A/N: Alright, here we go, I've been itching to get at this chapter for quite a long time now. Really hope you guys enjoy this one.
"I must confess Mr Lupus; this seems very unlike you."
Ozpin regarded the young Grimmborn over the rim of his glasses. The Beowolf electing to stand, while the Headmaster remained sitting behind his desk. It was late in the afternoon when the Grimm turned Faunus had decided to drop by unannounced into Ozpin's office. Rather than coming in through the door, Fenrir had come in through the window, making professor Goodwitch give a miniscule jump that only the older man noticed.
When Fenrir explained why he'd come up to the Headmasters office in such a bizarre manner, even Glynda seemed surprised. Enough to stop lecturing Fenrir on climbing up the side of the tower.
"You're right, ordinarily I'd prefer to handle something like this by myself." Fenrir admitted, crossing his arms in what he hoped was a stoic position, "But after talking with Ruby and the others about it… along with making sure Yang doesn't get into a fight with half the school, I think it's time I actually did something about this, rather than simply hope it will stop on its own."
"You want me to find a way to stop these students from harassing you, to stop waiting around outside your room for a chance to ambush you?" Ozpin asked, more for confirmation that this was absolutely what Fenrir wanted.
"I don't want to pit you against your own students." Fenrir said with full honesty, already having to fight the desire to tell Ozpin to just forget the whole thing, "I know no matter what you do, some of them will still try to get to me anyways. But well… with the rules you've placed on me, I don't think I can reasonably defend myself against them without getting carried away in the process. I think it would be in everyone's best interests if I avoided unnecessary conflict."
Ozpin nodded his head, impressed with how well Fenrir's vocabulary was developing. It was a far cry from his stunted, broken speech from when he first arrived at Beacon. Fenrir, meanwhile, was just thanking Weiss mentally for that speech she'd written down for him earlier.
"She has a far better way with words than I do. I don't even know HALF of what I'm talking about."
"Hmm," Ozpin rubbed his chin thoughtfully, before looking towards his assistant-head, "What do you think, professor Goodwitch?"
The veteran Huntress twisted her head towards Ozpin in surprise. Thinking it over, the woman regarded the Grimm coolly.
"Regardless of your heritage, this kind of behaviour from our own students is unacceptable." Goodwitch decided after thinking it over, "All students at Beacon academy should be able to feel safe here. If you don't feel safe Mr Lupus, then this… is a failure on our part."
Fenrir felt a twinge of guilt at that last part. He hadn't meant to call anyone a failure, he just wanted to get these students to find something better to do with their time.
"We could look into putting some more security camera's outside your room." Goodwitch suggested, "I doubt it will stop the occurrences entirely, but if we make them big and noticeable, it will send a clear message to these students. They'll know you're being watched, and we'll know if someone tries to attack you."
"Well, how does that sound to you Mr Lupus?" Ozpin asked once Goodwitch had finished her explanation.
"Yeah, that will be perfect." Fenrir agreed with a nod, "Thank you for doing this. To be honest, I probably never would have done it if… the others hadn't convinced me to come to you."
The headmaster shared a look with his assistant. He gave her a smug grin, as if to say 'See, I told you this would work', before turning back to Fenrir.
"I'm happy to see the girls have had a positive impact on you." Ozpin said honestly.
"Sure, if you want to call it that." Fenrir huffed, not quite stopping a grin from cracking his standoffish posture.
"Well, is that everything you wished to discuss?" Ozpin asked.
"Oh, yes." Fenrir stood up straight, bowing his head a little, "Thank you again. I'll just, get out of your way."
The Grimm made to move towards the window he'd come in from, but Glynda quickly cut off his escape, and pointed towards the open elevator.
"The elevator, Mr Lupus." She said sternly.
Fenrir held up his hands in surrender, walking backwards and colliding roughly with the back-wall of the elevator. He chuckled awkwardly, giving a stiff wave as the elevator doors mercifully shut.
"And to think," Ozpin mused to himself, "Just over a month ago, he would have scowled at you for speaking to him like that. Would you agree with me Glynda, he is showing significant improvement."
The woman sighed, rubbing at her eyes as she felt exhaustion entrap her in its hold.
"He still has a long way to go before I'm convinced he's not a potential danger to Humanity." She confessed,
Rather than looking disappointed, Ozpin just continued to smile genially at her.
"Some more time then." Ozpin said, more to himself, "I'm certain you'll come to like him eventually. He bears a lot of similarities to yourself after all. He's quite diligent and a hard worker."
"Ozpin, I would appreciate it if I wasn't compared to a Beowolf." Glynda said exasperatedly, "I get enough comments like that from some of my students."
Rather than respond to Goodwitch's complaint, Ozpin began typing away at a keyboard on his desk. Fenrir's sudden arrival had reminded the grey-haired man that there was something he needed to discuss with another one of his colleagues.
"Let's see if Bartholomew has had any breakthroughs in his latest research." Ozpin murmured as he hit the enter key and patiently waited for Oobleck to answer his call.
No more than two rings passed, before the ever hyper-active doctor answered the call, his bespectacled face appearing on Ozpin's monitor.
"Ah! Good afternoon Ozpin," Oobleck greeted loudly, "And good afternoon to you as well Glynda."
"Afternoon Bartholomew," Ozpin replied, while Glynda simply nodded as she stood behind the headmaster, "I won't keep you long, I just wanted to inquire on the progress you're making with Mr Lupus's blood."
"Ah, excellent!" Oobleck cried, before zipping off, and reappearing all within the span of a second, "Yes, I was meaning to come up to your office later this evening, but this works out perfectly."
Glynda couldn't stop another sigh of mild annoyance from escaping her mouth. While she appreciated the doctor's enthusiasm, she sometimes found it to be a bit much, especially when it was late in the day.
"Once I was able to isolate the influenza virus from Fenrir's blood, I discovered many usual properties housed within the blood."
Oobleck then held up a video towards the screen. Leaning forward, Ozpin quickly learned that he was looking at a magnified image of Fenrir's red blood cells. They appeared visibly identical to standard human red blood cells. There was however, one major difference.
"Is that…" Goodwitch said, also leaning forward.
"They're Dust crystals!" Oobleck answered excitedly, "Crystals that have been fused into the cells themselves. And just like his cells, they're self-replicating, which means that, barring temporary transformations where Mr Lupus's Aura is depleted, his form is essentially permanent."
Ozpin steepled his fingers together, watching as the tiny red disks floated on the screen, their concave centres peppered with glowing white crystals. The notion of Dust being able to replicate itself, was an idea almost as ludicrous sounding as a Grimm being turned into a human.
And yet, here they were.
"Anything else?" Ozpin asked, gesturing with his hand for Oobleck to continue.
"Oh yes!" Oobleck jolted in his seat a little, "Along with this microscopic examination, I was able to obtain a plethora of information regarding Mr Lupus's biological makeup. Frankly, Ozpin, If the Beowolf were ever to go to the doctors, they would quickly discover that he is far from being human at all."
"What do you mean?" Goodwitch asked.
"I mean, the average body temperature for a human is thirty-seven degrees centigrade." Oobleck began to list off, "But Mr Lupus has an internal body temperature of an astounding forty-two degrees! Not only that, but his resting heart rate is forty beats per minute, he has a lung capacity of nine litres. Every aspect of his body is radically super-charged or streamlined in one form another."
Neither Ozpin or Glynda could believe what they were hearing, and if it had come from anyone other than Oobleck, they would have dismissed it outright.
"Anything higher than thirty-eight degrees would cause heat-stroke for a human." Ozpin thought, "But, this would explain why the extreme, icing effects of his Aura don't appear to bother him that much."
"Even when I gave Mr Lupus a quick scan with my scroll, I saw that the Calcium Phosphate in his bones was double the usual amount than what it would be for a human male his age. Even his bones are stronger than average."
"That is…" Goodwitch couldn't even finish her sentence, she just continued to stare as Oobleck showed them the results of his findings.
"Extraordinary!" Oobleck elected to finish Glynda's sentence with his own flourish, "And the best part is… I know there's still more to uncover about our unusual student."
"Well… If there's ever a time when he's available, and if he gives express permission," Ozpin said emphatically, "We'll see what we can do about getting Mr Lupus in for more tests."
"Of course!" Oobleck agreed without hesitation, "I'm afraid those are all the results I have for the moment."
