The other matches continued throughout the day, but none could match the ferocity of Team TNPR.
They dominated every round with ruthless precision, each match lasting no longer than twenty seconds.
Even Team RWBY, fueled by pride and competitive fire, tried to chase their record. Ruby pushed her team to move faster, strike harder, and win cleaner. But despite their best efforts, they couldn't break the forty-second mark.
When the scoreboard lit up again, showing the final matchup, the crowd stirred with renewed anticipation.
"We will now hold the final match between Team RWBY and Team TNPR. Please make your way down to the arena."
The entire coliseum erupted into murmurs. The undefeated team against the fastest rising stars, the final match everyone wanted to see.
Ruby spun Crescent Rose once before grinning at her team. "Remember the plan, everyone! We beat them to the punch! If we can put them on the back foot first, we control the fight!"
"Alright, girls," Yang cracked her knuckles, rolling her shoulders with a predatory smirk. "Let's show 'em how it's done!"
Weiss stood tall, taking calm, practiced breaths. Her composure was near regal, until her muttering betrayed her nerves. "Calm and composed… calm and composed… make your sister proud, Weiss."
Blake trailed behind them, silent but focused, her amber eyes flickering toward the opposing team already waiting across the arena floor.
Team TNPR stood like veterans, not students.Tsutsumi stood in the front, unreadable as always. Beside him, Pyrrha radiated quiet confidence; Ren's presence was barely detectable, and Nora's grin promised chaos.
"Are both teams ready?" Glynda asked, her tone steady despite the tension.
"Ready as ever!" Ruby declared, Crescent Rose gleaming under the arena lights.
Tsutsumi merely gave a silent nod to their professor.
Behind Ruby, Yang placed a firm hand on Blake's shoulder.
"Hey," she whispered. "We got this, you hear me? You got my back, and I got yours."Then she flashed that familiar grin. "You and I are gonna wipe that smug, self-satisfied, smarmy, smug look off his face."
"You said smug twice," Blake cut in, cracking a faint smile.
"Yeah, well, he's too damn smug for his own good," Yang said, clapping her hands together. "We're gonna give him the good ol' un-smug treatment!"
Blake exhaled deeply, letting her nerves melt into focus. "Thanks, Yang… and I've got your back too."
Glynda raised her arm. "You may now begin."
The moment her hand dropped, chaos exploded.
"Thunderclap!" Ruby shouted as she shot forward, her speed nearly tearing up the floor.
Blake activated her Semblance, leaving a shadowy clone behind as she darted to the flank, moving like a whisper across stone.
Yang roared, blasting herself forward with white glyphs from Weiss beneath her. Each explosion of Ember Celica catapulted her faster, the shockwaves echoing like thunder. She became a streak of gold barreling straight for the center of Team TNPR.
Nora met her head-on.
Her hammer came down like a meteor, the ground shattering beneath her as a trench ripped across the arena. The explosion of debris turned the floor into a storm of stone and dust.
But Yang was already airborne, vaulting off a glyph with another blast, a blazing comet streaking straight toward Tsutsumi.
He didn't flinch.
Attack Ride: Thunder Spear!
A flash of light, a white rocket, and Yang's charge came to a brutal halt.
The thunder spear struck her square in the gut, her breath leaving her lungs in a single gasp as she was launched high into the rafters before the spear detonated.
The ceiling lights flickered from the blast. Dust and static filled the air.
All eyes turned toward Tsutsumi.
He stood there, his weapon reloaded itself in his hand, as the used Thunder Spear was quickly replaced by another one.
"What the hell?!" someone in the stands coughed, brushing debris from their face.
"Is this guy for real?" another asked, stunned. "He didn't even hesitate!"
"Seriously, does anyone even know where this guy came from?"
Even his teammates couldn't help but glance at him. Pyrrha's brow furrowed, Nora blinked in mild surprise, and even Ren tilted his head.
Tsutsumi turned, giving them a silent look that said focus. All three immediately turned back to the fight.
Blake ducked behind a boulder the moment his gaze swept toward her. Her heart skipped.
"Damn it," she muttered, pressing her back against the rock.
She waited for the thunder spears to start raining down, but… nothing came. Instead, she saw him turn away, toward Ruby and Weiss.
"He's playing with me," she hissed through clenched teeth.
There was no reason for him to spare her. No tactical advantage. He simply… didn't care.
His hand flicked, and another thunder spear shot through the air. Weiss flinched as the explosion rocked her glyphs, cracks spiderwebbing across their luminous surface. She grit her teeth and reinforced them, barely keeping her footing.
Ruby fired round after round from Crescent Rose, keeping Pyrrha and Nora at bay. The explosive rounds tore craters into the arena, but the two advanced relentlessly, moving with the rhythm of seasoned hunters. Every time Ruby reloaded, they pushed further, using the rubble Nora created as their cover.
