RWBY: The Redeemer
Happy New Year 2020, folks! I know it's late, but I swear that works and real life responsibility truly overwhelmed me. Nevertheless, I hope we can have another good new year and support each other! For those who are following me or my One-Punch DxD story, I promise you that the Legacy story is on the way and has hit over 6k words. Considering how long since the last time I updated, I will see to make the next update to be pretty lengthy one. Without further ado, enjoy!
Beta-read by Starlight's Poet
Chapter 21: End of The First Term (III)
Team RWBY and JNPR were all gathering inside a lecture hall with Claude standing before them.
"I honestly don't think we should be doing this. We have tests to study for." Weiss spoke as she crossed her arms. She was clad in her usual combat attire with her rapier at her hip, along with everyone else.
"You're not wrong." Claude easily waved and he put his arms on his hips. "...But from what I've seen, sitting and reading textbooks all day is not exactly healthy, no? I mean, even team JNPR always makes time to do exercise every now and then." He nodded at the team in question, who simply glanced at each other.
Team RWBY, particularly, Ruby and Yang, actually agreed at the notion. "Well, who am I to say no to a good work-out?" She said as she pushed and cracked her knuckles against each other.
"I think we've been confined in our dorms and classrooms long enough." Ruby quipped.
Blake simply shrugged; half-uncaring and half-agreed with the others' opinion. Weiss was still frowning for another few seconds, but she soon sighed in resignation. "Alright, I guess an exercise can refresh our minds… What are we doing, then?"
"Well…" Claude interrupted while awkwardly scratching his cheek. "I did say that you girls need some work-out, I never said this is gonna be an actual work-out session, did I?"
The jovial atmosphere surrounding the students suddenly dropped. "Err… What?" Nora could not help but ask.
"I shall take over." The students blinked and straightened up as soon as they saw Ozpin walked in and stood by Claude's side.
"Headmaster, sir." Claude greeted with a nod.
"Mr. Cole." Ozpin returned the greeting before he returned to address the students. "Students, welcome to your practical exam."
Every student's eyes widened at the announcement, and a few seconds later, it was Ruby who managed to croak out a word. "...What?"
"You heard the man." Claude smiled as he tilted his head at Ozpin, whom took a sip from the steaming mug of coffee he had been bringing along. "Before your written exam, we're gonna have your practical today. Headmaster Ozpin is kind enough to be the one grading you all."
Then, the students erupted.
"What?!"
"We actually have a practical exam?"
"Nobody told us anything!"
"Wait, what about Sun?!"
"We barely practiced! Most of our time were spent on studying!"
"Okay, okay! Pipe down, everyone!" Claude shouted while clapping his hands to get everyone's attention back. Once everyone was calm enough to listen again, he spoke, "This maybe sudden, but that's a life of huntsman for you! You can't use those excuses when you have a long-term mission at outside world!" He paused to let the information sink into them. "A huntsman is expected to be combat ready 24/7. It's not fun, I admit, but think of this practical as a lesson when an emergency situation suddenly falls onto your lap. Oh, as for Mr. Wukong, Haven Academy has finished their written and practical assessment in preparation of Vytal Festival, so he technically got a free pass, although he's actually doing another assignment from Beacon. We can't have slackers around, can we?" Claude finished with a knowing smirk.
The students were still not entirely amused, but at least their faces were much less reluctant. "Good, now I'm gonna make my own preparations while our headmaster here will explain you the rules." Claude tapped on Ozpin's shoulder and he walked towards the door. He then turned to give one last salute before walking out. "See you later, kids."
Everyone then watched Sterling walked outside. Once the door was closed, the students turned their attention to the headmaster who was taking another sip from his mug. "Alright, students. I will make this quick; you will split into partners and go to the designated combat halls sent to your scrolls. The one waiting inside there will explain the rest of the rules to you." Ozpin then took a pause to let the information sunk into the students, who glanced at their respective partners.
His lips quirked up into a tiny smirk, having another thing in store for them. "...However, your partner will be decided by lot." As soon as he caught their expressions turned into a small apprehension, he quickly followed up. "A huntsman's job is full of unexpected variables. While you will most likely to go on missions with your team for the next four years, there's no guarantee that you will always end up working with your partners. Learning to work with your other team members will help you in the long run."
The students' faces calmed down as they slowly came to understand the logic behind the settings. Ruby in particular, was rather reluctant at the fact that she probably would not be partnered with Weiss, but at least she could work something out with Blake or Yang. The others also seemed to have the same line of thought.
