[Deleted]

What took over him? If anybody knew, please be kind enough to tell him.

He didn't know what made him take those attacks without moving. He didn't know why he just stood there. He only knew one thing. He was back on the game. This was a battle. And no matter what. He was going to fight.

Around him, the world seemed to sharpen as his Semblance activated upon his command. It didn't slow down or anything, he wasn't nowhere near as fast enough for that to happen. But as his senses sharpened and his muscles got ready to move at the speed needed to actually do stuff at his speed, everything indeed seemed... clearer.

With an all-out 3v1 battle already raging around him, he didn't waste a single second. His eyes immediately darted towards his moving companion, Bianca if he remembered correctly, and not a moment afterward they shifted towards her target.

There was no identification, no trying to know who it even was. What he only knew was that instinct had already taken hold of him. His legs started pumping as fast as they could carry him towards the single person of the enemy team that hadn't made a move.
On the way there, he lifted Uzi and trained at best as he could its sight on Bianca's target before pressing the trigger until the gun clicked empty.

During his wind will of shooting, he saw something come from the man's direction. Acting purely on instinct and training he tried to evade it. If he did evade it, or if he had managed to take himself off the guy's sights due to his sudden departure, he would drop the gun and grab Aarden with both hands.

His eyes would be wholly focused on the woman before him. Once a meter and something away from her, he would do a quick zig zag before running at her in a semicircle. While still running, he would drop to his knees, while preparing Aarden to his right for a swing, and try to keep the momentum to slide behind her back. He did it to confuse her. Using that tactic while having his senses honed to try to evade any attack.

If he did evade any attack, or if she didn't move at all, he would stop dead on his tracks once she passed her by raising his right feet and planting it on the ground. Letting the momentum of the run, plus what strength he could add, he would try to deliver a horizontal slash while letting out a roar.

No matter if it hit or she evaded. Once the attack was done, he would quickly make a Semblance enhanced tactical withdrawal.

---

WC: 452/729

[Wolfe]

Ryan’s remaining time in play was less than great, all things considered. While he managed initially to get past Ruqa, a prosthetic hand grabbed him by the back of his shirt and yanked him very forcefully backwards even as he opened fire on Alice Stribog. The blast from his Uzi hit the target despite the teenager being airborne for a brief moment, maintaining his composure enough to rip more than half of the aura off the young faunus before the founder of the internet introduced the man to her fists. The semblance boosted fist flexed Ryan’s aura.

On television later, they’d see that this was the point where commentary stopped for a bit as Erez opened up a hole in the floor for her teammate to jump through so she could bound into the arena to prevent what would have happened next. The nitrogen enhanced fist slammed down on the back of Ryan’s head and shattered his aura at the same time as Ruqa looked back and managed to sidestep the barrage of sharpened earth. She wouldn’t have normally been able to, but Bianca was a bit too far back to effectively control the earth at the distance the four-armed woman stood away from her due to being tossed so far.

When her head was swiveled back, she would feel the sensation of someone much stronger than her yanking Ryan forcibly from her grasp. When she turned to look what had just happened, something at the top edge of her vision demanded her attention only a second or so before a cannon round exploded right on top of her and shattered her aura. The blow had been aimed at Ryan, but because he had been in melee with Ruqa that also meant that the founder of the internet was caught in the crossfire. She had enough presence of mind, however, to lunge forward at Arturian and fall forward as her aura broke in a solid punch to the chest of her opponent that lowered the blonde’s aura down to fifty-six percent.

Ryan, for his part, would be dropped unceremoniously on the ground outside of the arena by Bianca Hunter, sizzling with white-yellow energy from her activated transformation semblance. She would then zip back with her vastly enhanced speed to pick Ruqa up like a sack of potatoes and drop her off beside Ryan at the edge of one of the biomes – far away from the geysers but close enough to still feel the heat.

The same barrage of earth that Ruqa had dodged hit Arno largely in the side as he was focused on putting down cannon fire on Ryan, lowering his aura down from one hundred down to seventy-eight percent due to the force of the rocks being blunted by the muscle-bound teenager being out of her effective range and being hit with the residual force and gravity alone… which while considerable was much less than what it might have been if she was a few meters closer. Alice’s aura dropped from fifty-five to twenty-two when the earth impacted her as well. She had been sick all day before coming out, and likely caught Typhoid from the outbreak that originated with Carmim C. Clover and Reynard Marshall by getting into contact with a contaminated object.

