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Chapter 46: Game Plan

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Reminiscence #2

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Mama always told me that since we could help others, we should. It was our duties as doctors. Patients come and go all the time in our clinic. Some adults got injured from fighting the monsters, so they come to papa and get fixed up really quick. I help out sometimes too. When the kids come, I give them a band-aid and patch them up.

I met a friend today. She was crying from tripping over a log, so I sprayed one of our bottles papa says is for boo-boos. She cried a bit louder, but the pain went away. Apparently, Blake likes books a lot. Our clinic don't have many of the books she likes though, but we look at them together anyway.

...

Today is Friday, and many kids start coming into the clinic. It's been happening ever since last week. Papa says it because of some troublemaker. Papa says he keeps on hurting kids, and he doesn't like it. I don't either. Blake came in the other day because of him too.

Later that day, papa went to help out some adults, and mama went to buy groceries, so they left me alone. The door opened, and a fox faunus walked in. The boy looked at me weirdly, and asked for a band-aid. At first I told him no. I said "I don't treat bullies," but he had a sad face, so I treated him anyway. He asked me why I treated him, so I told him what mama said to me. "I'm doing it because I can."

He tilted his head like he didn't understand me. He asked whether I liked him, and of course I said no.

"But then why help me?" he asked. It was my turn to tilt my head. "Do I need a reason to help you?" He didn't say another word and walked away. Before he left, he looked back at me one more time. I asked him what did he want, but he didn't answer. Weird.

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Enhance

A multitude of colors filled the air as the thousands of kids pumped aura into their body parts to protect their body. Robin wasn't particularly worried. Anyone over level 45 could easily land without trouble, and even those in lower levels only had to pump more aura in order to make up for the difference in endurance.

“What's he talking about?” Sun yelled as they descended.

“This is so easy! Everyone could d--- Whoa!”

Velvet had pulled on Sun's collar. Even though Sun wore his shirt completely unbuttoned, the force was enough to pull his head back to avoid the bullet that was aimed at where his head was a moment ago. Close by was another student that had fired his gun at them. Velvet aimed her palm at the kid.

Fireball

A ball of flame shot towards the kid. The fire engulfed him completely and began to deal damage to him. As he burned, Velvet shot more fireballs which damaged him over time. He screamed in pain as his skin was scorched.

-350

-60

-360

...

Suddenly, the necklace on the kid glowed. A blue shield emerged and rejected the flames on the boy's body. It protected the boy's body as he continued to fall. A holographic sign appeared in front of him that said “Disqualified”.

“Please be careful.” Velvet said. “The round has already started.”

= Interesting. So it's an air battle is it? =

Robin smiled with anticipation. They were now halfway to the ground. How many more would be kicked out by the time they hit the ground? Robin drew Pantomath as he activated his own skills.

Bloodlust

Aura Limbs

Silver aura spread across his back and molded themselves into a pair of arms. He stretched them and grabbed a hold of one student that was firing his weapon. By manipulating his aura, Robin was able to forcefully pressed against their pressure points without even touching them. The student who was free-falling had no foothold to dodge his attacks. He could only fire and enhance his defenses while watching the limbs stretch out to grab him.

-175

Robin tossed the kid aside with a flick of the aura arm. He observed the battle raging in the skies. Gunfire filled his ears, and many students were already being disqualified. Their blue shield would encase them, while temporarily stopping the bleeding.

= I wonder how long that shield can hold out. It seems impervious to any outside forces... I wonder.. Although, if all the other students can't fight in the air, then this is going to be a straight up gunfight. =

However, not all students were defenseless. Sun, for example, activated his semblance, Decoy, which created clones of light. He used them as a base to jump off from, bouncing from one person to the next while using his staff to attack them as he landed on them.

Robin then noticed two people were aiming their guns at him. He wrapped his body in the Aura Limbs in an attempt to use them as a shield while using Enhance to temporarily raise his defenses. The enemies fired at him, but the bullets were proved to be useless. Unknown to them, Nora aimed her grenade launcher at their faces, and grenades exploded right in front of them.

