{Vermin}
Scarlet's alarm had a negative response from her teammates, Ray, who was already awake, only sighed in response to the tiny hammer striking the bells, Gabriel groaned in despair before rolling and falling out of bed, and Kyzal shot up in alarm as if he'd been thrown inside a war zone.
"Damn Scarlet… it's only 7, did you have to get us up so early?" Gabriel bemoaned, picking himself back up.
"Apparently so…" Kyzal mumbled as he shifted his legs over to the side of the bed.
Both the marksman and the gambler took their time to wake up, Gabriel being the first to jump in the shower before his faunus partner could beat him to it.
Ray was growing ever more irritated though.
There was a moth that had been flying around their room ever since Scarlet had donned her uniform.
At first, Ray had ignored it, assuming the insect would fly out the window.
But he was mistaken.
Sorely mistaken.
The persistent little bugger didn't leave, and given its very limited intelligence, was consistently crashing into any light source it could find. More specifically, Ray's scroll.
Now that sunlight had begun to illuminate this side of Remnant, it became easier for Ray to keep track of the moth.
Particularly when it flew into his face for the 132nd time…
He was at his wit's end. No longer willing to pretend like it wasn't there.
With a growl, Ray reached over and placed his left hand on the floor, before a line of purple light zigzagged its way through the soft carpet fibres and hooked its way through his messenger bag's strap. He then recalled the wire, pulling his bag along with it until he could pull it onto his bed.
His hand dove inside, immediately in search of the two specific items he had in mind. The first thing he pulled out was a can of deodorant, and the second was a lighter.
A flip lighter, in fact, one that held significant sentimental value to Ray, given who its original owner was.
Orion had included this object into the list of items Ray would inherit, despite him being too young to smoke.
That said, this lighter had never once let him down when he needed to light a campfire for warmth.
The small metallic object had an insignia, the symbol that not a lot of people recognised. A single, golden, eight-pointed star, with the points that represented compass directions being longer than those adjacent to them. The star glistened defiantly in the centre of a dark, endless void. Or in this case, a black circle that contrasted heavily against the silver casing.
His father never once smoked a cigarette, not that Ray was aware of anyway, but he had kept this lighter on him at all times, in the front left pocket of his legendary long-coat.
Ray stared at the lighter for a few fleeting seconds, remembering all the times he had seen this treasured knick-knack. A moment of nostalgia tied to an endless sea of remorse passed through his mind, as they usually did when recalling the halcyon days, the days he so wished he could return to.
Blinking away the memories, he carefully flipped the lighter open and ignited the wick, testing that it still worked. As expected, given Ray's fondness for the lighter, it worked, having been well maintained by the hacker ever since he inherited it.
Casting his gaze across the room, he sought out the irritating moth that had pestered him for the past hour and a half. He spotted it almost immediately, sat on the wall next to the door that lead to the hallway, Ray carefully got up, brandishing his can of deodorant in his right hand as he crept toward the little shit.
Once the boy was within striking distance, he let out a quick burst of his deodorant, igniting the aerosol and combusting into a powerful, but improvised flamethrower.
The bastard didn't stand a chance.
With a triumphant smirk, Ray bent down and picked up the charred insect by what remained of its wings and dropped it into the trashcan.
"Man… that was so cruel…" Kyzal commented.
"If you ever decide to fly into my scroll, I'll burn your wings off too." Ray retorted, turning to face his teammate.
"I'd like to see you try…" the marksman growled in response, "wouldn't a bug zapper be more humane?"
"I can shock you if you'd much prefer, yes."
"No, I was talking about the moth, you idiot!"
"If you say so."
Scarlet couldn't help but giggle a little as the two, while she maybe should have said something, she found the minor dispute funny. At home, she never really had the time to express her sense of humour, given all the rigorous training she was forced into.
Beacon was much laxer, for the first time in years, she felt like she could really let go a little and have some fun during her studying and training, without being reprimanded by her parents for it.
Her father was quite possibly her best and worst critic ever since the accident…
Scarlet paused and shook her head, blinking away that train of thought quickly. She no longer had to stress over the opinion of her parents, now that she was a student of Beacon Academy, she may never have to see them again.
