Jaune smiled as he sat with his team in Amity Colosseum, letting the sounds of the crowd roll over him as he watched the match that was occurring. He absently dodged one of Nora's flailing limbs as he brought some popcorn to his mouth, the energetic orangette yelling loudly enough to make up for about half of the stadium's worth of noise. The blonde glanced at the seat beside Nora's to see that Ren had given up on restraining his partner and was simply enjoying a soda as he watched the fight, a small smile on his face as he studied the fighters.
He turned his attention back to the fight when Pyrrha started clapping in approval, just in time to see a girl hit the ground after getting some air time due to Yang's rising uppercut. He'd seen that uppercut before. Been hit by it, too. He knew from experience that it rung your bell like nothing else. And he would swear that the blonde bombshell had stolen it from a video game, but whenever he mentioned the similarities she quickly changed the subject.
"They're doing well." Jaune said as he watched a muscular boy with clawed gauntlets frantically try to avoid a relentless assault by Ruby, without much success. The youngest participant in the tournament was showing the crowd that she'd well and truly earned her spot at Beacon. And not just for her combat abilities. The reaper had quickly taken in the opposing team's weapons and builds and assigned her teammates the opponent they were most suited to deal with. The discussions on leadership and tactics he'd arranged with her and a few other team leaders such as Coco and Cardin (who had thankfully been stepping lightly around Jaune since his return) were having an effect, if she was able to do that so well now. Not that the others didn't benefit from the sessions as well, even the upperclassmen. Getting new points of view was always invaluable.
While Ruby was dealing with her clawed opponent and Yang was making sure that the girl she'd been fighting was down for the count, Jaune's eye was attracted to a sudden glacier appearing in the far area of the lightly forested arena the current fight was taking place in. Weiss was literally skating along the ice on her glyphs, avoiding the frustrated crossbow bolts of her opponent. The fact that the bolts exploded when they hit something made it clear that staying mobile was a good idea.
Jaune studied the fight critically. His first thought was that maybe Ruby should have tackled the crossbow wielder, but seeing that the girl didn't have any other ranged options besides the crossbow, was too slow to get close to the white haired girl while on the ice, and could only barely avoid the return elemental attacks from her opponent, he quickly decided that Ruby had made the right call. Weiss had it in the bag, and while her versatility would have made her good enough to deal with any of the others, here she shone.
Blake's fight was more subtle, but no less intense to the observant. The last member of the team, a sniper, had hidden themselves in the trees of a more heavily forested part of the arena, taking occasional potshots at the members of RWBY that were in combat, keeping them from winning too handily. He was a proper sniper, too, of the type Atlas might train for their army. Camouflage, colors that blended into the environment (the boy's outfit impressively having several flaps and zippers that he could quickly open or close for camouflage options for multiple terrain types, something that Jaune found interesting), and impressive stealth skills. The only reason the crowd knew where he was was due to their elevated positions and the screens that focused on him.
Of course, this left the stealthiest member of RWBY to hunt him down. Blake ghosted through the trees with the experience of someone used to sneaking around human opponents instead of Grimm. Whenever she found the sniper, she'd attack. The only reason she hadn't taken him out in the first assault was the fact that he had set tripwire sensors around his perimeter that alerted him when she approached. He'd abandoned his sniper perch and headed to another while holding her off with a kukri blade, and from then it had become the most dangerous game of hide and seek most of those watching had ever seen. Though perhaps cat and mouse was more appropriate, Jaune thought to himself in amusement.
The girl Yang had been tangling with tried to get away, but Yang quickly punched her lights out before she could run, knocking her out of the fight. Then she looked around at the various fights, trying to decide which of her teammates could use her help the most, before heading for Ruby.
Ruby's unfortunate opponent had been unable to do much of anything during the fight. The scythe wielder was too mobile, and he was more of a hand to hand fighter from what Jaune could tell, being solidly built, but not very mobile or dexterous. Ruby couldn't hit him as hard, so was going for a Death of a Thousand Cuts type of victory. Of course, when she spotted her sister approaching, she began to herd her opponent towards the busty brawler. Having been on the back foot for pretty much the entire fight, the young man hadn't had that many options other than continue to try to evade, which was what he did. He was so focused on Ruby that he didn't notice his approaching doom, and could only watch in confusion when Ruby finally backed away, a cheeky little smile on her face.