Bianca’s aura would drop all the way down to twenty-two percent in the aftermath of her semblance attack, but she would charge forward at the only remaining member of Team MARS with reckless abandon anyway. Thrusting out with her spear, she connected several hits to the aura of the blonde made his aura drop drastically from seventy-eight to thirty-four. The aura levels slightly favored Team MSRA, but Arturian had still yet to make a move to attack and Alice was having trouble keeping her balance, let alone charge forward to attack.

SPOILER: Click to show

631 words

2806 total words

Aura Levels:

Reynard N/A, Bianca 22%, Ryan AURA SHATTERED Arturian 56%

Arno 34%, Alice 22%, Ruqa AURA SHATTERED, Alex N/A

Attacks on people who miss the weeklong posting cycle are direct hits automatically with no roll.

[Ruqa Reyes]

The next few seconds were hard to follow but inspite of it all Ruqa had determined that a lot of attacks were sent in her direction.

A current of earth shards flew through the air, intended to impale the four armed huntress who had enough time to managing to side step out of the way. Sweating bullets from that near miss, Ruqa was beginning to regret not ending Bianca early on, now realizing what a pain they were going to be. She really ought to have used her ice dust to freeze that lizard in the first round but it was too late for that now.

That didn't stop Ruqa from pummelling Ryan who's aura broke easily with Ruqa's final assault on the boy. She was about to gloat when a speedster ran toward them, dashing into the fray to pull Ryan out of her grasp. Surprised, Ruqa lost her grip, allowing the huntress to pull Ryan to safety. About to remark on what was going on, Ruqa was entirely unprepared for the next and greatest insult.

Arno "Fucking" Mach.

What this guy did next was fuckin' blast Ruqa in the back with that oh so accurate cannon of his and this was not the first time either! Ruqa faded, completely unprepared for the blow, not having the benefit of a warning this round. She had given Arno the benefit of the doubt but failed to learn from the inciting experience, finding the tragic events of their match with MRLT persisting into somewhat of a trend with the cannon wielding hunter.

Her life flashed before her eyes as the artillery shell explodes in her vision with a great blinding light and falls to one knee.

She remembered a time when she was fourteen years old and proud. A time when she tried to become a hero, putting herself at risk for the sake of others. A time where dust burns covered her back because of her own youthful recklessness. And the years afterward living with pain and ghosts of her own making.

Ruqa wasn't fourteen anymore. She had grown so much since then but yet she finds herself in a hauntingly similar situation. Alone and hurt with a dead nervous system as her reward for trying to be brave.

But Ruqa does not wilt from this heat. She had felt the flames before but this time Ruqa is gonna make sure to burn.

Where she might have feared for her next breath, Ruqa grits her teeth and withstands it like she has from everything life has thrown at her.

The shrapnel washes over Ruqa, warming her blood and dropping her aura to nearly nothing.

Her fist flies into Arturian, her last act before her aura breaks and she gets dragged out of battle. Obviously she would always go down fighting no matter what.

Winded, dazed, and confused, Ruqa is picked up like a sack of potatos by the huntress without much fuss. If Ruqa was more prepared her arms would have been swinging at the unwelcome contact but all she can do is use her voice against the person she was even more furious at.

"ARNO, YOU BITCH ASS MOTHER FUCKER."

She screeches as she is being dragged away, saying something incomprehensible about the blonde boy about to choke on his own member.

The huntress drops Ruqa on her ass, being far enough away from the main battle that Ruqa would be safe from further injury and would not be able to throttle Arno dispite how much she wanted to.

"Arno, after this is done, I fucking swear you are DEAD MEAT!"

Ruqa crawls onto her knees, her fists shaking with complete rage.

"PUT YOUR HEAD BETWEEN YOUR LEGS BECAUSE YOU CAN KISS YOUR ASS GOODBYE!"

Yelling with all the air she had left in her lungs, Ruqa lets Arno know exactly how she was feeling and gives him an idea of the pain he could expect Ruqa to bring very soon. The four armed huntress would sit out the remainder of the match, stewing in anger for that betrayal that could spell fatal for Ruqa and the leader of Team MARS.

