Destiny No More

Chapter 84

Beacon, despite all of its grandeur, was first and foremost a combat school. The courses, while not all focusing on the direct elements of fighting, tended to follow that same mind set. The classes were meant to help the students in their eventual duties as guardians of the Kingdoms. It was the reason that they had lessons like history and survival classes instead of simply Grimm studies and combat classes. It was important that Huntsman and Huntresses knew about the Kingdoms they were fighting to protect, and it was also important that they knew how to take care of themselves out in the wild.

Apparently it hadn't always been that way, as the school, as well as the other Huntsman Academies, had initially been focused entirely on combat and fighting Grimm. Things were different now though, and the older generations of Huntsmen and their training was on the way out, being replaced with a more standardized and diverse lesson plan. A result of that decrease in combat focused lessons was the expectation that students would train outside of school hours, and the school provided the space to do so.

Whether it was the sparring rings near Glynda's classroom, the rings located closer to the dormitories, or even the Emerald Forest itself. The school had plenty of places to go if someone wanted to spar or train. Pyrrha had taken to the rooftops to train Jaune, and despite how similar this new timeline was, it seemed that particular memory would remain hers alone.

Pyrrha watched on with a mixture of nostalgia and morbid curiosity as Jaune was batted back by her counterpart with welding her former sword; Akouo. She'd seen the move done countless times before, mostly because it was her own attack, and so she knew the leg sweep was coming in long before her past self even started moving. Jaune was quickly thrown to the floor, and that was where the similarities ended. Usually, in her past life, they would have reset and gone again. Pyrrha's training had been more akin to a test by fire than any real lesson plan. She did offer the occasional note on his form or his general fighting style, but she hadn't ever taken it to the extreme of being a lesson. Something she probably should have done, as Weiss was doing in between bouts of sparing.

"You are sacrificing your form and footwork when you attack." Weiss gestured vaguely down to Jaune's feet as he stood. "It leaves you off balance and easily toppled over during a counter attack, something that even someone with my smaller size could manage."

"Did she just call herself small?" Ruby whispered from beside Pyrrha, sitting on the bleachers with her as they watched her team train.

Pyrrha smiled and chuckled. While clearly not her intent, Weiss had set that one up. She was lucky that Yang wasn't here to jump on it.

"-op throwing everything into one attack." Weiss finished, moving back to stand a few feet away from the two combatants, signaling them to start back up once more.

The sparing had gone on like that for a little under two hours now. Pyrrha, her past self that was, and Jaune fighting in a quick engagement before Jaune either made a mistake worth addressing or he was defeated. Never by Aura loss of course, in fact, he was still somewhat in the green for Aura, usually losing his footing or simply being pushed back far enough for it to be clear he was going to lose if pushed any further. Then, they would stop and discuss it. The lessons were longer, and they spent far more time talking than fighting, but it was probably better for Jaune than what she had tried in her own attempt. He had grown, but that progress was slow. Despite how he lacked confidence, Jaune was a smart man and a natural Huntsman, he took to the lessons well, rarely complaining even when Weiss got a bit too snippy with some of them.

"No, you dolt!" Weiss interrupted the fight, stepping forward and forcing Nikos to pull her attack suddenly before turning on Jaune. "That doesn't mean stop committing, you need to stop over committing. It's a spectrum, not a binary choice!"