Espresso


Weiss tried to focus on filling Myrtenaster. 'Tried' was the keyword. The thumping music throughout all of Amity Coliseum could still pierce through the thick, stone walls of the locker room she and her team were in. Professor Port's voice was muffled enough to obscure his words, but not enough to where she didn't instinctively try and fail to make out what he was saying. The metal bench was uncomfortable. The whipping of rose-scented wind behind her didn't help at all. Back and forth, ever since they'd stepped foot inside. Constantly. Incessantly.

An accidental nudge left her fumbling and dropping her vial of Energy Dust. It popped with a shattering of glass and flash of light, then fell dull. Weiss' eye twitched.

"Ruby, could you please sit still? You are going to pace a trench in here!" Weiss shouted and twisted around to face her.

Ruby didn't listen, zipping to and fro through the room. "Can't! Thinking!"

Adam followed Ruby's path with his gaze with a bemused frown. "Does she normally do this?" he asked Yang, both of them watching her panic from beside a digital whiteboard left unused.

Yang shrugged. "Only when she's super worried. I haven't seen her do that since the day she applied for Signal." She snickered. "Adorable, right?"

He snorted. "I don't see the big deal."

Adam barely had time to blink before, in a rush of red and rose petals, Ruby was clinging to him by his collar, hanging a foot off the ground. " 'Don't see the big deal?!' It's CFVY!" she exclaimed, caught between excitement and panic. "Our first fight's against the top team in the whole school! Our 'role models'! Nearly the previous champs! And... and!" Ruby glanced around. "Weiss! The thing!"

Weiss rolled her eyes and turned back to loading her rapier. "Team CFVY, formerly known as Team Caffeine, led by 39th Vytal Tournament finalist Coco Adel was only the third team of freshmen in Vytal Tournament history to reach the finals, and the first in over two decades," she recited. "They are considered by experts to be equal to ranked Huntresses and Huntsmen in only their junior year." Weiss wasn't trying to hide how obvious it was that she was quoting it word-for-word from a remembered article.

Ruby didn't notice it or her droning tone. "See!" she shouted and pointed back at the heiress trying to ignore them.

Adam closed his eyes and took a deep breath. "Are you finished?"

She took a second to think. "Maybe?" Ruby squeaked as Adam pulled her from his collar and held her up. She kicked her legs but couldn't reach the ground: he was a fair bit taller than her.

"Panicking does nothing." Adam firmly sat her down on one of the metal benches. "We have twenty minutes to decide on how to defeat a team of Huntresses and Huntsmen. We know them, and we know how they fight. It's not a question of if we win, it's how." He straightened out his coat. "Understand?"

Ruby huffed and crossed her arms at being manhandled. "Yeah, yeah, whatever, Dad." Her smile betrayed her attempts to sound annoyed.

"Kinda hard to make a strategy when we don't even know their Semblances," Yang chipped in. "I might not be great at all that tactical and strategy mumbo-jumbo but I know fighting like the back of my hand: whatever Semblance they have, they're as good as Pyrrha at hiding it."

"I wouldn't be so sure," said Ruby. She rushed over to the holographic board and, after a few taps, brought up images of Team CFVY. "I did a ton of research!"

"You mean 'you watched the entire 39th Vytal Tournament instead of the battles I sent you'?" Weiss asked.

"W-well, I mean, th-that's, uh, a matter of opinion!" Ruby stammered out. "Coco's an easy one!" She skimmed through her own Scroll and, with a tap to the screen, Coco's image turned to a video of her last fight in the Vytal Tournament, two years ago. Rather than the gargantuan minigun she wielded now, the fashionista fired what could only be described as a golden handcannon in one hand and used Dust in the other.

"She was having a lot of trouble against her sniper opponent." A heavily-armored sniper with the high ground, no less. "Her aura couldn't strengthen the bullets enough to hurt him at that range! And then right when she was just about to lose..." Without warning, a shot that normally would've bounced off of the sniper's armor sent him flying from his perch. Even Coco looked surprised, but only for a moment.

