Bit of a different chapter, for sure, but one that I had always planned on. I had not forgotten about the tournament, don't you worry. Hope you enjoy a team fight, and hope you enjoy the chapter!
Chapter 59: Fights Overhead
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.(Chapter Start)
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October 16th
Wednesday
Dark clouds
(Ruby PoV)
Dark clouds pushed overhead the open ceiling of amity arena as one Ruby Rose stepped out from the shadows of the entrance that led her and the rest of her team to the main arena itself. Her nerves were eating away at her stomach, feeling somewhat lightheaded with an entire arena full of spectators all watching her and the seven other people down in the center of the floating structure. Her gaze eventually fell on where she and her team had been sitting, where team JNPR sat and were already cheering for them. Next to them was a calmer Azura and Pyra, Azura watching them with his head tilted to Pyra as she seemed to speak to him.
She could admit to herself being happy he was there. To know that all of the people she felt rather close to being there to support her team, as well as knowing that Summer would be watching through Azura's eyes.
"Ladies and gentlemen alike, welcome to the start of the afternoon matches of the Amity Tournament! Here we are with the miraculous team Ruby of Beacon Academy going up against team Auburn of Haven Academy!" Professor Port's booming voice rang out across the arena with the aid of his microphone up in the announcer's booth.
"Yes, and let's not forget that both of these teams have impressive combat prowess when put together as one!" Oobleck's quicker voice spoke, vigor in every syllable. "But only one team can come out on top!"
"Of course, my dear friend! Let's see what forms the arena will take in this round!"
The lottery roll, complete with sound effects, began to spin overhead on the digital screen. Ruby eyed the opposing team, having read up on them with the help of Weiss beforehand. Arslan Altan, leader of team Auburn and a hand-to-hand fighter. The dark-skinned girl with platinum-blonde hair bore no weapon, though, alerting Ruby to thinking that whatever semblance was up her sleeve was a powerful one. Arslan, for her part, merely adjusted her yellow and white robe across her tube-top as she patiently waited for the match to start, baggy pants tied up to her near knee-high boots as she tapped it and adjusted the bandages on her hands.
"Right, we went over this." Yang said, smirking as she cracked her knuckles with readied weapons. "That one's all mine."
"She's likely their hardest hitter, so we have to do our part to keep the rest of her team away from them while fighting." Ruby said, beginning to ignore the feeling of the entire arena watching them. "That means her partner specifically. He'd know her best in a fight, meaning he knows how long she can go and what she is capable of."
The partner in question, Bolin Hori, was dressed in a similar attire as Arslan, wearing a pair of yellow sashes that went across his waist and over his chest and shoulders over a dark blue vest. Garbed in similarly baggy grey pants and boots, he held onto his staff with his brown fingerless gloves as he shook his long black hair back, amber eyes watching them in return.
"That leaves the last two, Reese Chloris and Nadir Shiko." Weiss mutters, standing closely to Ruby's left side with a hand on the sheathed Myrtenaster's hilt. "How do you think we should approach this?"
"Make it quick, we're running out of time before the arena shifts to whatever elements it decides on." Blake says, drawing Gambol Shroud with both hands. "What about the Chloris girl?"
Glancing over at the other girl on the opposing team, the first thing to note being the light green hair color swept to the side the girl had, much like a stereotypical punk in Ruby's mind. Her hair color was complemented by her teal eyes and fair skin complexion, with two black facial markings on her cheeks. Dressed in a purple hoodie and black shorts with knee pads and elbow pads, as well as the high top shoes and the skateboard weapon, Ruby figured she would be the most agile of the four.
The ding of the first change of the arena sounded, with the second one still rolling.
"Ice on their side." Weiss commented, letting Ruby think everything out.
The last person of their team and likely Reese's partner, Nadir Shiko, already gave Ruby the vibe that he was the weakest fighter and should be dealt with first to put the odds in their favor. Pink hair tied in a ponytail with black undercuts, cream-colored jacket, gloves, and large shoes, as well as the black v-neck shirt and workout pants. In one of his gloved hands was clearly a gun, with both the stock and barrel on top of the size of the weapon, suggesting that it was a submachine gun. She noted that, unlike Pyra's SMG-spear combo, there was a sizable bayonet attached to the weapon, which she believed meant that it could transform into a bladed melee weapon.
