Christmas Bonus- The Wandering Huntsman Chapter 3

Wandering Huntsman

A/N Hi everyone! I chipped away at this chapter for months and finished it a while ago and thought I would just add it as a Christmas bonus. Don’t worry, I am not trying to burn out. But I see that some people vote for the less progressed side stories every poll and considering it is that time of year, I thought I would just put this out there for you.

Still writing and I am going to focus on the next side story that was voted on. Hope you are all doing well.

…

CHAPTER 3 – Aaaannd, Fight!

(Ruby POV)

“What do you think the new guy wanted to talk about to team JNPR?” Yang asked as they waited for the new professor to return.

“Probably to talk to Pyrrha,” Weiss said promptly. “If he is going to have us all fighting so that he can assess our skill level, then it would stand to reason that he would need to find a way to incorporate the best fighter without overpowering the weakest.”

Man, Weiss still really liked using all the long words. She was smart, but Ruby was smart too!

“I’m not sure that was the reason,” Blake said thoughtfully, her book almost lying forgotten as she kept looking towards where JNPR had followed the professor on the way to the change rooms. “He wasn’t looking happy as he called out to them.”

“Did he look happy at any time during his lecture?” Ruby asked, feeling confused.

“He seemed pretty amused when he was pulling my hair or kicking Pyrrha’s ankle,” Weiss growled, folding her arms tightly.

“I was a little amused,” Blake said, her lips curling into a teasing smile.

“I don’t know why,” Weiss shot back. “Your hair is just as long as mine and Yang’s. You’re going to need to put it up in his classes too.”

“I don’t wanna give up my cloak,” Ruby pouted, gripping the red fabric as if it might just disappear. “It’s too cool not to have! It makes me mysterious!” She waved her hands in front of her, fingers wriggling. Because if you are going to say ‘mysterious’ then you’d better make it cool.

“Yeah, I ain’t doing anything to my hair,” Yang declared, running her fingers through her beloved golden locks. “Anyone touches it and they are going find out that Yang’s bang is worse than her bark!”

Ruby couldn’t help groaning. “Yaaannng! No puns!”

The door to the hallway that Mr Gris and JNPR left through earlier opened again and the new teacher came back out. The way that his armour didn’t reflect light much was sooo cool! It made him look dangerous, ‘mysterious’ and cool.

Then Ruby looked at his face and he seemed… amused? But angry at the same time? Ruby wasn’t sure how else to describe it. He was tapping away at his scroll as he made his way through the arena, looking up just as he made it to the middle. He said something quietly to Professor Goodwitch, which made her frown and say something back to him.

“I wonder what’s that about,” Yang said as team RWBY watched the exchange. “Blake, you hear anything?”

“What, you think just because I have cat ears that I can hear everything?” Blake asked drily.

“Well,” Yang chuckled sheepishly before cutting off at Blake’s unimpressed look.

“For your information,” Blake replied frostily as team JNPR came back into the arena and the teachers stopped their conversation, “I don’t hear that much more than a normal human ear with my cat ears. Please don’t make assumptions like that again.”

“Well, how would I know?” Yang asked, waving her hands helplessly. “I don’t usually ask about that stuff.”

“Listen up you plebs,” Mr Gris called out, his voice shutting off all of the conversations instantly as they all looked down at him. “I know that I said we are going to begin with individual spars. That has not changed. However, we are going to have something a little extra at the end.”

He went silent as Ruby noticed that everyone in the whole stadium was looking at the new teacher with anticipation. Except Professor Goodwitch, who was glaring at him for some reason. And, team JNPR? Ruby hadn’t noticed it before, but Jaune looked glum, while Pyrrha and Nora were glaring at the new teacher. Ren’s face was its usual expressionless look, but he was staring intently at the new guy too.

“Due to failing my requirements that I have for all students to attend my class,” Mr Gris went on, “I informed a member of team JNPR that they were not going to be allowed to attend.”

“He can do that?” Yang asked. “I wonder who it was.”

“Probably Jaune,” Weiss said, looking down at team JNPR.

“Hey!” Ruby objected. “Don’t be mean.” Jaune might not be the most combat capable person at Beacon; or Signal. Or even her primary school if she was being honest, but he was her friend! He was nice! And he totally got all of her nerdiness! He was a great best guy friend!

“I’m not being mean,” Weiss denied primly. “I’m being accurate.”

Ruby pouted again, but before she could reply, the new teacher spoke up again.