Word Count: 692
Total Word Count: 2477
Ruqa Colour Hex: 54e1fb

[Bianca Sabbato]

What an interesting sensation, to feel a rash not in a particular part of your body or even in your body at all, but to feel the unmistakable sensation of your very soul baking itself on its own juices.

I gritted my teeth as the wave of pain washed over me to the point of almost stealing the air of my lungs. I felt the heat of my muscles tensing and the blood rushing to my head as my improvised hurricane tore trough both mine and my enemies aura.

I recalled as much earth as I could from my previous attack. But sadly all that remained was a handful of pebbles no larger than a bottle cap all put together.

In the last seconds of my attack, I felt the earth impact on full effect on the spear wielding faunus girl standing at a side, and gracing blow on the imposing man before me, delivered with enough residual force as to not be a fully wasted attack. Largely thanks to the fact he was currently raining mortar shells upon my unsuspecting teammates.

Ruqa for her part, had managed to anticipate my maneuver and graceful step out of the way before the barrage could hit her at all.

I clicked my tongue in frustration as my spear mercilessly tore trough the blonde man’s aura hit after hit. Retreating, I glanced at the aura levels and found myself panting at the sigh. Better, but still not great. I heard the roar of gunshots from behind me and watched just in time for Alice’s aura to drop to a dangerous 22% and Ryan’s to be completely shattered.

That must have been Ryan, glad he got his head on the game in time, seems like it only took a little trash talk on my part and the prospect of an angry Ruqa Reyes and a lot of pain going his way to wake him up. I still was going to give him shit about it, but I wasn't going to be so harsh about it.

Speaking of which, the inventor of the internet’s aura had just been shattered too if the scoreboard was telling the truth.

“Then I’ll take that was Artur, that’s the only reasonable...”

My line of tough was cut short when I heard the angry voice of a certain four armed huntress berating her own team leader in what could only be described as a “murderous fury” During which I learned a lot of new words and phrases I had never heart before concerning people choking on elongated things.

-No fucking way...- I said to myself when my cheeks started to blush as I considered what was the only reason Ruqa could be so angry with Arno. “Wait... Didn’t that already happen in their match against team Merlot?” I had to physically suppress a fit laughter at the expense of the young chevalier.

Destiny seemed to be siding with us on that battle, so I gripped my spear and decided to leave distractions for after the fight was done and over. For now, I needed to put up a good show or else all would be for naught.

Concentrating, I clenched the small pebbles in my hand before letting them float harmlessly in the air and around me, 3 or 4 small coin sized rocks arranged in a pathetic excuse for a battle formation around my body.

They would be enough for what I was using them... For they were nothing more than a distraction.

I held Nereida in front of me, creating a handy distance between the young man and my tired and shakily body. My “much more shakily than actually should be” body...

Banking of having his full attention on me and my pebbles. I considered my next move carefully. For I was about to do something I had not done in the whole fight because I was hopefully saving it for a future confrontation... But I felt like if I didn’t do it then there would be no future confrontation to speak of.

“Slow and as discreet as you can or fast as to not give him a chance to react?”

Deciding that there was no fucking way to stealthily rip a chunk of stone from the arena ground without spending much more time that what I was comfortable waiting with the man standing so close to me. I opted for option 1.

Directly from behind him, a football ball sized portion of the arena suddenly ripped itself off from the rest and was sent flying into the back if his head with more than clear intentions. He may have still dodged it if he had good enough reflexes, so I wasn’t completely putting all of my eggs in one basket.

All of that was of my doing of course, and even tough I was saving it for a rainy day, I could not help but feel that using it right here and now was a good call. My range was long enough to do it with Arno so close to me, so I didn't see the reason to limit myself to attacking from a single side.

“Hey, if you are not playing dirty you are not trying hard enough!”

Bending my legs in anticipation, I waited for the result of my attack while concentrating in trying to evade any attack the broad huntsman may try to trow my way.

If I succeeded in both striking him and cutting enough of his aura to leave him out of the fight. I would turn around and charge directly into Alice’s way like a madwoman, intention clear in striking her with a combination of thrusts and slashes from my spear.

But if I failed in beating Arno with my surprise attack. Then I would mouth a silent course and lunge in his direction with my spear at the ready to try to hit him in any way and any place I could. That was the one glaring disadvantage of aura, that you could hammer a person’s head or their little toe and the damage caused would be pretty much the same.

