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Chapter 58: Divide and Conquer

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There was a VIP room reserved on the second floor of the hotel. Inside, three individuals sat surrounding a round, wooden table. Given how most materials were made of metal these days, the room gave a nostagic, old-fashioned atmosphere.

Sitting next to Ozpin was a blonde woman with her hair tied back into a single bun with a curl hanging on the right side of her face. She wore a white, long-sleeved shirt and a black business skirt. Sitting with her legs crossed, Glynda Goodwitch stared at the man across from her with lowered eyes.

The table had three different types of drinks. There was a pot of coffee and a mug, which was for Ozpin, a kettle and cup of tea for Glynda, and bottle of liquor for Qrow. Qrow finished the last drop of a shot and slammed it against the table.

“Fuaa. The taste of alcohol never gets old.”

“Enjoying yourself?” Ozpin asked.

“Oh yeah.” Qrow replied. He was among friends, so it was a rare moment where he could unwind.

“Most people come to the festival to celebrate freedom.” Glynda commented. “I think you're one of the few who uses it to grab alcohol.”

“Hey, Glynda. Try putting yourself in my shoes.” Qrow retorted. “I'm a teacher on weekdays, Dark Hunter on weekends, and I have to constantly check up on Raven to make sure she doesn't do something stupid. For all I know, the world will end tomorrow, and I gotta clean that up too.”

Qrow rested his chin on the table and began to murmur.

“I mean, come on. I try so hard to give her a normal lifestyle, and she uses it to go to the gym. I had hoped she would have a boyfriend by now, yet all she thinks about is fighting. Where did I go wrong?”

“Perhaps if you gave the alcohol a break, she would actually listen to you.” said Glynda.

“Ha, yeah right. That stubborn girl is a mess. Ain't I right, Oz?” he leaned towards Ozpin. Ozpin sipped his coffee, so the breathe that reeked of alcohol would not invade his nose.

“You said your other nieces seems to enjoy your presence though?”

“Heh, yeaaah.” Qrow leaned back on his chair, and stared at the ceiling.

“They're pretty amazing. Especially Ruby. She looked so much like Summer, and she really likes my weapon too. In fact, I took the liberty of teaching her the ropes. Watch out Glynda, she'll be the next me.” Qrow smile with glee.

“Save us all.” was what went through Ozpin and Glynda's minds.

“Hm?” Glynda made a curious noise. “Wait a second, are you telling me you taught a 14-year old how to use a scythe?”

“Actually, I taught her that when she was 12!”

“What?!”

“But I taught her how to build guns when she was 10! She's a natural.”

“WHAT?!”

“I know right? Isn't she a genius?”

“Do you know how dangerous that is? I hope you know what you were doing.”

“Pfft. Of course.”

Glynda sat down.

“I made sure to limit myself to one beer per lesson.”

Glynda nearly missed the chair. At that moment, a roar came from the holographic T.V. that was tuned to a channel broadcasting the Inter-School Tournament. Qrow had changed it earlier so that he could watch Raven's and Yang's progress when he wanted to. The announcer's voices caught their attention.

....“If something like a password was all it took to crack this maze, why would the standing record be 15 minutes and 25 seconds? To hack a maze at this size requires immense talent and familiarity with the line of work. It's not something that can be done at a flip of a switch, yet that's exactly what she did.”....

The three individuals stared at the screen without blinking. As they listened to the announcers, the gears started to turn.

“..Impossible.” Glynda commented.

“So there isn't a doubt of her cheating, huh?” Qrow scratched his chin. “What were the arrangements for distributing the teams?”

Glynda pulled out a Scroll and tapped a few buttons. A list appeared on the screen which she flicked outwards. The list was then displayed on a hologram floating above the table.

“Random selection I believe. Diane Geotal, Student Council President of Myriad School of Combat. Her team consists of famous individuals I recognize except for one boy named Robin Wolfheart.”

“Mmh. I know him. He's the son of a friend of mine. He's got decent talent from what I hear, but he excels at strategy.”

Qrow sighed and murmured to the side.

“I had hoped sending a familiar face to school with Raven would at least make her open up a bit...But no love stories are to be found here..”

