Chapter 16

[||||=LEVEL 16= ||||]

I got up blearily and with faint aches in my body. Oh the joys of having a body. I rolled out of the bed and shook the sleep off of me. I had gotten a good eight hours. Far more than anything I ever need with my vitality and the hardy skill. I tested myself once and found that I only needed two or three hours. That doesn't mean I can't slip off into dreamland sometimes though. And waking up was as groggy an experience as always.

I stepped into the shower and turned on the water. A minute of just letting the water run over me and I was as awake as I could get. I sent a parallel and an avatar to wake up Ruby. She was used to summer, as a dash of mage sight revealed. Get used to six AM wakeups again, you little sucker.

It was with a frown that I remembered that we were living in the Branwen's… base? Apartments? Well, whatever they called it now. The bandits get up bright and early after living in the wilds for so long. Not to mention that my sun lamps make them get up around now too. That means I'll definitely have to cook for everybody under fear of being held hostage for my food… well that's alright I guess. It was five forty now. That gives me more than twenty minutes to make everything for Ruby and the rest.

I finished up with the shower quickly and dressed myself from my inventory before making my way to the kitchen. It was an an apartment that had two stoves instead of one and the bedroom converted to a pantry and a few refrigerators moved into it at the wall. The bandits were surprisingly good at interior decorating. I blame it on enthusiasm for their new digs.

I dealt all my parallels to make a variety of things. Cinnamon rolls, croissants filled with jams and a few with chocolate, eggs and bacon, some breakfast burritos, pancakes, and waffles. I moved all of this into the lunch hall or whatever they call it. The eating room.

The lunch hall was actually two rooms but we tore down the walls and a bathroom in the way. Raven used earth magic to make some concrete pillars to keep the roof up and I runed everything to be structurally sound.

We put down a long table and bench along with a shorter dinner table for Raven and any important guests (that means me and Ruby) that may arrive. On one side of the wall was a really long table that I would put breakfast on.

We didn't have any plates so I made them out of ice with no air in them. They looked like glass. I then put a simple runic matrix on them to stop them from absorbing heat. They would feel room temperature forever since they're not exchanging heat with anything. They were basically glass plates but made from ice in reality.

As I loaded up the plates and enchanted everything to be warm for longer Raven finally got up. She looked a little out of sorts until she sniffed the air, which was when she immediately woke up. The delicious food cooking and the power of coffee compels her I suppose. She hopped into the shower and I turned my attention from her.

Ruby got up not long after Raven did. She got up easier since she hadn't just gotten out of surgery. She immediately got into the shower too.

After ten minutes I had finished most of the food with my parallels. Only the third batch of bacon, the croissants, and the whip cream (my parallel ran to a market and bought a bunch of stuff earlier before teleporting back. Mage sight and teleporting made shopping far easier) that needed more vanilla.

Raven was the first to arrive. It was funny to watch her move though. She wasn't used to all the extra strength so she looked jerky and twitchy. I looked at her amusedly and she ignored me as she sat down. She didn't get up to look at the dishes but instead used her air affinity to start making a plate of her choice and float it over to her. I assume she'll get used to her new strength later.

After a few bandits forewent their shower and went straight to breakfast Ruby arrived. She tore through the cinnamon rolls and a few croissants. To stop her from raiding the two fruit bowls for all of their strawberries I called her over and handed her a bowl of strawberries. She managed to get something similar to a thank you out before running to her auntie with her plate and bowl.

As Ruby started eating Raven carefully took her first bite and froze. I made sure to look at her amusedly. She had never tried my cooking before. Her widened eyes showed this. After just a moment she began tearing into the food. She was especially partial towards the croissants filled with chocolate. Well that's fine. Being a huntress burns plenty of calories.

Similar scenes happened for every bandit that took their first bite. I can't say for sure but I think that the more joyous atmosphere was unusual judging from the looks on the arriving bandit's faces.

I finished up my work in the kitchen and grabbed my plate leaving my parallels to clean up. Good thing they didn't have emotions or I'd have a mutiny on my hands with how I treat them.

Arriving to the table with Raven and Ruby Raven had composed herself more decently though she was still clearly enjoying the food greatly.

"How are you so good at cooking?" She asked me, taking a break to drink a little of her water. Wait, water for breakfast? Huh. Her choice I suppose.