"I think it's just Nadir Shiko that has a transforming weapon." Ruby says, finally coming up with a plan. "Yang, like you said, take on Arslan and make sure the two of you have an isolated combat location. Blake, Weiss, the two of you are going to be fighting defensively to keep Reese and Nadir away, but they'll all be trying to break past to interrupt Yang and push her out of the fight, so I'll be distracting Bolin."
The second ding of the lottery rang out, cementing them in a half-ice and half-lava arena. The entire center arena shook as the entire outer ring of it descended down and out of their sight. As they rose once again with their respective elements, an icy glacier surrounded by frigid cold water in front of them and the blazing miniature volcano that gushed out the mixed fire and earth Dust in the self-contained path for the faux lava.
"We need to get Yang to that glacier with Arslan and keep them there. While I keep Bolin away, Weiss and Blake need to keep Reese and Nadir trapped, then Blake and I are going to put Black Lotus to use to keep all three away. Just before that, I'll be swapping with Weiss so that she can help Yang put Arslan on the glacier." Ruby says, hearing the start of the ten second timer go off. "Weiss, go with Yang and set up a path for her to use to bring Arslan to the glacier and then shatter it however you go about it. We'll be split up in a 1v1 and 3v3, presuming everything goes well."
Seven seconds and counting.
Ruby turns to her sister, pointing up at her with a smile. "Yang…launch her when Weiss says to."
Yang's lilac eyes flare with a fighter's passion. "Of course."
Three seconds now.
"What are you going to do, Ruby?"
The girl in question flourishes Crescent Rose with rapid spinning up and around her body before gripping it tightly in front of her, scythe head raised and ready to reap.
"Win this fight."
"LET THE FIGHT BETWEEN TEAM RUBY AND TEAM AUBURN BEGIN!" Port's thunderous voice roared with the excitement of a tournament hype man.
The entirety of team RWBY dashed forward with a confident use of their abilities to close the distance instantly, Yang's fist slamming into Arslan's raised arm to push her back towards the ice half of the arena. Ruby saw Bolin move to interject himself in the fight between Yang and Arslan, making use of her semblance to rocket forward and slash with heavy momentum, missing him and slamming into the ground tip-first.
"Should've figured that was your plan." He said, quickly flourishing his staff with a quick spin and readying it.
Ruby watches him try and sprint past, easily matching him even without her semblance. Her eyes were moving rapidly, watching Blake and Weiss interchangeably move around with glyphs and clones to trap Reese and Nadir in place. They had to end this fight as soon as possible with how aggressive this plan was.
The game of cat and mouse only lasted several more moments before he stepped forward to run towards her directly, spinning the staff in front of him to try and trick her to not see an attack, her thoughts a blur as the feeling of combat washed over her. Flipping himself over, his attack came out as he went back down, a diagonal slam hitting the air as she dodged and countered with a twist of her weapon as she swiped horizontally. The scythe head slid against staff before hooking on it, a smirk crossing her face subconsciously as she pulled the trigger, the sound of a bullet hitting ground as the momentum tugged her backwards, pulling Bolin forward as well when she thrusted herself forward in a bundle of rose petals and slammed into him.
The back and forth slingshot caused him to launch backwards as she unhooked Crescent Rose from his staff, dashing forward and jumping into the air before bouncing back down with her semblance right into him, scythe head barely missing him as he took two steps back. Without losing her pressure, she spun around several times with her Crescent Rose, expertly weaving the weapon around her while hitting against his staff as she danced around her own weapon, ending it with a thrusting motion as she transformed it into its spear form. Instantly pulling the trigger again, the weapon flipped as soon as it hit from above and spun in her hands to hit from below, slashing against his aura.
She was closing in on the trap that Weiss and Blake had created, calling out to them. "Weiss, swap to Yang!"
"On it!" Her partner called back to her. "Go now!"
