ASEG

Ozpin had always believed that the youth of Remnant would be the ones to boldly shape the future, and it was his job to nurture them as they embark on the path forward. Of course his philosophy on education could seem rather...unorthodox to some, reckless even. Plenty of people, particularly those in Atlas, considered teaching to be all about discipline. Children were meant to be molded into this shared image of obedience, suffice to say Ozpin did not subscribe to such theories. His students' individuality-quirks and all-was what made them shine.

Like a beacon in the night.

So he allowed his flock the freedom to stretch their wings and when it was needed he would step in and provide a guiding hand, whether anyone realized he did or not. And the strides that students like Ruby Rose and Jaune Arc had already made in such a short time was the only form of proof he needed to support his methods. There were…. occasional downsides to his lax mostly hands-off approach but that was only a problem if Glynda caught wind of what happened.

Take for instance the sight he was currently met with in the academy's library.

Wholly unaware of his presence Team RWBY was dutifully studying at their own little table in the corner of the large room. Well, half of Team RWBY was attempting to study at least. The other half was doing everything in their power to get their resident heiress to cause a scene in the otherwise peaceful library. And if the absolute death grip Weiss had on her pen was anything to go on they were doing quite the job so far.

"Weiiiissssssss."

"Not now Ruby."

Resisting Ruby's patented puppy dog gaze was no small task for even the most hardened of huntsmen, of course none of them were as well equipped for the job as Weiss was. It was rather impressive how hyper focused she was on the notebook in front of her with the only signs that she was even aware of her partner's antics being her furrowed brow and the aforementioned death grip.

She probably would have been successful in her effort to maintain her sense of personal peace if Ruby was all she had to contend with, alas that was not the case.

"Come on Weiss there's no need to give us the cold shoulder."

She visibly(and violently) shuddered at Yang's remark, which in all fairness was how most reacted to the brawler's...style of humor. But in this case it would prove to be a fatal mistake on Weiss' part because it gave the two sisters the opening they needed to pounce.

"Hey, I was thinking we should start wearing matching outfits into battle. You know since we're partners and total besties."

"Great idea sis. I mean you guys look awesome now but if you do that you'll look… twice as Weiss."

A vein right above Weiss' scar began to throb noticeably and audibly-Ozpin could hear it pulse all the way from where he stood-but she kept her increasingly stressed eyes committed to the pages of her textbook while her hand busied itself scribbling down notes.

Blake's faunus ears were able to pick up on the cracking sound emanating from Weiss' pen and without looking up from her own book she quietly moved her chair to the furthest edge of the table away from her teammates.

"Weiss! Which do you like better Beowolves or Ursas? Who am I kidding it's Beowolves isn't it? It has to be."

"Yeah right Rubes, neither of those are cool enough for her to like."

"What!? No way, Yang! Go on, tell her Weiss."

"Yeah Weiss, tell her I'm right."

"Weiss!"

"Weiss!"

"Weiss."

"Weiss."

Ozpin took a sip of hot chocolate from his trusty mug and continued to watch as steam began to whistle out of Weiss' ears and her entire face flushed red with rage. Figuring that it was almost time to make his entrance he silently made his way towards the only table making any sort of noise in the whole facility.

"Weiss!"

"Weeeeeiiiiiisssssss!"

"OH WILL YOU TWO KNOCK IT OFF!"

Weiss shot up to her feet like a rocket as she let out a wall shaking shout deep from her classically trained diaphragm. Every other soul in the library promptly turned their attention towards Weiss and by extension her team.

Blake buried her nose as far into her nose as she physically could and then just a little more while the Rose/Xiao Long sisters shared a victorious fist bump as a toast to another successful mission of getting under their "Ice Queen's" skin.

However they would not have very long at all to celebrate it.

"I do hate to interrupt but I'm afraid I need to talk to you young ladies for a moment," Ozpin said seemingly appearing behind Weiss out of thin air.

Naturally this caused her to jump into Ruby's lap and would have knocked them both over if it wasn't for Yang quickly grabbing the back of her sister's chair. Once everyone was steadied their expressions immediately morphed into naked horror as they stared at their headmaster that-as usual-surrendered nothing in the way of the state of his mood.

"O-oh. H-hi there Professor Ozpin," Ruby started as Weiss scooted out of her leader's lap and back into her own chair, now red for a completely different reason. Meanwhile Yang tried-to as discreetly as she could to scoot her chair closer to Blake's while her partner proceeded to do the exact opposite in response. None of Team RWBY was able to break eye contact with Ozpin, their own bodies physically wouldn't allow them to.

"What brings you here? To the library… of the school you're in charge of…"

Yang elbowed Ruby in the side to get her to stop rambling, though her own eyes were just as white and as comically large as her younger sibling's.

"Do feel free to take a breath girls, I'm not here to lecture you. May I have a seat?"

The four girls very quickly nodded in sync so Ozpin swung over a nearby chair to face his students, resting his cane against the leg of their table.

"I apologize for how unorthodox the delivery may be but I actually have a bit of an activity for you all. If you're interested of course."

"You have a mission for us?" Blake asked.

"In a way. It's nothing of critical importance nor is it mandatory. Think of it like… extra credit."

The girls looked to one another and after Yang simply shrugged Weiss turned back to Ozpin and crossed her arms without nearly as much confidence as she usually would.

"What would we need to do?"

"We are in the process of setting up a mock battle between two teams in your class over in the Emerald Forest. I'd like your team to be one of them, if you wish to participate of course."

Their eyes lit up at the prospect of getting to test their skills against another team so well in advance of the Vytal Festival, they shared another look before they each nodded in agreement.

"Team RWBY accepts!" Ruby announced as she punched her hand up in the air.

"When will the battle be?" Blake asked with a small smile reserved for Ruby's antics.

Ozpin took another sip of hot chocolate before he answered.

"Oh the Bullhead leaves in about half an hour."

And for the third time that day the fearsome team of huntresses nearly fell out of their seats, never let it be known that Ozpin didn't have his own sadistic side to him. However the promise of combat was enough to inspire Yang's swift recovery.

"So who are we fighting? JNPR? Or even better, CDNL?" She punched her palm to put an exclamation point on the idea of getting the chance to punch Cardin Winchester around for school credit.

Her roommates eagerly watched Ozpin as they were just as curious about his answer. Sparring between students was a daily occurrence but full team versus team sessions were almost unheard of.

"Not exactly. The team you're matched up against will be a little more… unfamiliar to you all."

Around the same time that RWBY was listening to Ozpin's proposition another team was having their own similar discussion in the privacy of their dorm room. But unlike their soon to be adversaries, the members Team ASEG(Ace)weren't exactly all on the same page in terms of excitement level.

Their leader Asher Arnou-a young man with long black hair that had a streak of silver highlighting the right side of his bangs, dressed in a set of grey jeans and a zipped up maroon jacket-was on a higher spectrum of excitement despite the fact that he seemed rather languid laid out on his bed and staring up at the ceiling.

His teammate Violet Eos-a vibrant young woman with flowing purple hair that matched the color of her vest and jeans combo that was pulled over a long black sleeved turtleneck-was closer to the middle of the spectrum.

"I don't know, don't you think there's something a little...off about this whole situation?"

"What do you mean?" Asher asked.

Violet's partner Greta Carver-outfitted in a faded lime jumpsuit with medium length brown hair and an air about her that was just as vibrant as her partner's but only seemed less so to some due to a gap in confidence-was firmly towards the lower spectrum.

"She means it sure feels like we're being treated like just a quick tune-up for Team RWBY."