"I learned a lot from Summer. I refined my skills by cooking for Ruby."

"His cookies are incredible." Ruby said through a mouthful of strawberries. Raven smiled nostalgically.

"We rented Summer out to cook a few times. She was always good at it. Qrow burns water, I poison it, and Tai gives up and cooks canned food. Summer was practically a celebrity being that she was the only good cook in the school that was approachable. The other two people good at cooking stayed private among their friends."

I smiled. "I'll be popular at Beacon then." Raven stiffened a little.

"What do you mean?"

"I never told you? Well when I first came to Vale after Summer caught me she had to bring me to Ozpin. We struck a deal. I agreed to help Summer with missions by augmenting her soul and releasing her potential as a mage and going to beacon in two years and in exchange he gave me spell books on magic like the one I gave you, kept me close to Summer to defend me and teach me, and gain power from Summer's soul. Though I don't know if he knows that I was absorbing her affinities at the time. He tried to tie me down with an apprenticeship to him but being his pawn was part of that deal."

"You're going two years ahead of Ruby?" She asked. Ruby swallowed and chimed in for that.

"I'm getting to Beacon two years early. I'm strong enough that if I keep up my current pace I'll actually be stronger than most first year students."

Raven quirked an eyebrow. "Why would… silver eyes. Of course he would make an exception." I nodded.

"Oh, by the way Ruby." Ruby blinked towards me with a pancake drooping as it hung slightly out of her mouth. "There are going to be some extremely strong students at beacon in three years. Not just you and me. And no, I'm not telling how I know."

Ruby gulped down her pancake. "Okay! That's fine since I'll get the runes and grow stronger." I smiled and nodded. A good attitude to have. I won't tell her that she'll have a guy with runes equal to what I'll give her. Jaune's sword is runed to hell and back too… I'll give Ruby an edge with a few accessories and clothes runed to give her an edge.

"Do you think you can take the first day on your own?" I asked. Ruby looked a little nervous.

"Um… I'd rather not. Can we do that later in the year?"

"It's just the first day. If anything I should be the nervous one since I have my first day of Signal today. Not even low Signal but real Signal. Oh, and I'll introduce you to Roman when I get back, Raven." Raven nodded easily at this.

"Ah, that's true I suppose." Ruby frowned. "But I don't like it."

"You'll have to get used to it. I'm getting busier with work and finally having to join a school. You'll be spending more time with the tribe and training with Qrow when he's around than me."

"I don't like it." She mumbled.

"I don't like it either but I just have to do this stuff. I'll be spending plenty of time with you but I won't be sticking to you like I have been."

Raven threw Ruby a bone. "I can help train with you if you have more free time. All I have to do now is keep an eye on Roman anyways. Even then I'm not his babysitter. I'll have enough free time to keep your company and manage my tribe."

"Oh. Well I'll probably be fine then." Ruby brightened up a little.

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"I… I don't know what to do, Junior. He just… I've gone farther, made more money, and gotten more recognition in the past four months than I have in the past year before all this. He pops up, throws four dead enemies of mine in my face, and the next thing I know I work for him. What can I even do?"

"Well it's simple. Work for him."

"Yeah. It seems like that would be the best option but this guy killed four high class gangsters just to make a point! This is more than I wanted to be in. I was about to ditch the gang and go independant, find a sidekick, and manage myself. Now I'm in this… THIS!"

"Well that's just too bad."

"You're not helping."

"I am. You're just not listening. Look, this Villain wants you to expand your gang to all of Vale and he's carrying you to the top. Stop thinking 'Oh he's looking to stab me in the back' and look good and hard at this. It is bad but that he came to you means that in one way or another he needs you. Sure, you were forced but it isn't that bad. He needs you and now you need him or you'll be annihilated."

"Pretty much."

"Well has he ever demanded a lot?"

"No. Just an apartment floor and some small stuff. All the information on this gang boss or that one guy right here."

"So you've got a guy that wants you to work for him, doesn't ask for much, and gives you all of Vale as your playpen so long as you work for it a bit. Why are you complaining?"

"He's above my league."

"Then that means one of two things. First is that everybody in your league just became your bitch with him at your back or that he's dragging you to new heights. Have you fought anybody out of your league?"

"No…"

"Have you ever been forced into something you don't want to do?"

"A few times he pushes me ahead of schedule and gives me some extra help."

