Victory at last!

Stepping up to the booth with the same swagger as always, May grabbed one of the available rifles and spun it up her arm, around her neck, and down into her opposite hand in a display of skill, getting the crowd riled up in anticipation for Ruby's inevitable forfeit considering the track record between the two of them.

"Alright folks, you heard it!" the visiting student yelled as she lured in an even bigger crowd. "My previous opponent is looking for another excuse to be humiliated for your viewing pleasure! In just a couple minutes, she will be giving us all a VERY good look at her, so make sure you've got your camera's ready!" May continued feeding the audience's excitement before turning to sneer at Ruby. "Not only that, but she agreed to go naked for the entirety of the combat tournament! How generous of her!"

Ruby fumed in silent anger as May leaned in and spoke teasingly.

"Hope you're ready for what happens next~."

Pushing May out of her personal space, Ruby glared back at the older girl defiantly. "I should be saying that to you. When I win, your naked butt is going to be put on display for all of Remnant to see. Soon, my nudity will be a footnote compared to how famous yours will be."

"Keep telling yourself that pubeless." May replied as she tossed Ruby the second rifle from the booth. "Time to end this."

"My thoughts exactly."

May was right, everything that had happened thus far was about to reach its conclusion. There would be no more second chances, no more escalation, no room for argument. It was do or die, win or lose, all or nothing. All the previous embarrassment Ruby had experienced paled in comparison to what came next. Her humiliation thus far -while tremendous and no doubt would spread like a wildfire on social media- would be nothing in the face of the worldwide notoriety gathered as a result of being shown naked on live-tv. The most viewed event on all of Remnant, completely lacking in any form of real-time censorship due to the nature of the CCT, was now destined to broadcast the world's greatest display of shame.

Knowing all this, Ruby seemed to finally snap things into place in her mind. The severity of the situation was overwhelming in its oppression, and became indistinguishable from a genuine threat on her life. Her previous failings were a result of her treating this as nothing more than a silly game, but with nothing left for her to lose, she abandoned that mentality. View the targets not as a harmless practice dummy, but act under the assumption that they were a very real threat. Each target is a deadly grim and failure to eliminate them meant that innocent people would suffer from her actions. Her current nudity was irrelevant. A true Huntress doesn't get to choose the circumstances in which she must fight, and if saving lives required her to put her naked body on display for all to see, then Ruby would gladly expose every inch of her skin without a moment of hesitation.

It was actually rather crazy how things led to this revelation; all because she was **** to strip naked in public.

Sidling up to her usual spot next to May at the booth, Ruby aimed her weapon downrange and waited for the buzzer to go off, no longer caring about the fact that she was standing naked without any means of covering up.

"Myself - My weapon - My target - earth beneath and heaven above, I stand here in the center." she softly whispered as she steadied her breath.

The buzzer went off and Ruby immediately got a bullseye on her first target before it even stopped moving to its initial position.

'Remember to lead your target.'

Another shot, another bullseye.

'Don't chase the target with your crosshairs, anticipate where it will be and let it run to you.'

Bullseye again.

'Accuracy is more important than speed.'

Again.

'Inhale, pull the trigger. Exhale, turn the bolt.'

With the world beyond her sight entirely blocked out, Ruby failed to notice the alarmed expression no present on May's face. The arrogant student assumed this would be another repeat of their earlier match, but it became rapidly apparent that things were different this time, almost as if she were facing an entirely new opponent. Like some invisible **** was helping guide her hand and lead her towards victory.

'How the hell did walking around naked for an hour do something like this?!' May thought in disbelief, a momentary distraction that cost her dearly as she missed one of her targets.

After what suddenly felt like the longest sixty seconds of her life, May exhaled loudly and quickly took a deep breath, drinking in the fresh oxygen as if she had been deprived of it entirely. Droplets of cold sweat were dripping down her face and her arms were faintly shaking from how strongly she had been gripping her rifle. Lifting her head up, she feared the worst had come to pass as her gaze landed on her score.

