A hint of Explosions

"Welcome Class" Glynda announced to the hall full of students "Now, as I'm sure you have already noticed, today there is only a single ring" and indeed there was, instead of the usual five – six rings there was instead a single large field. "Over the last month, you have all been fighting one on one, that is now to change, from now until the end of your training at Beacon you will all be participating in team combat exercises every other week."

"Now, to make things interesting, we shall also be holding a mock tournament over the next four months in preparation for the Vytal tournament." The raucous chatter of the hall quitted down as all ears intently listened to her.

"As such, for this month and the next, all eight 'teams' will be fighting against each other. To determine the order at which you will be fighting in the doubles matches. And the same if for the singles. Finally right before winter the winner shall be decided and will move on to challenging the winning team from one year higher."

"Now, any questions?" she called out "Yes, Weiss?" she asked, seeing Weiss's hand shoot up within seconds.

"Aren't there only seven teams, ma'am?" she questioned.

"No, there are eight" she answered, confusing Weiss "Anyone else?" her eye's locked onto Arthur's raised hand "Arthur"

"What about me, I don't have a team. Am I still… figh…ting… I'm the eighth 'team' aren't I?" he muttered, his arms slumping to his side in realization that this was his 'test'.

"I knew I heard quotations!" Ruby exclaimed

"Right you are." She answered with a smirk "Anymore questions before we start?" No one raised their hands. "No? Good, teams FSBT (Frostbite) and GNMT (Gunmetal), enter the arena!"

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The fight between team FSBT and GNMT was, tense, to say the least, both teams were relatively evenly matched at the beginning. FSBT had ultimately won after nearly thirty minutes of intense combat, having lost three members by the end of it with the leader being the last one standing, her aura on the verge of breaking into the red.

GNMT on the other hand had fought with everything they had, and then some. At the beginning of the battle their leader had near instantly knocked one of FSBT members to the edge of the ring using a powerful shoulder charge, she was saved at the last minute as one of her teammates, a boy with brown hair, with a dull and relatively 'Dumb' expression seemingly devoid of understanding of anything, had jumped behind her and pushed her back into the ring, but sending him out in the process.

"Bean Cornell, Ring out!" Glynda called out.

The following minutes were an intense juggle as the members from FSBT struggled to defend themselves against the onslaught of rockets, bullets and a guy who walked around in a yellow skin-tight suit with three long blades coming from each of his gauntlets between his knuckles.

'It has to be a coincidence' Arthur thought when he first saw the boy, chuckling as he saw the blades extend from the gauntlets. 'Nope, there is no way that is a coincidence' he mused.

Eventually FSBT had been able to knock the dollar store wolverine out of the ring with a well-timed manoeuvre as a faunus girl had used her semblance along with dust to freeze the ground surrounding her, rooting the members of GNMT to the ground, with her last two teammates charging the boy and successfully knocking him into the air with a well-placed rocket propelled kick to the jaw by the leader followed up another kick to his side sending him flying through the air and out the ring. The other member acting as a guard for her as the leader of GNMT had broken out of his confinement and had charged the two as they were closer than the Faunus girl.

"Mag Tetsu, Ring out!" Glynda announced.

After that the teams were once again even, albeit FSBT at that point were nearing the halfway point for their Auras while the last three remaining members of GNMT were nearing the sixty percent line. With the leader being the only one under fifty percent, as he had lost a lot during his scuffle with the two members of FSBT who had just knocked his teammate out.

Both teams ended up facing each other, now each on their own halves of the field, the members of GNMT looking particularly annoyed as they began bickering between each other about how useless they each were.

"Your brothers an ass, you know that?" Arthur heard one of the girls from FSBT say to their leader.

"Yeah… just ignore him…" The leader responded, looking towards GNMT with an embarrassed expression.

"Which on was he again?" the faunus girl asked.

"One with the rocket launcher" she responded

"Ohhhh. Fitting" the faunus girl added with a smirk.

"Watch out!" the leader shouted as a rocket impacted with the stomach of the faunus sending an explosion through the ranks of team FSBT and launching her out of the ring.

"Oh… Shit!" Arthur muttered as he watched a head of pale white hair with tiger stripes rapidly approach him, crashing into him and sending him flying backwards along with his passenger into the bleachers behind team FSBT.

"I'm okay!" the girl shouted raising her body from the pile of debris, her head swaying from dizziness and her body covered in soot and ash from the explosion.

"Tigre Fross! Ring Out!" Glynda announced as Tiger body fell backwards, her head slamming into Arthurs nose.

