Neopolitan: Beyond Ever After (The Girl From Another World) - Part 1

by Calavera de Comala

After failing to ascend, Neo finds herself trapped in Zenith, a world obliterating other forsaken planets. Confronted by a mysterious organization called The Zodiac, she will embark on an incredible odyssey that tests the limits of her imagination. However, she may discover new friends who help her face the adversities ahead.

15. Witch on the Sea Moon (II)

Witch on the Sea Moon (Act II)

"Phoebe cannot wake up?" Ed asked incredulously, putting on the top hat we 'borrowed' last night.

It was almost late morning when Sara and I arrived at a multi-level room resembling a luxurious lounge with a mostly dark blue interior design, golden lamps, and some wooden furniture here and there. The room had a length of 36 meters and a height of 12 meters, and it was divided into 3 levels that could be accessed through many entrances with modern, automatic metal sliding doors. Each blue carpeted level had a depth of 9 meters and 3 diagonal seating rows, with semicircular leather couches and individual seats. We were at the central level but if desired one could traverse between the 3 through wooden staircases that connected them.

The most special feature of this room was its clear view of the subterranean training grounds. A space so big, it might as well be a futuristic army bombing range to test Atlesian weapons. I estimated we were at least 40 meters above the ground of the enclosed training area. Giant panes of ultra-reinforced glass and hard-light energy shields separated the 'spectator room' from the exercise area so combatants could go all out with zero worries, according to the count.

"It's my fault. I used the new somnolence spell on her." Sara said apologetically, clutching her cloak cape's sleeves and lowering her head till the witch hat covered her face.

Phoebe suggested testing the spell on herself. Sara isn't to blame.

(､)

I typed with embarrassment to Ed.

It happened after we dined together. Phoebe wanted to discover what the word somnolence meant and the effects of Sara's untested spell. The problem was we didn't anticipate her falling into a very deep slumber. One from which she wouldn't wake up even the next morning, no matter how many times I hit her with Sakura, scribbled on her face with a marker, or Sara performed other spells to wake her up.

So, we left her on a couch in the upper level of Sara's room and headed to the underground training range, in the widest portion of Monte Cruz's moon-shaped land, south of its bay.

Because it would take days to make my Lolita attire, even if I switched some of my clothes after waking up, my current clothing set was similar to yesterday's. I only had enough time in the morning to customize my sports jacket by sewing my emblem on its right sleeve and adding a Neapolitan ice cream charm to its zipper pull. In preparation for the fight, I had a small brown backpack, Sakura, and my AAIS bracelet with me.

"Why the concern? The disgustingly wealthy count also wears the same as when he revealed himself in the warehouse, and Sara as when you met her." Roman brought up a taboo topic, sitting nearby on an empty leather seat.

You are still wearing the attire I made you over 5 years ago.

"I'm dead. No need for me to change clothes." Roman repeatedly moved his hand through his chest.

And the 3 years between our first heist and Beacon's Fall?

I rolled my eyes in his direction.

"... Let's sweep this under the rug." He nervously averted his gaze from mine.

More people wearing white trousers and jackets of various colors began to fill the spectator room. The waiters, dressed in classic black-and-white uniforms, occasionally entered the room to receive guests' orders, deliver appetizers, and serve drinks.

"Miss Politan, will you fight alone Carmie and Urmi Yasha?" A concerned, adorable voice regained my attention. It belonged to Sara, who softly pulled one of my white jacket's sleeves.

Yes, but Politan isn't my last name.

I crossed my arms and nodded arrogantly.

"You are going to die. Don't." Freckles gave a jaw-dropping reply.

...

The adults (Roman included) in the room went silent. A petrified waiter kept filling a red agent's glass with champagne till it started to spill.

"Sara, there's no need for alarm. We will monitor everyone's Aura levels through their AAIS equipment." Ed faked a confident smile and gently tapped her back.

"Ah!" Sara gasped in surprise at me. "They changed colors again!"

I raised my eyebrow in confusion.

"Your left eye was pink! Now it's the right one!" She pointed to my face with astonishment.

Rude.

"Yeah, why do you keep doing that? I no longer remember which one is your real pink eye." Roman exaggeratedly blinked multiple times.

I don't do it on purpose... Most of the time.

Listen, I need to keep Overactive Imagination on for my hair to look half-pink. I will dye it as soon as possible to spare me future trouble.

I was beginning to regain some subconscious habits I had back in Remnant. For a year, I forced myself to suppress these to not blow my covers. But things were different on this island. I was no longer afraid of showing off my identity. Who I really am.

[A proud girl wearing a custom uniform in the middle of a class.]

... It's been years since I felt this relaxed as Neopolitan.

My partner smiled at me.

However, the sound of a sliding door and a group of footsteps ceased my reflections. Several people entered the spectator area at once.

"Enana, step away from Sara." The boastful voice was Carmelia's.

Behind her were around 12 people (mostly men) wearing, in addition to this island's etiquette trousers and jackets, white headbands with illustrations of red flowers, and holding small plastic fans that matched these.

The girl in a red dress leading them held a folded fan, except hers looked more tasteful and well-made. Its 40-centimeter-long metallic guard and head were black, and its folded ribs red. Dangling to her fan was a red charm shaped like a bird. A matching second fan and an object similar to a 20-centimeters-long baton of color ultramarine hung to her waist. The latter had carved patterns of flowers and birds. Unlike her previous appearances, she wore a black choker with green gemstones.

Great, the third most annoying person in red and black I've met is here.

"Taking a long shot here. From least to most annoying, your top 6 are Miltia, Raven, Ruby, Carmelia, Cinder, and Salem." Still on his empty seat, Roman casually leaned forward to rest his head over the hands holding Melodic Cudgel.

Switch the top 2.

"Carmie!" Sara ran excitedly to her.

"No os preocupéis, I will get rid of that vile woman." Contrary to my expectations, Carmelia merrily took Sara's hand to make the little witch spin with a dancing motion.

Who are all those men? (_")

"My fan club... Well, only the members who could attend this duel." Carmelia answered with a haughty look.

"Arriba Carmelia!"

"She's winning this match!"

"Eres la mejor!"

"Our goddess will emerge victorious!"

"Gana, Carmelia!"

The annoying bunch cheered for her so I retaliated by putting one hand on my hip and winking at them with a devilish smile.

...

"Bella." Only one of the blushing men dared to say something, the rest were turned into stone.

"Do not be tempted by her! She will curse you!" The jealous girl tried to control her baffled followers, hitting some of them with her fan's guard.

"Where's Urmi?" Sara searched for my other opponent among the arrivals.

"Here." I heard a serene Anglian voice behind us.

It was Urmi, standing close to the panes of glass and overlooking the training range. She looked almost the same as yesterday, except for an opened, short-sleeved, white cropped jacket with a collar and highlights of color strong orange covering her upper body, along with the stanapatta.

When did she position herself behind me?

I felt goosebumps at the idea that she sneaked on us without making any noise. If Urmi wanted to, she could have attacked by surprise.

"I also got distracted by that bunch of morons. Will not let that happen again." Roman shamefully admitted also failing to notice her presence.

"With the participants reunited, it's time to establish this duel's conditions for victory... And what's in bet." The extravagant dandy positioned himself in the center of the level, close to the reinforced glass.

Urmi and Carmelia walked to his left side, so I walked to his right. Sara stood in front of us with an anxious face. Carmelia bared her teeth at me but I just smugly sighed and closed my eyes, holding Sakura in one hand and the other resting on my hip. Before Carmelia's anger became more intense, Urmi spoke.

"Mis Neopolitan doesn't mind fighting both of us. It will be a simple armed fight. The person whose aura breaks, starts to flash repeatedly, loses consciousness, flees the battlefield, or gives up loses. No killing is allowed." Urmi turned to Carmelia while saying the last statement.

The count only allowed this challenge after forcing on us that condition.

"If La Cabro- La Payasita loses, she must leave Liberalis immediately." After a weird brief pause, an evil grin formed on Carmelia's face as she threatened me with her folded fan.

"... What if Miss Politan wins?" Concerned, Sara put one hand over her chest.

"Ja! As if that's going to happen!" Carmelia restrained her laughter. "But let us hear what she's got to say!"

I furiously gripped Sakura's handle. If it weren't for all the other people in the room, I would have defenestrated Carmelia at that moment.

"Dame Escarlata will have to abandon Liberalis." Ed cheerfully said.

Filled with horror, the rude girl dropped her fan.

"... Cariño... How could you!?" Carmelia struggled to speak despite having a voice.

"That's what Miss Neopolitan texted me earlier. I accepted her fair demands before your arrival." I couldn't contain my cocky smile as a fearful Carmelia listened to the count explaining nonchalantly the situation.

"Why just me!? What about Urmi!?" Escarlata failed to control her panic. Urmi kept her cool attitude and closed her eyes, not taking any offense.

"I told our newest recruit that losing both of you would be a serious blow to our forces, so she settled with only your expulsion, Dame Escarlata." The cheerful yet uncaring dandy continued explaining my demands.

Carmelia's fans gasped while Sara got teary-eyed.

"Neo, are you really going to hurt an innocent girl's feelings just to get your revenge on that woman?" Roman walked to me, playfully spinning his cane.

Of course, I will!

I raised my right fist, full of confidence and hate.

"I'm fine with those terms..." Urmi shrugged emotionlessly. "It's not like we will lose, right?"

She asked just before a bewildered Carmelia complained.

"... A- A, AJAJAJAJA!" To conceal her fear, Escarlata loudly laughed, placing one hand under her chin in a very lady-like manner. "Correcto, Urmi! We will crush her easily!"

Arrogant people are so foolish. They always cause their downfall.

"Couldn't agree more, partner." Roman and I nodded in unison.

•

Carmelia, Urmi, and I stepped into the training range. It was no exaggeration to say that this enclosed space of metal was so vast, that it had an area bigger than that of Amity's arena. If my estimations were correct, even one of Ozpin's Hunstman Academies could fit inside its approximately 1-square-kilometer area. The ceiling was about 100 meters above the flat metallic floor we were standing on. Even if the space was well-illuminated, a path of lights guided us to the center of the training range.

Urmi tranquil walked between us, while I strolled confidently and elegantly, holding Sakura behind my back, arms straight down. Now and then, I shot a prideful glance at them. On our right, Carmelia initiated a dance, holding her dress with one hand and the closed fan with the other.

Amor observa con atención

La enana humillaré

De esta oscura tentación

A mis hermanos salvaré

Bloody hell! The dimwit is happily singing!

White drones shaped like seagulls and equipped with cameras approached us. They began recording us from several angles. Out of nowhere, giant holo-screens turned on across the training grounds to display the drones' footage and an aura gauge system (similar to health bars in video games).

Café o rosa me da igual

Intocable que se cree

Pero un destino abismal

Es lo que yo le preparé

•

"That's a new song. What is it about?" Sara asked the count sharing a leather couch with her but the middle-aged man remained in awkward silence.

The pair had taken off their hats and long capes. Both were in the middle of the inferior row of the spectator's room central level. A system of screens, which could be repositioned to let users stand up or sit down more easily on the couch, allowed them to see the combatants. Other screens hanging from the ceiling also transmitted up-close footage of the training grounds and showed the 3 girls' aura gauge.

(Amor observa con atención) Amor!

(La enana humillaré) Amor!

(De esta oscura tentación) Amor!

(A mis hermanos salvaré) Amor!

As Carmelia repeated enthusiastically a single word, members of her fan club at the room's levels joined her aria like a chorus.

•

Amor decide mi proceder

Besa, besa, corazón de ardor

Sí, tu y yo, al anochecer

Si te atreves con una fleur (Con una fleur!)

After the last two verses, Escarlata turned to the drones and blew a kiss at their cameras. Whatever she sang in her weird language could be no good, so I childishly spun Sakura and skipped ahead of my rivals. In the process, I transformed the wagasa into Hush and myself into Lolita-Neopolitan. Not wanting to be left behind, Carmelia accelerated her dance.

•

"Sara, I'll let you pick the stage for the fight." Ignoring the footage of Carmelia, the count of Monte Cruz passed a tablet to the little redhead witch.

Si tú me amas, mas

Sí, tu y yo, al anochecer (Con una fleur!)

Mas siéntelo , si te atreves

Con una fleur!

"Pick as you like. Let your heart decide." The dandy persuaded the uneasy squirrel child to make her choice.

...

Overcoming her hesitation, she finally touched the tablet's screen.

"Magnifique, you've taken a side." Ed clapped and congratulated the young girl but in response, she just stared down quietly.

•

Amor decide mi proceder

Besa, besa, corazón de ardor

Sí, tu y yo, al anochecer

Si te atreves con una fleur (Con una fleur!)

Carmelia and I reached the very center of the training grounds. She exquisitely swayed her dress and tapped the floor, dancing and swinging her opened fan. I could now discern it had the white silhouette of a flower with many petals seen from above. Plus, white stems with thorns to complement her logo.

Si tú me amas, mas

Sí, tu y yo, al anochecer (Con una fleur!)

Mas siéntelo , si te atreves

Con una fleur!

The Roaming girl raised her voice till it reached an extraordinary crescendo as she sang the final lyrics. Escarlata closed her fan and spun one last time to turn her dress into a flower. Her obnoxious spontaneous performance came to an end.

...

Roman, about the top we discussed-

"She just dethroned Cinder?" My imaginary friend read my mind, throwing away his cigar.

"Mis Skaarlet, Sara can hear you through the drones." Urmi caught up with us, hands in her jacket's pockets.

Like Roman and me, Urmi looked emotionally exhausted.

"I doubt she will get the latter half of my song." Self-pleased by her performance, the pretentious diva waved at the drones.

•

"What do they mean?" Sara curiously stared at the count.

"I'll explain it when you are older." Not clearing the little witch's doubts, the Gallian gentleman strove to keep himself composed.

He approached his face to the screen console in front of their couch and pushed a button.

•

"Remain in that area. The stage Sara has chosen for you will be prepared." An elegant disembodied voice reached our ears.

The training range appeared to have a speaker system through which Ed could talk to us. Before I could understand the meaning of his words, a ridiculous number of hard-light blocks emerged from giant floor doors around us. These probably were stored in chambers hidden below the training grounds. Many of the blocks were 1 cubic meter in size but others were three times bigger or smaller.

That's why they guided us here, so we didn't get in the way of the blocks.

These cubes built giant structures of varying sizes and forms, from small constructions (3 or 5 stories high) to taller ones with heights between 40 and 80 meters. I couldn't count with precision how many of these showed up across the exercise area but I could tell that the structures were organized by groups that reminded me of city blocks.

Lights on the floor, ceiling, and drones lit up, most pointing at the recently built structures. And as if by magic, the training range transformed into a small Nuova city with many international-styled buildings.

