"So, Rubes, who are you facing next? Your match is supposed to be real soon, right?"

Ruby put down her glass of milk and turned to Yang, telling her "Some girl named… Reese? She has a hoodie and cool hair, but I have no idea what her weapon is, so i'm kinda nervous."

Yang stuffed another waffle into her mouth. "I dunno. I mean, I heard rumors of some exchange student with a hoverboard, so you never know."

Blake seated herself next to Yang and put down her tray of tuna sandwiches, which according to her, counted as breakfast. "Yang, Ruby," she asked, "Have either of you seen Weiss or Winter today?"

Ruby swallowed another pancake, before saying "Yeah, Weiss sent me a message this morning, she's going down to Vale to go shopping with Winter and their mother. Or sightseeing. Either way, she said she'd be back to see my semi-final match, and I'm holding her to that!"

Meanwhile, on the air shuttle to Vale, Weiss sneezed.

"Hey, Weiss," said Winter, "If Yang was here, do you reckon she'd say something like 'Weiss Schneezed?'" putting on a terrible voice resembling Yang's.

Weiss sent Winter the Schnee Glare Of Death, and blew her nose into her handkerchief. "You're just as bad as her…" she moaned.

"What about Dad and Uncle Qrow? Where are they today?" asked Ruby, lifting herself out of her seat.

"Mmm… They're probably hungover, knowing their drinking habits. They don't drink often, but they drink hard. They're not getting up any time soon."

Ruby ran off to the bins on the other side of the dining hall, masterfully weaving through the masses whilst balancing three plates and two glasses. She dumped the remaining food into it and then sped off back to her table, where she found Blake and Yang preparing to leave the hall. She looked between the two with uncertainty.

"Hey, uh, Blake…" Ruby spoke with a small voice.

"Mhm? What is it?"

"Would you… Uh… Help me with Crescent Rose? I need to make sure she's in top-notch shape for my match today."

Blake raised an eyebrow, before snapping her book closed. "I can help you if you like. I'm sure Yang will be fine on her own."

"Oh! I see how it is. Ditching me for my sister. It's fine, I only planned on spending the day with you two anyway. I'm hurt! Offended! Saddened!" spoke Yang, with practiced drama, before 'fainting' into her chair, one hand over her forehead and all. When Ruby got closer and prepared to stammer out an apology, Yang opened one eye and looked at her.

"It's fine, Rubes. I already made arrangements to practice with Pyrrha today anyway, to make sure I don't lose anymore matches! Go have fun with Blake. She's a barrel of laughs, trust me."

"Ah, uh, okay! Seeya later Yang! Come on Blake, we're going to the workshop!"

Blake nodded, and walked beside the younger girl as they left the dining hall.

Look at her bounding down the pathway. She's like a puppy. No wonder Weiss fell for her.

"Spatial awareness and footwork."

"Huh?" Yang asked Pyrrha with a sceptical look. "I got plenty of both of those."

The two stood in one of the open fields dotted around Beacon - the one with charred trees slowly regrowing their leaves, remnants of a battle long forgotten. Or, as Yang would put it, the place where Ruby and Weiss fought to impress the Schnees.

"That's certainly true, but you need to always be aware of exactly what your opponent is doing too. If you can keep up with their movements, and guess what their next will be, you will stand a far better chance of avoiding it. As for your footwork, you need to constantly keep the opponent on their toes. If they can't focus as well as you can, then the match is tipped in your favour," Pyrrha told Yang with wisened words.

"Uhuh. So, basically, I need to be two steps ahead of them?"

"In a nutshell."

Pyrrha took her spear and shield combination, Milo and Akouo, from her back. "Would you like to practice it a bit?"

Yang extended her arms and watched as her gauntlets formed around her wrists, and then cocked them with a punch. "Yeah. You're on, Pyrrha. Come at me, bro!"

Pyrrha complied and charged at Yang in much the same way she did in the tournament match. Yang examined her movements closely, and ducked down the the left, avoiding the spear which had been meant for her head. She then hooked her left fist around and straight into Pyrrha's unprotected side, and watched as she stumbled.

Once she got back up, Pyrrha approached Yang again, this time aiming for her right leg. Not only did Yang turn out of the way and cause Pyrrha to completely miss, but she then brought her right foot up and snapped it straight around into Pyrrha's head, knocking the girl flat on her back.

"Oh, shit! Pyrrha, sorry! I didn't hurt you or anything, right?" Yang asked with concern.

