Felipe1402XZA: eeeh, never think about P5 vibes un RQBY Ice Quendoom, but now you mentioned I can see that, I hope you get the P5R is good
Re: I do have Persona 5: Royal… but I got side-tracked on games and anime and fanfic, and right now I'm really into Hades and Spy x Family…
TM11: What's the difference between Dust Metabolization and Dust Fusion. Also, isn't one of those Magecraft as per your earlier descriptions?
Re: "Fusion" is when you stab the shards into your body and absorb them externally; like Hazel. "Metabolization", inspired by the Mistborn series, is where you ingest the Dust and burn it like coal in a furnace; the alcohol solution helps it go down easier. and also keeps it largely non-reactive once it hits the stomach acid; because if something as innocuous as a sneeze can set it off...
"Thaumaturgy" is what Dust Manipulation/Nature's Wrath is called when you use Dust on-hand as a catalyst. When you pull in Dust from the surrounding air known as Seithr), it's called "Magecraft" because back then no-one could tell that it wasn't such.
Or at least that's my Head Canon for it in the wake of the World of Remnant: Dust episode. Crystallized magic had a lot of potential, but it fell to the wayside because barely anyone made use of it. And I think that's a cryin' shame, since at the very least Weiss of all people could've used Dust woven into Fabric. Would've made an excellent contemporary to Cinder's usage; but I digress.
*NEW WORLD*
"Well… That certainly took a lot out of you," Yang hummed during lunch after Lilith's class.
Not everyone's showing of Dust Manipulation had been as-fantastical as Jack's own, but it was telling that those who had come to him for advice in the week prior had performed better than expected. Even Team CRDL had been able to blow DIRT out of the water, and save for Terrence who swung his chainsaw's chain about like a whip while also lighting it on fire, Jack's previous team made an abysmal showing of it. Weiss' success in the exercise was-of-course to be expected, and she'd conjured up a Beowolf made of ice, but Ruby turning herself into a swirling fireball of death… That was a shock, albeit, having to be hit with the fire extinguisher did deduct some style points from the whole thing.
"Still, what kind of war cry is-"
"OWLBEARRRRRR!" Cardin howled from Nora's Scroll as he brought his giant mace down into the ground, a tidal wave of earth spikes shooting across the ground like a Super Move from a fantasy game.
"Hey, Owlbears are hyper-aggressive animals that'll fight to the death no matter what they're hunting. If his dad really did go up against an Owlbear and live, that'd make for a hell of a battle cry."
" . . . You're fucking with her, aren't you?" Pyrrha asked.
"Oh, Pyrrha, how I wish I was," he said before he grabbed her hand and pressed it to the back of his head. "Feel that scar right there? That was from an Owlbear that managed to wrap its beak around my head. Almost tore the thing clean off."
" . . . That's the joke… riiiiight…?" Pyrrha asked hopefully after pulling her hand away.
" . . . "
"Riiiiight…?"
" . . . "
"Ri-"
"So what do Owlbears taste like?"
"That's your takeaway?" Ren hummed Nora's way.
"Mmmm… Like a mix between chicken and shoe leather."
" . . . So is it like an owl's head on the body of a bear, or the head of a bear on the body of a-"
"Nora!"
"The head of an owl on the body of a bear, but with lots of feathery plumage," Jack shrugged. "They can soak up a ton of ammo, but they're also kinda stupid that way, so if it ever comes down to fighting one…"
" . . . Well?" Jaune blinked, wondering when the sage advice was gonna come in.
"…just make sure to be faster than your least-favorite teammate."
"And there's the dark humor…" Jaune said throwing up his hands. " . . . What's with them?" he asked noticing the people around them pointing down the aisle and whispering behind raised hands.
"Who's the performing arts reject?" Nora asked as a pretty-boy in blue and his all-female entourage strode toward their table, Weiss in particular. He was definitely handsome, a year or two older than them, but he absolutely reeked of trouble.
"Weiss Schnee, I've heard a great many things about you~" the handsome bluenette greeted with a winning smile. "I'm Aiden. Azure Aiden."
"I'm sure you have. It's a pleasure to meet you," Weiss replied as she rose politely from her seat, familiar with such flattery from previous would-be suitors in Atlas. The only thing he was doing better than them was not ogling her like a total creep; but then again, you can just-as-easily ogle someone from a distance prior to any formal meeting to mitigate the need to do so up-close.
