Apologies for taking so long to upload, my job encountered a bit of a busy patch and had to work longer hours. Other than that, let's hop back in!


Remnant's Serrated Sun

Chapter 5


"Jaune concerns me," Argel spoke plainly, "Choosing someone based off lineage has… never sat right with me."

'Something-something Fulgrim joke,' Raum snarked.

"You're not the only one," Glynda sighed as they walked through the corridors of Beacon, "But it's Ozpin who ultimately has the final say in whether a student is allowed to stay or leave. While Jaune's combat scores are certainly below average, his grades are actually quite decent. To add to that, while his records are… dubious…"

A look passed between them that said 'biggest understatement of the year.'

"…he has successfully passed the Entrance Exam and has thus legally earned his place here. You'd be surprised too," She took out her scroll and showed Argel a recording from the practice halls, Jaune frustratedly whacking away at a dummy. "Your teachings are already showing results."

True, while his overall technical prowess with his weapon may not have seemed to improve much (if at all), Argel could see that Jaune was at the correct distance to maximize the effectiveness of his blade.

"Still, he seems to have had a small falling-out with his teammate Pyrrha and is spending more time with Cardin, someone who has been bullying him," Glynda continued. "Likely something to do with his level of skill or transcripts."

"Do you think he'll come to me for advice?" Argel asked, "Or should I go to him myself later today? I don't think approaching him while his blood is running hot is the best idea."

"Argel, to be frank, that's entirely your decision," Glynda said wryly, "You're an official staff member here at Beacon and as Chaplain, it's ultimately up to you to make that call."

"So what I'm hearing is that you're leaving me to the mercy of teenage hormones," Argel nodded sadly, Glynda snickering as she lightly elbowed him in the ribs.

"As an entirely unprofessional opinion," She said honestly, "I don't think it would hurt if you were proactive in this case. It's certainly helps that you being here is already showing positive results."

"I felt much the same," He nodded and smiled, "Thank you for your help in this matter, Headmistress Goodwitch."

"For the sake of our students, I am always happy to assist you, Chaplain Tal." Glynda smiled back, "Oh, and that reminds me, Oobleck wanted me to let you know that he's managed to find a handful of documents and books regarding Aura and Semblances."

"Excellent," Argel clapped his palms, "Seeing as I'm somewhat free right now, I think it'd be best if I took some time to catch up on my reading."

"Best of luck then," Glynda nodded, a vague look of disappointment crossing her features before she smiled and turned to leave to her class.

"Glynda," Argel called, a strange impulse to do so overcoming him as she stopped and turned, "…Is there any chance that you'd be free for lunch later today?"

"Unfortunately no," Glynda shook her head, "But I do have a material-gathering exercise in Forever-Fall. Seeing as I'll be bringing all of First-Year, it would be nice to have help keeping an eye on them. The particular section of the forest we'll be visiting tends to have quite a few Ursa-type Grimm."

"Then consider me at your service," Argel said with a bow, Glynda chuckling at the overly-formal display. "If the chance should present itself, I'd be happy to test out my temporary weapons."

"Oh, you've completed them?" Glynda asked, "Congratulations! Now I'm certainly looking forward to seeing you come along."

"So now I'm only valued for my physical prowess?" Argel said, his face dropping in a mime of sadness and disappointment, "For shame Glynda."

She scoffed and rolled her eyes but her smile never left her face as she turned away and waved a goodbye over her shoulder. He chuckled, content to simply stand there and enjoy the moment. He was no closer to finding a way off this planet, and from what he understood, their space-program was cut woefully short due to Dust's strange tendency to cease functioning once out of the planet's atmosphere. Still, this didn't dishearten him, and it was admittedly nice to be here. His skills were steadily coming back to him and he was rapidly working back up to full combat-readiness, though Raum's powers and influence remained largely unchanging.

'Even ambient negative emotions do not appear to give us any increase in power,' Raum agreed, '…the only time we saw proper growth was after we fought that ape-like daemon…'

The Grimm, as Argel had understood it, were creatures of pure negative emotion that fed off of said emotion. He and Raum could also feel that they were some type of daemon, and while their strength varied wildly, what was undeniable was that their essences were ancient, somehow older then even Raum.

"Do you think that's why they're capable of remaining in the material world without needing a direct connection to the warp?" Argel had asked.

