Rogue Huntsman
Forfeit
«»
The air was wet, sticky, and grimy on everyone's shoes. It clung to our soles as we walked across campus, staunching the air we breathed with every intake and crushing our lungs in its stingy grasp. It wasn't just brisk. It was humid and annoyingly soaked with the stench of still drying mud.
Rain was the worst.
My coat was still wet from last night, having been completely drenched at the epicenter of the storm that raged for merely one and a half hours.
The trees glistened like they were diamonds in the rough with slickened leaves in the morning sun, if only they knew of their extortion in a world so primitive, so industrial.
They know nothing of their own destruction.
It was always better that way… it makes it more humane. More natural, safer, less morally draining…
I wasn't thinking about trees anymore.
"You look all gloomy and grumpy, Niro. What's with the dark undertone?" Anoel asked, walking alongside me with a small pale hand clutched in her opposite. With it, she tugged along the scared fox from last night.
She didn't need any help walking.
"I wear black clothes and reek of aura, what about me isn't a dark undertone?" I asked, flicking my collar for a moment to ditch a couple running driblets of water.
"Oh, don't be like that. We all know you secretly have a really big heart and you're not afraid to show off your soft side." I could almost hear the smirk on Anoel's face.
"Think what you want," The wind took that moment to slip over the nearest cliffside and blow across the courtyards, pulling rainwater off leaves and over the edges of rooftops and scattering it across the pathway we were walking. Each drop striking the pavement sounded like a gunshot in a barren desert, resounding for miles but only heard by a single soul.
All other souls were dead or beyond its range.
"But you should know," I continued, reaching out a hand and catching a few stray raindrops on my glove, followed by a damp, heavy leaf, "All men have a side to them they don't want you to see. You just have to wonder if it's the right course of action to draw it out."
My fingers crushed around the leaf, only letting slip a minor bright flash of green light before I opened them, letting some dust fall from my palm now as we walked.
"If you push someone hard enough, it might not be the soft side they reveal to you."
"Hmm," Ano hummed, skipping for a moment in her step and getting a particularly visible eep out of Kitsuki to her left, "I'll take my chances. I'm a pretty good judge of character."
"You're lousy at staying out of situations you're not supposed to be involved with, though."
"Oh, but where's the fun in keeping to myself if there's so much excitement to be had with others?" Anoel asked with a smile, and when I looked over, I noticed Kitsuki lagging behind slightly.
The clicks of her black boots grew softer as she slowly edged her way behind my partner. Her head tilted down all of a sudden, away from something ahead of her as we made our way along the path toward one of our classes.
We were passing other students hanging around a bench near the path's tree line.
Indigo eyes leered our way, glancing past the collar of my trench coat and beyond the rim of my partner's hat, narrowing in on a pair of folded fox ears behind Anoel. Combed, burnt-orange hair shined in the morning sun above those eyes, acting as an outcrop of arrogance as its front peaked slightly for the style.
His silver-gray armor was more pristine than it should've been, and his gold-trim was cleaner than the man deserved. On its front was a bird, something only suckers wore when bearing their family crests in a world of virtue and corruption.
He was a Winchester. He wasn't on the side of virtue.
"Hey," His voice tried to make itself sound low, but beneath it was a higher tone masked by an air of condescending pipe dreams and a security only found in a bib and a fluffy blanket. He felt safe, despite his tall stature and being at the optimal height of losing his head first should an ax suddenly sweep overhead, "It's that little abomination again."
Two more sets of eyes joined the first, "The thing with the three tails?" One of them spoke.
"Wonder what kind of lab cooked up that squirt of an experiment…" Someone else spoke up next to the privileged heir, sporting dark blue hair and blue eyes. His armor was gray… vambraces in the same style, same trim, same boring dull reflection.
It paled in comparison to a stone wall built to protect some unfortunate village. At least that structure had the dignity to stand still and let something else sink its claws into its flesh.
No, this guy had the wit to run, he reeked of cowardice.
They all did.
All four of them.
We walked by them as they laughed. Sneers were constantly sent toward Kitsuki's tails as they pushed each other and nudged each other's arms, fooling around like fools often do.
The greatest fools took the stage to accept death in the face of entertainment. Those are the fools people admired.
These weren't the fools people admired.
"Tch, I know Beacon's all prestigious and all, but I guess pricks like that tend to pop up no matter where you go," Anoel said with a sigh, her voice soft now. The fleeting excitement and spark of warm happiness present in her tone mere moments ago had all but dulled.
She let go of Kitsuki's hand.
Kitsuki didn't come to class with us.
Anoel wasn't here either.
