AN: Here we are again….

Greetings, my readers! With this chapter, we approach 300 followers and 100k words! Thank you all for your support, and even you just reading it and adding to the statistic has given me somewhat of an ego boost.

This chapter is basically all fight scene, cuz tournament.

Also, in case it wasn't clear:

My modified timeline for this fic (doesn't really change much plotwise but it just makes more sense to me)

Round 1 of Vytal Festival

Missions to improve PR about huntsman and huntresses

Round 2 of Vytal Festival (and so on)

I know I'm about to encroach on "the fall" territory, and I'm going to get angry comments saying "you conformed to canon" or "you didn't conform to canon everything is going horribly _ is OOC aaaah"

Still, fanfiction is a what if scenario. A not necessarily completely accurate what if scenario, but a hypothetical nonetheless. If you think things should have gone differently, then talk about it on the comments or join the discord server or something to have a discussion with me about it.

Talking about discord… thanks for the people on discord editing these scenes a bit! Link is on the profile.

Ok. I'll stop bothering you with Author's Notes.

…

I sighed as I finished off the last training robot.

I was currently practicing to get used to my new "weapon". The metal armor that was tailored to my arm was very clunky. And very hard to move in. Still, the match I was scheduled to be in was in two days,and I had to get used to this before then. Thankfully, classes were cancelled because the faculty was really buzy with organizing civilian events so I could just train the whole day.

Even if I didn't like wearing the armor, I had to make it work. It was tactically advantageous to have armor in order to shield myself from bullets and other heavy attacks since I couldn't manifest aura as a barrier.

Besides, there was another reason for training with the robots. I also had the idea of abducting the training bot corpses and salvaging them for parts, and since Beacon had a literal ton of these robots, they wouldn't notice.

I dragged a robot (that I had put a hole through with via an armored palm strike through the abdomen) to the pile of other robots. Then, using the armor as an extra fancy glove, began using Chi to enhance my strength and rip out the useful compartments of the robot. Those included servos, whole wires that I plucked with my unarmored hand, the central power source (which I was careful with and extracted via chopsticks because wood didn't conduct electricity), and other pieces of particularly sturdy metal that acted as the "armor" to the robot.

I had accidentally wrecked the servos in this one with a forceful grapple, so those burned out things couldn't be used, but its power source was easily accessible (after removing loose wire), so I took that, disarmed it by disconnecting some of its circuits, and gently placed it in the pile of cores that I had collected already, next to a plastic grocery shopping bag that I had repurposed to smuggle those things out of there.

Leaning on something, I drank some water, only to hear a lot of beeping noises. I quickly dropped my water bottle, and ran back to the robot carapace, fearing a hidden "self destruct" function or something akin to it, but by then, the obnoxious chime had stopped.

I shrugged, thinking that it was just my imagination.

Then, imagine my surprise when it wasn't four, but fifteen training bots that next exited the "deployment chamber", all apparently set to maximum difficulty.

Apparently, I had toggled the difficulty settings while I was leaning on that control panel to drink some water.

Why? What did I do to deserve this?

Maybe it was just karma for me dismantling their friends, because the robots were particularly vicious, even exhibiting teamwork and coordinated attacks. After disabling one robot with a grab to the neck, I used its heavy body as a shield against the rubber bullets that the robots shot, the projectiles pinging against the corpse of their comrade.

Then, a halberd struck me in the back. My aura meter, already strained from previous training exercises, halved. I was sitting at fifteen percent. Still, the robots didn't stop. They continued their attack, and I had to parry the halberd with the robot body I was holding to disable its weapon, before using its addled movements to my advantage and disabling that robot too.

A rubber bullet hit me in the head, and I saw my aura go from fifteen to zero and then about twenty five percent(?). The robots then deactivated, activated, and then continued their attack.

It was the most confusing turn of events I have witnessed, but I pushed on, throwing the two conjoined robots at the ranged attackers. Sadly, it was intercepted by two robots wielding swords and shields, but I took this opportunity to stab one robot in the face and dent another bot's shield with a punch from my armored side.