“...Ignoring your obsession for gossip, the likelihood that Diane purposefully assembled a rather competent team is high. I shall inform the authorities to halt the match.”

“Just a moment, Glynda.” Ozpin raised his hand to stop Glynda who had stood up.

“What is it, Professor Ozpin?”

“I think we should look at the bigger picture.”

“?..” Glynda sat back down and waited for him to continue. The one who answered was Qrow.

“Like how did she Hack in the first place..”

“.. I see.” she nodded her head, “Passwords and access codes aren't exactly handed out. Do you believe there was a mole?”

“Maybe?” Qrow said uncertain.

“I see, I'll go apprehend those related to the security detail immediately.”

“Woah wait!” Qrow waved an empty beer bottle at her. “Won't that stop the match?”

“And?”

“No way! It's the first time I get to see my cute nieces fighting in an official match.” Qrow pouted.

“This is hardly the time for that. If she cheated, then the entire match is invalidated. Why should we let her place any higher than those who got here with actual effort?”

“But without evidence, you'll just be seen as a hindrance, and ignored.” Qrow retorted with slightly closed eyes..

“Oh? You think they can ignore ME?”

Purple Aura glowed around her. Sweat dripped down Qrow's forehead.

“..Rather, I'm afraid of what happens when they do.” he murmured.

“Hm?”

“Nothing.”

“Glynda,” Ozpin interrupted, “why don't you investigate about who played a role with planning this event?”

“Professor?”

“I'm curious as to how an event designed for a team competition for the Vytal Tournament was suddenly adapted to be used in the Inter-School Tournament. I reckon you might have more success with taking that course of action instead.”

“I see. Right away, sir.”

“And Glynda? Please be discrete about this matter. We don't want to be causing any commotion that would scare off the perpetrators before we have any concrete evidence.”

“Of course.”

After Glynda left the room, Qrow looked at Ozpin with a disgruntled expression.

“..She listens to you quite readily.”

“Trust is important among comrades.”

“...So who's our main suspect?”

“Most likely the generous donator of the one million dollars. I suppose Glynda will eventually track down the money trail of who got what amount. Until then, lets enjoy the tournament.”

“..Say, if you knew it was the Schnee Dust Company, why didn't you tell Glynda?”

“...”

“..Is it so she doesn't interrupt the tournament?”

Ozpin's response was a smile and taking a sip of his coffee, only to be disappointed that there was none left. He reached to pour more into his mug. Qrow gave him a casual thumbs up.

“Now I can freely watch my cute nieces fight freely.”

“Are you sure you should be acting so carefree?”

“What do you mean?”

Qrow noticed Ozpin darting his eyes to the monitor and back through Ozpin's dark spectacles.

“The one whom you refer to as being troublesome seems oddly excited for someone whose goal is to lay low.”

Since they were watching the tournament, they would obviously see the scene where Raven stood out to call Diane's bluff.

“!...You don't think..that she suspects Diane as well?”

Gulp. Gulp

Ozpin was enjoying his cup of coffee.

“For the love of Aura...I just hope she doesn't do anything reckless.”

“You're not going to stop her?” Ozpin stops sipping to speak.

Qrow looks at the screen, then at his liquor, then back at the screen. His decision was swift, and he poured himself another glass of hard liquor.

“Nah, I'll just reprimand her later. Wait, aren't you the one who wanted to watch the tournament anyway?”

Ozpin stares at the screen without answering.

“...”

“...”

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“Okay. Okay. So things didn't go as planned. No problem.”

Diane took a few deep breaths and opened her eyes.

“Lets just assess the situation and act according...”

Ding!

“...ly....”

Announcement:Team at Entry Point 2 has captured the South Orb

Robin, Pyrrha, and Weiss were too afraid speak.

“...The gates have been opened..”

Diane silently scrolled through her holographic security footage. Then, static was heard as the video footage was terminated.

“...Tch. Of all the orbs, they had to take the South one which correlates with our domain. Weiss, you and I will head out to close those gates.”

= ..Huh, she's reacting rather calmly. I thought she would blow her lid or something. =

“Uh, are you ok?”, Robin asked.

“Huh?” She glared at Robin.

“I'm absolutely livid. Since the gates have opened, the situation has regressed to the chaotic state it would have been had our plan not been used. I've wasted so much Aura already. I refuse to leave empty handed.”

