I Do Not Own RWBY

Fight Club Part 2

Iris could feel the intensity in the air as she walked down towards the stage. What if I freeze up? As I continue to walk the blades in their sheaths seem to feel heavier at my waist. What if I make a fool out of myself? Going over every style Aiden taught me last night, I hope beyond reasoning that the muscle memory of using my blades comes back to me in my moment of need. You aren't cut out for this.

My hands start to clam up as I step on stage. Feeling the pressure start to build I try and put on a smile to cover how nervous I'm feeling. I peek up towards the seats and see the guys watching me, judging me. I take a deep breathe and assess my opponent. The ninja faunus looks to be sizing me up as I stand before her. Her hand on her sword. Bow twitching. Brain racking itself, probably trying to formulate some sort of strategy to combat my weapons. I grip the hilts of both swords and ready myself for what's to come.

"BEGIN!"

Blake dashes towards me at full tilt, drawing her sword and gripping her cleaver sheath in one flawless motion. I draw both of my swords into a cross to block her first swipe at me, but she hits me with her cleaver from the side. I take the blow and try to spin around to hit her with both of my swords. You don't stand a chance. I jump and twist in the air, bringing the full weight of my swing down on her. Both swords hitting her sheath in unison. I try to jump back to gain some distance but she wraps her ribbon around my ankle, dragging me down. I hit the floor hard.

Why are you even trying?

Why am I trying? This match doesn't really mean anything. I'm just wasting energy. If I'm going to lose I should just get it over with.

"Come on Iris! You can do it!"

I look up to the seats and see Lucas standing there, leaning forward with anticipation. "Don't give up!" he shouts. I can almost make out what looks to be worry forming on Aiden's face beside him. My leader, Drew, was reclined back in his seat watching the show like some action set piece. Nothing but a smirk on his face, but I can almost make out something he's mouthing.

WHAM!

I get slammed in the back by Blake's cleaver. Rolling across the floor I manage to just barely stop and hold myself up with my blades. I glance up towards my team and finally make out what Drew is trying to mouth to me.

Just believe in yourself.

With all of my strength, I pull myself off of my swords and stare straight at Blake. "Now it's on."

Gritting my teeth I dash towards the ninja. I try to slide into a cross swipe, but she creates a clone to dodge out of the way. Pulling myself up I block a strike from behind. Feeling this newfound strength my swords start to become easier to handle, so I'm thinking it's ready for the next level. I dash at her again, this time I can see the confusion forming on her brow. Probably wondering why I would try the same tactic a second time knowing how the first one went. I use my semblance to see her two seconds from now, and she makes a shadow clone to try and get behind me again, grappling me with her ribbon and cutting me down for the win. Perfect.

I let her create the clone, but instead of attacking it I side step around it so it's between the two of us. Slamming the hilts of my blades together I pull back on the twine emerging from the back of the blades, and pulling a blunt arrow out of my quiver I line up the shot. Pulling the string back as far as possible I let loose the arrow and watch it soar. It cuts through the clone like paper and punches Blake right in the gut.

Staggering back I see that it's knocked the wind out of her. A blow like that, even through aura had to hurt like hell. I take a peek up at the screen and see that we're both in the yellow now. Mine a bit further down than hers. Regaining her breath Blake notices the determination brewing in my eyes. The pair make a silent agreement of respect between each other before rushing forward. Seeing her ahead in time I block the katana from my right and dodge the cleaver from my left. We carve into each other like some formal dance.

Managing to gain the upper hand, Blake uses fire dust and creates an explosive clone ready to take me out. Respecting how far she's come in this fight she finishes her final attack and completes the fight, or so she thought. Knowing about the fire clone in advanced I prepared my counter attack. Seeing the clone forming I only had a few moments before it blew up in my face, so I had to time this perfectly. Breaking apart my swords I slice into the shoulders of the clone and use them to flip over it, and with the explosion following it I propelled through the air directly above Blake. Moving the blades once more into bow form I grab two heavy arrows and one explosive. Hitting the feline from above with the two heavy arrows Blake stumbles backwards, aura just barely in the yellow. Noticing what I had done, Blake realized her mistake all to late. The final arrow sealed her fate. The explosion knocked Blake across the stage and sent her aura plummeting into the red.

"Blake's aura has been sent into the red! Iris Korzac is the victor!"

