12 - ||

"There on your left!" Nora cried, pointing at the approaching noodle bar, still riding her 'noble steed' and earning quite a few second glances from the people we'd passed along the way.

I coughed, tilting my head towards Nora as I did so. "That's your right, Nora." I stage whispered to my teammate as she continued to point to the shop.

"That's what I said, on my right!" Nora continued on acting as if she'd never been corrected, only to fall back on her butt with a thump as Ren shrugged her off. "Hey!" she squawked mock outraged, shaking her fist at Ren as she did so.

Hey is that team RWBY sitting over there?

Well I'll be. They must be celebrating their victory in their match with a bowl.

"What!? How can my card be declined?" Weiss' voice called out loudly in shock. "I was barely into my monthly allowance.

Or it could be that they're simply attempting to have a nice bowl of noodles as they can't seem to pay for them.

Blake was stealthily attempting to bring her bowl of fish noodles closer towards her only for the shopkeeper to snatch it back out of her reach. "Noooo." She cried out, collapsing onto the counter as her arms reached out for her retrieved food.

I would pay for them but well…

Hey that new X-ray and Vav comic was worth it, damn it!

"Maybe I can help?" Pyrrha suggested as we approached some empty stools for us all to sit on.

Needless to say those Pumpkin Pete sales brought Pyrrha quite the nest egg.

That and the cash prizes for winning the Mistral regional tournament so many times helped as well.

"Pyrrha!" Ruby cheered, throwing up her arms in joy as she caught sight of us.

"Aw you don't have to." Yang said, clearly grateful for Pyrrha's offer but not wanting to force her to.

From the way I just saw Blake kick her partner in the shins the faunus of team RWBY seemed to disagree with her.

"But she could." Blake cut in desperately, nearly knocking Weiss off her stool as she did so.

"Well," Pyrrha started with a laugh, "I think you all earned it after that battle."

"As long as you don't mind some extra company." I said with a grin sliding onto an empty stool, signalling for four bowls to the chef who quickly ducked into the back. "You guys did great out there."

"Aw shush you." Ruby said bashfully spinning on her stool as she did so before something seemed to come to her. "When are you guys having your match?"

Easy that was…

Uh…

Hold on I know this one.

"Twenty five…" I hedged looking to my teammates for help to find Nora enthralled at the sight of her noodles arriving, Pyrrha deep in conversation with Weiss and Ren looking at me amusedly. "To?" I hazarded giving it my best guess.

Ren shook his head slowly tutting as he did so. "So close." Ren said with a smirk before he turned back to face team RWBY. "Our match is at twenty five past."

Plenty of time for noodles.

I went to continue my conversation with Ruby but at that point my own gloriously full bowl of noodles arrived in front of me and my stomach emitted a loud war cry in response.

Point taken stomach.

I started digging into my noodles as conversations sparked up around us, Ruby and Nora talking about the hover board that Reese had been using in increasingly bewildering terms, Pyrrha and I talked to Weiss about her giant ice fist/sphere shenanigans during the match, Yang and Ren talked about her fight with Arslan and Blake?

Blake focused solely on her bowl of noodles, her bow twitching with joy every so often as she took another mouthful of the chef's special.

Before I even realised it, the noodles were gone and I leaned back with a sigh of satisfaction, my stomach finally at ease with this noodly sacrifice. "Oh these noodles are the best." I let out pushing myself up from my stool as I did so.

Pyrrha stood up as well nodding in agreement. "We should be off."

"So," Ruby spoke up, drawing out the word as she looked at us. "You guys think you're ready?

"Of course!" Nora exclaimed loudly gesturing wildly as she did so. "We've got a world renowned fighter on our team, one's basically a ninja, I can bench five of me, Jaune knows how to use his shield now, we trained all year, all our weapons are awesome, Glynda barely yells at us anymore," Nora explained, gesturing to whoever she was talking about at the time.

Ren leant over towards me. "Didn't Goodwitch yell at us yesterday?" He asked dryly drawing a snort of laughter from me.

"Ah but Ren," I countered grabbing Nora by the back of her collar as I did so and lifting her up from her stool. "Yesterday she only yelled at Nora so technically she didn't yell at us."

Ren let out a laugh at that, hooking one arm under Nora's shoulder as I did the same to the opposite one and began dragging her away from the noodle stand.

Nora understandably was flailing away as we did so, even as Pyrrha said our goodbyes for us. "Wait, do we have to leave right now?" she asked, straining against us to regain her seat on the stool to no avail.

