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Chapter 25: Crushing

Deep within the bowels of the long-defunct and desecrated Atlesian heavy cruiser an ongoing battle was given an additional and undeniably worthy sense of gravitas by the location in which it was occurring.

Athena-Jade Slate and Diabla Fuego were trading blows with a speed and fury that went far beyond what could be called right or proper for a simple training exercise between first year students and during the course of this fierce, desperate and somehow unmistakably climactic fight the interior of the ships' main engine room, already ruined during the events which had seen the vessel fall from the sky, had taken further damage which had left its' lights flickering on sporadically whilst the intermittent gloom was illuminated with the ethereal green glow of Athena-Jade's weapon as it swung through the air, along with the shimmering glow of the glyphs she used to both attack and defend and the blazing, almost volcanic glow of her adversaries' own Semblance as Diabla continued to unleash her rage and bitterness in a way that proved, beyond all doubts that the Mantle-born Huntress saw the Bear Faunus as a manifestation of every wrong she had suffered and every grudge she had kept.

Even if Athena still did not know how or why she had earned such loathing.

Such matters were far from her thoughts however and instead the snowy haired and pale-skinned teen was focused on the matter at hand, skin flushed with exertion and covered with a shin of sweat as she crossed the distance between herself and her opponent with the use of a glyph which acted as a springboard and promptly swung the oversized head of her hammer at the side of Diabla's skull, switching from a two handed grip to single handed as she did so only for sapphire coloured eyes to widen in shock and dismay as the arc of her weapons' path, powered and boosted by the propulsion system within it left a contrail of jade light in the air made it clear that she had missed her mark and Diabla had managed to duck under the blow.

A moment later Athena's world exploded into pain and she was left seeing stars as the taller and less broadly muscled, yet still incredibly strong and athletic teen lunged forward and smashed her gauntleted right fist into the Faunus's nose; a follow up blow came an instant later and Athena felt the air leave her lungs whilst at the same time she was forced to struggle desperately against the instinctive slackening of her grip to keep her weapon in her grasp as Diabla's left fist drove into her kidneys, Diabla's damage-increasing Semblance making Athena's armour effectively useless. Even with her eyes watering and ears ringing the beaten and suffering Faunus knew that her opponent intended to continue pressing her advantage, in keeping with both the instruction Professor Altan had given and her own impulses and so, the instant she heard the telltale mechanical whirring and clanking of a Hunters' weapon changing form and function Athena managed to leap aside; sparing herself further punishment as Diabla's right gauntlet, named 'Peace' deployed its' flamethrower and sent a raging ball of fire and destruction into the space she had occupied. Athena's next movement was a simple and frantic staggering as Diabla continued her assault with a spinning back-fist that sent the blade of her left gauntlet, named 'Quiet' whistling by the shorter girls' cheek, the ultrasonic frequencies it vibrated at ringing in Athena's ear even as she made a hasty tactical retreat.

It was clear by now that overpowering Diabla was out of the question and that she needed to form a plan.

Her retreat took the form of fleeing into the air upon her glyphs, leaping from one shimmering platform to the next as she avoided incoming fire, in the most terrifyingly literal sense from below whilst at the same time collapsing Mould Breaker; accepting that the destructive power of its' ranged from was a liability in her current surroundings and that its' hammer mode was simply too unwieldy, which left her in the unenviable position of having to engage in melee combat with someone whose Semblance was devastating at close range.

"WHAT'S THE MATTER RICH KID, YOU NEED SOMEWHERE TO LITERALLY LOOK DOWN ON ME FROM?" Diabla's hate-filled bellow was immense in its' anger yet failed to completely mask the faint cracking of her voice; as though the speaker were finally beginning to suffer under the weight of the emotions she carried with her though Athena had no opportunity to ponder anything so philosophical and instead watched as Diabla streaked across the ground below, the space around her illuminated by the fiery glow of her Semblance as its' manifestation trailed up her arms and looked, for the briefest moment not like the heat of a raging inferno but like the spreading of poison, a feverish and maddening heat until its' wielder drew her fist back and ploughed it through the nearest sizeable object in sight and whilst 'Overachiever' did not truly make Diabla stronger, only empowering her blows to be more destructive her Semblance still served her goals and she easily tore a support strut free with a groaning creak of damaged metal filling the air before hurling it at Athena like a javelin.

Athena had been on the move the moment she had seen Diabla's intention.

She was once again stunned by the extremity of her classmates' rage but had no intention of simply standing idle and allowing herself to be a victim of it; she might not have had a working plan but she had working muscles and years of practice which would simply have to be enough. A series of glyphs which she ricocheted between allowed her to close the distance between them and the instant she appeared at Diabla's right hand Athena threw herself into a single-handed cartwheel, using the motion to kick her opponent squarely in the mouth with her left leg; being halted by the impact the Bear Faunus then used all of the tension in her body to fling herself into a spinning motion in the opposite direction and not only right herself but do so in a way that allowed her to once again kick with her left leg, this time a spinning crescent kick that saw her heel collide with Diabla's cheek and was quickly followed by a simple front kick from Athena-Jade's right leg that sent her opponent skidding back across the metal floor, gasping for air and clutching her chest in pain even despite the armoured vest she wore.

"You gonna calm down now?" Athena dared to ask, the adrenaline coursing through her body and leaving it an electric, trembling mess causing her to forget herself for a moment and offer a toothy, defiant smirk to her opponent; only for it to be proven to be precisely the wrong thing to say as Diabla replied with a wordless yell of rage and charged forwards as the light of her Semblance seemed to redouble itself yet again, leaving the half-crazed fighters' eyes entirely washed out by fiery orange light that shone from within her.

"We don't have to do this" Athena fought to keep a pleading edge out of her words "You already lost the bomb, just stop!" as she spoke she flung up a series of several dozen glyphs one behind another which Diabla made no effort to avoid or navigate and instead seemed to relish the opportunity to destroy, simply ploughing through them until finally the Bear Faunus produced a handful of Ice Dust crystals and forced them into the closest glyph, causing a chain reaction and leaving her fellow student frozen to the spot and encased in several glyphs.

"THIS IS IT? CHEAP TRICKS IS ALL YOU'VE GOT?" Diabla demanded, seemingly infuriated more by this ploy than the simple violence of being kicked repeatedly in the head and with her gauntlets, one fitted with a vibrating blade and the other a flamethrower and her own inhuman strength she began to simply tear her way free of the ice that she had been trapped in; her Aura flickering around her in several places as her rash actions forced it to protect her from herself lest she tear chunks of her own skin away whilst at the same time chunks of the blackened and ruined floor of the destroyed engine room were torn away with an ominous metal shrieking.

Allowing the final pieces to fall into place for Athena.

"No, I've got a plan as well" she declared proudly before simply turning and running as fast as her Aura powered muscles could stand. Her retreat was tactical and far from the act of cowardice that she was sure her opponent would describe it as and in the back of her mind Athena was eager to here how her idea compared with those concocted by her more strategically minded friends.

