Chapter 7: Guiding Light

XxX

World of Remnant: Huntsman Combat:

As we near the end of your first…session of tutelage, let us take stock of our progress. I have spoken of your tools, the Auras and Semblances that allow you to fight, the Dust that allows you to grow. I have spoken of your enemies, the Grimm that haunt your nightmares and collective consciousness, dogging your footsteps from life til death. I have spoken of the dangers within Aura, that little Touch which has blinded many and broken others, a taste of power few can bear to have upon their tongues. However, I have yet to speak of the dangers within your fellows. Let us rectify that mistake, as a…capping off of this little unit of lessons. Let us now speak of Huntsman combat, when blade turns against blade and soul breaks against soul.

When Hunter fights Hunter, what matters most is knowledge, not power. Every semblance can and will be turned against its wielder if one merely knows the proper counter. And every semblance does have it's counter. These great gifts the gods handed humanity always come with a…fatal flaw, shall we say. One missing piece, keeping the user from maximizing themselves. Speed without interaction. Perfect illusions without the ability to affect masses. Teleportation without self-preservation. The list goes on. The more seemingly powerful the semblance, the larger the eventual flaw for keen eyes. A skilled Huntsman will find their own flaws first, the better to account for them, but no fix can be perfect. Fighting another Huntsman is a matter of noticing these points of fracture and striking at them. Do not defeat your foes. Break them.

Of course, there are many who will prefer to overwhelm rather than pinpoint, to be the warhammer rather than the scalpel. To sate their desires for tactical knowledge, I will speak now of the actual combat process, insofar as I can. Whenever a Huntsman blocks a blow, empowers a strike, channels power through dust, or otherwise uses their Aura, some of it will be used, pushed either into the action or dissipated as waste Aura into the surrounding world. Aura will naturally recharge slowly from this waste Aura, but in a combat scenario the mere act of protecting oneself will burn Aura faster than it recovers. In traditional tournament settings and fights between the…civilized, combat will last until one side's Aura falls below safe limits, after which they will surrender. Since many of you will likely end up fighting the less civilized, you may come to the end of your ropes, so to speak. When all a Huntsman's Aura is burned, their protections will fail, their Semblances will fail, and they will cease to be able to activate Dust. In short, they will become a normal human once more. Well trained, physically conditioned, yes. But human, all the same. And I trust you all know quite well how to break humans.

XxX

Ruby

Ruby grinned, almost bouncing off the walls with excitement as she sped down Beacon's hallways to her first class, team running behind her to avoid being late. It really wasn't her fault they woke up late. They were still getting adjusted. Honestly, she couldn't believe she was actually here, at Beacon, starting huntress training! The whole thing had been whirlwind fast—it had felt like barely a few minutes from team assignment until they had all unpacked their rooms and set up before going to sleep. And, team assignment itself—she was leading a team! A team with her sister on it, no less! She'd thought for sure someone else would get the position—probably Weiss, she was trained from birth for leadership or something—but no, Ozpin had decided to take the weirdness of a fifteen-year-old Beacon student and turn it into something far more…crazy. That was the only word for it. Making her the leader was crazy. Thankfully the others had been supportive. Weiss had even offered to deal with setting up their weapons lockers and the other paperwork after an...argument, which had taken a massive weight off Ruby's shoulders. The whole situation was just…insane.

Ruby darted into the classroom, almost flinging herself into the first empty row she saw. She relaxed as the other three members of her team jogged into the classroom and joined her. Phew! They weren't late. If you were in the classroom before the bell, you were on time, that was how school worked.

A few seconds later, a door opened in the back wall of the classroom, out of which walked a stout, mustachioed man carrying a…blunderbuss axe? That looked…so cool! Maybe he used the recoil to enhance cutting force - Ruby, pay attention, the hunter with the awesome weapon was talking.

"-orning students, I'm glad to see you all made it! My name," The Hunter paused, gesturing to himself. "Is Professor Peter Port. You can all call me Professor, Peter, or Port. I will be your Grimm Studies professor-" He paused. "I can see you all yawning, let me tell you why you're all going to love what's coming. See, your other classes are about your fellow man. History, about how man sees man. Auric Manipulation, Dust Manipulation, Combat, about how man fights man. But this class? I will show you the Grimm, the fear of mankind since time immemorial. And I will teach you to make it fear your names. Most call Grimm monsters. I call them prey."

Ruby's eyes sparkled. This class was going to be Awesome.

XxX

Ruby's head whumped down into her desk yet again, as Port launched into yet another tale of his gallivanting adventures. Maybe this class wouldn't be so awesome. Port had sounded cool at first, but forty minutes of neverending story had rapidly become boring. The next hour was icing on the boring cake. She leaned back in her seat, eyes almost closing before she forced them open again, trying as hard as she could to at least look like she cared. It was hard. What was she supposed to be learning from this, again? That Grimm could be bored to dissipation?