"At Monte Cruz, we also got the latest projection mapping technology." Ed bragged through the speaker system as I watched amazed at our new surroundings.

It's a more advanced version of Atlas's training rooms!

"Reminds me of your semblance." Roman whistled before making a clever observation.

"Tsk, no good. Many obstacles will get in my way." Some meters in front of me, a frustrated Carmelia clicked her tongue.

The four of us were now standing in the middle of an empty city street.

"Keep your hair on. She chose a safe environment for everyone." The Varata girl with a cool attitude took off her jacket and dropped it on the ground.

Her golden bracelets came into view, along with her now gloved hands.

"And I can still use these obstacles to my benefit." Urmi activated her orange aura while readjusting the black gloves with glowing lines of cyan color and metallic claws.

Carmelia followed Urmi, taunting me with a smile. A chill through my spine made me reinforce the pink aura covering my body.

Not taking chances, I immediately went for my backpack to reach-

Wait, where is it!?

"What's wrong, Neopolitan? Looking for this?" The mocking girl in red took out something hidden in her dress.

It was The Zodiac's cat-themed mask.

When did she-

[Where's Urmi?]

[Here.]

Carmelia distracted everyone so Urmi could steal my backpack!

"That's not fair! Fucking thieves!" Roman shouted in vain at the smiling girls before me.

...

It feels awful to be the victim of a robbery. I will never again steal in my li-

"You won't keep that oath." Roman skeptically interjected.

A day. I won't steal for a day.

"Without further ado, let the duel begin!" A loud alarm sounded after Ed declared the beginning of the fight.

No, call it off! They cheated!

I looked with panic at the drones recording me.

"You were planning to wear it against us for an easy win, weren't you? Tramposa!" Carmelia put on the mask and opened her two fans.

At their edges, tiny blades of hard-light dust shone light blue.

"It won't bring us any tactical advantage though. You said she's immune to its presence concealing powers." Urmi stepped back. "Buy me time to set up a field."

"Do as you please, she won't make it past the first round." Carmelia dashed at me with supersonic speed.

I tossed aside the backpack and prepared Hush to intercept her attacks.

"Flamenco criminal, estilo tornado!" My passionate rival spun with an incredible speed, giving me the illusion she turned into a red tornado.

Still closed, Hush parried her fans' slices.

"Tra la la la la la!" The excited tornado spun around me till it completed a full rotation. Despite her altering the angle and rhythm of her attacks, I didn't have much trouble deflecting the blue slashes, mostly thanks to her speed not exceeding 4 times that of sound.

Compared to Araknim and The Strix, this is manageable.

Failing to land a hit on me, the girl jumped back some meters and halted her offensive.

"Bien, enana. You are more capable than when we met at Philippos but this is only a warm-up." The impressed scarlet lady closed her fans.

Damn, I don't see Urmi anymore.

"She vanished while Carmelia attacked you. Give me a body or make a construct to track-" Watching the battle 5 meters away from me, Roman was about to suggest a plan.

"Boost!" But Carmelia ran back at me, not giving us time to reformulate our battle strategy.

The fight is barely starting and she's already using Aura Boost.

The opponent moved at 5 times the speed of sound but instead of attacking me directly, she jumped and ran all around me. Vicious gusts formed around me, making it more difficult for my eyes to track her. I could only see a red dash surrounding me from every angle. At times, Carmelia looked like a red bullet ricocheting from the facades of buildings nearby.

Great. Another enemy with a speed comparable to Ruby Rose's Petal Burst.

"The screens ahead say that she boosted her aura by 40%." Roman informed me so I didn't lower my guard against her.

"Flamenco criminal, estilo tormenta!" Multiple blue aura slices were shot at me from different directions.

Boost!

To play it safely, I also enhanced my legs to dodge the slices by dancing into the spaces between them. Pink 'flames' engulfed my Lolita ankle boots. I kept maneuvering and spinning in the fierce storm for the next few seconds. Surprisingly, I avoided getting hit.

Roman, how much did I boost my aura? Need to keep my focus on her.

... Roman?

My partner was taking too long to reply.

"50." A perplexed voice answered.

What?

"50%! According to the screens, you increased your aura levels by half!" Roman happily shouted as I spun to dodge another blue slice.

I couldn't believe what he told me. Last week, I struggled to attain a 15% boost. When I fought Araknim, he said I performed a 40% boost. But now, if Ed's gauge system wasn't malfunctioning, I achieved without tons of effort a 50% increase. Best of all, I felt that I could still push myself further.

How is it possible? What changed in less than two days for my Aura Boost to improve?

The blue slices stopped and the red dash made distance from me.

"Tsk, she doesn't suck as much as I expected." Carmelia reappeared, clicking her red tongue in annoyance.

"She's at least on the level of a 2-stars bounty hunter." A relaxed voice complimented me from behind.

It was Urmi Yasha.

Fucking hell! That woman will give me a heart attack with her abrupt appearances.

Now Carmelia stood 8 meters ahead of me, and Urmi was only 5 meters behind me. I prioritized my attention on the latter.

"Mis Skaarlet, let me fight Neopolitan. I want to test my theory." Smiling, Urmi placed a hand on her hip and signaled me to approach her with the other.

"Do as you please for now." Confidently, Carmelia hung the fans to her waist and went for the ultramarine cylindrical object.

"Ed told me not to kill you but I cannot guarantee it. Do not fool around like in our previous fight, Neopolitan." The mysterious Varateey woman activated her Aura Boost and diagonally extended her right arm to my left.

I have no idea who-

She crossed her extended arm over her chest, giving the impression she pulled something heavy. I detected a rumble to my left. Before figuring out what was happening, on instinct I rolled forward. Less than a second later, a hard-light block with a volume of 3 cubic meters dropped where I was previously standing. The block possibly weighed as much as an adult elephant because it shook the ground on impact. It had been pulled from the 'third story' of the building on my left.

With only 2 meters of distance between us, my opponent jumped back. Seizing this opportunity, I quickly summoned a Boarbatusk Grimm construct for it to charge against her as she landed. But when my creation was about to tackle her, it fell apart and broke into many pink shards.

Something sliced it apart into several pieces but what? She didn't even bother attacking it.

"You saw an opening and sent a summon to attack me instead of doing it yourself. A wise decision." Urmi raised both arms and joined her wrists above her head.

You are kidding me...

"Neo, attack her before it's too late!" Roman urged me to resume my offensive.

"Do you recognize her? I thought Urmi was making that story up." Carmelia leisurely walked around the hard-light block in the middle of the street.

She was blowing bubbles via the ultramarine object in her hand.

A liquid soap container? No, more importantly, the woman ahead is...

"Offence and defence... Are two sides of the same coin." She said the second half of her statement as the realization hit me.

Urmi Yasha put one hand in front of her forehead, open palm facing me, and the other hand behind her head. She turned her feet sideways, raising her right knee to stand on the tip of her right shoe while her left leg remained fully stretched.

The female masked ruffian from Anglia. She's here in Liberalis!

•

"The female who?" Roman stood confused between Carmelia and me.

Bubbles went through his body.

Long story. To sum it up, I can't approach her carelessly.

Enhancing my vision with aura, I saw what destroyed my construct a couple of meters ahead. Urmi had placed a barrier of very thin hard-light wires between us.

A trap she set up when I was busy with Carmelia.

"Make your move already. I'm getting bored." Still blowing bubbles, Escarlata urged me to pick an opponent.

"Stand aside, Carmelia! I'm here to make her pay for the murder of the brothel painter Rick Milles!" Using one hand to partially cover her face, the former ruffian emitted a menacing aura.

"Fine but you'll treat me to a meal after this." Faking disinterest, the Roaming girl took cover behind the fallen block.

"You never told me you killed a man at a brothel. I know some like naughty girls but you took the act too far-"

Blimey, no! You got it all wrong!

I panicky interrupted Roman's wrong conclusions but Hush's hits went through his face.

"Retribution will taste so sweet." Dust wires danced erratically around the scary woman.

...

Not defending myself from her accusations, I ran around the hard-light block. An uncaring Carmelia was leaning on it, still blowing bubbles.

"I cannot believe it; you did kill him!" Roman manifested in front of me after predicting my escaping trajectory.

I did not!

I reached a city block with an alleyway between 2 small buildings.

"Then, why are you fleeing from her?" My insecurity coping mechanism distrusted me as I tried to enter one of the buildings.

Because it's part of my plan, dum-dum!

After I confirmed one couldn't access the fake buildings and that Urmi was trying to catch up with me, I ran into the alleyway.

Midway into the alley, I summoned two constructs:

A clone of myself that kept running till the other end of the alleyway, and Coco Adel's weapon, Gianduja. A rotary machine gun so big and heavy, I put Hush down to hold it with two hands. Next, I turned Gianduja and myself invisible.

As soon as I detected the Varata girl turning around to enter the alleyway, I fired at her many rounds of fire dust bullets but-

"Clever trap but only an amateur would fall for it, shortie." Several wires surrounding her body intercepted the exploding projectiles.

Since I lacked Coco's semblance and my dust bullets were fake, these didn't have enough firepower to make it past her wires or explode with the necessary force to injure her. Urmi swiftly stretched one of her arms to a wall and then made a pulling motion.

Not losing time, I dropped Gianduja and flipped backward, picking up Hush in the process. A huge hard-light block on my right destroyed the machine gun and almost crushed me. My rival had pulled it from the wall next to me. Remaining invisible, I continued running to the end of the alleyway.

That woman wasn't bragging when she said anything here could be used to her benefit. But as long as she can't see me-

Multiple drones surrounded me after I exited the alley, giving away my current location.

"There you are!" Urmi came out from the alleyway with a jump and swung an arm to shoot wires at me.

Although Hush's opened canopy protected me, the attack's impact made me lose my optical camouflage.

EEEEED!

I furiously cursed the dumbass in my mind.

•

Sara and everyone else at the spectator level silently glanced at the count, who had just bitten a chocolate croissant in his hand.

"... Should have ordered fixed cameras... Not tracking drones with motion detectors." Mouth still full, the dust tycoon lamented his genuine mistake.

•

Urmi and I stood in the middle of another street, 10 meters apart.

I will have to rely more on aura constructs.

I hung Hush on my waist and summoned Nora's weapon, Magnhild, in grenade launcher mode. Not allowing Urmi to get close, I shot another set of rounds.

"Futile!" The former ruffian halted to focus on slicing apart the projectiles but she didn't expect for these to explode into smoke that engulfed her. Before it cleared up, I rapidly summoned 3 Alpha Beowolf Grimm to attack her simultaneously from different angles.

... Thankfully, I was over 8 meters away when it happened.

A series of barely perceptible blue slashes with varying angles cut through the smoke, ground, and my constructs. These were so numerous that the Grimm were entirely reduced to shreds. It looked like a series of powerful light waves that expanded and contracted at hypersonic speed. The remaining smoke dissipated, revealing my unscathed rival.

"She never learns." The cat girl reached the street we were fighting on, 4 meters behind Urmi. She sounded disappointed but looked calm.

"Pipsqueak, if you don't take this seriously, I will slice you up." More cyan-colored light waves appeared around the exotic woman to further threaten me.

Don't call me pipsqueak!

Three Alpha Ursa Grimm constructs answered my call, immediately launching themselves at the imposing ruffian. But when these were about to land hits on her, they were slashed by the enemy's wires.

More!

I summoned now 3 Beringel Grimm. They launched themselves at the Varateey fighter but were destroyed without reaching her. At least on this occasion, the enemy was forced to retreat some meters, getting closer to Carmelia.

Not enough!

Three Furious Cats threw themselves with supersonic speed toward Urmi. The 3 were destroyed immediately but both girls increased the distance between us.

I kept throwing at them more and more constructs, till both stood 18 meters away from me. The space between us was filled with thousands of pink shards from my broken constructs.

"You are wasting aura. Carmelia, stand back. I will-" The rumbling ground made Urmi turn back to me.

I boosted my aura as much as I could.

ROMAN!

"Y-Yes?" Intimidated by my furious thoughts, Roman stood cautiously 3 meters to my right.

How much!?

"... Ah, yeah. Let me check." He defensively raised his hands before looking at the screens gauging our aura levels. "80%!"

I was going to end the duel with my following attack.

I went again for Hush and aimed its tip at Carmelia and Urmi like a fencing sword. This time, a giant answered my call.

•

"No good. Miss Neopolitan is straining herself yet her Aura Boost is low." The count of Monte Cruz rubbed his anchor beard.

"Many shiny crystals are appearing next to her!" Sara eagerly pointed at the screen displaying Neopolitan.

"Es un gigante!"

"Carmelia will take it down!"

"Nah, it won't even make it past Urmi Yasha's defenses."

"Neopolitan perderá."

"It's too one-sided."

Other people witnessing the match voiced their opinions as the swirling mass of shards built a big summon.

•

I may have overcooked...

I gazed with wonder at my creation: A 10-meter-tall, pink Arma Gigas.

Double the size of the real deal.

"... Urmi, you were saying?" Unimpressed by my construct, Carmelia casually approached her ally.

You will pay!

My giant knight ran toward them, a big sword in its hands. The street and nearby buildings shook.

"I won't let you!" Urmi made a series of weird arm movements before fully stretching them to her sides.

A barrier of many hard-light wires got in the way of my Arma Gigas but I ordered it to keep pushing forward as fast as it could. The cables cut through its armored body.

"Ja! That stupid thing never- Uh?" Carmelia's smile vanished.

Even if my construct was sliced multiple times, it refused to fall. The armored giant recovered from its 'wounds' and kept charging forward. Urmi and Carmelia jumped away, with the former placing another barrier of deadly wires.

The giant was sliced once more... But its wounds instantly healed and it kept running after them.

"How?" Carmelia dropped the pretenses and asked in confusion.

"The shards from her fallen constructs! The Arma Gigas is using them to regenerate!" Urmi correctly pointed out my strategy.

My previous constructs weren't entirely summoned in vain. The plan was to fill the street with aura shards to pave the way for my actual offensive. Every time the giant was cut, it absorbed the thousands of shards on the ground to 'heal' itself and continue its charge. My opponents realized this too late. With a few meters of distance between the Arma Gigas and them, no matter if they cut it down again, the vertical swing of its long sword would hit them.

It's over!

"Oh, no..." Carmelia shouted in terror. "Enanita, you messed up!"

Eh?

Both opponents maliciously grinned.

"Putul Naach!" Urmi shouted, extending her fingertips at my giant.

The Arma Gigas came to a complete halt.

What!?

•

"As I feared." Ed sunk his fingernails into the couch.

"Stop the duel, Miss Politan will get hurt!" Sara softly hit him as she implored.

"If I do that, Carmelia will consider it her victory..." Ed stared at an emergency button on the console ahead of their couch until something in the security cameras' footage caught his eye. "Sara, things are about to get more interesting."