From then, both her gunfire and Dust were exponentially more devastating, ripping chunks out of the arena and leaving the protective forcefield around the audience flashing from the impact of missed shots. Unfortunately, only a single, well-placed shot was enough to take her down.

Weiss had turned to watch along with them, giving Myrtenaster a last check over. "I'm afraid I don't understand where you're going with this: Coco told me much about that battle and, according to her, she just underestimated her opponent. By the time she bothered to try, it was already too late. Certainly a good lesson about not 'playing with your food'."

Ruby wagged her finger. "Well then her pants are on fire." Ignoring the confused look Weiss gave her, she rewound and pointed to Coco's aura. "Look!"

From the moment of the first, surprising shot, her aura rapidly dwindled.

"That must be her Semblance: she must've been surprised because she just unlocked it!" Ruby declared with a grin, puffing her chest out in pride.

"Amplification, like mine!" Yang snapped her fingers. "She can do it any time, but it must take a lot to keep it active."

"Hence the minigun," Adam followed up. "Massive amount of ordinance in even a small burst. That's one Semblance. I may know Velvet's: we spar from time to time, and I noticed that as the fight goes on, her unarmed style of combat starts to match my own. My guess is Mimicry."

"Has she ever shown you what is inside that box of hers?" Weiss asked.

Adam shrugged. "Her camera and her photos. It might key into that Semblance, and if it does, quite a few of them are of me. Expect a similar fighting style."

"... So~o, what kind of photos are we talkin'?" Yang slid closer, waggling her eyebrows at Adam.

His cheeks a faint pink, Adam snorted and shoved her back. "Get your mind out of the gutter."

"Moving on!" Ruby quickly changed the subject. "Fox's got telepathy, I know that one. Jerk kept using it to prank me!"

"Huh. Never would've guessed," Yang said, scratching her head. "It doesn't exactly mesh with the... bladed tonfas that he has. Watch out for those, by the way: he's got guns over the hands like I do."

"Easy!" Ruby tapped the board. "Coco has Amplification, Fox has Telepathy and Velvet might have Mimicry. That just leaves Yatsuhashi!"

"Honestly?" Yang said. "I don't even think he has one. Not anything crazy, anyway. Maybe some strength or toughness? Guy wields a big sword that isn't even a gun." She shrugged and crossed her arms. "That doesn't change something I think you might be missing, Rubes: all this knowledge isn't gonna help us when we can't fight 'em!"

Ruby looked from her to the board. Then back. "Pssh, maybe not one-on-one, but we can fix that! Adam can keep one of them tied up, right?"

Adam nodded. "I should be able to pin one of them down with ease. The problem is that they're rated as ranked Huntsmen and Huntresses: they could drop out right now and still hold a successful solo career. The rest of you might be able to pass the license test to become Huntresses at all."

"Doesn't sound too bad to me," Yang said, shrugging.

"It should: the ranking system is exponential, not linear," Adam explained. "An A-rank—which is what you need to be an Atlesian Specialist—is expected to be able to handle two C-rank, career Huntsmen on an even playing field. That C-rank should still be able to fight two unranked Huntsmen. That means it might need two of you to match one of them. That leaves one of us against the other two."

"Assuming that they have not grown stronger since the were last examined," Weiss brought up. "The potential of someone who could reach the finals as a freshman without their Semblance is ludicrous! It was difficult to collect the information, but currently, the last person to do that is conservatively estimated to be an S-rank Huntress and the top of the scale as a liberal estimate."

"And who is that?" Adam asked.

"Raven Branwen." Weiss decided she wouldn't question the strange looks both Adam and Yang got from that name.

Ruby, blissfully unaware, was tapping her chin, deep in thought.

"You know... I bet they know they're a shoe-in," she said. "And if I didn't see the footage myself, I would've totally believed Coco would play with her opponent first. Just going all out like that isn't their style..."

"You're saying they'll underestimate us?" Weiss asked.

