The Snow Angel and Her Knight - Ch. 6

Disclaimer: I do not own RWBY. I am writing this purely to see reader reaction and for fun. I make no financial profit doing this.

Chapter 6 – Know Your Partner

"Welcome to Warfare and Society in Modern Times!" Professor Oobleck, a slim man with messy green hair, large round glasses, olive green slacks and a half tucked in white button up shirt, topped off with a yellow tie, zipped around his classroom much like Nora might, words rapidly spilling out of his mouth. Whatever his secret was, he moved fast enough that no one could even see his legs moving, assuming of course that they moved at all.

"As the course title suggests, you will be learning of significant events in relatively recent history that have had strong impacts on the way battle is waged and how society operates. Topics include, but are not limited to, The Faunus Rights Revolution, the rise of the White Fang, and the advent of dust powered droids." His introduction was interrupted by sips from his coffee mug. On his desk were a few more empty mugs and a very large thermos, most likely filled with even more coffee.

At the mention of the White Fang, Nora and Ren didn't fail to notice their teammates both tensing slightly, making the bubbly ginger frown slightly in concern.

"Most people make the mistake of believing that we are experiencing a time of great peace, and relatively speaking, they are correct. However! Everyone here should know better! The monsters of Grimm have been weakened, but they still vastly outnumber Humanity and still seek to destroy us." Professor Oobleck darted around the room, observing his students as their heads pinballed back and forth. "People believe that the Great War is behind us, but unfortunately, it is just not so." He took another sip. "The war still goes on; it is just far less public than it used to be. We still hear stories on the news about towns and villages that have been massacred by the Grimm, and there are still Hunters and Huntresses that lose their lives combating them. The public simply does not want to recognize the threat for what it is, lest it destroy their dreams of a peaceful existence, and some in the government have been doing what they can to support that illusion. Fortunately, there are still those that realize that we are not safe, who work to support academies like Beacon, and their Hunters."

The class went on uneventfully, students taking notes, some falling into daydreams as the novelty of their instructors antics began wearing off.

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"Adel!" Weiss called out just inside the gate to the Animal Center. Seconds later a dark, barking, blur was racing towards her from the tree line. Adelric just barely managed to slow down and avoid plowing into Weiss, tail wagging furiously behind him as Weiss knelt down to play with him. "There's my boy, did you miss me?" She cooed at him, scratching behind his ears and rubbing his belly when he rolled over. Nora quickly joined her, cooing her own baby talk at the dog.

The four were now dressed in their usual clothes, as their next class was Combat Training with Goodwitch, and it happened to be one of the classes where Weiss was allowed, expected actually, to bring Adelric with her.

"She really loves that dog doesn't she?" Ren asked from where he stood with Jaune against the stone fence.

"Oh definitely. Her family is pretty disconnected. Her father is almost always too busy to spend any time with her, and when he does it's always awkward, she doesn't like being around her step mother at all, and she doesn't have any siblings. So whenever she wasn't at Oakfield with me, it was just her and Adelric." Jaune chuckled a little. "There was a period of like, three years that she seemed to have a camera glued to her hands or face, taking videos and pictures of that dog."

"Why doesn't she like her step mother?"

"Ah, that's not for me to tell." Jaune rubbed the back of his neck uncomfortably. "I probably said a little too much as it is, but I'm sure she'll forgive me." And it's not like details like those would've stayed secret for long.

Ren nodded in understanding, watching Weiss go off to find the Gate Keeper to sign Adelric out. "Say no more."

"Ren!" The pink being known as Nora appeared in front of them. "Look at all the animals! There are gorillas, and hawks, and dogs, and cats, and even tigers!" She hopped onto the fence, hand held over her eyes like a visor, gazing into the trees. "Can we play with them? Do you think they'd mind me putting a saddle on one?"

"Nora!" Ren interrupted her loudly.

She hopped down next to him. "Yes Ren?"

"This is a housing area for animals trained for combat and hunting Grimm, not a petting zoo."

Nora wilted a little. "Aw."

"Actually, that's not entirely true." Weiss joined them. "Occasionally they'll have 'Pet Therapy Day's' to help the students unwind, where people can visit with and sometimes play with the animals here."

Nora gasped loudly, all signs of disappointment gone, and grabbed Ren's shoulders tightly. "Do you think they have any sloths!? That would be sooooo awesome! It could be our mascot! No wait, we have Adelric for that. I know! We can get matching team uniforms! Of course it'll have to have a moon on it, and-"

"Nora!" He interrupted her again. If you didn't stop her she'd just keep going. He'd tested it. She once went an entire four hours babbling about whatever thought happened to be passing through her head at the moment without any significant pause until he'd had enough and stopped her. "You're rambling." His head tilted, processing her words. "And who would have a sloth for a hunting partner?"

"You never know!"

"Enough talking! We have to get to the training fields for Professor Goodwitch's class!" Weiss exclaimed, ushering the pair off. They were stalling her from learning from her idol for goodness sake!

