There we are. I told you i was cycling through my projects didn't I? I hope you enjoy and as always feel free to leave constructive feedback and your own thoughts on the book in the review section.

On a side note some of you may want to re read the whole thing from the beginning. Thanks to my editor ShadowDuck23 there has been a massive re-work of some of the content in earlier chapters. In some places entire paragraphs have changed in order to not be so crap.

Athena's wisdom to you
-Athena'sPride95

Chapter 3: Something Cliques

Compared to the events of my first day at Atlas Academy, day two was downright boring. Thanks to our "heroics" we hadn't gotten back to the main hall until after two o'clock that morning.
We were exhausted but I thought no big deal, everyone else will have long since fallen asleep by now. Oohhh, how wrong I was. After the medics had seen lieutenant Hawk off of the rescue shuttle and we had been assured, rather ominously I thought, that we could expect a full debriefing within the next couple of days; the four of us returned to the hall together. There was no talking as we walked. Cairan had gone back to being impassive and indifferent, though occasionally glancing out of the corner of his eye. Ash was stomping along with his hands in his pockets, occasionally glaring daggers at the back of Cairan's head, and I got the feeling he was sulking. He was the one who'd been spoiling to fight the bandits but Cairan's plan had meant that he hadn't had the chance to even get a hit in. Nor had I to be fair, and I had been the one right in the middle of the camp. But I think Ash took it personally for some reason. Olive was reading something on her scroll as she walked. I glanced over and realised it was the footage of our rescue as seen from the Academy drones. I had no idea how she had gotten hold of it so fast. Me? I was just bone tired. My head was still aching, though less so than it had been, and my legs felt like jelly. It took all my remaining strength and personal pride not to lean on Olive for support. I was hungry too but that feeling was lesser most in my mind at the time. Right then all I had wanted was sleep.

We pushed open the doors to the hall where I expected to find rows of students, quietly asleep in their sleeping bags. Instead we found almost every student, and several members of staff, still awake and waiting for us. About a two dozen rushed us the second we were in the room, offering their praises and saying what a hero I was for saving a member of staff at risk to my own life. What a hero I was. I noticed with some alarm and dismay that only a couple of them were even acknowledging the existence of the other three. And even fewer were talking to them. I glanced over the shoulder of one student at the rest of the room. Almost all of the students were still awake but the rest of them were either standing around in groups, or hunkered down in their sleeping bags. I could see looks of confusion, disdain, disgust and even outright hatred but almost no praise or respect. Suddenly embarrassed I tried to shake off my new fans and glanced to the other three. Olive wasn't looking at me. Her eyes were still fixed stalwartly on her scroll and at first I thought she hadn't even noticed the people around us. Then I saw the pink flush to her cheeks and I felt even worse. Cairan was talking to an Atlesian student who was currently shaking his hand and thanking him. His face was impassive, as usual, but when the student says that he guessed "some of you Faunus can be okay after all" Ciaran's eyes flash menacingly and to me it looked like he was marking the guy for death. Ash was glaring around the room, the exact opposite of Cairan, his disdain showing in a defiant snarl on his face as though daring anyone to say something to him.

I mumbled some approximation of thanks and pushed my way through the crowd but they followed me, asking question after question as I made my way back to my sleeping bag, Olive trailing behind the group still staring at her scroll, though I knew the video she had been watching had ended just after we entered the Hall. My feeble protests that I was tired and would they please go away so I could sleep, were largely ignored. Most of them were talking at me rather than to me and for the most part I kept quiet, hoping that if I was boring they would leave. Apparently not. Olive had gotten into her sleeping bag quietly and turned her back to me, cocooning herself in her wings again and I knew she was trying to block out the sound of my new "friends" persistent talking. As the minutes rolled into an hour I finally began to get angry. I was just winding up to yell at them when a different voice cut across those of the students still crowded around me, loud and stern.
"You students go back to bed" barked lieutenant Hawk, striding into the room as though nothing had happened to her, "stop bothering Miss Thulia and let her sleep! You have your own examination to undertake tomorrow." The students all fell to quiet grumbling and slumped away back to their sleeping bags. I caught lieutenant Hawk's eye and mouthed a silent thank you. She returned the smile, winking, and gestured at me to get some sleep.