Asher raised an eyebrow up at the ceiling. He knew that his teammates were already looking at him so he didn't feel the need to move from his comfortable position for them to see his expression.

"So? It's still an opportunity. Doesn't matter what the intent is."

Violet and Greta quietly shared a look from across their beds and then glanced back at their leader.

"Doesn't it though?" Violet inquired.

Knowing full well that this conversation was going to require more engagement than he initially planned for Asher sighed as he sat up on his bed and turned to his team.

"Look guys I get it, but we've been waiting for this remember? We haven't even had our first mission yet, we haven't fought anything since Initiation!"

His friends both looked down at the carpet for a moment as they recalled their own frustrations at their relative inactivity.

"We've been debating going to one of our instructors for some kind of…anything to do and then Ozpin himself comes and drops exactly what we've been searching for into our laps."

"But he said it's not an actual mission," Greta gently reminded him.

"It's still something. Something that could lead to a shot at something greater...maybe."

The room was quiet as they all individually worked through the different outcomes and implications of what fate could put in front of them next and reconciled how much they believed they held any sway over such an outcome.

Violet-as was the case on a fairly regular basis-was the first to speak up.

"I guess we better start working on our game plan then."

Asher flashed a fang like grin her way before he shifted his gaze towards Greta with a hopeful glint in his amethyst eyes. She stared back at him with blue eyes that weren't nearly as childlike but still had their own, more muted mirth about them.

"Might as well," She sighed.

Violet reached out and squeezed her best friend's shoulder with a small good natured smile on her face that did just enough for Greta to reciprocate the gesture. Their fearless leader however was already hard at work digging under his bed for his notebook that was dedicated solely to strategy concepts and maneuvers that had yet to see the light of day. Once he found the leather brown bound journal he plopped onto the ground cross-legged and swiftly went about flipping through the pages with little regard for if the paper tore as a result.

Fully aware that Asher was in too deep to worry about anything that wasn't related to combat for quite a while Greta fell onto her back and made herself comfortable.

"I just hope this thing doesn't take all day." She muttered into her pillow.

"Come on Greta don't think about it that way," Violet chided as she moved over to sit next to her partner, bouncing a little on the bed much to Greta's chagrin. "Try to have some fun with it."

"Yeah it'll be real fun getting my Aura drained in front of a bunch of our classmates."

"Greta."

She ignored the pointed motherly gaze Violet was sending her way and curled her face further into her pillow. She lucked out when their door opened and Violet's attention quickly shifted towards the remaining member of their team as he made his entrance.

Damien Sol was the quietest of their bunch all the way down to his countenance and breathing habits. His mood always seemed to be stuck in neutral, not bland but it was more like he appeared to constantly be at peace.

It probably helped that he was rarely seen without his favorite pair of green headphones that blasted music loud enough for other people to hear the instrumentals. He looked strikingly similar to Asher except for the fact that he was dressed in a pair of black dress pants and a matching vest over a button down deep blue shirt that was the same color of his long hair.

Once he felt two pairs of eyes on him he glanced up from his shoes and with his music now the loudest noise emanating in their living space he looked from Greta to Violet and then finally over to his partner that had yet to look up from his journal and acknowledge the new presence.

"Hi," He said, turning back towards Violet and Greta as he kicked off his shoes.

"Hey, Dame."

"We were looking for you earlier," Greta stated sharply.

"I was walking around," Damien said as he brought his headphones down to rest at his neck though the faint beat could still be heard throughout the room. He went over to sit on his bed that was next to Asher's staring down at the other boy all the way.

"What's he so excited about?"

"That's why we were looking for you," Violet answered as she began to swing her legs off the side of Greta's bed. "Ozpin's letting us fight another team in the Emerald Forest."

"That so? Against who?"

"Team RWBY."

Damien-who was still in the process of adjusting on his bed-froze and stared into this one spot on the wall in front of him. From that angle the girls couldn't see all of his expression but the whole thing still felt off to them.

He was never the most verbose student that went to a school full of seemingly nothing but, yet the sort of silent he was then was out of character for him. It was...unsure, very rarely-never really-did he wear his thought process on his sleeve. In their eyes he never needed to consider anything he just decided. He either agreed or disagreed with whatever plans they made, he never needed further explanation he just seemed to know.

This was something altogether foreign, he was reviewing something in his mind. They had no idea what about or why and they would likely never find out explicitly from him.

But then just as quickly as it came it left and his face returned to its usual setting.

"RWBY huh?"

He put his headphones back on and laid back on his bed to wait for Asher to put the finishing touches on whatever plan he had decided on.

"Cool."

Much like during Initiation Day, Ozpin had a livestream from the Emerald Forest fed into the big screen in the auditorium for any and all students who wished to watch the exhibition. Given RWBY's rising notoriety around campus there was a fairly large turnout for the event. Of course among the attendees were the members of Team JNPR who were each reacting to the event as was expected.

Jaune and Pyrrha were excited to watch their friends at work but sat patiently in their seats and passed the time with idle but comfortable conversation.

Ren was…Ren.

And Nora…

"Ohhhh I can't believe we weren't invited to fight! I mean don't get me wrong I'm happy for our friends but COME ON how could they do a production like this without us? It's downright silly when I say it out loud, don't you agree Ren?"

"There are more teams than just RWBY and JNPR that go to Beacon, Nora."

"I mean technically that's true but it sure doesn't feel like it sometimes. And don't try to downplay how fantabulously awesome we are as a team. Just imagine the type of attention RWBY vs JNPR would get."

Jaune chuckled at the airy tone Nora's voice took as she leaned against Ren's shoulder with a dreamy glow coloring her face as she imagined her own little scenario in her head. As usual Ren seemed to barely react at all to the extra weight pressing against him but he made no effort to move his vibrant lifelong friend off of him.

"I think we'll survive just fine without the extra attention," Jaune teased, drawing a light giggle out of his partner next to him.

"~It's not about surviving it's about thriving~buddy boy." Nora sang in response.

"I'll just pretend I know what that means then."

"That's nice," Nora said, not really paying attention to what her leader said which caused him to roll his eyes. Yet, since it was Nora he couldn't help but smile a little as he did so.

"I mean who even is Team ASEG anyway?"

"That seems to be the question of the afternoon," A new voice cut in.

They turned to find Coco Adel and Velvet Scarlatina of Team CFVY standing in the vacant row of seats next to their own. Coco-always dressed to impress-looked at JNPR over the top of her signature shades with the tiniest of smirks completing her ensemble. Velvet softly waved at them from behind her best friend's shoulder.

The two second years were admittedly closer to Team RWBY but if you knew those girls you would end up acquainted with Team JNPR sooner or later.

"Oh, hello again," Pyrrha greeted.

"You came to watch too, huh?' Jaune said, stating the obvious as he was wont to do on occasion.

"Something like that," Coco replied as she and Velvet sat down in the two seats next to Pyrrha's.

"Where's Fox and Yatsuhashi?" Ren asked as he scanned the auditorium for the other members of CFVY.

"They got roped into helping Professor Port with some sort of errand," Velvet answered.

"They're hoping they'll be able to catch the end of the battle but well…"

The group shuddered as they imagined how long the boys' task would take with Port in the driver's seat.

"Have either of you heard anything about Team ASEG?" Pyrrha queried after a moment.

"I have a class with a couple of them but we've never spoken outside of that," Velvet said.

"Man it's almost like they just popped out of nowhere," Jaune said, scratching the back of his neck.

Coco shook her head, her beret barely shifting despite its precarious position.

"I saw them when we all watched this year's Initiation Exam but even then I only caught glimpses of them. They definitely didn't cause a scene like you kids did."