•

Move, bastard!

No matter how much I ordered my Arma Gigas to land its sword on them, it refused to obey me.

Why it's not listening to my command!?

"I knew this day would come. Your constructs are tired of being bossed around. They are rebelling!" A scared Roman waved his arms before pointing at the frozen giant.

Don't be ridiculous. That's impossible... I think.

"Your aura summon is mine now." Urmi kept her fingertips pointing at the Arma Gigas.

The giant knight slowly lowered its sword and turned around to face me. Its pink armor started to become cyan. Urmi walked next to it, performing another series of weird hand movements.

She's controlling it... Urmi is controlling my construct!

It took me time to notice it but there were 'strings' connecting her fingertips to different body parts of the Arma Gigas.

"First the mask, now your construct. There's no honor among thieves!" Roman angrily threw his cane at the ground.

"Neopolitan, do you understand? I accepted the bet because I knew you wouldn't stand a chance against us. After all, Urmi's semblance counters yours." Putting her hand below her chin in a lady-like manner, Carmelia haughtily laughed again. "Victoria!"

Never mind. Go away, stupid traitor!

I ceased supplying aura to my construct...

But the giant didn't vanish, instead, it took a step toward me.

What's going on?

"You seem confused. If you are trying to dispel your creation, that won't work. I'm now providing it my aura to keep it around." The cyan giant prepared its charge while Urmi explained.

"Putul Naach, or Puppet Dance, allows me to control inanimate objects or others' aura constructs through my wires..." She released a sudden burst of aura, making the Arma Gigas growl. Its steps became heavier and louder as it ran to me. "And it also lets me strengthen them."

...

One day.

The giant prepared a vertical swing to hit me.

I was allowed to stay here just one day.

"Neo, don't give up! Run!" I barely could hear Roman's voice but my body was now the one refusing to move.

Like in Remnant, I'm nothing but a failure...

I gripped the parasol in my hands so hard that it transformed back into Sakura.

"HOLD OOOOON!" I heard a distressed scream behind me.

And then, the unbelievable happened.

For an instant, the street shone blue and I felt an intense heat. Precisely as the Arma Gigas was about to strike me, a giant fireball exploded against its upper body. Fragments of solidified aura spread all over the street. Instinctively, I opened Sakura's canopy to cover from these. A rain of burning blue shards fell on me.

But I was okay.

Carmelia and Urmi jumped to dodge the bigger broken pieces of the Arma Gigas. The explosion had been strong enough to destroy most of its body in an instant.

"I made it as powerful as a level 3 Grimm yet..." For the first time, I saw Urmi taken aback.

"Barely made it." I turned to confirm the source of the relieved voice.

A muscular woman approximately 178 centimeters tall had stepped into the training range with no warning. It was none other than Phoebe but she looked a little bit different.

Not only due to her hair emitting a blue light but also because she had tied her bright red, biker jacket around her waist, using just a white sport bra to cover her chest. Because of this, her toned abdominals were more visible than before. Her forearms now had red leather gauntlets with blue fingerless portions on the palm side.

The new black yoga pants she wore had embroidered the white coat of arms of Liberalis on the left thigh, in addition to more white decorative highlights. These pants were also shorter, covering her legs only to her knees. Her footwear was the usual oversized white sneakers she preferred for comfort.

But-

"Sorry for oversleeping." Phoebe apologized, not realizing she had silly scribbles on her face.

My two rivals and Roman burst into laughter while I limited myself to snickering.

"What are ya laughin' at?" Phoebe asked innocently.

Feeling pity for her, I undid my Lolita transformation and pulled the holodial from my jacket. I turned on its camera so Phoebe could check herself.

"AH!" She desperately rubbed her face. "Who scribbled my face!?"

I pointed at Carmelia.

"Qué!? She's lying!" The infuriated cat girl complained.

"Neo has never told a lie in her entire life." Believing in me, Phoebe dismissed Carmelia's protests. She was done rubbing off most of the scribbles.

"Phoebe, are you going to fight on her side? Remember our bet!" An irritated Urmi tilted her head, comically widening her eyes and baring her teeth to intimidate Phoebe.

The unexpected turn of events made the puppeteer girl lose her cool facade.

"I will repay ya later in another way. It's not fair for Neo to suffer for my mistake, so I will help her beat you." The musclebrain bravely smirked.

Phoebe...

Holding back my tears, I raised my arm to show her my AAIS bracelet. Because I had spent around 30% of my total aura reserves, some backup energy could be handy if the fight got wilder.

"Yeah, team up, baby!" Phoebe eagerly raised her forearm in which her AAIS bracelet...

Was supposed to be.

"Ah!" We glanced at her other arm to confirm that the bracelet also wasn't there.

...

"Think I forgot it after changing clothes in a hurry... Sorry, sis." The fucking idiot scratched her head in embarrassment.

"You two are dead." Roman made a grim prediction before walking away.

•

"Cariño, the midget already lost due to Phoebe's interference. You aren't going to let the duel continue... Cierto?" Over at the spectator room, Ed observed a screen displaying Carmelia's beautiful begging face.

She had removed the mask to show her fake tears to everyone watching the match.

"That's right, Neopolitan is cheating!"

"La gorila la salvó. Trampa."

"Throw her into the ocean!"

Carmelia's passionate fan club protested in her favor.

"Sara, what shall we do?" The suave tycoon sought advice from his couch companion.

"Ah, I-I... Think..." Pulling her braids, Sara struggled to voice her earnest desire.

•

"The stipulations established before the fight don't forbid Miss Neopolitan from receiving assistance. This was never strictly a 2 vs 1 duel." Ed nonchalantly informed us through the training range's speakers.

"MALDICIÓN!" Carmelia dropped the crying girl act and transformed into a feral beast. She grabbed the closest seagull drone, threw it to the ground, and stomped on it. The red diva panted in extreme fury while Phoebe and I looked at her with discomfort.

"Simmer down, Mis Skaarlet. The odds are still in our favour." Regaining her cool attitude, Urmi placed a hand over her temperamental ally's arm.

Keep a low voice. How do we beat them?

I took advantage of their distraction to type a text for Phoebe.

"Urmi Yasha's ability is... I forgot its name but basically, she can control anything her hands or wires latch on, except for Grimm. A control and supplemental semblance." Phoebe quietly answered as she performed warm-up exercises to cover her mouth.

Does it work even on people with aura defenses?

The phoenix girl moved her head up and down, pretending it was part of her exercise routine.

[Sis, don't fall for it, they can-]

[Phoebe, don't ruin the surprise.]

So that's why Phoebe couldn't speak back in the cafeteria. Urmi avoided telling me that her semblance also works like that.

What about Carmelia? Does she-

"Urmi!" Our rivals' eyes widened when they realized Phoebe and I were discussing info about them. Carmelia put back on the cat-themed mask and made her move. "Phoebe, I won't forgive you!"

"Carmelia, we must stick-" Urmi's warning was ignored by the crazy woman.

"She vanished!" Phoebe shouted and raised her arms in a defensive boxing position.

Escarlata injected aura into the mask. Urmi and Phoebe cannot see her anymore but I can, so-

I raised Sakura to intercept a diagonal fan swing meant for my fighting partner. Our weapons were stuck in a bind while I transformed into Lolita-Neopolitan and regained Hush to continue our fight.

"Um... You take on Escarlata, I will handle Urmi." Phoebe suggested a decent plan.

Making it past us, she went for the former ruffian.

"Jodi- Enana, you keep ruining everything!" Carmelia growled and pushed against me her folded fan. "TE ODIO!"

My rival engulfed herself with a red ferocious aura. For the bind not to be undone in her favor, I further pushed my aura and manifested pink flames around my body. The 'street' beneath our heels trembled and glitched.

I caught a glimpse of some holo-screens in the distance. According to these, Escarlata had an 85% Aura Boost while I was stuck at the same level from earlier.

I've reached my limit. I'm not capable of raising furthermore my aura level.

Carmelia's fan overpowered Hush. The Roaming girl proceeded to kick the left side of my torso with enough force to send me flying some meters away.

The gap isn't big but her physical stats are still better than mine!

I landed on my feet close to a 10-story 'brick building', but Carmelia's attack wasn't over yet.

"Flamenco criminal, lluvia de estocadas." Taking out her second fan, my exasperated opponent turned on the hard-light dust blades of both weapons. However, she kept both folded to execute the following technique.

Moving her arms with hypersonic speed, she launched countless powerful forward thrusts that I didn't bother parrying or dodging. Horizontal, blue shiny slashes trapped me inside a deadly aura storm. I took cover behind Hush's canopy until I somehow timed correctly a side jump to escape from the murderous rain.

Escarlata's thrusts landed on the ground floor of the building behind me, destroying many of its hard-light blocks. Because the range of her thrusts had been increased via aura, they damaged the structure enough to make it collapse.

We moved out of the way to avoid the falling fake building but doing so separated us from our respective partners, who were fighting on the other side of the collapsed structure. Carmelia and I stood 9 meters apart.

"Look at what you've done! Why did you dodge!?" My rival reprimanded me for obeying my survival instinct. "Estilo estampida!"

For this technique, she opened her fans and swung them at a speed that matched her previous forward thrusts. Many aura slashes that made me recall horseshoes were fired at me but I charged full speed ahead with Hush's canopy still opened. Fortunately, the disguised wagasa's canopy tanked the cat girl's aura slices, allowing me to approach her, when suddenly a mysterious force accompanied by a very loud sound hit me head-on.

I was sent flying again but, on this occasion, triple the distance compared to her kick, landing 10 meters away from her. My Lolita attire was reduced to pink shards that fell into the street's fake pavement, forcing me back into my Liberalis outfit. Hush had been turned into Sakura and my right fluffy pigtail was fully brown again.

I hate looking like Trivia.

Despite a sudden headache I managed to keep up my aura defenses but I rubbed my left ear.

I didn't see what undid my disguise...

There's also something wrong with my ears. That loud screech numbed them.

Fortunately, my sense of hearing gradually recovered.

"Your dumb weapon is a pain to deal with. I'll have to take another approach." She lowered her fans, and therefore her defenses.

Not if I take you down first.

Using Overactive Imagination, I summoned 3 Jabberwalkers in front of me. The plan was for one of these to jump high into the air and land on Carmelia. Simultaneously, the other two would run and attack her from different angles. If I coordinated them well, she wouldn't be able to defend herself from at least 1 of my 3 constructs.

Ok, jobbers, let's-

Sudden gusts formed around me, pulling me toward my enemy. These weren't strong enough to make me lose balance or lift my body from the ground but I still sensed something wrong. I was about to glance at my opponent when-

Another violent invisible wave reached me. The Jabberwalkers exploded into countless shards before I ordered them to attack. Out of fear, I raised Sakura's canopy but whatever attacked me was strong enough to send me rolling across the street and injure my ears. If I had to describe the new sensation of pain I experienced, I would compare it to thousands of tiny claws trying to pull me apart in several directions at once, vibrating with murderous intent.

I lost my grip on Sakura. Noticing this, my merciless foe jumped at me and crossed both fans in midair.

"Formación X!" Two cyan-colored, aura slashes formed a big letter X in front of me.

But just when it was about to strike me, I called back Sakura via AAIS to save me. My opponent didn't stop, swinging one of her fans upward after landing, which I also stopped with the wagasa. However, her move raised Sakura's canopy enough to create an opening for her to attack me with the second fan.

Not granting her the opportunity, I summoned a closed Hush in my other hand to intercept it. Using both folded parasols, I deflected a series of fan swings.

"Tra la la la!" Through strange but elegant movements, reminiscent of the ones she performed before the start of the fight, Carmelia stylishly positioned her arms for the fans to parry my swings. Occasionally, I had to avoid surprise kicks that flamboyantly lifted her dress.

Is this what she calls Flamenco? I didn't know it was both, a dancing and fighting style.

After almost a minute of exchanging blows, she and I jumped backward to make space between us.

Our dexterity skills are around the same level but her superior physical stats prevent me from landing hits on her at CQC. Most importantly, what is she attacking me with besides her fans?

As if to answer my question, Carmelia smiled and then opened wide her mouth. Once more gusts pulled me in her direction but I refused for the distance between us to be reduced.

She turned herself into a vacuum cleaner.

Is that her semblance? Or is there more to this technique?

At last, Carmelia closed her mouth. I could move easily again.

[A trumpet killer quartet.]

A memory from a fight I witnessed in Remnant helped me choose wisely what to do next.

Escarlata screamed to release a destructive sound wave enhanced by her aura and the wind crystals in her choker. I took cover behind 3 Crocea Mors shields (Jaune Arc's signature weapon). Hush was no more, so I injected Sakura's canopy with aura to buff its defensive properties.

As the nearly invisible sound projectile was shot, green sonic booms expanded outwards from Escarlata's mouth. These looked like rings formed by strings with musical notes. The attack broke the shields but at least these weakened the projectile enough for Sakura to protect me from its remaining destructive force.

Now!

I manifested an Alpha Ursa Grimm to launch a countera-

My construct exploded as soon as it was completed. Luckily, I still had not lowered Sakura's canopy because this spared me most of the damage from Carmelia's second scream.

What the bloody hell!?

"You thought I could only release Oiseau Rebelle (Rebel Bird) all at once? I can vary my screams' frequency, duration, and aura quantity." Carmelia laughed, placing a hand below her chin.

Oiseau Rebelle. A sound-type, offensive semblance...

Roman, are you there?

"Besides you." Standing a few steps to my left, the criminal kingpin lit up another cigar. He looked pissed off. "This is very bad."

Yes, because-

"My semblance also counters yours, Neopolitan!" The arrogant diva loudly bragged.

•

"Ora, ora, ora, ora!" Phoebe screamed at the top of her lungs, performing karate punches to shoot a series of hypersonic, blue fireballs with a diameter of 1 meter.

Normally, aura users in Remnant and Zenith required fire dust to produce this type of attack but for Phoebe, it wasn't necessary, thanks to her fire-type, elemental semblance, Burnin' Phoenix.

A 10-story 'brick building' had fallen behind her a minute ago, separating her from Neopolitan. It greatly bothered Phoebe that she couldn't tell her fighting partner that Carmelia possessed a semblance that countered Overactive Imagination.

The Varateey puppeteer quickly used her wires to pull a hard-light block of 3 cubic meters from a '1-story drugstore' on her right. By itself, the thing wasn't durable enough to shield her from the explosive projectiles but she reinforced it through her semblance to avoid taking direct damage to her etheric aura layer. Before Phoebe could launch another series of fireballs, Urmi performed a powerful high sidekick to send the block sliding at supersonic speed across the 'street'.

"The way you two tricked Neo! I expected it from Carmelia but not from you, Urmi!" Seeing the incoming block, Phoebe boosted the blue fiery aura in her right hand to hit it with a long straight punch. "Ya aren't as honorable as I thought!"

