"ALRIGHT ALL YOU SLACKERS!" A loud male voice shouted up the stairs. "GIT YOUR BUTTS DOWN HERE TO EAT BREAKFAST!"
"Ughh…" Ruby groaned as she shook Weiss awake with her one arm that had feeling. "Weiss, wake up."
"Five more minutes…" Weiss replied sleepily as she nuzzled closer to Ruby.
"Not today." Ruby said groggily. "Qrow'll get mad."
"Fine…" Weiss released Ruby and sat up, yawning as she did so.
Ruby followed, rubbing her arm and rolling her shoulder. She got off the bed and started tossing clothes back toward the bed from Weiss's suitcase and her dresser.
Weiss caught her skirt before it slid to the floor and watched as Ruby turned with her eyes still closed and a stray strand of hair sticking to the corner of her mouth.
"Come on… we need to get dressed." Ruby said as she pulled the borrowed nightgown over her head in one quick movement. Weiss snapped her head to the side to avoid looking at Ruby as she put on her bra.
"Ruby! Wait until I get out of the room!" Weiss said while her face burned hot.
"No time." Ruby replied and before Weiss could register the feeling, Ruby had used her semblance to yank her bottoms off.
Weiss let out a yelp and quickly covered herself as Ruby ignored her and continued to dress. Weiss quickly snatched her pair of panties from the pile of clothing and pulled them up.
Weiss quickly finished dressing without any more unwanted help and Ruby was waiting for her patiently by the door by the time she turned back.
"I just need to fix my hair then I'll be ready." Weiss said as she made to grab her hair pin from the dresser.
"No time. Let me do it." Ruby said as she pulled an elastic from a drawer and quickly tied Weiss's hair into a ponytail. When she was done, she took a step back to inspect it. "Is that crooked enough?"
"I-it's fine. Thanks." Weiss mumbled while she dragged her fingers down the long strands to get them to lay at least a little flatter.
"Good, then we have to hurry." Ruby said before she pulled Weiss out of the room and downstairs to the kitchen at a speed no less than a jog.
"Took your precious time!" A man Weiss didn't recognize said. Weiss took notice of the third word that he just barely slurred.
Weiss took a quick look around to find the entire household was already standing around. Taiyang was leaning next to the stove with a cup of coffee in his hand, Yang and Blake were sitting on the island stools while they ate porridge of some sort, and who Weiss assumed was Qrow stood at the stove stirring a large pot that was steaming as if it was full of dry ice. Weiss took a tentative sniff at the air and was surprised that she couldn't smell anything at all.
"Here ya go. Eat up quick, I don't have all day!" Qrow said as he dropped two bowls onto the island for Weiss and Ruby. Ruby had already found two spoons and gave one to Weiss before she sat down to eat.
"I don't know what you're talking about." Taiyang replied with the hint of a laugh in his voice. "You're unemployed."
Qrow simply grunted in response as he continued to stir the pot. Weiss followed Ruby and took the last remaining seat at the end of the row. She looked down the row to find Yang already finished her bowl and Blake slowly picking away at hers. Her ears were exposed from one end of her bow and drooped forwards as another indication of her state of wakefulness.
Ruby was already shoveling large spoonfuls of the gruel into her mouth and Weiss looked down at hers. It didn't look appetizing, but if her teammates could eat it, she could too. Hesitantly, she filled her spoon and emptied it into her mouth.
She was shocked. It took her a moment to carefully chew what she wasn't certain she could already swallow and when she finally did, the one thing from the previous night she hadn't made sense of, she now perfectly, undeniably understood.
"This is amazing!" Weiss said, looking up at Qrow after she returned her spoon to the bowl. Qrow turned and looked at her out of the corner of his eye before he returned to the pot.
"Shh… don't talk, Schnee. Eat." He spoke into the pot as if he were afraid of waking a sleeping beast inside it.
Weiss didn't say anything further and kept eating, though now with a slight bit of apprehension at the tone Qrow had in his voice.
Once she had finished, her whole team looked much more alert and Qrow picked up the pot and held it to his chest. He took out the spoon and pointed to the back door before grunting. Ruby and Yang got up and Blake and Weiss followed as they walked outside.
Qrow followed them and Taiyang stood at the door as Qrow stopped in front of each girl and seemed to size them up.
"You're too stiff." He told Blake before walking on to Ruby and Yang. "I told you to work on your balance, and you to work on agility. I'll be testing that."
"I'm a lot better than I was before!" Ruby exclaimed.
"Bet you are, kiddo." Qrow patted Ruby on the head before he bumped his fist with Yang's. "And you, are a Schnee."
He turned as if to walk away, which left Weiss confused. As if to answer her unasked question, he turned back and pointed at her with his spoon.
"Fix that and you're golden!" He broke down into laughter as Ruby and Yang followed along nervously. Weiss finally noticed what she surprisingly hadn't before. As Qrow walked back to Taiyang, he swayed, just slightly but asymmetrically, from side to side as if he'd had too much to drink. Then she remembered his slurring and the odd way Ruby and Yang reacted to him and everything clicked into place.
"You're drunk!" She spoke more in surprise than anything else.
"He's always drunk." Ruby, Yang, and their father all spoke at once. Ruby at least seemed slightly embarrassed by the fact, but Yang and her father seemed to view it as just another fact of life.
