The crowd of students were silent, stark fear creped its way onto some of their faces, never have they ever seen such cruel brutality committed. Professor Port was even staring at the scene in silence, usually he would never shut up but right now he couldn't find anything intelligent or stupid to say.
Teams RWBY and JNPR stared deadpanned at Hansel as he tossed the Beowulf's head across the stage, "I think I feel sorry for that Beowulf." Jaune whispered staring at the devastated corpse as it started to disintegrate.
"I don't think I've ever seen anything so cruel before." Weiss muttered, she wondered what Hansel's chainsword would do to the Grimm, if it would get stuck or if its teeth would break apart when it made contact with the bone armor. Instead it went through the bone like cardboard in an industrial shredder.
"That… was awesome." Ruby said earning several disturbed looks from her friends and sister, "Did you guys see what that pistol did? Whatever his weapons are made of and propelled by it is obviously better then Dust, he doesn't even have aura or semblance and he just killed the Beowulf by himself!"
Then it hit the group like a flying sack of potatoes; Hansel doesn't have his aura unlocked or his semblance active, and he just killed a Beowulf that was cowering from him. Not at any time in Remnant's recorded history has a Grimm ever done that to a Huntsman let alone someone without aura.
Hansel carelessly tossed the creatures head onto the stage as it started to disintegrate, the example he made was getting to them and he knew it, if it wasn't for the Kriegan discipline he would be chuckling at their reactions.
"I-I have never seen a Grimm do that before…" Port finally managed to sputter, "I don't understand."
"From what I gather about these worthless beasts they are attracted to fear and other emotions, is that not so?" Hansel asked glancing at the professor from the corner of his eyepieces.
"Yes."
"Then it probably didn't know how to react to someone devoid of fear and emotion." Hansel said with coldness giving the corpse a final kick, "I've seen mutants put of a braver face than this welp."
Port stared at Hansel, but then turned his attention to the rapidly decaying Grimm, "I'll… I'll be moving this cage then…good luck with your duel lad."
Hansel regarded him with a nod and then made his way back to the other end of the stage to prepare for his opponent, 'That thing could make a baby Grox look intimidating with the way it acted.' He thought checking the chainsword's teeth, 'It doesn't even leave its blood behind. It's not a spawn of the Warp otherwise it would've been tougher if not actually try fighting back.'
Elsewhere in the stands Ozpin and Goodwitch were having a serious discussion, "You saw that right? The Beowulf was afraid of him! How is that possible?" Goodwitch asked searching through her scroll's data base for similar events of Grimm cowering before anything for Oum's sake, but she found nothing.
Ozpin sipped his coffee pondering the words Hansel said to the crowd, "He did tell us that fear was not accepted on this world of his, Krieg. Many times I've heard of Huntsman claiming to fear nothing, but this is the first time I've actually seen it. What did they do to him?"
Though he was asking himself for the most part, he also knew it was a question that Miss Goodwitch, teams RWBY and JNPR have asked themselves, 'What sort of training removes fear?'
Goodwitch inhaled deeply and exhaled slowly, "Mr. Hansel has completed the first part of initiation by slaying a Beowulf, the next part of his initiation will be a randomly selected dual."
The audience broke out into a frantic fearful chatter.
"Please don't be me, please don't be me!"
"Are you serious?!"
"I don't want to fight that guy!"
"He going to kill somebody!"
Hansel felt the ghost of a smirk spreading across his features, 'Inferior by all accounts even with their 'aura' they shiver like freshly sheered lambs.'
A hologram projection emitted above the stage, on the right side was a question mark within the silhouette of a person and a dice roll where the name would've been. On the other side was Hansel's picture without his mask on; it provided his full serial number and name, the name of his home world, and his combat stats showing he had no aura or semblance.
This of course brought an uproar of confusion to the students.
"What's a Krieg?"
"Are those numbers? Is that his actual name?"
"He doesn't have an aura or semblance? And he defeated a Beowulve?"
Eventually the dice roll came to a stop and a face appeared on the right side, "345768-00876-Hansel shall spar against Pyrrah Nikos, Miss Nikos you may leave to change into your combat gear while I debrief Mister Hansel of sparring rules."
The Kriegsman in question however was already making sure he had 'non-lethal' weapons equip. The only thing that could have a glimmer of hope of being seen as 'non-lethal' was his trench spike even though the shovel was sharpened and serrated. It was the best he had for 'non-lethal'.
So no longer needing the chainsword Hansel respectfully set it on the side, stabbed the Monoknife into the stage although without much force because the knife's of Krieg were meant to cut through to even Space Marine armor. The Steel Legion dagger followed next in a similar sentiment, he switched the safety (if it actually has one) on the bolter and set it aside by his weapons.
