nurture into future Huntsman and Huntresses. If you need any other reasoning, please ask me now."
Cardin clicks his tongue but says nothing.
"Good, now if we can get underway, I'd like to go through this match quickly. Are you ready Mr. Lie?"
"Yes, and of course I accept the rules for the fight."
"Let's get started then. Oh, if you don't mind Jaune, would you keep track of our aura levels please?"
"Oh yeah, no problem. Leave it to me." Jaune replies, taking his scroll out to display both his teammates' and Embrah's auras, both at the 100% percent green.
Both men walked towards where the previous matches were, preparing along the way. Taking their stances once situated, Ren poised and ready to strike and Embrah in a relaxed state, waiting for the attack. Ren starts the fight and sprints towards him, thrusting an open-palmed strike at his face. Embrah brushes it aside with his hand, but Ren doesn't stop there as he throws another strike aiming lower at his chest. Embrah leans back avoiding it with Ren dropping low with a sweeping leg that Embrah hops over.
Ren takes the chance with Embrah in the air to launch a knee at him, but being prepared for that, Embrah grabs the leg and spins his body so he comes closer to Ren's body and lands a counter to his chin with his elbow in quick secession.
Ren staggers back from the abrupt blow but quickly recovers and goes back in with a double fist strike aiming towards Embrah's chest once again, but Embrah puts his arms up blocking the attack which pushes him back some few inches but not doing much damage in all.
Ren wastes no time as he backs up a few feet and slides StormFlower out from his sleeves, unloading his rounds at the man in front of him. Embrah blitzes to the side avoiding the stream of rounds aimed at his person. Ren rushes back towards him, continuing firing until he got close enough to slash both weapons at him, aiming at precise points to where he won't have much room for any kind of retaliation.
Embrah dodges each slash with just a second in between each one, using minimum effort to do so. Seeing an opening in the attach, Embrah reaches out and grabs hold of Ren's left arm with his own, spinning his body around taking his captive with him, and flipping him face down onto the ground before mounting him keeping hold of his arm and placing a hand on his head keeping him there.
"Do you yield?" Embrah asked.
Ren struggles against the hold before looping his free arm behind him, taking aim at Embrah midsection and fires, causing him to let loose of his hold and back away. "Sorry, but I still have some fight left in me." Rem replies, quickly standing up taking his usual stance.
"I wouldn't have any other way." Embrah smirks before charging at Ren himself this time, aiming a fist to his face. Ren made to back away from the attack but widens his eyes in surprise as the punch turned out to be a feint, Embrah instead grabbing hold of the gunslinger's collar and bring a knee in his stomach. Ren coughs from the impact but Embrah wasn't done as he goes in with his own palm strikes and assaults the younger male with his barrage. He finishes up with a swift kick to Ren's cheek, making him fly several feet back.
Ren wobbly stands back up, shaking his head to clear it and begun to make his way over to his opponent once more, but stops when he sees him place his hand up.
"Okay, that's enough. Time's up." Embrah announces, walking up to Ren patting his shoulder. "You did well, as expected from you."
Ren retracts StormFlower back into his sleeves before bowing to him. "Thank you for the match. I got to see where I stand now against you. I have no problem calling you my instructor."
"Glad to hear it." Embrah smiles.
"Ren, you alright?" Jaune asks as he and the others watching came over.
"In all, I'm feeling alright." Ren says.
"Are you sure Ren?" Nora asks, worried for her long-time friend.
"Truly, Nora." Ren smiles at her. "It was what I guessed would happen. Our teacher is truly skilled."
"I'll say. You were so fast and quick with your attacks against Ren! Not a lot of people are able to fight that fast with him. You a secret ninja or something!? Cause if you are, teach me your ways!" Nora questions Embrah, her earlier concern for Ren in the past, a big ecstatic smile on her face.
Embrah pauses from the questions before laughing.
"Did I say something funny?" Nora asks, confused.
"No, it's not that," Embrah chuckles, composing himself. "You just remind me of someone I know."
"Another Nora, I don't think we could all handle that honestly." Jaune joked.
"Another me would be great and you know it!"
"Either way, that was amazing nonetheless."
"Yes, well while the fight was an example for you all to see a sample of what I can do, please look at the aura levels of both me and Mr. Lie." Embrah says.
Jaune nodded and checked the scroll for the information along the team, RWBY, and even Cardin and Dove, though they hung back a bit.
"…is the scroll acting wonky for some reason? Cause this shouldn't be right." Jaune questions in surprise at the results of the match, and he wasn't the only one.
"I can't believe that's how low I've gotten." Ren was more surprised than anyone. Feeling for his aura and knowing how it is in his life is something he had great confidence in. But the results shown threw it all back in his face.
Embrah Bridger: 87%
Lie Ren: 51%
Back at it again for a new chapter after sooooo long.
Damn, it actually feels pretty damn good getting back into things. And while it's a late post, it's still Monday so I'm still holding on to the last update. Again, sorry for the short chapter, but the next one will be longer. In fact, the remaining chapters I'll do from now on will be between 5,000 to 7,000 words long. Be grateful for my greatness.
I am sorry for the lateness once again, but I'll try to be better in the coming days. Hopefully I'll actually have a schedule for updates but for now, I'll try to update in a more consistent rate.
Until next time.
