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RWBY belongs to Rooster Teeth.
Chapter 13: Ruby's Thorns
Searching for the anomaly that was Erebus Grimshaw would have to wait. As it stood, I didn't have much of a clue on where to begin. And when it comes to investigating, beating your head against a brick wall is about as useful as literally doing nothing.
And when it comes to beating your head against a brick wall, Ruby was having a very similar problem. Tension in their team was high with Ruby, Yang and Blake against Weiss. Ruby had made little headway into forming a non-antagonistic relationship with the heiress. By the same measure, Weiss had decided to not cross that bridge either. Things really came to a head the following week. Specifically, that Monday's combat class.
The previous week was little more than an introduction to the class, basic rules, equipment inspections, stuff like that. There was little to no actual combat in the combat class. That Monday, they actually had combat. According to Glynda, this week would mostly be spent determining how each student ranked amongst their peers. By random selection, they would be doing one vs one duels. Each student would have one duel each day of combat class that week. Each duel would last five minutes or until elimination, either by ring out or aura level. Each student would be given a score based on how well they perform and that would determine how they ranked amongst their peers.
You would think it was a rather detrimental system to their training, but the results say otherwise. It certainly breeds competition amongst the students. However, the main purpose is to determine fairer duels and spars. After all, if you can easily wipe the floor with your opponent, or always get wiped by your opponent, you are hardly going to improve. I did something along those lines training Ruby and Keira. To ensure they were properly challenged, but could actually learn, I held back. I still do. While both my daughters are amazing with their scythes, they still don't even hold a candle to my ability.
Back to the story, though, Glynda did random selection for the spars. The only really notable ones to me were Yang vs Pyrrha Nikos, Blake vs a guy named Cardin, and Ruby vs Weiss.
Blake handedly took down Cardin. While he was the far stronger opponent, Blake was far swifter. Her attacks weren't necessarily all that strong, but Cardin was rather slow and quick to anger. Admittedly, I think it would have only taken one lucky hit to end the fight, but at the time, I hadn't met Blake. As such, I had no idea how strong her aura is. Yet, in my experience, people who employ those hit and run tactics tend to have weaker auras.
Yang vs Pyrrha was a different matter. For one, it was a much closer fight. For two, Pyrrha was actually a decent combatant. And three, Yang lost. Like Cardin, Yang is a very strong fighter. Unlike Cardin, Yang was able to keep calm… er, and she was actually pretty agile. Though, that is to be expected considering Yang is more hand to hand whereas Cardin fights with a large mace. The simple fact of the matter is though, Pyrrha has far more control when it comes to her semblance, which is some form of ferromagnetism. Still, Yang did manage to power through Pyrrha's magnetic fields and land a few blows on the champion, but she was eliminated by aura levels. Pyrrha landed far more hits than Yang.
Most interesting to me though was the final duel. Ruby vs Weiss. If nothing else, I believed that this duel would teach Ruby a lot about her teammate. Why? Well, I've always believed that you can learn a lot about a person from the way they fight. Take my sister War for instance. From her demeanor, you'd assume that she never takes anything too seriously, she's reckless, and possibly slightly unhinged. You fight her though, and it's a far different story. Her method of fighting is very akin to that of warriors like the samurai. Composed, honorable, controlled. Very different from her regular day to day demeanor. That's something that you'd only know for certain if you fought her.
Anyways, Ruby entered the arena and went straight to Glynda. Ruby pulled out a vial of familiar red liquid, though it was slightly lighter in color than the suppressant she took before initiation. Strong enough to suppress her aura's violent tendencies, but weak enough that she could still use it to create Death's Thorn. A gift from Ozark. Glynda gave her a questioning look and spoke to Ruby.
"Ms. Rose, what do you have there?" She asked.
"Professor Goodwitch, you know about my condition?" Ruby asked.
"Yes, the headmaster informed us." Glynda answered. "Is that what the syringe is for?"
"It's an aura suppressant." Ruby confirmed.
"That will leave you rather severely disadvantaged." Glynda responded.
"Better me disadvantaged than everyone else dead." Ruby responded with a shrug. "I just figured it would be best to inform you as I will be taking these before combat class from now on."
"I assume that you also have a stimulant to mitigate the effects after class." Glynda prodded.
