"Alright Jaune! It's time for the leaders of team RWBY and team JNPR to throw down! We'll see who's better, the Grimm Reaper or the Golden Dragon!" Ruby held a fist high in the air, a triumphant glow of light surrounding her.
"Grimm Reaper?" Weiss questioned as she walked up beside her leader.
"Heh. Good one." Jaune quipped as he stretched a bit.
"Thank you. I thought of it myself." Ruby stated proudly before she suddenly struck a ninja pose. "Alright let's fight!"
"HOLD IT!" Weiss shouted as she held an arm out in front of Ruby. "I want to fight him first."
"Huh? No way! I called dibs first!"
"I never heard such a thing called out."
"I- bu- wuh... I DID TOO! YOU WERE STANDING NEXT TO ME!"
Jaune held out both his hands, silencing the two of them as he spoke. "Calm down, Ruby. Weiss, it's true. She called dibs first. Plus, she was the first one I asked the other day in the library, too."
Weiss scoffed under her breath before she stormed off to the benches, plopping herself down before crossing a leg. It wasn't long before her other foot began tapping impatiently. "Well? Move along then. Fight."
"Alright! Dragon up, Jaune!" Ruby cheered as she drew Crescent Rose from her holster, slamming the blade down next to her. Jaune complied, shifting into his Power form.
...Which caused Ruby to temporarily freak out.
"OH MY GOD WHAT IS THAT?! THAT'S NOT WHAT YOU LOOKED LIKE YESTERDAY THAT IS SO COOL!"
Even Weiss could be seen with a look of surprise on her face as she leaned forward a bit, taking in this new form that Jaune had shifted into.
"Oh yeah." He said as he scratched the back of his head. "Forgot to tell you guys, I've got two different dragon forms. This one is my Power form, and the other, more dragon like form is my Speed form. Yang came up with the names."
"That. Is. Awesome."
"I'm guessing from the names alone that your strength is increased in your power form, while your speed is increased in the other?" Weiss asked from her place on the bench.
"Yeah, that's right. My speed form is my true form though, it's what I was born looking like. This form is a mix of human and dragon."
"Interesting."
"Well now we'll see what's better, speed or power! Weiss will be the referee!" Ruby proudly declared, which confused the heiress.
"What? Why me? And why do we even need a referee?"
"Well, I just thought it'd give you something to do."
Weiss folded her left leg over her right and looked mildly annoyed while doing so. With a sigh, she held a hand up and waved it daintily. "Fine. You may begin at your leisure."
A shot rang out as Ruby propelled herself forward, wasting no time when it came to starting the match. As soon as her feet touched the ground she slid towards Jaune, another shot from her rifle helped her build enough momentum to swing her scythe at Jaune. He quickly ducked under the attack and mimicked Ruby's action, a beat of his right wing gave him a boost of momentum, allowing him to easily spin his body around in an attempt to trip Ruby up with his tail. A quick, small hop informed him that Ruby had either predicted the move, or she had very good reflexes. Either way, both of their actions forced the two of them to readjust their positioning due to the awkward fact that they both had to recover from such large swings. However, while Ruby attempted to distance herself from Jaune, she found that he jumped towards her instead of away like she thought he would.
His claws raked forward at an extreme speed, only giving her a split second to bring the handle of her scythe into their path. With a loud metallic scrape, Jaune's claws slid off of Crescent Roses handle and left him wide open for a counter attack. Instead of swinging the blade of her weapon, Ruby opted for a faster approach. She quickly swung the handle of Crescent Rose at Jaune and clocked him upside the head, causing him to reel back in pain. Ruby twirled Crescent Rose behind her back and repositioned her hands, allowing her to wind up another heavy horizontal swing that slashed Jaune in the chest.
The force of the blow sent him rolling to the ground, but he was given no time to attempt to use the momentum of his roll in any way. Ruby quickly followed him and gripped her scythe tightly. She quickly swung it to her side and upwards, taking a golfers stance before she swung at Jaune once again, striking him with the smaller blade on the end of her weapon.
