While the arrogant little snob went to grab her equipment, Port had managed to turn the entrance area of his classroom into a miniature arena. At the tap of his Scroll, the stairway leading to the raised seating area where Team RWBY and the rest of their peers was blocked by thick panels of wood that acted as a barrier to prevent any of the combatants from escaping. Winston doubted they would be able to hold for long if either the Grimm or the aristocrat tried to break through them, and the blabbering Professor seemed to recognize the risk too.

The primitive looking blunderbuss with an attached double bladed axe head that had been placed above the center of the chalkboard behind him dropped straight into the veteran huntsman's arms. Apparently that archaic tool wasn't just for show after all, like most weapons that were commonly used for decoration. Winston's approval of the Professor immediately rose after seeing how swiftly reloading his weapon to show that for all his talk, he certainly knew how to prepare himself for a proper fight at a moment's notice.

The aged huntsman gave his weapon a careful inspection and, satisfied that everything was as it should be, stood back as he pressed another button on his Scroll. Four shrouded metal cages immediately rose from a hole that suddenly opened in the arena he finished preparing. It was near impossible to tell what was in them from a distance, likely a safety measure put in place to protect any onlookers from Grimm that could potentially attack from a range, but the malevolent glow of four red eyes from each one of the beasts trapped within their respective prisons told everyone what they needed to know about them. The Boarbatusks contained within were big, fearless, and seriously hacked off. As if to prove the last point, each cage shook violently as the Grimm within attempted to break free, the beasts seemingly aware of what they had been captured for and eager for the chance to turn the tables against their captors.

Winston never noticed he had reached for the laspistol holstered inside his trench coat, carefully concealed so as to avoid any unwanted attention should Ozpin or any of the other instructors approach him. Ruby, much to his annoyance, did.

"Scared?" She asked, thinking his unexpected reaction might have come from a bad encounter with those particular Grimm.

Rather than defying or confirming her suspicions, Winston instead directed his barely restrained fury towards her. The leader of Team RWBY wilted underneath the hateful look of her masked teammate and quickly apologized.

"I-I'm sorry." She squeaked.

The guardsman quickly shook his head and looked away from his leader after she finished. "Don't be. You did nothing wrong, you didn't know." He said dismissively.

"Know what?" Ruby asked, her curiosity getting the better of her.

"The Death Korps do NOT tolerate fear." His voice turned into a low, threatening growl, the first shred of emotion he had shown all day.

"O-oh." Ruby stuttered, surprised from the stoic guardsman's unexpected reaction.

For a moment, it seemed like Winston wasn't speaking to her. Something about the way he spoke seemed off too, well, more off than usual, and it wasn't just the threatening tone he had taken all of a sudden.

Before she could give it any more thought, the other two members of Team RWBY crowded around her and the guardsman. Ruby let her worries slip away for the moment as her sister slid her chair beside her.

"So, what are you two talking about?" Yang asked. "Mind if we join in?

"Nothing important." Winston answered, nodding to Blake as she took a seat on the other side of him.

"I was wondering if my laspistol will be enough to bring these creatures down should something happen to Weiss." He continued, not giving Ruby a chance to carry on their previous conversation.

The blonde gave him a look of disbelief. "You brought a gun to class?"

"...was I not supposed to?"

"I think you can?" Yang said, smiling once she got a nod of confirmation from her partner. "But most people don't carry weapons they can hide on themselves between classes."

She winced adding, "Not ones that are any good against the Grimm though. But since bullying can get a little 'intense' at a combat school…"

"Better to have and not need than need and not have." Winston prattled off yet another litany he remembered as it seemed to be what Yang was implying.

But why would Ozpin ask him not to carry any weapons unless it was for classes that specifically required them if other students were allowed to carry theirs? Strange.

"Exactly." Blake said, her bow twitching along as the two shared a knowing look.

Winston hardly noticed the sad look she shared with the rest of Team RWBY, instead focusing on the ribbon tied to his teammate's head. Now that he looked at it a little closer, it appeared too thick to be moved by something like a subtle breeze or turn of the head. It almost looked like there was something hiding underneath it, something that instantly set the korpsman's nerves on edge.

