Several days had passed. Team RWBY was coming slow but surely together. Weiss had even got Yang on her side with helping Ruby study. She just told her that if Ruby didn't learn fast enough she could even be hold back a year. That convinced Yang immediately. And to make sure that Ruby wouldn't slack, and given that she was just fifteen that can happen soon, she pulled her trump card. If she started slacking there would be no more cookies. Ruby felt betrayed.
The students were still getting used to the teachers. Oobleck's speed was ridicules and made taking note next to impossible. Port's stories were getting even more boring if that was even possible. Some had stopped trying and just went to sleep. Not hard because Port's class was usually in the morning. That being said there was something that happened that threw everyone for a loop. Jaune had taken five liters of juice with him at the second lesson. When asked why he replied with that it helps him concentrate. That drew some weird looks but professor Port didn't seem to mind so some even held their breakfast in the class.
The mood of the first year students had changed today. Normally it was just normal. Students walking around minding their own business. Now there was excitement in the air. Today would be their first combat class and after lunch break survival class would begin. The Hunters where hyped. Not really strange cause in combat class they could beat the crap out each other without getting into trouble. Add that no-one knew what survival class would be like was just adding fuel to the flame.
"It's finally here" Nora cheered "I can't wait till I can break some legs". Team RWBY gave her weird looks.
"She means it figuratively" Ren explained. At least he hoped so. There were times that even he didn't know for sure.
"That aside I'm itching for a good fight" Yang said. The rest of the students, which where al in there combat equipment, filled the classroom that was shaped like an arena. The seats where elevated position so that a stray shot wouldn't hit them. Professor Goodwitch entered the arena.
"Greeting students" The professor begun " And welcome to combat class. My name Glynda Goodwitch and I will be your instructor. Now I know that you all just want to start fighting first a few things need to be addressed. First and foremost, no blows that would obviously kill your opponent like aiming for the throat. Even if we have aura generators those will not be allowed". Aura generators were state of the art machines created by Atlas. They generated a force field similar to aura be vastly different. If a person took a hit but his own aura couldn't take it the force field of the generator would take it and sound an alarm. The match was then to stop and the victor declared. They allowed people with more dangerous weapons to fight without fear of killing their opponent by accident. "Second if your opponent's aura goes below fifteen percent you will stop immediately" Glynda continued. It didn't take long till she was finished. "And last rule if I say stop you will stop. Failing to comply with any of these rules will result in punishment. At the end of every spar I will give you advice to improve".
"Now that is done Mrs Xiao Long and Mr Lams please come to the stage".
Yang let out whoop of joy for being the first one to fight. Her opponent had an excited grin on his face. When they both reached the stage Yang took the opportunity to get a better look at her adversary. Odell Lams wore blue jeans with a short sleeved t-shirt with showed of his tanned muscles. Under his jeans were simple snickers. His brown hair was wavy and reached to his shoulders. He had an arrogant look in his blue eyes. His weapon was a sniper rifle. Yang saw it could change but had no idea what that was.
"Combatants ready"?
"Sure am"
"Ready" Yang said.
"Then begin"
Odell brought his rifle up to start shooting but Yang was faster. She shot behind her to increase her momentum surprising him quite a bit. When Yang was in front of him she unleashed devastating punches on him. Odell managed to get away from the blonde as she overextended, firing a few shots as he backed away. He transformed his weapon to meet Yang in close combat. When it was done Yang knew she had won.
It was a spear.
Not only was it a spear she couldn't see any opening on the spear. That meant it couldn't shoot while it was like that. Yang started to shot at Odell he dodged and weaved to get to her. When he was in striking range he thrusted his spear forward. Yang dodged to the left and punched Odell in the face. Odell flew across the room as he dropped his weapon. Yang closed the distance again. The match was over soon after that. Odell was no match for Yang in a fist fight. He did pull one mean elbow to her face but it barely fazed the blonde.
"Enough Mrs Xiao Long is the winner" Goodwitch announced. "Miss Xiao Long, excellent work on controlling the flow of the fight. However you drop your guard at the ending. Make sure that it doesn't happen again. Mr Lams see to it that you learn to switch your weapon forms faster. It won't do to have the wrong form out as this fight show. Now next up are"…
After a while almost all of the students had fought. All of team RWBY had fought. All of them had won to showing that they were not to take lightly. Some fights were closer than others. The fight that could go either way was the one Pyrrha fought. It was so close that everyone was on the edge of their seat.
Yeah right, Pyrrha made her opponent eat the floor so fast it wasn't even funny.
