Update time!
I bet you didn't expect that today, didn't you?
It's been a while, but I just had to update today since it's my birthday. Oh, and also I've finally finished my thesis and even defended it so I'm quite elated.
Anyway, you probably don't want ot hear about my everyday life, let's get into the chapter!
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Topic: We Need Lan Tournaments!
In: Boards Games and Matches Competitive
JstSmeAtGuy (Original Poster)
Posted On Oct 15th AW94:
Hello everyone! I'm a relatively experienced player (at least as experienced as one can be with the game being still rather new) and recently I've been getting more and more interested in the more competitive side of this game. I keep playing games with better and better players I find on this forum and give my very best in every match I find myself in. As I do this however I noticed that we are severely lacking something very important for any community that wants to be treated seriously.
Social events!
I know that ATG is just fan game mode to a different game, but with the community steadily growing larger the community needs to get more organised, as well. That's why I propose we have Lan Tournaments in Atlas!
I know a couple good places we could host them at, and I'm sure that with everyone here we would be able to make a proper event out of it.
What do you guys think? Would you like something like that?
(Showing page 1 of 7)
XX_ThaProDude_XX (Unverified Tester)
Replied On Oct 15th AW94:
great idea!
why in atlas tho? its like the most expensive city in the world
JstSmeAtGuy (Original Poster)
Replied On Oct 15th AW94:
It's not so bad. Sure if you live there for a long time it can get quite expensive but if you're just visiting for a moment its not too bad.
Besides I live here so obviously I would want the Lan tournaments to happen here.
HappyNEWby (The Regular)
Replied On Oct 15th AW94:
Why not have the tournaments be in Mantle then?
It's right below you and its cheaper to boot.
The_Bankrupt_Player
Replied On Oct 15th AW94:
YEAH! LET MANTLE HAVE SOM COOL STUFF TOO!
JstSmeAtGuy (Original Poster)
Replied On Oct 15th AW94:
Please make sure that your CapsLock is off before you write something bankrupt.
The_Bankrupt_Player
Replied On Oct 15th AW94:
sry didnt notice
ValGamer91 (Unverified Tester)
Replied On Oct 15th AW94:
What about everyone outside the kingdom of Atlas? We would like to have some nice tournaments as well, you know?
Not everyone can find the time to travel to a whole different kingdom to play some fan game they enjoy.
JstSmeAtGuy (Original Poster)
Replied On Oct 15th AW94:
You can have some local Lan tournaments too if you want. I'm not going to stop you.
I'm just saying we need to have some Lan tournaments in the first place and Atlas would have been a perfect place fro them.
BlackRainbowPart (Moderator) (ATGDev)
Replied On Oct 15th AW94:
Interesting.
I'm not sure how my sister and I can help with the organisation of all of that, but we might make some more secure version of the mod, to help combat any cheats people might run in those tournaments.
QuietTheReader
Replied On Oct 15th AW94:
Ooh, the devs are here.
The things have just gotten official.
JstSmeAtGuy (Original Poster)
Replied On Oct 15th AW94:
I don't know if it would be necessary but I'm certain we all would be happy for any type of support from you.
HappyNEWby (The Regular)
Replied On Oct 15th AW94:
Does that mean that you want Arena of the Great to become a much more competitive gamemode?
BlackRainbowPart (Moderator) (ATGDev)
Replied On Oct 15th AW94:
Personally, I would like nothing more than my game mode to be popular enough for its tournaments to become inter-kingdom events. Sadly, for it to happen we would need to have far more active and competitive players, or find a really rich sponsor who would be willing to organise such a thing.
JstSmeAtGuy (Original Poster)
Replied On Oct 15th AW94:
It's such a pity. I would have loved to play some competitive games of Arena of the Great on a real arena.
End of Page. 1, 2, 3 ... 5, 6, 7
(...)
Weiss sighed quietly as she turned off the forum application on her Scroll.
The day of her concert was finally here, and she was about to give her first public performance to the people of Atlas. If everything went according to her plan, it would be her last performance as well.
The only thing she needed to do was give a mediocre performance.
There was nothing easier than that!
She shifted in place a little to make herself more comfortable.
It did give her quite a bit of downtime, however.
Technically, she was supposed to be using that last hour she had in her private room to prepare herself for the concert, but she couldn't care less about that.
