Here's chapter 66, everyone.
The sparring match between both teams raged on, with Ren back to his feet and able to parry Weiss' incoming slashes, knocking her back a few feet as he followed up with gunfire, pelting her enough to make her have to start dodging. "I can't dodge forever…"
As she thought about what she could do, Weiss realized one advantage her 'semblance' gave her on use. The white haired huntress in training spared no more time, using her 'semblance' and blinding everyone on the arena, but Ruby knew it was the moment she would need to use her semblance too.
As the light faded, Ren was too late after uncovering his eyes, being slashed by the white wolf that was now on the arena. Ruby was gone in a flash as well, getting her partner's clothes somewhere safe, but it only took her a few seconds, already back in front of Nora.
Weiss growled at Ren, Myrtenaster in her teeth with its sharp edged form ready. The boy in green never sparred with Weiss in that form of hers, so he wasn't sure how to counter the speed she was given.
Ruby grinned, noting her partner was getting into it, now that she had used her 'semblance'. "Ren isn't gonna have an easy time now."
Nora grit her teeth as she slammed her hammer down on where Ruby stood, but was unpleasantly surprised when nothing but rose petals were in her place. "Stay still so I can smash ya!"
The white wolf heard that, and knew her partner would be fine, so she finally focused her full attention on Ren, both of them waiting on the other to make the first move. "He's patient… And with my semblance in use, I'm at the best I can be for now. His semblance isn't one he can use here, so we're both at our limitations."
As she studied the situation at hand, the white wolf felt her vision blur up a bit, making her wobble a bit. Ren noticed that, but wasn't sure if it was the fatigue on using her 'semblance', so he chose to press his attack on.
Weiss gasped, unable to see it coming since she wasn't as focused, getting pelted with rounds again, making her growl angrily. So she dropped Myrtenaster and began moving quickly, dodging the attacks, but it wasn't like before. The white wolf was in full control, swiping at the boy with her claws, which was unexpected of her, since he saw Weiss only ever using Myrtenaster in her wolf form.
Ren had enough experience fighting Strom to be able to dodge the swipes, but when she spun around to hit him with the weight of her body, he gasped and was knocked on his back, so she took the chance to pounce on him, growling as she looked down at the boy. "Give up."
His guns were knocked out of his hands, so he had no way of getting her off, at least she believed that. Ren focused his aura on his palms, confusing the white wolf since he hadn't said a word, but as he was able to land his palm on one of her legs, it was enough force to push her off.
"What?!" Weiss was pushed back several feet, but when she noticed his hands were lit up with his aura, she knew what had happened. "Offense aura… I didn't think you'd expend it here."
As Ren picked up his guns, he aimed at her. "Even if this is a sparring match, we should use it to learn more tactics for the real thing. Wouldn't you agree?"
Weiss backed away, feeling her heart racing as she didn't have Myrtenaster to defend herself, and dodging would only get her so far, so when he began firing at her, she yelped in pain, feeling her aura dropping as she tried to run, but his focused fire was too much.
The white wolf growled, and for the first time, she made a sound she didn't think she could make. The sound made the whole room stop fighting, just to look over. She had howled, and her eyes went wide as she saw something she couldn't comprehend.
A glyph, just like her mother's and Winter's. It was right in front of the white wolf, and Ruby looked on in awe as well. Ren had stopped firing when he saw that the glyph had blocked his rounds, but the fact that a glyph was even there to begin with was the more shocking revelation.
"W-What… What is-?" Weiss stopped, realizing what it was, even though she believed it couldn't be true. "How… How is this here?" She started looking around, wondering if maybe her mom, or even more unbelievable, her sister was somehow around.
Blake was in shock. She knew what it was too, and because of the information she'd learned over the years, it seemed impossible. First she found that Weiss didn't have the Schnee semblance, and that she had the power to become a wolf, but there it was, spinning in front of the white wolf. "How is this possible…"
The glyph vanished not a moment later, Weiss still stunned by its sudden appearance, or for the matter of it even being there in the first place. "Whoa… I thought ice wolf couldn't do that…" Yang commented, her focus on Jaune lost due to what she just saw.
Jaune himself, while not as knowledgeable on semblances, looked confused as well. "Yeah, I thought we can only have one semblance… Right?"
Pyrrha nodded, unable to comprehend it either. "Yes, our semblances can change, but we can never have more than one."
Nora was the first to break the confusion, swapping to her weapon's grenade launcher form as she shot at Ruby. "We still got a match to finish!"
