Hello everybody! WaterDragonMaverick here with the next chapter of my RWBY Original Character fic, "Sideline: Another Story". Last time, Fragment Hunter got a surprise visit from Slate's little sister, Pinkamena Momo Quartz. After being exhausted by her endless energy, the Beacon students hear that Terracotta is planning some 'Advanced Training' for them to get ready for the Vytal Festival Tournament. How exactly is this going to happen? Find out now.
Attention!
RWBY is owned by Rooster Teeth and was created by Monty Oum (R.I.P)
The only things in this story that I own are my own Original Characters
The twelve members of Fragment Hunter all gathered in the arena for Terracotta's Advanced Training course. They knew his regular training was intense, but worth every moment spent. After the Huntsman told them about the training yesterday, the members of Fragment Hunter were all determined to go through with what Azalea's father had in store for them. As they waited, they watched as Pinkamena Momo Quartz, also known as 'Pinkie' or 'Momo', chased Azalea's pet dogs around as they waited for other students to arrive. Soon, Team JNPR and Team CFVY of Beacon arrived to take their seats before any of the transfer students. After a while, everyone saw the different students from the other three Kingdoms show up. "Man, there are more people than I thought," Azalea remarked as she saw Team PRDT and Team GLOW taking seats while Team SSSN and Team CRDL entered her sight.
"Yeah, I guess they wanted to get some special training in as well," Lapis agreed.
Sunset thought that it would be an excellent opportunity to test her Semblance as she started to focus and read the minds of certain students. She heard Sun Wukong's current thoughts about the training before they shifted to wondering how Blake Belladonna was doing. Changing targets, Sunset focused her mind and Semblance on Lie Ren in order to learn about Team JNPR's recent mission. "Hmm. Ren really wanted to protect that village his team was at before," Sunset told the others.
"Maybe you should stop now," Celadon suggested. "You may want to save your Aura for the battles ahead."
"Just one more," Sunset said before closing her eyes and focusing on sensing the emotions in the room. Most of them were nervousness and anticipation, but she sensed something behind her that seemed happy. "Hey, is there somebody behind me," Sunset asked as she kept her eyes closed.
"That would be a 'yes', Firefly," Rua stated as she pointed to Penny Polendina sitting next to Sunset and Azalea.
"Salutations," Penny greeted. "It's so nice to see you again, Sunset. You too, Azalea."
"Hi, Penny," Azalea waved as she smiled at the girl from Atlas.
"Hey, Lea? Is she a cousin of yours," Silver asked as he pointed at Penny.
"No," Azalea replied. "All of my other family members are back at Mirabelle. This is Penny. Me and Sunset met her back when we were dress shopping for the dance." After introductions were made, Azalea saw something in the corner of her eye and she turned invisible out of reflex. "Don't say anything," she whispered to the others.
Wondering why Azalea used her Semblance, Fragment Hunter and Penny turned to see Team JADE walking in their direction. "Great," Rua bitterly said.
"Who are they," Penny asked.
"Some bullies who picked on Azalea before she came to Beacon," Layla answered as she glared at Envy, Jett, and Aoi. Watching them find a seat away from where Fragment Hunter was sitting, Layla gently nudged Azalea to signal that they weren't going to bother her now. "If they give us trouble, I'm sure your dad will 'volunteer them' for demonstrations," Layla remarked. Penny turned to see that a teammate of hers named 'Ciel Soleil' requested that they find another seat so that they could focus on the upcoming lesson.
Soon, everybody saw Terracotta enter the room with Ventus as the latter carried something in his hands. "Okay, everyone. Settle down," Terracotta said in his booming voice. "Today, I have some special training for you all. In the real world, you'll be battling in all sorts of conditions and restrictions. As such, today will consist of battles royale where up to four members from different teams will be dueling under special restrictions and handicaps." Everyone began to whisper among themselves about how students would be chosen to fight and what the handicaps would be. "Now, Ventus here is going to randomly grab these medals out of the case in his hands to determine what each battle will have and who will be fighting," Terracotta stated as he gestured to Ventus, who held several collectible coin-sized medals in his hand. "Each color will tell us who's fighting and what will be in the fight."
