Saturday, the 18th of July, 79AGW.

Amphitheatre, Beacon.

“Can’t you just tell us?” Lux complained.

Lima shook his head as he stepped over the threshold and into the Amphitheatre.

“Absolutely not,” Lima declared, “This is retaliation for not telling us about the journal.”

“Then why am I also getting punished?” Claire said, rolling her eyes. “I suffered through that with you—if you recall.”

“Sacrifices must be made,” Lima hedged, ducking forward a bit to avoid her attempt at a grab. “We’re here!”

The stands couldn’t be considered packed by any stretch of the imagination; the hour too early and the fact that it was the last day before the holidays both contributed to some degree. Three full teams were present, and Jaune seemed visibly nervous, standing beside Pyrrha and Yang—but there was no sign of the special guest he’d invited to act as their referee.

“You guys too?” Ruby said in surprise. “How many people did you invite, Jaune?”

“That’s pretty much it,” Jaune admitted, “Unless Cardin changes his mind about coming.”

“You invited them? That could have been interesting,” Ren said, rubbing a knuckle against his eye. “Dove seems like the kind of person who would enjoy this.”

“You already told them what’s going on?” Lima said, pouting. “I had this amazing speech about how blessed they all were for being graced with my presence.”

“Do not worry, Lima,” Pyrrha said, smiling. “I am certain we are all feeling quite blessed.”

“Uhuh,” Blake said dryly.

“You’re saying the right words,” Lima said, squinting at them both. “But nobody’s thrown a single flower at me since I arrived—where’s the adoration and respect?”

“Oh,” Yang said, clapping a fist onto her palm in feigned surprise. “Were we supposed to bring that with us?”

“My disappointment is vast,” Lima sighed, “Whatever—Jaune, where are we at?”

Jaune wilted under the sudden attention but managed to rally after a moment.

“I told them you were holding a friendly competition,” Jaune said, tapping a finger against his armour. “No weapons, only armour.”

That pretty much summed it up without giving too much away; it was also something he’d noticed upon arriving—all of them were wearing their combat gear, but their weapons were nowhere in sight.

“Perfect,” Lima nodded, “Gather round my friends—I seek to address you, and I dare not strain my delicate voice.”

“Nails on a chalkboard is a far cry from delicate,” Weiss said pointedly, crossing her arms. “Why are we here?”

“Rude,” Lima huffed before removing his scroll from his pocket. “As Jaune said before, we are here to participate in a friendly competition before we all disappear for the holidays.”

Lima dragged the contacts for each of the people who had shown up into a group using the Combat Scenario software Goodwitch had been using since the start of the year. A ding chimed from each of their scrolls in return, and after a moment, everyone had their own in hand.

“You’ve probably already guessed from Jaune’s instructions, but the rules are simple,” Lima said, quickly setting up a bracket format. “No use of Semblance or weapons are permitted, and use of either is grounds for immediate disqualification.”

Rather than leave the pairs up to the randomisation software, and run the risk of eliminating someone too early, he sorted each of the participants into the order he’d come up with in advance.

“Standard Aura depletion and out-of-bounds rules apply,” Lima said, keeping his voice level. “The duels are completely random, and I absolutely did not pick the fights that would be the most amusing for me personally.”

Lima stepped down towards the edge of the stands, putting him between everyone and the stage, and then published the tournament brackets—resulting in another round of simultaneous chimes as each of them received it. Jaune recognised the cue that both of them had discussed during their final training session.

“Wait a minute,” Jaune said, staring down at his scroll in feigned horror. “I have to fight you in the first wave?”

“Finally!” Lux said gleefully.

“I’m fighting Teak?” Ruby said curiously.

“Lima,” Claire said, amused, “There’s no way this is random.”

“Completely random brackets aside,” Lima said cheerfully, “Fight hard, but try not to take it to heart if you lose—I’m looking at you, Jaune.”

“Right,” Jaune said, slumping.

A familiar face stepped into the room, looking down at the group from behind her glasses, a single eyebrow raised high—Lima raised a hand to quieten everyone down.

“There’s one more thing to think about before we get down to the nitty-gritty,” Lima said, raising a hand to get them to focus on him. “Please welcome our surprise guest and the only real choice to oversee our impromptu tournament—the esteemed Professor Goodwitch.”

Even Jaune looked surprised at the declaration of his last-minute addition to the tournament.

“Professor!” Weiss said in alarm. “I didn’t think—Lima, you should have mentioned this before.”

“I must admit,” Goodwitch said, descending the stairs. “I didn’t expect so many of you to be awake and engaged at this hour—perhaps I should consider conducting some early morning training sessions in the future.”

Weiss looked pretty excited at the idea, but Lima saw a future in which more of his future Saturdays were stolen away from him.

“Something to consider deeply at another time,” Lima said hastily, moving on before it crystalised into reality. “I think I’ve covered just about everything—there’s no real prize for winning unless anyone has a suggestion?”

