The class grew silent as Vincent's challenge hung in the air. A fair number of his classmates were looking at him like he was insane for challenging Richard Frost, the most aggressive fighter among the first years. Vincent ignored all of them, focusing on Richard as the bully rose from his seat and made his way down into the ring, to the cheers of his teammates.
Over the weekend Vincent had thought long and hard over which member of Team PRDE he'd vent his anger on. At first he'd thought of fighting Penny. She was the one who instigated the incident with Velvet, as well as Gregory Finch and several other faunus students. But she wasn't that much of a fighter, preferring to lead from the back rather than be in the thick of it. Both Edith and Delilah were better fighters than Penny and had said plenty of hurtful things to his friend, but they were only effective under Penny's guiding hand. Alone they were sloppy and easily distracted. Defeating any of them, while certain to be cathartic, wouldn't send the message Vincent wanted.
Vincent drew Daylight from its scabbard and inspected the blade's edge as Richard stepped into the ring, his aura glowing white around him as plates of ice began to form over his chest, shoulders and forearms. By the time Richard was in front of him, he was armored head to toe in ice, a six foot long steel spear held tightly in his hand.
"Should've brought a jacket Helsing." Richard threatened, "Because I'm about to bring the cold fury of winter down on you."
Vincent only smirked as he slid into his opening stance, Daylight held almost casually to his side. His refusal to rise to Richard's bait seemed to annoy the cryomancer, as he gripped his spear with both hands and pointed its six inch long bladed tip directly at Vincent's chest. When Professor Goodwitch began the match, both combatants reacted at once. Richard stabbed his spear forward just as Vincent stepped closer, his body turning to the side. The spear missed Vincent by centimeters as he slashed Daylight across Richard's frozen breastplate. The steel blade cut a long deep gash in the ice. Richard growled as he swung the back end of his spear at Vincent's head. Vincent ducked under the blow and countered with a swipe at Richard's knee.
Richard grunted in pain as his leg was forced out from under him. The bully fell to one knee as he used his spear to support himself. Vincent pounced on the opportunity to capitalize on his early advantage and struck at Richard's unprotected neck. The blow was caught by Richard's armoured forearm. Vincent smiled as he saw the icy bracer crack and shatter under Daylight's edge.
Roaring in anger Richard surged to his feet, grabbing hold of Vincent's shirt and throwing him across the ring. Vincent tumbled along the floor before rolling to his feet, his smile still in place. A quick glance at the monitor showed that while his aura had dropped ten percent, Richard's was down fifteen.
"So far so good." Vincent whispered to himself as he watched Richard charge at him again, spear leveled to take him in the gut.
"Well this is certainly going well." Roland commented as he, his teammates, and the members of Team CFVY watched Vincent's bout with Richard. "Three hits to Richard's one."
"Yeah but that one was equal to two of Vincent's" Coco pointed out, gesturing to the aura levels on the monitor.
"Maybe." Teresa said while watching Vincent land two more hits to Richard's armored form. "But I don't think Richard's going to get another hit in."
"Yeah probably not." Roland agreed, "To be honest I'm surprised that Vincent let him have that one."
"What do you mean, 'let him'?" Yatsuhashi asked.
"Vincent's semblance allows him to slow down his perception of time." Yuri explained, watching his leader duck and weave around Richard's spear. "This allows him more time to process what he's seeing and lets him react to it almost instantly."
"Which means that in order to actually hit him," Teresa added, "You either have to catch him by surprise, be as fast as Oobleck during a caffeine rush, shoot a literal wall of bullets at him, overwhelm him through sheer numbers, or he has to let you."
"So what you're saying is, Richard has no chance of winning this fight." Coco surmised.
Roland laughed as he looked directly into the eyes behind the leader of CFVY's sunglasses, "A snowball has a better chance in hell than that guy has against Vincent."
The music of steel ringing against steel echoed in Vincent's ears as he slapped away Richard's spear and sprang forward. His cut to Richard's thigh was blocked by the shaft of his weapon. Vincent smirked as he sidestepped Richard's counter stab and delivered a counter of his own, striking Richard's shoulder. The bully's ice armor cracked under Daylight's edge. Richard backed away from Vincent, his icy pauldron falling to the ground in chunks.
"You are starting to piss me off." Richard growled as the air around his shoulder froze to replace the armor he'd just lost.
