Slamming against the steps, Adam rolled until the white concrete walkway stopped his momentum. Wilt and Blush clanged beside him. Gripping Blush, he stared at the man who threw out of the house.
Watching Raksha and Illia kneeling beside their fallen brother, "You, two follow him," said Ghira turning his back to them, "don't bother coming back," entering the house.
Helping Adam to his feet, his sisters stared at Kali, their mother, rubbing her hands. She ran towards them.
Shoving lien into Raksha's hands, "Take it to survive on until you reach a safe house."
Hugging both of her daughters, she stared at her son.
"He's stubborn like you," hugging him, "Don't hate him for that."
"I don't hate him just disappointed," resting his hands on her shoulders.
Watching her children walk away, she sighed turning to walk up those stairs.
Entering their empty house, she found Ghira sitting in his chair like a worn out fighter. Standing beside him, she placed her right hand on his left shoulder.
Patting her hands, "My heart is sad at the sight of young faunus wearing war paint and joining in the march towards war," directing Kali to sit on his lap, "Their weapons ready to be painted red," sighing, "This stalemate is coming to an end," shaking his head, "Young faunus and young humans won't survive this."
"Then stop this."
Failing to smile, his fingers followed the outline of her sad face.
"Younger generation want war. They don't listen to old men like me."
"Old men should stop wars."
"Wonder where you got that from? No, trying to surviving this. That's the next step."
Tararus mines - Present
Returning to his work detail, he was given a heavy Dig Dug to quickly remove the rust gained from being in the steam room.
During a break, he's ate a meatloaf MRE that tasted like leather.
Sitting beside Adam, "Seems recovering with Cara went well?" bringing Adam's attention onto the Count.
Staring at his half eaten leather tasting meatloaf, "Does she have an usefulness?" asked Adam.
"Yes, her cell is close to the control room."
"How's that useful to me?" licking that brown slime called gravy.
"These cravens are honey combed allowing something to kill prisoners that try to escape," sliding a small cylinder towards Adam, "Plant these under the communication board in the control room."
Palming the cylinder, "And this for what again?"
"I'm the brain."
"And I'm the muscle."
"Correct."
Standing on the perimeter of a mockup of Amity Arena, "My sweet Velvet," said Coco, "want do you hear?"
Leaning to the right then left, she strummed on her air guitar.
"The rebel of yesterday, tomorrow's fool
Who are you kidding being that cool?
Trying to break away from running with the pack
But they ain't listening so you've gotta go back."
Staring at each, Coco, Fox, and Yatsuhashi stared then at Velvet going into her drum solo.
"You're a weekend warrior
When you're one of the crowd
But it's over
Just look at you now
Look at you now
Just look at you now
Just look at you now."
On the other end of arena, Blake increased the volume on her scroll.
Covering her ears, "Think you got that too loud enough!" shouted Weiss.
"Quiet," typed Blake on Ruby's scroll, "or Velvet will hear."
The rules of Grifball are simple. Two teams battle for a two story high ball in the middle of a mock up of the Amity Arena used during the Vytl festival by directing the ball into other team's goal.
Scoring a goal earns one point. Scoring three points ends the round. Each match consists of five rounds. The team with at least nine points at the end of five rounds wins the match.
Usage of scroll in keeping track of the ball is encouraged.
If a hunter/huntress goes out of bounds, they have fifteen minutes to return or be eliminated from the round until the next round. If the ball goes out of bound, the game stops. Play renewed once the ball returns to the center of the arena by ball carriers.
Since Team RWBY is a first year team, Team CFVY must use rubber ammo, not like it lessen the pain any.
So far the teams are even with two wins apiece, this the tie breaker.
Scouting ahead, Blake noticed the white, red striped ball. Circling perimeter, she couldn't detect members of Team CFVY.
Her ears detected, "Fearless team leader Ruby weaved her way towards her team's object. Team CFVY hasn't revealed themselves, yet."
"Ruby?" whispered Blake into her scroll.
"Yes, Blake," answered Ruby into her scroll.
"You're narrating too loudly."
Sighing, "Need to stop doing that."
Using Petal Burst to weave around the tree trunks towards the ball, Ruby built up her momentum. Stopping at the midsection of the ball, she reared clockwise back smacking the flat side of her practice scythe against the ball sending towards Team CFVY's goal. Rolling over hills, the flat side of her scythe smacked the side of the ball like a hockey puck causing it's momentum to quicken. One more good smack sent it towards Team CFVY goal.
