Chapter 10:
In Too Deep
After having their minds melted by Oobleck again Team LENS quickly went on to the next lesson for the day. Luckily their last lesson was a free period, in Eir's mind that meant an hour off but her team seemed to have other plans…
She joined the boys as they entered the room they were after. One of beacons many practice rooms by the looks of things, one that emitted the sounds of light contact sparing that echoed down the corridor they had just left. Shortly after arriving her team quickly abandoned her and split off to do their own thing. Apparently eager for another sparing match like the one yesterday. That just left Eir all by her lonesome.
"Thanks guys…" She muttered to herself, feeling neglected. Now what she supposed to do?
She huffed then took a quick look around the place. The room was definitely tailored for pretty serous training. It was around the size of a small football court with several floor markings to show areas that students could use at their leisure. The walls, floor and ceiling even had steel plate sections running through them. Probably a testament to an overzealous student with an overpowered weapon. Eir would have loved to hear the story behind that one
She pressed her back to one of the walls as she scanned the room, old habits die hard. It appeared that there was an instructor watching in one of the corners to make sure mock battles don't get too intense. Sparing or not a hit with an oversized scythe would put you down quicker than a pall bearer with the runs. On that note she looked over at Ruby who was showing Nora the importance of a good cutting tool instead of blunt weaponry.
The girl cleaved through one of the practice dummies with startling ease, Nora pounded the neighbouring dummy with her hammer as if to prove a point. Choices of weapon aside Eir still couldn't work out how they could move a massive hammer and scythe around like it was nothing…
She looked down at her sickles that she had retrieved earlier, along with her small grey single shoulder sling bag that contained her crossbow bolts. The idea was that her team would use this time to train. Though they had left her to her own devices anyway. Suppose she should at least pretend like she was going to do something, the question was what…
Maybe have a go at one of those training dummies herself? Nah that would feel kind of silly. Or maybe try some kind of weapon exercise…though Eir couldn't see how that would help. Plus her type of practice drills would probably look ridiculous next to people like Pyrrha.
She had to feel for Jaune on that point. Eir didn't know him very well but it was obvious that he barely had any idea what he was doing. That was kind of reliving for her in a way. Where were those guys anyway?
After another quick glance around she found team JNPR taking up one of the corners in the far back, directly left of the wall she had been leaning on. It appeared that they were having a kind of sparing session. Eir moved over to get a better view, eventually standing next Pyrrha as they both watched Jaune's display of hand to hand combat against Ren. Needless to say it was less than impressive.
"Well...it's hard to read I suppose..." Pyrrha said as Eir settled next to her.
It looked like he was trying to adopt Ren's fighting style, though it was very clear who was the master and who was the student in this case. If Jaune waved his arms about anymore he'd be imitating some kind of voodoo ritual.
"Looks like drunk yoga." Eir observed.
Jaune moved in on his foe with a kind of awkward chopping motion, Ren simply stepped to the side and gave a light jab to his shoulder.
"Ow!" He whined
"That makes it zero to ten. Care for one more bout?" Ren asked politely.
Jaune reluctantly nodded and got into a weird kind of stance. Apparently eager to lose. The two began their bout one more time.
"So, what's this? Ninja training?" Eir asked Pyrrha. Eyes still settled on the mock battle in front of them.
"Well. After discovering that Jaune had next to no close quarters training we decided to show him the ropes…"
Jaune took another blow. This time to the chin.
"Are you sure that's a good idea? There's a bit of a skill gap here…" Eir noted.
Pyrrha shrugged "We all have to start somewhere I suppose"
The red head turned to the moss top.
"How about you? What kind of close quarters training do you have Eir?"
"Mines a very exotic kind of urban martial art…" she began
"Is that so?" Pyrrha's interest seemed to pique.
"Yeah" Eir smiled "You know, the type that revolves around stuff like biting, gouging, crotch kicking, finger breaking…
"Oh, I see…"
Suddenly Jaune was tossed toward them, sent tumbling across the floor and eventually coming to a stop at their feet.
"I said not the face…" Jaune griped whilst rubbing his chin. He then looked up to find the two faces looking down at him. "Ladies…" He said, giving them a rehearsed wink.
"Hey there champ." Eir said. Hands on hips and an amused expression on her face.
Pyrrha helped him up from the ground. "Maybe we should stick with weapon drills for now?" she offered
"Yeah okay…" Jaune said, almost pouting.
Eir stuck around to watch them continue on with their training. By the looks of things Pyrrha was a kind of mentor to Jaune, which made sense considering her ability. Though it didn't take long until he started eating dirt again.
