The last class before lunch was, without question, the most eagerly anticipated class of the day for most of the first-year students. Professor Goodwitch's Combat class was an opportunity for them to show off and let off some steam. It also allowed the students to wear something other than their school uniforms, which was always welcome. "Hello students," Glynda greeted them all, pacing in the middle of the arena, benches arranged in a tiered circle around it.
"Welcome to Beacon's Combat class. Here, we will assess your skills and fighting styles, allow you to practise them, and help you improve them. I will warn you now, some of you may need to make dramatic changes to how you fight. There will also be students here who are well ahead of the curve. Many of these fights will be uneven matches. The lost bouts will sting, but remember there is always room for improvement. Improvement is, after all, why you are all here." She looked around the room, gauging the reactions of the various students. Some were excited, others quiet and collected, whilst some appeared frightened. Same as any year, then, Glynda mused.
"In order to help you develop, we must first know where you currently stand. As such, over the next week you will each fight a number of one-on-one matches against your fellow students. I know some of you are already familiar with tournament-style matches, but for those that aren't." She paused, pulling out her tablet and pressing a button on it, a large screen lighting up. Two empty bars appeared, each with a box with a blank silhouette next to it.
"This screen will display the current aura level of each of the combatants. When one fighter's aura goes below the marked line, or is broken completely, the match ends. I shouldn't need to say this, but history has proven I must. Do not attempt to continue fighting after the match has been called. The consequences will be severe." She fixed the crowd of students with her third-best glare to get her point across.
"Some of you have backgrounds in tournament fighting and non-standard combat academies such as fencing schools and the like. As a result, you will be used to fighting with certain rulesets. No aiming for the face, a hit to the body is worth so many points and so on. None of those apply here. You are training to be hunters, fighting for your lives against the grimm. Other than the rule about the end of the match, the only other requirement is that you stay inside the arena. Anything else goes. Understood?" At the chorus of affirmatives, Glynda nodded.
"Excellent. Let's not waste any more time then," she said. "Matches will be randomly determined. Our first bout will be…" she tailed off as she pressed a few buttons on her tablet, looking at the main screen.
The two blank boxes started to scroll through each of the student's head-shots rapidly, before settling on the two fighters. "Yang Xiao Long versus Weiss Schnee." A wave of murmurs circulated the crowd as the named students locked eyes. Yang grinned eagerly, vaulting over her bench and striding out into the middle of the arena. Weiss followed more sedately, slowly drawing Lilie from her back as she went. The pair stood some distance apart, sizing each other up. Yang deployed her gauntlets, cracking her knuckles and winking at Weiss.
"Ready, Snow Angel?" Yang teased. Lots of dust usage, very mobile. Taller than me. Greater range, getting past that sword's gonna be tricky, Yang thought, figuring out her tactics. Weiss blinked slowly as she registered that Yang used the same nickname Jaune had given her whilst trying to flirt with her. Hearing it from Yang elicited entirely different emotions, and she masked any response she might have shown by slipping her helmet on.
"So long as you are," she said, taking a wide stance and a low guard, the tip of her blade resting close to her foot. Shorter than me and uses gauntlets, so much less reach. Aggressive, will likely go on the offence early. Close-in fighter, will need to keep a distance. Trading blows? Or hit and run, keep her at bay?
"Contestants, are you ready?" Glynda asked, having retreated to the stands. The two of them nodded. "Very well. On my mark… Begin!"
True to Weiss' guess, Yang immediately went on the attack. Firing her gauntlets behind her, she catapulted herself forwards, closing the distance quickly. Weiss kicked the tip of her sword, shifting the sudden momentum upwards in a diagonal slash at Yang. Another blast from Yang's gauntlet changed her path, driving her back into the ground, evading Weiss' swing and rolling past her. Coming up in a crouch, she raised her arms to protect against the follow-up strike she guessed was coming. A jarring blow to her right gauntlet proved her guess right as Weiss kept the momentum going, twirling and bringing Lilie in a circle.
Keeping her right hand up, Yang snapped out with her left. Weiss shifted her guard just in time, catching the blow on her forearm instead of her torso. Her quick block failed to stop the follow-up, however, Yang firing her gauntlet as her fist connected, a shell exploding against Weiss' chest. Yang heard Weiss hiss under her helmet, blade snapping around to open a gap between the two of them. Yang took advantage of the brief lull to flex her fingers, glancing down at her hand. Like punching a wall... Right, prosthetics, she reminded herself, looking back at Weiss.
