Goddamn, Weiss is cute. Though she definitely looked stunning in her normal dresses. Today, she was wearing something a bit more inclined for fighting. It was either for that reason, or that she wanted to look extra cute for her boyfriend; Yang had confirmed it when he was chatting with her at Ruby's quasi-birthday party, but he had noticed that Weiss' skirts were ever so slightly shorter since they started dating. Today's ensemble wasn't much different than her normal style, but her dress was replaced with a shockingly short white skirt over deep blue tights, matched with a strapless white top. She gifted him with a rare look at her shoulders, which were surprisingly muscular when one considered her appearance; though masquerading as a princess, Weiss Schnee was definitely capable of holding her own.
When the man's mind wasn't focused on Weiss' skirt, it instead unintentionally compared it to Ruby's outfit. While Weiss was dressed sleek, form-fitting, and elegant, Ruby was… not; her training gear managed to do even more to hide her figure than her usual outfit. Yang had mentioned Ruby lacked confidence in her body, which made sense seeing as she was two years younger than everyone, and Yang was somewhere in the 36 24 36 range. Though the man was dating Weiss, Ruby was very cute; it'd be a shame if she kept her beauty hidden under layers of skirts. He unintentionally confirmed that her breasts were far bigger than they first appeared when he stopped her from tackle-hugging Weiss, so she wasn't exactly lacking. Not that he'd ever bring that specific part up.
The man's clothes were unremarkable in comparison to Weiss and Ruby. Seeing as the world didn't unfairly demand that men dress well at all times, jeans and a hoodie covered bases, and left him presentable enough to go out afterwards. Still, he made sure to style his hair before he went out; he's sure Weiss wouldn't mention it, but it didn't hurt to look nice for her. She greeted him with a warm smile when she saw him, so he felt pretty good about himself.
"So, are you ready?" Weiss had already gripped her Myrtenaster, but Ruby promptly unsheathed her massive Crescent Rose. The fact that she was even able to hold that thing was an accomplishment in itself; the man had previously confirmed that it weighed almost, if not more than Ruby herself. Sure, the gadgeteer had designed Gravity Dust workarounds, but that was added after she began wielding it!
"Ready to go!" Ruby cheered. She looked pumped and antsy. "So, how do you want to do this?"
Weiss, with significant effort on her part, could beat the man. Ruby was still untested, and half the point of this spar was to show Weiss just his accomplished she was. He suddenly feel a pang of inferiority as he realized that he was probably weaker than Ruby and Weiss. Yang was probably the strongest/second strongest person at Beacon save maybe Pyrrha, but both of them were taller and had noticeable muscles. Ruby and Weiss barely cleared five feet tall; it was a bit stupid to be embarrassed about, seeing as Aura, weapons, and training factored in, but the two very, very petite girls before the man had combat skills that surpassed his own.
"Uhh… Why don't… Weiss, why don't we team up against Ruby? You did want to test her."
Weiss looked hesitantly at Ruby, who was childishly bouncing around. "Yes, I did. Unless you have an issue with that, Ruby?"
Ruby pumped her fist, confidently stating, "Fine with me! I'll give you everything I got!" She effortlessly twirled her gigantic weapon before readying it, priming the firing mechanism and loading in a fresh cartridge of ammo. "Say when!"
"Alright, three. Two. One!"
Ruby immediately retreated, leaving a wake of roses. Even prepared for such a thing, both the man and Weiss were caught off guard and missed where she went. The three were in a relatively open field, but trees surrounded them, leaving plenty of spaces to hide.
Her senses honed, Weiss looked toward the direction Ruby had initially gone. "She's a sniper." She narrowed her gaze, scanning the trees. "Which means… Duck!"
The man ducked away from his position, narrowly avoiding a high caliber, high velocity bullet that sunk deep into the ground. Several more hit in places he had previously been as he hopped away. He heard the sky crack as Ruby fires, her sniper scythe damaging the wind with the exit velocity.
"Get close to me!" Weiss screamed, alerting the man to the fact that she was now several feet away when she had previously been mere inches. "She's trying to separate us!" She summoned several glyphs along the ground, which pulled her to his side in seconds.
After seeing a rustle of leaves in the direction one of the shots was from, the man kept an eye on the area while guarding Weiss. She'd already figured out Ruby's initial battle strategy of trying to isolate the two, something he hadn't caught just yet; Ruby knew tactics, and Weiss knew to see tactics, both things the man was still a novice at. These two were a step above him, so it was a very valuable experience to train with them.
Making himself useful, the man pointed to where the last shot Ruby fired was from and said, "She's over there, in the trees." Weiss turned and summoned a glyph before her, catching a bullet right before it hit her. Now with a shield between Ruby, they started to formulate a plan.
"She's trying for a high vantage point," Weiss explained. At her speed, she could be anywhere along the tree line in moments, but we should be able to see her movements if she stays in cover." She maintained her glyph, keeping it between Ruby's assumed position.
Remembering Weiss' Semblance and its infinite uses, the man suggested, "How about a wall? Then she has to come to us."
Weiss thought for a moment, then nodded. "Good idea. That will at least stop her from firing." With a large twirl and a cycling of her revolver system, Weiss created a wall of ice, high enough to block Ruby's shots. She released her glyph shield and took a breath; though strong, her Semblance was also rather taxing. Now that she was in cover, she could rest a bit. "What will her next move be?"
"Well, she has to do something about the wall. Is there a weak point?"
Weiss looked behind her, where she had ended the circle on her ice wall. "It'd be there; the rest is a solid wall, but there would be a separation between the start and the end." Weiss patched up the wall, sealing the weak point.
