XxXxX
Being giddy wasn't something that Professor Glynda Goodwitch felt often. Or at all, really.
In between her work as a deputy Headmistress of the prestigious Beacon Academy and the combat instructor for all of the school population she didn't have that much time to herself.
To anyone looking from the outside she would probably come off as a workaholic, ever working or pushing everyone else to work.
She didn't care about that though.
Too many times she had to inform the parents of a misfortune meeting their children on a mission or even training. In the best situations the student in question wouldn't be able to continue on their path to becoming a Huntsman or Huntress because of injuries or being crippled.
More often than not however it ended with death.
Death that sometimes could be avoided if there was more work done, more training or studying.
If she was going to be seen as an authoritarian bitch by her students then so be it. Their safety, life and well-being were more important than the fact that she was feared by the student body.
With the steady click-clacking of her heels she turned a corner, the door to the training hall coming into sight.
Even from this distance she could hear the excited voices of the students that couldn't wait for their first sparring session.
The first three lessons were as important if not more but to her chagrin most of the students didn't even listen, thinking that she didn't see it.
Somehow, the instructions about personal safety and proper sparring practices were deemed by the future huntsmen as unimportant. Her only solace was that the more promising students paid rapt attention.
Especially the main cause of her good mood, one Jaune Arc. The young man was as intriguing as he was paradoxical.
And possibly a target for her own little, itty-bitty hobby that nobody had any interest in knowing about.
From one side he wielded a powerful Semblance couples with seemingly unending amounts of Aura and from the other he barely had any combat training.
The former seemed to intrigue even Ozpin, judging from his reaction and the fact that he ordered Qrow to stealthily shadow mister Arc.
The latter was what really brought the young man to her attention, even before the initiation.
Preliminary tests to the Beacon Academy's Huntsman course were normally done in the preparatory schools, like for all of the four Academies. It was a standardized examination performed at the end of the education at the said preparatory school in which the potential huntsman in training could prove himself ( or herself ) enough to continue on with the chosen occupation.
It was quite rare for someone not attending any such schools to apply for Beacon but there were ways to do it, and she was the one that had to sift through the applicants.
Not many people applied in this way this year, only two managing to pass.
One was a faunus girl by the name of Blake Belladonna, totally not related to the chieftain of Menagerie island and totally a human girl that just felt a compulsory need to wear an oversized bow that magically twitches by itself from time to time…
The second one was Jaune Arc, who admittedly surprised her greatly.
When an applicant shows up for a combat aptitude test without a weapon, eleven times out of ten, it means that he doesn't even know what he's doing.
Well… the three Atlesian Knights model 130 that were ripped apart probably would disagree with that assessment.
It was quite surprising to see someone so adept at Aura manipulation to form a weapon out of it but not totally unheard of. Mister Arc even said it himself that he didn't know what his Semblance was. It was more than certain that it helped with his Aura control and/or the size of his Aura pool.
His combat skill was subpar at best, probably one of the weakest in the first year, but the sheer firepower he could deliver and the flexibility he displayed with his Aura techniques allowed him to stand firmly in the middle of the pack.
Entering the room, she quickly scanned the gathered students and mentally checked the attendance. It wasn't surprising that everyone was present, her reputation had a few benefits after all.
"Good afternoon." She greeted in a loud voice, shushing any chatter that didn't go out with her entrance. "Today we will move to the one on one sparring matches, standard tournament rules apply. For those not in the know, the fight ends when one of the combatants is out of bounds, his Aura falls into red or I, as a referee, deem the fight concluded. For anyone foolish enough to make me intervene there will be hell to pay, please be aware of that." She loved her job, the few audible gulps made her mentally smirk to herself.
Scanning the crowds she quickly picked up teams RWBY and CRAN, both of them sitting next to each other. It was quite a positive surprise, seeing two teams so friendly and supportive for each other, at least so early in the school year. Normally all of the teams tried to compete with each other from the get go, wrongly thinking that they were supposed to do that.
