After her confrontation with Maka, Ruby started hanging out with her fellow scythe-wielder on a regular basis, the two of them on occasion managing to drag along some of their friends, making for some interesting encounters, such as Kid freaking out about Weiss' singular ponytail to her left side and Ren assymetrical clothing, or Nora practically scaring Crona to death with her personality being his polar opposite. It took a while, but after a few attempts, Ruby, Yang and Weiss managed to bring the anti-social Blake along with them, just as Maka and the others managed to get Black Star to hang out with "the little people" around him. And of course, the blue-haired fool wasted no time drawing attention to himself. "I am Black Star! The world's greatest assassin! I will one day surpass God! Yahoo!" He boasted arrogantly.
"Is he always like this?" Ruby whispered awkwardly to Maka.
"Always." The younger scythe-wielder groaned.
Blake, however, was more open and blunt about her feelings towards the assassin. "You know assassins are supposed to be quiet, right? You just seem interested in show-boating and saying how great you are." She said with slight annoyance, being a ninja, which is essentially another version of an assassin.
A tick mark appeared on Black Star's forehead as he turned red, glaring at Blake and shouting with steam shooting from his ears. "What?! You think you can do better than me, little girl?! I am the one who will surpass god! You're just another small fry compared to me!" He shouted.
"Big talk from a guy who barely reaches my chest. And yes, I think I can do better." She said, drawing Gambol Shroud.
"Alright, but don't forget, you asked for this! Tsubaki! Kusari-gama!" Black Star announced.
"A-alright." She said with a nod, before quickly turning to Blake and offering a small bow. "I'm really sorry about this." She said, glowing and jumping into the air, turning into a ball of yellow energy, before becoming her iconic double-scythe Kusari-gama form, surprising Blake, as this was the first time she saw a transforming demon weapon. The other Beacon students were accustomed to it by now.
Background Music: "Death Before Dishonor" by Five Finger Death Punch
Black star rushed in and flung one of Tsubaki's scythes at Blake, who blocked it with her sheath, spinning and crouching, turning Gambol Shroud into its pistol form and firing at Black Star, who managed to dodge the bullets while continuing his charge. "Now, Tsubaki! Ninja Blade mode!" He said.
"Right!" She agreed, changing into the short knife.
The two fighters locked blades and Black Star began to force Blake back, but then she kicked his right knee and knocked him off balance a bit, before attempting to hit him with her cleaver-like sheath, but he backflipped out of harm's way.
"Guys, do you really have to fight?" Ruby asked.
"Let it go, Ruby. This is something that has to be done." Kid said.
"Yeah, that guy deserves the butt-kicking Blake will give him!" Yang said.
"Now, Tsubaki! Shuriken!" He said, flinging her after her transformation was complete.
Blake, however, easily deflected the massive shuriken, sending Tsubaki to the ground not too far from her feet. "Now it looks like you don't have a weapon, anymore." She said with some confidence.
"You haven't seen anything yet! Tsubaki! Smoke bomb mode!" Black Star announced.
"Right!" She agreed. Suddenly, the area was filled with a thick yellowish-brown smoke.
"Tsubaki is so AWESOME! All those weapons rolled up into one!" Ruby said excitedly, picturing herself wielding the Nakatsukasa girl in her many forms (Hey... That's not a half bad crossover idea. Someone make it so!).
(Now we've got her!) Black Star thought as he rushed into the smoke, regrouped with Tsubaki and re-equipped her as her knife form and charging at Blake.
However, despite her bow being over them, her sensitive cat ears took over where her eyes could no longer help her, allowing her to hear Black Star's footsteps as he charged towards her. She spun and blocked his attacks at the last second, the two of them striking at their opponent and deflecting their attacks.
"Wow, your friend's pretty good." Maka said, surprised since most people can't stand up to Black Star even without his weapon.
"Yeah, she is! Shorty's got nothing on her!" Yang said excitedly.
Kid scoffed at this. "It's still early in the fight. Black Star's an idiot, but if there's one thing he's great at, it's fighting." Kid said.
"Hmph. He may have some surprises, but he's a simple brute whereas Blake is a tactical fighter." Weiss said confidently.
Realizing neither of them was gaining any ground, Blake decided to step it up a notch, backflipping away from Black Star's next attack and using a combination of her Semblance and the Dust clip Weiss gave her to leave behind a fiery duplicate of herself, which Black Star attacked, resulting in a powerful explosion that sent him flying forward, creating an opening Blake used to deal more damage to Black Star in mid-air, much like what she did with Roman.
"What the?! What was that?! Some kind of magic?!" Black Star asked.
"You don't even know about Dust? And you expect to surpass God?" Blake asked skeptically, as for her and her fellow Beacon students, Dust is pretty basic, but also a major game changer.
"Well you'll find I still have a few tricks of my own! Speed Star!" Black Star announced, rushing in at speeds that matched Ruby's and attacking again, but Blake still managed to defend herself and land a few attacks with the help of her semblance. "Okay, then! See how you like this!" Black Star said, managing to catch her with his palm and shoot his soul wavelength through her, sending her flying back a bit.
"What was that?! His Semblance!?" Blake asked, checking her scroll and noticing that attack significantly depleted her aura, a quarter of it now gone despite that only being the first attack she took.
