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

Chapter 60: Round Two

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+34 Exp.

+29 Exp.

…

+240 Exp. Because you defeated your rival at full strength and on her turf, your experience is doubled. Thanks to your class, you've identified the techniques Essence of Darkness and Essence of Darkness: Item Creation. However, because of race restrictions, you are unable to use these skills. Instead, the inferior technique, Dust Creation, was acquired. Because you are already adept at Aura manipulation, you are able to learn this skill immediately.

Dust Creation[tr]

[tr]Thanks to your class, you've derived a fundamental skill required for a superior technique that normally isn't possible. By using this skill, you can now give physical form to your Aura by converting it into Dust. The Aura you expend recovers normally, and the Dust you create continues to exists. Amount of Aura required depends on the amount of Dust you want to create.

Unique Effect: Because you are adept at Aura manipulation, you can reverse the process and reabsorb the Dust back in the form of Aura. This is only possible with the Dust you created from this skill.

Unique Effect: Because of your class, the type of Dust you grasp the fundamentals of all Dust. Thus, you can create all forms of Dust possible for your race.

Cost: --- Aura

Robin used two fingers to rub his temple. He looked at the screen in front of him and then looked away. He was unsure if he was actually awake. The information that popped up gave him a headache.

= She's not human? The info from the window implies that.. I mean, I've known her this long, yet I never knew she was a faunus. There were no signs..Actually, why didn't I ever think of that? She was actually tolerating me. I could've sworn she was human though... Maybe she's of the raven species? I don't see any feathers though. =

Robin grinned at the image of Raven flapping a pair of wings with black feathers rather than arms. It only looked funnier because the individual was a cold person.

= ...But Dust Creation....Really? That goes against all common sense. That's like meeting someone who can generate his own water to drink. That isn't how the world works, and to top it all off, I suddenly can do this too.. =

As he felt his common sense being tested, he recalled the fight earlier. In the darkness, two people stood above a floor of spikes, accurately throwing knives against one another. It was pure coincidence that both Robin and Raven decided to act at the same time.

If Robin had waited a moment more before grabbing an elixir to restore his Aura, Raven would have already created her weapon and won. On the other hand, if Raven had more patience, she would have reacted more appropriately. Perhaps she could've thrown a knife through a portal to interrupt Robin. Even if Robin had seen it coming, he would have a hand occupied in his Inventory, resulting in his lost. In the end, Raven's impatience lead to her defeat by Robin's recently acquired skill, Piercing Bullets, and absurd Bloodlust.

On a side note, the individual in question was properly screwed into the ground with some portable cuffs Robin taken out of his Inventory. Because Robin had hit her pressure points in the brawl earlier, she couldn't resist during the process. That was the reason he was able to nonchalantly browse the messages while sipping on an elixir.

“How long do you plan to stare at me?” Raven questioned.

“I don't know. You're pretty interesting to look at, in my opinion.”

“Pervert. Do you like staring at women laid on her back, chained down, and unable to resist or something?”

“That was oddly specific, and not really.”

“Hmph. I have something to say, so release me. I'll properly leave the competition, so don't worry about me suddenly attacking you.”

“You know I'm the one who makes that call right?”

Raven stared at him with unamused eyes. Robin stopped his teasing and unlocked her. Raven immediately took out an elixir. Robin grabbed her hand with his Aura covering his body. Between Raven who had no Aura and himself who recovered already, it was easy to determine who would beat who.

“Hey now, I wanted to see you take out the North Orb, not an elixir.”

“Yes, but the things I want to talk to you about is something I don't want foreign ears to hear.” she whispered.

“If it really bothers you, take it.”

She tossed him the orb which she withdrew from her Inventory. While Robin was confiming if it was genuine, Raven chugged on her elixir.

“Are you aware that Diane is cheating?” Raven asked in a hushed voice.

“Yeah..”

“And you didn't stop her?”

“I didn't have the evidence. Reporting her wouldn't do any good.”

“Hmph. Excuses. Not only did you not stop her, you actually kept silent and profited from her actions. I had a better opinion of you, but I guess I was wrong.”

= She says she wants to talk, and then begins to insult me. =

“Now listen here.”

Robin stepped closer to Raven, and he looked her in the eyes filled with irritation. She put a finger to her mouth, signaling him to keep his voice down.

“The wall have ears,” she said.

