Team RWBY didn't want to believe it, but there was no use denying it. Despite each individual being an excellent combatant, they had suffered a loss. Not just any loss, but the most embarrassing loss in Beacon history. There flashing on the monitor for everyone watching in the student lounge to see was the result of a battle that was more one-sided than anyone thought possible. With a score of 100 to 9, Team CRDL as the Azures had annihilated Team RWBY as the Crimsons in the popular multiplayer video game Fate Castle 2.
Back in their dorm, Team RWBY began to argue about whose fault it was that they lost.
"Clearly I'm the one carrying this team!" argued Yang. "I'm the only one who got more than one kill!"
"And you're also the one who got the most deaths!" replied Weiss.
"Maybe I wouldn't die so often if you learned how to heal better, Doctor Useless!"
"Or maybe you should stop picking that stupid Berserker class!"
"And if either of you had bothered to back my Magician," said Blake, "I wouldn't have been killed so often!"
The three of them continued to argue over who had picked the wrong class. Ruby couldn't take the arguing and decided to leave the dorm until her team mellowed out. She decided to visit Team JNPR across the hall to see how they were doing.
"Hey guys," greeted Ruby. "What's up?"
"Ruby, glad you're here!" said Jaune. "We were just trying to come up with a name for Pyrrha and Nora's team attack. How does 'Love & War' sound to you?"
"Do we really have to use these kind of names?" asked Pyrrha. "Wouldn't a portmanteau of our names like 'Porra' sound better?"
"But that isn't creative at all!"
"Whatever you say Jaune. Anyway, what's with all the yelling across the hall?"
"We lost in Fate Castle 2 again," said Ruby.
"Fate Castle 2?" asked Pyrrha. "Is that a game?"
"Not just any game," said Jaune. "Fate Castle 2 is one of the best multiplayer arena fighting games ever! Two teams duke it out as different classes in an all out battle! The most popular mode is Team Deathmatch; the first team to score 100 kills is the winner!"
"Sounds like you've played this game a lot," said Pyrrha.
"I've clocked in like a thousand hours for that game ever since it came out; although with all the school work we have to do I haven't played in a long time."
"Really?" said Ruby. "So would you say you're a bit rusty at the game?"
"Yeah; I'm not sure if I can still pull off some of the tricks I used to do."
"Oh nonsense! I bet you're still good at the game! How about a quick match between my team and yours?"
"Sure! What do you say guys?"
"I've never played a video game before, but okay," said Pyrrha.
"Ren and I have never played either," said Nora, "but it sounds awesome! We're in!"
"As if I had any other choice," lamented Ren.
"Great!" said Ruby. "We'll set up the lobby."
Ruby hid her devilish smile as she returned to her own dorm where her teammates continued to argue.
"Ladies!" announced Ruby. "Our losing streak is about to end!"
"How?" asked the other three.
"I just challenged Team JNPR to a match! Jaune hasn't played in a while and the others never played at all! There's no possible way we can lose now!"
#
"Huh," said Jaune. "Guess I'm better than I realize."
Better was an understatement. Jaune and the rest of the Azures scored the 100 kills for the victory, while Ruby and the Crimsons scored a pathetic 29. Considering they took on three people who had no experience of any kind with video games, that was embarrassing. Weiss, Blake, and Yang continued to play the blame game while Ruby left the dorm and headed outside with her Crescent Rose, looking for the closet non-human object to vent her frustrations on.
#
The next day during their lunch break, Team RWBY can hear the murmurings of other students talking about the latest Fate Castle 2 rankings amongst the Beacon teams. Team CRDL had risen to the highest ranks, while Team RWBY had sunk to the very bottom.
"So what if we're not good at the game?" asked Blake. "It's just a video game."
"Of course," said Yang. "In fact, that game is nothing more than a glorified cosplay convention."
"As huntresses, we have no time to be wasting on such trivial entertainment," stated Weiss. "We need to focus on stopping evil syndicates and fighting real monsters."
"That's right!" said Ruby. "And nobody does that better than us!"
The girls nodded in agreement and went back to eating their lunch, ignoring the conversations of the game going around the school. They were soon joined by their neighbors Team JNPR.
"Hello again!" greeted Pyrrha.
"You will not believe the dream I had last night," said Jaune. "I was a space soldier on some weird planet, and our unit had to guard a flag for some reason, but it gets taken by this weird sounding guy named Do-"
"I CAN'T STAND IT!" suddenly yelled Weiss. "I don't care if it's just a video game! I cannot have my name at the bottom of any ranking, virtual or not!"
"Me neither!" said Yang.
"As if I don't have enough reasons to be made fun of!" said Blake. "We need to get up the ranks stat!"
