The simulated dilapidated skyline of Vale rose around them, towers of broken glass and steel catching the faint reflection of the fake broken, crimson moon made from training lights. Everything was a simulation.
Even the ball was simulated and appeared directly in Blake's hands. She wasted no time. With a flick of her wrist and a burst of motion later, she scaled the side of a high-rise like a shadow, Yang right on her heels. Her squadmate's laughter echoed as she launched herself up after Blake, gauntlets flaring golden with compressed kinetic charge.
"We're taking this upstairs," Yang called down, her grin a flash of teeth. "Try and keep up!"
Weiss's eyes narrowed from the ground level, rapier raised at the ready. Ruby bounced lightly beside her, already crouched in anticipation like a sprinter at the starting line, training scythe by her side.
"They're going high. That means Blake's planning something," Weiss said coldly.
Ruby hummed. "Good. I can't wait to test out my new rune."
Up top, Blake already had her plan in motion. Her Phantom rune flickered once, and suddenly there were three Blakes sprinting in different directions across the rooftop edges. The clones were more than just illusions—they had weight and could interact with the environment for the short seconds they lived. That was all Blake needed.
"Distract Ruby," Yang barked, already punching her gauntlets together. The recoil blast sent a small shockwave rippling outward, scattering some debris from the simulation's rooftop. She had energy to spare, and more to gather if Ruby took the bait. "I'll keep Weiss off your back."
Blake didn't bother replying. She let the clones split apart—one diving straight toward Ruby's trajectory, the other scaling further up, while the real Blake ducked low and sprinted into shadow.
Below, Weiss thrust her rapier skyward. Instantly, a cascade of ice bloomed like frozen constellations. The ice twisted, expanded, and solidified into massive structures coiling around the buildings, serpentine walls of frost snaking higher and higher.
"Ruby—herding maneuver," Weiss commanded.
"On it!" Ruby shot forward in a blur, her boots skidding across one of Weiss's freshly formed ice ridges. The wall groaned under the velocity, shards spraying outward as Ruby blurred her way up like a crimson streak of light.
The serpents of ice carried her into striking distance. Blake saw her coming.
Three Blakes leapt in unison, darting across rooftops. The real one hid among them, each clone buying her precious seconds.
Ruby's grin widened. "A game of guess-who, huh?"
She blurred sideways, angling toward the nearest clone. Her rifle snapped into her hands from her back, magazine clicking. A shot rang out, not at Blake's chest but down at the rooftop itself.
The simulated concrete exploded into a shower of fragments, dissipating into motes of light.
From below Ruby, Yang shot upward with a roar, fist cocked back and her other arm slamming against her rune frame. The kinetic discharge howled like a thunderclap, sending a shockwave surging through the ice wall Ruby had been riding.
Ruby twisted, boots catching briefly on one of Blake's clone's face before it dissolved into shadow. She flipped over Yang's fist, landing upside-down in midair, gun braced against her shoulder.
Her finger squeezed.
Bang!
The bullet, accelerated far beyond its nonlethal setting by her rune, zipped not toward Yang's chest, but toward her footing— the exact ledge Yang was vaulting from.
The building's edge shattered.
Yang's boot slipped. Her eyes widened in surprise as her forward momentum pitched awkwardly.
"Seriously?!" Yang cursed, flailing before gravity claimed her. "Ruby, that's cheating!"
"Not my fault you're heavy!" Ruby shouted back with a laugh.
Yang plummeted. She slammed her gauntlets together, firing a desperate kinetic burst to soften her descent. The shockwave cracked the simulated ground as she landed with a grunt, knees bending deep. She grimaced, shaking off the stumble. "Ow. Okay, that's it. No more nice Yang."
From the shadows below, a blade of ice erupted. Weiss stepped out of the serpent wall as if the city itself was giving her an entrance. Her eyes were locked on Yang, her rapier glowing faint blue.
"You've left yourself open."
Yang's teeth flashed in a grin. "Bring it on!"
Weiss lunged, her rapier slicing. Yang twisted, blocking with a gauntlet—but the impact wasn't just steel. Weiss's Rune flared, generating a burst of concussive wind force that skidded Yang backward.
Meanwhile, above them, Ruby finally caught Blake's trail.
Or thought she did.
Another clone darted across a rooftop edge. Ruby fired again, clipping it—and it dissipated into smoke.
The real Blake was already crouched behind a cooling unit, clutching the ball tight against her chest. Her heart pounded, her breathing steady, ears tuned to the rhythm of Ruby's slides. Every clone was one more thread in a web she spun to keep Ruby second-guessing.
Ruby's laughter echoed off glass walls as she blurred around, chasing shadows. "C'mon, Blake! Gimme a real chase!"
Blake didn't answer. She vaulted up, silent as midnight.
But Ruby anticipated her movements. She was suddenly there—boots skidding across another ice ridge Weiss had set up as a stepping stone. Her rifle was leveled, the muzzle aimed straight at the ball in Blake's arms.
