Rwby: Glory To Atlas - 2 (Patreon)

"You know, this place isn't really my scene," Emerald hummed as you both stood outside the back of the academy, admiring the scenery, "But the view is amazing, if nothing else."

"You're not wrong." you agreed, whistling as you took in the pier that Beacon Academy was situated atop, your eyes keenly taking in the pure beautiful water that led out into the open ocean, "..Think there's any Grimm in there?" you asked idly.

You'd spent a few hours in the room you were provided for the night with Emerald, generally just shooting the breeze and hanging out, until just half an hour ago when your godfather sent you a message to let you know that the students would all be arriving soon. So you'd packed up your luggage again and left it with the staff.

Already you could hear the hustle and bustle of the mass grouping of students in the distance as they arrived and traversed through the campus of the academy.

Emerald raised a bemused eyebrow at you, "There's probably some of those piranha grimm, the Flesh Eater's, and there might be a few of those shark grimm, what were they called again?"

"Bonejaw Grimm." you helpfully supplied.

Emerald clicked her fingers and nodded, "Yeah, that's the one," she said, "Might be a couple of those out and about, especially with all the students arriving."

...You should go diving someday soon. You've never fought underwater before. As a hunter, you should be ready to fight in any situation, right? You'll need to rectify that.

Emerald grabbed your shoulders and directed you away from the cliff, "Let's get a move on before you have the sudden urge to jump in and go all caveman on them," she smirked at you, before shaking her head, "Honestly, you're confusing. You hate one part of your semblance, but you pretty much love the other part and have a boner for hunting new grimm. And with how big of a boner you can get, I almost feel sorry for those Grimm."

"The Grimm are humanities enemy, I relish slaughtering them like the scum they are," you shrugged, unashamed, "But, you're not wrong." you admitted. The temptation was there to jump right on down and tear apart any Grimm you could find down there. Clear them out, take the waters back from them and conquer the area for humanity once again!

"Oh I know I'm not," Emerald nodded in agreement, "That's the crazy thing."

You chuckled at her words and let your eyes wander to the sky. Then you blinked as you caught sight of a red flash, and some smoke trailing into the sky.

"What's that?" you wondered.

"Looked like some dust going off," the green haired beauty alongside you noted, "Wanna go check it out? We might be late though getting to the auditorium."

Well it wasn't like you'd miss much even if you were late for your godfathers welcoming speech. He was only going to be welcoming them and having them directed to one of the halls where you would all be sleeping for the night. Probably revealing the fact that you would be picking partners during the initiation test.

So, you decided to go check it out. You and your beautiful dusky skinned companion walked around the winding path around the hunter academy, out onto the open path leading towards the landing zone where the Beacon Bullheads docked.

When you made it around, most of the students had already cleared out and made their way inside. Only two hadn't.

"Looks like we missed it," Emerald pouted, "Lame."

Looks like. Your eyes went to the only two in sight. A girl, a few inches shorter than Emerald. Cute, with two toned black and red hair, dressed up in a hooded cape, a gothic corset and combat skirt that brought attention to quite the large swelling bosom, and full thighs that led down into a pair of black boots.

Beside her, a tall boy, about the same height as you, though nowhere near as broad and muscularly built, with wavy blonde hair, adorned with some plain white torso armour and a sword sheathed at his hip.

"Hey," you greeted them as they approached, "You guys any idea what that commotion was out here not long ago? A red flash, some smoke?" you questioned.

The blonde paused, "Ugh...?" he worded, tilting his head to the side and looking at the cute girl beside him.

"..Ah...that was me," the girl averted her eyes from yours to the ground and tugged at the bottom of her skirt, "I accidentally tripped over some girls luggage and set off some of her dust."

"Oh, that's it?" Emerald's pout became even more pronounced, "That's even lamer, what a waste of time coming out here to see if anything exciting was going on."

"..Sorry?" the girl apologised.

"Don't worry about it," you shrugged, "We were just looking to pass some time before we headed to the auditorium for the welcoming speech."

An awkward silence followed, none of them replying. You looked at Emerald who just shrugged at you.

"...So...." the corset wearing girl spoke up, breaking the awkward silence. She reached behind her, to a red rectangular shape hanging from the small of her back, "I've got this thing." she pulled it out and pressed a button on it, your eyebrows rising into your hairline as it decompressed from what looked like a rifle and became a full on massive scythe.

Now that is an interesting weapon. Emerald's own eyebrows joined yours in her own hairline, "..Is...is that scythe?" the blonde haired boy gaped.

A smile blossomed on the girls face and she nodded proudly, "Yep, this is my baby, Crescent Rose!" she boasted, before looking at the blonde, "What about you?"

He scratched the back of his neck, "Ah...well I've got this thing," he unsheathed his sword and held it up. You noted with interest, that it was just a plain old sword. No new age mecha-shift adornments. A real classic sword. You hadn't seen one in a while now, "And well...the sheath becomes a shield as well....It''s a hand-me down, a weapon that's been in my family for generations." he added, looking embarrassed.

Hmm, seemed like his family had good taste.

"..Well, classics are nice?" the girl hesitantly tried to cheer him up, before clapping and turning to you and Emerald, "What about you guys?"

Emerald shrugged and pointed at the two green weapons sheathed on her lovely thighs, "Thief's respite, their a trio of automatic pistols, kama blades and kusarigama chains, nothing special."

"Oooooh!" the girls eyes lit up and she zipped forward appearing in front of Emerald in the blink of an eye, and grasping Emerald's hands, "That sounds so cool! I wanna see in action!"

..Huh, she was really fast. If you weren't used to fighting a speedster like Harriet, who had a speed semblance that augmented her agility with lightning, then you may have not have even been able to follow that. This girl definitely was worth keeping an eye on.

"Okay..." Emerald trailed off, looking a bit uncomfortable.

You snorted, and drew the attention of the girl to yourself, who eyed you expectantly. You blinked as you actually noticed her eye colour now. They were a pure, shining silver. You'd never seen eyes like that before. They were very beautiful.

Smiling at her, you reached over your shoulder and drew your sword, sheath and all and split them apart into the sword and shield form, "The shield is Law and the sword, Order," you explained. Not very creative names all things considered, you just named them after what they would establish over the grimm scum, "I can combine them together into a bigger greatsword if I want to hit harder with it."

"Ooh, this is nice and look at the craftmanship on it!" she bounded over to you in a blur of speed and ran her finger along the edge of your blade, before gasping, "Wait, wait is this hard light dust inscribed in it!?"

You sheathed them together over your shoulder once more and nodded, "Yep, the best of the best of Atlas tech." you boasted.

"So cool!" the girl gushed, "I really wanna get my hands on that kind of thing to add hard light dust to my own baby but it's way to expensive for me."

Before you could respond, the blonde haired guy groaned, "Oh man, how am I meant to compete with that." he whined a little, before sighing and shaking his head, plastering a big smile across his face, "So, moving on. The names Jaune Arc, short, sweet and the ladies love it."

"..Do they?" the corset clad girl asked, turning to him.

"..Well my mom said they would." Jaune admitted with a sheepish laugh.

Emerald snorted, "Well I'm Emerald Sustrai," she introduced herself, then gave him a pointed look, "Though a bit of advice lady killer? Girl's won't be interested in short and sweet, we prefer long and thick, like Chad here." she jabbed her finger at you.

Jaune choked, looking between you and Emerald wide eyed, his face going red.

The corset clad girl in red just looked confused, but shrugged, "Well, I'm Ruby Rose, night to meetcha!" she introduced herself.

Ruby Rose? As in, the other girl who got in two years early? Interesting. She had some kind of speed semblance, and was good enough with that massive scythe to attract your godfathers attention. Definitely worth keeping an eye on. If she was up to standard, it may be worth inviting here to join up as a hunter employed by the Glorious Atlas.

"...So.." Jaune wiggled on his feet a few moments later, "...Shouldn't we be getting a move on to the auditorium."

"Suppose so," you shrugged, waving your hand at them and beckoning them to follow you, "Come on."

__________________

"It s like a big slumber party!" Yang flopped down onto the sleeping bag she was provided for the night, like everyone else.

Ruby looked up from where she was flipping through the web on her scroll, "I don't think dad would approve of all the boys though." she told her sister with a snort.

"I know I do," Her Sister wiggled her eyes, her lilac eyes glancing over to a few boys rough-housing and flexing their muscles ten or so feet away, "Raar, mama likes."

Ruby rolled her eyes, and barely withheld a snort when Jaune strolled by the boys wearing full on baby blue footie pyjamas getting a grimace of disgust from her sister.

Her eyes briefly flickered to the tall and broad muscular boy standing over at one of the windows, staring out into the horizon. Unfortunately, her sister caught where she was looking, "Woaho!" Yang's eyes widened, "Look at the guns on him. Forget those guys, this one looks like he could twist them like pretzels, nice taste little sis!"

