It was a quiet night in the forests of central Anima.

The air was calm, the trees were still, local animals were either asleep or hunkered down, and above it all the pale light of Remnant's broken moon shone down on the land.

It was a good night for a hunt.

And traveling along an old dirt trail through that forest was a young huntress on the lookout for prey.

Ruby Rose ignored the chill of the night air biting at her face. Even if the cold was something to worry about, she had her red cloak pulled around herself and hood pulled over her head. Instead, she kept her eyes focused for any movement among the trees and ears open to any telltale snapping of twigs or cracking of branches.

Ruby was on both a patrol and scouting run tonight. For the past week, she and the rest of the impromptu Team RNJR (herself, Nora, Jaune and Ren) had been traveling with a convoy of refugees recently driven from their village by a Grimm attack. The convoy was headed east towards a larger settlement, and as they had no professional huntsmen or huntresses with them, Team RNJR had volunteered to provide the refugees an escort.

The convoy was currently hunkered down on a bluff about three klicks back west for the night, and Ruby was now scouting their route ahead, as well as cleaning out any Grimm that might be waiting for them along it.

So far, Ruby's patrol had been largely productive. She'd already cleared out a few roving packs of Beowulves, plus a few stray Ursas (including an Alpha), and spotted what was almost certainly a Death Stalker hive that they should probably avoid. Ruby had also confirmed that the old bridge over the ravine a little ways to the east was indeed out as the convoy's leader suspected, but she'd also confirmed that there was a viable crossing just a klick and a half to the south, a detour which would rather conveniently take the convoy away from that Death Stalker hive.

All in all, Ruby considered her night to be fairly successful as she exited the woods, following the tree line towards a road. Right now, she was circling around back towards the camp, following the new detoured route, hopefully making it back in time to catch at least a couple hours of sleep before the convoy set out in the morning.

A twig snapped somewhere behind her and Ruby felt her body tense.

Honed danger instincts tingled ever so slightly. Whatever it was, it didn't make Ruby's skin crawl like Grimm did, but even so…

"Is someone there?" Ruby called out as she turned towards the tree line twenty meters to her right, fingers trailing along Crescent Rose.

Between the trees, Ruby's eyes picked out a shadow shifting.

Out of the forest stepped a tall figure dressed all in black. Their head and face above the nose were obscured by a hood, though Ruby could make out the lower edge of what might be a mask. Beneath that was a loose-fitting long coat colored pitch-black, above a pair of same-colored trousers and shoes. Ruby could also make out a glimpse of a crimson undershirt beneath the coat, and the edge of similarly colored patterns along the coattails.

The whole look reminded Ruby just a bit of this one samurai character she'd seen in a comic a while back.

"Ruby Rose." The figure spoke, clearly a man from the tone.

"Do I know you?" Ruby replied, eyes narrowed on the man, her hand already pulling Crescent Rose from her hook…

"No," the hooded man growled, "and you won't live long enough to." With a hand on what was clearly a hilt at his side, the man dashed at Ruby.

A blood-red katana blade was unsheathed, glinting in the moonlight as it slashed at Ruby's form…

…and cut nothing but rose petals.

The man seemed confused for a moment, but then noticed the shadow on the ground.

His blade came up just in time to catch the first shot coming from above.

Fifteen meters up at the peak of her jump, silhouetted against the broken moon, Ruby readjusted her aim.

The next shot went a little wild, but it did catch the man in the shoulder.

Also, his blade had… shimmered just a bit when he blocked Ruby's first shot. Ruby filed that away for later.

As soon as Ruby was back on the ground, her attacker was on her. But now Crescent Rose was out, and Ruby was ready for him.

Katana met Scythe. And when two weapons clash, it's almost always the bigger one that comes out on top.

Over and over the Man made lightning-quick slashes at Ruby. And Crescent Rose was spun round and around her mistress, knocking every last blow aside. And with ever spin of the scythe, the man was forced to halt his attack to block, dodge or duck away as the ends of the much longer weapon were brought around.

Then Ruby took a quick step backwards, just avoiding a wide slash. Now Ruby was outside of the Man's effective range with his weapon.

But he was still very much still within the range of her weapon.

And Ruby had timed her step just as she was completing a swing, bringing Crescent Rose around with the Man's head now right in line to catch the back of her blade.

To his credit, the Man did seem to pick up on what Ruby was doing, desperately bringing his blade up in an attempt to block Ruby's incoming blow.

He almost made it.

Ruby was rewarded with a satisfying 'thunk' as the back of Crescent Rose's blade connected with the Man's skull, and while his aura seemed to soak up most of the damage, the blow did manage to knock him off his feet and send him flying.

Even as her attacker managed to land in a crouch, Ruby was bringing Crescent Rose back around, sighting the Man down the barrel and squeezing the trigger three times in quick succession.

The Man was better on the response this time, able to match his sword with Ruby's aim and block all three of the shots. The blade was shimmering again, and stronger with each shot it blocked.