There was no way she was going to waste the only free time she had for herself this entire day on something different than relaxing. Besides, it wasn't like anyone aside from her would know that she wasn't preparing herself for the concert right now; she was the only person in the room, and her music teacher had forbidden anyone from distracting her when she was here.
It was only a pity she couldn't really use that time to contact her friends.
Although there might not have been anything physically stopping her from calling Knight or Chammy, she would rather not do that when it could cause them to learn just who she exactly was.
After all, it wouldn't take a genius to figure out that she was the Weiss Schnee when she would abruptly end a call right before her concert because some random SDC worker called her to the stage.
At that point, even a complete stranger would have been able to connect the dots and realise who she was, let alone her two closest friends.
She tightened her fists slightly from the nerves.
Neither of her friends could learn who she was, not when they were already so close and when her family caused one of them so much suffering. It would only lead to the end of their friendship; she was certain of it.
With a determined expression on her face, she looked at one of the mirrors present in the room.
She couldn't allow this to happen!
There was too much for her to lose to allow such risks.
A silent huff escaped her as she tried to calm herself down.
She would simply have to contact her friends after the concert. It might be a bit later, and it surely wasn't going to help her pass the time right now, but it was the only option she had if she wanted to ensure the safety of her friendship.
It was alright, though; she could wait.
At the very least, she could use that later conversation to ask Knight what he thought of the performance and subtly learn whether or not he realised who she was, so it wasn't all that bad.
Rapid footsteps suddenly echoed from just beyond her closed door.
It looked like it was finally time for her concert to start, then.
With a slight grunt, she lifted herself from her seat and moved to open the door. She might be planning to give a mediocre performance, but that didn't mean she wasn't going to be punctual and organised.
Whether she liked it or not, being a Schnee meant having standards that she had to reach no matter what. At least if she didn't wish to face the consequences of angering her father, that was.
As the rapid footsteps ceased—and the person behind the door was most likely about to knock—Weiss gracefully opened the door to face whoever was on the other side.
"A-Ah-" The employee stuttered for a moment as the door opened before them.
Weiss looked at the young worker before them as they looked at her with the same fear most people have for her father. It made sense, she supposed; even if she didn't have the same amount of power as her father, she still was the heiress to the biggest and most ruthless company on Remnant.
One complaint from her could probably ruin that poor worker's entire life.
A quiet sigh escaped her.
"I assume it's time for me to go on stage?" She asked, trying to sound as calm and reassuring as possible.
The employee gulped before frantically nodding their head.
"Y-Yes, Miss Schnee!" They stuttered in fear. "W-We already announced your concert, Miss. T-The performance is expected to begin in ten to fifteen minutes, so please make your way to the stage if you can."
She nodded her head calmly.
"I'll be on my way then."
The worker frantically sputtered something barely understandable to her before promptly rushing to the other side of the corridor to make way. Had the sight of the adult worker of her company cowering before her not been so pitiable, she might have even laughed a little at the exaggerated reaction from the employee.
As it was, however, it only reinforced her belief that she shouldn't reveal her identity to her friends anytime soon.
With a slight grimace, she turned towards the path that would lead her to the stage and started walking.
In the end, she still had the concert to give, and a crowd to disappoint. If everything went well, she wouldn't need to repeat any of that in the future, and it would become just a one time experience anyway.
With a determined look, she steadily made her way towards the stage.
There was no point in delaying that.
(...)
It had already been a week since Jaune arrived in the Kingdom of Atlas with his family.
His time here was spent almost equally between exploring the city of Mantle with his family and having fun or playing games with Ilya. In his personal opinion, it made this the best holiday trip he has ever been on.
The only thing he found missing in this entire trip was a chance to have a spar against Ilya to find out how their Huntsmen training was going.
Apparently it wasn't exactly easy to have a spar between two Huntsmen in training in a city as big and densely populated as Mantle. Throughout the entire week, they didn't manage to have a single fight in which they could let loose without police or other types of guards stopping them in the middle of it.
That was the reality of big cities, unfortunately.
If Ilya and him were to somehow visit his home village, they would have been able to spar against each other easily by simply going outside the main roads and starting their fight in one of the many fields or forests that were common there.
Here, on the other hand, they had rules and regulations against that, and if one wanted to have a spar, they needed to do it in a proper gym or arena built throughout the city.