Ruby nodded. She drank the liquid in one gulp. Glynda noted the grimace on Ruby's face as the drugs entered her system and the suppressant took effect. Ruby told me the aura suppressant tastes similar to how a decomposing corpse smells. A few deep breaths later, and one gulp forcing the drug down saw to it that Ruby was ready to go. Glynda nodded and Ruby turned to the arena.
The first thing she noticed as she stepped into the arena was the angry glare on Weiss's face. With little more than a glance, Ruby materialized her scythe and readied for battle. Weiss raised her rapier and they waited.
"Begin." Glynda announced.
Weiss immediately thrust her rapier forward. A stream of ice flew from the blade right at Ruby, who had not stood still. As soon as Weiss began moving, so had my daughter. She had immediately begun to strafe around the arena, aiming to get close to the heiress. When Weiss sent the ice at her, Ruby had rolled to the side, easily avoiding the telegraphed attack.
As she rose from her roll, Ruby flung a dust knife at Weiss. The heiress batted away the blade. She was surprised to see it ignite as it impacted the floor. Her surprise didn't last long though as she had to begin frantically holding off attacks from Ruby. To Weiss's surprise, none of the tension or anger she expected to see graced Ruby's face. Only concentration and joy. Ruby was enjoying this.
A slash from the left would have caught Weiss, had the heiress not braced her blade against the shaft of Death's Thorn. The impact was still rather staggering. For more than Weiss thought should have been possible from Ruby. The heiress growled and created a glyph under Ruby's feet. Ruby disengaged from the clash and swung from the other side.
A pillar of ice emerged from Weiss's glyph and rose upwards, with Ruby riding it. Ruby, being the quick thinker she is, rolled off the side of the pillar and slid down it with the blade of Death's Thorn keeping her on the side of the pillar and slowing her descent. She landed and rolled to her left as Weiss threw out another wave of dust in Ruby's direction. This time it was fire dust.
Ruby had stood up when Weiss came rushing past her at a speed far faster than should have been possible. Had Ruby been a normal huntress, she would have taken the full impact of the thrust Weiss enacted. Unfortunately for Weiss, Ruby was no ordinary huntress. Ordinary huntresses aren't trained by Conquest, War and Death.
With barely an inch to lose, Ruby rapidly sidestepped the attack. That was not the end though. Weiss landed on another glyph and had immediately turned to begin a second thrust. Ruby saw the glyphs scattered about the arena. She quickly figured out their purpose in making the heiress faster. Ruby breathed deeply as she kept dodging the thrusts from the heiress. All in all, Ruby managed to dodge most of the attacks, The last one though clipped her shoulder.
Fortunately for Ruby, Weiss had to pause to catch her breath after that attack. The successful hit had agitated her suppressed aura. Ruby grit her teeth and was white knuckling her weapon so hard that it probably would have dented had it been a normal weapon. The landed hit managed to confuse most of the class as well. It was a glancing blow that had damaged a significant percentage of Ruby's aura.
Weiss saw this and Ruby's current state. She grinned and thrust her rapier forward A bolt of lightning issued from the blade and straight at Ruby. Ruby saw the electricity racing towards her. I wish I had been there when she managed to block it with no harm to herself. It was a move that she learned from me. A move that could really only be done because Death's Thorn was directly connected to her aura.
Ruby braced her legs and lowered her body to a more stable stance. She opened her right fist and let go of Death's Thorn with her left. Calling upon her agitated aura to defend her, Ruby thrust her right hand forward, palm held up. Much to the class's surprise, Death's Thorn did not fall from Ruby's hand. No, instead, it spun and shielded Ruby from the lightning. The aura construct actually allowed the electricity to harmlessly dissipate before hurting my daughter.
Now, to the trained eye, you'd see what was happening. The same thing happens when I do it. Basically, Ruby's aura was holding the weapon and spinning around Ruby, thus, spinning her weapon. While the weapon was spinning, Ruby unholstered Red Line and took aim.
The lightning was gone in a second. As soon as it was gone, Ruby fired her pistol three times. All three shots struck home forced the heiress out of the designated battle arena. Weiss lost, though her aura still remained at half. Ruby smiled, spun her pistol into its holster and allowed Death's Thorn to dissipate.
"The winner is Ruby Rose." Glynda announced. "We will continue this on Wednesday. Class is dismissed."
Ruby gave a slight bow to her opponent. She withdrew the vial of clear liquid and drank it. Fortunately, aura stimulants taste akin to a rather pleasant mixture of vanilla and coffee. At least, that's how Ruby describes it. Ruby stayed behind as most of the class left.
