"I need a map. I got lost in your eyes," Azure said romantically.
"That outfit would look great on my bedroom floor," Silhouette responded.
"Do you have any wind dust? Because you just took my breath away," Azure replied, posing dramatically as he did.
"Are you in one of my classes? I could've sworn we had chemistry," Silhouette told him.
"Some of us are trying to eat," Iris interrupted the duo. Team VAPR and team CSIC were having lunch together like they always did when Silhouette and Azure decided to trade pick up lines.
"Nope, that would never work," Silhouette told her.
"Like any of your lines would," she snapped back. "And if they did, you wouldn't want to be with that person in the first place."
"You know, you take all the fun out of things," Silhouette complained, resting her head on the table. Vert was amused by this situation. Every day usually had Azure and Silhouette doing or saying something stupid, followed by Iris getting them to stop.
It was interesting how familiar the two teams had gotten in these few months. In fact, all eight of the freshman teams had effectively paired off into four super teams. There was VAPR and CSIC, OCEN and FENT, AQMI and BEYL, and SURS and CFVY. While they all had friends outside of these pairs, there was no doubt as to what the major groups were.
"It's hard to believe first semester will be over soon, isn't it," Cinnamon said, trying to draw Iris and Silhouette's attention away from each other.
"There's still a full month they're going to fill with homework," Prism answered.
"Don't remind me," Silhouette groaned. Of all eight of them, she was the only one that truly struggled with the class work.
"You'll do fine. After all, you've made it this far," Redmond comforted the girl, though she didn't cheer up at this. "And we'll still help you."
"That's what I wanted to hear," she said, immediately perking up. "You guys are the best."
"Enablers," Cinnamon added with a look of disappointment.
"Who helped her copy math last week again?" Iris asked, sending the same judging look at her captain.
"I never said I was innocent either," she returned. Iris's face turned to turned to a guilty smile, admitting the same thing.
"We should probably get moving," Vert commented with a look to the clock. They had Glynda's class next, and they didn't want to be late for today. For the first time, they would be having 4v4 matches. They were looking forward to some intense fights with everyone wanting to know who would be fighting whom. They also had to leave early since everyone needed to be in their battle uniform for today. After they all got changed in the locker room, it was onto the classroom.
It wasn't too long until the rest of the class was there. And although they were just sitting and waiting, Vert couldn't deny how impressive his classmates all looked decked out for battle. It was something he hadn't seen since the day they all were divided into teams in the forest. And now that he had learned what they all were capable of, it only made them more impressive.
"Welcome class," Glynda greeted like usual. "As you all know, today we will be holding team matches in order to prepare you for the Vytal Festival." There was a shiver of anticipation going through the crowd. Vert couldn't help but wonder if it was possible that someone would be able to beat OCEN. If they could outperform her teammates, even she couldn't win a 4v1. Probably. "Without any further waiting, we will determine the matchups." Above, the match wheel started spinning. Instead of portraits like usual, it was the team names. After what felt like a longer wait than usual, the wheel stopped.
"Team CSIC and Team BEYL," Glynda announced. The two teams wasted no time getting into the arena and getting to opposite sides. On CSIC's side, Canary was in his robe and Cinnamon in her armor, both prepared. Silhouette was in an outfit very similar to Vert's with a hoodie and plain pants, though her hood was down, showing off her dark gray hair. Iris wore a beautiful dress that made her look like an exotic dancer. In both of her hands were parts of a long cloth that seemed to float around her.
On the other side, Beryl had her greatsword out and ready. Her teammates were also in battle positions. Ebony was in the back in her dark blouse and skirt, sniper rifle in hand. Yolanda stood next to Beryl up front in her purple armor, a spear and shield at the ready. The final member, Li-Mei, was in between the front and back lines. She had no apparent weapon, and her oriental dress was cut at the knees with long sleeves, creating an interesting contrasting look.
On the screen above them, each of the competitor's name and aura levels were displayed. "Ready," Glynda started, raising her hands in the air, "Begin!" At her words, the front lines dove for each other. Beryl, thanks to her sword's reach, made the first attack of a low swing at Canary. The boy swiftly jumped in the air to dodge, only to find himself getting hit in the chest from Ebony's bullet.
