Chapter 12: Training Arc

As they exited the maze, the realm around them warped, space distorted and the scenery crumbled into pixels. Stone and vine became nothing but disintegrating particles before their eyes, and for a brief moment, they caught a glimpse of what was behind it all.

A dark, endless void of purple and black swirling colours, hues of red and white spots dotting the never-ending space. As soon as they registered it, they were back on solid ground.

The familiar ruined concrete jungle spanned their field of view, the smell of fresh-cut grass and the cold, foggy air. It was morning when they left the maze but... the colour of the sky and cast shadows suggested that it was around noon in the city.

Ruby glanced around, it seemed they were all present and accounted for, even the ones they hadn't met in the maze. Luna, Nitro and Hex were already reclining on the grass as if they'd arrived long before them. The other team RWBY was also relaxing under the trees, unsurprisingly their Blake was curled up on a tree branch in the shade.

"Finally, you guys made it!" Nitro hollered from his reclined position on the park lawn. His voice was so loud it startled Blake-13 from her perch atop the tree, "We've been waiting here for hours!" accompanied by a startled meow, the sound of a body hitting the ground and angry hissing. Their Blake was much more cat-like than Blake Prime, much to Ruby's amusement.

Ruby quirked her right eyebrow, "Hours? Did we take that long?"

Nitro snorted, "Dude, we blew through that maze in minutes! You guys are just slow… OW!" he yelped in pain as Hex swatted him over the head.

"The system let me keep my satchel so I just used the equipment to navigate. It didn't even take a full day cycle." Hex explained while pinching her brother for being a pest.

Nova stopped for a moment, "Wait… a full day? We were in there for three days!"

Ruby-13 frowned, "Three days doesn't equate to hours… perhaps time moves differently?"

"Time…" Ruby Prime frowned. "Why… does it keep coming up…?" she muttered silently, looking up at the sky, as if the vague grey clouds that lined above would rain down the answers she needed.

SYSTEM: "ALL CHALLENGERS HAVE COMPLETED THE SECOND TRIAL! CONGRATULATIONS ON SURVIVING! Rewards will be distributed now!"

As the system message flashed in the skies above, everyone's bodies were enveloped in a series of rapid bright lights.

A status message flashed in front of Ruby's face.

"Congratulations! Level Up! Lvl 12 - 20! All stats increased!" as she read the message there was a bit of text that was ominously printed in warped lettering, the outline was almost radiant in a distorted way, like watching a lucid dream.

"Additional Information: You have realized more of yourself"

Ruby Rose of Remnant Prime.

Current Location: Earth-613, City Block C.
Age: 17, Height: 5ft 4 inches.
Semblance: Petal Burst.
Class: Fighter, Subclass: Pending
Aura Level: Full.
Current Status: No Physical Ailments. Burning Curiosity: +5 to Wisdom
Skills: Marksmanship, Hunting, Self Reflection, Planning

Level: 20
Strength: 25
Agility: 30
Defence: 20
Intelligence: 20
Wisdom: 30
Charisma: 20

"D-Did we all level up like five times?!" Yang-13 exclaimed as she was busily checking her stats.

"Five…? I got eight levels…" Ruby pointed out flatly, unsure of what this meant.

"WHAT?! No fair! How come she gets more levels!" Nitro groaned only to be once again knuckled by his sister.

"Please ignore his stupidity…" Hex apologized to him.

Weiss-13 looked over her counterpart, "What about you guys? Higher level count?"

The other Weiss shook her head, "Nope, no differences here. Looks like Ruby is the odd one out."

Ruby-13 rubbed her chin and glanced at her boyfriend, "Think it has to do with our feud?"

"If it does… then maybe the system rewards more for doing certain things… but what does it mean? Are there like criteria?" Nova answered back through their bond.

As they began to relay memories and thoughts of what they observed this left them in a silent staring contest.

"Ugh, they're doing it again. You two," Weiss-13 snapped her fingers between them, "Care to share with the class what you're thinking?"

Ruby-13 shrugged, "Nothing concrete, when we figure it out we'll share. It's a little hard to explain in words."

