NeoNazo356: First announcement, I'm pleased to announce that Giant-Slayer: New World has some new Cover Art, courtesy of KegiSpringfield on DeviantArt, the same artist who made the cover art for the prequel (which depicted Jack's turning-point in Chapter 6: The Rift Between Humans and Faunus). Unlike the previous cover however, this one has a happier, more upbeat feel to it. Or at least that's how I intended it.
Moreover, this picture is more-indicative of the "Red Rabbit" ship that I've been building up to in the prequel since the "boy next door" from Patch was too good to pass up. Initially most thought it would be a Jack/Ruby ship, which is why I established their brother/sister dynamic to counteract that sentiment.
Moving on, the artwork is presently $15 USD per-character, but given the quality of the artwork, I think it's a pretty good deal, so if you want a Commission done, RWBY-related or otherwise, give KegiSpringfield a poke on DA if you're interested.
Anyway, onto the fanmail!
Blaze1992: Good so far but I really hated the stein bit, there should've been backlash and Jack should've been able to maim/wound him.
Again I hated that entire sequence of events.
NeoNazo356: Well, I'm glad to see that Chapter 1 was so thought-provoking.
If you've ever watched/read Soul Eater, you'll now about Stein's "moral ambiguity". As for why I established he has "tenure", that's precisely the reason why there wasn't any kind of "backlash"; because he is an explicitly tenured professor meaning he can do whatever the hell he wants in the class and not be fired because he was qualified to receive tenure.
As for Jack possibly "maim/wound"(ing) Stein... In the previous story, Jack kind of "stole the show" because, as the Foundation of Giant-Slayer as a whole, I wanted to establish what was possible in the Fanon, compared to the RWBY Canon which in-comparison to this story is like comparing the Power Levels of Dragonball to Dragonball Z. I had Jack explicitly state there were people stronger than him he considered "real fucking monsters", though I may've been a little too subtle in my attempts, so I decided to show Jack being handily defeated. It wasn't that Jack was "nerfed", but his high-end attacks have "AOE" that could hurt Ruby (and to an extension, Jaune), and more-importantly, Dr. Franken Stein is described as a "genius", both academically and combatively, so in the context of Dr. Stein (Soul Eater) within the world of RWBY where his academic understanding of the soul (and its mechanics) would leave him uniquely-qualified to excel, it only makes sense that Stein would be able to win. On a biological level, Jack's body might be a "high-performance" variety, but Stein is at least twice his age with far more fighting experience under his belt, so it's only understandable that in this scenario, Jack would be out-of-his depth; Dr. Stein is a teacher for a reason after all.
In short, the characters in Giant-Slayer will be stronger than their Canon RWBY counterparts because the "bar" has been set much higher, and the world more expansive. Why do you think I've been adding crossovers like Negima, Halo, Toriko, Soul Eater, and so-on?
And no, I'm not giving such an elaborate answer to fluff the word-count for this chapter, this is an honest reply of why I went the way I did.
Moving on, onto the show!
*NEW WORLD*
True to his word, Roland had waited to dismiss them at the last-possible second, ensuring they received the most instruction out of him possible without infringing on their next class.
"My hands still stink…" Weiss groaned, even after washing her hands; several times.
"That's what she said~" Yang purred suggestively.
"Gross," Blake groaned tiredly as her partner made a lewd gesture with her hand.
"Yeah, sis! Keep your head out of the gutter!" Ruby cried embarrasingly.
"Hey, Jack liked it? Isn't that right buddy?" the blond asked leaning forward.
"Yeah, that was so funny. Ha ha ha ha ha," "Jack" said in turn. "You make me laugh so much, will you go steady with me?"
In actuality is was only Yang opening and closing his mouth.
"Would you stop that already?!" Weiss demanded as she swatted the blond's hands away. "Jack put his life on the line for me and you will show him the respect and dignity he deserves!"
"Geez, someone's a grumpy gopher," Yang huffed.
"Grumpy gopher? Seriously?" Blake asked with a raised brow.
"So… First day's almost over," Pyrrha hummed, defusing the situation before anyone got too nettled. "Anyone still nervous?"
"After what Dr. Stein put us through this morning, nothing can make me nervous," Jaune shuddered.
Compared to that manic Monday, he could probably sit through any horror movie without screaming "like a girl".