"I witnessed you on the training field this morning and I have to say, the stories of your prodigal abilities don't do you justice," he continued. "Of course, I'm sure you'd be more-comfortable exchanging accolades away from your present… company," he said eyeing those around her like something you'd scrape from the bottom of a shoe. "Come along, then. I know a nice quiet spot that'll be just… perfect for the two of us," he said taking hold of her wrist and beginning to drag her off.
"H-Hey!" Weiss yelped, shocked by the older student's strength. "L-Let go of-"
"No need to spare their feelings, my lovely Snow Angel. They were bound to realize you're cut from a finer cloth than they. You moving on to socialize with true peers shouldn't be a surprise for them," Aiden prattled on, the Indian beauty and petite dancer of his entourage forming ranks behind her and cutting off her escape.
"Oi," Jack said bulling past the two and grabbing the bluenette by the wrist. "The lady said to let her go."
"She was just being needlessly polite."
"Be that as it may," Jack said tightening his grip, the Amazonian woman over Azure's shoulder bristling. "Let. Go."
"I'd heard rumors of you as well, Jack Braxton," the prettyboy said, spitting the Faunus' name like something foul. "Over-inflated value of self-worth and all."
"Says the basic bitch in a blue coat," Jack shrugged off. The three women in Azure's company started to go for their weapons, but Blake, Yang, Ren, and Nora doing the same kept the three of them in check.
"Ah, I see what's going on. You think yourself her 'knight in shining armor'," Azure tutted as he released Weiss' wrist, Jack doing the same as he began pulling at his fingertips. "By all means then, indulge your bravado," he said pulling one of his white gloves free before flinging it at Jack's feet. "I'll dissuade you of the notion, as is my societal obligation as your better."
"You sure like to run your mouth," Jack hummed, Weiss' eyes going wide as Jack took it up, before to her confusion, holding it off behind his back. "Your terms?"
"A duel of honor, obviously," Azure said with a flourish. As he put on a show for those in attendance, he was unnoticing of Ruby creeping under the nearby table before slinking up to Jack's back with a butter tray. "Of course, I'm sure what you and I define as 'honor', is radically different."
"Very well then, I accept your challenge," Jack replied in a haughty tone, striking Azure across the face with the thrown gauntlet, a wet *smack* sounding through the air.
"Did…! Did you just strike me with butter?!" Azure cried incredulously as he whirled on his feet.
"No, I struck you with a white glove. Try to keep up~" Jack smirked as he once-more held the glove behind his back, Ruby accepting a slightly-dented stick of butter before Jack flicked the glove through the air, smearing Azure's pristine blue robes.
" . . . You'll rue the day you stood in my way, Faunus! After classes. Four. The arena. Be there," he said whirling on his heels with a huff and storming away.
" . . . Did that really just happen?" Jaune asked incredulously as Ruby crawled back to her original seat as-inconspicuously as she was able, placing the butter tray back where it had been gotten from.
"Like something from a medieval soap opera…" Pyrrha hummed.
"Jack, while that wasn't entirely necessary… thank you," Weiss smiled warmly.
"You're welcome."
"Jack, are you out of your fucking mind?!"
"Coco?" Yang blinked as the fashionable second-year approached them.
"Us. You. Outside. Now."
*NEW WORLD*
"Coco, something wrong?" Yang asked as CFVY led them outside, the muttering of the dining hall at their backs.
"Jack, don't you know who you just threw hands with?!"
"You're about to tell me, so, does it matter?"
"That's Azure, fucking, Aiden. He's the third-year's HIT 'Ace' for god's sake!"
"I've fought, and killed, Beacon graduates before. Two more years of fancy schooling won't make too much of a difference to me."
"Jack…" Coco said rubbing the bridge of her nose as she, and everyone else, processed that little nugget of information. "This isn't another of your washed-up dropouts trying to make his own little fiefdom in some random corner of the wilderness. Azure practically is the fiefdom!"
"You said he's a third-year," Blake said coming into the conversation. "What'd he want with Weiss, besides the obvious?"
"Pretty much just that," Coco admitted, "though who knows how much damage he could cause with the SDC under his banner."
"Ffft. Please. Azure's just another spoiled rich-boy. I've brushed off dozens like him back in Atlas," Weiss scoffed dismissively.
