It's now been a week since we first started our training sessions, and I can say with confidence that everybody has improved by quite a lot. And with every spar against Raven, she gets me to try harder and harder every time, enough to become quite a nuisance to me which would translate to being an absolute nightmare for anyone else fighting her. Well everyone except Ozpin and Salem, because one has a lot of battle experience and the other is just powerful.

"*Pant* *Pant* I yield." Raven said with her back to the ground and my blade only an inch away from her neck.

"That was the best spar we've had yet." I say as I help her up.

"Yeah, but I still haven't come close to beating you." She says dusting herself off.

"Raven, no one in this world is going to be able to beat me. But you would be an absolute menace against almost anybody else."

"I guess you could look at it that way."

"Do you want to see how your brother's doing?" I ask because Qrow wanted payback and made another bet and lost again

She smiles when she hears this, "Absolutely, let's go after we get some food."

"Sure, you go ahead first. I'm going to see how the others are doing."

"Alright, see you at Atlas' academy." She says as she walks off to the direction of the cafeteria.

I head to the third training area which is where Pyrrha is training her semblance to increase the amount of things she can move/control, how far she can control it, and how precise she can control it. I enter and I see that she's lifting up a metallic cube that's likely 50 times larger than her. It's only about a feet off the ground and I can she that she's really struggling to keep it up much longer. And a few seconds later after a shout she deactivates her semblance and the giant cube slams into the ground causing a loud rumble.

"Impressive." I say which alerts her of my presence.

She turns around and faces me, "*Pant* Thank you *Pant* Dominus."

"No problem, where did you even get the cube?"

"Oh *pant* the arena made *pant* it."

I walk over to the cube, "Really? The can the arena really make something this big?" I ask as I begin to lift the cube which shows the indention of the ground when it was dropped.

"This thing is quite heavy as well for someone like you." I say with the cube over my head.

" 'Quite' heavy!? That thing probably weighs over a tonne!" She shouts.

"And yet you were still able to lift it up. So like I said before, impressive." I say as I toss the cube up into the air and walk away so it doesn't fall back down on me.

It lands and it sinks even deeper into the ground along with causing a loud rumble, much louder than Pyrrha's. And speaking of Pyrrha, she looks to be absolutely flabbergasted at what I just did.

"Just keep training and in time you'll be able to do that." I say.

"Right… I'll be sure to keep on training then."

"And how much control do you have over your semblance now? Can you do what I told you to do back when we were still in Beacon?"

"You mean making sharp objects out of the iron in people's blood?"

"Yes, is your control good enough for that?"

"Um… I should be able to at this point, but I just have no real person to try it on, which should be obvious why."

"I might be able to get you a person to practice on."

"How… would you do that?"

"I'll go and ask James if he has any prisoners that are already sentenced to death to and if he can send them here."

"Are you… sure it's worth all that trouble just for me to get someone to practice on?"

"Of course it is, you'll know if you need to improve your control, and the person you're practicing on was already sentenced to death anyway. So you're just doing him a favor and ending his life early."

"I… don't know how to feel about this…"

"Just think of it as putting him to rest and taking away his pain."

"If you put it like that… then I suppose I'll have to agree."

"Alright, I'll talk with James and see when he can get you one."

"Thank you...?"

"No problem, I'll leave you to train. I have somewhere to be."

"Alright, see you later Dominus."

I wave as I exit Pyrrha's training area and head to where Ruby and what's left of her team along with Roman, Neo, and JN_R. I enter the area and I immediately had to dodge a few stray rounds, I look to the source of it and I see RWB_ and Roman sparring against JN_R and Neo.

The two teams dash at each other with Ruby and Jaune leading their own teams. Ruby swipes her scythe making Jaune raise his shield to block it but Roman shoots at his feet launching him up into the air. Blake capitalizes this chance as she does air combos with those clones of hers while Ruby and her team take care of the of Jaune's team.

Blake finishes her air combo with a strong kick to Jaune's midsection causing him to let out some spit as he's sent flying back. He crashed into a tree but Ren and Nora helped him up but quickly engaged with Weiss and Blake as they dash in. And that leaves Ruby and Roman against Neo.