"Bullying?" The guardsman inquired as he continued to scrutinize the black haired girl.

"Yeah, you know, getting shaken down for your lunch money in the halls or shoved in a locker when you least expect it." Yang told him. "You've never seen any of that before?"

"No, I haven't." He answered, eyes still locked on the head of the girl beside him. "That never would have been tolerated back in boot camp."

Because anyone who would have shown such subordination or callous regard for regulations would have been shot on the spot. He had never seen it happen himself, but he had heard plenty of stories about it back when he was just an untrained juve.

"Wow, that sounds nice." Ruby said, jumping at the chance to rejoin the conversation. "Krieg must be a nice place to live."

Winston spared a glance to aim towards Ruby and away from Blake, if only for a moment. "No, no it is not." He responded, sparing them the details and hoping he would be able to come up with a cover story in time in case they ever asked.

He hadn't been expecting the girls to be so interested to learn about him, a sharp contrast from the general disinterest and disgust he was used to from his brothers and sisters in the Death Korps, or the near reverence from the loyalist civilian survivors he met back on one of the worlds bordering the Oct-

"Why are you staring at me?" Blake asked him, leaning away after having grown uncomfortable from being underneath the deathly stare of Winston's gas mask.

"Your bow is coming loose." He curtly replied, turning to look away from her as she frantically readjusted the ribbon on her head.

Whatever she was hiding, he would have to wait and investigate it later. While Winston felt confident enough that Ozpin wouldn't let anyone into Beacon that could potentially harm him and the excessive luxuries he surrounded himself with, the guardsman could not say the same about the incognito Inquisitor's general competence. If anything, the korpsman had more than enough reason to doubt that particular part of the headmaster's abilities as the fully charged laspistol concealed underneath his trench coat was undeniable proof that there were some things the old man overlooked.

"Yeah, we didn't have time to get everything ready for today. We were kind of in a rush to get here because someone didn't bother to tell us it was almost time for classes." Yang said, directing a bitter smile towards the teammate who had left them behind.

As strange and alien as the gesture seemed, Winston was able to figure out who she was talking to once Ruby also gave him a pointed look. He simply shrugged off the sisters' attempt to guilt him as, while there were a lot of reasons he had to feel guilty, their laziness was not one of them.

"You and Weiss told me to let you sleep in." He reminded them.

The playful glare Yang had aimed at him quickly morphed into a sheepish grin after having that fact brought up. "Oh, right. That's why you were making all that noise, wasn't it?"

No, it wasn't, but Winston wasn't about to reveal he had no intentions of saving his team from their own mistakes in the first place. It was the best way to teach them all a very valuable lesson, after all.

Just as Winston was growing annoyed with his teammates' constant chattering, Weiss finally walked back into the classroom. It was perhaps the one and only time he thought he would ever be happy to see that pretentious brat.

For the time it had taken her to get prepared, Winston was disappointed to see what she had brought to fight a heavily armored opponent. The only two differences he could observe between when the heiress had left and now was that she had swapped out the school's impractical uniform for her even more worthless dress and heels as well as the laughably thin sword she carried in her hands. The serrated teeth on the edge of his bayonets were almost as thick as the pathetic looking blade Weiss held, and although the guardsman could not deny that perhaps such a weapon could be useful should it manage to get lucky and slip in between her opponent's ribcage and into its vitals, he doubted she'd be able to pierce through the chitin like armor covering the majority of its body in order to do so.

"What kind of a sword is that?" Winston muttered, still unable to believe anyone would bring something so delicate into battle.

"That's her rapier, Myrtenaster." Ruby answered cheerfully. "It has a ton of dust in the hilt she uses to do stuff like create ice walls or shoot fireballs. I don't know much about how it works though since she hasn't let me take a look at it yet."

Huh, so it was more than an Ork sized toothpick after all. Still, as impressive as Ruby's praise made it sound, that didn't make it seem any less overly complicated than it had to be. All a sword needed to kill was a sharp edge and enough weight behind it to slice through its victims' defenses, although adding a motorized chain of adamantium teeth to the blade never hurt. If only he could have found a tech priest willing to make such a modification to his shovel…

"Are you ready to show us all how it's done, Ms. Schnee?" Port asked as the heiress took her position within the makeshift arena.