"Wait a moment Bartholomew," Ozpin raised a hand to the screen, "Where you able to find out anything from his DNA?"
"Oh, yes actually," Oobleck held up a finger as if having a 'eureka' moment, "I even went a step further and compared his DNA strand to Miss Rose's."
Removing the slide showing Fenrir's blood cells, Oobleck brough up another slide, this one showing Fenrir's DNA. Like a human, it had the same double helix structure, but the parts in the middle were zig-zag shaped, as opposed to going straight across. Next to this image, there was another DNA strand, of what the two professors assumed to be Ruby's DNA.
"I had to do a bit of digging into Miss Rose's old medical records," Oobleck explained, "I've analysed both strands very carefully. They're close, but there are enough discrepancies in their DNA that there should be no complications regarding…"
The good doctor very abruptly covered his mouth with his hand. Ozpin and Glynda gave each other a look, before Goodwitch decided to step forward and take the bait.
"No complications regarding what, Bartholomew?" She asked slowly.
Oobleck made a show of coughing into his hand, before carrying on, staring down at his desk instead of looking his two colleagues in the eye.
"Let's just say I inadvertently found out that, because of his transformation, Fenrir is now… Ahem… Biologically compatible… With humans."
Glynda grimaced upon learning of Oobleck's discovery, and Ozpin just gave a weary smile as he leaned forward in his chair.
"Right, well," The headmaster cleared his throat, "Bartholomew, whenever you can, please send me the full list of your findings. I will want to give it a closer look later."
"Right away Ozpin!" Oobleck sprung right back to his usual exuberance, completely forgetting his earlier awkwardness, "I'll continue to analyse the DNA to see if I can discover anything else."
"Very well, farewell Bartholomew."
"Goodbye Ozpin."
The call ended, and Ozpin leaned back in his chair, looking over his shoulder at Goodwitch. The woman maintained her stiff composure even in the face of her superior.
"Well, that was educational." Ozpin commented.
"Indeed, perhaps a little too informative." Goodwitch replied, walking back over to the other side of Ozpin's desk.
"Oh you know how Oobleck gets." Ozpin said good-naturedly, "He loves to share what he's learned with the world… Even if the world doesn't necessarily want to hear it."
"Still, it does bring up a worrying point." Goodwitch remarked, thumbing the handle of her riding crop rhythmically, "If the Grimm is now biologically compatible with Humans… I can't help but worry about the destructive potential of a child of a Grimm and a human."
Ozpin stared down at his desk. Certainly, the idea of an actual hybrid, and not simply a mutation as Fenrir was, was not an idea he had considered before. Even so, such ideas were far away from the present, and the headmaster had long ago that trying to worry about every possible outcome of every possible decision, would just worry you into an early grave.
"You focus too much on the negatives Glynda," Ozpin finally responded, "Besides, I do not think we will have to worry about Mr Lupus producing offspring. From what I have seen, he carries no romantic feelings towards any human he currently knows. Plus, given his upbringing, he doesn't strike me as the type of teenager to 'Fool around'."
"Even so, it is something we need to take into careful consideration." Goodwitch emphasised.
"And we will when the time is right. For now, our focus should be on continuing Mr Lupus's integration into our society. After that… We shall begin looking into ways of possibly replicating this strange phenomena… Uplift more Grimm."
Goodwitch almost lost her composure completely and had to bite her tongue to stop herself from shouting. Ozpin got out of his chair, and walked towards the wall-length windows that encircled his office. Goodwitch stared at the back of his head for an unknown period of time, before she regained her voice.
"Ozpin, where is this coming from?" She asked in as neutral a tone as possible, "We have been at war with the creatures of Grimm for thousands of years."
She stepped closer, and spoke in a more hushed tone.
"You have fought them for longer than any of us have been alive." Ozpin's eyes turned down-cast as his old-friend continued, "You've always talked about how Huntsmen and Huntresses are the first and last line of defence against the creatures of darkness, that without us, the world would fall into ruin. So why now, are you trying to help the Grimm, give them more power, more of a voice?"
The headmaster remained silent, the quiet turning of the gears in his office being the only sound. Slowly, deliberately, the older man pointed a finger down towards the grounds of Beacon, far below them."
"Look Glynda." He said in a hushed voice.
Standing to the side of Ozpin, Glynda looked down and quickly spotted what Ozpin was pointing at. It was the Beowolf, sitting down at one of the fountains, gazing at the setting sun.
"I told you those things Glynda," Ozpin spoke quietly, "Because I believed them. For so very long, I thought the creatures of Grimm… her soldiers… Were incapable of change. But now, because of one boy, I find myself thinking that might not be the case."
The Grimm had a relaxed expression as he stared at the slowly descending ball of light. As he got up to leave, the eyes of the two Huntsmen followed him until he disappeared from sight.
"If we can do the impossible Glynda, if we can save this one Beowolf, make him a force for good," Ozpin stared back at Glynda, ancient eyes shimmering with resolve, "Then just maybe, we can save all the Grimm."
…
"So… This attack of yours is called..?"
"Arkos! It's me and Pyrrha. See, what we do is we take both our shields, and then…"
Jaune then went into a long, overly-complicated description of another one of his team-attacks, as the pair carried on walking through a corridor towards the cafeteria. Fenrir had heard a similar spiel from Ruby a few days ago. The difference was, Ruby was a lot more coherent, unlike Jaune who would constantly veer off on a tangent.
Another difference was Ruby's attacks made sense. According to Jaune, it was entirely possible to launch someone into the air, triple somersault up to them, then drive their head back down into the dirt.
"I could see Pyrrha MAYBE doing that, but Jaune… Ehhh…"
"So what do you think?" Jaune asked excitedly, wrapping up his lengthy explanation of his ideas for potential team-attacks.
Fenrir glanced around awkwardly, almost hoping some student would yell an insult at him so he could divert his attention to them. When no such luck was given, the Grimm gave a tired sigh and looked back at the Blond.
"I mean… Some of them might work." Fenrir started off slowly, "But others don't seem all that practical. If you're going to attack someone, you probably shouldn't waste time by showing off. You want to finish off an opponent as quickly as possible."
"Well, I mean," Jaune said, faltering slightly, "There's nothing wrong with a little flair, is there?"
"No, not at all," Fenrir said sarcastically, "Until you're dead, then it might be an issue. Hate to break it to you, but my people don't really care for overly flamboyant attacks, don't have the patience for it."
"Jeez, no mercy with you guys huh?" Jaune mumbled, rubbing the back of his head awkwardly.
"Also… The names." Fenrir continued.
"What!?" Jaune asked incredulously, "What's wrong with the names?"
This question brought Fenrir to a dead stop, and he shot the young knight a withering look.
"Flower power… seriously?" He asked, "Not the most threatening attack name, is it?"
"It was all I could think of." Jaune tried explaining, "Plus it fits, you know, Ren brings the flower, and Nora brings the power."
"Why would Ren bring flowers to a fight?" Fenrir asked with a laugh.
"Okay, you're thinking about it too literally." Jaune retorted, playfully shoving the Grimm's shoulder.
"Well now all I can think about is Ren tossing a bunch of daffodils at an Ursa, so that's on you." Fenrir jabbed back, giving a wolfish grin.
Sadly, as if the universe could sense the Grimm was in a good mood, an obstacle was placed in his way that quickly removed the smirk from his face.
"Outta my way, mutt!" Cardin snapped, roughly shoving past the Grimm, clipping his shoulder.
The Alpha sneered at Cardin's retreating back. To his credit, Cardin had indeed left Jaune alone since that incident in Forever Fall forest. Although, while Cardin no longer tried goading him in private, when there were others around, the brutish leader of team CRDL never passed up an opportunity to throw in at least one insult towards him.
"Well, he seems especially sour today." Jaune commented, also watching the surly boy walk off.
"Seems pretty normal to me." Fenrir replied bitterly, before shrugging and carrying on walking, "Whatever, it's not worth worrying about."
Already in the middle of forgetting the unpleasant encounter with the idiot known as Cardin, Fenrir walked through the large, wooden doors of the cafeteria. What Fenrir and Jaune walked into, was an unusual sight indeed. Instead of the usual collection of various students, scattered among the long tables, everyone seemed to be gathered around a specific spot at the back of the room.
"Huh, what's going on here?" Fenrir wondered aloud.
"Beats me." Jaune said off to the side.
