Chapter 4: From Champion to Underdog
It wasn't often that Pyrrha was uncertain in a fight. Quite the opposite, truth be told. She usually went in confident, if not a little wary. With heavy considerations, forethought outcomes, and alternative strategies piecing together in the back of her mind like a puzzle, which upon completion unveiled an image of victory. That had always worked for her. That was how she won so often, even in team battles.
The intimidation factor she'd garnered over time was an admittedly supplementary factor. One that, while she hadn't quite relied on it, was still a tool in her arsenal, weaponized to maximum proficiency. Many people didn't realize that most fights never begin in the ring. They began when the names were called, when the stakes were presented. Conversations occurred with mere movements of the body. The way you walked, the way you looked, even the difference between presenting a face of friendly competition and mocking boast depended entirely on how you smiled, and Pyrrha knew it well, for she'd used it many times. When two lions happen upon a fresh kill, they do not ask each other who gets first.
Pyrrha held the belief, with a healthy dose of newly incorporated humility, that she had mastered these arts of war. Perhaps invented them, when in her less humble moments. But now, here in the ring again after a year away, she realized… she had completely forgotten to use them.
Weiss and Ruby had already assumed their combat stances, while Jaune still kept his hand on the guard of his sword, rubbing the golden finish absently with his thumb. She had no idea what manner of plan was whirling around in his head, but by now Pyrrha expected the unconventional from him at every turn. She in turn, hoped to adopt some of that unpredictability in the hopes that she could be a help. But by their last conversation, it seemed he didn't want her help. Didn't trust her. Couldn't blame him, of course. She had no right to be upset.
Pyrrha swallowed, then wiped some palm sweat from her shield arm onto her sleeve. Today she proved herself. She'd show her partner that she had returned a changed woman, and for the better. She would be the greatest partner ever. No, no, a decent partner. No need to compete with anyone. Just average would do.
Professor Goodwitch roamed her perceptive eyes over both teams as if judging their means of preparation, like carefully prepared meals at a cooking contest. Then intoned rather seriously, "Let the match begin!"
Bang. The sound of a gunshot rang high, followed closely by the barely audible ping ping of a bullet casing bouncing on the floor. Pyrrha did not have Milo in rifle mode, and one look at Ruby showed that she didn't either. So where had—
Clang. The sound of metal striking metal with vicious strength. Weiss had swung her rapier out like she had struck something. Sure enough, high above their heads, something was spinning away. Much too big to be a bullet. Looked like a sword.
Looked like Crocea Mors.
In the blink of an eye, its master had leaped up and snatched it out of the air, and began to descend on Weiss like a falcon that saw its prey from a thousand feet up. Weiss was quick to skip back, and Jaune ended up spiking the floor instead, chunks of concrete spraying. He wasted no time chasing Weiss down.
Even at the tournament's end, Jaune's swordplay had been nothing special. Like getting a C grade on a particularly difficult test, it had simply gotten the job done. Pyrrha had anticipated some improvements in Jaune's combat, of course. But only some. This was not some.
Jaune advanced on Weiss with the lightning bolt precision of, well, a lightning bolt. His core style had been refined to take on a more aggressive identity. Wide one-handed cuts somehow commanded a three-hundred-sixty degree perimeter around him, its defenses too strong to penetrate. Then those walls came down, his shield would slide up his arm, and he'd come at Weiss with vicious sequences of two-handed slashes and stabs. Monster ferocity. We're his expression not so calm, she might have suspected he wanted Weiss dead.
In complete opposition, Weiss was water in motion. She came steady, smooth, graceful. Then water turned to ice in an instant. She came hard and fast, her more familiar style exponentially refined. Like a gemstone purified to perfection. Jab, jab, jab, fast as a bullet. She danced out of Jaune's more savage cuts. Spun and ducked, slid back like a skater on ice to avoid a cut, slid back in to return her own.
