章 725: 68
Chapter 68:
Ruby's steps were stilted and stumbling. She moved as fast as she could, doing her best to keep from twisting an ankle, thanks to the heeled shoes Weiss and Yang had insisted on her wearing. I swear, after this, I'm never wearing these stupid things again!
Reaching the courtyard around the base of the tower, Ruby made her way towards the entrance, her pace slowing slightly as she approached. Looking around, Ruby tried to spy any sign of the woman. However, she couldn't see a trace of her, until she looked at one of the flowerbeds arrayed around the base of Beacon Tower. There, just stretching out from behind the corner, was a booted foot. Stepping around the flowerbed, Ruby found the armored figure of one of Beacon's security personnel unmoving.
Cautiously, Ruby crouched next to him, reaching out to press her hand to his neck. Rather than feel for his pulse, she instead felt his Aura. The man was alive, but out cold. Ruby frowned. It would be the work of a few seconds to fix this, and wake the man up. However, those might not be seconds she had, if she wanted to catch up to the woman.
Of course, this was Beacon's campus. Strangely-dressed women aside, there wasn't much here to pose a threat to the unconscious man. Seeing as he'd been efficiently knocked out, there was no need to worry about other injuries either. So, in the interest of time, and conserving her Aura, Ruby left him where he was, heading into the tower's lobby.
Inside the lobby, Ruby saw more evidence, other guards sprawled out across the floor. The woman had felt the need to drag the guard outside out of the way, in order to keep people from realizing that something was wrong right away. However, inside the lobby, she clearly had no such worries about moving her victims out of sight. Ruby checked each of them briefly, breathing a sigh of relief when she saw that they were all unconscious and, aside from being a little battered, uninjured. She wondered if the woman had gone out of her way to not kill for some reason.
Heading to the elevators, Ruby checked them. Most were on the ground floor. But one had been used to go up to the Call Center, midway up the tower. Ruby frowned. It wasn't a perfect theory, but it was probably most likely that the mysterious woman was there. Pressing the call button, she waited for the elevator in question to descend. When it opened, she was confronted by evidence that her hunch was right, in the form of two more guards, slumped up against the sides of the interior.
Pulling out her scroll, Ruby placed a call to Professor Ozpin.
"Ms. Rose...?" Ruby could hear the slight confusion in Ozpin's voice. "Am I right in guessing that, if you are using your scroll to contact me, you are currently not at the dance, enjoying yourself?"
"Yes, Professor," said Ruby. "Jaune and I stepped out for a bit. When we did, we saw a suspicious woman heading for Beacon Tower. The security staff here are all unconscious, and I think she's up in the Call Center now."
"I see," said Ozpin. "I shall dispatch assistance then. I assume you are already on your way up."
"I'm about to head up," said Ruby, glancing at the elevator. "It was hard to tell from a distance, but I think it was Cinder."
"I see," said Ozpin. "It's probably pointless to try and dissuade you at this juncture. However, I advise you to be as careful as you can. Play for time as much as possible, and hold out for backup. And, above all else, if you confirm that it is Ms. Fall, then do not say anything that might indicate that you know who she is."
"Right," said Ruby, swallowing.
"Good luck," said Ozpin, hanging up.
Ruby put her scroll away, then stepped into the waiting elevator. She stumbled, her heel catching slightly in the gap between the door and the interior, making her grimace in annoyance. There's no way I can fight with these stupid things on.
That being the case, it was probably better to just take them off. She could definitely fight better with her stocking-covered feet than she could with those stupid shoes on. Sliding her feet out of her shoes, Ruby called forth her Aura, weaving it together to form her trademark cloak, draping around her shoulders, while she pulled the hood over her head.
Considering the circumstances, she was pretty badly outmatched. She'd been trained in unarmed fighting, but she wasn't nearly as good at it as she was with her sword. She still had her Manifestation techniques. But that didn't go all that far towards balancing the scales, and her best ones were meant to be used with a sword. Under the circumstances, it was a bad idea to go up against someone as dangerous as Cinder without some kind of weapon. If only there was something I could use, mused Ruby.
Then she glanced down and smiled, looking at her discarded shoes. Maybe there is, she thought. I guess I should thank Weiss and Yang after all.
Jaune nearly slammed into the door of the dorm room, almost forgetting to stop. He cursed the few extra seconds of fumbling it took him to get his scroll out and unlock the damn thing. Barging in, he looked up at the wall, his gaze zeroing in on the familiar form of a sheathed sword, resting silently on the two hooks that served as its rack, leaving it resting right above Ruby's bed, at a level where she could reach up and take it down without needing to sit up, or even stretch her arm.
Stepping forward, Jaune reached out towards the sword, planning to grab it off the wall, before pausing nervously. Ruby had warned him and the others that Akaibara could be temperamental, and that it didn't tolerate people fumbling with it lightly. Jaune had rushed off to get it for Ruby without pausing to ask, or even wonder, whether it was safe to just grab it like this.
Swallowing, Jaune steeled himself. Ruby needs this sword right now, he thought firmly. He couldn't afford to hesitate. Every second he wasted was another second Ruby had to get hurt, because she didn't have her trusted weapon at her side.
"Here goes nothing," said Jaune, bracing himself, then reaching out to close his hand over the black-lacquered sheath, lifting the weapon up off its resting place, and pulling it towards him.
Nothing happened.
