ChapterTen
I blinked awake, seeing two lambent yellow eyes staring back at me.
"This is gonna be a thing, isn't it?" I groaned, sitting up. While Aura healed injuries, overwork was on the list of things it didn't heal, not fully. I'd been warned by Pyrrha, and had taken a hot shower before going to bed, but even then I ached.
Blake didn't say anything, and got off my bed, slowly, as if she was unhurried and had just decided this moment to move all on her own. Grabbing her clothes off her bed, she heading to the still closed bathroom door, which was opened by Pyrrha with a "Good Morning" that the girl didn't reply to, just nodding as she walked past.
Jesus Christ, she isa cat, I couldn't help but think, getting up myself with another groan of soreness.
"Oh, I know that feeling!" the gladiatrix commiserated cheerfully. "You want to know what my coaches said helps with that?" I shot her a questioning look. "A massage!"
Down girl, was my first thought, and I chuckled, looking at the time. "Tell you what, if I'm still hurting after class, I'll take you up on that. Hell, I might take you up on that anyways, we're all going to be training like professional athletes, and sports massage seems like a good skill to pick up. Might need to practice it a bit," I told her, and she froze, before nodding with a wide, happy grin even as she blushed.
"I'll go make breakfast," I said, heading for the kitchen, wondering if Sticky Fingers, the purchased skill that made me amazing at sex, would help there, or only if it was an erotic massage I'd get assistance with.
"I'll help!" Pyrrha offered, but I shook my head.
"Sorry, family secret. Maybe later, but not for a while," I disagreed.
She looked adorably disappointed, but I remained unmoved, closing the door behind me, mentally pulling my phone to me and tapping on the device that popped into my hand. Stepping through the doorway again, I let out an increasingly familiar breath of relief. The air in my pocket dimension was light, and clean, and pure, and with my Aura assisted muscles, it was easy enough for me to lightly jump up the stairs four at a time.
Checking the sealed pitcher of my blood, it was still good, and, once again, my body went on autopilot, cooking without my direct input. As I worked, I thought about what it'd take to collect more of the empowering fluid, and grimaced, not looking forward to it. A human body had about a gallon and a half of blood in it, and it'd taken quite a while to gather the two that I was now using the last of, only possible because of Aura healing me. But I didn't really see an alternative. It wasn't like I was a cow, which had closer to ten gallons, the larger body making the collection of that amount of blood easier. If only I could be bigg. . . er.
"I'm a fucking moron," I sighed out loud, even as I continued to unhurriedly combine the ingredients into a commercial-grade blender. Once the shakes were made, and put away to keep cold, I turned to find what looked like a stainless steel trash can, with a spigot on the bottom and the top latched. As long as it was for cooking purposes, the house would apparently make whatever I needed ex nihilo, which was a feature I greatly appreciated.
Carrying it out, I headed to the beach, where the water would clean up after me, not trusting that the area outside would self-clean like the house seemed to, and wanting to avoid that grisly task. I wasn't sure I'd have time to do so before we started, and the only thing worse than cleaning up blood was cleaning up old blood, not that I had that much experience beforehand. Digging out a hole in the sand, I partially buried the container to keep it stable, before shifting, first to midform, then to full dragon, stretching out in the largest of my bodies. Then, reaching back with one razor-sharp talon, I had to take a bracing breath before I stabbed myself in the side, letting out a low, rumbling, and, admittedly, whining growl of draconic pain.
My blood, looking the same as it did before, red with an undercurrent of blue, welled up and ran down my side, forcing me to awkwardly shuffle over so it dripped into the bucket, at first in thick droplets, and then, as I cut into myself again, a thin stream.
Well, a thin stream to me, it poured out like a garden hose, filling up the fifteen gallon drum faster than I'd filled up the, at the time, seemingly enormous two gallon bowl. With the comparatively less severe wound, I was able to let it bleed easier, only having to re-open the injury when it started to clot, which only happened a couple of times before it was filled.
Thank god.