Everyone was confused by the idea of how the battles would be selected, but thought it would be interesting to see in action. "Okay! Let's get to work," Ventus said as he handed the case to Terracotta and rubbed his hands together. Taking back the case, he selected four medals at random and showed them to his brother. "This will be good," Ven stated as he looked at the white, green, and blue medals in his hand. "The green medal means that one Beacon student will be fighting, white is Atlas, and the blue one is Haven," the Falcon Faunus explained as he handed the case over to Terracotta to shuffle the placement of the medals.
"If nobody volunteers, I'll choose who battles," Terracotta said before he closed the case and returned it to Ventus. "Who wants to be the first to fight?" Seeing a few hands raised, Terra thought it over before selecting from the current volunteers. "Jaune Arc of Beacon's Team JNPR, Garnet Pepper of Atlas' Team GLOW, Sun Wukong of Haven's Team SSSN, and Duke Cobalt of Haven's Team JADE. You boys are battling first with no challenges aside from lasting as long as you can against three different fighters at once," Terra stated.
The boys all walked down to the main battlefield and as they did, Fragment Hunter got a better look at Garnet Pepper. The Atlas Academy student stood at 5'10" with a pale complexion, garnet red eyes, a dark red crew cut, and had black triangular dog ears on the top of his head. He wore a red jacket with gold epaulettes and gold buttons, matching red pants, a black pair of combat boots, and a pair of belts that carried several ammunition pouches. Garnet carried his weapon in its inactive form as he stopped to look at his opponents. "Greetings, gentlemen," he said in a polite and professional tone. "May the best man win this duel."
"Same to you," Duke Cobalt answered back as he and the others readied their weaponry and waited for Terracotta's signal.
Seeing of the selected fighters ready to battle, Terracotta told the four to begin the match. When they heard him, Garnet immediately activated his weapon and it transformed into an assault rifle that he used against Jaune and Duke. Jaune raised his shield to block the shots while Duke let them fly around him and miss. Fragment Hunter knew that Duke Cobalt's Semblance was the power to manipulate the trajectory of ranged attacks, so they understood what the member of Team JADE was doing. As Garnet stopped his attack and wondered why he missed Duke, Jaune and Sun charged at the Dog Faunus to strike him with their sword and staff respectively. Dodging Jaune's sword swings and grabbing at Sun's staff, Garnet disarmed the Monkey Faunus before switching his weapon into a shotgun mode and firing at Jaune. The leader of Team JNPR raised his shield to block the attack, but the force of it knocked him back enough for Garnet to kick him down while he was disoriented.
Sun and Garnet began to fight each other in hand-to-hand combat before Duke opened fire with his weapon's gun form. With each shot influenced by his Semblance, Duke's bullets flew around the arena like insects before they hit the two Faunus in their shoulders. With them distracted by the shots, Duke changed his weapon into its sword form and slashed away at the two. As their fight continued, Duke twirled his sword around as if he was showing off or distracting his opponents before kicking at them acrobatically or thrust his sword forward for a stab. "This guy's good," Sun remarked before activating his Semblance and summoning two clones of himself made of light. The clones charged at Duke and distracted him while Jaune approached and slashed at them with his sword. The clones vanished when they were hit, but Duke took the hit and was soon pushed back by Jaune bashing the Team JADE member with his shield.