Jaune let out a sigh of relief, then reminded himself that Ruby needed this sword ten minutes ago. Turning around, he rushed back out the door, slamming it shut behind him.
The elevator doors slid open, and Ruby stepped out, casting her eyes about warily. She'd drawn her cloak all the way around her body, so that she was completely enclosed by it, while keeping her hood up as well. In this situation, her cloak, which she could harden with further Aura, would be her best defense. Her feet barely made a sound as she moved across the smooth floor of the call center. There was just enough friction that Ruby didn't have to worry about them sliding out from under her, much to her relief.
Her sweeping gaze took in the call center, with its rows of dark, inert consoles. At this time of night, it was only natural that there was no one using them, nor was there any staff. Even the reception desk at the front of the room, and the holographic A.I.s that normally manned them, were silent and empty.
Even as she took things in with her eyes, Ruby's other senses were reaching out as well. Almost immediately, she found her target.
It was Cinder all right. There was no mistaking that twisted soul, and the mutilated power stapled to it. Just feeling Cinder's presence had Ruby feel like she was stepping into a nightmare, a cold sweat spreading across her skin as she realized that she had deliberately sought out battle against this...thing.
I'm just stalling for time, thought Ruby. It was a hollow assurance. For better or worse, she was on her own against this woman, devoid of her favored weapon. It would be minutes, at best, before backup arrived. Even a scant handful of minutes would be a long time against a person like this.
Still, she needed to do this, so Ruby proceeded forward. At the moment, she stalked forward cautiously, sweeping her gaze around, as though she was still looking for the intruder, even though she already had Cinder's exact location fixed.
Cinder had crouched almost directly behind the receptionist desk, leaving Ruby suspecting that she had been doing something with one of the computers there. What that was, Ruby couldn't even begin to guess. She'd gotten the hang of using her scroll now, but the countless nuances of technology employed by the outside world were still largely baffling to her, existing far outside the purview of the education she'd received amongst the Mibu.
At present, Cinder was keeping hidden, clearly thinking that Ruby had no idea where she was. Ruby figured it would be for the best to let Cinder entertain that illusion for as long as possible. Rushing into a confrontation would only end badly for Ruby.
"Hello?" Ruby called out in a tentative voice, trying to reinforce the illusion that she had no idea where Cinder was, or even if she was actually here.
Then Ruby sensed the first stirrings of intent from Cinder. The woman's Aura throbbed with eagerness, an eagerness which fixated upon Ruby with all the intensity of a tiger singling out its prey from the herd. The sensation made Ruby tremble. There was something wrong about this.
Considering the trouble Cinder had gone through to keep from raising any kind of alarm on her way in, it was most likely that she was working on some covert objective. That being the case, it would have been in her best interests to avoid confrontation as much as possible. The best choice for her would be to remain hidden, and wait for an opportunity to make a quiet escape. Yet now, Ruby could see that Cinder was planning to emerge and attack her, when she probably thought that Ruby had no idea of where she was. What was more, the confident surge of her Aura indicated her intention to dispense with stealth entirely. This wasn't an ambush. She was going to reveal herself, then attack. Why?
Ruby's eyes turned to catch Cinder as she rose up from behind the reception desk, stepping out into the open. Even without Ruby being able to sense her Aura, it was hard to mistake that shoulder-length, wavy, black hair; or those amber eyes, which glowed with a subdued malevolence.
At present, she was clad in a skintight outfit, consisting of a sleeveless top, with a zipper running down its center, which was open just enough to show a tantalizing view of her cleavage. Her arms were covered in long, black gloves, which ran almost all the way up to her shoulders. Over her legs, she wore skintight, black pants; with tall, high-heeled shoes covering her feet.
For real!? What is it with girls in the Kingdoms and fighting in heels!? Despite her consternation, Ruby kept her thoughts to herself, instead resolving to just roll with it.
Cinder stepped out into the open...or prowled, rather. Her movements were smooth and measured, almost like the stride of a big cat on the hunt. Ruby frowned, her silver eyes meeting Cinder's amber ones, as she tried to figure out what to do.
For her part, Cinder merely smiled, excitement throbbing through her veins. What a marvelous opportunity...for her to fall into my lap like this.
It had been an enigma, how a mere child could possibly present such a difficulty. Yet this girl had subdued Roman Torchwick, then gone on to defeat Adam Taurus twice. She'd utterly overwhelmed Emerald in the ring. She was nothing more than a child, yet she'd shown herself to be more of an impediment than many professional Huntsmen Cinder had dealt with. And then, there were the other indicators...wind and lightning, used in a way that suggested that the girl didn't use a speck of Dust in her fighting style. Cinder was more than a little intrigued.
Could she be one of the Maidens? wondered Cinder. If that was the case, then this was a prime opportunity. Of all the incredible strokes of luck, this girl, Ruby Rose, had come to her. At the moment, Cinder felt certain that this was a chance to assess her, to confirm her own suspicions. And, if they proved correct, this was also an opportunity to subdue Ruby, and take her away. At the moment, Cinder lacked the means to do what she had done to the Fall Maiden. However, once she had Ruby Rose in her possession...arrangements could be made, she was sure.
Well...that might have been overreaching a bit. Right now, Cinder had her priorities. The fact that another Maiden might well have dropped into her lap would be a wonderful windfall, but not one she was actually in a position to take advantage of. At this point, ensuring that her team's cover was maintained was more important. Dealing with Ruby would only add an extra layer of risk, a severe one. No, she would have to wait for a more opportune time.
