A note to people: Ruby will not be overpowered. She may be stronger hand canon, but that doesn't mean she does not have weaknesses.

Chapter 18: Sparring between Prodigies.

There was a period of downtime as people waited for more people to arrive. The official initiation would not start until three days later, the final date for people to enter through registration and acceptance. Nothing short of transferring or personal recommendations from the headmaster would get you in after that that Tuesday. The good thing for people there was that the signal for the Academy was good, and there were multiple sparring rings, which is what the sisters Ruby and Yang were excited for.

They may like games and play them from time to time, but it was only in the ring when they get to exert themselves and push beyond normal limitations. And when they came to the entrance of the sparring rings, they gaped at the formation and complexity of it all. The large rings had a round tile in the center, which became a hard light projector that could change environments. Surrounding the large rings were barriers made from more hard light and glass behind it.

Rows and rows of seats surrounded the rings, giving enough room for spectators a clear view of the battles, and in some rings there were already people sparring, even if they were watched by a professor.

In one ring, a tall man with short brown hair and armor clashed his mace against a short sword of a shorter boy with blonde hair, the two of them likely partners, judging from their matching armor. The brown haired man swung his giant mace towards the blonde's side, hoping to score a direct hit. The blonde ducked under his swing and hit the man on t knee, the short sword not doing much against his heavy armor.

Yang glanced at Ruby before winking, dashing to one of the rings to challenge some poor bastard. They had established ahead of time that they were going to have a competition: the person who beats the most amount of people and the strongest people by the end of the day wins.

Yang ran into a ring occupied by two people, surrounded by a few spectators. One of them was a girl with a large hammer and the other was a stoic faced boy with two knife guns. Ruby watched in the distance as Yang started chattering, before she heard a loud roar of excitement come from one of the other crowded rings.

A young lady wearing a golden headband with a set of classic Mistrali armor rose up from a dazed girl who had a halberd, clearly the one victorious one in the match. The crowd's cheering had reduced to a murmuring, wondering who would challenge her next. Jaune was also there, watching from the sidelines.

The man from earlier came in to the arena, introducing him as Cardin Winchester. The girl "Pyrrha Nikos," shook hands with him before they parted ways and walked to the opposite ends of arena. The portly professor that Ruby vaguely remembered touched the control pad and caused the center disk to glow, casting the arena in a soft blue light.

A hot desert sandstorm rose in the room, covering the floor of the ring with a soft yellow sand before fading. Cardin charged, bringing up his weapon for a giant forward smash, the dust crystal inside of his mace igniting. Pyrrha rolled around the attack and struck him several times in the back with her spear, shield held in front to block any projectiles. Cardin swung out with the club in his left arm, narrowly missing Pyrrha as she once again dodged.

This time, Pyrrha shifted her spear into a rifle, shooting into the weaker areas of armor, at the elbow, armpit and shin. Each hit shifted Cardin's posture, nearly bringing him to one knee, but he bellowed and charged, kicking Pyrrha's shield in an attempt to remove it from her. Ruby saw a soft dark glow surrounding the shield, keeping it onto the arm of the user. This was not good, since this Pyrrha had a semblance of polarity, and she was 100% metal.

A challenging opponent, but an exciting one.

Ruby was a nice person. At Signal Academy, she was polite enough not to brag about her hidden strength and skill, instead staying in the shadows and letting her sister gain the spotlight. However, she and Yang both knew how Ruby was the true powerhouse, a mechanical marvel. However, the power did not come without a price. Ruby had to go weekly to charge her batteries if she went through extensive combat, and Aura did not regenerate metal limbs, not to mention sand and dirt getting stuck in her sometimes, causing entire systems to go out. If she got damaged, she stayed damage until she or someone else fixed it up.

Cardin's knee hit the ground, the mace wielder clearly winded and defeated. The crowds cheered once again as Pyrrha helped Cardin up, and the mace wielder left, clearly limping. Ruby took a deep breath, and made her entrance. Using her gravity dust enhanced jump, she leapt and cleared the distance between her previous room and the ring in mere seconds, landing superhero style, she could afford to be a bit hard on the knees, since they were of metal. Her cape flowed out behind her, and she stood up, Waning Rose attached to her right hand and Crescent Rose to her left.

The crowd hushed as they looked at this new bold fighter, dressed in black and red. Pyrrha quirked an eyebrow at her, before smiling softly. Pyrrha new that this girl was different from previous challenges, if the aura of silent confidence radiated from her, unlike previous challengers who knew of her feats. She could tell that this girl had at least one prosthetic limb, judging by how there was a light groove on her left arm. Pyrrha came to Beacon to avoid such fanfare, but the situation here was still better than the straight up hero worship and fear the crowd had for her at home in Sanctum. Here, people were actually willing to challenge her, and some had given her trouble.

"Hi Pyrrha, my name is Ruby Rose, may I spar with you for this round?"

Some of the crowd was stunned by how casually the girl had introduced herself to the legendary Pyrrha Nikos, and at first glance, Pyrrha was a bit surprised as well. The girl was the polar opposite of intimidating, with large and adorable silver eyes that sat on a fair skinned face, a nest of black hair that turned red at the tips. On top of her head also sat two large wolf ears, making her look like a small puppy that turned into a Faunus in a black dress.

