Ep. 81 – First Matches, Domination, First ‘Single’
The Vytal Tournament was pretty much only an interesting show for us aka me and the gang. There wouldn't be the Fall of Beacon, probably, so we just had to dominate some kids when the time comes. Just to get more style points, we decided to place the Round table suspended in mid-air and watch from close-up the matches.
The first match was team RWBY against team ABRN (Auburn) from Haven Academy, just like in our universe. I was watching the two teams get ready when the commentators aka Port and Oobleck asked for a quick word from us, on worldwide live television.
"A quick word? Sure. Loki, Blake? Want to say anything?" they shook their heads and smiled evilly. "Ok then! I will go."
I teleported to the commentators' box and started giving my own two cents on the teams.
"To put it really bluntly, all of the teams are really weak. Put them in a Dungeon and they would have a really hard time clearing it. Actually, it would be a miracle if they come out in one piece. There are some exceptions, of course, such as team RWBY, team JNPR, and Neo, who INCARNATION personally trained and geared up. Any one of those students could clear a Dungeon single-handedly.
However, that is not the point. We were here in Beacon to assess the level of preparation that you give these aspiring Hunters… We are not impressed. At all. Even the last years can only be considered mediocre amateurs. Sure, you could argue that a Hunter needs practical experience, but academies exist to train kids. If a student graduates and can only reach that level, we might as well give a license to any kid over 18 that can wield a weapon, bonus cookie points if they have aura unlocked and a semblance.
Overall, I can sum up everything that I wanted to say in a single sentence: 'Academies are a joke.' Thank you for asking my opinion, the world governments will receive an in-depth report soon after the end of this school year."
Ooh, dissing people feels so good! I teleported back to my throne and started looking over to the two teams that were already in the arena. Well, they were a little stunned by my comments, somewhat scared in ABRN's case. Who told them to be so weak, huh?
"Damn, you didn't hold anything back… Respect, bro." said Sun
"Well, I had this opinion ever since we graduated from Beacon. The other teams were way too weak. Maybe against normal Grimm they can pass off as new Hunters, but against the Dungeons in this reality? They are just sheep waiting to be massacred. That is undeniable. We could use some Godly fuckery to fix every single problem in this world, but that doesn't mean that the future generations won't fuck everything up. I hope that a very clear report will help improve the quality of instruction, maybe save some lives…"
"Shush now! The fight is starting! I really want to see how they fare against other students…" said Weiss, attracting our attention.
The two terrains were once again a volcano and a glacial field. Ruby used her bracelet to teleport right behind team ABRN, while Yang went from the front. Weiss was boosting her with glyphs, while Blake's shadow acted like a bodyguard for her, while she flanked the enemies. Ruby slashed at Skateboard-girl's skateboard, and cleanly sliced it in two. She then used the side of the blade to swat her opponent towards the stands, taking off a good chunk of Aura. Yang on the other hand went for the martial artist girl. They punched each other, which ended in a hilarious result. Arslan's fist impacted first and caused the girl to recoil in pain while Yang stopped and asked: "Was that supposed to be an attack? Should I act like it hurt? Damn, Old Weiss' stabs were much worse than that!"
Yang pulled back her arm and punched Arslan right in the gut, which shattered her Aura and knocked her out. In the meantime, Reese impacted the shield between the arena and the stands, exhausting her Aura, and getting eliminated. Blake then sent a flying slash towards Bolin, while Weiss started bombarding Nadir with stabs.
Well, the result was as expected: team RWBY won by a landslide and qualified for the doubles. Well, since I had announced to the world that these girls were better than anyone else, they better win everything, except the finals. We will win those, of course.
They went to grab something to eat with JNPR and Neo, while some other matches of lesser importance were underway. They were really boring and long. There is a big difference between a long fight and a boring fight. High-level combatants can fight for hours, days on end and still have anyone looking marvel at the techniques and such used. A boring fight is just uselessly long and not very entertaining. As an example, do you ever get bored of Dragon Ball's fights? No, because they are good, yet they can be extremely long.
Anyway, time for JNPR's turn against team BRNZ. This time, Jaune would take care of the enemies. Young Jaune was put through the wringer much more than the others since he had a lower starting point but he came out a whole new person. And he also understood that Young Pyrrha was interested in him. There are some things that will never change, no matter the universe.