Weiss had also been distracted, a hand patting down the front of her dress. You're ok, you're not going to catch fire, Weiss scolded herself silently, taking a deep breath and returning her full attention to the match. She locked eyes with Yang again, shifting her right hand up to grab Lilie at the ricasso, levelling the point of the blade at her like a spear before advancing, jabbing rapidly at her.
Yang was forced onto the defence, warding off the stabs as she tried to find an opening. She tried to step in past Weiss' guard after deflecting a particularly forceful lunge, only for Weiss to suddenly pull her blade back. The edge was pressed against Yang's side in a drawing cut. The force Weiss put into it caused Yang to stumble, almost losing her balance.
Ok, strong as well, Yang noted with a grimace. Weiss took advantage of her stumble to leap clear, shifting back to a traditional grip on her weapon. She began swinging Lilie in circular sweeps, ice coating the blade as frost and mist built up in the air around her, creating a miniature blizzard around her. Yang grimaced, firing off a couple of blasts, both of which Weiss blocked.
Just as Yang was about to go on the attack again, Weiss suddenly swung her blade forwards, the storm lashing out at her command. Yang was pelted with ice crystals, forced to duck her head and raise her guard, swirling mist further obscuring her vision. Thinking quickly and anticipating an attack from Weiss she fired a shell into the ground at her feet, leaping up and clear of the conjured storm.
She grinned as she saw her guess was right, Weiss' lunge streaking under her with a familiar metallic ringing noise. She fired off another couple of blasts, catching Weiss in the upper back, chipping away at her aura. Weiss took the blasts with a grunt, summoning a glyph on the floor ahead of her and a second in the air. Stepping on the first glyph, she used it to launch herself up to the second, planting her feet on the glyph before firing herself towards the descending Yang. Rolling in midair, she brought Lilie in a downwards slash. Yang blocked by crossing her gauntlets, but the force of the blow slammed her back down onto the arena floor.
Weiss kept up her assault, swinging down at Yang who was forced to roll clear, quickly regaining her footing. She blocked the upwards cut aimed at her head and countered with another body blow. To her amazement Weiss didn't even attempt to block the attack, Yang's fist slamming into her side with another blast from her gauntlet. Yang felt the jolt run up her arm as her fist connected with Weiss. Rock solid again. Is that dress armoured?
Then Yang realised why Weiss let the blow land as the heiress clamped her elbow down on Yang's wrist. With Yang pinned in place and using her own left hand as a pivot, Weiss levered the hilt of Lilie up and drove the pommel into Yang's jaw. Her head snapped back as their audience let out various noises of sympathy. Weiss released Yang's hand again and kicked her firmly in the gut, sending her staggering back and opening the distance again. Yang reeled, blinking stars from her eyes as she recovered from Weiss' unexpectedly vicious attack.
Refocusing on Weiss, she saw the heiress summoning multiple glyphs, filling the air around Yang. "Uh oh," was all she got out before Weiss attacked, launching herself forwards. Yang barely managed to deflect the strike aimed at her, turning to try and track the heiress. Weiss hit one of her glyphs and rebounded, hurtling back at Yang. She ricocheted between the glyphs, striking Yang repeatedly, too fast for her to fully guard against or counter-attack.
Weiss finally ended her assault, sliding to a stop a good distance away from Yang. Both quickly glanced at their aura levels. Weiss' was still well above the losing mark, though missing a chunk thanks to Yang's attacks, whilst Yang's was almost half-way depleted. Yang grit her teeth, locking her eyes on Weiss again. Weiss flinched slightly as Yang's eyes turned red, hair starting to glow as embers started emitting from her. Yang advanced quickly, firing off a volley from Ember Celica before closing into melee.
Weiss was forced into a desperate defence, attempting to ward off the lightning-fast flurry of blows from Yang. She blocked most but some slipped through, a series of shell-augmented punches rattling against her torso. Weiss finally got an opening to use some dust, a pale blue shield springing up between the two. Yang's next few blows slammed into the shield, giving Weiss time to retreat and recover from the onslaught. Their aura levels were more evenly matched after that exchange, Weiss noted, trying not to think about how closely Yang's glowing hair resembled fire.
"Had enough yet, Princess?" Yang asked teasingly, raising her fists.
