Guest(s) – Fair enough honestly, the story will be rather basic, but I believe that is due to my own novice skill as a writer rather than anything else this story is really just for me to grow my own ability, which it has so far, thank you for reading regardless. As for Weiss I read her character as being biased at this point yes, but not outright fearful or fully hateful of Faunus just not trusting, which Marn also knowing she's just a kid whose been influenced by her upbringing at this point and shouldn't be demonized because of her father.
dracospikex1 – Thank you!
triscythe59 – Thank you as well, perhaps we will see this chapter, and thank you for the well wishes.
AN: Merry Christmas everyone, sorry for how long this chapter took to get out, things kept getting it backed up and pushed further down in my list of priorities, regardless I did get it finished, and it's a bit over 2k words longer than my usual chapters to boot.
Besides that, enjoy!
I do not own RWBY.
-o-o-o-o-o-
I shoot up from the bed, breathing hard, I wipe sweat off my brow as I throw my legs off the bed to sit up. A nightmare, haven't had one of those in a while… I look over the room, everyone else is asleep and it still seems rather early, looking at my scroll confirms the fact being just a few minutes after four. Standing up I move as quietly as I can to the restroom, closing the door and turning on the light, I splash some water on my face and lock eyes with myself in the mirror.
It had been a long time since my last nightmare, I barely remembered dreams at most, but this one was vivid, the fall of Beacon, those I had just met dead or dying. Me, failing to do what I set out to. I shake my head from the thoughts, pulling up the systema and looking through it.
Right, I still have that quest from Junior. I lean back on the counter and rub the sides of my face; did I want to finish this quest? While Junior did me some solids, I also didn't want to tell him about what Yang was doing, not to mention I also still owed him another favor. Both the success and failure rewards were still a mystery so I didn't even know what I would get out of it. Maybe I could tell Yang about it? I shook my head a moment after, I couldn't right now, she didn't seem to like me too much being around Ruby.
I eventually decide and send a quick message to Junior, of how Yang had gotten into Beacon, nothing much more than that. Hopefully he wouldn't push the topic for now. And at some point, I could hopefully come clean to Yang.
Putting away my scroll, I stood back up fully and ran through what I could do now, going back to bed seemed like a waste of time, I wasn't going to get anymore sleep with everything going through my head. Well as far as I knew Beacon didn't have a curfew, it was just recommended you had a healthy sleep schedule considering it was a combat school. So, I make my way out of the room we were all in and decide to wander for now, which eventually leads me to one of the training rooms.
Still in my pajamas I take a few swings and kicks at one of the dummies, nothing close to full strength, just practicing the moves and motions of what I had come to learn. Slowly I picked up with speed and power, taking a step back every few seconds to go over what I was missing or felt wrong, until a heard someone sipping from a drink behind me.
Turning around quickly I am met with the green eyes of Ozpin looking at me with some sort of consideration, standing just beyond the door. He finishes his sip and speaks up, "Don't let me distract you Mr. Belmont."
"Right." I say, slowly turning back to the bag and continuing my practice, coming to a stop a few minutes later, getting some water and taking a seat. Now what did Ozpin want? He walked up to me after I took my seat, keeping a respectable distance.
He takes another sip from his mug, "Can't sleep Mr. Belmont?"
"Yeah." I respond nodding, "First night with my team and all, just some worries as a leader I guess." I say shrugging, not really a lie but not the whole truth.
He'd hum for a moment and go into what seemed to be thought before speaking again, "Anything in specific?"
"Mostly just, letting them down I suppose. I was never trained in a traditional sense, so I don't know if I'm ready for the position." I explain based on what I know of my backstory, and being truthful as well I wasn't sure I was ready for the responsibility of leading my team, the system may give me power of my own, but I wasn't sure about leadership or strategy.
Ozpin nods and takes a side glance at me, looking out of the training rooms widows, "Do you doubt my decision for placing you as team leader?" He asks in a neutral tone.
I lean back and think on that, Ozpin was supposedly very wise due to his long life, but. "I don't know professor; I haven't had the chance to lead my team or see their skills yet, but I also don't know how I would do with my lack of knowledge, so I couldn't tell you."
Ozpin simply hums and takes another sip, "Well even so young man, why do you doubt yourself if you haven't even tried?"
I pause at that and just…think, not coming to a satisfying answer. I let out a breath and respond, "I don't know."
Ozpin nods and begins to make his way to the training rooms exit, "Self-doubt is an insidious killer Mr. Belmont, but you must remember your leadership isn't your responsibility to carry alone; you have a team to aid you." With that nugget of wisdom, he finally leaves the room, and I relax a bit more on the bench my nerves a bit frayed.
The interaction wasn't…odd per say, but something about Ozpin was throwing me off, of course I knew his origins and his whole being the mastermind and planner schtick, but he was just hard to get a read on. And that worried me a lot more than anything else currently. Additionally, while hard to read he had some sort of obvious interest in me, I doubt him showing up here this early was a coincidence.
That interest of course could be just my silver eyes, but I had a gut feeling that it wasn't.
I let those thoughts go to the back of my head for now though, looking at the time it was nearly six, so I begin making my way back to the dorm room. On the way there I notice several more people moving about, mostly older students by the look of it. Reaching the dorm, I enter and find my team to still be asleep, probably worn out from yesterday if I was to guess.
Heading into the dorm I get out my one of my sets of Beacon uniform and get a shower, getting dressed afterwards, by the time I get out of the bathroom everyone else was in various states of getting up. While they were all going through there morning routines, I look through today's classes, there was of course the Grimm studies class taught by Port, and some other huntsman related classes, but to my surprise there was also some more basic classes, your math, sciences, and others. I suppose I shouldn't be that surprised considering that world history with Oobleck was a class on the curriculum.
Sitting on my bed I continue to familiarize myself with the map of Beacon and where our classes are, and after a few minutes decide to get the team together to go get breakfast in the cafeteria. The walk there was rather relaxing, Lilith and I were making small talk with Aero as Iris seemed content to listen to us talk.
