Here we are at Chapter 31. It's that time of year again. It's time for the Vytal Festival to begin. I do not own RWBY or Genshin Impact. They belong to their respective owners. Here's chapter 31. Enjoy.
Chapter 31: The Vytal Festival
It's that time of year. The time everyone's been waiting for. The Vytal Festival. Food, shows, stalls, plays, all types of events and people have arrived at the one time where the while world comes together to celebrate peace and harmony. But, the one event that gets more attention than anything else is the Vytal Festival Tournament. High up in Amity Coliseum, the best huntsmen teams from the four academies compete for honor and glory not only for their school, but for their kingdom as well. And the tournament is well underway. How the tournament is set is that teams will first complete in the team rounds; four-on-four matches. Winners then move on to the doubles rounds which are two-vs-two. Finally, there is the single elimination rounds where a representative from the teams that remain will fight in one-on-one duels until only one fighter and one team remain. Several teams who have been chosen by their respective schools will compete in this arena. When Ei learned and saw Amity Coliseum herself, she marveled at the lengths of innovation humans have achieved since her time in the Plane of Euthymia. Once more, she's come to understand that no matter how hard one tries, they can't stop change.
At the arena now, the crowd goes wild as one of the first fights for the teams rounds gets underway. Ei and her team watch from the stands as their friends in Team RWBY face off against Team ABRN from Haven Academy. The field in the arena has been converted as part of the fight. One half has a volcanic field while the other is an ice field. This makes the fights more interesting. Up in the announcer's box, Professor Port and Dr. Oobleck commentate on the battles for the audience.
"Team RWBY is doing great," Nilou notes.
"Yeah, but they better not drop their guard. The opposing team is doing well too," Dehya reminds her.
Meanwhile in the arena, the fight continues for Team RWBY. Blake is fighting in an ice section of the arena, and sees her opponent, Reese, flying in on her hoverboard. Blake sees Reese coming in on her hoverboard before she launches it at Blake. Blake knocks it away with her left sword, but Reese counters by punching it back at Blake, who deflects it by kicking it. Blake then runs at Reese, jumping up before attacking her just as Reese catches her hoverboard and uses it as a shield. Blake swings her swords a few times before kicking Reese, making her stumble back. Reese then swings her hoverboard at Blake as Blake swings her swords at her and deflects the attack. Reese starts spinning her hoverboard, using it to knock Black back and then flips back onto it. Reese races towards Blake, but Blake just smirks and when Reese gets close, she creates an ice clone of herself while flipping out of the way. Reese collides into the ice clone, and Blake swings her katana at her, knocking her into the air. In the air, Reese's hoverboard splits in half before transforming into a pair of pistols. Reese catches them and fires at Blake. However, Blake avoids the shots and all Resse gets in the end is a painful landing on the ice floor, butt first.
"Oooh, that's gotta hurt," Dehya notes while her teammates cringe a bit.
Meanwhile, Yang goes one on one with her opponent, Arslan. Yang jumps high into the air, landing in front of Arslan, making her slide back from the impact. After that, Yang rushes in and the two brawlers throw several punches at each other before their last punches collide with each other, creating a powerful shockwave. Yang and Arslan get pushed back from the shockwave. Arslan looks up and then backflips away as Yang jumps at her, doing a spinning jump kick. Arslan uses her weapon, a rope dart, to wrap around Yang's left leg. She pulls it, making Yang lose her footing, and then kicks Yang into the ice section of the arena. Yang gets back up, but has trouble keeping her balance on the slippery ice, and looks up to see Arslan knock her back onto the ground. Yang slides back, stopping next to another member of Team ABRN, Nadir. Nadir looks at Yang, his rifle ready to fire. However, before he can do anything, a shot rings out, and hits the ice behind him. Yang slowly gets up to see Nadir, without his rifle, and having the lower half of his body frozen in ice, much to his shock. Yang looks to the side to see her sister as her savior, her sniper scythe aimed at their foe.
"Got your back!" Ruby shouts.
"Whose got yours?" she hears a voice behind her and looks back at the fourth member of Team ABRN, Bolin, spinning a staff around.
Before he attacks, a black glyph appears at his side, and then Weiss shows up, kicking Bolin through the glyph, launching him into a rock on the lava section of the arena.
"My girlfriend!" Ruby cheers happily.
"Ruby, not here!" Weiss lowly shrieks before running off to fight.