Well, long range combat was going to be a hassle with this guy. Ruby flipped Crescent Rose around with the blade behind her as she cycled another round into the chamber. Better to close the distance and get him back into that sweet spot of just within the reach of Crescent Rose but still outside the reach of his katana.

But right as Ruby was aiming herself to land a little to her attacker's left, the Man did something unexpected.

He sheathed his sword.

And just as Ruby squeezed the trigger on Crescent Rose, the Man's image started to… flicker, and he crouched into what was clearly a ready-stance.

Oh… crap. Ruby had seen more than enough anime in her life to get a pretty good idea at what was coming. Of course, she'd already squeezed Crescent Rose's trigger, so that made things a bit… tricky.

As the recoil of the shot sent Ruby flying forward, she made a split-second activation of her semblance, enveloping herself in a cloud of petals as she pushed herself further to the left.

The Man drew his blade in a flash, the world turned black and red for an instant, and Ruby felt something nip at the edge of her cloak.

Ruby touched down a dozen meters behind the Man and to his left, making sure she'd spun herself around to face him as she dug Crescent Rose's blade into the ground as a brake. Coming to a halt, Ruby made a three-second assessment of herself with a patdown. No apparent cuts, no missing extremities, Crescent Rose didn't feel any different, though Ruby could feel a shallow cut in the side of her cloak that hadn't been there ten seconds ago.

As for her attacker… there was now a burn mark on the ground in front of him that shot out in a thin line a good twenty meters long.

Well that definitely looked like it would have hurt. It seemed like the Man had thought she'd been flying directly at him. If Ruby hadn't already been aiming towards his left… she probably wouldn't have gotten out of that with just a new nick on her cloak.

The Man turned to face Ruby, and Ruby felt a distinct sense of satisfaction as the Man's face definitely contorted into an angry scowl upon seeing that his target was unscathed.

Also… his sword wasn't shimmering anymore.

Ruby felt her lips curl into a very satisfied grin as realization dawned.

So that was this guy's deal. He stored up energy through his sword by soaking up hits, then used it to fire off devastating energy attacks, also through the sword. A pretty useful trick.

Unfortunately for him, that was a style of fighting Ruby had years of experience dealing with.

Honestly, this guy's semblance would probably be easier to deal with compared to Yang's. When Ruby sparred with her sister, there was literally no way to land a hit that didn't power up Yang's semblance. Sparring with Yang always seemed to have an unspoken time limit: Knock her down before she can charge up her semblance, otherwise game over.

With this guy, Ruby just needed to minimize the amount of impacts landed by and onto his sword. For the former, that meant prioritizing dodging over blocking, which was already Ruby's go-to defensive strategy. And for the latter that meant letting him block as little as possible, which was something you kinda always wanted to do in a fight as a general rule. You know, actually hit the guy you're fighting instead of his weapon.

Ruby felt her wide grin settle into a confident smile as she flipped Crescent Rose back for another recoil-boosted rush in. She just about had this jerk's number. Not only that, but he hadn't yet turned to fully face Ruby, which meant that going a little to the left now would put Ruby behind the Man.

Perfect.

As Ruby angled Crescent Rose and prepared to squeeze the trigger, she also noted that she was getting a good look at the Man's scabbard for the first time. He was holding it freely in his left hand, and Ruby could make out what looked to be a trigger near the hand, and what was definitely a barrel at the back of the scabbard. Probably a shotgun given the barrel length, but a carbine wasn't out of the question either.

Ruby accounted for this, adjusted her vector slightly, mentally prepped her semblance again, and squeezed the trigger, rocketing forwards towards her foe.

Right on cue, the Man's left arm shot up, scabbard flipping around in his grasp to reveal three barrels pointed at Ruby.

Unfortunately for him, the Man had once again assumed that Ruby was flying directly at him. He was also a little slower on the draw this time, meaning that Ruby only had to make a minor correction to her flight path.

The barrels roared, releasing a spray of pellets (definitely a shotgun then) that hit nothing but rose petals.

Meanwhile, Ruby was deposited directly into the sweet spot behind her attacker. Transferring the momentum of her flight into a swing, Ruby brought the back of Crescent Rose's blade around right into the jerk's legs.

Ruby was rewarded with a surprisingly high-pitched shriek as the Man's legs were knocked clear out from under him. His body flipped almost a full 180 degrees, enough that the middle of his back wound up in line to catch the other end of Crescent Rose as Ruby continued the swing. Sadly, the spear-point at the back end of Crescent Rose didn't quite have the mass of the giant Scythe-blade she had at the front, so Ruby wasn't quite able to send the jerk flying, but she was able to send him sprawling onto the ground.

Again, to his credit, the Man was surprisingly quick on the recovery, managing to land on his hands and knees before shooting back up to his feet in short order.

That quick recovery was also the only thing that saved the Man from a devastating beatdown as Ruby was on him almost instantly, laying down a veritable whirlwind of slashes with Crescent Rose.

