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Chapter 31: Revenge Match

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The rest of lunch finished smoothly. They then went to the gymnasium for afternoon training. According to the schedule Mrs. Veranda gave them, now it would be time for training. When they entered the building and found their class, they found a faunus girl with short, black hair. Behind her, they could see a rodent tail coming from her butt as well as an armband that said “SECRETARY”. When the bell rang, she stood up and addressed the students sitting on the bleachers.

“My name is Leila Atkinson – your Student Council Secretary. Due to some circumstances, Coach Lackerman will not be able to teach you guys. While we find a different teacher to fill in, I shall substitute as your instructor. Lets begin.”

Training was pretty intense. The facility had an obstacle course set up. It consisted of jumping across uneven surfaces that morphed and changed at intervals, dodging gunfire from mounted weapons, rock climbing and more. After doing the obstacle course, Leila made them spar against special AI robots. Their body were especially made to absorb impact and be impossible to cut. In return, they possessed no weapons, so it was more like practice for form than anything.

For the very last activity, they were to do sparring matches. Leila took the time to match everyone up, and there was nobody who didn't have a partner. Robin walked to his corner of the giant room. There he faced his rival that eluded him for so long. Raven looked at him with somewhat expectant eyes.

“You seem to be the second highest level among everyone in our class. Don't disappoint me.”

“I'm not the one who ran away for 10 years.” Robin retorted. “Lets have a good match.”

Raven had a giant, cylinder-shaped sheath attached to her side. She pressed a button on it with her left hand and the inside swirled. With a click, a blade was attached to the hilt that was on the sheath. She drew it out, revealing a blood red katana. She held it in a ready position as Robin drew Pantomath as well.

Transparent walls rose from the ground to prevent any disturbances from other sparring matches. The two waited, poised to attack. The same could be said for all the other combatants. Leila looked around before yelling –

“START!”

Enhance

Raven and Robin dashed forward; their bodies emanating silver and red as their blades met in the air. They clashed, swung, dodged, parried, and stabbed at each other for what seemed like a century. Raven had more strength and speed than Robin, but he held his own with his superior technique. In order to break the stalemate, Robin activated his skill.

Aura Sword

His own weapon enveloped with his aura. When activated, Aura Sword granted power to each strike and can extend the reach of his weapon by manifesting the aura itself as part of the blade. How far he could extend his weapon depended on the talent of the user, and since it was normally too difficult to do so, everyone who used the technique mainly sought to strengthen their weapon. The already meter long great-sword extended to 1.5 meters with the silver aura.

As Robin swung the sword towards Raven, she also activated Aura Sword. The weapons clashed, and Raven pointed the end of the katana towards Robin's face. With a click of a button, her katana extended and almost pierced his face had no not dodged to the side.

As he dodged, he put more force into his arms and broke Raven's katana. The difference in build in their weapons was too evident, and Raven simply backed away as the remnants of her katana started to glow.

= Oh shit! =

-112

The pieces near his face exploded as Robin increased his defenses. Meanwhile, Raven disconnected the leftover blade from her hilt before sticking the hilt back into her sheath. Clicking a button, the inside whirled again before attaching another blade onto Raven's hilt.

Using the smoke as cover, she drew a blue blade this time and approached Robin. From inside the smokescreen, Robin's sword flew out to make contact with Raven's new katana, but Pantomath was currently in its second form. Robin used his right sword to peel Raven's weapon away to swing his left one her face.

Raven leaned back and dodged. As his blade barely missed, he pulled the trigger as the barrel pointed at her. With a bang, a bullet was shot and lodged itself in her shoulder.

-132

Raven backed away once again without a blade attached to her hilt before sheathing and reattaching yet another blade. Robin looked down to find his own blade was frozen in ice and attached to the ground along with the blue blade that was on her weapon. Robin used Red Dust that was in his weapon to clad his weapon in flames to melt the ice.

As he was doing this, Raven once again approached to seal his other weapon. Robin clad his left sword with flames as well and the two clashed. As sparks flew and their swords connected, Robin's superior sword skills showed themselves as he held her off long enough to move his left sword again. In the instance Raven blocked a left swing with her blade, Robin's other one was in axe form.

Helmsplitter

A part on Raven's katana lit up as Robin swung his fire-clad axe to hit the spot. The katana once again broke and forcing Raven to back up yet again. The broken blue blade started to freeze everything around it. To avoid his own body from being frozen, Robin also retreated.

He looked to find daggers being thrown at him. Robin hurried to dodge and knock away the weapons before they reached his body. Upon touching the daggers, he felt electricity run through his body.

