Haha yeah time for another chapter. I hope some of you guys went over and checked out Get REKT, it's a pretty funny story, at least I think so. If you haven't already, go do that, we've got 4 chapters out with plenty more to come. I'm sure it's something you'll find worth looking at.

Chapter 30

Two Down, One To Go

Ah, the final day of the doubles round! As we speak, the first match of the day is occurring, so let's take a look there, shall we?

In the mountain biome, Russel Thrush of the miraculously doubles qualified CRDL ran from a bombardment of explosive blasts. After a few more steps, he turned around and faced his opponents with his weapon in hand. The team he turned to consisted of the familiar redhead we call Penny and her teammate, a girl with a nice beret. Unfazed by her opponent's change in tactics, Penny continued to smile and readied a few of her swords, flinging them at Russel, though he managed to duck behind a rock in time in order to defend himself. Taking another set of blades and flinging them at Russel's teammate, Sky, though he vaulted over another nearby rock in order to avoid the assault. Sky and Russel looked at each other in worry, the swords lodged into their cover serving as a reminder of what they were dealing with.

Penny, on the other hand, was having the time of her life, and looked to her teammate with a wide grin, though the girl beside her only tapped her watch as though to tell her to hurry. Raising her hands in response, Penny used the wires on her blades to lift the rocks into the air, Russel and Sky clinging to them in fear. Casting her arms to the ground below, the rocks followed suit, Russel and Sky crashing down and being sprawled out in the grass, their auras both depleted. Retracting her blades, they placed themselves back into her pack, the buzzer ringing and Oobleck shouted over the speakers.

"And victory goes to Penny and Ciel of Atlas!" he shouted as Penny bowed in respect towards her fallen enemies.

"Thank you for a wonderful time," she said, still smiling.

Penny and her teammate, Ciel, turned to leave, Russel reaching out weakly towards them. Sadly, a stray stone fell and bonked him on the head, knocking him back out.

Naturally, upon seeing her friends win, Ruby rose (teehee) and ran off to meet up with them the rest of RWBY following after, the entirety of VDMR following suit. It took a moment but she caught up with Penny, waving to her and calling her name.

"Penny!" she shouted, Penny turning to her and smiling.

"Ruby!" she shouted, sprinting over to her and basically tackling her, bringing her to the ground in a powerful hug, looking up to see RWBY and VDMR chuckling to themselves. "And hello, everyone else!"

"Why..." Ruby groaned. Penny only did this to her, after all... Mostly because she couldn't do it to Sebastian due to the size of that lad.

"Ruby, this is my teammate," Penny said, rising from the ground and gesturing to Ciel beside her.

"Ciel Soleil," she said, bowing.

"Hi!" Ruby said, waving to Ciel. "I'm Ru-"

"Ruby Rose. 15. Hails from Patch. Leader of Team RWBY. Status: Questionable," Ciel said, cutting her off.

"Huh," Link said. Even most of Oni's soldiers weren't this... mechanical.

"Link Valion. 18. Hails from parts unknown. Leader of Team VDMR. Status: Suspicious," she said, giving Link the same rundown.

"Heh, you're suspicious," Ruby said, teasing Link.

"Doesn't make you any less questionable," Link retorted, causing Ruby to go silent for a moment.

"Sooo... Penny!" she shouted, turning back to Penny. "You two were incredible out there. How do you keep control of all those swords? It's so cool!"

"Penny?" Ciel said, pointing to her watch when Penny turned to her. "I believe it is best if we move on to our next location."

Penny looked to Ruby for a moment and pouted before turning back to Ciel. "Could we have just a minute to talk?" she asked.

Ciel looked at her watch for a moment and nodded, taking a few steps back and counting down.

"So is she... your friend or..." Ruby asked.

"Well, in a way," Penny explained. "She's like Blake, but if Blake was ordered to spend time with you."

"Oh. So, Weiss," Ruby said in understanding, Link and Blake overhearing and laughing.

"Precisely," Penny said, ignoring the laughter.

"Does she know about... y'know..." Ruby said, whispering at this point, "beep boop bop, does not compute?"

As she spoke, she also mimicked the motions of a stereotypical robot, more or less defeating the purpose of speaking quietly at this point.

"Oh no," Penny interjected quickly. "General Ironwood doesn't really want anyone to know. There was an incident with a magnet, but I was able to play it off."

Flashback

Penny and Ciel were taking a more or less leisurely stroll throughout the fairgrounds, Penny wearing a large sunhat that seemed out of place on her. The wind picked up for a moment before her hat tried to come with it, a large puck magnet stuck to her head. Penny reacted quickly and pulled her hat back down before Ciel turned back around, smiling meekly at her teammate.

Present

Ruby and Penny shared a laugh at Penny's expense, though it was friendly laughter. Penny recovered faster however and calmed herself, seemingly more serious than before.

"Ruby, there's something I've been wanting to talk to you about," she said, glancing over to make sure Ciel wasn't within earshot. "I want to stay at Beacon," she whispered, Ruby looking somewhat distraught.

"Penny, they'll never let you do that," she lamented.

"I know," Penny said with a frown, though she quickly looked back up with a devious smirk, "but I have a plan."

Right after she said this, Ciel walked back up to Penny's side, gesturing to her watch. "It's been precisely one minute, ma'am."

"I'll talk to you more soon, Ruby," she said, taking a step back in preparation to leave. "It's wonderful seeing everyone! You especially, Sebastian!" she called, waving to the behemoth teen who in turn blushed and waved back. And with that, Penny left, leaving the group there alone.

"Our next match will begin in 15 minutes!" called Port's voice from over the speakers, Ruby looking very excited.

"Oh my gosh, that's right!" she cheered, clapping her hands together in front of her. "It's time for-"

OOO

"Team GOLD of Haven versus Team VDMR of Beacon!" shouted Oobleck, the two selected members of each team standing at the ready, namely Link and Sebastian of VDMR and Gradivus and Zeraphin of GOLD. "Your Seed 2 and 4 teams!"

Down on the battleground, the four waited while the roulette wheels spun to decide the biomes for combat. While Sebastian watched the wheels in earnest to see what he had to work with, Link stood with his arms crossed, glaring at his opponents. This wasn't because he was sizing them up, however. No, it was because he was mad. The reason behind this is because of what he was told the previous night in relation to the match.

Flashback

Link was having a pretty standard night, finish up classes, get some training in, head back to the room, chat with his team, nothing special. Up on his bed, fiddling with his equipment, he saw he had a call coming in on his scroll. Picking it up and putting the scroll to his ear, he answered, hearing only a single word.

"Helix," said the person on the other side of the call, Link hanging up and hopping out of his bed.

"I think I left one of my books in the training hall," he said, pocketing his scroll. "I'm gonna go pick it up before anyone else finds it, you know how expensive those things are."

"Want me to come with?" Sebastian asked, sitting up as much as he could. "It would make for a faster search."

"I'll be fine," Link said as he put on his shoes. "I should be quick anyway."

"Understood," Sebastian said, laying back down.

With that, Link went outside, heading to the sparring hall as he had said, but instead of finding his book like he'd claimed he was searching for, he found Gradivus waiting for him outside.

"What do you want?" Link asked, Gradivus tossing him his scroll.

"We've received updates regarding our assignment," he said, Link reading over the notes Gradivus had written. "It's almost time for the vault."

"So soon?" Link asked, looking up from Gradivus' scroll. "I told you, I just need more time and he can have whatever he wants from the vault."

"We're out of time," Gradivus said, shaking his head. "This is an order from Oni himself. Trust me, I wouldn't be rushing you if he didn't tell me to."

"Damn, alright," Link said, tossing the scroll back. "It would make more sense if my team moved on in the festival, we're higher seeded. That, and you have a whole team to work with on the vault, I'd be going solo. But don't sandbag, make it look like you're trying your best."

"Ok," Gradivus said with a nod. "The same goes for you."

"Yeah," Link said, a thought popping into his head. "Oh, I need one of your duplicate books. I said I was getting a book I'd left from here, so it wouldn't do me any good to come back empty handed."

