Fight!
[Woo! Another chapter after over a month, sorry about that, my mind wanted to focus on other stuff, so I ended up making a chapter for a few stories and will be posting two of them concurrently with this one, just go to my profile and you should see that they were published recently, also if you didn't notice, I edited previous chapters so that they don't open/end nor transition like a script. Please enjoy both those stories and this one!]
Professor Goodwitch is holding the first class of the week. "Students, after reviewing the rules and regulations of an official duel last week, of which some of you have failed the comprehensive test and will need to retake it before you are allowed to participate in what follows, tournament style mock battles," Professor Goodwitch informs her class, which gets many of them to cheer in excitement and enthusiasm at the prospect of testing their mettle against their classmates and showing off their strength and skill.
"Settle down everyone, as this is the first class, don't expect to be chosen, I will only be conducting three duels per class with certain exceptions. At the end of each duel, I shall critique your performance, acknowledging what you've done as effective, but also pointing out flaws I see during said matches as well," Professor Goodwitch says to the class as she turns around a interacts with control panel that causes the stage to shift from its half-ovular shape into a boxier one with a large screen visible above the stage on the wall behind the stage.
Professor Goodwitch then turns back towards the students and addresses them again, "Now I expect those not participating in the match to make notes on what I say, some advice I give will be universally applicable, some will only be suitable for those with similar fighting styles or weapons, and in some instances the information will only be useful to the one receiving it. Therefore not only will your grades be determined by your skill, but also by your ability to see your own faults and fix them as well as your ability to further develop yourselves. With that said let us start the first match."
The students sit down around the arena as the two called up ready themselves for combat and take the stage. At the control panel, Professor Goodwitch turns all lights off except the few above the stage illuminating it and displaying the images of the fighters on screen alongside a gauge of their Aura's level of integrity. The two students begin to fight, however, some of the students in the audience pay their duel no attention as they whisper amongst themselves. "I can't wait for my turn!" Yang excitedly whispers to her team, "I know right! I can't wait to show everyone how amazing Crescent Rose is!" Ruby excitedly returns, "You guys might want to stop whispering unless you want to get in trouble with Professor Goodwitch," Blake whispers a warning to them, causing Ruby to shudder and simply say, "Ya, no thanks."
The current and next matches go by with nothing of note truly happening, simply random people fighting each other at a mediocre level, that is until the pairing for the final match were called out by Professor Goodwitch, "Null Blanc and Revati Meleagris," with this both Revati and a pale boy with black hair, presumably Null, stand and make their way to the locker room to retrieve their combat gear. "Hmm, this could be interesting, I don't believe any of us have seen Revati fight before," Weiss mentions to her team, "Ya, I didn't see him in the Emerald Forest at all during initiation, well let's see what kind of power Rev is rocking!" Yang exclaims. "He has gauntlets like you Yang, maybe he fights similarly to you," Ruby says to her older sister who responds with, "If that's the case, then me and him have to do some sparring."
Just as they finish their conversation, both Revati and Null step onto the stage, Revati in his blue full-body armour and gauntlets, and Null in causal clothing with hide armour strapped overtop and wielding a spear with a white head and black handle. "Fighters ready?" Professor Goodwitch asks the two. Revati extends his left leg forward and rests on the ball of the foot with the leg slightly bent, his right leg remains where it is and turns outwards, his arms extend forward and his hands come up in an half open position with the arms slightly bent and the left somewhat ahead of the right, "Ready," Revati confirms with the professor. Null gets into a loose sideways horse stance with his spear pointed towards Revati, "Ready," he also confirms in a lacklustre voice. "Alright, then begin!" Professor Goodwitch yells out after displaying the boys' stats on the screen and dimming the other lights.
With this signal to start, Null immediately rushes Revati, thrusting his spear forward, however, Revati spins his body left off his right leg before Null can even get halfway through his motion. As the head of the spear nears where Revati's left shoulder once was, he reaches forward and firmly grasps the head and yanks the spear further forward, this causes Null to gain even more momentum as he is then carried directly in an elbow strike to his face, which causes him to let go of the spear and fly backwards onto his back. Revati proceeds to lightly toss the spear into the air then grab it by the shaft, quickly spin around and launch it into the wall behind him, embedding the head of it into the surface.
Before Revati turns around he drops his body down slightly and reaches his hands towards his left shoulder just in time to grab Null's arm and then flip him over his shoulder, sending Null onto his back again. Revati, having never let go of the arm, had followed him down, however he had twisted himself into landing into a front-facing straddle onto Null's chest, where he swiftly proceeds to lock Null into an armbar, pulling on his arm and twisting his head with his calves. After only a couple of seconds, Null starts to frantically slap the arena with his right arm, which prompts Professor Goodwitch to announce, "Stop, the winner by submission is Revati Meleagris!"