"That's fine if he's putting in a little extra. See, you're getting more than you ever did before and you have serious backing. Quit worrying and being so paranoid. Keep an eye on everything and everyone but remember that there is such a thing as allies."

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Signal was actually comprised of two campuses. One for mid-signal and one for high signal. The school didn't waste time, though. Everyone was mailed schedules of their classes and told to get to their first classes on the first day. The school times went from eight in the morning to three in the afternoon for mid signal and eight to five in the afternoon for high signal.

I myself had two one hour classes, a two hour class, lunch, and two four hour classes before dismissal. The first two hour long classes were math and history and ending off with the two hour long elective, in which I chose one of the less popular electives. Subtlety.

Subtlety was a sort of espionage/information gathering/stealth takedown class. I was good at being stealthy but I wasn't the best unless I was using my invisibility and muffle skill. I was actually excited for it.

After an hour long lunch I had the real classes. First of the two classes was hunter studies. It covered everything from dust handling to weapon smithing to making mission reports. It wasn't going to be fun at all but it would be useful.

Finally at the end of the day was combat class. There's not much to say about that. We fight. That's it.

At signal we didn't have english or literature or any sort of language classes at all. The reason for that is pretty simple. Remnant only had one language. English. I mean, sure, there were other languages but Remnant wasn't large enough to have more than one main language. There were other languages, called old languages, like german, french, and oriental languages but they weren't really used by anyone except to maintain culture. A hunter had little need for them anyways when he or she could just use his or her scroll to translate. There are apps for that stuff.

The only thing I disapproved about was that there was no science classes. Sciences opened your eyes to new opportunities and ideas and helped you to understand the world.

Ruby looked at me weirdly when I complained about that and said "But we can cut grimm open or blow them up with dust or a hundred other things. The only reason science is so useful to you is because of your spells."

Ruby did not have a nice sparring session after that. Nobody just disses science like that.

Anyways, my opinion is irrelevant in the whole scheme of things. My time at signal would be fine in all likelihood. Jaune is being schooled by his mother and sisters and the rest of the cast can just do their thing. This isn't a show. I'm not going to act excited over their existence or go hunting them out unless I need them for something. I needed Jaune to ensure that he covers Ruby as I work for a brighter future for myself. I need Roman so I can control Cinder when the time comes. I'm not going to go looking to meet others.

First period was simple… and boring. I hate math. It was almost exactly like normal classes. Not that I expected anything else. I had been in classes with Ruby after all. I assigned a parallel to it and played video games in my soul space until the period ended.

Next was history and geography. It wasn't especially exciting. Old battles and some map skills. I had a textbook in my soul space that I had a parallel tear through a few times a while ago. I knew the content already. Not as well as the teacher but plenty well.

Finally was what I think would be my favorite class. Subtlety. Deciding to be a little cocky I used mage sight and saw the teacher. A woman with black hair in a ponytail was hiding in the rafters of the room playing a scroll game. Oh, militia. A strategy game about fighting grimm with townspeople as you hold out for a huntsman. I ducked into the bathroom and silently teleported behind her.

It was fine that I could teleport around. I had registered space manipulation as my semblance and included under a technicality that I could teleport, sense around a location of space around me, and warp space a little. It hadn't raised too many eyebrows. It was powerful, sure, but nothing incredible. The Schnee semblance could do like four things and more like a hundred with dust. My semblance is powerful and useful. Not crazily good but just really useful.

I scrolled through my observe's information on my teacher as I waited for her to start the class. Probably with a dramatic entrance.

Her name was Bella Opaque. She was training to be a trapeze artist like her parents before she decided to become a huntress. She was a terrible combatant but she was an absolute master at dodging and being stealthy as well as running away. She took on a counter terrorism position within the elite ranks of huntsmen. For a while she played that game but retired early at the age of thirty seven to teach kids at signal. She actually has a crush on Qrow too along with a willingness to stay in the dark with his more spec-op sides. She's just a bit discouraged by the age gap and his lack of shown interest.

She's fun-loving, funny, and she loves her job to death though she dislikes being professional. She's had a lot of bad luck at dating though. Poor girl. She seems like an awesome person to be friends with. I could probably be friends with her with how much she dislikes being professional.

Bella likes to use a crossbow and the sort of wrist blades like from assassin's creed. She also knows how to use a knife and any kind of firearm if she has to. Her semblance isn't named but it's like the notice me not spell from Harry potter. She just isn't noticed.