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"Welcome to Combat Training. This class will be among the most important of your time here at Beacon." Professor Goodwitch stood before them at one of the many training fields at Beacon's disposal. Behind her was a black haired man who appeared to be in his late forties or early fifties, and of Vacuan descent, dressed in a simple black kung fu robe, over white pants and black slippers. "This is where you will be putting into practice what you've learned in every class. You will fight not only against Grimm, but humanoid opponents as well. There will be multiple scenarios presented to you, among which will be one on one combat, team battles, and various objective based practice missions. While this is the only class in which you will regularly fight, it is highly recommended that you take advantage of your free time to conduct your own personal training." Beacon Academy made sure to keep its students supplied with ample time for personal improvement around their classes. It just wouldn't do for an Academy dedicated to training monster killers to hamper the students training regimen. "That said, the only homework you will ever have for this class is making sure you keep up your personal training, and building and maintaining a degree of teamwork with your peers." The students all shifted, murmuring excitedly to each other, many of them taking her words to mean 'No Homework Ever'. "You're grades in this class will be dependent on your combat performance and signs of improvement."

"Today will be single sparring so I can get a feel as to each of your abilities. The matches will be conducted tournament style, meaning the fight is over when someone surrenders, loses consciousness, their aura is reduced to the red zone, or I declare it over. Any who continue after the match has been decided will be punished severely." She looked sternly at them. "In case of injury, the infirmary is just inside the doors and to the left," She gestured to the doors they'd used to find the training grounds. "Where Doctor Wong Kei Ying, the head of our medical facilities, will be able to help." She said waving an arm towards the man behind her as he stepped forward.

His hair was pulled back into a long braid down his back and he held his arms behind his back with impeccable posture, looking at them with stern black eyes. "Thank you Professor. My name is Wong Kei Ying, and you will address me as Doctor Wong. As much as I would like to never see you in my office, odds are we'll be seeing a good deal of each other during your time here at Beacon. It will be my job to put you all back together after you've finished tearing each other apart. Now, I won't keep you any longer, and I'll likely be seeing some of you shortly anyways. Professor Goodwitch." With a short nod and bow to their Professor the man moved to the sidelines to observe.

"Isn't that the guy dad told us about?" Ruby whispered to Yang, leaning over.

"Yea, definitely. Doesn't seem like much fun though. Dad has a way better bedside manner."

Goodwitch cleared her throat, looking pointedly at them before swiping a finger across her scroll, bringing up a list of the classes names and profile pictures. "Because most, if not all, of you have only recently met your partners, today's matches will be between you and your partner. Use these matches to gain an understanding of each other's abilities and start planning how you can work together in a combat situation. Our first match will be Ruby Rose and Pyrrha Nikos. Please take the field." She said, moving to the side.

As Ruby and Pyrrha stepped foot onto the field their profile pictures and aura meters appeared on Professor Goodwitch's scroll. "You may begin on my signal. Are both fighters ready?"

Ruby's scythe deployed, held on her right with the head of the weapon behind and with the spearhead on the back pointed forward. "Yeah!" She shouted excitedly, hopping lightly on her feet and chambering a practice round.

Pyrrha set her shield in front of her with her javelin held to the side, ready to thrust. "Ready." Pyrrha tightened her stance, eyes just visible in the top circular cut out in her shield.

"Begin!"

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Ruby immediately fired her weapon, propelling her at Pyrrha in a small flurry of rose petals. She set her scythe at an angle so that as she passed Pyrrha it would hook the red heads legs and take them out from under her.

Pyrrha quickly kneeled while stabbing her javelin into the ground, catching the massive blade just in front of her on the weapons shaft and the face of her shield with a small grunt. The force of it pushed her back a few feet, Miló's shaft digging a thin trench.

Ruby yelped at the sudden deceleration, her body coming parallel to the ground just before Pyrrha spun, bringing the edge of Akoúo down directly on her stomach, sending her slamming into the ground with a loud thud, and an empty set of lungs.

As Pyrrha moved to slam the Akoúo down again, this time over her neck, aiming to pin her to the ground under one of its circular cut outs, Ruby rolled backwards, quickly getting her feet under her and darting to the left, getting Crescent Rose free from Miló.

"Okay," Ruby groaned out rubbing her abdomen. "That's gonna leave a- EEK!" She fired off Crescent Rose, narrowly dodging Pyrrha's lunging stab.

The red headed Spartan spun into a crouch, Miló shifting into its rifle form. "Don't let your mind wander Ruby!" She called out, shooting at the red blur. "Distraction is the enemy!" She rolled under a slash, simultaneously shifting her gun into a sword and swiping at Ruby's legs. Ruby kept spinning with the slash, hoping to catch Pyrrha with either the shaft or a second swipe. The spearhead on the bottom of Crescent Rose scraped off of Pyrrha's shield and the swipe was narrowly jumped over.

Firing off Crescent Rose again, Ruby turned into a red cyclone spitting out rose petals as Pyrrha backed away, raising her shield just as Crescent Rose's blade straightened out into a glaive like appearance, the extra length giving Ruby just enough range to clip the red head on her shield and send her stumbling. Another shot restored any lost momentum as Ruby leapt forward with a loud cry, bringing her scythe slashing down on her vulnerable opponent.

