10 Chapter 10 - Initiation and Teams

Nephrite woke up early to grind up his skill before the whole showdown. It was still dark, around 4 AM and only very few people were awake.

One of them was Blake. She just sat there with a lit lamp next to her and read her book...

Walking out, he decided to train near the Garden as it should be student free place. After finding his desired place he unsheathed his sword.

The sword gave him a feeling of slight intimacy as he grasped it. It was a weird feeling that lasted less than a second before 'Skill' had been incorporated into his body and memory.

The first swing was pretty awkward but when he got onto his 10th or so swing it became ever so natural.

During the time where he struggled to properly execute the moves in his memory he gained 0 skill EXP.

But after it got more and more natural the EXP finally started to rise. Gradually he sped up and before long he was executing various combos.

It was a bit overwhelming, the amount of angles, slashes, thrusts etc. Like if a total newbie just downloaded an MMORPG and just started the game with LVL 90 character that had a LOT of skills.

It was different compared to other skills he usually grinded. There, he always had one or two Paths he could choose from to advance. Slight adjustments one at a time but with this skill he had many many options.

A different skill came in clutch though. The True Sixth-sense skill, using it's basic function he had disabled the sense of smell and taste. It was a bit weird like if you have a common cold and everything is slightly more dull.

But once he got used to it his brain could focus more. He was slowly adjusting his speed to a balance he could fight in.

...

"Students! Today is the day where the best will shine. We will split you into 500 groups, each group will have 24 students. Furthermore this whole forest will be split into 50 sections with 10 groups each. At the end only 250 groups will be accepted.

50 groups of medical students, 190 groups of combat students and 10 groups of enforcers." Said Glynda Goodwitch.

Then a few teachers had stepped out and started to gather students. Oobleck, Port, Goodwitch and 16 other professors belonged to the combat group.

Nephrite and the rest had gathered under Goodwitch's banner. Thankfully he found Ren, Nora, Blake and Weiss in the group too. After all what if Weiss or Blake ended up with someone like Cardin? Though if Cardin had Nora in his team he would probably drop out under a week...

He also saw Blizzard coming over while waving at them as she dragged Onyx with her. That man had already given up and just looked at the sky.

"You are the Champion right?!" A thunderous voice said. It was Fade Ross the ever so loud student.

Fade had challenged Pyrrha but was stopped by the pissed combat instructor. It was also the first time Nephrite had seen The Disciplinarian in action.

'That's everyone I know in one group, nice. Though I don't know about that Fade hmmm.' Pondered Nephrite as Glynda Goodwitch took them to their initiation area.

240 students for one teacher was a bit too much but it seemed that she had plenty of professors at her disposal.

Nephrite counted at least 20 different professors that moved around the huge student group.

...

Before long they had arrived in a canyon. The wind blew ominously making the students nervous. In the distance a huge mountain range was proudly standing.

"This place is notorious for it's Nevermores and Deathstalkers. Your mission is to slay a Nevermore and a Deathstalker. You will first be randomly launched into the canyon. Afterwards you should see entrances littered across the canyon.

These are caves that are all intertwined. You will be paired up with the first person you see in the initiation. The Nevermores are to be found in the mountains.

Each Nevermore and Deathstalker should drop a small statue of itself. If it doesn't then you will have to slay another one. But if anyone slays an unmarked Grimm they will receive additional marks." Glynda slowly explained and then answered some questions.

...

"You ready Neo?"

"Yea." Neo nodded and replied.

Students started to descend periodically and each group was few hundred meters away from each other.

Each student had to go in a different cave so people wouldn't just wait at the entrance to team up. Only after entering did the 'first person you meet' rule apply.

This initiation wasn't just a test of combat abilities but also a test of courage. After all there isn't a signal to call for backup. Though what the students did not know was that each place with Deathstalkers had been monitored.

Some students just jumped straight down and some ran across the walls. Nephrite ran down at first before using his sword to slow down his momentum.

His sword pierced into the wall like it was butter. After a minute or so of descending he touched the ground.

There were caves everywhere and he chose the one closest to him. The caves themselves were pretty big but it would hinder a Deathstalker from showing it's full might.

It was dark but Beacon wasn't that cruel to it's students and everyone has received 3 torches.

They did not get a lighter though. It all depended on the students as there were good enough stones to create sparks. Of course this wasn't the only way, some had fire dust and some their semblances.