"Agreed!" said Ruby. "As team leader, I feel it is my responsibility to get this team back into shape! I vow to study every strategy guide and watch every let's play and stream to learn all the secrets of Fate Castle 2! I will not let Team RWBY turn into the laughing stock of Beacon's FC2 League!"
Ruby immediately bolted for the library while the rest of her team went back to their dorm for some offline practice.
"Well," said Pyrrha, "that was...something."
#
Ruby plugged her scroll into an outlet and spent several hours scouring the internet for videos about how to be better at Fate Castle 2, scribbling down notes more meticulously than she ever would in her classes. Unbeknownst to her, the headmaster of Beacon had entered the library and noticed Ruby studying many videos, none of which seemed to be related to anything actually important.
"What are you studying there Miss Rose?" asked Ozpin. Caught off guard by Ozpin looking over her shoulder, Ruby tried to close the video.
"I'm just...uh...studying videos of past Vytal Festival fights!" said Ruby sheepishly, doing a terrible job hiding her lie. "You know, to get ready for the big tournament and all!"
"I see. So Ruby, you like playing the Archer class?"
Ruby was relieved and surprised Ozpin had no problems with Ruby brushing up on her FC2 skills. "How did you know?"
"I caught a glimpse of your game against Team CRDL. I have to say I'm surprised your team suffered such a bad loss."
"They were just lucky is all! If we grabbed those power weapons before they did, we could have won!"
"I think it was more than just the weapons that gave Team CRDL the victory."
"So...you think they might have cheated?"
Ozpin sighed. "Perhaps it's best I cut to the chase. Ruby, you can watch all the how-to videos online, but if you really want to know how to win at Fate Castle 2, I suggest you watch your own matches. It'll be pretty obvious why you lost."
"If you say so Professor Ozpin."
Ruby went into her scroll and accessed her game files. The game would automatically save the replays of the last few matches. She copied over the match with Team JNPR and watched with greater focus.
The game starts with everyone picking their classes first; Team RWBY would usually stick with what they played best. Yang always picked the Berserker; they were the strongest class but had terrible defense. Despite that, Yang would usually go off to fight on her own; she would usually get the most kills on the team, but at the expense of also dying often. Weiss played as the Doctor who had little to no strength but had healing powers; she usually got herself killed trying to save the others, especially Yang. Blake played as the Magician, who had powerful long range attacks but awful melee, and Ruby played the Archer, who had the best range in the game but little health, so she needed her teammates to cover her or else she would die right away.
For Team JNPR, Nora was a Berserker like Yang; Jaune had picked the Paladin, who had a good balance of offense and defense but was the slowest of the team. Pyrrha picked the Blacksmith, who couldn't fight well but could upgrade the others' abilities and weapons, and Ren had played the Monk, who had great speed and strength but the shortest range of all the classes.
The stage they chose was Fate Castle itself. It was a standard stage with one big center area for fighting, and giant walls surrounding the castle that housed most of the power-ups and special weapons. The teams spawned on the west and east sides of the castle; standard play usually saw teams go around the wall to collect their powers before heading to the center and killing every foe they came across.
When the match started, Team RWBY immediately ran off to collect whatever powers they wanted first. Surprisingly, Team JNPR didn't go through the walls; instead they headed right for the center area waiting for Team RWBY to arrive. That would usually be a mistake as going right for the center to start fighting would leave you as a disadvantage. Team RWBY was able to score some easy kills this way and take an early lead, but their first encounter would also be the only time they would have the advantage. It wasn't long until Team JNPR got their hands on some power-ups and suddenly annihilated Team RWBY. Even when Team RWBY got those powers back, Team JNPR was still able to score kill after kill. If they weren't the best of friends, Ruby would have accused them of using hacks to cheat their way to victory. She watched their match over and over again, switching from different view points to figure out why Team JNPR won.
"What the heck am I missing?" thought Ruby. As she continued watching, she received a call on her scroll from Weiss.
"Ruby, where are you?" asked Weiss. "We agreed you'd be back by seven so I can help you with your math homework!"
"Sorry! I was so caught up on our FC2 planning! Can we put it off until tomorrow?"
"Fine; I'll see if Blake will help me and Yang at the same time on our history homework. At least get back here before curfew!"
After they hung up, Ruby was thinking whether or not it was a good idea to hold off her math tutoring over playing a game. Ruby was barely passing in math; thankfully Weiss was a super genius at math and was able to help Ruby with everything. Funny enough, Weiss was almost as bad at history, but was able to learn quickly thanks to Blake being all-knowing on the subject.
"I'm sure glad to have these girls on my team," thought Ruby. "Otherwise I'd flunk right back to Signal!"
