- Chapter Ten -

- Round One -

The arrival of Amity Coliseum over the city of Vale brought a fresh wave of excitement along with it. The prospect of the Vytal Tournament finally beginning washed away all of the negative emotions that had been raised during the Breach last week. The various festive activities that the people in Vale participated in had been a suitable distraction whilst the main event took its time to arrive in the Kingdom, but now that it was here, the atmosphere had changed, and people couldn't wait for the tournament to start.

So, when the day finally came, all of the students who were staying at Beacon were glad that they got personal shuttles to take them up to the Coliseum, as the lines of people waiting to travel to the flying structure were miles long, and easily visible from the air. Teams RWBY, JNPR, CHRM, SSSN and a few other teams had managed to claim on of the personal shuttles to themselves, being some of the first people to travel to the floating arena.

It was also the first opportunity for the members of Team Chrome to properly meet the new addition to their odd crew of people. Although Misty had already spent some time with Sage since their arrival, the rest of the team had not interacted with them very much. It was a slight surprise to learn that they were a second-year team, although not entirely unexpected. They were far too familiar with one another to have only been a first-year team, and although teams RWBY, JNPR and CHRM were all close to one another, team SSSN took that bond of teammates to a new level.

Sun was an ex-Vacuo citizen, also quite obvious, from his lack of care of any respectable clothing. He had decided he didn't want to train in Shade, instead moving to Haven, in the Kingdom of Mistral, claiming he wanted to see more of the world, rather than be bogged down in one place. His partner, Neptune, had been born on one of the various smaller islands around the continent of Anima, moving to the main body of land after his entire village was wiped out by a freak of nature storm.

Scarlet was raised on the high seas, his father being the captain of one of the ships which travelled between the continents of Sanus and Anima. He claimed he had never met his mother, and so lived his years of youth on a ship. Upon accidentally unlocking his aura during a Grimm attack one day, his father made the decision that his son had needed to train to be a huntsman. Scarlet had been reluctant at first, but eventually gave in to his father's wishes, moving to Sanctum and then to Haven afterwards.

Sage's backstory was the complete opposite of his appearance. Whilst on the outside, he appeared tough, as if he had lived a hard life, done whatever he could to survive, he was actually the most normal person out of everyone in their group. He wasn't an orphan, a rich child, survivor of some accident, the bearer of familial issues, an ex-terrorist, he was simply Sage, the child who went to huntsman training schools when he came of age.

Well, there had to be at least one normal person in their group of abnormal friends.

Upon landing, the sixteen students made their way into the locker rooms, checking their equipment had been safely stored by the organisers of the tournament, before making their way up to the seating area, which overlooked the enormous arena in the centre. They were in awe just from the vast amounts of seats which were available in the coliseum. The coliseum could easily fit at least half of the population of Vale within it, after taking in all of the students who were present.

The group claimed the front row along one side of the coliseum. The front four rows were separated from the rest of the seating by a thick wall, and were reserved exclusively for the students. A few people had already taken their seats in anticipation of the official opening ceremony. A few hours passed as they all waited in their seats, the rest of the coliseum slowly filling with citizens, eager to watch the matches between the students. The coliseum travelled around Remnant, taking place in a different Kingdom each year. The previous year it had been in Mistral, the year before that it was in Atlas, then Vacuo. This years was Vale's turn to host the tournament.

Although the tournament was broadcast throughout the entirety of Remnant, it was difficult to get seats if you didn't live in the kingdom it was being held in. There were more people from Vale than any of the other Kingdoms in the coliseum, but that wasn't to say that there weren't millions of others watching from their own homes.

Eventually, Ozpin made his way into the centre of the arena, slowly walking across the metallic floor, his cane clanking against the surface with each step. Reaching centre stage, the Headmaster adjusted his crooked glasses, before leaning forwards into the microphone that had been left on the stage for him.

'Greetings. My name is Professor Ozpin, Headmaster at Beacon Academy, for those who do not know me. It is my pleasure to welcome everybody here today, and everybody watching at home, to the 40th Vytal Festival Tournament!'

The crowd began cheering heavily, and Professor Ozpin waited patiently, standing with one arm folded behind his back, the other pressed against his cane, although he didn't appear to be putting any weight on it. After several moments without an end in sight of the cheering, Ozpin raised his hand, the shouting eventually died down.

'Before I continue, I would ask that all participating students for this year's tournament make their way onto the stage,' Ozpin continued, pausing to allow for a large portion of the student populous to make their way down the service stairs that led onto the stage. The crowd began cheering again, shouting their praises to the various students who were making their ways onto the stage.