Ozpin then picked out the tablet from his suit, tapping on the screen as he proceeded to draw lots for the pairing arrangements. A minute later, the result came up and he looked at the screen for a second before addressing the students. "These are the match-ups…."
Yang let out a breath as she walked down the hallway towards her designed classroom with Weiss next to her. "It's you and me now, Weissy. Let's nail this practical, shall we?"
"Obviously, we will pass this assessment with flying colours." Weiss lightly scoffed. "But please don't get carried away. We still don't know who our examiner is."
Per Ozpin's instructions, while she was still paired within her team, Yang had been paired with Weiss while Ruby with Blake, and the four had walked separate ways towards their respective rooms a while ago.
"Yeah, who are we up against?" Yang wondered as she looked up, hooking her hands behind her head. Considering the set-ups, it was safe to assume that they might have to fight a teacher. "Any ideas?" She threw a glance at her teammate.
"There are four pairings in total including us, so there will be four examiners as well..." Weiss said as she held her chin with her fingers thoughtfully.
oXo
"...Mr. Cole is definitely one of them, as well as Professor Goodwitch, who has been teaching combat class for years. I'm not sure of the other two, but Professor Port, Professor Greene and Professor Mulberry might fit the bill."
In another hallway, Pyrrha was walking while listening to Ren's input as she had been paired up with him. The former inwardly would rather to pair up with Jaune, but her rational and discipline side knew there was a time and place for such sentiment. She could only wish that Jaune would do fine, but she also knew that her partner had improved a lot since the first time they met, which gave her hope.
"Do you think we will be up against Sterling?" Pyrrha asked after Ren had finished talking.
"...You sound eager." Ren merely glanced at her for a second as he resumed his walking.
Pyrrha's face gave a light blush. "Sorry, it's just…. Fighting him for the first time was refreshing." When Ren turned his eyes at her again, she took it as a sign to elaborate. "Ever since my first championship of Mistral Regional Tournament, everyone hailed me as some kind of invincible fighter without equal. Even my instructors claimed that they had a hard time fighting me. I was at a point…. Where I thought I would be stand alone at the top for the rest of my life…" Then her face grew a smile as she let out a breath. "Then Sterling made me back into a normal girl that still has a lot to learn, to improve. As I said, it's…. Refreshing."
Ren hummed in understanding as he noticed they were closing into their destination. "In any case, let's do our best in this assessment, shall we?" He said as he gave a small smile.
"Yes, let's do this." Pyrrha nodded with her own determined smile, as she brandished her weapons before the door.
oXo
"Fear not, Jaune-Jaune! With your wits, my brawn, and my awesome hammer, this test will nothing but a breeze!"
Jaune only chuckled weakly at Nora's words of encouragement. He did not mean any offence to her, and he also considered her to be a good friend; but Jaune felt at more ease if he were to be paired with Pyrrha. He and his partner had been working and training hard together, so he was more familiar with her. Nevertheless, it would not be fair if he were to protest the current outcome; might as well making the best out of it. Besides, Nora's positive and bubbly attitude (something he wished he had more in his bones) was enough to keep his morals high, and he was grateful for it.
"...Who do you think we'll be up against, fearless leader?" Nora's question snapped him out of his funk as he blinked at her curious eyes. "Oh, do you think we're gonna fight Sterling!? Or Professor Goodwitch?! Whose legs are we gonna break?"
It never ceased to amuse and scare Jaune of how hyper Nora could be at times - what's with her and breaking legs, anyway? Ren must have the patience of a saint for having been looking after her for so long. "Well, whoever it is, Nora. Let's just prepare and do our best, okay?" Jaune honestly could not think of any better comeback at Nora's jabs.
"Aye-aye, fearless leader!" Nora saluted with a grin on her face, prepping her Magnhild on her shoulder.
Jaune took a deep breath as he saw the door of their destination; let's hope today's not gonna be a long one…
oXo
"Oooh, this feels exciting, Blake!" Ruby said giddily as her hands shook in front of her, as she made her way through the hallway with Blake in tow.
"Easy, Ruby. We don't even know what we have to do yet." the girl in black commented but giving a small smile at her leader's attitude.
It was interesting so far, to have a leader who was two years younger than her. But Blake acknowledged that Ruby had the necessary skills on the field to be admitted into Beacon earlier than her peers. While she could be too childish at times, Blake believed that it was also the older teammates' job to support the younger ones. In any case, while she was more used to work with Yang, Blake had no problem working with Ruby. Besides, if she was found slacking behind Ruby, Yang would never let her hear the end of it.
"Say, who do you think is gonna…. Y'know, grade us?" Ruby decided to change the topic.