That's when an idea suddenly clicked in Ruby's head. She went back to looking at the match against Team JNPR, and this time she focused solely on Team JNPR's points of view and noticed how they were playing. She switched to Pyrrha's view and saw her use her upgrade abilities in order to boost Jaune's speed. Now that Jaune was fast, he was able to run over and help Nora fight off Team RWBY. Later in the match Ren was using his speed to strike the team and run away. His tactics were merely a distraction for Nora to come in and score kills easily as the Berserker. Later in the match Jaune appeared to have made a mistake and attacked the team on his own, but his reckless attack was calculated; Jaune used the Paladin's defenses to have himself get aggroed by Team RWBY while Pyrrha was setting up traps in the center base for Team RWBY to get killed later.
Every class had their strengths and weaknesses, yet Team JNPR played as if they didn't have any weaknesses. Now it was obvious why they won so easily: They worked together to cover each others weaknesses. Jaune must have known from his experience in the game all the strategies necessary for each class, and was able to convey it to his teammates during the match. Team RWBY never had such communication during the game; they played like four individuals rather as one cohesive unit.
With this newly discovered revelation, Ruby ran back to her dorm to discuss new team strategies.
#
The next day, Team RWBY had challenged Team CRDL to a rematch. Team CRDL accepted, believing it would give them another easy victory to help them remain on the top of the leader board. Once the teams had picked their classes, they chose the Fate Castle map and waited for the match to begin. The students at the lounge gathered around the monitor, watching the match via the spectator mode.
"Don't start crying when the match is over girls!" taunted Cardin over the shared team speak. Team RWBY ignored their taunts and went over their strategy one last time.
"Remember team," said Ruby, "the most important thing to keep in mind is don't do anything by yourself. There is no I in RWBY!"
The loading was complete, the teams appeared on the battlefield, and the match began.
"Freezerburn, head to their base and find the Blacksmith! Blake, come with me!" Weiss got behind Yang and used her healing powers to boost Yang's health, while Blake and Ruby headed to the side of the castle containing one of the power weapons.
"You know the drill boys," said Cardin. "Lark, you get to building. Everyone else, head for the weapons!"
Cardin and Russel as the Berserkers headed to one side of the map, Dove as the Magician headed to another, and Lark as the Blacksmith stayed near their base where he would build all the enhancements and healing stations for them to use.
Cardin and Russel headed to the hallway where the Axe of Mercury, one of the game's best melee weapons, was located. Because so many players tried to grab it early in the game, this would be where the first fights of the match usually took place. They arrived and saw the weapon still standing on the center pillar, and no sightings of Team RWBY nearby.
"Where do you think they went?" asked Russel.
"Amateurs probably ran off to another side of the map," said Cardin. "Keep an eye out in case they show up." Cardin headed to the pillar and climbed up as Russel kept watch. Cardin reached the top and grabbed the weapon. "Time to go kill some-"
Before Cardin can even jump down and use this newly acquired weapon, he was suddenly killed by a flaming arrow through the head, forcing him to drop his weapon. Russel looked to where the arrow came from and saw Blake and Ruby perched on a balcony and aiming where the axe was.
"They're camping the weapon!" said Russel. "Somebody help me out here!"
Blake and Ruby kept firing magic arrows at Russel to keep him running. As soon as Cardin and Dove arrived, Dove started firing at the Ladybug duo while Cardin went for the axe again. Blake turned her attention to Dove while Ruby kept focus on the axe; once Cardin got on the pillar to grab the axe, Ruby fired another arrow and scored a second headshot on Cardin, forcing him to wait another ten seconds to respawn.
"Our health is getting low," said Blake, "and the Berserker is closing in."
"Time to retreat!" said Ruby, using her class' smoke bomb to blind their foes and flee from the scene.
"All right!" said Russel. "Time to grab that axe!"
"If they think a couple cheap kills is going to keep us down, they've got another thing coming!" said Cardin.
"Guys!" yelled Lark. "I need backup!" While Team CRDL were busy trying to get power weapons, Freezerburn showed up and killed Lark along with everything he had built.
"Dove, find those two cowards!" said Cardin. "Russel, time to double team these noobs!"
Cardin respawned and headed with Russel to their side of the base where Yang and Weiss were waiting. With two Berserkers and the Axe of Mercury, Team CRDL looked to have the advantage over Yang.
"Oh hey, the competition finally arrived!" said Yang. "Get ready Doctor!"
"I'll activate it the moment they get close," said Weiss. The three Berserkers charged into each other. Before the two men can attack Yang, Weiss activated her special ability that allowed her to grant immortallity to Yang for several seconds. No matter how strong Cardin and Russel were, their attacks were now useless.
"Aw crap, she's gone immortal!" said Cardin. "Run!"