Come on... Finish the deal.

---

1026/3767 Words

[*place holder*]

Always remember to smile!

❝

Sure she woke up not feeling the best this day which she had just knocked it up having to face another fight so soon after a loss. After all while, she never showed it with her smiles and jokes she had been nervous about both of these fights. It was one thing to fight Grimm's to death, but to fight with so many people watching just made everything just feel... heavy? Yeah, heavy works. It became even worst when you thought about how many might have been watching from television around the world. So it made sense for the stomach pains as the young woman waited for the match to begin. However, now kneeling down on one knee Alice fears this was more than just stage fright.

As if a flip had been switch Alice felt like a ton of bricks had slammed into her abdomen as she fought back the throw-up. "D-Damn it!" She growls as she tried to pull herself with her spear as nothing waved washed over her. Alice was really wishing she had stopped Alex from leaving now after foolishly thinking she could just power through this. Causing herself as she watched the fight start without her with Ruqa running off on her own again. Making Alice only feel worst as she knew she was her back up. True she wanted to talk to them, to work up a plan that was better than "Let rush them." But the pain caught her voice in her throat drowning her out in the roar of the crowd.

"Damn it Carmim! I swear..." She started but was cut off as she felt the line of bullets run over her body knocking back on her ass. For a moment she felt her hold on her constitution lesson before grabbing hold of it once more. Flashes of blue cover her body as her aura protected her, only to be flair back up once more. What appears to be a rock storm surrounded Alice as she only grew more frustrated with the situation. However, in the moment it would be the scream of her teammate that pulled her back to the fight as she listens to colorful use of words from Ruqa that would have made a sailor proud. Was she really going just sit here and watch as her team loses without even raising a hand?

Yeah, fuck that.

Win or lose she wasn't about to give up without a fight, sick or not. Resigning to what needed to be done Alice did something rather odd. Turning away from the fight she stops fighting the stomach pain and felt the sweet release as she throws up. Sure it was weird and random, but at this point, she didn't really care anymore. Half of her knew she couldn't fight in the state that she was and the other half just wanted to get that, whatever it was, out of her system. Now with an empty stomach and only slight light headed Alice stood as a frost blue light washed over her body reading for a fight. What little she could add to it.

Not wanting to waste any time Alice quickly spun her spear transforming it to it rife mode before taking a shot at the fellow Faunus. With the shot fired Alice would quickly jump into the fight by running forward, transforming her spear back, to attack the other spear user in the middle of her attack on her teammates. She wasn't sure if she could save Anro from the attack she hoped to at least do a number on the lizard since it seemed she was the most dangerous enemy left for them. The shot itself she didn't have much faith in as she wasn't the best shot but hoped the sudden attack might catch the girl off balance.

With abnormally heavy footsteps, but surprising speed Alice rushed Bianca using a few quick grabs of her spear to soften the girl defense with her weak pokes. Before suddenly planting her front foot and with both hands thrust her spear forward with far more power behind it then someone her size should have. Hoping she might get the woman's attention on to herself for the moment. "Anro!" She suddenly shouted as she danced around. "Get your head in the game! I need you, buddy! You messed up, but worry about that later, yes?!" She needed him not to lose it just yet. Sure Ruqa was more than likely to kill him after the fight, but for the time being she needed him not to think about that part of the day.

 77o/1,711  ● word count

MADE BY MIZO

[Arno Mach]

Well. There were two things that would be happening after the game, Arno knew. He'd either get sucker punched or sucker punched and then congratulated. In some ways he sort of got it. He did hit Ruqa again and this time it wasn't exactly planned. Of course, fighting people rarely is but still. Arno muttered a weak "Sorry Ruqa" before deciding to get back into the flow. It was appreciated what Alice did and so Arno gave her a nod. If the cannon was causing too much trouble that was fine. He'd simply just use the lance. With the sound of mechanical clanking, the barrel retracted and the spear tip appeared again. This was going to be a proper fight after all.
"Justice is coming! Hold them still Alice!"
Arno had a plan and perhaps it wasn't the smartest but it certainly was an option and given his rising shame, well it was the one way he could see.
With a flourish, Arno would charge Bianca taking care to avoid hitting Alice in the process, if he succeeded in skewering his adversary, he'd attempt to keep attacking for more damage if he missed his shot, he'd attempt to circle Bianca and attack again if possible. Let's hope this made Ruqa slightly less mad or Arno really would be a dead man walking
(221 WC/ TWC 981 )