"Can't say." Blake shrugged. "But if I am to be honest, I'd… rather not fighting against C- Sterling." She inwardly sighed at the near slip-up.
Thankfully, Ruby did not catch that. "Why not? I mean, sure Sterling is super strong, but he's awesome! It will be fun sparring with him again."
Blake could not help but scoffed a little. "Our grades are on the line here, remember? Don't take this the wrong way, Ruby, but I'm not exactly keen if we are graded by someone who is more or less on par with the headmaster."
"Well, I guess- Wait." Ruby paused as she stopped on her tracks, prompting Blake to quirk her eyebrow at her. "...Why would you compare Sterling with Ozpin in particular?"
Oops - Blake glanced around at her actual slip-up, but decided there was no harm in revealing that one. "Err, I... might or might not have watched Sterling sparring against headmaster Ozpin… Once."
A second later, Ruby figuratively exploded. "WHAT?!" She shot up right in front of Blake's face. "When?! Where?! How come were you able to see that?! Why didn't you tell, or rather, invite me?!"
Blake held up her arms to placate her bristling leader. "Whoa, whoa Ruby, calm down!" When Ruby backed away a bit, Blake quickly elaborated to avoid anymore problem. "It was at night after initiation, I was taking a night stroll when I ran to them by pure accident. Honest." She put one hand on her chest to emphasize.
Ruby was still pouting, but her glare had softened. "You could have woken me up…"
"Sorry, I thought you're all tired from initiation. If it means anything, I didn't watch the fight until the end either. I felt it's kind of rude to sneak around that night." Blake replied with an awkward smile.
Ruby sighed, "...So? You don't know who won, then?"
"No." Blake shook her head. "But as far as I remember, Sterling was faring pretty well that night."
Ruby grumbled as she continued walking with Blake by her side. "Can't believe I missed that…. Sterling vs Headmaster, that would've been epic."
"Yeah, sorry again about that." Blake said as she patted Ruby's shoulder. "Let's just focus on passing this test, okay?"
Ruby merely nodded, but it was enough for Blake. Soon they also arrived at the door leading to their class.
When Ruby and Blake entered the training hall, they could say that they did not fully expect the person waiting for them.
"Haha! Welcome to my training ground, lasses!" Peter Port greeted from the centre of the room with proud voice, his arm slapped on his jelly belly.
"Professor Port?!" Ruby and Blake were looking rather stunned at the sight of their chubby teacher.
"Yes, indeed! It is I, Peter Port, who shall oversee your practical assessment for today! In this room, we shall observe how much you have improved since the beginning of the year!" Peter said as he posed with his blunderbuss-axe - Blowhard, over his shoulder. "What say you? Are you ready to test your mettle against me?" He finished while shaking his fist flamboyantly.
Ruby and Blake shared glances with each other, before they walked towards the stage and brandished their respective weapons and went into stances. The former would be lying if she said that she was not disappointed, but considering that Port was Sterling's mentor, perhaps it was as close as she could get.
Despite the lack of verbal answer, Peter smiled from beneath his thick mustache as he nodded approvingly. "Good! Now, for your assessment - all you have to do is force me to take more than three… No, five steps away from where I'm standing, in any direction. Simple, isn't it?"
Ruby and Blake blinked once, twice at their task, as they stared at Port, who was seemingly waiting for them to do or say something. "...Are you sure that's all we need to do?" Ruby voiced both her and Blake's thought. Even for a professor of Beacon Academy, it was still two against one in Ruby and Blake's favour.
Noticing the girls' hesitation, Peter's smile simply twitched wider as he bend his knees and stomped hard, cracking the floor beneath him as he put up his own stance. "Yes, I am sure, young Rose."
Ruby and Blake felt a sudden chill rushed over them, as soon as they saw the glint from Peter's lidded eyes. They tightened their grip on their weapons, as they shared another glance and nod to each other, before they carefully began to circle around the teacher.
This was going to be tougher than they thought.
oXo
Yang and Weiss only stared with gaping maws at the sight of Bartholomew Oobleck sipping and enjoying his steaming coffee from his thermos.
"Ah, good day, you two. Welcome to your practical exam!" Barty greeted with his usual rapid speech. The thermos in his hand then transformed into a spear - no, a torch, since there was flame flickering at the tip.
That was Bartholomew Oobleck's signature weapon, Antiquity's Roast.
Weiss was the first to snap out of it as she took it upon herself to do the talking. "It's… our pleasure to be here, Professor-"
"Doctor."
