- Chapter 11 -

- Not Part of the Plan –

Cinder hummed to herself quietly, wrapping her head around the new information her partners had brought her. Although she normally preferred information to be handed to her with concrete evidence, leaving her certain that the information was correct, the guesses that her underlings had provided her with were welcome. Ever since she learnt that some First-Year team had taken out the Aboleth, she had been furious, ordering both Emerald and Mercury to find out anything they could about Team Chrome. Hell, she was still furious after they accidentally let Ruby slip past them on the night of the dance.

Initially, it hadn't been too difficult for Mercury to try and get to know them, Emerald drawing the short straw and being stuck with trying to learn about Team RWBY, whilst Mercury stuck with Team CHRM. Within the week, he had come back with enough information about the girls to confirm that they weren't too much of a threat. His lack on anything about Charlie however was frustrating to Cinder though.

So, when the pair came back from Amity Coliseum that afternoon, claiming that they finally had an idea on his semblance, the one thing they didn't really know about him, her interest had been peaked. She had checked outside their allocated door room to be sure nobody else was around, securely locking the door after ensuring it was safe to talk.

'As unrealistic as it might sound,' Emerald had started their conversation, her comment not really inspiring much faith in Cinder at first. 'Is it possible to have a semblance which allows you to stop time?'

'It's possible,' Cinder thought, becoming quiet as she began thinking in her mind, excluding Mercury and Emerald from her thought process. A thin, but menacing grin widened across her face. 'A Timekeeper?'

'What's that?' Emerald asked, narrowing her eyes with her eyebrows raised, never having heard of that name before.

'Nothing you need to worry about,' Cinder smirked, sitting back down on her bed, now seeming much more comfortable than before. 'He will take care of himself in due time. For now, however, he stands in our way. I'll rig the doubles rounds so that you two will face them in the doubles. If he goes through, which I would assume he will, the two of you will need to take them out of the competition.'

'You do realise he isn't exactly a pushover, right?' Mercury asked, lying down on the floor and folding his arms behind his head. 'He took on Pyrrha Nikos and the two drew. I know you don't want to continue through, just in case you draw too much attention, but the both of us would still struggle against him by ourselves.'

'I have faith in you Mercury,' Cinder cooed, calming the grey-haired boy quickly. 'Stick with the same plan you were going to use no matter which battle you were to be in. Distract the boy whilst Emerald takes out whoever his partner is. She will then rejoin you, with the two of you working together, you should be able to take him down.'

'You will need to use your semblance Emerald,' Cinder warned the green-haired girl. 'If my own theory is right, you'll need to manipulate what he sees if you want the chance to land a hit on him. He will know your attack before you make it, so if he cannot see what you are really doing, he cannot react to it.'

'Wait, how does he know that?' Emerald asked, the look of confusion still not leaving her face.

'If I am correct, and I would say I am,' Cinder gloated. 'His semblance is not the ability to stop time, but to reverse it instead. He can replay events over and over until he gets an outcome he likes, and is why he does so well in combat. The times he makes mistakes is when there is no other way out for him, ergo they aren't even mistakes, just him accepting fate.'

'And the teleportation?' Mercury asked from the floor.

'He moves time around himself. Instead of moving himself back to his original position, he stays where he is, but everything else resets around him,' the vixen replied as if it were the most obvious thing in the world.

'It might be useful to give us that floating block environment then,' Mercury said. 'If I recall, they run off of random coding, so they won't move the same each time. If I can lure him into there, I might be able to throw him off his game. He can't predict what isn't the same every time.'

'Alright, what happened to you? That was way too smart of a thought to have actually come from your brain,' Emerald taunted, drawing a frown to Mercury's face. 'But, it is a good plan. I'll give it to you this time.'

'Wait, what are you giving to me?' Mercury smirked up at her, causing her to throw a nearby pillow at his face, his small chuckle only serving to irritate her even more.

Normally Cinder wasn't one to tolerate their fooling around. To be perfectly honest, she would have preferred it if the two would just get together already, at least then they wouldn't be dancing back and forth between each other, throwing out subtle jokes but not actually doing anything about it. If you liked someone, there was no point in messing around.

Not that Cinder ever had that luxury. She had needed to seduce some people time to time through her work, and she had been able to get them wrapped around her finger before she had ever even needed to take her dress off. These two had that much sexual tension between them that even the daftest of people could sense it.

'Do we need to coordinate anything for the second round?' Emerald asked Cinder. 'And where's our last teammate?'