'It is possible,' Raum agreed, 'Age and time-passed is a powerful concept when it comes to beings of the empyrean. The older something is, the stronger they are.'

"A thought to ponder during meditation," Argel had mused, "It will be good to gain more insight into these beings today then."

He'd reached the door of Oobleck's classroom not long after and barely managed to knock on the door once before it snapped open, the green-haired Doctor already holding multiple books and smaller documents at the ready.

"Chaplain Tal, good to see you've taken an interest in a facet of history!" He spoke, his words rapid-fire, "Apologies for having taken so long to acquire these documents, research on aura is a rather stagnant and esoteric field. I wish I had more time to discuss these with you but I will be busy with classes for the next few days!"

"It is…" He was always caught off guard by how unnaturally fast everything about this man was, at least in an amusing way, "…no issue, Doctor Oobleck. I apologize for interrupting your class."

"Not at all! Do let me know what you think once you're done, it's always a pleasure to have someone with a different view look on a topic such as this one!"

The door slammed shut, and Argel could hear Oobleck transition right back into his lecture with barely any time lost.

"…What absurd, strange people," He sighed with a grin.

'Care to say that in a mirror?' Raum snickered.

"Point taken."

It didn't take him long to reach his own office, a fairly small but cozy room with his name and occupation emblazoned on a golden plaque upon the door. It was sparsely decorated for the time being save for a wooden desk and two comfortable leather chairs (appropriately sized of course), but he promised to himself to eventually put reminders of those close to him on the walls. Sitting down and opening his scroll with one hand while opening a book with the other, he quickly sent a direct message to Jaune, calling on him to meet him in his office at the boy's leisure. Given that he was likely still in the middle of training himself, Argel figured he had a fair amount of time on his hands, assuming that Jaune would even choose to come at all.

As he went deeper into his reading, Argel was initially dissatisfied with what information was available on aura as a science, most of the documents saying relatively the same things. Aura was the power of someone's own soul turned into a physical energy, a Semblance was someone's personality turned into a unique ability, so on and so forth. Many documents largely centred around the history of aura and notably powerful or unique semblances, one of which mentioned the Schnee Patriarch and his Glyphs. Deciding to focus more on those examples in a document that was Atlesian in origin, Argel looked closer at what he was reading. There was a record of a Faunus who was a serial murderer, with his Semblance seemingly able to cancel out or forcibly de-activate the Semblances of other Hunters who went after him. It was as time passed and his crimes became more violent and depraved that his Semblance changed, capable of allowing him to pierce directly through aura itself.

Argel sat back and lightly bit his lip, stroking his chin. Was the apparent evolution of this man's Semblance a result of his very psychological state becoming more deranged, or was it an adaptation that took place in order to more directly deal with the stronger and higher-ranking Hunters that were sent to capture him? Was it a mix of both, or perhaps even the other way around: did the changes to his Semblance go on to affect the very core of his personality? Argel shook his head. There was certainly good evidence here, but not enough to come to a solid conclusion, especially off of a single case. So he looked further into the document and quickly came across a more recent series of entries under the name of Adam Taurus, a name that he was passingly familiar with. Again came more examples of sudden notable changes to his Semblance, starting from the ability to store kinetic and thermal energies before unleashing it in a single close-range cut, to firing them off as blades of pure aura, or even turning the absorbed energy into phantasmal clones that, while short-lived, were capable of unleashing lethal attacks of their own.

Immediately, Argel noticed a pattern and formed a basic hypothesis. Whatever changes that occurred to someone's Semblances tended to do so after some form of intense or persistent outside stresses, these stresses potentially leading to changes in someone's personality and therefore specific aspects their Semblance, or possibly vice versa.

'Fascinating…' Raum muttered, 'It is as if this 'Aura' acts as… perhaps a person's individual Immaterium?'

"Changes in the individual's 'Material' life go on to affect their own 'Warp,' so to speak." Argel agreed, nodding along at the idea. "The potential echo-chamber within a person's soul may have some kind of… cumulative effect which eventually results in notable changes or additional capabilities of someone's Semblance. Possible link to traumatic events?"

'It is possible,' Raum shrugged, 'We know catastrophic events can affect the tides of the immaterial world, so it would not be a stretch to say that the same can happen to someone making use of this power.'

"…I will have to ask my… colleagues…" The association with (relatively) regular humans was still a bit strange to him, "About their own experiences and see if I can't adopt it into the students' program."

