Ruby Schnee
A breeze nearly blew her off course more times then she'd like to admit, but the real hard part was sneaking past the airships guarding the colosseum. She had to stretch the cloud of rose petals really thin and slowly trickle her way past their guard to avoid being detected... which she hadn't even known she could do!
"I should really figure out my powers better..." She muttered as she reformed on the roof of the stands, moving down to a crawl as she reached the edge and peaked down to see into the arena properly. Even without laying down to hide her body she was confident no one would see her up here, they were all too concentrated on the fight. Though, why risk it? Plus, she was lost in concentration at that same thing not long after.
Even from this distance, the view was infinitely better. Her eyes could keep up with their movements only barely, but it was enough to understand what they were doing. Pyrrha's fighting style still eluded her, all of the movements coming from Conquest seeming odd or random sometimes, Ruby could never read her. But Qrow? His fighting style was usually in that same boat... but now it was different. She could follow his movements, she could tell what he planned to do next and even how to block or deflect some of Pyrrha's attacks... hell Ruby had spotted some things he could have done differently that would have worked out even better.
She stood and moved away from the edge, getting a fair distance away and standing in the centre of the roofing. After closing her eyes she began to copy Qrow's movements, or the ones she remembered anyway, while picturing that she was holding a scythe. As she stepped through the motions, she was surprised to find how easy it was to keep going, even after she ran out of movements to copy. The motions and stances, the swings... it all just made sense in her head. Sure, whatever this was was way different to actually wielding a weapon... but it was way better then anything else she'd found so far!
"I should get out of here... I'm pushing my luck being here anyway..."
She let out a gentle sigh as her eyes opened, glancing around the open sky around her and smiling. It really was beautiful up here. A clear sky, not a cloud to be seen... and an airship approaching in the distance. She let out a squeak of a noise and turned into rose petals once more, quickly scrambling her way over the nearest edge of the roof to move down and hide from the ship... it had been too far away to see her... hopefully... but now she just had to-
"Ruby... you fool!"
She settled onto the ground and let out an almost groan as she hid behind some of the seats... Ruby had gone down the wrong side of the roof. She quickly slipped her cloak off and bunched it up in her arms... she was less recognisable without it on her back.
She glanced up into the sky again, looking up to above the arena, and seeing that all the airships had moved up to circle the top of the structure rather then closer to the bottom... she let out a small groan of a noise, but quickly covered her mouth in panic, barely remembering that there were some people in seats right next to her.
Ruby... was going to have to sneak out of here...
"Alternatively-"
Weiss Schnee
"Your Majesty?" She let out a mental groan at the interruption, she wanted to watch the fight... but, duty calls... quite literally in this case apparently as Clover held her Scroll out to her. One of the slots was letting off a gentle glow, and from memory she recognised it as her Scrying Orb. She gave the Knight a small "Thank you" before popping out the Orb to see the person calling her now of all times... honestly, whoever it was she was going to-
"Oh its Ruby."
Her anger and annoyance disappeared without a trace and she quickly cast a small barrier around herself and her throne. Nothing special, just meant to keep the noise from escaping.
"Ruby? You're not getting too bored are you?" She said it with a voice that carried a soft teasing nature to it, meant to be a happy greeting... her wife's panicked response was not what she was expecting in return.
"Oh, nah... I'm... I'm really great...! Umm...-" She started whispering after that. "I'm actually kinda... calling for... help..."
"What did you do?" Weiss's eyes narrowed, and her suspicion was confirmed pretty quickly.
"Well, you know how I'm on house arrest...?"
"Ruby..."
"And umm... I may... or may not have... kinda... left the castle...?"
"...Ruby..."
"I know... I know... but umm... now I'm kinda stuck and I need you to-"
"Stuck? Where are you exaclty?"
The silence that followed was not promising.
"...the... umm... colosseum...?"
It was now Weiss's turn to be silent as she took deep breaths, gathering her strength to prevent herself from getting upset at her extreme dolt of a wife... though, this kind of thing was exactly what Weiss had missed about her funnily enough... She couldn't help but smile softly as she thought that.
"Alright... why can't you just fly out as some roses?"