I laid down on my bedroll but didn't sleep immediately. I waited until I the sounds of students moving about had stopped. Then I waited a little bit more, just to be sure they were asleep. Then I rolled over to where Olive was still cocooned inside her own wings.
"Olive" I whispered urgently, "Hey are you still awake?" There was no response beyond a slight ruffling of her wings. It could have been deliberate or she could have actually been asleep, it was impossible to tell just by looking. "Olive?" I asked again, starting to feel uncertain. I wondered whether she had decided I was as bad as the others and was ignoring me now.
"I'm awake" she said quietly, her wings unfurling as she rolled over to face me. She fixed me intently with her Emerald green eyes and I was suddenly reluctant to speak.
"Olive umm . . . listen. I'm sorry about that whole scene when we came in. I could see you were upset by the way they were treating you but I couldn't get them to leave me alone! I tried to tell them you three had just as much to do with it as me."
Which I thought angrily, any fool watching the video feed should have been able to see! It's not like I could have flown myself in there!

Olive was quiet, her wings rustling again, and for a moment I thought she would turn her back on me. But eventually a small smile touched her lips.
"I know you did Misty," she said finally. "I mean, it's not as if you were hiding your embarrassment very well. You were blushing so hard I couldn't tell where your hair ended and your face began." I tried to look affronted but ended up giggling anyway.
"So is this what our friendship is going to be?" I asked sarcastically, "me being embarrassed and you constantly making jokes about my hair? I'm not the only girl in the world with pink hair you know?"
She chuckled quietly, "I know."
"I hope Frost and Draed know" I admitted, rolling onto my back to stare up at the ceiling. "I didn't get the chance to apologise to them with that crowd herding me along."
"We'll talk to them at breakfast tomorrow" Olive said, "I'm sure they do."

Olive was right. When she and I entered the mess that morning for breakfast we found Ash and Cairan sitting alone at the end of one of the tables. I wondered if yesterday had helped them get over their issues with one another. They weren't trying to kill each other at least. Mind you, it wasn't as if they had much choice in sitting together. Nobody else seemed willing to make room for them, the width of three people between them and the nearest human occupants. Annoyed again I marched over with my tray of food and made a big show of dropping down right next to Ash, glaring around at anyone who looked sideways at us. Olive slid into the spot next to Cairan with considerably more grace.
"You know you won't make many friends associating with us" Cairan said quietly between sips of what I assumed was tea, judging by its colour. The statement brought my attention back to him. I hesitated for a moment then rushed out everything that I had planned to say, desperate not to have him give me that cold stare that made me think that I had better watch out for a bullet in my back.
"Listen guys about last night. I didn't want any of that attention and I was actually really angry that they were all ignoring you. I'm not like most of the kids here and I think if anything you should have gotten more credit than me I mean it wasn't even my plan and I really couldn't have rescued the lieutenant all by myself." I said it all in one breath. Cairan took another sip of tea, still impassive. Ash looked like he was trying not to laugh though.

"Don't be stupid Thulia" Cairan said finally.
"What?" I said dumbly, thrown.
"I fully expected that response when we returned. Humans are selfish bigots by nature. No offense" he added unconvincingly, setting down his mug and cutting a piece of sausage. He chewed slowly and swallowed before continuing, "It's not your fault you were born one."
"Umm thanks?" I said, not sure whether to be relieved or offended.
"Besides" he went on after swallowing a mouthful of hash brown, "anyone with half a brain could tell you didn't want that attention." Ash finally let the laugh he had been holding burst out, several students down the table turned to stare but he ignored them. Still laughing he clapped me on the shoulder.
"Yeah Shrimp" he said. "I could smell your embarrassment so strong I thought you might run out of the hall."
"True" Cairan agreed, "You did look exceptionally uncomfortable and they clearly didn't care. It actually makes me wonder if they gave you all that attention just to belittle us." I didn't have a response to that. I hadn't considered that they might just be using me to piss them off. But really that just made it worse.