320

May grinned in satisfaction, there was no way Ruby could have matched that, let alone surpass it. Despite her nerves getting to her, May still managed to maintain near-peak performance. Shifting her eyes to the left, the sniper took note of Ruby's score.

300

Her heart practically jumped up her throat in elation. Ruby's performance had been a fluke, a trick of the eyes, and May was never in any real danger of losing.

Yet why did Ruby not look the least bit concerned? She had lost, right?

It was then that May noticed the man running the booth step out and grumble a curse under his breath before giving the scoreboard a smack. "Damn batteries. 'They'll last you all week' my ass!"

With a flicker, the digital readout of Ruby's score had changed.

380

Just as quickly as it rose, May's heart sank. The horizontal line used to denote the numbers had momentarily dimmed, and now Ruby's true score was on display. May had lost by an unbelievable 60 points.

Collapsing to her knees, the once superior sniper couldn't settle on a response, so she wound up not giving any at all. Her body went limp like a puppet whose strings had been cut as she continued to stare in shock at the 380 on the scoreboard. What happened? Wasn't she going against the same girl who could barely break 300 during their first matches? It was such an outrageous outcome that May's mind failed to comprehend the situation. She has always won. While she knows she isn't the strongest student in her team -let alone her year-, she always prided herself on being unmatched when it came to sniping.

And yet... she lost. Beaten by a girl two years her junior. She had flown too close to the sun, and now her wings of wax have melted and sent her crashing downward.

Then the crowd started cheering wildly, and the reality of the situation settled in.

'Loser has to spend the entirety of the tournament naked.'

May's sight whirled over to Ruby, just in time to see the still-naked girl smirk in satisfaction as she stood triumphantly over May's kneeling form.

"Looks like I win~."

And that was it. "NOOOOOOOOOOO!!!!!!" May despaired as she cried out in denial. She only agreed to Ruby's final challenge because she was supposed to beat the upstart brat and further humiliate her. No one told her about the possibility of her losing!

But no, there had to be a way out of this. There was no way in hell May could allow her unclothed self to be broadcast across all of Remnant. She actually might die of embarrassment!

Getting a grip of herself, the elder sniper took a few deep breaths in a vain attempt to calm down before she decided to address Ruby.

"So, uhh..." May began with a stutter, stumbling over the words that she desperately hoped would save her. "th-this was all j-just in good fun, r-right? We w-weren't seriously going to-."

"No, I think the both of us were plenty serious when agreeing." Ruby interrupted, looking particularly smug for once. Though the look was at odds with the fact that she was entirely naked. "Right, everybody?"

Once more, the crowd roared in excitement. Although they wouldn't get to see any extra nudity right now, all were excited for the combat tournament to start, especially when May's team was up to participate.

May needed to try another angle to talk Ruby down from enforcing the punishment.

"Best two out of three?" she tried offering weakly. "I'll even get naked right now if you win."

Crossing her arms over her chest, Ruby huffed in amusement. "No, I think I'll pass."

It was then that the still underwear-clad Pyrrha stepped forward. "Don't expect to weasel your way out of this after everything you've done."

May shot to her feet in defiance as she balled her fists in frustration. "You don't seriously expect me to-!"

"Turn up to the tournament naked?" Ruby finished the question with a smile that was as genuine as a 3-lien bill. "I mean, that is the deal we made."

"Y-you can't **** me!" the sniper shouted in rebuttal. It wasn't as if they had any means of ensuring her cooperation. "No way am I doing that!"

"On the contrary, I think you will find that we very much are capable of forcing your compliance." came an authoritative voice from the crowd. Stepping aside to allow the speaker access to the center of the gathering, the competitors were greeted by the sight of Glynda Goodwitch.

"Miss Goodwitch? What are you doing here?" Ruby asked, still naked and not thinking to cover herself.

"Word reached me of an altercation of sorts happening between Beacon and Shade students, so I decided to look into the matter on the off-chance I needed to dispense any punishments." she answered as she tapped her riding-crop in her empty hand. "And it seems that I was correct in doing so." Glynda finished explaining as she leveled a stern glare at the Shade student.