“Due to a false sense of loyalty in the face of a criminal act,” he said, making Ruby flinch and whispers come up throughout the stands of the arena, “the rest of team JNPR has decided that they would have the audacity to make a bet with me. If they, as a team, defeat me on my own in a fight, their team will be allowed to attend my classes. That includes the lawbreaker. However, when I win, none of their team shall be allowed to attend my classes.

“Because of the nature of their attempts at extortion,” Ruby couldn’t help flinching at that word. It sounded harsh. “I have added the provision that the bet was considered active from the moment that they made the request. That means that if they pull out any time before the fight, it will count as their loss and they will be evicted from all of my classes.”

The whispers picked up volume as even more people began to talk with each other when the criminal act was mentioned. Ruby had a sinking feeling in her gut, that got heavier when she saw the vague look of triumph on her partner’s face. “That doesn’t mean it was Jaune,” she objected stubbornly, before Weiss could speak up.

Weiss opened her mouth to rebut, but then looked down at Nora. She seemed to consider for a moment before she nodded. Somehow, that didn’t feel like the win Ruby wanted it to be.

“The new teach doesn’t mess around,” Yang said, looking down at JNPR. “I wonder what they did. Or who exactly did it.”

“I doubt it was anything Ren did,” Blake spoke up, her book completely forgotten as the theatre of the arena was apparently compelling enough that she was no longer focussed on the story on the page. “And Pyrrha is too much of a public figure. If she did anything it would probably be all over the tabloids.”

She and Yang shared a look. “Nora?” Yang suggested.

Blake nodded. “Nora.”

Ruby hated the idea of agreeing with that, but Nora did have a tendency towards violence and a reckless streak. Jaune was pretty strait-laced; it was hard to imagine that he broke the law sufficiently enough for him to be singled out like this.

“I still think it was Jaune,” Weiss declared. “Look at his face. He looks guilty. And Pyrrha looks angry. It was probably Jaune not being allowed to be in the classes and that made Pyrrha mad.”

That, too, made too much sense for Ruby to immediately deny, no matter how much she wanted to. Why couldn’t they all go back to the dorms and just enjoy some cookies while everyone waited for this to calm down?

“However,” the teacher spoke up again, raising a hand to stem the conversations, “as you saw before, I injured the ankle of Ms Nikos during the demonstration. I won’t have it said that I won out of any sense of unfairness. The medic has already been called to attend the arena to ensure Ms Nikos heals properly. In the meantime, we will begin class spars.

“I will pair you up at random with someone in your own year group or the year group on either side of you if we don’t have enough numbers to keep it to just your groups. Each spar will last for two minutes, or until your aura goes into the red zone. That will be enough time for me to see what level you are at and let me know how I can adjust my classes for you.

“But,” he turned to look over at team JNPR, “for my own fight, the rules will be what all spars in my classes will be after today’s session. Fighting will continue until a person submits, is unconscious, or injured to the point of being unable to continue. If your aura breaks and runs out but you have not submitted, you are still considered an active combatant, and I will treat you as such.” He looked back up at the students in the stands. “If anyone feels that they are unable or unwilling to participate under those rules, you are free to leave my classes. Know, however, that once you voluntarily leave my class, you will not be allowed back in under any circumstance.”

More whispers broke out around the room, this time sounding concerned. Ruby saw Professor Goodwitch glaring harder at Mr Gris, but didn’t say anything to override him.

“I guess that means he is being serious,” Blake spoke up, frowning at the new teacher.

“I mean, it kinda makes sense,” Yang said uncertainly. “Not like the grimm are going to just let us leave once our aura goes down.”

“Guys,” Ruby said, as team JNPR were dismissed to the stands, “I think we need to have a serious talk after class about whether or not we are going to take this class.”

“What do you mean, Rubes?” Yang asked. “Extra combat training that could takes us up to a new level? I’m all for that!”

“It does sound highly dangerous,” Weiss put in her two cents. “And the… professor,” she ground out like it hurt to say, “doesn’t seem like discipline and restraint are going to be a big part of it, going by his earlier demonstration. And that’s not even taking account of how young he is. I don’t understand why Professor Goodwitch isn’t just teaching us.”

“Aw, you’re just mad that he pulled your hair,” Yang ribbed her as she reached out a hand to stroke the heiress’s white hair.

“Stop that you oaf!” Weis cried out, slapping Yang’s hand away. “And yes, I’ll admit that is part of it. He could have just told me the issue. He didn’t need to pull my hair.”

“It was an effective demonstration,” Blake countered. “It’s one thing to hear it being said, but it is another thing to witness it.”

