One month ago, Team AMBR was formed and they had made themselves known among the first years at Beacon academy having quickly reached the top ten in the grade due to their impressive fighting skills. The leader Amber Rose was undefeated in the mock battles with a unique fighting style no one was able to match her speed and power. The team's tank was Mia Heart being able to outright avoid being hit and turning others attacks onto themselves. Bella was the oddball of the team having no weapon to speak of she manly used hand-to-hand combat and her semblance to disorient her foes, in the team battles she tended to hang out in the back and help her teammates. The final member of the team was Rod Broker, he was the strong silent type, but was not afraid to speak his opinion when annoyed and that tended to happen often with the team leader. He was known for causing confusion among his opposing teams with his semblance being able to turn into the other people, this was used to confuse his opponents by turning into their teammates or by turning into his teammates.
Right now, the team was in a bit of a dilemma over what to do with their team leader, she had been acting strange for a few days. She had become increasingly tired even falling asleep during classes, and becoming sluggish in battles she almost lost a battle to the leader of another team with a speed semblance. Her appearance had also changed, her normally messy hair had somehow gotten more unkempt, and dark bags had formed under her eyes. The red and blue members of the team had gotten so worried that they had asked her if anything was wrong but she just avoided the question and went away to do "something important", out of options they turned to her best friend and the leader of team ACCE; Amy Gem.
Knocking on the door they were greeted by Evelyn Jade, the teams' silent faunas. "Hey Evelyn," Mia Greeted. Evelyn waved. "Is Amy here we have to ask her something?". Evelyn nodded and let the two inside the team ACCE dorm room. She then went into the other room and after a few minutes came out with Amy in toe.
"Hey you two what's up?" Amy greeted her neighbors.
"Hey Amy do you have any idea what's going on with Amber?" Mia never one to beat around the bush asked.
"Oh, she didn't tell you? Thought she would have been done by now." She mumbled the last part so no one could hear but nothing can get past Bella's ears.
"Been done with what?" The blue musician asked.
Flustered Amy corrected herself, "Oh um, well she skipped a year to get into Beacon and has to take a bunch of makeup classes so she doesn't fall to far behind."
A collective realization came over the red and blue teens, they knew that Amber had skipped a grade and yet this simple answer never came to mind, then again, she never did mention any make up classes. "I guess that makes sense, I suppose were worried over nothing." Bella said with a relived sigh.
"Well glad I could be of help and next time you see her can you make sure she gets some sleep she's been working really hard." Amy said unusually fidgety.
"No prob, see ya later you two." Mia said with her normal energetic tone as the two walked out of the dorm and next door to their own. When they walked in they saw Ambers partner Rod sitting at his desk next to his bed.
"So, you find out what's been going on with Rose?" he said not turning around. Rod had been very adamant on calling her by her last name refusing to call her by her first name, much to Amber's displeasure.
"Amy said she's overworked I thought that maybe we could help her out a little, you know to take the pressure off a little." Mia suggested
Rod raised his eyebrow at that first statement, "Rose? Someone who was smart enough to skip a grade into the best school in the world all while finding time to slack off is over worked?"
The two girls in the room then looked at each other in confusion, "He has a point." Bella said quietly.
Their thoughts were interrupted when the door opened and their team leader stepped through. Mia remembering what Amy had told her spoke up, "Hey Amber you look tired you wanna go to bed early tonight?"
Amber was quick to responded with an energetic tone to rival Mia's, "That can wait i have something important to show you guys, come with me!" she then turned around and left the room leaving the MBR part of the team to quickly follow her.
"Rose, you mind explaining why the hell you've been acting weird this week and why you're so tired." Rod asked from the back of the group.
"If you shut your mouth and keep following me then I can show you." Amber said a little frustrated. They kept walking until they left the dorm building and ended up at the training arena.
"Why are we here?" Bella asked as they walked in.
As they reached the end of the short hall that led to the arena itself Amber stepped to the side and held out her arm welcoming them inside, "Take a look for yourself" The three walked in to see that in the center of the arena was a sword stuck into a pedestal, another holding up two red gauntlets, and a training dummy with something strapped to its back.
"Are those our weapons?" Mia said walking over to the gauntlets.
"Not exactly. You see I took the blueprints for your weapons and reforged them with some improvements on the original designs." Amber explained. The others shocked at what they just heard took a closer look at their new weapons. They looked very similar to the originals but there were some noticeable changes. Rod's sword that he never named had a new blade that was several inches thinner and when he flicked the switch in the cross guard the tip didn't swing down on hinges instead the tip split apart and moved down on rails preserving the swords shape and allowing him to fire his gun. The revolving dust piece also in the cross guard had more slots in it allowing for more types of dust to be loaded.
Mia's gauntlets were made more stream lined and a thicker piece of metal with a grey line running down the middle was added wrapping around her wrists. Fiddling around with it she was able to turn it and it glowed bright red and red lights lit up in the joints, putting it on her hand she tested it out with a powerful punch that sent a fire ball flying out the front of her fist. Literally jumping with joy, she looked at her very tired team leader, "THIS IS THE COOLEST THING EVER!" She yelled pumping her fists in the air accidently sending another fire ball out towards the celling.
