ChapterNine

The moment, golden as it was, passed, and Pyrrha got to her feet, stepping over to me and offering a hand.

I accepted it, and she easily pulled me to my feet, reaching out as my sword flew into her outstretched palm. Taking it, I sheathed my weapon, and folded up the shield still clutched in my other hand. I turned to take a step, and stumbled, the pain I felt shooting through my leg, side, stomach, neck, and head, all of which I'd tuned out during the fight, came back in full.

Pyrrha was by my side in an instant, supporting me. "Are you okay?" she asked, voice fearful with concern.

I let her help me back to the stands, "Nothing Aura can't fix. I'll be fine in a few hours, and, even feeling like I got chewed on by an Ursa, that was totally worth it and we're doing this again next week."

". . . If you insist," she replied, though I could hear the grin in her voice.

Yang whistled as we approached, "Damn man, what happened to you?"

I just pointed at Pyrrha, who blushed.

"Fair enough," my fellow blonde replied.

I took a seat on the lowest level of bleachers, looking up at the others, and Pyrrha, hesitating, sat down next to me. "So, other than the fact that she's poetry in motion and could kick any of our butts, thoughts on Pyrrha's performance?"

"Your weapon is really cool!" Ruby cheered, because of course she did.

"Miló?" Pyrrha asked, touching the weapon, to which Ruby nodded, "Thank you. I originally used a sword, but I needed a mid and long-range option. This suited those requirements perfectly."

"You gonna be okay?" Yang asked me.

I nodded, "Aura cures many ills. Anything more about Pyrrha?"

"Your actions were skillful and efficient," noted Ren.

Nora nodded, "Like Ren said, you were da bomb!"

"That's not what I said," the not-a-ninja disagreed, but Nora just nodded, mouthing 'da bomb!'

"At the end, what you did," Weiss stated, hesitating. "You never did anything like that during your tournaments."

"Ah, well," Pyrrha reddened in embarrassment. "I might have gotten a little carried away."

Yang laughed, "Just get carried away 'gainst the bad guys, and we'll be good."

"You barely used your Semblance," Blake observed, asking, "why?"

"She didn't need to, obviously," Weiss replied rudely.

Pyrrha winced at that, but gave a grudging nod. That, however, tickled my own memory. "Is it a single item at a time, or can you move multiple?"

"Multiple," she replied, "but I don't need to use it that often."

"You haven't needed to," I countered, thinking about it. "Who knows what the future will bring. If you move multiple, is it all together?" I asked, holding up my hands and moving them in unison. "In patterns? "I swirled them in opposite directions. "Or independent?" I just waved my hands randomly.

"Independently, I suppose, but patterns are easier. Why? I really don't need to," she tried to insist.

"Okay, so we have two mass combat specialists," I nodded, getting an excited grin from Ruby, but the others just looked confused.

"Oh gosh, this is gonna be so cool!" the youngest girl cheered. "Dagger or saw? Oooh! Chain or free?"

"Not sure how the basics work, so I can't tell," I replied, seeing where she was going. "A connecting chain might make things worse, not better."

"Um, what are you two talking about?" Pyrrha inquired.

Glancing at an excited Ruby, I explained, "If your power works as we think it might, you could become a metal-specific Glynda Goodwhich, though possibly more powerful in your specialization. Like using your power to move metal to make a free-standing chainsaw that could cut through a giant Nevermore." I was copying the idea from Penny, minus the random lasers, but it should be possible.

Yang's eyes went distant, "That'd be freakin' awesome!"

"You're hyper-competent when it comes to humanoid opponents, and unless you were only a winner of the junior tournament, you're probably better than almost everyone here in that field, teachers included," I shrugged. "But Grimm are entirely different, and require a different set of skills. Tournaments probably won't be more than five on one, right?" Pyrrha nodded. "Fighting Grimm, if things get bad, could easily pit you fifty on one, or more, and I'd bet money that none of your opponents were the size of a Bullhead in the tournament either," I pointed out, naming the odd VTOL aircraft that ferried people around.