“Hmph.” Weiss crossed her arms again and pouted.

Team JNPR made it back to their spot next to team RWBY. Jaune still looked glum, while Nora’s anger seemed to have died down and she looked a little worried. Ren’s face almost looked like it normally did, but his eyebrows were a little furrowed and his lips were slightly pursed. Pyrrha still was just glaring at the new teacher.

“Hey guys,” Ruby said, feeling hesitant. “Are you doing ok?”

Jaune sighed. “Not really,” he muttered.

Yang leaned across her, making Ruby lean back so she didn’t get a mouthful of Yang’s hair. “What was all that about?” she asked as two second year students made their way down to the arena for the first spar.

“It’s nothing for you to worry about,” Pyrrha snapped, not looking away from the new teacher.

“No, Pyrrha,” Jaune said, not looking up. “It’s fine. I should have told people earlier anyway.”

Pyrrha finally looked away from the teacher and stared at Jaune in concern. “Jaune? You don’t have to…”

He gave a bitter laugh. “Don’t I? Because of me, you guys might not be able to take this class. You heard the guy in the first ten minutes. We learned more about looking for weaknesses and strengths in an enemy combatant than we did in the entire first semester. Clearly he has a lot that he could teach us that we aren’t getting from the normal professors. But because you chose to stand up for me, you three might be kicked out on the first day!”

His voice raised to almost shouting by the end of his rant causing everyone to look over at them.

“Mr Arc,” Professor Goodwitch’s stern voice cut through the building. “Please lower your voice. This is a combat class. If you need to speak, do so quietly.”

“Sorry,” he mumbled, looking down again. The combat resumed, but Ruby didn’t have it in her to look at the awesome weapons that were being used right now.

Jaune closed his eyes and took a deep breath. “I faked my transcripts to get into Beacon,” he mumbled, only just loud enough for team RWBY to hear it.

Of course, Weiss was the first to react to it. “You did what?” she shrieked, loud enough to draw everyone’s attention again.

“Miss Schnee!” Professor Goodwitch barked above the sounds of the spar. “Refrain from such loud noises!”

Weiss’s face went pink at the admonition but nodded an apology.

“Yeah,” Jaune went on. “Professor Ozpin knows. So does Pyrrha and team CRDL. It’s why Cardin was bullying me last semester. He heard me telling Pyrrha and threatened to tell the teachers if I didn’t follow his orders. After that whole mess in Forever Falls, I confessed to Ozpin. He told me he already knew when he saw my application but accepted me anyway.”

He let out a big sigh. “I thought it was fine. If the professors knew but I was still here, then I was all good. But, the new teacher said that unlike the other professors, he doesn’t reward that type of criminal behaviour and I wasn’t allowed in. Pyrrha made a deal with him that if our team beats him in a spar that I would be, you know, allowed. But if we lose, well, you heard him.”

A silence came over the group as they all considered that, except for the noises of combat coming from the arena. Ruby took a quick look and saw a guy with a flaming spear head? No, not the time to be gushing over weapons. Focus on friends right now.

“I think the new professor made the right decision,” Weiss declared, because of course she did.

Pyrrha immediately swung her glare to face the heiress. “Weiss!” she spat. “Jaune deserves to be here! Professor Ozpin clearly agreed or he wouldn’t still be here.”

“Does he really deserve it?” Weiss countered. “Look at the rest of us. We all clearly trained for years to be here. I have been tutored by the best that Atlas could buy, you were regional champion for four years in a row, even Ruby was good enough in combat to be accepted two years early! But, no offence Jaune, you haven’t won a single match, you don’t know the first thing about Dust and don’t think I didn’t hear you asking about what aura can do last semester. When you first came here, it was like the only thing you did was wake up one day and decide you wanted to be a huntsman and put in a fake application.”

Ruby couldn’t help flinching while Pyrrha’s face started to get red in her anger. “Weiss!”

“Not cool, Weiss,” Nora said, but it was half-hearted as she was shooting glances at the teacher.

“No, Pyrrha,” Jaune cut off his angry partner. “I may have come a long way from what I used to be, but let’s be honest here; I am still not up to Beacon standard with my training or studies. Be completely truthful right now, if we were at Sanctum and I had my current level of knowledge and combat ability, where would I rank among the final year students? Be honest, that’s all I ask.”

That one finally took the wind out of Pyrrha’s anger and she bit her lip nervously for a moment as she considered. “Well, uh…” she trailed off as Jaune gave out a self-deprecating snort.