Team JNPR all looked away at Coco's very deliberate jab, all either smiling sheepishly in Pyrrha's case or whistling and humming "innocently" in Jaune and Nora's case. Ren was still...Ren but he at least had enough dignity to look away as well.

Velvet was about to half-heartedly chide her leader for teasing the first years when the big screen at the front of the auditorium suddenly cracked to life.

"Oh, it's starting."

"Here we go," Jaune said as they all sat back and prepared themselves for the viewing experience.

Nora reluctantly pulled away from Ren and squirmed a bit in the confines of her seat.

"The only thing we're missing is some snacks. We should have brought popcorn or pancakes like I wanted to and would have if it wasn't for a certain someone."

She sent a bone chilling look right towards Ren who stared straight on ahead as calm and still as a sloth-loving tree.

"I'm not sorry."

For someone so young Ruby felt nostalgic fairly often. It probably had everything to do with her mother but that was only a guess...it was one topic she never talked to anyone about.

Really the only thing she chose not to discuss with either Yang or her father.

Still she couldn't stop the smile that grew as she peered over the edge of the very same cliff that had started it all. The fact that this time around she was surrounded by true friends only made the experience that much sweeter.

Granted there were still strangers involved this time too.

Team ASEG stood mere inches away from her and the rest of her team, arranged in a way much the same as during Initiation, spread a few feet apart on a row of launchpads while Ozpin and Glynda stood in front of them.

The silver-eyed shortstack was surprised to find that she actually recognized a couple members of her opposition. She was pretty sure that the two boys were in one of her classes but she had never been great with remembering faces of people she didn't actually interact with.

But that wasn't important! What mattered was that ASEG looked like they could handle themselves in a fight. Now if she could only get a peek at the kind of weapons they were working with…

"I'd like to thank you all for your participation today," Ozpin began as he eyed his 8 pupils from left to right, his favorite mug was left back at the academy for once but his faithful cane was planted in the dirt in front of him.

"The rules today are quite simple. Whichever team depletes the other's Aura wins. Once your Aura drops into the red you are eliminated from the fight. Other than that, anything goes and there is no time limit."

"We'll be closely monitoring your Aura levels from here but will only intervene if it's absolutely necessary," Glynda added.

"Understood?"

The two teams nodded their consent. All of Team RWBY then turned to face Team ASEG directly.

"We just wanted to wish you guys good luck!" Ruby said with utter pureness in her voice.

One of the boys in Team ASEG-the one dressed in black and maroon-smiled right back at Ruby.

"May the best team win."

"We plan to," Weiss said with an arrogance that was in no way surprising but still had a way of catching people (her teammates) off guard.

"Weiss!"

While Ruby stomped her feet and rapidly waved her arms in front of her partner, Yang attempted to do some damage control by flashing her trademark grin Team SAGE's way. Unfortunately her trademark smile was rarely as confident as she believed it was. Blake merely rolled her eyes and sighed to herself.

The boy from ASEG only smiled at the whole exchange and shrugged to his teammates as they manned their individual launchpads, RWBY froze and then quickly did the same.

Ozpin rapped his fingers against the top of his cane as he once again eyed the students from left to right, noting how they each shifted into their own power stances to combat the nerves and anticipation.

Some-like Ruby, Yang, Asher and Violet-couldn't hide the excitement that curled their cheeks and prevented them from standing still. Others-like Blake, Weiss, and Damien-were harder to read as if they couldn't be bothered to wear their emotions on their sleeves, unlike young Greta who very plainly would have preferred to be anywhere else. They all approached this small moment of preparation in different ways but they were all ready for what came next, whether they truly believed it themselves or not.

And then they launched.

Weiss smoothed the edges of her skirt as she walked out of a bush into a clearing. She couldn't be sure if it was the exact same area but it felt incredibly similar to the thicket she explored with Ruby back when they were "working out" their partnership.

She shook her head at how impetuous the younger girl had been that day but she also wore a fond smile on her face as she did so. They both had done plenty of growing in that short amount of time but they still had a long way to go.

That's why they needed to win that day, mock battle or not. Any experience they could rack up before their first official mission was crucial.

She stopped and looked to the little bit of the sky she could spot through the trees. If her sense of direction rang true then the area Ruby had aimed for in their descent should only be a few clicks away, if she casted Haste on herself she should be able to link up with her partner in no time just as they gameplanned.

But just as she was about to do so she stopped when she heard a faint buzzing. No...it wasn't a buzzing, it was a thumping. Was that...music?

Weiss followed the sound as best she could but drew Myrtenaster just to be cautious. The further away she got from where she believed Ruby's landing spot to be the louder and clearer the music got. There was a very high chance she was walking into a trap but she had already committed to finding the source of the noise, she wasn't about to turn around this far in.

The music sounded muffled, not like it was being played through a stereo but more like it was being played from inside something. Like headphones perhaps?

She found her answer about a minute later when she found an open grassy area surrounded by a circle of trees. And in it was one of the boys from Team ASEG sitting against one of the trees with his wrist on his knee.

He immediately noticed Weiss and dropped his headphones down to his neck.

"So...you're Weiss Schnee."

She scanned the area for any signs of an ambush, from what she could tell there was no one hiding in or behind the trees but that wasn't enough to keep her from maintaining her distance.

"And you are?" Weiss asked as she looked the boy up and down with a cold efficiency befitting her family's reputation.

At first the boy just watched her, showing no signs of moving from his position as he did so. He was so quiet it frankly unnerved her a little, it was a different breed of silence than what she was used to dealing with in Blake or Ren.

Ren usually teetered between an almost sly knowing breed of quiet and a plainly sleepy version of quiet. Blake was often quiet simply because the rest of their team wasn't.

This boy in front of her on the other hand seemed utterly serene as if she wasn't even brandishing a weapon. Part of her wanted to take offense to this perceived slight but honestly-and she would deny this with all her heart if ever asked-she found his azure eyes incredibly...distracting.

She was strangely drawn to them as if she was staring out into the vast expanse of the ocean. Of course she swiftly shook any thoughts of that nature completely out of her mind and tightened her grip on Myrtenaster.

Victory was all that mattered that day.

The boy's face finally shifted into an understated smile as he rose up from the grass, while he brushed off the legs of his pants Weiss made sure to take note of the chrome bracers wrapped around his forearms. Once the boy felt satisfied with his effort he looked back up towards Weiss, a few locks of hair blocking his left eye momentarily.

"I'm Damien….I've heard alot about you."

Weiss' face soured almost instantly.

"And what is that supposed to mean?"

Most people when faced with Weiss' brand of confrontation either immediately backtracked and tried to placate the heiress, or they doubled down and escalated the argument. Damien did neither. His reaction was not reacting.

"I never said that they were bad things now did I?"

"Hmph."

Still smiling, Damien brushed the hair away from his left eye exposing Weiss once again to the oceans of her own imagination. But unlike the actual ocean this failed to calm her, in fact it did the opposite.

"Well are we going to talk all day or are we going to actually fight anytime soon? Because if we're not then I will gladly accept your surrender."

Damien put his hands on his hips and pigeon laughed at Weiss' quasi-threat. When she pointed the tip of Myrtenaster in his direction he sighed but his eyes still sparkled with a mirth that infuriated her. It was like he was in on a joke she knew nothing about, or even worse she was the joke.

Soon enough she'd be the only one with something to laugh about.

"Fighting works, we can always talk more afterwards."

"Sure, in your dreams."