"So, what's next on the itinerary?" Nora asked aloud as she skipped along, bouncing back just-as-readily as she ever had.
She wasn't one to let a nutty professor bum her out.
"According to the syllabus… Hand-to-Hand Combat in the gym," Ren hummed as he looked down at his Scroll.
"Aw sweet! Finally something I'm better at than everyone else!" Yang whooped flexing her arm.
'I feel like this is some sort of theme, but I don't know why,' Blake hummed to herself.
"Hey, I'm no pushover either, blondie!" Nora said flexing her own arm in turn.
"Ugh, I'm gonna be so bad at this…" Ruby grumbled, lamenting her present lack of hand-to-hand ability.
Ability she'd always envied her sister for, at least in the back of her mind.
'Note to self: Get Yang to help you with face-punching later...' Ruby noted to herself.
"Hey, at least you aren't the only one," Jaune conceded. "I'm not all that hot at hand-to-hand either."
"Nor are you with your primary weapon."
"Nora, why are you piling onto me?" Jaune whined as the ginger mussed the Faunus' mouth.
"You were all treating Jack like he wasn't here, so I just wanted him to contribute to the conversation is all~" Nora replied chipperly.
"Would you all stop that?!" the heiress shrieked as she slapped the ginger's hand away as well.
"Still, it is a certain irony after Roland's class," Ren hummed aloud.
"I don't see how you aren't excited for this. You killed a King Taijitu with your bare hands!" Ruby whined.
"It only counts if you use only your bare hands," Ren downplayed.
"Bullshit it does! Your SMGs didn't do squat, and then you made that thing's head explode like a science fair volcano!" Nora quipped back excitedly.
"Still, it will be good to round our bases," Pyrrha hummed as she glanced over to Jack, thinking back to how he'd completely outclassed her even without his primary weapon back when they'd first thought.
Mind you, no-one participating in the Mistral Regional had ever outright discarded their weapon when fighting her, but she couldn't help but wonder… Had the Faunus' former teammates not scrapped his initial weapons forcing him to upgrade from dual-axes to a shotgun/axe, would things have played out any different?
She hadn't known Jack for all-that-long, but whenever she watched him fight, or thought back to her own fight against him, she got the distinct impression that Jack only treated his weapon as "something convenient" instead of something to trust your life to; like she did with Miló and Akoúo̱. That he instead trusted his own flesh and blood more when it came to "getting the job done".
Then again, after seeing just what that flesh-and-blood body of his could do, she could understand the sentiment. Faunus' "claws" were always sharper than Humans', and even if they didn't have literal claws, their metaphorical "claws" in the vein of their other heightened senses and greater resistance to the elements and other natural hazards made them, at least on a biological level, superior to unaugmented Humans.
'Maybe that's where all his pride comes from,' the girl mused to herself before speaking. "How is Jack doing by the way?"
"Oh, you know… Still a vegetable," Blake sighed.
"Still, he's breathing, so that's a good sign," Yang nodded.
"Fingers crossed we don't have anyone too eccentric," Weiss sighed. "There's only so much I can handle in one day," she said thinking back to Dr. Stein singularly.
*NEW WORLD*
"Sup? Name's Brice Phoenix, but everyone just calls me 'Brick'. I know I do," the man added with a stupid grin on his face as he thundered into the room.
Aforementioned teacher was… larger than life, both literally and metaphorically to say the very least.
Standing over eight feet tall and nearly that wide from shoulder to shoulder, Brick was an enormous specimen of a man; so-enormous in fact that the word "colossal" might be better suited to describe him. The guy had more muscles in his neck than most people had in their entire bodies (read: that's an exaggeration yet at the same time it's not an exaggeration), and his massive arms bellied brute, monstrous strength comparable to a tactical WMD. In fact, he was so-laden with muscle that the floors actually creaked under his enormous girth; since muscle weighed more than fat it was a given, but still nonetheless incredibly intimidating. For those who had seen the Bishokuya, Toriko, in person, immediate comparisons about their musculature could be made; albeit Brick's arms were more-powerful-looking while Toriko's muscle distribution was more balanced between speed and strength instead of Brick's "pure strength" build.