'Little Noire is busy taking care of a few things for her side of the plan,' Cinder purred. 'Not to worry, she will be back in time for our next tournament battle. Until then, rest up, but make sure you know who is being send through to the doubles rounds so that we can make things go our way.'

'Yes ma'am,' Emerald nodded, lying down on her bed.

'Ugh, it's too early to sleep, I'm going for a walk,' Mercury said, leaping up from the floor and making his way out the door. 'If either of you want to join me, there's room for two.'

When neither of them moved, he simply shrugged his shoulders and left, closing the door behind him quickly. Emerald turned to Cinder, still wanting to know what she was talking about before. Sometimes she only said things in private with Emerald, Mercury hadn't been with them as long, and hadn't heard of Cinder's master yet.

'So, Timekeeper?' Emerald asked again, hoping to gain some insight from the fiery woman. She received a glare from her instead, indicating that she was pushing at something that she didn't really need to know about.

'That isn't of any concern to you,' Cinder informed Emerald, the girl turning her head away, knowing her place. 'All you need to know is that right now, he is a serious threat to us if we aren't careful. If we play our cards right, and wait for the right time, he will most likely end up taking care of himself for us.'

Her answer still didn't put Emerald's confusion to rest, but she knew that it was all she would get until Cinder decided that she deserved to know more. Still, she wished that Cinder would trust her a little more every now and then. As much as she owed her, it still frustrated Emerald that Cinder didn't seem to think her worthy of information. Pushing the thoughts out of her head, lest Cinder somehow gain the ability to read minds and see her thoughts, Emerald turned in for the night, falling asleep in her bed before Mercury could come back and irritate her further.

'Welcome back everyone!' Doctor Oobleck announced over the loudspeaker. 'The fourth round of the Vytal Festival Tournament will begin in just a few moments!'

Over the course of the previous week, the various students participating in the different rounds of the tournament. The teams rounds had taken a long time to get through, simply due to the large amount of teams still in the running at the time. It took four days just to get through the first round of the tournament, another two for the second, and all of yesterday was spent on the first doubles round, the third round of the tournament.

Weiss and Yang had managed to sneak a win in against their opponents, whilst Pyrrha and Nora had proceeded to annihilate the pair they had been set against. Sun and Neptune had been a favourite of the ladies in the crowd, but had been unfortunate enough to have Charlie and Hannah selected as their opponents. There had been a few boos in complaint when the Haven students had been eliminated by their opponents, but they had been silenced soon enough when Professor Port began announcing the next match.

'Today we will continue through the fourth round of the tournament, cutting through the quarter-finals, and by the end of today, we will be left with four competitors remaining. They will be our finalists for the tournament, and will compete against each other for the honour of being the victor of the 80th Vytal Festival Tournament!'

'Yes Peter!' Doctor Oobleck said, his voice barely audible above the sound of the cheers beginning anew from the audience. 'But instead of boring our audience with small talk and going over the rules once again, let's begin the randomisation process for our first match!'

As per usual, as soon as the Doctor and the Professor were done commenting, the holographic displays around the arena flashed to life, already spinning through the remaining combatants to see who would be fighting against one another in the next battle. The images came to a rest on Yang and Weiss, as well as a pair of boys that they weren't familiar with.

The pair made their way to the stage as per the norm at this point, meeting with their opponents on the stage after preparing in the locker room before the match. The first was a rugged looking, white-haired student with thick stubble of the same colour coating his face and chin. A pair of thick glasses rested on his face, the rims made of what looked like pure gold. An elegantly designed blue military coat with intricate designs in gold stitch rested on his shoulders, a tidy white shirt lying beneath, whilst a bullet belt was slung over the top, bullets larger than even those used in Crescent Rose hooked through the various loops. Hanging from his shoulder was a rustic, but intricate looking rifle. The base appeared to be created with some form of wood, but the gold inlay designs throughout the weapon gave it a sense of elegance at the same time.

His partner, a dark-haired boy of similar height, stood by his side quietly, pitch black eyes roaming across Weiss and Yang, no doubt observing them quickly for any information he could glean about them which could help him in the battle. Unlike his partner, he was clean shaven, hair long and straight in comparison to his partners short and messy bob. He wore black clothing, bits and pieces of leathers and small metal plates of the same colour covering his outfit, giving him protection across nearly his entire body. The leathers sat across sections of his body which would need more movement, whilst the plating was placed across sections of importance. To finish off his almost gothic appearance, what appeared to be a thick black cloak made of dark feathers hung from his shoulders.