As the fight went on and Garnet changed his weapon's form into a sniper rifle, nobody but Terracotta and Ventus noticed that Team JADE left the room. A few moments later, another person entered as each warrior's Aura levels were depleted enough to appear yellow on the readouts. The newcomer took a seat nearby Fragment Hunter, but stayed quiet until the match came to a close. "Alright, that's good enough," Terracotta said as Duke managed to aim his gun at Jaune's chest when the latter was caught in an armlock. "From these results, the winner would be Sun Wukong as he timed the use of his weapon and Semblance very well. Good work," the Huntsman told Sun. "Ven, time to choose the next match."
"Got it," Ventus said as he selected more medals randomly from his case. Picking a few, he showed them to Terracotta and they were revealed to be a blank medal, two green colored ones, and an orange medal. "Okay then," Ven said as he showed off the colored coins to the audience. "For this round, we'll need two Beacon students and one student from Shade Academy to fight without any of their main weapons."
"This round will focus on your strength and skills because some opponents will make sure you don't have a weapon to defend yourself with," Terracotta stated as he looked over the crowd. Seeing a few hands raised among the cautious students, Terracotta's eyes lingered on an eager Percival Ivory. "Ivory, you'll be the Vacuo student battling."
"Alright! This'll be fun," Percival exclaimed as he jumped down from the stands. "Who's gonna be my opponent," he asked as he looked at the students from Beacon before his gaze focused on his friends, Fragment Hunter. "How about any of you guys? Wait, is that Bianca Coloratura?"
Hearing what Percival said, everyone in the room turned to see the Dove Faunus sitting next to Team FCSA, who only smiled and waved to everyone. Pinkie gasped loudly at the sight of the idol before she screamed in excitement, hurting everyone's ears. However, Slate grabbed his sister by the arm before she could bombard the Dove Faunus with questions. "Moving on, let's have Pyrrha Nikos and Silver Wuruhi join in this sparring match," Terracotta stated.
"I'd love to see how you do against the Invincible Girl, Silver," Bianca said as she smiled at the Wolf Faunus of Team SLVR.
"Well... She may be one of the most skilled students here, but she's not invincible," Silver stated with a small blush as he stood up. "Nobody is."
"Still, I'd like to see how you can handle her and that Percival guy," Bianca said. "I bet that you'll do well."
"Alright, how about we let him go and fight so that he can prove it," Rua told Bianca as she pushed Silver past the Dove Faunus.
When Silver and Pyrrha joined Percival down on the battlefield, Terracotta signaled for the match to start. Silver started the match off by running toward Pyrrha and throwing a punch at her. She deflected the strike and countered with a punch of her own. Taking the hit, Silver waited for Pyrrha to attack again so that he could counter her. Throwing another punch, Pyrrha was caught off guard when Silver ducked underneath her arm and tried to deliver a palm strike to her chin. Using her Semblance to assist her, Pyrrha pushed Silver away and kicked at him. Taking the chance to attack, Percival threw his own punch at Pyrrha only to miss when she ducked and countered with a sweep kick. After Percival was knocked to the ground, he stood on all fours and leaped at Pyrrha like a wild animal. As he did, Pyrrha rolled onto her back to try and push the Faunus off of her with a kick. Succeeding, Percival went flying into Silver as the latter charged toward Pyrrha. As the two Faunus recovered from the impact with each other, Pyrrha stood ready in a boxing stance. "Man, she's tough and skilled even without weapons," Silver remarked.
"So can I," Percival said with an excited smirk as he extended his claws and looked at Pyrrha. Roaring loudly just like a large cat, Percival surprised everyone in the room before rushing at Pyrrha and slashing at her with his claws. Taking a few hits, Pyrrha managed to get used to the way Percival fought until Silver used his Semblance and attacked the both of them in his werewolf form. With Silver attacking with claws and fangs, Percival grabbed at his arms and prevented them from moving as he delivered a headbutt to Silver's face. Dazed from the strike, Pyrrha kicked at Silver to knock him away before she fought against Percival again.
