"Students, as you can see, Mr. Arc's Aura has now dropped into the red." Professor Goodwitch's voice brought Ruby's attention back to the present, from the novel she had pulled up on her scroll.
She, along with half of the first-year students at Beacon Academy, were seated in a set of audience seats within Beacon's main combat training room, for the class taught by the Deputy Headmaster; 'Introduction to Higher-Level Combat'. This class, as far as Ruby could ascertain, mainly involved organized dueling, with the Professor pointing out flaws and strengths in the students's techniques.
Match over all ready? Jaune really needs some work on his combat skills… Perhaps I can get Pyrrha to assist him? After all, my handful of sword techniques aren't used with a shield, or used in ground-based combat at all, for that matter. Plus, Rosenkreuz's Zweihander Configuration is almost as large as I am…
The Knight shrugged off her thoughts, and listened to the deputy headmistress of Beacon, in case she said something important.
"In a tournament-styled duel, this would indicate that Jaune is no longer fit for battle, and that the official may call the match." The professor turned to the prone student she'd just been talking about. "Mr. Arc, it's been weeks now. Please try to refer to your scroll during combat. Gauging your Aura will help you decide when it's appropriate to attack, or when it is better to move to a more… Defensive strategy. We wouldn't want you to be gobbled up by a beowulf, now, would we?"
"Speak for yourself." Jaune's brute of an opponent, a boy by the name of 'Cardin Winchester', according to the scoreboard, sneered a response to the professor, giving the other student a contemptuous look. His team, a bunch of similar individuals to himself, started guffawing lightly.
I wonder why the Professor doesn't bother even scolding him for his disrespect? Does she just not care?
Professor Goodwitch did, at least, give the boy a stern glance, before turning back to the rest of the class.
"Now, given how short Ms. Schnee's match ran, we still have time for one more match. Who would like to volunteer?"
"I will." Ruby stood. Perhaps a demonstration is in order.
"Very well, Ms. Nakajima. Who would you like to be your opponent?" Ruby gave a very slight smile, turning in the direction of the three members of Team CRDL who were still in the stands.
"I would like to fight Team CDRL." She announced, as her grin turned predatory.
"Who in particular?" Goodwitch asked.
"All of them who accept my challenge." The Knight stated, turning back to the professor.
Team CDRL as a whole laughed briefly, before all three in the stands stood up.
"Sure, we'll beat on ya, 'till you start cryin'!" One of them, Ruby didn't bother trying to remember his name, spoke for his fellows.
Glynda was silent for a moment, before speaking again.
"Are you sure, Ms. Nakajima? That is a three-on-one fight."
Ruby, in turn, simply shrugged.
"I have faced far worse odds. Besides, these three, barely qualify as a single real opponent together. Why should I make our duel even more of a farce than it will already be?"
"Hey, what're you—" One of the boys started to speak, outrage clear in his voice, before Ruby cut him off.
"If you wish to prove otherwise, then do so on the battlefield. If you can."
With that, she turned, and walked off the stage, into the locker room.
***
"Still one chance to back out!" One of the boys from CDRL taunted Ruby as she stood opposite from the other three students. He hefted his rifle-halberd up to his grey-armored shoulder as he spoke.
Ruby simply lifted the Formula Cannon, closed into a lance.
"Now, all of you know the rules, so I shouldn't need to repeat them for the third time today. Begin!" Professor Goodwitch's voice rang out within the arena, and Ruby shot forwards, Formula Cannon held behind her as she ran.
Part of her took notice of the scoreboard, checking both her opponent's displayed information, as well as her own.
Ruby had never gone through the 'Aura Unlocking' process, recognizing that it for what it was; a very crude way of activating Inherent Magic and a rudimentary mana barrier field for personal protection. As a Knight, she had significantly more effective spells than the maximum one could achieve with 'Aura', and thus such a process was completely pointless, even when 'fitting in' with the locals.
This had, however, resulted in a bit of a problem. The systems used to measure 'Aura' strength would consistently read zero when used on her, blocking her from quite a few things within the Beacon curriculum as a result. Out of annoyance at this, she'd asked Rosenkreuz to come up with a solution. What her Device had come up with was to modify her scroll's systems so that it would read the strength of her Knight's Clothing or Knight's Armor as her 'Aura' level, or barrier level, to use proper magical terminology.
Focus.
"Rosenkreuz, link to the scoreboard, tell me when each's barrier level reaches fifty percent."
"Will do, master."