There was a knock at the door, Argel's brows going up in surprise as he realized who was there.

"You may enter."

Jaune made his way into the room, obviously nervous.

"H-hi sir, you wanted to see me?" Jaune asked, clearly trying (and failing) to sound casual. Argel noted that despite how hard the boy had been working, he was almost entirely recovered. Granted, Jaune had freshened up, but even still…

"I did," Argel nodded, "But not because you are in trouble or anything of the sort. Come, make yourself comfortable and take a seat."

Jaune did so, still nervous but now slightly curious. Intimidating the answers from the boy was not the way to go about this conversation, Argel had concluded, so he would use a more relaxed approach.

"How are you doing, Jaune?" He asked simply.

"…Pardon?"

"How are you doing?" Argel repeated, casually leaning back in his chair and taking his eyes of Jaune to look at something on his scroll. "How is Beacon affecting your humours, do you find your teammates agreeable, so on."

"Oh! Uh…" Evidently, he didn't expect the conversation to start like that, "I mean, Beacon's… it's everything that I had dreamed about."

Argel took in the vacant, forced smile on Jaune's face and knew he was lying, if only partially.

"…what of the reality?" Argel asked, regaining Jaune's attention, "What of the difficulties? I imagine that there must be a few."

"Well yeah," Jaune chuckled ruefully, "I mean, I'm constantly getting my butt handed to me in combat classes, and there's a lot more written work than I expected."

"Mm," Argel nodded, "And what of your relationship with your teammates? What of your partner, Nikos?"

"I mean… we're all not on the best of terms right now…" Jaune muttered.

"I see. I'm going to assume that has something to do with your current level of skill?"

Jaune nodded, slightly on edge now.

"And if I were to make an educated guess, given that you're suddenly spending more time with Winchester, someone who you clearly don't like, I would go so far as to say that he's somehow come to understand the truth behind your apparent lack of basic training."

From the way Jaune went pale and curled in on himself, it was clear that he understood what Argel was implying, though the last thing Argel needed was for the boy to shut down entirely.

"Again, please understand that you are not in trouble, nor would anything you say here be used against you in any way," Argel clarified, "Now… am I correct?"

Jaune nodded erratically, still terrified but also confused. Argel stood and looked out of the window, taking in the sight of one of Beacon's many gardens, this one filled with flowers that looked oddly similar to the rare ones he would gather on Colchis when he was a child, a gift for his mother and sisters.

"…Tell me something Jaune," Argel said, still looking out of the window, "What do you understand a leader to be?"

Jaune was silent for a bit, thrown for a loop by the back-and-forth direction of the conversation, but he was starting to understand that he really wasn't in any trouble.

"A leader…puts himself second and puts his team first," Jaune answered. "A leader has to be reliable for the sake of his team."

"A very idealistic answer, and not incorrect," Argel nodded, "But there is more to it than that."

Argel sat down and steepled his fingers together, eyes down.

"My… father, my leader," Argel continued, "Is incredible. More powerful, wise and wonderful than I and my brothers could ever hope to approach. But above all else, he understood the need for truth. No matter how ugly, no matter how damning it would be to him, he knew that to live a lie was to fall in shame."

Argel looked up, directly at Jaune, though his eyes were not unkind.

"The truth, Jaune, is that you are weak," he said bluntly, Jaune's head dropping, "And it must not be that way, not when you have the tools and potential to rise above your weakness."

"…You think I can do that?" Jaune asked, hope in his eyes.

"You must do so," Argel reiterated, "You must become powerful enough to inspire your subordinates, and wise enough to rely on and communicate with those under your charge. A leader who cannot inspire and cannot listen to their subordinates becomes little more than a liability."

Argel's thoughts flashed back to a giant with metal teeth, bloodshot eyes, a pair of roaring chainaxes, and humming cables embedded within his head.

"Do you better understand your duty now?" Argel asked Jaune directly.

The boy was silent, his head down, and Argel wondered if he was too harsh. He could feel that Jaune was hurt by the truth, but then he saw that unmistakable spark in his eyes, the setting of his features as he looked up, their eyes meeting.

"Maybe not fully, but…" Jaune nodded slowly, "…I think I get it a bit more now. Thank you, I… I needed to hear that."

"I think you do understand," Argel nodded, relaxing his posture and smiling. "And do not thank me. I am only doing my duty."

