Chapter 17: A Day of Play

On instinct, I duck under the blade coming at me. It whistles past my ear. "Hey, watch it! No head blows." I jump back as he tries to go for my shoulder again. I don't have any more points left on my armor, so if he hits me, I lose that arm completely. I'm no good after that. I'm not exactly ambidextrous with a blade.

Qrow laughs outright. "Well, I can't help but hit such a big target!" He swings again, but I roll out of the way.

Out of the corner of my eye, I see an arrow coming at me. I do something so incredibly stupid. I bat the arrow out of the way. "Shit! Broken weapon." I drop my only sword and reach for my belt to take out the last of my throwing knives. That's when I feel the heavy thump on my back. "God damnit! Dead!" I angrily stuff my knife back in my belt and grab my oniblade from the ground and putting it over my head while I walk toward the boundaries. I start to count. Ten seconds is a long time for a death count when you're dead. I finish and smile. "Alive!" I jump back into the fray and run toward Qrow, smacking his leg and stomach in two short strikes. "Yes!"

No semblances on the field. No semblances on the field. It's just a game. I have to keep repeating this, making sure that the players are all even, except their classes. I'm an Assassin, obviously. Level one, but still an Assassin. Summer dragged us to the Vale amtgard park. It just opened for the public, and it's actually pretty fun. I mean, there's a practical sense to it, too, for us that go to Beacon, but it's still all a game.

Right now, we're in a class battle, and the game is capture the flag. The teams are pretty huge, so the Reeve is probably having a hard time keeping up with us all, not to mention that the majority of us are Beacon students or Hunters. The students are getting absolutely slaughtered by the older ones. It would totally not be fair if the teams weren't divided accurately. As it stands, though, my team has as many veterans as the opposing one.

I duck and slide on my knees to avoid another arrow. "Hey! Watch it! Why am I your only target, Sum?" I sigh as stand up quickly and zig zag my way toward the flag on the other side of the field. Unfortunately, Summer and I were picked for opposite teams, and I suppose she's just eating it up that she went with a bow instead of a sword this round. As a Scout, she has that option. Well, so do I, but I've been trained with a sword, not a bow.

Something really hard knocks into my ear, making my vision swim. I fall to my knee for a few seconds before coming back to my senses. I hear Summer apologizing profusely from the other side of me. I smile as I hear her approach. "I'm fine, Summer, but you're not." I deliver a wicked blow to her torso. She looks at me incredulously. "I had to, babe. This is war." I wink at her as she curses her own sympathy and walks out of the boundaries.

I shoot up in time to get another knock to my back. "God damnit, Qrow!"

There was a bit of laughter from behind me, and I shakes my head. "Definitely not Qrow, Rae."

Fucking Glynda. Who let the kid into the game to begin with? "When did you even get into the game?"

I turn around to her shrugging. "It was a bit ago, Rae. I was there when they picked teams."

I sigh. "You don't even have any training. How did they even let you on the field?"

She laughs as she blocks a blow from behind her. "I signed a waver and walked onto the field."

I stare at her, have annoyed and maybe a little impressed. "You're not even fourteen yet."

She smirks. "Professor Ozpin vouched for me."

My eyes go wide as she, yet again, swipes at the man in front of her, parrying his blade before tagging him across his chest. "He did what!?" This is the same man that wouldn't let me activate her Aura, the same man that was so concerned with her safety?

She smiles and conks me on the head. "Go count. You can't get back in unless you do."

I sigh and shake my head as I put my sword over my head and start walking. This is absurd. What the hell is wrong with Ozpin. She could really get hurt out here. I understand that she lives with Hunters and has been part of some street gang and crap, but she's still only, like, almost eleven. She could be pummeled into the ground with a good enough strike from one of these big guys. I lock eyes with Summer as I pass her. "Watch out for Glynda." Her eyes go wide as she looks around the field and shoots an arrow straight at a guy coming up behind Glynda. She gives me a small smile and nod, which I return.

I take in a deep breath and start counting. This time, I'm going to get to that flag if anyone doesn't beat me to it. No one is actually trying to win. Most of them are trying to beat the crap out of everyone that's not on their team. It's pretty chaotic, especially for our bunch. Who am I kidding? We're always chaotic. I smile and run back in. "Alive!" I take off at breakneck speed, jumping over a legless guy and ducking under shields and arrows flying at me. This is going to work. It has to. That's when I see something I never thought I'd see. Beside me, her tiny, blonde form almost a blur, Glynda is carrying my team's flag in her hand. Well, shit. She's crafty, I've got to give her that. I smile and swipe at her arm to try to get her to drop the flag, but she literally ducks under my blade and takes off even faster.

I sigh and give chase. She can't make it to her side. I feel a thump on my back. "Fucking hell, Summer!"

"That wasn't me!" I hear her voice and smirk. I look around the field and see one of the veterans smile at me sinisterly. I snarl at him as I hear the Reeve announce the winner. I sigh. It was inevitable. At least it was Glynda that scored. Maybe we should go out for ice cream after the event.

I walk up to Glynda and pat her on the back. "Way to go, Glyn. I'm happy for you."

She smiles up at me. "Thanks. I was totally awesome out there, huh?"

I laugh. She really was. It was like she had been training for years, not weeks. "Totally. Now, let's go speak with Ozpin about you joining an event that could possibly get you killed." I grab her hand and have to almost drag her to the shelter. "Ozzie, what the hell were you thinking when you threw her in there with seasoned Huntsmen?"

He takes a sip of his coffee before smiling. "She wanted to do this, and I knew as soon as you saw her that you'd protect her with your life if necessary." That smug bastard. Why does he have to be right in this?

I pinch the bridge of my nose. "That is entirely beside the point, What if I hadn't seen her?" I shudder at the thought of her getting stomped on or something.

He keeps that stupid smile on his face, and I just want to knock it off. "You were her primary target. Of course you'd have seen her eventually." He laughs a little before taking another sip from his mug. "Nice going, getting killed by an eleven year old, by the way."

I growl a bit in the back of my throat before turning away. "Summer, are you finished for today? I'd like to leave before Ozpin kills me for attacking him."

Summer gives me a concerned look before nodding. "Yeah, just let me return the arrows to their owner." She hurries away and puts the quiver and arrows down on a bench before whistling for one of the men on the field. With a brief nod, she's off again, rushing toward us. "What happened?"

I look down at Glynda. "He let her play."

Summer tilts her head in confusion, making my lips curve into a small smile against my will. "So? Isn't that a good thing? This could actually help with her training in taking on multiple targets at a time."

I swallow a lump in my throat. "I know, but still."

She pats my shoulder. "I get it. You're overprotective. Now, let's go get that ice cream that you were thinking about earlier." She winks at me before skipping away. How did she even know that? She baffles me sometimes, but in a good way, I guess.

A/N: Finally, a chapter! Okay, the reason that this is just a filler is because, well, I needed a filler lol. I needed something I could write quickly and that wouldn't need too terribly much detail. If there are any questions regarding amtgard, don't hesitate to ask. It's really awesome, kinda like LARPing, but with a lot stricter rules. Technically, Glynda shouldn't have even been allowed to participate, but I curved some rules for the fic because these are people who live for combat, and all, you know? They wouldn't bat any eye, really, at a child picking up a weapon, real or not. So, yh.

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