Once the last student had taken their spot on the stage, everyone almost instinctually lining up in rows, separating themselves by the academy they had come from, Ozpin began speaking once more. 'These are our Vytal Festival Tournament combatants. The best of all of our students across all years, each of whom have worked hard to earn their place in this tournament.'

'However, let us not forget, that we are here today to remember the horrors of the Great War. Eighty years ago, to this day, was the final day of the decade long war between our Kingdoms. We stand here now, today, celebrating the end of that war, by remembering those times of conflict, by fighting one another once again, but not as enemies, as allies, united as one people, here to embrace each other as equals, and take this opportunity to learn from one another once again, strengthening our bonds as people.'

'Students, I wish you all the best of luck,' Ozpin stated, a small grin on his face. 'Although do forgive me if I am slightly biased towards the students of Vale.'

Laughter rang out through the coliseum, from both the citizens in the stands, and the students standing on the stage. Ozpin turned back to the microphone, pushing his glasses back up his face as they had been sliding down the bridge of his nose. 'The tournament shall begin shortly. Good luck, and enjoy the tournament!'

Cheers rang out once again, and Ozpin began making his way off the arena stage. The students began filing back into the stands once again, moving back into their seats as they awaited the announcement of the first match.

'Ohhh, I wonder who's going to be first?!' Ruby asked in excitement, shaking her fists back and forth before her face. Yang chuckled beside her sister, pulling her hood up and over her head, much to Ruby's annoyance.

'Whoever it is, hopefully it's a good first fight,' Sun answered, leaning back in his chair, arms folded behind his head. 'The first fight is always one of the most important. If it's a bad one, it doesn't do well for the atmosphere of the audience for the rest of the tournament.'

'So, we'll hope it's you four then,' Yang teased. 'You're all pretty entertaining to watch in general, so you must be entertaining in combat too.'

Sun rolled his eyes at the brawlers comment, leaning back into his seat even further. The air was now filled with conversation, each person in the coliseum excited for the first fight of the tournament. Talk filled the air for the next few minutes, before a loud, booming voice cut through the air, boosted by the speakers throughout the stadium.

'Ho ho! Welcome everyone, to the beginning of the Vytal Festival Tournament!' Professor Port's voice echoed throughout the air. 'I am Professor Port, teacher at Beacon Academy, and alongside me is my fellow colleague, Professor Oobleck!'

'Doctor!' they heard a second voice interrupt.

'And we will be your hosts for the tournament this year!' Professor Port continued, ignoring his co-hosts comment. 'Now, for those of you who are watching for the first time, we will run through the rules for you before we announce the competitors for the first match. Professor, would you be so kind as to explain the rules for us all?'

There was a light growl over the intercom, as Doctor Oobleck no doubt gave Professor Port a death glare. 'Of course, Peter. As you know, the tournament is divided into three distinctive rounds; teams, doubles and singles. Age and school year are irrelevant! In this tournament, the only attribute tested is skill!'

'Correct!' Professor Port cut in. 'From each academy, four teams for each school year are elected, resulting in 64 competing teams, those of you who are quick with math, that's 256 students! For the first two rounds of the tournament, we go through the teams rounds, where we will be having 4 on 4 matches between the teams. Following those two rounds, we move into the doubles, where each remaining team will elect two members to represent them for another two rounds of combat. This is then followed by the winning pairs choosing one member to represent them once again. This will result in four remaining combatants, who will make their way through the semi-finals, into the finals matches, in the hope of achieving victory for their kingdom!'

'Yes! Now, we will begin the randomization process for the first match of the first round of the tournament!' Doctor Oobleck exclaimed, holographic projections appearing around the stadium, eight empty slots filling the screens. Images of students began scrolling through the slots, groups of four students per side, each side being a whole team. The images eventually came to a stop, eight unfamiliar faces resting in place.

'Our first match has been decided!' Professor Port called out. 'Team Vermilion of Shade, and Team Eucalyptus of Haven!'

'This will definitely be a good fight,' Neptune commented. 'Eucalyptus is one of the best teams at Haven. Fourth year students. They're a bit strange, but really talented. And from what I've heard, Vermilion is pretty good too. Only a second-year team, like us, but apparently, they have good control over a battlefield.'

'What does that mean?' Jaune asked, scratching his head lightly.

'They're good at controlling their enemy's actions, manipulating them around the battlefield into positions that favour their own needs,' Scarlet explained. 'They have a whole range of skillsets between the four of them that make them effective as a team, no matter who their enemy is.'

An assortment of colourful warriors began marching onto the stage of the arena once more, the oddly flamboyant looking members of Team Eucalyptus, and the vivid students of Team Viridian. The students gathered in the centre of the stage, a metallic octagon surrounded by large plates of metal at each edge of the centrepiece of the arena.