Her ideas was simple, there was in truth no reason for her and Diabla to fight under the conditions of the mission, Professor Altan had said nothing about capturing those playing the villains and, as Aunt Ruby had explained to Astra some weeks ago the primary concern was always the safety of civilians; Diabla had been attempting to plant a bomb when Athena had found her and promptly sent the device careening into a hole in the floor leading into the decks below, which meant that all she had to do was find the device and either destroy it or make off with it in order for Team MARZ to be successful.

With that in mind she sprinted to the hole she had seen the faux explosive fall into and promptly flung herself down into it, using a glyph to cover the way behind her.

Athena was beaten, bruised and exhausted and as such her descent was far from the athletic and glyph powered glide that she might have hoped for, instead her short but muscular form clattered against Atlesian steel and other detritus in what could barely be called a controlled crash as she fell through a hole that spanned several decks before landing with a deafening and painful crash that left her Aura flickering around her and her left shoulder filled with pain that she had to grit her teeth in order to suppress a cry at.

"Ow" she finally let out a pitiably weak groan before dragging herself to her feet after several moments, swaying and staggering several steps before leaning against a wall and trying to get her bearings despite the total gloom of this part of the ruined ship; she took several deep breaths and brushed dust and metallic debris away from her shorts and sleeveless jacket, inspecting her hi-topped sneakers for damage before forcing her dazed and pain-muddled mind to cooperate and focus on the matter at hand. The bomb was nowhere to be seen, though given the momentum it had fallen with and the way that the heavily damaged hallways on this lower deck seemed to tilt and sag in all directions it was clear that it had simply bounced and skidded somewhere out of view and would, hopefully be easy enough to find.

Luck, it seemed was not on Athena's side.

"Oh no" she breathed out as a furious yell from above preceded a cacophony of tearing, screaming metal and forced the Bear Faunus to make some quick educated guesses and mental calculations about her opponents' plans as it did not sound as though Diabla were planning on following after her directly.

She realised with a shudder of genuine fear that Diabla was simply going to tear through the corroded and damaged metal of the ship, one deck at a time to get to her.

Whatever minute advantage the members of Team MARZ present in the cargo hold might have had upon entering it had vanished at precisely the same moment Astra Mars had been fooled by Laser Greenback's ruse and convinced to fall back, making the battle a two on two affair and tilting the odds firmly in the favour of the Vaccuan miscreant who was both more accustomed to fighting in the gutted remains of an airship and also simply far more ruthless.

A reality which both Regalia and Zirconia were painfully aware of.

"Heh, any ideas on how we're gonna pull this off are welcome" the Racoon Faunus gave her team-mate a hopeful glance whilst ducking behind a wall of ice and hard-light that Zirconia's weapon had constructed, even as the temporary barricade was proven to be feeble as it began to flicker and crack under the latest spattering of bullets that Laser fired from Permadeath in its' machine gun form whilst Ursinia had taken a flanking position beside him to prevent him from simply being surrounded and overwhelmed.

"That depends" Zirconia rasped out, mismatched eyes narrowing as she considered the options as they appeared to her at that moment "Their mission parameters involved them not getting caught in the blast of their own bomb….If we can't get to the hostages then we have to prevent them from leaving"

"And if whoever is planting the bomb is crazy enough to detonate it anyway?"

"Then Laser and Ursinia get caught in the blast along with the hostages….and us" Zirconia answered, what little could be seen of her expression making it clear that she understood exactly how precarious a proposition her idea was and upon seeing it Regalia tried to force her mind to offer up some glimmer of hope in the form of sudden wisdom and understanding. A desperate and surreptitious use of her Semblance provided nothing of use, telling her only that Laser was somehow the key to victory which the former nomad simply assumed was due to the fact that he had orchestrated the plan her opponents were employing and instead she turned her attention to her surroundings and began to cobble the disparate ideas vying for her attention into something resembling a working strategy, before she could do so however she was interrupted by Ursinia whose usual rural drawl was offset by the sudden fear she openly displayed.

"Can y'all maybe relax a little?" the Scorpion Faunus gasped "We're all friends, we're all talking about this like someone's actually gonna die or get hurt today….This is just a training mission-"

"No, it isn't" it was Zirconia who cut her off, her voice though quiet more forceful than usual and as she rose from behind her makeshift barricade her entire demeanour spoke of stoic and determined heroism even as she shifted her weight on a damaged prosthetic.

"She's right" Laser ground out, though he failed to take the opportunity to open fire again out of some apparent sense of decency that he was unwilling to part with entirely.

"We're not here to play games and have fun….we're here to protect people and that means taking this seriously, treating it as though lives are on the line and finding out if you're willing to what it takes, even if that means making sacrifices. Do you understand that?" the conviction in the mysterious and often taciturn Faunus's voice was something to behold and Regalia wondered briefly and absently where exactly this outburst had come from even if she agreed with every single word of what he team-mate said, remaining silent she kept her gaze firmly on Laser and Ursinia, the latter of whom nodded in solemn understanding and readied the Adventurer in its' golden bladed sword form.

"Well alright then honey" she nodded flicking one of her twin braids away from her shoulder and shifting her stance "I understand….And if that's what you want, just promise me that there won't be any hard feelings afterwards"

"Of course" Regalia chimed in, finding that she needed that clarification to assuage doubts that had been lingering at the back of her mind, however once it had been given the tension that had been steadily building within the cargo hold finally reached its' zenith and at some unseen signal the four teens leapt into motion.

"Zirconia, use your Semblance!" Regalia called out as she watched her team-mate leap over her frozen barricade in a single bound whilst the Racoon Faunus herself used the harpoon component of Apex Scavenger to pull herself closer to a section of the wall whose panelling had clearly been ripped away to allow Laser to work so that she could enact her plan, such as it was. Laser might have been raised in the Vaccuan Overspill but Regalia knew scrap and faulty machinery like no other and was certain that, given enough time she could prise open the blast doors keeping Team MARZ from rescuing the hostages and so, to that end she had put her faith in Zirconia's Semblance and abilities to create an opening for her to work.

She found that Zirconia had not been entirely successful as Ursinia barrelled into her, shoulder first and sent them both toppling to the ground.

"You want a rodeo, I can set with that" the larger and admittedly stronger of the two of the two Huntresses forced out, breath coming through short and frantic breaths as the pair wrestled on the floor, Regalia's frantic attempt to struggle free enough to either transform her weapon and use it throw Ursinia off or else simply aim the shotgun directly at her face being hampered and ultimately brought to an unceremonious halt by the Scorpion Faunus using her knees to pin regalia to the ground before pressing the blade of the adventurer horizontally along her neck, though even here it was plain to see that despite her assertions her heart was not truly in it and she had no intention of following through with the implied threat no matter how Regalia struggled.

"But I can't abide hurting a friend….I'm not a bad Huntress, I'm just bad at pretending to be the bad guy" she continued, a deeply apologetic look coming over her face as her tail arced up overhead and rattled in warning "So I'm not gonna fight with you….and I'm sorry"

With that she stung Regalia.