I watched as two students stumbled around one another on the arena below. Their clumsy footsteps clicked against the hard, black panels of the ground they stood on, engaging one another in combat fit to entertain only those lousy enough to accept free tickets to an already cheap show.
Bar fights were more entertaining than this excuse of a sparring match.
Cardin, or so I've heard now that his name has been announced, was duking it out with Jaune Arc, the halfwit wannabe from the field in the Emerald Forest.
The one that almost died after a bird landed on him.
"This," Cardin kicked Jaune's shield dead on. Jaune wasn't even smart enough to position it in such a way to glance a predictable attack to the side. Instead, he took it like the man he wished he was as the shield was pounded back, bending his arm away from his defenses before Cardin slammed his foot down onto the ground in one fell, powerful step as he grabbed the blonde by the hair, "Is where you lose."
Jaune's shrill voice was lost as a hefty thud. Or was it a dull smack? Something with a quiet crack sounded out as Cardin yanked Jaune's head down into his rising knee, finishing the match without a scratch to his own aura as he let Jaune crumple to the floor.
I guess he treats everyone that way. A high king among flocks of sheep, willing to brand all those with the thinner coats with a burning rod while leaving the thicker ones for later.
No, he was more of a wolf among berries. Brave enough to try each one, but dumb enough to bite off more than he can chew.
Cardin walked off stage as the lights came back on, revealing Glynda Goodwitch standing off to the side with her large scroll in hand, "The victor is Cardin Winchester. Mr. Arc, please make your way to the locker room. If you need medical attention, I'm sure a willing student will help you receive it."
I watched as someone stood up, a few seats to my right and down a few rows. She had fiery red hair tied in a ponytail, something I recognized immediately. She looked worried.
She had no right to be.
"N-no, I'm fine," Jaune coughed, face slightly bruised but healing, as he pushed himself to his knees and picked up his shield, "Perfectly… fine."
His voice was low, grumbly, and in a lot of pain.
He had tolerance. Either that or he lacked the intelligence to call it quits when an overwhelming power was knocking at his door. He was biding his time, taking the weight so no one else had to.
If only he knew… no one ever shouldered problems on their own.
All it ever takes is a single moment, the very instant you make a mark on someone else. They shoulder every problem you face alongside you. It's worked that way ever since humanity was conceived at the beginning of time.
Pyrrha sat back down as Jaune crawled to his feet, making his way into a tunnel at the far wall of the arena in a few seconds.
"Our next scheduled match will be our last for the day," Glynda spoke out across the scattered students in the stands of the circular room, eyes glancing over each of us, the slightest stalls in the movements of her pupils were enough to tell me who she was calling next, so I stood up, "Mr. Ezdeil and Miss Valkyrie, please make your way down and prepare yourselves for combat."
I pulled the cloth of my glove taught for a moment as I took a step-
"I forfeit!"
Turning back, I noticed Nora standing from her seat with her hand in the air. She had a meek smile on her face and a small tilt of the head. She was playing the innocent, fearful card rather well. But her words alone got a few snickers and laughs from her peers.
"Miss Valkyrie, exercising your right to forfeit is within the conduct of this class. However, to do so before the match begins is bad sportsmanlike-"
"I know, but I can't go down there against him! He'll cream me!" Nora cried out, falling back into her seat dramatically with a heavy shiver rushing down her spine.
Was she… serious?
"Very well, your participation grade will not suffer. But do keep in mind that if this is a reoccurring problem with you, I will deduct points from your overall marks in this class. This is your only warning, now," Glynda looked across the array of students once again before her eyes stopped, "Mr. Tyro, please step forward-"
"Uh, I forfeit too. Sorry." Rex Tyro, someone as tall and as brawn as Cardin himself, didn't so much as stand from his seat. He had one silver boot kicked up on the backrest of the seat in front of him and leaned back into his own.
"V-very well, perhaps your partner? Miss Stowe?"
"I forfeit as well," Dark silver eyes, crimson hair, red headphones around her neck, the guy's partner seemed to be in a different league than his own. Maybe they got along that way.
I started making my way back to my seat.
"Is anyone here willing to spar with Mr. Ezdeil?" Glynda asked instead, fixing her glasses on her face with a very mild flush in her cheeks. I guess she wasn't expecting this kind of reaction. Or, maybe she was… and Ozpin had mentioned it prior.
If I were to guess, she made a bet with him. She was on the side of no one wanting to face me. He was on the side of someone stepping up to the challenge…
She seemed pleased with the results.
"Anyone?" She asked again when no one raised their hands.
Ozpin was very rarely wrong.
