The God of Remnant Chapter 12: A Vytal Celebration
" " – Dialogue
' ' – Thinking
Vale - Location
"Renewal Taekwondo" – Technique
I just wanted to preface this by saying this story has no pairings decided as of now, so don't worry about that.
"Is everybody ready!?" A voice reverberated throughout a circular arena.
The voice was matched and quite possible surpassed by the volume of the crowd's response as they yell out exuberantly at the question.
Today was the first day of the Vytal Festival and so far, it was going almost exactly as expected. With the almost most certainly being bold. The Weather was perfect. The coliseum, effectively a floating fortress that navigated to the Kingdom hosting the festival, was operating at maximum efficiency. The only issue lied with the participants of the festival themselves…
"As you all may have already seen. The festivities have been pushed ahead by a day due to unforeseen circumstances, and in light of those circumstances our pool of fighters has shrunk considerably. But worry not! For those who are left will be more than enough to make this festival one to remember!" The voice cheered as he received a loud call of acceptance from the crowd.
"I am your host, Bartholomew Oobleck, joined by my friend and colleague Peter Port; and we'll now announce the first fighters and stage in which they'll be fighting!" Oobleck yelled into the mic, casing the crowd to quiet in anticipation.
"The first round of fighters will be a group many of us may or may not be familiar with. On the red side, I'd like to introduce Ruby Rose and Weiss Schnee of Team RWBY!" Oobleck called out as the two girls' portraits appeared on a four-sided screen large enough for the entire arena to see. Their portraits were outlined in a thin red line, making their affiliation clear.
"On the blue side is another team that has made some very visible progress in the past semester, as well as contains one of Mistral's most well-known fighters. I'd like you to welcome the lovely Pyrrha Nikos and the gallant Jaune Arc of Team JNPR!" Port chimed in as Pyrrha and Jaune's portraits appeared on the screen as well, their pictures bordered in blue.
After waiting for the audience to calm down, Oobleck continued. "And their stage will be tall grass and mountain valley!" He concluded.
In time with his announcement, the octagonal arena began to change. The arena had a metallic dark grey opaque octagon at its center, surrounded by a much larger octagon composed of a much lighter gray metal. The larger exterior descended into the ground, leaving an open space around the dark center. A few moments passes before two large biomes began to rise in the place of the ground.
As Oobleck stated, the arena was split between two biomes. The line that split the biomes was placed such that each team would enter with equal access to either biome. The tall yellow grass waved in a strong wind that seemed to appear with the stage as the manufactured weather did its job. Conversely, the mountain valley stood rose high and with an intimidating stalwartness. The many small mountains being high enough to hide the combatants while still being scalable to add a new dimension to combat.
"With that, let's have our combatants enter the arena!" Port called out, as two sections of the wall rose to reveal the combatants.
The crowd once again erupted into cheers as the two teams entered the field. Ruby walked in a fast walk as one could easily spot her barely contained enthusiasm, while Weiss walked with a much more sedated pace. On the other side of the field, Pyrrha strode forwards with the confidence inherent of a champion, while her partner and team leader flanked her with the steadiness of a storm-battered tent.
Upon reaching the middle, both teams decided to voice their final thoughts. "Don't hold back on us, 'invincible girl'." Ruby requested with a smile as she looked up to her spartan-themed opponent.
"You won't have to worry about that." Pyrrha responded with her own smile "If anything, Jaune's the one you should be worried about." Pyrrha said with a look towards her terrified teammate.
Weiss' eyebrow rose at the vote of confidence. "We are looking at the same Jaune right now, right?" She asked incredulously, causing Pyrrha to giggle.
"Are the fighters ready?" They heard Oobleck ask over the intercom.
"Well, looks like that's all the time we'll have. Good luck." Pyrrha wished them as she drew her weapons, holding them at the ready. Team RW responded with their own well wishes as they got into their own positions, with Jaune following suit.
"Looks like everyone's ready, so without further ado… Begin!" Port yelled. His call seemed to trigger an effect on the main screens as the portraits gained health bars. These health bars were truthfully measuring each fighters aura, as dropping into red aura levels was the main form of disqualification.
As soon as the call to start came, Team JP flew into action. Pyrrha and Jaune immediately dashed in opposite directions, with Jaune heading towards the mountains and Pyrrha towards the grass. In contrast, Team RW had yet to move, just watching their opponent flee.
"Alright Ruby, here's what we're going to do-" Weiss began, turning to her partner and only finding a floating bunch of rose petals leading straight into the grasslands. Taking a second to sigh in disappointment, Weiss began to run towards the mountains, intent on at least knocking one of their opponents out quickly.
-GoR-
After making a good bit of distance between herself and the center of the arena, Pyrrha slowed down and began to admire the realness of the field she was in.
'This grass feels so real… And the wind even has a grassy smell to it.' She thought to herself as she felt the waving blades. Pyrrha's thoughts were brought to a halt, however, as she heard the grass shuffling.
Pyrrha didn't have to wait long for the disturbance to find its way to her, however, as she spotted a dark figure parting the grass at lightning speed. Thinking fast, Pyrrha jumped so that she was parallel to the ground. This turned out to be the right call, as not a second later; the grass she was standing in was halved in height. This was caused completely by Ruby's massive scythe barely missing a chance to take out a large portion of her aura immediately.