Amber smiling ear to ear seeing how her hard work was making her team happy turned to Bella who was just standing there looking at the other two, "Not goanna check out your new weapon Bella?"
Bella tilted her head and looked at her, "I don't have a weapon you know that."
"Well, you do now." Amber said walking over to the dummy turning it around to reveal that it had two swords strapped to its back. The swords had long blue handles and the cross guard flared out and tapered back into the blade that was covered by a blue sheath, in the center of the guard was a black circle. Pulling out one of the blades that it was a single edged curved sword, a katana. Bella was in tears she only mentioned that she wanted a katana weapon once in passing and Amber had not made her one but two, "I call them the Azure Symphony. They were hard to make but when I got a small enough speaker it went pretty easy."
"Wait, speaker?" Bella questioned
"Well yeah, you can control sound waves and you can't keep whistling for an entire battle so I figured I would kill two birds with one stone." Walking over to her she pointed out a few buttons on the grip, "You can record sounds and play them back or you can play any downloaded or prerecorded sounds with these."
Bella could not stop the tears coming from her eyes, "Amber this is the nicest thing anyone has done for me." She said through happy tears.
Amber held out her arms, "Come here" she said as Bella tackled her in a tight hug. After a moment Bella let go, I hope you guys don't mind but I'm going back to the dorm room to sleep until Monday." She joked.
"It's Friday." Mia pointed out.
"Exactly." Amber yelled back as she left.
She then left the training arena hearing her teammates practicing with their new weapons bringing a smile to her face. When she made it back to the dorm building, she got in the elevator to the second floor, stepping out when the door opened, she walked down the hall towards the sweet release of sleep. She made it halfway down the hallway when someone grabbed her shoulder, "There you are." the voice was deep and, in her half, asleep state she panicked and grabbed the arm attached to the hand and pulled the mystery person in front of her pulling her other hand back ready to punch the person.
The person she grabbed was a boy with bright blonde hair and blue eyes they had strong features and were very handsome. "You're not Summer are you." They asked.
Letting go of the boy and lowering her fist Amber spoke up very annoyed, "Of course not how could you even mix the two of us up she's half an inch taller than me, she has white hair, oh and she wears a RED cloak not white."
The boy straitening his clothes started to explain himself, "I wasn't really paying attention," 'clearly' Amber thought to herself "and she was wearing a white cloak today. Who are you anyway."
"I'm her sister. My names Amber." She said now annoyed that her older sister never mentioned her little sister to her friends.
"Oh, she mentioned she had sisters didn't know any of them came here. I'm Arthur, Arthur Arc."
"Cool. Can you get out of my way now?" Amber said trying to get past him so she could sleep.
"Now hold on I just met my partners sister I want to get to know you a little." He said with a confident smile
Amber would have teleported into her dorm but her arm was still in bandages and she couldn't use her semblance. She wasn't really thinking through her words to focused on getting passed him and sleeping, "I really don't have time for that so could you please get the fuck out of my way."
Arthur was shocked and offended at what Amber had just said, he had expected her to speak with the same formality that Summer did and not use a swear out of no ware, "Watch your mouth, such words are unbecoming of a huntress and of a family of such high stature as your own." He was talking like one of the other rich kids that Amber grew up next door to and it only made her angrier.
"Look I don't give a shit about my family's image and right now all I care about is just going to bed so get out of my way."
"Not until you understand that you need to change your language."
"Oh, wow you're really tackling the big issues" Amber mocked
"Are you insulting me?"
"If you can't tell that I was mocking you then you really are an idiot." Amber insulted
"That's it I'm am teaching you some manners," he was cut off by the duel haired girl insulting him again.
"By making me write 'I will not swear' on a chalk board a hundred times?"
"On the battle field." He finished
"Oh, if you wanted to fight you could have just said so."
"Next Saturday at two PM."
"Cool. Can't wait to kick your ass." Amber joked.
He stormed off leaving Amber in the hallway. Shrugging the encounter off she continued to her room. When she made it inside, she went right over to her bed and passed out.
She was woken up by a knock at the door, sitting up and looking over she saw that it was the next day and the middle of the afternoon. Mia opened the door and was pushed aside by a tall girl with white hair and a red cloak, "Amber!" She shouted
"Oh hey 'sis what's up?" she said nonchalantly.
"What do you mean 'What's up'? You challenged my partner to a duel!" Summer yelled at her little sister.
"That guy was your partner?" Amber asked
"Should I leave or." Mia chimed in.
"It's fine Mia you can stay this really isn't a big deal." Amber responded
"What do you mean 'This isn't a big deal' You challenged the leader of one of the best teams in Beacon to a duel!"
"OOH we get to fight one of the top ten teams!" Mia blurted out.
