The clash of metal. The smell of sweat. The tension that could be cut with a blade.
Weiss opened up the zipper of her padded jacket, letting her torso breathe for a few minutes.
The aforementioned sweat dripped down her cheek. She grabbed a towel that sat on top of her gear bag and dabbed away the droplets that were forming in her hair.
Taking a quick sip of her sports drink, she heard her name being called. "Weiss! You're up."
Her teammate, Velvet, alerted her from the side of the strip.
"Coming!" She zipped her jacket and lame, making sure that the wires were all where they needed. She grabbed her mask and clipped the wire onto her bib. Unsheathing her foil, she inserting the dual prong wire into the guard of the blade.
Stepping forward, she met up with Velvet. "What's my opponents movement like?" She asked her fellow varsity teammate. Velvet had fenced Weiss' current opponent in the previous round, so Velvet should be able to know all of their movements and patterns, as if she took pictures of all of them.
"She's the girl with black and red hair, the kinda short one. She's a little sloppy on the lunges, but her speed and footwork are incredible. She can also parry pretty well. You'll be able to tell when she's about to go on the offensive when she starts bobbing back and forth really fast. She leans forward a little bit after you score touches against her, so she forgets things at points."
"So she's a little green but is on a varsity roster." Weiss deducted from the information that Velvet supplied her.
"I would say so, yes." Velvet smiled. The two teammates walked up to the metal strip that was laid out on the floor. A small crowd had gathered in the stands to watch the bouts for tonight. It wasn't unusual, their team, The Vale Academy Knights, were having a great performance this season.
But, from what they have heard, the team they were facing, The Patch Highschool Pirates, were having an equally impressive season, so Weiss wasn't going to let her guard down so easily, thinking that she would get an easy win.
Velvet helped Weiss connect her wires to the strip.
The white haired fencer starred down her opponent at the end of the strip. A taller blonde haired girl was helping her connect to the strip, obviously an epee as she didn't have a lame.
She patted the shoulder girls shoulder. "You got this, sis." She heard the blondes words of encouragement.
Weiss felt a tap on her own shoulder, a signal from Velvet that she too was now hooked up to the strip.
Weiss watched as her opponent squatted down in front of her, the proceeding to do lunge stretches, a quick warm up.
Her short red and black hair was soaked with sweat, a sign that she had been working hard, more than likely working with the JV lineups when she wasn't fencing on the varsity strip.
'She could be tired now, but then again, she might have a lot of endurance.' Weiss commented to herself. It was usual for a varsity fencer to not fence much between bouts to not tire themselves out.
Weiss decided to do her own quick stretch. Gripping her foil in her left hand, she kicked her foot backwards, to the point where her heel was almost touching her back. She then threw her blade over her shoulder, touching the tip of the blade to the bottom of her shoe.
She then repeated the action with her other foot, then proceeding to do her own quick squat before nodding to the official that she was ready.
Weiss' opponent finished her stretching and nodded to the official herself. She looked at the other girl and took a quick glance into her eyes. She saw pure focus and determination, a trait that Weiss herself has shown while on the fencing strip.
Usually Weiss used the stretch that she performed as a form of intimidation, seeing as how the stretch was a sign of great nimbility. But Weiss wasn't seeing the usual form of nervousness from other girls that Weiss would face against.
The official, seeing as both fencers finished their quick stretches. Approached each fencer and checked their blades. The official checked Weiss' blade first and found no issue with it. When he walked over to the other girl, Weiss noticed one thing that put her off.
The other girl was also left handed.
'Crap.' Weiss said mentally. 'This could be a problem, I don't have much practice against other lefties.' Weiss was the only left handed person in her squad, and the boys foil squad didn't have any left handed people at all. The only practice she got was when she asked one of her left handed epee teammates to practice with her, and those opportunities were rare.
The official was halfway through the testing of her opponent's blade when the official pulled out a yellow card for the fencer.
"Yellow card, missing tip screw." The official informed the room.
Weiss' opponent suddenly got flustered and looked like she was about to panic. "O-oh no! I just checked it before I came up and it was there!"
"Ruby!" Someone called from the side of the strip. A black haired sabre fencer came up with a spare foil blade.
The fencer, which Weiss now knew as Ruby, quickly thanked her teammate and swapped out the blades.
When the official checked the new blade, he confirmed that it was in regulation ready.
