Chapter 27: Vytal Tournament Part 3

"How did she do?" Vayla asked.

"She did fine, but I didn't get a very good picture of her fighting style." He replied.

"Why not?" Vayla edged forward in her seat and glared into his eyes.

"The battle took no more than a few seconds, that'swhy." His voice had an edge to it.

"So you're saying that you'll need more time to study her." Vayla rolled her eyes skyward and looked around.

They were in the regular warehouse, where the three remaining members of Team SEAL were still hanging from the ceiling. The place was mostly dark, but sunlight shone through the windows that were not covered. As she heard him start to take breath to reply, she brought her gaze back down to rest on his face.

"That's exactly what I'm saying." His voice continued to have an edge, and Vayla decided it was probably a good time to back off.

"Alright," She said in a conciliatory tone. "Just tell me when you will be ready."

"Will do." He said with a smirk.

He walked out, grabbing his crossbow and dull purple wide-brimmed hat as he did so.

"I don't know if I can do this." Jaune said dejectedly, looking down at his feet.

"Of course you can." Pyrrha laid a hand on his shoulder and smiled encouragingly.

"But what if I mess up?"

"Then don't worry about it, everyone messes up at some point in their life."

"Not you."

Pyrrha started in surprise. She hadn't been expecting him to bring the conversation around too her, but she now saw a good chance to drive home her point.

"That's not true, I've made many mistakes. Chief among them is my sister."

"What about her?" Jaune's voice betrayed the glimmer of hope he was beginning to feel.

"I did so many terrible things to her, and I was never there for her when she needed me."

Jaune looked at the red head beside him and moved forward to hug her.

"But this isn't about me," She continued. "This is about you, and how you can lead us to victory."

"I don't mean to interrupt, but the announcer just called the other team." Ren called as he grabbed Nora's hand.

"Right, let's dance." Pyrrha stood up and strode over to Ren and Nora with Jaune in tow.

The four walked out together as they heard the announcer call their name, and Pyrrha gave Jaune's hand one last squeeze of confidence.

"Announcing Blade, Omega, Lance, and Tyger of Team BOLT!" Colton heard the announcer yell over the microphone and he saw BOLT walk out and wave to the crowd.

"And now announcing Jaune, Nora, Pyrrha, and Ren from Team JNPR!" Colton again watched as more of his friends walked to the side of the arena.

The two teams stood across from each other and waited for the clock to begin counting down. Said clock obliged and a number ten was projected onto the floor of the arena, which was quickly followed by a nine. Everyone in the stadium held their breath as they watched in anticipation while the numbers continued to decrease. The competitors tensed up and shot forward when the number hit zero. The teams met in the middle and each person found themselves fighting in a one on one scenario. Jaune and Lance hacked with their swords and Jaune blocked with his shield. Pyrrha and Omega were both finding out what it was like to go up against a good spearwoman. Blade and Ren were engaged in a classic knife fight, except where one person has the benefits of guns as well. While all this was happening, Tyger had been planning on how to defeat Nora and her rocket launcher/hammer. He decided the best way to do it was to not fight her at all but instead use his claws to help one of his teammates before she could actually do anything. He rushed over to the person he decided needed the most help. This person happened to be Blade. Ren was quickly fighting a very defensive battle against a man with two knives and a man with two claws. He called out to Nora to help him but in doing so took a hit from one of Blade's knives. Nora saw Ren in trouble and leaped high in the air. She used Magnhild to plummet back down to earth and saw Ren jump out of the way before she hit. She was a few meters away from hitting the ground when the announcer called an end to the battle. She adjusted her flight stance to hit the ground on her feet and took a quick look around at what had happened. Pyrrha was breathing hard and congratulating Omega. Ren was walking towards her. Jaune was on the ground with Lance reaching down to help him up. She checked her scroll and noted with disappointment that Jaune's aura had fallen into the red.

"Good job, I thought we had them." Ren said as he got to her.

They both looked to where Jaune was standing and walked over to him. They watched as Pyrrha got to him first and hugged him.

"You really held your own there." She whispered into his ear.

"But I still lost." He mumbled, looking down.

"That's not important, what is important is what's happening tonight in our hotel room." Pyrrha gave him a devious smile before turning away to walk out with everyone else.

"And what would that be?" He called out as he started to follow her.

"That's for me to know, and you to find out." Pyrrha threw over her shoulder.

"Good fight all around, both of you." Sun said, smiling at all of his friends.