I'm unaffected since I have my new steel will skill that makes me immune to mental manipulations. It's only weakness was that it worked in an area. Somebody far away could see her just fine but somebody close to her would have a hard time seeing her even if she was right in their face.

After the bell rang to signal passing period as over Bella waited a minute for the kids to settle down and murmur in confusion that there wasn't a teacher. Then she dropped down behind them where nobody saw her. It wasn't hard since there were only four other students in the room. As I said, not a popular class.

"Why are you all looking so confused?" She asked. Everybody looked towards her and the typical reaction was surprise that she was there. She looked at them like all of the kids were weird and walked to the front of the classroom.

"Okay. You weirdos suck at being perceptive so let's just get to it. Attendance! Um…

Janice Beige."

"Here."

"Jamie Mirrow."

"Here!" A lean kid with really golden hair and eyes said jubilantly. "Just call me Cesium, my middle name. There's like eight different Jamies this year."

"Got it. Kerrigan Granite."

"Here." A large, muscular, stocky kid with a sort of military air said in a deep voice.

"Ocean Ilsiati-... Ilianasta… um…."

"Here. And it's Ilstianatum. Just say Ocean." A girl with dark blue eyes and a pale complexion spoke softly.

"Nice name, kid. And Abyss Mavros."

I called down from my place in the rafters. "Here!"

"GAH!" Bella jumped into the air and drew her crossbow at me reflexively. Uh-oh. I swiped my hand through the air and caught the bolt.

"Here." I dropped the bolt back down to her and she looked at me like I was the weird one.

"What are you doing up there?!"

"I was behind you when you were playing militia up here. Killing off the farmer was a bad move. You should have moved the blacksmith to reinforce the dust miner." Bella glared at me a little.

"Shut up and get to your seat." She grumbled. I smirked and fell down to the ground, whereupon I sat down and reclined in my seat.

"And finally… Aero Overton."

"I'm feeling kind of overshadowed here." A younger looking kid with light blue eyes and pale grey hair grumbled.

"That's because Abyss here just stole the spotlight." Bella said obviously. "Now! I hope you all know what Subtlety and info is about or you'll definitely be an utter failure in this class! After all, if you can't gather information from the damned pamphlet you sure can't gather it from your classmates." Ocean giggled a little and the rest of us cracked a little smile. I liked her already.

"SubI, and that's what most people call the class by the way, is about being sneaky and gathering information mostly but it's also about being able to shut up and keep a secret, setting ambushes, stealing stuff, and that sort of thing. All the spy stuff that movies romanticize"

"SubI is also a little different than other classes. We actually get a directive from the school to do things. That said, SubI takes place throughout the whole day. If you're at signal, away from it, or in the bathroom you're responsible for subI material. We keep secrets. If you want to go blab to your friends about what you're doing in subI after the period ends you're not going to make it here."

"When I say you're always responsible for being in subI I mean that we won't be using a whiteboard to see what spies do and making conclusions based on evidence. Just like how in weapons class they make actual weapons in subI we do actual spy work."

"Sometimes you'll have to make real sacrifices for the class. You'll have to skip school one day, fake an injury or even actually injure yourself to get a cover story, lie to your friends or family, or something like that. That said, we won't force you to get rid of friends, backstab people you know, or hurt anybody else. This is school. We're spies in training. Not spies."

"So with you all knowing all that I want to make it clear that you're allowed to leave this class for a different elective. You can go make weapons, learn field medicine, grimm anatomy, or any of that stuff. Go for it. subI isn't an incredible class or anything. Making a kickass weapon is as important as picking a pocket sometimes. So… anybody want to leave?"

Bella looked seriously around the room. Immediately Aero Overton stood up and left. "Sorry." He said honestly. "I don't want to get into something that needs me to do that sort of stuff." Bella nodded understandingly.

"Sure. But you can't talk about what you already know, alright? Otherwise I have to sabotage your grade." Aero paled a little and nodded. That paling removed any suspicion of him being a plant to weaken resolve.

The rest of us, Cesium, Ocean, Kerrigan, and me, all looked at each other. Kerrigan looked stoic with the faintest glimmer of excitement in his steely eyes. Cesium looked a little uncertain. That jubilance he had was a small bit diminished. Ocean had a small smile on her face. It was a little creepy honestly. I myself looked calm with a serene smile on my face. I looked absolutely trustworthy, my acting skill told me. It was pretty high at sixty one from all my time acting as Ruby for those few years so I trusted it.

