Note: I made a slight oops in the last chapter. I noted that this was the 105th annual Vytal Festival, when it turns out in RWBY the festival is held every 2 years. So, if 80 years passed in RWBY since the Great War, the Vytal Festival in the show was the 40th. Let's just say after that disaster they stopped for a few years, then held it every year after Salem's defeat, making this the 60th one. This change really only affects the few of you who read the last chapter early, but I thought I'd clear it up.
The cheer of Sentinel Stadium echoed through the concrete halls below, arriving deep in the locker rooms as an indistinct clamor. Lazula tightened the strap on her boot, then sat on the bench with her head bowed. Her Academy League debut was about to start. Victory, proving she was top of the League, was the only possibility in her mind. She attempted to clear even that thought. Despite her confidence, she knew the clashing of steel would come first, and she couldn't get ahead of herself. But the noise from the stadium- that damn noise- kept interrupting her brief meditation.
Cutting through the cacophony, she began to hear a voice.
"Hello, to everyone watching across Remnant!" the announcer greeted. "For those of you late to the party, I'm Dustyn Brown-"
"And I'm Ezelia Brown!"
"Right! And we'll be the hosts for the 60th Vytal Tournament! There are just a few minutes before the very first match between Team LSLI of Sentinel, and Team KRAT of Haven!"
"Let us run down the tournament's format one more time, for those of you slow on the uptake," Mrs. Brown announced.
"That was not in the script."
"Safety parameters are set at the Academy League standard of 15%! These first matches will be team-against-team. Age and year are irrelevant! This is a single elimination tournament, meaning any team that loses is out! The winners of each match will elect two fighters to move on to the next wave of two-on-two matches! For both of these rounds, the stadium will take on two randomized biomes to spice things up a bit!"
"Thirty-two teams will enter the two-on-two round, but there will be only sixteen winners. These sixteen will elect one fighter of the two to proceed onto the one-on-one matches. The terrain of the arena will disappear, and all that matters will be skill as they work their way up to the Vytal Tournament Championship match!"
"Our match is about to begin," Snow reminded. "Are you ready?"
Lazula looked up to the partner she hadn't heard coming, and nodded once. "Yeah. Just about."
"I've never fought in a tournament before," Snow noted. "What is it like?"
"I imagine it can be stressful," Lazula replied. She exhaled the slightest laugh. "You don't seem like the type to get stressed out though, are you?"
"Not really."
"Well, good." Lazula stood up, and strapped Aegis to her arm. "Everyone's going to be fighting their hardest out there. Just do the same, and we'll be alright."
Snow nodded. "Understood."
Lazula stepped to the entrance, but turned to Snow once again before leaving. "When we win, I want you to be my partner for the next round."
"We're certainly going to start off on a high note for this year's Vytal Festival Tournament!" Mr. Brown announced. "Our first match is between Team KRAT of Haven, and Team LSLI, of Sentinel!"
"I can feel the excitement of the audience from all the way up here!" Mrs. Brown added. "I don't blame 'em. LSLI and KRAT are two of this year's top seeded teams! I have no doubt this match is gonna have us all on the edge of our seats!"
Lazula took a deep breath. Opposite her team in the center of the stadium was Team KRAT. The massive screen above them displayed each contestant's picture. Between them, two boxes shuffled through the image of each possible arena biome.
It eventually settled on two. One was a broken-down city. Its shells of old buildings and rusted-out cars reminded Lazula of Sentinel's own practice grounds. The other was a horseshoe of rugged stone around a barren grassland peppered with a few dying trees, the platforms of basalt establishing a makeshift set of stairs up to the mountain's peak. The center of the stadium remained as the city rose up behind Team LSLI, and the mountain behind Team KRAT.
The two biomes settled into place, and the rumbling beneath Lazula's feet stopped. Contestant names and aura levels appeared to replace the biomes on screen.
"I'll take Kiran," Lazula decided. "Rigel will probably take off onto the mountain. Laurel, find a place in the city to take him on from a distance. If my memory of last year's tournament is correct he's a good shot, so be careful."
"Gotcha," Laurel confirmed with a thumbs-up.
Ichigo fidgeted with Hack n' Slash. "...What should I do?"
"We'll see what they do from there, and I'll decide," Lazula said. Ichigo looked less than reassured. Plans were never her strong suit, after all. Her main strategy was always to run into the enemy, and hit them harder than they hit her. It had worked every time so far.
