Chapter 26: Vytal Tournament Part 2

He crept forward, taking care to be silent. The rooftop was known to creak a lot if you didn't know what you were doing. The unstable beams could also collapse at any moment, but this didn't bother him. He moved quickly over the unsteady ground but slowed down as he made it to the edge of the roof. He stopped just before the point of showing himself and activated his Semblance. Anyone watching, and of which there were none, would have seen him disappear.

"Come in Alpha Two, can you read me?" Vayla came in over the headset he was wearing.

"Loud and clear, Secret Vayla." He replied in a slightly exasperated, but still very quiet, voice.

"Don't talk like that to me, know your place."

"I'm in position, why contact now?"

"There's been some interference for the past few minutes and this is the first possible second for me to."

"Whatever, I see her."

"Just wait, do not engage. All we want is information right now." "Copy."

He lowered the volume on the headset and adjusted his mic while waiting for the battle to commence. He wasn't interested in who won, but he wanted to see the way Blake fought. After all, the easiest way to beat an enemy is to know how they fight and detect weaknesses. He watched as his quarry took her place beside her teammates in the arena. A timer started counting down and he settled down to watch as it hit zero.

The battle turned out to be a romp, APPL never had a chance against RWBY. This became apparent as soon as APPL was introduced into the arena. They look distinctly nervous at the prospect of fighting one of Beacon's top first year teams. It became even more apparent when RWBY started the match with a blazing sphere of attacks on the opponents. The battle was over in the space of five seconds and RWBY walked out with huge smiles on their faces.

"That was easy." Yang commented, mildly annoyed that the fight had been so short.

"It was the first round, I'm sure we'll encounter some good teams later." Weiss said.

"I suppose so."

"I'm just excited we won!" Ruby exclaimed as they walked up to Sun.

"Great job." Sun clapped Ruby on the back and gestured for them to follow him.

"Where's everyone else?" Blake asked, looking around.

"They're getting ready to watch the battle between CELS and CPSL."

"Why is that specific battle so important?"

"Both teams are supposed to be really good, and they got unlucky enough to get paired in the first round."

"Sucks to be them." Yang laughed.

"You have no respect." Sun glanced sidelong at her with a frown.

"It increases our chances of winning if one of the big kahunas get taken out early."

"Nope." Blake interjected.

"Why wouldn't it?"

"Because we wouldn't have to fight either of them until the championship round." Weiss added.

"Oh."

"Exactly, but regardless of that, it'll still make for a very interesting round one fight." Sun said.

"Probably the only one." Yang thought back to the battle they had just competed in and shook her head in disgust.

Everyone agreed and the five of them continued the walk in companionable silence, aside from Yang's constant complaints about the distance between the arenas. As they approached the correct one, the cries of the crowd began to grow louder.

"Sounds like the people are really excited to see this one." Ruby said.

"Of course, Sun did say that it was an important battle." Weiss rolled her eyes at her sometimes incompetent girlfriend.

"Right." Ruby said with a small self-depreciating giggle.

They entered the stands and quickly saw the rest of their friends sitting in the reserved section.

"In what way are we important?" Yang wondered, looking at the seating arrangements.

"Those seats are for other competitors in the competition so they can watch battles without disturbance." Sun replied before catching sight of Krystal yelling down at the arena. "Unfortunately that doesn't include the teammates you have to sit beside."

Blake gave Yang another nudge and nodded meaningfully at Sun's statement. Yang frowned, before deciding that Blake didn't mean the jibe as anything but a joke.

Colton looked up as he heard the group approach.

"Hey." He said with a smile.

"Hey yourself, have they done anything yet?" Sun glanced anxiously at the arena.

"No, there was a delay and the competitors will be introduced here in a few minutes."

"Alright, any predictions on who will win?"

"CELK are the predicted winners, but anything can happen." Aurora answered as she was scanning the stands for other competitors. "By the way, when will any of us have to fight again?"

"HEAT and QUBE are up next for our arena, and each match is separated by a half hour. We won't have to fight for a while, but I think the next teams will be JNPR against BOLT."

"That'll be a good fight." Krystal said.

"That it will. Oh, I forgot to mention," Sun turned to RWBY. "You guys have to sit away from us, tournament rules."

"What?" Ruby asked, looking very confused.

"Teams can't sit by other teams while spectating, sorry."
"It's fine." Blake quickly grabbed Yang and jerked her head towards Ruby as she dragged her indignant girlfriend away.

