Chapter 12: Lessons One Through Six

He jolted up and looked around before the memories returned. He had failed. They were gone and he was to blame. The coward. The failure. Wait. How was he alive? He should have died, lost to the ocean to be forgotten. Instead he was… safe? Warm? Where was he? He looked around. It was a blank room. Metal. Faint sounds came from behind a closed door. He sat up and tried to slide off the bed before gasping in pain. He clutched at where his right arm was, or rather, where it had been before frowning. It had been burnt until there was hardly any muscle left, but it was still attached. Whoever saved him must have cut it off. He was pretty sure Uncle Steele had told stories about that. It was called an amputation or something like that. He had always loved to hear Uncle Steele's stories. Not that he'd hear them again. He groaned and slowly stood up off of the small bed he had been laid on. He seemed to be in some new, well fitted clothes. That was just one more thing to thank whoever saved his life for doing. He didn't deserve the life he had been given again, but if he was getting a second chance, then he'd make sure to use it well. The first step though, was to find out what had happened. He needed to find out who saved him, why they saved him, and what they had done to him. As far as he knew, he shouldn't be feeling how he was right now. The last time he had been conscious he was nearly choking on his grief. So where had it gone? He knew something was going on, just not quite what. Maybe it was some kind of medicine? Unimportant. What mattered right now was taking the first step. He paused. What was this going to be the first step to? Happiness? That didn't seem possible anymore for some reason. He heard the door creak open in front of him and looked up to see a figure with light green eyes staring back.

"Well this is unexpected."

Epizon jolted up with a snarl before relaxing slightly and looking around. He was currently in a small room, with the only thing there being a pile of empty bottles, a rack of full ones taking up the largest wall, and the table and 2 chairs, one of which was empty, the other chair being the one he was currently sitting in, and the table itself having an overturned wine bottle on it. He rubbed his eyes before his Scroll buzzed in his coat. He reached into it and grabbed it before checking his message and freezing. That wasn't good.

Ruby yawned as she stared at the empty floor of the arena. She glanced around and saw most students grumbling complaints. Professor Goodwitch herself looked like she was going to murder someone.

Professor Goodwitch cleared her throat. "I apologize for the delay students. There is someone who was supposed to be here quite a while ago, but as he was otherwise occupied I have had to keep this class postponed. He should be here any minute though."

Ruby turned to her team and team JNPR. "Who do you think we're waiting on? Do you think it might be Epizon? Do you think he's a new assistant teacher or something!?"

Pyrrha smiled. "That would be interesting. From the way he carries himself I am fairly certain he knows quite a lot that we could find useful. I wouldn't count on it though, since Beacon is a fairly large school. He could very well be in charge or assisting with any other class."

Ruby snickered. "Yeah but Pyrrha, he's the only one who we know of that is new to the school and a member of the staff! Who else could it be?"

Weiss added in her two cents. "Pyrrha could be right, but given the timing, I find it rather hard to believe it is mere coincidence."

As she said this the doors to the room slowly creaked open and everyone turned to it to see Epizon walk in, an unopened bottle of beer in his right hand while he chugged down a bottle of wine with his left hand. He waited for a second before lowering it, shaking it a bit before dropping it in a trash can next to the door and walking up to Professor Goodwitch with an apologetic smile on his face. "Sorry I'm late Glynda, but I slept in a bit. You know how it is, get caught up drinking, the asshole who was with you doesn't wake you up, and so you wake up a bit later than you're supposed to. Anyways, anything I should tell them or that I should know or can we get this started?"

Professor Goodwitch sighed. "Of course Qrow didn't wake you up. I will let this one time slide, but if you are late to another class, there will be repercussions. Is that understood Mr. Akoníto?"

Epizon smirked. "Yep. So what about my questions?"

"Just introduce yourself, tell them what your new job is, and then I will observe and referee the match to make sure neither side gets severely wounded."

Epizon smiled. "Well then, let's get this show on the road, shall we?" He turned to the stands where the students were now sitting straighter and looking at him. "You can call me Epizon Akoníto. The only reason I matter to you is because from now on, I'm your new combat teacher. Any questions?"

Ruby saw Cardin raise his hand. "You with the orange hair and the raised hand."

The kid smirked. "Why are you qualified? Professor Goodwitch I can understand, she's a well known and respected Huntress. Who are you to be put in charge of making us better fighters?"

