(A/N) Alright, so this chapter is roughly half the length of my usual chapters.

So as I pray, unlimited shame works.

Lmao. Joking aside, this is just the intro to what should be the first actual arc of this story, and the only arc planned before canon. By the time this update is published, I'll already be writing the A/N for the actual first chapter of the arc. The chapter should be up within the hour.

But don't hold me to that. Haha.

To anyone worrying that this story will become an OC fest: worry not! It is not my intention to make them pivotal characters, nor characters that I'll use more than I have to. They exist only because RWBY's cast isn't expansive enough to be throwing named characters around willy nilly.

On the same train of thought, the purpose of this arc is not to throw more convoluted world mechanics for you to try and wrap your heads around. This arc, as well as the last three or so chapters, exists to give some "body" to a series that suffers from an unfortunate lack of depth and character exploration. If I left things as they were, characters that play a bigger role in this story than in the actual Rooster Teeth production would suffer big time.

Now, that's not to say I'm throwing shade at Rooster Teeth. I'm not.

Anyway, as always, thanks for your feedback and readership. Enjoy!

XX

His third time competing in the tournament was bound to be his most successful. Signal was one win away from being Vale's rep school for the first time in... huh. Did Signal ever make it this far before?

"It's coming from the right!"

"Don't let him hit you!"

"What the hell was that move supposed to be?"

Jaune's eyebrow twitched as he just barely managed to duck under his opponent's overhead swing. He really wanted to tell his teammates that their advice was entirely unnecessary, but the moment was inopportune.

In its sword form, Luminosité Éternelle slithered its way into the other fighter's guard, forcing him to jump back lest he find it catching him under the chin. The Arc took the temporary respite to gather his bearings.

Jaune grunted. There was no way that this guy was actually his age, right?

Pharos Academy's last fighter was a good head taller than he was, which meant he was a good head taller than someone close to one hundred and ninety centimeters in height. The guy was pretty proud of his physique too, seeing as how he went around with an unprotected chest to show off his ridiculously over-muscled upper body.

Again. Same age? Not a chance.

If nothing else, it made sense that he was the last one up for Pharos.

The order in which team members fought was incredibly important, according to Taiyang. The matches alone were pretty straightforward –one on one, the team with the most wins takes the match– but the planning behind the matchups were much more in-depth.

A match consisted of three separate rounds, so a team would logically need three fighters to participate. However, there were actually five fighters registered on a team at any given time. The official reason for that was to have substitutes in the case of injury, but in practice it was actually just a convenient way to change who would be competing like pieces on a board, making sure that they fight someone who would be a good match for their strengths and weaknesses. This was completely legal, save for the case of the final round.

Since the whole thing was a best-two-out-of-three format, the third round was effectively a tie-breaker that didn't always take place. To compensate for this, one member of the team was registered and locked to that position; could and would fight only if that third match came to be. It was the only position with a name, aptly called the lock.

When Taiyang had told him that he'd be competing at that position, he was a little angry. It was only then that the man explained that Signal's team would be exercising a common and expected strategy: to keep their best fighter as the lock so as to have as little of their abilities revealed before the end of the tournament.

It had only stroked his ego a little bit to hear that.

To make a long story short, though, this was a fight between locks. It was made evident very quickly that this was Pharos Academy's strongest participant.

The larger man grunted as he propped his greatsword onto his shoulder. "You're a quick one, ain'tcha?"

Jaune heard someone from his end of the arena –probably Yang– yell, "You're just slow, sucker!"

The blonde shook his head with a sigh.

To his opponent's credit, the gibe was taken with a grain of salt. Then again, the poor guy went to the same school Coco used to attend, so insults probably weren't anything new for him.

CLANG

It took less than a second for their weapons to meet once more at the center of the stage. A flurry of blows followed, the speeds of which were not normal considering that neither of them was particularly agile.

Admittedly, it had more to do with their choice of armours than their actual bodies. The fighter from Pharos wore a full steel backplate with accompanying pauldrons, likely unable to stand the weight of it all had he not discarded the chest piece.

Jaune's protection was much more streamlined by comparison, but it was still more than what a huntsman would usually wear. He had long since replaced his old chest piece with a full ensemble that fit closely to his skin. He kept his gorget, though now it was accompanied by a discrete set of shoulder guards and vambraces.

The most significant addition, however, was the ornate but otherwise unassuming headpiece he wore. It was a strange mix of a circlet and the brow of a helmet.

Jaune announced, "I'll be winning this right here!"

Luminosité Éternelle switched to its polearm mode, allowing the previously hidden flag to billow in the open wind.

Off to the side, Mocha bit her nail nervously. She asked Yang, who was seated next to her, "Isn't it better to use a sword against a guy like that?"

Taiyang, who overheard them, interjected, "No, he's got the right idea."

His reasoning wasn't explained, however. His nerves were just as bad as theirs.

The makeshift spearhead of Jaune's weapon tested the opponent's guard with a series of thrusts. The Pharos student was quickly realizing that lugging his huge sword to block the jabs was draining his energy at a fast rate. So as not to give too much ground, he hastily went on the offensive.

A gleam caught Jaune's eye, and Luminosité Éternelle glowed faintly. He would make use of this opportunity.

