Ep. 23 - Time Until the Tournament

As I promised myself and the girls, I came clean with my friends about my origins. They were a little stunned, but as Ren said: "I knew there was something more to you. Thank you for telling us."

Yeah, I suck at acting subtle sometimes, apparently. Well, the spaceship was a dead giveaway, though the weapons and armor was a clue as well.

Nora asked me to demonstrate my revival. I hadn't tested it out, so I decided to shoot myself.

Now, you might be thinking: 'Why the fuck would you ever do that?!' Well, the answer to that is that I was curious after she asked. I was also pretty sure I could use the Sunsinger abilities, so I could revive myself. Probably. Ok, it might have been the worst idea I had since coming to this universe, but what's done is done.

When I shot myself, I died. Obviously. MoonRay came out and said something that stunned everyone, well except me since I was very dead. Oh, by the way, I got a recording of the event. That's how I know what happened.

"This idiot didn't even think that I can't revive him in another universe? Seriously? He slew Gods and can't think about such a simple thing?"

"Wait, what?!" was all that the group could say. Weiss, Yang, and Ruby got worried and came up to me.

"Ah, that. Girls, I would stay away if I were you. He's going to make a mess." MoonRay said.

"What do you mean?!"

"Calm down. Usually, I would collect Light from the atmosphere to revive him, but there is no Light here. However, what kind of Warlock would he be if he couldn't even come back to life?"

"First, what's that Warlock thing? Second, he can come back to life without you?" asked Pyrrha

"Well, ever wondered why your armors had different types? In our universe we have three classes: Warlock, Hunter, and Titan. Their archetype and specialization changes, so does their armor. Warlocks are basically space magicians. Can throw fire, lightning, and… void? They can use their fire abilities to come back to life. Oh, there he goes." As she said that, I started being surrounded by fire, then I was set ablaze. A pair of flaming wings came from behind me and I was alive again.

"MoonRay, what's the hold up? Wait…" I thought to myself a minute. "Please tell me you could revive me but were explaining stuff so you got delayed."

"I could revive you but was explaining some things, so I got delayed." she said.

"I was about to die for good. Is that what you're saying?"

"Yup."

Oh, look. Jaune passed out on the floor. I can understand him: not everyday your extra-dimensional, robotic friend shoots himself fully confident in being revived by a floating ball of metal, only for said ball of metal to explain it can't revive him; all of it plus me resurrecting covered in fire must have been an interesting experience for both of us.

Anyway, I came clean before the assignment of the missions. Ironwood had already investigated Mountain Glenn the week before, so Ruby chose another mission. We went on a recon mission a little ways North from Mountain Glenn. 'I think it's where the wyvern was sealed. Was it sealed or just sleeping there? Can't remember or I never knew.'

Nothing particularly eventful happened. I had asked for Doctor Oobleck to accompany us because he has a nice philosophy about being a Hunter, so I wanted the girls to maybe learn something out of it. Plus, he's good at doing… whatever it is he was doing.

Something interesting happened to JNPR. They selected a mission about giving disaster relief or something to a village. The important thing is that they actually found themselves faced with an army of Grimm. They were not too strong, but their numbers were unnaturally high. Like, thousands. This greatly helped them actually get some experience. They also decided to get some customizations done to their weapons. It's the first time they used them for more than a few minutes, making it possible to see what they actually wanted. Pyrrha was the one with the most requests. She found that the armor reacts with her semblance when she uses it for big attacks or defense, so I adapted the material and made it non-magnetic. It takes away the possibility of boosting herself with polarity, but it is better like this. Ren simply wanted a blade for his SMG's, which was easy enough to add. Jaune wanted some modification in the length of the blade, along with the handle. In long fights, the sword and handle were too long, bringing more exhaustion and making it harder for him to swing it effectively. I happily modified it. Nora was happy with her weapon as I made it, so there was no need for modifications.

Oh, Blake was missing her ribbon-grappling hook thing, so I modified the handguard part of the 'Black Talon' to have the same functionalities. The ribbon would be made by hard light tech, not actual ribbon. She tried it out while on our mission and it worked fine. I'll see if I get an idea on how to make it better. It was an important part of her fighting style, after all.