"You say that now, and you wouldn't be the first of his would-be conquests to think the same thing, but that guy has a way of sinking his claws into you."
"Speaking from personal experience?" Nora groused tactlessly.
"Actually, last year…" Velvet spoke up, "he almost sank his claws into me… but when Coco tried to chase him off-"
"S-Shut up!" Coco snapped growing red in the face. "Point is, unlike his fanclub and that bimbo squad of his, I was able to pull away from his magnetic penis once I realized I was just another warm body to him."
"How many warm bodies has he had?" Blake asked academically.
"He's basically a Japanese light novel protagonist at this point," Velvet hummed awkwardly.
"Oh, so he's the ladies' man Jaune thinks he is."
"Nora!"
"And Beacon lets this attitude fly, because…?" Pyrrha inquired.
"Because he's good for business," Yatsuhashi spoke up. "By the start of his second year, Azure and his team already had a list of dedicated clients a mile long. Power-wise, he was like the 'Jack Braxton' of his year, without the social 'downside' of being from a marginalized race."
"So an 'enemy of all women', basically," Yang hummed. "Eh, I'm sure Jack can take him."
"I'm warning you, Azure Aiden is no joke. He's already strong-enough to become a fully-fledged Hunter. He was arguably strong-enough to do so last year. He has one of the most-powerful fire Semblances I've ever seen, doubly-so with high-quality Dust at his disposal, which he has plenty of thanks to all of his direct channels to well-connected distributors. If you go against him half-assed, you will lose."
"Contrary to popular belief, I only half-ass things when nothing I care about is at stake. When something I do care about is at stake... Imagine that a giant hand has turned my dial from 'Half-Ass' to 'Quadruple-Ass'."
"Wow. That is a lot of ass," Nora hummed.
"Yeah, basically eight times the ass," Jack continued. "Anyway, that piece of shit tried to drag off Weiss to a dark corner to do horrendously unspeakable things to her that would have Jaune blush with envy."
"Hey!"
"So if you think I'm going to let that gigolo treat my teammate, my friend, like some sort of prize to be won…"
" . . . Do you at least have a plan?" Coco asked, seeing that he wasn't going to bend on this.
"I'm sure I'll pull something out of my ass," Jack waved off. "Come on. We've still got two more classes to get through."
*NEW WORLD*
Roland's class to follow was a review of what they'd covered the past week after discussing their homework and then a series of thought experiments, while Brick's was more-of-the-same only with volunteers shooting rubberized shotgun slugs at them on the random. In all that time, the rumor mill had spun wildly out of control after Jack Braxton had been called out by the big dog of Beacon's Hunter course third years.
As had happened in the past, the fight was set to be another spectacle. However, unlike previous times with Jack's involvement, this time it was his opponent who was filling the arena's seats, and no-one was shy to point out what they thought of the eventual outcome.
"Okay, with the way these rumors are starting to spiral out of control, I'mmmmmm starting to get kinda worried…" Ruby said nervously as a 'versus' poster fluttered across the ground, hot off the press.
"Jack, is this really something you have to do?" Jaune asked worriedly as they entered their dorm.
"Careful, Jaune. You're going green-eyed," the Faunus replied causing the blond to suck in a breath.
"Jack, I've been doing my research, and Azure's fire Semblance is no joke," Blake said holding up her Scroll, showing bystander footage of him incinerating armored Grimm in a single blast. "Unless you have a hard counter for that, you might get really hurt out there."
"I could always blitz him. Lean into the typecasting."
"That isn't a plan. That's barely even a strategy," Weiss chastised. "Didn't you promise us you'd be more mindful with yourself?"
"Yes, well… Like the tusk-man in orange spandex from one of my shroom trips once said, 'What's mine is mine and mind and mine. And mine and mine! Not yours!'" Jack recited, circling his finger overhead like a lecturer.
" . . . It must be so much fun living in your head~" Nora chirruped happily.
Cresting the fourth floor, upon returning to their dormitory, the two teams were greeted with a newly-familiar sight.
"Codsworth? Chachamaru? What're you doing out here?" Weiss inquired.
"I am here to keep the young lady company~"
"And I am here to inform master that his father stopped by and had dropped something off."
"Jack's dad was here...?" Ruby blinked.
"Chachamaru, you know I don't consider that guy to be my 'father'…" Jack groaned.