Professor Goodwitch glared at him. "Mr. Winchester, you will treat Mr. Akoníto with the resp-"

Epizon cut her off with a laugh. "It's fine Glynda. He's a funny kid. Easy to laugh at. As for my qualifications, I'm a good fighter, and I'd probably be able to take down you and your team no trouble. If you want proof, then wait a bit. As for why I'll be taking over Glynda's job here, that's because she's overworked or something like that. Now, for the last reason, would anyone like to tell me the difference between Glynda's fighting and mine that you can see automatically?"

Ruby frowned as she thought before she saw Pyrrha raise her hand. "Is it your choice of weapons?"

Epizon blinked before smiling. "Bingo Nikos. She uses a riding crop that functions as a focus for Dust-casting. I use swords, which rely on Dust mechanics and mecha-shifting. Out of the two weapons fields, my expertise would be best for the majority of you, and for the rest, I know enough of how to neutralize other fighting styles that I could give you some good tips here and there. Now, since the orange kid over there spoke up, and because this was going to happen anyways, the first lesson of my teaching will begin now. Glynda, if you would? I don't know how you do this shit, so you do your thing and I'll get ready for my morning exercise." He walked over to the wall farthest from the students and began drinking the second bottle of alcohol while watching Professor Goodwitch and the students.

Professor Goodwitch sighed before turning to the students. "Team RWBY, come down to the ring please. I would suggest getting your weapons and making sure you have a strategy in mind, as you will be facing Mr. Akoníto."

Ruby blinked before she heard Weiss stand up beside her. "Professor Goodwitch, surely we aren't expected to beat him, correct?! If he is strong enough to be the teacher of this class, then how are we supposed to win?"

Professor Goodwitch frowned. "That is something that will be left up to you. To be frank, I do not think you will be able to beat him, as while Mr. Akoníto is no Huntsman, he is powerful enough to hold his own against two Huntsman at the same time for a short while before the fight ended, which is no easy feat. My advice to you girls is to do your best and learn from this fight. There will however be some special rules put in place for this fight, which I will tell you after you have retrieved your weapons."

Weiss scowled before walking into the locker rooms, with Blake following behind her. Ruby turned to Yang. "I guess we should go?"

Yang smiled at her. "Yep! This is going to be awesome!"

Epizon yawned as he finished off the last bits of alcohol he had at the moment. He was really hoping this would be worth it. I mean, there were four of them and one of him, he had stacked the odds in their favor! He froze and winced. Oh… Yeah he should warn them. At that moment he saw the first of the girls, Weiss come out of the locker rooms, followed closely by the rest of her team, and he stood up to go to the arena before pausing. He shrugged before loosening the straps on Rend's sheath and laying it against the wall, before taking his grappling gun and laying it next to Rend. They probably wouldn't be much use anyways, since speed would be an important factor in this spar. After that he paused before picking up his empty bottle and finally walking up to the stage where the girls were looking at him in confusion while Professor Goodwitch glared at him. "I hope you are not underestimating team RWBY? They may just be students, but they are still capable of fighting.

Epizon blinked before snorting. "Of course not Glynda. Speed will be important for me, so I'm getting rid of dead weight. Now get the rules out of the way and then I'll give team RWBY a warning and then we can start my morning exercise."

Professor Goodwitch glared at him. "It is 12 o'clock."

Epizon shrugged. "Close enough. Now let's get this done and over with."

Professor Goodwitch walked outside the wall and began setting up the hard light Dust field around the ring as she talked. "The match will follow most of the same rules as a normal spar, with one change. The change is that Mr. Akoníto may continue fighting after his Aura is lowered beyond 15%, or even broken entirely, but if he surrenders or is knocked out of the ring, he loses the match. Are there any questions?"

Ruby frowned. "Why is he allowed to continue fighting?! He could be hurt!"

"If he was only limited to Aura, he would lose as soon as he took a single hit. He has trained and has ways to continue fighting without Aura, and so while you should use caution after his Aura breaks, do not hold back. If you do you will lose. Now, since we have that over with, what did you want to say Mr. Akoníto?"

Epizon sighed as they turned back to him. "First off, listen to her advice and don't hold back. I won't kill or permanently injure you since it's my job not to, but it will hurt like a bitch when I hit you. Second, I will be using this as a learning experience or whatever, so if I start saying anything to you, you should probably listen, or for you kids not participating, take notes or whatever. Finally, here's a warning for you kids. Don't use too much fire. I don't much like fire, so if you use it too much, I might get just a bit pissed off. You'll know if you should stop when it's too late, so just keep it's use low and you should be fine."

