Amphitheater, Beacon Academy, Sanus.

"Welcome to you all," Glynda said, smiling. "I trust you've had an engaging day so far."

There was a rumbling of halfhearted responses from half a dozen places amongst the stands, but Glynda didn't seem to mind the kind of unenthusiastic response—if anything, her smile seemed to become just a little bit more genuine.

"Every single day, from three to five, you will be undergoing many different combat scenarios which will push you in a variety of different areas," Glynda said, "Sometimes it will be as individuals, other times with your partners, your teams, or even with those from other teams—because you will need to learn how to work together with a wide range of individuals in the future."

"Other teams?" Claire murmured.

"On the days in which we are in this room, you can expect some kind of duelling to take place," Glynda said, sweeping a hand out to indicate the stage itself. "These will range from light sparring to full contact, with weapons, to without, melee only, range only and other variations—the win conditions for these may switch between single strike finish, aura threshold, out of bounds, or a combination of all three."

Lima glanced over as Lux leaned forward enough that she entered his peripheral vision—she was practically vibrating in her seat at the news.

"Other rules may be implemented in an effort to emulate certain mission requirements, so be prepared for odd or unusual limitations," Glynda warned, "On the days when we are not here, you can expect the day's events to almost certainly involve a much larger combat scenario to occur—obstacles courses, multiple teams competing for singular objectives, lopsided battles with strange rules, one verse many scenarios, and many more war games that have been designed over decades to put you through your paces."

"Alright," Claire admitted, voice quiet. "Those actually sound pretty fun."

"Your scrolls will play a pivotal role in these scenarios, and it is through them that you will receive your objectives, find information about the rules, as well as track the condition of your active team," Glynda said, "If you're not already logged into the network, please do so now—the details for that can be found in your congratulatory missive."

"We're not just using the local link feature?" Lima wondered.

As if responding to his query, the monitors above the stage flickered on, a series of icons appearing as each member of the class logged onto the network. It changed again a moment later as Glynda began using her own scroll, first sorting each into a team and then switching to a randomisation selection.

"Why sort it first if it's going to be random?" Claire asked.

"Maybe she wants to avoid having members of the same team fight each other in the first class?" Teak suggested, "That might be stressful this early in the year."

"Does it have to be random?" Lux said, "I want to pick my opponent."

"Today, we'll start with something more familiar to all of you, but keep in mind that it won't always be this—vanilla," Glynda said, smiling again. "A one-on-one duel, full contact, melee only, elimination by aura threshold to thirty percent or by out of bounds."

The randomisation began to flicker through each of the profile pictures—Lux's hand went up, and Lima wondered if she was about to beg the teacher for the first fight.

"Miss Fulbright," Glynda said, "You have a question?"

"Are the fights we win here tied to the ranking for the Sparring Tournament?" Lux asked.

"No, and the reason for that will become quite apparent the further we diverge from the standard ruleset that is used there," Glynda said, nodding. "In brief, the outcome of a duel here—for instance, one where two students fight one—cannot be weighted the same as a normal duel."

Lux had already dropped her hand pretty much the moment Glynda had started talking, but the more she expanded upon it, the more the Faunus seemed to accept the explanation.

"The Sparring Tournament is a good resource I encourage you all to familiarize yourselves with, it's available here, in the Amphitheatre, on weekends, and if you seek further experience in combat, it will certainly grant you that," Glynda said, "You can challenge a specific opponent, or place yourself into the automatic pool to be scheduled to fight against someone—keep in mind that all year levels are within that pool, so you may end up matched against a much more experienced foe."

The randomiser suddenly locked in, and two faces appeared, well-illuminated and unmistakable in identity—the timing of it was too perfect for it not to have been a result of Glynda's own actions.

"Mister Fawn and Mister Winchester," Glynda said, "Please make your way down to the stage."

"Teak," Lux accused.

"I didn't get a choice," Teak said in his own defence. "I don't even want to fight anyone today."

"That makes it even worse," Lux insisted. "If you're going to fight, you better do it properly."

Cardin's laughter reached them as he stepped past his own teammates and into the aisle that would lead downwards. Teak pushed himself up to his feet with a slow, careful movement that made it clear enough that he didn't really want anything to do with what was about to happen—Lima caught hold of his arm as he passed by, pulling the Faunus down so he could speak into his ear.

"I've never seen him fight before, but he's big, with a lot of reach and his weapon is built for impact damage, so avoid blocking his attacks because they might go straight through," Lima said, keeping his voice quiet. "Focus on evasion, keep on his left side, and chip away at his aura by targeting his wrists and feet—and don't look so serious, man, try to have some fun with it."

"I—will," Teak said as he pulled back up. "Thanks, Lima."

Lima watched as he slipped out into the aisle with his eyes on the ground before he disappeared down the stairs behind Cardin. Teak stepped out onto the arena floor like a man walking to his execution, and Cardin, with his mace, looked about right to be the executioner. The monitors above the stage had already shifted to show the aura of both participants beneath their names, and there was now a countdown timer between the two. Cardin's mace came to rest against his shoulder as he watched his opponent ascend to the arena, his confidence unshakable. Teak drew his sword up in front of him as he reached his own spot, and the digitized voice that belonged to the system spoke, starting the match.

The two boys stood across from each other for a long moment, apparently talking quietly amongst themselves, but the noise didn't carry beyond the confines of the stage. Teak flinched back for a moment, turning his head to the side and then down to the ground between them. Cardin stalked forward, dragging the hunk of metal up off his shoulder and into the air. Teak remained in place, his sword raising to point forward—Cardin burst forward, swinging the mace straight down, and Teak scrambled to the side in an effort to avoid it. The mace struck the ground with a crack, and then both of the boys were moving.

"You saw that, right?" Claire said. "What do you think he said?"

"Not sure," Lima admitted. "I'll ask him afterwards."

Cardin's next attack came from the right, a wide arc that was fast enough that it only missed because Teak ducked towards him. Cardin's attempt to choke off the momentum of his own hit left him with Teak's sword pointed at his chest, and he shifted violently sideways in an effort to avoid the thrust—Teak turned, the edge of his sword catching against the inside of his elbow, and drawing a line across his aura as Cardin continued to pull back.

"Nice," Lux said before cupping her hands around her mouth. "Go for his neck this time."

Cardin's easy confidence was gone now, replaced by visible anger, and it became pretty clear to the rest of them that he was no longer holding back. Teak's attempt to replicate his successful dodge inwards was met by a foot to the chest, and then the boy was tumbling across the arena, his sword tracing an arc away from him as it skittered over the floor.

"Shit," Lux grunted. "It's over."

Teak scrambled to his feet, already moving back towards his weapon, but Cardin intercepted him, the head of his mace crashing into his stomach and launching him back the other way—this time, Teak didn't have the space to slow down, and he went straight off the edge of the arena, his aura gauge dropping down about twenty percent from that strike alone.

"Elimination by out-of-bounds," The digitized voice spoke, "Winner, Cardin Winchester."

There was scattered applause in the aftermath of the fight, and Cardin seemed to shed his anger at the noise, basking in it all. Teak headed back towards the stage, climbing back up and moving towards his lost weapon.

"Well done, that was a fantastic start to the year," Glynda said, clapping herself. "Mister Winchester, you've got a lot of strength at your disposal, but you should learn not to put the full force behind every single swing, as it will leave you out of position should you miss."

Cardin rubbed at the back of his hair, clearly unhappy with the public criticism but saying nothing in response.

"Mister Fawn, although you did manage to land the first strike, the gap in experience between you is quite noticeable," Glynda said, nodding. "But do not be discouraged because there is much to be learned from defeat—please continue to familiarize yourself with combat."

"I will, Professor," Teak murmured. "Thank you."

"Very well," Glynda said, lifting her scroll once more. "Please return to the stands, and we shall proceed with the next match."

The monitors above reacted to her ministrations, launching into a new randomization, and before the two boys had completely left the arena, the two new competitors were already moving—Sky Lark and Blake Belladonna.

"This sucks," Lux grunted, resting her chin on the backrest of the chair in front of her. "I want to fight."

"Good fight, Teak," Claire said as he appeared at the end of their row. "You did really well—seriously."

Teak managed something that bared a vague resemblance to a smile, and the small exchange of words that followed was about as shallow and bearing none of the genuine nature Lima had come to expect from him.

"Didn't you hear me yelling?" Lux demanded. "You were supposed to go for the—"

"Give it a rest, Lux," Claire said, throwing her arm around the taller girl's shoulder. "You're so loud."

Lux's protest was further cut off as Claire leaned more of her weight on the girl, moving to whisper in her ear and pulling her into some kind of secret conversation that left the other two completely excluded—judging by the repeated glances they were both stealing at them, Lima was pretty sure they were planning something terrible. Lima leant sideways until he was close enough to Teak's shoulder to begin their own whispered conversation.

"Teak," Lima said, voice quiet. "What did he say to you down there?"

"It doesn't really matter," Teak murmured.

Lima remained where he was, leaning against the boy's shoulder, not quite willing to leave it at that. The two of them watched Blake and Sky appear in the pit below, climbing up onto the arena and facing each other. Teak shifted a bit in his seat, before carefully turning towards him, apparently in an effort to lower his voice further.

"He was probably just trying to psych me out for the fight," Teak mumbled, "But he said that Beacon Academy was crazy for letting in beasts like me."

While Lima probably shouldn't be surprised that there were people like that outside of Anima, it was the first time he'd really heard it since escaping to Sanus—there were pricks everywhere, apparently; he just wondered why they all used the exact same lines.

"Sounds to me like you're being a bit too charitable with him," Lima said, butting the side of his head against the other boy's temple. "I'll talk to him about it later."

Teak reached up to touch where the slight contact had been made, already shaking his head at the words.

"If you say something, it will only get worse," Teak said, sounding stressed at the idea. "Don't talk to him, please."

"Teak," Lima said.

"Don't say anything," Teak repeated.

"Fine," Lima said, in a sort of tenuous agreement, "But next time he says anything, I'm going to snap my foot off in his ass."

"Don't do that either," Teak insisted, "You'll get in trouble, and it's not worth—"

"Stop whispering to each other," Lux complained.

"You two started it," Lima said, covering his mouth with his hand. "God, she's such a gigantic fight-obsessed jackass—I bet she dumped all her points into strength and forgot entirely about charisma."

"I can hear you," Lux hissed.

"Make up your damn mind," Lima accused, "Should I whisper or not?"

"No more whispering because it's starting to make me nervous," Claire decided, eyeing them both for a moment. "You two are done, right?"

"You two are done, right?" Lima parroted, still covering his mouth. "Just how smug can you get? Teak, you should punch her in the chest again—"

Teak straightened up in his seat, the mention of his earlier transgression dragging him out of his funk as he attempted to muffle him with his hand. Claire seemed like she was trying pretty hard to maintain her affected glare, but her lips were losing the battle.

"Idiot," Lux insisted, "Just shut up already; the fight is starting."

Lima surrendered to the group, hands held up in feigned exasperation, and Teak gave him a final shove to make sure his displeasure was known before turning back to the stage below—the first thing Lima noticed was that Sky Lark was already having some serious trouble with his opponent. Despite the range advantage that the boy's height and the massive glaive he was wielding gave him, he couldn't seem to keep Blake from closing on him. Part of it was because she was visibly much, much faster than Sky was, but her method of attack was also far less straightforward.

Lima watched as her foot twisted against the unyielding stage; she shifted her weight forward before bursting out at an angle that left the incoming attack to pass through empty air—her footwork put her parallel to the larger boy, and then she spun, the short black blade raking across both of his legs, one after another as she passed him by. The aura gauge hovering below Sky's smiling picture dropped significantly, the prolonged contact of the slash and the two consecutive points of impact causing something of a critical hit. Sky twisted violently, dragging his long weapon inwards before lashing out at her before she could land another strike, but once again, she shifted back out of his maximum range and continued her attempts to circle him.

"She's good," Lux said, leaning forward once more. "He's not bad, but he's being too timid now."

Sky's body language was tense now, probably realising that his opponent was far more skilled than he'd originally assumed. Cardin called something out, but Lima couldn't quite hear it over the sounds of the surrounding cheers. Lima kept an eye on her footwork as she continued her wide arcs around the stage—it was all smooth, unhurried, and her pace remained unbroken. It wasn't a one-off strategy she'd just come up with to counter the boy's increased range; she was used to fighting in this way. There were some vague similarities he could see in how they fought, the attempts for her to come in at odd angles, the sudden shifts in approach to throw off her opponent—and how quickly she retreated when Sky tightened up his defences.

"She's not going in anymore?" Lux said, frowning. "She's better than him—what's she scared for?"

"It's not that she's scared—it's more like she's not used to fighting in a flat, empty area," Lima said, studying the stage for a moment. "See how she keeps widening her arc? She's moving in a way to break line of sight, but there's nothing to use."

"Yeah," Claire said, tilting her head. "She's searching for the perfect opportunity to attack, but because he's switched to complete defence, she can't approach without risking being punished."

"Does that mean she's going to lose?" Teak asked.

"No, one of them will switch things up eventually," Lima said, watching the ebb and flow of the fight. "Either Sky will realise that—scratch that, Blake will try a feint to lure out an attack and then counter."

The abrupt change in her footwork made it pretty obvious that Blake was going to attack, and when her arc suddenly cut inwards, Sky lunged forward, the blade of his weapon leading the way—Blake stopped on a dime, her own weapon swinging outwards, the black ribbon extending as she let more of it loose. Sky gave a cry of surprise as he found his own weapon outranged and barely managed to limbo underneath the arc of the blade-turned-kusarigama. Blake twisted underneath the now flailing glaive, the pole of the weapon brushing over her shoulder as she passed beneath it. Blake continued straight on past, tangling Sky in the black ribbon, yanking him up off the ground and off the edge of the stage.

"Awesome," Lux insisted.

"Elimination by out-of-bounds," The digitized voice spoke, "Winner, Blake Belladonna."

There was a series of cries from her teammates at the win, and most of the class clapped along with them—the notable exceptions being Cardin Winchester and Russel Thrush. Dove Bronzewing didn't seem to want to share in his teammate's jeers and demands for a rematch, instead simply clapping along with the rest of them.