The hard-light block immediately exploded when it came into contact with her hand.

"Explosive Phoenix, the secondary ability to make anything you touch explode by injecting your aura into it. I'm not fully equipped to deal with it because I wanted to grant Neopolitan better odds." Urmi Yasha lowered her arms and put them behind her back.

"If true, why ya agreed to team up with Carmelia?" Phoebe switched back into a defensive boxing stance, enhancing her vision in case the enemy 12 meters ahead tried to attack with hard-light wires.

Everyone in Zenith knew about Neo's powers, giving other active-aura fighters an advantage over her, especially those with a semblance. Since the very beginning, Urmi and Carmelia knew that Neopolitan stood little chance against their abilities in particular.

"You know that precious diva is too stubborn. I couldn't dissuade her from partaking in the duel... As much as I wanted to fight Neopolitan by myself." A faint smile appeared on her face.

"But why fight-"

"First, you need to defeat us. I won't tell you otherwise." Urmi interrupted Phoebe's question with a wink.

"Kay, but you asked for it." The muscular girl concentrated aura in her right foot.

At this point, Urmi and she had augmented their aura levels by 45%. Both were familiar with each other's fighting styles, semblances, and techniques due to fight spars they shared in recent months, so they knew how fast one could pull off a turnabout against the other if they lowered their guard.

Being a seasoned military, Urmi calculated the moves her rival could use to attack. Even if Phoebe wasn't as smart or coolheaded as her rival, in theory, she could also try predicting what technique the puppeteer would pick to counterattack.

Sensing the absence of traps, Phoebe decided to make her move first.

"BOOST!" Phoebe screamed, concentrating a slight aura boost in her right foot to make the floor beneath explode with her semblance.

With an absurd acceleration, Phoebe shot herself toward the opponent. But this explosive tactic was among Urmi's estimations.

"Putul Naach." With equally amazing speed, Urmi moved both hands forward to cross them in front of her.

Confirming that her rival's gloves had wires coming out of them, Phoebe went full alert. She knew that this meant Urmi set up a trap without her realizing it. The phoenix girl's suspicions were proved right when two big hard-light blocks crushed her from both sides. Their flat surfaces had even been modified for big spikes to come out of them for extra damage.

However, Phoebe had already experienced similar situations against Urmi, so she knew how to react accordingly. Before the 2 blocks completely crushed her, she extended both arms to her sides and released the explosive aura accumulated in her hands to destroy both. But doing so left her open to a frontal attack and stopped her from reaching Urmi, 4 meters ahead.

"You are mine." A satisfied Urmi shot a new series of aura-enhanced wires from her fingertips.

These latched on Phoebe's limbs, torso, and neck. The muscular girl tried to resist her body's hijacking but it was useless. She couldn't move, much less attack her opponent. Her body was entirely paralyzed.

Under normal circumstances, this would have meant Urmi's victory.

"F-F-Fire... Up." Phoebe forced herself to say a phrase she used when activating her next ability.

The 'street' shook and glitched as her body began to burn. Intense blue flames engulfed her body, destroying the wires latching onto her and preventing Urmi's aura from overtaking hers. Phoebe proceeded to punch the 'street' with her right hand. A fiery shockwave spread across the ground, reshaping into a 'bird' with spread wings to destroy the floor projectors and hard-light wires hidden by these.

Seeing no other option, Urmi jumped to the top of the 1-story drugstore to evade the fire.

"First time ya use the floor projections to hide your strings. The fake pavement covered them." Phoebe stretched her right arm while the blue flames surrounding her body disappeared. Most of these had been redirected to the hand that punched the floor.

Knowing the effects of Puppet Dance, Phoebe raised her aura level to abruptly surround her body with fire to get rid of the hard-light wires. The process didn't hurt her, thanks to her special aura and elemental semblance granting her immunity to fire-based damage.

Although late, she figured out that Urmi spread dust wires through the projected pavement for these to reach the 2 blocks used to crush her. These had been released from her gloves when she put both hands behind her back. Urmi's hidden backup wires, created to control Phoebe via her legs, had also been burned away by the fire shockwave.

"Flamin' Phoenix. Adbhut, amazing. You pulled it off faster compared to our previous matches." Urmi was genuinely pleased to see that Phoebe improved her mastery of this fire technique.

"A few seconds more and ya would have won tho." Phoebe complimented the puppeteer's skills, casually shrugging off her rival's attempt to crush and impale her from both sides.

To outsiders, both girls probably looked like insane individuals with a death wish but this was how both sparring partners got along since they met.

•

"Comte, who will win?" Sara unwrapped the strawberry sandwich from Taiyou that Phoebe bought for her last night. The arrival of the phoenix girl had relaxed her enough to begin enjoying the spectacle.

Ironically, her couch companion was the one worried about how things were playing out now that they couldn't see the red diva.

"... The odds don't favor Miss Neopolitan and Phoebe. Urmi Yasha can either defeat Phoebe or keep stalling her but Phoebe doesn't have that luxury. She must defeat Urmi as quickly as possible to reunite with Neopolitan and defeat Carmelia together." The serious dandy answered without taking his eyes off the screens.

"Miss Politan is the weakest of the four?" Sara observed the aura gauge screen to confirm that Neopolitan was the fighter with the lowest amount of aura left. And the single one who seemed unable to double her aura reserves and physical stats through the Boost technique.

"Unlike the others, I'm afraid she isn't a solid 3-stars combatant, and if Neopolitan's semblance is paper, then Urmi and Carmelia's are scissors. Her attempts to defeat either one will fall sho- Fail." The count reached for a strawberry daiquiri handed by a waiter.

"Ed, why you approved an unfair fight?" The small witch questioned her companion's decisions. Even if she was very young, she sometimes perceived the count's actions as childish for someone his age.

...

The gentleman contemplated his drink before answering.

"Because I'm-"

•

Hopeless!

I rode a Jabberwalker construct to flee from Carmelia.

It would have been easier to fight two Remnantese Maidens than two 3-stars Zenitheans with semblances that counter mine.

"You said- Sorry, You thought yesterday that your semblance would give you an edge over them." Roman reappeared, sitting behind me.

I never thought such a thing!

"What?" Before he called me out, I explained my response.

That was Neopolitan, the fucking moron. Right now, I'm Trivia.

"Well, that's very convenient." Roman replied sarcastically.

I ordered my ride to cross a street filled with bubbles.

If we take a turn here, maybe we will come across Phoe-

The Jabberwalker randomly broke into pink shards, making me roll several meters on the ground. Puzzled, I looked around for the thing that attacked my aura construct but found nothing suspicious.

Did I accidentally crash against something? Or maybe a scream-

"To your right!" Roman's warning made me perform cartwheels to avoid blue aura slashes from a nearby alleyway.

"Ahí estás!" A threatening Carmelia ran after me till we made it to a fake park, with a fountain and an octagonal kiosk, surrounded by bubbles. Four persistent seagull drones followed us.

Our weapons clashed as she breathed through her nose a considerable amount of air. She was preparing another sound projectile.

"Fighting that beauty head-on is not an option. Go for a surprise attack." Roman advised me as I kept fending off Escarlata's slices.

Maybe if I get rid of- Beauty?

As much as I wanted to judge his taste in other women, I commenced my new plan. I jumped away from Carmelia, summoned 3 clones of Trivia, and provoked her by sticking out our 4 tongues.

"HIJAAAAAH!" Escarlata wanted to say something but instead prioritized shooting another sound projectile.

Escarlata's extended musical scream shattered my 3 clones standing in different places around her. Timing correctly the activation of her semblance, I spun sideways to get out of the way of the destructive sound wave. Then, I landed on the fountain's edge and readjusted my legs to sit on it, with Sakura opened behind me and a smirk on my face.

"You are so arrogant for someone your size." The vexed cat girl folded her fans.

Thank you.

The grin on my face grew and I closed my eyes.

"Flamen-" Not wanting to find out the technique she had in my mind, I vanished from her view by turning invisible. "Too bad the drones- Ah!"

Carmelia didn't finish her sentence once she noticed the 4 seagull drones on the ground, destroyed by her previous scream. My fragile clones, made with very low quantities of aura, were decoys to trick her into shattering those pesky devices.

I repeated the tactic, summoning another batch of fragile Trivia clones to surround her. As she took another long breath, I commanded them to attack. She swung her fans to shatter the first two with the tornado technique. My last clone tried to flee in terror but she took it down by releasing a small scream. Still invisible, I landed an aura-enhanced Sakura swing on Carmelia's throat and delivered a strong kick to her abdomen.

The Roaming girl jumped backward in desperation, trying to recover her breath. With only 8 meters and some bubbles between us, I summoned another batch of clones.

I will keep using my clones as decoys to create an opening.

My three selves went for her. In retaliation, she shot aura slices to cut down the first two. Just when she was preparing a series of rapid thrusts to destroy the final one, I ran to her left and-

Exploded.

A force similar to a dust grenade sent me flying 5 meters away from my rival. Carmelia shattered the last clone before turning in my direction. The optical camouflage covering my body was gone.

What hit me? It definitely wasn't a scream or her fans.

"Ay, payasita, you thought for a moment that you could win?" More bubbles approached our location as she taunted me.

Maybe if I also turn my clones invisible and coordinate better with them, I can land more hits on her.

I proceeded with this strategy, summoning another batch of Trivias and turning us all invisible. We simultaneously charged at Carmelia, aiming our invisible Sakuras at different parts of her body. We were only 1 meter from hitting her when the bizarre happened again. A series of mysterious explosions destroyed the other 3 Trivias and sent me flying away. I fell to the ground, confused and disoriented.

But how? My plan was perfect. There must be something I'm missing.

"Neo, you aren't going to believe this but..." As Roman kneeled to check my status, even more bubbles arrived at the park we were fighting in. "She wasn't fucking around when she blew all these."

Forcing myself to stand straight, I shot slashes of air with Sakura to get rid of some bubbles close to me.

"Took you long, zoquete." The masked jerk said conceitedly, hanging her two fans to grab the ultramarine soap container and blow more explosive bubbles. "Oiseau Rebelle can also be used this way."

Someone, please... Lower this world's difficulty!

•

"Hotshots!" Phoebe unleashed another series of blue fireballs at Urmi, who ran along the roofs of several buildings.

The puppeteer performed flips and jumps to evade the explosive projectiles, using her long hard-light wires to attack Phoebe, who was running in the street (3-stories below) to keep up with her.

The sprinting women destroyed fake facades and pavements across multiple city blocks until Urmi ran out of low buildings to jump on. As a fireball was about to hit her, the former ruffian was pulled up very high by something till she landed on the rooftop of a 15-story international-styled, office building.

She had shot her dust strings to use them as a grapnel device.

"Ya won't get away!" Phoebe squatted to perform an Aura Boost and concentrated most of her aura on her feet.

The ground beneath the phoenix fighter exploded, launching her at incredible speed toward the top of the building Urmi was standing on. She was midway on her way to the rooftop when a big hard-light block with spikes came out from the fake building's facade and crashed with her.

Combining her dust wires and semblance, Urmi had permeated the structure with her aura to control every hard-light block it was made of. Thinking quickly, Phoebe shot a fireball through a hand against the street below to slow down her fall.

"Da- yum!" The fire girl stopped herself from swearing because of Sara. Crouching on the street, Phoebe analyzed the situation to see if she could find a clever way to arrive at the top and- "Nah, why bother? Way easier bringin' it down."

"Ora, ora, ora!" Phoebe restarted her karate moves to shoot a fast series of fireballs at the ground floor of the building Urmi was standing on.

"Brilliant strategist or absolute dunce, I'm never sure with her." The Varateey woman tried to keep her balance as the building shook. "It's not worth it to spend more aura on this."

Doing a series of dance moves, she boosted her aura and raised her extended arms for hard-light wires, of approximately 20 meters, to come out from her fingertips. The strings wildly danced, covering the upper half of the 'building' till some of these diagonally sliced the blocks that made it up. Before the structure lost its stability, Urmi jumped to the neighboring building of almost equal size.

"Oh, shi- nes!" Phoebe censored herself as half of the structure began to lean toward the street she stood on.

Not taking any risks, she mixed Explosive Phoenix with her running steps to escape from the collapsing structure. The sliced upper half of the 'office building' fell on the street and smaller buildings behind her. A loud impact sounded across the training range as its ground trembled.

•

"Urmi, you are overdoing it." Ed facepalmed, seeing the footage of Phoebe barely escaping from the falling building.

"I should have picked another stage!" Sara nervously watched the battle, wringing her hands.

A few vibrations from the impact reached the spectator's area. Some of the astonished onlookers even confirmed the collapse of the structure in the distance with their own eyes.

•

"You missed!" Phoebe launched herself to another street from which she could see Urmi standing atop a second medium-sized building.

"How about this?" The puppeteer extended her aura-enhanced wires to a tall building on the next city block to pull out 10 big hard-light blocks, slightly shapeshifting their surfaces with spikes.

"Ruko, ruko, ruko, Urmi! I was just kid-" Phoebe triggered another explosion with her legs to perform a quick 'sidestep' and dodge a falling block.

The fire warrior dodged and shot fireballs to deal with the following blocks. One of these got so close to hitting her, she had to do an explosive uppercut to get rid of it.

"Ya never... Go easy!" Phoebe raised her voice to complain while panting and bending forward.

"It's for your own good." Enhancing her voice with aura to avoid shouting, Urmi pulled out more big blocks from the tall building for another round.

"Shouldn't have thrown them like that!" Phoebe jumped into the air with hypersonic speed via Explosive Phoenix but this time she didn't aim at the rooftop or to destroy head-on the block closest to her.

She aimed toward the lateral surface of the first block her rival threw. When she got close enough, she reactivated Explosive Phoenix to kick it with extraordinary force, using the reaction to shoot herself toward the lateral surface of a second block. Again, Phoebe used Explosive Phoenix to achieve a ricochet effect on the second block. She repeated the same process with the remaining blocks, till she closed enough the distance between Urmi and her.

"Sorry, but I need to wrap up this." Phoebe's right fist shone with blinding blue flames as she prepared a powerful attack enhanced via a 100% Aura Boost. "BLUE SUN!"

The building's rooftop exploded in blue flames.

•

Another loud detonation spread across the whole exercise area. I turned around to witness the top of a building devoured by a blue explosion.

Must be Phoebe and Urmi fighting.

I hid in an alleyway, fearfully turning invisible to conceal better.

Phoebe, sorry for dragging you down.

I sat on the ground, arms wrapped around my knees.

"Are you throwing in the towel?" Roman leaned on a wall, smoking a cigar.

I cannot keep up with them. The three are on the level of Maidens, if not higher. Besides, their semblances and Aura Boost are better than mine.

