Yang winced as the smaller combatant smashed into the ground, again. Said combatant, Jaune Arc, was easily the weakest fighter in their class. In truth it had become a little embarrassing whenever he went up to the stage. It wasn't that he wasn't trying, it was just that he lacked any form of... well form.
Yang winced again as he took a particularly hard hit to the stomach from Cardin's mace. The far larger man left several openings and gaps in his defense that, if Yang were fighting him, would have turned the fight swiftly in her favour. However, Cardin knew the person he was fighting lacked the skill required to exploit said weaknesses. Instead, by the time Jaune finally made a move for the gaps Cardin was ready, the entire fight was a baiting game.
After several more hard hits and a few more hard smacks on the floor the fight was over.
He did... better... than last time at least.
Yang clapped her hands along with the bulk of Team RWBY and JNPR. She heard a low murmur next to her from her partner.
"What was that Kitty cat?" Yang took a not so subtle pleasure in the way her partner's eye twitched.
Blake glared at her blonde partner for the nickname before pretending it never happened. "I said, he's unteachable." She picked her book back up when it became clear Miss Goodwitch wasn't going to pick on her to fight.
Yang wasn't sure if it was because her protective side, or the fact Jaune was Ruby's friend, but for whatever reason she couldn't help defending him at least somewhat."He lasted a lot longer than what he used to manage." She was careful to keep her voice low to not attract unwanted attention from either the teacher or the students around her.
Blake sighed and slightly lowered her book. "He has improved slightly but he also trains with a Mistrillian champion, he should be far better than he is now."
"That's not really how it works though, I mean yes, he should be learning a lot from her, but just because you're good at something doesn't mean you're good at teaching it." Yang put her face in her hands as she waited for something interesting to happen in the fight in the arena.
"Or he's just bad at this." Blake kept her eyes focused on the novel in front of her.
Yang sighed. "Vomit boy tries, what more can you ask?"
As the two talked Weiss leaned over to hush them, Yang promptly ignored her.
"With the right person he could be a total badass, hell you could probably even do it." Yang sent a wink in her partners direction.
"And yet I don't want to waste my time, maybe you should do it." Blake said it like she knew the answer to her own statement.
"Maybe I will." Yang couldn't help but laugh at Blake's doubting glare.
"Yeah, and you'll turn him into one of the best combatants of our year." Blake rolled her eyes and turned back to her book.
"Wanna have a bet?" Yang move her eyes back to the fight in front of them.
"And what would we be betting?" Blake looked up from her book, apparently finding some interest in the line of thought.
"If I can make him competent, not the best but not bad, then you have to... take Weiss to that dance coming up!" Blake's shoulders stiffened slightly for a moment before shaking her head.
The heiress leaned over slightly. "I did not agree to such things."
"If you can't, which is the far more likely event, then..." A smile crept onto her face and she held out her hand. "You have to cut your hair." Yang almost fell out of her chair. "Looks like we don't have a bet." Blake began to pull her hand back before Yang gripped it tightly.
"You got yourself a deal Kitty cat."
"What!?" Blakes eyes went wide. "That wasn't real, you-" She was interrupted by the sound of the bell and Yang sprinting out of the class at Ruby like speeds.
Not before getting the last word in however. "We have a deal." She was out the door and a silence spread through the classroom for a moment before she leaned back in slightly. "Get a nice dress, something to make Weiss go wild." And Yang was off in search of her new student.
She didn't fail to hear the screech from Weiss.
Jaune was tired, tired of his failure as a huntsmen, as a hero. He was tired of the repeated attempts at getting better that always seemed to end in failure. At the moment he was... physically tired as well.
He walked through the halls of Beacon to JNPR's dorm room in silence. He was glad the day was over, and even more so that he had the weekend to sleep in the shared dorm room. He was just about to enter his dorm when he heard someone yelling his name from behind him.
"Yo, Vomit boy!" The eccentric blonde was neither subtle nor helpful. Jaune sighed, putting on his best confidence, and turned to face the girl.
"Hey Yang, need something?" Jaune didn't intend for it come across rude but it certainly sounded that way as his exhausted tone of voice made Yang stop for a second before responding.
