章節 782: 125
Chapter 125:
"Dang! Cardinal has really leveled up," noted Yang.
"Copper certainly isn't getting it all their way," added Weiss, her eyes darting about as she tried to follow all the disparate battles at once.
"I can't believe that Dove is holding his own against Penny," said Blake, watching the duel in the forest intently.
Everyone else nodded in agreement, including Pyrrha. While Pyrrha would have liked to express faith in her boyfriend, the fact of the matter was that they all knew their android friend was, in many ways, ridiculously overpowered. She wasn't troubled by fatigue, possessed advanced sensors far superior to those of human or faunus senses, and had unmatched strength and durability. On top of that her weapons were swift and precise, with Penny having near-perfect control over them. For Dove to actually hold his own against such an opponent was nothing short of a monumental achievement.
"I'm more impressed by how much Cardin and the others have grown," said Ren, his eyes following the other three members of CRDL.
"Yeah, you'd never think they'd started out the year as a bunch of bullying blowhards," added Nora.
"Yes, that boy has improved a great deal," observed Sasame, smiling benevolently. "Tell me, does he still have an issue with faunus?"
"Not that we've seen," said Jaune. "After that thing in Forever Fall, he actually went and apologized to Velvet."
"Always nice to see those with potential grow to meet it," said Sasame cheerfully.
The blade of Ciel's pata-sword, Gram Vajra, cleaved effortlessly through the stalks of grass, hewing down a swath of them as she swung for the darting shadow that was Russel. He ducked beneath the level of her swing, before rising up out of the newly trimmed grass right in front of her, his daggers striking in rapid slashes. Ciel defended, utilizing both her blade and its attached gauntlet to block his attacks, before retaliating with a powerful slash, which Russel was forced to block, knocking him back amidst the uncut grass.
The pata-sword's strength was in slashing attacks. The gauntlet braced and reinforced the hand and wrist, allowing the wielder to put the full power of their arm into every attack, without needing to worry about the relatively fragile joint at the wrist. However, the tradeoff was a certain lack of finesse, lost due to the fact that the wrist and hand were locked in place, which made the sword into a straight extension of the forearm, its moves controlled entirely by the shoulder and elbow. Ciel couldn't execute the elegant parries of the kind Weiss or Winter used in their particular styles. The tradeoff in the other direction was that her gauntlet essentially made her weapon both sword and shield, allowing her to switch between offense and defense rather seamlessly.
In contrast, the strength of Russel's daggers showed through in close-range. If he could move in close enough, the lack of flexibility in Ciel's weapon would make it virtually impossible for her to bring the blade of her sword into play. However, his shorter weapons lacked the power that Ciel gained from the leverage of her longer one, not to mention the reinforced strength of her sword-arm. He had two weapons, allowing him to attack from differing angles. But Ciel deftly used both blade and gauntlet to head off his attacks.
Of course, all of that was without considering Dust.
Tapping the screen of the watch-face, set into her gauntlet, switched the screen to a pale-green color. Ciel swept her sword around her in a wide, circular slash, a thin stream of wind extending out, forming a swift blade that mowed down the grass in her vicinity, erasing much of Russel's cover. While what remained was high enough to conceal him, if he sank into a crouch, his options for approaching and attacking from concealment were, like the grass itself, severely cut down.
But Ciel wasn't the only one with Dust at her disposal. Russel surged up from below the level of the cut grass, having ducked below the level Ciel's slash. Now he attacked, the chambers in his daggers clicking into place. The blade in his right hand began to glow red, turning yellow around the edges, fiery motes trailing off as he dashed forward, swinging it at Ciel. Ciel blocked with her gauntlet again, but grunted as the edge of Russel's dagger discharged a fiery explosion, driving her back. At the same time, the flames set the grass alight as well, producing conflagration that quickly began to spread across the field.
Ciel grimaced, backpedaling away from the hungry flames. Russel didn't try to follow her. It would have been foolish to try. The fire he had set was now a barrier between him and his opponent. Instead, he followed through with a wide sweep of his left-handed dagger, its edge glowing pale-green, and unleashing a gust of wind straight into the growing flames, fanning them and spreading them. More importantly, the wind caught the fallen stalks of grass that had been cut down by their battle, kicking them up, lighting them, and flinging everything at Ciel, sending a torrent of fiery debris rushing right at her face.
Tapping the screen of her watch-face again, Ciel switched it from green to white, before holding it straight up in front of her face, right as the wave of flaming grass washed over her.
Meanwhile, Russel backpedaled. His wind had sent the fire rushing Ciel's way, but it was only a matter of time before the flames began spreading his way. In fact, it wouldn't be long before the entire field was alight. Even more than the heat and flames, there was the threat of smoke inhalation, if he spent too long amidst the fires he'd set.
In the meantime, he kept watch for Ciel, expecting her to skirt the flames and try to flank him. However, he was caught off-guard when Ciel bulled straight through them instead, the flames rolling off the curved hemisphere of the shield projected by her hard-light-Dust. Russel yelped, bringing his Shortwings up to guard. But he was too late.