"Well umm... the airships are kinda circling the top."
"And? How did you sneak past them in the first place?"
"Rose petals."
"Then why-"
"Well it's way easier to miss something flying past you when it's backdropped by a city... but if I fly over the roof it's like a solid grey colour."
"So just... fly straight up?" The silence that followed her comment was telling. "Ruby...? Did you... not think of that?" She had to stop herself from laughing as she spoke, and Ruby's only response for a few seconds was a drawn out sigh.
"I'll... see you at home Weiss."
At that, the Queen did start laughing. "I'll see you then Ruby. I love you."
"Love you too honey!... oh crap-" The call cut off and Weiss was momentarily worried about Ruby's words as it ended... but it was her fault for yelling while trying to be sneaky. Weiss brought the orb close to her chest and clutched it like she was hugging Ruby herself... strangely... even considering everything that happened to get here... this was better. This was her Ruby.
Pyrrha Nikos
Being a prodigy was dangerous.
While yes it did grant a massive advantage in life, it could be just as much of a hindrance as it was a blessing. Pyrrha had heard countless stories growing up of people that were blessed at birth, yet grew to be overconfident and weak individuals thanks to the false belief that they already had everything they needed. Effort, skill, practice... none of that could be replaced, at least not with something that wouldn't carry a heavy cost. So Pyrrha had put in an incredible amount of effort to make sure she didn't end up like the people in those stories when she was young, and that mindset was still one she had carried to this very day.
But in doing so... she may have perhaps caused herself an opposite problem. You can only learn so much before improving, and when it comes to fighting especially... it's difficult to learn from someone weaker then yourself. Pyrrha had spent so long training and improving that she had quickly reached the point of having no one left to chase after. When the title of Conquest chose her, what room did that leave to grow? Receiving one of the four Harbinger titles is one of the greatest honours in the world. Who did that leave her to compete with? Who did that leave her to train with? So early in her life did the World itself grant her a trophy that stated 'you are at the top'... but surely that couldn't be true. Surely... with training... with effort... with practice... she could grow stronger still right?
Yet, recently the only ways she'd seen her strength improving was with more gifts. More 'blessings' from others and not rewards from her own efforts. The strength she got from her improved weapon wasn't her own doing... the power she drew from her borrowed Affinitys wasn't a fair means to gain power... yet she couldn't ignore them, doing so and not using them would be an insult to any opponent she faced. Pyrrha wanted to be better... but she didn't want to be the best.
But right now... she faced the best the world had to offer. Qrow Branwen, the strongest fighter barring maybe his sister who he was at worst tied with... Pyrrha already knew her power could beat Famine. She was sitting at maybe the top third strongest person in the world... but if she beat Qrow today... if she won this fight and moved on to the next... what then? Would she call herself the second strongest? Holding off on claiming the title of strongest until she faced Raven? No... the populace wouldn't look at it that way. In one fell swoop, if she won this fight... she would become 'the best'.
A part of her wanted to lose on purpose. To give up or let an attack go through that would end it here and now to save herself the grief... but her sense of pride and the respect she held for her opponent wouldn't let her do that.
So, Pyrrha fought a battle she had no want or wish to win. No matter the outcome, she would lose... the only solace waiting for her being the man she loved to return to once this was over... at least that facet of her life was finally progressing.
Fighting against a scythe user was perhaps the most confusing experience of Pyrrha's life. The weapon was shaped so awkwardly that attempting to read her opponents intentions by observing their movements was practically useless. Barely any of the experience that Pyrrha could draw from prepared her for this match up, and only her skill was letting her adapt to Qrows movements. Their blades met far more often that what should have been possible when using a weapon of that size... but he wasn't stopping his movements at all. The blade seemed to flow and rotate around him with each swing, rather then stopping it or turning it around fully between each one, he'd commit to each swing fully and carry it around his body to swing again in the same movement. The attacks resembled dancing more then actual combat, yet they felt just as if not more threatening then when he was using his sword.
