The waiting room assigned to Mistral, was quiet, save for the soft hum of the holo-display mounted on the far wall.
Only one team was left from Mistral now.
Mercury lounged back in a chair, one leg draped lazily over the other, his arms folded behind his head. His half-lidded eyes followed the shifting images projected across the holo-screen as the coliseum broadcast cycled through its camera angles.
Across from him, Emerald sat forward, elbows resting on her knees, chin balanced against the back of one hand. Her attention, far more focused.
They had just watched the end of the previous match.
On the screen, the Menagerie team calmly exited the arena floor while the Ozpin's voice echoed triumphantly through the stadium.
Menagerie had won again and had done so decisively.
Mercury let out a low whistle. "Man, those guys are brutal."
The earth user had sealed the Vacuo fighter inside a rapidly forming stone dome before turning the entire structure into a deadly cage of inward-pointing spears. The seal had triggered almost instantly after the strike, saving the man from becoming an unwilling porcupine.
Nearly impossible to counter once it started.
Emerald watched the replay without blinking.
"Hmm they're quite strong," she said quietly.
Mercury tilted his head toward her, a crooked grin forming.
"Understatement, you know?"
The screen switched angles again, now showing Rajah standing beside his teammate while the battlefield was being reset.
Mercury leaned forward, resting his elbows on his knees.
"That space guy is ridiculous though.
Emerald nodded faintly.
"A meta rune called Distance. Meta runes really come in all sorts of different flavours, don't they?"
Mercury scratched the back of his head, studying the footage more closely.
"You think we could take them?"
Emerald didn't answer immediately.
Her gaze remained fixed on the screen as the camera zoomed in briefly on Rajah's calm, expressionless face.
"…Easily, if they don't immediately counter me." she said at last.
Mercury chuckled under his breath.
"Confidence inspiring. Truly."
Emerald shot him a flat look.
"You asked, fool."
"Whatever."
The room fell quiet again as the tournament staff began preparing the arena for the next match. Then the waiting room door slid open.
Both Mercury and Emerald looked up immediately.
Cinder stepped inside.
Almost instinctively, both of them stood. She lifted one hand in a casual gesture.
"Sit down."
They relaxed slightly, though neither of them fully dropped their posture. Cinder walked farther into the room, the soft click of her heels echoing across the polished floor.
"Should I...?" Emerald started to say, but she was interrupted by Cinder.
"Don't bother. They're not paying attention to us, so you don't need to use it. In any case, I'm here to tell you important information. The next match," she said calmly, "will be yours."
Mercury smirked.
"Finally."
Cinder's gaze drifted back to the screen for a moment before returning to them.
"You will be facing the Vale team."
Emerald gave a small nod.
"Yeah, we saw them earlier."
Mercury cracked his knuckles with a faint grin.
"The sword-and-shield guy and the rifle user. They seem a little weak."
Cinder inclined her head.
"Yes. which is why I expect a win."
Mercury's grin widened.
"Of course."
Cinder's expression did not change.
"After that match, however, your next opponent will most likely be the Menagerie team led by the heat rune user."
Emerald tilted her head slightly.
"Uh... Coppal, right?"
Cinder nodded once.
"Indeed."
There was a brief pause before she continued.
"The two of you will lose that match."
Mercury frowned and straightened in his chair, confusion crossing his face.
"Uh... lose?"
Emerald glanced sideways at him but remained silent.
"I thought the whole point was to win the tournament?"
Cinder's gaze moved calmly between the two of them before waving a hand dismissively, as if the matter were trivial.
"That is no longer necessary. You have already achieved the exposure we required. Your performances so far have drawn sufficient attention."
She folded her arms lightly.
"That alone will ensure that both of you are selected for the Shadow Realm expedition."
Emerald nodded slowly. That made sense.
Recruiters from LUCID were already watching the tournament closely. Strong fighters were exactly the kind of candidates they would want for the expedition teams.
Winning the entire tournament wasn't actually required.
Cinder continued.
"Allowing Menagerie to claim the victory will serve a more useful purpose."
Mercury raised an eyebrow.
"How so?"
A faint smile touched Cinder's lips.
Emerald understood what Cinder was implying immediately.
Mercury scratched his chin thoughtfully.
"Ah."
Now he understood.
"Works for me."
Cinder studied both of them for a moment before adding one final instruction.
"However."
Her gaze sharpened slightly. "You will not throw the match."
Mercury's grin faded a little and seeing it, Cinder's voice continued carrying a quiet edge now.
