Time to get down to business... To defeat the Huns~!

*SLAP*

I deserved that...

Chapter 8: The Weapons We Wield

The wand chooses the wizard... It's not always clear why. But I think it is clear that we can expect great things from you. -Garrick Ollivander, Harry Potter and the Sorcerer's Stone

As Jacob took the elevator back to the ground level from The Vault it began to register in his mind how daunting a task it was that he had set himself up with. While the student body around him—RWBY and JNPR included—were busy trying to get good marks and graduate as Huntsman and Huntresses, Muller was stuck with an incomprehensible task ahead: Saving as many people as he could from the Battle of Beacon.

On the one hand, he debated in his mind, most people would immediately jump to the idea that I shouldn't tamper with the timeline at all, let them die and or get maimed; To those fuckwits I would bequeath... a boot to the head.

The clip of Last Will and Temperament played in his head in tandem, elevating his mood ever so slightly.

Another option that would be tossed out would be to outright tell them about it, which would either end with me in the looney bin or in a completely different timeline that could very well put even more people in harm's way. His mind flashed a terrible image of Yang AND Blake lying dead on the floor at Adam's feet as an attempt at exemplifying what he meant.

That is something I will not do; I must stay the course of canon... up until the Battle, of course.

His eyebrows were locked into a thoughtful furrow as he brainstormed his plan of attack. The question of the hour is, how do I save Pyrrha? Better yet, can I save Penny? Perhaps by preventing Penny's death I may put a stopper in Cinder's—No, no, that goes back to the latter train of thought. Maybe? Yes? No? Jesus, what do I do?

He glanced upwards towards the sky, still out of his vision by the insane concrete and dirt barrier that kept Amber safe from Cinder and Salem's reach, at least for now.

"If you're there, Lord, I could use an epiphany or two right about now."

Silence.

"I thought not," he whimpered as his hunched and sighed with his hands in his pockets like a 90s grunger.

He sat in silence the rest of the way, his mind eating away at every conceivable option and strategy he tossed its way.

When the doors at the top of the shaft slid open he was expecting to see naught more but the courtyard in front of him. Instead, he was greeted by the stern glare of Glynda Goodwitch.

Oh boy, here we go, Jacob lamented in his mind with the voice of Jon Jafari.

"Oh, hello Professor Goodwitch."

He was met with more of her glare.

"...I take it something's on your mind."

Silence.

Again, Good Witch of the North my ass.

"Well," he hesitated, "If you've not got anything to address, I need to get going, Ms. Rose was gonna help me with... figuring... out..." He wilted under her gaze, the sentence dying in his throat.

"...Christ-Lord Above, do you give all your students this look or am I special?"

He edged his way out of the elevator as she replaced his position. "My apologies," Glynda said with the faintest venom to her voice, "I was just on the way down to see how... our other guest is at the moment."

"Amber's alright for now," Jacob muttered loud enough for her to hear but low enough for no one else to hear outside of that bubble, "But... I wouldn't put too much hope into her getting back up anytime soon." More like ever, he thought to himself guiltily.

Glynda's hardened features softened ever so little, enough to say that his words had made their impact. Before they could continue further, the elevator doors began to close.

Or at least that would have been the case had Glynda not held open the door with her riding crop.

"Bear in mind, Mr. Muller," she began, "You are in a very precarious position at the moment. You're not just training to be a Huntsman—late out of the gate mind you, which already puts you at a horrible disadvantage to even the likes of Mr. Arc—But now you are among our ranks. And that means you will need to be ready for anything."

"...and you either don't trust me or you think I will fail horribly."

She never answered him, instead removing the crop from the elevator's sensors and allowing the doors to close. Muller sat there in silence as he began to doubt if he really could pull this off; As much as he had knowledge of the immediate future as it were, it was still a daunting task ahead of him.

There was no way he could pull it off.

NO. Stop that, Jacob, you finally got over being a doom-and-gloomer back home, you are not going to let that happen here.

Shaking his head, he decided to return to his quarters to wait out the evening and prep up for... ugh, classes.

And I thought community college classes were an interesting hurdle, this is essentially Monster Hunter University...

It was 2:10 when Jacob finally walked through the door to his dorm room, having taken an hour or so to wander the grounds and scout out key locations for his stay. Most of the students were in class at the moment giving him almost-completely free roam of the campus; it was weird to be back on an isolated campus, something he hadn't done since his failed attempt at university attendance. Regardless, he would eventually get used to the notion... in theory.