Her sudden shout snapped everyone out of their thoughts, and Ruby was too distracted, getting hit by the explosions. "Gah!" She flew back, and her shouts of pain made Weiss' ears perk up.
"Ruby!" The white wolf growled and charged for her weapon, instantly grabbing it with her teeth as she went back to trying to help her partner. "If this were a real fight, sitting around is the last thing I want to do. I can question what that was later."
The hammer wielder of Team JNPR was ready to win, getting ready to blast more canisters at the fallen rose girl, but she felt a pain in her back when Weiss slashed at her, taking down most of her aura, since it was a sneak attack.
Nora stumbled forward, but Weiss refused to let up, slashing her in a ferocious manner until she dropped her hammer, so the white wolf released her weapon and slammed into her, sending her off the arena, though they weren't playing by tournament rules, so she wasn't considered out. That is until she noticed her aura was in the red.
"Noooooo!" Her whines made Weiss roll her eyes, but she wasn't the one she was concerned about.
The white wolf ran to her partner, whimpering a bit when she saw Ruby sitting up and rubbing the back of her head. "Are you okay?"
"Y-Yeah, but, uh… Wow, um, so was that you who made that glyph?" Ruby asked, still fascinated by how her partner seemingly had two semblances. "I mean… How'd ya do that?"
"It couldn't have been mine…" Weiss trailed off. "No, look, we have Ren, Jaune and Pyrrha to keep on fighting. There's no time for chit chat on the battlefield." She ran over and grabbed Myrtenaster with her teeth, ready to take on Ren again, but gasped when her vision began to blur, making her fall to her side.
Ruby ran over to her immediately, not caring about the others around her if they would be able to get a shot in. "Weiss!" As she knelt down by the white wolf, she could see her breathing heavily, so she quickly glanced up at the screen above them, seeing that Weiss' aura was in the yellow, only seven percent higher than the red.
Even then, Ren used that and began firing rounds at them, so Ruby quickly used her semblance, being able to lift Weiss up somewhat, seeing that she could easily wield Crescent Rose, but only got her far enough to get to the other side of the arena. "R-Ruby… Go and fight him… I'll be fine…"
"But…" Ruby bit her lip, knowing that the fight they were in wasn't life threatening to her, so she nodded and readied her weapon in scythe form, focusing on Ren again. "Just stay out of the fight for now… You only have seven percent of your aura left before you're considered knocked out."
"R-Right." Weiss got to her feet and panted, letting herself get some rest before she would jump into another engagement.
Ruby shot herself forward, using electric dust from her scythe to send out lightning slashes in her wake. Ren did her best to dodge, and fire back at the same time, but his bullets wouldn't meet their mark as they were stopped by the lightning slashes shot out from Crescent Rose's blade.
"I need to keep him from getting to Weiss." Ruby thought to herself, knowing that if she lost to the boy, her partner would be unable to defend herself.
While the two were fighting, Jaune continued blocking Yang's punches. "Might wanna drop the shield before it breaks." Yang smirked, and Jaune was getting pushed back.
"Ugh." The blonde boy attempted to shield bash his opponent, but when she sidestepped to the right, he could see the continued smirk on her face, only to be met by a punch to the face.
Somehow though, his aura didn't get as drained, so when he got knocked back, he seemed fine. "Okay… So you can take a punch." Yang commented, firing off explosive shells at the boy, but he quickly brought up his shield again. "Damn shields…"
Pyrrha looked over for just a moment, seeing that her partner seemed to be able to hold off Yang's attacks, so she smiled and nodded, going back to figuring out what Blake would do next. Her semblance was tricky, but if she could find a moment to catch her off guard, that would be it.
The cat Faunus held her weapon in pistol form, not attacking just yet to find a proper opening, but when Pyrrha chose to go in first, she responded with firing rounds at her, only for them to be blocked by her shield.
It wasn't hard for Pyrrha to keep her shield up at the angle of which she still had proper vision, so when she was close enough, she swung her spear at Blake, catching her using her semblance to dodge to the right, but Pyrrha was hoping for that, so she swept her legs and brought her spear up, using enough raw power to send Blake flying from her, draining her aura a bit.
Blake gasped as the force of Pyrrha's spear knocked the air out of her, only for her to land on her back against the ground. Gambol Shroud was out of her hands, and Pyrrha began firing at her when her weapon was in rifle form.
