Penny was the standout fighter on Team COPR. That was clear as day. Her precise control with the floating swords she appeared to have tethered to the backpack she wore was incredible, and paired with what appeared to be a semblance that boosted her strength, she practically tore through Team SALT without much trouble, single-handedly.
Her team helped out where she needed, if she needed, but it appeared that it was a rare occurrence.
Ruby and Naruto watched in amazement as Penny looped a sword and its cable around the leg of one of SALT, and effectively threw him out of the arena, ending the match with another blade denting the Aura of the team's leader, driving it beneath the fifteen percent regulation amount.
"Huh," Naruto remarked, once the match had ended. "Penny's way stronger than I expected."
Ruby nodded. "She stopped a truck with her bare hands once. Granted, that's actually not that hard for someone like her or you to do, but I couldn't do that."
Naruto looked at her. "I don't know if I can stop a truck with my bare hands, Ruby."
Ruby recovered quickly. "I meant bare hands and semblance."
Naruto nodded, before adopting a pensive expression.
"You're thinking about whether or not you can stop a truck, aren't you," The redhead deadpanned, looking at the blond.
"If I used Mana Shield over the top of my shield, and hit myself with Power and Enduring, I could probably stop it."
Ruby pinched the bridge of her nose, though she did allow herself a small smile. "Naruto, please don't go picking fights with trucks."
"What if they pick a fight with me?"
Another deadpan stare from Ruby shut him up, before she stood up. "I'm gonna go talk to Penny, and then see if RRYN wanna go get some food. If your match comes up I'll be here!"
Naruto gave her a wave. "Tell Penny I said hi!"
Ruby sped off, petals spinning in her wake.
"Alright ladies and gentlemen, our third matchup of the day is coming up! Let's see who it'll be!"
Naruto watched with mild interest as the wheel spun.
"Looks like it's Atlas Academy's Team FNKI, led by Flynt Coal, with Neon Katt, Murri Katt and Ilse Frost!" Oobleck announced.
"Versus Team DMND, also from Atlas Academy! Led by Ulysses Demos, with Antonio Morningstar, Yanos Nachten and Dominic Steele! This ought to be an interesting matchup!"
"Qrow."
"Mmph."
"Qrow!"
"Snoring."
"Damn you, Qrow."
"Z Z Z."
"Qrow, get up now, or so help me I will freeze you to that bar."
"Not the worst punishment I've ever heard."
"It will be when I pay the bartender not to serve you anything."
Qrow gave a final glare at Winter before standing upright with a slight sway. "There. Happy?"
"With you around, never," Winter replied. "The General has sent me a lead to investigate, and seeing as we are quite literally being forced to work together, you'd best be ready."
"When you say Jimmy sent you a lead, do you mean he got one of his little toy soldiers to wrestle some poor Faunus and hold them at gunpoint, or do you mean he finally gave up and tortured Torchwick."
Winter's expression went from scandalized to frustrated in a matter of moments. "Atlas do nothing of the sort, Qrow."
One of Qrow's eyebrows shot up. "You'd better tell Atlas that. Was less than a week ago when I had to break up a scuffle that might've turned into a whole civil conflict."
Winter didn't have anything to say to that, so Qrow chalked that up as a win.
He also backed down somewhat, an internal frustration mounting. "What's the lead?"
Winter brought out her scroll, a sleek black version of the typical model. A couple taps of the screen brought up a holographic projection of Vale, and she quickly navigated it.
"Here, near the wall. White Fang recruitment rallies are still ongoing, and there may be a lieutenant or someone of similar importance that we may be able to snag."
Qrow shook his head. "This isn't Atlas, Ice Queen. We can't bust down a door and start grabbing Faunus by the horns. They'll be up in arms in moments, and the council will be up both our asses in half the time it takes to say 'annoyance'. No black-bagging, no wetwork. This is my turf, we'll play it my way."
Winter raised an eyebrow. "And what way would that be?"
"Easy. I scope it out, and you grab our guy after he leaves and goes home."
Winter didn't object. "I only hope you're as good as they say, considering what I've seen."
Qrow downed the last of his drink, placing the upturned glass on the bar counter. "Please, Icicle. I'll get a good bird's eye view."
"And with a stunning finish from Mr Flynt, the third match is brought to a close! Well fought both teams!" Port boomed, glancing at Oobleck.
"Yes, quite a remarkable move! We shall now take a break, before resuming the matchups! See you soon, ladies and gentlemen!"