Not like it's gonna matter for very long.

Seeing Amber in her stasis pod was more than a little sobering. It was as if he had been mentally been punched in the gut, if that made any sense; the overarching dread threatening to consume him.

Plopping into his chair, he realized he would probably be waiting for a few hours before he could meet up with RWBY and Company, considering they were no doubt in the middle of class. No one to chat with, really... if I keep letting the shadow hang over my head for too long I'm gonna start thinking like a friggin' manic-depressive.

He feared that continuing on such a mental path would not bode well for anyone, especially himself; He'd seen himself once before on the edge of despair, now was not the time to repeat the past. He needed to occupy his mind somehow, even if barely for a little bit.

Checking his phone—which was no doubt a relic technologically in comparison to the Scrolls that Huntsmen and Huntresses were equipped with—Jacob was happy to find that the battery had fully charged in the time he was out of the room. At the same time he glanced over at his open sketchpad, open to a fresh sheet and pencil still clinging on to the ringlets.

"...Might as well brainstorm while I'm sitting here, otherwise I'm sitting here with my thumb up my ass instead."

As he set pencil to paper to occupy his mind, he started up his phone's playlists and let his mind wander with the music.

The first song on his shuffled playlist?

They see you as small and helpless

They see you as just a child,

surprised when they find out that a warrior will soon run wild...

He couldn't help but let a ironically-amused grin escape his lips.

...

...

Stars above, can this class just PLEASE FINISH UP!?

Ruby Rose was not in the mood to deal with a lecture. Her mind had been wandering all day about the plans for the next few days with her new team—and sister team, of course—and their new 9th wheel... Although it was kinda rude to call him that.

Currently she was attending one of Professor Peach's lectures on... something or other, but she could hardly pay attention to that. It was closing in on 4:00 in the afternoon and she had plans to help out her new friend with a crucial aspect of being a Hunter.

Namely having a melee weapon.

When she had first left after their brief chat, she was floored to hear he didn't have a melee weapon outside of a basic pocket knife, that thus far he had been surviving on his firearm only. If he was going to be a Huntsman, he needed a weapon that could go into melee; something that spoke about him as a warrior, as a protector of humanity as it were. Ruby had then spent the next few hours coming up with ideas for weapons. He was on the shorter side for a guy—in fact he was only an inch taller than her—and the way he was built it was far from likely he was very agile. Barrel-chested, large shoulders, yeah it was more than likely that agility was probably not something he was particularly specialized in, though his Aura would certainly start giving him a boost.

Maybe an axe? It's a good weapon for stronger folks... although I doubt he's all that strong, I didn't see that much muscle in his arms. Ooh, maybe he and Jaune will be sword-buddies! Yeah, that could work? OOH, maybe I can teach him how to wield a scythe, than we can both be super cool scythe-wielders! Or, or—

A sharp jab in her left shoulder brought her back to reality. Glancing over she spotted Weiss giving her the stink-eye for daydreaming in class. Ruby's embarrassment was probably palpable to everyone around her after that.

Regardless, she was intrigued on what weapon he would choose. I mean there were some unconventional ones like that awesome purse Coco Adel had; when Ruby had first seen it transform into a freaking MINIGUN during sparring earlier today she about fainted on the spot. It took her team a solid minute to stop her from swooning completely into unconsciousness. However, he could always choose something relatively basic, something a little more ho-hum.

...Nah, this guy's not that normal. He'll pick something cool, I'm sure of it!

Right about then the bell for class to end rang loud and clear.

Had Ruby any less self-restraint she would have darted out of the classroom and have been back to the dorms to grab Jacob before anyone else had left the lecture hall. Fortunately for him, she was starting to feel hungry.

"Anyone else up for dinner real quick before we meet Jacob?" Ruby asked as the group entered the main hallway.

"Meet him for what?" Blake asked, the confusion evident in her voice.

"Ruby wanted to help him get the right kind of weapon," Yang answered, "So they were gonna meet at the sparring range later this evening to have him test some different weapons."

"Wait, doesn't he already have his pistol? And what about that pocket knife?"

"Uh, you don't remember how little that dinky knife did to that Ursa?"

Blake cocked an eyebrow in contemplation. "Good point," she answered a few seconds later.

Weiss chimed in seconds later. "I honestly don't understand why you—why anyone, really—is sticking their neck out for this guy."

