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Pyrrha sighed as she closed the website on his scroll. She wanted to take Jaune somewhere love before the tournament started, as luck would have it their team would be going up this afternoon. Although finding a place she and Jaune could grab a bite beforehand proved far more difficult than Pyrrha first thought.
Beacon's lockdown was effectively over the day following the dance but that didn't mean everyone was free to just leave the grounds. Everywhere that held a functioning television and decent food was packed, too expensive to book, or suffering from the mandatory blackouts from the dust shortages. All things she forgot to consider when she pulled out her scroll and start looking up nice places.
"It's fine, today and tomorrow may be filled up but it's not like I'm on a tight schedule." She muttered.
"What was that Pyr?" Jaune said coming from the bathroom, their dorm room was still a crowded place.
Yang was too busy buzzing Blake with questions at the moment to hear what the redhead muttered. Jaune was less distracted.
"Nothing, just wondering about the team we're facing. Shade academy is known for being unorthodox"
"Yeah, I think it's hard to miss the only students that don't have to wear uniforms here." He chuckled. "Funny how causal clothing can end up seeming off."
That did make them the odd ones out although that wasn't Pyrrha's point. "I mean their training routines consist more of learning how to survive and operate in a scorching desert." Trying to live off the land there is far more difficult than in most other kingdoms. She doubted people ever travel beyond the safety of the cities in Atlas so they wouldn't need to deal with that.
"I don't really see the problem..." Jaune stopped, it had become more obvious when Amber was speaking to him, at least among the team. "You think we'll have to deal with some survivalists with hit and run tactics. I never thought of that."
"Not the exact wording but yes." Both teams that fight weren't given encyclopedias on the opposition. It would be better if they didn't try to analyze then adapt in the middle of the arena as much as possible. Some things weren't hidden, like large desert means more survivalist oriented Hunters.
"Sure you don't have anything to share Amber...? Okay, I guess the desert is different from where you typically lived.." He blew out his cheeks while thinking.
"Play defensive until we come up with an effective means of hitting back?" He suggested aloud. "They don't look as if they have much heavy ranged weaponry and no shields to speak of. We can dig in and get them to come to us."
"I didn't mean to make him come up with a plan just now." Pyrrha thought, still it was no time like the present.
"Yeah, that would also depend on what terrain either side has behind them." Jaune nodded along and his partner decided to keep quiet. "Still it's the best we can hope for until the fighting actually begins."
Pyrrha wanted to get back on her scroll but instead placed it to the side. She would have time later to do this, they had a tournament battle to prepare for, she'd start digging for someplace later.
"Why not a club...?" She thought, might not be a bad idea he liked to dance.
"Blaaake! Come one it's not like I'm trying to be racist." Yang whined. "It's just a quick question."
"Then look it up on your scroll." The Faunus deadpanned.
"You can't always trust what's on there. Besides, it's more accurate to ask a friendly cat Faunus about it."
Blake stared for a moment before groaning and finally giving in. "As a cat Faunus I cannot purr, it's not a thing I can even do."
Yang's grin threatened to split her face in two as she whipped out a scroll. "Oh yeah, I gotta tell Ruby I'm right. She's gonna owe me ten lien pretty soon."
Being inside of Amity Coliseum was something on Jaune's bucket list. He'd always want to be here in person to see a tournament fight take place, instead he was here to participate as one of the teams fighting. The crowd continued to roar as professor Port and Doctor Oobleck announced the teams. JPBY pushed out of the white and grey hallway and into the circular arena. Their opponents were also walking across the field, Jaune wondered briefly what his parents were thinking about this as they finally stopped at the center of the ring. Both teams were several yards away and now they could properly size up the opposition.
The large guy with a great sword was of particular interest, he didn't look like he had any range weapons before and still didn't. That blade on his back would be a problem so best and was likely hard to wield.