Aura flickered against Aura for a few moments, the war of attrition that had been taking place between the two of them reaching a fever pitch as the rippling glow of their souls' manifestations shone in the gloom; Regalia thrashing enough to bloody Ursinia's nose with the butt of her pistol and send her hat falling to the ground before the inevitable finally happened and the Racoon Faunus's Aura was overcome, her expression becoming one of fright and desperate panic as the tip of her friends' stinger pierced her skin only to swiftly morph into one of utter peace as her eyes closed and she drifted into unconsciousness.

"Darn it all she's gonna be mighty upset when she wakes up" Ursinia murmured to herself with a voice that was slurred by the recent blow to her face, dragging herself upright and wiping blood away from her nose she cast her eyes around in search of somewhere she could safely deposit the sedated Racoon Faunus for the remainder of the training exercise before she intervened in Laser's ongoing attempts to subdue Zirconia; Professor Altan be damned she would not leave Regalia's out cold on the floor where she could be caught in the crossfire or simply trodden on.

Her efforts came to a terrifying end as Ursinia found herself blind, freezing and entirely robbed of air a moment later.

It took her a few moments, seconds that she spent in a state of primal fear like nothing she had ever felt before to realise what had happened and be promptly enraged and deeply disturbed by it; Zirconia had used Sunriser Cain in its' pistol form and fired an Ice Dust shell directly at Ursinia's head, leaving it encased in ice. With no alternative and with suffocation and the loss of her senses both demanding immediate correction the farm girl, who was rapidly beginning to see that the life of a Hunter was more than the heroism and adventure she had hoped for drove her fist into the side of her own head, leaving herself even more dazed as she forcefully shattered the ice around her skull.

"Okay, she might've gone a little crazy; we might've got a little more than we bargained for" Laser's familiar nasal whining was enough to ground Ursinia and she quickly found her partner retreating back towards her whilst clutching his side in pain, Zirconia stood in front of them both as an icon of grim resolution and radiating silent fury.

"Hey now partner, Regalia's gonna be fine" Ursinia assured her, understanding exactly what the situation must look like "She's asleep, she's gonna have a headache and some sore joints when she wakes up….Let's make sure she doesn't get hurt."

"I can do that" Zirconia's quiet words wavered with a barely contained anger unlike anything the two members of Team WULF had heard from the often stoic and inscrutable Faunus before and it suddenly became apparent to them both, despite how aloof and detached she often seemed to outsiders, just how much the rest of Team MARZ had come to mean to her as Zirconia began to engage her Semblance, the veil of darkness dubbed 'Phantasmagoria'.

"Like Regalia told you….I'm not trapped in here with you, you're trapped in here with me"

"Partner" Ursinia turned to Laser "I hate to say it but I think we're about to be crow-bait" her words coincided with the formation of a dome of pure, unfathomable darkness and imposing of a deafening silence in the air that now had an unmistakable chill to it; glancing back at Zirconia both

Ursinia and Laser saw that her mismatched pink and orange irises had been subsumed by an equally impenetrable blackness.

They had the advantage of numbers but now it seemed somehow unimportant.

Far above the frantic brutality that their team-mates found themselves engaging in the leaders of Teams MARZ and WULF were locked in a battle that was, whilst undeniably less vicious and furious than those of their friends was still emotionally taxing for the simple fact that neither combatant had any real desire to be part of it; yet still they persisted.

Astra, for all their vaunted strategic abilities was without an answer for the problem of Wolfram Ironside and whilst the Deer Faunus was a highly capable combatant, trained personally by Yang Xiao Long who was widely considered to be one of the best hand to hand fighters that the Kingdom of Vale and its' territories, possibly all of Remnant had ever produced the fact remained that Wolfram was simply larger, stronger, faster and after being raised in a small village on Menagerie where Grimm attacks were an accepted part of life had a stamina and endurance borne of hardship that few city-born Hunters could hope to match.

Not that would stop Astra from trying, they were fighting to win and hopefully even impress.

"Who's afraid of the big bad Wolfram?" they joked as they sidestepped an elbow strike that would most likely have left their vision swimming if it had connected, managing to appear outwardly as unbothered and faintly amused as always and offer their opponent, who meant more to them than that current designation a winning smile before responding with a side kick that slipped perfectly under Wolfram's guard and would have smashed into his kidneys were it not for the armour encasing his torso and with their opponent staggering forward the Deer Faunus used the momentum of their attack to turn on their heel and switch legs, kicking out at Wolfram's ankles with their left which in turn allowed them to return to their favoured stance whilst the taller and more muscular of the team leaders hit the worn and battered surface of the airships' hull with a resounding clang.

"Everyone who's got sense" Wolfram growled out an answer to the question Astra had asked in jest, flipping onto his torso and facing the Deer Faunus in a single motion before springing upwards to tackle them, arms locking around a slender waist and lifting them off of the ground to drive the light brown-skinned teen back several paces before slamming them down back-first onto the waiting corroded steel.

"Do I seem sensible to you?" Astra continued to taunt as they drove a knee up between both of their bodies, swiftly using that position to rest a foot against Wolfram's broad, armoured chest and roll backwards until their antlers struck something solid, likely ruining their Mohawk in the process but with enough force to throw the larger teen overhead and far enough a way that the two of them had chance to right themselves and begin slowly circling one another in search of an angle of attack.

"You sure you don't wanna bring weapons into this?" Wolfram chuckled, the attempt at cocky nonchalance failing both because of the obvious discomfort he was in, rubbing at his sharp and raptorial nose to ensure that it hadn't been bloodied or disjointed whilst his breathing came in laboured gasps that left his shoulders heaving and also the simple fact that Astra was more accustomed to such attempts at bravado than they would like to admit and saw through the ruse with ease.

"After you decided to be such a gentleman about it?" Astra replied, affecting a hurt and appalled tone as they gestured towards where Berserk had been discarded and still lay and then charging once again before Wolfram could offer a reply. The two combatants met in the centre of the space that had been between them with a flurry of blows, an initial flurry of close quarters and intense fighting allowing Wolfram to land several punishing blows to Astra's chest and flanks before the Faunus unleashed a volley of kicks, a crescent kick thrown from their left, leading leg catching the taller teen in the chin before being followed up with a turning kick from the same leg which was narrowly avoided however Astra, instead of carrying their momentum into a spinning attack as they often did instead brought their heel into their opponents' cheek with a snapping bend of the knee and finally leapt into the air to drive their right heel square into Wolfram's chest with a powerful front kick.

Only for Wolfram to catch them.

One hand clamped around Astra's ankle and the other just below their knee and before they could land, break free or do anything to regain balance or control Wolfram simply pivoted at the waist, swinging their fellow team leader through the air and throwing them several dozen feet. Astra hit the hull of the ship hard and painfully, rolling to a stop and pulling themselves upright with a wince to find Wolfram already advancing on them again.

"Maybe getting a little too into this?" they noted, still trying to keep up a playful facade as they weaved and dodged a left jab, right hook and subsequent spinning left elbow only to be caught with a kick to the thigh that left the Deer Faunus limping.