Standing in front of Team CFVY's goal, Yatsuhashi slammed Fulcrum into the ground causing a shockwave sending the ball towards Team RWBY's goal. It rolled onto an ice ramp created by Weiss.
Laying a section of ice down, Weiss sent the ball over hills and trees back towards the other team goal. Placing antigravity glyphs down like stepping stones, she watched a leaping Fox sail over her ice ramp sparkling fire dust along the surface of the ramp.
Striking the dust with Fulcrum, Yatsuhashi caused a chain reaction of flames along the ice structure.
Weiss's preparation to repair the ramp got interrupted by Violet's feet knocking her off her glyph. Falling, she imaged a glyph to slow her descent only for Blake to catch then toss her into the running Ying's left arm. Crawling onto Ying's shoulders, she used her glyph to increase his speed.
Dropping off Weiss with Ying Blake swung towards Yatsuhashi. He had to be removed for Team RWBY to win.
Appearing, Velvet connected her knees against Blake's chest sending her at a slight angle towards the rolling ball. Ricocheting off the edge of the ball onto the top of ball, she crawled backwards to same on the ball. Bouncing onto her feet, the blade of her katanna blocked Fox's right tonfa. Series of strikes by their weapons as their feet kept moving on top of the rolling ball. Twisting their wrists sent their weapons flying from their grip.
Feeling the bend of Blake's fingers, "She knows Tiger Claw," thought Fox.
Ball vibrated causing Blake to pier over her shoulder. The source of the vibration was the bullets from rotating barrel of Gianduja. The assault from Gianduja caused the ball to slow down. Slamming Fulcrum against the ball, Yatsuhashi sent the ball past the running Ying and causing Blake and Fox to fall off the ball.
The ball rolled past the running Ying. Sliding, he chased after it regaining his momentum with the help of Weiss's glyphs.
Getting ahead of the ball, he allowed Weiss to slide off his back. Slamming his palms against the ball caused him to slide closer to Team RWBY's goal.
Jumping onto the ball, Coco used Gianduja to dig a trench behind Ying. Lining her sabra blade with her nose, Weiss thought of a glyph to conjure a gray medieval suit of armor.
Bright light of an explosion, Winter covering her bleeding face entering her mind caused her index finger to rub her scar along her left eye.
Putting a sleeper hold around Weiss's neck," Sorry, miss," whispered Fox, "You left an opening."
Slowly Weiss's body went limp. Releasing his hold, Fox stared at Yatsuhashi pushing the ball while Coco dug a trench. Burst of speed, he blocked the blade of a shadow clone from striking Yatsuhashi. More clones appeared for him to block. Keeping the waves of clones from Yatsuhashi prevented Fox from locating the source.
Keeping her clone assault going prevented Blake from helping Ying.
Catching the sight of a red blur, "Finally," thought Blake.
Taking an upward angle, Ruby appeared rearing her scythe back ready to swing at Coco only for Velvet to kick Ruby sending her tumbling towards the ground.
Bouncing against the ground, Ruby got to her feet only to stare at her scroll flashing, "Out of Bounds".
"Gre…" Blake never got to finish her thought as she found herself out of bounds by a Velvet kick.
The trench behind Ying grew in width. Furry of kicks by Fox and Velvet landed behind Ying's knees. Getting wedged behind the ball didn't prevent him from clasping Velvet's right leg then using her to bat Fox onto his back.
"Sorry," said Velvet, "I had to kick you."
"I understand," he answered back, "I still have to throw you out of bounds."
"Understand."
Slamming her against the ground, he flung her into Fox. His footing gave way to the lack of ground removed by Gianduja. Falling into Coco's trench, the ball rolled over him allowing Team CFVY to win.
Helping Weiss to her feet, Blake shook Weiss's head to wake her up.
Rubbing the back of her neck, "What happened?" asked Weiss.
"Team CFVY won," said Blake leading her towards the trench.
"Where's Ruby and Ying?"
"Ruby's with Ying."
Reaching the edge of Coco's crater, they saw Rub y hugging Ying.
"It's a game," said Ruby.
"We still lost," he said.
"We can learn from this," replied Blake hugging him.
"Correct," remarked Weiss joining in on the hug, "We will only get better from this."
Staring that Team RWBY hug feast, "That's the hardest game of Grifball we've earned," remarked Coco catching her breath.
"They're going to be an interesting team during next year festival," said Yatsuhashi.