Team SWRZ - Volume 1 - Chapter 17 - Cold Facts!

Four weeks have passed since the beginning of the semester. It was safe to say that the first-year students grew quite comfortable with their lifestyle at Haven Academy. The students strengthened their bonds with their teammates, made friends with others, and progressed in such a short timespan. Unfortunately, Team SWRZ's inclusion within that category wasn't an option. Unlike some other teams, this group proved quite challenging to function as a unit.

Individually, they were impressive in their own right.

The team leader, Schwartz der Hund, possessed extraordinary talent in combat. But he suffered due to his arrogance, reckless nature, and lack of leadership. Always one to act first without properly thinking anything through.

Watchet Amin, many people considered him the brains of the outfit. His knowledge served him well in all his classes. A model student that the instructors loved. However, the young man's will wasn't as developed as others believed. Often found following orders from his superiors, despite knowing whether or not they were wrong.

Rowan Cassidy, the runt of the team, was never taken seriously due to her short stature and loudmouth. Those that dared to underestimate her quickly found themselves with dust rounds between their eyes. Her problem was with authority. Never one to take orders, Rowan often diverted from rules or regulations. She'd go out on her own if she weren't in charge.

Zorina Teufel, the charismatic enigma of the team, no one could ever get a complete read on the young woman. She was often spouting nonsense but backing up her words with her impressive show of athleticism and brute strength. Focusing was her main weakness. Always caught up in her head, she's never fully aware of the dangers around her.

Today was another rough day for the team as they found themselves in a sparring match against a rival group, Team WEIS. Since the trial, the two sides have often competed against one another. Team WEIS proved themselves superior every single time, much to the chagrin of Schwartz.

The black-haired Huntsmen in training swayed to the left as his teammate Zorina got sent flying into the nearest wall, courtesy of Team WEIS' muscle, Sunil Ambrus. The Bull Faunus was as large as a mountain but could move with the swiftness of the wind. Schwartz quickly checked the scroll strapped to his arm. The screen showed detailed charts of his aura, along with his teammates. They were on the losing end. Schwartz planned to change that.

He activated his Semblance, [Unleashed], allowing him to glide effortlessly around Sunil. His main target was the leader of the opposing team, Wei Tian. The White Tiger Faunus had grown far too arrogant since their first bout. All Schwartz wanted to do was wipe that smirk off the young man's face, no matter the cost.

"Schwartz! We need to regroup!" Watchet called out. As usual, his desperate shouts fell on deaf ears. Schwartz didn't give a damn about his teammates. What good were they if they couldn't handle their own in battle? If he had to defeat the enemy team alone, then that's what he'd do. For weeks the instructors stressed the importance of teamwork, but his teammates were useless.

Schwartz and Wei clashed again, neither man giving an inch. The other competitors gave as much space as possible to avoid getting caught up in their scuffle.

"This time for sure, I'll kick your ass!" Schwartz declared.

"How many times have I heard that now?" Wei Tian mockingly responded.

Watchet's eyes trained on the White Tiger Faunus. If he didn't do anything, Schwartz and Wei would drag the match out. When he figured he'd timed it right, Watchet lashed his sword toward the student, only to have his sword intercepted by Emma Asulf's spear. The black-haired warrior redirected the blade into the ground, leaving Watchet unprotected, when he found a foot slamming into his stomach.

"Shit!" Rowan cursed as another one of her teammates went down. With Watchet and Zorina out of the fight and Schwartz busy with Wei, the poor red-head was left to defend herself against three opponents. Or, at least that would've been her main problem if not for Ilma Aden. Known as her team's laziest, Ilma proved quite the capable combatant when forced.

Every bullet Rowan fired at the girl; she would easily deflect it with her knives. If the opponent dropped her blade by some miracle, she'd retrieve another from her armory within her coat. Soon enough, Rowan found herself pinned to the wall by a dozen knives piercing her clothes.

The rest of the match went without a hitch for Team WEIS. Schwartz fought as hard as he could, but he couldn't defeat the well-functioning team of students. Unlike Team SWRZ, no words needed speaking between them. Each team member knew what to do, which eventually resulted in their victory.

The familiar buzzer rang throughout the room, alerting everyone to the end of the match. Haven Instructor Lilith Hale approached the stage, casually applauding the students on their job well done.

"Good job, students. That will be all," Lilith cleared the ring of the students, leaving no further comments about the fight itself. She didn't need to. The students would assess their successes and failures on their own. With that out of the way, she continued with the class.

"God damn it!" Schwartz stormed back into the dorm room after another troublesome day at school. His academic grades suffered terribly, but he never expected the same for his combat scores. His defeat earlier only proved that his teammates were useless. He didn't need their help to kill Huntsmen in the future. "What the hell was that back there?!"