Blake's eyes narrowed. In a flash, she dropped the ball, spun, and created another clone. The clone scooped the ball midair and bolted in the opposite direction.
Ruby's shot slammed into the clone, bursting it apart in a mist of dark smoke. The ball clattered to the rooftop.
Ruby lunged—
—but Blake was already there, her blade intercepting Ruby's rifle. Metal clanged. Sparks flew.
Ruby's grin widened. "Knew you'd show up."
Below, Yang and Weiss's duel escalated. Weiss's precise strikes and ice barriers forced Yang into tight corners, cutting off her routes with frozen walls and explosive flames. Yang barreled through them with sheer force, gauntlets detonating shockwaves that shook the simulated street.
"You're way too stiff, Weiss!" Yang shouted, launching another ground-pound shockwave that sent Weiss skidding backward. "Lighten up already!"
"This isn't about lightening up," Weiss snapped back, catching herself on an ice platform. "It's about discipline. Which you lack!"
The clash of philosophy only fueled their strikes.
Above them, Ruby and Blake blurred across rooftops, their fight like a dance of light and shadow. Blake's clones flickered, each one forcing Ruby to adapt on the fly, but Ruby's grin never faltered—each clone was just another excuse for her to push Accel further, to test herself against chaos.
The miniature city simulation rang with gunshots, shattering ice, and the thunder of kinetic blasts.
Weiss's rapier flickered in steady arcs, each thrust and cut tracing geometric shapes of pressure. Every strike carried more than just steel—it came with a slicing wind blast or a column of shattering frost. Yang had her hands full, dodging around walls that coiled into place like giant frozen jaws.
But mid-dodge, an odd thought wormed its way into Yang's head.
She backpedaled from a wind burst, boots grinding sparks against the fractured street, and suddenly shouted, "Hey, Weiss! Where's your ball?"
Weiss's eyes widened fractionally. That was all it took.
Yang smirked, even as she ducked under a razor-edge shard of conjured ice. "You little smart bitch. Don't tell me you don't have it on you?"
Weiss clicked her tongue, annoyed at her own slip. "Hey! No cursing! And beside, no one said we couldn't hide the ball."
Yang barked out a laugh, even while twisting aside from another ice lance. "That's cheating!"
"It's strategy," Weiss snapped, her precision never faltering. She carved a sweeping arc, wind pressure exploding outward.
Yang raised an arm to block, and the shockwave hurled her back a step. Even so, she was grinning like a maniac. "Figures. You'd be the type to write new rules into a game halfway through it."
Weiss's cool gaze didn't waver, but the faintest twitch at the corner of her mouth betrayed her.
Yang didn't press her advantage with words. Instead, she planted her gauntleted fists firmly in front of her chest. Another blast of wind came—this time she didn't dodge.
WHAM!
The elemental gust collided against her braced frame, and her gauntlets thrummed with absorbed energy. The kinetic charge swelled, coursing down her body in golden rivulets of light. She sucked in a breath, channeled it to her boots, and then detonated it.
The ground cratered beneath her from the release. In the next heartbeat, Yang shot skyward like a cannon shell.
Her hair trailed streaks of firelight as she tore upward through the simulation, heading straight for the duel above.
Ruby and Blake were locked in a furious dance.
Ruby's scythe carved bright crescents through the air, her body blurring from ledge to rooftop in streaks of crimson. Blake met her pace with shadows and precision, her katana intercepting the scythe in sparks and ringing metal.
Each time Ruby gained ground, Blake peeled it back with another Phantom clone. Five shadows. Six. Seven. The rooftop filled with dancing Blakes, each swinging a katana, each darting to intercept Ruby's trajectory.
"Too slow!" Ruby taunted, her laughter echoing through the steel canyons. She blurred forward—one clone bisected, then another, each dissolving into motes of black light.
Blake's eyes narrowed, her breath steady even as her aura reserves started to wane. The clones weren't meant to last forever, but they didn't need to. Every one cost her—but every one forced Ruby to commit, forced her to chase the wrong target.
But Ruby wasn't slowing. Her Accel rune burned across her frame, each step building momentum, each swing carrying her closer to the real Blake. Her boots skid-slashed sparks across the rooftop as she blurred in tight circles, slicing through phantoms like paper dolls.
"Got you!" Ruby spun, her scythe catching against Blake's katana and locking it.
Steel ground against steel. The two locked eyes—Ruby's grin wild, Blake's calm but intense.
Then, suddenly—
"RUBY!"
The shout came from below.
Ruby's instincts flared too late. Yang rocketed up from the street below, gauntlets glowing like miniature suns. For a split second, she blurred, using a flash step that most enhancer type runes could do. It was almost like she was using Ruby's own Accel, herself.
Yang's fist was already there, in Ruby's face.
Ruby's eyes widened.
Her body suddenly shattered into pieces.
Petals. Dozens, hundreds of them—crimson and soft, weightless. They exploded outward in a shockwave, fluttering across the rooftop like a sudden spring storm. Yang's punch blew through the petals harmlessly, scattering them in every direction.