But there was still the matter of confirming that Ruby was a Maiden. Cinder was fairly certain, but there was always the chance that she had been mistaken or misread something. Of course, the best way to test whether or not this girl really was a Maiden would be to test her in battle, which was why Cinder chose to show herself. It helped that her errand here had already been completed. So she now had some extra time to work with.
Coming to stand in the open, Cinder and Ruby faced one another. Ruby kept her body enshrouded within her cloak, while Cinder stood in a posture that was almost casual. Glancing at Cinder's waist, Ruby could see several canisters that were hooked to the belt that held up her pants. Through her Aura, Ruby could sense Dust, by virtue of detecting its latent energy. She'd been able to sense that an impressive amount of fire-Dust had been woven into the fabric of Cinder's outfit. However, those canisters were carrying something else entirely. What they were carrying, Ruby couldn't tell, which only made her more wary of those canisters in particular.
Then Cinder grabbed one of those canisters from her hip with her left hand. Bringing it up, she swept it up and back across her body in a wide arc, spraying some kind of cloud of airborne particles from it, which hovered in a cloud in front of her body. Ruby wondered just what it was. Then her eyes widened as Cinder's free hand came up, the fine particles drifting in the air swirling together, congealing and merging together, while glowing with orange heat, which appeared to be supplied by the glowing lines of fire-Dust crawling up the fabric of Cinder's clothes in glowing lines.
In just a second, that cloud of airborne dust had condensed and been molded into shards of what looked liked glass. They were veined through with what looked like lines of molten light. Cinder directed them with a sweep of her free hand, launching them at Ruby in a barrage.
With a surprised gasp, Ruby went into motion, kicking off the floor, and throwing her body into a rapid spin, which flared her cloak around her. Hardening it with her Aura, she allowed the flaps of her garment to ward off those glowing shards, which impacted against the floor and walls, shattering with explosive force. Even as she defended, Ruby had gone forward, darting towards Cinder in a crimson blur, throwing up a wave of petals that scattered ahead of her, dancing out towards Cinder.
"Hanabi!"
Cinder jumped back as those petals ignited and burst, like a chain of firecrackers, filling the space where she'd been standing with crackling, angry sparks. Going into a spin of her own, Cinder discarded the empty canister, while holding her hands out to her sides. With a flash of orange light in the air, and molten lines crawling up her clothes, a pair of swords appeared in her hands, seeming to come out of nowhere. Their appearance gave Ruby pause, not because of the way Cinder had seemingly pulled them out of nowhere, but because, within Cinder, she could sense the torn portion of the Maiden's power pulse, Cinder forcefully drawing on it to create the blades she wielded now.
It feels like it's screaming, thought Ruby, forcing down a bout of nausea.
The swords Cinder held seemed to be forged from black glass, like obsidian. They were broad, curved blades, widening out from the handles, before the leading edge swept up into a graceful tip. The backsides of the blades featured angled edges and sharp points as well, giving the swords a somewhat jagged appearance. Furthermore, Ruby could sense that Cinder had transferred some of the Dust in her outfit into the glass that made up the blades' bodies.
Now armed, Cinder reversed directions, rushing in. She covered the distance between them in a single step, leading with a slash from her left-hand sword. Ruby spun in the same direction, using a flare of her cloak to deflect the slash, before continuing it to catch the followthrough strike from the other sword. But, with a deft move of her wrist, Cinder reversed the course of her right-handed sword, bringing it back around. Rather than try to match Cinder with another spin, Ruby instead opened her cloak, lashing out with her own right hand, the object within it colliding with Cinder's sword to the sound of two hard objects clashing.
Cinder gasped, her eyes going wide with shock behind her mask. Her sword was caught by the arch of one of Ruby's heeled shoes. In a swift, smooth move, Ruby pulled down, using the heel itself to keep Cinder's blade trapped and lower it out of the way, as she followed up by swinging the shoe in her other hand, striking at Cinder's torso with the tip of its heel.
Cinder gasped and pulled away, the edge of her caught sword grating as she pulled it forcefully out of its entrapment, orange and red sparking. She pulled away just fast enough that Ruby's swing missed, the shoe in her left hand just grazing the fabric of Cinder's top. Despite that, Cinder's senses indicated that she'd just escaped from something akin to real blade. Glancing down, she noticed a small cut in the fabric of her jacket, running just below her right breast.
Glancing back up, she could still scarcely believe her eyes as she watched Ruby brandish the heeled shoes she'd been wearing earlier. She's channeling her Aura through them to use them as weapons...but why?! If Ruby was a Maiden, then her magic would allow her to create whatever kind of weapon she wanted, on the spot. If that was the case, why resort to employing such...improvisational...implements? Was she just that committed to maintaining her cover?
For her part, Ruby fought back a grimace. Makes me wish I'd practiced kama-techniques more. Thanks to her friend, Setsuna, she'd dabbled a little bit in the handheld sickles, but had never practiced their techniques with any serious intent. However, they were probably the closest allegory to the weapons in her hands, and Ruby's extensive training in two-sword styles meant that she could fill in the gap a little, only needing to be mindful of the differing orientation of the "blade" of her weapon.
