I believe this chapter will need some major fixing. If you see anything that feels wrong about the characters and just the fighting in general, please give me a heads up and I will fix it. Thank you!
Speak to self
Speaking with ghost
Jaune starts to charge towards Joseph and starts swinging his sword.
Joseph easily dodges the sword "Jaune! You're too open when swinging your sword!" Joseph said. He catches Jaune's wrist and kicks Jaune's left shin, he falls forward and Joseph quickly pins him down, putting Jaune's hands behind his back. "You will need to work on the basics, you swing your sword without any plan, you keep lowering your shield when you attack and you are being too cautious, guarding when you feel like you are about to get hit." Joseph said. He lends a hand to Jaune as he accepts it.
"Ouch, that really hurts Joseph." Jaune said.
"Sorry, but I won't go easy, not you or anyone." Joseph said. "Go sit with the rest and here," Joseph tosses an ice pack to Jaune, "put this on your shin, it must hurt."
"Thanks Joseph," Jaune got up and went back to the group.
"Alright, Nora your up!" Joseph said.
"Hell yeah! I can't wait for this!" She grabs her war hammer and faces Joseph.
As Nora and Joseph fights, he notes that Nora is really intelligent when fighting, "You adapt easily and it seems you've found my attack pattern," Joseph said.
"I thought she would be more Titan than Warlock" Xeno said.
"Looks can be deceiving, but it is good to have a Titan like that. Just like Saint-14, he's more on the head-on type but is a good strategist as well." Joseph said.
"I still regret that we weren't able to save him."
"Me too, but, if there's ever a way to save Saint-14, Osiris will find a way,"
Joseph quickly ended the fight by changing his fighting style and disabling her from her weapon. "You will need to work on reading your opponents while fighting. I've seen that you hang back and read my movements which is fine but there will be times where you will need to read someone while fighting. But first, master reading your opponents. your strength combined with your hammer grenade launcher suits your personality, explosive enthusiasm." Joseph compliments.
"Thank you, that was fun! Almost had you!" Nora said.
"You certainly did almost had me," he pats Nora's shoulder, "alright go back to everyone else, Pyrrha, get ready, your next." Joseph said.
Joseph noticed that Pyrrha has potential, she can easily switch into a defensive strategy and into a offensive strategy and is able to read Joseph's complex attacks. But, Joseph feels like there is still a fault in her.
"She's a very skilled fighter, wonder where she came from." Xeno said.
Joseph wasn't very satisfied when battling Pyrrha, "She's holding back…"
"She is? How can you tell?"
"She's afraid that she might hurt me. I know she can do more, she is just hiding her potential."
"I don't think she is holding back, it might just be you Joseph."
"Xeno, I've fought many opponents who held back, like I thought I could defeat Frieza but to only think that horned demon had more transformations."
"Good thing We were able to escape when we had the chance."
"Yeah… I don't know how Goku and Frieza were able to work together, sounds impossible with that tyrant."
Joseph sends out three spiral fireballs towards Pyrrha, she uses her shield to block the attack while Joseph went in and punched her shield, the force from the punch made her unbalanced and Joseph then use a warlock push to make Pyrrha fall, as she tries to get back up, Joseph points Ace towards Pyrrha. "That's enough," Joseph says. He holsters Ace and lends Pyrrha a hand.
"Thank you." She said as she got pulled up by Joseph.
"Your skills in fighting are good. Now, all I want you to do is to sharpen those skills and take this seriously." He moves closer, his voice quite, "I know that you were holding back, please if you were worried about hurting me, don't be. But, you did good facing me, held your own."
"Sorry Joseph." She says,
"It's fine. Oh also, you seemed fond of Jaune right. If you could, help him out. I heard he is being bullied by Cardin so if you could train him that would be great."
"Yes, I am fine with that." She smiles.
"Nice, go back to the group." He pats Pyrrha's back, "alright Ren, on the stage please." Joseph calls.
