Chapter 12: Forged in Fire
Team Rainbow turns up the heat during their duel against Team Castle, but the boys keep their eyes on the prize.
Ruby wasn't sure what to make of the fight. Normally, she'd have said it was a guaranteed win for Yang. Delivery Healthiness Goodwitch had taken away Sky's weapon, and he made the mistake of thinking that he could win a fist fight with Ruby's sister. Yang was using the strategy she always used – let him get in tons of free hits, get him overconfident, then smash him to the Anima and back with her built-up energy. And it had never let Yang down before.
But…Weiss.
Weiss twirled her pickaxe and hooked one of Ren's sickle guns. A brief tug pulled it right out of the ninja's hands, and a burst of frigid air caught him in the chest when he tried to use his remaining gun to shoot her at point blank range. Darn, Weiss hadn't been lying when she could figure out of to use her baby. Jokes aside, it probably had helped to put a familiar piece of her old rapier, MyrtleTurtle, inside the pickaxe, Schachmatt. Ruby had asked her why she named her weapons weird names when they were in the forge. Apparently, it meant something in the old tongue of Mantle. Ruby had no clue what.
Weiss was pulling her weight, but her mere presence in the ring was a handicap on Yang. If they wanted to win…if they wanted to graduate, one of them would have to bend in order to make something work.
Yang was trying to adapt, but years of practice at Signal could not be unwritten in such a short time. Subconsciously, she was prone to not dodging since her instincts told her it would only benefit her in the long run. She flipped backwards gracefully as Sky tried to roundhouse her then dashed forward with a headbutt. Sky's aura took a sharp drop when their foreheads met, but so did Yang's. Dust, even her offensive movements hurt her.
Ruby never really noticed how much Yang relied on her semblance before. Yang pulled her arm back for a haymaker. Sparks shot out of her golden locks, and Weiss took her eyes off Ren. Yang noticed and shut it down.
Team Castle took advantage of their enemies' distracted inattention and struck hard. Sky brought his knee up to Yang's stomach, grappled her when she leaned forward in pain, and threw her to the floor. It was clearly opportunistic and didn't do much damage, but he continued to steadily chip away at her aura as they wrestled on the ground.
Ren, on the other hand, let loose a delicate but devastating flurry of slices with his remaining blade. Weiss brought Schachmatt up to catch the last slash, but it was a feint. Ren's foot tripped Weiss as she overextended, and she toppled backwards. Ren kept his winning momentum going and leapt backwards, bullets raining on his opponent. He had range and she didn't. Rather, Ren thought she didn't.
It was the moment Ruby had been waiting for. Schachmatt's big chance to prove those who called her a mere mining tool wrong. Weiss pressed a button on the handle, and the shaft retracted into the pick. Weiss hurled her at Ren.
Schachmatt flew through the air and missed. Completely. By, like, 10 feet.
Then, she curved midair and smacked Sky right on his head. Bullseye! Bingo! Yahtzee!
The boomerang pick returned to Weiss, who caught her without even looking. Ruby had never been so proud of both her girls.
Weiss smirked.
"I'm the goddamn Crocodile Dund-Schnee."
Psychological warfare. That was all it was. She wasn't an idiot like Yang, queen of dumb puns. She just said it to get into her opponents' heads.
Yang threw Sky's corpse to the side. Oh Dust, had she killed him? No, the board said his aura had dropped to the low, low yellow. He'd been in the green before – the boomerang had been a gamechanger. Weiss felt a raw rush of giddiness as she twirled her new weapon proudly in her hands. Was this how Ruby felt, like, all the time?
Sky's aura may have taken the hit, and with him dazed from the force of the blow and unarmed, Ren was the only true threat remaining. Both girls turned to face him. Yang's hair flickered and fizzled as she strained her face uncomfortably. Weiss cringed in both fear and shame.
I'm holding her back. She's unable to use her greatest strength, and now it's hurting her to keep it held back.
Yang cried out in pain as her own fires singed her scalp.
Weiss fell to her knees.
She was broken. That was the only logical conclusion. The Grimm had broken her, and now she was the fragile pieces of a once proud huntress-in-training that solely existed to use cheap tricks and be a burden and she'd never be like Winter and Father was right and–
"I always knew you Schnees were cowards," said Blake Belladonna from the stands. "Afraid of a little fire, Weiss Schnee? Are you that weak?"
