Team EMBR (RWBY oc)

Chapter 25: Here and Now

"Cmon girl..." I heard after I shot awake. I threw the pillow off of my face and it fell to the ground, "it's your big day. First matches begin in an hour and a half." Rose was sitting on her bed across from me, putting her hair in a ponytail, Mag and Bondi already gone.
"And you didn't think to wake me up earlier?" I asked, slightly angrily, as I stood up out of my bed and patted down the mess of my hair.
"Well if you're gonna be on remnant-wide TV I thought you'd need your beauty sleep..." She joked as she tossed me my hairbrush. I caught it and ran it through my hair.
"Please...I always look beautiful..." I giggled a little as I kept getting ready. We kept going back and forth as I finished getting ready. Eventually I was ready and we made our way down to the colosseum.
I'd have no idea if I was actually fighting until my name was drawing, and that was the worst, but that meant I had to be there all day until my name was called. I was hoping, for Hazel's sake, That I would be one of the first.
I met up with the rest of my team in the tunnels underneath the Arena. Mag and Bondi both greeted me with a hug, but they could tell I was a little out of it. I could already feel the nerves start to creep up, Bondi could tell, she almost always could.
She rested her hand on my shoulder and said, "Remember what I told you Emmy...you have nothing to worry about."
"Except everything..." I muttered, "I mean, so many things could go wrong. It could carry with me. I mean I could embarrass myself horribly or just look super incompetent or-" I was rambling, I knew it, and wanted to stop it, knew I should stop, but couldn't.
"Stop..." Rose stepped in front of me and cut me off, "don't think about that. Don't think about anything. Nothing matters, no one matters, just you and your opponent. Nothing matters outside of here and now. Just, you, your opponent, and the octagon."
I took a long, deep breath in and slowly let it out. I nodded at Rose but didn't say a word. I just kept my eyes trained on the ground, trying to focus on only me. In the back of my head, I knew no matter how poorly I did, my team would be happy with me, but I still felt like I'd be letting them down.
Pretty soon, they started to send all the contestants to the center for the selection. I just gave a deep sigh as I hugged my teammates.
"You've destroyed in tournaments before," Rose whispered as we hugged, "this one won't be any different." I just nodded in silence. I felt like I was starting to get focused, but the nervous lump in my throat made me feel otherwise.
Mag came up to me and gave me a tight embrace. She didn't say much, as she usually doesn't, she just whispered "you got this" and let go of me.
Bondi gave me the tightest embrace of the three. It was tight enough to make me wonder where I'd be without her. I did have Rose, and Mag, but Bondi had really supported me through everything. It almost felt like we were sisters, just like it felt with Rose.
"Go make us proud..." she said into my ear, and one of the tournament officials started to walk up to us, I was lagging behind the rest of the fighters, "go kick some-"
"Excuse me Ma'am..." the man said as he tapped on my shoulder, "I'm sorry to break this up, but you need to go out with the rest of the fighters."
"Oh yeah, I'm sorry..." I apologized with a nervous laugh as I let go of Bondi. I backed away from them with a wave. Rose gave me a cheesy face and a thumbs up, Maggie mouthed good luck, and Bondi just winked.
I stepped out and heard ports bellows along with the roar of the crowd. Whatever pit in my stomach I had gotten rid of immediately came back. I took a deep breath as I stood in line with the others.
"And now for the moment you've all been waiting for!" Port called out, "the one on one finals!"
I didn't realize it but Crim was standing a couple people down from me. Just on the opposite side of some guy who looked like he was basically half-robot. Probably Atlas tech. She shot me a finger gun, but I was too nervous to respond, I just kept staring down at the floor.
     Oobleck went on to explain how it wasn't a bracket system like before, and all matches would be chosen randomly before, but we all knew that already.
     I didn't realize it but I was holding my breath when the randomization wheel was spinning. I let all the air out as I saw the names appear on the screen.
   "Yang Xiao Long and Mercury Black!" Port boomed, "would all other combatants please leave the stage." I stepped off with all the others and stood in the viewing area that they gave to the combatant students.
     I looked across the Arena and saw Rose and the rest of my team sitting in the stands. I gave her a wave, but she didn't respond, so I just assumed she didn't see.
     The crowd kept roaring in excitement, but eventually started to fall off once the match was beginning. I watched as the two approached each other for their match, just as Bondi and I did in the forest.
