New skills and second part of the class.

A few things happened in the chapter I released on (P)(A)(T). No spoilers, but it's something that maybe some people will enjoy.

As always, if anyone wants to support me or just read 3/7 chapters ahead of my stories, that's possible on my (P)(A)(T), if not, I still appreciate you reading my stories!

Well, I won't drag on here. Good night, everyone, and happy reading!

(P)(A)(T)/CalleumArtori

[...]---[...]

POV: Devas Asura.

I'll admit, I was a bit disappointed with what I had seen. I knew the students weren't official Huntsmen and Huntresses yet, just in training, but...

When Yang had said that she and her team were one of the best in the first year, I believed her, but at this point, I think they would be one of the best in the second year too...

Am I being too harsh here? Maybe. The students I had faced weren't bad fighters, far from it, but I expected more from the students of the 'best' school in the world.

Maybe I had set my expectations too high after my spar with the girls...

Sun's team was more challenging to fight against than almost all of Beacon's teams, to be honest. The guy's Semblance of cloning himself was a pain to deal with without just obliterating everything in the way, which I couldn't do, as it wouldn't be a class.

But his weapon was pretty damn cool. A nunchaku that turns into a shotgun staff is something I would use even if it were just for the style points.

The fact that the weapon's name was Ruyi Bang in one form and Jingu Bang just made it even better.

As for the rest of his team, they were good, not as much as Sun, but still, I would say they were a little below Yang's level, which from what I had gathered, wasn't bad.

I just found it funny that the guy with blue hair, Neptune, could control water but had a water phobia. It was as funny as it was sad at the same time.

I'll talk to Glynda and Ozpin if they can arrange therapy for the guy or something to see if he could overcome this fear or at least use his Semblance without me needing to scare him to almost death for him to react instinctively.

I was starting to really like the nightmare energy... Maybe that says a lot about me, actually...

Well, I'll consider this punishment for him ditching Weiss at the dance. I'm almost sure Yang had something prepared for the guy, but I wanted to put my two cents in too.

"You're not showing up?!" Coco shouted, slowly looking around as she searched for me. "Scared?"

Trying to provoke me to see if I'd show up in front of them? Does she think I was born yesterday, by any chance?

"Just taking my time, you know, moving around so much ended up tiring me a bit." I used nightmare energy to make my voice echo from afar and nearby at the same time, coming from all sides.

I was really starting to love this thing. As much as mana and my spiritual energy were as useful and strong, I couldn't shape them as well as I could with my nightmare energy.

It's not that I couldn't use mana or spiritual energy as well as nightmare energy, it was more like with the latter, I could be more creative... Mold it more easily without even thinking.

It was probably because of the Bone Helm and the 'residual memory' that the energy had in being used by the Deerclops that was making everything easier and not because I had a great talent with this energy, a pity, but who was I to complain about something that was helping me?

"As if I'd believe you're tired just because of that!" Yang responded with a shout, at the same time shooting in a random direction trying to hit me.

"You missed. By a lot."

"What's this, a new technique of yours?" Blake licked her lips as she asked, nervousness? Maybe...

"Something like that. I'm still learning how to use this right, to be honest." I wasn't really hiding, it wasn't a concealment, let alone I was invisible, this technique was more of a disorientation than anything.

I was in plain sight, I was the 'shadow in the corner of their vision', but no one could really focus on me and notice me.

If I stayed still for more than a few seconds, I was sure I would be found quickly, but moving, always staying on the edge of everyone's vision?...

I was just a blur... A mere hallucination...

"Watch your backs..." At the end of my speech, I shot towards them with a random weapon from the inventory.

Before the shot even reached them, Coco, Ruby, Pyrrha, Weiss, and incredibly the clumsy bunny, had turned around and shot in the direction I was in.

Or at least was moments ago. Being fast had its benefits.

"Good reaction time. But I'm pretty sure I didn't miss that shot. How come the bullet didn't hit you, Jaune?" My voice echoed from afar.

"Me?! You shot at me? Why?!" So it wasn't because of him that the bullet literally curved in the air...

"A test." I replied. "Everything is a test, actually, we're still in class, or did you forget?" From the faces some of them made, they really had forgotten about that.