Holograms appeared in the air above the plates, scrolling through various images of different environments. The icons scrolled through, coming to a stop at an image of a thick forest behind Team Viridian and a geyser field behind Team Eucalyptus. The plates surrounding the octagonal plate retracted back into the floor, the real versions of the chosen environments rising into place around the metal plate.

Thick, luscious green trees covered one end of the arena, whilst the other turned into a grey wasteland, small pools of water scattered throughout the area, with jets of high pressure water bursting forth from the ground. The students readied their weapons, dropping into a combat position as Professor Port began his countdown, the crowd cheering heavily throughout the stadium. As the countdown reached zero, the fighters charged into battle, thus beginning the first match of the Vytal Tournament.

The fights continued through the rest of the day, each one separated by a quarter of an hour break as the next competitors readied themselves after the previous fight. The group watched many amazing matches, the first match of the day being one of the best, closely followed by Team Coffee's fight. The penultimate match by Team Crimson, which contained Cinder, Mercury, Emerald, and their recently arrived teammate Noire, had a spectacular match as well, albeit extremely quick. Their opponents seemed vastly unprepared for the utter ferocity of the fourth-year team.

After their match, Professor Port's voice boomed throughout the stadium once again. 'That was an absolutely stunning match! Wouldn't you agree Barty?'

'Yes Peter,' Doctor Oobleck replied. 'I'm sure Team Crimson will do well in the next few rounds of the tournament. Now, we have time for one last match for the day, and tomorrow, we will continue with the second half of the first round of the tournament.'

Another set of images ran through, resulting in the last two teams of the day to be brought up on the holographic screens across the coliseum. Team Flood of Shade and Team Chrome of Beacon.

'Would the final two teams of the day please make their ways down to the arena for the last match of the day?' Professor Port asked, Charlie and the rest of his team making their way to their feet.

'Good luck you four!' Ruby cheered, holding up her hand for a hi-five from each of them, an action which each of them mimicked as they walked past her. Several minutes later, they were all down in the centre of the arena, standing opposite their first opponents for the tournament.

Their team leader, Floyd, a mountain of a man stood in the middle of their team, large war axe strapped to his back. Thin leather armour was strapped across his body, less condensed around the areas of his body which would require more movement. He was almost missing enough armour that it could almost be considered useless, but it would likely protect him from very basic and light attacks.

A lizard faunus stood by his side, Drake, roughly the same height as Charlie, leaving him two feet shorter than his leader. A pair of curved swords were sheathed at his hips, blue robes wrapped around his scaled body, a long red tail poking out the back of his robes.

Their last two team members were both incredibly short, probably not even reaching four and a half feet in height. One a female, Orchid, with bright white hair and heavy plate armour wielded a hefty mace which looked like it should have been far too heavy for her to wield and a heavy shield, nearly the same size as her. The other, Lucas, wore a mixture of purple cloths and leathers, a longsword only slightly shorter than he was strapped to his side.

They were an odd mixture of characters, the two giants standing beside their two smaller teammates. They stood one the other side of the centrepiece, each of them eyeing up the members of Team Chrome, no doubt looking for any advantage they could get.

'Alright team,' Charlie whispered, barely loud enough for them all to hear him above the roar of the crowd. 'Listen up. Misty, Hannah, the two of you will need to go after the two with the heavier weapons. That axe and mace are going to be too much for either me or my sister to handle if we aren't careful. Robyn, you have the reach with your spear to deal with that longsword. I'd need to get in closer to touch him. I'll go after their faunus. If anything goes wrong, regroup back to me, and we'll come up with another strategy, got it?'

He heard small mutters of agreement, the four of them waiting patiently as the stadium randomly chose the two environments they would be fighting in. Behind them rose an environment almost akin to Mountain Glen, destroyed buildings and rubble littering the ground, whilst behind their opponents rose a grey wasteland, large yellow crystals protruding from the ground, lightning arcing between the dust spires. The eight students drew their weapons, readying themselves for the bout of combat ahead of them. Professor Port's countdown barely registered in their heads as they readied themselves.

'Begin!' the portly man's voice echoed throughout the stadium, managing to cut above the cheers of the audience.

Team Flood made a strong start, their team leader charging forwards, the already mountainous student appearing to grow in size until he was standing twice as tall as Charlie. The small armoured girl ran alongside him, jumping into the air, the now twelve-foot tall student catching her in the palm of his hand as if she were nothing but a small ball, throwing her forwards towards Team Chrome.

The lizard faunus threw his blades, the weapons spinning through the air, curving towards the four members of Team Chrome, forcing them backwards a few steps. The curved swords swung back around towards their wielder, who caught them out of the air before throwing them once again, the boomerang blades flying back and forth between the two groups.