"I know the longer this goes on the more likely it is that whatever you're planning is gonna work" Wolfram admitted, being forced to take a step back to avoid Astra's retaliatory high side-kick and the follow up punch in the gut that the kick was intended to disguise.

"I'll be honest" Astra chuckled, sea green eyes alight with mischief and framed by dark make up "I'm kinda just stalling for time here….I think Laser might have played me so now I'm just keeping this up until the rest of Team MARZ get here, we'll win on numbers.

Wolfram's expression darkened at that and Astra realised that they'd made a mistake a moment before the air was expelled from their lungs.

"So you're pulling your punches with me?" he demanded as his forearm collided with Astra's midsection, leaving the Deer Faunus bent double in mid-air before hurtling backwards and crashing into the hull gasping for air.

"For fuck sake Astra I don't wanna be doing this either!" he continued, voice rising to a furious bark "But if we're gonna do this then let's do it properly….I like you okay, I really like you and I don't wanna hurt you but I still respected you enough to take this seriously! Now either give me your best effort or quit, show me you can do this!"

That struck a chord.

"Okay" Astra's voice dropped to something low and dangerous, their mind beginning to race as much as their burning, aching muscles as they were reminded forcefully and uncomfortably of the countless times when they had been a short, plump child with limited friends and even less self-esteem, of the time before their older brother had entered their life and when the life of a Hunter had seemed as unreachable as the broken moon itself. Astra knew without a shadow of a doubt that Wolfram's frustrated comment was meant only to cajole more out of the Deer Faunus, to encourage them to be the best they could however he had gone about it entirely the wrong way and in doing so striking at the heat of Astra's many insecurities.

"Okay" they sneered as they braced themselves for another round of blows "You want my best you can have it….But I told you, don't think you're gonna win this" Sea green met steel grey and Wolfram's face morphed into a savage smile as he took in the sight of Astra, given over almost entirely to an incandescent fury that made them seem powerful and imposing in a way that their Mohawk, leather jacket and other such trinkets could only ape.

It was inspiring.

"This is exactly what I wanted" he laughed before the two charged at one another again.

Athena-Jade had found the bomb however fate, as it seemed increasingly willing to do had conspired against her by having the device clatter and skid through the mangled hallways of the ruined warship until it came to a halt almost precisely under the portion of warped steel deck that Diabla had been tearing her way through in order to head off the Bear Faunus's advance, the sound of tortured metal finally giving way followed by an almighty crash announcing her arrival a moment before she leapt down into the corridor directly ahead of Athena, fists and eyes both glowing like furious, hateful suns with waves of an almost palpable rage radiating out from her as the two of them faced off for a single moment, the bomb that promised an end to the training exercise through one outcome or another resting in the debris between them.

And then the battle had resumed with all of its' prior intensity.

The world span and became blurry for a moment as Athena was smashed through the wall that separated the corridor from one of the rooms along its' length, the only constant in her vision being the flickering of her own Aura before a follow up blow to the chin left her staring up at the blackened ceiling with the taste of blood in her mouth and the sinking feeling that at least one of her teeth had been knocked loose.

Yet still she was not beaten.

The Bear Faunus, determined and resilient despite her fear, pain and exhaustion raised herself up with one hand and the heel of one foot before throwing a kick from the floor that struck Diabla across the face and allowed her to rise in the same motion, following up with a spinning heel kick which landed on her opponents' midsection and finally following up by completing her spin and, with an unthinkable amount of effort manifesting a glyph between her open palms and hurling it forwards, its' flickering and shimmering surface expanding outwards to act as both a shield and battering ram to force back her aggressor.

Yet Diabla's determination was equal to the snowy haired girls' and her fury knew no bounds.

The glyph shattered under a pair of well placed blows, Peace and Quiet which were back in their heavily armoured gauntlet forms smashing against its' barely corporeal surface with an impact that sent tremors along her arms which would likely have been painful if Diabla were in any way capable of paying attention to anything beyond her own madness in that moment. Athena came rushing at her again and the berserk fighter was, through sheer willpower on the snowy girls' part forced to avoid the blows rather than simply power through them; a trio of spinning kicks and a sweep, each coming from a different height and angle owing to use of glyphs were narrowly avoided before the Bear Faunus let out a wordless scream of frustration as she unleashed an earth-shattering haymaker, only for Diabla to roughly grasp her right arm to turn her own momentum against by throwing Athena over her hip and shoulder, slamming her into the ground and delivering a punch to the Faunus's right bicep that left her arm hanging limp and useless.

From there the true beating began.

Diabla was beyond reason as she lifted Athena off of the ground and simply drove her face first through another wall with all of the destructive power that her Semblance could muster, entirely uncaring about the bomb and mission parameters as she smashed the rival she had made for herself through the interior of the ship before tackling her to the ground, mounting the sorter girl before she could react and beginning to rain blows down on her face.

Diabla barely even saw Athena, it was simple vindication with every crushing blow she unleashed and both the flickering, slowly failed Aura that her fists tore into and the blue eyed, snowy haired and round faced young woman beneath it were almost entirely of consequence until Athena managed to speak, a frantic and tearful plea cried out through blood-stained teeth.

"What did I do to you?"

Diabla froze, a knife in her heart, ice in her veins and bile rising in her throat as she looked down at her handiwork and once again failed to truly see her victim, rather than recognise the split eyebrow, eye that was swollen to the point of being forcibly closed, broken, small black and bear-like nose or the countless streams of blood spattered across alabaster skin that had been reduced to a purple mess and stained the edges of her snowy undercut hair; instead she saw the last person to utter such a question to her in a tone that was almost as broken and pitiful.

She saw Laser where Athena lay and her fury began to recede like a tide.

"I-I-" she croaked out, the light of her Semblance beginning to dim and the adrenaline that had coursed through her begin to fade away; leaving only a wretched, sickening feeling that reduced her breathing to shallow gasps as she realised just how severely she had lost control.

"What did I do?" Athena demanded again and looking down at her Diabla could see tears leaving tracks in the still moist blood spilling across her face "Huh? What can I possibly have done-"

"SHUT UP!" Diabla's fist collided with the ground beside Athena rather than with the battered girls' skull yet still the entire room trembled under the impact and Diabla noted, with a perverse sense of something akin to hope that her fists began to flare with the volcanic glow of her Semblance once again and promptly leapt back and dragged Athena to feet by the scruff of her neck, completely aware that the Bear Faunus would be unable to stand but planning to continue down the path she had started, wherever it may lead.

She had been unable to give the truth to Laser, but now she had nothing but her rage and her truth left to give and the words came spilling out for with the same eagerness as her scorn and violence.

"I wanted to be a Huntress for as long as I could remember, ever since I was a little girl but I had Mantle separatists for parents!"

"I don't-" Athena's slurred, burbled and barely coherent attempt to interrupt was silenced with a backhand.

"SHUT UP!" Diabla screamed, voice cracking and giving way to something hoarse and broken "There's no Hunter Academy in Mantle rich kid! No prep schools either, so I had to sign up to the Atlas cadets….You wanna know why I was a ward of the Atlas military Slate? 'cos my parents, my separatist parents put politics above family and told their twelve year old daughter that they weren't her family any more AND THAT I DON'T HAVE A HOME THERE!"

