Qrow was entering the backyard for another training Session with his niece, this time carrying four instead of the usual two wooden training weapons. He carried the additional ones, which had a length of wood protruding at an slight downward angle to imitate a scythe's blade, because he had agreed to start showing Ruby techniques unique to scythes after their last sparring session.

As he saw the aforementioned girl lying in the grass, enjoying the nice late spring afternoon, Qrow couldn't help but muse about her progress in controlling her Aura, or, when it came to enhance her abilities with it, lack thereof. Despite what techniques he showed her, the little half Grimm never had managed to use her Aura for much besides shielding herself from harm and healing small wounds. She excelled at those practices, probably even surpassing a few of the first years he was teaching at Signal.

But, as she was as strong and tough as a Grimm, quite literally, that should not be a big problem for when the young girl was going to apply for Signal's advanced curriculum, which was normally reserved for older students who decided to pursue a career where they were expected to have trained at a Combat school later than the thirteen years which was when most students would apply to a combat school. Normally Ruby would barely be allowed to take the normal entry exam this summer when she was twelve, but Qrow hoped to be able to pull some strings before that time, because seeing how determined his niece was to go to beacon with her big sister, who was he to stand in her way.

"Hey kiddo, you've been lazy long enough, it's time for training."

Hearing her uncle's voice, the wolf eared girl quickly leapt up into a standing position, padded of her leggings, skirt and long sleeve shirt.

"What's with those two things you brought besides our staffs?"

At that question he took one of the scythe stand-ins and held it out for Ruby to examine.

"Well they are the closest I could get to a Scythe for training, as I didn't get the gears to turn the blade to work with wooden weapons. Because of that we'll have to train the two states off a Scythe separately, at least until you made your own at Signal so we can train with actual weapons."

At the prospect of learning how to actually use the same weapon which he had used to save Yang from that Ursa all those years ago, Ruby's silver eyes lit up with excitement.

"Ok then can we start?"

"Alright. so first I need to explain some things to you, and then we'll move on to actually practice what I will tell and show you now. First off most of these moves require you to be able to actually rip the Scythe's blade through your enemies. Most good Scythe-users achieve this by incorporating a firearm into the weapon, so they can use it's recoil to add more strength to the pulling motion used to cut through an enemy with the blade in its angled position. You should remember that when you start designing your own weapon.

Now to actually get the blade hooked around an opponent to rip through them, there are …"

Ruby was quite proud of herself, after all the twelve year old was among the few students applying for Signal's advanced curriculum that had managed to get to the last of the entrance exams, in which their combat skills would be evaluated. Most of the other students kept glancing towards her uncomfortably, either because she was at least two years younger than anyone else here, or because of her 'mask'.

Currently all of them were waiting in a room set up for sparring practice, with a pair of weapon racks on the walls containing all kinds of wooden training weapons, probably used for teaching the first year students before they finished making their weapons. After a moment a young Woman came into the room, carrying a large scroll in her hands.

"Hello everyone, I am Mrs. Purpura and I will be overseeing your combat exam. During this exam, each of you will take part in one one on one spar, using a weapon of your choice from those provided. Each of you will be graded based on your skill with your chosen weapon, the tactics you employ and how much Aura you have left at the end of the match.

You will not necessarily fail the exam if you lose your match, which will happen when one of the following three things happen. One your Aura levels drops below 15%, after you surrender, or if I decide that you can't continue the fight."

The instructor quickly tapped the screen of her scroll.

"Now for our first match, Mr. Bims Graurute will fight against Ms. Ruby Rose."

Along with Ruby a boy with a gray wolf tail stepped towards the weapon racks. Both of them were wearing similar clothes, a pair of comfortable pants along with a longsleeved shirt. But where the Faunus' were grey and dark green, the half Grimm's were red and black and she was wearing a pair of black leather gloves. Arriving in front of the provided weapons, Ruby immediately grabbed a simple staff. Bims seemed to hesitate for a bit before he decided to take a one handed sword, which meant that the wolf eared girl would have the advantage in terms of reach.

Both of them quickly took their position in the middle of the room, after which Mrs. Purpura quickly gave them the Signal to start. Ruby held her staff pointed towards her opponent's face, waiting for him to make a move, her view fixed onto his face. Before Bims even started his strike, his gaze shifting and staying on her left leg told the half Grimm where his first attack would try to land. This showed her that he had less experience in fighting one on one than her, because not obviously looking at where she wanted to strike next was one of the first things Qrow taught her. She easily blocked the telegraphed attack with one end of her staff, before she used to other to hit Bims' shoulder. As he wasn't expecting such a thing and had his sword still locked with the other end of her weapon, Ruby's attack connected, although the limited space to pull the weapon back meant the strike was weaker than she had hoped. After this first exchange of blows, Ruby took a short step back, out of her opponent's reach and waited what he would do next.

After a few moments where neither of them attacked, Ruby decided to take the initiative and pulled her staff back a bit before she aimed a strike at her opponent right side. Despite the older combatants awkward block, which only managed to slow the weapon instead of stopping it, her weapon still connected with quite more force than her earlier attack.

Thus even her relatively inexperienced opponent realized he needed to get closer to the wolf eared girl, so her longer weapon would be in her own way. Not expecting her opponent to wisen up, Ruby got caught by surprise when Bims' moved closer, grabbing onto her staff with his free hand in the process. When his sword contacted her side, the half Grimm realized that she had to do something to get her out of this situation.

Doing something that the watching students might have thought foolish, she let go of her own weapon, and quickly grabbed onto his sword and the corresponding wrist. She used her smaller stature to duck under his arm behind his back, while simultaneously twisting his wrist to force him to let go of his sword. Her quick move ended with her holding his right arm behind his back, twisting his wrist strong enough to cause pain despite his aura. Ruby simultaneously pushed his other arm out in front of him, thanks to her Beowulf strength, to prevent him from hitting her with her own staff. When it became evident that Bims wasn't strong enough to free himself from the girl's hold Mrs. Purpura spoke up.

"At this point I believe it evident that Mr. Graurute can't fight on, which means that Ms. Rose has won the first match. And with the way you took it after being put in a disadvantaged position, I would like to welcome you to Signal academy."

So with this story just hitting 2500 views I thought I would throw you all a small bone from my Chapter buffer. As always thank you guys for reading, comments and critique are welcome.