64

Chapter 64:

Dove leapt over the line of Pyrrha's slashing sword, his spinning jump allowing him to bring his own sword around to slash at her. However, she swiftly deflected his blow with her shield. Landing, Dove tried to keep the initiative, pushing in with a flurry of strikes. Pyrrha fended off his attacks masterfully, before striking out at him again, her xiphos abruptly lengthening into a javelin in her grip, mid-thrust, suddenly extending her reach.

Dove attempted to fall back, only to feel as though he was trying to pull his body through mud. Pyrrha's Semblance had latched onto his armor, keeping him from retreating. Quickly, he recovered, flicking his sword up to bat Pyrrha's thrust aside, though Milo scratched against the armor over his shoulder, scraping away a little of his Aura, but not enough to trouble him. Continuing the motion, Dove brought his sword back around to point directly at Pyrrha, and pulled the trigger, firing several shots straight at her chest.

Pyrrha's shield snapped into place, Dove's bullets clanging off its curved surface. However, the sudden distraction prompted her to release her Polarity's hold over Dove's armor. Dove followed up by stepping forward...then dropping down into the deepest crouch he could manage. The feint worked. Given the acrobatic nature of his style, his opponents, including Pyrrha, had grown accustomed to him leaping up, and trying to jump over their heads. Because of that, going low tended to throw them off. Dove had put a lot of time into improving his ground-game lately.

From down-low, he lashed out with his sword, aiming for Pyrrha's ankles and shins. Pyrrha quickly danced back, frantically pulling her legs out of the way of his attacks. Dove advanced after her, keeping low. Stepping in this position was hard, but he'd been working on his skill in this area, allowing him to keep Pyrrha in reach a little bit longer than he might have otherwise.

Of course, Pyrrha wasn't content to simply passively retreat from him. Even as she fell back, she spun her javelin in her grip, Milo shifting into its rifle form, which Pyrrha aimed down at Dove. Seeing the shot coming, Dove lunged forward, going into a diving roll that took him past Pyrrha's legs. The sudden acceleration threw off Pyrrha's aim...and her defense...so she was caught off-guard when Dove's sword flickered out to slash at her thigh. Pyrrha danced back again, her Aura dipping, the sudden drop inspiring gasps and cheers from the crowd of observers. Just landing a hit on Pyrrha Nikos was considered a nigh-miraculous feat, especially now, with her having no reason to play coy with her Semblance.

Of course, Dove refused to be content with "just a hit." Coming back up into a standing position, he immediately followed through with another barrage of shots from his gun. Pyrrha held up her shield, and Dove's eyes widened as he saw the black energy lining its edges. Rather than simply deflect his bullets off its face, she used her Polarity to draw the projectiles into a rapid orbit around the rim of her shield, before releasing them to go flying back the way they came.

Fortunately, Dove had been expecting this. He'd been the one Pyrrha had originally tested this skill on. What he hadn't been prepared for was Pyrrha to fire her rifle again, timing her shots perfectly. Her bullets flew in the wake of Dove's returning ones. Dove managed to use his sword to deflect the bullets that Pyrrha returned, but he was caught off-guard by the shots following behind them, and he lurched as several of them slammed home into his chest.

Pyrrha wasn't about to waste her advantage, already rushing towards him. Instead of fighting to recover his balance, after the hits he'd just taken, Dove did the unexpected thing, and simply allowed himself to fall over backwards, Pyrrha's sword cleaving through the air, right over his face. Dropping down, Dove had already leveled his sword at Pyrrha, and pulled the trigger. Pyrrha was forced to stop her attack, frantically bringing up her shield to fend off the shots, having been caught sufficiently off-guard that she wasn't able to use her Semblance to catch his bullets, like before.

That slight delay was all that Dove needed, turning his fall into a roll that brought him back to his feet. It wasn't the most graceful recovery, but it was enough. He was still in a crouch when Pyrrha emerged from behind her shield again, preparing to go on the attack once more.

Dove's response was a technique he'd termed the Arc Thrust (much to Jaune's chagrin). From his crouched position, rather than try to stand all the way up, Dove instead lunged forward, launching himself straight ahead, with all the strength his legs could spare, driving his sword straight for Pyrrha's stomach. Pyrrha's eyes widened at the unexpected attack. At the very last second, Dove's sword was lined by the black energy of Polarity, but that only slowed his sword a little bit. Pyrrha was still knocked back, staggering from the thrust straight to her abdomen.

A Semblance like Pyrrha's was, in the end, just like any other skill in her arsenal. She'd refined her control over it to an incredible degree, so that she could wield it with a level of proficiency and responsiveness that bordered on reflexive. However, just as with any other aspect of her style, Pyrrha's Semblance could be countered by catching her when she wasn't prepared. In this case, her reaction had been delayed, so she'd only been able to lower Dove's momentum by a small degree, before his thrust landed.

But that wasn't enough to turn the tides. Pyrrha's Semblance was a powerful advantage, a devastating one even. But it wasn't all that Pyrrha was. For all that so many students made about the advantage Pyrrha's Semblance gave her, it was easy to forget just how devastating she could be with just her weapons, and the skill she had in wielding them. Pyrrha had completely mastered all aspects of her style, brilliantly employing all three forms of her main weapon, while being equally accomplished at using her shield both defensively and offensively.