The first of Team CRDL, the rifle-halberd wielder, grinned as she approached, and raised his weapon, drawing it behind himself, winding up for a swing.
Ruby shifted herself into a slide as he swung, resulting in the blade passing harmlessly over her. Immediately, she brought up the Formula Cannon, driving its tip into his chest with all the force her augmented strength as a combat cyborg granted her, adding to the momentum from her run. The boy was launched backwards by the force, his feet leaving the ground. Ruby heard noises of surprise from the assembled students.
"Target barrier level at seventeen percent. Additional information suggests the target possesses a normal strength barrier for his skill level. I suggest a recalculation of used strength."
"Noted."
The next boy, dressed in bronze armor and wielding a gunsword, charged her as she kicked up from her slide. The Knight simply brought the Formula Cannon around to the right side of his head, bashing him with the side of the closed lance-barrel.
The boy staggered back, and she slammed her weapon into the other side of his head, before repeating the attack a third time, into his chest, sending him flying, much as she had his friend a few seconds ago.
"Target barrier at eighteen percent. Again, I suggest a recalculation of strength used, your current level appears to be considered anomalous."
" I'm not trying to fit in like that. The more dangerous I appear, the better. I am a Knight, not some innocent Bureau Mage."
"You sound like Signum."
The last boy looked at his two fellows, both struggling to rise from the impacts, before turning his gaze to Ruby, slowly advancing towards him. The look of smugness he'd had earlier was no longer apparent, now nervousness was his main look. Still, he raised his twin daggers to meet her.
Ruby swung the Formula Cannon around, catching the tip on the back of one of his hands, unbalancing him, before executing a series of swift swipes while advancing forwards. Each individual blow was rather weak by Ruby's standards, but they each did noticeable damage to his barrier, and kept him off balance.
"Target barrier level at fifty-forty-thirty percent, master." Rosenkreuz spoke up in the middle of her rapid-fire combo of strikes, having to correct herself with every blow. Ruby acknowledged Rosenkreuz's statement by stopping her rapid-fire series of blows, stepping back, and sliding the Formula Cannon onto her back. She then launched a quick one-two pair of punches into his face.
The boy fell backwards onto the floor.
"Target barrier level at twenty percent, master."
Ruby stepped back again, and turned to leave.
After a second of seemingly stunned silence, Professor Goodwitch began her usual speech to the assembled students. She says the exact same thing every time, only changing the names she says and her comment afterward.
"Students, as you can see, Mr. Bronzewing's, Mr. Thrush's, and Mr. Lark's Auras have all dropped into the red. In a tournament-styled duel, this would indicate that the three are no longer fit for battle, and that the official may call the match." She turned to Ruby. "Well done. A perfect match is quite a rarity, especially a three-on-one. Mrs. Nakajima, but this is not the time or place"
"Thank you, Professor." Ruby inclined her head in acknowledgement. The deputy headmistress returned the gesture, before she turned back to the assembled students.
"Remember, everyone, the Vytal Festival is only a few months away. It won't be long before students from the other kingdoms start arriving in Vale, so keep practicing! Those who choose to compete in the combat tournament will be representing all of Vale!"
***
"So! There we were, in the middle of the night…" Nora Valkyrie's voice pulled Ruby back into the present around her.
"It was day." Lie Ren tiredly corrected the boisterous redhead.
"We were surrounded by Ursai…"
"They were Beowulves."
You sound like you've had to say this before…
"Dozens of them!" The redhead jumped up from their seat, slamming their hands into the table around which RWBY and JNPR sat. Of the members of JNPR, Nora was in the middle of telling the others about a recurring dream of theirs, Ren was correcting them—Though how he knows the contents of their dream is a rather large question of mine—Pyrrha was listening politely, and Jaune was spacing out as he picked at his food.
Of RWBY, Yang and Weiss were listening, Blake was reading, and Ruby was having a telepathic conversation with Vita, who had somehow managed to get drunk. How a mana-based lifeform who usually wasn't simulating the human body beneath the skin managed to become intoxicated was a complete mystery to Ruby.
Ruby had first managed to re-establish reliable telepathic contact with the other five of Hayate's Knights several weeks ago, when she had established her link to her adopted mother, though for most of that time, the contact had been weak and unreliable. Hayate herself was only rarely in telepathic contact with Ruby, being a bit busy.