"Might be a good idea to get Blake on him," Jaune thought. "Yang's got plenty of shots, she can keep to two less built guys off her." Their ranged tools were more obvious and they should focus on widdling them down rather than trying to match them strength for strength.
There was little he could ascertain from visuals alone, and they need to figure things out as the fight began. Not great but this team SSSN also had to deal with that. Jaune's gaze fell to their leader. His tail swished back and forth as he too was studying them... No, not the team, Blake specifically, whatever this guy was planning it involved her.
Jaune was broken from his thoughts when holograms appeared in the air. Images flashed by they their randomly selected biomes were picked. In front of them the images landed on an image of a crumbling building and the floors opened to give way to a desolated urban city, it all looks like a building inspector's nightmare. Rubble cluttered the linear roadways kind of like mountain Glenn but with combat being the purpose behind its design. As much of the rubble and still standing walls faced them instead of being from random combat and neglect.
"I think the people that made Amity need to look up what the word biome means," Jaune said aloud and was followed by a hearty laugh from Yang and a chuckle from Pyrrha.
Blake, for her part, sighed. "Yeah, people like this is the reason why the word literally has had its definition changed in some dictionaries."
Jaune unclipped the staff from his back but kept it compacted as he served their obstacles. SSSN now had the rubble of an urban environment to fall back to. By contrast his team at a fiery hellscape of a lava 'biome' behind them that was fairly open and gave them no cover.
"Blake, do you think you can hold off that big guy with the sword?"
"No offense but I can hold him off better." Yang said.
"I don't want anyone to lose too much aura in a fight. Besides I need you to force that guy with the blue hair and the one with the cutlass into the rubble." It would be the sensible choice, taking cover, here's hoping they'd be quick to take it.
"I'll keep their leader busy while Blake takes care of her opponent. If we can take at least one out then we can start picking them off."
"I'll try to stay out of his reach." Blake said.
"No one will be shooting at you, that's for sure." Ember Cilicia locked in two fresh rounds. "Pyrrha you got our backs?"
She nodded, a smile settled well on her face.
"Then it's settled." Jaune eyed Sun carefully while readying Rubens Vitae, to say he felt nervous would be undercutting it. This was a serious fight, one that had millions watching around the world.
"You've got this." Amber assured, no doubt feeling him getting a bit nervous, he was going to be banking a lot on his ability to distract the faunus.
Oobleck gave the fastest countdown Jaune had ever heard with Blake and Yang immediately broke off and after their targets. Pyrrha was far slower, keeping somewhat behind to know to be better aware of who needs support first.
Jaune started himself to the furthest left flank of team SSSN where their leader looked as if he wanted to engage Blake. Upon seeing Jaune approach he took up a boxing stance much like Yang take and prepared to fight. Jaune had to force him back and away from being able to split away and support his team. Rubens Vitae was finally deployed it twirled in his hands for but a moment before a spew of flames came out. Jaune just saw the terror on the Faunus's face before he dove out of the way getting to his feet, back facing the rest of the battle.
A one on one against someone he didn't know the capacities of was something Jaune wanted to avoid above anything else. Although he didn't need to win here, just prevent him from supporting any of his teammates. Sun Wukong smirked reaching into his open jacket as Jaune replaced the staff with his faithful sword and shield. Then held position along with his opponent, who twists and turning a staff around in an elaborate fashion.
"Don't look at his weapon, watch the eyes," Amber warned. "They convey more intent than his movements."
"Right, they're the windows to the soul after all." Jaune was about done sizing the monkey Faunus up. They were only a yard and a half away from one another
"Is she single?" Sun cocked his head to the side.
This threw Jaune off a bit and he readied himself for a trick. "What?"
"That Faunus you've got," He took a hand off of his weapon to properly gesture at Blake. "Man she looks pretty hot, what do her ears look like?"
He had taken a causal stance with half his staff left resting on his shoulder. Jaune had remained at the ready, shield poised to protect his body.
