Boring author's note again, just take your chapter.
Chapter 27
WILD
Before Jaune made any move, he took a quick look at who his opponents were and what he had to work with. The biomes for this battle were the mountains, which were behind them, and the forest, which was ahead. Ok, sure, he could work with this, no problem. Then, he turned to the most important factor here; his opponents, Team BRNZ.
First was the leader of this team, Brawnz Ni. Sure, his claws looked pretty scary, but it looked like his ironically bronze knees could do some damage...
Next was Roy Stallion. His buzzsaw bracers looked... questionable at best, but he was in no real position to talk, to be fair.
After Roy was Nolan Porfirio. His weapon was nothing more than a cattle prod. This gave him a few ideas.
Finally was May Zedong. Like Zero of Team CMZN, she too had a sniper rifle, but hers was far less imposing. She was less imposing as well, but that doesn't say much when he had serious concerns that Zero alone could take his whole team.
Coming up with his plan, he finally resolved to set it into motion. "Come on guys!" he cheered, rearing to get into action with JNPR. So too did Team BRNZ... aside from May, who turned and ran back to the forest biome, readying her sniper rifle as she did so. He had other things to focus on though, namely the three members of BRNZ still present in the center of the arena. Brawnz quickly moved at Pyrrha, seeing her as the biggest threat, as he should. After all, Pyrrha was a big reason they had gotten this far. Not in the tournament, obviously, as this was their first fight, but in life in general.
Plus, she was the main reason they were Fifth Seed. But yeah, life, she helped a lot there.
Speaking of Pyrrha, she was quickly defending from a rapid series of blows from Brawnz. While it was a ferocious attack, it was nothing she couldn't handle, though she was pushed back a fair bit. As she defended, unbeknownst to Team JNPR, May had made it to the trees, climbing up to a good spot using her rifle's bladed edge as a climbing axe. Back with the main focus of the fight, Ren was trying to fire away at Nolan, but was taken aback when Nora came out of nowhere to hit him with her hammer instead of waiting for Ren to get his job done. Nolan ducked, however, and started trying to prod everyone with, well, his cattle prod, as you would expect.
May had finally situated into a decent spot, taking aim with her rifle before firing off two rounds at Red. Fortunately for him, he was driven back at the last moment by his opponent, the two rounds instead destroying the rocks behind him, which of course he took notice of. Jaune himself was defending from a few solid blows from Roy, having finally improved to the point where he could do so rather consistently. Looking up for a moment to try and gather more info on his surroundings. As he did, however, he saw the glint of... something in the distance, only realizing it was a rifle when the bullets wizzed past his head, just barely missing him.
"R-R-Retreat!" he stuttered, stumbling over himself to get away from the oncoming hail of bullets. Ren turned to do the same, a stray bullet hitting the ground by his feet as he and Nora ran for cover. Jaune and Pyrrha, being the only two with an effective means of defending themselves, made sure to provide enough cover for both themselves and the others the team making their way over to the nearest rocky outcropping to both regroup and to come up with a plan.
"What do we do?" Pyrrha asked Jaune, Jaune peering over the edge of the stones to see how much time he had. Judging by how close the brawlers were and how fast they were moving.
"Spread out! Try to keep moving!" he replied, leaping out to apprehend Brawnz, defending from his hammer blow. His team followed suit, spreading out.
May, was forced to climb higher such to get a better vantage point, but that wasn't too much of an issue for her, smirking as she glared down her scope. Pyrrha and Brawnz went back to it as Nolan made his way to Ren, smirking at his teammate who let fly yet another round at Ren's feet, forcing him to keep off balance as he dodged through the leaded hail that came his way. Nolan capitalized on this and smashed him in the chin with the pommel of his prod, dodging the kick that came in response and whipping his knee in turn, knocking him off balance long enough to jab Ren in the gut with the end of the prod that mattered, shocking the poor boy a fair amount, leaving him stunned and dropping him to the floor. Unfortunately, then one who was closest at this moment was...
"Ren!" Nora called in worry, seeing her friend hit the ground in pain. Clearly upset, she began taking wild swings at Nolan, though he dodged and attempted to do the same to Nora, actually managing to do so. However, rather than convulse like Ten did, Nora simply looked up at him and... smirked?
"Oh-ho!" said Port over the speakers, Oobleck beside him, as always. "Looks like one of my favorite students, Nora Valkyrie, is charging up to use her Semblance!"
"What?" Nolan questioned in mild worry as he looked up to the screen, Nora still standing there with a sly smile.
"Yes, Ms. Valkyrie's Semblance lets her produce, as well as channel, electrical energy straight to her muscles!" Oobleck clarified. "This allows her to jump explosively into the air, wield her mighty hammer, or in this case, absorb Nolan's attacks and send the young man flying!"
"What?!" Nolan shouted as he turned back to Nora, finally taking his prod away from her stomach. Nora simply started flexing as pink electricity began coursing through her aura, Nolan merely holding up his hands to try and beg for mercy.
Nora's actions immediately following this said something along the lines of 'no'.
Nolan was only given a split second to contemplate his mistakes before being launch clear to the other side of the stadium, smashing through a pile of rocks and going limp.
Looking back up in fear after having watched Nolan shoot past him, Jaune took note of how thunderclouds began to gather around the summit of the mountain biome, the distant rumble resounding throughout the stadium. Thinking again to Nora's Semblance, he turned to her, still crackling with electricity.
"Nora!" he called, Nora turning to him. "Get to the mountain!"
"You got it!" she replied with a salute, darting off towards the mountain in question, ready to begin her ascent.
"Ren! Try and distract the sniper!" Jaune said to his only other male teammate, Ren looking to him with mild annoyance.
"Sure..." he said meekly, slouching over in defeat and annoyance as yet another bullet wizzed by his head. "Why not."
Whilst Nora made her way to the mountain to try and get to the top, the remainder of JNPR charged the two still-moving members of BRNZ. Roy threw one of his blades at Jaune, and though he defended with his shield, the blow actually slapped his shield back into his face, staggering him. Once his blade returned, he quickly had to deal with Pyrrha, attempting to land a few heavy hits to the redhead, only to get blocked rather casually. Pyrrha was definitely still stronger than Jaune, that's for sure... Jaune wouldn't let this get to him though, and once he came back to his senses he too charged back into the fray.
Up in the crowd, Teams RWBY and VDMR sat next to each other, both cheering on their friends vigorously.
"Yeah! Go get 'em, Jaune!" cheered Ruby, her team to one side of her and VDMR to the other.
"Well, he's certainly improved," Weiss said in reference to Jaune, a small nod of approval to accompany her statement.