Ciel tapped the screen again, switching it to a pale-blue color, and she dashed past Russel, landing two slashing blows that knocked him off his feet. Even as he tried to recover his balance, Russel felt a painful chill along the lines where Ciel's sword had hit him. Ice was rapidly spreading out from along the lines that Ciel had cut into his Aura, like frost forming over glass, its cold seeping into Russel, and making him shiver.
The icy chill left in the wake of Ciel's attack sapped Russel's strength and reflexes, leaving him almost helpless as Ciel turned about, and attacked again, the blade of her pata-sword still glowing pale blue, humming faintly. She attacked furiously, and Russel defended as best he could. When Ciel's blade struck his own, icy frost spread across it. Russel's parries were hampered by the hits he'd already taken, the icy sensation still spreading across his body. Because of that, he was too slow to intercept all of Ciel's slashes, and another one landed across his stomach, leaving a cold, numbing sensation spreading up his chest and down his legs.
After just a few more exchanges, the cold that had infected the blades of Russel's daggers was beginning to seep into his hands, numbing them. Desperately, Russel armed fire-Dust in both his blades, igniting it immediately, aiming to warm them up and keep his hands from losing their grip, due to the cold.
That proved to be a serious mistake, as the blades rapidly heated from sub-zero temperatures to glowing hot. Upon encountering the next slash of Ciel's chilled blade, both of Russel's daggers shattered like brittle glass. For a brief second, their battle came to a standstill, Russel regarding the broken blades protruding from the handles of his Shortwings despondently.
"I'm sorry," said Ciel.
"It's my fault," said Russel. "That was stupid of me." He lowered what remained of his weapons. "I give."
"I'll do what I can to help you repair them later," promised Ciel.
"Thanks," said Russel, before turning and making his way to the edge of the ring, skirting the edge of the fire he'd set, while Oobleck and Port announced his defeat.
Ciel tapped the screen of her watch-face, returning it back to its normal color, before turning and heading out of the field, making her way to where Cardin and Sky were furiously battling Piper and Rain. As she did, Ciel couldn't help but smile in approval of the weapon she'd imagined back, in combat school, one that had required Piper's expertise and brilliance in weapon-design to bring into fruition.
Ciel's desire to create a weapon that could collapse down into a simple wristwatch was hardly anything special. However, making that weapon capable of Dust-usage, while still able to shrink down into such a small form was a far different matter. In the past, she had considered collapsing Dust-chambers, similar in design to the Dust-canisters Weiss used for Myrtenaster, except able to collapse down along with the weapon itself. However, collapsing and compacting powdered Dust to such an extent was extremely dangerous. For the longest time, Ciel had thought that her ultimate vision for her weapon was completely unfeasible.
And then she'd met Piper.
Piper had immediately latched onto the idea, and worked her way to a solution. To achieve Ciel's vision, Piper developed a completely new, revolutionary, means of utilizing the power of Dust. The Dust used by Ciel's weapon was in the form of tiny sheets, thinner than a sheet of paper, stored in the watch-face itself. The basis for utilizing the Dust was found within the gauntlet, which expanded out into a specially-designed system that tapped into Dust's power and utilized it as a form of almost pure energy.
Besides being capable of being miniaturized to a level far beyond that of conventional Dust-weapons, the greatest feat achieved by Piper's inventiveness was its sheer efficiency. The tiny sheets of Dust that fueled Ciel's attacks were capable of being utilized well over a hundred times each, before they were finally depleted. Of course, the downside was that the effects were not as spectacular as more conventional forms of Dust-usage.
Unlike Weiss, and her weapon, Ciel could not create waves of icy spears, or sheer walls. Instead, her blade would freeze its target upon contact, the cold quickly spreading like a virus from the point of her cut. Fire-Dust superheated the edges of the blade, enabling it to melt its way through virtually any impediment. Ciel couldn't use wind-Dust to produce powerful gusts or tornadoes, but she could produce a razor's-edge of wind that could extend out from her blade to cleave through nearly anything. When engaging lightning-Dust, Ciel could generate an intense magnetic field along the prongs formed by her separated blade, capable of accelerating a projectile between them without the need of any kind of sliding armature. The resulting shots had a fraction of the recoil that was found in typical Dust-rounds, making aiming a much simpler process.
Ciel adored her weapon. It was a product of Piper's genius, which had allowed her to bring Ciel's vision to life in a way that Ciel herself would have never thought. Thanks to that, Ciel was confident in her role for this battle.
Cardin and Sky were struggling. It had been a serious risk to send Russel to fight Ciel, turning a fight that had been three-against-two into a two-on-two battle. They'd been hard-pressed when Russel had been helping them. But now, Piper and Rain were facing opponents with even numbers, and Cardin and Sky realized that the gap in skill was telling.
After Cardin had launched Russel after Ciel, he'd half-hoped that Rain or Piper would seek to go back up their leader. However, it seemed that the two partners weren't lacking in confidence in their leader's ability to handle herself. In fact, Cardin realized that Ciel might have been attacking from long-range in order to bait exactly just such a move on his part. Crap! I might've done what she wanted.
That realization wasn't comforting. Now that the numbers were even, the way Rain and Piper fought had changed. Piper had fallen back, and now stood back to back with Rain, directing her orbs, using them to attack and hobble as she saw fit, generally aiming to steer either Cardin or Sky into attacks from Rain's shield, which could whip erratically around the ring, both the shield itself and the line that tethered it to Rain's arm serving as weapons.