"Yahoo! How's that?! My Soul Wavelength is so awesome! Next to NOBODY gets back up from that!" He said, rushing in and preparing to use it again, but this time Blake was prepared and again left a duplicate of herself, this time one of stone. Black Star managed to destroy it in one strike, but was caught off-guard long enough for Blake to fire several shots at him, grazing his arms and legs multiple times, before rushing in. The wounds were minor, as Blake didn't want to seriously injure him, but they were still able to slightly hinder Black Star's movements and allowed Blake to land a number of hits, knocking him back with a powerful hit from the back of her blade.
"We can stop this now if you want." Blake said.
"No! I'll never give up! I'm gonna surpass god, so I can't lose to a little girl like you!" He said, looking down at Tsubaki. "Tsubaki! Enchanted Sword mode!" Black Star ordered.
"Right!" She agreed. Suddenly, the ground began to shake as Black Star shouted and what looked like black fire began to swirl around him as black markings appeared on his face. He rushed in again and the two once again locked blades, but as soon as they did, Blake was pushed back a little from the force. Black Star attacked again, this time much faster and stronger, Blake needing both weapons to stand up to him.
(He's stronger than before! But he's still just attacking wildly, not changing his strategy.) Blake thought. She managed to backstep Black Star's next attack, using her ribbons to swing Gambol Shroud around in its Kusari-gama form, wrapping it around Black Star's leg and pulling him off his feet, sending him to the ground, at which point she delivered a powerful kick to the head, sending him rolling across the ground a few feet before he got up with slight difficulty.
"Okay, that's it! This one's gonna end it!" Black Star said, rushing in.
"For once, you're right!" Blake said, doing one final backflip and leaving an ice clone behind as Black Star swung and got his sword stuck in it, struggling to free it. Blake then charged up her aura and sent a massive wave of energy at Black Star, shattering her ice clone and sending him flying, as well as making Tsubaki go flying from his hand, the black markings disappearing from his face and Tsubaki returning to a normal dagger, before returning to her human form.
End music
"Black Star!" She said worriedly, running over to his side.
"Whew." Blake sighed in relief as she sheathed her sword and put the sheath on her back.
"You did it, Blake!" Ruby said happily, running up to her friend.
"I told them Black Star couldn't handle you!" Yang said with a smile as she walked up.
"I was worried for you during the end, but you did great." Weiss said.
"To be honest, I was pretty worried, too. Him surpassing God is definitely an overstatement, but he's definitely gonna be pretty tough in the future." She said.
"Sorry things got so out of hand." Maka said as she walked up to team RWBY.
"Yes, Black Star can be quite overzealous at times." Kid said as well.
"But the knucklehead bit off more than he can chew when he took you on." Soul said.
"It wasn't easy, but it was pretty fun." Blake admitted.
Black Star walked up to them at that point. "Okay, I'll let you have this one. But next time, don't expect me to go so easy on you! I'll beat you right into the ground!" He cheered for himself.
"We'll have to see about that." Blake said with a small smirk.
"OR we could just hang out and not fight in the first place!" Ruby added.
"Yeah, at the end of the day, we're all STARS in my book!" Yang joked, everybody except Black Star groaning at the pun, the latter laughing at it.
Analysis:
1: In terms of speed and skill, the two are closely matched, moving fast enough to dodge bullets and fast-moving enemies as well as being able to wield a number of different weapons. Black Star is likely stronger, as he is able to punch through stone walls and block attacks from incredibly powerful enemies with magic power, whereas Blake has never had any noteworthy feats of strength. Durability is a difficult subject, Black Star's durability is slightly inconsistent: he is able to take many powerful attacks, but similar or weaker attacks are also shown to put him down rather easily, so durability likely goes to Blake, who has taken a small number of attacks similar to the ones Black Star has taken. Ultimately, these two are very evenly matched in terms of physical ability.
2: With Tsubaki's versatility, Black Star had more offensive options than Blake, but in turn, she had more defensive options via her semblance, weapon's Dust clip and heightened senses, plus she's not too far behind in terms of offensive options. Also, she was able to maneuver easily enough inside a similar smokescreen before when fighting an Atlesian paladin, so it's likely Black Star's smokescreen wouldn't hinder her too much. And Blake is usually shown to be a more tactical fighter, where as Black Star usually rushes in without even thinking. He has times of using tactics and strategy, but the number of times can be counted on a single hand and Tsubaki is usually the one who makes them up in the first place. So here, Blake takes it for superior tactics, strategy and having more balanced options.
3: Black Star's soul wavelength would likely cause Blake decent damage as it is very similar to the workings of aura and would likely deplete it more than most regular attacks would, but once again, Blake's semblance makes it difficult for Black Star to land those attacks. His Speed Star and Soul Resonance likely wouldn't help too much, either, as Blake's semblance makes her incredibly difficult to hit to even the fastest opponents.
4: By the time Black Star used his trump card: the Enchanted Sword Mode, Blake was in far better condition than he was to keep going and this state only further weakens Black Star over a period of time. So, Blake ultimately wins over being physically matched with Black Star, superior tactics, evenly-matched versatility, maneuverability/evasiveness and her Dust Clip that adds elemental properties to her semblance and makes things that much more difficult for Black Star.
Next fight...
"I can already tell. This is gonna be one hell of a party!"
"The light of dawn drives away the darkness once again."
(Dante vs. Ryu Hayabusa)