Her face flushed. Chad, really was built massively, he was broader even than her dad, and the fact he was dressed only in a pair of black boxers meant he was showing pretty much everything off! "Yaaang, it's not like that," she denied, "He's just someone I met earlier, and I got really surprised when he told me his full name!"

Chad Ironwood he'd revealed his full name to her before they split up upon reaching the auditorium. That was a really famous name! One even someone as ignorant as her had heard about. The son of General Ironwood from Atlas, no wonder his weapons looked so amazing and high tech! And even more amazing, he got in two years early, just like her.

"Already got a foot in the door huh? Nice sis, I knew I taught ya well," Yang laughed at her, throwing her a little teasing wink, "...So, who is he then?" she asked after calming down.

"..Chad Ironwood." Ruby revealed after a moment's pause.

Yang whistled in surprise, "Heh, looks like there's a lot of big names here this year huh? Nikos, Schnee and Ironwood," she mused, before blinking, "Wait, isn't Chad Ironwood only fifteen?"

Ruby nodded, "Yeah, looks like he got in two years early as well." she replied. She wouldn't lie, that made her really relieved, that she wasn't the only one getting in this early and shouldn't make her stand out as much compared to that guy.

"Wonder if he'll be put up against the Invincible Girl in combat classes?" Yang wondered, an eager grin spreading across her face, "There's tons of hunter fan websites that debate on them, despite the fact there's hardly footage of the guy fighting."

Pyrrha Nikos vs Chad huh? Ruby wouldn't deny it, she would like to see that match up as well.

Her eyes moved about the hall they were all in, before landed on a familiar dark haired girl with a bow in her hair, sitting up against one of the walls and reading a book. And before she knew it, her sister was dragging her off to talk to her.

___________________

The next morning after breakfast, you found yourself standing in front of your assigned locker retrieving your weapons for the day. You actually didn't have armour. Mostly because, you found it quite restricting when you entered your primal form, and the strength you gained from it far outweighed the protection some armour could give you, you believed.

Emerald had already gone on ahead to where you and all the other students were supposed to gather for the initiation test. She, was not a big fan of socialising with most of the Beacon Academy prospects. Too many of them had their heads in the clouds and it graded on the girl who'd lived most of her life on the streets.

You can't say you don't understand where she's coming. Most of them were treating it like a game...despite how weak most of them week. For instance, last night some annoying guy came up to you both and tried to flirt with Emerald by flexing his faint six pack and biceps that weren't half the size of yours at her. Then, got all uppity when she told him to fuck off. You had knocked him out with a half-hearted punch. He hadn't engaged his aura quick enough, which was sad in of itself considering how slowly you had thrown the punch, and even worse he went down from it.

It was pathetic. Even Jaune, whom had revealed to you that he only had recently got his aura unlocked when he took the same combat test Emerald did a week ago was more a deft hand with his aura than that guy, and the dude had been boasting about how he graduated from Signal Academy.

It was truly disappointing that a future asset against the grimm scum was trained so poorly. A common military private would have defeated that fool with ease. Maybe that just said more about how strong your home kingdom truly was in comparison to the others.

Truly, the world would be lost without the glorious Atlesian Kingdom.

Well, you supposed at least Ruby who graduated from Signal two years early would do her school proud. You'd only seen her using her semblance so far and how she carried her weapon, but she put her weakling senior to shame.

You shook your head and closed your locker, locking it up. You were about to head on out and join Emerald when a familiar figure made her way into the locker room.

A tall, statuesque redhead, clad in a bronze corset torso armour that framed a bodacious cleavage, and a short tight combat skirt with a red sash, long golden thigh high armour boots leading up her long powerful legs and drawing attention to her thick creamy thighs.

Pyrrha Nikos, huh? She was even more gorgeous in person. You'd saw a few of her fights online. Even watched a few alongside the Ace-Ops, when they'd been studying her for possible future recruitment attempts. It was together with them you had managed to deduce she had some type of semblance that allowed her to control weapons and such. Perhaps some form of magnetism or telekinesis. She didn't broadcast her semblance much at all, only used it minimally and for tiny periods of time. She was incredibly skilled and incredibly wise to not broadcast her semblance, making it that much harder for others to counter her.

From what you had seen, she could fight at any range. Short, mid or long. And should have the skill needed not to get in your way if she tried to get in close to help in a fight. She may be a worthy teammate for your tenure here at this academy.

If nothing else, the ability to spar with her on command would be a great boon to your own training.

____________________

Pyrrha sighed in relief when she stepped into the locker room. Weiss was a nice enough girl, but she was focusing too much on her fame and wanting to partner up with her for Pyrrha's tastes. She hadn't had much peace from the girl since she met her last night.

She supposed she was at least thankful the white haired heiress had warded off all the others fawning over her.

She hoped she didn't end up with a stomach ache during the initiation test, she'd rushed her breakfast so she could try and get a little bit of peace.

She retrieved her weapons from her locker and slid them onto her back, before resting her head against the cold metallic surface of it and sighing.

She'd come to Vale, despite the grand offers from the Atlas Academy and Haven Academies, all the way from Argus for the single purpose of having less people know her and actually, possibly, hopefully meeting people she could be friends with and not hanger-ons. So far, it hadn't gone well.

There had been an interesting dopey-kinda of but kind seeming blonde that she had thought to approach, but he'd been warded off by Weiss when he tried to talk to her and then Weiss latched onto Pyrrha herself and she never got the chance.

She knew Weiss meant well, but she was just to overbearing and Pyrrha wasn't sure how to handle it.

She was about to gather herself and get a move on, when a masculine voice spoke up from her side, "Yo," they greeted her casually, "You excited for initiation?"

Hmm? Pyrrha pulled back from the locker to see who was talking to her, and blinked. She was definitely not expecting who it was.

A tall, very broad shouldered, incredibly muscular boy with short, spiky black hair. A very familiar boy. She'd never met him in person, or even exchanged messages with him. But, there'd been many people talking about some 'prodigy battle of the generation' between her and, him, Chad Ironwood. It had been talked about enough on the internet, that a few people that interviewed her even asked her thoughts on it.

But he was two years younger than her, she knew that from looking into who he was after the first reporter brought him up. 'Prodigy indeed.' she mused idly.

"Hello," she gave him a polite smile and greeted him, before answering his question, "A bit yes, though I'm a also a bit worried about who I'm going to get as my partner." he was famous himself, so he may understand her plight.

"Can't say I relate, me and my chosen partner already have a plan," he chuckled, before holding his hand out, "I suppose this meeting is a long time coming, right? You probably already know, but for politeness sake, I'm Chad Ironwood, nice to meet you."

So he already had his partner? Lucky him. And it seemed he wasn't trying to partner up with her either. "Nice to meet, I'm Pyrrha Nikos," she gently took his hand and shook it, "And lucky you, I wish I'd already found someone I wanted to partner with."

"I suppose it would be hard with all those people fawning over you, Emerald thankfully sent the ones trying to latch onto me away," he grinned. Emerald? The name of his chosen partner perhaps? He looked around them both, before leaning in and whispering, "I shouldn't tell you this, but we'll say your looks won me over. During the initiation, the first person you lock eyes with will be your partner." he revealed with a wink.

Her face flushed at his words, but her mind ran a mile a minute. So that was how partners would be chosen. And his confidence must have stemmed from the fact he knew how it would work. So he and his partner must have found a way to make sure they met before any others.

Chad leaned back with a boyish smile on his face, "Well, if I hadn't met Emerald I'd have asked if you wanted to partner up, well you or Ruby, she's an interesting one," he mused, before adding, "I've seen you fight, and people have been comparing us for a while. It would be fun to see how we measured up against each other, and I'm sure with how good you are I'd be able to get much stronger."

She wouldn't deny that she was curious to see how strong he was herself. The entire reason why she started fighting in tournaments in the first place was because she loved fighting, she loved the thrill of it, and she loved strong challengers. It was almost tempting to try and snatch him up before his partner now that she knew how things worked, and he seemed nice and didn't care about her fame at all it looked like.

But no, that wouldn't be nice. "Well, maybe we'll end up in a team together?" she responded, and hoped. Even if her partner ended up being someone she didn't like, having Chad on her team may make it enjoyable regardless.

"Well there aren't many who I can fight alongside without them getting in my way, Emerald's fighting style is perfect support for me," Chad shrugged, "But, with how good you are, you probably wouldn't slow me down, so I'd be glad to have you on Team Chad."

She giggled, "Then do you know how teams are formed?" she asked. If she knew, she could maybe coordinate with him to see about making sure they ended up on a team. And if he had seen her fight, and was still so confident in himself, while being a prodigy that got in two years early, then she was sure his words were well deserved.

"Sadly, I don't," he replied, leaning against her locker, "I only know we need to retrieve something from the Emerald Forest, which is a shame, I really wouldn't say no to having you on the team. You're a top tier huntress in both skill and looks, a match even for Emerald in that department." he mused, his eyes left her own for a moment and dipped down to examine her body, lingering on her chest and thighs, before pulling up to meet her eyes again, an appreciative smile on his lips.