"I suppose so," Pyrrha frowned. "You are my team leader. If you say I should work on it, then I shall."

Shaking my head, I told her, "At least give it a shot. If it's non-viable, it's not worth trying to force it to work, but not attempting to try?" I asked. "We're fighting the eternal forces of darkness here, as long as the cost isn't too high, we should try everything. A handful of hours and some steel is well worth seeing if you could clear this room, if it were packed with Grimm, in three seconds, by yourself."

"Besides," Yang offered. "We got to find somethin' to bust your balls about, and that's kinda all we got." Blake nodded in agreement, prompting the rest to add their own 'Yeah's and 'pretty much's. "So, since we can't really complain about you, let's complain about Jaune!"

"Yeah!" Ruby cheered, pausing as she realized how that sounded. "I mean, um, yes, that's only fair," she corrected, turning to face me seriously. "You need a better weapon."

"I'm aware," I laughed. "You said you'd help me, remember?"

"Oh, right!" the small girl smiled. "Yeah, that's all I got."

Ren regarded me, "Your fighting lacks. . . unity."

"Yeah dude," Yang agreed, "You were, like, all over the place."

"I learn really fast," I shrugged, "And, like I said, you guys are a lot better than I am. I'm absolutely certain that, if I'd fought Pyrrha first, I would've lost."

"Uh, Jaune?" Yang asked, motioning towards the screen, my Aura back to sixty-nine percent, making me laugh, while Pyrrha's was only at ninety-six.

"Different win conditions then when I fought you," I told the blonde, shooting a smile to the redhead beside me, who smiled back.

"So, ya hit her, like you said you would, but ya still lost?" Yang asked leadingly. I nodded. "Sounds like a. . . Pyrrhic Victory. Eh? Guys? Amirite?"

I just stared at her. "Even knowing that was coming, that was still terrible. Xiao Long have you been waiting to use that one?" Ruby giggled, even as Yang's eyes narrowed, though she grinned back at me.

"'Bout as long as you've been sittin' on that one," she remarked. "So, you gonna tell us what you were doing, or you gonna keep us in the Arc?"

"This is my pun-ishment for dropping to your level," I sighed, shaking my head. "But, yeah, back on topic, that was me just kind of winging it."

"HA! Winging it! Because you have Wings!" Nora laughed falling over to the side with laughter.

We all ignored her.

"Really, that's what you laugh at?" Yang muttered to herself, turning back to nod her head at my wings. "What's up with those, anyways?" Yang asked. "It's a really weird Semblance, my dude."

I shot back a skeptical look, "Weirder than making shadow-clones, or getting so angry your hair catches on not-fire?" I asked. I extended the wings, feeling the part Pyrrha'd dragged her weapon across throb a little, a discolored line running down the membrane. "Yeah, I've got some basic flight instincts, but, as I'm sure you could tell, I'm still figuring out how to fight with them."

"You did well using them against Pyrrha," Blake offered, unexpectedly helpful.

"That was me just going for broke," I shrugged. "It kinda. . . clicked, but I don't know how I did half of what I did. I mean, I do, kinda, but I don't know the mechanics of it, so I don't know how to improve it."

"That's Semblances for ya," Yang offered with a shrug. "We're all kinda feelin' it out as we go."

"Some of us are," Weiss corrected. At the group's collective inquisitive look, she explained, likely so they could better appreciate her greatness, "The Schnee Semblance is inherited, and thus we have been able to refine it for generations!"

"But that also means, if someone can do some research, they know almost every trick you can pull," I countered. "Makes training easier, but also means you're more vulnerable to assassins, and require those around you for true innovation."

Now the looks were on me. "A-Assassins?" Ruby gasped. "I know Weiss can be a bit mean, but who'd want to kill her!"

Beating Blake to it, I replied, "The White Fang, for one. Or Kidnappers. Or just Bandits who know you're operating in the area and want to neutralize the threat of a trained Huntsman. There's a reason that learning how to fight humanoids, like Pyrrha's mastered, is just as important as fighting Grimm, like Nora and Ren are trained to."