Even that wasn't enough to wipe the smile off his face, his demeanor didn't budge one bit as he cocked his arms much like how Yang would with Ember Celica, except instead of firing a ranged shot the motion instigated his bracers to morph into two square shields about a quarter of the size of Jaune or even Pyrrha's shield. He then leaned his upper body ever so forward as if he was bowing to her.

"May I have this dance then? I can provide the music."

Weiss rolled her eyes not even trying to hide her scowl anymore.

"Great. Another one."

As much as Greta did not want to be there-like at all-the forest was still her area of expertise. There was no place that truly made her feel comfortable but the wilderness was the closest, closer than Beacon, closer than her actual home.

Even without her semblance she had a natural affinity for the feel of the outdoors, with her semblance she could literally feel how nature felt. The rhythm of the grass' heartbeat beneath her feet, the destination the wind has in mind as it blows. It helped to calm her brain that was rarely so, but in more practical huntress terms it gave her all the makings of a master tracker.

As such it took her maybe two minutes at most to find Violet after they landed.

"You've got a thing in your hair."

Violet's eyes narrowed into slants as she brought her hand up to the area Greta was pointing at and brushed a stray twig out of her purple locks.

"Ugh it's like Initiation Day all over again."

"Come on Vi, try to have some fun with it."

Violet playfully pouted at the fact that for once Greta was the one teasing her.

"Hey, how come you only ever take my advice when you get to use it against me?"

Greta shrugged and looked off to the side to hide the fact that her expression was just as mischievous as her partner was.

"Cuz that's the only time it's fun."

"Ok I think I've heard the 'F' word enough for one day."

Greta decided to refrain from pointing out how Violet was actually the one to start it back in the dorm room.

"Ready to get a move on then?"

"Sure, let's mosey."

Violet took one step before Greta's semblance twitched in her brain, alerting her to a new pressure in the grass.

"Look out!"

She quickly pushed Violet out of the way of a blast of energy that caused a minor explosion on impact.

"Thanks," Violet groaned as Greta got off of her and helped her back to her feet.

"Don't thank me yet."

They turned towards the source of the blast-Yang Xiao Long confidently heading their way with a swagger in her steps.

"Not bad. I didn't think you were gonna get away from that one."

"Great, we got the excitable one," Greta said, muttering low enough so that only Violet could hear her.

"Yeah but we still have the numbers advantage."

"Why would you say that out loud?" Greta asked through clenched teeth as she turned to her partner.

"What do you mean?"

Her semblance twitched again.

This time she pushed Violet away and jumped back herself just narrowly missing a strike from Blake Belladonna who seemed to appear from out of the shadows.

"That's what I mean," Greta said.

"Ok I see your point."

After Blake missed her slash with Gambol Shroud, she recovered mid-air and rolled over to stand with Yang in one clean motion.

"She knew I was coming, her semblance must have tipped her off."

"Or you could just be losing your touch," Yang teased.

"Yeah...no."

Greta openly gaped at her two opponents that basically exemplified the concept of confidence in her eyes. It made her very very tired.

"I'm still waiting for the fun part to start."

Violet came up to her side and drew her weapon Selene, a purple shortsword with a blade curved like a wing.

"It's looking like we're gonna have to make our own fun."

Greta sighed as she pulled out Zipes, a brown crossbow that fired small disks.

"Let's make some fun then."

"I know you're there."

Ruby had been all set to go and find Weiss when she heard the sound of what possibly could have been a branch snapping. She immediately-but calmly-brought out Crescent Rose and balanced the large High-Caliber Sniper-Scythe on the back of her neck while she waited for the new presence to respond to her call.

Before long a nearby bush began to rustle and out stepped the boy from earlier who had spoken for Team ASEG when she wished them luck, she wasn't 100 percent sure if that made him the leader or not but it was still a safe bet to make. She didn't get the chance to really look at him for very long back at the cliff-she never really paid that much attention to people's physical appearances to begin with. Now that she did she found his features very...soft.

She barely even knew what that meant!

She knew she liked the color of his eyes though, they were just so purple! Purple in like a really shiny way kinda like how her eyes were, so that was cool! And she was on a bit of a hot streak lately in terms of making new friends so maybe, just maybe, she could add another name to the list once they were finished with all the fighting.

She still wanted to win of course.

"I didn't get to introduce myself earlier, I'm Asher."

"Ruby."

"Nice to meet you Ruby."

"You too," She smiled before she dug the tip of her shoe into the ground.

"So…."

"Do you wanna start fighting or….?" Asher asked with a grin that strangely reminded her of Zwei.

"I mean we probably should right?" Ruby replied.

"We could always just wait for our teammates to catch up with us, but I don't think that's either of our styles is it?"

"Nope," Ruby grinned. "You seem nice though for what it's worth."

"Heh, thanks. You too."

She thought his smile was pretty cool too.

"Hey...I've been dying to ask since this whole thing started but…..can I see your weapon?!"

Asher cocked his head for a second but Ruby was far too in the zone to even entertain the thought of being embarrassed or bashful, she could hardly stand the suspense! Thankfully it only took him a few seconds to burst into rich warm laughter.

"Well all you had to do was ask. Fair warning, it's nothing as impressive as your scythe there."

He reached into the two holsters strapped to his outer thighs and pulled out two identical daggers that looked very similar to the tip end of Miló except the color scheme was red and silver instead of red and gold.

"Ruby, meet Argent and Skoll."

He pressed a button on the side of each dagger and then they flipped forward and morphed into two long pistols.

"Wow~..."

Ruby twirled Crescent Rose around to her front and cocked the rifle portion of her weapon and rubbed the side of it while looking down at it like a proud parent.

"This is Crescent Rose."

He pressed the buttons again to return them to dagger form and let out an impressed whistle as he spun Argent around in his hand.

"Ready to get started?

Hearing that was music to Ruby's ears and it showed in the wicked grin that blossomed from the corner of her cheeks. And with nothing more than a wink she disappeared in a flash of petals and all that Asher saw heading for him was her cloak spinning towards him like a missile. On instinct he brings his daggers together in front of him in an X.

The cloak uncurled and out came Ruby swinging Crescent Rose in a clockwise motion, colliding right where he brought his daggers up to. The force of the blow bounced Ruby back a couple feet but she turned Crescent Rose to face behind her and fired it to launch her forward.

He quickly flipped the daggers back into pistols and fired four shots that Ruby all dashed past in a side-strafing maneuver with the help of her semblance. Once she cleared the last bullet she flipped forward, swinging Crescent Rose horizontally to plant it in the ground and then fired two shots of her own.

In a spectacular display of agility Asher backflipped over the first bullet, landed perfectly on his feet, and then backflipped again over the second bullet as well. Flipping his pistols into daggers he decided to charge Ruby instead of trying to win the zoning battle.

As soon as Ruby saw him coming for her she put Crescent Rose behind her again and fired to push her forward.

With the two on course to meet halfway the only thought that could cross Ruby's mind was how no less than a couple hours prior she thought that the height of her day would have been egging Weiss on in the library. And yet there she was getting the chance to test her skills against her own peers.

There was no better feeling in the world that didn't involve cookies.

The exhibition already proved to be a big hit for the audience back at Beacon with many in the crowd treating it like a sporting event on par with the Vytal Festival. RWBY was the clear favorite amongst the majority but ASEG was steadily winning portions of the crowd over the longer the match went on.

"Everyone's doing wonderfully so far," Pyrrha noted.

"Our girls are kicking all kinds of butt!" Nora exclaimed from her perch atop Ren's shoulders. Her choice of seating had naturally angered the students sitting directly behind them but it only took one manic smile from the gingered lightning rod to silence any potential protests.