With a heavy strike of his mace, Cardin knocked back one of Pulsar's orbs. However, the weight behind the orb's attack, courtesy of the gravity-Dust at its core, sent Cardin stumbling back. Right at that moment, a separate trio of orbs had formed a triangular formation around Sky, while he'd been whirling his halberd to fend off two more. Abruptly Sky's body suddenly felt as though its weight had been multiplied, and he struggled to even remain standing.
It was then that Pench Kaateh came swooping down. The separated plates drew back together, the whole thing compacting into its more-symmetrical storage mode, the shield's edge striking the hard surface of the ring, sending it into an erratic, bouncing roll at the end of Rain's string, which he pulled on to add momentum and centrifugal force to. Distracted and pinned down as he was, Sky had no hope of escaping or blocking. He wasn't even in a position to move his halberd into place. So he shouted in pain as the shield's edge bit into his Aura, its mass bowling him over, allowing it to continue cutting a line up past his shoulder, before it continued on towards Cardin.
Thanks to Sky being the first in line for the attack, Cardin saw it coming, realizing that Piper's previous attacks had herded them neatly into the line of Rain's swing. With an angry shout, Cardin turned to meet the incoming shield. He was still staggered by knocking away Piper's orb, so he wasn't able to swing The Executioner to meet the spinning shield. The best he could manage was to find enough footing to brace himself, and grasp the shaft of his mace in both hands, holding it up to ward off the blow.
The spinning shield struck like a buzzsaw, its corners grinding against the shaft of The Executioner, sending painful vibrations through Cardin's hands and down his arms. Still, gritting his teeth, Cardin managed to ward off the blow, driving the shield back.
Abruptly, though, the weapon was pulled back towards Rain, the spool on his arm reeling in the line. The shield reattached itself to his arm and extended back out into its elongated shape. Rain dove forward, and Cardin's eyes widened as he saw the remaining two of Pulsar's orbs, joined by the one Cardin had knocked away, orbiting in a circle, in front of where Rain had been standing, so that his charge carried him right through them.
Rain's body was lined with black energy, and he suddenly accelerated dramatically. Besides pinning an enemy down, Pulsar could also be used to make allies move faster. Gravity was acceleration downwards after all. Through skilled manipulation of the gravity-Dust that fueled her weapon, Piper was able to control which direction "down" was, enabling her to make it so that Rain's forward charge became an enhanced free-fall, sending him flying down a corridor of intensified gravity to allow him to charge faster than his footwork and leg-strength could manage on their own.
As a result, Rain closed in on Cardin in the blink of an eye. Cardin only managed to just recover his balance from fending off Rain's previous strike. Now he moved to intercept the slash of Rain's shield, which extended along his arm like an oversized katar. Cardin wasn't able to swing his weapon nearly hard enough. Fortunately though, The Executioner was more than just metal.
Right at the instant it made contact with Rain's shield, Cardin triggered the fire-Dust contained within his mace's flanges. The resulting explosion sent waves of flame rolling across the surface of Rain's shield. Seeing as he had oriented it for attack, rather than defense, the shield did next to nothing to ward off the flames, which engulfed his body. At the same time, the explosion managed to rebound his shield, and Rain was sent tumbling past Cardin into an ungainly sprawl, scorched and battered, a significant portion of his Aura lost to the hit.
At the same time, Piper reeled as a shot from Sky's rifle struck her in the collarbone. Sky hadn't just fallen to the force of Rain's spinning shield, but had allowed himself to fall. As he did, he lined the rifle built into his weapon, firing between the two blades that formed the halberd's head, his shot managing to find its mark, even from his prone position. Now it was Rain and Piper who had lost the momentum.
The old Cardin would have laughed confidently, maybe taunted and boasted. He would have stood back and allowed Rain to get up. However, Cardin had come a long ways since those days. To the average viewer, attacking a downed opponent might be seen as cowardly. But, to those who truly understood the ways of battle, it was nothing more than an expression of respect. Cardin knew full well that he couldn't permit Rain to get back up. If he did, there was no doubt in Cardin's mind that Rain would employ some creative use of his weapon to take back the advantage. Therefore, Cardin knew that the only acceptable course was to end this now, and finish his opponent off, before Rain got another chance.
Pivoting around to follow Rain, Cardin swung his mace up and over his head, bringing it straight down at Rain, who had managed to roll onto his back. Rain raised his shield, bracing it with both arms. The Executioner slammed down with all the strength Cardin could put into it with one arm. He would have liked to put the strength of both into his swing, but speed necessitated that he attack as quickly off his turn as he could, so he simply swung down with the mace in his left hand, putting every ounce of power that he could into it.
That power was plenty. Even with his shield held up to ward off the blow, Rain found the breath driven from his lungs, the ring cracking, then shattering beneath his back as the raw mass and force of Cardin's mace completely overpowered the meager defense that he could manage with this lack of leverage.
And then Cardin triggered another explosion.
A roaring flame surged upwards. Rain's shield ablated much of it, but he'd been in poor position to block the blast in its entirety, and so Rain was scorched by the fire, even as the shockwave slammed him down again.
