“Fight!” Professor Rumpole commanded.

Nebula tossed the club back and forth from one hand to the other, while Velvet tested the weight of her spear and the flex in its shaft.

“Fight!” Rumpole barked.

Nebula lifted the club and rushed toward Velvet. Velvet stepped out of the way easily as Nebula smashed the club down where she’d been standing, sending out a geyser of sand. Velvet planted the tip of the spear into the ground and held on tight, staying on her feet as the force from the blow blasted sand around her.

Then she vaulted up and kicked out, until Nebula knocked her back with the club.

“Is that the best you’ve got?” Nebula said.

“You’ll see!” Velvet ducked as the club swung past her head, clipping the tops of her ears. She winced and tossed her spear into the air, then tucked into a roll toward Nebula. She sprang off her hands and leaped backward, feetfirst, toward the armored girl. Nebula held up her club, and Velvet landed on it, then catapulted from it into the air.

She caught her spear on its way down and aimed the tip at Nebula. Nebula tossed aside her club and planted her right foot behind her. She reached up and grabbed the point of the spear, then pulled it to her right, spinning it and Velvet around 180 degrees before letting go. Velvet was hurled backward.

She twisted in the air and jammed the spear into the ground, dragging a long line in the sand and slowing her momentum—until the tension in the weapon snapped it in half, and she tumbled backward.

Velvet righted herself and looked up to see Nebula running toward her at high speed. Velvet raced toward her, too, scooping up the halves of the spear and holding each section in a fist. Nebula came at her with fists flying, and Velvet parried her blows with the broken weapon.

“I’ve been wanting to do this for a while,” Nebula said between hits. “This is fun.”

“Velvet’s pretty good,” Scarlet commented under his breath. He’d seen her fight at the Battle of Beacon, so he knew she could copy the fighting styles of the owner for each hard-light weapon she used. But he didn’t know that her Semblance allowed her to call on those combat techniques at any time. Right now, she was drawing on moves he recognized from other students, like Pyrrha Nikos, Yang Xiao Long, and even Sun. The moves may not have been original, but Nebula was disoriented by the way Velvet seamlessly moved from one fighting style to the next.

“She’s been practicing,” Coco replied. “Most Huntsmen reveal their training in the way they handle themselves in battle, but she can fuse multiple disciplines into a brand-new technique—different each time. Velvet may fight like a lot of different people, but no one else fights like Velvet.”

Velvet and Nebula continued to trade rapid-fire blows.

“Feel free to quit anytime,” Nebula taunted.

“I’m tired of you all thinking you’re better than us,” Velvet said between gritted teeth. “While I was defending Beacon, where were you? Oh, that’s right. On the first transport to Vacuo.” She swept the broken staff toward Nebula’s head, then jabbed at her with the tip. Nebula spun away gracefully and turned the dodge into a roundhouse kick to Velvet’s back, knocking her forward.

“Velvet still gets a point on that one for her snappy comeback,” Scarlet whispered to Coco, and his new teammate nodded.

Nebula wasn’t letting Velvet off the hook. “But I am better than you,” she said. “We left Beacon because we knew it was a lost cause. Just like you.”

Velvet knelt, gasping to catch her breath. Nebula brought her right leg high and then kicked downward. Velvet thrust the two pieces of her spear upward and crossed them, catching Nebula’s leg. The force of the blow pushed her into the sand.

Nebula launched herself upward with her pinned leg to free herself. Velvet dropped the broken staff and tried to pull herself out of the sand, but she was stuck.

Nebula landed behind Velvet. She walked calmly around her and picked up the pieces of her spear.

“We’re done here,” Nebula said. “You should go back to Vale.”

Velvet kept scrambling in the sand, but she couldn’t dig herself out. Finally her shoulders slumped and she stopped moving.

- RWBY: Before the Dawn, Chapter 7