Ren rolled his eyes. "We do have a match to get to Nora." He reminded her bluntly, taking most of the winds out of her sails with his reply.

"Besides," I added releasing Nora alongside Ren, the bubbly berserker twirling and not missing a step as she kept pace with us. "If we stayed there any longer you probably would have gotten rather dramatic."

"What?!" Nora yelped, seemingly betrayed and outraged by my comment. "I would never do such a thing!"

Pyrrha coughed lightly at that. "Does the term 'Lose-iper' ring any bells?" My partner asked, green eyes glinting in amusement as she did so.

Nora froze mid step before chuckling nervously.

"You still talk in your sleep Nora." Ren said dryly as Pyrrha and I let out laughs of our own as Nora tried to bury her face in hands.

I looked up at the floating form of Amity Coliseum, high in the air above us all.

Look out Vytal Festival Tournament.

Here we come.

My inner musings were interrupted by the sound of the intercom system crackling to life. "Would Team JNPR report to the battlegrounds immediately!" Peter's voice boomed through the fairgrounds, coming from the series of speakers throughout the area.

"Yes!" Oobleck's voice cut in adding on to Peter's request. "Like they were scheduled to, several minutes ago!"

Oh that's right.

That match starts at twenty five past.

We were supposed to be there ten minutes beforehand.

Without a word being said between us we all started sprinting towards the landing pad that held the airship that would take us up to the arena.

This was going to be close.

I chugged the tonic as we followed Pyrrha down the dark corridor trusting in her knowledge as she had been the only one to be here before, the nausea from the dustplane fading with every second that passed before we slid to a stop before an official waiting by the gates. "Team JNPR?" She asked, looking at all of us as she did so.

"That's us." I huffed before taking a deep breath and regaining my composure, sliding the empty vial back into its slot.

Her eyes lit up with amusement. "Glad to see you could make it. Make your wat to the centre of the arena, we'll be starting in a few minutes.

She pressed her hand on the screen by her side and the door slid open, bright light beaming through the new opening, almost blinding in comparison to the darkness the corridor was draped in.

I stepped through the doorway, one hand raised to shield my eyes as they adjusted to the light.

And that's when it hit me.

A roar of sound so loud it was almost a physical force coming from every direction, and as my eyes adjusted I took in what was causing it.

And I couldn't help feeling a little dumbstruck as I did so.

The stands were utterly packed with people, all cheering and yelling and laughing, a writhing sea of life that encircled the entire battlegrounds.

I'd never seen so many people before in my entire life.

I felt a hand at my shoulder and turned to see Pyrrha at my side, giving me a little smile as she did, seemingly understanding what I was going through.

Nora skipped in front of us, spinning around as she scanned the crowd before she seemed to recognise someone in the crowd and waved madly towards them. An explosion of sound erupted from that area as she did so as whoever it was that was over there replied to her greeting, the words lost in the sound of the crowd.

Ren sighed, shaking his head as he took his place next to us but the smile on his face betrayed his true feelings on the matter.

Wonder who that is over there?

"Team Juniper of Beacon versus team Bronze of Shade!" Peter's voice boomed from the speakers, the announcement echoing throughout the massive coliseum, the names of our respective teams filling the giant scoreboards before our individual names and profiles came up, each one displaying our own aura levels as well.

Okay Jaune, obviously not the time to be thinking about someone in the crowd.

The instant Peter stopped talking the now familiar sight of large holograms appeared around the outside of the hexagon and oversize symbols blurred through them, spinning about as if they were a roulette wheel.

C'mon let's see what we've got.

Suddenly the spinning slowed dramatically the holograms rolling over one final time to reveal their final selection, a green pine tree and a grey thunderstruck mountain respectively.

With that the Coliseum floor shifted, one half changing from its blank state to a tree filled forest fit for the middle of the Emerald Forest while the other was a much harsher affair, with crags and rocky outcroppings interspersed between the trees, looking very much like as if it had just gone through one hell of a storm.

As I looked upon our surroundings I couldn't stop the laugh that came out of my mouth, causing some of the members of team Bronze to look oddly at me.

Looks just like home.

Oho, this is going to be fun.

I heard Ruby's voice cry out with a loud "Woohoo!" from the stands and bit back a laugh. You can laugh about it later Jaune, now is the time for fighting.

"Three!" Peter's voice boomed out again and suddenly it was if the world had slowed, all the sound drowning out but the heartbeat pounding in my ears and the cheering crowd fading to a blur, leaving nothing but the field, the opposing team and my teammates.