"That's right." Qrow added as if he was proud of the fact. "I'm happier like this. You got a problem?"
Weiss saw Ruby and Yang both desperately telling her to say no, so she followed the advice. After all, it was difficult to predict what people would do when they were sober. Drunks turned that unpredictability up tenfold if not more.
"No, sir." Weiss added the extra term to try to smooth things over a little as it seemed both Ruby and Yang were almost afraid of him.
"Sir… eh?" Qrow seemed to think. Then he spat on the ground beside him. "Not a fan of that title."
"Sorry." Weiss mumbled, not quite knowing where the conversation was going anymore.
"Run." Qrow laughed like a maniac and Weiss felt herself get tugged to the side as Ruby grabbed onto her with her semblance.
"Let's go!" Ruby ordered and put Weiss down as they sprinted into the forest. To their left, Yang and Blake were running and below the crunching of their footsteps, Weiss could hear the crazy laughter from the house they'd just left.
"What are we doing?" Weiss asked, now completely confused.
"Qrow's going to test us on our endurance. Then on our close quarters combat skills, then on using random weapons and last on using our own weapons." Yang explained as the split team regrouped.
"How do you know? He's drunk!" Weiss asked in confusion.
"Because he's still sober enough to think." Yang replied. "But that means he's also going to be one hard… actually never mind, I'll let that be a surprise!"
"What? What is it Yang?" Ruby asked, her voice scared and huffing slightly.
"Nothing, let's just have fun with the workout!" Yang said as she sped up. "Race you slowpokes to the beach!"
"See you two later." Blake said as she jumped off the icy ground and started jumping back and forth between trees to speed up her pace.
"Come on, Weiss!" Ruby offered her hand and Weiss smiled to herself as she took it for a moment.
"Let's show them how fast we really are." Weiss said to Ruby as she pointed forward.
"I love how you think!" Ruby laughed as she scooped Weiss up in her arms and sprinted with her semblance towards the ever so slightly elevated glyph ten meters in front of them.
"Now!" Ruby ordered the split second before she landed on it. Weiss activated the glyph sending them only a foot off the ground as they flew past it, but they easily flew past Yang and Blake like bullets as they bounced off more glyphs Weiss summoned whenever they neared the ground.
Within seconds, Weiss saw the edge of the forest.
"Landing strategy!" Ruby yelled in panic as she dropped Weiss while she flailed her limbs.
Weiss caught Ruby's arm and pulled her close as she made a few soft glyphs to act as an impact cushion.
The bang that rang out from Weiss and Ruby punching through the glyphs sounded much more brutal than it felt and Weiss dropped Ruby once she planted both her feet back on the sand of the beach.
"Next time, try not to drop me." Weiss joked sarcastically while she pretended to dust off her sleeve.
"Fine. And next time tell me you have a way to stop us from going swimming!" Ruby replied as she calmed herself down.
Weiss looked down at Ruby with her eyebrows raised as if to say 'oh, really?'
Ruby looked back up at her with the look that answered 'yes, really.'
They burst into laughter as Ruby stood back on her feet. Ruby gave Weiss a quick kiss on her cheek before she crouched back down. In the sand she drew a quick note for her sister and she and Weiss started to leisurely jog down the beach.
"So where are we going?" Weiss asked, knowing Ruby'd most likely done this before.
"Around the island." Ruby replied. "Basically this is just to make us tired for the next part so we should try to conserve our strength and especially our aura as much as possible."
"If I remember, the island isn't too small is it?" Weiss tried to remember the exact measurements from her geography studies before Beacon, but she'd never concentrated on the dimensions of every land mass.
"It's about thirty miles around." Ruby replied. "We'll take a ten minute break around the twenty five mile mark."
"Where is that?" Weiss asked. She highly doubted Qrow would have set up a marker for them.
"It's around the swimming beach. We'll eat lunch there." Ruby replied. "Uncle Qrow always buys us lunch so we can start as soon as we get there."
"Somehow I'm still not sure I understand what we're actually doing today." Weiss replied. It seemed Qrow went from intimidating and drunk to friendly and drunk. Just what exactly was he trying to test them on?
"He's seeing if we're at where we're supposed to be as a team." Ruby replied. "He knows me and Yang work good together."
"Yang and I." Weiss corrected.
"Whatever, Yang and I." Ruby accepted the correction and continued. "He probably wants to make sure that you and Blake are good partners for us. And he might be interested to see how we work as a team too."
"So basically this is one long field test without any grimm or other teams to compete against." Weiss summarized.
"Pretty much." Ruby nodded. "Now let's pick up the pace, we should have been around that rock already."
Weiss followed as Ruby started running faster, the rock she had mentioned was literally the only boulder on the beach before it curved around a low cliff.
Weiss quickly found herself forgetting about their purpose as they ran. Ruby was beside her, matching her step for step as they moved over the sand. Due to the rigorous training they'd done at Beacon, it seemed almost trivial to be running without the threat of grimm or a failing grade hot on their heels. Ruby's face seemed to glow in the morning sun as they ran, Weiss watched as sweat slowly collected on her forehead before she'd wipe it away with her sleeve. Weiss couldn't resist watching Ruby with the icy gray ocean undulating just feet from their path. It was romantic, but in the poetic sense of the word. Weiss could see the fire of Ruby's spirit push her on even when they left the generally smooth sand to run over the rocky ground that lead up into yet another part of the island's forest, yet the icy scenery seemed to be trying its hardest to push that fire down.