The cheer breaking from the indistinct wall of heads and flashing lights surrounding the stadium picked up, then began to come in short, coordinated bursts. Only after five of these bursts did Lazula realize why.
"FIVE! FOUR! THREE!"
She took a deep breath, and drew Impetus from its sheath. Its familiar silver blade glinted with the light of the sun.
"TWO! ONE!"
As soon as the buzzer began to blare, Lazula raised Aegis and charged into the enemy team. She kept her sword at her side and eyes just above the top of her shield, anticipating Kiran's choice of hard-light weapon.
"No ya don't!" Aureylia interjected. Lazula's eyes snapped to the side, and saw nothing but the broad edge of a flaming hammer crashing toward her like a meteor. She turned on her heels last minute to block the blow. Its energy was almost too much for Lazula to channel.
Almost.
She shouted, twisting and cleaving the air between herself and Kiran. Her blade gleamed as it heralded a reckless gale. Lazula's eyes narrowed and flicked between her opponents. Kiran had tumbled out of the way, hair whipping behind him in the gust. He remained kneeling, holding his hands out at his sides. The sleeves of his black glowed spectral blue, and two hard-light submachine guns formed in his hands. Aureylia had been knocked off balance, and used her hammer to steady herself. The gust was left to tear through the barren land, shredding the dirt and rattling the scraggly tree branches above.
Light flashed from her left, and Lazula raised her shield against a hail of dust bullets. Kiran ran around to her back, fingers intent on his guns' triggers. Aureylia came in from behind with a sideways swing. Lazula ducked under just in time and swept her opponent's legs out from under her. The energy from Kiran's shots and the connection between Lazula's boot and Aureylia's ankles wasn't much, but Lazula channeled what she could into a downward jab.
Aureylia laid on the ground clutching her stomach. It wasn't enough to eliminate her just yet, but it was enough to throw her off for a bit.
Kiran abandoned his pistols for a longer-range rifle. The shots were easy enough to block, but Lazula heard another. A thunderous crack that split her ears instead of the high-pitched twang of energy rounds.
She felt a sudden, vicious pain in her shoulder, enough to make her stumble back and clench her teeth to suppress a scream. The culprit, a steaming bullet the size of her little finger, dropped to the ground.
"Oh-hoh! Rigel Potera landing the first of what I'm sure will be many shots!" Mr. Brown called out.
"But look at that! Her aura holds at 90%!" Mrs. Brown added. "How is that even possible?!"
Still gritting her teeth and clutching her shoulder, Lazula's eyes met Snow's, then Ichigo's. She flicked her head toward the sniper before continuing her fight against KRAT's leader. Snow nodded, and sprinted toward the mountains. Ichigo looked to Lazula, then to Snow, finally following the white-haired huntress with sudden realization.
"Tira! Stop them!" Kiran commanded. The last teammate, the slender woman wielding some kind of double-edged glaive, nodded and took off on their heels. At the edge of the mountain biome, she whipped her staff around with dramatic flair, working up a gust of wind and slinging it toward Ichigo and Snow. Ichigo lost his footing and stumbled into an edge of basalt, losing a bit of aura. Snow tumbled once, before correcting her footing and digging Absolute Zero into the ground at her feet to keep traction. Once the wind settled, she transformed her weapon into Configuration B, and let fly with a volley of dust pellets.
Tira held her ground, whirling her weapon in front of herself to whip up another wind. Each of Snow's shots was lost to the breeze and flung toward Kiran, extending his hard-light blade as he locked in relentless combat with Lazula.
Ichigo ran forward with Hack n' Slash in hatchet form, but was quickly parried and lashed aside by Tira's glaive. Absolute Zero's two barrels folded into one and flattened, forming Configuration A. Snow looked to Tira, then the top of the mountain. The light retracted into her weapon's handle, and she began to spring up the steps.
Another crack from the mountaintop.
"Ohh! And Ichigo Kurayami is eliminated by aura level!" Mr. Brown announced. "Another killer shot by the Blind Sniper!"
"Ichi!? Damn, I'm too late..." Laurel muttered, finally reaching the window of a decrepit mid-rise, the back half of which had fallen away. She swept an inch-thick layer of dust off the floor with her boot, and mounted her rifle on the windowsill. Her eyes glowed yellow.