In terms of appearance he had thick leathery skin covered in scars of all kinds, indicative of many years as a frontline fighter i.e. "tank", facial features like crudely-carved stone, sunken steel-gray eyes, and brown hair cropped incredibly short. He wasn't a handsome man by any means, but it didn't seem like he particularly minded the fact, as he made no attempt to compensate for societally-percieved "aesthetic shortcomings" with fancy clothing or the like.
His attire, surprising no-one, lacked sleeves in any capacity; almost as though no mortal sleeves could contain the raw, overwhelming power his arms contained. His shirt, consisting of enough material to make an entire regular-sized outfit was blue, over which he wore a black leather jacket with bolt-laden armored plates on the shoulders. His legs, at least half-as-beefy as his arms, were clad in dark jeans that just barely conformed to his every curve, crevice, and bulge, a heavy-gauge chain and padlock serving as a belt. His boots were made of thick brown leather and featured armored toes with bolts sticking out of them, guaranteeing that any ass kicked by aforementioned boots would swiftly have a new hole wrent upon them.
In short, he was a man comfortable in his own skin that was built like a brick house -or a bomb shelter-, even with a face "only a mother could love".
'I feel really inadequate right now…' Jaune and Cardin alike, as well as the rest of the latter's team and the bulk of DIRT, thought as they drank in the wall, nay, mountain of muscle before them.
You literally had to crane your neck up at him to make eye contact.
"I'm going to be your fourth-period teacher this term," the giant of a man replied casually amidst everyone drinking him in, seemingly oblivious to the blend of awe and terror he evoked in his students.
" . . . "
" . . . "
" . . . "
"Shit, what was I supposed to do next?" Brick asked, drawing index cards from his pocket while everyone face faulted.
'This is our teacher…?' Weiss gawked with wide eyes, as though she couldn't believe what she was seeing. 'This jar-head is the one who's going to be teaching us? I can feel my IQ dropping already,' she groaned despondently as the man flipped through his premade cards made by someone that was clearly not him.
Fortunately, she wasn't the only one who thought along those lines, although other descriptions were less derogatory in nature.
"Eh, fuck it. This is basically just gym class with more face-punching," the man said chucking the index cards lazily over his shoulder. "So… First lesson of the day… We're going to practice emptying your thoughts!"
"Um… Why?" Dominic saw fit to ask.
"Why not?" the giant of a man rebuttled.
"Uhhh…"
Dominic had no words.
"Sometimes, you just have to listen to your gut," he said drumming his belly; which in this case was like a side of beef. "And you can't listen to your gut if you've got too much going on upstairs. I've tried using my head and it's gotten me nothing but trouble. That's why I don't listen to it anymore."
" . . . How did this guy become a teacher, exactly?" Weiss whispered over her shoulder.
"I like him," Yang answered with a vigorous nod. She wasn't much for thinking everything through either.
"Of course you would," the heiress sighed tiredly. Both the blond and Brick were punch-happy maniacs, it seemed.
"So, seeing as how we don't do book work here, we'll just worry about workin' up a good sweat and puttin' some meat on those bones," Brick nodded enthusiastically as he flexed beefy arms capable of bench-pressing a city bus. "Now… Show me what you got!"
Everyone looked at one another unsuredly for a few moments, but after acclimating to the fact that Brick was his own kind of eccentric, summarily decided-
'Just roll with it.'
"So… just empty… your head?" Ruby asked slowly for clarification, this being the most ambiguous request a teacher had ever made at her.
In every other class she'd taken it was things like "read this chapter before next class" or "do a paper on this subject" or "complete that worksheet". Not… this.
"Yeah, just like what you're doing now, but with less thinking," Brick nodded.
"Okay…" Ruby nodded, deciding like the others- 'Just roll with it.'
The next few minutes consisted of everyone awkwardly listing about, trying to empty their heads even while their thoughts were awhirl. Some sat down, others remained standing, and suffice it to say the silence was awkward with a capital A. Eventually, after the silence dragged on for what felt like an eternity, it was finally broken.
"You! Brilliant!" Brick suddenly called out, extending a meaty finger towards Jack, who at the moment was still incognizant and slumping-over at chest level in his chair. "That's exactly what it means to empty your thoughts! A!" he bellowed as he drew out a piece of paper before scribbling an A+ on it with red marker before slapping it onto the Faunus' forehead.