Jaune was able to evade her faster attacks with apparent ease, as if he saw them in slow motion. He tested her with a cut at her heels and Weiss floated back, and again to avoid his next cut, blocked his overhead two-handed… and held it. Pushed him away. Weiss of long ago could never deflect attacks of that strength, even from an untrained Jaune. She simply had not the build. Yet here she was, whipping, cutting, striking, and meeting Jaune's heavy assault as an equal.
Then, the two of them decided to stop holding back.
Like a clock ticking on fast-forward, that was the sound of their every clash. Clang, clang, clang. Sparks where steel scraped. Jaune raised his shield to guide Myrtenaster aside. Weiss spun away as he returned a stab, but by now he'd amped up his aggression, coming on fast with wide swings that his opponent was forced to respect. He swung too hard in one instance, too wide, and upset his balance. Pyrrha saw the glint in Weiss's eyes as she capitalized. Now was Pyrrha's chance, she could jump in and save him… and she almost jumped at a sound akin to a gong struck by a mallet.
Jaune had parried Weiss's stab in a fashion not dissimilar to a pimp backhanding his whore. So vicious, in fact, that it whipped Weiss' arm back so far that Pyrrha would not have been surprised if she dislocated her shoulder. Jaune booted her in the chest, hard enough to send her flying, tumbling toward the far end of the arena.
He was beating Weiss. Shocking yet, he was beating her in swordplay.
Ruby had obviously realized this as well. For she had appeared at Jaune's right side, her scythe already mid-swing. Jaune brought his sword up in a panic and took the blow, aura-jumped backward to make space, no residual aura sparking off his body like last year. It seemed he had better control of it now.
Pyrrha blinked. Right, this was a partner battle. She had to get in there. Had she really been standing here gawking the whole time?
Pyrrha hurled her shield at Ruby, a golden disc spinning through the air. No need to wait for it to connect. She sprinted up behind and closed fast on her target. Ruby saw it coming and Pyrrha already knew what would happen. She'd bat the shield away, thereby extending Crescent Rose within reach for her to touch with her semblance. Then, Ruby's main source of strength would be under her control. It worked every time last year.
Of course, last year, Ruby hadn't had the ability to split her body in half.
Akouo had cut through her chest, her top half floating in the air. Pyrrha might have been horrified, but there was no blood. What poured out of her halved body… were rose petals.
It was sheer luck that Pyrrha sensed something behind her, and jumped away fast enough to avoid the head of Crescent Rose, held by a fully attached Ruby Rose. The girl hurled her scythe in a manner like Pyrrha, but by then Pyrrha had summoned her shield back and prepared to knock it away. That's when she saw it. A small storm of red petals coming at her from the right, twisting like a snake. Pyrrha dodged out of the way, avoiding the scythe too, but the petals only followed her.
She tried to get away, but they had already overtaken her, and began swirling around her. Something took her wrist with surprising strength. What looked like Ruby's dislocated arm, tethered to the storm by petals bleeding out of the end. She was yanked forward, and that's when the rest of Ruby materialized before her eyes, before Pyrrha could even attempt to mentally prepare herself. She felt her guts explode with hot pain. So fast that she hadn't even thought to raise her aura. Ruby drove her knee into Pyrrha's gut a second time, and Pyrrha tried to swipe back, but she vanished in a burst of petals once more, and the world flipped on Pyrrha as her legs were swept out from beneath her, only just managing to raise her aura so she didn't crack her head open upon landing.
What in the world just happened?
There was no time to think. Ruby had left her to mire in the shock and closed in on Jaune, who was preoccupied with Weiss once more.
It was like the three of them weren't people anymore. Just elements of nature. In Haste mode, Jaune darted in and out between the attacks of Weiss and Ruby, and vice versa. Ruby blinked in and out of existence with this new petal shifting ability, then back to solid flesh in seconds. Cuts were utterly useless against her. Weiss had no such invulnerability, but her aggression was the stronger. Whipping, stabbing, lunging, one-handed and two-handed, a bullet zipping back and forth on her air-step glyphs. That was without even considering their teamwork. With every Mrytenaster stab, Crescent Rose followed up. To complement the scythe's mighty range, the rapier commanded the distance just outside it, their opponent in-between, having to choose which of the two to suffer damage from. Jaune took a hit to the jaw that flipped him backward in the air, where Weiss was already coming down on him. Her heels pressed into his stomach and drove him crashing to the ground, earning a pained cough. Pyrrha hurled her javelin at Weiss before she could do more, but Ruby was able to smack it spinning away.