As the two made their way over to the commotion, Jaune was the first to notice the enormous, cream-colored board that they were all crowded around. When he saw what appeared to be a list running down the length of the board, he halted in place and took a nervous gulp.
"Uh Fenrir," He called out in a strained voice, "I don't think I'm ready to see what's on that board."
"Huh?" Fenrir looked back, perplexed at Jaune's suddenly anxious expression, "What do you mean?"
"Well, from the looks of it…" Jaune started slowly, "I think that might be our mid-term exam results."
The Grimm continued to stare at him, before it finally dawned on him what his friend was talking about.
"Ah right, Professor Goodwitch did say that was today." Fenrir recalled, a sudden tightening in his jaw as he looked back at the gaggle of students.
"It's not gonna be good."
The Alpha had concluded this for himself yesterday. He knew he'd done poorly on all the written tests. As for the practical exam, well, if Goodwitch had indeed been monitoring the whole thing somehow, then she would have seen his fight against Ren.
"It's REALLY not gonna be good."
"You should go over and see what it is anyway," The soft voice advised, "Living in uncertainty is far worse than just knowing."
Sighing in defeat, Fenrir squared his shoulders and carried on his path.
"Come on," He beckoned to Jaune, "Let's see how we did."
"NOW!, with all these people still around?!" Jaune's questions fell on deaf ears as Fenrir was already pulling ahead, "Oh jeez, okay, here we go Jaune, deep breaths."
The two boys carefully manoeuvred their way through the packed crowd as they tried to get to the front. Fenrir being brusque and forceful, while Jaune was more delicate and apologised to a few people on the way.
"Sorry, 'scuse me. Oh! Didn't mean to tread on your foot, sorry about that."
"Ugh, this many people is starting to make my teeth itch." Fenrir complained before quickly pointing his head at the floor, "AH! Girl with the witch hat, DO NOT MAKE EYE-CONTACT!"
Once the two had finally made it to the front of the crowd, their eyes began scanning for their names. Jaune was the first to find his name, and audibly sighed in relief when he saw where it was.
Of the four-hundred students currently at Beacon academy, Jaune ranked 238th.
"Well, that's pretty close to the middle. Not too bad, considering I'm a first-year and knew basically nothing when I came here." Jaune rambled to himself, oblivious to Fenrir as he was still searching.
The Beowolf's face fell as his eyes traced lower down the board.
And then lower still.
Until eventually…
"343rd. Damn, that's… that's pretty bad."
Granted, he wasn't dead last, so he was at least a little thankful for that. But still, to place so low in the listings, did make his tail bristle up and coil around him with humiliation. He hadn't taken the written exams seriously, and now he was suffering the consequences for that blunder. That, plus his performance in the Emerald forest, it was actually a miracle he wasn't even lower on the scoreboard.
And to his frustration, he wasn't the only one who could see his lacklustre results.
"Ooo, the Grimm did pretty bad, look." A female student whispered to another student who was next to her.
"Not really surprising." Someone else whispered snidely, "All Grimm are as dumb as a sack of bricks."
All around, Fenrir could hear the tittering's of people whispering to themselves about the Grimm's apparent idiocy. Jaune also took notice, and very subtly began to try and lead Fenrir out of the crowd.
"Come on buddy," He whispered, "Let's get out of here."
"Heh, I always thought Grimm were stupid, but I guess this proves it."
The nasally voice of Russel Thrush grated at Fenrir's ears. The mohawk boy swaggered arrogantly toward the Grimm, hands in his pockets. Jaune was now tugging on Fenrir's arm more urgently. He did not want a repeat of the last time Fenrir had interacted with a member of team CRDL in the cafeteria.
"What's wrong Grimm?" Russel asked, leaning his head in close to the silently fuming Beowolf, "Too busy picking Humans out of your teeth to take some actual notes? If I could make a suggestion, maybe school life just isn't for you, maybe you should just go back to your cage and stay there."
Jaune started looking around in a panic, searching for a teacher among the sea of students that were now murmuring in agreement with Russel's suggestion. He could feel Fenrir's muscles tensing up through the arm of his jacket, and looking down he saw the Grimm's fists were clenched.
Just before Fenrir could start flashing his fangs, he glanced back at the board. A thought had just occurred to him, and he wanted to check to see if he was right. When he found the name he was looking for, he began to smile sinisterly, surprising everyone else.
"Thank you for the advice Russel," He said in a far too cheery tone to be genuine, "But perhaps you should share some of your wisdom with your leader. It seems like he could use it."
Fenrir gestured back to the board with his thumb, before walking off without another word, leaving Jaune to scramble after him. When Russel looked at where the Alpha had been pointing, he let out a strangled choke as he saw what Fenrir had been talking about.
Cardin Winchester- 356th
Now free of the mass of bodies, Jaune let out a breath he wasn't aware he'd been holding in. Looking at the Grimm, he was surprised to find the Wolf-Faunus looked completely calm.
"Well, that could have ended a lot worse." Jaune said, thankful that it hadn't done just that.
"Relax Jaune," Fenrir said casually, "It's going to take a lot more than some insults and harsh words to get me to start swinging. My skin is a little tougher than that, even in this form."
"Right, yeah of course." Jaune agreed, "By the way, how did you know Cardin did worse than you?"
"I didn't," Fenrir replied, "But I figured there had to be a reason he looked so frustrated earlier. A quick check on the board just confirmed my suspicions."
"Huh, sweet." Jaune appraised.
"Yeah, anyway let's get some food, I'm starving."
Quickly joining the line for the food, Fenrir and Jaune carried on talking among themselves. While the Alpha was a little put out after getting such a low score in the exams, he wasn't gonna let it weigh on his mind too heavily. Considering everything that happened to him in the past month, he'd learnt there was no point in fretting over things that had already happened, and could not be changed.
Fenrir's laid-back demeanour quickly evaporated, when he and Jaune found a table to sit on, and it just so happened to have all of team RWBY there waiting for them. Fenrir gave an involuntary shiver when he saw the icy-blue eyes of Weiss glaring straight at him.
"She knows… and she's not happy."
The Grimm gave an immediate about-face, trying to make it seem like he hadn't spotted the girls and was going to sit somewhere else. He only managed to take one step, before Weiss's clipped voice halted him in his tracks.
"Fenrir!" She snapped, "Sit. Now."
Fenrir's ears were completely flat on the top of his head, his tail going all the way down to the floor as his body curled in on itself. He turned his head shakily back to face the chilly heiress, his face undecided between a smirk and a grimace. The Schnee just kept staring at him pointedly, gesturing with a finger to an empty chair next to Ruby, said girl keeping her head purposely down at her food.
Fenrir looked towards Jaune, as if hoping the boy would find some way to miraculously come to his aid. Instead, all Jaune offered was a sympathetic smile and a shrug. The Beowolf let out a small whine, something he hadn't done since he was a pup, and moved towards the offered seat at a tortuously slow pace.
"I uh…" Fenrir started awkwardly, "I'm guessing you girls have already seen the board?"
"Yes, we have Fenrir." Weiss said coldly, "And for someone who claims that being an Alpha means he has to be the best, your score in the mid-term exams doesn't appear to reflect that."
Fenrir sank down in his seat, the likes of Yang and Ruby offering comforting smiles but nothing else, and Blake being too engrossed in her book to care about what the Heiress was complaining about now.
"In fact," Weiss continued, "Judging from your appalling results, would I be correct Fenrir, if I guessed that you hadn't studied AT ALL?"
"You…" Fenrir started before sighing in defeat, "You would be correct."
Weiss gave an audible huff and pointed a perfectly manicured finger at the dishevelled Grimm.
"Unbelievable!" She exclaimed, "First you stubbornly refuse to admit when you're sick, and now it turns out you never even studied for important exams. You do realise you might lose your place at this academy if your grades continue to slip."
"WAIT, WHAT!" Jaune exclaimed, looking very panicked.
Fenrir's head hit the table with a thud, his chin dragging across the wood as he groaned. Weiss it seemed, had developed this habit of completely cutting through the Beowolf's constitution and make him feel puny under her gaze. Perhaps it was because she wasn't actually insulting him or threatening him like the other students at Beacon. He could deal with that easily. All Weiss did, was point out his flaws in a cold, clinical way, that left him no room to try and refute what she was saying.
Or maybe it was just because Fenrir actually liked these people, so their opinion of him meant more than the opinion of some random student who he didn't even know the name of.