Ruby looked back at her partner in confusion and a bit of hurt. "Weiss, he needs help; He's not going to get far as a Huntsman if he isn't prepared—"

"Exactly my point!" Weiss' hands flew up in exasperation as the team continued down the hallway towards the dorms. "He has no formal training, he didn't even have his Aura active until just this morning, he doesn't even have a weapon outside of a pistol and knife; the weapons of a vagabond, mind you! I honestly think it was a mistake on Professor Ozpin's part that he's even attending with us," she finished while crossing her arms in front of her. Honestly, it reminded Ruby of Yang's tantrums when they were younger, just after she had discovered her Semblance.

"You just won't give him the chance, will you Schnee?" Blake sassed at Weiss under her breath. Sadly, Weiss heard her.

"Until he proves himself, I'm not going to be lenient on him. Now, if you excuse me, I'm off to get dinner." She began to walk off in a huff, leaving her teammates behind as she stomped away. Ruby felt a little hurt by her words; How can Jacob "prove himself" to Weiss if she won't give him the chance? About that time she felt a hand on her shoulder, that upon looking towards the source of the touch revealed Pyrrha and the rest of JNPR had caught up with them. "Oh, hi Pyrrha."

"I'm certain Ms. Schnee will come around in time," Pyrrha assured the young Huntress with a kindly smile. "She just needs a chance to see his potential."

Ruby sighed reluctantly. "Thanks. I honestly don't know how to get her to be more friendly."

"I think I could give it a try," Jaune said as he slid up beside them flashing his confident smile, "It shouldn't be too hard to thaw her out, if you catch my drift."

Gods, what a wannabe casanova, Ruby giggled in amusement as his awkward but confident smile said all she needed to know about what he meant by that. "Hey, do you guys wanna come down to the sparring ring later? We're gonna see what kinda weapon Jacob is best suited with."

"Him? honestly, well..." Jaune started, "I honestly have no clue. I mean, he's been pretty impressive with that pistol, maybe he should just stick to that."

"It would serve him well to equip a melee weapon of some kind," Pyrrha countered. "As to what that would be... I would think he seems to be well-suited for blunt weapons; perhaps he and Nora may both be wielding hammers." A gasp from behind the group alerted them to Nora's presence.

"What about an axe?"

"Well, it is an easy weapon to learn, but it is hard to master."

"Sword?" Jaune countered.

"I think he was worried about originality," Ruby mentioned, gesturing back at Jaune to make her point.

"Well, I'm sure he'll figure something out," answered Pyrrha, sporting her usual cheery smile.

They spent the rest of the walk to the cafeteria talking about other things, mainly class and homework and plans for their first weekend at Beacon Academy. Team JNPR didn't actually have a plan in regards to the weekend, mainly deciding to wing it. Ren did mention something about wanting to wander about Vale on Saturday to check out the city and the downtown area for future reference, whereas Nora was adamant about picking up some decorations for the room. Team RWBY on the other hand had plans to study and hold down the fort as it were.

By the time they had reached the cafeteria, the conversation had migrated to the upcoming Vytal Festival; it was pretty certain that both teams would compete and both were hoping to take top spot.

"Hey, do you guys remember when it is?" Yang asked through shovelling her meal into her mouth.

"If I recall correctly," Ren answered, sipping on an evening tea, "it starts 6 months out from now and it'll run for about... 4 weeks if I recall?"

"Sounds about right," came Pyrrha, having already finished her surprisingly spartan meal.

Ruby couldn't help but delight in the notion of being part of the Vytal Festival. "Ooh, I'm so excited!" she said as she bounced in her seat.

"It should certainly be something to remember," Pyrrha replied in earnest, the large smile on her face more than telling of her excitement in participating.

After they finished, both teams decided to make a beeline for the dorms to pick up Jacob, since they figured it was doubtful he had the actual layout of the school memorized by now.

But as they approached his dorm, they began to notice a very faint sound in the background.

"Uh, does anyone else hear snare drums?" commented Yang. Everyone nodded in agreement. Even behind the door to his room, it was ever so slightly audible to them; snare drums playing in a military march beat.

Ruby knocked on the door to his room and was quickly greeted by Jacob, whom for the most part seemed to have been drawing or writing or something judging by the pencil nestled in the crook of his ear.

"Oh, hey guys, I was just about to head out to find the sparring ring. Sorry, is the music too loud?" he gestured behind him at his... Scroll? Honestly the more Ruby looked at it the less she was convinced it was a Scroll; no holo-screen, solid piece of what she assumed was steel and glass.