Because the explosion happened right at their head while they were unprotected, the blue shield was forced to intervene and save them. Two more holograms signalling their disqualification appeared.

“Thanks!” Robin yelled.

“No problem.” Nora smiled.

“We're getting close to the ground.” Velvet announced. They were now 2 stories high.

= Hmm.. I wanna try something. =

Robin altered his Aura Limbs. Instead of taking the shape of arms, he formed them into the shape of wings. They were awkward looking due to being made on the spot, however it was adequate enough to serve its purpose. Robin spread the wings out and used them to guide his descent downwards. He aimed for the top of the hill.

Just when he was about to land, he encased himself in the Aura Limbs, mimicking the blue shield that came from the necklace. Robin pumped Enhance to protect himself. With a thud, Robin's impact raised dirt into the air and made an dent on the ground. The wings were made out of Aura, so although they manifested itself physically, there was no injury to Robin himself. Two windows popped up.

+45 Exp.

Upon experimentation, you've created a new skill! Aura Shield

Aura ShieldThanks to your experimenting, you have created a new skill using your knowledge of Aura Limbs and Enhance. When activated, you will form a barrier of aura around yourself. You can adjust the size and strength of the shield by adjusting the amount of aura you put into creating it.

Cost: --- Aura

Grinning at his new skill, Robin detached the metal stick from the necklace, and he inserted it into the clock.

Timer Started! 00:00:01...

The ground began to shake thanks to the impact of all the students hitting the ground. Those that were already disqualified sunk into the ground and disappeared. As he examined the window, Robin felt a huge amount of animosity behind him. He turned around to find himself the target of hundreds of bullets and skills. Robin realized his mistake and activated his new skill to protect himself.

Earth Wall

Protect

However before he could, the ground in front of him rose to protect him. As it did, a shield encased around the earth to make the defense even stronger. Velvet landed inside of the wall, ejected Robin's stick, and grabbed his arm.

“We gotta go!”

Tunnel

Velvet touched the ground and a hole was created. She jumped into it and Robin followed suit. Thanks to a special function of the necklace, the metal stick flew towards him the moment it was ejected and reattached itself to the necklace.

They ran for a bit while following the walls. It was completely dark underground, yet despite this, Robin's Bloodlust allowed him to notice the two other figures in front of them. Velvet took a flashlight out of her inventory and revealed Nora and Sun underground as well.

“Yo!” Sun greeted him.

“Did you guys see that? All of those people just sunk into the ground! This is like a grave, so remind me why we are inside of this death trap?”

“That's a function of the arena.” Velvet explained.

“The ground is connected with your necklaces. If the blue shield is activated, the ground automatically removes you from the battlefield and transports you to the medical team nearby. It reforms itself, so you don't have to worry about suddenly falling into the earth. We also can't stay here long because the arena will eventually fill this hole up too.”

She turned to Robin.

“Robin, you should not have went straight for the pedestal. If I had not gotten there in time, we would have been down a person.”

Robin nodded in agreement. Unlike her earlier nervous demeanor, Velvet was now taking control of the situation. Sun and Nora tilted their head in confusion.

“Huh? But why? Isn't it the goal to reach the pedestal?” Nora asked.

“It is, but at the beginning of the round, that's just suicide. Right now there are thousands of students competing for 64 pedestals. The goal right now is to diminish the count to a couple hundred. Only then will the real competition for the top start.”

“I see. You seem to know your stuff, Velvet.” Sun nodded with approval. “Why is that?”

“I'm a second year student. I've been through this before. So, do you guys know who holds the advantage in this kind of situation?”

Sun crossed his arms. “The strongest?”

Velvet shook her head.

“The sturdiest?” Nora guessed. Again, wrong answer.

“Those with AOE spells.” Robin conjectured.

“Correct. Currently, outside is a war zone made for Area-of-Effect users. They will wipe out most of the competition. What we need to do is conserve our strength to fight later.”

“Awww. But that's no fun.” Nora complained while pouting. “I wanna smash things.”