The small girl crashed shield first into Hannah's blade, the force of the impact sending the faunus girl backwards, rolling across the ground. She raised her shield as she landed back on the ground, deflecting Misty's own mace, countering with hers, sending the head into the back of Misty's leg, dropping her to the ground before delivering a quick uppercut with her weapon, resulting in Misty being sprawled across the floor.

The gargantuan student charged Charlie and Robyn, swinging his axe towards the both of them, who narrowly managed to duck beneath the weapon, its blade thicker than their torsos. The monstrous boy strode after them, swinging the axe towards the two of them, forcing them to separate from Hannah and Misty. Charlie took hold of his sister's hand, the two of them vanishing a flash of black energy.

Floyd halted for a second, eyes scanning the battlefield for his opponents before another flash of black appeared before his face, a hard boot connecting with his jaw. He stumbled from the impact, feeling blades dance across his chest, aura deflecting the blows before they could do any real damage.

Misty and Hannah traded blows with the smaller girl, but failed to land any hits as she deflected their attacks with either the wide shield she carried, or the weapon in her hand. The two teammates weren't as fortunate when attempting to deflect Orchid's own attacks, the head of her mace cracking against their bodies, forcing them to stumble backwards from the impacts.

They caught a lucky break as an arrow flitted past them, shattering across her plate armour, but distracting the short girl enough for Misty to land a solid hit across her side, sending the heavily armoured girl rolling across the floor. They moved into action once again, Misty bringing her mace down on the prone girl, the strike barely blocked by her shield, whilst Hannah moved to aid Charlie against his opponent, but was blocked as a pair of curved blades slashed towards her, forcing her backwards as the lizard faunus began a vicious assault.

On the top of one of the ruined buildings, Robyn nocked another arrow, drawing her bow and releasing the arrow, the explosive payload stunning the giant fighting her brother. Another volley of arrows aimed at the members of the opposing team gave her teammates small openings to deliver quick attacks to dwindle their aura reserves down slightly. As she loaded her next arrow, the hairs along the back of her neck stood up straight, her aura warning her of impending danger.

Spinning on the spot, she spotted what appeared to be a whirlpool of white light pointed directly towards her. The fourth and final member of Team Flood, who she had been struggling to spot leapt through the whirlpool, sword drawn and pointed directly at her chest. Robyn fired her arrow, the small boy batting it aside with his blade, before bringing it back around for a strike at her side, which she narrowly blocked with her bow. Pressed against the edge of the rooftop, Robyn didn't have the room to try and use her spear, and had to resort to deflecting the small boys blows with her bow.

Unfortunately, the length of his sword trumped her defensive abilities, forcing her back enough to the point where he landed a solid blow, causing her to stumble over the edge of the roof. As she fell, she nocked an arrow, drawing as she fell. A flash of white filled her eyes, and she her back hit solid ground. Looking up, she had somehow made her way into the electrical crystal wasteland, separated from the rest of her team.

Lucas, the small student waved at her from the rooftop she had just fallen from, thrusting his hand forwards, another white whirlpool appearing before him. The same sensation rushed through her being, instincts telling her to duck to the side just as he teleported behind her, blade cutting through the air where she had just been standing. Spinning her weapon, she struck forwards as it shifted into a spear, the tip of her weapon grazing along her opponent's shoulder. Spinning it back around her body, she began the fluid motions of her combat style, the pair exchanging blows with one another.

Lucas gave her a grin, thrusting his hand forwards as she jabbed her spear towards him, the tip of her weapon passing through the strange portal he had summoned. Out of the corner of her eye, she saw the secondary portal that was used to pass between two points a few feet away, her spear jabbing out the end, stabbing into one of the dust crystals which littered the area. A jolt of electricity lifted her from her feet, sending her backwards onto her back, groaning loudly from the sensation.

Hannah struggled to combat Drake's dual blades, her weapon was too slow to combat his quick motions, and he relentlessly chased after her, giving her no opening to move away from him. She raised her blade to one side to block what appeared to be a strike from her right, but was a feint, the real strike coming from her left. A comforting flash of black and the sound of swords connecting filled the air.

Not even needing instructions, Hannah took the opening Charlie had given her, phasing through her opponent, raising her gun and firing towards the giant who was charging after Charlie. The bullets sparked off of his aura, doing little to slow him down. Shifting back to her sword, Hannah raised the weapon above her head to block his overhead strike, the power of the attack forcing her down to one knee. He kicked out at her, stumbling as she phased through his attack, slashing at his hamstrings as she emerged behind him.