"You will fight seriously."
"The loss must be believable and earned. If you allow them to win without resistance, it will raise suspicion, understand?"
Emerald nodded immediately.
"Understood."
"Do not mistake this for permission to act foolishly." Cinder regarded them both for a moment.
Mercury raised his hands again in mock surrender.
"Wouldn't dream of it, boss."
Cinder turned toward the door but before leaving, she spoke one last time.
"Win the next match."
Her amber eyes briefly flicked to the holo-display, where Menagerie's fighters were still visible in the replay feed.
"Then make the final battle convincing."
With that, she stepped out of the room.
The door slid shut behind her and silence returned to the room.
Mercury leaned back in his chair and let out a slow breath.
"Well."
He glanced at Emerald.
"Guess we're not winning the tourney after all."
Emerald's gaze returned to the holo-display where Rajah's team continued to appear in the broadcast replay.
"That was never really the point, you know?"
Mercury grinned.
"True."
He stood, cracking his neck as he stretched. His eyes gleamed slightly as he watched the arena feed.
"Still, since we're gonna lose later, we might as well make the first fight fun. How about you use the Tree of Fire, this time?"
Emerald stared at him, seemingly a little annoyed.
"You don't get to name my illusions."
"Hey, if you don't name them, I will and we both know that at the very least, I have a sense of style."
She rolled her eyes.
.
.
The Vale team stepped out first.
They had performed decently in their previous battle, though Jaune had never considered them among the strongest fighters remaining in the bracket.
Still, they were competent.
That alone made their opponents concerning.
From the opposite entrance emerged the Mistral pair.
The gray haired boy Jaune had seen earlier walked out with his usual relaxed posture. Beside him walked the green haired girl whose expression remained distant and quiet.
Mercury and Emerald.
Jaune had learned their names earlier from Cardin's introduction.
For a brief moment nothing happened, then, the match began.
At first Jaune thought something had gone horribly wrong.
The two Vale fighters suddenly began jumping and rolling across the arena floor in wild, frantic motions. The rifle user stumbled backward while firing round after round of ice bullets into the ground around him. Frost spread across the stone floor in wide patches as the rounds shattered on impact.
"What are they doing?" Nora asked in confusion.
Jaune frowned.
The rifle user kept firing ice rounds at his own feet, as if desperately trying to put something out. His movements looked panicked, almost desperate.
The sword and shield fighter reacted a little differently.
Instead of jumping around like his teammate, he slammed the butt of his weapon against the ground and summoned a strange set of condensed light armor around his body. Plates of faintly glowing energy formed around his arms, chest, and shoulders, creating an additional defensive layer over his gear.
Jaune hadn't seen that technique earlier during their previous match. However, something about the situation was clearly wrong.
The Vale fighters were not attacking their opponents. In fact, they were not even looking at them, striking wildly at empty air instead.
It was clear that the green haired girl's meta rune had something to do with either illusions or some type of mind control. More so the first option rather than the second. Aura was a defense against the mind so... more than likely illusions of some sort.
"They're fighting something that isn't there," Jaune muttered.
Ren nodded slowly.
Mercury, the gray haired fighter launched forward with terrifying speed. His first strike landed before the Vale fighters even realized he had moved.
Mercury's kick connected squarely with the rifle user's head, angling the attack in such a way that it sent the boy flying across the arena floor. The impact alone was enough to activate the protective seal around his body. A flash of light erupted as the seal triggered, ejecting him safely from the battlefield.
The crowd gasped.
Before the sword and shield fighter could even react, Mercury had already closed the distance again.
The armored fighter swung his blade toward what he probably believed was another incoming threat. Unfortunately for him, the attack passed several feet away from Mercury's actual position.
Mercury slipped past the swing effortlessly.
He unleashed a veritable gunfire of kicks that struck the armored fighter's head with brutal precision.
The impacts triggered his seal almost instantly.
The entire match had lasted less than fifteen seconds. For a moment the stadium fell into stunned silence.
Then Ozpin declared the result.
"Mistral wins."
Jaune leaned back in his seat slowly.
"...Well," he muttered. "Yet again, that was incredibly fast."
Yang sighed.
"Again? I was hoping that the match would be a little longer."
"Hmm, me too. Also, the way the Vale guys were reacting was way different from how the Atlas team was reacting. That girl, her name is Emerald, by the way—its pretty much confirmed that she has some type of meta rune that involved illusions."