There were some sparks flying, true, but she saw both teams stick together quite often. Ruby Rose and, to Glynda's surprise, Weiss Schnee were quite friendly to Jaune Arc, who in turn was practically joined on the hip by his overly enthusiastic and energetic partner, Nora Valkyrie.
Even with her years of experience she couldn't stop the small smile that crawled its way onto her face.
Maybe she would be able to go for a square this time? That would be a record, not to mention something thought impossible outside of fiction!
Continuing with her gaze along the crowd she stopped for a moment on team CRDL, remembering that its leader was an instigator of a confrontation in the cafeteria earlier that day. She despised the rules about bullying in this institution and the fact that students were expected to find a solution themselves. They were trying to become huntsmen but they still were young, they needed guidance.
That gave her an idea.
Taking out her tablet, she swiped a few times on it to connect to the combat arena, momentarily overriding the random matchup generator to input the first pair of combatants manually.
XxX
"What do you think she's doing?" Ruby asked her new guy friend who still rebuffed all of her advances in trying to get him a weapon after seeing their combat instructor smirking to herself.
"Maybe she remembered a joke or something?" Jaune replied while shrugging. From the seat beside him a soft chanting of 'break them legs, break them legs…' could be heard, the courtesy of the blonde's overly excited partner who was practically jumping in her seat.
"If you would pay a bit of attention then you would know that we will start our sparring sessions today." Weiss huffed from the side with irritation. "Properly setting up all the safety systems of the arena is extremely important and I'm more than certain that Miss Goodwitch is doing just that."
"Don't be like that Weiss, Ruby's just curious about professor's good mood." Jaune laughed from the side, making the white themed girl grumble something under her breath but to Ruby's amazement she didn't oppose, turning away with a slight blush.
"Jaune… teach me your ways!" The small girl demanded, garnering the attention of a few nearby students. She didn't care about that thought. If she could learn something, anything, from this Ice Queen whisperer then her socially awkward days would be over!
"Alright, we may begin." Their professor's voice coming from the speaker systems caused all of the waiting students to focus back on the stern blonde. "If you would look to the main monitor, the random pair generator will now select our first combatants."
True to her words two lists of students were displayed in two vertical columns, a large VS in the middle between them. With a press of a button from the professor, the two lists started to scroll in opposite directions like in a slot machine.
With a soft ping the first name was selected, just to be followed by the second one locking in place.
"Cardin Winchester versus Jaune Arc. You two have ten minutes to prepare." Goodwitch announced, that small satisfied smirk back on her face.
"Good luck, Vomit-boy! Kick that dick's ass for us!" Yang cheered, getting a scandalized look from Weiss.
Ignoring the shout of 'Language!' from the irritated heiress, Ruby observed how her blonde friend walked down the stairs to stand near the teacher, unlike Cardin who hastily jogged of to the changing rooms to gather his gear.
Okay… she could agree that being able to fight with your full power in a drop of a hat like this was cool but the lack of weapons on his person dropped that by a lot.
What does a girl need to do to see some good mechashift action in this school? Most of the weapons she saw on display until now only had a few moving parts, not even looking good while shifting.
The sudden murmur of whispers turned her attention away from stroking her baby that she held in her lap to the arena where Professor Goodwitch held a simple metal training sword, glowing slightly from how much Aura she poured into it to reinforce the material.
The murmuring turned into audible gasps when Jaune created one of those laser swords of his, clearly preparing to strike the weapon that the combat instructor presented for him.
With a humming sound of energy carving through air the blade of light met with the metal one, carving through it in a single stroke, silencing the spectators enough to make the falling piece of metal strike the ground loud enough to make Ruby jump with horror written on her face.
That poor training sword was destroyed just like that, even with the blonde teacher reinforcing it. Even from here she saw the duly glowing end of the much shorter blade that Goodwitch was inspecting with a slight grimace.