The words were punctuated with a punch in the gut that left Athena on the floor, blood flecking the ground with every pained wheeze she let out.

"I joined the cadets, I worked so fucking hard Slate! All I ever did was work, train and study; I spent years with the Atlas kids looking down on me because I was from the freehold but it didn't matter!" Diabla halted in her advance, feeling her shoulders begin to shudder with a sob that she couldn't hold back indefinitely no matter how hard she tried "It was gonna be worth it Slate! I was gonna be a Huntress at Atlas Academy, greatest Academy on Remnant….and then the results for the entrance exams came and your old man told me that they were taking twenty applicants, I was ranked twenty first out of everyone. I WASN'T GOOD ENOUGH!"

Diabla fell upon Athena again raining blows on any part of her she could reach.

"I GAVE EVERYTHING TO ATLAS! I GAVE UP MY FAMILY FOR ATLAS AND THEY DIDN'T WANT ME!" she halted and trembled uncontrollably, fighting the urge to sink to her knees, tears evaporating as they spilled from her eyes as the blazing light of her Semblance flickered and stuttered, giving intermittent glimpses of the pain, anguish and simple sense of loss in her wild eyes.

"BUT WHAT MAKES IT WORSE IS YOU!" Diabla forced herself to remain angry and hateful, at this point there was no sense in being anything else "YOU WHO WOULDN'T EVEN APPLY FOR ATLAS! YOU HAD EVERYTHING I EVER WANTED GIVEN TO YOU ON A SILVER PLATTER AND YOU TURNED YOUR NOSE UP AT IT ALL! WERE MY DREAMS NOT GOOD ENOUGH FOR YOU SLATE? I HAD TO SUFFER FOR EVERY SCRAP I'VE GOT AND IT'S A JOKE TO PEOPLE LIKE YOU! I FUCKING HATE YOU!"

The room trembled again under the force of the final cathartic kick to Athena's ribs and Diabla would have been certain that she heard bone crack even through the Atlesian military grade body armour that the Faunus wore, armour that served as further mockery by being a model far more modern and comfortable than the old cast-offs that Diabla wore; were it not for the fact that the sound was lost beneath an ominous creaking from above as the ceiling began to lurch and visibly dip.

"No" Diabla mouthed out, eyes and fists returning to normal as her rage left her an in instant to be replaced by a sinking sense of hopeless dread as the imminent consequences of her own actions became apparent to her. A moment later the ceiling collapsed, giving way under the damage that had been done to the supports beneath it and the weight of some now damaged and barely recognisable article of machinery which appeared to be at least twice Diabla's own size and orders of magnitude heavier than the student as it came crashing through the ceiling to come hurtling downwards her; leaving the girl who had been filled with fiery rage only seconds before unable to do anything more than try to cover her face with her hands in the impotent hope that the end would at least be quick.

The last thing Diabla saw before darkness overcame her was the flickering glow of the iconic Schnee glyphs appearing above her.

Zirconia was unsure of precisely how or when it had happened during her fight against Laser and Ursinia but her Semblance had began to undergo some form of evolution or transformation.

If there were time for a more sober reflection the Grasshopper Faunus might be able to understand the development as part of a natural progression of herself as a person, that it was only right that she who had been raised in relative isolation, no matter how well meaning her guardians' intentions were or how lofty his goals might be, would find that the manifestation of her very soul would morph and adapt to come to the aid of the first people her own age she had come to form a genuine connection with since the events that had taken her parents and her legs from her.

The physical sign of this new development came in the form of another change to her mismatched eyes, where before the use of Phantasmagoria had left her irises completely hidden by darkness the pale, almost tropical pink and orange rings now shone brightly from the abysses that they were set in and illuminated the impenetrable darkness and silence that she imposed around herself. More important still was the new abilities that this change conveyed, where before her Semblance had simply served to trap her opponents and deprive them of any and all sensory input from the outside world, a physical representation of isolation and singular focus, Zirconia could now exercise a degree of control over the landscape within the boundaries of her Semblance.

As Laser and Ursinia were learning, much to their chagrin.

"Varmint I hope you've got an ace in the hole you can pull out right about now?" the hulking Scorpion Faunus called out, nerves beginning to get the better of her.

"Nothing that I think is gonna make a difference" Laser answered with equal concern as his latest barrage of gunfire was rendered useless in much the same way as his last several attempts to halt the Grasshopper Faunus, something within the expanse of darkness whose limits were hard to clearly define due to a simple lack of features shifting to obscure Zirconia from view for a moment and act as a temporary shield; this time however Zirconia did more than simply defend and, whether it was due to her often hidden emotions finally boiling over or simply that she had attained more control over this evolution of her Semblance the mysterious and currently outright terrifying young woman thrust her hand forwards which caused the surface of the floor, a darkness so deep it could have been the void of space to move with the force and shape of a crashing wave and throw the two members of Team WULF to the ground.

"Darn it, I've never been busted off of solid ground before" Ursinia winced, making to pull herself up to her feet once more only to be struck by Zirconia's follow up attack.

"URSINIA!" Laser's scream seemed to both echo and fade in his new, strange surroundings as the darkness enveloped and swallowed his friend whole, leaving the wiry blonde with no trace of her to follow and no idea of what had happened. As the desperate exclamation left his lips reality seemed to warp and the cargo hold beyond the confines of Zirconia's Semblance became visible for the briefest fraction of a second as the Grasshopper Faunus found her resolve and focus wavering due to both fatigue and a pang of guilt and uncertainty towards her own actions.

Laser paid no mind to this and rose to his feet.

"Give her back" his voice took on a note that was pure steel and poison as he held his hands out to his sides, fingers splayed wide and for the first time since leaving Vaccuo the formerly malnourished and destitute young man prepared to break a promise he had made to himself by using his own Semblance. The first sign of change was in the form of flickering specks of light, the same poisonous greenish-yellow colour as Laser's own Aura sparking into existence around his hands and then guttering away as they were drawn inexorably towards his palms in a continual cycle of creation and reabsorption.

And then the entire warship trembled with a force that breached even Zirconia's Semblance-formed barrier.

Neither party knew what the source of the crash might be, with both of them only able to assume that it was related in some way to a battle between their team-mates going on within another part of the vessel and as that realisation came Zirconia released her Semblance, the darkness of Phantasmagoria faded away to be replaced by the far less profound gloom of the cargo hold where Regalia could still be seen unconscious on the ground as her body and slowly recovering Aura fought the effects of Ursinia's poison whilst the Scorpion Faunus herself rose to her feet on shaky, trembling legs with a thoroughly disconcerted look on her face upon being released from whatever ephemeral hold the Grasshopper Faunus had placed her in. Laser took a few moments to react, staring down at his own, still glowing hands for a moment with sheer revulsion etched into every line of his face before releasing his Semblance before he could do something regrettable and swiftly removing the visor from his face to reveal that his eyes were wide; he and Zirconia locked eyes before speaking in perfect unison.