Finding a free gym they could have a spar in proved to be quite an issue, however; not only most of them were already full because of the students from the Atlesian combat schools, but the couple gyms that had free spaces were far too expensive for them to afford.
In the end, they had to ask his father to help them reserve a slot for one of the slightly more expensive gyms, and they still only managed to find a slot a single day before their leave.
It also just so happened to be on the same day the concert they went to Atlas in the first place happened, so now he had two things to await for today.
A small smile appeared on his face as he saw that all the preparations were already finished on the stage, and they were told to await the star of the show.
At last, one of the things he was waiting for was about to finally begin.
He couldn't help but feel a bit awkward for attending this concert, though.
It was difficult not to feel that way when one of his best friends lost her parents because of the family responsible for this concert. The only thing that stopped him from complaining about the need to attend the concert out loud was the fact that it was still a charity concert, so their attendance would help whatever charity SDC decided to support.
That and the fact that their ticket for the concert was a gift his father received for saving someone's life, of course.
His family might not have gotten the best seats in the building—they were far too poor and unimportant for real VIP places—but they certainly weren't the worst seats they could have gotten.
They could still see the stage, so their seats couldn't be that bad, right?
The lights suddenly turned dark.
"It looks like it's about to begin." One of his sisters whispered in excitement.
"Quiet, Bleue." His mother chastised. "It's a live concert. We can't be too loud and distract the singer from their song. Besides, it's a high-class event; certain behaviour is expected of us here."
"Alright, mom. I'll be quiet." Bleue droned out as she rolled her eyes.
Jaune had to stop himself from rolling his eyes as well.
It wasn't a secret that neither he nor most of his sisters weren't exactly big fans of high-class events like this concert. In fact, it would have been somewhat weird for them to know that they liked them considering that most of them never had a chance to go on one before.
The job of a huntsman was certainly fulfilling, and it was necessary for civilisations to function on Remnant on top of that. However, it was hardly a profession notable enough for them to attend such glamorous concerts on a regular basis.
A slight wince appeared on Jaune's face.
Great, now he was starting to sound like a pretentious Atlesian elite even in his own mind. The stuffy attitudes of all the people around them must corrupt his mind more than he thought they were.
He bet Ilya would have laughed at him so much if she ever learnt of that.
A sigh almost escaped him as he thought of his friend that wasn't here with him, but before he could do anything, a couple bright lights suddenly shone directly at the stage to highlight the upcoming singer.
The concert was about to begin.
"All respectable guests, I'm happy to announce that Weiss Schnee is about to begin her performance." A voice of a calm-sounding older man resounded through the theatre. "Please keep your silence and enjoy the concert."
A polite applause echoed through the theatre, and not a few seconds later, the star of the show was revealed to all of the audience.
As Jaune saw Weiss Schnee gracefully walk onto the stage, he couldn't help but gasp quietly as he was stunned by the beauty of the heiress.
His family undoubtedly noticed his reaction, and they would tease him about it later for sure, but he didn't care. The girl on the stage was the most beautiful person he had ever seen, and if his sister were going to tease him because of that fact, then there was nothing he could do about it.
He was so captivated by the appearance of Weiss Schnee that he barely even realised that the girl was already sitting in front of the piano and was about to start her first song.
The moment the first notes of the song were played and the Schnee heiress began to sing as well, his feelings of adoration were almost immediately replaced by a completely different emotion, however.
Jaune blinked as he looked at the songstress with a gaze full of feeling that nobody else among the audience had.
It was the feeling of familiarity.
(...)
The audience was quiet.
Sure, there was some applause almost every time she finished a song, but Weiss knew that it was mostly out of politeness than anything else. After all, the performance of a heiress to one of the biggest companies on Remnant required some reaction no matter what.
A tiny smile formed on Weiss's lips.
Everything was going exactly as she planned.
All the songs she was playing were standard, run of the mill pieces that she composed in the middle of her lessons. They were basic, unoriginal, and perfectly forgettable to anyone who would listen to them.
There was literally nothing impressive about them!
Her lips quivered a little as she fought herself to not widen her smile even more than necessary.
The plan was coming along perfectly.
It was a bit of a pity that she wasn't giving her best when performing for one of her precious friends. Thankfully, as long as Knight wouldn't realise who she was exactly—which she would have to make sure wouldn't happen anytime soon—that subpar performance wouldn't cause her any harm.