Ruby could practically taste the victory as Crescent Rose descended on her partner's head, only to gape in shock as she felt her scythe move itself to the right, just scraping against Akoúo with a series of sparks and bury itself into the dirt. "What!?" She shrieked out in wide eyed disbelief, just before a sword stabbed against her chest, quickly followed by shield punching her in the face, and then while she stumbled backwards, seeing stars, a javelin slammed into her chest, just where the sword had first hit.

Ruby tumbled backwards head over heels, before coming to a stop on her back, Crescent Rose still buried in the ground next to Pyrrha as she plucked her javelin from the air with a practiced ease.

"Winner, Pyrrha Nikos!" Ruby could barely hear Goodwitch's voice over the ringing in her ears.

"Ruby!" A burgundy and bronze blur appeared in Ruby's field of vision sounding very familiar. "I'm sorry! Are you alright?"

"What happened?" Ruby groaned out as Pyrrha helped her sit up.

Professor Goodwitch stopped next to the two girls. "Are you feeling ok Miss Rose?"

Ruby shook her head, clearing up the cobwebs and wincing slightly. "Uh, yea, I'm alright Professor!" She said, before wincing and grabbing at her reddened forehead. "Owie…"

Glynda gave Ruby a brief look over before nodding in satisfaction. "Very well then, if you're feeling up to it then you may remain to observe the rest of the matches. Miss Nikos, please help your partner to the sidelines."

Pyrrha nodded, helping the black haired girl up as she collected her weapon and rejoined the other half of their team.

"As you all can see on your scrolls, Miss Rose's aura level has been dropped into the red. This means that in an official tournament match the referee will call the match. Our next match will be Cardin Winchester and Russell Thrush."

As Ruby and Pyrrha joined their friends, Cardin and Russell took their places, Cardin pulling out a very large two handed mace with a red dust crystal held in the middle of all the flanges. Some might say the orange haired boy was compensating for something.

"Man, I thought I had you." Ruby said, sitting next to Adelric and looking at the aura gauges on her scroll. Hers was well into the red while Pyrrha's only had a small sliver gone, and she wasn't even sure that wasn't a glitch with the pixels or something.

"Don't feel too bad Ruby. You did very well. I've fought many people and many fighting styles. More than just a few were based on speed and momentum like yours is, so I knew how to fight you."

"Ruby had you dead to all rights, but then she missed! How lame was that?!" Yang exclaimed, arms flailing for embellishment.

"I don't think that was just an accident." Blake said with Weiss nodding along with her. "Ruby's scythe was well on course when it suddenly shifted for no apparent reason."

"Well," Pyrrha began secretively. "Ruby has her speed, Weiss has her glyphs…my semblance is polarity."

"Ohhhh," Ruby said in understanding. "You can control poles." And Crescent Rose's shaft probably qualified as a pole.

"No Ruby, it means she has two personalities." Jaune confidently claimed.

"No you dunces! It means she can control magnetism!" Weiss said exasperatedly with a palm over her face.

"Magnets are cool too." Ruby muttered sheepishly, petting Adelric.

"Magnetism?" Jaune grabbed his head in disbelief. "Jeez, that's kind of ultimate seeing as how all of us use metal equipment." He said tapping at his breastplate. Though it wouldn't be as crippling against the Grimm seeing as how everything they used to fight with was organic. "The rest of us might as well just surrender right now." He said, playfully sagging in defeat.

Pyrrha rubbed at the back of her head with an embarrassed smile. "It's not that ultimate. It takes a lot of control to use properly. It's also how we survived jumping from the nevermore during initiation in case you've forgotten." She said looking at Ruby.

"Wha!- Uh, no of course I remembered ehehe." Ruby's eyes shifted, looking anywhere but at Pyrrha as she laughed nervously.

"She forgot." Yang stage whispered, leaning towards Blake.

"Shut up!"

Cardin managed to brute force his way through Russell's defenses and clobbered him with a few swings of his mace, quickly defeating his opponent. A few more fights passed until Goodwitch called one of them to fight again.

"Nora Valkyrie and Lie Ren, please take the field."

Nora whooped happily and darted to her position, war hammer balanced on her shoulder. Ren followed at a more sedate pace, taking his place opposite her with his Storm Flowers held ready.

"Begin!"

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Nora wasted no time in sprinting straight at Ren, screaming her war cry the whole way, and her hammer held over her head in preparation to crush him. In response, Ren didn't hesitate to turn tale and run away firing his guns behind him.

Nora yelled, leaping into the air, over the bullets, and descending where she predicted Ren would be. With a triumphant cry she smashed Magnhild into the dirt, digging a small crater as a pink explosion erupted from the hammer head. Ren managed to flip to the side, chunks of dirt raining around the pair, and peppered Nora with a small barrage of bullets while he was upside down before rolling to his feet and continuing his fighting retreat. "Be a man and take your lumps!"Nora demanded.