"Anyway, if anyone should have been embarrassed by their performance last night it's Draed." Ash's smile vanished instantly. His one red eye swivelled back to stare at Cairan.
"What are you sayin'?" he demanded.
"Nothing" Cairan responded, taking up his mug again. "Just that, at least Miss Thulia did something to help the lieutenant. Your involvement seemed to be limited to relieving yourself against a tree whilst you waited for the ladies to do all the work." Olive tried to stifle a giggle as she reached for the salt shaker. Cairan's voice was casual, but as he took another sip of his tea his eyes were fixed on Ash, waiting for a reaction. It was clear he was goading the guy, and it was working. Ash rose slightly out of his seat as he lurched forward to grab a fistful of Ciaran's jacket and sending his mug clattering to the floor.
"Now listen you sarcastic little hairball spitter" he growled, so low that only the three of us could hear him, "you didn't do anything either so either quit with the dog jokes or I'll kick your ass here and now, because you are pissing me off!"
"In a fair fight I could take you apart in less than a minute" Cairan said, apparently unphased by his sudden proximity to Ash's bared teeth.
"Ash" I groaned desperately, "everyone's staring!" Ash suddenly seemed to remember that he was in a room full of people and let go of Cairan's jacket.
"Fine" he grunted at me. I let out a sigh of relief.
Situation defused.

"Down boy", the muttered insult was so quiet that I barely heard it but Ash reacted as though he'd been slapped in the face.
"THAT'S IT!" He was on the table in less than a second, and pounced on Cairan. With true feline reflexes Cairan dived aside, rolled and came up standing his hand reaching toward his belt for his weapon. I opened my mouth to beg them to calm down but before I could even get a syllable out Cairan staggered forward as lieutenant Hawk clouted him hard around the back of his head. He stumbled forwards and turned, his ears flattened close to his head in anger. He straightened abruptly when he saw who it was.
"Lieutenant Hawk ma'am" he said, seeming to resist the impulse to salute. His tone wasn't hostile but I could see that look in his eyes. The same look of distrust he had given me on the first day. He may treat her as an officer and teacher but she was still human and he clearly didn't like her. She seemed to notice too and glared back but she didn't say anything. Instead she shifted her glare from him to Ash.
"Both of you need to stow that behaviour until tomorrow's one on one tournament. Then you can beat on each other until you're both in the infirmary. For now though behave like civilised individuals."
"Ma'am" Cairan answered sharply, his eyes fixed on me directly in front of him rather than looking at her.
"I hope you understand Frost, I'm sure your mother would love to know that you received a reprimand on your second day." I wondered how formidable a woman Cairan's mother was that Lieutenant Hawk's threat actually made him go even paler.

"As for you, Draed", her eyes snapped to where ash was in a half crouch as though preparing to spring at Cairan whilst he wasn't looking. "If you cannot control your temper then you will need to seek your education elsewhere." Ash straightened out of his crouch standing to face Hawk directly, shoulders squared, as though preparing to fight her now. Lieutenant Hawk's eyes flashed behind her spectacles. She kept her hands in the small of her back but as she spoke she leaned forward until she was nearly nose to nose with Ash, daring him to do something violent. My stomach was turning over and over. The tension in our corner of the room was palpable. "Atlas academy will not tolerate its students attacking each other outside of officially sanctioned matches or combat training" Hawk warned "no matter the level of provocation" she added quietly, before Ash could begin the tirade he looked as though he had been winding up to deliver. He glared daggers at her but didn't say anything, his posture loosening as he stepped away from the lieutenant and sniffed loudly, giving Cairan a look as if fighting him suddenly wasn't worth his time. "Good" Hawk said, straightening her back. "Remember if you have any problems with other students come and consult me in confidence and we will do what we can to resolve the problem. Otherwise, keep your claws, in!" she said with finality. She waited for another moment to check that neither of them did anything stupid, then she spun on her heel and marched off toward another group of students across the hall. I let out the breath I'd been holding since she'd hit Cairan. As I watched her walk away I wondered if she had meant the "claws" thing as a dig at them for being Faunus. I didn't think so. Lieutenant hawk seemed to be too empathetic to say something like that thoughtlessly.