"Yeah yeah..." Gradivus muttered, producing a book for Link to take, the huntsman in training taking it and heading back to his room.

Present

Now that we knew the reason behind this predicament, we must now ask why he was angered by this. The reason behind that was that Link hated his uncle meddling in his life like this. He'd eventually get him what he wanted, but he needed more time to do so. And forcing his hand like this was not what he wanted. There was one more thing on his mind however, more of an annoyance to him than anything else.

"Of course he chose Zeraphin..." he muttered.

The person in question was Zeraphin Darkraim, one of Oni's strongest soldiers. Zeraphin was a large boy, easily 6'6" with a rather powerful frame that Link knew he made liberal use of in combat. Though his outfit itself wasn't too complex, a gray button up shirt tucked into gray pants, he had several accessories that made him stand out. Around his waist he had a red sash tied in front holding up a kind of waist wrap that went down to his knees, around his shoulders was a sort of uneven cloak that was longer on the left side with a pauldron upon it, upon his chest were a few straps, likely to hold on his gear, and around his neck was a necklace that had nothing but the letter 'Z' upon it. On his forearms and shins, however, was likely the most intriguing bits of his person, those being the large gauntlets and grieves of heavy metal upon his limbs, serving as the only other armor on his person. Finally, upon his back was a massive single edged sword. Link knew all too well the significance of the armor on his arms and legs and the sword on his back. In total, these were collectively the brute's weapons known only as Blast Burn.

Zeraphin noticed Link looking him over and turned to face him, Link's chilling azure meeting Zeraphin's burning amber. Brushing his orange-tipped black hair out of the way, he grinned rather sinisterly at the green-clad warrior before him, crossing his arms.

"I've been waiting a while to have an excuse to punch you in the face," Zeraphin said, Link simply rolling his eyes and drawing his sword and activating his gauntlets, Sebastian seeing and drawing his own weapons.

The roulette wheels eventually came to a stop, the four biomes being chosen being city, mountain, anti-grav, and volcano, each one rising from the depths.

"Oh, these should do nicely!" Sebastian said aloud, Link nodding and shouldering his sword.

"Should be a good show at least," he said.

"Gooo VDMR!" Ruby cheered as always, the rest of RWBY and JNPR close by. This was one of the biggest fights of the festival, after all. They weren't gonna miss this for anything.

"If all our combatants are ready," Port said, the four fighters turning towards the booth, "we will begin in 3... 2... 1... Go!"

The moment he could, Zeraphin was suddenly on top of Link, a powerful right hook aimed right at his head. Link reacted fast and ducked, grabbing him by the wrist and throwing him away into the volcano biome behind him. Shortly thereafter, Gradivus was also upon him, Sebastian positioning himself between Gradivus and his leader, bracing himself as Ultima came down, pushing back at the right moment such to fend off the blow. Staggered, Gradivus could do nothing as Link rolled off of Sebastian's back and kicked him in the face, knocking him back into the anti-grav biome.

"Stay close, they're gonna try to split us apart like WILD did. Don't let them," Link commanded, Sebastian nodding as the two went back to back since they had lost sight of their opponents.

Shortly after he said this, a massive stone came flying from the volcano biome, forcing Link to grab Sebastian and pull him out of the way as it crashed down, throwing embers throughout the area. Shortly thereafter came Zeraphin with a fist held at the ready, Link raising his shield and blocking the punch, a devastating explosion coming from the impact that knocked Link away.

"Whoa, what was that?" Yang asked. She thought her punches were explosive, but this guy's punches were literally explosive.

"It looked like fire dust," Weiss deduced.

"Whatever it was, tell him to do it again!" Nora shouted, pumping her fist in earnest, Jaune and Ren doing their best to calm her down.

"Agreed!" Yang shouted, pumping her fist in response.

Link was completely oblivious to the cheering of the other teams and kept on the defensive, blocking explosive punches and kicks in rapid succession, as the armor plating on Zeraphin's arms and legs was absolutely loaded with fire dust. Blocking yet another explosive blow, he ducked the followup kick and grabbed onto his ankle, flooded his gauntlets with earth dust, and heaved Zeraphin away, opting once again to throw him rather than strike him.

"Why isn't he hitting him at all?" Blake asked aloud, Pyrrha thinking for a moment.

"Maybe he knows something we don't?" she wondered aloud in response. "He may have something up his sleeve that makes hitting him more dangerous than we know..."

Link and Sebastian were once again left alone in the center, Sebastian looking expectantly at the anti-grav biome.

"Where's the other one?" he asked, Link shrugging.

"No idea," he said, watching as Zeraphin stood up and cracked his knuckles, flames being expelled as he did.

"By the time you figure it out, it'll be too late," he said, shrugging and glaring at the two. "So why don't you just focus on me for now?"

"Just stay close," Link commanded, scanning the area for any sign of Gradivus.

"Stop looking for him!" Zeraphin shouted, stopping the ground and blowing himself into the air with the explosion it generated. "You've got me to deal with!"

Sebastian was the more focussed of the two and readied his sword, Link realizing too late that he was aiming to swat him out of the air.

"Sebastian, no!" he shouted, but all for naught, bracing himself as Sebastian hit Zeraphin, an explosion that dwarfed all the others before erupting from his form that blew both Link and Sebastian away.

"Ooohhh, looks like Sebastian didn't know about Zeraphin's Semblance, Counter Surge!" Ooobleck shouted as Link and Sebastian stood, their aura having taken a noticeable hit. "A reactionary Semblance, Counter Surge converts damage he has sustained to pure explosive power!"

"What in the world?" Sebastian asked, Link grunting and readying his shield.

"Zeraphin blows up when you hit him. It's better to let him tire himself out and try to ring him out," Link explained as Zeraphin approached them, his aura still smoking. A smile quickly spread over his face, smoke pouring forth from his mouth and nostrils, likely more exhaust from his Semblance.

"Gonna have to do more than wait me out. Besides, it's not just me you're dealing with," he said, a sound catching Link's attention, turning to see Gradivus charging in with the core blade of Ultima in hand.

Gritting his teeth, he nodded to Sebastian as he ran to meet Gradivus, leaving him alone with Zeraphin.

"Just you and me," Zeraphin said, smirking at the knight.

"Indeed," he replied, raising his shield and stomping the ground, sword at the ready. Now that he knew what his opponent's Semblance was, he had a few ideas for how to deal with it.

Meanwhile, Link was dueling with Gradivus, the reduced weight of Ultima's core proving enough to keep up with Link. He remained cautious though, as he knew that the blades that acted as the rest of Ultima were somewhere. That 'where' was the question though, now wasn't it? Ducking a swing from the silver warrior before him, he rammed the pommel of his sword into his opponent's chin, staggering him enough to set him up for a heavy punch with the edge of his shield. Naturally, two hits to the face like this really dazed him, leading to a nasty combo from Link, culminating in a savage two handed blow that knocked Gradivus back into the city ruins. A smirk on his face, he knew he had what he wanted. Gradivus may be stealthy, but there was a reason his uncle sent Link as his first choice. He was better.

Gradivus stood back up, dazed, and looked up to see he was in the city ruins biome. Knowing exactly what he was dealing with, he groaned and brandished his blade with both hands. After all, this wasn't just a student, not even just the top student of Beacon. No, this was a Strife, second only to Oni Strife himself in his organization.

He was forced to abandon his thoughts, however, when a blue gunshot came from a random building, forcing him to defend. Turning towards the source of the gunshot, he saw only a flash of green before there was nothing, only continued silence aside from the roaring crowd, which definitely wasn't helping. Scanning the area, he was distraught due to the lack of any signs of his opponent's presence. No wonder Oni sent him... Another gunshot came from another building, this one amber, the weight of the round knocking him back into an alleyway with a few garbage bags.

"Ooohhh, he finished his earth dust rounds!" Ruby shouted, excited. After all, weapons were, as you knew, one of her favorite things. Like, ever. "I wonder if he's finished any other ones."