Moving to the side, and into the ocean, I washed off the wound as I let Aura surge back in, healing in moments. Getting back out, I shook myself dry, shifting back to my normal form and closing up the top of the container. Carrying the now heavy barrel back, I stuck it in the walk-in fridge, happy I wouldn't have to go through that for another two weeks. I didn't mind the pain to help my teammates, but if I could help them and not hurt as much, I'd go with that instead.
Carrying the tray of shakes out through the portal, and back into the spiritually smoke-filled room that was Remnant, I turned around and re-opened the door, this time leading back into our common room. Pyrrha pranced over, happily taking one of the cups, smiling as she took a sip. Putting the tray down, grabbing one of the drinks, I walked over to Yang, who was passed out on her bed, half falling off of it.
Popping the lid, I waved the drink near her nose, provoking an appreciative hum as she tried to follow it. Seeing the problem, I quickly re-covered the cup, placing it on her nightstand, and grabbed Yang right as she lost her balance. She sleepily blinked awake, hanging half off her bed, the only thing stopping her from hitting the floor was my grip on her shoulders.
"Jaune? Why are ya holdin' me?" she asked sleepily.
"Trying to keep you from falling for me," I shot back instantly, not sure how to explain easily, so going for the joke.
She snorted, "Like I'd fall for you, Ar-Ow!" she exclaimed, as I let go. "Dude, what the hell?" she muttered as she got up.
"I thought you said you wouldn't fall," I shot back with a grin, "Shake's next to your scroll."
"Thanks?" she muttered, as I walked back to my tray, leaving another cup for Blake, who was still taking her shower. Not having slowly bled myself dry, and then some, I'd made the enhancing shakes faster than I had before, but that meant I now had a few minutes to kill before I could shower. I could shower back Home, but explaining how I bathed in the 'kitchen' was not something I was prepared to do.
Taking the tray across the hall, I knocked on the door with a foot, calling "Breakfast!"
Ruby answered in seconds, opening the door to let me in. Ren was up, and meditating, in his pajamas, while Ruby herself was already dressed. Weiss was presumably passed out on her suspended bed, as it swayed slightly, and, from the muted, off-key singing, Nora was in the shower.
"Yay! Shakes!" the tiny team lead cheered, grabbing one, and starting to slurp it down, before, with a visible, supreme force of will, slowing herself down to enjoy it. I put the tray down, fitting perfectly on top of yesterday's tray, which I never collected, and grabbed one myself.
It was still one of the best things I'd ever had, but not the best. Close though. "So, ready for class? Today's Grimm Studies with Port in the morning, and Combat with Goodwitch in the afternoon. The first isn't for another hour-ish, but it'd be better to head out a little early in case we can't find the classroom." One of many lessons I'd learned in college, and this was a college, from the ages of everyone (except Ruby), to the small number of classes, and even to the structure of lecture halls.
"Ooooh!" Ruby cheered, "We're gonna be learning so much! I can't wait for Wednesday's class, though, I heard they had an Atlas Military Grade Plasma Sculptor! Do you know how much one of those costs!?"
I blinked, not having any clue, but reasonably certain there'd be one in the workshop of my pocket dimension. I shrugged, "No? How much do they cost?"
"I don't know either! Because they don't sell them! But if they did it'd be a lot!" she squeed. I grabbed my scroll, checking the classes we had. In addition to the normal 'Grimm 101', 'plot exposition about history that we'll never need (really Recent History)', and 'Combat Training', we had two more classes, one was, by the course summary, 'Dust 101' while the other was 'Weapon Engineering'. The last of which we had had on Wednesday, taught by one Professor Amakuni, the only Faunus teacher of the bunch.
"Hey Ren, shower's free," Nora's voice announced, opening the door, steam pouring out.
"Nora," the boy in question warned, eyes flying open as he glanced at me.
The girl laughed as she stepped into the room, looking up and to the side as she, with mock-innocence, dropped her towel, announcing, "Oh no, my towel's slipped."
