I sighed as the match between teams HNTR and SRRL came to an end.
That had been a painful mess to watch.
The individuals were fine. The problem was they were fighting exactly like that, individuals. At best there was only a few token attempts between the eight combatants to work together while the rest of the match was treated like a quartet of duels before the winners tried to gang up on the ones remaining…only to end up getting in each other's way to the point that the match nearly ended in a draw.
"So, who can tell me what both teams did wrong?" I asked the other two teams I was overseeing today.
Goodwitch didn't want to just throw half the class at me so I would rotate between all of them everyday, two at a time so that she could focus on running the class and the group with me would get a little more personal instruction.
Usually that meant things were pretty interchangeable between the groups but today was a bit different because I had not one, but two 'canon' teams to deal with today.
Almost as soon as I finished asking a white haired girl in a matching outfit had her hand up in the air.
"Yes, Weiss?" I pointed to one of the more famous among Beacon's first years. There were plenty of standout, unique personalities among the students. But Weiss was the daughter of the CEO for the biggest Dust mining company on Remnant. Even if I wound up on this world with zero context for where I was, Professor Goodwitch would have pointed Weiss out to make sure I knew who she was.
To make sure she was actually doing the work instead of skating by with the power attached to her name, which was a pleasant surprise, but the heiress was still somewhat unique to the other students because of that.
"Yes! Both teams failed to properly coordinate with each other, causing them to get in their teammates' way more than anything."
Hmm, not exactly what I was looking for. "Correct, anything else? Blake?"
"They were too aggressive?" Blake Belladonna, the black clad member of team RWBY tried after a moment when it was obvious no one on the other team was going to answer. "If both teams were getting in their own way, the one that pulled back and recomposed themselves probably would have won, right?"
I waggled a hand back and forth, "Not bad thinking and in this case you might be correct. That being said, sometimes keeping up aggression is more important than making sure you are working perfectly with your teammates. Usually when going up against a superiorly skilled or dangerous opponent you can't allow to gain the initiative. What else? Someone from Team Cardinal want to give an answer?"
"Do we have to? It's not like the Professor isn't going to be going over every little thing later anyway." Russel Thrush complained, causing me to glare at him.
While I couldn't really call anyone who made it into Beacon lazy, Russel was certainly…unmotivated, when it came to doing anything school related. That, combined with his habit of dressing like a bandit – something I'd admit negatively biased me against him – and his team's quickly growing reputation as pretty stereotypical school bullies made it really hard for me to not be stricter with him particularly and Team CRDL as a whole.
"Considering the point of having you all watch these matches so you can learn to identify weaknesses and opportunities quickly, yes, yes you do." I continued to glare at him. "Anyone want to give it a shot?"
Russel flinched under my attention and hid behind one of his teammates while Cardin and Sky – who either had paid less attention to the match than I thought or simply couldn't come up with an example that wasn't too similar to the ones Weiss and Blake used – resolutely avoided eye contact. That left Dove as the one one scapegoated into answering.
"They didn't have a strategy before the fight began?" The more serious member of Team CRDL, not that that was a high bar to clear, tried. "Or if they did, they didn't follow it?"
"Would they even have those yet? We just started working on team combat this week." The third member of Team RWBY, Yang Xiao Long asked.
"They might not." I admitted. "But outside of Beacon you might find yourself working with a Huntsman or Huntress you just met. Dove is right that even having a very basic plan is better than just rushing into a fight. In fact, I recommend all of you create a few basic combat strategies you can use in different scenarios without having to stop and think about them. It could save your life someday."
"Like that's hard, just hit anything I come across with my mace. Problem solved. Is she really some kind of teacher?" Cardin grumbled loudly under his breath, unless he really thought he was being quiet he was deliberately trying to piss me off. Unfortunately for him it took a bit more than that to get a reaction out of me and I had…other…methods of getting back at disruptive students if I felt like it.
"Thank you, Mr Windchester. 'Hit it with a metal stick' is a plan that very few people can screw up, but I've seen enough people fail at it I would hesitate to call it a combat strategy. Especially for someone like you who almost entirely focuses on close range combat."
"Yeah, how so?" He challenged.