The crowd continued to cheer as the battle got more and more intense, blows being traded between each of the combatants. Floyd appeared to be a crowd favourite amongst the current fighters, everyone evidently impressed by what must have been his semblance. The ability to become bigger than most Grimm was certainly a contributing factor to why Team Chrome was having a lot of difficulty. Hannah and Misty were both strong, but even when the two linked up together, he was easily able to overpower the pair, and being more than twice their height limited their ability to do much against him. With their covering fire from Robyn taken out of the equation, they didn't have any more opening created for them either.

After the initial clash, Floyd and Orchid, the tallest and shortest members of Team Flood had teamed up, the pair working together as they fought against Misty and Hannah. Floyds immense size made it difficult for them to hit anything but him, as he would quickly move either his weapon, or himself in the way of any blows directed towards Orchid, giving her to opportunity to retaliate back at either of the two girls, protected by her shield, and apparent bodyguard.

Robyn was still dancing through the electrical wasteland on the far edge of the arena, away from the rest of her team, unable to get back to them. Amidst the flurry of blows Lucas would rain down on her, she also had to be aware of his tricks with his semblance, a lesson she had quickly learnt after her first few tumbles through his portals, as well as the environmental hazard all around the two of them. What made the matter worse, was that Lucas' blade appeared to be able to attract any nearby bolts of electricity, which would result in a particularly shocking clash between their weapons.

In fact, Charlie was currently the only one of his entire team able to hold his own against his opponent. Whilst Drake was skilled, he was already unmatched when it came to Charlie's proficiency with swordplay, and with Charlie's semblance thrown into play, he had no chance of winning.

Which is why he seemed to be fighting in a passive-aggressive manner, allowing Charlie to throw most of the attacks so that he wouldn't be wasting his time and energy on trying to best the opponent who was out of his league, instead staying on the defensive, trying to give his teammates as much time as he could to take out the rest of Team Chrome, so they could all focus on Charlie at once. He had watched the boys match with Pyrrha Nikos a few weeks ago, and it was quickly decided that he was the main threat of the group.

He still threw out blows every now and then, mostly in the attempt to keep Charlie's interest on himself, something his opponent noticed after a few minutes of combat. When Charlie began trying to move away from the lizard faunus, Drake would move back on the offensive, bringing Charlie's attention back to himself. He was the bait, as horrible as it sounded, and yet he was the best suited to the task. His own partner, Lucas, was doing the same with their archer, taking away their long-range attacks.

As soon as Floyd and Orchid dealt with those other two girls, the match would be won.

What Drake had failed to notice however, was that as he was fighting with Charlie, his opponent had slowly been pushing him towards the electrical wasteland half of the field. It was subtle movements, not enough for someone to take notice of as they were made, but if they were paying enough attention, they would see that over the last few minutes, they had slowly been making their way out of the ruins and towards the other half of the arena.

Drake only noticed this when it was too late.

Charlie unleashed a flurry of blows, Drake deflecting a few of them before electing to step backwards to avoid the rest, his back pressed against a solid object, and a shock ran through his body. Leaping forwards, he was met with Charlie's blades once more, a grin now crossing his opponents face. He had been played.

Two quick flourishes of his blades later, and great walls of flame erupted around the lizard faunus, trapping him against the crystal, the electricity in the air humming around him. Charlie flung a flaming dagger towards the crystal, too fast to intercept. The resulting explosion of electricity and fire engulfed Drake, forcing him forwards into the wall of flame, singeing him even further, before receiving a quick kick to the chest, driving him into the ground. A flurry of blows followed, which quickly finished off the rest of his aura, dark red lightning crackling across his body as it shattered. A loud buzzer rang through the coliseum, and the crowd seemed to grow even louder.

One down, three to go.

Robyn tried to manipulate Lucas' next portal to her advantage the next time he made one. Dashing through the white whirlpool of energy, she leapt into the air, planting a foot on the side of the crystal. Not being grounded, the current had no reason to flow into her. Taking another step up the crystal, she pushed off, spinning in the air and aiming an arrow at her opponent. Not having expected this tactic, he wasn't prepared for the cluster of arrows that she fired towards him. The projectiles shattered against his aura, whittling it down even further.

Having made the two portals close together as he always had, Robyn managed to close the distance between the two of them quickly, kicking out at him, knocking him backwards, right into the waiting blades of her brother. A few quick slashes and he was out for the count, his aura dropped below the 15% mark that was used to determine when someone was eliminated from a match. Another blast from the buzzer sounded as Lucas was eliminated.

'Stay here,' Charlie ordered. 'Give us the cover we need!'