"No, you don't, this fight is not happening." Summer's voice was stern and unwavering.
"I honestly don't see why this is such a big deal to you." Amber said a little annoyed.
"You picked a fight with not only my partner and team leader, but one of the strongest students in the whole school. You can't even use your semblance with your arm the way it is. I hoped that when you got here you would stop being so reckless especially after what's happened to Emerald and at the store!" She was yelling had turned into a plea halfway through but it fell on deaf ears.
"Get out."
She mentioned 'that'.
"Look Amber I'm sorry I-"
"I said 'Get out'." Amber's voice was full of more emotions than Summer could count, but one of them had triggered her silver eyes to glow.
Knowing she had crossed a line Summer turned around and left her sister's dorm room.
"Uhhh who's Emerald?" Mia chimed in once again
"No one." Amber said all emotion draining from her voice, "I'm going to train." She walked past her teammate and grabbed Crescent Thorn off the weapon rack on the wall, slamming the door behind her.
She spent so long in the arena that the early afternoon turned to sunset and sunset to night, over a hundred of the robotic training dummies had fallen to her scythe and she was not slowing down.
Her thoughts were more jumbled than a ball of yarn and with every slash of her blade and every bullet fired her thoughts untangled a little more. Her lungs felt like they were inside a furnace and her legs ached as they barely worked, giving in to her body's messages to stop she sat down the hard concrete floor but to her it may as well have been a pillow she had sat on. Pulling out a water bottle she grabbed from a vending machine earlier she opened it and finished it in seconds, she crushed the bottle and threw it behind her not hearing the hollow sound of it hitting the ground. Turning around to see where it landed, she instead saw a man standing with his arm out stretched with the empty bottle in hand.
He was wearing metal plated boots and brown pants with a blue belt. He wore a gold painted chest plate and blue sweater with golden bracers on his wrists. Looking up at his face she saw the same blue eyes, strong features, and blonde hair of the boy she had pissed off yesterday.
Looking out at the field of dummy corpses, scrap, and wire Arthur saw the girl in the center of it all, "Did you do all this by yourself?" he asked in awe and disbelief.
Looking back in front of her Amber gave her answer, "I needed to clear my head, I got a little carried away."
"I've done a little research into you," Amber looked back and tilted her head with a raised eyebrow "your one of the top first years the only thing that's been holding you back is that one of your teammates doesn't have a weapon and you can't use your semblance. You were also let into Beacon a year in advance because of your skills in combat. Other than that, I couldn't find that much else." Arthur had by this time walked over to where Amber was sitting, having to step over several broken bodies in the process.
Chuckling Amber let her confident smile spread across her face as she looked up at the boy, "Well that thing about us being one of the best is about to change."
"How so?" He said sitting down next to her.
"Well, I'm getting these off tomorrow." Amber said lightly tugging on her on her bandages, "And I made my team new weapons."
"You forged your team members new weapons? That must have taken a long time when did you finish?" Arthur said a little baffled.
"Yesterday I think, I'm not too sure, I lost so much sleep I could barely think straight." Amber said chuckling.
"You must really care about your team to go out of your way to do such a task." The blonde gave her a small smile.
"Well, I am their leader and I want to gain their respect and trust while also trying to be a good friend." Amber was looking off to the side with a smile on her face.
"It's great that you picked up on that. I made the mistake of being a leader over a friend when I first started." Arthur's smile faded a little as he remembered how cold he was during his first year.
"Well, that's not always a bad thing." Amber paused to collect her thoughts, "Being their leader is important on the battle field but it also helps in everyday life. But if you go overboard then you might end up hurting those around you." Amber was now looking straight up at the sky.
"You are very insightful."
"Well, I have my moments, they tend to happen when I'm not sleep deprived." They both started laughing when they started to calm down Amber remembered why her sister had come to see her earlier that day. "You know my sister wants us to call this whole battle off, and I'm thinking we should for her sake." Doubt had filled Amber's voice.
"I know what you mean she did seem worried for you when I told her this morning." Arthur's voice was also doubtful.
"Worried for me? I think she's worried for you." The doubt had left her voice and was replaced with a cocky tone of voice.
"What makes you say that." He said confused. Amber using her thumb pointed out at the sea of broken robot parts while looking him in the eye. "Oh. H-How many dummies did you kill before I got here?" He questioned with a shaky voice.
"Don't know. I stopped counting at fifty." Amber said laying on the floor stretching her arms.
"T-that's insane the record from last year was fifty-two." Arthur's voice became more and more uneasy 'Who is this girl'.
"Really?" He nodded, and she laughed at his confirmation, "Damn I must have crushed the record!" Her voice was filled with childlike excitement.
"You can say that again." Arthur said shocked and intrigued at the same time. A thought came to his mind that he had to ask, "Your sister may want us to call off this battle but how about we change the rules?
Amber looking over at him and raised an eyebrow in intrigue, "You have my attention." she said in a sing song voice.
"It's a simple change, we have Mrs. Belladonna oversee the fight and we end it after one of us hits half arura."