"What the—?!" Yang spun midair, trying to follow. The petals drifted past her, intangible and mocking. "Ruby?!"
Down below, Weiss tilted her head upward just as a tide of petals cascaded around her. She raised her rapier, not to strike but to track.
The petals swirled together, red motes coalescing into a humanoid silhouette. In the blink of an eye, Ruby was there again—whole but breathing heavily, Scythe twirling in her grip.
She landed beside Weiss, boots crunching simulated glass. Her cheeks were flushed, eyes alight.
"My new run, Bloom works really well!" she gasped, breathless but thrilled. "I knew it would!"
Weiss gave her a sidelong glance. "Your habit of breaking physics will give me gray hairs."
Ruby just grinned, rubbing the back of her neck. "Hey, better petals than a face full of Yang's fist."
Up above, Yang cursed as she kicked off the air, twisting into a sharp descent. She slammed into the rooftop beside Blake with enough force to send cracks spiderwebbing across the simulation's surface.
Her gauntlets hissed as she reloaded their charge, eyes cutting toward her partner. "They hid their ball, Blake. That's why we haven't seen it."
Blake's calm expression faltered. "…Hidden?"
"Yup. Weiss pretty much admitted it." Yang smirked, rolling her shoulders. "Cheating, but clever."
Blake's clones fizzled one by one, finally dissipating as her aura thinned. She exhaled, steadying her grip on the ball. "…Then all the more reason to keep ours intact."
Yang slammed a fist into her palm, grin wide. "Fine by me. You hold, I hit. Let's crush them."
Blake nodded once. Her stance lowered, katana at the ready, shadows licking at her ankles. She wasn't smiling, but the fire in her amber eyes matched Yang's.
On the street below, Weiss raised a shimmering barrier of ice in front of Ruby, serpentine coils knitting tighter around the block. "Their attention will shift toward finding our ball. That means they'll be more aggressive."
Ruby lifted her rifle, and her lips curved into a sharp grin. "Good. That means I get to test Bloom and Accel together, now."
Weiss eyed her cautiously. "You're sure this… dispersal trick of yours is reliable?"
Ruby's grin widened. "Worked just fine against Yang, didn't it?"
Weiss sighed through her nose. "…Very well. Just don't get reckless."
Ruby twirled her weapon once, eyes gleaming with excitement. "Reckless is kinda my thing."
The fake city trembled underfoot, neon signs flickering in the simulation's skyline. Overhead, Yang and Blake's silhouettes loomed at the edge of the rooftop, poised for a fresh strike.
The next round was about to begin.
Yang cracked her knuckles, still brimming with leftover charge from Weiss's blasts. "So, what now? We hunt the ball? Split up? Smash through Weiss and Ruby?"
Blake's amber eyes slid toward her, calm but calculating. "No. I have a better plan."
Yang tilted her head, intrigued. "Oh? Do tell, partner."
Blake's grip on her katana tightened. "If Weiss hid the ball, it's most likely in the ice. Either buried inside one of her walls or hidden in the buildings. We don't have time to chase her around looking for it." She straightened, gaze unwavering. "So we don't look. We destroy it. All of it. The walls. The streets. The buildings. If Weiss buried the ball in the simulation's terrain, then wiping out the terrain will wipe out the ball too."
For a moment, Yang just stared—then her grin spread slow and wicked across her face. "You want me to nuke the whole damn block?"
"Yes," Blake said simply. "With one blast."
Yang's eyes gleamed, firelight practically sparking in her irises. "I like it. Question is—how are we gonna crank me up high enough to make that happen?"
Blake's tone was deadpan, but her lip twitched like she knew Yang would hate the answer. "I hit you. Over and over. Until you're burning with enough charge to level everything."
Yang blinked. Then she let out a bark of laughter. "You serious? You are serious. You're gonna beat me up to make me stronger. You're a sadist, Blake."
Blake rolled her eyes and muttered, "It's called strategy, Yang. Don't make it weird."
Yang snorted, still chuckling. "Fine, fine. Go ahead. Just don't get carried away—I'd hate to find out my partner's been waiting for a socially acceptable excuse to rough me up."
Blake gave her a flat look, raising her blade in preparation. "Ready?"
"Born ready," Yang grinned, planting her feet wide.
But before Blake could move, the simulation's skyline shuddered. The neon lights above flickered. And from the shadows at the far end of the ruined street, a few massive things crawled out.
Eight jagged legs scraped against glass and steel, the air filling with the screech of tearing metal. Chitin gleamed under the city's false moonlight. A serrated stinger rose high.
A Deathstalker, and not just one.
Three of them.
The street cracked as they scuttled forward in unison, the simulation's fail-safes deciding it was time to crank the difficulty.
Yang's grin sharpened, adrenaline surging. "Right... completely forgot that grimm obstacles were added too, to be honest."
Blake exhaled slowly, katana angling low as shadows flickered at her heels. "Same. Guess we'll have to worry about them now too."
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AN: Power stones? Where art thou?
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