Seems like I'm playing my role as the monster in the dark better than I thought if they even forgot that this was a class.

"I'll be honest here. There's something I've been wanting to ask for some time now." I changed the subject as I circled the whole group slowly. Damn, the place was full of traps.

"What? My three sizes?" Yang joked. "Sorry to say, but that's a secret~"

"Joking in this situation? A good way to not get nervous." I sang, a sound that came out more eerie than I expected actually.

"But no, the question is. Pyrrha. Do you think I don't know you're moving towards me slowly?" How she knew where I was was the mystery.

Before I even finished my sentence, the red-haired Amazon literally flew towards me and threw her spear at me. Even without the sonic boom, I already knew that thing was faster than a normal bullet.

From the way the thing seemed to be propelled out of nowhere in the air, I'd say it was even faster than Ruby's rifle bullets, at least in its compact form.

It was such a fluid movement that it even surprised me, to be honest. She practically glided across the floor.

At the same time, Ruby disappeared into a shower of rose petals and slashed with her scythe towards me. Unlike Pyrrha, Ruby's attack was more like she was aiming in a specific direction than directly at me.

Only Pyrrha noticed me... Must be her Semblance then.

I ignored the spear, or was it a dart? From Pyrrha and turned to Ruby, punching towards her center of mass.

She reacted fast, adjusting the grip on Crescent Rose and spinning in the air, making my punch hit the handle of the weapon and sending her sliding backward.

As for Pyrrha's weapon...

"Milo disappeared?" Pyrrha's voice was confused.

...Was in my inventory.

"Your thinking was good. You saw that I dodged the bullets and threw something faster than them..." I spoke while dodging Coco's machine gun shots.

A bag that turned into a machine gun. I would say the weapon wouldn't have any power due to its compact size, but since the bullets were made of Dust and seemed to glow for some reason, that would be a lie.

"...But you know, throwing your weapon at an opponent whose capabilities you don't know is kind of innocent to do. Take that as a lesson." I wasn't going to use the VoidBag in this fight, but I guess this might be an exception, as it would serve to teach them not to throw their weapons around.

Desperate actions require desperate measures, I know, but this situation was nothing like that, actually, it seemed like she wanted to fight me as quickly as possible for some reason.

I couldn't stay still for too long before needing to dodge another barrage of bullets.

"Talking in battle is also something wrong, prof." Coco didn't stop shooting even while talking.

Kind of hypocritical, but okay.

Nora chose this moment to propel herself with her hammer towards me and strike me with it.

At the same time, Ruby and one of Coco's team guys, a two-meter giant, attacked me. Ruby from behind, using speed to flank me, and the giant from the opposite side of Nora.

Flanked from all sides? And if I...

"Don't even try!" Yang shouted as I flexed my knees, she and Blake coming at me from the sky, their feet glowing with the residual glow of Weiss's glyphs.

Let's go brute force then...

I spun the upper part of my body, punching the giant's sword in the flat part of the blade and took a step towards his guard at the same time I grabbed his wrist.

I'll borrow this for a moment. I would have said the words out loud, but as Coco said, talking in battle was something wrong.

I kicked the giant away at the same time as I grabbed the sword with my hands and swung it towards Nora's hammer. The impact literally blew everything around, both from the brute force of the blow and from the grenade that came out of the redhead's weapon.

A grenade launcher, how incredible. And it wasn't even irony, I wanted one for myself.

Nora went flying backward, colliding with Ren, who was coming to the battle with his pistol daggers in hand. Both flew into the tree behind them with the impact.

I had about a second of peace before being attacked again, this time by Ruby and Blake, the former appearing on my back in moments, holding the chains of the latter's weapon that was on the other side.

I didn't care about the chains that were about to entangle me and swung with the giant sword in my hand to the side, where Yang jumped from the smoke curtain that Nora's grenade had made.

Just moments before the giant sword collided with Yang's gauntlets, I felt the sword literally move inches to the side.

What the hell?

I tightened the grip on the sword's handle, making it stop moving, but the time it took was enough for Yang to mimic my actions and punch the flat side of the curved blade of the weapon, making my strike miss the blonde by inches.

I took advantage of the momentum of the blow and spun my body, spinning the sword around me.

