Goodwitch's class had turned out to be a lot more fun than Kad thought it would be. Especially on practice days. When their teacher would randomly pair up her students for quick practice duels.
The boy in green had seized the initiative in the first few moments of their fight. Rushing and trying to catch Kad off guard with a high jumping kick.
Which Kad had easily smacked aside, but he stopped himself from following through. Letting Ren backflip out of his reach to draw his two pistols with long blades attached under the barrels. Kad grabbed his chain from its position on his waist.
The steel links made a massive amount of noise swooping in circles while he gripped it like a quarter staff. But it was keeping his opponent on his toes as Ren did not know how Kad would strike.
Now Kad was pondering what to do. Bullets weren't forbidden during matches but even training rounds could still do damage. Ren hadn't shot at him yet so the giant figured he was waiting to see what happened next.
Their audience was cheering, some whistling in excitement, others roaring with impatience.
Kad let go of the chain with his left hand and swung it low at Ren's legs.
He tried to jump over the steel but wasn't fast enough. His legs now bound, Ren's aura level dropped as it saved him from having at least one leg broken. He fell down hard on his right when Kad yanked the weapon back.
Breathless, Ren tried to stand up but in the blink of an eye Kad closed the gap and kicked him in the stomach. Ren flew backwards rolled a few times, coming to a stop on his back. Wheezing and trying to figure out why the room wouldn't stop spinning.
Lights came on, brightening up the darkened stage. Professor Goodwitch stepped out of the shadows.
"Lie Ren your aura has dropped into the red." She informed the pair and the room. "Kad Amaranth you are the winner, congratulations."
Kad grinned a little as he flicked the chain off of Ren's legs and began looping it back around his waist. He had left his jacket in the stands with his team. Less formal attire and combat clothing was required during these practice sessions on off days.
As of right now few individuals but so far no team had a completely unbroken track record in these mini tournaments or even their personal class standings. Kad was proud to say he was one of those few, even if it had only been a few weeks since classes had begun. And he had yet to face most of the other group of undefeated students.
His team however was a different story. Alicia had been out performed in Dust manipulation and defeated by the Schnee girl Weiss, who had more experience with which types of elements were better against others.
Alicia used more raw forms of Dust but Weiss thanks to her family and their fortune had combinations rarely seen and Alicia didn't have an answer for. Plus her glyph roved to be more than a match for Alicia's watered down version. Weiss kept the larger girl at range and won in a few minutes. Poor Jaune Arc had been the unfortunate target of Alicia's frustration the next day, during her third and his first ever practice match. He never stood a chance.
Co'Balt was unbeaten, thrashing all of the opponents sent against him so far using his raw spped and strength. Jaxon was fifty fifty, he had beat some of the more inexperienced students but still lost against others. Though not from lack of trying. There was only so much one could do against the four time running champion of the Mistral tournament.
So far there was no clear contender for the unofficial class champion at the moment. That would be decided in the upcoming Vytal festival tournament if one of their class made it to the top, before Cinder's final phase began. But the school year was still young and no one knew what might happen. Kad wasn't mad or disappointed at all with any of his teammates.
"So what can we learn from this?" Goodwitch asked all of those assembled.
"Shoot him next time!" Someone yelled form the audience.
Goodwitch smiled, "Yes a hunter should always be aware of the tools at their disposal, and how best to apply them. You are all dismissed, have a good evening."
Students began filing out of the arena, team JNPR came up to help Ren to his feet. The ginger hammer wielding girl Nora shot Kad a pointed look. Kad was slightly miffed at her reaction, he saw no reason to be upset about the outcome. It had been a fair fight, and he hadn't hurt Ren badly.
But he put the small girl's ire out of his mind, he had a project to complete and no time to waste on reacting.
After an early and leisurely dinner with her team and team JNPR, Weiss had wanted nothing more than to just go back to their dorm and take a nap after the long day of watching practice duels. She hadn't fought but still diligently watched all of them, paying close attention to the strengths and weaknesses of her peers. Important things to note for the tournament ahead.
But her fearless leader had other plans at the end of the day. The moment they reached their little room Ruby grabbed onto the sleeve of Weiss's white jacket and began to drag her reluctant partner off to the weapon shops.