She looked good, shorter than even Ruby, but her bust left no question to her age. The orange hair, damp from the shower hung down femininely without the normal spring it had while dry, and her eyes, so pale blue that they were almost creepy, worked well with the color of her hair and skin. The rest of her looked just as good, curves in all the right places, objectively smaller than Blake, but on her smaller frame looking more like Yang's. Twelve pounds of crazy in a five pound bag, don't get me wrong, but it was a very attractive bag.
Ren, I reminded myself, she likes Ren. After an appreciative glance, I looked back to Ruby, who'd frozen, blushing bright red, and took another sip of my shake. "I'm looking forward to tomorrow afternoon myself. Dust basics with Professor Tim. Not sure if that's his last name or his first, but I've never had a chance to work with the stuff before."
"I, uh, yeah," Ruby stammered, looking between me, as I looked directly at her, sipping my breakfast shake nonchalantly, and Nora, who, from the corner of my eye, I saw had frozen as well.
Ms. Valkyrie let out a nervous, almost manic laugh, grabbed her towel, yelled, "Not done yet, Ren!" and ran back into the bathroom, slamming the door so loud it woke up Weiss, who, flailing, fell out of bed.
"What?" the heiress asked groggily, looking around, before staring at me. "You!"
I nodded to her, "Morning Ms. Schnee. How are you?"
"Get out!" she shrieked, tossing the pillow she'd fallen out of bed with at my head. I just moved my drink out of the way and let it bounce off my face.
"Weiss!" Ruby objected. "He made breakfast!"
That, interestingly enough, gave the reddening albino pause. "He did?" she asked, perking up, before getting a hold of herself. "That doesn't mean he should be in the room while a lady is sleeping!" she announced in a huff, not getting up, nightgown pooled around her. Someone else might enjoy the sight of the newly awakened pseudo-princess, I'm sure Jaune would've, but all I saw was a spoiled brat.
Rolling my eyes, I walked back out of the room, calling over my shoulder, "We need to leave for class in forty. See you then."
DR
With everyone cleaned and fed, having put things away not at the last minute, we leisurely made our way to class, easily able to grab seats in the middle. Not the back-row, which, as a teacher in my previous life, even if a newly minted one, I knew drew just as much attention as the front, and not the front, for similar reasons. No, we sat comfortably in the middle, where whispered conversations could be had if need be without disrupting the lesson.
On the boards were drawings of Grimm, with notes on points of danger, like the Nevermore's flight feathers, which it could shoot like arrows, or the Deathstalker's tail stinger, which, even when it was small, could incapacitate a huntsman if they weren't careful. Above the whiteboards, on a placard, was one of the stupidest weapons I'd ever seen in my life.
If someone told me they wanted to combine a blunderbuss with a battleaxe, I'd say that was a good-ish idea, at least given the strength boost Aura gave one to wield it, and the stronger than normal materials you could use to build with. I would not, however, put the axe-head on the stock of the weapon, which pressed up against you when you fired it.
Maybe whoever designed that aberration was going for a double sided weapon? But that meant to fire it, you were one good nudge away from cutting yourself, and to use the battleaxe part you'd have to grip it by the cone-shaped barrel, both pointing the business end of the rifle/shotgun at yourself, and gripping hot metal if you'd had to fire it more than once, which, assuming you were fighting something that had closed in on you, you would've.
Putting the axe-head on the barrel end would require slight reinforcing, but let you use the pre-existing handle of the stock to hold and swing the weapon, and, if it accidentally went off, you wouldn't shoot yourself.
Our professor was similarly. . . unimpressive. I wasn't foolish enough to assume he wasn't a capable fighter, you didn't get to be an old Huntsman by being dumb, but Professor Port was even heavier than I'd been, before I'd come here, grey haired, and with what, on someone humbler, would be considered youthful vigor, but in reality came across as being a bloviating blowhard.
The stuffed, fake Grimm head trophies on the wall didn't help.
The man talked, and talked, and talked, technically about the Grimm but mostly about himself. Oh, there were some details sprinkled in as I half-listened, about how Boarbatusks, the imaginatively named boar-like Grimm, liked to twist their horns about when they attacked, but that took twenty minutes instead of twenty seconds to convey.