= I suppose that is a normal reaction. =

“So what shall we do?” Weiss questioned.

“As I said earlier, I plan to close those gates, or at the very least, I'm going to implant a virus so that the other ones can't open. After that, we will personally reduce the number of participants. Since we'll know where they'll appear, this will give us the advantage. While I'm using Hack, I would appreciate it if you were to give me backup.”

“Got it.”

“Pyrrha and Robin will eliminate the stragglers that have already escaped our deathtrap. A total of twenty fighters seem to have escaped. However, their paths indicate that their destination seem to be our current location.”

“You want us to fight against 20 people?”

Robin didn't know whether to laugh or cry.

“You're not planning to fight fair right? Besides, your situations are unique. Pyrrha has her class, and you have the traps you set up don't you? If you seriously can't beat them, just leave. Our goal is to cut down their numbers anyhow. We'll contact you through the Scroll where to meet up.”

Glyph of Haste

After confirming the battle plan, Diane and Weiss set out. Diane drank an elixir to replenish her Aura she had wasted through manipulating the maze. A green glyph appeared beneath the two of them, increasing their movement speed for an extended duration. This glyph was different from the one of speed since it lasted longer, but provided a weaker effect. Just like that, the two of them dashed away.

With Pyrrha and Robin being the only ones left, they began walking in the opposite direction. As they walked, Robin cautioned her about the various trip wires he had set up. Even though this was set up without anything special, Pyrrha could not helped being impressed with how cleverly hidden some traps were.

“Wow, did you really set up all of this?”

“Yes? Why do you ask?”

“I'm honestly surprised. I didn't expect you to set something so elaborate in such a short amount of time. Even though you suspected Diane of cheating earlier, I feel like something like this is cheating as well.”

“?? What? You think using traps is underhanded?”

“Well, yeah.” Pyrrha said casually. “A tournament is used to determine who is the strongest fighter. Events such as these are just to add diversity. Where is the honesty in using such tactics?”

“Pft. You can't be serious. A fight you just described is no different from an arm wrestle, and even that kind of contest heavily favors the person with the larger physique. If two people were of equal strength, the bigger one wins. Yet even in a fist fight, the way someone fights matters. A prime example would be our bout yesterday.” Robin reminded her.

“Hm. I suppose you're right.” Pyrrha said as she loaded her rifle. “Even though I clearly am stronger than you, you possess much cleaner footwork and strikes. Your experience is clearly different from all the other fighters here. I suppose that's why Diane seems confident with leaving you to deal with so many fighters. Speaking of which, I'm curious. Where did you learn that?”

“My footwork? I studied some martial arts, but I was mainly taught through training in my village.”

“Village? So you're a nomad?”

“Yes. Everyone in my village knows how to do that much. Didn't you learn your footwork in training?”

Pyrrha shook her head.

“No, this is something I learned through observation and intuition. Hardly anyone is taught footwork inside the kingdom. Here, everyone just wants to swing a sword. Rather, the majority of the citizens don't even fight. They have at most trained their eyesight in order to watch events, but the only ones who can truly comprehend our speed are actual fighters and retired veterans.”

This news was a shock to Robin. He had assumed learning how to fight was common sense. To think the majority of citizens in the kingdom don't even know basic footwork.

=.. Actually that makes more sense. No wonder so many people were easily taken care of during the preliminaries. I had thought it was strange these so called Hunters and Huntresses were so bad at fighting on a hill. I see now. The reason she found my logic to use traps as underhanded was because the lifestyle between nomads and citizens differ. =

“In my village, we were taught to use any means necessary to win. Living on the move meant we could be confronted by Grimm at any time.” Robin explained.

“To us, failing to defeat an opponent meant certain death. In a situation where you could live or die, it's foolish to die because you thought something was 'lame', right?”

Pyrrha frowned. She understood Robin's reasoning, but couldn't accept it.

“I suppose...But if you think that way, why did you confront Diane about cheating?”

Robin stopped in his tracks. It was his turn to frown at Pyrrha's reasoning.

“This and that are two different things. Just because I would go to such measures in a life-or-death situation doesn't mean I have no sportsmanship. I might go to desperate measures to win, but I don't break the rules.”

