The time had come for the fortieth bi-annual Vytal Tournament and the atmosphere in the Kingdom of Vale was positively electric. The sun was shining and the Amity Colosseum was floating over Beacon Academy and the rugged landscape of Vale, giving a beautiful view of the mountains and valleys from above. It was in this arena that dreams would be fulfilled or ruined in an instant, and competitors would gain either eternal glory or perpetual shame. The occupants of the arena were anxiously awaiting the arrival of the competitors, who would give all that they had to honor their kingdoms.
"Good morning, viewers!" said a voice that boomed throughout the entire colosseum on the speaker system. "Welcome back to the fortieth bi-annual Vytal tournament! I'm your host, Peter Port, reporting from the Amity Colosseum in the beautiful Kingdom of Vale!" The entire crowd gave a cheer that could be heard from Beacon and the valleys far below. Peter Port was Beacon Academy's Grimm studies professor, whose job was to teach the students of Beacon about the evil creatures called Grimm and how to fight them.
Another voice spoke, this one belonging to Beacon's History professor, Bartholomew Oobleck. "Our next fight is between Team COAL of Vale's Beacon Academy and Team IRON of Shade Academy located in Vacuo! These students are not your average hunters in training! This is sure to be an exciting match!"
Colby Castanho walked into the arena with his teammates, nervous with all the people watching him but determined to bring glory to his kingdom. He had dark hair, brown eyes, and a caucasian, slightly tan complexion. He was about 5'11 tall, and wore a black jacket with a gray T-shirt under it. He also wore tan jeans for pants and black tennis shoes with white stripes on them. His undershirt also had his symbol on it, an axe crossing a lightning bolt. To his peers, he was known as the "Gray Lightning."
Colby looked around at his three teammates. They were Ouranos Chryseos, Autumn Ashford, and Lily Renarde. Ouranos was a tall, muscular boy with blonde hair and blue eyes. He wore a set of armor that was slightly gold-tinted and had a blue cape. Autumn was a dog faunus with long, unkempt red hair, green eyes, and dog ears. She wore a red jacket with a black shirt under it and tan pants. Finally, Lily was an arctic fox faunus. She had fox ears, blue eyes, and silvery white hair. She wore a long-sleeved blue jacket with a skirt covering the upper part of her legs and light blue stockings underneath.
As the team walked into the center of the arena, they got a closer look at their opponents. Team IRON's leader was a blonde-haired boy who was dressed in a white t-shirt, blue jeans, and a cap. He was holding a golf club. The other members were a dark-skinned boy with a staff-like weapon consisting of two swords and wearing a set of light green armor, a brown-haired, nerdy-looking guy wearing glasses and a labcoat and holding what appeared to be a laser rifle, and a brunette cowgirl dressed in a cowboy hat, boots, a vest, a pair of blue jeans, and carrying two revolvers on her belt. Team IRON looked tough, but Colby was sure he could beat them.
"You'll regret facing us!" He yelled to them.
"Bring it on." The blonde boy replied. "My team and I eat chumps like you for breakfast."
The holographic panels began to flip through random environment types, before one stopped on a forest biome. Trees, grass, and bushes began to grow on one side of the arena. The other panel landed on an image of a city, and the ruins of what appeared to have been a city rose on the other side of the arena. The battleground was ready, and the tension in the atmosphere was palpable.
After a few seconds of tense silence that felt like an eternity, Professor Port gave the announcement: "Three! Two! One! Begin!"
Immediately, the cowgirl and the scientist opened fire. Team COAL scattered, rushing behind trees and the walls of destroyed buildings for cover. Colby jumped behind a bush, where Lily was waiting for him. She was the team's strategist, and her semblance allowed her to calculate probabilities.
"Alright Colby, here's what we need to do," she said as she began to lay down a plan. "This arena has a lot of trees and building walls, so you need to use that to your advantage. It will be harder for them to hit you while you're up there. You'll need to distract one of those shooters while we push out of this cover. Be quick and whatever you do, don't lose your balance. I'll cover you."
Colby jumped into action and activated his semblance, which allowed him to jump up to twenty feet. The scientist turned up and fired a few laser blasts at him, but missed while Colby landed on a nearby wall. Meanwhile, Lily jumped out of cover and pulled out her weapon, a bow. She fired a volley of arrows at the scientist, who jumped out of the way.
