Ch 38 - In Which Vyliria Tryhards.
A/N: 306 reviews! Here's your bonus chapter! Next is at 407 reviews, because of Dasgun. "/-/" does NOT constitute a review. What does that even MEAN?!
Also, you guys couldn't get 3 reviews before I went to bed. So having to wait for me to sleep before you receive your update is your punishment.
Well, things will be happening this chapter, that much is certain. What those things are… you'll have to read more to find out. Although, what's going down has been a long time coming.
Story recommendation of the day: Pit Stop, by Konstantinsen. A Fallout (New Vegas to be more specific) and RWBY crossover, that started as a funny one-shot before eventually growing into an amazing and serious story. Honestly, I stumbled onto a gem with this one. Without going into spoilers, a V2 (maybe early V3) team RWBY and team JNPR end up in the Mojave Wasteland, and give Courier Six such a migraine that he honestly wished that Benny could have aimed better. Give it a read if you want, and if you leave a review, tell them I sent ya!
Once again, to preempt that one guy (I sincerely apologize if there's someone reading this with that actually has that as their account name, I'm not singling you out), yes, I'm aware gold doesn't rust IRL. But it does in Dark Souls, because you can get rusted gold coins in-game. Something-something I blame the Abyss for causing it. And since in this fic RWBY and DS are the same universe, gold rusts in RWBY too. This is a fictional universe with LITERAL MAGIC; the laws of physics can be different enough that gold can rust. I've already got into an argument with one reader over it when Vyliria mentioned it in passing in her thoughts before arriving at Beacon; I am NOT having this argument again, and I apologize in advance if I'm hurting anyone's feelings by saying this, but anyone who does complain about such a stupidly minor detail is getting ignored.
Hey, I forgot who left it in a review asking if Vyliria was gonna go full meta mode, but here's the chapter in which... well, the title says it.
With that said, let's light this bonfire and get this show on the road.
Review Response:
Rando guy that likes this FF: Poor oz, 18 pages, and I have the feeling they arent' too spaced out. I cannot for the life of me think of the franchise of that dream. Not much else to say, other than that, I will be surprised if only one other person reviews, also, neat to see that cinder has planned for Vyliria to be in, still waiting for that smackdown, seeing as it's coming closer. Been rereading the first few chapters, I have noticed an increase, if only slightly, of quality. Cya.
My response: It also has really small font, and yet not a single line hints at Vyliria actually being undead. Gotta love that Dark Souls paranoia. Mass Effect. I always list the title's of my recommendations, so you can search it, but it's a Mass Effect and RWBY crossover. I know more people are gonna review, I'm just saying that I'll be disappointed if you all can't wrack up 3 reviews by the time I go to sleep tonight (because if you don't you guys can wait eight hours until I bother getting up again). Things are coming. Things are certainly coming. It's also occurred to me that I have about 2 and a half months to finish the sequel if I want to start uploading it as soon as the last chapter for this goes up (might take a week or two of a complete break though, before I hop onto book 3). That's gonna be a tough one, since I'm planning for this to go up until the arrival in Atlas, but I haven't even cleared Volume 4 yet. Then again, it's summer, so I don't have classes slowing me down. I'll just have to buckle in and do some 8-12 hour writing sessions for like a week. Lastly, one of my personal goals for this was to improve my writing, so I'm glad that there's been any improvement at all.
Skeletalrepublic: Sneaking in sponsors of other fanfics now are we? Jokes aside, this is a banger of a chapter. Vyliria foiling Cinder's plan is funny as always and is what Cinder deserves. Seeing how much Vyliria cares for her friends at Beacon and her brutal honesty to Ozpin is nice and does show her humanity even as an undead
How stealthy of you.
My response: A response to your review at r/13808012/ Lol. Glad you're enjoying it. I REALLY had fun at the end of the story, the further I broke from canon. It was a nice touch.