Ren's response was of course a stubborn "No!" And to shoot more bullets at her. This was Ren's primary strategy whenever he had to spar with Nora. Death by a thousand cuts. Nora had a much higher level of endurance and raw power than he did, so he had to fight smart and wear her down over time. This was tactic number one of the strategy; run away. As a result of course, he was very fast and agile. But, seeing a tactic used so often, one would inevitably come up with their own counter tactic.

Magnhild shifted into its grenade launcher mode and spat out a barrage of grenades, successfully breaking Ren's stride, forcing him to stop or run into the explosions and finally allowing Nora to catch up to her black haired friend, with a horizontal swing from her hammer.

Ren flowed under the strike, slashing at her legs with one Storm Flower while shooting her torso with the other. Nora pulled the trigger on her weapon, using the recoil of the explosion to propel the spiked backside of the hammer head into Ren's side and sending him rolling across the ground. Not giving him the chance to start running again, Nora pursued.

Ren grunted in pain, that last hit had taken a massive chunk out of his aura. Dodging Nora's next attack, he slipped behind her, punching at her back with the blades while simultaneously shooting. When Nora brought Magnhild around for another swipe, Ren met the handle with his elbow and redirected it so the weapon swept over him, just managing to ruffle his hair, while his free arm slashed her across the abdomen. Tactic two was just about the complete opposite of the first tactic, and was very dangerous. Get in as close as possible so she couldn't properly swing Magnhild.

Then Nora released one hand from her weapons handle and swung a back fist at his head. He dodged it by leaning back, Nora's pink clothed knuckle just brushing his nose, opening him up for a headbutt straight into his collarbone, making him stumble back. This was the danger of tactic two; a single clean hit from Nora could drain a third of his aura, and while being so close to her limited Magnhilds threat, Nora was still incredibly strong and quite capable with hand to hand combat, grappling in particular. Before Ren could recover he felt a pair of very strong arms wrap around him, trapping his own at his side in a bear hug. Opening his eyes he could see Nora's grinning face and felt fear run through him. "Oh jeez." Then he cried out as he felt his feet leave the ground.

With a jubilant cry Nora bent over backwards, suplexing Ren face first straight into the ground. Nora rolled with the motion and ended straddling Ren's stomach and pinning his shoulders down. "Start the countdown! One, tw-"

"Winner, Nora Valkyrie." Professor Goodwitch interrupted her, making the orange haired girl pout. Nora won with a little under half of her aura left.

Ren wearily sat up as Nora skipped off to collect Magnhild, face covered in dirt and with small bits of grass in his hair.

"Jeez, Nora totally owned your ass!" Yang said with a wide grin as the two rejoined the group. "And I was expecting you to win, you know with the whole martial arts deal you got going on. I mean, isn't that the whole point of it? So weaker people can stand up to stronger people and win?"

"We go back and forth." Ren said brushing himself off as best he could. "Because we grew up together we're both very familiar with each other's fighting styles and abilities, so we can usually predict each the others moves mid fight." Though Nora had an easier time of that than he did. Ren didn't think anyone could fully predict the hyperactive ginger.

"Next up will be Weiss Schnee and Jaune Arc. Please take the field."

The two quickly took their places, Adelric standing just in front of Weiss with his armor deployed. Adelric would be treated with the same rules as any human fighter. He had his own aura gauge and would be knocked out of the fight if it dropped into the red zone.

"Begin!"

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Adelric quickly charged, barking and tearing up clumps of dirt in his wake, while Weiss began drawing sigils in the air with quick swishes from Myrtenaster. The turret on Adelric's back deployed from its cradle, shooting fireballs at their blonde opponent.

Jaune met Adelric's charge, plowing through the fiery onslaught and colliding with the Hunting dog shield first and knocking him onto his hind legs with a push. Before Jaune could capitalize on the vulnerable underside he was forced to roll away from a volley of icy blue sigils that created blocks of ice the size of half his torso where they impacted the ground.

Coming out of his roll, Jaune funneled his aura through his sword and shield, creating a white misty glow on their surfaces. Another volley of sigils, this time red came down on him, as he swung his sword, swatting the dust created projectiles away from him to explode harmlessly around him.

A sharp whistle from Weiss and Adelric circled around behind Jaune with his blades extended, on course to cut him down at the back of the knees. From Jaune's other side, Weiss created a white glyph underneath her and charged Jaune, gliding across the ground. Weiss reached him first, Myrtenaster glowing yellow. Meaning Jaune should prepare himself for an electrical strike.

Sweeping his sword in a parry, sparks burst into existence at the point of contact. The only reason Jaune still had feeling in his sword arm was due to the insulation provided by his aura circulating through his sword. As it was he still got a small jolt, creating small spasms in his arm.

The parry led into Weiss gliding past him in a sliding tackle as Adelric leapt over her, blades now level with Jaune's chest. Swinging his sword back up in a slash that would send the canine rolling, Jaune couldn't see Weiss making a quick flourish with her free hand. Inches before his blade could connect a white glyph spun into existence, making Jaune's sword bounce off with a clang only a moment before Adelric's left blade collided with his chest plate.

