---The Next Day/Third Person POV---
"You know, you still never explained to us how in the world you completely destroyed those grimm yesterday."
Team RRNN and RWBY were all eating breakfast together in the dining hall for the first day of classes. Both Ryze and Pyrrha had woken up early that morning and Ryze knocked on team RWBY's door to wake them up and ask them if they wanted to eat together.
"What more do you want me to explain Yang? They were some pretty weak grimm and I had a bit of fun before killing them. That's about it."
"Weak my ass," Yang exclaimed with an annoyed look on her face.
"Hey, language!"
"Not now Ruby! What do you mean weak?! Did you see the size of those grimm?! They were well above our weight class in terms of what any of us could do solo, and you're just brushing off the fact that you beat them both alone in record time?"
"Mmmm... yeah. Pretty much."
"This is ridiculous."
No matter how much the others kept asking Ryze about his performance the day before, he just kept responding with lackluster answers. Eventually, they all just gave up and went on with the conversation.
On the other side of the dining hall, there seemed to be a bit of a commotion. A guy with light brown hair seemed to be tormenting a girl with bunny ears by pulling on them.
"Guys like that disgust me. I can't believe people like him were even let into Beacon," Blake comments with a look of disgust.
"I agree. How uncivilized and absolutely repulsing to act in such a manor. Especially when everyone is simply trying to eat," Weiss agrees, surprising Blake.
"You all do a lot of talking about how you don't like it, but if you're gonna talk then at least do something about it," Ryze mentions with a look of disappointment.
"Nora, nail that dude in the head with a can."
"Aye aye, fearless leader!"
With immaculate accuracy, Nora picks up a can of soda and launches it over a few tables, nailing the guy right in the back of the head.
"Damn, nice shot Nora. Doing your leader proud with that one."
Across the room the guy lets go of the girl's ears and looks around in annoyance while holding his head.
"Goddamnit! Who the hell threw that?"
Ryze calmly rises from where he's sitting before leisurely strolling over to the guy.
"I did. Got a problem with that?"
"Hell yeah I do! Who the hell do you think you are? Don't you know who I am?"
"I couldn't care less about who you are. You could be the ruler of all four kingdoms and I wouldn't give a rat's ass about it."
"Why you... I'm Cardin Winch-"
"I said I don't care."
And with that, Ryze backhanded Cardin across the face, sending him stumbling into the table next to him. As Cardin recovers from the most devastating backhand he's ever received in his life, Ryze walks over to the girl who's still kneeling on the floor.
"Hey, get on up. If your ears are still hurting you should head to the nurse's office and get some ice."
"T-thank you. You really didn't have to do that though," the girl stuttered out to Ryze with a shocked look in her eyes.
"Meh, it didn't take much effort."
Ryze then helps the girl onto her feet before encouraging her to go. As she scuttles off, Cardin finally recovers and turns around to glare at Ryze.
"I'll fucking break you for that!"
"Yeah, I really doubt that. Now, I'm going to go finish eating, make sure not to cause any more commotion so I can enjoy my food dumbass."
That last comment pissed Cardin off enough to where he was about to swing his fist at Ryze. However, at that moment it seemed one of the professors walked in to grab some food. Cardin stopped himself and watched with burning hatred as Ryze simply walked off back to the others.
"Nice going big man. Great backhand too. Definitely a ten out of ten."
"The art of the backhand is one I've greatly mastered Yang, what can I say."
The rest of the others complimented Ryze on what he did, happy that he stood up for that girl. Unknown to most of them though, Blake seemed to gaze at Ryze in a newfound light.
---A few hours later---
"Now that we've gone over what I expect from all of you this year, would anyone like to be the first to spar in the ring?"
Professor Goodwitch stood before the class with her sharp gaze scanning the crowd. It was about midday and everyone's first combat class was now underway.
"I do! And I want to spar that guy right there!"
Cardin suddenly stood up with his hand raised before pointing straight at Ryze a few rows away from him.
"Huh?"
Ryze gives what can only be described as a look saying "are you kidding?"
"Yeah that's right! Fight me! Unless you're just some wimp!"
