Amity Colosseum, Kingdom of Vale

Tobias rolled to the right, out of the way of a swipe from Sigurd's arm-blade. He launched himself onto his feet, spinning around with a swing aimed at Sig's neck. He ducked, but when it would've connected, Tobias' blade bent into its sickle form, changing direction and aiming at Sig once more. It hit his shoulder as the ground cracked underneath him from the impact.

Sig slammed his right elbow into Tobias' gut, giving the gadgeteer enough room to stand up. He lashed out towards Tobias with his tail, following up with a series of slashes from his arm-blades. Tobias parried each strike with his cutlass, sending a shower of sparks about the arena.

Meanwhile, Ferris was facing Faye, the witch desperate for a rematch. Ferris grinned. She doesn't realize the mistake she made in revealing that flashy finisher earlier, he thought. This'll be easy as long as I stay focused. He lobbed his chain forward, hoping to snag Faye and end the fight quickly. She jumped out of the way before it could hit, blasting it with energy to keep it from moving. Clever.

Faye drew a card, the one of wands, summoning a crystalline staff. She drew another, the nine of wands, as several tree trunk-like poles erupted from the ground. She hopped from pole to pole, blasting Ferris from her mandalas when at a distance and striking with the staff whenever she got close enough to land a hit. Interesting… the poles both give her more room to maneuver and render tethered weapons useless… this is quite troublesome…

His thoughts were interrupted when Tobias skidded to a halt next to him.

"We should finish 'em off soon, shouldn't we?" He shouted to Ferris.

"I agree. Though this is getting interesting…" Ferris replied calmly.

"Is everything set up? If so, it's all you from there."

"Buy me some time. Keep them distracted. Then, I'll finish this in a millisecond."

Without saying anything, Tobias took off. He leapt into the air, his sword bending into a sickle once more, and flipping forwards. He landed behind Faye, sweeping her legs and rising to his feet. He lobbed his sickle at Sigurd, bouncing it off his chest. Tobias dove towards Sig and tackled him, pinning him to the ground under his knees. He raised his fists and began pummeling the gadgeteer.

"Ferris! How's it coming along?" He shouted.

"Ready! Stand back!" Ferris yelled back.

Tobias jumped backwards as several iron chains sprang from the ground below Sig and Faye. In an instant, they were bound around the legs and tossed out of the arena. The buzzer sounded as they hit the ground.

"Faye Kismet and Sigurd Valkyrie are out! The winners of this round are Ferris Gray and Tobias Fynn of Shade Academy!"

The crowd roared with cheers and applause. Ferris smiled smugly and closed his eyes.

-XNTW-

Wren was walking the fairgrounds with his teammates. Kira bounced on ahead like she always did, while Taiga yelled at her for running off, like always. And Niko… was busy being Niko.

"Congratulations on proceeding to the final round, Taiga." Niko said.

"Huh? Oh, thanks. It's an honor that you guys chose me to fight." She replied.

"Whaddya mean? It was a no-brainer to choose you. You're the fastest student at Beacon!" Kira piped up from a few feet away.

"I agree. Much as I hate to admit it, you're the best fighter on the team." Wren said, putting his hands in his pockets.

"Th-thanks, I guess…" Taiga said nervously.

The team walked in silence for a little while, drinking in the atmosphere of the fairgrounds. The silence was disrupted by a loud guitar strum accompanied by a cry of,

"Wren!"

"Oh shi-" Wren was cut off by another guitar strum as his older sister dashed towards him.

"Hey, guys!" Wren's sister Khione said as she hugged him.

"Hello." Niko said.

Azul continued strumming a gentle melody on their guitar, as Summer and Trace caught up, holding hands.

"Congrats on making it to the finals, guys." Azul said.

"Thanks! Sorry that you guys didn't make it." Wren said.

"Eh, better off this way. We don't have to fight with you guys." Khione said.

"Yeah, 'cause we'd kick your asses!" Kira said.

"Kira, you know that Taiga's the only one competing now, right?" Niko said.

"Of course! I just wanted to make sure you guys knew!" Kira said, pouting.

The teams chatted for a while, until a loudspeaker ordered Taiga to report to the coliseum for her match.

"Good luck, Taiga!" Wren shouted, though she probably didn't hear him.

-XNTW-

"Ladies and gentlemen! Welcome to the grand finale of the 53rd Vytal Festival! For our last matchup of the tournament, we have Taiga Xiao Long of Beacon Academy, versus Ferris Gray from Shade Academy!" the announcers declared.

"3!" Taiga's blades clicked in their sheaths.

"2!" Ferris' chain rattled as it swung lazily through the air.

"1!"

"Begin!" the buzzer sounded.