A black glyph appeared in front of Weiss, which she used to boost herself back and away from her position and slid past Ruby, who replaced her spot with Blake. Now in a 2v3 situation at their disadvantage for some time, her mind thought back to their battle plan. She knew Black Lotus was a risky team attack to attempt, given that they haven't practiced it too much, but she also knew that it was their best move against multiple targets that could move fast.
"Blake, Black Lotus!"
"Copy!" Blake yelled back, hopping back after slamming Bolin back with a side kick.
With all three of them put together, Ruby rushed forward with her semblance and spun in circles around them. With the intense speed of her semblance, she formed a near impassable wall all around them. Her weapon still in spear form, she poked and stabbed and slashed whenever she could to force them all to defend themselves while being unable to leave. She had to do whatever she could to leave as many people within her wall in order for Blake to set up the 'petals'.
Dodging attacks, on the other hand, was rather difficult to do. She bobbed and weaved, attacking where she could and moving away when she needed to, veering heavily to avoid Bolin's staff that somehow predicted when she'd be where she was. Ruby realized her mistake as soon as she had made it, seeing Reese have enough space to get on her hoverboard and escape up into the air.
"Now, now!"
She heard Blake yell, already ending her entrapment as Blake pushed clone after clone of herself directly towards the center, exploding on them in multiple types of Dust. Ruby pushed more on her side, throwing the last one as she saw Reese kick her hoverboard at Blake and hit the girl right in her side. Quickly moving to engage Reese as she landed, she was stopped by Bolin and Nadir, who were both panting and looking somewhat worse for wear.
Ruby readied her weapon, transforming it back to the trusty scythe form, taking a defensive posture in anticipation. She had expended a slightly sizable part of her aura just for Black Lotus, but it was better to use her semblance than let herself get lit up by Nadir's ranged weapon while Bolin's Staff knocked her around.
As expected, Bolin moved to engage her with Nadir just behind while keeping pace with him, weapons swinging and firing at her. She fired several times with Crescent Rose's sniper mechanism, thrusting herself to and fro in an unpredictable manner. A plan formed within her mind, knowing that she had to move past Bolin's defense of Nadir and force Nadir to not use the smg.
Jumping into the air as rose petals fell around her, she pulled the trigger and threw her body even higher into the air. As she peaked in the air, she pulled the trigger once more and rocketed towards Bolin, who she knew would raise his staff to block and try and throw her down to trap her, hitting her feet on the staff with enough force to make the air crackle momentarily before launching herself off to push him back and head right to Nadir.
She swirled in the air, Crescent Rose held tightly to her body with the scythe head just above and behind her head, swinging it out viciously and forcing him to dodge back as he fired. Feeling the bullets hit against her aura, she let them hit as she carried her momentum forward and continued sweeping with the scythe, stepping in routine with the weight as if she was dancing to the tempo of music and feeling it slice at his aura.
Most of her momentum was killed when his weapon transformed into that of a sword and actually parried against her scythe, staggering her back as she lost her footing and being unable to stop Nadir from kicking her right in the stomach with an aura-infused kick. She was launched backwards, hearing the opposing student yell out before she was batted down to the ground and bounced once from the impact from what was likely Bolin's staff. Her red aura shimmered heavily, keeping her only partially winded at the cost of her aura taking a heavy hit.
"Blake, grab her!"
The familiar voice of Weiss returning to their fight was a welcome one to Ruby, but feeling ribbons tying around her waist and yanking her away as a white glyph pushed her was a much more unwelcome experience. She grunted from the exertion as she landed into Blake, being placed onto the ground with her feet keeping her up.
"Ugh...thanks." She groaned, shaking her head as the ribbons released.
"Mhm!" Blake hummed back, already throwing herself with a clone towards Bolin and Nadir as Weiss engaged. Throwing up glyphs to bounce between as Ruby saw her and Blake catapult off of each other, buying her time and space to recover.
"Ruby, catch!"
Looking up, she saw that Weiss had catapulted Crescent Rose into the air with a spike of ice Dust midway in attacking, spinning towards her.
"Reese in the air behind!" Weiss called again.