Robyn nodded quickly, drawing another arrow and firing towards the giant enemy the rest of their team was fighting as her brother vanished in another flash of black energy. From the sheer size of him, and how little his aura had gone down since the beginning of the match, she doubted her arrows would do much against him, unless they were fuelled with dust properties. Casting aside the idea of all the lien she was throwing away by doing this, she began picking form her dust arrows, firing them towards the mountain of muscle.

Misty ducked down low as Hannah blocked Floyd's next strike, swinging her mace towards Orchid's small form, her strike ringing out against the metal shield. She drew her hand back as Orchid released a counter attack, her own mace swinging past Misty's face. Floyd took a step forwards, forcing Hannah to take hold of Misty's shoulder, phasing them out of his path and further away from the pair. His size made it impossible for them to hold any ground, as his legs were nearly taller than them.

Charlie appeared by their side, blade set alight, swinging them in what appeared to be a wild manner, yet was perfectly calculated to prevent the possibility of a counter-attack from their opponents. Floyd took a step back to avoid the flaming swords, unable to use his large weapon in such close quarters. Instead, Orchid stepped forwards, bashing her shield forwards towards Charlie. The dark-haired twin stepped back, bringing his blades down in an overhead arc, clashing against her shield as she raised it above her head. She pushed them away, drawing her shield in close, before erupting in a bright flash of light.

Everyone glanced away, their vision stained purple from the light that had burst forth from her body. Large wisps of purple aura danced across her body, the small girl still shining brightly in the middle of the stadium. She swung her mace upwards, the blow connecting with Charlie's jaw, sending him sprawling through the air, swords clattering to the floor as he dropped them. Floyd stepped forward, taking hold of Hannah in one hand, picking her up and throwing her through the support pillar of one of the nearby buildings, the whole structure crumbling down on top of her.

Misty danced backwards, still blinded by the light, but could hear the sound of the plate armour clanking together as Orchid rushed her position. She raised her weapon, shifting it into its railgun form, firing the energy beam from her rifle in the direction of her opponent. She heard the sound of the shot splashing across Orchid's shield, far closer than she would have liked to hear it.

There was a crack as Orchid's mace hit the side of her knee, forcing Misty to the ground, before another brutal uppercut hit her under the chin, causing her to reel backwards, falling to the ground. The sounds of clanking armour ran away from her, and by the sounds of the crowd shouting in both approval and displeasure, she knew that she had been eliminated.

The buzzer sounded for the third time.

Robyn panicked slightly as Floyd turned to face her, the twelve-foot tall fighter bearing down on her, barely breaking five feet tall. He began taking great, lumbering steps in her direction, the floor of the arena quaking beneath them. She fired quickly, setting a few traps in his path, tripwires weaving between the various crystals, the thin wire difficult to spot against the grey of the wasteland.

The first few tripwires exploded in a cacophony of various dust effects, fire, lightning and ice being the most frequent of the bunch, as they were the most common forms of dust used for combat. She let loose a few more arrows his way through the blasts of dust, slowly backing away, careful to stay away from any nearby crystals, and going nowhere near the ones close enough to arc lightning between themselves.

Floyd's axe came flying through the fire and smoke towards her, spinning end over end. She attempted to dodge it, but it was already too close, and she couldn't move fast enough, the blade of the axe slamming into her chest, knocking her to the ground and taking the air from her lungs. Thunderous steps shook the ground, and in a few seconds, he was looming over her, glaring down at her with what looked like an almost apologetic look. He raised a foot and brought it down on her torso, and with that she could feel what remained of her aura being depleted.

The fourth buzzer rang out.

Charlie stumbled to his feet on the other side of the arena, blinking heavily as his vision slowly returned. Orchid raced in his direction, mace raised above her head before swinging it towards him. He dodged backwards, scanning across the battlefield to look for his weapons, seeing them abandoned on the floor. Dodging and weaving around Orchid's next few strikes, he disengaged from her, disappearing and reappearing next to his blades, picking them up and returning to the smaller girl, unleashing a flurry of blows almost too fast to follow.

Orchid's shield was raised before her, each of Charlie's strikes bouncing off the polished steel. Behind the smaller girl, Hannah quietly phased her way out of the rubble of the building, sliding up behind the smaller girl and harshly sent her sword careening into Orchid's back. The smaller girl was lifted from her feet, where she met both of Charlie's flaming blades, crashing into her plate armour. The small explosion of the two blades colliding sent her tumbling backwards, dealing just enough damage to eliminate her from the match.

Five buzzes now. The crowd was in a frenzy, only two combatants were left. None of the other matches today had been this close.

That just left them with the goliath of a student left in the arena with them. Glancing up at one of the various screens around the room didn't do well to encourage them, his remaining aura levels being higher than both of theirs combined.

