Wednesday, 9th April, 79AGW.

Training Field A, Beacon.

3:05 pm.

“I see you’re all here on time today,” Professor Goodwitch said, sounding quite pleased.

Lima couldn’t help but feel singled out and laughed nervously to himself, earning an amused glance from Yang, who was standing on his left alongside the rest of team RWBY.

“Following the pattern we’ve established already, we will be moving onto another exercise that you will all be expected to become accustomed to over the next few months,” Glynda said pleasantly. “This time, you will be undergoing a survival-style combat simulation-do not worry, Ms. Rose, I assure you I will explain.”

Ruby let her hand drop embarrassedly, earning another chuckle from Yang.

“In the field, you will eventually encounter a situation that will push you to your absolute limits and beyond even that,” Professor Goodwitch said more seriously. “You’ll find yourself alone against overwhelming odds, separated from others by either circumstance or design, you will be outnumbered, and the only course of action left to you is to do everything in your power to survive even as those around you suffer.”

Lima’s good humor had vanished with the explanation, as it hit a little too close to home for him, and it was the second comment in as many days that brought the same memories surging back. He found himself staring at treeline, searching for the eyes that he knew wouldn’t be there, not this close to the school anyway.

“Now, in a more concrete structure that you can actually use; Today, you will be fighting as an individual, against a number of enemies, in this case, both your teammates and peers.” Glynda instructed, “Each one of you will have a chance to ‘survive’ today-the matches are unlikely to last for too long for obvious reasons. Any questions?”

“How many people are on the attacking side?” Lux said curiously.

“Nine of you will be participating in each round-one survivor, eight attackers,” Glynda said evenly, before turning to where Ruby had her hand raised again. “Yes, Ms. Rose?”

There was a wave of excited voices at the news, but Lima still only had eyes for the tree line.

“What happens when the attackers run out of aura?” Ruby said curiously.

“Wow,” Teak said, impressed, “Is she planning on winning? Against eight people?”

“I like her,” Lux laughed happily.

“They will be substituted with another fresh student in the next round; we will rotate them in as needed,” Glynda said easily, “With more than twenty teams here, this shouldn’t be too much of an issue; there will be plenty of time between rounds for you to recover your aura.”

There was a moment where she paused for any more questions before she turned her attention to her scroll, no doubt figuring out the order of the rounds.

“Lima?” Claire said hesitantly, “Are you alright?”

It was the first time since they had left a history that she had said anything unprompted, and it drew the attention of both Lux and Teak to him.

“I’m fine,” Lima said evenly, not taking his eyes off the trees.

“You don’t sound fine,” Claire said quietly, turning to follow his gaze.

“Neither do you,” Lima said indifferently.

Claire’s gaze turned avoidant for a moment before she shook her head and fell quiet.

“Is there something in the trees?” Lux said, frowning.

“Lima?” Teak said quietly.

Lima couldn’t help the flash of annoyance that washed through him as they pushed him to answer. It wasn’t at them, not really; it was at himself for once again falling into the same spiral of negativity.

It had been over a decade since it had happened, and yet he still felt like that pathetic little kid that watched his family and friends get eaten in front of him while he did nothing but watch. The same miserable kid that had done nothing to help his mother as she died.

The same kid who, when it had been his time to die, had survived.

He miraculously managed to unlock his semblance and killed the monstrous creatures in a fit of fear and anger, but by then, everyone else was already dead or dying. Why hadn’t any of the others found similar power in their moment of need? Why hadn’t his mother?

Why was it him that lived?

It was the question that had stalked him for years.

“We’ll do it randomly for now, although depending on how each of the matches goes, I might make some adjustments next time,” Glynda instructed. “For the first round, our survivor will be Mr. Morta.”

A flash of red in the trees and his gaze snapped over to it, but whatever it was vanished from sight, and he almost jumped as Teak touched him gently on the shoulder.

“Lucky,” Lux said, watching him with narrow eyes, “You get to go first, huh? Sure, you’re up for this; you don’t look too good.”

Lima didn’t respond, instead slowly making his way to the designated starting place in the field.

“I see you’ve actually managed to remember your weapon this time,” Glynda Goodwitch said archly before turning back to her scroll. “Ms. Flora and Mr. Crait, your respective teammates will be the ones on the attacking teams.”

The two teams made their way out onto the field, looking excited and kind of sheepish. Lima forced himself to turn his eyes away from the treeline and face them, two teams of four, a mixture of men and women.

He didn’t recognize any of them, except for the girl with the half pink, half yellow hair; her hair had stuck out enough that he’d remember seeing her in the halls before—both from different first-year classes.