Weiss caught Ruby as she almost slipped on a patch of ice and twice more when she almost tripped on roots that had risen out of the ground. Weiss found herself being saved an equal amount of times as they half stumbled, half sprinted through the forest.
Eventually, Weiss found what she'd expected to find since she'd started running around the perimeter of the island.
"Ruby, just keep going straight." Weiss instructed as they neared a large inlet that stretched at least a quarter kilometer into the island and stretched only thirty meters down its entire length.
"But shouldn't you conserve your aura?" Ruby asked with concern.
"I only get tired when I use lots of glyphs in a short time." Weiss replied. "This shouldn't be too difficult and I'll be back to full power by the time we finish lunch."
"Are you sure? I mean, won't you have to make them too big?" Ruby asked, still unsure about accepting Weiss's proposal.
"Ruby, just get in front of me!" Weiss gave Ruby a gentle smack on her back to get her to hurry as they were running out of space fast.
"Whatever you do, just keep running at exactly the same speed." Weiss instructed as she started timing her glyphs.
What she'd told Ruby wasn't necessarily true. She was affected by a large use of glyphs, but that depended on how long she kept them in existence, how solid she made them, and how large they were. She estimated the most efficient way to get across this gap without using her air-step was to time small, solid platforms for her and Ruby to step on so they could cross in what she estimated would be about ten platforms if they continued as they were and Weiss gave them just a slight boost to their height.
"Weiss?" Ruby asked in a panic as she took her last step.
"Keep going!" Weiss ordered as she followed Ruby. She summoned the first glyph for a quarter of a second and they bounced off it in perfect sync.
"Whoa!" Ruby seemed surprised. "Keep doing whatever that was!"
"Right." Weiss mumbled as she pulled up glyph after glyph. She quickly readjusted so they stayed in place for a half second as Ruby had unknowingly sped up just a fraction that put her timing out of balance for herself. "On the last one, step and brace your leg."
"W-okay." Ruby quickly changed her reply as she realized the reason Weiss had given her the instruction.
"Now!" Weiss ordered as she pulled up the last glyph which caught her and Ruby's feet for a tenth of a second before kicking them back into the air with enough height to clear the far bank.
Ruby landed first, rolling to dissipate the momentum from the boost and Weiss summoned a single cushioning glyph to fall through so she could land in a jog beside Ruby again.
"That was awesome!" Ruby cheered, offering her hand to Weiss who gave her a high five and held her hand for a second before releasing it again.
"That probably cut a few minutes off our detour, so we should be able to rest more when we get lunch." Weiss said, noticing that the wind was starting to carry the smells of food over to them.
"We just have to go around that corner and we're there." Ruby pointed to a clump of bushes that acted as a wind barrier. Currently, they were about half covered in a snow hill that looked solid enough to run over.
Instead, Ruby led her into the trees and Weiss suddenly found herself on a snow covered boardwalk that had been shoveled in sections farther down.
Near the shoveled sections were the food stands that were currently selling anything and everything hot.
"I love the hot chocolate here." Ruby commented as they continued to jog. The smoke from the shacks was being blown away from the shore, leaving large white plumes in the air. Weiss wanted to stop and take a picture but didn't want to fall behind Ruby.
"If you say it's good I'll have to give it a try." Weiss replied as they came up to the first shack. She looked into the hut to see the attendee working on a batch of fresh donuts in front of a smoking oil vat.
"Hey, Uncle Qrow is still here!" Ruby exclaimed as she sped up slightly. Weiss couldn't keep up as Ruby was using her semblance. The small rose petals fell in a gentle shower over her as she tried to move faster. She felt the silky material brush against her exposed skin on her face as she ran through them.
She was about to come to where the cloud of red ended and ducked as some sixth sense told her to. She came sliding to a stop just beside Ruby who looked like she was in the middle of a shocked outburst.
"What's up?" Weiss asked as she straightened herself. She turned to look back where Ruby was staring to find Qrow looking at them with a somewhat unhinged smile on his face.
"Not bad reflexes… for a Schnee." He said as he walked past them and back into an enclosed eating area. "Food's this way. I'll be back at the house."
Weiss entered with Ruby as Qrow exited the opposite side and disappeared into the bush that lined the boardwalk.
"What was that about?" Weiss asked Ruby again as Ruby let out a breath she'd been holding.
"He tried to test your reflexes and made my semblance's flower petals get in your vision." Ruby said while she relaxed. "Then he tried to punch you when you got close enough and I still can't believe you dodged that."
"To be honest, I don't know how I knew to duck." Weiss stated as they took a pair of seats to start on the plates of steaming food that had been left there. "I was lucky, I guess."
"Maybe, anyway, let's eat." Ruby quickly shoved a fork full of noodles into her mouth. She sighed as she chewed and swallowed. "This is the first time they were still hot when I got here."
"Really? I would have thought you'd move faster with your semblance." Weiss commented. "I mean, you don't exactly get tired quickly."
"Sort of…" Ruby shrugged as she ate. "I'm not great at running on sand or through the forest with it though."
"I guess that would make sense…" Weiss hadn't thought about it before, but she really knew next to nothing about Ruby's semblance except the few bits she'd been told over their partnership. "We've never really talked about semblances? As a team, I mean."
