Chapter 7: Bruised and Battered

Damion sized up Yang as they squared off against one another.

I'm done for...

Their respective teammates were yelling out encouragement.

"You can do it, Damion!"

"Hit him hard, Yang!"

Amy took a step back and motioned for them to start.

Yang charged at him, jumping into the air and bringing her fist down, and Damion was forced to roll to the side as his head was almost crushed. He slashed at her quickly, but she dodged with a few rolls and backflips. She lashed out at him again, but he was already long gone, jumping back.

His plan was very simple. If her sparring matches taught him anything, it was that she was not patient. She always made the first move, always relentless, never letting up.

Let her attack, attack back and jump back.

She shot shotgun blasts at him, and he flung himself to the side, landing on the floor, hoping to bait her out.

She reached down to pick him up, but he kipped up, bringing both feet back and kicking her in the face, sending her reeling back.

He shot at her with Splinter and Fire, but she was able to bring her gauntlets up and deflect his shots.

She tried to punch him, but he sidestepped it, grabbing her arm and kicking her in the stomach. He followed it up with a flurry of rapid slashes, which she managed to deflect.

He jumped back once again, creating space.

She was beginning to get agitated, he could see that.

She struck at him again and again, but he kept up his strategy, and she kept falling for it.

He spared a quick glance at the screens above him, and he saw that her aura was in the yellow and his was in green.

I might actually do this!

A glance at his now glowing guns told him his semblance was ready.

He kicked her in the head when she tried to go for him again. She was now on the floor.

He pointed his guns at her and charged up his semblance.

Let's end this.

Her eyes flashed red for a brief moment, but he didn't notice,before he let rip with the same shots that obliterated the spider Grimm.

When he was finished, he turned his back on her and began to dust himself off.

I actually did it! I can't believe it.

That's when he heard the sound of pounding fists behind him.

I didn't do it...

She charged towards him, he tried to block, but she punched his weapons out of his hands, and proceeded to absolutely pummel him with punch after punch, breaking his aura before smashing him to the floor.

Ouch...

He touched the side of his face and could immediately tell that there was a bruise forming around his face.

A buzzer sounded, signalling the end of the match.

"Well done to both of you" Amy said. "It would seem that I am in the presence of some future hunters and huntresses. Yang, try and not be too over reliant on your semblance and you also need to be more patient, lashing out at your opponents in a blind rage will only result in defeat most times. Use your emotions to fuel you, but don't let them control you"

Yang nodded, but Damion could tell she wasn't really listening.

Amy knelt down next to Damion.

"You alright? Seems she hit you pretty hard"

"I'll live"

"Damion, I thought for sure you had her beat, but you made one crucial mistake. Never turn your back on a enemy. I also think that if you hadn't used your semblance, and just continued to whittle her down, her aura would have dropped into red, and in a tournament style duel, that would mean victory for you."

"It's her semblance, it's too strong"

"Even the strongest semblances have a weakness, never forget that."

She helped him back up to his feet and slapped him on the back.

He headed back up to join his team.

"That's a pretty nasty bruise, might want to get something for that" said Samantha.

"I'll be fine"

"Next up we will have..." Amy looked around the class.

"Jaune and Cardin"

Both stood up and made their way down, but Jaune did not look confident at all.

Cardin had a smirk on his face.

I hope Jaune destroys him.

They stared each other down, and the match begun.

Jaune swung his sword at Cardin, but Cardin sidestepped him with ease and swung his mace down, which Jaune was just able to block in time with his shield. Cardin swung at his legs, taking Jaune off his feet, and Cardin started kicking him while he was down.

He lifted Jaune up and punched him with his free hand.

Jaune got back up, panting and leaning on his sword and shield. He charged at Cardin again, but Cardin swiped at him again, knocking his shield out of his hand. Jaune rushed him again, bringing his sword up into a downward stroke, but Cardin blocked it with his mace, and kicked Jaune b in the stomach causing him to fall over again.

Cardin raised his mace again, but the buzzer sounded again, and he lowered it.

Damion looked over and saw Pyrrah with a worried expression on her face.

Amy said something to Jaune and he began walking back up.

"What did she say to you?" Pyrrah asked.

"She said that when I lose my shield like that, I should try and use my sword more defensively."

Jaune hung his head and Pyrrah put a arm around him and patted his shoulder.

"Don't worry Jaune" Nora said. "I'll offer to fight against him next class and I'll reduce him to a snivelling mess!"

The smallest smile formed on Jaune's face.

"Alright guys, we should have time for one more, so I think I'll go with... Beth and Ruby"

...