"Nope! I know they'll underestimate us. We need a numbers advantage and they're not gonna show off everything they can do at first! Which means I know just what to do." Ruby grinned and cleared the board.

"Alright, Team RWAY, gather up! I have a plan!"


"Finalists of the previous Vytal Tournament and promising to take home the gold for Beacon this year, give it up for Team Coffee!"

The cheering of the crowd was almost deafening, even as Team RWAY waited in the hall and watched Team CFVY confidently step out into the center from their view out onto the arena itself. Ruby shuddered despite her wild grin, bouncing in place as she listened to Professor Port rattle off their numerous, illustrious accolades.

Adam, who had his aura already up just to protect his ears, leaned against the wall, mind still going over various schemes inside and out of the tournament. His gaze drifted to Yang, who paced back and forth, grin looking just a little too forced. Then to Weiss, who was checking over her rapier's Dust supply for the fifth time and tapping her foot. Pictures of worry.

"I feel as though it's good to note that it's not imperative that we win," Adam said while they waited for their time. "While it would be nice to have a chance to strike at Cinder from the tournament itself, if anything, the freedom to move around would be more helpful."

"That's quitter talk!" Ruby jumped in, pointing a finger at him.

"I wasn't even thinking about plans and stuff: it's the Vytal Tournament, come on!" Yang declared. "This is where we get to show our stuff! Who we really are and what we can do!" Yang threw a couple quick jabs at the air as punctuation.

"There is much more riding on this than evil schemes: we are students, you know," Weiss added with a faint smile.

As Yang nodded to Weiss, her own grin growing, Adam crossed his arms. He could see in their eyes that they were telling the truth. More than they were even admitting, perhaps.

"I was going to say that it was reason to relax," Adam said. "Have fun."

"Big talk coming from you!" Ruby stomped closer and prodded his chest. "You won't even join in the team pose we practiced!"

"I am not going to do that and there is nothing you can do to convince me. I don't pose."

Yang raised an eyebrow. "Adam, how is that the line you won't cross? You are literally the most dramatic person I know. Maybe besides Ruby."

Adam tried to silence her with a fierce glare, but her smile didn't so much as twitch. He huffed. "In what regard?"

"The first thing I saw you do during initiation was strike a pose after killing that Beowolf," Weiss pointed out.

"I was sheathing my blade!"

"In the most dramatic fashion, yes."

"Don't think I didn't hear that one-liner when we all fought Torchwick, either," Yang added on.

Ruby leaned closer, grinning. "You also timed the Death Stalker from initiation to explode when you sheathed Wilt."

Adam growled, any intimidation he could've gathered lost by the blush on his cheeks. "Timing is very important!"

Ruby didn't even respond, twirling to face Yang and Weiss and bowing to them instead. "Ladies, I rest my case!"

Left with his hand raised and mouth open, yet no words coming out, he was saved by a light flashing green above them. Showtime. Adam twisted on his heel and marched off for the arena, not bothering to respond.

"Hey, wait! The leader's supposed to go first!" Ruby zipped off after him, leaving Yang and Weiss laughing and following behind.

Adam, however, didn't hear it for long. As Ruby jogged past him into the light, he only heard the speakers from all around finish their own introduction.

"Give it up for Team Rua!"

And if it weren't for his aura, he wouldn't have been hearing too much afterward. The roars of the crowd were loud enough for him to feel it buzzing in the very air. Myriads of colors from flags, outfits and uniforms swayed in the stands in such numbers that he could scarcely hazard a guess at the count. It was one thing to be sitting in the stands, and another entirely to be surrounded by over a hundred thousand people, all cheering. Watching. He looked over to the rest of the team to find Ruby and Yang just as breathless. Weiss, however, took it in stride, nose raised with the faintest of smiles. She was used to performing.

Adam furrowed his brow a little and took a second look at Ruby as they approached the center. She looked a little pale. Crowds. She didn't like crowds. Before he could say anything, however, Yang excitedly shook Ruby's shoulder and pointed off to the stands.