'Weiss and Yang of Beacon, versus Jaye and Brendan of Atlas!' Professor Port announced over the speaker, the four students readying their weapons as their battle drew closer.

'Good luck you two,' the white-haired boy, Jaye, acknowledged, drawing his rifle from his shoulder just a second later.

'Same goes to you pal,' Yang replied, cracking her knuckles before deploying Ember Celica, settling into her battle pose.

'We make our own luck,' Brendan replied, drawing a pair of daggers from his sides, similar in design to those that Charlie wielded, but the blades were much thinner, and the pitch-black metal had a distinct lack of any red glow from within. He gave them a quick spin in his hands, balancing them on his fingers before nodding in satisfaction, sheathing them a moment later.

Around them rose the environments of their battlefield. The fire and ice environments that had been in their first fight in the tournament rose to the North and South respectively, whilst the East quadrant became a field of shattered glass, giant spires of the same transparent material protruding from the floor, whilst the West became a thick swamp, deep pools of muck littering the ground.

'Three, two, one, begin!'

Yang threw her fists forwards, hoping to get in an early hit with Ember Celica, firing rapidly at the two boys. Her shots missed as Brendan grabbed his partner, his cloak suddenly flapping to life, lifting the two from the floor. It was then that Yang realised that it wasn't a cloak at all, it was actual wings!

The raven faunus flew above the battlefield, his cargo aiming down the scope of his rifle, firing towards the two girls far more accurately than any other sharpshooter they had ever seen. The first round impacted against Yang's shoulder, the next hitting her in the gut. From there, Weiss managed to bring up a glyph between the two pairs, deflecting the next two shots that were fired.

The pair dashed through the sky, dropping low as Brendan dropped Jaye beside one of the glass spires. Whilst it wouldn't do much to hide him from Weiss and Yang, it was likely still a viable source of cover from any long-range attacks. Brendan took to the skies again, his wings rapidly flapping behind him, darting across the arena towards the two girls.

Weiss shifted the position of her glyph, keeping it between them and the airborne student. Just before he would impact with it, he flared his wings behind him, coming to a halt in barely a second. His wingspan was easily in the range of twenty feet, the vast black wings almost blocking out all the light in front of them as they spread before them. Flapping them downwards, Brendan shot upwards, drawing both of his daggers in one swift motion before dashing down again, barely flitting over the top of Weiss' glyph. Impacting with the ground hard, he dodged Yang's first punch before unleashing a flurry of strikes against the two. It was almost like fighting Charlie, his technique incredibly similar to their friends, although in the place of teleporting out of danger, he would either dodge an attack at the last second, or raise one of his giant black wings, catching their attack with little effort.

A shot bounced beneath Weiss' glyph, ricocheting off the metal floor and into Weiss' shin. She stumbled on the spot, her glyph dropping as her concentration fell, another round impacting against her chest, this one sending her backwards and onto the floor.

Brendan dodged Yang's next uppercut, rolling to the side and flaring his wings outwards, one of them catching her side and sending her sprawling across the floor. Weiss leapt to her feet, turning to help Yang, instead taking another shot to the leg. Gritting her teeth in annoyance, she instead turned her gaze to her other opponent, currently loading another bullet into the chamber of his rifle.

Summoning a glyph beneath her, Weiss shot across the field of battle, gliding over the sharp glass that littered the area Jaye had in lockdown. Dodging his next shot, she stabbed Myrtenaster towards him, the tip of her rapier barely glancing off the side of his rifle. Spinning it in his hand, the rifle shifted into a longsword of similar design. Elegant beyond normal measures, it made even Myrtenaster look slightly tacky.

Raising her guard, the two began trading blows, Weiss being more on the defensive whilst Jaye was on the offense, sending strike after strike her way as he attempted to break through her guard. Their blades clashed together, both of them entwined in an elegant display of swordplay. The older student slowly began to push Weiss back, her heeled shoes making it slightly difficult for her to walk on the uneven terrain of the glass.

Subtly flicking her wrist, Weiss set up a glyph behind her, deflecting another strike from Jaye before leaping backwards, planting her feet on the glyph. Pushing off from the surface, Weiss pointed her rapier before her towards her opponent. As he dodged to the side, she dropped the tip of Myrtenaster to the floor, the ice dust cartridge in her hilt activating, ice sprouting across the ground.