Weiss paused in her curtsy as Oobleck corrected the way she addressed him. The heiress inwardly sighed as she carried on. "...Doctor Oobleck. We are looking forward to this assessment." She finished with more confident tone, which also prompted Yang to re-gather herself.
Barty nodded at the two girls. "Very well, Ms. Schnee, Ms. Xiao-Long. Please stepped on the stage and get yourselves prepared as I will explain how this assessment will go."
The doctor's high-speed speech was fortunately still possible to be followed as Weiss and Yang did as instructed. The former brandished her signature rapier while the latter deployed her gauntlets and doing some stretches.
"This practical assessment will consist of, as you might have expected, a combat against me. However, I have been given the privilege to test you in the way I see fit." Barty paused in his explanation for a second to let his words sunk into the two. Then, he carried on, "In this assessment, I shall give you a riddle, and your task will be to figure out the said riddle during the duration of the test, which is one hour. That is, if you can remain conscious by then." He finished while fixing the glasses on his face.
Weiss and Yang blinked and shared glances at the instruction. Solving riddles during fighting? Sounds easy enough, but they knew it was rather unorthodox as well. "So, we just have to answer your questions while fighting? What happens if… you know, we manage to beat you, let's say, before we solve the riddle?" Yang was the one to ask.
Barty merely chuckled at the question, a glint flashed from his spectacles. "That's a good question, Ms. Xiao-Long, very optimistic of you. However, I'm afraid that should you fail to solve my riddle, you won't get a passing grade."
Weiss and Yang tensed up - the former grew serious while the latter was lightly scowling. The doctor spoke as if they would not beat him, it was two against one. If Yang were to be honest, Oobleck did not look like the fighting type. Weiss, on the other hand, had a feeling that she could not describe, something about the doctor that might be more than meets the eye.
Noticing that the students before him were prepared enough, Barty then put on his own stance, pointing the flaming tip of his weapon at the two. "Alright, here's the riddle - What can you break, but never pick up? What can you make, but never touch? What can you create, but never fix?"
Antiquity's Roast lit up and fired a flaming projectile towards the girls, who quickly split up to dodge, leaving their previous spot to catch on fire.
Looking at the pensive expression of his two students, Barty fixed his glasses again, "The test has begun, you two! Chop chop!"
oXo
Jaune and Nora were rooted on their spots as soon as they had entered their assigned training hall.
"Mr. Arc, Ms. Valkyrie." Glynda Goodwitch stood in the middle of the room with disciplined practice. "Welcome to your practical exam. I shall be your examiner today." Seeing Jaune and Nora's stunned silence as the cue for her to carry on, she spoke again, "For this test, I shall see how far you have progressed in terms of combat, since the beginning of your first year. Note that how you perform is the key criteria for this assessment, so it would be for your best interest to give it your all."
Then, she flicked her riding crop - The Disciplinarian, and her Semblance caused the spectator's seats, as well as a few chunks of the tile from the floor, to fly around her. "Your task will be a simple one; survive for the next one - no, half an hour as I engage you two. Any question?"
Seeing the sheer amount of make-shift projectiles surrounding the deputy, Jaune only let out a small whimper while Nora did not feel as confident as earlier.
oXo
Claude narrowed his eyes at the book he was reading, as a means to kill time. It was a novel that had been popular lately, especially among teenagers and young adults. He remembered that Blake also read it whenever she thought nobody was looking during Peter's lecture; it was kind of funny, to be honest.
Ninjas of Love by Patty Berdioler - after reading the first three chapters, Claude concluded that the so-called popular romance was basically a smut with an actual semblance of quality. The plot was 'okay', the twist itself was so-so but certainly not too bad, and Claude was actually interested with the character development, however… He could not help but grimace a little at the supposedly 'romantic' parts. The settings and the scenes themselves were decent, per see, but judging from the choice of words and how they were written, Claude was quite sure that the author of the novel was a virgin who picked the words and lines from some soap opera, as well as (perhaps) internet porn.
Nonetheless, now that Claude had read quite far into the story, he might as well finished it; he would just skim certain parts, though. A few minutes later, the sound of the door opening snapped Claude out of his reading, his silver eyes caught the sight of Pyrrha Nikos and Lie Ren walking side by side, looking at him with slightly incredulous and amused eyes.
When Pyrrha and Ren walked through the door, they were greeted by the sight of their young instructor balancing his sword on top of his finger by the tip of its blade, while his other hand was holding a book - isn't that one of Blake's books? As soon as their eyes met, with practiced ease, Claude tossed the sword up to the air and let the weapon landed perfectly into the sheath on his back.