"Of course I am." She answered.

Winston wanted to disagree, but kept his objections to himself. If the snide noble was insistent on letting her pride get the better of her, then so be it. His teammates on the other hand, were far more optimistic than he was.

"Goooooooo Weiss!" Yang shouted.

Blake was waving a flag with their team name on it in support of the heiress. "Fight well." She said.

Winston wanted to ask where she had been storing that thing since he didn't see her carrying it or anything that could have concealed the tiny banner anywhere, but was interrupted by Ruby before he could speak.

"Yeah, represent Team RWBY!" The tiny huntress in training cheered, nearly knocking down the guardsman in her attempt to show support for her teammate.

"Oops, sorry." She apologized, holding his shoulder to steady him so he didn't fall.

"Ruby, I'm trying to focus!" The heiress huffed, making the critical error of turning away from her opponent to deliver her reprimand.

Winston wanted to give his commander a few choice words of his own, but after seeing the defeated look on Ruby's face, decided against it. The girl looked crestfallen enough as it was and seemed to have already learned her lesson. If only the same could be said about the heiress, who still chose to focus on the spectators watching her rather than her immediate opponent. It would have been a lethal mistake if Port hadn't been merciful enough to wait for her to look back at the caged boarbatusk. If the slow shake of the professor's head was anything to go by, it seemed that Winston wasn't the only one displeased by what he had seen so far.

"All right. Let the match…" Port raised his strange choice of weapon in the air before bringing it down on the pathetically small lock that held the cage closest to him shut.

"BEGIN!" He shouted, although he could barely be heard over the clattering of the cage door as it crashed to the ground.

The boarbatusk wasted no time leaving its prison, quickly darting out and locking all four of its angry red eyes on the only human standing before it. This particular boarbatusk was a little smaller than the others Winston had seen, although the massive curved tusks jutting out from its lower jaw and the heavy plates of bone armor protecting its back more than made up for whatever weaknesses its small stature presented it. To Winston, it looked less like a questionably daemonic entity and more like an armored squig that caught a face full of exhaust from one of its owner's ramshackle vehicles. That did not make it look any less deadly in the guardsman's eyes, however.

Weiss' shoulders sagged, failing to consider a Grimm that barely came up to her shoulders a real threat. The Grimm instantly recognized the opening this small act left in the heiress' defenses and wasted no time charging at her as quickly as its stubby little legs could carry it. The white haired huntress panicked at the unexpected burst of speed and rapidly closing distance between her and her opponent. She barely had enough time to throw out her blade in front of her to redirect the two large tusks that narrowly avoided goring her in front of a class full of students eagerly watching her performance.

Rather than falling victim to the first attack like Winston expected her to, Weiss rolled back onto her feet as the boarbatusk carried on with its charge, lazily coming to a stop and turning around to lock eyes with her. It almost looked like the Grimm was playing with her. Considering how closely his teammate had come to getting run down within the first few seconds of her match, he wasn't surprised. The girl was inexperienced as she appeared, but at least she had enough sense to ready herself before the Grimm charged at her once more. That alone put her a step above most PDF forces he had the displeasure of working with in the past.

"Hah hah!" Port laughed, feigning confidence while carefully holding his blunderbuss in the boarbatusks' direction in the event something went wrong. "Wasn't expecting that, were you?"

"Hang in there, Weiss!" Ruby shouted in an attempt to encourage her struggling teammate.

Weiss glared over her shoulder towards the professor and her leader, and Winston could only groan at how she repeated the same mistake that had nearly led to a humiliating defeat. The boarbatusk also noticed the heiress' wavering attention and charged at her once again, its hooves clattering against the tile floor as it reached its top speed in mere moments. Rather than do the smart thing and try to bait the beast's charge into the nearby wall by dodging it at the last moment, the heiress charged the Grimm with the same fury as the mindless animal attempting to trample her in a move that Winston couldn't believe any intelligent human being would willingly do of their own volition.