"Hmph, hardly," Weiss replied haughtily, keeping her guard up in front of her. "Why do you ask? Can't keep up?" she lightly taunted, trying to bait another rush out of Yang. As she guessed, Yang rose to the barb, charging her again. Smirking under her helmet, Weiss used some dust to create a sheet of ice on the floor around her right as Yang's foot was coming down. Said foot slipped out from under her, her momentum carrying her forwards into a tumble and a slide.
Weiss struck once at Yang, rooting Yang to the ground with more ice before leaping clear. Landing on a glyph in mid-air, she started channelling lightning dust along her blade. Yang gave a frustrated yell, standing and slamming her gauntlet into the ground. The blast melted the ice, leaving her stood in a small puddle. A crackle of electricity above her caused her head to snap up, eyes widening as she saw Weiss swing a lightning-shrouded blade. A bolt leapt from Lilie to strike Yang, and she yelled in pain, dropping to a knee as energy coursed through her.
Panting raggedly, she slowly stood again, letting out a roar of frustration as her hair seemed to fully ignite, locking her now glowing eyes on Weiss and launching herself at the heiress, still suspended in the air. Weiss froze, waves of heat coming off Yang as she rapidly approached, her attempt to defend herself coming too late to stop the blow to her midriff. Lifted off the glyph, Yang spun in midair to launch a kick at Weiss' head, firing her back down into the ground.
Weiss landed heavily, coughing and regaining her footing, looking up again. Her vision was filled with fire as Yang descended upon her. Weiss gave a frightened scream, instinct taking over as she raised her weapon, channelling her aura into the first dust vial it found. Red dust, just starting to ignite, coated Lilie just in time for Yang's fist to meet Weiss' guard, the blow as always accompanied by a shell from Ember Celica.
The resulting explosion blasted the two combatants apart, skidding to their respective halts on opposite sides of the arena. A klaxon sounded. "Enough!" Glynda called, stepping into the middle of the arena. Slowly picking herself up, Weiss glanced at the screen. Her aura level was a slim margin above the marked line, perhaps a quarter left, whilst Yang's had dipped below it. Yang got to her feet, still with flames coming off her that were slowly starting to subside. Her shoulders lifted and dropped in heavy pants as she recovered from the bout, looking over at Weiss. The heiress stood completely still, ram-rod straight and impossible to read under her helmet.
"Weiss is the winner of the match, though just barely. A good first performance from the pair of you, though with obvious room for improvement. Yang, you left yourself open at times and failed to keep the pressure up. Against a skilled dust wielder, never give them a window to prepare their next move. Weiss, you need to work on your close-in fighting. Your weapon gives you a longer reach than most fighters you'll encounter, but you struggle when someone gets past your guard. Overall, a very solid bout. Both of you go clean up and get a drink, we'll have the next match in a few minutes."
Dismissed, Weiss nodded to Glynda before turning on her heel, heading into the adjoining locker room. Yang followed after her, keeping some distance between the two. She frowned as Weiss went past her locker, instead going around a wall and into an isolated corner of the room. She heard Weiss sit heavily on one of the benches and the clatter of metal as her helmet was dropped on the floor. Peering around the corner, she saw Weiss sat, head in her hands.
Yang could hear heavy breathing, but Weiss' body was still. No rise and fall of her shoulders, no trembling limbs, no outward sign of any distress or exertion beyond the sounds of breathing. Confusion and concern growing, Yang quietly moved closer to Weiss, hearing her mutter something to herself. The words were Atlesian, preventing Yang from understanding her, but she could tell it was the same phrase repeated, and she picked out something that sounded like 'fire'.
"Weiss? You good?" she asked quietly. There was a sharp intake of breath from Weiss, head jerking to the side to peer at Yang between her fingers. Yang caught a glimpse of a single eye, wide and strained before Weiss lowered her hands into her lap, spine straight as she cleared her throat, a mask of calm descending again.
"Of course, just catching my breath," she said casually, meeting Yang's eyes again. Yang's concerned frown remained, keeping silent as she walked over to sit next to Weiss.
"It's okay to not be okay," Yang said quietly. The words caused Weiss to freeze up momentarily. "I'm not gonna make you talk about whatever it is. But if you do want to talk about it, just let me know, okay?" Weiss looked at Yang silently for a moment, two images of her struggling to reconcile in her mind. The literally hot-headed brawler she'd just fought, and the apparently-understanding woman talking to her now.