Rolling with the blow, Jaune fell on his back and quickly kicked back up onto his feet, bringing his shield up to block a slash from Weiss, again feeling a jolt of electricity shoot up his arm. Putting his weight behind it, Jaune heaved Weiss away from him, sending her hopping back a few meters, before turning his attention to Adelric who was once again on course to clip him with his blades, keeping his dad's lessons in mind.

"When you're fighting against multiple enemies who are aura capable, focus on one enemy at a time. Most of the time you won't be able to land a one hit kill or knockout blow, and if you split your attacks between multiple foes they will have time between engagements to recharge their aura levels, no matter how minuscule it is. It's all cumulative, and in a full scale battle or fight it can mean the difference between victory and defeat."

Adelric was the closest to being taken out of the fight, Jaune's opening shield bash taking a small chunk out of his reserves, so the canine would be Jaune's first target. Charging to meet the dog, Jaune leaned to the left to avoid a fireball that would have exploded on his face and blocked the blade that would have cut just under his chest plate with his shield, while spinning his sword into a reverse grip and slashing upwards, hitting Adelric solidly in the snout with the pommel before stabbing it down on his back. The blade scrapped off Adelric's armor, but the power of the strike had the dog crouching to maintain its footing.

Spinning around the blade on his shield, Jaune narrowly avoided the jaws snapping at his right thigh, using the momentum of the spin to land another slash along Adelric's right flank and rolling under another fireball.

Another sharp whistle cut through the air, and Adelric broke off, running towards the perimeter of the fighting area as Weiss slammed into the blonde before he could recover his footing. Weiss knew very well what Jaune was trying to do; she had received the same lessons after all.

Jaune arched his back away as Myrtenaster scraped over his chest plate, and quickly brought his shield up to block the downward chop that followed while slicing his sword underneath.

Weiss avoided the attack by leaning back on her thighs while a glyph slid her backwards without even moving her feet. Myrtenaster quickly charged a red glow and with a slash at the air in front of her a crescent shaped wave of red energy rushed at Jaune.

As Jaune moved to jump over the wave, a trio of blue shots hit his feet and the ground under him, resulting in everything below his knees being frozen to the ground. Instinctively huddling behind his shield and shoving as much of his aura as he could into it, he braced for the impact, idly glaring to the right, at the panting, grinning form of Adelric, a light blue smoke wafting from his cannon, seconds before the world exploded into an inferno.

Jaune came rocketing out the back of the newly created cloud of smoke, covered in light burns, ash and singe marks, coming to a rolling stop on his stomach, and clumsily began trying to get back to his feet.

Weiss didn't hesitate to keep up the attack now that she had the advantage. That had been a good hit, a very good hit, but it wouldn't be enough to take Jaune down. He was already shaking off the attack and getting his bearings back, she noted, as he got one foot under him. Pointing her right index and middle fingers, she created a blue glyph under Jaune that quickly exploded in a burst of inverted gravity, throwing Jaune tumbling into the air.

Rolling Myrtenaster's dust chamber to yellow, Weiss pointed her rapier straight at Jaune, while Adelric took aim with his cannon. Simultaneously a bolt of lightning shot from Myrtenaster and a barrage of fireball's from Adelric, all racing at Jaune.

"Oh god why!?" Jaune's eyes widened, seeing the elements shooting at him. Timing things precisely, Jaune slashed his sword in an arc around him, leaving a white trail of aura. Just as he finished the swing, the lightning bolt touched the beginning of the arc and ran along it before continuing past Jaune and smashing through the fireballs before hitting a startled Adelric, who yelped in pain.

"Adel!" Weiss yelled in concern, seeing her dog whimpering at the sidelines. A quick look at her scroll indicated Adelric was in the red. The onsite vet quickly went to him, checking him over for a few moments before waving that he was alright and pulling the canine off the field where Nora and team BYRN could fawn over him. Aura shielding could do quite a bit, but it wouldn't stop everything.

She knew Adelric would be alright. Hunters and their animal companions are an incredibly resilient bunch. Their aura's can deflect damage, and passively increased their rates of healing and made them far more resistant to sickness. But that didn't make her feel any less angry or guilty that her dog had been hurt, and by her own attack no less!

"Arc." Weiss growled out, turning to look at the nervous blonde. "You're going to pay for that…dearly!" Myrtenaster began glowing a bright red.

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"He'll be fine by tomorrow morning. He'll just have some trouble moving around until the remnants of the shock dust works its way out." The vet told teams BYRN and LWNA. "It should be gone in half an hour at most. Until then be careful touching him or you might shock yourself."

Adel groaned and attempted to get back into the field until Nora gently pushed back down, not bothered in the least by the sparks and jolts that snapped at her. "Poor puppy, it's alright. They're just sparring, so they won't really hurt each other." She said, running her hands through his fur, more sparks nipping at her. Then they all heard Weiss's war cry. "Or maybe she will. I guess you'd know better than me." Nora grinned as another explosion ripped through the air.

"Should you be petting him like that? The vet said to be careful about that." Ruby asked her, cautiously reaching out to pet him herself, but yelping and pulling her hand back when it got shocked. "Ouchy!" She sucked on the offended fingers, tears gathering in the corners of her eyes.