Professor Goodwitch nodded. "If that is it, the match will begin now. The best of luck to all parties, and remember to keep damage to the arena to a minimum. I don't appreciate being a glorified janitor, so keep damage to a minimum or I'll let Port get the job."

Epizon shrugged as the rest of the class shivered. "Sure. Now let's get this class started."

Professor Goodwitch nodded before pressing a button on her Scroll which projected the names and Aura levels of the combatants onto the screen on the far wall.

[Play Falling Inside the Black; By Skillet]

Epizon waited for the girls to attack him as he stood there, bottle in his left hand while his right hand was balled into a fist. He didn't have to wait long as Ruby and her sister Yang leapt at him, Ruby disappearing in a shower of rose petals before reappearing next to him, a scythe ready to cut him in half. He smirked before back-flipping and then holding his empty bottle towards Yang as if it were a rapier, which was ironically enough the weapon used by her teammate Weiss. "En garde."

Yang growled before punching at him, which he roughly deflected by hitting the side of her fist with the bottle, shattering the bottle but knocking her off course, giving him the opening to stab at her stomach with his now sharpened bottle, which he took. He pushed it into her stomach and saw her Aura flicker slightly before he was forced to retreat slightly as Weiss flashed through where he had been standing, rapier stabbing through where his gut had been seconds before.

Epizon frowned before thinking of a good first lesson. He smirked at team RWBY as he pulled out a special treat for the kids with his right hand. "Ready for your first lesson? Lesson number one is to fight dirty. Get rid of any thoughts of honor or glory. Think of survival. If you still don't want to fight dirty, find ways to keep your enemies from fighting dirty or lessen the impacts of it. Observe." He quickly pulled the pin on it and threw it into the center of the ring before running towards it, and disappearing into the cloud of smoke that quickly encompassed the entirety of the ring seconds later. He smirked before closing his eyes and waiting, before hearing careful footsteps to his right. He waited for them to get closer before lunging forward with his broken bottle, scowling as he heard his target jump away. "Be careful! He's using the smoke to hide himself so he can pick us off!" Ah, so it was the Faunus, Blake. It makes sense that her ears would let her hear and then dodge him. That just meant he'd have to go after someone else.

He moved away from where he had previously stood quietly before pausing once more to listen for footsteps. There were 2 sets of footsteps in the general area of where he had heard Blake shouting, one on the edge of the ring, probably trying to wait out the smoke. Bad idea. He quickly made his way to where he heard the footsteps and heard Ruby, who had apparently been the one over her, speak up. "Let's group up at the edges of the ring so he can't pick us off!" Epizon snorted and quietly approached. This may just be a spar but he was supposed to teach them. "Lesson two kids. If you're fighting against someone smarter than a sack of bricks, don't shout out exactly what you're planning. If you do, they'll take advantage of it. Observe." He waited until he saw a flash of red in front of him before punching at it, attempting to launch Ruby out of the ring and eliminate her from the fight. He felt her fly back but heard fluttering and saw a burst of red fly through the quickly vanishing smoke.

He sighed. Of course Ruby's Semblance could both save her from getting knocked out of the ring and get rid of his smoke. Oh well. As he turned around he saw Blake and Weiss grouped up with Ruby in the center of the ring and Yang in between the two groups. "Good comeback. Lesson three. If you outnumber your opponent then work together or you'll get picked off. If you're going against a group of more people than you, focus on keeping yourself alive and maybe helping your teammates as needed." He calmly walked towards team RWBY, switching the broken bottle into his right hand before drawing Mend with his left. Yang charged at him and fired flaming shotgun shells at him which he easily dodged, smirking as they passed. "Didn't I say not to use fire too much?"

Yang ignored his words as she got into range and began throwing a barrage of punches at him. Punches which, he noticed as he dodged and stepped out of range of, were fairly uncoordinated. Strong, yes. Sadly for Yang, that strength meant little if Epizon could keep himself from being hit. He was actually a bit surprised his Aura was still intact. They had seemed more competent when they were facing down Torchwick after taking down his Paladin. Though now that he thought about it, these girls, with the possible exception of Blake, really weren't the best at fighting humans. Well he was teaching here for a reason. Not to help them, but if that was his job, then why the hell not. "Stop acting like a drunk gorilla and start being accurate. You can't do shit except waste your energy-" He dodged a shotgun shell that she fired at him. "-and your ammo if you can't hit me." Yang growled as her eyes flashed red before breathing out slowly and taking a couple steps back.