"Alright, ease up on the blizzard Weiss," Yang stepped in, "I think Fenrir's got the point now."
"I certainly hope so," Weiss tutted, "If you're going to hold yourself to such a high standard Fenrir, then you need to work hard to achieve it. It won't just be given to you."
Fenrir sighed, head still resting on the table. The girl was right of course, if he was going to go on and on about being the best, then he needed to make sure he was meeting that goal, no matter what was asked of him.
Above him, Ruby patted his head gently, taking precise care to avoid the Grimm's ears. The young reaper had asked Fenrir if she could touch his ears yesterday, after resisting the temptation to do so when he was sick. The answer she got was disappointing, but understandable.
"I… um… No. I'm sorry Ruby, but I've never let anyone touch my ears, or my tail for that matter. Those areas are very… significant among my people, and I just wouldn't feel comfortable letting a human touch them. Nothing against you at all, it's just… a 'me' thing."
"It was just the mid-terms Fenny." Ruby tried to assure the Grimm, "I'm sure you'll do a lot better in the final exams at the end of the term."
Despite wincing at Ruby calling him that nickname in public again [And quickly spotting Yang covering her mouth so no one would hear her laughter], Fenrir did appreciate the younger girls attempt to cheer him up.
"No, Weiss is right." He said, finally picking his head up off the table, "I really failed to take this seriously. Next time, I'll actually sit down and study, promise."
He made sure to say this last bit to Weiss. Her features softened up, just a little bit.
"Well, hard lesson learned." Was all she said, before returning back to her own food.
Figuring he should show a little more initiative, Fenrir leaned forward in his seat a bit.
"When we get closer to those final-exams," He said, "Would you mind helping me study for them. If it's no too much trouble, I would really appreciate it."
"Well, you do certainly need it," Weiss retorted, before speaking in a more gentle manner after getting a pointed look from Ruby, "But yes, of course Fenrir, I'll help you study."
"Thank you Weiss." Fenrir said with a nod.
With that unpleasantness out of the way, Fenrir began to dig into his lunch. This would not happen again, he resolved to himself, when the next round of tests rolled up, he would be ready for them. While he still didn't understand the need for such things, or how they could possibly apply to him in battle, he still had to at least show that he wasn't just all brawn.
"These people think my kind are dumb. Well, that just makes me want to prove them all wrong, and that's just what I'm gonna do."
"So, how did you girls do?" Jaune asked, cheeks puffed up from just cramming some pasta into his mouth.
"I got 202nd." Ruby responded, looking quite pleased with herself.
"Not bad." Said Fenrir.
"Eh, 218th for me." Yang groaned while fiddling with her hair.
"Oh well, still better than what I got." Jaune offered.
"186th." Blake said quietly, not taking her eyes off her book, but apparently still catching all of what they were saying.
Jaune whistled, and Fenrir nodded appreciatively, opening his water bottle to take a swig.
"Mine wasn't as high as I would have liked, but still respectable." Weiss admitted, before drawing herself up proudly, "I got 5th place."
Fenrir spat out his water and started choking, as Jaune gaped like a fish at the unbelievable score the heiress had received.
"Wow, fifth place, are you kidding me?" Jaune asked, astounded but then trying to cover it up with false suaveness, "I mean, of course you got that high a score. You are the perfect combination of brains and beauty after all."
Weiss shot a dark look at the boy, causing him to quickly fold into himself. Even Fenrir gave him a bewildered look as he finished choking. Yang just shook her head mournfully.
"And now I wish I hadn't done well at all." Weiss muttered.
"Seriously though, you got that high?" Fenrir asked once he got his voice back, "Guess I really do have some catching up to do."
"Yeah, way to make the rest of us feel like we're not even trying Weiss." Yang said while patting Weiss roughly on the shoulder.
"In your case Yang, that might be entirely accurate." Weiss replied, while checking to make sure her limb hadn't been dislocated by the brawlers strength.
It was at this point, the rest of team JNPR arrived, quickly situating themselves around their leader.
"Hello everyone." Pyrrha greeted cheerfully.
Everyone else responded with their own greetings. Once the new arrivals were comfortable, Fenrir spoke up again.
"So, how did you guys do?" He asked.
"Well!" Nora piped up first, rather loudly, "I got a respectable 225th."
"Nice going Nora." Jaune praised, "What about you Ren, how'd you do?"
To everyone's surprise, Ren appeared downcast, disappointed even.
"301st." Was all he said.
"WHAT!" Said everyone, including Blake [Though not quite as loud].
"But how?" Ruby asked, "You're one of the smarter guys in this group."
"I know, that's what I said." Nora responded emphatically.
In response to all the questions, Ren looked towards Fenrir. Instantly, the Grimm knew why Ren had received such a poor mark.
"I believe my actions in the Emerald forest… lowered my grade significantly." He said quietly.
"Ahh…" Fenrir tensed up a little, before looking apologetically at the ninja, "I'm sorry Ren."
"So we did get our grades lowered because of the fight. Surprised Goodwitch didn't pin me to a wall again with that Semblance of hers."
"Don't be," Ren said, shaking his head, "It was my fault, I'm the one who started the fight."
Rather than accept that, Fenrir turned back to his drink and frowned deeply.
"Regardless of who started it, it takes two people to fight Ren. I should have tried harder to resolve the situation peacefully."
"Ah well, I'm sure next time around, you'll get a better score." Jaune tried to lift his teammates mood, to limited success, "What about you Pyrrha, where'd you place?"
Fenrir started to gulp down his water again
"Oh I came 6th. Just a few points shy of Weiss." Pyrrha replied happily.
"OH COME ON!" Fenrir yelled, spitting his drink up again.
….
Later on in the day, the two teams plus one Grimm, were once again in the sparring room with Professor Goodwitch. All the students were still talking amongst themselves about the results of their exams. Some were pleasantly surprised; others were disheartened by not getting as high as they thought they would. Goodwitch herself started the lesson off by commenting on their performances.
"Judging from all the chatter, I'm guessing you all saw your results in the cafeteria earlier?" She asked, effectively silencing the room in the process, "While I was totalling up your results, some of you exceeded my expectations. Miss Schnee, you currently stand as the highest scoring first-year student, with Miss Nikos coming in at a close second. Well done you two."
The Heiress glowed with pride as she sat next Fenrir, who likewise gave her a congratulatory smile. The rest of team RWBY also voiced their approval, though quietly so as to not interrupt their teacher.
"However, there were also those among you who surprised me for all the wrong reasons." Goodwitch said in a far less pleased tone, "Mr Ren, I feel I don't have to tell you that your actions in the Emerald forest were completely unbecoming of a future defender of Humanity. Do not… let that happen again."
Ren remained outwardly neutral as he bowed his head in acknowledgement. But, because of Fenrir's sixth sense, he could feel the shame and humility coming off the boy. He frowned, but they'd already discussed this at lunch, there was no point in offering any more sympathies to Ren, it would just come across as fake now.
"The same goes for you as well Mr Lupus." Goodwitch continued, now turning her emerald eyes towards the Wolf-demon, "You're written exam results were severely lacking, and choosing to engage a teammate you were supposed to be protecting is disgraceful."
Fenrir's tail bristled as he fought the urge to growl in anger. Goodwitch was right of course, but was it really necessary to drag him and Ren through the mud like this. Especially in front of incredibly gossipy students who would make it their duty to ensure the whole school knew about it by the end of the day.
"Wait, did the Grimm fight Ren?" One of the students whispered.
"Are you kidding me? Is there anyone that monster won't lash out at?"
"Seriously, they've got to lock him up soon. It's obvious professor Ozpin's experiment failed, why are they still letting it wander around?"
"And there they go. Squawking among themselves like parrots." Fenrir thought as he placed his head in his hands, massaging his forehead so he didn't get a migraine.
Course, with all the negative energy in the room directed at him, a migraine was inevitable.
Thankfully, Goodwitch was finished with her hazing, and turned to face the room at large, producing her Scroll from her pocket and setting up the randomising app that would decide who would be stepping into the ring first.
"From here on out, I expect all of you to work harder, so that you can continue to improve your results for when the final exams of the term roll around. You must all be constantly improving if you ever wish to succeed as true Huntsmen."
After those words of encouragement[?], the class proceeded as normal. Glynda would call forward two people at a time, they would fight each other in the sparring ring, and then at the end, Goodwitch would give both fighters notes on how to improve, then call down two new fighters.