Despite having the strength and speed advantage, Pyrrha found herself on the backfoot while she worked to adapt to his style. The swings were all barely dodged or deflected as she back-pedalled to keep some distance from him. This ended up with her leading him back and forth across the arena multiple times as they engaged in this bout. Everytime she grew confident enough to step in and attempt an attack of her own, she was humbled faster then she could see any attack come, and was forced to push back into his most effective range again. At one point she changed strategy to use her spear, but the range left her at a disadvantage against his own. Their weapons created a distance between each other that both of them could cross in an instant, so the second that space was clear one of them could attack the other... and it was much easier for Qrow to move her spear out of the way then it was her sword.
Sticking to the shorter weapon, she was forced to focus on defense for now. Any and all offense was thrown out the window as Pyrrha hunkered down and pushed all her concentration into adapting rather then trying to win now. Qrow noticed the change, and just when she thought things couldn't get worse, his speed picked up to a new level.
She was surprised to say the least at his sudden boost in power, but she caught on to how he was doing it quickly. The dark liquid that seemed to cover his body had concentrated in certain places on his arms and most likely legs as well. They formed almost Grimm like appendages wrapping around his own limbs that seemed to mimic the form of muscles meant to empower his own natural strength... a clever trick really. Knowing that he was using summons as well was a good sign that she was correct in her thinking. He wanted to end this fight before she could adapt, which meant that once she did... Pyrrha could win.
She let out a blast of radiant light from her weapon, and the Holy Magic cut straight through the Grimm appendages, rending them from Qrows body and dropping his speed once again. He was quick to reform them, and she was quicker still to dispel them once more, but when he did it again... she realised they had found themselves in another loop.
Not that either of them were going to stop.
Pyrrha took the chance to take stock of her mana... her tank was still around eighty percent full, but she could assume he had a lot more mana left then she did. Using Holy Magic, she could pour as much mana into Enhancement magic that she wanted to right now... but any attempts at getting the edge over him power wise enough to win the fight would result in him responding with a spell she couldn't counter.
"So long as I don't use my most powerful attacks... neither will he."
The threat of each other's strongest hits was enough to make them save mana in preparation to deal with it. It became a race against time as to who would be forced to play their biggest card first... because it was clear they would lose. Pyrrha's win condition was survival, and Qrow's was to force her to waste enough mana that he could end it with a big enough spell.
A horizontal swing narrowly missed her face as she reared her head back to dodge, and in counter to his next swing she raised her sword in preparation to block it as his scythe came back around. When the metal slammed together, it let off a shock wave from Pyrrha's other side that shattered the ground beneath as it slammed into the wall of the arena. Both of them stood in shock for a moment, before Pyrrha smiled and they continued. The desperation from them both now evident as they picked up the pace faster then they thought they could in such a 'small' arena.
The wind coming off of their attacks and movements filled the arena with a wind that matched then surpassed the torrential winds of Carmine's storm. The ground was left as rubble behind them as they moved, they almost appeared to teleport constantly to different parts of the battlefield as they clashed again and again. Pyrrha had finally adapted enough to strike back at Qrow, and the fight had reached a neutral ground once again.
Their clambering to acquire the advantage against the other once again, resembled more of a privatised natural disaster raging in the arena. The fight was practically unwatchable for anyone weaker then Yang or Blake, and even they were probably confused at what they were seeing. The mighty Amity Colosseum felt like soft sand beneath Pyrrha's boots with every step or leap, the intense clashing all that could be heard now that the tough stone and brick beneath them had been reduced to gravel and dust. The winds they produced from their swings blew away all of the destroyed ground beneath them and sent them flying up to the barriers domed roof, only being allowed out thanks to its attempts at removing the smoke and dust so that people could 'see' the fight.
Pyrrha and Qrow didn't stop fighting as the ground changed from the tough stone brick to the even stronger magical metal. Each step carried them across the magic circle that would hopefully protect the other when one of them actually landed a hit against the other.
The clanging of metal stopped as they connected in the centre again, and with a blast of force from them both along with some hearty laughs, they were each sent flying away from the other. They landed with about fifty metres of distance between them, and both Harbingers momentarily stopped to share in a joyous smile.
"Guess we made a bit of a mess." Qrow stomped on the circle beneath him, and was a bit relieved to see that it was too set to be broken unintentionally anymore.
