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To Thrive and be Victorious

CHAPTER 1

We made our way through the player's entrance tunnel to the stage where Team ABRN was waiting for us. I was almost blinded by the daylight as it shined on us when we got out. A colorful abundance of an audience in the seats began to cheer once we emerged, with some cameras visibly flashing. My fans, in particular, were waving signs of me, my name, and my team, eager to see their dear heroic knight in action. The same thing goes for Pyrrha's fans, although she doesn't appear perturbed by it since she was more accustomed to this kind of crowd.

I also noticed a few medics hanging around at the side, waiting in case of unexpected injuries, one of them even winking at me. How assuring, as if I wasn't stressed enough already. I gave a faint smile as I waved at the crowd, doing my best to suppress my apprehensions before deciding to shift my focus on my opponents as we got into the stage with all our weapons ready, doing my best to keep my composure intact and not let the pressure get the best of me.

Pyrrha noticed my visible anxiety so she turned to me and shot me a comforting smile. "You'll get used to it."

I beamed at her, feeling a little better as I saved my worries about winning this thing. The crowd should be the least of our problems, after all since we're supposed to be humble heroes and not glory hounds so I didn't have to try too hard to impress them.

We stood on one side of the page, facing our opponents. After seconds of silently staring at each other, the dark-skinned blonde leader—Arslan—decided to speak. "It's an honor to fight against you and your team, Pyrrha Nikos," she bowed slightly at her fellow compatriot.

"May the best team win," Pyrrha warmly replied.

"Hey, no hard feelings, right fellas?" Reese—the tomboyish looking one with a hoverboard—asked with a cocky grin. I always wanted to have one of those things as a kid. Hell, I'd still kill to get my hands on one of those even if I was already past my skateboarding phase. Of course, I'm speaking figuratively here, I have no intention of murdering her and stealing her board despite my kleptomaniac tendencies especially since I am forbidden from doing both of those things during the tournament. Maybe I'll do that when the match is over.

I'm kidding obviously.

"We'll see, we'll see, the winner gets tea that's for sure," I said, assuming my sword & shield fighting stance, feeling slightly nervous.

Professor Port began announcing to the audience, "Here it is! What many of you have been waiting for! One of this year's most remarkable breakout teams in Beacon Academy—Team JNPR! A contender for Team of the Year. Featuring the world-renowned Invincible Girl of Mistral herself—Pyrrha Nikos! And of course, their leader, the Hero of Beacon—Jaune Arc!"

I internally sighed as I put on my heroic smile and waved at my admirers while they chanted my name and Pyrrha, who was doing the same. Nora also joined the audience in chanting both of our names while Ren just gave us a faint smile of approval. The Professor continued. "Are they enough to outmatch one of Haven's finest? Or will Team ABRN prevail and beat all odds against them? Let's find out!"

Doctor Oobleck then took over. "Of course, before we begin we would like the arena to select the stage's environment where our brave competitors would engage in."

I almost forgot the random selection of habitats for us to be put in to give an extra twist to the fight. I hoped it would be something rudimentary like a forest or a rocky mountain. Heck, even a desert and a ruined city would be desirable. I only wanted them to put me in something that doesn't look and feel like a preview of the pits of hell or a frozen wasteland.

Holographic screens appeared on one half of the arena as they began shuffling icons for one of the stage's environments. The screens stopped showing an icon of a volcano with a red light glowing behind it.

Oh no…

Half of the stage opened as a volcanic body emerged. I faintly groaned in frustration. It was just something I didn't want. I could only hope that the backdrop on the other side wouldn't be as bad and I'll just stay away from this half of the stage. That was when screens on the other half of the arena shuffled until stopping at an icon of an iceberg in front of a light blue glow. An arctic body of an icecap filled with a few glaciers then surfaced to that half of the stage. I could even feel the temperature drop dramatically as the cold air brought by its environment breezes through us.

Gods fucking dammit.

"Imma 'bout to put the 'burn' in ABRN!" Nora said.

"Bring it on!" taunted Nadir—the pink-haired dude while he cocked his assault rifle. This is how it's going to go, huh? Alrighty then, I thought as I put my focus back on the fight once more.

The screens began showing the three-second countdown before the match began as everyone made themselves ready, narrowing their eyes at their opponents. "Three… two… one… Begin!"

Since I didn't have much time to plan ahead, I ran straight toward Arslan. Normally, bladed weapons like swords are effective against primarily unarmed combatants like her so it was the safest bet, I just needed to watch out when she would start to pull out her dagger.

I charged at her with my shield raised. She kicked it with both of her feet and then flipped back before charging toward me. She slid to sweep my feet but I was able to sidestep out of the way. I made my way to the arctic setting as I thought that fighting on an overgrown ice cube was somewhat better than standing on a volcanic rock, at least I knew that my shoes weren't guaranteed to burn. Note to self, buy proper combat boots already. I can't believe it's been a while since I realized I needed those and never bothered to get one yet.