"Very well then," Chachamaru bowed. "And I am here to inform master that the man who defiled his mother stopped by, and has dropped something off."
"On second thought, you can call him my 'father'," Jack sighed as Nora tittered in the background. "What'd the old bastard drop off?"
"An old steamer trunk filled with odds and ends," Chachamaru said opening the door for them, gesturing towards a large wooden steamer trunk painted in green with metal braces at the foot of his bed. "Allegedly, he had been collecting your scattered possessions now that you will have a fixed address."
"Oh," Jack hummed before turning to Weiss. "As it turns out, I am now marginally less worried about this 'duel', and you can afford to be less worried as well," he said as he undid the latch.
"For what reason? Azure is still a Beacon third year with incredibly potent Fire Dust and Semblance manipulation. Unless you've got a magical set of armor in there-"
" . . . "
" . . . "
" . . . You have a magical set of armor in there, don't you?" she asked breaking everyone's awkward silence.
"Amongst other things," Jack said drawing out a skull-like helmet with sharp fangs and downward curving horns, the blue tribal paint around the eyes and blood-colored dreadlocks absolutely screaming 'Barbarian'.
"Holy cats! Is that a real skull?!" Ruby gasped. "So cooool~" she cooed reaching out to touch it before Weiss slapped her hand away.
"Sometimes I forget just how-traveled you really are," Blake hummed as Jack dug into his trunk, coming up with a savage-looking tri-boomerang with serrated edges and a bone-accented handle in one hand, while the other held up a ceremonial-looking scimitar with a crescent-shaped silver blade bearing moon-like engravings and a golden curved handle inlaid with jewels.
"Seriously, where do you even find this stuff...?" Jaune asked incredulously while Ruby went starry-eyed at the weapons he'd just drawn out.
"Around," Jack said dismissively. "Now, why don't you guys go on and get some seating before it's all gone. OH! And Nora," he said reaching under his mattress and drawing out a sealed envelope. "You know what to do."
"O captain! My captain!" Nora saluted as she scampered off excitedly.
"You keep money under your mattress?" Pyrrha blinked.
"Don't you?" Jack said as he went back into his trunk, pulling out a golden laurel wreath-like circlet with a diamond-encrusted brooch at the front. " . . . What're you looking at?"
"Someday, I hope I'm even half as well-learned as you," Blake said as her surrogate brother set such a fine piece of headwear aside like it were no big deal.
*NEW WORLD*
With four o'clock around the corner, Teams RWBY and JNPR were only able to get middling seats in a node that Coco and her team were able to hold by merit of the fashionable teen's combat tote. The seats were fit to bursting, and a definite fire hazard as Azure stood upon the stage, posturing for his devoted fans.
"Sooo…" Jaune hummed Weiss' way as they sat together. "What do you think Jack will be wearing now that he has his… 'stuff'?"
"It doesn't matter what he's wearing as long as he doesn't get hurt any more…" Weiss answered, as much to herself as to him.
The heiress' hands coming to rest on her chest, Jaune would be lying if he said the look of longing she was sending toward the opposing tunnel didn't inflame his sense of jealousy.
"Here. Pet this cat. You'll feel better," Vincent said holding out Blair, who mewled cutely.
"Thank you, Vincent," Weiss nodded, accepting the long-tailed feline and fretfully petting her.
"Hey Coco, if this Azure guy's such a hotshot, how come we haven't heard of him?" Yang asked over her shoulder.
"Last I heard, Team Azure had been on missions for wealthy clients non-stop since the start of the school year," the fashionable gunner answered.
"But what about school?" Ruby asked.
"Beacon Academy isn't just a technical college; it's a brand," Velvet spoke up. "Since its founding, Beacon has produced the best Hunters in Remnant, and because Beacon screens for reputable clients who won't renege on agreed payments, the academy receives a cut of the proceeds in exchange. This motivates the school to forward exceptional teams into the workforce early to perpetuate the quality of the brand name, which in turn draws in donations and grant money, which, in turn, allows Beacon to continue producing exceptional talent."
"It's basic economics for a workforce union," Yatsuhashi summarized.
" . . . So what you're saying is it's time off?" the little red-head asked eagerly.
"You're still expected to complete your coursework; they'll usually download the materials into your Scroll for in case you go off the network," Coco answered, causing her to pout.