Bella looked around us for a moment with a smile on her face. "Good. Now, you all are officially on subI. That means if you defect, and yes you can defect by leaving the class, you're screwed. Me and whatever others I can scrounge up will be coming to silence you either through your reputation, grades, or anything really. So don't. However, cheating is allowed. That means if you pull a fast one on me then that's totally fair. Just don't think it'll be easy."

"I should clarify that you'll be taking subI all four years or you'll be targeted. It's not terribly hard to pass this class but you should take it seriously. I can just sabotage you on my own if I think you're not trying." Nobody looked especially enthusiastic to test her patience.

I suppose magic could solve that problem of not passing but I wasn't here to study magic. I'm here to get better at stealth and subtlety. Besides, this actually sounds useful. I'll play along with it without breaking the system.

"So! First day is all about knowledge! That means knowing about spies. How many of you think being a spy is about sneaking around and stuff?" Cesium and Ocean raised their hands.

"Well you're wrong." Neither of them looked surprised by this. "A spy can be just about anyone. Those guys that sneak around are spies, sure, but a better term would be operator. That nitty gritty sneaky stuff is called wetwork. Something I excel in. A spy, though, can be the most social and approachable guy in the school. They hear everything and report it to superiors. There's also the guys that listen around in the background. That's how information gathering works."

"Being charismatic or being sneaky are pretty much necessities for being a spy. You've got to fool people. That's what spies do. But just like being a huntsman it's more complicated than that. But you can figure all that out yourselves."

"Today we're testing you safely but tomorrow we jump right into it with wetwork. Sneaky stuff. Then wednesday we have information gathering. Thursday we have some more safe learning stuff where I'll teach how to stealthily take people out and properly pick pockets. And friday you all have some free time to go and do your monthly assignments or whatever you want to do really."

"First, though, we have to get something down. Organization. Every month you will receive an objective. To learn all you can about a person, place, or thing and compile a report or abduct somebody or something like that. The person who gives out these objectives is called the spymaster. It's normally me but if I see talent I assign the role to somebody. And that somebody this year is going to be Abyss!" Everybody looked towards me. I smiled calmly at them while cursing Bella in my head.

Privately, though, I took motion magic as a sort of telekinesis and took a pen and paper in the classroom adjacent to us and cut it into four parts. I then wrote different objectives down on each of them. If I was being spymaster I would have to actually try. No magic my ass.

Cesium's was to convince someone in weapon making to smuggle out an access card from the forgery and deliver it to the subI room without anybody else knowing. I emphasized that he was to leave no trails leading to him. He seemed like the type to be charismatic and honest. He could do this with some small manipulations.

Kerrigan was to learn everything he could about Cesium and Ocean that he could except me. Then he was to drop the letter at a dead drop in a park five blocks from signal without being detected.

Ocean had the same objective as Kerrigan but with information on him and Cesium and at a different dead drop at the park. They were spying on each other, basically. I also made sure to clarify that nobody but her was to learn of her objective. Especially in this class.

To each of them I offered a small reward if they did a little extra. I would gift them with a tool I made, specifically. I didn't say this but I already had ideas. I knew from observe that Cesium's family was poor despite his well groomed appearance. I could probably elevate his father's position through Roman. Ocean could use a set of real lockpicking equipment. And if Kerrigan were to receive an A on his next few tests despite doing poorly in reality who could really say he had failed them?

While I was making these Bella was talking. It was a little difficult to write with telekinesis while listening but I managed by assigning a parallel to write my words. "First objectives are due tomorrow . Hop to it, Abyss. For the rest of you, though, you have some spare time. Get it done by September. Not this August." I nodded an acknowledgement with what would become my usual calm unflappability.

"Now, we're doing basic skills today. Persuasion, persuasion of the naughty sort like blackmail and bribery, stealth, and pickpocketing. Though Abyss might already have stealth down…"

The rest of the class was less exciting than the introduction of it. We found that Cesium was fantastic at being charismatic. He could talk somebody in a circle and make them think they walked in a square. He would be a great politician. He was a good person too.

