RWBY: The Heart is Pierced, and The Spear is Thrusted (Patreon)

CHAPTER 2

-

Pyrrha Nikos, the only daughter of Erythro Nikos, nobleman and S-rank Huntsman of Mistral, stared at the boy that she had been acquainted for almost a year now. 

He was currently sleeping with a magazine on his head, his chest slowly moving up and down in a rhythmic beat with his chair leaned back, uncaring at everything in the surroundings. 

Hearing the boy named Azul Obsidian snore, she couldn't help but smile at her rival.

It was the moment he walked to her during their trip in the Bullhead. 

She didn't want to brag, but she had quite the reputation in Mistral as the daughter of Erythro Nikos, the best Huntsman Mistral had produced in a century. 

That's why, ever since she reached the proper age of 7, she had been trained by her father to be the best Huntsman, with the pressure of being the best laid on her shoulders so early in her life. 

Her father was strict, 7 days a week of training with no breaks for the past 5 years. Not only that, she was homeschool, thus she didn't have any social contact with other people than the ones that she already knew. 

Furthermore, people were expecting her to be the best, constant remarks and expectations were shoved to her the moment the public realized that her father was training her. 

She loved her father, really, but sometimes she wonders what would have transpired if the expectations were given to an older sibling? Would she have enjoyed her childhood? Would she have made actual friends other than the "friends" that her mother made for her?

She gripped on the railing of the Bullhead when she realized that someone was coming to her. Breathing in softly, she was about to give her smile towards the one approaching, something her mother taught her when suddenly he just sits down next to her without a word. 

Stunned, she watches as the boy dig into his backpack before taking out a pair of wireless headphones. He puts them on, activates them, and then, he closes his eyes and sleeps.

It was so quick. She was not prepared for that. Was this some type of new way for her to start up a conversation for him to take advantage of her position? What was his angle?

She was tensed the whole trip. And when the Bullhead stopped, she realized that he was still sleeping soundly. So, in politeness that her mother trained her in, she taps on his shoulders to wake him up, seeing as they had already reached their location. 

Nothing. 

She taps his shoulders harder. 

A soft snore sounded from the boy. 

She decided to be a little rougher, shaking his shoulder. 

That woke him up. His eyes opened, giving her a sight of his blood-red eyes before he rudely yawned in front of her, something that ticked her polite mannerism in her head as he looked at her. 

She was about to expect the admiration that her fans usually gave, but he just grinned at her and shocked her with a genuine sentence. 

"You are pretty."

She wouldn't admit it, but she ran away from the boy with a blush on her face.

-

Ever since then, the boy had chased her, somehow passing through her senses and appearing suddenly near her with him calling her a nickname.

"Hey, Redhead!"

He had this annoying grin on his face every time he knew that he had surprised him, but no matter what she did to increase her perceptions, he would always surprise her one way or another.

But the boy had something that caught her curiousness. 

He was strong. Too strong. 

Mistral Huntsmen Academy syllabus was very different from the other Kingdoms, they immediately let their students learn and craft their weapons at the age of 13, the earliest in terms of Kingdoms. 

With extra experience and more combat intensive syllabus, it was no wonder that Haven Academy, Mistral's senior Huntsmen Academy had already won the Vytal Festival's Combat Tournament 7 times in a row already.

She had been training for almost all her life now, but when she had the chance to fight against Azul...

They would be toe-to-toe in terms of skill, with their spars more fiercely and intense than even fighting her father. For Oum's sake, instead of using his personal weapon that the Academy helps craft with their blueprints, he just requested for a durable metal pole!

And then he would surrender just before he won. He HOLDS BACK WHEN FIGHTING HER!

It was frustrating! To win like that! It was no short of insulting! She should be the loser, but instead she is praised for winning like that?!

She wouldn't accept it, so she confronted him. 

"Wow, Redhead, so aggressive today!"

He had that shit-eating smirk on his face every time. She yelled at him for disgracing her, for insulting her skills. He was strong, so strong, but he insults her honor!

And for the first time ever since they've met, his face darkens as he speaks with a low tone. 

"You think the Grimm care about honor? Criminals that have committed horrible acts? Honor is useless when they don't respect you without a second thought."

And then he returns back to normal with his grin, as if he did not just scare her with his expression. 

"So, train as hard as you can. Beat me on your own, and then I'll stop holding back. Get stronger and stronger till no one can stop you. Until then, I'll shit all over your pride, Redhead."

Her emotions were so confusing. She hates the boy for mocking her, yet she was thankful that he doesn't see her as Nikos, but Pyrrha. Not only that, he goes out of the way to train her eventhough he doesn't need to.