Jaune hit the wall and quickly scrambled to his feet, just in time to block another swing coming his way. Both of his hands wrapped around the handle of Ruby's scythe, and the two of them began a violent tug of war. If there was one thing he knew about Ruby, it was that she sucked at hand-to-hand combat. Getting her weapon away from her was always the best way to deal with her. Although he had seriously underestimated her physical strength, while she wasn't nearly as strong as her sister, he still found it rather challenging to try and wrench the weapon from her hands.
He quickly pulled to the side with enough force to actually lift his opponent off of the ground, swinging her around in a circle before she firmly planted her feet on the floor once more. Now that Ruby's back was against the wall, she had much less room to work with. This made it much easier for him to gain an edge on their tug of war.
Weiss watched the continuous struggle and saw that Arc was having trouble prying the weapon from this small and delicate girls hands. She shut her eyes and smirked triumphantly. No matter what shape or form he took, he would always still be the same incompetent-
A loud crash rang out from next to her, forcing her to open her eyes and look at the source of the sound. Only to see that Crescent Rose, Ruby's weapon, was now on the ground next to the her. Ruby was now without her weapon. She looked back at the fight at hand to see Ruby helplessly swinging her fists at Jaune, who was blocking her attempts to get passed him so she could retrieve her weapon.
His tail once again snaked out and wrapped itself around Ruby's left leg, pulling it forward so that she would have her balance ripped out from underneath her. As soon as she hit the ground, Jaune drove his hand onto her stomach and pinned her down. Despite the fact that she struggled to lift his hand off of her, and even attempted to kick a few times with her free leg, nothing she could do would provide any use.
Ruby let out a sigh as she stopped struggling altogether. "Alright, I give up."
Jaune smiled as he lifted his hand off of Ruby's stomach. He stopped about halfway and held it out instead, allowing Ruby to grab onto it so she could be pulled up. Unfortunately, he misjudged both his own strength and the weight of the small girl, accidentally lifting her completely off the ground. Both of them let out a few giggles as he set her back down on the ground.
"Wow Jaune, you're super tough now! I'm not even sure if I can ever beat you."
Jaune blushed a bit before waving off the statement. "It was your first time fighting me like this. Just give it a bit and I'm sure everyone will be able to beat me."
Weiss looked on, unamused. She didn't need time, this was still the same old Arc she knew after all. He had a few extra tricks up his sleeve, but that wouldn't be enough to stop her. After all, strength and speed are nothing if they aren't properly honed and controlled. And she was an expert at doing such a thing. While Ruby showed a level of tactical cunning that she herself wasn't entirely capable of, she knew that her leader wasn't nearly as skilled in combat. As she moved to get off of the bench, she drew myrtenaster and walked into the ring.
"Very well then, now it's my turn." She stated with a proud smirk on her face.
"Uuh, I think Jaune needs a break first, Weiss." Ruby noticed the intense stink eye that her partner gave her when she said that and backed away a bit.
"Nah, it's okay, Ruby. I don't think I'm gonna beat Weiss, so uh... I guess I'll just make it easier for her." Jaune stated as he scratched the back of his head.
"Aw come on, Jaune. Don't be like that! You should just rest a bit and then fight Weiss at your full strength!"
Weiss nodded in agreement. She would beat him at his full strength, and she would accept nothing less. After a few minutes of resting, Jaune stepped back into the arena to face Weiss, with Ruby being the referee this time.
"Alright! Fight!" Ruby shouted as she waved her hand downwards.
Weiss narrowed her eyes as she extended an arm, her index and middle finger pointing towards Jaune as a glyph materialized at their tips. She would play it smart, unlike her partner. Arc's effectiveness was only middle to melee range, yet she was effective at ALL ranges. She would pin him down and force him to concede from all the ranged pressure.