"For the first time since I met you, I strongly disagree with you, partner. I think that at least your semblance is better than theirs." After his kind compliment, Roman sat next to me.

You just say that because you are a figment of my imagination.

"Even if I were, I would still care for your well-being." Roman cackled and puffed his cigar.

...

I had narrowly escaped the park by summoning constructs to shield me from Carmelia's bubble barriers. Having run out of ideas, I took cover some city blocks away to think carefully about what to do next. Less than half of my total aura reserves remained.

"Pause your self-pity session, sweetheart! I recall you said that Mik Calavera lacked a semblance." Roman threw away his cigar and air quoted with his hands the word 'said'.

Yes, and?

"Then, how was he able to become a 4-stars bounty hunter? And beat another one?" He grew enthusiastic the more he asked.

He made Silver Moth's powers and bombs backfire on their user.

"There you have it. Do the same against Carmelia. In theory, she should be easier to defeat than Araknim." Roman stood up and invited me with a hand gesture to follow him.

Easier said than done, and this is coming from a mute. Also, you saw that Calavera guy. I'm not as well prepared as that dumbass.

"You want to stay here, don't you?" The smiling redhead kneeled to look me in the face.

I nodded in response.

"That makes things much easier. If you know what you want, take it!" An optimistic Roman clasped the air in front of me.

"Don't give up already. I'm sure we will find a way to overcome this." And then, my soulmate stood up straight, offering his hand to help me up.

Dum-dum.

My hand reached for his...

Only to miss. In addition, the optical camouflage broke after landing on my butt and hitting my head on the wall.

Ouch! You are a literal pain in the ass sometimes.

"Sorry! I got so absorbed in the moment, that I forgot my deceased status." The ghost apologized as he dodged the wagasa swings aimed at his legs.

Let's reassess everything to come up with another plan.

After calming down, I stood up to strike a thinking pose.

"Don't you mean reASSess?" Unfortunately, Sakura was only able to hit the wall behind Roman's cocky face.

•

[Kids' voices: Lessons with Professor Neopolitan!]

"Again!? I don't even remember anything I learned yesterday!" Roman shouted his complaints to the ceiling, dressed in a Beacon student uniform.

That's not where their voices come from.

Meanwhile, I wore my Beacon professor attire, beehive updo included. He sat on his student desk, I stood close to the lecture room's chalkboards.

Young Torchwick, mention at least 5 types of semblances in Zenith and Remnant.

"Even if death stopped my aging, I'm still ol-"

Now!

I used The Disciplinarian in my hand to loudly hit one of the boards.

"O-Offensive, Defensive, Clones... Hiding... And Summons? Oh, and Running Fast!" Going from doubtful to confident, the himbo acted as if his poor answer was satisfying.

6 points.

"Out of how many?" I ignored his question, manifesting with the riding crop the word 'offensive' and question marks on the chalkboards.

Offensive semblances prioritize turning aura into attacks to injure opponents, break through enemy defenses, or spread physical destruction. Such as...

"Yang's temper tantrums?" Following his answer, The Disciplinarian turned the question marks into illustrations of individuals with this kind of semblance.

Yang Xiao Long's Burn. Correct.

Adam Taurus's Moonslice also falls in this category.

Overactive Imagination went through the trouble of doing chalk art of Adam slicing off Yang's arm. I must admit it looked pretty badass.

Defensive semblances prioritize enhancing the users' skills to nullify, prevent, or reduce damage. Or provide such skills. These are uncommon, so I will-

Subconsciously, a big drawing of Maria Calavera and the word 'Preflexes' showed up next at the command of my riding crop on a board.

Never mind, these are pretty boring. Let's move on to the next type.

"Professor... Deal with your demons." Giving me a critical look, my attractive pupil crossed his arms.

Cloning semblances are self-explanatory. These allow their owners to shape their aura into bodies that resemble or even look identical to them, to assist in any way they can.

"The annoying black cat and yellow monkey come to mind..." I conjured illustrations of Blake Belladonna and Sun Wukong to complement his answer. "Hey, did Black Sun-"

She went for Bumblebee after your death.

I shrugged disinterested since Belladonna's matters were none of my concern.

"Isn't that one Blake and Yang's ship? But both are women! How will they-" I swiftly hit the central chalkboard with The Disciplinarian to manifest the next example.

STEALTH SEMBLANCES ALLOW USERS TO CONCEAL THEIR PRESENCE OR BLEND WITH THEIR ENVIRONMENT! LIE REN'S TRANQUILITY CAN HIDE HIM AND OTHERS FROM GRIMM! NEXT TYPE!

To avoid the troublesome student stepping over dangerous landmines, I glossed over this category and hit the board again before he opened his mouth.

Control semblances grant the power to manipulate specific types of targets, move certain objects through aura, or alter the properties of these to one's convenience.

An illustration of Pyrrha appeared after I described this class.

Explain why Pyrrha Nikos's Polarity fell into this category.

"How could I forget? It gave her the broken power to control objects made of metal... Hey, remember the Mistral Regional Tournament?" The smirking student moved his index finger up and down.

Yes!

"What were we thinking!?" Breaking character, Roman and I choked our laughter.

It was your idea!

"Could have stopped me." The riding crop summoned illustrations of Winter, Willow, and Weiss Schnee to resume the lecture.

Creation semblances let users build specific types of aura constructs and even conjure familiars. The Schee Family's Glyphs are the most famous example in Remnant of this type of semblance.

"I've got questions." The delinquent for once respectfully raised his hand, eager to learn more.

Go ahead, my dear student.

"Just women in the Schnee Family manifest this semblance? Why it's the only semblance inherited by blood, and not an individual power exclusive to one person? Could Weiss combine her semblance with Jaune's to accelerate Jinn's passage of time and cheat the relic system? If Weiss wasn't such a loser, could she summon avatars of human fighters she has defeated? Is the Teleport Glyph a thing? If so, what even differentiates Maiden Magic and Schnee Glyphs? The latter seems more convenient than-" Roman shut his mouth, noticing I was inspecting my fingers.

Oh... Don't mind me. I'm experimenting with the color of my fingernails.

Switching from white to pink fingernails, I moved on to the next type of semblance. Never said I was going to answer his questions.

After all, I'm mute.

Speed semblances are also self-explanatory. These accelerate the metabolism of their owners, so they can run or move faster, reaching higher velocities than active aura users without this type of semblance.

"Little Red's." Predicting his frustrated answer, Overactive Imagination displayed the person we had in mind.

Petal Burst, correct... Let's move on.

It's not that I still deeply hated Team RWBY. It's simply that many mixed feelings for them, especially Ruby Rose, were stored in my memories. I haven't entirely moved on from the terrible history we shared.

Speaking of moving on.

Movement semblances give their owners the power to alter or enhance their motion in specific or circumstantial ways that don't fall in the speed category.

These were rare, so I provided the few examples I knew of.

Scarlet David can glide across the air. Ruda Tilleroot can dig and move easily through the ground-

"Who the hell are those?" Roman confusedly pointed to the drawings of both redhead huntsmen.

...

Spatial semblances grant those who possess them the power to manipulate the spacetime continuum, under very strict conditions

The Disciplinarian conjured a drawing of Raven almost slicing me in half, and another one of Fiona storing a truck in her hand.

That bitch Raven Branwen cuts the spacetime continuum to teleport to the location of those she shares a bond with. Fiona Thyme can store objects in a pocked dimension through the palm of her hand.

"Wish I had Fiona's semblance. Think of all the marvelous heists we could have pulled off." Roman put a foot over his desk and the other over his seat, to stand taller while delivering his theatrical monologue.

"With such power, Vale would have surrendered at our feet. Every treasure in Remnant, within the grasp of my... Neo, why are you laughing?" I released hiccup-like noises, cutting off his inspiration.

I-It's nothing! Anyway, let's continue!

...

Intelligence semblances allow their users to tamper with the minds of their targets, enhance the user's mind, or perform mental functions that wouldn't be possible without this kind of semblance. Colloquially, these are also known as mind and mental semblances.

I provided the examples for this category myself due to its rarity. Sketches of two individuals appeared on the boards.

"Ah, Emerald had one on those. She made people hallucinate... Hey, if you had fought her-"

I would have won, obviously.

Not letting the handsome student finish his question, I smirked at him.

"Wait, but how!? Her semblance is so powerful! It can bypass Maria's blindness and tamper even with Salem's mind!" The undergraduate waved his arms with excitement at Emerald's illustration.

If the opportunity arises, I will reveal my secret strategy to counter it. But for now...

I winked to wrap up this topic.

"Also, who is that guy?" He focused his attention on the sketch next to Emerald's.

Fox Alistair. According to leaked student files Cinder shared, he is a huntsman from Vacuo with a telepathic semblance... He can read the minds of others and share his thoughts without verbal communication.

I faked indifference as I explained the nature of his power.

"... You never met him?" But Roman broke character again due to something bothering him.

Why the interest in him?

I asked despite knowing where this was going.

"... Maybe his semblance could have worked around... Your issue..." Roman awkwardly said, averting his eyes from mine. "For you to communicate with others."

It's a thought that also crossed my mind many times. A long gone, what-if scenario.

I fell into this world before getting to Vacuo. No use crying over spilled tea.

I hit my palm with The Disciplinarian, smiling toward the curious pupil.

"I suppose." Roman agreed with a melancholic attitude.

And it's not like only someone with telepathy can understand me. Thanks to certain Zenitheans and... A very special Remnantese, I know that for sure-

The student crouched behind his desk when I was looking away.

Roman?

"... H-Hold on, I dropped my hat." A hesitant and broken voice replied.

For some reason, he almost took a minute to recover his headwear, killing my mood to bring up the Mettle semblance.

Probability Manipulation semblances are among the weirdest. Even in Zenith, these aren't common. This type of semblance consciously or subconsciously alters the likelihood of certain events happening. The nature of these alterations varies per semblance.

Illustrations of two people with this class of semblance showed up on this occasion. A grumpy Qrow Branwen and a happy Clover Ebi.

In a way, one can say that these semblances interfere with the concepts of fate and destiny.

"Never bet in a casino when Qrow is around, and invite Clover instead." Roman turned his head and gave a thumbs-up to nobody in particular.

Clover is dead.

I forgot to mention that small inconvenience when reviewing Clover's entry in my encyclopedia by his side.

"How did someone with the power of good luck die so young!?" The undergraduate slammed his desk.

Take a guess, pupil. Take a guess.

Supplemental semblances enhance, support, or complement desired functions and processes. Think of enhancements or add-ons that cannot be classified in the previous categories...

I went for the most obvious and recent example.

You witnessed earlier how Urmi enhanced an aura construct, comparable to a level 2 Grimm, into one as powerful as a level 3 Grimm, after I cut off my aura supply to it. Her dust wires are likely dangerous and effective as weapons due to her power.

"Let Phoebe handle her. We already got enough trouble dealing with Carmelia." The student dismissed this category and gestured me to proceed with the next one.

Curiously, the other individual I knew with a supplemental semblance was also someone whom I met in Anglia.

Effect semblances give their owners specific skills that cannot be classified in the previous categories. Hazel Rainart's Numbing Agent nullified his sensation of pain...

I reviewed the first sketch's ability and then moved on to the second example.

"Cinder Fall can heat stuff. A lot." My pupil glossed over her.

Marrow Amin immobilizes targets he's facing, and so on...

I was too lazy to continue with the other examples on the chalkboards.

We can call it the random power category, since Zenitheans and Remnantese used it to spare themselves the trouble of creating more categories for semblances with very particular qualities...

And that's it when it comes to Remnant.

"What about Elemental Semblances? Phoebe has one of those, according to you." The redhead delinquent comically flexed his arms.

I conjured an illustration of Phoebe, hair in flames.

Elemental semblances give those who possess them the ability to harness the power of natural elements within this world's atmosphere. Fire, water, plants, darkness-

"Darkness!?" I nodded to confirm the last example.

If I hadn't come across that twisted scumbag, I also wouldn't believe in the existence of such power. Elemental semblances in Zenith varied more in nature than Remnantese elemental magic. And unlike Maiden magic, elemental semblances could be also attained by males.

Even for Zenitheans, it's rare to manifest elemental semblances. In fact, these are so rare, it's unusual for more than one person within a generation to possess the same type of elemental power.

I moved on to the special category Zenitheans created.

Physical semblances give access to such a wide array of abilities that these cannot be classified into just one or two categories.

"There are more types!?" The irresponsible slacker took off his bowler hat to use it as a fan.

Relax, we are almost done.

One could argue that Blake's Shadow is both, a movement and cloning semblance, therefore a hybrid semblance.

"Yeah, the little kitty had claws." He raised both hands with a claw gesture.

The Disciplinarian manifested drawings of Weiss doing all sorts of stuff with her glyphs and summons.

But what about Weiss Schnee's semblance? In how many possible categories it could be classified? Think really hard about it.

"Creation, movement... Defensive... Maybe also offensive..." The pensive student understood my point.

Physical semblances qualify in at least 3 of the basic types. If Weiss had been born in this world, Zenitheans would have classified her power in this category. A semblance that manipulates physics and reality in various ways.

"Damn, the little white heiress had it all. Power, brains, wealth, beauty-" A loud hit of my riding crop made the sketches of Weiss disappear. "Eh, forget what I said."

Since she was the member of Team RWBY with whom I sympathized the most, I let his comment slide.

With all this in mind, we can conclude Urmi has a hybrid semblance, of the control and supplemental type. But what about Oiseau Rebelle?

Carmelia's angry face appeared on the board. I gave her horns and wrote the words 'stinky meanie' next to her.

"A control and offensive semblance. Or a hybrid one." The undergraduate chuckled.

I understood his line reasoning but-

[Neo, where are ya?]

Phoebe!

Roman and I turned around to look for the source of the familiar tomboyish voice.

[I won my fight but what about yours?]

"Sounds like she defeated Urmi." The satisfied kingpin stood up, dressed in the classic attire I gave him years ago.

We better reunite with her to think of a strategy to beat Carmelia. Class is adjourned.

Transforming my professor outfit into my Liberalis attire, I announced the premature end of the lecture.

•

"Hope I'm not late." I exited with relief the alleyway to greet Phoebe, who seemed to be walking down the street nearby.

Phoebe, thank goodness! Carmelia is-

"Sis, how ya doin'?" Phoebe's merry voice came out of Escarlata's mouth.

Right before me.

My body froze, unable to process the trap I fell into. Seeing my lack of reaction, the masked girl mischievously hugged me.

"Te tengo!" Although warmth wasn't what I felt from her soft hug.

•

"Fu-nny... I was so close!" Hands-on-knees, Phoebe panted after landing on the street closest to the 'building' she destroyed.

Urmi gracefully stood some meters away from her. The Varateey woman's aura briefly shimmered and her skin was sweating but she took deep breaths without losing composure.