"So, I guess you two will be my charge, eh?" Claude greeted with a grin as he put his hand - the one that was balancing the sword, into his pants pocket while his other hand was still holding the book.
"Yes, sir." Ren replied while straightening himself up.
"We are ready." Pyrrha said with confident voice.
"Good." Claude nodded, and he returned to his reading. The room fell into a short silence as Pyrrha and Ren kept staring at the young teacher. The latter glanced at the former, who shrugged in return, not sure of what was happening. However, Claude looked up from his book and noticed their looks. "...Oh, right. The test has begun, by the way. Come at me whenever you're ready."
Pyrrha and Ren blinked, but they still reached to grab their weapons. "Um… So we just fight two on one?" The girl asked while remained standing on her spot.
"Yep." Claude glanced at them. Then, he noticed their expressions and he looked on himself. Realising their current dilemma, he immediately came up with something. "Okay, here's the deal; I just finished reading chapter 4 here." He held up his book at them to emphasize. "If you kiddos manage to land a hit on me before I finish chapter 5, then I'll pass you guys."
Pyrrha and Ren remained silent for a few seconds until the latter spoke up. "Are you… sure about this?"
Claude looked up again from his reading; Ren's face remained stoic as ever while Pyrrha's eyes seemed to narrow. At their reactions, Claude's lips only twitched into a smirk. "As sure as I can be, Ren. Are you two going to stand around all day, or... what?"
Both students shared another nod with each other as they walked to create some distance between themselves in order to surround their examiner. They would be lying if they were to say the display of arrogance from Sterling was not insulting, but they decided to keep cool minds…. And made sure the teacher before them would eat his own words.
Ozpin leaned back on his seat in his office, sipping the new blend from his mug as he watched multiple footages from his personal large computer on his desk.
Those were interesting match-ups; Ruby Rose and Blake Belladonna vs Peter Port, Weiss Schnee and Yang Xiao-Long vs Bartholomew Oobleck, Jaune arc and Nora Valkyrie vs Glynda Goodwitch, and finally, Pyrrha Nikos and Lie Ren vs Claude Rose, or should he say, Sterling Cole. Being a huntsman with long-life experience as well as headmaster, Ozpin did not have much difficulty in processing the information he received from multiple screens.
The match-ups were never planned, but when Ozpin looked back at the pairings and the student's profiles, he found the arrangements to be perfect. It appeared that Fate was favouring everyone involved at the moment.
Ozpin's lips twitched up slightly at the battles happening before him. It was obvious that Glynda was more than capable of giving Mr. Arc and Ms. Valkyrie a hell of a time, but his interest leaned more towards the other three - who he had been keeping tabs on as of late.
Ever since they became teachers of Beacon Academy, before Claude's return, Barty and Peter had not fought as much as their younger days; the lack of physical activities in their lives caused them to, as Claude quoted, 'losing their touches'.
Keep in mind that with age, Barty and Peter had come up with a bag of tricks under their sleeves, but against Claude, who was still younger than them, as well as had worked with them for a good several years at the same time, the former leader of CBPR made a good point that those tricks would not save them forever, considering the nearing battle against the Queen and her agents.
Thus, every night, per Claude's instructions, whenever Peter and Barty had finished their work as teachers, they would spend a good few hours to train - working their bodies back to shape as much as they could. Lo and behold, while the two did not show much change at first glance, their performances against the students were enough telling that their nightly workout had paid-off.
10 minutes had passed, with Ruby and Blake were already sweating bullets. True to his words, professor Port did not even move further than three steps away from his spot as he fought defensively; but damn, forcing professor Port out of specified bounds was akin to move a boulder. Worse, the said boulder also retaliated.
Shooting him with bullets did not work well, as the chubby professor either deflected the bullets with his axe and tanked the shots from his blind spots. Ruby tried to tackle him with her speed Semblance, but it turned out to be a bad idea, as she could barely forced Peter two steps back. It was only thanks that Peter's fat belly that Ruby's collision did not hurt her much. However, the attack only gave Peter the opportunity to catch Ruby in his grasp.
"Eep!" Ruby yelped as Port swung her around by her hood, before he hurled her right at Blake who was approaching from the other side.
The girl in black managed to avoid the Ruby-projectile by skillfully sliding on the floor, allowing Ruby to harmlessly flew past above her face until she hit the wall behind her. Blake cringed in small guilt as she could tell that Ruby's eyes were swirling in daze from impact, but Blake had to focus on the current objective.