"I guess we should end this then." Pyrrha changed her sword to a spear and held it up over her shoulder, ready to throw it as it crackled with yellow and white lightning.
Qrow let out a chuckle and nodded as he raised his Scythe up high, preparing a downward strike as the blade empowered with swirling winds that became visible to the naked eye within moments.
Pyrrha focused her magic and laid out a field in front of her, extending most of the distance to Qrow as she poured more and more magic into both it and her spear. The metal weapon in her hand charged with energy meant to deliver as much power as possible when it moved, and the area between her and Qrow crackled with magnetic energy as she prepared her spell.
Qrows blade formed a giant layer of wind swirling around it, each gust that made it up probably enough to slice through solid steel, and now empowered with anti-magic meant to rend through anything it touched as he grinned happily.
"Verticitatem..." Pyrrha breathed out the word and she felt the field set in place, now holding a charge of attraction to her spear that nearly forced it from her hand... but she kept it held tight. Needing to throw it to get as much power as she could out of it once ready.
"Infortunii..." Qrow's chant echoed throughout the arena, and the winds changed to a swirling black and white. Each blade of air becoming fueled with either too much of Death's magic or anti-magic to be called Wind magic anymore. He set his feet strong, and readied the strike.
Pyrrha's grip on her spear tightened even more if that was somehow possible... and she smiled once more. "I... Pyrrha Nikos... invoke my right as Conquest... and call forth..." Her whispers were quiet, but she still barely caught Qrows.
"I... Qrow Branwen... Invoke my right as Death... and call forth..."
A magic chant was simple really, especially with a title. It was a cost rather then an actual ingredient. Like a deal you struck with the World in order to be able to cast stronger magic then you normally could. The chant was usually much longer and more complex then that, but certain titles allowed one to skip over most of the chant. Invoking your title if it was strong enough in order to call on the power the World has already granted you rather then making a new bargain. The name of a spell specifically was an important part to it that couldn't be changed... and often they were weird. No one knew were spell names came from, apparently that knowledge was even unknown to the people before the Great Erasure.
Which was why Pyrrha couldn't help but feel silly whenever she used this attack, unsure of its names meaning... but, well... for once she was more concentrated on the fight then that.
"Railgun."
"Reaper."
With both spell-chants complete they moved almost simultaneously. Qrow dropped his arms and scythe in a powerful downward swing that sent the attached blade of 'wind' flying forward toward Pyrrha. Conquest herself stepped with her movement, putting her entire body into a throw that sent the spear flying faster then could be observed. Even with the blade being fired off first, the spear met it in the centre, and the two spells collided with a surprising lack of noise.
The whole world went silent and it felt like the sky had gone dark as Pyrrha watched the two spells struggle against each other for but an instant... yet to her it felt like hours as she watched the colliding forces.
The result was left unknown to her as to which spell was stronger... when they both finally finished their struggle and detonated together. There was still no sound or movement that Pyrrha could detect, one moment their attacks were together... the next her vision was completly white... and the next completely black.
"-Oh shit, oh shit!"
"Shut up Qrow. She's going to be fine."
"But what if-!"
"Wow you are terrible at keeping your cool..."
"Is that... Carmine's voice...?"
Her eyes were closed, and her body ached with pain that was slowly fading. She could see a soft green light pouring through her eyelids and she let out a gentle sigh as she finally opened them.
"Oh thank God!" Someone she hadn't realised was there suddenly hugged her, but she wasn't about to complain about the pleasent surprise as she let Jaune hold her.
Qrow let out a relieved sigh and Carmine stood with a nod. "Cool, she's up... debt repaid." And with that the Pheonix walked off. Pyrrha sat up slowly and looked around... they were still in the middle of the arena, and she had quite a few people huddled around her. All of which looked to be competent healers.
"So... I'm guessing I lost?" Qrow chuckled at her words and shrugged. Smiling at her now that he was back in his base form.
"Guess you could say that." He reached down and offered her a hand up. "You fought well, Conquest."
She nodded with a smile and accepted his help up. "Thank you, Death." They shared a light chuckle... and Pyrrha was relieved.
"I guess that means I still have room to grow."