Jaune looked at him, noticing the slight emphasis Argel put on the last thing he said, and Argel smiled a bit wider.

"That's all I really needed to talk to you about today," Argel said casually, "But if you have anything else you wish to get off your chest, I have time."

"Yeah actually," That nervous look was back on his face, "A-about my transcripts…"

"Oh, if I am aware of them, then so is Headmaster Ozpin," Argel confirmed, "But again, you don't have to fear any kind of legal punishment, expulsion or anything of the sort. Regardless of the nature of your transcripts, what remains true is that you passed the initiation and have earned your place here at Beacon. Nobody can use that against you as say… I think the term here is blackmail."

"O-oh!" Jaune looked stupefied for a moment, almost struggling to process the information.

'Look at him rethinking all of his silly actions!' Raum cackled.

"I uh… I think that's all I needed really," Jaune said, "Thanks again sir."

"Don't mention it," Argel waved the boy off, Jaune nodding and quietly leaving the room, "Now… time to prepare for that expedition."

}-{

Even with all her years of experience, Glynda had to admit that despite Argel's simple combat outfit, he struck a massively imposing and impressive figure with his deep crimson long-sleeve compression-shirt and black padded combat-pants. A single, large, curved pauldron sat upon his left shoulder, its dull silver surface etched with the design of a golden four-pointed sun. Draped over his right shoulder was the pelt of the Rajang that he'd slain, and strapped to his back were the unadorned sheaths for two large scimitars.

"I never took you for a curved sword user," Glynda noted after she'd explained the purpose of their expedition to the group, "Especially with how refined your hand-to-hand is."

"I am equally proficient in both pugilism and bladework," Argel said, "These swords are replicas of the weapons I used back when I was the Assault Company Captain, gifted to me by the Company's previous leader."

"Something of an heirloom then?" Glynda concluded before giving him a teasing look, "You're a very sentimental person."

"Do not tease me of such things," Argel said, "I am very sensitive and may begin to weep."

Glynda chuckled at the joke and lightly smacked Argel on the arm.

"Did you manage to sort things out with Jaune?" She asked.

"Yes actually, I think I managed to deal with the situation adequately," He nodded, "…Though he'll likely come to blows with Winchester sooner or later."

"Boys will be boys," Glynda groaned, "Hopefully they aren't foolish enough to start something while we're out here. The last thing we need is an unnecessary Grimm incursion, even if I alone could handle the usual level of Grimm around here."

"Children are ruled by emotional and hormonal impulses," Argel countered, "I would not be surprised."

"Fair enough," Glynda shrugged.

Argel grinned slightly at the exasperated expression on her face before he remembered what he was going to ask her.

"That reminds me," he said, turning to her, "I have some concepts and ideas I would like to run by you and Headmaster Ozpin that I want to eventually integrate in my Hand-to-Hand lessons, if not possibly branch off into an entirely new field of education."

"I'm all ears," Glynda said, interested and even a little eager.

"I have been... considering the possibilities of aura and Semblances."

"That's quite an esoteric field," Glynda noted, dubious but still curious.

"I don't have anything particularly solid yet," He admitted, "And most of the conclusions I've come to during my short research need more evidence that I can see for myself, but I do strongly believe that there is untapped potential in the field."

"Alright…" Glynda hummed, "…what do you have so far then?"

"For starters," Argel turned to Glynda, leaning on a tree, "When you first discovered your semblance, how did it function?"

"The same as other telekinetic Semblances," She shrugged, "I could lift only up to a certain weight and my actual dexterity with it was poor."

"So would it be a stretch to say that in addition to increasing how much you could lift with you Semblance, you also went on to mainly focus on control and precision?"

"That's… more or less right on the mark." Glynda's brows went up, surprised at the quick deduction.

"Now here's something fascinating," Argel went on, "During the period of time when you were working on your Semblance, did you notice anything change about the way you think? Perhaps with how you went about certain tasks, approached certain problems?"

"…" Glynda's brows creased as something began to tickle the back of her mind. "…I… did find that I was able to focus much better. And now that I think about it, the more I learned to focus on finer details, my Semblance did seem to be better fine-tuned for control…"

She looked at Argel, surprise on her face.

"Your semblance is the physical manifestation of your soul," Argel said, "To have it interact with and be affected by the world around you brings change not only to its function, but it cultivates you as a person."

"Argel, that's…!" Glynda started, an excited shine in her eyes.