"Well you've been pissing me off since day one at this place so I guess I've got some catching up to do." Vincent replied as he slowly approached Richard.
The bully roared a battle cry and charged forward, stabbing his spear at Vincent's chest. Vincent turned his body to slightly to the left, allowing the point of the spear to glide harmlessly past him. Before Richard could pull it back, Vincent grabbed onto the shaft with his free hand before cutting at Richard's unprotected wrist. Richard slid back, abandoning his weapon, a panicked look in his eyes. Vincent gave the spear in his hand a quick once over before tossing it back to Richard.
"Bit clunky for my tastes." Vincent declared as Richard caught his spear out of the air. "But it suits you well enough."
"What's this all about?" Richard asked as he started to circle around Vincent. "You claimed I've been pissing you off for months, so why are you only fighting me now?"
Vincent said nothing as he looked up in the stands and locked eyes with Velvet. While the his team seemed to be conversing with hers, she didn't seem to be participating. Her attention was focused on him, concern clear on her face. Vincent gave her a reassuring smile before returning his attention to Richard.
"You hurt my friend." he said just loud enough for Richard to hear. Vincent's free hand wrapped around the handle of Flare. "So now I'm going to hurt you." Richard scowled at Vincent's words, his grip on his spear tightening. "Unless you apologize, right now."
"Why would I apologize to a freak like her?" Richard growled as he slid forward, the floor underneath him freezing over. Vincent was moderately impressed with the flurry of stabs and strikes that Richard unleashed. The onslaught was never ending. Stabs turned to strikes which turned to slashes which turned back into stabs. Vincent was forced to keep Daylight in constant motion. The glittering arcs of his silver blade creating an impenetrable defense around him. It wasn't long however before Richard's assault began to die and he saw his moment arrive.
He caught a downward slash of Richard's spear with his blade. With his blade trapping the spear, Vincent kicked Richard's right knee out from under him, causing the bully to stumble. Vincent followed with two slashes across his chest, carving an X deep into the frozen armor. Richard swung his spear, hoping to catch him on his own chest, but Vincent leapt back, narrowly avoiding the thirsty tip of the weapon.
As Richard pulled his weapon back, he raised it up to cut off Daylight's descending arc. When Vincent felt his blade cease its downward momentum his left hand pulled Flare from its holster and pressed its three barrels against Richard's damaged breastplate. Richard had only a moment to realize what was about to happen before Vincent pulled the trigger completely, firing all three barrels at once. Richard flew backwards, his icy armor shattering as his aura flashed a bright white before disappearing completely. He landed on the floor with a thump as Goodwitch called the match. The students cheered as Vincent turned to glare Richard's teammates.
Penny, Delilah and Edith all glared back at him. Vincent held their glares a moment before he glanced over to Richard, still sprawled on his back. He left the bully lying there as he stepped out of the ring, his statement to Team PRDE clear.
Velvet breathed a sigh of relief as Vincent stepped out of the ring and made his way to the locker rooms, completely unhurt aside from some heavy breaths. She glanced up at the monitor and was surprised to see that according to it, his aura level was down to twenty percent.
'Did he actually get hit? Is he hurt?' Velvet wondered as Professor Goodwitch asked for two more students for another match. Velvet raised her hand.
"You wish to fight Miss Scarlatina?" the Professor asked.
"Actually I was wondering if I could use the restroom?" she clarified. Goodwitch nodded her assent and Velvet quickly made her way out of the stands as Roland stood.
"I'll have a go." he said causing Goodwitch to nod in approval. Velvet never saw who Roland's opponent would be as she left the room and quickly traveled down the hall. After a few moments she caught up with Vincent on his way to the locker rooms.
"Are you ok?" she asked, surprising the Helsing enough to leap high into the air. Velvet giggled as he landed and turned to face her, green eyes wide.
"Damn near gave me a heart attack Velvet." he breathed.
"Sorry, I just noticed your aura level was low and got worried that you'd been hurt." she explained, a small smile on her lips.
Vincent took another breath before he spoke again, "Oh that? Yeah I'm fine. My semblance just takes a lot out of me when I use it while fighting. It's good for taking notes, and in short bursts, but not exactly something to rely on in a prolonged fight. Not gonna lie, jerk almost had me a few times near the end there."
