Capítulo 152: 54
Chapter 54 - Jauney parts
"You both ready?" Ruby asked, stood in the middle of the arena with one hand held in the air. Blake didn't feel ready, not when Yang was on the other side, double checking her gauntlets with a smile that could only have been called predatory.
Blake didn't feel ready at all.
"You've got this," Jaune nodded from beside her, eyes focused on their opponent. "I believe in you."
"Any idea on how I win this?" she whispered.
"Hell no…" He raised a ghostly brow. "I said I believed in you, not that I thought this was humanly possible. I'm not a miracle worker."
"You just expect me to be," Blake sighed. Great.
"Well you worked a miracle with me, didn't you? I shouldn't even be here."
That was true, though the way he said it made the statement sound incredibly corny. That was likely her own expectations speaking, since she still wasn't sure what to do about his feelings. Unless she was about to learn how to summon the souls of the deceased and set them upon her partner, she was still up a creak without a paddle.
"Ready," Blake called – if only because delaying any further would raise questions. Weiss nodded from the side lines. Chances were, she was just looking for something to do. Her position in their final team was clear. Her control of dust, not to mention her glyphs, made her a dangerous team player, but ultimately weaker in a one vs one scenario.
Honestly, Blake was surprised it was Ruby who didn't even comment on being left out of consideration. That was just the kind of girl she was, however. That, or she was just being so competitive that she didn't care who won, so long as Team RWBY was involved.
"I'm ready too!" Yang called.
"Break a leg."
"How?"
"Begin!" Ruby's hand came down, marking the end of her whispered conversation and the beginning of something much more pressing. Blake knew her partner well, which was for the best since it was enough to have Blake ducking to the side almost instantly. Yang's fist passed through the space her head had once occupied, coincidentally beheading Jaune at the same time as the blonde followed through. He took it better than Blake would have, however, so she ducked back and fired off a few quick shots to try and put some distance between them.
Distance was good. Distance was very good. Some people made the mistake of assuming she was a close-ranged fighter, but her weapon was as misleading as she was. Gambol Shroud may have had the shape of a cleaver, but its biggest advantage was the cutting edge and ribbon, which allowed her to attack and disengage quickly while tangling her foe's arms and legs. For that she needed space, enough to plan an approach and retreat without being struck. Hit and run, the mainstays of the White Fang itself. That had been its initial design, after all. Now put to a much noble purpose.
"You'll have to do better than that Blakey!" The issue was more her opponent, who while not an intellectual like Weiss or her, was by no means stupid. Yang knew Blake's just as well, and closed the distance by firing some blasts behind her. Both Ruby and Yang made use of dust shells for propulsion in that way, she wondered if it was something they'd picked up from their family – a style of some sorts that had been passed down.
"Should I try and possess her?" Jaune cried as Blake was pushed back. Yang hit like a truck, unafraid to punch straight into the flat of Gambol Shroud, sending vibrations up Blake's arm. The faunus nodded wildly, knowing Yang might get suspicious if she spoke out loud. She would have liked to track his progress, but she was too busy ducking and weaving to avoid Yang's careful strikes, blocking a knee with one arm while using her ribbon to guide Yang's left haymaker aside.
"You're good at dodging," the blonde laughed, "But you need to start attacking partner."
"Why?" Blake smirked. "It's all going according to my plan."
"It is?" Jaune asked, trying to push himself into Yang's body. Of course it wasn't, but they didn't know that – or at least she hoped Yang didn't. Even a moment's hesitation was a chance for her to disengage and catch some breathing room. "It's not working," Jaune shouted. "She's harder to get into than the Beowolf!"
Somehow that didn't surprise Blake in the slightest. If Jaune had thought that possessing a mind without thoughts was difficult, then she couldn't imagine how wild Yang's would have been. That was still bad, though, since it left Blake in a one vs one with the girl.
She'd have taken the unfair advantage in a heartbeat.
"We need some kind of edge," Jaune mused as he floated beside her.
No kidding! Blake fell back under a rain of heavy attacks, Gambol Shroud barely turning away blows at the last second. Did Yang even get tired – could she even strike back for fear of activating her partner's completely unfair semblance?
"Maybe we can… nah, that would never work." The mention of a semblance reminded Blake of her own, a clone taking the next blow as she flipped backwards twice and fired off some quick shots. Yang didn't dodge them, instead she took them with a vicious grin, no doubt feeding off their energy as she closed the gap.