Colby jumped down from the wall to be met by the boy with the double-bladed sword. He pulled out his weapons, two tomahawks that could be infused with dust and used as boomerangs. The boy charged at him and they crossed blades. Colby parried his attack and struck back, only to be blocked. The boy swung back at Colby, but he dodged the attack, got down, and kicked the boy's legs out from under him. The boy fell to the ground, but he rolled out of the way before Colby could bring a tomahawk down on him. He ran away, and Colby pursued him.
Meanwhile, Autumn and Ouranos joined the fight. The cowgirl opened fire on Autumn, but the latter pulled out her weapon, a sonic guitar, and started playing it. Its sonic waves blew the bullets back at the brunette, who jumped out of the way and opened another round. Ouranos ran up and started swinging at her with his battleaxe, but she pulled out the lasso that she used as a melee weapon and grabbed ahold of the axe with it.
"Yeehaw! I've got you now!" she yelled out in a southern accent.
"That's what you think!" Ouranos replied. His eyes glowed red, and his strength increased tenfold.
"It seems that Mr. Chryseos has activated his semblance!" Oobleck yelled in an excited voice. "Ouranos Chryseos can make himself super strong for up to thirty seconds and lift objects weighing up to a ton during that time."
Ouranos yanked his axe and the cowgirl back toward him, then punched her many feet into the air.
"What the hell is going oooooonnnnnn!?" The cowgirl yelled as she flew into the air and hit a tree with a thud. The whole crowd cheered.
"I ain't dead yet!" The cowgirl said as she got back up and fired a few more rounds out of her revolvers. Ouranos jumped out of the way, but took a few rounds. His aura soaked up the bullets, but he still felt a burning, piercing sensation in his abdomen as if the aura were not there.
"Let me handle this!" Lily called over to him. She ran up behind him, jumped up on his back and into the air, and fired another volley of arrows at the cowgirl, who was unprepared for them. They hit her square in the chest and abdomen, causing her to cry out in pain. Her aura dropped below 15%, meaning that she was out of the match.
A buzzer rang out, followed by Professor Port's announcement: "Oakley Alon has been eliminated!"
Meanwhile, Colby was still dueling against the boy with the sword-staff. He appeared to be gaining the advantage. The boy had the superior defensive weapon, but it was heavier and required a lot more effort to spin around then Colby's tomahawks. He swung his blade at Colby in a desperate attack, but Colby blocked it with one of his tomahawks and slid under the boy's legs. While Colby was behind the boy, he slashed at him with a well-placed strike and caused him to stumble a few feet back in pain. Colby raised an axe to finish him off, but a laser blast came out of nowhere and hit him in the left shoulder. He stumbled a few feet back in pain, allowing his opponent to regain his strength. Then, the golfer entered the fray to challenge him.
Faced with laser blasts and a reinvigorated opponent with backup, Colby had no choice but to retreat. The golfer and the dual sword wielder pursued him and he turned around to make a final stand against the two of them. Armed with two tomahawks, he was able to parry both of their attacks, but it was difficult. He had to duck and jump over and under their attacks to avoid being hit, but he took a bit of damage. It soon became clear to his teammates that he would need their help.
"We've got to get rid of that shooter," Lily said to her teammates. "He appears to be located close to that tree over there. I'm going to shoot a fire dust arrow over there. Ouranos, once he runs into the open, activate your semblance to throw Autumn into guitar range so that she can blow him away. Once he's gone, we can move in to assist Colby. With that, she fired an arrow into the forest. The trees caught on fire, and the scientist ran into the open to avoid being burned by the flames.
"Now, Ouranos!" Lily yelled. Ouranos activated his semblance and threw the dog girl into the air and right in front of the scientist. She played an epic blast of music on her guitar, and the scientist was blown out of the combat zone. A buzzer rang out, signalling his elimination.
"Ray Reed is down!" Port announced.
With the scientist gone, the rest of Team COAL moved in to help their teammate. Colby and Ouranos crossed blades with the sword-staff user, who simply no longer possessed the strength to fight two opponents. Colby blocked his last attack with one hand, then kicked him a few feet back and onto his knees. He threw a tomahawk at him and hit him in the head, knocking his aura below 15% and eliminating him from the match. Colby held out his hand, and the tomahawk flew back into it.
