Ruby pressed against her hot cleaver, the smoking iron burning her even through her clothes. She was honestly surprised a part of her wasn't aflame, but she also had no clue what this magic was or how it worked, so she just decided to consider herself lucky. Regardless, she had no time for musing. She had a plan.

Ruby jumped up from behind her cleaver, silver eyes flashing as they met Dove's wide blues. She swung her hammer with all her might. This would end it.

The hammer slammed straight into Dove's open palm with a sickening crunch.

Dove screamed, arm flying back as he scrambled away with wild, warding swings of his bastard sword. "You bastard!" He seethed, holding his mangled hand close to his chest.

Ruby stared at the busted limb, her own hand sympathetically throbbing. She could see bones breaking through the skin in the back. Guilt sucked her victory away— she knew that pain, intimately. Her hammer fell to her side, arm limp as she stared. She tried to justify herself— he was going to slit her throat before she had taunted him into incinerating her instead, but that did little to ease her regret. Watcher's cane, she had cut that other boy's arm off, then kept fighting like it hadn't bothered her! Now, though, the memory of parting that boy's flesh reverberated through her hands, sickening her. At least that had been to protect her friend, but this? Had combat so quickly turned her cruel?

Weiss watched the boy freeze, gaze locked to the broken Dove. It had been a novel move, truly, displaying a speed and awareness that Weiss couldn't hold a candle to— but now he was motionless, finally giving Weiss an opportunity to see his face uncovered, though she couldn't get a good image from such a distance— nothing distinguishing save for the vivid red scars contrasting his pale skin. Weiss' hands clenched tightly. He needed to move, to fight, Dove wouldn't stand there forever!

"Move, move! Get him!" Shouted a voice from the stands, belonging to a plate-armored lass with flowing blonde locks. She stood above the crowd, hands cupped around her mouth to shout at the cloaked boy. Others quickly caught on, though, and shouted for Dove to do the same with encouraging chants and vicious jeers.

Ruby shook her head, thoughts breaking against Yang's crisp yell. Dove was just standing there, cradling his broken hand— this was her chance! Damn the boy's splintered bones, they would heal, just like hers did! She blinked forward, hammer swinging as she reformed from petals.

But it was too late, Dove had already reconciled with the pain in his hand and reacted quickly, bastard sword flicking out to bat her slow hammer away. He followed up head-first, his helmed forehead slamming into Ruby's uncloaked face. She felt her eyebrow reopen, stinging blood forcing her eye closed again as she repressed a girlish yelp. Ruby jumped back, panting. Dove stared her down, his breathing still not as heavy as hers.

Dove closed his armet back over his face and stood straight. Even still, Ruby could feel his hateful eyes boring into her. "Did you think I would go down easily?" He taunted, "You're even stupider than you look."

Ruby growled, expression souring. She was not stupid.

Dove smirked, sensing he'd struck a nerve. "I would suggest that the young Winchester had knocked some brains from your skull, but you clearly had nothing to lose."

Ruby's hand tightened around her hammer. She was a smith, not a scholar. She was not stupid.

Dove laughed at her. "Go on, say something! Are you mute?" He laughed uproariously, "Has your muddled breeding left you dumb, boy?"

Boy? Ruby seethed. He hardly looked more than a year older than her, she was no less of a child than him! She suddenly found her arm moving, an enraged yell pushing out of her as she threw her hammer hard enough to hurt her elbow.

Dove lazily stepped aside. The hammer thumped against the ground. Dove let out one last, cruel laugh. "You really are an idiot."

Ruby found her feet moving on their own, her hands blindly pulling from her belt of their own volition, finding an axe for her left and a shortsword for her right. She charged at Dove blindly, an enraged cry ripping from her throat. She swung from two directions at once, axe high and sword low.

Dove grinned at her reckless anger. His sword easily found the neck of her axe, expertly redirecting it right out of her hands as her shortsword bit fruitlessly into his steel tasset. She tried to follow up with a thrust to his inner arm, but he just pivoted himself to deflect it with his breastplate. This gave him the additional momentum to swing with his sword once more, which he did with gusto, slicing into flesh through Ruby's right vambrace. Blood trickled through the leather and her hand reflexively opened. The shortsword clattered to the ground. Ruby hissed.