A flurry of icicles fired off from the glyph at incredible speeds, giving Jaune no time to dodge out of the way as he was pelted by them. A second wave of icicles shot out and struck him in the chest, the force of the attack causing him to fall on his knee. Weiss smirked before she once again fired off another flurry of attacks, expecting the dragon to yield soon.
However, she was taken by surprise when Jaune's wings folded in onto his body, forming a makeshift shield as the icicles crashed against the fibers of his wings. The attacks still hurt him, but he had focused his aura into his wings to reduce as much damage to them as possible. He knew he would have to make a move quickly though, so he spit up fire into his hand just as he did that night on the dock.
Meanwhile, Weiss had stepped forward and began plunging myrtenaster into the floor, a wave of sharp icy stalagmites rising from the floor as they sped towards Jaune's position. Feeling the surge of cold coming towards him, he quickly opened his wings and dove to the side. As he flew through the air, he carefully aimed at Weiss before throwing a fireball.
Weiss gasped as she hopped backwards, an explosion of fire ringing out in the spot that she had just been in. She grit her teeth as she heard Ruby cheer from the sidelines, shooting a small glare at her partner before turning her attention back to her opponent. She knew that Arc was capable of breathing fire, but she didn't know that he had developed such a technique to utilize it at a longer range.
She had underestimated him this once, and it would be the last time. She focused her energy, and three glyphs appeared around Arc. She quickly thrust myrtenaster into the ground once more, and another surge of ice appeared around the dragon. This time however, the ice formed three rather large barriers around him that would stop him from moving.
Jaune struggled to claw his way out, only to feel another onslaught of icicles smash into him like cold shrapnel. He continued taking more of Weiss's ranged abuse before finally remembering that fire melts ice. He quickly blanketed his icy prison in a firestorm from his mouth, the scene catching both Ruby and Weiss by surprise. Weiss narrowed her eyes as she peered into the cloud of steam and smoke, waiting to see if Arc would emerge.
However, neither were expecting Jaune to come bursting from the cloud, his entire body ablaze as he rushed forward on all fours. Once he had closed the distance between himself and Weiss a bit, he jumped high into the air and attempted to land on the heiress, forcing her to back off. As soon as the dragon landed however, the fire that was engulfing his body erupted out in a wave that spread in all directions. Weiss shielded herself with her arms as the fire swept over her, her aura protecting her from being ignited herself. Ruby had ducked underneath the wave before it hit her, but she could still feel the intense heat radiating throughout the room.
"Woah." Jaune glanced down at his two hands in confusion. What exactly did he just do?
Weiss put her arms down and watched the dragon glance at his own hands in confusion, before he turned to her. "Uh, you alright, Weiss?"
She grit her teeth harder in response and crouched down. She built up her energy before she surged towards Arc, taking the dragon by surprise as she stabbed him in the gut. He recoiled in pain as the attack bounced off of his aura, but quickly charged back into the fight. Both of them began striking out at each other, and both of them were dodging each others blows before Jaune started to notice that Weiss was slowing down.
He felt his claws beginning to connect with her, yet her attacks still couldn't land their mark. In fact, her attacks were beginning to slow along with her movements. Whenever Weiss dueled other students during Goodwitch's class, the fights always ended so quickly that he could never really gauge what her stamina was. And it seemed like only a few seconds in physical combat was enough to tire her out, as she began panting heavily.
Weiss meanwhile, couldn't believe that she had let herself be backed into a corner the way she had been. She was forced to use her newer technique, one that she had been carefully honing for quite some time. She briefly pushed herself away from the dragon and waved her free hand to her side, a large amount of glyphs forming in the air around the both of them.
One glyph formed just behind her feet, which she quickly hopped up on to and pushed herself off of. The glyph boosted her momentum as she flew forward in a flash, striking Jaune as she flew by him. Once she had landed her first strike, she flipped herself so that her feet would land on the next glyph she was heading toward. Once she felt her feet collide with the solid glyph, she pushed herself off again and went in for another strike.