"It's not all positive though," Argel stopped her, "The fact that my hypothesis may be true is… worrying. Would that mean if I were to cultivate… say, Xiao Long's Semblance, to increase its power-output, would that make her more aggressive?"

"…You're forgetting one very important factor," Glynda said, a reassuring smile on her face, "Intent. If my intent behind improving my Semblance was to mutilate someone from the inside-out, then by your logic, my control would be better focused on feeling and rearranging the inside of an object, if not more specialized towards living beings. But since I was actively and passively working on my dexterity with the intent of finer movement and controlling myself, my level of insight and emotional control improved instead."

"That is… a very good point," Argel agreed.

"You'll have to take this idea to Ozpin as soon as you can," Glynda said eagerly, "This opens up a whole slew of possibilities to help improve our students and guide them to becoming better Hunters!"

"That is part of our duty," Argel hummed, smiling at her enthusiasm. "I am simply committing to it."

"So it would seem," Glynda said softly, giving Argel a look that made him feel strangely pleasant. His gaze sharply shot to the right as something suddenly scraped at his hearing, the familiar sound of a blade being drawn. Glynda was immediately alerted to his change in posture, Decoris Nox already in her hand.

"What is it?" She asked, her voice steady and stony.

"Blade drawn," He said as they immediately began making their way towards where he heard the sound, "Roughly forty to forty-five meters ahead of us."

It didn't take them long to cover the distance, and the sound of metal clashing on metal rapidly increased in volume as they got closer. They came to a stop about ten meters out just under a slight rise in the terrain, both of them peaking their heads over the rise to quickly observe what was going on. To Argel's lack of surprise, Jaune and Cardin were in the middle of a vicious clash, the former losing quite handily as Cardin battered away at Jaune with his mace.

"Those idiots!" Glynda growled, "I didn't think they'd actually be foolish enough to start a silly brawl out here of all places!"

She moved to leap over the ridge only to be stopped by a hand on her shoulder.

"Why-!?" She started.

"Hold on," He said quietly, he and Raum observing Jaune for a moment. "Something is happening to Jaune."

Glynda gave Argel a curious look before she grumbled and watched along with him, listening to what Cardin was saying.

}-{

"Little goddamned PANSY!" Cardin bellowed as he slammed his mace down on Jaune's shield, each blow accentuated by each word he spoke. "You wanna act like a big man? You wanna protect your teammate? How RICH!"

Cardin spun, putting enough weight and momentum behind his swing so send Jaune flying into a tree, the bark cracking and groaning under the impact as Jaune wheezed, barely managing to roll out of the way from Cardin smashing his heel into the tree, the rest of Cardin's team hooting.

"A limp-dick wimp like you doesn't even deserve to be here! I'm the one doing you a favour! All you needed to do was chuck that sap at Pyrrha and I'd keep your dirty little secret, but NO!"

He swung at Jaune's head, though the latter moved with surprising agility out of the way putting himself just out of the mace's reach before he threw himself back in and lashed out with the edge of his shield directly into Cardin's lip with a sharp *CRACK*. Cardin stumbled back slightly, eyes wide with surprise and outrage at the stinging pain lancing across his mouth and jaw.

"SCREW YOU!" Jaune snarled back, "I've been collared by you over nothing but my damn pride and stubbornness! I earned my place here, I earned my position as the Leader of my team, and I'll be damned if I let you hurt my partner!"

Cardin roared as he sprinted in, swinging his mace down while Jaune wildly swung his sword up. Right before they clashed, Jaune's aura flared brightly around his sword: the moment steel met steel, the Blast-Dust in Cardin's mace ignited, an explosion of fire clashing against the explosion of raw aura from Jaune's blade. There was a clap of sound like thunder and a flash of light, both of them flung backwards through the air like ragdolls. Jaune came to a halt as his body was enveloped by a purple glow, Cardin caught out of the air by large hands. Both were dazed and their auras had almost entirely depleted themselves defending their bodies against the explosion, but they were otherwise unharmed.

"Now would you boys be so kind as to explain what exactly is happening here?"

Glynda's furious voice cracked like a whip through the silence, Argel placing Cardin back on his feet and walking away, a quiet but piercing gaze towards the rest of Cardin's team forcing them to stand in a line in front of Glynda.

