Author Note: Not too much to say here.
Jaune held his shield up to take the force of the strike before pushing the arm to the side. He slashed with his sword at his opponent, connecting and damaging her aura slightly. He intended to follow up with a hit from his shield but was caught unprepared for a second fist hit to him in the chest, sending him sprawling to the side.
"That'll do for now Vomit Boy." Yang strolled over and offered a hand to help the downed knight to his feet. "You're getting better, just gotta remember that I have two weapons to strike with." She pulled him up with far more force than was necessary, throwing him off the ground for a moment. "I'm also stronger than you, if you couldn't tell." A grin spread across her face. "How's it feel to know a girl is stronger than you?"
"A girl?" Jaune sheathed his weapons and turned to the blonde brawler. "You're certainly not the only one, have you seen Nora and Pyrrha? I might be able to straight up out strength them but they have all the technique. They hit way harder." Jaune rubbed a spot where Pyrrha had hit him in their own personal training the night before.
"Well soon enough you'll be on the same level… ok maybe not the same level." Yang walked over to one of the benches and sat down. "Still though, in two weeks you've gotten loads better. With my expert guidance that is." She said in a not so humble tone.
"I also train with Pyrrha so… not just you." Jaune sat on one of the benches next to her. "Besides your sense of 'training' is more experience than actual training." Yang put a hand over her heart and pretended to be hurt, though the smile on her face betrayed the look.
"I give you all the advice you need after I beat you, it's more fun that way."
"Fun for who?" Jaune winced slightly as Yang hit him in the shoulder.
"Anyways, we have Combat class today maybe you'll finally put that jackass in his place. I can see it now." yang adopted a theatrical pose. "Jaune Arc the hero of Beacon, saviour of the useless wimp-"
"Hey!" Jaune wasn't that bad… was he?
"- Slayer of the malicious Cardin!" Yang sat back down like a normal person. "The girls will be lining up."
Jaune was the one to scoff this time. "You wanna take a bet on it?" He pulled his scroll out and checked the time. "Well, I guess that's it for today. I need to head back to my dorm and get ready for class."
"Don't forget a shower, morning training is the worse for the smell." Yang stood and followed in the direction of the locker room.
"How is morning training any worse than night training?" Jaune held the door open for his companion.
Yang shrugged her shoulders and went off to find her locker. "No peeking or I'll have to increase the intensity of your training."
"Who says I'd want to see you changing?" Jaune had to yell his response for her to hear him but the room was abandoned anyways so there was no one to complain.
"Im hurt, are you saying I'm not the embodiment of perfection?"
Jaune scoffed at the statement laced with sarcasm. "I share a room with two girls and I have seven sisters, a guy learns how to avert his eyes."
"So what you're saying is-"
"No Yang, I don't peak on my sisters or teammates. Do I look like a pervert to you?"
"Actually-"
"Don't answer that!" Jaune finished getting out of his armour and made for the boys showers, which the school had thankfully decide to not make co ed as well.
The warm water felt amazing over his sore muscles, which had been sore since he started training with Yang. In truth he was more than able to recover throughout the day but then he had training with Pyrrha, which he could recover from over the night, and then he had training with Yang again and the cycle continued.
He had taken to using the steam from the showers to relax his muscles, at least for a few minutes a day, but they were always to short in his opinion. He left the shower and got dressed in schools uniform, stashing his gear away for later.
He ended up leaving the locker room before Yang had even finished her shower, though he knew how long it took for a woman to finish their hair, Yang especially, he did have an abundance of sisters after all. He had learned throughout the years to wake up before the rest if he ever wanted to have hot water and time for a real shower.
Yang watched eagerly as the two combatants squared off on the stage. Jaune and Cardin had become a pretty common sight and everyone knew who was gonna win, or they thought they did. Their teams cheered him on from the sides, albeit some more than others.
Cardin's own team did much the same as their leader took the stage with a smirk and a roll of the eyes. Jaune looked to his team and let a smile grace his face before moving into a stance ready for combat.