"I forfeit"

"Varmint what're ya doin'?" Ursinia demanded, voice breathy and wavering despite the conviction she tried to force into her words.

"We're supposed to be the bad guys fine!" Laser spat "I know plenty of bad people, they all know when to cut their losses and when a job isn't worth it. This isn't worth it-"

"Agreed" Zirconia's rasping murmur cut in "Things have gotten too far out of hand now….I think we've all let the training scenario get the better of us"

"Well in that case" Ursinia drawled out, gingerly touching her bruised and bloodied face "Laser, open up the door so Zirconia can get the hostages; it's only right after she gave us Jesse like that. I'll carry Regalia to the extraction point"

"Thank you" Zirconia murmured quietly, stepping close to Laser and offering out a hand "You did well and I want to be sure that there are no hard feelings"

"There aren't" Laser muttered absently, turning away without taking Zirconia's hand in a gesture that the Grasshopper Faunus chose not to read too much into. Her own thoughts were too busy as it was, racing and buzzing with rapidly colliding thoughts about what had happened, the development of her Semblance and what it might mean and more importantly who she could talk to about it and so she failed to notice the way that Laser, whose own Semblance had gone unused and who truthfully Zirconia had little direct interaction with due to a lack of common ground stared at his own hands and rubbed them against his pants as though dirty.

Though even if she had noticed such a thing she would likely have respected his privacy too much to ask him directly what was troubling him.

As far as Athena-Jade Slate could tell neither of her arms or legs were broken and that was, relatively speaking a massively positive discovery.

The positive developments ended there however as her eyes, or at least her right as she was currently unable to open her left once again adjusted to the darkness and she tried to make sense of her surroundings despite the sickening nausea and constant waves of searing agony that racked her entire body and made each breath a torturous endeavour, each pained and sputtering wheeze causing her cracked and broken ribs to pulse and throb whilst blood and chipped fragments of teeth which she as a Faunus would thankfully be able to regrow exited her mouth.

Eventually she realised that she had fallen.

Diabla had inadvertently caused part of the long abandoned warship to collapse under its' own weight, that much Athena remembered clearly as the memories began to return back to thoroughly jarred and rattled mind; the enraged Mantle-born girl had screamed and raged to vent her anger at a world that had undeniably cheated and wronged her until finally the ceiling had given way and heavy equipment had come falling from above despite the battered Bear Faunus's best attempts to prevent it and as the collapse had buckled the floor, causing Athena to fall along with Diabla as the metal surface beneath her buckled and sent them both further into the gloomy depths of the ship.

Which begged the question of where Diabla was now.

"Diabla?" Athena forced a yell out, almost retching at the pain it caused her as she forced herself into a sitting position and managed to finally take stock of her surroundings, almost vomiting again out of simple, base horror as she realised what had happened to her and therefore also to her fellow student. When the entire room had crumbled and collapsed Athena had been one of the last things to fall into the resulting chasm and as such she found herself sprawled atop a small mounted of twisted steel, broken floor, ceiling, machinery and other miscellaneous debris with a jagged and twisted spear that had once been part of support strut erupting from the pile perilously close to her face. Diabla's fate was obvious then, despite Athena's best efforts to keep her safe beneath the protection of her flickering and faltering glyphs the falling machinery had struck Diabla and continued on its' downward path, meaning that the Mantle girl was now almost certainly buried beneath the same mountain of wreckage that Athena-Jade had lain upon.

"No!" the bloodstained and pulverised Faunus gasped out, cold dread seeping into her cracked bones even as she flung herself into sudden and decisive motion; headstrong nature demanding actions that her trembling limbs seemed unwilling to give and leaving her slipping and stumbling as she attempted to make her way down the hill of debris until eventually she found herself simply sliding almost vertically down its' surface and in doing so finding that she miraculously had some lingering dregs of Aura remaining as it rippled weakly against rough and sharp edges that brushed her pale skin. Once on the ground, which she tested with a few heavy stamps which were delivered with bated breath to ensure that it would not collapse beneath her again Athena-Jade unslung Mould Breaker and shifted the weapon into its' laser cannon form without hesitation, hoping only that it would be more useful to her here than in had been in the preceding fight.

It was time to throw caution to wind after all.

Bracing herself against the discharge of the weapon, yet still wincing at the way the low and warping bass note of its' report reverberated in her injured chest Athena fired and watched with both the faintest shred of relief and at the same time focused determination as the pale jade light cleaved a hole through the wreckage that had trapped her classmate without causing anything to either ignite or explode and from there, dredging up every ounce of strength and willpower that she had left Athena began creating glyphs by the dozen and began to dig. It was arduous and fresh blood trickled from her nose only to be lost amidst the brownish red that had already dried and caked itself to her whilst blood vessels burst in her eyes under the strain as she hoisted vast mounds of steel and iron into the air and moved it aside with as much precision and gentle control as she could manage, sacrificing even the stability of her own body in the process and sinking first to her knees and the finally collapsing face down into the ground with a wordless cry of futile defiance of her own limits.

Yet she persisted and she succeeded.

Eventually enough of the wreckage had been cast aside that, by the time her spent Aura finally shattered into countless glowing embers around her Athena could drag herself forwards, across what remained on her hands and knees to a single broad slab of mercifully thin metal, likely a layer of outer cowling that she forced aside to reveal her fellow student beneath it.

Diabla was a broken mess.

The armour encasing her chest had been crushed, misshapen to the point of being concave in some places whilst her armoured gauntlets were in similar states of disrepair though, in a turn of events that Athena would consider one of very few positives regarding the ordeal, the fuel tank for Peace's flamethrower seemed not to have ruptured. Her clothes were stained with blood that had soaked through them from within and what could be seen of her light brown skin was riddled with injuries, the most worrying of which Athena-Jade could see at that moment was a deep gash running almost parallel to the dyed orange streak in her close cropped hair.

And somehow, despite it all; with the same endless reserve of grit that she used to plough through every obstacle in her path Diabla Fuego had the audacity to still be conscious.

"A-Athena?" the single word, choked out in a weak and feeble gasp that left worryingly dark blood bubbling at the corners of her mouth left the Bear Faunus who still tried with limited success to stand numb with fear and shock, not only because of how almost unheard of it was for Diabla to use her chosen rival's first name.

"You're gonna be okay, you're gonna be fine" the Faunus stammered the words out hurriedly, forcing herself to believe them as she cleared away the rest of the wreckage from around her fellow student; meanwhile Diabla who evidently could not move at all and had neither strength or Aura to give let out a whimpering, choking sob that tore at Athena's heart no matter what had transpired between them and in a final act of desperation the Mantle-born girl began to do something that had never delivered the intended or hoped for results before in her life.

She asked for help.

"Please….I don't wanna die here, Athena please help me, I'll do any-"

"You don't have to bargain with me for me to help you" Athena interrupted, openly revolted by the idea as she crouched down and, as gently as she could manage given the circumstances slipped a large hand and powerful arm beneath both Diabla's head and lower back, bracing herself for when she eventually had enough strength to stand and carry the severely injured girl before her in a move that was risky considering the extent of the possible injuries to her spine yet was still undeniably necessary.