To no one's surprise other than her own, Weiss was knocked aside with laughable ease as her headstrong charge left her rapier glancing off of the boarbatusks' head armor, leaving her completely defenseless as the Grimm took the opportunity to ram its tusks against her. Luckily for the huntress-in-training, the boarbatusks' overgrown tusks were so large they curled back towards its head which prevented her from getting impaled by the finely honed points on their ends. Instead, the force of the blow left her staggered and caused her to lose her grip on her weapon as the Grimm tried to push back against her. In her attempt to not lose any ground against the vile monster, she paid no attention to where the hilt of her rapier was until it was caught on the end of one of the very tusks that rammed into her.

The boarbatusk seemingly recognized what the heiress failed to notice and attempted to wrestle Myrtenaster out of Weiss' grip with its tremendous strength, leaving the huntress trapped unless she wanted to lose her weapon as both combatants tried to wrestle the prize they fought for away from the other.

"A bold approach." Port mused, using a word that was far kinder than the ones Winston felt more appropriate for the shameful display he was watching unfold. " I like it."

"Come on Weiss, show it who's boss!" Ruby yelled, nearly knocking the guardsman over once again in her excitement.

"You can do better than this, cadet." Winston chastised, unable to watch in silence any longer.

Weiss shot both him and his leader a venomous glare, barely losing her concentration in her tug of war against the Grimm and paying dearly for her mistake. The boarbatusk reared its head back with all of its strength, ripping Myrtenaster out of Weiss' hands and far behind it which left the white haired huntress staring helplessly as it sailed through the air. The heiress reached a hand towards her weapon, as if the futile gesture could somehow undo the costly mistake she had made, and was rewarded with a sweep that sent her flying just as far as the boarbatusk had launched her rapier.

"Oh hoh, now what will you do without your weapon?" Port boomed as a chorus of mixed laughter and concerned gasps echoed out behind her.

Winston fully expected her to be sent to the nearest quartermaster based on her performance so far, but was pleasantly surprised to watch Weiss narrowly dodge the boarbatusk as it tried to charge the unarmed girl down. The boarbatusk clearly did not expect to miss as it continued its charge, right up until it crashed into the wall behind it face first. The collision was strong enough to shake the barrier the professor set up to protect the other students and knock the beast on its side, giving the entire class a clear view of the now cracked armor covering its skull.

Weiss wasted no time gawping at the beast as her opponent drunkenly staggered back onto all four feet or throw more insults at the room like the guardsman believed she would, but instead chose to make the most of the brief window of opportunity that opened up to run away from the Grimm and reclaim her weapon at the other end of the room. For a moment, Winston thought that monster had finally knocked some sense into the brat.

"Weiss, go for its belly!" Ruby yelled. "There's no armor undernea-"

"Stop telling me what to do!" The heiress angrily fired back.

"O-oh…"

Then again, maybe the brat could use another dozen blows to the head.

The young leader of Team RWBY shrunk back into her seat at the heiress' reprimand and Winston fought back the urge to tell the incompetent little fob that she clearly needed all the help she could get considering how poorly she had been performing. It was only thanks to his hefty experience of dealing with someone far more overbearing, someone he desperately wanted to shoot for far too long but couldn't thanks to their position, that he was able to hold his tongue.

The guardsman had no doubt that if he hadn't, Weiss never would have seen the boarbatusk curl into a ball and roll at her faster than it had moved until then since she would have been more focused on the person who had wounded her pride than the enemy who was actively trying to kill her. The huntress didn't even bother to step out of the way as it rapidly closed the distance to her, leaving Winston completely at a loss for what his teammate was thinking.

The korpsman started to draw the laspistol at his side just in time to watch Weiss conjure up a bright blue glyph directly in front of the Grimm. Winston was completely amazed to see the boarbatusk crash into the summoned barrier as if it were made out of solid adamantium and roll onto its back, squealing in pain as it left its unarmored belly exposed.