The two fights in a battle of flexibility and speed. Joseph could see that the boy was calm as they fought. The battle went into a ranged fight into a hand-to-hand combat, Joseph changed his fighting style into a more balanced style, using offence when he lunges towards Ren and then going into defence right after he attacks. "I like this boys' style of fighting. Very balanced, he flows like water whenever he strikes me or when he blocks my attack."
"And he's so calm! Like look at him! He's practically emotionless!"
"He's more Warlock and Hunter. But I too feel calm whenever we clash fists, maybe that's because of his semblance?"
"His semblance is calming people down?" wondered Xeno.
"I guess so, we'll ask questions later, right now, let's finnish this."
Joseph quickly disables him from his dual sidearms, and then quickly struck Ren on the center of his chest using his palm, dispersing a small amount of Arc light. He was knocked back a few meters and was flat on his back.
"Oh crap, overdid it a tad bit," Joseph jogged to Ren and kneeled next to him. "You alright Ren?"
Ren groaned as he got up, "Yes I'm alright, thanks."
"Heh, you gave me a small heart attack, thought I killed you." Joseph pulls Ren up. "Well Ren, you are pretty flexible when fighting which is rare to see for most males I know, keep working on your acrobatics because you can easily tip the stiff and square-up fighters."
"Thank you Joseph." He lightly bows and goes back to the group.
Such a mannerful guy… "Okay, Ruby you ready?" asked Joseph.
She runs to the stage "Yeah! Let's do this!" She grabs Crescent Rose and faces Joseph.
Joseph notices that Ruby is too reliant with Crescent Rose as they keep fighting, she never uses her hands or arms to block Joseph's punches just simply dodges or tries to intercept the attack by swinging Crescent Rose. "You see it as well X?"
"Yes, she is too reliant with Crescent Rose…"
"Hmm, she might not actually, but it will be decided now," Joseph dodges Ruby's attack by jumping over her. He lands behind Ruby and then warlock pushes Ruby, having her drop Crescent Rose.
"Ah! Crescent Rose!" She tries to reach for her scythe but to be blocked by a void-wall grenade.
Joseph went to Crescent Rose and kicked it away from her reach. "Now, hand-to-hand combat" he says, he readies himself.
Ruby got up and then made a poor fighting stance.
"Yup, that kinda seals it." Joseph charges in to Ruby as she was still from fear. As Joseph was about to land a blow, he stopped his fist inches away from her stomach. "You're scythe skills are something to be acknowledged Ruby, but you will need to get your hands dirty from time to time." He says as he lightly karate chops her forehead.
"How did you know that I can't do anything without my weapon?" Asked Ruby.
"Well, I wasn't sure, but I made a Gamble." Joseph answers "But you held your own, you'll just need to improve your hand-to-hand combat."
"Really? Thanks Joseph." Ruby said happily.
"Alright, Weiss! You're up!" Joseph calls.
She gets up and readies her rapier. She sends in red and blue dust towards Joseph. Joseph simply takes it, surrounding himself in solar light to melt the ice on him. He forges a hammer and throws it to Weiss for her to block it with a white circle that appears to block the exploding hammer.
Joseph smirks in interest. "Interesting…" he says, "Weiss, could that be your Semblance?" he asks.
"Why yes it is, I can summon glyphs something that you will never understand," she said
"Hmm so it seems." Joseph chuckles as he charges in. Weiss then uses her glyphs to block his punch, she then tries to slash Joseph but he quickly backsteps, she uses her glyphs to prevent Joseph from going any further. She went ahead and used yellow dust to shock Joseph. He went on his knees, electricity continuously damaging him.
Weiss scoffed, "So much for a teacher."
Joseph laughs, "Who says I'm a teacher? I'm a trainer, also Snow White, never under-estimate me, cause you'll regret it." he gets up and he starts to throw down a storm grenade under him, he raises his hand and takes more hits from lighting strikes.
"What are you doing Joseph? You're killing yourself!" Jaune cries.