"She's so cute when she's embarrassed," Ruby mutters before following.
On his knees, Bolin looks up to see Weiss conjure a glyph in front of him. As he gets up, Weiss uses the glyph and shoots past him while hitting him with her rapier, and then jumps over him from behind, swing her sword again to which he blocks the attack with his staff. As Weiss lands in front of him, she makes another glyph behind her, allowing Ruby to jump over her, spinning her scythe in mid-air before slamming it on Bolin, who blocks it with his staff. Ruby then fires her weapon, knocking Bolin back while she lands next to Weiss. As Bolin gets back up, he notices some red dust crystals behind Ruby and Weiss. Bolin runs at them, rolling under Weiss as she sends some ice shards flying at him, and then flips over Ruby when she swings her scythe at him before running behind her.
"Hey?! Get back here!" Ruby shouts.
Bolin swings his staff, cutting off a piece of the red dust crystal, garbs it, and then throws it to Reese. Reese shoves the crystal into her hoverboard, making it change color from green to red. Blake sees this, and Reese winks at her before riding on her hoverboard, and using the red dust crystal's power to quickly thaw out Nadir's legs, freeing him. Reese then rides over to Blake, and pushes her hoverboard against her, knocking Blake through an ice pillar, and then runs at her. Reese jumps up into the air, hoping to land on Blake with her weapon, but Blake flips out of the way, and then strikes at Reese, who spins her hoverboard, causing fire to appear, the fire hits Blake, but she uses her semblance to back out of it, and then throws her chain scythe at one large ice rock, pulling on it and moving her around the chunk of ice. Reese follows her and eventually finds Blake just standing in between two ice rock formations. Reese laughs and goes to spin her fire attributed hoverboard at her when she gets close, but then Blake disappears, revealing to be one of her clones. In slow motion, Blake's chain scythe appears in front of Reese in mid-air, connecting to the other ice rock. In real time, the real Blake pulls on the ribbon, stopping Rees, and then kicks Reese out of the arena as she hits the force field at the edge and then lands on the ground as an electronic buzzer sounds off.
"Oooh, a double-knockout. Reese Chloris is eliminated by ring out AND aura level," Port says over the speakers as Reese looks up on the main screen to show her aura level dropping to the red zone.
"Oh, she gonna feel that one tomorrow," Oobleck notes.
"That's one down. Team RWBY has the advantage now," Ei says as she watches her friends fight.
Back in the arena, Arslan uses her rope dart as she slides across the ice, with Yang following her by shooting her shotgun gauntlets behind her. Behind her, Nadir flips in the air before landing and aiming his assault rifle at Weiss. However, Weiss uses one of her black glyphs to shoot Bolin at him, crashing into Nadir. Weiss lands near them and stabs her rapier into the ground. Suddenly, a large black glyph appears under Nadir and Bolin, levitating them in the air before making them crash into each other again. As they fall back onto the ground, Weiss conjures up a white glyph and, using her ice dust, creates a giant hand of ice that wraps around Nadir and Bolin, before turning into a large ice ball and starts rolling to one side of the arena with the two boys stuck in it. Arslan sees them in trouble and moves to help them. Using her rope dart to slide her way on the ice, she stops in front of them as the ice ball rolls towards her. Arslan then takes a martial artist stance, and when it gets close, throws a strong punch that shatters the ice ball and frees her teammates.
"Yang!" Weiss calls out to Yang. She uses some ice dust to create a half-pipe of ice behind her. "Now!" she yells.
Yang runs to her and fires her gauntlets behind herself to keep sliding on the ice half-pipe while Blake runs by her. Blake then throws her chain scythe at her, which she catches, and swings her around the half-pipe. Blake jumps onto Ruby, who pushes her into the air and towards the three members of Team ABRN with Yang behind her. The three opponents turn around to see Blake flip in the air and pull on her ribbon, making Yang fly over her. Yang reels back her right fist before she throws a powerful punch that hits all three of them, sending them flying in a fiery explosion. With that last attack, the battle is over as the buzzer goes off.
"Yes!" Yang cheers.
"We did it!" Ruby cheers while hugging Weiss.
The Ice Queen groans, but doesn't push her off.
"And that's the match. Team RWBY is victorious and moves on to the next round," Port announces.
"I'm glad they won," Nilou notes.