CykaBlyatintensifies: Let the battle, BEGIN! Cool chapter. Guess Vyliria has her guard up so high that she knew Cinder's plan along. Also, I guess plan B is just to simply off Vyliria or Penny on the arena with a sniper or something. Would be fricking funny if Vyliria just come back a few minutes after getting killed and be like "WHO THE FUCK SHOT ME TWICE IN THE HEAD!?"
My response: It will certainly begin. And to be perfectly honest, if one knows Pyrrha's semblance, that Penny is a gynoid, and that someone with an illusory/hallucinatory semblance is messing around with the finals, it's not hard to imagine a scenario like what happened in canon. Unfortunately, Ruby only had two of those facts, though she probably still could have warned Pyrrha not to go nuts with Polarity.
As for plan B... let's just go with "or something."
Sm0keyPanda: Love the chapter, and the revised shoutout. Can't wait to see how the Ozluminati react to Cinder's plan with everything different.
My response: I mean, most of the reactions are gonna be off-screen stuff, like better preparing evacuations in Vale and updates to cybersecurity. Knowing an attack is imminent and knowing exactly how and when its gonna go down are two different things.
khenriquesdn: Always funny to see the OC screwing with Fire Bitch's "super fool-proof plan of DOOM". I'm looking forward for the battle of Beacon where Vyliria will defend the place she could call Home and protect her friends along with the merry band of thieves (Patches, Roman and Neo)
My response: Yeah, there was a LOT of things that could have gone wrong with that plan. Like, what if Yang had remembered Mercury's aura was down, and had just gone to block instead of hitting Mercury? What if Pyrrha just put a wall of Polarity that would have stopped Floating Array and nothing more? And those are just small things that were down to chance. Like, Vyliria hasn't really done anything big, and has already really derailed her plan. Also, I prefer to call it the "Ultimate Plan of Nefarious Evil" (name patent-pending).
I think you'll like the next few chapters.
Disclaimer: I don't own Dark Souls or RWBY. Dark Souls belongs to From Software and RWBY belongs to Rooster Teeth. I only own my own OCs.
(Vyliria)
Vyliria stood in the stands next to Yang, along with the other remaining finalists, enjoying the novelty of just being among these other contestants. Port had called out for the randomization to begin, but as the screens began to rapidly cycle through people, she felt a feeling of foreboding growing in her heart. Closing her eyes, she willed forth something from her storage, and in a small wash of embers no one else noticed, a rusted gold coin, with an image of an angel on one side, was clasped in her hand. As the first randomizer settled on the only Irithyllian in Vale, she thought back to how she had obtained it.
Vyliria had walked up the stairs of Firelink Shrine, quite vexed, coming around a corner to see the source of her ire standing there with his winged spear and wooden greatshield in hand.
"Patches," she said dryly.
"Ah, oh, you, you're alive…" he said, clearly uncomfortable with the situation.
"You really didn't account for someone having a homeward bone, did you?" Before he could answer, she added, "And even if I didn't, I spent all my souls already before I went up there, so I could have just used my darksign instead. Nevermind the fact that I'm unkindled, so I wouldn't have stayed dead to begin with!"
Patches was sweating, holding his hands up in a placating manner. "Now, hold your horses, let's have a nice talk about this."
"I'm listening," she said, crossing her arms.
"I'll come clean, I did you wrong. I didn't mean it, though, not one bit. You get these… urges… running the business and all… Oh, and I hate myself for it, I do. You know what I mean? Terrible, really. But I can see you'll forgive me. You're alive, after all, and that's what counts, right?" he finished, with a very nervous smile plastered onto his features.
Vyliria continued glaring at him.
"Oh, for heaven's sake, no need to jest with a face like that. You're still alive, and I'm here grovelling in the dirt, so to speak. Oh, I know! Here, a token of my sincerity. Right and proper, eh?" He fished out a rusted gold coin from his pocket, handing it to her, which she reluctantly accepted.