"I...I don't think that's something we should be discussing now- wait how do you know she's got ears under there?"
"She's not the first Faunus to use a bow like that and she's pretty agile. Like a cat." His smile held true even if that logic held more than a few cracks within.
"Look we're in the middle of a tournament fight right now, let's just focus on this. Okay?"
Sun's staff came around. "Alright, that's fair enough."
Jaune was expecting some attempt at flanking him. Instead, the mostly wooden staff broke up into four distinct pieces, two each were held by lines. It wasn't until they fired when Jaune realized it was an intentional design choice, the shots landed true. Not on his shield or even towards his unprotected head like he'd faced with Pyrrha, but his legs. The one area he never really thought about too much.
The first few rounds made Jaune jump back, startled by the opening he never thought Sun had. The fellow blond punished it hard, his gunchucks flipping through the air to eject the spent casings with the speed and grace of a professional. He fired round after round for what looked like eloquent weapons, yet was able to shoot far more shots than he would have considered. Jaune hopped back and away from the hail of gunfire. Every time he would try to regain some balance it would only give Sun time to better line up a shot on his shins.
Jaune ended up dancing back and off the central platform and onto the lava biome, the urban on was too unstable. When Jaune tried lowering himself to protect his legs a shot grazed by his head whipping some hair up in the process. The whole situation had him too busy just trying to keep his balance that he had little time to analyze or come up with a plan. Thankfully Amber was able to step in.
"Falling back will get you nowhere, he may be trying to get you to the edge of the ring." She warned. "The best bet now is to charge, try to throw off his plan."
He tried just that, regaining what footing he could Jaune surged forwards shield extend and sword ready to thrust out. Sun kept that smirk he began this fight with and effortlessly reformed his staff. It was no contest, the guy moved like Blake, rolling to Jaune's flank and aggressively assaulting his side. When he could find the opening Jaune's unprotected back would then suffer the same punishment. When Jaune wouldn't do for some more armor on his body.
Jaune was falling back, taken aback by the sudden inclusion of a ranged weapon and unable to land a hit on the slippery opponent. He had spent too much time trying to find a way to counter him and lost too much aura. A quick glance to the screen revealed he was in the yellow now. Jaune kept moving back from the shots at his shins and head, this guy knew exactly how to counter him. Even going for Amber's staff would be dangerous as he'd need to toss his sword away or bring his arm up to sheath it. He was thinking about using the maiden powers when another round impacted his leg causing him to stagger back and cry out. Aura flaring once more in his defense.
Pyrrha, even on the opposite side of the arena heard Jaune's cries. Having heard them a lot when going through their training routine. He was in trouble, Yang and Blake were holding back their opponents as well as can be. Blake pinging shots on the guy with the great sword, the heavy blade and no range gear made it simple enough. The rubble of their biome made great cover from Yang's attempts to blast the remaining to, they kept their distance and returned fire when they could.
Pyrrha would say they were winning or losing but it all felt close. She was not new to tournament fights but she was to team battles, usually, her opponent had to fight her. Here members of team SSSN could choose not to and focus on Pyrrha's teammates. This team is from Mistral and knew who she was, and remained far from her. Supporting either of her teammates proved a nightmare as every time she tried the other would be pressed hard and outnumbered. If she abandoned them both to help Jaune it would also end in them being outnumbered three to one. Trying to juggle aiding both Yang and Blake got them nowhere. Now her own partner was being pushed back to the edge and it was obvious was this Sun was doing. She needed to do something that would be quick, hard-hitting, and from a distance, anything else would take valuable time and leave the others unsupported.
There was one place Pyrrha knew Jaune's opponent couldn't ignore, in fact, no man could. She had made far harder shots before. Her hand was steady, the rifle's sights lowered to waist level. This was not honorable and perhaps taking things a bit too far... she hesitated long enough for a member of team SSSN to call out to their leader and Sun to whip around into a defensive stance turn. The opportunity was there, the best she was going to have to back her own partner and leader.