“That’s what I thought,” he said. He let off another sigh. “Don’t get me wrong, I am going to do my best down there to make sure that you don’t get kicked out of the class, but you need to stop being so nice to me about it. I suck as a huntsman.”

The whole group looked around awkwardly, trying to avoid seeing Pyrrha’s crestfallen face or Jaune’s depressed expression.

Ren put his hand on Jaune’s shoulder. “Jaune,” he said, his tone holding a note of warmth beyond his usual flat tone, “what you were doesn’t matter. We all need to start somewhere. You are working hard and we all see that. Whatever Mr Gris thinks, Professor Ozpin knew about your transcripts, and yet he both accepted you to Beacon and made you our team leader. While you might not be there yet, I think that shows how much faith he has in your potential as a huntsman.”

Some of the depression seemed to leave the group and Jaune even let out a tiny smile. “Thanks Ren,” he said, sounding very genuine.

“Aaawww!” Nora’s exuberance made a return to as she threw her arms around her partner. “Rennie is the best pep talker ever! And when we win, he is going to make us all pancakes to celebrate our victory!”

Nora’s cheerfulness brought chuckles out of all of them, even Weiss as they turned back to face the fights, right as the medic arrived to check out Pyrrha’s ankle. To Ruby’s dismay, two more combatants were already fighting, Coco and some other second year that Ruby didn’t know.

The fights passed quickly, with their much shorter time limit. Ruby ended up having a short bout with Sky Lark from CRDL that finished before the time limit, thanks to Ruby using her speed semblance that left the other boy too slow to catch up with. If she hit him a little harder than normal with the back of her scythe, then who was to say?

Watching the small group of fourth years that were in the class left Ruby watching in open-mouthed awe at how smooth and quick they were. It was clear that they were way beyond any of the first years, though Pyrrha could probably get a few hits in. but if that was the level of improvement that Ruby had to look forward to, then she couldn’t wait to see how strong she could become!

Finally, the time had come. Pyrrha’s ankle had been declared fully healed by both Pyrrha and the medic. All of the other people in the stadium had had their fights. Most of them had gone the full two minutes, but a decent number hadn’t. Weiss had managed to hold Yang off in their bout, but it was clear that despite the diversity that her Glyphs afforded her, Yang was able to power through it with the strength that her own semblance gave her. If the fight had gone on longer, Ruby would have bet that Yang would have pulled off the win. Blake had fought against that Fox guy in team CFVY, which let Ruby see that both of them were basically ninjas.  That had also been a draw between the faunas’.

Now, team JNPR were making their way to the arena. Pyrrha’s glare was back on her face as she stared down the professor, who just looked bored.

“This, rather unwise, fight is a trial between team JNPR and Professor Gris,” Professor Goodwitch declared. “You shall only be out of combat if you are unconscious, submit or are otherwise unable to continue fighting. Are both sides ready?”

Team JNPR looked determined as they are all nodded, weapons at the ready. Nora started cackling as she held her grenade hammer in its firing position.

On the other side of the arena, Professor Gris threw his large staff weapon over against the arena wall. As far as Ruby could see, the only weapon he had on him was a massively oversized pistol on his hip.

She couldn’t wait to see what it could do! Though she wanted to see what his staff could do too. Unfair!

Finally, the new professor nodded.

“Begin!” Professor Goodwitch barked and jumped out of the way.

Immediately, Nora fired three grenade rounds at the professor, while Pyrrha and Ren both raised their weapons and fired their more conventional rounds. The professor leaped sideways away from the pink explosions as the grenades exploded. Nora fired another round as the professor moved to hide in the smoke from the previous explosions.

The smoke obscured everyone’s view for a moment and Ren and Pyrrha took the opportunity to reload. Ruby, however, noticed something off.

There was no fourth explosion.

From the smoke burst something small, flying so fast that Ren didn’t have a chance to dodge as it collided with him and exploded. Ruby gasped as the smoke was pink. The same pink as Nora’s grenades.

“He caught it?” Weiss exclaimed incredulously.

Ren was thrown away from the explosion and Ruby saw his aura drop sharply from the attack.

“Ren!” Nora shouted. She switched her weapon back to hammer form and charged. The professor moved closer, circling slightly to keep her between himself and Pyrrha.

“Smart,” Blake said as she looked down intensely. “He’s stopping Pyrrha from getting a shot off. With Ren out, that means they are out of ranged options.”

Ruby nodded as the professor dodged or parried Nora’s best swings as he moved away, closing in slowly with Jaune. Ruby knew how strong each of those swings was. If one of them hit the teacher, she knew it would take a massive chunk out of his aura.