Looking down from my seat, I felt proud that Iris could hold her own against the feline ninja. My team needed training, but with the right stuff they could be elites before the fall. I watch as Iris goes to help Blake up. I see her bow, probably apologizing for tricking her and thinking she went too far. Walking back up to us I can see her face turn menacing. "Don't any of you start with me! I already have a lot going through my head right now, so I don't need any of your shit."

"You were awesome!" Lucas jumps at her. "What do you mean give you shit, that was way better than my fight! How did you even do half of that?!"

Iris looked stunned. I guess nobody had ever really praised her before.

"It was a good fight. I will admit I didn't think you would pull through until you shot through the clone." Aiden perked up.

Iris suffocated him in a hug. "Please release me."

"Not until you tell me who replaced you with a nicer person!"

"I knew you would win from the start. The determination I saw in your eyes was unmistakable, I wouldn't have changed a thing. But with practice you would have ended it faster." I get up and pry her off of Aiden. "Now then, Aiden. I believe it's your turn in the spot light."

"If it was any other occasion I would forfeit the match, but I am intrigued with Lie Ren's style of combat. Just make sure to gather as much data as possible while I'm down there."

"Of course."

Making his way down towards the stage, I couldn't sense any form of change in his demeanor. He strode right up onto the stage and waited to confront his opponent.

"BEGIN!"

While watching the last fight between Iris and Blake, I hadn't realized that Aiden had changed the location of his gun. Dropping it out of his right sleeve he immediately unfolded it and started to pepper Ren with gun fire. Using the magnum bullets loaded in, each shot was a heavy hitter.

Quickly transforming his gun into light assault rifle mode, Aiden dashed towards Ren. Using his extended mag now the bullets weren't as strong, but there was a lot of them being washed over his enemy. Ren used Aiden's advancement to his advantage. Returning with a volley of bullets himself he dashed towards him, dodging the hellfire Aiden was raining on him.

Ren got in close and tried to swipe at him with his blades, but Aiden managed to block them with the barrel of his gun. Jumping back Aiden then transforms it into his short range shotgun. Ren tries to get close again but ends up facing down the barrel of his gun. Ren gets hit, but runs back again. Aiden continues to open fire upon Ren, but still manages to get hit. By the end of this fire fight both of them are in the yellow.

Ren makes one final stand. He jumps back to the far end of the stage and dashes towards Aiden to gain as much speed as possible. Meanwhile Aiden transforms his gun into it's final form, the sniper.

On opposite sides, each fighter makes their final move. Aiden lines up the shot to take Ren out, while Ren builds up speed heading to cut him down. Aiden waits for the last possible moment, when Ren is practically staring down the barrel of his rifle to fire. At that last moment Ren spots Aiden's finger twitch and side steps to the right. Ren dances around Aidens left as the shot rings out over the crowd. From behind, Ren slices Aiden across his back with both blades sending Aiden's aura into the red.

"Aiden's aura has been reduced to the red. Lie Ren is the victor."

"What the hell was that! Was Aiden even trying!?" Lucas wondered out loud as the two fighters walked back to their seats.

"Makes me feel kind of stupid for even trying with my fight." Iris stated.

Aiden waltz back up to his seat, his two teammates both staring disrespectfully at him. "I believe what I learned was sufficient enough to combat his skill in the future." Looking around at the pair. "Why are you two staring at me like that?"

"You lost on purpose you idiot! That's why we're mad at you!" Iris berates him.

I stand up and place a hand on Aiden's shoulder. "You did a good job out there. Thank you."

"I thought it would be best to not show off too much on our first day. Possibly throw some of the other students off. Yes I could have easily dispatched Ren by using just a combination between my pistol and shotgun forms, but instead I decided to see how he would react to each variant."

Realizing what he had done, Iris and Lucas realized their mistake. "Oh. Well, okay then." Iris stammered.

With the quick conclusion of the last fight with Pyrrha reigning victorious we all got excused to go to supper. On the way out of the door I fell back behind the others with Blake. Yang managed to peeked back and saw what I was doing. With a slight smirk she resumed her chat with Pyrrha and Ruby about their fights.

"I apologize if my teammate was a bit too harsh on you. I promise it wasn't anything personal."

"It's okay. Everyone's trying their hardest to be at the top, and your team seams to be up there in terms of skill. Personally I still have a lot to learn when it comes to strategizing."

I turn around and start walking backwards while talking with her. "Want some pointers? I'm free most days after classes, I think. We could help each other train." I say with hope that she will accept.