There were quite a few wearing Coco's signature beret and sunglasses or holding up posters of Team CFVY, but scattered about the Vale crowd were countless little red flags being waved about, all with a white rose on them. Beside them, ones of sunny yellow with a fiery, black heart. Beacon students in particular were fond of waving Yang's flag alongside posters of her.

Even with Coco Adel hailing from Atlas, it didn't stop their side of the stands from being a sea of sparkling lights and cyan Schnee snowflakes being swung about on vast banners. Weiss so much as raising a hand in their direction left the crowd going wild.

Adam supposed it was all too easy to forget who they were while stuck in Beacon. Saviors of thousands, well-known to who knew how many. They'd turned down the chance to become all but international symbols for various reasons, choosing to avoid that limelight—and the watchful eyes that came with it—but that didn't stop word from spreading. Word of the Schnee who selflessly protected even the poor of another nation. Word of the two sisters leading the charge to shield the one way out of the Ildaite Ward the Breach was made in.

His eyes caught a small sea of faunus separate from the humans in the crowd, so many now proudly wearing the black armbands once just worn by his personal students.

Word of the faunus who helped bring even the Fang back to its senses.

Adam raised his fist to them as the team came to a stop in their position, and couldn't help but smile when they cheered and did the same.

His smile didn't fade even as he turned to face Team CFVY. Both teams were set in a line across from one another. He was left to take the left flank, Yang on the right. Their least tough making up the center, while Team CFVY were set doing the opposite: Coco and Yatsuhashi in their center, and the swift Velvet and Fox at their flanks.

Fortunately, he had Fox to face.

Ruby twirled Crescent Rose around her, Weiss raised Myrtenaster in a salute, and Yang got her hands up in a defensive pose. Adam resisted the urge to sigh: Ruby was setting up for it.

And yet when Ruby brought her scythe down, with Weiss swiping her rapier across and Yang cocking Ember Celica with a flashy switch of her stance all in unison, Adam dropped into a wide combat stance with them, making a show of drawing Wilt out just enough to be seen. All flash, not much substance... but it fit the team pose.

As the crowd cheered, Coco peered over her sunglasses with a smirk, her purse slung over her shoulder.

"Cute. 'You four practice that?" she called over the din.

Around them, holographic signs began to glow, each brightly colored with a different symbol of terrain. At once, the cheering of the crowd was muffled by the invisible activation of the hard light forcefield around the arena.

"We practiced how to take you four down!" Ruby declared.

The symbols began to spin like a slot machine, their terrain to be chosen the same way their teams were.

"All those poses aren't gonna help you much against the best team in Beacon!" Fox played to crowd, shouting his last words just as the first terrain slid into place behind them: ocean.

"Pssh, you might've been, until we got here!" Yang slammed her fists together.

The floor groaned and shifted, revealing all but the center being able to fall away. Half of it behind Team CFVY did just that: it didn't just drop far out of sight, but water burst in to fill the pit left behind. Crates and debris floated up to the top before a grand, modern yacht, shining white and emblazoned with Vale's emblem, burst from the sea and sent a light mist raining down on them both.

"Our sparring matches together paint a different picture." Yatsuhashi said, standing tall and firm like a statue and adjusting a pair of black gloves. His gargantuan, two-handed sword was menacing, even when just on his back.

"Yes, that it is time for the students to become the masters." Weiss twirled her rapier.

The second terrain became known: gravity. Behind RWAY was soon nothing but an abyss, various black platforms and blocks outlined in vibrant purples floating above it.

"The teams are ready! The first round shall now begin: Team Rua versus Team Coffee!"

Adam took a deep breath. There would be many who once knew him who would now for certain just where he was, now. There was no turning back from clashing with the White Fang.


"Three!"

In a house on Patch she hadn't stood inside in over a decade, Raven stared down at the tournament through a pilfered Scroll.


"Two!"

Watching in the stands, Cinder nodded to Emerald. If things didn't go to plan...