“Stop dodging!” Nora shouted, swinging the war hammer overhead.

The teacher didn’t respond, except to duck under the swing aimed for his head. Nora quickly spun and went for a low swing, aiming for his knees. Jaune moved in to support, bringing his sword in to attack the teacher’s blind spot.

This time, instead of dodging, the teacher redirected the hammer, causing it to smash into Jaune and send him flying.

“Jaune!” Pyrrha and Nora both shouted, watching their team leader go crashing into the wall hard enough to be pushed into it, leaving a Jaune shaped hole in the wall.

The teacher didn’t bother looking and took advantage of Nora’s distraction to start wailing on Nora. His hits were hard. Harder than anything Ruby had ever seen Yang punch, even when her semblance was active. The seemed to almost be little explosions against Nora’s body and they targeted weak spots: liver, neck, eyes, the spot just below the sternum. All of them driving Nora’s aura down to the red zone on her aura meter rapidly.

One last savage blow to Nora’s midsection made her aura flash and shatter. The punch sent her flying twenty feet back, dropping her hammer in a standing position with its handle sticking straight up, and collapsing on the ground. She wasn’t moving.

“Nora Valkyrie is eliminated due to loss of consciousness,” Professor Goodwitch spoke up, telekinetically lifting Nora’s body out of the arena.

“Nora!” Ren’s voice came from behind the teacher as he leapt in to begin engaging in hand-to-hand combat. The teacher stood firm, letting Ren come to him. Ren stopped short and threw a roundhouse kick at the teacher’s head. the teacher merely tapped the leg up with one hand, knocking Ren off balance and stumbling back. As an experienced martial artist, it only took him a moment to regain his balance.

In this case, that moment was a moment too long. In the time it took Ren to recover, the teacher reached back with his spare hand and grabbed the handle of Nora’s hammer and swung it at the quiet martial artist. The swing just so happened to block a potshot from Pyrrha’s rifle on the forward swing.

The hammer smashed into Ren’s side and launched him to a different part of the arena wall, his aura shattering as he flew. He hit the wall with a loud back and collapsed to the floor.

“Lie Ren is eliminated due to unconsciousness,” Professor Goodwitch said as the whole of team RWBY flinched at the attack. Ren was going to be feeling that one tomorrow. As with Norah, Professor Goodwitch floated Ren’s body out of the arena.

Not wasting time, Mr Gris spun and threw the hammer at Jaune, who had managed to get out of the wall. The war hammer slammed heavily into Jaune’s chest, cracking his chest plate and crushing him into the wall with a white flash of shattered aura. Ruby could hear the whoof of air being forced from Jaune’s lungs as he wobbled for a second, clearly gasping for breath, before collapsing.

“Jaune!” Pyrrha shouted in worry.

“Jaune Arc is unable to battle,” Professor Goodwitch announced. Sure enough, Jaune wasn’t moving, until the combat professor took him out of the arena with her mind powers.

“Wow,” Yang said, staring down at the battle in awe. “This is brutal!”

“He’s taking them apart so easily,” Weiss breathed, sounding uncertain. Understandable, Ruby thought. After all, Weiss was looking like she wanted to attack him earlier. “It’s like they are untrained civilians.”

Going by how this battle was going so far, it wouldn’t have ended well for her BFF.

“It’s been so quick!” Blake pointed out, staring wide-eyed at the massacre taking place in the arena. “And he handled Nora’s hammer like it was nothing.”

Ruby chanced a look at the clock, and was stunned to see that barely forty seconds had passed. Three members of team JNPR had been taken out, and not just from low aura. And Nora’s hammer weighed at least five times what Crescent Rose weighed. Without aura, Ruby wouldn’t be able to lift it, much less swing it!

The professor was now staring across at Pyrrha, who had transformed her rifle back to its spear form and was holding her bronze shield at the ready. From where she was sitting, it didn’t look like the professor had even broken a sweat, let alone struggled. In fact, he almost looked bored, if his eyes weren’t completely focussed on Pyrrha.

Pyrrha slowly moved forward, her shield up and spear at the ready. Mr Gris just huffed in annoyance at her measured approach and pulled his massive pistol from its holster, aiming it at Pyrrha. The redhead raised her shield and crouched lower.

The pistol boomed so much louder than Ruby expected. Four rapid shots hammered into Pyrrha’s shield, making four massive gong sounds. Pyrrha was pushed back off balance from the force of the shots, her shield pushed off centre as she lost balance.

