The next day's semifinals saw Fox and Yatsuhashi fighting against a team from Mantle, siblings Owen and Robin Jacobs. Fox and Yatsu made his way down the center, Coco groaning as she watched from Olympus Gym. "Come on, Fox! I gave you specific instructions for the entrance! You're not even wearing the costumes I made for this round!" she groused, not even paying attention to Velvet behind her doing push-ups.
"Coco… I've been doing push-ups for four minutes… can I stop yet?" Velvet asked, Coco turning and pulling down her shades.
"You do 100?" Coco asked.
"87." Velvet answered, pushing up again.
"Thirteen more. Keep it going." Coco said, Velvet pushing herself through the last twelve as Nora walked into the gym, carrying a human-shaped dummy with a crudely drawn angry face and orange wig.
"Took me a while to find this!" Nora exclaimed, tossing the dummy onto the mat. Velvet walked over and looked down at it with a look of confusion. "I introduce Training Cardin 2.0!" Nora said, the rabbit Faunus soon realizing that this lump of stuffing and orange was supposed to be Cardin. She started laughing, nearly doubling over in amusement. Pyrrha entered the gym, seeing Velvet dying of laughter at the sight of the practice dummy.
"Heh, I thought you'd like that. So want to hear the best part?" Pyrrha asked, Velvet smiling and nodding. "You'll be getting to throw it around today. Nora wants to work on your power moves." she explained, Velvet bending down to lift the dummy.
The faux-Cardin was a lot heavier than she had first thought, Nora made it look easy. Velvet grunted with the strain of lifting the dummy, bending her legs until her knees touched her elbows and finally managing to get a stable hold on the dummy. "There we go! Now give it a good suplex!" Nora shouted, Velvet struggling to keep hold of the dummy. She tried to throw the dummy, but it felt heavier with each lift attempt.
"Use your aura if you've got to!" Pyrrha said encouragingly, the rabbit Faunus taking a deep breath and shutting her eyes to find her focus. After a few minutes, Velvet managed to execute a basic suplex. But the amount of effort in doing so had worn her out so bad it seemed likely that the immobile dummy Cardin was going to get up before she did.
"Hah… hah… maybe power attacks are out of my range…" Velvet said exhaustively, Pyrrha offering her a hand up.
"Okay, then keep the dummy down and work on limb targeting. We'll do some basic grappling after that." Pyrrha said, Velvet taking mental notes and turning to the Cardin dummy and grabbing one of its arms.
Pyrrha walked over to the TV screen where the rest of Velvet's training camp was huddled around, watching Yatsuhashi sent Robin crashing onto the cold ground of the glacier stage that they fought on, earning another knockout and victory for Team CFVY. The group exploded in cheers, Nora grabbing whoever she could in a massive hug, Ruby jumping up and down in joy and Coco simply shrugging her shoulders and pushing up her shades. "Heh, was there any other way? Big Yatsu ain't gonna fall behind when we're this close." she said, turning to watch Velvet pull at the dummy Cardin's arm, legs wrapped around his neck to cut off air circulation even though as a dummy, the fake Cardin didn't have lungs that required breathing. Coco turned back to the screen, which showed the announce team of Glynda and Ritters in the booth.
"And there you have it, the semifinals of the Vytal Festival Tournament have completed, leaving two teams to compete in the finals. Team CFVY of Beacon and Team ABRN of Haven" Glynda said, borders on the top and bottom of the screen showing the two teams, a red X over the rightmost member of Team ABRN. "To wrap up today's broadcast, we will be presenting fighter profiles for the seven competitors, two of whom we will see in the final. Owing to my position as Deputy Headmistress of Beacon Academy, I shall be giving you the profiles for Team CFVY, starting with Team Leader Coco Adel." Glynda began, the screen showing Coco's profile, with her of course posing with her shades dropped to the bridge of her nose with one hand holding them to her face. After a split wipe, the viewers were treated to footage of Coco fighting Jen Crowley, Seren Thorne and Connor Gray, intercut with clips from Team CFVY's first and second round entrances while Glynda provided voiceover narration.