Who knew, maybe in the future she would sing some proper songs to her friends out of her own volition? A private concert from her would certainly make for a decent birthday present, for example.
That would only happen if she ever revealed who she was to them, of course.
She still wasn't quite certain whether she would ever be confident enough to tell her friends who she really was—not when that information could ruin their relationship so easily and so quickly.
Absentmindedly, she changed the key she was playing in to something more lively.
If she ever did something like that, however, she would probably try to focus on the songs her friends would find enjoyable. Songs that were more uplifting for Knight and more lively pieces for Chammy.
There was no point in performing songs that nobody would like, after all.
At least when one tried to give a proper performance, that was.
A subtle laugh escaped her as she finished singing the lyrics of her song.
Yeah, she could already imagine the delighted reactions her friends would have if she sang the songs that she prepared specifically for them. No doubt, they would have been even more delighted if they ever learnt she composed most of her songs herself.
Although she didn't like to brag much about her accomplishments outside of gaming, she did have to admit that she was quite a prodigy at making songs.
She wouldn't have been forced to perform at this stupid stage if that wasn't the case.
As she moved onto the final piano segment of her song, she hummed melodically in a way that accompanied the instrument beyond perfectly.
On top of that, she would certainly make sure to prepare herself properly if she ever were to perform for either of her friends. They deserved the best of her no matter the situation, and she would be sure to give them that.
In her mind, her friends were much more important and valuable than all those high-class elites currently present in the audience.
With a satisfied smile on her face, she finally finished the last song of her performance with a quiet hum of a fleeting melody. In the end, it was simply another unimpressive piece among all the ones that were played at this concert.
The audience stayed quiet.
Her smile widened as she turned away from the audience.
It appeared that her performance as a whole was so unimpressive that the audience didn't even want to clap at the end out of politeness. Her plan has worked even better than she imagined it would.
"Incredible..." A stupefied whisper echoed from the backstage, seemingly loud enough to be heard throughout the entire theatre.
Weiss froze.
What? Why would anyone think that anything that she performed today was good in any way?
Was the person who said that completely tone deaf? If they were, then why were they allowed to work on her concert? Had she been actually trying to perform well, she would have been offended by that person's lack of ability to discern what's good and what's not.
A barely noticeable sigh escaped her; it seemed that her father had decided to save some money on her performance and hired the least qualified people he could find.
At least the audience wasn't as stupid as that single employee was.
The audience exploded in applause.
Weiss panicked.
What was going on?!
There shouldn't be a single reason for the audience to react like they did, not after she basically sabotaged her entire concert! She made sure to only perform her most unimpressive songs, didn't she?
She gritted her teeth.
The performance was over, and regardless of the audience's bizarre reaction, it was time for her to leave the stage.
There was nothing more she could do here. She could only hope that there wasn't going to be any more concerts or different events for her to attend in the future. At least, the ones that she would have to prepare a lot for to attend.
With a final glance at the audience, she was able to see the adoration of all the people in the theatre.
Sadly, from the way everyone was looking at her, she could already tell that it wasn't going to be her final concert.
(...)
As they were leaving the theatre, all members of the Arc family were in a pleasant mood, and Jaune was no exception. The concert left a great impression on them, and they weren't going to pretend it didn't.
They quickly started to talk about the event because of that.
"That was awesome!" Violet, one of the younger siblings of the Arc family, said. "I can't believe that such high-class music can be so fun! Will we come for the next concert? Please say yes!"
Charles chuckled.
"It might be a bit outside our price range, Violet. We won't be able to afford another trip like that anytime soon, especially if we were to go as the whole family again, which is something I won't compromise on."
Violet groaned, the disappointment in her tone apparent.
There were many reasons they could argue with, but the monetary issues weren't something they could really do much about at this point. Although they weren't exactly poor, they weren't particularly well off either, and the events run by the Schnee family were certainly out of their price range.
Bleue rolled her eyes.
"Oh, calm down, Violet. The concert wasn't even that great to begin with." The girl said, slightly annoyed at her sister's antics. "Sure, the last song was incredible, but everything before that was average at best."
Violet gasped.
"Take that back!" The younger girl shouted. "It was the best concert I've ever been on!"
Bleue's eye twitched a little.
"It was the only concert you've ever been on!"