Once she was within range, Peter retaliated with a simple, low horizontal swing with his axe, which Blake quickly replaced herself with a clone that shot her jumping upwards over the teacher. She swung her Gambol Shroud at his head, which Peter easily parried with his own axe. Blake landed, set her weapon into dual wielding, and engaged the professor again in a heated exchange - she ran around, aiming for blind spots which Peter quickly covered, the girl could not even force the professor to budge.
Soon enough, Blake was forced to defend when Peter managed to catch her with another swing of his axe. The force behind the attack was enough to throw her off her feet, sending her flying a good distance away. When Blake managed to summer-sault in the air and land back on her feet, she found Ruby regrouping with her. Blake looked down at her arms which were trembling slightly from weathering Peter's attack, before she reaffirmed the grip on her weapon. Testament of their teamwork - they did not exchange any words as they simply nodded at each other, before they dashed at Peter together, preparing to launch simultaneous attacks.
In response, Peter merely smirked from behind his mustache as he aimed his blunderbuss end at the incoming pair, and fired a scattered pellets. As expected, the girls had to create distance between themselves in order to avoid and make their way through the bullets, but they did not stop their marches. Then, Peter raised his weapon high and stomped the pummel of his weapon on the floor.
BOOM!
Ruby and Blake suddenly found themselves thrown back to the floor, breathless for a second as they were dazed. What the hell just hit us?
They rose up, finding dust cloud was filling the entire room, and their eyes widened that the whole floor was ruined, with Peter remained standing in the middle of it all. "Excellent teamwork, you two! Your last attempt earlier had a good amount of coordination! Bravo!" He commented with his ever-jovial tone as he waved his hand at them invitingly. "Come, again!"
Staring at the destruction caused by professor Port's last attack, Ruby and Blake could not help but swallow a lump before they prepared themselves for another bout.
oXo
Weiss and Yang found themselves to be out of their depths; Doctor Bartholomew Oobleck was merciless despite his mild-mannered looks and attitude.
What can you break, but never pick up? What can you make, but never touch? What can you create, but never fix?
Both girls could have sworn they had heard that riddle somewhere, and they felt the answer was at the tip of their tongues. However, the history teacher was not very keen to give them time to think.
Speak of the devil - Barty just suddenly appeared behind Yang and used his leg to swipe her feet off, causing the blonde to fall back. While Yang was in the middle of back-flipping to recover herself, the teacher managed to find an opportunity to aim his torch and fired several fireballs at Weiss, who had to cancel her attempt of ambush in favour of dodging the incoming projectiles, before the teacher immediately returned his attention to the recently recovered Yang, and landed a well-placed palm-strike at her abdomen, forcing her to skid back a distance.
"Hm, so far so good, you two! I can see that both of you have potentials to be great huntresses!" Barty transformed his Antiquity's Roast back to thermos form and drank the coffee that somehow (miraculously), was still stored inside.
Yang and Weiss would be lying if they said they were not frustrated, but they were too tired to show them; might as well using the moment to regain their bearings as much as they could, as Barty continued his lecture.
"However, finesse and brute strength alone won't help your career as huntresses in the long run! A good head on your shoulders can even solve many issues without casualties." The history teacher's words actually put the two girls into thinking.
What's with this test? Why did they have to solve the riddle while fighting? Dr. Oobleck's speech struck a chord within them, somewhat; Weiss and Yang glanced at each other, asking if either of them had any ideas. "...Do you think you can cover me a bit more?" Weiss asked carefully.
Thankfully, Yang snorted with a light smile on her face. "Yeah, sure. I think this is the high time for you to prove how smart you are, ice-queen."
Weiss gave a light snort as a small smirk graced her face. On the other hand, Barty noticed the air around his two charges had shifted slightly, cuing him to pick up his pace. Without a warning, the teacher re-deploy his Antiquity's Roast and fired another volley of fireballs towards the two, who braced themselves for another bout.
oXo
Pyrrha was just in time to put her shield up to block an incoming strike, but the force and momentum were hard enough to push the shield back until it hit her face, causing her to stumble back while weathering her throbbing nose.
On the other side of the stage, Ren was on his fours, shaking and rubbing his headache off. He considered his condition to be quite fortunate that he still retained some aura. When he, along with Pyrrha managed to steady themselves back on two feet, they regarded Sterling again, who was still standing casually with his sword at one hand while reading his book with the other; flipping another page.
Pyrrha and Ren would be lying if they said that they were not frustrated - at least inwardly, for not being able to land any single hit on the young teacher; their attempt to make him eating his own words for his display of arrogance had failed miserably. Scratch that - it was no longer mere arrogance when he had proven that he had enough skills to back it up - Sterling was on a whole new level; either he had been holding back in the past, or he had been constantly growing stronger as well. Neither of them knew which one was scarier.