Nephrite just summoned a flashlight and went on his merry way. Before they were launched he had smuggled a few to other students that he deemed good enough.

This way luck and under-preparation wouldn't be their downfall. Nephrite's journey was quite peaceful, many intersections had appeared along the way and he just kept picking left and then right.

After 10 minutes of jogging he had arrived in an enlarged part of the cave. Lo and behold a Deathstalker was chilling there.

'Let's test out my skill then...' He thought as he unsheathed his sword. He needed to test if he could get skill EXP when fighting.

If so then it would probably be the most effective method. After all death and fear is the best motivator.

The Deathstalker was alerted when it noticed Nephrite and quickly sprung to action. Using it's stinger it launched a pre-emptive strike.

Nephrite simple side stepped and as if he was dancing he circled around the Deathstalker.

Before it could properly react he had launched his combo. Horizontally slashing the tail had taken a decent chunk of it's 'flesh'.

He then successfully connected the previous strike with a vertical slash followed by 4 more in a quick succession.

The Deathstalker screeched in pain as it's tail fell on the side. Before he could rejoice it turned around at an impressive speed and swung it's pincer at him.

He quickly blocked and was blown away a meter away. Not granting him a chance to recover it used it's other pincer trying to catch Nephrite and crush him to death.

Nephrite did not panic and used his footwork to narrowly dodge the pincer.

It had turned into a stalemate, Nephrite's strikes slowly chipped away at it's armoured pincers but it wasn't substantial enough. It could turn into a hour long fight and he was sure he couldn't last that long.

'Need to invest more in physique in the future.' He thought as his Aura barely dropped and the slivers that did had already regenerated.

Nephrite backed away and took out his AK, holding it in his left hand and his sword in his right. First he used normal bullets but they weren't clearly enough.

Switching to normal exploding fire dust bullets helped however. Using the fire as a distraction he took his opportunity and rapidly closed down on it.

It used it's one pincer to protect it's fragile eyes. He used this blind spot and jumped above the pincer spraying down couple of bullets before he retreated.

The Deathstalker once again screeched in pain as it lost couple of it's eyes. Before it could recover he targeted it's leg and with few slashed severed one.

It became desperate and fought much more aggressively trying to trade blow for blow.

Thanks to it's injuries though the fight became a stalemate again. Nephrite fending of it's strikes and with his sixth sense it became his training dummy.

As the 15 minute mark passed...

'Maybe I should try out the Graphene coated bullets... Oh? Maybe I won't need them...' He thought as he heard footsteps rapidly closing in on him.

His future teammate was close by. Nephrite sheathed his sword and began spraying the Deathstalker trying to distract it so his future teammate could finish it off from the back.

After he used his footwork in the beginning it never fell for it again.

'Show me what you got.' He thought as he felt their teammate was behind the Deathstalker.

Second later the Deathstalker screeched for the third time and probably it's last. It's right legs were cut off and it couldn't even move. Nephrite fired one special bullet and ended it's life.

Nephrite peaked to see who it was.

"Hey Pyrrha! Do you have any spots on your team left?" A familiar Redhead stood there with a smile.

"Nephrite! Of course, my team's pretty empty right now." Pyrrha internally sighed in relief. The one person she wanted to be paired up with had appeared.

"To our team! High-five!" Nephrite practically shouted as he was still full of adrenaline. Pyrrha just chuckled and returned the High-five.

Shortly after the Deathstalker vanished and was replaced by a yellow statue of it. On the pedestal was a picture of a Chess horse.

Nephrite was a bit speechless but just moved on without commenting on it. It was time to hunt some Nevermores...

...

It took them another 30 minutes before they were able to exit the caves. They didn't see any new Deathstalker along the way though.

They were mostly talking about themselves along the way to know each other a bit better.

While Pyrrha did not show it like Nora, apparently she was a lover of food as well.

When Nephrite said that he used to own a certain restaurant whose reputation was spread throughout the whole city she didn't believe him.

Though she did make him promise to cook her a meal one day so he can prove her wrong. Stepping outside gave him a nice feeling and now they had to catch themselves a Nevermore.

The real pain was climbing up the Canyon. The descent took barely a minute and yet trying to climb back up took them 10 minutes.

If he had something like Ruby's weapon or Yang's weapon he could probably scale it in a minute but he didn't like the method. As his physique increases it would basically become useless at one point. Not to mention that he felt like higher levels of his skill mastery included the usage of Aura as well.