"I can't use my glyphs as a stretcher" Athena admitted, continuing on before Diabla could give into panic or hysteria "But I'm getting you out of here. I'm gonna have to carry you"

And with a supreme force of will she rose to her feet, clutching Diabla to her chest and began to do just that.

Far above, on the hull of the top of the airship the calamities below had gone unheard and instead Astra and Wolfram had continued to fight with genuine effort and intent even if what passed between them was anything but ill-will. Currently the leader of Team MARZ was putting on a masterclass of martial arts that was impressive to watch but ultimately unsuccessful.

If one were foolish enough to believe that Astra Mars did not have a plan.

"Yeah this is what I wanted to see!" Wolfram's energetic exclamation was filled with a rare, giddy excitement that seemed comically out of place, not just for the reputably belligerent young man in general but especially so given that he was in the process of avoiding a series of lightning fast and immensely powerful spinning kicks which culminated in a spinning crescent kick arcing high and striking the human teens' left cheek, an area of his face that was already thoroughly bruised and swollen after the punishment it had received, only to be immediately followed by a leaping and pushing front kick that saw Astra's heel once again smash into the larger teens' armoured and burly chest to force him back several paces, a distance which the Deer Faunus closed with the motion of the spinning heel kick from their kick that followed and struck the same spot and forcibly kicked not only Wolfram's legs but his entire lower body out from under him and left him face down on the hull of the ruined warship, laying in prime position to be struck by the axe kick Astra was currently sending towards the back of his head.

"You tried" Wolfram laughed as he rolled onto his back to narrowly avoid the attack and tried to seize his opponents' leg in order to wrestle him to the ground but was forced to change his strategy when Astra responded by throwing themselves into a somersault to leap over their fellow team leader. Instead Wolfram kicked out savagely to create space before hastily throwing himself to his feet and simply charging forwards, the spiked armour of his shoulder causing Astra's Aura to ripple as they connected before Wolfram lashed out with a double-handed palm strike that sent the slender but powerful Deer Faunus skidding backwards gasping for air.

And still Astra fought to keep a smile from their face and keep Wolfram from realising that he was playing into their hands.

"That all you got?" the Deer Faunus winced at the sneering tone in their own words, they wanted to be convincing but this training mission was still ultimately less important to them than their developing feelings for their fellow leader. The plan Astra had concocted was beautiful in its' simplicity, the Atlesian heavy cruiser was, as each of the students now fighting for it had noted massive and the extraction point that Wolfram had been covering amounted to only a small segment of its' vast and battered outer surface which meant that in order to achieve victory by clearing the extraction point so that the rest of Team MARZ could escape with the rescued hostages all Astra had to do was move Wolfram far enough away that he could not be considered a threat.

A reasonably easy task now that he was without his weapon, though since the Semblance he was currently refraining from using could cause problems Astra still intended to throw him down onto the remains of one the warships rotating fin-like wings; just to be sure.

"Think you can handle what I've got?" Wolfram chuckled, shifting his weight for another charge.

"Well you did promise another try at a date…." Astra trailed off, making a show of glancing at the black polish adorning their nails to ensure that it hadn't been chipped or otherwise ruined; all whilst privately cursing themselves and whatever had compelled them to think that line was an acceptable attempt at flirting.

"Be bad-ass now, be cute later" Wolfram flashed a devilish grin and a wink of one stormy grey eye that turned the tables and left Astra just flustered enough that they missed the first few steps of their opponents' charge however the Faunus quickly recovered and deliberately moved back into space as though they were retreating and braced themselves.

Mere steps away from the edge of the sloping and heavily damaged port side of the vessels' hull.

The first blow Wolfram threw out was a punishing straight left jab, quickly followed by a right cross that Astra weaved beneath both with ease and sidestepped whilst at the same time slamming an elbow into their opponents' armoured flank; from their the Deer Faunus continued to outflank the larger and bulkier fighter until they stood behind him and delivered a blindly fast roundhouse kick to his right flank followed in an instant by a side kick that landed between the shoulder-blades that sent Wolfram staggering forwards, to the very precipice of the hull from which he could see how far down he would have to fall.

Though not quite over it.

"Oh you sneaky mother-fucker" he couldn't help but laugh as he wheeled around to deliver a backhand that struck nothing but air; bringing him face to face with Astra who stood just out of reach, popping their collar and wearing a smirk that made it clear that they believed their victory was already assured.

"I'll make it up to you later" Astra grinned, unable to keep the flirtatious tone out of their words as they turned Wolfram's earlier comments back on him even if they wanted to, which in that moment the teen was not sure they did. Not one to accept defeat under any circumstances Wolfram let out a low, rumbling growl and simply barrelled forwards with all of their strength in an attempt to push Astra back exit his precarious position.

The two of them met and despite Astra's far greater than average physical strength it became clear that of the two of them Wolfram was simply far stronger as the two of them began to grapple, fighting for purchase and leverage until they found themselves at an impasse, hands grasping at one another and with Astra's legs slowly beginning to give out beneath them as Wolfram bore down.

They needed to do something fast, something that would change the terms of the battle to something more favourable to the Faunus, something that would catch Wolfram off guard.

Astra acted without thinking.

"Hey" they smiled before forcing themselves upwards and forward, just close enough that despite the uncomfortable angle their arms were bent at they rested face to face with Wolfram, their faces mere inches apart.

And then they kissed him.

"What?" Wolfram's head cocked in utter befuddlement at the gesture, brief and fleeting as it was however that momentary confusion caused his grip to slacken by the slightest amount for a single moment and in that time Astra broke free and flung their opponent off balance, taking advantage by kicking him square in the chest and watching with a sense of relief and satisfaction that quickly changed to concern as Wolfram tumbled out of view, a series of heavy thuds echoing upwards.

"Sorry!" Astra called out playfully as they leaned over the edge of the ship to find that Wolfram had indeed landed on one of the remaining mobile wings that had survived being torn away along with the nacelles and, though its' supporting structures had creaked worryingly at the impact the armoured teen seemed to be unharmed and was currently pulling himself into a sitting position.

"And Team MARZ win again" Astra chuckled to themselves, sidling casually away from the edge of the hull back towards the designated extraction point and also towards Berserker, Wolfram's discarded weapon that the Deer Faunus planned to recover for them as an unspoken apology. For a few moments, that the Deer Faunus would later be thankful for things were peaceful and they were content in a way that seemed out of place in the wastelands; they had overcome their obstacles, led their team to victory, hopefully managed to impress the perpetually stern Professor Altan and even managed to appear at least somewhat cool to Wolfram.

And then the panicked yells reached their sensitive ears.

