A man thinks about his record against Team RWBY that was so far 1 of 2. He put up a good fight against Weiss, but she triumphed in the end and has since grown ever stronger. He won against Ruby, but he did have Weiss with him, so it wasn't exactly a fair fight; he imagined that Ruby wasn't quite as strong as Weiss, but he felt that he would still lose one on one. And if he had to guess, Yang would destroy him.

Now it was time to see how the man fared against Blake.

To be honest, Blake seemed to be the weakest of Team RWBY, at least in a one on one fair fight. After all, she was most proficient in hit&run tactics and had a far lower damage capacity when compared to the monstrous power put off by a shotgun or a sniper rifle. Her Semblance definitely helped her create openings, but they didn't have the raw strength to do as much as Weiss' glyphs. Stealth also did little when the battlefield was… a field, plus the man knew he was fighting her. He had pretty much every advantage, but then again, RWBY were monsters in combat as a team; Weiss and Yang were heavy hitters and Ruby was nigh impossible to get in on, but he didn't know Blake. Still, he heard she managed to put up a fight against Roman Torchwick with her friend Sun for a bit, and her two blades weren't for show.

Regardless of Blake's fighting prowess compared to her team members, a spar against her meant a learning experience. The man had been meaning to test some new things out, plus if she truly was just as strong as her teammates, he'd get to learn how the big dogs fight. As they found their way to the training grounds of Beacon, the man looked to Blake and said, "So, you ready?"

Blake looked down at her clothes, kicked her boots to test them, and relaxed. "Good to go. On 3?"

"On 3,"

"1."

The man quickly went over the fight with Ruby as a prep; Ruby's specialty was quick thinking and quick planning, not giving her opponents time to think. Weiss used grace and finesse to avoid direct combat, coupled with overwhelming force. Blake's specialty, at least from what he'd seen of her, was distractions and quick jump-ins followed by creating distance.

"2."

The man and Blake readied your weapons, then began backing off from each other. Blake pulled out her cleaver-sheath and produced her katana bladed pistol. He was momentarily distracted by the ramshackle genius of Gamble Shroud; it managed to combine about five different weapons into one, and Blake knew exactly how to make it work best.

"3!"

Blake jumped back, scanning the man as he held his weapon. Sensing the readiness, she decided to hang back and observe, refusing to move.

The man thought that fighting Weiss and Ruby was bad. He never thought just looking at somehow could be so intense; neither he nor Blake was moving save light breaths, but there was a war in those golden eyes. She was content to wait, letting him move.

The man started circling, causing Blake to match in the opposite direction. He followed her eyes as they stared intently at the weapon in his hand. Thinking for a moment, he thought about what Blake knew about him; she'd seen him fight in class a few times, but he was above average and never really showed off against weaker classmates. Blake was well above average, but with the caveat that people didn't know how to fight her. She was skilled, yes, but he hadn't seen anyone fight her that made her actually struggle. He did know her Semblance, though he was positive she'd gathered his; the man didn't exactly hide the telekinesis, seeing as it makes doing tasks so much simpler.

Blake was refusing to make a move before the man. At least, that's what it looked like. He decided to use his Semblance to pull out some fire Dust and place it on the ground without letting Blake see. Continuing the circle, he watched as Blake cycled over to his trap and stop. There was an audible stillness as she noticed him stop moving. The girl grew stock still, not moving an inch as he tightened his grip on his weapon.

The man primed himself to run towards Blake and attack, only to find a blur doing the same. The reason she was so still was that it was nothing but a shadow; the real Blake had carefully hidden behind a clone and used it as a cover to launch forward. She had a single moment before him to move, so she was more ready to launch an attack.

In a convenient moment of panic, the man enacted his trap, charging the fire Dust and causing an explosion. Unfortunately, the real Blake was barely in range, though the show was enough to distract her. She took minimal damage, but he was able to counter her sword strikes and get a decent kick in on her side. She jumped away with a smile; he thought she might have been underestimating him up to that point. He decided she needed to not make that mistake again.

Charged with a want for victory, the man tested a theory. Before, his access to Dust was pretty limited, what with costs and all. Now that he was dating Weiss, she had few reservations letting him accompany her on shopping trips, so he had plenty to spare. Though he was proficient at using his Semblance as it was, he hadn't done a lot of mixing; after some R&D with Weiss on Dust usage, the theory was that using different types would allow him to control individual elements, like a rudimentary whateverkinesis.

The man ran at Blake, weapon in one hand while the other activated some gravity Dust. The purple crystal merged with his aura in a way he couldn't quite explain and somewhat feared; raw, unfiltered Dust usage was volatile and potentially dangerous to the person attempting it. He could feel the crystal disintegrating at the same time as he could feel a sort of grip on the air itself; as he neared Blake, he swiped his Dust-hand at her, causing a swell of powerful gravity in the vague direction he indicated. It was clearly flawed and unstable, but it was a good practical application, and he saw results in Blake.