"Just shut up and watch! It'll be worth watching." Joseph chuckles. Perfect, as one last lightning strike hit him again, an arc shockwave surrounds him, he floats a few inches up in the air, arc light flows around him. "I can absorb electricity and use it for power, I like to call it arc conduit, but its move is called Stormtrance. Catchy isn't it?" He lifts his hand and charges an arc beam. "Try block this!" He says, He unleashes his chaos reach. Weiss uses her glyphs to block it but it simply breaks. Shit, over did it again! Joseph quickly blinks to Weiss and shields her from his attack.
"Oh my god, are you okay?" Asked Weiss.
"Yes, I'm fine just a scratch nothing more." He says, He turns to reveal that it wasn't true, his back was burnt and bloody even smoke was coming out from his back.
"That's not a scratch! You're hurt!" Yang yells.
"I am flattered that you are worried about me Yang, but trust me, impalement is worse than this shit," he says. "Anyhow, Weiss, during that battle, I've noticed that your semblance to block projectiles aren't very durable, my attack wasn't even one-hundred percent. You are a skilled fighter, improve on that, and make yourself a bit more durable to have you stay standing longer." Joseph materializes Xeno to heal him.
"Th-thank you, Mr. Anderson," said Weiss.
Joseph smiles, "Joseph please, I don't deserve the luxury to be called 'Mr' or by my last name. Now, go back to the group." He says,
"Y-yes…" she walks back to the group and Joseph feels a bit of fear in her tone.
"Good job Joseph, you scared her" he says to himself.
"Well, her rebellious cockiness kinda got annoying."
"I'll need to talk to her later on…" Joseph says. "Blake, step on the stage, your next."
As they fight, Joseph notices that she can hear him even though his steps are quiet and has wild reflexes. It was a bit tough to land a hit on Blake, but the same goes for Joseph as well, his speed outmatches Blake's but Blake's reflexes outmatches Joseph. It wasn't who goes down first loses, it was now, who can get the first hit in.
"Heh, this girl is pretty good, she has a cat like reflexes…" Joseph said.
"Yeah, her hearing is something to be acknowledged as well, even I can't hear your footsteps."
"Y'know, this is getting fun, but we're here to teach them something, not to have fun sadly, but, I would love to spar with her time-to-time." Joseph dashes towards Blake and lunges in for a punch. Blake dodges to the right, but then he turns counter-clockwise and using his left arm, he was about to elbow Blake's head but stopped inches away from contact, at the same time, he drew Ace and aims it at Blake's stomach. Joseph laughs, "Impressive, Blake," he lowers his elbow and holsters Ace. "Your speed, it's really something, and your cat-like reflexes and hearing is something to be acknowledged. Good job, now, improve on those skills, because I can tell you that you are not at your true potential yet." He smiles, "go back to the group, also, that was fun. Heh,"
"Thank's…" She said in an awkward manner.
Joseph tilts his head, "Did I say something wrong?" Joseph asked
"Maybe, cat-like reflexes? Did that offend her?"
"That was meant to be a compliment!" Joseph sighs "gotta say sorry after this. Alright, Yang you ready to bang knuckles?" Joseph asks as he punches his fists together.
"Heck yeah! Been waiting for this moment!" Yang said.
The two clash fists and Joseph notices how strong Yang is. Damn, Yang is really aggressive when fighting… Joseph backsteps away from Yang to gain distance but Yang started to shoot Joseph with her shotgun-gauntlets. Joseph dodges a few blasts while getting closer to Yang. He then flash kicks Yang and then gain some distance from her as she recovers. "Damn Yang is super aggressive like Titan class aggressive!"
"Yeah, she can literally corner a fighter with her level of aggressiveness. You think you can beat her"
"Of course I can, let's just try something out." Yang lunges in for a punch but Joseph simply dodges. She continues to charge towards Joseph but he continues to dodge her attacks.
" .away!" She yells. A flaming aura starts to surround herself and her eyes turn red. She starts to attack predictably and so Joseph continues to fight, dodging no more. The battle felt more of a death match than a training session.
