63

"Rrraagh!" Ruby roared as she swung Augury and clashed with her opponent's dual swords, grinning almost like a feral beast as a shockwave rippled out from the impact traveling through Oxide (the O in Team MRLO "Muralo") as he crossed his blades and almost cracking the stage beneath his feet- almost, but not quite.

Ruby didn't wanna get yelled at for more destruction of school property of course.

She continued to press her advantage, seamlessly swapping from massive sword to scythe as Augury's barrels rotated about in perfect position to fire as she spun around and slam the point of her scythe into Oxide's crossed blades to the point that her rusty-haired classmate was sent flying back- and with a quick flourish that repositioned Augury's barrels to fire forward, she sent him flying into the barriers around the stage with his Aura completely depleting from the force of two 4 gauge ultra-high impact slugs slamming into his chest.

She didn't take the time to pause and cheer though- ducking under Lake's spray of bullets from her tommy gun with advanced warning from the eyes dotted all over her body and shifting Augury back to sword form as she flicked herself to the side with just a single spark of her semblance- rose petals flying everywhere and obscuring her opponent's view of her as she folded her sword blade down and fired a series of homing shots straight at the blue-haired girl's face. 

Low pressure, of course, because homing shots were naturally less impactful, and because she didn't really want to hurt anyone. She'd gotten this specific batch to help in case she was ever near Mercury when he ran out of ammo for Talaria and didn't have his knives for whatever reason. 

She'd also had to specifically clear it with Professor Goodwitch because it was almost twice the size of a .50 bmg shot.

Either way, Ruby continued to stay mobile as Lake ducked out of the way of the homing shots and snapped them out of the air as her tommygun shifted into flanged mace, the three still active members of Team MRLO trying their best to flank Ruby as they ran around- Misty soaring above with her Cloudwalker Semblance and Ronchi sprinting for all that he was worth as he tried to chase Ruby with rocket boosted gauntlets that were… somehow almost the exact opposite of Ember Celica. It was actually kinda weird seeing them.

Ruby just continued to zigzag erratically, dodging shots and thrown projectiles while Oxide scooted off the arena floor, flipping up and back over Ronchi in a cloud of rose petals as she flicked Augury out under herself and fired down the same way she usually did with Crescent Rose. Instantly, Ruby was flung up to Misty's height while her shot nearly winged Ronchi straight in the head, the blond brawler barely dodging it with a muffled curse while Misty almost fell off of her cloud in surprise as Ruby rocketed up… and clamped one hand around the barrel of Misty's sniper rifle. 

"Nice gun, but it's a little small, isn't it?" Ruby asked as she hung there in midair briefly, smiling guilelessly at Misty for a moment before yanking the poor blue-gray-haired girl off of her cloud and flung her to the ground. "Yoink!"

"Whoa shit!"

Thoroughly disarmed and disheartened, Misty simply rolled with the fall, springing up and putting her hands up as if to try and engage in Ruby with hand to hand… only for the utterly overpowered grimm girl to fire repeatedly down with Augury, standing in the crook of the blade as it lifted her higher and she took sight with Misty's own rifle and fired two far too precise shots directly into Ronchi and Lake's chests. With one hand.

Thankfully, with the caliber of bullets Misty used (.308? Really? C'mon, that'd barely scratch the armor of anything stronger than a regular Ursa!), the two of them weren't too badly damaged, though they were knocked off of their feet while Ruby descended in a swirl of rose petals and flashing steel, coming to a halt right in front of Misty and handing back the rifle (which, apparently, also doubled as a bo staff, which was actually really cool and almost analogous to Crescent Rose in some ways) with that same smile. 

"... You… do realize this is a spar, right?" Misty muttered, taking her rifle back with a slightly perturbed expression- knowing damn well that Ruby had been holding back since the start of the fight because she was literally damn near unstoppable with her utterly ridiculous strength, speed, and armaments. 

"Well yeah, but you're not gonna be fighting your best if you don't have your weapon. Duh," Ruby scoffed, flipping Augury closed into its semi-inactive form for easier handling as she aimed the shotgun barrels behind herself and fired another pair of homing shots to knock Lake out of the fight entirely before she could start firing her tommy gun again. "I mean, would you rather try to fight me without a weapon? Actually speaking of- you really have to take better care of Huaguo! Her shots are pulling way far to the left, the scope is half a degree out of alignment in the x and z axis, the mechashift parts are showing their wear and tear, and you need a new coat of paint!"

"I- wh- Hey- what I do with my weapon is none of your business!" Misty half shouted rather indignantly, flicking the rifle out into its staff form (and internally wincing at the sound the mechashift components made because dammit Ruby was right) as she took a halfhearted swing at Ruby, only for the red Huntress to simply cartwheel out of the way, expanding Augury into its scythe form again and twirling it around to start slashing away at Misty's Aura- all while blocking Ronchi's sudden strike to the back and swiftly engaging both of them in turn without missing a beat.

Augury flashed and spun, audibly slicing through the air as she dodged and blocked and countered and parried at high speed, the silver mass of metal that was her weapon almost appearing as a solid, spinning wheel around her- whizzing and whirring as she blocked staff and gauntlet in turn, guiding them away from her before rearing back and using the momentum of her spinning to shift Augury again and slam her sword straight into Misty's gut with such force that it sent the leader of Team MRLO flying into the wall and out of the match entirely.