Once again losing track of Link, Gradivus kept his guard up, as those bullets were likely a death sentence on most people. Taking a few precautionary steps back, he bumped one of the garbage bags, a glassy 'clink' coming from within. He'd have paid it no mind, but he tensed up, as that wasn't the clink of glass, it was the clink of...

"Dust!" he shouted, looking up to see the glare off of Link's scope before a red muzzle flare came from his rifle. He braced himself just in time, as the fire round rupturing caused the fire dust crystals from the volcano biome Link had hidden in the garbage bags to all detonate, taking out a large chunk of his aura and blowing him back into the anti-grav biome.

Meanwhile, Sebastian was on the defensive, blocking blow after blow from Zeraphin, using his own weight to keep himself from being blown away. Blocking a heavy kick, Sebastian was momentarily staggered enough to break his guard and allow Zeraphin to land a powerful left hook to his face, the explosion generated being enough to knock Sebastian back. Hitting the cliffs of the mountain, he rolled onto a small plateau, quickly getting up and checking the aura of those present. Due to the few hits he'd sustained, Zeraphin's was the highest, followed by Link's, then Gradivus', then his own.

"Wonderful," he muttered as Zeraphin made it to the plateau, a cocky smirk on his face.

"Come on, you're starting to get boring. I don't like boring. Hit me! Make it fun!" he shouted, sprinting towards Sebastian with a fist raised. Sebastian merely sheathed his weapons and raised his hand, casting it to the side as Zeraphin was dragged by his arm in the direction. Clearly, Zeraphin had fallen under the influence of Sebastian's Iron Will.

Zeraphin didn't seem to care and merely unstrapped his gauntlet, letting it be lost rather than he himself, readying the next hand to attack, though the same fate befell that one, being forced to discard it or be rung out. This happened to both of his grieves as well, leaving him no hand to hand offensive options.

"Oh, now this is interesting!" he shouted, he and Sebastian taking cautious steps around each other. Sebastian still didn't have a good way to deal with Counter Surge, and Zeraphin likewise had no counter for Iron Will.

Zeraphin grinned even wider than before and reached to his back, pulling forth his massive blade, the other half of Blast Burn. Holding it forward and aiming the tip and Sebastian, he laughed as the blade started glowing a fiery orange, smoke pouring from the blade.

"I see, the armor detonates, the sword scorches," Sebastian said, weapons in hand once again. Zeraphin came in quickly, sword ready to cleave Sebastian in half, though he met it with his own blade. Zeraphin pressed for a moment, the heat of his blade coursing through his own, causing the handle of Kurogane to begin burning his hand. He ignored the pain and pushed his foe away, planting his blade in the ground for a moment such to try and dissipate some of the heat and to give his hand a moment to cool down. Taking his blade back up, he fended off another few swings from Zeraphin, opting to parry rather than outright block, as he knew what would happen if he did. This continued for a short while before they were distracted by the explosion coming from the city ruins, giving Sebastian a moment to charge Zeraphin and attempt to take his sword from him, though it was to no avail, Zeraphin easily pushing him away. It was enough for Sebastian though, as his Iron Will had already been invoked, using it to throw away Zeraphin's sword. Zeraphin laughed for a moment before charging Sebastian, and though Sebastian raised his shield to defend, Zeraphin did something odd. Instead of actually attacking, he simply grabbed Sebastian's shield with both hands and head-butted it as hard as he could, somehow triggering an explosion that knocked Sebastian back.

"My Semblance works with damage in general, it doesn't have to be malicious!" Zeraphin shouted as he chased Sebastian down, getting close once again and punching himself in the opposite thigh, setting off yet another explosion. Sebastian stood his ground though, Zeraphin attempting to kick Sebastian's shield from his hand. In a last ditch attempt to keep him away, he shield bashed him, knocking him back and forcing himself to stay in place. Quickly switching Kurogane to the Iron God's Wheel, he hurled it as hard as he could at the explosive foe, the distance he'd made between the two proved to be enough to spare him from the clearly massive explosion that came from the blow. Remembering what he had access too, he thrust forward a hand and clenched it, the gauntlets and grieves of blast burn flying forth and crashing into Zeraphin, creating a massive explosion from both the weapons and his aura, bathing the stadium in a scarlet glow. Breathing heavily, he fell to his knee and looked to the board to see that Zeraphin's aura was extremely close to red, but still not quite.

Sighing, he stood once more and ran off to the anti-grav biome, recalling his weapon to himself as he ran. These two were proving hard to beat one on one, and he doubted he could do something like that again with Zeraphin. He needed to get back to his teammate and try to get rid of them together.

Despite the violent explosion that landed him in the anti-grav biome and left him smoldering, Gradivus stood and brushed himself off, watching as Link joined him, using the grappling hook on his sword to get up there fast. Gradivus sighed and charged, Link bashing away the attack and instead striking Gradivus. Link stayed on the offensive and kept attacking, ultimately landing a hard kick into Gradivus' gut, knocking him off the platform they were standing on and towards a wall. Oddly enough, due to the nature of the anti-grav biome, Gradivus hit the wall and stayed there, the wall having an active gravitational pull, Gradivus rubbing his head and rolling to the side right as Link's sword embedded into the wall next to him, Link coming shortly after. He stood quickly and went for a swing on Link, though he quickly freed his blade, using the upswing to defend himself. Gradivus moved fast and swung up though, knocking Link back and into the air in the center of the anti-grav biome. Smirking, Gradivus thrust forth his free hand, Link staying present in the air.

"Gradivus has finally begun using his Semblance, G-Force!" Port shouted. "Some Huntsmen can enhance their speed or generate flames, while Gradivus can manipulate the forces of gravity itself!"

Helpless for the time being, Link looked around for a way out, only to instead to see a few glints from around the biome. Looking more closely, he saw that they were in fact the remaining pieces of Ultima scattered around.

"I don't intend to just lay back and lose to you, Valion!" Gradivus shouted as he pulled the trigger on the handle, the blades lodged in the biome beginning to shake before he threw the core at Link. This freed the other five blades, each hurtling towards Link in pursuit of the core of Ultima.

"Oh no!" Ruby shouted, worried at what may befall Link.

"A super counter and gravity control, these guys are nuts!" Yang shouted, agreeing with her sister. "I'm not saying they're gonna lose, but if it was anyone to beat VDMR, you'd expect it to be no less than a top 5."

"We're ranked higher than them though, how are they doing so well?" Weiss asked, Blake shaking her head.

"Ranks aren't everything. It may be that GOLD just had VDMR outmatched, as loathe as I am to say it," Blake mumbled, though she narrowed her eyes and looked back to the battlefield. "But I don't think this is over yet."

True to her words, Link angled himself such to dodge as the main blade flew over his head, activating his gauntlets such to fend off four more. The final blade wasn't in such a position that he could actually block it, instead catching it between his hands and throwing it away. Before Gradivus could try again, Link readied his rifle and fired an azure round at Gradivus, the bullet throwing him back while the recoil of the round pushed him into a wall, giving him his footing back and let him get back out of view.

"Hmph," muttered Gradivus as he recalled his weapon with G-Force. He turned to see Zeraphin approaching him, having taken his weapons back after Sebastian's failed attempt.

"You wasted all that time just to set up your blades?" Zeraphin groaned, stumbling a little. His aura was definitely lower than before, that much was for certain.

"Shove it," Gradivus commanded, looking up to the big screen. Aura levels were low across the board, with Sebastian's being the lowest, being extremely close to red. Zeraphin's was next, being only a few points higher than Sebastian's, the knight's last ditch attack having down a massive amount of damage. Gradivus' own was next, being a bit below half. Finally was Link's, being just above half. "God damn, he's got way too much aura."

"Better beat it out of him then," Zeraphin replied, cracking his knuckles.

"Gotta find him first," Gradivus retorted, looking around to try and find their opponents. "Split up and find them."

"Yeah," Zeraphin said, leaping over to a vertical wall and heading in the direction Link went, Gradivus turning around and going the opposite way.

Deep below them, Link and Sebastian met silently, Link sighing and looking up to where the opposing members of GOLD were before looking back to Sebastian.