Ruby explained she just wanted a new whetstone for her scythe. Weiss knew better, Ruby had just made up another reason to go look at the mechanical building and whatever weapons people might be building there.
While Weiss could appreciate tactical knowledge of what other students might be using. She knew this was just Ruby's obsession with weapons. Weiss in keeping with her promise to be a better teammate tried to come up with a different word for this behavior than obsessed. But after finding none, she still couldn't help but think there were plenty of healthier hobbies.
Rather than argue and have Ruby sulk the rest of the night. Weiss just agreed and went along hoping for a short trip. The Heiress assumed there would be no one doing anything there right now. Most people would be resting sensibly or getting food now. She knew for most students maintenance time was usually planned for the weekends.
The two of them entered the building and quickly looked around. Lights were on but the two of them could see no one at the drawing tables, computer assisted fabricators, or any of the other machines. Weiss was pleased. Ruby slightly less so, visibly pouting at the abandoned room.
"Okay find your stone and..."
But the Heiress was cut off by an unexpected loud metallic banging noise and the sound of shouting voices.
"AHHR! GOD DAMMIT KAD!"
"I warned you man!"
Ruby and Weiss both looked at each other confused. Apparently there were people here. The yelling had come from the back in the rarely used forge. Ruby almost ran to the door, excited to see who was there and what they were doing. Given the commotion that drew her leader over, Weiss merely hoped no one required medical attention.
Weiss blinked watery tears out of her eyes as she steeped over the threshold waving her right hand trying to get some fresher air. There was only so much that the ventilation in the back could do about the smoke from the furnaces. While it wasn't choking, the air was still thick with hot fumes.
She saw three members of team APRC present and occupied. Her very distant relative Alicia Redstone, next to the door and a fan. Reading through a magazine as she leaned back in a chair, with her feet kicked up on an anvil. As far away as she could get from her leader Kad and their Faunus teammate Co'Balt.
Both boys stood what seemed dangerously close to the blazing inferno of the largest furnace.
Co'Balt was rubbing his right wrist glaring at Kad who stood there glaring back, right hand leaning a short for him sledgehammer back on his shoulder and settling a large glowing piece of metal with a pair of tongs in his left back on the massive block and anvil between them.
Both of them were filthy from hours spent working on their project. Co'Balt's shirt may have started out white that day but was now black and streaked with sweat marks that made interesting patterns. Kad decided that laundry wasn't worth it and had been working shirtless, but his bulging muscles were no less covered in grime. Both of them had leather aprons tied around their waists wore thick gloves to shield their hands from being burned.
Alicia looked up at the two new arrivals. "Don't worry, they've been at it like this all afternoon."
Ruby was concerned, "Is something wrong?"
"No they just can't seem to work together at the moment." Alicia waved a hand and rolled her eyes dismissively. "Nothing to worry about."
Weiss took a closer look at what the two boys were doing. It was obvious they were trying to make a blade of some sort. While this back area was usually as clean as could be expected, there were lots of fragments of scorched jagged metal on the ground, the results of a few earlier failures. Troughs for liquids to temper blades were half filled with the usual concoctions of treatment chemicals.
What really caught her eye was one of the enormous trays on a nearby table that still had a slightly glowing layer of Dust in it. Burn Dust to be specific.
'Please tell me they haven't been doing what I think they're doing?" Weiss said.
Alicia raised an eyebrow in confusion, "Doing what?"
"Seriously you haven't stopped them?"
"If you look closely at my face, you can see I don't know what the hell you're talking about..."
Weiss placed her left hand on the bridge of her nose and her right hand clutched to her left side. Her classic exasperated look. She hated to see Dust used so wastefully.
Co'Balt and Kad dropped what they were doing, and walked over from the furnace to talk to the new spectators. The Faunus was in a bad mood and the present company wasn't going to help one bit.
"Yes, your highness?" his voice dripped with sarcasm bordering on disgust.
This was another reason Weiss didn't get out all that often. All of the lower classes especially the Faunus treating her like this because of her position. She had been trying to be a little less standoffish recently at Beacon. But dirty people like these didn't help.
Ruby wasn't discouraged by his tone of voice. She liked trying to make new friends.
"Where's your other partner, Jason?" She asked her fellow leader.
Kad just wanted to know what this half of RWBY was doing here so he could get back to work.
