Chapter 11: One must fall

Ruby slowly moved her view up Pyrrha's long, armored legs, past the provocatively short red skirt, up her corset-covered torso, and centered Crescent Rose's sights right on her exposed cleavage. "I'm so going to hit that."

"Ruby?" Weiss's voice was higher than normal, and a little louder than was appropriate for the circumstances.

Ruby spared half a glance at her partner sitting next to her on the tree branch. "I can totally hit her from here."

"Shouldn't you be aiming at Jaune instead?"

"Oh, come on, Weiss, Pyrrha is a much more valuable target. This is the best chance we'll get to take a big bite out of her Aura."

"Our plan is to get rid of Jaune first, and tie up Pyrrha until we can all gang up on her."

"Yeah, about that... do you want Jaune?"

"Are you seriously going to tell me you want to change the plan now?"

"It's just that me and Jaune kinda had a bonding moment and I'm not sure I could bring myself to savage him. You don't have a problem with that, do you?"

"After the way he has kept pestering me, it would be a pleasure to smack him around. But can you hold your own against Pyrrha?"

"I think so. I should be able to keep out of her reach, at least." Ruby took her eye off the sight for a second and looked around. "Have you seen any Grimm?"

"Wouldn't they have cleared the area for the matches?"

"You really think so?"

Weiss sighed. "No, of course they wouldn't. No, I haven't seen any."

"Let's hope we won't." Ruby settled the sights on Pyrrha again. Team JNPR was cautiously moving through the forest, roughly in their direction.

"Are you really going to take a shot at Pyrrha?"

"If I'm going to square off against the Invincible Girl, might as well start out ahead, right? Are the others in position?"

"How am I supposed to know that? I can't see through all that foliage." Weiss consulted her scroll. "Wait for it... wait..."

"Just tell me when Blake gives the signal, and get ready to go."

"They're in position."

Ruby rested Crescent Rose against the tree trunk, steadied her aim, held her breath, and pulled the trigger. Crescent kicked against her shoulder as the Dust ignited and sent the supersonic projectile on its way. Ruby's Aura-enhanced senses allowed her to just barely follow the heavy bullet as it streaked towards its target.

Impossibly, Pyrrha reacted while the bullet was still in flight. Ruby watched in disbelief as Pyrrha brought up her shield while beginning to bend backwards. She had time to move just enough that the bullet touched the rim of her shield and ricocheted over the intended target. Ruby didn't think even Pyrrha could have pulled that off if her shot hadn't inexplicably gone a little high.

As the sound of the report reached Team JNPR, Nora and Ren turned their heads in her general direction. Pyrrha's eyes sought for the origin of the attack, and Ruby saw her green eyes lock on her through the sights. She fired again, though she knew Pyrrha would easily block the shot this time.

"Well, I messed up that one," Ruby said as Crescent transformed to her full scythe form. "Let's go."

Ruby fired backwards as she dashed towards Pyrrha with application of her Semblance. She had to evade fire from Miló in his rifle form on the way, which prevented her from building up as much momentum as she'd counted on. Her dash ended in front of Pyrrha, and she brought Crescent down in an overhead swing. Pyrrha easily deflected the attack with Akoúo̱, and then Ruby had to scramble to avoid a thrust from Miló. Before she could even regain her balance, Pyrrha struck again, and Ruby realized she might have bitten off more than she could chew.

Unfortunately her sudden departure had left Weiss behind, and for a moment Ruby was facing the entire Team JNPR on her own. Fortunately the other three weren't interfering, possibly recognizing Pyrrha didn't need any help. Unfortunately, that was an accurate judgment. Fortunately Jaune and Nora were looking her way, so at least she was functioning as a distraction. Unfortunately Lie Ren was on his guard, searching for the rest of her team. Fortunately Blake's skill and the dense undergrowth had let them sneak close enough that all Ren gained from his vigil was a Dust-powered kiss from Ember.

"Ren!"

"What? Where did they come from? Ambush, it's an ambush."

"Pow! Right in the kisser. It looks like lover boy won't be smooching anyone for a while."

"I'll get you for that, Yang. Nobody treats my Rennie-poo like that." There was a thundering crash. "Stay still so I can break your legs!"

"You're just too slow."

"Oh, now you've done it."

"Catch me if you can, slowpoke."

"You are going down, Xiao Long!"

"Nora! Don't run off on your own! We talked about thi—unfh."

"I'm your opponent, Jaune. Just worry about yourself."

Her teammates arrived not a moment too soon. Ruby was hard pressed just to cope with Pyrrha. If any of the others had taken advantage of the situation, she could be down for the count already. As it was, she couldn't afford to take her eyes off Pyrrha. Yang and Nora's voices were receding, so at least that part of the plan was working as intended. Now she just needed to hang on until Weiss finished Jaune off. She hadn't heard Blake's voice, or a report from Gambol Shroud, but she was probably looking for her opening.