"One!"

One hundred miles away and closing fast, Winter narrowed her eyes at the screen.


"BEGIN!"

In the blink of an eye, Velvet sent a wall of ice slicing down the center of the ring, leaving Weiss and Adam leaping to one side and Yang with Ruby to the other. Weiss' foot barely had time to touch down before she recognized the problem: Velvet left the two of them against everyone but herself. Coco's purse had already become her golden minigun, aimed squarely for her. Yatsuhashi was raising his blade.

"Go!" she shouted and raised a glyph glowing with Energy Dust. As her partner bolted off in a blur of black for Fox, a spray of countless bullets smashed into her shield, already splintering the Dust-woven circuit. The force was enough to push her a step back, but she held strong.

Coco was impressed. Caring little for the lightning-fast brawl between Adam and her teammate beside her, she paused in her punishment. Coco cracked her neck, lowered her stance and let the strength of her soul fill her weapon. It whirred once more, glowing a dark caramel.

"And the first blow goes to Ruby Rose of Team Rua!"

She frowned. "Yatsu, handle the heiress!" Coco called and gazed past the icy wall.

Velvet flipped and twisted out of the way of slugs no doubt from Yang coming in from out of sight, but Ruby was pressing the advantage with her massive scythe, twirling it about herself and leaving Velvet no room to attack. Growling and with her gun folding back into her purse, Coco stormed to her.

Weiss didn't have much time to count her blessings, for Yatsuhashi came bearing down from above like a meteor, greatsword raised high. She smiled and flipped back, feeling as much as seeing Yatsuhashi's blade slam into the floor. Soaring above the center arena, she daintily landed atop a floating platform, Myrtenaster's runes glowing purple.

Yatsuhashi's blade was trapped by a black glyph she'd left in place.

Dragging her fingers across her rapier and sending red light spiraling up its length, Weiss swept her blade low. Glyphs began to form around her, each blazing with flame.

A loud crash came from the center of the ring. On instinct, Weiss dropped her spell and turned to throw out a far larger glyph just at the edge of the arena.

Yang slammed into it hard enough for the symbol to crack. "I'm breaking those sunglasses, Coco!" was all she shouted before she fired herself off of it and right back into the fray.

Weiss huffed. Not even a thanks?

She looked back down at the arena. Ruby was left alone against Velvet and Coco, Velvet charging her Dust crystals atop the stern of the yacht and Coco revving her minigun from the artificial shore. Adam and Fox traded blows almost faster than sight, the red of Adam's sword clashing constantly with blurs of orange from the tonfa-like swords at Fox's arms. Yatsuhashi had pulled free from her glyph and was sending a slash of green aura at Adam—wait.

"Adam!"

He didn't even glance back, focused too much on Fox. His blade lashed out like a snake, snapping rapid punches from Fox out of the air. He didn't need Weiss to warn him: he felt the incoming waves of aura ripping through the arena behind him. Fox swept in low, reaching back to throw another quick uppercut. There was nowhere to run.

Adam had no plans to.

Not Adam, but a shadow in his image slid forward and kicked Fox back while Adam himself swung behind him, Wilt not just dispersing but absorbing Yatsuhashi's swing altogether. Yet more were already coming. He spun through his aura clone, taking its energy back into himself, then snapped a spinning kick into Fox that sent him flying backwards onto the yacht. His foot had just touched the ground when he was forced to twist out of the way of another rush of green, then another, until he was trapped in a deadly dance. Fox springing back up to fire down from the yacht didn't help.

Yatsuhashi dragged his sword back, aura building again, when his arms locked. His brow furrowed when he looked back. Another gravity glyph. He pulled forward. The glyph pulled back. A deadlock.

Leaving a clone behind him spinning his blade and deflecting Fox's gunfire, Adam emptied Blush's entire clip into Yatsuhashi's leg in a second. All it took was for him to slide back an inch, and Weiss dragged him airborne, slamming him into one of the platforms with a shout.