Ash and Cairan didn't speak to each other as we all made our way to lecture hall Vermillion, where the projectors had been set up to show the feed from the Atlas drones observing the exercise. Olive was quiet too but I think that was because, like me, she seemed to be watching the boys closely in case they tried to kill each other in the corridor. When we entered the lecture hall we sat in the last four seats of the back row, Ash at one end, me and Olive in the middle, Cairan at the other end. It wasn't until the exercise was well underway that I finally relaxed. After about ten minutes Ash had pulled the hood of his cloak low over his face, planted his boots on the back of the chair in front and begun to snore loudly. On my left, the other side of Olive, Cairan sat quietly for a few minutes watching the screen before producing a small notepad from inside his coat and beginning to take notes. Occasionally he would glance across at the snoring Ash with a look of disdain before returning his eyes to the screen. The fourth time he did this he caught me looking.

"Problem?" he asked. I jumped slightly. My eyes had been on him but I had actually been daydreaming a little.
"Uh, no sorry" I quickly looked back at the screen. Then I looked back at him curiously. "What are you taking notes on?" I asked, "We've already completed the exercise and more besides." He looked back at his notepad as he answered.
"I'm taking notes on the other students."
"Why?"
"Because at some point I will likely have to fight them" he answered bluntly.
I was shocked. "Do you honestly expect the other students to attack you?"
"As we have a tournament to participate in tomorrow, yes."
"Oh, right" I said lamely, feeling dumb. I felt like even more of a slacker when I noticed Olive nodding in agreement. I glanced down to see she her scroll open in her lap, a notepad program open, taking her own notes.
"I might not have any information on our group, but information is the deadliest weapon. Any knowledge I can gain about an individual's abilities may help later." He glanced up at the screen again, and then pointed. "Take her for example."

I followed his finger to where one of the picture-in-picture images showed a shorter girl with white hair, denim jacket, black shorts, tights and boots was fighting a flock of at least five Griffons. I watched as she dispatched the two on the ground with lightning fast strikes from her twin Katanas. Then she gave a quick flick of her wrist and two more Griffons dropped from the sky, one dead the other struggling to rise. The Katana in her left hand transformed into a pistol and she shot it through the eye. The final Griffon leapt at her back and for a moment I was sure she was done for. Then she whirled in the snow like a ballerina, turning to face the creature as she dropped low. The pistol in her other hand transformed and she fired two shots that blew the Grimm's head apart. There was a moment of calm then she looked up directly into the camera and a shiver went down my spine as I saw deeply shadowed, violently orange, eyes and a psychotic grin below a long, thin scar running from just above her left eyebrow to the middle of her right cheek. She sheathed her weapons, now back in blade form, gave a mock curtsy then spun about and dashed off into the trees, leaning down to yank something from two of the fallen Grimm as she passed without slowing. A boy who had been wholly uninvolved in the fight, probably her partner, went chasing after her and the camera cut to a different pair of students.

"That girl enjoys killing" I jumped and looked to my right. Ash, apparently not asleep after all, was sitting up straight in his seat and leaning forward with a dark expression on his face, almost unperceivable in the dimness of the lecture hall.
"What?" I asked weakly, a nervous chuckle in my voice, hoping he was joking.
But his voice was deadly serious as he said, "You can see it in their eyes, in their smile. A normal person doesn't smile when they kill. But her?" He paused. His eyes hadn't left the screen, as though he were still staring at her image on it. "She's killed before, and she's loved every second of it." I got the feeling that Cairan had wanted to say something about her abilities rather than her psychosis but he seemed to have been rendered silent by Ash's menacing statement. I wouldn't have been able to listen anyway. I was too busy feeling sick. We passed the rest of the viewing session in silence. Olive, Cairan, even Ash were all gazing intently at the screen now. I found my attention wandering, as it usually did when I was bored. I was mainly trying to think of something to say. Ash's comment had put everyone on edge and I wanted to say something to break the tension. When I couldn't come up with anything that didn't sound weird or awkward I gave up and just watched as the students of group B completed their task and returned to the dropship.