"If I beat you, will you give me the information about my mother?" Yang asked quietly.

Epizon paused and thought about it. Qrow had said something about not giving the information but then Qrow had gotten drunk off his ass and never finished the conversation. Epizon would still wait for it, but for now, maybe he could use this to improve his workout. "Sure."

Yang grinned. "Hey Ruby, Weiss, Blake! Epizon said he'll get Ruby some cookies, Blake some books, and tutor Weiss on Dust if we beat him!"

Epizon blinked as he realized her plan. Clever. Bribery was always a great motivator. It looks like this was the right decision after all. He quickly changed his mind as a scythe tore through where his torso had been seconds before, and he barely flipped out of the way of the follow up ribbon that nearly ensnared him. He turned to see what Weiss was planning and saw a large glyph floating in the air pointed towards him. That didn't seem good. The glyph glowed as a flurry of ice shards flew towards him, which he dodged just in time to catch a fist in the back courtesy of Yang, shattering his Aura as he flew through the ice shards over to the other side of the ring. He coughed slightly and winced as he felt a rib creak a bit. That hurt like a bitch. Maybe he should just get this fight over with? He may be decently powerful, but he wasn't powerful enough to take down four relatively well trained people at once while holding back. That was just asking too much.

He looked back towards team RWBY and frowned as he saw them talking to each other. Planning something. Most likely it was something that wouldn't be good for his health. That was good. Who knows, maybe he wouldn't need to hold back so much? For now though, his job was to teach them a lesson the best way he knew how. He smirked as he flipped the broken bottle in his hand before throwing it at the group, watching as they broke it with ease. He sighed before unsheathing Mend and his Desert Eagle, holding them in his left and right hands respectively and smiled at team RWBY. "Congrats. You got through the "I'm a half drunk piece of shit." phase. Now let's step it up a notch, shall we?"

Ruby frowned. "Your Aura is broken. You could get hurt."

Epizon snorted. "Trust me kid, it takes a lot to take me down, and a lot more to make sure I stay down. Now, come at me and don't hold back. If you do, you'll regret it."

Ruby nodded before bursting into a tornado of rose petals which flew towards him, her team running behind her as Epizon walked towards them. He paused as an idea came to him before smirking and slashing Mend horizontally towards the team, the blade separating into individual pieces as it went, which team RWBY easily avoided. He smirked as he pushed the slide back into place, missing Blake but hitting Yang and Weiss. Ruby reached him before he could reform Mend, so he used his Desert Eagle to boost his jump to the side, delaying his encounter just long enough to get back Mend, which he used to block Ruby's next attack. He quickly leaped backwards as Blake cut through where he had been, hitting his arm with the end of her weapon, Gambol Shroud or something like that, as she adjusted, before firing at him as it shifted into what looked vaguely like a gun. He took a couple of shots, 2 hitting his arm near where she had cut him, and a third hitting him in the winced as he shook his arm before smiling at Blake. "Good hit."

Ruby and Blake frowned before seeing Weiss and Yang catch up, giving Epizon time to look at the screen showing their Auras. His was out, Ruby's was at about 90% or so, mostly due to her using her Semblance by his guess. Weiss was down to 65% from Semblance, Dust, and his single attack, Yang was at 95%, and Blake was still at around 98%. She was probably using some kind of Aura technique by his guess. Not that it mattered. He grinned as a thought came to him. Target Weiss and the rest would fight harder, and their main support would be gone. It helped that she was their glass cannon of course.

He aimed at her and fired 7 bullets from his Desert Eagle, hitting one shot and draining her Aura to 50% before she began avoiding them. He was really glad he had Inferno Dust ammo. Not good for his sanity, but they were fast and they hit hard, so he could deal with them. He quickly reloaded as he deposited the empty magazine into his coat, grabbing a new one and inserting it before walking towards team RWBY. It wouldn't take much to take out Weiss now, and from what it seemed like, Ruby or Blake would be the next best choice. Yang would be easy to take down at the end, given her anger issues. She should really get those fixed. That was a problem for a different time though. Right now he had to get this done and over with. He aimed his Desert Eagle at Weiss before quickly switching targets and blasting Blake with 6 of the bullets before she could dodge the seventh, taking her Aura down to about 68%. He smirked as he dodged her counter-attack, reloading his Desert Eagle once more before pausing as a thought came over him. He raised a finger at team RWBY. "Hey I've got an important question for you girls."

