Chapter 32

"Begin!"

With the roar of the crowd backing them, they lept into action. Glyphs formed beneath Adam's feet as he sprang forward, accelerating him beyond his already considerable natural speed. His velocity matched and then exceeded that of Neon. The two Faunus passed each other, striking at each other as they did.

Ice formed along Adam's sword arm as her nunchucks whipped into his sword arm. His crimson blade slid against her ribs, causing her Aura to crackle violently. The effect of the glyphs ceased almost immediately after, leaving Adam to run under his own power.

As he neared the trumpet wielding boy he heard the tell-tale sound of Ice forming cracking into existence as Weiss prepared for her opponent. Adam was closing in when the wave of sound took the air from his lungs and flung him back and threatened to throw him to the floor. He stabbed Wilt into the arena floor which screeched as he and it were pushed back, forming a thin channel in the tiled ground.

Pure sound waves!? Adam gritted his teeth as the trumpet wailed, creating wave after wave of sound that slammed into him seemingly without end. It pounded into his head. He could barely focus now as it rebounded around his head.

Adam pulled himself up, trying to make his way towards this Atlesian brat. But Flynt would have none of it. Three alternate coloured versions of him sprang out, adding their trumpets to the cacophony of sound.

Adam gasped for breath under the assault as he was pushed back to his knees. The force was impressive to say the least. His senses were being overloaded. His vision became shaky and he couldn't hear anything other than a loud and constant ringing.

And yet he smiled. He felt like laughing as well, but refrained. The waves were all sound, but each exerted pressure. Each had a force behind it. As each wave struck him, it also struck his blade. With each blast of sound it stored more energy.

The attack was disorientating but was slow at damaging his Aura. Despite that, the energy used to push at him was enough to charge his Semblance. It didn't take long before he felt ready.

Adam took a deep breath and stood, wrenching his blade free of the stone. Without his handhold he was sent skidding backwards, his shoes scraping against the stone tiled floor. Adam sheathed his blade and called upon his Semblance. As the red glow suffused the world around him, he took a step forward. And another. And another. Pushing through the intense wall of sound.

He felt his Aura draining as he soldiered onwards. Once he was close enough, he drew his blade and in one smooth motion cut the air. A wave of red and black severed the wall of sound that had been bearing down upon him. The red wave struck the main Flynt, causing his clones to vanish and the sound to stop for just a moment as he recovered.

Adam didn't give an opening. He rushed forward and stabbed his blade out in between the gaps in Flynt's trumpet. Adam smiled as he wrenched the weapon away from his opponent. With a flick, he sent it flying away into the fire biome nearby.

Flynt stumbled back in surprise. His mouth moved but no sound came out. Or maybe it did, Adam couldn't even hear the crowd anymore so it seemed likely he had damaged his hearing.

Adam chuckled. "I don't normally want to enjoy beating someone up, but today is an exception." He cringed at himself as his own voice was so muffled he could barely hear it. Adam raised his blade and struck.

It didn't take him long to reduce Flynt's Aura into the red, and thankfully his hearing had mostly returned by the time the announcers called the match.

As Flynt pulled himself to his feet, Adam retrieved the trumpet and shoved it into his hands a little more forcefully than perhaps needed. "Good at disabling, but you need to work on finishing an opponent."

Adam left the stunned man to pick up his teammate. As it turned out, roller-skates didn't do so well on ice. Neon Katt had spent the match trying to recover and disengage from Weiss, who had summoned wall after wall to block her in. She looked proud of the match.

Weiss gave him a smile as he walked over to her. He returned it and held out a fist. She looked surprised for a moment before she bumped their fists together.

Jacques will enjoy that, I'm sure.

The sun was setting when Mercury finally returned to his dorm. Neo had run back to one of Torchwick's many hideouts around town, preparing to breach the Atlesian Battleship. Emerald was tired and recovering in the corner. She had been spending a lot of her time either training or using her Semblance to keep Taurus from discovering them. After their victory against CFVY, she was out of juice and needed some time to recover.

Cinder was almost lazily scrolling through her scroll. Apparently, a lot of new information had come through and his boss wanted to make sure they weren't ignoring something they could use. As the door closed behind him however she eyed him with that eternally cocky smirk on her face.

"Mercury. Welcome back. So how goes our dear Faunus' training?"

"Taurus has been focusing a lot on countering quicker opponents. The blonde on the team is working on it too. They've made a lot of progress."

"I see. Well, it's good then that she has made progress of her own. Anything else to report?"

"Not really. You saw them in the doubles. I imagine they'll send Taurus onto the singles. He is the single best fighter on the team."

Cinder's smirk only grew. "Perfect. Emerald, make sure to get your rest, you'll be needed tomorrow."

"Of course, mistress!" Emerald pleased to be of service.

"With Taurus going forward, the only other one we need is Nikos. Once she is confirmed we will get to see how Ironwood's latest pet project will fare."