Her face felt like it was practically burning now. 'Well, he certainly he isn't shy.' she noted inwardly. She didn't really mind either, it was a natural thing, and it wasn't like he hadn't taken the chance to ogle his biceps for a few moments, for his age, they were incredibly large and defined.

Chad pushed up off of her locker and lifted his hand to give her a wave, before pausing, "...Actually," he said, lowering his hand back down and giving her an almost concerned look, "Are you doing alright? The hanger on's don't really bother me, but they do seem to be weighing down on you. If you want, I can shoo them off for you."

Pyrrha blinked in surprise, before smiling brightly at his offer, "Thanks for the offer, but it's fine, I've gotten used to it at this point," she shrugged lamely, "They'll probably crowd you more if you do as well." she added.

"Ah...I see the problem," Chad crossed his arms and nodded sagely, "You're just too much of a good girl."

She looked away, embarrassed. Her parents had always raised her to be a polite girl, and she wouldn't want to be a huntress to protect others from the grimm if she didn't care about them in the first place. Plus, she'd gotten so used to the polite facade she wore constantly during interviews that it had become a part of her.

"Well, there's nothing bad with a good girl," Chad grinned at her and gave her a wink, "In fact, if we do end up as a team it may balance out. Emerald is a bad enough girl for one team I think. If someone as good looking as you joined in her antics, I may become a terrible beast."

She giggled. It seemed this Emerald girl whom he chose as his partner was a confident girl and if she understood what he meant, must have been a bit of a tease to him.

Swallowing her nervousness, Pyrrha turned back to him and plastered a challenging smirk across her face, she was never one to back down from a challenge, "You should watch what you wish for, I can be a bad girl when it suits me." she winked back at him, returning his one from earlier and crossed her arms over her chest, making her deep cleavage well up even further.

His eyes, predictably were drawn to her breasts. That she at least, was not embarrassed at all about. She was proud of her body, and was so used to her huntress gear that showing off some skin didn't bother her at all.

He unashamedly ogled her breasts, to her amusement for a good five or so seconds before dragging his eyes away from her chest to meet her eyes again, "Promises, promises Pyrrha," he grinned and leaned forward a bit to look her more squarely in the eye, "You shouldn't bite off more than you can chew though, I might be a bit more than you can handle."

Up close as he was, she had to admit. He was very handsome, and he was built like a brick house. Nerves tingled in her stomach, but she forced herself to remain calm, "Who knows, I might like that." she shrugged. It wouldn't actually be that bad, she thought.

And well.....it wasn't uncommon for partners, or even teammates to end up sexually involved. She may have never had a boyfriend before, could never get the chance with everyone fawning on her, the few dates she'd been on had been horrible, but she was still a girl and wanted someone like that.

Chad chuckled, shaking his head, "You're a fun one Pyrrha," he lifted his hand and poked her in the cheek and she flinched back involuntarily, not expecting it, his chuckles only getting a bit harder in response, "Though, you're not used to it huh? Well, we'll work on that. But until then, you shouldn't go playing with fire too much, you might get burned."

He pat her on the shoulder in a friendly manner, "I'll see you out at the launching pads." he added, bidding her goodbye and heading out.

Heart thumping in her chest and face beginning to burn up, Pyrrha slumped against her locker and felt a silly smile splay across her face.

That was good right? And it was fun and easy to speak to him. Yes, definitely she was going to aim to get on Chad Ironwood's team.

She blinked as something he said occurred to her, 'Wait, launching pads?' she thought. Quickly, she began following after him after taking a few deep calming breaths. Best to check things out and get ready while there was still time.

And maybe get a move on before Weiss caught up to her.

_____________________

You made your way out towards the cliff overlooking the Emerald Forest with a grin on your face. Pyrrha Nikos wasn't quite what you were expecting. She was interesting, fun even.

You really wanted to see her in action up close and personal. She would make a great addition to your team, one of the few capable of actually possibly working around your fighting style and not getting in your way.

Moments alter, you arrived at your destination and were the first student to arrive, not counting Emerald who was standing atop the first launching pad. Your father had revealed to you how partnerships at Beacon were formed, and as such you and Emerald had already devised a plan to make sure you got partnered up together.

It was simple really, you both just had to stand on launching pads right next to each other, and let Emerald be on the one that got launched first.

Emerald wasn't the only one out here of course. Your godfather, with his favourite mug was out and waiting, as was the deputy headmistress, Glynda Goodwitch, a very tall and beautiful blonde haired woman with a very stern disposition.

Your father you knew, was sweet on the woman. You'd only ever exchanged a few words with her, so beyond her looks you don't really know what attracted your father to her. But then again, your father was quite a stern man as well, so like attracts like maybe?

You greeted your godfather with a nod, getting one in return and his mug raised in your direction. "What took you so long?" Emerald asked as you stepped onto the second platform in the line, beside her.

"I met Pyrrha Nikos," you replied, "Figure I'd speak to her a bit and see what she was like. Turns out she's pretty cool, she might not be bad to have as a teammate."

Emerald snorted, "And by that you mean you flirted with her, right?"

"Yep." you replied, unashamedly. Pyrrha was a real beauty. Right up there with Emerald herself.

"You should watch out," she grinned impishly your way, "I might end up getting jealous, I came all this way because you wanted to partner up with me, and here you are tossing me aside for the first famous redhead in a corset pushing up her tits."

Yeah, you totally got that feel from her. You barely withheld snorting right back at her, "Are you?" you asked, raising an eyebrow at her.

"Nope, but I could have been," Emerald merely shrugged, not losing her grin, "I've seen dudes a lot lower on the totem pole than you with multiple women."

Hmm, so polygamy was accepted in Vale as well then? You only knew it was in Atlas because your glorious kingdom was fighting against the ever lowering population of human and faunus alike. Your father had brought up the idea of you marrying multiple women.

There was a bit of a weird glitch with your semblance. The semblances and powers of grimm you gained? They were no longer semblances. True, they drew upon your aura to work in the first place, but they had become traits of your body, rather than your soul. Pietro had done studies on your blood and concluded it may actually be possible for you to pass down the abilities you gained to your children in the future.

Your father was quite chuffed to learn of that, and hoped to put a plan such as that into motion in the future, as a backup plan if he could not defeat the Grimm in his lifetime. Creating a new stronger race of humans from your loins.

Honestly, it was a future plan that filled you with trepidation. Especially when you overhead Winter speaking with your father once, about the fact that the Schnee Glyphs worked somewhat similarly, and had picked up traits and abilities such as the summoning trait from marriage partners and passed on to the child. Four Generations ago, the Schnee Glyphs could not summon. Three Generations ago, Winter Schnee's grandfather gained that ability, having inherited it into his Glyphs from his mother who married into the family, whom had a Semblance that allowed her to summon foes she had slain.

It wasn't long later that Pyrrha herself arrived, followed by a slew of others. And within fifteen minutes, everyone taking the initiation test had arrived and taken their spots on the launching pads.

"For years, you all have trained hard to become warriors," your godfather began when everyone was ready and paying attention, "And today your abilities will be evaluated within the Emerald Forest down below."

"Now, I'm sure many of you have heard rumours about the assignment of both partners and teams," Professor Goodwitch spoke up as he finished, "Well, allow us to put an end to your confusion. You will all be gaining partners, and teammates, today."

"These teammates will be with you for the rest of your time here at Beacon Academy, so it is within your best interest to partner up with someone whom you can work well with," Ozpin continued after she finished. You heard Ruby's voice whisper 'oh no' from further down the line, "That being said, the first person you make eye contact within the forest after landing will be your partner for the next four years."

Emerald caught your eye from the side and grinned knowingly at you, giving you a knowing wink.

"What!?" Ruby gave a panicked shout. It probably was a daunting prospect for someone who did not know about what was going to happen in advance like you.

"See, I told you!" a short, bodacious orange haired girl in a short pink skirt crowed to a boy dressed in green and white, a pink stripe going through his black hair.

"After you've partnered up, you should then make your way to the northern part of the forest. You will meet opposition along the way," Ozpin continued on, ignoring the distractions, "Do not hesitate and fight to the best of your ability and destroy everything in your path or you will die."

He took a sip from his mug before adding, "You will be monitored throughout the test, but we instructors will not intervene. The hunter profession is very much a sink or swim profession, we cannot hold your hands, or you will never amount to anything truly great," he paused to let that sink in, and silence followed. But, nobody protested. Which was good, because anyone who cowered here did not deserve to be a huntsman or huntress, "You will find an abandoned temple at the end of the forest, containing several relics. Each pair must choose one and return back here to pass the initiation without losing it. How you do will determine your initial standing here and we will grade you as appropriate."

Your godfather took a breath, before asking, "Now, are there any questions?"

"Yeah, umm..." Jaune raised his hand into the air drawing all eyes to him, "How will we be getting down?"

"You will be falling." Your godfather replied simply. Jaune went to speak again, but- "Good! Now, take your positions and prepare for launching. I hope you all have a landing strategy prepared."

"L-landing strategy?" Jaune stuttered.