Briefly mulling over the options Amber made a suggestion of her own, "Twenty-five percent."
"Thirty-five."
"Deal. See you here in a week." Amber then got to her feet as fast as possible only for her legs to give out on her, sending her plummeting towards the floor with a shriek, "AH!".
Arthur caught her right before she hit the floor, "Are you okay?"
"I think my legs stopped working." Amber joked again.
Chuckling Arthur picked her up and draped her right arm over his shoulder, "Where is your dorm room?"
If Amber had a choice, then she would have rather limp down the hallway to her dorm, but it was already late and this was faster, "Second floor room 276.".
Arthur nodded and started to walk out of the training arena. On the way out they found a control panel that showed the number of the robotic training dummies that had been taken down by Amber, 'one hundred and sixteen'. "That can't be possible' Arthur started to think to himself but his thoughts were interrupted by Amber pressing a button on the panel that released a swarm of cleaning drones. "Come on let's go, I want to get to bed before it turns midnight." She punctuated her statement with a yawn.
"Sure, let's go." Arthur had to hide the slight fear in his voice over the fact that he had to fight this girl in a week. They made their way towards the dorm rooms a little slowly because Amber had trouble walking. When they made it back to the dorm room, they had earned a few looks from other students all of which Amber just shrugged off, but she still felt a little embarrassed by the time they had reached her dorm.
She knocked on the door and Rod was the one who opened it. "Who the hell is this." He said raising an eyebrow.
The voice of Mia could be heard from behind her partner, "Isn't that the guy you have to fight later this week?"
"I'll answer your questions in a second, now can someone help me please I can't walk." Amber said with an annoyed smile.
Mia jumped to help her leader helping her over to Amber's desk by her bed, and Arthur made his leave closing the door behind him. Rod sat down at his desk on the other side of the small room when Bella walked in through the joint kitchen, they shared with Team ACCE with Amy and Evelyn in tow.
"So Rose, who was that guy you showed up with?" Rod asked with his monotone voice.
"Wait you showed up with a guy?" Amy asked a little out of character.
"It was the guy she has to fight on Saturday." Mia chimed in
Sighing Amber cut in before anyone could make up a rumor, "I worked a little too hard in training and he was in the area so he helped me that's all."
The silent Evelyn was giving her a sly smile. "What's with the smile." Amber said annoyed, causing Evelyn to put her hands up in a surrender still with her smile. "I am not doing this is there any food left in the kitchen." Ambers annoyed tone rising as she stood up forgetting that her legs were numb falling down towards the floor. Bella was quick to react and catch her friend, "Thanks Bella." Amber said with a relived sigh.
"It's no problem." She said helping Amber back to the chair she was just sitting on.
"We saved you some dinner I'll go and get it." Amy said as she turned and went back into the kitchen shortly followed by her partner.
She returned a few minutes later with a plate of spaghetti add a glass of what Amber assumed to be water. She gave Amber the plate and placed the glass on her desk as she sat down next to her. "You have a bad habit of getting hurt you know that."
"I'll be fine tomorrow, don't worry." Amber quickly finished her reheated dinner placing the now empty plate on her nearby desk. She spent the rest of her night talking with Bella about music until they called it a night and went to sleep.
The rest of the week went by quickly with the team taking tests and battling against other teams. With Amber able to use her semblance and with all of the members of the team with upgraded weapons they were able to break the top ten for the best teams in the first year. Sitting comfortably in fifth place. It was Saturday and that meant the match with Arthur had come, and for once Amber was going to be taking a match seriously.
By the time Team ASHH arrived they saw the white cloaked girl standing in the middle of the arena patiently waiting. Arthur made his way down to the arena while the others stayed in the stands. Shortly after teams ACCE and what was left of Team AMBR joined them in the stands. "Hello Mia, Bella, Rod glad to see you came." She looked over their shoulder to see Team ACCE, "And who are you four." She asked with a friendly tone and smile.
"Oh, I'm Amy and this is my team." she motioned back to her team members, "This is Evelyn, Crystal, and Christen."
Evelyn pulled out her scroll and began typing on it while the others introduced themselves. "Hello it great to put a name to a face." The boy Christen spoke up, he had green eyes and short brown hair. He was wearing a lad coat and a black undershirt; he was also wearing blue jeans and hiking boots. A simple outfit but he had left all of the dust vials and his gun back in the dorm sense he wasn't going to need them.
"Hi I'm Crystal Gold." She spoke quietly and waved weakly. She wore a black jacket with several gemstone patterns of varying colors running down the sleeves, with similar black pants, again very simple, but she seemed to have trouble expressing herself giving her shy demeanor.
Finally, Evelyn looked up and turned her scroll around for all to see, open on the screen was a notepad app and on it displayed a sentence, 'Hey, Amber has mentioned you a few times.' Evelyn was the most expressive member of her team with pink hair that was clearly dyed because she had two dark brown rabbit ears sticking out the top of her head. She was wearing her casual clothes but she still stood out among the group. She was wearing a bright pink coat with a white fur interior and short pink skirt with a bunny stitched into the fabric. She toped it all off with pink sneakers and long white socks. Amber liked the white and pink combination but Evelyn took it to a whole new level.