Jaye stumbled backwards, avoiding the spikes of ice, boots crunching against the glass covered ground. Creating more glyphs, Weiss started darting around her opponent, slashing Myrtenaster towards her opponent. He managed to block a few of her strikes, but most of them were too quick for him to deflect or parry.

Explosions rocketed behind her, the blasts of Ember Celica echoing throughout the stadium as Yang fired her gauntlets after her airborne opponent. The raven-faunus flitted through the air, giant wings propelling him through the sky above Yang. The brawler was growling angrily, frustrated at her inability to hit him.

Seeing an opening, Brendan dove towards the blond girl, daggers flashing in the light as he swung them towards her. Yang deflected them with the backs of her gauntlets, the pair exchanging blows with each other, alternating between attacking and countering each other. Although his blades were easy to counter, his fighting style being similar enough to Charlie's that she could almost predict some of his attacks, the giant wings across his back were much more difficult to avoid. One well-placed strike with a wing was enough to knock Yang off her feet.

As she rolled across the ground from one such hit, she blasted Ember Celica behind herself, darting back towards Brendan as he lifted himself into the air again. Another shot of Ember Celica and she reached him, grabbing hold of one of his wings, her weight enough to drag it down. Unbalanced, he struggled to stay airborne with his one free wing, but her added weight on his other wing dragged them back to the floor of the arena.

As soon as they landed, Yang threw all of her weight towards Brendan, dragging the two of them to the ground. He raised his arms to protect himself as she straddled him, throwing punch after punch at his face. Unable to move, the strength of her blows were finally put to use, striking against his chest and face whenever he was unable to deflect them with his forearms.

Jaye and Weiss were still locked in battle when this happened, blades flashing around each other as they sought for the next strike against their opponent. Looking behind him at his teammate, Jaye dropped to the ground, swiping at Weiss' legs to make her jump away from him. Using this window of opportunity, he shifted his weapon into a rifle, taking aim and firing a shot towards Yang, the round exploding against her face, knocking her off his partner. Rolling onto his back, Jaye flicked Weiss' next strike to the side before rolling to his feet, shards of glass sent flying off his coat.

The biggest advantage that Weiss had over Jaye in close quarters combat was his inability to use his rifle. Although it was incredibly powerful, he seemed reluctant to use it too close to her. She supposed that unlike Pyrrha, who used her own rifle in any situation, the scope that he had attached to the top of the barrel had an extremely powerful magnification within, making it difficult to use up close. This limited him to fighting her with just his blade, which he seemed slightly less proficient with in comparison to his incredible marksmanship.

Pressing on the offensive now, Weiss couldn't help but smile as she slowly pushed him back, sneaking in a few strikes past his defences every now and then. She flicked Myrtenaster across the ground, the revolving barrel spinning in place as some pieces of glass were lifted from the ground. Bringing Myrtenaster around, she activated the dust chamber, a burst of wind emanating from the tip of her rapier, sending the glass shards towards Jaye.

He lifted the side of his coat to protect himself from the small projectiles, but in doing so, blinded himself from Weiss' next attack. A quick thrust with Myrtenaster to the centre of the chest, accompanied with a quick flurry of slashes was enough to drop his aura enough to eliminate him from the match.

Spinning on the spot, Weiss searched for Yang and Brendan. After Jaye's shot, the winged-faunus had darted back into the sky, throwing his daggers towards Yang to keep her on the defensive, rather than shooting him down. Each time they finally landed, they evaporated into a puff of shadows, darting back to his hands in an instant.

Flourishing her rapier, Weiss summoned several shards of ice, flinging them towards the flying opponent with a thrust of Myrtenaster. The first few hit the back of his wings, shattering against his dark feathers, whilst he managed to deflect the rest with his daggers. Continuing her onslaught, Weiss managed to distract him enough for Yang to begin firing at him once again. Brendan seemed to pick up on this tactic before Yang did, flapping around the sky to avoid her shots.

Unfortunately, Yang's rapid firing in random spots ended that plan quickly, one connecting with a wing, pushing him off balance before dropping a few feet. Yang kept up the pressure, firing round after round his way, dropping him lower and lower before he toppled from the air, landing with a loud splash in one of the murky pools of water in the swamp.

As he spluttered to the surface, wet wings flapping uselessly in the pool of water, Weiss flourished her weapon once again, glyph forming beneath her as she shot towards him, flanking from the other side of him from Yang. Speeding over the boggy swamp beneath her, unhindered due to her glyph, Weiss summoned a black glyph between him and Yang. Flicking her hand, she caused another to appear at the surface of the water, expelling him from the muck and into the air.