"Jaxon," Kad corrected her. "He had to make a call. Do you two need something?"
Weiss answered for her leader. "Just a whetstone… Have you been trying to treat that sword with Dust?"
"Trying, yes." Kad admitted.
"After you've cooled it down and treated it?"
Co'Balt snorted, "That's what is says in the book."
"For any other type of Dust, that would be the correct procedure." Weiss told him walking over to the tray in question. Dipping her finger tips in the Dust left over and rubbed some around examining it.
"Burn Dust however will just ruin your sword. I assume you were on the verge of figuring this out?"
Kad knew something was wrong. He thought it was just the metal quality, which was why he enlisted Co'Balt for a second opinion. Knowing that he had worked in his parent's metal shop were they had occasionally forged swords. As well as getting a little bit of bonding in with his team, Alicia had nothing better to do so she had tagged along to.
Co'Balt told him his mockups were fine, and there didn't appear to be anything wrong with the metal itself. He complimented Kad's eye for detail, the blade being perfectly shaped and proportioned for its design.
After some consideration and another dream Kad settled on making himself a great sword. The blade was going to be thick and about one of his hand spans wide at its base near the cross guard and tang for the future handle. Narrowing but not by much toward the point.
It was going to be a lot larger than any weapon he had wielded so far, the sword minus the hilt was a little less than shoulder height on him. The hilt was near two lengths of his hands long. Alicia made some snippy remarks about how big it was. But Kad thought it going to be perfect for him.
Sharp on both sides, since he liked versatility. Twin fullers worked in from the base to lighten the blade somewhat.
And then during one of Doctor Oobleck's lectures on the history of the Dust Kad had the inspiration to fuse Dust with the blade. Thinking of the painting Cinder had shown him when she explained what his name meant.
All of this was turning out easier said than done however,
Kad looked down to Weiss, "So we fix this by?"
She pointed over to the unfinished weapon. "Just immerse the blade in the Dust while it's still hot fire it again, and then let it cool and you can treat it."
Ruby was intrigued by this new side of her partner, "I didn't think you were into stuff like this Weiss."
"It helps to know about how your business works my father told me. Even the most innocuous parts. I've been around Dust trades my entire life."
Alicia sat up and pulled a Dust cylinder out from her book bag lying at her feet. The indicator was glowing full. Weiss winced seeing there were three empty canisters next to this one in her bag. Thinking of how much that must have cost the other girl. She hoped Alicia wasn't wasting so much of it out of the goodness of her heart.
Kad turned back to the furnace and showed the blade deep into the fires.
Weiss knew Alicia had skill with Dust. But she didn't know if she had realized what her partners were doing wrong.
As if sensing her question Alicia spoke, "Before you ask I was never really the arts and crafts type."
"Well I'm glad you think of these noble skills so highly." Weiss replied.
"Ehh," She shrugged. "Well you're welcome to stay and watch."
Co'Balt walked past the three of them without a word, wiping his face with a rag.
Alicia called after him. "Where are you going?"
"To take a shower,' He said. "The Ice Queen seems to have solved our problem."
"HEY!" Weiss called in protest. She hated that spreading nickname with a passion burning hotter than that forge.
Alicia tossed the Dust canister over to Kad then leaned back in her seat. Ruby leaned against the wooden barrier to the scrap pile and watched as Kad filled the trough and then picked up the dropped tongs and took his blade out of the furnace.
He examined it for a moment making sure it hadn't warped at all after he had accidently knocked it out of Co'Balt's grasp earlier. The cause of the disturbance that had drawn in their guests. The air shimmered in waves with the heat of the blade. Almost catching fire around the sword as he moved it to the Dust tray. He had to fabricate this thing himself since there weren't any big enough in the supply room.
The metal hissed as it made contact with the powdered Dust.
"How long should it be there?" He asked the Heiress
"Just a few more minutes," She told him. "Then back in the furnace."
Satisfied that he couldn't screw it up any more from this point onward, and that Ruby was fascinated enough to stick around, so she turned to head back to their dorm.
Ruby called back to her partner. "Don't you want to stay?"
"Not while I'm wearing white."
Finally it was done.
He had polished the blade enough to remove the last bits of soot and rough flakes from the surface. Which still felt warm even after being tempered again and left at room temperature till it was safe to touch. The metal was still red but only from the color it had took on after the Dust stabilized.
