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

CHAPTER 3

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"I'm telling you, you need more armor."

"I could say the same to you, Azul."

He was currently trying to persuade Pyrrha to change up her combat attire.

She wore her iconic Greek inspired armor, a brown and yellow corset, a black mini skirt and brown opera-length gloves on both arms. There were still more accessories that she hadn't bought and wore, but all in all, she looked like her self in Volume 1.

And it bugged him.

He remembered a fan art of Pyrrha Nikos that was more practical that whatever the fuck this was. Seriously, everything was made out of normal Huntsmen cloth, there was no metal armor anywhere at all. Currently, she was under-armored. Seriously, her arms and legs had no armor at all, just normal leather sleeves.

Recalling Dishwasher-sama's art of Pyrrha Nikos, he immediately started to jot down the attire based on the fan art, and recommended it to her ever since her first championship of the Mistral Regional Tournament, but she keeps shutting it down, saying that it would slow her down since leather was lighter and much cheaper than actual steel.

The second Mistral Regional Tournament of her career was happening in a few months, and he wanted her to get used to her new equipment and attire beforehand, that's why he was pushing her with the idea, for her to get used to it earlier.

"Seriously, what happens if you get hit by a strike that would go through flesh?"

She had a confused look on her face.

"... I will use my Aura to cover myself before the attack strikes?"

That caused him to groan. For some fucking reason, the people in the world overuse their Aura too much. Instead of continuing when one's Aura is shattered, they escape and quit the mission before it breaks. It was not efficient at all.

If Scáthach-sensei saw this, she would have gone on a ranting spree about wasting resources and start intensifying his training, that was the type of person that trained the Hound of Ulster, a dangerous woman that had killed Gods for less before.

He shivered at the memories of Cú getting absolutely wreck by his master before going back to the topic at hand.

"And if it breaks? What happens then?"

"We run, of course. That's what we were taught to do, Azul."

She said with a raised eyebrow. Yes, this was the basics, but...

"What if we can't run, Pyrrha? What if we were surrounded, and your Aura breaks?"

That causes her to stay silent. This was why she needed his training, not only physical but mentally.

"That's why we use armor, even though people don't look up to it for some reason. We have to create backup plans. Paranoia can be your friend at times, Redhead."

He said before handing her a few papers for her. She hesitated before eventually taking them, accepting the opinion to add more armor to her clothing and started scanning through them as he talked.

"These are the designs that would suit you better. It's crude drawing, but it should make sense."

Crude was an apt wording, as the papers were filled with multiple angles of stick men (Or stick women in this case) with the designs from Dishwasher-sama, along with words that explained the clothing choice with some touches of his own.

He had taken a few weeks to plan his and her combat attire, since he was her training partner/teacher.

Looking at the designs, Pyrrha had a complicated expression as she asked.

"Why go so far for me?"

He froze at the question. That was complicated indeed.

"... I want a worthy rival, I guess."

He wanted someone who could handle him going all out. With weak students and Grimm being his opponents, he had grown more and more annoyed that he couldn't let loose at all. He will mold the most powerful student in canon into the most powerful monster that he could make, just for his entertainment.

Cú's personality was so not helping him at all, damn battle junkie. Your skills are the best, but damn, you need therapy. Along with Scáthach-sensei, but he wouldn't dare to tell her that.

"And... Well, you're my friend. I worry about your safety."

That one was the truth. He had now regarded the kid as his friend, something that he had never experienced before even in the village. He was more of an outcast, sure he was acquainted with some of the villagers his age, but he wasn't friends with them because of multiple reasons.

And gosh, that was so sappy, it gave him goosebumps of cringe. He couldn't help the slight tint of red on his cheeks. That was so much better in his head.

Scratching his nape, he looked at Pyrrha... Who looked at the other way. Well, that's weird. Raising his eyebrow, he asked.

"Pyrrha?"

"Nothing! Just... Admiring the view!"

She said with a panicked voice, to which he just chuckled. What a funny kid, at least she didn't see him blush, that would be embarrassing, for the teacher to be blushing at a small sentence.

It should be the student who always blushes, not the teacher.

Looking out at the direction that she looked at, he briefly noted that her ears were red before nodding, thinking that the sunlight was reflecting her ears.

Well, the view was good, not like the one in his village, but still good enough to catch his attention, the green showing that the land here in Sanctum was more fertile. He wondered if crops would grow better here than at home?

Now, how to address changing her fighting style with a sniper rifle like how Dishwasher-sama had envisioned?

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CLANG!

Staff met spear as Pyrrha's face flashed with determination. The clash lasted for a second before she suddenly overpowers him, causing him to quickly shift his weight to his left leg to duck a shield bash. 

Taking a step forward with his right leg, and twisting his body, he maintains the speed of the dodge and sweeps the ground with his left leg in an arc, catching Pyrrha's legs as she gets imbalanced and started to fall to the ground. 

Using his leg strength, he uses the spinning momentum to get back to both feet, raising his staff skyward at the same time, ready to swing it down at the fallen Pyrrha. 

He thrusted, and the front of the staff hit the ground, with Pyrrha now in a different position.

Pyrrha, who saw the attack, quickly moved using her Semblance, controlling the metal in her armor to shift and change her location, causing him to miss the attack. Rolling a few meters away from his body, Pyrrha presses on a button on the shaft of her spear before it mechanically started shifting in place, a barrel facing down against him. 

Holding onto the staff with both hands, Azul quickly raised his right hand as gunshots rang. 

PING~ PING~ PING~ PING~

The staff successfully blocked the dust bullets, but he knew that she would just maintain the distance and bombard him with ranged attacks, so he decided to get serious, crouching low on all four with his staff on his right arm. 

With a boost of speed with infusing his legs with Aura, he flashed from his position, disappearing from Pyrrha's view of sight with a cloud of dust rising from the speed in his trail. 

BOOM!

Her eyes dilated at the disappearance as she quickly scanned the area to find Azul, only to feel a sharp pain in her ribs as she was sent flying, skidding on the ground as she regained her balance, landing on her feet as she raised Akoúo. 

Azul had begun his high-speed attacks. 

Straining her senses, she waited as she heard countless footsteps being made in a second before her ears picked up the sound of a fast approaching object coming at her neck — 

She barely dodged in time with a quick lean backwards as she saw the familiar silver staff hit false, before disappearing again with the sound of footsteps surrounding her. 

A few more high-speed attacks continued, with her barely or not being able to dodge them. She gritted her teeth to suppress a yelp of pain that exploded on her left leg before grabbing the end of her spear's shaft, spinning the foot of her foot and twisting her whole body as she swung her spear around in a 360° arc to give her space along with pinpointing the location of Azul.

She heard a loud footstep behind her as she swung, to which she immediately took the opening to transfer the momentum of the swing towards the direction. She flooded her legs with Aura, courtesy of Azul teaching her the Aura Burst technique, before launching herself towards the direction and thrusted her spear. 

CLANG!

The spear gets redirected by the staff, as she could see Azul's annoying smirk before she felt a burst of pain on her neck.

CRACK!

The feeling of exhaustion of her Aura shattering overwhelms her, causing her vision fades black but not before hearing something important from Azul.

"8% of my Aura this time, that's an improvement. Nice job."

She couldn't help but grin at the praise before she falls unconscious.