==================================

Chapter 56: All a Ruse

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A little bit earlier...

============================

Just like Robin's team, there was other teams that were planning on taking an early lead. Blake's team was one of them.

“..So loud..” Blake murmured.

This wasn't the first time she was at an event with a large audience. Every year, Robin and the others would come inside the walls to watch the Vytal tournament. Unlike Robin, who participated in the Junior Hunter Tournament, Blake, who watched from the stands, was not used to being the target of such attention.

= There's no way for others to know I'm a faunus because of my bow, yet these stares are still following me. They're...different than the usual ones. They're much heavier.. I can feel goosebumps all over me.. =

The energy of the audience weighed down like weights. She could feel the tension in her body rising just like in the preliminaries yesterday. Currently, Blake was calming her nerves and preparing herself mentally while she could.

= Did Robin have to feel like this every time when he fights in tournaments? Unbelievable. =

“Dang, this atmosphere is a bit overwhelming isn't it?” Sun said with a smile.

Despite his comment, Sun's attitude showed that he wasn't affected by it at all. His smile lacked tension as if he wasn't even participating. Blake glanced at Sun in the corners of her sight.

“You seem just fine though.” Blake retorted.

“Ah, that's because of my Rebel class. No matter how much attention is on me, the effects of pressure is reduced. Pretty useful, isn't it?” he gloated.

Blake raised an eyebrow.

“Then how can you say this is “overwhelming”?”

“Well no. It's like, it's there, and I know it is. But at the same time, it's not, cuz of who I am. Does that make sense?”

Sun's wording was slightly confusing, but the concept was communicated to Blake. She returned to her silent contemplation while thinking that such an ability was both good and bad.

= It's like the complete opposite of Robin's. Sun ignores everything directed at him, but Robin is fully aware anytime someone looks at him. Sun literally doesn't care what others think. =

“..It's not like it's that bad, you know.”

= !! Did I say that out loud? =

“No, I'm just observing your expression.” Sun said with a grin.

Blake blushed slightly at the thought of her mind being read from her facial expression. Usually she was more reserved in front of others. She tried to clear her mind, but it was useless with the boy next to her for some reason. His speech kept her mind far from empty.

“I just seem to notice your face changes when you or anyone seems to mention him... What do you find good about Robin anyway?”

At that moment, the three commentators starting talking, causing the audience to roar behind them. When they started to talk about Robin's team, Blake became a little irked by the lack of attention on Robin. Sun stared at her in silence, waiting for her reply.

“...”

“...Robin's...”

============================

Present time...

“..So this is where they have the orbs?” Robin asked.

Robin and the others had reached the center of the maze, and they looked around to take it their surroundings. The center was a spacious, flat grassland surrounded by the walls of the maze. There were four entrances to the center with one of the entrances altered to connect to the path they had just arrived from. Stone statues littered the grassland. Each one had an appearance resembling a warrior posing with a sword jabbed into the ground.

In the middle of the grassland were four pedestals on raised platforms. Each pedestal was located in front of four different statues made out of metal that were 2 stories tall each. With the exception of the four larger statues, the rest of the statues all faced the four pedestals in the center.

“This atmosphere feels... off.” Pyrrha commented.

The three of them agreed with a nod. With the presence of all the stone figures, it felt like they had stepped into a graveyard. At that moment, the sound of a bell ringing once was heard, and a holographic screen appeared in front of them.

Ding!

AnnouncementTeam at Entry Point 9 has arrived at the center of the maze.

Timer: 00:00:35

Participants:

Diane Geotal

Pyrrha Nikos

Weiss Schnee

Robin Wolfheart

= Great. Announce it to the whole world, why don't you...No wait, this is probably being broadcasted globally, so that's actually already happened. =

“Most likely, the possession of the orbs will be announced as well.” Diane said. “We should be prepared to be constantly pursued by others once we get the orb.”

= How troublesome. =

“So do we take it?” Pyrrha asked.

According to the best case scenario, they were to grab it and monopolize their lead, but since they were no longer gonna be the only ones to arrive...

“Act according to the plan.” Diane said.

And so they did. They stood there and did absolutely nothing. They didn't have to wait long. All of a sudden, they started to feel a slight tremble in the ground beneath them. Bloodlust was activated to look for the source of the disturbance. Robin deactivated it once he realized who they were. He could guess the silhouette of the four people that he saw. Then, a hole appeared out of nowhere at another spot nearby. Out jumped four individuals he was familiar with.