Then Yang tapped his shoulder. Jaune could see the resignation appear on the poor guy's face even as he turned around to punch the person behind him. Yang, already a bit built up after her previous fight, caught his blow with a smirk then clocked him right in the jaw, Ember Celica going off at the moment of impact. He stumbled but managed to remain standing. Then Ruby pressed the barrel of Crescent Rose's sniper rifle configuration against his back, and Jaune could practically hear his groan before the sisters knocked him out with a tandem attack. The blonde knight winced in sympathy.
Once he was down Ruby pointed over towards where Blake was still hunting the sniper and Yang immediately gave her sister a playful little salute before heading over as the reaper moved to assist Weiss.
There wasn't really much left for Ruby to do, however. Weiss had dominated her fight even further, freezing more of the ground whenever her opponent seemed to be about to reach more solid footing. It didn't help that one of crossbow girl's legs had been frozen, keeping her unable to move effectively. Weiss was practically toying with her now, though Jaune knew it was mostly RWBY's black mage being cautious.
Spotting her leader approaching apparently let Weiss know that it was time to end the game, and she launched another trail of ice at her opponent, who was unable to evade due to her compromised mobility, resulting in the rest of her lower body becoming frozen in a block of ice. When Ruby arrived she carefully removed the crossbow from the shivering girl's hands before smacking her in the back of the head with Crescent Rose's compact form, sending her aura into the red and out of the fight despite the less than stellar force she'd put into the blow.
While that had been happening, Yang had reached the trees the sniper had been hiding in. Her aura took a fair few shots, but she was still good to go, seeing as she regularly took higher caliber rounds from her sister during training. Not to say this guy didn't pack a punch, but it was obvious that his rifle was meant more for concealment than stopping power, unlike Ruby's, which was designed around causing as much damage in a single shot as the wielder's personal abilities allowed.
Yang knew she wasn't going to be able to pin the sniper down on her own. She knew the general direction the shots came from and headed that way, but he'd be able to sneak away before she could take him out. Not that it mattered. She was just the distraction, after all.
Blake snuck along the trees, silent as a ghost. Her opponent was smart in his defense. He didn't just set his sensors on the ground, but also along the branches above and below himself in an almost random pattern. But she'd learned how to spot them after her time hunting him, and now slipped between the sensor beams with feline grace, bow twitching as she took in every sound. Reaching the sniper's position she almost couldn't see him even when she knew where he was, he was camouflaged so well. Perhaps a camouflage semblance? Didn't matter, he hadn't spotted her, but she had to attack immediately, seeing as he was preparing to move to another nest before Yang arrived and knocked his block off. He was obviously made for stealth and surprise attacks. It was doubtful he'd be able to take even one of Yang's punches.
As the crowd watched, Blake tensed before dropping on the distracted sniper, Gambol Shroud ready to strike at his head.
He apparently noticed something was wrong, turning just as she was about to land on him. He tried to evade, but that just unbalanced him so that when Blake landed on him they both fell out of the tree, the faunus riding him down, using him to cushion the blow. With the catgirl's weight adding to the force of the impact against the ground and keeping him from bracing himself, he was out like a light when his head impacted against the grass.
Jaune clapped enthusiastically with his team when Professor Port announced RWBY's win, Nora dancing around happily and laughing maniacally. When a break was announced before the next match Jaune stood up. "Well, that was a good fight. What do you guys say we go congratulate the girls before our own?"
"That sounds like a grand idea, Jaune." Pyrrha said with a smile as she stood up as well once she drank the last of her soda. Ren nodded in agreement as he did the same, and there was no need to ask Nora, as she was already speeding off to celebrate with their sister team. That or hunt for a pancake stand. Either or.
Jaune chuckled as he led the way out of the stadium, looking forward to congratulating his friends.
They found the victorious girls lamenting the fact that Weiss's credit card wasn't working when they tried to get lunch. Blake looked like she was about to cry when her fishy noodles were taken away from her.