The buzzer sounded, announcing Rain's defeat.
Meanwhile, Piper whipped her left hand around, fingers directing Pulsar. The three orbs that had been pinning Sky down earlier dove down, slamming into Sky's prone body. Preoccupied as he had been by aiming Feather's Edge, Sky hadn't the wherewithal to defend himself, and found his body driven down into the ring. The buzzer announcing his loss sounded mere seconds after the one that had done the same for Rain.
At the same time, with her other hand, Piper was guiding the three orbs she'd used to accelerate Rain. They swooped around to move under her body, quickly orbiting her. A second later, Piper floated upwards, not even hitting the ring before she turned her fall into a flip, rotating upright and floating as though she was weightless...which she was, at the moment. Touching down, she turned to face Cardin, gathering her orbs around her, four of them orbiting around her, out to her right, directed by her outstretched right arm into a line that extended out from her fingers. The other four formed an orbiting ring around the wrist of her left hand, which she'd extended in Cardin's general direction.
Cardin faced her cautiously, mace gripped in both hands. A slight lull fell over the fight, neither of them having been in the ideal position to transition straight into another attack. Now they had reset into a neutral position, both of them ready to attack or defend as needed, but neither seeing an immediate opportunity to move.
Then Piper's smile widened slightly, and she swept her right arm around, all four orbs arcing around towards Cardin. In the same move, she shifted her left arm, and the orbs that had been circling around it, behind her, sending them floating back away from her. Cardin rapidly whipped his mace around, deflecting the heavy blows from Piper's deceptively small weapons. However, because he'd been focusing on them, he missed Piper's other move.
From behind Piper, her approach hidden by Piper's own body, Ciel suddenly rose up into the air, buoyed up by the other four orbs, which were still orbiting in a circle, creating a gravity platform that Ciel was able to use as a foothold to launch herself high into the air, and descend upon Cardin from above. Distracted as he was, Cardin missed Ciel's approach until it was too late. He turned to face her, but Ciel fell past him, the blade of Gram Vajra biting into his Aura.
Her attack struck Cardin's left shoulder, the arm he primarily relied up on to use his mace. As he tried to turn about to follow her, Cardin suddenly found that his shoulder had stiffened, and he couldn't move it as feely as he wanted too, his attempts to swing being accompanied by a brittle crackling sound.
Looking at Ciel, he saw that the color of her watch-face had turned a dull-brown, the blade of her pata-sword glowing with the same light. His eyes widening, Cardin glanced at his left shoulder, and saw stone spreading out from along the line, where her slash had landed.
Ciel landed in a low crouch, immediately rising back up, turning about, using the spin to launch a slash across Cardin's stomach, sending him staggering back. Ciel followed, swinging her sword in a series of slashes. Everywhere they connected, stone began to spread out across the surface of Cardin's body, almost as though he were being petrified.
It was thin, cracking and breaking, flakes falling away, even from the movement of Cardin's panicked reeling. As such, it was a fairly minor hinderance. But, in Cardin's situation, it was more than enough to cost him the match. While he was busy reeling from Ciel's attack, and hindered by the earth-Dust she was using, Piper made her move.
Holding her right hand out to the side, Piper directed all eight of her orbs into a line. From there, the black and violet energy of their gravity-Dust expanded outward, forming into the shape of a massive curved sword, seven of the orbs forming its spine, while the eighth became its pommel. From there, Piper stepped into a powerful slash, swinging the sword around in front of her body.
"Neutron Edge!"
The blade slammed into Cardin's body, and Cardin howled in pain as he was sent flying away, all the way to the edge of the ring, skidding to a stop right beside the safety barrier.
Piper disconnected her orbs, calling them back to her hands, where they orbited around each arm in groups of four. Ciel frowned as she approached, giving Piper a raised eyebrow.
"What was that?" she asked.
"An attack name," said Piper proudly. "Ruby makes it look really cool, so I thought I'd try it."
Ciel opened her mouth, then decided it wasn't worth her while to berate Piper for something so frivolous. Besides, she silently admitted to herself, as attack names go, it does sound pretty cool.
Penny and Dove were dancing. That was perhaps the best way to describe the furious, yet graceful nature of their exchange. Penny's swords whirled around as though they had minds of their own. Some flew at Dove straight on, while others slashed in from the sides. Some hovered back, transformed into their gun-modes, bombarding him with lances of emerald energy. Penny drew some to circle around her body, jumping into a spin to guide them into a slash, the blades fanning out to strike in sequence. Then she would grab one, using it to put the prodigious strength of her robotic body into the swing.
Dove countered by floating through their midst like a leaf. He'd given up trying to track Penny's weapons and attacks with his eyes. Besides their sheer number, and the bewildering angles, Dove's own movements made it virtually impossible to keep his eyes tracking so many erratically moving targets. So he gave up trying. Instead, he turned his attention to his sense of touch, feeling the movement of the air against his body and clothes. In doing so, he could feel the force of incoming attacks, and his body seemed to move naturally to avoid them.