Dove just kept slashing, forcing Ruby to draw her falchion into her left hand and use its wide blade like a shield. The bastard sword bit into the falchion's flat time and time again, leaving nasty scores as Dove hounded her with blow after blow, his face alight with joy.

Ruby desperately slipped her steel dagger into her right hand, the wound in her forearm making it much harder to hold. She leapt back from a slash, successfully baiting a pursuing thrust from Dove. She stepped aside from the sword's point and jabbed with her own dagger, perfectly aimed for his inner arm's weaker splint armor. Fear flashed in Dove's face.

The dagger struck the material, then fell straight out of her hand— her grip was weak, and the riveted leather strong.

Weiss watched the Bronzewing laugh his grating laugh for the umpteenth time. It was shameful, really, entirely unbecoming of a man of his stature— he had every opportunity to end this fight, but he preferred instead to gloat. With all her heart, Weiss prayed to the Watcher that this would come back on him.

Ruby watched her knife fall, heart mimicking its movement as it dropped into her stomach. She could see his gauntleted fist coming toward her, knuckles backed by his sword's handle. The cold steel bit her cheek, the seconds becoming sluggish as his hand made contact. She felt a tooth escape its confines. The forceful blow turned her head, her body following in turn. The forcefully excised tooth— a molar— fell past her lips, blood spilling out along with it.

Weiss turned her gaze away from the beating in front of her, landing instead on the blonde in the stands. She stood like she was going to jump into the field. Unfortunately, the good Knight Penny Polendina held her back. Weiss frowned.

Ruby watched the small white chunk fall, and that's when the pain found her. It cracked across her left cheek, awakening the pain in her eyebrow and from her previously-broken nose. Her jaw, too, flared with pain.

"You dumb bastard," Dove huffed, "I'm going to kill you— purify Remnant of your taint."

Ruby stumbled, catching herself just in time to see his sword driving to her chest. The world slowed to a crawl, giving her a perfect view of the bastard sword that would soon kill her. She felt her pain drain away, her anger melt to nothing, the world falling away until she was in a void. It was just her, Dove, and the sword. Yang, too, was in the distance, yelling at her while somebody held her back. She felt eyes on her. Weiss was watching. She had something to prove.

Ruby's silver eyes flashed, her hands moving with inhuman speed. Remembering what had happened earlier, she gripped her cloak and yanked it up, allowing the sword to pierce it before she wrapped the cloth tightly around the blade and pulled.

Dove stumbled forward with her, Ruby stepped aside while her weak hand shot out— she wouldn't need an iron grip for this, just enough to force his hand open. With one wrench and pull, she pried his gauntlet open, relinquishing his grip on the sword. Still gripping it through the cloth, Ruby used the bastard sword like a war hammer to bash into his helmet, the thin crossguard concentrating all her strength into tiny points that nearly ventilated his helmet and made his ears ring.

Dazed, Dove tried to stumble back with a wild punch, but Ruby ducked low, well under the line of sight his thin visor allowed. Blind to her actions, he couldn't see her hand drop his sword and slip under his chainmail collar until she was already wedging his helmet up, opening his vision to her once more.

Unfortunately for him, it wasn't a good sight. Her cheek and eyebrow had leaked blood all over the left side of her face, and more slowly fell from her open, panting mouth. Her one silver eye— the other was shut tight against the flow of blood— stared into his soul, the silver iris shining with a focused serenity. He tried to move, depending on his meager Aura to protect him from a lucky blow as he retreated, but an ice cold feeling against his neck stopped him.

Ruby's last-ditch weapon, an iron dagger with a triangular blade and a wooden handle, had slipped into the opening she'd created, bypassing his Aura to threaten him directly. Her gaze was dead calm. He froze.

Weiss' mouth hung agape, her emotions violently torn in another direction once again. Behind her, Weiss' father seemed to be suffering under a similar emotional whiplash. Her mother just stared, eyes wide as she took an unsightly gulp from her large glass.

Dove's lips flapped wordlessly, each bob of his throat threatening to skewer him on the dagger. "I forfeit!" He shouted, so fast that it looked like he didn't mean to, especially when his eyes widened with betrayal.

Weiss nearly fainted with relief.

Ruby actually fainted.

AN: and thats the first bracket done! tons of help from my gf on this one lol :)