"Must be nice having someone who understands literally everything you think of," the Schnee responded sarcastically.

SYSTEM: "TRIAL No. 3 WILL START IN FIVE DAYS! Countdown: 120:00:00"

"WHAT?!" they all exclaimed.

"Five days? That's longer than the last one," Luna frowned, drumming her fingers on the wooden park table.

"If the time between our arrival and the first two trials means anything, it's that the difficulty probably scales with the preparation time." Hex said as she made some notes, "Though we cleared the second trial faster than the first… we took the easy way out."

Yang-13 smirked, "Well, five days, I'm sure that's enough time to train you guys in advanced Aura Manipulation, right?" she glanced at her leaders.

The couple deadpanned, "Oh… oh she's going full sensei mode again…" Nova felt a shiver run down his spine.

-Day 1-

Yang-13 was standing atop the park table while all the members of Team RWBY Prime were sitting cross-legged on the floor staring up at her. It was the middle of the day and for once the sky wasn't cloudy, which meant intense heat beaming directly onto their heads.

"ALRIGHT MAGGOTS, today we're starting Advanced Aura Manipulation Training!" she yelled loudly, while Hex was blowing a trumpet and Nitro was rapidly playing the snare.

"Do you need to yell that loudly?" Weiss asked while raising her hand, "We're like ten feet from you..."

"NO BACK TALK ICE QUEEN!" Yang-13 snapped, tossing an empty water bottle at her head before slapping on a green beret and a pair of aviators.

"OW!" Weiss rubbed her head while Ruby snickered at her expense.

"Where did she get the hat and sunglasses?" Yang Prime asked genuinely, "I want a pair!"

"Seriously? She's being a complete drill sergeant and you're focusing on that?!" Weiss glared at her.

Blake was looking respectfully at the older Yang wearing a military jacket over a short yellow tank top and camo-coloured jean shorts. This caught Yang Prime's eye and she didn't know whether to be flattered on jealous...

"Enough chit-chatting, let's start this mess!" Yang-13 cracked her knuckles. "First order of business, you four need to start by adopting a meditative position!"

"In this heat?! Can't we at least like do this in the shade?!" Weiss pointed at the large tree just behind them.

"NO!" Yang-13 snapped again, "Now once you're meditating, start by manifesting your Aura externally."

They all looked at her dumbfounded, "You want us to what?!"

"YOU HEARD ME! START PROJECTING THAT STUFF ON YOUR SKIN, OVER YOUR CLOTHES, IN YOUR GODDAMN NOSTRILS!"

"W-Why our nostrils...? WAIT HOW DO WE DO THAT?!" Weiss continued to ask.

"I'm hearing way too much lip from you Schnee and not enough action. Imagery works, try to visualize yourself getting attacked as best as you can. Right now your Aura is passive, you don't use it to consciously. We're retraining your brain to start using it actively!"

"Oh... this is going to be hard..." Ruby realized as she already started.

-Day 2-

The first day ended without any progress, after hours of burning in the sun they still couldn't manifest their Auras physically. The second day, however...

Ruby sat in that same position, focusing on her memories of fighting. Every time she got hit, all the times her Aura came to protect her... that feeling. It was slippery, each time she tried to grab hold of it she lost it just as quickly. The heat wasn't doing her any justice either. The more she focused the more the sun's heat seemed to get worse, it felt like her insides were sweating while her skin was crawling and bubbling.

Minutes felt like hours, the day felt like a week. She wanted to quit, it was so difficult, how could anyone even accomplish this?

No... Ruby-13 managed to do it. It was possible. She could do this!

She had to!

At last, she managed to latch onto the feeling of Aura on her body, this time she refused to let it slip no matter how much it gave her a migraine.

"WELL DONE RUBY!" Yang-13 clapped, "The first one to get it right! Keep it up, we need to hold that for at least three hours!"

"WHAT?!" Ruby was ready to pass out.

-Day 3-

By the third day, they all managed to at least get the Aura out, now it was a task of learning to control it on the fly.