"Yeah, but he ain't got nothing on Pyrrha!" Yang shouted in retort, pumping her fist as Pyrrha dealt with both Brawnz and Roy.
Link and the rest of VDMR merely sat back and watched carefully, though Link still occasionally stood and cheered when he felt it was right. After all, they had a fight coming up very shortly, and they were mentally preparing themselves. Plus, they had previously discussed the possibility of combatting CMZN in the doubles round, and it was important to see what exactly their game plan was.
As for the fight at hand, Pyrrha was still busy with the two active brawlers of BRNZ, landing a solid kick on Brawnz whilst dodging the blades of Roy. She quickly fired her weapon at the latter, using the shot to propel it towards him and distract him when she went back to work on the leader, somersaulting back and landing a double-footed kick on him and sending him back.
May continued to fire away at Ren, who still dodged through the bullets as he charged at the now-moving Nolan, even having to dodge through an onslaught of blows that Pyrrha laid upon her foes. He didn't stop though, and started firing at Nolan, forcing him to go on the defensive as Ren approached, eventually getting close enough to start swinging away with the blades on Storm Flower. Nolan tried to retaliate, but Ren, having learned his lesson, gracefully dodged all of the attacks that came his way, locking it up with the blade on one of his guns and drop kicking him hard enough to stagger him, using the reverse edge of his blade to grab onto his opponent's prod, holding it up to his neck and using him to shield himself from the rain of bullets that would have definitely continued had he not. May saw and scoffed, switching targets and aiming up, which Ren noticed to be...
"Nora!" he shouted, still holding Nolan in place, though he obviously struggled against his grip.
"Pyrrha!" Jaune shouted to the redhead as he locked blade and claw with Brawnz, watching as Nora continued her way up. "Up!"
Pyrrha turned to him and nodded, dashing towards him and ducking a thrown saw blade from Roy whilst also leaping over Brawnz, landing on Jaune's shield. Jaune himself pushed up with all his might, throwing Pyrrha into the air, she herself holding up her own shield to take the shot that would have inevitably done some serious damage to Nora, giving her just enough time to finish her climb, reaching the top. Raising her weapon above her, she allowed a lightning bolt to strike her, which obviously served to boost her Semblance charge immensely. Switching Magnhild to grenade launcher mode and taking aim at the forest, Nora smirked as the front opened to reveal that it could fire all six grenades at once, doing just that. May could only look on in horror for a moment before the heart-shaped rain of explosives closed in on her, having only a moment to dodge before the tree she was standing in ceased to exist. The smoke from this explosion also served to make it harder for May to see, the sniper coughing as she tried to clear the smoke from her eyes. Once she could see through the smoke, she looked on in shock as Nora came from the sky, hammer at the ready to smash, well, everything in her way. Unfortunately for BRNZ, that happened to be them, Nora using the shockwave from her colossal blow to blow them all away, landing at the feet of the rest of JNPR.
"This is it, guys! Let's finish 'em with team attacks!" Jaune called out as he raised his sword triumphantly. "Ren! Nora! Flower Power!"
"Wait, what?" Nora asked, turning to Jaune as electricity continued to crackle off of her.
"F-Flower Power," Jaune stuttered, lowering his weapon as the rest of JNPR shrugged in befuddlement. "That's your team attack name!"
"Since when?" Ren asked.
"Guys, we've been over this!" Jaune deadpanned as he gestured to his teammates, no one paying any mind to BRNZ as they stood, ready to get back into action. "Flower Power is Ren and Nora! Ren brings the flower, Nora brings the power!"
"How do I bring a flower?" Ren asked in confusion, rubbing the back of his head with one of his guns, which didn't seem to be the safest of ideas.
Nora merely laughed at Ren's seeming incorrectness. "No, silly, not a flower! Flour, like in baking!"
"Why would I bring that?" Ren asked, almost offended.
"I- Uh-" Jaune said, trying to explain. "No, it's your symbol!"
"Sooo, what are we?" Pyrrha asked, Jaune turning to her in shock.
"Pyrrha!" he shouted, Pyrrha holding up her hands in defense.
"Sorry!" she quickly replied, using her catchphrase as per usual. "I just want to make sure it's clearly defined."
Jaune closed his eyes and took a deep breath, trying to calm himself down, though the members of BRNZ behind them didn't seem to like this. "Pyrrha, you and I are Arkos," he explained. "It's that thing when we take our shields? Remember?"
"'Arkos'?" Pyrrha asked, Jaune nodding.
"Yeah! It's our names put together!"
"Right, no, I get it..." Pyrrha responded, almost dejectedly, a fact Jaune caught on upon.
"What, do you not like it?" Jaune asked, worried.
"No, no! It's..." Pyrrha quickly said, trying to think of the word to describe it, "...good?"
"Mmm, I sense hesitation," Nora added, Brawnz of BRNZ finally having had enough.
"Hey!" he shouted in anger, JNPR turning to him in confusion. "What do you think you're doing?!"
"Trying to have a team meeting, thank you very little!" Jaune shouted in return, Brawnz being taken back a little.
'Yeah! Team ears only!" she added as she pointed at her own ears to prove a point, a point that infuriated Brawnz even more.
"WE'RE IN THE MIDDLE OF A FIGHT!" he shouted with double the vigor whilst the rest of his team collectively shrugged.
"AND WE'RE IN THE MIDDLE OF A CONVERSATION! WHAT DON'T YOU GET ABOUT THAT?!" Jaune yelled in return, refusing to back down. However, he stopped when Pyrrha tapped his shoulder to get his attention.
"Um, Jaune?" she said, Jaune turning to her, clearly annoyed.
"Yes, Pyrrha?"
"I think that he means that we're all in the middle of a fight."
When he stopped to listen to the crowd around him, he finally realized that they weren't cheers, but actually boos of displeasure with the lack of action.
"Ugh..." he said in defeat as he put his hand over his eyes. "Nora, just... hit them with the hammer."
"Got it," Nora replied with a smirk as she turned to BRNZ, who was clearly taken back by this sudden change of pace.
"Wait, what?!" Brawnz shouted as he and the rest of his team were sent fyling away with naught but one swing of Nora's hammer, each hitting the wall and skidding down in defeat.
"And with that, it appears Team JNPR wins by knockout, literally!" Port declared with glee, though he cleared his throat and leaned in closer to the microphone. "...Can someone go make sure they're okay?"
OOO
Meanwhile, at a location outside the colosseum proper known as the 'Crow Bar', a man with silvery hair and a tattered red cloak sat at the counter, a plethora of empty glasses scattered to the side. Knocking yet another one back, he looked up at the screen withing the establishment to see a collective image of JNPR with the caption 'Team JNPR Defeats Team BRNZ!'