She smiles softly. "I think I'll take you up on that offer, just so long as it doesn't distract you from any leader duties."

"A few nights won't hurt anything."

We get to the cafeteria and all three of our teams take over a table to eat at. I see that Pyrrha is sitting close to Juane. Maybe I should play cupid for them and try to get them together before the dance? For some reason Ruby keeps pestering me about my weapon and how it works. Lucas tries to have a conversation with Yang, but keeps failing ultimately. And Nora and Iris are arguing over which of their leaders is the strongest. I start to think to myself as I finish my food, this is how it should be. If I stop the fall and save everything from failing, then we could have this until we all graduate. But I wipe that thought out of my head. Even if we stop the fall then Salem will just try a new method. Except the next time I won't know what will happen. It'll be safer to just let it happen and deal with the consequences.

I finish my food and head off towards our dorm for the comfort of sleep, that is until Ruby grabs my shoulder from behind. "Aren't you coming to leader class with us?"

"Shit." I say under my breath. I grit my teeth into a smile and turn towards her and Jaune. "Of course. How could I forget our most important class of the day." I start to walk with Ruby and Jaune towards the classroom.

Iris walks past with the rest of our small group towards the dorm rooms. "Good luck hotshot, you're gonna need it." Lucas walks with her and adds his own little jab at me. "You'd better not dig us a bigger grave now. You hear!"

As we walk off Jaune asks "What was that all about? Did you not want to go to leader class?"

"No, it's just. Well, let's just say I'm not really on good terms with Ozpin at the moment."

"What could you have done before the first day of classes that could have angered him enough to not want to go to class?" Ruby asks.

"I wouldn't say I angered him. It's just, complicated."

We arrive at the classroom, and luckily we got there before the headmaster did. We take our seats next to each other and wait. I look over and see Cardin looking a bit uneasy. Now that I think about it, Sky and Dove weren't in combat training. Wonder if that has anything to do with his mood?

Just as I'm beginning to wonder when the class is going to start, he walks in. Ozpin.

"Hello class. You're all already acquainted with who I am, so I'll get straight to the point. You are all the future leaders of your generation of huntsmen and huntresses. You have a duty to guide, watch over and protect those in your charge. Now, you're all probably wondering one thing. Why me? Well I want all of you to know that I chose each and every one of you for very specific reasons." Walking down the rows, he starts at our end. "Miss. Rose. I chose you as leader of team RWBY due to your tenacity, innocence and ability to lead those down the right path." Moving on he stands in front of Jaune. "Mr. Arc. I chose you as leader of team JNPR due to your strategist nature. I sense a great leader in you." Managing to get a small smile out of Jaune he moves on to myself. As he stops in front of me I see intrigue on his face. "And you, Mr. Azzurum. I chose you for your quick thinking and intellect. You've lead your team for a lot longer than I've known of you, and so I trust you to keep leading them down the correct path." Moving on he describes the following leaders. I take a moment to dissect what he meant. Was he hoping I wouldn't drag my team into his war with Salem?

"And finally, Mr. Winchester. I chose you for your brute strength when dealt with an impossible situation." Seeing this as a compliment Cardin smiles smugly. Returning to the front of the class, Ozpin leans back against the desk and addresses everyone. "These are the reasons I chose each of you. Now then I must also add that each of you is not without flaws." Turning around he starts to write something on the board, he barely managed to start when Glynda interrupts him, peeking in from the door. "Professor, a word if I may?" she asks with confidence.

"Of course Glynda.". He turns to face the class before stepping out. "Class, since this first lesson is a short one, why don't you all think of what some of your weaknesses are, as well as your teammates weaknesses. When I come back in I would like to hear what you've all come up with." As he leaves I start to brainstorm. Coming up with them was easy, it was narrowing the important ones down that was the challenge.

Five minutes later Ozpin returns. "I apologize for that little interruption. Now who would like to go first?". Eyes darting over in my direction I got the sudden feeling I was about to be asked to go first. "Mr. Azzurum, how about yourself?" Yep, should've called it. "Of course sir." I stand up and head to the front. Maybe I could possibly take his attention away from myself and my little threat from yesterday? Welp, I was just going to have to try.

I am so sorry for the wait. Most of the blame can be focused on Sea of Thieves and how addictive of a grind it can be. I've already started on Chapter 7, so if it's not up by this Sunday then it will be up by the next.

Again, thank you all for reading.