Weiss struggled to maintain her defenses while erecting walls of ice to slow them down. But the pressure was mounting fast.
Blake peeked out from her cover, assessing the situation. Weiss was faltering. Ruby's rate of fire was slowing. Yang was still down.
And Ren...
Her stomach dropped. "Where the hell is Ren?" she called out, scanning the arena.
Even with her Faunus senses, she couldn't hear him.
"Damn it," she hissed. "To hell with the plan!"
Her teammates couldn't last much longer if she stayed put.
Blake burst from cover, Gambol Shroud blazing in her hands as she unleashed a volley of shots straight at Tsutsumi.
In a single fluid motion, he dismissed the thunder spear and drew a sword with the blade that looked oddly like a massive box cutter. He spun it, deflecting every bullet.
"Give me a break!" Blake snapped, diving behind cover again to reload.
The answer came in the form of another volley of thunder spears.
She darted sideways, dust and lightning exploding around her. Each spear that hit the ground detonated with terrifying force, carving craters into the arena. One bolt struck a boulder near her, it disintegrated into dust on impact.
"Got it, hiding's not an option anymore!" she muttered to herself with grim humor.
Then a spear whistled through the air, dead center.
Blake's reflexes saved her. She slashed it mid-flight, splitting it in half, but the instant it broke, it exploded point-blank. The blast threw her backward, rolling across the scorched ground.
Her ears rang as she forced herself back to her feet, only to see more thunder spears arcing through the air toward her.
She sprinted. The floor erupted behind her with every step, lightning chasing her shadow.
What started as a fight had turned into a game of cat and mouse.
"DON'T COUNT ME OUT JUST YET!" Yang's roar shook the rafters as she blasted out of the ceiling in a fiery explosion of momentum and debris.
Without hesitation, Tsutsumi spun on his heels, fingers pulling back the trigger of his weapon. In one fluid motion, another Thunder Spear launched straight toward her, faster than the eye could follow.
The explosion threw Yang back into the hole she'd just emerged from. The entire exchange took less than a second. It was brutal, efficient, and sadly comedic how utterly Tsutsumi dealt with her.
"No way!" someone from the crowd gasped as dust rained down from the ceiling.
"He actually sent her back up!" another shouted.
And yet Tsutsumi didn't even smirk. His expression remained unreadable, bored, even.
Using the brief opening Yang's failed attack provided, Blake darted forward. Her body blurred in motion as she spun Gambol Shroud and hurled it with all her strength. The hybrid weapon sang through the air.
Tsutsumi's gaze snapped toward her the instant it left her hand. Without a flicker of emotion, he switched back to his blade and struck once. A metallic clang rang out, knocking her weapon aside like a toy in target practice.
She pulled her weapon back by its long ribbon. For a fleeting heartbeat, they locked eyes. Then Tsutsumi tilted his head toward the ground, toward her weapon lying several meters away. He gave a faint smirk and motioned with his chin, silently telling her to go fetch it. Almost like he was giving her a head start.
"Cocky jerk," Blake muttered under her breath as she turned and sprinted. "You really fight like an asshole!"
Her muscles burned as she weaved between chunks of broken stone, squeezing off pistol shots whenever she had the chance. Sweat trickled down her neck, and her breathing quickened as she fought to keep his attention and his fire away from her teammates.
Then, a Thunder Spear whistled past her cheek and exploded just ahead, the shockwave tossing her through the air like a ragdoll.
"That jerk is toying with me!" she spat, rolling to her feet. "Damn it, Yang! I thought you said you'd have my back!"
Meanwhile, Ruby Rose was in a real pickle.
Her sister had once again blasted herself into the ceiling and was now MIA. Blake was busy playing dodgeball with live ordnance. And Weiss was trying her best to keep Pyrrha and Nora at bay while simultaneously supporting Ruby's assault.
This was not how their plan was supposed to go.
Everything had gone to hell the moment Tsutsumi opened fire.
Yang was supposed to blitz their formation, cause chaos, just like Nora did during her matches. Ruby and Weiss would then provide long-range cover while Blake hunted Ren, the stealth expert.
But now Yang was gone, Blake was forced into an aerial dogfight she couldn't win, and Ruby was down to plan… whatever came after plan D.
Still, she refused to quit. Planting her boots, Ruby racked Crescent Rose and fired a burst at Pyrrha and Nora to buy Weiss breathing room.
And that's when a flicker of motion appeared at the edge of her vision.
Like a ghost stepping out of the shadows, Ren appeared right in front of her, blades already in motion.
"Ahh!" Ruby yelped, throwing herself backward just in time to dodge his downward slash.