By the time dinner rolled back around the others seemed to be unwinding whilst I was starting to get more anxious. It wasn't helped much by my newfound popularity either. As I entered the canteen for dinner one of the girls from group B called out to me.
"Hey Misty come sit with us! My friend and I want to know what Vacuo is like!" I managed to fight back the frown that had tried to appear on my face. She had been one of the girls who had spoken only to me and acted like Olive, Ash and Cairan hadn't existed. I glanced at the three of them as we reached the hot food counter and began loading up our trays, wondering if Olive would get upset if I ran off to talk to the other girls.
"Go on" she said when she caught my conflicted look. "Like Carian said, if you only hang around with us you'll never make any other friends here." Thinking that more friends could only be a good thing, and wanting to talk to help ease the knot of tension in my stomach, I nodded gratefully and moved toward their table.

"Hi there" I said cheerfully as I reached them and the girl who had called me over scooted sideways so that I could slide in next to her. I looked around the table. Most of them were indeed people from the group who had approached me the night before but I noticed with a chill that the girl with the white pigtails and orange eyes, the one Ash had said enjoyed killing, was also there; staring at me. It was unnerving but I kept my smile fixed firmly in place as I said, "it's great to meet all of you."
"I'm sure it is" said the girl who had invited me over, imperiously. She had long, red hair pulled back in a tight high ponytail that still managed to reach the middle of her back and large brown eyes that reminded me of the chocolate eggs my mum used to make for the New Year's celebrations back home in Vacuo. "My name is-"
"You too" the girl to my right burst out suddenly, apparently unable to contain herself, "we all watched you yesterday and I thought you were super brave to go and fight bandits to save someone you hadn't even known a day."
"Well I didn't actually fight any of them" I reminded her, "And I had help from my partner and my other new friends." I made a point of gesturing back to where Olive, Ash and Cairan had just seated themselves alone at the end of a table . . . again. To my surprise she nodded vigorously, her curly teal twin tails bouncing like springs.
"Oh totally!" She agreed, talking so fast, so excitedly, that I could barely keep up. "I loved the way Valerian carried you up above them and dropped you down like a secret agent or something! She must be super strong to carry both of you. And your semblance is so cool, how you managed to look like one of the bandits and blend right in! How many people can you look like? Is it just people you've seen or-"

She was cut off by a loud, obviously fake, cough from the red head. She shut up instantly, turning pale at the withering look she was receiving. The other girls around the table giggled. Once she had everyone's attention again she flicked the end of her ponytail off her shoulder and straightened her back, obviously used to being the centre of attention.
"As I was saying, my name is Falu Falkenrath. I'm the one person you need to know. Little miss chatterbox over there is Parraya Smaragdina, this is . . ." She went on to name the rest of the girls at the table, six or seven in all. I forgot most of their names straight away, except the girl with the orange eyes. Her name was Mithra.
"So anyway" Falu went on, "what's Vacuo like? Most of us are from Atlas so we've never been outside the kingdom. Is it true that it's never cold there and guys walk around topless like all the time?"
"Umm," I really hoped it wasn't just going to be them asking me about Vacuo stereotypes. "I don't know about guys being topless but a lot of people do dress in light clothing. Most of Vacuo is in the desert so it's hot a lot of the time but there are places that get snow in winter; mostly the villages and settlements outside the kingdom."

