Destiny No More

Chapter 86

Pyrrha was familiar with the sound of metal clashing against metal, years of fighting and training made the sound easily identifiable and it was something that had become a sort of catharsis for her. She had heard of people who would listen to white noise or maybe the sound of a Mistralian jungle while trying to sleep, but for Pyrrha it had always been combat that helped her relax. Obviously she didn't try to sleep to those sounds, but they did calm her, if for no other reason than their familiarity. The sound of metal hitting ice wasn't nearly as pleasing, gone was the cathartic clang, replaced with a sickly cracking.

Pyrrha watched Jaune bring the icy version of Crocea Mors up with a speed that would have been difficult with the weight of a real sword, yet he moved it as if the ice weighed nothing at all. Despite what people often saw in movies, swords were not all that heavy, even mechashift weaponry was typically shockingly light as a weapon that was too heavy would be cumbersome and difficult to use. Not to mention how annoying it would be to carry. Milo had only weighed seven pounds in her past life, Allos only weighed eight, and yet the frosty blade that Jaune was currently cutting down with, was barely a single pound.

Allos caught the sword, a strange crackling sound ringing out as the metal met frozen water, and yet the blade did not give. Despite its light weight, the blade was stronger than almost any Pyrrha had ever seen. Jaune pulled it back quickly, nearly losing his balance as he failed to account for the fact the blade was less than half the weight of its twin. The familial blade sat off to the side, watching their duel with almost a sort of jealousy. The rest of Jaune's team, plus Coco, watched on curiously, just as confused and puzzled by the sword as Pyrrha was, and each one just a little upset that she couldn't explain how she had done it. Only Coco knew the actual nature of it, the fact that it was Magic, but even she was still curious about how it worked.

That was another thing, Pyrrha thought as she ducked under Jaune's swing. She couldn't exactly tell Team RWAN about the Maidens, let alone genuine Magic, and yet she had to come up with an excuse for the miracle that they all saw before them. For not the first time, Pyrrha wished she'd let Winter take the blade away, if for no other reason than to prevent people asking questions. She hadn't though, because Pyrrha wanted Jaune to have something to remember her by. She had her shield-sheath hybrid on her hip, even if she rarely used it, and so she wanted him to have something like that; whether he knew about the familiarity or not. It reminded her that they had once been partners and teammates. Something she feared she was slowly drifting away from with each passing day.

Pyrrha swept her legs out, knocking Jaune's feet out from under him, before planting a hand down on the floor and launching herself back up. Allos stayed in its sword form, despite how she would usually have preferred her spear in the event of pinning her enemy, so as to create extra distance. With the people watching however, she thought it best to not show off her weapon just yet. No one had really brought up the similarities between Allos and Milo just yet, though only Ruby truly knew what it was capable of. She had mentioned it off handedly a few times, but only ever as the weapons enthusiast kind of way that she did with most everyone's weapons. Still, it was best to not show that her weapon was a near exact copy of her past selves. The two had only just started to befriend one another, and Pyrrha didn't think showing off that she was 'copying' her style would be a good idea.

"It doesn't make sense." Weiss stepped over as Pyrrha pulled Jaune to his feet. "I have seen Winter use our family Semblance to summon things before, but she said previously that weapons are not usually worth summoning." In an odd sense of parallels, both Ruby and Weiss were eyeing up Jaune's temporary sword with curious and inspecting gazes. "They are almost always incredibly weak, and they take time to summon."

The differences between the two girls made themselves known however, as Ruby slowly started to vibrate with barely concealed excitement. "And totally awesome! The ice isn't even chipped, look!" Ruby didn't wait for permission to take the sword from Jaune, but neither did he try to complain; smiling softly as she looked at it closer. "It's still cold too~" Ruby continued to gush, even as Weiss turned to regard the woman who had made it.