Ren pressed forward like a silent predator. His movements were fluid, efficient, and scarily precise. Every step, every strike cut away Ruby's space, keeping her from fully extending her scythe.
"W-What?! You're way too close!" Ruby panicked, trying to create distance. But Ren wasn't having it.
He lunged again, Storm Flowers flashing. Ruby met his blades mid-strike with Crescent Rose, but he twisted his wrists, hooking her weapon with the underbarrel blades and pulling.
"Grrr! You're not taking my baby from me!" Ruby growled, locking her boots into the dirt.
The two struggled in a battle of strength and leverage. Ruby's muscles screamed as she pulled back, refusing to let go. Then, an idea flickered in her head.
Her eyes sharpened. "Heh, gotcha."
With her free hand, she squeezed the trigger. Crescent Rose kicked hard, the recoil snapping the weapon backward. Ruby planned to use the force to break Ren's grip.
But Ren, somehow anticipating it, released his hold at the perfect instant.
He tossed both his pistols upward, snatched her weapon's handle mid-motion, yanked back the charging lever, ejected the round, and locked the bolt, all in one impossibly smooth sequence.
Then, before Ruby could process what was happening, he mule-kicked her square in the stomach.
"Oof!"
Her breath exploded from her lungs. She staggered, clutching her midsection.
And in that instant, Crescent Rose was ripped from her hands.
"N-No!" she gasped, watching helplessly as her baby, her beautiful, beloved, carefully-tuned scythe, flew through the air.
It spun once, twice… and landed neatly at Tsutsumi's feet.
Tsutsumi glanced down at it. Then up at Ruby.
The faintest smile tugged at the corner of his lips.
Ruby's blood ran cold.
"Oh, you've got to be kidding me…" she whispered.
She activated her Semblance out of panic and retreated to Weiss.
"R-Ruby?!" Weiss yelped in surprise. Sweat clung to her forehead, her chest rising and falling in exhaustion from fending off Pyrrha and Nora alone. "Where'd you go? Where's your weapon? What happened?!"
"Ren took it!"
"He took it?" she echoed, disbelief in her tone. "What do you mean he took it? You are Ruby Rose, and you're saying he just took it from you?"
"Yes!" Ruby shouted, frustration cracking through her voice. "He stole it from me and tossed it over to Tsutsumi!"
"Well, that's just peachy, isn't it?" Weiss bit back sarcastically, throwing up another wall of ice that bought them a moment to breathe. "What do we do now, Ruby? We're in a bad spot here, and while I'm confident in my own skills, I don't think I can handle both Pyrrha and Nora at the same time. We need a plan, and we need it now!"
"I…" Ruby's silver eyes darted in every direction, her mind racing for a solution. "I…"Ren prowled along the sides, watching and waiting for his opening as Pyrrha and Nora broke through the latest ice wall. "I…"
Weiss shrieked as the two advanced. "Ruby?! Hello? Anything?!"
"I don't know!" Ruby blurted out.
"What do you mean you don't know?" Weiss cried, panic lacing her voice. "You need to know now!"She grunted as she blocked Nora's blow with a glyph. The gravity pulse sent the hammer-wielder stumbling back, only for Pyrrha to close in with a quick thrust. Weiss switched Myrtenaster's dial and unleashed a burst of flame, forcing the Mistral Champion to retreat.
"We… I-"
The ground suddenly shook. A yellow blur slammed into the dirt between them and Team TNPR. Dust billowed up, and everyone froze for a heartbeat.
Yang's silhouette emerged through the haze, fists clenched, eyes burning with fury. Ruby didn't even need to see her face to know: her sister was absolutely livid.
"Yang!"
Relief and hope surged through Ruby's chest. This was what they needed. With Yang here, the tide could still turn. Plans started clicking into place: retrieve her weapon, deal with Nora, corner Pyrrha. Then Yang and Blake could handle Tsutsumi and Ren. With all four of them together again, victory wasn't out of reach.
Tsutsumi tilted his head slightly, expression unreadable.
"You shoot another rocket at me," Yang hissed, her voice low and dangerous, "and I'm gonna lose it."
"Uh oh…" Ruby gulped.
The leader of Team TNPR grinned in response. The thunder spears vanished from his hands, replaced by his Rider Book gun mode. He raised it and fired the bullet whizzed past Yang's shoulder, missing by inches.
"Nice aim," she taunted with a smirk.
His eyes flicked toward her feet.
Ruby followed his gaze and froze. A few golden strands drifted to the ground near Yang's boots. Her stomach dropped.
"Oh no… oh no, no, no, no!"
"You…" Yang growled, voice trembling with rage.
"Wait!" Ruby shouted desperately. She knew exactly what Tsutsumi was doing, baiting her sister into a trap. "Yang! You need to calm down! Wait! Stop!"
"YOU'RE DEAD TSUTSUMI!"