The combat classroom was massive they had several sets of mats and arenas some had training drones and some had striking and grappling dummies.
A smirk spread across Shiro's face when he remembered the words of his uncle. " most of the folks you are going to meet at Beacon are trained to fight Grimm. Hey will very rarely be trained to fight people but that is part of the job so I am going to make sure you are ready."
Those were the words Tai spoke before he taught Shiro Kor Hada. it was a style of striking like what Yang used but it also incorporated limited grappling. Normally just to set up more strikes. Much to Shiro chagrin he later found out that when he was younger his father fought in Shanqual or as it was more commonly know Zintran Boxing.
The rules where similar to Kor Hada and master of one might be confused for a master of another. The real difference was that Shanqual from the island of Zintra while Kor Hada came from the Island of Kor Salor. Both were off of the southeastern coast of Mistral but Shanqual had fewer rules most notably it allowed the use of headbutts. This meant that a Shanqual fight was really as close to a sanctioned barfight as you could get.
Professor Goodwitch was waiting for them to stop talking amongst themselves before she would begin the lesson. They soon did and she and she started by saying. "The first thing you need to know about combat is that you know nothing about combat." there was a confused silence over the room as she explained. "All of you have trained for combat, some of you have even competed with live opponents. But none of you understands the feeling of true violence."
As she said this a set of statistics appeared on the main screen. They match Glynda's next words. "Roughly one-fourth of you will not be alive in four years. Beyond that only one-eighth of you live to be thirty. Of that only one in every twenty will live to die of old age. There is one Hunstman in history to have been able to maintain active duty for more than four decades."
The words disappeared and the screen went black as she continued. "It is my job to make sure you are as prepared as possible for the day that you will ultimately not survive. I will teach you to kill, both people and Grimm. From this day forth you are Remnant's greatest defenders. Without you, this world would burn in Hellfire."
A somber silence fell over the room as Glynda continued. " that being said who wants to start off with some sparring.?"
An odd number of kids raised their hands so after selecting an even number of students Glynda started to assign them to mats. Shiro found himself standing across from Pyrrha Nikos. They were on the mat the farthest from Goodwitch but that kinda made sense. Pyrrha was probably the one in every twenty for this class and any match that had her involved didn't need a referee or monitor.
Shiro waited for his opponent to signal that she was ready. Which she did, knowing that he wasn't going to win if he was timid Shiro lunged at her like a bat out of Hell. he was happy to see that she was on the back foot and after he had backed her up to the edge of the mat he asked her. "What's the matter do you need a breather."
that was a mistake, one that Shiro learned when Pyrrha's eyes shifted from calm and borderline happy to serious. With a seemingly trivial amount of effort, she cracked the blunt end of her spear across Shiro's wrist. The impact making him drop his sword. The same sword that was then batted across the room by the same end.
Shiro looked at his weapon flying far from his reach. Turning back to the threat he saw Pyrrha throwing her own weapons away. That made sense. He had started this by laying the heat on her. She was probably used to people trying to get one up on the champion during sparring. Now she was sending a message. making an example of him.
He took his Hada Kor stance and moved forward. He was committed now it was time to do or die. He stepped forward and threw a right teep kick from his orthodox stance. Pyrrha responded to this by catching his foot and after under hooking her left arm beneath Shiro's knee she spun into a spinning back sweep sending Shiro's legs out from under him.
As he laid there trying to get his breath back Pyrrha grabbed one of his legs and set about locking in a kneebar. Shiro acted fast by kicking at Pyrrha's ass only to miss and end up landing a kick directly in the champion's crotch.
The sound that she made was a mix between a grunt and growl as she released Shiro's legs and drove her heel into his own groin. The pain that he felt was indescribable and by the time he was able to scramble to his feet, Shiro was fuming. As he moved towards Pyrrha she seemed to reel back and start to reach for her spear.
His rage now in full control Shiro yelled. "What's the matter not so invincible anymore." even though her spear was still several feet from her it shot from the ground and flew into Pyrrha's hand. In a swift deliberate action, Pyrrha threw the spear but it sailed passed Shiro and sank into something behind him with a loud crunch.