-35

The pain wasn't enough to disturb his thought process, but the shock was enough to make him lose his grip on his weapon. Raven used that moment to swipe them away and tried to stab Robin with a yellow blade this time. Knowing that being stabbed by that meant the end of the match, Robin grabbed her wrist and body and attempted to wrench her weapon free from her grip.

Raven was persistent and almost got Robin, but Robin pressed a pressure point on Raven's hand which caused her to let go of her weapon. Robin kicked it away and the two of them went from a weapon fight to a brawl.

Their punches were so much more powerful than when they were kids. Raven had trained with Qrow, who trained her to become adept at hand-to-hand combat, and she constantly killed Grimm after Grimm. This resulted in speed, power, and reaction time that was superior to Robin.

However, Robin was a martial arts master who studied counters, joint locks, and acupuncture. Between Raven who was adept and Robin who trained to defeat humanoid enemies, the one with the advantage was obvious. As the battle continued, Robin proceeded to use his knowledge and training to inflict more damage to Raven. While the damage he took himself was not insignificant, he made up for it with quality.

Eventually, Raven's left swing was a bit slower than usual thanks to the pain in her shoulder taking its toll. Robin used this chance to twist her arm behind her back and jabbed the same pressure points he did on Jonathan. This was his trump card for Raven.

= While she's stuck in this position, she has to use that black aura. Once she does, I'll time my attack to break her defenses and put her in that position yet again. No matter who she is, she can't keep using that restoration thing forever. =

Bloodlust

Positioned behind Raven, Robin did a reverse roundhouse kick in anticipation for the change. Raven, who could not see what Robin was doing, could only feel the bloodlust that came from behind her. Just as she was about to use the Essence of Darkness, Leila interrupted them.

“STOP!”

Robin froze his kick, and Raven stared at her in disbelief. Leila jumped over the wall and approached them.

“Raven is unfit for battle. It's your victory.”

“What! I could have turned that around!” Raven screeched at her.

“I make the calls.” Leila glared at Raven while pouring an elixir down her throat.

“Go and clean up.”

Completely furious, Raven stomped away to the locker room. Robin had a somewhat complicated facial expression.

“What?” Leila asked.

“She could have continued. We both knew that wasn't all she had.”

“She was immobilized and you were ready with an attack in case she did something. Anything more would have put her life in danger. I call the shots.”

Without another word, Leila walked away to end another match. Robin drank his elixir in silence.

= ...Did I just beat her? =

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Raven banged on the wall in frustration. Was it because they were interrupted halfway? That was part of it. Mainly, it was because she recognized that Robin was able to deal with her actions so skillfully. Raven had tried to become as strong as possible to becoming able to fight Jack Ripper, but Robin who was nowhere near his level had her completely in the palm of his hands.

= I lost! I lost! I lost! I lost! =

What had her training amounted to? For what purpose did she murder those countless monsters if she couldn't even beat one boy?

= How can I avenge Summer if I'm so weak? =

*Bang*

= ...How could I ever make it up to Robin? =

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Upon going towards the locker room, Robin found Raven exiting the women's room in a change of clothes. Robin walked up to her as she was sniffling.

“Are you ok?” he asked.

“I'm fine.”

“I'm sorry we didn't get to finish it like we wanted to.”

“It's ok. You beat me fair and square. I was relying too much on that power anyway.”

Robin sighed in relief.

= So she can see her own faults. Maybe she's not so bad after all. =

“Well,” Robin began, “maybe next time we'll be able to finish it till the end. Say, what do you think about becoming friends?”

He held out his hand. Raven looked at it with a sad expression.

“I'm sorry. I can't. I..”

She looked away.

“I don't deserve to.”

“Huh?”

“Nothing. You wouldn't understand.”

Raven started to walk away. Robin stared at her back in confusion. Raven stopped for a moment before saying one last thing.

“...I can't say we can be friends...but maybe we can be rivals.”

Robin smiled.

“Wasn't that a given?”

Robin thought he saw a small smile on her face before she walked away. As Robin entered the locker room to take a shower, he scrutinized the window in front of him.

+104 Exp.

Rivals Forever!Your training and diligence has resulted in overcoming someone you suffered defeat in the past. In addition, you have established yourself a valuable rival that will stimulate growth on both sides.

+10% Experience

I lied again. I did one VERY SMALL POV of Raven. I also didn't talk about White Fang. Please don't shoot me. In return, I made Robin kick Raven's ass. I hope that was believable. Rivals forever! or are they? o.O Next time, we do White Fang. Rate, comment, enjoy! Thanks for reading.

P.S. Does my naming sense suck? I try to keep it in the spirit of RWBY's weapon names. If it's atrocious, I'll go and be very literal with them instead.

More stuff I got inspired from. Thank 21as for the amazing artwork!