"Yeah, so what?" Violet asked. "It was still the best!"
Bleue took a deep breath, ready to argue with her sister.
Before the older girl could continue the fight, however, she was stopped by her mother placing a hand on her shoulder.
"How about we wait until we return to our hotel before we begin arguing whether the concert was good or not? We wouldn't want to cause a scene right in front of the theatre, right?" Amelia Arc said calmly. "Besides, even if the concert was a bit subpar at the beginning, it was probably only because of the singer's nerves. The girl is only Jaune's age, and it was her first concert, after all."
Bleue grumbled, but she didn't argue.
"Speaking of which," Saphron, the oldest sibling, started saying before turning towards her younger brother. "You've been awfully quiet since the concert ended, Jaune. Do you want to tell us something?"
A wide smirk appeared on Saphron's face.
"Have you found your crush, little brother?"
Jaune shook a little at the sudden question aimed at him and immediately sputtered as he processed what exactly he was asked. That was what he got for tuning himself out of the conversation.
"N-No, it's nothing like that!" He denied quickly.
His sisters looked at him with knowing smirks.
"Then what is it, brother?"
Jaune opened his mouth to answer, but he stopped himself before any words could come out of him.
The concert made it pretty clear to him that Weiss Schnee was actually his friend Snow. It was clear that she didn't want to reveal that to him, though. He wasn't certain of her identity for the most part of the concert, but after the final song and the way she was humming, he was more than certain of it. It also explained why Snow couldn't find time to play with Ilya and him whenever they played games together during this visit. Weiss was simply too busy with her preparations for the concert to play games with them.
Despite the fact that in his mind there was no question as to the identity of his friend, it was not information he has gotten with said friend's permission. For all intents and purposes, he shouldn't know who Snow was to begin with.
Should he invade his friend's privacy by telling his family about her possible identity, despite that?
The answer was no; he couldn't do that when he didn't even talk to Snow herself about it yet.
In the end, he could only sigh and let his sister think whatever they wanted.
"You know what?" He asked, completely prepared for the reaction of his family. "Sure, that's exactly what it is. I think that Weiss Schnee was beautiful, and her singing was incredible, as well. I have a crush on her, or whatever."
Most of his sisters squealed in excitement at the new gossip material, while his parents smiled wryly, and the two sisters who talked with Snow before, Noir and Blanc, only shook their heads slowly.
It looked like he wasn't the only one who realised who Snow was.
Well, at least they decided to keep quiet about that information, as well.
"Alright, girls, that's enough." Charles Arc said, calming down the entire group. "Let's get back to the hotel, and I will escort your brother to the gym we've got reserved so that he can spar with his friend."
Jaune blinked.
Right, he completely forgot about that.
He has also momentarily forgotten just what Ilya's opinion was about the Schnee family. Now he understood Snow's reluctance to play with them during this trip even more; he wouldn't want to tell something like that to one of his best friends, either.
It seemed that he would need to try to avoid the topic of the concert with Ilya in order to keep the Snow's identity safe.
Hopefully, Ilya wasn't going to be too curious about that.
Jaune smirked a little.
Who was he kidding? If he knew Ilya as well as he thought he knew, she was going to avoid that topic like a plague.
(...)
"How was the concert?" Ilya asked the moment she saw Jaune approach her with his father.
Jaune raised an eyebrow in surprise at her question.
"I thought you didn't care about the concert of Weiss Schnee?"
Ilya leaned back.
Sure, she wasn't really pleased with one of her best friends attending an event run by the Schnee family, but it wasn't like she could do anything about that event. At the very least, it was a charity event, and her friend could hopefully find some enjoyment out of it.
It certainly beat standing around in front of a Huntsmen arena for a good hour or so.
"Eh, waiting for you has gotten so boring that I couldn't help but to be curious about what you were doing." She admitted. "There really isn't much to do around here, and I bet the concert was at least a little bit interesting."
Jaune blinked a couple times at her words.
"You've been waiting here this whole time?" The boy asked.
Ilya shrugged.
"It wasn't like I had anything better to do." She said. "I didn't want to waste our precious time in the arena by being late, either."
Jaune stared at her stupefied for a couple minutes.
"Let's just go in and spar, alright?"
Ilya chuckled.
"I see, you can't wait to get beaten by me, then." She nodded her head. "Don't worry, I'll make sure to go easy on you. Also, you still didn't tell me what you thought of the concert. Was it that bad?"