“The rules are simple, Mr. Morta; your goal is to survive for exactly ten minutes, using any means possible, attack, defend, flee, deceive, you do not have to remain in the clearing, but please avoid fighting inside the school; if your aura reaches the threshold before the timer ends, the round will be over.” Glynda instructed, “Team Floral and Team Grass, your goal is to drop his aura to the threshold before the timer runs out, using any means necessary.”

Lima took note of the various array of weapons, three swords of varying shapes, a spear, a thin but extremely long odachi, a staff with both tips topped with a curved blade, a pair of wrist-mounted blades, and a pair of bladed Sai.

“Everybody understands the rules?” Glynda said, searching their faces for a moment. “Very well, you have one minute to prepare yourself, Mr. Morta.”

Lima turned and walked into the treeline; he headed straight for where he saw the flash of red earlier and found a small red flower hanging from a vine.

“Just a flower, huh?” Lima said quietly.

He drew his compacted bow and expanded it to full size before moving further into the trees. His scroll beeped to alert him that the round had begun, and he ignored it, walking straight up one of the trees and standing horizontally on the side amongst the leaves.

Barely five seconds later, team Floral came sprinting between the trees, searching for him. He watched them pass before notching an arrow and taking aim at the back of one of the sword-wielders. He paused for a beat before he turned and shot the leader of ‘Grass’ as he launched himself into the air towards him, spear pointed directly at him.

Crait was sent flipping backward by the impact on his shoulder before he crashed into the base of a tree with a great deal of force. Lima let his semblance weaken before he slid down the tree and pushed off, heading straight towards him.

Crait’s teammates intercepted him before he could reach him, and he lifted his bow, turned a sword to the side from one of the girls before snap-kicking the other boy in the face, sending him spinning to the ground.

“Ash, watch out!” Crait called quickly.

Lima didn’t let her escape; instead, he jaunted forward past her sword and palmed her face, lifting her off the ground and driving her into the Grass below with enough force for her Aura to flicker into visibility, already close to the threshold.

Crait stumbled back to his feet and made it three steps towards him before Lima had activated the gravity dust at the end of the arrow and pulled it back towards him; he snatched it out of the air and notched it.

Crait dove to the side in an attempt to avoid his shot, but he waited calmly until he landed before he let it fly, sending him back through the trees with a yelp.

The fourth member made an appearance a moment later, having snuck around behind him, and struck out at his back with his twin wrist-mounted blades. Lima planted his hand on the ground and cartwheeled out of the way before heading away from where team Floral was coming towards them, having noticed the fighting.

Because of the direction they were angling from, he was forced to make his way back to the field, but he managed to land two consecutive shots on the closest member of team Grass, the same boy he had kicked earlier. The guy groaned as he was taken out of the match, and his long sword-wielding teammate swayed around him as she sprinted back into the fight, joined a second later by Crait, looking wary-the boy must have had a naturally large aura pool to still be in the game by now, after two solid hits.

Shots flashed around the forest floor, and he caught them on the edge of his bow, angling them down and away from him, before heading straight along the treeline to keep the last of the trees between him and the shots.

He made it past team Floral before they could wrap around and cut off access to the forest again, and he circled back in ahead of them. The maneuver placed the fresh team between him and the girl who was shooting, which forced her to stop lest she hit her allies. He passed by a thick tree that blocked sight of him for a moment, and he sprinted straight upwards before launching himself into a high arc above the treeline.

He twisted to face downwards, bow drawn taut.

Flora, the girl with pink and yellow hair, burst out of the treeline, headed straight upwards for him, her ridiculously long odachi held at her side, she swiped at him twice the instant she was within range.

Lima angled himself backward to avoid the first strike, he used the tip of his bow to angle the second strike under his legs, leaving him upside down, and his bow pointed directly at her face. He watched as her eyes widened before he adjusted his aim and shot her in the stomach.

Flora vanished with a crack, and the sound of snapping branches rang out, followed by a thump as she hit the ground below. Lima used the force of the shot to send himself spinning backward and out of the way of the suddenly concentrated fire from the other attackers as it lanced upwards through the trees.

He adjusted his descent to slip past the shots and kicked off the top of a tree before heading back in the direction away from them. He barely got his bow between him and the pair of bladed Sai that stabbed at his face, catching them both on the metal frame.

The woman dragged his bow out of the way with a grunt of effort and spun before kicking out at him. Lima blocked the hit, but it sent him straight downwards, and then he no longer had any time to think.

The double-bladed staff of another fighter cut towards his face, and he leaned back before pushing off to the side in a short hop to avoid the follow-up. The Sai wielding girl rejoined the fight a moment later, followed by another boy with a massive greatsword.