Not wanting to risk being made a fool once more, Weiss quickly leapt into the air towards another glyph that appeared behind her and froze for a brief moment as she touched it, allowing her just enough time to aim the tip of her rapier towards the still disoriented boarbatusk before catapulting straight towards it. Winston could barely keep track of the heiress as she flew into the boarbatusk and landed beside it, stopping only because she had stabbed all the way through the beast's belly and back out its cracked skull plate in one clean hit, pinning it and herself to the floor. The Grimm let out a weak squeal before falling deathly still, the one and only hit the huntress landing on it apparently being all it took to slay it.

Weiss did her best to look triumphant and dignified as she strode back to her seat, but unfortunately for her, there was no number of fancy moves or clean kills she could perform that could make anyone forget the absolute curb stomp battle she had been the victim of before then.

"Well, it looks like we do have a true huntsman amongst us after all." Professor Port announced to Winston's complete bewilderment.

"We do?" He refused to believe that was something any competent soldier would do.

Weiss took up a seat with the rest of her team, walking with her head held high and staring down Winston the entire time. The smug look the heiress directed towards the guardsman as she took her seat following this praise wasn't nearly as unexpected, especially considering her self-awareness was so lacking that even a member of the Death Korps noticed it.

"Even after losing your weapon you were still able to beat your opponent using your wit and quick reflexes." Port continued, turning away from Weiss to address the rest of the classroom. "Never forget, students, that overconfidence is a slow and insidious killer! Over reliance on your team or weapons can easily spell the end of your career as a huntsman, a lesson Ms. Schnee helpfully demonstrated.

"A lesson far too many professionals learn when it is too late." The professor somberly added, breaking character just a moment.

The sudden air of triumph surrounding the white haired huntress quickly vanished as the professor continued his speech. Winston couldn't help but to notice the scowl that creeped across the heiress' face and almost thought to point it out to her, but such a petty act was far too unbecoming for a veteran guardsman such as himself. Besides, he had little reason to help the snide noble repair her damaged ego after she had been insistent on bruising it in the first place.

Port returned to his loud, boisterous self just as quickly as he had dropped his façade. "Would anyone care to point out a few of the mistakes that were made during the demonstration?" He asked, hoping to make the most of what little time he had left in his class to see what they had learned.

Jaune, whether through sheer dumb luck or from the professor taking note of him slacking off earlier, was the first one to be called to answer. He panicked, and gave the one example that anyone who wasn't blind or deaf could have been able to figure out without knowing anything about combat.

"She let go of her sword?" He guessed, a chorus of laughter echoing out at the reminder of the heiress' most blatant mistake.

"Not exactly. While that was certainly an interesting means of approaching her opponent, it was actually the correct action for her to take." Port replied. "Although Ms. Schnee should never have put herself in a position where the Grimm was able to wrestle her rapier away from her, in a contest of raw strength, only a small percentage of huntsmen are able to triumph over a Grimm as weak as a common Beowolf. If she hadn't been willing to let go of her weapon when the boarbatusk tried to throw it away, I have no doubt that she would have gone along for the ride."

Weiss' face flushed red with anger as the professor had a laugh at her expense. "I had the situation completely under control." She grumbled.

"Yeah, keep telling yourself that, Snow Angel." Yang laughed, further enraging the heiress.

"Ah, Ms. Nikos, would you care to comment on what Weiss did wrong?" Port boomed as he addressed the resident tournament champion in his class. "Perhaps you might be able to give us some insights that your peers did not pick up on."

The redhead shyly rose to her feet, seemingly unused to having so much attention resting on her outside of a performance setting or perhaps feeling guilty about being put in a position where she would have to point out one of her newly made friend's flaws so publicly. Whatever the reason, the huntress fought back against it and gave her answer as clearly as she could.

"Although she made a lot of minor mistakes, one of which was losing control of her weapon, I would say that the most important one was how she never fully focused on her opponent until the very end." Pyrrah said, giving the now deflated looking heiress an apologetic smile.

"But it is a common enough mistake to be made if you are not used to fighting in front of a crowd." She added as she was painfully familiar with how certain things changed when you were underneath a public spotlight and weren't used to it.