Landing in a crouched position, Pyrrha quickly locked onto the now stationary body of Ruby, who had since skidded to a halt, and began to charge her. During Pyrrha's charge, Ruby brought her scythe over her head and stabbed it into the ground in Pyrrha's direction. Pyrrha didn't have to ponder the purpose of this for long, as powerful shots began to ring out.
Pyrrha was only spared massive damage from the high caliber sniper shots by her trained reaction time and her handy shield. These still didn't fully protect her however, as the shots dented her shield and caused painful shockwaves to travel up her aura-reinforced arm.
Five painful shots later, and Pyrrha's aura was now in the yellow. Fortunately for the red-haired girl, that was Ruby's entire clip. As soon as the sound of Ruby ejecting her clip reached her ears, Pyrrha began her charge anew with refreshed vigor.
Deciding not to just stand there, Ruby pulled her clipless scythe from the ground and began to run towards Pyrrha as well. Meeting a little sooner than they would've, both warriors made their move. Ruby made the first move, swinging her scythe horizontally for the decisive blow. She failed to notice one thing in her haste to match Pyrrha's charge, however.
Pyrrha had her weapon in its spear form. She had changed it while Ruby was expelling her empty mag.
When Ruby began her swing, Pyrrha put her plan into action. Having held her spear over her right shoulder, Pyrrha stabbed it into the ground to her left. This positioning, allowed Pyrrha's planted spear to catch the blade of Ruby's scythe before it could make contact. With that taken care of, Pyrrha used the momentum of her charge to leap off of the ground and swing, using her spear like a pole.
The effect was immediate as Pyrrha's metal shoes impacted with Ruby's head while her scythe was still caught. The force of the kick sent Ruby flying as she lost grip on her trapped scythe.
The grass parted as Ruby rolled through it from the force of the blow. Ruby didn't immediately roll to her feet as the blow to the head left her clumsily tumbling. When she regained her bearings, she was met with the end of Pyrrha's golden spear, however, as she girl had taken the time to close the distance between them.
"Yield." Pyrrha commanded, her tone leaving no excuse for refusal.
"I… give up." Ruby let out as she recognized her position. Her uselessness without her weapon and Pyrrha's high speed tracking nullifying her semblance leaving her with no avenue of escape.
"Ruby Rose has been eliminated!" Oobleck called over the speaker system.
-With Weiss-
Weiss was annoyed.
First, her partner up and left her as soon as the match had started. That was strike one.
Second, her opponent had immediately fled into the mountainous part of the field. This caused her to lose line of sight and forced her to attempt a chase. This was strike two.
She was currently working on strike three as she navigated the rough terrain, the uneven, rocky ground doing her heels no favors. This was the moment that she had finally caught sight of her opponent. She saw but a glimpse of blonde hair and the white of his armor before it fled around a rock structure, but it was enough.
Picking up the pace, Weiss rounded the structure with the intent to strike her opponent down in one fell swoop. She was caught off-guard, however, when she felt a tension against her foot that sent her stumbling. She was caught even more off-guard by the jeans-covered knee that broke her fall and would've broken her nose if not for aura.
The momentum from the blow stopped Weiss' fall for a second, which she used to scurry around her opponent. Taking the few seconds of reprieve that her escape provided, Weiss rubbed her nose and eyed her opponent.
The Jaune Arc that stood before her was nothing like the one she had seen at the start of the match. Where the Jaune at the start was shaking, this one was sturdy. The slight uncertainty that plagued his face let her know that he was definitely the same person, but he was definitely more prepared than she was led to believe.
Form her new position, Weiss was also able to see what caused her to trip upon rounding the rock. A thin line shone in the artificial light provided by the arena, revealing a small wire that held strong even after tripping her up. Jaune was obviously prepared for her. She would have to be more careful in her approach.
"I'm impressed, Jaune." Weiss began. "Luring me into a trap and using that to get in a shot to my head. Did you always plan this well?" Weiss began.
Jaune tightened his guard and began taking measured steps forward as he responded. "Nah, that's new. Any chance you're intimidated enough to give up after seeing it?" He tried with a nervous chuckle.
"Not a chance." Weiss responded as she closed the distance between them.
Lashing out with her rapier, Weiss aimed a stab at Jaune's left leg. In response, Jaune spun on his right foot, dodging the stab, and swinging his sword in an arc as a counterattack. What he didn't account for was the speed in which Weiss recovered from her stab. With trained grace, Weiss responded to Jaune's dodge, lashing out another stab to meet Jaune's exposed midsection.
"Gah!" Jaune exclaimed at the unexpected pain as he was forced to stumble back.
Weiss didn't let up, though. Using Jaune's state of imbalance, Weiss lashed out into a series of stabs that struck each of Jaune's extremities. She finished her combo with an especially strong stab to his chest that sent the young man off his feet and flying a couple feet back.
"Ready to surrender?" Weiss said as she exhaled from the effort.
"Not a chance." Jaune said as he stood up, seemingly undamaged.
'No damage?' Weiss thought to herself as she prepared to re-engage the knight.
"Ruby Rose has been eliminated!" They both heard over the intercom, causing Weiss to pause.
Taking a chance and glancing towards the scoreboard, Weiss was shocked at what she saw. She saw that while Pyrrha's aura was in the yellow and her own was lowered by a small chunk, Jaune's had sustained virtually the same damage as hers, despite him taking several more attacks than her. Weighing her options against a boy that she could hardly damage and the so-called 'invincible girl', Weiss' choice was obvious.