"Patches." The man looked at her. "This is physical money. In a land where we use souls as currency. This has no value whatsoever."
"No, no, no, you see! You crush it in your hand, because it's rusted and the metal is weak, and it gives you good luck! And who doesn't want free good luck?"
Vyliria deadpanned at him. "I want a twenty percent discount on whatever you're selling. Indefinitely."
"Now, now, let's not be hasty here! How about ten percent?"
"Fifteen. And you give back the armor and gear you stole from Siegward, free of charge," she delivered as her ultimatum, pyromancy flame crackling to life for added emphasis.
"All right, hold your horses. I'll take that deal, okay?" he said hastily.
"Right." she groused.
"Aw, come on! We're just a couple of outcasts, let's make the best of it!" He gave a laugh, and Vyliria rolled her eyes.
And as the second randomizer began to slow, tarnished golden dust slipped through the fingers of a clenched fist.
And as the second randomizer came to a stop, almost seeming to flicker for a fraction of a second, it landed on none other than Yang Xiao Long.
"And today's match will be between Vyliria Avalon of team JNAPR of Beacon, and Yang Xiao Long of team RWBY of Beacon!" Professor Port bombastically called.
"Yes, yes," Prof- Doctor Oobleck added. Godsdamn, am I ever going to get that right on the first go? "It appears that in addition to Miss Xiao Long getting back to back brawls, we'll also be having a bit of a Beacon Civil war on our hands!"
Vyliria turned to Yang at the same time the blonde brawler looked at her. "Well, well. I remember saying I was happy for a rematch after our first spar in our first combat class. I'll be looking forward to seeing how you've improved before I kick your arse."
"Oh, don't you worry, Vyliria. I've been waiting for this too, and you can rest assured that I'll win this tournament for Beacon," Yang shot back.
"May the best woman win," the Irithyllian concluded, giving a light bow before leading the way down to the arena.
Cinder Fall was not present, her team seemingly disappearing overnight, likely returning to Haven. Had Vyliria known she was still lurking about, and had she seen her at that moment, she would have idly been wondered if looks of intense enough rage might actually be capable of killing her, and noted that her eye was twitching once more, before snarkily suggesting that she get some medication for that.
()
Once more she was donned in her preferred armor. A quick toss of repair powder had removed all the scratches and dinks that had been accumulated since the last time she had patched it up. The Dancer's crown reflected the sunlight brilliantly, the scorched titanite of the black knight gauntlets gleamed, the abyssally forged armor of the knights of the Ringed City looked as it did when it was first pulled forth from the Pus of Man and sealed with fire by the gods, and the weight of the legacy of the drakeblood leggings was a comfort on her lower extremities. Her scythe was drawn, held behind her back in the stance that Friede had used to end her life so many times, and the light wind blowing made the aurora veil atop her head lazily trail in the air. She tuned out the crowd, let the adrenaline get flowing, and looked across to Yang. The nod Vyliria gave her opponent was returned, and she took a half breath as Doctor Oobleck (and she finally got it right first go) counted down the final three seconds to the match.
Even as the word "BEGIN!" reached her ears, Yang's fists were behind her and she shot forwards like a rocket. So Vyliria rolled, twisting a hundred and eighty degrees as she did so, standing up before Yang could realize what had happened, dismissing her scythe and calling forth her murakumo in a wash of burning ash. Her left hand shot out, grabbing Yang's hair, and even though she couldn't see Yang's face, she already knew her eyes were shifting red at her personal trigger being (literally) pulled. Yet Yang was too slow, the curved greatsword lashing out and striking her back, before Vyliria's right arm whipped back and slammed the blade onto the back of Yang's head while letting go with her left. Just because she didn't have the hornet ring on, didn't mean she couldn't backstab as if she did. Yang tumbled forwards, landing on her front, and Vyliria dismissed her weapon again, using a burst of cinders to call forth Gundyr's halberd, the mighty glaive making its debut in this age with a stomp from her foot, before she grabbed it with both hands and charged. Catching Yang on the wakeup, Vyliria heard her opponent grunt as she was carried by the charge, before she spun and whipped the weapon with her, slamming it into Yang and tossing her back to the ground.