So it was that Dove found his flying thrust countered by a flying shield, which flew straight at his face. Yelping in surprise, Dove, flailed wildly with his sword, managing to knock Akouo away, before it could hit. By that point, his forward momentum was gone, and he dropped straight down, managing to catch himself with his free hand, so that he didn't completely imitate Arc, and end his attack with a face-plant.

But throwing her shield had only been the first part of Pyrrha's counterattack. She followed by extending Milo out into its javelin-form again, cocking back her right harm, and then hurling it straight at him, firing a shot from the rifle component to impart an explosive burst of acceleration. Still, Dove was able to kick off the ground, going into a one-handed handstand, while twisting his body slightly, so that Pyrrha's thrown javelin only glanced off the armor of his chestpiece. From there, he pushed off with his arm, throwing himself into a cartwheeling flip that brought him back into an upright position, while also allowing him to bring his sword around to slash at Pyrrha in the same motion.

Pyrrha demonstrated that she was no slouch in the agility department either, gracefully dodging Dove's slash with a rolling flip of her own, carrying her over his blade. Her jump might not have made it, but Dove could feel her Semblance gently nudge the blade of his sword down, just far enough that she was able to clear the line of his attack by the narrowest of margins. Had he still been in ignorance of her Semblance, he would have been completely clueless about what she'd just done. But, now that he knew what to expect, he found he could tell easily enough when she was manipulating his weapons.

Not that knowing made it any easier to counter.

Pyrrha landed and employed her Polarity again, calling her weapons right back to her hands. From there, she and Dove engaged in a much more straightforward match of blades, her sword and shield clashing repeatedly against Dove's sword, as the two of them fenced furiously for a few seconds.

Then Pyrrha dropped low, slashing at his shins. Dove jumped over it, pulling his legs up to clear her attack, and Pyrrha rose up, punching forward with her shield. But Dove simply stepped out and planted one foot on Akouo's surface, using the shield as a platform to leap off of, going into a spinning flip that carried him over Pyrrha's head, while allowing him to slash at her from behind.

However, to his surprise, Akouo immediately detached from Pyrrha's forearm, moving up to intercept his slash, without her needing to move. Instead, she angled Milo downwards, then the weapon's orientation reversed as it transformed into its rifle-mode, pointing out from under Pyrrha's armpit, the barrel extending out to rest in one of the semicircular indents on Akouo's rim. The shot Pyrrha fired from that seemingly impossible angle struck Dove right in the forehead.

Dove was blown backwards by the hit, and Pyrrha immediately capitalized, spinning, while returning Milo to its xiphos-form. Jumping, she now used her own shield as a platform, using Polarity to hold it in place, while she stepped off it to reach Dove. The next thing Dove knew, he was on the receiving end of a sequence of powerful slashes, each one carving off a significant chunk of his remaining Aura. Before he could even think about recovering, Pyrrha's own attacks were pushing her back away from him. But she wasn't even remotely done.

Pyrrha fell backwards, arching her back, and using that to bring her legs up, clamping Dove's face right between her calves. Leaning back, Pyrrha turned her fall into a flip, pulling Dove around, up and over, before slamming him, head-first, into the ring. Pyrrha herself bounced away to land on her feet, deftly catching Akouo, and adopting her standard stance, shield held up and ready, with the sword angled to pass through one of its indents, prepared to continue the match.

But the buzzer signaled that the match was over, and the lights returned to their usual levels. Pyrrha quickly relaxed, then shifted her weapons to her back and rushed to Dove's side.

"And that's the match," declared Glynda, walking out onto the ring.

Pyrrha helped a groaning Dove up, pulling one arm over her shoulder to support him, before standing them both up. "Are you okay?" she asked.

"You rung my bell," Dove said. "But I can handle it."

"Excellent work...both of you," said Glynda, looking at the two fighters. Her gaze settled on Dove in particular. "It is good to see a student who is actually willing to give it their all in the ring, regardless of who their opponent might be."

"Thank you, Ma'am," said Dove.

"Ms. Nikos," said Glynda, her gaze turning to Pyrrha, "I can see that you've been making progress with expanding the scope of what you can do with your Semblance. However, there appear to be some rough patches still. For the most part, you seem to be struggling to decide on how to use it sometimes."

That hadn't been how it had looked to Dove, but he supposed that just spoke to Pyrrha's skill, that even her moments of hesitation and indecision were so minute that he could scarcely perceive them.

Strangely enough, Glynda's criticism appeared to make Pyrrha's day, and she was fighting to keep from almost literally glowing with happiness. "Thank you, Professor," she said. "I'll do my best."

Glynda couldn't quite keep an amused smile from her face at Pyrrha's enthusiasm. "It seems to me that both of you will do quite well at the upcoming tournament. You may return to your seats."

"Yes, Ma'am," said Pyrrha and Dove in almost perfect unison.