With some trepidation and a silent apology, she fired.
The television echoed an "oooh" from the audience in the arena to the family viewing them now. The poor faunus boy fell to his knees in pain, he wasn't out by aura loss but might as well be done for.
"Oh, that's gotta hurt." Linzy voiced, there was a general consensus of sympathy as the boy sniped in the sacred spot.
Roland himself felt his legs close instinctively. He was glad to see that Jaune was saved from what would have been an embarrassing loss, it has everyone on the edge. Except now their concerns were directed to the poor boy clutching at his crotch.
Amity callosum was a massive place and could hold tens of thousands. Unfortunately being late to travel to Vale meant the Arc family couldn't buy tickets. Such a thing required one to them prepurchase weeks in advance especially in a group of eight.
"We didn't come here for leisure." Roland thought angrily, still ticked off that Ozpin held so much from him.
The man wasn't sure what to think about recent events, his talk with one of his son's friends and Jaune himself seemed fine. He didn't know what to think it does about the current situation. Trying to do some digging on his mysterious Amber revealed nothing, he thought that maybe she was someone they never noticed. Odd as that sounded a call to friends in Ansel lead nowhere, they found nothing so Roland was back to square one.
"Aside from simply asking Jaune for information I've hit an impassable roadblock." There were a few reasons why he didn't want to walk up to his son and ask why the boy was hearing a girl's voice. Jaune could always play dumb or give false information, but it was increasingly clear that this was Roland's only option. Putting it off any longer was fool hearty.
"I'll call him after the fight," He decided. "Getting him somewhere comfortable to talk may help him with opening up."
Jaune winced as Sun fell to his knees, that was not a place a man should be hit. It was a fight and he supposed there were no rules against it, but he felt like it should be an unspoken one. Regardless they were committed to this how and Jaune smacked the back of the guy's head with his hilt for good measure. His aura would still require more damage but Jaune was not about to hit Sun while he was down like that.
"Pyrrha! Yang!" Jaune pointed with his sword as Blake's opponent decided to forgo trying to fight someone agile like her and moved against her partner's back.
The guy's other two teammates saw this and tried to support him with fire from their ruined cover. Yang's explosive shots having torn through the closest cover and forced them further into the ruins and unable to rush out. Yang would've been caught between the attacking forces, no doubt hammered with attacks, and lost a lot of aura. Thankfully Blake sprang into action, Gambol Shroud's ribbon was a strong and highly elastic material that Jaune didn't even try to understand, it easily wrapped around the guy's neck. While it did choke him into stopping it also pulled Blake off her feet, it was Pyrrha's shield soaring through the air that knocked him off balance and onto his back.
Yang saw this and smirked. Unlike Jaune had far less compunction about pummeling someone how was already down. Ember Cilicia had her in the air and gravity accelerated down. The floor beneath her poor target cracked from the impact, even more so than the biome was, and even at a distance, Jaune could see the man's aura flaring to block the damage. The crowd roared and many called out "Oooh" to the devastating blows Yang delivered to this core. His teammates had gunfire from Blake and Pyrrha charging to meet them in melee, they didn't want to deal with that and instead fell back into the ruins. There was a serious lack of coordination that hindered their ability to fight back. Finally, the buzzer rang out just as her fist raised to smash the large guy's face in.
Moping up the rest of team SSSN was a simple matter in a four versus two wasn't even a contest. Especially when they have a duelist like Pyrrha with them, the rubble and close quarters of the urban ruins made mounting a defense against them impossible. Yang herself can tear through the already unstable walls. Belaying as long as they could their final opponents were felt with, the third buzz going out to the cheers and excitement of the crowd.
Jaune sighed, they made it but it seems like that was more because their opposition didn't even have a plan. They acted as Jaune predicted which was weird, the victory felt like it was supported by the unpreparedness of team SSSN.