Why did they do nothing? Everything could be explained by the plan Diane went over with them yesterday afternoon. The memory of the scene resounded in Robin's head.

============================

“I'm going to hack the maze,” Diane stated as if it was the most natural thing in the world.

“““...”””

“Impossible.” Weiss denied.

“Highly unlikely,” Pyrrha corrected.

“Won't there be security functions? Like a firewall or something?” Robin argued.

“I have confidence in my ability, child.”

“Don't get me wrong,” Robin said. “I can Hack into a lot of stuff too, but something like an entire maze is just...”

“Oh, so you have the skill Hack?” Diane questioned.

“Yes.” Robin confirmed.

“Ok. Unlock this then.”

Diane pulled a lock out of her Inventory and tossed it to Robin. He caught it with a single hand and saw that the lock had no keyhole.

“That is an electronic lock made to only open through the use of the Hack skill. Try to unlock it as fast as you can.”

“?.. Ok....”

Hack

“10 seconds. Not bad.”

“So what was the point of that?” Robin asked.

He closed the lock and tossed it back to Diane. She caught it with a finger and the lock...opened up instantly. It hung on her finger as Diane smiled at Robin.

Pyrrha and Weiss thought Robin didn't close it all the way, so they thought it had flung open, but Robin saw. At the moment the lock came in contact with her finger, Diane had activated Hack, and electricity flowed into the lock and opened it.

“Wha- How?”

“Any skill that pertains to a particular class is always stronger than when used by someone who doesn't have that class. You know that right?”

“Of course,” Robin admitted. “But is that enough to cause such a difference in speed?”

“That's where I'm special. My semblance is Zaborg which allows me control of electricity. Because of my semblance, my skill has evolved. It's safe to say hacking into the maze is probably a feat only I can do right now.”

Of course this was with the help of stolen passwords and access keys, but she didn't have to tell them that.

The three of them rapidly grasped the meaning of her words. Evolved skills were stronger forms of the previous skills. Weiss's Glyphs and Robin's Bloodlust were good examples. Because they were well aware of the power of evolved skills, they didn't expect her to cheat in order to hack into the maze.

“But would that be allowed?” Robin asked.

Pyrrha nodded.

“Tournament rules state that altering the playing field before the round starts is strictly prohibited,” she explained. “But so long as it's done after it starts, almost anything goes.”

“Even if we didn't get to hack successfully, we could always get to the center normally. What the main point of this plan meeting is not about how to get to the center, but what happens after we do.”

“What do you mean?” Pyrrha asked.

“There is an abnormally high chance we won't be the first ones reaching the center.”

“What!” Weiss exclaimed. “Who else could possibly reach?”

“In particular, I know of two teams who I know for certain will reach the center early. Are you three familiar with the names Simon Helix and Velvet Scarletina?”

= ! The bunny girl?.. Of course! She has Tunnel! =

Pyrrha and Weiss didn't know them.

“That's normal.” Diane assured them. “At last year's Inter-School Tournament, they laid low and didn't draw much attention to themselves, but those two have a major advantage in this round. Velvet is a bunny faunus whose class is Mage and has the semblance Elements. In particular, she can use a skill called Tunnel to dig into the earth. Just like me, her semblance enhances her skill, so I am almost certain she'll dig a tunnel from her team's entrance point to the center.

As for Simon, his class is Digger which gives him some sort of awareness when he enters some sort of structure. Apparently, a Digger has to be aware of all the possible pathways, so I'm positive when he enters the maze, he know instantly what the path to the center is.”

============================

Present time...

Ding!

AnnouncementTeam at Entry Point 4 has arrived at the center of the maze.

Timer: 00:00:45

Participants:

Blake Belladonna

Gaea Bronzewing

Velvet Scarletina

Sun Wukong

= It's Blake and the others! I see, so they had Velvet dig a hole underground all the way to the center. Normally, that's impossible, but since she has a skill for going underground, they were able to go straight here too. =

Robin had met with the others last night after the banquet, so he knew the team compositions of Blake and the rest of Team COBRA. Thus, it came no surprise that Sun and Velvet was with her.

“My my, and here I was hoping to get here second.”

An unfamiliar voice reached Robin's ears. When looking for the owner of the voice, he saw it belonged to a guy with shades that looked liked something a character would wear in a TV show Robin had watched at one point. In his right hand was a huge drill that had an uncanny resemblance to the weapon of the said character.