They made their way up the stairs to the spectator seating, Pyrrha still supporting Dove. As they did, they could hear some angry muttering from some of the other students. More than a few had picked up on Glynda's indirect remonstration of their unwillingness to make an effort to fight Pyrrha seriously.

"What's that idiot think he's doing?" groused one voice.

"It's not as though he had a chance," said another.

"Probably just showing off for the Prof," added another sullenly.

Dove chose to ignore them. Glancing sidelong at his opponent, Dove could see that Pyrrha felt hurt by their remarks, even though Dove himself was the subject of most of them.

"Don't worry about them," he told Pyrrha into a low voice, letting her help him into his seat, where he settled with a sigh. "They're just a bunch of morons who're gonna fold the first time things get tough in the field, at this rate."

"Even so, it's not fair to you," said Pyrrha. "You're the first person besides Ruby to actually challenge me."

For this session, Glynda was soliciting volunteer matchups. So Dove had decided to take his turn, and had challenged Pyrrha. He'd thought that, by being her main partner in testing different applications for her Semblance, he'd have an edge. And he certainly did, especially compared to most of the other students. But that edge had not been sufficient enough to make up the gap.

"You still made more of a dent than pretty much every student since her match with Ruby put together," said Cardin, gently slugging Dove in the shoulder from the next seat over.

"Thanks," said Dove, gratified by the praise. The past couple of months had seen a massive improvement in CRDL's team dynamic, now that the other three members had finally gotten their heads on straight.

The students talked amongst themselves for a little bit, while waiting for Glynda to finish fixing the ring. Pyrrha settled in between Weiss and Ruby, exchanging smiles and accepting compliments from her teammates. Pyrrha found herself beaming when Weiss and Ruby started complimenting Dove as well.

Finishing up in the ring, Glynda checked her scroll. "It would seem we have time for one more match, before we wrap up for the day. Are there any volunteers?"

"I'll go," called out a feminine voice from the stands, a dark-skinned hand rising up into the air.

Glynda looked up at the volunteer, and her eyes narrowed by the tiniest fraction. "Ms. Sustrai, was it?"

"That's right," said Emerald, smiling down at Glynda, the look in her dark-red eyes seeming completely innocent.

Emerald's decision to volunteer wasn't all that odd. She and Mercury weren't the only visiting students in attendance. Even though they were technically visitors, for all intents and purposes, those participating in the exchange from the other Academies were treated as full students by Beacon, for the duration of their time there. They were expected to attend class, participate, and would be graded accordingly. Naturally, that included Combat Class.

"Let's see about matching you up with an opponent then," said Glynda, looking down at her scroll.

"Actually...I'd like to fight...her," said Emerald, still smiling cheerfully...and pointing straight at Ruby.

"M-me?" blurted Ruby nervously, surprised to be put on the spot.

Glynda frowned at that. Ruby had been challenged once already today, but her opponent hadn't been able to put up much of a fight, so she'd hardly lost any Aura at all. So there were no grounds to turn Emerald's request down.

"Ms. Rose, do you accept the challenge?" asked Glynda.

"Yes," replied Ruby automatically, shooting to her feet.

"You okay?" asked Jaune, looking at her worriedly.

"I'm fine," said Ruby, smiling down at him.

Jaune felt that Ruby was putting on a front, but said nothing.

For her part, Ruby was smiling outwardly. But, inwardly, Ruby's heart was hammering hard against her ribs. Emerald was one of Cinder's group. It couldn't have been coincidence that Emerald had suddenly decided to fight her. Sure, given the widely-circulated videos of her match against Pyrrha, Ruby was accustomed to people challenging her. But she felt that Emerald had singled her out for other reasons.

As she and her opponent made their way down to the ring, Ruby pondered her options. Are they trying to gauge my ability? Should I hold back? She mulled it over for a step. No. They've probably already seen the footage of my fight against Pyrrha, not to mention the other recordings of my matches. I should fight like usual then. I just need to be on my guard.

Set with her plan (for all that it constituted a plan), Ruby headed out into the ring, Emerald emerging from one of the other entrances. They faced each other, Ruby taking in the details of her current adversary.

Emerald was an attractive young woman, with appealing dark, tanned skin. Her mint-green hair framed either side of her face, with a pair of long tails extending down her back. Her eyes were red, but not quite the same luminous crimson of Kyo or his father.

Ozpin had suggested that Emerald's appearance indicated she might hail from Vacuo and, from the way she dressed, Ruby wouldn't be surprised. Emerald's top was...lacking, to say the least, with white straps framing a low-cut, olive-green crop-top, which showed a generous portion of her cleavage, while leaving her shoulders, arms, and midriff completely bare. A brown belt around her waist held up a pair of white pants, which were covered by a pair of brown, leather chaps, both of which were tucked into a set of boots.

The curved handles of her weapon protruded out slightly from either side of her waist, holstered at the small of her back. Ruby's eyes traced the contours of the handles, making out what appeared to be the beginnings of a trigger-guard. They were likely revolvers then. Of course, it was likely that wasn't all that they were.