Weiss saw the black and red haired girl heave a sigh of relief. She thanked the official and took hold of her mask that was tucked under her right arm.
The white haired fencer was waiting patiently with her own mask dangling in her own hand.
"Test lame's." the official called.
The two fencers stepped forward with their sword points aimed at each others metal-fabric covered chests. The two blades connected with their intended targets and two white lights shined on the scoreboard.
"Alright, fencers on the line." the official stated the next action.
The two fencers moved back to their starting lines and each slipped on their masks. Weiss' vision became covered in the black mesh that could hinder ones vision, if they were inexperienced. Weiss had managed to adapt to the mask and almost look past the metal grid.
Weiss took another deep breath, exhaling slowly, and focused herself on her opponent.
"You got this, Weiss." Velvet called from the sideline.
"Fencers ready?" the official asked the two girls. Both girls in return nodded. "Fence."
Weiss decided to make the first move right off the bat, advanced her way down the strip, picking her balde at her opponent's chest and neck, trying to form an opening.
With every step that Weiss took towards the other girl, she made sure that her opponent knew that she had the control. Weiss wasn't going to let this girl get any ground on her.
She was inching closer and closer to the back line. The other girl wasn't intimidated by Weiss' onslaught of attacks, every lunge and jab she parried and blocked, beating the blade out of the way whenever Weiss was slow on an attack.
Weiss took one more step, and then took one step back, testing the waters to see if the other girl would retaliate with a lunge of her own. One that Velvet informed her was not up to par.
As soon as Weiss took the retreating step, Ruby made her move. She shot off of her back foot, propelling herself forward, the blade aimed right for Weiss' chest.
Weiss predicted this to happen. She had hoped that the other girl would get desperate to attack on her own terms and make an attempt at the first chance she got.
Bringing her blade back up, Weiss went to parry her opponent's blade. As she took Ruby's blade, bending it in a way that put the tip of the blade out of harm's way, the blade slipped off. Weiss had no time to react to this as she was already in the middle of the lunge that would have ended with Weiss getting the point, but in this situation, the blade went passé.
Weiss' blade completely missed the target, along with Ruby's own blade, also going passé.
Both of the fencers blades were caught under each of the others arms.
Weiss was the first to break the almost-hug… by reeling her arm back and poking Ruby's chest with the tip of her blade.
"Halt! Attack right, parry left, both attack passé, touch left." the director called the touch in Weiss' favor.
"That was… uncharacteristic." Velvet commented. "Don't worry about it Weiss, she's a leftie, you're just not used to it."
"I know." Weiss grumbled. She walked back to her starting line and turned back towards her opponent.
"Don't worry about it, Ruby!" Another person called from the other team's bench.
Weiss heard other people cheer words of encouragement, but Weiss elected to tune it out.
She heard the high pitched beep from the scoreboard as a point was added to her score.
The white haired fencing star was starting to get a feel for her new opponent, even though she was still not comfortable with the whole lefty versus lefty thing.
The director lifted both of his arms once more, the room falling quiet. "Fencers on the line, fencers ready; Fence!"
This time, Ruby was the one to make the first move, show off her a display of speed mixed with a flurry of strikes that caught Weiss off guard. This girl's style changed just after one single touch. She went from playing passive to aggressively offensive.
Within moments, Weiss found herself just a few steps from the back line. If she was pushed back any further the bout would be tied.
Weiss looked at every strike that her opponent was making and tried to find a rhythm or a pattern to them.
But almost everyone seemed to be random, as if she was just throwing random strikes, hoping for one of them to make it's mark.
Wait. That was it. There was no pattern. This girl is acting in desperation.
Taking a step back, making sure not to put her front foot past the line, Weiss put a large amount of pressure on her back leg. Extending her arm out, she lunged forward, right into an opening in the flurry of strikes.
Ruby tried to parry the strike before the blade made contact but was too slow and could not get the angle right, as she was too close to her opponent for the parry to work.
She knew that the point was Weiss'.
The buzzer went off and the director called for a halt.
Weiss looked at the buzzer expecting to see the green light for her favor.
But her heart sank and her mind raged with confusion.
A white light was on the scoreboard. An off target touch.
"Attack off target, no point." The director called off to her right.
The director stepped over to where Ruby and Weiss were standing and put his arm out between the two fencers. "Line is here." he said.
