Author's note:

Hello friends! Oh boy, summer is great! Writing consistently really is a lot easier when you don't have any real obligations. I got this chapter done at a pace that I'm quite proud of, though I hesitate to raise up you guys' expectations for my writing speed…heh.

Honestly, it shouldn't be that bad. Actually, from the very beginning, I already had this entire story completely thought out. That means that the only thing keeping me from updating is how much time I spend typing each day. I've had a lot of fun doing this though, and my desire to share this story with you all has really kept me motivated, so everything should be just fine. :D

Enjoy!

Pyrrha grunted and her entire arm went numb from impact. Anymore of these kicks and I won't be able to move my arm for a month, she thought to herself as she raised her shield to block another kick.

JNPR and MRTL had been fighting for more than ten minutes already, and still neither side had managed to gain any significant advantage. However, having spent so much time fighting them, Pyrrha felt confident that she had learned most of her opponent's strengths and weaknesses.

Lee, the boy who was still trying to take her head off with his kicks, was a tall and lanky Muay Thai practitioner who liked to pick his shots, never committing fully. When they had first begun, Pyrrha thought that it would be easy for her to overwhelm him, as he carried no weapons and wore only woven arm wraps for protection. However, the boy had surprised her with his strength and speed, and the timing of his heavy, whip-like kicks had so far prevented her from mounting a full offensive.

To the side, Pyrrha had managed to catch glimpses of the rest of her teammates as well. Ren and Nora had banded together to take on a pair from MRTL who had been announced as Trent and Roa. Trent had come into the battle dressed in a white gi and it was clear that he was a karate practitioner of some form, whereas it was less clear what style the girl named Roa represented. Her movements flowed and swayed, with cleverly disguised strikes interwoven between dancing footwork – and it was a clear contrast with Trent's heavy, straightforward style. Together, they were a good match for Ren and Nora, and the four fighters were lost in their own world, perfectly in-tune with each other and their opponents.

While Pyrrha was not too worried for Ren and Nora, it was Jaune who drew most of her concern. The boy, and leader of team JNPR, was engaged in battle with a dark-skinned fighter named Marek, who had been introduced as the leader of MRTL. Unlike the rest of his troupe, Marek actually used weapons – two silver tonfas with runic swirls decorating their surface. It was clear that the boy had mastered his weapons, as he moved the tonfa into various forms of attack as comfortably as if they were attached to his body. For the entire fight so far, Jaune had been forced to turtle behind his shield in constant retreat, barely managing to avoid being knocked out by a spinning tonfa strike. It was clear that he would not be able to hold on by himself for much longer.

Crash! This time, it was a side kick that smashed into Pyrrha's shield, jarring her out of her brief reverie. This guy… she thought, is getting kind of annoying. I guess it is about time, after all...

After fighting for so long, Pyrrha had developed a bit of a theory regarding her opponent, Lee. From fighting him, it seemed to her as if he was a perfect by-the-book fighter. While it was true that he never showed any obvious weakness and pressed every advantage quite well, Pyrrha found that he was also very reluctant to take any risks. It was as if he had garnered almost all of his fighting experience through training and sparring without ever really being on any real battlefields – where nothing is predictable and anything can go wrong.

If that's the case, let's see how he deals with something unexpected.

Suddenly, Pyrrha threw her spear straight up into the air, completely abandoning her trustworthy weapon. As the spear flew away high enough to disappear in the brightness of the noonday sun, Pyrrha focused on her opponent.

As she expected, her erratic and seemingly irrational action had caused an immediate reaction by Lee. The boy looked quite startled, and for the first time since the start of the fight, he abandoned his aggression, letting off the pressure by hopping a short distance back.

Seeing this, Pyrrha smiled to herself. The gamble had worked, it seemed.

She braced herself for a second, then charged forward towards her confused foe. When the boy reacted by readying another kick, Pyrrha suddenly swung her shield in a huge arc – smashing down his leg before the kick could land. Then, with a yell, she jammed the shield squarely into Lee's chest, bashing the boy back a solid meter. But the assault didn't end there. Immediately after knocking the boy away, Pyrrha charged again, smothering Lee with blow after blow of her shield.