"I surrender." Weiss said, causing her portrait to black out on the scoreboard and a horn to blare out over the arena.
"Weiss Schnee has been eliminated! With that, the match is over!" Oobleck announced.
"With a double surrender, Team JP wins!" Port finished for his friend, causing the crowd to cheer loudly at the turnout of the match.
-GoR-
"Aw, Man! I'm glad Jaune and Pyrrha won, but I was really looking forward to seeing my baby sister win her first match…" Yang said, having mixed feelings at the match results.
"Yeah, but that was really well played." Blake chimed in. "I really didn't expect Jaune to play Weiss like that." She said, recalling Jaune's use of Weiss' underestimation.
"Ruby did well, though. Doing that much damage to Pyrrha's aura and trying to play the ranged battle were good choices. If she didn't split up from Weiss at the start then they might have won." Seraphina analyzed, adding to Blake's assessment.
"I was surprised, though. I didn't think Jaune had it in him. Not to mention that crazy aura he has, he's like a natural tank!" Yang marveled as she looked at Jaune's barely changed aura bar.
Throughout all of this, the oddly silent one was Mori. He sat there with his hand firmly planted on his chin, seemingly deep in thought.
In Mori's mind, he was replaying the battle in his mind. He envisioned scenarios where Ruby and Weiss both pursued Jaune and scenarios where they both pursued Pyrrha. He envisioned what he would have done in each situation and how he might handle it. Thinking of each outcome brought a smile to his face as he never would have been able to experience this if he stayed in Vacuo.
He was soon brought out of his train of thought by the announcement of the next match.
-GoR-
"I hope you all are ready because we're going straight into our second match of the day!" Oobleck announced, getting a chorus of cheers from the crowd. "Now we have the other half of Beacon's Team JNPR, Nora Valkyrie and Lie Ren!" He called out, as their portraits appeared on-screen.
"And to face them, we have a team that came all the way out from Atlas. Making up half of Team JABR (Jabberwocky), we have Blyke and Remi!" Port announced as their portraits came on-screen. "And they will be fighting on a stage composed of the forest and desert biomes! Two very different stages that may provide as many advantages as they take away." He added.
His words were followed by the descent of the previous battlefield and its replacement with the fields he stated. The desert Field rose with a stillness that caused the numerous dunes to almost appear picturesque. The artificial sun giving the sand a speckled luster. In contrast to that, the forest rose with an ominous darkness surrounding it. The trees provided ample cover from the sunlight, giving the shaded regions a dangerous vibe.
"With that, let's once again have our combatants enter the arena!" Port said as the same panels rose up to allow the new combatants to enter.
The entrances of the two teams was apparent from the get-go. Nora entered in a similar manner to Ruby, but much more eccentric as she practically skipped towards the center. Meanwhile, Ren gracefully walked in a sedated manner that portrayed his calm demeanor.
On the other side of the field, Remi and Blyke were walking side-by-side. Nothing was said between the two as they each tread forward confidently.
Blyke was a young man with a similar haircut to John. The only real difference being the color, as Blyke sported a loud red that contrasted John's plain black. The look on his face was very different as well, as he sported a sportsman-like smirk with yellow eyes that seemingly invited competition.
He was dressed in a similar way to a soccer player, sporting a black skintight suit beneath a dark red breathable short-sleeved shirt and pants with a white insignia on them. The suit ended before his hands and feet, bringing attention to the specialized gloves and shoes the boy had on.
Remi was dressed similarly, sporting a pair of black spandex pants that had dark pink highlights going down the sides. On her upper half, she had on a tight pink shirt below a short black jacket that had sleeves ending in gauntlets over her wrists. The gauntlets were similar in size to Ember Celica's expanded form with light pink coloring instead of Yang's gold. She completed her outfit by having her long pink tresses pulled into a neat bun that pulled them out of her way.
As Ren was the last one to reach the center, the fighters each took a second to size each other up. Before any words could be exchanged Oobleck broke up their silent staring contest.
"Begin!" He called out suddenly, spurring them into action.
As soon as the call came, Ren readied his weapons. He would find himself not to be a second too late, as a lightning-covered Remi flew at him. He crossed his arms to intercept her punch, only to find himself begin pushed back from the force.
Nora turned to help her friend but found herself on the receiving end of a kick that hit her right in the eyes. Pulling back before she could take another hit, Nora took note of the boy before her.
"Ha! Lucky shot!" She said as she brandished her hammer, Magnhild. "Now let's see if that luck hold out for you!" She called as she engaged the redhead.
-With Ren-
Dodging was the name of the game for Ren right now, as Remi's blows rained down fast and presumably hard if that first punch was any indication.
The first blow she had gotten off was strong enough to push him back into the edge of the forest biome. He hadn't had a chance to escape, however as the lightning-powered girl kept enough pressure on him that escape seemed unlikely. The aura of electricity that surrounded her left his arms with little to no feeling as well, causing an uncomfortable pins and needles feeling.
Feeling his back against a tree and seeing a straight coming at him at speeds he could barely perceive, Ren dodged, barely feeling the static graze his cheek as her fist flew by. The effect was nothing compared to the pins and needles that rapidly left his arm ,however, so he was able to ignore it.
This proved to be a lucky break for him, as the missed punch had caused Remi's arm to be stuck in the tree. Seeing this as the chance he needed, Ren turned tail and fled into the darkness of the forest.