His countless bouts against Pyrrha had also resulted in him absorbing some of her techniques. While there was nothing he could do to mimic Pyrrha's lance techniques with Milo, or how she used Akouo, sometime ago, he'd found himself unconsciously imitating her brilliant swordplay, which was right up his alley, particularly as Pyrrha was almost as acrobatic as he was.
So it was that he went into a flying roll, allowing one of her swords to pass beneath him. At the same time, he shifted his center of gravity, adding a flip to the roll, which enabled him to pull his body out of the past of a shot from one of her guns. Coming down, he planted one foot on the spine of a sword that she had sent flying at him point-first, using Penny's own weapon as a foothold to launch himself at her.
Penny backpedaled, the movements of her right hand guiding four more swords to move between her and Dove, orienting themselves into a swiftly-spinning sword-wheel that deflected his slash, allowing her to fall back. However, Dove moved Hallshott in accord with the parry, using that to line up the tip with Penny, and firing a bullet straight into the center of her chest.
The hit disrupted Penny's control over her swords, and the four blades between her and Dove scattered in different directions, allowing Dove to proceed forward. However, as he passed through the space the swords had occupied before, Dove felt the sensation of his body brushing through the strand of a spider's web.
His squinted eyes widened perceptibly, and Sky saw Penny's grin take on a triumphant edge. Given the way her Floating Array moved, it was easy to forget the nigh-invisible wires that tethered them to Penny. And now Dove realized that he'd walked right into them. Penny held out her right hand, curling her fingers and thumb inward in a snatching gesture. The swords that had scattered previously began to swing around behind Dove, and he realized she was trying to wrap him up in the wires, in order to bind him in place for a finishing blow.
However, Dove wasn't one to allow himself to be ensnared so easily. Once again, he simply gave in to his sense of touch, focusing on the feeling of the wires against his body, his sense of their position growing firmer as Penny's attack tightened them against him. However, he hadn't yet become completely entangled in them. He jumped and spun, cooperating with the motions of the wires, resulting in them slipping off his spinning body, before the movements of Penny's swords could completely wrap them around him. He dropped down to the ground, sinking all the way down to one knee, ducking his head and allowing the wires to fly clear of him altogether.
From there, he charged forward, slashing at Penny's body, free of any impediment. Penny squeaked in surprise, jumping back, but still catching the edge of his sword across her torso. Her guns opened fire from above and behind, but Dove leapt and flipped away before her shots could strike him.
Then, to his surprise, as he came back upright, Dove saw that, rather than press the attack, Penny had pulled her arms back, her swords pulling back to hover around and above her. The reason why became apparent a few seconds later, as Dove felt the pressure of two other presences flanking him from behind. Sweeping his eyes around, he saw that Ciel and Piper now stood between what remained of the trees that had made up the forest biome. Piper mimicked Penny somewhat, her orbs moving in circular patterns around her body, while Ciel had transformed her weapon into its railgun mode, and was now aiming it directly at him.
The realization wasn't long in reaching Dove that he was alone, the last member of CRDL standing. Had she continued attacking, Penny would have made it somewhat confusing for her teammates to figure out when to enter the fray. Even though pausing in her attack had let up on the pressure on Dove, the tradeoff was that, when she began again, she and her teammates would be able to cleanly coordinate with one another, and completely overwhelm him.
Unfair as it might have seemed, this was a team battle, so there was nothing inherently dishonorable for the remaining members of a team to concentrate their strength on the sole remaining member of their opposition. Likewise, as much as she would have enjoyed seeing through her duel with him to the end, Penny knew that her responsibility as a member of Team CPPR was to execute the course of action with the highest probability of leading to victory.
For his part, Dove knew the game was up. It had taken everything he'd had, and more, to simply hold is own against Penny on her own. With her teammates backing her up, the chances of victory were nonexistent. Perhaps he could have stood his ground and tried for some spectacular last stand, but Dove saw that as largely pointless. Without the rest of his team, the battle was over.
So Dove lowered his sword, raising his left hand in surrender. The final buzzer sounded.
"And with that, the match ends in Team Copper's victory!" declared Oobleck.
"It was definitely a hard-fought battle," supplemented Port. "Team Cardinal certainly made Copper work for their win. A fine showing by both teams, and a perfect end to the third day's matches."
Dove sighed, lowering his hand and listening to the cheers of the crowd. He was sure that most of them were cheering the victorious CPPR, but he didn't mind all that much. It kinda sucks, but it's gotten to the point where losing doesn't feel all that bad, he thought.
Like any substantial venue for sporting events, Amity Coliseum sported a variety of different seating arrangements. The red seats, situated closest to the ring, were reserved for the the tournament's participants. Behind them were the general seats, which made up the bulk of the seating for the coliseum, rising nearly all the way up to the floating building's rim. For the duration of the tournament, people were able to freely enter and exit the coliseum, via the air-busses. Access to the coliseum was completely open to anyone participating in the festival. Because of that, the general seats could not be reserved via tickets. Instead, they were available on a first-come, first-served basis.
The third class of seats were those in the skyboxes. Lining the upper rim of the coliseum, the skyboxes were completely enclosed seating areas, equipped with luxury amenities that the most wealthy festival attendees paid a substantial sum for exclusive access to. Besides more comfortable seating, without the crowding of the general section, the skyboxes featured self-contained bars, and even catering for those who used them. Despite being the seats farthest away from the ring itself, the impressive interface of the massive windows that made up the inward wall of each skybox provided a zoomed-in view even better than ringside seating.