Ronchi wisely surrendered a moment later, and Ruby won… yet another 4v1 spar.

Honestly, she was starting to feel bad about winning- at this point, it was just unfair. With how strong she was, how fast she was… she could likely take on the entire class at once and not lose. Probably? Pyrrha and Penny could probably beat her in terms of raw weapons skill, Yang knew her moveset inside and out from all of their spars across their entire lives… and Nora…

Ruby hummed as she made her way back into the stands, barely acknowledging Professor Goodwitch sending her notes to Ruby's scroll as she flumped into Penny's lap in corgi form so she could just sit tight and relax for a moment- let go of being human for a moment so she could just be hugged and held by one of the few people on the planet that could actually relate to her feeling so divorced from humanity because neither of them were in any way biologically human.

She sighed, tail wagging as she nuzzled into Penny's arms and half ignored the cutesy babble pouring from her newfound bestie's lips as she thought over the most optimal team composition for actually winning against her.

Nora was weirdly strong, to the point that if she was charged up and using Magnhild's Last Resort All Grenade Impact (Nora's name, not hers), then there was a pretty high chance that the excitable valkyrie could actually overpower Ruby. And possibly destroy one of her weapons. Or injure her to the point of having to completely regenerate from a small blob of darkness instead of just taking off one piece, depending on how low her Aura got.

Nora and Yang and Pyrrha and Penny… hm… Team… uh… PPYN??? Peppercorn???? 

Sure, whatever.

"Hmmm…" Ruby tilted her head, wagging her head as she looked up at Penny with a considering stare. "Hey Penny?"

"Yes Ruby, my be- er, Friend Ruby?" Penny asked, hiccuping a little bit as she seemingly started to vent heat for just about no reason, Ruby's finely tuned emotion senses picking up a muddled rush of… embarrassment? Was Penny trying to blush about almost calling Ruby her best friend? Aww, that was cute! But also, weird, because Ruby made absolutely no qualms about calling Penny her bestie. Just like she called Blake her bestie. And also Weiss. And Yang. And sometimes the members of Team JNPR cuz they were right across the hall. "What is it?"

"Mmm… just thinking," Ruby hummed, wiggling around in Penny's arms as she got comfy and fluffed up a little bit, the cape wrapped around her collar fluttering as it grew into a full blanket to wrap around the both of them with a small flurry of rose petals. "If you, Yang, Nora, and Pyrrha teamed up… do you guys think you could beat me in a fight?"

Penny blinked. 

"I am… not sure, actually!" Penny stated, smiling a little as she tightened her grip on Ruby, hugging her close and stroking the fluff of fur on top of her head. "It seems like an exciting prospect! I suppose you chose all of us because, on our own, we each seemingly outmatch you in some way or form based on the statistics you have displayed in your spars so far this semester. Yang knows your moveset better than anyone else, Pyrrha outskills your use of Augury with Miló and Akoúo̱, Nora is more than capable of matching your strength at full charge, and I am-"

She paused, lowering her voice to the point that literally only Ruby could hear her voice… and Blake, maybe depending on how sensitive her cat ears were. "-I am a combat ready gynoid capable of matching and exceeding your theoretical per second firepower."

"Mm! If you guys all drilled together for… a couple weeks, maybe a month, I think you guys would be able to work together super well and beat me! Not- er…" Ruby flushed slightly, a ripple of grimm bones spreading across her body before she tamped it down. "Not that I'm bragging… it's just… y'know… Team RWBY-P and Team JNPR are sitting at the top of the board and it's… getting pretty apparent that we're… kinda the best of the first year teams. And our classmates kinda… don't wanna fight us anymore."

"That is a concern," Penny nodded, continuing to give Ruby as many pets and pats as she could handle as she ran her surprisingly gentle fingers through the thick, black, sleek fur all over the corgi Huntress' body. "We likely will not be able to have proper sparring progress unless we challenge higher years at this point. With my preprogrammed skill level, plus the overall skill level that you, Weiss, Blake, and Yang show… we are projected to match or exceed Pyrrha's technical level by the end of the semester."

She paused, then tilted her head. "By that, I mean, we are expected to reach where Pyrrha is now in… approximately two and a half months in pure technical skill. Though, as Pyrrha unlearns her tendency to default to flashier, tournament appropriate moves, I suspect she will outstrip us again."

"Pyrrha does tend to go for flashy attacks a lot…"

"Indeed, it makes for a wonderful spectacle!" Penny grinned, bringing Ruby up and cradling her almost like a baby while Ruby just panted happily and nuzzled into Penny's chest- taking full advantage of her current shape to cuddle without it being weird. 

She sighed, turning a small bit of attention back to the next sparring match. After a moment, she tilted her head and looked back up at Penny- every single eye on her body focusing entirely on her fellow redhead to the exclusion of just about everything else.

"Hey Penny?"

"Yes, Friend Ruby?"

"What did you almost call me earlier? You seemed really embarrassed for a moment."

Penny… vented heat again and hiccuped violently.

"N-nothing!"

"... Uh… huh."

Notes:

We're getting close to an important moment!