"Nora, stop moving so much."

Ren's own protests fared no better.

"ASEG has the advantage when it comes to the terrain," Coco said as she leaned forward to rest her chin on her intertwined knuckles, her shades dropping low enough to show just how intently she was observing the footage.

"What makes you say that?" Jaune asked as Pyrrha, Velvet, and himself all turned to look at the fashionista.

"Just watch them. They look so comfortable in the forest it's like they're in their backyard, especially their leader and the quiet girl."

"I mean sure but RWBY's been to the Emerald Forest before. And aren't Ruby and Yang from Patch?"

"There's a difference between being familiar with a place and knowing a place. That's why ASEG is the team controlling the pace right now. Here, look."

The large screen currently showed Yang pushing Violet onto her back foot with rapid blows that her foe was only barely able to block with her sword. The feed then cut to Blake nimbly dodging the dust infused disks that Greta was launching her way, with each step that she got closer forcing the archer to take a step backwards.

"What do you see?"

"It sure looks like Yang and Blake are winning," Jaune said.

"Look closer," Pyrrha softly urged.

She had already seen what Coco was alluding to so she focused her lidded eyes on the contours of her partner's face. Jaune was far brighter than most gave him credit for, it just took him a little longer to grasp certain concepts.

She always had faith he would catch on, all she had to do was stand by his side and show him that someone out there believed him in.

Her reward was the way his beautiful eyes would widen in joy when he finally got it.

"They're leading them further into the forest."

Pyrrha closed her eyes and smiled to herself.

"Ding ding ding," Coco droned.

As they all watched the entirety of the broadcast, the metaphorical lines on the map began to form in their minds. They had been so engrossed in the actual combat they had failed to notice that the three different battles formed a triangle and Team SAGE was leading Team RWBY further and further towards the middle of the triangle.

Which just so happened to be the clearing where the Initiation Day relics had been kept.

Damien was getting close to the area where ASEG wanted to corral their quarry, not that Weiss was making it easy for him. He was generally a defensive fighter to begin with, but he had never fought anyone like Weiss before. Fighting her was like dancing.

Blocking a strike with one of his shields was equivalent to matching her step in time, and each exchange grew quicker and quicker. It must have been quite the sight to lay eyes on from an outside perspective but he was more concerned with keeping her rapier from piercing through his Aura.

Just a little closer.

He blocked two swift vertical strikes and brought his shields together to block a spinning slash. Finding no success with her physical attacks Weiss jumped back and cut a blue circle into the air with Myrtenaster, she then created five glyphs inside the circle that fired a cyan colored dust projectile towards Damien.

He was able to just barely block the first four but was forced to roll to the side to avoid the final blast. But unfortunately for him Weiss had already prepped a vial of red dust into Myrtenaster and sent a fire wave right for arm. The arc of the flame was too wide for him to dodge and coming far too quickly for him to jump over or under it.

He didn't have long at all to debate the choice in his head so he opted to bring his shields as close together as he could and braced himself. His weapons took most of the brunt of the attack but some of the flame managed to reach his arms, causing his Aura to drop a little.

She's just as advertised, I need to step it up or else the plan's screwed.

With a grunt Damien cocked his gauntlets and his shields then morphed into two large cleaver blades that began to glow a color not unlike Weiss' glyphs. He slashed twice-once with each cleaver-and two shockwaves of blue energy shot out towards Weiss.

She narrowly erected a cyan barrier to stop the shockwaves but Damien took the opening that act gave him to get back in closer. As soon as Weiss was forced to drop the barrier he was there to aim two normal slashes for Myrtenaster. She was able to parry each of them successfully but she failed to notice that Damien was steadily forcing her to step back with each clash.

It was time for another dance and this time it was his turn to lead.

Blow by blow they were getting closer to the ruins and Weiss was far too focused on trying to break past Damien's cleavers to notice. Her skill with a sword genuinely impressed him, every movement had such power behind it but at the same time there was this grace and coordination that shone through as well.

The only problem was she was treating this exchange like a duel, he was treating it like what it really was.

A part of the plan.

Should be close enough.

Damien spun around Weiss' thrust and kicked her in her side hard enough to cause the heiress to skid back a bit. He flashed her an apologetic look and then dropped to the ground, completely befuddling the young woman.

She had straightened herself and readied Myrtenaster with a vial of yellow dust when…

"Weiss! Look out!"

"Ruby?..."

Weiss slowly turned around only to see her partner being pushed towards her by an unnaturally large gust of wind. The younger girl's silver eyes were comically large and her mouth was wide open as time seemed to move in slow motion. Weiss-her own eyes widening by this point-tried to turn and run but it was too late.

The two girls smacked into each other and were sent flying right over Damien's crouched form. They landed a ways away from him with a loud thud.

"Ouchie," A voice that was most likely Ruby squeaked out once they hit the ground.

Damien quickly got back to his feet and morphed his bracers back into their shield form. As he dusted off his pants he spotted Asher emerge from the trees with Argent and Skoll holstered on his outer thighs.

"Hey."

"Having fun?" His partner asked as he strode up to him.

"Loads. I think I feel a connection brewing," Damien replied.

"You sure know how to pick 'em," Asher chuckled.

The duo watched as Ruby and Weiss untangled and lifted themselves off the dirt. Asher wiggled his eyebrows at Damien as he pulled Argent and Skoll out and flipped them into pistol mode.

"The girls should be here soon. Think we can handle entertaining our new friends until then?"

Damien cocked his gauntlets back into cleaver mode.

"Yeah I got nothing else going on anyway."

They slowly began their approach while their opponents were still preoccupied with dusting themselves off.

"How demeaning," Weiss grumbled as she picked up Myrtenaster and set her sights on the boys, glaring a hole right through them with her steely lour. Ruby then bounced to her feet and condensed Crescent Rose into its rifle form.

"Come on Weiss, let's show them what we're made of!"

Weiss ran towards them while Ruby provided covering fire with Crescent Rose.

Damien moved in front of his partner to block the oncoming bullets with a well timed shockwave, the large blue "X" easily tore through the hail of bullets but Weiss canceled it out with another fire wave before the attack got close to reaching her.

Ruby used her semblance to dart past her partner and switched Crescent Rose back into its scythe form, swinging up in a type of uppercut that hit Damien's cleavers with a might he wasn't prepared for as the tension of the blow shot up his arms and into his shoulders. He had to bite his bottom lip to help ignore the pain because Ruby was whipping her weapon around like a spear and he could only just keep his cleavers up to block his face and chest from the rapid series of gashes.

Luckily for him Asher jumped up above Damien and used his semblance to push out a gust of wind from his right hand to send Ruby back.

"W-Woah not again!" She yelped as she was sent tumbling off her feet and through the air like a cannonball, but this time Weiss was there to catch her with a gravity Glyph.

"Ready to get back into it?" Weiss asked as she reoriented Ruby so her feet were pressed against the Glyph to use as a launchpad.

"Ohhh I'm regretting what I had for lunch but I'm ready."

Weiss used her Glyph to propel Ruby back into the fray and then created a row of white Glyphs for herself to run on. Ruby rotated herself mid-air into an upright stance and swung Crescent Rose horizontally, by the time Damien was able to block it Weiss ran up to stab him with her Multi Action Dust Rapier but she was halted by Asher's flurry of daggers.

The four rotated around one another in a circle of violence. Asher would strike Weiss three times with her daggers and then spin around Damien to kick the blunt side of Crescent Rose away from his partner. Weiss and Ruby would quickly recover and push both boys back with near blinding speed.