"CSIC really is weak at range," Redmond commented to Vert as they watched Canary recover.
"If they can't take out Ebony quickly, it's going to turn out badly for them," Vert agreed. The two front liners of BEYL were engaged with the three of CSIC when Li-Mei began to create streams of water all around her, steadily swirling it as they grew in volume. Beryl with her wide range and Yolanda's ability to constantly be in the enemy's way and blocking along with Ebony's cover fire, concentrated mostly on Canary, made reaching Li-Mei impossible.
After several seconds of buildup, Li-Mei suddenly sent the water in two paths to either side of her. The liquid surged in an arc to hit CSIC from either side but miss Beryl and Yolanda. "Sil left, Iris right!" Cinnamon yelled. On cue, the girls got on either side of the formation. Iris, almost as if she was painting, moved her arms up down, directing her cloth into a large square directly in path of the water. When she had finished shaping it, the cloth immediately solidified. Silhouette gathered power in her hand, waiting for the impact. As it reached her, she punched it, freezing the water into a giant lump of ice. On Iris's side, her shield deflected the entirety of the water.
With two of the members of CSIC providing defense, BEYL tried to push the advantage by charging Canary along with Ebony's bullets. Watching from above, Vert couldn't help but to admire their teamwork. This didn't look like some idea they were coming up with on the fly, but rather a carefully formulated and practiced strategy. They must've decided from the beginning to target Canary with the hopes of eliminating the Queen's Guard member first.
As Canary was pushed back, deftly defending himself with his rods, Cinnamon surged forward, narrowly blocking a spear lunge from Yolanda and charging towards Li-Mei. She stopped channeling her large streams of water, instead unleashing several smaller blades of it at Cinnamon. Cinnamon, using dodges and punches, got through and into melee range of the other girl. Li-Mei changed her hands' position as long, thin metal spikes popped out from under her wrists. She lunged for Cinnamon, narrowly missing. Lacking the agility of more close combat oriented fighters, she was unable to get out of the way of Cinnamon's punch, sending her rolling back.
With the water stopped, Iris and Silhouette returned to the fight. "Iris, support Cinnamon!" Canary ordered. The dancer girl obeyed, running off in her captain's direction while Silhouette jumped to her partner's aid. She aimed at Yolanda, leaving Canary to focus on Beryl.
Iris arrived by Cinnamon just in time to throw out her cloth and harden it to protect Iris from one of Ebony's bullets. Closing in on the others, Iris straightened her cloth out to harden it into a long, wide blade. Her swing was even larger than Beryl's, sending her opponents diving to avoid it. This gave Cinnamon the opportunity to get closer to Li-Mei as she recovered from the dodge. She sent several more punches into the defenseless girl, leading to a buzzing sound. Vert looked at the screen, seeing Li-Mei's aura had fallen into the red. And unless Ebony had some ace up her sleeve, she imagined that it wouldn't be long before she joined her teammate.
Ebony's sniper rifle shortened, the barrel becoming the blade of her ninjato. As Cinnamon attacked her teammate, she took the chance to dive at Iris, swing for her head. Iris responded by raising her arm covered in the thin cloth. But when the blade made contact, it was stopped, the clothing having become as hard as armor. Iris kicked back while throwing out her cloth, forcing Ebony to dodge the fabric. Before she could attack again, Cinnamon was beating down on her.
It was surprising how much trouble Canary was having against Beryl, though Vert could see why. Her wide range made it difficult to approach and her small frame made her a hard target to hit with so much of her covered by the blade. Every swing she threw had incredible force behind it. If Canary dodged, he couldn't get close enough before the next. If he blocked, it took a similar amount of time to recover. She may be mostly brute force, but it was enough to keep him at bay. But Canary didn't seem concerned, content to play it safe.