"Hey! Come back here!" Remi called out as she used her other hand to pull her arm out of the tree. Taking a second to monitor her aura levels, Remi shut off her semblance as she gave chase to the elusive boy.
Wandering into the dark forest felt eerily similar to wandering into the den of a wild animal, as nature enclosed her completely. The trees and bushes closed off almost all lines of sight and left Remi feeling exposed from every angle.
Reactivating her semblance to retain some sort of safety, Remi was just in time to catch a silhouette dashing to her left.
"Gotcha!" She yelled as she sent a small bolt of lightning to hit where she saw the silhouette land, only to start a small fire on a conspicuous branch.
Remi didn't have the time to think about the mistake however as she felt herself get cut along her back, causing her to jerk forward in surprise. She turned around to find the source, only to find nothing. Her actions were in vain however as she took another slash to her lower back. Remi held in the gasp that threatened to surface as she recoiled once again from the unexpected pain.
Her eyes not doing her much good, Remi closed her eyes with one thought.
'How am I going to counter this?'
-With Blyke and Nora-
"Dance! Dance! Dance!" Nora called out as she fired grenade after grenade.
The sand dunes shot up with each pink-smoked explosion to the calls of the semi-psychotic woman. The only pattern to the explosions being the red streak that preceded them.
The red streak in question was Blyke. He was currently using his semblance in conjunction with his weapons to give him the propulsion needed to evade the seemingly erratic but accurate blasts. Blyke's semblance is known as Energy Discharge, it allows him to transform his aura into harmful energy that he can release from his hands and feet. The drawback to this was that he could only release it in small bursts, but that's where his weapons come in. His weapons, his gloves, and shoes, allow him to focus the energy and stream it for more devastating attacks and uses.
'this is starting to get really annoying…' Blyke thought as he narrowly dodged another explosion. 'Maybe if I can manage to get in close…' He thought as he feigned a turn.
Deciding to take the fight to the hammer-wielder, Blyke used his shoes to thrust him towards Nora. Flipping in mid-air to lash out with a straight kick, he was overjoyed when the bottom of his foot contacted the girl's chest. Color him surprised when pain shot up his leg. It felt like he just kicked a titanium tank!
"Nice shot, Now let me show you one of mine!" Nora yelled as she grabbed Blyke by the calf and slammed him into the ground, causing the and to obscure both of their figures.
-With Remi-
Remi stood planted in the same place; eyes closed. She had sustained several cuts along various parts of her body, causing little streams of blood to ooze out. This was not all for naught, however.
Each time that Ren jumped at her, she made a note of the position from which he had leapt and the speed at which he had done so. The positions had slight variances, but the speed was consistent. She could counter him.
Another thing about Ren's fighting style gave her a hint. He hadn't gone for a finishing blow despite have her in his element. This could mean one of two things. Worst case scenario is that he uses some sort of poison and is just increasing the dosages to knock her out. Best case scenario is that he doesn't use poison and that his weapon is mostly unsuited to the kind of combat that would allow him to finish her.
With these thoughts in mind, Remi waited. She waited and waited until finally, a small shift in the trees to her northeast told her where he jumped from. Acting quickly, Remi activated her semblance while she did a backstep. This surprised Ren enough that he had to brace himself for a landing instead of an attack. As soon as Ren's hands extended to the floor, Remi moved.
Having not left the ground during her backstep, Remi sent a palm thrust towards Ren's exposed back. The thrust landed and knocked the air out of the boy as her weapon activated with a click, sending a small round projectile to stick onto Ren's back. The boy would not be able to perceive this, however, as he was too busy recovering from his wind being knocked out.
When he did recover, however, he quickly rolled back and leapt into the darkness once again. This action just caused Remi to smirk however as she began to charge up her aura into her right hand.
"That's not going to work anymore, you know?" She called out, receiving no response as expected. "I really wanted to save this for my fight with Seraphina, but you leave me no choice…" She said as she pointed her hand into the sky and made a particular hand sign. Her pinky and ring finger were folded in and her pointer finger was straight with her middle perpendicular to the pointer and thumb pointed upwards.*
Without any further words, she sent a large blue bolt of lightning straight into the air. The bolt was the size of her and took a 30% chunk out of her sura pool, sending her thoroughly into the yellow zone. The lightning traveled into the air for roughly ten feet before suddenly shooting into a random part of the forest. Its target was revealed shortly after as a loud gasp filled the air. This was soon followed by a smoking figure dropping out of the tree accompanied by the announcers chiming in.
"Lie Ren is out by knockout!" Oobleck's voice announced.
Remi took a few moments to breathe as she recovered from the maneuver she just pulled. "I… should make my way to Blyke…" She said between breaths as she made her way towards the desert biome, being sure to regain her stamina.
-In the Stands-
"Hello everyone!" Pyrrha greeted cheerfully as she found herself a seat next to Blake, with Jaune taking the seat next to her and giving a greeting of his own.
"Hey guys, congrats on winning your first match." Blake greeted in return.
"you're too kind…" Pyrrha softly rebutted, a small smile on her face.
"No, really. That match was awesome!" Yang insisted. "We were all really surprised that you guys went with the divide and conquer strategy, and that Jaune was able to survive. No offense." She tacked on after realizing what she just implied.