I paged through our textbook on my scroll, glad that, unlike my old college, we didn't require ludicrously expensive hardcover books, and found something that was simultaneously worrying and fascinating.
There weren't a dozen or so types of Grimm like I'd seen on the show, their created nature excusing their copy/pasted appearance, there were hundreds. Some of them were minor distinctions, like the Alpha Beowulf as opposed to the normal Beowulf, and some minor species could, with time, 'rank up' into their more dangerous versions, but suddenly I understood why we had an entire class devoted to 'wolf guys move like wolves, birds shoot feathers, and boars can spin-dash like Sonic'.
Thankfully, they were largely regional, which meant that there was a base we'd have to learn about extensively, and only be passively familiar with the others. At least for now. Also, a large number of them were rare, likely hand-made by Salem herself rather than mass generated like the basic four of Boarbatusk, Beowulf, Ursa, and Nevermore were in Vale. That said, I almost completely tuned out the professor as I studied them, but I glanced up when he cleared his throat while Ruby and Nora were giggling across the stairs from us. Weiss was wearing a somewhat sour expression, and I looked around to realize that most of the class had completely lost interest.
I mean, I had too, mostly, but at least I was still doing something related to the class!
Glancing over, Blake was asleep, because of course the cat was napping, Yang was texting her friends with her scroll, but at least Pyrrha was paying attention. . . or was she? Waving my hand in front of her, she kept staring forward, with a pleasant expression plastered across her visage, not moving. Her breathing was smooth, but oddly slow as if she was. . .
I poked her in the side and she flinched, waking up, and blinking as she sat straight and said, "Yes?" as if someone had called her, and I sighed. Pyrrha'd been just as checked out as my teammates were, she just had more practice at pretending to be paying attention than the other teens.
"Ah, so good of you to volunteer, Miss Nikos!" the heavyset Huntsman trainer replied. "I should expect no less, from someone of your caliber and with your accolades!"
Pyrrha's smile became a bit more fixed at that, as she replied with fake cheer. "Of course sir. And how exactly would you like to me go about it?"
Good recovery I thought, as I whispered, "Fight a small Boarbatusk. Easy."
She gave me a slight nod as he explained how she should "clad herself in her raiment and prepare for battle most fierce!"
After Pyrrha left to suit up, Professor Port continued to talk about himself. While he was recounting his father telling him how great he would one day become, a student wheeled in a steel cage, the inside darkened, red eyes staring balefully out of it.
That woke up everyone, the low, but unmistakable feeling of malice seeming to exude from the cage tickling my Fight or Flight reflexes. Part of me wanted to kill it now, before it hurt everyone, but I reigned that in, knowing it was literally as low a Grimm could go without having some special trick, like poison, or possession.
Pyrrha returned, in her gladiatrix armor, spear and shield on her back, and moved into position at the other end of the floor of the lecture hall. "Wahoo!" cheered Ruby. "Kick it's ass!" added Yang. "Represent team Aubergine," flatly encouraged Blake, waving a small purple flag with ABYN on it that she'd somehow procured.
"DESTROY IT!" bellowed Nora. Weiss just clapped, and I looked to Ren, who was mildly interested, then down to Pyrrha, who glanced up at me, saw my amused look, and just shook her head, the edge of her lip twitching up ever so slightly in amusement as well even as the other members of the class started to get in on the cheering.
Professor Port, grabbing another axe-blunderbuss abomination from under his desk, walked over to the cage, raising the weapon high, gripping its barrel, and announced, "All right! Let the match. . . begin!"
Cutting the lock off, because fuck keys, apparently, or re-using locks, the front of the cage fell open, the Grimm inside charging out towards Pyrrha.
Pyrrha, in turn, waited, and then, as it was almost on her, pirouetted to the side, twisting inches away from its swinging tusks, weapon in sword form as she cut right between the creature's armor plates along its flank, causing it to squeal in pain as she opened up a uniformly bright red line across its ribs. It charged her again, only for her to dodge the other way, leaving a matching injury. A perfectly matching injury.