As his anger died Shiro turned around to see a creature from his nightmares. When he was still in his first year at Signal Yang had taken Ruby and left to find her mother. Shiro knew that it was a bad idea but so did Yang. when Yang ran into trouble she called first Shiro then his father. Both of them started to move in the direction that Yang had moved but Shiro was delayed. He had run into the alpha of the pack that was attacking Yang and Ruby.
It was only by the sheer dumb luck of the draw that Shiro survived that encounter. The alpha seemed to be trying to play with him so he had managed to land a massive stab into the beast belly. The last Shiro saw of it was when it limped into the darkness of the forest.
And now it was standing in front of him just like the day he had fought it. This tie the monster made not of flesh but some form of ice. Ice that had a grey tint to it. Shiro's fear froze his body as the Grim moved onto to attack the Mistrilian champion.
Pyrrha threw her shield at the Beowolf's neck but the strike did no real damage. Just as the beast was about to attack Pyrrha Shiro heard a loud yell and saw Jaune in his armor. He attacked from the monster's blind spot. With a powerful elbow smash, he buckled the right knee. And when the Beowulf attempted to swing at him with its left arm he countered by stepping back out of reach and launching off his back foot driving into the back of the right shoulder with his left fist.
The blow shattered the entire arm and using the opening that was now present Jaune switched from standing to the Grim's right to it's left. His right arm wrapped around the neck in a reverse guillotine while his left arm came down on the grim's left shoulder shattering it.
With his right arm, he cranked back on the head and in a swift motion he ripped the head off. Finally killing the monster before he staggered away pressing buttons on his gauntlet as he fell to his knees.
His helmet came off to show that he was drenched in sweat and was panting like a dog. "Dammit," Willow said from her place on the other end of the room. "He overclocked the armor, he's cooking in his own skin." as she said this Weiss who had begun to watch Shiro intently acted. While Willow was trying to hijack the fire-suppression system Weiss opened the magazine on Shiro's gun and pulled out a fire, ice, and air dust crystal.
With half of the class shouting warnings Weiss held the crystals in her hand and closed a tight fist around them. She then smacked her closed hand fusing the stones together. She threw the fused stones into the air at Jaune and drew her rapier.
With a precise shot, she sent a charge of lightning dust into it. The result was an explosion of water the drenched Jaune and the armor cooling both off quickly. After a few seconds of Jaune still, just staring at the floor where he had stopped. Willow asked him. "You okay Bro?"
"The circuitry and the hydraulics are shot, I can't move until I unlock the armor. With the help of Shiro and one of the larger boys, Jaune was half dragged half carried out of the room and when they turned towards the infirmary Jaune interrupted. "No, Machine bay not the infirmary."
They wanted to ask why he wanted that but settled for just listening to him. Once he was seated on one of the workbenches Jaune looked at the other boy and said. "Thank you, give us the room,"
The boy left the room and Jaune started to Shiro. "So I guess you're going to kill me now?" Shiro asked.
"No," Jaune corrected as he began to take off the armor. After the first few pieces were off Shiro noticed that Jaune's armor was attached to screw ports that seemed to be attached to his bones. Shiro also noticed that there were burn marks on Jaune's arms where the hydraulics had burst the fluid leaked out.
"Do you know why I did this to myself?" Jaune asked
Shiro looked like he was about to answer when Jaune continued. " I am Pyrrha's team leader. She, Ren, and Nora have all trusted their lives in my hands, as such I am the first one into danger and the last one out of it. If I had died on that training room floor I would have died happy knowing that my team was made safer by my actions. Being the leader of a team is a massive responsibility. Think about that,"
By now Jaune had gotten the last of the armor off and was just left with his burned body glove he put all the armor into a small wagon and brought it over to a furnace. Much to Shiro's shock he started throwing the pieces into the fire. "I can't let the tech in the suit end up in the hands of anyone who isn't named Arc. I can get a new one soon," he said
His actions explained Jaune headed for the infirmary leaving Shiro with several questions about his leadership skills and one that was simply. "Who the Hell is this guy?"