"Two!"

My knuckles tightened over the handle of Candidus Mors and my knees bent slightly preparing myself to move explosively the moment Peter told us to begin, out of the corner of my eyes I witnessed Ren's stance solidify further Stormflower having already been dropped out of his sleeves. Pyrrha's stance near mirrored my own Milo out and ready in its sword form with Akoúo held readily between her and team Bronze. Nora had Magnhild at the ready, the great war hammer already drawn back slightly to deliver a mighty blow the second the match started.

"One, begin!"

And with that I exploded forward my team leaping forward alongside me to meet a similarly moving team Bronze in the centre of the hexagon.

And then all was conflict.

The four of us charged forwards seeking to bring this fight into a close range encounter with team BRNZ charging forward to meet us, the leader of the team, Brawnz Ni lashing out with a armour pad reinforced knee slamming into Pyrrha's shield, sending her sliding back but not causing her to lose her balance.

I didn't have any time to worry about my partner as my own opponent came charging at me, swinging what appeared to be a fingerless gauntlets with circular saw blades of all things attached to them. I lead with my shield blocking the blows that rained down onto my shield as Roy made wide slashing movements with his arms, the size of the movements not as a much of a weakness as they otherwise would have been due to the speed of his attacks.

But my defence held strong and I leapt forward without warning, barging into Roy Stallion with my shield, a loud "oof" sounding out from my opponent as he did so, sending him tumbling back from me.

I went to charge in after him when Roy turned mid tumble and levelled his weapon at me in a manner that was clearly reminiscent of Yang's ranged attacks and before I even realised it my sword was already in motion, slamming the circular saw disc that had been fired at me to the side.

That's one weapon taken care of.

Only for my opponent to regain his feet and hold out his arm, the saw blade's path deviating rapidly until it clicked back home into place in Roy's gauntlet.

I bit back a growl. Of course it isn't going to be that easy.

In the momentary reprieve I'd earned myself I flicked my eyes over the battlefield. Pyrrha's fighting Brawnz.

I'm fighting Roy.

Ren's fighting Nolan.

And Nora is fighting…Nolan.

My eyes narrowed.

Buggar.

Where's May?

Alright then, if I was a sniper, where would I be?

I saw a glint out of the corner of my eye and threw myself to the left, a high powered round cracking into the ground where I was previously.

That answers that question.

"Sniper, take cover!" I called to my team, retreating to a nearby rocky outcropping fending off incoming shots with my shield as I did so.

I mantled the outcropping, another round zooming over my head as I did so, Pyrrha quickly sliding into place next to after she flipped over the rock.

Nora and Ren had already made their way back, taking cover by an outcropping close by our own.

"What do we do?" Pyrrha asked directing the question towards me.

As I went to reply another round cracked into the outcropping, a good chunk of it crumbling away in the process.

So, turns out the outcropping isn't quite as much of a defence as I thought it'd be.

"Use the rocks to break her line of sight but don't count on them to stop the bullet." I called out, tightening my grip on my sword. "And try not to stand still for too long, the last thing we want to give this girl is a free target."

Before I could say anything else the remainder of team Bronze caught up with us and we were back in the thick of it once more.

I tilted my head out of the way of another saw blade fired at me by Roy, spinning to a stop between Pyrrha and Brawnz, tripping him up as Pyrrha flipped back and attacked Roy, the way he had overextended on his last attack leading him tumbling away for a moment.

I heard the crack of the sniper rifle going off and moved, twisting out of the way but I wasn't the target.

Ren was forced to alter his attack when he twisted out of the way of a sniper round causing his footing to become unstuck slightly. But even then he leapt over his opponent's low kick and went to meet Nolan's baton with a strike of his own from Stormflower.

A sound I can only describe as insect meeting a bug zapper filled the air and Ren was sent tumbling back, still twitching lightly from whatever had shocked him.

I turned back towards his opponent, examining his weapon to catch sight of an arc of electricity coming into existence at the end of it.

Great. It's not a baton at all, it's a weaponised cattle prod.

That's just…

I paused as Nora stepped up to engage Nolan with an attack that while may have looked genuine to most, to someone who had fought beside her, like me for example, looked decidedly lacklustre. Nolan took a firm hold of this opportunity, weaving around Nora's attack and slamming his weapon into her stomach.

That is just too bad.

Nora looked up and a wicked smile spread across her face as the electricity from Nolan's cattle prod danced across her body.

For Nolan that is.