One of girls whose name I'd already forgotten piped up "I heard that you all carry weapons from the age of five because even the animals that aren't Grimm want to kill you!"
"That's not true" I said, keeping my tone light but beginning to get a little frustrated. "I mean I learned to defend myself when I was five but that's because my daddy was a ranch owner and my uncle was a Drover. Sure there are dangerous animals in Vacuo but nothing that will kill you as long as you are careful. The Grimm is still the biggest threat to people in Vacuo just like anywhere else."
"What's a Drover?" asked Parraya. I turned to her, relived to answer the first question that hadn't been about a stereotype.
"A drover is someone who moves livestock over long distances. They deliver them to the different stations around the kingdom or to market or places like that. My uncle said his daddy used to do it on horseback now they mostly use trucks and stuff though."
"Oh that's cool" Parraya said, wide eyed as though being a Drover sounded better than being a huntress. "So did you know how to ride a horse? I've never seen one. Apparently they're only found on Sanus."
"Yeah, I think that's true" I said. "I never saw one whilst I was in Mistral and I haven't seen anything besides house pets since I came to Atlas."
"So you've been all over huh?" asked Parraya.
"Yeah I used to live in Vacuo until I was about eight. Since then my mum and I have moved around every couple of years with her job. I think I've spent at least a year in every kingdom of remnant, except Menagerie."
"Wow really? What's it like in-"

"PARRAYA" the bark from Falu cut of her next question. We both whipped around to see her face livid with fury. Then suddenly she was composed again. Smiling sweetly at Parraya she said, "Could you go and get me another glass of water please? All this talking about work is making me thirsty." She held out a glass under my nose for Parraya to take. Parraya though looked as if she wanted to say something rude to Falu. "Remember our talk on the way here honey? Now please," The way she said "now" sounded less like a request and more like a command. Parraya seemed to take it as one because she turned pale, snatched the glass and rushed off toward the counter with the drinks. "Sorry about her. She's always been ditzy and annoying" she said with an exaggerated, long suffering sigh. "We were at our last school together, and now I'm stuck with her as a partner. Just my luck," she took a dainty bite out of her quiche. "You'll learn to tune her out eventually" she assured me as though I should be relived at the news. I actually frowned now. I was starting to really not like Falu Falkenrath.
"I like her" I said, feeling as though I needed to stick up for Parraya.
"Do you?" she drawled, sounding both surprised and a little disgusted, looking around the other girls at the table meaningfully.

"You have . . . interesting taste in friends. Is that a Vacuo thing too?"
"Excuse me?"
"Well it's just that Vacuo's a little. . ." she paused as though searching for the right word, "wild. I mean you even have Faunus teachers at Shade Academy don't you?"
"I wouldn't know. I'm here and not at Shade. Anyway so what if we do? You have a problem with Faunus?" I asked, as Parraya came running back to the table with a full glass of water. Falu didn't even acknowledge her.
"No, no. Not as such" she said, not even trying to sound convincing. "I just thought someone like you would have wanted to get out of the petting zoo once you left Vacuo. I know I wouldn't want to have to keep one eye on my Lien 24-7."
On my left Parraya had the decency to look horrified by Falu's comment, but the other girls around the table, snickered derisively. I shot to my feet, unable to stomach her backhanded racism anymore.
"There's a saying in Vacuo" I told Fula. "If you can survive here, then you are welcome here." Falu looked completely nonplussed.
"It means" I said, adopting the same condescending tone she had used earlier, "that people in Vacuo have a mutual respect for one another, regardless of background. We can tell what kind of person someone is whether or not they have horns or wings or a tail. And I get the feeling that you are a bitch."

Falu's minions around the table gasped in horror. I looked around at Parraya, who was pale but smiling slightly at me. When I looked around I saw that Mithra was too. It wasn't the psychotic smile she'd had during the exercise but it was still creepy. Falu, on the other hand, was white with fury but she kept her voice controlled when she spoke.
"I'd be careful if I were you Thulia. Mantle is a dangerous continent, perhaps more so than Vacuo. The people here don't take kindly to disrespect. Any number of accidents could happen to a non-native."
"Thanks for the tip" I grunted, not in the least concerned by her thinly veiled threat, turning to go. I paused glancing down at Parraya.
"You wanna come?" I asked her.
She seemed surprised, "really?"
I smiled at her, "sure"
"Little P isn't going anywhere!" Falu remarked, loudly. "She and I have some things we need to talk about." I looked back at Parraya anxiously. She'd gone pale again and I was suddenly worried about leaving her with Falu. She was cutting her eyes between me and the red headed monster as though wanting to flee but too paralysed with fear to move.
"It's okay" she said finally, as though someone had a gun to her head and was forcing her to read from a script. "You go, thanks for the offer though."
"Okay" I answered uncertainly, "but I'll be right over there" I assured her. She nodded, then made eye contact with Falu, blanched again and bent her face low over her soup.