The two fencers then stepped back a couple feet to create space between them.
Weiss looked down when the space between them was the correct distance and saw that she was practically off the strip. Her front foot was all the separated her and a point being counted against her.
She needed to play multiple different play styles all at the same time.
Taking in a deep breath, she steeled her nerves and waited for the call.
Looking at her opponent, she saw that they were preparing themselves for another aggressive play.
She cemented her front foot to the position that it was in waited.
Weiss exhaled slowly.
"Fencers ready; Fence!"
In the matter of a second, Ruby's blade was close to coming in contact with Weiss' chest.
In response, the white haired fencer flicked her blade up and beat the blade out of the way.
The red hair girl reacted quickly, retreating before Weiss could recover her blade and take the advantage.
As Ruby retreated, Weiss brought herself low and lunged off her back leg once more with all of her might.
Weiss managed to gain ground and push herself off the line. But that didn't mean Ruby softened up her attack.
The slightly shorter fencer had recovered from her retreat and was now preparing to push Weiss back.
Weiss knew that there was one good way to push Ruby back. She needed to redouble all the way down the line of the strip.
A redouble is when she constantly lunged to create distance between the two of them and to push the other fencer into desperation and force out a parry or two.
Weiss launched off in another lunge, aiming her blade dead center of Ruby's chest.
Seeing the attack coming at her, the other fencer jumped back a few feet and waited for the next strike.
Weiss saw that Ruby went into a defensive hold and came out of her lunge, bringing her blade back up and lowering herself back into her initial stance.
"Good recovery, Weiss!" she heard one of her teammates shout from the side.
Weiss for some reason felt like this was a challenging bout. She had done this same sort of routine and faced some of the same tactics before, but for some reason, this one bout felt different.
She could win this one easily, but why was this girl proving to be a problem? Velvet told her that this girl was not as experienced as Weiss was.
Weiss went in for the next attack, a counter perry disengage.. A move that she felt was almost her signature move at this point, one that she practiced so much she had nearly perfected it.
She would make it look like she was going for a poorly planned lunge, and then take the opportunity of her opponents perry and easily break out of it, twirling her blade in the other direction of the counter, to catch her opponent off guard and come in low for the touch.
Weiss took a small step back and then began to advance towards her opponent. The two girls began extending their blades towards the other, trying to bait a reaction to create an opening for the others planned attack.
From what Weiss observed, Ruby was not going to bite on any of her baits, all of the attacks were responded with focus on her, waiting for the real attack to be initiated.
Weiss then noticed a rookie mistake out of Ruby, Weiss saw the girl take a glance out of the corner of her eye, looking at the timer for the bout.
"An opening." Weiss thought. She lunged off her back foot once more and aimed blade at the center of Ruby's chest.
TINK, tap! BEEEP The sound of metal colliding and the buzzer going off initiated the end of the attacks.
Weiss stood there stunned. She looked down and saw her blade, twisted around Ruby's, with the tip of the other girls blade poking her chest.
"What just happened?" Weiss asked herself quietly.
"Did you see that?" A fencer off to the side commented.
"That was so fast." another confirmed.
"I blinked, what happened?"
Ruby recovered from the strike and began to walk back to her line, her team cheering her on from their own sideline.
"Alright Rubes, just like in practice. Use that speed!" the blonde girl that was there cheered for her teammate.
Weiss came out of her stance and walked back onto the line. She still felt stunned. It all happened in an instant.
Weiss looked back in her mind and saw the other girls blade moving so fast, like it was out of a movie or a television cartoon or something.
"Great," Weiss thought to herself, "Now I need to worry about that speed."
Weiss went back into her stance at the line and waited for the directors call.
"Score is one to one with one minute and forty-five seconds left on the clock, fencers on the line. Ready; Fence."
Weiss took one step forward, ready to show off her own speed, but in the time that she took to take that one step, Ruby's blade was already in Weiss' chest.
The buzzer went off. Another point to Ruby.
"Hey, I thought this was Foil not Sabre!" A boy called out.
"She certainly makes it look like it is with that speed of hers."
"Score is now one to two with one minute and forty-two seconds left on the clock."
Weiss took one step back to her starting line, as that was all that distance she covered in that engagement.
"Time, sir!"
