Albus FF - Chapter 6
Hey, sorry for the long hiatus since the last chapter. I wasn't feeling the motivation to finish Team Coral's opening round in the Vytal Tournament and work has been busy. I knew how I wanted to fight to end, but getting there was difficult. And with Volume 5 starting today, I was in the RWBY mood, so I ironed it out and finally finished it. I hope that there won't be such a long stretch between updates until I catch up with the series.
And again, thanks for taking the time to read all of this. That's the biggest reason I keep at it.
Team Coral was in the Amity Coliseum waiting for their first match in the Vytal Festival Tournament. Laz was standing with her sword, Albus was leaning against the wall, Russ was stretching, and Carmine was pacing back and forth in the middle of them. Russ finished his stretches and looked to Carmine, "Dude, you gotta calm down. It's not good for you to be this strung up."
"How can I calm down," Carmine said, still pacing, "when we are about to go fight another team in front of all of Remnant. What if we lose? It would be devastating!"
"We'll be fine," Laz assured him. "We've been training so much since our mission with Professor Peach, I don't think we could lose this."
Carmine stopped to look at Laz, "It's not that. You know who we're fighting, right?"
Albus spoke up, "C'mon, Carmine. You need to stop being hung up on that Basali girl. This is a regulated match, not a fight to the death. And think, after we win, you can go comfort your girlfriend."
Carmine looked down, his ears drooping, "But what if we win and she doesn't like me anymore?"
Laz walked up and softly grabbed the faunus's arm, "Carmine, would you stop liking her if they beat us?" He shook his head. "Then she shouldn't either."
Albus was rolling his eyes when a coordinator for the tournament walked into the room, letting them know it was time for their match. They followed her to the entrance of the middle of the stadium. The four Beacon students watched the opposing team walk in across from them as the two announcers began their banter.
"And it looks like we are ready to begin our next match!" announced Dr. Oobleck.
"Yes, it does," exclaimed Professor Port. "This next fight will be between Team BRGN of Vacuo and Team CRAL of Vale!" The crowd cheered as the makeup of the arena was randomly decided. The two dials stopped on the Urban and Cyber configurations.
"Ah, this is the first time we have seen the coliseum choose the Cyber biome! " Oobleck explained. "As you can see, half the the arena is made up of glittering platforms at varying heights, while the other half is a rundown collection of buildings. Let's see how our contestants use these constructions in this cunning combat that is to come to pass!"
"And now, with our teams ready, let's begin!" Port shouted. Carmine looked to Albus and nodded, who nodded back. Both teams went into their respective starting stances as Port yelled, "3, 2, 1, begin!"
Albus and Carmine started the fight by firing a volley of arrows at Team Burgundy. They got off 6 shots before the two Eclipse brothers sprinted ahead to stop them. Laz blocked one from hitting Carmine as he changed his bow into swords, while Albus blocked the other one himself. Russ charged in, knocking one brother into the other, clearing them from his teammates.
"Russ and Laz! Let's go!" Carmine commanded his team. "Albus! Get up high and cover us!" Russ and Laz followed Carmine as he ran at Basali and Gaia as Albus started jumping up the platforms. The two Vacuo girls backed into the partly demolished neighborhood as they saw the three of them charging.
Carmine, Laz, and Russ split up as they saw Basali and Gaia go in different directions. Russ went into a building he saw Gaia go into. As soon as he stepped into the structure, she hit him back with her staff. Russ pulled out his spear, and readied himself for her next attack. She slammed her staff down, and vines came out of the ground and held him by his legs. He was looking at the vines when Gaia whacked him with her staff again.
She was about to hit him again when Laz smashed into the ground in front of her, sending her tumbling back into the building. She cut the vines holding Russ and they both jumped at Gaia. She blocked Russ's first strike with her staff, but couldn't stop Laz from slamming her with her sword, smashing her through the building. Russ nodded at Laz, and she proceeded to throw him through the hole in the building after her. Gaia had just gotten up when Russ flew through the air and kicked her, knocking her out of bounds.
"And it looks like Team Coral has taken the advantage," Oobleck said as Gaia hit the shield around the arena.
Meanwhile, Carmine was walking in between the buildings when Basali came out from behind and started shooting him. He quickly jumped behind a wall and waited for her to stop. When the bullets stopped flying, he ran out but didn't see her. He walked forward slowly, looking for Basali. He turned around as he heard her run up from his right. The faunus crossed his swords in an X to block Basali's jab with the blades on the end of her pistols.