"Wow," Teak said, raising his voice a little bit so they could actually hear him. "That was so sudden."

"She doesn't even look phased by it either," Claire said, "It's all easy for her, huh? Totally cool."

Lima waved a hand to get their attention before holding it up in front of his face.

"For Sky, it was everything," Lima said, clenching his fist. "But for her, it was just a Lark."

Lima waggled his eyebrows at them, and there was a terrible, terrible pause as the other three let the pun wash over them—Teak carefully reached up and pressed his clenched fist back down, quietly shaking his head as if in pain.

"I hate you," Lux admitted. "I really do."

"So bad," Claire agreed.

"You all suck," Lima complained. "Badly—all your future husbands have said so, terrible form."

"Lima," Teak protested. "You can't say that."

Lima weathered the immediate chastisement the comment brought from the three of them and rubbed at his arm where Claire had punched him—his aura had made it a nonfactor, but the theatrics mattered.

"A perfect duel, Miss Belladonna," Glynda said, raising her voice to address them. "Your footwork is exceptional, and your use of strategy here was quite impressive—you even managed to avoid taking any damage from your opponent."

"Thank you," Blake said with a faint smile. "Can I return to my seat?"

"Please do—Mister Lark, your switch to defence was a good decision, and your skills there are quite refined," Glynda said, nodding. "However, remaining completely motionless, and leaving your opponent entirely unpressured for a significant amount of time, gave them all the time they needed to solve the fight."

"I get it," Sky admitted, looking a bit embarrassed. "That was pretty stupid, I guess."

"I wouldn't consider it stupid, but something you can simply learn from," Glynda corrected, "Please return to the stands, and we can move on to the next fight."

Blake started to look a bit frazzled as Yang, Weiss, and Ruby crowded her once she'd reseated herself. The randomizer kicked into high gear again before locking in the next fight, and Lima began to wonder if it was really random at all because it was the third time in a row that a member of Team Cardinal had been called up to fight.

"Lie Ren and Dove Bronzewing," Glynda said, "If you'd please make your way down to the stage."

"Battle of the birds?" Claire wondered.

"It's about time we sorted out the pecking order around—hey," Lima cried as Teak attempted to muffle him again. "You can't just—"

"Shush," Teak said, eyeing him. "That's an order."

"That's more like it," Lux said, impressed. "Rough him up a bit, so he knows what happens if he resists."

Claire laughed out loud at the comment.

"Another successful arrest, Officer Teak," Claire said, joining in. "Expect the bonus payment to be wired straight to your account."

Lima crossed his arms before slumping down in his chair, outwardly deflating under the combination assault. The two fighters stepped up onto the stage at the same time, a quiet conversation occurring between them that the rest of the amphitheatre wasn't able to hear. The two boys were oddly matched in composure, both of them sharing an—at least outwardly—indisturbable calm. Ren had a pair of matching pistols in his hands, both of them bright green and with a large blade curving out from underneath each. The fact that he was retaining his firing grip on the pistols and that he wasn't attempting to shift them into a different configuration likely meant that it possessed no other melee form. Dove, on the other hand, had a dark-coloured sword that was split in the middle, a barrel poking out into view—the fight began without much build-up.

It became immediately clear that the two of them were both close-range combatants, they were highly skilled, and that they were far, far more evenly matched than the other two battles. Dove's sword struck out in a series of chest-level stabs, concentrating his attack on the one location and forcing Ren to slowly retreat from the assault. Ren showed no outward sign that he was being pressured, simply retreating without complaint, deflecting each of the attacks away—Lima couldn't help but notice that each time he did it, the barrel of the pistols was lining up perfectly with his opponent's head and chest.

Dove seemed to notice it because each of his own strikes was preceded by a shift in the sword to place it between the barrel and himself—it left Lima wondering how the fight would have progressed if they'd been able to use projectiles as well. In a startling movement, Ren slid his foot forward and to the side, intercepting Dove's own step and destabilising his footing entirely. Dove's attack went wide as Ren deflected it to the side with his left pistol, and then the right one came up, drawing a line across his aura from his right hip to his left shoulder.

"Nice," Lima said, sitting forward a bit. "That guy is the best fighter so far."

"What? There's no way he did that on purpose," Lux said, frowning. "He was just the first one to recover from the collision."

"Hard disagree," Lima said, keeping his eyes on them both. "He was moving backwards at an angle; that sudden change was completely out of sync with the pattern of his footwork—watch his feet for a second."

"I am watching it," Lux insisted.

Ren worked his way backwards, deflecting each strike and shifting to the side every couple of steps in order to avoid being pushed out of the centre of the stage. At no point did he move forward, but he was attacking; each time Dove's sword was caught on his blade, Ren's other one would come in at an opposing angle and force him to pull back on his strike in order to deflect it.

"He can't follow through on anything," Claire said, miming out one of the exchanges with two knife hands. "Ren's only doing counters, though; he's not—oh."

Dove went to capitalise on what looked like a weakened position, and once again, he found his footwork interrupted—and this time, Ren struck out three times in quick succession, the first one deflected the sword out wide, the last two cut an evanescent cross in the middle of his chest.

"Damn it," Lux said, "He actually did it on purpose?"

"Elimination by aura threshold," The digitized voice spoke, "Winner, Lie Ren."

"That was amazing," Teak said. "They're both so good—I can't even imagine fighting either of them."

"They both would have beaten me, for sure," Claire admitted in agreement. "I'm just not that fast."

In a display of impressive sportsmanship, Dove clapped Ren on the shoulder, and the two boys walked down the stairs together, apparently returning to their quiet conversation. Once they'd reached to the stands, Glynda addressed them both.

"That was a phenomenal display of close-quarters combat; you must have both worked exceedingly hard to have refined your skills to that level," Glynda said, visibly impressed. "I'd like to see both of you compete against another opponent before I offer any critique—well done."

Ren ducked his head in thanks for the praise while Dove actually spoke up.

"That whole fight was exceedingly hard work," Dove said, "Perhaps I can fight someone easier next time."

Glynda let out an amused hum at the words but said nothing in response as the two boys returned to their respective teams. The randomizer caught the attention of everyone in the room once more, flicking through the remaining competitors—

"Oh," Claire said, blinking. "It's my turn."

"We don't know if Teak told anyone about your weakness," Lima advised, "Keep your guard up; say about chest level—gah—"

Claire shoved his head back into the chair and held it there as she shifted past him, sliding her way to the aisle. Ruby popped up out of her seat to land on the railing, arms windmilling for a second as she caught her balance.

"Wish me luck, team," Ruby beamed before jumping straight down into the arena. "Let's go—"

The mixture of low-energy, high-energy, and outraged reproach she received from her teammates followed her down as the girl's scarf flapped against the railing before it was dragged out of sight.

"Good luck, Claire," Teak called, cupping his hands over his mouth. "You can do it."

Claire glanced over at them with a smile as she crested the stairs and then gave a little wave as she approached Ruby's position on the stage.

"They're both from Signal, aren't they?" Lima said, "Claire said something like that?"

"Yang and Claire were in the same year," Teak said, "But Ruby is two years younger than them both."

"Really," Lima said, tilting his head. "How did she get into Beacon Academy two years early?"

He hadn't even been aware that the four academies even allowed early enrollment—else he would have attempted to join up two years earlier, and then he'd have been pretty damn close to having his Huntsman License already.

"Two years?" Lux said, "I bet she's super strong."

Lima couldn't really get a read on whether or not that was true, at least not by just looking at her—she seemed almost entirely unable to stand still as she waited for the timer to tick down, bouncing up and down on her feet and flailing her massively disproportionately sized weapon around. Claire looked far more composed, standing across from her, the two swords out and her stance low—

"Elimination by out-of-bounds," The digitized voice spoke, "Winner, Ruby Rose."

Ruby reappeared in a burst of petals, sliding to a stop beside the very edge of the stage and almost toppling over the side as Claire managed to catch herself before she crashed into the wall below the stands.

"What was that?" Teak managed. "I didn't even see her move."

"That was a speed-based Semblance," Lux said, sounding a bit off. "One that leaves petals behind her as she moves? I—didn't catch the actual attack."

"A straight-line sprint to a double kick," Lima said, replaying it in his mind. "There was something off about that landing, though, like her momentum was still pulling her in the wrong direction—I wonder if she has trouble controlling herself at that speed."

Claire carefully pulled herself up off the ground, swords trailing after her as she straightened up—the look on her face equal parts stricken and unsure. Ruby leapt off the stage to land beside her, already happily chatting away with her defeated opponent, and Claire seemed to struggle to pull a visibly strained smile onto her face.

"Without forewarning, that would be almost impossible to avoid unless you were already moving," Lux said, chewing on the tip of her thumb. "Then again, if you went for a sideways evasion the moment you saw petals, you'd have enough time to get out of the way and then counter—"

"She looks upset," Teak said, shifting a bit in his seat. "I—don't think Ruby has noticed."

"Losing is never fun, but it is what it is," Lima offered, "Best not to let her dwell on it—you get it?"

There was a small pause—the sound of Lux's twelve-step-programme on how she was going to go about defeating Ruby if she was ever in the exact same scenario crashing over them both—before he replied.

"Distracting her—like what you both did with me?" Teak said after a moment. "That's what you mean."

"Caught me, huh?" Lima wondered.

"A rather unexpected end to the battle, but a well-executed ambush is certainly a very valid tactic—please do keep in mind that attempting such a thing again will likely result in limited success," Glynda said upon their return. "As this was supposed to be an assessment of your overall combat skills, starting off by revealing a trump card is—ill-advised, to say the least."

"Aha," Ruby said, wincing a bit. "I totally knew that—I was just—you know."

"Of course," Glynda said as if it was the most reasonable explanation in the world. "I look forward to seeing a more—comprehensive—expression of what you can both do in the future."

"Sure," Claire said, fiddling with the hem of her shirt. "Next time."

Claire kind of slipped away from the Professor, moving back in their direction, and then Lux drew in a sudden sharp breath—Lima glanced back at her, then followed her gaze up to the monitors. Lux's face stared out at them from above, right beside the smiling face of one Pyrrha Nikos.

"Yes," Lux breathed. "Move, idiot."

Lima fended off her attempt to copy Claire's special face-palm technique, and he managed to trip her as she scrambled out into the aisle. Teak gave a squeak as Lux just about neutered him in the process of stopping her fall, but she was out into the aisle a moment later, and without even looking back, her eyes locked onto the back of Pyrrha's head as the tall girl stood up. Claire took the safest course of action in getting out of the way and waiting until she had passed before sliding into the row of seats. Lima moved down a seat to open up the one between him and Teak before kicking his legs up onto the back of the one ahead of him, blocking off the rest of the row.

"You're going to do something weird; I can tell by the look on your face," Claire said, dropping down into the seat between them. "Thank god this is the last class—I'm so done with today."

"Wow," Lima said, a bit impressed. "I hadn't even figured out what I was going to do yet."

"Claire," Teak said, "Are you okay?"

"Abort, abort," Lima advised, with a noise like a crackling radio. "We're trying to distract her—you're going completely off script, Officer Teak."

"It's fine," Claire sighed, "Yang told me her sister was strong, but—I thought we'd at least get to fight; she destroyed me."

"I don't think there's a person in this room that would have been prepared for that—except for Yang, obviously," Lima said, dropping his imaginary radio. "Want to hear a funny story?"

"That depends," Claire said, sagging in her seat. "Will it make me feel better about our entire class seeing me get one-tapped?"

"You bet it will," Lima said, watching as Pyrrha split off from her team to head for the stairs. "My guardian always used to bring people over after class finished—Huntsmen and Huntresses that he knew from work—and then have them spar with me."

Lux crested the stairs of the stage, her glaive already in hand and her teeth bared in an anticipatory smile.

"It was supposed to help me learn how to fight against different styles of combat because most of my experience came from fighting one person with a pretty particular style," Lima said, tilting his head from side to side. "Near the end of last year, he introduced me to a Huntress that I'd never seen before, and I was doing pretty well against my opponents at that point—so I went into it with the singular intention of kicking her ass to reclaim my honour, and heal my repeatedly bruised ego."

Pyrrha made it to the stage and began climbing the stairs, adjusting her shield as she went.

"What happened?" Claire said, looking a little bit interested in where it was going. "It was a fully trained Huntress, right? So you got squashed?"

"I got obliterated, but it wasn't because she was some kind of combat god or that I couldn't keep up with her," Lima said, trying to defend himself a bit. "I was being super careful because I didn't know what she could do—and then I saw it, the perfect opportunity to take her down."

"Oh no," Teak said.

"It was a trap," Claire guessed.

Lima gave a kind of wounded breath at the word—it was like he was back there, right now, experiencing the horror all over again.

"It was the single most awesome attack I'd ever pulled off in a live spar, but the exact moment I landed it, I found myself paralysed from head to toe," Lima said, clutching at his own face. "So I'm lying there on the ground, in this stupid position, face down in the dirt with my ass stuck up in the air, and my arms fully extended like I'm diving off a god damned springboard—and then the old bastard starts laughing at me—"

Lima flushed a bit at the memory of it and then flapped a hand at Teak in an attempt to dispel the boys giggling—even Claire seemed to be having trouble keeping her composure.

"Anyway," Lima said, clearing his throat. "The moral of the story is that you can't plan for everything, and sometimes you're going to get ambushed by a soulless woman who has pretty hair—"

"That doesn't sound right," Claire asked, outright smiling now. "Are you sure the moral of the story wasn't 'be careful of sticking your ass up into the air?'"

"Yes, thank you for the insight, Claire," Lima accused, "But I think I know the moral of my own story."

"I'm just saying," Claire said, covering her mouth with her hand. "It fits."