Jaune made his way behind her and handed the shopkeep his own card. "I'll cover it."
Blake looked at her with wide, grateful eyes as the food was set back in front of her. She looked so adorable that his brotherly side let out an aww. "Thank you, Jaune."
"Hey, you guys deserve it for doing so well." He said as he took one of the free seats, Pyrrha sitting beside him while Ren and Nora sat at the other end of the stand, the hammer wielder demanding pancake noodles, much to the shopkeep's obvious confusion. He noticed Weiss seemed to be brooding slightly about her card, eating her noodles angrily, but he let her be for the moment. She'd talk when she was ready. Instead his attention turned to Ruby. "You did a good job directing everyone, Rubes. Perfectly called." He said with a smile.
The reaper grinned widely as she slurped up her noodles. "Thanks Jaune. Those discussions with you and the other team leaders really helped."
"Yep, my sis is awesome." Yang said, grabbing the younger girl in a headlock and giving her a noogie as she flailed about. "You guys ready for your own fight?"
"As ready as we can be." Pyrrha said as she sipped some tea she'd been brought.
"Pyrrha has been walking us through how to block out the audience and focus on the fight, seeing as none of us have fought in front of a crowd larger than the ones in combat class." Ren said as he had some tea as well.
Ruby finally broke free of Yang's hold. "That'll help." She said as she went back to her food after a brief scowl at her unrepentant sister. "I froze a bit at first. I think Weiss is the only one that's used to audiences, since she sings."
Weiss shrugged. "I have no doubt Pyrrha's words likely helped, but it's honestly the sort of thing you can really only get over with enough exposure."
"Well, let's hope we don't freeze and make fools of ourselves." Jaune said wryly.
"Don't worry about it!" Nora said airily. "The worst that could happen is we lose! Then it's just a few more years of walking around school with everyone knowing we're failures, our friends will slowly abandon us to preserve their social status, we won't be able to show our faces in class, no one will sit with us in the cafeteria, and Ren and I have no parents so we have no home left to go to, we'll be officially renamed Team LOSEiper!" With that an agonized sound escaped her mouth as she buried her face in her arms, sobbing maniacally, which made RWBY stare and JNPR sigh, Ren patting his partner's back.
"Err…" Weiss began, looking shocked at the sudden mood change. "Is it just me, or should Nora perhaps be on medication?"
Before anybody could answer her, Port and Oobleck called for JNPR to show up at the arena. Jaune groaned and stood up, stretching, before turning to his team with a smirk and a glint in his eye. "Alright, we all ready to go kick some ass?"
Pyrrha smiled cheerily even as her own eyes narrowed in anticipation. "Oh, this shall be grand…"
Nora was once again cheerful as could be and posed heroically, finger extended towards the arena. "Onwards, to victory, glory and riches!"
As JNPR left the RWBY girls glanced at each other before quickly scarfing the rest of their meals down and rushing after their friends, eager to see the upcoming match.
Jaune studied the opposing team carefully as they wanted for the arena type to be decided. He recognized them from the lectures he'd given, though he'd never gotten their names. One was what appeared to be a tortoise faunus, a shell on his back, which likely gave him good defense against attacks coming from behind. Due to likely low mobility he seemed to focus on power and enhancing his natural defense, if the tower shield and massive, bladed LMG was any indication. Jaune had already tagged him as Nora's focus. If anybody could bust through that defense, it was her.
Another was a cute girl dressed in tight, form fitting clothes that the teenage boy side of Jaune couldn't help but appreciate. Her long brown hair was tied back in a low ponytail, and she seemed to be built for speed. The way she bounced slightly on her feet in anticipation seemed to support that theory, as did her weapons, a couple of sickles attached to each other by a long chain. He could guess they could be used for capture and mobility, much like the ribbon on Gambol Shroud. Jaune decided Ren would be the best choice to deal with her.