About that time the song began to take on lyrics in tune to the drums.

I've got the reach and the teeth of a killing machine,

with the need to bleed you when the light goes green

Best believe I'm in the zone to be

From my yin to my—

The lyrics cut out as Jacob dashed over and paused it, looking slightly embarrassed if anything. "I, uh, I've got some distant family in the military. I've admired their commitment to the cause, even if... you know, peace times and all that." He was nervously looking about the lot of them, probably hoping they don't think him weird.

Gods know I understand that, Ruby thought as she offered him a smile. "It's fine, it was barely noticeable." He visibly relaxed afterwards. "So, ready to go?"

"Oh, yeah, let's hop to it." He grinned as the group began their trek.

For the first few minutes, they mainly focused on getting to know him better; favorite musical genres, favorite kinds of books, favorite movies, all that basic stuff. Music was a general blanket statement: he loved all music, except something he called "death metal"—something he mentioned was a local type of music that was "if hard rock was cranked to 11 on the volume level and made manic-depressive in every sense of the word"—and dubstep, something Ruby admitted she hated as well. Books? Horror and adventure. That seemed to grab Blake's attention, as was evident by her increased intrigue in the conversation. Their conversation kept going for a while, though anytime there was mention of family Jacob seemed to veer off into another subject.

There was something he wasn't keen on telling them; she could feel it.

...Whatever it is, he'll tell us whenever he wants to.

They finally arrived at the amphitheater just as the sun was coming down in the east; the room was bathed in a warm red glow, vaguely resembling the colors of autumn. Perfect light for helping someone discover what weapon was theirs.

"Alright, let's get the stage set up!" Yang cheered, making a beeline for the control panels. An audible hum of apprehension was heard from Jacob.

"What's wrong, Jacob?" Ruby asked in concern.

"I, uh, I'm just not certain about what I might be best suited for, y'know? I mean, what weapon really is gonna suit me?"

"Well, that's what we're here to find out! C'mon, I'm sure you'll find something that fits to your style!"

Damnit, damnit, damnit, DAMNIT!

Left Swing!

Missed.

Uppercut!

Fuck, missed again.

Overhead!

Oh for fuck's sake!

"Aargh! This! Is! Really! Aggravating!"

Jacob was swinging wildly in an attempt to hit his opponent, but she was—for lack of a better phrase—too small for him to accurately hit.

"Missed me, missed me, now you gotta kiss me~," his 5'2" opponent said as she bounced around his attacks. In his slightly-embarrassed fury, he didn't even see her lining up a swing with Magnhild until it was too late.

"Oh, man."

Nora Valkyrie sent Muller flying into the wall opposite of her with the force of a speeding truck. As he tumbled through the air like a tossed football, he had the exasperated urge to quote Hot Shots on the flight over.

Wendy, I can fly!

He hit the wall protecting the viewing area with a massive and audible THUD, loud enough to probably wake the dead. Granted, he was too busy being in amazing levels of pain that would make Slaanesh squirm in ecstasy to really notice the sound he made when he went splat against the wall. Hitting the ground hard, he cried out as he found the hard floor no less painful for him to encounter.

"Nora, I think that was a little too much!" the voice of Lie Ren called out from the stands.

"Aw, he can't be a Huntsman if he can't take a few hits!" She replied back.

Muller rolled over slowly as his body processed this newfound pain; on the one hand, had he not been gifted with an awakened Aura earlier that day by Pyrrha, he would have been splattered across the amphitheater like a gory Jackson Pollock painting. On the other hand, considering how much pain he was feeling, that may have been the lesser of two evils.

Getting up on his feet, he angrily tossed the weapon in his hand—a battleaxe nearly his own size and yet surprisingly lightweight—to the ground among the pile of other spare weapons that the ragtag group had gathered; Apparently Beacon had spare weapons floating about that students wishing to be proficient in more weapons than one could use in practice. Unfortunately for him, he had yet to find one thus far that really felt... right in his hands. Sure, it took training to get good with a weapon...

But all things considered, Jacob didn't have time to play the slow game of practice.

He tried a mace, his swings were too wild and uncoordinated.

He tried nunchaku and ended up smacking himself both in the face and then in the family jewels as was to be expected; That one had gotten a giggle out of Yang and Blake.

He tried a baseball bat and felt too much like a thug when swinging it.