Of course, leather and fabric were hardly any match for magic-forged, Dust-empowered glass. In order to make her shoes hold up against Cinder's swords, Ruby had to channel extra Aura into them, just to harden them enough to properly exchange blows with her opponent. This was a stopgap at best. All Ruby could hope to do was buy enough time for Jaune to get here with her sword, or for Ozpin's promised reinforcements to show up, whichever came first.
Cinder bit back a growl, finding herself frustrated to be facing an opponent wielding something so...ridiculous. It truly felt as though she was being taken lightly, even though her rational mind indicated that Ruby was most likely improvising to make up for the fact that she hadn't been able to retrieve her weapon, before coming up the tower to confront her. Yet, that didn't make this any less ridiculous.
Not about to allow Cinder any chance to reclaim the initiative, Ruby went on the offensive. Her body blurred, and she crossed the distance between herself and Cinder in a flash, lashing out with her shoes. Cinder countered easily. Improvised or not, a major weakness of Ruby's weapons was that Cinder's totally outclassed them in terms of reach. To make up for that, Ruby had to move in closer, where the greater length of Cinder's weapons would be a hinderance, rather than an asset. But Cinder's own skills made that a difficult barrier to cross.
For a few seconds, the two rapidly traded blows, Cinder's swords ringing loudly against the heels of Ruby's shoes, almost as though the shoes were made of forged steel. They danced around one another, Ruby's movements flickering and darting, sometimes making her appear to be in more than one place at once. On more than one occasion, Cinder briefly believed that she had successfully pierced or sliced Ruby's body through her cloak, only for said cloak to dissolve into a cloud of petals, revealing that she had struck empty air.
They closed for another exchange. Cinder attacked with a crossing slash directly in front of her. Ruby dropped into a crouch, using her Aura to reduce the friction beneath her feet to slide beneath it, and directly past her opponent. Cinder was no slouch though, twisting and dodging out of the way when Ruby tried to strike at her in the process. Cinder quickly spun about, trying to keep track of her opponent, her swords seeking. Ruby had jumped out of her crouch, alighting on one of the rows of terminals that occupied the center of the room. Cinder's blade cut through her cloak at the level of Ruby's shins, threatening to cut her legs out from under her.
To Cinder's lack of surprise, the cloak simply melted into another cloud of scattering petals, revealing that Ruby had vanished from sight again. Cinder kept an eye out with her peripheral vision, scanning around her for the signs of Ruby's next attack. However, she forgot to think vertically. Rather than try to flank her again, Ruby had instead jumped straight upwards, inverting her body to plant her feet against the ceiling of the call center. From there, she launched herself down at Cinder.
Though she might not have had anything on the level of Ruby's senses, Cinder had plenty of experience to ensure she didn't remain wholly dependent on her eyes. She felt the rush of air from above, accompanied by a wave of descending intent, the surefire sign of an impending attack. Gasping, Cinder looked up, seeing Ruby already almost within striking distance. Desperately, she raised her blades to block. But it was too late. The unexpected direction of the attack had delayed Cinder's reaction, and she crossed her swords after the heel of Ruby's shoe had already struck the crown of her head.
Cinder's head jerked forward from the force of the blow, her entire body jolting, the impact stunning her slightly. Ruby landed in a crouch in front of her. Desperately, Cinder both jumped and fell back, trying to buy time and distance. Fortunately, the small size of Ruby's improvised weapons meant that Cinder didn't need to move very far at all. Even a fraction of a second would be enough for her to recover from the stunning effect.
Rather than try to pursue Cinder, Ruby rose up out of her crouch, while spinning around and lashing out with her foot in a powerful back-kick, which struck Cinder directly in the stomach, driving the breath from the woman's lungs, while the Aura expelled by the striking limb blew Cinder away, threatening to slam her into the very line of consoles that Ruby had used as a platform earlier.
At the last second, Cinder kicked off the floor, launching herself into a jumping backflip, which allowed her to plant her hands on the top of the terminal, before pushing off in a handspring, not hindered by the fact that she was still holding her swords while she did this. Pushing off, she brought the pommels of her swords together, the two weapons merging into one, their edges facing outwards, creating the profile of a bow. A black string stretched from one sword-tip to the other, completing the transformation.
In a smooth motion, Cinder's right hand drifted back to the string, while the left remained closed around the merged grip. Swirling particles condensed together to form a full trio of arrows, already nocked, even as Cinder drew the string back. Molten lines climbed Cinder's outfit, and Ruby could sense the energy potential of that woven Dust being transferred into those arrows, concentrating at the tips.
Releasing the string, Cinder let the arrows fly. Ruby kicked off the floor, launching herself right towards the center of the gap between the three of them. There was no way to slip between them without them striking her body, but Ruby was prepared for that. Once again, she spun her body, flaring out her cloak, while channeling her Aura through it, the hardened, spinning garment deflecting the arrows off. Two of the arrows lodged in the floor, while the third protruded out of the wall at an angle.
They didn't explode, Ruby noted, briefly confused. Then she realized that the potential energy of the Dust Cinder had used was still infused into those arrows. Right now, they were bombs, landmines, just waiting for the right moment to be triggered. Ruby was willing to bet that Cinder was banking on Ruby forgetting about the arrows, after her attack had failed, then using the fight to drive Ruby back into their vicinity, before setting them off.