"Jack isn't even conscious right now!" Weiss cried as Jack lolled forward again.
It wasn't that she was opposed to Jack getting good grades, she just wasn't keen on people getting grades they didn't consciously earn.
Did Brick not even see the wheelchair? Or the fact that his head was lolling to the side like he was asleep?
"You! Too much thinking! F!"
*Whap*
"AAAAUGH! It BUUUUURNS!" Weiss shrieked as a big fat F was slapped onto her forehead.
"Ummm… What?" Blake asked confusedly as actual steam rolled off her head, the paper *hiss*ing audibly.
"Don't worry. I'm confused too," Yang added as the heiress stopped, dropped, and rolled.
"Did someone mix up the Holy Water with sulfuric acid?" Nora asked confusedly, Ren sighing his head with no way to answer that.
*NEW WORLD*
"Okay. I think that's enough not-thinking for one day," Brick hummed a while later; likely as soon as the enormous man-child grew bored. "Before I send you home early for the day, I'm gonna fight you so I can learns what I'm working with," he hummed as he cracked his knuckles, causing those still cognizant-enough to do so to pale horribly.
"Wait… WHAT?!" Jaune gawped as Brick started warming up, his muscles shifting like tectonic plates.
"Yes, I second that… WHAT!?" Ruby yelped with slack jaw.
"I said we were going to fight," Brick repeated, his clothes struggling to contain his massive muscles. "Man you guys are slow."
Weiss in response sputtered uncontrollably at them being called "slow".
"So… Who's first?" the monster of a man asked.
"Ummm-"
The next moment Jaune was punched in the stomach, the blond-haired teen sent screaming through the air -both literally and metaphorically- before he hit the padded wall underneath the basketball rig at the far end of the room.
"Next!"
"C'MON! Nobody lives forever!" Nora shouted, rallying the others into action.
"YEAAAAAAAAAH!" the others roared in agreement, a stampede of feet sounding through the gym.
What followed was an unadulterated slug-fest.
Cue One Punch Man OST - THE HERO! (by Jam Project)
The three leading members of the former Team DIRJ, not wanting to be shown up any more than they already had in the new term, especially after the complete and totally unmitigated "disaster" that was their first term, were the first to charge at Brick ahead of Nora and the posse she was rallying together.
As a result, they were the first to "die", each one on the receiving end of a mighty body blow carrying the force of a small vehicular impact that sent them sailing through the air above their peers' heads before hitting the ground with a deafening *THUD*, the sound causing some to lose heart; an opening Brick was more than giddy to take advantage of.
Russel, Dove, and Sky were quick to follow in the footsteps of Dominic, Ian, and Rudolph, each on the receiving end of similar vehicular-like body blows that sent them flying. It was only because of their own cool headedness that Cardin and Terrence alike were able to escape a similar fate, but only on the merit that they had held back to see just what Brick was capable of.
Suffice it to say, Brick looked like the sort of man who could level a small building; and even if he couldn't do it in "one punch", it still stood to reason that with enough time he could do with his fists what could be done with a wrecking ball. Which his fists could also be compared to.
Of course, holding back wasn't enough to save them from Brick's... exuberance, because the jolly giant of a man was quick to stomp towards whoever he thought needed "a good fisting" as he so uneloquently put it.
Rushing forward, Cardin put everything he had into uppercutting the man's chin, aiming for a TKO. However, because of the man's enormous stature, his ludicrous amount of muscle, the amount of hits he'd taken over the years, or any combination of these factors, what should've been a concussing blow was brushed off like a weak slap to the cheek, Cardin soon sailing through the air and joining Jaune at the far side of the room in a heap after hitting the padded wall.
While Terrence sidled into Brick's blind spot amidst the carnage, when Pyrrha looked up at the man, the redhead had episodic flashbacks to that dream she'd had prior to fighting Jack, the man's massive mountain of muscle causing a frightening sense of familiarity to well up inside her as the man loomed over her like a pending avalanche.
Brick's fist coming at her, the girl was quick to drop down low, the end of the girl's ponytail actually shorn slightly away at the tips by the gale-force power of his punch. Of course, Brick was smarter than he looked, because he'd hidden his other fist in the shadow of his first, striking Pyrrha with a speedy punch that bellied the man's massive, lumbering girth, sending her flying sidelong into Blake who had tried to discretely excuse herself from the exercise.
