For those of you interested in a Minecraft Factions server (and giving me some sick rewards :D) join the discord with the following invite code: Gbf4eEf. You cant copy it, but the code itself is pretty short, so... Hope to see you there.

Someone posted a review on the last chapter claiming that Jaune's semblance was immovability. Please, allow me to explain again for you in the back.

Inviolability is a more complex function than just being immovable. All forces applied to you are nullified, which both makes it impossible for things to slow down your attacks and to break your guard. This is why he was effective against Venor- its body, no matter how durable, was literally incapable of blocking his attacks.

So, yes, he is an unstoppable force as well, but there's some caviates. The biggest one, and one Pyrrha managed to exploit- at least briefly- in their fight was that you can still stop him from accelerating. He might not be affected by her blocking, but if he's not moving already, she can keep him from starting. He still has to push off of other objects to move.

There is more to it- he was right- but I figured I'd get this out of the way. I've seen a decent amount of confusion about the power in other media, and figured this would be helpful.

Anyway- I don't want to take up too much of your time. Here is 'Tip Of The Iceberg'.

Watts groaned for a multitude of reasons, each more obnoxious than the last, but the most clear in his mind was the result of the fight. Pyrrha would not be chosen- that much was clear. She'd blatantly ignored the limits of her semblance- the cost specifically- since it was negligible in her normal style.

If she did that with the Maiden powers, she would be dead. Even Ozpin had to see that.

Unfortunately, that left him at ground zero again. All that work, ruined within the span of a day.

He didn't miss the political maneuvering involved in that fight, either, though at least Weiss wasn't getting in the way of his plans. The public association and approval of their pairing, and the cementing of them in the public's mind, only served to undermine Jacques all without his involvement.

To that end, at least, he couldn't complain.

Port, beside him, continued to ramble on about 'giving the two love birds space', and that served to distract from his own silence as he peered into the crowd, searching for a familiar shock of green. Cinder's former pawns were in the section for contestants, and they seemed to be equally shocked at the young boys victory.

Though they were certainly a lot worse at hiding it. Slackened jaws were truly unbecoming of them.

"Oh!" Port suddenly shouted, bringing his attention back to the arena. "It would appear that Team Jabberwocky claims victory by forfeit!"

Forfeit? Why would the Valkyrie girl surrender? Jaune was surely out for the count the moment the fight started and Weiss was both distracted and weaker than her... It was a free victory. Sure, there was the emotional backlash that might come from the crowd, but she hardly seemed like one to bother with politics.

If only he could actually hear them... They should really wear headsets or wiretaps or something so they could actually be heard.

And here he was, coming up with ways to improve the tournament he was going to ruin. Salem, damn it.

The kiss ended long before he wanted it to, which was saying something with his lungs burning as they were. He sucked in a few breaths before his body forgave him, but his mind was still on their embrace.

Despite his exhaustion, he rose up, following Weiss as she left the arena. A glance to the side showed Nora pantomiming them- which was to say, she wrapped her arms around open air and made out with it.

Apparently they were going to be hearing about that a lot later, but she'd still surrendered, which came out as a surprise. Had the kiss itself done it?

He couldn't say, but he didn't really mind given the outcome.

Jaune just took his seat in the stands- next to Weiss, of course- and watched as the next team was set up. The first team was one he recognized, and a green and silver haired pair made their way to the stage in silence. They seemed tense, which was fitting.

The second team wasn't one he remembered, but Port seemed to, as he shouted their names for all to hear.

"And from Atlas, we have Ciel Artego and Penny Poledina of Team COPP!" The crowd was abnormally quiet then, as Atlas had stricter discipline and didn't shout out when their teams were picked. Port knew, and compensated as best he could. "Please give a big round of applause to our four contestants!"

Cheers ripped through the crowd as the Mistralean and Atlesian teams stared at each other. Both Emerald and Mercury had intense focus on their face, while only Ciel had anything even remotely similar from Atlas. Penny was smiling broadly, as if she were at a carnival. Which she is, he reminded himself.

Just in the fighting part of it.

The arena was set- an active volcano opposite a blizzard, both biomes that would be extremely hazardous and would be avoided normally.

Which is why he was surprised when Ciel and Penny lept back up the volcano, taking a perch on one a few flat sections along the slope. They picked the volcano? If they were from Atlas, you would think they would brave the blizzard and take the edge that comes with...