At first, the Muay Thai fighter was completely overwhelmed. Pyrrha's shield broke his defenses again and again to land staggering blows on his head and body. However, even with this punishment, he wasn't done just yet. Drawing upon the fortitude built inside him from years of training, Lee managed to pull back into his guard and successfully cover up. Turtling up in this defensive stance, the boy gradually recovered his stamina until he felt good enough to finally throw a punch in retaliation. The strike landed squarely on Pyrrha's shield and knocked her back ever so slightly. This proved to be enough however, for Lee to reposition himself to throw a follow up roundhouse. Bit by bit, the boy regained his tempo, and once again Pyrrha was on the back foot.

Without a weapon to threaten her adversary with, Pyrrha quickly lost ground. There was only so much that she could do with just a shield against such a talented fighter, after all. Yet even as she fell further and further back - until it seemed that defeat was imminent for the crimson-haired warrior – Pyrrha was perfectly confident.

After all, her maneuver had worked.

Just as she had hoped, Lee had completely forgotten something that was just about to come back to bite him. Furtively hiding her right hand behind her shield, she called upon her semblance as she beckoned her missile towards the target. And then -

BAM!

Out of nowhere, Pyrrha's spear crashed butt-first into the back of Lee's head. She had made sure not to injure the boy with the tip, but just the impact from the blunt end was still more than enough to knock Lee out instantly. Her plan had worked just as expected. Throwing away her weapon to confuse the opponent only to use her semblance to bring it back for the knock-out; it was a beautiful ploy befitting of one of the most skillful fighters of the tournament.

With this, Pyrrha's battle was over. Now it was time for her to help out the rest of her teammates. Or…. maybe not?

Just as Pyrrha was picking up her weapon, some very loud and significant developments were taking place on the side of Ren and Nora. Now that Pyrrha was free to observe, she easily picked up on the shouting from that side of the battlefield.

"HEEEE-YA! Take that you ghost-robed meathead!" shouted Nora as she swung her hammer mightily into the torso of the karate fighter-Trent. The muscular boy buckled under the force and was blown away in a cloud of dust. "Hey Ren, I finally got him! Whoo Hoo!"

"Eh?" mumbled Ren, who was preoccupied with dodging a tricky combination of palm strikes from the girl Roa. "Uh, that's great. Could you help me out here?"

Vroom. The pink haired girl was there like a bolt of lightning. "Sure thing!" Without a second of hesitation, Nora hefted her hammer at Ren's opponent and swung like a professional batter. She fired her weapon as she swung, adding even more oomph to the swing.

"Wait, what's go-"were Roa's final, gargled words before the poor girl was blasted like a shooting star into the air and way out of the arena boundaries.

As Ren gave a sigh, Nora took a victory pose, pumping her fist into the air.

"Yay! Ren and Nora win!" she announced giddily before lowering her voice and adding – "Fatality."

Ren face palmed. Nora shaded her eyes and scanned around. Finding Pyrrha standing alone besides her beaten opponent, she smiled and waved. Pyrrha waved back.

"Oh hey! Pyrrha's done too. So, all that's left is – "

Jaune, thought Pyrrha, quickly switching attention to where Jaune would be. The boy was barely hanging on by a thread the last time she checked on him. If she didn't hurry, their foolhardy leader could be in some serious trouble. For all Pyrrha knew, Jaune could already be a bruised bag of meat by now. After all, Jaune was by far the least experienced fighter in JNPR – and he was given the leader of the enemy team as his opponent. There was no way that he could-

Pyrrha's eyes opened wide in surprise. Ren and Nora, who had followed her gaze, also looked astonished.

It was Jaune, sword and shield in hand – standing tall. At his feet, curled in a ball, was Marek, the enemy team leader. Jaune had won.

The blonde boy was breathing heavily, and it looked like the adrenaline from the battle had not yet left his system, as he was still clutching at his sword tensely. As Pyrrha ran over, he finally relaxed. The look on his face said that he was just as surprised she was about his victory.