Yang went flying with the impact, her Aura glowing from the blow, the same happened with the chains around me and Ruby, the latter managing to dodge receiving the full blow, being impacted only by the curved tip of the sword.

I spun the sword's hilt in my hands and attacked again, this time with more force, but not aiming at the humans and faunus in front of me, but at the ground, which cracked and collapsed with the force of the impact and the weight of the sword, which, although not as heavy as Houtengeki, should weigh over a hundred kilograms.

The entire area around for about fifty meters cracked instantly, trees falling like dominoes as the ground they were on was cracked and destroyed, raising a curtain of dust throughout the environment.

The least affected were Jaune, who was at the back of the battle alongside a guy with deep red-brown skin and a rabbit faunus, the latter two from Coco's team.

These three hadn't moved for some reason since the battle began, just stood watching from afar. They were also the first to recover and look in my direction, well, at least to where I was.

"He vanished!" Jaune was the one who shouted, looking at the sword stuck in the ground where I was before.

Pyrrha was the second to get up, looking around before widening her eyes.

"What's wrong? Can't figure out where I am anymore?" My voice echoed from all sides again. "Took me a while, but I figured out what your Semblance is..." Damn Magneto female version.

She had some kind of magnetism or polarity, I didn't know, but it involved metals, or at least I thought so from what I had seen.

Her spear gaining momentum, the bullet changing direction in the air, the sword moving on its own, all of that was metallic. Sure, it could be just some form of telekinesis, but chances were it wasn't, hence the test.

As soon as I returned to being the 'shadow in the corner of vision', I also threw everything metallic on my clothes into the inventory. Pyrrha hadn't found me so far, so it seems my guess was right.

I just wanted to know why she only used a spear and a shield. When you have magnetism, you're kind of obligated to use iron sand to fight...

I'll talk to her after delivering the lesson report to Glynda, a report that I clearly didn't ask Jarvis to write while I was fighting.

Stark lied, don't trust him.

"You know, Weiss, I think I destroyed about two hundred glyphs that were under the ground. Not to mention the ones on rocks and trees. Do you hold a grudge against me or something?" I asked.

The short fight I had was in a trap-free location, which was close to Coco's team, but everything else was infested with Weiss's glyphs, I could barely move without stepping on anything.

It seemed the glyphs had some kind of limitation too, as Weiss didn't remotely activate them like she had done against me in yesterday's sparring.

"It would be disrespectful of me to hold back against you." She got up, brushing off the dust from her clothes.

Ruby took advantage of the conversation to spin around everyone, swinging Crescent Rose wildly while creating a small whirlwind, before striking at the center of this whirlwind, throwing the dust away.

Even with the clear vision, I was nowhere to be found...

Curious, I thought Lucy would tell Ruby where I was, our connection kinda gave that away, but the axe had been silent since the beginning of the fight.

"Velvet, you have my permission to use that." Coco spoke to her team's rabbit faunus, who nodded with a serious face.

"A secret weapon?" I asked. "Should I be worried?"

The one who answered me was the guy next to Velvet.

"Maybe yes, maybe no. But if I were you, I'd be careful, prof." He shrugged. Only then did I notice something in his eyes.

"Are you blind?" His eyes were opaque.

"Only noticing now? What a lack of vision on your part, prof. And they say I'm the blind one." He laughed, with the joke, while Coco sighed.

"Is he always like this?" Blake asked.

"Ignore him, if you laugh at his jokes, you'll only encourage him." Coco replied.

My low laugh echoed moments later. It was supposed to be a humorous laugh, but like everything touched by nightmare energy turned into something kinda eerie, my laugh was no different.

"The Deer Huntsmen liked the joke. See, Coco, I told you they're funny." The red-haired man waved to Coco. "But a question, prof, why do your footsteps have no sound?" He asked me.

"Nor does his breathing." Ren spoke for the first time. "Is it something to do with your Semblance?" He asked.

"Or is he a ninja!" Nora replied to Ren as she went towards him who handed her a yellow Dust crystal. Electricity? The mana I could feel coming from the crystal reminded me of static.

Everyone was making small movements without saying anything while the conversation happened.

"I'm not a ninja yet. But I intend to get my forehead protector in the future if possible." I answered Nora honestly. "I just don't know if the ninja academy will accept me, I'm a bit above the normal age of the students."