However, Jaune panicked and spread his wings wide as he recoiled from the first hit, sending his left wing crashing into Weiss accidentally as she pushed off of her second glyph. The heiress let out a shout as she crashed to the ground, dazed and frustrated by the event that just transpired.
Her suffering wasn't finished yet though, as Jaune tumbled down to the ground in front of her, his tail smashing into her face as the dragon collapsed. Ruby checked her scroll to see that her partners aura had dipped into the red, meaning that she had lost the match.
"The match is over, Jaune wins again!" She shouted as she held up a hand.
"Oh my gosh! Weiss, I'm so sorry!" Jaune shouted as he pulled himself to his feet and scrambled over to the heiress and offered her a hand.
Weiss simply let out a low growl as she got up, smacking the claw away from her. "For what? Winning?"
"My tail hit your face pretty hard, are you alright?"
"Do you really think that I am so delicate that I can't handle an attack like that?"
"I-it wasn't an attack, it was an accident. I mean, I just panicked when you did your attack and my wings clipped you and-"
Weiss's silent fury grew fiercer. It was all just an accident? Here she thought he had actually predicted her movements, but he defeated her completely on ACCIDENT?! "I'm fine, Arc."
Jaune sighed in relief as Ruby came running over to the two. "That. was. AWESOME! You guys looked so cool! Jaune, that huge fire wave was amazing, and Weiss that attack where you were jumping off all your glyphs looked like it was going to be so tight!"
Weiss completely blocked Ruby's voice out of her head as she fumed, watching her partner and the dragon babble to each other incoherently about fighting moves. Although when Jaune switched back into his human form, she did catch his scroll going off. She watched as he spoke with someone on the other end of it before hanging up and excusing himself from the room. Good, he was certainly the last person she wanted to see. Even looking at the back of his stupid head as he walked out the door enraged her.
Once the door closed, Ruby heard a shout come from behind her. Turning quickly, she saw Weiss explode in anger as she threw myrtenaster to the ground, the weapon clattering loudly against the floor as it landed. Ruby instinctively ran to her friends side. "Weiss! What's wrong?! Are you okay?!"
Weiss turned to her, face red and eyes puffy as if she were about to cry. "No, you DOLT! I am NOT okay!"
Ruby recoiled a bit, never having seen Weiss angry like this. "W-what's wrong?"
"I put so much effort into EVERYTHING I've EVER done! That's what is wrong!"
"What?"
Weiss clenched her fists as turned her head to her weapon on the ground. "I've studied for so many years. I've trained for so many years. I am supposed to be the best. And yet I find myself struggling against... ARC!"
Ruby tilted her head. What was so wrong about being beaten by Jaune? He was a dragon, after all. "What's wrong with that?"
"What is wrong with that? Can you really not see? Arc is a LOSER!"
Ruby winced at the word, but Weiss continued on. "He couldn't fight. He couldn't lead, and he certainly couldn't take no for an answer! He was a complete joke in every field, yet now he has surpassed me. And he has done NOTHING to earn that outside of unlocking his semblance."
"But Weiss, he's a-"
"What he is means NOTHING! HE HASN'T EARNED THE RIGHT TO BE BETTER! HE'S. DONE. NOTHING." Weiss shouted before she picked up her weapon and stormed out of the training room, slamming the door on her way out.
Ruby stood alone in the room, glancing down at her feet. Weiss had a point, but she was also completely missing another point entirely. That it didn't matter how you attained your strength, so long as you honed it and used it properly. She let out a heavy sigh before she walked over to the bench, carefully picking up Crescent Rose before folding it up. As she cradled the weapon in her arms, she glanced at the fighting ring that was still scorched and iced over before she made her way towards the door.
Hopefully this would just be another small bump in the road, and it wouldn't turn into a complete pile of wrecked cars.