Disclaimer: RWBY and all affiliated characters/titles belong to Rooster Teeth, those wonderful geniuses.

The mountain top was fairly desolate, they were up above the trees and even most of the shrubs had stopped by this point. It wasn't the highest peak around by any means and it wasn't even really a point, more a big flat space where the mountain just stopped, like something huge had cut the real top off. Jaune thanked his lucky stars that he had been training so much harder lately because he really wasn't sure if he would have been able to make it all the way up the mountain last weekend. As it was he was panting and huffing, he made it to the top without embarrassing himself but just barely.

"Oh this is so wonderful." Pyrrha crested the final edge behind him where she had been bringing up the rear of the group, making sure no one fell behind. As always she looked like she had just barely started. Her eyes were big and bright, ready for more and she was still breathing as if they had been sitting in class for the last few hours.

"Isn't it?" Nora asked as she jumped on top of a rather large boulder, "I love being out here in the wild." Nora leapt off the rock, spun around and brought her hammer down on it, shattering it into pieces that scattered everywhere. Most everyone threw their arms out in front of them to ward off the unexpected shrapnel, Ren however just took a deep breath and spread his arms out in a wide stretch.

"The mountain air is very refreshing." He exhaled slowly and watched the sky with interest.

"I thought you guys would like it. I saw this on our very first day from the airship." Yang dropped her back by the remnants of Nora's boulder and rolled her shoulders, "You ready to put it to use?" She knocked her fists together and engaged Ember Celica with a grin.

"I am more than ready." Pyrrha swung her arms out to the side, equipping both her weapon and shield in a single fluid motion.

"Guys, guys stop." Ruby yelled, "We have to pick teams. Uhhh, right Jaune?" Everyone's heads bolted up at attention. Jaune looked over and realized that Ruby had actually just addressed him directly.

"Yeah," he managed after a moment of shock induced silence, "Yeah we gotta pick pairs." Jaune dropped his pack from limp hands and stared for a moment. He shook his head to collect his thoughts and continued, "We want to make pairs from opposite teams, but still keep it balanced. Sooo…." Jaune glanced around at his gathered friends, "Pyrrha and Yang can't be on a team." Pyrrha chuckled and Yang crossed her arms indignantly.

"Well that just means I get my rematch." Yang finally broke into a smile and shot Pyrrha a wink.

"Everything is a competition to you isn't it?" Weiss finally crested the hill behind them all. Why she chose to go everywhere in heels Jaune would probably never understand. How she managed to fight in them, that was a mystery that defied solving. "Can't you just use training as a means of self improvement?" Weiss sat on a rock, that used to be part of a much larger rock before their arrival, with a huff and desperately tried to straighten out her clothing.

"Actually Weiss, a healthy sense of competition can produce much better results than normal training." Pyrrha let her eyes wander from yang to the surrounding wilderness in wonder, "It provides a much needed source of encouragement."

"I," Weiss lifted a single, flawlessly white hand to indicate herself, "Don't require any other encouragement than my own desire to improve." She held her chin high and off to the side, not deeming the rest of them worthy of a glance.

"Pffft," Ruby mocked Weiss, "That's not what it sounds like when I have to get you up for our early training." Ruby doubled over in giggles at her own joke.

"No Ruby, we need proper sleep to be prepared." Yang threw a hand against her forehead in an imitation of Weiss, made even more comical by the fact that she still had her gauntlets on, "Please, just a few more moments and I'll be ready. I swear it." Yang dropped her hand and dissolved into snickers as Weiss stomped her foot in frustration.

"You are absolutely intolerable!" Weiss seemed to literally steam with her frustration, "I cannot believe yo of all people are attacking anyone else's work ethic. You, who does reports in the class before they're due, who skips the reading and skims my notes before tests, who doesn't even take her own notes."

"I seem to get by just fine." Yang waved an armored hand at her dismissively, "And you need to take more accurate notes by the way, you totally missed that section on borbatusk speed to size ratios on Port's last test and I got them wrong." Weiss screamed in frustration and Ruby jumped in between the two of them.

"Hey, hey, hey. How about…." She hesitated as she tried to think of a resolution to their argument, "What if you two fight first?" Both Weiss and Yang pulled back at the suggestion, taken off guard, "Yeah, what if we do Yang and Nora against Pyrrha and Weiss?" Nora leapt into the hair with a whoop and came down brandishing Magnhild with a devilish gleam in her eye.

"I am soooo ready." She sang out and started taking a few practice swings at the open air several yards away.