When Arslan stormed at me, I parried her strikes while blocking the others. I raised my sword in an attempt to slash her, however, she was agile enough to avoid every single one of them. She retaliated with a powered punch which I was able to block with my shield but it was still strong enough to knock me back, not helped by the slippery surface of the environment I was standing at.

Knowing that a sword & shield combo won't do much good against Arslan and her fighting style. I drew my pistol from my holster and began firing lasers at her. She cartwheeled away to her right, dodging my gunfire before whipping out her knife and throwing its blade toward me as it was followed by a white string. The rope wrapped through my left arm and I was dragged to the icy ground. I slid as she pulled me towards her. She then tried to stomp me so I blocked her foot with my sword and used it to push her back as her weapon's rope unwrapped away from my left hand.

I fired more lasers at her while at close range. She was still able to block them with both of her aura-infused palms, which slightly cost some of it but it minimized the damage against her nonetheless. She held her dagger in a reverse grip. We both found ourselves avoiding each other's slashes as I was firing my pistol at her. One of the lasers that flew around went toward Team ABRN's staff wielder, Bolin, who was engaging against Nora. He noticed the laser proceeding near him so he deflected it with his staff, which distracted him long enough that he didn't avoid getting frozen by Nora's incoming frost grenade.

Speaking of the other competitors while I was busy with Arslan, Ren was trading clashes with Nadir and his katana in the volcanic setting. Meanwhile, Pyrrha was firing at Reese as she glided around the arena before approaching her, hitting her shield with her board-blades (or whatever you call them) and then getting off it, splitting it in half as it turned into twin revolvers with bayonets. Reese struck Pyrrha while the latter deflected them with her shield and spear.

Both of the opposing team members on the volcanic setting noticed one of their teammates frozen in ice so Nadir took a shard of one of the nearby fire crystals and threw it at Reese. Reese continued to swing her bayoneted pistols at Pyrrha before merging them back and catching the fire crystal. She then placed it on her board, changing its lights' colors from green to red. She flew her way to Bolin while Nadir's blade shortened and was placed somewhere on its handle as his weapon changed into an assault rifle. He provided covering fire for Reese, forcing Ren into cover and Pyrrha to block the gunfire with her shield. Reese hovered Nadir and freed him by melting the ice.

Nora noticed two of our opponents in one place and launched a grenade toward them. Bolin jumped out as Reese flew away. Arslan began swinging her rope dart around me as I quickly dodged them while continuing to fire at her. I leaped at it when she tried sweeping me to my feet.

Time to show them what we have on our sleeves, then. I imitated a frog's croaking as loud as I could, bewildering our opponents for a split second, which was enough time we needed. Pyrrha got my signal and used her polarity to tug Arslan toward her. Arslan pulled her blade back to its handle to put it away from Pyrrha's range. Pyrrha threw her javelin as she rushed toward her.

Arslan jumped and dodged the incoming javelin. Pyrrha pulled the javelin back to her and changed it to her xiphos. Arslan used her dagger to deflect Pyrrha's incoming slashes before doing a hook kick that Pyrrha managed to duck under in time.

Ren was still getting suppressed down by Nadir, only barely being able to return fire. I aimed my pistol at him and shot his bicep. He grunted in pain before turning his attention to me. I charged toward him while I continued shooting, slightly disgruntled that I'm letting myself fight on an igneous surface that tests my aura. Nadir was avoiding the lasers as he adjusted the blade of his weapon's sight, changing his weapon back into a katana. I swung my sword toward him, interlocking our weapons together, with sparks coming out of our blades.

This allowed Ren to finally leave his cover and face his next problem. Reese drifted to the magma environment and jumped away from her board, changing it to dual revolvers before firing at Ren. Ren began rushing toward her, zigzagging through her line of fire while shooting back. When they got near each other they kept trading shots with their two guns as they circled around, more often than not missing. Bullet cases rained on the ground until both their guns ran out of ammo almost simultaneously, forcing them to continue the battle with the blades attached to their firearms.

Meanwhile, Bolin was engaging with Nora again. This time, his staff's blades on the edge of each side were unfolded and he used them to push back Nora as hard as he could. Nora tried falling back and launched a volley of grenades at him. Unfortunately, he managed to deflect each one of them by swinging and twirling his staff before they detonated around him. Nora changed her weapon back to a hammer and used the handle to interlock with Bolin's staff.

I was still having a sword fight with Nadir, our steel blades clashed every time they collided with one another. I would step back and fire lasers at him, causing him to desperately block them away with his katana. Once I stopped firing, he changed to his assault rifle. The moment I saw this, I hastily holstered my pistol and expanded my shield the second he started shooting at me. Bullets bounced off from my shield before I dashed to him. I shoved his gun away and slashed away most of his aura.

He was only a few hits away from being knocked out of the match so he started backing down the first chance he got. "I could use some help over here!"