"It's unarmored on the bottom!" Ruby called out, trying to help, not seeming to realize that Pyrrha was putting on a show.
The creature, realizing it was losing, spun itself into a tight loop, moving so fast its form became indistinct, before it rocketed towards the gladiatrix, who firmed her stance, pulling her shield off her back.
It looked like she was going to meet it head-on, but instead she took a half-step back right as it hit, bleeding off the Grimm's energy before directing it upwards. The black boar flew high into the air, out of control. As she looked up at it, I could almost see Pyrrha calculating its path, before she flicked the sword out to a spear, took a half step to the side, and planted it on the ground, tip up.
The Grimm fell, unable to change it's direction mid-air, falling stomach first onto the braced spear, impaling itself. It flailed weakly, and died, with ironically, none of the ferocity of its normal counterpart.
There was a moment of silence before the class erupted into cheers, a quartet of boys yelling "Nikos! Nikos! Nikos!" Quite the difference from Weiss' original, fumbling attempts, where, if I remembered correctly, the mage effectively forgot she could cast spells and tried to take it on without glyphs. You know, the one thing she was very, very bad at.
"Ha Ha Ha!" the professor laughed, only not, as he literally said the words 'ha ha ha'. "Bravo. Bra-vo! Yes, we are truly in the presence of a Huntress! I'm afraid that's all the time we have for today. Be sure to cover the assigned reading," he instructed, which I'd done while he was talking. "And, stay vigilant. Class dismissed."
We filed out, heading to the cafeteria for lunch, the lecture having lasted so long it was now noon. "Welp, that's three hours of my life I'm never getting back," Yang noted, once we'd all gotten our food.
"Eh, at least we won't have homework," I shrugged, getting looks from the others.
"Um, Jaune? We do have homework," Pyrrha kindly reminded me. "Professor Port assigned it to us before we left."
"Yeah, pages one through twenty of Griselda's Grimm Guide, and the first two chapters of his autobiography," I agreed. "I read them when he was talking. The first is pretty interesting, and the second. . . exists," I offered, not really having anything nice to say about it. The advice contained within those forty pages could be distilled down to a single-page handout.
Ruby blinked, "Already? But we just got it!" Looking at her, I took out my Scroll, and opened up the class's syllabus. Showing it to her, she said, "Yeah, that's the thing he sent us. So what?" I scrolled down to the section that detailed the homework for the entire semester. "Oooooooooh!" she said, the others leaning over with interest.
Right, Freshmen, I reminded myself. "If you have a prof that plays fast and loose with it, that's not as useful, but our portly professor. . . oh god, it's a pun," I realized. Professor Port (red) was portly (fat). Shaking my head, I continued, even as Yang's eyes lit up and pre-empting her before she com-pun-ded the sheer stupidity of his name, which had nothing to do with any myth I could think of. "His speeches are practiced, which means he'll likely stick to the syllabus pretty tightly, as he's probably got his class timing down to the minute."
"You mean he's got it down. . . Port?" Yang asked, and I just looked at her, unimpressed, the pun barely fitting.
"That seems like it will be most useful," Pyrrha nodded, ignoring the girl as she opened her own scroll. "And with any luck, the reading will be more engaging than his lecture."
I blinked at the, for her, damning indictment. "Well, Ruby seemed interested, at least. I saw her taking notes."
"Yes, Ruby, show Jaune your 'notes'," Weiss added with saccharine sweetness.
The girl blushed, "Uh, it wasn't anything that special. I'm sure you already- hey!" she objected, as Weiss grabbed her notebook, pulling out the paper and showing it to me, dodging the girl's swing as she tried to reclaim it.
Taking the page, and looking at what was drawn on the paper, I turned my gaze to the fifteen year old girl and was reminded of her age. "Professor Poop?" I questioned dryly, and she reddened in shame. "He doesn't even smell bad. I mean he might be full of shit, but I don't think he is. His self aggrandizement seems more adverbial than factual. No," I grabbed a pen and did a rough sketch, making him into a hot air balloon. With a little gondola that a cartoon Beowulf was riding in. It was surprisingly good, given I couldn't draw at all, only. . . Jaune could, not having my dysgraphia.