"Huh…" Ruby stopped eating and looked up at the low wooden ceiling in thought. "Not really, I guess…. I mean, I know Yang's and she knows mine, but we haven't really told each other everything about them."
Ruby thought some more while Weiss started eating. Even though they were inside, it was still cold as the area wasn't heated. Her food was already starting to cool and she realized why Ruby was so excited to get to eat it while it was hot.
"We should definitely have a team meeting about that." Ruby mumbled before she returned to her noodles and scooped the last of them up. "I never really thought about it but our semblances are basically a unique set of weapons that only we have at our disposal. Understanding how they work would probably benefit all of us."
"Then why don't we do it now?" Weiss asked as she saw Yang and Blake spot them through a window.
"How are you guys already done?" Yang asked as she collapsed beside Ruby. She immediately started shoveling the almost chilled food into her mouth.
Blake took her seat beside Weiss and also began eating, though she did so in a much more dignified fashion.
"Weiss got us over the inlet so we didn't have to go around." Ruby said as she stacked her plate with Weiss's and waited for her other teammates.
"Thash no fair!" Yang spoke through her mouthful of food, sending small bits back to the table. Weiss was thankful that the table was rather large as the bits only made it part way across.
"We didn't break any rules." Weiss asserted and Yang couldn't help but wink in response.
"Anyways, Ruby and I were just having a discussion about our semblances." Weiss changed the subject.
"And?" Yang asked after she swallowed her massive mouthful with an audible gulp.
"We haven't really told each other about them." Ruby replied. "I was thinking we should tell each other at least a general overview about them so we can plan strategies."
"It would make our practices more efficient." Blake agreed.
"Right?" Ruby recognized the approval with a nod. "I guess I'll go first then."
"But keep it short, we have Qrow waiting on us, you know." Yang warned.
"What about if we say what exactly our semblance is, along with what drains our energy or what affects how fast it drains?" Weiss suggested. "We can get more detailed later on."
"Sound's good to me." Blake nodded.
"Music." Yang replied with a grin while she cracked her neck. Then she returned to the last mouthful of noodles on her plate.
"Okay, so my semblance isn't exactly speed." Ruby started. "It's more like a negative vacuum or magnetism."
"I'm surprised you know those words." Blake commented, noting the advanced vocabulary Ruby had used.
"Well, I did a bit of research when I first got to Beacon because I wanted to find out myself." Ruby said. "Anyways, it's sort of like I move faster by creating a sort of field in front of me or whatever I'm holding. Then when I move the field, it makes a sort of pull that lets me move faster, but it sort of also distorts other things like my sight and I guess my brain because when I use it I can also see everything in slow motion and make adjustments to my movement faster. But it sort of balances because of the blur of everything moving so fast which doesn't go away. And depending on how fast I'm going, it can get really bad."
"I guess that makes sense with the tripping from our last Qrow day." Yang commented. "It was the first time you tried to use your semblance in combat too."
"Yeah, and I seem to only get tired when I have to keep changing direction." Ruby finished. "I can go in a straight line for a long time but that's why I don't really use it in combat unless I'm giving myself a boost in one direction."
"But you can use it if you really had to, and if you had enough energy?" Weiss asked.
"I could, but I'm not really practicing that so I'd probably get tired really fast." Ruby said. "I was thinking of starting to work on it a little when we get back."
"Sound's like a good idea to me." Blake commented.
"I'll go next because mine is fast." Yang stated as she dropped her plate on top of the finished pile. "Mine is something like reaction, I guess."
"Like how if you throw a ball at a wall it'll bounce." Ruby added to clarify a little.
"Yup!" Yang rubbed Ruby's head until she was pushed off. "So mine sort of is like a dial that can go up and down. When it's low I have to create my own reactions, but my attacks can always be amplified with my semblance at the cost of my aura. When my aura goes low, my semblance becomes more efficient which allows me to affect my immediate surroundings like making a pressurized zone where there's no pressure or like in the snowball fight I could have set the yard on fire if Blake didn't step in."
"You wouldn't have set the yard on fire. Remember how mad dad was when you did that in the front yard?" Ruby asked. "And you weren't that mad. Your aura was only half way, too."
"Fine, but you get my point." Yang waved dismissively. "It's also quite useful in these situations since I can use my semblance to keep myself warm. But like I said, it's not very efficient unless my aura is low, so I try not to rely on it."
"Alright, mine is fairly simple as well." Weiss spoke up. "My glyphs are exactly what they appear to be, platforms. I can use them to affect the momentum of anything that comes into contact with them and I can augment them with dust for various additional effects. I can control several factors when I use them such as how solid they are, how large they are, and how long they stay in place. Also when I can make them against a surface, it cuts down on their drain on my energy by about half."
"So how exactly do they work?" Yang asked while her brow furrowed in concentration. "By the sounds of it you can basically keep going till you drop."
"Essentially, that is true." Weiss nodded. "But they don't just drain on my aura. They affect it differently. When I lose concentration, each glyph consumes more of my energy. That's why I only tend to use them when I really need to."
"But what about that beowolf that broke your glyph?" Ruby asked. Weiss saw the dark shadow flit past her eyes as she spoke and understood that even still that memory haunted her.