Claude noticed that the attacks had stopped, as he looked up from his reading at his two charges, regarding their forms and stances for a few seconds, before returning to his reading.
From Ren and Pyrrha's point of view, they saw their 'examiner' became more engrossed in his reading, considering the pursed lips and the rising eyebrows as he was nodding at the page he was reading, as if the content was more concerning to him than the two opponents he was facing against.
Pyrrha glanced at Ren whose right eye was twitching ever so slightly. "...I think we need a new plan." The former whispered.
Thankfully, it only took a second for Ren to calm himself down with one breath. "I… I honestly don't know." He then glanced at the girl. "...Unless you have improved your Semblance since last time."
Pyrrha scowled slightly. "I did try training my Semblance every now and then, but I don't know if I have improved enough. Mr. Cole's Semblance had been developed to counter mine."
"But if your Semblance truly has improved… What do we lose at this point?"
Pyrrha licked her lower lips as she considered Ren's words, until she nodded. "...What do you have in mind?"
Ren gestured Pyrrha to lean closer, and he began to whisper his idea to her ear. The girl then regarded her teammate before replying, "...That's a long shot."
"Better than no shot at all, don't you think?"
Pyrrha then took a few deep breaths to re-gather herself, "Okay…. Alright, let's go with your plan. We can do this." She then brandished her weapon as she put up her stance again.
"I'm counting on you, Pyrrha." Ren said as he did the same. In mind, he could not help but wonder how his partner and team-leader were doing.
oXo
Meanwhile, Goodwitch could not help but feeling that she was having a time of her life. Around her was plethora of flying objects - furniture, tiles, debris, etc. that she could gather with her Telekinetic Semblance; and she was flicking one object after another like missiles towards her supposedly 'charges'.
She received an opportunity to unleash her pent-up frustration and stress from having to deal with her work which involved unruly/problematic students, quirky co-workers, mountains of paperwork courtesy of overly laidback, coffee-addict headmaster, and one Claude fucking Rose.
Although, the latter was actually the one who gave her the said opportunity, which kind of annoyed her that she had to be grateful, if only for a little.
She honestly felt a little bad for giving Jaune Arc, who was still considered green, this level of difficulty. Then again, Nora Valkyrie should be enough to cover for him. Well, Glynda had faith that the two could find a way to pass her test with passable marks. All she needed to do was to enjoy her - no, to give her all to fulfil her duty as an educator.
"WAAAAAGGH!"
The young Arc was crying like no tomorrow as he ran for his life while carrying an unconscious Nora on his shoulder, desperately avoiding Glynda's barrage one after another. At some point of the match, Nora had seemingly been hit on her head, knocking her out for the time being, forcing the leader of JNPR to carry all the weight by himself for the time being.
"Nora, Noraa! For the love of the Brothers, Nora! You've got to wake up!" Jaune frantically patted her cheek.
"Ugh…." Nora groaned, causing Jaune's face to slightly light up in hope of her waking up. "Ren…. Can I have more…?" She slurred as a goofy grin grew on her sleepy face.
"NORAAA!" Jaune shrieked as he barely managed to jump out from being crushed by a particularly large table, picked himself and Nora up, before he continued running and screaming.
Glynda could not help but gave a little smile; it has been a while since the last time she got to unwind while listening to music on her ears.
Omake
The Kingdom was in ruins after suffering a massive attack of Grimm horde, and the survivors had to regroup, consolidating their strength and resources in order to launch a counter attack. At the outskirts of the capital, Summer Rose and team STRQ took the role as a beacon of hope by rallying a group of survivors - combatants and civilians alike. The girl in white hooded-cloak glanced at her team as she took a stand on a make-shift podium made out of rocks and earth, which her team - even Raven, returned with nods in a show of support.
Summer regarded the people gathering around her, who looked at her in the mix of expectation, support and mild skepticism; nonetheless, she resolved herself not to beat around the bush and immediately speak to the point. "People of Remnant! I know that times may be dark, but we are the only hope left for the planet. Look around you!" She waved her hand with a booming voice, catching everyone's full attention as she gestured at everyone around. "...The gathering of noble huntsmen and huntresses, new and old!"
oXo
At another part of kingdom's outskirts, Claude Rose and his team CBPR were also rallying another group of survivors around them, with the team-leader stepped on a pile of rubble; his teammates were giving him skeptical looks, which Claude returned with a mild glare that said 'I got this, okay?', before he turned his gaze at the crowd in front of him. He then cleared his throat to prepare himself.