Reaching his position, she ran into a flying kick, pushing him through the black glyph, speeding him up and sending him flying towards her awaiting teammate, fist readied with a grin on her face. Jabbing with Ember Celica, firing a round from her gauntlet simultaneously with her punch, she caught the student in the gut with her blow, knocking him back to the ground, the buzzer sounding through the stadium as his own aura was dropped enough to eliminate him from the match.

'Yang Xiao-Long and Weiss Schnee win!' Professor Oobleck called out, the crowd roaring in approval of the battle.

The pair smiled, waving at the audience as they made their way towards each other. Yang held her arms out for a hug, which Weiss was almost tempted to return, instead rewarding her with a high-five instead. Baby steps.

'That was amazing!' Ruby squealed, almost knocking the pair over before they could even reach their seats. Her short little arms wrapped around each of them simultaneously, drawing them in for one of the famous Xiao-Long-Rose hugs. Whilst Weiss merely protested in irritation, the brute that was Yang Xiao-Long joined in, wrapping her arms around her little sister as well as Weiss, crushing the two in an even stronger grip.

'Aw, thanks sis!' Yang laughed, Ruby already struggling in her grasp, getting far more than she had been looking for.

'Please let me go,' Weiss mumbled through the cloth covering Ruby's shoulder, trapped in the mess of bodies that was their odd embrace.

'Even tighter? Sure thing Weiss!' Yang teased, crushing Weiss even further.

'Congratulations!' they heard Pyrrha say. Finally releasing each other from their nearly team hug, the three separated, turning to face the rest of their friends.

'That was an awesome fight!' Jaune praised. 'I didn't even realise he was a faunus! He's been hiding that secret since the start of the tournament!'

'Really?'

'Yeah! I've been watching all of the matches so far, and he hasn't actually used his wings until your match right now!' Jaune said excitedly.

'Well, it's good to see that they thought we would be difficult enough to warrant him using them,' Weiss said, a slight hint of satisfaction in her voice.

'Pfft, of course he did!' Yang smiled. 'We're badass! He would have known he'd need to go all out just to take me down!'

'And there's that humble Yang that we all know and love,' Blake smirked.

'You all know and love me anyway,' Yang winked in response.

'You know, I did a lot of the work this time Yang,' Weiss snapped at her teammate, who rolled her eyes in amusement.

'Right, of course. Thank you, Weiss, I am forever in your debt for throwing some water around the arena,' Yang chuckled, only causing Weiss to become more infuriated.

'Yang!'

'It's alright Weiss, we know you were the real MVP this round,' Charlie commented as he walked up to congratulate them himself, smiling as Yang took on a look of emotional pain.

'I thought you were on my side!' Yang complained dramatically, before adopting her usual grin. 'Oh wait, nope, you're on Weiss' aren't you? I see how it is.'

'Yang, for the last time-!'

'Don't worry Weiss, as soon as you send out the wedding invitations, I'll be sure to RSVP my spot,' Yang teased.

'Baby steps Yang,' Charlie replied. 'I was thinking that we should all head out into Vale tonight. Have a celebration dinner tonight. Somewhere nice, my treat. Well, maybe Robyn's treat. We'll see.'

'Little bit early for that sort of talk, don't you think? Only we've won our battle so far. You and Hannah, or gods forbid, Nora and Pyrrha could still lose,' Yang commented.

'Well, even if we do lose, we can still go out and celebrate you guys getting through to the finals,' Charlie reasoned.

'That sounds like a grand idea!' Pyrrha said, nodding happily at his suggestion. 'I'd love to actually spend a night out with all of us together. We haven't really done anything like that since the start of the year.'

'Great! I'll go and ask Sun if him and his team want to come out with us as well.'

'Good idea, break the ice between you and him after you destroyed him and Neptune in the third round,' Yang said, narrowing her eyes and sticking her finger into his chest. 'Which I still haven't forgiven you for!'

'They didn't get destroyed Yang,' Blake said defensively. 'They held their own.'

'Oh please! They got destroyed and you know it!'

'Regardless of who got destroyed or not!' Charlie interrupted before the conversation could degrade any further. 'I'm going to invite them out with us. Is that fine with you all?'

He received quick nods from the six people around him, each of them perfectly fine with Team Sun to join them. 'Great, it's a date then.'

'Oh, are you sure about that Charlie?' Yang asked, drawing confusion from the rest of the group before her usual grin crossed her face. 'Don't you want to take Weiss out somewhere special, alone, for your first date?'