He began to spin the trench spike in his hand as Goodwitch came over unintentionally looking like a female Commissar, if there were any Hansel never saw them. She cleared her throat crossing her arms, "You do remember this is a non-lethal match"
"Yes, a bit odd, but yes I do acknowledge that fact Professor." Hansel answered truthfully, if anybody ever dueled in the Death Korps it was always to the death.
"Good, I wish you the best of luck; Miss Nikos is a four time winner in the Mistral regional tournament and has the appearance of invincibility."
The Krieger nearly scoffed, "So she won a couple of fancy pageants for fighting, should I be impressed? Because I can tell you right now she does not compare to the legions of Chaos I have faced, traitors that have devoted themselves to their Blood God. Do you really thing she impresses me?"
Glynda blinked several times, 'Blood God?' but she coughed and regained her focuses, "Just please try not to kill or permanently damage her."
Hansel stared her in the eyes for several seconds, "Then hope she is as good as you say she is, or at least hope she has a strong aura."
She sighed glancing over her shoulder to see Pyrrha come back with her weapons and combat clothes on, "Alright, get to your position on stage then."
"I will still be able to see the flower garden after this right?" She looked at the Krieger again, all he seemed to do was surprise her, being cold and merciless one moment and the next having the innocence of a child that was supposed to be long since torn from his personality.
No matter how confusing he might be at times she couldn't help but faintly smile, "Yes, of course."
Hansel nodded to her in thanks, a rare thing to ever get from a Krieg guardsman, almost as rare as earning their respect.
But now was not the time for Hansel to be thinking about flowers, now was the time to once again humiliate the inhabitants of Remnant although it has been an easily attainable feat so far. Even then as it was always taught during training, "Never underestimate your opponent. Even if they are inferior to Man they are by no means to be considered unfit warriors for it takes either a dumb or strong enemy to oppose the Emperor. In the case of Orks both." Echoed the words of the Regimental Watchmaster during Hansel's old days in the Krieg Schola.
He stood at the allowed distance for the duel; Pyrrha offered a friendly smile, a show of emotion that did not faze the Krieger who only stared at her like a wolf cornering its prey. He could see that she was nervous, her smile was forced and the fear was evident through her eyes.
The only word that Pyrrha could use to describe Hansel would be monster; he certainly looked like one from those horror movies that are shown in downtown Vale, unmoving and silent with a deadly aura pulsating off of him.
She's never been more terrified in her life, chills ran down her spine as she could've sworn she felt his eyes staring at her. Pyrrha gulped
Goodwitch stood between the two a couple of feet away and with a swift chopping motion she shouted, "Fight!"
Pyrrha immediately took a defensive stance expecting Hansel to charge right at her, but she looked over her shield and saw he hadn't even moved, 'What is he doing?'
She shifted her Javelin's form into its rifle state and fired a round to intentionally miss Hansel's head by inches, hoping that would spark a reaction. The bullet zoomed by his head and he didn't even flinch.
"What?" She was baffled by what Hansel was doing, normally someone would just charge head on and they would be fighting by now, but all he's doing is just standing there like a statue, what is he getting at? With a heavy sigh Pyrrha muttered, "Sorry, but we have to get this moving along."
Pyrrha inhaled deeply muttering a thousand apologies as she fired directly at his breastplate. To her utter horror the bullet just bounced off of his armor and landed on the floor bent out of shape.
Surprisingly Hansel bent down and picked the round up between his thumb and index finger, he flicked it off stage looking mighty unimpressed with the bullet. But then he started off in a dead sprint catching Pyrrha off guard.
'Shit!' She fired at him hoping for the rounds to slow him down; but it was nearly impossible with all of the side strafing he was doing, the rounds that did hit his armor only bounced off harmlessly failing at even slowing him down a tad bit.
With fearful haste Pyrrha changed Milo back into its Javelin form and raised her shield hoping to block his charge; unfortunately for her Hansel slid boots first for her shins instead sending her to the ground ungracefully.
Hansel recovered quicker than his opponent and delivered a punishing kick to her side making her utter a satisfying, "Oof!" noise sending her across the stage three feet. He did not give her much time to recover as he began slashing with the serrated edges of the shovel forcing Pyrrha to somersault backwards and put Milo up to absorb the hits.
Pyrrha was horribly struggling against Hansel's ferocious attacks, he was not giving her any room at all to fight back any time soon and if she didn't act quickly enough she would be in serious trouble; so with a desperate move she pushed him away with her shield, but that did her no good because Hansel was waiting for her to do that.
As soon as the shield went forward he grabbed around the edges and threw her and her shield a short distance across the stage; lifting shells into artillery did have its benefits after all.
Pyrrha rolled to her side instantly putting Akouo up as soon as she could, just in time to absorb a drop kick from Hansel. She was panting heavily after rolling back, he only landed so many hits on her and she was getting tired fast whereas Hansel's breathes were controlled. He didn't even look like he broke a sweat.