That said her opponent was a sore loser. When the red head offered her hand to help him up he slapped it aside. The sad look on her face mad Jaune swore that when he was going to fight him, he would kick his ass bad. Nobody would disrespect his team. Especially his partner.
"Now for our last match Mr Arc and Mr Thrush come to the stage".
"Ready to lose Faunus"? Russel said when they both where on the stage. Jaune didn't say anything.
"What too scared to say anything"? Jaune remained silent. It got on Russel's nerves.
"Both combatants ready"?
"Ready". Russel said. Jaune nodded.
"Begin"
Russel dashed toward Jaune. He knew with such a large sword that up close was the safest place to be. Plus his daggers where ideal for this sort fights. His weapons slashed across the breastplate of the faunus. Russel expected retaliation but Jaune just stood still. That confused the dagger wielder but resumed his attack shortly after. This continued for four minutes. Russel kept on slashing at Jaune and the blonde did nothing to stop it.
"What is that dunce doing" Weiss asked. The rest of team RWBY was just as lost as the Heiress. Ren and Pyrrha were trying to figure that out as well.
"He is tiring Russel out" Nora said like it was obvious.
"What a stupid plan" Weiss said "By the time Thrush is tired his aura would be in the red". Nora just pointed at the aura screen. When RWBY and PR looked they were gobsmacked. Jaune's aura was at one hundred percent.
"That's impossible" Blake said "He should at the very least be at ninety nine percent". Ren suddenly had a look of realisation.
"He is not channelling his aura across his armour".
"Then shouldn't the alarm have sounded"? Yang asked.
"True" Ren replied "But since that hasn't happened Jaune must be using a trick of some sort".
Russel backed off from Jaune panting. Attacking someone for four whole minutes was quite draining. He looked up to see how low Jaune's aura was only to be shocked.
'How is that possible'? Russel thought. He then heard something running towards him. When he looked back he received a metal fist to his face. Russel recovered quite well as he dodged the giant sword that came down towards him. He tried to get behind the Faunus, only for a tail to smack him in the face. He then had his legs kicked from under him. He had no time to get away from the sword that came crashing down on him. The arena was filled with a buzzing sound as Russel curled into a ball. Having a thirty kilogram heavy sword hitting you in the stomach was quite painful if not deadly.
"This match is over" Glynda said "Mr Arc while agree that luring your opponent is a good strategy a bad one would be standing like a golem and do nothing. Mr Thrush if your opponent allows you to attack them with no retaliation it's a trap and find another way to take them down. Class dismissed".
"You're going to eat all that"? Ruby said as she looked at the mountain of food on Jaune's plate.
"I need to if I want to keep using my sword" Jaune said back as he finished a sandwich. One down ten to go.
"Arc" Weiss began "How come you didn't lose any aura when Thrush was attacking you"?
"Oh that's easy" Jaune started "I didn't channel my aura across my armour".
"That I get but why didn't the generators sound the alarm"? Weiss asked.
"Simple Russel's attacks never got through the armour" Jaune explained "And even if it did by some film logic I had my aura up underneath it".
"So you're saying that Russel never had a chance"? Blake asked.
"Not really" Jaune took a bite of one of his sandwiches "If he tried to stab between the gaps in the armour he would be doing damage but since he just slashed away the only thing he achieved was him getting tired".
"What I don't get is why there wasn't even a scratch on you" Yang said "There should be some there".
"Yang if you got a properly made longsword and properly made plate armour and you would swing the sword with your full strength at it, it would just bounce off with the blade's edge ruined and no scratch or dent on the armour. And that's steel versus steel. My armour is made of randite with is four time stronger than mithril. A steel dagger is what I think Russel's is made of has no chance of going through. Also channelling aura across randite armour is just a waste".
"So the only way to hurt you is to hit you where there is no armour"? Ruby asked.
"That or get a mace or warhammer and bash me with it".
"Enough about Jauney awesome armour" Nora said "More talking about what we can expect about are next class".
"You mean what kind of teacher Auntie is"?
"Yes" Nora beamed.
"No idea". Everyone had a blank look on their face.
"Very funny fearless leader but you were taught by her so you can't not know how she teaches". Nora argued.
"True but I was her personal student and we are family so she could get away with something that she can't with strangers. Add that she has never taught a class in her live I have no idea".
"What kind of person is she then"? Ren asked.
"Pretty laid back till you break the rules. She also puts responsibility on you and waits till you mess up to help you".
"That's not really someone you want as a survival teacher Jaune". Pyrrha said.
