Lavs paced around the locker room nervously as she tried to calm her nerves, wracking her brain for anything that would get her out of this situation. Mr. Courrier, her teacher, had decided that it would be a great idea to force her into a little 'exhibition' match against some of Haven Academy's finest! This was not fine at all! She paced faster, barely controlling her nerves as she restrained herself from lashing out at any locker that dared to inconvenience her during her pace.

The match will begin in fifteen minutes; Lavs collapsed onto one of the benches and placed her hands together before resting her forehead on them, all she had were her skills that she learned during Mr. Courrier's training sessions, her fists, and that switchblade that she tried, and failed, to hurt Mr. Courrier during her first encounter with the man… Is it too late to back out now? Damn, she really missed her family back in Menagerie… but maybe showing her face back there after defying their wishes and running off for the White Fang might be a terrible idea.

Damn it! She wanted to be a part of something greater! Not be forced into Tournaments without her will by her superior officer! Not only that, before Mr. Courrier told her about the Tournament, he said that the White Fang was pulling out of Vale?! Thereby leaving the two of them as the last remaining White Fang members of this particular sect ran by Adam, apparently… so they're along with no backup if something goes to shit, great. Well that's just wonderful isn't it?

Lavs was knocked out of her thoughts when she heard Mr. Courrier's voice blared out from the TV that they hung in the locker room, along with him sitting in the middle of two other Beacon teachers, "Okay, for the fortieth Vytal Festival, we here at Beacon have decided to do something a little more special for you all," the two teachers looked surprised at this and turned their heads towards Mr. Courrier, "If all of you would check your Tournament calendars, you would see an 'exhibition match' listed just before the doubles bracket! This is a little something-something that we've decided to do this year, for fun of course!"

"The match will be between Mercury Black and Emerald Sustrai from Haven Academy against…" he drawled the last word out for dramatic effect, "Independent Huntress Lavs Greenhorn! Who was formerly a student at our very own Beacon Academy!" Lavs sighed, she knew that her mentor was a expert liar but not to this degree, if you had no knowledge beforehand, everything the man said sounds like the truth! No hesitation, no reservation, he just lies and it comes out as smoothly as talking.

"How… interesting…" one of the teachers said slowly, looking worriedly at Mr. Courrier before leaning towards him and whispering something to the man that the microphones didn't pick up.

"Ah right, this is of course for fun but the Haven students do have an advantage here!" Mr. Courrier pulled out a small piece of paper with some crudely drawn illustrations on it representing the brackets, "If the Haven Students successfully defeats Ms. Greenhorn, then their position in the singles bracket is secured indefinitely! Same goes even when they lose against her as well," he then stashed the paper back into his overalls, "If you're wondering whether or not this is unfair for the other students, might I remind you that we're pitting Academy students against a fully-fledged Huntress, besides, we all get one more fight out of the doubles bracket since the Haven students' positions are secured, isn't that fun?"

Someone yelled out in the crowd, "We get one more fight out of the doubles bracket? Like pitting a winning pair against another winning pair?"

Mr. Courrier nodded, "Right on the money, anonymous audience member!" her pulled out the piece of paper again, "So instead of the three or four matches that we would normally get from previous Tournaments, we'll get a whole five matches instead!"

"Do the Haven students know that they're going to be pitted up against this Huntress, whoever she is?" Another person yelled out.

"No."

The Haven side of the Tournament began booing, "Hey, hey! Calm down everyone, this is all for the sake of fun! Besides, they're getting a fast pass to the singles bracket whether or not they win or lose!" Mr. Courrier pointed at the piece of paper; Lavs saw some of the Haven audience members nod and shrug in understanding, "Technically, Haven has the advantage here! But I do encourage the students to give it their all, since if they don't, well, they'll be disappointing their country lots now would they?"

The Haven crowd exploded into affirmations, with one person even yelling, "NO DESSERTS FOR DESERTERS!" in a clear attempt at creating an arena chant. It didn't work. That is until another person chimed in with an arguably better one, "ALL IN OR NEVER RETURN!"

"ALL IN!" the crowd chanted in unison, "ALL IN!"

"Now that's more like it!" Mr. Courrier laughed, stashing away the piece of paper and grabbing the microphone, "Let's get this match started shall we?" Everyone in the arena cheered, "ON MY RIGHT, WE HAVE MERCURY BLACK AND EMERALD SUSTRAI OF HAVEN ACADEMY!" The crowd began chanting 'All in!' as Mr. Courrier finished his introduction. The two teachers next to him looked surprised at the change of plans but continued on anyways, merely shrugging before leaning back on their seats, intent on letting him take the reins for this match.

