"Welcome Class, as you all know, the Vytal festival tournament is approaching soon, and as such we are going to switch our training style. Previously, we had teams, duos, and one on one matches, gauging each student against another in order to rank all of you on a leaderboard. From now, through the tournament we will have a different method of ranking. For the first time in 34 years, we have a teacher engaging in the student exchange, everyone please welcome Aurum Lazuli to the stage."

Aurum, who had been waiting in the locker rooms, stepped out onto the stage. Taking a look at the crowd before her, she saw many familiar faces, one of which being her own, staring back at her in awe. A light smile coming to rest on her face, Aurum then began her speech,

"Hello class, I am Aurum Lazuli, I'm a teacher from Shade, and I'm here to assist in several ways during the classes you will have at Beacon. For one, all of you may have noticed a new class appearing on your schedule, replacing that of either Professor Port's class or Doctor Oobleck's. Rest assured that it will not permanently replace that class, and will instead rotate between the two. That class is my specialty, The Art of the Semblance. However, that is not the only way I will be assisting. As you may have heard Professor Goodwitch explain earlier, your ranking system will be changing. Instead of gauging how well you do against each-other, you will do so against me."

Several faces in the crowd lit up at that statement, some people with fear, others with excitement and determination. Either way, Aurum continued, "Now, some of you may have heard of me... some of you may not have, some qualifications are in order. I am one of 6 Double X rank Hunters in history. To put that in perspective, Glynda here is X rank. To achieve a Hunter rank, you must be able to beat a team of the rank below you in combat... Alone. I have done so on several occasions. And, my sparring record against one of the other XX Rank Hunters in existence is currently roughly 2600 to 650... in my favor. As such, when in combat with me.. do not expect to win. There is a very very low chance of victory, however, if you wish, you may fight me in any circumstance. You will be graded based off of tactics, strategy, predictability, and overall prowess. Now, I believe I've eaten up enough time talking, do we have any volunteers?"

The crowd was silent for a while, until one hand raised from the crowd.

Aurum gained a slight smile, she knew this would happen, "Miss Nikos, how would you like to fight me?"

Pyrrha Nikos stood up and spoke, "I would like to fight you one on one... no holds barred."

Aurum's smile disappeared, "That is a bad idea Miss Nikos. I assure you, your trump card will not work against me, and you will not find the challenge you so desire."

Pyrrha's face lit up with surprise, "Wha... ho-"

Aurum responded quickly, cutting off Pyrrha, "If you wish to fight me one on one, I will have to have a handicap... a regular battle would be over long before you got the chance to fight."

Pyrrha thought for a moment, "Then I would like to fight you unarmed, while I have my weapons."

Aurum relaxed a small bit, "Very well, please, go get your combat gear."

A short while passed, and Pyrrha joined Aurum on the stage, then the stage barriers hummed to life, and the two warriors took their positions, Glynda began the countdown, and at zero... Nothing happened. The two fighter's stood, staring at one another, analyzing each other's stances for any mistake. Slowly they began to circle one another, until Aurum slid her foot out slightly, Seeing what she thought was an opening Pyrhha launched her weapon at full force towards the teacher, only to be baffled as Aurum's chest turned to golden petals, and instantly reformed. She then launched at the golden girl of mistral, startling the girl with her speed.

Pyrrha made to dodge, only barely getting out of the way of the straight jab that the golden clad huntress released. Quickly retreating, Pyrrha jumped back, and blocked a powerful strike with her shield the raw force of which taking off a healthy chunk of her aura. Dodge rolling, Pyrhha moved to pick her weapon up off the ground, succeeding in doing so, she then turned to meet the huntress, who had moved to engage withing 3 feet of Pyrrha. Pyrrha cycled her weapon into sword mode, and took a heavy swing, aiming at the shoulder of the teacher. Aurum saw this, and instead of dodging, moved closer to Pyrrha, coming inside her zone and making it so that Pyrrha's arm could not complete the swing. Capitalizing on this Aurum gave Pyrrha a massive uppercut, launching the poor girl into the air a few feet, and taking out a solid quarter of her aura.

Continuing on her combo, Aurum struck the still airborne girl, sending her back several feet, tumbling across the ground, and taking out another fifth of her aura, leaving her at roughly 40%.

Pyrrha quickly stood up and took a combat stance, re-evaluating her situation, she was at 44% and her opponent was untouched, with only minor aura drain due to semblance use. Pyrrha looked at her opponent with sweat beading on her face, the woman across the stage from her wore a poker face, no visible emotion on her face, and she sat in a standard boxer's pose, ready to dodge and weave at a second's notice.