Naruto allowed himself to stand up and stretch. The match hadn't been the fastest so far, but he imagined that there were going to be longer ones as time continued. Once it reached the doubles it would probably take longer, and singles were a toss-up. He didn't really know how that was all going to work out.
Ruby was still gone, most likely in the fairgrounds, and his team were most likely there as well, having told him as much. He was pretty much the placeholder in case their team was called.
Now, though, with the break, he could actually go and join in on the socialising, which would be nice.
It also meant he could level up Soul Harvest. He'd been so damn close to a level recently, after all the one-handed training he'd done whilst constructing the Arcave, and the plentiful amount of Regular Soul Orbs he had in his inventory was evidence of that.
He was only a little over 45k XP away from Level 25, in fact. And, considering how all his skills, stats and everything else seemed to work, Level 25 would most likely unlock him a new kind of Soul Orb.
He knew the cost for a new summon was only two Regular Soul Orbs, something he could afford with ease at the moment, but it was the decision of what kind of summon he wanted that was floating around in his head.
Boarbatusk, King Taijitu, Deathstalker, and that wasn't even including any Elementals.
He had the required Dust for a Metal Elemental at the moment, too. He wasn't sure what the Soul Orb cost would be, but he assumed he could afford it, if it was anything like his Bound Souls.
Actually, by that thought process he could technically get a new Bound Soul and a new Elemental.
Which brought him right back around to the choice he'd been avoiding.
And would continue to avoid. There was no sense in trying to learn how a new summon fought in the middle of a tournament.
Naruto slid one hand into his coat pocket, hoping the thick fabric would disguise the creation of a Soul Orb as he walked along the fairgrounds, eyes scanning the crowd for the familiar figures of his friends.
He didn't even have to take his hand out of his pocket to drop it into his inventory, thanks to some clever window manipulation.
He was halfway through creating a second when he spotted the rest of AWBN and all of RRYN sat at a noodle stand, halfway through ordering.
"Hey all!" Naruto gave a wave as he approached, various sounds of greeting finding their way back to him. "How's it going?"
"We're just about to finish ordering, actually," Weiss answered, as Ruby gestured for him to sit in the empty seat next to her.
"Good thing I got here in time then, I'm starving."
Immediately as he sat down, a notification popped up. "Oh, Soul Harvest just hit 25. Nice."
Ruby did a double take. "What harvest?"
Naruto realised what it sounded like. "The name of the skill I use to make Soul Orbs. It's nothing like what you think."
Blake let out a laugh at that. "It does have quite a macabre ring to it, doesn't it?"
Naruto used the cover of the stall to quickly create a new Soul Orb, marvelling at how much brighter it was than the Regular. "I can make Greater Soul Orbs, now. That's pretty cool."
"Ooh! What's it do?" Nora asked, leaning over to peer at the glowing ball.
Naruto Observed it quickly, to find out the answer to the ginger's question.
[Greater Soul Orb]
[A glowing orb that seems to contain some kind of swirling energy, it is remarkably hard to focus on. Has a very strong glow. Used to evolve Bound Souls from Minor to Greater.]
Everything was pretty typical of the Soul Orb descriptions, but the last part caught his attention. "Evolve a Bound Soul?"
His answer to Nora's question being a question itself seemed to spike the interest of his audience.
"Evolve a Bound Soul? That sounds… new," Pyrrha pointed out, and Naruto nodded.
"Yeah… and probably pretty distracting. Might be a good idea not to do it yet. At least, not without good reason," Blake pointed out. "Maybe wait until we have enough time to go down to the clearing?"
"The Arcave," Naruto corrected.
"I'm not calling it that."
Naruto sagged. "I tried."
Ruby gave him a consolatory pat on the back. "Ssh. We'll convince her someday."
"Ruby, you won't even call it the Arcave."
Ruby shrugged. "Can't win 'em all."
Yang choked back a laugh as Naruto slumped further in his seat.
"Well, regardless of whatever that was, let's eat. My treat," Weiss said, handing her card over to the cashier, who also appeared to be the chef.
It thudded right back at her, digging into the wooden tabletop like it was some kind of weapon.
"What? Declined? How is that possible?!"
Weiss seemed actually shocked that having her card declined was a thing that could happen.
"Here, let me," Naruto said, just as Pyrrha said quite literally the exact same thing.
They shared a glance, and Pyrrha handed over the lien. "You sure, Pyrrha?"
Pyrrha let out a rueful smile. "What point is there in having Lien if you don't spend it for a good cause?"