'What's the plan?' Hannah asked, raising her sword as Floyd turned to face the two of them from the opposite side of the arena, hefting his great axe onto his shoulder.

'Use your gun,' Charlie said, coming up with the plan on the spot. 'When he gets close enough, he'll attack us. Grab me and phase through it, I'll set up a wall of fire to try blind him, or at least push him back slightly. From there, I'm going to need you to do all of the blocking, my swords won't block his axe.'

'Alright, let's do this,' Hannah replied, raising a single fist, the two bumping the backs of their hands together. The faunus girl shifted her weapon into an LMG, aiming down the sights and unloading the magazine on their foe. The slow firing of the weapon allowed for each of her shots to connect, their heavy impact normally enough to do heavy damage in a battle, but only draining very small amounts of his aura after every dozen or so shots. He lumbered towards the two teammates, raising his axe a few steps away from them to bring it down on them.

Charlie slashed his blades across the ground at the last second, a wall of fire erupting in Floyd's face as the axe passed through Charlie's form. The giant took a quick step back to escape the fire, giving Hannah and Charlie the time to prepare their next move. Raising her sword, Hannah gave Charlie a platform to stand on, watching as he leapt into the air, spinning his blades at Floyd's upper torso, the fiery blades cutting into his aura.

Hannah charged forth after her leader, slashing her blade up the side of Floyd's leg, bring it down for a secondary strike, cleaving the sword across his knee. She caught sight of Charlie behind Floyd, slashing and hacking at the boy's legs, his blades glancing off of Floyd's grey aura. The air was filled with the screams and cheers of the crowd, the sound of weapons clashing together as the three continued their desperate battle. The ringing of steel, the crackling of aura, the roar of flames, all merged together into one sound of battle, one that the three combatants no longer heard, as they fought for victory.

Floyd stabbed the end of his axe into the ground, blocking Hannah's blade with the shaft of his weapon, spinning on the spot and holding up his arm, catching Charlie's blades on his leather vambrace, pushing him away roughly. Turning back around to Hannah, Floyd clenched his fingers into a fist, the faunus girl too busy leading a strike into his opposite side, not noticing the incoming attack.

A flash of black energy occurred behind Hannah, and something roughly pushed her out of the way. Flicking her eyes behind her, she saw the giant fist slam into Charlie's side, sending him rolling across the ground, bouncing from the impact, dark black aura crackling across his body as it shattered.

Hannah continued with her strike, bringing the sword up the inside of his guard, slashing across his chest, then up his torso, down low to his knee, stabbing it into his gut, then an uppercut where her blade ran across the bottom of his jaw, the massive blade of her sword snapping his head back. He toppled over, crashing into the ground with a thunderous boom. Hannah raised her sword to continue her assault when a buzzer went off, signalling his elimination.

Sound almost rushed back to her, as if she had been deaf to anything outside her battle, the cheers of the crowd ringing through the coliseum, onto the arena floor and engulfing her. She smiled, sheathing her blade across her back and waving up at the people in the stands.

'And with that extremely close finish, Team Chrome shall move on to the second round!' Professor Port exclaimed.

Hannah fell to her knees as the rest of the combatants across the field began picking themselves up from where they lay, converging in the centre of the arena, where they began congratulating each other.

'That was a good fight,' Floyd said with a grin, now shrunk back down to his normal eight -foot tall self, shaking everyone's hands with his own enormous mitts. 'I wouldn't mind getting to train with you all some other time.'

'Right back at you,' Charlie said, rubbing the side of his chest. 'That was a wicked left hook you pulled at the end there.'

'You sent him flying ass over elbow!' Misty laughed, giving her partner a nudge to the side.

'We almost had you at the start though,' Lucas teased, crossing his arms with a sly grin across his face. 'You weren't expecting us to be so aggressive right out the door, did you?'

'It threw us off a bit,' Robyn admitted. 'But we managed to adjust.'

'That you did,' Orchid smiled. 'But now you're under the pressure to win for us too. We at least want to lose to the winning team.'

'We'll try out best,' Hannah promised.

'That concludes the matches for today,' Doctor Oobleck's voice echoed over the loudspeakers. 'Please leave the coliseum in a calm and orderly fashion!'

Mercury and Emerald sauntered their way towards the group of students next to the docking station for the student air ships. Although only Team Chrome had fought a battle today, Cinder still wanted them to try and get as much information as possible about the groups. Especially Team Chrome, the first-year team who somehow managed to take out one of the oldest Grimm in existence. From what Mercury and Emerald had heard, the Aboleth didn't get to see any people, so maybe it wasn't used to the new breed of hunters and huntresses in Remnant, but it shouldn't have been defeated by enemies so young.