Huh. Unexpected bonus.
Pyrrha giggled beside me, "Because he's full of hot air?" she asked, hand over her mouth as her eyes twinkled in amusement.
"Or because he's so puffed up on his own greatness," I shrugged, handing it back to a wide-eyed Ruby. "That said, don't do that in class," I commanded, feeling almost like her father. "He might see you writing and ask to see your 'surely wondrous notations,'" I stated grandly, imitating him, badly. "'And I merely want to make sure you've not missed any of my wondrous achievements!' and then you're screwed."
Ruby quickly nodded, embarrassed, while Weiss glared at me, likely unamused that I'd not been harder on her team lead.
"So, who's up for beating the hell out of our fellow classmates?" I asked, and even the ice-queen smiled a little as everyone else, bar Ren, cheered, the not-a-ninja merely nodding.
DR
"What do you mean 'what do you mean?'" I asked our professor. "We're Huntsmen, we're training to fight Grimm, so, since bringing in Grimm to fight like Port did this morning-"
"He what!?" Glynda Goodwitch demanded.
"Seems dumb if we're going to be up against more than a pig, instead, we could fight puppets! If what I've heard is true, you could control them with your Semblance," I continued, not sure why this wasn't something thatwe were already doing. "You've seen them fight, you know how they move, and you could help us learn that way."
The woman stared at me, eyes narrowed, half over her glasses. The 'forbidding schoolmarm' look would probably be better if her shirt didn't have a boob-window. Or, you know, I was wrong. "That's not what we're doing today," she informed me, primly. "Now if anyone has any other questions?" she asked, swinging her riding crop for emphasis.
Unsurprisingly, no one else had any other questions.
"Since you're so sure of how this should go, Mr. Arc, why don't you start," the teacher proclaimed, as if she was somehow punishing me. I shrugged, and waited, as she asked, "And who is our other volunteer?"
"Pretty sure I'm not a volunteer," I mused, smiling at the severe look I received in return. Again, it was hard to take someone with a boob-window seriously, just like I couldn't take a man seriously if he were teaching while wearing assless chaps and a thong.
A girl, or maybe a guy, stepped forward. The volunteer looked even more androgynous than Ren, and also appeared to be asiatic. Then again, the two tonfas that he/she carried didn't help the comparison.
"Alex Vender, good, take your positions and begin. Mr. Arc, leave the floor un-crystallized. Others need to fight after you," Goodwitch commanded.
"Wasn't going to, Teach," I replied, a thought occurring to me. "Actually, is there some kind of practice room or range for me to work with around here? I'm still trying to figure out how to control it so I can use just enough, and I don't hurt a sparring partner."
Glynda stared at me. "You will be contacted when one is arranged."
I nodded, catching my opponent's unsure look. "Fire breath Semblance. Not using it here, since I melted the floor last time." He/She nodded. "Also, you a girl or a guy?"
"Does it matter?" Alex asked right back, even their voice androgynous.
Thinking about it, I shook my head. "Not really." Taking out my scroll, I connected it to the practice-hall's computer, appearing above our heads, and my opponent followed suit. We moved to opposite ends of the ring, and got our weapons ready, nodding to each other before we both grew tense, the battle truly beginning.
I started to stalk forward, sword and shield raised, ready, only for Alex to charge forward, tonfas gripped tightly and held parallel to the ground. Suddenly, her form seemed to blur, the lines of her body indistinct, likely her Semblance, and she clicked something on her weapons.
Her weapons roared, flames belching from them as she shot forward, the only warning I had the feeling in the back of my head that screamed DANGER! Shield raised, trying to brace, the other student slammed into me like a meteor, pushing me back almost a dozen feet, before they turned their weapons, flame washing over me as they spun, slamming me in the side with one rocket-tonfa, hard, sending me staggering. However, they spun in place even after the hit, which allowed me to slam into them with my sword even harder.