"What did it look like, idiot? We lost, plain and simple." Rowan accepted the turn of events with complaints. She returned to her bed, taking that moment to sit back and relax. To her, it was another dull day at school.

"And you're fine with that?!" Schwartz raised his voice, not understanding how Rowan could be so lax about their defeat. In his world, combat was a matter of life and death. Had the team been out in the field, Team WEIS could've ended their lives.

"What's the big deal? We lost, so what?" Rowan dismissed Schwartz's anger and set her hat over her face. She couldn't take the situation seriously. It's not like she planned on sticking around much longer anyway. What did she care about some dumb school? She even started to attend classes recently due to her friend, Mari, blackmailing her.

"We did not come here to lose," Watchet interjected, taking Schwartz's side of the argument. While he didn't show much rage physically as Schwartz did, his harsh tone did that for him. "It has been four weeks, and we are not performing diligently as a team should."

"And you're suggesting that it's my fault?" Rowan jumped to conclusions. While it was confirmed she never intended to be in a team in the first place, she believed she pulled her weight.

"No, we lost as a team. We are all at fault for our defeat," Watchet shook his head. "We lost today and will continue to lose unless we work together."

"We don't need to work together; you guys just need to get stronger," blurted Schwartz. "I'm getting tired of carrying this team on my back."

"Carrying this team?" Rowan scoffed. Like hell, that's what he was doing. "If that's what you called 'carrying this team,' then maybe I should be the leader instead."

"What's that supposed to mean?!"

"Exactly as it sounds," continued Rowan with pure spite, removing the hat from her face. "Due to your 'leadership,' we've suffered failure after failure. If you can't properly lead a team, you should step down and let someone capable step forward."

"And you think that someone is you?" Schwartz fought back the urge to laugh in the runt's face. It was perhaps the most absurd suggestion he'd ever heard from Rowan. There was no way he'd step down from the leader position. By some twist of fate that he did, he'd instead Watchet lead.

"It should be," Rowan proclaimed. The only other person on the team with an apparent sign of intelligence was Watchet, but he refused to speak up most of the time. The team needed someone with brains and balls to put their foot down. That person was none other than Rowan herself as far as she was concerned. "You're not a leader. You rush ahead in combat without consulting with your teammates. You expect us to know what you're thinking and bend to your every reckless whim."

"Oh, so now you're suddenly Ms. team player? Where have you been for the past couple of weeks? You've been skipping classes and going out into the town late at night. What part of that screams leadership material to you?" Schwartz countered.

"What does that matter? I can still lead a team better than you since I communicate!"

"Stop it, both of you!" Watchet stepped in between the quarreling students. Secretly, he was glad that they were airing their dissatisfaction, but they were missing the point of the conversation. "The leader of the team is not up for debate. The Headmaster chose Schwartz as our leader, and it shall stay that way. What we need to discuss is how we will grow from here."

"Growing's impossible with him leading us," Rowan mumbled.

"I don't have time for this," Schwartz collected his swords and headed for the door.

"Where are you going?" Watchet inquired.

"I'm going to train some more. Since you three are useless, I'll have to get stronger for all of us,"

"Idiot! That's not going to work!" Rowan yelled.

"Watch," Schwartz left the room with only that as a response.

"That guy's a moron! Why did they pick him as team leader?!" groaned Rowan as she fell back into the comfort of her bed. Dealing with Schwartz, hell, the entire school even was a pain in the ass. She couldn't wait for the day when she'd get to leave the wretched place behind.

"The ruler of the school chose him," Zorina decided to speak, referring to Headmaster Lionheart. Whenever her teammates argued, it was a subconscious instinct to keep quiet, brought onto her by her family. Her parents fought often, and there was nothing she could do to stop it.

Every argument Zorina witnessed between her teammates resembled her home far too much. She came to Haven to escape from that awful place.

"Yeah, well, it's not like Schwartz has to lord over us as he does," Rowan followed up with a roll of her eyes.

"He is our leader," stated Watchet.

"Leader, not our boss," Rowan pressed the issue even further. "We don't have to follow his every command."

"I agree. However, disobeying every command will do more harm than good." Watchet's counter received a sharp click of the tongue from Rowan. The red-head found some truth to his statement. "If we want to make it as a team, we must communicate. That is our main problem at this moment."

Rowan and Zorina exchanged glances, having already reached the same conclusion as Watchet. Team SWRZ wouldn't last long without communication. No good team ever prospered without connection or at least forming some bond. With great reluctance, Rowan sat up from bed and decided to speak with her teammates.