Velvet swallowed before she stepped forward and wrapped her arms around Vincent's torso. "Thank you." she whispered as she felt his arms wrap around her.
"Don't worry about it." he replied before they separated, "I'm sure you'd have done the same for me. Now if you'll excuse me, I gotta hit the showers. See ya later." Velvet smiled as she pulled out her camera and quickly snapped a picture of Vincent as he waved his goodbye. He blinked in surprise. "What's that for?"
"To help me remember." Velvet answered as she turned to return to Goodwitch's class.
"Remember what?" Vincent called out.
"That I owe you two now." She said with a smile. She heard Vincent chuckle before he went into the locker room for his shower.
Nero's breath came in short heavy bursts as he struggled to hold his axe ready for the next onslaught. Next to him his partner suffered a similar shortness of breath as the horde of grimm surrounded both of them. Off in the distance the abandoned castle the grimm were using as a nest towered over them all. Nero glanced over to his partner Cyan as she straightened her stance and shouldered her rifle.
"It's been an honor fighting alongside you, my friend." she whispered as she sighted the nearest beowolf and squeezed the trigger. The rifle's loud rapport echoed around them as the grimm's head was blasted apart. Nero flinched as he expected the grimm to surge all over them, devouring them and leaving no trace of their existence. But they never moved. In fact, the grimm had stopped moving altogether. Part of Nero wanted nothing more than to take advantage of the apparent stillness and cleave through as many grimm as he could before they came to their senses. Yet something held not just him, but also Cyan, in place.
Nero tightened his grip on his axe as the grimm in front of him parted, creating a pathway that lead directly to the dilapidated castle. That was when Nero saw him. A man strode through the mass of grimm, seemingly oblivious to their presence. His pale skin shone in the moonlight as his black hair billowed in the wind. He wore a black suit underneath a heavy leather cloak, the hilt of a rapier just barely visible.
"Who are you?" Nero called out, drawing Cyan's attention to the approaching stranger as well. "Identify yourself."
The stranger stopped, another ten feet separating them. At this distance Nero could make out the stranger's solid black eyes, coldly observing them. Despite the heavy wind blowing, his cloak remained perfectly still.
"You come to my home. Uninvited I must add." The stranger began, his deep accent was unfamiliar to Nero's ears. "You slaughter my pets, and you have the audacity to demand my name?" Out of the corner of his eye Nero saw Cyan perk up at the stranger's words.
"I'm Cyan Forester. This is my teammate Nero Rowan. We were sent here to take out a heavy infestation of grimm." She informed the stranger, her rifle resting in her arms, ready to be used in an instant.
"You stand before Drake Tepes, lord of this castle." The stranger, Drake, informed them. "I fear there must've been some kind of mistake. These grimm you see before you are my pets. Perfectly harmless, unless provoked." Drake then gave a sharp whistle, and all of the grimm surrounding them broke off and ran back to the castle. "I suggest you return to your masters. Inform them that the grimm are kept in line." As Drake turned to walk away, Nero thought back to the destroyed village they passed through.
"What about the village two miles west of here?" he called out. "The one that was slaughtered by your pets."
"They chose to rally into a mob and assault my home." Drake stated simply, as though commenting on the weather. "I am well within my rights to defend myself."
"Against the mob maybe." Cyan countered, her rifle aimed at Drake's chest. "But what of the women and children who stayed at home?"
"The women would've raised their children to hate and despise me as their fathers had. In time those children would've done the same as their fathers and suffered the same fate. I simply ended a future annoyance."
"You're a monster." Cyan spat.
"It is our duty as Huntsman and Huntress to protect the innocent and destroy monsters like you." Nero recited as his axe folded into his own rifle.
"I offer you this chance only once," Drake sighed, his right hand slowly drawing his rapier, "Leave now."
"Not until we destroy the evil that has taken root in this land." Cyan growled.
"Then you shall stay here forever." Drake informed them before charging forward.
AN: So I get to reveal two things with this chapter. Vincent's semblance, and finally get to meet our primary antagonist, Drake Tepes. So I actually have a bit of a dilemma in regards to the reveal of our villain. Should I have done it sooner or is here fine? Please feel free to let me know your thoughts on that and the story in general. I will gladly answer any questions that arise, sans spoilers, and as always I hope you enjoyed the chapter. See ya next time.