Ruby wasn't about to let that happen, instead driving forward doggedly, determined to close in on Cinder, before she could loose another volley. Cinder separated her bow into its component swords, meeting Ruby head-on, apparently having already recovered from the kick she received. On top of that, the edges of her swords sparked, and were suddenly lined with orange flames, the Dust worked into the blades igniting. They met Ruby's improvised sickles with another set of clangs, the impacts sending embers and angry sparks dancing off the swords, and straight at Ruby's face, even as contact with the superheated weapons scorched Ruby's hands, close as they were to the point of impact.
"Ow! Hot!" shouted Ruby, knocked away, even as she turned her head, using the edge of her hood to block the worst of the sparks. Then Cinder returned the favor from earlier, lashing out with a kick of her own, which caught Ruby in the side. Ruby was knocked back with a cry of pain, feeling the heel of Cinder's own shoe dig into her side, which, she supposed, was one reason wearing heels to battle might be a legitimate strategy...maybe.
The problem was that Cinder's kick had knocked Ruby right back to the lodged arrows, just as Ruby had feared. She landed right in the midst of all three of them. The one in the wall was a short distance to her right, while the ones in the floor were impeded to the left and behind her. In front of her, Ruby saw Cinder's triumphant smirk, as Cinder uncurled the first two fingers of her right hand from around the handle of her sword, then gesturing upwards slightly. A sinister keening sound filled the air, the points where the arrows were imbedded glowing a malevolent orange, which rapidly spread out into disks of flame, before the arrows exploded, sending waves of fire billowing out in every direction.
However, since she had been expecting this kind of attack, Ruby wasn't caught by it. Even when Cinder had begun to trigger her arrows, Ruby was already on the move, leaning forward, channeling her Aura through her feet, using it to fling herself in the only direction that wasn't blocked by an arrow that was about to explode...directly in front of her. She crossed the distance between the two of them in a flash.
Unfortunately, it seemed that Cinder had anticipated such an approach, her swords igniting again, the flames burning with even greater intensity than before. Not liking the idea of what contact with such intense heat would do with her hands, Ruby immediately countered. With an angry crackle, crimson lines of electricity extended out from her hands, dancing along her shoes, and down the length of her heels, extending them, while air was drawn in, merging with the intensifying electrical energy, becoming blades of highly-energized plasma, which glowed violet, forming a pair of curving blades that gave the shoes Ruby was wielding the appearance of actual sickles in her hands.
Cinder's swords left trails of fire, forming a pair of glowing orange arcs, which intersected with the violet tracks of light left by Ruby's weapons. The two attacks collided with a flash, an explosion of both fire and thunder echoing through the enclosed space of the call center, flinging the two combatants away from each other. Cinder's swords shattered into countless fragments. Ruby's own recoil knocked her body into a spin, but she was already beginning her next attack.
"Hibana!" With a flare of the edge of her cloak, Ruby launched a trio of violet bolts of plasma, which flew at Cinder with incredible speed. However, Cinder wasn't caught that easily. Touching down, she held out her left hand, holding it up to catch each of the incoming bolts in turn, the plasma splashing and exploding against a shield of fiery light. Meanwhile, Cinder worked her right hand through an exaggerated circle.
The fragments of her ruined swords began to swirl together, forming another array of glass shards, hovering in the air around her. As soon as Ruby's last bolt splashed impotently against her defense, Cinder stepped forward, sweeping her right hand out. The glass shards launched at Ruby like arrows, forcing Ruby to jump aside, having to flare and harden her cloak again to deflect a couple of the shards that were still in danger of striking her directly.
Landing, Ruby held up her hands, ready to continue the battle, only to find that things didn't feel quite right. Looking down, Ruby saw that all she had now were the scorched remnants of the toes of her shoes. The rest had been burned to ash and crumbled away, the consequence of channeling such powerful elemental energy through an object not even remotely capable of withstanding such forces. Ruby's reinforcement with her Aura had been insufficient to allow the shoes to maintain their integrity, at least, not if she was trying to do both at once.
Despite having been practically handed such a potent advantage, for a moment, all Cinder could do was glare incredulously at her opponent, once again flabbergasted at the idea that this child was using such ridiculous implements as weapons in the first place. For her part, Ruby stared down at the ruined shoes for a moment, before looking back up at Cinder with a sheepish grin. "Whoops."
Jaune's breath came in ragged pants as he came rushing back to Beacon Tower. He had no idea how far behind Ruby he was. There was no telling how long she'd been fighting to hold off that mysterious woman, assuming they were fighting at all. Without her sword, maybe Ruby already was...
Jaune vigorously shook his head, cutting off that line of thought ruthlessly. He knew that Ruby wasn't helpless without her sword. The fact of the matter was, that, even without her weapon, she was still able to wipe the floor with him, even when Jaune still had his...not that that was much of an endorsement, considering the rudimentary level of his own skills.
Reaching into his pocket with his free hand, Jaune pulled out his own scroll, bringing up the app he needed to summon his rocket locker. It arrived with a hiss of its jets, slamming down into the pavement, and embedding there at an angle, fortuitously landing just a little ways ahead of him, the door even facing the perfect direction as it sprang open, allowing him to snatch Crocea Mors out without even needing to break stride. Immediately, Jaune made his way past the unconscious guard outside the entrance, and into the interior. Just like Ruby before him, he balked at the sight of the scattered, prone guards laying about the lobby.