Revati lets Null out of his submission and stands up, shortly followed by Null who is rubbing his left shoulder and neck. Professor Goodwitch walks up onto the stage and walks behind Revati and says with a faint smile, "Mr. Meleagris, you performed very well, disarming your opponent and using their own momentum against them before putting them into a submission, a strategy rarely employed even in tournaments that can lead to a swift victory as it is one of the few ways to defeat an opponent without getting rid of their Aura, however, I'd advise against turning your back on an opponent, even if they've been knocked down, although you managed to predict their intention before it happened this time, it is unwise to use "gut feelings" to prevent yourself from sustaining damage," "Understood, ma'am," Revati replies back.
The professor then backs up behind Null and tells him with a scowl on her face, "Mr. Blanc, your performance was quite lacklustre, never charge an opponent you know nothing about, instead watch them and look for an opening, allowing yourself to be disarmed so early into a match will almost always result in a loss, and your stance and technique require improvement beyond the amateur level of capability you've shown. You may have been able to muscle your way through Pharos and past initiation, but Beacon is in the "big leagues," if you are unwilling to put all your effort into classes, then I suggest you leave," Null's only response is a sullen nod.
Professor Goodwitch then walks to the front of the stage and informs the class, "Students, as the class is nearly finished, I advise using what you've heard here to strategize for future matches, you are dismissed in five minutes, good day." With that, Revati walks back to the locker room to change back into their school uniforms and Null attempts to pull his spear out from the wall with little success, while this is happening, Teams RWBY and JNPR talk amongst themselves about their friend's performance. "Did you see that?! That match lasted less than a minute! Didn't really expect Sir Stutters-a-lot to be such a badass," Nora says to the others, most of which express their agreement in some form, "I will admit, I've only ever seen one person who's demeanour changed more drastically than Revati's and wasn't simply acting," Weiss agrees.
Just then, Revati exits the locker room and walks up to his friends, "H-Hey, so how'd I d-do?" he asks, slightly nervous about his friends' answers, "How'd you do? You were amazing!" Ruby yells to him. "Ya, you really wiped the floor with that guy," Yang adds, "That just brings up an important question, how were you able to predict your opponent's moves so accurately even when not looking at them?" Weiss asks the boy while tilting her head slightly and propping one of her arms up with the other, "Th-That would be due to m-my Semblance, it's called Foresight," Revati explains.
"Woah really?! Then what am I thinking about?" Nora demands while expressing a comical level of concentration on her face, "Nora, that's not how-" Blake begins before being interrupted by Revati, "Y-You're thinking about how sheep are just l-living clouds," "*GASP* That's exactly what I was thinking! Quickly, we need tin foil hats! Or else he'll find out all our secrets!" Nora yells while gesturing wildly. "N-Nora, the reason I kn-knew what you were th-thinking was because I f-foresaw you telling me, I can't a-actually read minds," "Oh, Whew, that's a weight off my shoulders... not that I have anything to hide!" Nora says in relief before unconvincingly assuring the others she has no secrets. "Well if you see the future, can you tell me the answers to tomorrow's test?" Yang asks with a sheepish grin on her face, "S-Sorry, but my Semblance becomes less clear the f-further I try to see into the future, right now I can o-only see up to 10 seconds ahead w-without missing anything, at m-most I can see a year ahead, b-but all I get is a single image at that point," Revati further explains the limits of his Semblance.
"Yang, you weren't actually thinking about trying to cheat on the test, we're you?" Weiss threateningly asks the blonde, who only gulps in response and says, "What? Oh course not! I was only trying to make sure Rev here couldn't cheat, heh heh," she unconvincingly says to her ponytailed teammate while she glared at her. "Still it's a pretty cool Semblance, are there any other limits on it?" Ruby asks the stuttering boy, "Ya, for one, I can only see things that involve myself, whether I'm partaking in an event or simply at the scene, and the other limitation is that it only shows what would happen if I don't change what was suppose to happen, meaning that if I were to dodge a punch I foresaw, then I would need to deactivate and reactivate my Semblance so as to get a look at the new future otherwise I'll just see a continuation of what was suppose to happen," Revati explains while everyone stares at him.
"O-Oh! S-Sorry, I was rambling a-again wasn't I? K-Kinda spaced out th-there," Revati says with a light blush as he looks at the floor. "There is nothing to apologize for," Ren says with a soft smile. "Ya, it's nice to see you coming out of your shell," Jaune tells his nervous friend while patting him on the shoulder while the boy gains a glazed look in his eyes and starts drooling, "Mmmm, shellfish... O-Oh dang it, I-I did it again!" Revati realizes while Ruby, Yang, Jaune, Nora, and Pyrrha all softly laugh at this and Ren, Blake, and Weiss simply smile as they all leave class for lunch.
"It's nice getting to know more about you Rev, you don't share much," Yang says while wrapping her right arm around his shoulder, causing him to stoop slightly, "I-I don't like talking a-about myself," he stutters out as he looks the other way. "I'm sure if you hanged out some more with us outside school hours you'd learn to open up more," Weiss states while looking back at the two, "Y-Ya, we had fun th-those few weeks ago, I s-suppose it couldn't hurt," Revati admits as they head off to the cafeteria to eat.