Weiss heard glass shatter behind her. She pinched the bridge of her nose, preparing herself for the tirade. She even heard her mother sigh from behind her.

"You all heard the boy!" Jacques screamed from behind her, making Weiss flinch as his voice ripped over the stands and across the tourney field. His hand was bleeding from the wine glass he'd shattered, and a splash of purple completely ruined most of his outfit.

Finally, everybody knocked out of their stupor at once. They cried out with one voice, and raced towards the cloaked boy's position— the one who had just cleanly hewn Cardin Winchester from his arm. Weiss cringed. It was such a shame, she had been really fascinated by this boy.

Ruby watched the blood trickle down her cleaver, then drip onto the floor. Her gaze moved to Blake, who was still struggling to breathe, then to the side, where the one-armed Winchester fled the field and left a splotchy trail of blood in his wake. Every second agonized its own passing. She looked up. Out of the corner of her eye, she could see the Schnee watching.

The entire tourney turned on her. They charged ravenously, weapons and teeth bared, even getting into fights just to get to her first. She heard every thump of their boots against the ground. Closer, getting closer. She could see who would arrive first: a mailed fighter with a falchion and a buckler. Closer. She hefted her cleaver over her shoulder. Closer.

She was out of her league. She was wounded, and her Aura still had a few seconds before it would resurge. Her left eye was blinded by blood, her nose was broken, and her partner was still on the ground. She had the cleaver in her hands, with her falchion, hammer, and her iron dagger still hanging from her belt. It couldn't be enough to win, and might not even be enough to survive after what she did to that noble boy. Oddly enough, though, the hopelessness brought a strange feeling of peace. An absence of being washed over her. All the stresses washed away, her mind emptied. She had something to prove.

Ruby leaned back, letting the falchion barely whizz by her chin before leaning fully forward, cleaver slashing down from her shoulder. It bit into the man's buckler, wedging into it just like it had with Yang, only this time Ruby had no intention of letting her sword be manipulated. She kept pushing the blade, wrenching the man's arm with the heavy iron slab as she turned her whole body with the cleaver's momentum.

The buckler must have been belted to the man's arm, because he could not relinquish it before it pulled the entire limb out of its socket. He fell to his knees with a yell, and Ruby swiftly stomped the steel disc off of her cleaver. Another was coming. She left the man to cry about his arm.

Two more with shields and swords— did they always come in pairs? These came face-on, unlike the last two, and she could also see that plated giant sprinting from across the field.

Ruby dropped her cleaver and sprinted to her axe, just in time to grab it and draw her hammer into her right hand before the shieldbearers reached her. The first one was on her quicker than she expected, and she had to ward him off with wide swipes from her axe while she danced backwards. The other tried to flank her and jabbed forward with his shortsword, nearly scoring a cut on her right shoulder.

She felt her Aura resurge, but gave it no time to work its healing magic on her. Instead, she used the tiny trickle of soul energy the moment it welled up within her to disappear into a puff of rose petals. The first shieldbearer stumbled forward, Aura flaring as Ruby reappeared behind him with wild, whirling blows from both weapons. He turned just in time to raise his shield high against her attack, but Ruby couldn't pull her axe off course before wedging it deeply between the boards in the shields center.

The shieldbearer bashed her, ramming the butt of her own jammed axe painfully into her chest before he swept his sword at her. She ducked and danced away, but the other shieldbearer cut off her path of retreat. Worse still, she could see other fighters encroaching on her vulnerable, recovering partner.

Ruby's eyes darted back and forth between her attackers, her pursuers, and the ones charging at Blake. She breathed deeply, marveling at her own calmness in the situation. She had a plan.

Ruby moved like lightning, hammer shooting forward as the first man charged her, shield first. The weighty smithing tool slammed into the butt of her own axe, sending an unholy reverberation up Ruby's arm. The attack was effective, though, as the added force wedged the boards apart, allowing the axe head to pass between them and jam deeply into the shieldbearer's forearm, eliciting a pained cry as he reeled away. Not finished, Ruby suddenly turned and kicked low, knocking the flanking shieldbearer's legs out from under him. He hit the ground with a thump and a gasp, but Ruby harried him with hammer blows before he could get his shield up, flaring his Aura and knocking him out with a swift kick.

Weiss watched in awe as the cloaked lad fought like a man possessed, then sprinted back to meet the fighters who sought to finish his fay partner. She supposed that was the honorable thing to do for an ally, but she couldn't decipher what would bring an honorable fighter— especially one who had the gold to ante up the preventative cost of entering the tourney— to risk his life for one of those creatures. She glanced behind her. Jacques had completely forgotten the woman he was flirting with minutes ago, and now raptly watched the tourney progress with folded hands and grit teeth.

Ruby sprinted to one of Blake's assailants and cracked her hammer into the man from behind, the immense force completely shattering his Aura on contact and permitting her heavy tool to smash into his armet. The blow easily crumpled his decorated crest, then proceeded to rattle his skull as the helmet caved in. Ruby then threw her hammer at her other would-be assailant and ripped the longsword right out of the disoriented one's hands.