“..I only realized she was cheating less than 30 minutes ago. She had cleverly convinced us she wasn't a cheater, so I had not doubted her until I thought about it more. Also, I would rather try my best during the round, and then report her after the round is over. That way, even if my entire group gets disqualified, I still get the experience from defeating all the Hunters and Huntresses.”

Raven blinked.

“So you would suck her dry of the benefits and then throw her away?”

“You telling me you wouldn't if you only started to suspect her in the middle of the round?”

“I won't deny that..”

Robin did not care for the person who tricked him, and Raven did not care for villains regardless. Thus, they would both have no guilt for taking advantage of Diane.

“So what will you do now?” Robin questioned.

“Well I WAS planning to force her to be eliminated from the round as soon as possible after beating the rest of your team. Then I was going to get the officials to apprehend her as soon as possible, but I suppose catching her will have to wait until after the match concludes. Our spar served as a good warm-up at the very least.”

It was Robin's turn to scoff.

“What?” she asked.

“Oh please, you lost after throwing everything at me. Don't even try to brush it off as a sparring match.”

“Don't get cocky.” Raven retorted. “You won because I let my guard down. If I had waited a single second more, I could've taken you down. You were just lucky.”

= She also seems to have came to the same conclusion. How sharp. =

Despite that, Robin felt her behavior was undoubtedly cute. Why? After reading the message window, Robin was certain Raven had gone all out that match. Apparently, she was a sore loser.

“Yeah ok. You talk as if all you care about is stopping criminals, but despite all that you sure seemed to be having fun back there.”

“?..What are you talking about?”

“What am I talking about? Weren't you the one smiling in the middle of our fight?”

Raven raised an eyebrow and stared at him as if he lost his mind. She was filled with feelings of envy, hatred, and a sense of duty. Why would she be smiling?

“You must have been hallucinating.”

“I'm perfectly sane thank you very much.”

“Debatable.”

“Hey now. I'm not the one putting on a mask and acting as a superhero.”

Robin casually dropped a bomb that he knew about her identity.

“So you did know it was me. Since when?”

“Since I saw you. By the way, that wouldn't happen to be the reason why you never used that portal ability elsewhere would it?”

“It is. I don't need people to make the connection that I am the masked person, so I hide it.”

Raven nodded her head. Thankfully, Robin wasn't a dull person, so he realized her goal for conversing with him. The conversation about her secret finished without unnecessary explanations. Robin smiled wryly at her. Her image as the Grimm Reaper reminded him of a certain superhero who dressed up like a spider. Although in Remnant, he would just be considered to be a spider faunus.

“What?”

“Huh? Oh nothing. Nothing.”

Despite Robin being the only outsider Raven had confirmed to know about her secret, she doubted he was the one who leaked it to her enemies, otherwise he would not have allowed her to live after beating her.

“It goes without saying, but don't tell anyone about my semblance.”

“Yeah, yeah. Your secret is safe with me.”

Looking at his sly grin, Raven misinterpreted it as him being happy because of his lucky(?) win. Seeing that smile caused a vein to bulge on her forehead. Now that their conversation was finished, she took the initiative to end this meeting.

“Hmph. Then leave.”

Without hesitation, Raven threw a light grenade at the ground and caused a light to blind both Robin and the security cameras from capturing video footage of her semblance. She then kicked Robin in the stomach, so that he fell into a portal she conveniently opened behind him.

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

In the meantime, Pyrrha was sitting idly at the same location where Raven kidnapped Robin. The bodies of the people who were defeated by Robin sank slowly into the ground, but before they did Pyrrha was able to see the wounds inflicted on them through the transparent blue shield. Some were riddled with needles soaked in poison. Others with daggers stabbed into their limbs, and the majority of them had burnt skin from the explosion.

This was supposed to be a competition set with guidelines, but this scene looked like the aftermath of a battle in a war. Her imagination started running a different scene in her head. Robin was on her side now, but what if she was one of those people who ran into those traps? She could not help but shiver at what kind of traps he would have had for her.

In particular, she wasn't really worried about having lasting scars if it ever came to that. After all, modern medical treatment would heal all those wounds, given enough time in the hospital. Not to mention she had the shield that would activate if it seemed anything would threaten her life. Nevertheless, she didn't want to go up against such brutality, even if it was from someone as handsome as him.

Pah.

Speaking of the devil, Robin dropped out of the sky and landed face first into the pavement. Thankfully, his training allowed him to stop in time before getting any damage to his nose.

“Jeez what a violent woman.” Robin grumbled. “That was completely uncalled for-- oh hi Pyrrha.”

