Maria continued to cough as she tried to clear the smoke away. Not only had she lost her two opponents, she could also barely breath since the smoke kept getting swept up into her throat. She waved her hands around to try and clear it away but the smoke just kept getting thicker and thicker.

She tried walking out of it but no matter where she went smoke was always in the way. She let out a low guttural growl. "You fucking cowards!" She yelled. She coughed harshly and put her green sleeve to her mouth. She takes a deep breath. "Fight me like real Huntsmen! Quit using this smoke screen and face your beating!"

Maria lets out another fit of coughs. As she was in the middle of it she all of a sudden felt someone grab the hood of her green sweatshirt. She then felt a knee go right into her face. Thankfully she put her aura up just in time to absorb most of the damage down. The person drops her hood and she looks up to see that it was Jaune who was fleeing back into the smoke. Maria stood up and chucked her axe into the direction she saw Jaune run. There was the sound of the axe hitting something, followed by Jaune letting out a yelp. Maria grew a wicked grin and rushed over to where she threw her axe. However she didn't see Jaune anywhere on the ground, but she saw her axe.

She was confused at first but didn't have time to think as it could be a trap. She grabbed her axe, which unfortunately is what caused the trap to go off. As she picked it up she didn't see the small knives planted around it until it was too late. A violent shock was sent through Maria and she lets out a pained yell. The electricity stops her movement as it tenses her muscles to the point of them twitching. She wraps herself in her aura, expecting an attack from anywhere. She then felt three tiny picks in her aura from behind her, followed by three explosions.

While the explosion did damage to her aura, it also cleared some of the smoke making it easier for her to see. The explosion also disarmed the electric trap that was set. Maria turned around to see Jaune reaching next to his belt for more knives to throw. Maria responded by shoulder charging Jaune back into the smoke. Due to the adrenaline in her system she didn't think things through and followed him in there.

She didn't realize her mistake until after she continued to run in the smoke for about a minute. She lets out a giant yell as she realized her mistake. She zips up her sweatshirt and makes it cover her mouth to try and stop breathing in the smoke. She looks around trying to find one of the two people she is tryin fight but to no avail.

She feels two pricks come from her right side and turns to find nothing there. She then saw two more knives hit her but due to the smoke blocking her vision she couldn't react in time to block them. She covers herself with her axes to prevent more knives from flying at her. However a greenish glow comes from her right and she turns to see what looked to be two bright green eyes getting closer. She uses her axes to cover herself from the green eyes, not sure what would be attacking her, only to reveal that it's Jaune.

She blocked his sword by crossing her axes. The two have a power struggle which ends with her winning by pushing the sword away from her and then slashing at his abdomen, causing a massive dip in his aura. Jaune gripped his stomach but got in a defensive stance. Maria tried to chop down on Jaune but he raised his shield up to block the attack. Maria let out a chuckle.

"Ya know if you're going to try and sneak up on me you could at least lose the glowing eyes!" Jaune's eyes widen when she said that.

"My eyes glow?" he thought. He made a mental note to remember that little detail. Jaune's eyes switched back to their regular ocean blue and continued with the fight. He drops a little so he could reach under his shield and punch Maria in the stomach. Maria is caught off guard which causes her to weaken her strength on Jaune's shield. Jaune used this opportunity to kick her in the stomach causing her to go backward. Jaune retreats back into the fog but it was slowly disappearing making it so he'll have to change tactics.

As Jaune maneuvered through the grey smoke, he took a look at his aura. He had about thirty eight percent left. If he reached lower than thirty then he was out. What surprised him was how much aura his semblance would cost him. He was at fifty when Gwen released the smoke bomb. Maria's attack couldn't have done that much damage.

Jaune also looked at Gwen and Maria's aura. Maria was still at forty eight percent, while Gwen was at forty. This is a close match but he can't let his guard down. So far their plan was working. The idea Jaune came up with was to borrow some knives from Gwen and do hit and run attacks on Maria while Gwen used the sounds of them fighting to throw the knives in the general direction. With the knives flying everywhere Maria wouldn't be able to pin point where the two of them were in the smoke. However Jaune knew this wouldn't last forever, which is why he was trusting Gwen with another task.

Jaune activated his green eyes again and looked around for Maria and Gwen. Gwen was still planting the knives. Meanwhile Maria was looking around for Jaune. Eventually she turned her head towards him and began charging. He turns his eyes back to their normal blue. So the glow was real.

He raises his shield and Maria bashed into it, causing Jaune to take a few steps back. He quickly took one of the explosion knives from his belt and tossed them at Maria as fast as he could. Unfortunately for him she side stepped out of the way of them. She used her momentum to continue spinning but had her axes facing out to try and hit Jaune with slashes. Jaune kept his shield up as Maria came closer and her spin attack slashed at Jaune's shield. She then hooked the axes onto Jaune's shield. This caught Jaune by surprise as she yanked him forward.