Weiss heard Velvet call out to the director, any teammate or coach could call a twenty second timeout once per bout this gave some time to give a tactical advantage and give an outside viewer perspective.
"Time out, Vale Academy."
The white haired girl turned around and looked at her teammate. Weiss knew pretty much exactly what she was going to tell her.
"Okay, Yes, she's fast. You've been caught off guard twice in a row by that. Time to stop going on the offensive and play far more defensive. When she comes at you, take a step back. She takes a second to recover from those really quick lunges, at least from what I saw from that last attack. If you take advantage of that small second long period you might be able swing this game back in your favor." Velvet tapped the side of Weiss' mask and went back to the side lines. "You got this." She called back finally as she took a seat.
Weiss stood there for another second, going over all of the things that Velvet advised her to do.
She slowly developed a plan in her head.
Do exactly as Velvet told her.
It was a simple plan, but it was one that would work.
Weiss may have been the captain of the team but Weiss fully admitted that Velvet was the brain of the team.
And based off of what Weiss was starting to get from this girl, she wasn't the same fencer that Velvet fenced in the round prior.
"Fencers on the line." The director called once more as Weiss turned back towards her opponent.
Ruby had just finished getting a sip of water from a bottle of water that the blonde haired epee fencer that had been cheering from the sidelines had brought over to her.
For the first time, as Ruby turned around, Weiss got a good look at her opponents eyes for the first time. Her eyes were an eye color that she had never seen before.
Silver. Beautiful silver that seemingly glistened off the lights that hung above them.
In the small second that Weiss caught a glimpse of her eyes, Ruby pulled her mask down and adjusted the strap on the back of her head, securing the mask in place.
Weiss lowered herself back to her readied stance and raised her blade, making sure to aim the tip of it at her opponent's shoulder.
"Score is still one to two with one minute and forty-two seconds left on the clock."
Weiss took another deep breath.
"Fencers ready. Fence."
Ruby did exactly what Weiss expected her to. Right out of the starting gate Ruby tried to pull the same quick stunt that she did with the previous point.
But this time instead of advancing towards her opponent, she jumped back to avoid the oncoming strike. Weiss made sure to observe and study the other fencer for the short moment that she had in mid air to confirm what Velvet had said.
Just as Velvet observed, Ruby sat there for a solid second, staying in the lunged pose. But Weiss noticed something that Velvet hadn't.
Ruby was also studying Weiss intently.
Each fencer was looking at each other's movements, still looking for any new patterns or tendencies.
"This girl sure is annoying."
Weiss landed with her feet still in the standard "L" shape that was needed for fencing, and saw that Ruby was already making her way towards her.
The red haired girl was hopping back and forth, almost like a rabbit. Playing very aware and ready for any attack.
Weiss saw that Ruby was trying to bait her in for a touch. Ruby wanted Weiss to make the first attack.
That was a smart plan. At the moment, the ball was in Ruby's court. She had the one point advantage and if she took that all the way to the end of the minute and thirty that was left, the bout would be her win.
Weiss couldn't spend all her time being on the defensive. She needed to formulate a plan that would go along side Velvet's own.
The only way that she could think of was for her to play passively. Retreat when there was a heavy attack coming in, but then go in for the kill whenever she saw the chance.
Weiss was weary about the girl's strike, it proved to be deadly fast. But she was not scared of it. At the time, all she could do really was pray.
The white haired fencer began to poke her blade forward, trying to get Ruby to take her blade in a parry.
Again, Ruby was not going to bite.
Weiss needed to do something that would make this girl react.
At the moment, all she could think of was to go with some outlandish attack.
"There's no way I can get past her with ease. I just… need to wait… for the right moment… Now!"
Ruby landed with her lunge and missed the attack, giving Weiss the small second long window. The white haired fencer shifted her body so that Ruby's blade would end up going passe.
Weiss' lunge was low. Very low. Either she made this attack or else Ruby had a free point. Angling her blade, she began to bring it up towards the other fencers chest.
Clack! Ruby's blade crashed down on top of Weiss'. The point now aiming straight for the floor.
Weiss' body took over as she began to put pressure on her front leg, getting ready to take a great leap to evade the situation that she was in.
She knew that Ruby didn't have any room to score the touch on Weiss. She would have had to break her wrist to get the point in the right direc-
BEEEP!