Silhouette punched Yolanda repeatedly, but always hit her shield instead of the girl herself. using her height, she lowered her stance further, making all her attacks feel like they were coming from below. Her relentless assault forced the other girl to jump back, creating the opening she needed. Silhouette punched to ground, causing a rift and jagged rocks to appear where Yolanda was landing. She lost her footing, and Silhouette was right there to take advantage of it. Yolanda's buzzer sounded, followed shortly by Ebony's.
Beryl found herself suddenly in an unfavorable situation. CSIC had returned, surrounding her on all sides. Cinnamon attacked first as the other three stayed back. Beryl swung, forcing the other girl to jump back. But at her sword reached the slowest point in its swing, Iris's cloth wrapped around it and solidified, ruining her stance and preventing a follow up attack. The remaining members of CSIC closed in, each landing enough blows to cause the fourth and final buzzer.
"And that's the match. Team CSIC is the winner," Glynda announced. The winning team gathered together in a circle to congratulate each other while the more tired looking members of team BEYL pulled themselves up in a much more dejected manner. They eight participants made their way back up to the seating area. All throughout the room, people were discussing what they had just witnessed as Glynda returned the arena to its previous state.
"We will now move on to the second match," she announced as the names started scrolling on screen above. It felt just as long as normal this time as the decision was made. Vert felt not just his, but his entire team's stomachs drop.
"Team VAPR and team OCEN," Glynda announced. The teams made their way down through different stairways, with Vert taking the time for an impromptu strategy meeting.
"We need to avoid Olive and rush the other three," he told his team.
"I believe Cyrus is the weakest as long as you don't allow for skin to skin contact," Redmond followed up.
"Keep your defenses up right at the start. Don't underestimate Elvas's speed," Vert continued. "If he starts the fight by getting close, we should all immediately try to put some damage on him. Otherwise, Prism and Azure will help me separate Cyrus from the group and eliminate him while Redmond tries to keep the others back." He turned to his partner with an apologetic look. "With luck, we'll be able to take him out and get back to you before you suffer any serious injuries."
"Got it," Prism responded.
"We'll do you proud," Azure assured him.
"Let's win this," Redmond stated with all the conviction he could muster. They exited the stairs and walked onto their side of the arena as OCEN did the same. VAPR assumed a diamond formation with Vert at point, Azure in the back, and Redmond and Prism at the sides. OCEN took on a square with Neon and Elvas up front and Olive and Cyrus in the back.
Prism was in clothes of a black base, but with diamonds forming lines up and down the surface. Her weapon was long bronze pole with openings on either end. Azure wore an overly fancy blue coat and an oversized wide brimmed blue hat adorned with a large red feather. In his left hand was a long, thin golden chain attached to a pocket watch in his right.
Neon wore light green padded armor that went from neck to toe. Covering both of his forearms were shields of a darker green. His partner was wore similar dull gray leather armor. His left shoulder had a large, multilayer pad covering with the rest of the arm being similarly reinforced. His right arm was bare except for a shoulder pad and the large gauntlet reaching almost his elbow, but this was mostly concealed by the large lance he held in that hand. The two were also wearing an article of clothing VAPR had never seen before: matching blue gray cloaks.
"Ready," Glynda said, raising her hand as VAPR raised their guard, "begin." Vert knew he didn't have too much time as his katars began to glow green. He heard something that sounded like the ground being punched followed by a flash of color. He slipped to the side as Elvas stopped in front of him, his lance where Vert's head had been a moment ago. He tried to counter attack, but Elvas jumped back a few feet, landing safely out of range.
This had been what they were expecting, and he knew they had to act now if they wanted even a chance at winning. Elvas's risk had turned against him, though Vert knew that if he had targeted anyone else on the team, it would've been a severe injury in Redmond or Prism's case and an elimination in Azure's. But Vert didn't waste time to allow the other boy to recover, and dashed forward. He could hear his teammates behind him doing the same.
"Azure!" he yelled right before reaching Elvas as he suddenly rolled to the side. A second later, Azure's golden chain flew past him and at the target. He saw Redmond had his sword out and was moving to Elvas's flank. Prism was almost in position, a foot long flame sustained at the end of her pole like it was a blowtorch. If this hit, it would throw him off balance and make him wide open.