It went without saying that those plans were sufficiently dashed, the two landing in a tangle of limbs that could passively be considered erotic if not for the fact that everyone was getting "fisted" into unconsciousness.
Now, most acquainted with the first-years, Team RWBBY in particular, would've thought Yang of all people would take to this like a duck to water.
What actually transpired was... less than awe-inspiring.
"Rrrgh! Why! Can't! I! Hit! YOU?!" Yang raged as she flailed her arms.
"Hahahahahaha! You're funny," Brick chuckled as he held his massive, meaty hand atop Yang's head, the blond's swings failing to reach further past the man's own elbows, let alone reaching a body-shot.
"Oof. That's gonna leave a mark," Nora commented before the blond was sent sliding back-first across the floor a moment, coming to a stop next to Jaune.
"Imma punch you like a red-headed step-child," Brick said giddily as he approached his next target.
"And what if I say 'no'?" the ginger asked aloud defiantly.
The punch she received was her answer.
"Ren, avenge meeeeeee!" Nora cried as she sailed through the air, landing back-first atop Yang.
*SIIIIIIIGH* "The things I do for my friends," Ren sighed as he looked up at his instructor, the shadow of the man looming over him like the shadow of a mountain.
"Come on, kung fu kid, show me what you're made of," Brick taunted good-naturedly as he threw another mighty blow.
Ren for his part was able to dodge around the one-two punch like water around a rock, the teen weaving around the side of Brick's extended arm and striking out as several pressure points along the meaty limb. Taking a step or two back and expecting the man's arm to hang limply at his side, the next words that came out of the man's mouth caused the teen's heart to fall into the pit of his stomach.
"Heh heh. That tickles."
"Oh crapbaskets..." Ren groaned before he too was sent flying.
"Good heaven, he's swatting us down like flies!" Weiss yelped, fighting the trembling shiver trying to break out across her spine. "You know, if you were actually conscious right now, I might be a lot less scared," she said glancing at the comatose Jack off to the side, imagining him pulling some kind of "super move" out of his ass to win the day. Or something. 'Is it weird that I've started contemplating what Jack would do in the face of adversity, instead of what Winter would do?' she wondered to herself as the next lamb stepped up to the slaughter.
"HIYAAAAAAH!" Ruby cried as she aimed a fist at the man's kidney, hoping to bring him low like her dad and sister alike had taught her.
When her fist hit the aforementioned spot however, there was an uncomfortable cracking sound and Ruby squealed as she held an aching hand, pulsing with a throbbing pain as though she'd punched a brick wall.
"Huh, so that's where his nickname comes FROOOOOOOOOM!" the red-head cried as she was struck, sent higher and farther than her peers before her. "Ooooogh... Weiss... Avenge me..." Ruby gasped.
"No. That's okay. I'll just stay back here," Weiss said disinterestedly, examining her nails without even looking Ruby's way.
The next moment Terrence stepped in, quiet as the grave, and delivered a brutal axe handle between the man's shoulder blades while he was distracted, the blow carrying all the strength he'd cultivated over the past year behind it.
"Heh. That one actually stung a little."
It went about as well as everything else RWBBY, JNPR, CRDL, and DIRT threw their instructor's way, so suffice it to say, calling what had just transpired a fight was stretching it.
It'd be more-fitting to call it a 'quote/unquote "fight"', emphasis on the quotation marks and "quote/unquote" annotation.
Course, it wasn't all bad. There was victory to be found for at least one of them.
And all it took was a certain heiress getting out of her own head; at least in the metaphorical sense.
"Oop, looks like I missed one," Brick hummed as he started striding towards the wheelchair-bound Jack.
"Wait! Stop! He can't even fight back!" Ruby cried out from her place on the ground.
"Doesn't matter. The bad guys won't hesitate to punch you repeatedly in the face just 'cause you're down and out," Brick shrugged.
"Yang! Do something!"
"Can't... feel... my everything..."
"Blake?"
"Uuuuugh..."
"Don't you lay a hand on him!"
Interposed between Brick and Jack was Weiss, arms outstretched as she stood protectively in front of the vulnerable Faunus.