Pyrrha then noticed the small metal buckles on her boots, and gained a small smile, Pyrrha charged at her opponent with her shield in front and sword out to her side, while the teacher simply stood where she was, waiting for the correct moment. Then, just as Pyrrha's sword began to swing, the teacher bent over backwards, allowing Pyrrha's weapon to simply pass over her like a limbo bar, then, on her way back up, she thrust her right hand forward and scooped back with her left arm, making her opponent leave the ground as she rotated in place, Aurum the took her now free right arm, and delivered a swift elbow to the stomach of the girl, sending her firmly into the ground, and sending her aura into the red.

Aurum then bent over to the girl on the ground a warm smile on her face, "I cant move my feet, release your semblance."

Pyrrha's eyes widened, and the black aura surrounding the belt buckles of Aurum's boots disappeared.

"Polarity is a powerful semblance, its a shame you don't use it often enough, or more overtly."

As Aurum helped the student up, she continued speaking, "I know you want a challenge Miss Nikos, but attempting one on one combat with arguably one of the most powerful people on the planet is not how to find it. That said, well done, you lasted roughly a minute and 15 seconds, more than most can say against me while I'm unarmed."

Pyrrha looked to the aura meters and swallowed, she was at 11%, and Aurum was at 99.5%, the difference between them was now obvious. The screens then changed to show a leaderboard with a label at the top, one that currently had only Shade students on it, ones from all of the student years, even graduates. The label at the top read "Unarmed Vs. Weapons"

On the leaderboard, there were no names that Pyrhha recognized, until she saw herself take 9th place, behind several fourth years, and one first year, the leaderboard showed the Rank of the student, followed by a picture of said student with the academy symbol next to them, then to the right of the picture of the student was the words best performance followed by either a V or D, then a time, and two percentages, then a separator and two number's separated by a hyphen.

Pyrrha looked to the number one spot on the leaderboard, it read "#1 Neopolitan Lazuli, Shade,Year 1, Best Performance: V 7:38.272 37% to 14%, 19-292" The girl in question had brown and pink hair, with a white streak running through the pink, she also had heterochromic eyes. Pyrrha then glanced to the stage in search of said girl, her eyes settling on a short girl in a light pink long-sleeve hoodie which had its hood tucked into a larger cloak that surrounded her, and brown combat pants with a white belt. She also had simple white combat boots and gloves. Said girl was currently blushing furiously and glaring at the teacher down on the stage.

Pyrrha's attention then turned to her former opponent as she began speaking, "Well, that certainly was interesting... as you can see, we do have a running leaderboard for fighting me, on which you will be placed after fighting me... I will remain here through the Vytal festival, and the extended exchange following it, you will all get the chance to fight me, and you will all be on this leaderboard. However we do have more leaderboards-"

The Screens shifted to show a similar leaderboard, though this time with teams instead of names, and at the top it said, "Unarmed Vs. Teams" At the top of the leaderboard were several fourth year teams, one 1st year team, and 3 third year teams, one of which was NSVD, led by the same girl who topped the Solo leaderboard.

"-this leaderboard is for Teams against me unarmed-"

Another leaderboard took the place of the teams one, "This is the Solo Weapons vs Weapons board, as you can see, this board contains teachers as well, along with their ranks."

This leaderboard was also illuminating, as it was topped by 6 people many many people knew, at #1 was the Headmaster of Shade, who was one of two on the list labeled XX, every other teacher was either S or X. It appeared that Professor Goodwitch was also on this list, with a running tally of 1 to 82. The rest were various teachers and famous hunters, among them were Summer Rose, James Ironwood, Qrow Branwen, and Ozpin, Ozpin being the only other XX ranked hunter on the board.

"As classes continue and all of you are ranked against me, it will be at your best interest to listen to the advice I and my fellow Professors give after every fight, that said... who can point out flaws in either of our performances?"

Immediately from the crowd the girl from before raised her hand, and was called on, "Yes Neo? What did you see in that fight?"

"You fought flashy and held back to make a point, you could have ended that fight much sooner but chose once to let Pyrrha recover, and another time to use an extra flashy move that was risky."

Aurum had the decency to look slightly sheepish, "Well I suppose that's true, I could have used my semblance to run Miss Nikos here down and finish the fight after our first engagement, but the second move was necessary, for reasons I wont disclose without Miss Nikos's say so."

Pyrrha looked surprised and turned her head to Aurum, "I- Um... Thank you Professor..."