After Asher parried another slash from Weiss he tossed Argent to his left hand so that both daggers were in one and then used his right hand to let out a gust of air, not to push the girls forward, but to push him and Damien back a bit.

"Dame, it's time for a jailbreak."

"Got it."

Asher gathered a sphere of wind in his right hand while Damien gathered a sphere of sonic energy in his left. The boys sandwiched their hands together and blasted out a vertical wave of sound and wind that the girls were only able to withstand by planting their weapons into the ground and holding on for dear life.

The attack wasn't powerful enough to knock them off their feet but if the boys were lucky it at least brought the girls' Auras down a little.

"Damn they're quick," Asher said as he caught his breath.

Damien said nothing as he rolled his right shoulder around and massaged one of the more noticeably sore joints with his pointer and middle fingers. His motions stilled once his semblance picked up on a sound growing closer and closer.

"Great."

Asher quickly turned to him.

"What'd you hear? Is it the girls?"

"Yeah but you're not gonna like it…"

Then as if on cue the trees and the ground began to rumble.

"Oh no, this feels really familiar," Ruby whined.

Everything continued to rumble and shake until Yang, Blake, Violet and Greta all ran out from in between the trees with not one but two Deathstalkers hot on their heels.

"Move!" Yang yelled.

The four teens were quick to oblige and so all 8 hunters in training burst into a dead sprint to get as far away as they could from the claws and stingers of the Deathstalkers.

"So this is how I die. Running around like an idiot," Greta stated glibly as they all scurried.

"If it's all the same to you I vote we take a rain check on the whole dying thing," Asher quipped.

"Hell yeah!" Yang said as she stopped and turned back to the approaching Deathstalkers.

"Hey!" Weiss exclaimed as the rest of them stopped and watched Yang go right towards danger.

"I'm tired of running," The blonde explained as she punched her knuckles together.

"You're the one that told us to run in the first place," Damien drly reminded her as they caught up with her.

"A girl can change her mind."

"Get ready," Blake said as she shifted Gambol Shroud into its gun mode.

The other seven students quickly readied their weapons and formed a line from right to left that went Blake, Greta, Yang, Damien, Asher, Ruby, Violet and Weiss.

"So does someone have a plan or are we just going to stand here like a bunch of dolts?" Weiss inquired as she drew another cyan circle of Glyphs.

"We all got something that can shoot right?" Asher asked.

"Looks like it," Violet responded before she ran a hand across her blade that covered it in a dark green aura.

"Then if there aren't any objections…..Let's light 'em up."

"Fire!" Ruby yelled and the two combined teams unloaded on the two large Grimm with whatever they had whether it was bullets, glyphs, disks, or waves of energy. The onslaught of multi-colored ranged attacks was enough to slow the giant scorpion/crab monsters down to a point but it wasn't enough to put them down completely.

Though slightly hobbled the Deathstalkers still inched closer to the students.

Yang and Blake were the first to break away from the line and dart for the Deathstalker that was slightly ahead of its companion, Ruby and Weiss weren't far behind them but they did hang back a bit to provide cover fire with bullets and glyphs.

Blake drew the Grimm's attention and nimbly dodge rolled past its stinger and ran up the side of its tail, raining bullets down on its back with Gambol Shroud. With the beast distracted Yang jumped onto its back and furiously blasted it with Ember Celica.

"AGHHHHH!"

Blake jumped off the tail and used her weapon's kusarigama as a grappling hook, wrapping it around the middle section of the tail, and swung back down towards the Deathstalker's back, grabbing Yang and whisking her through the air before the stinger could come down into where her partner had been standing.

The stinger instead grazed its own armor plated body.

Weiss and Ruby caught up to the melee after that and Ruby spun through the air, cutting the stinger clean off its tail. Her partner took that opportunity to plant Myrtenaster in the ground and shoot out a wall of ice crystals that popped out from underneath the front of the Deathstalker, trapping it at least temporarily.

Ruby backflipped into the air and fired red dust infused bullets into the Deathstalker as she flipped over it. Blake came back into the picture and ran under the now exposed underside of the Grimm that was now propped up by Weiss' ice, all the while slashing a line through the skin with her katana.

Yang-with the help of some well placed Glyphs-stepped higher and higher into the air until she jumped off the last Glyph and came crashing down, rocketing down onto the Deathstalker fist first.

"Coming in hot!"

Right before impact she fired Ember Celica and with the help of both velocity and her semblance, put her flaming fist right between the Deathstalker's eyes for the finishing blow.

During that entire scuffle Team SAGE followed their opponents' lead and moved to focus on the other Deathstalker. Greta fired two yellow dust infused disks in succession right at the Deathstalkers' head, upon impact it stunned the Grimm enough to allow them to get in closer. Damien stopped right in front of it and crouched down with his shields raised above his shoulders for Violet to use as a launch pad.

"Hyah!"

When Violet reached as high as her leap could take her she slashed a green wave of energy from her sword that took care of the Deathstalker's stinger. The pain of losing its appendage however had the adverse effect of knocking it out of its dust-shocked stupor and swung its left claw at Damien who was only narrowly able to roll away.

The Deathstalker then tried to catch the falling Violet in the clutches of its right claw and she was falling too fast to change her trajectory. All she could do was tuck her knees into her chest and plunge her sword down to try and block the pincher while hoping for the best.

Clink.

Selene did the job of protecting Violet from being crunched in half but now she was stuck in the creature's grasp. She could always just let go of her sword and jump down to safety-it was without a doubt what any of her teammates would have done in her shoes-but that wasn't an option for her.

"Violet hold on!"

Asher fired Argent and Skoll as he ran towards the Deathstalker while Greta crouched down in the grass and launched a white dust infused disk at the claw, encasing it in ice on impact. Asher jumped up to join Violet atop the frozen claw and put his palm down right next to where Selene was planted. He closed his eyes and focused so that he would only use a fraction of his semblance and pushed out a small gust of pressurized air powerful enough to shatter only the ice around Selene. With her weapon now free both Violet and her leader jumped off the claw.

The Deathstalker hopelessly swung its tail with no stinger around and smashed its frozen claw down around where Asher and Violet landed, all thoughts of its own survival abandoned in favor of destroying its prey at any cost. Its aggression increased the force behind its attacks but at the deep cost of its accuracy, the ground shook every time one of its claws made contact but it couldn't hit any member of Team SAGE for the life of it.

It focused so much on Asher and Violet that it failed to notice Damien crouching underneath its head, priming his gauntlet right up against the Grimm's unarmored skin. He cocked his wrist and the cleaver blade shot out and pierced the Grimm, once it was inside he used his semblance to imbue the blade with sonic energy that shot out the top of the Deathstalker's head, finally killing it.

Team RWBY and Team SAGE stood around the carcasses of the Grimm they slayed. Once they were confident the Deathstalkers weren't going to get back up again they moved away to the area right in front of the old ruins where RWBY fought the Nevermore.

"Let's wrap this up before more Grimm show up," Asher grinned as he flipped Argent and Skoll into dagger form and formed a line with the rest of his team.

Across from them Team RWBY did the same.

Aside from the sound of the wind blowing, the entire forest was quiet as the two teams stared the other down with grins that toed the line between confidence and arrogance. In a turn of events that greatly surprised his teammates Damien was the one to break the silence.

"So is someone gonna say something like 'One, two, three go!' or…?"

Team RWBY more or less reacted in a manner expected of them. Ruby giggled, Blake quietly simpered, Weiss showed zero signs of amusement, and Yang rose to the occasion with a smirk.

"Great idea, allow me to do the honors."