"This is gonna be a rough one," Link said, "but we can manage. Did you grab that extra wire like I told you to?"

"Of course," Sebastian said, reaching to his back pocket and producing a large amount of high strength wire.

"Good, pass it here," Link commanded, taking the wire from Sebastian. "We're gonna use that new attack I was telling you about, but I want to make sure it counts. I need you to distract them for a bit."

"My aura can't really take that much more," Sebastian admitted, though Link gave him a reassuring smile.

"Don't worry, we've got this," Link said, readying his rifle. "Now let's finish this up."

Nodding, Sebastian watched as Link ran off, firing an ice dust round at the foe he could see, that being Zeraphin. Though it seemed to work for a moment, the ice encasing him was near instantly shattered by the explosion caused by Counter Surge. In that moment he was incased though, Link hid once more, Sebastian coming out into the open in his stead.

"There!" Zeraphin shouted, leaping down, Gradivus leaping down shortly after.

The two rushed Sebastian, forcing the knight to go on the defensive, blocking attacks mostly from Gradivus. Likely due to his proximity to his teammate, Zeraphin couldn't very well use his explosive gear, fitting in the odd hit with his blade. Now, Sebastian was strong, but he could only hold off attacks from these two for so long. Luckily, he didn't have to hold them much longer, as Link came around and tied them up with the spare wire, Sebastian using Iron Will to ensure it was bound tightly around the two.

"Let's finish this!" Link shouted, chucking his blade to Sebastian, grappling hook attached. "Skyward Sword!"

Sebastian nodded and ran up on of the nearby activated gravitational walls, dragging Link up with him. Leaping off the wall, he threw Link high into the air before basically whipping him back into the ground, releasing the Master Sword and sending Link spinning towards the still bound Gradivus and Zeraphin.

"I'll be damned," Gradivus muttered as Link slammed Zeraphin with all his might, triggering a devastating explosion that resulted in the depletion of both Gradivus' and Zeraphin's aura. Oddly enough, Link was spared from this blast, somehow standing behind one of the walls of the biome.

"...Yes, it would seem that we have a winner!" Oobleck shouted, squinting at the area the members of GOLD were occupying seeming their smoldering forms amidst the rubble of the surrounding battlefield. "Yes indeed we do! Ladies and gentlemen, Link Valion and Sebastian Steele of Beacon have defeated Gradivus Grayves and Zeraphin Darkraim of Haven!"

"Yeeesss!" Ruby shouted, leaping from her seat. Many others in the arena shared her sentiment, rising and roaring with approval at the result. "This is great!"

"Naturally, now we don't have to fight GOLD later on," Weiss said with a nod.

"No I meant because VDMR won, but that too I guess," Ruby replied meekly.

"Seed 4 may be out, but 5, 3, 2, and 1 are still all in," Blake pointed out. "Even if we didn't end up fighting GOLD at any point, it's likely we'd be matched against JNPR, VDMR, or even CMZN. The bracket is thinning out a lot, so high seeded matches are going to get more common. We'd better be ready."

"Oh, don't think too hard about it," Yang said, waving it off. "That just means we get to have more fun! The more the better! Plus we got to see that new team attack Link was talking about without having to be the person it messed up. It's a win-win!"

"Yes, my good sir, that was a fantastic round!" Port shouted in agreement with Oobleck. "Thus, the chosen of this battle will move on the the finals where he will wage glorious 1 on 1 combat for total glory! Don't go anywhere though, the next round will begin soon!"

With that, Link helped Zeraphin and Gradivus up, Sebastian having already left due to his fatigue. Zeraphin took the hand far more begrudgingly than Gradivus, but he did all the same, Link helping the two up.

"That was a great fight you two!" Link cheered, Zeraphin crossing his arms.

"Hmph," he muttered. "I guess."

"You two put up more resistance than I'd have figured though," Link admitted. "I forgot how good your Semblances were."

"Yeah, we were actually trying to win," Gradivus said quietly. "Oni only said one of us had to win, not who. Oh well, you won anyway, so I guess theres no harm in it."

"I figured that would have been the case," Link said, smirking. "That's why I geared up for that team attack."

"Of course you did," Zeraphin said, rolling his eyes. "I'm out. We have a mission to complete anyway."

"Yeah yeah," Gradivus said, rolling his eyes in response and following after. "Tetsuya and Lucius are probably almost done by now anyway, they should be back soon."

"They'd better be," Zeraphin grunted. "We aren't finishing this without them."

"This is going too fast," Link said when he knew Gradivus and Zeraphin were out of earshot, a sour look on his face. "There's no telling what's down there or how Uncle will react... Or Ozpin."

With that, Link looked back up to see the crowd cheering for him, a weak smile forcing its way onto his face as he waved at them, making his way off of the battlefield.

"That Valion guy's pretty good," said Levon of Team CMZN, scanning through the recording he'd taken of the fight. "I can't quite figure out his Semblance though. Whatever it is, he's using it really subtly, if at all."

"He's definitely fast," Zero said in agreement. "Even I had a hard time keeping up."

"I wasn't paying much attention," Oni said, leaning back in his chair. "It wasn't very interesting, so why bore myself?"

"No worries," Takeshi said, writing a few notes, "I think I've got it figured out. I'll be needing that recording from you though Levon, I'd like to make sure before passing along potentially false information."

"Damn, really?" Levon asked, sending off the relevant data.

"Remember Levon, nothing gets past these eyes of mine," Takeshi said with a smirk, his eyes seemingly glinting for a moment.

"Just get ready," Oni said lazily, standing from his chair. "We've got a fight to get ready for. Grab your gear and meet me in the locker room."

"Of course," Takeshi said as he stood, closing his notebook. "Levon, make sure to record the next fight. I believe it to be our classmates, though I may be mistaken."

"Oh cool," Levon said, pulling out a bucket of popcorn.

"Who are they against?" Zero asked, stealing a few pieces from his bucket before he could stop her.

OOO

"Well, now it's our turn!" Yang shouted, a small hop and a fist pump accompanying her expression of excitement.

"Just remember to keep proper form," Weiss instructed.

"Alright," Yang responded with a chuckle, calming herself down as she began stretching. "You're from Atlas. What could we expect?"

"Well," Weiss began, Yang moving on to stretch her legs, "seeing as their Kingdom, academy and armed forces are all merged as one, I think we can expect strict, militant fighters with advanced technology and carefully rehearsed strategies. Think back to CMZN."

Almost as if on cue, a sort of rainbow zoomed in past the two, taking them by surprise. The source of this rainbow just so happened to be a faunus girl on roller blades. She sped around for a moment before stopping next to a young man with a trumpet, fedora, and shades.

"...Or whatever they are," Weiss said, Yang still staring at the two in complete confusion.

"Hey!" the young man shouted, getting Weiss' attention. "You're Weiss Schnee, right? The heiress."

"I am," Weiss said, offering a courteous bow.

"I take it you're pretty good with dust, then?" he asked.

"I do my best," Weiss said with a shrug.

"Yeah, my dad was good too. Owned a little dust shop of his own," he said, nodding in reminiscence at the thought. However, his supposed admiration quickly melted away into hostility, now glaring at the Schnee heiress. "Till your father's company ran him out of business."

"Oh. I'm sorry to hear that," Weiss said, seemingly ashamed by what she'd been told. Her father was more ruthless than she remembered...

"Sure you are," he said, rolling his eyes. He didn't seem to like Weiss.

"Hey! Why don't you-" Yang began, though she was cut off by the faunus girl on the enemy team.

"Hey! Why don't you?" she shouted, pointing at Yang with a smile. "That's what you sound like!"

"Uh..." was all Yang could muster, as she wasn't used to dealing with people like this. Even Lana isn't this bad, and she's, well... Lana.

"Hey! Where'd you get your hair extensions?" the girl asked, Yang running her fingers through it, almost defensively.

"This is just my normal hair," she said, the girl looking surprised.

"Ooh, really?" she shouted, Yang definitely getting annoyed.

"Yeah! Is that a prob-" she began, though she was once again cut off.