Jaune narrowed his eyes at her.
"Who said anything about me getting beaten?" Her friend said. "If anything, I should be the one to go easy on you, since you've never had the chance to see a proper huntsman fight in your entire life."
"Of course, mister, son of a huntsman." Ilya smirked. "Tell me, who told you what Aura was?"
Jaune grumbled.
"Let's wait with the trash talking until you're at least in the arena, okay?" Jaune's father said, stopping their pre-battle bickering before it could get really heated. "I will go make sure the employees know we are here so that we can enter the gym without worries. Also, Ilya, the concert was quite pleasant."
Ilya raised her eyebrow slightly at the answer she was given before turning to Jaune.
"Was it really good?" She asked her friend.
Jaune grimaced slightly.
"It was decent." He said. "The first couple songs were boring, but by the end it has gotten really good. You would probably have liked it, but I wouldn't recommend going for it. It's not worth the money."
Ilya nodded.
It was probably what she should have expected. Just because the family itself was known for doing terrible things didn't mean that they were incompetent; if Weiss Schnee was a terrible singer, she wouldn't have been pushed onto a scene by her father.
"Do you have any recordings?" She asked, curious about the performance.
Her friend shook his head rapidly.
"Nope, the Scrolls weren't allowed in the theatre."
Ilya huffed.
"Well, I will just check if there are any recordings online later; there's bound to be something." She said offhandedly. "If you say it's good, then there's no harm in giving it a listen or two at home."
Jaune stiffened in response to her words.
"Don't do that!" He shouted.
Ilya jumped a little at the sudden shout.
"What, why?" She asked, confused by her friend's reaction.
"U-Uhm, it will give money to the Schnee family." Jaune said with a stutter, clearly thinking up the answer on the spot. "Y-Yeah, they will get money from whatever video they put on the internet that people watch."
Ilya paused.
It wasn't a bad reason to avoid watching the video, she supposed. The only weird thing was her friend's drastic reaction. Usually, Jaune was far more reserved than that, and she was the one who was more drastic about things.
A quiet sigh escaped her.
"Alright, I won't listen to the concert; calm down, Jaune."
Whatever, it wasn't like she was all that excited about listening to a heiress of the Schnee company singing, anyway. She would just have to find something different to entertain herself with; maybe play some games with Jaune and Snow instead.
"Good." Her friend said.
Not a moment later, Jaune's father returned from the reception desk with a satisfied smile on his face, and all three of them entered the arena where Jaune and her could finally have a proper spar with each other.
The arena itself wasn't anything special. It was empty, decently large, and somewhat well-maintained. One wouldn't need to look at it for too long in order to realise one of the cheaper huntsmen arenas available in Atlas.
At the very least, there were some practice weapons they could use.
It was just good enough for them.
Jaune and her moved to the opposite corners of the arena, while Jaune's father moved out of the way to referee the fight properly.
Ilya was quite glad they had a professional huntsman to watch over the fight. It was difficult to find a proper teacher who could help her become a better huntress, and having a real huntsman offer her criticism was probably the best thing that could happen to her.
They were quite lucky to have that.
"Nervous?" She asked with a smirk as she saw her friend prepare himself for the battle.
Jaune smiled in response.
"Not really." The boy said. "I just can't wait for the spar."
A grin appeared on Ilya's face as she moved to pick up one of the practice swords. She didn't really have a weapon of her own just yet, so she simply had to make do with the basic sword-gun hybrids she could find here.
There weren't many choices here, but one of them would work her just fine.
"Are both of you ready?" Charles Arc said upon seeing her pick up the weapon. "The moment you say you are, we can start the fight. I will make sure to stop the fight if the battle goes too far, so you can go all out if you want."
Both of them nodded their heads.
"I'm ready." Ilya said as she gripped her weapon in a solid manner.
"Me too." Jaune said as well.
Charles Arc nodded his head in confirmation.
"Alright, if you're both surely read, then we can safely begin the spar." The older man said, with a cough to make sure his voice was loud and clear. "The spar will start the moment I count down to one, and I'll be watching over it from beginning to the end."
Both of them nodded their heads again before immediately preparing themselves for the fight.
"Three."
Ilya shifted in place and tightened her grip on the weapon.