Pyrrha blankly stared. Then, she suddenly had an outburst of laughter.

“Pft..Ha.hahaha! No, you're right. Forgive me for doubting you.”

Robin smiled wryly before starting to walk again.

= That being said, Pyrrha actually thought I would accept Diane's methods for winning huh?.. I guess I am rather fixited on fights like Blake and the others said, but I am different from Diane. She might be obsessed with winning, given how much effort she puts into her plans, but I treasure something much more important than that. Trust.

Even now, I expect myself to lose due to some retarded disqualification for being a faunus. She might want to win at no matter the cost, but by doing so she's just proven that I can never trust someone like her. After all, who would be stupid enough to trust a woman who breaks the rules agreed upon for the sake of her own goal? =

As he was thinking such thoughts, he detected life forms with his Bloodlust, which he had kept active this entire time. It also just so happened they reached a fork in the path.

“They're coming.” Robin said.

Pyrrha grabbed her shield that was on her back.

“Which way?” she asked.

“They're coming from both paths... They won't get here for a while. Actually, do you want to just split up and take each group down by ourselves?”

“Why would we do that?”

“Because you're not familiar with the layout of my traps. If you were to fight with me here, you might end up hurting yourself. Lets split up and take on each group by ourselves. You can take the ones on the left path. There are eight of them. I'll take on the twelve people coming from the right. If I use my traps, I can guarantee I can last long enough for you to beat them and come back to help me. What do you say?”

“Sounds feasible.. Alright! We'll go with your idea.”

“Oh, one more thing.”

Robin threw a pill he took out of his Inventory.

“What's this?” Pyrrha asked.

“An antidote for one of my toxins. You might come back after I release some gas, so swallow this before you go.”

“...Right..Well, I will try to get back as soon as I can! I wish you the best of luck!”

“You as well.”

With that last remark, she dashed into the left pathway towards her enemies. Robin, in turn, pulled out six throwing knives. Three with Red Dust crystals embedded into the middle, while the other had Yellow Dust crystals. Holding three in between his fingers of each hand, Robin stood and waited for his unseen foes while hiding his hands behind his back.

= Well, I don't intend to lose though. If I were to go by Pyrrha's comment, then most of these guys aren't really used to living in the wild.. Well, I'm sure they've at least fought Grimm, but they're inexperienced in the finer details of combat huh...I can take advantage of that.. =

Robin was observing with Bloodlust, thus he was aware that the twelve seemed to be acting together rather than fighting one another. He bent his right arm behind his head as his unsuspecting victims began to make their way to the corner.

Robin flicked his right hand outward twice. The first throw sent one Red knife flying towards the wall. The second flick was used to send the two other Yellow knives after a slight delay. The first blade hit the wall, the collision caused the embedded Red crystal to detonate and explode, causing a small explosion in the area where it hit.

Due to the delay of the second throw as well as the angle the blades were launched, the first explosion sent the other two blades flying in a different directions and toward their assigned targets. Whether it was due to the surprise that their ambush resulted in getting ambushed themselves or that they were unprepared in the first place didn't really matter. The moment the knives embedded into their arms, an electric current ran through their body and rendered their respective limbs useless.

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Robin didn't care about the quantity of the damage. The quality and the purpose of where each strike was placed was all that mattered. The numbers merely confirmed the successful hit. With their plan(?) exposed, the group of fighters ran from their hiding spots in an attempt to overwhelm Robin.

“Morons.”

This resulted in them splendidly triggering the trip wire which Robin had set up around the corner. The wire triggered two things. The first was the dispensers placed strategically on the top of the walls of the maze. These small dispensers carried needles soaked with paralysis poison. He had angled them in such a way that it would be impossible to block completely without a shield that covered all 360 degrees.

There were four people who charged forward first including the two injured fighters. Unfortunately for them, every single one of them got stabbed by at least two needles. According to Robin's estimation, they should be unable to move for about five minutes.

“ 4..”