Nora laughed. "I'm just that awesome!"

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"C'mon Weiss, don't be like this!" Jaune shouted, bobbing, weaving, jumping and running to avoid the elemental onslaught Weiss was raining down upon him. "Adel will be fine! You know how tough he is! He gets hit by things like this all the time!"

Weiss yelled in rage, and with a complex series of swishes, flicks and flourishes Jaune was trapped by four blue glyphs. "Yes, but this time it was my attack that hit him!" The glyphs glowed before Jaune felt a crushing force pressing in on all sides of him. "And to make it even worse, you know how he feels about thunder and lightning!" Jaune pushed back with his own aura, creating an invisible protective bubble around himself as bits of white aura sporadically flared from his body.

Weiss quickly cut off the glyphs, knowing that she'd run out of aura far more quickly than Jaune would. Jaune stumbled forward at the sudden change in resistance, giving Weiss an opening to stab the ground, launching a track of jagged ice at him, encasing him up the waist and buying her some time to reload Myrtenaster.

"Oh c'mon!" Jaune griped, before smashing the ice with his swords pommel and charged at Weiss. She had to be running on empty by now with as much energy she was expending.

Weiss stood waiting for him panting from all the exertion, her left side facing him with Myrtenaster poised in front of her, right hand held behind her at waist height.

As Jaune reached her, he brought his sword crashing down on top of her. Weiss twisted Myrtenaster to parry his strike away, waiting for the last possible second to pull the trigger and create a red repulsion shield, knocking Jaune's sword out of his hand and sending it sailing far to the right. With her left hand Weiss quickly drew the poignard from her lower back, and stabbed forward, straight for Jaune's chest.

Jaune was able to punch the dagger with the edge of his shield, pushing it away from him, quickly followed by a powerful shield bash that sent Weiss stumbling backwards. Jaune followed, pulling the rondel from his waist fluidly spinning it to hold it in a standard grip.

Weiss lashed out with Myrtenaster as she retreated, only to have her arm tossed wide by another punch from Jaune's shield, as he got in very close, his shield preventing her from doing anything with her off hand and stabbed his dagger at her gut repeatedly, advancing as she fell back. Every time she tried bringing Myrtenaster back in to retaliate or defend, Jaune pushed it back aside with his superior strength.

Jaune got in four stabs before he disengaged, just before Professor Goodwitch called the match.

"Winner, Jaune Arc."

Checking his scroll, Jaune was pleased to note that Weiss's gauge had just barely entered the red. It made him happy to know that he knew Weiss so well that he could predict her aura levels mid fight without having to resort to a display.

"Good match Weiss." Jaune held his hand out for a sportsmanlike shake after collecting his sword.

"Good match Arc." Weiss reciprocated tersely, glaring at him.

"Aw, c'mon Snow Angel. I'm sorry, ok?"

Weiss glanced out of the corner of her eye, noting that Goodwitch wasn't currently watching them, and quickly swatted Jaune on the backside with the glowing yellow flat side of Myrtenaster.

Goodwitch turned at Jaune's loud yelp and raised an eyebrow as she took in Jaune standing there rubbing his buttocks and his hair in a wild and frizzy state, while Weiss did an admirable job of looking innocent. "Mr. Arc, Ms. Schnee, please return to the sidelines. There are still other fights to conduct."

As the two walked back over to their team Weiss whispered, "You're forgiven."

Weiss immediately went to her dog to coo over him. "How's my boy doing? I didn't hurt you did I?" Adelric licked her face in response, making her sputter and wipe her face with a quickly pulled handkerchief. "Blagh, Adel!" Weiss pushed his snout away. "Well, at least I know you're feeling ok. Oh hey, why aren't you all sparky?"

"Nora's been petting him ever since he came back, so all the residual electricity should be gone by now. The shocks didn't bother her." Ren informed her.

Weiss hummed thoughtfully while looking at Nora. "Thanks Nora."

"My pleasure Weiss!" Nora chirped happily.

"Our next match will be Blake Belladonna and Yang Xiao Long. Please take the field."

"About time!" Yang shouted jubilantly, throwing her arms up triumphantly. "It's finally our turn!" The blonde bombshell raced onto the field, followed by Blake at a much more sedate pace.

"Yang's certainly powerful, but I don't think she'll be able to defeat Blake. She's a brawler, and we've all seen just how agile and precise Blake is. I bet she'll have a tough time even catching her." Ren commented, crossing his arms while Nora, Weiss and Pyrrha all nodded in agreement.

Ruby smirked, pulling up her hood. Yang was the best fighter to come out of Signal Academy in several generations. The only one here Ruby wasn't certain her sister could take down was Pyrrha.

"What's with the smirk?"

Ruby turned her head to look at Jaune. "You'll see."

Then Goodwitch's voice rang out once more. "Begin!"

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Blake stood across from Yang, hand grasping Gambol Shrouds hilt on her back, watching curiously, right eyebrow raised, as Yang lightly clapped her left palm over her right fist in a short bow before deploying Ember Celica and assuming her stance.