Lima turned his nose up at her, before swinging back around to face the arena, just in time for the countdown to hit zero—surprisingly enough, Pyrrha was the first one to move. Lux started towards her a moment later, and the two of them clashed with a grinding noise of metal on metal as the blade of the glaive cut across the shield before it was deflected wide. Pyrrha struck twice, her sword striking the pole of the glaive as Lux desperately pulled it inwards for a block. The second slash barely missed its mark as the blonde girl dragged herself backwards and out of the way. Pyrrha dove forward to chase her target down as Lux sought to reestablish her preferred range of attack; the glaive curved inwards—the unfortunate angle of which looked like it had bled off most of the force—and was caught against the much shorter sword.

Despite Pyrrha having the far superior position to win the deflection again, the glaive pushed through it—and Lima realised that she was using her Semblance to increase the weight of the blade to make up for the poor positioning. Pyrrha reacted near instantly, twisting under the glaive's path, completing a blistering spin that brought her back up on the other side, and slammed her shield straight into the other girl's shoulder. Lux stumbled backwards with a bright laugh that carried all the way across the amphitheatre as she attempted a similar move, spinning as she retreated to build up momentum and then lashing out in a series of arcing strikes that Pyrrha had to evade, deflect, and then block respectively.

By the fourth consecutive attack, Pyrrha had figured out how to deal with it because she stepped into the next one, shifting under the first and catching the pole of the weapon on the edge of her shield—her sword struck forward and up at an angle, crashing into Lux's chest hard enough to lift her off her feet. Pyrrha's sword suddenly extended, hitting her a second time, and then her shield was thrown upwards a moment later, aiming to smash into the exact same spot—but Lux suddenly dropped out of the air without warning, hitting the stage feet first, and hard enough to crack the surface.

The shield continued on, unimpeded, hitting the ceiling of the arena and ricocheting off into the stands—Glynda flicked her wrist, the black riding crop whipping outwards, and the shield halted in mid-air about a foot from Weiss's desperately raised hands. Lux's instant recovery gave her a moment of opportunity in which she attempted to hit her opponent in the face with the butt of her weapon, but Pyrrha managed a last-moment block with her sword, bracing the flat of her blade with her other hand. Lux pressed forward, attempting to overwhelm her through her better position and what must have been the increasing weight of her glaive—and then Pyrrha shifted her block slightly before the sword extended into its javelin form. The hilt of the weapon smacked into Lux's face with an audible crack, her aura flaring up in response to the solid connection.

Pyrrha was good, and in a pure melee, he very much doubted there were many people their age that could hope to contest her there. While she was fast, and her reflexes were clearly honed to a high degree, it wasn't really either that appeared to be her primary strength—it was the pace she set. Every exchange, every attack, every feint and counter were all linked together, flowing smoothly from one to the next, and there was no hesitation in her movements—it spoke of someone who'd practised those chains thousands of times. The changes in attack range that her sword-to-javelin form provided was just another layer on top of it all, a sudden shift that the opponent had to be ready to contend with at a moment's notice. Where a fighter like Ren was looking for the perfect moment to turn the tide in their favour, or Cardin who used his superior build and reach to dominate his opponent—Pyrrha had already decided how the fight would go, and the moment it started, she dragged her opponent along that predetermined path, forcing them to follow her until they inevitably failed to keep up.

"Elimination by aura threshold," The digitized voice spoke, "Winner, Pyrrha Nikos."

Half the people in the room stood up, calling out and cheering the spectacle of it all, but even with the noise, he could still hear Lux's voice over it all.

"Damn it, damn it, damn it—" Lux cried out, "I want a rematch."

Whatever her opponent's response to the outburst was, he couldn't quite hear it—but still, maybe Lux would start fixating on defeating her now and stop challenging him to a fight every ten minutes. Pyrrha's errant shield was summarily hot-potatoed up to where Jaune, Nora and Ren were sitting, and when the two fighters actually returned to the stands, Glynda started another round of applause.

"Brilliant," Glynda said, visibly pleased. "A brilliant showcase of skill from you both—I'd like you both to stay after class is finished for a brief discussion; I'll offer my critique at that time."

"Thank you, Professor," Pyrrha said, smiling. "I'll make certain I stay behind."

Lux just gave an affirmative grunt, her face scrunched up at the outcome, but Glynda seemed to accept it for what it was. Lima gave a squawk of startled protest as Claire poked him in the ribcage, the slight pressure enough to send a spark of sensation up his spine—he smacked her hand away before covering the area with his own in an attempt to squash the feeling.

"What are you playing at?" Lima demanded. "That's my secret spot."

"You're up next," Claire said, raising an eyebrow at his reaction. "To fight, I mean."

Lima glanced up at the monitors above and blinked as he recognized his own face up there. Right beside it was the grinning face of Nora Valkyrie, whose real-life counterpart jumped up to her feet to point at the picture in surprise.

"It's me," Nora insisted. "But bigger."

"Professor Bestwitch, I am humbly requesting permission to surrender," Lima tried, raising his voice so Glynda could hear it. "I do not even possess a melee weapon in which to engage in this most honourable of duels—I fear that my bow may even break when I smack my opponent over the head with it."

Teak let out a tortured sigh at the words, sinking down into his seat to avoid all the attention that had suddenly come upon them.

"Stop calling her that." Weiss cried, "You disrespectful—"

"Then you'll have to fight without a weapon," Glynda said, not even looking up from her scroll. "I wish you the best of luck."

"Damn it," Lima complained. "Worth a try."

"Get up and fight, dumbass," Lux demanded, dragging him up out of his seat before pulling him in the direction of the stairs. "You're supposed to be taking this seriously—"

"But I don't want to fight Nora," Lima whined, attempting to dig his heels into the smooth floor and finding no real purchase. "She's got a giant weapon, and I don't have one."

Lima yelped as she attempted to heave him straight down the stairs, but he managed to get a hand underneath himself, catching it flat on the fourth step, tipping backwards, and up to his feet on the seventh.

"You can use mine," Lux said, visibly annoyed. "Here—"

Lima made no attempt to take the offered weapon; instead, he twisted his face up into a picture of confusion.

"A pointy stick?" Lima said, "I can't be seen using something like that—it was a joke—a joke."

Lima fled down the steps to avoid Lux's attempt to deplete his aura gauge before the fight even began. When he did make it down to the pit, he did a quick check to make sure she hadn't followed him down, but she was still standing at the top of the stairs, glaring at him—safe. Nora was already up on the stage, the long handle of her maul resting against her shoulder while the head of the massive weapon sat on top of her foot, balanced there as she swung it from side to side. Lima took his sweet time climbing the stairs to the stage itself, revelling in the boos and jeers that followed his ridiculously slow pace. He didn't really know much about Nora other than she was perhaps the most energetic person in their class—and by far the shortest, even when considering both Teak and Ruby.

Unlike the slender builds of the other two, she was stocky, and he could see the defined musculature through the uncovered sections of her outfit. If that wasn't enough to tell him that she was possessed by great strength, the ease by which she toyed with her massive weapon made up the difference. All the force of her attacks would be centred on the end of the hammer, and with the length of the handle, she would be able to capitalise on the artificial reach to generate even more force—by the time his foot touched the top step, he'd more or less worked out how he was going to deal with her.

"I finally made it," Lima panted. "I wasn't sure I could do it."

Nora kicked the head of her hammer up into the air, the weapon rotating around until she snatched it by the handle—it came to a stop, pointed directly at him.

"Exactly how many stairs do you think there are?" Nora accused. "It's almost tomorrow."

"I was hoping you would fall asleep," Lima said, "That way, I could roll you out of the ring without having to actually fight."

"I'd totally wake up," Nora bragged. "I'm a super light sleeper."

"That's a lie," Jaune called, his raised voice cutting through all the chatter. "A really, really big lie."

The timer was already halfway gone—apparently, Glynda had decided to start it the moment he'd stepped onto the stage rather than allow him to waste more time crawling over to the centre.

"Are you really not going to use a weapon?" Nora said, frowning a bit. "This kind of seems unfair."

"You could always surrender in protest?" Lima suggested. "Refusing to beat up a poor, unarmed boy would show a depth of character that might even impress Bestwitch."

Nora glanced up as the timer hit zero, seemingly thinking about it for a moment.

"Nah," Nora decided, "I think I'll just mercy squash you instead."

"That's really kind of you," Lima sighed, "I'll try not to move around much—make it fast, would you?"

The jeers from the stands continued—most of which seemed to be coming from the odd combination of Team Cardinal, Yang, and Lux. Nora slipped her grip on the hammer until she was holding it near the end of the pole and then burst forward with a battle cry of 'honourable squash.' Lima remained where he was until she'd committed fully to the attack's massive swipe—and then he burst forward at the last moment. He caught hold of the handle—less than an inch away from her own grip—and then smashed his right palm flat against her belly. Nora stumbled backwards from the completely unexpected hit, but there wasn't even enough force behind it to really get a response from her aura. In an effort to regain her balance, her left leg swept out behind her and left her facing him from a side-on position. Lima let the head of the hammer swing downwards, shifted his grip on the handle, and then added to the force of its upswing, bringing it completely upright to rest on his shoulder in a mockery of Cardin's earlier pose.

"This thing is pretty heavy," Lima said, impressed. "You seriously carry this around with you?"

"You give that back this instant," Nora said, aghast. "Wait a minute—Magnhild, no—"

The hammer slid across the stage with a grinding noise of metal on stone as he tossed it away, and Nora threw herself into a desperate dive in a last-ditch effort to catch hold of it before it could go over the edge. Nora landed flat on her belly by the edge of the stage, the very tip of the handle in her grasp—at which point, he planted his foot against her hip and rolled her off the edge.

"Elimination by out-of-bounds," The digitized voice spoke, "Winner, Lima Morta."

Lima hopped off the edge of the stage and then stumbled to the side as Nora shoved him out of the way on her way back to her feet.

"You rolled me off the edge," Nora accused. "I'll never, ever forgive you for this, not for as long as I live."

"If you give up on your lifetime of revenge," Lima said, holding up a finger. "I'll buy you an entire cake to eat at your complete discretion."

Nora seemed to be overcome with a terrible, terrible indecision, and then after a long moment, she cleared her throat.

"Chocolate?" Nora clarified.

"Double chocolate," Lima said, upping the ante.

He knew exactly where he would be ordering it from as well because there had been an adorable little bakery near the hotel he'd stayed in when he first got to Vale—and they did deliveries.

"You're evil," Nora observed.

"Ontologically," Lima agreed.

"I don't know what that means, but I accept your offer," Nora said, scrunching her face up. "Can I have chocolate chips on top?"

He would have a bit of money to spend when Lux finally got around to paying him for the bet they'd made—so why the heck not?

"Of course, you can," Lima said, "It wouldn't be a cake without them."

Their return to the stands was met with far less applause than the previous match; in fact, the only person who seemed to be clapping was Nora, and he didn't really think that counted.

"Miss Valkyrie, I should stress that you should be far less trusting of your opponents in the future, but I believe you have already learned that lesson," Glynda said, raising an eyebrow. "I must say, you look remarkably chipper for someone who just experienced a rather unfortunate loss."

"A loss is just an opportunity to learn and improve," Nora said, nodding at her own words. "A wise girl once said that—it was me."

"It was Pyrrha that said that," Jaune said, bemused. "That was like fifteen minutes ago at most."

"I was thinking it," Nora defended.

"Mister Morta—that was an impressively decisive counter," Glynda said, "Was that a spur-of-the-moment decision when you realised you couldn't talk her out of it, or something you intended from the start?"

There were far too many people watching for him to feel comfortable answering that truthfully, so he just reached up to scratch at his cheek.

"I was going to let her knock me off the stage, but I started to panic when she actually got close," Lima said, "I guess she left herself open because I said I wasn't going to attack—pretty lucky, huh?"

"I suppose so," Glynda said, eyeing him for a moment. "Very well, you may both return to your seats."

#

Dining Hall, Beacon Academy, Sanus.

The Dining Hall was almost completely full by the time they actually started serving dinner, and the long queue of early birds stretched halfway across the room. Lima remained slumped down in his chosen seat, chin on his arm, and waited for the others to return. Claire sat across from him, eyes flittering about the room as she busied herself with investigating the many students of Beacon Academy. Lux and Teak had already lined up in their stead, a promise to bring a tray of food back for each of them.

"Everyone here is so pretty," Claire said, her palm pressed against her cheek as she leaned on the tabletop. "Look at that girl, geez—it's making me look average by comparison."

"Claire," Lima said, shaking his head against his arm. "There's no one in the world that would mistake you for being average—"

Claire straightened up a bit at the words, actually turning to look back at him in something like surprise.

"—because you're a median, at best," Lima said, waggling his eyebrows. "No?"

"No, you jackass," Claire snorted. "That was actually really sweet—right up until you ruined it."

"It's what I do," Lima agreed, "What do you think of Beacon so far?"

Claire brought both of her hands together in front of her, fingers interlocking with one another as she considered the question.

"I—love it already; there are just so many people here," Claire said, "Signal was nice, but it's way smaller in comparison."

Lima watched as she started to massage one specific spot on her hand, content to listen to her vocalise her thoughts.

"Everyone here is a Huntsman or a Huntress—in training, I suppose, for students like us—and there are no regular people," Claire said, "You can see it, just in the way they all walk, and the sheer confidence everyone seems to have—it makes me wonder what brought them all here."

It was obvious enough that she wasn't talking about the surface level—that they had decided to be a Huntress or a Huntsman and thus enrolled at Beacon Academy—but in more of an individual sense.

"I suspect everyone here has a pretty good reason for being here, although it's probably pretty personal for each of them," Lima said, speaking up. "Are you going to start polling them?"

"Think they would answer if I did?" Claire wondered.

"Some of them might, but I suppose it would depend on who you actually asked," Lima guessed. "Would you answer a question like that?"

Claire said nothing to the question, returning to her people-watching, but he couldn't help but notice that her thumb was pressing deep into her hand now—an unconscious sign of discomfort, maybe? It left him wondering about her own reason for coming here, considering that was probably what was driving her curiosity about everyone else—a tray clacked down in front of his face, deposited without care as Lux dropped down into the seat beside him. Teak had already rounded the table, and with far more care, he placed the two trays he was carrying down onto the tabletop.

"What are we talking about?" Lux asked, already chewing on something. "Is it interesting?"