Mercury left Cinder to her scheming and opened up a comic book. The latest in the adventures of X-Ray and Vav.

They were close now. Soon enough he would leave this boring school behind and get to meet Cinder's boss.

At least it was better than dying in a forest.

"Ozpin are you sure she's up to it?" Glynda asked, placing a pile of paperwork on his desk.

"Yes. She's the best in the year." Left unspoken was how the connections she had to those around her were strong enough to protect her, yet weak enough to not cause problems.

Ozpin hated how his first thought that one of his students had friends wasn't to be happy for her, but to analyse their usefulness. It made that weight feel ever heavier.

"Your concern does you credit, Glynda. She will need our guidance in the coming years and having someone like you she can turn to will help her immensely. So please continue to think of the students first. Let me bear this burden." Ozpin said as he pulled a paper from the top of the pile and got to work.

"Of course. It doesn't look like she has decided yet."

"It hasn't even been a day. I imagine she shall wait as long as she can. I can't blame her given the risks involved."

"Oh, I should make you aware. Qrow and Specialist Schnee almost came to an altercation today. Apparently, they are both watching Taurus and bumped into each other."

Ozpin chuckled. "I see. Please remind them that we have more important things to worry about than Taurus."

"I already have, but I can always make sure they have the message. I'll pass it along now." Glynda nodded to him with a smile and left.

Ozpin leaned back in his chair and sighed. They were so close to the end of the year. Please. If you are still there Brothers, please let this year pass in peace.

"Um. Sorry to disturb you sir, but I thought you should see this." A suited man, who Jacques had charged with improving security at their mines, passed a scroll over. Jacques took it and pressed the play button. He watched a few moments from one of the day's matches. Weiss' to be exact.

"Yes, I watched it. She did well. What of it?"

"Well, I was running through some of our databases. I thought I had seen her ally before. I found him in our database sir. Our White Fang database."

Jacques slowly handed the scroll back. "You mean to tell me that my daughter is fighting alongside a member of the White Fang?"

"Yes sir. But not just any member. This man has led several attacks in the last couple of years. Each of them has been exceptionally brutal and he's even kidnapped and executed some of our board members in the past."

Jacques took in a deep breath. "I see. And he is a member of Beacon, correct?"

"Yes sir."

"Please prepare a journey to Vale. I believe it is time to check up on our holdings within the city."

The man gave a bow. "Of course sir. Would you like for me to arrange extra security?"

"Please." Jacques said with a wave of his hand. The man left. Jacques took a long moment before he stood and walked to the window behind him. He looked out at Atlas from the top of the SDC headquarters.

He was not the kind of man who got angry very often, but today? Today would be an exception. Soon Ozpin would see what happened to those who put his family in danger.

Putting her on the same team as an animal from the White Fang!? What is that man thinking!

The day of the singles matches had arrived, but breakfast was strangely subdued. Pyrrha and Jaune were distant from the group, mostly remaining silent and refusing to make eye contact. When Ruby tried to make sure they were okay, all she got were half-hearted pleasantries.

They seemed down and none of them had any idea of what to do, so they just hoped it was temporary. The pair's feelings were practically drowned by the high emotions everyone else was displaying.

The final rounds were here and everyone was excited. Who would claim victory? By days end they would all know. Ruby was excited to cheer Adam on. They'd put it to another vote and he'd won.

He seemed determined to make sure their faith was well placed.

They made their way to the Colosseum and bid Adam and Pyrrha good luck as they made their way down to join the other contestants. Ruby could only really recognise Sun and Penny. The others were all unknowns.

"Think he's got this?" Yang asked as the wheels spun, landing on Adam and some guy from Haven.

"Of course!" Ruby said with the utmost confidence. "He's better than almost anyone in the class!"

"He'll still have to face Pyrrha and they're evenly matched." Weiss responded.

"Come on guys! He can totally make it!" Ruby smiled.

"Pft!" Nora exclaimed as JNR sat beside them, popcorn in hand. "Pyrrha's improved a lot since they last fought!"

"Still, she doesn't seem very focused today." Ren said. "Did something happen Jaune? You were the last to talk to her."

"Huh? Oh no. Nothing happened. Might just be an off day." Jaune mumbled.

"An off day is right." Yang muttered.

"Guy's shh! Adam's fight is about to start!" Ruby excitedly exclaimed. Adam faced his opponent, Mercury Black.

They seemed to exchange some banter as Port and Oobleck counted down. While they couldn't hear it, it seemed to piss Adam off.

The battle began with the roar of the crowd.

A/N: And so the singles round is here with Mercury fighting Adam. That will totally go well for the resident Faunus, right? On the other end, the fight with Flynt was fun. After all the thinking I did about how Adam's Semblance worked I realised that when battling Flynt it would be able to use all that energy. I wonder what could have Pyrrha and Jaune so distressed? Can't be anything about Ozpin or a girl in the basement now, could it?

I hope you all enjoyed and I'll see you next time!