"Now, then... where are you?" she grumbled. "Too many damn people in this stadium, can't see a thing."
Her eyes narrowed and she covered an ear.
"And what the hell is that noise?"
The wall just next to the window exploded into a cloud of splinters and concrete shards. Laurel ducked, shielding her eyes from the shrapnel before looking up to assess the damage. Much of her cover was gone, but her eyes settled on a concrete pillar about a dozen feet back. It had begun to crack, courtesy of the small crater that hadn't been there when Laurel found the spot.
Her satisfaction was fleeting. She winced suddenly and her eyes flicked up as another shot rang out, and she hit the floor. A second bullet smashed into the pillar where she stood a split second prior. She eyed the two craters one last time, and lined up a shot.
"Laurel Verdi fires back!" Mrs. Brown cheered. "That was a close one!"
She ducked down and crawled to another window, holding a hand to one of her ears. "That damn noise again..." she muttered. The second she peeked around the side of the wall, a third shot screamed through the air dangerously close to her head.
"Another close one!" Mr. Brown announced. "While Snow and Lazula duke it out against KRAT close up, a long-distance war is being fought between Laurel and Rigel!"
Laurel peeked once again, but the shot came even quicker this time. She pulled back, breathing out in frustration. As the noise filled the room once again- that high-pitched drone imperceptible to human ears- Laurel drew one of two pistols strapped at her hip, and fired into the ceiling.
At the peak of the mountain, Rigel flinched, dropping his gun and covering his faunus ears. A second blast rang out through the arena.
"And Laurel Verdi comes out on top!" Mrs. Brown cheered. "In one shot, Rigel Potera has been defeated!"
"But Laurel's fight isn't over yet!" Mr. Brown reminded. "It looks like Aureylia of KRAT is coming for her!"
Snow leapt up to another precipice just as Laurel's shot landed. She paused for a second, watching as her target fell to the ground with nearly-depleted aura. She turned back to her pursuer, and produced Configuration A's blade. Tira whirled her glaive and rose to meet Snow on a gust of wind. Absolute Zero flashed as their blades struck, and Snow pushed back. Tira gained her footing just an inch from the thirty-foot drop, and the two began to dance around each other on the platform just big enough for the two of them.
An overhead swing from Snow caught Tira's weapon at the base of its blade, locking into place. Tira detached the other half of her weapon, spinning it on one hand as she transformed it into a rifle and fired. Snow stumbled back as the pair of shots struck her, and Tira followed with a reckless slash.
Snow recovered faster than Tira must've expected. She pushed the strike back and threw her opponent off with a vicious axe swing, landing another to fling her off the edge. Tira landed feet-first on the next platform down with a well-placed whirlwind. Snow followed her down.
Tira raised her weapon to counter the axe boring down on her like a guillotine, but the force was too much. Her arms gave way, and Snow struck from shoulder to hip.
"That's it for Tira Missoux!" Mrs. Brown stated. "Team LSLI has the advantage, three against two!"
Another buzzer sounded as a building inside the broken city collapsed into a cloud of smoke. Aureylia stepped out of the rubble with a grin, slinging her hammer over her shoulder.
"...Make that two on two!" Mr. Brown corrected. "Laurel Verdi is eliminated by aura level!"
"What are they teaching you kids at Sentinel?" Tira questioned, pushing herself to a kneel and clutching her chest.
Snow looked down to Tira with her usual void of expression.
"How to fight."
She hopped down to the next platform on her way back to Lazula.
Lazula kept Team KRAT's leader occupied as Snow rushed in from behind. At the last second before she cleaved across his back, Lazula's strike was knocked away, and Kiran turned on his heel. He raised a hand to the blade of Snow's axe, and the light began to glitch and morph around it. He grabbed the hard-light shaft of Absolute Zero, and the light spiraled down the handle, entrapping Snow's arm.
He stepped in toward Lazula, flinging her own partner at her.
Energy swelled in Lazula's arms as Snow planted her feet on Aegis, and she flung her high above Kiran. Snow's dust whip was countered as well, taken into Kiran's sleeve and fired off as a blast of concentrated energy. She took it into Aegis, but was flung back toward the head of Aureylia's hammer. A parry, duck, and jab later, Aureylia was back on the ground.
"Snow, deal with her!" Lazula commanded.