You rolled your eyes. You would have actually been quite disappointed in him if you didn't already know he had only had his aura unlocked a few days ago. "If you can't land safely on skill, just use your aura Jaune, you should have enough to absorb the impact without getting hurt." You met his eyes and nodded at him. That was the only advice you'd give here and now. Sink or swim it was up to him here. As your godfather said, a huntsman couldn't have someone holding their hand along the way. If he couldn't make it through something as simple as this, he just wasn't good enough to be a hunter. That was the be all and end all that it came down to.

Besides, you knew he had a ton of aura. He had claimed your godfather was the one that oversaw his test and unlocked his aura, claiming he had a lot of aura. If your godfather said so, then he must indeed have quite a bit of aura. After all, he'd never even said you had a lot of aura.

"A-h, r-right!" Jaune quickly nodded at your words.

Good man, he at least had the stones on him not to beg for more help and take what advice you had given.

A moment later, the launching pad Emerald was on shot up and launched her into the air. You watched as she flipped high through the air and swivelled around to face you all, falling backwards.

And just a second later, your own launching pad shot up and you were launched up high into the air after her.

Emerald immediately released the chains from one of her weapons and shot it towards you, just as planned.

You caught it in your right hand, and pulled on it hard, halting the momentum throwing her over the forward and dragging her through the air towards you.

A moment later, you caught her around the waist with your left hand, holding her bridal style with that one hand and reached up pull your sword from your back.

"My hero!" Emerald fake swooned in your hold, before erupting into laughter.

You joined her in her laughter, even as you swung your sword out and stabbed it into the tips of one of the massive trees of the Emerald Forest. You used your grip on the blade to grind around the tree in a circular fashion downwards, bleeding off some off your momentum, before ripping your sword free and dropping to the green grassy forest floor.

You'd bled off enough momentum and height, that you didn't even need to activate your aura to absorb the impact of the rest of your fall. You set Emerald down on her feet as you landed, and a split moment later, the tree you'd sliced into to bleed off your momentum toppled backwards.

"Well that was easy," Emerald shrugged, not bothering to pull your hand from around her waist, just looking around the clearing you had landed in, "..Honestly, that and dealing with some grimm? unless there's a bunch of old grimm in here, the Beacon Initiation sure is an easy one."

That you could not refute. The Atlas Academy one was much harder.

The northern ruins at the end of the Emerald Forest. Funnily enough, you had actually come across them the previous night when you were out and about hunting grimm.

So, it was honestly pretty damn easy for you and Emerald to head that way. There wasn't even any grimm that popped out that were a challenge. A few Ursa, and a couple packs of Beowolves with only one of them having an Alpha, but one that was pretty young since it wasn't all that strong and went down in a couple punches from you.

All in all, it took around ten minutes at most for you to arrive at the end of the forest and make your way towards the familiar ruins from the night before.

It looked like the remnants of an old broken temple. And within it, in a circular direction were a series of small stone pillars. And on each of the pillars there were small chess pieces spread about.

"Guess these are the 'relics' we're supposed to grab?" Emerald mused as she casually walked around, eyeing them all, "What one should we grab?"

"I'm partial to the white rook piece," you answered with a grin, picking it up and showing it to her, "That fine with you?"

Emerald merely shrugged, "I don't really care, it's just a chess piece," she replied, before eyeing the other pillars and relics, "Looks like we're the only ones here so far. Should we head back then? Wasn't all that exciting, but I guess first place is totally ours then."

You decided to stick around and wait. You had a rough idea actually now of how teams were formed. There was two of every chess piece relic sitting on the stone pedestals after all.

Not to mention, the more people that gathered here, the more the grimm would be drawn towards the temple ruins where the relics were located. And the more grimm there were, the higher the chance there was for grimm you had never killed before to appear to sue your semblance on.

Emerald didn't really care either way. She just took a seat on some of the debris, leaned back and pulled out her scroll and started passing the time while you kept guard for grimm.

Beyond a few beowolf stragglers, none really approached you both. Five minutes passed, then ten, fifteen came quickly and just as it was approaching twenty minutes that you had been waiting and beginning to get quite frustrated and tempted to just piss it all and leave, a pair of girls finally dawdled out of the forest together.

A bodacious blonde with long luscious blonde hair, and a black and white themed beauty with bright golden yellow eyes and a bow on her head.

"Heya, looks like we weren't first after all!" the blonde grinned at you and tossed a wave, hips rolling as she sauntered towards you, "How am I not surprised that the Ironwood is standing at attention ready and waiting for us?"

...What? Was that supposed to be some kind innuendo pun on your name?

"You're terrible." the black haired beauty commented drily.

Honestly, it was bad, cringe worthy even. You weren't even sure how to respond to it, it was that bad.

When the blonde saw you lack of reaction she winced, "Tough crowd huh?" she noted before shrugging, "Oh well, I did peg you for the strong silent type, not the kind to get distracted by girls."

"Not even close blondie, your little joke was just that crappy," Emerald snorted, looking up from her scroll, "This guy can flirt for days. I'm almost impressed you could make a joke bad enough to stop him in his tracks from hitting on you. Good on you."

"Heh, well that's a new one," the blonde scratched the back of her neck as she walked passed you into the temple ruin, "Guess I'll need to 'iron' out the rigid material." she added, laughing lightly.

You blinked again. "...Damn your puns are terrible."

"Feel lucky you didn't get partnered up with her." the black haired girl deadpanned as she followed her partner.

Instead of being embarrassed the blonde just laughed it off, "Hmm," she mused as she came to stop at one of the pedestals, before lifting up the relic on top of it, "How about a cute little pony?" she asked, showing it to her partner. It was the white knight piece.

"Sure." her partner merely shrugged blandly, voice monotone. She had that cool, silent type thing going on for her.

"So how come you guys are sticking around?" the blonde asked after stowing away her chosen relic.

Emerald jabbed her thumb at you over her scroll, "This guy has a massive boner for killing grimm, he's hoping if we stick around long enough a type he hasn't killed before will pop up with everyone gathering here."

"Huh," the blonde blinked and looked at you weirdly, "You know, my own hobby is driving around on bumblebee my motorc-"

She was cut off by the sound of a loud, high pitched, shrill echoing scream of terror and her eyes went wide, "Some girl's in trouble!" she gasped.

Your eyebrows rose, "..Was that Jaune?" you wondered. You were sure you recognised his voice from that scream a bit.

"Sounds like him, yeah," Emerald nodded, before shrugging uncaringly, "Sucks to be noodle boy." she said, before looking back down at her scroll.

"Eesh, cold aren't ya?" the blonde laughed, before clicking her fingers, "Oh, I'm Yang by the way, and my hot partner here is Blake."

"Chad, and Emerald," you replied, Emerald raising her hand and giving a lazy wave at you introducing her. You turned to look in the direction the scream came from, when your eyes landed on the ribbon wearing girl, Blake. She was staring at you.

"What?" you asked.

"It's nothing..." she shrugged and looked away.

Well, whatever. You looked in the direction the scream came from, just in time to see Jaune rise up over the tree line and come flying towards the temple.

"Somebody help me!!!" he screamed, rolling ass over head in a continuous barrel roll.

You rolled your eyes and didn't bother. He wasn't even high up, only a few hundred feet. Not anything that would take much aura at all to deal with in a fall.

"He's gonna fall." Blake commented blandly.

You shrugged, "If he can't deal with that, he shouldn't be here." you replied.

She grimaced at your answer, but didn't say anything. Seems she didn't like it. Well, whatever.

Screaming, Jaune came down and slammed into a tree a few dozen feet away from the ruins, flopping down onto one of the branches. You could see his white aura glowing around his form, so he was fine.

"How'd you end up like that lady killer?" Yang strolled over to the tree and shouted up, a grin on her face.

"Ugh....big...scorpion Grimm," he groaned, before clutching his mouth, "I think I'm gonna be sick."

Scorpion Grimm? As in a Death Stalker? And one with enough strength to throw a human in armour hundreds of feet through the air? Then it must be an Elder Deathstalker!

"Emerald!" you turned and shouted, but she was already standing up and stashing away her scroll.

"Yeah, I know," she rolled her eyes, gesturing forward, "Lead on, let's go find a grimm for you to bully."

With a grin on your face, you did just that. You tossed a quick goodbye and wave to Yang and Blake, before hurrying on. You didn't want anyone else killing your prey after all!

You took off at top speed, Emerald falling in line behind you as you rushed in the direction Jaune came from.

A few moments into running through the forest, you heard the sound of gunfire and a loud chittering roar, the sounds of trees breaking and falling in the distance.

The sounds got louder and louder as you moved, until you burst out into another clearing to see a familiar male in green and white, a pink streak in his hair dashing your way, behind him the massive form of giant scorpion clad in white bone armour, a huge yellow stinger hanging at the end of its tail.

Your enhanced eyesight locked onto the Elder Deathstalker and you couldn't help but grin when you noticed something very interesting about it. Moss growing on its bone armour. To think it was so old there was moss growing on it! It must be at least a few decades old!