Axes, sickles, hammers, glaives, gauntlets, clubs, chains, even Ruby let him have a shot at swinging Crescent Rose—something his inner fanboy was about to pass out from despite him being sucky with it—nothing was ringing with him.

Suffice it to say, it was more than a little infuriating.

"God Almighty, is it normal to feel this level of pain when you've got an Aura?"

It was Pyrrha who replied back, "Your Aura has not had proper time to get used to combat; it will take some time and exposure, but eventually even large hits will hardly feel like anything."

Jacob hung his head in exasperation before turning his gaze to the clock on the wall. 9:21 in the evening; he had been at this for closing in on 4 hours and was still no closer to his answer. "Grah, this is hopeless!" he shouted as he threw his hands up in frustration. He flopped down onto the side of the elevated ring, feet dangling off the side a foot from the ground below.

"Hey, come on, you still have a few options," Yang said as she came up to him, taking a seat to his left. "You haven't even touched swords yet, and you were pretty good back there with those brass knuckles," she offered with a joking slap on the shoulder.

"...Honestly, I've never seen myself for swords; hero archetype and whatnot. 'Sides," he looked up and gestured around the group, "There's, what, 3, 4 people who already have a sword here. It'd probably just look unoriginal as hell."

Ruby came up to his right and sat down cross-legged, her feet tucked in like a small child would do; it ceased to amaze him how adorable this little savior of the world could be at times.

"Well, maybe you need to put your own spin on it; Jaune's got a broadsword, Weiss' is a rapier-revolver, Pyrrha has Miló, but there's a boatload of swords out there!"

Jacob thought long and hard about Ruby's choice of words. On the one hand, she was right; there were as many forms of sword in existence as there were civilizations on the Earth. No doubt there was one suited for him. On the other hand, almost any type of sword was traditionally given to heroes, an ingrained stereotype of weapons.

The idea of taking up a hero's weapon didn't sit well in Jacob's stomach. After all, he was amongst those back on Earth that said there are no more heroes among men. Who was he to take up a weapon of that symbolic nature?

He glanced up at the teams. There was Weiss, as usual giving him a dirty look as though the very idea of someone so crude as he taking up the art of the sword. Blake was eyeing him, her feline-like glance and movements betraying her disguise to only the well-trained eye or those who would have already been familiar with it. Jaune was offering a smile of encouragement. Ren looked deep in thought, as if weighing the options alongside Jacob.

Muller's eyes traced a line to Yang, who was flashing her own smile of encouragement, coupled with a wink. That got a smile out of him.

About that time his mind flashed the image of a very hollow girl, down an arm and abandoned by those who she needed most.

It soured his stomach, especially now to see her in the flesh; he had to admit she was a strikingly beautiful girl... massive tracts of land notwithstanding to that opinion. To see her—vibrant, lively, joyful—brought low like that... it stirred an anger within him, one he had never encountered prior.

And then he turned his vision to Ruby.

Sweet, innocent, Ruby Rose.

She was to endure so much pain so soon... lives lost that were precious to her.

Just like when her mother Summer died all those years ago.

The slow boil in his veins demanded he take action. Taking a deep breath to ease the boil, he made his decision.

"Sure. Let's give it a try."

Jacob and the two half-sisters got up and began to look at the weapons in the borrowed arsenal. Zweihanders, broadswords, fencing swords, claymores—his Highland ancestors weeped when he passed the blade over, he was sure of it—all kinds of swords were available.

Then his eye caught sight of a blade that caught his fancy.

"Well, what have we here?"

It was a hanger sword, the blade about 2 feet long give or take with around 6 inches of handle to grasp and was about 4 inches wide from edge to edge. It had barely any curvature to the blade at all, only tapering into the strong edge—the unsharpened side of the blade— at the last 8th or so of the blade. The handguard on it was a simple one, far from ornate and hardly covering much more than the lower half of his fingers. It reminded him of the Imperial Guard's Munitorum-pattern power swords, or better yet the classic British M1859 cutlass.

About that time it really hit him how much of a weapons buff he was back home.

Ruby walked up to his side, studying the blade closely. "A cutlass? Didn't picture you for the swashbuckler type." In the background they heard Nora give out a resounding "arr" to accentuate Ruby's point.

"Well, associations with pirates aside, I always did like the design of a cutlass. something about the blade itself, I guess, and the fighting style it conveys." He swung it a few times, testing the balance and the weight. It was surprisingly comfortable in his hand, and the weight was incredibly light; he could actually control this blade with resounding finesse—well, what finesse he could muster.