"That sounds like a wonderful fight, force versus finesse." Pyrrha said as sweetly as she could , probably hoping to dispel a little of the tension. She was always doing things like that, trying to make sure they all got along and that no one stayed angry too long. Pyrrha strut over by Nora but left a wide margin between the two of them so as to avoid her giant hammer.

"I agree," Weiss recovered some of her normal poise and crossed her arms, "You'll see that technique and talent outweigh brute strength every day." She walked off towards Pyrrha, heels landing perfectly on flat rocks or open spaces of dirt, providing her perfect balance as she walked. How did she do that?

"Oh ho ho," Yang laughed, "Oh it's on princess. Come on Nora, let's crush 'em" She jumped over and grabbed her new partner on the shoulder.

"That's a plan I can get on board with." Nora spun Magnhild into its grenade launcher form and followed the other combatants out into the clearing.

"Are you sure this is such a good idea?" Blake asked from behind Ruby and Jaune. When had she gotten to the top of the hill? Jaune knew she was out in front of Weiss but he had never seen her show up, she was so sneaky.

"Yeah, I'm sure it will help them work out some frustration." Jaune tried to laugh but it came out choked. He was honestly worried that they would completely destroy the mountain top in the process. Yang and Nora fighting together was surely going to cause some collateral damage.

"Don't worry Blake," Ruby placed her hands on her hips, "They need this." Blake sighed and they all moved to what Jaune hoped was a safe distance away from the battle ground.

The two teams stood in pairs at opposite sides of the field, Nora with her grenade launcher otu and Pyrrha with Milo in rifle form. It was interesting that both teams had a ranged weapon and a close combat only weapon. Jaune knew that Weiss could create glyphs at a distance but she was much better at working in close quarters from what he'd seen. There was a loud bang from behind him and Jaune hit the ground fast in a duck.

"Gooo!" Ruby screamed at the top of her lungs, Crescent Rose in sniper form, held high in the air with a small amount of smoke trailing from the barrell. Jaune was really glad to see that she was in such high spirits, today was just what they needed to get their friendship back on track.

A resounding series of booms shook the mountain around them as Nora let loose a barrage of shells at her opponents, pink clouds of dust obscuring the battle field. There was a golden glow from Weiss's side and a flash of crimson parted the pink clouds like a sickle through wheat, cleaving a straight line from where Weiss and Pyrrha had been to Yang's position. The sound of clashing steel rang out and everyone could see Pyrrha, blade to gauntlet with Yang.

To Yang's credit, she had learned from their bout in the classroom. She stayed on the defensive against Pyrrha but it was of little use. Weiss's haste glyph gave the already superior fight an impossible advantage and she pressed down on Yang hard. A series of clangs and reports from her rifle signalled Pyrrha's offensive, Jaune glanced over at Ruby's scroll and saw Yang's aura steadily dropping. He glanced back at the field just in time to see Nora leap into the air directly over Yang and Pyrrha. She whooped and drew their attention just as she brought the head of her hammer down in between them, smacking the ground hard enough to send boulders and sizeable chunks of Earth flying in every direction. Both the other girls had plenty of time to leap backwards and avoid being crushed but she had separated Yang and Pyrrha, most likely saving Yang from an early knockout.

Yang and Nora conferred for a quick second, their words far too quiet to be heard across the gap between them and the spectators but the leapt off with obvious purpose, a plan in place. Pyrrha landed back by Weiss and rolled her spear back into a rifle, firing several rounds at the oncoming foes but landing none as they bounced around the landscape on their advance. Weiss began to summon another golden glyph beneath Pyrrha, the light shimmering beneath her feet but had to leap away as a pink shell landed directly at their feet. Both Weiss and Pyrrha escaped the blast but they were separated now as had apparently been the plan.

Yang met Weiss mid leap with a series of blows aimed directly for her midsection. The heiress was able to raise her rapier into a guard and deflect most of the blows, but not the last one. A vicious right hook snaked around her side and caught Weiss in the kidney. The blow was accompanied by the loud snap of Ember Celica, the force of the impact and explosion sending Weiss sailing into the trees several hundred yards away. Jaune snapped his head around to the scroll and saw she still had ample aura left, but she was out of the fight for the time being.

Nora descended on Pyrrha with swing after heavy handed swing. The Mistralian warrior was forced to dodge and back pedal, not risking even a glancing blow from the massive Magnhild. Nora brought one swing across Pyrrha's chest, trying to knock her sideways but Pyrrha leapt into the air above the head and tapped it down with her sword arm, sending Nora careening off balance. She sprung off the hammer, did a flip over Nora's head as she tottered on one foot and landed behind her. Pyrrha brought her blade into Nora's midsection, then her chest, then her right shoulder in quick succession. Nora stumbled forward from the force of the blows and came around, eyes wide likely with pain and anger.