The two stared at each other for a few moments before Yang's patience ran out, advancing with a light jog before suddenly increasing her speed the last few feet with a left jab fast enough that her arm blurred.

Blake's eyes widened in surprise, just managing to bring her cleaver in front of her face to block, nearly getting her nose smashed in by the flat of her own weapon for her troubles.

Yang lashed out with another two left jabs, each smashing into the cleaver with loud, solid, thunks before she threw a right cross that overwhelmed Blake's defense, making Gambol Shroud smack hard into her face.

Stumbling back, Blake twisted into a crouch, lashing out at Yang's legs and successfully making her back off for a few precious seconds while Blake recovered her footing, drawing her katana from the cleaver and taking her stance.

"Don't underestimate me Blakey, or you're in for a world of hurt." Yang grinned. "Ahh, who am I kidding? You're in for a world of hurt anyways! But this way you won't be surprised when you are!"

"I must apologize Yang. I didn't think you'd be nearly that fast." Blake said, holding her weapons in reverse grips. "It won't happen again."

This time Blake was on the offensive, her dual weapons striking out in a storm of black steel. However, her usual advantage of having an extra weapon over her opponent was gone, as Yang was more than capable of blocking her blades with Ember Celica, successfully stopping simultaneous attacks from angles that would have otherwise connected.

Catching the cleaver in a cross block over her head, Yang let the blade fall while redirecting it to harmlessly slice down next to her and pull Blake off balance. Quickly bringing both fists back to her waist in a horse stance, Yang whipped her torso around, building momentum and power, launching her left gauntlet straight up into Blake's face, a fireball erupting on contact as she triggered the shotgun function.

While Blake was reeling from the explosive punch, Yang stomped forward while throwing both fists forward in vertical alignment. The left gauntlet buried itself in her stomach while the right bashed into Blake's chest with bone cracking strength, both gauntlets igniting another shell and sending her flying backwards to roll to a stop facedown.

To her credit, the dual wielding brunette quickly got back to her feet, though her stance was wobbly and she was heavily winded.

"You alright there Blakey? I didn't hit you too hard did I?" Yang teased with a wide grin. "It'd be a shame if I broke my new sparring partner so fast."

Blake swallowed back the nausea she was feeling, glaring at the blonde. "My god! I knew she was strong, but I feel like I just got hit by a truck!" She'd both felt and heard something in her chest crack when that last attack connected, and the blow to her stomach was threatening to see her lunch make a guest appearance. "You'll need more than that to finish me off." Rearing her right arm back, Blake's katana folded into its chain scythe form and was launched straight at Yang, boosted by the recoil of the gun firing.

"That's the spirit!" Yang ducked under the flying chain scythe, firing her gauntlets behind her for a boost of speed. Reaching her opponent she threw a right uppercut, connecting cleanly with Blake's chin and sending her up several feet with another explosion. To Yang's shock, the girl she'd just punched flickered out of existence in mid air.

Quickly looking down, she found Blake crouched and already swinging her cleaver right at her midsection while Yanking back on the ribbon gripped tightly in her right hand. Body reacting instinctively, Yang tilted her right arm, still raised in an uppercut, and fired the gauntlet, rocketing her arm down just fast enough to block the cleaver, though the power behind it tilted her off balance. Rolling with the momentum, Yang dodged to the left, side flipping over the taut ribbon and barely avoiding the scythe on its return to Blake.

Blake pursued the blonde, reforming her katana and slashing downwards. When Yang caught the blade on her left gauntlet, Blake pulled the trigger on Gambol Shroud, managing to shoot two bullets directly in Yang's face and neck before being shoved away. Another devastating punch met Blake's chest, before the girl once again flickered out of existence while the original lunged to the right, successfully slashing Yang across the stomach with her cleaver. Blake was able to connect one more time using this method before Yang got frustrated and punched the ground under her, sending a small quake throughout the area and knocking Blake off balance.

Sparks and embers jumped from Yang, as she stood back up and launched a palm strike straight into Blake's stomach, the knuckles on Ember Celica smoothly sliding back with the motion before clicking back into place. While Blake stumbled back from the blow, Yank spun into a leg sweep and while Blake was horizontal to the ground kept up her spin while rising, bringing both arms up over her head into a mirrored descending hammer strike one fist on either side of her, that smashed into Blake's abused abdomen, sending her crashing into the ground and creating a small indentation while sending dirt and dust flying.

"Winner, Yang Xiao Long."

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"That wasn't brawling." Ren said slowly, as Yang and Blake rejoined them, the black haired girl rubbing lightly at her chest. "That was kung fu."

"Dur." Yang rolled her eyes. "What, did you think I was called Yang Xiao Long just to be cool or because it seemed interesting?"

Judging from the expressions she was now seeing on the faces of everyone but Ruby, yes, they did. Ruby just looked smug at everyone else's surprise.

"Well, no, I'm not. Though it is extremely cool to be called Sun Little Dragon, I have the name because Dad's Vacuan."