"Nah, none taken. I was ,like, really bad before recently. I just have a good teacher now." He said with a slight look towards Pyrrha.
"By the way, have you guys seen Ruby and Weiss? I'm surprised they didn't make it here before you guys." Blake asked.
"I think I saw Ruby being dragged away by her uncle and Weiss said something about needing to find her sister, so they'll probably be gone for a bit." Pyrrha recalled. "Anyways, what have we missed so far?" She asked, referring to the match unfolding before them.
"Well, to summarize it, Nora and Blyke have been in a standstill since the start. Nora's been making Blyke run but only recently got her first hit in." Seraphina said, referring to Nora's throw. "At the same time, Remi and Ren were fighting in the forest. Ren seemed to have the advantage, but Remi did something to make her semblance lock onto him and knocked him out in one strong hit." She finished, catching them up to the present.
"Nora's going to be fighting them 2-on-1 if she doesn't take out Blyke soon… Do you think she can do it?" Yang questioned the other members of Team JNPR.
"I wouldn't worry about her." Jaune reassured with unusual confidence. "Nora may act like she has nothing going on up there, but she can be scarily smart when she needs to be." Suppressing shudders from memories that the others would be better off not knowing about. "But, we'll just have to see how the match turns out." He said, bringing everyone's attention back to the fight.
-With Nora-
After slamming Blyke down into the sand, a smokescreen covered the area in which she stood. Letting her guard down slightly, she was almost caught off-guard by the two flashes of red that shone through the smoke. She was not fast enough, however, to avoid them.
The two red flashes turned into two red beams that nailed Nora right in the chest. The resulting force from the blasts sent her rolling back, thankfully with her weapon, and took a chunk of her aura as payment.
Quickly finding her way to her feet, she was unsurprised to see that her opponent was also knocked back by his own blasts, as wide trail outlining where his body slid. At the end of the trail, she caught sight of her opponent standing. Seemingly tired if his deeper breaths were any indication, but definitely still standing. Now all she had to do was finish him off fast so she could go help Ren…
"Lie Ren is out by knockout!" Oobleck's voice announced, cutting off her train of thought.
Her slight hesitation must have been obvious, as when she finally moved she found her opponent to have already began running. His destination? The forest section of the arena, but more importantly, his backup.
With this in mind, Nora hurriedly gave chase to the fleeing boy. Her hopes were soon dashed as she saw a flash of pink hair further in the tree line, however. A plan forming in her mind, Nora slowed down a little. This allowed Blyke's distance from her to grow but this didn't matter for what she had planned. After calculating the distance for a few seconds, Nora sent a grenade flying and then began sprinting with all of her might.
-GoR-
Once Blyke saw the pink of Remi's hair, he knew he was home free. Once they met up, the explosive hammer-wielding psycho wouldn't stand a chance.
"Remi-!" His shout was interrupted by a grenade entering his field of view from above. Normally, this wouldn't be a problem, but a certain thing about the grenade caught his eye.
This grenade was shining with a red light that signaled danger in his mind. Trusting his instincts, Blyke halted his run and jumped back. This proved to be the right choice as an explosion that was much fierier than the others obscured his view of the forest.
He realized his mistake too late as he felt a presence behind him before everything went black.
-GoR-
Remi was relieved to have caught sight of her teammate. The battle with Ren went on a little longer than intended, but it left her with enough energy to assist Blyke. That was the plan, anyways.
Everything had been going roughly according to plan until the fiery explosion acted as a barrier to cut them off. Not halting her run, Remi was surprised to see a figure fly out of the flames. The figure cleared the blast area and was rolling in the grass from the momentum of whatever hit it. She was almost stunned by the sight of the red hair adorning the figure, letting her know that is was, in fact, her teammate that lay knocked out before her.
"Blyke is out by knockout!" Oobleck's voice announced shortly after her own realization.
Her hair shadowed her eyes as her final opponent approached her. The hammer-wielder looked no worse for wear except for a smoking hole that exposed her midsection. A slight black mark showing that Blyke's last attack managed to cause at least a little damage through her aura.
"Sorry, but I can't allow you to win this." Remi said as she activated her semblance, coating her form in electricity.
"It's funny because I was just going to say the same thing to you." Nora said with a smile on her face, further setting off her opponent.
Nora barely had enough time switch her weapon to its hammer form before Remi was upon her. A metallic clang filled the area as Remi's gauntlet impacted Nora's handle. Their faces were close enough that each girl could clearly look into the other's eyes and see each other 's desire for victory.
Nora was forced to break the eye contact when she felt a powerful blow land on her stomach. The blow was strong enough that it made her hunch over. After landing the attack, she heard a clicking noise before her opponent jumped away.
"It's over!" Remi yelled as she charged up her aura once again. She placed her hand in the same position it was in when she fought Ren and fired. This bolt was just as large as the one fired at Ren and took a similar chunk out of her aura, leaving her with just enough to continue the match.
When the bolt struck with a loud crack, Remi was sure she had won. Seeing her opponent's convulsing body made her feel slightly bad, but a fight was a fight. The odd part came when her opponent didn't fall over. Instead, bright blue lines began to form across Nora's body. These lines shone and crackled with the electricity the was just fired at her as she let out a mighty yell at the surge of energy. Chancing a glance at the scoreboard, Remi's eyes nearly fell out of her skull at what she saw.
Nora's aura was over the maximum capacity.