"We were talking about our thoughts on the first day at Beacon Academy," Claire said, with what Lima was starting to think was a façade of a smile. "What do you guys think?"

"Bestwitch has the best class," Lux said, taking up the nickname in a show of solidarity. "The rest are boring—Port is less boring than the others."

"Wrong way around," Lima complained, staring at his food without much interest. "Port is the best by far."

"I really like Professor Oobleck," Teak admitted, "History was already my favourite class, though, so I think I'm biased towards him."

The three of them all turned to look at Claire, and the silver-haired girl hummed at the attention.

"Mulberry was pretty chill," Claire said, adding her own choice to the pile. "The whole hands-off thing is super cool."

"A four-way split, huh?" Lima wondered. "How are we going to decide which classes to skip?"

"We're not skipping any classes," Teak said, alarmed. "Lima."

"That was what you asked them to get, wasn't it?" Claire asked, nodding at his tray. "Not hungry anymore?"

"I have no energy left, thus, I cannot muster the will to eat." Lima admitted, "I'm stuck."

"You should try to eat," Teak said, furrowing his brow. "Come on—don't close your eyes; you'll fall asleep."

"I'm fading," Lima decided, "This is the end—stop—you're getting it on my face—Lux—"

"I can't fight a corpse," Lux said, continuing her attempts to push his head down towards the tray. "Eat."

Lima managed to find the energy to fight his way free, but when he considered laying his head back down, she made another attempt to get him. With a grunt of annoyance, he picked up his fork and then stabbed it into the largest strip of chicken on his plate before biting the end off it.

"Better," Lux said, "Chew."

He muttered something that didn't make much sense, even to himself, and went through the mechanical motions of chewing his food, his fork already seeking out its next target—that was enough to get Lux to turn her attention back to her own meal, and by then he was at least a little bit invested in eating so he found the willpower to keep on going.

"History sounds like the hardest class," Claire said, the tip of her fork pressed against her bottom lip. "All those topics he listed off—do you think he's going to make us write essays on all of them?"

"Probably, there was an instructor at Oscuro that had a fetish for making us write persuasive essays—it was actually a pretty fun class," Lux said, "He didn't even really seem to care about the topic or the research itself, but you had to convince him of something by the end of it."

Lima managed to sit up properly, wondering if the chicken had actually managed to bolster his energy so quickly or if it was simply a placebo effect of having consumed it.

"That sounds really cool," Teak said, impressed. "Did you like writing them?"

"We got to pick the topic sometimes," Lux said, sounding a bit cagey. "I liked writing essays for those ones."

"Really?" Teak said, smiling with genuine interest. "What topics did you like to write about?"

A splash of red seemed to rise up her neck, and for the first time, Lux seemed to shy away from something.

Unauthorized content usage: if you discover this narrative on Amazon, report the violation.

"Essays are dumb," Lux insisted. "Let's talk about something else."

Teak visibly deflated at the rejection, and Lux kind of shrunk back in turn, moving her attention entirely to her food. Lima deduced that something was afoot—namely, that as the day grew long, each of them was flagging, and they were all starting to clash.

"I'm going to sleep as soon as I get back to the dorm," Lima said, affecting a yawn for good measure. "Lux—make sure to tell us all about your essay on boy love tomorrow."

"I don't—" Lux said, startled. "You haven't finished eating—get back here."

#

Malachite's Dormitory, Beacon Academy, Sanus.

Lima came awake well before his alarm had a chance to go off, his early retirement the night before probably playing the largest part in it. He immediately noted how much more rested he actually felt as well, the distance between him and the Vale Limited, along with the return to something approaching his normal routine, energising him. Claire's scroll dangled precariously off the side of her bed, about an inch off the floor, still tethered to the set of headphones that remained snugly on her sleeping head. He'd made true to his promise of going straight to sleep, so he hadn't really seen them come back in, but seeing the headphones she'd mentioned the day before made him wonder. Lux was once again in a bizarre position; her pillow clamped flat between both of her feet and her hands linked on her stomach, the entire thing looking like some kind of experimental perspective piece featuring a monk. Teak actually had his eyes open, and upon making eye contact, he managed to struggle up into a sitting position to rub at his face.

"Day two begins," Lima said in greeting. "You up for it?"

"I think so," Teak murmured. "Is it time to get up?"

"We've still got fifteen minutes, but now is as good a time as any," Lima said, slipping out of bed. "Want to start early and then tell Lux we used up all the yoga before she got there?"

"That's mean," Teak said. "Lima, did we decide to move sparring back to after Professor Goodwitch's class?"

"I think that was the general consensus," Lima admitted, "May as well use the time the instructors picked for it rather than overload the mornings and then look like slackers in the afternoon."

"That means I have to wait all day to do anything fun," Lux complained, apparently awake. "What a hassle."

"Lux, thank god," Lima tried. "We used up all the yoga, and now we don't know how to—"

"I was awake," Lux interjected.

"Can't win them all, I guess," Lima shrugged. "We've got new classes today, don't we?"

"Stealth and Security for the second period, Plant Studies for the third," Teak said as he climbed out of bed. "Everything else is the same as yesterday."

"No Crafting or History," Lux said, sitting up. "There should be way more combat classes—at least five every day."

"That's all of them," Teak said, startled. "We'd never have any time for anything else."

"How are you all awake already?" Claire managed. "The alarm hasn't even gone off yet."

"We're training to wake up at one in the morning," Lima bragged, "Come on, two-swords, you can't sleep all day."

"That's a terrible nickname," Claire groaned, "Try again."

"Metal-head? Quicksilver?" Lima said, "Gem? Jewel? The Mond?"

"Rejected on all fronts," Claire said, fighting to get her headphones all the way off. "If you ever call me 'The Mond' in public, I'll probably have to kill you."

"Vale wasn't built in a day," Lima said, "I'll think of something good eventually."

Four simultaneous alarms went off, tearing apart the otherwise peaceful morning and sending them all into a frantic race to shut them all down—once they'd managed it, Lux ran her hand up her face, temporarily pinning the mess of dangling hair on top of her head, and revealing the black scales along each of her temples.

"Yoga?" Lux prompted.

#

Lecture Hall A4, Beacon Academy, Sanus.

"I see that some of your names have already made their way into my extracurricular sessions." Professor Port said, pleased. "To see such diligence towards the cause is inspiring—I'm looking forward to the weekend already."

The iron door was already open, the bars of the cage the only thing between the three snarling Beowolves and the rest of the classroom.

"Now, as you can see, I've managed to snag these three—not a Boarbatusk to be seen, I'm afraid, despite my best efforts to stick to the week's theme," Port said, clapping the bottom of his fist down onto his palm in dismay. "Still, we will just have to make do with what we have—now, which three of you would like to test yourself today?"

Lima's hand had been raised almost since he'd begun to make the offer—rather than pick one of the people who had their hands up, the man seemed to pick from the group who didn't.

"Mister Arc, Miss Rose, and—Mister Fawn," Port said, wagging a thick finger at each in turn. "Come on down, and we'll start with Mister Arc—you two can wait by my desk until it's your turn."

"Damn it," Lima complained. "I'm definitely leaving my hand down next time."

"Uh, Sir?" Jaune tried, "I didn't put my hand up."

"Precisely," Port beamed, "Come along, now; Miss Schnee, if you would please rouse Miss Rose—and don't forget your weapon, Mister Fawn."

Teak spun around, scuttling back up the last two steps to take hold of his sword from where he'd leant it against the inside of the desk. Weiss was in the process of shaking Ruby awake and then bullying her out into the aisle as the shorter girl attempted to regain her bearings.

"What is happening right now?" Ruby cried. "Is this a dream? Crescent Rose isn't for throwing—"

Weiss stomped back to her seat, looking outraged at the spectacle of it all, before sitting back down with a huff. Jaune kind of lingered at the foot of the stairs as Pyrrha spoke quietly in his ear, the tall boy looking entirely uncomfortable with the situation. Pyrrha pushed him out into the middle of the room before returning to her team, smiling all the while.

"We're only doing one at a time, right?" Jaune managed, staring at the teeth latched around the bars of the cage. "You totally said that before."

"Just the one," Port agreed, "Ready yourself, young man—don't worry, I'll get the gate."

Jaune looked like he would have rathered the gate had stayed shut, but he pulled his shield up in preparation. Port unlatched the cage before kicking the Beowolf closest to the door in the face hard enough to send it crashing into the next one over—the third tore its way out of the door, surging across the room towards Jaune. Jaune wilted a bit as the thing leapt at him, but he was more than strong enough to weather the impact. The claws of the Grimm raked across the face of the shield with a terrible screech before its teeth snapped closed around the edge of it.

Jaune gave a shout and then stabbed upwards—the tip of his sword sinking into the thing's throat and eliciting a pained, gurgling howl. Jaune took a step backwards and spun, attempting to throw the injured beast off of him by swinging his shield out wide. It actually worked—for the most part—as the sword tore out of the side of its neck, and the force of its jaws, still locked tight on the shield, caused its bodyweight to pull it in two separate directions. The Grimm's neck failed to survive the force, and it's body tore free of its neck, before tumbling across the room to land in front of Port.

"Nice," Lima said, impressed.

The head of the Beowolf finally lost its grip on the shield and fell to the floor, black mist already starting to roll off its skin—Jaune kind of stared down at the head in a stupor, apparently having some trouble recognizing exactly what he was looking at.

"Well done, well done," Port said, already clapping. "A strong defence and a positively vicious finish—I can't wait to see what you can bring to our Saturday morning sessions, Mister Arc."

"Right," Jaune said with a weak laugh. "Really—looking forward to it."

"Miss Rose, if you would," Port said, directing her down to the open area. "Please, show us what you are capable of."

#

Lecture Hall C4, Beacon Academy, Sanus.

Teak's effort to take the front bench had placed them directly beside Team Ruby, and with it, they had access to a front-row seat to Weiss Schnee's building tirade.

"This is ridiculous," Weiss said, working herself into a frenzy. "I can't believe a Professor would be so irresponsible—it's been almost ten minutes."

"Maybe something happened?" Ruby suggested. "If nobody is here, something must have, right?"

"You'd think they would have sent someone to take over the class," Yang said, cheek resting on her palm. "Seems like a pretty big breakdown in communication, yeah?"

Lima tapped a finger against his chin in thought and wondered at the great potential the bizarre situation had afforded them all. He waited until Teak leaned forward to reply to Yang's comment and then slipped out into the aisle.

"If something happened right before the class started, there might not have been enough time to contact anyone," Teak said, "Maybe we should—Lima, what are you doing?"

"Uh oh," Claire said, sounding more amused than worried. "This can't be good."

Lima linked his hands behind the small of his back and stepped down onto the main floor of the lecture hall, posture ramrod straight. Weiss hissed something that was two parts disbelief and one part outrage as he strode straight up to the teacher's desk and spun around to face them all.

"Hello everybody—" Lima said before pausing. "Uh."

There was a slender, red-haired person standing behind the backmost row of seats, positioned completely out in the open but in a way that had left them entirely out of view of the class. Given that they hadn't been there ten minutes ago and that there was no way to enter the room other than the doors that were in clear view of the entire hall, Lima couldn't figure out how the person had gotten inside without being seen. It was very, very obviously the Professor for the class, given that they were wearing a tight black turtleneck sweater and the slim-fit dress pants—and not a uniform. Their hair was cut short, neat, and around the ears, while their face was covered in a smattering of freckles. Much like Teak, the Professor was completely androgynous, leaving him without a way to identify the person's gender by sight alone.

"Lima," Weiss hissed, "Stop fooling around."

Lima kind of stared at the Professor for a moment longer, but other than raising their eyebrows, they made no attempt to reveal their presence to the rest of the class—well, he was committed at this point, so he might as well go through with it.

"I'm sure you're wondering why I've gathered you all here today, but worry not, I'll be brief," Lima said, clearing his throat. "I would like to address the rumours that have been going around about me."

The fury on the face of Weiss Schnee was disturbed for the first time as she turned to look at the others in her row, as if to ascertain whether or not there had been any rumours going around about him and if that leant some kind of legitimacy to his attempt to address them while he had the chance. The moment she spotted Teak with his face buried in his hands, her fury redoubled, and she snapped her head around, confident in his wrongdoing once more.

"As much as it pains me to admit to it," Lima said, taking a deep breath. "It's true—all of it."

"Rumours?" Ruby said, looking a bit hesitant. "I haven't heard anything."

The Professor was actually looking a bit concerned with the topic, but they weren't making any attempt to try and stop him—that was a good enough endorsement for him to keep on going.

"That's kind of you to say, Red, but—it's just hard, you know? Now that everyone knows," Lima said before lifting his eyebrows high. "But it's true—I am the best-looking guy at Beacon Academy, and I do bang like a cannon—"

There was a general uproar at the comment, some laughter, some disbelief, a few cries of outraged disagreement, and Jaune even had the audacity to call out a 'prove it'—although to which part of his claim he wasn't exactly certain.

"You—" Weiss squeaked.

"Okay, that will be more than enough of that," The Professor said. "You've all failed your first test; I've been here since the beginning of the period, and nobody has bothered to turn around once—you, cannon-boy, back to your seat."

Lima quickly made his way back to his seat as the Professor began to descend from the back of the room, making sure to keep a healthy distance between Weiss and himself at all times—the way she leaned towards him with her fist clenched tight was more than a little worrying. Lima slipped back down into his seat, more than pleased with himself.

"If you knew she was there, why did you keep talking?" Teak managed. "You're lucky you didn't get in trouble."

Lima just leaned far enough over to bump into the shorter boy, jostling him a bit but saying nothing in response. The Professor made it down to the desk before turning to address them all; hands clasped together.

"Let's start anew—my name is Anne Greene; you can call me Professor or Miss Greene," Anne said, "This class is Stealth and Security, and unfortunately for you all, about sixty percent of it is going to be complicated computer work."

Anne leaned back against the desk for a moment.

"The remaining forty percent will be made up of practical stealth exercises for use primarily in built-up, urban environments," Anne said, "Those will take place throughout the school, and they will be announced ahead of time—so unless I've warned you about it, expect to be in this room for the majority of classes."