Lavs watched as the two students walked out in confusion in their eyes, but they seemed to keep their composure as they made their way towards the stage, "AND ON MY LEFT IS FORMER BEACON STUDENT AND FULLY-FLEDGED INDEPENDENT HUNTRESS LAVS GREENHORN!" That was her cue; Lavs stood up shakily as she shook herself awake, slapping her cheeks to get warmed up. She walked out into the arena, sun beating down on her as she stepped forwards onto the stage.

As she walked towards the stage, Lavs took one last check of her equipment before getting ready to fight. Bandages wrapped around her knuckles? Check. A switchblade in her pocket? Check. The body armour sitting over her tank top that Mr. Courrier encouraged her to wear because of the heat? Check. That weird blood-stained bullet that Mr. Courrier fashioned into a necklace also for her to wear? Check. It's time.

"For this match, there will be no biome or environmental hazards!" Mr. Courrier exclaimed, sweeping his hands out to the bare and flat stage with a few blocks of concrete poking out of the ground, "This is a purely skill-based match with no distractions and no feasible cover! Combatants must be quick on their feet and quicker in their thinking! A real fight never goes the way you think it would, every plan you've ever thought of goes out the window the moment you get punched! And just like this stage, there is nothing for you to use to your advantage other than your skills and Semblance!"

"And remember! Both sides do not have the full information here! Semblances and fighting styles are completely unknown to both the Haven students and Ms. Greenhorn at the same time!" the crowd cheered as they watched the two competitors ready themselves, "Why? Because it'd be a lot more fun!"

Lavs remembered a lesson that Mr. Courrier taught her, something about intimidating your enemy with your 'terrifying presence' before you actually engage in combat, nodding at the mental reminder, Lavs glared at the two Haven students in the scariest way that she could thought of. It didn't work. That silver haired prick laughed at her, this makes her very mad. Mr. Courrier also said that if your intimidation attempt doesn't work then you should channel the anger you get from said attempt to fuel your strikes.

"Strike fast and brutally, there are no honour to uphold in a life or death match," he had said, "or in any match really, never respect your opponent, but don't underestimate them either."

Channelling the rage she felt at someone laughing at her best attempt at being intimidating, Lavs visualized her success, i.e. beating that smug prick's face in until it can hold liquid like a bowl and winning this exhibition match, Lavs also realized that the Haven crowd's chant of 'All in!' is really pumping her up for this upcoming fight. She grabbed the bullet necklace and held it tightly, not knowing why she's supposed to do it, just that Mr. Courrier told her to do it.

"Are both sides ready?" She nodded; they nodded, "Alright, alright! Let the match begin in five!"

"Four!"

"Three!"

"Two!"

"One!"

"BEGIN!"

Lavs stayed back as she watched the two Haven students dashed towards her, readying herself to block or even parry the first strike. The silver haired prick came in quick with a straight kick to Lavs' chest, anticipating this opening attack, she sidestepped the attack and grabbed onto his leg as the kick went by. The prick's face shifted from glee to annoyance as he tried to wrench his leg out of Lavs' grasp, even tried to knee her at one point.

Hearing footsteps behind her, she saw Sustrai with a pair of jungle-green revolvers, firing round after round at her while she was exposed. Quickly twisting her body around, she pulled the silver haired bastard's entire body around and used him as a body shield, blocking the bullets by forcing him to activate his Aura. Sustrai clicked her tongue at this and disappeared from view, no doubt a product of her Semblance, Lavs darted her head around, trying to find Sustrai while still restraining the silver haired one by holding onto one of his legs.

He snarled at Lavs, twisting his feet around before she heard a click and a loud bang went off near her head. The silver haired prick's body getting blasted far away from Lavs as he regrouped with Sustrai, the two of them whispering something to each other that Lavs didn't hear. No matter, she's going to beat Black's face in and that's it.

Both Sustrai and Black disappeared from view as Lavs backed up, constantly turning her body to see where they're going to attack from, the Haven crowd seemed to assume their disappearance as a sign of deserting, chanting "ALL IN!" as a way to goad the two students out from hiding. And out they came, with Sustrai leading the charge this time, brandishing two sickles as she flung the blades at Lavs, both were attached by chains as Sustrai twirled them around before swinging one at Lavs.