Entering the cafeteria, it was mostly empty, the majority of students seemingly deciding to still sleep in before classes. We all split up and grab our meals before finding a table to sit at. "So, classes start at nine, we have algebra, followed by logistics training, followed by Grimm studies." I explain our current schedule to my team, various gestures of understanding are my answer.
"Because we still have some time, I was thinking that we all properly introduce ourselves, we know names of course, but just share some stuff about ourselves." It would be a quick and simple way to get started on some trust between us.
I clear my throat and continue, "As team leader I'll go first, my name is Marn Belmont, I grew up on the outskirts of Vale where I trained myself before arriving in Vale proper a few months before initiation. I enjoy training and hate being stagnant. My weapons, the Silver Guardians, are a pair of shortswords that double as revolvers, and my semblance is the ability to increase my own physicality and aura control in exchange for consuming my aura reserves at a quick rate." I wait patiently for the next to go as they look between each other for a few moments.
Eventually Lilith raises her voice, "Right…Lilith Shade, I'm from Vacuo, uh the city. My parents sent me here rather than Shade because they wanted the best for me, and thought Beacon was the better option. I like to glide around with my semblance, and I hate the cold. I use two main weapons, first is Tooth, I know not that creative of a name, but it's a spear sword hybrid, and then I also use a bow. No name or anything. My semblance is to make drag and gravity have no effect on me, and I use a special pair of boots to maneuver when its active." She explains, a bit nervous.
Iris then begins to speak, "I am Iris Hearth, I am from Vale proper and grew up here my entire life. I enjoy painting and do not enjoy seeing people hurt. I have always dreamed of being a huntress and I also use a pair of weapons, twin sickles, Swan and Dove. My semblance is to increase how brittle an object is the longer I touch it." Her voice is rather regal, something I would think a medieval noble would have.
Lastly Aero begins, "Aero Bei, I too am from an outlying city in Vale but got training in a smaller combat school. I like machine maintenance and dislike those who can't follow orders. My main weapon is a large caliber rifle, and a combat knife I keep for emergencies. My semblance is to harden the air around my hands or feet into actual walls or platforms." He explained in a way that reminded me of a soldier.
"Great." I clap my hands together, "Now, classes start in about forty-five minutes. Let's get finished here and head back to the dorm to clean up then get started on the day. Sound good?" Various nods and approvals greeted me, so we finished eating and headed back to the dorm to brush our teeth and grab our bags. On the way out to class we heard a commotion coming from RWBY's dorm room, we all share a glance but pass by, the other three not wanting to interfere with whatever required what sounded like construction tools before classes and I letting the team make their bunk beds in peace.
-o-o-o-o-o-
Both teams RWBY and JNPR were almost late to the first class of the day, being math, the class wasn't that hard, being only around the end of high school level math that I had already learned a long time ago so nothing too bad. After that was the logistics class, which was a bit interesting basically it was a class over how a hunter should handle supply in the fields, questions over what to do in certain situations based on supplies on hand and nearby, those kinds of things. Finally, though we got to the class I was most interested in, Grimm Studies.
"Monsters, demons, prowlers of the night, yes, the creatures of Grimm have many names. But I merely refer to them as prey!" Professor Port would chuckle following his class introduction. "And you shall too upon graduating from this prestigious academy. Now as I was saying Vale as well as the other three kingdoms are safe havens in an otherwise treacherous world. Our planet is absolutely teeming with creatures that would love nothing more than to tear you to pieces." He takes a small pause. "That's where we come in, huntsman, huntresses." He gives a wink at some of the female student's direction. "Individuals who have sworn to protect those who cannot protect themselves. From what you ask? Why the very world!" A student next to my team gave a small cheer, the rest of the class looking at him funny quickly diminishing his enthusiasm.
Sitting near the back of the class my eyes gaze over the people in attendance and crossing over the notes that Port had on the board, it did seem like my team was trying to pay attention to Ports rambling so that was good. The professor continues, "That is what you are training to become, but first a story, a tale of a young handsome man, me."
Something I quickly realize is while most likely embellished, his story does hold some kernels of wisdom, bravery, boldness, those kinds of things. I don't really take notes on his rambling of course, but the Grimm anatomy on the board was important so I jot down as much of that as I could to my notebook. While Grimm Lore gave me the basics on all the Grimm there were things on the board that I didn't know. Looking over it seemed that Lilith and Aero were doing the same and Iris was following along with Ports story as her focus, looking forward I could see Ruby showing her drawing.
Clearing his throat my attention returns to Port, "In the end the beowolf was no match for my sheer tenacity and I returned to my village with the beast in captivity and my head held high. Celebrated as a hero." He ends with a bow. "The moral of this story? A true huntsman must be honorable, a true huntsman must be dependable, a true huntsman must be strategic, well educated, and wise." He stops pacing for a moment turning to face the class, "So who among you believes them selves to be the embodiment of these traits?"
Near instantly does Weiss's hand shoot up, "I do sir."
Port turns to her and nods, "Well then let's find out. Step forward and face your opponent."
Before the fight, however, Weiss is sent off to change into her appropriate fighting garb. With the few minutes of time that would most likely take, I turn to my team and lower my voice, "So thoughts on the class so far?"
"The professor seems like a great man; his story is absolutely fascinating." Iris says, nodding sagely.
Aero shrugs, "No offense to the professor but I don't see how this is supposed to be Grimm studies."
"Well, it is only the first day. Maybe we just need time to get used to the class?" Lilith counters.
Aero shrugs, turning his attention to me, "Your thoughts captain?"
I rest my chin in my hand as Weiss enters back into the classroom, "His story does hold a bit of advice to it, but I do think Lilith is right, it is only the first day so there will be more to see." Lilith gives me a smile as Iris and Aero nod with my assessment. But we all quiet as Weiss prepares herself on the floor of the classroom.