Yang scarcely hit the floor once more and got out a "What the-" before Gundyr's halberd was away once again, and the comically oversized blunt instrument that was Ledo's greathammer, the same weapon used by the eccentric Silver Knight who was a friend to the legendary Havel the Rock, replaced it. Calling to stone, she dragged the weapon across the floor and collected the tiles as if they were metal and the weapon a magnet, Yang crying out as she barely got out of the way, only for Vyliria to raise the weapon overhead and slam it down. Yang was far enough not to be pancaked by the impact, but the rocks exploding off clipped her. In another burst of burning ash, the greathammer was replaced by two twin slabs of metal forged in the abyss and bound by fire, the massive Ringed Knight paired greatswords slamming to the ground, lighting up with the fire that caged them, before she whipped them both horizontally. Yang dodged the physical blades once again, but the wave of fire that slashed out caught her, stunning her long enough for Vyliria to flip, bringing the ultra-greatswords with her, before slamming them down in a fiery explosion.
Stamina utterly spent by the stupendous opener, she reflected that putting everything into a ridiculously flashy (and admittedly badass) combo when you knew it wouldn't be enough to instantly down the opponent might not be the best idea. She had just enough time to send her current weapons back to her storage before she received two great combustion augmented punches to the face, courtesy of a Yang who was not pleased, who also had her semblance given a pretty big boost by all the hits she just took. Three gunshot augmented strikes slammed into her stomach, making her grunt and knocking the wind out of her, but considering she had drowned in liquids that she would honestly be fine never knowing what they were actually comprised of, just having empty lungs was a problem she could deal with. What she couldn't deal with was the point blank chaos bed vestige impacting her, the giant fireball taking a large portion of her aura with it. Recovering her poise, she caught a right hook, and then a left, in an explosion of force, both kinetic and pyromantic accompanying each, before engaging in a struggle to keep Yang's fists in place. Yang gave a sudden smirk, before rearing her head back and sending it forwards to headbutt Vyliria, who grunted in pain at the impact, but was much better off than a Yang who was already regretting that decision.
"Might not want to headbutt someone wearing a helmet or metal face grille," she snarked, before taking the initiative and sending out a headbutt of her own, forcing Yang to flinch, before she gave a one-two pair of punches to the blonde's own face, following up with a black flame. As Yang disengaged to come up with something else, Vyliria sparred half a second to glance to the big screens. Her aura was just under half, and Yang was roughly 15% ahead of her. She didn't have any more time to herself, as she had to account for two turrets of floating chaos spewing fireballs at her, in combination with a great chaos fire-orb, followed by a series of buckshot cones hounding her, fired from Ember Celicia. She brought back Friede's scythes, and the Black Knight shield saw the light of day once more, blocking the ranged attacks almost effortlessly. Come to think of it, on anything smaller than one of Gwyn's elite, the slab of ornately carved titanite scorched by the fires of Izalith as well as the Kiln may as well be a greatshield. She ran forwards, tanking increasingly heavier pyromancies as she closed the gap to Yang, bashing her with the shield, kicking her backwards, and dismissing the blocking instrument as she gripped her weapon with both hands and swung. Two strikes landed, frost spreading across from the points of impact, before she ducked a right hook, then took a great combustion to the face from Yang's left hand. Leaping back, she swept her blade across the ground, creating a sheet of ice that shortly exploded to force Yang back, before drawing her support scythe and giving a spin, leaping into the air, slamming down atop Yang in a blast of frost, and whipping out to catch Yang with a much longer wave of ice right after. She didn't give the blonde brawler any time to recover, engaging in a flurry of swipes and slashes, though Yang gave as good as she got, either blocking some strikes or just powering through and hitting as she was struck, even as the frostbite reached a critical mass and arched across her form with a crackle. Yang slammed her fists to the floor, and an eruption of flame billowed out all around her, sending Vyliria back, though she caught herself before sliding off the ring by digging her scythes into the ground. Behind and above Yang, the scoreboards showed both combatants just above a quarter of their aura, though Yang was still bearing a slight lead. That semblance really let her take some punishment while still letting her come out on top. All the same, she felt that vow of silence would be a bit too cheap to use in an arena fight, so she wracked her brain for something else she could use.