Suddenly Peter's voice boomed throughout the arena, commentating on the fight below as Nolan continued to stare with a confused look on his face at the madly grinning Nora. "Oh-ho! Looks like one of my favourite students, Nora Valkyrie, is charging up to use her Semblance!" Peter said loudly, giving a wink as he did so.

Nolan turned away from Nora at that and looked towards the screen, still shocking Nora ineffectually as he did so. "What?" He exclaimed, a look of panic on his face.

Yeah, generally when the term "charging up their semblance" is used, it's not a good thing to be on the other team.

At that Doctor Oobleck stepped in, continuing on from where Peter left off.

"Yes, Ms. Valkyrie's Semblance lets her produce, as well as channel, electrical energy straight to her muscles!" Almost as if in response to Oobleck's words a bright arc of pink electricity arced across Nora's body, even as the cattle prod continued to energise her even further. "This allows her to jump explosively into the air, wield her mighty hammer, or in this case, absorb Nolan's attacks and send the young man flying!" Oobleck finished, firing out the words like a machine gun.

Nolan's expression shifted at that, reminding him that the fight was still ongoing as well as the very clear danger that he was in right now as he turned back to face his opponent. "What?!" He yelped, pulling back his weapon far too late and staring at a far more dangerous looking Nora Valkyrie than she had been a second ago.

Nora flexed and her pink semblance fuelled lightning visibly surged across the surface of her body in a dazzling display, Nolan taking a step back intimidated by the sudden change raising his hands in seeming surrender.

Nora did not so much as move as she did blur, a trail of pink electricity following her as she slammed Magnhild, I held back a wince, directly into her opponents crotch, the force of the attack sending him tumbling back across the ground before he crashed into a rocky outcropping with such strength that it shattered around him.

Yikes.

He isn't getting up any time soon.

Okay Nora's little charge up had bought us some time to plan.

Our sniper May didn't have Tob's aim, thankfully, or we never would have made it back to the outcropping in the first place.

But still she wasn't a half-bad shot and had proven to be quite capable at making shots to augment his teammate's combos. As long as she was in play, team ABRN was far more dangerous than they could have been.

So naturally, the only option was to remove her from the board.

Only problem was that she was a fair distance away with plenty of cover to move to.

I could try and use Lilith's technique but my aim with that thing was still woeful at the best of times, and there were a lot of trees out there.

C'mon Jaune, if you don't have an opportunity then make one!

Hold on.

Is that…

I felt the change dance across my skin, a familiar feeling of a surge of static electricity that made the hairs on my arms stand on end as I kept trying to think of a plan to take care of that sniper. Surely that guy's shock baton can't be that powerful, so where's it coming from? I turned my head and looked up the mountain to see an artificial storm cloud floating above the newly formed mountain on our side of the map.

And a grin spread across my face. Home field advantage indeed. "Nora!" I called out drawing my teammate's attention as I put my shield into place. "Hammer time!" I ordered, gesturing to the top of the mountain.

Nora looked up to where I was pointing and her eyes lit up with understanding, a grin filling her face as she landed on my shield Magnhild directed towards it and fired herself at the mountain. She landed with all the grace of a falling glacier and began moving up the mountain with blurring speed, making use of the last of her charge from the shock baton to move even faster.

"I'll try and draw the sniper's fire away from Nora. Ren are you doing okay after that shock?" I asked Ren, another high powered round cracking through the air to slam into the outcropping again

I mean out of all of us here, I'm by far the most experienced at dodging high powered rounds.

Or you know…at least attempting to dodge high powered rounds.

And these were far slower than the Old Bastard's.

Ren's eyes narrowed. "I'll be fine. Pyrrha and I will take care of the two that are here."

Pyrrha nodded. "Alright. We'll handle these two Jaune, you handle the rest."

And with that we moved from our position behind the outcropping, Pyrrha and Ren heading towards their opponent's, and I sprinted off towards mine.

We were neck and neck for a moment, Ren running slightly behind me, the sudden flash of the sniper heralding the arrival of a bullet that pinged off of my shield as I manoeuvred it in front of its intended target of Ren.

As we got closer, Roy's slid to a stop in front of me, putting himself bodily between me and May and squared up to face me, launching one of his circular saws low towards my thighs. I let out a sharp whistle and dropped to my knees power sliding under my opponents attack, deflecting it away from me with my shield.

My opponent kept track of my sliding form as he did so, moving to throw his second saw only for his eyes to widen as a fierce kick from Ren slammed into a hastily raised block sending him tumbling away from us, Ren charging in after him with a flurry of fierce attacks.