It wasn't enough to break their overwhelming numeral superiority, so they immediately surrounded me. I sighed and prepared a Chi burst that blew the front liners into the gun wielding robots.

It worked, and just like that, the fight was over.

I tapped the aura monitor a couple of times, and nothing changed.

How had I gained about twenty five percent of my when it broke? I was so confused.

I shrugged. Maybe it was just an error.

…

It was time.

I say that a lot, but this really was a step forward. This time, it wasn't a dubious research project. This time, it wasn't a journey of a thousand miles, a journey leading to nowhere but an incarceration in false ideals and a future cut short.

This time, I was stepping into the arena. Again.

We rose onto the platform, amidst cheers of the crowds. I shifted in my black robes, scratched my head of white hair nervously, and rolled my shoulders. My metallic arm armor clanked on my right side, and on my other hand, I held my sword in an iron grip.

My opponents were the kicking based fighter I had fought before in combat class and his partner, a green-haired girl with dual pistols strapped to a belt behind her. She was wearing an outfit that simply should not be worn as a combat outfit, but I wasn't anybody to judge.

I mentally prepared myself. I took several deep breaths and got my Chi flowing, energy coursing through the armor and making frost slowly creep over the armor, making my joints lock over. Still, this method of applying Chi to my current getup made my armor stronger, and even if my mobility was hampered, I wasn't really using this arm to attack.

I shifted my feet back into a fencer's pose, the familiar positioning bringing some sense of calmness to my mind. I opened my eyes again, and then the shifting of biomes began.

This time, commentary was blocked out of the arena, and the roulettes for the environments began. Grassland, forest, city, and geysers appeared, surrounding the small platform we were standing on.

My opponents said something, but I was too nervous to reply, instead trying not to panic.

Even if I was only fighting against two students, they had beaten the first round of the tournament without a single member of their team losing via aura loss or ring out.

They were formidable, and by watching the martial artist fight, I knew he was holding back in our fight.

This time, I would have to end this fast. Close in the distance, knock out the unknown factor, and then fight hand-to-hand with the grey haired boy. What was his name again? I didn't remember.

"And… Begin!" The solitary piece of commentary was allowed into the dome, signaling the beginning of the match.

With a burst of Chi that created a gust of wind around me, I flew forward, leveraging the weight of my metallic arm to twist my body rapidly and send a kick where the green-haired girl's head was.

I was dodged, and immediately, her pistols began firing, whipped out of her belt with great dexterity. I held my metallic arm in front of me and parried another kick from her partner with my sword, guiding his kick away from my torso as bullets pinged off of my armor, the ice flaking off slowly with each impact.

I couldn't last long, proven when a bullet grazed the side of my ribs, sending a jolt of pain through my body and allowing a kick from my melee assailant to land. Air was knocked out of my lungs, and the heavy blow's impact sent me sprawling backwards. I recovered with a crouch, before finding that I was lying right before the sections of the biome map that was filled entirely with tall grass. Sheathing my sword, I dived in and scurried backwards, before rolling out into the forest and hauling myself up a tree.

I then got out a green beanie and covered my white hair with said clothing, camouflaging myself from view. The duo in the center fired a few bullets into the tall grass, before the girl changed her pistols into… scythes(?) on chains and then swung them through the tall grass, chopping some of the stalks down.

They muttered a few words, before jogging into the forest, presumably looking for me.

Before they, too, disappeared from view after ducking into a bush.

I narrowed my eyes, and began scanning the forest for any sign of them. All that I was met with were branches and leaves. No people in sight.

Suddenly, I found a patch of lighter green, and spotted the distinct white of one of my opponent's outfits. I kicked off the tree and risked a short flying leap to another tree, before crawling down slowly.

Her figure was doing nothing except for scanning the tree line. Taking this opportunity, I drew my sword and pounced, jumping off the tree and arriving right next to her motionless form, before slashing at her with my sword.