Even from up here I can hear the borbatusk clearly, as well as some murmurs around the classroom and team RWBY's cheering for Weiss' success. And somehow Blake got a flag for their team? When? How? That train of thought is interrupted when Weiss yells at Ruby, "Ruby! I'm trying to focus."
"Alright, let the match…begin!" Port yells as his axe destroys the cages lock, the borbatusk immediately charging out at Weiss.
Easily take a sidestep out of the way of the charge Weiss takes a slash to the Grimm's side, sparks flying as her rapier only makes a groove into the borbatusk's hide and bone armor plating. Regaining her footing she prepares for another charge as the borbatusk rounds to face her.
Port laughs jovially, "Wasn't expecting that were you?"
"Hang in there Weiss!" Ruby cheers trying to encourage her partner, the Grimm charging forward, trying to doge over the Grimm her rapier is trapped within the boars' tusks, a short tug of war keeping the class on the edge of their seats. "Come on Weiss show it who's boss!" Ruby pipes up again, the distraction making Weiss take her attention off the beast momentarily making her lose her weapon, it flying meters away from her.
"Oh no." I hear Lilith whisper beside me, her hands covering her mouth.
"Don't worry, if anything happens the professor would step in." I reassure her.
"Oh ho, now what will you do without your weapon?" Port asks as Weiss gets back up from the borbatusks hit, rolling to the side she dodges the follow up charge, rushing forward and closing the distance to her rapier.
"Weiss go for its belly! Theres no armor underneath!" Ruby yells cupping her mouth, Weiss immediately shooting back taking her attention off the fight again. The borbatusk moves back to its feet and begins spinning, becoming a blur as it rushes towards Weiss again, only to be stopped in its tracks at the last moment by a Glyph which puts the boar on its back, taking a moment to launch herself with other she conjured in the air, Weiss rockets forward putting an end to the borbatusk with a well-aimed strike to the unarmored stomach.
"Bravo! Bravo! It appears we are indeed in the presence of a true huntress in training." Port turns away from Weiss and back to the class continuing, "I'm afraid that's all the time we have for today be sure to cover the assigned readings and stay vigilant. Class dismissed."
Gathering my things I lead my team out of the classroom, stretching I see Ozpin pass us by in the hallway listening to Ruby and Weiss's argument. Ignoring them for now I turn to my team, "So we have free time for the rest of the day, I say we get our homework done first, but what do you guys think?"
"Whatever you think is best captain." Aero nods walking just behind me to the side.
Iris speaks up a second later, "I do believe that will be for the best, we can even help each other with the work to make it faster."
"Sounds good to me." Lilith says chipperly.
"Alright sounds like were in agreement then." I say as we head back to the team dorm.
-o-o-o-o-o-
I lay back in bed, my hands behind my head as I stare into the ceiling, Ars, any more luck so far?
[A little, I am nearly to the source of whatever is trying to cause the changes in you.]
Perfect, good luck Ars. They don't respond, so I open my status window looking through my current level of power, the title slot was still empty, and I also had a few unspent points which I was thinking about spending. I had done some testing with the free time I had after the team got done with classwork and concluded that the soft cap for stat growth would probably be somewhere around twenty-five to thirty, based on how fast my strength grew, which was only by a single point after hours of training compared to past growth and exponential future growth.
I put five points into my Wisdom, bringing it up to thirty and four hundred and fifty AP, I leave the other four points unspent for now just in case I needed them at some point in the future.
Now then, system points and perks, there was of course the fifty-point perk that would allow me to permanently kill immortals, so Salem or Ozpin, but not only did it cost fifty points, but did I really need it? It would most likely be a last resort for me to have to have a one-on-one fight with Salem, but the perk only needed me to get the last hit, and it was only to kill an immortal, I had no clue if it would negate her regeneration.
Looking through the twenty point perks and one stood out to me.
[Star Knight]
(20 System Points)
[In times before the four great cities there stood an order of aura users who protected humanity, they had a different way of understanding how Aura functioned and influenced the world, because of this non-standard understanding it gave rise a power like a semblance, but instead through raw Aura manipulation. You are now the inheritor to these Star Knights and their Aura manipulation techniques.]
[Base Aura Pool 50]
[Skills Unlocked (Some Skills Already Owned) – Aura Flow State (Legendary)]
[Owned Skills Ranked Up – Aura Shaping (Rare), Aura Enhancement (Rare), Aura Infusion (Rare)]
[50% to Growth of Aura Skills]
It was tempting, Aura was currently my most damaging weapon, most of my pure Aura based abilities like Cero and Bala were also expensive to use, but so far as my skills ranked up they got cheaper to use and more powerful as I mastered them so quicker growth would be good. There was a second perk I noticed as well, a little cheaper.
[Blade Master]
(15 System points)
[Either through talent or training you have become acquainted with an unnatural affinity with swords, enough to where your chosen weapon(s) resonate with you on a deeper level. You are a master of body, mind, and soul, and now your sword obeys this growth the same.]
[Base Health Points 25]
[Base Stamina Pool 25]
[Skills Unlocked – Soul Cutting Blade (Legendary)]
[50% Growth to Sword Skills]
Also good, alongside Aura my ability to use Silver Guardian was growing rather well even in a few short months, I toss both perks back and forth for a bit before deciding to not buy either for now, while not content with my current power, I also realize that my growth was already rather explosive, and any perk right now could make me very suspicious, or more so than I already was if my interaction with Ozpin was anything to go by.
Closing the screen, I look over the dorm room, Lilith was in the bathroom and Iris had stepped out to take a call, leaving I and Aero, who was currently on his scroll. "Hey Aero, quick question."
"Yes captain?" He responds immediately, looking up from whatever he was doing.
"Yeah, what's with the whole 'captain' thing?" I ask neutrally.
Aero clicks his tongue before answering, "It is a force of habit, I was trained in a very strict way, captain." He says in a matter-of-fact tone.