The cause of this, which Remi didn't know at the time, was Nora's semblance. Nora's semblance, High Voltage, allowed her to channel electricity (produced internally or absorbed externally) to her muscles. She was also able to turn the excess energy into aura until ready for use. The drawback of such an amazing ability is that she still feels the pain of the electrical current and suffers from recoil damage afterwards.
All Remi knew at the time, though, was that she had barely enough aura to continue and her opponent was more energized than when they began, so she did what any sane person would do.
"I surrender." She said with no hesitation, not even waiting for the empowered Nora to take a step towards her.
"Remi is out by surrender! With that, Team NR wins with one knockout and one surrender!" Oobleck announced, leading to the crowd cheering at a fight well fought.
Hearing that the fight was over, Nora slowly let the electricity leave her system. Using the ground as, well, a ground; she allowed the electricity to flow into the artificial earth and dissipate. The ordeal left her drained, as she fell to her knees afterwards and struggled to catch her breath.
"Are you alright to walk?" She was asked by one of the several medics that made their way onto the field.
Blyke and Ren were already being carried off on a pair of stretchers and Remi was slowly walking herself off the field as well. They both made eye contact for a second before smiling with each other before she got too far. No hard feelings remained; it seems.
"I'm A-okay!" Nora said as she found her way to her feet and slowly began walking in the direction she saw Ren carried off.
-GoR-
Seeing that the field was now clear of the previous combatants, Port announced the next set of fighters. "Next up, we have a matchup of Beacon versus Beacon! This time we have the two students from Beacon's first ever two-man team, Mori Jin and Seraphina of Team JS!" He announced, letting the crowd do their routine cheering before he continued. "And then we have the other half of Team RWBY, who fought in the first match. I'd like you all to welcome Blake Belladonna and Yang Xiao-Long!" He announced.
Once the cheering calmed down, Oobleck picked up where his fellow announcer left off. "The field they will be fighting on will be the rocky wasteland biome and the savannah! Not much cover to be had in either of those areas." Oobleck observed as the arena changed.
As Oobleck spoke, the old arena descended into the ground, only to be replaced by the new one's he mentioned. The desert was soon replaced by a sun-bathed savannah. The low, sparse grass was separated by swathes of dry dirt. A lone acacia tree stood, its leaves and the grass lightly flowing in the artificial wind. On the other half, what could only be described as a plateau emerged. The rocky landscape softly rose slightly above the ground level and had minor rock formations dotted about. Outside of the random rising rock formations, the arena was essentially a large, completely flat slab of rock.
When the arena finished changing, the doors rose for the fighters to enter. Mori was the first to exit the threshold, waking slightly faster than Seraphina with a gait that showed his excitement. He was dressed in his usual white T-shirt and jeans with red, yellow laced shoes. Seraphina was the next to exit and, in contrast to her partner, was walking at a sedated pace with a neutral expression. She was dressed in a pink sweater with black jeans, forgoing all accessories and her extensions for the fight ahead.
On the other side of the arena, Blake and Yang entered more in sync than their opponents. Yang, surprisingly, appeared to be the calmer of the two.
"Hey, Blake?" Yang began, getting her partner's attention.
"What's up?" Blake responded, neutral tone hiding her slight apprehension.
"When the match begins, let me take Mori-and It's not for the reason you think." Yang quickly appended upon seeing the look Blake gave her. "Even if I lose, I just… need to confirm something to myself." She said, getting a thoughtful look to appear on Blake's face.
Blake's thoughtful look almost immediately morphed into a small smile as she nodded at her friend. "In that case, knock yourself out. I'll try and drag out my fight with Seraphina to buy you the time you need." She said as they reached the center of the arena.
"Thanks, Blake." She said, getting a wave-off in response as Port began the pre-match proceedings.
"If both sides are ready, then begin the fight!" He beckoned, beginning the match.
Blake made the first move of the match, breaking out in a sprint towards Seraphina. Before she could make contact, Mori leapt at her, lunging out with a powerful kick. Thinking fast, Blake used her semblance and some earth dust to create a rock clone that she used to leap over Mori's attack. The resulting destruction of the statue telling her that taking that kick would have been less than optimal.
Finding herself in the air above Seraphina, Blake found herself having to brandish Gambol Shroud to quickly deflect some bullets. Seraphina had used Mori's attack to aim at the airborne Blake, but to no avail as Gambol Shroud's sheath proved an effective shield.
Finally descending onto Seraphina, Blake led with a downward slash that was dodged. Now being close to the ground, she swiftly lashed out with a sweeping kick that was also dodged. Blake continued to press her fellow cat faunus further back.
'Gotta ger her as far away from Yang as possible.' Blake thought as she continued to attack.
While Blake's thoughts were on facilitating her teammate's battle, Seraphina thought of Blake's potential strategy. 'Was Blake always this aggressive…? Is she trying to force us into one on ones for a better chance to win?' She thought to herself as she continued to dodge, the morning spars with Mori helping her immensely.
Finally deciding to stop being passive, Seraphina dodged to the left of one of Blake's left-handed stabs and moved in close. Using the reduced distance to grab Blake's outstretched arm, she landed an elbow strike against the black-haired girl's midsection. This resulted in Blake taking a sharp intake of air and slightly faltering.
Seraphina was going to press her advantage and strike again when she heard a gunshot and felt an explosion of pain in her midsection. Eyes widening at the pain, Seraphina leapt back while holding her probably bruised midsection as she noticed the culprit of her pain.