"WOO! Yeah, now that was great!" Yang stretched as she cheered on, exhilarated from feeling the adrenaline rush she craved.
"Are you doing okay?" Pyrrha asked. "You got chased back pretty fair back there."
"I'll be okay." This wasn't a hard fight though per se. Still, there was one good takeaway from his encounter.
"I need a bit more body armor." He muttered, aura was great and all but having a protective layer that cannot run out would be great. Essentially in places that are extremely vulnerable to high-caliber rounds. He never thought about it until Sun had home dancing back from gunfire, armor was just as crucial as the shield. Speaking of which, Sun was defiantly trying to make his way back to the fight but was completely outnumbered and still strained to move.
"Good fight?" He asked offering a hand.
Sun stared at it for a moment before smiled, although it was a bit more pained than before, and took the hand. "Good fight."
Ozpin turned his on-screen on his desk off as the fight came to a close. It was a hard-fought and well-earned victory. The team they battle against held an early advantage but JPBY was quick enough to adapt to changing circumstances. Even if it was a good show of teamwork one had to remember that fights at Amity weren't to the death and a certain level of restraint occurred when opposing teams clashed.
Ozpin was never been one to get his hopes up. Living as long as he has made the ancient mage realize that placing too much faith into something or someone is a road that easily leads to disappointment. Too many times he's been betrayed or a plan fell apart that held such promise. He watched JPBY's team battle with interest, they were far more coordinated than team STRQ. Although he's work with plenty that did both and didn't start an argument in the middle of a battle. JPBY already knew much and so it was a bit too late to rethink things.
"Still, it's too early to tell. I've jumped the gun one too many times and these recent victories have to have given me time to think and analyze." Ozpin knew who to thank, he wouldn't soon forget that part.
Cinder fall is planning on getting the fall maiden powers and most likely the relic for Salem. Was this plan fully thwarted and he could focus on reassuring the citizens of Vale and tourists was the part he wanted to know. Having Cinder in his possession was important sure. It was just that calming things down at a critical time for the world also important.
"The Vytal Festival is too important to be disrupted any further." He muttered, the thought of asking Jaune to inquire with Roman Torchwick has crossed his mind. Although the man had made it clear he would contact them. Not the other way around.
Which meant Emerald Sustrai and Mercury Black were the only sources of information that have. To learn anything they would need them to talk.
"I wonder how the interrogation of her two compatriots is going." Ozpin wondered aloud.
As if setting off a cue at a play, there was a ring on his scroll, it was James.
"Hello, have you found something from the prisoners yet?" Ozpin knew the two had been quite stubborn even with plea deals being offered. He began to suspect they might never talk until Cinder was also captured. A problem because finding their leader was the whole reason they were being questioned.
"No, they are still being uncooperative," He sighed. "This is actually about developing a device for Amber."
The Headmaster sat up, more interested than before. "You have a viable option?" It had been some time but he never expected this so sudden.
"Are you certain it's ready for use?"
"Not at all," James sighed, irritated. "I've been told that the whole thing operates under theories on Amber's condition only. We are unable to even test the device or theories without straying into inhumane experimentation."
That last part was expected, of course, Ozpin knew they'd never move to trails with this sort of thing. It was a similar story with the aura transfer machine, they didn't 'know' it could work until they tried. It was a shot in the dark with the best education guess they could muster but Ozpin trusted James's judgment on it.
"Ability to test it aside, you do have something ready?" He inquired eagerly.
"Ready is a strong word," James warned. "The only way we can test this is with the subject, beyond that it's impossible to know if it will work. That is what I wanted to speak with you about."
"I will contact Mr Arc." This would their only way to test it, it could be dangerous and the Headmaster would explain how experimental this device was. Ozpin had little doubt the boy would object to trying with how eager he's always been in aiding others.
"It wouldn't be prudent not to get anyone's hopes up though."That way easily leads to serious complications with his allies.