Kerrigan was intimidating and, while not particularly stealthy or charismatic, he was willing to think outside the box. When instructed to talk Cesium into giving him a rubber ball we used for various purposes he stole it off of him and replaced it with another rubber ball he palmed earlier.

Ocean had a talent for fading into the background and being the sneakiest person in class. Even better than me in some regards. She was the only person to have unlocked her semblance, which was to make an opponent dizzy and nauseous or faintly itchy or something. Faking sensations that they think they feel. I was immune due to steel will but if she used her semblance lightly a person wouldn't notice their pocket being picked as they scratched their arm. And if somebody were to have a nagging feeling that Ocean was hiding over there they tended to trust this instinct.

I showed myself as a sort of jack of all trades. With my persuasion skill of forty nine I could convince a person of most things almost as well as Cesium. But that didn't matter since my other skills always offered a way around that.

I wasn't as sneaky as Ocean but I could be silent to a disturbing degree with air manipulation, which I used because of it's subtlety. I was terrible at picking pockets, which I gained as a skill at level one, but that didn't matter because I was an extraordinarily fast and strong bastard. What did it matter if you noticed me if I could knock you out after all?

It was a consensus that I was the best in the class and rivaled Bella in some situations. Like when I took the initiative.

During the class I had used an avatar under spatial presence negation to slip the orders into people's pockets. It wasn't hard. I just waited until Ocean used her semblance on them and slipped the slips into their pockets too deeply to be pickpocketed.

"Alright. That's all we have for today." Bella said at the end of it all. "Abyss, you got objectives for everybody?" I nodded happily.

"They're in your pockets." Everybody's eyes widened but Cesium's. Good on him for controlling his facial expression. Bella really shouldn't be so surprised.

Everybody read over their objectives before nodding or smiling widely my way. Cesium looked downright gleeful at my hint of a reward. Does he like surprises? Or does he like tricking people? Either way it doesn't matter. Kerrigan looked thoughtful. "Class dismissed." Bella said with a wide grin. She looked to me with something interesting. Respect.

"This is looking to be the most entertaining class I've ever seen." She grinned. "Remember. No talking about subI's secrets. Oh, and Abyss, other than objectives if you're deceived it can get messy for you. Since you're so talented I'll leave it to you to simply not be deceived."

I laughed. Really outright laughed. "What makes you think I'm not working on it already?" Bella looked darkly gleeful at that. I think I'm going to love this class.

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"He's the best student I've ever had. I made up a position, spymaster, and he's going to be doing advanced work."

"Bella that's genius."

"Thank you."

"What student is this?"

"Abyss Mavros."

"PFFT! AHAHAHAHA!"

"Gross! Spit your alcohol somewhere else you drunk!"

"YOU! OH! Oh! Oh that's good! Abyss is- hehe- he's a family friend. He's an up and coming Ozpin in the works but maybe even better judging from how he's going. The kid is beyond anything I've ever seen."

"I know he's incredible. He snuck up on me, planted orders in the kid's pockets without me even seeing him, nearly perfected an atmosphere of being able to trust him, which kind or reminds me of my old CO come to think of it, and I looked into him and you know what I found? Nothing! Nothing at all!"

"Bella trust me. That kid is smarter than any I've ever seen. I called Ruby a genius and I stand by that but Abyss is something else entirely. You won't find anything. I'll give you a tip though. His semblance, what did he put down?"

"Spatial manipulation. Warping it, teleporting, and seeing through portals along with a few tricks. Versatile but now quite the strongest."

"He can create a portal to anywhere in Remnant he desires to go."

"..."

"Yeah. That's the tip of the iceberg of the stuff I can tell you. But I'm not going to kiss and tell. You can have your fun researching him and doing your thing. More fun that way."

"Dust this is going to be fun."

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Compared to subI huntsman studies was downright boring. We focused on introductions and knowing what huntsman studies was. It was a little underwhelming.

Finally was combat class. We were under the tutelage or Qrow this year though Taiyang subs in for him pretty often. His classes are home ec and the fourth period right after lunch so he can stay for an extra class for Qrow. This should be interesting with Qrow around.

Qrow looked a little less drunk than usual. He was ready to teach at least. I can't say he looked very professional though. Not that he ever did.

