[Ruby Rose POV]
Ren, Yang and I stood before a middle-aged man who wore a tactical combat attire, which even included a bullet-proof vest, consisting of a dark color scheme. He had a bandana wrapped around his forehead, as well as an eye-patch over his right eye.
This man's name…is Solid Snake.
"So you need my help."
I could tell he phrased that as a statement rather than a question.
"Sure do." Yang confirmed, nodding her head at the grizzled man.
"Are you sure you three want to do this?" He asked, making sure we knew what we were asking of him. "I'm not going to go easy on you three. I'm going to push you as far as I can to see what I'm dealing with."
"A test?" I asked the bandana-wearing man.
"Yep, and no weapons either," He added, grinning at us. "I want all of you to come at me. No holding back either."
"On three?" Ren asked, settling into a fighting stance. I moved to imitate him.
"One…" I said, starting the countdown.
"Two…" Ren continued, his eyes calm and calculating.
"THREE!"
And with my sister's shout, the fight began.
Yang immediately charged at the man, while I used my semblance to boost me into a sliding tackle aimed at his legs as Ren moved to get behind him. I expected him to step out of the way of my attack, and he did, but he stepped towards Yang, getting inside of her hook that she had thrown. Grabbing her arm, he used her momentum to slam her down on top of me as I slid past.
For a person with a locked aura, the fight would have been over for me then and there. My ribs would have been bruised, if not broken. Luckily enough, I did* have my aura unlocked, so instead my Aura dropped by 30%.
Snake seemed to notice this, and purposefully** hesitated just long enough for Ren to dive into the fight with a flurry of strikes.
Snake weaved through the blows, observing the boys technique while testing his defenses by throwing in a couple of strikes here and there. Suddenly, he tossed Ren over his shoulder and into a tree, removing him from the fight for a while.
By this point, Yang had stood back up and was moving back towards the man. I was still winded. Just because my Aura protected me from any lasting damage, did not mean it didn't hurt.
Meanwhile, Snake was repeating his performance with Yang, except instead of just throwing a few strikes to test her defenses, he outright hit her in several different places, several times, noting how she reacted to each strike and where his blows were most effective.
As a final test, he reached out and…plucked one of Yang's hairs out of her head….
Uh oh.
He stepped back, observing her explosive rage at his actions. She launched herself forward with one of her characteristic haymakers, which he sidestepped with apparent ease. Then, he disabled her with a quick blow to the base of the skull, not hard enough to cause any real damage, but certainly enough to knock her out.
Finally, it was my turn to be "assessed" by the bandana-wearing man. I settled into a basic fighting stance, one taught to me by Uncle Qrow back at Signal. I could have used my semblance to help even the odds, but two things stopped me.
First, I think he would have had a counter for it anyways, if the stories Yang told us on the way over were anywhere near true.
Second, and more importantly…I felt like using my semblance in this fight would be missing the point of his little test.
So I approached, attacking the man with everything I had. By the end of it though, I was lying on the ground, his fist hovering over my throat in the standard "killing blow"***.
"That'll do." He said as he opened his hand and stood slightly, offering to help me up, which I gladly took.
"That was awesome!" I told Snake, my eyes gleaming in awe, even if this was the man who had just taken down both my team's and team JNPR's hand-to-hand combat specialists.
"Practice makes perfect." He said nonchalantly, smirking a bit as he pulled out a cigarette.
Yang and Ren quickly joined us in the middle, the former glaring at the grizzled man for the stunt he pulled.
"Now that we're all together, how did we do?" Ren asked pensively, gazing calmly at the man who flung him into a tree.
"Glad you asked, kid," Snake said to Ren. "Out of the three of you, you have the best technique. However, you need work on your defense. While it's okay, it's nothing to send home about."
He turned to Yang. "On the other hand, you, Yang, have a pretty competent defense, even if it can improve. However, your biggest problem is your anger."
Yang seemed ready to retort, but Snake cut her off. "Yeah, anger can be a useful tool, but if you let yourself be controlled by your anger instead of just fueled by it, it will make you sloppy, predictable, and leave you wide open to counterattack."
Yang seemed to deflate at this, realizing he was right. "Yeah…you're right. It's just…it's so hard sometimes, ya know?"
Snake just smiled at her, a small sad smile that spoke of experience with what she said.
Finally, he turned to me.
"And finally, there's you, Ruby. To put it simply, you barely have a foundation, let alone any skill in fighting hand-to-hand. Why do you want to be taught by me?"
He looked at mw, waiting for an answer.
I took a deep breath and let it out….
"For the longest time, I thought 'I'll never need anything other than Crescent Rose.' But…just recently, I found myself without my weapon, and stranded by myself in the middle of enemy lines. I never really stood a chance. It's…it's been bugging me ever since then. Gnawing at me, keeping me awake at night."
I looked up at him, my eyes gleaming with determination.
"I never want to be in that position again…helpless against the dark."
Snake pursed his lips at what I said….
"That's all the answer I needed," he finally said, looking over at the three of us.
"Every day from now on you and your teams will meet here for your training. Afterwards I'll teach you three hand-to-hand while the rest of your teams will leave."
His tone brooked no argument over the matter.
"Thank you!" I exclaimed, happy that he had agreed to train us.
Looks like things were looking starting to look up for a change.
A/N: My first 1000 word chapter? And no Author's Note at the beginning!? What madness has befallen me!? Also, special thanks to Le MAO XVII for his wonderful editing skills.
*Yeah, I know everyone knows that Ruby has her Aura unlocked, but I had to make a comparison with a normal human being and this was the best way I could think of.
**He wants to test them, not knock them out before he can really observe anything about them.
***For those uninformed, one way to end a sparring match is to place, or strike, at the opponent's throat, stopping just short of actually touching them. This signifies a killing blow, or what would have been a killing blow had the attacker not stopped. This signifies the match is in favor of the attacker and they are rewarded either the "round" or point, or the match all together.
