Yang was getting impatient as she and Weiss were waiting to be called into the arena for their match. The heiress was sitting before a simple table and checking Myrtenaster's mechanisms and Dust reserves one last time to make sure her weapon was in prime condition for their upcoming fight. The blonde brawler on the other hand was pacing across the waiting area nervously, engaging and disengaging Ember Cecilia.
"Calm down Yang, we're going to do just fine" Weiss tried to calm down her teammate as she stood up and sheathed her rapier.
"I'll try." Yang replied as she forced herself to stop and leaned against the wall instead, still worrying how the rest of her team, and her mom, would react if she lost them the match by making some stupid mistake.
They only had to wait a few more minutes before the two of them were called on to move into the arena. When they stepped out of the access tunnels, they could hear professor Port announce them and their opponents,Team FNKI from Atlas, sounding just as enthusiastic as he had for every other match so far.
"Do we have a special plan for them?" Yang asked Weiss, her nervousness sneaking into her voice, as she got ready for the fight.
"I don't think we managed to get some specifics about their fighting styles, but if I remember correctly, they did a small concert on the fairgrounds a few days ago. Let's just stick to our standard tactic and we should be able to deal with whatever they throw at us." The white haired girl replied immediately as she readied Myrtenaster.
When the two pairs of students reached the center of the arena, they took in each others appearances as they got ready for the match and the terrain selection.
The Boy of team FNKI was wearing a simple shirt underneath a black and grey west. On the top of his head sat a simple fedora while he held a trumpet in his hand, carrying no easily discernible weapon.
His partner was an orange haired Faunus girl, although neither Weiss or Yang were sure what animal the tail hanging down below her miniskirt belonged to. Unlike the boy, Flynt Coal according to the Professors introductions for the audience, Neon was holding an obvious weapon in the form of a set of nunchaku styled like oversized glow sticks. Even so the fact she was wearing a set of roller skates into combat was just as strange as her partner's lack of apparent weapon.
"Hey aren't you Weiss Schnee?" The Atlesian boy asked as he looked at the Heiress. "You must be real good with Dust."
"Of course I am." Weiss replied, unsure what he was trying to get at.
"My dad was real good with Dust as well. That is until your father ran him out of business."
"What's she supposed to do about that?" Yang shouted at their opponents, angry that the failings of Weiss' father was projected onto her teammate.
"What's she supposed to do about that." The Faunus repeated in a mocking voice as she pointed at Yang. "That's what you sounded like."
Yang was about to shout an angry reply at Neon, but she stopped herself, with both RUby and Summer watching, she wanted to keep a cool head, so she took a deep breath to calm down and said nothing.
Moments later the terrain for their match began to rise from the catacombs of Amity Colosseum, behind Yang and Weiss an area of reddish rock appeared, with a number of artificial geysers going of at random intervals once it was in place. The other half of the arena was filled with the ruined remains of concrete buildings that would have fitted right into Mountain Glenn.
Seconds later the match was counted off and the fight began. Just as they had practiced, Yang stepped in front of Weiss, keeping an eye on their opponents to make sure they would not rush the heiress as she readied herself to throw Dust fueled attacks at team FNKI.
Before the first of those actually reached their opponents, Flynt had brought his instrument up to his lips and, more than likely with the help of some Dust hidden inside the trumpet, created a wave of pressurized air that extinguished the flames coming his way and slowed the icicles Weiss had sent his way with the help of a glyph enough that they only made the slightest dent in his Aura.
While Yang did her best to shield her teammate from the boys attack, charging her Semblances as her Aura diminished slightly, Neon managed to slip out of Yangs line of sight as she weaved through the ruined buildings on her skates. She managed to circle around Weiss and Yang, and despite having to slow down as she crossed the geyser field the Faunus managed to strike Weiss from behind with her nunchaku, but before she could get away, her feet were frozen in place by a black glyph.