“Hello, angel. How was heaven?” she asked.

“Very funny.”

He pulled out the North Orb.

“Shall we group up with the others?”

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

Diane was confused. She and Weiss traveled to the gate as planned only to find a group of fighters waiting for them. In her research for potential enemies, many were deemed to be non-threats. However, she made a crucial mistake. She would never have imagined that the worthless group of fools that originally should be no threat had assembled as an alliance to take out her group.

The instigator behind this was Raven and Cardin of course. They managed to convince the masses who were afraid of Diane's power to rise together and overthrow her. The result was Diane and Weiss also retreating in different directions in an attempt to lower the number of chasing individuals. To make things worst, she could not figure out who was responsible for opening the gate in the first place.

After separating from Weiss, Diane contacted her original teammates through her Scroll. They were inside the walls at the time in order to monitor any changes that were to occur due to extraneous factors. However, none of the three caught Raven in the middle of her act since she cleverly snatched the orb during the chaos. As for how they never realized about the existence of the hidden coalition, this alliance was brought forth behind Diane's back while she was planning with her team yesterday. Since none of the Student Council members were a part of Raven's team, they naturally had no idea.

Diane's escape came to a stop as she hit a dead end in the path. The fighters rushed at her, optimistic of their victory. One boy swung down his great-sword clad in flames at her skull. At that moment, chains of steel wrapped around his arms. The spikes on each link stabbed into his arm, causing his intense pain.

-25

Zaborg

Blue lightning then rushed along the chain and immediately electrocuting him.

-705

With the activation of her semblance, Diane converted her Aura into electricity and discharged it out of her body. She could manipulate the electricity in different ways, but the most raw form was through simple discharge. With a flick of her wrist, she threw the boy's body flying to the side. This was her weapon. They were two chain whips with pointed daggers at the end of each chain. Along the chain were spikes meant to dig into her opponent's body.

The fighters did not let that stop them. With their advantage in numbers and Diane's lack of escape route, they continued to assault her with the hopes of defeating her. Even if they were not as experienced, they weren't stupid. Now that they saw her weapon, they were being especially careful not to get hit by them. They couldn't land any hits, but she was constantly pressured back further and further.

It was a shame they never noticed what was behind Diane's back. The path she lead them in was precisely toward one of the traps set up in the maze. It was a very simple trap. A giant tank of water meant to flood the path, disrupting whatever battle that was taking place, and ruining equipment. Diane stepped on a tile on the floor, causing the wall behind her to separate. Immediately, a giant wave of water rushed out of the tank sweeping away all the Hunters and Huntresses.

After the water level settled, each individual stood up soaked. It was then that they saw Diane standing there smiling. She had stabbed her whips into the walls and used them as an anchor to stop her from moving. Everyone was wet and the entire group was linked with the water that was on the ground.

Discharge

-1205

-1355

-1115

...

-1705

Not too long after she destroyed the plebeians, windows began popping up in front of her.

Ding!

Announcement:Team at Entry Point 9 has captured the North Orb.

Participants:

Diane Geotal (Lvl 73)

Pyrrha Nikos (Lvl 72)

Weiss Schnee (Lvl 71)

Robin Wolfheart (Lvl 65)

Ding!

Announcement:The number of participants has been reduced to appropriate levels. Thus, the round will now automatically end. The teams that will move on depending on the remaining participants.

Participants:

(North)

Diane Geotal (Lvl 73)

Pyrrha Nikos (Lvl 72)

Weiss Schnee (Lvl 71)

Robin Wolfheart (Lvl 65)

(South)(by default)

Blake Belladonna (Lvl 62)

Sun Wukong (Lvl 59)

Velvet Scarlatina (Lvl 67)

Gaea Bronzewing (Lvl 70)

(East)(by default)

Yatsuhashi Daichi (Lvl 68)

Adam Taurus (Lvl 65)

Ted Turncoat (Lvl 73)

Yang Xiao Long (Lvl 66)

(West)(by default)

Nora Valkyrie (Lvl 59)

Conner Dinkleberg (Lvl 61)

Neptune Vasilias (Lvl 58)

Fox Alistair (Lvl 65)

Beep!

A sound rang on her Scroll. Diane picked up the receiver and heard Liela's voice.

“I'm sorry Diane... We lost.”

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

With the first round ending, the maze sunk into the floor and the stage returned to its flat stage-like appearance. The remaining combatants gathered up in the center, and they found themselves showered with applause from the audience.

“Amazing!”