Ruby looked miffed at the girl sitting next to her, but she held her tongue. She was keenly aware of what game Blake was playing. So was Weiss, but she played anyways.
Who was Weiss Schnee? A daughter, sister, heiress, huntress. A frightened little bird that was too afraid to fly, even when both of her wings still worked. Father told her that Schnees face their fears and Winter said a huntress must never back down from danger, but Weiss was coming apart at the seams after her first encounter with both. Blake was right; the little snowflake named Weiss Schnee was afraid that the next time she saw a flame, she would melt.
Weiss looked at her teammates, scattered across the classroom.
Ruby Rose, the silly little girl who built Weiss a brand new weapon just because they were friends. She had held her hand when Weiss was scared to visit the fires of the forges alone.
Yang Xiao-Long, the stalwart big sister willing to throw away the superpower that brought her to Beacon at a moment's notice. Just because it flustered weak little Weiss.
And Blake Belladonna, who understood Weiss' fears better than Weiss understood them herself. She had spoken two sentences to Weiss and told her exactly what she needed to hear. Blake, her beauti– her kind partner. No. Her beautiful partner.
Weiss had teammates. She wouldn't ever be alone again, so she didn't ever need to be afraid again. Not of fire. Not of Yang's semblance. Not of Father, not of Grimm monsters, not even of how she saw Blake.
"Yang."
Yang grinned. "You ready, Weiss-cream?"
"Sorry it took me so long. Now, light it up."
Yang's pent up rage exploded into a roaring inferno. Not even the Emerald Forest had burned so brilliantly. Weiss and Yang, standing side by side, turned to look at one another and nodded. It was time for them to fight.
Then, green flashed. The fire went out.
"I'm…sorry for interrupting your team bonding," Ren apologized. He looked to Sky, who shot him a thumbs up. "But you took your eyes off of me for a third time."
Ren wanted to attack while Weiss was introspective, but Sky (still in the fight, but just barely) had convinced him that a little mercy for sympathy's sake would be the right call here. Ren didn't understand, but he would trust Sky on this one.
Yang tried and failed to break free of his grip on her arm, but her semblance-enhanced strength was lost.
"How…" she weakly managed.
"Your semblance relies heavily on combative emotions like anger and passion. My semblance inhibits that. The fight is gone from you."
Weiss tried to come to her teammates aid, but Sky had retrieved the other half of StormFlower and was holding her back with a hailstorm of bullets. His aim was quite poor, but Ren felt it would be rude to point that out.
See? I'm getting it.
Yang was growing more and more relaxed. In other words, she was growing weaker and weaker. Ren dragged her towards the edge of the ring and tossed her out.
"Whoo-hoo! Go Ren!" cheered Nora from the stands. Ren glanced her way involuntarily. Shit, eyes on the–!
BANG!
Yang fell out of bounds with Ember Celia smoking. The shotgun had caught Ren's crotch at nearly point blank range, and he doubled over in agony.
Yang winced. "Damn, I was aiming for your stomach! Sorry, mate."
"You took out the Lie family jewels, bitch! Those were my birthright!" Nora howled in rage.
Ren raised a hand. "Professor, I–"
A telekinetic push slid him out of the arena.
"Thank you," he weakly managed.
Sky, meanwhile, was dodging a spinning pickaxe boomerang as it flew through the air. He heard the buzzer sound for Ren and turned to Professor Goodwitch. "Hey, ma'am, since I'm down a partner, can I use my weapon now?"
"Very well." With an exasperated sigh, Goodwitch levitated Sky's weapon, a cane of some sort, over to his hands. Sky grasped it like it was made of gold and beamed.
"You ready to crank up the heat, Weiss?" He pulled the flintlock trigger and flames poured out of the tip. "Now presenting, my very own combat torch, Arson!" Sky took an overexaggerated bow.
Understanding spread across Weiss' face. "You didn't want to use it against me because…"
"…I'm not a dick," he finished. "But now that you've come to terms with your pyrophobia, I'd say it's time to give our new weapons a field test."
Weiss charged forward. "I couldn't agree more."
Omake
Glynda: A boomerang? What an odd choice for a weapon…
Weiss: OK, boomer-ang.
Omake 1.5
Yang: You mean *hits the dab* OK boomer-yang.
Next Chapter: Life Lessons – In which lunch is troublesome, class is hectic, and detention is life-changing.