POV: Weiss Schnee

Chapter Twenty Nine: The Battle of White Rose

"Hey Princess are you ready for our match? I think I may even finally get to try out your gift, it's only fitting after all." Ruby's statement leaves me confused briefly while I try to figure out what the gift she's referring too is. The realization hits me when Ruby nonchalantly pats the magazine she has loaded into Crescent Rose, reminding me of our first date in Vale and more importantly the specialty dust rounds I ordered to surprise her. "Oh the dust rounds I got you, I thought you had used them already?" My question causes Ruby to smile rather smugly, which makes me wonder what exactly she has planned for this match. "Well I did, but only a few test shots at the training targets. I haven't tried them against a real opponent yet. So now I guess i'm getting my chance."

Almost if on cue the referee calls out mine and Ruby's names, announcing that a ring has now opened and it's our turn for a match. Ruby jumps up and excitedly looks to me, giving me a moment to respond. "I guess so, but you're still going to lose dunce." I say intentionally putting an edge on my tone, and adding a confident smirk for good measure. Even though Ruby and I are partners, on top of being a couple, I can't let her think that i'm getting soft on her. Even when I scold her for being her hyperactive self, I don't do it to be mean just for the sake of being mean. It's more of a quick way to reset her momentum and calm her down. But if she knew that, it wouldn't be so effective. Thus defeating the purpose altogether.

I stand up from the bench and follow Ruby back down the steps to the sparing floor, the two of us hang a left and follow the fence that marks the outskirts of the other rings until we reach the open one. From the perspective of the front door, Ruby and I are competing in the back left ring on the far side of the floor. When we reach the ring, the referee opens a gate for the two of us. Waiting for us to enter before closing it behind us once more. We quickly climb the few steps that separate the rest of the floor from the slightly elevated competition floor, and make our way to our respective sides. Seeing as i'm on the far side, I take the chance to examine the arena as a whole now that I have an up close view. In the middle of the arena are the sparring rings, which are slightly higher than ground level. Surrounding the sparring rings is a fence that is about ten feet tall if I had to guess, that separated the individual rings as well as protects the spectators from potential harm.

I reach my starting position and ready myself, drawing Myrtenaster and leveling it in my left hand with my right hand on my right hip. Looking across the ring, Ruby has Crescent Rose held with the tip of the scythe touching the ground so that the barrel is level and aimed at me. A goofy smirk still on her face as we stare each other down. I'd be lying if I said being on the business end of her massive weapon wasn't at least slightly intimidating, but if the two of us are going to fight, i'm going to win. Noticing that the two of us are ready and waiting, the referee signals for the match to begin. Wanting to get the upper hand early, I dash to my left using a few glyphs to speed up my movement and chamber my red dust. Stopping suddenly to throw of Ruby's aim, I dash and slash with my weapon while also activating the dust cylinder. Leaving a flaming trail that leads to a large fireball at the edge of the ring. Satisfied with my attack I change to a defensive position and scan for Ruby in the flames, but catch no sight of her.

Why didn't she dodge my attack instead of just taking it head on like that. She has to be up to something.

A shot echoes from my back right causing me to turn just as the bullet impacts at my feet, leaving me effectively rooted in place by ice. With my range of movement limited Ruby makes her move, using her semblance to close the distance between us. I defend from the flurry of strikes well considering the circumstances, managing to keep the massive scythe at arm's length with the help of my glyphs. Getting my movement back to normal is my top priority, I parry another overhead strike from Ruby's weapon. Before using a glyph to propel the weapon farther back, and hopeful knock Ruby off balance giving me a moment to free myself. My plan works and Ruby stumbles giving me a few seconds to breath, which I take full advantage of by channeling a small amount of red dust into my weapon to generate enough heat to melt the ice that holds me in place.

My feet are freed just in time to be able to block another chain of attacks as Ruby charges again, likely getting annoyed that i'm keeping up with her. Now that my feet are free and i'm blocking her attacks with more ease, Ruby starts to change her attack pattern. Instead of attacking from one stationary position, she has started to use her semblance coupled with the recoil from firing her weapon to zip past me incredibly fast. Attacking as she does. The barrage of bullets and heavy strikes from all sides is nearly impossible to block. I manage to block one or two of her attacks until a high caliber rounds slams into my chest, my aura taking the brunt of the force but what remained is still enough to knock the wind out of me. I struggle for air, managing a few raspy breaths as I steady myself never taking my eyes off of Ruby. Who has now stopped dashing and seems to be lining up her rifle to take another shot.

I need to stay close range, if I give her distance she'll tear me to shreds.