The Schnee heiress didn't like my answer, but she accepted it with a short, pursed lipped nod. Yang continued, "So, you gonna keep gettin' better like this? 'Cause that was kinda ridiculous."

"We're not sure if he'll keep his gained skills," Pyrrha offered. "He might lose some of them, but end at a higher level than when he started."

"We?" asked Yang, as I shook my head. "The speed I was picking things up was too fast, even for me, so it might be part of my Semblance as well. Doesn't feel like I'm forgetting anything, though, again, something to test. No, I have a feeling I learned as much as I did because of the difference in skill, which I've closed a little, and without which I've been patching my fighting with raw strength."

"Ya kicked half our butts, Arc-light," Yang pointed out. "Ya sayin' you were only able to do that 'cause you were stronger?"

"Them," I pointed to Weiss and Nora, "yeah, you, no. I already had hand to hand experience. If you hadn't had a bad hair minute you might've been able to beat me, but you lost most of your skill when you lost your shit."

She looked at me consideringly. "You know what that means, right?"

"Rematch?" I asked.

"You know it!" she grinned. "Next weekend?"

I nodded, "Sounds good. Anything else?"

Blake shook her head. "Any problem you had got fixed in the next fight."

"I highly doubt that, but I appreciate the vote of confidence," I smiled at her, causing her to look away. I turned to Pyrrha. "Thoughts?"

"Would you like a list, or the most important?" she requested, only the slight smile telling me that she was teasing.

I rolled my eyes, "Top three."

"Your footwork is atrocious, you're far too willing to accept a blow, and you keep on losing your weapon," she smiled.

"Hey!" I objected. "Two out of the three times I lost my sword, it worked!"

"And if it hadn't?" she asked archly.

I shrugged, "If I was sparring, I'd lose. If I was actually fighting. . . I have some other tricks, but I haven't practiced them, and I'm worried it might actually hurt somebody."

"This I gotta see," Yang grinned, and I immediately regretted mentioning it. Oh well, I thought, I was going to test it eventually.

Standing, I stretched, most of the pain having already disappeared. "Weiss, any way you can make a target in the middle of the floor?"

She rolled her eyes, but stood, a Glyph spinning in place in front of her, and she stabbed down, into the ground, a small row of crystals streaking off in a line before they erupted into a larger formation at the center of the arena.

"Thanks!" I smiled, moving over to the target with a few flaps of my wings, having to jog a little on the landing, still working on that. Looking at the others, I moved so they weren't directly behind me, but even if the fire splashed to the sides a little, they should be fine.

Focusing, I searched for that feeling of power I felt the first time I fully transformed, the same feeling that had surged within me before my final clash with Pyrrha. Breathing deep, my wings went high, and I took a step forward, wings swinging backwards as I brought the feeling up and out!

A thin stream of prismatic flame left my lips, as I didn't so much blow it out as I opened my throat and released it, the fiery stream quickly fanning out into a twenty-foot-wide conflagration that hit the ice and caused it to explode, the flames somehow having a force of their own and the shards of burning ice flying away from me, striking the far walls.

Running out of breath, I found the area in before me was still on fire, the ground having seemingly melted, stone turned to obsidian-like crystal, a dark orange, though the ice was untouched, both stone and ice still on fire. I could feel the power before me, waves of heat and something else nearly oppressive in even the large, open space. I could feel the flames, still burning in front of me, and watched them dance, the flames flickering in time with my breathing. I reached out to it, in a sense, the nearest one blazing up as I watched it, and I mentally pushed it down, into the ground, until it went out.

Stepping forward, I approached one of the flames, staring at it, and crouched down. It was hot, I could feel it on my skin, but I felt myself compelled to reach forward and touch it. It was there, and warm, but not uncomfortably so. Looking to the rest, I breathed in, then, with my outward breath, put them all out the same way as the first, except the one in my hand.