I connected with something, and sent them flying away, their tumble quickly corrected mid-air as they used their weapons to right themselves, landing lightly as I got my feet back under myself. I glanced upwards, as did Alex, to see our Aura totals. Alex was at seventy two, having taken a solid blow, and not having the ridiculous toughness of our team. Mine was at ninety-four, no, make that ninety-five.
"How?" they asked. "I hit you!" And they had, sinking the blow under the pitiful amount of armor I had over my ribs.
"Which is why I'm down a few," I shrugged. "I just have a lot of Aura. Want to try again?"
Alex glared at me, form still indistinct, but their eyes easily seen. Actually. . . I could work with that.
I opened up my arms, waiting, and my opponent charged again, not getting a boost from their weapons this time. I watched their eyes, trying to figure out which direction the student would attack from, though Alex was staring straight at me as they swung the long part of the weapons around their handles to face forwards. I only had a moment as my sense of Danger blared, and I brought my shield up as they stopped right out of my range and pulled the triggers, dousing me in flame.
My shield wasn't enough to block them all, but the gouts I felt 'burning' me while my Aura was eroded obscured me from sight. I leapt above them, and Alex tracked me with their flamethrowers as I arced over the other student, but I manifested my wings for a moment and flapped upwards. Alex continued to attack where they thought I was as I reversed course with another flap, diving down at them.
Spotting me at the last moment, Alex tried to jump out of the way, bringing their weapons up to block, but, unable to fully track the student's position, my sword came down off to the side, instead of their center, where they were blocking. caught their shoulder with a solid blow that would've cut them in two without Aura, grounding my momentum into them, and sending them crashing to the floor.
As Alex struggled to get up, I didn't hold back, kicking them hard in the stomach and sending them flying backwards as they gasped in pain. I took off after them, wings flapping only to find myself forced downwards by an invisible force, landing heavily.
"That's quite enough, Mr. Arc!" Glynda snapped, and I looked up, seeing Alex was down to twenty-four percent Aura left, while I was only down to eighty-nine. Make that Ninety.
"Huh, I didn't hear the buzzer," I commented. "My apologies." I sheathed my weapon and walked over to Alex, who shot me in the face with her flamethrower as they scrambled backwards.
"Ms. Vender, the fight is over," Goodwitch commented, not nearly as angrily as she'd rebuked me, despite the other student hitting me when my guard was down.
I bit back a snarl of anger, the feeling harder to shove down than it probably should be, given it was me that'd scared her in the first place. Instead smiled, even if it was a toothy one, as I extended a hand. "No hard feelings?" I asked, teeth a little grit.
The girl paled, "Right, sorry." she grimaced as she tried to get up, taking my offered hand. "You hit like a bullhead," she commented, as we both started to walk to the stands. "Your Aura barely dropped when I burned you. Not fair."
"Like Grimm are?" I questioned, not bothering to look at our 'teacher', who wasn't saying anything, just staring at me disapprovingly. "Besides, Nora, Pyrrha, Blake, and Ruby all hit harder than I do."
"Seriously?" the girl asked, and I nodded solemnly. "Damn."
Smiling, she rejoined her team, and I rejoined mine. Goodwitch asked for another pair of volunteers and Nora jumped to her feet, Cardin, seeing what was probably the shortest girl in the class about to fight, volunteered as well. "Did I miss the buzzer at the end of my fight?" I asked my team.
"There wasn't one," Pyrrha noted, smile disappearing as she frowned in realization.
"That's what I thought," I sighed. I'd somehow pissed off Goodwitch, possibly by asking a completely reasonable question, but it wouldn't be the first time I angered someone in authority by doing that, and it likely wouldn't be the last. "Don't worry about it," I told her, sitting back in the stands, crossing my arms.
Cardin wore a cocky grin as Nora was practically bouncing on the balls of her feet in anticipation. "But that's-" the gladiatrix started to object, but I leaned over, bumping her in the shoulder.
Watching Glynda signal to start, Cardin getting a single cocky step in, starting to say something as Nora launched herself forward with a blast of her hammer, I smiled, advising my teammate, "Just enjoy the show."