It hardly mattered. Jaune had yanked Weiss off of him by the ankle, like a child sick and bored over some doll. He kicked up standing, red aura sparking off his body. Ruby had rushed him, but he dropped his sword and snatched her out of the air with an aura-coated hand. Pyrrha had expected Ruby to simply shift into that petal form, but she didn't. Was she now unable to? Did Jaune's aura somehow prevent it?
Had to help. She had to help him. Pyrrha hurried to her feet and summoned her weapons back to her. She pumped aura into her legs and sprinted over to her partner as he hurled Ruby tumbling away.
Jaune raised an annoyed eyebrow at her, as if her existence was akin to a fly in a quiet room. "I told you to play defense."
Pyrrha tried reigning in her own annoyance. No need to upset him. She'd done enough of that. "Well, that clearly isn't working. I can't shoot at Ruby now that she can… do whatever that ability is." Pyrrha looked at their opponents as they helped each up, no doubt reformulating their strategies too. "I couldn't touch her, but you could. So maybe she can't change if she's touched by someone else's aura?"
Jaune frowned. "Her semblance is a Nature type. Wouldn't have guessed."
Pyrrha blinked. "A Nature type?"
"It means she can deconstruct her body into a specific element. Flower petals, in her case." Jaune glanced at her, and saw the question on her face. "I had a teacher in Atlas who had a similar ability. You're right, you need to use aura to hit her in that state. I'm not sure why it's that way, but I guess Nature types can't pass avoid pure energy. Coat your attacks in aura and it'll nullify her form when you touch her, then force her back to a solid state."
Pyrrha couldn't help but be in awe. It was strange being in that role of the ignorant, while her partner was the informed one. She had to admit to preferring the dynamic in reverse, but new leaves turned over and all. So she nodded. "Use aura against her. Alright, then what's the new—" Wind blew back Pyrrha's hair as Jaune dashed after the girls with great speed. "plan."
She'd be damned if she simply sat by the sidelines while he did all the work. Pyrrha rushed up with him, and it was good that she had, for Weiss and Ruby had no reservations about taking up the intensity of their bout.
Weiss had jumped into the air, floated almost, fired dust arrows raining on them by the dozens. Finally, something Pyrrha recognized. She dodged deftly, not slowly once in her pursuit, while Jaune simply tanked through them with shield and aura. Ruby intercepted him this time, Crescent Rose now transformed into Thorn mode. That left Pyrrha with Weiss.
Weiss was descending now and Pyrrha was already upon her landing spot, shielding up in case she came down swinging. That's when she saw something taking shape under Weiss, aura swirling and molding together. She had no idea what it was, but decided to jump back for safety anyway.
Weiss landed with a crash, but not with her own feet. Instead, she was astride a white Beowolf, heaving gray smoke, beady eyes glowing ice-blue. And already charging at her. Pyrrha rolled out of the way as Weiss slashed at her like a cavalry soldier might mow down foes with a lance. She sprang back up and shifted Milo to rifle mode, unloading three shots. Her opponents' rounded quickly enough, Weiss raising a black glyph to repel the bullets, then loosed in return more dust and ice arrows. It pelted everything around her, sparring dust and dirt and stone everywhere and Pyrrha as she dodged. Again, and again, and again, her lungs burning.
That was their dance. The Beowolf much too fast for Pyrrha to reliably catch, and the few cuts she made weren't decisive enough to fell it. Arrows and passing cuts, bites and claws, ice and fire, raining on her like an endless storm and taking chunks out of her aura. Weiss had always been good at pressuring her opponents, even Pyrrha had to admit to having a hard time closing the distance in the past. Now, it seemed next to impossible. Why did it feel so impossible?