Ruby was done feeling out her opponent. Now she was going on the offensive.

In what was almost a complete reversal of the initial engagement, now it was Ruby who was unleashing a barrage of lightning-quick slashes, and it was her attacker who was on the defensive. But unlike before, this time the defender's shorter weapon meant he had no way of making counters to break up the flow of the attacker's assault, leaving him to mount only a desperate defense.

Tellingly, the Man almost immediately dropped his scabbard, forced to assume a two-handed grip on his katana to have any hope of blocking the heavy blows of Crescent Rose.

And even that wasn't enough, as one of the reasons that Scythe was considered one of the most dangerous weapons in existence was becoming clear. For every major blow the Man was able to block, two or three lesser strikes would get through. Between Crescent Rose's length, her variable geometry and the speed with which Ruby could spin, slice and thrust, once the two got in their groove, huntress and weapon could unleash a virtually unending wave of constant attacks on a target. Far more than a measly katana could ever hope to hold off regardless of its wielder's skill.

All the while through her assault, Ruby was watching her opponent's blade very carefully. While she was quickly whittling down this guy's aura, he was also managing to get a fair number of blocks in. And in turn, the tell-tale shimmer on the Man's blade was getting stronger and stronger.

Fortunately, Ruby got a good look at that sword right before the Man used his big aura/semblance slash the first time, so she had a pretty good idea of what to look for. It was faint, and Ruby was pretty sure this would be a lot harder if she didn't already have this guy on the defensive, but Ruby was able to track the faint build-up of shimmering that conveyed how close the sword was to criti-

There it was!

Right on cue, Ruby slightly re-angled a slash she was making and squeezed Crescent Rose's trigger. Normally, Ruby used Crescent Rose's recoil boosts to increase the speed of her swings and slashes, but at this angle the recoil of the shot counteracted the momentum of Ruby's swing, bringing Crescent Rose to halt mere centimeters away from where the Man had raised his sword into a high-block.

Ruby didn't want to risk throwing Crescent Rose at a weapon that was probably right about to get some super-cutting power-up.

The battle froze as Ruby's attack stopped, both fighters still in a momentary lull. The Man was stock-still, likely momentarily confused as to what Ruby was doing. Then he seemed to notice the knowing smile on his opponent's face. A smile that clearly conveyed that Ruby knew exactly what his deal was.

An enraged shriek split the air as the Man gripped his katana tight with both hands, the blade exploding with a flash of dark crimson light as he brought a massive slash down upon his foe…

…and cut nothing but a few stray rose petals as Ruby ducked under the initial slash and dashed past the Man with her semblance to avoid the strike altogether, while also charlie-horsing his leg with the back end of Crescent Rose.

Coming to a halt a dozen meters back, Ruby noted with some satisfaction that she'd nearly made the Man trip over in the middle of his big dramatic aura-slash, which seemed to cause the resulting energy blast to fly off to the left, gouging into the ground in an obtuse arc before dissipating.

When the Man recovered and turned to face Ruby, even with most of his face still obscured by the hood, the enraged scowl was writ plain as day.

But Ruby wasn't exactly paying attention to that bit. Instead she was noticing that the spear-tip that made up Crescent Rose's back end had some scouring and burns that hadn't been there thirty-seconds ago. It seemed Ruby hadn't entirely dodged that last attack.

That gave Ruby pause to reconsider her strategy. Ruby knew that she could dodge those big energy-slashes no problem, but what about Crescent Rose? Ruby was small, but Crescent Rose wasn't. Any time Ruby made a close dodge around one of those big energy-slashes, she could potential be leaving one end of Crescent Rose out, and vulnerable…

Ruby bit her lip, even as she watched the Man carefully. The fight had entered a brief lull, with both fighters watching each other carefully. The Man was clearly still enraged at his opponent, but also hesitant, far more weary of his opponent than he'd been when the battle began, while also eyeing his dropped scabbard a ways to his right.

Ruby meanwhile was keeping a close watch on her attacker, but also thinking very hard about her strategy. Dragging this fight out and whittling the Man down was no longer an option. The longer the fight went, the bigger the chance was this guy might get lucky with one of his aura-slashes and Crescent Rose could get hurt. Ruby needed to wrap this fight up as soon as possible. But how?

Disarming the Man was likely to completely kneecap his whole strategy, but actually accomplishing that was a dicey prospect, as was keeping him disarmed.

There was always the ultimate fallback option, and this guy was clearly out for her life… but even so, Ruby didn't want to go down that road unless there was literally no other option.

After all, she was a slayer of Monsters, not Men.

But then the thought of monsters reminded Ruby of what she'd been doing earlier tonight, and where she'd been… like that ravine and the broken bridge…

Yeah… that could work. It might be a bit tricky, but it was doable. Plus, the woods were conveniently right behind her at the moment.

Ruby felt a smile spread across her face. She had a plan.