Pyrrha chuckled as she got to her feet, rubbing the back of her head. "No, no, I'm perfectly fine. I wouldn't last long in tournaments if I couldn't take hits like that, right?" she said, smiling all the while. "You certainly predicted my moves, so that's good. You just need to find the sweet spot, between focusing on yourself and your opponent."

"But why though?"

"I reckon it would look nice on you. Come on, try it on!" Winter pleaded with Weiss.

The Schnees stood in one of the higher end stores in Vale, a clothes shop renowned for its high quality clothes and heavy price tags. Bianca sat on one of the chairs available, talking on her scroll and watching as the pair urged each other to try on different clothes.

Weiss looked at the light blue dress which Winter held up before her.

"Come on Weiss. I know you like it. Try it on!"

Weiss grumbled and took the dress from Winter, heading into one of the many dressing rooms available. It wasn't too long before Weiss returned, wearing the dress and performing a little twirl. "Well?" she asked, "How does it look?"

The pale blue dress definitely suited the girl. The skirt reached below her knees, and flowed with a certain elegance that matched her combat style. The blue slowly faded to white as it reached the hem of the dress and gave it a wonderful tone. It even matched her figure.

Laughing, Winter said "See for yourself," taking Weiss to one of the large mirrors. Weiss gasped as she saw herself in the mirror. "It looks beautiful!"

"Yeah, after all, nobody knows you better than I do. Come on, take a picture for Ruby, I bet she'll love it!"

Ruby's scroll buzzed in her pocket as she put down Crescent Rose, getting ready to work on it. Her hand dived in and picked the scroll out, before unfolding it and opening the message from Weiss. Blake watched as her eyes widened and a huge smile grew on her face.

"Hm? What's up, Ruby?"

"Blake!" she responded, "Look at this, look how pretty she is!"

Blake took the scroll from Ruby's offering hand and looked at the image. It was Weiss, facing a mirror whilst wearing an astonishing dress, with Winter grinning like an idiot just behind her. The message below read 'Look what we found!'

"It certainly matches her."

"Reese."

No answer. Typical.

"Reese."

This time, Nadir was louder. Yet the girl in question didn't even lift her head up and kept listening to whatever music there was playing through her headphones. Nadir reckoned it was some sort of anti-establishment music, which, while he didn't really enjoy, he could at least understand the appeal of it. Now, mind you, this usually wouldn't be a problem, but it was occurring on the day Reese was supposed to fight the prodigy of Beacon Academy in Vytal Festival semifinals.

That in itself was weird to Nadir. They called it semifinals, but there were 4 fights in the round. He reckoned they just made a mistake or something, but it still bugged him. He was proud his partner was the only person that wasn't from Beacon that made it that far. Looks like a hoverboard is an unexpected weapon for a Hunter.

SIghing loudly, he walked towards her and yanked the earphones from her head.

"Hey, give those back!"

"Oh, so now I get a reaction?"

"Huh? What are you talking about?"

"Oh, I don't know, maybe the fact I was trying to get your attention for like half an hour already." Nadir sounded visibly irritated by her behaviour. Reese's reaction was expected, though. She looked at Nadir for a moment, twirling the toothpick she always carried in her mouth in that, Nadir would say, super cute way. Then she exploded into her trademark laughter, brushing her spiky turquoise hair behind her head. As mocking as it was, Nadir found it oddly endearing.

His infatuation with her was not a secret. Alas, she didn't see him as anything but a good friend, which hurt him. Especially since she would always flirt with other boys openly. There were rumours running around about her, but he refused to believe them and took them for nothing more than rumours, probably from people that were denied by her, much like him.

"Oh, Nadir! You're so cute when I don't pay attention to you! Come here," she urged him to sit next to her on the bed. After he did so, she threw one arm around his neck and pulled him towards her, crashing his face in her chest, pulled his bandana off and started running his knuckles over his almost completely bald head, much like older siblings did to their younger ones.

"Hmmph-!" Nadir wanted to say something, but his voice was muffled by her not-too-sizeable-but-still-quite-a-handful breasts.

"What's that, dear partner?"

Nadir, much as he enjoyed his current position (and knowing fully well it was the closest he'd ever get), pushed himself off, proclaiming "Why must you always take my bandana off?"