They were. If they had ranged options- which Ciel certainly did, given the huge rifle she was carrying- they could use the vantage given by the volcano to force their opponents into the blizzard.

Something would have to follow that, but if they just camped the blizzard, they would slowly lose the battle as their Aura was forced to keep them warm. All Emerald and Mercury would have to do is wait outside.

An instant and brilliant tactical move with brand new information... At least one of them was a strategic genius.

Emerald and Mercury spared a glance back towards the blizzard before running after their opponents. Ciel opened fire on them, breaking the two up for a moment, and allowing for Penny to lunge for Mercury.

They traded fists for a moment, the two seemingly equal, before Mercury swung a leg up into her side.

Penny was completely unaffected by the attack, in much the same manner Jaune was, but he could see her shift slightly onto her opposite foot.

Despite that slight difference, her defense was no less effective, and she wrapped her arm around his ankle. Before she could use it, however, Mercury kicked his other foot up, planting it on her chest, and fired.

The damage was minimal, but it tore his foot out of his grip, and though he grimaced at it, he was clearly still standing as he skid to a stop a distance away.

Neither of the other two fighters were standing. Cover was easy to find in the volcano area, with Dust and rocks dotted randomly around them. This was a double edged sword for both of them, since the Dust was explosive upon being struck by the other's bullets, but Ciel clearly had the advantage here.

Her weapon, unlike Emerald, accepted broken chunks of the ambient Dust crystals as ammo. Infinite ammo might not make too much of a difference in police shootouts or the like, but here, against people with Aura and training, it was the ultimate crutch. She didn't even really need to aim- though she did- since she would land the occasional shot forever.

Both of them knew it, too, and they both knew the other did as well. Their strategies weren't exactly complex, but that's often for the best, since a complex plan never survived contact with the enemy.

Speaking of, getting into melee was clearly Emeralds plan. While Ciel's weapon was mechashift, it had simply expanded into an even larger gun- not a melee weapon. Presumably, she was trained as a sniper or backline, and so would lose to Emeralds mid to close range fighting style.

Once again, though, that gave the advantage to Ciel. With the more accurate and powerful gun, she forced Emerald to stay out of sight, which drastically slowed her approach. That alone, let Ciel simply walk backwards to stay ahead.

Nearing the edge might have been a problem for the two, but the fight had already looped around to leading Ciel towards the Volcano. It would be a wall at her back, which might be a threat, but she'd already shown the ability to climb it exceedingly fast.

That fight would take far too long, and was clearly less interesting than the other, so Jaune turned back to Mercury and Penny.

The two of them had left the volcano area entirely, having returned to the barren white circle in the middle of the Colosseum. Penny was on the offense, now, and was batting away his attempts to block by simply palming them away.

Mercury had apparently had enough of it, and started to dodge instead. There wasn't much Penny could really do, given the rigidity of her fighting style, but she made to with incorporating a few feints in an attempt to catch him.

It didn't work, frankly, since the girl didn't even look like she was going through with the feint in the moment. Not helping was repeating the same turnaround strike three times, even when the first had failed.

All of that didn't change the scoreboard, though, which clearly showed that Penny was in the lead by a fair margin. A few percent was important- just look to his battle for proof- but this was practically a foregone conclusion. Emerald and Ciel were fairly close, with the former behind by a reasonable 6%, but that was nothing compared to the 39% difference of their partners. Penny was down to 97% Aura- which made that difference even more pronounced given Mercury's effective loss.

But that board wasn't everything, and Mercury hardly let it bother him. He was actually smiling broadly, likely enjoying the rush of adrenaline from so tough a fight.

Their next exchange was different, with Mercury slipping past her arm. One of his boots came to rest just in front of her ankle, and in that instant it took Penny to respond, he cracked his elbow into her back.

No sound was heard- not through the roar of the crowd- but that didn't make the crack any less real. The instant he hit, Mercury regretted it, the attack only causing him pain as he was forced to retreat to cradle it for a moment.

A moment passed, the two of them staring each other down, before he grimaced again. She did have that chrome bag on her- was her back covered in metal? That was a very specific armor piece, but he couldn't argue with the results.

Mercury took it in stride, dashing in before flipping forward into a handstand. He kept moving forward, albeit a bit slower, with his feet repeatedly coming down towards her- the gun built into his boots firing each time it made contact with her blocking arms.

Penny learned quickly what the threat was, and rather than block the next utterly bizarre kick, she ducked, thrusting a palm into the small of his back.