As soon as the round began, Taiga launched towards Ferris, swords drawn. She moved at a blurring speed, not even her fastest. She was uncharacteristically confident. She lifted off the ground, slashing at Ferris at the same time, carrying him upwards with the attack. Taiga accelerated, attacking from seemingly all directions at once. Ferris calmly waited until she slowed down again, before tossing his chain dart down at the ground and yanking himself away from Taiga's assault.

"Is that all you've got?" Ferris sneered, face blank.

He tossed his dart towards the falling Taiga, wrapping it around her arm.

"GET OVER HERE!" he yelled, yanking the cat faunus towards him.

He swung back and shot his leg upwards. The blow connected with Taiga's head with a loud clunk. Reeling from the blow, Taiga scrambled to her feet just in time to dodge another kick from Ferris. She dashed as fast as her dazed legs could carry her, circling Ferris while tossing her knives. The blades hung in the air, slowly moving towards Ferris. Taiga continued to circle until she had run out of knives. She slowed back to normal, and the blades closed in on Ferris. However, they were blocked at the last second by a large spherical shield of chains. They continued to clash for a while as Ferris got angrier and angrier that he seemed to be losing.

Alright, he thought. Time to wrap this up. With one final push, he knocked Taiga away.

"I've had enough of this! I was gonna let you walk away with a bump and bruise or two, but you've pissed me off!" he shouted. "Tobias! Get the others. It's time. Round up the defenseless ones, and deal with the others however you want."

"And you! You damn animal! I'm gonna kill you. You're a serious threat to the Boss's plans! So…" Ferris threw his arms upwards as several chains erupted from the ground, binding Taiga by her arms. In his hands he held another chain that went into the ground. He pulled it slightly further away from Taiga as the chains binding her tightened. "Die, you filthy beast! Die!" Ferris yanked on the chain, and Taiga's vision went black.

Taiga's torso flopped to the ground, face down. Blood oozed from two stumps where arms were previously attached. The crowd screamed, stampeding towards the exits. Several students found themselves stuck in place, seemingly by fear. Their blood felt… frozen. Suddenly, there was a white light, and all of them vanished.

"Sis!" Kira shouted, jumping down into the pit.

"Kira, wait! Don't-" Wren tried to say, before jumping down after her.

"You idiots! Don't just rush in!" Niko said, leaping down after them.

As the students dropped into the arena, Ferris was accosted by security-bots, causing him to laugh lightly. He glanced over at them, unconcerned. There was a ringing noise, and as it increased in volume, the security droids bent and warped. Finally, they exploded, leaving Team XNTW minus Taiga alone with the dangerous psychopath that was Ferris Gray.

"You bastard! You're gonna pay for that!" Kira shouted, drawing her weapon.

Niko sighed. "I guess we're doing this." He swung his axe off of his back as Wren assumed his regular fighting stance.

Ferris disappeared.

"What the hell? Since when could he do that?"

He reappeared behind Kira, delivering a sharp kick to her back with his heavy boot, knocking her across the arena. Another strike sent a distracted Wren careening away, slamming into the wall of the colosseum. His consciousness slipped away.

Niko gripped his axe tighter, blood boiling. Ferris chuckled and slipped his chrome-plated mask on.

"Took you long enough!" He sneered at Niko.

"Shut up! What you said at the end. It finally connected the dots!" Niko snapped back. "Now, I wanna know one thing."

"Sure, sure. Aaa~anything you wanna know."

"Where. Is. Ari." Niko's face twitched.

"Except that."

"Son of a bitch!" Niko tossed his axe aside as he began glowing. Horns sprouted from his head as a dark crimson aura enveloped his body. "I'm gonna tear you apart." His voice sounded deeper, booming through the arena.

He leapt towards Ferris, ground splintering from where he pushed off. Ferris responded with a high kick, putting a stop to Niko's momentum but not doing any damage to the Beast. He skidded backwards, launching towards Ferris again. He ducked under Ferris' punch, delivering an uppercut to the psychopath's chin, and grabbed his neck with his left hand. His right hand vanished in a rapid flurry of strikes, letting go at the end and launching a series of punches with his left hand, and then joining in with both hands.

Ferris bounced as he hit the ground, now visibly damaged. He shrieked as he rushed towards Niko, repeatedly striking up and down with his chain, before turning on his heel and wrapping the chain around Niko's neck. He yanked it down, slamming his knee into Niko's face, then kicking him into the air. He pulled on his chains, bringing Niko back down into another heavy kick to the head. Before Niko could react, he was face down on the ground, Ferris' boot on the back of his head.

Niko blacked out as a heavy boot collided with his temples.

A/N: Thanks for reading! I hope you enjoyed this chapter.

I meant to put this in last week's A/N, but it slipped my mind as I was writing. One of the throwaway enemy characters, the shield-tossing Nigel, is a shoutout to Dragon Emperor0 and Thermalsnipern's fanfic Rise of the Iron Wolves: The Enthrallen King. It's great, I'd really recommend checking it out!

That's all this week. Leave a follow, favorite, and review! Cyber out.