     The match seemed like it was even at first. The two traded blows for blows. No one had a huge advantage, and then it happened. Mercury kept kicking in a circle and white balls swirled around the two, and they all converged on Yang. Any logical thought would've thought that Yang was eliminated, but she wasn't. She came back in a burst of flame, her semblance, and went straight to Mercury.
     She was an unstoppable ball of rage and ruined mercury. I could see his Aura fade. I looked on as Yang walked by him, she turned around, and I saw Rose's hand come up to her mouth in anticipation. She always used her semblance to watch matches, see it slower, take in every detail, see all the small movements. She must've seen Yang start to do something, something not good.
     Then, the naked eye caught up. Everyone watched in horror as we saw her arm come forward, straight to mercury's knee. I was pretty sure knee's aren't supposed to bend that way. Some people looked away in pain. Even though we were the next defenders of the kingdom, we can still be a little squeamish.
     Yang stood over mercury like she was defending herself, and she called him out for it, which was weird. A few Atlesian soldiers ran out onto the Arena floor and surrounded her. Weapons drawn. I looked over towards my team in a stunned silence, and they all looked the same too. Jaws dropped down as far as they could go.
      Yang still was trying to defend herself as they escorted her out the Arena. Paramedics came in and rushed mercury off of the Arena as fast as they could. I still didn't know what to think. Everything about this was just wrong. Yang wasn't the kind of person to attack someone like that, even if she was a little temperamental.
I just hoped Hazel wasn't watching, I knew she was here, but maybe I got lucky and she was getting popcorn. I knew it was too much to ask for, but I wanted to shield her from negativity as much as possible. It seemed like that was getting harder and harder.
You could still feel the shock in the air. The roar turned to muttering and whispering, but the tournament had to keep going. Oobleck started to speak, and for once didn't sound terribly jittery.
"As unfortunate as that was," he said, surprisingly softly for him, "we must continue with the tournament. Would all combatants please return to the center."
We stood back in our line in the center, and the crowd started to regain its intensity, but it was still a couple of minutes until the cameras came back on. When they did, Port made it very obvious.
"Welcome back to the Vytal Festival tournament! It is now time to discover our contestants for our next match!" Port said, clearly trying to sound as positive as possible.
I watched the wheel spin in nervous anticipation. If there's one thing that the situation earlier helped with, it made me forget about my nerves, but they were creeping back in.
I saw Crimsons picture pop up on the screen, and a few moments later, the other picture came up. It was mine. I let out a deep breath as I watched the other students step off the octagon.
"Ember Cordolia of beacon and Crimson Aldaire of shade!" Oobleck said quickly.
    "Ah what an interesting matchup! If you remember, Ember has had two very different, but memorable showings, while crimson has been dominant the entire tournament. I can't wait to see how this shakes up!"
     "Thanks for reminding me..." I muttered as I unfolded my Tonfa.
    "I mean. I'd take that as a compliment for your second match." Crim said with a chuckle as she got into her fighting stance.
   "Eh..." I shrugged as I entered my stance, "but for this one, I'll try to stay away from your face. For Bondi's sake."
     Crim only laughed at that as we approached each other. Oobleck counted down, and the match started. I cocked my arm back and threw my forearm at Crim, and she brought her axe down from over her head.
    The collision between us was like two giants. It felt like it sent shockwaves, and maybe that was the dust, but we both got knocked back a couple of feet. Crim tried to press and swung her axe high, but I did the usual "create an archway with my body and flip backwards thing."
"What a dodge!" Port shouted, almost overly excitedly. It didn't seem like it was that great, but maybe it looked better than it was. I rolled forward, past crim's side, and she slammed her axe down at me. It barely missed me, but the dust infused into the axe created a mini explosion and sent me across the Arena.
I stuck Ignis and Aestus into the floor as I slid, it slowed me down a little, but my legs were still hanging off the edge by the time I stopped. I looked up and saw an axe coming down on me, again. I pulled myself up as quick as I could and rolled out of the way, but Ignis and Aestus were still stuck in the ground.
When I stood back up, Ignis and Aestus were still stuck in the ground, on the other side of Crimson. She grinned as she sauntered up towards me.
I stuck my foot back and held my hands out, bracing myself for what was clearly to come, I just hoped my aura was up for it. She swung at me sideways and I caught the blade in my hands. I watched my Aura drop out of the corner of my eye.
I brought my knee up to her gut and she keeled over. I threw her axe downwards and rolled over her back. I landed with my right knee down in a superhero landing pose and pulled my weapons out of the ground. Crim turned around and met my uppercut.