And really strong.

The boy met your eyes as you passed by him towards the Elder Deathstalker. When you gave him a simple nod, he gave on in return and then he was gone, disappearing through the forest behind you towards where you came from.

Its multiple eyes and attention snapped to you then as you approached it and you reached up, pulling your sword and shield from your back.

It rushed you, lashing out with a massive pincer bigger than you were tall, attempting to skewer you on its point. You lashed out with your shield, blocking the blow.

The force of the blow pushed you back a step, but with a grunt you pushed through, overpowering its blow and repelling its strike and force it back a few chittering steps.

You pulled your shield back and made to jump for its tail to cut off its stinger, but had to jump back instead when its tail lashed down at you like lightning, huge golden yellow stinger aiming for your head, though only piercing the ground thanks to you quickly dodging back.

'Way stronger than anything else I've dealt with in this forest so far.' you grinned, excited. You were about to shift your shield into its hard light dust mode and give it an edge to throw at its tail, when it suddenly gave a startled roar and lashed out at its side with its two huge pincers, snapping at thin air.

"What the..?" you blinked.

"It still uses its eyes to see you know," you heard Emerald speak up and looked over your shoulder to see her grinning at you, casually leaning on one of the trees, "I mean, if we had any real pure negative emotion boiling out it'd probably be able to know we're here as well regardless, but right now all it's seeing is you over there."

The excitement drained from you quickly, but you couldn't help but grin at her showing, "Heh, as I thought your semblance sure is something." you praised. The fact that it could actually push you back a step in a physical clash and get in a counter at you before you got one in spoke volumes of this Elder Deathstalker's age and threat level.

You could stop Winter's Megaliath summon when it was charging just by grabbing it by the tusks and overpower it.

The ability to so casually make a grimm as powerful as this one pretty much helpless, showed just how amazing Emerald's semblance really was.

"Feel free to praise me more." she preened under your words.

Shrugging, you did just that, "You've got an amazing ass." you praised, before turning back to face the Elder Deathstalker. It was just swinging at thin air over and over, making angrier and angrier noses each time it attacked. Whatever she was showing it was making it almost as frustrated as what her little illusion show made you. Though, for completely different reasons.

Like this, it wasn't a threat at all. You sheathed your sword into your shield and turned them Law and Order into their greatsword form. Then you enhanced the length of it with hard light dust, making it even bigger and thicker.

Quickly, you dashed over while it was looking away and stabbed your blade right up under its chin and into its brain from below. It gave a keening warble, before its legs six large legs went limp beneath it and the powerful elder class grimm began to immediately flake into black smoke.

You quickly used your semblance and absorbed the dissipating black essence into yourself, luxuriating in the power you felt suddenly rushing through your veins, making you even stronger!

"So that's what it looks like when you munch on a grimm huh?" Emerald mused as you finished up absorbing the essence of the Elder Deathstalker, "Not gonna lie, I was expecting something more flashy."

You snorted, turning to her even as instinct gnawed at you and you felt something settle within you. Just like last night, when your eyesight had been enhanced by orders of magnitude thanks to absorbing the essence of that Giant Nevermore, you had gained another ability from the Elder Deathstalker and you already knew more or less how to use it, "What, were you expecting to explode into a massive glowing aura and scream about how my power growing?"

"More or less actually," Emerald confirmed with a nod, "So did you actually get stronger or something? You don't look any different."

"Oh I definitely did, I just don't know how much, it's hard to gauge really, but a decent amount I'm betting," you confirmed, before holding up your hand, "Not t mention, I did get one of its abilities from it." you reached deep within yourself, connecting your aura to that new feeling you felt and your hand began glowing with a venomous green light.

"The hell is that?" Emerald raised an eyebrow and asked.

"Deathstalker Venom," you grinned happily, "Though, looks to be aura based instead of liquid now."

Emerald took a step back, "Yeah, don't do that around me," she flat ordered you, shaking her head, "Really, what a bullshit ability. That type of venom even burns through aura quickly, that's like a pretty decently strong semblance you got right there from it just for killing it and slurping it up."

"Hey kettle, pot called to say you're both black," you snorted, "Your semblance is pretty bullshit as well."

"Sure, but not as bullshit as yours," she retorted, before grinning at you, "And yes, obviously I'm black. Didn't you hear? Black girls have the best asses." she turned on her heel and began walking away then, swinging said big black ass in plain view.

A point that you really could not refute. She did have the best ass you had ever seen after all. Shaking your head in amusement, you followed after said amazing ass.

___________________

"Cardin Winchester, Red Tard, Dove Bronzewing and Sal Luzor, you four collected the black pawn pieces," your godfather announced from the top of the stage in the auditorium, "Together, you will be Team Cardinal, led by Cardin Winchester."

A few hours later you found yourself standing in the auditorium alongside Emerald as the results of the initiation were announced and teams were formed. You politely clapped alongside many others at the announcing of Team Cardinal.

"So, you wanna hit up Vale after this if we have time?" Emerald asked, not bothering to clap herself, "There's someone I gotta talk to."

You shrugged, even as Team Cardinal vacated the stage and Jaune alongside the green and white clad before from earlier, and two others, a guy with a green mohawk and a plain faced tall boy in grey armour made their way up to the stage, "If we've got the time, I don't mind doing it," you replied, "Keep in mind we'll need to meet our teammates though and check out our dorm room."

"Ugh, lovely," Emerald's face flashed with distaste, "Sure you don't have enough pull with Ozpin to let us just be a duo and get a room to ourselves? We don't need any of the scrubs here, they'd just drag us down."

For the most part, you agreed with her. There previous few here whom you thought would make decent teammates, "No can do, uncle Ozpin is already getting flak for letting me in two years early." you replied.

"Lame," Emerald sighed, "And here I was fine to continue sleeping in the nude like I always do if it's just you. What a shame."

You know she is playing you. Doesn't mean it didn't sting though. "Almost wish we went back to Atlas, could've form a duo team there." you grumbled. Teams were generally either four or two in the Atlas Hunter Academy.

"Welp, your loss I guess." Emerald shrugged. And it was indeed.

"Jaune Arc, Lie Ren, Russel Thrush and Sky Lark," Ozpin spoke loudly before you could reply, "You all collected the black knight pieces. From today onwards, you will known as Team Arts, led by Jaune Arc!"

Huh, Jaune became a Team Leader? That you were not expecting. But then, none of the others on his team even stood out to you besides Lie Ren, the boy with the pink streak in his hair.

After a polite applause, and Jaune looking gobsmacked, the next group to make their way up onto the stage was compromised of four familiar people.

Yang and Blake, the two girls that you met at the temple ruins in the Emerald Forest. The third in the group was the short, busty ginger girl carrying a massive warhammer on her back.

And surprise surprise, another just as short, yet almost ethereal beauty dressed in a top of the line designer white combat dress, a rapier sheathed at her hip, gorgeous white hair held in a size ponytail and sapphire like blue eyes. Weiss Schnee. A girl you'd only met in passing a few times. According to Winter, she had quite a bit of potential and apparently took to dust casting much better than Winter herself.

"Nora Valkyrie, Weiss Schnee, Blake Belladona and Yang Xiao Long," your godfather recited their names once they had gathered together atop the stage, "You all collected the white knight pieces. Together, you will be known as Team Sunbeam, led by Nora Valkyrie!"

Even as your eyes narrowed on the blonde on the stage as you learned her full name, Weiss's eyes went wide, her mouth forming into a shocked 'O' shape and massive woop of excitement left the stacked ginger's mouth as she jumped into the air and pumped her fist into the air, "Woooh! Fearless Leader has arrived!"

"Huh, so she's the fat titted bimbo that trashed Junior's bar?" Emerald snorted, "Small world."

So it seemed. You'd need to talk to her at some point. She was Ruby's sister, wasn't she? Ruby had mentioned she had an older sister named Yang attending Beacon when you talked to her yesterday. You supposed you could let her off with a warning for now. As your father said, sometimes the rules had to be waved, if only a little for the good of the people. And, if Ruby was anything like you potential wise, then the good of recruiting her as an Atlas Hunter in the future outweighed the bad with letting someone who would trash public property in a tantrum with only a warning.

When Team Sunbeam left the stage, an alerting beep came from your scroll, and Emerald's, letting you both know it was your turn to head up to the stage.

As you and Emerald made your way towards the stage, you were surprised to find two familiar girls heading up there as well. Pyrrha Nikos and Ruby Rose herself.

"Hello again!" Pyrrha smiled beautifully at you, "How lucky, it seems fate favoured us as a team."

"Yay, Chad and Emerald!" Ruby pumped her fist happily.

"Hmm, suppose it could be worse." Emerald shrugged.

Together, you four made your way up onto the stage and stood in front of your godfather. He smiled warmly at you before looking up and down the line the four of you made, "Finally, we have Chad Ironwood, Emerald Sustrai, Pyrrha Nikos and Ruby Rose," he began, "You all collected the White Rook pieces. For your tenure together at this Academy, you will be known as Team Iron, and you will be led by Chad Ironwood!"