Jaune takes a few steps forward before he is met with a knee to the gut. He chokes out a little bit of blood and is sent flying. As he did the force from him flying cleared some of the smoke away. Jaune feels his back hit a solid wall causing him to let out a moan. He falls to the ground and feels sore. All of his muscles scream in pain, telling him to stay down and call it. However Jaune's will is stronger than the pain he was feeling. He can barely move, and yet he slowly tries to stand back up. Just as he got one knee off the ground Maria pinned him to the wall with both of her axes by slamming him into the wall and pointing the sharp ends at his neck. She lets out a smug chuckle.

"Should have stayed down fraud," she hissed. Jaune stares her down with anger in his eyes. He had enough of being called that. Nobody cared about his initiation and only saw him as a fraud. Ignore the fact that he burned down a bandit camp, he's still the Beacon fraud. All of that pent up anger came out in two harsh words directed at Maria.

"Fuck you."

Maria let out a laugh. "That's the spirit!" she kept Jaune pinned with her forearm as she raised her right axe to finish Jaune off. However, just as she was about to swing down, it seemed as if she couldn't. Maria turned to her right but is then pushed back by some unknown force. All of a sudden Jaune saw knives appear out of thin air and somehow attached themselves to Maria. They are then followed by air whooshing from the knives sending her flying away.

Jaune looked around and then sees Gwen appear out of thin air. She goes over to him and helps him stand up. "Are you okay?" she asked with concern. No, he wasn't. His muscles were barely holding him up, his vision was getting darker and he swore he could pass out at any second.

"I'm fine…" he huffed. "How's the… trap?"

"I got it all set up but Jaune I think you should…"

"Activate it when we are in position. Stay out of sight, I think the smoke's almost cleared up." Gwen wanted to protest but knew that arguing with Jaune would go nowhere. She nodded her head and began to retreat, but not before giving Jaune another concerned look. He waved her away, and she reluctantly did as she was told.

The smoke finally cleared and Maria was trying to remove the wind knives from her clothing. When she removed and tossed the last one, she saw Gwen running somewhere and targeted her. Jaune saw this and took off running after Maria.

Jaune ran as fast as he could. It was barely above a jog, and it felt as if every step would be his last due to the amount of pain he was in. His muscles tensed with every step. He realized that he wouldn't be able to reach Maria in time to stop her from attack Gwen. So he took out the last few knives Gwen gave him and tossed them in front of Maria. She was too bloodthirsty to notice them before they struck her side. She let out a tiny yell as she dropped to one knee and took them out and threw them away. She turned to Jaune and began charging at him.

Jaune was glad that she was targeting him. Now all he had to do was get her in position. Fortunetly she was smack dab in the middle of the rap. Unfortunately She sprinted at Jaune and he knew she would run out of the trap's area of effect. So he unstrapped his shield and threw it as hard as he could at her. She ducked under it and continued to sprint at Jaune.

Jaune knew if he took another hit to his aura he would lose, so he had to make his next moves precise. Maria let out a roar as she ran at Jaune. She lifted her axes up high and slammed it down when Jaune was near enough to be hit by it. However he dodged at the last second. She tries to swing at Jaune again but he blocks with his sword. Jaune noticed that both of the beards of Maria's axes were locked with his blade. He decided that this would be the best time to disarm her. he lifts his foot and kicks Maria in the stomach, and yanks his sword away from her, along with her axes. She is too focused on the pain in her stomach that she lets go of the handles of her axes and covers her stomach. Jaune drops his sword and charges at her. He then wraps his left arm around Maria's waist while grips his right hand on her face. He uses his thumb to apply pressure to her nose. It was apresusre point he learned from his eldest sister Erica. The pressure is causing her to lean back as he continued to run back into the middle of the arena.

Maria wouldn't give Jaune full control. As she was being pushed backward, she made her right hand into a fist and then tried to target Jaune in the stomach. Jaune saw this and knew he couldn't dodge it, nor could he use his aura to block it otherwise he would be eliminated.

So he flexes his stomach and takes the fist with full force.

Jaune could feel a huge wad of vomit go from his stomach to his mouth but he kept pushing her. Eventually he saw that he passed a row of Knives that had yellow electricity sparking out of them. That was when he finally tackled Maria to the ground. Maria tries to get Jaune off of her but he straddles her and tries to pound her into the ground. She revers Jaune so that he is on the ground as she straddles him. Maria grabs Jaune's neck and begins punching him in the face. Again, he takes it full force, with no aura to protect him.

"NOW!" he yelled.

Gwen appeared from thin air again and pressed a button on her combat skirt. Maria stopped beating Jaune and tried to get her surroundings, only to realize she was in a ring of shock knives, and the sparks were headed straight toward them. Jaune wrapped himself in his aura and then grabbed Maria's head. Her eyes widen in shock as she realized she was trapped, and as she stared back into Jaune's blue eyes, she saw nothing but determination in them.