Ruby blinked. Pyrrha’s shield now had four massive dents in it. She had seen that shield take all kinds of punishment from the ranged weapons of all the other students. To see that it was damaged so badly was a testament to how strong the shots from the teacher’s oversized pistol.

A small part of Ruby’s mind idly wondered what kind of ammo he used.

Pyrrha looked dismayed at the state of her shield for a moment before her expression became determined again. She slid the shield off her arm and threw it like a massive discus at the teacher, before charging in after it, her spear switching out to its sword form.

Ruby wasn’t sure what she had been expecting from the professor, but hitting the shield upwards wasn’t it. He didn’t even dodge, other than to turn his head to the side and let it pass by once it was knocked off course.

Pyrrha pulled up short and started swinging her weapon expertly. The teacher just ducked, stepped back or sideways, or hit the flat of the blade away with his hand. It was like he was toying with her. Ruby had never seen anything like it.

Pyrrha stepped it up by throwing kicks in to distract and unsettle the professor. He just adjusted his style, using his own legs to block her low kicks. She didn’t try and kick him high, like Ren had. Clearly she had learned that it wasn’t going to work out for her.

She leapt in with a thrust and Professor Gris just sidestepped and jabbed at her wrist, forcing her to drop her sword. He kicked it hard enough to have it fly over the arena and sink half the blade into the wall. Pyrrha cartwheeled backwards out of the way to create distance.

Pyrrha stood up in a combat stance looking at the professor and breathing harder than normal. Professor Gris just stared at her, his pistol in its holster again as he waited for Pyrrha to make a move.

She leapt forward, throwing a punch at the teacher’s head and midsection. She followed through with a flurry of punches that the teacher had no issue blocking, parrying or dodging.

“Pyrrha’s really putting a lot of effort in this,” Ruby said, staring at the redhead. “I’ve never seen her be pushed this far.”

“But it’s still not enough,” Weiss said, looking like she couldn’t’ believe what was happening in the arena. “He’s barely putting any effort in.”

“He has lost a little aura though,” Blake pointed out as she gestured to the screen above the arena.

Ruby looked up and saw that the professor had indeed lost a whole two percent of his aura. Considering he hadn’t taken a hit, it was either from reinforcement or from putting aura into the bullets he had used to damage Pyrrha’s shield.

“The guy is just playing with her,” Yang said, frowning down at the arena. “He could have taken her out ages ago, but he is dragging it out.”

“What do you mean?” Ruby asked. After all, while she might be an expert on Crescent Rose, hand-to-hand combat was Yang’s area of expertise.

“Look how he’s moving,” Yang pointed down at the fighters. “He’s never moved to face away from the opponent he is fighting. No acrobatics. It’s all real simple small movements. But all of the blocking and parrying he is doing is actually making holes in Pyrrha’s defence that he isn’t taking advantage of. He could. But he’s dragging it out on purpose.”

“Are you certain?” Weiss said, leaning forward in her chair as though she was trying to look closer at the fight.

“Definitely,” Yang said firmly. “I know my fist fights.”

Ruby looked back down and saw that he was now using both hands to block every attack from Pyrrha, except her kicks. The redhead through a punch and the teacher grabbed her hand and pulled her in, grabbing her other hand when Pyrrha tried to strike him out with that hand instead.

“Come on! Stop trying to hit me and hit me!” he barked at Pyrrha, the words sounding like a taunt, but his tone was actually annoyed.

Pyrrha let out a yell of frustration and tried to headbutt the professor. He shoved her backwards before she made contact with him and she stumbled away. She thrust out her hand and her sword yanked itself out of the wall behind the teacher, aiming to skewer him through the back.

At the last second, the professor spun around and caught the sword by the hilt and swung it around like a bat before Pyrrha could react. The flat side of the blade smashed into Pyrrha’s head, stunning her and leaving her defenceless against the next several powerful hits that smashed her aura away until it shattered in a flash of red light a few seconds later.

One more hit across the face knocked Pyrrha to the floor, blood dribbling from her nose. Professor Gris dropped the sword and walked over to Pyrrha.

“Do you yield?” he asked mildly.

The redhead spat some blood to the ground, clearly in pain and barely able to move. “No,” she bit out.

“Admirable,” the teacher said flatly. With that, he kicked her in the head, robbing her of her consciousness and ending the fight.

“Pyrrha Nikos has been eliminated due to loss of consciousness,” Professor Goodwitch announced. “The winner is Professor Gris.”