"Ren, will you—augh!"

"I'll look after her."

"You can't hide behind that shield forever."

"She's right, Jaune. Take advantage of any openings she gives you. This is not the time for any misplaced chivalry."

Ruby felt distinctly offended. Did Pyrrha seriously have time to coach Jaune while fighting her? She executed a minute dash to build up momentum for a powerful swing, only to find she had to abort the attack as Pyrrha's quick counter forced her to scramble trying to deflect it. Had she landed a single hit yet? Pyrrha truly earned the epithet Invincible Girl; there were no gaps in her defense. Ruby wished she could say the same about hers. Despite her best efforts her Aura was already being steadily depleted, either by glancing hits, or the effort required to avoid direct ones.

"I'm not just being considerate! I just can't find any openi—gah!"

"Won't you just fall already?"

"Weiss! Stop playing with him alrea—aaah!"

Pyrrha had found a hole in Ruby's guard and delivered a thrust with Miló that would have skewered her had her Aura not held. Ruby scrambled back to put some distance between them, and took the opportunity to shift Crescent into gun form to direct some fire on Pyrrha. Pyrrha, of course, returned fire with Miló. Akoúo̱ danced in Pyrrha's hands with incredible precision, blocking all of her shots that Pyrrha didn't just nimbly evade; it almost seemed like Ruby's rounds were drawn towards the shield. Ruby was fast enough to avoid the return fire, but she had to concede that at this range the exchange probably favored Pyrrha.

Had this been a duel, Ruby would have used her Semblance to put some serious distance between them and tried to ambush her again. As things stood, she couldn't leave Weiss alone to face both Pyrrha and Jaune. Not being closely engaged with Pyrrha she could see Weiss creating an array of Glyphs from the corner of her eye. She recognized the tactic; she was looking to set up a flank attack by maneuvering faster than Jaune could react to. The attack should put Jaune out of the fight. She just needed to hold on a little longer. She dashed forwards as Crescent Rose unfolded back into a scythe.

She managed to take Pyrrha by surprise. She was still holding Akoúo̱ to block shots, and Miló was still in rifle form. She could probably still block a strike from the front, but Crescent's shape afforded Ruby a range of possible attacks. She swung the heavy scythe in a large horizontal arc to go around Pyrrha's guard to strike her back. She needed to step close to Pyrrha, but that also put her in a position she couldn't be fired on. Since Miló wasn't in his sword form, Pyrrha shouldn't be able to take advantage of her being open.

Like she had been expecting the move, Pyrrha jumped up and back in a high graceful arc, easily avoiding her attack. It also put enough space between them to bring Miló to bear on her; Ruby realized Pyrrha had left Miló in his rifle form for this maneuver, rather than out of error. Ruby was standing almost still, her momentum halted by the need to pull Crescent back to execute her attempted attack. She was a sitting duck. Ruby almost closed her eyes as she expected a Dust round right in her face.

She was given a reprieve when Pyrrha twisted sideways in the air, and aimed to her side. The report was followed by a yelp from Weiss.

"Ruby! You are supposed to keep her occupied."

"I'm trying, okay? Just hurry up and deal with Jaune already."

Ruby rushed Pyrrha again to take advantage of her predictable trajectory. High jumps were certainly spectacular, but not necessarily practical, as they left the fighter relatively helpless. Ruby's swing missed, anyway, as Pyrrha's fall somehow slowed for a split second at a crucial moment. Luckily she didn't have momentum for an effective return strike. From the corner of her eye Ruby spied a light show as Weiss unleashed a barrage of Dust attacks on Jaune. How was he still standing?

Pyrrha noticed the spectacle as well, and flung Akoúo̱ in that direction as she landed, presumably at Weiss. Ruby didn't take her eyes off her target even for a second, and capitalized on the opportunity. With Pyrrha distracted and without her shield, she looked to land a solid hit on her.

Pyrrha had other ideas. She continued the motion of throwing her shield into a spinning kick. Ruby was for once happy about her short stature as she ducked under the kick and swept her scythe at Pyrrha's supporting leg. Pyrrha spun around in the air, and suddenly the leg was in the air and kicking down at her. Ruby avoided it with a move that would have done her credit in a limbo contest and followed it into an improbable backflip.

Pyrrha wasn't going to give her any time to recover. She rushed towards her, bending to pick up Akoúo on the way. How had she ended up in that position? Ruby was sure Jaune couldn't have thrown her back. Could Pyrrha really have judged a ricochet from Weiss so exactly, or did she have some way of controlling the shield from a distance? She hadn't shown that ability in her fight against Dove Bronzewing.