She flipped as she floated in the air and landed on her feet. she dashed towards me immediately, and I did the same. Except I slid underneath her, right between her legs. It was a stupid move, but I had confidence. I put my heel in the ground and popped back up. I quickly turned and fired the guns on Ignis and Aestus to propel myself, Crim turned around and took Aestus to the face as I threw my right forearm at her.
She fell down to her knees and I pressed the advantage. I struck her downward across the jaw and spun, hoping to hit her in the jaw with my heel. I would've, but she caught my heel and spun me around. Next thing I knew I was on the ground. I got clothesline don't by her axe.
I rolled backwards and came back up in my fighting stance. Crimson just winked at me and stood in her stance a couple feet in front of me. I checked our Aura's. I was at 41. I hadn't taken too many hits, but Crim was stupidly strong, of course, catching the axe blade didn't help. Crim was at 38, I had hit her more, but they were more wear down strikes, not meant for extreme damage.
"I get the feeling this match may come down to the wire!" I heard Oobleck say during our quick little break.
"I get the sense you might be right about that Barty." Port agreed, or at least I thought he said that. I was to busy running towards Crim, and her at me.
I went to slide under her attack, but Crimson caught on to my game. As I slid, she turned and brought her axe down onto me. I was on the ground, helpless. I threw Ignis and Aestus up in an X to soften the blow, not that it helped. The impact alone dropped my Aura by ten. My head snapped back and hit the ground hard, that dropped me by seven more. If I didn't have Aura, that 100 percent would've been a concussion.
     I kicked upwards and used the momentum to stand myself up. I immediately had to lean backwards under the axe coming at my head, and that was a struggle. It kinda hurt my midsection to throw all my weight up and send it backwards immediately, but I'm sure an axe to the head would've been worse..
     I just let myself fall back down to my back, but I sent my legs out to the side and wrapped them around Crimson's. She fell down on to her stomach, and I brought my right elbow down on her spine, firing the gun for extra force. I rolled backwards and stood up at the same time she did.
     Our aura levels were identical. Both of us sat at 24. I planted my right foot forward and cocked my right arm back. Crim brought her arms back, ready to swing. I knew I should've dodged, but I was confident this would work.
     "Blows like the clashing of giants!" Port bellowed with a chuckle as we simultaneously swung at each other. In a split second, Aestus hit Crim in the chest, and her axe struck me along the shoulder.
     I flew across the ground and slid, letting go of Ignis and Aestus, no reason to hold on to them. We were both definitely below 15, it was just a matter of who hit first. I watched Crim fall down and stay down. Not cause I hurt her, she was just exhausted. That was the same reason I stayed down.
     "It appears as if we have a tie Barty!" Port laughed, "or we would...if the rules allowed a tie. Would you care to explain?"
     "Indeed I would Peter." Oobleck said excitedly, "since both combatants appear to have hit each other at the same time, we have to consult the video to see who made first contact."
    I leaned my head up and saw Rose nodding wildly. I figured I could trust her semblance enough, but I hid any excitement I had. I slowly picked myself up and walked over to crim, picking up Ignis and Aestus on the way. I folded them up and hung them off my hip.
     I stuck my hand out towards Crim with a grin on my face. She took my hand and stood up and returned the grin. She didn't need to say anything, we were both in a silent agreement. No matter the outcome, we both appreciated having such a competitive fight.
     "It appears as if we have a winner..." Port said dramatically, and paused for a stupidly long time. My heart was racing, even with what Rose saw, I was still worried. Crim grabbed my hand, whether it was to comfort each other, or show unity, despite being opponents, or whatever, I didn't really care, I just wanted port to hurry up.
     "Ember Cordolia of Beacon!" He finally shouted with a chuckle, "congratulations on a thrilling match. Both of you."
      I might've jumped a little in excitement and threw my fist in the air, but it quickly came back down when I remember everyone could see me. I turned and gave Crim a quick hug.
     The two of us walked off the octagon, laughing and joking, as if I didn't just eliminate her. It almost felt like she was honored to lose to me, but it didn't matter. I shot Rose a quick finger gun before I made it into the tunnels.
     "I should probably get back to my team..." Crim said with a sigh as she started to back away, "but hey, congrats on the win."
     "Yeah, but thanks for giving me a scare!" I called out with a laugh as she walked away. When she turned the corner, my emotions just exploded out. The widest smile formed on my face and I just swung wildly in excitement. I figured my team was already on my way to see me, so I just sat along the wall and waited. I couldn't wait to hear what they had to say.