Though as it would turn out, Yang all but handed her the opportunity by casting iron flesh upon herself. While the spell made you walk slower due to the incredible weight, you became nigh-unstaggerable, and your absorptions were boosted to absurd levels… except for one's lightning absorption, which was greatly reduced. And what did you know, Vyliria had quite a few means of offense that utilized lightning. She called forth Yorshka's chime, dodging fireballs and shotgun blasts alike as she went to meet Yang head-on, calling out a tale as she went.
By his own family ahbored,
Leading a lifetime of war,
The Nameless King fought beside his Stormdrake,
As their foes around them made the very earth quake,
And even as the enemies around them did swarm,
The Firstborn smote them all with a Lightning Storm!
At point blank range, just before Yang would have slammed her with some particularly potent pyromancy, a golden bolt of lighting lanced down from the sky, completely bypassing the hardlight dust barriers around the arena itself, striking Vyliria and rippling out across the ground in three waves. Yang screamed as the electricity arched across her body, golden flames visibly rippling around her as her semblance was charged even further, before going to cast a chaos firestorm. Vyliria backpedalled as hastily as she could, but was still caught by a single one of the pillars that erupted from the floor, the lava that awaited her reacquaintance with the ground draining her aura just that much more. Rolling back from her prone position, she got to her feet, seeing another chaos bed vestige sailing towards her. Thinking fast, she called forth the golden wing crest shield, looted from the knight Albert in the Grand Archives an age ago, parrying to activate the ancient magic stored within, a golden rippling spreading across the air, and narrowly deflected the main mass of the pyromancy, though it's corona still clipped her.
Deciding she needed to finish this, since they were both almost certainly a single blow from winning, she called out the Izalith staff, casting a sorcery giving form to an old memory of moonlight held by Darkeater Midir, from not long after the Beginning. The old moonlight sorcery created a phantasmal copy of a sword similar, but not identical, to the Moonlight Greatsword that still waited for its moment in her storage, centered on the staff. Yang gathered flames to her hands, and placed them behind her, yet Vyliria held her spell. Yang then blasted forwards fist reared back for a finishing blow, but even as she stared traveling the distance between them, the sorcery redoubled the brilliance with which it glowed, and Vyliria slashed with her staff, a brilliant teal wave of sorcerous moonlight erupting even as the blade itself dissipated after striking thin air, the projectile sailing forth and striking Yang mid-lunge, impacting full force and blasting the blonde brawler back. She struck the ground, bouncing twice before tumbling a few times, finally coming to a stop as a buzzer sounded.
Vyliria breathed heavily as she became aware of the crowds once more, hearing them cheering and shouting in shock and awe at wheat they had witnessed in equal measure, along with a minor portion still booing because she had swapped out with Pyrrha. You act as if I give any fucks whatsoever as to your opinions, she thought, before she heard Professor Port shout out, "What a match! What a massive display of arcane might from some of Beacon's best and brightest. And most certainly neither woman held back just because they were in the same school! Ladies and gentlemen, Vyliria Avalon of team JNAPR is victorious, and will carry her team further on!"