Not trusting her voice, Weiss nodded once. "Alright. Hell of a match though!" Yang said, perking up, her playful tone returning. "Where'd you learn to fight like that?"
"My sister Winter, mostly. She's a Specialist in Atlas. She also called in a few of her friends to help train me," Weiss replied, fraught emotions calming as she thought of her sister. "She didn't just teach me to fight well, she also taught me some 'dirty' tricks. Sorry about the hit to your jaw, by the way."
"Actual military training, huh? That explains the cheap shot," Yang said with a good-natured chuckle. "Ruby and I went to Signal, over on Patch. Not the sort of place that teaches you underhanded tactics. Maybe I'll learn something from you?"
"I'd… Like that, actually. And maybe you can teach me some hand-to-hand? I'm not the best at it, as you probably noticed."
"It's a date!" Yang agreed, looking back in the direction of the arena and thus missing the slight pinkness that appeared on Weiss' cheeks. "We should probably get back before Goodwitch gets impatient.
"S-sounds good," Weiss stammered out, quickly collecting her helmet again and leading the way out. I'm not going to survive a single year here, she decided internally.
A few more matches passed in Goodwitch's class, none as spectacular as Weiss and Yang's but most still worth the experience. Pyrrha dismantled another student in her bout with frightening ease, whilst Jaune's match was less of a fight and more of a beat-down. That match ended with Jaune face-down on the floor, disarmed of both his sword and shield, with Blake looking down at him, apparently confused at how easily she'd won. It was a slightly cathartic viewing for Weiss, given Jaune's terrible attempts at flirting with her just before initiation.
After Combat class ended, it was time for lunch, eagerly awaited by those students who had worked up an appetite during their matches. Team RWBY found themselves, as was becoming normal, sitting across from team JNPR.
Pyrrha and Ruby were in the process of consoling Jaune after his loss, Blake sheepishly hiding behind her book. Weiss looked across as Nora demolished a stack of pancakes. "I wasn't aware they were still serving pancakes after breakfast," she said, faintly mesmerised by the spectacle.
"They don't," Ren said flatly, eating his own meal at a much more sedate pace. Weiss waited for a moment in case there was going to be an explanation. Sensing she wasn't going to get one, she returned to her own meal.
"Weiss, your fight with Yang was so cool!" Ruby suddenly addressed her. "All the ice and the lightning and the explosions! I don't think I've ever seen Yang lose a fight before," she said, looking at Yang.
"Well, it was a very close fight," Weiss said. "If I hadn't managed to block that last attack, Yang would have won, no question there." She smiled at Yang, who nodded.
"I mean, that's kinda what happens when you go from a combat school to an actual hunter academy. I was one of the best at Signal, but everyone here who came from a combat school was one of the best at that school. Plus there's people with real-world experience, or who had some of the best tutors," Yang said, nodding to Weiss at that last part. "Point is, sis, you're gonna have to fight a lot harder if you want to stay near the top of the leaderboard here," she finished, looking at Ruby, who nodded.
"You got it!" she declared, returning to demolishing her lunch with almost the same fervour as Nora.
"Well, that is why we're here, right? To get better," Pyrrha said, looking back towards the group.
"Like you need to get any better," Yang teased, grinning. "I think you've got the most impressive record of anyone here." Weiss nodded in agreement as Pyrrha blushed lightly at the praise.
"Thank you for thinking so," she responded, deflecting the compliment quickly. "But I've got room to improve as well. Initiation was the first time I've fought any grimm other than beowolves, and the deathstalker certainly wasn't an easy fight," she said.
"They don't have you fight grimm at combat schools?" Weiss asked, blinking and tilting her head.
"Not really," Yang replied, Ruby and Pyrrha nodding with her. "Like Pyrrha said, a rare fight against a beowolf. Ruby got into a fight with a small pack once, but I think that's about it?"
"What about the rest of you?" Weiss asked. "Some of you learnt outside the cities, right?"
"Mhm. Mostly just tried to avoid the grimm though. Only fought when we had to," Ren supplied.
"... Huh," Weiss said, blinking. "It occurs to me that I might have the most experience fighting grimm then?" she guessed hesitantly.
"How's that?" Yang asked. By way of an answer, Weiss held an open hand palm up, summoning a small glyph.