For Fenrir, it was a prime opportunity to improve on his own notes and sketches on who he considered the real fighters to be. Today, he was able to get quite a few good poses for Yang, which served to fill the pages he made specifically for her.
"This is getting good." Fenrir gave himself a mental pat on the back as he surveyed his work. His notebook was now nearly full, filled with detailed descriptions of the various fighters he'd deemed would make suitable challenges for him in the future.
The ones who had the most pages dedicated to them, were of course team RWBY. Everything was there, the names of their weapons, their various strengths and weaknesses that he'd only been able to pick up from constant observation, full body sketches of the girls in their battle poses. There were even a few miscellaneous drawings like Weiss's glyphs and Ruby's rose emblem.
Even now though, Fenrir could hardly call himself a master artist. He'd noticed he had particular difficulty with drawing hands. For some of them, he'd straight up given up, and this caused someone like Pyrrha to just have stubs for hands, clutching her weapons.
"Last match of the day." Goodwitch called out, recapturing the Grimm's attention.
"Pleasepleasepleaseplease, not me, not today, I just want to go back to my room and sleep." Jaune muttered from the seat above, actually crossing his fingers in the hopes he could avoid Goodwitch's scorn just for today.
"You're not exactly going to improve if you never actually fight someone." Fenrir said, leaning over his shoulder to look up at the young knight.
Jaune made to retort, but whatever he was going to say, died on his tongue when his eyes flickered up to the holographic screen projected above the arena. He pointed a shaky finger up to the screen, looking the Beowolf in the eye.
"Um, you might want to start worrying about yourself right now."
Turning back in his seat, Fenrir looked up at where Jaune was pointing. His look of confusion quickly turned to one of dread, when he saw his own, frowning visage plastered on the screen. His lips grew into an even thinner line when his opponent was revealed not a second later. Even Goodwitch appeared uncertain for a fraction of a second, before regaining her professional demeanour.
"Ahem… For our final match of the day: Fenrir Lupus and Cardin Winchester."
What had once been a quiet classroom, was now buzzing with hurried whispering and muttering. Fenrir hadn't been in the sparring ring for quite a long while, not since he'd made his weapons. In fact, he'd started to suspect that maybe Goodwitch had removed his name from the list.
Cardin was the first of the two to move. He stood up in his seat, stretching his arms with that cocky grin on his face that normally got the Grimm itching for a fight. Today though, it just filled him with even more unsettled tension.
"This has been a long time coming Grimm." He said aloud, catching everyone's attention, "You're finally gonna get exactly what you deserve."
"Mr Winchester!" Goodwitch snapped, "This is not a televised boxing match, get your weapon and prepare yourself."
Despite cutting him off, Cardin's boast had served its purpose. Now the students were eagerly awaiting to see the Beowolf get his face smashed in by Cardin's mace. He could feel the entire room was against him, far more than they had ever been before.
"Why are my palms sweaty?" He asked, feeling how suddenly clammy his hands felt.
He had come on leaps and bounds in the last few weeks. He had weapons, he had a moderate degree of control over his Aura, and he'd learned to fight smarter now. But if anything, that just made this fight more worrying than any of the others that had come before. If he lost to Cardin now, it would only prove that all his time training and gaining some small degree of control over his body, would have been all for nothing.
"Hey." A feminine voice whispered to him, catching him by surprise.
"You beat Cardin once already," Ruby continued, smiling honestly at the Grimm, "Beating him again will be no problem for you. You've got this."
That last bit of assurance, was all Fenrir needed to shake off his lingering nerves and stand up, walking down the steps towards the small arena.
"When I fought Ren, I was holding back." He thought as his boots thudded heavily against each step, "I will offer Cardin no such luxury. This time… This time I will, not, lose."
The two walked to either side of the arena, retrieving their weapons. All the while, Glynda surveyed them both uneasily. She had persistently tried to convince Ozpin to remove Fenrir Lupus's name from the roster, citing that every time the Grimm was allowed to fight, they all ran the risk of the wolf going berserk. To her frustration, the headmaster would always refuse her suggestion, saying that as long as Fenrir's Aura was not completely depleted, he was not at risk of transforming.
Still… accidents were want to happen.
As Fenrir began strapping on his trusty Gauntlets, Ruby nudged her partner to get her attention.
"You think Fenrir's gonna win this one?" She asked, shying away a little at Weiss's irritable expression.
"If we don't watch, we won't find out will we." She said, placing a finger to her lips, "But… His chances are definitely higher now than they would have been if he'd fought Cardin at the start of the year."
"He's got this," Yang said confidently, "Cardin may be a bully, but he's all talk. Besides, Fenrir beat him AND his team in the cafeteria, remember?"
"Cardin didn't have his weapon though." Blake added quietly, throwing the Blonde brawler off a bit, "Honestly, it's anyone's guess how this fight will play out."
Ruby bit her lip anxiously, watching as Fenrir slowly turned to face Cardin, arms down by his sides now that Frostbite was weighing them down. The girls were quick to notice Fenrir's expression, the tightness in his jaw, and the unwavering eyes. He was determined as always, but he wasn't brimming with rage or glowing with pride like the other times they'd seen him fight before. The light twitch in his hands, allowed Ruby to finally draw upon a surprising conclusion.
Fenrir was nervous. Uncertain. He was just like her team in the stands, having no idea how this was going to end.
Though, from looking at the way his lupine ears twitched on his head, it was clear he could hear how most people wanted it to end.
"Go on Cardin!"
"Give it to him!"
"Take him down!"
"Are both fighters ready?" Professor Goodwitch's voice cut over the growing cacophony of voices, gripping her riding crop tightly as she prepared herself to step in and stop the fight at a moment's notice.
"Yeah!" Cardin said, grinning cockily as he held The Executioner up on his shoulders, basking in all the voices of the crowd cheering for his success.
Fenrir just gave a miniscule nod, planting his feet firmly into the floor.
"He's going to charge at me first." He ran down the possible outcomes in his head, "He's like me, he prefers fighting at close range. For all his gloating and arrogance, I've seen that mace of his pack a hell of a wallop. I don't think he has a gun attachment though, so maybe…"
Glynda allowed herself one more second of hesitation, looking between the two combatants. Resigning herself to whatever the fates decreed to be the outcome of this bout, she held out her hand.
"Begin!"
Upon the word passing the Huntress's lips, Fenrir's and Cardin's Aura levels showed up on the screen, both at full capacity.
However, neither teen made a move to begin. Fenrir kept as still as a statue, whilst Cardin began brandishing his mace menacingly at the Grimm.
The tension in the room grew thicker and thicker in the room as every second passed at seemingly one-twentieth its usual speed. Some students had even gone so far as to bring out their scrolls, to either record the fight, or to message their friends who were in other classes right now.
"Payback mutt!" Cardin spat, the end of his mace pointed straight at Fenrir's head, "This ain't gonna be like the cafeteria. At the end of this, my boot… Is gonna be on your neck."
Fenrir's face twitched as his anger started to show itself, but he still didn't rush forward. He wasn't going to make the first move this time. Pressing the pads on his gloves, Fenrir's blades unsheathed themselves from out the top of his knuckles. The eight blades shone and hummed as he brought them up to cover his head, copying Yang's stance with near pin-point accuracy.
"You want to beat me…" Fenrir murmured so only Cardin could hear, "Then stop running your mouth and fight me."
That got the smirk off Cardin's face. Having grown bored of standing around, Cardin channelled his Aura into his legs, and leapt into the air.
All Fenrir caught was a flash of bronze light before Cardin vanished from sight.
"Above you!"
The soft voice had been Fenrir's saving grace. Shooting his head up, the Grimm saw Cardin rocketing down through the air, mace held above his head in preparation to cave Fenrir's skull in.
Using all the strength in his leg muscles, Fenrir pushed himself back, narrowly avoiding the flanges on Cardin's mace as it struck the ground. The shockwaves from the impact were far larger than the Grimm predicted however, and the waves of solid air knocked him back further. A chunk of destroyed ground struck the unfortunate Grimm, clipping the side of his head and forcing him into a roll across the ground.
Getting back to his feet, Fenrir's eyes widned when he saw Cardin had already closed the gap, and was preparing another wide swing. It was pure instinct that saved Fenrir, leaning his head to the side, feeling the air slice his cheek instead of the solid super-steel that he would have felt hadn't he moved.
