White

POV Yang:

"Alright, Who's next?" I hear Sapph say to Ruby, Weiss, and Blake.

As the three discuss, I let my mind wander to the conversation I just had with Sapph.

---------

"Yang, what was that?" Sapph asks me rhetorically before continuing, "You're a skilled fighter, Yang, and it shows. But you have very bad habits."

"Bu-" I try to defend myself, but she just interrupts me with a stern glare, and continues speaking.

"You let frustration and anger cloud your judgment. That WILL get you killed." She lectured seriously.

"It's not that ba-" I try to get out before I am once again interrupted.

"Not that bad!? Almost the entirety of the latter half of that duel you were fighting like a child, Yang! A child! No Skill! No thought! Anyone with any decent skill could easily take advantage of that, and you could do nothing about it!" Sapph says with a trace of anger in her voice.

I stay silent. I didn't know what to say.

"Sapphire, are you ready for the next match?!" I hear Ruby yell from a distance.

Sapphire looks toward Ruby, who is standing a distance away with the rest of the team, and yells back, "Yeah, just give me a second."

She then looks back at me and takes a breath.

With a new melancholic but caring demeanor she speaks, "Listen, Little Sun, we just met. I'd rather not have to bury you too."

With those as parting words, she turned around and jumped onto the platform.

---------------

"I'll be facing you next," Weiss's voice wakes me from my thoughts.

Weiss, after seeing a nod of acknowledgment from Sapph, gets on the platform and prepares herself.

Weiss POV:

I use my glyphs and aura to accelerate myself toward Sapphire with a powerful stab, but my strike is parried with a strike from her sword. I didn't panic. My teachers had always said that telegraphed moves will not work against a skilled opponent, and that was highly so.

She moves to stab me with her sword, but I block it with my semblance. Before she can follow up her strike with another, I use ice dust with my glyphs and attack her with ice spikes, forcing her to retreat.

I use this new distance to fire various dust projectiles at her, but instead of dodging to the side, like I thought she would, she charges through the barrage while using her sword to strike aside any projectiles that would've hit.

She approaches me with an overhead chop, which I parry to the left, but she follows with another strike, this time to my left side. I block this with a glyph, but she disengages her blade and moves for a stab. I blocked this with another glyph, but again she disengaged to another strike.

A series of strikes from Sapphire met with either a block or a parry from me. I tried to use dust to force her to retreat a few times, but she grew wise to it and interrupted me whenever I tried.

This back and forth continues for too long, and I can feel my arms getting exhausted. She seems to realize this as she intensifies her attacks. With my exhaustion building up, I am forced to use my semblance to block more than I would like in order to preserve my stamina.

Like I thought this comes to bite me.

Sapphire once again strikes from overhead, but instead of parrying this as I would normally, I block it. This would have been fine, however, unlike the previous exchanges, she doesn't disengage and moves on to another attack.

This leaves her torso up for attack, so I take advantage almost immediately, and stab forward. Just as I thought I would finally land a hit, she turns her torso, and I miss. I try to bring Myrtenaster back in, but my exhaustion causes me to be a step too late.

Sapphire took hold of one of the prongs surrounding the dust chamber of my weapon with her left hand that had, at some point, let go of her sword, and she kicked me in the stomach.

I was sent tumbling backward, but Myrtenaster stayed in her hand. I was now disarmed.

As I was shakily trying to get up off the ground, I saw her set Myrtenaster gently on the ground beside her, as if she didn't want to damage it. A courtesy I took note of.

She then turns to me and closes the distance as I pull myself to my feet and face her.

I refuse to surrender.

I am likely going to lose this fight, but I won't go out on my knees.

I have some training in unarmed combat, but I am nowhere near as skilled with it as I am with Myrtenaster. My best shot is to try and reobtain my blade, but that will likely prove next to impossible if Sapphire pursues her advantage.

Just as I thought, she moves toward me, leaving Myrtenaster unguarded. I dash for it, but I don't make it far. Before I know it I am sent tumbling once again. Sapphire had done to me what I had seen her do to Yang. She swept my legs out from under me.

I tried to quickly stand, but once again my exhaustion held me for too long, and I felt an impact to the side of my head and being forced onto the ground once again.

I expect another impact, but instead, I hear a whistle.

-Fweeeeee!!

Ruby's voice follows after, "Alright, your aura isn't in the red yet Weiss, but I'm stopping the match here."

"But I-" I attempt to get out, but Ruby interrupts me.

"Can go on? Yes, I know, but your match has been going on for a while, and Blake and I still have our fights left," Ruby explains.

I understand what she means, but it doesn't make losing so unilaterally any more of an easy pill to swallow.

There's no use complaining, however, so I reply, "Very well."

As I say that, I see a gloved hand come into my view. I look up to see Sapphire with her right hand outstretched. She is offering me a hand to get up.

I reach my hand out, but I hesitate. Thoughts wander in my head, but before I can pull my hand back, Sapphire grabs it and pulls me to my feet.

She then puts Myrtenaster in my hand and whispers into my ears, "No need to be so cold, Little Ice. I'm here for you whether you like it or not."

I feel my face heat up at that embarrassing nickname, but I can't find the willpower to protest it.

"Hmph!" I let out as I move away from the teasing fox.

I ignore the chuckle I hear from behind me, and I step off the arena.