Shaking off the pain and transforming back to normal, Silver charged at Pyrrha and grabbed at her hair before she attempted to knock him away again while she was fighting Percival. While Pyrrha was caught off her guard by the cheap trick, Silver began to punch away at her sides until Percival attacked the two of them. Using his Semblance, Percival created a bone-like spike on his right foot that began to vibrate like a chainsaw. Kicking at Silver and Pyrrha, the spike damaged the two of them as they separated before continuing their three-way battle. Punching, kicking, and slashing at each other, their Aura levels began to gradually lower until Terracotta called for the end of the match.
"That's enough, you three. Save some energy for if you want to battle someone else," Terracotta told the teenagers. As the three fighters stopped, everyone saw the Aura level readouts and noticed that Pyrrha's just turned yellow while Silver and Percival were equal at around half. "Now let this be a lesson. In a real fight, there is no such thing as playing dirty. The only thing that you should be focused on is surviving. You have to take what you can get and use what tricks you know," Terracotta lectured the students.
"I'll just get started on choosing the next few combatants," Ventus said as he chose the next set of medals. Opening his eyes, Ventus saw that he picked a pair of green medals, one orange medal, and a white medal from his case. "Okay. I'll need two Beacon students, an Atlas Academy student, and somebody from Vacuo again," he told the class.
Terracotta saw a few volunteers ready to battle, but his eyes lingered on his daughter, Azalea. "Azalea Calla Holstein," Terracotta said in a stern voice that immediately caught his daughter's attention as she stood up. "You'll be one of the four fighters in this regular match. Go collect your equipment while the others are chosen."
"Yes, Dad," Azalea replied as she began to move from the stands.
In the locker room, Azalea finished checking over her weapon and loaded fresh Dust into it. As she was leaving the locker room, she saw somebody standing near the exit and they turned their head toward her. Seeing that it was Duke Cobalt of Team JADE from Mistral, Azalea was hesitant about approaching him. "Don't worry, I'm only here to talk with you," Duke told her.
"Umm... O-okay," Azalea said in reply.
Duke looked at Azalea and exhaled before he spoke to her. "I have the same amount of respect for my teammates as much as you do, which is zero. I can't believe I've been assigned to them," he stated.
"R-really," Azalea asked as her eyes widened at Duke's words.
"I can't stand them at all," Duke exclaimed as he threw his hands in the air. "They have no concern for anyone but themselves, they bully any Faunus they meet, and I heard that you're their favorite target." Azalea only nodded silently to confirm what Duke said. "I respect the Faunus because they have abilities that normal people don't have. Just because they don't look like somebody else, that doesn't mean they should be treated like animals."
"Yeah. Some people just don't take the time to get to learn more about someone or something," Azalea added.
"Take your father for example," Duke said as he and Azalea walked back to the arena. "He's this enormous man with horns and scars that looks like he would beat up six guys for not looking at him wrong. But you wouldn't expect him to be a family man unless you took the time to know more about him," Duke explained.
"That's my dad for you," Azalea stated. "Well, you go back up to the stands. I need to see who my opponents are."
Duke nodded and headed off while Azalea moved forward. "Let's see how the daughter of 'Gaia the Undaunted' does in a fight," he said as he waved to Azalea.
When Azalea was in the center of the arena, she saw that Vinyl was standing next to Ventus and checking over Rhythm Scratch while Penny smiled at the Cow Faunus and waved to her. Returning the gesture, Azalea watched as Ebony Rain of Team PRDT entered the room with her equipment and stood ready for battle. "Now that all of the combatants are here, shall we begin," Terracotta asked as he looked at the four girls. As Azalea pulled out Gladion and held it in front of her, the others prepared their weapons. Ebony raised her shield, Vinyl started playing music from Rhythm Scratch, and Penny's backpack opened up to reveal a set of swords that floated behind her. "Start now," Terracotta exclaimed as he walked away from the middle of the arena.