From there, Cardin continued swinging aggressively. Fenrir kept his arms up, using his blades to block the strikes. The assault was relentless, the powerful mace sending uncomfortable vibrations through Fenrir's arms as he continued to endure the onslaught. While Cardin's strikes were indeed powerful, they were also incredibly easy to see coming. Despite the pounding his arms were taking, Fenrir's defence kept the mace from making contact with his body.
Up above, everyone was leaning forward in their seats, watching as Cardin punted Fenrir all across the ring with his powerful strikes. All the while, the Grimm continued to defend, sparks flying off his blades as they batted the Executioner away from Fenrir's head. Ruby squirmed in her seat, watching as another swing knocked her friend backwards, boots sliding on the floor.
"Is it me or is Fenrir fighting differently today?" Yang asked, her own confident smile from before now completely gone.
"He's playing defensively." Weiss commented, placing a hand to her chin and frowning, "That isn't normally like him. He's usually far more aggressive."
An uppercut swing launched Fenrir into the air, just to be caught in the gut by Cardin's mace. The flanges dug into his abdomen as he was slammed into the floor. He rolled back to his feet, but he still didn't make a move forward. Cardin had his teeth grit in irritation at the Grimm's lack of ferocity.
"What the hell are you waiting for Grimm!" He called out, rolling circles with the arm holding his mace, "You're not even trying to hit me. Don't tell me you're scared all of a sudden?!"
Fenrir again, flared with anger for a miniscule moment, before drawing his arms up again.
"Can't let him get to me. Just keep following the plan, Fenrir."
The brute leapt forward and delivered a second wave of punishment to the Beowolf. Booming clashes and clangs echoed throughout the classroom as Cardin bashed away at Fenrir's arms, chipping away small pieces of the Grimm's Aura with every strike.
"Come on Fenny, what are you doing?" Ruby whispered to herself as Fenrir kept stubbornly defending.
She was able to pull her eyes away for just a second to see that the classroom doors had opened. Out in the hallway, and even in the arch of the doorway, a crowd of students had gathered to watch the display.
Another blow from Cardin collided against Fenrir's arm, only now the brunette pressed his weapon into the attack, locking the two in place. Fenrir held firm as he stopped the end of Cardin's mace from getting any closer to his face.
Cardin's eyes briefly glanced downward, an evil smirk crossing his face as an idea came to him. He launched his knee up, aiming for Fenrir's crotch.
Unfortunately, Fenrir had already seen Cardin use this tactic against Jaune, and was more than ready for it.
He brought his own leg up to intercept Cardin's. Now the boy was off balance, meaning Fenrir could grab the Executioner by the handle, pull Cardin towards him, and headbutt him straight in the face.
Cardin reeled back, clutching his throbbing nose as the crowd gasped from the sudden, swift attack. Fenrir rubbed his forehead, then looked up at the screen. His Aura was still in the green, but not by much, whereas Cardin's had only had a small bite taken out of it.
Once again, instead of attacking, Fenrir got back into position and waited.
Now Cardin was really fuming. The combination of the attack from Fenrir, followed by his weird refusal to capitalise on the advantage, left the boy seeing red as he sneered at the wolf.
"That's it!" He shouted, "I'm done messing around Grimm! If you're not gonna fight me seriously, then I'm ending this right now!"
Cardin charged forward, dragging the head of the Executioner across the floor. Fenrir remained in place, watching the weapon as it drew closer and closer.
Another shower of sparks erupted from the collision between Frostbite and the Executioner.
Cardin was swinging wildly now, his mace battering the Grimm who remained as solid as a brick wall. The crowd was steadily getting worked up as the assault continued, Goodwitch frowning but saying nothing as she watched the two fight.
"What on Remnant is the Grimm planning?"
Fenrir stumbled back as another brutal attack crunched into his arms. He leaned to the left to dodge a second strike, leaving Cardin's right side exposed. Fenrir's eyes flashed blue as he saw the opening. He shot a fist forward, stabbing his blades into Cardin's side, hitting the gap in his armour. He then quickly pressed down on the lower pad on his gloves, and his revolver boomed as he shot Cardin point-blank.
The boy grunted as he slumped forward, head bowed down. Fenrir followed up this time, giving a sharp knee to the chin that forcibly propped Cardin back up onto his feet. The Beowolf carried on moving with his momentum, leaping up and wrapping his legs around Cardin's middle.
Grabbing the boys hair with one hand, Fenrir mercilessly pummelled Cardin's face with his other hand. Over and over, Fenrir punched Cardin as hard as he could, even retracting his blades so he could really lay into the boy.
"There we go, that's more like it." Yang whispered, relieved that Fenrir was finally starting to go on the offensive.
The rest of the crowd was not so relieved.
"Come on, don't let up Cardin!" Sky called out from his place in the stands.
Cardin finally manged to halt Fenrir's attack, holding out a palm to catch the Grimm's fist. With Fenrir's legs locked around his middle, he couldn't throw him off. So he quickly figured out an alternative method.
His legs flashed with his bronze coloured Aura, then he shot forward, running straight for the wall. The Grimm was nearly completely embedded into the wall as he slammed into it at full force. The desks immediately above the wall shuddered from the impact.
Cardin stumbled clumsily out of the self-made crater, puffing like a bull as he wiped some sweat off his brow. This action made Weiss lean forward in intrigue. Fenrir, meanwhile, slowly pulled himself free from the stone.
Cardin leapt forward again, bringing his mace up in a downward swing. Fenrir dove out of the way, narrowly avoiding Cardin's attack. He rolled back to his feet, and instantly started firing away at Cardin with both his revolvers.
The first couple of shots struck the boy dead-on, but Cardin quickly recovered and swung his mace in a tight circle around himself, deflecting the shots.
Again, Fenrir deployed a move that surprised everyone. Instead of moving forward, he began running away, firing shots behind himself.
"AAARRRGHH, ENOUGH OF THIS!" Cardin roared, charging after the cowardly Grimm.
"What is going on?" Ruby asked for what felt like the dozenth time.
All around the crowd booed and jeered as Fenrir ran to the other side, thinking him spineless for doing mostly nothing but blocking and dodging throughout most of the fight.
Weiss, meanwhile, was busy doing mental gymnastics, trying to figure out what angle the Grimm was going for. The answer finally came to her when she saw how the two were running. Fenrir was moving with purpose, his gaze fixed on the wall, and his feet firmly hitting the floor. Cardin was sprinting sloppily after him, red-faced from exertion and mace-head dragging along the floor. His feet even stumbled a bit.
"He's being smart" Weiss whispered, loud enough to capture the other three's attention.
Fenrir, instead of crashing into the wall like it looked he was going to, jumped up and planted his feet on the wall. He twisted his body, so he was turned back to face Cardin, now sporting a wicked grin. Giving himself an extra boost with his revolvers, Fenrir launched perfectly sideways through the air, blades extended forwards.
"RRRAAAAARRRRRGGGHHH!"
Cardin, with his weapon lowered and his lumbering gait causing him to slide forward, could not get his weapon up in time to defend himself. Cardin was knocked completely off his feet, hissing in pain as he felt Frostbite dig into his Aura. The second Cardin hit the ground, Fenrir fired his revolvers, aiming them at both of Cardin's shoulders. The recoil from the double-blast was so great, Fenrir was propelled off of Cardin's body and did an accidental front flip through the air. Fenrir stumbled when he landed, looking round himself with wide eyes, as if to make sure he was in fact back on solid ground.
"Hadn't meant for that to happen," He thought to himself, "Oh well, I'm sure it looked cool."
"Woah that was cool." Ruby whispered excitedly.
"What do you mean 'He's being smart' Weiss?" Blake asked.
"Look at them." Weiss said, nodding with her head towards the arena.
Cardin groaned as he lurched back to his feet. Fenrir used the brief window of time to look back up at the screen. If one were to judge this fight by Aura level alone, Fenrir would appear to be losing. His Aura was now at near-enough fifty percent, whereas Cardin had only just touched into the yellow zone. However, Fenrir could tell just by looking at Cardin, that the real victor was still undetermined.
"Come on… You've got to be getting tired."
Cardin let out a savage yell as he charged forward again. The red mist had descended over his eyes as he furiously whaled on the Grimm. All manner of style and form gone completely out the window as Cardin struck again and again. Fenrir kept his arms up, fighting through the growing numbness in his limbs and focusing intently on just how hard Cardin was hitting him.