Wouldn't that be grand?
Gabriel soon emerged from the bathroom all cleaned up and donning his brand-new uniform.
"You wanna know the difference between you three and me?" He asked, addressing his compatriots with unwavering confidence as he slowly fitted his cowboy hat atop his head and adjusted his tie.
"I make this look good."
Where Scarlet may have let off a meek giggle earlier, she couldn't help but burst into laughter when she saw the smug grin on Gabriel's face.
Her teammates all stared at her as she clutched her stomach and struggled to remain balanced, hearing Scarlet's laughter also seemed to be contagious too, since it wasn't long before Gabriel began to chuckle alongside her, and Kyzal's lips curled upwards into a smile.
"Control yourself, Rubine, you're a causing a scene."
Ray's response wasn't like the others'.
It seemed like he had no sense of humour at all. Or a really suppressed one.
Or even a twisted one.
No one could say for certain at this point.
"Don't classes start soon?" Kyzal pointed out, interrupting the little giggle session.
Scarlet's face dropped like a sack of bricks instantly, before her eyes snapped to her alarm clock.
Only for her face to immediately flush with relief after realising that they still had an hour left until their first class began.
"No, wait! It's okay! Unless any of you guys feel like unpacking or decorating, we have a chance to eat breakfast." The girl chirped enthusiastically, throwing her arms in the air.
It was Ray who, surprisingly, was the first on board with this diligent leader's mission, slipping his sneakers on and tucking the laces in. He wasn't about to wear those stiff, cruddy school shoes anyway.
Gabriel and Kyzal quickly followed his lead, and placed their school shoes on, before approaching the door and waiting for their leader, who was tying her laces.
"C'mon Scarlet! I'm hungry!" Gabriel beckoned her, urging the girl to pick up the pace.
"I- ugh- know! Just… give me a minute!" She grunted as she struggled to slip her own shoes on. Sighing, she eventually gave up on attempting to tackle the laces and rushed to the door.
"Okay! Everyone got everything they need?"
"Yep."
"All good here."
"Mhm."
The three affirmatives were all she was about to get from the boys as they all seemed somewhat eager for breakfast.
"Okay! Let's go!"
Classes throughout most of the day consisted of mostly introductions with a couple keeping them brief and even giving a first actual lesson.
The majority of them were boring though, the lessons seemed to drag on for hours and hours and even after the class was dismissed, it felt like Ray had learned absolutely nothing during the entire process. If there was a class to be interested in, it was the one that Ray would probably despise the most…
Combat training, with Professor Goodwitch.
Ray could still feel the cold, unrelenting glare as he entered the room alongside the rest of the students, seemed the instructor had not yet forgiven him for the cork incident.
He suspected she wouldn't for a while.
Thanks, Kyzal.
Sitting down, Ray found himself absentmindedly staring amongst the other students, violet eyes glancing across the room with a mixture of indifference and apathy.
That was until his vibrant eyes soon fell on someone of immediate interest to him.
Black cowboy hat shielding black hair and a pair of lime green eyes, overcoat drenched with electrified water droplets, likely from the storm, and an attitude that rivalled even that of the Grimm.
Niro Ezdeil.
Elandrial's leader was surely a force to be reckoned with. Ray had never seen anyone so uncaring in his life, but more importantly, he possessed ways of intimidating others so easily that Ray could only guess at how he did it.
And while that may have been part of the reason why Ray was so intrigued by him, he couldn't help but feel a little concerned.
Ray drew up many conclusions on Niro Ezdeil on the day of the initiation; confident, apathetic, harsh, condescending, etc.
But the one that made itself so prominent aside from the others was that he seemed to be at Beacon for literally any other reason than the Huntsmen training program.
And Ray knew for a fact that he wasn't about to get in the way of whatever that reason was. They may have been in the same boat, but they were in two complete different oceans.
Glynda was just about to start her monotonous lecture when it dawned on Ray that she might have been seeking out a way to earn her revenge for her public humiliation.