"I have Yatsuhashi!" Weiss shouted over her shoulder.

"And I've got Coco!" Yang called back, grunting as she was shoved back across the arena even blocking Coco's minigun.

"I've got trouble! Help!" Ruby exclaimed. She was a red rush of rose petals flashing past gouts of flame from Velvet and, soon, waves of gunfire from Coco. She swirled and abruptly changed direction with shots from Crescent Rose, but she could only put her Semblance to such heavy use for so long. All it took was one misaimed shot and one well-aimed burst from Coco to leave her pinned to the yacht's cabin wall.

Ruby compacted Crescent Rose down to its wider, gun form, her only defense against Coco's devastating firepower. Sparks from her aura and the metal both flew as a rain of bullets pressed her against the metal wall. She spotted Velvet coming closer, Dust in both hands glowing a dangerous red. Despite herself, she closed her eyes.

"Gotcha this time!" Ruby heard Yang roar, and with an explosive crash, the stream of bullets halted. Coco was busy with Yang, now.

Ruby expanded Crescent Rose and fired: it wasn't pointed at Velvet, but it was better than nothing, sending her flipping over the rabbit faunus' head. The space she once stood in was engulfed in flame a moment later. With a final shot, Ruby darted off for the wide stern of the yacht: Adam was close by, and right now they needed CFVY as far apart as possible.


"Having trouble thinking, buddy?" Fox's voice rattled in Adam's mind. Another petty distraction, and one he didn't know why Fox was bothering with.

Adam ripped Wilt free from its sheath and slashed up at Fox, sending a wave of aura tearing through the wooden deck of the yacht's bow. The wave hadn't even left his blade before Fox had stepped out of the way. He was back in close the split-second there was enough room between Wilt's edge and the wave. Fox was nimble. Dangerously so. Adam was forced to leap back from the rapid jabs that followed, lightning-quick slices from Wilt giving him room to breathe.

His foot struck the bow's railing. Nowhere left to run. He'd spent his ammo on Yatsuhashi, and he hadn't had the time to reload. He returned Wilt to his sheath.

Fox rolled his neck and put his hands on his hips. They could both see the rest of RWAY's aura dwindling: he had time to waste. "Come on, don't tell me you're giving me the silent treatment!"

"Excuse me for focusing during combat," Adam replied in his head. The yacht stretched up two stories above Fox, each smaller than the other, ending in rooftops curving over balconies. Good. He needed a higher position.

"Aw come on, learn to relax! It'll help the loss sting less." Fox grinned and crouched low, ready to close the distance in an instant.

Adam was quicker, hand snapping up from his waist. Fox darted to the side, but rather than another slash of aura, a dark object whipped past him towards the yacht's bridge: Blush's magazine. Adam followed, rushing past not just Fox but the clip itself as he leaped for the roof. He landed in a crouch just low enough for him to only feel the flat of a bladed tonfa skidding across his horns: Fox was already right beside him. A single swing deflected his tonfa and, pushing off with his foot hard enough to crumple the roof beneath him, Adam continued his rush forward.

Every step was another strike that needed to be blocked, the last jump to the top of the bridge a flip over a swing at his legs. They were much faster than the thrown magazine, and when Adam landed atop the bridge, he turned and reached out just in time for the clip to brush against the tips of his fingers.

He drew his hand back just before a bullet cut through where it once was. Fox was in front of him before the bullet had passed his shoulder. Adam watched the magazine tumble closer, end over end, Schnee insignia emblazoned on its side. If it struck the ground, any way to grab it would leave him vulnerable. Fox was already reaching for it.

"How!" Adam unconsciously thought: Fox was blind, after all. Right?

Adam struck Fox's hand away with his sheath and snatched for it again, but could only strike it with his hand before Fox was slashing at his wrist. In only the two seconds it took for the magazine to fall, Adam drew Wilt and deflected countless swings aimed at him and just as many shots aimed at the magazine. Fox abruptly swung low for the clip nearing the ground. Adam slammed Wilt back into its sheath and shifted it down not in front of the magazine to protect it, but behind it.