My sword went through her body without doing anything. Instead, I was kicked in the shoulder by a heavy, black boot. I was once again punished for my mistake as I rolled on the grass, pain flaring throughout my limbs and body.

To make matters worse, I heard the signature click of a gun ready to be fired. I raised my armored arm to deflect as many bullets as possible. Still, one sank into my lower thigh. It felt like my nerves were burning, but I put pressure on my other leg and dashed into the brush again.

My wound was bleeding. It definitely didn't look like something I could just shrug off, and whatever special properties the bullet had made the injury even worse, sending shrapnel inside my flesh.

I winced before channeling Chi into the area to locate the areas where my Chi didn't flow.

There was the main body of the bullet, which was preventing my aura from healing me (thankfully), and about four other fragments.

Hearing the sound of rustling bushes near me, I decided I didn't have enough time to recover anymore. Gritting my teeth, I commanded the Chi in the area to explode outwards around the area of the injury

What I did was incredibly painful. More painful even than getting shot. My vision grew hazy and one or two tears formed out of the pain, but the bullet (and several small chunks of flesh) were blown out of my leg from the force of my Chi.

Running on dregs of Chi and legs still healing, I forced myself to stand, using my sword as a flimsy walking stick, and shuffled deeper into the forest. All the while, the wound stung and bled, and my flesh felt like it was bubbling. After I checked the gunshot again, it was almost half-healed.

I sighed, before resting against a particularly large tree and taking a couple more risky moments to recuperate.

I guess that was the consequence of not using aura properly. At least I was fully healed again.

"But what was that?" I thought, "Why didn't my sword even affect the girl, and why didn't she react to me jumping at her?"

I then remembered Blake's semblance: Shadow clones. Maybe it was something similar to that?

Footsteps were growing faster and closer now, and I took a final, deep breath. It was now or never, and I was probably low on aura. A look skyward and at the holographic displays told me the answer.

I was sitting at forty percent. My opponents (Who were Emerald and Mercury, according to the projection) were sitting at eighty five percent and ninety percent respectively.

I was not doing good.

The two were approaching once again, Emerald (the green haired girl) flanking me, and Mercury approaching head on. He fired a bullet at me, which I blocked with my armored arm, before coming at me with a sweeping kick.

Normally, I would've jumped and countered with something akin to a flying kick, but since his partner had guns and I couldn't dodge the bullets while in midair, I had to stand my ground. I got into a sturdy stance and reinforced my body with Chi, tanking the blow. It stung like crazy, but only a trickle of aura was necessary to fix the bruise.

My unpredictable action made Mercury pause mid-kick, still on the ground, so I took the opportunity and stabbed my sword at an angle into the earth, the weapon sinking into the earth. Its guard stopped its descent into the ground when it hit Mercury's boots, trapping his leg with the sword and the side of my leg.

Then, I leaned down, and with my bulky armored arm, leaned down and punched him in the face. The pain seemed to give him a semblance of clarity, because he kicked his trapped leg up, freeing himself and throwing my sword to who knows where, and then back flipped some place away.

During the exchange, his partner had once again disappeared.

Mercury advanced once again, but this time, he looked confident. With a cocky smirk, he jumped and aimed a kick straight at my face. I, of course, reached out to grab it and-

Wham.

I felt the impact at the side of my face. A buzzer sounded.

"And with that… Yun Wu is out! This match is ove-"

Still, I didn't feel like I was completely out of aura. The warm energy still coursed through my veins, though a lot of it was currently swirling around my neck, spine, and face.

Why in the world is this happening again? First the weird aura glitch in the training room, and now this? Why do I keep getting more aura out of nowhere?

"Wait, Doctor Oobleck!" the deep voice of Professor Port sounded over the speakers. "His aura is still at thirty percent! Maybe the sensors malfunctioned?"

"O-oh." Doctor Oobleck stuttered, before resuming commentary. "Well, the match is still on!"

Then, the commentary was filtered out of the arena, and the forest was totally silent.

Mercury tilted his head, confused, clearly not expecting the development, before running at me again. It didn't sound like he was approaching from the front; however. It sounded like it was coming from the side.