On reaction, I form a glyph in front of me that successfully stops a shot from Ruby. A red dust round that ignites into a small fireball when it makes contact with the surface of my glyph, but harmlessly dissipates after a few seconds. My glyph shattering along with the flames. I make my move while Ruby is reloading, jumping towards her with Myrtenaster held out in front of me in somewhat of a fencing stance. While i'm in the air I use my free hand to form another glyph below me that I land on and propel myself forward with my momentum, over the top of Ruby. I take the chance to take a few swipes at her as I fly over over. My change in tactics seems to catch Ruby slightly off guard and allows one of my attacks to land, precisely on target. The tip of my blade connects with Ruby's chest from just above her left breast, to the top of her shoulder near the base of her neck. Leaving a decent sized gash behind.

I land with a thud and turn to prepare for whatever retaliation may get thrown at me, but nothing comes. Instead I simply see Ruby standing about eight or so feet away, with Crescent Rose in her hands, just looking at me. I create a glyph in front of me expecting another dust round to come flying my direction, but it doesn't happen. A few minutes go by with the two of us just watching each other, Ruby holding her injured shoulder while each of us wait for the other to make the first move. Tired of waiting I trigger Myrtenaster's dust cylinder to rotate, loading light blue dust into the chamber. With the dust chamber and a semi solid plan, I put the tip of my weapon forward facing the floor and fire the dust. In a split second a large wall of ice explodes out towards Ruby. I study her closely as she rushes to form a counter of some kind, in her haste she drops the red dust round she was trying to chamber. The cartridge hits the floor with a metallic ringing sound and rolls away, leaving Ruby with no formable defence other than to jump and tumble to avoid my ice. Recovering the red dust and chambering as she does.

So she's loading the dust rounds individually, if I pick up the pace maybe I can end this…

Now back on her feet, ruby chambers the red tipped dust round into her weapon and lines up her shot once more. Not wanting to give her an easy target I use the ice to my advantage and get behind it as cover, I know I don't have much time so I take advantage of every available second to come up with a plan to end this match once and for all. The puzzle pieces of my plan start to fit together just in time as the ice wall behind me is riddled with shots from Ruby, putting holes the size of my fist in the solid wall. I count the shots as the punch through, racking my brain trying to remember exactly how many shots Ruby's clips holds. Settling on the number ten I continue my count, the bullets growing closer to me by the second. Seven, eight, nine… I jump out from my cover using a glyph to give myself enough height to clear the barrier. I land hard with a thud but recover quickly, determined to finish this now.

With my red dust already primed, I dash to the left using my glyphs and trigger the dust creating another fireball like the one before, only this one is larger thanks to the larger amount of dust I channeled into it. Without pausing I turn, once again using glyphs to speed up my movement and rotating the cylinder on my weapon to chamber the dark purple dust related to gravity. While I make it a point to not use this particular dust often, it is quite powerful and does have it's uses as dangerous as it may be. I stop dead in my tracks and fire the dust, bracing for the kickback. The effect of the dust seems to create a ripple effect through the air itself, causing me to slide backwards a few feet.

I watch Ruby try to deal with the problem, with the help of an ice dust round she managed to extinguish the fire. But is left with no time left to get away from the effects of my gravity dust, She tries to roll but gets caught up in the effect and sent flying out of the ring. Ruby collides with the fence and falls down to the floor below, out of my view. With Ruby out of the ring the referee signals that the fight is over and announces me as the winner by ringout. I jump up and run to the edge of the floor where Ruby fell, looking down over the side I see that she has already recovered and is standing again, examining her shoulder. Ruby looks up and notices my presence, quickly gaining her all to well known 'Pouty Face'. "Weiss, no fair using my gravity dust tactics against me!"

Ruby's complaints draw a smile to my face, so I decide to take advantage of the decent concealment we have and lean in for a brief kiss. I pull back still smiling, leaving Ruby with a look of confusion. "If you using the dust rounds I got you is fair, me using the gravity dust against you is fair too." I say in an attempt to level the playing field, which bring back the pouty face. "I guess that's fair, but I still don't have to like it." I laugh and drop down to the floor, landing next to Ruby. "Come on Dolt, let's get you home so your dad can have a look at your shoulder. I'm sorry about that by the way, I didn't mean to hurt you." Glancing at her shoulder the cut isn't too deep but it is rather large and will need cleaning, along with some basic medical attention that Tia can provide. "It's ok Princess the cut isn't bad, my aura will heal it up in a couple hours."

The two of us make our way to the door, the referee opening the door again to let us out. Following our same path that we took on our way in, we follow the fences back to the front entrance. As we reach the double door that leads outside, a deep husky voice pipes up from behind us. "Well, well, well that was quite the match the two of you had back there. Needs some work though." I turn around to see a tall man in a grey and white collar shirt and black jeans, his beady red eyes focused on the two of us. I go to say something back but Ruby cuts me off before I can. "UNCLE QROW!" She shouts as she runs over to him, latching onto his arm.

Wait if he was watching… Did he see our kiss!?