She noticed her friend doing similar.
"Two."
Her body tensed, ready to spring up in a moment.
The battle was about to start, and she couldn't wait.
"One!"
Ilya and Jaune sprang forward, and their spar has begun.
They've reached the middle of the arena in less than a second.
The moment they did, their weapons clashed. A loud clang echoed through the room, and sparks of metal flew out of their weapons. It was easy to see their strength from that clash, and even the least knowledgeable person would have been able to tell that they were huntsmen in training.
A grimace appeared on Ilya's face as she had to take a step back from the exchange.
It was clear that she wasn't a match for Jaune in a straight-up strength contest.
She would have to rely on her agility instead.
As she saw Jaune prepare himself for a stronger strike by moving the weapon higher than he had before, she quickly dashed to the side.
In her mind, she expected her friend to whiff an attack and allow her for the counterattack.
It didn't happen.
Jaune didn't attack at all, and before he did anything with his weapon, he tensed his legs and decided to shoulder-tackle her.
As she was still trying to recover her balance from the dash earlier, she could exactly dodge the attack again. The only thing she could do was raise her weapon in a defensive fashion and hope it would be enough to mitigate the damage.
It wasn't.
She was sent tumbling backwards as she felt the body of her friend collide with her at speeds she really wasn't comfortable surviving.
Seeing that Jaune was about to follow up on his attack with another charge—or at least an attack that from her perspective looked like it could be a charge—she immediately aimed the gun part of her weapon roughly in the direction of her opponent and fired a couple bullets.
Those bullets weren't strong or accurate enough to deal any significant damage, but they were distracting enough to give her a second or two of respite.
"You should use more than your weapon to fight, Ilya." Jaune said, as he shrugged off the bullets with his Aura. "A weapon is just a single tool in your arsenal; it won't win you a fight on its own."
Ilya groaned.
"Not everyone is a brute like you, Jaune." She said. "Besides, I believe the few bullets that I fired with my weapon were more than enough to stop your offence on me. That's good enough for me."
Jaune hummed in response.
Not wanting to give her opponent any time to plan and continue his attack, Ilya quickly tensed her legs, leaned forward before springing forward in a quick dash to deliver her attack.
The simplicity of her weapon heavily limited the amount of approaches she had in this fight, but there wasn't much she could do about that. She would just have to work with what she had.
As she closed in, she aimed her weapon at Jaune's eyes, prompting a response from the boy.
With how quickly her attack was happening, the only thing her friend could realistically do was raise his own weapon in desperate hope that he could use it to block some of her bullets and maybe a stab or two.
A wide grin appeared on Ilya's face as she saw the involuntary reaction from her friend.
She didn't fire or attack Jaune's face even once. Instead, she performed a slide, extended her weapon to the side, and caught both of Jaune's legs with it, making him trip forward on his face.
Knowing that she had to capitalise on the situation, she swiftly jumped up, landed on her feet, and pinned her friend to the ground while putting her weapon right next to his neck.
"Point to Ilya!" Charles Arc's voice echoed through the arena.
"What?!" Jaune shouted. "I still have my Aura!"
Charles sighed.
"You're on the ground, and your opponent has a blade right next to your neck, son." The older man said. "If that isn't a loss for you, then I don't know what it is. The first round was won by Ilya."
Ilya smirked.
"Look's like I won." She said with a smug expression on her face.
Jaune grumbled.
"Just barely." Charles said, calming down her smug arrogance. "If my son didn't stop to give you a hint in the middle of the fight, you would have lost in the first exchange there. You shouldn't assume your opponent is going to finish every attack they prepare for; feints are a thing, after all."
Now it was her turn to grumble.
Charles Arc turned towards his son.
"Jaune, you, on the other hand, shouldn't stop the fight to give hints to your opponent." The older man chastised. "I know that Ilya's your friend, but during the spar she's your foe. I'm the one who's giving you lessons here, got it?"
Jaune nodded his head.
"Good." Charles said. "Now, both of you get back to your corners so that we can start another round; we don't have the entire day here!"
Ilya and Jaune smiled as they quickly moved to their corners of the arena.
They had a very limited time in this place, and they were about to use it to its fullest!
And Cut!
Weiss failed to fail her concert, Jaune realised who she was, and Ilya and Jaune had a spar.
Next time the blond boy will be leaving the city.
See ya then!