He caught the greatsword by the blade, using his semblance to vanish the force behind it, and dragged him off the ground, spinning into a blistering circle to make some space. One of the girls ducked under her teammate and stabbed upwards at his face, and the strike cut a line across his Aura, and he flung the guy away from him before drawing another spike from his boxed quiver, halting the tip of the bladed staff cold with a flash of his semblance.

He caught the pair of Sai on his bow, held horizontally in front of him a second later, suddenly locked into a power struggle between them.

Crait stepped out from behind a tree, spear pointed at him, and two other remaining members from team Grass with the twin blades came from the other side; He was almost completely surrounded at this point.

“What the hell, man?” The greatsword boy complained as he stepped back into the clearing. “How are you still going?”

Lima needed to get out of the pincer, but the only direction free of most opposition was towards the field, and he was pretty sure they wouldn’t let him reenter the forest.

“Well, it’s like this,” Lima said quietly.

He sent a burst of his semblance forwards into his bow and crashed into the sai-wielder’s torso, coat-hangering her with force, and dashed through the gap, back towards the starting field.

“Hey!” The guy with the sword squawked.

“Don’t let him back into the forest!” Crait called, moving to flank him.

Six left, most of which were close to aura depletion, at least he assumed so; he’d have to start pulling back on the force again. Lima resigned himself to fighting them in the open, which was going to be a headache.

Abruptly he was out of the trees and sprinting across the field, he drew the attention of the class, some distance to his left, and he spotted the two eliminated members, sitting on the Grass and looking embarrassed.

He angled to the side as shots rang out and feigned that he was circling wide as if he was returning to the forest once more. Crait ran parallel to the forest, keep his distance and taking potshots at him, while the other five attacks sprinted directly towards him, intent on getting back into melee and overwhelming him once more.

Lima angled away again, putting the five of them between him and Crait’s fire, before stopping on a dime and heading straight back towards the group. The girl with the long sword looked shocked as he reached her, slashing out on reflex, he caught the sword on his bow bleeding the force off with his semblance and firing at the same time.

Her Aura flickered into visibility as she was knocked out of the match, and she was sent tumbling backward across the Grass, clipping the girl with the bladed staff and sending her off balance. The guy with the twin blades and the Sai wielder attacked in tandem, and he spent a frantic moment trying to keep track of all four blades and was struck twice with glancing blows before he found his chance.

He spun low, catching Sai-girl on the leg and sending her into a blistering rotation in the air, he shot the dual bladed boy, who actually managed to catch the spike on his crossed blades, but It did nothing to stop it; it crashed through his blades, and into his chest, dropping his Aura in an instant and sending him backward across the field from the force.

Lima completed his rotation, drawing a final spike, shooting Sai-girl out of the air, and removing them both from the fight.

The guy with the greatsword roared as he struck out in a combination of dangerous strikes; Lima moved backward swaying between the strikes before catching him by the arm, disrupting his balance by sliding his leg behind the guy’s foot and slamming him straight down onto his back. He had to stomp on him twice before his Aura flickered into visibility; the guy had quite a bit of it.

Two left; The girl with the bladed staff looked hesitant to engage him at this point, and Crait’s Aura had to be so low that a single glancing hit would be enough to take him out, as he continued to circle around trying to get a clear shot of him.

Lima slowly rotated in time with him, keeping the girl in between them; she took a deep breath, set her stance, and then came after him. He met her charge with his own, deflecting the series of flickering strikes with his bow.

She suddenly twisted into a complicated flourish, both legs leaving the ground for a moment as she spun over her own weapon and struck out at him. Lima caught the first two but had to dodge to the side to avoid the third-and Crait immediately shot at him.

He sprinted away from the acrobatic woman and headed towards Crait, and she followed in hot pursuit but stayed wide to allow her temporary teammate to continue firing unobstructed.

He had to deflect the increasingly accurate shots as he got closer to the guy’s position, and he missed the last one as it glanced off his shoulder and took a chunk of his Aura with it. Crait spun his rifle, and it transformed into a spear the instant as he came into range.

Lima sent the striking spear off course with his bow, and front kicked the tenacious boy straight back into the forest, and his Aura flickered into visibility as he was removed from the match.

He drew an arrow, spun, and took aim at the last girl as she came within a meter of him before his scroll beeped, and they both stopped cold.

“Match over,” The digitized voice of the scroll said pleasantly. “Time limit reached, Winner, Lima Morta.”

Lima folded his bow back into it’s compacted state and walked away without a word.

He’d won the match-no doubt a boost to his street cred, but he felt worse than he had in months all because of a few simple words and a flash of red in the trees. Lima gritted his teeth, upset at himself for once again failing to move past it.

Fucking Grimm.