Chapter 12: A Wolf’s Badge

A Wolf's Badge

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Few Days Earlier: Infirmary

Team RWBY nervously sat in the infirmary as Azura was slowly being patched up by the nurse. Already bruises had formed, his ribs and stomach were heavily bandaged, and some more minor things were being patched up. The four girls could tell it was taking a lot not to wear the immense pain he was feeling on his face.

"I'm sorry for that, Azura. I swear…" Ruby nervously and regretfully said to the blue haired samurai.

Azura waved it off, trying to look like he was in much less pain than he was actually feeling. "It is fine. My fault for letting my guard down…" Azura replied, flinching a bit when he took too deep of a breath.

"So how badly did we do?" Blake asked.

"I have a good guess." Weiss muttered.

"Who was asking you?" Blake asked the white-haired heiress.

"Azura, get on with it so she shuts up." Weiss growled, rolling her eyes.

"First of all, this. This right here is the biggest reason you all lost." Azura pointed out.

"It's not my fault I'm surrounded by incompetence." Weiss shot back.

"We're sitting right here you know, Ice Queen!" Yang snapped out.

"ENOUGH!" Azura roared out in irritation, shocking all four girls with his sudden irritation before seeing him clutching his ribs and gasping in pain as he started to cough.

"Are you sure you're okay?" Ruby asked him concernedly.

"I… I am fine…" Azura coughed out, trying to catch his breath.

"Sorry. Please continue." Ruby answered before glaring at her other two teammates.

Managing to catch his breath and keep the pain out of his voice, Azura looked at Team RWBY. "First and foremost, you four have almost no coordination as a team whatsoever. Weiss is too busy acting like she is better than everyone and being a stuck-up little warrior princess to even bother trying to work with anyone. And Blake's attitude towards her only makes things worse, making coordination and teamwork between you four as a whole almost impossible."

"Is there a remedy for this?" Ruby asked.

"You mean besides ripping the sticks out of both their assess and using them to beat some sense into these two?" Yang replied irritably.

"I recommend focusing mainly on team building and trust exercises for the near future. The sooner you four turn yourselves into a well-oiled team, the sooner you can work on helping each other to improve on your own individual weaknesses." Azura told the four girls.

"We will let you know when Weiss gets her head out of her ass." Blake said dryly.

"Don't make me stab you." Weiss growled.

"Careful, you're going to anger the tiger." Blake said with a smirk.

"I'm going to strangle both of you right now while using my Semblance if you don't shut up and at least pretend to be a fucking team!" Azura yelled in irritation, going into another light coughing fit.

This forced all four of them to be silent. Seeing this, Azura decided to press his luck and get on with the evaluation.

"Now let us move onto your individual performances. Weiss and Blake, I am going to be honest. You two are both glass cannons that cannot take a hit to save your lives. That level of lack of durability and endurance can be dangerous if you are dealing with an opponent who is not only much faster than you, but also much stronger." Azura told the two.

"Noted." Blake answered, taking it on the chin.

"Understood." Weiss said, her face was turning less angry and more inwardly kicking herself for failure.

"I recommend working on increasing your Aura reserves so that you can both become better at taking damage, as well as increasing your pain tolerance so that taking a hit will not affect you as much. Doing this should help you better compensate for dealing with an opponent you cannot dodge around hits from." Azura continued.

"Understood." It was the sole answer from the two of them, deciding mutually to stop trying to fight the criticism and simply take it and absorb it.

"Weiss, I will be blunt with you on this. While you are fast, very skilled, and have a very versatile Semblance, you are far too arrogant for your own good. You seem to have it in your head that you can beat anyone and anything on your own, which I know from experience is an extremely dangerous mind set to have. One of these days, you are going to get yourself or someone else killed acting like that. To top it all off, you are too overly reliant on the abilities of your Semblance, neglecting to train up the rest of your abilities." Azura explained to the Schnee Heiress.

"I will strive to do better." Weiss said with a simple nod before leaning back in her chair, deep in thought.

Nodding, Azura turned to address Blake. "Blake, I am going to be honest with you. You are very agile and skilled, but you lack speed and strength. You do not have enough raw power or speed to deal a decisive blow capable of putting an opponent down for the count quickly. You have leaned too heavily into not taking a hit and not enough into taking and dishing out hits."

"No more skipping leg day. Understood." Blake answered with a bit of wit.

Smiling a bit, Azura then turned to address the blonde brawler of Team RWBY. "Yang, you are next. In all honesty, you are surprisingly strong and skilled. Not only that, but you have the highest level of durability, endurance, and pain tolerance on your team. Fitting, since you seem to fill the role of the powerhouse."

Yang smiled proudly at that. "Thanks for noticing." She replied.