Eventually, she got fed up with the whittling away of her aura and leaped at Weiss as she came on. She raised her shield to take the arrows, then plunger her spear down into the top of the beowolf's head, grounding it. Thankfully, Weiss had not expected this, and the sudden stop sent her flying off like an upended cowgirl, and had to right herself in the air. Pyrrha could catch her now. She hurled her spear that very moment and saw Weiss's eyes light up with horror. Finally, she got her.
Ah but cruel fate. Jaune had appeared jumping backward out of nowhere, directly in front of Weiss, as luck would have it. He was forced to raise his shield to block Pyrrha's throw, stalling his attempt to enter Brave mode. He spat a sudden burst of anger, as if she had done it on purpose. "What are you doing?"
Pyrrha could not hold her anger back either. He'd ruined her damn well-earned attack. She could have taken Weiss down with that. "What you told me to do!"
Ruby came driving both feet into Jaune's neck like a sniper bullet that never missed the mark. Jaune went tumbling across the floor, and by now Pyrrha knew what to expect, so she got to him first. Weiss and Ruby took the left and right respectively, white and red streaks spearing across the arena toward their grounded opponent. Pyrrha went for Weiss again, and managed to catch her in the face with her shield, hard enough to flip her crashing onto her face. Vengeance secured. Then she went for Ruby from the blind side, spear raised and infused with aura. That weird gunshot sound again. Not her and not Ruby.
The pommel of Jaune's sword struck Pyrrha in the jaw, Ruby having veered out of its path as it was fired from its sheath. Pyrrha couldn't even take that new mechanic in her partner's arsenal into further thought, for she hit the ground in a heap, one hand massaging her jaw and thanking the Gods she'd raised her aura.
"Doing what I said, huh? What part of "Defense" don't you get, Pyrrha?" Her dear partner chided from afar. She couldn't help but notice there was no apology in it.
"I'm doing my best…" Pyrrha whispered. She was so sick of his stupid plan. It was never going to work in the first place.
Weiss and Ruby had slowed, but their teamwork was still a force to be reckoned with. Jaune would get a hit in, even a good hit, but the second half of the pair would punish him for it. He scored a hit, they scored two, then more. Ruby's bladed leg scraped Jaune's shield, then Weiss's arrows pelted his chest plate and made him stagger back. Ruby was in his face before the dust even cleared, kicking, kicking, kicking. Jaune swung wide and made her spring backward, then was forced to roll out of the way as Weiss came stabbing down from above. That might have been the end of it, but Weiss had already begun another summoning circle as Ruby went dashing after Jaune to give her time.
The two of them were utterly perfect together. Their power multiplied three times over simply by fighting in unison. One of mind. One of heart. One of goal.
Even as Pyrrha tried to back Jaune up, using gunfire and watching with the utter amazement that he so commanded from her, it barely changed anything. Weiss countered her bullets by simply having her aura up, and Ruby, well that was obvious. Jaune was losing now, and badly. Ruby's butterfly kick sent him crashing into the wall, then slumping to his hands and knees.
Pyrrha could only let out a tired breath. Did she go help him and only make him angrier? Or stay back and lose the match? In that time of short consideration, Weiss and Ruby had made the choice for her. They ignored Jaune this time and came for her.
A part of her had hoped to fare better than him, some pitiful act of showing him up. But that dream did not last long.
There was not a single gap to exploit in this storm of violence—her opponents ensured it. Weiss unleashed a maelstrom of high-speed stabs, all pounding at her shield like a woodpecker at a branch, buckling her shield back and back and back again. Her head whipped from the sudden connection with Ruby's kick, stirring the world around her. Pyrrha swung behind her, but all she caught was air. Ruby would try to sweep her off her feet again. She jumped, but did not see Ruby beneath her. Pyrrha looked up and her heart sank with horror.