"Alright, um, listen up." Claude began, garnering everyone to look and listen to him, causing Claude to regard each and everyone of them. "... I'll just be honest; you're all a bunch of dirty misfits, but you are all that's left, so you'll have to do."
People furrowed their eyebrows, some even sported offended looks at the first sentence coming out of Claude's mouth. The rest of CBPR were either rolling their eyes, sighing and scoffing at the choice of words.
oXo
"Our home was attacked…" Summer said as she pointed at the direction of the ruined kingdom in the distance. "I was there - we were all there, fighting against the endless onslaught."
As she spoke, her team could not help but grimace at the memory where they had to fight for their lives against Creatures of Grimm, one after another. Their thoughts were shared by everyone else.
oXo
"They kept coming, so I kept fighting. Not gonna lie, though, I was - no, we were all magnificent." Claude ended up boasting as he gave a quick wink at his team, who gave him flat smiles and head-shakes in return.
The survivor group, on the other hand, sported several raised eyebrows at the claim.
oXo
"...Despite the sacrifices of many brave huntsmen and huntresses, we still lost the kingdom." Summer's tone grew somber for a second before she met everyone's gaze with her own. "The Beacon tower, the city, our very home."
oXo
"So, everything is gone…." Claude spoke in a matter-of-fact tone, although he did not like the memories of flames everywhere. "...Your stuff." He directed at the group before him, "Their stuff." Claude then gestured at his team by his side, "But most importantly…" he held up both of his fingers to emphasize, before he pointed at himself with his both thumbs. "...My stuff!"
oXo
"However!" Summer's voice boomed again across the field. She would never forget the face of the witch who was behind the disaster. "Today, we know the name of our true enemy! Her name is…!"
oXo
"SAMANTHA!"
Claude pointed out to make a point, but silence suddenly fell upon the field as he found himself doubting the name he just said. "...Or Sylvie? Sherry? Is- is it…?" He asked to nobody in particular, and he immediately decided just to wing it. "I don't know, something with an 'S'!"
oXo
"SALEM."
At Summer's tone and grim expression, everyone straightened up as they committed the name to their memory, as well as paying more attention for Summer's next words. "I know some of you guys might be looking for us in the time of peril, but this is no longer my battle alone." She spoke her next line with a hint of gentleness in her tone.
oXo
"-Which means, if I don't see you out there..." Claude pointed out at the direction towards the battlefield, before he partially unsheathed his Shatter Storm, showing a glimpse of the blade to everyone to show he meant business. "I'll kill you myself."
Everyone, including his team, looked incredulous and perhaps horrified at the warning/threat.
oXo
"It is time for us to put our differences aside, for we have a duty to take back what is rightfully ours, to protect the people as huntsmen and huntresses!" Summer said with more fire in her tone than before.
oXo
"Worst case scenario, you'll die." Claude spoke with a careful tone and quickly followed up before anyone could have protested. "...But who knows, maybe you won't!"
oXo
At this point, every single survivor in the gathering, as well as team STRQ had begun to roar and vocally show their support as Summer delivered the ending speech with a question. "So I ask you, WHO. WILL. STAND. WITH ME?!" She finished while raising her fist up, which was followed by everyone else as their cheer intensified.
oXo
"YEAH!"
Claude cheered with his own fist up, seemingly appeared to have asked the same final question to end his speech, but his cheering was met with a deathly silence as everyone was giving him dry and skeptical looks. "...Aw, really, guys?"
Then, Claude heard his team hissing to gain his attention, and when he turned to look at them, Barty and Peter were giving looks of pity, while Roman's look was kind of condescending if anything else.
Claude pouted for a second before he decided to come up with another idea. "Also!" he shouted, garnering everyone's attention to him again. "...THERE WILL BE A TON OF LOOT!"
Apparently, the final line seemed to do the trick as everyone immediately cheered at the prospect of free-for-all bounty.
As team CBPR re-joined Claude in mid-celebration, Peter commented, "I suppose you have done well, sir, all things considered…" his tone did not sound sincere somehow; while Barty was out of words, as the two began to give a round of applause to correspond with people's cheer to preserve morale.
"See?! I told you! You should've used my script from the beginning!" Roman hissed as he jabbed his elbow at Claude's side.
"Oh, shut up, Rome. Just smile and wave at the crowd." Claude half-growled, half-whispered as he returned to wave and roar with the rest of the crowd.
So, yeah. I've been having this idea for some time, and watching Ironwood and Robyn inspiring the people of Atlas and Mantle to unite against Salem prompted me to write this omake. So, what do you think? No flames, please. Ahsoei, over and out.