Ren and Pyrrha can handle it for now.

Time for me to handle my part of the plan.

As I continued moving towards where I guessed May was situated out of the corner of my eye I kept an eye on one of the massive screens projecting the fight, allowing me to still keep sight of not only Nora scrambling up the mountain but of the rest of my teammates as well.

Ren dashed forwards before sliding to his knees, Pyrrha spinning into the air to catch Akoúo and deflected a saw blade where Ren's head had been moments ago, his fist slamming into an unsuspecting Branz's stomach with incredible force, his opponent's feet lifting off of the ground because of it.

Like I thought, they've got it well in hand.

I sprinted forward my hand gripping my sword tight as I bared down on the direction the sniper was hiding, eyes open and ready for the next round.

Sound was useless in this endeavour, by the time I heard the round fire it'd be moving too fast for me to block let alone dodge at this distance. I had to do more than see the round coming. I had to predict where it was going to go before it was even fired.

It wasn't something that you just learned on the spot. It could take years of dedicated training to accomplish such a feat. Or you could just get really really sick of getting shot and do everything in your power to stop it from happening again.

I spun to the left, the round cracking into the ground as I came even closer to the sniper, the sound of her reloading audible to my ears.

By the next round I'll be close enough.

Just have to get her to play along.

I was almost in position when suddenly I caught sight of something in the corner of my eye and I threw myself to the side, something whooshing through the air where I had been not moments ago. I turned to face the new threat and found that it was baton boy, apparently up from his little Nora induced siesta and stepping back into the battle. I eyed his weapon, the end crackling audibly with electricity.

Well, that complicates things.

I'm not sure how electrically conductive Candidus Mors is but I've got no intention of finding out while I'm still holding it.

I weaved out of the way of the first swing wary of a flurry of attacks, but the swing was sloppy nowhere near as controlled as it could have been, Nolan clearly relying upon the weapon to compensate for his own fatigue.

We circled as we engaged, each of my attacks forcibly aborted by the threat of his electricity, while I was reduced to dodging his attacks.

Nora was nearly at the top of the mountain at this point but also was in clear line of sight for the next few moments, easy prey for the sniper.

I needed to force May's attention back onto me, and that meant dealing with this guy here.

But how?

An idea struck me and I grimaced internally.

This is going to hurt.

I loosened my grip on my sword and let his next swing knock it free from my grasp, steeping forward even as I did so. As his baton came back round to strike me my now empty hand blurred up catching the baton mid-strike and I could feel the pain of the electricity surging through me despite my aura, my teeth gritting together from the pain of it.

And then my shield hand caught him square in the middle of his face with a picture perfect cross that Peter would have been proud of. The blow didn't so much as hit as much as it crunched into Nolan's face with a devastating sound, my opponent dropping like a sack of bricks as his hands came up to cradle his face.

"And that is the first elimination of the match by one Jaune Arc, with a beautiful display of boxing." Peter's voice boomed, throughout the stadium. I blinked in shock, picking up my sword from where it had impaled itself in the ground as I did so. Wait, his aura was in the red from that? I could have sworn I didn't hit him that hard.

A closer inspection revealed that my blow had not only blasted through the aura it had also made a rather nasty mess of the kid's nose, breaking it rather bloodily.

I winced.

Probably the shield's added mass, maybe.

Sorry.

And suddenly I felt the hairs on my neck stand on end, and even though I wasn't even looking towards him I knew the sniper was aiming at me.

It was a very familiar feeling for me, to be in the centre of someone's crosshairs.

But where was she aiming to hit?

I needed to get it right not only to avoid injury but for this next part to work and buy Nora the last of the time she'll need to power up.

Time to give her a helping hand.

As I turned to re-join the fight I 'slipped' and lost my footing, providing a clean shot straight at my head that no sniper worth their name could have missed.

My opponent didn't disappoint.

I knew the bullet was flying through the air before I'd even seen it with my eyes, the bullets path clear in my mind.

Which meant that when I moved my shield, the shattering of the moon in my mind's eye ensuring it was flooded with aura I caught the bullet cleanly on the centre of it.

The high powered round struck my shield, pushing against it for but a moment before its direction suddenly reversed, rocketing back towards the sniper in his hidden position among the trees.

I heard the sniper swear and she leapt out of the tree that she'd been hiding in, the bullet slamming into the bark of her hiding place and exploding with tremendous force.

I raised a brow at that.