I nod in understanding, "Alright then, well just letting you know you don't have to call me that, my name would be fine, and I don't really prefer it anyways, were equals after all. Besides I don't think I've garnered nearly enough respect for the title anyways." I chuckle.
It takes a moment for him to respond, "Ill take it into consideration…" He says slowly and gives me a respectful nod, going back to his scroll. And I go back to staring at the ceiling, only to be interrupted by my own scroll vibrating a few minutes later.
Picking it up I see a text from Junior, 'Good enough, any time she leaves the academy I want to know and the location she goes if possible.' I frown a bit at the message before sending back an affirmative and putting my scroll back down, right I'll have to clear that up. Well, we'll see about it if I have time or the trust at some point one of these days.
I lean my head back and close my eyes, hopefully I can get some sleep tonight.
-o-o-o-o-o-
The next dozen of days pass by with relative ease, the team quickly having gotten into a flow with classes, work, and free time. We had gotten closer with the other teams in our free time as well, mainly RWBY and JNPR. CRDL was still rather bigoted this early on, so I and the rest of my squad had no real want to get to know them, and while there were other teams that made it in, they were more distant to us, more acquaintances than anything else.
It was late in the evening at the end of our third week here, the sun already setting in the distance as I went back and forth between unarmed strikes and practicing my form with my blades. I was the only one here, while beacon had a few different training halls most students used the main one near the combat class, combine that with the later hour and the training rooms were pretty much empty campus wide.
I still haven't had the chance to practice any of my magic, while my illusion magic could trick cameras, as Ars had told me, I had no clue if Ozpin would or even could sense me using my magic. But I would rather not risk anything just knowing how on edge the man was.
Feeling a vibration in my pocket I stop my routine and check my scrolls messages, seems that Yang was looking for me through my team. Well, I needed to speak to her anyways, I send a quick text to Lilith about which training room I was in and get back to my sets, which I had already gotten some growth from even from a few hours in the afternoon every week.
[Rank Up! Beginner Martial Arts: (3 to 4)]
[Knowledge of basic hand-to-hand combat. All unarmed damage increased by 20%.]
[Rank Up! Shortsword Proficiency: (3 to 4)]
[Base damage with Shortswords raised by 40%.]
[Rank Up! Blade Dance: (1 to 2)]
[A rhythmic and dance-like style of combat can only be used by dual daggers or shortswords. Base damage with daggers and shortswords increased by 6 (Cost 15 SP per minute.)]
But those were expected, there were two more skills that I had been specifically training up.
[Rank Up! Aura Enhancement: (2 to 3)]
[Channel your aura into a physical stat and increase it by 3. (Cost 3 AP per Minute)]
Enhancement was just good, another all around stat booster that gave me the slightest edge in battle, and the other skill, far more important and perhaps the best tool in my entire kit bar my actual semblance.
[Rank Up! Flash-Step: (1 to 2)]
[A short-range high speed movement ability usable due to your high aura control. Boosted while under an alternate form. (Move = DEX x 3 in Feet) (Cost 5 AP)]
Its description changed quite a bit, along with its raw stats, I could now travel triple the distance at half the cost. Yet that paled in comparison to the fact that I now held the knowledge to teach others how to use the flash-steps as a technique, it was no longer trapped behind my semblance. All a person needed was good control of their Aura. But that would be for the future, I still had a bit more routine to do before Yang got here.
My next dance is interrupted mid-way through as the rooms doom opens, Yang entering. I stop and sheath my blades, walking over and setting them on the bench, giving the yellow clad girl a as she approaches. "Ms. Xiao-Long, I saw you were looking for me?"
She stops a few meters away and crosses her arms, "Yeah I wanted to talk, clear some things up."
"Ah, good, I felt the same as well. I have some stuff to get off my chest" I say as I sit and take a drink of water.
"You do?" She seems moderately surprised at that, which made sense, while the teams had gotten some time to hang out, she still didn't like me, which I did not blame her for based on our past interactions. Shaking her head she continues, "Well I wanted to apologize."
I raise an eyebrow at Yang, "For?" I push her forward.
"Well, I know I can be a bit…obtuse." She concludes after a few seconds. "I'm just protective of Ruby as her sister and all, and I though you were…"
"A criminal?" I ask without judging.
"More like a bad crowd but yeah." She nods. "But you haven't done anything to her and have been friendly with the other teams and us. Besides my sister needs more friends, she left behind nearly everyone she knew back in Signal and- "
I cut her off by holding out my hand for her to stop. "I understand Ms. Xiao-Long, I may not have siblings of my own." I did, in my past life anyways, but they weren't here now… "But I do understand you. You want the best for your sister and my previous encounters with you didn't paint me in the best light." I take a pause drinking some more water. "You have nothing to apologize for in fact, but there is something I must explain as well."
She looks a bit miffed about being interrupted but doesn't bring it up, "And that is?"
I set down my bottle and stretch while standing, "When I first got to Vale I didn't have the money to make the cut into Beacon, I was working for Junior to make a bit of cash, not in any criminal way mind you, completely above board." She just waits for me to continue. "However, I still didn't have enough, so I had to take out a bit of a loan from him in the form of a few…favors." She tenses up at that. "In total I owed the man three, two already spent and the last undecided."
"And the two favors you've already done for him?" She asks.
"The first was to fight you that night you trashed his bar." She has the decency at least to look a bit embarrassed at that. "The second was why I wanted to talk to you." I take out my scroll and open it to my messages to Junior, showing her it. They had grown a bit over the past weeks, just an update every few days. "I was trying to find a moment to tell you about this on more even ground and this conversation has been my best shot by far."
She looks pissed off, not at me though, it was directed at Junior. She quickly simmers down though, recognizing she can't get at him for now. "Well, thanks for letting me know foxy, are you going to keep updating him?"
I sigh and put my scroll away, "I've been trying to give as little information as possible and I probably will have to continue to update him, but I will be giving him false information as much as I can. I can't just go cold turkey on him, otherwise I'd have no clue how he'd react."