Ruby didn't have time to even consider how Weiss was able to do everything while catapulting between glyphs. Now calculating the trajectory within a few seconds, paired with the knowledge of someone behind her, she zipped backwards to both dodge Reese's low swoop to hit her and grab Crescent Rose. Immediately after, with nothing but a stare, she launched herself towards Reese with her semblance, using that in tandem with the sniper mechanism of her weapon to completely catch up with her.
She saw Reese look back, having had barely any time to react to her, scooped her with the scythe head and watched the hoverboard falter and fall to the ground before throwing the hooded girl down to the ground and landing down rather ungracefully as well. Getting back up without much issue, weapon in hand, Ruby gave no time for the girl to speak before blasting forward with a mixture of her semblance and firing the sniper in Crescent Rose. Something slammed into her backside just a moment later, throwing her out of her semblance as she hit the ground and rolled several times from the momentum.
She groaned, getting up to rest on her hands and knees to see Reese now with her hoverboard back in hand. She was being too reckless, too aggressive even. Attempting to get up on her feet, she was knocked back down on her rear when a shockwave exploded out as chunks of ice slid into the water just behind Reese. All fighting ceased as the arena shook and everyone either fell down or was unable to really move without risking falling as well.
"It looks like our first fighter goes down with an explosive finish!" Port bellowed over the speakers, this being the first time Ruby was paying attention to it.
The roaring of the excited crowd suddenly hit Ruby, once the shockwave and subsequent shaking began to subside.
"Arslan Altan is no longer able to fight, having been knocked unconscious by Yang Xiao Long's student-popular semblance, Burn!" Oobleck stated with some excitement. "But, how will she get off of a crumbling glacier?"
Ruby stood once more, the fight between the other three members of each team about ready to burst now that everyone was back on neutral footing.
"Hope you don't mind some regrouping." Weiss said, pulling to her side with sweat slowly running down her face. "Blake is our highest aura count at sixty percent, with you and I pulling in below half and Yang below two-thirds."
Blake pulled to Ruby's other side, weapons at the ready as they stared down the remaining members of team ABRN. "We don't have time to worry about Yang, and their auras are all below half. We should take advantage of our speed."
"It's now or never for their semblances, guys." Ruby said, pointing out the fact that they haven't seen a single semblance yet. "Weiss, trap Nadir. I'll take him out. Blake, try and hold Bolin and Reese off for just a few moments when he is trapped."
Without any confirmation that they would agree, Ruby raced off towards them to restart the fight before they could, knowing that Weiss and Blake wouldn't be far behind her.
As expected, several of Weiss' white glyphs appeared to cut off Reese and Bolin from Nadir and pushed them away while Blake attached Gambol Shroud's ribbon to a smaller glyph and used it to throw herself forward and set up a few clones to act as a minefield while she played defense.
"That's new!"
"Shut it, Red Reaper!"
Five black glyphs appeared behind Nadir, appearing in the shape of a box. Ruby understood exactly what Weiss was asking her to do, moving to engage Nadir before he could break Weiss from her concentration. Dodging his spray of bullets and re-engaging from the side, she attacked right into his now blocking sword on purpose and activated her semblance to throw them both towards the box, letting go of him to let him go tumbling into her partner's trap as she slid past it.
"Right into our trap." Ruby muttered with a smirk, running back towards the box to get into position.
"No way, man!"
She knew that his aura was rather close to the threshold of fifteen percent by the panic in his voice, raising her scythe head like an executioner before slicing down and shattering the glyphs as she slashed deep into his aura. She saw his aura crackle and shimmer like it was near broken, then had her confirmation when Port's voice once again cried out over the speakers.
"What a brutal way to show the second member of team Auburn the way out of this fight! Nadir Shiko has been eliminated from the fight!"
"And is that Yang Xiao Long entering the fight once more by boosting herself with her weapons?! Utterly miraculous to see her going back in for seconds!" Oobleck yelled out, the excitement of the loud crowd almost overtaking his voice.
With Weiss back to her side, Ruby saw Yang come down from the air with a punch that barely missed Reese. They ran forward, catching up to Yang and Blake who were facing Bolin and Reese together. Despite this now being a 4v2 in their favor, they could still rather easily lose with enough mistakes due to their low aura counts across the board.