Grinning at everyone's noises of surprise, Yang continued. "Yup! I know we don't look it, but Ruby and I are half Vacuan. I took dad's name and Ruby took mom's. Dad's the one who taught me how to fight."

"So then does Ruby know kung fu as well?" Jaune asked, looking at Ruby.

Ruby reddened slightly as she answered. "Maybe a little, but I don't have any talent for it. Our uncle's the one who taught me how to fight."

"Wait, if you're half Vacuan, why do people address you as 'Yang' and not 'Xiao Long'?" Ren asked.

"When Ruby was small she couldn't pronounce 'Xiao Long' very well, so she just started calling me 'Yang' and it stuck." Yang ruffled Ruby's hair, overpowering her attempts at getting her to stop.

"So what style was that? It's nothing like Ren's." Nora chirped curiously.

Before Yang could answer, another voice cut in. "That was the Hung Gar styles of martial arts." Yang burst out laughing at the word 'hung' slapping her knee, as Doctor Wong approached. "Judging from his fighting style, he uses the soft arts, like Tai Chi, while Yang favors more hard styles, like the Iron Wire Fist of Hung Gar."

"Hung!" Yang got out between giggles, wiping away a tear. "Oh the opportunities. 'Hung garde!'" Yang mock fenced, "I'm so Hung Garee!" She rubbed her stomach, descending into more giggles.

Doctor Wong looked at her stoically. "Your father warned me that you would do that. But your command of the Hung Gar style is impressive, especially for one as young as you."

Yang grinned unrepentantly. "Thanks. Dad says I'm some sort of prodigy. Ruby thinks that I stole all of the kung fu DNA when I was born."

"Well how else do you explain it!?" Ruby burst out, throwing her arms into the air. "You and dad are so awesome at it and dad had a tough time even teaching me how to punch properly!"

"Miss Belladonna, you took some hard hits. Do you require any assistance?" Dr. Wong inquired, ignoring the sisters' antics.

Blake winced. "Actually, I think Yang might've cracked some ribs." Even with those shells being practice rounds, Yang's punches had ridiculous amounts of power behind them. "How do you know those two by the way?" Blake nodded at Yang who now had Ruby in a headlock.

Wong Kei Ying nodded. "Their father and I are old friends. We fought the Grimm together in Vacuo for a while as combat medics. We keep in touch. Now, unless your injuries are bothering you…?" He trailed off, as Blake shook her head negative. "Come visit the infirmary once Professor Goodwitch releases you."

"Hey! How come you didn't come and check on me when Pyrrha nearly bashed my daylights out?" Ruby asked him as she finally escaped Yang's hold.

"When you've been a healer as long as I have, you become very good at identifying and grading injuries just by watching. From what I saw during your fight, unless you came to me with complaints I could just keep an eye on you for signs of concussion, while Miss Belladonna suffered multiple blows of potentially bone breaking force."

"Dad told us that you were friends; said that the two of you were rivals in both martial arts and medicine." Yang commented.

Wong smiled briefly before returning to his stoicism. "Yes, it was never consistent, which of us defeated the other, in either field. Though I believe that Dr. Yang is the superior physician."

A loud yell of pain came from the field. "Excuse me. It was a pleasure meeting you all." Dr. Wong left to tend to a boy clutching his arm.

After a few more fights, class was dismissed and everyone left, some heading for the infirmary, others their dormitories and showers, all with a greater understanding of their partners' capabilities.

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End Chapter!

Well, there are a few things that are driving me absolutely nuts. First, what the heck are team CRDL's weapons? And second, who are Velvet's teammates!? ARGH! *Rolls around on ground clutching head in mental agony* I really don't want to implement OC's for it because it'd deviate too far from canon than what I'm comfortable with.

But oh well, I'll deal with that later and I'm sure no one wants to see me griping. Anyways, this chapter has one of my theories for the whole Ruby/Yang name difference thing. One of their parent's (the father in this fic) is Chinese/Vacuan and Yang took their dad's name while Ruby took their mom's. My other theory is that Yang received training from someone native to Vacuo, or who carried the name 'Yang' and bestowed the name Yang Xiao Long upon her. Personally, I'm leaning more towards my second theory, I just didn't want to use it for the fic because if I had a daughter and she took someone else's name I'd feel pretty darn bad about it. It also ties in with the whole 'I have several names' line Yang had in the yellow trailer.

If anyone's curious, Ruby's and Yang's dad, and his friendship with Wong Kei Ying, is based on the movie Iron Monkey (1993). Really cool movie that I recommend watching. (I prefer the subtitle version) I will be doing my best to keep my OC's based on fairy tales/legends/folklore.

Also, if there are any Hung Gar practitioners reading this, please try not to tear my head off if/when I mangle or misrepresent the style(s). I've been doing some research into it, but I'm sure there are things that I just won't really understand unless I've actually had the training.

So, I hope the fights managed to entertain. Yang honestly strikes me as either the strongest or second strongest combatant in both teams RWBY and JNPR, just behind Pyrrha, and that's only because of her reputation as a four time champion. (Yes, pun intended)

Please review and let me know what you thought! All feedback, constructive criticism and questions welcome and appreciated!