"It's great to meet all of you I'm glad my sister has made friends she can trust." Summer sounded very happy for her sister. "OH! This is the rest of my team meet Hanna and Hendrickson King." She pointed out the two figures standing behind her. They wore similar tan jackets but the boy Hendrickson was wearing a blue undershirt while Hanna wore a red undershirt. Hendrickson was wearing blue pants and brown hiking boots with blue lacing, but Hanna was wearing a red skirt, brown leggings and brown boots with red lacing. They had the same hazel eyes, but Hanna had long hair that stretched down just past her shoulder blades while Hendrickson's hair was short and combed back. They looked like mirrors of each other.
"Thanks for remembering we exist Summer." Hendrickson joked leaning over the railing.
"Oh, shut up Hendrickson." Summer snapped back with a smile. The girl Hanna giggled and sat down in a nearby seat in the front row to watch the match. Everyone else followed suite with Teams AMBR and ACCE sitting higher up in the stands and Team ASHH sitting in the front row.
Arthur walked out onto the battle ground and turned to where his team was sitting seeing that they had been joined by a blonde cat faunas, "Looks like Elizabeth will be watching our match." he said as he turned towards his opponent. She was standing in the center of the arena her hood up obscuring her eyes. He could only see the bottom half of her face but from what he could see she had no expression, she stood out like a sore thumb in the middle of the arena.
"Yeah, she just showed up. I guess Blake's now far behind." Her voice was flat and serious. 'This can't be the same girl from the other day' Arthur thought to himself. She was right and Blake showed up in the battle arena less than a minute later. She instructed the two of them to opposite sides of the arena and on the large screen high above the pit light up with pictures of the two combatants on display. A green bar appeared underneath their pictures displaying how much of their aura they had left.
"The match will end when one of the two either can't battle anymore or their aura reaches below 35%. Is that under stood?" The cat faunas asked looking between the two teens. They nodded in response. "Good the match begins in 30 seconds."
Amber pulled Crescent Thorn off her back and unfolded it into its scythe form with a spin. She put herself into a battle stance that Arthur had never seen. She was in a charging stance with her left leg in front of the other leaning forward, Her weapon was behind her back with the blade extending just behind her right shoulder and the rest of the shaft extending past her lower back. He took up a boxer's stance and got ready for the fight as the clock ticked down.
"Who do you think is goanna win Summer?" Hanna turned to her teammate
"Well Arthur is tough but I can't root against my little sister." She stated with a bright smile.
"Really? You're rooting against Arthur." Hendrickson looked over bewildered
The blonde faunas broke in, "I can't blame Summer on this one. Arthurs got some power behind him, but the runt's got more strength then a pissed of Ursa Major." The other members of team ASHH looked confused for a second but their thoughts were cut off by someone yelling from behind them.
"YOU GOT THIS AMBER!" Mia shouted at the top of her lungs. Rod and Bella covered their ears at their teammate's sudden outburst. Amber, down in the pit seemed completely unfazed by Mia's shouting. Her attention was focused on the battle ahead of her.
The clock kept ticking down and with each tick the adrenaline was building inside of her. Ten seconds. Her team mates cheering grew louder. Five seconds. She focused her gaze on her opponent blocking out all other sounds. Three seconds. Her body stiffened. Two seconds. She adjusted her stance slightly. One second. She put all of her weight on her front leg.
Zero. Amber disappeared from where she was standing and reappeared behind Arthur, and she spun around and swung her scythe at the taller boy aiming for his legs. He expected a strike from behind and took a step forward to avoid the blow. He turned on his heel to face the cloaked girl. Amber charged at the blonde and went for a strike to the head with the back end of her scythe only for Arthur to dodge again, not letting up on her assault she used her momentum she sung around and kicked him in the chest sending him back a few feet.
Arthur steadying himself after the sudden kick he charged forward and threw a right hook at Amber's face only for her to catch his fist. She pulled him closer and threw her own left hook landing square in his face. Stumbling back for a second, he regained his balance and whipping a small amount of blood that had escaped from his nose. Her fighting style was relentless and powerful, but Arthur knew how to adapt.
His aura swelled across his body as he held out his right hand, and his aura concentrated around his palm as it began to extend beyond his body and took the form of a Bo staff. In the stands Team ASHH, plus Elizabeth, let out a cheer while Teams AMBR and ACCE were confused. "How did he do that?" Bella asked slack jawed.
"His semblance must allow him to control his aura in a way that allows with to make weapons out of it." Rod explained breathlessly.
"That's impossible the amount of aura someone would need to do that without leaving themselves defenseless is insane." Mia retorted loudly.
"Well Amber's semblance is teleportation, an ability long thought to be impossible, but if she doesn't have enough aura then she could end up hurting herself." Amy broke in.