The crowd erupted into applause, and you heard Yang Xiao Long holler louder than anyone else praising her younger sister proudly. Well, you supposed she had some good traits. Even if she was apparently prone to temper tantrums and absolutely horrible puns.

It wasn't long later you all vacated the stage. From there, Professor Goodwitch made her own way onto the stage herself and began speaking about classes, responsibilities and all manner of other things pertaining to your time here at Beacon as a student. Then she went ahead and sent information packets to every student in the hall, going over everything she had just said.

And alongside it, a tier list with every new first year atop it. The current student rankings of the first years, based on the performances everyone gave in the Emerald Forest during the initiation.

1. Chad Ironwood
2. Pyrrha Nikos
3. Emerald Sustrai
4. Yang Xiao Long
5. Nora Valkyrie
6. Lie Ren
7. Blake Belladona
8. Weiss Schnee
9. Ruby Rose
10. Cardin Winchester

.

.

.

.

.

Jaune Arc was near the bottom. Fourth last, beating out Sal Luzor the lowest ranked student, Red Tard the second last and his own teammate Sky Lark who was third last.

"Eeeh!" Ruby cheered, even as she waved her sister goodbye, "You guys are the top three on the list, how cool!" then she pouted, "I barely made it into the top ten though, I'm totally dragging the team down!"

"Don't worry about it," you shrugged as you all left the auditorium behind, making your way towards where your assigned dorm was according to your scroll, "You got in two years early, just like me. The fact you've beaten out most of the year even this early speaks volumes for your skill."

"He's right Ruby," Pyrrha smiled gently at her partner, "You're very strong for your age, don't worry about it!"

"Awe, shucks!" Ruby grinned, even as her cheeks flushed a bit from the praise.

"Like I said, could be much worse," Emerald nodded idly, "Could be Mr. Short and sweet." she pointed out.

Ah yes, Jaune. He definitely had potential if his aura reserves were anything to go by and the fact he managed to pass despite only getting said aura awakened a few days ago. But he would total deadweight on your team.

___________________

"Yeah ." Emerald trailed off a bit as she looked around her, and her new teams dorm room, "This isn't going to work."

"..It is a bit cramped, true." Nikos nodded, a small polite smile on her face. Emerald really hoped the girl got over that soon, that polite attitude was liable to piss her off real quick.

As far as the dorm room went though, Emerald honestly wasn't complaining too much about the size. It was easily twice the size, if not a bit more of her own bedroom back at her crappy apartment provided by Cinder.

It had two desks and chairs, various shelves and even a bookcase underneath the window. And the walk in closet was huge, bigger than her apartments kitchen even. The problem was....the vast majority of the room was taken up by four beds, one for each of them.

"The ones in Atlas are much better, the beds are actually inside spaces within the walls," Chad commented with a proud smirk. She had noticed, he really did like bragging about Atlas. But considering for all intents and purposes he may as well be the Prince of Atlas, she supposed it was like bragging about your own house, "We could always join the sets together into two larger beds and free up some room." his eyes stared directly into her own as he said that.

How very subtle, not. She almost snorted. Not that she minded his attention at all, she actually very enjoyed it.

"Oh my." Nikos covered her mouth with one hand when she saw where he was looking and let out a scandalous little giggle.

"Ooooh! Oooh! Like bunk beds?" the chipmunk, Ruby excitedly clapped her hands before Emerald could reply.

"...Yeah, sure let's go with that." Chad gave a helpless shrug. Poor him, looked like the oblivious little kid would crimp his flirting a bit.

Honestly, it wasn't like Emerald was even opposed to his original plan. She'd have to be as stupid as Mercury not to realise Chad wanted to bed her, and she'd had fun riling him up with her illusions.

He wasn't trying to force anything with her, and he genuinely seemed to enjoy he company and offered her a place by his side, with no strings attached. That more than anything else, meant a lot to her.

'I do not like repeating myself, do not make me.' she remembered an angry little threatening hiss. Cinder, after Emerald had asked her what she wanted when she made vague allegations about her abilities when she stole that ring a few months ago and got cornered by her in an alleyway right after.

She'd been terrified of the woman in that moment and only agreed to follow her out of fear initially. The promise of never going hungry again she received that day echoed in her head and Emerald bit her lip. She hadn't exactly gone hungry, but she'd had a hell of a time budgeting what she was given to get by on when Cinder didn't need her around.

It was naive of her now looking back on it. Cinder had been the first ever to offer her a place, it wasn't until she met Chad last night that she realised how bad an offer it had been in the first place.

She was grateful to Cinder, and admired her, she really did. But, she'd learned now, Cinder certainly hadn't cared for her as she thought the older woman had.

Emerald shook her head, putting those thoughts out of mind for now, "..How the hell are we gonna turn these into bunk beds?" she asked, raising an eyebrow in disbelief

"...Err, dunno?" Ruby gave a sheepish laugh.

"Hmm." Nikos crossed her arms and looked around, at what Emerald had no idea.

So the green haired woman looked to the final member of the four of them who was lightly holding his scroll in one hand, looking as if he wanted to open it up and use it.

"What about you oh fearless leader?" she raised an eyebrow at him questioningly and gestured at the beds, "Aren't big guys like you supposed to be good at putting things together, building and that crap?"

"That's sexist you know," he pointed out, "Just because I'm a guy doesn't mean I'm automatically good at building stuff. What if I asked you to make me a sandwich?"

"Then I'd make you a sandwich," Emerald shrugged with a snort. Their dorm was on a floor with Mr. Short and Sweet and the Bimbo's team, and they all had access to a living area with couches, a television and even a big ol' kitchen, "So can you?" she asked pointedly.

"...You know what, yes I'm pretty good at building stuff," Chad rolled his eyes, "But that's only because of my training growing up, not natural talent!"

_____________________

"There how's that?" Chad turned to her as he finished, smirking at Emerald proudly as he rested the drill in his hand against his shoulder.

Once he was prompted, the younger boy had propped open his second suitcase, showcasing all manners of gadgets, dust, materials and tools and proceeded to bring out a few sheets of metal, mould them into shape, and then stack the bed posts perfectly on top of each other, lifting the beds as if they weighed a feather to the shock of Nikos and the munchkin, wrap the metal around the bed posts and drill them in place securing them.

Emerald smirked right back and clasped her hands together and pressed her cheek into them, "Oh Chad, you're so manly and reliable!" she 'swooned'. She wasn't even joking, he was very reliable, but this way seemed more fun than just outright saying so.

"I am." he accepted her words with no shame at all, prompting her to relax out of her 'swooning' and laugh lightly.

"I'll say!" Ruby added herself, sitting on one of the top bunks and bouncing her little butt up and down on it, "These are awesome, way to go Chad!"

Nikos who was on the bed below the youngest girl nodded, "Yes, you did a very good job Chad," the redhead praised, "You didn't even need any help at all."

"What's with the tools though?" Emerald asked, "And the materials. Like I get the dust, but what about the metal."

"For maintenance on my gear," he replied as he made his way over to his suitcase and began packing his tools away, "And that's no mere metal. That's dust tempered Atlesian Steel. The best of the best as far as sturdy, yet flexible metals go. The best weapons in Atlas are made out of this stuff."

"..So it's good metal then I guess?" Emerald asked with a shrug. Honestly, she didn't even know much about metals and the like, she never exactly went to school for an education.

"Good metal?" Ruby looked to her, an almost horrified look on her face, "Good METAL? Are you kidding me? Atlesian Steel is the best there is! A simple sword made out of it could cut through a block of iron like a hot knife through butter!"

"Indeed, it's incredibly expensive," Nikos added, her green eyes locking on to Chad's back and looking quite shocked, "To think you went and used such highly valued materials just to put the beds together, it would be far cheaper just to buy four new beds."

"..Sorry what?" Emerald gaped, understanding dawning on her, "How much cash did you just waste of a whim?"

"A good five thousand lien at least," Chad shrugged, closing his suitcase and turning back to look at them, a smug smile on his face, "I'm not a Schnee, but keep in mind who you're talking to ladies. It might be expensive and hard to get for people from other kingdoms, but the Glorious Atlas isn't so limited and I have full access to nearly as much as I want of this stuff."

Five thousand lien....just for those few small sheets of metal? Damn, just damn. Emerald really was dealing with an entirely different world with Chad.

"Ah, so lucky!" Ruby pouted jealously at him, "I wish I could get my hands on some! Crescent Rose would be unstoppable with the upgrades I could make."

"Then just ask me," Chad replied casually, "Tell me how much you need to get your weapon to standard and I'll get it shipped out."

Ruby gasped, silver eyes going wide, "Wait, seriously!?"

"Yeah, seriously!?" Emerald echoed. She knew he casually threw around numbers of lien that went above her head last night, but she was not expecting this. "..Oh god, are you going full Sugar Daddy?" she asked as the thought came to her.

"I mean, I can if you want," Chad laughed, "Though, I prefer Iron Daddy."