Suddenly, the arena erupted with cheers and the Beacon professors announced JNPR as the winners.

Under the screams of the crowd, Pyrrha stared at Jaune with a curious expression and asked,

"How did you do that?"

Jaune seemed to have trouble with his words, as he tried to explain, "I… I just…did. I mean, at first I was getting destroyed, but as time went on, it just felt like it was getting easier and easier – you know? Like, I could follow his movements somehow. Just before I knocked him out, I felt like I knew what he was about to do, even before he did it. All I did was attack where I thought he would be, and it worked."

For a second, Jaune saw an extraordinary expression on Pyrrha's face, but before he could ask – the redhead turned away. Contained within herself, Pyrrha felt a spark of heat rise through her body. If what Jaune said was true, and her intuition was correct, an incredible talent had just revealed itself in Jaune, and it was a talent that both excited her, and gave her the slightest tinge of trepidation. Since she herself was a top-class fighter, Pyrrha was first to recognize that another warrior had just entered their world.

As Jaune led his team out the arena grounds, Pyrrha looked ahead at her leader with an altogether different light in her eyes. Things were changing, she thought.

Rey Mero took one last look at the small storefront screen broadcasting the match before turning away to leave.

The boy kept his head down, his expression unreadable, and he walked with huge – rushed strides, barely paying attention to where he was going. The carelessness costed him, as the boy suddenly found himself veering off-course after bumping with a huge, solid mass.

Spinning, Rey locked-on immediately to the thing that hit him, and quickly discovered that what he had collided with was not an object, but a person. A giant.

The man (or teen?) was at least seven feet tall, and was built like a Norse-god. His shoulders were as broad as a door, and his muscles were hard as wood. His features were square and heavy-set, and he wore a short beard. His hair was long, and unkempt, and it hung over a smooth, sleeveless tunic. His massive arms were crossed, and he stared at Rey with a weighty, unreadable intensity.

Psh, Rey dismissed. Whoever this guy was, Rey wasn't interested.

The raven-haired warrior turned on his heel, and began to resume his path. But before he could take more than two steps, a crushing weight suddenly fell on him, flattening him to the ground instantly. Enraged, Rey immediately tried to rise back up, but found that he could not. Every part of his body felt like it had turned into stone. With a great effort, Rey struggled enough to manage to raise his head from the ground and look behind him. What he saw was the giant, staring down at him coldly. It was clear that he was the source of this power.

Snarling, Rey redoubled his efforts. Bit by bit, he managed to rise, pushing up with all of his strength. But just as he had gotten to his knees, the pressure suddenly disappeared, causing Rey to jump up like a spring being released from its tension.

Immediately ready to pounce on his aggressor, Rey dropped into his stance. But just as he was about to attack, something caused him to stop.

It was a boy. A boy had come up beside the giant, and had his hand on the giant's arm. The boy was far shorter than his neighbor, not even coming up to his shoulder. Yet it was with his arrival that the pressure on Rey had been released.

The boy spoke. His voice was quiet, yet clear, but it sounded dispassionate – almost unfeeling in its tone.

"Nero," he said, "that is tiring."

Rey considered the boy more carefully. As he looked at his face, a flash of recognition passed over Rey. His eyes narrowed. He turned around, and left without looking back. It had only taken a glance, and already it was confirmed. It could only be him. It was astronomically unlikely for it to simply have been a look-alike. Hair whiter than snow. A grey, featureless cloak. And a long, misshapen package wrapped in cloth. Only one could have fit that description.

Rey walked along, this time with a clear destination in mind. And, before long, he reached it.

Bizen Drow turned around, distracted from his circus game involving bottles and rings. Seeing Rey, he smiled.

"Hey, what's up?" he greeted cheerfully.

Rey wasted no time with small-talk.

"He's here, after all. He's in the tournament. Thought you might like to know."

Bizen's eyes widened. His smile turned wolfish, predatory. He looked at Rey, who recognized the need in his team leader's eyes. The same need that took him when he thought of Pyrrha.

"Ah," spoke Bizen. "Looks like I get to have some fun after all."