"ALRIGHT LADIES, SPREAD OUT IN A LINE, IT'S TIME FOR SOME PRACTICE!" Yang-13 bellowed, "Today's lesson, I brought two helpers~"

Nova in her female form and Weiss-13 stepped up with weapons in hand, both sporting rather evil glints in their eyes.

RWBY paled, this was the exact setup... for a firing range. "Oh...shit..." was all Blake could utter before fire and ice were shot in quick succession at each team member. They had to use their Aura to block the specific striking spots.

If they spread the Aura across their body then within a few shots their Aura would break. They needed to concentrate the Aura on the point of impact to completely defend the attack otherwise they'd burn out fast.

"THIS IS IMPOSSIBLE!" Yang screamed as she got blasted in the face with one of Nova's fireballs and knocked across the grass.

"SORRY!" Nova apologized while running over to inspect her. "At least I didn't burn your hair?"

The blonde gave her the middle finger, "Fuck you..." her voice muffled from faceplanting in the ground.

-Day 4-

By now every member of Team RWBY was sick and tired of this training. From noon to sunset they were subject to torturous training. Their bodies were sore and they weren't given proper recovery time. It was hell...

"Alright, today we're learning Aura Sense," Yang-13 instructed as she ordered them to circle her while she stood at the center. "Upon mastering Aura projection, you can expand it outward to a radius limited by your Aura levels. In this range, you can focus it on your senses so you can pick up on every single thing that enters the range."

"This sounds insanely hard..." Weiss pointed out, "Getting the Aura out is hard enough but expanding it? And focusing on your senses?"

Yang-13 smirked, "It gets even harder when you try to do it while getting hit, watch..."

She stood relaxed as they watched her bright yellow Aura manifest around her body, and in an instant, it expanded outwards to the point it was invisible, but they could feel it there. "Alright, all of you attack me at once."

"Like right now...?" Ruby tilted her head.

"Just do it."

Looking at each other and shrugging, they simultaneously tried to attack Yang-13 but the moment their fists got in range of her, she caught Blake and flipped her, making Yang Prime's fist connect with Ruby's and block Weiss' punch. It was a perfect simultaneous attack with perfect countering.

"What just happened...?" Blake asked with swirling eyes.

Yang-13 helped her up, "Now it's your turn..."

-Day 5, the Final Day before Trial 3-

Their training was incomplete, Yang-13 knew this, and Team RWBY felt it. Five days wasn't nearly enough time for them to master the skills they were taught.

Sighing heavily she folded her arms, "Alright, we've run out of time. The best I can do right now is teach you the final stage, after that, mastering it is entirely up to you." She began to pace back and forth with her brows scrunched up, "I'd prefer to have you guys test the skills you already learned in a real sparring match but... even that would take too long..."

"You're telling me? These techniques are ridiculous, all of us have only gotten the hang of one of the skills," Yang Prime pointed, "Ruby's the only one that's gotten the hang of the Aura sense so far..."

Yang-13 sighed again, "Yeah, well consider yourselves geniuses because most people take weeks to even figure out the first step. Being able to get as far as Aura sense in four days is unheard of... then again you are us so it makes sense," she winked at that last part.

They all tried to hold back the sense of pride they felt from being called geniuses.

"What's the last technique?" it was Blake who broke the moment.

"It's kind of a combo deal," the older blonde explained, "It's attack and mobility enhancement. You can supercharge your movement and physical attacks by concentrating all of your Aura on those spots, naturally once you're better at it, you can actually choose how much you want to divide your Aura but... basically you can do stuff like this..."

They watched as she got into stance, all of her Aura was focused on her legs, and then she blitzed forward at inhuman speeds and just as she was about to hit a tree, she stopped and punched it. In that millisecond delay, the Aura from her legs went into her fists and a blinding yellow explosion fired out, shattering the trunk and blasting a hole straight through it.

"Everyone's Aura strike manifests differently," she continued after walking back to them, "Mine explodes, Nova's sends out fire, Ruby's is super fast, and so on... there's not a lot I can explain about this technique since it's really just combing all the skills you already learned. It's sort of a try it and figure it out thing."

Team RWBY looked at each other and understood what they had to do. It was no longer a matter of learning, but a matter of practice. Practice took time, and time was something they didn't have right now.