In one quick motion Pyrrha instantly floored her adversary with a textbook sweep of her spear. Earning a wince from Eir as Jaune's head cracked off the steel floor.
A couple students around them snickered at the show. A few thinly veiled gibes were made at his innate lack of ability. Either Jaune didn't notice or just didn't care.
So much for all that talk of student camaraderie…
Though she supposed it makes sense that students would be ridiculed for shit they didn't know. All the more reason not to participate…
He wearily got up from the floor whilst rubbing his noggin. Jaune immediately withdrew the hand after wincing from the pain. He drew back his fingers to find small droplets of blood on his fingertips.
Pyrrha was quick to step up.
"I'm sorry" She immediately said, bringing a hand up to his face. An almost motherly affection. Hm… no, Eir thought. There was something more there.
"Its fine, these things happen" He responded weakly, he was probably seeing stars at the moment.
"You still haven't fully grasped how Aura works have you?"
"Well…No, but I'm getting there…I think."
He gave another wince as Pyrrha touched a tender spot on his face.
"Maybe we should take you to the infirmary…" She said.
"I can help." Eir stepped up, seizing the opportunity
"Thanks Eir, but I think its best if…" Pyrrha trailed off as Eir ignored her words and marched right up to Jaune.
With delicate precision Eir carefully checked the broken skin, judging just how hard the impact was on the surrounding tissue. Afterwards she went to check his pupils.
"No cranial inflammation, no signs of concussion…" She said quietly to herself.
Pyrrha reluctantly stepped back as Eir did her work. After a quick examination Eir fumbled for supplies in her sling bag. She carefully applied a green band aid to his forehead then playfully tussled his hair like some sort of kid.
"All good you big baby." She said cheerfully
Jaune quickly brought a hand up to un-ruffle his hair "Thanks Eir."
"Don't mention it" She simply replied whilst doing up the zip on her bag.
Aside from an assortment of crossbow bolts it was also filled with medical odds and ends. Admittedly she had no real medical training, but with the rate she could tear through medical journals Eir liked to think she was at least the most medically trained in the room. Instructor included.
She had even tried cannulation after a choice theft from an ambulance. Her older sister had bet that she couldn't do it even with twenty chances. Nineteen chances and a bloody forearm later and she eventually managed it.
Hm…Eir never did see that money…
"So Eir. Care to spar? I think Jaune could do with a break" Pyrrha asked, snapping Eir from her thoughts.
Oh hell no! If I wanted to end up black and blue today I would've French kissed a laser printer!
"No thanks," She started, "I think I'm gonna try some target practice for a bit anyways"
That was a good idea actually. A bit of target practice couldn't hurt. Eir wasn't a bad shot, but ranged combat didn't require as much movement compared to melee. Less chance to make an ass of herself she figured.
With a few quick words Eir left the group to their own devices and made her way to a new section of the training space. This part of the room looked dedicated to ranged weaponry. It had a kind of small lane system with circular targets at the very end. Luckily no one was hanging around the shooting gallery which meant that she had the place all to herself.
She looked down to her two sickles once again
Time to put you guys to good use
As she pressed the back of the handles together her weapons immediately shifted into its crossbow form. Shortly after she walked up to the firing line and pointed it towards one of the targets. Eir pulled the trigger, feeling the familiar thud of the bolt shunting forwards and hearing the warble of the bolt shaft planting itself into her target.
Bullseye…
Though to be fair it wasn't far, fifteen meters to be exact. But these were the only ranged targets in the room that she could spot. Maybe there was a better practice area someplace else?
Eir reached into her shoulder bag and collected another bolt. A moment later another target was greeted by the cold steely embrace of a finely pointed tip. The bolt penetrating through its surface as though it were a needle tearing through skin.
As this continued her thoughts began to drift. By some miracle she was allowed into beacon and had now began to do regular student activates, yet despite this it felt as though she hadn't actually accomplished anything. Aside from student loans -which she immediately seized- there wasn't any additional income for her family, and on that note Eir and her home was still in the same state it was in before, perhaps in an even riskier position that it once was. Who was going to help keep things afloat back home? Her sisters had always depended on her, just like Eir had once depended on Faye...
She shook loose the thoughts by putting a hole in another target.
They would be fine. Things would be hard, but they would endure, as her family had always done.
Eir reached a hand into her bag then realised that she had ran out of regular shots. She sighed and moved to collect the bolts. After pulling them free with some difficultly she turned back around only to find Neptune standing in her previous firing positon.