"Yang behind you." Weiss shouted to get the blonde's attention. Taking a look at the heiress and the restrained Neon, Yang jumped over her teammate with a little assistance of her weapons recoil. As her jump reached its apex, Yang adjusted her trajectory with a second set of shots, before she began to fall. A moment later, her gauntleted fist impacted the Faunus' shoulder, flinging her away as Weiss let her glyph dissolve to focus on stopping Flynt's attacks.
With a fourth of her Aura gone after a single blow, Neon quickly retreated to the city ruins again, weaving between the walls to evade the attacks Weiss sends her way, as Flynt continues to try and batter down Yang, who went back to shielding the Heiress from their opponents ranged attacks to continue and charge her Semblance and make allow Weiss to focus on the offensive.
After a few moments of this relative standstill, the Atlesian boy began to smirk, before he activated his semblance, which allowed him to split into four before each of them released a powerful blast of air that pushed both Yang and Weiss into the field of geysers, one of which went of directly beneath them before they could get out of the way.
As they got up again somewhat shakely, both of them had lost nearly two thirds of their Aura to the steaming hot water, Yang grinned as she flicked her now glowing locks out of her face before she began to charge at Flynt. When the boy started to try and suppress her with blasts of air, the blonde was slowed down, but after using half of her remaining shotgun shells to increase her forward momentum, Yang reached her target and with a quick uppercut knocked his trumpet away before a Semblance fueled punche to the face drained Flynt's Aura enough that a buzzer proclaimed his elimination.
Neon had been on her way to intercept Yang before she could manage to reach her and Flynt, but even so she was determined to take out the other girl to get FNKI and RWBY back to equal footing.
Sadly with her focus on Yang, she failed to notice Weiss covering most of the Arena ground in an uneven sheet of ice, causing Neon to stumble on her skates and crash into Yang, instead of hitting her with a skate by attack. The moment the two of them came to a stop, Yang began to wrestle with the Faunus, trying to pin her to the ground with only marginal success, but when she saw Weiss closing in on them, she grabbed onto Neon's legs and held her in place facing Weiss.
As the Faunus looked up, the last thing she saw before she was eliminated from the match as well was Weiss sending a stream of fire directly at her.
Hours later, RWBY were slowly stumbling into their own dorm room, after they had spent all afternoon partying with FNKI, who had been surprisingly friendly despite the fact they lost their match. The celebration had been quite enjoyable, not least of all because of the great music performance of FNKI, which had been joined by Weiss for some vocals for a few songs.
But now with night falling there was something the girls had not been able to discuss in public. "So who are we sending on to the singles round?" Blake asked as she sat down on her bed and took of her bow freeing her cat ears from their confinement.
"I would suggest Yang, seeing as her Semblance would be helpful if she needs a comeback after getting hit by something unexpected." Weiss suggested, unused to admitting someone else might be better suited to a task than herself as she leaned back on her bed.
"Well if you think so, I won't complain." Yang replied cheerfully as she plopped down on a chair.
"Then I think it is decided." Ruby concluded before pointing a claw tipped finger at her sister. "Yang will represent us in the final round of the Vytal tournament and we will do our best to help her prepare for it and cheer her on."
After finishing her announcement, Ruby got up and stepped to the room's window and opened it. "Now if you excuse me, there are a few people I still need to tell bout this."
Before the others could object, Ruby had jumped out the window and began to rush towards the Forever Fall Forest with the help of ehr Semblance, leaving a trail of slowly dissolving petals.
A short while later the wolf eared girl had reached her favourite clearing and let out an echoing howl. "[Gather]"
When the Members of her pack finished trickling into the clearing, Ruby quickly told them about her team's success, before she inquired how the pack had been doing over the past days, and learned that quite a few of the less intelligent members of her pack got themselves killed by a group of students traversing the Forest. After a few minutes of mourning, the young alpha began to lead her pack through some mock fighting before settling down and just petting a few of them.
Quite a while later, with the shattered moon shedding a pale light on the clearing, a figure wearing a black cloak to concealing them stepped into the clearing behind Ruby.
"[It's time you had your first lesson.]"