Anything, I could just steal a headband for my collection, but I don't think Jiraiya will mind giving me one as an honorary member of Kohona.

"A ninja academy?" If it wasn't Nora's Semblance, her happiness was big enough to make her eyes sparkle for a second. "Can I enroll too?" She asked excitedly.

"I'll ask them later and let you know." Ruby had already asked to join before, Blake too, even though she didn't say it in those exact words, now Nora.

I'm going to start charging Kohona for every recruitment I do.

"You seem to be enjoying yourself." Yang commented as she rotated the wrist that had received the impact of the sword earlier.

"I am enjoying myself." I replied back. Even though I wasn't really using all of myself, it was still fun to fight against the students, besides learning various things, I had started to enjoy fighting, moving my body.

Especially since there was nothing at stake, no life that could be lost or a city that would collapse if I didn't kill whatever was in front of me.

"And these messages you guys are sending each other? Can I know what they are?" I had noticed that some of them were discreetly using the Scrolls, or at least trying to.

"Nothing. Don't worry about it." Ruby stuck out her tongue before putting the Scroll back in her skirt pocket.

"Nothing at all?" I sang, the sound echoing sinisterly, even more so now that the sun had set and the sky was dark. "What's your plan?" I asked rhetorically. I didn't let them answer.

Without warning, I moved forward, towards Ren's back, and struck him with a punch.

He reacted the moment I made noise, spinning his upper body and raising both pistol blades towards my punch as he fired.

The bullets caused little damage to my Aura, my punch sent Ren flying away with his Aura flickering, his pistols thrown to the side.

Their surprised looks told me that whatever they were planning, it didn't involve me punching Ren into oblivion.

No plan survives contact with the enemy. I had learned that in Jille, it was better for them to learn it here, in training.

Nora was the first to react after Ren. The redhead turned, her Aura, along with small bolts of lightning, pulsating all over her body in a pink color.

Redhead, wielding a hammer and shooting lightning?

I didn't think I'd face Thor so soon, let alone a female version of him.

In her first step, I noticed the change, she was faster and something told me stronger too... But the strike was still predictable, not that it mattered much against Grimm, but it was one of the things to improve against people.

I leaned my body back, narrowly dodging Nora's strike and kicked her in the side, sending her flying like Ren, my Aura absorbing the electricity, not all of it, since I felt the shock.

This damn thing numbed my foot a bit. How many volts did the girl have in her body?

"Boom!"

I turned, the moment I heard the sonic boom, just in time to raise my arms and cushion the impact of the blow...

"What?" I asked looking at Velvet.

... From a Velvet holding a shiny Houtengeki?

What the hell?!

Seeing an illusory copy of my halberd wasn't even what surprised me the most, but rather how the rabbit faunus was breathing... It was the same way I did.

Velvet was using Sun Breathing...

My eyes widened when I saw her twist her upper body to one side and the lower to the other, before thrusting with the fake Houtengeki forward.

It was instinctive, but my own Houtengeki appeared in my hand as I made the same movements as her. Or in this case, she was making the same movements as me.

'Sun Breathing (Devas Style) - First form: Solar Flare.'

There was no standoff, my Houtengeki destroyed hers in an instant, forcing her to retreat and pull another copy of Houtengeki from a camera of all things.

I didn't continue attacking, not even paying attention to all the others who had started moving towards me, but focused my attention completely on the rabbit in front of me.

"It's not a perfect copy." It was close, the way she moved her muscles and breathed was almost identical to me, but still different, probably due to differences in weight, muscle mass, and size, not to mention the various flaws I could see just in passing.

She had copied me, but not perfectly, it probably required practice.

But the main difference was that she wasn't using spiritual energy, which was expected, her body was just breathing absurd amounts of oxygen.

I could almost see the smoke coming out of her skin as she heated up quickly, just before Velvet's nose bled and she collapsed like a house of cards.

"Velvet!" Coco was the first to react, followed by her two teammates.

Before they even moved, or Velvet's body hit the ground, I blurred, accelerating and appearing next to the faunus and holding her.

I didn't even need to use the Analyze: Item to know she was injured; her muscles were limp, and her breathing was slow. Damn, she didn't have the physique to use Sun Breathing.