Weiss' body stopped. She stood there stiff. Looking down, she saw Ruby's blade poking directly into upper left breast.
Slowly, Weiss raised her head.
Ruby stood there, her arm wrapped around her neck, her body twisted.
"Over… the shoulder?" Weiss said in awe.
Ruby recovered from the strike and quickly turned to face away from Weiss. The red haired girl pumped her fist into the air and gave a mighty cheer, echoed on by her teammates.
Weiss began to stand and almost fell, the position that her legs were in was not the usual extent that she exerted them.
She felt an arm catch her, looking up she saw Ruby was already standing next to her, she must have noticed that Weiss was struggling to stand.
Weiss managed to, somehow, make eye contact with the other girl through the black wire mesh that covered their masks.
"Are you okay?" Ruby asked. Did Weiss hear a bit of worry in the other girl's voice. Weiss could also see the worry in the girl's eyes. Her deep, bright, silver eyes.
"I'm fine, thank you." Weiss responded, managing to fully stand up.
Velvet quickly jogged up to the side of Weiss, also worried about her teammate.
Weiss gave her concerned teammate a thumbs up, also making sure that the director saw the thumbs up, to know that she was still able to continue the bout.
The director nodded and gave the girls a few seconds to get back to their starting positions.
Weiss took another second to compose herself. She was now down by two points, Ruby needed two more points for the win.
Weiss knew that she needed an incredible comeback.
Putting her front foot on the starting line, Weiss lowered herself into her stance once more.
"This girl… she's incredible." The fencer commented to herself. "But how did Velvet manage to beat her? Me and Velvet have almost identical styles. Maybe she just got used to Velvet by the end of the bout, that to her, could have just been a warmup. Think Weiss, what do you need to do?"
"Fencers on the line."
"What should I do?"
"Fencers Ready. Fence!"
The third round happened again. She spent so much time thinking about what to do, she didn't think of a plan and just froze. Instantly, Ruby's blade was in Weiss' chest. Just how fast was this girl? She covered at least five feet of distance within a second.
The buzzer went off and Weiss was now down four to one. The last time she was being beaten this badly, was when she was in a tournament that did not have affiliation to school systems, and she ended up fencing against a junior olympian. She lost five to one in that bout, the one point being completely luck based.
"Halt! Touch to my right is good. Score is now four to one."
Ruby recovered fully from the touch and moved back to her starting position. Weiss could see the confidence in Ruby's step. This girl knew that she was about to have a very easy victory.
Weiss just couldn't think of a way to get past this girl's attacks. She would get touches before Weiss could even plan out her first attack. What was Weiss' plan? What could she think of.
"Weiss! Stop thinking! Just fence!" Velvet called from the sideline.
That… was it! Weiss was trying so hard to think of an attack that would win her the bout instantly.
When really what she needed to do was let her body take over.
"There are forty-five seconds left on the clock. Fencers on the line."
Weiss didn't have to move at all, she didn't gain or lose any ground in the previous round.
Ruby turned around and lowered herself into her stance, the two fencers were ready to duke it out, for one, it could have been the last time they would fight on this day.
Weiss took in her deepest breath yet, breathing was an essential part to this sport, she needed to keep herself calm or else she wouldn't make the right decisions.
As she slowly exhaled, she focused herself one more time. This was the moment that it needed to count. She needed to pull off the comeback. She had little to no time to play around. These next three touches needed to be in her control in order to force out an overtime.
"Fencers Ready."
"Come at me." Weiss whispered.
"Fence!"
In an instant, Ruby was already in Weiss' face, her blade inching closer with every millisecond.
Throwing her blade up, Weiss managed to take Ruby's blade in a parry. The parry threw Ruby's point off the to the left, and resulting in Weiss' blade now being the one having the right of way.
Ruby's reactions didn't slow. The girl disengaged from the parry and took the opportunity of Weiss' blade falling off and coming out of line to take her back in another parry, which in turn, resulted in Weiss disengaging from the parry.
This continued to happen for multiple seconds. The two fencers trading and exchanging parries and disengages. To someone on the outside, it was something that couldn't easily be tracked.
For these few moments, spectators could only guess as to who would be the one to mess up first.
To Weiss and Ruby, it was as if the two were entering in a trance. The rest of the world around them cut off, and the crowd now a thousand miles away.
With every clash of the blades and every parry that failed, Weiss knew that the seconds were burning.