"Excuses." Winston muttered to himself as he propped his arm against the desk in front of him and rested his head on top of it, bored out of his mind and unable to hide it any longer.

This act did not go unnoticed, both by the heiress who redirected her glare towards him and the professor who locked eyes with those of his gasmask's lenses. "Is there something else our resident expert on boarbatusks would like to add?" Port jokingly asked him.

"Yes, there is." The guardsman said with a sigh.

It wasn't his place to give the heiress the chastising she so desperately needed, but if no one else was going to let her have it then he was more than willing to get his hands dirty. The earlier attacks against his character, status as a soldier, and any personal grudges he held against all of her ilk had nothing to do with it. Not in the slightest.

"Every mistake my teammate made was easily avoidable for several reasons." He started. "The first, what you pointed out, professor, is how she was overconfident and underestimated her opponent. Next was how she failed to use the information about boarbatusks you have written on the board, namely their superior speed and vulnerable underbellies beneath their heavily armoured carapaces, to her advantage. Rather than try and make the most of the intel provided to her, she tried and failed to take her opponent head on multiple times. Also, not focusing solely on her opponent, while stupid given the particular circumstances, was necessary for fighting her opponent and Weiss likely would have been killed if she had been fighting this Grimm outside of training."

"Oh, and why would you say that?" Port asked him knowing exactly what the guardsman was thinking.

"Because boarbatusks never hunt alone." Winston coldly answered. "They are quite adept at using their overwhelming numbers to flank their prey, circling around their victims until they tire or lose focus on one of them long enough to close in for the kill like the one Weiss struggled with."

The class fell deathly silent as Winston revealed this final piece of information which Port had decided against adding in his lecture notes. Weiss herself turned pale at the thought of facing down multiple boarbatusks at once after nearly having been defeated by a single one. That wasn't to say she was frightened enough to stay silent as her new teammate continued to expose her flaws, however.

"Do you really think you can do better than me?!" She yelled at her teammate for berating her.

"Come on Weiss, he didn't mean anything by it." Ruby pleaded in an attempt to keep the peace between her teammates.

Ordinarily, Winston would have fallen in line with what his commander was trying to do, but not this time. There were many things he would tolerate in the name of maintaining peaceful relations between the allies he fought with. Demeaning the reputation of his brothers and sisters, the fallen and those still fighting, was not one such thing he could allow to pass. An attack against one of them was an attack against all of them and could not be allowed to go unanswered.

"I don't think I can…" Winston droned, the heiress huffing in triumphant at his apparent admission of defeat.

"...I know I can." He stated, as if it were an obvious fact.

"What!?" The heiress exclaimed, trembling in anger. "Why you-"

"Ms. Schnee, please take a seat." Port commanded, finally doing something to interrupt the two members of Team RWBY before their argument could escalate.

Weiss let out an indignant huff and backed away from the guardsman with as much grace as she could muster. It was no small feat either, considering the number of students mocking her behind her back once she was finally seated.

"Mr Voytoski, that is quite a claim to make, fighting multiple boarbatusk at once. I will not tolerate you, or any other student for that matter, antagonizing each other in my classroom. Not unless you are willing to prove you are capable of what you say you are." The professor warned, gesturing to the three cages that had yet to be unlocked behind him, each one obscuring the baleful glare of the monsters contained within.

"Of course I am, sir." Winston said, snapping to attention.

The veteran huntsman was somewhat surprised by his answer and let out a laugh as he watched Winston boldly climb down into the arena without any trace of hesitation despite the danger. Port had been expecting to select a few other students to fight the trio of boarbatusks to show how huntsmen weren't the only ones who could work together, but as the professor watched the guardsman stride calmly to the center of the arena he had set up, he couldn't help but be reminded of himself when he was that age. Confident, knowledgeable, experienced, and ready to show anyone who thought otherwise exactly how wrong they were. A man… woman… student after his own heart.

…there were other lessons to be learned from changing his plans for the day just a little. The professor wasn't quite sure what they could be, but was certain they would come to him in time.

"Well then, quickly grab your equipment so you can show off in front of the rest of the class before my time with you is over" Port said as he walked over to the caged Grimm.