The one he'd already decided would be Pyrrha's opponent was a boy with the body of a gymnast that seemed like a jack of all trades type. Unlike most huntsmen, who focused on one or two weapons exclusively, this guy had at least six on his person that Jaune could see: a katana, a sturdier arming sword like Jaune's, a pair of handguns at his hips, a whip strapped to the back of his belt, and a waraxe and a shotgun strapped to his would like to think that he wouldn't be as proficient in all those weapons as he would be if he specialized, but he figured it wasn't likely. For all the blonde knight knew the guy could have a Semblance that allowed him to pick up weapons skills faster. So Pyrrha would be the best to deal with his likely eclectic fighting style.
That left the last girl to Jaune. Studying his opponent he found that the green haired girl wielded two hand axes, holding them lightly in her hands, ready to swing. For range she had a submachine gun strapped to her back, and he couldn't help but notice that the dress she was wearing had odd patterns of various colors. He couldn't be sure, since he'd never encountered it before, but it was likely she'd laced her clothing with Dust. That meant he could expect her to use elemental attacks, likely in tandem with her weapons.
Finally the arena was chosen, an arid desert setting dotted with boulders for cover, a relatively large pile forming a hill that could be used by snipers. That would work.
As soon as the beginning of the fight was announced Jaune barked his orders while the opposing team seemed to move back as a group, likely looking for more defensible terrain so they could watch each other's backs rather than be picked off one by one. "Nora, tortoise! Ren, the brunette! Pyrrha, the walking armory!"
His team reacted without hesitation, rushing towards their designated targets as Jaune did the same. Thanks to being the speediest of the team Ren reached his first, dodging a thrown sickle and its follow up swing while evading shots from the handguns of Pyrrha's opponent. The enemy team clearly didn't intend to be separated.
Jaune held his shield up as his opponent swung her axes at him despite the distance, a wave of fire lashing out at him. He imbued his shield with aura and kept rushing through the flames, not breaking his stride. The girl swung her other axe, and this time a gale of wind hit him, pushing him back slightly, though not enough.
While this was happening Pyrrha had engaged her target, launching Milo in javelin form at him in order to take his attention from Ren. He dodged and batted her weapon away with his arming sword, which had been drawn with astonishing speed, before taking a swing at her still rushing form, the redheaded champion sliding under the swing on her knees, striking the back of the boy's knees with her shield as she passed, making them buckle. He was smart, though, turning the fall into a forward roll to get away from her before she could follow up. By the time he was back on his feet Pyrrha was as well, Milo back in hand.
By this time Nora had reached the tortoise boy, who was taking aim at Jaune with his LMG, and swung Magnhild at him with all her strength and a momentum enhancing shot, a manic grin on her face. The shelled huntsman wasn't as slow as he seemed, being able to bring his shield up to block the girl's strike, but he still slid backwards from the force, which was impressive considering his bulk. Nora's eyebrows went up and her grin widened when he blocked her and let out a laugh as she swung again, beginning to literally hammer away at his defenses, trying to find an opening as he did his best to weather the assault.
Ren had managed to reach his opponent and was engaged in a dazzling display of martial arts with her, the two of them trading lightning fast blows with both fists and weapons, trying to get the upper hand. Ren had an edge in aura control, and the fact that Stormflower were guns as well as bladed weapons, which let him continue to attack even when the girl tried to get some distance, but she was absurdly flexible, dodging strikes she by no rights should be able to, and often lashing out with a return strike with her sickles, which had caught him once or twice. Their fight drew some attention from the audience, despite the two more famous members of JNPR fighting not far away.
Speaking of, Pyrrha was finding her opponent's odd fighting style to be an interesting challenge. He was incredibly unpredictable, switching between weapons with astonishing ease, leaving her uncertain as to what he was doing next. She found it exhilarating to encounter something so new in a fight, and she had a large smile on her face as she dodged, blocked and attacked, often having to mechashift her own weapon multiple times in just a handful of seconds in order to keep up, their fight a whirling dance that drew cheers.
The crowd cheered the fighters on as JNPR tried to separate the enemy team in order to make sure they couldn't cover each other. Their opponents knew better than to allow that, obviously having experience fighting defensive battles, and the fact that they were still able to lend each other a bit of a hand was helping stop JNPR from gaining ground too quickly. Still, experienced observers noted that as long as they were on the defensive, JNPR would eventually wear them down.