Weiss understood the hurried head motion and reached down for Ruby's hand. They followed Blake towards a section not taken up by anyone else and sat down.

"HOW DA-" Yang got no further, as Blake smothered the scream with a kiss.

"Shut up and enjoy the show."

"Announcing Carson, Penelope, Sector, and Levi of Team CPSL!" The announcer shouted as the team walked out onto the field to uproarious applause and support.

Carson wielded a large mace, Penelope a Spatha, Sector a multitude of glaives, and Levi had a large stick.

The announcer waited for the crowd to calm down before continuing. The problem with that was the crowd didn't want to shut up, so he decided to try to speak over them.

"And now announcing Chase, Ethan, Liz, and Seven of Team CELS." The crowd had died down while he was speaking and they now let themselves be heard as CELS walked out onto the opposite end of the arena.

Chase held two short submachine guns, Ethan had a sniper rifle, Liz held dual chakrams, and Seven wielded a sword.

The two teams took their places and prepared for the coming fight as the crowd continued to roar around them. The announcer said a few more things and then the timer began to count down. The noise quieted down as it continued to decrease in value until it was silent. Everyone was waiting in anticipation for the battle and every child that cried out was quickly and nicely told to shut up.

Three. Two. One. Zero.

Chase launched himself and his team in the air with a giant spout of water and Seven created vines to provide a zip line back down to the ground. The team landed in the middle of the arena, where CPSL had run to at the beginning of the match. Three of Team CELS descended out of the sky towards them and engaged in hand to hand combat, but there was one piece of the puzzle missing. While CPSL was the better of the two teams in close quarters combat, CELS had the advantage of Liz's Semblance. Liz was able to quickly asses the situation and come up with a way to counteract issues faster than most. Essentially, she was a tactical genius who had talented teammates that could capitalize on whatever advantage she gave them. This came in handy now as she stealthily moved her way through the boulders on her way to the center of the arena. She was the missing puzzle piece. While CPSL assumed that all four of CELS had gone up on that first spout of water, Liz had stayed grounded and hid behind a rock. The water and vines had been a ploy to distract CPSL from where a sneak attack would come from. Liz decided to trade a little stealth for speed and switched from crouching to lightly running towards CPSL. CELS had been giving ground to the point where all of Team CPSL had their back turned to the point Liz was approaching from. As Liz got within a few meters, Levi seemed to hear something and turned around to see what was behind his team. He shouted in surprise and his team rotated to face the new threat. As they were momentarily distracted, the rest of Team CELS charged forward and focused their attention on one person who had been slower to turn around before. That unlucky person happened to be Carson and his aura took the full brunt of the attack. His aura depleted to the red zone and the match was called.

"We have to fight them?" Jaune asked as everyone walked out.

"Only if we both get to the championship game." Pyrrha replied soothingly.

"And to do that, you have to beat us first." Blade said with a small smirk.

"That's right." Tyger agreed, puffing out his chest.

Pyrrha just rolled her eyes and cast a sidelong glance at Ren, who was walking hand in hand with Nora. Pyrrha raised her eyebrow as if to ask "You two ready?" and Ren nodded, he and Nora were both excited to be fighting.

"Shouldn't be too hard!" Nora said in her usual loud manner.

BOLT took the challenge with a smile and led the way back to Vale's assigned arena.

"We need some moving walkways here." Yang complained.

"No, what we need here is duct tape." Blake smiled and reached into her pack. "Luckily, I never leave home without it."

She pulled out a roll and peeled off a piece. Yang's eyes widened as Blake brought the tape closer to her mouth and started to back away. Blake shoved Yang mid step so that she was off balance and tumbled to the ground. Blake pounced and placed a corner of the tape on Yang before throwing it aside. Yang started to ask what that was about before Blake brought her lips to Yang's and into a deep kiss.

"Anything to keep you on your toes." Blake said as they both stood up.

Yang gave her a wry smile before noticing the faces of their friends around them. They were all either laughing or all too obviously trying not to laugh. She shook her head in disgust and started forward again.

"You guys might miss your fight if you don't stop gawking." She said, and the others hurried to follow her.

They made it to the arena and JNPR and BOLT split off to get ready for the battle. The rest made their way into the reserved portion of the stands and sat down.

"This should be good." Sun commented as he reclined in his seat, ready to see which of his friends would emerge victorious.

Author's Note:
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