"Alright, kiddies. I'm Qrow Branwen. This is combat class. Last year you all got your weapons and the absolute basics of fighting. This year you're actually fighting. Go to your lockers and grab your weapons. This will determine your combat ranking out of ten for future fights." I took a sheathed shortsword, a telescoping halberd, and some light armor I planned to use out of inventory and onto my body without anybody noticing already sheathed or magnetically attached. What I did notice, however, was the teacher's section.

The teacher's section was an elevated opera platform to look down to the students from. Bella and Tai were sitting there. Bella, however, was mostly focused on me. She missed it when I put my shortsword on so she looked a little bewildered when I looked different all of a sudden. A knowing look appeared, however, when she seemed to remember my semblance.

I waited relaxing for a few minutes as people armored up for ten minutes and checked their weapons. Finally we began the matches.

I didn't go first, of course. I'm pretty sure Qrow is saving me for himself at the end. We haven't ever sparred before.

The matches were pretty boring for me to watch. The moves were simple and predictable. They were all thirteen after all. Yang was disappointingly the same. She was stronger and faster than everyone else by a wide margin though. She hadn't unlocked her semblance yet either. She did way better than anyone else though. She scored a nine out of ten in the scale.

The score was the average rounded down from the spectating instructor's scores. Bella sometimes didn't pay attention and just copied whatever Qrow called. Qrow normally didn't pay attention and just called whatever Tai called. Sometimes he spiced it up a little and went one lower or higher. Once he even went two lower without paying attention! The madman.

The fights that were actually interesting were few. Kerrigan was actually a really good fighter. He was a Yang level combatant that used an axe that mechashifted to a war scythe. Not the huge scythe that Ruby used but the one that you hold in one hand. There were a few random people that were good too. Then Yang was one of the best in the class like Kerrigan and a random guy named Blush Cynner.

Finally it came my turn to fight at the very end with twenty more minutes left to go. "And finally! This is the one all three of us instructors have waited for!" That had everybody's attention. Bella was nearly vibrating in her seat. Tai looked curious. Qrow was reveling in the tension.

"Abyss Mavros! The two of us are fighting!" Some yelling broke out at that. Qrow waited a few seconds before calming them down. "Shut up kiddos! This is important!" A little laughing and people quieted down.

I myself walked to the front of the room. I was wearing all black in my long shirt and pants with greaves, a light chestplate, arm guards, and fingerless gloves with an armor plate sewn onto the back of the hand. For a little fashion to stand out I had a short dark red bandana on.

Every plate was colored dark grey with extensive rune work on them in red. It matched my eyes and hair, what can I say? I have style.

All the runes were designed to make the armor lighter and stronger. I had no need to go all out so it was more for protection than anything like a fireball. If I needed that I had the handy mechanism on my wrist for that.

On my left wrist was a weapon that was like an extremely thin ember celia, which Yang had by the way, under my long sleeves just barely peeking out. It was a dustcaster. With some aura control I could trigger it to release dust.

In actuality it was just a replacement for my dust system. I would hurl spells and use the dustcaster to enhance them with dust. I preferred to use the dust system since I had it for this exact purpose but if I wanted to avoid questions like why I could throw lightning I had to use it as an excuse.

Everybody looked at me appraisingly as I walked down the stairs of the bleachers to the arena. A simple thing that wasn't as fancy as beacon's as I remember it from the show but it worked. It was good enough.

I stood maybe eight feet from Qrow and waited for a signal. Qrow gave one. He attacked me.

In a blur he came at me full throttle. I immediately casted spatial resistance on him and he slowed down a fair bit. Using a lot of air manipulation to give him air resistance as well helped slow him down more. Even with both of these at full throttle to the extent that I was still hiding my magic he was fast. Faster than me.

I moved straight to dustcasting and casted a shock bolt at him with lightning dust helping the spell. Qrow predicted where the bolt would go and blocked it with his blade. Some of the charge travelled down into his hands. He grunted as the shock lowered his aura by three percent.

I casted a gust of extreme winds with magic and a fireball with dust. The result was an extremely hot fireball that glowed a pale blue. Qrow threw himself away from the fireball and straight towards me. The fireball licked the edge of his left shoe at least. It brought another few percent from his aura.

I rolled my eyes and made a portal in front of the fireball and shot it out of another portal right in front of Qrow. He yelled in surprise as he was burned. The fireball had died out a little from distance but it was still plenty hot. About seven percent of his aura was gone from that hit.