There was scattered applause from around the arena, most notably from the third and fourth years and team CRDL who were cheering loudly. Ruby scowled at them. They still clearly held a grudge against Jaune and Pyrrha from last term.

The medic had made her way over to team JNPR in the stands and had made liberal use of smelling salts to bring them all back to consciousness. Ruby felt bad for them as they were all staring around glumly.

“As you saw,” the new teacher spoke up, bringing the room to silence immediately, “the challenge issued by team JNPR has ended and they have been defeated. They are removed from all of my combat classes. For the rest of you,” he glared harshly into the gathered students, his eyes lingering on team RWBY, “if I hear that any of you have shared the lessons that I am teaching with team JNPR or any student that is removed from my class, you will also be removed. I will not reward liars and cheaters, nor those conspiring with liars and cheaters. Do I make myself clear?”

There were a few scattered affirmatives around the group. Ruby, nor her team were among them though. Ruby was going to do it if she could get away with it.

“I’m sorry,” the young professor said sarcastically. “I must have made you think that not responding was an option to any question I ask. I said: “Do I make myself clear?”

A resounding ‘yes’ came from the entire room, this time with Weiss and Blake speaking up too. Yang looked a little uncertain but ultimately stayed quiet. But from looking at her BFF, Weiss appeared to be in full agreement with not sharing any of the lessons with JNPR. Blake looked stiff for some reason.

Ruby exchanged a look with Yang. Yang just gave an awkward shrug, letting Ruby know that she wasn’t really decided on how she could go.

Ruby couldn’t believe it! These were their friends! How could they so easily abandon their friends? That wasn’t what good guys do!

“I know what you’re thinking, Ruby,” Weiss muttered softly. “If you share anything with them, you are betraying us. Because when you get caught, you are going to have us kicked off the training too. And blindly supporting a rule breaker is exactly why the rest of their team was banned from the classes too.”

Ruby flinched at being caught out so easily, but she was stubborn; she knew that. “That doesn’t make it right!” she hissed back.

“We’ll talk about this later,” Yang cut them off.

“I have to say that I am rather disappointed, team JNPR,” the professor said. “For one thing, I would have hoped that those of you that made it to Beacon would know that you are supposed to be pillars of law enforcement and civil protection in our society. How can the civilians trust us when we would rather support crime than support the law?

“Secondly, I would have hoped that if you were going to break the law and issue such a challenge that you would have had the skills to back it up. I hope that what you take away from this is that you are still incapable of taking on larger threats. Stop pretending otherwise and use the time you have to train harder.

“And finally, Ms Valkyrie,” he turned to face Nora, who still looked a little groggy after regaining consciousness. “I do find myself personally disappointed. You have potential to flourish from my training. I could have made you into something magnificent.” He shook his head. “I guess we’ll never know, now.”

He let out a sigh, then straightened up. “Get out of my class, you four. You are no longer welcome.”

The room stayed silent as every eye was turned to team JNPR, watching as they were slowly guided away from the arena by the medic.

To Ruby, the booming sound of the door shutting behind them, was almost as bad as watching her friends lose.

…

(Glynda POV)

“Was that really necessary?” Glynda asked, glaring at the younger huntsman.

They were back in Ozpin’s office after that… stunt of a training class. While Glynda had no issue with a new professor needing to establish a baseline of current talents before teaching something new, the fight against team JNPR was more like a deliberate assault against underprepared children.

That said, she was privately surprised at how much better Mr Gris was than team JNPR, seeing as he was only a few years older than them. Miss Nikos was an exceptionally talented tournament fighter. Seeing her lose so quickly and easily was certainly unexpected. Though, seeing as Mr Gris was not using anything that would allow Miss Nikos to use her semblance, it would certainly have taken away one of her advantages.

“I will remind you that I didn’t make the challenge,” Mr Gris said, sounding bored as he tapped away at his scroll. “Besides, that is how I expect all of the people to fight eventually.”

“But that is when they are qualified,” Glynda rebutted angrily. Combat students they might be, but they were her students and she didn’t like seeing them so badly damaged in her school. “They are still students, first year students.”

“And what are they studying?” Mr Gris countered. “Oh, that’s right. Combat. How to fight. How to take a beating. And, in this case, when challenging an opponent is or is not the right call. Honestly, it was better that they learn this now in a controlled setting instead of allowing them to build up false levels of confidence and have them take on an enemy that they had no right to face because they thought they were on the same level.”

“That is a lesson that we try to impart to all of our students,” Ozpin spoke up from behind his desk as he watched the conversation with his hands steepled in front of his face. “But the method that you used today was, perhaps, too extreme for their level.”