"Pullin' up the rooftop's blocks to shield ya from Blue Sun..." The phoenix girl rubbed her sweating forehead.

"It still damaged my etheric layer. Your raw power is almost on the level of a 4-stars bounty hunter." Catching off guard Phoebe, a strong orange flame surrounded Yasha's body. "That's why I will be more ruthless from here on."

The street trembled as she aimed for a 130% boost of her remaining aura reserves. Phoebe responded by doing the same. Their strong orange and flaming blue auras clashed. But Urmi's early head start made a difference.

Before Phoebe was done powering up, the former ruffian released hard-light wires from her fingertips that latched on the hard-light blocks of the small-sized buildings by her sides. Their facades glitched as these shot new cyan-colored strings in all directions, connecting them with more adjacent 'buildings', including some medium-sized ones. The puppeteer had triggered a domino effect, using the hard-light cubes in each structure to craft a network of aura-enhanced strings that eventually interconnected all the buildings around both combatants.

A third of the urban area's city blocks were now permeated with her aura.

"Oh, cra- ckles!" Phoebe was about to launch herself toward the enemy when hundreds of supersonic, cyan projectiles were fired from the facades of the buildings closest to her.

Urmi's improvised dust bullets were around half a meter in length and didn't pack much power but their vast numbers halted her enemy's offensive.

"FIRE UP!" Not leaving her much choice, Phoebe released a burst of flames from her body to destroy the incoming projectiles.

Flamin' Phoenix, combined with her aura boosted by over 100%, could briefly produce a spinning fire sphere around her that served offensive and defensive purposes.

The fire shield with a radius of 3 meters didn't reach Urmi but she was still forced to move away from her enemy. As the calculating woman jumped backward 20 meters, she disconnected herself from the hard-light network that gave her control over the fake buildings.

"Chance!" The phoenix girl ran out of the dying fire sphere but before she could accelerate toward Urmi, the latter created a new set of strings to reconnect with the network of buildings.

"Queen of Spades!" At the puppeteer's command, a series of hard-light spears were fired from the buildings' facades at the phoenix fighter.

"Ah, dam- Beaver's dam!" Moving back and sideways with explosive steps, Phoebe ungracefully dodged the hypersonic projectiles coming from several directions.

Barely timing well a flaming tornado kick, she destroyed 4 incoming spears aiming for her chest and back, while 'Hotshot' fireballs burned away spears too troublesome to dodge. Slowly, she closed in on her opponent. There were less than 10 meters left between both when-

"SHINY DIAMOND!" Urmi crossed both arms over her forehead to warn her rival about the upcoming attack.

A big barrier of countless wires rapidly approached the fire warrior, further slashing the floor and hard-light shards from previous projectiles. It was an attack Phoebe was familiar with since she had witnessed Urmi using it to reduce thick steel beams into tiny diamond-shaped fragments.

Phoebe shot herself backward with the recoil of her fire fists to escape the menacing barrier, giving Urmi enough time to arrange another special technique.

"Jack of Clubs." Six hard-light blades, each 2 meters long, emerged from the fake buildings and horizontally spun toward Phoebe at several times the speed of sound.

The tenacious phoenix triggered a ground explosion to jump 7 meters into the air, evading the dangerous blades. Urmi produced another 5 spinning blades to attack her in midair but Phoebe extended both arms upward to shoot herself back into the ground via Hotshots' recoil, landing on her 4 limbs.

23 meters separated both fighters.

"Flush of Clubs!" Urmi Yasha fired several hard-light blades spinning at different angles.

"Eruptin' Phoenix!" But injecting and expanding her aura into the 'pavement' through her hands, Phoebe produced a series of ground explosions that released their destructive energy upwards to disintegrate the blades.

With no obstacles in sight, Phoebe shot fireballs as she ran to eliminate the strings connecting Urmi's fingertips to the building network. However, the serene woman called upon hard-light cubes from projected facades to intercept the elemental projectiles.

"Flush of Spades! Shiny Diamond!" Urmi commanded hard-light cubes at ground level to shoot hundreds of spears across the street. Then, she fired a slashing barrier of hard-light wires against her opponent.

But the fire girl kept moving forward. As the first spear was about to hit her, Phoebe activated Explosive Phoenix and Flamin' Phoenix simultaneously. These turned her into a hypersonic flaming projectile that destroyed the incoming hard-light constructs and wires.

"GAH!" Urmi gasped in pain after the wild phoenix landed a clean hit on her abdomen.

The puppeteer's strings broke as her body was sent flying across the street but before Phoebe could deal more hits, the fire engulfing her disappeared and she fell on her knees. The strain of combining her semblance's secondary abilities was too much to dismiss.

"Practise more that combination." The Varateey girl flipped in midair and landed on her feet. A forced but confident grin appeared on her face as she readjusted her stanapatta.

"Ya are also... Gettin' tired, babe." A panting Phoebe pointed above to a holo-screen gauging Urmi, Neopolitan, and Carmelia's aura levels.

The phoenix and puppeteer girls had less than half their aura reserves left.

"Another round?" Urmi adopted a Mayura Vadivu (peacock) stance, extending her arms sideways with open palms, standing on her left leg, and raising the right one behind her head.

"Sure but..." Phoebe examined bemused the street. "Where are those two?"

•

"Sis, I can't wait for ya to leave Monte Cruz!" A cheerful Carmelia hugged me while sounding like Phoebe.

DON'T USE HER VOICE!

I opened Sakura's canopy to release a gust powered by the wind crystals in its shaft. Although the gust wasn't strong enough to hurt Escarlata, it provided me enough help to escape her grasp.

"Watch your back!" My partner's frightened voice made me position Sakura's canopy behind me to intercept a bunch of explosive bubbles.

She was planning to break my aura with these.

"More like with ALL of these!" My shocked partner pointed at hundreds of bubbles surrounding us.

Her soap projectiles overran the street, some floating between Carmelia and me.

There's no escape, except...

Before she commanded her soap projectiles to bombard me, I summoned a winged Hound construct with a saddle to flee via air.

"Cobarde!" I heard my adversary's surprised and enraged voice, flying over the medium-sized buildings that made up the alleyway where I was previously hiding.

"Hey, don't leave me with her!" Standing close to my rival, Roman used his hands as an imaginary megaphone to shout.

I'm sorry, dum-dum. The Hound only has enough space for one of us.

In the meantime, the plan was to use my construct to search over the streets for Phoebe.

As soon as I see a blue explosion-

But something in the corner of my eye caught my attention. It was a red projectile ricocheting between the facades of both international-styled buildings on each side of the alleyway.

"Don't escape!" The bouncing bullet transformed into Escarlata when it reached the rooftop of the left building, 45 meters (approx.) above ground level.

This resentful bitch keeps following me everywhere! I hate stubborn people!

"Aura BOOOST!" A red flame erupted from Carmelia's body making the structure beneath her feet sway.

If the aura gauge screens weren't mistaken, she attained an Aura Boost of 125%.

•

"The climax has arrived!" Ed declared aloud, fervently raising the daiquiri in his hand.

"Carmie will use Oiseau Rebelle at full power!?" Filled with anxiety, Sara stood up and ran to the panes of glass.

Although the small witch couldn't see Carmelia, she discerned her location thanks to a swaying building in the distance. Neo and her construct were flying 14 meters away from its rooftop.

"Come on, Carmelia! WIN!

"Tu puedes!"

"""Carmelia! Carmelia! Carmelia!"""

Escarlata's fan club members across the 3 levels of the spectator room began chanting to support their diva.

•

I have a REALLY bad feeling. Better find Phoebe instead of fighting Escarlata.

The Hound flew 100 meters away from the city block where Carmelia stood. At last, I saw blue explosions in a street 300 meters away. But as I was about to fly over there, I detected something weird connecting the buildings where I assumed Phoebe was fighting.

A web of hard-light wires? Urmi can-

Gusts started pulling me and some drones the way I came from. My sense of dread increased further. I glanced back to confirm if Carmelia was still standing in the same building, 100 meters away. And indeed, she was...

Yet I couldn't shake off my fear as she continuously inhaled air through her mouth. The hands holding the reins of my mount trembled as the terrifying diva finally closed her lips.

... A physical semblance?

I'm not sure why but I decided to hide from her by ordering The Hound construct to fly behind an 80-meter-tall building. Perhaps it was cowardice. Or paranoia. It also could have been due to the memories of The Zodiac members and bounty hunters of 4 stars I came across. Whatever the reason...

I'm glad I did so.

It happened in less than the blink of an eye. The 'facade' of the international-styled building glitched, giving me a heads-up to fly some meters to my right. Doing this meant returning to Carmelia's field of view but I chose to obey my intuition anyway.

As I exposed myself to the enemy, a portion of the huge building I used for cover exploded. It looked as if an invisible big bullet had gone through the hard-light structure, leaving an enormous round hole in it. The projection mapping of the waving building turned off and a loud rumbling sound came from it.

I heard a huge explosion behind me, so I turned my head to observe how something had hit one of the training range's walls with incredible force. Precisely at the same height I was flying.

The crumbling sound got louder so I returned to watching the structure with a huge hole in it. With its integrity gone, the former building began to collapse under its weight. The upper half of the structure came crashing down violently on the lower one, reducing all the hard-light cubes to a big pile of rubble, from which a cloud of cyan-colored smoke arose.

A building over 15 stories tall... Gone in an instant.

I saw Carmelia, crossing her arms with pride and what I assumed was a smirk.

Was that the work of her semblance? If so, I've no way to-

"NEO!" An urgent scream made me glance at the city blocks where I assumed Phoebe was fighting just to confirm a hard-light cube flying toward me at hypersonic speed.

It was less than 8 meters away from The Hound and me. I wasn't going to be able to dodge it in time. But with luck (at last) on my side, I didn't need to because it exploded into blue flames before reaching me. Calculating where the fireball that hit the cube had come from, I found a blue burning figure waving at me in the middle of a street, over 300 meters away.

Phoebe?

...

Ah, she destroyed a cube that Urmi threw at me.

More gusts prevented me from concentrating on my ally. Escarlata was preparing another destructive sound projectile.

I need to lower my altitude!

Hiding among the city blocks, or in an alleyway, seemed to best course of action. The Hound took me 3 meters above the ground so I could use even small buildings for cover but as we were about to land, hard-light spears coming from 'facades' to my right attempted to hit us. The Hound sped up to evade them while the projection mapping of the structures on my left glitched.

I thought of landing some city blocks ahead but gave up on that plan when hard-light wires came out from every building's facade. These connected the buildings with adjacent ones and set up dangerous barriers, which could reduce my construct into shreds if I flew into them. I turned around the corner to avoid a wire barrier yet more hard-light spears, bullets, and spinning blades tried to strike me as the network of wires reached over the surrounding structures.

Urmi is expanding her hard-light network! The ground isn't longer safe! But if I raise my altitude-

Hard-light blocks came out from the facades at supersonic speeds in an attempt to attack us. The Hound zigzagged up and down and accelerated for these to miss. However, the number of wires, projectiles, and cubes increased. Even some of the seagull drones chasing after me were destroyed by Urmi's constructs as I fled.

Darn it! Let's go up!

The Hound raised its flying altitude to escape from a series of wires and cubes we could no longer avoid. As we flew over the city blocks, I confirmed that around 70% of all the buildings in the training grounds were now under the puppeteer's control.

What an absurdly broken semblance!

"KYAAAH!" Green sonic booms made up of musical notes expanded from the rooftop Carmelia stood on. She had fired another great sound projectile so I continued raising to evade it. The barely visible but powerful blast flew across the fake city, impacting once more a wall and shaking the whole enclosed training range.

Vytal Tournament fights never got this crazy.

Thinking that attacking Carmelia before she could prepare another scream was now the best plan, I commanded The Hound to fly toward her. There was an approximate space of 15 meters left to reach my target when she opened her mouth to release another scream.

She still had air stored in her lungs!?

I regretted my miscalculation and stirred left to dodge the upcoming projectile. Things were different on this occasion though.

Carmelia didn't shoot some kind of sound bullet or missile, rather she kept firing through her mouth a musical blast that lasted 10 seconds. Fleeing in terror, I commanded The Hound to get us away from her by flying to the other side of the city, at an altitude of around 50 meters. As we escaped from the masked girl, her deathly waves hit two tall buildings, making them collapse in seconds.

Holy shit! These two monsters could destroy a Huntsman Academy alone!

I didn't get to catch a break after Escarlata shut her mouth. Hard-light cubes with spikes and spinning blades from buildings below flew at me. The Hound maneuvered between some of these but as it became harder to evade them, blue fireballs assisted us by destroying those that got the closest to our flying trajectory.

Phoebe, you are such a great battle partner!

But my joy was short-lived. More gusts pulled me toward Carmelia. A sign that she was inhaling a ridiculous amount of air for another destructive scream.

I continued flying over the city, 350 meters from Escarlata's location and 60 meters above ground level.

Need to come up with another strategy before she resumes her screaming.

There was no way Phoebe could help me against the Roaming girl. Not as long as she had The Zodiac mask on. Plus, I could see she was already busy, producing more fire and explosions to get rid of hard-light blocks and wires. However, I also couldn't assist her versus Urmi. If I screwed up, she would take control of Overactive Imagination's constructs, or worse, hijack my body using her dust wires, making matters more complicated for my partner. I sensed that taking on Carmelia was less troublesome for me but...

I couldn't get close to her. Oiseau Rebelle had the power to shatter my aura constructs. And falling to the ground would mean game over for me.

If only I had a semblance like Petal Burst, my constructs wouldn't shatter-

[A girl falling out of her bedroom and an imaginary friend going to her rescue.]

Wait! Maybe, I can pull off something similar... But first, I need to destroy these stupid things!

Taking advantage of the vast distance between Carmelia and me, I summoned 2 Razorwing Grimm constructs to destroy the seagull drones flying around.

As the Razorwing did their job, I fled Carmelia's sight by taking cover behind a still string-free building and commenced the next phase of my new strategy.

Done flying around the building, I commanded The Hound and 4 Teryx Grimm to charge at the construction Carmelia stood on.

"KYAAAH!" The mighty diva unleashed another long-lasting sound blast against my winged squad, transforming herself into a deadly dragon.

She turned her head from left to right while releasing a continuous lethal sound to hit us...

But this time her powerful semblance didn't shatter anything.

In response, Carmelia intensified her prolonged musical scream. The vertical green sonic booms grew in size, the largest of which had a diameter of 9 meters. But The Hound and Teryx Grimm continued flying to her building, refusing to shatter.

We were around 50 meters away from her when-

"URMI, BARRIER!" Carmelia urgently took off the mask and requested her partner's assistance with an aura-enhanced scream.