Vyliria raised a fist into the air, the Izalith staff rising with it, before dismissing her weapons and walking over to Yang. She offered a hand, and Yang accepted, grunting as she was hoisted up. "Sweet Gwyn, that gave me a run for my souls," Vyliria said. "Honestly, if you hadn't given me that opening with iron flesh, you'd have probably won, because I wasn't willing to use vow of silence to negate your semblance. That was a damn fine rematch, Yang, and you've clearly demonstrated a mastery of pyromancies."
"Yeah," Yang said. "That was a blast. Literally, and figuratively. I can't believe I forgot that iron flesh makes you weaker to electricity while fighting one of three people on Remnant with lightning miracles." She held her hand out, and Vyliria met it with her own. "You'd better win now, Vyliria. You're fighting for Beacon on your own now."
"Rest assured, I fully intend to. And I doubt anything short of a full scale war would stop me."
They both stood side by side, waving out to the crowds as the lights of hundreds, if not thousands, of scrolls winked as photos were taken. You know, even without this damn illusionist, this might have been the best decision I've made since I woke up in the Kiln, she thought, a smile hidden from the world plastered from ear to ear.
(Cinder)
"What do you mean, it didn't work? My codework is flawless!" The normally smug, yet now annoyed, voice of Arthur Watts erupted from the scroll Cinder had on the table of the warehouse she was in.
"I mean it didn't work, and it could have cost us the damn plan!" Cinder seethed back at him. "I went to set up a match, and the damn screens glitched and grabbed Xiao Long instead of Polendina! And the only damn consolation is that we don't have to deal with whatever made her get past Emerald's semblance!"
"Please," Watts derided her, "I spent a year making the Black Queen Virus. The only reason it could possibly fail to work as designed is either if you had absurdly bad luck, or someone else had very good luck."
"I'll be having words with you when we're done in Vale," Cinder threatened.
"Yes, and I'm sure Salem will bother to actually care about your petty annoyances when nothing actually happened," he replied, the smugness returning. He terminated the call before she could get the last word in, and it took all of Cinder's willpower to remove the scroll from the table before bringing a flaming fist down onto it and smashing it to smouldering kindling. She spent a few minutes raging in the privacy of the room she was using, before calming down enough to grab her scroll again without melting it. She tapped a contact, and waited as it rang.
"What?" the voice of Adam Taurus spoke from the other end of the call.
"We're going with plan B, but we're only using it on Avalon, and only when she matches with Polendina. This Irithyllian has irked me one too many times…"
"Fine. I'll set things up on my end." The call ended, and Cinder tossed the scroll to her bed. She willed forth a flame in her hands, and gleefully anticipated burning all who stood in her path.
(Penny)
Penny heard the bulkhead gently slid down behind her as she entered Ironwood's office on the Bulwark, wondering why she had been called in. Ironwood's expression was unreadable, and she didn't want to use her other tools to gauge his temperament for risk of him finding out and being angered. He merely gestured for her to sit on the other side of the desk he was at, and she complied.
"Penny," he started in a neutral tone, "I received a call from Professor Ozpin this morning. He found out about you. Do you know how?"
Penny blinked, unable to come up with an immediate answer. "No sir."
"He told me that he's all but positive that the illusionist who attempted to interfere in the match between Yang Xiao Long and Mercury Black likely intended to interfere in a potential match between you and Pyrrha Nikos. Who's semblance is-"
"Polarity," Penny finished, reaching the conclusions that the general had reached far faster than he had, eyes widening at the carnage that could have happened to her. "But Vyliria-"
"Is the one who told Ozpin, citing the possibility that someone intended to frame Pyrrha for your murder as reason for why she wanted to take the place of Miss Nikos," Ironwood said.
Penny felt a lance of hurt go through where her heart would be if she had one, one of several unpleasant feelings that had joined the better ones since she had absorbed that humanity sprite several months prior. "B-but, she promised she wouldn't tell anyone." Penny was sure that if she had tear ducts, she'd be crying.