The Pharos student's greatsword came down with conviction, knowing that the weight of the blade would be too much for the polearm to bear at its particular angle. He positioned himself to follow through–

The polearm didn't budge an inch.

"Wha–"

Unable to react in time, the taller man caught a push kick right in the chest. He was sent sprawling out of bounds.

A whistle blew, and a referee entered the ring to call the match.

Jaune looked over his back and smiled at the team from Signal Academy. Taiyang was clapping on his feet while his daughter had two unfortunate fourth-years in a headlock, screaming her head off.

The referee double-tapped his earphone, signaling for the event managers to connect him to the speaker system. "The Vale conference goes to Patch's Signal Academy! They will represent our kingdom at the World Tournament!"

Raucous cheers from the large crowd assaulted Jaune's ears, but it didn't lessen the elation he felt.

Standing still, he looked up to where he knew his family was sitting. Surely they were proud of him– no, proud of all five of them.

XX

Taiyang, who coached them up until this point, took the team into the locker room following the win.

"I'm proud of you guys. You gave it your all, and it paid off."

"Damn straight!" shouted Yang, who was still on some sort of high from the victory. "I'm telling ya, Coco and Velvet are the only reason we've never made it past the Vale conference. Now that both of them are at Beacon, the rest of this thing's gonna be bree~zy!"

Mocha scoffed. "You say that like you fought them yourself, to begin with. You and Jaune were reserves until this year."

The blonde girl huffed and crossed her arms. "Yeah, and now that we aren't reserves, we're going to internationals! Besides, we all know that the only reason we were on the sidelines was so that the seniors could have a chance to shine."

Playing the devil's advocate, Jaune offered, "They were still pretty strong, though. Give them some credit."

"Uhm…" mumbled a petite girl with short black hair –the team's lone fifth-year– shyly. "I think Yang and Jaune are stronger! If I didn't lose the first round, then surely…"

Jaune patted her back encouragingly. "Don't sweat it, Amethyst. You're a whole year younger than everyone on Pharos' team! Think of how much experience you'll have when you're back here next time."

She nodded with a faint blush.

The poor girl really was too hard on herself. The tournament consisted of mostly sixth-years –such as himself. It was only because of how small Signal was that they needed to get fourth and fifth-years to fight too.

Taiyang frowned. "Hate to break it to you kids, but the hardest part's going to be beating Mistral. Sanctum Academy is pretty much guaranteed to be their rep."

One of the team's two fourth-years, a short boy with hair done in a queue, raised his hand as if he were in a classroom.

Taiyang sighed. "Yes, Zhang?"

"What's so special about Sanctum? I don't think I've heard anything in particular about them. They've never been the Mistral reps before, and Atlas always beats Mistral in the end regardless."

"The difference is a last-minute decision made on their part," answered the older man cryptically.

Noticing the blank stares he was receiving, he used a projector app on his scroll to pin up the current Mistralian tournament bracket onto the wall.

Jaune looked to see if anything was out of order. Most of the teams except for two were eliminated, so that only left the contestants themselves. He took the time to go over Sanctum's roster.

Sanctum Academy

A. Altan

S. Ayana

S. David

P. Nikos (L)

N. Shiko

"Wait, is that–"

"Hold the phone!" Yang exclaimed. "Since when is Pyrrha-freaking-Nikos competing? That is Pyrrha Nikos, right? You'd think that would be a headline somewhere."

Taiyang cut the projection. "She technically wasn't an active fighter until just recently. Mistral's media knew this so they didn't make a huge spectacle out of it. Because of the upcoming Mistral Regional Tournament, the intentions of her management crew was that she'd act as a reserve; it would be on her record that she 'participated' in the world's primary school tournament while in reality, she would be getting ready for her next MRT appearance."

"So… what changed? It says here that she's the lock," asked Mocha. Though she was their assistant coach, this was news to her too.

"Can't be sure," answered the man. "She suddenly announced her withdrawal from the MRT and publicly committed to the Primary Combat School World Tournament."

Jaune lost himself to his own thoughts. Pyrrha, the girl he met years ago, had made quite the name for herself as the "Invincible Girl". She'd won three of Mistral's biggest tournaments in a row, and everyone was so sure that she'd win a fourth.

That begged a different question. Why would she withdraw? Sure, the world tourney was a popular event that was broadcasted across all four kingdoms, but the MRT was on a whole different level. It was without exaggeration the most popular sporting event on Remnant.

"Well, let's worry about one thing at a time," suggested their coach. "The last few rounds of the tournament don't start for another month, so your first priority should be getting through your final exams."

All six students groaned.

"Once I hear what the testing schedule will be from the other teachers, we can meet up for practice a couple of times before we have to fly in."

"Eh?"

"Where are we going?"

The two fourth-years –Zhang and Taka– looked at each other in confusion.

"That's right, you two are still new to this," remarked Mocha. "The last rounds of the tournament are held in a different kingdom each year. This time, it just so happens to be in Mistral."

The brunette froze, thought about what she said, then whimpered. "Which means you guys will have to fight the Invincible Girl on her home court. Great."

Jaune laughed. "If nothing else, it's going to be interesting."

Still…

There was a fire in his eyes. He was competing for a reason, and he wouldn't lose without putting up a fight.

XX

Elsewhere, a certain girl stared intently at a live tournament bracket on her scroll. The moment the update she was expecting popped onto her screen, she smiled.