"Your fans wear you out already shrimp?" Ash teased as I slumped down at the table next to him. I was in no mood to be teased. I didn't have the patience left.
"Shut up Ash" I growled angrily, reaching for my drink only to realise that I'd left my tray of food back at the bitchy table. I had no desire to go back for it.
"Hmmph" Ash grunted but didn't say anything else. I think he'd been hoping I'd get embarrassed and my grumpy response was less than satisfactory.
"What did they ask you?" Olive wondered, looking over the top of yet another book at me.
"Well they said they wanted to know about Vacuo but really they just started bombarding me with stereotypes. Then they got bitchy when I didn't join in on their racist jokes about Faunus. Oh and Falu basically threatened to have me killed when I called her a bitch to her face." I added.
"Who?" Cairan asked.
"Falu Falkenrath." I sighed, "The redhead who invited me over to the table."
"I'd have punched her in the teeth if she'd threatened me" Ash said, glancing over his shoulder at the table as though he might go over there and do it. "Humans are always high and mighty until you show you're going to hit back. Then they turn into complete wimps"
"Just as well it wasn't you over there then" I said.

"I warned you that being seen to be with us would cause you problems" Cairan remarked blandly.
"Yeah instead you now have six new enemies" Ash observed, "should make for at least a couple of interesting fights tomorrow." I really hoped he didn't intend to sound as though he was hoping to watch me get pounded into the dirt.
"Actually, I think it's only four" I remembered, "Parraya seemed to like me okay."
"Was she the green haired one who ran past our table looking like she was being chased by an enraged Deathstalker?" asked Cairan "It looked like you tried to invite her over here when you left the table." I nodded.
"But she stayed over there" Olive pointed out.
"Yeah, poor girl" I said, sadly. "Falu must be pretty powerful. She mentioned that they'd talked about something and Parayya went whiter than the snow." We sat in silence for a few minutes, me with my elbows rested on the table fiddling with a strand of my hair as I thought, the others finishing their dinner. I had woken up that morning anxious. That night I went to bed looking forward to the tournament. I was looking forward to the opportunity to kick Falu Falkenrath's ass.

"Morning" Olive said glumly as I slid onto the seat next to her at breakfast on our third morning.
"Ouch" I said, giving a mock wince. "Sleep that badly huh?"
"No I slept fine" Olive said, "I just wish we didn't have to do this?"
"What, eat breakfast?" I asked jokingly. I knew what she meant but I wanted to lighten the mood.
"No silly" she said, her tone a little less depressed. "I mean this whole tournament thing. I don't understand why we need it."
"Well if we graduate we'll spend the rest of our careers fighting right?" I asked.
"Yes" she admitted. "But fighting Grimm, not other people. We could have started classes by now, instead we're wasting time with a tournament on the third day." I had to admit that I wasn't much looking forward to the long day of fighting ahead but for totally different reasons.

After breakfast we were led a different route from the previous two. We left the cafeteria and headed along a corridor that ran along the entire length of the academy. Each time we approached a door I expected to see students from our group filing inside but we just kept walking. Students from higher years were entering and leaving rooms along the corridor, rushing to and from various classes. Some stopped to stare curiously at us, some of them stepped around us and carried on looking at notes or talking to each other as though we weren't even there. One or two of them, the oldest ones it looked like, stopped to offer a salute to Colonel Ironwood and the other members of staff as they passed. Cairan said they had chosen to join the military on graduation which meant they were taking officers training as an elective and were already expected to behave as if they were full members of the army.