The skyboxes were partitioned into multiple smaller units, which could be rented out by those with the money to do so. One of these skyboxes was occupied by none other than General James Ironwood, Winter Schnee, and Pietro Polendina. They had naturally shown up to watch the matches, particularly those where students from their own school had been participating.
"What do you think, Pietro?" asked Ironwood, glancing sidelong at him.
"Penny's been growing up," said Pietro proudly. Looking at him, one would think that he was speaking of his biological daughter, and not one whose body he'd assembled in a lab. "She certainly seemed to be having a good time down there."
Ironwood chuckled. "Yes," he agreed. "It would seem that Team Cardinal proved to be more formidable than we expected."
Winter nodded in agreement. "Glynda had left me with the impression that they were a substandard team before. Apparently they were quite the troublemakers, earlier on in the year."
"So were Raspberry and Rainbow," noted Ironwood.
"Troublemakers of the more conventional sort," amended Winter, "bullies, in other words. Of all of them, supposedly Mr. Bronzewing was the only one who showed any particular promise. However, it appears that they have turned things around admirably, enough to give Team Copper a good fight."
"That young Bronzewing fellow was especially good," said Pietro. "He held out until the very end."
Ironwood nodded. "I certainly wasn't expecting someone who could hold their own against her in single combat. It would seem the caliber of all of Beacon's students is very high this year, especially amongst their first and second-years."
"On the other hand," said Winter, her mood falling, "the caliber of some of our other teams is lacking."
Thinking back to earlier in the day, Ironwood scowled. "Jardine will be reprimanded for his behavior. Of that, you can be sure." He himself wasn't happy with the leader of Team JGNT (Juggernaut) and their conduct, after their loss against Team SSSN. It had been bad enough that Jardine had refused to accept his defeat with the kind of grace and goodwill that the Vytal Festival mandated. It was all the worse that he'd accompanied said behavior with outright racism against the leader of Team SSSN, who had proven himself to be a truly impressive fighter and leader.
Ironwood did his best with Atlas Academy, he really did. He vetted the institution's teachers very carefully, ensuring that those with racist bents would not be permitted to teach his students. He did his best to try and ensure a proper balance between humans and faunus on staff, and amongst the students. Granted, faunus were a smaller portion of the population in general, so it was only natural that the population would be statistically skewed towards humans. Furthermore, he'd made it clear that racist attitudes, behaviors, and speech were wholly unacceptable, and anybody caught at such would face severe penalties.
Of course, "anybody caught" were the key words of that policy. Ultimately, Ironwood could not monitor the actions of all his students twenty-four/seven (however much many people suggested that he desired to). Because of that, he knew for a fact that there were incidents of such attitudes being indulged, incidents that did not reach his ears because the perpetrators were not caught, their victims intimidated or shamed into silence. It was galling, but that was the nature of people.
Part of it was his ongoing partnership with the Schnee Dust Company. Jacques Schnee was less than discreet about his own racist leanings, having made more than one slip, when it came to revealing how little he thought about the faunus. Even if he made grandiose claims about equal wages, anybody with eyes could see how thoroughly he exploited the faunus who labored in his mines. Ironwood detested that attitude. But, at the moment, the SDC was too essential to the continued establishment of his forces.
Winter's eyes went back down to the ring, letting the troublesome topic drop for a moment. "Still..." she said, "...it would seem that Ciel has come into her own."
Ironwood nodded. "Soleil has matured more than I expected. I suspect that her experiences in the field recently have helped her gain a better sense of herself."
"She certainly is less stiff than the last time I met her," said Pietro, chuckling at the memory of the eager, if overly formal, young lady who'd introduced herself as his daughter's partner.
"Hopefully she's enjoying some well-earned relaxation," mused Winter.
The door to Team CPPR's locker room slid open to reveal a grinning Penny. "Sal-u-tations, Ruby!" she declared excitedly.
Ruby grinned back, and wrapped her android friend up in a hug. "You were great out there, Penny," she declared.
Penny sighed. A few months ago, the sound, without the accompanying exhalation of breath that one would normally expect, would have unsettled Ruby, a discordant reminder that this very human-looking girl was an android, and did not possess a throat or lungs to breathe with. Therefore, the sound of her sigh was an artifice, and action taken to make her appear more human to those who saw her. However, Ruby could sense the genuine feeling behind it, and had long grown used to the...unique...nature of Penny's existence.
"I just wish I'd won my part of the battle," said Penny, adopting a dissatisfied expression. "The fact I couldn't beat Dove, before everyone else came to back me up is pretty frustrating."
Ruby nodded, able to sense Penny's frustration through her Aura. It seemed that Penny had taken it as a bit of a personal failing that she hadn't been able to completely defeat her opponent on her own. Ruby could understand. Penny possessed a level of power that seemed almost overwhelming at times. The fact that she was an android, possessing advanced sensor suites and parallel processing capabilities that allowed her to multitask at a level that would be virtually impossible for a biological person to imitate, only served to make that power all the more devastating. Penny took pride in that strength. Ruby could understand that. To have someone actually stand against that strength and hold his own was frustrating.