"Huh, those kids weren't half bad!" the bartender said as he cleaned a glass. "They were certainly no CMZN, but still not bad!"
The patron merely looked at the screen for a moment before rolling his eyes, an unimpressed 'Meh' escaping his lips before they were blocked off by the drink within his hand.
OOO
"That one surely has a few Vacuo fans reeling," Oobleck said, a look of sadness upon his face. It quickly melted away, however, as he continued. "But they'll get another chance soon, as we have plenty more teams to watch duke it out in our festival! Next on our list, we have... Team VDMR of Beacon versus Team WILD of Atlas!"
The crowd roared as the two selected teams made their way onto the battlefield, Lana cheerfully waving to the crowd as she walked out, Volga snorting and rolling his eyes at her antics. Link and Sebastian simply kept walking, Link eyeing the team before him with an analytical gaze.
"Kick their butts, Link!" Ruby cheered, waving a hastily made Link flag around as she did, Yang sitting beside her, rolling her eyes.
"Oh, come on, Sis, we all know how this one is gonna go," she said, Weiss shrugging.
"Hey, you never know, they may get lucky."
Ruby turned to her and glared at her, Weiss recoiling instantly.
"Why are you picking on me so much recently?" she asked, Ruby turning back to the stadium and shrugging.
"I don't know, it feels right," she said. "But no one down there has was it takes to take Link down, I know it. Lucky or no, VMDR has this."
Weiss rolled her eyes as she too focussed on the arena, VMDR squaring up with WILD, their auras being displayed on the board. While some members of WILD had rather impressive levels of aura, none of them even came close to Link's and further proving Ruby's point; he wasn't going down so easily.
The biomes eventually finished randomizing, landing on the volcanic wasteland and ocean biome.
"You guys ready?" Link asked as he drew his sword and shield, the rest of his team following suit and nodding. "Good."
WILD too drew their weapons, Link sizing them up as they did.
Their first member and leader was a larger boy named Red Wilhelm, brandishing a large spear with a head on each end.
The next was a slightly shorter boy named Edwin Inkwell, in his hands a weighty ball and chain.
Second to last was a girl of similar height to Edwin named Krystal Lockheart, a whip-sword hybrid in her grasp.
Finally was a boy named Damian Blackbriar. Though he was the shortest, he held in his hands a large axe with a few peculiar protrusions coming from the back.
"If the combatants are ready, then let us begin!" Oobleck shouted, Krystal moving quickly to wrap her whip around Volga's neck, though he responded by grabbing the wire between the blade segments and pulling her close to him, aiming to land a powerful punch on her. She dodged gracefully though and knocked him to the ground, pulling up on her whip and stepping on the small of his back, chocking him out as she did. No one was able to help him, sadly, as the other members of WILD moved in to keep them separated, believing that they could maintain some sort of advantage by doing so. Lana was quickly assailed by Edwin, narrowly dodging as his ball and chain came barreling by, turning the tiles it touched into dust. This forced her away from her partner, leaving him alone. Sebastian was forced to contest with Damian, who had brought his axe down hard on Sebastian's shield, actually managing to push the knight back a fair bit, a feat unheard of as of yet. Finally, Link was going toe to toe with the leader of WILD, Red spinning his spear around violently to make it harder to predict from which angle he would attack, though Link was able to block each blow with relative ease, fitting in a few blows of his own when he could, though his too were blocked.
Aside from Volga, who was still struggling on the ground in the grip of Krsytal's blade, each member of VDMR was pushed to a far corner of the map, Sebastian to the ocean biome, Lana to the volcanic biome, and Link to the border between the two.
Ruby couldn't help but look on in worry, as VDMR was already being pushed back harder then she could have anticipated. Even Link was having a hard time finding a gap in Red's assault.
"Why doesn't he use his Semblance to get out of there?" Yang asked. "I mean... I don't know what it is, but it's gotta be helpful, right?"
"I..." Ruby said, thinking, "...I actually don't know what his Semblance is. I've never seen him use it, I don't think..."
"So you're saying he pushed them to Second Seed without using his Semblance?" Weiss asked, turning to Link below, blocking another rapid onslaught from Red, failing once again to land a solid hit on the enemy leader.
"Either that or he uses it so subtly that no one can tell what it is," Ruby theorized. "He has done some crazy things, after all..."
"I suppose we'll just have to wait and see," Blake said in agreement as the battle below continued to rage on.
Sebastian, other than Volga, of course, was perhaps having the hardest time, as once his opponent had driven him to the waterfront, he had begun using his Semblance. Damian's Semblance was actually the ability to coat objects he steps on with a thin layer of ice to enable him to skate around, and needless to say, Sebastian couldn't give chase in the water due to his weight; in other words, he couldn't swim. Damian basically danced around him, forcing him to keep his shield up as he rained down blows, not giving Sebastian enough time to switch Kurogane to any other form to combat this tiny threat.
Volga eventually had enough of being choked out, and realized that his lance was actually long enough to reach Krystal from where he was, pointing the tip of the sword form at her and switching it to lance form, forcing her to back away lest she be skewered by the dragon knight. Taking a few deep breaths, he looked on as Krystal blew a few stray hairs from her eyes, glaring at Volga. How dare he escape without her consent?
Edwin was pressuring Lana more than she would have liked, as his brutal swings combined with the volcanic desolation around them made for a terrifying combination; any attack that made contact with the ground caused a small fiery explosion, forcing her to keep running back more and more. He wasn't even giving her time to ready her weapon, keeping her running.
Link and Red too were locked in a fruitless duel, as though Link couldn't land any well-placed strikes between combos, neither could Red get past Link's shield. At the moment the two seemed even, a fact that made Ruby even more anxious.
"Ooohhh, come ooon!" she shouted, hoping he would hear. "You guys can't go down in the first round!"
"I don't mean to be that guy, but it looks like it might be a possibility..." Yang said, Ruby elbowing her in the arm.
"Yaaang! That's not funny!"
"I'm not making a joke, I swear! Just look, even Link is being pushed back, so these guys must be good. But how are they doing so well against Second Seed?"
"How are we seeded, exactly?" Weiss asked, Blake pulling out her scroll.
"Well," she started, going to the page that contained that very information, "there seem to be three main categories: Grades, Combat Stats, and Feats. It looks like though our Grades were just barely above average..." she said, glaring at Yang.
"Hey, that test was rigged and you know it!"
"...Our Combat Stats and Feats are both rather impressive. We do very well in sparring, and helping take down Torchwick has really bumped us up in Feats."