Bethany sized up her younger adversary, as they circled each other.

When the match begun, Ruby switched her weapon into sniper mode and took several shots at her, which Bethany was quick to block with her swords. Ruby switched into scythe mode and slashed at her, but she dodged underneath it. Bethany rolled to the side, and went on her own offense, throwing a quick succession of attacks, which Ruby was able to deflect. Ruby then swung for her legs, but she jumped, landing on her scythe, pinning it to the floor, and with nothing to defend herself, Bethany kicked Ruby in the head, causing her to fall back to the ground, and she leapt back before Ruby was able to pull her scythe back out.

Bethany then slotted some fire dust into her weapon, and performed a vertical slash, sending a beam of fire energy towards Ruby, which she rolled to the side to dodge. Bethany charged at her, and Ruby swung her scythe at her again, but Bethany slid underneath it, bringing her feet out and kicking Ruby's feet out from underneath her, but while Ruby was in the process of falling, Bethany brought her sword up in a slash, launching her into the air, and Bethany jumped up and grabbed her by the arm and threw her back down.

While still in mid- air, she threw one of her swords down, and it stuck into the floor and she landed onto it and leaped off it and proceeded to bring both her feet down into a stomp onto her leg, and grabbed her scythe and was able to disarm her and kicked it away. She jumped back and stood in front of her scythe, making sure she couldn't get it.

Then Ruby used her semblance, which Bethany had not seen up to this point.

Before she knew it, Ruby was behind her and had picked up her scythe, but Bethany jumped back into the air, landing behind her and kicking her back down.

Ruby struggled back to her feet, and Bethany pulled out her gun, and took several shots at her, which Ruby was able to deflect, but for the final shot she aimed a bit to her left, catching Ruby off guard, and it didn't take long for the hilt of her sword to go flying into Ruby's face. She finished it up with a jumping kick, smashing her back down.

The all too familiar buzzer sounded again.

"Well, I must say" Amy walked over to them"That was much closer than our previous two matches. Well done."

She checked her watch.

"Alright, that's us for now, go and enjoy your lunch"

The student's began to head out.

Weiss came over to Amy.

"Can I talk to you for a second?"

"Don't see why not. Come on"

They both headed out the door.

"Oh great"

Bethany turned to Ruby.

"What's great?"

"I think I might know what she is going to talk to Amy about"

"What?"

"Well, Weiss has been complaining a lot lately about me, about how childish and idiotic I am, and about how she should have been made team leader"

"Hey!" Damion yelled to them. "Are you two coming or what?"

Ruby looked at her.

"Ruby, I wouldn't worry. There hardly going to change the leader's now. I'm sure Amy will put her in her place. I would say that by the end of the day, Weiss is going to be apologising to you"

She began walking towards the others.

"Now, come on, we don't want to miss a seat in the canteen, do we?"

Ruby followed closely behind.

...

Weiss and Amy walked over to one of one of the roofs where there was a bench. Amy sat down on it, followed by Weiss.

"So Weiss, what's up?"

Weiss didn't beat around the bush. She cut straight to the chase.

"I think I should have been the leader of Team RWBY"

Seriously? This is what she's complaining about?

"What would we name the team? I don't think team WRBY rolls quite as nicely off the tongue as team RWBY"

"This isn't a joke!"

"I never said it was. I'm just offering a point. What I am struggling to understand, though, is why you would come to me. Why not go too Professor Port , Dr Oobleck , Miss Goodwitch, or even better, Professor Ozpin? They have all been here far longer than I have and could give you a much better idea."

Weiss didn't say anything and just looked off into the sky.

"Just easier to talk to, I'm I?"

"I guess"

"That warms my heart, maybe I'm better at this whole teacher thing than I think"

"Your not taking this very seriously"

"Good job on noticing, I'm not taking it seriously because I don't understand why your complaining about this. Tell me Weiss, why do you think you should be team leader?"

"I have studied and trained and quite frankly, I deserve better"

That ticked Amy off. That ticked her off big time.

"So, you think just because your a Schnee, you get a right to just demand anything you want?"

"That's not my point. I have trained harder than any of my teammates and I deserve to be leader."

"That's where you are wrong."

"How?"

"Because you probably got private tutors, paid by your corrupt father, to train you personally. Nobody else got that. So, in many ways, you didn't work as hard, because you were just handed everything on a silver platter."

"You couldn't possibly be further from the truth"

"While you were training in your own little personal room, with your own little personal tutors, other's had to train on their own, improving their own personal skills. You've been given everything in your life by your dad, and you know it"

"Shut up!"