#

Lecture Hall D4, Beacon Academy, Sanus.

Thumbelina Peach was perhaps the shortest person he'd ever seen, and considering there were quite a few of them running around, that was saying something.

"I've been in the unenvious position of having to wait to finally meet you all, but I must say it's absolutely lovely," Thumbelina said, smiling up at them. "I've heard nothing but praise from Glynda—ah—from Professor Goodwitch."

"Teak," Lima whispered. "Teak."

Despite there being less than a foot between them, Teak seemed to have developed something of a hearing problem. He was clearly testing out a new tactic in ignoring him outright, but Lima wasn't quite ready to call it quits just yet.

"Teak, she's short," Lima insisted. "Really short—Teak, are you looking? Teak."

"I have eyes," Teak said, doing his best to kick him in the shin beneath the table. "Can't you behave for one class—"

Lima accidentally smacked his knee into the underside of the desk in an effort to avoid the attack, and the resulting bang caused them both to wince.

"What on Remnant was that noise?" Professor Peach asked. "Is everything alright up there?"

"Sorry, miss," Lima said, sticking up his hand. "There was a bug—I took care of it."

"Oh, that's quite alright." Professor Peach said, smiling. "Now, Plant Studies is a class mostly dedicated to—as you might have already guessed—the properties, use, and history of plant life across remnant."

Not exactly something he was particularly interested in, and judging by the way Lux had laid her head down across her arms, it was something they had in common. Claire looked sort of vaguely interested, although he couldn't imagine why.

"We will also be covering the various occurrences of dust found in nature and the interesting effects it can have on the surrounding plant life, along with some of its lesser-known uses," Thumbelina said, "I'm sure that you've all heard of the Floating Islands of Lake Matsu—located on the northern part of Anima—in which the natural dust deposits are responsible for keeping them afloat, something which humans and Faunus have both taken clear inspiration from."

Lima was forced to reassess his interest in the class because Lake Matsu had been something he had been interested in for a while now. He'd never actually had the chance to make the trip, mainly because Sanctum had kept them both pretty busy, but he definitely wanted to go investigate it once he'd earned his Huntsman License—which was a requirement to actually enter the area, at least for those who weren't specifically cleared by the government. There was supposedly a massive Lancer population there—clearing Lake Matsu of all Grimm was definitely at the top of his bucket list.

"Can anyone name some of the marvels of engineering that were inspired by those islands?" Thumbelina said, leaning forward and clasping her hands in front of her chest. "It's not a pop quiz, but I'll certainly be impressed if you can name more than one."

Teak, Jaune, Pyrrha, Ren, and Weiss all raised their hands.

"Mister Ren," Thumbelina smiled.

"Amity Arena and Atlas City are the two which stand out to me," Ren said, closing his eyes for a moment. "The railways from Anima to Sanus also work by using a similar mechanism; the train cars actually float several feet off the ground by way of gravity dust."

Lux straightened up in her seat, suddenly looking far more energized about the lesson than she had a moment ago. Lima gave her an odd look, but she was staring at Ren like he was some kind of prophet.

"Well done, Mister Ren, those are all correct," Thumbelina said, clapping her hands. "Miss Schnee, I see you've still got your hand raised—do you have another?"

"Airships of all kinds make use of gravity dust," Weiss said, "The battleships of the Atlesian Fleet make use of several massive Gravity Dust Generators to power their flight—I think it's safe to assume they were at least partly inspired by those islands."

The rest of the raised hands went down after that—with one notable exception.

"Fantastic answer, Miss Schnee," Thumbelina said, beaming now. "Mister Arc—you still have something?"

"Those hoverboards that came out a couple of years ago with the goofy shoe belts attached to them," Jaune said, scratching the back of his head. "Although, I'm pretty sure they don't make them anymore because they got hit with like a hundred lawsuits at once after kids started getting hurt."

"I remember those," Ruby said, startled. "They were so cool."

"Ruby, is that really the hill you want to die on?" Yang said, shaking her head. "They looked like a pair of crocs stapled onto a piece of wood."

"Yes, yes, they were clearly derivative of the same technology used for the railways, which in turn—as Mister Ren indicated a moment ago—was inspired by the islands themselves," Thumbelina said, blinking. "A modern but obscure answer that I have certainly never heard before—marvellous."

#

Grounds, Beacon Academy, Sanus.

"So we're going to Training Field A4," Lima said, "That means we're not doing duelling today?"

"It's way down near where the Emerald Forest is, almost right on the border," Teak said, "It's probably one of the exercises she was talking about—the war games, maybe."

"What's going on with you?" Claire said, bemused. "No duelling should have you moping around, but you're practically skipping right now."

Lux bared her teeth in a smile that had far too much glee behind it, enough that it was actually starting to make him nervous—she'd been like that since right around the time Ren had spoken about the railways.

"That's because I remembered that the Vytal Festival Tournament is coming up soon," Lux said, linking her hands behind her back. "First years are allowed to sign up and fight—which means the four of us are absolutely doing that."

"I should have known it was something like that," Claire said, "Where is it being hosted this year?"

"It had better not be at Haven Academy," Lima said, interjecting. "Because if you think that I'm going to step foot in that school while Sage is teaching there, you've got another thing coming—it will take him all of a day to torpedo my carefully built reputation."

Lux popped up onto her tippy toes for a moment, practically radiating happiness.

"It's being hosted here, at Beacon, so you've got zero excuses to avoid fighting," Lux said, arching her back. "There's going to be so many students from other schools coming to stay here—I'm going to fight all of them."

"Oh my god, what if Sage tries to come here with the first years?" Lima said in horrified realisation. "He can't do that right—Teak, what happens with the first-year instructors when all their students leave the country for months on end? What happens?"

Lima grabbed him by the shoulders and attempted to shake an answer out of him.

"I don't know anything about it," Teak protested, "I'm just a student—"

"Just a student?" Lima tried. "But you're the captain."

"Captain Student doesn't know," Claire said, planting both of her arms on his shoulders from behind before steering him back onto the path. "Stop trying to turn around—we can ask Bestwitch when we get to class."

Lima gave up his struggles at the idea because she was right—Glynda taught the same class at Beacon as Sage got hired to do at Haven—if anyone knew what the instructors did, then it would be her.

"You'd really ditch the whole tournament just to avoid him?" Lux said, frowning. "Why do you hate him so much?"

"He's a gigantic ass, but I don't hate him at all," Lima defended. "I fled to Vale to avoid giving him a chance to destroy my street cred—going back there with my entire class is stupid."

"What street cred?" Claire laughed, still pushing him up the path. "You got up in front of the entire class and claimed to be the best-looking guy at Beacon—they already think your nuts."

"I'm not the best-looking guy at Beacon," Lima said, doubling down. "I'm the best-looking guy in all of Vale."

"The most delusional guy in Vale sounds more fitting," Lux said. "You should start using that instead."

"Says the loser who claimed to be the strongest person on our team," Lima cried, "Yet you can't seem to win a single fight against anyone in our class—"

"Neither Teak nor I have managed that either," Claire said unhelpfully. "It's not really Lux-specific."

"Exactly," Lux said in mortification. "I was literally fighting The Invincible Girl—that's a name other people gave her."

"Whatever," Lima insisted, "It's clear that I'm the only one with any street cred left—I'm out here carrying Team Fawn on my back, and damn if it ain't heavy."

"Don't call it that," Teak protested. "That makes it sound like I'm some kind of ego-maniac—"

"Team Fawn, reporting for duty," Lima said the exact moment he spotted Glynda. "Bestwitch, I have a super important question for you—it's about the Vytal Festival Tournament."

Claire stumbled forward a step as Lima sped up, the resistance she'd been fighting the entire walk suddenly vanishing entirely. Lima came to a stop directly in from of the Professor, who finally looked up from her scroll.

"The Vytal Festival Tournament," Glynda said, raising an eyebrow. "Are you interested in participating?"

"Not even a little bit, but Lux is making us do it because she's the worst," Lima said, throwing her under the bus. "I just need to know which instructors from Atlas Academy, Haven Academy and Shade Academy are coming here with their students—is it the first-year ones?"

Glynda looked a bit puzzled by the question, and she took a moment to study each of his teammates before reaching up with a finger to fix her glasses.

"That is a rather odd and strangely specific question, but no—not every student chooses to go abroad for the festival, and that means the majority of instructors must remain at the Academy to continue working," Glynda said, "Traditionally, it is only the headmaster, or headmistress that accompanies the students internationally, although there have been some exceptions. We have yet to receive the list of who will be arriving, but if trends continue as they have, I would expect the only headmaster to make the journey to be General Ironwood."

"Lionman isn't coming?" Lima pressed. "He—he wouldn't send a first-year instructor here as a joke, would he?"

"Headmaster Lionheart does not usually attend, and he always sends the headmistress in his place," Glynda said, furrowing her brow. "You are talking around the issue—what exactly are you trying to discover?"

"My guardian got hired to be the first-year combat instructor at Haven this year, and I'm trying to avoid him," Lima said, feeling more than a bit relieved. "I'm pretty sure he isn't the headmistress, though—thanks."

"You're—welcome, I suppose," Glynda said. "If the four of you do intend on participating in the tournament, I suggest you start preparing now because it will be upon us sooner than you may think."

"Absolutely," Lux said, beaming. "We're going to crush everyone and win the whole thing; just you watch."

"Ambitious, but I shall make certain I'm paying attention," Glynda said, raising an eyebrow. "Now, I believe everyone is here—please join the others, so we can begin."

Lima followed them over to where the rest of the class was milling about beside the forest, feeling as if a great burden had been lifted off his chest—Sage was a sneaky one, but he wasn't the type to ditch his responsibilities towards his first-years just to get one over on him, and if it wasn't an existing feature of the system to send a first-year instructor, then he wouldn't mess around with it. Training the next generation of Huntsmen and Huntresses to protect humanity from the Grimm was something far too important for a gag like that.

Glynda directed them into forming up in front of her properly, organising them into their teams and in rows. Lima found himself being hemmed in on all sides as the teams attempted to crowd the space. He felt his Semblance stretching outwards, priming itself to react to the potential threat. Sparks of understanding came with it, the contact enough for him to get a direct sense of what was touching him as his aura fought to spread out, seeking to take control of the foreign object's direction. Yang shifted, her arm jostling Blake back into him, and his eyes flicked up to stare at the ribbon sitting on her head—and the pair of ears that were hiding underneath.

"Sorry," Blake muttered without turning around. "Yang, can you just—stop moving?"

"I'm too excited," Yang said, brushing it off. "We're finally getting to do something—I've been powering up for this all day."

"What are you?" Blake complained, "Some kind of hero from a cartoon?"

"Maybe I'm the lone enigma from that book of yours," Yang cooed, "I don't have a big strong katana to threaten anyone with, though."

"You—" Blake managed. "You went through my bag?"

"I literally asked you if I could borrow your comb this morning," Yang defended, "You said, and I quote—get it yourself, I'm going back to bed."

Blake Belladonna was a Faunus? That made three of them in one class, but she appeared to be the only one actively hiding her status—then again, Blake was the only one with Weiss Schnee on her team, so maybe that was more of a self-preservation kind of thing.

"Books like those will rot your brain, Miss Belladonna," Lima said, more than a little bit impressed that she'd had the audacity to bring porn into Beacon Academy. "Nobody has a katana that big—totally unrealistic."

Blake's head snapped back around to stare at him in horror before she turned back to look at Yang, seeking some kind of escape from it all—but Yang just scratched at her cheek, looking a bit sheepish at having been overheard.

"Yang," Blake said, voice strangled. "Yang."

"Uh," Yang tried, "Look, Goodwitch is trying to get our attention."

"—Hunters often find themselves in situations where not everything is going smoothly or where trade-offs must be made to complete an objective," Glynda said, tapping away at her scroll. "The variety of missions you will encounter in the field will put you into all kinds of odd and sometimes stressful configurations—this is going to simulate one of them, namely, an escort mission with an injured teammate."

A series of alerts washed over the crowd, each of their scrolls receiving a notification to join the assigned teams for way of aura tracking—and once he tapped on the accept icon, he found that out of the four names, only his was greyed out.

"By way of randomisation, your teams have had one member eliminated—those of you who were unlucky enough to be chosen will act as both the injured teammate and the person being escorted simultaneously," Glynda said, "For the duration of this test, you will not be able to take any offensive or defensive action, nor will you be allowed to move without at least one team member guiding you by hand."

"Miss?" Weiss asked. "Our team doesn't seem to have one."

"That, Miss Schnee, is because your team is part of the half that has been selected as the attackers in this exercise," Glynda said, smiling. "To be more precise, you will be paired with a defending team, and your job will be to eliminate all three defenders by way of aura threshold before taking control of the person being escorted."

"Oh," Weiss said.

"This is a live-fire exercise, and as such, real ammunition will be used, so ensure you do not target anyone who has already had their aura dropped below the limit—if you have been defeated, please raise your hand above your head, and return here immediately." Glynda said, "You will be monitored while inside the forest, so do not attempt to attack after you have already been eliminated—I will be watching."

Another wave of alerts went out, the system switching configuration until they were looking at both their own team and their opponents side-by-side. At the very top was a number denoting the order by which they'd be doing the exercise. Lima stared at the bold '1' at the top and realised he'd most likely be doing absolutely nothing for the vast majority of the class.

"There are no boundary rules for this exercise, but there is a time limit of ten minutes before the defenders win by default," Glynda said, "I suggest you use the cover the forest provides to your advantage—Team Malachite, you will have a two-minute head start to hide, Team Juniper, prepare yourselves to give chase."

"Hah," Lima said, pushing through Team Ruby to get to the front. "Enjoy getting destroyed by Pawpaw, idiots—hey—"

Lux hooked an arm around his throat and then started bodily dragging him towards the forest. Teak and Claire broke free of the crowd a moment later, catching up to them just as they made it to the treeline.

"You suck," Lima complained, letting his feet drag a pair of tracks in the dirt. "In front of everyone—we just had a talk about street cred, didn't we?"