"Judging by you control of that blade, I'd say you've finally found a match, Mr. Muller."

Everyone jumped in surprise as a third party's voice rung out.

The overhead lights turned on to reveal Professor Ozpin standing in the central doorway, obviously having observed them for some time given the nature of his comment.

"God Almighty, Professor, you about gave half of us a friggin' heart attack!" Jacob shouted across the way. Ozpin payed his comment no heed.

"A cutlass... most people associate that kind of blade with vagabonds and pirates, though I myself am always reminded of generals in battle," he said, the exasperation in his voice giving away that he was probably thinking of Winter, Weiss' older sister. Actually, now that Jacob thought of it, he was wondering if Winter was in on the Maiden Conspiracy as well, but that was a thought for another time.

"Now, I believe it would a good idea for all of you to return to your dormitories. Even if is the weekend, it is never a good idea to go light on sleep when you're a Huntsman."

Jacob suppressed the urge to chuckle as RWBY and JNPR groaned in disappointment behind him, accented by the sound of Ruby yawning. Jacob worked the God-awful morning shift and he tended to be a night owl at the same time; Even if he was waking up at 5:30 in the morning to get to work, he was used to running on 6-7 hours of sleep for a whole day. Thank God for caffeine.

"Mr. Muller, If you would stay for a minute, I would like to talk with you for a minute in regards to your... situation here."

Both teams looked over at Muller, confusion or concern etched on their faces. He simply sent them a wave, saying, "It's alright guys, I'm sure it's nothing too serious. I'll see you all tomorrow, right?"

Ruby flashed him a thumbs up to reaffirm it. "Yep! Night!"

The teams left post-haste, obviously concerned that Glynda may catch them out and about. Muller and Ozpin stood there in silence for around a minute or so before Jacob spoke up.

"Am I in trouble, Professor?"

"Please, Mr. Muller, just Ozpin when there are no students around. And no, you're fine," he assured as he leaned upon his cane.

"Then what's with the holding me here for a minute?" Jacob asked as he leaned with his arms behind him against the massive door frame, cocking an eyebrow.

"Mainly to address something with you: that weapon—as much as it is school property—is not technically yours. You will need a weapon of your own."

Muller shifted ever so slightly. "And there's a problem with that right off the bat; I have no clue on forging a weapon. I know the rudimentary basics, but even then what I could make with my bare hands would look and function as well as a kindergartener's scribbles."

"There's a weaponsmith in Vale who is a close friend of mine who would be happy to help you with creating your weapon."

"Oh, wow, I—uh, wait, how much will it cost me, 'cause I've got no Lien to my name any way, shape or how," He sheepishly replied. It was a partial truth; he did have some United States dollar bills in his wallet—mainly 1s, 5s and 10s, but it was as useful here on Remnant as a match is underwater.

"That won't be necessary," Ozpin said with a bemused grin, "He's an associate of our group; inform him that I sent you and that, 'The Maiden needs a soldier", and he should provide it for you."

Wow, how convenient, Jacob chuckled in his mind. "Well then, his store will be first priority on my list of to-dos tomorrow, among others; I'm still in these ragged war relics," he joked as he looked back down at the same clothes he came to Remnant in. He and Ozpin shared a chuckle as he was provided the route for the stores and shops he would need to head to.

Outside, the two of them shared a handshake and began to head off their separate ways. But before Jacob could go much farther, Ozpin called out to him.

"Mr. Muller, I would exercise caution in the sparring ring in the future; your Aura is in a weakened state at the moment, having only just been woken up. It would be unfortunate if you were not prepared for a fight."

"Don't worry about it too much, Ozpin. I plan to spend plenty of time training up if I'm gonna compete with the rest of the student body!"

He turned to continue walking away, darkly thinking ahead to the future.

The arrow pierced Pyrrha's heart in his mind's eye as he continued back to the dorms.

For once, he thought, I'm not lying.

Oh my Christ that was legitimately difficult to decide which weapon path I wanted to take; I was waffling between Wolverine-like gauntlets (AKA Lightning Claws), axes, fists or something else entirely.

Regardless, while it seems like my weapon won't transform, believe me when I tell you that the design I have in mind has 3 forms. What kind of weapon will it be? Stay tuned for more at 11.

Critique, review, follow, favorite, all the good schtuff and as always I will see you... in the next Chapter. Buh-bye~!