= Just from what they've done so far, I can tell they only know how to correctly respond in an “fight” but not a “war”. =

The second thing the trip wire did was trigger the Smoke Canisters that were lined up along the wall. Smoke Canister was an item Robin had created to accomplish the same thing a Smoke Bomb could. The only difference was that Smoke Canisters were slower to create the smokescreen, but the smokescreen lasted longer and could be remotely activated. With the four canisters triggering all at once, the path was quickly filled with smoke.

Sneak Step

One of the contestants used a skill that seemed to reduce the noise produced by their feet. The said figure ran through the smoke in an attempt to surprise Robin with a sneak attack with his dagger and gun combo.

Putting aside the fact the person in question had a strange combination of weapons, Sneak Step was like an inferior version of Blake's and Conner's Hide Presence, which cancels all noises and even erases their presence. Although, even if he did use Hide Presence, it was useless against Robin's Bloodlust.

Robin stepped into the smoke to greet him. Given that Robin knew exactly where he was while the other person just planned to jump out of the smoke to surprise him, Robin simply threw a Yellow knife towards the arm holding the gun and the remaining two knives in his left hand into the air. Robin stood ready to receive the student's thrust.

Enhance

Robin increased the amount of Aura in his hands for a brief interval. The individual was surprised to find a knife embedding itself into his left arm and Robin suddenly appearing close enough he could count the hair on Robin's wolf ears. In panic, the boy aimed the barrel at Robin and pulled the trigger. Unfortunately, the electricity from the Yellow knife caused his aim to miss before his arm hung loosely at his side filled with numbness.

“Why you!”

He stepped forward and slashed with his dagger. Robin dodged by leaning left. The boy followed up with a quick horizontal swing. Robin ducked beneath and stepped back slightly. This resulted in him being positioned awkwardly on purpose. The enemy took the bait and thrusted his dagger into Robin's face. Instead of jumping back, Robin clapped his hands together in front of him.

His right palm hit the wrist of the boy's arm while his left hand hit the back side of the hand that held the dagger. This caused the boy's hand to suddenly snap inward. Due to the anatomy of a human body, the grip that tightly held the blade loosened slightly. This slight loosening of the grip caused the blade to fly out of the boy's hand due to the force of Robin's slap.

“Wha-”

Robin wasn't done. He gripped the boy's right hand with his own left hand and twisted upward, forcefully straightening the other person's arm. Robin punched hard into the elbow using his right fist. The unnatural bending and loud snap confirmed that Robin had indeed broken the boy's arm.

-315

“Aaaaaaargh!”

= ..5.. =

“Mark!”

The teammates of the person called Mark approached within the smoke. Two were equipped with automatic machine guns while the third, tanned individual had what seemed to be gauntlets with circular razor blades attached on top. The tanned boy punched his fists outward. A mechanism in his gauntlets shot out the razor blades toward Robin.

In response, Robin simply grabbed the clothing of the boy whose arm he had just broken, and he lifted his body in front of the projectiles. The two blades embedded into his back, causing the boy to scream in pain again. The tanned boy who had shot the blades in the first place gasped with regret.

“Wha- You devil!”

Robin ignored his cries and pushed two buttons that was on a remote he had worn like a watch. He tossed the person he was holding at the tanned boy who charged at him while ignoring the other two people who were aiming their weapons at him. The reason was because the two Red knives Robin had thrown into the air had just landed in front of them. The following explosion disrupted their aim and knocked them backwards. At the same time, the tanned boy caught his teammate in worry of his health.

Tick...Tick...Tick...

The tanned boy began hearing a strange ticking noise. It was only after looking at the body of his teammate that he realized one step too late that Robin had slipped a bomb to the inside of the clothing. The explosion that followed sent knocked both people out, evident by their blue shields popping.

Boom!

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= ..6.. =

“What a savage you are.”

A voice was heard from the direction where the smokescreen should've been. Apparently, someone had somehow dispersed it using someone's semblance to manipulate the wind. The voice came from the boy named Cardin. Robin also recognized the other two next to him as Jaune and Dave.

= ..2 and 3 more makes 11.. =

“Using sneaky methods like this suits an animal such as yourself. Can't even fight with real weapons?”

“You talk big for a guy who seems to have convinced 10 other people to gang up on a single person.”

= Why are you even talking at this point? We're in the middle of a fight. =

Robin pretended to be oblivious, and allowed the other two teammates of Mark and the tanned boy to stand up. He took a pill out of the Inventory and swallowed it.