The Man looked like he was about to try his luck again with a frontal assault, but Ruby acted first. The Red Hooded Huntress brought Crescent Rose around, clearly lining up a shot on her opponent. The Man reacted instantly, bringing his sword up into a defensive stance.

But right before Ruby squeezed the trigger, she hopped. And when the scythe barked a shot, both her and Ruby went flying backwards into the forest and into the shadows.

The hooded Man lowered his blade in apparent confusion at what his enemy was doing. He watched the trees and shadows between them carefully. A shot rang out and the Man instantly brought his sword up to block it, but no impact came.

Perhaps wondering if the shot went wild, the Man began carefully moving towards his dropped scabbard, watching the trees carefully all the while. The forest remained silent as he moved. The Man crouched to pick up his scabbard, eyes locked onto the forest and sword held up in a ready defensive stance.

Just as the Man was about to grab his scabbard, another shot rang out and the Man instantly angled his sword to defend. And once again, he did not feel an impact.

Instead, the scabbard the Man was about to grab suddenly went flying as it was hit by the bullet, spinning out of his reach. Upon realizing this, the Man dove after his scabbard, trying to retrieve it as soon as possible.

Another shot rang out, and the scabbard went flying again.

Again, the Man went after his scabbard, and again a shot rang out to knock the sheath away from his hand at the last moment.

The Man's teeth could clearly be heard grinding in enraged frustration. One final time he leapt for his scabbard, crouching long and low with legs extended.

And he got it!

Then a patch of ground right next to the Man's foot exploded as another shot rang out, the unexpected shock of it knocking the Man off his feet and sending him sprawling onto the ground.

From the woods, a stream of giggles could be heard carried on the wind.

A good thirty meters into the woods, perched half-way up a tree, Ruby watched the Man through Crescent Rose's scope, lips curled in a bit smile. It was nice that the wind was going west at the moment. It made her voice carry very nicely.

Through the scope, Ruby saw the Man leap to his feet. Even with his hood still up, the absolutely enraged scowl on his face was clear as day.

"Fight me you COWARD!" the man screamed while pointing his sword forward towards the woods in what Ruby guessed was some weird macho 'look at my big sword' challenge/intimidation move.

"Nope." Ruby sent her reply on the winds before squeezing Crescent Rose's trigger.

Once again, the Man reacted by bringing his sword up to block, but once again Ruby wasn't aiming directly at her attacker.

Instead, the ground between the Man's legs exploded. Ruby noticed with some amusement that a fair amount of the ejected dirt clumps and small rocks went right into the Man's crotch area. Ruby didn't know how much that may have actually hurt, but it was still funny to see the Man jump back in surprise.

Again, the Man let out a loud shrieking scream of impotent rage.

This time Ruby had to raise a curious eyebrow. That scream didn't sound entirely human…

Going by the impressive reflexes, speed and seemingly very good vision in the dark this guy had, Ruby was pretty sure this guy was a faunus.

And judging from that shrieking… maybe a goat faunus? Ruby was pretty sure she'd spotted the outline of some horns under that hood…

Wait, he was moving now. Time to go.

Apparently done with his dramatic screaming to the heavens, Ruby's attacker was now dashing into the woods at an impressive clip. Also, Ruby's 'night vision' theory seemed to be confirmed, as the Man was bearing right at her position.

Ruby smirked.

Just as planned.

Collapsing Crescent Rose into her more compact rifle-mode, Ruby fired a couple harassment shots at her oncoming enemy.

As to be expected at this point, the Man raised his sword with lightning speed, blocking the shots with no loss of speed before leaping a good five meters up towards the tree. Even in the shadows of the dark forest, the Man's blade glimmered crimson as he slashed into his prey…

…and once again cut nothing but a cloud of rose petals.

Dashing further back into the dark woods, Ruby touched down on tree further in just long enough to fire off a shot before dashing away again. Unlike the last couple of shots, this one wasn't aimed at her attack, but rather the branch he was now standing on. The Man was forced to leap away to an adjacent tree to avoid an embarrassing fall as the branch exploded.

With an enraged growl audible even from Ruby's position, the Man leapt forward through the trees from branch to branch, chasing after the Rose-Red cape with murderous intent. Well, more murderous intent anyway.

So began a deadly game of moonlit tag through the shadowy forest.

The Man with the Red blade would leap from tree to tree with an enraged fervor, always honing in on the Girl with the Red Hood whose life he sought.

And yet every time the Man would close the distance, the Girl would take flight like a mocking jay or magpie on wings of a Red Cloak and Rose Petals, sometimes leaving behind naught but laughter on the winds as she bounced between the trees, slipping through dense foliage like a gentle breeze.

Though more often, what the Girl left behind were sniper shots.

Some were aimed directly at the Man. Those could be blocked without much trouble. Other shots were aimed not at the Man but at the trees around him, exploding trunks and branches which showered the Man with clouds of bark and splinters. Not enough to harm, but more than enough to mock to no end!