'How is this possible?' She thought with her shield raised, he was as fast as she was, but he wasn't a professional tournament fighter or a Huntsman in training let alone have an Aura, yet every hit felt like a cinder block going lightning fast, 'Just what sort of army creates a soldier like this?'
He glanced up at Pyrrha's aura meter; it was in the yellow, halfway there. His gaze met hers, both fighters waiting for the other to make the first move; Hansel twisted the connector on his trench spike, loosening it into its pickaxe form, he then moved into a lower stance.
Her eyes were anticipating every movement he made, careful to watch the slightest twitch his body made. Hansel was no amateur when it came to fighting; every move was violent and quick, there was no room for showmanship when it came to Hansel.
He charged forward low almost crouch like; Pyrrha assumed he would sweep her legs again but was unpleasantly surprised to see him jump over her, before she could turn around he punched her kidneys three times with his right hand and parried her shield swing with the pike end of his shovel and delivered a jab from the handle end into her gut knocking some wind out of her. He delivered a shoulder bash into her chest knocking her back, but she used the distance to stab Milo forward.
She instantly wretched at the sound of metal tearing into flesh, she covered her mouth in horror losing grip on Milo leaving it in Hansel's right shoulder. She expected him to scream in pain or cry out, but he was deathly silent.
Hansel looked at the Javelin in his shoulder and then at Pyrrha, "OhmyGodI'msosososososorry!" But he didn't pay attention to her babbling and ripped the weapon out of his shoulder wordlessly.
Her heart thumped extremely fast in her chest, she had never actually made somebody bleed before. But then her blood ran cold as Hansel removed her weapon without so much as grunting and began to swing at her with it; she used her semblance to pull it from his hands at a close enough distance to where it looked like she pried it out but all she did was play into his hand again.
As soon as she wrestled her weapon out of his hand he used the pike end of the shovel to sweep her leg out and shove his left shoulder into her. Pyrrha accidently let go both of her weapons when she fell with an indignant shriek, but in her fall she also disarmed him of the trench spike by kicking out.
That did not however turn the situation in her favor because in the next moment his left hand grasped her throat tightly and hefted her in the air by one arm.
Pyrrha struggled as hard as she could kicking him in the breastplate and scratching at his hand and mask, but he wouldn't let go. Her Aura was stealing away strength to try and repair the damage being done to her already aching body, somehow he hit her hard enough to fracture some bones, but currently it was spread thin as it tried to give her body more energy to keep from going unconscious from the lack of air.
'How does someone without aura have this much strength in one arm?!' Pyrrha screamed in her head trying to pry his fingers off of her throat, her face shone bright red as blood was not able to flow through her body, if he didn't let up Pyrrha would fall unconscious.
In her struggle she managed to push his coat's sleeve down and what she saw next put an inhuman chill down her spine. His entire left arm was metal; a prosthetic designed to look like the skeletal insides of a human arm.
The collective audience gasped at the revealing of his robotic arm.
Hansel tossed her immediately after she did that, a motion he did on pure reflex. He covered his arm and somersaulted to retrieve his shovel, re-twisting the connector to put the shovel back in its original form and storming towards Pyrrha with intent on ending the match.
She had managed to retrieve Akouo before a strong punch from Hansel's left hand sent her sliding backwards, he continued on mercilessly slamming his fist into the shield knocking her back further, again, again, and again until he tore the shield from her grasp to drive his knee into her gut.
As she bent forward he grabbed her by the back of the neck pulling her into the air before he tossed her to the edge of the stage. She could barely move, breathing haggardly gripping her side, Pyrrha looked up to see Hansel coming towards her with murderous intent, so she closed her eyes waiting for whatever blow he was going to deliver.
But the blow didn't come. She looked up and saw that he wasn't even looking at her; instead he was looking at her aura meter. It was deep within the red; Hansel had won, the only proof she even landed a hit on him where deformed bullets and a stab wound in his shoulder.
Pyrrha sighed with the relief that the match was over, with Hansel's personality she expected him to just walk away but instead he lent a hand down, "Few ever draw Kriegan blood and live to tell about it. Consider this a mutual sign of… respect."
She stared dumbfounded for a moment, but smiled taking his hand, "Doesn't your shoulder hurt?"
"As you've seen I have sustained much worse." Even with the blood still coming out of his shoulder Hansel allowed Pyrrha to lean on it, he must've had a high pain tolerance.
Goodwitch cleared her throat, "Mister Hansel has emerged victorious. He has now passed the second part of his initiation."
The room was silent; a student without aura or semblance just defeated one of the most prominent fighters in the region, not only that but also revealed a prosthetic limb that sent chills down the spines of the first years.
Ozpin rose from his seat and walked out onto the stage with a smirk on his lips, "Welcome to Beacon."
Updated and edited as of 12/23/16