“There’s only one winner, right?” Ruby said, rubbing her hands together.

“One victor,” Lima confirmed, “And a bunch of losing losers who lost.”

“We could have everyone owe the winner one favour?” Yang said, tapping a finger against her chin. “Something small?”

“I’m going to make you all buy me pancakes for every meal,” Nora said, holding her fist up in the air. “I’ll never eat vegetables again.”

“I don’t think that’s a very healthy diet, Ms, Valkryie,” Goodwitch said, voice dry.

Nora just grinned.

“All in favour? ” Lima said, polling the group. “Everyone owes a small favour to the winner?”

There was a general round of agreements, and he nodded at the decision.

“It’s in your hands now, Goodwitch,” Lima said, handing over his scroll to the Professor. “May your reign be long and goodly.”

“We shall see,” Goodwitch said, before sending the first bracket up to the monitor hanging above the Amphitheatre, “The first round of the Going Away Tournament—Lux Fulbright vs. Pyrrha Nikos.”

Pyrrha was left to follow in Lux’s wake as she jumped from the stands into the pit.

“An interesting first round,” Goodwitch noted, raising an eyebrow. “How were the brackets decided?”

“Completely random,” Lima lied, running a hand through his hair.

There were more than a few suspicious looks thrown his way, but he did his best to ignore them—they couldn’t truly know the extent of his machinations. Lux made it to the stage first and began a quick warm-up routine.

“Lux seems excited,” Yang said, amused.

“She’s wanted a rematch since last time,” Claire said, dropping down in the chair beside her. “I wonder how she’s going to do without being able to use her semblance.”

Goodwitch glanced over at the comment before turning to Lima.

“I assumed that it was an unarmed tournament given that none of you brought weapons with you,” Goodwitch said, scanning the group again. “Is there a ruling against the use of Semblances, as well?

“Yep,” Lima said, folding his arms behind his head. “If anyone uses their semblance, they get disqualified.”

“Ms Xiao Long,” Goodwitch said, studying her over her glasses. “Will you be able to participate given those rules?”

Lima blinked, having not considered that Yang’s semblance was likely passive in nature—he wasn’t sure she could actually turn it off.

“I think so,” Yang said, waving her hand around, “If it does end up activating, I’m cool with surrendering.”

“How long does it take to drain away?” Lima wondered.

“A few minutes?” Yang hedged.

“We may end up pausing the match if it does occur,” Goodwitch hummed before clearing her throat. “Are both of you ready? Begin.”

Unlike their previous battle, Lux was the first to move, shooting forward and closing the distance towards them while Pyrrha held her ground. Lux started with a flying knee that missed as Pyrrha slipped to the side. Lux wrenched herself back around in time to meet Pyrrha’s assault, the motion far less smooth than Lima was used to seeing—without access to her semblance, she couldn’t add weight to her feet in order to make sharp stops.

Still, she weathered the attack without flinching, stepping into Pyrrha’s punches and attempting to tackle her. Pyrrha slammed a knee upwards, crashing into Lux’s hasty guard and sending her back to an upright position—and that seemed to set the pace of the fight.

Lux’s elaborate flourishes and rotational attacks with her glaive simply didn’t translate well to unarmed combat. Instead, she sought to overwhelm her opponent with force and fury—something which would have been enough to take down the majority of the other fighters present but not nearly enough to shake The Invincible Girl.

Pyrrha’s absurd pace was present with or without her arsenal of weaponry, punches, kicks and counters flowing into one another in an endless storm of practised movements—she wasn’t perfect by any stretch, and comparing her side by side against her weapon technique was enough to make that clear.

There were none of the changes in distance granted by her sword-to-javelin transition present in her unarmed attacks, and without her shield, her defence was a magnitude lesser. There was far more repetition in her combinations as well, and the angle of attack she could manage while retaining enough force in her strikes was limited in comparison. Lux picked up on it as the fight continued and attempted to break her pace by suddenly stepping forward again—Lux landed a cross and then a glancing uppercut before Pyrrha suddenly shifted, stepping outside of the third hit and smashing a leg into the top of Lux’s calf. Lux went down to her knee from the hit, and the monitor above showed her aura drop beneath the threshold.

“Winner; Pyrrha Nikos,” The intercom declared, “Aura Depletion.”

Nora shot to her feet with her hands cupped around her mouth, a loud cheer ringing out as the rest of the group joined in. Pyrrha pulled Lux back to her feet on the stage, both of them already sweating from the fight. Goodwitch tucked his scroll under her arm before joining in on the clapping.

“Well done, both of you,” Goodwitch said, smiling. “A fantastic showing.”

Even Lima felt the stirrings of adrenaline at the high-level fight—he was almost regretting the strategy he’d suggested to Jaune.

“That was awesome,” Yang said, whistling.

“Yes,” Ren said, eyeing the two girls as they approached. “They’re both very skilled.”

“Pyrrha!” Nora cried, practically tackling her teammate.