"Standing up to someone stronger than you you know you can't beat... Didn't really think this through, did you?" the giant of a man asked as he looked down at Weiss, his shadow looming large over her.
"Yeah? What of it?" the heiress demanded, eyes like steel as she held her ground..
"Heh heh... Good job. You pass," Brick chuckled as he laid a massive hand atop Weiss' head and ruffled her hair.
"Wait... Really?" the girl asked with wide eyes even as her knees threatened to buckle.
"Yep. Standing up for your friends doesn't need to be something you have to think about. Just do what your heart tells you," the man chuckled like a doting parent proud of their child. "Course, you can't really do that if your brain keeps telling you it's pointless. That's why it's so-important to go with your gut at times."
"So... Does that mean I win?" the heiress asked hopefully.
"Nope!"
The next moment, Weiss was flicked in the stomach with a single meaty digit, the heiress sent butt-first into Jack's lap, the sudden motion sending them both wheeling back towards the rear wall, Weiss screaming panickedly as she clutched at the Faunus' neck before they crashed into the back wall. Wheelchair rattling from the blow, the two bodies atop said chair were jostled from their seat and hit the floor, Weiss finding herself pinned beneath her Faunus teammate with their hips in a line, his nose buried in the crown of her hair.
"Ah, young love," Brick sighed as the heiress blushed uncontrollably at her current predicament.
*NEW WORLD*
At the conclusion's exercise, most-everyone was sprawled out across the ground, groaning in pain and/or stewing in defeat to varying degrees. Some were curled up on the floor in the fetal position clutching where they had been punched, while others had enough pain tolerance to at least sit upright, their Auras slowly soothing their wounds.
That Brick could hurt them even through their raised Aura was a feat unto itself, and a reminder that the quote/unquote "force field" did not make them "invincible".
The only ones even remotely "okay" were Weiss, Jack, and the new guy on the block, Terrence. Jack never actually being touched by Brick was a no-brainer for being "okay", whereas Weiss only got a finger-flick and had a relatively softer landing than the hard laminated floor. Terrence, like Jack, being at least a year older than the rest of the Freshman had an extra year of training on all of them until fate -read: Jack on a whim- selected him to receive a Callback and return to Beacon after being unable to make the cut the year prior.
In essence, when the gauntlet had been thrown at them, to some it was like a punch to the gut -metaphorically- while to others it was like being backed over atop by a bus.
At least after this, the first day would be over and they could rest.
"And now, before I let you out for the day, extra credit! Because that is something that teachers do I think!" Brick said enthusiastically as he drew out a plus-sized Scroll and typed in what was swiftly recognized as an RPL recall code.
'Why am I even surprised he plays fast-and-loose with his position?' Weiss pondered critically.
Those that could still move looked up to the windows expecting a rocket-propelled locker to suddenly drop in on them, their imaginations going into over-drive as they contemplated what kind of larger-than-life weapon would even be used by the larger-than-life Brick, who had more muscles in one arm than most of them apiece had in their entire bodies.
However, after several seconds of nothing happening, those gathered began to wonder if anything was coming at all. Obviously a time-lag was to be expected whenever an RPL was called upon from outside Beacon grounds, but within Beacon itself, the time between recall and arrival was slated to be roughly within the span of a single minute. So for Brick's own RPL to not even arrive yet caused a few eyebrows to raise.
A few moments later and panicked cries could be heard from outside the gym, everyone's attention turning to the double doors as the sound of churning earth, crumbling masonry, upturned foliage, and panicked cries sounded about. The sound of upturned earth in particular growing louder, moments later the double doors burst open as a metallic gray… something was dragged, no, pushed, across the ground towards them. As lacquered floors were ruined beyond repair, the gathered students could only wince painfully at the destruction that was wrought as the object answering the recall finally finished its journey from start to finish.
Aforementioned object was an RPL, but unlike the students' single-width lockers, the teachers apparently had access to double-wide lockers closer in dimension to the standing supply closets found in the rear of civilian classrooms. The rockets on the bottom were roaring like any other RPL, yet for whatever reason the construct had completely failed to get airborne, instead plowing through the ground as it answered Brick's recall signal.
"Awww. Poor birdy couldn't fly," Nora whined as the double-wide RPL came to a stop.