"What are you doing tonight?" Yang put a hand on her hip and sent him a coy smile.
Jaune's brain stopped working. Was she asking him on a date? Was this finally the time he would learn what it meant to be in a relationship? Was this real?
Yang seemed to notice, and take joy in, his confusion before setting the record straight.
"Not like that, I wanted to offer some tips to help you fight Cardin." Jaune wouldn't say he was disappointed, in truth he doubted she would ever take interest in him, he had just let his hopes get up a little. He gave a soft chuckle before speaking, though it came out more exhausted than an actual laugh.
"Thanks for the offer but Pyrrha and I have training later tonight." Jaune sagged slightly at the thought of the physically demanding and grueling training that was yet to come.
"It won't hurt to miss one night, besides you're still training, just with someone else." Yang gestured the idea off with her hand.
"I don't know Yang." Jaune didn't want to think right now, he just wanted to sleep and if he was quick enough to go to bed Pyrrha would cancel their training, he doubted Yang would let that slide.
"It really does help when training to train against multiple people, keeps you from falling into a pattern." Jaune thought on the idea. Had they become to used to it?
Jaune was never able to beat Pyrrha, he had in fact been able to hold his own for some time, but was that skill or just knowing what her moves were gonna be? Jaune's confidence took another large hit.
"I'll talk to Pyrrha about it, for now I'm gonna take a nap." Jaune turned to his door.
"It's not even four." Yang pointed out.
"It's been a long day, I didn't get a lot of sleep. Take your pick." Jaune closed the door and made his way to his bed to sleep.
As he lay there, trying to drift off into that blissful unconsciousness he began to think.
Have I really not improved at all?
Yang wasn't sure exactly what to call Jaune. He was her sister's friend, that much was true, she just wasn't sure what he was to her. Regardless of his title, Yang could admit to being a little worried. She didn't see Jaune as the depressed type nor did she see him as someone to give up on his dreams, no matter how impractical they may have been, but that didn't remove the damage done to a person from repeated loss. She felt all the worse for how he responded to her reasoning. Sure it made sense but that doesn't change the fact that it hurts.
He's not as bad as he thinks he is, the people he fights are kinda perfect to fight him back as he is now. Pyrrha is a champion with a thousand different tricks to win a fight and Cardin can just muscle his way through the fight. As much as I hate the guy he isn't a weakling.
Yang found her way to the combat rooms and reserved a room for the two to train in that night, assuming he actually showed up. After that she went back to her dorm to relax for a few hours and mess around with Ruby. The group spent the bulk of the evening relaxing and playing video games, though neither Weiss or Blake were to adamant on the second event.
After the games, and a sincerely upset Schnee yelling about unrealistic 'features' in a fighting game, the group had split up to work on school work, though only Weiss and Ruby actually did any homework and Weiss was the only one doing it willingly.
Blake had settled down on her bunk to read her 'not porn' while Yang played a game on her scroll. By the time dinner rolled around Yang had decided to shoot Jaune a message about where and when they would start. She told her team the plan causing Blake to stiffen lightly and Weiss to roll her eyes at mention of the bet.
Jaune looked down at his scroll and sighed when he saw who it was from. He had half hoped Yang would drop the plan before they could ever start training, but she hadn't. He rolled himself out of bed and sat upright on the sheets.
"You're awake?" Pyrrha spoke from her own bed a few feet away.
"It would seem so." He smiled as she responded with a soft chuckle.
"Are you ready for some training then?" And then she responded with the one question he didn't want her to ask.
"Yang wanted to do some training between the two of us, something about mixing it up?" Jaune stood from his bed. "Though if that's a problem I can just call it off."
Pyrrha hesitated for a moment before responding. "No, no that's ok. It is a good idea to train with multiple people, it helps to train adaptability." She let a gentle smile cover her face. "Just be careful, Yang is..." His partner seemed to have trouble finding the proper word.
"Dangerous?" Jaune finished her sentence for her.
"Skilled." she was quick to correct him.
Jaune sighed again. "Well I guess I'm off to lose a spar or two. I'm sure it shouldn't take too long."