Over the course of her time at Beacon, Ruby had begun to notice something. Her sense of people was getting sharper. With the experience she'd accrued from all her fights, whether in the ring or outside it, she'd begun to get a sense of how people's Auras could tell her about how they fought. Its distribution, its intensity, the way it flowed through a person. It all spoke of their style, their manner on the battlefield, and even their preferences.

Yang's Aura, naturally, was centered around her forearms and fists. It was dense and powerful, making Ruby think of red-hot steel. Its condensation towards her front spoke of Yang's favored head-on style of attack.

In contrast, Blake's Aura was light and wispy, much like the Shadows her Semblance left behind. The way it gathered about both her hands spoke of the dual nature of her weapon, though the greater intensity about her right hand told Ruby which was dominant. The extra concentration at the wrist and fingers, as well as the circling flow about them was reminiscent of the swings Blake made with her weapon in its sickle-mode, on the end of its long ribbon.

Each and every one of her friends' Auras had their own nuances and idiosyncrasies about them that proved informative about their styles and preferences in combat. And it could tell her a great deal about their overall nature as well. Adam's Aura was strong and intense, but ragged, like a sword that had been chipped and worn down, his conviction and commitment to his ideals eroding, exposing a desire to inflict harm, even over his commitment to his cause. It had been her experience with that Aura that had enabled Ruby to realize just what kind of person Adam was, and see through his plans for her.

So now, Ruby opened up her senses, and allowed Emerald's Aura to tell her story. Emerald's Aura was light and wispy, almost like Blake's, but a bit more solid. It coiled loosely around her arms, swirling in circular patterns, suggesting that she, like Blake, wielded a flexible weapon of some kind. Her Aura also tightly sheathed her forearms, wrists, and hands beneath those coils, suggesting a slashing weapon of some kind. Furthermore, the distribution of the Aura to her arms was almost perfectly equal, suggesting that she was ambidextrous overall, though Ruby thought that Emerald might favor her right hand a little more. Finally, there was an intense concentration of Aura around Emerald's eyes and encircling the top of her head. Ruby had never seen that particular pattern before, so it left her wondering what it meant.

As for what it told her about Emerald's personality...Ruby got the impression that Emerald's Aura was like a shell, enclosing a soft interior. Emerald had been through harsh experiences in the past, which had taught her to steel herself and focus on her own protection. However, that shell masked a desire for affection and affirmation. There was something jagged and spiky about it, though it was hidden by the veneer of Emerald's friendly smile. She was putting on a front then. But beneath that front bubbled a resentment for those who had not gone through the experiences she had, and a sort of vindictive enjoyment in the suffering of those privileged people.

I wonder what she's been through, to be like this, thought Ruby, feeling almost sad about what she sensed from Emerald.

At the very least, Ruby didn't sense anything remotely as disturbing as what she had gotten from Cinder. So Emerald, as bad as she was, hadn't done something as malicious and vile as what Cinder had done to tear the Fall Maiden's power asunder. Still, there was every chance that Emerald had been party to that act, even if she wasn't the direct perpetrator. Considering what the Maidens were capable of, subduing one would be a nigh-impossible task for a single person. So it made sense that Cinder would have had help.

However, all that speculation was for later. Right now, Ruby needed to focus on things that would have a bearing on the immediate fight. So she focused on what Emerald's Aura and stance told her about what would come. Emerald was standing, facing Ruby straight-on, her body not angled in any fashion. Her hands were lowered at her sides, ready to reach for those handles at an instant's notice. If Ruby's deduction about Emerald's weapons being revolvers was correct, then Emerald would likely start off the fight by opening fire, straight on. From her stance, she wasn't about to close the distance herself. So she'd instead open fire, and wait while Ruby came to her.

Well, if that's what she wants, then fine, thought Ruby. We'll see if she can handle how fast I get over there.

"Fighters, ready," Glynda ordered.

Ruby drew Akaibara, working it through a few circular passes, before settling into her usual stance. Emerald pulled her weapons free, revealing them to indeed be revolvers. She spun them in her grip, the weapons becoming blurs, before Emerald stopped, and leveled them right at Ruby.

Glynda stepped out of the ring and brought up the barrier. "Begin!"

Emerald opened fire, unleashing a withering salvo of rapid shots from her revolver. The green bolts suggested bullets enhanced by wind-Dust, which would increase their speed, accuracy, and ability to penetrate. However, they passed through empty air. The second Glynda had given the signal, Ruby had rushed forward, channeling her Aura out through her feet, while leaning down and forward, allowing her to slip in below Emerald's line of fire. She was a blur, flashing across the space between them in an instant. By the time Emerald had noticed that she'd missed, and began to adjust her aim, Ruby was already close-in, literally under her guns.

This is what she did with Torchwick, thought Emerald, remembering the recording of the event, which had aired during Ruby and Pyrrha's interview with Lisa. Dammit! I should've seen this coming.

In the course of her charge, Ruby had drawn her sword back, lowering it down and across her body. When she closed in on Emerald, she immediately slashed upwards at an angle. Emerald responded with impressive speed. From beneath the barrels of each of her guns, a curved blade unfolded, with the edge on the inward side of the curve, their length telescoping out. The blades flipped up to extend from the barrels, which themselves turned into extensions of the handles. Emerald now wielded a pair of sickles, one of which she just barely managed to whip down to counter Ruby's slash.