This boy, Azul Obsidian, was confusing her.

=

=

=

Feeling someone shake him awake, Azul woke up with a groan as he removes the textbook on his head when a voice sounds beside him.

"Class is about to end, Azul."

Glancing at the person beside him, he couldn't help but grin. 

Pyrrha Nikos, the Invincible Girl. A girl that would eventually lose her life in the third Volume of RWBY. 

She didn't deserve to die, to be honest. He knew that Monty has planned her to die for the character development of all the main characters, but still it was not fair for the girl. 

So, he trained her. 

Well, trained in terms of mocking her to get stronger. 

And god, she was horrifying. 

Her progress was so fast it was monstrous-like. At the start, she couldn't lay a finger on him. Now though? She was consistently landing light and shallow hits on him, and he was strong. Very strong. 

Gáe Bolg, the Noble Phantasm in his soul, had been supplying him with lessons of fighting ever since he was born to this world. Technically, it showed him dreams of Cú Chulainn when the man trained and fought with the spear. 

From there, he watched, imitated, sparred, following the dreams as he gained experience from both the dreams and real life fighting his father and the Grimm. 

He was a budget Cú, at least he reached about 5% of his peak at this point, which was significant since the man was a monster. Seriously, he could walk into armies and survive with only scratches and minor injuries, a monster indeed. 

 And some Greek girl was improving at a monstrous rate just because he shat on her skills. 

He honestly felt bad, almost guilty for doing so, but he had to. 

If canon Pyrrha couldn't beat Cinder Fall, then a Pyrrha with at least 10% of Cú would demolish her. 

He only watched till Volume 5, with snippets of clips on YouTube of other Volumes, but it was clear that if Pyrrha was there, they would clear V5 with ease.

So, he made it his mission to train as hard as he could when he had the time, with training Pyrrha as his main priority.

It was so cute to watch Pyrrha, who hated him for his acts, asking him to train her in spearmanship since she was clearly inferior to his. He, of course, said yes, and since then they had been sparing every day after classes with knowledge and tactics grinding into her head.

You might think that it was impossible for him to train so much. After all, he was from a peaceful world where no monsters lurked in forests, he'd never trained in his life before. 

He had to thank his old man for forcing him to train at the age of 4 instead of the norm at 7, habits grow really quick at a young age, with him even expecting to train instead of hating it.

Well, add along Cú's battle junkie attitude to equation. He loved fighting Pyrrha. It was exhilarating. Plus, therapeutic since he had to release his stored stress of the people in this school.

Like right now. 

"I still don't get why Nikos would sit with the farmland boy."

He heard gossip behind him, to which he just listened along. They were purposely saying it aloud for the whole class to listen to, even if they were "whispering".

"I know right? Such a commoner doesn't deserve to sit with Nikos at all!"

"He keeps on annoying Nikos, what a brute."

"And he always loses to everyone, I wonder how he even entered Sanctum?"

"Imagine how poor he is to need to work part-time as the school's canteen staff? How disgusting..."

"People say he bribed the Headmaster to enter, something a commoner like him would do!"

Ah, kids. Especially the "popular group". They love remarking him with insults. To be fair, he was poor, needing to help out with the school staff to earn money to eat since his dad was already struggling to pay Sanctum's fee even with a scholarship. 

Listening to them gossip with an interest on how they'd fire at him, he was quite amused until he heard wood snap slightly. Sighing, he looked over at Pyrrha whose grip on her pencil had snapped the stationary in half. 

She still had a neutral expression, but her eyes were screaming in anger at their insults. 

Well, he was quite happy that she cared about his reputation, but he just raised his hand and patted her head, causing her to widen her eyes at the sudden affection, with her face blushing up a storm. 

"Relax, Redhead. I thought I told you, this is nothing."

"But — !"

She replied with anger in her expression, he was thankful that the kids wouldn't see their beloved Nikos' angered face, it would drop her reputation in the school. He didn't want that. 

"Nothing. Calm down."

He warned with a tone, causing her to stop as he sighed. 

Kids these days sure have a temper.

"Seriously, this is just gossip, Redhead. You don't have to defend my rep."

It was in the drain already after all, ever since a student dug up his background records.

Yes, this school was more of a prestigious Academy, with Mistral big shots' kids walking around. So, when a farmer somehow entered the school, it caused an uproar in the student community.

See, even the teacher who was teaching Grimm Studies didn't stop the kids from gossiping, or wake him up. They just don't care about him at all. 

Well, it's much better, honestly. Made him free to do whatever the fuck he wanted on the weekends, meaning more training with Gáe Bolg since no one (Other than Pyrrha) would actively search for him.