Lavs ducked the sickle and grabbed the chain as it flew by, wrapping it around her knuckles as she yanked Sustrai closer, the student gritted her teeth and transformed her other sickle into a revolver, taking shots at Lavs in an attempt to force her to let go of the chain. Lavs held onto the chain tighter and gave a rough tug at it, knocking Sustrai off her feet and turning her into a makeshift flail of sorts as Lavs grabbed the chain with both hands and began spinning around. Sustrai tried to let go of the handle but if she did then she'd be flung out of the arena, causing her to lose, normally that'd be fine since their spot in the singles bracket have already been secured whether or not they win or lose but the crowd might notice her deliberate action, and being ostracized by an entire country was not something that she wanted to happen.

The human-flail knocked into the concrete blocks, breaking them apart and damaging Sustrai's Aura by a large amount. Noticing a dark shadow being casted from above her, Lavs looked up to see a downwards kick from Black. She stepped back and swung the chain around, timing it so that Black would shatter the chain and send Sustrai flying… or be caught by the chain itself as it swings around. Black's kick shattered the chain, separating the sickle from the handle and causing Sustrai to be flung towards one of the concrete blocks, damaging her Aura even further but not enough to be called out.

Black looked angrier than usual as he performed a flurry of kicks at Lavs, all of which emphasized by his feet firing out bullets, and all of which she deflected with the sickle still in her hands before throwing the weapon at his face, distracting him just enough for her to get close deliver a brutal gut punch to the teen. His Aura shimmered harshly as he coughed out some spittle, the punch lifting him into the air as Lavs retracted her arm and delivered a spin kick directly onto his cheek, sending him skidding to the ground.

Black quickly bounced back and jumped forwards, sending a surprise jab at Lavs face which connected! Her head rocked back as she felt her Aura dwindle from the hit, snarling, she snapped her head back into position and grabbed Black's wrist, twisting is painfully to the side as he grunted out in pain. She punched Black in the nose while she held onto his wrist, pulling the teen back every time he recoiled from a hit. Eventually, Black headbutted her fist, the surprise was enough for her to let go as Black took a step back.

Noticing a shadow that wasn't there before, Lavs turned around too late to see Sustrai swinging her one remaining sickle at Lavs, colliding with her Aura and sending her head one way as she felt her head ring. Black grinned as he kneed her on the side; Lavs gritted her teeth as she weaved an elbow from Sustrai and another kick from Black, taking out her switchblade again, Lavs coughed as she dug the blade deep into Sustrai's abdomen, holding it there and forcing her to keep her Aura active or else she'd be stabbed. Black noticed this and tried to separate Lavs from Sustrai by kicking at her, firing off bullets as each kick sent out a loud bang near Lavs head.

Sustrai spat out some spit as she continued to struggle to keep her Aura up, the switchblade slowly gaining leeway as Black continued to fire rounds at both Lavs and Sustrai as they were both close to each other. Quickly letting go of the switchblade, Lavs headbutted Emerald and kicked her away before dodging another kick from Black, this time, she uppercutted the teen in the back of his knee, causing it to hyperextend and Black to grunt in pain.

Black retracted his legs and tried to stand on both of them, unfortunately for the prick, the leg that Lavs kicked was wobbling and shaking as Black tried to keep himself upright, it was difficult but not impossible and Black did eventually find his balance again… after Lavs had kicked him square in the stomach, uppercutted his chin, and palm struck his torso so hard that he was sent flying towards one of the ends of the stage, nearly falling off as Black slammed hit foot to the ground to slow himself down.

Sustrai appeared by Black's side, both of them looking worse for wear as they angrily argue against one another. Saying something about how Sustrai's Semblance didn't work or Black not putting enough effort into his attacks. Capitalizing off of this moment of distraction, Lavs dashed forwards with her hands in her pocket, ready to draw the switchblade and end the fight in a couple of minutes.

Black noticed her approach and yelled out to Sustrai, the both of them disappearing out from view as Lavs thrusted the switchblade into open air… Lavs then heard something crack as she looked up to see Black with his Aura nearly fractured and surprisingly not invisible like Sustrai. Black looked confused at this, a lot more confused than someone who got hit out of invisibility should have the right to look confused. Lavs withdrew the switchblade and delivered a jab at Black's face; he gritted his teeth and raised his arms in a block which took more out of his Aura. Lavs then sweep kicked Black, knocking him off his feet and causing him to drop his block, and then as he was falling, she raised her fist and slammed it down on his face, shattering Black's Aura and embedding his head into the concrete as it created a crater.

"MERCURY BLACK IS OUT!" Mr. Courrier yelled into the microphone, the Haven crowd went wild. Lavs took a step away from Black's unconscious form as she warily looked around for signs of Sustrai. Suddenly, her vision blurred as a bunch of Sustrai clones appeared around her, surrounding her and blocking her from exiting the circle, must be an illusion, she needed to hit the original or else nothing would happen.