"My glyphs aren't unbreakable. If they're hit at the right angle or with enough force they'll shatter like glass. The problem with that is during the fight you mentioned, I was already getting tired, so I couldn't make them as solid as I'd hoped, and I couldn't put enough energy into them to counteract the force of the wolf's attacks." Weiss replied. "The larger and stronger I need to make a glyph, the more time I need to create it and the more energy it takes to maintain it. Basically think of it like a battery. The more complicated it is, the more juice it takes and when the battery starts to run low it limits how much energy you can take at any one time."
"That's about how my semblance works as well." Blake spoke up as she placed her plate atop the pile. "The drainage is about the same as Weiss, with the exception that my shadow clones always come out the same size and shape. The difference is what their purpose is."
"So you basically have glyphs that come out as bodies?" Yang asked, intrigued.
"No, I think it's more like body shaped glyphs?" Ruby suggested.
"Sort of. I can make them solid for platforms, distorting for visual decoys or I can add several other factors that make them more lifelike. That's before you add dust to augment them."
"That's so cool!" Ruby jumped up as she spun around when she noticed the clock. "We better go home quick otherwise Uncle Qrow's going to be mad."
"Right, let's go!" Yang jumped up and headed for the door.
The entire team hurried out and continued the final leg of their jog together as they approached the house. Not one of them spoke as they processed the newly shared information, realizing that their combat strategies would definitely improve now that they had a general understanding of each other's semblances.
"You're late!" Qrow slurred from the door as he walked outside. "I ended up getting your weapons for ya."
"You went through our stuff?" Weiss asked incredulously.
"I used to have an older sister who liked dressing me up." Qrow replied seriously. "It ain't nothing I ain't seen before."
Weiss glanced at the others before holding her tongue. It seemed they didn't want to press the issue so she let it drop.
"So how this works is you pick a weapon from that bench." He pointed to a table that had been set up on his right. "Then you each get a turn to attack me with it. I want to see how well you can adapt to use a weapon you might scavenge."
"Dibs on the mace!" Yang shouted as she raced over to the spiked ball that hung off a short chain that came out of a shorter handle.
"I'll take the spear." Blake said as she joined Yang.
"Which one do you want?" Ruby asked Weiss as they took Yang and Blake's place at the table.
"What are they?" Weiss asked as she looked at the remaining weapons.
"That one is a basic chain scythe sort of like Blake's but not as well made and its blade could also work as a sword." Ruby said quickly as if she was trying to sell it. "The other one here is actually just a staff with large knives at either end. If it breaks you could probably use them like a pair of short swords."
"Which one do you want?" Weiss asked. It would be pointless to argue over the weapons. Ruby was the weapon aficionado out of them and this sort of thing was right up her alley.
"I sort of want to try the staff." Ruby said with a shrug before she lifted the weapon. "I've already learned to use scythes pretty well."
"Now that you've decided, let's get to it. Yang first." Qrow announced as he stood in the middle of the back yard.
Yang approached him and Weiss joined Ruby and Blake at the fence as they watched.
Twelve seconds later, Yang was disarmed and sitting on the ground. The mace sat past Qrow at the edge of the yard.
"Still horrible." Qrow commented as Yang dusted herself off and tagged Blake in. "The objective is to land any single, solid hit. I win if I disarm you or corner you."
"Fair enough." Blake crouched slightly as she approached.
Weiss watched Qrow take his unarmed stance. He was crouched just slightly enough to be mobile, but he was loose. It made his stance unpredictable. He could just as easily attack low as he could high, and he could easily use any of his limbs.
It was a stance she'd seen her sister use before during the final round of a tournament. It was the stance of someone who was confident, but not because they knew they were going to win. It was the confidence that they could deal with anything thrown at them.
Weiss payed careful attention as Blake moved slowly and the two started circling each other. Weiss already knew Blake's reflexes were extremely fast, but her training was with patience, which made her a tough opponent.
Ruby leaned up against her as she studied the stalemate. Minutes slowly dragged on until Blake seemingly rushed forward.
Qrow reacted immediately, landing an opened hand on her arm which immediately burst into smoke and a second Blake attempted a kick that Qrow caught with his arm, making the clone explode into more smoke.
Suddenly Qrow knelt down and froze after a short crack was heard. He tossed the two pieces of the broken spear aside and looked back down.
"You done?" He asked as the smoke from the destroyed clones dissipated.
"Yes." Blake's clipped tone showed how irritated she was at being bested so easily.
"I said you were too stiff. Work on developing a flow in a prolonged battle. Hesitating at the onset is what allows your opponent to size you up. Don't give them time to pay attention." Qrow said as he offered his hand. Blake took it and she was picked up and shooed away to stand with Yang.
"Next is Ruby." Qrow ordered.
Ruby stepped forward and twirled the knife ended staff above her head before swinging it down with a whoosh where she stopped it pointing at her Uncle.
"Ready for me?" Ruby asked as she also crouched slightly. She started twirling the staff again in no specific pattern before she exploded in rose petals.
"Nice try." Qrow grinned as he side stepped her first swipe and easily ducked under the second in one quick movement. "But not nice enough."
Weiss watched as he lashed out with an open palm strike and Ruby barely managed to dodge before stabbing the weapon out. Qrow grabbed onto the staff as he dodged the blade and ripped it out of Ruby's grasp, throwing it over the neighbor's fence before throwing a punch.