Lux strode up, dropping down into the seat beside him and used his shoulder as a pillow. Lima grunted at the invasion of his personal space but remained where he was.

“Nice fight,” Lima offered, flicking some of her sweaty hair off his arm. “You landed some good shots at the end there.”

“She recovers so quickly,” Lux said with a happy sigh. “I need more practice fighting without a weapon—we’re going to be sparring more when you get back, so you better be ready.”

“Sounds like a lot of work,” Lima admitted.

“You bet,” Lux agreed, “Hey, Lima.”

“Yeah?” Lima said.

He glanced over but found that her eyes were closed.

“Thanks for giving me a good match,” Lux said, smiling.

“It was randomly generated,” Lima denied, sticking to his story. “I had nothing to do with it.”

“You’re such a liar,” Lux snorted.

“The second match,” Goodwitch said, publishing it to the Amphitheatre system. “Nora Valkryie vs Claire Diamond.”

“Good luck, Claire!” Teak called.

Claire pumped her hand in the air as she got up, falling into step beside Nora as they made their way down to the stage. Lux managed to lift her head, readjusting herself on the seat so she could watch the fight.

“What do you think?” Lux said, threading her hands through her hair in an attempt to tidy it up.

“I don’t know how good she is in hand to hand,” Lima admitted, “I know Flora and Nora lost to Ren and Dove in the forest—but she was getting double-teamed at the end, so it might have been more even in a one on one.”

But she had managed to last far longer than Flora had, even though Nora had started the fight off before the other girl had even gotten there.

“You stole her hammer, didn’t you?” Lux said, leaning forward to lay her arms on the back of the chair in front of her. “How was she then?”

“That doesn’t really count,” Lima snorted, “She was completely surprised and fighting unarmed against someone with a weapon.”

“Hm,” Lux hummed.

Nora and Claire arrived on the stage below and took their respective places.

“Nora is a lot bigger and has a reach advantage—she’s also pretty aggressive, that’s going to mean a lot in a fight like this,” Lux said, tilting her head to one side. “Why did you pick this match up?”

“I didn’t,” Lima pouted.

“Uhuh,” Lux murmured.

The reality was, while he had chosen the matchups, he’d only had two people in mind when he had done it. Lux just so happened to get her dream match because she was one of the people Lima could count on to slow Pyrrha down. There was no room for him to be giving away free wins to anyone, not even his teammates—more than two dozen training sessions with Jaune had gone into this plan, and he wasn’t about to throw all of that away.

“Begin!” Goodwitch called.

Nora shouted something out and launched herself forward, coming in with a heel drop that Claire jumped backwards to avoid. Undeterred by the evasion, she surged forward, chambering a massive overhand strike that anybody in the room could have seen coming a mile away, and few would want to block.

Claire, being part of the group that couldn’t have missed the telegraph ducked down and towards her, throwing her own punch—it crashed into Nora’s desperate half guard, sending her stumbling back a step. Claire followed it up with another two strikes, keeping the pressure on, but Nora managed to recover in the middle of the assault.

Claire’s fourth hit found itself deflected to the side as Nora’s own attack broke through the middle of it, crashing into her shoulder with a crack that left both of their Aura’s sparking to life beneath the force of the hit. Claire lost her footing, stumbling backwards, but Nora didn’t let up, and that was the end of it.

Claire blocked at best she could, but she simply couldn’t regain her initiative, and each of Nora’s overwhelming hits sent her closer and closer to the edge of the stage until, finally, there was no stage left.

“Winner; Nora Valkryie,” The System reported. “Ring Out.”

Nora posed on the stage like some kind of ancient hero as the three teams cheered for the fighters.

“Boo! They both have Aura left!” Lux called, loud enough to be heard by most of Vale. “Keep fighting, Claire—”

Claire laughed as she climbed back to her feet, and Lima grabbed Lux by the back of her shirt, dragging her back to her seat before she could get any more wind behind her sails.

“Go, Nora!” Pyrrha said, projecting her voice.

“Good job, Claire!” Teak called, hands cupped around his mouth.

“Settle down now,” Goodwitch said, tracking the two as they rejoined the stands. “Well done, you both conducted yourself adequately—Ms Diamond, I suggest working on your footwork and working to rotate around your opponent when you find yourself getting overwhelmed.”

“Yeah,” Claire said sheepishly. “I kind of panicked.”

“Ms Valkyrie, you’re still very straightforward, and you treat every attack as if it’s a finisher,” Goodwitch said, gesturing with Lima’s scroll. “I suggest mixing up your attacks and not putting all of your weight behind each one—or you will eventually find yourself punished for overcommitting to a strike.”

“Yes, Captain!” Nora said, saluting.

Goodwitch hummed in amusement before lifting the scroll up to her face and studying it.

“Very well—now, who’s next?” Goodwitch said, raising an eyebrow. “I see—Lie Ren vs Weiss Schnee.”