Aurum turned her attention to Pyrrha, "You're welcome for the compliment, it takes a lot of force to keep me in one place like that."

The class continued with the discussion until nobody had anything left to say, then Professor Goodwitch stepped up from her place at the sidelines, "Well, now that that instructive session is over, lets move on to our next match... Who would like to fight next?"

Silence.

"Alright then, I guess we'll do a randomizer, Aurum, would you like another one on one fight or a team battle?"

"You know what Glynda? Lets go for a duo's match huh? 2V1 with me unarmed."

Glynda then started a randomizer, and, after a few seconds of spinning, the wheel landed on team RWBY,

"Team RWBY, please choose two fighters to face Ms Lazuli."

Ruby Rose glanced to her team, and a small conversation occurred, she then stood up, and spoke. "Me and Yang will go for it."

As the two students made their out of the locker room Aurum studied her past self, noticing slight differences between herself and the young huntress in training. The biggest difference lied with what was strapped behind her back, as opposed to Crescent rose's recognizable compact form, the form of another weapon was sat at the small of younger Ruby's back. This was to be expected of course, Aurum herself would never be satisfied with an unoriginal weapon, and had the situations been reversed she surely would've made a different weapon too.

The 3 Combatants entered a ready position and waited, then once the buzzer rang, Yang rushed into combat, attempting to take the focus of the fight, leaving Ruby to add sniper fire to the mix, chipping away at Aurum's aura.

Familiar with the strategy, Aurum used her knowledge of the weaknesses of the strategy, and of her younger self and sister. Aurum dodged and weaved between Yang's punches, dodging bullets from Ruby's weapon as she did so, then, after a particularly bad overextention from Yang, Aurum used her Semblance to pass right through the unsuspecting brawler, leaving several golden rose petals behind.

After passing through her sister, she used her momentum, and kicked off of the Yellow haired fighter, sending said girl into the ground, while launching herself straight at the younger silver eyed girl. Ruby's eyes widened in surprise and she tried to transform her weapon, but alas, her weapon didn't transform in time, and Aurum landed on the ground, rolling and springing up to deliver a devastating kick to the chin as she back-flipped also dodging a bullet from the now recovered Yang in the process, the bullet whizzed under her, colliding directly with Ruby, sending her out of the ring entirely.

Seeing this, Yang froze in shock, a bad idea in a fight. Aurum landed gracefully, and turned to the blonde brawler, beginning a charge, Yang snapped out of her funk at the sight of this, but didn't ready herself in time to defend. As Aurum approached Yang she fell into a slide kick, sweeping the girl off of her feet and sending her aura to near red.

Yang fell on her back and looked up to see the cloaked woman standing above her. Aurum leaned over and flicked Yang's forehead, the small flick accompanied by a "Boop" from the teacher, the flick also sent her head back to the floor and her aura over the edge and into the red.

Staring up to the teacher, who once again went untouched the whole fight, Yang spoke, "Dang teach, that was crazy."

A warm smile came upon the older woman's face as she addressed her sister, "Well fought Miss Xiao Long, that fight should put you fairly high up on the board."

Yang's attention was then drawn to her sister, who joined the two already on the stage, Ruby had a slightly miffed appearance, which was fairly rare to see on the bubbly girl.

Aurum helped Yang up off the ground, and then addressed the class once again, asking for flaws.

Ruby and Yang's attention was instead drawn to the leaderboard, they had just taken the #11 spot, right behind a third year duo from Shade. They had lasted just over a minute and a half in that fight, slightly longer than Pyrrha had while solo.

"Ahem, Miss Rose, Miss Xiao Long, your response?"

"Uh wha?" "Huh?"

HEYO, So I got a new Schedule for ya'll, Im gonna upload a big chapter every Monday and Every Thursday. You can expect them to be roughly this size or bigger, along with that i just wanted to say, that I realized I havent actually described how Neo looks, that bieng said, im really happy with how i've described her in sharp contrast to how she is in cannon, Neo wears mostly covering clothing, and also more baggy tops. Like, I would imagine her fashion being similar to her mother's in the sense that revealing clothing isnt really a thing. Fun fact, in my version of events, Neo has 6 outfits, 5 of which are Hoodie or sweater based, with one being just a pink tee. Also I havent addressed how Ruby deals with having her weapon already exist. Ruby would never just make a weapon identical to one that already exists, that just goes against her principles, weapons have to be unique, and so i've got a load of ideas for what she went with instead of Crescent Rose.