"You can't be serious," Weiss guffawed.

"Let her have her fun," Blake replied.

"Alright folks, get ready."

At Yang's behest everyone dropped into their preferred fighting stances.

"On the count of three. One….two-"

Yang pounced at two, successfully catching Team ASEG off guard. The only problem was that it also did the same to her own team.

"Yang!"

"Let her have her fun,'' she said."

Damien intercepted Yang and blocked her first with the shield on his left arm. The remaining members of both teams rushed after them to join the fight while Damien blocked three stiff punches.

Soon everyone was matched up one on one.

Weiss and Violet proved equals in terms of swordsmanship, at one point they even spun around and slashed their weapon in a near identical manner. Mostly they saved the use of their semblances and delivered quick parries as they each tried to push the other one onto their back foot.

Asher and Blake conversely had yet to actually make contact with a strike, the way they one upped each other was through their agility and evasion abilities.

Asher would attack with Argent and then Skoll in diagonal arcs and Blake would weave through both offensives completely unscathed. After she cleared Skoll she quickly swung Gambol Shroud horizontally but Asher was quicker and leaned back far enough until his back was holding his entire body up at a 90 degree angle so the katana could glide right over his chest. He then back flipped back into an upright position and flipped his daggers back into pistol form and fired, but Blake had already done the same with Gambol Shroud so bullet after bullet met in the middle of the air.

Ruby proved to be a tad too energetic for Greta's tastes. The youngster would string her attacks like Crescent Rose was an extension of her arm, passing it from one to hand to the other as she swung diagonally twice to left before spinning the staff part of the weapon around her right arm as she swung horizontally in that direction. The brunette managed to successfully block each time with Zipes but whenever she attempted a counter attack and launched a disk Ruby would zip out the way with her semblance and restart the whole process.

Then to top it all off her semblance spiked for the umpteenth time that day.

Blake-who had disengaged from Asher with the help of a Shadow clone-helped her leader flank Greta. She ran straight at the archer but disappeared with the help of another shadow clone before she could even attack Greta. She did this three times, appearing and reappearing all around Greta, always getting close enough to prevent her from firing off a disk.

The fourth time she disappeared Greta finally had enough and swung at the Shadow clone with Zipes but by doing so she fell right into Blake's trap. Blake had discreetly infused Gambol Shroud with yellow dust before she created that final clone so when Greta made contact she was immediately paralyzed with the after shock. Ruby then zipped behind her and pressed the front of Crescent Rose into her back before firing off a point blank shot.

The force of the attack sent her off her feet and into the soft embrace of the grass. On impact Glynda's voice buzzed through all of their scrolls.

"Greta Carver's Aura has dropped into the red, she has been eliminated."

Greta rolled the side of her face over to use the grass as a makeshift pillow.

"Finally."

"Well that explains how they plan on keeping track of who gets eliminated," Asher chuckled as he ran up to the scene and smiled at his downed teammate.

"Don't let me keep you from your fun, I'll just be over here not getting my Aura piledrived."

"Take five Greta, you did great work today."

"Heh sorry about that. It was nice meeting you," Ruby said sheepishly as she rocked back and forth on her heels.

"Ruby," Blake said sharply but softly as she turned to Asher and primed Gambol Shroud.

"Oh right."

She hefted Crescent Rose up into its rifle mode and aimed its sights at a still grinning Asher who puzzingly had both Argent and Skoll holstered.

"Surrender! It's two on one!"

"You might want to recheck your math."

And then as if that statement was some hidden signal Damien caught Yang right on the chin with his shield and used her dazed state to throw her into Weiss.

Now free from her own fight Violet ran up next to Asher and with eyes glowing an ethereal green she held up her right hand at Ruby and Blake.

"What's going on?" Blake asked as she felt her entire body grow ten times heavy as a green aura constricted around.

"Blake I don't think I can move."

A shadow blocked their vision momentarily. Blake looked up to see the shadow was actually an airborne Asher.

"Ruby look out!"

Violet's hand glowed that same kind of green again and then Blake and Ruby suddenly felt weightless, which would have felt like an improvement if said weightlessness wasn't carrying them right to Asher.

The two irresistible forces met mid-air and Asher pushed out large gusts of air from both hands, at the same time Violet released her semblance creating a chain reaction of air and gravity that mixed together to make a soundless explosion.

The blast sent Blake sailing off to the side but Ruby-who had been closer to Asher's point of impact-felt the full brunt of the explosion and was nearly suspended in the air as a result.

"Ruby Rose has been eliminated."

Asher put both hands behind his back and used a gust of air to push him towards Ruby's fallen form and catch her in his arms, safely landing back on solid ground under his own two feet.

"You ok?" He asked as he looked down at her.

Ruby's distinctive eyes fluttered open, at first they were confused-alarmed even-but once they focused on Asher's kind expression they immediately softened.

"I'm fine."

"Good."

He had a nice smile so when he did so she smiled right back. But one look over his shoulder was all it took to fill her with horror.

"Oh no…. You're probably gonna want to put me down."

"What do you…"

"GET YOUR HANDS OFF MY SISTER!"

Asher slowly turned part of his upper body around only for his jaw to be met with Yang's right hand with such force that it sent him flying like a gunshot. Ruby yelped as she fell out of his arms but her older sister was there to catch her, Asher wasn't as lucky. The only thing waiting to catch him was the tree he flew into and knocked over with his body.

Naturally this all decimated a healthy portion of his Aura.

"Asher Arnou has been eliminated."

"Is he dead?" Damien deadpanned as everyone sans Yang looked on at the wreckage in varying degrees of horror.

"Nope," Greta answered as she checked his status on her scroll. "His Aura is low enough for that to really hurt though."

"That girl has no self control," Weiss sighed from the spot on the ground she landed on after Yang was knocked into her, picking a twig out of her ponytail.

"Ruby are you alright?" Yang asked, concern plain in her lilac eyes as she cradled her conflicted sister.

"Yang I'm fine! I mean good job getting an elimination for Team RWBY but you didn't have to do it in such an embarrassing way!"

"Hehe…"

Yang gingerly put Ruby back down onto her own feet and scratched the back of her neck, doing her best to avoid her sister's critical gaze. If she had thought to look down at her shoes instead of off to the side she would have noticed a green aura wrapping around her ankles.

Alas…

"Huh!?"

Yang was completely flipped upside down and suspended in the air, tips of her golden hair brushing against the dirt. Ruby zipped away to the sidelines with what she could use of her semblance, her sister on the other hand was repeatedly slammed into the ground back and chest first like a ragdoll by the cruel mistress that was gravity.

The slamming only stopped long enough for Yang to take note of how her eyes were rolling around like a hamster wheel. Well the real reason it stopped was to throw her into a nearby tree.

"Yang Xiao Long has been eliminated."

Violet wiped her hands together to celebrate a job well done while Damien sidled up next to her.

"You know I kinda like her, but we can't just let her smack our leader around like that."

"Mhm."

Weiss threw away the last pebble that had been lodged in her ponytail as she rejoined Blake. The faunus in hiding kept one eye on the wreckage her partner caused and the other on their two remaining opponents. Their backs were turned but from what Blake could tell between Damien's weapon and Violet's semblance they were the defensive powerhouses of their team, charging in now just to take advantage of a slim opening would probably do more damage to themselves than anything.

"Weiss when you fought her did she use her semblance?" Blake asked, pointing a finger at Violet.

Weiss shook her head.

"Then it might take up too much of her Aura to use regularly."

"Or she just chooses to save it," Weiss countered.

"Only one way to find out."