The weapon looked like the head of the drill was somehow attached to the end of a tonfa. Holding his weapon, the guy in his blue and red jacket took long strides as he and his teammates walked in from one of the other entrances. The sound of the bell once more resounded across the grassland.

Ding!

AnnouncementTeam at Entry Point 14 has arrived at the center of the maze.

Timer: 00:00:48

Participants:

Liela Atkinson

Simon Helix

Lie Ren

Ophelia Zittori

One of said teammates was also a member of Myriad's Student Council, Leila, who was a mouse faunus. Dressed in her black and red attire, Liela carried a thigh pack on her left leg that Robin assumed held weapons and other tools. From the slight glow on her clothing, Robin guessed it was Dust-infused clothing. Her clothing was light and insinuated she specialized in a style of combat that required a lot of movement.

Since the majority of items could be stored in the Inventory, many people preferred to dress lightly. Ophelia, in her case, had on her favorite brown leather coat. Underneath it, a black shirt is seen that goes well with her white pants. Due to her jacket and the color of her shirt, others couldn't discern that her clothing were actually Dust-infused, but Robin already knew this after growing up and fighting together. Her weapon was currently in its rifle form and attached to her waist.

The last of the four was Lie Ren. He was a guy with long, black hair tied into a ponytail. There was a strand of pink hair on the left side that matched his eye color. Robin immediately recognized him to be one of his rivals way back in the Junior Hunter Tournament. He wore a dark green, diagonally buttoned, long sleeved tailcoat and white pants. From first glance, he was weaponless, but...

Detect

Two hidden, green, fully automatic pistols were cleverly transformed to fit on his arms, and they were hidden underneath his sleeves. Other than Lie Ren, Robin found nobody else were hiding their weapons. Velvet had a contraption of some sort hidden inside the chest she carried with her, but Robin couldn't made sense of what it was.

“Hey there, Velvet. Thanks for your hospitality the other day.” the man with the shades said.

“Hello Simon.. I didn't mean to hurt them, they were the ones to challenge us..” the bunny faunus responded timidly.

“Haha! Don't worry. If anyone's to blame, it's me for trusting them.”

Weiss's forehead showed a vein bulging, but she didn't say anything.

= I see. That's why he looked familiar. This was Weiss's teammate that saved her during the preliminary round. =

“Diane.” Robin whispered.

“Hm?”

“There's three teams already. Shouldn't we go for the orbs?”

“If we were to follow the plan, yes. But...”

“But?”

“That's if there were four teams or less.”

As the meaning of those words registered in Robin's mind, a wall of the maze was torn down in the distance. The distance was too far to be heard by those present in the center, but three individuals were aware of the change. Diane was constantly obsorbing information from the security feed, so she knew what happened.

Velvet and Simon were the other two. Velvet, as a bunny faunus, was already more connected with the earth than most mages. The collapse of a wall caused vibrations in the earth and informed her that something happened.

As for Simon, the collapse of a wall meant a new entry point and pathway, resulting in him getting informed of the change.

“Something happened.” Velvet murmured.

“Diane, it's coming from the direction of your pathway.” Simon said.

'Do you have anything to do with that?' was the implied question Simon showed on his face.

“So it seems.”

'Why do I have to tell you even if I did?' was the implied answer Diane showed on her own.

The feeling was too vague, so Velvet couldn't discern what exactly occurred. Simon obviously wasn't getting answers out of Diane, so he didn't inquire further. As for the others who were in the dark as to what occurred, they could only look to those three for answers but did not get much. Diane didn't say a word to Robin and the other two, so they didn't learn anything.

“Psst.. Blake..” Sun whispered.

“What?”

“Why aren't we going for the orbs? It's right there right? And there's only three teams, so there's enough for all of us.”

“..Because this is Diane we're talking about.”

The one to answer was Velvet. She had a look of worry on her face.

“You guys are first years, so you don't understand. Diane is scary. Not only for her power, but her knowledge. When people fought her, it was like she knew every move they were gonna make before they made it. The actions she takes are meticulous, only resulting in widening the gap between her and her opponent. Now do you not find this field the least suspicious?”

“Uh..yeah.” Sun replied. “The statues look like a trap no matter how you look at it, but.. that was expected right?”

“Of course, but the first ones here was Diane's team, a team comprised of some of the strongest fighters in the competition, yet they stand there and waited not only for us but even Simon's team to arrive. There might be something we're missing here. I don't think we should rush for the orbs just yet.”

Over on the other side of the field, Ophelia was asking Simon the same questions.