Fox's blade slid up the sheath, carrying the magazine with it straight up and into Adam's hand.

He darted back and slammed the magazine into Blush. Fox kept his distance, this time: Adam could feel his Semblance building up within. He had no doubt that he was glowing, now.

Fox winked at him. "I see things differently, by the way. That ammo of yours had your aura all over it."

Adam snorted and let his hand fall back to his hilt. They circled one another, keeping a complex antenna atop the bridge between them, just small enough for them both to see one another beyond, but large enough to be an obstacle. They were winded, but they'd barely gotten scratches on one another. They were too quick.

He tried to sneak a glance at the team's aura counts. A bullet sliced across his cheek.

"Don't get distracted, now~" Fox teased in their minds, yet chuckled openly. "Can I ask a question?" he asked. "You've got a better idea than this, right? I mean, what were you expecting?"

Afar, he could see Weiss sprinting along the Dust-laced gravity platforms. It was her forte: she leaped from material platform to ones formed by her Semblance with ease, twisting, twirling and sending lances of fire and ice down upon Yatsuhashi. He barely cared: storming unfazed through whatever Weiss could bring to bear or batting it aside completely with his blade only to return fire with emerald-green waves of aura. She was faster than him, but Weiss couldn't run forever.

"Taking on Beacon's best one-on-one? I know you've got some skills, but that's a little presumptuous, even for you four."

As they continued to slowly circle, Adam could see Yang behind Fox. She did her best to avoid Coco's gunfire, blasting herself in erratic patterns around the fashionista and lacing her with buckshot, but all it took was a single strike of boot or purse to bring Yang crashing into the ground.

"So come on, what's your plan? Your big scheme?" Fox's voice pressed down harder on him. "Aw, don't worry, I'm not gonna spoil it for anybody! I just wanna know!"

Beside him now, Velvet and Ruby fought along the stern of the yacht, leaping from balcony to balcony of the many floors of the boat. Ruby's constant flourishes and spins of her scythe kept Velvet's elements at bay, but she couldn't do that forever. A fiery blast sent her flying up onto the floor just below the roof. Their eyes met.

Ruby nodded up to him.

"You're aiming for someone, aren't you?"

Adam stopped and snapped his gaze over to Fox.

"Aha! I knew it! Honestly, Adam, I'm pretty glad." Fox stopped with his back to the holographic screen showing their auras. Ruby had taken some damage, but Weiss was already at two-thirds of her aura, with Yang's own teetering just over half at best. Team CFVY was almost spotless, not a single one below three-quarters of their aura.

Grinning, Fox held out his arms.

"Because right now, this is going disastrously for ya, pal," he said openly. "And I don't think Ruby's crazy schemes can get you out of that."

Resisting the urge to smirk, Adam instead scoffed and shifted his stance. His grip tightened around Wilt. His mind focused on Fox. Team CFVY was completely spread out. Fighting Fox meant they were stuck in a stalemate: perfect for his Semblance. They had one of CFVY alone and at a high position. Yang's Semblance was built up from her clash.

"On the contrary, I think everything is going exactly as we wanted it to."

From below, Ruby's voice called out. "Arctic Sunrise!"

He saw Ruby shoot out towards Yang. It was time to put what he'd learned to the test.


The world was red. The antenna between Adam and Fox ceased to exist. In an instant, Wilt closed the gap between its sheath and Fox's head. In an instant, Fox had twisted his body out of the way, aura flaring from strain. His head turned to follow the blade, and his white eyes widened at the aura ripping free and flying further ahead. He wasn't the target. He focused all of his Semblance onto Adam in that split-second, all upon one question.

If the target wasn't him, then who?

The mental response, unconscious yet strong, struck him before his question had even finished. Flickers of a massive man. Stoic. Strength. Threat.

Adam's blade had just passed over him. His aura was only an advancing, red light across the arena. At the speed of thought, Fox shouted through his Semblance like a beacon: "Yatsu! Block!"

