The Dauntless (a male reader soldier x RWBY story)

(New) Chapter 17: Clearing the Air

       (Y/N) laid down on his bed, having gotten out of his armor and exosuit, sighing as team RWBY and Lucia stared at him.

      "So, are you going to ask me what's bothering you five?" the man asked as he settled more into his bed.

      Lucia sighed with exasperation, looking at her boyfriend who had drastically changed in appearance. Opening her mouth to speak, she adopted a stern expression and a disappointed tone of voice.

      "Alright," she started, "where the were you for the past week and a half? I was looking forward to spending time with you, especially since the school had sent volunteers to help set up parts for the Vytal Festival."

      "I was undergoing transformative surgery in order to overcome my shortcomings," the young man admitted as he laid back in his bed nonchalantly, "I don't know if I explained how my Semblance and aura work, but here's an explanation regardless. My Semblance allows me to fly, heal myself or attack enemies with ranged or melee attacks since I can create a sword with fire."

      Sighing, (Y/N) sat up and faced the five girls who had now taken seats around the room.

     "With my Semblance, I can also somehow regenerate my ammunition. I myself have no idea how it works but one thing to note is that I drain my Aura as well. So, if I am in a prolonged engagement, I am effectively lowering my defenses. Hence why I got my new armor and my sword; to reduce my over-reliance on my Semblance so that I won't die on a consistent basis. I may be able to come back to life, but I don't want to suffer through constant pain and regenerate even more exhausted. So, if shit hits the fan, I can be locked into a permanent death-loop."

        (Y/N) went quiet once more, taking a moment to gage the reactions from his friends.

        "So," Yang eventually spoke up, "what's death like?"

        "Depends," the young man sighed once again, "if I get shot through the skull, I will come back to life with one hell of a migraine. Should I die by stabbing, then I'll feel that jabbing pain. And those feelings will persist over a period of three to five days. And that was based on previous experiences. Yes, I was shot in the head. And yes, you all know the time when Cardin stabbed me in the lung, making me drown on my own blood."

        The girls looked over at (Y/N) worriedly, Lucia even more so than the others. She moved in to speak, but held back as Weiss jumped in.

        "While that is all perfectly acceptable," she spoke while brushing some of her hair out of her face, "We need to talk about your weapons. Your sword is perfectly fine, although I would suggest dropping the dismemberment... perhaps try using the flat part of your sword...?"

        "Best I can do is incapacitation," he replied, "since my weapons were designed to mainly combat the Grimm."

        "Err... that's better than outright cleaving the enemies in two," Weiss continued, "Now, moving onto your machine gun. What type of ammunition does it fire?!"

         "Warcrimes in a fun-sized package," (Y/N) chuckled before going serious, "in all seriousness, the new rounds were designed to dispatch Grimm with increased effectiveness. These rounds are armor-piercing, high-explosive, incendiary rounds. In .50 caliber."

        Out of the corner of his eye, (Y/N) couldn't help but notice Ruby's eyes go wide when he described his new machine gun. He chuckled and looked over at his power armor and the exosuit that was stood up right beside it. Then, he turned his gaze back to his friends.

        "I'm sorry for not having alerted you all to my true intentions and simply lying about going out on a mission," (Y/N)'s face held an expression of disappointment towards himself as he spoke, "I should have been more truthful about what I had planned and well... I wouldn't necessarily be having this conversation."