"YOU GOT THIS AMBER!" Mia shouted again trying to encourage her teammate.
Amber went in for another attack only to be blocked by the staff. She continued her assaults getting blocked at every turn, and Arthur was getting cheap blows in whenever possible. Over time he was able to slowly whittle her aura down until it sat just below seventy percent. Arthur had pieced together her fighting style by now, it was a rare form of scythe and hand-to-hand combat know as the 'Reaper Style'. The first strike was quick and the momentum from the first strike would carry over into the next and the momentum from that strike into the next and so on. Users of the style rarely blocked strikes instead preferring to use the opponents attack against them or a quick counter leaving them open for another more powerful strike to begin one of the styles signature deadly assaults. It was a rare style mostly because of how difficult it was to learn and it was only effective for a small selective group of weapons, and a speed type semblance was also needed to be used to its full effect.
Arthur went on the assault now, knowing how she attacked now he could block her strikes and get more damage in. Being forced on the defense had no choice but to doge each an every strike, she was light on her feet but still barley managed dodge all of his attacks. After a solid two and a half minutes of dodging she got an idea. Arthur swung his aura staff down aiming for Amber head and as expected she dodge out of the way only to grab the shaft and pull him in close ready to sucker punch him. Thinking fast Arthur focused his aura to his head to help block the blow, only for the girl to teleport behind him and fire several high-powered rounds into his back. With his back weakened by the lower amount of aura, he took more damage than he would have normally. Stumbling back a few feet and turning around to face the girl, whose hood still covered her head, he saw her pulling the pin on a grenade like object. Waiting for the timer to tick down until a few seconds remained before it exploded, she threw the explosive at Arthur landing at his feet. The timer hit zero the mechanism went off and a loud bang followed closely by a bright light went off.
Disoriented by the sudden flash bang strike he couldn't prepare himself for the onslaught of attacks brought down by Amber. Slashes, gunshots, punches, kicks all aimed to cause as much damage as possible. He was knocked onto the floor after being brutally kicked in the chest quickly followed by another gunshot. Looking up at as his vision started to return to normal, he saw his attacker standing over him. Her body was angled slightly to the side, and her scythe was at her side with the blade at her feet. Her cloak almost seemed to be blowing in a nonexistent breeze and the rose petals created by her semblance blew in this same breeze circling her. Her expression was blank just as before, but he could see a faint silver glow from beneath the hood. She tightened her grip on her weapon and a small smirk grew on her face.
She spun her weapon behind her back as brought it up in the air and swung down at the boy with all her might. Rolling to her right to avoid the attack he got up as fast as he could and created a shield on his left arm. He was worried because in jus ta short time his aura was lowered from ninety-three percent to forty-seven percent. Amber went in for another attack with a downward swing of Crescent Thorn. Arthur blocked the attack with ease, but Amber had expected that and used her scythe to catch the top of the shield and using her momentum vaulted over Arthur landing behind him. Stunned by her sudden agility Arthur turned around to see were she landed he was hit by a roundhouse kick to the face.
He was on the floor again and Amber was ready for another attempt at the strike that he avoided a moment ago. Instead of rolling out of the was Arthur brought up his shield to stop the incoming scythe blade and parry the strike. After the successful parry he got up quickly and created brass knuckles on his right hand and punched Amber in the stomach. Transforming the brass knuckles to a sword Arthur went on the attack. His slashes were fast, uncontrolled, and lacked form to an outsider he looked desperate, like a wild animal backed in a corner. Amber was fast but she was still hit a few times. Backing away from Arthur she looked up at the large screen that displayed how much aura they had left she saw that they were almost equal with Amber having just a little more than Arthur.
Amber trying to come up with a plan to deal with Arthur's new more animalist strategy was silently analyzing his movements. He was over swinging his sword leaving him open to an attack after he finished his, but this window was short as he would begin his next attack shortly after the last one. It might not have been perfect but it was the best she could come up with. Dodge any attacks he makes and try to attack when he was open, and if he uses his shield to block then use the blade of her scythe to move it out of the way and go in for a powerful kick.
With her plan she charged at the tall blonde. She dodged his first strike and swung her scythe from a low angle at his chest. As expected, Arthur moved his shield in the way to block the strike, but Amber used her semblance to reposition her body so her scythe was coming down from an upward angle catching the top of the shield pulling it away. With Arthur defenseless she was able to kick him in the gut shortly followed by a roundhouse to his head. As she was about to bring her scythe down to end the match, she was hit in the gut by a pole coming out of Arthurs hand. Amber teleported a few meters away from where Arthur was standing. The pole that was formed out of his hand grew a large weight at the end creating a war hammer made of aura.