"A little faster please…" Blake whispered and brought up another clone, diving to the left as Yang reduced it to nothingness. She rummaged in her pockets quickly, looking for anything that might help. There was the bear, but without Jaune it was just that and of no use. It might make Yang pause for a second, but she'd just politely set it aside before recommencing the massacre. Some dust rounds? She'd been saving them for the tournament, but this was a worthy exception. The half-used magazine slipped from the butt of her weapon, the other slamming into place with a satisfying click.
"Wait, you can use dust?" Blake grinned as she felt the power suffuse her weapon. He hadn't seen, of course, since he'd been gallivanting off goodness knew where when she'd been introducing Torchwick to vengeance. Well he was about to get a nice surprise.
Yang jumped into the air, spinning elegantly as she fired a single shotgun blast behind her in what had to be quite the difficult manoeuvre. Blake took aim at her face, squeezing the trigger twice just to make Yang's arms come up to cover her face. Dust swirled as she activated her semblance once more, throwing herself to the side as Yang landed and lunged at the clone.
"Whoah!" The force of the explosion was impressive, fire crackling wildly as Yang was tossed back several feet. She handled it well, bouncing twice before using her hands to flip herself over and brush some soot off her cheek.
"Sneaky," she said – for all the world looking pleased with Blake's trick. "I like it."
"There's more where that came from," Blake smirked and crooked a finger towards her.
"How much more?" Jaune whispered.
"Not enough…" Dust was expensive, more so because the White Fang had been stealing it all. Even Weiss had a limited supply, though given that she was the heiress of the SDC, the word limited was a little subjective. "It's a bluff. I can't keep this up all day."
"Can you combine all the dust into one clone?" Blake gave him a wide-eyed look. She could, but it would be pretty damn stupid, considering how volatile it was. "Look you're running out of options fast. Do you trust me?"
"I trust you," she said softly. "But I don't trust you to know the smallest thing about chemistry or dust. Do you have any idea how stupid that sounds?"
"As stupid as trying to fight Yang Xiao-Long?"
"Touché…"
Well, it was either that or defeat, she supposed. A hysterical part of her mind thought back to the first meeting between Weiss and Ruby, which Blake could have honestly prevented except for the fact that she'd been looking for a chance to tear the arrogant Schnee down a step or two. That had been a single bottle of dust, whereas this was going to be several cartridges.
And he calls my plans insane… Blake sighed as Yang roared and charged in once more. She parried and dodged the initial assault, knowing Yang wouldn't fall for an obvious clone straight off the bat. Maybe Jaune was insane, but she was clearly worse for going along with it. Blake slapped her ribbon into Yang's face, obscuring her vision for a second while also drawing on all the dust in Gambol Shroud and infusing it into a clone.
She'd have loved to have a second to make a run for it… but vision obscured, Yang lashed out to ward off a random attack.
A shame she hadn't taught her clones to dodge.
"Blake!? Blake!"
She could hear him, even though she couldn't hear anything else. The world was ringing in her ears, her vision completely white as the explosive flash burned her retinas. Deprived of sight and sound she felt alone and lost.
"Listen to me Blake, swing Gambol Shroud to your left!"
Except that she could hear him, because for some reason his voice was not limited by the rules of nature of physics. Even deafened as she was, his words were spoken spiritually, or maybe telepathically… they still didn't know. Either way she followed his advice, swinging wildly. It connected with something, though if it was Yang she couldn't tell on account of still not being able to see or hear anything. She nearly staggered and fell a second later, however, unable to tell what was up and what was down.
The ringing started to lessen, black spots appearing before her eyes.
"I can't see!" Blake hissed, too gone to consider that anyone might have heard her. If anyone was close enough for that, then they'd have likely been deafened by the blast too.
"Let me!" She felt him beside her, or maybe within her, she couldn't tell. A cool sensation, like being slowly dipped into freezing water, washed over her, followed by a cool numbness in her left arm.
"What are you doing?" she whispered, afraid and uncertain. She felt his emotions too, a wave of determination, focus and admiration.
"Don't panic. I can still see. Follow my lead."
She nodded. His eyes… they weren't real, which meant whatever had happened hadn't affected him. It was probably a blast of light, like a flashbang going off before them when her clone exploded. The ice or lightning dust, perhaps… it must have reacted badly. Her left arm lunged forward, almost dragging her body along with it before her legs stumbled forward in an attempt to keep up.