Making his way past the guards, Jaune looked to the elevators, realizing that he had almost no idea where in this structure Ruby was. Fortunately, he quickly received a clue. Muffled booms and vibrations descended from above, indicating a fight on the upper floors. Glancing at the elevators, Jaune saw that one was currently parked at the CCT call center. Quickly, he pressed the call button, waiting several anxious seconds for the elevator to arrive. At least the sounds from above indicated that Ruby was still fighting...or so he hoped.
The doors slid open, and Jaune rushed in, yelping at the sight of the unconscious guards in the elevator, before quickly rallying and pushing the button that would take him to the call center, praying that his guess was right.
Hang on, Ruby. I'm coming.
Cinder's efforts to hold her feelings in check were failing. It was bad enough that this girl had tried to fight her with shoes, of all things. But to have her hold her own so well, to push Cinder as far as she had with ridiculous, improvised implements was absolutely galling. And now, Ruby stood there with that sheepish, childish grin on her face, as though this was all some silly game to her.
Cinder's patience was fraying. She'd been trying to push Ruby hard enough to reveal the truth about herself, to see with her own eyes whether or not the girl possessed the magic of one of the Maidens. The more they fought, the more convinced Cinder was. Ruby had been conservative with those electrical attacks, instead remaining carefully dependent on her shoes, right up until their latest clash. There, Cinder had seen the first cracks in Ruby's mask, as the younger girl channeled potent elemental energy through her improvised weapons, striking with enough force to shatter Cinder's own swords, formidable as they were.
And now, without even improvised weapons to rely on, Ruby would have no choice but to show her true colors. Now to truly back her into a corner. Then we'll see if she really is one of the Maidens.
Ruby swallowed, unnerved the intensity of Cinder's intent. There was something more going on here that she couldn't figure out. One thing she did know for sure was that Cinder's intent felt familiar. She'd sensed that intent before, on the night she'd brought down Roman Torchwick. Cinder was the one piloting the bullhead, thought Ruby, remembering the sensation she'd felt, right before the pilot had triggered the airship's guns.
If that was the case, then the links between Cinder's group and the White Fang were clear. Roman had been working for Cinder, probably cowed into submission by demonstrations of her power, forcing him and Neo to work with the White Fang, who'd been likewise subdued. If that was the case, then there was a very real chance that Neo's odd actions were based on trying to find some way for her and Roman to escape Cinder's control.
But that was an issue for later. Not being immolated was the critical factor right now. Ruby took a nervous step back, unsure of how to respond. She still had a few measures, including her more basic Manifestation techniques. However, her best attacks required her sword, which was still on the way. I hope Jaune gets here soon.
Glowing lines of molten light climbed Cinder's outfit, jumping from her jacket's shoulder to the glove extending down her right arm, the power congealing in the palm of her upraised hand to form an orb of fire, hovering there. Ruby's senses could tell that the fireball was actually two components. The outer part was formed by Cinder's magic, while the inner core was concentrated Dust.
Cinder thrust out the palm of her hand, propelling the fireball at Ruby, who swept her cloak out, while hardening it with her Aura, to deflect it. The fireball burst against against the cloak, flames billowing and washing away in the direction of Ruby's sweep, while what looked almost like droplets of molten lava splattered around her. Ruby could sense that her defense had deflected the heat and flames of Cinder's magic. But the Dust had not yet actually been triggered, now scattered in fragments around her.
Then, just as she expected, Cinder turned her right hand palm-up again, raising the hand in a gesture, while Ruby sensed the Dust around her igniting, that sinister keening noise filling the air again. The scattered Dust erupted in columns of flame that scorched and melted the metal ceiling of the room. But Ruby was already gone, circling around Cinder, a flickering blur of crimson. Stepping off the top of one of the CCT terminals, Ruby launched herself into the air, spinning about, the petals of her Aura congealing into another set of violet bolts of plasma. "Hibana!"
Six bolts of plasma rocketed at Cinder, who responded by holding out her hands, launching fireballs to intercept them. The colliding attacks exploded with a sound like multiple claps of thunder, filling the air between Cinder and Ruby with smoke, forming a barrier that cut off their vision of one another.
Ruby's eyes might have been blocked, but she could still perceive Cinder with her other senses. She sensed Cinder charging forward, bulling through the impediment created by her smoke, hand going to her belt to pull off another canister, which she used to spray more dust into the air. Cinder emerged from the smoke, using a terminal as a foothold as well, an array of glass shards hovering in the air around her, ready to be sent flying by a single gesture.
But Cinder didn't see Ruby. Instead, she found herself in the midst of a cloud of fluttering petals. Her eyes widened in surprise and shock. Then she heard Ruby's voice.
"Hanabi!"
With a crackling series of explosions, like a chain of firecrackers going off, the petals around Cinder exploded in a flurry of sparks and arcs of electricity. The attack shattered her glass shards before she could use them. But Cinder had already started her counter. Molten lines climbed her body, swirling arrays forming in the air around her. Cinder swept her arms out to her sides, the array creating a powerful explosion that forced Ruby's petals away before they could detonate against her.
Landing on the floor with a click of heels, Cinder cast around for Ruby. She spotted a flapping cape as Ruby rushed along behind one line of consoles, using them for cover. With an angry growl, Cinder pursued her, swords of black glass appearing in her hands with a fiery flash again. While she had been armed, it had been Ruby who'd been focused on getting into close combat. Now, with her weapons destroyed, Ruby was trying to keep her distance, while peppering Cinder with attacks to wear her down. Now it would be fully to Cinder's advantage to close the distance between them, and engage Ruby at melee range.