With a sigh, Ryze gets up from his seat.
"Alright, whatever. But first, we should probably change who's included in the spar."
"What?"
"Yeah. With how pitiful you are, you should at least have the rest of your team with you to maybe put up a fight."
Everyone in the class was astounded by how arrogant Ryze seemed to be acting at that moment. Even his own teammates and team RWBY were looking at him with a bit of worry in their eyes, though not too much since they had all seen his strength before.
"Mr. Prominence, are you sure about this? You do realize you're asking for a four versus one fight?"
"Yup. I'm completely sure."
"Alright then, I'll allow this for this one time. However, no one else will be doing anything like this in this class unless I say so."
After shaking off his shock, Cardin grinned at Ryze.
"You're practically giving me a free pass to your beatdown. I won't complain though. Come on guys!"
Ryze and team CRDL went to the locker room to change out of their school uniforms before stepping onto the arena at the front of the class a few minutes later.
"Go Ryze! You got this!"
"Yeah! Show them who's boss fearless leader!"
Ruby, Nora, and a few of the others shouted out their own encouragement as Ryze stepped into the arena.
"Alright, everyone's aura meters connected to the reader? Good. Whenever someone is outside of the arena or their aura reaches red, they are eliminated. On my go, begin the spar. Now, start!"
Cardin, Russel, Dove, and Sky slowly formed a half circle in front of Ryze as they held their weapons out.
"I'm feeling generous Cardin. I'll give you one free chance to try and hit me right now. Afterall, it's not like you'll get another one."
"You smug bastard! Have it your way!"
Cardin rushed towards Ryze, swinging his mace overhead. At the same time, he activated it's dust function and flames covered the mace as it fell straight at Ryze's head.
However, to everyone's shock, when the mace came within a few inches of Ryze, it suddenly bounced away. Cardin managed to keep his grip on his weapon, but he looked at Ryze with confusion etched in his face.
"What, having problems hitting me? Oh well, how about you take a moment to think about it."
Ryze lifted his hand with his thumb pulling his middle finger back. He then flicked Cardin in the forehead, catapulting him to the opposite side of the arena. At the same time, both Russel and Dove dashed at Ryze.
Dove slashed his short sword diagonally at Ryze, but Ryze palmed it downwards as he stepped to the right in order to avoid Russel's swipes at him with his daggers. Ryze then kicked Dove's wrist upwards, launching his weapon out of his hand.
Then, Ryze grabbed Dove's other forearm and swung him straight into Russel. The impact caused both of them to land in a heap on the floor. While they got up, Sky tried to slash and stab Ryze with his halberd. With a fluid series of motions, Ryze formed a blade of lightning around his right hand and parried the first slash before stepping into Sky's close range, sliding past his stab.
In one strike, Ryze chopped Sky's neck with great force. The ground under him slightly cracked as everyone watched Sky's aura go from green to red in one move.
"Sky Lark, eliminated," announced professor Goodwitch. Her eyes had a calculating look in them as she observed Ryze's performance.
That entire interaction took only a few seconds. It was clear to everyone that this fight wouldn't be what they thought it would.
Ryze watched as Dove and Russel rose from the ground while sticking his hand up. Dove's short sword landed perfectly in his grasp before he twirled it between his fingers and launched it at Dove. It crackled through the air, imbued with lightning. Dove didn't even get a chance to react before the impact of his own weapon carried him our of the arena while simultaneously sending his aura to red.
"Dove Bronzewing, eliminated."
"Come on. You guys are making this too easy. Half of you are finished before the first minute is even up. What a joke."
Russel took a shaky step backwards before turning his back to Ryze as he tried to sprint over to Cardin who was now on his feet.
"Are you kidding me? Turning your back on your opponent? How stupid are you to break one of the number one rules of fighting," Ryze exclaimed with sigh.
"Hey Ruby, this one's for you!"
"Huh? What does he mean by that?"
Ruby's was utterly clueless to what Ryze was talking about before she saw something that Yang would have to bribe her to stop talking about for the next few days. The thing she was bribed with obviously being cookies. Yang's wallet was not happy that day. Strawberry chocolate chip cookies cost a surprising amount of money.