Despite that, Ruby couldn't quite keep a smile from her face. "Well, Dove's just that good," she said. "If you don't want to wind up stalled like that, you'll just have to get better."
"You're right," said Penny, breaking out her exuberant smile, and nodding decisively. "I shall have to speak to Father about upgrades."
Her words left Ruby musing. Could Penny get stronger through training, the way people like Ruby herself normally did? Penny's muscles were purely mechanical after all. No amount of working out in a weight room could increase their capability, no number of laps run could boost her stamina. At the most, Penny could train her Aura in the manner that Ruby and Kyo had taught her, which she had been doing. But that didn't change the fact that her physical body was essentially static and unchanging, unless Penny's father "upgraded" it in the manner that Penny herself had suggested.
Well, it's something to think about later, I guess, thought Ruby.
As it was, she and Penny were interrupted when the taller figure of Piper appeared behind Penny.
"Come on, Penny," said Piper, looking unusual to Ruby's eyes, with her hair completely straightened and hanging loose behind her head, thanks to the shower she'd just taken. On top of that, Piper was currently wearing one of the complimentary robes supplied to competitors. "Don't just leave our friends hanging out in the hallway."
"Oh! Right!" Penny jolted at the reminder, stepping back and aside. "Please come in."
Ruby entered the locker room, followed closely by Weiss and Jaune. At this point, Team RYNB had decided to head back to the main festival grounds, not wanting to crowd the locker room.
"How are you feeling?" asked Ruby.
"Pretty good, all told," said Piper, before grimacing and reaching up to rub her collarbone, the spot where Sky's gunshot had landed. "Those jokers on Cardinal were no joke though. If, after this, you'd told me that they'd blown the first few weeks of the school year on being a bunch of bullies, I'd have said you were crazy."
"They really have improved a great deal," said Weiss, "in more ways than one."
"I train with them quite a bit," added Jaune. "They've seriously upped their game."
"My wallet is feeling it quite a bit," grumbled Piper. "I burned more Dust than I would've liked in that fight. And Pulsar gets damn good mileage."
"I'm sure you'll be fine," said Weiss, smirking in amusement. "What about Ciel and Rain? Are they still in the showers?"
"Nope," said Piper, her grin widening to the extreme. "Poor Rain was pretty sore, both literally and figuratively. He wasn't happy about getting knocked out like that, and Ciel feels that she maybe didn't do a good enough job as our leader to keep him from getting knocked out."
"Wanted a perfect victory, huh?" guessed Jaune.
"Pretty much," said Piper. "I think part of it is that, even knowing what we did, we still underestimated Cardinal a little, and Ciel's still kicking herself for that."
"Maybe we can talk with them," suggested Ruby. "There's nothing about that match for you to be ashamed of."
"I agree on the latter point," said Piper. "But talking to them about it is gonna have to wait. You can see for yourselves."
At this point, she lifted a finger to her lips, and led the visitors into the lounge.
Ciel and Rain were out cold. Fresh from their showers, and wearing their own robes, they had lain down on one of the broad couches, practically large enough to serve as a bed. Ciel was curled up against Rain's front, spooning against him, while Rain had his arms wrapped gently around her stomach. Ciel's head was tucked under Rain's chin. The two of them looked perfectly at peace, their eyes closed, their breathing soft and slow.
All at once, three scrolls appeared in the hands of the three visiting members of RASP. A swift trio of clicks sounded, and the scrolls disappeared just as quickly. Piper, having done exactly the same thing, when she'd first seen the couple asleep, had to clamp her hands over her mouth to keep from bursting into laughter.
They retired to a separate corner of the lounge, where a set of seats and smaller couches had been arranged around a holo-screen. Here, they would be able to talk without disturbing the lovebirds, so long as they kept their voices low.
"Ciel looked comfortable," noted Weiss.
"She's definitely getting a lot more easygoing," said Piper, a mischievous glint in her eye. "I even heard she and Rain went on a triple-date with Blake, Sun, and a certain White Fang member of our mutual acquaintance."
"Blake mentioned that," said Jaune. "Neo was there too."
"Yep," agreed Piper. "She's less guarded now, more comfortable with the idea of a relationship. It makes me happy, if a little bit jealous."
"I'm sure you'll find someone, Piper," said Penny cheerfully.
"And what about you?" wondered Piper, raising an eyebrow at the android.
"I do not know," admitted Penny, her eyes rolling up slightly. "Not having a body that produces the required hormones that engender things like sexual attraction, I do not know if I even have the requisite capacity to experience such feelings."
"I know you're capable of love, Penny," said Ruby encouragingly.
"Oh, I know that," said Penny proudly. "After all, I love you, Ruby."
"Huh?" gasped Ruby, her cheeks flushing.
"And Jaune," added Penny.
"Wha-?" grunted Jaune.
"And Piper," Penny continued.
"Thank you," said Piper cheerfully.
Penny continued, beginning to count off her fingers. "And Ciel, and Rain, and Yang, and Blake, and Nora, and Ren, and Pyrrha, and Sun, and..." She paused. "And a whole lot of people."