Ruby felt the sword's weight in her hands and realized she'd never wielded such a knightly weapon. She had no practice striking with it, thrusting with it, holding it, or anything of the sort. Yang didn't use a longsword, nor did Qrow, and her dad refused to teach her. It felt strange in her grip, nothing at all like her iron cleaver— the weight was mostly in her hands, rather than the blade, but she didn't have time to familiarize herself.

Weiss watched the boy grip the longsword like it was from another world, then desperately bring it back up to block his opponent. Her own fingers twitched as she watched the lad bumble aimlessly with the sword, his earlier skills having seemingly sloughed away the moment he gripped an unfamiliar weapon. She wished she could grip the sword in her own hands, even if she preferred the rapier, just to show this boy how much of an idiot he was being. She watched the dolt parry his opponent's longsword with the weak part of his blade, which immediately batted his terrible guard away and allowed his opponent to thrust.

Ruby leapt back with a hiss, chest burning where the longsword shallowly jabbed into her. She was given no time to recover, though, as the sword came slashing for her immediately. She held her sword higher to block this time, catching the blow closer to the hilt as the man locked their blades against each other.

The open-faced barbute did nothing to hide his maddened expression. His eyes were wide with bloodlust, and his smile was murderous. "Join your shim lover in hell, you cur!" He yelled, spittle flying into Ruby's face.

Ruby had no clue what a 'shim' was, but she didn't particularly like the way he said it, nor the way he implied she and Blake were going to hell. Or… the other thing. He pressed closer, but Ruby actually gave a little, letting her sword get pressed so close that it threatened to add another cut to her face. Suddenly, she thrust straight up and lunged forward to stab her opponent's face with her protruding crossguard. His Aura only slightly wobbled from the weak blow, but the surprise of the unconventional attack made him instinctively flinch back.

Weiss' eyebrows shot up her forehead when the boy struck his opponent with the crossguard, of all things, but she supposed she couldn't begrudge something that worked. He didn't let up against the stumbling sword-wielder, and began artlessly bashing his sword against him with wild overhead strikes. They were too fast for him to do anything but block, and he was forced on the defensive as they backed towards the fay he had tried to finish off.

Ruby felt herself sink away into that empty state of mind again, even as she wildly smashed her longsword against his, creating a din that wasn't too dissimilar to her forge on a busy day. She struck and struck, the repeated heavy blows making her sword bend into a disgusting angle.

The man became wise of her tactic (or lack thereof) eventually, and stepped to the side of one of her overhead blows, then shot a gauntlet out to grip the base of her blade. He wrenched the sword away, following up with a thrust through her wide-open guard. Ruby relinquished the sword, but couldn't bring her hands up fast enough. The point drove towards her throat.

The man's Aura flared, then a loud gonging noise rang off of his head, distracting him enough for Ruby to get out of the way of his strike. Behind him, Blake's hands were thrust out and splayed wide— she had thrown a pair of knives at his helmet.

Weiss gasped. She could hear her father angrily babbling behind her. That fay, still prone and breathing heavily, had saved a human.

Ruby couldn't let herself waste time gawking at her partner, only giving her a curt nod before she barged into him with her wide-bladed falchion drawn. She gripped his bevor, holding him in place while she violently smashed her sword's square pommel into his helm. He shouted and punched her in the side, but she held on tight and bared her teeth against the flaring pain from what was most likely a broken rib. With another hard smash from her pommel, his eyes finally went dull. He collapsed with a groan.

Ruby panted and wiped blood out of her eye. Looking about, she remembered that there were other people in the tourney, as evidenced by the tight ring they had formed around her. She found her cleaver clattering at her feet, tossed by the monster with the pollax. Even his bloodlust had been stemmed just to watch her fight.

"You cut my brother's arm off." The giant stated, voice ringing through his hounskull helm. "Good job."

He stepped out of the ring, making everybody jump when he moved. His armor loudly clacked against itself with every heavy stomp. Ruby let her falchion slip, then wrapped her hands around her cleaver's handle, only to find her weapon immobile, held down by the man's pollax. She matched his gaze through his helm.

A tinny chuckle escaped from him. "No, no, little mouse, I was just returning what's yours. There won't be any more fight from you, not today. I simply won't have it."

Ruby tilted her head, completely clueless.

"Look around you. Count the combatants. The ones still standing, that is."

Ruby begrudgingly did so, counting 18 fighters including herself. She looked back at him, still lost.

"Nary a mote of understanding," he hummed, "return tomorrow, assuming your head hasn't been completely scrambled. I look forward to seeing you."

He locked her weapon in place with his pollax and stepped closer, invading her space. She could do nothing but watch; every ounce of energy had fled her the moment she stopped fighting.

"Congratulations."

She didn't even see the fist that put her to sleep.

AN:had a bit of a hard time with this one lol, but part of the reason is that i have also started writing the first chapter of Twilight Concerto ;0