Anticipating the line of Ruby's darting, dodging movements, Cinder altered her course to intercept, leaping past the line of consoles and planting herself firmly in Ruby's path. Ruby gasped, trying to stop and backpedal. However, her momentum, aided by the stockings on her feet, overpowered the force of friction, which Ruby had been certain would allow her to keep her footing earlier, causing her to slide towards Cinder, while her balance began to fail her.
Still, as Cinder lunged in, slashing with one of her swords, Ruby had the presence of mind to whip her upper body around, using the movement to flare her cloak up between her and Cinder, once again hardening the garment to deflect the attack. Skidding to a stop, Ruby gripped the edges of her cloak with her hands, using them to manipulate it to continue batting away Cinder's slashes, before expelling her Aura from her feet to reverse her course, and retreat out of Cinder's range.
Even as she did, Ruby saw Cinder bring her swords together to create her bow, another trio of arrows appearing as she drew back the string. Ruby readied herself to deflect the arrows. But then her ears picked up a sound that was almost completed masked by the noise of the battle, and the pounding of her own heartbeat in her ears, the tone of the elevator arriving.
The elevator doors opened to reveal Jaune, emerging from within with wide eyes, his gaze taking in the war-zone that the call center had become. His eyes found Ruby, and she turned to look at him, a thrill of excitement rushing through her at the sight of the sheathed sword gripped firmly in Jaune's right hand. "Jaune!"
"Ruby!" Jaune shouted back, already drawing his arm back to throw the sword to her.
But Cinder had noticed Jaune's arrival as well. Without hesitation, she turned in place, her aim swinging around to bring the arrows to bear on Jaune.
"No!" shouted Ruby, her eyes going wide.
Jaune saw Cinder's aim shift, but remained committed. Stepping into the motion, Jaune threw Ruby's sword at her. In that same instant, Cinder loosed her arrows, which flew true, striking their target dead-on.
A surge of panic rose up within Ruby as the arrows struck and exploded, enshrouding Jaune with flames and smoke. However, her panic abated when she sensed what Jaune had done. Preoccupied by the sight of her weapon in his right hand, her eyes hadn't picked out the fact that Jaune's own weapon was already resting on his forearm. Even though Crocea Mors' sheath remained in its compacted form, Jaune had already slid his arm through the straps. Immediately after throwing Ruby's sword, he'd brought his own weapon up, the sheath opening up into its shield-mode, the heads of Cinder's arrows striking and shattering, one with explosive force.
Jaune had been knocked back by the blast, barely able to keep from being blown off his feet entirely. But he was unharmed. His right hand immediately closed around the handle of his sword, and he drew it forth. Sliding his left foot forward, Jaune took his regular stance, standing at the ready, and holding his ground before the elevator doors.
Meanwhile, freshly-calmed, Ruby extended her left hand into the air, closing her fingers around Akaibara's sheath. In a smooth motion, she slid it into her sash, at the small of her back, before transitioning her grip to the handle, drawing the crimson blade forth, an echoing ring filling the air as its Aura surged outward to merge with Ruby's own Bringing it around, Ruby closed her right hand around the handle as well, the weapon splitting, one blade becoming two. From there, Ruby took her stance, holding her left-handed sword in front of her, while she held the right up and over, so that the blade extended down her back.
Cinder's eyes widened when she saw Ruby draw her sword. The change that this young girl had undergone was as incredible as it was baffling. She could feel a heaviness in the air, the sensation that the quality of Ruby's Aura itself had changed. The sense of danger that Ruby exuded had multiplied exponentially. Now Cinder could definitely see how this girl had defeated the likes of Torchwick and Taurus. There was absolutely no comparison between these fabulous blades and the flimsy shoes that Ruby had been swinging around earlier.
But all of that made Cinder all the more certain that this was a sham. To her mind, it made perfect sense. In order to more effectively keep her cover, Ruby had apparently turned to these blades to supplement her fighting style, with the intent of using them to better deceive people and keep them from realizing the true nature of her power. Her opponents would fixate on the swords, while ignoring the unnatural nature of her elemental attacks. It was an ideal deception, as far as Cinder was concerned.
However, there was no time for her to see if her supposition was correct. Ruby charged straight forward, swinging Bara and Ibara with such speed that the swords were practically streaks of light. Splitting her bow back into its component swords, Cinder met Ruby's slashes with her own, orange intersecting with red in a deafening ring. To her shock, Cinder found herself blasted back by the impact behind Ruby's swings, the strength she'd been using earlier nothing compared to what she exhibited now.
Cinder was sent flying back, Ruby rushing after her in a blur of red. Ruby's swords lashed out again, and Cinder's rose to meet them. This time, Cinder's swords shattered in her hands, the shards scattering into the air, before being blown away by the shockwaves of impact. Desperately, Cinder thrust her hands out in front of her, while Ruby followed through with a pair of slashes that etched an X-shape in the air between her and Cinder. The attack bit into the barrier that Cinder had created, reinforced by the use of both of her hands, Cinder managed to keep the blades themselves from biting into her, but the power behind those swings was enough to launch her back again.