“Look,” the younger man said, clearly losing patience, “I might not be a regular teacher, but that’s why you wanted me in the first place. Either that or to try and manipulate me into something. After all, that does fit with your profile.”

Glynda froze at hearing that. Did he know? How could he?

“But the fact remains that I told you that you wouldn’t like my methods,” Isaac Gris continued, “but you asked for me to do it anyway. If you don’t like it, maybe you should have asked someone else. You know, someone like the teachers who are already here. Ones that are so immune to students dying that they don’t care about it anymore.”

“What?” Glynda gaped, feeling shock and anger rushing through her. “You think that we don’t care about students dying? How dare you!”

Several small objects started to rattle as she started to lose control of her semblance for a moment, before she forcibly calmed herself down.

Her anger had no impact on the younger man, who hadn’t looked phased in the slightest. “Tell you what,” he said easily. “Why don’t you attend the lecture for my next class? All the teachers can come too. Then maybe you will see what I am talking about.”

“What is your lecture going to be on, Mr Gris?” Ozpin asked sternly.

Once again, the younger man showed no regard to the seriousness of his actions, nor of Glynda’s or Ozpin’s unhappiness with the actions displayed in the combat class as he smirked slightly. “You’ll just have to come and learn along with the students,” he said.

“Mr Gris,” Glynda began, “you will answer…”

“I’m not one of your students, Glynda,” the younger man cut her off harshly. “I’m a fully licensed huntsman and I am here because your boss begged me to be. He even made special allowances to let it happen. If he doesn’t wish for me to continue, then he can follow the contract and pay me a full year’s salary in advance, I will walk out the door, and your students will continue to die just as quickly as they have for the last decade or two.”

“You are very confident in your ability to prevent that, Mr Gris,” Ozpin spoke up, looking at the younger man over his glasses. “Can you back that up?”

“Well, I doubt I could mess it up,” came the quick reply. “After all, even if my methods don’t work on everyone, at least Glynda here will still be teaching their regular combat classes.”

Glynda pursed her lips and narrowed her eyes, but held in any words she wanted to say. She would let Ozpin make the call.

“Very well,” Ozpin finally relented, making Glynda’s eye twitch slightly. “If you are that confident, I suppose the very least we can do is give you a few weeks to determine their effectiveness among the students. I hope that you are successful in your endeavours and not, as they say, full of hot air.”

“I find that contradictory that you say I am full of hot air when I witnessed a class in Port’s Grimm Studies class,” the snappy, but sadly not inaccurate, reply came. Peter was a good huntsman, but even Glynda had to concede that his lessons were, occasionally over-embellished.

“Indeed,” Ozpin conceded with a nod. “Then I believe that I shall attend your next class. I will confess that I am now curious on what you will teach my students.”

“Sounds good,” the younger man said, walking towards the elevator without being dismissed. Glynda grit her teeth but let him go. She remained silent until the elevator doors closed behind him before she rounded on Ozpin.

“That young man concerns me, Ozpin,” she ground out. “The level of violence that he put those students through was far too much.”

“Perhaps,” Ozpin nodded. “But he is right in that I would rather the students took a beating here than for them to be overconfident and outmatched in the real world. Besides, you seem to be forgetting something.”

Glynda raised her eyebrows questioningly.

“Isaac Gris is only a few years older than the students that he faced today,” Ozpin continued. “He has won no tournaments, he has never attended a combat academy, and yet he alone managed to defeat a whole team, a rather promising team at that, so convincingly that there is not going to be a student at this school that would take him lightly going forward. He didn’t ask for it, but he set it up that the other students will accept that he is the real deal. That will aid him a lot in the future. Plus, if his training them is anywhere as effective as Glacius Shadows’ training was for him, then we should produce some very fine huntsman.”

Glynda pursed her lips again. She didn’t like it, but she could accept it. The points were good. And, while she didn’t believe that she was lacking in her ability to educate the students in the finer arts of combat, having another mind to give off new ideas wouldn’t hurt. Even if they were as brutal as Isaac Gris had been.

After all, the grimm don’t fight fairly either.

“Very well,” she said. “I better go. I have reports to review.”

“Of course.”

With that, she headed to the elevator. The clicking of her heels as she walked reminded her of Isaac’s lesson today, and how it affected Miss Nikos. As much as she didn’t want to agree with the younger man right now, she had to admit, it wasn’t a bad problem to point out.

Maybe she should wear her running shoes in combat class more.