All the while, the fight drifted further east, towards the other end of the forest. And what lay beyond…

Getting a bit more distance from the now very angry probably-goat man, Ruby took a moment to swap Crescent Rose's mags.

Ruby had to give him credit, this guy was indeed fast.

Not as fast as Blake, and definitely not as fast as her, but fast all the same.

Replacing the magazine, Ruby peered back into the dark shadows of the forest nigh-untouched by the pale moon above, and also the much more solid looking shadows dashing through the trees towards her position. Though mostly Ruby was watching the tell-tale glimmering red line that waved around the shadow as it moved.

Raising Crescent Rose to her shoulder and cycling a round into her chamber, Ruby sighted down the scope.

Ruby had to wonder if this guy normally just waved his bright red, and sometimes glowing sword around when he was trying to be stealthy. Though admittedly, even while shimmering at nearly full power the sword didn't stick out too much in the darkness. Enough that someone without a well-trained sniper's eye like Ruby likely wouldn't be able to pick it out nearly as easily. Maybe the Man just didn't realize that Ruby's eyesight in this gloom was basically just as good as his own?

Ruby squeezed the trigger and Crescent Rose barked. A moment later another enraged scream reached Ruby's ears.

Or maybe the Man was too pissed off to care.

On to more pressing matters, Ruby made sure to take her finger off Crescent Rose's trigger. She was running low on ammo, only two full mags after this one, and after that only her emergency clips. Ruby needed to wrap this fight up soon.

Ruby's form then flickered into her cloud of rose petals as a red blade sliced the air where she'd just been standing. The swirling mass of her cloak flew further on, bouncing from tree to tree, leaking its tell-tale petals all the way. Faintly, Ruby could make out some very colorful language being dropped from her attacker as he continued to chase after her.

The good news was, they were almost to Ruby's destination. Already, the pale moonlight was clear through the trees, as well as what lay beyond them.

They were at the opposite end of the forest.

Coming to a stop on a branch right on the edge of the woods, Ruby made a split-second survey of the terrain ahead. Just beyond the tree line was a stretch of flat ground a few dozen meters wide, and beyond that was the canyon. A crack in the earth a good hundred meters wide and probably five times that in depth. Also, the bridge was here, or what was left of it anyway. What had once been a crossing years ago was now broken, a footpath of rotting wood supported by rusting metal jutting out into an abyss.

And by some fluke of fate, the bridge was directly across from Ruby's current perch.

That was… NOT the kind of luck Ruby was hoping for at the moment.

A foot landed on a branch less than ten meters behind Ruby.

Ohwellwe'lljustrollwiththat! Ruby channeled a bit more aura into her semblance than normal…

…and just as the incoming crimson blade touched her, Ruby vanished.

Landing on the branch where his prey once stood, the Man looked furiously left and right, searching for the tell-tale signs of where his quarry had gone. But there was nothing. No signature cloud of rose and no swirling red cloak darting off in some direction. Ruby was simply gone, with naught but a handful of settling petals to mark her departure.

The Man screamed in rage.

"FIGHT ME YOU COWARD!"

The forest was silent for a moment.

"If you insist."

The Man had only enough time to register that whisper, and the rush of air behind him.

Leaping up from where she'd hid beneath the tree, Ruby brought Crescent Rose around into a full-power swing, squeezing her trigger three times.

The first shot at mid-swing to maximize speed.

The second shot right before Crescent Rose reached the Man's back to maximize impact force.

The third shot right after impact to maximize the distance this jerk was about to FLY!

And fly the Man did. With a thrice-fold recoil-boosted Crescent Rose slamming into his back, Ruby's attacker went sailing out of the tree line, over the open plain, towards the edge of the canyon…

…and through a combination of body contortions and a shot from his scabbard-gun, was able to redirect his decent just enough so that he landed on the bridge. Even though he was still moving at considerable speed, the Man managed to land on his feet, slamming his sword into the wood on the bridge's dilapidated walkway to act as a break as he slid down the causeway, coming to a halt only a scant meter or so from the end of the broken bridge that led into the black abyss, looking little worse for wear.

Ruby watched the admittedly impressive maneuver play out, and pouted.

Oh well. Time for Plan B then.

The Man got to his feet, pulling his sword from the rotting, but apparently still sturdy enough wooden walkway held between two-and-a-third arch-lengths of rusting steel. His sword shimmered with crimson light, looking to be fully charged.

The Man was still examining his weapon when a minute shift on the causeway caught his attention, and his gaze looked up the bridge.

At the other end of the ruined bridge stood Ruby, Crescent Rose's Scythe form in hand, her feet planted and stance firm. Poised like an eternal, unmoving sentinel against all who might wish to pass.

The Man seemed to take all this in. Then he sheathed his sword, sliding the katana into the scabbard, but not removing his hand from it. Instead he held it steady, with his left hand gripping the scabbard, and crouching slightly into a stance.

Also… he smiled, his mouth the only part of his face visible.

It was an ugly, unsettling smile, Ruby thought. It reminded her of Cinder…

"Are you finally done running, coward?" The Man's voice called out across the bridge.

