CHAPTER 13

GLYNDA GOODWITCH POV

She watched the two future huntsmen with narrowed eyes as they traded blows after blows in the arena.

Well, 'trading blows' would be the wrong choice of words here as Mr Jaune Arc was mostly on the defensive, using his shield and his enormous Aura reserves to stay in the game for this long despite his clear lack of skills.

When she had first selected these two to fight, she had done it with the explicit reason to teach Mr Jaune Arc a lesson.

Make him understand that being a hunter-in-training was no joke and quit with his charade while he was ahead.

Seriously what had the boy been thinking when he applied to Beacon with those badly forged papers. Did he really thought that they would be so easy to fool?

And what on Earth had Ozpin been thinking when he simply waved her concerns away and had allowed Jaune to take the Initiation test on a whim.

Without his aura?

The fact that Mr Arc survived the Initiation was a miracle and while she did admire his tenacity to survive, she felt like he didn't belong here.

When Mr Arc eventually unlocked his aura, they found that he had more reserves than almost anyone his age. In fact, even her own aura reserves were dwarfed by his own and she knew that she had a large well of aura because of her constant use of her Semblance which relied on that aura pool.

True, the Arcs were known for their large Aura reserves but even compared to the other Arcs in the past, Jaune had been particularly lucky with his lot.

Plus, there was the fact that while Mr Arc has not shown a remarkable talent with sword and shield, he was improving at a monstrous pace. Not only that but he had also completely given himself to training under Miss Pyrrha Nikos since the start of this term.

To be fair, she found herself a little envious of Mr Arc as well. If she had his aura reserves when she first unlocked it then…

She shook her head and stopped that line of reasoning as it would benefit no one.

So yes. Ozpin had somehow, through sheer luck, won this gamble. And she could feel the smugness radiation off of him whenever Mr Arc was a topic of conversation among them.

So she had decided to indulge in a little petty revenge by pitting Mr Arc against Mr Winchester who, while not particularly skilled, was far better fighter than Mr Arc and would've been able to defeat him in no time.

Or so she had thought.

She looked at the timer which showed that they had been fighting for the last 11 minutes. Which was longer than almost any other fight she had seen when it came to the 1st year students.

Most fights usually don't last longer than 2 minutes and even the longer fights usually reach their conclusion under 5 minutes.

The long fight was clearly taking it's toll on Mr Cardin Winchester as his strikes became clumsier and less coordinated.

Plus, there was also the terrifying fact that Mr Arc had been observing his opponent and had been steadily improving during the duration of this fight.

When the spar first started he had been constantly put on the defensive and had started to lose his aura at a steady pace.

Now… Mr Arc was able to block, parry or dodge almost all of Mr Winchester's strikes and was even able to sneak in a few attacks whenever Mr Winchester left himself open, which was fairly often with how tired Mr Winchester had become.

She looked at the Aura bars of the two combatants and noticed that Mr Winchester's Aura was at 58% while Mr Arc's aura was at 53%.

And it had been at 49% a minute or so ago.

Another unfair advantage for Mr Arc, she supposed.

Most Hunters usually took a few hours at the very least to recharge their aura. And for Mr Arc, the recharge time of his Aura wasn't even half an hour.

Oh and the aura bar just went from 53 to 54%.

She held the urge to sigh at the unfairness of this world.

Not that she had much of a room to complain with how powerful her own Semblance was but still…

Mr Arc deflected another overhead blow from Mr Winchester and then gave a shield bash to the larger boy, sending him rolling to the ground before he moved forward and sent a few slashes, lowering a bit of Mr Winchester's aura with each strike before Mr Winchester finally managed to regain his footing and then the dance continued as Mr Arc instantly went on the defense, looking for yet another opening and waiting.

The patience that Mr Arc had shown in this fight was also admirable if a bit frustrating.

Because unlike the students, Grimm don't get tired. Nor do they get hungry, thirsty or are in any danger of running out of aura.

If you want to defeat them then you have to be fast and decisive. Trying to defend against them was a losing strategy no matter how you look at it.

Mr Arc doesn't seem to know this if his fighting style was any indication.

But then again, he had only really started to learn how to fight a few days ago so she didn't have much of a room to complain.

And she was sure that his teammates would tell the boy what he had been doing wrong after this fight.

For now…

Jaune dodged Mr Winchester's attack with a sidestep followed by a slash that finally send Mr Winchester's aura to the red.

She held the urge to sigh.

Well played Ozpin, you infuriating caffeine addict.

She clicked an icon in her scroll which switched on the over lights in the hall and rang a buzzer which denoted the end of this fight.

Mr Cardin looked frustrated with the outcome of this fight but seemed too tired to complain and simply stepped back while Mr Arc turned to his teammates and raised his hand toward them as they cheered (reluctantly in Miss Schnee's case) for him and their team.

"Students. As you can see…"