"What about VDMR and WILD?" Ruby asked, Blake finding that page and taking a read.
"Ok, so VDMR has really high ranks in each category, Feats and Combat Stats being the highest for them. It really looks like Link and Sebastian carried them in Grades though, Lana and Volga are barely average. WILD themselves... Oh, their cumulative Grades and Combat Stats are higher than VDMR's... the only reason they're not a higher seed is because VDMR has way better Feats," Blake revealed, Ruby eyeing WILD with scrutiny.
"Do any of them have higher Grades or Combat Stats than Link or Sebastian?" she asked, Blake going there too.
"None of them have either higher than Link, but Krystal has higher Grades than Sebastian and Red has higher Combat Stats than him. It looks like those two are the ones to look out for. Volga seems to be learning that the hard way..." Blake said, referencing how Volga was struggling to even get close to Krystal, let alone land a hit that mattered.
Sebastian too was having a rough time, as though Damian wasn't fast enough to get past Sebastian's shield, neither was he fast enough to punish his opponent for any of his failed blows. He needed a plan, and he needed one fast...
Lana was being pushed back even more, getting closer and closer to the edge of the battlefield. Judging by the power behind each of Edwin's blows, she would easily be knocked out of bounds with one solid hit, taking extreme care not to let that happen.
As for Link, things hadn't changed, Red refusing to let up his assault and Link being unable to find a whole in his attack pattern. Finally having had enough, he activated the wind Dust in his gauntlets and ducked a blow from Red, uppercutting him with his sword, finally landing a solid hit on him, launching him back and taking a fair bit out of his aura. Due to this being the first real hit of the round, the crowd cheered in approval, Ruby herself going nuts in comparison.
"Yeeeaaah, there we go, show 'em what Beacon's got!"
Link finally went on the offensive, taking a series of well-place blows to keep up his momentum, culminating in a back-handed shield bash that blew through his opponent's guard and sent him skidding away. Capitalizing on this opportunity, he quickly assembled his rifle and fired at Krystal, forcing her to defend and allowing Volga to get in close, grabbing her by the face and dragging her on the ground before throwing her at Edwin. Edwin knew that if he dodged her she would be thrown out of the arena, forcing him to catch her, the impact doing a solid number on both of their auras. Lana saw her chance and took it, activating the Summoning Gate and launching a few ice shards across the stadium at Damian, forcing him to dodge away from Sebastian, giving him enough to to switch Kurogane into the Iron God's Wheel and throwing it at his opponent, the massive weapon blasting through his defenses and hitting him right in the gut, taking a solid chunk out of his aura, but not enough to make a huge difference, but the damage was done; VDMR was on the move and picking up momentum.
Sebastian took this chance to run over to Lana's position, as he felt that he would be far better suited to take on her opponent and vice versa. Coming in hot, he rammed his shoulder into Edwin's back, knocking him away from Krystal and Lana, Volga charging in behind him and knocking Krystal the other way. The two larger fighters nodded to their tiny teammate, Lana smirking and nodding back, bounding off to take on Damian.
Once Edwin had recovered, he turned viciously and tried to crush Sebastian with his ball and chain, though he did the sensible thing and caught it, ripping Edwin close and head butting him hard, costing him a large hunk of aura. Staggered again, Edwin took a moment to regain his composure, seething as he spun the ball around violently to try and smack him out of the stadium, Sebastian merely smirking in response. Snapping his fingers as the ball approached him, Edwin was taken aback when the weapon stopped dead in its tracks, Sebastian having touched his opponent's weapon and activating his Semblance. Pointing back at Edwin, his weapon was launched back at him, taking both him and it with him out of the arena, knocking him out.
"Oh, looks like Edwin didn't know about Young Sebastian's Semblance, eliminating him by both aura and ring out!" Oobleck declared over the speakers.
The remaining members of WILD turned to Sebastian and certainly looked angry, as he was proving to be rather difficult to deal with. No one could move in to challenge him though, as all members of WILD were busy dealing with their own member of VDMR.
Red looked back at Link and spit to the side, readying his weapon and going back on the offensive, Link shield bashing right as the attack connected and knocking him off balance. Leaping above him, he landed a front flip slash to the back of Red's head, knocking him into a volcanic crater and dropping his aura low, but not to red yet. Quickly climbing out of the crater, he went back to attacking, Link ready to meet his blow with one of his own, though at the last second Red split his spear in two, changing it into a pair of short spears. He defended with one of these spears, taking a swing at Link's neck with the other. Link respond by ducking back, kicking Red in the jaw and heading off towards Volga and Krystal, Red rubbing his chin in pain before chucking one of his spears at Link. Sadly, Link caught it and launched it back with more than twice the force, forcing Red to let his weapon be lost. Otherwise, he would lose, and he wasn't letting that possibility come to fruition yet.
Lana eventually made it to Damian, the boy still trying to dry himself off after having fallen into the water, taking her chance and activating her weapon, launching a small meteorite at him. Damian saw and quickly dodged, slamming right into one of Lana's barriers, falling back and getting hit by the meteorite, knocking him right back into the water. Lana chuckled, Damian emerging and spitting some water out whilst moving his hair out of his eyes. Emerging from the water and stepping onto a small island, readying his axe. Pulling a trigger near the pommel, the protrusions from the back roared to life, blasting streams of fire that launched him at Lana, the girl in question just putting her hands on her hips and sighing, Damian smashing into a barrier of Lana's creation. Damian stood and brushed himself off, glaring at Lana for a moment before a tree sprung from his location, launching him skyward and into yet another barrier of Lana's creation, sending his aura to near red. He was still in it though, and once he landed he coated the entire ground beneath him in ice, including Lana's feet, locking her in place and mildly frozen while Damian skidding towards her, using his axe boosters to rocket towards her at extreme speed. She tried to defend with one of her barriers, but Damian smashed right through it and into her, sending her flying right out of the arena, her aura in red.
"Oh, Lana Cianna of VDMR has been eliminated by both aura and ring out! This is shaping up to be quite the tug of war battle!" Port said, pumping his fist as he did.
Link looked to the scoreboard in distain as they announced this, Lana's image being crossed out.
"Oh, wow, they actually managed to take out Lana," Weiss said in surprise. "If it was anyone though, I guess it would have been her."
"She's the least skilled member of VDMR," Blake said in agreement. "That, and her weapon isn't very well suited to fighting other people, mostly for large groups of Grimm."
"You gotta wonder how strong that Damian guy is though. I mean, Lana's barriers could take a few shots from that Paladin Torchwick drove, and he went right through it," Yang added.