Yang arrived behind Pyrrha, ejecting spent shells from her weapons as she sailed through the air towards them. Pyrrha stood between the two heavy hitters, shield and sword at the ready. They both charged forward at her, but she was ready.

She caught Yang's punch on her shield and deflected Magnihild up and away with her blade, spun the sword into a spear and swept at Yang to create distance as she brought her shield into Nora's side, staggering the girl. Nora fell back a pace or two and Yang leapt away to avoid Milo's spear head. Pyrrha never stopped moving, rolling her spear back along her forearm into a rifle again and she fired several rounds at Nora to keep her off balance and then turned on her heel to chuck her shield at Yang just as she regained her footing.

Yang saw the shield coming and punched it straight on so it rocketed back at Pyrrha. But the other girl threw herself into the air and turned just over the edge of her own shield, allowing it to sail past her and into Nora, rocking the hammer wielder again. Pyrrha landed with Milo already a sword again and only a few paces from Yang. She met Pyrrha's first few attacks with blocks of her own but couldn't keep up with the pace and before long was getting hit again and again by the sword. In the space of maybe two second Pyrrha overwhelmed her guard and landed multiple successful blows. Just when Yang was about to collapse under the assault, Pyrrha cartwheeled backwards and sprung into the air off her empty shield arm, over Nora's counter attack. It had been coming from behind but that hadn't stopped Pyrrha from dodging it. She extended her arm down as she flew over Nora's head and pulled Akuo back onto her arm.

Nora let the momentum of her swing carry her up and over to land next to Yang. They were both hurting bad even though the plan to knock Weiss out had gone perfectly. Jaune watched as they resumed their attack and thought that maybe it would be better if they did two versus one matches against Pyrrha, except then the numbers would be unbalanced. No, they had to keep everything fair. Just because she was that much better didn't mean they could compensate for everyone else. The rest of them just had to work harder to catch up to her and eve the playing field.

Pyrrha stepped inside Nora's swing, caught the handle against her shield, rolled into Nora's shoulder and grabbed Magnhild by the haft with both hands. She used the momentum of the huge hammer and it's overpowered wielder to spin in circle and throw Nora directly at Yang's incoming fist. The blonde managed to pull her strike in time to avoid hitting her partner but they both went tumbling in a heap. Yang was on her feet first, she bellowed loud enough for Jaune to hear from his vantage point and a burst of flame went up around her.

Yang crouched down to charge and Jaune saw a large black glyph appear, encompassing both Yang and Nora and pinning them to the ground. Weiss had finally made it back to the battlefield and was standing opposite pyrrha with their opponents in between them. Pyrrha smirked and opened up on them with her rifle, firing rapidly at their immobile bodies. Yang leaned back at her knees until her hair scraped the ground, relying on the force of the glyph to root her to the ground and letting the rounds sail over her bare midriff. Pyrrha's dust bullets raced towards Weiss but the heiress was able to throw a glyph up as a shield. However, that disrupted the black glyph on the ground which apparently Yang saw coming.

As soon as the glyph holding the blonde in place faded she fired both gauntlets at the ground behind her head, carrying her through a backflip up and over Weiss to land behind the distracted girl. Nora charged forward to hold Pyrrha off as Yang landed a series of heavy punches on Weiss's exposed backside. The heiress collapsed to the ground in an exhausted and embarrassed heap. Yang's eye remained a fiery red as she flung herself back at Pyrrha.

Nora smacked the ground hard, levering a chunk of ground underneath Pyrrha and launching her across the clearing. Pyrrha lurched forward with the rock and pushed off hard, taking control of the throw. She kept her body rigid as she soared above Nora and threw Akuo straight down at her as she levered her hammer out of the crater in the ground. It smacked directly into her back, the edges pinning her to the ground with her neck trapped under one of the bevels in the shield's edge. Pyrrha rolled Milo back into it's massive spear form and met Yang's charge as she landed. She used the spear's length to hold Yang off at a distance, parrying and deflecting each blow before the shells from Ember Celica could come anywhere near her.

Slowly Yang forced Pyrrha back towards Nora, step by step drawing her closer to her pinned ally. As they reached Nora's feet Pyrrha dove at Yang with the spear, Yang dodged the committed attack and Pyrrha tucked into a low roll, bringing the spear in and collapsing it back into a sword, slashing out at Yang's leg as she rolled past. Yang's leg buckled under the attack and Pyrrha stood into a battle stance, sword gripped tightly in both hands. Yang hollered out in pain and spun around to face Pyrrha. She fired six or seven quick jabs, Jaune lost count, but was nowhere near her opponent. Under the haze of red dust Yang leapt backwards and kicked the shield off of Nora's neck, freeing her. As Akuo sailed through the air, Pyrrha pulled it back to herself with a flick of her wrist.