Looks like she's got more than just your average rounds in that arsenal of his.

Glad I didn't just try and block that one.

The was a loud boom of thunder and I turned to see the lighting flash down and strike Nora's upraised hammer, the incredible energy being absorbed directly by my teammate.

Yes!

With the amount of strength Nora must have now she'll have no trouble at all knocking down most of those trees and pulverizing May's best chance of disguised cover, forcing her out into the open where she'd be vulnerable.

I grinned at that thought before all the color fled my face at the sight of what Nora was doing next. I turned and started full on sprinting going hell for leather back towards Pyrrha and Ren were fighting, aiming to get as much distance between myself and the blast radius as humanly possible.

God damn it Nora, you told me you hadn't finished that yet!

I heard the barrage of pink projectiles before I saw them, not one round but an entire clip full fired at once, leaving trails of sparking pink aura in the air as they flew over my head towards May's last position.

I forced myself to run even faster before I leapt forward, bracing myself for the explosion.

It seemed as if the whole arena shook from the force of the explosion, and I felt myself get pushed further forward by the blast wave, almost having to come to a roll before I regained my feet.

The others were all staring in shock at the scene behind me, no doubt one of incredible devastation if the way she had been talking about this supposedly incomplete upgrade was any indication, both sides halting in their struggle such was their shock.

I leapt forward, leading with my legs, both feet coming in before I smashed a flying mule kick directly into Brawnz's woefully unguarded face.

To his credit he did roll back and recover his footing, swearing and grasping his nose as he did so before he seemed to see me and his gaze narrowed, charging forward, lashing out with his metal claws as he did so.

And I mean, I guess Brawnz isn't a bad fighter per say. It's just when you try and compare someone like him to Peter's hand to hand…

I moved inside his left straight and caught him dead in the centre of the chest with my shoulder as I barged forward, sending him sliding back. He appeared to try to shake off the blow but then all of a sudden Roy's body appeared out of nowhere and crashed into him. I went to turn and see who it was when Pyrrha appeared before me and started all but dragging me backwards.

"What are yo..." I started before my voice trailed off as I saw just what my partner was dragging me out of the path of.

Nora's voice cried out as the crackle of lighting got louder and louder as she descended, hammer bought all the way back as she crashed into the arena's center like an meteor, a powerful shockwave sending the remaining two males of team BRNZ soaring backwards, colliding with May just as she stumbled out of the massive cloud of smoke that Nora's newest addition to Magnhild had caused.

Nora looked back at us, her body still surging from the electricity she absorbed, hands gripping the hilt tightly, bouncing on her feet erratically.

Yeah, one of the little downsides of Nora's semblance. While it does make Nora far stronger in almost every regard, speed, strength, overall resilience it does possess one slight flaw. It has the unfortunate side effect of making Nora even less…I want to say patient but Nora was never really patient in the first place was she? Ask her to sit still like this and you're just begging for disaster to happen as she tries to find a way to occupy her time.

Unsurprisingly, Goodwitch was usually less then amused with the more destructive practices Nora undertook while she was doing so.

I eyed the others and Ren sighed, Pyrrha giving a slight laugh before nodding her head as I turned back to Nora and gave her a thumbs up.

Give her a target on the other hand?

The cement under Nora's feet first fractured and then shattered from the sheer amount of force she unleashed as she leapt forward, streaking forward before she drew back her hammer and collected all three members of team BRNZ with one swing, sending them flying towards the audience in the stands before they were halted by the appearance of a protective force field, doing their very best impersonations of flies on a windshield before they dropped to the ground with a series of groans, a loud siren sounding as they did so.

"And with that team JNPR has become the latest team to advance to the next round of qualifiers." Doctor Oobleck's voice echoed out from the speakers around the arena, and the crowd's roars became even louder, people standing up from their seats to cheer. "Certainly an impressive display from the four of them."

"Indeed it was." Peter's voice boomed out even as Nora appeared before us again, wrapping us all up in her arms and lifting us from the ground with the force of her spinning hug. "That triple knock out from miss Valkyrie knocked them out of the park, literally!" Nora released us with a laugh and even as I stumbled slightly I couldn't stop the laughter that came spilling out of my mouth as well, grinning at my teammates as we relished in our victory.

"All right!" I cheered, pumping a fist in victory even as Ren rolled his eyes at me, still smiling as he did so, Nora letting out a victorious whoop of her own and Pyrrha gave a cheer of her own, punching me on the shoulder as she did so.