Flipping away from one of Coco's swings, Yang had landed in a handstand. Ruby dropped onto her feet. Focusing her Semblance down into only a couple scarce seconds, Yang fired down into the ground, and the crimson of the world was washed away in a blazing, white light. Ruby was sent flying up into the air in a blur of red.

Yatsuhashi had already begun raising his sword when Fox realized that he'd been had. There was more to the plan.

"Too late." Adam. His focus was on him, now. He was the target. Yatsuhashi was just a distraction! Yet the only way Adam could've fooled him is...

"If I figured out you could hear my thoughts if I wasn't careful?"

Fox turned to look at Adam just as he realized the crimson light had never gone away, only faded. His Semblance hadn't ended.

"Tip for next time: don't answer your enemy's inner thoughts."

Adam's foot collided with his face.


Fox's world was a world of colors. Every Huntsman and Huntress felt the world through their aura in some way, but for them it would only augment their sight. Their instinct. For Fox, that feeling was everything: he saw the world in shades of Dust and aura. In those precious couple seconds that he spiraled through the air, sailing towards the center of the arena, the crowd was an ever-churning rainbow of scattered color. Below, he could see a golden light, bright as the sun, slamming into a star of caramel: Yang had finally landed a true blow on Coco.

Behind him, petals of his own dusty-red fluttered behind him, wasting away as the baleful crimson light from Adam behind them began to fade. Ahead, Yatsuhashi was eclipsed by an explosion of emerald-green and crimson, giving the pale form of Weiss all the time in the world to focus her aura.

His turns left him staring up at the sky, just in the center of the ring. Weiss' Semblance always stood out to him: constructs of aura so sharp and vivid. Countless glyphs led into the abyss that was the sky for him, each glowing purple with Gravity Dust. A Ruby-red star hovered in its center, high above. As the Dust dragged him up, Fox could only think one thing:

"This is gonna suck."


High above, Ruby stopped barely inches away from Amity's upper forcefield, so close that she could feel the buzz of the powerful Energy Dust supporting it. She folded Crescent Rose's blade out into its war scythe form, looked down at the tower of black glyphs and grinned. The glyphs dragged her down. She activated her Semblance.

Ruby loved it when a plan came together.


The glyphs snapped closed. A streak of red sliced down through their center into the arena in an instant. A shockwave obliterated the ice wall in the central arena, shoving gravity platforms back, rocking the yacht and leaving the middle of the ring obscured by dust. The crowd shouted out in surprise. Then, there was silence.

Weiss let her rapier drop, every granule of Gravity Dust she had left gone.

Nearby, Yatsuhashi grimaced at the jagged slash that had carved its way halfway through his blade.

Velvet leaned over the railing of the yacht, hand over her mouth.

Above her, Adam smirked. A job well done.

The smoke was whipped away from Yang first. She stood tall, panting with smoke escaping from hands and mouth both, fists clenched tight. Coco pushed herself back up to her feet only inches away from the water just across from her.

When the dust settled, the center of the ring was left in tatters: cracked and cratered, tiles and entire stretches of ground lifted up from the impact. And in its center, Ruby stood atop Fox. She lifted the blade of Crescent Rose off from where it had struck his chest. His aura flickered a few times, then collapsed in a cloud of dusty red.

"And in only two blows Fox Alistar has fallen by total aura knockout! The first KO of the 40th Vytal Tournment goes to Team Rua of Beacon!"

The crowd exploded into cheers. Even muted by the field, the roar was loud enough to make it hard to think.

Yang grinned and opened her hand, letting the shattered remains of Coco's sunglasses to fall onto the broken ground.

Coco's gaze followed the last shard of glass as it hit the ground. Her lips twitched up into a smirk, and she chuckled. There was no mirth in it.

"You really wanna sit at the adults' table? Fine. Yatsu!"

The giant gathered his aura and stood tall.

"Velvet!"

The girl reached for the box at her back.

"Show no mercy."