Instead of fighting, however, both Reese and Bolin ran for the lava element of the arena. Giving chase, all of team RWBY slowed their speed as the two opponents vanished away into the steep crags and large boulders littered throughout the land of the miniature volcano landscape.
"What's it going to be, sis?" Yang asked, shaking her head. "Three of us are running on fumes and Blake isn't faring much better."
"Uh…" Ruby began, doing a quick surveillance of the area before them. "Fight from the top down. They'll be fighting together, so we have to keep together to avoid getting picked off from a distance. Use whatever you can to avoid using aura until we fight, then unleash whatever you can."
"Right-o. Let's get 'em, guys!"
Using the bare minimum of aura use or none at all, each of the girls brought themselves to the top of the boulders in front of them and began to jump between them to try and find the final two obstacles between them and moving on to the 2v2 bracket of the tournament. The game of cat and mouse was tense to Ruby, who felt like her muscles would strain if they tightened up anymore. She would love to have the ability to check areas beyond her eyes and sniper scope, feeling slight envy of Ren's amazing sense of vision.
"Yang, dod-ah!"
Ruby teetered at the edge of the boulder she jumped to, whirling her head to see Reese's hoverboard knock Yang down to the ground from her own boulder while Blake, who had called out to her, had also vanished.
"Bolind grabbed Blake." Weiss said, coming to stand on the boulder next to her. "We have to split up for both of them."
"Help Blake!" Ruby called out, sliding down the boulder towards the ground where Yang was seen falling.
Racing off to find her sister, she listened to the sounds of combat and followed them to the source to find Yang fighting defensively to not be hit by anything. Without a word, Ruby flourished her semblance, rose petals scattering to the heated air as she cut in between them both and slashed towards Reese to push her back.
"You guys sure are tough! I like it!" Reese exclaimed, her tone excited as she stood on the hoverboard. "A shame that we'll still end up on top!"
"I'd like to see you try." Yang replied, readying herself with raised fists. "Ready, sis?"
"Always."
They attacked as one, Yang's laughter bringing a smirk to Ruby's face and a spark of competition to her eyes. Ruby attacked first, slashing forward as Yang jumped the scythe to throw a punch, neither of them caring about hitting or missing as they pushed Reese back and onto the defense. Feinting to the right and using her semblance to push left and vertically slash, Yang did the opposite and fired shotgun shells to the air, scraping Reese and making her push up towards the air.
As Yang continued to pepper the air with shotgun shells from her gauntlets between reloads, Ruby shot herself up into the air in combination with her semblance to gain as much height as possible. Watching as Reese tried moving away and dodging Yang's shots at the same time, Ruby watched the trajectory of Reese's movements and aimed her scythe behind her, booted feet against the scythe head, then fired it as she launched herself off of it.
With the intense speed of the combination, Ruby shot off like a comet right for Reese's predicted movement as Crescent Rose fell towards the ground. Just like Ruby thought, Reese tried to move forward and away from both of them, falling right into the trajectory she made for herself. Grabbing Reese and taking the girl with her as her target yelped in both shock and pain from the rather forceful grab, the two of them made it clearly past the arena edge and rocketed into the hard light wall that protected the audience, sliding down to the protected net that broke their fall and rolling several times with Ruby still holding on before slowing down and eventually stopping.
From above, the speakers roared to life over the excited screams of those watching.
"Ruby Rose has just eliminated herself to take Reese Chloris with her out of the fight with the beautiful display of how fast she can truly be!" Port's voice bellowed. "And Bolin Hori has taken Weiss Schnee with him to be eliminated! With all of team Auburn eliminated, team Ruby stands victorious and will move on to the 2v2 tournament bracket!"
As the crowd roared once more with the end of the ABRN v. RWBY fight, Ruby laid there on the net, completely still as she breathed in and out rapidly and heavily. She heard Reese groan in pain, then saw the girl sit up from her position next to her to rub her back.
"That was wicked cool, you know...but did you have to slam me into the wall as well?" The girl muttered, hood down as she looked down at Ruby. "You okay?"
Ruby nods, feeling her heart pound, talking between breaths. "Yeah...haven't tried that before...is all."
"Well, it freaking worked wonders. Didn't even have time to react to you."