Glynda's arm came down and the match started but neither combatant charged in this time. Unlike the previous matches Jaune waited for his opponent to approach him. Cardin noticed the fact and smirked.
"To afraid to attack me?" When Jaune didn't rise to the bait Cardin frowned slightly. "Fine, doesn't matter anyways." The larger student moved in and made a side strike with his mace expecting to take a large chunk out of his opponents aura and would have, had Jaune not gotten his shield up.
In one motion Jaune caught the mace on his shield at an angle that forced it off to the side, pulling its user with it. With Cardin on poor footing Jaune's sword strike to his side sent him further down the arena.
Rather than pull back Jaune took a second to regain his footing and then pressed his advantage.
Cardin still had his back turned and was working to regain his bearing when Jaune's sword hit his side once more. Cardin swung with his mace to the side and caught Jaune in the chest forcing him back.
Jaune moved across the floor taking a moment to regain his composure, the down side was letting Cardin back on his feet in the process. All sense of smugness was gone, however, once it was clear the fight would not be an easy one.
Cardin took a moment to observe his opponent a little more seriously this time, apparently coming up with a plan on how to beat him, and charge in once more.
Cardins strike was over extended and exaggerated, any combatant with experience would have been able to tell it was a faint but sadly Jaune didn't have that experience. He went to block the mace by bringing his shield up to cover his face but blocked his vision in the process. Cardin redirected the strike to the side, hitting Jaunes shield out of his hand and taking a decent chip off his aura. The second strike was far worse.
Cardin brought his mace to the side and swung with full force, Jaune was still trying to recoup after the loss of his shield and was unready for the blow. He was thrown to the side of the arena with a massive hit to his aura.
Jaune went to stand up but by the time he got to his feet Cardin was upon him once more with a similar strike. The rest of the fight was much the same, with Cardin pushing his advantage and Jaune unable to gain his bearings.
The match was called and both combatants made their way back to their respective teams. Cardin was met with his own cheer and applause while Jaune was complimented on his improved performance.
"You did well Jaune, you have improved quite a lot." It was his partner who was most outspoken with her praise.
"Thanks Pyr, but I still lost." Jaune said it matter of a factly.
"Don't talk like that Jaune. You're improving really fast!" Ruby usually came in second with her encouragement. "I'm sure you'll be really good… not that you aren't any good now." Ruby stammered on, constantly trying to correct herself and make the complement sound less like an insult.
"You're doing better vomit boy." Yang couldn't resist the critical side of her mind however, "You need to keep up the momentum, learn your pacing. Keep working on when to attack and when not to."
"He did quite well." Pyrrha, as always, coddled him.
Jaune felt the strike hit his shield with a surprising amount of force, or so it had been at first. He was used to such hits by now. Pyrrha was a devastating opponent.
He fell back as she took another swing at his shield. Rather than block the hit he moved in the hope she would overextend and leave herself vulnerable for an attack, he caught no such break.
After several repeats of the action, with similar results, Jaune finally went on the offensive. To be fair that was partly an insult to the word. What really happened was that Jaune had grown tired of taking hits with nothing to show for it and had decided to take the hit to offer one of his own in turn.
He brought his sword up with all the force his body would allow and was rewarded by Pyrrha taking a step back to dodge. When he pressed his attack, however, she was caught off guard. Rather than fall back into the defensive stance he had held a second ago he pressed forward with his shield, slamming it into his opponents own. He was able to push her back for a moment. A moment when only brute strength had been factored into the equation, but the longer the two stood there in interlock the more the balance weighted in his partners favour.
As his partner gained the upper hand and launched a retaliation attack however, Jaune did something unexpected. He took the hit from her sword directly to his shoulder, rolling it in a way as to reflect most of the force off of it, though is still took a small chunk out of his aura. When the attack failed to connect to the level Pyrrha had expected however, it left her open for another attack from Jaune.