"I… I don't get it… What am I looking at?" Pyrrha asked confusedly as Brick walked up to the flightless RPL and kicked it roughly in the side causing the doors to open before he reached in.
The moment Brick drew his weapon, the why of why Brick's RPL didn't fly in became blatantly obvious.
"Whoa momma…!" Nora awed as Brick beheld a massive mallet which was, in essence, nothing more than an engine block on a stick.
A legit engine block!
"I, am heavy weapons guy, and this, is my weapon…" Brick said holding the weapon aloft like one would a toy.
"Okay… So how does extra credit tie into this?" Weiss asked aloud.
"Easy," Brick replied. "If you can lift it, you get extra credit," the man replied as-casually as one would talking about the weather, the absurdity of his request completely lost on him.
" . . . I'm out," Weiss said lifting her hands in surrender, visibly backing away from the challenge.
"I'm not," Yang said with a smile on her face as she spat on her palms, rubbing them together as she strode forward with a confident swagger. "Extra credit, here I come."
"That's the spirit!" Brick whooped enthusiastically as he chucked the hammer her way, the wind knocked out of her as she was knocked onto her back with a loud *THUD*, Yang's Aura flickering as the floor creaked underneath her.
"Agh! Holy crap that's heavy!" Yang wheezed under the sudden weight.
"Lift with your legs Yang!" Ruby cried out from the spectator stands.
"My legs aren't really helping here!" Yang called back as she kicked out with her legs, the weight of the engine block hammer pressing down on her chest like the weight of an elephant.
"Don't worry, Yang! I'll save you!" Nora whooped as she similarly spat on her palms and rubbed them together before grasping the handle of the hammer and hefting it over her shoulder, only for the ginger to be pulled completely backwards and onto the floor, the engine block making a large indentation in lacquered floors.
"Oof, that's gotta smart," Cardin winced as the rest of his team relegated themselves to the bleachers.
"So… Guess it's just the four of us, huh?" Terrence hummed, his own team making for the bleachers.
"Yeah, guess it is," Cardin hummed in turn as he glanced around to see that only himself, Terrence, Yang, and Nora chose to take up Brick's extra credit challenge.
Then again, apart from Jack who was presently incapacitated due to what happened in first period, no-one else was really built for the challenge in question. Ruby might've had one of the largest weapons out of the Freshman class, but most of the swinging force came from the recoil of sniper rounds. Weiss, Blake, and Pyrrha similarly had builds more-inclined toward either speed or dexterity than raw physical power. As for Jaune, Ren, Russel, Dove, Sky, Dominic, Ian, and Rudolph, while all of them were fit in their own right, some moreso than others, they weren't really up to the task either.
"Rrrgh…! I've…! Got it!" Nora whooped as she held the massive engine block hammer above her head with both hands, only for the girl to begin listing haplessly to the side.
"Whoa there," Brick said palming the end of his mallet and righting the ginger with no visibly-existing effort. "A for effort, but your form could use a little work."
"Now you tell me…" Nora grumbled as she rested the hammer against her shoulder, bending her legs at the knees and spreading her stance. "There. How's this?"
"Extra credit!" the man grinned with a thumbs-up.
"Whoo!" Nora whooped as she tossed the massive mallet over her shoulder, their enormous teacher grasping it by the handle before it could make another massive dent in the ground.
"So, who's next?" the man asked casually.
"Me!" Yang said boldly as she strode forward. Brick resting the hammer on the ground, Yang took a deep breath before squaring her feet and grasping the mallet at the base of the block and near the pommel. Exhaling deeply, the girl's lilac eyes flashed to read before giving the engine block mallet a heave, slowly and steadily bringing the weapon up until she could hold it confidently at waist-level.
"Extra credit!"
"Man, what a workout," the blond sighed as she set the mallet down. "It's all yours, boys," she said wiping the sweat from her brow.
"So, you wanna go next?" Cardin asked.
"Please, by all means, after you," Terrence offered politely.
"Well, no time like the present," Cardin hummed as he grasped the handle of the weapon. His own mace was fairly heavy to be sure, but not nearly as-heavy as Brick's engine-block-on-a-stick. Still, Cardin was confident-enough in his own strength to give this shot at extra credit a go, so with all his strength he hefted the massive hammer. While able to bring it up to waist-level, his steadiness wasn't nearly as great as Yang's, but by no means insubstantial.