Ruby quickly ducked and rolled out of the way as a low kick swept just to her side. Ruby launched her counter attack before she'd even stood up, getting blocked by Qrow's arms as she attempted to fit a kick or punch through his defenses.
Ruby jumped to the side to dodge another punch from her uncle and that's when Weiss thought she saw the underlying fighting style he used, but she couldn't be sure. She decided she'd attempt to test her theory when it was her turn.
Ruby rolled again, dodging another palm strike but found herself caught on her uncle's leg. She sunk to the ground, gasping and waving her surrender.
"You've gotten a lot better, but you still have a ways to go." Her uncle said as he helped her up. He walked her over to Yang and Blake and made sure she was okay before returning to the center of the yard.
"Odd choice for a weapon, Schnee." Qrow said. Weiss could feel the dislike in his voice barely masked by something else. Whether that something was alcohol, she couldn't tell. "Let's get this over with."
"My pleasure." Weiss walked forward, her chain scythe weighing heavily in her hand. "I've never used a scythe before, any tips?"
"Sure, don't gut yourself." Qrow replied before he moved to close the gap. Weiss summoned a glyph and launched herself skyward, throwing the weapon with her meager might back at the ground. Qrow easily dodged the blade as it bit deeply into the relatively soft ground.
Weiss pulled the rope and rocketed back down where Qrow once again dodged her kick. She rolled and pulled the blade from the dirt, spinning and swiping to find her attack strike a fist traveling in the opposite direction. She recoiled from the hit and Qrow backed off slightly. Weiss used the recoil to throw the blade out in an arc, using the rope to spin it and bring it close to her target. Qrow actually jumped to dodge her first attack then rolled out of the way of her second attack.
Unfortunately Weiss wasn't used to the weight, and the force of the second attack set her off balance. Without waiting for Qrow to capitalize on her mistake, she once again sent herself skyward. She felt the rope roughly get yanked from her hand and knew Qrow had taken it. She landed gracefully at the other side of the yard, dropping into her best close quarters combat stance.
"Not bad for a beginner. Maybe I should teach you how to use scythes as well." Qrow commented, somewhat surprised at the observation.
"Sorry, I'm a fencer." Weiss replied as she approached Qrow.
"We'll see about that." Qrow grinned.
Weiss moved forward and carefully watched Qrow. She knew he was a capable hunter, fully trained and experienced in real combat situations, but what she really wanted to know was his current fighting style. If it was the same he'd had with Ruby, she wanted to test something.
He swiped an open handed strike over her head and Weiss caught herself before she ducked as his leg kicked out, barely missing her. Weiss countered with a couple punches that were knocked aside and braced herself as she launched herself just off the ground.
Not failing to disappoint, Qrow landed his punch on a protective glyph she'd made just below her layer of clothing on her upper stomach. It didn't break, but she felt it come close as she was thrown backwards. She quickly pulled up a glyph at her back that caught her and sent her flying back. She extended one leg in a feint and Qrow moved to the side as Weiss lashed out with her other leg.
Almost impossibly fast, Qrow blocked the rather weak kick and Weiss landed. She turned and continued the combat she'd learned with Yang. Similarities in the two's fighting styles were oddly inconsistent as if Yang had partially developed her own style. Weiss found herself on the retreat and finally there was an opportunity to test her theory.
She kicked out with one leg while she used a glyph to increase the force of the kick. Qrow moved to block it and Weiss, having no need to control her leg, used every ounce of force left to punch at Qrow's chest.
She watched his eyes as they circled around. Not clockwise as she'd expected, considering her position, but counter clockwise.
The attack was blocked and a split second later, she had her arm twisted behind her back.
"You win." Weiss said as the pressure increased slightly. Qrow released her and pointed at the other table that was set up, the weapons much more familiar than the ones they'd just used.
"Same order, Yang's up first." Qrow said as he patiently waited for everyone to pick up their own weapons.
"You did great, Weiss!" Ruby squealed. "You lasted even longer than me!"
"I lost though." Weiss replied as her brain raced, thinking of how she'd implement her strategy. She wasn't sure she could do it if she couldn't sustain her glyph use.
"Everyone loses against him." Ruby laughed. "But next we get to really fight, Qrow even uses his scythe!"
"Really?" Weiss added the information to her plan. Suddenly, it seemed much more feasible, though it depended on the type of scythe.
"Yeah, see?" Ruby pointed as Yang cocked her gauntlets into combat mode.
Qrow drew what appeared to be a medium sized sword from his back. The blade was thick between the two edges but rather thin between the hilt and the tip.
"I'll let you choose what weapon you fight against." Qrow said as he twirled the weapon in his hand as if it were light as a feather.
"I did the sword last time. So let's switch things up a bit!" Yang grinned.
"Sound's like fun." Qrow laughed.
Weiss watched as his sword separated into pieces. They were all connected by a center support, but swayed back and forth depending on where gravity pulled them. It was actually a better weapon than she'd been hoping for.
Weiss stopped paying too much attention to Yang and ignored Blake's fight as well. She carefully watched Ruby's fight which is when she realized she was fully prepared for her fight. Ruby and Qrow seemed to dance scythe to scythe as their forms twirled and twisted to land hits that seemed barely possible.