In a hole in the wall dive called the Crow Bar a previously drunken daze was dispelled as the man sitting at the bar stool stared at the blond boy celebrating with his team.

At the start of the match he hadn't known this kid from a bar of soap but as the match went on he began feeling more and more twinges of familiarity.

The way his eyes scanned the battlefield.

The way he flourished his sword.

All these were little things in the great scheme of things, events that could be explained away.

But the final nail in the coffin was when he'd dodged that final sniper round, one fired too close for him to dodge it after the fact, with no way for him to have seen it with his eyes.

He knew those signs well.

After all, he went through the same things when the old man taught him.

The red eyed man sat down with a smirk, signalling the moustached barman to refill his glass as he did so.

The old man's come out of retirement.

If that's not a good reason to drink, than Qrow didn't know one.

"Barkeep! Keep'em coming!"

As we made our way off the arena I heard a voice call out to me. "Hey, not too shabby out there Jaune!" a familiar face grinned at me, one hand clenching into a fist as he did so. "Think you're ready for the real fight?"

"Bring it!" I roared, leaping forward, my fist drawn back just like my opponent before rushing forward in unison to meet the other.

"WHOO!" Sun cheered, throwing his paper wielding hand into the air as I stared at the traitorous rock in my own.

"BLAST!" I let out palming my head as I did so before I turned to face the rest of team SSSN, tuning the blonde faunus' ongoing victory dance out as I did so. "Good luck out there guys."

Neptune scoffed, pulling on his jacket as he did so. "Jaune, come on, it's us." He said confidently, smiling coolly as he did so.

I smirked at that. "Why do you think I'm wishing you luck?" I snarked, leaving the blue haired huntsman to gape after me.

Sage bit back a laugh, and Scarlet let out a quiet "burn" as I went to re-join the rest of my team as they made their way out of the tunnels and back into the Arena's stands.

Uh…

I could have sworn they were there a moment ago.

Where'd they go?

I felt a strong grip seize my hands and suddenly is was being pulled forward, my legs moving rapidly to ensure I wasn't being dragged in the process.

"C'mon we've got to get good seats!" Nora commanded me, still pulling me along in the process.

After a frantic encounter of dodging through crowds, apologising to the occasional person that Nora had body checked out of the way I found myself all but collapsing into the red seats set aside for the students at the very front, Pyrrha and Ren having already gotten seats and saved two for Nora and I.

How can being with Nora for so short a time be more tiring than a match?

I mean granted, it is Nora, but still!

The endless chattering of the crowd died down to a dull roar as the large holo screen activated, the symbol of the tournament appearing briefly before it shrunk down to a smaller size revealing Doctor Oobleck sitting behind the commentators desk. A still frame of Nora's hammer slamming into the final three members of team BRNZ on the left side of the screen.

Note to self, find and frame that picture.

"Ah, well, Vacuo fans are sure to be hurting after that one, but this next one will have them on the edge of their seats!" Oobleck announced, the screen flicking over to display Peter now, an image of the team my friends were facing taking up the right side.

Hm, another all-female team.

Seems to be a lot of them this year.

"Team NDGO of Shade is certainly a crowd favourite, but these lovely ladies are going against some of the toughest, testosterone-filled teammates we've seen so far!" Peter said bombastically, doing his best to hype up the crowds. "I'm of course talking about... Team SSSN!"

The crowd erupted into cheers and quite a few loud squeals as well.

Oh joy, their fan club followed them out here as well.

Ah geez, they even had signs with their faces on them!

Well their faces and Sun's abs but that's honestly just as recognizable apparently.

"Sun Wukong and his team are certainly a force to be reckoned with, and although he'll be representing the Mistral Academy of Haven, I'm sure his friends his friends and family back in Vacuo will be cheering him along!" Peter continued on as team SSSN made their way from out of the tunnel and into the centre of the arena.

Time to do what any good friend would do in this situation.

I cupped both hands around my mouth and yelled "You suck Sun!" as loud as I possibly could.

Sun without flinching gave me the finger without so much as turning towards me.

Man, I am such a good friend.

The holographic roulette started up once more, the many different symbol blurring through until the ones on team NDGO's side came to a stop, revealing a yellow symbol of sand dunes and stone formations, that half of the field beginning to shift in response, even as a small faux sun appeared overhead causing the arena to become far brighter that it already was.

"A home field advantage for NDGO." Ren remarked, sounding slightly concerned as he did so.

I waved him off. "Technically it's also Sun's home field advantage as well. Sun was raised there before he moved."