"Yeah, but we lost." Jaune replied, voice still with a slight hint of unhappiness in it.

"You all did quite well out there." Blake chimed in, seeing that they weren't going to listen to one person.

"I'm absolutely starving, when do we eat?" Nora asked.

Sun glanced at his scroll and made a decision.

"We have roughly an hour before the match between us and CRDL starts, but we have to be back early."

"So we can go eat while you stay here." Nora was already skipping away happily.

"I guess so, but I wanna eat too." Krystal pouted as she watched everyone else follow Nora.

"We'll eat later, but for now, let's prepare." Sun turned his attention to the chart that he had laid out on the table.

The chart had a list of the weapons, Semblances, and fighting styles of all of the Vale teams competing in the tournament. As Sun scanned the chart, his eyes brushed over Blake's, Pyrrha's, and Omega's. He finally stopped on Team CRDL and he studied the multiple stats of the four bullies.

"If we fight them with this plan-"

Half an hour later they found themselves in the waiting room with a plan in mind. They all knew that CRDL liked to get up close and personal immediately so they could use their brute force to win the battle quickly. What SCAR had decided to do was simply attack from a distance using their many available resources. Krystal would have Toxid in Sniper Mode and lay down covering fire to give the rest of SCAR a chance to find rocks around the arena to hide behind. Then Aurora would distract them, giving Krystal a chance to find a rock of her own to hide behind. After they were set up, they would randomly pop out of cover and attack CRDL from long range. Then another would do the same thing as the first went back behind the rock and the process would continue. With any luck, CRDL would be angry every time somebody attacked them and they would constantly try to find where the last person had hit them from.

"Any questions about the plan?" Sun asked as he looked around at his teammates.

"Uh, what if they split up?" Colton asked.

"Then that makes everything easier, but I don't want to have to resort to that. I want to humiliate them by trying the plan first, but if that fails, then we can take them in one on one combat."

"Got it." The three others said.

"And in the event they decide to rush one spot regardless of other attacks?" Aurora asked.

"Then you and Krystal will launch a full scale long range attack, unless one of you is the one getting attacked. In that case, only the person who is free will attack. Any more questions?" Sun glanced at his scroll again and noted that the battle would begin soon.

"Nope." Krystal replied.

"Good, I wonder if everyone ate their food and got back in time." Sun smirked and led his team to the door to the arena.

"Let's do this." Aurora cocked Scandiv and they all listened closely for the announcer to call them out.

"Announcing Cardin, Russel, Dove, and Sky of Team CRDL!" The announcer shouted and the four bullies strutted onto the arena floor.

"Announcing Sun, Colton, Aurora, and Krystal of Team SCAR!" He continued and the crowd went wild as SCAR walked out onto the arena confidently.

The timer began counting down and Sun saw determination on his teammates' faces that mirrored his own. The timer struck zero and SCAR, minus Krystal, quickly made their way towards the rocks they had chosen earlier. Krystal brought Toxid up and started unloading rounds into CRDL, forcing them to take their attention off of the other three. They continued forward on a path towards Krystal before they were blown back by an explosion. Cardin looked around and saw Aurora showing herself from behind her rock. He led the charge there and was stopped by arrows this time. They turned and saw Krystal again firing on them, this time with her bow. This continued for a while as Sun and Colton started distracting them as well. The stands were ablaze with laughter and this spurred CRDL to make even worse decisions. They ended up huddled in the middle, using the two shields to protect them from oncoming projectiles. SCAR slowly moved forwards until eventually they were all positioned behind rocks bordering the small clearing CRDL had holed themselves up in. Sun nodded to Colton and watched as Colton charged headlong at the knot in the middle of the clearing. CRDL turned to face him and Sun advanced stealthily from behind them. Colton made it to the middle and dodged the mace swing Cardin had aimed at him. Colton jumped and used the shield as a springboard, backflipping through the air until he was a few meters away. CRDL moved forward slowly to intercept him but were bombarded by arrows on one side and explosive rounds on the other. All of these proved very distracting and Sun made it right behind the group of cowards. He looked over the shoulder of Dove and noted that Sky had the lowest aura left. Colton charged again and CRDL tensed up to receive the attack. Just as Colton made contact with another shield, Sun darted around Dove and swung his staff into Sky. Sky's aura went down into the red as he was thrown to the ground. The match was called and SCAR walked out victoriously. They only left a dejected and humiliated CRDL behind as they passed under the arch leading out.

Author's Note:
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