Ruby says something to Roman and he jumps back while Neo stands in a battle-ready pose with the ever present smile on her face. Ruby closes her eyes and seems to be concentrating before letting out a shout which makes a small shockwave as a slightly visible silver aura appears around her and silver flame like things are flowing from the edges of her eyes. It looks like she's improved her 'silver form' by a lot compared to when she fought Cinder.

I can see the both of them tensing up and Ruby takes a step before disappearing, to the normal person that is. After killing Hermes, there really isn't anything that can match his speed. Ruby gets behind Neo and she reacts just in time and ducks, narrowly avoiding a good chance of her head getting blown off. Ruby 'disappears' again but Neo is expecting it this time because she was able to block and almost land a counterattack on Ruby.

And so the cycle of Ruby attacking and Neo either narrowly dodging or blocking and missing a counterattack. Until Ruby decided to attack off the 'rhythm' they were in and it managed to catch Neo off guard enough for Ruby to send an uppercut allowing for Roman to shoot her. Neo blocked the shot just in time but wasn't able to block the axe kick Ruby sent to her back causing her to crash into the ground sending dust into the air.

The dusts clears and I see holding down Neo with the tip of her umbrella at her neck. Neo looks over to JN_R but they were also defeated as Ren and Nora are trapped in Weiss' ice and Jaune is being kept down by Blake. Neo sighs as the lights in the area turn red and a robot voice announced that Ruby's group is the winner.

I walk towards Ruby who's helping Neo up and she notices me and has a slightly surprised look on her face.

"Oh Dominus, what are you doing here?" She asks.

"Just watching how all of your training has been going. And from what I saw, I'm guessing it's been great." I say.

"Yup, since I still couldn't beat Cinder when we got ambushed back at Haven, I decided that when I got the chance I would improve that state I'm in when I use my eyes."

"Well it definitely paid off."

"So you think I can beat you?"

"Hah! Not anywhere close."

"Oh really, would you like to find out?"

"Getting cocky, are we? Fine then, if you want your ass beat that badly."

"Ruby, maybe you should listen to him and train up some more before trying to fight him." Roman says trying to dissuade Ruby from getting her ass beat.

But Ruby doesn't look like she's going to change her mind anytime soon so Roman sighs and backs up with Neo. The others finished recovering and look surprised to see me here but probably more confused at why Ruby is getting into her battle stance. I start the countdown from my scroll and the robotic voice from before came back to life as it counts down.

When it said 'go' Ruby instantly activated her 'silver form' and 'disappeared' before running around me and she decides to attack my left. I block her punch and she actually has some decent force packed into it. She tries to speed away again but I hold a firm grip on her hand. I lift her up before punching her gut taking out a quarter of her aura, smash her into the ground and kick her away all in one swift motion.

It seems Ruby forgot that she has a semblance as well. Because that would make this fight quite troublesome. She goes for more attacks which I decide to dodge all of them to see how long it would take for her to get frustrated.

Which did not take long at all as only after a minute of this she looses her temper and shouts, "Just stand still so I can hit you Oum damn it!"

"Sure, give me your best shot. Everything you got." I say.

"You asked for it." Ruby says as she starts gathering silver energy to her arm.

"And you better deliver." I say waiting for Ruby to attack.

And when she did she left a crack in the ground before aiming a punch right at my face. I catch her hand which caused a small shockwave itself and Ruby to be dumbfounded by this.

"How disappointing." I say while I gather some mana into my arm.

It seems Ruby can feel that she's in danger and tries to break out of my grip but is unsuccessful. I finish gathering enough mana before punching her sternum launching her through several trees leaving her aura on red after she hit the last tree.

"Did you have to go that hard?" Roman asked.

"I would disrespect her challenge if didn't go as hard as I did." I say.

"But was that last part really necessary?" He asks.

"Yes, it's so she doesn't overestimate herself just because she got that new form of hers."

"*Sigh* Fine I guess."

"Anyway, I'll be getting some food. Have fun waking up to a mad Ruby. Because after what I did I know she'll be pissed."