It was nearly ten minutes into the fight that Jaune saw an opportunity to improve the odds. Taking a brief moment to look over the battlefield, seeing the various combatants dancing among the boulders, the opposing team using the cover as best they could to hold JNPR off, he saw that Ren's opponent was practically back to back with the faunus that was firing on Nora, trying to hold her off. Quickly coming to a decision he called out to the hammer maiden. "Nora, use it now!"
"Yessir, fearless leader!" The orangette cackled as she pulled back briefly, reaching into a pouch strapped to a waist, pulling out a large, high quality Lightning Dust crystal, one of several Jaune and Pyrrha had pitched in to buy for her. Her opponent braced himself, expectation her to launch a blast of electricity at him. He did not expect her to throw it onto the ground as she activated it, making it shatter and envelop her in a potent discharge of electricity as all the energy left it at once, hitting the nearest person. The tortoise, and the crowd, expected Nora to wind up incapacitated, or at least very hurt from the sheer amount of electricity. So it was pretty unnerving when she began to cackle loudly.
When the orangette leapt at her opponent, arcs of electricity still dancing along her form, and slammed her hammer into the hastily raised tower shield, people expected a similar effect as before. They did not expect to see the heavy, well armored faunus gent sent flying at least twenty feet, landing on his back in a daze.
Nora wasn't done, seeing her partner beginning to tire against the sickle wielder. She leapt into the air and brought her hammer down with all her considerable force. The brunette girl dodged as best she could, but she was unprepared when the force of the blow actually broke that area of the arena, shattering and making footing perilous between the new rubble and the literal shocks the impact sent along the arena floor. She stumbled, and before she could react Ren was there, slamming a palm strike into her chin. The clack of her teeth impacting might as well have been audible in the stands, the girl staggering. She swayed, eyes rolled up in her head, before dropping, Ren's strike having been precise enough to knock her out quickly and efficiently in spite of her aura. The power of their soul could do a lot of things, ignore physics was rarely one of them..
The walking armory facing Pyrrha paused when he felt the floor rumble, and briefly turned to look at what had happened. The redhead was not nearly so distracted, being used to Nora's overkill. She quickly took advantage of his inattention and slammed Akuo into the back of his head, staggering him before following it up with a barrage of strikes. When he tried to bring a weapon up to defend himself in a panic she used her Semblance to move it just enough to let her hit him. Before long his aura was right at the edge of going into the red, and to finish him off Pyrrha used the momentum of his second attempted parry to twirl around, bringing her leg up in a high kick she'd learned from Ren which slammed into his head. The boy fell, and before he could try to get up and continue fighting the announcement that he was out due to aura drain resounded, making him punch the floor angrily even as Pyrrha moved to reinforce Jaune.
The blonde knight's opponent, as per his luck, hadn't become distracted by what had happened behind her. Instead she had taken his moment of inattention as an opportunity to press harder. She'd begun firing her SMG when he'd pulled back to give Nora her orders, forcing him on the defensive. Then she'd rushed in close, catching Jaune slightly by surprise due to the fact that she'd been fighting defensively till then. She'd shot at his legs as she ran, making him dodge as his aura rippled at the hits. Then when she got close enough she began wailing on him with elementally charged axes, trying to get around his shield to get a hit on him.
Jaune looked at her over his shield as he moved it to block each strike, sword and shield moving in intricate patterns to stop the girl from hitting him. She was strong, almost Nora or Yang strong, so his arms were getting tired from the impacts. Spotting his partner dashing towards the fight he smiled and prepared himself. When the girl came in with a cross slash with her axes Jaune focused his aura. There was a brief flash of white on the back of his armor, which dragged him backward and just out of striking range.
The girl staggered in surprise, having overextended herself due to expecting to hit his shield again. That left her open for a brief moment, but that was enough. With another pulse of aura and another flash of white, Jaune was launched forward, shield first, bashing it into her chest. That would have been bad enough, but the blonde had timed it so he impacted at the exact moment Pyrrha did the same against the girl's back. The greenette's breath exploded out of her as her aura flared, but the J and P of JNPR weren't done. They both began to strike at her with both sword and shield in an amazing display of synchronicity, hitting her at the same moment each time, not letting her move to evade at all, the entire performance looking almost choreographed. It didn't take long before the axe wielding girl's arua went into the red, and Jaune and Pyrrha ended their assault once that was declared as the crowds cheered.