Nikos burst out into uproarious laughter that she tried, and failed to muffle with her hands and just was not able to contain her amusement at all.

Well, if he wanted to play like that...

Emerald sidled up to him and sandwiched his arm between her large breasts, his bare arm touching the soft brown skin of her cleavage thanks to her crop top, "Can I get some to get my weapons fixed up then, Iron Daddy." she batted her eyelashes at him jokingly and simpered.

Chad looked down at her with a raised eyebrow before laughter tugged at his lips, "Sure you can 'baby girl'." he replied, and then pushed the arm she was holding onto down a bit and she felt his hand cup her right ass cheek and give it a brief, but quick squeeze, probably to quick for any of the other two to see, especially with them facing them and his hand being out of view. He blinked, and his eyes went just a little bit wide, "..Damn." he whispered, and Emerald felt pride shoot through her.

Took him long enough. Really, she wasn't opposed at all to becoming his woman. It may be incredibly quick of her, but she had a really good feeling about him. She knew she was going fast, latching on to him quicker even than she had Cinder.

But that was how she had always lived. If she didn't snap up what she wanted first, someone else would yank it first. That was the law of streets she grew up on, and the grimm eat grimm world out there.

It took a few seconds for the moment to pass, and Chad shook his head, "So, you wanted to hit up Vale tonight right?" he asked.

She let go of his arm and nodded, "Yeah, but it's fine, there isn't enough time," It was already getting dark. By time they got to Vale, there would be little time to get things done. And that smarmy prick Torchwick would dawdle along and generally be a pain in the ass to get to meet with, "It can wait a few days." she assured him. Cinder wasn't due to need her for anything for a good few months still anyway.

"Fair enough, then if you don't need me right now, I've gotta go meet with Professor Ozpin." he replied, and she let him know that was alright with her.

The old dude that Cinder seemed to have some kind of hate boner for, was Chad's godfather after all. He probably just wanted to congratulate him on passing, and as the top of the year already at that.

He gave Nikos and the munchkin a quick goodbye and left the dorm behind for now. Emerald watched the door as it shut behind him and resisted the urge to sigh. It really was too bad they couldn't just be a duo with a dorm to themselves she wasn't lying about liking to sleep nude.

_____________________

"I can't believe we were the first ones to class," Emerald yawned as she sat with one leg propped up against her stomach on her seat where she sat beside you at the back of the classroom, "Seriously, me, of all people, this early to classes? How lame."

Your eyes dropped to the full and soft looking chocolate coloured thighs in plain view as her skirt rode up her thighs. Emerald really did fill out that uniform nicely, "Isn't this your first day of school? Shouldn't you be all bright eyed and bushy tailed."

"Maybe if it was something I didn't know already, but this is Grimm Studies and..." she trailed off, gesturing to down below at the teacher, Professor Port who was going on and on about some really bland story, "Look at this guy. The hell is he even talking about? Hell, I think he's checked me out more than you have today."

You opened your mouth, before pausing, searching for an answer...."I've got nothing," you shrugged, "My father said Port is supposed to be an incredibly skilled and experienced huntsman, so I was expecting something a lot more different than this."

You would not lie. You were quite disappointed by the Grimm Studies class so far. Grimm Studies in Atlas was taught by various experts who had studied grimm for years, their traits, abilities, style of fighting, habits, the areas they tended to inhabit and more.

"We could get outta here if you want," Emerald pointed out, "I can just throw an illusion on him and we can go do what we want until the next class."

"...Tempting," again, you could not lie. This class so far, was useless to you. You had better things to do with your time. And you'd never skipped a class before, it would be an interesting new experience for you. "But, I'll give him this chance to bring up something useful, if he doesn't we can just skip any following classes." After all, these classes were literally three hours long.

Three hour normal classes, four hour combat classes, and an hour between both to eat and rest. An incredibly weird schedule all things considered, but apparently an effective one.

"Then, I'm going to sleep for a bit if you don't mind?" she asked, looking to you for permission, "Even Nikos can barely stay awake herself." your partner nodded down below to the pure redhead of your team who was two rows down, her face propped up by one hand.

"Go ahead, though you don't need to ask for permission you know." you replied.

She smiled at your answer for some reason, "Then do you mind if I borrow your legs?" she asked.

You quirked an eyebrow, "Sure feel free...as long as you don't mean that literally."

"Thanks." she thanked you, before shifting her chair around and outright laying her legs across yours to keep them elevated as she relaxed into a laying position using you and her chair.

"Decently," Emerald replied, "And thanks to my semblance, I can just throw an illusion on him of me being awake and paying attention up here."

As always, her semblance showed its worth in practically every situation. You eyed the older girl as she wrapped her arms around her torso and tried to get comfortable. You unbuttoned your black school blazer and pulled it off, dropping it over her.

"What're you doing?" she asked, looking at you weirdly.

"That'll keep you warm when you're sleeping," you shrugged, "If you're gonna get some rest in, best go for the best you can get. Besides, I'm used to a way colder climate than Vale, I don't even need it."

Emerald just looked at you for a moment, studying your face before smiling again, "Thanks." she said once more, before pulling your blazer up, covering her torso and head with it easily due to the size of it. Your build was just that big.

'Well, I may as well check my little installations.' you mused now that you were more or less left alone to your devices. You pulled open your scroll and checked the connected devices to it.

Allowing you a camera feed into the elevator leading up to you godfathers office. And the elevator that also went down to the secret vault below according to the mission details you were given by your father.

Ozpin hadn't actually wanted to see you last night after you were done fixing up the bunk neds. You just used going to see him as an excuse for you to get in that elevator without anyone expecting you, with an excuse at the ready.

You needed to install the tiny little cameras made by Pietro to go along with your newly enhanced scroll, and you managed it perfectly. And by the looks of it from the scroll right now, they were in perfect working order. You would be alerted to any and all who used that elevator from now on, and should anybody be searching around it suspiciously, you would be able to see who they were...and take care of them.

That would be your preferred method of dealing with things, so you did not need to go down there and finish off Amber and use your semblance on her.

You were broken from your viewing of the camera feed and alerts by the sound of Professor Port asking if anybody thought themselves brave, dedicated, a whole slew of others things and a true hunter or huntress.

Seemed he wanted a volunteer. You would happily to it yourself, because you were all of those things, but you didn't want to wake Emerald up, and so Weiss Schnee stepped up to the plate before you.

She left the classroom and came back a few minutes later in her combat gear, and then the good professor...retrieved a huge cage, and opened it to reveal a Boarbatusk.

The man definitely piqued your interest with that. Maybe you were slightly wrong about the man if he had that kind of gumption?

The fight that followed....was interesting. Weiss wasn't bad at all. You could see her skill, and see some of Winter in her, and she definitely had potential. But..it was plain to see how little true combat experience she had.

She was not at all expecting the Boarbatusk's rolling attack, and she was completely taken aback by it despite it being while a powerful attack, a simple straightforward charge. She got distracted by her leader shouting encouragement to her and snapped at her. And after each move, she always attempted to revert to her beginning stance, rapier straight out, one leg pulled back, another forward. She had not instinctually internalized it like her sister had.

If you were her team leader, the first things you'd be doing was throwing her in the Emerald Forest to fight as many grimm as possible. Then, you'd have her spar against everyone on the team multiple times and make her get used to fighting different people and different ways of fighting.

In the end, Weiss did manage to win, though it wasn't very graceful.

After the three hours of Grimm Studies class and an hour for lunch, it was time for the four hour long combat classes.

Which started with a damn awful hour long speech by Professor Goodwitch. Even you, with all your discipline ingrained into you from a young age, were starting to get testy and annoyed by time it ended.

Thankfully, from there it was straight to live combat in full battle gear and live weapons. The first to have their aura drop to less than thirty percent, was the loser.

The combat classes started off the fights strong. With Yang Xiao Long, Ruby's sister and Lie Ren. It was quite the fight, Yang was decently fast and skilled, and had an interesting way of propelling herself around with her shotgun gauntlets. But, when it came to fighting, Lie Ren while not anywhere near as physically strong as Yang, was more experienced, quite a bit faster and a better fighter in hand to hand overall.

Yang you saw, relied heavily on her semblance that allowed her to store kinetic energy with each hit she took to charge her semblance and increase her physical strength. That was quite the semblance, but it meant nothing when she couldn't even hit her opponent. Lie Ren wore her down with rapid fire bullets and light attacks, before finishing her off with a powerful palm thrust to the stomach using aura control to blast her with an aura ripple.

You were very impressed. Even you hadn't gotten around to learning how to shape raw aura into attacks yet, despite how much you wanted to.

Emerald was up next, against the short and bodacious Nora Valkyrie. She it seemed, had grown up with Lie Ren, and like him was a very skilled fighter, but differing from him, was a pure brute force fighter using a giant metal war hammer that could transform into a grenade launcher. She was even more physically impressive than Yang, and it showed why Lie Ren had such an easy time with the blonde, he was used to a complete bruiser of a fighter.