Due to how much aura she had left, Blake could only rely on her semblance for a bit longer, using it to dodge the shots, but didn't see that Jaune had gotten away from Yang for a moment. "Blake, look out!" Yang warned, but the cat Faunus wasn't expecting him.
Jaune slashed at her, only grazing her arm as she at least had enough time from Yang's warning to get a bit away.
The blonde brawler exploded in rage at the sight of her partner getting hurt, just because she couldn't take down Jaune. "You're gonna regret that, Jaune."
The boy in question grimaced when he saw Yang's blood red eyes. "Um… Pyrrha, a little help over here?"
Pyrrha didn't need to be asked, as she was already firing at Yang to keep her from getting to Jaune, but for some reason she seemingly accepted the shots. The scarlet huntress in training stopped when she realized what she was letting happen.
Yang grinned, her semblance powering up her punch as she ran at Jaune, hoping he would try and bring his shield up, so when he did, she punched it out of his hand. The blonde boy gasped in shock, only to be met with several punches that depleted his aura faster than expected. "Just cause you can take a punch, doesn't mean you're invincible." She growled.
Jaune had no chance there. He was happy to have gotten further with his training, but Yang was far more powerful than him at that point, his aura ending up in the red on a final punch that sent him to the ground.
Sadly in turn, Yang's aura had also dropped into the red, since Pyrrha had shot her enough times, and the use of her semblance at that strength drained her. "Damn it…" She cursed under her breath, knowing that with the rules they were using, she was out.
Blake was given enough time to get up from what her partner did, so she focused her attention back on Pyrrha, who seemed fully focused, even with her own partner being thrashed like that.
The cat Faunus knew she couldn't win, so she retreated to Ruby, who was still fighting Ren. Pyrrha, who hadn't taken Weiss into account, chose to press on her attack, not letting Blake get away.
Ruby yelled out, swinging Crescent Rose as fast as she could, making Ren back away until he got to the edge of the arena. He noticed Blake was running to him and Ruby, so he slid under a swing of Crescent Rose and shot at Ruby's back, making her almost fall off the arena, but it was just for a distraction.
He met Blake's blade head on, and looked over at Pyrrha, nodding to her. The red head knew what he wanted her to do, so she used some fire dust and charged up a powerful, focused attack, firing it at the two.
Blake's eyes widened when she heard the shot, and could do nothing as she and Ren were both hit, their auras dropping in the red from the fire damage. Luckily aura would be able to keep them from experiencing third degree burns.
Ruby quickly turned around when she heard the buzzer go off, seeing that Blake and Ren were on the ground, both out of the fight.
Pyrrha, who was still ready to continue, had enough aura to keep herself going, since she hadn't used her semblance yet.
"Oh man… Well… Looks like it's just you and me." Ruby bluffed, hoping Pyrrha wasn't one to check the screens, and since the scarlet haired huntress in training chose to not let Ruby out of her sight, she simply nodded.
Weiss watched from a distance as he partner was charging at Pyrrha, so she weakly walked towards them, almost falling as she felt weak. "Have… To help her… Pyrrha will beat her if I don't…"
It may have not been a serious fight, but for it to be Ruby, Weiss wouldn't let her partner go down, no matter what. So she felt her heart racing again, and her ears perked up as she howled, startling everyone again as she shot forward with a glyph supporting her, jumping on a surprised Pyrrha, who wasn't expecting Weiss to still be up.
When the white wolf landed on her, Pyrrha's weapons were sent sailing. So she looked up to see Weiss growling at her. "Give… Up…"
While Pyrrha could use her semblance then and there to grab metal around the area, she chose not to, mostly because she knew that even if she did, Ruby would be at her throat immediately with Crescent Rose. "Very well… I concede."
After hearing that, Weiss got off of her, but she couldn't stand anymore and fell to her side, hearing the gasps of her friends who hadn't realized how fatigued she was. The last thing she heard were the shouts of her girlfriend trying to wake her up.
The idea of giving her the use of glyphs will be explained, so don't worry. And no, it isn't exactly the same as the Schnee Family semblance. Again, more on what that means in the coming chapters. Hope this sparring match was fun to read.
To JJ- Whitley is slowly getting there, and I like slow burns, so… Yeah he's got a long way to go, but it's a real approach I hope everyone will enjoy. And yeah, cheer Zwei is cute and funny. Ruby will always be affectionate and worrisome, so no shortage on that.
I hoped you all enjoyed chapter 66. Remember, reviews are welcomed, but not required. See you all in chapter 67.