"Fenrir has been playing defensively the whole fight." Weiss began to explain, her opinion of the Beowolf steadily rising as he kept his defence solid, "Letting Cardin use up all his strength right at the start of the fight. His attacks have only served to irritate Cardin, making him sloppy and oblivious to Fenrir's plan."
Cardin's pace didn't relent as he hammered away with his mace. Fenrir began to crouch down as his legs began to shake from having to keep up this stance for so long. He grinned however, when he realised something.
"His attacks aren't as strong as they were at the start. He's running out of steam."
Soon, even those in the audience could see that the Grimm had been leading his opponent on the whole time. Cardin was sweating profusely, his mind acutely aware of the stinging pain in his side and shoulders. Precise shots that Fenrir had made on purpose to further cripple the teen.
Gradually, Cardin's strikes began to slow down, the flanges now less crashing into Fenrir's gauntlets, and more bouncing off them limply. Cardin stepped back, gasping for air as Fenrir lowered his arms at last, eyes closed and face serene.
With one last burst of anger, Cardin shot a fist forward, aimed right for the Grimm's nose.
"Now Cardin's exhausted…" Weiss continued, waiting for just the right moment to finish her explanation.
Fenrir deftly caught the flimsy fist, claws quickly digging into Cardin's flesh. The pain only worsened for Cardin when the Grimm exploded with dark-blue light, ice quickly forming on Cardin's trapped fist. Fenrir's eyes opened, glowing with power as he grinned menacingly.
"…And Fenrir has strength to spare."
"My turn." Fenrir's voice crashed into Cardin's eardrums like an iceberg.
The Grimm yanked Cardin forward, and delivered a vicious punch to the gut. A shockwave erupted out of Cardin's back as he gasped loudly. Fenrir slammed Cardin into the ground, then kicked him across the floor.
The Beowolf erupted into a flurry of snowflakes, and from here, the real carnage began.
Everyone could only gape and gawk as Fenrir moved like a frost covered blur, savagely attacking Cardin from every angle. The balance of power in the fight had completely flipped on its head as Fenrir finally attacked with the aggression he was known for.
Fenrir squeezed out every possible second of his short time limit to relentlessly attack Cardin. The walls became like trampolines to the super-charged Grimmborn as he bounced off them and struck the teen over and over again.
Cardin was known for having a huge Aura pool, able to tank a great deal of damage and still have plenty left over to counter-attack. Frostbites blades made mince-meat of it as they slashed, hacked and stabbed at it. It was a wonder how Cardin was even holding onto his mace as he was sent sprawling from Fenrir's ruthless assault.
"Oh wow, Fenrir was really using his head this time." Yang commented, nodding her head approvingly.
"Indeed," Weiss agreed, "It would appear Fenrir took all his previous failures, and has turned it into experience."
Ruby bounced in her seat excitedly. She'd been worried that Fenrir had let the pressure get to him and he'd lost his nerve to fight. As it turns out, her Beowolf friend was just being surprisingly shrewd.
"Man, I can't wait till I get to fight him. The two of us tearing up the arena as we push ourselves as fast as we can go. Ooooo, it'll look SO COOL."
Fenrir came to a halt, his time-limit reached. He took deep, shuddering breaths as he felt the fatigue of pushing his Aura run through him. The air sparkled with chilly mist, the after-effects of Fenrir's Aura leaving the arena covered in frost. Those closest to the arena were now rubbing their arms as they felt the cold envelop them.
The Grimm looked up at the screen, and smiled widely at the results of his endeavour. Cardin's Aura had been utterly decimated, just a hairs-breadth away from being squarely in the red zone. He'd completely turned the tables on his opponent, and had shown everyone just how powerful, how terrifying he was steadily becoming.
"Let's see them try and jump me now!"
Before he could let over-confidence cloud his vision, Fenrir marched over to the downed Cardin. He reeled a fist back, intending to end the fight with this final blow.
Unfortunately, victory for the Alpha, would not be so easy to achieve. Cardin it turns out, had one last card to play.
The brunette pointed the end of his mace at Fenrir, and pressed a button at the top of the hilt. It was at this point Fenrir noticed the glowing red jewel, nestled in the centre of Cardin's mace.
It would quickly become clear, that this wasn't a jewel, however.
BOOM!
The fire-dust exploded, blasting Fenrir backwards and quickly melting the ice at Cardin's feet. Fenrir tumbled to the floor, wincing in pain as his face stung from the mini-explosion. He stared up at Cardin with wide, wild eyes.
"Bet'cha… Weren't ready… for that, huh dog…" Cardin panted, grin slowly returning to his face, "Had this put in… just for you…"
"His mace has a dust function?!" Fenrir grit his teeth, frustrated at overlooking such an obvious detail, "AGGHH CRAP! HOW DO I COUNTER THAT?!"
Growing desperate, Fenrir surged his Aura back to life and dived towards Cardin. If he could just land one more hit on the boy, he could still win this. He had to strike him, just one more time.
But, Cardin had apparently hit a second-wind, as he was ready for the Grimm.
Every time Fenrir tried to charge forward and close the gap, Cardin would swing and let loose another explosion that would knock Fenrir all across the arena. The Beowolf kept trying, but he just could not close the gap, and his Aura just kept taking more and more hits.
"No! Fenrir calm down." Weiss came very close to yelling out, but quickly regained her composure.
"What's happening?!" Ruby asked, distressed by how the fight had once again put Fenrir on the back-burner.
"He's panicking." Weiss answered, "He'd hedged all his bets on that one plan, and now he doesn't know what to do."
Seeing that Cardin was winning again, the crowd of students were now in a frenzy, shouting until their throats were raw to tell Cardin to finish this emotionally turbulent fight.
Another explosion from the Executioner sent Fenrir crashing into a wall, slumping down to the ground as his Aura timed out again. His body ached, and his throat burned. Once more, his body was inexplicably finding it hard to breathe as blue energy pulsed around his throat.
"I can't do it…" His mind despaired, as all around him, the cries of the students burrowed into his brain and crippled his resolve.
"CRUSH HIM!"
"DO IT CARDIN!"
"GET THE FILTHY GRIMM!"
"HURRY UP, BEFORE HE GETS UP!"
"Even with a plan, even after everything I've learned, all the steps I've taken, I still can't win. I'll never win… never…"
Ruby's knuckles clenched white, witnessing the light in Fenrir's eyes slowly fade away as he knelt on the floor. Seeing her friend slowly succumb to despair was too much for the young girl to bear, and she did something so utterly reckless, those around her could only watch open-mouthed.
Team RWBY were not idiots. They knew from day one that being friends with the Grimm would put them under the judgemental stares of their peers. Just a few days ago, Yang had returned to the dorm room with a troubled expression. Apparently her old friends who'd come with her to Beacon, had weirdly been unable to hang out with her today, or indeed many other days before that one.
Ruby was more aware than anyone, just how hated the Grimmborn was. But as she stood up and yelled at the top of her lungs, she simply didn't care.
"COME ON FENRIR! YOU CAN DO IT!"
Fenrir's head snapped up, eyes heading right towards the young red-head who had so hugely changed his life.
There they were, team RWBY, and team JNPR right behind them. Ruby was standing up in her seat, eyes desperate and pleading for Fenrir to find his strength one last time, and pull off a miraculous victory. Slowly, the others found their own resolution, and Yang was quick to stand beside her sister.
"YEAH COME ON WOLFY. SHOW HIM WHO'S BOSS!"
The others followed suit, even Weiss voicing her support, though not as boisterously as the others. Fenrir just stared up in amazement, the voices of the other students fading from his mind. There voices no longer mattered, but those voices.
The voices of the reaper, the heiress, the brawler, the Faunus, the knight, the spartan, the ninja, the hammer-girl.
Their voices were the only ones that mattered to the wolf.
In that moment, something finally clicked in Fenrir's mind. Like the last puzzle piece that had been hidden beneath the floorboards, had finally been found.
"I won't bow down…"
Fenrir snarled as he stood up fully, fangs bared at a now unnerved Cardin.
"I will not let these Humans kick me around anymore…"
Suddenly, Fenrir took a deep breath in. A deep breath, that quickly became too deep to be normal. In and in he breathed, the air around him being visibly sucked into his gaping maw. The glow around his throat intensified and even spread down to his chest.
"What the hell is he doing?" Cardin thought, rushing forward in an attempt to stop whatever the Grimm was doing.