"It's clobbering time!" said Yang, swinging her axe and killing Russel, grabbing the special weapon, and then using it to kill Cardin. Now with Yang having one of the best weapons, her and Weiss continued to go around Team CRDL's side of the castle and rack up as many kills as possible.
The two teams started to trade kills back and forth for a majority of the match. Eventually though, Lark had built all the upgrades his attackers needed. Once Team CRDL got their power-ups, they grouped together and went for an all out assault on Team RWBY's base.
"All right team, time to get defensive!" said Ruby. "Yang, get behind us! Weiss, focus on healing me and Blake! Blake, let's hold them off as much as we can!"
Blake and Ruby grouped together and fired as much as they could at the charging Team CRDL, but their attacks had little effect. Cardin and Russel rushed in and swung their powered-up axes at Blake and Ruby; Ruby was killed in one hit, while Blake had a sliver of health left. Weiss used her healing on Blake as they tried to run away, but the three-on-one assault was too much for Blake as she was soon killed off as well. Weiss tried to maneuver around them to avoid getting killed but was picked off by Dove's magic shots, taking her out as well.
"That just leaves blondie!" said Cardin. "Dove, Lark, search the area. Russel and I will camp their spawn."
Dove and Lark searched around Team RWBY's side of the map searching for Yang while the rest of Team RWBY tried to leave their spawn point, only to be instantly killed by Russel and Cardin waiting for them. Team CRDL laughed as they now had Team RWBY cornered, giving them the perfect opportunity to score as many kills as possible and retake the lead.
"Look at these noobs just charging in and getting owned!" said Cardin. "This is easy!"
"Hey Cardin?" said Dove. "We can't find Yang."
"What do you mean you can't find her?"
"We've been searching the whole map; I think she's hiding."
"Are you sure you checked everywhere?"
"We searched every corridor and the main area; she's nowhere to be found."
"What about the tower?" asked Russel. "You know, the one with that sword?"
"But nobody ever goes up there!" replied Dove. "That tower takes so long to climb that everyone gets killed trying to get that sword."
"But if Cardin and I are here, and you two aren't at the tower..."
That's when Team CRDL realized they had make am amateur mistake. Climbing the tower usually resulted in death because an opponent can pick off a defenseless climber, except right now nobody at Team CRDL was there to do that.
"AW CRAP!" yelled Cardin. "Everyone get to the tower now!"
Team CRDL immediately ran to the tower located outside the front of the castle. The rest of Team RWBY noticed Team CRDL had left their side of the castle.
"Yang, they're on to you!" said Ruby. "Have you got the sword yet?"
"Just a few more seconds!" said Yang.
Yang continued climbing the ridiculously long ladder and finally reached the top, where the Sword of Arthur rested on the stone slab. The sword was the most broken weapon in the game as it boosted every stat of the player to its maximum, making it nearly impossible to defeat someone using it. Yang grabbed the sword out the slab just as Team CRDL arrived at the tower. Yang jumped down to greet them with her new weapon.
"Who wants to step up first?" asked Yang.
"Everyone attack her at once!" said Cardin. Try as they might, Team CRDL's boosted stats were nothing compared to Yang as she killed each member with just one swing of the blade. At this rate, Team CRDL looked done for.
"This is all your fault Dove and Lark!" said Russel. "Why didn't you check the tower?"
"Because only noobs ever goes up there!" said Dove.
"And who do you think we were facing you idiot?" replied Cardin.
"Well maybe you shouldn't have wasted time camping their spawn!" said Lark. "Way to waste all my upgrades moron!"
Team CRDL were so frustrated that they focused more on arguing with each other than playing the match, leading to more amateur mistakes that eventually led to a 100 to 63 win for Team RWBY. The teams watching in the lounge cheered for Team RWBY's victory, while Team RWBY were ecstatic to finally win a big match.
"That was awesome!" said Yang. "Did you see how many kills I racked up?"
"Don't forget I was there to assist you for most of those kills," said Weiss.
"Of course not! How could I have ever done it without my favorite Doctor?" Yang got up and lifted Weiss into a bear hug.
"Okay, next time a high five will be suffice!"
"The true MVP is Ruby," said Blake. "It was her idea to lure Team CRDL to us while Yang ran off in search of that sword."
"And by going out to get us killed near our spawn," said Weiss, "Team CRDL would think we were playing like fools and never suspect a thing."
"That's why my little sis is the best leader ever!" said Yang.
"Thanks guys," said Ruby, "but that was only one match. We have a long way to go before our team is on the top of those charts."
"But first," said Weiss, "I think it's time we took a break and studied for our upcoming exams."
With Team RWBY overcoming their biggest obstacle in FC2, they took a break from the game and went back to doing their homework.