'Hey Emerald! Hey Mercury!' Ruby cheered, waving the two over. It was almost amusing how easy it was to become friends with her. They barely ever spent time with one another, and yet she had apparently gained the undying trust of the young girl.

'Hey Ruby,' Emerald replied, putting on her fake persona of a happy school girl. 'How are you doing?'

'Oh, you know, same as usual,' Ruby answered. 'We were here all day watching the matches. You guys did really well by the way!'

'Thanks,' Emerald said, feigning appreciation from the girl's words. 'They were really inexperience though, it was only their first year. Not to say first year teams can't do well of course! We saw your friends fighting just now, they seem really well coordinated, and experienced.'

'Aww, thanks Emerald,' Misty said. 'That means a lot coming from you.'

'I'm just hoping we don't meet at any point further down the line,' Charlie said. 'By the looks of some of your kicks, they hit even harder than that punch I took from Floyd.'

'Well maybe next time don't jump in front of it!' Weiss' shrill voice cut across the sound of chatting people in the background. 'Seriously, you didn't have to take her place, you could have just moved her out of the way! That way you wouldn't have needed to take the hit, not causing that stupidly large bruise you have on your side!'

Weiss poked Charlie in the side, causing him to hiss in pain, clutching at his side. 'Yeah, I know. Please don't do that, it really hurts. Besides, I acted on instinct, I didn't have much time to consider what to do!'

'Don't even try to play that card! You literally have all the time in the world to make choices!' Weiss argued, causing Charlie to roll his eyes. Emerald shot Mercury a glance at her phrasing, catching his subtle hand motion to have her calm down as Weiss continued talking. 'Next time think for a few seconds before you do something stupid, no offense Hannah.'

'None taken,' the faunus girl replied, raising her hands in submission with a smile on her face.

'They're like an old married couple, don't you think?' Yang asked Emerald, motioning towards Weiss and Charlie. 'Fighting over something really stupid.'

'Sounds like me and Em over here,' Mercury smirked, elbowing Emerald in her side. 'Your ride's here by the way, you might want to take it. Never know how long the next one will take. They aren't the fastest of ships.'

'What about you two?' Pyrrha asked, stepping forwards from her team. 'There should be enough room for you to join us.'

'No, we're waiting for Cinder and Noire,' Emerald lied. 'They headed for the bathroom a while back. We thought that they might have been waiting here, but I guess they're still in the stadium somewhere.'

'No problems,' Ruby said. 'Maybe we can catch up later?'

'Yeah, maybe later,' Mercury said, putting an arm around Emerald's shoulder and leading her away.

'Seeya Ruby!' Emerald called over her shoulder, waving goodbye to the students. As soon as her back was turned to them, she rolled her eyes in frustration.

'Well, aren't you enjoying spending time with our new friends,' Mercury teased, letting his arm fall from her shoulder.

'Ugh, don't get me started,' Emerald replied.

'But, you did hear little Ms Schnee's comment about our dear friend, Mr Arduin, didn't you?'

'Yes, I did,' Emerald nodded. 'What do you think they meant?'

'Well, to hazard a guess, having all the time in the world could be a literal statement,' Mercury said. 'Maybe he can stop time? The "teleportation" is him moving in place whilst he's stopped time.'

'If that's true, couldn't he just win any fight he's in within a matter of seconds?' Emerald questioned. 'We haven't seen him do anything like that, at all.'

'He could be hiding it,' Mercury said. 'Why would you show your trump card so early on in the tournament, or at all? A little like our friend, Ms Nikos.'

'I'm not sure,' Emerald commented. 'We should ask Cinder. She might have a better idea about what they meant.'

'We may have to wait a while. We did just ditch the most recent flight back to Beacon,' Mercury commented. 'Maybe we could find an abandoned bathroom stall to pass the time? I'm still sure that you want me.'

'In your dreams, Mercury,' Emerald said in disgust, pushing him away.

'Ah, but that's where you do all the most interesting things,' Mercury joked, fending off the punch she threw towards him.

I took a bit of a different approach to the way I wrote combat this time. There were far too many perspectives to tell the fight from, and with how I wanted to move things around, so they weren't all near each other, there would have been too many breaks between perspectives and would have been really hard to read.

I don't know if I'd do it like that again, I'd probably just stick to writing from one person's perspective and have them noticing the fighting around them as background content. Who knows, we'll see what happens I guess.

In other news, I have another story idea in the works. It would be an AU story, and when I was writing the first chapter, I was finding myself really getting into it. So keep an eye out for that at some point. A similar story just to get an idea what it's like, is a really good fic called 'Of Vale Blood' by Zeroan. Give it a look if you want to read a really good story.

Otherwise, adieu!