"Shhh!" Ruby hissed, focussing on the fight. "They aren't done yet."
Link eventually made it to Volga and Krystal, Volga currently trying in vain to torch the girl, being too slow to keep up with her. Link intended to fix that, however, and darted past Volga, driving a knee into the unsuspecting Krystal's face, knocking her back into a wall. Volga followed up closely and smashed his now-draconian fist into her and through the wall, nearly knocking her out. However, she managed to wrap her blade around Link when he kneed her, attempting to pull him out with her at the very least. Link thought fast and threw his blade to Volga, the dragon knight quickly catching it and pulling Link towards him, his strength proving enough to pull both Link and Krystal back. Link grabbed the wire from Krystal's blade as he was pulled back, throwing her up and over himself, slamming her on the ground and knocking her out.
"It seems that Krystal Lockheart of WILD has been eliminated by aura!" Oobleck stated.
"Come ooon, VDMR!" Ruby shouted. "It's three on two, you've got this!"
Link turned to his teammate and nodded, darting off to go deal with Damian while Volga went with Sebastian to try and deal with Red.
Once Link met up with Damian, he took a moment to make sure he wasn't standing on any of his ice, having eyed the screen above to see how he had knocked out Lana. His caution was proven pointless though, as another new sheet was lain down and along with it came Damian, but Link acted quickly and ducked it whilst also kicking him in the legs, sending him skidding into a wall, shattering it and knocking him out as well.
"Damian Blackbriar has also been eliminated!" shouted Port.
Nodding, Link turned back to make his way over to Red, but stopped when he heard yet another elimination buzzer.
"Astonishing! Red Wilhelm has defeated both Sebastian Steele and Volga Veldin of Team VDMR!"
"How did...?" he said, looking up to the board to see the replay of Red expertly forcing the two to strike each other, knocking them both out. Of course, those two countered each other far too well. "He used that to his advantage... Great."
Link and Red both slowly made their way to the center of the arena, Red having reacquired the other half of his weapon.
"You guys are good," Red commended, nodding. "But you might as well give up."
"Oh? And why might that be?" Link asked, the two slowly circling the arena, not wanting to move too soon and make a mistake.
"My Semblance lets me steal the aura of others. When your friends took out my teammates, I took that chance to take the remainder of theirs that they didn't need. In other words," he said, spinning his spear around and aiming it at Link, "you've turned this into a game of attrition that you can't win."
"We'll see about that," Link said as he made the first move, heading in quickly and taking a rapid series of swings at Red, who easily spun his spear to defend before running off, forcing Link to give chase. Red ran all the way to the top of the tallest volcanic outcropping, Link eyeing a smaller stone to the side that was small enough to throw yet large enough to hurt, breaking it off and launching it at the boy in front of him, Red easily shattering it. Link had used this as cover though, and had leapt after the stone, more than ready to pound in Red's face, doing just that with a solid left hook, knocking him off the spire. As the two fell, Link drew his blade and aimed the tip downward, intent on ending this fight, but Red rolled to the side and dodged. Link was then forced to rip his sword out fast, lest he be met by a staggering blow from Red, barely being able to do so due to the serrations along the edge, using this to uppercut slash him with his newly freed blade. Chasing him down once again, Link changed the Dust in his gauntlets to wind as he had many times before, allowing him to run in front of him and clothesline him, stopping him dead in his tracks. Switching to gravity Dust, Link kneed Red with all he had, launching him into the air, but not before he had hooked the grappling hook for his sword onto his person, the force at which he was hit dragging Link with him, though at a much faster rate. Now above him, Link drew his sword and swung down as hard as he could, Red just barely having enough time to defend, though he was still launched downward into the ground, the stadium shaking for a moment with the impact. His aura was still in yellow though, signifying he could still fight, but to his dismay, Link's was still well into green.
"Oh crap," Red said as he watched Link fall from the sky, a fist cocked back to end it. Red quickly got out his weapon to try and counter it, and though he was sure he'd position it in time, Link was suddenly closer than he should have been, his fist meeting Red's face alongside a heavy dosage of fire Dust, draining his aura all the way to 1 point. No one could tell though, as this kicked up enough dust in the arena to obscure the screen and make it impossible to tell.
"Folk, we apologize for the harsh viewing conditions, but we can assure you that our broadcast has not cut out," Port promised, squinting at the ground before him, only one figure standing up. "It looks like... Yes it is! Ladies and gentleman, Link Valion has defeated Red Wilhelm of WILD, meaning our victorious team is Team VDMR!"
The crowd went wild, Link raising his fist triumphantly as the dust continued to settle, Red's groaning form visible in the crater Link had created.
"Wooow," Yang said when she could finally see the carnage Link had wrought in the arena, the green-clad knight turning to leave after he dusted himself off. "I always forget that he can dish out a hit."
"Told you," Ruby said smugly as she turned back to the arena, cupping her hands around her mouth. "Goooooo Liiiiiink!" she screamed, Link stopping and turning to her spot in the arena, Link offering a casual salute and blowing her a kiss before turning to help out his unconscious teammates, tournament staff having already made their way over to Lana and the other team.
"Aw yeah," Ruby said in contentment as she sat back, extremely satisfied with the result. Sure, it was closer than she would have liked, but that final fight was astounding! Quite the spectacle, truly. Besides, he blew a kiss to her, which is always a nice bonus...
"You're blushing again," Weiss said, Ruby realizing the warmth in her face and raising her hands.
"Hush, you!" Ruby shouted, Weiss chuckling and patting her leader on the back.
"Oh, you know I'm joking," Weiss said, leaning back in her seat. "I just had to get you back for recently. You've been awfully bold for some reason or another..."
"Most of these jokes just... I don't know, they felt right," Ruby admitted, rubbing the back of her head.
"Uhhh..." came Port's voice over the stadium speakers, everyone quieting down to hear what he had to say. "*Ahem*, it would seem that due to the damage done to the main battleground in the previous fight, we will have a short break in order to repair it. Don't go anywhere though, as we have been graced by the talented musical duo from Atlas, Nightlight!"
As he spoke, none other than Noctus and his girlfriend Lumia came forth into the stadium, waving at the cheering crowd.
"Truth be told, we weren't expecting to perform here today, but when we were told the stadium needed to be repaired, we jumped at the opportunity!" Lumia cheered into her mic, Noctus beside her and doing the same.
"You heard her right! All attendees here just got themselves admission to a Nightlight show at no extra charge! Anyone who wants autographs or to come say hi is free to come do so after the next match, we'll be outside waiting for you!" he added, opening his bass case and pulling from its depths his beautiful instrument. "Now, let's get to the fun part! What song do you guys wanna hear first?"