The blow sent him skidding back, but he used the momentum to flip back up to his feet, and entered a ready stance opposite her.

The fight between Emerald and Ciel was far less equal, but no less intense. Emerald ran backwards, laying down a massive spread of gunfire as she used the curvature of the volcano to hide her location.

That didn't seem to matter, though, as Ciel just unleashed heavy impact rounds into the rock, the bullets burrowing through and to the other side. They still mostly missed, but there was little chance to retaliate without Emerald opening herself up to a proper shot.

Seeing how the rifle- now expanded into a glowing, purple railgun- could punch through stone as easily as air, that would be an automatic loss.

Emerald had the right idea- hiding from her opponents view entirely before starting to scale the mountain. The high ground wouldn't really help in the firefight, but it would allow her to help Mercury with his fight.

Which looked to be more and more needed as the fight continued. Penny was slower than Mercury, especially when he used the guns in his feet to move faster, but she seemed far ahead of him in nearly every category. She hadn't even brought out a weapon yet, but the fight was rapidly turning in her favor.

Mercury rolled to the side to evade a blow from Penny, but when her leg met the ground, the quake that shot out made him stumble anyway. That time was more than enough for her to round on him and plant another palm strike into his sternum.

He flew back, flattening a part of the volcano's surface as he struck hard. He gasped for breath, and probably swore something at her, but it was completely lost as he cut it short to dodge another strike.

Penny's fist embedded most of the way into the rock, and Mercury dashed in to capitalize on the moment of weakness.

Except it wasn't- she merely tugged once to wrench it free, bringing it directly into his path and slamming her fist into his gut.

All the while, the smile on her face never vanished- a fact that Port brought up as the cameras closed in on her. She turned to one, giving it a cutesy turn of her head, before meeting Mercury's eyes once more.

They widened, then, as her feet were torn backwards by the chains wrapped around her ankles. She fell flat- likely too heavy for Emerald to haul up the volcano- and was left face down in the rock as Mercury leaped at her.

His foot never hit her. She didn't move, though.

Instead, the small bag on her back opened up, unleashing a number of floating swords which aimed out towards him.

Mercury used the recoil of his legs firing to dodge- overshooting his target as he clumsily landed upon the rock- and caught his footing as quickly as possible.

Not quickly enough, as it turned out, since Penny just slammed her hands down onto the ground- the force more than enough to push her onto her feet.

Emerald yanked on the chains again- the hooks still wrapped around the girls ankles- but she was prepared now. Instead of move against it, though, she leapt upwards- sailing into the air towards Emerald.

The green haired girl leapt out of the way- dodging the girl herself- but the same could not be said about the blades that swung well outside any melee range. Several caught her, rending clothing as they lifted her off the ground.

There was a brief moment of inaction, as Penny concentrated on landing on the rim of the volcano rather than falling in, but it wasn't long enough for Emerald to escape the blades' grip.

And then they threw her aside, sending the girl tumbling down the side and out of the arena entirely.

She turned back to Mercury, only to find him missing. The sounds of battle likely told her where he was, as she turned directly towards Ciel desperately trying to fend him off with her gun despite the rock in the way.

The clash was equally ruthless as Penny's had been, with Mercury raining blows onto the normally long ranged fighter, and gradually leading her closer to the edge.

Penny lept off the volcano, falling the more than thirty meter height without the slightest worry.

That was her mistake, as when she landed, the ground shook violently. Mercury, who was midair at the time, went unaffected.

Her partner, on the other hand, was lifted off the ground and left completely defenseless as Mercury span around to land one final kick.

Ciel blocked the blow itself- Mercury's foot crashing into her weapon instead- but that did nothing for the force behind it. She sailed backwards, joining Emerald outside of the arena.

And then there were two.

"What an impressive knock out by Mercury Black!" Port shouted, sparing a momentary glance to his near silent co-commentator before he turned back to the mic. "With that, Team CMME is back in the running!"

Watts remained silent still, just watching the ensuing melee between the remaining two combatants.

Port rolled his eyes, ignoring him again. For a politician, he really didn't have the spirit for public entertainment.

"Oh, that looked like it hurt!" Down below, Mercury recovered from a harsh blow to one shoulder as he threw himself to the side- narrowly dodging a burst of gunfire as Penny's swords showed themselves to be guns as well.