'May the gods have mercy on their souls,' Argel thought sadly as Glynda laid into them, her fury only growing as she was told of Cardin's plan to unleash a box of wasps upon Pyrrha. Raum, initially snickering at the joke, suddenly went silent. Argel immediately picked up why.

"Glynda," He called out, "Grimm inbound from the south-west, closing fast."

"Why do these things always happen when I'm around?" Glynda hissed as she readied her riding-crop until she was again stopped by Argel waving her down.

"You appear stressed enough," He chuckled, "Let me try my hand at this. There aren't enough to pose a threat to me, you ensure that our charges group together."

"…Very well," Glynda nodded, "Don't do anything foolish."

"I'll certainly try," he shot her a grin before he drew his blades out, scimitars forged of red iron and accented by silver. Glynda looked at the weapons curiously as Argel's thumb pressed what looked like some kind of rune just under the hilt and watched as blue lightning crackled up the length of the blade, a gentle hum vibrating the air as he made a quick pass with them. She wanted to stay and see what he was capable of, but she had a job to do.

"This is Goodwitch calling all students," She spoke into her scroll, "Ensure that everything you've gathered is stored safely on your person and make your way back to the rendezvous point. Grimm incursion from the south-west rapidly approaching but have your weapons ready and alert everyone else if Grimm attack from another direction."

Argel watched with interest as the first of the Grimm broke through the treeline into the clearing, a massive bear-like creature that easily stood a head and-a-half taller than him. It was surprisingly agile despite its bulk, smashing clean through a tree with its muscular shoulder as he sharply sidestepped away. It came to a clumsy halt but recovered quickly, pivoting and lashing out with a massive, clawed paw at his head. He reacted on sheer muscle-memory, ducking down while slashing up and cleaving its arm off at the elbow before he stepped in and disembowelled it with one blade, the other lashing up to slice from its armpit all the way through to its neck. The moment its head came free, its form broke apart into black dust, the dust immediately absorbed into Argel before he could even react. He suddenly felt a surge of raw power flow through his blood, Raum's reaction even greater as it took in a deep, intoxicated breath.

'Yeeeeesss!' Raum cackled, 'THAT is the stuff! It's not as potent as the Rajang we slew, but this will do!'

Wordlessly, Argel turned to stare at the other Ursa, the Grimm frozen at the sight of his blazing azure eyes and the tense sensation of being watched by their natural predator.

'The Grimm are daemons of pure negative emotion, not so different in concept from ourselves and the other Seventy-Two Great Ones,' Raum put together, 'But to think that by Erebus removing our connection with the Four, we are now free to amass power as we see fit!'

Argel blasted forward, just the tiniest bit faster than before, and crashed into the closest Ursa, impaling it through its heart and decapitating it with his other blade before pivoting and sharply wrenching the impaled one out in time to cut the second lunging Ursa down the middle from crown to groin in one swift move. He stayed low to avoid the gnashing fangs of the third before springing up and stabbing it through the jaw, its 'life' ended instantly. There were more of them roaring as they charged at him, but he didn't care, throwing himself into the battle. It was here that he felt so deeply in tune with his purpose, the purpose for which all Astartes were created, and that was to purge the enemies of mankind.

Each kill seemed to replenish what little stamina he'd lost, his body moving just a fraction faster, hitting just a fraction harder than before. He used his unnatural flexibility to limbo under another claw-swipe, simultaneously cutting the legs away from the offending Grimm and beheading it before it could fall. One tried to tackle him from his side only to be split in half down the middle as he brought his blade straight down, the Grimm behind it leaping over the corpse of its comrade and trying to slam its full weight onto Argel until it was sliced to bloody chunks, harmlessly falling around him.

The final Ursa was easily twice the size, bulk and height of the others, its bone-armour thicker and claws even larger, and its back bearing a dozen bony spines symbolizing its power and age as an Ursa Major. And even it felt something akin to fear as Argel stared it down for a brief moment, until a deep-seated instinct kicked in, one that demanded it kill whatever the man standing in front of it was before he became too powerful. It bellowed a challenge and Argel responded by clashing the flat of his blades together, blue sparks flying before they charged at each other, the Ursa standing and running on its hind legs with surprising speed and balance. Argel came to a halt just outside of his reach, its swipe shockingly fast and powerful enough to carve right through a nearby tree like it wasn't even air. He danced back on swift feet, constantly ducking and weaving its terrifying swipes with practiced grace, relaxed arms and a small smile as his back hit a tree. It roared in triumph, apparently having planned to back him up to a place where he couldn't retreat.