"Well, I had faith they would emerge victorious. I didn't even need to use my semblance for that," Candace adds.
"Come, let's go congratulate them," Ei says as she stands up.
The team leave their seats and meet up with Team RWBY as they exit the arena.
"Nice job on making it through the teams round," Dehya says.
"Hah, it was easy. We fully intend on winning the whole thing," Weiss scoffs.
"Yeah, hate to burst your bubble there, but you do remember that we have a god on our team right," Dehya nudges Ei's arm.
"While that is true; I've been holding back my true strength to better hide my identity. I have my Gnosis back with me now, but I don't intend to use it for the tournament. However, that doesn't mean I will let you win either. I intend to take my team to the top as well," Ei replies.
"Well, don't count us out just yet," they look to see Clorinde and Navia's team approaching. "We're gonna win this as well. Bringing the trophy back home sounds like a fun occasion," Navia says.
"Oooh, those are fighting words. I like it," Yang cracks her knuckles.
"Well, we'll have to wait and see on that note. You've had your match, but ours isn't up yet. Though, I am hoping you'll last before we have our fight," Clorinde walks up to Ei. "I've been watching your matches at Beacon before the festival began. We use similar Dust in our techniques, and I sense great strength and experience in your blade. I'm eager to see which one of us would come out on top should we face off," Clorinde issues her challenge to the archon.
"I see. Should that time come, I won't disappoint you," Ei says.
Suddenly, a loud grumble is heard and all eyes turn to Blake.
Blake holds her stomach, "I... might be a little hungry," she chuckles nervously.
Diluc chuckles, "Come on, they have some stall at the fairgrounds where we can get something to eat. I know a good spot,"
The three teams leave the coliseum and fly down the fairgrounds. At the fairgrounds, there are food stalls, games, and smaller shows for those who want to do something besides watching the tournament. As they do, they walk by Lyney and Lynette doing a magic show for their audience. Ei gives them a quick nod, which they reply with a pair of smiles. Lyney and Lynette spot Ruby in the group and smirk. Now that they know who Ruby really is; her lineage, they are eager to speak with her. But only when the time is right. The gang find a stall grilling up hot dogs and burgers along with some stuff on the side. After getting their meals, Weiss brings out her card.
"Weiss, there's no need for that," Blake says as the cook takes the card.
"It's fine. This will barely cut into my allowance," Weiss says.
"Guess it really does pay to be rich, huh," Dliuc notes.
"Well, maybe with some money, they can get a nice, soft pillow and a bed," Layla notes, yawning.
"Um, are you going to be okay when your match comes up?" Nilou asks, a little worried about Layla.
"Don't worry. When the time comes, Layla always comes through for us. Isn't that right, Layla?" Navia pulls Layla into a one-armed hug and pats her head.
"I'll try my best," Layla says, trying to stay awake.
Just then, everyone gets spooked when Weiss' card gets thrown into the wood in front of them. They look at the shopkeeper, who points at his register which shows 'declined' on it.
"What? How is my card declined?" Weiss wonders.
"Um, Weiss, you didn't go on one of those shopping tirades you did back in Atlas, did you?" Navia asks.
"No, I did not. Wait... oh, I know what's going on," Weiss groans into her hands as a thought comes to mind.
"What's wrong?" Yang asks.
"My father must've cut me off. He's been trying to call me, but every time he does, I don't reply. This is probably his way of trying to get me to answer his calls," Weiss explains.
"Okay, first," Navia offers her card to the shopkeep, who takes it and pays for the meals. "Now with that out of the way, why exactly are you avoiding your father this time? I know he's a greedy jerk and a worthless piece of trash, but there must be something more to it," Navia says.
Weiss says nothing, but merely glances at Ruby. It doesn't take a genius to figure out her meaning.
"Wait, is it because of me?" Ruby asks.
"Ah, I see. You're trying to keep your relationship with Ruby a secret from your father because if he found out, he wouldn't accept it at all," Clorinde says.
"Weiss, are you embarrassed to be with me?" Ruby asks, looking fearful.
"I am NOT embarrassed to be in a relationship with you Ruby. I'm just worried about what my father might try to do to you if he ever found out. We're in Vale, so he doesn't have much reach here. But he has money, and money can be a dangerous weapon if used in the right way. He may even try to force me to go back to Atlas just to separate us," Weiss says.