[Wolfe]

”You do realize that if you end up losing, that’s the last most people will ever see of you – yeah?” The huntress had an athletic build with muscular arms and legs. She has dark skin, red eyes which are tilted slightly inwards, long eyelashes, and straight white hair reaching down past her waist. On her head, she has a pair of long white rabbit ears pointing upwards with a slight crook. She wore a suit for the broadcast, but it was apparent that it hadn’t exactly seen much use. The words weren’t said to Ruqa out of any distaste or contempt, just confusion. It seemed like a tremendous waste to let all of that Argus Limited reputation get overshadowed by looking like a goon on international television due to childish outbursts of anger.

Alice’s bullet missed the mark due to Bianca’s insanely fast reaction time, but her charge forward with her spear managed to glance against aura on several occasions. The reptile faunus had her aura dropped from twenty-two percent down to seven percent from the barrage of blows that she was mostly able to avoid, but the wolf faunus was tenacious and unleashed enough thrusts that it made it next to impossible to fully dodge them all in addition to Arno’s attack at the same time the football sized piece of rock impacted the back of his head and shattered his aura into pieces.

Arno charged forward with his lance, but unfortunately the lizard faunus was extremely quick on her feet and managed to push backwards with her foot enough to completely dodge the blow as well as charge forwards to attack Alice as the last woman standing from Team MARS. Taking full advantage of the weakened condition of the wolf faunus, she unleashed blows of her own that took down the aura of her opponent as a result of several well-placed thrusts to the torso and the head.

As Alice’s aura shattered, the play-by-play of Caerwyn Erez announced the win as the faces and aura levels of Team MARS were eliminated from the big screens and replaced by the pictures of Team MSRA. Bianca survived with seven percent aura, and Arturian survived with fifty-six percent. Team MSRA had won with aura to spare, with Bianca putting out perhaps the best carry performance out of the first years thus far in the tournament.

The white-haired huntress would not go out and carry the last two back, because the match was over and there was no danger. The cut to commercials was going to happen very soon, but the trainees would be able to do a quick celebration before that cut happened if they wanted to do so… or throw sucker punches on internationally broadcast television. Either or! Because this was the wild card round, Team MARS was now eliminated from the Vytal Festival entirely while Team MSRA kept their hopes alive to move onto the next match against Team MRLT the very next day.

SPOILER: Click to show

495 words

3301 total words

Aura Levels:

Reynard N/A, Bianca 7%, Ryan AURA SHATTERED Arturian 56%

Arno AURA SHATTERED, Alice AURA SHATTERED, Ruqa AURA SHATTERED, Alex N/A

[Bianca Sabbato]

As I watched the man begin to approach with his lance ominously trained on me. I could feel my body tensing and my senses sharpening. That was it, and my mind knew it, that in those next seconds everything would be decided, be it the sweet relief of victory or a crushing defeat and all that such a sorry display could entail.

Fuck that, after everything I went trough to get accepted into Haven. I would not let anything nor anyone take away from me the chance to prove myself. I had to win, I had to win at any cost. With my scrutinizing gaze fixed on Arno I could feel my consciousness slowly drifting away as my body fell into a trance-like hiperfocused state while the giant man made his way towards me.

I heard the gunshots an instant before I started to move, not having enough time to turn my head to assess the trajectory of the bullets.

Going left would kill me if the bullets deviated into that direction and vice versa.

Lunging forward would put me right into Arno’s clutches.

Using my spear like a pole to jump into the air would be difficult and eat away enough time for the bullets to reach me.

All possibilities where a gamble in some way, but in my haze I managed to make the right decision, or at least, the one where there would be a greater chance of dodging since I assumed that the shoots would more than likely be aimed at my head or center mass.

Finally. I left my upper body fall to the ground behind me, bending over backwards until my nape almost touched the ground, a posture vastly supported and only possible by using my tail like a third leg to stabilize myself. I spent a moment like that until I could see the hail of bullets flying mere centimeters above my body. Piercing the air over me to the point that I was able to feel the wind generated by the passing of the projectiles caress my face.