Noctus and Lumia listened intently whilst song names were shouted out, Lumia pointing to a specific location and raising the mic to her mouth. "I heard a few people asking for 'All My Days', is that what you guys wanna hear?"
The crowd roared in agreement, Noctus and Lumia nodding in agreement.
"Us too!" the said in unison, beginning their lovely song while the repairmen got to work cleaning up the stage.
"Huh," Mercury said from his seat in the stands, "I always forget those two are a world-renowned pair of musicians..."
"You'd almost forget that he's also a world-class killer with the way he sings," Emerald agreed, Cinder chuckling for a moment.
"He lives quite the double life, that Noctus Hale. One day he's topping charts with his music, and others he's taking lives of some of the world's most corrupt. Had we not found his true identity, there's no way we could have forced him to ally himself with us. But the cards fell just right..." she said with a snicker, her eye glowing for a moment.
OOO
"Hooo boy, now that was a match!" the bartender said, setting out yet another drink for the clearly inebriated man before him, the man taking it and drinking it almost instantly.
"Call it what you *urp* want, but that kid seems like a cocky little a-hole..." the man managed to stutter, the bartender eyeing him with a fair bit of disdain.
"Hey buddy, that's Link Valion, one of Beacon's finest! Show him some respect!" the bartender said, cleaning another glass.
"So that's Link Valion, huh?" the man asked, setting his drink on the table, nearly empty. "He seems *hic* 'fun'..."
OOO
Outside, Link and the now-conscious members of VMDR were recapping what had gone on in the fight, Team RWBY heading out to join them.
"So you're sure they knocked each other out?" Lana asked, Volga and Sebastian looking around nervously, Link chuckling and nodding.
"Yep, I saw it myself. You can likely check the replays to see how it played out," Link explained.
"Oh come on you two, I may have been taken out, but at least it was done by an enemy, not my own teammate!" Lana scolded, shaking her head. Surprisingly, it was Weiss who came to their aid.
"They aren't completely to blame, it's not as if they tried to do it. Red even gave Link some trouble, it's not too far fetched to think he could manipulate them to hit each other," she said in reasoning, though Lana wasn't buying it.
"Sooo, you're saying that Red bamboozled the two of them into beating each other? Sounds even worse, if you ask me!" Lana said in retort.
Weiss definitely tried, but Lana had made up her mind, so there was nothing more she could do. "Sorry, you guys are on your own."
"Eh, at least you still won though!" Yang said, trying to bring up the mood.
"...Yeah, I'll give them that much," Lana said, shrugging. "It's not like it'll happen again anyway, Link and Sebastian aren't both gonna fall for that kind of trick."
"Oh, Link and Sebastian are who you guys chose for the next round?" Ruby asked.
"Yep," Volga conceded. "As much as I hate to admit it, Sebastian's got a little bit more going for him. He'll compliment Link better anyway. Besides, they've come up with a new team attack he wants to try out."
"Ooohhh, what's it called, what do you guys do, does it involve your new mods, maybe even your Semblance?" Ruby asked, getting extra close to Link.
"You'll see if we end up using it in the doubles round," Link said with a smirk.
"And what if you have to use on us?" Weiss asked, Link glancing at her with a sly smirk.
"Then you'll see first hand what it can do, Ice Queen."
Weiss couldn't help but stomp the ground in slight anger, as she felt like everyone was picking on her on purpose. "Why do I even bother?" she asked while she crossed her arms and turned away, Link laughing and patting her on the back.
"Oh, don't take it personally. Let's put it this way," he said, getting closer, "if it's necessary that we need to use it, that just means that you and Yang are doing that well."
"You know, it does sound better when you put it that way," Weiss said in agreement, Yang cracking her knuckles.
"You'd better hope it can take us out if it comes down to it," Yang said. "Otherwise, we're gonna upset the bracket and take out Second Seed!"
"I'd have it no other way," Link laughed, hands in his pockets. "Say, did you guys know Mr. Hale was a musician? Doubling as both an artist and a Huntsman must be really hard..."
"Now that I think about it," Weiss said, putting her hand to her chin in thought, "it does ring a bell. What was their group name again?"
"Nightlight," Blake responded. "It's kind of cute, now that I think about it."
"Oh, right, Nightlight! Yep, I've heard of them," Weiss said, nodding. "Their music is typically near the tops of Atlesian charts, and they always do well worldwide. I think I have a few of their albums on vinyl, actually..."
"Oh, I think I have a few of their heavier songs on my scroll," Ruby said. "I do like rock a bit more. It's a wonder how versatile they are though."
"Both of them play into that," Weiss explained. "Noctus is apparently masterfully trained with all types of instruments and styles, and his voice carries well enough to do both back up vocals and lead. Lumia herself has a massive range, 4 octaves and 6 notes if I recall correctly."
"Wow," Ruby said. "I guess it's lucky they came here then. And even luckier that Link blew a crater in the stadium, huh?"
"Yeah, I'd rather not do that again if I don't have to. I'm sure that while plenty are happy to have a surprise Nightlight concert, even more are upset that the festival has been postponed..." he said, rubbing the back of his head nervously.
"Oh, you'll get over it eventually," Ruby said as she turned back to the stadium. "Now come on, I wanna hear a few songs before they finish cleaning up the arena."
"Sure," Link replied as he quickly went to catch up, both their teams following after them.
OOO
It took a while, but eventually the stadium ground was repaired, the crowd both saddened to see Nightlight go and yet happy to see the fights resume. Oobleck in particular was happily to finally be back on schedule, as though he thought Nightlight's performance was lovely, he wanted to get back to what he was here for; commentating the fights.
"Ladies and gentlemen, allow us to say how nice it is to back back in the booth and back on schedule!"
"Yes, Doctor, we're both primed and ready to continue our lovely festival! We hope those who are rooting for Vacuo have stuck around, as next we have yet another team from Shade, Team NDGO!" Port exclaimed, pointing to the all female team from Shade. "Now they are certainly a crowd favorite, but these lovely ladies are going against some of the toughest, testosterone-filled teammates we've seen so far! I'm of course talking about... Team SSSN!"
The cameras panned around the stadium, stopping at a spot where each member's face was plastered on a sign decorated with hearts. Aside from Sun, of course, as his displayed his abs rather than his face. The hearts will still present, however.
"Sun Wukong and his team are certainly a force to be reckoned with, and although he'll be representing the Mistral Academy of Haven, I'm sure his friends and family back in Vacuo will be cheering him along!" finished Port as he watched SSSN walk onto the field, waving at the cheering fans around them.