"Did you want something Ms. Rose?" Glynda asked.
"Merely to know your thoughts on how I did." Ruby answered.
"You did rather well, all things considered. Your fighting style appears to be largely reactionary, which can be both good and bad. The most concerning issue I saw was when you had to freeze in the middle of the fight." Glynda commented. "May I ask why you did that?"
"The suppressant isn't perfect." Ruby answered. "I took a hit and it disturbed my aura."
"Understandable, but until I see more, all I can suggest is that you focus on bringing your aura under control." Glynda said.
"Thank you, professor." Ruby replied as she made her way through the crowd of students who wanted to know the same thing she did.
She exited the combat arena and made her way to the dining hall, where she assumed her team had gone. On the way, she focused on breathing and calming down her aura. It was still on edge from the fight, ready to lash out at a moment's notice. She determined that it was reasonably calm as she made it to the dining hall.
Surprisingly, her team wasn't there. She checked the time and noted that it was after six. Combat class had run long to ensure each student got to spar. But her team wasn't in sight. She didn't ponder much more about her missing team. Ruby was hungry, so she grabbed a plate of food and sat down at an empty table.
She was soon joined by a rather boisterous girl with orange hair and her partner, a reserved boy with a pink streak in her hair. Ruby noted that the girl had literally dragged him over.
"You have got to tell me how you do that thing with your scythe!" The girl practically shouted in excitement.
"What?" Ruby questioned.
"Sorry about her. Nora knows little about social etiquette. I'm Lie Ren, her partner. Call me Ren. Both of team JNPR." The boy introduced himself.
"Ruby." Ruby said.
"We know!" Nora exclaimed. "Now how do you do that thing with your scythe! I want to do it with my hammer!"
"You probably can't." Ruby said. "My scythe is created from my aura. It's not a physical weapon."
"Oh…" Nora said, her demeanor falling slightly.
"Where's the rest of your team?" Ren questioned.
"I don't know, yours?" Ruby asked.
"Pyrrha and Jaune both went somewhere, probably to talk about training. Jaune was rather abysmal in his spar." Ren stated.
"Yeah, you'd think he had never picked up a weapon before." Nora spoke up.
"That is possible. He did seem rather clueless." Ruby noted.
"What about you though? You clearly have training in weaponry and aura that I don't recognize." Ren stated.
"Yeah. We've been around Remnant and seen a lot of fighting, but none of it is like yours." Nora said.
"Dad and his siblings taught me. But we're very isolated." Ruby answered cautiously as she took a bite of her food.
Ren just nodded and motioned for Nora to say no more. Ruby focused on her dinner. She got up to leave a few minutes later.
"It was a pleasure to meet you, Ruby." Ren said.
"And you." Ruby responded as she made her way back to her dorm.
She found her team as she neared her dorm. Yang and Blake were sitting in the hall outside the room. Both of them were clearly trying to calm down. Ruby raised an eyebrow as she noted the hole in the wall next to their door.
"You know you're going to have to pay for that, right?" Ruby said, pointing at the hole.
"I don't care." Yang growled. "We have to do something about that spoiled brat."
"Ok, Blake, what's going on?" Ruby said, turning to the faunus.
"Long story short, Weiss said some rather unsavory comments about you and Yang took it personally." Blake answered.
"Ok, how about you two go eat, while I deal with her." Ruby said, resigning herself to her fate.
Yang and Blake nodded and headed off to eat. Ruby entered their room. Weiss was angrily writing something in one of her notebooks.
"Weiss." Ruby greeted, neutrally.
Weiss merely gripped her pencil tighter.
"You fought quite well." Ruby stated.
"How would you know?" Weiss questioned, slamming her pencil onto her desk.
"What's that supposed to mean?" Ruby questioned.
"It means exactly what you think it means. How would you know that I fought well?" Weiss growled.
"I'm still missing something." Ruby muttered.
"I saw you take some sort of drug before our fight. I know it enhanced you in some way." Weiss accused.
"It enhanced me?" Ruby questioned, her ire rising.
"Obviously, there's no way you should have been able to avoid my attacks like that, or attack with such power." Weiss explained. "But now, I can have you removed from leadership."
"Are you still on that?" Ruby questioned. "First off, I can attack with such power because my weapon is a polearm. I can get a lot more power from the blade with less force where my hands are. It's a simple physics problem. As for your attacks. You're rigid and predictable. I learned how to dodge something like that a long time ago. Your speed doesn't even come close to my trainers."