"You should try rollerblading sometime! It's super fun!" she said quickly, spinning in place. "It'd probably take you a while, though, since you're so... you know, top-heavy."

Yang took a moment to look down at herself, looking back up and being even more enraged than before. "Excuse me?!" she shouted, the roulette wheels spinning to choose the biomes.

"Oh, here we go," Ruby said rolling her eyes. Once Yang got like that, she didn't calm down till the person who made her like that wasn't talking anymore...

"Let her have her fun," Link said, sitting next to her. "It's not every day she can cut loose like this."

"Fine," Ruby said, sighing and leaning back into her seat. "But I'm not gonna like it."

"Who are you kidding, yes you are," Link said with a smirk. "Not only are you watching your own sister tear it apart out there, you're also watching your bestie Weiss do it too. Team RWBY is having a field day."

"...Ok yeah you're right," Ruby admitted, a smile on her face. She turned and watched as the roulette wheels selected the biomes, those being city ruins, geysers, desert, and volcano.

"Now let's get on with Flynt and Neon versus Weiss and Yang! Three! Two! One!" Port counted, pausing for a moment for dramatic effect... again. "Begin!"

The moment he could, Flynt raised his weapon, a sort of weaponized trumpet, blowing into it and blowing away Yang and Weiss. Noctus, sitting up in the stands not too far from Cinder, Mercury, and Emerald, heard the trumpet and nodded.

"Jazz trumpet, huh?" he said, putting his feet on the seat in front of him since it was empty. "Not the kinda weapon I'd use, but I respect it."

Weiss was able to use a glyph of hers to stop sliding back, yet didn't see Neon hopping into the sound waves and using them to propel herself forward. Yang, who was clearly having more trouble than Weiss in this situation, was the poor soul to receive the focus of Neon's efforts, being pushed all the way back into the city ruins. Eventually, Weiss had had enough of being nearly forced back, and created more glyphs to try and move forward when Flynt stopped playing, trudging onward when he continued. He saw this and stopped playing once more, however, Weiss accidentally flung herself forward, sliding past Flynt and getting a kick in the back that slid her into the volcano area. As she slid in, Flynt smirked as she crashed into a large fire dust crystal, cracking it apart.

Meanwhile, Yang was having an equally difficult time dealing with Neon, the young Faunus casually skating through volley after volley of shells Yang fired at her, grinding on rails and kicking off walls. All the while, she repeated a mantra to herself as she dodged. "Never miss a beat! Never miss a beat! Never miss a beat! Never miss a beat!" she cheered. Dodging another round from Ember Celica, Neon slid down another railing and moved in on Yang, zipping around her a few times and bashing her with her nunchucks. Yang easily survived the assault and basically growled as she released the spent shells from her gauntlets, Neon smiling as she cracked her nunchucks, the weapon now glowing blue. She rolled in once more to attack, though she moved right past Yang and somehow encased her leg in ice, moving away before Yang could so much as touch her.

"Hm-hmm! Look!" Neon said, laughing as she rolled around Yang. "Now you're bottom-heavy, too!" she jeered, slapping her butt to further emphasize her point.

Definitely more angry than before, Yang lifted her icy leg and stomped hard, shaking the immediate area and shattering the ice on her leg. However, Neon chose this moment to zip back and freeze Yang's arm. Catching her off guard and giving her a moment to get some distance, Neon quickly closed back in and kicked Yang away and into a wall, cracking it behind her.

"You should cool off!" Neon taunted as she continued to roll around Yang, always just out of reach. "Get it? Because you're angry."

Now, Yang liked puns as much as the next girl, but she didn't like this girl's usage of them, thus causing her to get even angrier than before. Thanks to her rage, she smashed her arm against the wall behind her, the ice shattering while the wall crumbled, all the while staring down Neon.

Whilst Yang was dealing with her opponent, Weiss too was dealing with her own, though she was having a noticeably rough time. The two now in the volcanic section, Weiss summoned a few glyphs with Myrtenaster before firing several large icicles at Flynt. Flynt merely smiled and leapt into the air, landing on his knees and playing loudly, blowing the flames from a nearby crater at the ice, melting all of the ice Weiss launched at him.

"Too bad all that money can't buy you skill," he taunted, spinning his trumpet as he stood. "Looks like Seed 3 was wasted on you."

Weiss gritted her teeth before swapping dust types to wind, blasting a massive torrent of air at Flynt though he replied with a blast from his trumpet, matching it. Weiss created more glyphs around the surrounding battlefield, breaking the stalemate and hopping between her glyphs, striking Flynt with each pass. Weiss did this for a short time, dodging his attacks before seeing... two Flynts? No, three. Four? Yes, Weiss was in fact looking at 4 Flynts, the quartet lining up and blasting away at Weiss, knocking her away and disarming her.

"Whoa!" Jaune shouted in surprise.

"What's this?" Port questioned from the booth, equally as confused as Jaune.

"Looks like he's duplicating himself..." Link said before taking a large swig of water. He was still a bit tired from his prior fight...

"It appears young Flynt has just activated his Semblance! And quite a remarkable one at that. Ladies and gentlemen, feast your eyes on Flynt Coal's Killer Quartet!" Oobleck said, explaining Flynt's Semblance.

As if on queue, the line of Flynts turned to the audience and tipped their hats, each one a slightly different color than the rest. After that, they turned towards the board to see aura levels, seeing that both Weiss and Yang were at around half. Shaking his head, he began walking forward, each of his clones merging back into himself. He was ready to finish this.

As he was preparing for the end of this fight, Neon was still toying with Yang, casually rolling away from the now red-eyed Yang.

"Ooh! Flashy eyes!" Neon said, slowing down to appreciate the change in Yang's appearance. "Y'know, you're actually kinda pretty when you're angry."

Because of Neon, Yang realized she was inadvertently using her Semblance, closing her eyes and shaking her head before blasting herself forward with a few shots from Ember Celica to try and catch her slippery adversary. "Shut up, shut up, SHUT UP!" she shouted as she flew towards her target.

At the same time, Weiss was recovering from the hit she'd taken as she reached for her sword, only to see Flynt to step on the blade. He would have done something about it, but both turned to see their respective teammates running throughout the neighboring biome.

"Get back here!" Yang shouted, clearly angrier than before.

"I wasn't trying to say that you should go on a diet, I was saying you really need to go on a diet!" Neon said, rolling in a circle around the now-stationary Yang.

"THAT'S IT!" Yang shouted, having completely lost it.

Neon, clearly not understanding exactly what exactly she was getting herself into, uttered two more words. Two words that should never be said to any girl, but most importantly Yang. "You're fat."

"She's dead," all of Team VDMR said in tandem. Even just the wrong joke could be a death sentence, but outright insulting Yang like that? Doomed.

Flynt took a moment to look at Weiss, shaking his head at her before turning back towards Yang, seeing her as the greater threat due to Weiss' weapon not exactly being accessible. Due to this, Flynt summoned his clones once more in order to blow Yang away. Weiss looked over to her enraged teammate to see that Neon had her completely distracted, and wouldn't be able to respond to Flynt's attack. Looking around quickly, she also saw a pool of magma bubbling near them, tackling the Flynts back together and into the pool without hesitation right as it erupted, drawing Yang's attention.

"What?" she wondered out loud as she turned towards the fiery geyser.

"Weiss!" Ruby and Blake shouted in tandem, worried about their teammate.

"It appears we have a double knockout on our hands!" Port shouted.

"In fact, it looks as though Miss Schnee's Aura has been completely depleted! She sacrificed herself to take out Flynt!" he announced, though he saw something on the battleground. "Wait a minute. What's this!?"

'This' turned out to be Flynt standing back up after his flaming dip. He was clearly hurting from it, yet he was still able to keep going.

"Ladies and gentlemen, Flynt Coal remains standing!" Oobleck declared, a few cheers coming from the crowd whilst Flynt walked angrily towards Yang, he too clearly mad.

"You did it, Flynt! Don't worry about her, she's easy! But kind of annoying," Neon said as she rolled gleefully over to Flynt, finally tipping Yang over the edge, her fists clenching and the very ground beneath her trembling under her rage.