"Yang's moves are getting easy to predict and it seems that she can't counter any kicks…"
"What are you suggesting Joseph?"
"Adding a bit of kicking." Joseph goes in with a punch where Yang dodges and punches Joseph in the stomach. Joseph takes the punch and grabs her arm. He punches her stomach and lifts her arm and did an arc punch that disoriented Yang. As Joseph was about to go for the finishing blow, Yang's flames grew brighter and her punches felt heavier.
"C'mon Joseph! Bring it on!" She yells. She charges in landing a devastating blow to Joseph's face. Joseph recoils back and stood up.
He smiles, and laughs "That's the spirit Yang! Ready for more?" He surrounds himself in arc light, his eyes glow a bright blue. The two started to exchange blows with each other. Let's Finnish this. Joseph goes in with a mix of kicks at Yang. She tries to block them but whenever she puts her arms up, Joseph would hit another spot, switching targets midway from his swings. Joseph then unleashes a powerful drop kick that sends Yang flying to a wall. She falls onto the floor, small statics of arc light still reside on her. Joseph went on his knees and went to catch his breath. "Holy shit, her aggressiveness is fucking scary, like Shaxx level of scary." He laughs.
Yang groans as she gets up. "Wow, you're really strong Joseph." Yang said.
"You too, I was really on my toes for that one. Your strength and your aggressiveness is really something." Complimented Joseph. He charges up a solar grenade and turns it into a healing grenade and throws it at Yang. "But, I can see many weaknesses." He says, "Your aggressiveness combined with your sheer strength can change the tides, but going in with a fury of punches will not work most of the time. You also can't counter kickboxing which can be a bit of a problem if you are facing an opponent who likes to kick. I guess what you should improve is countering kicks. But other than that, good job! You fought well!" Joseph gets up and walks towards Yang and lends her a hand.
Yang grabs his hand and she was pulled up. "Thanks." She said, "I've been wondering, you battled us and you never even went down and when you did go down, you just got stronger, well what I'm saying is that, even after fighting me, after fighting everybody else, you still have energy! How is that possible? I thought you'd be out of breath after fighting everyone." Said Yang.
Yang was correct, Joseph still has stamina left, but Yang's battle drained most of it. "Well, I maintain a large amount of stamina, so that's why I was able to keep fighting even after fighting everyone else. But you Yang, you were the one who drained most of my stamina. Literally had to catch my breath after the fight." Joseph laughs. "Well, today, I reviewed your skills in a fight, lots of you have lots to improve, but I am not telling you that you should improve on those weaknesses. If you can't sharpen those that need improvement, sharpen those that's sharp already, make your blade even sharper than before, cut through your enemy with ease. Because, once your blade gets dull, your dead. My mentor named Shaxx told me that. So, if Ruby can't do hand-to-hand combat, improve your scythe skills. If Weiss can't improve on durability, improve your glyphs utility and your combat and if Yang can't play a passive role in fighting, improve your quick thinking in battle. There many ways to sharpen your skills but it's your choice to sharpen them and how you sharpen them, and thus, I made this class. This is to sharpen and hone your skills and abilities to the fullest or a place to study."
"We have a few more hours left of school, what do we do now?" asks Ruby.
"Well, that I do not know," Joseph laughs awkwardly. "But, I guess what you eight can do now, is to practice those skills, work on your school stuff, or just relax, up to you though." Joseph says.
"What are you going to do Joseph?" asks Yang.
"Well, I'm going to practice my… semblance, then I am going to examine your guy's weapons and I might just take a small break." Joseph says. He waves, "Well, going to practice my semblance, do whatever ya want, just don't burn the place down." Joseph goes to the center of the stage as he starts to practice his fighting skills.
Ruby watches Joseph's moves, even though he was fighting nothing, it felt like someone was there.