"Ms. Adel is certainly one of my more… fascinating students to step through Beacon's doorway. A girl who believes the world's the stage and demands the spotlight at any given moment. However, her skill in combat makes up for the size of her ego as she is skilled gunman with a registered seven weapons; two pistols, one sniper rifle, one shotgun, one assault rifle, one semi-automatic machine gun and her personal favorite, a massive gatling gun. And if you think that you can put her away by taking away her guns, then you would be severely mistaken." Glynda said, the screen showing footage of Coco putting Crowley in her "Ultimate Death Lock" and her viciously pummeling Connor from a mounted position. "Ms. Adel has championship wins in regional boxing tournaments from before her time in Beacon and is the head of the school's Boxing Club. Her combination of scientific wrestling and vicious brawling make her someone you can't take from either a long-range or melee position." Glynda finished, Coco's profile returning to the screen and beginning to spin to switch members.
"Aww man! This video package is awesome! They really showed off my good side! I mean, I only have good sides, but-" Coco said, talking endlessly while Pyrrha got up, walking over to Velvet who was currently holding the fake Cardin's arm in a lock, her legs wrapped around the body of the dummy, wrenching tightly. Pyrrha tapped her on the shoulder, chuckling a bit.
"Easy with the armlock, Velvet. You're gonna rip the arm right off." Pyrrha said, the rabbit Faunus letting go of the hold and tossing the dummy aside. "Alright, good work so far. Now it's time for some grappling. Let's start with a basic collar-and-elbow." she said, the two grabbing onto the other's collarbone and trying to gain control. The TV screen showed Fox's profile, showing his fights against Maria Roth and Vivian Lianna.
"Next up is Fox Alistair. If there was anyone who was a polar opposite of Coco, it would be Fox. A serious young man with a mind for strategy, Fox is considered the brains of Team CFVY. He fights wielding two wrist-mounted blades and utilizes a highly technical fighting style mixed in with stealth and mind games." Glynda explained, the screen showing footage of him putting Vivian in an ankle lock and striking Maria while staying hidden in the trees. "In spite of their differences, Coco and Fox have impressive chemistry as partners and Fox is quoted as saying 'Without Coco, I would not have made it a day in Beacon and for that I am eternally grateful.' It's certainly amazing how often the people you'd least expect turn out to be your greatest allies." Glynda said as Fox's profile returned to the screen, switching over to Velvet's profile.
"And then we have Velvet Scarlatina, a fast-moving rabbit Faunus who wields the Cross-Hare, a crossbow loaded with Dust rounds." the play-by-play announcer began with footage from Velvet's fight with Calder. "Velvet is a curious sort as while many Hunters enter either win an idea of their style or an established style, Velvet has yet to learn a discipline. However, she is able to compensate through her skills with Cross-Hare and creative use of Dust." she continued, showing Velvet blinding, stunning and knocking out Calder. "Velvet has sat out both the trios and doubles rounds, so would you say that she'd be low on the totem pole to compete in the finals, Sebastian?" Glynda asked.
"I'd say it's likely, but we can't assume that Velvet is just sitting around, eating pizza and watching trained monkey boxing. She's probably training just as hard to fight and take the trophy back home to Beacon." Ritters replied, Glynda's voiceover turning into an audible stuttering.
"Trained monkey boxi- what?" she said as Velvet's profile returned and switched to Yatsuhashi's. "Just… is that even legal? Are the monkeys paid to fight or- Anyway! Born in a quiet fishing village, Yatsuhashi certainly stood out due to his size. Standing at seven feet tall, Yatsuhashi is a gentle giant, friendly to all those he meets. Of course, once in battle his size becomes more emphasized thanks to his power-heavy fighting style and use of a claymore that is only inches shorter than himself." Glynda said, footage showing Yatsuhashi's fights with Crowley and Uther Braun, the clip of Yatsu tackling Uther being shown. "But don't let his size fool you. Yatsuhashi is as fast as his smaller companions and as those who saw his fight against the Jacobs siblings from Mantle, he is more than capable of fighting without his weapon. And that concludes our profiles on Team CFVY." Glynda finished, showing Team CFVY's profiles one last time before they were moved aside for Team ABRN's profiles, the red X over the final member.