Vinyl started the battle by raising her hands and one of her feet before firing energy blasts from them to strike at her opponents. Ebony and Penny used their weapons to block the projectiles, but Azalea dodged and set Gladion to use Ice Dust. Waving her weapon like a magic wand, Azalea created a gust of ice and snow that tripped Vinyl when she tried to dodge. The member of Team SAFR reacted by creating a hard light disk for stability and started to spin around like a breakdancer until she was back on her feet. "Impressive," Penny said as she watched Vinyl's agility.
Ebony rushed for Vinyl and struck at her with her shield before the music lover created a sword and began to counterattack. Ebony's defensive weapon and experience allowed her to defend herself, but Vinyl's agility and movements made it hard for her to be hit. "Not bad," Ebony told Vinyl, who smirked in response before changing her sword into disks and threw them at Penny. Penny used her swords to block the attack before she began to go on the offensive. Moving her arms, Penny's blades followed and slashed at the girls. Vinyl and Ebony shot at Penny, but her blades spun around and deflected the attacks before a few of her swords transformed into laser guns. Before Penny could fire back, Azalea changed her baton's Dust setting to Fire and swept her weapon around to unleash a ring of flames that distracted her opponents and melted the ice from earlier.
As Vinyl, Ebony, and Penny covered their faces to shield themselves from the heat and steam covered the area, Azalea used her Semblance to turn invisible while her opponents' vision was obscured. Hiding from the other three, the Cow Faunus began to strike at all of them with Gladion after setting the weapon to use Lightning Dust. With each impact delivering an electric shock, Azalea began to take the lead in the battle as the Aura levels of the others began to fall. "Where is she," Vinyl said to herself after recovering from a barrage of hits from Azalea. While Vinyl and Penny looked around the battlefield for any sign of Azalea before even considering going after the others, Ebony closed her eyes and focused on hearing Azalea. After a few seconds, the Bat Faunus heard approaching footsteps and swung her weapon to her left. Azalea grunted as she was hit by Ebony's shield and became visible again, alerting the others and they turned their focus on the horned girl. Azalea tried to defend herself against Ebony's strikes, but was knocked away by her when she tried to dodge Penny's lasers and Vinyl's hard light weapons.
"Oh, I'm in trouble," Azalea muttered to herself before seeing Vinyl speed toward her and use Rhythm Scratch to create hard light claws. Using her baton to try and block Vinyl's strikes, Azalea avoided more damage from her friend before Ebony shot at both of them. Vinyl reacted by creating hard light disks to act as shields from the bullets and as chakrams to attack Azalea and disarm her. With Gladion out of her hand and Vinyl stepping on it to prevent her from retrieving it immediately, Azalea was left open to Penny's next attacks. Trying to block or dodge the Atlesian girl's swords, Azalea was soon trapped when Penny's swords appeared behind her and began to spin around like a bladed fan that would slice her up like a blender. "I'm really in trouble now," Azalea voiced to herself as Penny's weapons charged up lasers and opened fire on her. Raising her arms to defend herself from the blast, everyone watching was shocked to see the lasers harmlessly bend around her body and knocked away the swords when they were struck instead. "Huh? What was that," Azalea questioned.
Everyone was wondering what Azalea did before Vinyl used her hard light sword to slash at the Cow Faunus, but was surprised that the sword bent around her. Realizing that Vinyl's weapon and Penny's lasers were ineffective against her, Azalea smiled as she slowly walked toward Vinyl and cracked her knuckles. As the battle went on, Fragment Hunter began to discuss what they saw earlier. "Why did that laser and Vinyl's sword not hurt Azalea? Her Aura wasn't even damaged that much," Lapis remarked as she checked the readout.
"I think I know how," Sunset said and caught the attention of her friends. "Azalea's Semblance bends light around herself to make her invisible. So, it would defend her from light-based attacks like lasers and Vinyl's weapons."