The remaining members of Team MARZ and Team WULF had crossed each others' paths in their attempts to exit the ruined hulk after their own inarguably cataclysmic bouts and as they clambered out of the access hatch that Wolfram had previously reduced to a scar of severed and twisted metal the sight of their friends in such a ruined condition was enough to knock the air from Astra and rob any and all levity from the moment; leaving the Deer Faunus struggling not sink to their knees in dramatic anguish as they saw Ursinia Red, whose nose was broken and swollen and who had lingering traces of frost littering her hair carrying an unconscious Regalia Russet whose body was soaked with cold sweat over one shoulder. Behind the hulking Faunus were Laser Greenback and Athena-Jade Slate, the Bear Faunus soaked in what seemed to be her own blood and beaten to a point that it seemed ludicrous that she could even stand, let alone held carry the sheet of metal that she and Laser were using as a makeshift stretcher for what Astra realised was the heavily injured form of Diabla Fuego and finally, at the rear of the group was Zirconia Shadowmoon who now limped heavily on a damaged prosthetic yet still kept a watchful eye over her partner, even as she hobbled onwards and used one of the drone-carried markers that represented hostages to support her own weight.

"We need a medical evac, right now" Athena managed to wheeze out in a voice that perfectly matched her physical condition.

"What happened?" Astra demanded, mortified that they had been enjoying what ultimately amounted to little more than a sparring match with their crush whilst their friends had subjected one another to utter carnage.

"We completed the mission assigned to us" Zirconia rasped out "At great cost to ourselves….Now we need to get to Professor Altan and get an evac" upon hearing this Astra turned and fled, hurtling towards where the Professor in question and the rest of the first year students were stationed so that they could get help.

Victory would not be worth the cost if any of their friends succumbed to their injuries in the process.

Author's Notes:

So, that's the head to head training exercise wrapped up.
Next weeks' chapter is going to be a mid-season wrap up, then I think I'm gonna take a week off of posting; that will also actually mark the midway point of the entire first year arc, give or take.
We got a couple moments that I've really been looking forward to writing in this chapter, I hope you enjoyed them as much as I did….We've got plenty more in store, trust me.

But anyway, let's summarise shall we?:
Huh, I realised as I was writing it that with the colours of the light trails this could almost look like an Ozpin Vs Cinder rematch, which is absolutely the level of seriousness that Diabla was treating it with.
We really don't see enough of Diabla's weapons, all of Team WULF are secondary characters but I feel like Diabla has been short-changed.
It's over Diabla, she has the high ground.
Oh you know that the breakdown is coming when the berserk one's voice starts cracking.
AJ's capoeira was on point this chapter.
Look Athena is no Astra when it comes to making a plan on the fly, but her idea was workable at the very least.
We're slowly seeing more and more of what's under Zirconia's metaphorical mask and as fun as the dork who plays violin, watches anime and is kind of oblivious about certain things is, there's definitely more there and part of it is a sense of duty.
Ursinia is just that one Marge Simpson meme.
Regalia and Ursinia being the ones to worry about this ruining friendships just felt right.
Regalia's plan was based on the assumption that Laser had been telling the truth, even though what her Semblance was actually pointing to was the Scroll that could open the blast door being tucked in his pocket.
Ursinia's take down of Regalia was effective, Zirconia's response was just nasty….and then she ot her Semblance involved.
I love that Astra vs Wolfram had a completely different tone.
The banter was fun and Astra's karate was on top form today.
The descriptions of the two fighters in this scene was low-key meant to be a reflection of the way they were checking each other out as they were fighting.
Don't make Astra feel small, weak or insignificant unless you want one hell of a fight.
Of course we got straight back into a Diabla Vs Athena beat-down.
That kick to the head from the floor is an actual capoeira move and it's great when someone pulls it off.
Oof, firstly….Have all the feels; 'cos AJ literally crying "What did I do to you" followed by the comparison to Laser was genuinely painful for me.
And then we get into Diabla's backstory, finally….And I feel like the real tragedy of her is that it's so mundane; she's not a Cinder Fall or even any of the Downward Spiral version of the White Fang raised in Sienna's orphanage, she's someone who had nobody and fell through the cracks, she's someone who tried and tried and told it was never enough until she finally snapped.
Let's be clear though, her anger at Athena is completely undue and in fairness she doesn't even really have a right to be angry at Gangrel for rejecting her application; a place at Atlas was never promised to her.
And now she's quite literally being crushed by the weight of the Atlas military and it's Athena-Jade trying to save her.
Zirconia gets a Semblance upgrade before Astra even unlocks their Semblance….very mysterious.
The explanation I gave is one that I feel makes sense, it also fits in with the fact that her Semblance basically works like the Domains from Jujutsu Kaisen, specifically the 'Chimera Shadow-Garden'….Even if most of Zirconia was based more on Kamen Rider.
Also a fun fact that's gonna come up next chapter….Ursinia didn't actually go anywhere, she was just hidden from view.
And just when you thought we were done with the reveals, I tease Laser's Semblance….haven't teased that for a while.
That crash was obviously the sound of Diabla getting buried under a ton of machinery.
Well well, Regalia's Semblance was right and Laser was the key to a win, they just had to make him forfeit.
So Team MARZ got the hostages, stopped Diabla from even planting the bomb and got to the extraction point with Team WULF following them….if that last part counts as capturing them then they actually won the training exercise to a degree that even Arslan hadn't anticipated.
Yeah luckily Faunus can regrow teeth here or that would be some expensive dental.
Once again, Diabla is no Cinder; she isn't the villain, this was a playground grudge that got way too out of hand and she does not deserve the level of punishment she got here, even if she did quite literally bring it on herself and Athena-Jade Slate would never even consider sitting by and doing nothing when she realised what had happened, no matter how much shit Diabla has given her.
Peace and Quiet can be fixed and Diabla will recover, I'm not writing her out of the story.
If the backstory didn't give you an understanding of how rough Diabla's life has been then hopefully the fact that her first instinct was to bargain for her life will, she has to be self sufficient because she doesn't think anyone would ever care enough to help her.
Wolfram wants to be Astra's hype-man so bad, he just doesn't quite get how to be supportive.
Oh god the flirting was terrible.
Astra's plan was so simple and brilliant that Wolfram had to appreciate it.
Ha! they kissed….But does it count? Find out next chapter.
Oh you thought this chapter was ending on a positive note after everyone else got the stuffing knocked out of them and some fresh trauma? What are you a sadist?
"We completed the mission assigned to us at great cost to ourselves"...All I'm gonna say is, think about every time Zirconia has talked about an important purpose or saving people and then see how many times she's actually directly said that her goal is to be a Hunter; food for thought.
But don't worry, that's not a cliffhanger ending everyone is gonna be alive next chapter, Astra just got a bit shaken up by the tone shift in their day.

Thank you to SumoSnipe for their review on the last chapter.
I could have gone with the "There's something on the ship" and taken it to Alien Isolation levels but I wanted this to be specifically team against team.
If bomb goes boom there's still a chance that Team WULF win….Besides, it's about time we had a proper one on one showdown with them, their sparring match was a two on two remember, they've never properly fought each other.
Laser's visor is held on with the same thing that magically sticks weapons to characters' backs.
See Ursinia would have the advantage in that scenario, her tail is all chitin but Regalia has fur that can be ripped out in clumps.

As always thank you to everyone that reads this, with a special thanks to those of you that follow, favourite and review.