His grip was perfect, as was his stance, the amount of force behind the blow was at the limit of what he would be able to control and his aim was true. It was because of all this he was so surprised when he missed.
Through a feat of acrobats he couldn't hope to match he had missed his target and as a result left himself far more open then his opponent had on her previous attack. Pyrrha's retaliation was relentless.
Jaune collapsed to the rooftop with a sigh and a groan. He pulled up his scroll to take a look at their auras and was not surprised by what he saw. He had only managed to land one or two good hits on her, most of which were towards the end, while she had managed to tear him apart. Their auras reflected as such with him nearing the red and Pyrrha still firmly in the green.
Pyrrha sat beside him with a huff. Both of the combatants had been covered in sweat and bruises, though Jaune sported more of the latter, and were content to merely sit and enjoy the view.
The top of the dormitory had quickly become one of his favorite spots, not only for the view but for the company that he usually had while up there. His partner really was something else. He counted himself lucky.
"So… give me the rundown." Jaune was the first to break the silence.
Pyrrha thought for a moment, one which seemed to stretch on longer than was needed, though he couldn't find it in himself to complain. "You have improved substantially, you can almost keep par with me on defensive terms." His partner, ever the polite one, left out his utter failures of an offense.
"I think the additional training has really helped." Jaune chuckled softly to himself. "Yang isn't as skilled as you but man can she hit hard." He shook his head at the memories.
Pyrrha was silent for a moment. "Yang really has helped you improve. She… is a skilled combatant." Jaune thought he heard a bit of a clipped tone towards the end, but he must have imagined it.
"Do you want to do anything else tonight or are we turning in?" Jaune sighed contently.
"I would like to rest here a bit longer, the breeze is nice." A small blush appeared on the champions cheeks. "Y-you could stay too, I wouldn't mind the company."
"That sounds like a good idea actually, I like the quiet." Jaune loved his team, even Nora, though she was… eccentric at times.
Pyrrha leaned against him slightly for warmth, the adrenaline of combat fading and leaving the body slightly cooler. Jaune failed to notice the content smile on his partners face.
Yang clutched the controller in her hand in frustration as the character on screen was thrown from the platform, again. A smile was brought to her face the second Ruby squealed in victory, even though she had beaten her a dozen times it seemed the joy never left her. Still, losing sucked and a person could only take so much of it before admitting defeat.
"Alright, I'm done for the night. Fifteen loses is where I draw the line." Yang stood and moved over to her bed.
Ruby wined but made to do the same. The lights were turned off a few minutes later, though Yang was still flipping through her scroll checking messages and setting her alarm. She was about to go to sleep when another message came in.
Vomit Boy: Nora wanted to go see a movie in Vale, something about ninjas and explosions, it kind turned into a team thing. She wanted to invite you guys but left it to me to do the actual inviting.
Yang took a moment to think. In truth it sounded kinda fun. A night out with friends usually was exciting, especially when one of those friends was Nora. She sent him a message saying she would love to but doubted Weiss and Blake would, but she would ask in the morning. She hadn't expected a reply but she got one anyways.
Vomit boy: Look forward to it. Goodnight.
Yang sent him the same before setting her scroll down and slipping off to sleep.
Authors Note: That's it for the actually story, now for my rambling in the notes.
I'm really glad people seem to like the story, I was very much unprepared for such a quick following. Though I am certainly not complaining.
That said I hope I can keep you all interested in the story. I still have a lot to learn about writing and this story was meant to serve as a test. I have a sketch of the plot line all typed out already to follow and make my job easier, something I haven't done for my other fics aside from just a basic idea of what the fic is.
I'm also trying a different uploading style, I actually have chapter three mostly done already and am planning on uploading it once chapter four is ready. The hope is it will allow me to correct for any mistakes pointed out in the comments.
I always love hearing from readers and encourage you all to review so I can improve accordingly.
Sincerely SE