The hard-light network expanded to the building Carmelia stood on and others in the same city block. Countless wires formed a hard-light net around my rival, slicing the 2 invisible Teryx constructs that were about to hit her from behind. A barrage of hard-light bullets that avoided Carmelia spread over the city block, impacting The Hound and me. Our optical camouflage was gone and so was the mirage flying squad.

"Those weren't solid summons!?" Carmelia screamed with a mix of wrath and stupefaction.

I flew away from Escarlata's building and Urmi's hard-light projectiles. The bullets had shattered part of The Hound's lower body and cracked the rest.

They are better coordinated than I thought!

The plan was to turn The Hound and myself invisible as we took cover behind the building. After dismissing the pair of Razorwing Grimm, I summoned two invisible Teryx Grimm to fly with us. Simultaneously, I created a squad of incorporeal 'mirages' to act as a decoy unit. These didn't demand much aura from me because they were non-physical illusions, useless for attacking or destroying stuff. While Carmelia focused on the immaterial illusions, The Hound and Teryx flew around the building to attack her from behind, except I didn't anticipate her requesting assistance from her partner. And much less, her receiving it in no time.

Damn it! I cannot attack Escarlata because of the hard-light network. Their tactics and coordination are flawless, Phoebe and I have zero chance against them. We are going to lose, and all because I'm so weak.

This is all my fault!

The Hound's cracks expanded as raging tears built up behind my eyes.

"Are you giving up?" Roman manifested, flying a Griffon Grimm.

Our mounts flew side by side, approaching the border of the training range.

•

"Comte, who is that man?" The curious witch turned to her companion, now standing next to her.

Due to the drones being destroyed during the fierce combat, everyone in the spectator room was now watching the fight with their own eyes. Some were seated, others standing close to panes of glass, such as Sara and Ed.

"An illusion. Miss Neopolitan's powers aren't limited to physical constructs of Grimm." The count put a hand over Sara's shoulder to embrace her. "Whoever he is, must be someone dear to her."

•

Their semblances are better than mine. I've got no way of beating either enemy.

We continued flying around the city, 60 meters above ground level.

"Then, let's find a way to make their powers work against them. Maybe there's something that Phoebe and us can exploit to our advantage." Roman glanced at some explosions on a far street.

How could I be of any help to her? Compared to the 3 of them, my powers are lame...

The Hound's body further cracked.

Carmelia was right. All I do is bring tragedy to those around me, and make matters worse for my few loved ones-

"Meeting you was no tragedy in my life, partner." Roman extended his hand toward me.

...

Before I could reply, gusts tried to pull The Hound and me to the well-defended city block Carmelia stood over. My construct broke, so I instinctively took Roman's hand. He skillfully pulled me up so I could sit in front of him. Subconsciously, I had provided enough aura for him and his mount to materialize.

"Jeez, she won't let us catch a breath." A smirking Roman raised the brim of his hat with his index finger.

... Oh.

I wiped my tears away and smiled.

"Come on, it wasn't that bad." My partner rolled his eyes in embarrassment.

No, dum-dum! I think I've got it!

I made the Griffon fly to our next destination, not before turning Sakura into Hush and myself into Lolita-Neopolitan again.

•

"Ora... Ora..." Phoebe was done eliminating a series of hard-light blocks thrown by Urmi with explosive punches but her fatigue was becoming more evident.

Both were standing on a street, approximately 350 meters away from the building Carmelia was at. All the structures within the training range were now part of the puppeteer's network.

"I have around a third of my aura left. I estimate the same for you. Mis Neopolitan is on her last fourth. And Mis Skaarlet..." Urmi glanced at the aura gauge screen before turning back to her rival. "Still has over 75%. If our aura falls below 10%, it will repeatedly flash. An automatic loss under this duel's rules."

"Ya hate Neo that much?" Hands-on-knees, the irked muscular girl asked her rival standing 12 meters ahead.

"I-I don't..." Urmi was about to answer but chose to remain silent.

Nevertheless, Phoebe took note that the question upset Urmi. Through her enemy's eyes, she could tell that something was bothering her. The fake facades of the buildings around them glitched for an instant.

"It's not what I thought. What a relief." Behind her discomforted rival, Phoebe saw something in the air getting closer to their location. It was Neopolitan, and an unknown male with a bowler hat, riding a Griffon Grimm.

The couple flew past them, 14 meters above ground level, without slowing down. However, something flew off from the Griffon toward Phoebe. It was a pink butterfly made of material akin to paper. The fire girl caught the tiny construct by its wing, making the fake paper insect unfold its body to reveal a secret message written inside it.

"A note?" Urmi interrupted the preparations for another gunfire aimed at Neopolitan, once she saw Phoebe reading the contents of the butterfly.

"Ah... YES! YES, I CAN!" The blue-haired girl shouted in excitement to her battle partner flying away.

With its purpose fulfilled, the pink paper in her hand broke into shiny particles.

"What did it say?" Urmi adopted the Simha Vadivu (Lion) stance for intimidation, pointing the metallic claws of her gloves at Phoebe.

"I'll tell you..." A blue fire engulfed once more the phoenix warrior. "After we defeat ya!"

Phoebe screamed, pushing herself for a final aura boost that shook the street.

"Leaving yourself open to an attack. Big mistake." Urmi fired the barrage of hard-light constructs she had prepared at Phoebe.

"Flamin' Phoenix, unbound!" The fierce blue aura around Phoebe transformed into a fire sphere that kept getting large till it became a big tornado.

"She wasn't preparing an offensive?" The bewildered Varateey girl witnessed her hundreds of hard-light spears disintegrate, unable to strike the girl inside the twister.

Enhancing and protecting her eyes with aura, Urmi witnessed the phoenix girl being lifted into the air by the fire tornado. The puppeteer couldn't hear Phoebe's voice or see her face anymore, so she jumped back to keep a safe distance.

"Why waste energy like this? You can't strive for a boost beyond 150% without hurting yourself. And Flamin' Phoenix is useless for attacking someone outside of its range." But ignoring Urmi's criticisms, the tornado grew in size.

Phoebe floated 10 meters above ground level when the tornado reached the training room's ceiling. It was now 100 meters tall and 12 meters wide.

The fire behemoth soon began to disintegrate the hard-light blocks closest to it. Urmi had to cut off the structures next to the tornado from her hard-light network to avoid wasting aura.

"Seriously, what did that bloody thing say?" Yasha's fear turned into confusion and exasperation as the tornado kept raging without putting effort into attacking her.

•

Wow, that tornado is 5 times bigger than anything Cinder ever did!

On my flying Griffon, I saw a flame pillar illuminate the training range with a pretty and warm blue shine. The center of its vortex was precisely where I had dropped the butterfly construct with a note for Phoebe.

"For a musclebrain, she is more reliable than I thought. Let's do our part." Roman said in an unusually appreciative tone, sitting behind me.

Right, let's set this city on fire!

Together, we flew in the direction of Carmelia's building. She was done inhaling air and reinforcing her defenses, by setting up a barrier of hundreds of bubbles that protected her from every angle except the one she was looking at.

The hard-light wires and her explosive bubbles turned that city block into an impenetrable stronghold.

"Not like it will make a difference against our fabulous plan." Roman dismissed the impressive scene in front of us.

Once the Griffon got close enough to Carmelia's building, we flashed rude hand gestures at her.

"ImbEAAAAH!" As predicted, the temperamental diva opened her mouth to release a long hypersonic shriek. The buildings of the city block she stood on and adjacent ones shot a barrage of countless spears and blades.

We raised our altitude to 80 meters, to elude the explosive bubbles, hard-light cubes, and barriers of wires that constantly repositioned themselves to hit anything that attempted to approach Escarlata. So, our foe raised her head to keep tracking our movements and blasting her destructive sound waves.

The Griffon eventually lowered its altitude and flew around the enemy's city block, approximately 45 meters above ground level and 270 meters from Carmelia's location.

The hard-light bombardment ceased but her draconic blast continued as we completed 360 spins around her stronghold. The bubbles surrounding her readjusted their position so these didn't get in the way of her field of view and aura-enhanced shriek. I also caught that for brief moments, Carmelia mysteriously paused her screaming as Roman and I flew in circles.

Those strange pauses. Could it be that...

One medium-sized and two tall buildings, close to the epicenter of the attack, collapsed under the extremely high frequency and amplitude of her scream. Other structures farther from Carmelia also suffered damage but weren't destroyed due to Urmi's aura reinforcing their hard-light cubes.

At one point, the sound blast hit Phoebe's fire pillar but thankfully my partner was flying closer to ground level, and Carmelia was too obsessed with attacking me, so the waves didn't strike her.

If it weren't for my aura defenses, even at this distance her screams would have left me deaf. I don't see a Wyvern or Leviathan Grimm tanking Oiseau Rebelle.

The diva halted her stream of sound waves 15 seconds after its initial firing. Even if it didn't hit us; I supplied aura to our mount to repair cracks that formed across its body. But the formation of more gusts warned us she was getting ready for another round.

I hope this works. Roman, I will dispel your body in exchange for more solid constructs.

"Make it count." My partner went back to being an invisible and incorporeal ghost.

I summoned another pair of Razorwing Grimm and turned my entire aerial squad invisible, creating two mirage squads identical to ours. The latter were visible to act as decoy units. In total, there was 1 invisible and real Neo (me), 1 invisible-solid Griffon, 2 invisible-solid Razorwing, 2 mirage Neos riding each a mirage Griffon, and 4 mirage Razorwing.

My solid, invisible aerial squad and the two mirage squads commenced flying in circles, 100 meters away from Carmelia's position and at an altitude of 50 meters. We cautiously approached her stronghold, reducing the radius of our circle formation.

The red dragon repeatedly opened her mouth, firing short blasts at my mirage squads to confirm if they were solid constructs. Another one of Urmi's hard-light bombardments aided her in the process.

I did my best for the 3 solid constructs to dodge countless bullets while the mirage squads maintained their circle formation. The Griffon and I didn't dare to approach more Escarlata but I ordered the 2 invisible Razorwing to fly toward her as fast as possible. Both of them were destroyed by the combination of hard-light wires and soap bubbles protecting the diva on the rooftop.

"Payasita, you will never lay a finger on this flower." Carmelia bragged before inhaling another large quantity of air.

I repeated the same process, combining mirages and invisible, solid constructs for Urmi and Carmelia to attack them for the next minutes. The solid and fragile constructs were always destroyed meters apart from the Roaming girl. And multiple times, I dodged Urmi's hard-light bombardments and Carmelia's shrieks, restarting the entire process each time the latter inhaled air.

•

"C'est magnifique!" The count contemplated in awe the 'spectacle' on the other side of the ultra-reinforced glass.

Although amazed by the battle, the rest of the spectators couldn't make sense of Neo and Phoebe's confusing actions. Now and then, the vibrations of falling buildings and the diva's screams made the 3 audience levels tremble despite the safety measures.

"Phoebe lost her mind."

"Urmi and Carmie's combination is perfect!"

"The trillion-bounty girl should give up already."

"Carmelia ganará!"

"All the big buildings are down-"

A holodial's ringtone broke everyone's concentration in the room.

"Yes?... I am aware of the rising temperatures... No, I deactivated those systems on purpose... To make the duel fair and compensate for a mistake of mine... I will turn them on when I see fit." The unconcerned tycoon hung up, ignoring the stressed voice on the other end of the call.

"Comte? Who was it?" Sara turned to him with curiosity.

"No one important. Let's keep enjoying the show. It will be over soon." The dandy gently tapped on the small girl's back.

But she couldn't help but notice that the tablet in Ed's other hand had multiple red warning signs on its screen.

•

It had been minutes since Phoebe unleashed Flamin' Phoenix (Unbound) and the consequences of doing it were becoming apparent. The tornado's spinning speed was decreasing and so was its size. Due to the training room's rising temperatures, Urmi and Phoebe were sweating and panting but both were still uninjured thanks to their aura cloaks.

"Your flames... Are becoming... Weaker." Urmi taunted her flying opponent as she was getting closer to the ground. "Shouldn't have... Wasted your aura..."

"My aura levels... Aren't the issue... The other ingredient... For my fire... Is running out." Urmi could hear Phoebe's very exhausted voice inside the dying tornado. To her surprise, the blue phoenix's face looked satisfied.

"What are you..." The puppeteer shot another glance at the aura gauge system but she started experiencing a headache while doing this. "I still have... Over 10% left... So... Why?"

Both girl's breathing accelerated.

"Wait... Carmelia... Something is wrong... Her aura..." Urmi remained focused on the holo-screens gauging their aura levels. The information displayed on these terrified her.

The aura of everyone in the room was constantly decreasing but in Escarlata's case, her aura levels were going down quicker than anyone else's. A few minutes ago, she still had over 60% of her aura reserves left but now she had less than 30%. And these kept going down fast. Abnormally, fast.

"28... 27... 26..." In horror, Urmi confirmed how Carmelia's aura was draining at a dangerous rate.

The gusts formed by the diva inhaling air made Urmi feel drowsier and lose her balance. As Phoebe plummeted to the ground, her tornado was extinguished by the enemy's wind currents.

"Phoebe!" Urmi disconnected herself from the hard-light network and ran worried toward her fallen rival.

"Heh... Tell Carmie... To give up... Hurry..." The smiling but exhausted girl could barely speak in between breaths.

"Pillocks... You took it... Too far..." The Varateey girl removed her AAIS bangles and gloves, letting Phoebe use her body for support.

Although in poor shape, both hurried to the building where Carmelia was standing.

•

"Urmi has given up in time. Probably, the same can be said for Phoebe..." The wealthy entrepreneur declared after seeing Urmi's aura gauge bar go from 12% to retired. "Tragically, Miss Neopolitan and Dame Escarlata still refuse to do so."

"Comte, what's going on!?" Sara anxiously hit Ed's abdomen to force a quick answer out of him. She could sense that something was wrong inside the training range.

Other baffled spectators looked at him for an explanation.

"Phoebe possesses an elemental semblance of the fire type. To produce powerful flames, she requires two things: aura and oxygen. Not considering the other atmospheric limitations of elemental semblances." The dandy raised two fingers as he walked across the level. "Dame Escarlata's Oiseau Rebelle also requires those two things to work safely: aura and oxygen."

"In an open space with plenty of oxygen, both ladies excessively relying upon their semblances at full power wouldn't be an issue. Mais, the same can't be said when both misuse their powers and waste the oxygen within an enclosed space, such as the one before our eyes." The smiling count extended his arm with an open palm for everyone to observe the training grounds below.

Everyone confirmed how the diva's opera screams were diminishing in strength, durability, and size, while the fire tornado was no more.

"An unexpected failure in the training room's systems has resulted in an oxygen deficit for our beloved 4 maidens, and much worse, in a surplus of carbon dioxide made worse by Phoebe's flaming tornado, which at this moment..." The dramatic dandy pointed nearby at Carmelia's aura gauge bar in a holo-screen. "Everyone in the training range is now inhaling in dangerous quantities, especially Dame Escarlata."