She needed to pull something off fast.
"Stop thinking about it!" Weiss chastised herself, she managed to break free of another parry that Ruby caught her blade in.
Weiss threw her blade at Ruby, the later girl practically waiting for the blade to come. The next parry was wider than the last. The two girls were gaining ground on each other. Their bodies mear feet apart.
Weiss pushed a few steps backwards, avoiding the lunge completely. This was the first break from the exchange that the two had.
Ruby didn't let up. She launched herself right for Weiss, her blade aimed right for the center of the white haired girls chest.
Weiss knew it. This was her chance. With this lunge, Ruby would be open right after it.
With a large parry, Weiss took the younger girls blade, the tip of the blade moving far off from its intended target.
Weiss angled her blade, the tip of the blade now on a collision course with Ruby.
With one more thrust, Weiss drove the blade right into Ruby's-
BEEP BEEP BEEEEP!
Weiss' blade stopped. The world came back into focus. She turned her head and saw that the clock had reached zero.
Time was up, and she had lost.
"Woah, you had me there." Ruby commented. "It sucks though, I was having a lot of fun!"
Ruby took off her mask, her face and hair covered in a thin layer of sweat.
Weiss took off her own mask, guessing that her own face looked close to the same.
The two saluted each other with their blades, and then saluted the director of the bout. Both fencers then shook hands and got off the strip for the next pair of fencers to come up for their bout.
Weiss felt tired. She hates losing. Who doesn't?
She walked up to Velvet, who was waiting on the sidelines.
"How did that happen?" Weiss asked her.
Velvet shrugged. "She was fast as hell. Surprised all of us. I've never seen anyone as fast as her before."
"Well." Weiss said. "Reese, I hope you took notes, cause you're fencing her next."
Another one of Weiss' teammate, Reese Chloris, stood nearby. "I'm actually a little scared." Reese responded.
Velvet smiled. "Don't worry, you'll do fine." For once, Weiss knew that Velvet was lying.
Weiss looked across at the opposing team. Ruby was gossiping with a few of her teammates, including the black haired and blonde haired girls.
Something was on Weiss' mind, and she wanted answers.
She broke off from her teammates and made her way over to the other teams benches. Ruby was facing away from Weiss and the blonde haired girl was the first person to sport her as she was approaching.
She said something to the others and suddenly all the other fencers were aware to Weiss' pressense.
Ruby slowly turned around, facing Weiss, the girl looked a little timid.
"Um… Is there someth-"
"How?" Weiss asked.
"I… Um… What?" Ruby responded, confused by the vague question.
"I think a more appropriate question would be, Why?" Weiss responded. "Why did you fence poorly in the first round and then come into the second round, acting like a completely different person? How did you do that?"
"I don't think "a warm up" would be an clear answer, Sis." the blonde girl responded.
"I think you're right." It looked like Ruby just dropped a facade. Like she was caught in the act of a crime.
Ruby walked away from the group and motioned for Weiss to follow her. Weiss, confused but curious, followed the red haired girl.
Ruby stopped at the exit to the gym where the fencing meet was being held.
"Alright, so you wanna know how I beat you with such ease, I take it that's the thing?" Ruby asked.
Weiss nodded lightly. She really wanted to know where the hole in her defense was.
"Well, I guess the first thing to say is, we've faced up against a few schools so far that have gone against your school already. We knew that your school was currently undefeated. So when we went to schools that you beat, we asked them the things you and all of your teammates did. Thankfully, a lot of them had pretty good memories."
"So… you asked for information from other schools so that you could prepare for us?" Weiss asked.
"Yeah, that's pretty much it." The way responded it sounded like it was such a simple thing to have done.
Weiss stood there, almost in shock. She was surprised by the extent that a team would go to just to win against the team that was undefeated.
"Most of the team is going to win these next bouts, we all just lulled you into a false sense of security with the first round."
"We're gonna lose?" Weiss asked.
"It's possible. We all know quite a bit about you and your teammates tendencies."
"What are mine?" Weiss asked.
The question caught Ruby off guard, not expecting Weiss to be so upfront and blunt with the question.
"Well… What people from other schools told me, you were always really confident and that you worked off of precision. There was one thing that someone told me that made me know I would be able to beat you. You can't handle speed well and when your opponent gains a lead you begin to overthink things. They also said you get a little repetitive in your attacks. Everyone knew that your team got most of their info from your teammates during the first round. So, we planned to underperform in the first round, and then fire on all cylinders in the second and third round."