Ruby raised a curious eyebrow. She would've thought it was pretty obvious at this point that the 'running' she was doing was just leading her enemy to a trap.

"Are you finally done hiding?" Ruby called back. Okay, that was pretty random as comebacks went and not nearly as well thought out as Ruby would've liked, but it'd sounded good in her head at the moment.

Then again… Ruby could see the Man's smile drop into a scowl, and his whole stance seemed to tighten up.

Huh. Maybe that comeback wasn't so bad after all? Now how to build on it…?

"Guess not." Ruby flashed a cocky smirk as she flipped Crescent Rose back into the ready-to-rush stance and cycled a round into her chamber.

Yeah… that'd felt pretty good.

A wind picked up for a moment, blowing up and out of the canyon. Trees swayed on both sides of the ravine. The Man's coat fluttered, and Ruby's cloak swirled.

And above it all, the pale light of the broken moon shined on.

There they stood, two hooded figures, one Red-and-Black, the other Black-and-Red, standing at either ends of a twisted mass of rusting steel and rotting wood suspended over a lightless void.

The Man stood at one end, his back to the abyss and hand on his hilt.

Ruby stood at the other end, Crescent Rose pointed back, finger on the trigger.

The air was still.

All was quiet.

Somewhere in the distance, a bird cawed.

A trigger was squeezed.

A blade was pulled.

Ruby Rose rocketed forwards, riding the recoil as her form shifted into a swirling, spiraling mass of Red cloak and Rose petals shooting down the bridge.

The Man drew his sword in a blinding flash, unleashing a long, narrow arc of dark crimson light that tore its way up the bridge.

The crimson arc of light and the red tornado of petals rocketed towards each other, poised to collide in the center of the bridge.

And yet… right as the two were about to meet, the spiraling mass of rose petals… split.

For one brief moment, the cloud of petals and cloak separated into two halves, allowing the arc of light to pass cleanly between them. Then they rejoined and the spiraling tornado continued towards her target.

The Man who was still in the process of registering what the hell just happened.

But he would not have the time to do that as he was blinded by the cloud of petals.

Something knocked his sword arm to one side. Something knocked him in the knee. Something struck the back of his neck and pulled him down to a kneel.

The cloud cleared, and before the Man stood Ruby, her scythe hooked around the back of his neck.

Crescent Rose's blade hung right at the Man's neck. It seemed he still had just enough aura to hold the blade itself off his neck. Of course…

Ruby's finger twitched against the Crescent Rose's trigger. A single shot-recoil pushing the blade down…

"Stand. Down." Ruby's voice was just above a whisper, her eyes laser focused on the man, his scabbard, and his sword hand, "Last warning. I don't want to do this."

She didn't. Gods knew Ruby didn't want to resort to her final option… where any and all threats were to be dealt with… permanently.

The Man seemed to be gobsmacked for a moment.

But then… the Man began to chuckle.

"Mercy?" the chuckling sent a small chill down Ruby's spine. A chill that made her tighten her grip and watch all the more carefully.

"I knew it," the Man continued, his lips contorting into an ugly smile.

But Ruby wasn't watching his face. She was watching his sword. A sword that was beginning to turn towards her.

"You're wea-"

Ruby squeezed the trigger.

And yet, even as Ruby's finger pressed down, luck of the battlefield struck.

An instant before the crack of Crescent Rose's shot split the night, it was preceded by a different sort of crack. The sound of splitting wood.

And then the Man was gone, falling through the boards weakened by his blast just as Crescent Rose's blade sliced backwards where his neck once was.

Ruby leapt back as more of the walkway began to fall away, landing on an outstretched steel girder back on a more stable part of the bridge, bringing Crescent Rose up to her shoulder as she peered down the scope into the abyss below.

She heard a distant splash of a body hitting water.

…

Ten seconds passed.

…

Twenty seconds.

…

Something glinted.

Crescent Rose barked.

Ruby's ears picked up the distant sound of shattering rock.

Miss.

Ruby's eyes trailed the river's shore. She could just make out the outlines of rocks along the edge.

Just over a minute later, a shadow between the rocks shifted.

Ruby fired again.

And again, she was rewarded with the sound of a shot hitting rock.

For the next ten minutes, Ruby methodically scanned the bottom of the ravine, her eye sweeping up and down the dim outline of the river. She could just make out the shimmer of the water and watched for any tell-tale voids in the shimmering that would mark a solid object. Ruby also made sure to make sweeps up and down the sides of the ravine, just in case that jerk wanted a second round.

At ten minutes, forty-two seconds, Ruby lowered Crescent Rose.

She was calling it. If he was still in the water, by now the current would have taken her assailant past the bend in the ravine about half-a-klick downstream. And along the shoreline, there was enough fallen rocks and other debris to make for more than enough cover for someone to easily make their way up or down-stream without being seen from up here. And if that jerk was still down there hunkered under some cover… well Ruby wasn't exactly in a hurry to try climbing down there and leave herself open to an ambush.