However, Emerald was not prepared for the power of Ruby's Flow, which sent her Aura up through the blade, only to explode outward upon contact with Emerald's weapon. As a consequence, Emerald was knocked back by the slash, her arm tingling from the force of the blow. Ruby wasn't about to give her a chance to recover, darting after her and unleashing a series of rapid slashes.

Emerald tried to counter as best she could, using one blade to parry Ruby's next strike, while slashing at her with the other. However, she found herself striking empty air again. Ruby was a crimson flash at the edge of her vision, having darted past her, while turning about to slash at Emerald from behind. Emerald jumped away, executing an acrobatic spinning flip that enabled her to escape over the line of Ruby's slash, the kind of move that Dove or Pyrrha might have performed. At the same time, Emerald used her spin to bring herself around to counterattack.

On the surface, it appeared that Emerald's dodge had carried her out of range to strike back, her sickles unable to reach Ruby from where she currently was. But then, the barrels of her revolvers detached, right where they met the weapons' chambers, extending out on chains, now having morphed into a pair of kusarigama. With the extended reach of her weapons, Emerald slashed at Ruby, whipping her arm around to use the chain's length to maximize the acceleration of her sickles' blades. Emerald led with her right handed-weapon, swinging it across her body, while executing a backhanded swing with her left, a little bit after. The two blades slashed out on parallel trajectories, with her left-handed sickle cutting through the air a little bit above and behind her right-handed one. Ruby would jump to dodge the first, only to leap right into the path of the second.

Except that Ruby could tell what was coming. Instead of leaping straight up, she jumped into an aerial roll of her own, just high enough to clear the first blade, while using the spin to turn her body horizontal, allowing her to slip through the space between the two attacks. Before Emerald had finished, Ruby had already touched down, then shot off with another application of her Shukuchi, flashing in at Emerald again.

Emerald frantically defended, using her handle, at the base of the chain, to block Ruby's slash. She executed her block by swinging the handle at Ruby's incoming sword, the two weapons meeting with a clang. Naturally, the momentum behind the swing meant that it continued through the chain, which began to swing around behind Ruby, threatening to wrap around her, while Emerald retracted the chain on the weapon in her other hand, preparing to strike with the sickle.

Ruby tried to dodge back, her cloak folding around her, but only wound up pushing up against the chain that had been circling behind her, which prompted the arc of its swing to tighten. That was enough to slow Ruby's retreat. Smirking, Emerald stepped forward, slashing up with her sickle. Her blade cleaved at Ruby's red cloak, splitting it in a diagonal line that ran all the way up and across Ruby's torso.

Then the cloak dissolved into a cloud of red petals, and Emerald was left with the realization that she'd struck empty space yet again. She felt Ruby's blade bite into her Aura, right across her stomach. If it hadn't been for Emerald's own Aura, she would have had her guts spilled by the hit…or that was how it felt to her. As it was, she lurched, folding over the point of impact with a pained gasp. She barely had the wherewithal to throw herself forward, managing to escape with little more than a scratch as Ruby attacked from behind again.

In the instant that Emerald had tried to snare Ruby with her chain, Ruby had backpedaled for exactly one step, before using her cloak as a decoy, then reversing course and darting forward again, ducking down beneath the line of Emerald's slash, and rushing past her, transferring Akaibara to her right hand, so that she could cut across Emerald's stomach as she passed, before executing another lightning-fast spin to perform a followup slash from behind.

Emerald had thrown herself away from that followup with as much strength as her legs could muster. The clumsy dodge had resulted in her diving for the floor, which she turned into a roll, quickly coming back to her feet, while using the move to turn around, fully expecting Ruby to come after her, which Ruby did. Emerald extended her other weapon again, whirling both blades around at the ends of their chains, trying to use their speed and reach to keep Ruby at bay. Her weapons were blurs, looking almost like a pair of impenetrable shields as she tried to keep them between her and Ruby.

But Ruby dove right into the blurring barrier of steel without hesitation, launching herself off the floor with another burst of Aura from her feet, leaving behind a trail of red petals as she sent her body into another spin, drawing her cloak around herself so that she looked like a spiraling red missile. Right as she was about to fly right into Emerald's kursarigama, Ruby released her hold on her cloak, allowing it to flare out around her, hardening the edge with her Aura. The whirling cloak struck Emerald's sickles, bouncing the blades away and allowing Ruby to fly right between them, and straight inside Emerald's reach again.

Ruby touched down, transferring her sword back to her left hand, and putting the momentum of her spin into a slash. Emerald yelped, barely managing to cross the handles of her weapons at the last second, before the blow struck home. The raw power of Ruby's momentum and Aura behind the attack blew Emerald off her feet, and sent her flying back, though, in the process, Ruby had to duck to keep from being hit by the sickles, as they were pulled past her on their chains.