It felt. . . nice, and I tossed it back and forth, hand to hand, feeling it respond to my will.

Shaking my head, I closed my hand around it, putting it out, and turned to the others, having momentarily forgotten they existed. They all stared at me, eyes wide. "You coulda done that this entire time?" Nora asked, staring at the almost crystalline scars I'd left on the landscape, the ground glassy where it had burned.

"I mean, yeah?" I shrugged. "Still getting used to it, to be honest, and I didn't want to hurt anyone."

"That. Was. AWESOME!" The hammer wielder shrieked, breaking the spell the others seemed under.

I walked back to my teammates, Blake and Weiss both staring at the destruction I'd wrought. "Not sure if the flames hurt. I mean, I was fine, but they're mine, so that makes sense."

"No, dude, it really doesn't," Yang disagreed.

Pyrrha added, "Your. . . Semblance seems a bit more varied than quick-learning."

I shrugged, "I keep saying I'm a dragon," I grinned, getting a laugh from Pyrrha and Yang, along with a giggle from Ruby. Ren was inscrutable, Blake shot me a cross look, Nora just looked happy to be there, and Weiss was still staring, now looking more confused than surprised.

Folding away my wings into my back, I flexed my hands, the palms of my tip-less gloves a bit stiff, but they went back to normal after a moment. "So, this has been very informational, and makes me feel a lot better about how we are as a team, er, teams. We've all got things to look into and work on, even Pyrrha, so let's call this a wrap?" I asked. "We're all a bit dirty and sweaty, myself more than anyone else, I'm sure, so wash up, change into something casual, and go hit up the caf for some lunch?"

"I could go for some grub!" Yang agreed, pushing herself off the stands and landing beside me, taking the fifteen foot fall with barely more than a slight bending of her knees.

"Can you make another one of your shakes?" Ruby asked, blurring next to me.

I shook my head, "I'll make the Breakfast shake for Breakfast, besides, I need to go shower, not cook for everyone."

The others started to follow, but I noticed that Weiss was lagging behind. "Hey, Weiss, something wrong?"

"It's nothing," she said, standing up and following us.

I reached for the door, only for it to open on its own, Glynda Goodwitch, our Vice Principal, on the other side, Principle Ozpin behind her. We all froze as she looked over us, then past us, at the wrecked arena behind us. "What did you all do?" she demanded, glaring at us.

The others froze, and I felt panic, only for my brain to reboot, reminding myself that I was a dragon. "Team building and light sparring, following the protocols outlined on the school's computers," I replied easily enough. "It was clear that we could damage the area as long as we didn't do so with the intention of causing destruction. We sparred, but Weiss' attacks are pretty indiscriminate, Nora, Yang, and I are extremely strong, and Ruby and Blake both swing scythes around hard enough to crack stone."

"And what of Ms. Nikos and Mr. Ren?" she asked, still sounding angry, but with the barest hint of humor.

"She's a professional, so only hit as hard as she needed, and dude's a ninja," I shrugged, "He doesn't leave much of a trace on the landscape."

Goodwitch took a step forward, my teammates all taking a reflexive step back, but Ozpin put a hand on her shoulder. "It will be easy enough to check if they followed the rules, and it will be the work of moments to put it away." The woman paused, nodding, and Ozpin put his hand down, looking at me. "That said, it would be best not to be too. . . enthusiastic if you have class." He sniffed, "And perhaps go freshen up before lunch."

"That's the plan, sir," I smiled, and he stepped to the side, Glynda moving aside a moment later, letting us pass by. "Have a nice day!"

The white haired man smiled enigmatically, "I shall. You as well, Mr. Arc."

DR

Ozpin was in his office when he felt a pulse of Magic from below him, standing up from reviewing reports as he checked on the location of Jaune Arc. He was in a training hall, as well as his team, along with Ms. Rose and her team. A hall which Mr. Arc had reserved.

Curiouser and curiouser, he thought, calling his assistant as he entered his elevator. "Glynda, please meet me in front of training hall sixteen at your earliest convenience," he requested, knowing she'd take it as a command.