As Weiss finished adding ice to the wall, there was a loud crack as the sky split once more. Had the wall not slowed it down, the man would have been unable to avoid a bullet covered in a strange black shift. There was a whoosh from outside the wall, followed by several more black bullets capable of piercing the wall perforating it at random intervals.
"She's switched to Dust rounds!" Weiss shouted, avoiding several bullets. Putting her glyph shield back up, she blocked an otherwise direct hit; the force of the blow still made her stumble. "She's trying to trap us in here!"
Finding the useful parts of his battle with the Ursa, the man felt his body take over. "Shatter the ice then jump! I have an idea!" He began littering the wall with shots from his weapon, weakening the integrity. Not knowing the plan but trusting anyway, Weiss tapped the tip of Myrtenaster onto the ice wall, instantly cracking the entire wall into large chunks. Summoning a glyph underneath her, she ascended over the ice wall, hovering in the air on another glyph.
Ignoring the risks, the man directed his Semblance in a circle around him. While telekinesis was normally best used maneuvering small objects, he pushed everything around him outwards, sending the chunks of ice outward as missiles in every direction. He heard Ruby yell out, "Woah!" as the wind gets knocked out of her by several ice chunks. Weiss falls to his side, noticing exhaustion; such a powerful display, while useful, left the man pretty drained.
All take a moment to recover. Though Ruby was the only one actually hit, the man and Weiss probably overused their Semblances; the ice wall was a lot to create, and sending it everywhere was no small task. Weiss' stamina held up as Ruby stood and readied herself.
Ruby and Weiss faced off against each other while the man climbed upward. Silver eyes locked in on him, sensing his exhaustion. In an instant, Ruby was in front of the man, swinging her scythe; Weiss got in the way, holding up a glyph shield to parry. The white-haired girl managed to deflect the blow, but the glyph shattered, leaving Weiss to cry out and withdraw her arm.
"Sorry!" Ruby cried out, firing Crescent Rose and redirecting the momentum to strike. The hammer-like end impacted Weiss' rib cage, sending her flying to the side and leaving the man alone. He saw her Aura flicker as she sailed off, leaving him alone with Ruby, who suddenly looked a lot more imposing than her tiny figure would normally allow. The reaper readied her scythe, posed to bring it down on him. His will to survive and his memory of Ruby's genius saved him as he used his Semblance to mess with one of her Gravity Dust engines; increasing the weight of her weapon, the man upset Ruby's balance, making her waste precious seconds catching herself. He spent the time dropping an explosive, getting up, and rushing back to Weiss.
"I'm fine," Weiss answered without a question, holding her no-doubt bruised ribs. She allowed the man to help her stand, then she pointed her sword towards Ruby. Luckily, the dark-haired girl was catching her breath after avoiding the grenade. "What do we do?" Her grip was unsteady, along with her breathing.
Running every number he could, the reason the man was a team leader presented itself. Seeing as Ruby was in better shape, she'd come in to attack up close. She'd get there with her speed Semblance, which would also give her plenty of momentum.
"Those glyphs that moved you along the ground, do they work on other people?"
"Yes," Weiss said, out of breath.
"Wait for her to charge in, then send her my way."
Unable to scrounge up enough time for a better plan, Weiss stared down Ruby. Switching her scythe to a more halberd-looking mode, she fired a shot backwards, rocketing herself towards the man and Weiss. She became a scarlet blur surrounded by rose petals, a whirling swarm of thorns.
"Now," the man cried, alerting Weiss. Just as Ruby regained form and made to take a step to turn into a swing, Weiss summoned a glyph under her foot. As Ruby's boot hit the circle, all of her forward momentum was immediately turned a hard ninety degrees to the right, sending her completely off balance; the small red figure and her hundred-mile-per-hour speed met the man's fist, which buried itself firmly in her stomach before he followed it up with a straight punch amplified by his Semblance.
Ruby was sent flying backward towards a tree, where she impacted with a hard thud, threatening her Aura. Just as she regained her senses, the grenade the man sent with her went off, encasing most of her torso in ice that pinned her to the tree. Now stuck, Ruby squirmed before admitting, "I-I can't move."
Weiss let on a long, tired breath, bending over to catch herself. One hand limply lay at her side while the other held her side, focusing Aura. With a thumbs up, she started stiffly walking over to Ruby, using some fire Dust to free her.
The man got off pretty good. Weiss and Ruby had both taken some heavy hits, but he was fine save exhausted Aura. As he approached Weiss melting Ruby free, he flared what little he had left to try and help Weiss and Ruby recover.
Now that the spar was done, the man, Weiss, and Ruby take a short trip to an ice cream shop near school to recover. The three recharge over a couple of cones, satisfied with the results of training. Even without words, the man could tell Weiss had a far deeper respect for Ruby; even he wasn't ready for her switch from goofy and childish to severe and tactical. He hoped she appreciated her team leader as a team leader a bit more, as well.
Though the man and Weiss were the victors of the spar, Ruby countered Weiss' tactics, meaning if he hadn't been with her, things might have been different. The man realized that, while Weiss was an amazing huntress with great strength, she didn't have the ability to quickly adapt and plan out strategies; Ruby, on the other hand, made snap decisions on the fly, and made very good ones. Whether or not she saw that, he didn't know, but he felt that she may understand that there is a reason Ruby was the leader of team RWBY. Both her and Yang were definitely stronger (he didn't know enough about Blake), but Ruby could recognize what was needed in the moment better than either of them.
If nothing else, Weiss knew that Ruby was a force to be reckoned with. The man casually watched her enjoy her greatly embellished ice cream, happily chatting with her team leader; before, he only ever saw Weiss speak down to Ruby, or at best begrudgingly agree to something. Thanks to him, Weiss was actually able to get along with Ruby. Plus, he got to learn that he had a lot of ground to cover in terms of training. All in all, a pretty great exercise, and a surprisingly intense date.