"Naseem Rowan has been defeated!" shouted Port.
Now, only the golfer was left. Despite his now desperate situation, he had a smug grin on his face. "Well done for beating my teammates. However, you will find that I am not so easily defeated!"
"This battle is already lost," replied Autumn. "You chose to enter this tournament and face the hunters of Beacon, and now you're going to have to face the music!" Autumn played another epic solo on her guitar, and the golfer was blown many feet into the air. Rather than go out of bounds, however, he grabbed ahold of a tree branch and flipped himself back up toward Team COAL.
In midair, he pulled out his golf club and several multicolored golf balls. He threw them up and whacked them down toward Team COAL. They had all sorts of elemental effects when they hit the ground. The red ones exploded in balls of fire, the blue ones covered a certain-sized area in ice, and the yellow ones covered their area of impact in lightning, and many others. Team COAL had to jump out of their path, lest they be pelted with vast elemental damage.
When he landed, his aura became visible and started to glow green. To demonstrate his new power,he whacked a nearby tree with his golf club. The tree instantly splintered into many pieces.
"It seems like Mr. Irving Dunstan has activated his semblance!" Oobleck announced. He can transfer however much of his aura he wants into attack power, allowing him to deal massive damage at the cost of his aura's strength!"
This meant that Colby would have to avoid taking any damage from Irving, lest he be eliminated in one hit. He activated his jumping semblance one more time, then jumped several feet into the air. Colby knew that his opponent's semblance had drained his aura. He just needed to make the last hit before Irving did.
Irving swung his club at Colby one last time, and Colby jumped out over it. Now, it was his turn to land the final blow. While he was in the air, he brought his tomahawk down on the Irving's head. His opponent fell to the ground, and a final buzzer signalled his defeat. The battle was over. Team COAL had won.
"And there you have it, folks! Team COAL has won the match and will be advancing to the Doubles Round!" Port's voice boomed over the speakers.
"Who's the chump now?" Colby asked as he looked down at his defeated opponent. The golfer didn't say anything. Colby reached down and extended his hand. "You gave us a good fight," he said. "You should know that I truly enjoyed fighting with you. You were worthy opponents." He pulled Irving up.
"It appears I misjudged you," the golfer said. "You're not chumps after all. I can tell that you're going to go far in this tournament and as a hunter."
"You're darned right I am," said Colby. "My name's Colby Castanho, and you'd better not forget it!"
Colby exited the arena, satisfied with his victory. His father had been a well-known hunter in Vale until he and his teammates went missing on a mission. Their bodies were never found, they were all presumed dead. Since then, Colby had dedicated his life to becoming the best hunter in Remnant to honor his father's legacy and ensure that no one else he cared about would be killed by the monsters called Grimm. His desire to be the best had driven him to alienate others through his arrogance and over-competitiveness, but he reasoned that those people just couldn't handle being in the presence of such a skilled hunter.
After leaving the arena, Team COAL went to the fairground to celebrate their victory. There, they encountered some familiar faces.
"Congratulations, Team COAL!" said a red-haired muscular boy wearing a black jacket with the Beacon symbol on it. "You all are amazing fighters."
"Thanks, Brick!" Colby replied. "I'm glad you realize that my team and I are destined for greatness." Brick was the leader of Team BRWN (pronounced "brown"), who started attending Beacon the same year as Team COAL. When they weren't studying, they enjoyed playing video games together, cracking jokes, and even sparring together. Brick and his team weren't competing, but they cheered their friends on.
"About that, let me talk to you in private, Colby." The rest of Team COAL left to get food, play games, or partake in other fun shenanigans. Autumn turned off her guitar's amplifier, allowing her to play it like a normal electric guitar. She soon attracted a large crowd of students from all kingdoms who were eager to hear her epic rock and roll. Colby and Brick sat down at a picnic table under a large tent.
"Now, what is it you wanted to say, Brick?" asked Colby.
Brick began to speak. "While your skill as a hunter is undeniable, you need to realize that your over-competitiveness is driving people away from you. People don't care how skilled you are as a hunter until they know that you care about them."