Springing back into a standing position I managed to deflect a couple of the chevalier attacks with my spear but was left wholly unprepared for the moment when both enemies managed to sandwich me in between them and overwhelm me with a storm of thrusts and slashes from all directions that managed to tear a sizable portion of what meager remains of my aura I still conserved.

Feeling my stone projectile closing in into Arno’s frame. I disengaged with a back step just as the telekinetically controlled chunk of rock shattered what was left of the blonde’s aura. One down, but another dangerously close to me.

Smelling blood in the water, I turned my full attention towards the only remaining member of team Mars as I recklessly charged into her guard. Spinning my spear in an 8 shape as the blade of my weapon chipped her aura little by little to culminate my assault with a powerful strike right to her stomach with the butt of my spear putting the whole weight of my body behind it.

I have to admit that the bellowing voice of the huntsman Erez startled me. To the point I gave a little jump of surprise as I came back to my senses. Clutching my spear tightly I gave a look at my surroundings, Arno standing just behind me with all the fight taken off him, Alice on my feet and looking a little green on the face, outside of the fighting arena both Ryan and Ruqa were sitting with entirely different expressions on their faces.

Finally, the whole thing struck me like a truck. Raising my head towards the scoreboard I saw not the familiar sight of the aura meters displayed in different colors and longitudes... But a single static screen showing 4 portraits and a simple legend engraved on the digital board.

“Winner: Team MSRA”... Those unexpected worlds I was left staring stupidly like a deer in the headlights... It felt so unreal.

Yeah, we won... But it didn’t actually feel like a victory. More like a desperate struggle that somehow had turned out for the better even when we had all the advantages stacked on our side.

Alexandros? Voluntarily retired.

Ruqa? Taken down by Arno’s artillery strike.

Alice? She was clearly feeling unwell from what I could tell from my position.

In the end the only enemy we had managed to properly defeat in a fair fight was the blonde Arno Mach... He was strong, but we were in a huntsman academy, of course he would be, they all were.

Still... Only one proper victory between the three of us. What did that left to me? 33% of a victory? Scratch that, Artur had done nothing to aid (I think, unless he had a weird silent semblance or something, if that was the case. Dick move to not tell us about it). So it was more like a 50%...

They were strong, but they were supposed to be. They didn’t need to prove anything since they had won their spots at Haven fair and square. The one who was supposed to be proving her actual strength was me.

If any regular trainee could put me in so much trouble... Then what reason to keep me around? I was supposed to be stronger, better, I was supposed to want it more because on the contrary I was dime a dozen so why risk it with keeping me here?

Gritting my teeth at my pathetic 7% aura remaining. I searched the grades for the nearest television camera, behind those there would be the faceless entity responsible for my future liberation, the men and woman undoubtedly watching my every move during the match with my life hanging completely on their hands.

I apologetically looked straight into the camera before saluting at it with a small bow. And a silent promise both to them and to myself.

At least, we had won, so I still had the right to prove myself for the time being. It hadn’t been pretty, but next round we would do better, next round we would procure a decisive victory.

Still, no need to be an asshole about it. Leaning down, I extended a hand towards Alice to help her get up on her feet.

-Hey... You feeling alright? You don’t look so...-

And as I was helping her to get up. I heard a disgruntled noise coming from the wolf faunus. And before I could question myself as to what it was. I felt something heavy, wet and sticky starting to drip from my left shoulder and all along the front of my tunic.

And next came the smell... Oh, gods the smell. I didn’t know if the girl also had a wolf’s sense of smell. But I pitied her if she had.

My expression was blank. Frozen in the middle of a smile as I realized exactly what had happened... I had been puked on. On international television... Live.

I looked at the faunus in the eyes for a full 5 seconds. Lost for words. My mind kind of defaulted to try to make a stupid joke.

-I-If I was told before this fight that at the end some cute girl would want to share her bodily fluids with me...-

And promptly stopped. There was no continuation to that joke, no way to salvage the situation whatsoever. So in the end I did the only thing I could do and gracefully accepted it for what it was.

-Well... Lose the battle but win the war eh? I respect your tactics miss Stribog, I surely can say do- I said patting her on the back as I gracefully accepted being outplayed by the dark haired woman.

Well, I was completely covered in vomit. So I could not let it go to waste so easily. Spotting the other remaining team member of MSRA. I quickly made my way towards him with a wicked smile on my face.