“I didn't say we couldn't fight.” Velvet retorted. “But we need to do it in a location that's not heavily populated.”

“I can help with that.” Robin said.

“I have a skill that can sense where people are.”

“Perfect. Tell me the location and I'll take us there.”

Robin looked upwards. Thanks to Bloodlust, he could clearly see the fighting going on above them. The silhouettes clashed and many were being knocked around. Dozens kept on sinking into the floor around them.

“Over there.” Robin pointed in a direction. “There's not many people on that hill.”

“Alright. Here's the plan. I'm gonna take us over there and our goal is just to defeat as many as we can. I can use a couple of AOE spells, so I need you guys to protect me while I channel them. Nora.”

“Here!”

“I'm gonna need you to use your grenades to help me with crowd-control. Sun, Robin. I need you guys to take out anybody that tries to stop me and Nora. After we wipe out enough people around us, we going to dive back underground and go to a different location before things get too hectic. Agreed?”

The four of them nodded at each other. Nora cracked her knuckles.

“Lets do this!”

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On the surface, two people were clashing with the people around them. Their other two teammates were already knocked out.

“I told you challenging them was a bad idea! We should've chosen the other hill.”

“Stop complaining.” The other guy said. “We're still in this!”

They clashed with enemies. The first student finished his opponent with ease, but his comrade was struggling with his. He intervened and kicked them in the side, knocking them over. His friend stepped forward to give the finishing blow.

“Thanks!”

“No problem..Hey, do you hear something?”

They stood still and listened to their surroundings. The ground beneath them began to shake, and other competitors also momentarily stopped to look around in confusion.

Earth Spikes

The ground beneath them rose and impaled the students. The spikes started out from a nearby location, and slowly spread itself to cover a wider area. Thankfully, this allowed the two people just enough time to barely dodge.

“You ok?” he asked.

“Yeah. I think I'm fi--”

Suddenly a tunnel opened up from behind them. Jumping out the hole, a figure grabbed the head of the closest guy and forcefully smashed his face against one of the spikes. The action was so quick the student couldn't protect himself in time, and he was disqualified.

“Why you!”

The other kid swung his sword at Robin, but a giant mallet crushed his sides before he could do anything. It was Nora's weapon. The grenade launcher had transformed into a giant mallet with the original launcher as the head. Nora pressed the trigger on the handle, and an explosion occurred at the opening of the mallet.

-700

The explosion, combined with Nora's swing, sent the poor kid tumbling into the air. His body disappeared into the distance as a faint outline of a shield was seen to protect his body from the impact with the ground. Nora followed through with her swing, and held her hand over her eyes to judge the distance.

“Fore!!” she yelled loudly.

= This is golf to you? = Robin retorted inwardly.

He turned to face the people in front of him.

“I'll take the five on the left. You take the five on the right.” Robin motioned with his hand.

“Got it.” Sun replied.

Without further ado, Robin approached them without hesitation. The first to step forward was a girl with a spear. She proceeded to jab Robin in the stomach, but it was swatted to the side by Aura Limbs. Robin stepped close and engaged in close-quarters combat, a spear wielder's weakness.

In an effort to block his punch, the girl raised her handle. However, Robin's extra limb had a grip on the spear. It was too strong and caused her attempt to protect herself to be awkward and inefficient. His punch easily broke past her guard and smacked her right in the chin.

-430

Dazed by the strike, she stumbled backwards only to receive another blow by the end of her own spear. Robin had jabbed her in the gut using the butt of her weapon, and then tossed her body away. He twirled the spear in his hands before beginning to use her weapon as his own. This time, two boys approached. One had a shield and sword, while the other had a single blade.

Azure Boding (Lvl 39)HP:900/1050Aura:830/950

Manic Flaring (Lvl 43)HP:870/970Aura:930/1240

= Weak. =

Robin jabbed the boy with the shield with the spear he picked up, keeping him at bay. In return, the other one swung his sword at his head. Robin stopped the blade with one of his extra limbs and kicked him with his leg. Robin then traced the spear in the air and onto the boy with the shield.