"That won't be necessary." The guardsman replied.

Before Port could ask why, he found his answer when he watched Winston pull out a small, peculiarly shaped shovel hidden underneath his trench coat. Just one glance was all it took for the professor to tell that it was more than just a simple gardening tool, as the blade on either side of the cutting edge was designed with a sinister purpose, one serrated end for tearing apart anything in its way while the other was honed to a sharpened edge to slice through softer materials with frightening ease.

"Oh, a shovel? It looks like someone is a fan of the classics from the days before the use of Dust became widespread." Port said, half musing and half announcing the odd choice of weapon for everyone in the class to hear.

"It's not a shovel." Winston informed the professor as he extended the collapsible shaft to its maximum length, the once forearm length tool now almost as long as the person holding it.

He then took out a bayonet that had been fastened against his chest, pulled off the handle of his weapon of choice and replaced it with the six inches of serrated death he retrieved, flourishing the now spear-like weapon with practiced ease. His hands moved in a blur, twirling his not shovel around with a flourish as he tested its weight before finally stomping the shovel head down on the stone floor once he was satisfied with the modifications he made.

"It's an entrenchment tool." He corrected after his display.

"Oh ho, a Mistrailian Spade? I don't think I've seen one of those used in person before." Port commented, unable to hide his enthusiasm. "Ah-ahem, are you ready to begin, Mr Voytoski?"

"Yes, sir." Winston said, lowering his weapon in a defensive stance, ready for a good purging.


Special thanks to Tireless Traveler for beta reading this chapter!


Author's Corner:

Am I leaning too much into the 'DKoK loves shovels' meme? Probably. Is turning your shovel into a spear/poleaxe hybrid badass? Maybe. Can we all imagine a Krieger charging into battle with nothing but a shovel after attaching a bayonet to it? Yes, yes we can.

Jokes aside, I figured a minor variation of the Shaolin Spade would be something a Krieger would know how to wield. Sure, I might be leaning a bit too much into the grimderp side of W40K, but don't forget that spears have been one of the most efficient and deadly weapons in human history for millenia. Considering how often melee combat comes into play in both RWBY and W40K a spear that is also a shovel, which by itself an effective axe and hammer, this doesn't seem that far fetched.


Comments:

"Austin": Ok I've read a two of your Warhammer 40k and they are good so far...

And yeah I honestly have very...concerning questions like of Ozpin...how does he have aquila of an inquisitor of the imperium.

I personally think the 'why' is far less terrifying than the 'how' in this particular case. The two examples you pointed out in particular were not voluntary after all, and no Inquisitor would ever give up something so valuable without a fight…

"affa": ...and now I just made myself want a Krieg romance because of how wholesome it would be.

I want this too, but somehow don't see this being what would actually play out since there is an in-universe romance novel featuring Krieg called My wish to generate children with you is only exceeded by my devotion to Him, I think it might be more innocent than 'wholesome'. Then again, it apparently describes Krieg as a paradise world so that might not be entirely accurate.

Unless the book was written by a Krieger who thinks of the 'modern' day Krieg as paradise…

holandia1103:Yeah I'm gonna go out on a limb and say that pretty much all cogbois would mecha-cream themselves over everything a smartphone can do.

Yep, apparently the vast majority of people think the AdMech would instantly oil themselves just by looking at a smartphone. And here I thought I was the only one.

Kabuto S Inferno: (A very long comment involving how this OC is somewhat more 'unique' than most people's impression of the average Krieger, amongst other things.)

My thought about this has always been that if the DKoK really were glorified servitors in all but cybernetics, then they probably wouldn't have lasted long enough to be the semi-suicidal psychopaths feared by allies and enemies alike. With that said, I have already thrown out bits and pieces as to the things Winston has done and seen that set him apart from the rest of his regiment aside from, you know, not being dead. He is a unique case, but not so much so that he will be shown as a one-of-a-kind protagonist with Ultramarine levels of 'character' once he feels comfortable enough to share his history with his new allies.


That's it for me. Thank you all for reading and I hope to see you in the future!