"What's wrong? Can't admit that I'm right? You can't buy your way out of this, like every other problem you've had in your life. You are not in your personal manor anymore. This is the real world. And in the real world, when we don't get what we want, we don't stomp our feet and huff and puff like children. We take it on the chin, and move on. In many ways, you are being even more childish than Ruby."

Weiss tried to speak, but Amy cut her off.

"Another thing. You keep going on about how you are the most skilled in your team, but it's not always the most skilled person who becomes leader. You can be the best fighter in the world, but if you can't strategize or synergize with your team, you aren't going to get very far. I learned that very quickly. Lone wolves are usually the first to die"

She stood back up.

"But that's just my two cents on the matter. You really think you should be leader? Take it to Ozpin."

She walked away, leaving Weiss all by herself.

...

The others were sitting in the canteen, eating the glorious canteen food.

It's actually not that bad...

He turned around and noticed Cardin pulling on the ear of a poor rabbit faunus.

Alan finished his food, and began walking to the bin, put his food in, and began walking over to team CRDL, intending to sort them out, when someone tapped him on the shoulder.

"Hey, have you seen our teammate?"

He turned around, and found himself face to face with a girl wearing sunglasses and a beret, flanked by two men.

"What do they look like?"

"Girl, rabbit Faunus"

Alan turned around and pointed to where team CRDL was sitting.

"That wouldn't be her, would it?"

She looked down over her sunglasses, with a very stoned face expression.

"Yes, that would be her, thank you"

They made their way over to the table.

Oh, I am not missing this.

He followed behind them.

When they had made their way over, Cardin turned around and received a slap and a punch to the face.

"Let go of her"

Cardin obeyed.

She grabbed him by the back of the head, and slammed his face into the table.

"You every touch her again, you will be getting a hell of a lot more than just a punch. Understand?"

He didn't say anything.

She brought her face closer to his.

"I'll say that again. Do you understand?" She put a lot of emphasis on each word.

"Let go of me"

"What was that?"

"I said let go of me"

The rest of his team began to make their way around the table.

The tall man with the green armour stretched out his sword to stop them.

She turned him around and lifted him up by his throat.

"Listen up. You better feel lucky that Velvet is a pacifist and doesn't fight back, because she could kick of all your backsides,blindfolded, with both hands tied around her back."

She slammed Cardin through the table, breaking it.

"Remember that next time you decide to discriminate against a faunus"

She walked over to Velvet and put a hand on her shoulder.

"Come on, let's go"

They made their way out of the canteen.

Alan looked at Cardin, and couldn't help grinning.

"What, you think this is funny?" Cardin began to stand back up.

"It's the least you deserve after what you did to that girl"

Cardin growled.

The others made their way over.

"Cardin, why don't you take you and your team here and go scamper down your own rabbit hole somewhere?" Yang said.

Cardin said nothing and he and his team left.

They sat back down.

"Jaune" Pyrrah said to him. "I'm still worried about you and Cardin. He's been bullying you since the start of the year."

"Please, name one time he has bullied me"

"How about the time he pressed the button on your shield to enlarge it, and you got stuck in the doorway?" said Ruby.

"Or the time we found you stuck in your own locker?" said Ren.

"Or how about-"

"Ok, well he has bullied me, but he hasn't bullied bullied me."

"What's the difference?" Damion asked him.

"Jaune, you know you if you ever need help, you can just ask" Pyrrah said to him.

"Guys, really it's -"

"Oh, I know" Nora stood up. "We'll break his legs!"

"I second that" Blake said

"Besides" Jaune stood up with his tray in his hands. "He just doesn't bully me, he bullies everyone"

He began to walk away. Pyrrah watched him with a concerned look on her face.

"We need to do something about this" Pyrrah said to them.

"Breaking his legs isn't a bad idea, although we could get into trouble" Bethany said.

"Maybe we could humiliate him in someway" Alan suggested.

"How would we do that?" Damion asked

"I'm sure we could think of something" Yang said.

"Maybe we shouldn't do anything." Ruby said. "Maybe CRDL will just get bored and move on if Jaune just ignores them, like most bullies do."

"Well, whatever we decide to do" Samantha said, who had been unusually quiet during the conversation. "We all have Jaune's best interests at heart. Agreed?"

Everyone nodded.

The bell rung, signalling the end of lunch.

Ok, away to Dr Oobleck we go.

...

The breaking of Cardin's legs- I mean the humiliation of Team CRDL has commenced!

Then again, Coco kind of already did that, so they might not even have to humiliate them. Maybe they'll just humiliate themselves. They aren't exactly very smart...

Thanks for reading and have a good day!