She could easily put him up against someone of equal or higher skill than himself, or even fight him personally if she wanted to, and there wasn't a whole lot he could do to stop it.
"Good evening everyone," Professor Goodwitch spoke with professionalism, scanning the room with her emerald eyes, most likely making a headcount, "I will be your Combat Instructor for the semester. Here you will learn the basics of combat to be used both against Grimm and potential battles between Huntsmen and Huntresses, or those of a similar humanoid variety."
Ray scoffed, "The basics are what you learn in previous combat schools, to think that what she's speaking of is beginner level is a damn lie."
Scarlet turned to him, tilting her head in curiosity.
"W-what combat school did you go to, Ray?" she asked, aiming to learn more about her partner.
Ray lowered his violet eyes, staring blankly at the arena.
"I didn't attend one."
His partner's delicate eyebrows furrowed as she opened her mouth to reply, shut it, then opened it once more.
"W-were you home-schooled? A lot of people have Huntsman parents, so I'd understand if yours taught you."
Ray looked at her, donning a neutral expression just as Kyzal and Gabriel also started paying attention to the conversation.
"I used to be, but things quickly changed after a particular incident," he spoke lowly as he turned away to face the arena again, "I learned the basics from my father and… picked up the rest through trial and error."
His team wasn't sure how to respond to that response, save Kyzal.
"So, Professor Goodwitch claiming to be teaching the basics insults you?" The Faunus Archer asked, cocking an eyebrow.
Ray leaned further into his seat and slipped his hands into his pockets.
"It doesn't seem as though her intentions include undermining the training the students here have gone through, but if she is, she's making a bold statement," Ray replied evenly, observing the aforementioned instructor talk introductions.
"Now that we've concluded the opening lecture, let us delve into our first match." The woman spoke with pride, right as she eyed the beanie-clad hacker in his seat.
The boy levelled his gaze with her as she narrowed her eyes a fraction of an inch.
"I suspect that she seeks to avenge her ego though, so prepare yourselves for antipathy."
His team looked between Ray Chroma and Glynda Goodwitch, witnessing a subtle battle of wits occurring through each of their unwavering stares.
"Y-you're not going to let her do this, a-are you?" Scarlet stammered.
"Ray Chroma, please step forward."
Ray switched his attention to Scarlet as he lightly ruffled her hair.
"Your opponent will be Inuba Kitsukami." Goodwitch declared from the stage.
Ray's violet eyes met Scarlet's crimson pools for but a fleeting moment as he muttered his last words to her before the match.
"Time to find out."
The boy pulled himself out of his seat, adjusted the beanie on his head, straightened his jacket, and calmly made his way down to the arena floor.
He had no idea who his opponent was as a person, and couldn't care less about it either.
One thing stood out to him the most though.
She was a goddamned Kitsune…
Ray could see her hesitancy as she looked toward her partner, who nodded toward the arena encouragingly.
"If I've learned anything about these little shits in my time on this planet, this girl is faking it if she's apprehensive about engaging in combat." Ray thought to himself, scanning the girl from head to toe.
Ray crossed his arms, waiting for the fox's internal conflict to end so he could get this over with. If Professor Goodwitch intended to make an ass of him, he didn't want to keep the bitch waiting.
He began tapping his right foot out of habit, indicating his impatience with an impertinent display.
He could see the conversation between Inuba and her partner, whatever his name was. Likely still trying to process that she had been called upon, and not him.
"Ms Kitsukami?" Professor Goodwitch called out to her a second time, drawing the fox's attention to the stage once again.
"About fucking time she paid attention." Ray murmured to himself, watching as the Kitsune made her way down the steps, occasionally glancing at the other students in her line of sight.
Ray didn't take his eyes off of the girl once, analysing his opponent as she approached him.
The girl - in Ray's opinion - was overdressed, she donned a white, sleeveless kimono that stopped just short of her waist, the same waist that has a black sash wrapped tightly around it. Both were decorated in black trimming, and underneath; she wore a tight, black spandex shirt.
She also had sleeves wrapped around her middle finger, around her palm, and the back of her hand that just reached her elbows.