"Sup" He said happily, arms folded, a pleasant smile on his lips. So sure of himself…
"Hey" She simply greeted.
Eir took note of the Rifle on his back as she began to approach him "You planning on shooting me?"
"No, well, you don't have to worry about me anyway. Lucian might be another story on the other hand"
She gave a frown at his comment.
"Eh, long story." He said shrugging.
"You guys seem to have quite a few of those…" She said as she fumbled with one of the bolts and came to a stop at the firing line "Anyway what do you want?"
"You looked a little lonely, thought you could do with some company."
She turned back to take a look at her handy work. "Come to admire my skills?"
"I dunno, I've seen better…"
"Is that so?"
A sly grin struck his features
In one fluid motion he drew his rifle from his back, shouldering it immediately and taking out the adjacent targets with a speed that would have made even the most slickest of gunslingers jealous. Each round that cracked through the air had gone clean through the very center of the targets.
"Not bad…" she was forced to admit
"You should see me on a good day, besides targets like these are easy to hit with this thing." He patted his rifle like a faithful hound as he said it. "You did pretty well considering yours I guess."
"You insulting my weapon?" she immediately quipped.
"No, don't get me wrong, fifteen metres is pretty good for a crossbow that small." He responded.
"The Tinkers told me that this was the best size for my kind of weapon design" She argued.
"Yeah, well, that's because it's all dependant on the build and stature of the wielder."
"You calling me short now?" Eir quipped again
"Not short, just uh…vertically challenged." Neptune said with a slight grin. Eir could feel that cocky nature of his bleed through that comment…
She was going to enjoy watching him eat those words.
"All right hotshot how about we make a bet?" She challenged.
"Oh feeling lucky are we? All right, what are we betting? Money? Favours? Last night's left over pizza?"
"Even better. Pride. Whoever wins gets the title of best shot in team LENS"
Neptune couldn't help but smile at that action. Eir knew that would appeal to his ego.
"All right Eir, it's on. But let's move to the actual practice ranges, make it more interesting."
She agreed. And after a moment of walking and boasting they entered a new room. This one was designed the same but more rectangular, and with the entirety of its length used as a dedicated range in contrast to the previous room. All in all it offered up quite a shooting gallery for a number of ranged weapons. Looks like there was a dedicated range after all.
"Three targets each." He said as he pointed to the cardboard grim cut outs down range "one point for limbs, two points for the torso, and five points to the head. Sound good?"
She nodded.
They flipped a coin to decide who would start. Well, Eir flipped a coin. A double sided one more specifically.
"All right, suppose it makes sense that the rookie goes first." He said, scratching his head slightly.
"You won't be saying that after I beat you" She returned, strutting up to the firing line.
The targets were evenly spaced, set out at twenty, thirty and forty meters distances. This would be a challenge.
She loaded a bolt into her weapon then regarded it for a moment. This was a lot different from shooting cans in the backstreets, but Eir was determined to win nevertheless.
Crossbow raised, Eir lined up her first shot.
The first bolt managed to go clean through the targets head. The second bolt dipped low however and only scored a hit to the torso.
"No pressure" Neptune said coolly as she loaded her last shot and moved onto the next and furthest target.
She did her best to steady her hand. Though it pained her to admit it Neptune was right, this was a bit of stretch for her weapon and abilities.
Eir exhaled and raised her weapon slightly higher, trying to predict the arc. With a quick squeeze of the trigger the bolt was loosed. A thud later and it planted itself firmly in between the Grimm's groin region, the worst kind of blow to the torso by a guy's estimation.
"I wonder who you were thinking of for that one…" Neptune mused.
"Oh no one in particular…" She said, giving him a wink. Though in truth the shot was a fluke, Eir was aiming for the head. Hm, though technically speaking the bolt found a kind of head…
"My turn then…" Neptune said, stepping up to the line.
She crossed her arms, tucking the bolts under them and waiting for his display of shooting.
Neptune took aim. With a crack of his rifle the first shot landed with the same ease as his earlier demonstration.
I'm in trouble here…
She snuck a bit closer to him as lined up his next shot. Eir took note of the tension of his trigger finger, waiting for her opportunity…
As he attempted to fire she quickly jabbed him with the pointy end of one of the cross bow bolts. A moment and a streak of light later the target remained unharmed, a smoking dent in the wall behind empathising his miss.
"Hey!" He immediately shot.
"What?" Eir replied innocently. A very thin smile on her lips.
