"Let the match…begin!"

Crimson dashed forward, slicing with both his katanas. Cardin however, expected the move and stepped to the side, the katanas slicing through the air where he was standing. Marty took a moment to realise that the ginger was faster than he looked before Cardin's mace slammed into his back, sending him flying and taking out a chunk of his aura.

"Hell yeah! Show him who's the boss Cardin!"

Crimson stood up on shaky legs, feeling slightly dizzy after taking such a large hit. The rebellious hunter-in-training considered his options and decided that, fast as Cardin was, he was faster. He'd just need to be careful.

With a vicious snarl, he changed his grip to fire the machine pistol parts of his weapon. Cardin cursed under his breath before crouching down to give him as little to shoot at as possible and covering his head with his armored forearms. The bullets hammered into his armored body parts with his aura deflecting the occasional one that hit his exposed cheeks.

"Now!"

Marty dashed forward with lightning speed right as the clips in both guns emptied. Cardin was only just beginning to stand up as Marty's knee slammed into his jaw. The mace-wielder barely had time to react to the vicious blow before the blade slices started; the attacks came at him from all directions, giving the ginger barely enough time to process each attack before the next one hit.

Cardin threw out a quick jab aimed at Crimson's face; the blow only caused him to flinch but that was all it needed to do. Gripping the mace in a golf-like fashion Cardin swung, putting all of his weight behind the blow and…

Missed. Marty was still too fast for the larger boy and ducked out of the way, the momentum behind Cardin's blow sending him off balance and allowing Marty to deliver a vicious roundhouse kick to the back of his head.

Still gasping in pain, Cardin swung his mace around but missed as Crimson flipped away from him, performing several flashy manoeuvres mid-air and landing at the opposite end of the stage.

"Damn it!"

The crowd erupted into cheers as Crimson performed an exaggerated bow, chanting various cries from 'go Crimson go' to 'cut his head off'. Even now, when he'd been attacked unprovoked and challenged to a pointless fight for no better reason than to satisfy some form of 'justice', they still hounded for his blood.

"What's the matter, Cardin? Can't keep up?" the smaller boy asked conceitedly.

"Why you little s- no! Stay calm Cardin; don't take the bait. Okay, he's faster than me and he's a better weapon user than I am. What do I have over him?"

"Those muscles aren't a doing you much good now, huh?"

"That's it! That's what I need to do!"

Looking over to the display, he saw that his aura was dipping into a yellowish-green whereas Marty was still firmly in the regular green.

"Damn, better hope this works…"

"Right, 'cause I totally care about what some dime-a-dozen whiner like you has to say."

"What!"

"You heard me. The leather jacket; the whiny attitude, 24/7 brooding. What are you, emo or something?"

Cardin noticed Marty clenching his teeth and his knuckles go white from gripping his katanas to tightly, tell-tale signs of uncontrollable anger.

"Good, my plan's working."

"Seriously though, how did an anime hero reject like you get into this school? Let me guess, you've got an 'evil' older brother and you want revenge? Someone killed your family and you want revenge? You didn't get enough hugs as a kid and you want revenge? I thought Hunters were supposed to be upstanding idols of selflessness, not revenge-junkies-

"Shut up! This coming from a racist bastard who abuses those he considers beneath him? You call me what you want, but I'm twice the man you'll ever be!"

"Prove it. Ditch the weapons and fight me mano-a-mano!"

"If this doesn't work, I might as well have dug my own grave…"

"Fine! If it'll shut you up then I'll do it!" Crimsonscreamed, all but foaming at the mouth in rage as he tossed his katanas to the side.

"Thank Monty…" Cardin sighed in relief, dropping his mace as he did so.

"There gonna be scraping you off the floor when I'm done with you!" Crimson yelled, charging forward with his fist raised and…

Missed. Marty's eyes widened in surprise before Cardin's fist slammed into his cheek and sent him reeling.

"What the-?"

Marty looked at Cardin in surprise and saw the larger boy take a kick boxer's stance, a determined look in his eye.

"Heh, slick move. Let's see you dodge this!"