"Eh," Reese replied, throwing her arms playfully in the air, "I always forget you're so self-conscious about your lack of hair. Here," she bent over herself to pick up the discarded bandana and put it back on Nadir's head, "I'm sorry." Not only was the apology not sincere, but it was followed by a small wink and the tip of the tongue showing from her lips.

"I don't even know why I bother trying to make you a decent person," he huffed. "You're so immature. It's not even two hours until your semifinal match, with a girl wonder no less, and you're more concentrated on making me feel uncomfortable than on the technique you're gonna use."

"Eh, why would I need a technique? I'll just do what I always do, guns blazing and running wild," she replied with another playful wink.

"It's like you don't even care," Nadir said angrily and left the room without saying another word, leaving Reese alone in their room.

When she saw him leaving, she laughed heartily at his anger, but as soon as she was sure he can't hear her anymore, her face stiffened.

While on the surface, Reese was always calm and ready to be cheeky and playful, the gravity of the situation was very clear to her. He is right. I am fighting in a semifinal of the festival. With a girl that's not only a prodigy of the best academy in Remnant, but also happens to carry a weapon that's so comically oversized that it should be impossible to control. Yet she moves with the grace of a princess and is also as dangerous as the Reaper himself.

Reese looked at the door of the dorm, where Nadir was a minute ago. I'm sorry, Nadir. I really am. I know how much you care for me. I know you want to protect your teammates. And I thank you for it. Maybe I'm not showing it, but I really do thank you.

She would never show this face to any member of her team, no matter what, but deep inside, Reese was scared. I'm the last of the non-Beacon folks. The pride of all academies rests on me.

That conclusion lit a small fire in her eyes, a fire that made her realize what she would be doing in the battlefield when the time comes. And then her laugh returned, right after widening her mouth in a devilish grin. Soon it became a full-on laughter as the complete realization kicked in.

Ruby Rose, you better watch out. Reese Chloris is coming to getcha!

The arena which they stood in was a far cry from the open expanses of fields and combat classrooms used in the earlier stages of the tournament. It seated thousands, thousands who had already seen Yang defeated at the hand of the invincible girl, and the same thousands who now packed themselves into the many rows of seats to see Ruby duke it out with Reese.

The fighting floor was rather bland for Ruby's taste - it was a smooth grey surface, in a large hexagonal shape, with nothing interesting decorating the landscape upon which they would fight. It wouldn't really matter though, Ruby thought, as she'd probably be spending most of her time focusing on her opponent.

Taking the final well-wishes from her teammates and family to heart, she stepped out to a huge uproar of cheers and clapping. It made her feel smaller than she already was, what with all the people staring down upon her. Ruby walked, rather nervously, over to the position where she would be starting from, and peered across the stage to get her first good look at her opponent.

The girl, Reese, had turquoise hair and a purple hoodie, with what looked like war-paint under each eye. Short black shorts, kneepads and boots covered her legs. It was definitely a unique look, Ruby thought, but then again, she couldn't say much for herself. Black corset and red cloak wasn't a look everybody adopted. The huge grin she sported looked fairly similar to Yang's. Carefree and wild.

"So, you're Ruby Rose, kid prodigy? Nice to meet ya," said Reese, sticking her hand out. Ruby snapped out of her stupor and quickly accepted it. "Hey, see, name's Reese. Chloris. I'm looking forward to a good fight from you!"

Ruby nodded and responded "Uh, yeah! Me too! Good luck!"

Eventually, the racket from the audience died down enough for the two to take up their positions and await the countdown. Ruby knew that Professor Port and Doctor Oobleck were commentating on these matches, and way more people still were watching at home, so she vowed to make it a good match. Reese, on the other hand, vowed to try her damned well hardest to win.

The audience fell to a shush as the lights dimmed and the countdown began.

"Ten. Nine. Eight. Seven. Six. Five…"

Uh, actually, that reminds me. Weiss is watching, right? Mrs Schnee and Winter too? I'll need to make it a good match for them too.

"Three. Two. One. Begin."

Immediately, Crescent Rose was in Ruby's hand, and she began firing potshots down range at Reese. She, on the other hand, had taken her hoverboard from her back and was now riding it with amazing balance, clearly in full control. Reese leaned heavily forward and the board responded in chime, darting straight towards Ruby.

Ruby opted for a more straight forward approach, and unfolded Crescent Rose to its full glory. With a hop, skip, jump and fifty cal gunshot Ruby too rocketed towards her opponent. Her initial attack came from above as she swiped downwards with the scythe, for Reese to avoid it entirely and lunge for Ruby.