"And now for Team ABRN. With Nadir Shiko's injury coming off the first round, we'll be discussing the remaining members of the team, starting with Reese Chloris." Ritters said, taking over narration showing a profile of a girl in a dark blue hooded sweater with long blonde hair and light green highlights, green eyes and lines of black grease underneath her eyes. The profile switched over to footage of Reese skating around the mountain stage, firing iridescent blasts from twin pistols. "A former extreme sports superstar, Reese Chloris lives her life in the fast lane. Skating, parachuting, water skiing, cage fighting, anything to get the ultimate thrill! That's what led her to Mistral and enrolling in Haven academy, looking to add Grimm hunting to her list of accolades. She fights with a specialized hybrid style of gun kata, parkour and kickboxing she calls 'MM-X.'" Ritters explained.
"What does the X stand for?" Glynda asked, a question no doubt on everyone had on their minds.
"According to Reese, it stands for X." Ritters replied, a groan of complete mental shutdown playing over a shot of Reese sliding down a hill, leaping over someone's head and blasting them out of the arena.
"You're going to be the death of me." Glynda muttered as Reese's profile returned, switching to the profile of the next team member.
The next profile showed a young man with lightly tanned skin, black hair and amber eyes. "Next up is Bolin Hori a member of the Mistral Imperial Family. Trained by the finest martial artists in all of Mistral, Bolin is a skilled fighter who utilizes a staff in battle." Ritters explained, footage shown of Bolin knocking aside an opponent with his staff. "A cocky young athlete, Bolin left a lot of openings that his opponents took advantage of due to his excessive amount of taunting, getting victories for their teams in both the first and second rounds of the tournament." he said, clips of Bolin getting knocked out while he was mocking his opponent each time. "It's this weakness that makes him unlikely to make it to the next round, especially when compared to the leader." Ritters said, sounding shockingly intelligent as the screen showed Bolin's profile one last time before switching to said leader, a familiar face that brought Velvet to release the headlock she had on Pyrrha and walk over to the TV screen.
It was the dark-skinned woman, same platinum blonde hair, same olive green eyes. "Arslan Altan, the Lion of Mistral. Wielding a feathered spear in battle, she is one of the most talented and feared martial artists in all of Mistral. Arslan brings her own brand of intensity to fighting, training, studying and hunting." Ritters said over clips of Arslan collecting victories in the first and second rounds. "With a record of six wins and no losses, Arslan is my #1 pick to represent ABRN in the finals. I'm predicting Coco vs. Arslan on this one. But for a winner, you got 50/50 on either one." Ritters finished as Arslan's profile returned to the screen. Velvet looked straight in the eyes of the one who had doubted her, who drove her to want this fight more than anything until Glynda and Ritters returned to the screen for one last sign-off.
"Hah! 50/50! If I were fighting her, there'd be no doubt who'd win this!" Coco shouted, pushing up her shades a bit and turning to see Velvet standing next to her, fists tightened and a fire in her eyes. Coco's shades dropped down the bridge of her nose, her eyes wide in shock. This was not how the Velvet she was used to. "Hey, Velvet? You feeling alright? I mean, it's cool to feel the Hype and all, but this ain't Hype…" Coco said, putting a hand on her friend's shoulder.
"I've met Arslan before… she told me if I was going to survive the tournament I'd have to learn to fight. Well, I've been learning. These past two days have been nothing but learning and now… I'm ready. And it doesn't matter if I'm fighting Arslan or Reese or Bolin. I'm going in that arena and I'm not leaving without having my hand raised." Velvet said sharply, Coco's stunned stare dropping as she put her shades back up over her eyes.
"Ladies… she's ready. Get her gear." Coco said, Ruby quickly nodding and running off, coming back with a long white box with a red bow attached.
Velvet opened up the box to find a long-sleeved blue shirt with a black corset lined with steel plates to cover her chest and ribs. Below those were a dark blue shirt and black boots, a belt looped around the skirt with a scabbard attached. Finishing off the ensemble was the top hat given to her by Jaune, dyed black with a pair of aviator goggles strapped on. The whole thing was folded with a straight sword sword resting atop it. Next to the sword was a longbow and a quiver full of arrows. "Ah… thank you guys…" Velvet said, fighting back the urge to cry as she grabbed her top hat and placed it on her head.