If my eyes were tricking me, then I'll just have to rely on my ears instead.

Turning and bracing my armored arm, I turned to prepare and face the blow. A slight peek told me that Mercury wasn't in the direction I was guarding.

The jump kick came anyways. But this time, I was spot on with my parry. Metal clashed against metal, and with a heave, I pushed him skyward.

Mercury vanished from view as I boosted him up, but I could hear the whistling of the wind above me as he fell. Winding back a fist, I focused on what aura I had left, and along with my Chi, forced it to my armored arm and punched.

A resounding crash sounded as a drop kick met punch, and Mercury appeared once again before my eyes. Somehow, he looked shocked as I met his eyes.

Then, I pulled back my other fist and punched him in the gut.

A buzzer sounded as he impacted a tree some area away. A series of grey lights flickered across his body as he hit a branch and then slumped to the ground.

I then heard a rustle from behind me, and turned to see a head of mint hair vanish from view.

It was obvious now. One of their semblances were messing with their opponent's vision.

Still, there was a way to tracking an opponent you couldn't see. After all, there were only three things that could still move in this place: Me, her and Mercury. Only two of us should be producing vibrations.

Once again, I closed my eyes, and focused on the ground's vibrations.

Mercury's more obvious shifts in posturing were very slight and behind me, but another set of vibrations was coming from the forward-right direction. I ran towards it, eyes still closed. Bushes trembled and trees shook as my heavy steps sounded across the earth, but they didn't distract me from the true target.

A gunshot sounded with an odd pop, and a projectile whistled across the air towards me. Gauging the position of the projectile with the wind it displaced, I reached out a hand and grabbed the bullet with my armored hand.

Another pop. Another whistle of the air. I turned to face the projectile, this time coming from a different direction, and then threw the bullet I had caught at it.

The incoming bullet whistled through the air, but I could hear somebody move to dodge the bullet I had thrown.

I had found where my vision altering opponent was. I opened my eyes triumphantly, only to see a dozen copies of her around me, each doing the same exact thing: coming at me, twin scythes in hand, ready to do something like chop my head off.

Which one was real?

The sight made me panic, but I closed my eyes and trusted my instinct.

Everything seemed to slow, and a billion sounds seemed to rush into my ears at once. The gusts of air displaced by my own heavy breaths, the leaves falling off the trees, the pounding of my own heartbeat, an odd throb at my temple, and the clanking of my own metal armor were deafening.

I thrust a hand to the right, and heard a satisfying clank as armor met scythe. I grabbed the weapon and wrenched it out of her hand. Being the trained combatant she was, she didn't let go of the weapon, and stumbled forward, falling onto the ground.

I opened my eyes one last time, only to see complete blackness around me. It was a last ditch attempt to disorient me.

But I could still hear her breathing right to the left of me.

I wound up a punch, sent it down to the right. The thwack of bony hand on flesh sounded, and a buzzer blared, signaling the end of the match.

…

The crowd cheered. Some girl wearing a brown jacket crushed whatever confectionary she was holding. Jaune was taking notes. Pyrrha wore a brittle smile.

Of course, I didn't know that any of those things had happened. I found my sword, returned to the central platform, and then waited to be taken down into the preparation chambers to exit into the stands.

I exhaled in relief, my heart lighter but more nervous.

I still had to get through three matches in the single rounds, after all. It would be harder and easier at the same time, with less teamwork on my opponent's side but possibly more skill.

My opponents staggered to the platform I as on, and together we descended. I gave a short nod in their direction, acknowledging their skill.

"You all did really well. I thought I was going to lose for about half the time we were fighting."

"Yeah." Mercury said, somehow looking… afraid?

"Cinder's going to kill me." He whispered.

I shrugged. It was probably just an exaggeration.

And that's the second round of the tournament! Was it exciting enough? Cringe? Pure idiocy? Leave a comment and let me know!

Discord link: On profile

Thanks for reading, and have a good rest of the day/night!