Jaune checked his and Ruby's scrolls quickly to see where everyone's aura sat. Pyrrha was still nearly full, Nora and Yang were both scraping the bottom of the barrel.

"Wow Jaune, I knew Pyrrha was good but wow." Ruby didn't even glance at the scrolls and just stared out at the battle. "I mean, Yang like the best one on our team. Pyrrha's making her look like a total amateur."

"She is quite good." Ren stated simply, "She relies rather heavily on her semblance though." Ruby nodded and glanced back out at the battle.

"Maybe we should have her fight without it sometime." Jaune suggested. He remembered that Ruby had told him to always find a way to help his teammates improve and that was one way they could help Pyrrha. "I mean, she'll still beat us but it's something right?"

"That would be a good exercise, yes." Ren nodded.

Pyrrha had darted forward to meet both combatants head on, sword clashing against hammer and fist in a lightning fast series of blows, parries, blocks and counters. She never stopped spinning, never stopped ducking, bobbing or weaving.

She ducked one swing from Yang, brought her shield up into Nora's chin and sent her flying, spun and caught Yang's next punch on her blade with her hand up above her head and the length of the blade guarding her entire torso. A flick of her sword arm's wrist was all it took to repel Yang's blow and she countered with a smack from the broad side of the blade and another jab with the edge of the shield. Jaune watched in amazement as Nora hit the ground and Yang's eyes flicked back to purple at almost exactly the same instant, both defeated.

Pyrrha rolled her sword and shield back onto her back and breathed a small sigh. She looked perhaps a little winded but every strand of hair was still pulled tightly into her ponytail, her tiara still firmly in place atop her head.

"Perhaps we should have her wear weighted training gear as well." Ren chuckled quietly and readied his weapons for their fight. Jaune glanced around and realized he would either be paired with Ruby or Blake and didn't know how to make that choice. He really didn't know if he would click with Blake's fighting style, but he didn't know if he and Ruby were ready to fight as partners yet either. She had just said her first words to him in a week maybe ten minutes ago. There was no way they were ready to trust each other in combat.

"So Jaune….." Ruby started quietly as their four other teammates trudged back from the battlefield, all but Pyrrha beaten and tired. "I was thinking about partners and-"

"It's okay Ruby. I'll partner with Blake" Jaune cut her off before she could even get there.

"Oh." Ruby looked at the ground, Jaune realized he should have let her finish. She was just starting to talk to him again and he had jumped all over her, "I was actually," she cleared her throat and locked eyes with him, "I thought you and I could be partners. Kinda like the opposite of what Yang and Weiss needed."

"Uhhh…" Jaune was completely lost. To fight together they had to have total trust and confidence in each other right? That was just about the opposite of what Jaune and Ruby had right now. How could fighting fix that? "If you think it will work. I'm up to try." He managed a small smile for her, hoping it looked more convincing than it felt.

"And do you see what hard work can get for you?" Weiss's high, very annoyed voice carried across the small distance still separating them.

"What? Launched across the mountain and then punched in the back?" Yang's laugh was loud even from this far away, "I mean Weiss. Did you even really do anything in that fight?"

"She was quite helpful. We decided that if she acted more from a support-" Pyrrha started but another laugh from Yang cut her off.

"You played support by choice?" Yang laughed again, her progress ceased as she grabbed her knees in laughter.

"Was that why Pyrrha started glowing? I thought she was even faster." Nora's eyes went wide with surprise. "How does that work Weiss, can I try it some time? Could you use it on me for like studying so I could get done really fast? Are you tired after that? Does it make me more tired than if I did it normally."

"What Nora? I didn't get any of that." Weiss shook her head and then looked back at Yang, "And would you stop laughing. You lost didn't you?" Yang partially recovered and looked right at Weiss.

"Yeah, but would that have been different if it was two on one? I don't think so." She glanced across at Pyrrha, "I mean did you see her? She was a straight up super huntress. Pyrrha you should just go pro right now. You're totally ready." Yang's laughter fell away and she grinned ear to ear at her red haired friend.

"Yang, you're too sweet. I still have so much to learn. I'm very adept at fighting other Huntsmen and Huntresses, but Grimm are very different. I need much more training before I'm ready for the field. Err, we all do." Pyrrha tired to smile as she deferred the praise but it was obvious that such adoration made her uncomfortable.

"So are, we going to fight then? " Blake unsheathed Gambol Shroud and fidgeted with the trigger, "We do have to finish up and get back before dark. It's a long way back."