Before the chain could reach him, a large glyph appeared between the two. Green and with an ornate shield in the middle, the chain bounced harmlessly off of it. As swiftly as it appeared, it vanished. Vert knew that was Neon's semblance, but had no idea he could materialize it so far from his body.
"Now!" He ordered, sooner than they had practiced. He saw Neon's stocky frame approaching, quicker than one would assume he was, and had to act now. Prism and Redmond were thrown off by the unexpected order, and found themselves slowing down to change orientation. By the time they were able to get close, it was too late. Elvas redirected Prism's pole and Redmond's sword one of Neon's shields.
"Christmas barrage!" Vert ordered, embarrassed by Azure's absurd naming of the formation. Prism fell back, allowing her captain to take her place. Redmond and Vert attacked their individuals for a few moments before a series of arrows made of wind came flying at them from Azure and several fireballs from Prism. Neon and Elvas, in perfect sync, fell back until Neon was able to erect a single glyph, blocking all of the dust attacks. The glyph was huge, more than ten feet across. The resulting small explosions destroyed some of the stone tiles beneath, creating a dust cloud.
"Prism, flamethrower!" he called to her. If she put out a continuous stream of fire, Neon would be forced to keep the glyph up to block that. From what he had seen, it seemed like he could only make one at a time. But before they had a chance to act on this, Elvas slid out of the cloud. With another noise like a punch to the ground, he lunged. Instead of aiming at Vert, he hit Prism. While her aura barrier kept her from being impaled, he didn't stop and continued to fly forward until he caused Prism to smash into Azure with destructive force. Two buzzers sounded as their auras dropped into the red.
Vert jumped towards him, hoping to land a blow before Elvas could recover. But Neon appeared in his way, deflecting his blows and sending him back. Neon then turned, extending his arm toward Redmond and revealing the shotgun that existed between his arm and his shield. He fired twice, forcing Redmond to adopt a defensive stance as well. This gave Elvas enough time to recover, and get back into the fight.
Elvas didn't use his high powered dash, but showed he had power and speed without it as he launched an unrelenting series of strikes at Redmond. Redmond tried to avoid and block them, but hit after hit got through his defenses. Vert was also struggling with his opponent. No matter the angle he came at or attack he tried, every strike was blocked by those shields. The third buzzer went off, signaling Redmond's defeat
Vert turned to look at Redmond and Elvas, only to see the opponent was already gone. Vert glanced around briefly before looking up to see him in the air, crouching against Neon's floating glyph. The surprise and closer distance meant when Elvas did his dive, Vert couldn't completely avoid it. He caught it with his shoulder, sending him flying backwards. Neon was up in his face instantly, bashing away with his shields.
The final buzzer sounded, marking the end of the match. As Glynda made her announcement, Vert looked up to see what angered him to no end: Olive and Cyrus standing at the edge of the arena, weapons not even drawn. They hadn't even participated. At that moment, he felt like an ant compared to Olive. She was an insurmountable titan to him, but he was even important enough for her to register his existence. In his whole life, he had never felt so weak. He pulled himself up and gathered with his teammates to check on them.
"I guess this confirms what I heard," Redmond groaned as they got together, heading for the stairs.
"What?" Azure asked, his usual energy lowered considerably but not completely absent.
"That Elvas and Neon have trained together for years as a tag team. There's no other way they could be so coordinated after only a few months," he explained. Vert agreed, but didn't speak. He was too angry at his own shortcomings to say anything. When they reached the seating area, he felt as if all twenty-four pairs of eyes were on him, burrowing into his skin with judgement and condemnation. Even though he knew they weren't, that these were his classmates and friends, the feelings wouldn't go away. He had failed as a huntsman and as a leader.
Vert barely registered the next two matches of AQMI vs CFVY and SURS vs FENT. He could tell both were close, with only Mint standing and winning it for AQMI while Umbra and Eth had performed a mutual knockout, ending in a tie. But he didn't focus on them. In his head, the fight with OCEN was on repeat in his head. Every move he made, from the attacks to the way he stepped, was evaluated and critiqued.