That weapon is unwieldy in close quarters. The closer I can force her, the better.

Ruby took the the sky, in her classic bail strategy, working the bolt of her sniper rifle as the kick sent her straight up. Reese pushed her hoverboard downwards and watched in awe as she came to meet Ruby in the air. Ruby hooked her leg around the approaching girl, and kicked her away, before bringing her scythe down blunt-end first and sending Reese straight back down to where she came from.

As she fell, Ruby tucked herself into a roll and straight away opened with a huge arc of her scythe sideways, forcing Reese backwards. Pulling the trigger and dashing over to the stumbling fighter, Reese had nary a second to react before the scythe cleaved a dead-zone between Ruby and herself. She kicked up her hoverboard and pushed straight off of Ruby, blasting a large amount of energy and distancing herself from the reaper.

Actually, nevermind. She's good with that thing.

Recuperating and re-strategizing, Reese thought out her next move carefully. While Ruby was fast, she wouldn't be fast forever, so a drawn out fight would work to her favour. The girl in red herself had taken the opportunity to reload Crescent Rose with another huge magazine, and quickly hammered down the field on the offensive once again.

What seemed to be Reese slipping off of her hoverboard was in fact a deliberate move - the board zipped straight from underneath her feet and sailed directly into Ruby, who was moving too fast to change direction. The board slammed into the girl and disoriented her, giving Reese all the chance she needed. Reese kicked up a sprint and cracked a vicious kick into Ruby's back, retrieving her hoverboard from where it laid upside-down.

Ruby buried the sharp ended shaft into the arena floor below, and observed with a face of concentration.

"Your weapon is… It's unconventional, but it works so well somehow," she spoke, mostly to herself.

Reese snorted as she snapped her knee into her precious hoverboard and it seemingly broke in two. "Uh, excuse me?" she began, "Giant sniper rifle scythe. That's as unconventional as it gets!" Reese snatched the two falling pieces from mid air, and with practiced ease, flipped them around and transformed them into its dual gun mode.

Ruby swung her huge weapon around, hooking it behind her back and worked the bolt. A huge .50 calibre casing ejected itself and clattered to the now quiet floor. She offered little more than a smirk, before yanking down on the trigger and reaching Reese's position instantaneously.

Said girl had ducked to the side and shot a quick burst of rounds, causing Ruby to miss her swing by a hair's breadth. Reese's foot found its way to where Ruby's head was moments ago, had the girl not pulled herself back. Underneath her outstretched leg, Reese fired her offhand pistol and planted several shots into the distracted Ruby.

Ruby swung Crescent Rose around in another great arc, frowning as Reese fell under the blade, shooting and hitting Ruby even more.

The comparable peashooters posed nowhere near as much danger as Ruby's huge rifle, but fired far faster and landed many more shots. She only had to hit one shot with Crescent Rose, and Reese would take a serious blow to her aura - one that Ruby desperately needed, her own slowly trickling into the light orange.

The fight waged on as Ruby struck at Reese, Reese manoeuvred easily around the attacks and got directly into Ruby's personal space with a combined firearm and bare hand offensive. The girl proved to be incredibly agile, bending and twisting and turning around Ruby, turning the fight into something closer resembling a dance.

Then… why not just keep my distance?

Ruby's spirit re-ignited with renewed determination to win the fight, and she quickly put it to good use on the battlefield. Reese was fast, but Ruby could be faster. As another swinging leg came down for an attempt at Ruby's collarbone, Ruby quickly focused her semblance and caught it.

And the two stood there, in utter silence, for just a few seconds. Seconds which seemed like an eternity.

The serenity shattered as Crescent Rose was plunged, rifle first, straight into Reese's immobilized chest in the blink of an eye and delivered magnificently. The point blank range of the shot not only rang in Reese's ears and damn near blinded her from the flash of the muzzle, but the excruciating and sharp pain in her chest was probably the worst she'd ever felt.

She had barely the time to make a small cry of pain before Ruby had slammed Crescent Rose downwards, worked the bolt and launched herself directly into the poor girl, scythe first. Reese flew straight across the stadium, and crashed into the ground with a terrific crash.

Ruby wiped a sweat from her brow and dared to take another look at the aura gages - she was not in good shape overall, the orange meter slowly getting darker, but fared much better than Reese. Reese's meter was teetering on the verge between dark orange and red. One more offensive would do it, Reese was in no position to attack, and Ruby had the clear advantage by far.