"Extra credit!" Brick whooped.
"Oh thank god…" Cardin sighed as he set the mallet down as-carefully as he could. "Well, good luck, new guy," he said giving the older boy a pat on the shoulder before rejoining his team.
"C'mon man, don't embarrass us!" Dominic called out.
"Put your back into it!" Ian added.
"Represent!" Rudolph shouted.
If Terrence was irked by their words when none of them even attempted this challenge, the older teen didn't let it show.
Grasping at the base of the head and pommel of the mallet, his muscles flexing, with surprisingly little effort apart from a loud grunt, Terrence hefted the large engine block mallet up into the air before bringing it to rest on his shoulder, showing barely any strain.
"Whoa…" Yang gawped.
"How the heck'd you do that?" Nora gawped.
"Pushups, situps, and plenty of juice," the new guy said with a lopsided grin. "Too bad Jack's brain got fried. Would've loved to see him go all-out on this," he said setting the mallet down. "So, teach. How was that?"
"Extra-"
"BRIIIIICE!" an irate voice suddenly shrieked out.
"Who?" Brick asked aloud with owlish eyes. "Oh right, me," he realized.
The next moment a high-heeled shoe kicked the door in, an irate Glynda storming into the gym, staring down contemptuously at the ruined streak of floor as she stomped up to Brick.
"Brice Phoenix! What the hell have I told you about using your rocket-propelled locker when its weight capacity has been exceeded?!" the woman demanded angrily. "Do you not realize the damage your idiocy has wrought upon this campus!?" she asked as she pointed out the door, the ruined streak of earth and masonry visible in the backdrop. "I don't even know how you got your locker to even respond to your recall when it was so over-weight!"
"Hey, c'mon Glynda, don't be like that. Be a pal," the giant of a man said as he roughly clapped Glynda on the back, the woman sent screaming, both literally and metaphorically, through the air before the upper half of her body was put through a wall with a deafening crash.
" . . . "
" . . . "
" . . . "
"Brick! Run!" Yang cried after several moments' shocked silence.
"Wait… What?"
"The worst she can do is give us detention, now run!" the blond repeated, their teacher making a panicked sound like- "Ohcrap!" -before he did just that.
Thundering out of the room as-violently as he came, the top of Brick's head took a chunk out of the gym's double door frame, both of which were blasted clean off their hinges as the giant of a man barreled through them with the force of a runaway freight train.
As Brick's thunderous footsteps faded into the distance, the room went silent outside the sound of crumbling masonry around the hole Glynda had made, leaving the students alone with their thoughts until the silence was broken.
"So… That was a thing," Nora said aloud, leaving everyone else to wonder what the fuck had just happened.
*NEW WORLD*
4th Block in Beacon's second term is taught by Brice "Brick" Phoenix. "Brice" means "quick-moving, alert", which most boxers have to be, though his fighting style indicates no FORMAL training aside from being a fist-fighter. Phoenix is a famous mythical bird. Old English and Old French fenix, from Medieval Latin phenix, from Latin phoenix, from Greek phoinix, mythical bird of Arabia which flew to Egypt every 500 years to be reborn, also "the date" (fruit and tree), also "Phoenician," literally "purple-red," perhaps a foreign word (Egyptian has been suggested), or from phoinos "blood-red." Exact relation and order of the senses in Greek is unclear. The Vault Hunter's favourite colour is Blood Red.
Admittedly, my Beta did most of the work on Brick's non-alias name, as well as the surnames of Lilith and Roland before, but he's never steered me wrong in the past and the thematic work is all very good. Of course it's not like I expect anyone to refer to Brick as anything but "Brick".
Moving on, the new Classes and Teachers have been established, so now we can go back to the Adventure and/or Slice-of-Life genre that RWBY was known for in its earlier seasons before things got... well... Stale. Stale's the only word I can use for it.
I'm not "rage quitting" RWBY, I just hope the next season will be better after two of which were filled with info dumps and sub-par fight scenes.
Anyway, hope to see you in the Review Column! And for those of you that don't know, I have a My Hero Academia story started as well in honor of the late and great Stan "The Man" Lee after his passing, so if you're a fan of MHA, and/or my writing in general, be sure to give it a read.
#shamelessplug