He could feel the Magic below him, an old, old feeling, from several lifetimes ago. It diminished a little, before almost all of it dropped off, the last bit disappearing as he strode, with purpose, into the hallway he was heading for, Glynda hurrying around the corner from the other side.

"What is it?" she asked, the sound of a girl yelling in delight coming from inside the training hall.

"I do believe that inside you will find something fairly interesting," he observed, and she stiffened, pulling out her focusing tool. "Not that interesting," he corrected, and she looked at him questioningly, putting the riding crop away.

"The last time you said something was interesting, it was a room full of Grimm that Peter had corralled for 'practical demonstrations'," she noted.

"Oh, the baby boarbatusks are in another room," Ozpin smiled. "But they're secured in individual cages this time, so you don't need to worry."

Glynda was so fun to tease, in some ways reminding him of her, from so terribly long ago. Before everything fell apart. Keeping a placid smile on his face, he motioned for the door, and his assistant, giving him a dry look, turned to open it, right as the children were leaving.

He stopped her from punishing them, when they hadn't done anything wrong. Pausing for a second, he sniffed. Scents were oddly powerful triggers for memory, and there was a hint of something in the air that shouldn't be. Not while they were still separate. Suggesting young Mr. Arc, go bathe, the children filed out.

"I can't believe you said that to her," the both of them heard young Ms. Rose whisper, young Mr. Arc replying "Why? We didn't do anything wrong."

Glynda gave Ozpin an unimpressed look, and he just motioned for her to go inside. She did, and he followed her, looking around the room with a practiced eye. "What did these children do?" his assistant demanded. "Go at it with hammers?"

"I know Ms. Valkyrie likely did," he commented, getting an aggravated look for his wit.

Goodwitch sighed, pulled out her wand, and waved it only to freeze as part of the floor blossomed into a tall pillar of dull brown rock, completely at odds with the orange-ish stone floor. "What the. . ." the telekinetic trailed off.

Ozpin stepped forward, poking the crystals that seemed bonded to the stone of the fighting arena with his cane. Pulling it upwards, he rubbed the residue between his finger-tips. "Hmmm," he commented looking at the shards of ice still stuck into the walls. Approaching one, he reached out, finding the crystal lukewarm to the touch.

Grasping it, he yanked it out, ignoring the sudden bloom of ice it left behind. Walking back to Glynda, she waited, knowing he'd talk when he thought it appropriate. "For a room studded with ice, it's remarkably warm in here, isn't it?" he questioned, with a slight smile.

Looking at him, confused, she glanced around, frowning as she noticed that fact, so upset at the damage that she'd overlooked the obvious details. He tossed the 'ice' shard to her, and she caught it easily, looking down at the crystal in her hands in bewilderment.

"This. . . isn't ice," she said slowly, turning it over in her hands.

Ozpin smiled, "Oh, but it is. Not frozen water, but ice nonetheless."

Glynda looked up sourly at him. She liked his riddles, no matter how she acted, and she considered the issue. "Not ice. . ." She froze, looking down at the crystal like it was a live grenade, which wasn't entirely incorrect. "This is. . . Dust?"

Smiling a little broader, but still reservedly, and nodding, he agreed, "Ice dust, to be precise. Unrefined, but still potent," he informed her, nodding towards the stone pillar, created from the Stone Dust bonded to the floor.

"How?" she asked, looking around in wonder, able to see it, now that she knew what to look for. "There's enough here to pay our staff's salary for a semester!"

The wizard had to smile, "That's where your mind goes to, Ms. Goodwitch?"

"You're not the one who has to balance the budget!" she shot back, and though her tone was frosty, it lacked any true heat. "What happened here?" she asked, turning to look at him fully. "I know you know, Ozpin."

"I'm glad one of us knows," he commented, looking around the room, and thinking of the horned boy who'd just left, with hair the same color as that one, the one who'd started this all. "And as to how, that is the question, isn't it?"