Ch 34: Combat Class

*Chatter chatter*

"Alright, guys and gals. Let's settle down." Ray clapped his hands to draw the attention of the freshman Combat Sparring class. All of the students had changed into their combat attire and were now waiting for their chance to take to the arena.

Besides Bartholomew Oobleck's History class and Peter Port's Grimm Studies class, first-year students at Beacon also had Glynda Goodwitch for Combat Sparring, Thumbelina Peach for Plant Sciences, Ann Greene for Stealth and Security, and Harold Mulberry for Weapon Crafting and Upkeep. Besides these primary six teachers, several guest lectures and associate professors would come in once a week or so to teach extra classes, similar to the Aura Manipulation class Ray would be teaching. Add on the regular practical classes that tended to take the entire afternoon, and the students' class schedule changed on an almost daily basis. Today, for example, generally, after lunch, they would have a lecture before their Combat Sparring class and another lecture after that. However, instead, Ray and his classmates found themselves greeting an entire afternoon of sparring immediately after they finished lunch.

Combat. Fighting. The pure clash of man against man, or woman as the case may be. There was nothing Ray loved more. When everything else fell away, and only your strength and the strength of your opponent mattered as you put your pride and your life on the line to prove your existence to the world. That is when he felt the most alive, and one of the reasons he had chosen to focus on skill and technique over speed or power. You could decide not to use a technique, but you couldn't choose to slow down or weaken your blows without frustrating yourself. By relying on his technique above all else, he could reliably skirt that line between victory and defeat. Ensuring he enjoyed the fight while maintaining an adequate safety margin to protect his loved ones.

That said, even though he relied far more on his techniques than his power and speed, thanks to the meditation technique he had created that allowed him to absorb the ambient Aura that all living creatures with a soul emitted naturally, they had still grown to absurd levels. Back when he was 12, he had estimated how his Aura measured up to that of professional Huntsmen. What he found was that it was already twice that of the average professional Huntsman. That's twice the explosive power, twice the acceleration, twice the top speed, twice the recovery speed, twice the stamina, and twice the endurance when physiques were equal. And that was before the emergence of Wraith three years ago. An unlicensed Huntsman and bounty hunter who had earned his nickname for how he seemed to appear, complete his mission, and then disappear like a wraith into the night. Since he had begun operating, Ray's Aura levels had skyrocketed. Thanks to that, his fight with the Grimm Lord had been the first fight he had in a long time, outside his spars with Ruby and Yang, where he was equally matched physically and had to rely on one of his sneaky techniques to win.

In these Combat Sparring classes, his role would be to serve as a second referee and advisor alongside Glynda Goodwitch. He had already taught all his moral techniques to Ruby, Yang, and the rest of his allies, though they had yet to master them to the extent he had. Now, as a teaching assistant, he would get to see just how much of his techniques he would be able to pass on to the other prodigal Huntsman and Huntresses their age in the limited time they had. He was looking forward to the next few months.

Of course, Ray wasn't the only one looking forward to the sparring class. In a school full of hot-blooded youths, this was probably the only class many of them would pay attention to and eagerly participate in. All of the students were eager to strut their stuff and start making a name for themselves among their fellow classmates. Except Jaune.

Glynda adjusted her glasses next to Ray in the arena's center as she looked down at her scroll. "Alright, class, since this is your first sparring class here at Beacon, you are all going to have a chance to step into the arena today so that you can show us all what you know."

Everyone scooted to the edge of their seats at Glynda's words. This class would form the basis of the unofficial ranking in the freshman class until the exams at the end of the semester. Everyone believed that they were the best and were eager to prove it. Except Jaune.

His face turned sheet white, and his mind started racing as he tried to figure a way out of this terrible situation. Before he had received any formal training, just one day after unlocking his Aura, he had to fight against a top Huntress or Huntsman-in-training. He was so dead.

"Now then. Your sparring partner will be chosen based on the records on your transcript so that the matches can be as close as possible. Therefore, our first pair will be Blake Belladonna and Cardin Winchester. Would both students please enter the arena."

"Excuse me, Professor. I thought you said that the pairs would be chosen to be close matches. So, why am I paired with someone like him?" Blake asked, jerking her thumb at Cardin with a look of not-so-mild disgust on her face.

"Yeah. How could a man like me be compared to a little girl?" Cardin protested, sneering at Blake.

The two had had a brief encounter at the greeting party after the initiation test and before the teams ceremony, that Ray had missed due to his discussion with Ozpin, and were already on bad terms. Blake had stepped in when she had seen Cardin and Sky Lark bullying Velvet for being a Faunus. Making jokes about rabbit girls and how much 'fun' they were said to be and inviting her to go somewhere more private with them for a personal demonstration.