"How are we going to handle this?" Claire said. "They outnumber us, and our best fighter is unable to do anything—how do we stop them?"

Lima had a good view of Teak, trailing after the three of them, eyes on the floor of the forest, his bottom lip pulled into his teeth as he concentrated.

"Jaune is probably the weakest one; it shouldn't be too hard to take him down quickly," Lux said, still dragging him along. "Ren and Pyrrha are going to be the biggest problem—and we don't really know how Nora fights because of this idiot."

"If we try to mark each of them, then one of us is going to have to fight two at once," Claire said, "But I'm not sure we can beat Pyrrha, even if we fight her three on one—I don't know what to do."

Teak glanced up, his shoulders straightening a bit, he opened his mouth—and then fell silent again, apparently psyching himself out.

"I'll fight them all, and you guys run with our deadweight," Lux said, "I'll try to slow them down as much as I can—"

The pace by which she was dragging him slowed as she prepared to drop him, and he cleared his throat.

"Captain Student," Lima said, crossing his arms. "Tell us how to win."

"You have something?" Claire said, turning to him. "Teak?"

"I think I know how we can win," Teak said, a bit hesitant. "You might not like it, though."

#

Clearing, Emerald Forest, Sanus.

"You're heavier than you look, you know," Claire said. "We're almost the same height, but you weigh like twice as much."

Bridal style wasn't exactly the most dignified of ways to be carried, but she'd kind of scooped him up off the ground before giving him any kind of choice.

"It's all muscle," Lima bragged, kicking his legs in feigned delight. "Especially the parts that aren't."

"Then maybe you should be carrying me," Claire said.

"I'll give you a piggyback ride later to make up for it," Lima offered, "It's been three minutes—they're definitely in the forest already."

"If this actually works," Claire said, curving to the right. "I'm going to be amazed."

"It will probably only work once," Lima admitted, "Teak was right about that part—all the other teams are going to start leaving people to check for something like this."

Lima tapped her on the shoulder as they reached the treeline, but instead of letting him back down like they'd planned, she broke straight out into the training field at a jog—which meant that every single person in the class got to see him being carried around like a girl on her wedding day.

"This is a direct attack on my manliness." Lima complained, "I will not have it."

Claire laughed out loud, the run finally starting to steal away some of her breath as she cut across the field and back towards them all. The run slowed down to a jog as they reached the area where the rest of the class was sitting and waiting for their turns.

"Uh," Ruby said, "Did you get eliminated already?"

Claire finally let him down, and once he straightened up, he spent a moment dusting himself off.

"We just couldn't keep up with them, you know?" Lima said, dropping down onto the grass. "I mean, did you see how stacked that team was?"

"I thought he was the one being escorted," Weiss said, frowning. "If you were eliminated, then the exercise should be over already—where is everyone else?"

"Did you pretend to be the injured teammate?" Yang wondered. "It couldn't have been Teak because he was walking on his own—Lux was dragging you, so it was her, right?"

"No, no, you were right the first time," Claire said, taking a seat beside the blonde girl with a smile. "Lima is the one being escorted."

"You haven't been eliminated yet," Blake said in understanding. "There are no boundary rules—they're looking for you in the forest, but you came back to hide here."

"Well, I'm glad you're not on their team," Lima said, pretending to study his fingernails. "You might have actually had a chance against us."

"Isn't this cheating?" Ruby said, stumped. "This is totally cheating."

"It's not actually against the rules," Weiss said, sounding annoyed that she had to defend it. "But it is underhanded—I should have expected it from someone like you."

"I wasn't the one who came up with the plan," Lima said without a care. "But go off, Queen."

A matching beep came from two different scrolls, and when they brought them out to check, they found that Teak's aura had just fallen beneath the threshold. Lux's aura was being shaved away, fraction by fraction, from what must have been a systematic series of shallow hits. The entire thing slowly drained down, moving in fits and spurts over the course of about thirty seconds until it gave a final beep.

"Why didn't they spread out to look for you?" Blake asked.

"Because they didn't think we were hiding," Claire said, smiling. "There's a pair of drag marks in the dirt leading from here all the way to where they are now—but they stopped belonging to Lima about thirty meters into the forest, which was when Lux switched over to dragging Teak instead."

"That's so mean," Weiss said, "You didn't even give them a chance at a fair fight—and you abandoned your teammates."

"Technically, our teammates chose to sacrifice themselves for us," Lima corrected, "Lux was all like, 'let me fight them all at once, or I'll kill the hostage,' and Teak was like, 'sure, that's part of the plan now too, here do all of this so we can win.'"

Claire laughed at the terrible summarisation of their planning phase.

"It also wasn't fair to begin with because we only had three people that could fight, and they had four," Claire said, shaking her head. "Plus, they had a Pyrrha."

"They did have one of those," Weiss said, pausing for a moment. "Teak came up with this plan?"

"Huh," Yang said, "He's actually pretty cool."

"You better start putting some respect on my boy's name," Lima warned, "Teak is out in that forest right now putting in the work and knocking down boss monsters—"

"Don't call her that," Weiss said in outrage. "Pyrrha isn't a boss monster."

Lima opened his mouth to argue the point—because Pyrrha was absolutely a boss monster—but another wave of beeps rang out across the clearing as everyone scrolls picked up the end of the match. A delightful little victory jingle played as Team Juniper was stamped with a 'loss.'

"I can feel the EXP entering my body," Claire said, clapping her hands together. "This is it—I'm finally levelling up."

Yang cleared her throat, and when Claire cracked an eye open, she spoke.

"Can I get an invite to the party?" Yang asked before pausing. "We should probably go check for a loot drop, too."

"Yang," Weiss insisted. "It's not funny."

#

Training Field A4, Beacon Academy, Sanus.

Lux stepped out of the treeline with a bright smile, entirely covered from head to toe in a mess of sticks, leaves and other plant life. Teak appeared a moment later, in much the same condition, but he was actually making an attempt to tidy up his uniform as he went.

"That was awesome," Lux said, planting her hands on her hips. "You should have seen the look on their faces when they realised we'd tricked them—"

"You guys suck," Jaune groaned as he stepped out of the trees. "Why have you done this to me?"

"Sorry," Teak said, ducking his head a bit. "It was the only way we could win."

"No, no, you shouldn't apologise; it was a perfectly good strategy," Pyrrha said, looking a bit flushed at the loss. "I would have never thought you would come back here—we'll have to be on guard from now on."

"I can't believe you ran away from the reckoning," Nora said, "I wanted to accidentally squash you."

"That sentence has all kinds of things wrong with it," Lima said, laughing. "But I'm sorry I deprived you of that."

"This scenario was much more difficult than I was expecting it to be," Ren said, "I'm not sure we could have found you in time, even if you had remained within the forest."

"A challenging scenario is exactly what I hope to engage you all with," Glynda said, speaking up. "We'll do a breakdown of each match during the second half of the lesson; for now, you've earned a respite—well done to both teams; it's time to move on to the next set."

"Would you look at that," Claire said, smiling. "When Team Fawn comes together—it really comes together, am I right?"

"Of course," Lima said in agreement. "But also—phrasing."

"Not like that," Claire said, rolling her eyes. "Don't be gross."

#

Malachite's Dormitory, Beacon Academy, Sanus.

"I knew your hair was looking too—" Lima said, genuinely angry. "I told you not to touch my stuff—what the hell is your problem?"

"I only used a little bit," Lux defended. "I wanted to see what you were going on about—"

"What kind of excuse is that?" Lima said, "You wanted to? It's my shampoo, damn it."

"We were getting along so well—guys," Claire tried for the second time. "Let's just chill out for a moment—"

"You have three bottles of it sitting on your stupid shelf," Lux said, raising her voice to be heard. "Stop getting so bent out of shape—I'll buy you a new one."

"I don't want you to buy me anything," Lima gritted out, "I told you not to touch it, specifically."

"You wouldn't have even noticed if I hadn't told you," Lux snapped. "If I'd kept my mouth shut, you would be throwing out some stupid jokes right now and making a complete ass out of yourself—"

"You fuck," Lima said, grabbing her by the front of her uniform. "Are you trying to piss me off?"

"You're having a breakdown over a bottle of shampoo," Lux said, glaring at him. "It's completely unhinged."

"Lima, let her go," Teak said, voice quiet. "Please stop fighting in the dorms."

Lima shoved her backwards with a wordless cry of frustration and then slapped a hand flat against the window—he sent a burst of his Semblance into it, sending the frame rocketing upwards to crash into the stopper with a bang that rattled the wall. Within a second, he was outside, standing on the side of the building, storming up the side of it, fighting to keep his temper under control. Three different voices called out after him, but he ignored them all because he was certain if he stayed for a moment longer, everything was going to descend into a fight—which was probably what Lux had been hoping for since the beginning.

Lima crested the edge of the top floor, caught his balance and then took off across the balcony railing at a run. He ran out of railing after half a dozen steps and then angled up onto the peak of the actual roof, a rapid staccato of taps ringing out as he sped up. Lima planted his foot at the very end of the building and threw himself straight off the edge, cutting through the air on an arc towards the distant ground. For a moment, he could see the cliff and, beyond it, Vale, spreading out towards the ocean in a sparkling sea of lights. A new voice—rendered unrecognisable by the wind in his ears—called out from one of the windows behind him. Gravity began to take hold, but he didn't slow down.

Instead, he turned his gaze to the concrete path rapidly approaching, his knees already bending in preparation—he reached for his Semblance a second before impact, reversing the direction of his fall just enough to counteract his descent—and then burst forward across the path at a dead sprint. He left the path behind entirely, paying no heed to the sign that told him that walking on the grass was against the rules and kept on going. An airship began to rise up off the landing pad, taking to the air with a rush of noise.

Lima vaulted the railing just before the crossroads and then shot straight through the four-way intersection of paths—there was a fleeting moment where he caught sight of a man in the middle of the path to his direct right, wreathed in a green scarf and adorned with a mess of silver hair—and then he'd entered the landing zone proper. Lima cut across the middle of it, the elaborate light system built into the floor guiding his path forward, and then when the safety rail remained as the very last thing between him and open air, he gave another wordless shout. Lima planted his foot on the railing and leapt forward into the dark, arms spread out at his sides.

The crisscross of illuminated stairs, pathways, and elevators that were built into the side of the cliff revealed themselves to him—at the very bottom, the mass of water sparkled in the light of the docks. The shattered remains of the moon left a fractured and almost delirious mess of a reflection on the surface of it, recognisable only by the pale white light and its position. Lima laughed as he fell, the seconds crawling by—the sheer height of the cliff allowing for a duration of freefall that completely dominated that of the Argus wall—and the partially unbuttoned shirt of his uniform whipping about in the wind. As he rotated, he caught sight of the airship putting on the speed, growing smaller as it set off for Vale and as he fell even further away from it. Lima turned in the air again, watching the incoming water and waiting until the very last moment before he reached for his Semblance—for a half second, he hovered directly above the unbroken surface of the water, completely still.

"Oh my god," Lima yelped, hands clawing at the water until he was able to keep himself afloat with his feet. "Why the hell is it so cold—"

Still, being almost completely submerged meant that he had no real choice but to grow accustomed to it. Once he'd gotten his bearings, he drew himself into a precarious floating position, a halo of light from a lamp on the edge of the docks surrounding him. Lima floated there in the water for what must have been minutes, eyes closed and mind working hard to brace himself against the temperature. As the rush and adrenaline of the fall slowly fell away, he found himself in a state that was almost empty. The frustration he'd felt at the argument washed away with the cold as the time stretched on.

It felt a bit silly now to have reacted so poorly, even if she had crossed pretty much the only boundary he'd set. Something like this was bound to happen eventually, though, with four strangers having been squashed together into a single room. Teak, Lux and Claire were probably having just as much trouble getting used to the situation as he was—he just couldn't see it, probably because he was too caught up in how he was feeling.

"This sucks," Lima murmured.

"If the temperature of the water is as cold as I suspect it is, I could certainly believe it," Ozpin said, stepping into view of the lamplight. "Mister Morta, while there are technically no signs above to dissuade a person from diving headlong off the cliff—I'd assumed it was implied by the existence of the safety rail."

Lima kind of winced at the man's appearance.

"Hello, sir," Lima tried, tipping back upright in the water. "The railing wasn't very tall, so I thought it was more of an 'at your own peril' kind of thing."

"At your own peril? Yes, I suppose it is," Ozpin said in consideration. "Just not for the act itself, but for what comes afterwards."

#

Dining Hall, Beacon Academy, Sanus.

"Detention?" Teak said, rubbing at his eyes. "Is it because you didn't come back to the dorm last night?"

Like hell he was going to come back after everything that had happened—he'd camped out on the rooftop balcony until the sun had risen. The whole wet clothing thing made the night pretty unpleasant, but it beat the idea of dealing with the issue like a responsible and emotionally mature teenager.

"Something like that," Lima said, resting his chin on his folded hands. "The point is, I won't be sticking around for the after-class training today—I'll be trapped in a room with Bestwitch."

Lux picked at her food with a sort of radiant sullenness, spending more of her time dealing damage to it than actually eating it—she'd said exactly nothing to him since he'd stepped out of the showers that morning and found her standing outside the door with her borrowed towel hanging from her hands. But even that had been a muttered, non-word, forced out of her by the surprise of finding out he had returned without her knowing.

"Detention on the second day," Claire said, "I doubt you're breaking any records, but it's competitive, at least."

"Sure," Lima said, "It's only an hour, so it's not like it really matters—suppose I'll be writing lines or something."

"Was Professor Goodwitch the one who caught you?" Teak asked.

"Ozpin," Lima admitted. "I guess he doesn't have time to handle his own detentions, so he fostered me off onto her."

"Knowing how to delegate is a quality of all good leaders," Claire said, flashing him a smile. "At least, that's what the leaders like to say—I'm not sure if we can trust all the self-reporting."

By his estimate, Claire had cracked more jokes in the last two hours than the previous two days combined. Either she had been inspired to become a comedian practically overnight, or it was an over-correction because of the argument and an attempt to smooth everything over without actually addressing it. It didn't really seem to be working, but Lima had to admit that he didn't hate that she was smiling at him.