Amber was put on the defense again having to deal with a new weapon and having to come up with a new plan. She was forced to use her semblance more then she would have preferred. She couldn't be hit with the large weapon as it would destroy what little aura she had left. She had already used her flashbang and dust grenades were banned in student battles. The only plan she had was dangerous, bust she can't keep dodging like this. Teleporting in front of Arthur she got ready for his next attack. He responded to her teleporting by raising his hammer high above his head and swinging it down at her. Waiting until the absolute last second to teleport to safety she disappeared from under the hammer's head and to the side of Arthur. The hammer's head was now stuck in the ground and unable to move. Amber not wasting this moment pulled out her sidearm pistol and fired a low-caliber bullet at his forehead. The last thing Arthur saw before the world went black was Ambers expressionless face and the silver glow emanating from under her hood. The resulting shot sent Arthur sprawling onto the floor and lowering his aura down way past the thirty-five percent mark set to end the match.
"The match is over; Amber Rose is the winner!" Blake shouted.
Up in the stands Hanna and Hendrickson were in shock at what they just saw, "That did not just happen." Hanna expressed standing up from her seat.
"How is that possible." Hendrickson breathed out running his hand threw his hair.
"Would you look at that; the runt did it." Elly said nonchalantly putting her hands behind her head. Summer got up and cheered with the others in the back row.
The teens got up and raced down to the battle field below them to congratulate slash comfort their teammate. Summer was the first to make it down to the arena and when she got there, she saw that Amber had taken her hood off. When she reached her little sister, she tackled her in a hug.
"Oh, my gods Amber I can't believe you did that!" She said through tears of joy.
"Thanks Summer, but I had a good control on that battle." Amber said
"I don't know Rose, you seemed to have a little trouble when that guy pulled out the war hammer." Rod said as everyone else approached.
"I did have a little trouble but I still won." Amber retorted
"Your 'plan' could have cost you the battle if it didn't work." Rod said crossing his arm.
"Well, I would have used a grenade but those are banned in student battles." Amber half yelled back at her partner.
"WILL YOU TWO STOP ARGUING FOR FIVE MINUTES!" Mia yelled at her teammates.
Rod sighed and pinched the bridge of her nose, while Amber just giggled and turned back towards everyone else present.
Arthur opened his eyes to see the twins and Beacons combat instructor looming over him. Sitting up with a groan he looked over at the small group surrounding the first year that just beat him. Standing up with some help from his teammates he walked over to where Amber was standing.
"Good match Amber, I can say with confidence that you are one of the strongest fighters I have ever fought against." He held a proud smile on his face.
"Thanks, Arthur I could say the same about you. I did not expect you to be able to create weapons out of aura." Amber praised.
"It comes from my father. His semblance allows him to enhance other people's auras with his own." Arthur explained.
"Mr. Ark will need to take you to the infirmary to check for any injuries." Black said authoritatively.
"Of course, Mrs. Belladonna." Arthur then said his good byes and left with the older cat faunas followed by his team.
Amber was about to leave when she got an alert on her scroll, and so did the others on her team. Pulling her scroll out she saw that beacons ranking board was already opened and it was set to the first-year rankings. She saw her team in fifth place with the number of points they had accumulated through out the last month displayed next to it. After a very confusing moment they saw a large number of points being added to their total and their named jumped up from fifth place all the way to first place.
"NO WAY" Amber yelled
"What is it?" Crystal asked
"Yeah, did something bad happen?" Amy asked tilting her head
"The opposite in actually." Amber said as she turned her scroll around to show Amy her scroll, "We're the number one team in the first year!"
"That's incredible Amber." Amy said equally excited, "I guess we're gonna have to worked harder to catch up to you guys." She said almost like a challenge.
"Rose you might want to look back it only gets better from here." Rod broke in.
Looking back, she saw that her screen had changed from the first-year rankings to the schools ranking. They were previously in the low fifty's but quickly rose into the mid-twenties. The whole team was in shock at what they were seeing.
"I think I have a new goal for us." Amber said calmly. All others present looked at her waiting for her to continue. "we're gonna be the number one team in all of Beacon."
The others would have called her crazy especially sense all of the top three teams were in the fourth year but from the evidence they had just seen it might just be possible. The MBR parts of the team exchanged looks amongst each other and turned back towards Amber and gave her a slight nod.
"Well don't expect us to be falling behind." Amy exclaimed.
"Wouldn't bet on it" Amber joked as she turned towards her friend.
Far away just out side of the kingdom of Atlas late at night, Coco Adel was crouched in a bush wit ha bunch of soldiers watching their target closely waiting for the perfect time to attack. The grim they were tracking was an Ursa standing five meters tall (16 feet) and completely white as it was covered head to toe in the boney plates that grew out of their bodies. It was an Omega. A local spotted it a week ago after it destroyed his farm killing his family, and Coco was called in with the military to kill it before it could be spotted by anyone else and cause more harm.
It was standing in the middle of a clearing standing sniffing the air and fidgeting around letting out the occasional grunt. 'Somethings got it on edge' she thought to herself. They couldn't attack with it like this, all they could do was retreat and track it down again when it calmed down. Right as she was about to back out of her hiding place the Omega Ursa focused its attention on a path leading into the clearing on the opposite side of the clearing from where Coco and her temporary team were hiding.