"Clever," He muttered, his right blade blurring up and splitting its swiping left arm from palm to elbow. It roared in agony and tried to swipe at his head with its other paw, only for Argel to set his feet, tense the arm wielding the impaled blade and used his brute strength to continue shearing right through the Ursa's arm, into its chest, and out of its other arm poised to swipe at him in a single fluid motion. He underestimated its own strength and spun in a full circle, slicing through the tree behind him before he stopped himself.

"Woah…!"

The familiar voice made him turn to see Ruby standing there, her weapon in hand and an awed expression on her face. Many of the other students were behind her and were approaching quickly, most of them having seen at least the tail end of his performance.

"All clear," He called out with a grin, sharply flicking off the ichor from his blades as Ruby practically raced right up to his weapon.

"You used red-iron for scimitars? What's with those nodes running up the blade? Are they connected to this boxy-looking thing here?"

Her enthusiasm for weaponry made him chuckle as he sheathed one blade and held the other up for her to look closely, ensuring that the power-field was off.

"Where I'm from," He said, "We have a form of weaponry that is enhanced by a material-displacement field. This little container acts as a power-source for that field, though in this case I was able to utilize Lightning and Hardlight-Dust as a substitute. The nodes act as a highly concentrated conductor while the metal of the blade allows the field to spread out across itself."

While Ruby was practically drooling at the possible applications, others murmured among each other.

"Gods…" Blake muttered, her face pale, "You… saw that right?"

"Kinda hard to miss," Yang chuckled nervously, "I mean, we knew he was strong, but 'cut all the way through a full-grown Ursa Major' was a mental stretch that I didn't think was possible."

"It's not just his strength," Weiss said, "That bladework and positioning… it's practically the same as when he fought us barehanded. He's an absolute master of combat."

Blake and Yang looked at Weiss with raised brows, noting how her voice seemed to become a little airier and the way her cheeks seemed to colour slightly.

"…huh," Yang said after a moment, "Never pegged you to be into super-buff and manly dudes Weiss."

Weiss spluttered in indignation and embarrassment, unable to even form a proper response as Yang continued to tease her, Blake admittedly enjoying watching Weiss flounder around for a few moments. There was a tiny nudge on her subconscious that something about the air felt off, but she easily ignored it in favour of seeing Weiss so flustered. Argel did not ignore that much larger nudge on his subconscious, his back stiffening as his eyes went wide. Ruby noticed the sudden change in body language, worry clouding her features.

"Professor Tal?" She started. "Are you-?"

Out of nowhere, he launched her clean into the air towards the rest of her team, everyone shouting in surprise and shock before their shouts morphed into screams of fear as a massive blade sheared clean through a dozen trees barely an instant later, slicing through the air where Ruby was just standing. Argel had barely managed to bring his sword up in time, the massive blade smashing into his hasty guard and slicing all the way into the bone of his shoulder before sending him flying through the air like a bullet, his body blasting through the barks of several trees to send blood and splinters flying.

What stepped through the trees with surprising grace and silence was a scaled nightmare on two powerful clawed legs, its anatomy suggesting a clear relation to the reptilian Creep-type Grimm though on a scale that was far more massive, muscular, armoured and terrifying. Its main body was stocky with corded muscle under gleaming red-bone scales, its back adorned with symmetrical and almost beautiful, curved horns. Its head, supported by a neck thick with muscle, was far more developed than a Creep, small but speartip-sharp horns atop a prominent brow seeming to highlight the deep-set eyes, though the most fascinating feature on its face was its mouth. It was like an armoured, overdeveloped mask, heavily protected by thick bone plating and all the more intimidating with its chunky yet wickedly edged teeth. Its most prominent feature however, was its tail. Sitting on the end of a tail that bore lengthy yet powerful musculature was a massive, single-edged, biological blade, its slightly jagged but razor-sharp edge shining with an almost metallic blue hue. It looked at the assembled trainees with beady eyes, deafening silence reigning for a moment before it moved with horrific speed, scraping its tail across the floor twice and brandishing it proudly, taking a deep breath. Ruby (and many others) easily recognized it, a Grimm that was at the same threat-level as a Goliath.

"GLAVENUS!" Ruby screamed its name before it unleashed a roar that deafened and bowled over those who were too close, its body coiling before it began its assault.

...TWBY Continued...