Reese was twirling her revolvers to counter Ren's attacks when she heard her teammate fall for help. Ren quickly reloaded his pistols when Reese reassembled her board and used it to block Ren's gunshots in close proximity. She then hopped on her board and propelled herself out of there, pushing Ren back with the force of its thrusters.

I saw her speeding towards me. I took out my pistol and tried to shoot her down. Despite the laser's speed, she was moving so swiftly that she missed every shot. She bounced off as she flipped the board before grabbing it and trying to swing it horizontally to my face. I blocked with my sword and pushed it back with all the force I could muster, grunting as I held my ground.

"Y'know. You're pretty cute, so don't let me ruin your face." She grinned as she increased the force of her push, putting me back for a few inches.

I admit, she's quite pretty for a sporty chick with black facial markings, I'd even say she'd make an eligible date if I was the kind of guy that enjoyed getting stepped on by a tomboyish skater as if I was her board. But since I'm not a submissive masochist with weird perversions, I doubt you'll ever see me in that position especially since I prefer to handle things unscathed while coming out on top. [1] "Wouldn't want to do the same, sweetheart, but a man's gotta do what he's gotta do."

It was then a good opportunity to use the wolf's call. "Awoo!" I howled. Pyrrha heard my call so she tackled Arslan back with her shield then used her polarity on Reese's board and levitated her to midair before throwing her toward Nadir.

Both of them fell to the ground as Reese collided with her teammate. Nadir winced in pain after his bottom touched the volcanic surface. "Ah! Hot! Hot!"

It was time for the next phase of our offensive. Pyrrha turned back to Arslan just in time to block a roundhouse kick coming behind her. I lunged in and pushed Arslan back with my shield. I looked back at Pyrrha and she nodded as she left.

"Now, Nora!" I yelled. Nora began to strike back at Bolin, pushing him back before swinging him at Reese and Nadir who both got up, only to get knocked back down when Bolin crashed into them. With three of them in one place, Nora smashed the volcanic surface and sprung a large piece of ground. Pyrrha leaped in and drop-kicked the large rock toward our three opponents. It was strong enough to push them away from the ring before falling to the ground, effectively defeating three out of four of our opponents at once. "Striiike!"

"Why would you look at that! Not one, not two but three contestants from ABRN have been eliminated by ring-out. And of course, because Nadir Shiko's aura is now below the amount needed to continue forward," Professor Port remarked.

Doctor Oobleck followed, "Now the question that remains is what is their leader going to do now that the rest of her team is out of the match? It's going to take a miracle for her to achieve victory at this point."

I gave Nora a thumbs up and she responded by bowing in pleasure before going back to business. Arslan froze when she noticed all of her teammates getting knocked out of the match at the same time. The state of her being baffled gave me an opening to push into a glacier with my shield. Pyrrha ran toward me before nodding at each other. We fired at the glacier above Arslan until the glacier broke and a piece of it started dropping to her, prompting Arslan to dive out of there.

Arslan fell in front of us. Ren and Nora caught up and joined us in finally defeating our remaining opponent. The first thing Arslan saw after looking up was all four of us pointing our guns at her. Knowing that her chance of winning this thing was thrown out the window, she was wise enough to put her hands up and surrender.

The audience roared with applause. Professor Port went on to announce our victory. "And there you have it, folks! Arslan Altan has conceded defeat! Team JNPR wins the match!"

I gave a relieved sigh as I wiped the sweat away from my forehead. Well, we're off to a good start, I told myself. At least I now know what type of opponents I should expect now that I've gotten past this round. Part of me is tempted to shout at the audience and say 'Are you not entertained?!' but I didn't want to encourage them any further and besides, I needed to perpetuate my image as a modest hero.

"Well fought." Arslan pushed herself up as Pyrrha helped her stand.

"You did great too," Pyrrha assured.

Arslan's brightened at us. "I wish you all of you luck in the next round."

"Thank you," I said. I looked out of the ring and saw the others.

Outside the arena, Reese and Bolin were waving their hands while Nadir looked like he was giving a thumbs up. "Hey, no hard feelings, remember?!" I shouted at them, echoing one of their remarks before the match began. Reese, the girl who said that, responded by giving me a two-finger salute.

Ren was panting and breathing heavily when Nora bounced and abruptly raised his arm along with hers as the audience cheered. Ren kept sporting his usual lukewarm expression, but deep down, he was noticeably happy that we were able to get through this. "We're the best around! Nothing's going to ever keep us down!" Nora bubbled.

The audience began chanting our team name as we waved back at them. We left shortly after we were allowed to leave since I was getting a little disturbed at everyone cheering for me, and I didn't want to make my discomfort more apparent to them.

That's it for round one. Things are going great so far. Better not get ahead of myself, though. I should remember that my next opponents did something to get them to win in their respective rounds so I should be prepared for just about anything.

=o=

1. And yet he also said that there was only one room for a woman in his life that has the privilege to dominate him. Not that I'm complaining.