"The Schnee family have the almost-unheard of trait of having a familial semblance, Glyphs. You've already seen some of what they're capable of, but they also allow us to summon our fallen foes to fight for us. I'm… I've not yet managed to master that part of our semblance," she admitted. "But my sister has, and she summoned the creatures of grimm she's killed for me to fight against."
"Woah," Ruby exclaimed, eyes wide. "That's so cool! What sort of grimm did you fight?"
"Pretty much anything you'd expect an Atlas Specialist to have fought. Never managed to beat her nevermore, though," she reflected. "And there was the grimm my father had me fight before I came to Beacon."
"Your dad made you fight a grimm?" Yang asked, frowning.
"He was adamant that if I was going to attend a hunter academy, it had to be Atlas," Weiss explained. "I wanted to go to Beacon. So, he gave me a challenge. If I managed to beat a grimm of his choosing, I would be allowed to go to Beacon instead of Atlas. I agreed, with the provision that it had to be a grimm he was able to bring to the city of Atlas, so he couldn't tell me to go kill a goliath or something like that." The seven other students seated around the table shared various glances.
"So… What did he have you fight?" Ruby asked.
"My father called it an 'arma gigas'. According to his secretary, it was several geists somehow amalgamated, possessing a giant suit of armour. I think somewhere above ten feet tall? It had a very large sword as well."
"Wait wait wait," Yang said, waving her hands in front of her, whilst the rest of the table looked somewhere between astonished or appalled. Other than Nora, who just looked excited. "Your father made you fight not just a geist, but several geists, all possessing a giant suit of armour?" she asked incredulously.
"And you won?" Blake added, sharing Yang's mild horror, though hers was born in-part from a continued fear that Weiss might try and kill her one day.
"Yes. I'm under the impression that I wasn't intended to actually win, but father underestimated me," she said, finally looking up from her food to see the expressions on her fellow students. "... What? All of you have fought grimm as well."
"Yes, but only under controlled circumstances or because we had no other choice," Pyrrha said, glancing at the others for confirmation. "Not because our parents ordered us to. At Sanctum we always had at least two professors or professional hunters for any single student fighting a beowolf. Several geists at once is a bit much… Were there at least some hunters on stand-by in case something went wrong?" Weiss was silent for a moment.
"... I'm sure father had a failsafe," she said eventually.
"Weiss, you could have been killed," Yang said in disbelief. "I know we've all chosen a dangerous career, but holy shit."
"... Well it wouldn't have been the first time I almost died," she joked lamely. The rest of her team and Pyrrha winced.
"Wait, what?" Jaune asked, blinking in confusion. "When?"
Weiss stared flatly at him. "I'm not sure I actually want to talk about that. I'm sure someone can fill you in," she said, retreating inwards again at the reactions from the other students. "Well, I need to handle something before my Advanced Dust class. Blake, I think you're in that one as well?" Blake nodded hesitantly, Weiss returning it. "I'll see you there, then," she said, picking up her tray and walking away.
"I think Weiss' dad might be a bad person?" Ruby guessed after she left.
"Making his daughter fight something like that? Gee, I wonder," Yang said sarcastically, before turning to Blake. "You're taking Advanced Dust?"
"Oh, yes," she said, nodding. "We didn't have much access to it outside the kingdoms, so I thought it'd be a good idea to get some more hands-on experience with it."
"Fair enough. Just don't spend too much time ogling Weiss," she teased.
"I don't 'ogle' her," Blake protested, huffing.
"Sure, sure," Yang said with a wink. "I should probably grab a shower before my next class, that was an intense fight. I'll see you all later!" she said, dashing off as well.
"After seeing Weiss' performance, maybe I should look into using dust more proactively," Pyrrha said. "I occasionally use it for some bullets, but there's a lot that can be done with it that I would struggle to counter."
"Maybe Weiss will teach you?" Ruby suggested.
"Hmm. Worth asking," Pyrrha nodded in agreement. "I'll ask her during dinner, then. What do you have next, Ruby?"
"Oh! Workshop!" she exclaimed excitedly. "Crescent Rose is my baby, but she's a lil' maintenance-heavy. Lots of moving parts. And it's always a good idea to have at least one member of the team good at fixing and making weapons in case something breaks in the field."
"Always a good idea. Nora's our resident expert." Nora looked up from what was left of her pancakes to salute at the mention of her name. "Ren and I have Stealth and Security with Professor Greene next," Pyrrha said.
"Sounds like we've all got pretty full schedules. Gonna be a busy year!"