"You know, I'm surprised Glynda is cool with all this…" Vincent hummed from his own seat, colorful cockatoo perched on his shoulder.
"There are others that can preside over honor duels; for better or worse," Blake huffed as she eyed the teacher playing referee. He wasn't one she'd ever met, but then again, Beacon was a big school…
"It's almost time…" Yang said looking up at the scoreboard, which at the moment read 3:59.
With a motion of his hand, Azure extracted a rather frightening amount of silence from the once-boisterous crowd. All eyes turning to the far tunnel, the quiet so cloying one could hear a pin drop, after several long moments a loud *Clomp… Clomp… Clomp* began to echo into the arena.
Everyone's focus intensifying, those directly across were able to see the reflective glint of golden amber-colored Faunus eyes from within the darkness. When the source of the sound came into full view, to everyone's confusion, Jack was clad head to toe in armor that was a mix of silver metal, brown stone, and brass accents; a stark departure from the lightweight leather over baggy clothing that had been his main style.
The helmet was spherical and collared like a diver's helm, a brass-colored dual-slotted visor framed by metal with three large bolts along the top, and protruding from the back like a high ponytail was a spiked metal head plume. The torso was barrel-chested with yellow climbing belts at the waist and over one shoulder, his arms down to the elbows sheathed in red convolute joints, stone and metal vambraces on his arms, with reinforced red gloves on his hands. The front-most fauld hanging from his belt bore an insignia with a diamond-like shape with three triangular markings overhead, almost resembling a footprint. The unarmored parts of Jack's legs were clad in red trunks with orange sides, red convolute joints at his knees, and heavy iron boots on his feet with ingot-shaped armor.
"That's what you choose to wear? You look like a trashcan with feet," Azure chuckled loudly, the audience overhead following suit like a laugh track.
And not just the women he'd seduced, but also those who wished to be seduced, the men who hated him, the men who wanted to be him, the men who wanted to be with him, and even the other Faunus in attendance. That was how-powerful the third-year's charisma was.
"Are we going to stand around here all day, or are we gonna fight?"
Cue BlazBlue: Cross Tag Battle OST – Lust SIN (Jin Kisaragi's Theme)
"Hmph. I suppose I'll have to put you in your rightful place. For Weiss' sake," Azure said as he brandished his weapons of choice; a pair of foldable sabers colored blue with gold accents. Conjoining them at the pommels, azure-colored flames spilled out of his palm and down the length of each blade, his free hand drawn back like an archer's bowstring, conjuring a spear-sized length of flame like a ballistae. "Azure Arrow!"
The screech of the flaming lance like a bird of prey, the monsoon of blue-colored light to follow made shadows stretch every which way across the arena. The deafening *KROOOM!* upon impact that shook the building to its foundation, was drowned out by a sea of raucous cheering that erupted from the audience as half the stage was smothered in a wall of brilliant blue flame.
"How… How can they be cheering like this…?" Ruby sniffled with wide eyes as Azure turned his back and addressed the crowd, rousing their adulation to greater heights.
"Jack… JACK, NO!"
*Clap… Clap… Clap…*
The heiress freezing mid-rise as a slow-clapping from the stage caused the room to go still, Azure mechanically turned his head as the sea of azure flames died down. The *Clomp*Clomp*Clomp* of ingot-shaped boots sounding through the crackling blaze, Azure's eyes went wide with a mix of shock and horror as Jack's armored form strode proudly out of the flames, his gauntlet-clad hands meeting in a casual, mocking gesture.
"Congratulations. You can name flashy attacks like an anime protagonist while they wind up doing… absolutely nothing," Jack hummed from inside his helm, cool as a cucumber despite the fact that the concrete at his feet was practically melting!
Most-shocking of all, was that Jack's Aura on the scoreboard was still at 100%; an impossibility since Jack had tanked that near-apocalyptic hit head-on.
"You…! You…! How could you have…?"
"The world's a big place, and you'd be amazed what you can find at the foot of a volcano," Jack shrugged lazily. "Compared to Death Mountain, this…" he said looking down as though only noticing just now he were standing atop a carpet of hellfire, "might as well be a warm campfire on a cool summer's night."