"Right!" Ruby jousted the barrel of Crescent Rose straight up into the air, " To battle!" She cried out and disappeared in a flash of Rose Petals towards the battlefield that was now littered with craters. Blake shook her head with a smile and followed after her at a light jog, angling off towards the opposite side of the field to take her place.

"Good luck Jaune, fight well." Ren nodded his head to his leader and leapt off after Blake.

"You too Ren." Jaune half saluted and made off after his own partner, trying to spot where Ruby had stopped out in the wasteland the previous battle had created. He made it out into the middle of the field and still couldn't find her among the upturned boulders and loose dirt.

"Hey Jaune, so how do you wanna do this?" Ruby's voice came from right behind him and Jaune physically jumped, swinging around his weapons, ready to fight. He saw her standing there, chambering a round and let his shoulders ease down.

"Well, Blake won't be as strong out in the open right? Nothing to hide behind and all that." Jaune recalled their first fight, Blake's strikes from the shadows and ruby's incredible speed.

"Oh no," Ruby said without turning to face him, keeping her eyes down range at their opponents, "She's better in the open where she has room to move."

"Really?" Jaune's face dropped. The same was absolutely true for Ren. When he had room to maneuver around he was almost unhittable. This was going to be a hard fight. "Well, I can't do ranged so do you wanna try and cover me with Crescent Rose while I charge in?"

"I think we should-" Ruby was cut off by a report from Pyrrha's rifle that signalled the start of the match, "Full Frontal!" Ruby screamed and flashed forward, carried on the wave of energy from her rifle and a stream of rose petals. She grabbed Jaune by the arm and yanked him with her, straight at the enemy.

Ruby deposited him a dozen or so yards in front of Blake and Ren who were waiting patiently to meet their charge. Jaune hit the ground running, the few times Ruby had done that while they dated having acclimated him to the sensation of sudden acceleration. He bellowed out a warcry as he barrelled directly at Blake. He had to close the gap between them if he wanted to have any chance.

He raised his shield high and caught her first few shots as he charged and then their blades met. The lessons with Pyrrha came rushing into his head all at once. Watch her feet, watch her blade, avoid her eyes. Shield up, chest sideways, sword out, never stop moving. Jaune tried to counter but Crocea Mors hit nothing but block after block and it was all he could do to get his shield up in between them when she lashed out.

Jaune dropped low under the force of one swing, bending his knee to absorb the blow. He glanced up at her torso and saw his chance, under her attacking arm there was an opening, a gap left that could only be hit from below. He never would have been able to get at it if he hadn't kneeled when he was hit. Jaune stabbed straight up and felt the blade sink into something soft. Had he just stabbed Blake? He pulled back as quick as he could, panic clouding his thoughts as Blake dissolved into shadows before him.

"Watch out!" Ruby yelled and Jaune spun around, shield up to catch Blake's attack. He had no idea where it would be coming from or where it would be aimed for so he just tried to shrink behind his shield and hold as firm as possible. Gambol Shroud made contact and he lashed out blindly, hoping to find purchase anywhere.

The familiar sound of Storm Flower's twin barrels rang in his ears as his sword swung through empty air. He reeled forward, the momentum of his missed swing carrying him forward. Jaune swung his shield out behind him in an attempt to counter balance himself but realized his mistake as soon as the shells made contact with his face. Blake had baited him. Storm Flower's furious assault pounded hard against his aura and threw Jaune backwards again, the weight of his outswung shield pulling him onto his butt. Blake darted back into view and pulled her blade across his chest, dragging his aura even lower, then spun around and knocked him in the side of the head with the scabbard. Jaune felt the blow hit him hard, break through his aura and connect with his skull. The world went as black as Blake's hair and he fell back.

A/N - Hurray, combat! I absolutely love Pyrrha's fighting style but she has so much going on with every movement that it's like impossible to get it through in text. She embodies the 'a picture is worth one thousand words' idea with her fighting. Honestly, you all might hate me, but I'm most sad about what happened with her in canon because it means we don't get to see her fight anymore.

Also, look at Jaune. Gettin' his ass kicked. That happens man, fighting is hard. Blake and Ren are ninjas. It's cool really, you'll be alright. I'm sure nothing bad will come of you being unconscious on a mountaintop. Hurray for cliffhangers right? I mean it's only one day you have to wait but still, that's as cliff hangery as I get.

Hope you enjoyed it, can't wait to hear what you think. Like, how was the combat this time around? Two versus two is a little different than the full team battles and I really tried to play with Jaune's perspective too. During his fight having hardcore tunnel vision and such. What did you think?

-Zach