Blake paused in her charge. "What?"

He smirked. "What should I name my gun? It wasn't actually supposed to be a long-lasting weapon when I first made it, but it's grown on me. Any ideas? Come on kids, this is important!"

His smirk died a little after he saw Ruby beginning to jump up and down with a huge smile but it came back after the scream of rage from her sister. "Really?! You're pausing the match for that?!"

Epizon smirked as he raised his gun in the air and fired 3 bullets at Ruby, 1 at Blake, and another 3 at Weiss, with Ruby and for the most part Weiss being caught off guard, resulting in Ruby taking 3 bullets while Weiss took 2 bullets, while Blake dodged. He'd have to keep in mind getting Ruby to do something childish as a distraction if he ever fought her and Weiss at the same time again. Who would have thought someone would facepalm and block their vision during a fight. He'd need together to stop that or she'd get herself killed. Again though, that was a problem for a different day. For now he'd just take satisfaction in seeing their Auras tick down, with Ruby now at 68% of her Aura and Weiss hanging on at 20%.

He jumped away from Ruby's backhanded slash that went through where his torso had been as he reloaded again. Looked like she was still holding back. He'd have to show her why that was a mistake. A mistake that would make it seem like it was raining hellfire. He paused and shrugged. As good a name as any. He dashed forwards and slid under Ruby's swing, slashing her legs and tripping her with Mend as her Aura ticked down to 60% before stopping and spinning after he heard a swish behind him. He raised Mend and blocked a punch from Yang and grinned at her as she raised her second fist to punch him.

"What are you grinning at? We're going to take you down!" she said as her fist flew towards his face.

Epizon smirked as he rammed the side of his gun's barrel into her fist, knocking it to the side before placing the barrel against her stomach and discharging all 7 bullets against her Aura, draining it down to 59%. "I thought up a name for my gun! It'll be called Hellfire from now on. I find it appropriate for what it does." he said as he leapt away, before grunting as he felt something smash into his back.

He skidded away a bit before rolling to a stop and seeing Ruby standing where he had been. Go figure the kid would recover so quickly. He sighed before standing up and smiling. "Lesson three is, don't just hammer away at someone unless you can take them out quickly. Strategize." He heard a winded scoff from behind him and turned as his eyes widened a bit.

"You mean like this?" Weiss said as she released a large glyph, sending a storm of fire towards Epizon, taking her Aura levels all the way down to 5%.

Epizon scowled as he saw he had been pretty much surrounded before looking at the fire. Eh, this would be a bitch if they hadn't used fire. Now he could say he told them so though. This would be worth it. He smirked before putting his gun away quickly and turning towards Yang. "You're up first."

He smirked as her grin grew cockier before he let the flames of war burn to life as the wave of flames consumed him. This would be fun. He paused and let the heat wash over him as he felt his skin begin to char and his coat begin to burn before he smirked and drove his now empty right fist against the ground, causing a 10 foot wide circle of cement and tiles to erupt upwards centered around where he had punched the ground, extinguishing the flames. He winced as he felt a chunk of cement tear through his arm before turning to Yang and grinning.

He sprinted at her, releasing built up energy as he did before letting it fade back to the faint spark it usually was before throwing a hard punch from his right hand at her. He smirked as she dodged, preparing to hit her in the head with the crossguard of Mend and knock her unconscious. She responded with a flurry of punches that interrupted his plans, which he dodged, up until she revealed her feint and grabbed both sides of his head, bringing hers forwards in a headbutt. Epizon's eyes widened as he quickly released the energy again and snapped his head forwards, breaking her grip, shattering her Aura, and knocking her unconscious, before he closed his eyes and calmed down. He stood there for a couple seconds as the energy faded again before smiling and picking her up, turning to her team, who were staring in shock. "Lesson number 4, listen to warnings or think they're tricks, but choose and stick with one. 5 and 6 are freebies, and are to never underestimate someone because they might and usually will be holding back, and to live to fight another day when outmatched. In this case, I've taught what I needed to teach and gotten a decent exercise, so if you want to give up, do it now. Otherwise I'll take you out quickly so class can move on."