“But isn't there a chance this entire thing is a bluff?” Ophelia asked in a hushed voice. “There might not actually be a trap, and they're just toying with us.”

“Their objective is to gather the orbs just like us.” Simon replied in a whisper. “What would they gain through bluffing?”

Ophelia had no answer for that. Because both Simon and Velvet couldn't think of an answer to that question, Diane's actions made no sense. The longer she waited, the worst the position she would be in. But that fact only made it scarier. She stood there with a confident smile on her face. Unable to comprehend her plan, they could only wait it out.

Thus, instead of rushing for the orbs, the three teams didn't move and merely waited. The tension was thick, and all fighters present had long since activated their Auras.

Bloodlust

After activating Bloodlust, he saw that there was 8 individuals heading their way.

= Eight? Looks like there's going to be five teams here.. So Diane's resorting to that after all.. Sorry Blake. =

In reality, Ophelia was correct. The entire thing was one giant ruse devised by Diane.

============================

“...and then in that case we'll just wait it out and let them gather instead of rushing for the orbs.”

“Why? Won't this put us at a disadvantage?” Weiss complained.

“Oh? Explain your reasoning.”

“It's not exactly a secret that our team is composed of pretty strong individuals--”

= A compliment? And here I thought she was being cold. =

“--for the most part...”

Robin mentally crumpled the previous thought into a ball and through it out the imaginary window.

“...I wouldn't be surprised if the other teams decided to gang up on us to eliminate us.”

= ...At least she brings up a fair point. =

“I agree with Weiss.” Pyrrha said. “If we wish to obtain the orbs, rushing from the start is the better option in my opinion. Delaying brings up too many risks.”

“Of course, that makes perfect sense.. if our goal was the orb.”

The three of them did not follow her train of thought.

“Tell me,” Diane said. “How do we pass the round?”

“By getting the orb?...” Weiss hesitantly responded.

Diane shook her head, her blue hair waving side to side. It dawned on Robin.

“To have an orb at the end of the round,” he said.

“Correct! It doesn't matter when we get it, so long as we get it. With me hacked into the maze, do you think it will be hard for us to locate people who have orbs?”

Pyrrha was still confused.

“...If our goal isn't to get the orbs, then what is it?”

============================

Present time...

“We'rrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrre here!”

Ding!

AnnouncementTeam at Entry Point 8 has arrived at the center of the maze.

Timer: 00:01:03

Participants:

Yatsuhashi Daichi

Adam Taurus

Ted Turncoat

Yang Xiao Long

Out of the pathway behind Robin's team appeared a girl with a pale complexion and ridiculously long hair that reached her butt. She wore black shorts and a tanned vest over a yellow, low cut crop top. The vest and crop top hugged her upper body and emphasized her abundant chest and slender curves. Robin examined her from the infinity scarf around her neck to her boots on her feet and saw no particular weapon.

However, he found the yellow bracelets around both her wrists suspicious, even more so when he saw she wore black fingerless gloves beneath the bracelets. There were two things that came to strike awe in Robin though. One of it was her beauty. Her outfit hardly covered any skin on her lower half. This resulted in revealing plump thighs, a sexy figure, and a beautiful face.

Weiss was a princess, Pyrrha was an athletic beauty, and Blake was the kind of girl you would always want by your side. This girl was simply sexy, and her atmosphere would match it too... if it weren't for the fact she was currently on her knees and doing a victory pose. The contrast between her looks and attitude suggested she was more of a wild type rather than a mature beauty. But in the end, the most shocking thing to Robin had to be...

= ...She looks exactly like Raven! The similarity is way too extreme to be a coincidence. Is she her twin or something? =

“Don't kneel like that. It looks ridiculous.” said Adam.

In walked Adam, Student Council member Ted, and another tall guy Robin didn't know, but Velvet did.

“Yatsuhashi!” she yelled out.

The tall man waved his hand as a greeting. No, “tall” wouldn't be able to describe him. Adam and Ted were individuals who Robin considered the tallest out of people their age, yet this guy was actually not just bigger, but broader in build as well. He had well defined muscles and wore pale green pants. On the back

= Oh it's Adam...Wait, that's Adam! Doesn't that make her Yang?! =

Robin's distant memories of Yang was that of a hyperactive girl who cried when Robin beat her in a fight. He did not expect her to grow up looking so.. fine. At that moment, Robin felt killing intent far more dangerous than any other he ever felt. Staring holes into his back was Blake from far away. He was confused as to how she knew, but put the thoughts aside when the next four showed up.

