Intelligence B6C9

Weiss' hands tightened into fists. "I will." She nodded to me. "Go left. Engage while I distract her. Try to get her staff out of her hands. She'll be weakened without it."

I nodded back. "Right."

When Weiss thrust her hand out, a wall of fire erupted from it and chased toward Willow. I followed it, running around and to the side, my body hidden beyond hazy heat and fire.

Willow had given us the best information she could, the secret of her Path, the way in which her powers and skills had formed over her life. According to Qrow, it was based on how you lived your life, the challenges you faced, and how you overcame them. I was a Blacksmith, but because I spent my time fighting Grimm, my Path tried its hardest to give me Skills that would be useful to this. As best it could, anyway. Runesmithing and Engraving were two such examples, weak examples, but things I'd proven could be used in a fight.

Weiss was a control mage. She'd told us that early on, but I'd never realised she meant it quite so literally until Qrow's explanation of Paths. Filled with grief, bullied by her fellow Mages and refusing to trust any Sentinel to come near her, Weiss had looked for ways to control her life, inevitably favouring spells that could keep people away.

But a support-based Mage? It made sense for someone who came from a culture that espoused outsourcing the heavy-duty fighting to a melee-based Class. If Willow relied on Watts to do all the fighting, and instead focused on helping him in subtle ways, then she might have gained Skills that benefitted this. Buffing and other tricks to make Watts stronger. It was why she stayed back while he charged in.

It meant that despite how easily she'd dispatched me, Willow's greatest weakness was being engaged directly. With that in mind, I lunged for her again – aware that she could freeze me solid but accepting the risk.

She saw me coming and stepped aside. My blow was clumsy and awkward. I wasn't left-handed and had never seen a reason to learn. Instead, I swung wildly, jagged, slashing cuts aimed not at weak spots, but literally any part of her body I could get to.

When her staff knocked my knife aside, I snatched out for it with my other hand – but Willow's eyes widened, and she hopped back, treating my free hand with more wariness than she did my dagger.

She'd seen me use my skill, I realised. Even if she didn't know why, or how, she knew that if I got a hold of her, I could hurt her badly.

The lack of concentration cost her, however. Weiss howled and sent a gale of icy shards at the woman, blanketing her in white. Willow slammed her staff down and brought up a shimmering wall of light to block it off, but only after she'd taken the initial brunt of the damage. Her face was clear, one arm held up to defend it, but blood oozed from a few other cuts and scrapes on her body and arm. All of them small, but no doubt incredibly painful.

Rather than give her the chance to counter, I charged in again, shouting for Weiss to go around the right and attack from behind. Willow heard it, of course, but there wasn't much she could do. Take her eyes off me and I'd burn a hole through her back. Take them off Weiss, and she'd be buried under an avalanche of spells. I saw her mouth open, but she bit down on her tongue hard. Hard enough to draw blood.