"Good luck, Neptune!" Weiss called sweetly from her seat.
The subject of her cheering continued to wave at the crowd around him, stopping when he made eye contact with the beautiful team before him. "Ladies," he said, pushing back his hair. Obviously, this didn't set very well with Weiss, her sweet demeanor being lost almost instantly.
"Break his stupid face, NDGO!" she shouted, pointing angrily at Neptune.
Neptune either paid it no mind or simply didn't hear, as he simply prepared his weapon alongside the other fighters present. "Alright, girls, try and remember: hands above the waist," he said, making the motion with his free hand.
"Ignore him, for he..." Sun said as he placed a hand on Neptune's arm, trying to think of what to say. "Yeah, he's dumb."
Neptune did the one thing he did best and winked at NDGO, and they clearly were't too fond of this, each one rolling their eyes in unison. The roulette wheels to decide the biomes rolled once again, the one behind NDGO falling on the desert biome, the very same rising from the ground behind them. Oddly enough, a miniature sun spawned in the air above them, causing many to don sunglasses.
Aside from Link, that is. He had to squint for a moment while his eyes adjusted. Sadly enough, the camera panned over to at this moment, catching his moment of embarassment.
"Alright! Home field advantage!" cheered Nebula of NDGO.
"Don't get too cocky! That's my turf, too!" Sun said, shouldering his weapon.
Scarlet, the red-haired boy of Team SSSN, merely looked down at his outfit. "I hope I don't get sand in my shoes..."
"Be cool, man," Neptune whispered as he leaned over to his teammate.
Dew checked her nails for a moment before looking up at the roulette wheel behind SSSN as it landed on a blue symbol reminiscent of tidal waves. "Hey! The ocean!"
"Huh?" Neptune asked for a moment, turning around to see what she was talking about, his curiosity turning to absolute horror as he saw the symbol of the ocean biome. As if to add insult to injury, a meek whimper escaped his lips against his will.
"Uhh, what's wrong with Neptune?" Ruby asked. Link and VDMR shrugged in unison, but Blake merely sighed and put her head in her hand.
"Oh, no," she muttered into her palm, refusing to watch as the ocean biome rose from the depths of the stadium, pirate ship and all. Neptune continued to stand there in fear, stiff as a board, Blake turning to the confused Yang beside her. "Neptune's... afraid of the water..."
"3, 2, 1, BEGIN!" shouted Oobleck, signifying the beginning of the match. Right as he said this though, Neptune shot past his allies and NDGO and to the mountain behind them, ascending it in a heartbeat.
"Neptune, what are you doing?!" Sage shouted as Neptune approached a ledge of the mountain, looking down at the two teams below him.
"Uh, you know, just gaining the higher ground!" Neptune replied, laughing nervously.
"On the enemy's side?!" Sun shouted.
"They would never expect it!" Neptune retorted.
Dew simply shrugged to her teammates. "He's not wrong," she half-whispered.
Nebula didn't care, and instead wanted to get this over with and move on to the next round. "Open fire!"
NDGO retreated into the desert biome with the apparently fearless members moving to follow them, Neptune still properly perched high above them. Sage and Scarlet in particular charged forward with weapons high, Scarlet having also discarded his coat. He quickly came upon Octavia Ember, taking a swing at her with his cutlass, though she ducked under his attack and slid away, past Sage and Dew, the two preparing to fight. Sage readied his blade and brought it crashing down, though Dew veered it off course and knocked him back with her spear before dragging it along the ground, creating a multitude of tiny dust devils. These dust devils blew in Sage's fast, coating his eyes with sand, blinding him as they converged and created one larger one that took both him and his blade and lifted them into their air. Unable to do anything about it, Sage was thrown helplessly from the stadium, eliminating him.
"And NDGO gains the advantage!" Oobleck said as Sage's profile was darkened, the very same young man slamming his fist on the ground because of this.
Back in the field, Octavia slid in front of Sun and Scarlet, both prepping themselves for a fight. However, Octavia simply spun her blade and laid down a wave of fire Dust that kicked up a large dust cloud, Sun leaping out and turning to Neptune above. "Neptune!" he shouted, getting his attention.
Neptune looked down to see Sun flee from the bout,groaning and leaping down the mountain, cocking his gun as he did. Octavia saw him coming in and kicked up more dirt, but Neptune did the sensible thing and slid down his goggles over his eyes, easily protecting himself as he fired. Octavia saw it coming and defended, but didn't see Sun come barreling in to deliver a kick to her neck, knocking her down. Quickly rising back to her feet, she was obviously angry, taking a wild swing at Sun. He easily blocked, however, and hit her repeatedly with the staff form of his weapon before ending it with a solid final blow. This apparently did enough damage to drain her aura down to red, knocking her out.
"Oh! And we're down to 3-on-3!" Port exclaimed as her profile was crossed out. They had another even fight on their hands, it seemed...
Once he had done so, Sun looked to see Neptune fighting with Gwen Darcy. Gwen had as of yet surrounded Neptune with a multitude of knives, as he defended against any thrown his way. Nearby, Scarlet was dueling with Dew, and the two seemed relatively evenly matched. This was until Scarlet tried to kick her and she dodged easily, allowing her to push him back and create more dust devils to attempt to throw him out as she did to Sage. It looked like he was on track to do so as well, but he managed to catch a part of the mast he was thrown over, enabling himself to stay in. Gwen and Nebula caught on and moved to take him out. As Scarlet climbed up onto the mast, nearly falling, Nebula launched a arrow from her crossbow up at the mast, using it to climb to his location. Shifting her weapon to a mode more suited for melee combat, two went at it for a bit, most blows being parried or blocked rather easily. Eventually Nebula took a swing that managed to catch Scarlet's chin, Scarlet quickly countering with a kick to the face. Nebula feigned stumbling back and caused Scarlet to give chase, though she quickly circled the mast and brought her blade down on the unsuspecting Scarlet, Scarlet barely having time to block. Though he was pushed back, Scarlet veered her sword off to the side and forced her off balance. Swinging at her feet, she committed to the dodge and allowed Scarlet to elbow her in the stomach, the goal of his earlier feint. This caused Nebula to fall to the sand below, a small smirk on Scarlet's face.