It was too late though, as Fenrir closed his mouth, leaned back, and felt the new power in his throat build and build as it prepared for release.
"…I'LL BLOW YOU ALL AWAY!"
Fenrir unleashed an almighty howl, louder than any howl he'd ever made before. Blue soundwaves burst out of his mouth and hit Cardin dead-centre. The students behind Cardin in the stands were shunted backwards, the skin on their faces rippling from the intensity of the air waves. The windows of the classroom shattered, glass flying all over the place.
Cardin was helpless, all he could do was endure as the waves of pure sound wracked his body and threatened to burst his ear-drums. Soon, it became clear that Fenrir's howl was producing more than just sound.
Cardin stared down in horror as his legs were rapidly covered in ice and frost. The numbness of the cold caused him to drop his mace, and he couldn't even muster the energy to bend down and pick it up.
He was being frozen solid. Along with all the desks and students behind him.
Fenrir finally emptied all the air in his lungs and slumped forward, all but spent. When he was finally able to drag his heavy head up off the floor, he gasped in amazement at the effect his howl had had on the whole arena. Ice and snow covered everything in front of him, Cardin frozen solid.
At the sight of his opponent, Fenrir checked the screen one last time. Cardin wasn't beaten yet, just immobilized. Despite how his body protested, Fenrir reeled back and prepared to deliver one last blow to Cardin.
It was nothing grand, nothing epic or flashy. He just walked forward, and struck Cardin straight across the chest with his blades.
The sound of shearing metal and shattering ice hit the students ears as Cardin slumped to the ground, knocked out cold. If one squinted, they would be able to see four deep grooves had been cut into Cardin's breast-plate.
Glynda was so stunned, she didn't even call out that the match was over. Her glasses had been knocked askew by the sheer force of Fenrir's shout, and she'd been standing behind the Beowolf.
Fenrir stared down at his glittering Gauntlets, breathing heavily as if he'd run a mile at full sprint. Despite his monumental exhaustion, his face slowly split into a wide, joyous smile.
"That was it…" He thought, "That's MY Semblance!"
Shaken out of his revelation, Fenrir turned his head back up to the stands. When he found team RWBY and team JNPR, they were equally as gobsmacked as their peers. Soon though, they began cheering loudly, utterly uncaring of the students next to them who were giving them weird looks.
Warmth bubbled in Fenrir's chest, combating the cold of the room around him as he grinned up at them. For the first time, and hopefully not for the last, Fenrir had finally beaten a human in his new form, in single combat.
Turning his attention away from the group for a second, Fenrir saw the mass of students piled in the doorway. Some of them he recognised from earlier attempts to jump him near his room, others he recognised from hateful glares and venomous comments in the hallways.
Fenrir made a show of blasting cold mist out of his nostrils, fangs glistening like freshly fallen snow as he hit each and every one of them with his cold gaze. He held his hands out by his sides, and asked a single, quiet question.
"Anyone else?"
…..
The events after that passed like a blur in the Beowolf's mind. When Glynda was able to find her voice again [And had repaired the shattered windows with her telekinesis], she offered Fenrir a rare compliment, stating that Fenrir's plan to let Cardin tire himself out and remain in a defensive position for the first half of the fight, was well thought out. She did of course follow it up by saying that he should have been more prepared for Cardin to have something hidden up his sleeve, and also warned him that his Semblance gambit would most likely not be as effective in future fights now that everyone knew about it and could plan for it.
Fenrir was hardly bothered by Goodwitch's words. As far as we was concerned, he had made enormous progress today. There would be time for refining his fighting style later. For right now, his Semblance had taken an awful lot of his energy, and he felt like a hot bath was in order.
His first victory in the sparring ring, he wanted to treat himself. Firstly though…
"Ruby," He said to the girl as they were walking out of the classroom, "Thank you."
"Huh, for what?" Ruby asked, big silver eyes looking up at the tired-looking Grimm.
When Fenrir had returned to his seat, Ruby practically choked the boy as she gave him a big hug. The others were quick to add their own congratulations and give particular praise to his powerful Semblance. While he didn't want the praise to go to his head, he couldn't stop a downright goofy grin crossing his face.
Though he quickly had to grab his tail to stop it from doing something very embarrassing.
"For the encouragement earlier." Fenrir answered, "I put everything into that plan of mine, and when it looked like it was going to fail, I lost my confidence for a moment. But you brought it right back. So yeah, thank you."
Ruby beamed as Fenrir looked at her with a warm, appreciative smile.
"No worries Fenny," Ruby whispered, aware that the Grimm still felt the nickname was a little embarrassing.
Just as the girl was about to walk off, Fenrir's grin turned into a more teasing one as he grabbed the girl's attention again.
"But just so you know, I am going to do the same thing to you when you're in the ring." He said casually.
Ruby whirled around in an instant, a look of abject mortification on her face as she zipped right up into Fenrir's face.
"NONONONONO, PLEASE DON'T DO THAT!" She cried out.
Fenrir's grin only widened, giving Ruby a full view of his sharpened teeth.
"Why not, you did it. It's only fair right?" He asked, placing his hands on his hips and bellowing loudly, "COME ON RUBY! BEAT THAT WEAKLING INTO THE DIRT, YOU CAN DO IT!"
Ruby quickly buried her head in her hood as people gave the two weird looks at Fenrir's shouting. Fenrir was seemingly unfazed by all the staring, taking far too much enjoyment out of ruffling Ruby's feathers.
"You're a jerk." She mumbled, pouting up at him through her hood.
"I'm a Grimm," Fenrir answered, face smug as he leaned forward, "We're born jerks."
In response to this, Ruby lightly punched Fenrir in the chest. Fenrir stared down at the hit area, then burst into uproarious laughter, that only served to turn Ruby even more red-faced.
"You are too much Ruby." Fenrir said once he got his laughter under control.
Suddenly, Ruby's embarrassed expression faded away to a more devious one.
"If Fenrir's going to play dirty, then so will I."
"You're the one who's too much… FENNY!" Ruby made sure to belt out the last part.
Fenrir's mirth evaporated in a micro-second and he gaped at the merciless Reaper.
"Don't say that so loud!" He begged, his plea falling on deaf ears.
"OH FENNY, YOU'RE SO STRONG! YOU ARE THE BEST… FENNNNNNNNNYYYYYY!"
"WHY YOU… GET BACK HERE!"
Ruby laughed like a maniac as she tore off, rose petals falling in her wake as Fenrir chased after her. All the while she kept calling Fenrir's nickname as loud as she possibly could. Despite how much the humiliation burned his neck, Fenrir couldn't help but smile too. Ruby's smile it turns out, was one of the few things Fenrir couldn't even force himself to be mad at.
Meanwhile, high up in a tower, the Headmaster of Beacon was reviewing the footage sent to him by Glynda. While Glynda had appeared ashen-faced when she delivered the footage to him, Ozpin felt only pride as he saw for himself, just how much progress Beacon's resident Beowolf had made.
"So, he's awakened to his Semblance. Quite a powerful one it seems. More than that, he's fighting smarter now, no longer charging in blindly like he usually does. What remarkable progress you're making Mr Lupus… I'm confident your skills will only continue to grow."
Hitting pause on the video footage, Ozpin began searching through his computers files. Pulling up the student records, Ozpin quickly scrolled his way down to the 'L' section. Once he found the file he was looking for, he opened up the editing tool and made a quick addition to the file.
"Nothing more satisfying than filling one of these out to completion."
The man had to think for a moment, but upon remembering the strange side-effect of Fenrir's Aura, a name for Fenrir's Semblance was quick to come to him.
Name: Fenrir Howlett Lupus
Student year: 1st Year
Student I.D: 2-5-15-23-15-12-6
Weapon name: Frostbite
Aura colour: Dark blue
Semblance: North wind
…..
A/N: And there you have it, Fenrir's Semblance revealed. This was another one of the first chapters I had planned out, it was easy when I considered that I was basing Fenrir off the Big Bad Wolf. You also get a little glimpse at his student profile as well just in case you wanted to see that. If you know what Fenrir's middle name means, I love ya. Though, before anyone asks, his student I.D is just the word Beowolf turned into numbers.
Leave a review, I'm really eager to see your thoughts on this one guys. Stay safe, and see you guys next time.
Next time: Fenrir starts incorporating more dust types into his revolvers. A certain heiress assists him with this endeavour.