Two hands lifted into the air as I looked down the line of turning heads. Yang's hand was up, as well as someone else's I didn't recognize. He was further down the line, far off to the left and in one of the middle rows.
It was hard to see him, to be honest. His entire team had white hair… and their attire consisted of mostly the color white anyway. It was like they were all from Atlas, only, they weren't even close to that kind of upbringing.
The one who raised his hand had white hair, chin-length, and bright sky blue eyes. Those irises were currently glancing toward me, almost challengingly, before settling on Yang's own challenging orbs.
The lilac ones.
"Sorry frosty, but let me handle this one!" Yang called out, standing up and crossing her arms.
The one in white dropped his hand and stood up as well, "Forgive me, but I'd like to fight him as well. From what I've seen and heard, I think it'll be quite the spar."
He had that rich, condescending flair to him. But it was all an act. He played the polite card, but his past said otherwise. It felt like he didn't belong…
Something was off about him.
"Well, forgive me for putting a damper on your parade buddy. But I have a score to settle with thin, dark, and stupid up here," Yang thrust a thumb over her shoulder in my direction before placing her hands on her hips, "So let me fight him, yeah?"
The white-haired teen seemed to get it, taking his seat again next to another fox-yōkai. This makes two of them that I've seen within 48 hours.
What the hell was the world coming to… when you laid eyes upon two kitsune in such a short amount of time. At least this one could talk.
"The match has been decided then. Miss Xiao Long and Mr. Ezdeil, please prepare yourselves." Glynda made the sparring match official and ushered us down to center stage.
I didn't need to take a detour to the locker room for any equipment or armor. I just placed a solid hand on the railing of the top wall of the arena and leaped over. My trench coat pulled behind me from the sudden rush of wind in my plummet, but aside from the noise of that fabric whipping behind me nothing else was heard.
My landing was quiet, as opposed to my usual ground crushing impacts.
I didn't have the money to pay for an entire arena floor.
My legs carried me to my position as I waited, and before long, I watched as Yang made her way out of a tunnel and to the opposite side of the ring. She was rolling her neck, cracking her knuckles, and hopping on the balls of her feet as she eyed me up.
"Oh, I've been waiting for this one," She passionately taunted me with a crack of the neck, pulling her chin in an unnatural direction as she fixed me with a heated glare, "You dissed my partner, you dissed me, and you used my sister for your little game of slaughter. I think I need to teach you a little something about family."
"You think family means nothing to me?" I asked, placing my hand just before the bend of my inner elbow as I pulled up my hand, flexing my fingers up and beside my head as I regarded Yang in a diagonal stance.
"Pfft, with the way you've been acting and talking, I doubt you even know what respect is let alone the meaning of family, or how they should be treated. Even if they're not related by blood," Yang replied with a heartfelt laugh for emphasis, shaking out her hands now as she entered a boxer's stance.
"The match will begin momentarily," Glynda cut in now, "The first person whose aura enters the red loses and the match will be stopped immediately. Any damage past that will not be tolerated. Furthermore, the match can be called at any time under my own discretion or that of one of the combatants, both of which have the right to forfeit. Anything else applies, so long as they are within reason."
She listed off the rules, but I knew Yang was more interested in beating my face in than listening to another blonde talk.
Maybe I should let her.
"Are you two ready?" Glynda asked.
Yang's head nodded enthusiastically, almost forcefully, while I continued staring at my opponent in a position that didn't even remotely qualify as a combat stance. I stood straight, lax in a tall posture, regarding my opponent out of the corner of my eye rather than head on.
I didn't need any other stance for this.
"So be it," Glynda took a step back, the click of her heel dulling beneath the rising tension.
The lights once again shut off, leaving the ring of the arena the only illuminated portion of the vast room we stood in.
"Begin."
Yang dipped down into a low charge, coming at me with fists ignited in a reflection of golden light and yellow flames. The bracelets once adorning her wrists had been extended into gauntlets through a forceful implementation of momentum, letting the weight within them catch and pull to slide the panels into a set transformation.
I deactivated my aura shield, cut off my healing, and turned to regard my opponent.
Her fist made contact with my gut first, striking where it hurt. With it came a harsh, loud, red blast of a shotgun burst that tore through my body. No glint of a shining shotgun shell twirled through the air, which told me all of her ammunition was ejected at the end of each linked chain of bullets.
When she reloaded, to be more precise.
It wasn't a smart decision, given the lack of ability to reload whenever she needed. She was required to use every last bullet before ejecting an empty cartridge of bullet shells. However, it did solve any issues that could occur in jams during a singular shell's ejection.