Meanwhile, Schwartz roamed through the school courtyard, mumbling several swears about his teammates.

Useless.

That's all they were to him. Sure, the team had some talent since they survived the trial. But they were worthless to him if they couldn't obey simple commands. What good were teammates that couldn't keep up with their leader?

Deadweight.

That's what they were.

If they were in his bandit tribe, they'd be long dead and tossed aside in a ditch somewhere. Mistral had plenty of places to hide bodies.

"What are you doing out here so late?" A feminine voice suddenly reached Schwartz's ears from behind.

The young man quickly spun around, unsheathing his sword and swiping it at the figure in a smooth motion. The blade stopped abruptly, mere inches away from the figure's face. Schwartz looked at his hand, finding his wrist restrained by the enemy. He looked up at his captor and saw that it was Professor Hale.

"Oh, it's just you." Schwartz sighed in relief, not because it was Lilith, but instead, he wasn't responsible for the death of an instructor. Had it been any other person, he was confident their head would be on the pavement. When he tried to sheath his sword, he found he couldn't escape the Huntresses' grasp.

"You've got some guts, attacking an instructor like that," Lilith nonchalantly commented. However, her tone was all too frightening. One that Schwartz couldn't ignore. "You're due for some punishment,"

The Huntress tightened her hold on Schwartz's wrist, forcing the poor student to drop his weapon. With him disarmed, he was defenseless against the beatdown Lilith provided. The next thing Schwartz knew, he was down on the ground with his swords pierced through his jacket, keeping him pinned.

The only good side of that situation was that he got a good night sky view.

"Was all that even necessary?" Schwartz complained, noticing Lilith sitting beside him, lighting a cigarette.

"Kept you still, didn't it?" Lilith responded, blowing a puff of smoke into the air. "Alright, what's eating you?"

"Huh?"

"You and your teammates have been in a bad mood recently. Don't try and deny it,"

"They won't be my teammates for much longer if they keep showing piss poor performances like earlier," Schwartz callously mentioned. "If they lose like that out in the field, they'll be Grimm food."

Lilith sat there in silence, listening to the young man complain about his teammates. It wasn't until he aired out all his grievances that the woman finally responded, albeit a harsh one. "You're a pretty selfish brat; you know that?"

"Brat?!" Schwartz frowned. If there's one thing he wouldn't allow the woman to call him, a brat was it.

"That's right. I've listened to you bitch and moan about your teammates, but you've never mentioned any of your mistakes. Your failures." Lilith pointed out. "You've been here for over a month, and you're still the same arrogant, cocky little brat. You're treating this Huntsman business like a playground as if this is all some big game for you."

Schwartz couldn't refute her statement. Precisely, that's how he saw it. Haven was a mere stepping stone he'd use to harness his skills further.

"Well..."

"You look down on others, especially your teammates, deeming them so worthless that you try and do everything on your own. How'd that work out for you when you went against Team WEIS?" Lilith recalled the sparring match from earlier. "Individually, most students in this school possess the notable skill, but that doesn't mean anything when the odds are stacked against you. That's why Huntsman Academies stress the importance of teamwork."

Schwartz gritted his teeth, recalling the memory of his failure to defeat Team WEIS on his own. Perhaps one-on-one, he'd stand a better chance against them. But the world didn't work like that most of the time. Whenever he went out on bandit raids, the odds were never in favor of his enemies.

"But you're pretty strong by yourself," Schwartz noted. He wouldn't say it aloud, but he respected the hell out of Lilith. She was beautiful and reliable, the kind of woman he'd love to have as a wife in the future.

"You think I got this strong alone?" Lilith scoffed at the notion. "People can only get so strong by themselves. It was not until I joined a team that I reached a new level of strength."

"Where's your team then?" Schwartz asked.

"That's a story for another time," Lilith refused to answer, taking another drag from her cigarette. "Know this, as your team is now, you'd all be Grimm food if you were all out in the field. At the moment, you're a failure as a team leader. Those that put themselves before the team are worthless and eventually get what's coming to them," Lilith continued to lay down the cold, hard truth on the downed student. It was something she felt he needed to hear. "Instead of blaming your team, perhaps you should look more into yourself. You're the team leader, after all. None of you will get any better if you don't communicate."

That said, Lilith removed the blades pinning Schwartz to the ground, freeing him. She returned his swords and wandered off without another word, having said everything she wanted to tell him. Schwartz sheathed his swords and stared at the ground, soaking in the conversation.

Perhaps Schwartz needed to take a different approach with his teammates. It was never his intention to form a team in the first place, but then again, many things happened in his life that he didn't consider. It was difficult, but he swallowed his pride and headed back to the door to speak with the others.