Swinging his arm out, Ryze stretched his right hand still surrounded by a blade of lightning to the right. At the same time, he brought his left hand in front of his face with his palm facing his other hand. Slowly, Ryze brought the lightning blade to his palm. It looked like he stuck his own lightning blade straight into his left palm. However, that wasn't the case at all.
In one swift, exaggerated motion, Ryze swept his right hand away from his left palm, pulling a large scythe made of lightning out of seemingly nowhere.
"IS THAT A SCYTHE?! OH MY GOSH! I WANNA HOLD IT I WANNA HOLD IT I WANNA HOLD IT!"
Ignoring Ruby's very loud begging for the scythe, Ryze pulled the construct across his body before slashing through the air towards Russel. A blade of lightning burst from the scythe and struck Russel in the back. Russel flew over Cardin's head, smashing into the wall outside of the arena. His aura wasn't even red. It was completely gone. The aura bar on the screen above the arena was completely grayed out.
It wasn't a very pretty sight. Russel's body remained inside the large indent in the wall, twitching sporadically. The back of his shirt was charred black.
"Russel Thrush, eliminated."
Cardin, after looking at Russel's body, turned towards the now slowly approaching Ryze. The scythe Ryze made fizzled away into nothing as he walked forward. Fear was prominently plastered across Cardin's face. To everyone's surprise though, he mustered up some courage and stepped forward to swing his mace at Ryze's side.
"Back off you monster!"
In a display of absolute strength, Ryze caught the head of the mace midswing using just one hand.
"Me? A monster? Well to you, I guess that's accurate. I do despise trash like you."
With a squeeze, the once sturdy mace shattered under Ryze's grip. Due to the dust inside it, the mace exploded, fire erupting around Ryze and Cardin. The arena shuddered as dust flew up from the fragmented ground.
After a worrying few seconds, the class and professor were treated to a very humiliating moment for Cardin once the dust settled. Cardin was on his hands and knees while Ryze appeared to be casually sitting on his back.
"Since this is the first combat class, I gotta show off a bit don't I?"
"Get the hell of me!"
Cardin rose abruptly, but Ryze simply rolled with the motion. Cardin began to wildly swing his fists at Ryze, desperately hoping to land something.
That wouldn't be happening though. With devilish grace, Ryze weaved around each of the the punches before thrusting his left palm directly into Cardin's solar plexus. With the wind knocked out of him, Cardin had no hope of stopping the combo that came afterwards.
Ryze crashed the heel of his right palm across Cardin's lower jaw before sending the back of the same hand into the side of Cardin's head. He then used his left hand to jab into Cardin's throat and cut off his air. While Cardin choked, Ryze spun on his foot and used his right leg and landed the strike on the side of Cardin's head.
Cardin dropped like a sack of bricks to the side of Ryze. Shockingly, his aura was just above the red though still, a dull yellow.
Ryze bent down and grabbed Cardin's head with one hand, lifting him up until their eyes were level to each other.
"Listen up. If you or your dumbass teammates ever cause trouble around here again and I hear about it, I'm not gonna be breaking your auras. I'm gonna be breaking your bones. Got it?"
Cardin, still gasping and in pain, nodded so fast his head was almost a blur.
"I'll leave you with one parting gift then."
In a disturbing display of brutality, lightning coursed through Ryze's hand into Cardin. An eerie blue light filled the class as Cardin screamed in pain from the lightning coursing through him. The screaming and flow of lightning didn't stop for a few seconds until Ryze unceremoniously dropped Cardin on the ground.
The aura bar for Cardin was completely gray. Silence permeated through the class for a moment before professor Goodwitch finally spoke up.
"Cardin Winchester, eliminated. An impressive performance Mr. Prominence. However, I will ask you to never showcase such brutality as you did to Mr. Winchester just now, otherwise you'll be kicked from the class, am I understood?"
"Crystal clear professor."
With that, Ryze walked off the arena, leaving behind two completely unconscious hunters in training while the other two were still barely conscious and in pain.