Class ended not long after that. Vert didn't wait for his teammates, instead heading off to the archives on his own. It didn't take long to find the videos of the fight and began watching each recording at all of the different camera angles. He had a notebook out that he scribbled anything he noticed. Next time he thought. Next time I'll force her to take notice of me.
&?&?&?&?&?&?&?&?&?&?&?&?&?&?&?&?
The library late at night, mostly abandoned by all but the hardest working and those that had procrastinated until the last second. In one of the back tables, away from the few souls there, a group of six was sitting.
"Well done in your battles today," Olive told all of the Queen's Guard. "I think all of you showed considerable improvement since our arrival."
"Says the one who didn't fight," Umbra complained.
"I wanted to give Elvas and Neon a chance to show off. They rarely get an opportunity to fight together," Olive explained. This seemed to satisfy Umbra, who's annoyed expression softened.
"I would like to build on the matter we discussed last time in regards to recruiting more people to the Queen's Guard. Is everyone still in favor?" She looked around, none of the others giving any hint of disagreement. "If that's no issue, I'd like to begin a discussion on who to bring in. I don't think we should make any final decisions until after the Vytal Festival, but I want to know where everyone's thoughts are at."
"Elvas and Neon," Mint said first. "They're incredibly capable. They'd fit in."
"I think Olive must have a reason for not having brought them in before," Canary interjected. Olive nodded to this.
"They're good, but didn't really fit my vision for the Queen's Guard. I wanted to refine individual strength whereas they focus on their team strength," she explained.
"You only used past tense," Mint pointed out.
"Now that we're more firmly established, I agree they would make a strong addition," Olive agreed. "But I still want to wait on making final decisions."
"I think it's unanimous for Neon and Elvas," Eth started, "but what about Iris? I couldn't believe how easily she manipulated that cloth of hers."
"It's name is Dreamweave. It's a special cloth infused with various types of dust to respond better to her control," Forest explained, looking over data he had in his scroll. "Combined with her semblance, "harden," she can make both it and those light clothes of hers virtually indestructible."
"It's a good example of making the most out of a shitty semblance," Umbra commented.
"In terms of technical skills and versatility, it'll be hard to find better," Olive said. "Any more?"
"Nero," Umbra answered. "He's fast, strong, and a deadeye with that revolver of his. Plus, the way he sticks only to using that gun gives me the impression he's hiding his fangs."
"I get that impression too, though as his captain I haven't seen any secrets like that," Forest responded, again using his scroll.
"Same here. And if Tsukiko's seen something, she hasn't said anything to us," Eth added.
"I don't want to bring someone aboard because we think they've got some secret strength. Let's wait and see in regards to him," Olive decided. As before, no one had any objections.
"What about Coco?" Forest asked. "Strength enough to wield that minigun and crush people with her handbag."
"It's a great option against slower enemies, but when I fought her she was too stubborn about using it," Umbra countered.
"She has a powerful weapon, but she's too reliant on it," Eth joined in.
"If we're talking strength, we can't do better than Beryl," Canary said. "Each blow from her felt more like a truck than a sword."
"She's purely self trained as well. Some more formal knowledge would probably work wonders on her abilities," Forest droned on.
"I'd love to have her," Mint chimed in, perking up at the discussion of the pink girl.
"What about you?" Canary asked Olive. "Anyone you have in mind?"
"Vert," she answered, much to the obvious surprise of the rest of the group. "His reflexes and agility are top notch, with the stamina to back up his defensive fighting style."
"He's not bad, I can agree with that much, but I don't think he's at our level," Umbra retorted.
"He's not the best choice from VAPR, let alone the entire class," Eth joined her.
"We'll just have to see, won't we," Olive replied. They discussed a few others, but none were serious considerations, just mentions. The Vytal Festival wasn't far away, and they were all looking forward to see who would impress them enough to warrant an invitation. They called the meeting there, all getting up to return to their rooms, their heads filled with expectations.