Kiran took her split second of distraction to his benefit. He stretched an arc of hard-light to form a glowing polearm, making the most of his full foot of height advantage over his foe. Lazula blocked his first strike then turned to lash out with Impetus, but both her first swing and her next were blocked by the shaft of his weapon. She ducked under his wild slash, striking a third time with a vengeance. At the moment her blade once again met the shaft of his weapon, she channeled the force behind the clash into her own attack, and shattered the polearm into a diamond dust of light.
Aureylia wielded her hefty warhammer with surprising speed, twirling the shaft of her weapon like a baton to block Snow's vigorous series of strikes. As Snow pulled back, her foe went on the offensive with an overhead smash. Snow sidestepped the attack just before it shattered the pavement at her feet, transforming her weapon to Configuration D and wrapping her luminous whip around the block of solid iron Aureylia called her weapon. Snow planted her heel and swung with all her might, flinging the hammer's head deep into the city.
The shaft didn't follow.
Aureylia struck Snow with one end of what was now a staff of flaming steel, then spun it to strike from the other side. Snow recoiled and held her head, and suddenly took a brutal blow to the back, chunking her aura by over 20%. Aureylia grinned as the head of her hammer returned on a steel cord. She wound up her attack in a plume of fire as Snow stumbled forward, and she struck as if driving a golf ball.
A hard-light sickle locked with Aegis, and Lazula winced as she heard a buzzer sound.
"And that brings us to two-on-one!" Mr. Brown announced. "Could the Indomitable Girl be caught in a corner?"
Lazula wrenched her shield upward and slashed at Kiran's sickle to disengage. She looked to Kiran on one side, Aureylia on the other. She hadn't beaten Kiran yet, and he had managed to whittle her aura down to around 70%, which on its own said enough about his skill. Aureylia had taken out both Laurel and Snow.
She took a deep breath. She couldn't afford to hold back anymore.
She returned to Kiran with a determined flicker in her eye, crashing into him with all the force she could muster at Aegis's tip. He formed a shield, which splintered into a hail of spears as a shockwave burst from between the two of them.
Lazula's eyes flicked around as she backtracked, blocking and lashing at each fragment of dust. She leapt back at Kiran, who formed another polearm between his hands and lashed out. She narrowly avoided two jabs before she heard Aureylia's knight-like armor clinking behind her. With Aegis's help, she deflected the hammer to the side, following up with a shield bash and a kick back. She returned to Kiran, parrying his swipe and replying with a semblance-enhanced jab.
She spun around, switching up to meet Aureylia's hammer with Impetus, and Kiran's dual blades with Aegis. His attacks came nearly twice as fast, and Lazula went on the defensive, feeling as though she fought three-on-one. After nearly half a minute of the onslaught, she caught a break. Kiran backed off to let Aureylia sweep at Lazula's legs with her hammer. The huntress hopped over the swing, landing with a slash across Aureylia's chest, and an elbow to follow. Kiran's two strikes clanked harmlessly off the face of Aegis, and he too was shoved back.
Lazula heard a strained scream of frustration from her side. Aureylia's hammer had caught fire, and she swung toward Lazula with reckless abandon. Lazula braced herself with a satisfied smirk, and Kiran's eyes went wide.
"NO!"
Lazula sucked the impact into Aegis, before wrenching Impetus across her body with a labored shout. Her blade gleamed in the late morning sun as a wanton gale of focused energy burst forth with a deafening boom. The concrete in an arc around her splintered and the trees behind both foes split at the trunk, crashing into the shredded earth below.
Kiran, who had come so close to winning the tournament the year before, gasped for breath, his hair undone and silver aura fizzling out around him as he lay against the wall of stone what must have been fifty feet away. Aureylia had lost most of her aura as well, and had been pushed all the way out of the arena.
"There it is, ladies, gents, and all of our friends!" Mrs. Brown shouted in excitement. "Lazula Skye, showing us all why she's undefeated!"
"I have no words..." Mr. Brown remarked. "That was unreal."
Lazula looked up to the board. All four members of Team KRAT were at or below the safety parameter. Her and her teammates' pictures took the center of the screen, just above three green letters: "WIN."
The cheer of the audience drowned out the announcers. She balled her fist and dropped to her knees, grinning from ear to ear.
"Yes. YES!"
She felt so much joy in that moment, she could nearly laugh.