Sara and the diva's supporters gasped in horror, some of the latter dropping their plastic fans and drinks.

"Even active aura users require oxygen to live. Otherwise, the body automatically consumes aura reserves faster to combat the lack of this essential element." The tycoon playfully walked to the edge of the room to deliver a chilling statement.

"Therefore, if Neopolitan or Escarlata refuse to retire, everyone in the training range will succumb to carbon dioxide poisoning."

•

That stubborn beast will get us killed!

Despite Phoebe's tornado dying out, Carmelia kept shooting sound blasts at the Griffon construct and me. The dizziness made it hard to control my mirage and physical flying squads simultaneously, so I prioritized maintaining only the latter's presence.

"Told you that this was a bad idea!" My incorporeal partner protested as he hugged me from behind.

You didn't!

On the plus side, the aura gauge screens indicated that Urmi had given up, so there was no need to worry about hard-light projectiles.

It's time to end this for real!

I pushed myself to turn my squad of 1 Griffon and 2 Teryx Grimm invisible, as we flew at supersonic speed toward the rooftop Carmelia was standing on.

In line, I commanded for the first Teryx to crash against the barriers made of explosive bubbles and wires protecting Carmelia's right flank. Even if my construct was destroyed in the process, it managed to get rid of most bubbles and leftover strings thanks to the latter no longer being reinforced with Urmi's aura. The second Teryx not only got rid of more explosive bubbles, but its beak also hit Carmelia with enough force to send her flying 2 meters to her left and shut her mouth.

I jumped down from my mount for it to crash head-on against Carmelia. Its impact sent the obnoxious girl flying against the bubbles and wires positioned to protect her left flank. I gracefully descended with Hush as my optical camouflage deactivated and dozens of small explosions took place ahead of me.

Escarlata and I had less than 15% of our aura left.

"ENANA!" With a furious but normal scream, the enemy jumped out from the explosions with supersonic speed to hit me.

But the swing of her fan missed me, likely due to her feeling disoriented after inhaling so much poisonous gas. My sense of balance was also a bit screwed up and I had an intense headache that made it hard to concentrate but I could tell that I was in better shape because I had been careful with my breathing since my final plan was set in motion.

"Flamen-" Hush didn't let the diva announce her next technique. I focused on hitting her multiple times on the stomach and neck so she couldn't prepare another aura-enhanced scream.

Carmelia jumped away to make distance and take out her second fan. Before going after her, I summoned three pairs of pink crystal spider legs on my back. I used the animal limbs to launch myself faster at her. Combining swings from Hush and slices from the spider legs, I overpowered Carmelia's fans and landed various hits on her.

The desperate diva made a last-ditch effort to perform a technique but I threw Hush at her to interrupt whatever she had in mind. She dodged the improvised projectile via a sidestep but not letting her rest, I continued attacking her with my spider limbs.

We kept parrying and dodging each other's attacks for a few more seconds, till the mad girl broke 4 of my 6 crystal legs. When Carmelia was about to turn the tables against me, I called Hush back with my AAIS bracelet for its opened, spinning canopy to hit her back. The pain once more threw her off balance, so I seized this chance to continue hitting her with my spider limbs and Hush till the former broke.

Finally, a decisive clean hit from Hush to the diva's abdomen, made her lose the grip on both fans and sent her rolling across the rooftop. The fallen girl shrieked as she commanded the remaining bubbles in the area to land on me. But by combining the wind crystals in Sakura's disguised shaft and a series of aura-enhanced slices, I fired at her soap projectiles the pink shards of all my previously destroyed constructs on the rooftop.

The terrified diva had nothing left to protect her. Escarlata's aura was flickering repeatedly and I didn't grant her time to inhale more air for another sound blast.

This bitch...

Carmelia gave me a furious yet scared look, as she crawled backwards from me. I took out a fake misericorde from Hush's shaft. The moment I was waiting for had arrived at last.

I hate her so much...

The pathetic girl fell on her back, hitting her head against the floor. There wasn't much space left for her to flee anyway. We were near the rooftop's edge. I raised the misericorde with a smile, aiming it at her throat. The diva's teary golden eyes and quivering chin provoked my disgust.

Do me a favor, and disappear already-

[She sees Ed as a paternal figure... And Carmelia and me as her sisters.]

The misericorde came down with murderous speed.

[Phoebe... That girl is scary... Why she hurt you?]

Its sharp tip collided with and pierced the target.

[A little witch and a red diva dancing together.]

Only a weak and frightened scream came out this time from my adversary's mouth.

...

...

...

"Neo." My uneasy partner called me, some meters to my right.

I fucked up... I shouldn't have done that!

"It's alright, I'm still on your side. If this is your choice, I will not judge you." Roman pretended to pat my shoulder to console me.

I wondered what kind of miserable expression my face was making as the hand holding my weapon shook. I let go of the misericorde's handle but it didn't fall since its tip had buried itself in the hard-light block beneath us.

"AH!" A surprised gasp made me turn at the enemy.

As a tear fell on the diva's cheek, she opened her eyes again to see a blade...

Some centimeters away from her neck.

"You... should have... killed me." She said between breaths.

I know.

"You will... regret this." Carmelia pushed away the extended hand offering help to stand up.

I already do.

The prideful girl stood up without assistance and the misericorde vanished.

While I regretfully stared at the ground, a loud alarm stole our attention.

"Due to an unforeseen failure in the ventilation systems, the duel will be suspended." Ed declared in a formal tone through the training range's speakers.

The aura gauge holo-screens stopped displaying our 'health bars' to show instead the phrase 'suspended duel'. I barely could confirm that Carmelia and I had only 5 and 9% of our aura reserves left, respectively.

I had not noticed that my body was also flashing pink, perhaps not as fast as Carmelia's aura cloak but still. As I watched my rival walk away from me, she lost her balance and fell on her knees.

"Oh, and Miss Neopolitan, could you help Dame Escarlata get down the building?" Ed's voice humbly requested, the embarrassed diva's face becoming as red as her dress.

•

"Magnificent duel!" The smiling dandy clapped as Phoebe and I entered the spectator's room. "A shame that our engineers fixed the ventilation system just now. Guess I'm forced to declare this a tie."

Sara and the count were standing close to the panes of glass. I detected relief on Freckle's face. However, many of the other audience members gave us critical and astonished looks, likely because of the method we used to win.

"Let's go! And one of you, lend me some Aura!" Carmelia frustratedly shouted to her fan club without stepping into the room.

"Wait for us!"

"Carmelia, you won in our hearts!"

"Nuestra diosa!"

"I've got my Escarlata premium bracelet here!"

After the crying, loyal supporters ran after their diva, only a few of us remained in the room.

"Carmie is too proud to admit ya got her good." Phoebe sighed and dropped on a leather couch in the inferior row, more exhausted than disappointed.

I still hate that irritating girl...

But at least Escarlata cares for everyone here. She halted her hypersonic screams whenever my flying trajectory coincided with the spectators' zone.

Our breathing rate was returning to normal and my headache was diminishing. Now that we could breathe oxygen again, it seemed our low aura reserves were dealing with the effects of poisoning.

"Miss Politan, I know you want to join us but think of a safer plan next time..." The small girl tenderly complained before bowing to me. "And thank you for not breaking Carmie's aura."

Ah... You're welcome.

I didn't feel like ruining my little fan's mood so I passively nodded to her.

"Can you deplete the oxygen here to weaken Carmelia?" A tired but serene Urmi walked into the room, wearing again her white jacket and holding my backpack in one hand. "Is that what Mis Neopolitan's note said?"

"Yeah, something like that." Still lying on the couch, Phoebe timidly scratched one of her cheeks with an index finger.

"We lost so let me return you this." The cool Varateey girl handed me my backpack with The Zodiac mask inside. "I know you did not murder Rick Milles... Or anyone else during Menagerie's killings."

What did she say!?

"The count shared this intel to convince me to join him. One of his contacts provided me with plenty of evidence regarding that case. Someone both of us are familiar with but who wishes to remain anonymous." Urmi smiled and made a hush gesture with her other hand.

I handed my parasol and backpack to Sara, dispelled the Lolita outfit, and took out my holodial from the Liberalis jacket.

Then, why challenge me to a fight along with Carmelia?

( ᴗ )

I felt like crying miserably after her confession.

And who told Ed and Urmi about my role in that case? Could it be my former partner?

"I was simply eager to continue our pending duel but Mis Skaarlet got in the way. Remember we never settled the score. If you lost versus her, it would mean losing forever the chance of a rematch... Not that I'm satisfied with this combat's result." The sore loser crossed her arms and looked down in shame.

Add another entry to my looong list of adversaries. As if I didn't have enough of those in Remnant alone.

"Must admit, I never expected to meet here two individuals connected to the case that got me expelled from RAA. The Trillion-Bounty Girl and a family member of the first murder victim." Urmi glanced at the last Escarlata fanatics leaving the room.

Does she know I was involved in that case?

( •᷄ᴖ•́)

I wondered if she also blamed me for Madama Escarlata's death.

"We haven't told her. Neither does she know about my previous line of work." Urmi walked toward the count, who stood ahead of this level's inferior row.

"Miss Neopolitan, I do not find it appropriate for us to disclose that information without your consent. If you desire my dear Carmelia to learn this, the decision is yours." The dandy bowed stylishly to me.

Phoebe, I really couldn't have done it without you. Sorry about ruining your chance to repay Urmi.

(つ﹏。)

I typed a text to my fighting partner resting on a nearby couch. A message meant to express gratitude and regret. After reading it, I gave her a 'keirei' bow.

"Heh, that was just a silly thing. Urmi cannot ask much from me." Phoebe gaily observed the former Anglian soldier.

"I betted the count and her that they wouldn't be able to recruit you without triggering a lockdown in Bright Island." Seeing my confusion, Urmi cleared the matter as Ed contentedly shrugged.

Freckles shook her head in shame.

Aw, darn! That was their stupid bet?

Still, thanks a lot for helping me. Among all the fire-type fighters I've met, you are my favorite.

( •̀ ᴗ - )

I winked at her with a devilish smile.

"I'm not the first fire-type fighter you've met!?" My stupefied partner rolled on the couch till she fell to the carpeted ground.

I offered my hand to help her get up. She took it right away.

"How ya came up with such crazy plan anyway?" The phoenix musclebrain wondered while sitting back on the couch.

When I was a teenager, I almost suffocated to death while setting my house on fire. I jumped from a third-floor window to survive. Thankfully, my father back then had not installed hard-light fields to keep me locked in my bedroom, otherwise I would have died.

I took my time explaining the truth.

...

But everyone left in the room limited themselves to staring at me with deadpan faces.

"Em... Miss Politan, what's the name of your semblance?" The brave little girl, who kept getting my name wrong, broke the silence.

Overactive Imagination.

ᕙ(•̀ ᗜ •́ )!

I revealed it with pride.

She's the first person in years who asks me that. Only Roman knew it by name in my natal world.

"And your parasol?" The squirrel glanced at the pink weapon in her hand.

In this form, it's called Hush.

I wrote. Then, I grabbed Hush to show off the beautiful canopy I designed. After some seconds, I undid its disguise, folded its canopy, and lent the wagasa to her.

In this one, Sakura... I prefer Hush, ignore Sakura.

(ᵕ—ᴗ—)

Sara and I looked awkwardly at each other after this message.

"Sis, somethin' bothers me..." I glanced at Phoebe, who was now sharing her couch with Urmi, drinking together strawberry-flavored milkshakes. "What type of semblance is yours?"

Damn it.

I averted my eyes from hers and clenched my fists.

"I thought it was a physical semblance but..." Sara remained silent with an expression of discomfort.

"She shot at me fire-dust bullets during the duel." Urmi correctly pointed out the strange property of my evolved semblance, before taking another sip of her drink.

"Stealth, Creation, Clone, Defensive, Offensive..." A confused Phoebe raised her right hand's fingers and her left index finger. "And Elemental?"

"Physical and elemental semblances don't overlap that way. Her Grimm summons didn't possess elemental powers." Sara said in disbelief the contradiction that always bothered me.

I better not reveal that Overactive Imagination gained the ability to replicate elemental dust when I fell into Ever After. Telling them my whole past would bring me great trouble.

"Perhaps Miss Neopolitan's semblance is..." The Gallian tycoon walked into the conversation. He gazed at me before curiously looking at Sara. "Excuse moi, I was thinking aloud."

"Nah, sorry. Didn't mean to confuse ya' all." Phoebe scratched her head apologetically. "Unlike Ed's semblance, yours is pretty handy."

I stared with wonder at the count.

My intelligence semblance allows me to immensely concentrate on something to the point of ignoring undesired variables, such as pain." Ed charmingly told me about his gift.

A fusion of Ironwood's Mettle and Hazel's Numbing Agent...

Such a lame power for the leader of this organization.

I crossed my arms in dissatisfaction.

"Ha! I know..." Ed chuckled and passed his stretched arm in front of the other 3 girls and me. "Not as mesmerizing as yours."

"Count, can I take Neo to my next heist mission?" Phoebe was done with her drink.

Heist mission!?

"After today's duel, she appears qualified for a 3-stars mission..." Ed reflexively rubbed his beard.

"And with me by her side, it should be a piece of cake! Could even complete it alone!" Phoebe energetically stood up and hugged me by the shoulder with her right arm.

"Maybe we can still include her in the assigned team. What do you say, Sara?" The smiling gentleman kneeled to look at the adorable redhead's face.

"Miss Politan's doll will be ready by then!" The witch raised her closed fists and nodded.

Politan isn't my last name!

I couldn't text more due to Phoebe's strong hold on me.

"By the way, Sara. Let's do as we practiced. 3, 2, 1!" Ed happily signaled the little girl to declare the following.

""Welcome to Liberalis!"" Both of them said and signed in conjunction.

...

For an instant, I thought that things were finally falling into place. I expected that with them by my side, I would have a shot against The Zodiac and everything from there would be a smooth sail.

Little did I know that this sliver of hope wouldn't last long.

•

Author's informal notes:

Feedback and constructive criticism are always welcome. But I won't answer questions that ask for spoilers of upcoming chapters. Probably next year, I will delete some old comments of mine containing teases or small spoilers of future releases.

Outside of Elemental, Physical, Apex, Hybrid, and other new types of semblances that will be explained later, most of the semblance categories mentioned in this chapter were taken from the RWBY wiki. I don't take credit for Defense, Offense, Clone, Effect, Movement, Speed, and other types of semblances mentioned in the Remnant section of Neo's lecture.

Whenever I can, I will fix more grammar mistakes or spelling errors in some of the previous chapters.

And last but not least, happy holidays.