Pride wounded, Azure visibly bristled before notching another arrow of flame, Jack contemptuously pressing the knuckle of his armored hand to the bottom slat in his visor in a mocking kiss. Azure's second arrow screeching through the air once more, instead of punching it, Jack snapped his armored helm into the tip of the spear, the curtain of flame sent spilling forward this time; the perfect cover as he proceeded to blitz him through a wall of azure flame astride ingot-like boots.
"Goron Lariat!"
The convolute joint of his arm catching Azure across the throat, the sheer weight behind the attack sent him flipping ass over kettle before landing roughly on his back, his Aura dipping.
"Goron Heel Thrust!"
"Azure Ascent!" the Human cried as he shot fire from his feet to get away from Jack's boot, and then his hands to rise into the air. "Azure Ablaze!" he intoned wreathing himself in a layer of fire with peacock-like tails as a mantle. Shooting toward Jack while wreathed in fire, foldable blades screaming in his wake with a cry of- "Azure…!" -, Jack got down onto all fours before erupting toward his opponent with a cry of- "Goron Ejectum!"
Jack's armored body slipping through Azure's attack and hitting him with a loud *THWACK!*, the Human pinwheeled out of control like someone hit by a car. Even though blood spat out of his mouth, the teen still had the wherewithal to dispel the carpet of fire he'd almost landed in. As Jack tucked and rolled, Azure slapped the sides of his blades together, fire running up the blades as he readied an overhead strike.
"Azure Axe!"
An enormous tomahawk of fire coming down atop Jack and smothering him in another carpet of fire, to Azure's growing ire, Jack's stone-and-metal armor once-again tanked the blow like water off a duck's back
"Azure Assault!"
"Goron Thrust!"
Azure raking the tips of his swords along the ground and washing over Jack with a wave of blue fire, Jack once again shrugged it off and delivered a powerful arm thrust to his opponent's sternum, emptying his lungs and sending him tumbling across the burning ground, the fire once again parting in his wake.
"Azure Abyss!"
Knuckles thrust into the floor, traceries of azure zipped through the flaws in the concrete floor before explosions started going off at Jack's feet like a disturbed Afghan carpet, the radial forcefield peppered with debris that'd have sent the audience scattering if it weren't there.
"Azure Arc!" Azure called out wreathing his leg in flame before turning it into a rocket-powered hurricane kick.
"Goron Check!" Jack said meeting the attack with the cage-like armor of his shoulder before grabbing on. "Goron Roll!" he said rolling across the ground and taking his opponent with him, the weight of his armor threatening to crush him with each revolution. "Goron Boulder Throw!" he said planting his feet and using the momentum to slam Azure painfully into the ground. Holding onto his opponent's leg, the Faunus then rolled backwards across the ground, releasing him with a cry of- "Goron Flip!"
Azure tumbling across the ground, his fine clothes utterly ruined, the next moment Jack descended on him with a double-axe handle from on high, the cry of- "Goron Hammer!" -smothered by the loud *CRACK!* of Azure's Aura tanking the hit, his shaking legs barely stopping his brow from meeting the floor.
The resultant shockwave dispelling the flames licking at the arena stage, so too was the audience rendered mute. Most in attendance had expected for Jack to get roughed up a little, if not a lot, and for Weiss to go off Azure once he'd won an easy victory. But for Jack to completely endure the attacks of Beacon's "Azure Flame" with such ease, and then to dole out such monstrous attacks with an unknown martial art…
"You… bastard…"
"I know who my father is. I don't like him, but I know who he is," Jack shrugged as he trudged forward. Azure whipping up his hands and firing tongues of azure flame at his opponent, it may as well have been a garden hose for all the good it did him. "Goron Hundred Slap!"
Lowering himself into a horse stance, the next moment Jack unleashed a flurry of thrusting palm strikes, so-fast they projected afterimages of him possessing multiple arms. Though Azure was still wreathed in a mantle of fire, after countless strikes his flaming raiment had been largely extinguished, his Aura having taken massive damage in the fight up to this point. The body underneath was sufficiently rattled to the point that anyone else in Jack's own year tanking the same amount of damage wouldn't have been standing, let alone conscious.
Proud as he was, though, Azure couldn't stop himself from falling to a knee, the crowd gasping in shock. His fanclub crying in outrage, accusing the Faunus of cheating, others cheered Jack for doing what they themselves always wanted to, to the pretty boy Casanova. Likely after he stole their girlfriends or would-be-girlfriends out from under them if Coco's character summary was anything to go by.