"Ooh, looks like Yang's angry! And you wouldn't like her when she's... upset," he said, Yang looking up with her eyes a bloody crimson and her hair ablaze.

With a shout of anger, she fired a pair of shells at her foes who both nearly dodged, but the amplified detonations of the two showed them that they were not to be hit under any circumstances.

"Yo, Neon, go!" Flynt commanded as he raised his trumpet, Neon hopping into the sound waves and allowing herself to be launched forward by it. Yang met her halfway and tried to punch her, but once again she missed. Scowling, she instead fired at the ground near her to force her back, the detonation almost hitting Flynt. This caused him to recoil a bit and blow Neon elsewhere before forcing him to run out of the way of Yang's continued onslaught, though he was noticeably shakier than before. Neon rolled away from the continued volley from Yang into the geyser biome while Yang turned her attention completely on Flynt, running towards him whilst he used his Semblance to try and keep her at bay. It was all for nought, however, and Yang kept firing behind her to push herself through his attack, clapping her hands over the bell of the trumpet. They sat there like that for a moment before it all blew up in Flynt's face and shooting him back, putting his clones away for the final time, as this took out all of his aura. Naturally, this led to the buzzer ringing and a snappy comment from Oobleck. "Oh, sour note for Flynt!" he said while Yang slid back, looking angrily to Neon as she continued to skate around the geysers.

"Never miss a beat! Never miss a beat! Never miss a..." she said right as he roller skates caught on a crack and tripping her up. "...beat?" she mumbled in a defeated tone as she shed a few tears, falling into a geyser that blew her helplessly into the air. Yang watched as she tumbled aimlessly out of the sky, smirking as she fired a single round that effortlessly blew through all of Neon's aura, sending her screaming into the distance. Thus sounded the third and final buzzer, signaling victory for Team RWBY. Yang blinked for a moment, her eyes returning to fuchsia, remembering hr teammate who sacrificed herself earlier.

"Weiss!" she shouted, running over to the heiress and picking up her smoldering form. "Are you okay?"

Weiss simply coughed a few times, smoke spouting out as she did. "I may not be singing for a while..." she lamented, Yang's worried expression melting away into a joking smile.

"You know, I'm not sure that was proper form," she said, Weiss rolling her eyes.

"Oh, ha ha," she said, another coughing fit stopping any further fake laughter.

"WHAT!? We lost? We lost?" Neon shouted, having what looked to be a mild panic attack, Weiss and Yang both turning towards her. "Team FNKI lost? That was... that was..." she said before jumping up in glee, " ... amazing! Oh my gosh, you guys were super crazy awesome! We should definitely party together sometime, right Flynt?"

"That was a gutsy move, Schnee," Flynt said as he rose to his feet, pausing for a moment. "I dig it.'

Weiss and Yang couldn't help but smile at the two, as even after a fight like that they were willing to accept defeat so gracefully. As they did, Blake and Ruby ran onto the field to make sure they were okay, but more importantly to congratulate them.

"Good job, you two!" Blake cheered.

"Yeah!" Ruby shouted in agreement.

They all stayed there for a bit, soaking up the cheers of the crowd before Port's voice was heard over the speakers.

"RWBY, FNKI, we ask that you make way, as we have one last fight for the day. We'd prefer not to keep them waiting."

"Oh, yeah, let's get you some water, Weiss," Ruby said, helping her up. "I'm sure Link will be willing to share."

With that, they made their way back to the stands, more than ready to watch the final fight of the doubles round.

OOO

"And now, ladies and gentlemen," Oobleck declared, "for the final match of today, and the final round of the doubles portion. By process of elimination, we have Lucien Gray and Vermillion Young of Team SLVR versus Oni Umberdyne and Takeshi Alpharion of Team CMZN!"

Naturally, the crowd roared as the two teams walked out onto the battlefield, though it was clear there was a favored team here, that being Team CMZN. 'Oni' and 'Takeshi' was heard overpowering every other sound in the stadium, the namesakes of those cheers staring down their opponents. Takeshi in particular was sizing them up immensely, taking in everything about them and figuring out whatever he could from appearances alone.

"Lucien Gray," he said, getting the boy's attention, "prioritizes close quarters combat over ranged. Your Semblance allows you to generate an invisible doppelgänger of yourself to aide in overwhelming your opponent."

"What the hell...?" Lucien muttered, taking a step back. No one had ever figured out how his Semblance worked, even when fighting against him. How did he just look at him and know?

"Vermillion Young," Takes said, turning to the female beside Lucien, "acts as support for Lucien to ensure he isn't taken off guard. Your Semblance allows you to ricochet bullets off of thin air."

"How did you-?" she began, though Takeshi smirked and raised his hand, cutting her off.

"Don't bother," he said, lowering his hand. "It won't do you any good. Even if I told you exactly how I know, you won't be able to stop it."

"You trying to scare them or something?" Oni asked, looking to his teammate. "If so, I'd say you did it."

"Just trying to make sure they know they can't try to 'pull a fast one' on me," he said, glaring mostly at Vermillion. "I'll know."

The members of SLVR just looked at Takeshi as the roulette wheels finished spinning, anti-grav, ocean, savannah, and ice being selected, those biomes rising from the depths of Amity Arena. Port counted down, stalling for a moment, of course, before saying go, Vermillion raising her rifle and firing at Oni the moment she could. To her surprise, however, her bullet was deflected by Takeshi, who casually swatted the bullet away and shook his head.

"I was hoping you would have taken the hint," he said, Oni turning and walking back. "A shame, really. You seemed smarter than that."

"Be quick with it," Oni said, heading towards the anti-grav biome. "I wanna finish up and head to bed. The finals can't come soon enough..."

"Trust me, it'll be over before you know it," Takeshi said reassuringly.

With that, he once again divided the battlefield in half, once again with a gargantuan wall of ice.

"So, Lucien, I'd imagine you'll be first?" Takeshi asked, watching as Lucien looked shakily to Vermillion and nodded. "Good! That will make things much easier. Come on then, let's go. Don't want to keep 'The Silver-Eyed Demon' over there waiting now do you?"

Lucien simply shouted in anger and charged Takeshi, Takeshi easily dodging his attack and sweeping his legs, knocking him face-first into the ice wall. In that small moment of distraction, Vermillion took her chance to try and take a potshot at Takeshi, though he batted this bullet away as well. True to his analysis, the bullet bounced back at him, though he moved ever so slightly to the side in order to dodge it, the bullet instead flying towards Lucien. Again, true to Takeshi's words, the bullet stopped in mid air, having hit Lucien's doppelgänger.

"Ah yes, you've already shown your hands, as I figured," Takeshi said, smiling. "I truly must apologize, but CMZN intends to win this tournament, and I must win this match as quickly as possible."

With that, Takeshi proceeded to thrash the two, Lucien's doppelgänger proving to be no threat to Takeshi, but also somehow being completely unable to block any of his blows. Simultaneously, Vermillion was completely unable to hit Takeshi with any of her shots, Takeshi even managing to bat a few back at her for some extra damage. Much like CMZN's previous round, this ended with Takeshi positively brutalizing the two, culminating in Takeshi driving a massive pillar generated from earth dust into the pair, basically displaying their defeated forms in the arena.

"It was fun, SLVR!" Takeshi shouted, melting the ice wall and gently striking one area of the stone pillar, shattering the whole thing and dropping the defeated members of SLVR on the ground.

"Another landslide victory for CMZN..." Ruby muttered from her seat aside JNPR and VDMR, watching as Oni nagged Takeshi for taking too long. "Who would have ever seen this coming?"

"Really?" Jaune asked. "I thought it was obvious they'd win..."

"Oh, Jaune..." Weiss muttered, rubbing her eyes.

"So, Umberdyne is moving on to finals," Link said, ignoring Jaune's ignorance. "I gotta say, good luck to whoever has to fight him... he's a monster."

"If his team is any indication, that's an understatement," Sebastian said.

"Agreed," Ren said.