...

The wind blew and Nephrite and Pyrrha could see the beautiful scenery. Currently they were on a peak waiting for a sign of a Nevermore.

"It's beautiful isn't it." Said Pyrrha as she appreciated the view.

"It is yeah..." Remnant especially after getting his sixth-sense was more colourful and beautiful than Earth ever was, at least in his eyes it was this way.

Maybe it was because of the lack of pollution he didn't know. He shook his head.

'I should stop comparing the two.'

*Screeeech

Suddenly screeches resounded throughout the sky and multiple Nevermores flew up. Couple of students had appeared and attacked the Nevermores.

"Let's go too otherwise there won't be anything left." Nephrite said and targeted a Nevermore that broke through the student's ambush.

Pyrrha switched to her rifle form and shot the Nevermore a few times to disrupt it's speed before following after Nephrite.

Quickly sliding down the mountain Nephrite put strength in his legs before he launched himself at the Nevermore.

Landing on it's back he slashed it a few times before stabbing it to gain a firm foothold. He took out his AK and inserted a special magazine.

'Let's make this quick birdie.' He thought as he pointed at it's head and pressed the trigger.

4 bullets quickly tore through the air and penetrated it's skull with ease. Nephrite jumped off the Nevermore and few moments later it's head exploded.

'Okay I was too arrogant. This is what I get for not trying to defy gravity through sheer firepower.' Thought Nephrite as he braced himself for impact.

Quickly spotting a tree he embed his sword in it slowing him down a bit.

*Boom

The ground formed a 2 meter crack. 'Or not?' He thought as he felt almost no damage.

He checked his scroll and he apparently barely lost even 10% of his Aura from that fall.

'Neat.' He grinned and went to look for the little statue before someone takes it.

Pyrrha had gotten there first though and already had the statue in hand.

"Good job there." She said a bit sad that she couldn't do much unless she revealed her semblance for others to see.

"Let's go then Pyrrha."

...

The Sun was already leaving the skies and the students were waiting for the results. A big chunk of students weren't present and a portion of the present students were nervous.

Pyrrha and Nephrite weren't too worried though. Much to Nephrite's relief Ruby had Weiss and Yang had Blake as their pairs.

Neo though... She had quite the luck as he looked at her. Next to her was Fade Ross herself standing there like a proud lion.

They had met almost instantly and formed a team much to Neo's dismay. Fade had absolutely pummelled the Deathstalker but was almost useless against the Nevermore. She did however use the Nevermore's feathers and threw them back at it with almost sonic booms.

Blizzard and Onyx were standing there too. They kind of glossed over their fights. Blizzard did mention though that Onyx was really strong and maybe even stronger than her little Timmy.

It seemed that not everyone was here yet. After 20 minutes the Headmaster once again appeared and no one noticed how.

Even Nephrite's True Sixth-Sense did not know. All it told him that it was speed...

"Students today you have proven yourself. You have shown your strengths and used them to defeat your shortcomings. Some of you may have barely passed but remember that you are here to gather and use your knowledge and now that you have taken the first step we can dedicate ourselves to help you grow stronger.

And now students that are called please step on the podium. Neopolitan Antaeus, Jade Ross, Onyx and Blizzard Arc please come forth."

Nephrite encouraged Neo with a pat on the back and a encouraging look.

"From now on you shall work together as team Brimstone (BRON) led by Blizzard Arc."

A few more teams were called before Nephrite's name sounded. And by few more he meant few hundred... Thankfully only Combat students were here otherwise he would go mad.

"Nephrite Antaeus, Pyrrha Nikos, Lie Ren, Nora Valkyrie from now on you shall work together as team Nephrite (NNPR) led by Nephrite Antaeus."

Nephrite was happy to be the leader and started talking to Nora and Ren to know his two new teammates better.

"Finally Blake Belladonna, Ruby Rose, Weiss Schnee and Yang Xiao Long from now on you will work together as team RWBY."

'Heh Weiss looks pissed.' Seeing Weiss had turned Nephrite's annoyance at this long long and slow speech into smoke.

(A/N: 100k views yooooooooooooooooooooo.)

(A/NN: Anyone wanna see POVs of other teams or should I skip it?)

[FYI the skip or have other POVs voting will be till 6 AM GMT+1 Tuesday 26th of July]

(A/NNN: Also got any stones? :D)