Over these, the white-haired, fox-eared girl had another pair, only these ones were wide-cuffed and detachable – for reasons unknown – that also possessed a similar colouring to her kimono – white with a black trim.
Below the waist, however, was a black – big surprise – pleated skirt with – get this – white trimming – at the hem, and a pair of thigh-high socks.
Overly dressed was kind of an understatement for this girl, but her only redeeming quality at this point were the white shoes with black laces and soles.
"You've gotta be fucking kidding me," Ray mumbled to himself once more, "it's as if she's a domino…"
Ray briefly glanced up into the crowd of spectators where her team was located and deadpanned.
They all looked the fucking same.
How monotonous…
When she finally stood opposite Ray, the boy was just about ready to forfeit for her taking too long, but it appeared as though she had lost her mind in the clouds once again.
"Oh, for God's sake…" Ray's spat, voice barely over a whisper as his temper was slowly coming to a boil.
Fortunately, it was the Instructor who shook the fox-girl out of her reverie.
"Ms Kitsukami? Are you ready to start?"
The girl was startled slightly, the ears on her head reflexively perking up as she soon paid attention to her immediate surroundings.
This was getting out of hand.
"Come on Fox, get with the program. I don't want to be wasting more time than I need to, so let's get this over with quickly." Ray called out from across the room, levelling his gaze with the girl and waiting for her response.
He was testing her, seeing how far she would go to defend her dignity.
Because even if this whole match was a means for Professor Goodwitch to have her revenge for the flying cork incident, Ray would be damned if he didn't make sure that he took something from this too.
Even if it resulted in the public humiliation of a complete and total stranger.
"If you aren't aware and focused, Mr Chroma, it will be over sooner than you think," the girl's snappy response brought out a mental scoff inside Ray.
Aware and focused.
She had quite the self-confidence using those two words when it took her more than three minutes to accept the fact that she was fighting him, and an additional 63 seconds on top of that to make her way to the arena.
However, Ray was willing to capitalise on her sense of pride…
"Oh cute; it has a temper." Ray's voice held no regard for whoever this Kitsune was, it practically defined the word monotonous in every sense of the word.
She was clearly offended, however, if the tail behind her was any indication. Ray watched calmly from his side of the arena as the girl's eyes narrowed in irritation before retaliating.
"That would be the last thing you'd like to experience," she glowered, stark-white tail continually swishing from side to side.
This was entertaining to Ray. It wasn't the first time he'd came face-to-face with a pissed off Kitsune, but it was the first time he had purposefully put himself in that situation. The hacker was pushing his luck to see how far it would go.
With a quick roll of the eyes, Ray inhaled to reply to Inuba's threat, letting her hollow words trickle through one ear and straight out of the other.
"I've seen worse."
He wasn't lying.
Journeying in and around the four kingdoms had exposed Ray and Lylac to some heinous events. Things that could mentally scar individuals, especially ones as young as they were.
The nightmares would persist for days…
"Then clearly…" a materialising katana on the left-hand side of Inuba's waist slowly appeared in a display of radiant white flames, "you've yet to see anything 'worse'."
For some odd reason Ray couldn't put his finger on how she could possibly show him anything more terrifyingly unforgivable as a triple homicide, perpetrated by a delusional man caught in an endless cycle of murdering anything that so much as twitched, while the pair of them duelled inside a controlled environment under the supervision of a Professional Huntress.
So, the boy just gave the fox a condescending smirk and experienced immense satisfaction as her blood visibly boiled under her porcelain skin.
"Hey down there!" A masculine voiced called out from behind Ray's opponent, her partner, whatever his goddamn name was, was trying to garner the girl's attention.
Now what?
Ray was getting really sick and tired of this.
"Keep it at the twenties level!"
What the hell is he talking about?
"Remember! No roast beef!"
Roast beef? Ray didn't understand what he meant, but he was almost certain it was code for something.
Whatever that 'something' may be.
"Oh!" Ray pretended to be shocked for a moment, donning the most degrading tone he could muster, "Is that your trained wrangler?"