Weiss's hand blurred over her shoulder, subtly depositing a note on her desk. Ruby snatched it up, eyes scanning the few lines.

"Ruby-

At least act like a leader and try.

-Weiss."

Ruby's eyes widened. Weiss was right. She needed to be better at this. She turned back to Port, mustering up her last bits of attention. Once more into the breach.

"...Anyway, students, I see we're approaching the end of our first class, so I have a surprise for all of you! Who among you thinks themselves worthy of being a hunter? I need two volunteers. Come on now, don't be shy!"

Weiss's hand shot up immediately, Ruby's following soon after. Maybe this would give her an opportunity to make things better with Weiss. Port smiled widely, calling them forward as a cage rolled out from the corner of the classroom, dust patterns flaring up on its side before vanishing.

"Excellent! Now, the cage behind me has a special surprise that the upper years were kind enough to procure for me on one of their jaunts in the Emerald Forest. On my mark. And remember: the Grimm are your prey."

He snapped his arm down and the front wall of the cage swung outward, slamming onto the floor to reveal an Ursa and Boarbatusk. Ruby grinned, stepping towards Weiss and speaking quietly.

"Weiss, you take the Boarbatusk. I'll deal with the Ursa."

Weiss silently set herself into a fighting stance, rapier pointed outward. Ruby's scythe snapped out.

"Go."

Ruby's arms spun, firing behind her to launch her at the Ursa. Her scythe blade spun upwards to block its claws. Before she could rotate into the killing blow, Weiss bounced off of a glyph into a technique-perfect lunge, impaling the Ursa in the eye. Ruby froze. Weiss had killed the Boarbatusk that quickly? That was incredi - a tusk caught her in the side, launching her a few feet backwards. She rolled to her feet to see Weiss engaging the Boarbatusk from behind as it prepared to charge at Ruby, bouncing from glyph to glyph, rapier glancing off of its bone plating. The Boarbatusk was still standing? Why had Weiss engaged the Ursa? Had she - later. There was a Grimm to kill now. Ruby inhaled, scythe snapping out again. She readied herself to launch into battle again as Weiss jumped off of one last glyph, ice tripping the Grimm so Weiss could ram her rapier into its soft underside. Port clapped as it dissipated.

"Very well done, the both of you! Few of even my second years could have so easily dismantled Grimm like that! That was expert manipulation of the tunnel vision of young Grimm! You should both be proud. For next week, I want all of you to write something up on a salient weakness of the Grimm and how to exploit it."

The students stood up and filed out of the classroom. As the others split off to their own classes, Ruby walked up behind Weiss, waving Blake and Yang off. There was no reason to get the others involved. Weiss turned as she approached.

"Weiss, why did you do that?"

Weiss tilted her head slightly.

"I saw an opportunity to kill one of the Grimm with minimal risk, of course."

"Minimal risk? I got hit!"

Weiss shrugged.

"And? Doesn't your semblance block blunt impacts? If you got hurt from that light a blow, I'd be disappointed."

"Well, no-" Ruby sputtered. "I'm fine, but that's not the point!"

"Then what is? I won. We won. Port was impressed. What else is there?"

"You ignored my orders, Weiss!"

Weiss's eyes widened and she raised a hand before freezing. Her next words were ice cold.

"Orders. Of course. Because you are our team leader. I apologize."

She turned and stalked away, leaving Ruby rooted to the floor.

XxX

Jaune

Jaune grinned, leaning forward in his seat as Goodwitch came to the end of her lecture. Some of the past few classes had been interesting, sure. But Combat and Dust Manipulation? This was what he had been dying to learn. Well, not dying. That was sort of the point. Anyway. He tensed, paying close attention to every word.

"...and that safe level of Aura, for most Unlocked people, is approximately 15 percent of their maximum capacity. At that point, the fundamental human desire for life overpowers the desire to be victorious in combat and the unique Semblance effect is replaced by pure defensive enhancement. Continued combat beyond that point begins to invite the risk of injury, or even a complete Aura break. A trained huntsman can push themselves beyond this safe limit, or even train themselves to have a lower limit, so do not assume that value is perfect. For any of you considering that sort of conditioning, see me. I will not forbid that sort of Auric manipulation, but I will need to supervise it to ensure that you do not have any unintended effects. Any questions?"

She paused for a few seconds. When no hands were raised, she continued.

"As there are no questions, we can proceed to the second half of our lessons: combat training. For the first few lessons, we will have combat by a series of exhibition matches, until I am confident in your abilities to handle yourselves and the training equipment. Today will be doubles matches with partner pairings. Any volunteers?"

Jaune immediately raised his hand. What was the point of being here if he didn't challenge himself, right? Pyrrha smiled, raising hers as well.