'Yang!' Weiss yelled at her teammate angrily, drawing out laughs from the rest of their friends.

Mercury paced anxiously in the locker room below the stands of the coliseum. Their rigged match with Charles Arduin, and his battle partner, Hannah Kitsun, had been announced only moments before. Cinder may have had faith in the two of them to defeat the pair, but Mercury had his own doubts. He knew he was good, but Charles was on a different level from himself and Emerald. Similar to Pyrrha Nikos, the two had an uncanny knack for combat, their semblances boosting their prowess in battle even further.

If the battle between Charles and Pyrrha a few weeks back was an indication of anything, it was that he wouldn't require much of an opening to take either of them out. One slip-up, and he could take the victory from them. That would throw their plan in disarray, not to mention how angry Cinder would be as well.

Emerald had asked why they didn't just pit Charles and Pyrrha against each other earlier on, have one take the other out, an idea which was quickly shot down. Cinder wanted Pyrrha to reach the finals, throwing Charles in the way would only complicate matters. They couldn't be certain that Pyrrha wouldn't lose to the boy, and due to the unknown factor around him at that time, they didn't want to risk him ruining their plan just because they didn't know much about him.

His semblance for example, if Cinder's theory was correct, which it always was, would have made their attempts to trick contestants into enacting violent actions in the finals pointless, as he could choose to ignore it instead, knowing that it was nothing more than an illusion. To be honest, Mercury could tell that Emerald was nervous about having to use her illusory semblance so much just to take him out. It was their trump card, vital to their plan. It wouldn't do well for him to make the connection between their plans and what would be happening to him in this fight.

Of course, that wouldn't matter if Mercury and Emerald lost this battle…

Subtlety was key here. Emerald had to be extremely careful with how she used her semblance today. Too obvious of a change, and Charles would likely pick up on their trickery. Mercury wasn't sure how their opponent would react to it, but it would probably just make him more dangerous if he knew that they could manipulate what he saw.

As the countdown timer throughout the whole stadium came close to zero, they made their way out onto the arena floor. Loud cheering boomed through the stadium as usual, the crowd excited to see the two pairs fight one another. Mercury never understood these tournaments. The way he had been raised, you fought either to survive, or to kill. This was nothing more than entertainment, sport to these people.

Walking onto the stage, Charles and Hannah were already standing in the centre of the arena, patiently waiting for their arrival. Taking their places opposite their foes, they began staring each other down. Just because Mercury had been trying to get friendly with their team over the last few weeks, it didn't mean that they were going to go easy on them.

There was no pre-fight banter this time around. Mercury and Emerald were too nervous as it were to try and break the silence between the four of them with any witty jokes or comments, whilst the other two were likely trying to stay focused. Although they were silent towards Emerald and Mercury, he could see the slight movements of Charlie's mouth, no doubt feeding her instructions. Her faunus hearing only made it easier for him to talk to her, no doubt barely speaking at a whisper, and yet his words would be perfectly clear to her.

It was a constant factor in all of their matches. They never participated in taunting before the match, as their leader would have no doubt been directing them before the match began. It was a good strategy really, keep information fresh in their mind, and stopping them from losing their focus because of something as simple as wordplay.

Mercury didn't even bother to look at the environments being formed around them. He and Emerald had spent a few hours with Cinder the previous night planning out all of the best environments that they could use for their battle. The odd floating blue blocks were to Mercury's left, whilst the thick savannah fields and forest Emerald had used in their previous match were back, this time behind the girl and to her right. The dense environments would be good for her to hide within. Behind their opponents was the simple beach area. If things went poorly, it was unlikely that Charles could start a fire if he was in water. That was Mercury's hope at least.

'Begin!'

Emerald darted back into the grass, like they had done before, but no doubt Charles had been expecting this, likely having watched their previous match and predicting her movements beforehand. Leaping onto Hannah's sword, she pitched him forwards, the swordsman hurtling through the air. Blades drawn, he spun them to life, flames licking across them as he passed above Mercury. Slashing outwards with the blades, he cut large grooves out of the long grass, a wave of flames rolling across the rest, setting it alight.

Mercury could only hope that Emerald had managed to get into the forest quickly, having to turn his gaze to Hannah as she charged him. She was similar to Yatsuhashi, whom he had fought in their previous battle, although she seemed much quicker with her blows, and her ability to phase through his attacks was slightly irritating as well. His usual moves wouldn't cut it here, as she made sure to activate her semblance whenever she made an attack which would leave her open for a counter in any way possible. No doubt another one of Charles' many instructions.