"That is so cool," Pinkie shouted in excitement. "Go, Azalea!" Vinyl tried to hit Azalea with a roundhouse kick, but the latter ducked and grabbed her in retaliation. Throwing Vinyl to the ground, Azalea turned her attention to Ebony and tried to dodge the Bat Faunus' rifle shots. While some hit her in the arms, Azalea's Aura defended her enough to keep her in the fight and start facing off against Ebony in hand-to-hand combat. When Ebony tried to swing her shield to strike at Azalea, the Cow Faunus countered by grabbed her weapon and headbutting Ebony in the face. While the Shade Academy student recoiled in pain, Azalea threw the shield toward Penny, who deflected it with her swords before throwing them at the three other girls.
As all of them dodged the weapons, Azalea rolled to where she saw her Dust Baton on the ground and grabbed it. Setting it to use Lightning Dust, Azalea's body began to glow as she used her Semblance's 'Flash Bang' along with Gladion's current Dust setting. With electricity surging everywhere, Azalea struck all three of her opponents with her attack as Penny's weapons drew the lightning toward them. Vinyl and Ebony screamed in surprise and pain at the attack while they stood near the swords closest to themselves, but Penny only looked on in surprise as the electricity began to travel from her swords to herself because of the wires connecting them to her backpack. When she was hit by Azalea's technique, she cried out before the attack stopped and she wobbled around. "Father, the cricket's telling me to not go find the whale," Penny managed to mutter before collapsing to the ground face first.
"I think that's the match," Terracotta said as he stepped forward to check on Penny. After a few seconds, Penny opened her eyes and said that she was fine. "This kind of battle should be something that you learn from," Terra stated as he turned to the other students. "Your Semblance can aid you in the most dire of situations, even when you least expect it. Which is why it's always a good idea to experiment with your powers," he told everyone before turning to his daughter, who was helping Vinyl to her feet. "Azalea, you're doing so well," Terracotta said to himself.
"Okay, I think that we have time for one more match," Ventus exclaimed as he selected the last few medals at random. Choosing from his case, Ven showed Terracotta a green medal, an orange medal, a white medal, and a medal that had a dog design on it. "Oh, this one will be interesting," Ventus said with a grin on his face.
"We'll need different students from Vacuo, Atlas, and Beacon for this match," Terracotta told the students before choosing the three volunteers. "Sunset Blaze, Percival Ivory, and Oren Maxwell. You'll be fighting in the last match alongside somebody that you probably wouldn't expect," he announced before bringing his fingers to his mouth and whistling loudly. When he did, everyone heard barking and watched as Dante appear from a corner of the room. Terracotta scratched the dog behind his ears before looking at the students he selected. "Sometimes, enemies will have trained animals that will attack you when you get to close and you'll have to worry about territorial creatures on your missions. You'll all be fighting with Dante attacking you at every chance he gets," Terracotta explained.
"My Aura's recharged, so it's not a problem," Percival said as he jumped down onto the battlefield again. "Plus, I've seen what this guy is capable of," he remarked as he put a hand on Dante's head.
"Azalea told me about him, too," Sunset stated as she walked down to the battlefield.
Oren Maxwell marched to the center of the room and everyone from Fragment Hunter took note of his attire. When they first met him, he was wearing a proper Atlas Academy uniform and he even had a tuxedo with gloves at the Beacon Dance. Right now, he was wearing a modified version of typical Atlesian soldier uniforms. Maxwell had black pants, a belt with pouches, combat boots, and white-gray body armor on his chest and right arm. His robotic left arm had nothing concealing it and was on display for everyone to see the silver color. His chest armor and left arm had an emblem that looked like a tree with its branches in the shape of a closed hand. "Shall we begin," Maxwell asked as he raised his left arm up.