Ruby sighed. She really wished she had some starshells right about now. That, or some light-dust rounds. Or just a few high-explosive rounds. Actually, Ruby wished she had a lot of HE rounds, just in general. They were super useful.

Glancing back to the end of the broken bridge that still seemed to be crumbling, Ruby's eyes picked up something caught on a twisted bit of metal. It was a bit of fabric, waving in a light breeze.

It was the Man's hood. Sliced free its owner by Crescent Rose right before she reached his neck…

Ruby brought Crescent Rose up, closely examining her blade for anything she may have… taken.

There wasn't any blood. No tell-tale streaks or splotches of Red. But when Ruby looked closely, she could make out a thin line of skin caught right on the very edge of Crescent Rose's blade.

Out of habit, Ruby brought her sleeve up to wipe the blade clean.

Then Ruby let out a long, low breath before hopping back to solid ground, finally feeling herself come down from the rush of battle. But also coming out of the undiluted focus that came when she got in that zone where thought and action were one, and any threat to her or another's life was to be dealt with as quickly and permanently as possible.

Ruby let out another sigh.

She'd really just come that close, hadn't she?

But Ruby shook her head just as quickly. There was a time and place for that kind of thinking, and it wasn't when she was still on the clock. She still needed to scout the convoy's new route, and after that she'd need some sleep.

Stowing Crescent Rose, Ruby set off back into the woods, retracing her steps.

Then nearby 'cawing' grabbed her attention.

Glancing up into a tree, Ruby spied a lone crow perched on a branch, looking down at her.

Ruby smiled.

"So, did you enjoy the show?" Ruby asked the crow with a sardonic smile.

The crow simply cawed again and took flight, flapping off across the canyon.

Ruby shrugged and continued on her way.

Things were quiet at the bottom of the canyon…

A quiet that was shattered when a body hit the water with a tremendous splash.

A moment later, a hand broke the surface of the river, followed by a head of red, spiky hair split by a pair of horns.

Adam Taurus desperately pulled himself through the water towards the shore, even as his Aura flickered away, the last having been burnt up breaking his fall. He hadn't even clawed his way all the way up onto dry land, still laying on his stomach, before his shaking hands were frantically patting down his neck, shoulders and arms, desperately making sure everything was still there.

In particular, the one spot on the back of his neck where he was certain the blade had touched!

Nothing. Nothing was missing, his hands felt no new openings, and when he pulled his hand away to examine them, Adam found no tell-tale red on them.

He was okay. He was alive.

…Good.

As Adam's hands went back into the water to retrieve Wilt and Blush where he'd dropped them, his thoughts went to just how close he'd come to… to… How that girl had…

NO. That girl did NOT just beat him!

Adam felt the fiery rage return to his heart as he pulled his sword and scabbard from the water, putting his katana down next to a rock further up as he prepared to fully pull himself out of the water and to his feet.

It was just LUCK, NOTHING MORE!

There was NO OTHER WAY that girl could have just HUMILIATED him like that!

As soon he climbed back up there, Adam swore he wou-

BOOM!

The rock right next to where his blade was resting exploded, tiny bits of rock showering Adam's face. And with neither his hood nor his aura to protect him, Adam felt even the smallest pieces of debris cut and tear at his skin.

Suddenly the desperation and terror that carried Adam to shore was back in force as Adam bolted, abandoning his weapons as he scrambled forward on his hands and knees before diving behind a large bolder.

There Adam lay/sat, pressed flat against the back of the bolder, his breathing heavy.

After a few moments, Adam's breathing calmed.

And the rage returned.

What in the HELL was he DOING?!

He was Adam Taurus! Hero of the White Fang! The one who ravaged Beacon Academy! The one destined to lead all Faunus in the Great War to exterminate the Humans!

He had endured the worst that humanity could possibly throw at him, and all it had done was make him stronger!

He was Adam Taurus! And he would NOT be cowed by some little HUMAN GIRL with an oversized farming tool!

Adam peered over his rock.

He saw a silhouette perched high above, cape flowing in the breeze, the curve of a scythe clearly visible.

Adam noticed something glinting in the midst of the shape…

It was only years of hardened survival instincts that made Adam DUCK.

An instant later, the rock directly behind where his head just was EXPLODED.

For the next hour, Adam Taurus was frozen. Lying prone behind his rock, face pressed into wet dirt, Adam did not move a centimeter. He did not move, he did not speak, he barely even breathed.

After an hour, Adam finally worked up the courage to try looking over the rock again.

He did not see the silhouette.

The Girl was gone.

…Good.

Adam got to his feet, brushed himself off, and went to retrieve Wilt and Blush.

As he returned his sword to its scabbard, Adam noted that his aura was starting to recover.

Adam looked up the canyon to the ruined bridge he'd fallen from.