Having a moment to breathe, Scarlet looked down to see Gwen down belong hurling her knives at Sun, though she was having a hard time being able to hit him with any. Knowing full well that she may get lucky, he pulled out his pistol and aimed the butt plate at her, launching it out and revealing that it was in fact a grappling hook, snagging her by the ankle. "Gotcha!" he declared as she fell to the ground. Leaping off of the mast and using Gwen as a counterweight, he slowly lowered himself to the ground as Gwen was lifted up. He ended up right beneath her, and though he dress threatened to slide upwards and reveal her undergarments, she managed to keep it from doing so. However, the plethora of knives hidden about her person followed no such rule, and fell down onto Scarlet. He merely stood there in shock, though he contorted his body in such a way that none of the knives hit him, instead getting lodged in the ground around him. Sighing in relief, his attention was drawn to Sun and Dew still fighting, Sun dodging back and grabbing a pair of fallen coconuts. Launching the two at his foe, he was surprised to her her bat the two back at him, except now they were on fire.
Great.
Sun quickly dodged out of the way, but Scarlet wasn't so lucky. One of the coconuts hit him in the face, and the other hit him in... well... his coco-nuts. Needless to say, this cost his the last bit of his viable aura, his eye twitching in pain as the elimination buzzer sounded.
"Aw man, even I felt that one," Link said, having watched Scarlet's manhood get ravaged.
"I don't get it," Ruby said innocently, her teammates turning the other way and hiding a laugh.
"Oh... ahhh... You see Ruby," Link began, trying to find out how to explain it, "men feel a heightened degree of pain when they're hit in their, you know..."
"Nuts!" shouted Sun as he watched Dew summon even more dust devils, except now they were filled with water. He was still forced to dodge them, of course. "Uh, Neptune? Could use some help, buddy!"
Neptune merely glanced around and locked eyes with his leader, waving him off. "Uh, you know, uh, it would probably be better if you came over here! Yeah, I can guard this... sector! We're in lockdown mode!" he lied, turning back away from him.
Sun had no words for a moment, instead turning to see Nebula shoot down Gwen, freeing her and bringing her back into the fight. Angrily turning back to Neptune, who still had his back turned to his, he cupped his hands over his mouth such that he could force his voice to cut through to him. "What are you talking about? There's nothing to lock down!"
"Lockdown! Right! You got it!" Neptune replied with a thumbs-up.
Sun would have replied, but he was forced to dodge yet another attempt from Dew to pierce him with her spear, splashing back down as he landed. "Dude, I know you're afraid of water, but you gotta-" He was cut off when a blue bullet whizzed by and struck Dew, knocking her back into the water.
"There! I helped! Are you happy now?!" he said as he lowered his gun, thinking for a moment. "Also, I am not afraid of water, and I have no idea what you are talking about!"
Turning to see Dew get back up, now flanked by her two remaining teammates, Sun, pulled at his hair anxiously before gesturing at all three of them and turning to his teammate. "NEPTUNE!" he shouted, Neptune sighing and heading over to Sun.
"Okay, fine! Just get out of the water!" he said as he unfolded his gun into its trident form, the prongs crackling with electricity. Doing as he was told, Sun quickly escaped from the water as Neptune tip toed up to the water's edge. Closing his eyes and turning away, he jammed his trident into the water, the electricity coursing through the deep blue until it met up with the remainder of Team NDGO, giving them quite the nasty shock. Nasty enough, in fact, that it took all three of them out, eliminating all three, forcing the buzzer to sound once again. Clearly relieved, Sun turned to Neptune, and the two chest-bumped each other in celebration.
"And with that, Team SSSN moves on to the doubles round!" Port declared, turning to the good doctor beside him. "You know what I call that victory?"
"Shocking?" Oobleck replied, though Port merely frowned.
"No, well earned. What you said is stupid," he said, turning away. Oobleck turned away too, a frown on his face as well. He thought it was rather clever...
OOO
Once again at the bar where the bartender was making a small fortune, he whistled as the results were displayed on the screen, nodding in approval.
"Now that was a match!" he declared, his lone patron stifling a clearly drunken laugh.
"Heh, that was a mess!" he said with a slur, even swaying in his seat a bit. He had definitely had too much, that was for sure...
"Come on man, you didn't like them, the Vale kids, or any of the rounds before that? What fight are you here for?" he asked, and little did he know, he was about to get an answer.
Looking at his glass for a moment, the man saw an aircraft behind him decorated with ribbons fly slowly through the sky behind him, turning to see it in its full glory. "That one," he said as he downed the rest of his drink, reaching into his wallet and pulling out a fair bit of Lien and tossing it onto the counter. "Happy Vytal Festival!" he cheered, standing. He stumbled a fair bit though, clearly intoxicated. The very scent of the alcohol wafted off of him, a pungent, unwelcoming aroma.
The bartender merely shrugged as his patron stumbled and staggered out of his bar, setting down the glass he had been cleaning and reaching for the one the man had left, knocking it over on accident and listening as it shattered against the floor.
"Aw, gee darn it!" he muttered, as he now had more cleaning to do...
OOO
"Aw, that was so close!" Ruby sighed, leaning back in her seat.
"Looks like the dorks made it to the next round!" Yang said in agreement, nodding.
Blake laughed for a moment as she watched Sun and Neptune dance like a couple of idiots before Sun realized she was watching, smirking and aiming at her with double finger guns, adding in a bonus wink. This of course made her blush and smile. "Emphasis on 'dork'."
"That concludes the matches for today," Oobleck said over the stadium speakers. "Please leave the Coliseum IN A CALM AND ORDERLY FASHION!"
Everyone present could help but wince as Oobleck spoke, as both stadium speakers and shouting didn't really go well together. Yang was the first of her friends to speak though turning to the freshly-recovered teams RWBY and VDMR. "Come on, let's go congratulate 'em. Plus, I wanna go say hi to Nightlight, their music was actually really good!"
They all stood to do just that, but Weiss stopped and looked overhead as the same airship the drunken man from earlier had seen flew slowly over the stadium, Ruby bumping into her from behind, nearly falling had it not been for Link.
"Uh, what are you looking at?" Ruby asked, having just missed the airship, scanning the area in vain to try and find what her white-haired friend had seen.
"She's here!" Weiss said with noticeable strain in her voice, still looking up in the sky.
There we go, another hella long chapter. (11,066 words this time around) Again, the same thing applies to WILD as it did with BLUD; just a random team of OCs for VDMR to beat, so don't worry about them. Trust me, when important OCs come along, they'll have better names than that. At least I like to think so. But yep, there's another reason I'm excited for Volume 3; more fights! More than that though, I get to do fights that weren't in the base show, which is even better! Granted, having to use heat of the moment power sets like ice feet or aura yoink can only go so far, even if I try to make the fights interesting. So really, it seems like all I gotta do is use better characters for fights, right?
The answer is yes. And I will. Oh boy I will, you just wait.
OniHelix out!