It was a truly impressive weapon, combining the advantages of many different fighting styles into one. They acted as defense and offense in equal measure, both blocking blows and retaliating in one motion. They also kept her hands free, allowing her to engage him in melee as they dug into his aura.

Now known to be ranged, however, they truly began to shine.

Mercury flipped around in the air, narrowly avoiding four swords that flew past him. He twirled, landing only one foot to the ground as he popped a shot off with the other.

It deflected off metal as the blades flew back to her, grouping on her sides as she dashed in.

"And it looks like he's taking it to the blizzard!" Port shouted as Mercury gunned it for the aforementioned maelstrom of ice and snow. Penny followed, falling behind slightly and unable to stop him from entering the storm.

But she didn't, stopping a few paces away from the edge. He knew why- her greatest advantage, range, would be nullified if she couldn't see her opponent.

It's not like she had infinite ammo, either, so she couldn't just shoot the entire place into oblivion.

"Smart- Mercury dwells within the field of snow to cut off vision. Will Penny take the bait?" Clearly not- even before he mentioned it. She attempted to look into the wall of white, but there was no way she'd actually see Mercury.

The girl agreed, settling for swinging her blades out in wide arcs. They cut into the vast area, but thanks to a look at the Aura meters, he knew she was hitting nothing but snow.

That continued for a bit, Penny slowly moving the length of the arena in search for Mercury. He was running out of places to be- unless he could somehow dodge the erratic movement of the blades without vision.

But that wasn't his plan, as he showed by lunging for her directly from the blizzard.

Penny reacted quickly, bringing up her arms to block the first kick, but she wasn't able to properly defend from the oncoming barrage. Her weapons were too far away- having all left in search of him.

"And Mercury grabs the upper hand with a flurry of blows! The end comes to soon, however, as Penny recovers her guard!"

True to his words, the blades had returned, and with a swing of several, Mercury was forced to back away.

That strategy wouldn't work twice, and it looked like he was on the end of his line. Penny was strong, which made sense given her fourth year status. It was almost unfair to pair them against the second year team, but such was how randomness worked.

Mercury didn't give up, though. Far from it, actually, as a sudden grin came over him.

"It looks like our friend Mercury has found something. Could it be enough to win?" Probably not, but that would ultimately depend on what it was, and there was only one way to find out.

Mercury smiled in a way that would no doubt be misinterpreted as sportsmanlike. He held out one hand, walking towards the android, and silently bringing his Aura to the front of his mind.

This was gonna hurt.

He didn't know what Emerald was making her see or hear, but it certainly wasn't the shouts of the match ending that Port was giving- nor the mixtures of cheers and disappointment from the crowd.

Pennys blades remained up- blocking off all means of attack.

There was one moment he knew she was under the illusion, for her eyes drifted down as though to track his face.

It was then that she struck- the blades coming out to knock his legs aside. They threw him into the air, doing little else but disorienting him, before she attacked again.

A single blow- another palm strike- that sent him careening through the blizzard and out the other end. His aura flared, taking much of the force with it, but it was impossible to miss the damage it had caused- especially when the board above started to signal that he was dangerously far below 10%.

Mercury clutched his chest, genuinely pained by the blow and unable to heal his aching ribs, but internally he was still smiling.

The crowd went ballistic.

So... How do you all like your present?

It's good, isn't it.

The two days early (and like 7 hours) isn't just a 1-off thing, since I felt it would be rather disingenuous to make you wait MORE than a week because I wanted to pay you back, so... Sundays it is, from now on. Forever.

Penny is also finally debuted, and she is as powerful as ever. In the show, I firmly believe that she is the strongest non-adult character we have ever been introduced to. I don't think we've seen a Semblance for her, either, so she might be even more absurd than ever. I don't plan to introduce one, but it's a neat little thought experiment.

Perhaps something to do with lying, as per her origins in Pinocchio?

That's neither here nor there, for now, so instead I thought I'd bring in a quick question. Why is there only one Penny? If she could be manufactured once, they necessarily have the construction down to the smallest mechanism, and I call bullshit on them not being able to build another one at all.

Even with just the showings in the Vytal Festival, she should have been in mass production- even with the new models lacking the soul inside of it. The weapons and physical body alone were more than broken enough to, in decently high numbers, simply walk into the Grimmlands and kill literally every single thing we've seen. Salem probably has some trump cards, but she would literally need to pull them out instantly- the ultimate in tactical advantages.

Idiots.