Ding!

AnnouncementTeam at Entry Point 7 has arrived at the center of the maze.

Timer: 00:01:08

Participants:

Jaune Arc

Raven Branwen

Dove Bronzewing

Cardin Winchester

...Showed up wouldn't be the right term. The four...three individuals were hiding at the entrance and observing the situation inside of the maze. Raven had grown tired of them playing the role of sneaking rats and walked into the center triggering the maze to register them as “arriving at the center”.

“Raven!” the scraggly blonde boy whispered.

“What are you doing? Weren't we supposed to wait for them to fight it out and then steal an orb beneath their noses?”

“First of all, that is impossible in front of these guys. Secondly, I got tired of crouching behind the pillar.” she responded.

“Hnng.”

The blonde boy groaned. Robin recognized Raven right away even though she was dressed suspiciously with a hat, dark shades, a long sleeve red shirt and shorts. Rather than describing her as dressed for battle, she looked like she was a runaway criminal hiding their identity. As for the other two boys, their names and faces sounded familiar, but Robin couldn't remember where he remembered them from.

“Whatever Johnny boy.” the ginger next to them said as he stood up revealing a tall build. “I was getting tired of your lay low strategy as well. Besides, now I can get my revenge on you.”

He pointed his finger at Robin. Robin looked behind him. Nobody was there. He slid to the left. The finger followed him. Slid to the right. Finger followed. Robin looked at the ginger confused.

“Yes you! You dumb dog. Don't you remember me?”

“?”

“I'm Cardin Winchester. Me and my buddy Dove here got some overdue payments of ass-kicking for all the times you've embarrassed us.”

“What.”

“The Junior Hunter Tournament!”

After 10 seconds of processing, Robin's memory provided him with an answer. Robin hit his fist into his hand.

“Oh, the loser who got knocked out by JES!”

“My name is Adam!” someone said in the background.

“My bad man, I don't remember losers who don't know how to throw a punch.”

“Hoho, dog knows how to bark. Well it's too bad you're in the worst position possible. Hey guys!”

The forgotten boy named Cardin was such a minor character, he actually had to gather the attention of those present. Velvet and Simon glanced his way, but didn't take their eyes off Diane.

“There's sixteen of us, and four of them. Why don't we gang up on them and take the four orbs for ourselves? It'll save us a heap of trouble in the later rounds.”

““““Nah.”””””

“Wha-Wh-why?” he asked dumbfounded.

“Diane is meticulous. I wouldn't be surprised if she expected this to happen. That sounds too easy to work out well.” Velvet said.

“Even if we did work together to beat them, what's there to say weaklings like you will help us and not try to take the orbs while we're not looking.” Simon followed up.

“Besides,” Yang added her two cents. “the competition would be way more interesting if they were in it. I don't wanna do something cheap like ganging up on them.”

Just like that, Cardin's lame attempt to get them to destroy Robin's team was diverted. The blonde boy who Robin deduced was named Jaune looked hurt as they were commenting on their actions of being “weak” and “cheap”. Gaea shook her head as she saw her idiot brother do such foolish actions. Unexpectedly, help came from the one place nobody expected.

“Are you sure about that?” Raven asked.

All eyes turned to her. Raven was the last person Robin would expect to speak up for Cardin.

“If you don't act now, you're all going to lose.”

This declaration confused the other teams. Only Robin's team began to sweat.

= Shit, did she find out? =

“You guys seem to have been worrying about Diane's motive for standing there, but you've forgotten a fact that was made clear very early on..”

Everyone's ears perked up to catch her words.

“..She's already hacked into the maze.”

“? I don't get it.” said Yang.

“We all know that, but that doesn't mean anything. So what if she can control the maaaaa...”

The lightbulbs went off.

“Oh my god.” Velvet murmurred.

If Diane can control the maze, the value of the orb to her was zilch. There would be no point in triggering the trap guarding the orb when they could just let the other teams weaken through fighting the trap and then take back the orb later in the round after they tire out. The reason she wanted them to wait was to gather more teams in the center. Since their victory was almost guaranteed, they wanted more teams to gather so they would fight among themselves for the three leftover orbs, hoping Diane wouldn't target them for the final orb.

“It was a ruse the entire time! Diane knew we would be cautious because we were aware about how she dominated last year's competition. Using that suspicion to her advantage, she waited it out to play her cards since she knows about me and Velvet's ability to reach the center! You toyed with us!” Simon shouted.