He could climb back up. Pick up the Girl's trail again… Make her suffer as he promised Blake he would…

Then Adam remembered the sight of a pair of Silver Eyes, a gaze that was cold and hard, and the feeling of a great blade upon his neck…

NO! No… No.

…He had better things to do then that.

Yes, that was it. It was too much trouble to climb straight back up the canyon, better to follow the river down to where the canyon opened up.

And he'd really been away from his comrades for far too long. He really needed to get back and begin the plans for the attack on Haven Academy.

Adam nodded to himself as he set off down the shoreline.

Really, he had much better things to be doing than chasing after one of Blake's little friends.

And so, Adam Taurus continued on, congratulating himself for his obvious wisdom.

All the while, his right hand would continue to unconsciously reach up to pat a certain spot on the back of his neck.

A spot that now bore a minuscule cut.

AN:

Fuck You, Goatman. This is Ruby's bridge now.

So this idea sprung from finding two separate tumblr posts that I read a few weeks back.

One pointed out that in the Volume 7 unfinished clip shown at RTX: "That spinning move Ruby does with her scythe puts a whole new context to Yang blocking Adam when he tried something similar. How easy must it be to block a blade when you're used to a giant spinning scythe?"

And the second simply put: "Adam, a fool: *runs around yang very fast*

Yang, who has sparred with ruby for her entire life: ¯\_(ツ)_/¯"

So with those two insights, I got to thinking: If Ruby is faster than Adam, and can hit harder than Adam, how well would Adam actually do in a fight against Ruby?

Because despite all the praises his fans usually sing of their darling little edgelord, Adam doesn't actually stack up all that well in a hypothetical fight against Ruby.

For one, we never see Adam go up against the likes of Qrow, Tyrian, Ozpin or anyone else that we know are as strong or stronger than Ruby.

Actually, I take that back. We did see Adam go up against Cinder back when she had half the Fall Maiden powers. And she kicked his ass.

So the only thing we have to gauge Adam's skill and strength as a fighter is to look at his on-screen feats and victories. Which are… not very impressive honestly.

The opponents that we have seen Adam go up against and defeat in combat consist of: Largely untrained bandits and raiders, Atlas Security droids, a single Spider-Mech (which given the timing of events, we have to assume is most likely inferior to the Paladin mechs), a number of unarmed/unprepared Beacon staff and students, an exhausted and extremely psychologically off-kilter Blake, and a similarly exhausted and emotionally compromised Yang.

Not all that impressive honestly, particularly when compared to the kind of opponents we've seen Ruby go up against.

And even in his fights against Blake, we can see that while Adam does have an advantage over her, it is by no means an overwhelming one. Same goes for Yang, in fact, during Yang's and Adam's one-on-one fight in V6, E11, the two seem almost evenly matched, with Yang managing to get more actual hits in on Adam than Blake managed in all of her previous fights against him.

And it's very telling that when Blake and Yang are able to fight Adam together, as seen in E12 leading up to Blake and Yang using that Reverse-Bumblebee maneuver, they are pretty much kicking his ass.

In short, prior to Volume 6, we only saw Adam fight opponents that he had a very clear advantage over. Opponents that he knew were weaker than him.

And when he had to go up against an opponent stronger them him, or even just matches him in skill and is willing to fight back, Adam crumbles.

Even simply rating Ruby's and Adam's fighting stats against each other shows that Adam is in a pretty bad place.

Weapon-wise, it's pretty obvious Ruby has a major edge. Crescent Rose outdoes Adam's Wilt and Blush in effectively every category. Her massive size and blade provides a clear edge in striking power, and said size and sturdy construction mean that Adam has no way of actually damaging without his semblance like he did with Blake's Gambol Shroud. And of course there's the reach-advantage Crescent Rose has over a Katana, which gives polearm and staff type weapons in general a major edge over swords.

When it comes to semblances, things aren't much better. Ruby's Speed-semblance synchronizes perfectly with her choice of weapon. Against a skilled spear or pole-arm user, the only hope a swordsman has of inflicting damage is to close the distance and get inside their guard. But with Ruby's massive speed advantage, Adam is just never going to be able to do that.

And while Adam's own semblance might be able deal major damage to Ruby, that's only assuming he can actually hit her. Which is unlikely to happen given Ruby's speed, plus the fact that she has years of experience fighting someone with a semblance nearly identical to Adam's (Yang's).

In short, Ruby vs. Adam is a very bad matchup for the goatboy. There is effectively nothing that Adam has at his disposal that Ruby doesn't have either a hard-counter to, or is just plain better than him at. Ruby is faster, she can hit just as hard if not harder, she has a far superior weapon and actual years of experience dealing with an almost identical semblance to Adam's.

Finally, we've seen Ruby take on opponents as strong as or even stronger than herself. Meanwhile, Adam does not. When confronted with someone clearly stronger, he either flees (Haven) or crumbles (Cinder). He only fights opponents he believes are weaker than himself.

And when those opponents turn out to not be weaker than him… well we saw how that turned out.

Rather fitting for a bully.