"So… Do you yield?" Jack inquired, still in his fighting stance.
"If… If it weren't for that armor…" Azure choked out.
"If, if it weren't for that Semblance~" Jack mocked in a sniveling tone.
"YEAH! KICK HIS BUTT, JACK!" Ruby and Coco shouted, the arena filling with cries of excitement and outrage in equal measure.
"Hate to say this, but Weiss will just have to be 'the one that got away'," Jack said as he moved up. Before he could introduce Azure's face to the cleats of his ingot-shaped boots with a powerful front kick, the third-year propelled himself across the stage with a gout of fire. Reaching to the small of his back, Azure withdrew a glass Dust vial with a metal sleeve, the granulated contents shining ominously even under the arena lights.
"Your armor might make you immune to my flames, but you still need to breathe!" Azure shouted as he discarded the sleeve and chucked the vial. The Faunus quickly tucking and rolling away, as the shimmering granules spread across the floor, Azure slammed a palm to the ground, a single line of flame shooting across the floor. Instead of detonating the Dust immediately however, to everyone's shock and amazement, a large alchemical Glyph-like circle of finest azure swirled into being beneath his opponent, prominently featuring triangles and flame iconography. "Mystic Arte: Azure Asphodel!"
The circle glowing ominously as Azure's Aura fell away, the next moment an enormous torrent of azure-colored flames roared into being, completely smothering the Faunus and practically brushing against the ceiling. The oohs and ahhs of the crowd soon gave way to panicked cries as the heat grew so-potent that everyone in the front-most rows were forced into retreat, either into the aisles or over the bodies of those behind them.
"Dammit! He's trying to smother him!" Yang swore.
"Jack, NO!" Weiss shouted as she held her Myrtenaster across her body, willing a Glyph powered by Ice Dust to appear before her. Steam pouring off of it as she stepped into emptying bleachers, the heiress fell to a knee as the heat sapped her strength. "Dammit… This heat… It's too much…!" the heiress swore as her Gylph faltered, only for a chevron of silver light to surround her, the heat abating.
"Weiss! I have your back! GO!" Vincent shouted with a hand outstretched, his platinum hair glowing and curling upward like a spider lily.
"Th… Thank you!" Weiss nodded as she bulled forward.
Cue "WHO DECIDED THAT" by Max Grigoryev
"Hey guys! Look! Something's happening!" Ruby called out as Azure's flame pillar began to spin like a tornado, Jack's silhouette becoming more and more visible within. And not just that, the pillar of flame was gurgling and convulsing like it'd come down with a case of indigestion.
"What's he doing?! Why isn't he getting out of there!?" Blake shouted as Jack held his hands out in front of him.
"It's like Dr. Stein said… If you can match your Soul Wavelength to your opponent's, you can take control of their power …" Ren said as the spinning pillar of flame began to weaken, drawn inward between his extended hands.
His opponent, witnessing this, threw out his arms in an attempt to smother him with new flames. Before he could connect his attack however, the remaining whorl of flame imploded before then blasting outward, knocking Azure off of his feet and forcing everyone to shield their eyes from the plume of smoke that shot out into the stands.
"Jack, hold on, I'm coming!" Weiss shouted as she vaulted the railing.
"Weiss, wait up!" Ruby shouted as she and the others followed suit.
The path cleared, as the others vaulted to the ground level, Weiss was the first to arrive to the scene and reaching to climb up.
"Ah! That's hot!" Weiss spat as she recoiled, blowing onto her hands.
"I'm surprised there's any stage left," Yang said trying to peer through the smoke. "Hey wait… I think I see something…" she said as a churning light shone through the smoke before suddenly dissipating.
"Whoa…" Ruby awed at the sight that greeted them from the swing of an armor-clad arm.
Said sight was Jack standing proud within a half-melted puddle of concrete, his armored form wreathed in a haze of crimson flame. Thick bands of fire wrapping around the tops of his greaves, the bottoms of his vambraces, and around his torso in a deep V-necked mantle, sprouting from the metal head plume atop his helmet was a brilliant blaze like the Olympia Games torch. Most-startling of all however were the crimson flames spilling out of his irises from within his visor, his teeth visible in a fanged grin, his skin itself alight as though he had become fire contained inside a shell of metal and stone.