Shit. Charles.

Spinning on the spot, Mercury deflected a strike with a boot, ducking beneath Hannah's massive blade from behind. Placing a hand on the ground, he brought his other foot up in Charles' direction, growling when he didn't feel it connect with his opponent. Spinning out of the way, he turned back to face the two students, preparing himself for the next onslaught.

Hannah he could dodge easily, her slower attacks too easy for him to predict, moving out of their way before they could reach her. Charles on the other hand was much faster, and Mercury had to focus most of his attention on his attacks, deflecting blows with his greaves before they could reach him. They took up a tactic very quickly where Charles would attack where Mercury was heading to avoid Hannah's strikes, making it very difficult for the grey-haired assassin to avoid both of them at once.

He determined quickly that there was no way Charles was predicting his movements, half of the time he was beginning his strike before Hannah was. Unless she was thinking of how to force him to move into Charles' blades, there was no doubt that Cinder's guess must have been correct at this point.

If Emerald couldn't get Hannah away from him though, things would go badly quickly. He was certain that he could hold off Charles for a few minutes at the very least, but with his teammate fighting alongside him, Mercury doubted he would last very long against the two of them. Had they been banking on them trying the same strategy? Were they that confident in their capabilities that they weren't bothered with Emerald taking off, certain they could take him out?

Several moments later, Mercury saw the telltale glint of Emerald's weapon snaking out from the treeline, heading straight for Hannah. He tried to keep his face steady, desperate to not give up anything that might give them a hint towards Emerald's actions.

'Switch!' Charles shouted, turning on the spot and twirling through Hannah's body. He raised his blades before his body, catching Emerald's weapon around his swords before bringing a leg over the chain linking it to Emerald and dragging it to the ground. Hannah on the other hand darted forwards again, swinging her blade towards Mercury in quick motions. Similar to before, he couldn't land a hit on her as she would activate her semblance almost instantly after striking, prepared for any possible counters he might give out.

Dammit, they were expecting them to do the same thing. Mercury scowled at their foiled plan, thinking about how they could resolve this situation they had found themselves in. Charles was already disappearing a puff of black energy, no doubt heading straight for Emerald. With how careful Hannah was playing this match, there was no way Mercury could defeat her without Emerald's assistance.

Kicking off from the ground with assistance from his boots, Mercury kicked himself backwards onto one of the various blue platforms behind him. As he landed, he noticed Hannah seemed to lose interest in him, darting back towards Emerald instead.

Cursing quietly, he roundhouse kicked a shot towards his teammate to grab her attention. It didn't hit her, but landed close enough for her to glance up at him, hopefully spotting his gesture for her to join him. After a few seconds of calling her with a hand signal, he went back to firing a few rounds from the sole of his boots at Charles and Hannah. It wasn't enough to do damage to them, Hannah managing to phase through most of them that came too close, and Charles dodging away from those near him without fail.

Taking the opportunity, Emerald disengaged from them, sprinting towards Mercury. She threw her weapon towards him, which he deftly caught out of the air. Wrapping the chain around his arm, he pulled violently, lifting her from the ground and dragging her up to him.

'What's the new plan?' she asked, slightly out of breath already.

'Fake the platform movements,' Mercury replied. 'Try to get them to separate. Focus on the girl, if she falls and gets distracted I should be able to take her out.'

Emerald nodded, narrowing her eyes as she focused on the fox faunus. Mercury didn't know how she was going to make this work, instead settling into a combat pose as the two charged towards them. Hannah flung Charles up towards them once again, blades spinning wildly as he reached the pair. The three exchanged blows with one another, Mercury trying to tank most of the hits whilst Emerald kept her concentration.

Mercury spotted Hannah leaping between the moving platforms below them, attempting to reach them from below. She took a leap into nothing but empty space a few moments later. Praying that he could take her out quickly, Mercury tapped Emerald on the shoulder, barely noticing as she focused more intensely on Charlie.

Leaping from the side of the platform, Charlie didn't even swipe at him as he dove over the edge. Firing his boots for extra speed, he brought his leg down in an overhead sweep, bringing the heel of his foot into the small of Hannah's back, letting loose another shot as his kick connected. She bounced off the platform beneath her, back up into both of his boots as he landed atop her, driving her into the floor.