"Well, there might be a way to deal with him. Not right now, but later down the road," Navia says.
"Hmm? What's that?" Candace asks.
"Monsieur Neuvillette," Navia says.
"Bless you," Yang jokes.
"Monsieur Neuvillette is the Chief Justice of Atlas. He handles many court cases and dishes out the verdicts. However, if there's one thing he believes in, it's obeying the law and remaining impartial. My father told me that there have been a few who have tried to bribe or coerce him into helping with their cases in the past, but he refused every one. He even had them arrested for attempting to bribe a court official. Not even Jacques Schee can go against him. Weiss, you're technically a juvenile right now, but you're a student of Beacon Academy. The huntsmen academies are safe from political scrutiny for the most part. He may try to force you to leave Beacon, but I doubt Professor Ozpin would let him do it without a fight. Once you graduate, you'll be an adult and free to make your own decisions in the eyes of the law. If he continues to cause problems, you can make your case to Monsieur Neuvillette and I'm sure he'll rule on the side of the law. And the law will be on your side," Navia explains.
"Oh, you're right. But, what do I do about right now exactly?" Weiss asks.
"Well, unless he tries to take you back by force, there's not much he can do. But, if he does try anything, we'll be here to help you out. That's what friends do after all," Clorinde explains.
"Yeah. I won't let some snake with a mustache take my girlfriend away from me!" Ruby wraps her arm's around Weiss left.
While the Ice Queen blushes from the close contact, she doesn't push Ruby away. Weiss looks around and sees all her friends smiling at her; showing their support.
Weiss sighs with relief, "Thank you. All of you,"
Just then, they hear noise on one of the TVs and look to see Team JNPR have won their match in the first round. Apparently, there was some light miscommunication on Team JNPR's side during the late stages of the match, but they managed to win it thanks to Pyrrha's expert skill and the terrain. One half of the arena had storm clouds on it, allowing Nora to get supercharged and smash all four of their opponents out of the arena with her hammer.
"Well, looks like Jaune's team made it past the teams round. They've all been working hard at their training," Ei notes.
"Yes, and so have we," Nilou says.
"Just remember that we don't plan on losing. Ever," Diluc says.
"I hope I don't fall asleep in the middle of our match," Layla worries.
"Then we'll all have to beat the other teams. If we do, then we'll end up facing each other sooner or later. Until then, let our blades show our true strength," Ei says, earning nods from everyone.
"Will Team RDCN please make their way to the arena. Team RDCN, please make your way to the arena," they hear an announcement from Dr. Oobleck ring out.
"Guess our time has come. Wish us luck," Ei stands along with the rest of her team.
"We'll be cheering for you. And waiting for you in the finals," Yang pumps her fist.
Team RDCN make their way back to Amity, ready to take on their first challenge.
...
"Are preparations complete?" Signora asks at her new base.
"Almost, Lady Signora. The loss of some of our men at Mountain Glenn slowed down progress. However, with all eyes on the Vytal Festival, that has allowed for some breathing room," one soldier explains.
"Make haste. There will be no more delays in my plans. Damn that bitch Arlecchino. Once I achieve my goal, I will deal with her personally. What about the Dendro Archon? Have you pinpointed her location?" Signora asks.
"Yes. She is at Beacon Academy, under heavy guard. Likely since she is not as strong as the other archons. As for the Geo Archon, we have yet to locate him. Even our best have yet to find him," the soldier explains.
"I expected as such. Even after all this time, he's always been the most difficult to pinpoint. I believe he'll make an appearance here, with so many other archons here in Vale. What about our progress at Amity Coliseum?" Signora asks.
"Things are going smoothly. A few of our spies are there, disguised as guards, so they can give us a way in with the cargo. Even with the added security. Roman Torchwick's subordinate has proven most useful when it comes to infiltration," the soldier says.
"A shame she's so loyal to him. If she were not, I'd have recruited her to my side. She is very talented. We know where the Electro Archon will be, but for now, focus on the other preparations. Our target will be the Dendro Archon. Once I have her Gnosis, it'll be easy to take Ei's," Signora stares at an image of Nahida. "No more mistakes. No more failures. I will become a god and finally achieve my dream."
And that's the chapter. The Vytal Festival begins, but so has the next stage in Signora's plan. Will Ei and her friends figure it out before it's too late, or will the lights of the tournament blind them to her objectives? Until then, please Read and Review.