Blake made to counter the man's weapon arm but was distracted by his other hand with the Dust. Unsure of what his plans were, she attempted to jump back, only to be violently thrown to the side by an unpredictable change in gravity. She was caught completely off guard by the attack, but then again, so was he; seeing as he had little control, he imagined Blake would move. The problem is he didn't know where she would move to.

The man recovered from the shock of his unpredictable attack before Blake could recover from the actual attack. As she tried to regain her balance, he peppered her with numerous shots from his weapon, furthering the damage against her. She repositioned herself and ducked behind a clone to tank the shots. Proud of himself, he figured that his trick likely wouldn't work a second time, plus he still had no idea how to really control it; the effectiveness he just saw let him in that he should mess around with it more.

The man watched Blake slot in some Dust ammo into her weapon. Unsure of which type she put in, he hung back a little in order to gain some distance; Blake, seeing he was a bit stronger than the scrubs on CRDL, followed suit and stepped back. There was another silence, both fighters knowing each other's traps and secrets. The opponent switched her katana to the kusarigama form but still made no indication of movement.

Blake made the first move after an eternity of waiting. She lowered herself to the ground, then jumped towards the man, both weapons pointed forward. Surprised she would make such an aimlessly direct attack, the man was shocked as the dark figure caught fire; Blake's flame Dust clone flew towards him as the original hopped back.

Too preoccupied with the flaming fighter coming at him to focus on Blake, the man jumped out of the way, only to find the kusarigama part of Gambol Shroud in his path, the ribbon pulled tautly. Before he can act, Blake came in, pulling herself in to deliver a kick to his chest. As he fell to the ground, another flame clone was left next to him; the man scrambled away, the explosion went off, propelling him a few feet away with heavy damage to his aura.

The man managed to scramble up before Blake can follow up with more attacks. Panting, he turned to face her as she reared back and tossed her kusarigama towards him with a bang. Instincts took over, causing him to nimbly sidestep the weapon and grab it with his Semblance; his telekinesis worked best on smaller objects and this was nothing compared to the ice wall in the Ruby fight. He held it next to him, trying not to clue Blake in on how much of a struggle it was to power through the aura injected in Gambol Shroud.

Blake was down both a weapon and an arm. The ribbons around her wrists were connected to her kusarigama, so she couldn't use either while the man was holding her weapon hostage. Left with just her cleaver, she feebly pulled her arm, trying to get her main blade back. Seeing no other option, she attempted to rush him.

Knowing victory was all but his, the man waited until Blake lowered her cleaver down for a swing. As she went to raise her arm, he shot her weapon back at her so that it would go around her body; her ribbons swung around her several times, tying her remaining arm to her torso and leaving her wrapped up. Now off balance, she fell to the ground, fought to get up for a moment, then relented.

"You win," Blake said from the ground. "Though, I will say we're a bad matchup now that I see your Semblance in action."

"As it turns out," the man started, grabbing Blake's shoulders and helping her up. "It's a bad idea to throw your weapon around." He figured out where the ribbons ended up and started helping Blake get untangled.

"Most people can't exactly grab it out of midair and launch it back," Blake argued. "So far, that works against everyone except Pyrrha. I am impressed, though. Whatever you did at the beginning to toss me around was interesting."

The man looked awkwardly to the side as he freed Blake's arms. "Yeah, that was a test. I used raw gravity Dust and my Semblance. Kind of dangerous now that I think about it."

Blake raised an eyebrow and looked disapprovingly at the man. "For you and me! You date Weiss and you're still that reckless with Dust!?" She took advantage of her freedom to put her hands on her hips and be angry.

"…It worked. I do need to do some more with that."

"Well, I can mix Dust with my clones using the ammo in Gambol Shroud." Blake considered for a moment, calming down. "Maybe… maybe if you got some gloves and used refined Dust? Yeah, that could work."

The man thought about Blake's suggestion. If he was to get gloves that could utilize Dust, maybe loading them with different clips could result in a more controllable form of what he just did. "I'll have to try that out… Maybe I should pick up some gloves while we're out."

Blake perked up as she wound up and retracted Gambol Shroud. "Oh, I can show you where I got my ribbons. They weave Dust into the cloth so it's conducive to aura. They should have some gloves, and then maybe talk to Ruby when she gets back; she'll be able to figure out some way to engineer a reload system so you can swap clips."

"That sounds like a great idea! So, where to now?"

Blake swiped some dirt off of her pants and said, "Well, it's what, 1:00? I say let's find something to eat."

"That sounds great."

Both the man and Blake clean up a bit and make their way downtown in search for stuff to do. He felt a little too proud that he was able to beat a member of RWBY, even if it was because his Semblance just so happened to be great against Blake's fighting style.