At Terracotta's signal, Dante jumped at Percival and tried to bite down on the Faunus. Percival countered by using his Semblance to create bone spikes on his forearms in order to protect himself before kicking Dante back. While he did that, Sunset approached Percival and her jacket began to glow as she activated the Fire Dust in it. Throwing fire-infused punches at him, Sunset managed to deal a good chunk of damage before Maxwell intervened. His fist transformed into a hammer that he swung into Sunset and knocked her away. Skidding on the ground from the hit, Sunset saw Maxwell's limb was also his weapon when she stood up. Pointing his arm at Percival, Maxwell's robotic limb unfolded to reveal it could also work as a pump-action shotgun when he fired a round at the Vacuo student. Percival blocked the shot by using his Semblance to create a shield similar to Rua's and even separated it into twin blades that he used against Maxwell.
As the boys clashed weapons, Sunset used her Fire Dust jacket to create rings of flame underneath them and snapped her fingers when she made them generate fiery explosions. While she smirked at the damage she dealt, Dante pounced onto her back and used his Semblance to create a wall in front of her. As she smashed into the barrier, Dante started to use his Semblance again by creating a spiked barrier on his tail to act as a mace. Sunset was barely able to dodge the attack when Percival and Maxwell attacked the both of them. Sunset was forced to dodge the attacks that came her way when all three opponents focused on her. "Grimm paste," Sunset muttered to herself when Dante created another wall that Sunset backed up into. As Dante growled and kept the barrier up to prevent Sunset from escaping, Percival and Maxwell started to attack her with their weapons. "Oh man, I'm in a pinch here," Sunset thought to herself. "What would the others do? Rebecca would make a smokescreen, Rua would teleport out of this, Cereza would slow down time, Azalea would blind them," Sunset told herself mentally as she went over how the others could escape her situation. "This is so frustrating! I could just scream," Sunset thought before actually screaming out loud. When she did, her body flashed a silvery-blue color and sound waves of the same color came from her mouth.
Everyone had to cover their ears when the noise happened, but the loud scream affected some more than others as Ebony, Garnet, Velvet, and Dante all cried out in pain. As the dog whimpered in pain from the noise, the barriers keeping Sunset trapped immediately vanished and she stumbled back. When she did, Sunset stopped screaming and took note of what she just did. "Was that Lapis' Semblance," Sunset asked herself. Looking over at the stands, Sunset noticed that Lapis' silvery-blue Aura was shining briefly before fading. "My Semblance can connect with minds and emotions because it can connect with other people's Auras... Can I actually use other people's Semblances," Sunset thought to herself while everyone wondered what happened. "Oh, this is gonna be good," Sunset said with a smirk as she adjusted her stance and faced her opponents. Percival and Maxwell recovered from the sonic scream enough to see Sunset staring them down and prepared themselves. When Percival charged at Sunset, she dodged his claws and retrieved her sword by using Layla's telekinesis as her body briefly flashed the same color as Layla's Aura. As the sword flew toward her, it slashed away at Percival and Maxwell before she grabbed it.
"How does she have two different Semblances," Maxwell questioned as he changed his robotic arm back to normal in order to defend himself from any of Sunset's next attacks.
"I don't know," Percival said with a giant grin on his face. "But she seems to have broken her limits. Let's do the same," he declared as his ivory-colored Aura coated his body and he created a bone-like set of armor covered in spikes. Running toward Sunset, Percival slashed at her with his claws and punched with the spiked knuckles on his new armor. Sunset dodged the attacks and threw her palm forward, releasing an energy blast like Vinyl. Percival was hit in the face by the projectile and sent flying into Maxwell, who punched him away before attacking Sunset himself. Throwing a punch with his left arm, Maxwell tried to hit Sunset to only find her sudden move much faster after she dodged. As she moved, she retaliated with a flurry of fire-enhanced punches and kicks.