"What do you think, Teak?" Lima asked. "Did you remember to tune your delegator this morning?"

"I guess they ran out while they were deciding on the teams because I never got one," Teak said in answer. "Maybe I can put it a requisition order with Professor Mulberry."

"You'll just have to make do with telling everyone what to do and then expecting us to fall in line," Claire said, drumming her fingers along the tabletop. "You want to do some practice now, Captain Student?"

"Okay," Teak said, scrunching his face up at the name. "Let's start with erasing that nickname from common parlance—it's the absolute worst thing I've ever heard."

"On second thought," Claire hedged, "Maybe we should wait until we see Mulberry."

Lima snorted at the exchange, and Claire's affected smile grew into something far more genuine.

#

Lecture Hall B4, Beacon Academy, Sanus.

"Grande Rise was a household name during this period and known across most of Remnant—but it wouldn't be until three years after the end of the war that his wife, Alloy Rise, had eclipsed his reputation," Oobleck said, hands linked behind his back as he stalked across the room. "If neither of these names sound familiar to you, then you should take it as a sign that you have not spent enough time reading the assigned chapters."

Lima hadn't read the chapters, mostly because he'd spent the night outside, but his indiscretions seemed to be lost amongst the crowd because he could pick out half a dozen of the others who looked visibly uncomfortable at the call out.

"The societal tensions were still running high in the aftermath of the war, despite the treatise and all of the active engagements coming to an end," Oobleck said, "The fear of a war reignited, the anger at all of the loss, and the growing distrust for the military leaders who had spearheaded the terrible decisions that started it in created an explosive potential for change, and through it a period of great transformation."

Lima glanced over and observed that Teak's hand was cutting across his notebook almost as fast as the Professor was speaking—unlike his own scribbled mess, his notes were tight, neat, and concise in a way that Lima knew he could never match.

"The vast majority of those who were not in places of leadership, government or media sought to keep their heads down, to bury themselves in work—a problem, because the steering mechanism for the governance of our cities was clearly broken, and simply getting out of the way wasn't enough to fix the situation," Oobleck said, turning on his heel to face them all. "Alloy Rise, however, was not one of those people who were content to hide amongst the faceless mass and wait for the tried, tested, and failed leadership to send things further off course."

Lima gave up on his notes entirely, the partially finished sentence devolving into a mess of illegible squiggles.

"Despite her husband's stellar reputation, it conferred no real, concrete power to her in the form of governance or in voting power—so she forged another path, by way of sheer force of personality, charisma, and actual groundwork," Oobleck said, "Alloy could have chosen any number of issues to deal with, and with her natural aptitude for bringing people to her side, I can't imagine she would have failed at any of them—instead, she chose a cause that had personally affected her for most of her life, and that she had an actual investment in changing the outcome of."

Oobleck raised both of his eyebrows at them for a moment, the expectation for them to provide an answer clear—a series of hands rose up in response to the now familiar look, scattered amongst the class.

"Miss Nikos?" Oobleck said.

"Alloy Rise wanted to deal with discrimination," Pyrrha said, "Her specific focus ended up being on the exclusion of women from leadership and government positions."

"Absolutely correct, Miss Nikos, a fine answer—she took it upon herself to challenge the existing paradigm," Oobleck said, pleased, "It became her primary goal to solve the systemic exclusion of women in society and then she even had the audacity to follow through by spending her entire life working towards it."

Oobleck returned to pacing about the room as he spoke.

"As remarkable of a person she was, it would be a dishonour to say she accomplished it alone. Many, many people joined her cause—men and women both, from all walks of life—war heroes, politicians, Huntresses, Huntsmen, teachers, bakers, warehouse workers, and more beyond," Oobleck said without pause. "Alloy Rise set out to change a wrongness within society, and she had become the catalysing force through which that change was effected across Remnant—I find it hard to express just how much courage it must have taken her to start that journey, or the sheer determination it would have required to follow it through to the end."

Oobleck came to a stop and once again turned to face them.

"That's not to say that she achieved a perfect victory or that there are no longer elements of discrimination surviving within our society today, but the strides that we have made over the last eighty years are truly vast, and none of it would have been possible without her contributions," Oobleck said, "As I said, her name was practically unknown before the end of the war, and at that time she wouldn't have had a single mention in any book, or document—she'd come from humble beginnings, like many of the young men and women I now see sitting before me."

Oobleck brought one of his hands out from behind his back for the first time, palm facing upwards, and waved it to indicate the entire class.

"She was a seamstress by trade, a job which, while complicated to master, conferred no intrinsic advantage towards the rising trajectory of her life. Alloy married well, certainly, but by word of Grande Rise himself, he played no integral part in her success beyond providing loving support of his wife in all of her endeavours," Oobleck said, "So how did a relative unknown, from the beaten, downtrodden mass of people amidst the post-war tension, rise up to cause such sweeping change to society? What was it that she found that allowed her to commit all of her being to it?"

Once again, Oobleck paused, raising both eyebrows, but this time, the abstract nature of the question had left them all without the confidence to answer—only one person had their hand up.

"Miss Diamond?" Oobleck said.

"A purpose," Claire said, swallowing a bit. "She found something she could believe in enough to outweigh all the bad stuff—something that she felt was a good enough reason to fight for."

"Fantastic, Miss Diamond, absolutely fantastic; you're the first student in several years to answer that correctly," Oobleck said, clapping his hands together. "A purpose is exactly what Alloy Rise found, and through it, she discovered meaning in something greater than herself, her circumstance, and the little cross-section of society she lived within."

Claire sat back in her chair as the Professor turned his attention back to the room at large, her head bowed slightly and her hair hanging in front of her face—Lima watched her out of the corner of his eye, wondering at why she'd been the only one to know the answer.

"Some of you might have heard this term before, but on the day that Alloy Rise set out to solve discrimination, she found self-actualization, and with it, she changed the world," Oobleck said, making eye contact with each of them. "Each and every one of you has that exact same potential for change inside of you; I know this to be true. I should hope that you will all do your best to seek out and discover that purpose—and see what changes you can bring about."

As if the man had timed it down to the exact second, the bell that signalled the end of class rang out—and Oobleck spun away, returning to his desk without another word, moving to sort through some of the loose papers layered on top of it.

"That was amazing," Teak said, pen hovering over his notepad as he scanned it, looking for something. "There was a lecture about Alloy Rise at my old school, but it wasn't half as interesting as this—Claire, did they talk about her at Signal? Is that how you knew the answer?"

Claire seemed to start a bit at the words, and she turned towards them, eyes flicking about to study their faces for something—Lima made eye contact with her for a moment before she quickly looked away again.

"I—don't remember if they did, but they must have, right?" Claire said, reaching up to touch the side of her throat. "Maybe you could ask Yang or Ruby if they remember."

"I will," Teak said, smiling. "Thanks."

"It's time for Combat Studies," Lux mumbled, pushing past them into the aisle. "I'm going ahead."

Teak's smile kind of shattered at that, the thin veneer of everything being back to normal torn away once more.

"I'm going to go talk to Lux," Teak said, clutching his book to his chest. "Don't take too long, okay?"

"We'll be right behind you," Lima offered.

Lima and Claire remained in their seat, watching as the class began to file out into the hall, silently packing up their things. Teak vanished, chasing after Lux, and then Lima spoke up.

"Are you alright?" Lima asked.

Claire seemed a bit taken aback at the sudden question.

"Why are you asking me that?" Claire said, brushing it off. "You're the one who didn't come back last night."

"You looked like you were upset just now," Lima said, picking up his book with one hand. "Oobleck's question."

"I wasn't upset," Claire insisted, standing up. "Hurry up—are you trying to get another detention? You haven't even finished the first one."

Lima studied her before dragging his book off the desk with one hand, deciding to just accept it. If she didn't want to talk about it, he wasn't going to force her to. Two days in, and they were falling apart at the seams—this whole team thing was turning out to be far more difficult than he thought.

#

Training Field A4, Beacon Academy, Sanus.

"Today, you will be undergoing a survival-style combat simulation that will help familiarise each of you with the lopsided numerical advantage the monsters of Grimm will almost always have in your future engagements," Glynda said, "It will test your situational awareness, how adept you are at tracking multiple moving assailants, your ability to defend yourself and if you can continue to make strong strategic choices while under quickly rising pressure."

That was the case with a great deal of lesser Grimm—the younger ones weren't particularly dangerous to those with even a basic ability to harness their aura, but they made up for that by way of how many there were. Beowolves, Nevermore, and Lancers were the immediate standouts, but depending on how far from civilisation you were, you could be swarmed by just about any species.

"Yesterday you had a chance to see what it was like to fight against a team with a small numbers advantage over you, and while defending an injured person—today will be much, much more one-sided," Glynda warned them. "There will be missions in your future in which there are no good options left, where you find yourself outnumbered and separated from your allies—situations where the only course of action available to you is to struggle to survive while everything around you falls to ruin."

Lima had personal experience with that, as had the rest of the people who'd attempted to flee from Oniyuri—he blew out a breath at the direction of his thoughts; the lack of decent sleep and the general negativity within the team was starting to really get to him—Lima caught sight of a tiny splash of red amidst the trees, and he found his eyes locked onto the spot, long after it had vanished.

"When you find yourself there, in a place without hope, and as those around you suffer, I want you to take what you have learned from this class and use it to make the very best decisions you can," Glynda said, "As to the structure of this scenario, I will ask that you look to your scrolls for the details—but in summary, each round will consist of nine participants, an individual on one side, and an opposition of two full teams."

"Two whole teams?" Jaune managed. "You can't be serious."

"I am entirely serious, and I would advise that you start coming up with a strategy now because we will be starting momentarily—as with most scenarios, a time limit will be imposed to allow everyone the chance to participate, and a randomiser will be used," Glynda said, "The rules are simple, the individual must survive for ten minutes, or somehow defeat the attackers, while the attackers must defeat the survivor—aura threshold will be the metric of defeat for both parties."

"What happens if all the attackers lose?" Yang asked. "Aren't we going to run out of participants?"

"You're planning on beating up eight people?" Jaune accused. "Eight?"

Another flicker of red, in the exact same spot, gone in an instant—he couldn't feel anything from it, but there was definitely something there.

"If that happens, we will shuffle the defeated teams based on aura remaining until everyone we run out of suitable participants," Glynda said, "If, by some twist of fate, all of the teams get wiped out consecutively, then we will halt the scenario, and pick up where we left off tomorrow."

Pick up where we left off, huh? That was perhaps the least realistic part about the scenario because there were no second chances when things went that badly, not for the people that deserved them most, not for the people of Oniyuri or for his mother. Fate ran a tight ship, and the second-chance budget for that day only accounted for one miserable little kid.

"Lima?" Teak asked, "What are you looking at?"

"Nothing," Lima murmured.

"—check your scroll for the order, and prepare yourselves," Glynda finished, "The teams for the first round will be Team Flower and Team Canape—the first survivor will be Lima Morta."

Lima forced himself to look away from the trees as the two teams moved to assemble in Glynda's direction. He'd spoken to basically none of them before, other than the odd greeting in the halls—but he'd seen each of them fight during the very first Combat Studies class. Not exactly a comprehensive breakdown of their skills, but it was all he had.

"Once again, there are no boundaries for this engagement, but do try to avoid going into the school proper, and be mindful of which direction you are firing in," Glynda advised, "I would rather not have to worry about intercepting any kind of stray attacks—Mister Morta, you have two minutes, if you intend to reposition yourself, I would do so now."

"You're the first person?" Teak said. "I wonder if that is because you didn't get to do any fighting yesterday—"

Lima stepped away from the rest of them without another word, eyes returning to the trees and the particular spot that kept on drawing his attention. He passed into the treeline, ignoring the comments of his classmates, and then slipped through the mess covering the ground. It took a little while to actually find the splash of red through the interstice of branches—and he came to a stop directly beneath it. A single red flower dangling high off the ground from the end of a vine that had wound itself around a tree in a seemingly endless sequence of tight loops.

"Just a flower," Lima mumbled, shaking his head. "I'm such an idiot."

Lima reached back and unclipped his compacted bow from its harness, the entire thing unfolding in his hand as he brought it around in front of him. He lifted a spike out of his box quiver and let it dangle from his fingers. Eight people with an assortment of weapons, various builds, and who probably hadn't really figured out how to work together properly—and certainly not with an entire second team. The loss condition was getting dog-piled. The obvious way to avoid that was to simply pick a direction and start running. Even without the headstart, he doubted any of them would have been able to catch up to him—but after the rather frustrating day, and the negativity that had been clinging to his mind, he didn't really feel like running away.

"Sorry, guys," Lima murmured. "But I think I'm going to vent a little."

The alert hit his scroll a few moments later, announcing to everyone that the match had officially begun—and he turned back towards the treeline, walking backwards up the side of the vine-strangled tree as he went. Lima changed the angle, rotating around the trunk until he'd placed it between him and where the class was waiting out on the field. The sound of low voices, loud footsteps, and sticks breaking shattered the silence as the two teams entered the forest in pursuit. Most of them had entered to his right, following the initial path he'd made inside, but at least three of them were closer to the tree he'd ended up at.

The girl with pink hair and the ridiculously long Odachi passed by the base of his tree—Flora, whose name he recalled from when the teams were being announced on stage—her head swinging around as she searched the area. The largest boy in their class—whose name may have been Jupiter—followed a few steps behind her, but rather than searching the environment for his target, his gaze seemed to be stuck firmly on his teammates behind.

"You're an absolute animal, dude," Lima said, "Completely baseline."

Jupiter twisted to look up at his voice, an expression of complete alarm on his face as the spike smashed into his chest with a crack—the boy's aura flashed twice in quick succession, the first from the impact of the projectile itself and the second when he crashed back first into the ground, pinning his still sheathed greatsword beneath him. Lima landed feet first on the boy's chest a second later, tanking the rest of his aura and leaving him well below the threshold.

"Jupiter Wasp has been eliminated," The digitized voice coming from each of their scrolls said in perfect unison. "Aura Threshold."