I'm not giving up, not like this.

Steadily and shakily, Reese got back onto her feet, wincing at both the physical pain of the incredible blows Ruby had delivered beforehand, and the hurt of seeing just how low her aura was. Her pistols laid by her side, and she knew she had to act fast.

Reese pulled the two together and watched in satisfaction as the transformation worked flawlessly as per usual, before flipping the board over and slotting in the little gift Nadir had given her: Red dust, beautiful, pure, and destructive.

Huh, Reese thought, quickly making the connection, it's red like roses.

In the audience, in amongst the cheers and shouts, Weiss sneezed.

"She Schneezed!"

"Yang, I swear, I will skin you alive."

The two stood at either end of the stage, waiting for the opponent to make the first move. Ruby watched with sharp eyes as Reese hovered perfectly still on her hoverboard, along with it now emitting a subtle red glow.

She probably used dust or something. Ruby could practically hear Weiss scolding her for even considering throwing all caution to the wind and recklessly charging in, and had to exercise all restraint in order not to do so.

Much the the audience, and Ruby's, surprise, Reese leaned straight in towards her opponent and thundered down the void of space between the two, confident and cheeky smirk replaced with a face of pure focus. She was not going to let herself lose.

With a quick spin, the horrifically sharp edge of Crescent Rose quickly found itself buried in the ground before Ruby, and absorbing all the kick and recoil of the multitude of shots with which Ruby was now barraging Reese with.

Reese used minor footwork and small adjustments in order to make herself more difficult to track for the sniper, ducking and weaving around the maelstrom of bullets. Each crack and whizz of the passing bullets reminded Reese that she was not facing some light, easy to manage opponent. She was facing Ruby Rose.

Reese quickly turned on her heel as Ruby dislodged Crescent Rose from the ground, and angled the bottom of her board straight towards Ruby. Reese came in closer, closer, before unleashing all of the pent up energy within the fire dust at once. What could only be described as a storm of fire erupted from her board as all of nature's wrath unleashed itself upon Ruby.

Ruby, who was nowhere to be seen for the briefest second.

Ruby, who sailed into Reese from behind, scorch marks marring much of her appearance.

Ruby, who hooked Crescent Rose's curved scythe blade around Reese's neck, and without even looking at her victim, pulled the trigger.

The pair rocketed directly down into the ground, with Reese almost unconscious as she collided harshly with the floor. Ruby just about nailed a shaky landing not even a few feet away from her, supporting herself upon Crescent Rose.

The match was declared, and Ruby stood victorious, eyes brimming with tears of joy upon seeing the result. Her face was dirtied and slightly blackened in places from the immense power of the fire dust… storm… thing, and she wore the evidence proud and proper. Even the ashes couldn't hide the massive smile which marked her face even more.

Unsurprisingly, the audience quickly exploded into cheers and whistles as the teams of both combatants jumped straight into the battlefield in order to tend to their respective member.

Reese was very quickly fussed over by some medics, who she waved off and told that she was fine enough to stand. Her own features hadn't fared any better than Ruby's, with cuts and scrapes covering much of her skin. It certainly looked painful.

The reaper herself then approached Reese after unlatching herself from a triple-barrel bear hug from Weiss, Winter and Yang. She knelt down, given permission from her teammates, and held Reese's hand. The two locked eyes.

"Man, I totally thought I had that one," Reese's croaky yet ever snappy voice spoke, before giggling.

"I thought you did too!" Ruby said, "I mean, I've never ever fought against someone with a hoverboard before - I mean, I didn't think I'd ever need to, so I was just making stuff up on the fly! You're good, really good, I can see why you got this far in the tournament."

"Hah. Man, even gracious in victory, I like you. You gotta teach me how to be crazy fast like that one day."

"And you totally have to teach me how to ride one of those hoverboards!"

"Deal."

AWW YEAHHH, one more fight done! First off: to the few that read the story before it was edited, yes, it did say that Nora, the winner of losers bracket, would face Ruby. However, just a day later Jack remembered that he saw the new team fight too and that he wanted to write Reese. So we changed it accordingly. I apologize if you were hoping to see Nora and Ruby clash, but maybe one day. Follow JackThePegasus, he might write something involving those two on his own.

Second: there will be no update next week as I won't be present from Friday to Monday.

Third: Thank you for reading, we appreciate the reviews and the follows, and we will see you next time!