"I'm sorry, Mister Arc, but this technique is too lethal to use in a sparring match. Please select a weapon from there for now, we can think about resolving this issue after today's practice session ends." The combat instructor's voice carried across the room, surprisingly apologetic.
"Whelp… I didn't think that those glow sticks of his were that sharp." Yang sweat dropped, probably remembering all the times she made fun of the blonde Aura Master.
"Those 'glow sticks' are composed of enough compressed Aura to act as solid matter, what did you expect? Instead of making fun of Jaune you should praise him for his innovative techniques and learn from him yourself." Weiss huffed, crossing her arms over her non-existent chest.
"Guys… you are missing the bigger picture." Blake interjected, for once not reading a book. "Professor Goodwitch is a much more experienced Aura Master than Jaune, yet she wasn't able to even slow his attack with the reinforcement. A clear hit from that thing would go straight through us in one strike. There's no blocking that thing." She continued, her bow wriggling in an agitated manner.
Huh… had to be the wind… maybe someone opened a window somewhere…
Looking back at her baby, Ruby held it tight to her bosom, gently caressing one of the outer casing panels.
"Don't worry, I won't let that bully get to you…"
It didn't take long for the other combatant to get back, Cardin decked out in a full armor sans any helmet and a menacing looking, large, flanged mace with some sort of mechashift mechanism in its head. Jaune on the other hand was a total opposite, standing a bit awkwardly in jeans and a black hoodie with the most adorable rabbit on its front, a plain one and a half hand sword in his right hand.
"Really, Jauney-boy? You are either overconfident or plainly stupid!" The armored teen barked out with laughter, hefting his weapon onto his shoulder. "If not for this comic relief I would be inclined to feel insulted, what's with that getup? Your mommy chose your clothes this morning?"
"It's a present from my youngest sister, actually." The blonde replied, not reacting to his opponent's jeers to the ginger's visible displeasure.
"Are you both ready?" Professor Goodwitch asked after they reached the center of the arena, around ten meters between them.
Cardin nodded with a big grin plastered onto his face, gripping his mace with both hands and crouching slightly into a battle stance.
On the opposite side Jaune made a few practice swings with the training sword before falling into his own stance and voicing his own readiness to begin the fight.
Ruby winced slightly, seeing how inexperienced her blonde friend was with that weapon. She clearly remembered from her own time in Signal when they were given their first training weapons for them to find the correct ones to train with.
Only when she went through all the swords, daggers and even a few axes her Uncle, the coolest uncle to ever uncle by the way, showed her the pure awesomeness that were gun scythes.
"This is preposterous. Jaune's handicap is too big with his weapon of choice banned in the spar." Weiss grumbled from beside her, already getting into her default, grumpy mood.
"Aww, look at her worrying about her crush Blaky, it's so sweet." Yang elbowed her own partner, gaining an eye roll from the ninja girl and an indignant squeak from the heiress that was steadily changing her color scheme to red and white.
Any reply from Weiss was drowned out by a large explosion from the arena, not even a second after their combat instructor announced the start of the fight.
Taking the initiative, Cardin literally launched himself at his surprised opponent with an explosion from the tip of his mace that from the start was pointed behind him. Closing the distance in a second he brought the large weapon down, Jaune barely dodging in time.
An attack like this was quite amateurish, easily exploitable after it missed.
Winchester didn't seem to care, his mace exploding once more while still embedded into the arena, showering his surroundings with a blast of dirt and stone.
Jaune stumbled back a few steps, covering his face with an arm while his Aura flashed across his body, deflecting the attack.
"BREAK HIS LEGS, FEARLESS PARTNER!" A sudden roar of a shout from a seat over nearly gave Ruby a heart attack, her friend's partner practically vibrating in place.
As if her 'encouragement' helped, Jaune started to move first this time, his sword held diagonally in preparation for an upwards slash.
Once more, Ruby winced at how telegraphed that attack was and judging by Cardin's smug mug he saw it too.