She nods, "Well hey you forgave me for how I've been snubbing you, I think I can forgive you for this, as long as you keep giving him the bare minimum and agree to help me beat his ass you hear?" She grins at me striking her fist into her palm.
"I suppose I can take you up on that." I say slowly, "No promises I'll hurt the two girls working for him though unless they try something first."
"Aw, aren't you chivalrous?" She teases.
I roll my eyes at her, "Nothing like that, there friends of mine despite my current position." I explain. "So, I say we start over Ms. Xiao-Long, on the right foot this time hopefully?"
She grins again, "Yeah, sounds good to me foxy I don't like having enemies anyways." She begins to leave the training room stopping at the door to say one last thing. "And no more of that 'Ms. Xiao-Long' thing, just call me Yang, or we'll have to fight again, on top of the rematch we need already."
I laugh and wave her off, "Alright then Yang, have a good afternoon." She leaves with a wave, and I turn my attention to the system pop up, apparently the quest for her has changed, looking at it only the small flavor text had any difference, but the rewards were still question marks, dismissing it I stand and go back to the training dummies, I still had an hour or so of free time today before I went to hang out with my team.
-o-o-o-o-o-
Combat class, perhaps the one I was looking forward to the most on our weekly schedule alongside Grimm studies, as both were about things I didn't have as solid a foundation I had on the other topics, even the history I knew I bit about since I read in my off time before Beacon, both because I found it interesting and I knew it would be a class.
So far, the classes had been repetitive but spaced out, everyday was three classes, with classes such as Grimm studies, team logistics, and other classes only happening once a week while the basic classes were repeated throughout the week, with Combat classes on that same timetable. This was the nineth combat class so far, and I hadn't been picked to fight just yet, but Goodwitch was cycling the students every day there was just quite a few of us to go through.
My attention is drawn away from my thoughts and back to the arena as metal clangs against metal, Jaune getting flung across the arena by a single blow from Cardin, he recovers quickly though, rushing in to go for a rather choreographed overhead strike, an easy block from the taller and stronger armored boy of the two. "This is the part where you lose." Cardin taunts.
"Over my dead-" Jaune grunts as he gets kneed in the stomach collapsing to the floor, Cardin raises his weapon over his head going for a finisher only to be stopped by the buzzer.
"Cardin that's enough." Ms. Goodwitch says, walking in between the two, my gaze going to the status boards as Goodwitch continues, "Students as you can see Mr. Arcs Aura has now dropped into the red, in a tournament style duel this would indicate that Jaune is no longer fir for battle and that the official may call the match." She pauses and turns to Jaune. "Mr. Arc it's been weeks now please try to refer to your scroll during combat, gauging your aura will help you decide when it's appropriate to attack or when it's better to move to a more defensive strategy." She pauses again. "We wouldn't want you to be gobbled up by a beowolf now, would we?"
"Speak for yourself." Cardin murmurs as he walks off the arena.
Goodwitch gives a look to Cardin's retreating back, but then turns to address the rest of the class, "Remember everyone the Vytal festival is only a few months away it won't be long before students from the other kingdoms start arriving in Vale, so keep practicing. Those who choose to compete in the combat tournament will be representing all of Vale." She ends as the bell rings. I give the go ahead for my team to head to lunch as I split off to go find Juane.
I find him sitting alone in the changing room, his armor discarded to his side. I approached him, clearing my throat to announce my presence. "Hey Jaune, you good?"
He startles a bit and looks over his shoulder at me, turning on the bench. "Uh yeah I am, just getting cleaned up here." He says dismissively.
I nod, "Alright then, just make sure you're not late to lunch." I turn back to the changing room exit and make my leave, I did want to help Jaune, but I recognized what he was going through, right now he was trying to be an idealized leader, to not show any weakness, well with any luck Pyrrha is soon to put him back on the right path.
Walking out to the hallway I link back up with my team, Lilith turning to me. "What kept you?"
"Ah, was just checking up on Jaune, he said he was okay, but I worry for him." I explain shortly.
"We know Marn." Lilith says, pausing for a moment before speaking again, "So the Vytal festival is coming up I was wondering if you'll be free to go out with the rest of us to Vale? I know you usually train during any free time you get, but Iris wanted us to go to a restaurant she always used to eat at." She says giving me pleading eyes.
I hold up my hands in surrender, "Alright, alright, I can take a break for a few days at least. Theres a few people I can meet up with while were out as well."
Iris perks up, "Oh? Who?" she asks with a curious expression.
"Some friends, know how I said before that I held a few jobs in the months before Beacon?" I ask as she, Lilith, and Aero nod. "Yeah, just some people I know who I used to work with that I haven't been able to see in person for a bit."
Iris hummed and continued, "Very well, we can all make a day of it."
"I bet we can." I concur.
"Yeah, and besides, you need to take a more breaks every now and then Marn, even Aero doesn't train as much as you do, and he has his whole solider boy thing." Lilith says with a giggle pointing her thumb at the boy, who responds by rolling his eyes at her, speaking up "I have to agree capt-" He pauses and clears his throat, "-Marn, we don't need you burning yourself out."
I hold my hands out again, "Ok, I got it, I'll take more breaks when I use my free time, promise." Lilith looks satisfied as Iris and Aero just give me nods of acceptance.
Our planning comes to a brief stop as we enter the cafeteria, both of teams RWBY and JNPR already sat and eating, seems Jaune got around us at some point while we were talking. We split off and grabbed our food, coming to sit with the rest, two to each side of the table.
Rin sighs as we sit, having got here at the end of another one of Noras stories, "She's been having this recurring dream for nearly a month now." He says looking and sounding exhausted.
Pyrrha turns to Jaune who was pushing the food around his plate not really paying attention, "Jaune are you ok?" The aforementioned boy perks up turning to her, "Oh, yeah. Why?"
"It's just that you seem a little…not ok." Ruby offers.