"Jaune Arc and Pyrrha Nikos, thank you for volunteering. Please come down to the arena. Who wants to fight against them?"

Jaune scanned the crowd as he walked down, trying to get a glimpse of his potential opponents. Yang had her hand solidly up, for one. That would be a hard battle. Oddly, her sister didn't. Maybe something was going on with Ruby, if she didn't want to fight. He'd ask her after class. He was interrupted by his musings by Goodwitch's voice.

"Cardin Winchester and Russel Thrush, thank you for volunteering. Please come down to the arena."

Jaune immediately focused on the two students who stood. One of them was tall and well built, brown hair framing a confident grin. Cardin, if he remembered right from the team announcements. The weapon at his side looked like a mace. Strong and slow, then. The other was shorter and skinnier, brown eyes flickering around the room. Looked like Russel was the small and speedy one. The daggers strapped at his sides confirmed that.

Jaune's mind was racing as he followed Goodwitch's instructions about hooking his scroll and Aura up to the system, not really paying much attention to her words. He'd used these sorts of things a few times before, and they never really changed. Get the foe's Aura into the red, right? Not something that required much explanation.

He and Pyrrha took position on one end of the field as Cardin and Russel stood at the other. He unsheathed his sword and expanded his shield before turning to Pyrrha.

"I'll take Cardin. You deal with Russel."

Pyrrha took a moment to scan their opponents before nodding.

"Got it, partner. I trust you."

Jaune grinned, focusing on his danger sense as his muscles tensed. Goodwitch pressed a button to bring up kinetic fields around the fight.

"On my mark...Go."

Jaune launched himself forward towards Cardin. Cardin lifted his mace to hip level, grinning in anticipation. Jaune grinned back, feeling the familiar sense in his Aura light up. Danger above, 5 feet. As Jaune closed, he tilted his arms up and diagonally, letting the first mace swing glance off of his shield, his sword flicking to Cardin's throat.

"Good fight. Surrender or I stab."

Cardin chuckled.

"You're pretty ruthless for someone new to this, aren't you? But...holding someone at swordpoint only works if they don't have aura."

He pressed into the sword before whirling, mace smashing into Jaune's side as the sword slid off the side of his neck. Jaune winced as he took a step back, His aura had held, but that had hurt. Cardin pressed forward, mace swinging.

"Now, I wonder how you blocked that strike as well as you did. I telegraph, but that well? No."

His next swing came from overhead, but - Danger left, 1 foot - Jaune lowered his shield to catch Cardin's armored knee, slashing at his exposed face in counterattack. Cardin winced, stepping back.

"And again. You're interesting, Jauney-boy."

Cardin paused, mace returning to a ready position. Jaune launched forward into a counterattack, seeing Cardin's mace rising to strike him, when - Safe - Jaune froze suddenly, and Cardin smiled. He swung outwards, mace barely brushing against Jaune's armor. It almost looked like he'd missed on purpose, but that didn't make any sense. Jaune kept still before darting in again at the next opening, shield slamming into Cardin's face. Cardin fell back again. Jaune stepped forward, pressing his advantage, when -

"Russel Thrush has been eliminated."

Pyrrha stepped up behind Jaune, raising her spear. Cardin lowered his mace.

"I know when I'm beat. I surrender."

"Cardin Winchester surrenders, leaving Jaune Arc and Pyrrha Nikos as the victors."

Jaune looked up at the politely clapping students, smiling despite his confusion. What on earth had just happened?

A/N: Well, RTX was pretty incredible, I'm rather glad I went. Highlights include the Laser Team 2 panel(Matt getting snubbed was hilarious in the moment), the impromptu 'jewish' wedding, randomly running into someone who voice acted for SAO abridged, and a host of other minor yet enjoyable things I've likely completely forgotten about. This should be the last break in weekly updates until August 16th-August 22nd(Harvard pre-orientation program).

Storywise: This chapter's basically all setup for the major bits of act 2: CRDL and Weiss. Next chapter(tentative title: Forever Fall) should contain a lot of the payoffs, while the chapter after will bring act 2 to a close. World of Remnants are done after this one, we've covered the necessary information, I think. If you have questions, please ask them in review and I'll add them to the list of necessary topics to cover if they'll be relevant and haven't been/won't be covered otherwise.

Cardin: I've always been disappointed with what the show did with him, he's shown to be smart(look at the rapier wasps scene again, he's impressively tactical) and he went so...disappointingly into the night post Jaunedice/Forever Fall.

Jaune: I'm really tempted to explain what the hell was happening here, but I'm curious whether y'all catch it.

Weiss: The best way to explain her arc, I think: Winter never had to listen to a 15 year old. But Jacques would never be rude to someone he had to suborn.

Please review!