His eyes returned to the Kitsune, eyeing her curiously as she closed her eyes and breathed slowly. It appeared as though she was searching for a method to calm down, but Ray didn't know, or care to be quite honest.
As his violet eyes were done analysing the girl, they were soon forced to return to her partner as he addressed the hacker with a half-assed insult and yet another hollow threat.
"Trust me Beanbag," the white-haired moron smirked, "making her angry is the last thing you'd ever want."
Don't tell me what I want and don't want, you prick.
"How wonderful, I've been looking for a quick death," Ray retorted apathetically, looking the boy dead in the eyes as he spoke, "Thanks for the advice."
Again, he wasn't lying, but it was far too early to accept his grave until he had finished what he had started, something that extended far beyond the missing final piece.
But oh boy was it fulfilling to watch the expressions on the students' faces drop like a ton of bricks.
"Are the both of you quite finished?"
"My apologies." The Kitsune bowed, committing herself to kissing the teacher's ass.
Ray didn't even grace Goodwitch with a grunt.
He was ready to go before his name was even called, it was only thanks to those two white-haired morons that the pointless match got delayed for so long.
A message on his scrolled filtered into Ray's HUD, but the boy dismissed it as he mentally prepared himself for a fabricated loss.
To fight seriously was something he did in a time of need, not in a time of want and he neither needed nor wanted to fight the vermin in front of him in the first place.
He was going to fuck this up, and he was going to end it quickly. There were more important things to attend to.
Like reading his message.
"Combatants!"
The muscles in Ray's legs tensed as Goodwitch prepared the fight.
A matrix of genetically altered and well-tempered fibres pulled taut as Ray's instinctual response to the word "Begin!" was to charge the Kitsune head on.
Purposefully telegraphing his moves as to trick his audience into believing that he was no better than a slightly-trained novice.
It was child's play; the art of deception was always a weapon that Ray used frequently.
It kept things interesting.
As the boy reached striking distance, Inuba had her sword raised across her body, readying herself to stab at his shoulder.
Ray took this opportunity to summon a blade, with his gauntlet performing its role as a conduit for the energy he generated, strands of violet light began leaking into the open air before a sharp crackle of high-frequency energy, followed closely by a distinct burst of crystalline humming emanated from Ray's hands.
While usually a dual wielder, Ray had trained thoroughly in the art of a single short sword.
Upon its creation, Ray brought it forward and skilfully made use of its flat side to block the katana held firmly by the kitsune before him, sliding back onto his heels in the process.
She seemed initially shocked by the speed at which the encounter happened, though Ray was all for winding the damned fox up a little further, "Well well, seems you can hit hard…"
Ray's next move came in the form of a quick shove, forcing Inuba's blade away and attacking in rapid succession, clashing viciously with Inuba as they both fought with undeniable tenacity.
The clanging of metal against crystallized light resonated throughout the arena, ringing in the ears of the pair's audience hanging at the edge of their seats.
Despite Ray's lacklustre performance, he was starting to somewhat enjoy this little spar.
So much so, that the effort he had intended to put into it had increased slightly, each attack he laid into the kitsune became more and more focused as he poured more effort into his act.
Inuba was quick to parry and block his swings though, despite each aimed at any opening he could find. Muscle memory aiming for pressure points, joints, and just about anything to give him a slight edge.
None of it mattered anyway. It was just a pretend fight.
It was ridiculous, really. Sparring against one another without any real danger to the situation.
Sure, they could be hurt, but it was never lethal, never costly enough to force you to correct yourself in the future.
That's was one of the many reasons why Ray hated this place.
They butter students up by forcing them into these pretend fights against the same group of students for four years of their lives, telling them it'll help them in the long run, but in reality; it was all a sham.
After graduation, they'd go out, face a new opponent, then learn the hard way whether or not these pretend fights were worth it.
Sadly, only a few benefitted from them.
Ray didn't anticipate the swing Inuba made as he stabbed for her arm, and had mere milliseconds to shroud his forearm in hard light to defend himself.
He forced her blade away from his chest, internally breathing out a sigh of relief… and pain.