A heavy dark red fog spilled on to the floor of the clearing coating it, as a large looming four-legged creature came into view. Its dark red eyes shown clearly through the darkness as it stepped out of the dark path and into the light of the moon its full form was revealed. It resembled an Omega Beowolf standing four and a half meters tall (14 feet), its joints were exposed, a rarity for Omega class grim, and its fur wasn't the pitch black that covered a normal grim's body but rather a deep red. Its plates were grey instead of white, and the red markings that decorated a grim's plates had turned black. Strange holes had formed in the armored plates and the red fog was spewing from these vent-like holes. The same fog was falling out of the grim's mouth. It moved slowly and stopped twitching slightly as it looked up and matched the Ursa's gaze.
The Omega Ursa let out a roar loud enough to wake the gods, and the red and grey Beowolf let out a roar of its own causing more of the red fog to pour out of its mouth. The two large animals charged at each other enveloping each other in deadly bear hugs. The Ursa seemed like it had the upper hand at first landing heavy blow after blow on the Beowolf causing large cracks to form in its plates sending more fog into the air, but the longer the battle went on the slower and weaker the Ursa got. Slowly the Beowolf was gaining the upper hand land causing large chunks of the Ursa's armor to fall off. After a long battle and the Beowolf's attacks getting more and more aggressive the Ursa fell to the ground and started to fade into dust. The red Beowolf stopped as soon the large bear like creature fell and turned to leave, but dropped to the floor soon after succumbing to its wounds, beginning to fade into the red fog the emanated from its body.
Coco thinking ahead recorded the whole nearly hour-long battle between the two titans on her scroll. Putting her scroll in her pocket she left the bush to examine the scene that lay before her. One of the soldiers stepped over to the large red Beowolfs corpse and took off his helmet, "Hey! Put that back on you don't know if that gas is dangerous." Coco ordered from where she was standing next to the Ursa's body.
The soldier scoffed at her statement and pulled out a small vile to take a sample of the red fog that sat near the floor. He stood back up and walked over to where Coco was standing handing her the vile. "See I'm fine." His sentence was cut off by him coughing up large amounts of blood and collapsing to the floor. The soldier kept coughing up more blood until he rolled over onto his back as the life left his eyes.
"Damn it." She mumbled under her breath. "Let's get back to base camp, and someone notify his next of kin."
The group left the gruesome scene wit hone one the soldiers having to carry his fallen comrade's corpse for the two miles back to their base camp. When they reached the camp, Coco handed the vile off to the in field forensic team to identify what the gas was, and went into her privet tent and sat down at her laptop and made a video call.
When the person on the other end picked up, he looked almost surprised. "Mrs. Adel I wasn't expecting a call from you today. Aren't you out on a mission for special forces?"
"Good to see you too Oscar. And yeah, I am, that's why I'm calling you in the first place." She explained.
"Well then what is it?" He said in worried confusion.
"I'm sending you a video, I believe mt team and I may have found a new type of grim, and with you as having lived for hundreds of lifetimes I thought you might want to see this." Coco then plugged in her scroll and uploaded the video to Oscar. "Now I don't really want to do this, but I'm going to be contacting all of the other academy's and asking that their best teams be drafted into the special forces. We are running low on hunters and we both know that a hundred soldiers aren't as powerful as one hunter."
"I hoped it wouldn't come to this either, but I believe I have a team that will fit perfectly in with the special forces." He said a little disheartened.
"Good, I will be in Vale in about a month, see ya then Oscar." She said lightly as she terminated the call.
Oscar was left sitting in his office contemplating about weather or not what he was about to do was ethical. He could very well be sending four of his best students to their horrible deaths. In the end he decided that when Coco arrived in a months' time, he would allow the team in question to make the choice.
He lied to her when he said he had a team in mind but with Beacon being the best school in the world it couldn't be that hard. He pulled up the school's rankings and started to examine every team in the rankings and every student in the team. His eyes then fell on Team AMBR in rank twenty-four, 'Well they ranked up quickly' as he finished his thought, he saw the team rank up once more going from rank twenty-four to twenty-three. A little surprised he then thought about it a little and decided that this was going to be his first choice.
UHH, hey it's me. The author of this thing. This is my first authors note. The reason I didn't put one in my past chapters in because I hate reading them and I think they break the emersion of reading so I'm going to try my best to keep this short.
When I write this I try my best to stick to the lore of the show as I can, while also building off of it creating new elements to work with. The omega grim are a perfect example of this.
I upgraded my writing software recently so I hope this looks better.
We saw a new side of Amber on the battle field and a piece of her true inspiration.
When I came up with the characters inspirations for this I tended to go for more mythical and historical figures as well as other fan made creations that I have seen floating around.
We got a bit more of Amber past.
Bella got a weapon.
And finally, we got a new type of grim that emits smoke from its body.
Next chapter; The Smoke.