As things had turned out, the moment the Archon's signal had been lost, Admiral Haralown had sent a high-priority transmission to the TSAB's Central Headquarters, resulting in a Search and Rescue mission being put together immediately. The result of that was that Hayate's ship, the LS-Class Battleship Wolfram, was now in low orbit over Remnant. According to Shamal, Hayate had practically bullied the Admiralty into giving her command of the ship and mission.
Ruby herself had massively overestimated the scale of the Marriage attacks, as well as the timeframe. Around the same time that she had slammed the Archon into Remnant, the crisis was about over. The Forwards of Riot Force Six and the N2R Team had been in the process of securing the Mariage's progenitor/King, Ixveria, who, as it turned out, was just a girl turned into a living weapon. Another hideous legacy of the Warring Ages, in Ruby's opinion.
She was however, delighted to know that it had been her Wife and Sisters-in-Law who had resolved the whole mess.
Ruby herself had also received some notability on Mid-Childa, as a brave Saint Church Knight who had sacrificed herself to ensure that her ship wouldn't fall into the Mariage's hands. That had nearly been the case, she had to admit, though she did not exactly expect to get medaled for it, as she apparently had been.
On that regard, however, her mother had forbidden the other five Knights from telling Ruby precisely which medal she had been awarded. Ruby actually agreed with this decision, for the reason why Hayate had made it; Hayate wanted Ruby to hear about it from Cinque directly, who had been given the medal in her place, as it had been awarded 'posthumously'. Evidently, her survival had not been expected. A funeral had even been held, though the Nakajimas, the Takamachis as well as the rest of the Yagami Family had insisted that she was still alive. The Scagleitti family had apparently been evenly split on the subject. Jail and Uno were evidently quite insistent that Ruby was too hard to kill to die in such an event, while Tre was, as usual, pessimistic on the outcome. The rest were somewhere in between.
"Yooouuu… Got realalyyyy quuiet. 'S goin' onn?" Vita's telepathic voice pulled her from her thoughts back into her conversation.
"Just thinking. Also, question, how exactly did you get drunk in the first place?"
"Wiith wiiiinee. Howw elllse?"
"That doesn't answer my question in the slightest. And Vita?"
"Yeees?"
"Please go sober up."
"Whyyy?"
"Because in your rambling, you've shared details about things I did not need to know."
"Like whaat?"
"I have no need to know how soft mother's breasts are, for one."
"But theyy'ree reeeeaaaallllyyy sooofffft! Liike piiloowsses…"
"That's it. Shamal!"
"Hmm?" The Wolkenritter Ruby had called for now entered the conversation.
"Please do me a favor, and put Vita to bed. She's manage to intoxicate herself."
"I'm aware. I've been listening. I'm also the one who gave her the wine."
"Shamal. She is rambling about my mother's breasts. Why."
"Because she needed to relax a little. She's been practically running herself ragged trying to find a way down to the surface so we can bring you home that doesn't breach secrecy."
"I didn't know." Now Ruby felt a little guilty.
"I know you didn't. Vita's like that, she'll work so hard for someone, and not tell them she's doing it. And I think she still feels a little guilty for what we did to you. I know I do." Shamal confessed.
"We've had this conversation before. You have no reason to feel guilty. I don't mind what happened to me."
I know that! But we didn't give you a choice before—"
"Shamal. I've told you I don't blame you. You had no choice. You have nothing to feel you need to apologize for. Forgive yourself already!"
"Isn't that what Vivio told you?" Ruby winced at Shamal's words.
"That's different. How long did it take you to heal the damage I inflicted on her majesty?"
"No too long, actually. And she likes the scars, she asked me to leave the ones across her face. Not sure why, actually."
"That just makes me feel worse…"
"Now who's the one who needs to stop feeling guilty for something they've been forgiven for?"
"I… Heh. Fine. I recognize my own hypocrisy, here."
"Is Ruby being self-deprecating again?" Hayate now entered the conversation. "And is there a reason Vita is giggling and giving herself a marshmallow hell with my boobs?"
"Yes, she is, and Vita's drunk, Mistress." Shamal answered their very confused Lord's question.
"No need to do that, Ruby. And Shamal?"
"Yes, Mistress?"
Ruby didn't hear her mother's next sentence, as someone grabbed her shoulder and shook her a bit, pulling her attention for a moment.
"What?" Her voice came out a bit angry.
"Sorry. Just checking to see it you were still awake. You kinda zoned out there a bit." Yang sounded at least vaguely apologetic.
Ruby closed her eyes and sighed, though before she could speak, another voice interrupted her.