Ray wasn't going to lie, that hurt, but he'd be a fool to grant the fox any indication of that. She could go fuck herself, that cocky little mongrel.
Ray watched as she painted her katana in a stream of blistering white flames, running her fingers along its hardened surface until the entire sword was ablaze.
Probably wasn't even her final form…
Before Ray could catch a break, the girl suddenly dashed forward, much faster than what he would have liked as she came at him from the side, forcing him back on the defensive as he expanded his barrier, unfurling the hard light around his arm and reshaping it into a kite shield.
This shield took the impact, but his arm still suffered damage.
And with just enough Aura to sustain both hard light constructs, this bootleg defence wouldn't last long.
The shield had already suffered critical damage and was on the verge of shattering. Ray wasn't even going to bother repairing it, he knew this was an uphill battle from the start.
The trembling in his arm was a just reminder of that.
Inuba, with her renewed vigour, kept coming at Ray like the attack dog she was, dedicated to cutting down his defences.
Ray's shield wasn't enough to defend himself from her next attack, so his sword was also used in tandem to compensate. Luckily, he was successful in blocking the strike, but his counterattack fell short.
This happened multiple times, Inuba attacked, then Ray blocked, but he would miss the counter attack.
Eventually, Ray was forced to use a more evasive move set, dodging her slices, instead of blocking them.
He really fucking hated Kitsunes.
Crafty, shady-eyed, aggressive little bitches.
That's all they were and Inuba Kitsukami was no different in his eyes.
As he avoided another attack, she used some mystical bullshit to knock him off balance, giving her a hefty amount of room to destroy his inkling shield in one final strike, littering the air and ground with the depressing shards of his collapsed energy.
He knew it was game over at this point, he practically gave up as soon as he walked into the arena, but now he was just waiting for it to happen.
The kick to his chest that both winded him and sent him careening backwards was just a testament to this.
In a real fight, he would have grabbed her foot and ankle and snapped the fucking thing like a twig.
But no, he had to stick to the plan.
He needed the instructor to get off his back, and if putting on a show where he loses in a fight horribly was one way of doing that, he would happily oblige.
And his message was still waiting for him.
However…
He was still going to get a kick out of this spar even if it was the last thing he did.
As the Kitsune turned to her wrangler with a face full of self-importance, Ray initiated the beginning of the end.
"Oh no…" Scarlet whispered, "I've seen that look before…"
Ray had a slight smirk as he pulled out hard light replications of wire saws; long strands of hard light cables beautifully coupled with serrated teeth running down their length.
"I have a feeling that son of a bitch is going to do something he's about to regret." Kyzal murmured, eyeing the boy with slightly narrowed eyes, hidden by the hood he wore.
Inuba's innocence distracted her as she received praise from her partner, grinned vividly as she declared a premature victory.
Only for that victory to be completely and utterly destroyed as the near-silent whistle of Ray's wire saws whipped through the air, garnering the attention of the Kitsune at the last second as she narrowly escaped their destructive path.
The front of her kimono didn't fare so well, but the event ended up better than Ray had expected as the article of clothing was sliced through with ease, shamelessly revealing the bust of the girl in front of the entire class.
Her dignity spared only by her compression tank top, the kitsune stood trembling as her ears folded atop her head. Embarrassed beyond words.
It was glorious. Complete and total humiliation.
Up yours, Goodwitch, your attack dog has been defiled.
A few libidinous comments were thrown around the class as most of the male occupants and some of the female ones gawked in disbelief.
Ray's smirk quickly turned into a blooming grin. It didn't matter what happened next, he may have lost the battle, but he had already won the war.
He straightened his posture and stared at the girl, a challenging spark of defiance flickering in his eyes.
Only for that to be returned with a glowing pointed finger.
Ray raised his defence up in expectation, knowing that it probably wouldn't do much. What he had done was completely worth it.
It did nothing.
Whatever it was that the kitsune fired at him went straight through his barrier like it wasn't even there.
A look of shock quickly replaced the once smug grin Ray donned, the boy himself narrowly escaping being pinned to the back wall. Instead, the shot glanced off of him, his Aura shouldering the impact and reducing the overall damage he received.