[End Song]

Ruby turned to Blake, who shrugged, before nodding. "We give up Epizon-" Professor Goodwitch cleared her throat and glared at Ruby, who paled. "We give up Mr. Akoníto. Thanks for the spar! Do you think we can look at your weapons! They're really cool!"

Epizon snorted. "How about no. Can't go and give away all my secrets, now can I? Either way, pretty good fight given your team's inexperience. Take your sister and get back up to the stands and then class will go from there." He waited for her to leave before turning to Professor Goodwitch. "Sorry about the arena floor, but I figured I should end the fight before I got too pissed off. Anyways, do I need to get a new Scroll to control the screens and Aura monitoring and all that?

Professor Goodwitch sighed as she finished fixing the Arena, pieces of glass from his bottle floating into the trash can by the door as she did. "No apologies required. I am just glad you didn't do more damage. As for the screens and Aura monitoring, this Scroll is specifically for the arena. Since that should be the last fight I need to be here for, you can have it. I will be on my way unless you need anything else?"

Epizon smiled as he took the Scroll from her extended hands before pausing. "Would you mind getting me a beer or something?"

She frowned. "Yes. I would mind. Drink after the school day is over if you could. I wouldn't want you to pass along any bad habits like Qrow might. Now if you'll excuse me, I Have other business to attend to."

Epizon watched as she exited the room before walking over to the wall he had left his weapons at and putting them back in their places. He then reached up to his head and made sure nothing had gotten too badly burnt or damaged before smiling. He rather liked having his hair long. It was good for disguises. He turned to the students and blinked as he saw team RWBY already seated with their friends from yesterday, team JNPR from his recollections. "Okay then. Now that we've got all of that out of the way, any questions?"

He saw the orange haired kid from before raising his hand. "You again? What's your question."

"How do you expect that to prove you're worth learning from? Your Aura is weak, and I bet anyone on my team could have done better!"

Epizon blinked before grinning sadistically. "Really? I'll remember that. As for why I'm worth learning from, it's because while I took damage, I didn't have to go all out against them. I didn't laze around by any means, but most if not all of you aren't threatening enough to deserve it at this point. Nikos over there might be, but I have yet to see her skill yet. Now, since questions have been wasted by that idiot, let's skip right to the basics. I'm not your friend. I am your reluctant teacher, as well as a selfish prick. I will however be teaching you because I am better suited for the job then Glynda, and for some other reasons besides. There's nothing special you need to know about me, I'm just a mercenary taking some time to help out Ozpin because our goals align. Also because there's decent pay to it. I will teach you kids to survive, whether that be through tricks, dirty tactics, strategy, improving your actual abilities, spreading out some techniques, or whatever else. The class will mainly be spars between students, either individually or in groups as I decide, and I will teach each person as I see fit. If any of you ever feel the need to be a masochist, I will be happy to spar with you. Some of you will get more specialized lessons because you're worth teaching. Others of you probably shouldn't even be here, and so you'll get the basics, or if I think you have some small bit of potential, I might decide to teach you a bit more personally. Other than that things will stay pretty much the same, just I'll give you advice based on weapons, how you use them, and how they could be improved, along with strategy and stuff like that. Now that we've got that explanation done, can anyone tell me the overarching lesson behind those 5 lessons I talked about during the spar?"

He saw Pyrrha raise her hand again. "Nikos."

"I would say that you want us to be paranoid, but that doesn't fit. I think you were more going for the approach of thinking on any possible outcome, and adding strategy to battles in a more subtle way in comparison to team attacks or the like."

Epizon paused and began laughing. "Nice. You might actually have the skill to be worth sparring with or teaching personally if you can logic that out. Now how about we get your test out of the way, shall we? I believe that you said you or any of your team coul any team, correct Mr. Winchester? How about yo Pyrrha here? You 4 against her of course. No complaints? Good! I'll enjoy watching this!"

As Pyrrha and team CRDL left to change into their combat outfits and retrieve their weapons he yawned before he saw Ruby raise her hand. "What's up Rose?"

"Are you going to get your wounds healed?"

Epizon blinked before smiling. "What wounds? I'm not burnt, cut, or filled with holes. No reason for me to go to the medical wing or whatever."