"I've always wondered where Joseph came from…" Yang said
"Me too, I wonder how he is so skillful in fights… I bet if we take him on, we'd still lose." Nora
"When I found Joseph, we were in the middle of a ruin." Xeno said. "He only had a pistol with no bullets inside. For a few minutes of walking, we were able to find a rifle and we had to fight our way out of the ruins. I was glad that I found him, wherever he goes, there is always something to do."
"What kind of ruins were they?" asked Weiss.
Xeno tries to make something up, trying not to give away who they really are, "I'm not sure, but we were inside a big wall, and an open area with loads of grimm." Xeno explains.
"Hmm, never heard of that place before… oh well." Yang shrugs her shoulders.
"What else can you say about Joseph?" asks Ren,
"Well, Joseph, even at the age of eight-teen, he is very mature in serious times. Enjoy his childish demeanor, because when he gets serious, it can get terrifying. I told you about our friend dying, right?"
"Yes, Cayde was your guys' friend," said Ruby.
"Well, he went on a killing rampage to get to the killer. It was something I have never seen before. In Joseph's words, he did not give two shits about the consequences. All he only wanted is to see that man suffer."
"Scary…" said Blake.
"Yeah, really is. But those are rare times, so if you really want him to get pissed, just hope you'll survive the storm." Xeno said.
Blake got up and wanted to ask questions. Is he a faunus like I am? What does he think of the White Fang? How can he go on a killing rampage? Does he even care about others dying?
Xeno flies in front of Blake, "Sorry Blake, but Joseph is a bit too focused right now."
"How can Joseph go on a killing rampage all by himself? Did he even feel anything when he killed all those people?" she asks
"Joseph, is a complicated guy, but you wouldn't understand what his beliefs are. But, I guess in the end, he found out that the killer was manipulated and something bigger happens behind the scenes." Xeno explains.
"So he too is a killer then." asks Weiss.
"Yes, but he's the type of killer that kills the darkness, not welcome it. You shouldn't judge him like that. The end defines the means will be judged against Joseph. " Zeno wants to tell them how great his Guardian is, but doing so will compromise them, If only they know who you really are and what you do for a living Joseph… These kids only see the blind truth. He remembers that Joseph keeps a monologue about his motives, and so he plays it.
The voice of Zavala comes out of Xeno, "Joseph, what do you fight for and what are your reasons for fighting?" He asks.
The eight listens while Joseph listens as well while still fighting.
"I fight because uh, I have to." He says, "There's a reason why most people fight, to protect that they cherish. I live to protect humanity from the darkness, I have to be the beacon for everyone to know that they are safe and so children won't hear terrifying tales of the darkness. I- don't want my friends to die, they mean a lot to me. Heh, even though some can be a bit assholes, they are still good people nonetheless."
"Will there ever be a day where you would do something bad?" Asked Zavala.
"There will be. But, I always have a purpose of doing so. I don't kill for fun or for bloodlust, if a dear friend of mine gets murdered," he pauses and his tone gets into a serious, darker tone, "I will hunt down those who're behind my friends' deaths. No mercy on the cowards who hide from me."
"I see… you are a man who is able to balance their righteousness with their personal needs. People should be more like you Joseph."
"Even though that sounds flattering, they shouldn't. People should walk their own paths, not follow another's footsteps. But, I do recommend forging a path that does not include murder and all that bad shit. I'd rather get my hands dirty, be targeted, and take the hits than letting my friends do so. A duty, as a Guardian."
The monologue turns off. "Joseph is a complicated man, but he is a good man nonetheless." Xeno defended.
"He really must mean a lot to you," Ruby said.
"He does. He's my Guardian."
Joseph smiles, Damn X, you always gotta be the one who has to defend me huh? He continues to practice his moves while the rest watches.
"So child, where did you come from?"
"I-I, don't know… I just… walked through something and I'm here."
"Well, seeing how you fight, you have a bit of experience. Once we are done with this mission, I'll introduce you to my husband and daughter."
"That sounds great! What are their names?" - A Huntress to a lost child
Like again, this chapter will need some constant check ups. So if you see something during the fighting parts that seems odd to the characters, please giv me a heads up.