Naruto had to agree. His newfound wealth aside, he'd never truly understood those that hoarded for the sake of hoarding.
Acquisition of wealth without purpose was never high on his list of priorities.
Food was served with alarming alacrity, bowls of variety-topping noodles skidding to a halt in front of them. Naruto was somewhat confused as to how that had happened, but he accepted it without much thought, as if questioning the legitimacy of the food would cost him said food, and he was quite hungry.
Nothing like waiting in anticipation to build up an appetite.
Naruto dug into his noodles, watching in amusement as Blake's serving, topped with what looked to be an entire tuna, was effectively worshipped by the black-haired Faunus.
He wasn't the only blond to notice, either.
"Hey Blake, guys!" A voice called out, followed by the sound of approaching footsteps.
The eight turned to see Sun and Neptune approaching, the waving monkey Faunus bearing his trademark grin. Following behind them were two other teens, one's that Naruto didn't recognize.
"Guys, this is the rest of my team, Sage Ayana and Scarlet David!" Sun continued, motioning to the two teens, a hulking green-haired man with the same taste in fashion as Sun, though with added tattoos, and the other was far more, well, dressed, a mop of red hair covering one side of his face.
They were halfway through introducing themselves to everyone when Port and Oobleck piped back up.
"Welcome back one and all to the 40th Vytal Tournament. Let's not waste any time, and get right into it! Our first team is from all the way in Vacuo from Shade Academy, Team BRNZ, led by Brawnz Ni, with Roy Stallion, Nolan Porifio and May Zedong!" Port belted out over the speakers in the festival grounds.
"Versus the all-male team from Mistral's Haven Academy we have Team SSSN, led by Sun Wukong, with Scarlet David, Sage Ayana and Neptune Vasilias! This looks to be a good match, and it starts in just two minutes!" Oobleck finished.
"That's us, I guess!" Sun exclaimed, already moving back towards the shuttles to the stadium. "Come on, we've only got two minutes to get back!"
His team sighed a variety of sighs, seemingly unwilling to match the level of energy that Sun was displaying, but it was easy to tell that they were more for comedic effect than anything else, and that there was an underlying kind of excitement they held, buzzing under their somewhat steadier facades.
"Good luck! We'll be cheering for you!" Naruto called out, receiving a rapidly retreating thumbs-up from the fellow blond leader.
Naruto had faith that Team SSSN would win. He'd already seen Sun and Neptune fight, Sun especially, and they had a level of skill that was unmatched by any other team they'd seen fight so far, besides maybe Penny's team.
Then again Penny looked to be around Pyrrha's level of skill, so that was a bit unfair to compare her to the rest.
Naruto would relish the opportunity to test himself against any team of the skill that they were displaying, but first he'd have to wait for AWBN to be called.
"So, who is being sent to the doubles round on your team, Ruby?" Pyrrha asked, already shifting the flow of the conversation.
"Well, we put it to a vote, and then Ren said he'd rather not, and I figured that I'm not built for fighting people, cause Uncle Qrow always put me up against Grimm, so we decided that Yang and Nora would be going forward," Ruby explained, finishing her bowl. "That and anyone going up against Yang and Nora are going to probably be terrified. They have reputations for reasons."
Well, she wasn't wrong, Naruto had to admit. Most of Beacon were nervous around one of the two powerhouses. Seeing both coming for you with a thirst for blood would make a lesser Hunter tremble.
"Is it strange that I really don't want to go up against you guys in the doubles round now?" Naruto remarked, half-serious.
"What's wrong, Naruto? Can't handle someone a little… bigger than Ruby?" Yang teased, leaning forward.
Naruto pointedly ignored her. "I really don't want to be on the receiving end of Nora, to be honest."
Nora's grin widened as Yang huffed. "Now I really wanna break some legs!"
"Nora, at least wait until we are called up once more," Ren said, and Naruto noted that it wasn't a refusal. Either he had given up, or secretly wanted Nora to do some limb-cracking.
He wouldn't outright admit that he was a little worried about his match, as illogical as it sounded to him, but he would admit that the nervousness came with a level of excitement.
He was honestly surprised to find himself unable to wait until AWBN were called up.
SSSN had won, that much was obvious. It was apparent that BRNZ wasn't enough to halt the cheery blond Faunus and his team.
AWBN and RRYN had made their way back to the stadium at this point, a variety of toppings acquired for their gigantic buckets of popcorn that Naruto had so generously bought for what amounted to a little less than thirty Lien.