Since the tournament was drawing near, we all decided to spar and train against each other during the weekends. It's objectively the only way they can push themselves and refine their skills. Every other student is just a background character by now, literally. I am finding it difficult to remember their names and faces due to their anonymity.

The first session only Pyrrha could put up a fight. She came up with a cool idea: floating her shield and moving it where she needs it, freeing up her arm. It wasn't a major upgrade, but it gave her some variety. The second session, Ren started using better tactics and Yang started using her head more. She literally headbutted me. By the third, Jaune had worked on his observation skills, so he could respond much faster and effectively. Ruby was also working hard on implementing some hand-to-hand combat in her fighting style. Blake and Nora just kind of worked already. Blake had more experience than most due to her time in White Fang before joining Beacon. She started looking for other ways to implement her semblance, like making fake bullets and moving her 'shadows'. No luck on the last one. Nora was all hyper, but she knew her stuff. She worked on suppressing the opposing team with superior firepower. She also learnt how to lay traps in different environments with the 'Anarchy'. She was particularly deadly in forests and she noticed she could use the weapon alongside her semblance to get a major boost whenever she wanted. Weiss probably had the most important breakthrough. She actually managed her summoning glyph thing. Though she can materialize only a part of her knight. I joked and said I'd be her knight and that she didn't need that thing. She didn't say anything, but she smiled a lot that day, a lot more than usual at least.

All in all, they all grew much stronger and were ready for the tournament. Oh, me you say? Well, I just tried using my other weapons on Grimm. They were too deadly or destructive to use on people, at least the good people. I also modified a bit my ship. The interior is as big as a small mansion's floor. As in, one floor of a small mansion. Since it was way too empty, I expanded my workshop greatly. It was seeing less action lately since I got my semblance and didn't need to tinker with stuff from this universe to learn how it works anymore. I still sometimes like to just take something in hand and modify it without even thinking. Some cool stuff came out, like a small nuclear bomb the size of a golf ball. The base was a Dust powered clock. Don't ask how I did it because I have no idea. I also added some more monitors to interact with the ship. I also set up a 'call center' which connects the common room to the cockpit, so people can talk to me more easily if I am there. I had some armor sets and weapons lying around, so I put them in cases or display stands.

I'm digressing yet again. The point is that I already have the necessary fighting skills, so I checked out my different weapons. I've mainly used the ���Last Word' for fighting, as it just fits in my hand like a glove (figurative, I simply like the weapon and the Gun-Fu fighting style). The 'Monte Carlo' and 'Vex Mythoclast' saw some action but definitely not a lot. The 'Whisper of the Worm' literally shot one bullet since I got it.

Cinder and her gang came out of their room finally, but they were avoiding me like you avoid a person on the streets in times of COVID.

Oh, we met Penny again. Ironwood let her have a bit more freedom ever since he erased her files. For all they know, Penny is a quirky international student from Atlas. 'Good for you, my robotic friend!'

There was a little incident where she bent a railing, but I quickly straightened it out. We could attribute it to her semblance, but it will raise questions during the tournament. Not that it would matter. Ironwood would shut them up with some complicated Atlas jargon-fuckery.

In this time period, Yang had her 18th birthday as well. Since she hadn't seen it, I brought her on a date to planet Crystal. She liked the view, but she liked action more, so I brought her 'fishing' on planet Resort. Those 'fishes' were enormous, and some were amphibian, so Yang had a blast fighting aliens for the first time. We spent the evening at the chalet with everyone again, though we returned to the academy for the night. It was a weekday, so me and Yang actually skipped class to go on our date.

And so, between training, studying and having fun, the time for the tournament arrived. To accomodate my request, Ironwood and Ozpin went back to the good old rulebook. There were several clauses that would allow me to participate, so they just had to make an announcement before the start of the matches.

'Let's see if something interesting happens. Well, obviously Cinder and co. happen, but I have the feeling I'm forgetting someone.