Blake held the pistol part of Gambol Shroud under her outstretched arm.
'This is going to be about as hard as I expected.' Seraphina grimaced to herself as her aura worked on the bruise that bullet was going to cause.
-With Mori and Yang-
The instant Mori's kick missed; the fight was on.
When the pieces of rock that used to be Blake's semblance cleared, Yang was upon him. Her arm was already cocked back and her was in mid-air, so he crossed his arms to take the blast he knew was coming.
And what a blast it was.
The shot from Yang's right-hand gauntlet hit Mori with much more force than he expected. Far more than it did when he fought her previously. The previous power was enough to knock him on his butt if he wasn't careful. This was more than double that, and this time he was in the air. This combination of factors sent Mori flying more than a few feet back and caused him to have to roll onto his feet to disperse the force.
Thankfully, the distance she'd launched him seemed to be more than she had expected as well, as she was still at her original position. Using the time she'd given him; Mori quickly checked his aura levels.
'15% down from one shot?! And I wasn't even point blank!' Mori thought as he saw his already lowered aura. The realization also caused him to notice something about Yang's aura as well, though. 'wait, is her aura also…?'
His thoughts were cut off by the sound of running, however, as Yang rapidly approached him. Responding in kind, Mori began to charge towards her as well.
When they met, Mori was the first to act. "Re:Taekwondo: Frontal Hwechook!" He said as he spun, sending a high spinning kick towards Yang's head.
The kick connected, but Yang did not falter. Standing her ground, Yang grabbed Mori's leg and locked it in position next to her head. Having Mori locked in place; she then aimed a punch at Mori's grounded leg, firing a shot at it.
This caused Mori to fall as he moved his leg to avoid the damage. Not one to go down without a fight, Mori used his falling momentum to aim a kick at the other side of Yang's head. The kick seemed to have little effect. However, as Yang was simply forced to move her head from the hit.
Using Mori's inferior positioning, Yang fired several more shots out of her left gauntlet at the downed faunus. The continuous shots of her shotgun causing a smoke cloud to obscure Mori's form. As she punched to take another shot, the clicking of her gauntlet told her it was time for the inevitable.
'Damn, gotta reload.' She thought as she jumped back from the downed faunus. As she reached for her ammo pouch, she noticed something odd, however.
"Huh? Where's my ammo?" She asked aloud as she felt around where it should be.
"Looking for this?" Said Mori's voice from the dissipating cloud. Once the cloud disappeared, it revealed Mori's relatively undamaged figure. The only damage he'd sustained were several abrasions and bruises along his previously blocking forearms.
Most interesting to Yang, though, was the ammo pouch that Mori held with his tail. And just as soon as he called attention to it, Mori sent it flying with a powerful throw.
'Well there goes my range advantage and all of my dust…' Yang thought to herself with a mental sigh.
"Now, let's do this!" Mori yelled as he moved to begin their fight once again with a grin on his face for more than one reason.
-With Seraphina and Blake-
Seraphina and Blake were currently engaged in a battle of blades. One in which Blake had a slight reach advantage.
Seraphina had her weapon in it's dagger form and was skillfully deflecting each of Blake's stabs and blocking her slashes. The same could be said for Blake, though, she had sustained some damage from Seraphina's unexpectedly increased hand-to-hand prowess.
'Damn it, if we keep going like this, I'm eventually going to lose.' Blake thought to herself as she took another scratch from Seraphina's dagger. 'If only I could get some distance between us…' She thought as she engaged Seraphina in a blade struggle.
Steadily being pushed back by Blake's superior blade, Seraphina was surprised by the Blake in front of her suddenly shining orange. The ensuing explosion was enough to coat the area in a thick black smoke, singing most of the grass near the blast zone.
'…That should buy me at least a little time…' Blake thought while slightly panting. The amount of aura she used to charge that clone being enough to take a slight toll on her.
Blake's slight state of exhaustion left her completely unprepared for the fist that came crashing against her face a second later. The strength behind the punch was such that it sent Blake crashing to the ground. Before she could turn to face her opponent, she felt a sharp pain and an extreme cold envelop her extremities. Her hands and feet were shot with ice dust infused bullets, leaving them frozen against the ground. This left her bound to the ground with only her semblance as a valid method of escape.
"Don't even try it." Seraphina said as she pressed her revolver to the back of Blake's head. "Surrender." She commanded in a tone with no room for argument.
"…I surrender…" Blake said, causing Seraphina to pull her gun away.
"Blake Belladonna is out by surrender!" Oobleck announced, making it official.
"Here, I'll help you out of that." Seraphina said, pulling out a vial of fire dust from a hidden pocket on her sweater. She sprinkled a little onto the ice on Blake's limbs and activated it with some aura, watching as the activated dust melted her restraints.
"…Not to be ungrateful, but don't you have a teammate to go help?" Blake asked as she felt the ice weaken.
"Oh, trust me. He wouldn't want my help, even if he needed it." Seraphina remarked offhandedly, as if it was the most obvious thing in the world.
"I see… If you've got time, then do you mind telling me how you got out of that explosion? I thought I made it large enough that, even with time stopped, you'd run out of aura before you could escape." Blake asked, finally feeling her limbs completely free of the ice. This allowed her the freedom to turn around and face Seraphina. "…Oh."