Cinder's back struck one of the terminals, the metal surface crumpling from the impact, while Cinder screamed in pain, before she bounced off, her momentum causing her to tumble back over it, and slam into the wall behind it. From there, she dropped to the floor, collapsing to her knees.
Looking up, Cinder saw Ruby take to the air, using the same terminal she'd just smashed Cinder against as a stepping stone. Fire streamed from outside corner of Cinder's right eye, her mask actually cracking slightly from the force of her tapping more deeply into her stolen power than ever before. At the same time, molten lines glowed in a manner that was almost blinding, racing up her outfit, before running down her arm, swirling arrays, like the ones that had preceded her explosion earlier, forming around her arm as Cinder thrust it out at Ruby with an angry scream.
What emerged from Cinder's hand was no mere fireball, nor even a torrent of flame. Rather it seemed more a pure laser of solidified heat, easily the width of a lamppost, it lanced out at Ruby, shining with pure destructive force. Ruby's previous defensive technique, with her hardened cloak, would have no hope of deflecting an attack containing such focused and concentrated power.
However, Ruby was already countering in her own fashion. Having rejoined her swords, Ruby took Akaibara up in her left hand, while using the first two fingers of her right to trace the flat of the blade, from base to tip. Akaibara blazed to life with another echoing ring, the blade shining like a red star. Ruby went into a spin, the blade of her sword seeming to merge with the edge of her cloak as she brought it around in a wide slash. "Kazebara!"
The edge created by Ruby's slash cleaved straight through the incoming beam of Cinder's attack, splitting it in two around her. The split beam rushed past her on both sides, each half of the attack containing enough force to continue on, punching through the ceiling, and out through the wall behind it, twin beams lancing out and lighting up the night sky.
Cinder gaped in horror. She could scarcely believe that Ruby had just defeated an attack that powerful. However, fending off Cinder's attack had kept Ruby landing her own. Touching down in front of Cinder, the pair found their duel pausing for the briefest of seconds. In that second...things suddenly became much more difficult for both of them.
The elevator doors behind Jaune sounded, then opened once again. Looking over his shoulder, Jaune gasped in surprise to see none other than General Ironwood, striding forth from within the elevator, accompanied by a squad of his own soldiers, the armored men fanning out along the wall, training their rifles on the crouched figure of Cinder. They were joined by Ironwood, who reached into his jacket and drew out a large revolver, which he then trained on the black-garbed woman.
"Surrender now!" demanded Ironwood.
The arrival of Ironwood and his soldiers had drawn both Cinder and Ruby's attention. As her gaze and awareness shifted towards the new arrivals, Ruby abruptly noticed something she had overlooked before. Cinder had fired three arrows at Jaune. But only one of the Dust-infused projectiles had actually exploded. The other two had shattered into glasslike fragments, fragments that were now scattered across the floor around Jaune, some of the soldiers even stepping on those fragments as they deployed along the wall. Just as she had sensed before, with the arrows that Cinder had fired earlier, Ruby realized that each of those pieces still contained the full destructive power that Cinder had infused into her original attack. She didn't need to see the smirk that spread across Cinder's face to know what was coming next.
Defeating or subduing Cinder was forgotten. Ruby turned away, lunging towards the assembled soldiers, using another terminal as a platform to step off of to launch herself over all remaining impediments. "Look out!" she screamed, her expression wild and frantic.
Behind her, Cinder raised her right hand. A sinister keening noise filled the air again.
Jaune heard the sound, felt the bloom of heat at the level of his legs, rising upward. He met Ruby's expression, and saw her fear. Ruby realized she couldn't protect all the soldiers. They had fanned out to either side of Jaune and Ironwood, making her unable to reach both groups. Her frantic gaze met Jaune's and, somehow, he understood what she wanted, without even needing to exchange words. Shifting back, Jaune threw himself bodily against the nearest soldier, prompting him to stumble into his comrade, setting off a chain reaction that had all the soldiers bunching up into a group, Jaune continuing to press against them, pushing them away from the glowing shards on the floor, while raising his shield.
Despite his efforts, Jaune knew he wasn't going to be able to do much good. Even if he got the soldiers bunched up behind him, there was just too much space to cover. At best, his shield would cover part of his body, while his Aura did the rest. He would be protected, but all the soldiers who were directly behind him would still be caught in the blast. In spite of this realization, a thrill of determination rushed through Jaune. Ruby was counting on him to protect these men. He was a Huntsman, and he'd be damned if he let her down. I will protect them.
He wasn't sure what happened next. All of a sudden, he felt...something...from the shield on his left arm. He couldn't quite put words to it. All he could say was that it was a feeling of affirmation. The next thing he knew, a ringing sound reached his ears, a sound that reminded him of the ring that issued forth from Ruby's sword, whenever she tapped into its Aura. The next thing he knew, Jaune's entire world went white.
Across from him, Ruby threw herself in front of the other group of soldiers, her sudden appearance prompting them to lurch backwards, while Ruby flared her cloak out to either side, channeling every last ounce of Aura she had left into the move, the red garment swelling to encompass the entire squad of men, while the intensity of the light and heat emitting from the fragments of Cinder's arrows reached their peak.
A wave of explosions erupted across the space in front of the elevators, filling the air with flames and smoke. The shockwaves shook the tower's entire structure. The windows ringing the wall shattered outwards, sending fragments of glass scattering into the empty courtyard below.
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