"Enough dustcasting! We get it! You're great at it!" Qrow yelled. I glared at him a little but drew my sword and readied myself. When Qrow came out at me I dodged handedly and slashed at him. He spun with his sword striking out and I leaned out of the strike.

For a few more seconds we traded attacks, feints, and Qrow parrying my blade. It was irritating that he didn't have any openings.

Finally a blow slipped past my guard and hit me hard in the side. I grunted and stumbled away. That took more than twenty percent of my aura away but of course Qrow didn't stop there. He ran towards me…

And his semblance struck. He tripped on a little pothole from a previous match and went into a roll. Of course I struch then. He changed to a kneeling block and caught my blade with his thicker one and used his momentum to kick at my knee.

I hopped up onto his blade and used it like a springboard to fly into the air. Qrow spun once more and changed his blade to a scythe along the way. I panicked a little as his scythe came towards me. It was long enough that he could grab me by my pants leg and slam me to the ground. From there the match would be pretty much over. But there was an easy solution.

Using a warp, my fake semblance, the space in between him and me became twice what it actually was as it stretched. Qrow looked surprised and I dustcasted once more. This time I shot a terribly fast and sharp blade of air at him. He ducked under it and it only cut his shirt. Just barely dodged damnit.

With a small smirk I rapidly closed the warp and turned it in the opposite. Qrow and I were nearly touching we were so close. The compression of the air in the warp getting compressed so quickly made a small sonic boom and I flew away as did Qrow. However, where I flew to the air Qrow slammed into the ground ass first. Not too hard but a few points of aura were lost. He was also a little dazed.

I took advantage of this and shot another burst of electriciry at him. Qrow raised his scythe to block but then realized that a scythe wasn't especially good for blocking. The electricity ran into the haft and Qrow dropped it like a hot potato. I took the liberty of blinking in front of him and slashing as hard as I could.

Qrow was no slouch, though. He bent over backwards and pivoted on one foot faster than I could react to. He lashed out with a foot towards me and hit. However, his semblance must have been working overtime. Because he landed.

Right in my marbles… with his full strength and pointed dress shoes.

I can say unabashedly that I immediately fell to my knees and onto my side. I blurrily saw Qrow making an 'oh shit' expression and standing up awkwardly while I tried to ignore the horrible pain.

Laughter, awe, and pity came from the peanut gallery in equal measures. Taiyang was wincing and holding his legs close together. Bella was turned away with wide eyes and a hand over her mouth.

"I, um… sorry kid." Qrow said uncomfortably.

"Pointed dress shoes." I groaned. He looked down at his shoes and his expression went from 'oh shit' to 'I might be fired'.

"Um… sorry. The semblance just… it gets me sometimes."

Bella collected herself enough to call her grade for me past all the ruckus. "Ten!"

Taiyang responded as well with a look of pity towards me. "10."

Qrow sighed. "You deserve an eleven for your sacrifice but I can only give a ten. And a sip of my drink if you want it."

I groaned.

"Your choice."

[|||| == ||||]

"But Tai they're calling me Qrow the nutcracker now!"

"And who's fault is that?"

"Fine. I just hope Raven never hears of this."

"Knowing your luck she was probably there in person."

"Knowing my luck they probably recorded it and posted it to the dustnet."

"They did."

"Goddamnit."

"Look on the bright side. They're not calling you Qrow the drunkard anymore. Just Qrow the nutcracker."

"They'll be calling me a drunkard again with all the booze I'm going to be drinking."

[|||| == ||||]

"How was school?" Raven asked as I made my portal back to my new home. Ruby was busy sparring with a few of her bandit friends. Vernal, who had a soft spot for her, was among them I believe. She and I never talk. We both like it that way.

"I sparred with Qrow and his semblance had a hay-day. They're calling him the nutcracker now." Raven laughed outright at that.

"Oh! That's great. I think I'll send him a letter of disapproval. Maybe applaud his cruelty towards children a little. That would be fun. He actually had a few screw-ups like that before but they mostly involved him being kicked. He fondled Tai once." I shook my head with a grin and put on my illusion for Roman.

"Well you're ready to see Roman?" She nodded and grabbed her sword and put her mask on swiftly and I held out my hand. She accepted it and I teleported us instantly to the marker I had on the roof of the building. Couldn't let Roman know about my powers after all.

[|||| =NEXT LEVEL= ||||]

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