Chapter Twenty-Three: Training
"Alright, so who's up first?" Phoenix asked teams RWBY and JNPR. They were planning on doing some last minute training for the torment.
"Are you sure this is a good idea? Have you even fully recovered?" Pyrrha inquired.
"Looks like we have our first volunteer!" Phoenix declared.
"But I-"
"You want to know if I'm fully recovered. Let's find out."
"But why are you using those you dunce? What if someone sees you?" Weiss asked pointing at Phoenix, who was wearing his vigilante gear.
"Don't worry, I already discussed this with Goodwitch. She'll keep people away while we train. Besides, I need training too. If I go up against that prick Adam again I need to be ready, and I'm not going to be fighting with my staff." This seemed to satisfy her, though she still looked annoyed with him.
"Alright, I'll do it. But don't expect me to hold back," Pyrrha said as she stepped into the ring.
"I wouldn't have it any other way."
"Pyrrha has polarity, putting me at a disadvantage," Phoenix thought as the timer counted down from twenty, planning a way to beat her. "My best bet is to catch her by surprise so she won't have time to control me. I could use smoke bombs or fire to pull that off. First I'll wear her down with the shotgun. Even if she tries to throw off my aim it'll still have a decent effect. It's settled. I start with the shotgun, use smoke to catch her off guard, and finish her off with fire."
"One… Zero!" the timer finished, signaling the start of the fight.
"Looks like it's a draw," Phoenix declared, out of breath.
"It would appear so," Pyrrha replied, in a similar situation to him. Phoenix's plan played out perfectly up until it came to the fire. He'd forgotten to take into account the fact that she'd be able to block his blasts with her shield without it becoming too hot to hold. It went downhill from there.
The others trained while Phoenix and Pyrrha rested.
"I think I'm ready for another fight. Who's next?"
"Ooh! Ooh! Me next! Me next! Peeeeeeaaaasssseee!" Nora begged, jumping up and down.
"You're on."
"Nora focuses entirely on offense, but she can take a hell of a beating. Tiring her out isn't an option either since she has almost unlimited energy. My best bet is to use her aggressive nature against her, baiting her into a position where I can land a few blows. If she tries to fire grenades at me I'll shoot them out of the air. If they explode close enough to her to do some damage, all the better. If she figures out my strategy of baiting her, I'll use smoke to keep her from seeing me coming."
"Noooooooo!" Nora cried out as she lost.
(I'm too lazy to come up with a lot of different ways I can say that there a few fights in between the fights Phoenix is in without it getting repetitive, so just imagine that there's some sort of mention of that after each fight)
"Ren, you're up," Phoenix commanded
"Ren relies on his speed in a fight, landing as many blows as he can before falling back. The individual strikes don't do much damage, but enough of them could prove dangerous. The same can be said for his guns. I'll use some mines to restrict his movement and keep him where I want him. He is usually fast enough to dodge attacks rather than defend against them, but my mask's tracking combined with the restricted movement should allow me to hit him. A few good strikes should bring him down."
"How did you know where I'd be?" Ren asked as Phoenix help him up off the ground.
"I have my ways," Phoenix answered. Alright, I may as well finish up with team JNPR. That means it's your turn Jaune."
"Since he's trained by Pyrrha, Jaune will have a similar fighting style to her's, the only differences being lack of polarity and far fewer acrobatic moves. Odds are he'll start out on the offensive, but once he realizes that won't work he'll switch to defense, waiting for me to tire myself out. I can use the hooks to pull the shield out of the way and land a kick. Once he's on the ground, I'll fire a Dust round to freeze his hands to it, winning me the fight."
"Now that you've won, can you please unfreeze my hands? I can't feel them anymore," Jaune said.
"Sure," Phoenix replied as he pulled out his lighter, using the flame to melt the ice. "So, who's my first volunteer from team RWBY?" Yang immediately stepped forward.
"Yang's semblance lets her absorb damage from my hits and deal it back at me. I'll need to take her out quickly before she can use it. If I get her angry she'll lose focus and become more reckless. If I take advantage of this, I should be able to bring her down."
"You beat me…" Yang said, stunned by what just happened.
"Your turn Blake."
"Blake has a fighting strategy similar to Ren's and a semblance that helps it. If I get up close to her she'll use it to fall back, most likely using the whip pistol. When she fires it at me I'll catch it with my hooks and disarm her. I'll pull her up close using my grapnel gun, and create a fire around us to keep her from escaping."
"I can see how you could hold your own against Adam," Blake commented as she got up.
"Weiss, you're up."
"My semblance already puts Weiss at a disadvantage since she won't be able to use any fire. Is she tries to use ice I'll melt it. That leaves her glyphs, her rapier, and whatever other types of Dust she has, if any. She'll probably start by charging me. I'm not very good at blocking stabs, so I'll dodge out of the way, slashing her in the back while she charges forward. Then I'll use my grapnel gun to pull her back towards me and land a few more strikes before I blast her back with my shotgun. I'll start firing at her with my rifles, even though she'll block them with a glyph. I'll move forward, continuing fire. Speaking of fire , I'll use a fire round and when it explodes I'll have the fire go around the glyph and hit her in the back. Once she's down I'll freeze her so she stays down."
"How did you-? How could you-?" Weiss stammered, shocked by her defeat.
"Like I said to Ren, I have my ways. Now, for the final challenger, last but certainly not least, Ruby."
"Ruby knows not to activate the flame function on Crescent Rose. She's still quite capable without it though. My best bet is to use a similar strategy to the one I used during our last fight."
"One… Zero!"
"Game over," Phoenix said with a grin.
"Look behind you," Ruby replied, also grinning. When he did he saw that the scythe's blade was at his back, read to cut him in half.
"So it's a draw then?" Phoenix asked as they lowered their weapon.
"Yep," Ruby replied.
"Soooooo, as celebration for the Vinal Festival tomorrow, I say we get some food. Who's with me?" Silence. "I'm paying." He got his answer in the form of cheers from everyone.
One of the main goals of this chapter was to show a bit more of Phoenix's tactical thinking. The fights in this chapter play out like he predicted, so I didn't see the purpose of writing them. When it came to Ruby I figured I'd do it just to keep the trend going. Yes, I did use the same dialogue from chapter nine in part of this. If you can figure out where it is, you get a cookie. Thanks for reading!