Ironwood closed his eyes, and sighed, before speaking. "Penny." The gynoid looked at him forlornly. "I may not trust Vyliria, but she didn't betray your trust. Sometimes… keeping a promise could put lives at stake, or even get people killed. When something like that happens, the person who made the promise must weigh on a case-by-case basis as to whether or not saving lives or keeping their word is more important. I may barely know the woman, but I can assure you she didn't break that word lightly, and she only did it because she was scared that keeping her silence would see you hurt, or worse. Ozpin told me that it was causing her visible discomfort to say it. She did it because she cares about you, and wants to make sure her friend is safe, not because of anything else."
Penny felt the sadness and pain wither away as Ironwood spoke, replaced by something new, which a quick search of the CCT revealed to be hope. "Do you mean that?" she asked, eyes widening as that hope swelled to the point where it felt like her chest would burst.
"Again, I don't trust Vyliria, or her motives, or even her backstory. But she seems earnest enough in wanting to be your friend, and Ozpin told me that after she told him about you, that she made another promise: that she'd do anything within her power to ensure her friends were safe. And that certainly includes you."
Ironwood grunted, blinking in surprise as Penny jumped from her seat, clearing his desk and whatever was on top of his desk entirely, before giving him a hug. "Oh, thank you General Ironwood!"
The general's voice sounded bemused more than anything else, as he said, "Miss Polendina, this is not appropriate behavior for Atlas' best and brightest… but I'll allow it, just this once."
As Penny returned to the hug with full gusto, she reflected that she really did have the best friend in the whole world.
(Vyliria)
Elsewhere, Vyliria had the sudden premonition that a bone-crushing hug was coming her way.
()
A/N: Bet you weren't expecting that! The flashback with Patches was never written down prior to today, but it was fully thought out in my head from the early days of writing this, back in late September of 2020.
Those of you who are astute would notice that the scene of Vyliria just before she went to fight Yang is a parody of a certain scene done by Pyrrha. I like to make little nods like that.
I set up an eventual rematch way back during Fight Club, and while it wasn't in the original outline, I eventually decided that this would be the perfect place to have it. I had a blast writing it, and showing just how ridiculous a master of dark souls inventories can be. I also realized that there was a high chance that Yang would beat Vyliria this time around, barring shenanigans like vow of silence. Suffice to say, I ended up doing a coin-toss to decide who won this, and I adjusted things accordingly. And let me tell you, this story would have been DRASTICALLY different if I landed on heads. But life just looooooves being an ass to me, so of course the quarter landed on tails. So I had to throw my favorite Irithyllian a homeward bone and give her an excuse to even the odds so I could get her further towards the end of the tournament.
Making Cinder be pissed is fun. Unreasonably fun.
I couldn't do it. I couldn't make Penny sad. She's too pure to harm. And rest assured, while the end has been delayed, shit will be hitting the fan before this tournament is over.
In the original plan, Penny was going to fight Yang, and Vyliria was going to fight Sun (who was shown to be in the finals, but otherwise wasn't really on screen before the grand shebang kicked off) but then I realized that the latter would be a curb stomp, so it got swapped. Then I faced the dilemma of the fact that while it may not be easy, it would be inevitable that both for the plot I had planned, Penny would win, which would be kinda weird considering the buffs Yang got in this timeline. I was in the planning stages of a draft of that fight, before I realized that I had another plot thread I wanted to resolve, and decided to use that thread to mention the battle in passing. We got about 1 or 2 more chapters before the climax of the story begins, and I'm going to finally get to write a reasonable amount for a POV I've really been anticipating.
Also, I'm not asking or anything, but if I happened to do a google search one day in the near future, and found out this story has a TVTropes page, I'd be a very happy hollow.
(remove any spaces and underscores, replace any (slash) a "/" or ".", because FFN is annoying like that)
www_. deviant_art (slash) vyliria
http_s : _(slash)(slash)www.p_a tre_on.c om (slash) joecola