I looked blandly at him. "Okay, say Team CRDL takes a mission to guard one of the trains going out of Vale. During the trip, it is attacked by a swarm of Lancers. According to your 'strategy' you can either do nothing or attempt to attack them anyway, likely falling off the train in the process and being left behind."
Cardin reddened, "That wouldn't happen, trains have autocannons for a reason!"
"And they often are unavailable at times for any number of reasons." I shrugged. "Besides that is only one scenario. There will be countless others where you cannot get within your preferred range for one reason or another. The point of an engagement strategy is to help you shift those scenarios in your favor."
"What would you have done then?!" The leader of Team CRDL said hotly.
I gave him a considering look as I reviewed what I knew about his skills. "If I were in your position, I would try attracting the attention of the Lancers while waiting for my teammates to assist in taking them out. If one got close enough to take a swing at, I'd go for it but most of my effort would be focused on being defensive."
"Hey, that's unfair! You didn't tell him he had help." Russel argued.
"I did say Team CRDL took the mission, it could be assumed the entire team was there. And even if we assume Cardin was alone for some reason, that goes back to my point about having multiple strategies to fall back on." I pointed out. "Since we're basically out of time for this class I'll leave what else you can do as homework. All of you will write out the basics for two strategies on how to handle the scenario I used to be handed in to Professor Goodwitch next class." I gave Team CRDL a look. "And while not required, at least try to put some thought into your answers."
The three scoffs I got from the majority of the team and sheepish smile from the last member pretty much confirmed they were going to do the bare minimum but I just sighed and let it go. It wasn't my job to make sure they applied themselves, just give them the opportunities to…
My train of thought was interrupted when the bell rang signalling the end of the class period and everyone began heading towards the locker rooms to change back into their uniforms.
Well, everyone except for the shyest member of my group today…
"Did you have a question, Ms Rose?" I asked the fidgeting young leader of Team RWBY.
"Uh, yeah… you told us a strategy for how Cardin could handle the train thing. But, um, I kinda wanted to know how you would do it…" She trailed off.
It was honestly a tiny bit hilarious how different Ruby could be in certain situations. Cheering on friends and teammates? She was one of the loudest and most enthusiastic in her class. Throw her into the middle of a combat situation? She was decisive and analytical. Have her try and talk to someone she wasn't fully comfortable with one on one? She fell apart quicker than wet tissue paper.
Of course I was pretending to be a respectable assistant teacher so I couldn't tease her about any of that and should really just answer her question.
"If I was in that situation my strategy…would be to kill them all." I replied honestly.
"...that…doesn't sound like a strategy?"
"Why not?"
"Aren't strategies supposed to have, you know, parts to them?!" Ruby threw her arms into the air. "Like, identify what the Grimm are attacking, distract them from damaging anything super important, and picking off the leaders when you can?"
"They can," I said while holding back a smile. I was, and would likely usually be, more of an independent combatant while Ruby should theoretically be working closely with a team for the next four years. I could get away with simple directives like 'kill that' or 'defend this' as the basis for my strategies. If she wanted to be an effective leader, Ruby would need to make sure everyone knew their roles. Which she already seemed inclined to do. "But they don't have to. Tell me, when you're maintaining your weapon, do you check the design blueprints every time you put it back together?"
"No? Not unless I'm planning to do something new and need to check the tolerances or something."
"And why's that?" I prodded.
"Because…" Her eyes lit up as she had the 'ah hah' moment. "Because I've done it enough that I don't even need to think about the individual steps! So just like our combo moves, we need to practice those strategies until we can just do them! And then it doesn't matter how many steps there are!"
"Very good, though keep in mind you will still want to list out all the steps for your assignments." I cautioned. Still, it was good to see a student not just memorising a lesson, but actually understanding it. That little detail was usually the difference between being good at something or being great at it.
"You better get going, though." I said checking the time. "Don't want to be late for your next class. Or give Professor Goodwitch a reason to punish you tomorrow."
Ruby had already started to turn towards the locker rooms halfway through, but paused when her curiosity got the better of her. "Why, what's tomorrow?"
I gave her a grin. "You'll begin fighting me in teams. Better hurry if you don't want to risk missing out on the fun."
Bright silver eyes widened in shock and the young leader rushed off to catch up with her team, leaving me behind with a slightly warm feeling.
I think I could honestly say by now that I enjoyed teaching. Even if some parts – or people – made it a pain.
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