"*Sigh* Please don't make me think about that this early."

"Whatever, I'll get going now."

I exit the training area and head into the mildly crowded cafeteria before getting some food and eating it quickly before heading to a bullhead that'll take me to Atlas' academy where me and Raven how Qrow's doing.

I arrive to see that Raven's already waiting at the gate.

"What took you so long?" She asks.

"Ruby wanted an ass beating so I gave her one, and I may have stretched it out a bit." I say.

"Damn, wish I could've seen it. But it is what it is. Let's go see how my idiot of a brother is doing shall we?"

"We shall."

We enter the academy after passing some security and immediately the atmosphere feels different from Bacon. Where Beacon had a warm and comforting atmosphere where you feel like you could do anything but Atlas' academy has a much more serious atmosphere. And almost every student is the same stereotypical kid who was born into a rich family and got whatever they want. Almost every student because team FNKI -The ones who fought during the Vytal festival- was very much like the teams in Beacon, energetic and seem to always be open to make friends.

We search around for Qrow and easily find him with his ever present smell of alcohol and a seemingly endless stream of curses directed either at me or at the students.

"How are you enjoying this little job dear brother?" Raven asks in a sarcastic tone.

"Oh shut up Raven, we both know I hate it here. All the kids keep on saying 'But actually it's supposed to be' bla bla bla. If they're so smart why don't they go teach themselves!?" He shouts.

"Well you shouldn't have taken that bet." I say.

"Come on, I was feeling lucky!" He shouts.

"Well clearly you weren't."

"So-"

*RUMBLE*

*RUMBLE*

*ROAR*

Raven was interrupted when we hear loud rumbling and a roar in the distance and the academy start ringing and everyone is running everywhere. We're already running to the landing area and our scrolls vibrate. I open mine and see James telling us to get back to his tower ASAP and to show the pilot the pass he attached.

We rush in after showing the pilot the pass and he went full speed straight to James' tower no questions asked. We arrive at the tower and the guards lead us to an alternative way up in case of emergencies like this. We step in one big tube before the bottom glows black before we get launched high up. It only takes a few seconds before we're pushed out of the tube and into James' office.

I can see that the RWB_, JNPR, Roman, Neo, Neo, and a group of people I don't know already here.

"Good you're here, we'll begin this emergency briefing. Our scouts and sensors detected absurd hordes of grimm stampeding straight for Atlas, and we do not have much time. Your mission is to defend Mantle and Atlas at all costs. Ace ops, you know your duties, move out!" James commanded

"YES SIR!" The group called the Ace ops shouted before rushing out the room.

"Now as for the rest of you, team RWB_, and JNPR protect the people of Mantle and help them get into the bunkers! Information will be sent to your scrolls shortly! You may leave!" James shouted.

Said teams left quickly leaving only me, Raven, Qrow, Roman, and Neo.

"Now Torchwick and Neopolitan… I will pull some strings and pardon your crimes if you assist with defending Mantle and Atlas. Do you accept?" James asks.

They look at each other before Roman answers, "We do."

"Very well, Dominus you will temporarily be second in command. I'm sure you know what to do?" He ask.

"Kill all the grimm like there's no tomorrow." I say.

He nods, "You may leave."

I nod, "Qrow, Raven, turn into your bird forms and get on my shoulder. Ker can fly quicker than you two can." I say.

They nod and both turn into their respective birds and perch themselves on my shoulders with Erebus as well. Ker comes out of my shadow and I open the large window behind James' desk before I get on Ker and he jumps out, wings spreading as he's falling. We fly top speed to where the hordes of grimm were detected.

We arrive and the hordes, no, sea of grimm were rushing towards Atlas' direction. And among the cannon fodder there were giant grimm as well and I can see large flying grimm up ahead.

Damn, I knew Salem said that she'd be sending the first wave to get us warmed up but damn. If this is the first wave, I can only imagine what the amount of grimm will look like when she's actually here.

'Ready for one of the hardest battles in your life that you'll ever face?"

'As ready as I'll ever be Kratos.'

'Then let's do this.'