Lima glanced over at the sound, catching sight of the boy called Squall as he came in low at a full-on sprint, a pair of daggers held in reverse grip at the ready. The spike that had ricocheted away on impact halted in mid-air as he activated the dust-powered link between it and the quiver before it began spinning back towards him. Squall jaunted to the side in an attempt to avoid the projectile as it passed by his shoulder, cutting off his momentum almost entirely—and then Lima's foot crashed into him, pushing through the cross guard with a twist of his Semblance that sent the two weapons out wide.

His foot continued on to impact the centre of the boy's chest—and then Squall was upside down, his legs torn off the floor by a second pulse that violently adjusted their direction. Lima snatched the returning spike out of the air, and then spun, catching the thrust of Flora's weapon on the edge of it. His Semblance reached outwards, passing through the spike, into the odachi and then touching its wielder's hand—Flora let out a startled yelp as she was suddenly yanked two feet forward, her grip on the weapon faltering as it remained locked in place. Lima completed his spin, his elbow passing over the top of the frozen odachi and crashing into the back of her head. The blow sent her straight to the ground as she fought to regain her balance, the discarded odachi falling out of the air a moment later.

"What the hell is going on?" Jupiter managed as he sat up. "Flora, look out—"

Flora, now on her side on the forest floor, attempted to push herself up to her feet, but she was too slow to avoid his rising foot as it impacted her belly. She was lifted completely off the ground before smashing into the branch of the tree above them, shattering it into splinters as her aura washed back into existence.

"Flora Powder has been eliminated," The digitized voice repeated. "Aura Threshold."

Squall stabbed his dagger into the ground a moment before he could fall all the way down, using the strike to right himself and pulling himself into a crouch. Lima shifted back a step as the boy lunged forward, the daggers both passing by his face but not quite touching—two more strikes followed it in quick succession, forcing him back, away from the two on the ground. The fourth, fifth, and sixth strike came directly after, flowing perfectly from one attack to the next, seamlessly and without pause—Lima shifted forward amidst the seventh attack, the boy's wrist smacking into his own, and then he slid forward, swiping his leading leg out from under him. Lima's hand latched onto the boy's wrist, dragging him forward to add to the momentum—and Squall crashed down into the dirt, his shoulder and neck taking the brunt of the impact as his legs trailed behind him in the air. The base of the spike in his hand hit him in the forehead a moment later, the hammer blow funnelling all of his momenta into it.

"Squall Opal has been eliminated," The digitized voice said in a chorus that told him the others were almost upon him. "Aura Threshold."

"Ash, go wide, Nox, aim for behind; Gray, you take the front," Crane said as they surged into the clearing. "Savanna—"

Lima hopped backwards, swerving around the trunk of the vine-covered tree, picking his way through the shattered remains of the branch as he broke the line of sight. He went low, cutting left at full speed and intercepting Ash as she attempted to follow the order. Ash's sword came around the tree, point first—clearly reacting to the sound of his footsteps—but it was almost a foot too high to hit anything at all. Lima, well within her guard after the missed strike of opportunity, struck upwards, his fist smashing into her chin and sending her stumbling backwards.

He followed her around the tree, using it to keep himself out of sight of the others. Ash recovered and slashed outwards, this time, much more on target, but he was already too close, and her wrist kind of butted up against his shoulder. He stepped on her foot as she tried to backpedal, striking her in the sternum and then again in the cheek as she began to fall backwards. He ripped his head backwards as her sword came around in a final, desperate attempt to create some distance—the tip of her sword was close enough to an actual hit that his aura sparked into visibility at the contact—and then the danger had passed. Lima stomped down on her belly before surging forward, storming straight over the top of her with complete disregard to her wellbeing.

"Ash Bell has been eliminated," The digitized voice said once again. "Aura Threshold."

"He's over there—" Nox called out.

"I've got him," Gray said. "He's not getting past me—"

Lima sprinted straight past before the other boy could fully turn to intercept him, a series of bullets sending bark and wood out into the air behind him. He angled for the edge of the treeline, making sure to keep multiple trees between him and the pursuers—the three boys kept together in a tight group, which wasn't exactly ideal. Savanna, the last remaining member of Team Flower—and the tallest girl in their class by far—was actually keeping up with him to some extent. He could see her out to his left, working hard to maintain a position that would stop him from delving back into the forest.

Lima raked his eyes over the class, standing a little way out into the field, and at Glynda, who had just raised her head to look directly at him—apparently, the cameras didn't have the best angle for her to watch him. He passed by the bulk of them and then cut right, out into the open field—a series of shots came from the forest from the direction of the three behind him, but they stopped almost immediately as the firing angle put the class directly between them. Lima did almost a full lap around the group, ignoring the cries of surprise, admonishment, and outrage, before slipping straight through the middle of them back in the direction of the forest. Crane, Nox and Gray spread out, moving to circle the group, while Savanna stayed further back, doing her best to track his movements.

Lima slipped between Yang and Weiss at almost full speed, breaking free of the group and passing directly beside Glynda—Crane spun at the movement, raising his spear-turned-rifle, and paused as he realised he couldn't actually fire it without risking hitting the teacher—and then it was too late. He caught Crane while his weapon was in mid-transformation, the tip of his spike passing through the trigger—the entire process halted at the obstruction, leaving him with a deformed series of interconnected metal angles.

"Wait—" Crane tried.

Lima abandoned the spike, struck the boy across the face hard enough to stagger him, redirected his desperate haymaker, and then planted him face-first into the ground. Lima stomped on him twice to wipe his aura and then circled the class in the opposite direction as Savanna as she started towards him.

"Crane Gravel has been eliminated," The digitized voice spoke from two dozen scrolls in an orchestra of overlapping words. "Aura Threshold."

He found Nox a moment later, already coming back in his direction at the sound of Crane's shouting. Lima sped up to meet him, and then a moment before they crashed into one another, he stopped himself cold with his Semblance. Nox's prepared strike fell short by an entire foot, and because he'd put all of his weight behind it in an effort to brace himself against the expected resistance, he was left entirely off balance—Lima's snap kick crashed into his cheek with a crack, and Jaune gave a startled cry as Nox stumbled straight into him from the force of it.

Nox pushed off the much larger boy to make a second attempt at an attack, the sai in his right hand stabbing through the air. Lima slipped his head to the side of the very obvious attack and struck the boy full-on in the middle of the face with his closed fist, sending him straight back into Jaune a second time. He hit him twice more while he was struggling to stand back upright—

"Nox Cymbal has been eliminated," The choir spoke. "Aura Threshold."

Lima kept moving as the sound of Savanna's footsteps began to close in on him, rounding the class and finding Gray waiting for him with his longsword up and ready—Lima swerved inwards, passing behind Pyrrha, Cardin, and then Dove in succession, before using the gap between him and Russel to break free again. Gray had tracked him, the boy's weapon now pointed almost directly at his face as Lima came out on the other side. Savanna was forced to give up the pursuit as she found Gray standing almost directly in front of her.

Gray attempted to herd him back and away from the class with a series of precise, controlled thrusts, using the length of his weapon to good effect. Lima retreated carefully, passing by Glynda once more and forcing Gray into inadvertently blocking Savanna's continued attempts to join the fight. The moment Savanna stepped out wide in an attempt to remedy the situation, Lima activated the dust link between his abandoned spike—now lying directly behind him on the grass after Crane had removed it from his partially transformed weapon.

It smacked into his palm, and he brought it forward, intercepting Gray's next thrust—the boy's longsword was sent reeling outwards and into Savanna as she finally managed to get around him. Savanna gave a visceral cry of frustration as she was sent stumbling backwards, her aura bright from the impact. Gray looked shocked at what he'd done, and Lima lunged forward, catching him by the back of the head, wrenching him forward and down to meet his rising knee—two more strikes followed without pause.

"Gray Plains has been eliminated," The digitized voice said once again. "Aura Threshold."

Lima breathed out in preparation as Savanna came at him, fully unobstructed for the first time since the fighting had begun—he'd probably been lucky that she hadn't been with her teammates during the first engagement, because she was a clear step above the others in melee. Part of it was her prodigal height and the startling length of her limbs, but the rest of it was simple skill. The double-bladed staff twisted around her in a defensive swipe that forced him to abandon his step forward. He shifted backwards, to the side, and then back once more to avoid the blisteringly fast followups, eyes darting between her hands, feet and eyes, searching for the break in the pattern.

When he didn't immediately see it, he decided to engineer it instead—he tossed the spike at her face in an easy to track arc, and she reacted exactly as he'd intended, sweeping the staff upwards to knock it away. His hand snapped forward the second she'd committed to the deflection, catching hold of the haft of her weapon between her white-knuckled hand and the top-facing blade. He zeroed out the directions of the staff, locking it in place with a pulse of his Semblance, before reaching for her face with his right hand, fingers searching for the briefest moment of contact—

"Scenario over," The digitized voice said once again. "Attackers are defeated by failing to complete the objective within the time limit."

He let his hold on the staff lapse, and Savanna took a unexpected step backwards as the resistance suddenly faded, her eyes still locked on his hand. Lima pulled back as he straightened up, his still raised hand shifting out to the side—the spike finished its return arc, the last second adjustment causing it to pass by her head and land in the middle of his palm with a soft clap of noise.

#

Hallway, Beacon Academy, Sanus.

In the aftermath of the class, Lima found himself trailing along in the wake of one Glynda Goodwitch, attempting to figure out just what punishment he'd have to endure for his little thrill-seeking adventure. It was kind of hard to get a read on whether or not she was actually upset with him because she'd said roughly nothing about the incident—instead, she'd simply ended the class as normal and then indicated for him to follow her. Lima wasn't particularly gung-ho about diving into the frying pan either, so he took the safe bet and remained silent.

The building they entered wasn't one he'd been in before, and it hadn't been mentioned as part of the tour either, so he found himself staring around with some interest at the new place. The engraved plaques on the doors went a long way towards telling him that it was a building dedicated to housing the private office space of each instructor—oddly enough, it left him wondering if his guardian had a similar room at Haven. At which point, he found his mind turning towards thoughts of Mistral—and of Sage and Midori both. The brief stopover he'd taken there and the too-short visit in which he'd actually had the chance to speak to her in person—if he'd chosen to weather Sage's antics, he'd have probably seen them both every day. The thought sent a twist of something painful in his chest, the same pang of discomfort he'd felt when they'd left Midori behind in Mistral the first time, only now it was created by the absence of both of them—maybe he'd made a mistake by coming here after all.

"Mister Morta," Glynda said as she directed him into the now-open office. "I do hope I still have your attention."

"Sorry," Lima said, ducking through the doorway. "I was thinking about my family, I guess."

"Oh?" Glynda wondered. "Your guardian—the first-year instructor at Haven?"

Glynda silently directed him to take one of the four smaller and less ornate desks that sat in front of the much, much larger one that dominated the front half of the room.

"His daughter, too," Lima added, taking the one closest to the door. "I only got to see her for a couple of hours when I passed through Mistral—I kind of miss her."

"You've travelled a long way to attend," Glynda said, sliding down into the seat behind her desk. "I'd certainly wondered why you had chosen to enrol here—even more so now that I am aware that you have family living so close to Haven Academy."

"We clash on a lot of things," Lima admitted, "Someone told me once that we bring out the worst in each other, and they were probably right."

"You fight?" Glynda asked.

"Only every single day, about everything we've ever talked about," Lima said, laughing. "I love him—I just can't go through another four years of schooling with him making me look like a complete dumbass to everyone my own age."

Glynda's prior look of genuine concern had morphed into something far more puzzled.

"It's—hard to explain, but it's also not really important," Lima hedged at the expression. "Sorry, miss, we're here to talk about my behaviour, not my home life—please, break out the thumbscrews whenever you're ready."

"You're far too comfortable with the current situation," Glynda said with some interest. "But given the transcripts I have received from Sanctum, I'm aware that you've spent more than a fair share of time in rooms like this."

"If I said I was completely innocent of all charges," Lima sighed. "Would you believe me?"

"You weren't involved in seventeen instances of fighting outside of sanctioned matches?" Glynda asked for clarification. "That's certainly a large number of misapplied rulings."

"Innocent might not have been the correct term because I definitely got into all of those fights," Lima said, backpedalling a bit. "What I meant to say was completely justified in all charges."

"In what way?" Glynda prompted.

Lima sat back in his chair at the question, wondering if the discussion he was being dragged into was the start of the detention or if his hour of punishment began after she was satisfied.

"The kids at Sanctum fall into two groups," Lima said, deciding to just be honest. "Elitist pricks, with parents who would organise a repeat of the Blood Fields of Mistral if they could get away with it, and everyone else—I'm not really a fan of the former."

"I—see," Glynda said, furrowing her brow. "I wasn't aware it was quite so bad."

"It's not everyone, but there's enough of them in high enough places that they get away with a lot of crap," Lima said, grunting. "I'd bet you a thousand lien that none of the 'victims' named in my infraction list has a single mark on their record, despite the fact that they were throwing punches too."

"There aren't any names associated with the incidents," Glynda said, "There are vague descriptions of events but no details to the cause or provocation."

"Guess I was fighting ghosts," Lima said without a care. "If you want the truth—most of those fights started the exact same way, and it was one of them saying or doing something I didn't like."

"Not exactly a glowing self-review," Glynda said.

"It is what it is," Lima offered. "Besides, you've had my transcripts for weeks, and as far as I can tell, I'm not in detention for beating someone up."

"Then perhaps you can enlighten me as to why exactly you are here," Glynda said, sounding a bit annoyed. "For some reason, Ozpin decided to exclude the exact infraction in the missive he sent to me."

"Oh," Lima said. "Does he usually do things like that?"

"I'd rather not say," Glynda said.

Well, that was definitely a yes.

"As much as I hate to admit it," Lima tried, "I was donating all of my money to the orphanages all over Vale and then accidentally stayed out too late saving cats from trees."

"These things happen, I'm afraid," Glynda said, voice dry. "Now, what did you actually do?"

"I kind of went base jumping late last night," Lima admitted, "Ozpin found me swimming down by the docks before I could ride the elevator back up and do it all over again."