Velvet might have been a part of Team CFVY and far stronger than both of them, even together, but she didn't believe that confronting them would solve anything and had been trying to walk away from them. However, they had been following her relentlessly. As a Faunus hiding in plain view behind a little black bow, Blake took offense at their action.

When they had passed by her, she had casually tripped them. And when they had started yelling at her next, she had used Grambol Shroud's ribbon to tie them up, humiliating them by revealing just how weak they really were. When she had asked Velvet, who had come back to confront the bullies when she realized they had turned their attention to someone else, what she wanted to do to them. Velvet had asked her to let them go since she hoped that if she showed them respect, they would come to respect her in turn. Blake had done as she had requested, but the two guys hadn't taken the girls' mercy well.

Cardin still believed that if he hadn't been caught by surprise, he could have crushed both Blake and Velvet and forced them to submit to him. On the other hand, Blake had identified Cardin for the racist, sexist, filthy bully that he was from the first time she had laid eyes on him. There was no way for the two of them to get along now.

Blake couldn't even be bothered to dignify Cardin's words and completely ignored him as she waited for Glynda's response to her question.

"Mr. Winchester, I would suggest you adjust your attitude unless you want to find yourself beaten like a dusty rug by this 'little girl'." Ray answered in Glynda's place, who didn't look like she would've wanted to have anything to do with the boy if it wasn't for the fact she was a teacher.

Ignoring Cardin, since Ray had already delivered the required warning, Glynda answered Blake's question, "Unfortunately, because you grew up outside the kingdoms, we have very few records on your capabilities. Therefore, despite the top scores you achieved on the entrance exams, it appears the program has evaluated you to be around the same level as Mr. Winchester."

Blake nodded. If it was just a mere issue with the program due to a lack of data, then she could easily correct it by providing more data to it during her stay at Beacon. She jumped down to take her position on stage.

*Hmph* Cardin snorted and then jumped down as well. Using his Aura to increase the force of his landing to make it more dramatic, he landed with a resounding BOOM. Stepping out of the dust cloud he had created, Cardin leveled his one-handed Dust mace at Blake.

"I'm going to beat you till you can't stand. Then let's see how that bitchy attitude of yours holds out. *HeHe* I look forward to seeing you grovel beneath me." he threatened Blake.

Blake narrowed her eyes at Cardin and drew Gambol Shroud.

"Ready?" Ray asked them both raising his hand. Seeing them both nod, he swung it down, "Begin!"

The fight was brief, decisive, and visually painful for all the guys watching. Cardin had charged Blake and swung his mace at her in an overhead strike with all of his power. Blake used her Semblance to trick Cardin into thinking he had hit her as his mace passed through her shadow. Leaping over him, Blake had used her ribbon to pull Cardin's mace out of his hands and throw it across the arena.

The rest of the fight had consisted of Cardin playing the role of Blake's punching bag as she dashed around him and rained kicks, sword slashes, and bullets down on him. Blake had even juggled Cardin in the air for a while, using her attacks to keep him aloft for a short time. Cardin had been too slow to even get close to landing a single hit on her, and whenever he had gotten close to retrieving his mace, Blake had lassoed it with her ribbon and thrown it to the other side of the arena. The fight had finally ended when Cardin's Aura levels were just above the red line. Blake had delivered a ruthless kick right in between Cardin's legs. Ray could have sworn he heard something other than just Cardin's Aura cracking. As Cardin's Aura dropped all the way to zero, he fell to the ground, curled up like a shrimp, his mouth open in a painful silent '0'.

""As expected."" Glynda and Ray muttered, glancing at each other in surprise that they had both spoken the same thing at the same time.

"Students, please remember that these matches are following the rules of tournament-style duels. There is no need to deplete your opponent's Aura completely. Merely reducing it to the red level will do." Glynda slightly admonished Blake before turning her attention to the curled-up Cardin. Ray was already there, kneeling next to the downed young man.

"It doesn't appear that you have any serious injuries. You should be able to just walk it off. The majority of the damage done is all in your mind." Cardin looked incredulously up at Ray, but Ray just smiled and continued, "So, there is no reason for you to miss your detention."

"What detention?" Cardin protested.

"The detention Professor Goodwitch and I are assigning to you for the insults you gave to Miss Belladonna during your fight. One day's worth this Sunday to reflect on your actions. Psychological warfare may be an acceptable tactic in battle, but that is no excuse for speaking to your classmate in such an offensive and derogatory manner." Ray replied firmly. While he was receiving Blake's beating, Cardin had shouted all sorts of nasty things at Blake, calling her everything from a slut to a hag. Neither he nor Glynda had been amused.