A voice boomed out the speakers. One of the announcers, Mina, could be seen pumping her fists excitedly in the holographic screen.

“Such brutality! Such power! Every fighter, whether they're here or in the medical room, should be proud of their efforts! We've witness a lot of talents here today!”

“That's right,” the person who agreed with her was the other announcer, Geoff.

“As a reward for your display in prowess, every person here will be receiving a free batch of elixirs!”

Robin felt no impact due to the acquiring the potions. After all, he was kinda rich by a lucky coincidence. Of course, he would still accept the free gifts.

“Now then, lets get on wit-”

Enhance

“STOP!”

A female's voice rang loud and clear. The entire stadium went silent as a blonde middle-aged woman stepped out the gates and onto the stage. In her hand, she held a riding crop that was swinging by her side as she walked in her high heels. Her purple cape flowed elegantly as she pushed up her glasses before speaking.

“Diane Geotal. You are under the suspicion of cheating and are hereby disqualified from the competition until further notice.”

Gasps could be heard. Diane was cheating? Thinking about it made sense, but how did she do it?

= So the officials noticed..but... =

“Excuse me Professor,” Diane spoke, “I am no rule breaker. I merely hacked into the system using my semblance, Zaborg, and some of my skills. Since I did it after the timer started, it shouldn't be against the rules right?”

Glynda crossed her arms and maintained a stern expression.

“Of course, but in order for you to hack into the system that quickly, you would require passwords and access codes that must have come from an outside source. Outside help PRIOR to the competition is naturally against the rules.”

Diane began to sweat.

“But Professor, I did no such thing. If you would like, I can give an explanation about my abilities.”

“If you want to, then come with me. Until we confirm you are actually innocent, you will be removed from the competition. If you really are a cheater, then we cannot allow you to mess with the results any further.”

No matter what, this professor was determined to remove her from the stage. This meant Diane would not make it to the finals regardless of what the result of the investigation was. By the time it would end, she would not be eligible to become the final victor.

“But..”

“I will not take any excuses young lady.”

“...If I were to leave now, I will mostly likely not be eligible to win. Can we make a bet instead? If I can withstand three of your attacks, I get to stay and you pull me out if you really find proof of me lying. If I cannot hold out, then I'll come peacefully.”

It had rapidly approached this point where she had to make such a request. Of course, this was with her knowing who she was up against. Murmurs could be heard throughout the crowd. There was no reason for the official to accept such a request.

“Fine. Activate your Aura. I don't wish to cripple you.”

= Oh? This will be interesting. Knowing how cautious Diane is, she most likely knows how strong this person was. She probably has thought of some ways to deal with such a situation. Looks like Diane will walk away free. =

Enhance

Blue Aura surrounded Diane's body, and she immediately went into a defensive stance. Diane placed one hand out in front of her as if she was catching something and the other behind her head to protect it. To Robin's surprise, he saw Diane was clearly sweating. This was a clear sign of nervousness he never saw before. She had always been surprised, but never nervous or fearful.

Telekinesis

Glynda's semblance activated, and she flicked her riding crop up and down. Diane's body flew into the sky to match its movement. The force was so great, she couldn't even maintain the defensive position she had set up. Immediately after rising, she slammed into the ground. Once.

Bam!

Twice.

Bam!

Three times.

Bam!

The exchange took no longer than an instance, and Diane's body moved like a rag doll. Robin's mouth was hanging wide open. Diane did not get up because she had lost consciousness after the second impact.

“Wh-who is this lady?!” Robin exclaimed in a hushed voice. “THAT Diane was defeated in an instant!”

“You don't know her?” Pyrrha whispered. “That's Glynda Goodwitch. She's a professor at Beacon Academy.”

= She's a teacher! What the hell! If that's how strong people are at Beacon, what is the use of a combat school?! =

Glynda did not waste a moment more. She simply walked away with Diane's limp body floating behind her.

“U-Um. Excuse me?” Mina spoke out softly into the microphone in fear of Glynda.

Glynda turned and stared.

“If she is removed from the game, what do we do about the competition?”

“The only one we want to question at the moment is Diane. The other three will be dealt with later.”

Gulp.

“For now, they may continue without any worries. Lets see, since they were on the same team, we should enforce a handicap to even it out the advantage they had before. For Round 2, all members of Diane's team must participate without their weapons. After that, they can fight normally. That should do for now.”

With that, Glynda walked out of the stadium. The roar of the crowd filled the background as the competition began anew.