"Ow" he muttered, his voice unheard by the dizzy tiger.

"Should we help him?" Blake questioned.

"No, leave him be, the match is nearly over anyway" Yang responded, her gaze falling to her sister, who had a slight twitch on her cheek.

Back in the ring things were getting even more intense as the leader of FSBT and her last remaining team member fought off an assault from three sides, one side was a barrage of rocket propelled grenades, another a barrage of bullets and the last being the leader of GNMT wielding his zweihander-shotgun hybrid weapon in close range, the battle drawing to a standstill as neither side had enough Aura to use their Semblances to full effect.

The remaining members of FSBT were beginning to run dry on Aura, now at thirty percent, the gauge on the screen above the field a dark orange. Though the members of GNMT weren't doing any better as each of the were also running out and were slightly lower than their opponents.

The standstill eventually came to a close as rocket launcher wielding member of GNMT fired off a salvo of five rockets in quick succession, the rockets landing around the remainder of FSBT, one of the rockets directly impacting with the back of one of the girls, sending her flying into her opponent and throwing them both out the arena.

"Skye Cornell! Navy Beltz! Ring out!" Glynda called out.

"The hell are you doing!" the leader of GNMT roared out, getting distracted, turning his head away from the last remaining opponent who quickly spun her body, bringing her leg up in a roundhouse kick, fuelled by small jets connected to her greaves, accelerating her kick even further. The leader of GNMT was sent skidding across the field on his face, his legs bending up over his head before falling to the ground.

"Ginger Greene! Knock out!"

"Tch" the last member of GNMT spat.

"You really need to calm down, Trill" the leader of FSBT said standing across from her brother.

"Oh, screw you!" he hissed, raising his rocket launcher onto his shoulder and firing another salvo "Why did they have to choose you!?" He roared, his weapon firing rocket after rocket, causing a heavy smoke to fill the centre of the stage, the smoke rising far enough that it covered the holoscreen where the Aura gauges were. "It's always you!" he roared, his weapon now out of ammo.

Taking deep, heavy breaths Trill looked into the still rising smoke, with hate in his eyes. His eyes widening as a large metal boot came bursting from the smoke the sole impacting with the front of his face sending him crashing onto his back with enough power that he created spider web cracks on the floor.

"Trill Azul! Knockout! Winner Team FSBT!" Glynda announced to the hall, causing a wave of applause and cheers to echo throughout the hall, and the classrooms surrounding it.

"Yaaayyyy" Tiger said raising her fist into the sky, still delirious from her recent encounter with a rocket. Her body still lying amidst a pile of debris and atop Arthur, who really couldn't be bothered to move as he too was delirious from the double knockout of a flying Faunus and her head slam

The leader of FSBT stared down at her now unconscious brother, letting out a sigh after a minute before turning around and heading to her two teammates who were waiting outside the ring. One looking particularly confused at everything around him.

"Flora! We won!" Skye shouted running up to her leader wrapping her in a hug trying to lift her from the ground, but failing as her face turned red from the weight of her leader. "I forgot those things were stupidly heavy…" she muttered, letting her leader go and looking to the large metal boots her leader was wearing.

Flora gave a light laugh before asking "How's Bean?"

"Meh, he's fine, I doubt he even knew we were in a competition." She replied

"Seemed he knew enough that he threw you back into the field" Flora responded

"Yeah, should have kept my guard up at the beginning, I got distracted." She said with a very faint blush.

"Oh, my, god. Is Skye Cornell blushing!" Flora responded with a mock shock tone "Tell me who, Teeellll mmmeeeee" she ordered with a fanatical glint in her eyes as she began shaking Skye's body. Eventually stopping and chuckling at the now dizzy girl whose head was being kept steady by her brother as he placed his hands on either side of her head.

"Youll tel me eventually, I have my ways" she muttered "Anyways, where's Tiger?" she asked as she looked around the hall, her gaze eventually stopping on a small section of the bleachers that was destroyed and had eight people staring down into a hole, where eventually a cracking sound could be heard as each of the eight people flinched and a plume of dust exploded from the hole.

"I'm okay! Again!" she heard being called out from the bleachers.

"Nevermind, found her" Flora muttered under her breath as another crack, crash and plume of smoke came from the hole causing her and everyone else to flinch once again.

"I am not okay…" A groan could be heard.

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And that's a wrap. I have introduced eight new OC characters; I am going to regret this.

I might get another chapter out today, but after this I need to update the character sheet on Akashic: The Tome.