-Hey Artur! Good job looking intimidating or whatever!- I said as I slammed myself against his chest. I wouldn’t let the motherfucker get away with it unscathed. —You really were our fucking ace in the hole out there buddy- Rubbing my shoulder against his chest and face, I made sure to smear him nice and even with the disgusting mixture until his clothes became completely ruined.

-Go get some rest or something. You’d probably want to clean up those clothes as well, they kind of have a little stain in them-

And with that, I turned to face the last member of our team. Tall, slim and surprisingly an excellent shooter. Ryan Vas.

-Good shot on Alice- I called as I made my way towards him. He looked a little apologetic tough, so I didn’t want him to feel to bad. We had won after all, and that was in part thanks to him.

-If you are feeling bad about this. Instead of wasting your time in apologizing just concentrate in preparing for the next bout. I’ve been watching recordings of team Merlot... And I don’t think we can take them without you and your semblance-

I smiled at the tall boy as I gave him a friendly tap on the ribs. —I need your head in the game for the next one dude, since there’s gonna be just you and me, partner- And with a wink and feeling considerably less gloomy about the results of the match, I turned around and prepared myself to witness what could be a wholesome team reunion or the public execution of a certain Arno Mach.

-I call dibs on that sick bandanna if he kicks the bucket- I playfully told Ryan before I noticed something weird that gave me pause.

... This is strange... My hands... Almost to the elbow... Where always covered in grime like this?

---

1654/5421 Words.

[*place holder*]

Always remember to smile!

❝

It all happens so fast that Alice was not sure what had happened until she felt her face slam against the ground. After that, the pain was the real wakeup call telling her what she already knew. She lost… Again. Once again, she found herself on the losing end of the fight with the only saving grace being, she was cover in mud and slammed against a tree. Even as she felt her stomach flip on itself was, she was surprised with herself how angry she was. Not at anyone, but just at the fact of losing again. Worst that she allowed herself to go into this sick.

“Stupid…” She said in a low whisper while holding her stomach once again.

Even now she felt like throwing up again, but she did her best to hold it back. Bad enough she already did it once on television. It took a lot to embarrass the girl as she always had a good helping “Don’t give a fuck” to give people. However, this day just might have made the list of worst days. Lost in her thoughts Alice did not even notice as her body sort of moved on its own. With a helping hand, Alice stood and as she went to thank the fellow faunus she felt herself lose control.

Standing eye to eye with the girl she just throws up on Alice known she could list this as her worst day ever. To her surprise however Bianca, for reason beyond even Alice, made a joke of it! For the first time in a long time, Alice could feel her face turn a deep red while the other faunus only laugh and joke. In a panic, the wolf was looking for any escape route to this situation as she just lay down for this sickness to take her.

“…Sorry.” Was all she could say as she lowers her head to hide her face behind her bangs before hurrying off the stage. Even now she felt her stomach starting to fight her, but this time she was not so sure it was the sickness. Thankfully as soon as she reached the large doors a familiar voice bought a small shade of relief to her. “Sis! You okay!?” Asked a smaller clone of Alice as she run-up to her. “Ylva… Can you help me to the medic?”

With the help of her sister, Alice tried her best to not look back or thinking about the mess she made of herself this day.

 ● 419/2,130 ● word count

MADE BY MIZO

[Wolfe]

MARS

Arno: 9 x 2 = 18

210 + 18 = 228

Alice: 21 x 2 = 42

118 + 42 = 160

Ruqa: 24 x 2 = 48

102 + 48 = 150

Alex: 8 x 2 = 16

76 + 16 = 92


MSRA

Bianca: 54 x 2 = 108

51 + 108 = 159

Ryan: 7 x 2 = 14

107 + 14 = 121

Arturian: 6 x 2 = 12

38 + 12 = 50

Reynard: 0
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Wolfe: 33 x 2 (event bonus) = 66

66 x 1.5 (DMing 3+ others) = 99

596 + 99 = 695 XP new total
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2 EP goes to Arno, Alice, Ruqa, and Alex from Team MARS for combo of last round and this round.

2 EP goes to Bianca and Ryan for completing this thread.

Arturian missed four post cycles, or approximately one month's worth of posts and thus is ineligible for EP. Reynard is an NPC and did not show up, so is also not eligible for EP.