“And there you have it ladies and gentlemen. The fight will go on! Since Diane can no longer continue, according to the rules, the last person who lasted before getting disqualified in Round 1 will participate in Round 2! And the lucky person is...... Simon Helix! (Lvl 67) Come on down!”

Simon stepped out of the medical room and rushed over fully healed and ready to fight. A screen popped up above all the participants to see. The pictures of the competitors began scrolling through like a slot machine as it began randomizing who would begin first.

Ding!

Robin S. WolfheartvsSun Wukong

The fighters cleared the field, leaving only Robin and Sun standing and staring one another down. Sun immediately threw his staff off the stage. Robin raised his eyebrows.

“Since you cannot use your weapons, I will not either.”

“You don't need to..”

= Even if we could both fight with weapons, mine is broken. Thanks Raven. =

Sun shook his head and smacked his chest with his fist.

“No, I DO have to. Because with this match I am aiming to win Blake's heart.”

Robin was surprised.

= Why did he become so adamant on beating me? Oh well. Works out for me. =

“Fine, I guess it's time to show you once and for all just who she belongs to.”

Obviously their voices were heard by everyone watching. The crowd when wild, wolf whistles were heard, and Blake cupped her face in her hands in embarrassment.

Yang Xiao Long whistled at the two boys in the battlefield.

“Whoever this Blake girl is, she sure is lucky. Two boys fighting with their fists over me would be a dream come true.”

The reason for Sun's decision went back to his earlier conversation with Blake. She described his personality and traits with religious fervor almost, and ultimately was rejected. How could Sun possible just stand there and say “ok” after such a rejection. He just needs to prove to Blake he was the better man. Then obviously she would fall for him instead.

The situation on the stage progressed quickly, thus the announcers missed the timing to announce the event they were competing in. They awkwardly looked at each other.

“Mina, you do it.”

“No way, I talked more than enough. You say it, Geoff.”

“Nuh uh. I'm the oldest one here. If we go by age, Perry should do it.”

“Yeah Perry, you do it. You don't talk much anyway.”

Their mumbling gradually got the attention of all of the people present. Robin and Sun stared at them while wondering what was taking so long. Perry sighed in resentment.

“And now we will announce the event which will be in Round 2!”

======Oh yeah. ====== was the entire group's thoughts.

Sun started stretching out his muscles. He barely fought in Round 1, so he was raring to go. Robin began reviewing what information he had on Sun. On both sides, this was a fight they could not lose.

“The event will be: Rock, Paper, Scissors!!”

….The entire population shifted their gaze to the announcers. Only Raven, who was staring at the screen from the medical room, laughed at Robin's current situation.

-Robin S. Wolfheart-Race:Faunus (Wolf)*Class:MercenaryLevel:65Experience:605/650Semblance:Bloodlust (Evolved)

Health:1520/1520Aura:2100/2100

Strength:390Dexterity:400Agility:285Endurance:295Vitality:411

Inventory57/200

MercenaryYour Aura has given insight to your true nature as a person. Thanks to your past experiences, you tend to doubt others and closely examine their purpose for getting close to you. Thanks to this, the only things you can trust is money and a few people whom you know very well. As a mercenary, you enjoy using all forms of weapons and can grasp how to use them very quickly and efficiently. This results in extra bonuses depending on the weapon. Furthermore, you are able to learn general skills of any kind.

Current Bonuses: (+10 Active) Martial Arts Master, (+10 Active) Sword Mastery, (+14 Inactive) Dual Sword Mastery, (+16 Inactive) Axe Mastery, (+10) Sharpshooter, (+10) Knife Juggler, (+10% Exp) Rivals Forever, (+10% Active) Lone Wolf

Current Skills: Identify, Enhance, Detect, Lockpick, Helmsplitter, Aura Sword, Defuse, Hack, Aura Limbs, Aura Shield, Disguise, Piercing Bullets, Dust Creation

Author's Notes: I think I might add the status plate thing at the end of the chapter every time there's a change. The only time I will do this will be when there's a new skill I think. Also, below is the list of how many people were defeated by the groups. The total number adds up to 64.

Total Enemies Defeated:

Diane: 8

Weiss: 4

Pyrrha: 8

Robin: 12

Blake: 1

Velvet: 2

Sun: 0

Gaea: 1

Yatsuhashi: 1

Adam: 2

Ted: 0

Yang: 2

Nora: 1

Conner: 2

Neptune: 0

Fox: 1

Extra characters that were knocked out by extra characters: 3