"Are you suggesting that people dislike me?" Colby asked indignantly. "We live in a dangerous world, Brick. People need to feel protected, and they will look up to mighty hunters like myself for protection."
"That may be, but they'll like you only out of necessity. They may even be afraid of you. All I'm asking is that you learn to care about your friends and the people around you more than you value fame or winning."
"Brick, I-"
"He's right," a familiar female voice interrupted. Turning around, he saw a beautiful girl with long red hair in a ponytail and green eyes. She was dressed in armor, and carried a sword and shield. She was Pyrrha Nikos, a member of Team JNPR and one of the most talented fighters that Beacon had ever seen.
"Pyrrha?!" Colby asked, a little bit startled. "What are you doing here?"
"Same thing you're doing, Colby," she replied as she sat down next to them. "I'm enjoying the Vytal Festival with my friends. Now listen: fame and winning aren't everything. I had it all back in Mistral. I even became the mascot for Pumpkin Pete's cereal. But even at the height of my fame, I never felt happy. Being so famous put an enormous pressure on me to live up to everyone's expectations. No one could relate to me and I never had any real friends. That's why I chose to attend Beacon instead of Haven. Now, I'm surrounded by people who relate to me and call me their friend not because of my fighting abilities but because of who I am."
"I don't have that luxury, Pyrrha. Listen to me! This is about so much more than my personal fame or how much everyone likes me. I fight for-"
He was interrupted by a loud cheer from the crowd that had gathered around Autumn. They had formed a large circle around her, and Lily had joined in along with Ruby Rose and Yang Xiao Long. Ruby and Yang were two members of Team RWBY, and they enjoyed rocking with Autumn and Lily. Ruby, Yang, and Lily danced to Autumn's music, and the whole crowd danced with them.
"Well, I'd better make sure my teammates don't get in trouble," Colby said as he got up.
"I hope you'll think about the things that Pyrrha and I have said to you," Brick said.
"I will," replied Colby.
"Not a chance," he thought to himself as he walked over to the crowd and pushed through all the people. "Alright Autumn, party's over. We're going back to Beacon now."
"Come on, Lily and I are having a blast!"
"We need to get ready for the Doubles Round. Let's go."
"Congratulations on your victory in the Team Round, Colby!" Ruby yelled to him over the crowd.
"I'll say the same to you. Your team fought well against Team ABRN. So who have you selected to represent you in the Doubles Round?"
"Weiss and I will lead Team RWBY to victory!" replied Yang.
"Well, good luck! You'll need it!" Colby said as he walked away. Out of the four members of Team RWBY, Colby liked Yang the most. He enjoyed her loud, outgoing personality and especially enjoyed partying with her. Colby also enjoyed Ruby's antics, but she had been a source of embarrassment for him several months ago. He had fought against Ruby in one of Professor Glynda Goodwitch's training sessions and thought that he would easily beat her since she was two years younger and less experienced than him. But she was so much faster than him that he couldn't land a hit. After a fast-paced and confusing battle, Colby had been humiliated in front of the whole class. Despite this, he came to forgive her and call her his friend.
The other two members of Team RWBY were Blake Belladonna and Weiss Schnee. Colby admired Blake's intelligence but thought that she was too quiet. And although he had initially been irritated with Weiss's snobbish personality, he came to like her after she started to warm up to those around her.
After Colby and his teammates found Ouranos, they returned to Beacon, and began practicing for the Doubles Round. After that, they went to their dorm and decided they had time for a game of Blockworld. It was a game in which players would walk around Remnant and collect natural resources with which to create tools or build buildings. They would have to watch out for Grimm while exploring the land. Particularly infuriating was a silent Grimm that exploded when players got close to it. This Grimm had a tendency to cause massive damage to players and blow huge holes in structures.
"ARGH! That damned exploder just blew up my house again!" Colby shouted angrily as he threw his controller to the floor.
"Don't get all worked up, Colby," said Ouranos. "You need your energy to continue training for the next round."
"No, you're right. We need to get ready. We're going to blow the competition away. Just you wait."
With that, the team went to bed for the night. As he was lying in bed, he thought to himself, "You didn't die in vain, father. I'll bring honor and glory to your name, our school, and our kingdom. No one will ever have to be afraid of the Grimm again."