"Hey," she said as she smiled at Carmine. He smiled back as she kicked him in the stomach. He stumbled back and swung his swords at her. She crouched down and kicked his feet out from under him. She was about the hit him with one of her pistols when an arrow knocked it out of her hand. She looked where the arrow came from, then smirked and turned back to Carmine. She grabbed the faunus and used him as a shield from Albus. The white haired archer was about to fire another arrow when he saw this, so he put it away and brought out a purple one. Basali quickly jumped up, still holding Carmine, and threw him out of bounds. When she landed, the purple arrow Albus brought out hit the ground right in front of her. She was about to laugh when she started floating off the ground. Albus readied three arrows at once, and hit her square in the chest with each of them. She was sent bouncing out of the arena, landing right next to Carmine.
"Basali of Team BRGN had just evened the teams by throwing Carmine out of bounds," Oobleck started, "but immediately after she herself was knocked out by Albus."
Port looked to his partner, "And now it seems to be the Eclipse brothers versus the rest of Team CRAL!"
Right when Albus had fired the three arrows, the blond brother jumped onto his platform and ran at him with his sword ready to strike. Albus knocked his sword away and went for a follow up hit when he was blocked by the last member of Team Burgundy. Ray and Nadir readied their swords while Albus stared them down.
They ran at Albus. When they were almost to striking distance, Ray jumped over Albus to attack from behind. Nadir swung, Albus parried. Ray swung high, Albus crouched low to avoid it. Both brothers went to hit Albus at the same time, so he went into Limbo and jumped to another platform. They locked blades and followed the white haired boy. The three of them started to jump from platform to platform. Albus would land on one, lock blades with Nadir, jump to another one, and lock blades with Ray.
They continued in this vain for another half dozen platforms when Laz flew in to block a swing from Ray that was heading for Albus's back. The four students exchanged blow after blow for another few seconds when a sniper shot hit Nadir's sword, knocking it away. Albus took that opportunity to kick him off the platform, sending him to the arena floor. Albus turned his attention to Ray, who was pressing his attack on Laz.
Ray had Laz on the defensive until Albus came in to help. Much like the white haired boy had realized before, Ray knew fighting against two people by himself would be very difficult, so he employed the same tactic, staying on the move. Ray moved from platform to platform, waiting for the opportunity to strike. As he was getting ready to attack Albus, Russ jumped up behind him and hit him with a wide swing of his spear, sending him to the center of the arena. Laz jumped after him and, using her semblance, landed hard on top of the Vacuo boy.
"With that hit, Ray is knocked out by aura level," Dr. Oobleck stated.
"And Team Coral wins the match!" announced Professor Port
Most people in Vale who wanted to watch the tournament went to see it in person at the Amity Coliseum. Others gathered in their homes or at restaurants to see the fights on tv. One black haired huntsman had chosen the Crowbar as his place to watch the first matches, seeing as they served alcohol. He looked up from his drink as the screen showed the winner of the last match, Team CRAL. He narrowed his red eyes as he saw them.
"That was a heck of a fight!" Albus exclaimed as he and his team were making their way to their seats to watch the rest of the fights for the day. "Good job catching that blond guy off guard Russ!"
The aforementioned boy smiled, "Yeah, they didn't expect any of the times I hit them. So Carmine, who are we gonna send to the next round?"
"Well, after I got thrown out of bounds, I was able to watch the rest of the fight," the faunus started. "And I think Albus and Laz would be the best bet. They are able to fight really well together, and that's what we need for the doubles round."
"Woohoo!" Laz yelled with her fist in the air.
"I don't know about you guys, but I'm getting pretty hungry," Albus said holding his stomach. "I say we grab a quick bite and get back here to watch some more fights."
"Agreed," Carmine added.
Team Coral were just getting back to Beacon after Team SNNN defeat Team NDGO when they noticed a big crowd gathering in the courtyard. They walked up to see what was happening and they saw a black haired huntsman having a heated discussion with a female Atlas officer. The white haired woman charged at the huntsman and repeatedly swung at him, while he just dodged. After a few misses, he grabbed the sword on his back, and lightly tapped her sword with his.
They started trading blow after blow at incredible speeds, moving around the courtyard. A lot of damage was being done wherever they clashed. After the Atlas specialist sent the huntsman flying to gain some distance, Albus got a good look at him and froze. Staring into the man's face, Albus felt like he was looking at himself with dark hair and stubble. Albus gazed at the rest of his body and saw that he had a similar build to the huntsman. Albus watched him intently as the fight concluded.
General Ironwood yelled and stopped the Altas specialist from hitting the drunken huntsman. They had a quick argument before Ozpin interrupted, "Now, now everyone. There is a sanctioned fight happening just around the corner at the coliseum that I can assure you has better seats, and popcorn."
Glynda stepped in, "Break it up everyone! We will take care of this mess."
Albus watched as Ruby ran to Qrow, hanging onto his arm. After a quick exchange, he went to follow Ozpin. Albus ran up to Ruby and Weiss, "Ruby, who was that?" he questioned her.
"Oh, that's my uncle Qrow," she said. "Why do you ask?"
"I need to talk to him," Albus said as he turned to catch up to with drunken huntsman.