"Oh, definitely," Yang said. "Granted, it could just be that CMZN is the biggest team of bluffers ever... Maybe Oni actually sucks?"

"My dear sister, I'm going to need you stop trying to convince yourself that Oni's an easy target," Ruby said, putting an arm around the aforementioned sister's shoulders. "If you fight him in the finals, act like you're fighting dad or Uncle Qrow. Because from what they say, that's about how hopeless that would be!"

"You're really not boosting my confidence here, sis..." Yang muttered, though Ruby simply smiled and stood, ready to head back to her room.

"Oh well!" she cheered. "Anyway, let's go. Link, I wanna talk about strategies for the next round."

"Hey, no, he's the enemy!" Weiss shouted, though Ruby silenced her.

"It's not like we're going to tell them how to beat Yang or anything, we're gonna talk about how to beat any of those non-Beacon kids," Ruby clarified, rolling her eyes. "Come on, bestie bestie better than the restie, you should know this by now."

"We're not 'besties'," Weiss muttered, though Ruby heard and got in Weiss' face, startling her.

"Stop lying," Ruby commanded before walking away, Link getting up and following after the leader of RWBY, the rest of VDMR following shortly after.

"Now that the doubles round is over, let's announce the first match of the finals round to take place tomorrow!" Port shouted, drawing the attention of those still present in the arena.

"Ho ho hold on," Ruby said, pushing VDMR out of the way to stand back by her team, everyone looking to the screen expectantly.

"Would all selected finalists please report to the battleground!" Oobleck shouted, Yang sighing and following Link as he made his way to the center of the battlefield.

It only took a few minutes, but all of the finalists made it to the center, each one standing in a circle, eyeing each other.

First, let's talk about those who we don't know. There was an Atlesian boy with futuristic armor, a boy with fancy armor and a hat with a plume in it, and another boy with concealing armor and a hood. Now that we've gotten them out of the way, let's move on to the combatants we know.

First was our good friend Yang Xiao Long, who just moved on today, as you saw.

Second we had Sun Wukong, who simply stood there and waved nervously.

Next was Penny Polendia, who as we saw earlier laid waste to her opponents with ease.

After Penny was Mercury Black. He really didn't seem like he wanted to be there...

Next to Mercury was Pyrrha Nikos, the warrior standing still and waiting in earnest to see who was first.

Following Pyrrha was the mysterious Link Satane, the one Link remembered dominated the teams and doubles rounds, even without a team to back him. Due to his lack of a team, he wasn't seeded, though he had a feeling that he'd be next to unstoppable in a 1v1.

Second to last we had Link Valion, who looked over his opponents closely, thinking of the best ways to deal with them all.

Finally was Oni Umberdyne, who much like Mercury didn't seem to want to be there, though he seemed more annoyed. He did, however, glare at Sun for a moment, as he seemed to remember him from the boat.

"You'd better hope you lose before I get to you," he said, Sun tensing up.

"Uhhh, good luck to you too, I guess...?" he mumbled.

"Now, let's consult the randomizer to see who dukes it out tomorrow!" Port said, the screen displaying two empty competitor profiles. "First we have..." he trailed off, letting the first randomizer spin, eventually landing on... "Oni Umberdyne of Atlas!"

As his name was called, many of the other competitors flinched, as they knew that one of them was going to have to fight that demon tomorrow. Sun and the other unnamed Atlesian flinched harder than the others, as Sun was afraid of him, and the other Atlesian knew what he would be up against.

"And for his competitor, we have," he said, the other randomizer falling on his opponent, that being... "Link Valion of Beacon!"

The crowd collectively gasped as they saw the matchup for tomorrow, a resounding silence coming over the arena.

"Kick that Beacon kid's ass, Umberdyne!" shouted one spectator, many other sharing his sentiment and joining in on the new 'Umberdyne' chant.

"S-Show them what Beacon can do, Link!" Ruby shouted, hoping to counter the Atlesian chants. Though a few 'Valion' cheers came forth from other spots in the stadium, the vast majority of the cheers where still for Oni.

"Now, we'd like to point out that this fight is between the Seed 1 and Seed 2 competitors," Oobleck said. "Spectacles like this are usually to be spared for the end, but chance gave it to us early. We hope you're ready for what is surely to go down as one of the biggest fights of the tournament!"

With that, the students all turned to leave, Oni being sure to shoulder check Sun on the way out. Yang and Pyrrha quickly made their way over to Link, the group making their way out of the arena and back to their teams.

"So, you gotta fight Umberdyne tomorrow, huh?" Yang asked, gently elbowing Link. "What are your thoughts on that?"

"I'm not too worried about it, either I lose to Seed 1 or I win and upset the tourney," he said, shrugging. "Either way, I'm not too worried."

"If it assists you in any way," Pyrrha said, drawing Link's attention, "I could help with some sparring. After all, I have my own matches to worry about, so it would benefit the both of us."

"Nah, the more he fights, the more it's gonna fatigue him moving forward," Yang said, waving off Pyrrha's suggestion. "If anything, he should try getting into the right mindset. How about you start teaching Ruby and I how to play that game? I wanna beat Uncle Qrow."

"Stress like that may not be the best before a match," Pyrrha said. "Maybe a healthy meal?"

"Anything too different from what he usually eats may mess him up. Extra sleep?" Yang asked.

"Too much sleep is counterproductive, maybe he'd be better off training solo?" Pyrrha asked in response.

"I'll be fine guys, but thanks," Link said, a little embarrassed. "If anything I might just go on an evening jog, maybe tune up my gear."

"Well, if there's anything we can do to help, let us know. Until we're matched together, us Beacon kids gotta stick together!" Yang cheered, Pyrrha nodding.

"If we meet on the battlefield though, it's no-holds-barred," she said adamantly, the three then finally meeting back up with their teams, Ruby looking worried.

"You have to fight Umberdyne tomorrow?" she asked worriedly. "Seed 1... Do you think you're up for it?"

"I'll be fine, don't worry," Link said, a smile on his face. "Either I win or I lose, it doesn't matter too much."

"Is there any way I can help?" she asked. "I wanna make sure you're ready!"

"Pyrrha and I already asked," Yang said, shrugging. "It doesn't seem like he wants to do anything special."

"Now," Link said, a sly smile on his face, "I never said I didn't want to do anything, just nothing you guys suggested seemed too enticing."

"What are you getting at?" Yang asked suspiciously, as seeing Link's smile put her on guard.

"Oh, nothing in particular," he said, putting his hands in his pockets, "just that our teams should have a little celebration for all of us making it to the finals. Not too stressful, and well-deserved."

"Ooohhh, I like it!" Ruby said cheerfully.

"Me too!" Jaune said. "Pyrrha, Yang, and Link have fought hard, they've earned a night to unwind before they have to get back to it."

"I'll help cook," Ren said, Nora putting her arm around his shoulder and nearly dragging him to the ground.

"I'll help taste test!" she shouted.

"Don't let her do that, there won't be any left for the rest of us!" Yang shouted, Nora sticking her tongue out at Yang, enraging the blonde.

"Well, while you keep Nora occupied," Link said as he began walking back to the dorms, "we're gonna get ready. I'm still sweating from the fight with GOLD. I need to shower and change..."

"I couldn't agree more," Weiss said, crossing her arms. "I still feel gross from our fight with FNKI... I bet there's still soot and ash in my boots..."

"You'd better hurry and clean up too then, we've only got so much time to celebrate before we need to sleep," Link called from over his shoulder, the rest of Team VDMR following him closely.

"He's right, get cleaned, and get changed!" Ruby shouted, zipping off and leaving her team in the dust.

"Yeah, you guys too," Jaune said. "Ren, can I borrow your shampoo?"

"...I suppose," Ren said reluctantly. That shampoo isn't exactly cheap.

"Cool!" Jaune cheered. "Let's go! I wonder what he's got planned? A small party in his room? Oh, maybe a trip to Vale!"

"A trip to Vale would be so wonderful!" Weiss shouted in glee, agreeing with Jaune for once. "We're rarely down there for anything other than missions or anything similar, I'd love to be down there without having to carry a weapon."