However, the red boxes that were attached to both hands, lines and gears signifying their ability to mecha-shift. Her posture was relaxed, but also poised to strike, feet spread apart. If this were a game she would certainly be hearing boss music. Pyrrha smiled, excited by the prospect of glorious battle, and gave her answer.

"Of course Ruby, I am excited to spar with you, may the best fighter win."

The crowd was murmuring, some people whispering a school name. The phrase "Wallflower of Signal" was tossed around, as well as "Yang's scary Shadow." Pyrrha's grin grew larger than before, the news she heard was fantastic. The opponent she was about to face was also secretly a prodigy from Signal, some even whispering of how she was 15, two years below the minimal age of acceptance.

They shook hands, their left hands slamming into each other and shaking, each person grinning fiercely. Pyrrha felt the warm metal of Ruby's left hand squeeze down, and she squeezed in return. The arena was not modified, the standard setting in effect for pure battle, no escape or shelter. They parted hands, and walked towards opposite ends of the ring, like the previous match of Pyrrha vs Cardin. Pyrrha deployed her sword and put it next to her shield, planning on cutting down to hand to hand, where she shined at.

Ruby saw no reason to hold back against Pyrrha, so she cast both her weapons into the air and shifted them to scythe form, much to the surprise of the onlookers. Scythes were an uncommon weapon, and only one other person had used dual scythes, the famed Grimm Reaper. The hilts of both scythes connected, forming a dual ended scythe, and the monstrous weapon began to spin, clouding the air with a deadly hum.

As soon as Pyrrha turned around Ruby shot forward like an arrow, Waning Crescent Rose spinning extremely fast, glowing a light people as the gravity dust inside held the weapon up. Pyrrha blocked the onslaught with her shield, wincing as a metallic screech rang out. She used her semblance co create some space by pushing off the giant weapon before rolling to the side, shifting her weapon to gun form to take shots at Ruby. The spinning Scythes separated back into two separate scythes and began attacking her from both sides, not giving her the time to shoot at her. Pyrrha once again used her semblance, trying to force the scythes away, but it was beginning to lower her aura, and she had to back off before she ran out of energy using her polarity.

However, Pyrrha didn't just graduate because of her combat prowess, but also because of her quick thinking mind. She pulled with her semblance on ruby's left arm, bringing her towards Pyrrha extremely quickly. Ruby barely ducked under Pyrrha's swing and what happened next was a vicious bout of hand to hand combat, the distance between the two too close for Milo, Akoúo̱, and Ruby's scythes to come in handy. Ruby blocked a jab from Pyrrha and kicked out with her left leg, trying to hit Pyrrha's right temple. Pyrrha ducked under the swing and came with an uppercut, only for Ruby to tilt her head to the side, dodging the fist. Her attempt to grab Pyrrha's arm was halted by Pyrrha's polarity.

At this rate, Pyrrha was running out of spare Aura for her semblance, and further use would start lowering it at a faster rate, so the kicked out with her feet, pushing herself off to give herself space to use her weapons again. Ruby knew about Pyrrha's lowering energy levels, she could see the sweat on the champions brow, and by Pyrrha's look of shock, she deduced that the prodigy had realized that she had not broken a sweat.

I will end this swiftly…

Ruby activated her Semblance, rose petals filling up the stage. It would use a lot of Aura, but it would let her achieve the victory she had planned. She disappeared among the petals as they surrounded Pyrrha, the red head standing guarded against the storm of roses. It was then that she separated her left arm into scrap once again, each piece levitating and attacking Pyrrha. The scythes also joined in on attacking, Pyrrha now surrounded by metal that she couldn't control anymore. To make matters worse for her, the scythes began firing sniper rounds, reloading themselves in the air as they surrounded Pyrrha. The champion knew that it was all or nothing, and sent the strongest pulse of aura she could muster, flinging out with her arms.

The effect was instantaneous, with the scrap surrounding her broken into smaller pieces, the scythes also forced back against the wall. Ruby was thrown back against the left wall of the arena, her petals fading away as she lost focus. Seeing her chance, Pyrrha charged for the takedown, preparing to do a choke slam to finish the fight.

Ruby suddenly opened her eyes, narrowing as her hand grasped Pyrrha's outstretched arm. Pyrrha could only watch in shock as Ruby revealed another part of her hand, a second prosthetic arm. Pyrrha's world was suddenly a blur as Ruby lifted her up and slammed her against the wall.

The buzzer sounded, and the crowd grew silent. A cloud of dust had taken the place of Pyrrha, and it was silent. Professor Port looked at the chart before sighing, declaring the match over.

"Pyrrha's aura has reached the red zone, the victor of this round is Ruby Rose."

Ruby would have cheered in victory, if not for the fact that she realized her left arm was not coming back to her, and her right arm suddenly fell to the floor with a clank, damaged at the sockets. The next few minutes was spent with Ruby fixing her weapons through sheer mental power, and it was tiring.

Yang's going to have a field day with this when she sees me with no arms, if she makes a joke about me being disarmed I'm going to cut her.