Ruby frowned. "You were standing in a bunch of fire, got shot multiple times, and got cut a bunch. There's no way you don't have any wounds."

Epizon looked at her innocently. "I don't know what you're talking about Rose. I have a couple bloody bullets, but I don't have any cuts or anything like that. You must be imagining things." He smirked as he revealed a trio of bloody bullets, and saw the confusion in Ruby's eyes at the fact that he didn't appear to be injured or in any pain. It was worth it to see the confusion on people's faces when they saw how hard it was to cause him permanent harm. Sure, it didn't do anything but help him survive, but that was what he was meant to do, body and soul. He would survive until he could complete his goals. The kids were better then he'd thought they would be too. They managed to make him cut loose a bit. Sure, he didn't use too much of his Semblance, but they still made him use it. They had potential. Hopefully that extended to their friends. He frowned for a second as he saw Pyrrha come out of the locker rooms before letting it be replaced by his signature smirk, which turned sadistic as his thoughts travelled more and more. No use comparing her to anyone from his past. He wouldn't let the past repeat. His soul agreed with the sentiment. So he would wait here, he would teach, he would work with Ozpin, he would slaughter Salem's forces, and eventually... Well, Ozpin said there was a Relic of Knowledge. So long as he asked the right question, he would be able to see his goals through. All it would require would be pain, suffering, and death. Nothing new there. Remnant was a world full of the stuff after all. He let his thoughts drift away as he focused on Nikos and Winchester's team, who were gathered in the ring ready to fight.

"You know the rules kids. Other than that, just make sure to learn from your mistakes. To facilitate your learning experience, I'd like to ask something of you Nikos."

"Yes?"

"Make sure Mr. Winchester and his team learn to keep their mouths shut. If you go easy on them that just means an even worse fight for them later. Now begin!"

AN: 2 reviews.

Darkmaster10000000(Chapter 11): He'll definitely be finding out, but I don't think he'll react quite the way you think. Similarly, definitely. He's just not the kind of person to feel much pity for people though. He'll help people, hurt people, hate people, and not hate people, but he's not one for pity. He may feel a bit sorry for Yang, but not that much.

Alduin(Chapter 11): Hope you enjoyed the fight. May not be as exciting as you expected, but Epizon does in fact know the meaning of holding back, and if he's going to be a teacher, he'll do it decently. After all, the money's good. No one needed to head to the nurse because of him holding back for the most part and him healing quickly, so no Nurse Port for you yet. The future holds many things though... As for his Aura I'm glad it's confusing to you. I wouldn't want to be TOO predictable after all. It does in fact have something to do with it, but let's just say his Aura is complicated and leave the reveals of what's actually going on till later. It'll hopefully be exactly what you least expected, or something you never even thought of. Though the hints are here, waiting to be discovered.

Now that I've answered the reviews, tada! Team RWBY vs. Epizon fight is done in a way that I hope is pretty good. It even had a song! I feel the song matches decently with the fight, and while there are better songs, I have some songs in mind specifically for certain times, so they won't show up until the time is right. Song also matches up with some plot points that will show up in the story, because really, if you think there is a shortage of songs I could use that hint at something about the future or past of this fanfic, you underestimate my power. For the actual fight, I could have done better, but I think I did well in showing some weaknesses of Epizon even if he was holding back, showing how the inexperience of team RWBY in comparison to him helped him win, and hopefully made it a decently good read, and showing him fit into the role of teacher. Who would have thought he actually knew how to teach. In his own snarky way. And he did it without getting killed by Goodwitch! No Nurse Port because Epizon is secretly made out of rubber. Or just a fast healer or something. Take your pick. There are reasons he healed quickly, and reasons he was able to take them down as easily as he did, because if it seemed like he whittled down their Aura too easily, that's because he's got the power of bullets that deal a ton of damage, courtesy of Hellfire. Not that much to talk about really, it was mainly just him waking up after a dream, him teaching through the wonderful art of spite and sparring, him talking, him making Cardin regret life decisions, and then him . Nothing too important and nothing to look into. Fairly simple chapter, with what I hope is a good fight. Hope anyone reading this enjoyed the chapter, and as always, favorite or follow and all that if you like the story, if you want to criticize my writing or say something else, review, and I hope everyone's had a good week. Not much else to say other than to say something random, which for this week will be: Don't make deals with any devils. They will take your soul or make you otherwise regret your life decisions. How did you think you ended up here, reading this fanfic?