Crimson charged once more, leaping at the armoured ginger with a flurry of blows but, no matter how many times he tried and no matter how fast his attacks, the ginger was untouchable and his counterattacks brutal. A quick jab to the face here, a knee to the kidney there and the odd uppercut to the face. Crimson was losing and he knew it.

Growing desperate, he took a wild swing, only to be tripped up and fall on the ground face first. Before he could recuperate, Cardin lifted his leg, twisted it and sat on Marty's back, putting him in a painful leg lock. The smaller boy screamed in pain and frustration, but was unable to break the hold, Cardin was to strong for him to overpower.

"Mr. Daemon, you may surrender if you wish." Glynda stated, sounding completely indifferent to his pain.

"No!"

"I've still got a few tricks up my sleeve…" Crimsonthough sinisterly as his body beginning to crackle with electricity.

"Oh shi-"

Before Cardin could finish his sentence, he was blown across the room by a powerful surge of electricity. His hand shaking as he tried to regain control over his body, he pulled out his scroll and checked their respective aura's, noticing that he was quite a bit ahead of Crimson know, he'd just need to play his cards right.

"Okay, I just need to-"

"GAH!"

Crimson's foot slammed down on his lower back, pinning him to the ground.

"Ehehehe. Credit where credit's due Cardin, you almost had me there. Hell, I might've actually lost if you hadn't gone and forgotten my semblance."

The ginger tried to push himself oft the ground, only for the foot to move from his lower back to his head. Crimson letting out a sinister chuckle as he ground his heel into Cardin's skull.

"Not so nice is it? Being belittled and treated like crap in front of a crowd? Now you know what it's like to be treated so poorly by your peers. But then, that's what you get for treating Faunus so badly for no reason."

No reason. The words rattled around in Cardin's skull. No reason. Visions assaulted his mind; a burning house, a grieving mother, a red painted wolf, a mourning brother. No reason. Cardin had never been so enraged in his entire life. He pushed himself off the ground violently, causing Crimson to lose his balance.

Cardin sprinted over to his mace and hefted it over his shoulder before storming back to where Crimson was standing up off the ground. The ginger held to mace in a two handed grip over his head and slammed it into his opponents back, flattening him against the floor. Then he hit him again, and again, and again.

"Mr. Winchester! The match is over!"

Cardin looked over to the display and noticed that Crimson's aura levels were dangerously low, almost at absolute zero. He looked at Crimson and say blood seeping through several wounds on his body and, finally, he looked at the crowd and saw there shocked and horrified expressions. He looked at his teammates and saw them staring at him with a mixture of fear, shock and disgust.

The gravity of the situation dawned on him. He felt his knees go weak and lost his grip on his mace, the weapon falling to his side pathetically and then…Cardin did the only thing that made sense to his petrified mind…

He ran.

"Is he gonna be alright doc?" Cardin queried, his voice barely above a whisper.

"His aura shielded him from the more serious injuries, but he's going to be in a coma for a while. A month at least."

The ginger nodded weakly, looking at Crimson's pale, bruised body. He was hooked up to various medical machinery and IV drips. It was almost like he was on life support. Although, considering the doc's diagnosis…

"Crimson…I'm sorry. I'm so, so sorry." The muscled boy whispered, his voice quivering and his eyes tearing slightly. All this time he'd been trying to fix things and he'd only made them infinitely worse.

The mace-wielder hear the door open and saw teams JNPR and RWBY walk in. He saw Yang's eyes instantly flashed red as she attempted to charge at him, barely being restrained by Ren and Blake, not even blinking as her fist came within a hair's breadth of his face.

"Yang, I'll handle this." Jaune said sternly as he crossed the distance between the two. The blonde crossing his arms and staring at Cardin with barely contained fury and contempt.

"Out."

"I didn't- I-I-I just-"

"OUT!"

Cardin flinched at the words. He looked at the other members of Jaune's group; some of them managed to keep their faces expressionless and others freely glared and snarled but one thing remained constant; that hateful, withering look he'd grown accustomed to.

The ginger didn't question or try to make excuses, he just stood up and walk out, feeling their eyes burning holes in the back of his head as he walked out of the room.

"Mr. Winchester."

He looked to his right and saw Glynda standing before him, the same look of barely contained disgust in her eyes as well.

"The headmaster wishes to talk to you. Immediately."