The same could not be said for his jacket as a scorched rip in the fabric was now present, but Ray considered it as justified since he completely defaced the front of her kimono not 5 minutes beforehand.
However, the kinetic energy behind the attack was enough to force his body back, the soles of his canvas shoes screeching across the wooden floor as he soon recovered by driving a hard light sword into the ground to cease his movement.
She must've taken that attack on her dignity far more personally than Ray estimated she would. It was no one's fault but his own. Kitsune were proud creatures after all.
When everything had settled, Ray's immediate response was to look ahead, to where Inuba was, only to find her practically breathing down the back of his neck instead.
When he whirled around to face her, she had disappeared once more, returning to her original orientation behind him.
Ray swung his sword around, hoping to catch her off guard, but it was no use anyway, he was tired, drained of all but a bare minimum amount of Aura, and unwilling to drag this pointless charade on any further.
Inuba had dodged his backhanded attack and caught the blade on his next one.
The girl then retaliated by thrusting her sword through his goddamned shoe.
"You motherfu-"
Ray paused as she delicately placed her right index into his left shoulder again.
It was then that he realised that this fight had gone from simple spar to grudge match. All because of a torn kimono.
Oh, get a hold of yourself, you cry-baby.
Inuba muttered some incoherent words, something about fire or whatever, but Ray was finally done with this match.
Raising both hands submissively, he conceded, "Alright, alright! I give."
Inuba scowled at him for a few awkwardly silent moments, her eyes burning holes through his own before crushing what was left of Ray's already broken sword.
She then finally withdrew her own blade and Ray stumbled slightly as she did not do so gently.
Then the bitch had the audacity to lecture him…
"You could have easily continued the fight given your abilities, and even possibly have escaped my trap for you are clearly stronger than what you presented yourself to be," she spoke condescending words with a reassuring inflexion.
She was definitely a kitsune, especially with that holier-than-thou demeanour she paraded around, trying her very best to make sure that whatever she does, she can do it better than you.
Go fuck yourself.
Or your partner. Whichever comes first, you blatant whore.
"That, and your Aura signature clearly confirms that theory for me. Why did you hold back? Or rather, why did you throw the match?"
The real answer to her question would have been underwhelming and a complete disappointment for her. She was looking for a way to inflate her ego, even if she didn't show it.
Ray wasn't about to give her the full reason behind his piss-poor performance, but he would at least give her something to think about.
"Who says this wasn't a victory for me? You can learn a lot more from a loss than you can from a win," Ray dusted himself off as he spoke, placing his hands in his pockets thereafter, "and thanks to your temper and sense of pride, I've learned a lot more through this than I could ever learn through a face-to-face conversation."
She didn't look too satisfied with his answer, but he couldn't care less as he turned toward the exit stairs, gazing at her over his shoulder.
"Besides… the only time I'll ever fight seriously is if something intends to kill me."
As the hacker began walking away, he suddenly paused and turned back to face her for a brief moment for one final word.
"Oh, and you should cover up those ridiculous tits of yours."
Seriously, she must have had to have been a prostitute before she came here if she was comfortable in exposing herself like that.
Disgusting, really.
Ray reclaimed his seat next to Scarlet who had an expression on her face he didn't recognise. Facial analysis told him that is was a mixture of pride and shame.
But he wouldn't put it past Scarlet to break the system given who she was.
"You should have done better than that."
Ray had no response on hand, far more interested in his scroll.
He had a message to read after all.
Author's note:
I procrastinate like a bitch on the best of days, not to mention I've been busy as hell too.
I assure you though, the next chapter won't be as long of a wait as this one was.
Can anyone guess who messaged Ray though?
I can... oh wait...
On that note, for those that have forgotten or don't know, in order to understand what the hell is going on in this story, you need to read Rogue Huntsman by Xera Stark, and on top of that, for another great story about the same plot, go and read Knights of White and Black generously brought to you by andy2396.
I hope you enjoyed this story, please feel free to give it and myself a Favourite, Follow, and a Review.
Have a good one!
-Hydra