Weiss watched the synchrony of the two, realizing that their moves seemed almost scripted. But after a while longer, Weiss realized Ruby was the one who seemed to be mirroring Qrow as she'd use one of his moves against him whenever she had an opening. It was like she was adding to her fighting style while they were moving.
Unfortunately, Qrow stopped his scythe an inch from Ruby's neck not long after Weiss had made the observation. Now it was her turn.
"Alright, I'm guessing you'd prefer the sword." Qrow stated as he switched his weapon back into the solid blade. Weiss didn't reply, only leveling her rapier at her opponent as she took measured steps into the battleground. Qrow watched her as he shook his head. "You're not going to last long if you stand that tall."
"Oh, I think you'd be wrong." Weiss replied quietly. She'd studied his combat movements, his hand to hand skills, and the way he reacted to each of her teammate's weapons. Speaking theoretically, she had the best chance to land a hit out of her whole team.
Qrow lunged forwards with his sword to start the fight. Weiss summoned a glyph to block the hit while she spun the dust cartridge on her hilt. She spun it quickly and didn't look at where it stopped. If she did, she'd lose the edge of unpredictability she knew she had. The only drawback was that she didn't know what type of attack she'd be using.
Her strike was blocked by Qrow's sword and the resounding pressure wave told her she'd used speed dust for the strike. She knew from previous experience that she could attack five more times with the cartridge before it was empty.
Qrow countered her strike and Weiss pulled the trigger as she deflected his blade skyward. It fell heavily into the ground at his side as the ice that encased it made it suddenly twice its weight.
She clicked to the next cartridge which she knew was fire dust and let a fireball fly from the tip of her rapier at Qrow. He recovered from the frozen blade in time and caught the fireball with his iced sword, cracking the ice off the hardened metal.
Weiss attacked again without dust as she saw Qrow's eyes cut across his vision, breaking his usual pattern. Weiss quickly summoned a glyph to halt her momentum as Qrow's sword passed an inch in front of her. The split second it cleared, she dropped her glyph and rocketed forward. Qrow knocked her blade to the side with his open hand and attempted a punch which Weiss ducked under as she twirled her grip on the hilt of her weapon so the blade was pointed to her back.
Weiss clicked the cartridge to the next vial and fired the dust as she spun for a backwards strike. The bolts of electricity that sparked to life as her weapon bit into the flat of Qrow's blade danced around her crouched form as she shifted her rotation to slide her weapon off his.
Weiss summoned a glyph below her and knelt as Qrow swung, cutting a thread of her hair. Weiss activated it sending both her and Qrow skyward.
Even as they fell through the air, they didn't stop their duel. Finally, Weiss caught Qrow's weapon on hers and used it to push them away from each other as they approached the ground.
"Had enough, Schnee?" Qrow laughed.
"Go, Weiss!" Ruby cheered from the sidelines behind her uncle. "You're doing great!"
"Since when did you leave my fan club?" Qrow asked, turning his back on Weiss. She took it as a chance to catch her breath from the ferocious duel.
"I didn't… well, sort of…" Ruby blushed and kicked at the ground.
"Did I miss something?" Qrow asked, looking around at the three sitting out then back at Weiss who smiled.
"I'm dating her." Weiss answered the question with a grin.
"Did you tell Taiyang?" Qrow asked, cocking his head in surprise. "He didn't tell me about this."
"He knows." Yang chipped in. "It's all good."
"Right, then I guess it's my job to see if you really do have the potential to take care of my niece." Qrow grinned, flicking his wrist and allowing his sword to shift into its scythe form.
"Uncle Qrow!" Ruby jumped to her feet in surprise. "Please don't hurt her!"
"Oh, I'm not going to do that. I'm just going to see how she responds when her enemy adapts." Qrow lunged forwards.
Weiss had expected the attack and blocked the scythe as it flew past her head, launching it into the air. Weiss watched as he twirled it around in the same fashion Ruby did, but with skill that spoke of his experience. Weiss went on the defensive as her strategy started to fall into place. What she was relying on was the move he'd pulled earlier with Ruby. She'd seen the way to get past it without having to deal with his weapon, but she knew he could counter it by changing his weapon back into the sword form. The major problem with that was that he lost the momentum of his scythe's swing when he chose to do that, so if she didn't land her hit she'd have plenty of opportunity when he went on the defensive.
Qrow slashed quickly, only to be met with a block that set the bare minimum clearance between himself and Weiss. She summoned glyphs to block his melee followups, and seemed to be waiting. Qrow saw the opening in her defenses, but was hesitant to exploit them. He'd had enough experience to tell him it could very well be a trap.
"What's wrong, Schnee? Can't attack?" He asked as she continued to block each and every attack.
"Maybe I'm waiting till you tire yourself out." She replied with a scowl. That scowl he'd seen before, almost too many times to count.
"I don't have that kind of time." Qrow growled in response. He shrugged off his suspicions of being baited. He was fighting a Schnee. They did things brutally, but always head on. Everything was about form and appearance. That's why her stance is so upright, her left foot forward, but not too forward. Her blade held with her dominant hand at her center of mass and angled upwards. She could take out grimm, but her stance was downright horrible for combat against quickly learning opponents. Human opponents. "I'm finishing this now."
"Bring it on." Weiss replied with a ghost of a grin flashing across her face.