A violent Shock enveloped both Maria and Jaune and the two let out harsh and pained screams.

Everyone in the crowd and Gwen all looked to the aura gauges. Jaune's aura was the first to hit the red zone. Maria followed a few seconds after. "THAT'S ENOUGH!" Mr. Jetts voice called out. Gwen turned off the trap and Mr. Jett sprinted into the middle of the arena, with Gwen doing the same thing. Maria fell backwards off Jaune and the two began to twitch uncontrollably.

Mr. Jett kneeled down next to his two students and began to inspect them. Gwen crouched next to Jaune and held onto his hand. A few seconds go by and Maria stops twitching. Maria opened her eyes and slowly got up with the help of Mr. Jett. Once he made sure Maria was okay, he began to work on Jaune, who was still twitching.

"Jaune are you okay?!" Gwen nearly cried out. The twitching stopped and he let out a small groan. He opened his eyes and looked into Gwen's brown eyes with his goofy grin.

"Depends," he moaned out. "Did we win?" Mr. Jett and Gwen help Jaune up. All of them turn to the aura board. Jaune's Aura was at ten percent, Maria's was at twenty five, and Gwen's was at thirty three.

"Yes," Mr. Jett called out. He raises his voice even louder for everyone to hear. "Jaune and Gwen win the fight!" The crowd began to cheer for the two of them. Despite only seeing part of the fight, they could all tell that it was a good one. Jaune just smiles and lets out a relived sigh. Meanwhile Maria was still processing the fact that she lost to the weakest combat fighter of NDGO and the fraud of Beacon.

"Mr. Arc," Mr. Jett lowered his voice. "Are you okay? Pulling a stunt like that was very risky."

"I'm fine," Jaune tried to reassure his teacher. "Just a little knocked up." As Maria slowly went back to her seat, still shocked about what happened, Gwen and Mr. Jett help Jaune back up to his.

"A little? Mr. Arc you took a couple of blows without using your aura to protect you. Why?"

"I had to make sure… I wouldn't get knocked out before the trap went off." Jaune could feel himself getting weaker but said nothing. What they didn't know wouldn't hurt them. Meanwhile Mr. Jett let out a grunt. It was a stupid move on Jaune's part to do that. they have rules for sparring for a reason. However he knew better than to kick a dog when it's down. He could lecture his student later, after he's rested.

"Jaune I could have set off the trap myself," Gwen intervened. "You didn't need to hurt yourself further."

"Maybe not…" Jaune let out a harsh cough. "But I wanted this to be our win, not just one of ours. I wanted to make absolutely sure the plan went off, and that included both of us doing our parts." He flashed Gwen a smile. "And you did your job just fine. Thank you, Gwen." The comment made Gwen blush a little bit. It's been a while since she got complimented by a guy like that.

Mr. Jett would admit that he was impressed with Jaune's answer. Jaune knew the risks of not using his aura but he took them anyway to help make sure the trap went off. He could respect that. "We will be discussing your fight during class. Make sure you get notes from your classmates."

"Why? I told you… I am… fi-" and just like that, Jaune blacked out.

"Jaune?" Gwen asked in a panicked voice. She looked up to her combat instructor. "Is he…?!"

"No," Mr. Jett answered her unasked question. "He's just passed out. His injuries from previous altercations like initiation mixed with his fight were too much for him to handle. I was afraid this would happen. Yet I still let it happen." He mumbled that last part. Out of the year Gwen knew Mr. Jett, he always spoke with certainty in his voice. But now, she heard guilt and regret. She decided not to comment on it. "Miss Darcy, please have Miss Gale tend to his wounds while you go fetch a med kit from the infirmary. I will call ahead and let them know what happened. Can you do that?"

Gwen looked at her unconscious friend. This is the guy who helped her realize her boyfriend's jealously was a good thing. He was the guy that saved her from the bandits during initiation. He was the closest thing to a guy friend she has ever had aside from Brandon. She had a feeling grow into her heart, but she couldn't place what it was. She looked back up and gave Mr. Jett a confident nod. "Okay then, I leave him to you." Witht hat done, Mr. Jett walks back out to the arena to start his lecture.

As Gwen walked up the stairs to the bleacher, she wass greeted by her team, all of whom gave her praise for how she did. The praise made Gwen smile, but she told them that she needed help with Jaune. The rest of team NDGO finally realized that Jaune was unconscious and came to help him. Gwen tells Dew what Mr. Jett assigned them to do, and Dew followed the orders without hesitation. As team NDGO tried their best to help Jaune, Mr. Jett started his lecture.

To be continued.

Beta Reader: TheShadowOfZama