After what felt like an age of walking we finally passed through a set of large double doors into an enormous chamber with a high glass dome, through which gently falling snow and a bright blue, cloud spotted sky could be seen. Around the edges of the room were rows and rows of seats protected in front by a low screen with tall upright poles at regular intervals. I had watched the Vytal festival a couple of times over the years so I knew that an energy barrier would be generated by the poles to protect the people watching during matches. I also knew that it wouldn't stop me from flinching if something came hurtling toward my face during a match. The students split off to the left and right filling up the seating, spreading out around the room. But even with everyone there, they still took up only a quarter of the seats. I guessed that the room was designed to seat every student at Atlas Academy when an event took place, and then some more besides. Olive was beside me as we sat in the third row, just a little to the left of the entrance. Out of habit I looked around the room for anyone I recognised. I quickly spotted Parraya and (uuggh) Falu sitting on the opposite side of the arena in the front row. I gave Parraya a wave. She glanced quickly at Falu. When she saw that her partner was distracted, talking to one of her minions, she waved cheerfully back at me. Ash and Cairan were off to our left, all the way in the back row, separated from each other by at least four other students. And I spotted the creepy white haired girl Mithra sitting directly in front of me in the first row. I only knew it was her because of the distinctive black edged red ribbons she used to tie her pigtails back . . . and the two sheathed Katana on her back.

Silence fell as Ironwood strode into the centre of the arena, to the spot were a mic stand rose out of the floor. He greeted all the students with the same casual friendliness and half smile he had used the other times he had greeted us. It was a bit at odds with his perfectly pressed officer's uniform and the steel plate in his head, visible above his right eyebrow, which spoke of a hard life as a military man and a Huntsman. But to be honest I was okay with it. It was good to know that, despite Atlas' reputation, the teachers were still just people. He didn't stay long. Just long enough to explain the event and how the bracket system would operate. Student pairs from group A would face those from group B then after several rounds the surviving pairs would select one of them to participate in a 1v1 match. They would then progress through the final bracket until an overall winner was determined. The winner would receive a grand prize of 10,000 Lien and the trophy Ironwood brought with him that was almost as big as I was! It all seemed a bit much for the third day at school. When he was finished he turned about and marched back out of the arena, the mic disappearing back into the floor. A large projector screen lit up above the arena, displaying rapidly revolving images of student's faces.
"Of course that's not all the winner gets" Olive muttered in my ear. I glanced over at her but she still had her eyes fixed firmly on the revolving images.
"What do you mean?" I asked, confused.
"I mean that whoever wins pretty much attains star student status instantly. They get all sorts of special attention and a whole bunch of opportunities after graduation!" she said, turning away from the screen to explain to me. I continued to gaze at her sceptically. She turned a little pink and fixed her eyes back on the revolving images, which had almost slowed to a stop now. "At least that's what I heard some of the other students say" she muttered.

A round of applause broke out. The images had stopped revolving.
"Round one" came Ironwood's voice, broadcast over a loudspeaker from his position at the centre of the top box with the other faculty, "Terrian Forge and Grant Coal vs Falu Falkenrath and Parraya Smaragdina. Would you please step into the arena?" Falu rose immediately to her feet and began herding a terrified looking Parraya ahead of her. Across at the other entrance a short dark-skinned guy in a fedora and a guy who was so tall and muscular he looked as though he were part man part brick wall entered the arena. The two teams took up their places twenty paces apart and produced their weapons. Falu reached down to her waist and drew from the pouch in her pocket what looked like a pair of red leather gloves which she pulled on calmly and stood with her hands held loosely at her sides.
What the hell? I wondered. Does she intend to fight them bare handed. Is she a brawler of some type? Next to me Olive leaned forward, gazing at a close-up image of Falu being shown on screen. She was clearly even more interested in the gloves that I was. Parraya actually drew a weapon I recognised: A straight sword and a round shield that expanded out from what I had thought was a hip flask, or something similar, that I had seen at her waist the night before. I looked at their opponents. The big guy, Forge, had produced an enormous two handed battle-axe that he was resting casually across his shoulder and that I was sincerely glad I didn't have to face. The other guy, Coal, was standing next to him looking completely at ease and holding what was unmistakably a Saxophone! I had no idea if he intended to fight or play a jazzy solo number.

"Combatants ready?" Asked Ironwood's magnified voice. Falu raised her hand to signal that they were ready. Across from her Forge did the same before dropping into a battle ready stance himself. A claxon sounded and hell broke loose in a blast of fire and sound.