My jaw was her next target. She struck it with the force of a train skidding on ice in the high mountains of Mantle, going a little too fast as it plowed through snow layered thickly over the rails before its wheels.
Trains needed a lot of power and speed up there.
She dislocated my jaw with a second punch, pushing me back a step as she took up a left hook and crossed it into my side, slamming her fist there as well and firing another shotgun blast through my ribs and lung.
She had a thirsty glint in her eyes. A red, fiery drive. It was heated, smoldering in a trailing blur of red as her crimson eyes burned with a passion I hadn't seen in anyone for so long. Her lust for revenge and her anger to avenge were blinding her, driving her forward to take more and more, to take and take.
To beat me to a pulp with everything she had.
And she did.
She pushed me back, punching and slipping around me, driving her knees into my body and kicking at my legs, attempting to break the bones there if she could.
I stayed standing.
Blood dripped down my arms, splatters of it lay in fresh stains on the floor around me as the girl pounded away at me, driving herself further and further as she unloaded the last of her bullets into my stomach.
Her shoulders were rising and falling, her lungs wracked with heavy breathing as her eyes hid within the darkness of her bangs. She kept her smoking fist pressed solidly against my chest.
Her last, empty cartridge clicked, as her knuckles pressed against my heart.
Several of my ribs had been broken, all of them fractured. Both of my lungs were struggling to function, holes littering their walls, much like the rest of my body. My arms still remained at my sides, they've been like that since the fight started.
My legs weren't shaking. My stature was broken. I was still straight and my eyes were still open.
I was still standing.
I let her breathe, gasping for air as she took in a deep breath before me, then let it all out in a harsh exhale.
She had me against the wall. Maybe that was why I was still standing after all that.
Her fists were bloody, her sharp gauntlets softly glinting now, and her eyes were hard and glistened in the light as she finally looked up at me.
They weren't red anymore.
"Why?" Her voice croaked out, losing its edge it had before. The fire in her presence was simmering down now.
I brought up my arm and wiped my bloody mouth with the back of my wrist, clearing that away as I smirked at her, "Was it satisfying?"
My question left her stunned. She didn't know what to say, or how to go about finding an answer for a question like that. She bit her lip for a while, eyes regarding mine for a solid minute before she pushed a breath through her nose and looked away, "It was, sorta, yeah."
My smirk widened behind my wrist, and I reactivated my aura.
The entirety of my body subtly shined as my shield spread across my being, reflecting the light in the room for a brief moment before I felt energy start to pour through my veins and flood its way through every millimeter of me once again.
All of the wounds Yang inflicted closed, the blood coating my clothes burned away, and all bones, fractures, and dislocations shifted and fixed in the same moment as I took Yang's fist off my heart and stepped around her.
"Good," I commented softly, lowly, as I made my way toward the exit.
"W-wait," Yang suddenly spoke, her eyes drifting across the floor in front of her and around her as her fists fell to her sides, "Why did you…" Her eyes were wider than usual, confusion spilling from her tongue as she glanced up at me, "Why didn't you fight back?"
"I had no reason to," I replied, but I kept the real reason to myself. She didn't need to know.
I kept walking.
"N-no reason to…" She was still confused, good.
She then asked something else, softer now, but I caught it nonetheless.
"Who wins?" Yang's voice filled the air one more time with no more certainty to it than before. She sounded unsure, lost, but… almost thankful, if I could even justify that within her character.
The answer to her question was easy.
I walked into the shadows, out of the light. And before I disappeared entirely, I turned my head to regard Yang out of the corner of my eye, one more time, before giving her one more smirk.
"I forfeit."
I left and went to find Kitsuki.
Sheesh, I'm one of those writers who let Cardin pick on one of my characters to build sympathy and anger. What you're probably thinking right now is the coming chapters will mostly likely have someone valiantly step forward and put him in his place.
Teach him a lesson. Make him stop bullying something so fluffy and adorable. I know that's what some of you are thinking because that's what I'm hoping you're thinking.
Maybe I will, maybe I won't. It'd be up to the rest of her three-person team. It'd be their decision to step in on someone else's problem.
For now, we'll just see what happens.
Also, I wonder if anyone knows why Niro did what he did in his sparring match against Yang. He has his reasons, he always does.
But anyway, these next chapters are going to be the kind that I slip in humor more and more wherever I see fit. So, there's that to look forward to.
Hope you liked it! Or, you know, the usual.
For now, Favorite and Follow.
I look forward to seeing REVIEWS for this. You'll be introduced to a LOT of concepts of mine. Feel free to give me your thoughts.
Cya XP