The Sustrais all attacked at once, in all different directions, in all different possible ways. Lavs ducked under a sickle swing as she put her fist through the first one, which vanished into smoke. She dodged a kick from the second one and backhanded the thing into oblivion. Lavs grabbed the head of the third one and slammed it down into the ground, causing all the other ones to vanish as the original was in her hands, Lavs sighed out in relief, she must've gotten lucky as the third Sustrai that she hit was the real one.

Lavs, realizing that Sustrai's Aura has not yet reach critical levels, decided to slam her head down into the ground a few more times for good measure before the Announcers proclaimed her the victor, "AND THE WIN GOES TO LAVS GREENHORN!" the Vale crowd went wild as the Haven audience just looked on in sadness, she raised her hand and clutched the bullet necklace that Mr. Courrier gave her, looks like the lucky charm that he said the bullet was worked after all.

Lavs smiled at the win, she knows this is going to be broadcasted all over Remnant so she waved at the crowd, and maybe at her family from Vale to Menagerie as well. She grinned; look at where she's at now, Ma. She raised her hand up in victory and yelled out to the world… before collapsing into a heap on the ground. Her vision blurred as she felt her eyelids slowly close, she did it, she fucking did it. Her first… win…

The crowd exploded into cheers at the hard fought battle, even the Haven audience joined in despite seeing two of their Academy's student get beaten down into a pulp, guess they must've been satisfied with them putting up a good fight and giving it their all. The crowd continued to chant "ALL IN! ALL IN!" as the medical team came in with stretchers and dragged the combatants out of the ruined stage. Oobleck was impressed, looks like Courrier got it in the bag after all, so he patted the man on the back in encouragement, "That was a great fight, don't you think?"

"Hell yeah!" Courrier exclaimed, "Looks like all that training worked after all!"

"I assume that Ms. Greenhorn was your student, correct?" Prof. Port laughed heartily, "If so then you truly trained her to her fullest potential haven't you?"

"Damn right I did! I need to congratulate her after this because that was one hell of a fight!" Courrier then grinned, turning to Oobleck, "Told you there was nothing to worry about, if anything, this exhibition match will set a new standard for future Vytal Tournaments to come!"

Oobleck let out a chuckle, "Right, with the competitors being escorted out in stretchers?" he leaned back on his seat, "Although that was wildly off-script and extremely surprising… I have to say that that was one of the most exhilarating matches I ever saw."

Courrier nodded with a smile and turned back to the microphone, "And there we have it ladies and gentlemen! Despite their defeat at the hands of Ms. Greenhorn, they still have acquired their position in the singles bracket! And seeing as how Ms. Greenhorn collapsed herself, wouldn't you say that they gave their all?" the Haven crowd cheered, "Despite facing an opponent with much more experience than them, they still effectively came up with a plan that would gave them a chance, no matter how small, at winning! That's the spirit of a true Huntsmen folks!"

"We'll be back with more doubles bracket after this intermission, go out there and have some fun in the Festival; we know you all will need it after this exhilarating fight!" Oobleck watched as the cheering continued, even after the crowd slowly filtered their way out of the arena, Courrier stood up from his seat and adjusted his overalls, "Phew, that was intense!"

"You really know how to play a crowd, my friend!" Prof. Port patted Courrier on the back, "If you weren't an assistant teacher, I could see your future as a fully-fledged Announcer for the Vytal Tournament!"

"Thanks! I could see that too," he stretched his limbs and walked towards the door, "I'm gonna go out for a walk, be back in a moment, just ping me if you need anything."

"And she was like FWOOSH and FLOOSH and they were like BANG BANG BANG!" Ruby excitedly recreated some of the moves that Ms. Greenhorn performed against Emerald and that Mercury guy! It was so cool! "But then she ducked the hit and then she swung Emerald around like a flail!"

Yang laughed at Ruby's antics, roughing up her sister's hair as she chuckled, "Alright, calm down Ruby, maybe you'll get to meet her one day."

"She was so cool though!" she gushed, "How come I've never heard of her until now?!"

"Maybe she doesn't like the publicity?" her dad, Taiyang Xiao Long, shrugged, "Your uncle Qrow is strong but no one really knows him outside of Patch do they?"

Ruby deflated, "Yeah…"

"And besides, maybe she's- oh look! It's her!" Ruby raised her head and looked around, "She's sitting on that bench over there if you want to talk to her." She turned to where her dad was pointing.