If he could ever channel his aura through the blade it would burn through anything in its path.
Alicia and Ruby finished gluing down the hilt of smooth wood wrapped in dark leather and shiny silver wire. The pommel was capped by a chisel point giving him greater capacity to do damage if he slammed the hilt down on something. The girls did most of the work on this very important piece while Kad was cleaning up the sword. Selecting the material and putting it all together in preparation.
The cross guard was made out of a pair of Taijitu fangs Kad had taken as trophies some time ago. People always assumed they were just knock offs. Even though Kad pulled them out of the still breathing Grimm with his own two hands. He hadn't finished the ancient beast off however as it slunk back into its cave and its many brothers attacked Kad, Mercury and Emerald.
Part of him thought the snake might still be alive somewhere which is why the knife like teeth still persisted.
Kad raised the red blade form the table between them and took a stance holding it in both hands out in front of his body. Stepping away for some room to see how the blade felt in his hand.
It felt lighter than he expected swinging figure eights around his shoulders.
He spun it a few more times. Passing it from hand to hand. Thrusting forward and backward in a reverse grip. Finally Kad brought the blade back behind his back and swung it backhanded with all his strength right at the anvil it had been forged on.
It didn't even slow as he sliced the solid iron piece in two.
He brought it up close to his face. Not a single mark on the razor edge.
"Marvelous" He thought with a smile
Alicia and Ruby clapped their hands for his brief display. Kad set the blade point down against the table and just stood back admiring it for a moment.
"What are you going to call it?" Ruby asked.
"What?" Kad said, turning to look at the young girl.
"It's gotta have a name." She told him.
"Why is that Ruby?"
"We've all named our weapons. Crescent Rose, Ember Celica, Myrtenaster….."
"Detergeo. Keila, Uzipho…" Alicia added.
The giant frowned looking back at his new blade.
"Crap." He cursed to himself.
Kad hadn't even thought of that, he knew how attached some people became with their weapons, he certainly had. But at the end of the day they were tools, easily replaced nothing to lose sleep over.
Ruby suddenly got excited. "I know!"
The much smaller girl stepped around in front of the giant. Standing up on the tips of her toes reaching for the blade's hilt. Even though she was nowhere near tall enough to do so. Kad reached out with a single finger and pushed the sword over in her direction.
Ruby stumbled backwards as it almost fell on her. She halted its fall right at stomach height and gripped the hilt in her tiny hands trying to lift its crushing weight. Huffing and straining with all her might against gravity and her balance to lift the sword.
To her credit Ruby managed to raise the massive sword up into a ready position. But knew deep in her heart was just too big for her to swing with an effect unless she dropped it on her target. Her sweetheart Crescent Rose was balanced completely different and made of much lighter metals.
She smiled up at Kad, hoping he'd forgive her mishandling. He returned the smile and took the sword by the blade back up into his hands.
Ruby found her voice again. "What about… aaaaa… no not that, maybe… hmmmm…umm."
"It's alright Ruby." Kad said brushing off her apologies. "No rush. It's done, that's what matters. You can tell me if you think of something later."
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A/N
Might have rushed this edit a bit. Eh, I'll look over it again. Onto the rambling
Anywho, my primary inspiration when wrote this chapter was the Man at Arms series on Youtube. Where real blacksmiths make weapons from video games and movies. Decide for yourself how accurate I capture terms and what not. The thing with Dust just my own world building. The thing with the grimm fangs, no one had really confirmed the grimm disappear when they died yet. Sue me I'm human.
So, Back in the day I left the chapter like this since I was just rushing to catch up to cannon and I thought it be a nice idea to get my readers involved. Asking them what I should call the sword.
I decided on something myself, since I had only one guy offer anything. Ave Imperator. Thought nice try but didn't feel right.
Well no harm in asking again what you dear reader might have called the sword. Not gonna change but absolutely no harm in giving a thought.
So. Share, if you care. Review, as you do.
I'll try and keep on this. I love you all dearly, here's to a productive year where i finally get to the crusade.
Also I've been wondering. What drew you here? Were you looking for RWBY crossovers or Warhammer crossovers? Or simply things on the Unknown Primarchs? I'd really like to know if.