In any other situation such an attack would have been limp and awkward, it probably still was. But she could feel it connect, her knuckles stinging as she struck flesh that gave way before her. She thought to attack with the right too, only to lose balance as Jaune wrenched her arm to the side, the sudden pain on the back of her arm telling her that'd blocked a blow Yang must have thrown in reply.
"God's sake… even blind and stumbling around she still hits like a truck." Jaune whined. He might have called it something else, but in her mind if he was complaining about one hit, when Blake had to spar with this girl all the time? Then it was totally whining.
You've only got til she recovers to win, Blake thought to herself. Even if Yang came out worse from the attack, Blake could feel her aura ebbing low, no doubt trying to repair the damage. If Jaune didn't bring an end to this soon, then she wasn't going to win.
"Let me have that," he whispered into her ear, her own left hand scrabbling with her right as it tried to take Gambol Shroud away. She exchanged it awkwardly, the act of passing a weapon from one hand to another somehow more difficult because she couldn't control one of them. She felt him attack, her elbow striking into something before wrapping around soft hair. "Call surrender!"
"Give up!" Blake yelled at the top of her voice, hoping he was right. "The match is over!"
A whistle blared, the sound just about reaching her ears through the haze. Even so, the woman in her arms was still. Yang could feel the blade against what Blake assumed was her throat, even if she couldn't see or hear, she knew what that meant.
With a hysterical, little laugh, Blake let it fall to her side. She'd done it… or rather, they'd done it.
It took another minute or two for the white to creep out of her vision, at which point her eyes still ached but she could see the smile Yang levelled towards her. "That was bull," the blonde giggled. "Absolutely bull… but I guess you won."
"I guess I did," Blake smiled and held a hand out, lifting Yang to her feet. "You're not mad?" She had cheated after all, badly at that. Yang deserved to feel sore over it.
"Nahh," but of course she didn't… that was just the kind of person her partner was. "But since I know you can fight like this, I'm gonna push you even harder in training Blakey."
"Ugh…"
"That was awesome!" Ruby gushed.
"You mean stupid," Weiss' hands were on her hips. "Do I need to find a pamphlet for you too, Blake? You of all people!?"
"Desperate times call for desperate measures," Blake shrugged an apology. "But anything to win the tournament, right?"
"You said it," Yang laughed. "Welp. A deal's a deal… if we get through the 4v4's, then you can be in the 2v2's with Weiss-cream."
"Thank you Yang…" Blake whispered.
"But there is one thing," the blonde sighed and crossed her arms. "Could you maybe be a little less smug about it?"
"Wha-?" Blake recoiled, surprised that they would suggest such a thing. She felt glad to have won, of course, but no one had ever accused her of being a bad winner. Even this fight, it hadn't been her victory so much as Jaune's. They'd cheated more than anything.
Yang nodded behind Blake, making her turn around.
"Erk…" There was her left arm, hand clenched into a fist, thrust up into the sky and rocking back and forth in a celebratory motion.
"Victory!" It screamed, though maybe only to her. "Victory!" Blake's right hand slapped onto her shoulder, dragging it down even as it continued to try and break free.
"Heh heh… ignore it." Blake tried to smile, ignoring the bead of sweat that dribbled down her forehead. Yang gave her a strange look before sighing.
"And you call my sense of humour weird…" Yang shook her head. "Well I don't know about you, but I'm gonna find somewhere to sit down while my head stops spinning. You coming?"
"Yeah, sure…" Blake faked a smile as the others followed after Yang. She would go after them in a moment, but right now she couldn't stop staring at her left hand, at the way her fingers were opening and closing experimentally.
"I can control your arm?" Jaune crowed. "That's awesome!"
Not the words I would have used… This… she had no idea. Was it an advantage, or some terrible disaster waiting to happen. It was too soon to tell.
"Oooh…" Jaune giggled, and Blake looked down to realise her fingers had settled around her left breast, giving a tentative squeeze. "Softer than I imagined."
"Don't imagine my breasts," Blake snapped. Wait, hang on a minute. "Don't grope my breasts."
"Technically, you're groping your breasts."
God damn it Jaune…
Status de energia semanal
-- Ranking de
Poder 
-- Pedra de
Poder