"Ow! That hurts, please, stop!"
Ruby opened her eyes, and glanced in the direction of the voice, before sighing, and standing.
Team CDRL had apparently decided to cheer themselves up from their defeat by bullying another student. More specifically, a rabbit faunus Ruby recognized, who had helped her a bit with her written Valian earlier in the school year. Cardin was tugging on one of the faunus girl's rabbit ears, his team guffawing around him and at the girl.
"I will be right back." She muttered to the others, and set off in the direction of Velvet Scarlatina and Team CDRL.
"Ruby? What's going on? You just got a bit angry all of a sudden." Hayate's voice cut into Ruby's thoughts.
Thanks to her link to Hayate, Ruby's emotions could be felt by her Lord and mother, if she wish to know. It was the same of all of the Knights, and they could all feel each other, as well. The Knights's link was quite an amazing thing.
"Just about to go deal with a few bullies at this academy. They all seem to require more of a lesson than has already been taught."
"Ah. Well, have fun, don't do anything that would get you in too much trouble, and if you do, don't get cau—ahh, cold hands, cold hands! Gotta go, bye!" And with that, Hayate's presence receded. I can guess what that was about…
Ruby shook her head slightly to clear it of her thoughts, before she arrived at the table with CDRL and Velvet.
"What do you think you are doing, Cardinal?" The Knight demanded as she neared the five students.
"What's it to you? Screw off." Cardin Winchester didn't even turn to look at her, continuing to tug on Velvet's ear. One of the other students turned to see who was approaching, and his face slipped into mild fear when he noticed that Ruby was the one who had spoken.
"Hey, boss?" He said, nervously, before Ruby reached out, locking one hand around Cardin's wrist, and the other around the back of his neck. She pulled him downwards by both, the pressure on his wrist forcing him to let Velvet's ear go, and the pressure on the back of his neck dragging him downwards so that his own ear was at head height for the combat cyborg girl.
"You will answer when I ask you a question, Winchester." Ruby paused, then slammed his wrist into his own stomach, folding him over his arm with her other hand still locked around his neck, before unceremoniously dumping him onto the floor, letting go as she did so.
One of Cardin's teammates apparently decided that this was the perfect time to attack Ruby, showing that he had far more bravery than intelligence. Ruby wasn't sure whether to approve of his bravery, or be appalled at his stupidity.
She settled for not caring as his fist came around, aimed right at her face. The Knight reached up, caught it, and pulled him closer, into her own fist, which met his face hard enough to put him onto the ground, groaning. A light blow, anything harder from her would have broken his neck, or skull.
The next member of CDRL charged Ruby from behind, though she caught his footsteps quite well with her enhanced senses. She spun around, sidestepping as she did so, took a hold of him by his upper arm with one hand and forearm with the other, and swung him around, into the table on her other side, hard enough to knock over the table.
The last one apparently decided that discretion was the better part of Valor, as his simply helped the boy Ruby had punched in the face to his feet.
Ruby turned to go rejoin her team and JNPR, who were watching her intently, most with expressions of satisfaction, as if they had enjoyed watching her beat down most of CDRL for the second time in a day.
As she began to walk away, a pair of hands tried to take ahold of her ankle. In response, she gave Cardin a light kick to the stomach, resulting on an 'oof!' and his hands curling inward to himself.
Ruby ignored him, and returned to her team and JNPR, all of whom except Jaune were now grinning. Jaune just looked nervous.
"You didn't break his legs." Nora was the first to speak as Ruby sat down again. They sounded as if they were complaining. Did I miss something?
"And got a bit of an audience." Yang commented. "I think half the cafeteria was watching."
Ruby just shrugged.
"I do not care who was or was not watching." She noted, before turning to Jaune. "You seem nervous. Why? I will not attack you. Not unless you give me reason to."
"It's not you, it's… Them. They'll get even with you somehow." The blonde boy responded, not meeting Ruby's gaze. He is not telling the truth. Or at least, not the full truth.
"You worry about me?" Ruby asked, amused, both by how obvious his lie was, and by his excuse. "There is no need. Pity them if they try something."
"That's not what I meant." Jaune replied. "I just… Ah, never mind." He stood up, taking his lunch tray as well.
"Jaune." He glanced back as Ruby said his name. "If you need assistance, do not hesitate to ask."
"Just ask us, Jaune, we'll help." Pyrrha contributed.
"I'll… Keep that in mind."