Diane said nothing and continued with the same confident smile on her face. Before it was nerve wracking seeing the smile due to the unknown factor, now it was as if it was mocking them as they danced in the palm of her hand.

“Unfortunately for you, there's one giant flaw in your plan.” Simon stated. “The number of teams gathered right now is five. In other words, the best course of action is to defeat you together and then take the four orbs for ourselves. Your entire plan goes down the drain if you can't get the orb!”

“Yeah, that is the only flaw.” Robin chuckled.

“It's too bad it's still going according to plan.”

“What!”

Robin took out Pantomath and transformed it into it's dual sword mode. He stabbed one sword into the ground and aimed the other at one of the orbs. Pulling the trigger, Robin shot a bullet at one of the statues guarding the orbs. The statue came to life and deflected the bullet with the sword it pulled out of the ground. At that moment all the other statues came to life, drawing their weapons and facing the five teams.

But the other teams did not idly sit back and watch this happen. The moment Robin shot the statue, Velvet aimed a skill at who she judged the biggest threat to all of them: Diane.

Earth Spike

However, the spike went through Diane's body easily. The reason being that the Diane standing before them was a hologram. It was a still hologram of Diane in the same pose with the same smile for the last minute.

“Impossible! When did she switch?!”

“Before your team even popped out of the hole.” Robin answered.

There was no need to hide it. Everything was revealed at this moment. Pyrrha, Robin, and Weiss were told to stay there as camouflage to hide the fact Diane was missing. If they had all stood still, it would have been suspicious. Ironically enough, Velvet and Simon, who were closely observing Diane in case she did something suspicious, didn't find the fact she didn't move abnormal in the first place.

“But Robin,” Adam said as he pulled out his katana.

“It doesn't change the fact that you're outnumbered.”

Yes it was true. They were 3 vs 16. If they wanted to get out of their predicament, they needed to fight at least 4 people per person. A feat that is impossible considering the strength of the people present.

“Of course, that's only if we didn't plan this far ahead.”

The one who spoke was Diane herself who appeared in the entrance to the east. She pressed a button on the blue screen in front of her.

“But I really wonder if beating us is your biggest concern at the moment.”

Rumbling was heard as a blue wave pulsed through the maze. Any fool could tell Diane was manipulating the maze one more time. The maze changed itself again. This time, the change was even more shocking than the last, because the walls literally started to drop. Specifically, the walls disconnected from each other and fell over like dominoes.

The sound of each wall hitting the floor was similar to thunder, and what was behind those walls surprised everyone inside, including Diane's own team.

= .. I can't believe she actually did it. =

While the people inside were distracted by each other, Diane manipulated the maze to forcefully push the other fighters toward the center while separating them to prevent them from hurting one another. Now that the walls have fallen, disregarding the few walls purposefully left to enclose them, all 64 fighters are now gathered in the center. In front of them were the guardians of the orbs. Behind them were the rest of the fighters who just realized that the orbs were in front of them, and started to charge for the orbs.

Diane had effectively turned a situation that was “we can take the orb anytime, lets beat our most difficult rival” into “we need to take the orb now before someone else takes it”. Whether they liked it or not, the other teams no longer had the luxury of defeating Diane's team who did not need the orb at the moment.

The benefits of the orbs were too large, and the rest of the fighters did not overhear the conversations that took place in the center because Diane made sure they could not. Thus, they did not know that Diane would be in deep trouble if they all turned to fight Diane's team. They just knew the orbs were here, and that others might get it before them.

In the chaos, Robin, Pyrrha, and Weiss escaped to where Diane was and they left to a remote location far from the fighting. Who got the orb didn't matter. When Diane left, she boxed in all 60 fighters inside the center of the maze, sealing the entrances. In other words, the only way anyone would leave would be if someone got an orb. From the looks of things, it would be a while before that happened. Diane began to laugh maniacally.

“In the end we accomplished our goal anyway! Since we don't need an orb, we'll eliminate as much of the competition as we can! Their own plan is being used against them, and they didn't even know it! Hahaha. MUAHAHAHAHA!”

Author's notes: Been a while, went on hiatus for a bit. Moved in to dorm, got adjusted to school, and was somewhat lazy. Then my Season 3 RWBY poster came in and I got hyped. In order to make up for the long absence I made this one extra long. Enjoy!

PS: Lots of back and forth between memory and reality, so I added that title thing to help out.