He leapt away as she swung her blade towards him, causing him to leap away. Out of the corner of his eye he could see Emerald barely managing to hold Charlie back, struggling to keep his attention on her. No doubt the swordsman wanted to make his way down towards his teammate, not wanting to split the two of them up. Team Chrome had only split up during the first match, the likely reason for why they didn't do so since being that their first match was the closest battle they had experienced throughout the entire tournament. They were strong together, and although they were strong individually, it was too risky in the long run.

Mercury dove to the ground beneath Hannah's next swing, firing a shot towards her from the ground, which she phased through just like every other strike he had attempted to land on her so far. She was too consistent with how she would activate her semblance after each strike, he could never get a hit in now, let alone if she were on the defence.

Mercury's eyes flashed as an idea came to him. He rolled to his feet, beginning to fire shot after shot at his opponent. None of them connected, however this wasn't his intention. He continued to fire them towards her, letting them encircle the pair after their initial momentum. As she advanced on him again, Mercury fell back into a defensive position, trying to get a feel for the timing of her strikes.

Once confident enough, Mercury began willing the shots to come back towards Hannah's form, only coming in for a hit when she was striking, so she couldn't phase through them. It took her a few seconds to adjust to his tactic, relenting on her strikes to instead defend herself from his shots.

He kicked out at her every now and then, alternating his attacks between physical attacks and the shots floating around the pair. Although after the initial shots she took far less hits, the mixture between his attempts of attack were able to break through her guard every now and then. Possibly she couldn't keep her semblance going for too long? It would explain how he was still managing to land hits on her. If she could keep it going, she could just allow everything to pass through her form.

It would take too long however, and after glimpsing towards the scoreboards around the arena, he knew that Emerald didn't have that kind of time left. Charles had already drained her of more aura than the rest of them had combined. He needed to be bolder if he wanted to prevent her from being eliminated.

Unleashing a flurry of kicks in her direction, Mercury purposefully left himself open for an attack, betting that she wouldn't pass up on such an opportunity. As he heard her sword swinging towards him, he willed the rest of his shots to race towards her. Feeling the blade slash across his back, he fell to the floor just as the rest of the shots rained down around him.

A buzzer rang through the arena, and as he glanced up through the white smoke around him, he saw that he had taken her out. His own aura had taken a significant hit, although it wasn't too bad as he had only suffered damage from the radius of the explosions. Charles' aura was well above his and Emerald's combined, but with her semblance they should be able to take him out.

Spinning on the spot, he searched the rest of the platforms for their positions. He caught sight of them a few blocks above himself, Emerald trying to run away from the swordsman. She must have been using her semblance frequently, as she would leap away from him onto another platform, whilst he would leap into empty air, swinging wildly at nothing.

Blasting off from the platform, Mercury darted straight for Charles, swinging his foot in a wide arc to land a blow against his side. The student whipped around impossibly quickly, catching the boot on his blade before slashing out with his other. Within a few seconds he had Mercury on the defensive, backing away from him as his onslaught of attacks ensued.

At some point, Emerald leapt down beside him, and with the knowledge that it was a two on one fight now, they began returning their own attacks in kind. Although most of them never made it past Charles' guard, Mercury couldn't help but notice that every now and then, their opponent would move his blade slightly too far to the side, just missing their weapons for a block.

Slowly, but surely, they managed to whittle down his aura. Emerald danced around the platform they stood on, twin curved blades clashing against Charles', whilst Mercury unleashed flurries of kicks which Charles' had no option but to dodge. Their strong offense was their saving grace, no doubt keeping Charles' under enough pressure that he couldn't move to a more advantageous position.

No doubt another sign of Cinder's correct theory. The way she described his teleportation, was that if he couldn't get somewhere through normal means, there was no way he could get there at all. His current inability to teleport out of combat definitely solidified her claims.

That wasn't to say that he wasn't putting up a good fight of course. For few strikes either he or Emerald could land against him, he was landing an equal amount of slashes against one of them. Mercury tried to move between most of the ones aimed towards Emerald, not just because she was already suffering in aura level, but because without her semblance, there was no way he would defeat Charles.

Their skirmish no doubt lasted for another few minutes before the final blow was struck. A swift slash from Emerald towards his knee, quickly followed by a roundhouse kick to the head was enough to knock Charles over, the buzzer sounding as his aura was depleted enough to allow his elimination.

It had been incredibly close in the end. Another few strikes against each of them, and both Emerald and Mercury would have been taken out of the battle as well. In the end though, it didn't matter. They had won. And now, there was nothing standing in their way.