Looking over at Ren and Nora, Jaune saw that they had handled the last remaining enemy, Nora bringing the faunus' aura into the red with a brutal overhead swing down onto his chest as he tried to get up. The force was so great that his aura shattered outright, and it was mildly surprising that she didn't cave his chest in as well.
There was a moment of stillness in the arena before Port loudly announced JNPR's victory. Jaune relaxed when he heard that before letting out a grin and a laugh as he realized they'd made it past the first round of the tournament. He turned to find Pyrrha smiling widely, eyes shining with pride, before she hugged him with a small laugh of her own, Jaune quickly wrapping his arms around his partner. Then Nora joined the hug with Ren, who had been dragged along, squeezing them all tightly as she cackled victoriously. Jaune's grin widened as he enjoyed the moment with his friends, the cheers of the crowd filling his ears.
Hey all. Been a while since I updated this story, hasn't it? There are multiple reasons for that, but there are two big ones.
The first is the fact that it hasn't won the patron poll since the last time it was updated. I've had several other stories I've been working on, and this simply wasn't a priority if it didn't win. Which leads to the second, and primary, reason.
I've lost my motivation for this story. This is due to a combination of factors, but suffice to say I've just lost interest, to the point I actively dreaded the day that this story won the poll. I was actually quite disappointed when it did, and that's not something you want to feel when it comes to doing something that is supposed to be fun to you.
Because of that, I'm sorry to say that this is going to be the last chapter of Survival of the Fittest? for a while, as I'm putting it on hiatus. As of this time it is not, I repeat, NOT discontinued, but I'm putting it on hold till such a time as I feel inspired for it again. That could be next month, could be in a year, I don't know, but I do plan to get back to it eventually.
Honestly, writing this chapter helped a bit. The more I wrote the easier it became, though that might have been because this chapter was basically two fight scenes rather than anything of substance. Still, if this is any indication, the wait for the next chapter might not be too long. We shall see.
In any case, I hope you enjoyed this chapter. As I don't think I have anything else to say, I'll go ahead and give my usual reminders.
The first is that you can have a say in what I write when you donate to my Pat A Ron. Every dollar donated equals a vote in my monthly poll, and now I've made it so that the votes for the things that don't win in a given month roll over into the next, which is why this fic finally updated. So if you want to donate and see your favorite stories of mine updated more often, go to Pat A Ron dotcom /athanmortis. The current poll closes on January 5th.
The next two reminders are more important to me, however. First is that my best friend has begun a Pat A Ron for their original fiction. Donate any amount you want and get access to some objectively excellent writing (far better than mine, if I'm being completely honest). Their first story, which is a supernatural steampunk detective thriller that I very much enjoy called 'The Curious Investigations of Mister Jonathan Scott', is currently at 18 chapters, the first of which is free, so you can see what his style is like. So if you like, say, The Dresden Files, but want it more steampunk, this is for you. And they'll be making a cyberpunk (the genre, not the game) story soon as well. You can find their stuff by searching for Grimm Tales in Pat A Ron.
I would appreciate it a lot if you could help them out, as unlike me they've had employment trouble due to some disabilities, which this pandemic hasn't helped.
Second, my sister has also begun a Pat A Ron. She recently got her Bachelor's in Digital Animation. She's trying to make her own series to post on Youtube, but needs money, so she's making art and plans on accepting commissions. She primarily does tokusatsu themed fanart (Super Sentai, Kamen Rider, Power Rangers, etc.), and she plans to let people have a say in what she makes, much like I do. That's at Pat A Ron dotcom /linduarte. (Oh no, now you know my last name! The horror!)
Please keep in mind though that we've been made aware of a bug with the site that makes it seem like you can't donate less than $5. If you don't want to donate that much, to any of us, just put a zero before the number you want to donate, such as 03. That should get you going.
I think that's all from me for today. Please review, stay safe, have a great New Year, and I'll see you all next time. Bye!