The Beowolf's jaw was so incredibly big that Pyrrha didn't doubt it could take her head and shoulders off in a single bite, a great chasm of teeth that she was too slow to stop. The beast rammed into her with such monstrous strength that Pyrrha wondered if that's what having a building dropped on her would feel like. She was on the ground, then, pinned under the monster's weight. Its giant mouth around her head, teeth mere centimeters from her head. Pyrrha made a feeble attempt to kick, but found that her ankles were bound together with something hard, tight, and cold. Ruby stood nearby with one vambrace of her Thorn missing from one leg. When had she done it? How had Pyrrha not noticed?
By now, Jaune was struggling to his feet, clutching one arm and looking spent for breath. Blood oozed out of his nose. He glared toward Weiss and Ruby, who were just as worn down as he was, but all looked ready to keep fighting.
Pyrrha could have sworn she read the word, "Fine" mouthed off Jaune's lips, and even the trace of a challenger's smirk. He took his sword in both hands, raised it level so the blade obscured half his face, closed his eyes for a moment, exhaled.
The very pressure of the air had suddenly gotten heavier, like there was a change in elevation. Pyrrha even felt her ears pop, like they did when on a Bullhead. Residual aura rolled off Jaune's body, lightning sparking off him in waves as though a generator had overheated beyond control. The color of the aura, Pyrrha knew, was an indication of which form Jaune was assuming. Red for Brave, yellow for Shield, white for Haste.
She had never seen two colors at once before. And apparently, neither had Weiss or Ruby, both of whom flinched, made ready to step back. Jaune's eye glowed with aura, red, yellow, white, yellow, red. The pressure building and building and building until he raised his sword up for a—
"The match is over!" Professor Goodwitch's call cut through even the climax of their match with clear finality.
Jaune's aura faded instantly, and Jaune glanced over at his teacher with the utmost shock, like he'd been just beginning his presentation and now the bell had rung. It was so clear on his face what he was thinking, "I was about to win!" and based on what she felt, she didn't doubt it.
Pyrrha felt Ruby remove the iron braces from her feet, while Weiss's Beowolf vanished in a puff of smoke and light. Ruby came to help her up with a smile, going quite literally from kicking the crap out of her to brushing down her dirty armor. "Well, that was fun!" she chirped.
"Yes…" Pyrrha rubbed her aching arm, glancing at Professor Goodwitch, who had approached the middle of the room, Weiss and Jaune joined her. "Ruby?"
"Hm?" Ruby glanced up at her, taking Pyrrha's arm and leading her to Goodwitch. Pyrrha found herself glad for it, since one leg was in pain and causing her to limp.
"When did you get that brace on me?"
Ruby raised an eyebrow. "When you jumped."
"You knew I'd jump?"
"It was your only option. You okay?"
Honestly, no. She was feeling from this sudden reveal that Ruby of all people had deduced her potential reaction from one previously successful attack, supposed she would adapt, then adapted to that very change. In short, Ruby had played her like a harp. Pyrrha wanted to be proud of her, but it was heavily overshadowed by a feeling of complete stupidity.
Then they were facing Goodwitch, who was tapping away at her scroll for a moment. Then, with the four of them gathered, she turned the screen to them, revealing their aura levels.
Jaune's just barely edged the green, which made sense since he was least beaten looking and had the strongest aura in the year. Jaune did not see his results as a positive though, frowning like he'd gotten a poor grade.
Weiss's meanwhile was half through the yellow, which considering the amount of dust and summons she'd used, was strangely high. Often Weiss being tired was more on account of her using too much of her abilities in a single bout, and less so the damage she took. Still, the fact that she had used so much and only gotten half into yellow was incredibly disconcerting to Pyrrha.
Ruby was the closest to red but still a few bars off. She'd taken the heaviest blows, heavier than she used to be able to. With all of them accounted for, Pyrrha assumed hers to be either edging green or half through the yellow.
Pyrrha had not thought her heart could sink further. She was was just barely edging the red.
"Miss Rose and Miss Schnee are the victors of this match." I'd like to say it was a close match, but that would be generous." said Goodwitch stoically. "Exemplary teamwork, the both of you. I suggest you keep it up."
The crowd burst into applause far away. Weiss held out her palm toward Ruby with the most unapologetic smirk of all time, and Ruby fived her an equally proud beam on her face.