“You're just standing there and letting us get ready to fight you. Now that all your traps are triggered, you really think you can fight all 5 of us at the same time?”

= I see. So they had an alliance because they thought that increasing their numbers guaranteed a few would get past the traps we had set up at our base?... Are they stupid? =

“I don't know. After all, I have never fought you before. However, before we do this, I want to ask you a question. If you're so convinced all my tricks have been used, then can you explain what purpose did those canisters fullfilled?”

Robin pointed to all the canisters attached to the wall.

“Did you become so stupid you forgot the details about your own trap or something? Of course it made the smokescreen earlier.”

= Wow. Just by looking at their facial expressions, I can tell they all think the same thing..no wait. The Jaune guy looks worried at least. Everyone else is just standing there looking confident and letting Cardin finish his conversation. =

“Sigh...I'll at the very least enlighten you. You've made three mistakes. Your first mistake was to try to trigger everything just so the few that's left survives to beat me. Since you don't even know to what extent I've planned things out or even what kind of traps I use, you don't even know for sure if your numbers was enough.

Your second mistake was approaching from one side. Although you split your forces to come through two paths, you ultimately only came from one direction. Since you didn't even have a large number of people, your 'strategy' lead to over half your force being wiped out. To begin with- ”

“Is there no end to your jibber-jabber?”

Cardin began scratching the inside of his ear.

“This doesn't change the fact you can't win against all of us. I had wanted to hear your desperate plea for help, but I've changed my mind.”

Shield Bash

“I'm going t-eniEve!”

Pyrrha came dashing from behind, her collision with Cardin's back caused him to bend backward and yell nonsense mid-sentence. Robin sidestepped to avoid the body that flew past him.

“I'm back.” Pyrrha smiled.

“Wasn't that a bit too fast?” Robin questioned.

“I was worried, so I rushed over here.”

“Hey!”

The mess that was Cardin, grabbed his mace that hung on his back and began to stand up.

“That does it! I'm gonna—Oof!”

However, he just felled back down to the ground. He could be seen pitifully struggling just to get his face off the ground, but he wasn't the only one. At the same time, all the other contestants' body began to feel numb. Their weapons fell to the floor as their grip slackened. It became difficult just to stay standing.

“What's going on?” Pyrrha looked at Robin with an eyebrow raised.

“My gas is finishing things up. I gotta thank you though Pyrrha. Talking to you made me confident my trap would work.”

“W-what did you do to me?!”

= He can still talk? =

“Just my poison gas taking affect. I mixed a special toxin in my smokescreen that paralyzes whoever breathes it in.”

“Wh-where in the world could you-gag!”

Robin took a canister and stuffed it into Cardin's mouth. After pressing the button, Red gas started leaking from the top of the canister.

“Made it myself. I based it off the poison of Deathstalkers and scorpions. Pretty proud of it actually. I got the idea after getting stabbed by one of their tails. This leads me to the third mistake you made. Stop talking so much. Finish your conversation after you win. I only started talking because I wanted to wait until the poison started to take effect. Well, if you tried to fight me instead of talking, it would only circulate the poison faster anyway.”

Robin stood up and motioned for Pyrrha to follow him. As he passed by the collapsed fighters, he picked up the gun of the boy named Mark and pulled on the chamber. Cardin's body couldn't be seen anymore since the area was dyed red as if there was a mist of blood, yet Robin still aimed the barrel accurately at the canister in Cardin's mouth. At this point, Cardin couldn't spit out the canister even if he wanted to.

“Later.”

Bang

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Author's notes: Hi, so I'm pumped with Season 3 of RWBY starting. Things I want to mention. According to the series, Raven Branwen is now confirmed to be Yang's mom, and not her sister, and apparently Qrow's last name is Branwen and is the brother of Raven, not Taiyang. >.> Due to the reveal of Season 3, some details in this series is now noncanon, BUT I will not change my story! This was an original story anyway. Of course, I will try to keep things as close to the real thing as possible, but I just wanted to inform you all about what will become of this story. Thus, I want to warn you. Should any of you go to watch RWBY, please be aware some facts don't match. Thanks for reading!