Weiss processed all of the information, she made mental notes to work on the things that Ruby pointed out as Weiss' flaws. "How long were you planning this?" Weiss asked.
"A couple months to be honest. We've been working on it for so long I'm not sure what exactly the main plan is other than shooting for States, and then maybe Nationals."
"I'm impressed."
"You're impressed? I was impressed by that final exchange me and you had. When your teammate told you to just stop thinking about it, I actually got a little worried. I had to step it up then." Ruby laughed as she praised the white haired fencer, Weiss couldn't help but feel a little blush forming on her face. She had never been the one to handle random compliments well.
"It does feel like a dirty win, to be honest." Ruby said, he gaze a little down cast. "I almost feel like it was cheating. But I looked in the rule books and there was nothing against this sort of strategy. I even went over it with my coach a few times."
"That's because it was something so outlandish that you've never done it before and you don't think anyone else has ever done it before." Weiss said. "There's a first for anything."
"You don't sound pissed about it." Ruby observed, noticing how Weiss looked relaxed.
"I'm not pissed, I'm annoyed, but I'm not pissed. Losing is just a part of any sport. If you ask me, this will be a good story to tell to the rest of the schools that we go up against." Weiss responded with a smile.
"Well that's a relief. I hope this is a story you could look back on and laugh."
"It might be. Also, I'm sure your team captain must be happy to have someone like you on the team. If you're able to come up with a plan like that, it's deserving of praise and maybe even the captain spot in the future."
"Actually… I'm already the team captain." Ruby responded, poking her two index fingers together.
Weiss stared at the obviously younger girl. "...What?"
"Yeah, I'm in my sophomore year and they wanted someone with a lot of experience to be the captain and none of the new seniors wanted to step up to the plate."
"What about the juniors?" Weiss asked
"They pointed at me. I've been fencing for four years before High School so I already had a lot of experience playing."
"Are you already ranked?" the white haired girl asked.
"I'm a D Rank at the moment."
"She's won tournaments." Weiss thought to herself in more awe.
"I have to get back to my team, it was nice talking to you, Weiss." Ruby said.
"Wait!" Weiss called before the other girl could run off.
"What is it?" the red haired girl asked.
"Two things. First, How do you move so fast?" she asked.
Ruby smiled. "I also run track in the fall and spring semesters when fencing isn't going on. That's the secret to my speed. What's the second question?"
Weiss stood there for a moment, weighing her options. Eventually, she decided that she had nothing to lose by asking this question.
"Do you think you could help me get over my weaknesses on the strip? I want to fence like you, with confidence that doesn't seem fake. To be confident in all of my abilities."
Ruby stood there for a moment with wide eyes. After a few moments, she smiled. "Do you have a cell phone?" she asked.
"Yes." Weiss quickly nodded, a few strands of hair briefly falling in front of her face.
Ruby went around the corner and came back a few seconds later. She had a phone in her hands that displayed the create contact menu.
"Put your number in and I'll text you later, we'll meet up at the fencing club that I go to. I'll send you the address to it as well. My Uncle runs the place. I think he'd like you."
Weiss quickly typed in her phone number and saved it into Ruby's phone.
"Thank you." Weiss said as she handed the phone back to Ruby.
"It will be a pleasure. I hope that we enjoy our time together… I mean when we're fencing… at the club." Ruby said, trying to cover up what she just said with a pink blush on her face.
"I hope that we will as well." Weiss said as she walked past Ruby, walking back over to her teammates.
What Weiss didn't see, was Ruby pumping her fist in the air as soon as Weiss was out of sight, the younger girl clearly excited.
And Done!
Well, this spawned off of Shadow Nightblade asking some of us for a new one shot idea that he could write. BurningPeace suggested for a sports one shot but Shadow didn't feel like writing one. But, I liked the idea of it… so I did it. But it's going to be a three-shot
I hope you all enjoyed it. I have had four years of experience with fencing, although I was an Epee fencer. So if you were a foil fencer and noticed some things that seemed off, I would be glad to take some criticism.
I needed to practice some writing to get back in the swing of things for the summer.
Thank you all for reading, and I'll see you all, in the next one.