Emerald skidded to a stop, her chains retracting inward, and the sickle-blades retracting and folding down, the weapons becoming revolvers once more. Ruby charged forward, preparing to hit Emerald before the other girl could try to draw a bead on her. But then Emerald raised her hands, letting go of the handles, and letting the weapons fall to dangle from her index fingers by their trigger-guards.

"I surrender!" said Emerald, her voice and expression frantic.

A chorus of shocked and worried shouts rose up, people expecting Emerald to take a direct hit from Ruby's sword. But Ruby's slash froze, her sword and body coming to a complete halt, Akaibara's edge stopping less than an inch from the side of Emerald's chest, the sword, gripped in both hands, Ruby ready to switch grips again upon completion of her attack. A cloud of Ruby's petals drifted past the pair, as her cloak flared out around them, momentarily seeming to engulf both of them, before drifting back.

Panting and sweating, Emerald looked down, meeting the steely gaze of one of Ruby's silver eyes, visible past the edge of her hood.

In fact, Ruby had sensed Emerald's intent vanish as soon as she'd been knocked back. Ruby had already begun her next attack, but had immediately switched gears, channeling her Aura through her feet in the opposite direction, while using it to stiffen the muscles of her arms slightly, in order to stop the swing she'd already begun. Her execution had been perfect, and she managed to stop her sword right before it would have connected with Emerald.

Still panting, Emerald took a step back. Ruby did the same. Lowering Akaibara, she quickly sheathed it. "Is that it?" she asked, feeling a bit disappointed that they hadn't been able to fight to the proper conclusion of their match. In the heat and excitement of their battle, she'd momentarily forgotten her wariness of the older girl, only now remembering that Emerald was not just a visiting student from Haven.

"Y-yeah..." said Emerald, her voice shaky. "Sorry, but that was way more than what I was expecting. You're something else."

Ruby beamed at the praise. Emerald's smile and tone indicated sincerity, and Ruby felt that Emerald genuinely meant what she said. However, Ruby could sense a dangerous, subtle malice underlying that. Emerald was appraising Ruby, not as a rival, but as a threat, and that undercurrent of malice indicated she was looking forward to making sure Ruby ceased to be a threat at some point.

"Then Ms. Rose is the winner, again," said Glynda, bringing down the barrier, and stepping forward. "Hopefully, you will exercise a bit more care in picking your opponents next time, Ms. Sustrai."

Emerald nodded, still breathing hard. The two of them parted ways, heading back up to their respective seats, while Glynda turned to address the students as a whole.

"That is all for today. Remember, the dance is this weekend, and your first missions will be on Monday. Make sure you are prepared for both."

Ruby allowed herself to smile slightly. It might have been the first mission for the rest of the first-years. But, for RASP and RYNB, it was officially their third mission, and unofficially their fourth. Still, their upcoming mission was a level of difficulty well above that of what most first-years would be expecting from their missions. However, as she ascended, she spared some of her attention to follow Emerald's progress, as the green-haired girl joined her partner, who was already getting up from his seat, so that they could head for the exit.

Approaching her team, Ruby noticed that Pyrrha was wearing an angry scowl. "You okay?" she asked.

Pyrrha blinked, then appeared to realize the expression she was making. Abruptly, her look shifted from angry to mortified, an embarrassed blush rushing over her face. "I'm sorry!" she squeaked nervously, averting her eyes. "I was just a little upset."

"Why?" asked Weiss, looking at her partner in confusion.

"It's just...that brought up bad memories," said Pyrrha.

"You mean about your opponents giving up?" asked Jaune.

Pyrrha nodded. "It just made me angry. It felt like Emerald just called you down there to size you up a little, and that she wasn't taking the match seriously at all."

That's not all that far from the truth, thought Ruby. One thing she'd noticed about Emerald, over the course of their match, was a certain lack of commitment on the dark-skinned girl's part. From the very beginning, Ruby hadn't detected any intent to win from the other girl. Instead, Emerald had been rather panicked, when she was suddenly pressured far more than she'd been expecting and, from then on, had been desperately looking for her chance to disengage enough to actually call an end to the match. She'd only just barely managed it.

So she was just trying to get a feel for me, thought Ruby, her gaze shifting towards the door Emerald and Mercury had left through. I wonder what they got out of it.

As soon as they were in the hallway, and out of view, Emerald slumped against the wall with a pained sigh, her hand going to trace a line of red that had been drawn across her stomach. "Ooow..." she groaned.

Mercury regarded her with a smirk. Out of his Haven uniform, his preferred attire was a gray and black jacket, tucked into a pair of black pants. His arms were decorated by rebraces and vambraces. His feet were covered by a set of boots, running up his thighs, wrapped around by a set of cartridges in an ammo-feed, similar to the gauntlets that Yang utilized, indicating these to be his weapons.

"What's the matter, Emerald?" he taunted. "Isn't learning fun?"

"Shut up!" groused Emerald, glaring at him. "I'd like to see you go a round in the ring with that little red menace."

Mercury's smirk became a grin. "Hey, you were the one who said you'd like to get a feel for her," he retorted. "Weren't you saying something about her being a yappy little dog, who'd fold with a good spanking?"

"Shut up!" repeated Emerald, averting her gaze, and blushing with shame, which, naturally, only made Mercury's grin widen.