"Perhaps if you get back soon enough we could go out into Vale, as a team." She was quick to add the last part in a stammer of words as a blush came across her face.
"Sounds fun, see you soon Pyr."
Jaune pulled out his scroll to check on the location Yang had said to meet before heading off down the hall. He was surprised that she had been able to secure a training room but he figured it made sense. The rooms were available for the students to use, it was kinda the whole point of the school after all, but Pyrrha and him had always just used the roof of their dorm, it was more private was the reason she gave.
After retrieving his gear from his locker, he entered the room to see the far more competent blonde standing on the stage at the center of the room.
"You ready for some training?" The emphasis she put on the word didn't make him feel all that comfortable.
"Any chance we could do this some other time?" He followed up his desperate question with an awkward chuckle.
Yang, however, responded with a full laugh before halting abruptly to respond. "Nope."
Jaune sighed and pulled out his sword.
Pyrrha and her fight all the time and Yang usually loses so she can't be all that worse than Pyrrha, right? I just gotta do what I do against Pyrrha and everything should be fine... right?
Jaune held his shield out in front of him with his sword at his side, taking a moment to gauge his opponent's combat stance.
He knew she used fist based weapons which he should be able to stop with his shield, and his sword gave him a better reach meaning he would have the advantage over her if not for her tremendous skill over him... or the shotguns in her gauntlet... or her stupid levels of strength... come to think of it, did he really have any advantage?
"Ready?" Yang fell into a combat stance.
Jaune nodded and in an instant she was upon him, smashing one of her fists into his shield that he had barely managed to get up in time. He forced her back with a push of his shield before he sent an overhead strike which she parried with one of her gauntlets.
A frown spread across her face as she pressed her advantage and pushed him back. He was able to stop most of her hits on his shield but he was not able to gain the offensive with anything more than small probing strikes.
"What are you doing?" Yang didn't even bother putting her fist's up to block his strike as he swung with his sword, merely stepping back out of its reach.
He pulled back before speaking. "What do you mean?"
"All you're doing is taking my hits, you do know you have to fight back, right?" She smirked at her rhetorical question, not really expecting any real answer.
"And how would I do that?" She had pointed out the obvious but failed to give him any insight into how to fix the problem.
"Put some force behind your swings." Again she stated it like it was obvious.
"And when I do that, and you inevitably dodge or parry the strike I'm left wide open. What then?" Jaune was frustrated with the question, it was one he had asked himself again and again, it was a problem he kept running into with all the people he trained against.
"Then you learn." She shrugged her shoulders and fell into another stance.
"What?" Jaune let his sword fall loose in his hands to show he had no intention of starting the spar backup, not yet at least.
Yang sighed before responding. "Put force behind your attacks so that if you do hit then you'll do some damage. You'll learn what works and what doesn't." She didn't bother leaving her stance to explain her advice.
Jaune tightened his hand around the sword as he pulled it up and prepared for another fight. He took a few steps forward before taking a probing strike at Yang's chest, not with any force behind the strike or any real intention of creating damage but instead to see how she would react.
When she retaliated with a punch to his shield using her right hand he decide to put her advice into action. He swung his sword horizontally, and since she was using her right hand to strike she wasn't quite ready to parry the attack.
He couldn't help but feel proud as the blade connected with her aura before her other hand smashed into his shield again, this time throwing him off balance enough that he couldn't block her follow up punch, forcing him up into the air before smashing into the ground.
"See, you learned to pay more attention. Very important lesson, you even got a strike in. Lets go again."
Jaune groaned as he stood back up, Pyrrha never hit him like that. With that thought he was reminded with the fact that Yang usually lost to his partner, something wasn't adding up in the math. The logical conclusion was that his partner was always going easy on him. Even when she was going easy and he was trying his hardest he couldn't even hope to defeat her.
"Hey, no sulking. I wanna punch some stuff." Yang's words of wisdom forced him out of his funk and back into a stance, that had his shield front and center with the hopes of stopping the punches from connecting with his physical body.
Even through the shield and his Aura, the punches still hurt every time they smashed into the metal.