Then, Goodwitch looked back and forth between Jaune and Pyrrha, and the look on her face was like that of a pet owner who'd seen her dog piss on the floor. "Miss Nikos, Mister Arc. I see there is some division in your methods of cooperation." This was rather fitting, since Pyrrha and her partner stood on either side of their opponents, instead of together. "I hesitate to call your performance teamwork. It is not worthy of the title."
Jaune sighed and hung his head, fingers curling into fists. "We… haven't fought together in a while."
"I'm afraid reasons and excuses do not matter to me. For they certainly will not matter on real missions. Failure to apply even basic teamwork results in more premature deaths in fledgling Huntsmen than anything else. Apart, Misses Rose and Schnee were manageable and you two held your own, maybe even would have defeated them. But once they were allowed to work together, you were utterly dismantled." Goodwitch focused on Jaune, then. "You, in particular Mister Arc, I am surprised by. As team leader, how you spoke to your partner was ill befitting of your role, and in fact, disgraceful. I don't suppose your time away has made you arrogant, has it?"
Jaune's head hung lower. "I'm sorry, ma'am."
"You are, indeed. What disconnect there is between you and Miss Nikos must be amended, less the two of you fall behind your peers. You are second years, and as such can afford no further complications in your careers. I expect the two of you won't continue to disappoint me?" And Goodwitch set her glare on both of them, ensuring that they understood that it was an order and not a question.
Pyrrha followed her leader's example and hung her head. Together they said, "Yes, ma'am." Ironically the only team effort they'd pulled off successfully.
"Good. You may all return to your seats."
Pyrrha turned to head off with Weiss and Ruby, but Jaune asked their professor to be excused to the restroom. She doubted he was going for that reason entirely. Jaune preferred to be alone when he failed. But was he disappointed because he'd lost? Or because Goodwitch was right? He disappeared before she could ask, and honestly even if he hadn't, Pyrrha doubted she'd have the stomach to ask anyway.
"Damn Pyrrha, you got your shit wrecked." greeted Yang, high-fiving her sister at the same time. "Looks like you and Jauney are having marital problems. I've heard if you bang once in a while, it improves your relationship happiness rate by fifty percent. I kid you not."
Pyrrha only hummed, dropping into her seat with a sigh.
"Don't worry," said Ren, putting a hand on her shoulder. "It's only the first day. The two of you have time to work things back into place. You'll see."
Maybe he was right. But Pyrrha had to admit she wasn't thinking about Jaune anymore. The match played over and over in her head. Her exchanges with Ruby and Weiss both, and how they'd felt extremely difficult even individually. Then their final assault on her as a team, which, as Yang had so crassly defined, had utterly wrecked her shit. She had been completely helpless. Her. Who had destroyed teams all on her own on many occasions. How was this possible?
Could she… have gotten weaker?
Pyrrha glanced jealously over at Ruby and Weiss, who were back to their usual bickering, as if trouncing the girl who had once been called invincible had simply been a chore. Then she thought about how they'd focused on Jaune mostly, only jumping her after he was reasonably incapacitated. He had been the beast they needed to cut down first, while she was the much smaller one, easily ignored until it was time to clean up. Pyrrha asked herself once more if she'd gotten weaker, but she'd kept up her training even after leaving Beacon. No, she hadn't gotten weak at all. That might have been easier to swallow than the truth.
And that horrible truth was that Ruby and Weiss, and probably everyone else, were stronger than her now. They had surpassed the Invincible Girl. Pyrrha Nikos? Not even a challenge anymore. No champion. Barely a nobody. Behind a smile at one of Nora's jokes, Pyrrha's teeth gritted together so hard that she tasted blood.
The competitive devil deep inside her, thought long buried, began to stir in its coffin.
So I was stuck on this chapter for months for some reason, then just this morning I knocked the chapter out in two hours, then edited it at work. Don't know when fight scenes started becoming difficult for me, but that's where I'm at now. I guess when you write a lot of them, there's only so much you can do before you're writing the same thing over and over. I still try though.
- ISA