"Hey! Blake!"

Shutting her book at the sound of Sun's voice, Blake looked up at him. "Yes?"

Sun came to a stop in front of her, Neptune trailing behind him, looking on with an amused smile. "How are you doing?" he asked.

"Just fine," said Blake, a bit bemused by Sun's manner. He seemed uncharacteristically shy and bashful, averting his eyes slightly and rubbing the back of his head.

"Anyway...um...I heard that there's a dance this weekend," said Sun, shifting hesitantly. "Sounds pretty lame, to be honest. But, I was thinking...uh...well..."

"Yes?" prodded Blake, her bow twitching as her hidden ears perked up slightly.

"Well...maybe you and I-that is...together...maybe...um...not so lame...?" Forcing an approximation of a confident grin on his face, Sun looked at Blake hopefully...and somewhat plaintively.

"What?" asked Blake, her tone flat, as she tried to decode Sun's request.

"Dude, just spit it out," urged Neptune from behind him.

Sun took a deep breath. "Will you go to the dance with me?!" he blurted out in a sudden rush.

"Hmmm..." Blake looked down at her book, a pensive frown on her face.

Watching her, Sun was practically counting the seconds, as they dragged out, his face falling just a little bit more the longer Blake seemed to hesitate.

Finally, Blake looked back up at him, a smile appearing on her face. "I will," she said.

Sun's eyes widened, looking like Yuletide had just come early. The widest, dopiest grin imaginable spread across his face, and he leapt into the air, pumping his fists in triumph. "YES!"

Turning to face him, Blake favored Sun with a sly smile. "I have the feeling you'd look quite fetching in a tie," she said, her voice making Sun freeze in place, then stand at attention, as though he were taking orders from a military officer. "I expect you to dress properly. Is that clear?"

"Crystal," said Sun immediately.

"Good," said Blake, giggling. "I'm not expecting anything too fancy. But you'd better at least have a good shirt and tie, and a nice pair of pants. Those jeans are not going to cut it."

"Gotcha!" said Sun eagerly.

"Then I'll see you on Saturday," said Blake, turning away to join her friends, as they set out across the courtyard.

Sun watched her go, his mouth hanging open slightly, a happily dazed expression covering his face. "What a woman," he breathed.

Neptune looked on from behind, folding his arms, wearing a smirk. "Dude, I think you're overestimating yourself," he said.

"What are you talking about?" asked Sun, turning to glare sourly at his partner.

Neptune raised an eyebrow. "For starters, I don't think you even know how to tie a tie. Have you even worn our school uniform once?"

"What can I say?" asked Sun rhetorically, his grin returning. "I'm from Vacuo. We're not exactly a shirt-and-tie kind of place."

"Which definitely doesn't help you get gussied up for this dance," Neptune pointed out.

Sun's confident grin didn't falter an iota. "Well it's a good thing I've got the coolest partner in all of Haven here to help me out," he said.

"Oh...I'm gonna help you out, am I?" asked Neptune.

"Sure," said Sun, before faltering. Seeing Neptune still smirking at him, he adopted a plaintive look. "Pleeeeeaaaaaase!"

Rolling his eyes, Neptune pursed his lips, before blowing out through them. "Fine."

"Awesome! You're the best!"

"Looks like someone's got a date," teased Yang, grinning slyly at Blake as she returned to the fold.

Smirking, Blake rolled her eyes. "Well, I figured that he deserves some sort of reward, after all the help he's given us."

"Uh huh, sure..." said Yang with mock dubiousness. "And I'm sure it has nothing to do with the thought of those chiseled abs up against you, the two of you pressing close together on the dance floor, those taut muscles wrapped around you..."

Blake's cheeks were heating up as Yang continued to speak, her words putting images in Blake's head that her own imagination was supplementing with addendums from her favorite reading material. "Shut up," she spat out weakly.

Yang merely cackled. Then she turned to Nora. "What about you? You and Ren gonna go together?"

"You bet!" cheered Nora, grinning widely. "Just watch! We're gonna tear it up on the dance floor!"

Jaune looked at Ren, a smirk of his own in place. "Sounds like Nora's jumping the gun a little," he said.

"Not really," Ren replied. "Her manner doesn't indicate it, but Nora is an excellent dancer."

Jaune stumbled, his entire body lurching in confusion. "S-so...you're going with her?"

Ren gave Jaune a bemused look. "Of course," he said. "Why wouldn't I?"

"Uh...you know what...never mind," said Jaune, sighing and stepping away, before slumping with a defeated sigh.

"Something wrong, Arc?" asked Weiss, watching him intently, while smiling slyly.

"N-no, nothing!" said Jaune quickly, waving his arms frantically, before forcing himself to straighten up.

"I don't know," said Pyrrha, approaching him from the other side, her smile friendlier, but no less sly. "It almost sounded like you were hoping that Ren was going stag."

"That's not it at all!" protested Jaune, flailing his arms. "I just figured it was weird that Ren would agree so automatically. He and Nora are always saying they're not together-together."