"Guys, I'm fine. Seriously, look." He gives a fake smile with a thumbs up to the rest of us.
Our conversation is interrupted as we hear a mocking laugh, looking over to Cardin and his goons harassing a brown-haired rabbit Faunus. Right Velvet, that did happen this early. I think to myself.
"Jaune, Cardin has been picking on you since the first week of school." Pyrrha continues a bit of anger lacing her normally kind tone.
"Who? Cardim Winchester? Nah, he just likes to mess around you know. Practical jokes." Jaune explains away.
"He's a bully." "He's scum." Both Ruby and Aero say at the same time respectfully.
"Oh please, name one time he's 'bullied' me." Jaune says with air quotes.
"The time he knocked your textbooks down in the hallway." Says Yang.
"The time he expanded your shield in the classrooms doorway." Says Ren.
"Or that time he launched you away in one of the student rocket lockers." Says Pyrrha.
"Yeah, still don't get why that one was the only one open." Lilith adds in quietly.
Jaune waves off our concerns, "I didn't land far from the school." He says, eating a bit of his food. Pyrrha looks concerned and presses on with her earlier worries, "Jaune you know if you ever need help you can just ask." I nod and add, "Any of us would be willing to do so."
Nora then launches up from her seat, "Oh! We'll break his legs!" She says grinning manically.
Jaune stands, picking up his only half eaten tray of food, "Guys really, it's fine, besides it's not like he's only a jerk to me. He's a jerk to everyone."
Before any of us can continue to try and argue with him were interrupted by the sound of a girl crying out, we look over to see Cardin now pulling quite harshly on Velvets ears and laughing loudly, "Please stop." Velvet asks, Cardin's only response being to turn to his team, "I told you it was real." He says, ignoring Velvet as the laughing continues.
I make to stand but am stopped by a hand on my arm. I turned to see Lilith giving me a look, practically asking if I was sure about what I was going to do. I give her a subtle nod and she lets go; I see several of the others looking at me as I close the distance with Cardin. I hated bullies of all kinds, anyone who abused their power or lorded it over others I loathed with all my being in this life and the last. I wanted to make things better. It was time to start, even if this did change things.
Cardin was too distracted to see me coming, and in a place like this he had his Aura relaxed, so my grip was rather easily able to put pressure on his armor, a sharp creak as it bent under my grip and he drops his grip on Velvet a second later, more in surprise than pain. He scowls at me as he wretches his hand away, "What do you want flea bag?"
"Rather unbecoming of a Huntsmen to degrade their peers is it not Mr. Winchester?" I ask, which he scoffs at in response standing to face me, "What? I was just showing my friends here the rabbit ears that girl had were real, besides an animal needs to be shown its place, which I think you need as well." He cracks his knuckles.
I hum and give him an unimpressed look, I mean I was basically an adult compared to him, mentally anyways, and stronger overall so his intimidation tactic was funnier than anything actually scary, "Well, as entertaining that would be to see you try, at most the odds would be against you, twelve to four." I say motioning my head to where my team, RWBY, and JNPR were all seemingly ready to back me up if things got physical.
That gives him the pause for a second as he turns back to me and gives me a nasty glare, but stands down, "Should have expected a dog like you to be a coward."
I shrug, "Fox, but the next time you try to bully for how they were born I won't start with my words." He sneers at me but motions for his team to go as they exit the cafeteria. As they leave, I turn to Velvet and give her an apologetic expression. "Apologies for that miss."
She waves off my sorry frantically, "No, your fine, just-thank you for not fighting them." She says quickly.
I raise a brow, "Not fighting them?"
She nods, "Yeah…I'm a second year here at Beacon so I could make them back off, but I don't want to drop down to their level just to get them to leave me alone, it wouldn't be right. And I was nervous about trying to talk them down." She continues to explain.
"I understand, it's a fine conviction to have to not want to harm others." I say as I walk past her, "Have a good day." I say and keep walking, to which she stops me with a hand on my shoulder, "Thank you again, and the names Velvet." She says with a smile. I give her a final goodbye as she goes back to sit, and I sit back with the rest of the group. Lilith immediately pipes up, "Are you alright Marn?" she asks in a worried tone.
"Yeah, I'm fine, you were watching the whole thing, nothing even happened." I say as she blushes, embarred, and looks down, "Thanks for worrying though." I grin at her.
"It was a good thing you did." Blake says in her quieter tone. "Sadly, there's more people like Cardin out there."
"Yeah." I say, turning to Jaune. "Listen, Jaune with a guy like Cardin all you have to do is stand up to him, show him you can't be pushed around easily." He gives me a look for a few seconds, before lifting his try and standing from the table, "Yeah…right." He says as he walks away, his team gives him worried looks as he retreats from the cafeteria.
Breaking through the sour mood Yang shoots me a grin, "I though you weren't chivalrous foxy." I flick a pea between her eyes as she laughs.
-o-o-o-o-o-
It was after lunch now, world history with Oobleck, and despite knowing of the man's eccentric personality and mannerisms beforehand it was still a wonder to behold the caffeine powered professor zoom faster than the eye back and forth during class.
"Yes! Yes, prior to the Faunus Rights Revolution War, popularly known as the Faunus War humankind was quite, quite adamant about centralizing Faunus population in Menagerie." Right, Menagerie. I always did wonder if the name came about because of racism, probably all things considered. I should look more into that. "Now, while this must feel like ancient history to many of you it imperative to remember that these are relatively recent events." Oobleck taps his pointing stick against the board a few times.
Not even taking a breath he continues his lecture, which I tune out for the moment, the class was interesting, and it continued to be over these first few weeks, but Oobleck, while being a wonderful professor no doubt, left practically no time to take down any notes, the class had gone from talking about the formation of the four kingdoms from remnants original tribal settlements to things happening just over fifty or so years ago in that same span, it was a bit much for anyone, and I didn't even have a clue about ancient Remnant history post the brother gods cracking the moon when I first got to this world.