The good part was that when she passed out, her body had stopped copying the way I breathed, so she wasn't in any life-threatening danger.

"She's fine. Just hurt, but she'll live." I spoke loudly for everyone to hear. Her Aura was also low; was it because of her Semblance or Sun Breathing? Maybe both, mainly protecting her from the sudden speed she had accelerated from nowhere.

I pulled a Purification Powder pill from the inventory, but before I could hand it to Velvet, Coco grabbed my arm.

"What's this?" She asked, worried and confused, looking at the pill in my hands.

"Something that will stabilize her." I replied. I wasn't annoyed by the interruption, even though it was obvious I wanted to help Velvet, Coco's concern for her was commendable.

Her whole team, in fact, since the two guys were circling me, as if they were going to attack me if I did something. She had a good team.

"Here, give it to her. She doesn't need to swallow." I handed the pill to Coco, who wasted no time in putting it in Velvet's mouth. The effect was immediate.

Even though she was breathing normally, it was still slow and weak, as if her lungs were weak; at least she wasn't coughing up blood, so nothing was too damaged.

The moment the Purification Powder entered her system, even though it wasn't a cure in itself, it had helped to 'normalize' things inside, which was basically expelling immense amounts of oxygen out of her body in the form of a white smoke that came out of her mouth, nose, and ears.

Just to make sure nothing would happen, I pulled a potion from the inventory and let a few drops fall into the rabbit's open mouth, a little more than a sixth of the entire potion.

It wasn't anything that would really heal a wound or serious injury, but for Velvet, it would be enough.

The moment the drops fell on her tongue, her skin visibly regained some color; not a second later her eyes trembled, just before opening slowly.

"What?" She asked sleepily, before coughing a few times. No blood, that was good. "What happened?"

She frowned, raising her hand to her head.

"What happened was that you almost suffered oxygen poisoning." I sighed, handing Velvet over to Coco, who helped her sit up slowly.

To be honest, Velvet was lucky; if her body were more resistant, she probably would have been able to use Sun Breathing for longer and thereby poison herself even more; and something told me that if it weren't for her Aura, the little she used would have been enough to kill her.

That's if she wasn't completely incompatible with Sun Breathing; if that were the case, even if she had a resilient enough body, she would still end up severely injured.

I shook my head before pulling out my cell phone and calling Ozpin to send a Bull-Head.

"The class is over. You three were the last three teams, congratulations!" I informed the twelve in front of me as the call was connected.

"Three final teams? Wasn't it just one?" Yang asked almost automatically, everyone with weapons in hand as if they hadn't understood that the fight had ended yet.

"I'm the teacher, it was one before, now it's three." I hadn't even thought of a reward; I just said that to make the students fight each other, changing from one team to three wasn't a big deal.

Not that I was going to say that out loud, of course.

[...]

POV: Ozpin.

"She has minor muscle lacerations and will need to rest for the next few days. But nothing that Aura won't heal in less than a week." I informed everyone what the nurse had told me, as only I and Devas were allowed inside the infirmary to avoid a commotion.

"Is she going to be okay?" Miss Adel asked.

"Yes, Miss Scarlatina is going to be okay." With my confirmation, everyone from team CFVY seemed to finally relax and breathe a sigh of relief.

"Now, may I know what happened?" I turned to Devas, who had only explained the basics; a student had been injured, but nothing more.

And it wasn't like the other students; some had also been injured, but that was natural at Beacon. Some spars were more aggressive than others, but injuries like Miss Scarlatina's were rare, as they were internal.

Either Devas had some kind of magic that could damage muscles and organs, or Miss Scarlatina had somehow inflicted those injuries on herself.

"I'm not entirely sure either." Devas glanced over the three teams in the hallway before stopping his gaze on Miss Adel and continuing. "We were having a normal fight—." I heard half of the students mock those words, but I ignored them, as did Devas, who continued. "—Until Miss Adel gave permission for Miss Scarlatina to use something, then the next thing I know, she's copying my fighting style, just before collapsing from exhaustion."

Just by copying his fighting style, she ended up... Ah... Yes, that must be it.

Miss Winter was the one who watched the stream videos the most, even though she hadn't reported everything she saw, waiting to make a complete report, she reported the main points as soon as she found out.