Azura then frowned. "But, at the same time, you have neglected speed, agility, blocking, deflecting, and dodging in favor of taking hits to power up your Semblance, seemingly under the impression that it makes you invincible. While your Semblance is powerful, it is a double-edged sword. If you are facing someone stronger than you, they can overwhelm you and break your Aura before you have a chance to land a hit. If you are facing someone faster, more agile, and or more skilled than you, this makes it that you will not be able to land a hit to deal that decisive blow. All the power in the world means nothing if you cannot hit your opponent." Azura explained.

"Well, then maybe I just need to hit you harder next time." Yang said playfully.

Azura had a serious look on his face at that. "Yang, this is no laughing matter. A mindset of 'hit hard and don't evade' or 'fight harder, not smarter' is a very reckless and dangerous one. As the powerhouse of the team, what do you think will happen to others or the people you are protecting if you go down because of you being reckless and careless? If that had been a life-or-death battle and I was an enemy trying to kill you, you would be dead right now."

"Well, that's one way to put it. You've given me a lot to think about…" Yang admitted, going deep into thought in that moment.

Nodding, Azura then looked at Ruby. The Rosey reaper, at that moment, was extremely nervous about being under Azura's scrutiny. While he had taken care to not be too hard on them, his assessments of the other three had been quite scathing even if they were honest. If those were his assessments of his teammates, she could only wonder what he had to say about her.

Taking a deep breath, Azura addressed the silver eyed scythe master. "And last, but not least, is you, Ruby. I will be honest: You actually did the best out of your team. You managed to get some good hits in on me, showed great skill, dexterity, and aim for your age, and have surprisingly good hand-to-hand combat skills." He told her.

"I was not expecting those kinds of words…" Ruby answered with a blush.

"However, you are also even more reckless than your sister. You charged in headfirst against an opponent without first coming up with a plan of attack or trying to coordinate your team's attacks and efforts. Such a mindset is unbecoming and dangerous for a leader to have." Azura said, starting his critiques.

"Yeah, that's putting it mildly…" Ruby muttered.

"Not only that, but you are too quick to anger. You lost control of yourself during battle because of your rage. Anger can be a weapon too, but only if you know how to control and use it. Something you clearly do not know how to do yet." Azura continued.

"Not much I can do on that one…" Ruby muttered away from Azura.

"Not only that, but your Semblance, while impressive, has a major flaw. While it makes you so fast that you seem to teleport, your movements are far too linear without your scythe. You need to work on better controlling your speed and turning better without needing Crescent Rose to do so." Azura told the younger girl.

"That I can do." Ruby said in a more audible voice.

Present day: Training grounds

The agenda was set, and Azura with the vigor and discipline of a drill sergeant, set up a series of trust and team building exercises. Though mostly for the benefit of team RWBY, the other two teams, and even Trivia and Neo got involved to get better. Things… were not going entirely to plan. To avoid the brewing discontent between the members of Team RWBY, Azura looked at Trivia and Neo. And it did not give much more in the way of comfort.

'Okay Neo, catch me when I fall!' Trivia typed into the scroll and turned away from Neo.

Rolling her eyes, Neo puts out her arms and Trivia's trust falls backwards. Going right through her headspace partner's arms and shattering her, the brown-haired girl was less than pleased at her head hitting the ground. Neo then reformed after that with an annoyed look on her face, before picking up the scroll to type.

'What did you think was going to happen, dum-dum?' Neo texted annoyedly.

Trivia then got up and tried to get the scroll away from Neo. Sighing at the continued antics, he turned back to the brewing chaos of Team RWBY. And just in time for an argument between Weiss and Ruby.

"Oh, here we go again…" Azura muttered in annoyance.

"Watch where you're swinging that infernal contraption you call a weapon! You almost dropped a tree on me!" Weiss yelled.

"Don't you dare call my beloved Crescent Rose an infernal contraption! She just needs some more oil in the joints!" Ruby shot back, instantly defensive.

"Some leader you are! Caring more about your weapon than my life!" Weiss yelled, taking a step closer.

"Alright, you two. That is enough." Azura told them irritably.

"Why did Professor Ozpin make you of all people, a clumsy, temperamental, awkward backwater bumpkin like you, a leader of a Huntsmen team!?" Weiss roared.

Yang, having had enough of this, walked up, and pushed them both apart with a glare on her face. "Enough! Both of you!" Yang yelled out; her eyes red in that moment.

"Yang, she started it…" Ruby tried to say before being cut off.

"I don't care who started it! I'm finishing it!" Yang snapped back, grabbing Weiss, and carrying her under her arm like luggage before grabbing Ruby by the back of her collar as she began taking them away.

"Unhand me, you blonde, brutish bimbo!" Weiss yelled, trying to struggle out.

"If I wasn't dragging Ruby, I would slap your ass hard enough to bruise it for that, Ice Queen! Now shut up and enjoy the ride to Ozpin's office!" Yang told her diminutive teammate with a glare.