The history of old remnant was fascinating, it kind of mirrored Earths history in a way, as far a sa world with magic crystal power sources and superpowers went anyways. According to Oobleck life, at least people anyways, on Remnant can be traced back to originating in Sanus and migration happened from there. Of course, no evidence has been found tracing back further than that, probably thanks to a combination of how thorough the brother gods were and Ozpins own handy work over however many millennia the man has been alive for.
I tune back into the lecture after I notice Lilith raising her hand, ah Oobleck must've just asked about discrimination, I do see Velvet raise her hand, a bit more confident than I usually see her act.
"Dreadful, simply dreadful. Remember students, it is precisely this kind of ignorance that breeds violence. I mean, I mean, I mean just look at what happened to the White Fang! Now! Which one of you young scholars can tell me what many theorists believe to be the turning point in the third year of the war?" Oobleck pauses in front of the class looking back and forth for a raised hand.
The second Weiss's hand shoots up his gaze locks to her, "Yes?" He asks expectancy.
Weiss responds, "The battle at Fort Castle." I double take at that name. That was actually what it was called?
"Precisely!" Exclaims Oobleck. "And who can tell me the advantage the Faunus had over General Lagoons forces?" He begins to look around again, as Cardin flicks a paper football into the back of Jaunes head, startling him.
In an instant Oobleck is in front of the boy's seat, "Mr. Arc! Finaly contributing to class this is excellent, excellent! What is the answer?"
"Uh the answer, the advantage of the Faunus had over that guys stuff…" He begins looking past Oobleck to Pyrrha who was currently cupping her hands around her eyes, "Uh, binoculars!" His answer is met with some chuckles through the class, none from my team at least.
Oobleck drinks from his mug, "Very funny Mr. Arc. Cardin! Perhaps you would care to chare your thoughts on the subject?" He asks, raising his voice at the boy.
Cardin flicks a bit of lint from his finger, leaning back with his legs up on the desk, "Well I know it's a lot easier to train an animal than a soldier."
"You're not the most open minded of individuals are you Cardin." Pyrrha states with a dangerous edge.
"What? You got a problem?" He shoots back arrogantly.
Pyrrha turns back to Oobleck, "No, I have the answer. It's night vision. Many Faunus are known to have nearly perfect sight in the dark." Cardin turns away from her grumbling. Picking up from Pyrrha, Blake says, "General Lagoon was inexperienced and made the mistake of trying to ambush the Faunus in their sleep. His massive army was outmatched and the general was captured, perhaps if he'd payed attention in class he wouldn't have been remembered as such a failure." She finishes.
Cardin slams his palms to his desk, standing towards the two girls, only to be stopped by Oobleck, "Mr. Winchester, please take your seat." He says exasperated, Jaune giggling at his misfortune, hearing this Oobleck blurs to the boy, "You and Mr. Arc can both see me after class for additional readings." Juanes's mood immediately sours, slouching over.
Class ends soon after that, we continued through the Faunus War, nearly reaching the end of the conflict before the bell let us escape the man. Walking out of the double doors with my team in tow I consider following Jaune and Pyrrha before deciding against it, Jaune still needed his growth and getting put under Cardin's thumb was unfortunately the best way I saw forward for the boy to get over his inferiority complex, after that I can really begin to try and help him alongside Pyrrha.
-o-o-o-o-o-
I was in my usual training room again; we had no more classes, and my after-class work was already done. I launch a few aura infused kicks into the reinforced dummy in front of me. And I say dummy, but the thing was just a slab of dust infused metal in the shape of a punching bag.
My solace in training is broken by the sound of the door to the room opening. I turned half expecting to find Ozpin here again, but to my surprise it was Iris, dressed in what seemed to be workout clothing. I stop my set to give her my attention, "iris, what brings you here?" She normally only trained when we did it together as a team.
"Ah, I wanted to train with you." She explains stopping for a bit and at my expression elaborates further. "Oh, well you see we don't really do anything together; you and Lilith do your book club with Lilith, Blake, and Ren. Then you and Aero do you weapon building and planning with Ruby, you and Yang seem to have cleared up whatever was between you too, and I realized we both haven't done much together despite being on the same team."
That was…true I found, thinking back yeah, I and Iris didn't do much. We had conversations of course and were friendly, but the things I typically did in my off time didn't include her. She and Lilith had their girl time with each other, which even with two lives under my belt I still had no clue what women did, and her and Aero had one of those quiet friendships where they just kind of passively meshed well.
I notice Iris's slight look of unease at my silence, I cough and speak up, "Sorry lost in thought for a second, but yeah, your perfectly free to join me when you wish." I pause for a second. "Soo…anything you want to do specifically?"
She a small smile graces her face, "There is, we both use dual weapons so I wanted dot see if we could share some pointers with one another."
I walk over picking up my Silver Guardians, "Sounds good to me, where should we start?"
Like that I and Iris came to a routine, every few days during my solo training she would show up and we'd simply hang out while practicing our own techniques and improving them with the insights of the other.
And soon, as days passed, the Forever Fall trip approached, and as too did the Vytal Festival. Things were soon to be set in motion.
-o-o-o-o-o-
Name: Marn Belmont
Race: Faunus (Fox Tail)
Level: 11 (184 EXP to Next Level)
Title: None
Age: 17
HP: (250/250) (100, 5 per END 1-10, 10 per END 11-20) (Regen END/4 per minute (5))
SP: (310/310) (100, 5 per STR & DEX 1-20, 10 per STR & DEX 21-40) (Regen (STR & DEX)/2 per minute (20))
AP: (450/450) (150, 5 per WIS 1-10, 10 per WIS 11-20, 20 per WIS 21-30) (Regen WIS/2 per minute (12))
MP: (275/275) (175, 5 per INT 1-10, 10 per INT 11-20) (Regen INT/2 per minute (7))
Strength: 15
Dexterity: 25 (30) 5 From Equipment
Endurance: 20
Intelligence: 15
Wisdom: 30
Unspent Stat Points: 4
Unspent System Points: 20
Semblance: Grimmafication
Perks: Belmont Bloodline, Aura Prodigy, Silver-Eyed Warrior, Blood of the Fox Demon
Fusion Perks: Bane of Darkness, Forbidden Hybrid
Talents:
Night Vision (Unique): You can see in low light conditions.