"Now that you say it like that, I'm ready for a nice night to just relax," Blake said, her sly smile once again rising to the surface. "Even the dance was stressful since Torchwick was still on the loose, but now that he's behind bars I finally feel like I can actually take it easy."

"Oh yeah, that's what I like to hear!" Yang said, throwing up a thumbs up after she had finished glaring down Nora. "Let's hurry up though, I don't wanna keep anyone waiting."

Naturally, everyone agreed, running back to the dorms in order to prepare for the night the leader of VDMR had planned for them.

OOO

"I know I took longer than I probably should have," Link said, toweling himself off as he walked back into his room after his shower, "but I needed that after today."

"I don't blame you, even mine was longer than usual," Sebastian said, having taken his shower and finished up already.

"Why didn't you just... shower after your match?" Volga asked, Link looking at him weird for a second.

"RWBY's match was right after ours, you knew this," Link said, going to his closet and looking over his clothes for the night. "I'm still friendly with the others, assuming you can call Weiss friendly, that is."

"On a good day, no," Lana said as she brushed her hair. "But maybe someday."

"You're too kind," Link said, rolling his eyes as he pulled out a black long-sleeved button up with green buttons and a pair of blue jeans. "Yeah, these will work."

"Ah, so that's the feel we're going for, gotcha," Lana said, grabbing some casual clothes from her closet and tossing them on her chair. "You know the drill, out."

"Yeah yeah," Link said, gesturing for Sebastian and Volga to follow him back to the bathrooms to change, running into Jaune and Ren on the way.

"Oh hey!" Jaune called, waving at the two. "Kicked out again?"

"You know it," Link replied, a small chuckle escaping him. "Gonna get changed and get ready to go."

"Oh yeah, we're heading down to the city, right?" Jaune asked. "Where do you intend to take us all exactly?"

"You'll see," is all Link said before heading into the bathroom to change, the males of his team following after.

"What are you guys up to?" Ruby asked, having walked out of her room, casual clothes on, drawing Jaune and Ren's attention.

"Hey Ruby," Jaune replied, turning to the leader of RWBY. "We're getting changed to head out."

"Oh right, Lana, Pyrrha, and Nora never let you guys change in your rooms," Ruby said, acknowledging their predicament.

"Right, before I forget," Jaune said, pulling out his scroll, "Pyrrha sent me a message, she's gonna bet late. I guess Ozpin wanted to talk to her about something?"

"Did she say what?" Ruby asked, curious.

"No, just that he'd asked her to his office," Jaune admitted. "Oh well, I'm sure it won't take too long, Pyrrha sounded really excited to go today."

"Definitely," Ruby said in agreement right as Link walked back out of the bathroom, changed.

"What are you guys talking about?" he asked, brushing his hair out of his eyes.

"Pyrrha will be joining us later," Jaune said. "Ozpin wanted to talk to her."

"Ah, bummer," Link said. "Anyway, go get changed, VDMR is ready to get moving."

"Not all of us!" Lana shouted from VDMR's room.

Link couldn't help but laugh. "Well, most of us anyway. Hurry up, Lana!"

"Never rush a girl!" Lana shouted back.

"Oh come on, I didn't take that long," Ruby said, Link rolling his eyes.

"Ruby, your Semblance makes you fast, even if you had to do a ton of makeup or whatever you'd be done before any of us," he said.

Ruby simply shrugged in response. "Meh, oh well. Jaune, Ren, get changed, and then as soon as Lana is ready we can go."

"Wait, what about the rest of your team?" Jaune asked, though right as he said this the door to RWBY's room opened up.

"We're already good to go," Yang said, Blake and Weiss following closely after, each one in casual clothes.

"We've been ready, we're just waiting for you guys," Blake said, Weiss pouting behind her.

"I can be nice!" Weiss said, having heard Lana through the wall.

"We know, Ice Queen," Link said, glancing slyly at Weiss, who scoffed and turned the other way. "Anyway, Jaune, Ren, go get changed, Lana will be done soon," Link said, the two members of JNPR nodding and quickly heading into the bathroom to do just that.

"So, where are we going exactly?" Yang asked, Link turning to her and grinning.

"You know exactly where we're going," Link said, Yang understanding and smirking.

"Oh that's perfect," she said.

The others looked at the two of them in worry, as they didn't know exactly what they were getting at. Link and Yang agreeing on something like this?

"What are you up to?" Ruby asked, Yang and Link simply looking at her and smirking, the color draining from Ruby's face. "Oh no..."

OOO

Meanwhile in their own room, Cinder, Emerald, and Mercury sat around, Cinder on her bed looking through her scroll, Emerald laying on the floor on her own scroll, and Mercury doing pushups off to the side. Scrolling further, Cinder saw something that piqued her interest, a surprised smile coming over her face.

"Oh," she said, Emerald and Mercury looking over to her.

"What?" Emerald asked, Cinder looking more closely at the file she now had access too, namely the diagrams for... P.E.N.N.Y.

"Oh nothing," she said, still smirking to herself. "We're just going to be making a slight, hmm... alternation in the plan."

"What does that mean?" Mercury asked cautiously. They'd had this planned out for so long, what was going to change?

"It means that this will be even easier than we thought," Cinder said, her smile becoming even more sinister.

OOO

"Did you plant them?"

"Of course."

"Good."

While Cinder and her forces continued to progress their plans, so too did Oni's. Knowing something was up, Gradivus had Lucius plant a bug on the scrolls of teams RWBY and JNPR when he could, enabling them to hear them through their scrolls whenever they had them with them, which was essentially always. Text logs were now theirs to use as they saw fit, and all phone calls and face-to-face conversations were recorded for them as well. And something interesting had come to their attention...

As we knew, Link was treating RWBY, JNPR, and VDMR to a night on the town to celebrate them all moving on to the finals, which made it all the weirder that Ozpin chose today to call Pyrrha in. If he was calling her in to congratulate her on making it to the finals, why not invite Link and Yang as well? If he was entrusting a mission to her, what makes her the ideal candidate when RWBY was so much more efficient than JNPR?

"I guess we'll find out soon enough..." Gradivus said, leaning back in his chair, waiting both for Lucius and Tetsuya to return and to see exactly what Ozpin was up to...

OOO

Speaking of Ozpin, he was sitting in his office, chair turned such to face the window, watching as RWBY, JNPR (sans Pyrrha), and VDMR began leaving campus, Link and Yang leading the pack. Sighing for a moment, he heard the elevator open, knowing full well who was walking in, the arrival walking forward with a coffee mug in hand.

"You know, he's making you look like a fool," Qrow said as he approached the desk.

"His heart is in the right place. He's just..." Ozpin said, thinking of the word, "misguided."

"Sometimes, I'm not even sure he has a heart," Qrow said, taking a sip from his mug. "So, have you chosen your guardian yet?"

"Maidens choose themselves. I simply believe I've found the right candidate. Ever since the day I met her, I had the feeling she would be the one. She's strong, intelligent, caring..." he said, thinking to the qualities of the chosen, "but most importantly, she's ready."

As he spoke, none other than Pyrrha made her way to Beacon tower, seemingly a little upset that she couldn't spend time with her friends right now. Standing in the elevator, she sighed as the doors closed. Hopefully she can finish up here quickly...

This was a big boi chapter, a whole lot of words. More words than ever, actually. We're looking at a grand total of 13,073 words, more than a full thousand more than the second longest chapter I've written to date. Man, it feels good to be able to dump a mountain of words this size on you, it (hopefully) makes for a good read.

Once more, I'd like to encourage you guys to check out Get REKT, as BryanPrime and I are currently really happy with what we have and plan to keep working hard on it. Art is coming, we swear, so keep an eye on the author's notes for where that ends up going.

Anyway, regarding the chapter, lots went on! The obvious new additions were GOLD v VDMR and CMZN v SLVR, a team that once again was a couple of heat of the moment OCs, but I think their Sembances were a bit better than ice feet and aura yoink. Next chapter though, we've got some big things going on. What does Link have planned? and how about that fight? Stick around and find out!

OniHelix out!