Sadly for her, Emerald was a terrible match-up for her. Emerald was a terrible match-up for anyone really. Even without broadcasting her semblance blatantly, Emerald could still alter her opponents perception just little bits to put her aim off. The only hit Emerald took at all was when the busty ginger girl got frustrated and aimed her grenade launcher at the ground to explode and hit them both.

Weiss was up to bat for the second time today against Sky Lark from Jaune's team. Weiss was his clear superior, but her inexperience showed still and it took her much longer than it should have to win, though she managed in the end, even if she took a few hits because she had trouble getting around the range of Sky Lark's halberd.

Ruby was up next against a a tall reedy fellow with a giant red mohawk and pimply face simply known as Red Tard. That fight was over in less than thirty seconds. He used dual clubs to fight, and he simply didn't have the speed to keep up with Ruby even without her semblance when she shot around using the momentum behind Crescent Rose firing sniper shells to propel her around.

Pyrrha was after Ruby, and was up against another member of Jaune's team, Russel Thrush. A delinquent looking boy who used dual daggers. He was actually incredibly acrobatic, and that flying roll attack he pulled off to launch a double mule kick that actually pushed Pyrrha back a few feet when she blocked it with her shield reminded you of a Boarbatusk. But it was Pyrrha in the end, and he simply couldn't measure up anywhere close to her.

Finally though after them, it was your turn. With your combat gear on, your weapons sheathed on your back, you made your way down to the sparring arena across from the amber eyed Blake Belladonna who immediately dropped into a ready stance, short black blade in one hand, her ribbon clad sheath in the other.

"Begin!" Goodwitch called as soon as both you and Blake's aura bars appeared on the screen above.

As soon as the fight was started, Blake shot towards you at a rapid speed.

When she was halfway towards you, you saw purple aura shine around her sheath and she slashes it through the air at you, firing a large crescent blade of aura towards you, followed by two more criss crossing in different directions designed to block off routes of escape.

Another one who could use aura shaping! Belladonna had some skill to her it seemed.

You trained with Winter and the Ace-Ops though, what she was aiming for was obvious to you. Just a feint.

You pulled your blade in short form from your back, alighting the edges with hard-light dust and slashed right through the middle of the three aura blades, something only possible for you right here thanks to your absurd physical strength.

As soon as they were dealt with, you caught sight of the black blade, shifted into a gun form flying through the air towards you, a ribbon connected at the hilt of it, it wrapped around your outstretched arm from your slash and you felt it pull taut.

Blake used it to pull herself flying through the air towards you, crossing the rest of the distance in mere split moments.

You jerked your arm up and blocked the double kick aimed straight for your face. There was quite a bit of force behind it with her added momentum, and if it weren't for your strength, you would have been sent flying, as it was though, you regularly had giant chimera grimm summons charging you down from the air and barrelling into you, this was nothing in comparison and you only shuffled a half step back.

You lashed out with your other hand, grabbing one of her legs in a vice grip, you caught sight of her amber eyes going wide before you spun around, a yelp tearing from her throat as you dragged her through the air like a yo-yo. Just as you were about to slam her into the ground hard though, her form flashed and suddenly, you were holding an ice sculpture in her shape. It was smashed into the ground instead and shattered to pieces and Blake came down from above, slamming a roundhouse kick into your cheek.

Your aura absorbed the blow easily and her eyes went wide with shock once again when you looked up at her with a smirk. Her blade and sheath began glowing purple and it looked like she was about to slice the both down at you and fire a pair of aura blades at you again.

But not this time. Your clenched fist slammed into her stomach with all your strength and a strangled gasp left her as she was shot flying over one hundred feet, right outside the ring and slammed into the wall on the far side of the massive combat room. Her light purple aura sparked across her form as she cratered the wall and fell down onto her lovely backside, staring at you wide eyed.

You looked up at the screen above. Your bar was still green, only a tiny tiny sliver having come out of your aura reserves. Where as, on the opposite side, her bar only showed a tiny tiny sliver of red remaining.

She'd have a bit more if she didn't go with those aura blades, but the results wouldn't have really changed.

There was silence throughout the combat class and you saw many staring wide-eyed in shock at you. Though, Emerald was grinning massively.

"Chad Ironwood is the winner." Professor Goodwitch announced, and you saw even she was gaping a bit at you.

You don't know why she's surprised. You are your fathers son after all, and when you left Atlas, he was still quite a bit stronger than you physically. You don't know for sure now though since you had absorbed the essence of a Boarbatusk, Giant Nevermore and Elder Deathstalker, but you were sure that at best you were nearing even with him. And as he once told you, strength was the answer to all things ailing the world right now. Glorious Atlas was the city of strength that would save this world. As such, you had primarily focused your training growing up on strength before anything else. What need was there for armour and defence when you could punch through any obstacle?

Ruby was practically vibrating in her seat good cheer when you returned to where your team was sitting. "Oh my gosh Chad, that was crazy!" she grinned at you, patting you happily on the shoulder, "One punch and she was like wooosh! You barely even used your weapons!"

"..You certainly did impress," Pyrrha added, eyeing you with gleaming eyes, "I admit, I actually can't wait to face off against you now, a few hits like that and I think even I would go down."

"If I actually hit you, you mean." You pointed out, even as you accepted a high five from Ruby. If her semblance was indeed something to do with magnetism, you would most likely have to resort to unarmed combat against her. If it was Telekinesis, you would possibly need to brute force through it. Either way, you couldn't make a true plan until you experienced it yourself.

A shoulder pressing into your own drew your attention and you looked to find Emerald leaning on you, "You're gonna turn some poor sap into paste with a touch if you get any stronger." she laughed.

"Eeesh, that's a scary image!" Ruby shuddered, drawing laughter from the three of you.

A minute later, the last pair to fight during class were called down. Jaune Arc versus Cardin Winchester. Winchester, was a tall broad boy with a sneer on his face and clad in heavy plate armour, a large mace with a bright red dust gem on top. And when you said tall, you meant really tall. He must have been nearly seven feet in height, if not already there, he positively towered over Jaune who was the same height as you. Though, broad the ginger Cardin might be, he still wasn't as broad and muscular as you.

The fight that occurred moments later, was disappointing. Jaune's sheer lack of training showed, and while he had the basics down and was actually quite talented with his shield, Cardin was more experienced than him and was just that much above him in raw physical ability.

Every swing of his mace sent Jaune tumbling back even when blocked, and every time Jaune made to counter, Cardin's own physical superiority was enough to easily reverse counter through just brute force. It said more about Jaune than it did Cardin's strength though. You were sure you could easily overpower the taller boy with one hand tied behind your back.

The only reason Jaune lasted as long as he did in the fight, lasting over three minutes, was because of how absurdly large his aura reserves were. He did manage to get a bit better as the fight went on though, tightening his slashes, and managing to figure out how to bleed off some of that strength of Cardin's the more hits he blocked with that shield of his.

Still, it ended when Cardin got frustrated and smashed Jaune in the face with his huge mace and then pulled a trigger on it to detonate the fire dust at the tip of it in a huge explosion that finally finished the boy off.

Your eyes narrowed on the huge boy when he spat on Jaune and walked off laughing after the fight.

"Well, that was lame," Emerald snorted, "Mr. Short and Sweet is shit."

"...Eh..he wasn't..that bad? That Red Tard guy I fought was worse." Ruby feebly tried to defend the blonde boy.

"I'm sure your friend will improve soon Ruby, no need to worry," Pyrrha assured her, "He did get a little better throughout the fight, he seems to be a bit of a fast learner...even if he isn't all that skilled right now."

Her silver eyes turned to you and she pouted at you expectantly, "He sucked," you shrugged, "But he's only had his aura unlocked, what? A week. Everyone sucks at that point, if he improves as much as he did in this fight over the next few months he'll probably catch up to near that Cardin guy."

"..Not exactly a huge milestone." Emerald muttered under her breath and you resisted the urge to chuckle, she wasn't wrong.

You could have thrown that guy around when you were a twelve year old after all.

Not long later, class came to an end and your scrolls were alerted to the new combat class rankings. It seemed you were graded by the day and shown the rankings each day to urge you and the other students to train harder.

1. Chad Ironwood
2. Pyrrha Nikos
3. Emerald Sustrai
4. Lie Ren
5. Nora Valkyrie
6. Yang Xiao Long
7. Ruby Rose
8. Blake Belladonna
9. Weiss Schnee
10. Cardin Winchester

Already it seemed quite a few changes had taken place. Though, you, Pyrrha and Emerald had retained the top three spots, and Ruby had risen up two spots herself on the list.

It wasn't a bad day of experiences all things considered. You'd got to see Ruby in action and while she was far from the strongest, she did have quite a bit of potential as your godfather had said she did, and you'd even learned that two of your classmates could shape and use their aura for offensive purposes.

Perhaps they could provide you with some tips for training in those ways yourself?

___________________

And thus ends the gloriously short, only 32k word long adventures of Chad Ironwood. Glory to Atlas!