"Damn. Powerful counter. Don't really see that type of rune all that often either. Much less on a meta rune." Yang, shook her head.
With Vale eliminated, the remaining teams in the Rank 1 bracket grew noticeably smaller.
Vacuo had already been knocked out earlier.
Now Vale was gone as well.
That left only one team from Mistral, one from Atlas, and three from Menagerie.
Jaune glanced at the tournament board displayed above the arena.
Menagerie really was dominating the competition.
The next match began shortly afterward.
Compared to the chaos of the previous fight, this one felt almost straightforward.
The girl with the Stellar Rune stepped onto the battlefield alongside her teammate, the one who could summon animal companions.
Auberyn.
The Atlas team that faced them fought well enough. Their coordination was solid and their techniques were disciplined.
Unfortunately for them, Menagerie's team proved overwhelming.
Auberyn's rune shimmered faintly as ginat starlike hands of of light gathered around her body. The power radiating from her presence alone felt oppressive even from the stands.
Meanwhile her teammate summoned several animal constructs that charged across the battlefield with surprising ferocity.
The Atlas fighters attempted to counter the assault but their efforts quickly fell apart under the pressure.
Within a few minutes both Atlas competitors had been eliminated.
Another victory for Menagerie.
Jaune watched the scene with slight amazement.
Every time a Menagerie team stepped onto the battlefield they seemed to dominate their opponents.
The final match of the tournament soon followed. This time the Menagerie team consisted of the heat rune user Coppal and his partner.
Their opponents were the same Mistral pair that had just defeated Vale.
Mercury and Emerald.
The arena quieted slightly as anticipation spread through the audience.
Jaune leaned forward in his seat.
This fight would be interesting.
The match began.
Almost immediately Emerald's illusion rune activated again.
Coppal's teammate reacted poorly.
The unfortunate guy began swinging wildly at empty air, clearly trapped inside the illusion just like the Vale fighters had been earlier.
Mercury took advantage of the opening without hesitation.
He launched forward and struck Coppal's teammate with a barrage of powerful kicks that activated the man's defensive seal almost instantly.
One fighter eliminated within seconds. The arena now held only three competitors.
Coppal stood alone against Mercury and Emerald.
Strangely enough, Coppal did not appear nearly as disoriented as the others had been.
Jaune narrowed his eyes.
Something was different.
Coppal still attacked the air occasionally, which suggested that he was also experiencing Emerald's illusion. However, his movements seemed far more controlled than the previous victims.
He swung his weapon several times at empty space.
Yet somehow he still managed to block Mercury's incoming attacks.
Jaune watched closely.
Mercury's kicks struck toward Coppal from several angles, but Coppal's reactions remained frighteningly accurate. Even when the attacks came from unexpected directions he still managed to intercept them with surprising consistency.
"How is he doing that?" Nora asked.
Ren studied the battlefield carefully.
"He can't see them clearly," Ren said quietly. "But he can sense them."
Jaune noticed something else then. Thin streams of steam were rising from Mercury and Emerald's bodies.
At first he thought it might have been dust from the arena floor.
Then he realized what it actually was.
Heat.
Coppal's rune was heating the entire battlefield.
The temperature continued rising as the fight progressed.
The stone beneath their feet began to shimmer slightly.
The air itself looked distorted.
Coppal moved with terrifying speed as he fought against the invisible threats around him. Even when Mercury struck from behind, Coppal reacted quickly enough to twist his body aside and counterattack.
The ground grew hotter and hotter. Eventually the stone floor began to soften.
Jaune stared in disbelief.
The arena surface was actually starting to melt. By the time the match reached its final moments, the entire battlefield looked like it was boiling.
Heat shimmered everywhere. The stone had partially liquefied under Coppal's relentless rune output.
Mercury attempted one final strike.
Coppal countered with a burst of heat so intense that both Mercury and Emerald's defensive seals activated simultaneously.
Two flashes of light.
The Mistral pair vanished from the battlefield. Silence fell across the arena broken by Ozpin's voice declaring the end result.
"Menagerie wins."
The crowd exploded with cheers.
Jaune slowly leaned back in his seat, still staring at the arena floor where the heat continued to warp the air above the stone.
Earlier, when he and Pyrrha had discussed strategies for defeating Coppal, Jaune had suggested using his plunder ability to steal away the heat.
Now he felt a little foolish. Watching that battle had made one thing painfully clear.
Coppal's rune was far stronger than Jaune had originally imagined.
Trying to take that kind of power might not have been clever.
It might have been suicidal.