Predictably, the armored teen blocked the attack with the shaft of his mace, stepping forward into Jaune's guard just after and punching him in the face with the hefty pommel mounted under the grip.
The blonde Aura user staggered back a step while bringing his empty hand forward, a glowing ring of energy already manifested in his palm.
With a loud whooshing sound an enormous gust of wind crashed into the surprised redhead, pushing him away with enough force to lift him from the ground for a meter or two.
Landing back on his feet with slight difficulty, Cardin hunkered down so the hurricane-like wind wouldn't push him away. It didn't end there though, as the already destroyed arena was full of rocks and shards of concrete, now pelting the armored teen all over. Through heavily squinting eyes he saw that Arc wasn't much better, his training sword embedded into the arena and acting as a handhold for him to not be blown away in the other direction.
The glowing circle in the blondes hand shrunk slightly, intensifying the already strong winds. Grunting from effort, Cardin tried to minimize his profile even more when he felt his armored boots starting to slowly slide once again.
The stalemate continued for a few long moments, both combatants straining to uphold the struggle.
Cardin once more was the one to move first. Aiming his mace backwards he let out a stream of small explosions, slowly closing the gap between the two with aid of his weapon.
On the contrary, the unfortunate handicap on Jaune's side did the opposite for the blonde, the training sword giving out as its blade that was rammed into the arena floor snapped, causing him to stumble backwards from the backlash of his technique before he was able to cut it off.
Immediately capitalizing on his opponent's state, Cardin shot forward while still using his mace as a propulsion. Slamming his leading foot on the ground he pivoted his whole body, transferring as much momentum into his weapon as it was possible, striking the flank of the unprotected Aura master.
A reflexive, sympathetic hisss came from nearly all the spectators as Cardin's heavy weapon caught its target unimpeded, folding the blonde nearly in half before the whole momentum was transferred into his body that was sent nearly to the other end of the arena from the impact.
Observing her friend being hit like that made Ruby's hair stand on end, a cold shiver going down her back as the blonde didn't move for a good few seconds while the ginger haired bully propped himself with his mace and was panting as if he just ran a marathon. Thankfully, Jaune stirred a moment later, rolling into his front and slowly propping himself upward to stand up.
"Is that all, Jauney-boy? Are you out of parlor tricks already?" Cardin asked, regaining his breath much faster.
Taking a quick look at the Aura meters displayed on the main monitor, Ruby winced at the sliver of energy that kept Jaune still in the fight. While Cardin was still comfortably in the lower end of green, the blonde Aura Master was nearing the end of orange, he maybe would be able to take a small hit or two like that.
"Come on, get up Jauney-boy! You were talking the talk earlier today, defending that animal." The armored teen jeered, starting to walk to the blonde who shakily made it to his feet.
"Show me that you can fight the fight!" Cardin laughed, swinging his mace lazily at the blonde's head to finish the fight.
Throwing up his left arm, Jaune intercepted the attack with a glowing rune that exploded on impact, sending the weapon backwards while staggering his opponent. Stepping into Cardin's wide open guard, he brought his right hand forward, pushing his open palm into the ginger's armored torso with a loud clang.
With more of a push than a strike, Cardin was shoved backwards with enough force to send him rolling nearly to the other end of the arena.
"Enough of those tricks!" Quickly getting back onto his feet, Cardin swung his weapon at the coming blonde, who was still around fifteen meters away.
With her senses honed by her own Semblance, Ruby could see what followed. Like in a slow motion, she saw the explosion blooming from Cardin's weapon, the blast taking a strangely shaped path straight at his opponent. Jaune on the other hand looking slightly panicked, slammed both of his hands together with open palms and started to drag them apart, a shimmering wall of Aura generated between his arms.
Cringing, Ruby took a look at the Aura meters when the explosion engulfed her friend. Whatever he did, managed to keep him still in the fight, even if by mere pixels on the screen.