Enhanced Senses (Unique): You have better hearing and sight
Enhanced Balance (Unique): You can never lose your balance unless on purpose and are harder to knock over.
Beginner Weapon Proficiency (Common) (4/10): Knowledge of how to wield a wide variety of weapons. All weapon damage increased by 20%.
Beginner Martial Arts (Common) (4/10): Knowledge of basic hand-to-hand combat. All unarmed damage increased by 20%.
Beginner Acrobat (Common) (3/10): Knowledge of basic acrobatics and parkour. (You are 30% better at acrobatics)
Darkness Resistance (Rare) (1/5): 10% Resistance to Dark Damage.
Curse Resistance (Rare) (1/5): 15% greater chance to resist Curses.
Grimm Lore (Rare) (1/5): You have encyclopedic knowledge on Grimm and their types.
Aura Shaping (Rare) (4/5): You can shape your aura into fine constructs, these can exist beyond your own grip, but only so many at a time. (Costs 2 AP per Minute)
Aura Enhancement (Rare) (3/5): Channel your aura into a physical stat and increase it by 3. (Cost 3 AP per Minute)
Grimmafication (Unique): Your semblance. Increase all physical stats by 5/10/20 per form. (Cost 50 AP on Activation and form switching, 10/20/30 AP per Minute based on form)
Cero (Legendary) (1/3): An extension of your semblances power, condenses aura into a destructive beam for massive damage. Boosted while under a Grimmafication form. (Damage = (WIS x 10)) (Cost 50 AP)
Flash-Step (Legendary) (2/3): A short-range high speed movement ability due to your high aura control. Boosted while under an alternate form. (Move = DEX x 3 in Feet) (Cost 5 AP)
The Silver Eyes (Unique): When you feel a strong desire to protect life you will emit a large radius of silver light or a condensed beam, every Grimm in the area going from closest to farthest will have their HP put up to your (HP x 5), if it is lower, they turn to stone. That amount of HP will be taken off the effective use of The Silver Eyes and move on to the next Grimm. (Cost N/A)
Light Magic (Legendary) (2/3): Allows for the manipulation of light, can be fired off in blasts, infused into your weapons for a short time, or make solid objects made of light. (Damage = (INT Cost (10))
Perfect Hybrid Grimm (Unique): When in any Grimm form double your stat bonus and weaknesses to Light damage negated.
Basic Construction (Common) (2/10): Basic knowledge on how to build things. The quality of your constructions is raised by 10%
Swift Strike (Rare) (3/5): A single fast paced strike that can catch an opponent off guard. (Damage = Dex x 1.4) (Cost 10 SP)
Aura Infusion (Rare) (2/5): A crude but effective use of one's Aura, focusing it into a weapon to increase striking force. (Damage = WIS x 1.5) (Cost 9 AP)
Dodge (Rare) (2/5): A chance to automatically dodge a seen attack. (% = DEX/3)
Tracking (Common) (2/10): You know how to follow tracks. (20% more success to Tracking)
Cooking (Common) (3/10): You know the basics of preparing a meal. (Your cooking is 30% better)
Dagger Proficiency (Common) (1/10): Base damage with Daggers raised by 10%.
Shortsword Proficiency (Common) (4/10): Base damage with Shortswords raised by 40%.
Handgun Proficiency (Common) (2/10): Base damage with Handguns raised by 20%.
Slashing Resistance (Common) (2/10): You and your Aura are 20% more resistant to slashing damage.
Piercing Resistance (Common) (1/10): You and your Aura are 10% more resistant to piercing damage.
Bludgeoning Resistance (Common) (2/10): You and your Aura are 20% more resistant to bludgeoning damage.
Fire Resistance (Common) (2/10): You and your Aura are 20% more resistant to fire damage.
Block (Rare) (2/5): Block an attack to reduce damage, Damage reduced by END x 1.5. (Cost 10 SP)
Blade Dance (Rare) (2/5): A rhythmic and dance-like style of combat can only be used by dual daggers or shortswords. Base damage with daggers and shortswords increased by 6 (Cost 15 SP per minute.)
Bala (Legendary) (1/3): A variant of the Cero, trading power for speed boosted while under the effects of Grimmafication. Damage = Wis x 1.5 (Costs 20 AP)
Foxfire (Unique): The ability to generate different amounts of a soul burning fire. When used, damage dealt by Foxfire ignores all resistances and bypasses Aura. (Damage = INT x (MP Used/4))
Illusion Magic (Legendary) (1/3): The magic art of confusion and insanity. There are no real limits to the illusions you can make expert for size, however currently you can only make either a sound or image at once. Not both. (Costs 10 MP)
Curse Magic (Legendary) (1/3): The magic art of debuffs and downfalls. Curses come in many forms, such as blindness or deafness, sickness or sleep and many more. The chance of a curse working depends on your target's HP in comparison to your INT. (Costs 20 MP)
Misc Bonuses:
[25% Bonus EXP when defeating Evil aligned Creatures]
[25% Bonus Growth in Combat Skills]
[50% Bonus Growth to Aura Skills]
[25% Bonus Growth in Light Magic]
[25% Damage to Grimm when dealing Light Damage]
[50% Growth to Illusion and Curse Magic Skills]
[INT increased by (Age/10)]
Equipment:
Silver Guardians (Legendary)
A set of dual blades and revolvers, the first creation of Marn Belmont. Made to honor those he left behind and the future he wishes to change.
Base Damage = DEX x 2
Increases users DEX by 5 when both are wielded.
Soul Bound: This item will grow as the user does.