Part 21

-Confrontation (5): Pride of a Beast-

Ruby cautiously strafed around the room, staring her opponent down as her eyes darted back and forth between Lilly's face and her weapon, still trapped under the fighter's foot. It was pointless. It was clear to both of them that the item was out of the fight for good now. With each move, Lilly matched her, keeping the huntress in her sight the entire time as she patiently waited for the dark-haired girl to strike. The martial artist's hands twitched slightly in anticipation as she held her stance, her frustration growing as she forced herself to show restraint. For Ruby, there was no time to waste, and yet without a plan, there was no way she could win this fight.

In an instant, the stalemate broke as the huntress darted backward, zipping over to a nearby table and quickly destroying one of the wooden chairs stationed around it! Smashing the object into the ground, she gripped one leg of the chair in her right hand like a sword, holding the other one backward in her off-hand. Memories suddenly flooded back of her time at Beacon, training with her teammates. Yang, Weiss, Blake... even if she couldn't fight with her signature weapon, she remembered how they fought with theirs!

Shocked at the scene going on, Lilly recoiled slightly before almost immediately shifting her weight back forward. "What? You've gotta be kidding me! Just how helpless are you?!" Her teeth clenched, almost insulted at the turn of events. "Stop hiding behind stupid props already! You've got fists, right?! Then come at me! What?! Your hands too good for this or something?!"

A frustrated groan escaped Ruby as she glared through her opponent. "Not everything is about you!" She shouted before running forward, her body twisting around as she used her Semblance to flash behind her opponent and swing her improvised weapons down at her shoulder. Without hesitation, Lilly deflected the blow with her right hand before quickly moving to grab at the dark-haired woman with her left! But, before she could, a fleeting memory flashed through the huntress's mind.

In a situation like this... Blake would...

Activating her Semblance again, Ruby used the spin of her parried strike to twist her body and slam herself against the ground. Barely avoiding the attack before launching herself forward to deliver a quick strike at Lilly's leg with her off-hand weapon! As she had hoped, the martial artist had predicted her move, choosing to quickly raise her leg to avoid the strike... the same leg that she had been using to pin down her Crescent Rose Scythe! Almost on impulse, Ruby pounced at the tool only for Lilly to immediately slam her foot against her face, kicking the huntress across the room as she smashed into the wooden table. A cloud of dust erupted from the impact before another smashing sound echoed across the room.

It's not quite like Weiss's sword... but it would have to do!

Activating her Semblance again, Ruby dashed forward before deactivating her ability mid-flight! Using her momentum, she rooted her feet against the ground as she approached so she could thrust at Lilly with the leg of the table in a one-handed fencing stance! Reflexively, Lilly countered by trying to grab the weapon as Ruby quickly pulled back, escaping her grasp. Trying to keep the momentum she gained, Ruby delivered thrust after thrust to try to form any opening she could! In response, Lilly simply parried the huntress's attacks without a second thought. The act of parrying the blows of the weapon forcing her to back off, if only slightly. Then, just as she seemed to be getting close enough to retrieve the scythe, Lilly stepped forward as she delivered a palm strike to the side of the table leg! Knocking it away long enough for her to get past the point of the weapon!

There had to be something left. What would Weiss do? Wait, of course! Yang! This was going to be a risk... but she had to try. Even if she didn't know how to fight well unarmed, at least she knew how to throw a punch!

As the table leg was knocked back, Ruby let go as she charged forward with her new plan in mind! Her fist clenched as she pushed her weight onto her right foot and swung right at Lilly's face as hard as she could! For a moment, it seemed like it had worked, Lilly's eyes widening in surprise at the change of plans. The huntress's hand was caught in the air as the blonde woman simply smirked. But then, her expression quickly faded as Ruby took the opportunity to grab her by the shirt! Quickly swinging her legs around, the scythe-user activated her Semblance yet again, sending both herself and her opponent flying straight up at the ceiling! The two crashed against the structure before Ruby let out a desperate shout, turning her Semblance on again to shoot the two of them against the back wall of the building! Instinctively, Lilly let go as the two of them bounced off of the wall only for Ruby to quickly wrap both of her arms around the woman! Her eyes burned with resolve as she pushed off of the wall and shot herself at the other side of the house! Smashing into the corner with enough force to crack the drywall open and nearly send both of them flying straight out of the building.

"And one more!" The huntress screamed!

"Wait, no!" Lilly frantically shouted back as blood splattered from her head. Pure fear now filling her eyes as Ruby sent them flying at the eastern-most wall one more time!

Dust and debris filled the air as the two of them collapsed onto the ground as Ruby began wrapping her arms under Lilly's. Grabbing her own left wrist with her right hand to tighten the hold as much as possible as she prepared to keep fighting to the bitter end. "This one's for Qrow!" She shouted with renewed determination!

A sharp gasping breath escaped Lilly as she tried to choke out a plea for mercy. "S-Stop!" She gagged. "I give up!"

Without thinking, Ruby activated her Semblance yet again as she launched the two of them into the room's bookcase. Shattering the lowest rung as different assorted manuals and tomes fell off of its shelves, quickly covering the two of them. "I can keep going!" The huntress confidently declared as she shook off some stray books and tried to re-adjust her hold.

"I give! You win!" The blonde woman shouted back between desperate gasps for air. As Ruby's grip finally loosened, Lilly fell to the floor, slowly crawling away from her relentless attacker before finally rolling onto her back outside of the book pile. "I-... I can't..." she huffed, struggling to think of what she even wanted to say. "The book! Second from... from the top!" A bead of sweat dripped down her face as a subtle smile crossed the martial artist's lips. "Fifth to the right... I think."

"You think?!" Ruby exclaimed, raising a fist in her best attempt to look threatening.

"For the love of-" Lilly muttered back as she slowly sat up. "I'm lucky I still know what my name is, ya punk!" An irritated groan escaped her before she pointed to the general location she had wanted the huntress to look. "The big brown one, okay? Just pull it. Don't push your luck... I- I'm not done yet either, you know!" Her eyes shifted away as she intentionally avoided her opponent's gaze. "You just... proved yourself, I guess... That's all! It's a draw, okay?"

Author's note:

It's probably tacky to leave this, but I feel like I should probably give a bit of context. When I first began writing this series, it was late 2018. The premise was that I was unfamiliar with anything coming out about Volume 6, so I wanted to see what I could do with things in my own way. I wrote the first 20 parts week to week, always starting around midnight and just going all-in to see what I could do. This was a really stupid idea because it meant that I was always tired and always incentivized to stick with some lackluster ideas for the sake of time, but I think things worked out pretty well. Eventually, after chapter 20, real-life got in the way and I missed writing for that week. And since I was so used to the schedule, breaking it made it way easier to stop.

That's why there was such a long wait between that chapter and this one. Basically, I was pushing myself to work too late and I burnt out a bit. And before I knew it, I started taking on new responsibilities and the time wasn't quite as there anymore. But now that some stuff has freed up, I'm back, and, hopefully, the story will be better than ever moving forward! I've been away from creative writing for a while, but I've got a lot of cool ideas in store and I hope that I'll be able to make things way better structured and more engaging moving forward. I might not move the plot to mirror the world or new characters in the show, but I'll try my best to make something that's 100% me that I'll be proud of. And, at the end of the day, I hope people enjoy whatever that ends up being to the very end.