"Allow me."

Weiss planted Myrtenaster into the ground and created a wall of ice right in the middle of Damien and Violet.

With her two foes now separated Blake rushed Violet and wrapped her ribbon around the swordswoman's ankles. She yanked it back to try and return the favor for what happened to Yang but Violet was able to cut the end of the ribbon off with Selene before she fully hit the ground.

She used her shoulder to roll fluidly back into an upright crouched stance but Blake was on her with Gambol Shroud before she could fully straighten. All she could do was hold Selene up in front of her while Blake pushed her further and further onto the balls of her feet with each sharp strike.

After the fourth strike Blake faked a downward slash only to spin and instead toss Gambol Shroud to her off hand and slash Violet's side.

Violet's hand shot up and began to glow green again but this time Blake was prepared, right when she felt the slightest hint of extra weight pushing down on her shoulders she replaced herself with a Shadow clone and slashed Violet right in the back.

"Gah!"

"Weiss!"

The heiress-who had Myrtenaster locked in between Damien's cleavers-slipped her rapier out from the middle of his blades and switched the revolver portion of her weapon to a vial of white dust, blasting the headphones user away with a small whirlwind.

She promptly pirouetted and used a mix of her semblance and lightning dust to create a time dilation Glyph right below Blake, casting Haste and vastly increasing her teammate's speed.

Before Violet could even finish the processing the damage Blake's backslash did to her Aura, Blake was back in front of her slashing in seemingly every direction with such velocity that Violet couldn't see Gambol Shroud as it hit her.

Until suddenly it all stopped and she fell down to the grass.

"Violet Eos has been eliminated."

Damien surveyed the area and the status of his teammates. He looked over to where Weiss and Blake stood. 2-on-1 odds weren't impossible to deal with but his defeat was far likelier than his victory. Still, there was one thing he needed to make sure of before this exercise was over.

He just needed to seperate the two.

Damien took in a deep breath and closed his eyes. Pushing his semblance to the limit all sense of sound around him was sucked away into a silent void. All that existed in his mind was himself and the rhythm of his own breathing.

All it took to shatter that silence was opening his eyes. He pushed both his hands out and released a typhoon of soundwaves that funneled as high as all 6 feet of his height. The two girls heard it coming long before it actually reached them.

There just wasn't much they could do to stop it.

Weiss was narrowly able to hold on to a planted Myrtenaster but Blake was immediately blown away by the force of the sound tunnel.

"Blake!"

Weiss yelled just for the sake of it, she highly doubted her friend could actually hear her, she could barely hear herself. The sound gratefully stopped after a few seconds but the whole ordeal left her feeling like her ears had popped.

She dropped to her knees despite her best efforts not to and the first thing she heard when her hearing returned was footsteps.

Damien crouched down in front of Weiss, his expression as plain as it was when they first met earlier. Her eyes were hazy from the searing noise as she gazed up at him, it was without a doubt the most vulnerable he had seen her in the miniscule amount of time that they've spent together.

But what he really fixated on was her scar.

A literal and metaphorical crack in her porcelain visage he could only figure how much she probably despised her scar. His eyes darted back to her own so as to not appear like he was staring, not that he would be able to convince her otherwise regardless.

The important thing was that he confirmed his suspicion, he could live with whatever happened next.

By locking eyes with her he was able to see the exact moment the crystal pools of her pupils refocused and became filled with intensity that teetered on disdain.

Weiss grabbed Myrtenaster and cut right through Damien, knocking him off his feet with such quiet efficiency it was like she was simply cutting through grass. It wasn't her strongest attack, but since he had used so much of his Aura in his last attack it was more than enough.

"Damien Sol has been eliminated. Weiss Schnee and Blake Belladonna are the last huntresses standing, therefore Team RWBY wins."

Weiss holstered Myrtenaster and turned to see Blake gingerly walking towards her, they nodded at one another as their own quiet way of sharing congratulations. Weiss looked back over her shoulder and watched as the rest of Team ASEG crowded around Damien, who accepted a hand up from a smiling but very tired looking Asher.

On the outside she was as dispassionate as ever she viewed the scene unfold and listened to the other team's quiet bursts of laughter. But inside she was conflicted. She got what she had wanted this whole time, victory. She even got it with her own two hands, granted she still felt immense satisfaction with the result of her handiwork.

There was just something about the way that boy had looked at her that she couldn't seem to get over. Maybe it was just the adrenaline of the fight taking too long to fade away.

It wouldn't matter though as Ruby and Yang quickly crowded Blake and herself as if they hadn't just spent the whole afternoon in combat.

"Weiss! That was so coooool! You were like a samurai, you just took your sword and went all SWOOSH!"

"So did you catch some of the moves I pulled out today, Blake? Pretty cool right?"

"You still have some twigs in your hair."

While Blake fussed over Yang and Ruby bounced in front of her "reenacting" her match winning maneuver all she could do was cover her face with her palm.

Go Team RWBY.

Ozpin tapped the top of his cane as he watched his students mingle and decompress via the feed on his scroll.

"Did you find what you were looking for?' Glynda asked from his right side.

"I believe I did."

Glynda centered on Team ASEG, Asher was demonstrably waving his hands around as he described something that got Greta to laugh, Violet to roll her eyes, and Damien to shake his head with a barely noticeable smile. Her mind reconciled what she saw there with the feats of strategy she witnessed earlier.

"Ozpin?"

"Glynda."

"You have a plan for Team ASEG don't you?"

"I believe I do."

Some time later...

"Hyah!"

Asher tore Argent through the throat of an Atlas Paladin and kicked the now useless husk away from him. He wiped his forehead with the back of his hand while his chest heaved as he panted.

This had all gone so wrong.

He looked up at Ozpin's tower, by now already numb to the cacophony of distant screaming and gunfire off in the distance. Mere moments ago he witnessed a locker shoot off into the air above him and he swore he heard what sounded like Jaune screaming Pyrrha's name.

He still wasn't sure if his mind was playing tricks on him or not but that Paladin had proved a worthy distraction from such thoughts.

"GWRAR!"

More Grimm...he had to keep moving.

Asher switched Argent and Skoll to pistol mode as he ran through the barren, basically war torn section of Beacon he found himself isolated in. He had hoped that the act of running would have been enough to keep his mind at bay but it seemed he just wasn't that lucky that day.

The first image that came into his mind was Weiss cradling a practically unconscious Damien in her arms while he and Ruby fended off the last of that pack of Grimm that had been terrorizing their little group. The heiress crying tears he now ruefully never thought possible to come out of her.

The next thing he saw was a physically fine but emotionally broken Greta begging a stone faced Violet to come with them to safety.

She instead chose to head towards Ozpin's tower. Nothing he tried was enough to stop her, some leader he turned out to be.

But the last image that popped into his head wasn't from this forsaken day, it was from weeks earlier.

It was Ruby smiling at him with the sweetest smile he had ever seen.

His grip tightened on his weapons and he pushed his feet to the absolute limit that they could reach until his lungs began to burn from all the exertion.

Beacon was most likely lost no matter what Asher did next. But regardless he needed answers.

And he would find them in Ozpin's tower.

Man if you made it to the end of all this madness then bless your little heart. But seriously I hope you all enjoyed this chapter and I hope you enjoyed Team ASEG.

Anyway this fic is heavily inspired by Chinsangan's Crimson Shadow so go check that story out, trust me it's well worth your time.

I'll be back in a couple weeks or so with the next chapter, so feel free to leave a review(do people still do that?) and let me know what you think of chapter 1.

Until then stay safe out there and be kind to each other.