"It's like what happened in Forever Fall… but different…" Pyrrha nodded as Jack began to stride forward, the concrete hissing as his feet sank in.
"How… How is this possible…?" Azure gasped as Jack's crimson flames stood in stark contrast to his own azure, falling onto his butt in unadulterated shock.
"Was that your best shot?" Jack inquired as he loomed over his fallen opponent, right index finger raised and glowing white hot. "Game Over. Mystic Arte: Divine Spear."
*NEW WORLD*
Elsewhile...
"Honestly, these kids and their 'duels'… It's enough to drive me up the wall…!" Glynda groaned irritably as she and Elisa walked through the school grounds. "I should go in there."
"No, don't. Some other teacher agreed to preside over things, so you just enjoy the afternoon off, maybe smell the flowers," her friend insisted.
" . . . When you're right, you're right."
"Of course I'm right. How about later we go into town and get some over-priced coffee, just like the good old days? Maybe pick up some boys~?"
The next moment, the building over Glynda's shoulder exploded outward with a deafening- *KATHROOOOOOOM!*
"Glynda… Whatever you do… do not turn around…" Elisa gulped as debris fell to the ground, some of it aflame, vegetation catching fire in patches.
"Elisa, it's fine, I'm calm… I'm calm, I'm not calm, I'm not calm at all…!" she growled as she whirled on her feet, letting out an inhuman cry at the collateral arrayed before her.
"And yet you wonder why you're still single..." Elisa muttered under her breath.
*NEW WORLD*
Elsewhere, Azure Aiden lay sprawled on his back wholly unconscious, eyes rolled up in his head and foam frothing out of his mouth, a scorch mark running a line up the front of his outfit and into the fringe of hair that had once been covering his eye. He'd dodged at the last second, but his state of stupefication had slowed him just-enough for Jack to get a glancing blow. Whether or not Jack had aimed for a fatal blow...
"Wow, talk about giving him the finger," Nora awed as the flames wreathing Jack's armored body guttered out, the fresh breeze from the yawning cone of destruction letting out some of the dried air.
"Jack! Jack, are you okay?" Weiss fretted as she stepped onto the stage atop a row of Glyphs, wanting to reach out to him, but hesitant as steam wafted off his clunky armor.
"I mean… I did imply I'd pull something out of my ass," Jack chuckled as he reached into the upper slat of his helm's visor and rubbed at his eyes.
"That Dust Fusion you did… That was incredible…!" Pyrrha awed. "You were like something from one of the old stories! A force of nature!"
"So glad I caught all that on camera~!" Nora whooped excitedly as she held up her Scroll.
"No one'll believe it. They'll think it was all CGI," Ren hummed.
"I saw all that with my own eyes and even I think it was faked," Jaune added.
"HRAAUUUUUURGH!"
"The hell was that?!" Ruby squeaked at the inhuman cry.
"Was that Glynda?" Vincent gulped as he messed with his hair.
"Was that even a person?" Blake shuddered.
"We should go..." Coco insisted.
"I'm already gone," Jack said *Clomp*Clomp*Clomp*ing away, the others in hot pursuit a moment later leaving Azure where he lay.
*NEW WORLD*
Meanwhile, as those who hadn't initially fled from the heat of Azure's Azure Asphodel fled the source of that inhuman cry...
"What a mess. That boy totally lost it..." the Indian beauty on Azure's team sighed, rubbing at the bridge of her nose.
"We wanted him to have more confidence, and he got more confident," the Amazonian bear on Azure's team continued.
"But then he became a Casanova for real and got too confident," the vibrant dancer on Azure's team added looking down at him.
"Thankfully, he met his hard counter here instead of out there," the Indian beauty continued as the Schnee heiress fretted over the Demon of Whitechapel.
"Guess he got a little too-used to having his way with whatever girl he set his eyes on," the Amazonian bear said with a shake of her head.
"We probably owe those kids an explanation," the vibrant dancer said watching Team RWBBY, JNPR, and CFVY vacate the premises.
"What a mess," the three sighed in unison, and then hiding in unison as Glynda Goodwitch strode into the room through the half-melted hole and demanded-
"WHO?!"
*NEW WORLD*
AN:
Been a while since I made an intentionally-unlikeable character. Hope I did a decent job of it, and that the fight choreography warrants some juicy Reviews.
Until next time, see you on Vigorous Vitality!