Ruby was starting to find the fight quite unfair. She couldn't land a hit on Pyrrha and she couldn't even stop her from supporting Jaune when needed, which made Weiss's task much harder than it needed to be. She was beginning to suspect that she and Weiss put together weren't a match for the Mistralian tournament champion. Ruby could only hope that Yang and Blake managed to win against their half of Team JNPR and returned to support them while she was still standing.

Ruby put a little distance between herself and Pyrrha, and sneaked a look at her Aura gauge. This wasn't a life or death struggle, and there was no call to make it one by being careless about Aura levels. Nevertheless, she was determined to give as good an accounting for herself as she could. She was the leader of her team, and she needed to show them they could rely on her. They were following her plan, and its success depended on her holding off Pyrrha. Ruby gripped Crescent Rose tighter and waded in once more with grim determination.

Ruby was beginning to form a suspicion about the nature of Pyrrha's Semblance. Too many of her swings went just a little wide of their mark to be a coincidence. She remembered the shot that went high, too, even when she was sure her aim had been true. Could Pyrrha actually somehow be deflecting attacks against her? If she was, what could Ruby do about it? A mad and reckless notion started to take shape in her brain. Ordinarily she wouldn't have even considered it, but she was losing the fight anyway, and what she was doing clearly wasn't working. Perhaps she could take Pyrrha by surprise and at least buy Weiss some breathing room.

Ruby fell back a few steps and streaked forwards before Pyrrha could shift Miló into rifle form. She didn't ready Crescent for a strike, but just held her high in both hands, parallel to ground. As she rushed forwards she could feel some unseen force trying to tug the shaft down, which would have given Pyrrha an opening for a hopefully not literal decapitating strike. She had expected something like that, and resisted the influence with all her might. One end of the shaft made contact with Akoúo, pushing her slightly back, and the other end intercepted Miló in downward swing. It was as awkward a sword strike as Pyrrha had demonstrated in the fight; she had managed to surprise the experienced fighter, at least.

Ruby pushed Crescent up, lifting Pyrrha's arms with it, and let go. It went against her instincts, but if Pyrrha could affect Crescent in some way, she had to try something else. She still had some forward momentum and she used it to tackle Pyrrha. She wrapped her arms around Pyrrha's torso and lifted, dragging her feet off the ground. Pyrrha tried to twist in the air, but Ruby had superior leverage and managed to come up on top as they fell.

Lying on top of Pyrrha, Ruby grabbed both of her wrists to prevent her from using her weapons, and pinned her thighs with her own. She pressed her head tight against Pyrrha's chest to protect herself from a head-butt. She was aware that her head was buried in Pyrrha's cleavage, but she could feel embarrassed about that later. Right now she just wanted to keep Pyrrha pinned down to give her teammates the opportunity to turn the fight around.

It took all Ruby had to contain Pyrrha. She was stronger than Ruby, but it soon became clear that her fighting skills didn't extend to schoolyard wrestling as she struggled futilely under her. Perhaps she hadn't grown up with a sister. This was a rather embarrassing way to deal with the most talented fighter in their class, and not just because of the compromising position it put them in, but it if worked, Ruby wasn't going to complain. The position of her head inspired her to consider an even dirtier tactic. How would Pyrrha react if she were to—

"Ruby, what are you doing?"

Ruby turned her head towards Weiss's voice. She and Jaune had paused in their fighting, standing with their weapons raised, but their faces turned towards Ruby and Pyrrha. Their eyes were wide in surprise and their cheeks were red from exertion. Jaune's mouth was hanging open.

"Weiss, don't just stand there! Finish Jaune off while I hold Pyrrha down."

"Oh, uh, right."

Weiss shook her head, then sprang back into action. Her poise was perfect and her technique impeccable. She looked deft, delicate, and deadly, and Ruby had no doubt she would be the victor. Jaune wasn't even trying to attack, he was just trying to protect himself as best he could. He was fairly adept at using Crocea Mors to shield himself, but it was only a matter of time until Weiss got past his guard.

A sudden impact jarred Ruby's head, making it ring even with the protection her Aura gave her. Ruby tried to shake the cobwebs from her mind and understand what had happened. Had her hold slipped while she was watching Weiss? No, there was no way Pyrrha would have had enough leverage to strike her that hard. Her hand holding Miló was still pinned, and while she might be able to turn her wrist enough to use the butt end to hit her, she couldn't possibly strike her head or get that much force on it. Had it been the solid rim of Akoúo̱? Ruby tried to turn her head to see Pyrrha's left arm when another impact rang her skull.

The hits were enough to loosen her hold on Pyrrha, and she found herself flung off the other girl, still dizzy. She tried to get her feet under her even as Pyrrha lightly leaped on hers. Ruby noted she was holding Miló in his sword form with both hands, with no sign of Akoúo̱. She aimed a two-handed swing at Ruby's head. Ruby tried to bring her leaden arms up, put they moved slowly, way too slowly. When the strike connected Ruby briefly registered a painful flash signifying her Aura breaking, and then everything went black.