"This is awesome," Sunset exclaimed as she started to use Celadon's Semblance and unleashed a barrage of gemstone projectiles like a shotgun. When the stones hit the boys, Sunset laughed in excitement before her body flashed a reddish-purple and she teleported behind Maxwell to kick him in the back. Teleporting again, Sunset grabbed Percival and threw him into Maxwell so that they crashed into each other. "I love this so much," Sunset said as she prepared to continue the fight. Before she could aim her weapon's rifle form, Terracotta stepped in and grabbed the weapon for a second. When he released his grip, the rifle became much heavier and Sunset had to drop it. "It's over already," Sunset asked.
"Considering that your Aura is that low, yes," Terracotta replied as he pointed to the readout. While Sunset wasn't hit that much after discovering her Semblance's new ability, her Aura levels had lowered enough to be eliminated from tournament fights. "Seems that your new power to imitate other powers takes more Aura to use each than they do for the original," Terracotta surmised. "A pretty fair trade for using any power that you know of."
"Yeah. That makes sense," Sunset agreed.
"Be sure to keep an eye on your Aura levels because you'll never know how much you'll use up in an intense battle," Terracotta told everyone. "Class dismissed. You'll be receiving more of these advanced lessons from now until the Vytal Festival begins. I'll see you all next time."
"That! Was! AWESOME," Pinkie shouted as she bounced in place with excitement. "You can copy Semblances and Azalea can deflect lasers! You guys are so cool," she said to Sunset as Fragment Hunter and Bianca all sat around the courtyard.
"How did you even do that," Lapis asked. "I mean, I know that I first discovered my Semblance when I was cornered by a Grimm and screamed in fear, but how did you find out about that whole 'Semblance mimicry' thing?"
"I was trying to figure out how any of you guys could've escaped my situation, but there were so many ways that you could've gotten out that I couldn't think of one for myself," Sunset explained. "I just screamed in frustration and that was it. Then I just thought of how each of you could fight with your Semblances and copied them."
"Seems like your new ability is the opposite of Envy's," Rebecca stated. "She needs to touch people to drain them and their Semblance while you only need to know about who you're imitating in order to use their powers."
"Plus, using another person's Semblance is more taxing than how they use it," Cereza added.
"Still, this is really cool," Sunset said with a smile as she started to use Rebecca's Semblance to create a small puff of smoke from her hands. Manipulating it to change its shape, the cloud of smoke took the form of a gecko before dissipating. "I think we can get closer as teams this way."
"Yeah, power and magic of friendship. We get it," Rua said with a playful smile on her face. "Let's just do something before we break out into a musical number."
"Speaking of music, why'd you show up, Bianca," Azalea asked her childhood friend.
"Kurenai gave me the day off and I wanted to see what a class of yours was like," Bianca answered. "Also, I wanted to tell you guys that the photo shoot was rescheduled for tomorrow afternoon."
"Photo shoot?! You guys are going to be going to a photo shoot with Bianca Coloratura," Pinkie asked as she started to shake in excitement.
"Settle down, Rock Candy," Slate told his sister as he kept her still.
"Yeah. You guys can make it, right," Bianca asked.
"We can," Azalea said. "And mom's coming to, so we better tell her about it."
"Alright! I can't wait for you all to join me," Bianca exclaimed as she flapped her wings and raised her arms.
And I'm finished with this chapter! I've been wanting to get to the important points in this story for Sunset and Azalea for a while because of their Semblances. Azalea's new discovery of her power is going to definitely come in handy.
Now for music during each scene. Percival's battle scenes would be accompanied by "Ride On Right Time" from Kamen Rider OOO, Azalea's battle would have the song "Destiny's Play" from Kamen Rider Kiva (thanks to Vinyl's weapon, Rhythm Scratch), and Sunset's comeback with her Semblance would have "Giant Step" from Kamen Rider Fourze playing. All of these tracks would double as the theme music for each character.
Next time, we'll have a bit of another breather chapter as Bianca and Fragment Hunter go with Ivy to a photo shoot. We'll have most of the girls dress up in nice outfits, there will be some more insight to a few characters, and mentions of a few upcoming characters.
Until then, WaterDragonMaverick signing out.