Deflect

The boy's shield glowe,d and upon contact, a spark was emitted. Robin's weapon was knocked back just as quickly as he had swung. The boy used this chance to attack Robin. However, Robin used the momentum of the Deflect to spin low and sweep the boy's feet using the head of the spear while using the other end to parry the sword.

The boy landed on his side and had his neck mercilessly stomped on by Robin's foot. The blue shield saved him from any permanent damage, and announced his defeat. Robin noticed the last two people fired their weapons at his location. Robin stuck his foot under the body of the boy on the floor and kicked it into the air. Robin used the special shield to his advantage as he threw a Smoke Bomb onto the ground.

The two students couldn't see inside the smokescreen and fired blindly. Suddenly, the spear Robin was using flew from within the smoke and impaled one of them. The other one was stabbed by a throwing knife Robin had thrown immediately after. Robin chose that moment to leave the smokescreen and confront the remaining Hunter.

The girl tried to aim her gun at him, but found that she was paralyzed by the poison Robin soaked the dagger in. Robin easily pressed her pressure points and finished her off. Robin took that moment to take a breather and examine his surroundings.

= Phew. Ok, so I can fight even without a weapon. That's good. Even though they were weak, it's good to see my training has paid off. How's the rest of the group? =

Sun was just finishing up his last enemy as well. His staff that he was using before was now two nun-chunks. Upon closer inspection, it turns out that each stick of the nun-chunk was a shotgun. Sun twirled his weapon, alternating between swatting his enemy's weapon away and firing his shotgun in fluid, circular motions.

Nora was firing her grenade launcher in quick succession. Although it seemed all over the place, she manipulated the crowd in the direction she wanted. Those that were too slow to dodge took heavy damage from the explosives. Others that did dodge fell right into their trap. Velvet had just finished channeling her aura.

Earth Pit

The ground beneath the dozens of students sank and they found themselves in a hole 20 feet deep. Before they could react, Velvet activated her other skill.

Hellblaze

Her aura flowed through the ground and flames rose from inside the pit. Screams of pain echoed as they burned inside. After the fire subsided, smoke filled the air and everyone that was inside were safely protected by their necklace's shield.

“Ouch.” Sun commented. “I would not want to be in that.”

The other two nodded in agreement. All of a sudden, Velvet, Sun, and Robin shivered. In addition of his animal instinct, Robin's Bloodlust sensed that he was in grave danger. Velvet immediately activated a skill while Robin protected them.

Lightning Rod

Aura Shield

Discharge

At that moment, electricity spread across the battlefield. The blue lightning bolts jumped from person to person; everyone struck by them immediately had their shield pop up to save them. Thanks to Velvet's quick thinking, some of the electricity headed their way was redirected, and the shield Robin spread out covered all four of them. Unfortunately, they still took damage since the volume of the shield meant it was not as strong.

-350

The electricity pulsated throughout his body, and Robin shivered from the pain. Him and the others took out an elixir to heal themselves.

“What was that?!” Sun exclaimed.

Robin knew exactly who the perpetrator was, and evidently, so did Velvet.

“That was the ability of one of this competition's favored winners and one of Myriad's Cruel Four--” She spoke.

In the distance, a figure could be seen standing on the top of the hill. She placed her metal stick onto the pedestal and looked at the hill around her. Blue shields littered the ground as each competitor was knocked out, and began to sink underground.

“Student Council President Diane.”

Diane Geotal (Lvl 73)HP:1770/1770Aura:1990/2500

Yay! Couple of announcements. I'm changing my release schedule once again. Busy stuff is coming up. Exams and what not. So I can't do many updates. Another reason why I'm going to take longer is I want to take extra time to incorporate some details into the story I never did before as a way to improve my writing. So far we're looking at about once or twice a week (not that that's any different from before). Another thing. I'm busy next weekend so I probably won't be able to update this week unless I do it during Thursday, but I'll edit this page to let you guys know. Rate, comment, thanks for reading!

Edit: Ok so I've decided to update Thursday! You'll get something by then, so no worries there. Release schedule will be twice a week after this week.