That too, he'd seen before. It was the grin of overconfidence he'd seen after it was already far too late. But that didn't bother him. No, it was the fact that she seemed to believe she had an advantage against him that shook him slightly. Not once had any of them landed so much as a touch on him. How she found this situation different was what he wanted to know. He recognized the dust in the firing chamber was blue, which seemed odd. Schnee's never overlooked details like that which meant she was going to use it. The question was when and for what purpose.
Weiss lunged forward and Qrow moved into the attack he was sure would end the match. That look of confidence he'd seen, set itself on her face as she moved through the air.
Qrow swung his weapon and… missed. Weiss moved quickly into his margin of safety and Qrow finally understood what she'd seen and smiled to himself. She was better than he'd given her credit for.
He switched his weapon into it's sword form and spun, landing the sword across his back to block the attack Weiss had targeted him with.
Her weapon glanced off his blade which suddenly pulled him backwards and off balance. She'd used the ice dust.
He looked to where he expected to find her as he quickly recovered but his stumble had cost him. Weiss bounced past him at immense speed, her blade barely missing as he leaned backwards to avoid it.
But that wasn't the end of her onslaught. She bounced back and forth between her glyphs, forcing him to spin in a circle as he fought with his heavy blade to get it to break the ice and transform back into the scythe.
Just as the ice broke, he swung the blade out as it transformed. A blast of heat forced his blade up into the air as Weiss crouched beneath him on a glyph that was glowing black.
That grin on her face seemed to widen in the millisecond she waited for his weapon to clear his body and then the glyph turned bright red.
Weiss rocketed forward, there was no way for Qrow to evade and he threw a last ditch punch that was knocked aside by the flexible metal of the blade as Weiss landed her hilt into his solar plexus.
Weiss landed and stepped away as Qrow coughed from the impact that had forcibly removed the air from his lungs.
All was silent in the yard as Weiss lowered her weapon, breathing heavily, her shoulders slouched forward at the massive amount of energy she'd needed to consume for the fight.
"Amazing…" Yang breathed. Weiss looked up to find her mouth hanging open in surprise. Blake stood beside her, her eyes just the slightest bit wider and a grin on her face. But Ruby seemed the most interesting of the three.
Her face was literally frozen in a large O. Then as she watched, her eyes started dancing with delight and then the squealing started as her face unfroze itself and she started jumping in excitement.
"Oh my god, Weiss! You did it!" Ruby cheered, her semblance carrying her over to Weiss who landed on the ground when Ruby tackled her, knocking her breath out of her lungs. "I can't believe it but you did it!"
"Congratulations." Qrow said as he stood and stowed his weapon. "You've got some promise."
"Thank you." Weiss was still somewhat shocked at what she'd just accomplished.
"Tell me, when did you figure that move out?" Qrow asked out of curiosity.
"The last part I've done before. I tend to avoid it though since I use up a lot of aura on the glyphs." Weiss said as Ruby helped her back to her feet. "The first part I figured out when I saw you beat Ruby and then I figured out the rest as we fought."
"Clever girl." Qrow approached her. He offered his hand she took it in a quick shake. "Well done, in case you haven't figured it out already, these two clowns haven't been able to touch me yet."
"Hey!" Yang protested as she joined the group with Blake.
"Anyways, you should work on loosening your form. It's far too predictable the way it is." Qrow stated. "Fighting grimm is one thing, but when you go up against another human, your stance says a lot about how you're going to attack. If you keep changing it, it'll get harder to predict. And that'll give you the edge."
"Okay." Weiss nodded to the advice and Qrow walked away, hopping over the neighbor's fence to retrieve the weapons he'd discarded. He took them and walked around the house, disappearing.
"You're lucky, you know that?" Yang asked, patting Weiss on the back. "I didn't know how he'd react when he found out you were dating Ruby."
"What do you mean?" Ruby asked, Weiss nodded at the question, finding herself somewhat confused by Yang's statement.
"Well, he's sort of got a grudge against your dad, and your whole family really." Yang stated as if it wasn't obvious. "I was sort of thinking he'd use his semblance in your fight. Then when Ruby cheered for you instead of him I thought he'd try harder."
"I could barely get through his defense as it was." Weiss stated, looking at her teammates. "We've got a long way to go before we're that good, don't we."
"Yup." Yang nodded.
"Definitely." Blake agreed.
"Welp, we are only first years, after all. And he's like already retired." Ruby said to justify the gap in ability.
"I heard that!" Qrow yelled from somewhere in front of the house. "And I wish I was old enough to retire!"
Weiss couldn't help a laugh at the shout and wrapped her arm around Ruby.
"Alright team! Let's get better so next time we can all beat Qrow!" Ruby cheered placing her hand between them all.
"Right on, we'll get him next time!" Yang agreed and put her hand on top of Ruby's.
"We'll definitely do better next time." Blake agreed. She put her hand on top of Yangs.
Weiss looked at Yang pointedly as she placed her hand in. "If you decide to start taking school seriously, the goal does seem achievable."
"What's the fun in that?" Yang asked.
"Go team RWBY!" They all shouted as they broke their hands apart and headed back into the house.
The sun was already setting and the chill of the air was starting to pierce through their clothes that were somewhat damp with the sweat of the day. All in all, Weiss decided she could get used to Ruby's family. It was definitely a nice alternative to her own.