Another match, CRDL versus a team known as TWLT, made up of Tenebrae Umbra, Wolfsige Noctus, Lazarus Morningstar and Tristessa Vespera, had played out, and Naruto and co were surprised to watch CRDL just barely pull a victory, through absolutely no strategy and complete, blind luck. Turned out that TWLT, being from Atlas, were far less used to the desert than CRDL, who at least knew what it was like to not be permanently covered in snow.
Now, though, they were waiting, breath abated, for the next announcement. The next match, the next matchup.
"Oh-ho-ho, what's this? This sounds like a match for the ages!" Port began, a cheerful expression covered by his bushy facial hair. "It seems out next match is a competition for who is truly the stronger team worthy of bearing this name!"
Oobleck wore a rare smile. "Indeed, Peter. Hailing from Haven, we have Team ABRN, led by Arslan Altan, with Bolin Hori, Reese Chloris and Nadir Shiko, versus Beacon's very own premier first year team, AWBN, led by Naruto Uzumaki, with Weiss Schnee, Blake Belladonna and Pyrrha Nikos! Now that's a team composition of rather well known individuals!"
Naruto let out a stunned laugh. AWBN versus ABRN? Port was right, this was going to be about who made the better auburn.
"Knock 'em dead, Narutoy!" Nora cheered, throwing her hands in the air in excitement, one hand gripping one of Ren's arms, his half-hearted cheer more emotion than Naruto could recall him showing.
"Do us proud Pyr!" Yang let out.
"You guys have got this. No sweat," Ruby said, giving all of AWBN a smile, before focusing on Naruto. "Good luck."
She was quick as ever, placing her lips on his own for a moment, much to her own embarrassment as Nora and Yang cheered even louder.
"Let's go, team. We've got a match to win."
Stepping onto the field was a nerve-wracking experience, Naruto realised. You didn't quite get a grasp of just how loud the cheering was until you were in the very middle of it, the subject of it.
Pyrrha seemed at home, which wasn't a surprise, and he knew Weiss had experience with crowds and public performances, so it wasn't like she was entirely out of her element.
Blake was just good at concealing her emotions, so it wasn't as if there was much for him to glean from the normally quiet girl.
So, he guessed he would just have to toughen up and handle the sudden influx of attention.
He'd never even shown any kind of part of the System to this many people before. He didn't even think there were over fifteen people in the world who had seen him use it.
This was going to be a shock to a number of people, his family included. He'd never actually explained a lot of what he'd done the last time he'd seen them, so this was going to seem a little strange.
That and the fact it would make him look almost like a bastard Schnee. That was going to be a fun little surprise.
At least he knew that ABRN wouldn't have any idea about his capabilities.
Which meant he'd get to pull off his favorite tactic, of concealing every advantage until he needed to bring one out.
They stopped walking, having reached the center of the stage, and in front of them stood ABRN, their leader in the middle of flexing her fingers.
"So, you're the other Auburn. Can't say I'm all that surprised to find you with at least one other celebrity, Pyrrha. Always were too good for the rest of us normal people."
Naruto immediately went on the defensive, hand gripping tight Crocea Mors.
Pyrrha helped him relax with a single calming hand on his shoulder. "Arslan. I see you still believe I was anything but cordial with you. Perhaps we should have fought properly years ago, you might have a different opinion if we had."
Arslan rolled her eyes. "Doubt it, Invincible Girl."
"Without further adieu, let us see our arena environment!" Oobleck exclaimed, as the holographic projections began to spin.
Naruto watched as it landed on geyser fields and urban, and he watched with mild worry as the platforms began to rise, bringing with it rubble, water and various other obstacles.
He'd say there was no home-field advantage, but considering the amount of time he and his team had spent in Mountain Glenn, that wasn't entirely accurate. He couldn't say the same for geysers, but to be fair it was just a lot of wet rocks.
Well, there was a little more to it than that, but still, the point remained the same.
He stepped forward, drawing Crocea Mors, deploying its shield on his arm, waiting.
His team drew their weapons, and he watched as ABRN did the same, albeit some of them being a little less obvious than his own, and some being so ostentatious he actually performed a real, physical double-take. A hoverboard? That was a new one.
"Now, let us begin, as soon as the horn sounds!" Port practically bellowed. His excitement was palpable, as was the audience's. He imagined that had something to do with the fact that he had not only Pyrrha on his team, but Weiss as well.
Naruto waited a single, tense second.
Another passed by him.
A third physics-defyingly long second passed.
The horn sounded.