"And you believe them?" asked Weiss skeptically. "All it takes is one look, and you can tell that those two have practically been married since before they got here."

"Very true," agreed Pyrrha.

"And what about you two?" asked Jaune, looking back and forth between his two teammates. "Do you have dates?"

"You're going with Dove, right?" asked Weiss.

Pyrrha nodded happily. "He asked me earlier this week." She looked positively thrilled by the prospect. Then she turned her gaze to Weiss. "Are you hoping that Neptune asks you?"

"Why wait?" said Weiss with impressive surety. "There is no need for us to be bound by stale gender norms. I am perfectly fine with asking him."

The pair turned their eyes towards Jaune, who flinched back from the intense, questioning gazes they leveled at him. "Uh...!"

"So..." prodded Weiss, leaning in towards him.

"So...what?" asked Jaune nervously.

"When are you asking her?" inquired Pyrrha, also leaning in.

"Asking who?" replied Jaune.

"Ruby!" exclaimed Weiss and Pyrrha simultaneously, making Jaune jump and yelp.

"What?" shouted Ruby from a little ways away. A few minutes ago, she had been distracted by the sight of Team CFVY, and had been chatting happily with Velvet, only to look over when she heard her name being called.

"Nothing!" Pyrrha called back, waving at Ruby, who gave Pyrrha a confused look, but returned the wave, before resuming her conversation with Velvet.

Weiss and Pyrrha returned to looking at Jaune intently, their expressions bordering on glares. Jaune chuckled nervously, his grin strained, as he leaned back away from them.

"Uh...I-I'm not sure," he said.

Weiss and Pyrrha exchanged a look with each other, before sighing sadly.

"So...what do you have for me?" cooed Cinder, smiling at Emerald and Mercury as they settled on the floor in front of her bed. Cinder was seated on the bed, plying a needle and thread along a piece of cloth, the beginnings of a black outfit taking shape across her lap.

"Not much," admitted Emerald reluctantly, staring down and off to the side.

"Emerald wasn't in the ring with her for ten seconds, before she started looking for a way out," added Mercury with a taunting grin.

"Shut up!" snapped Emerald, glaring at him.

"More dangerous than we expected, hmmm?" mused Cinder, looking down at Emerald.

"She's fast," said Emerald. "Most of the battle, she was a blur. I was barely able to keep her from running rings around me."

"She also knows how to take the shortest distance," said Mercury. "With how fast she was, you'd think she'd be dashing all over the place, but her movements were all tight and controlled. Up close, that only makes her seem even faster."

"And she packs a wallop, for being such a pipsqueak," added Emerald, fingering her stomach, where the line Ruby's hit had left had faded.

"Savvy too," said Mercury, scratching his chin. "The first time around, Emerald bringing out her chains will throw the poor schmuck off. But Ruby didn't flinch. It was almost as though she was expecting something like that."

"Interesting..." said Cinder pensively, making a few more passes with her needle. "And have you figured out her Semblance?"

"Um...We're...not sure," admitted Emerald, trading a look with Mercury.

"From the way she kicks up those petals when she moves, we figured that her Semblance might be speed-related," said Mercury.

"But, during the fight, she created a decoy of some kind," added Emerald. "I'm just not sure what to think."

"Taurus reported that she uses wind and lightning," added Mercury. "And we have the recordings of her other matches to show the lightning part."

"So she's at least a skilled Dustweaver," added Emerald.

"Hmm...I wonder about that," said Cinder, pausing in her project to retrieve her scroll.

Opening it up into tablet-mode, Cinder brought up the recording of Ruby's match against Pyrrha. Scrubbing through it, she brought the playback to a particular point, where Ruby had leapt up into the air above Pyrrha. The image showed a cloud of petals around Ruby, which condensed around her, transforming into violet bolts of plasma. "Notice anything interesting?"

"She's making her lightning from those petals," observed Emerald.

"But those come from her Aura, right?" asked Mercury.

Cinder smiled slyly. "Or so we thought," she said. She fast-forwarded to the end of the match, showing how Ruby had transformed her cloak, and how it was completely gone, when the match was over.

"Could the Dust be woven into her cloak?" wondered Emerald.

"But look at the way it burns through her Aura, once she activated it," Mercury pointed out. "Sure, doing that would burn out the Dust pretty quick, but she shouldn't have needed much Aura beyond the initial activation, and certainly wouldn't have to burn it continuously."

"But then...if she isn't producing elemental attacks from her Dust, then where?" Emerald frowned. "It's almost like...magic."

"Yessss," cooed Cinder, her voice almost becoming a hiss. "It looks innocuous, easy to pass off as nothing more than a trick. But there is clearly more to this girl's power than meets the eye. If we're lucky, then we might even have an opportunity to kill two birds with one stone, with our little operation. Just imagine how pleased She will be...if we manage to secure two of the keys at once."

Emerald and Mercury traded another glance, their eyes narrowing, and their lips curling up in smiles of their own.

"Of course, we can't get carried away," said Cinder, smiling down at her outfit. "We need to make sure we secure our primary objectives first, then we can worry about extra credit." She chuckled dryly. "It would seem that we have a fun weekend ahead of us."