"I don't care. Cheaters and frauds shouldn't be allowed in this school." Weiss snarled.
"Are you accusing me of cheating?" Ruby asked.
"Obviously. What else would you need the drugs for? How else could you have been chosen as leader?" Weiss accused.
"Take that back." Ruby said.
"NO! I will report you to the headmaster." Weiss got up to leave.
Ruby grabbed her and slammed her into the wall, her arm against her neck. Weiss was startled, and slightly scared at the sight before her. While outwardly, Ruby's face was calm, her eyes betrayed the unbridled fury hidden beneath.
"You will apologize for calling me a cheater." Ruby ordered.
Defiant to the end, Weiss asked "Why?"
"Because I can handle you insulting me. I can handle you trying to undermine me at every opportunity. I can handle it. What I will not tolerate is you disparaging my trainers." Ruby began. "And calling me a cheater is exactly that."
Weiss scoffed. "No, it isn't. It's just the truth as I see it."
"As you see it?" Ruby spat incredulously, as she released Weiss. "AS YOU SEE IT!? Fine then! Let me tell you what I see! I see a petty, spiteful, spoiled, brat who's upset that she doesn't get her way for once in her life. Guess what princess, life isn't fair. You should know that, considering you seem favored by luck and have lived an easy life."
"My life hasn't been easy!" Weiss protested.
"AND YOU THINK MINE HAS!?" Ruby exploded, not hearing the door open. "I HAVE WORKED HARD TO GET WHERE I AM TODAY! I will not have you disparage my aunt who trained me in every combat art she knows. I will not have you insult my uncle who taught everything I know about strategy, tactics and firearms. I will not hear you put down my aunt who taught me about math, science, writing and literature. I will not listen to you slander my mother who taught me history and dust. Most of all… most of all, I WON'T ALLOW ANY DEFAMATION OF MY FATHER WHO TAUGHT ME HOW TO CREATE A SCYTHE FROM MY AURA, WHO TAUGHT HOW TO USE THAT SCYTHE, AND WHO IS HELPING ME GAIN CONTROL OF MY SEMBLANCE."
"I-" Weiss began before being interrupted by Ruby.
"Guess what princess, my life has been anything but fair. I was dealt a shit hand and had to make do. My adopted father literally saved my life. You have a father you can run to when things go wrong. I HAD TO WATCH AS MINE WAS MURDERED RIGHT IN FRONT OF ME WHEN I WAS SIX!" Ruby yelled, tears welling up in her eyes. "When you feel like being civil, we can talk again. Until then, stay out of my way."
Ruby forced her way past Yang and Blake, who stood stunned in the door. Weiss said nothing as Ruby ran off. The only thing running through her mind was the haunting image of Ruby's eyes literally glowing white in their fury.
Ruby soon found herself curled up next to the fountain in the main courtyard. She gazed stoically at the moon. She barely heard the sound of a portal opening and closing.
"Hey, you ok?"
Ruby turned to see Keira sitting next to her.
"Keira?" Ruby asked in a small voice.
My daughter just nodded and pulled Ruby into a hug. Ruby clung tightly and her tears started to flow.
"How- Why?" Ruby whispered through her tears.
"Dad sent me. Said you were making waves in reality. He said he felt your power, but he's indisposed right now, so he sent me instead." Keira explained.
"Thank you." Ruby whispered.
"Of course. So, who do I need to teach a lesson to?" Keira asked.
"No one, I hope my message got through." Ruby sniffled. "She just brought up some bad memories."
Keira just nodded. They sat in silence for a few more minutes.
"Do you know your eyes are glowing?" Keira asked suddenly.
"What?" Ruby asked.
"Look." Keira stated.
Ruby looked at her reflection in the water. Sure enough, her eyes were glowing white, not as strongly as earlier, but it was still present.
"I think we should tell Dad." Keira said.
"Or show him." Ruby muttered.
"That's an even better idea! Let's go!" Keira exclaimed, pulling Ruby with her.
Ruby wasn't given a chance to protest as Keira had already pulled her through a portal to the Necropolis. Ruby's team wouldn't see her again until sometime the next day.
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Thank you to all who read this, your feedback and views are much appreciated. Feel free to leave ideas and recommendations for the future.
Goodbye viewer; Fare thee well.
End Log S.T.K