The final roulette began to slow revealing its selection as a blue symbol for…

"Ah, blast." I swore, looking up at the depiction of the ocean on the hologram, Sun's half of the field slowly shifting as it did so.

Maybe it won't be that bad?

I mean he could have gotten over it by now, right?

I looked down at the arena only to see Neptune had gone stiff as a board, the screen displaying his dilating pupils and essentially terrified expression.

Apparently not.

Nora leaned towards me from her seat. "What's going on with your friend Jauney?" She stage whispered, clearly not understanding what could be causing him to act like this.

"Neptune's ah, how to put it…" I hesitated for a moment thinking of the proper term "aquaphobic?"

"He's afraid of water?" Ren asked blankly, seemingly unable to understand what I was saying.

Pyrrha looked puzzled as well. "But doesn't the Vasilias family…"

"Own most of the transport ships in Haven?" I finished nodding my head as I did so with a sigh. "Yeah there's a few reasons Neptune chose to become a hunter. The lack of water is chief among them." I looked back down at the field one hand coming up and covering one side of my face in exasperation. "This isn't going to turn out well."

"Come now, I'm sure it can't be that bad." Pyrrha said doubtfully, not quite believing that it could be as bad as I was making it out to be.

"Three, Two, One, Begin!" Oobleck announced in his usual rapid fire manner.

And the instant the final syllable had left Oobleck's mouth Neptune's form blurred.

One moment he was standing next to his teammates.

The next he was standing atop the peak of one of the rocky outcropping's on team NDGO's side of the map.

"…I stand corrected." Pyrrha murmured in disbelief even as I fought the urge to facepalm at Neptune's idiocy.

"Jaune!" I heard a barrage of voices cry out before I was assaulted by a dozen tiny forms climbing all over me.

"You were awesome!"

"You dodged bullets!"

"And you kung fu punched that guy in the face!"

"Pyrrha was awesome too!"

"But Ren was more awesome!"

"No way, Nora made everything explode, clearly the most awesome."

"That's stupid!"

"You're stupid!"

I quickly grabbed the two charging children mid-leap, transitioning to a perfect double headlock as I turned to face the kids, scanning over them as I did so.

Hold the scroll…

"Where's the old man?" I asked Kira unable to see Tob anywhere nearby.

Kira shrugged her shoulders, throwing up her hands as she did so. "I dunno. Said he had to go run an errand and left us here. Told us to wait here and meet up with you after the match."

Wait so he wasn't even here?

I frowned slightly, my gaze narrowing as I tried to think of anywhere he might have been.

The loud buzzer signifying a knockout filled the air and I looked up to see, much to my surprise, that Sage had been disqualified via ring out.

I mean granted he can't get to do most of the fun stuff he can achieve in the middle of a desert but still.

I stopped thinking about where the Old Bastard could be, turning my attention back towards the match.

I'm sure he's fine anyway.

Tob grit his teeth harshly before hacking up another glob of blood, closer to black than red in colour, growling as he did so.

"As always you continue to amaze my friend." Geppeto said calmly, walking forward from where he had been behind the medical equipment.

"Well doc, how am I looking?" Tob grunted, buttoning up his shirt as he did so.

Geppeto shrugged his shoulders. "Well taking into account the rate of progression from the last time I saw you, the decrease in your aura levels and the fact your still in the wheelchair the data says you should have died fifteen years ago." He said frankly, referring to the scroll in his hands every so often as he did so.

Tob laughed harshly at that. "So same as always then?" He asked sardonically, sliding himself back into his chair, sliding the blanket over his legs to hide them from sight.

"Same as always." Geppeto agreed, setting down the scroll as he did so. "What's with all the hurrying? You have somewhere to be?"

"Qrow's back in town." Tob said shortly as if that was sufficient explanation for everything.

Which in a way it was.

Geppeto's brow shot up at that before furrowing. "Wait, how could you know that? Last I checked he thinks you're dead."

Tob gave his old ally a knowing look with a slight smirk and Geppeto slapped himself on the forehead. "You bribed the bartender." He said with a sigh, shaking his head as he did so.

"I bribed the bartender." The Old Bastard affirmed without shame, rolling forward as he did so. "I'm going to go wait in Oz's office for when he's inevitably sent up there."

"Perhaps he won't have any reason to." Polendina suggested, playing the devil's advocate in this situation.

Tob laughed out loud at that. "It's Qrow." He said simply rolling towards the door which slid open as he approached. "If that boy doesn't find himself in trouble, it's because he'll be hard at work making it."