"Yeah…" Seraphina responded understandably.
What Blake was reacting to was Seraphina's current state of dress. Seraphina was completely missing the right sleeve of her pink sweater, and the exposed arm was covered in light burns. The same could be said for her right leg, as the legging was almost completely missing, and the skin was covered in soot. Thankfully, her clothing still maintained her modesty, but it was quite the sight.
"Basically, I partially used my semblance. I slowed down time enough that it wouldn't completely drain me, but I had to take some damage in order to have enough aura to continue the fight." Seraphina explained.
As Blake nodded in understanding, both her and Seraphina moved their eyes to look at the screen tracking Yang and Mori.
-With Yang and Mori-
Yang waited for Mori to make his way to her. Upon his arrival, she took a step forward and sent a powerful right hook at him. The punch was dodge by a quick spin from Mori, placing him behind her. As Mori came to a stop, he thought the name of his next technique.
'Re: Taekwondo: Arang!' He thought as he struck Yang square in the back with his elbow.
'She took a step forward!' Mori realized as his attack didn't fully land.
He was almost caught off guard when Yang used the step to turn and fire her right gauntlet at him. The blast barely grazed him however as her accuracy was shaken by the spinning motion. Mori moved in to continue the fight when…
"Yang Xiao-Long is out from low aura levels! Team JS wins!" Oobleck announced to the shock of everyone on the field and most in the stands.
-In the stands-
"By low aura levels? How did that happen? Mori didn't even hit her at the end!" Jaune asked as he checked the screen to see that Yang's aura was below the 15% threshold.
"It was her right gauntlet. She asked me to make it stronger, but she couldn't handle the recoil, so I told her to let me fix it, but she refused and…" A recently arrived Ruby explained as she trailed off into the specs of Yang's gauntlet.
"So, the recoil was such that it did slight damage to her, and by extension, her aura with every shot? That would explain why she only used the left in quick succession…" Pyrrha observed as she thought back to the way Yang used her gauntlets.
"Wait… is she smiling?" Jaune asked as he looked at the screen. And he was right, Yang, despite her loss, was standing there with a smile that could light up a room.
-In the arena-
Unsurprised by the outcome of the match, Mori stood in front of Yang. He expected a lot of things from her. Frustration, anger, and disappointment being some of them. What he didn't expect was for her to start laughing, though.
"Yang?" Mori asked with confusion at her reaction to her defeat.
"This isn't over you know." Yang said as she calmed down a little. "Last time, I barely put a scratch on you." She said, referencing their fight earlier in the year. "This time, I at least got you down much lower." She said, bringing attention to Mori's aura level of 41% as she began to walk towards her exit. "So, go on and win this thing. I couldn't care less because next time, I'm gonna win." Yang said as she turned to face him with a smile.
Still a little shocked at her reaction, Mori shook his head and responded with a wide smile of his own. "Sure! After I win this thing, come at me anytime!" He yelled at her retreating figure.
-GoR-
In a room high above the stands, a select group of people stood. This group was Ozpin, James Ironwood and Glynda Goodwitch, and they stood watching the proceedings of the Vytal festival from the best seats in the house. The topic of their conversation was far grimmer than what was going on below, however.
"It would seem that distracting the civilians with the festival is working wonderfully." Ozpin commented at the crowd's loud cheers at the victory of Team JS. "Well enough that they seem not to notice the increased security too much." He noted.
"Well, I would hope they feel at least a little safer with Atlas' finest watching their back." Ironwood replied. "Although, there is still the matter of all those students that came up sick before the festival…" He trailed.
"More than half of the participants becoming sick in the same ways, some more severe than others… Could this have been some sort of coordinated attack…?" Glynda questioned to herself more than anyone.
"It's no matter." Ozpin dispelled the questioning atmosphere in the room. "The enemy has made their move and we can do little but wait for them to make a more obvious one. We have bolstered our defenses as much as we can, so all we can do now is wait." He reasoned, bringing the calm, if slightly apprehensive, air back.
"Besides," He said, pulling up a screen that showed the upcoming matches ", we have quite a show awaiting us during this festival, so we ought to enjoy it." He said with a mysterious smile as Team JS move up the bracket.
Chapter 12 End
Remi's technique*Left Hand Rule of Electromagnetism if anyone is curious
AN: This is gonna be a short one because I don't have much to say this time, so here we go.
1) Sorry for being kinda late. It took a while for me to think of the brackets and match-ups and how each opponent would fight in each terrain. Still, I'm sorry for taking almost a month to get it out.
2) No pairings have been decided and I honestly don't think I'll even consider them until the second half of the story at least.
3) Mori will get his power back, but it won't be instantaneous. That would basically end the story and turn it from The God of Remnant into Mori's Enemies Run to the Edge of Remnant. I have a plan to make him get his power back without breaking the power scaling and making the fights one-sided and stale.
4) Sorry for no Ilpyo fight this chapter. I really wanted to write it, but the chapter was already super long, so I decided to save it for the next one. I have a lot of ideas for his fight, so hopefully I do him justice. If you want a hint, it will greatly resemble early GoH Ilpyo's style of fighting.
Finally, Thanks for reading and reviewing and following and favoriting. You guys are honestly the best and I think I would've quit a long time ago, if not for the massive support. With that, look forward to the next chapter in under 2 weeks for sure and I'll see you all in the next one.
-Mango G.