Ruby and Jaune heard a low growl from the seat next to them. Glancing over, they saw Weiss pouting, as she glared petulantly at Penny, cheeks puffed in consternation.
Penny noticed the look, and grinned sheepishly. "Oh...and you too, Weiss."
"Why am I an afterthought?"
The rest of the group had to struggle to keep the volume of their laughter from reaching a level where it would disturb Ciel and Rain.
"Anyway," continued Penny, "I love lots of people, so that I know that I am capable of love. Father and I just aren't sure if I am capable of romantic love. Maybe I'll find out, maybe not... At the moment, I'm not concerned."
"That...makes a lot of sense, actually," said Weiss.
Perhaps it was a tad existential to wonder if Penny, an android, was capable of experiencing all the nuances of human interaction. Granted, being aromantic in and of itself wasn't some kind of abnormality. But how much of that was Penny's personal nature, and how much of it was a product of her unique experience as an artificially created entity? The question was both fascinating and daunting. But, if Penny did not feel that she was lacking anything, then there wasn't all that much to worry about.
Piper glanced around, as though just realizing something. "By the way...where's Pyrrha? I was a little distracted at first, but she's not with you guys?"
"Nope," said Ruby, giggling.
"You could say that Pyrrha is consoling the losers," said Jaune.
"Specifically her boyfriend," said Weiss a sly smile on her face.
Penny and Piper's eyes widened as the realization struck them. "Ooooooh..."
Dove rested his hands against the tiled wall of the shower, allowing the hot water to wash over him, its heat soaking into muscles, easing aches and pains that were the result of pushing himself harder than he ever had before. While he hadn't actually taken all that many hits, on some level, everything hurt. A nice, hot shower was just what the doctor ordered to soothe the pain.
Now, if only it could soothe the sting of defeat. Sure, Dove had been the last member of his team to "go down". But that didn't change the fact that it was his surrender that had brought about the end of the match. He supposed he could've kept going, tried to at least take one more member of CPPR down in some grand blaze of glory. But he didn't really see the point. The fight was already over and, however well he held out, it wouldn't have changed the outcome. He was skilled, but not so ridiculously overpowered that he could bring about an impossible victory against those kinds of odds.
So he'd called it a day. His teammates hadn't said a word about it, hadn't tried to shame him, hadn't even given him so much as a dirty look. The crowd had been cheering and, even though the majority of it had obviously been for CPPR, at least no one seemed to be booing him. Both Port and Oobleck had been generous in their praise for CRDL in general, and his performance in particular. Dove didn't have any logical reasons to feel so unhappy.
And yet...as the one who had put a pin in their match, who'd called an end to their ambition of making it all the way to the finals, Dove still couldn't help but feel responsible for his team's defeat, even though his fight had been just one small part of a much larger battle.
So absorbed was he with this conundrum, that Dove didn't notice at first when the door to his shower stall slid open. He didn't notice when the person who'd stepped into the outer alcove shed her clothes, undoing the tail her magnificent red hair was tied into, and setting her circlet aside. He didn't notice when she'd stepped into the shower, not until her arms slipped around him from behind, and he felt her body press against his back, particularly two significant parts of it.
"P-Pyrrha..." stammered Dove, absolutely shocked at her boldness.
Sure, they'd engaged in some long make-out sessions, even indulging in some heavy petting. But this was a whole new level of intimacy, certainly a step up in their relationship, especially considering how young their relationship was, compared to the likes of Jaune and Ruby, Blake and Sun, or Weiss and Ashley.
Pyrrha leaned forward, resting her chin over Dove's shoulder, hugging herself to him. "I had to see you," she said.
"You didn't have to get naked to do it," Dove pointed out.
"But I wanted to," said Pyrrha.
"A-are you sure?" asked Dove.
"After seeing you out there...more sure than ever," said Pyrrha confidently. "You were amazing today."
"I still lost though," he said.
"That doesn't matter to me," said Pyrrha. It helped that she knew the full extent of how much the odds had been stacked against CRDL from the beginning. Dove's opponent was the most advanced piece of technology that had ever been created, advanced technology that was driven and empowered by a living soul. That Dove had held his own against her, even gotten the upper hand at times, was a breathtaking achievement. Besides...
"You lose to me all the time," she pointed out. "That's what I love about you, not that you always win, but you keep trying. You never give up, never let it get you down, and you push forward with a genuine goal. Yes, it was on a much larger stage, this time. But you didn't do anything to be ashamed of."
Dove was silent for a moment, a smile creeping back onto his face. "Thanks."
"And such drive deserves to be rewarded," said Pyrrha, her hands slipping lower.
"A-are you sure?" asked Dove again.
"More sure than ever," repeated Pyrrha, her hands already going to work.
Dove turned around, facing her, taking all of her in. Pyrrha let him. Then Dove's arms slipped around her, his lips found hers, and he pressed her back against the wall of the shower.
It would be the better part of an hour before they finished. When they emerged, dressed in their respective robes, they met the knowing gazes of Dove's teammates, and the pair of them immediately turned completely scarlet.
每周推薦票狀態
-- 推薦票
榜單 
-- 推薦票