"You know what…" He said, eyes squinting at her.
Once more he lined up next shot, this time a few steps away from her. He looked over his shoulder to gauge her again, a look as if saying 'I know what you up to'.
Eir continued to feign innocence with a small grin.
Neptune's focus went back to the target. He lined up his third and final shot, at the same time Eir was keen to note that trigger finger of his…
The muscles in his hand twinged slightly. She took the moment.
"Achoo!" Eir 'sneezed'
As Neptune flinched another bolt of light found its home in another panel of reinforced platting.
"That's cheating!" He quickly snapped.
"I sneezed! It couldn't be helped. Plus you're the one who reacted."
"Yeah but-"
"'Yeah but'- nothing" She interrupted "Now I'm not good at math. But I'm sure that nine is a bigger number than five."
"Should have known you'd do something like this" He grumbled.
"Don't be a sore loser. Now who's the best shot in team LENS?" She said, hand on her hips, awaiting his response not so patiently.
Neptune muttered something under his breath.
"What was that?"
"You are…"
"I'm what?"
"You're the best shot in team LENS…" He said softly, as if pained.
Eir stepped closer, putting a hand up to one of her wolven ears "Now I've got good hearing, but I still didn't quite catch that. Could you say it a bit louder?"
"You're the best shot in team LENS!" He snapped.
Eir threw her hands up in a grand gesture. "Ahhh…" She said, basking his those words "Finally recognition for my brilliance…"
After soaking it in she pointedly turned to Neptune's sulking face. "I bet that stings a bit." She taunted.
Neptune silently fumed for a moment up until breaking point. "Ah screw it!" He griped "Double or nothing! This time I'll-"
Thunder sounded in the room. Once, twice, three times. The heads of the practice dummies around them damn near imploding as the sound continued shake and reverberate the room. Then all was silent.
The ping of a shell hitting the floor near the entrance caught their attention.
They turned around to find a familiar red caped student standing in the doorway, pushing a fresh clip into her weapon.
"You might be the best shot in team Lens but just know that I'm the best shot in beacon." Ruby said proudly, cradling her weapon like a proud mother.
Bits of Grimm littered the floor. Some of the debris still fluttered around them like confetti. Not one of the target dummies in the training room was spared. All of which were now missing their heads. Eir turned around to regard the carnage Ruby had left behind. It was a good thing that reinforced plating was there, if not, that 50cal round probably would of kept going till it hit the end of the room opposite.
No arguments there… Eir thought numbly. Her ears still ringing.
Ruby gave a small giggle before leaving, apparently contented with her little show.
"Remind me not to piss her off…" Neptune remarked
"Yeah…"
Eir looked down to her weapon again
I'm way out of my depth here…
A/N:
So it should be said that I only discovered the official colour naming rule until AFTER writing up some of this .
In my defence I think I have loosely followed the rules and I am quite proud of what I've made. So I thought in this A.N I would give you a little insight on my characters N stuff.
Eir:
Eir is a feminine name that can be found in Norse, Icelandic, and Norwegian mythology. Strictly speaking the name translates to 'Mercy' and is also the name of a Norse deity of healing and medicine. This goddess was often associated with the colour green.
A rather good fit in my humble opinion.
Her second name is unknown right now for her own story reasons. To be honest I'm not even sure if I'll ever state it. It's not anything special, she's not going to be related to Ozpin or something stupid, it's merely a back story thing. Trust me.
Lucian Azure:
Lucian is a masculine name that translates to 'Man of Light' in Latin (If I remember correctly). Annoyingly this name can also be translated to alternate things but in his case the name stay's true to that first translation. I actually had this name in mind for a while.
As for Azure, well it's blue, nuff said.
Team LENS:
Hmph, this is where I feel conflicted, but overall happy with what I came out with.
I would like to say that a lens intercepts colour and light and refracts it. So in a sense it's chromatic, loosely fitting the colour naming rule.
Additionally I like to thinks it's kinda poetic, it intercepts other colours I.E other teams and enhances them. Like a camera taking a picture and capturing a moment, or a fanfiction writer writing a piece on the characters he likes. :3
(I never started this story with the goal of a pure OC story, I just wanted to focus on the cast in Rwby. I just needed some characters to help view them in a different light)
The name has a bit of synergy as well. Lucian's semblance is light and Eir's semblance is ocular, sort of adhering to the whole LENS Theme.
Or maybe this is me desperately trying to defend the best combination of letters I could find. : D
As always feel free to comment/shout, etc.