The arena begins to descend, the net going down with them. A sense of panic set in, but was quickly quelled as Ruby and Reese heard someone call out from down below.
"Are the two of you okay?!"
Reese looks down, calling back with an answer. "We're okay!" She looks back to Ruby. "Looks like the guys to help us get out of this are here."
Waiting for them to touch the ground before moving a muscle to regain her breath, Ruby's muscles ached as she sat up with a groan. Reese was, while slow to move as well, up on her feet and quick to turn and offer a hand with a smile.
"Our team said we'd buy lunch for you guys if we lost. Surely food can get you moving again?"
A small smile came to Ruby's face, the realization that her team had won finally being comprehended. She reached a hand out, feeling Reese's fingerless gloves grab on to her hand and pull her up before pulling her arm around her shoulders. Ruby was glad that Reese wasn't too much taller than her.
"It was a really good fight for us. You guys deserve your victory with that level of teamwork at play."
"You guys were great too." Ruby replied back, feeling some of her energy return to her as they slowly shifted together towards the group of people Reese mentioned. "You don't mind me looking at you and your team's weapons after, right?"
"Save it for after food. I'm starved too, you know."
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.(Line Break)
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Qrow watched Folina as she spoke with an elderly looking ghost, arms crossed and leaning against a mostly broken down wall as he did so. This was the third time today, and despite her assurances that they were beginning to close in on the Nightmare's true hiding spot, he was beginning to feel somewhat frustrated with the process. Pausing so often while the day passed by was not a good way to search, not when neither of them had the ability to see in the dark.
He sighed quietly, pushing off of the wall and walking away from where they came from. Stopping when he reached the other end of the clearing that housed the few buildings that lay within, Qrow squinted to try and survey the land ahead of them through the debris and bushes and trees, both fallen and still standing. Feeling his patience begin to dry up, he kept busy by tracing the tracks around him.
His veteran eyes easily saw the most subtle part of the tracks, which told him that several types of Grimm had ravaged the area. The Nightmare had not left a single track on the ground, seeing as it had no feet, but most of the animals and Grimm in the area had mostly vacated. It was hard to tell if they had been fleeing and attacked when they found the place or were under the influence of the Nightmare Grimm itself.
Hearing the noise of Folina releasing the ghost, or whatever it was that she actually did with them, Qrow turned to look at her as she approached.
"Well?" He asked, an eyebrow raised.
"Well," She replied back, eyeing the tracks. "They were attacked by Grimm of a...hyper violent nature."
"Hyper violent nature? Isn't that normal?"
She shook her head. "Said that their...he called it Grimm goo...he said that their 'Grimm goo' was almost escaping their bodies and turning to vapor. Almost like they were withering away and dying. Sounds familiar, huh?"
Qrow frowns, his mind thinking about what they knew of the Nightmare's abilities.
"A temporary army, just as we thought?"
"It's testing. It wants to see if it can do something for some reason."
If it was an army, Qrow could only pray that it wasn't planning a full scale attack on Vale after seeing that it could be breached.
"If it's what I think it is planning, then it has to die." He eyed her, tone deadly serious. "Still need to try and triangulate a location?"
"Yes. There are two more fringe villages that we need to stop by before I can truly decide on the general location of the creature." Folina answered, looking through the trees now. "I know you're frustrated and losing patience, Qrow. But you have to remember that this entire forest has been ravaged...all of the entities living here killed or ran off."
"And that means every spot worth investigating shoots up tenfold. I know that."
"I know you do. Just reminding you that I am also aware that this creature becomes more dangerous as it grows older and more intelligent. It's already rather creative, if not more than aware of its own existence."
"Off we go, then?" Qrow said, looking forward.
Folina hummed, walking forward towards the trees. "Off we go. There's daylight left."
They walked in silence from there on out, the sense of danger not having ever left, but now amplified.
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.(Chapter End)
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Yes, the chapter name is indeed a pun of sorts...or a joke, I guess. RWBY fighting in the overhead amity arena, Qrow and Folina basically 'fighting' north of the city...overhead Vale. Eh? Eh?
Alright, enough of that. Have a good day/evening!