One of these points she deemed important was a technique that Devas learned, a breathing technique that, in Miss Winter's words, was like a Semblance that could be learned, a strong and useful Semblance in combat to boot.

It seems Miss Scarlatina ended up using her own Semblance, Photographic Memory, to copy Devas's fighting and breathing style, but something went wrong in the middle of the process.

"I think I know what might have happened." I spoke before Miss Adel could respond. Miss Scarlatina was CFVY's 'secret weapon', wasn't she? I remember Glynda mentioning something like that to Miss Adel.

"You do?" Devas asked, looking at me from the corner of his eye.

"I'll tell you more later if you want. For now, I think it's getting late; why don't you all go to your dormitories?" I waved to the students.

Before the CFVY members could protest, I continued.

"My ears aren't as good these days. If, let's say, three students manage to sneak into the infirmary to sleep next to their injured teammate, I probably won't hear." I nudged my ears just for show.

None of the twelve students in front of me missed the real meaning of my words.

"But, only if they remain silent. If I receive a noise complaint tomorrow, unfortunately, I'll be forced to give detention to the three." I don't think I've ever seen anyone as big as Mister Daichi walk so quietly before in all my years.

"As for you eight. I suggest you go to sleep, you have early classes tomorrow." I turned to team RWBY and JNPR.

The former didn't protest, probably going to watch Devas's stream, but to my surprise, the latter did, Miss Nikos reaching out to Devas.

"Remember, even if you have a Semblance that can be used to retrieve your weapon, it won't always be possible." Devas spoke, summoning Miló, if I'm not mistaken, Miss Nikos's javelin, into his hand before handing it to her.

"How did you find out?" Miss Nikos asked.

"About your Semblance?" Devas hummed before answering. "Observation and a bit of luck. But I've seen someone with something similar before, which helped piece it together." He replied.

"You've seen someone with a Semblance similar to mine?"

"Yes. But that's something for tomorrow." Devas sighed. "But a tip for now. Iron sand, you're smart enough to understand why." From the widening of Miss Nikos's eyes, she seemed to have understood.

Her Semblance was polarity, wasn't it? If she has good control, I can see how using iron sand will help, but it's something that will be difficult to learn.

After a few goodbyes and several good nights from everyone, the last ones in the hallway were me and Devas.

"Shall we go?" He waved.

I started walking, and he followed.

"What you did with Coco's team was nice." Devas commented.

"What? I just informed them that I'm getting old, nothing more." There were rules that were meant to be followed and rules that were meant to be broken.

Why would I prevent concerned teammates from being together?

"Old. I suppose so." Devas laughed, before falling silent. I did the same, and we resumed walking.

"Miss Scarlatina will be fine, don't worry." I spoke after we passed through a few corridors.

"I'm not worried. Just pensive." He sighed. "What's her Semblance again? Copy?" He leaned closer.

"Photographic Memory. She can memorize everything she sees and copy it with some ease." Not perfectly, at least not without training.

"Close to what I had thought, then. A good Semblance."

"I can agree with that."

After a few minutes of walking, we arrived in front of an elevator.

"I'll take the stairs." Devas didn't hesitate to turn around.

"There are no stairs to where we're going." I couldn't help but smile slightly.

"Do they need to know that?" He pointed to his own back.

"Team RWBY?" Devas nodded. "It's an important secret. But no more than other dimensions and worlds. Can they keep a secret?"

Devas waited a few seconds before sighing and giving a smile.

"I think the thumbs-up emotes mean they can, but I could be wrong." He replied before adding. "I know the uncle of two of them, in case they can't keep their mouths shut."

"How curious, I know the fathers of the other two as well." From the mischief in Devas's eyes when he was looking into the air, I imagine the messages from team RWBY must be fun to read.

"Well, let's get going then."

When we entered the elevator, I pressed a sequence of buttons, then instead of going up, the elevator started going down.

Let's see if our visitor from another world could help Amber.

[...]---[...]

Regarding the chapter, as I said, things sped up, some surprises happened, Devas 'gained' some new skills and will go meet Ember.

I won't ramble on too much here, as always, good night everyone and happy reading!

PS: Which relic do you think the key will open the vault?