"I meant in quite safe situations" Jaune replied "In lethal cases she won't do that".
"What do you mean with quite safe"? Blake gave a suspicious look.
"Like getting bite by a toe biter she would just laugh and say I told you so. But getting to close to a fer-de-lance and she will pull you away".
"Wait" Yang had a teasing grin on "That sounds like an experience not just an example".
Jaune lowered his head in shame. "Yeah it was". Yang, Nora and Ruby started to laugh while Blake, Ren and Pyrrha grinned but only Ren didn't trying to hide it. Weiss just rolled her eyes.
"Hey I was fifteen when that happened" Jaune protested.
"That makes it even funnier than normal" Ruby laughed "It usually little kids that get bitten. Not someone that spends most of his time in the wilds".
"Even experts make mistakes" Jaune said.
"Sure but going into the water without boots is just asking for trouble" Yang grinned.
"Enough about Arc's incompetent we're going to be late" Weiss injected.
Al of the first years where in the classroom but the professor hadn't arrived yet. Students were walking about what they would expect or something totally unrelated. That stopped when Lurmina walked in. she turned to face the class when she reached the desk.
"Anyone who wants to leave now is the time". That wasn't what they expected.
"Don't worry you won't get punished, well except if Goodwitch catches you but she is have combat class for the third years" Lurmina said. A few teams left after that. This was their last class of the day and the weekend started right after it. Ruby tried to leave as well but Weiss stop her from going.
"What are you doing"? Weiss hissed.
"Leaving"? Ruby said confused "She told us it was ok".
"Didn't you listen to Arc" The heiress questioned "Mrs Lurmina is testing us to see if we can take responsibility ourselves". Ruby realized that she had almost walked into that mistake. She had promised to be a better leader and here she almost broke that promise.
"Thanks Weiss" Ruby said grateful.
"Just doing my job as your partner"
Lurmina gave the room a quick glance. "You all sure you want to stay"? No one stood up.
"Good let the lesson begin" The professor started "Let me begin with this. You all suck". That caused a few mouths to drop and others to look offended.
"But" lurmina continued like she didn't insult everyone in the room "at least you use your brains so you guys are way smarter than the people that just left. And with survival using your brain and thinking logical will solve half of the problems you come across".
"I've a scenario for you. We got four groups with no survival experience and drop them on four different islands with no Grimm on them. They need to stay there for a week. Group one consist of only female humans. Group two of male humans, group three of Faunus female and group four of male Faunus. Who do you think will survive for a week? And no Jaune you know the answer so shut up". It took some time till someone raised his hand.
"Albus correct? What's the answer"? Lurmina pointed to the teenager.
"I think the two groups of Faunus" Albus replied.
"And why do you think that"?
"Well Faunus have better senses so they could identify dangerous plants easier"
"Very good. Anyone else want to try"? A brown haired girl was next.
"I think the two female groups because they would communicate with each other".
"Also a good answer Jennifer" Lurmina said "Now who agrees with Albus"? A few hands went up. "And who with Jennifer"? More hands were raised. "And who was doing naughty business so you couldn't raise your hand"? That got a few students to snort.
"Now the correct answer was the two male groups. Why do I know that? Because this was actually done in real live. Now the reason behind this is men are instinct driven while women are social creatures" Lurmina explained "For survival there is no time for a nice social chat. The two men groups immediately went to work while the two female groups idling chitchatting which snowballed the situation into getting worse and worse. The man managed, very easy mind you, to complete this task while the women had to quit on day four".
"The differences between those groups were enormous. One of the girls even washed her hair in the drinking water". That caused everyone to cringe in disgust.
"Yeah it was that bad" the Faunus teacher said "That being said the experiment consisted of eight groups. The other for were the same as the previous groups except they had survival experience. Then the women where better. They had things more organised then and way more cleaner".
"What we are going to do in this class is more practical than just open you books on page forty eight or something. It is also the last lesson of the week because in the future I will take you guys in to the Emerald forest or somewhere else. Don't worry about suddenly having a change of plans I will inform you guys a week before we head out".
"But what about the guys that left"? One of the students asked.
"Well tough luck for them cause they aren't coming with us" Lurmina said with no care in the world. She then placed her hands on the desk.
"Being out in the wilds is no game. Its serious business and if you are not prepared to give it one hundred percent then I don't want you coming along. Their grades will suffer for it but that isn't your problem". The students now knew why the professor said what she said at the beginning. It was to test their resolve.
"Now that we got that out of the way this lesson is all about making rainproof shelter and the many ways you can build a fire and how to use that fire to purify water".