The two immediately stopped any form of resistance at that. Once at the fabled headmaster's office. Yang disappeared behind the doors and the two waited in complete silence. Neither dared look at each other, but also did not dare say a word. After what felt like forever, Yang walked out, and without a word left them. Glynda called them in and closed the door behind them. Then they stood before the great headmaster himself.

"It appears you two have some issues that require resolution." Ozpin simply said, looking down at them from his elevated chair.

"Professor Ozpin, with no disrespect to you, but I cannot understand your choice of this… delightful individual, as team leader." Weiss said, catching her words to prevent an incident.

"It has hardly been a month, Miss Schnee. Such judgments cannot be made so soon." Ozpin answered simply, raising an eyebrow at what the Schnee brings up.

"She is not fit! She is rash, clumsy, completely unable to make a reasonable judgment, and flies off the handle way too quickly to be a proper leader!" Weiss yelled.

"I think she could probably say the same thing about you." Ozpin answered dryly.

"Why are you not taking my concern seriously?" Weiss growled.

"I am simply acting upon the level of seriousness that is required. It is common for teams early on in their existence to have issues to overcome. If being a Huntsmen was easy, then everyone would be one after all." Ozpin said simply, Glynda trying to hold back a smirk at what is going on, having seen it all too often.

"Professor Ozpin, are you sure you didn't make a mistake? After what I did to Azura, and what I nearly had happen to Weiss… Am I right for this?" Ruby asked nervously, Weiss giving her a scowl.

"Like I said, Miss Rose, it is too early to tell. Besides, leaders are people. And people are rarely, if ever, perfect. I, myself, have made more mistakes than any man, woman, or child on this planet. But I certainly know, as of now, that I have not made a mistake with this decision, Miss Rose. Although I do recommend not handling our Sōtora so roughly next time. They are a bit of a prized item in this day and age." Ozpin explained.

"You're siding with her?" Weiss asked, seemingly dumbfounded.

"You failing to convince me of a point is not me siding with her. If anything, I am standing by a decision I made less than a month ago." Ozpin answered, turning his spectacled gaze back to the white-haired heiress.

"What does she have that I don't?" Weiss asked.

"I'll give you one chance to back out of opening up that can of worms." Ozpin said, holding up his finger as he took a hearty drink of coffee for fortification.

"Try me." Weiss said, crossing her arms in a vein to make herself look tough, almost puffing her chest like a peacock.

"Glynda, make the record known that I gave her a chance." Ozpin said, pushing up his glasses.

"Duly noted." Glynda answered with a nod.

"What I find most disheartening, borderline irritating about you, Miss Schnee, is your wholesale adoption of your position in society and attempting to bend everything to your will because of it. I do not hate those with greater means than others, for it is entirely respectable to be having money. But the way you flaunt your name Schnee and simply expect to be handed the leader position because of a string of letters is entirely pedantic and childish. For as many criticisms I could say of your father, and I do have many, I can say that despite him only marrying into the name, he has done legitimate work to make it his own and earn it. Turning the Schnee Dust Company from the verge of bankruptcy to a kingdom spanning dust magnate is again respectable. Now I ask you, Miss Schnee, what have you done to earn the honor of your surname?" Ozpin said, with the same measured, dry tone as if ordering a coffee.

The room went cold and silent at that. Weiss stood there in dumbfounded shock, hands trembling and beads of cold sweat going down her cheeks. It was clear to everyone that this was a new experience for the young heiress. For the first time, she hit a barrier that she could not cross, that she could not overcome. Before her stood a man that she could not influence, could not sway, and sent back to her a blow that she could not counter.

"Miss Schnee, it's clear you have nothing more to offer. You are dismissed." Ozpin said simply.

Without another word Weiss left, the shock and the unending stare not leaving her even as Glynda closed the door behind her. Ruby stood there trembling in fear, concerned for what verbal fate lay before.

"I apologize, Ms. Rose, you had to see that from me." Ozpin said with a sigh.

"Please don't hurt me…" Ruby meekly said.

"Do you want me too?" Ozpin asked in an inquisitive tone.

"No, no, no…" Ruby panicked.

"Miss Rose, I see no need to do any undue harm to you. However, you are not blameless. All I ask of you is to improve yourself as a leader. And do try to work with Ms. Schnee. Improvement in a team works best when it is together." Ozpin explained.

"Are you sure she is going to be all that receptive to that…?" Ruby nervously asked.

"At first, maybe not. I did leave a lot for her to think about. But give her and the rest of your team time. Time, after all, can heal most wounds." Ozpin further explained.

"T-thank you, Professor Ozpin for your advice." Ruby said with a bow.

"Anytime, Miss Rose. You are dismissed." Ozpin said, waving off the praise.

Ruby then turned to leave through the now open hardwood door. However, she only got to Glynda when she heard one last thing from the great professor.

"I will be keeping an eye on you, Miss Rose. I see immense potential in you." Ozpin said with a smile as Ruby left the room, unsure fully of why he said that.