"That had to hurt…" Yang commented from the side, hazarding a quick glance Ruby saw the grimace on her sister's face, the blonde brawler clearly didn't enjoy the fight.
Nobody from their small group of friends did, really. Even the ever aloof Cinder looked slightly miffed, or constipated…
"Get up Jaune, get up…" Weiss's mumbling from her other side caused Ruby to smile slightly, the fact that the Ice Queen would be nice to someone like that. Now if only she could crack the code like Jaune did and make her partner like her too.
"See, Jauney-boy… this is how your parlor tricks fair against a real huntsman." Cardin's voice was easy to hear in the tense silence. The armored teen, visibly panting from exertion, stood triumphantly in the same place that he was in before the explosion.
Around ten meters before him Jaune was trying to pick himself up, barely able to prop up his torso before his arms gave up and he fell to the ground, face first.
"Hah… whoever taught you those gimmicks has to be a sham. You would do a favor for us all of you would pick up a real weapon instead of playing around." Cardin jeered, once more leaning over his mace, this time in a much more casual gesture.
"Mister Winchester! Please refrain from speaking about your opponents in such a way." Professor Goodwitch ordered with a stern voice, her face twisted into an angry grimace.
"Oh please, teach. I just call it how I see it. Shouldn't you call the match already? It's clear that …" The ginger haired teen didn't finish his sentence as a sudden pressure filled the room.
Still observing her friend, Ruby clearly saw how Jaune's body went limp for a second just to jolt slightly when the strange feeling filled the room.
To everyone's bewilderment, the blonde Aura Master bonelessly lifted himself upward with Aura alone, his feet hovering a few centimeters off the ground.
Hearing a strange sound to the side, Ruby shot a quick look at the rest of team CRAN.
The bizarre scene had to be too much for Cinder, the poor girl letting out a strangled whine, her face going white like a sheet of paper.
Jaune in the meantime looked dazed and out of it, he even started to examine one of his hands as if he never saw it before. As if he just registered that there were people around, the still hovering blonde scanned the spectators with his brightly glowing eyes.
"Well… look at you, Jauney-boy! Not done with your magic tricks yet? Just give up! You can't beat a real huntsman with something like that." Cardin started to mock Jaune once more, gaining the blonde's attention.
Instead of replying, the blonde Aura Master made a lazy swipe with one of his hands, as if he was half heartedly trying to shoo away a fly.
In the next second a loud crash resounded in the hall, Cardin's body crashing into the wall with enough force to shatter his Aura, the unconscious now armored teen slumping in a heap to the ground.
A few moments later the buzzer signaling the end of the fight sounded with Jaune crumpling back to the ground, seemingly losing consciousness too.
XxX
With her eyes snapping open, Salem sat up in her gaming chair as if startled, feeling strangely groggy.
"Squawk!" Mojo's cry caused her to tilt her head slightly, the Queen of Grimm trying to discern why her pet sent her the feeling of worry through their link.
Looking around she saw that her game was still going on, a lost cause from what she saw from the scoreboard so she just switched it off for now.
Scratching her chin she tried to remember what she was doing before her nap. Or even when and why did she fall asleep mid gaming like this.
She was sure that she was playing her game to pass some time, then her soul link with Rusty started to pull slightly on her energy so she decided to help him and pushed from her side to give him more energy than what he was trying to get.
In the next moment she felt a much stronger pull coupled with feelings of rage, sadness, shame and regret.
The images from her dream suddenly started to flash in her memory.
Using magic to get up from the floor.
The strangely masculine hands that had a healthy color that she didn't see on herself for millennia.
The large crowd of people that were looking at her in disbelief instead of usual soul crushing terror.
That armor-clad man that she immediately took a dislike to, sending him away with a bit of telekinetic force.
He called her… Jauney-boy?
Suddenly, everything clicked into place.
The soul link, the masculine hands, the arena like place.
"M-Mojo… I think that I've done goofed…"
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