Ms. Greenhorn was sitting on a bench next to Mr. Courrier, the two of them were talking about something while Ms. Greenhorn had her hand wrapped around something hanging off her neck, Yang grinned, "Well, well, looks like this is your lucky day Ruby! Me and dad are gonna go get snacks while you go talk to her okay?"

"Wha- huh?" Ruby turned around to see both her dad and Yang missing as they sped off towards the food section of the Festival; Ruby nervously approached the two, catching a glimpse of their conversation as she got closer.

"You mean this…" Ms. Greenhorn opened her palm to reveal a blood-stained bullet.

"Yep, it's been in here for a while," Mr. Courrier tapped the spot above his right eye, "It's kind of a lucky charm, that's why Sustrai's Semblance didn't work on you."

"Really?" Ruby froze, she knows she's not supposed to eavesdrop because that's bad but the conversation was getting really interesting! "I thought it did… I had to hit two clones before I got to the real one."

"Without it, you wouldn't have gotten to the real one until you've beaten out all the clones," Mr. Courrier grabbed the bullet, "And if you were me, you'd have hit the original on the first try. There's also a sneaky eavesdropper listening on our conversations as well, if you're interested."

She yelped, causing Ms. Greenhorn to jump at her with her switchblade drawn, "Wait! Wait wait wait! I'm sorry!" Ruby held her eyes shut as she felt the blade of the weapon on her neck, it was cold.

"Oh, it's you… who are you?" Ms. Greenhorn retracted the switchblade; Mr. Courrier approached Ruby and peered down at her in amusement.

"Oh hey Ruby, what'd you think of the fight?" Mr. Courrier smiled, "I also didn't see your name in the doubles bracket, guess you wanted your sister to fight right?"

"Yeah… she's a lot better at one on one matches than me!" she pointed at herself, "I have never won a fight against her! Not once!"

"Well that's just motivation for you to try harder!" Mr. Courrier laughed, "Also tell me, how do those specialized bullets feel to use?"

"They were great! I took one shot and BANG! Their Aura's just gone!" Ruby then rubbed her right shoulder, "But the recoil was really bad though! And it's really loud too!"

"Well, that's another reason for you to keep training," he reached into his overalls' pockets and pulled out a small pouch, "Here's a few of those specialized bullets for you to train with, significantly lower calibre but it should still work with your Crescent Rose."

Ruby accepted the pouch eagerly and opened it, "Wow! Three-oh-eight rounds! Cool!"

"I assume that you can swap out the receiver for Crescent Rose to accept those instead of fifty cal right?" Ruby nodded vigorously, she trained with three-oh-eight before swapping to fifty cal when she was young! "Great! Using a gun requires two skills most importantly, accuracy and the ability to recover from recoil."

"If you can hit your targets then that's great! But if you can hit your target only once before your shoulder dislocates then that's bad…" Ruby shuddered at the thought of her shoulder flying out of its sockets, "Come find me sometimes in the firing range, maybe I'll have some more rounds for you to try out."

"Thanks Mr. Courrier!" she tried to run in for a hug before Mr. Courrier grabbed her head and held her an arm's length away.

"Looks like your sister's looking for you," Ms. Greenhorn said, nudging Ruby towards Yang, "It's been good listening to you talk Ruby, maybe someday we can talk for real without this guy here to talk over us," she chuckled, pointing a finger at Mr. Courrier, "Go along now."

"Okay! Bye Ms. Greenhorn! Bye Mr. Courrier!"

And that's another chapter done, this one's a bit longer than the others, probably because it's the twentieth chapter, also hurray!

I never thought I'd actually have the motivation to write this much, let alone twenty chapters of this crap, not to mention I've been uploading like nearly daily at this point lol. Still, I owe it to the early reviewers who gave me some feedback during like the first two or three chapters, thanks a lot! At the time of writing this, 50 reviews and 50 favourites? Nice! I'd argue that reviews are better not gonna lie.

For the Guest in the reviews, I'm not going to be making a character sheet for the Courier simply because I'm really lazy and... yeah that's about the only reason for that. If you do want to know the Courier's SPECIAL stats then I'll give you something but it's not going to be like specific at all lol.

The Courier has high Strength, Perception, Agility, Luck, and Endurance but dogshit Charisma and below average Intelligence. Which is why he's so dependent on Mentats for conversations and stuff. Despite his dogshit Charisma and below average Intelligence, his Science, Repair, Medical, and Speech stats are really high, with Barter being the only shit stat that he has.

Anyways, thanks for reading! Remember to review so that I can brag to my friends about the fact that people care about my story.