I'm digressing. Jaune stepped forward and unsheathed his sword and took his shield. He started casually walking towards his enemies, completely hiding Ren from their view. You guessed it: Ren took the chance when they were distracted to hide from sight and flank BRNZ. He arrived just behind them when Jaune started rushing towards them. Ren went ham on the trigger against the sniper and another guy, while Jaune hacked and slashed at the remaining two. Pyrrha and Nora didn't even need to take a step and were chatting about Ren and Jaune and how they were dense as fuck. Another landslide victory for a team trained by us.
After JNPR was Neo's turn! Oh, how exited I am.
"Neo! Good luck!" I said, just to put her on the spot.
She looked at me and stuck her tongue out, then winked. I heard Cinder ask: "You were being trained by INCARNATION for real?!" to which Neo nodded. "Lucky… I wish I could have been trained as well."
"I don't think you would have liked it. Dad went easy on me and it was still very hard."
"Oh. Wait! You can talk?! And 'dad'?!" shouted out Mercury
"Yeah, it's thanks to dad." Neo said, pointing at me. I waved at her and gave her a thumbs-up. She didn't tell anything regarding her voice to her team since she wanted to mess with them. Ah, they grow up so fast! And she takes everything from me! Look at her smirk: she's enjoying this!
"You gotta tell me more when we're done here." Said Emerald.
Ice cream girl just shrugged and got ready to fight. She had her parasol in the right hand and the 'Smart Pistol' in her left, already pointed towards her opponents. Oh, so she want to go for that, huh? Sneaky little devil, I'll have to punish her. Tickles and no ice cream for a couple of days should work.
Port set the countdown and got ready for his comments. When the fight started, the audience could only hear some muffled sounds and see four rays of light. Neo had already a lock-on since before the fight, so she just had to pull the trigger to win. Ah, yes… Good old unbalanced pistol. I remember when I played Titanfall back in my first life. I was so bad that I could only run my 'Smart Pistol' build, otherwise I would have done well to uninstall the game. I was better at Titanfall 2, don't know why… I think I want to go there, but there isn't really much to do, except for maybe messing with the players if I find the game universe. I could become something like the 'Reaper' from Warframe. Actually, I want to go there as well… Eh, I'll think about it.
Since Port and Oobleck were frozen, I raised my voice and declared Neo's team the victor. This seemed to wake everyone up as clapping started rising from the audience, though it was that half-assed clap you do when you didn't understand what the fuck's going on. Port made their victory official and went on to different matches, not much different from canon, to be honest. Well, Young Blake didn't even look at Young Sun since she was holding Young Yang's hand.
"Hey, Yang… What do you think of Blake? Any ideas of divorcing us and becoming a couple?" I said, just to joke. She seemed puzzled, so I pointed at the two young girls in the audience.
"Ooh… Although I sometimes regret it, only when you act like a chuuni, I would never divorce you. Well, Blake is a nice girl and my friend, so I can see how Young me fell for her." She said.
"Oh, should I take this as a compliment? You know, I am open to different experiences…" said Blake.
"Yeah, no. That would feel like cheating. Don't feel too sad though." Yang responded, squeezing our catgirl's cheeks. And so, we discovered that our Blake is bi. Not a problem, obviously, everyone is free to love who and how they desire. I am an 'old-school' guy, so I am perfectly happy with being a slightly Yandere, straight man. If you wonder why a little Yandere… Well, better not look at those that were staring too much at my wives. They didn't end up well…
Let's forget about that! To celebrate the start of the Tournament and the kids' absolute domination of their opponents, we held a massive feast at the chalet. Well, we did interrupt Hecate and Solomon as they were making out on the couch, but that's not our fault! Do that stuff in the bedrooms!
At any rate, the singles were decided: RWBY, JNPR, Neo and her team, Sun, Coco, Yatsuhashi, and Penny.
"Hehe! This will be fun! I get to bully kids on live television!" said Blake when it was our turn.
We were still at our place in mid-air, so we simply dropped down.
"The 16 of you will be forming ragtag teams with each other and facing a single member of INCARNATION. You have five minutes to form your teams, go!"
After five minutes, four teams were formed: Ruby, Ren, Neo, and Yatsuhashi were one team, Yang, Pyrrha, Cinder, and Coco were another, then were Weiss, Jaune, Emerald, and Penny, and lastly Blake, Nora, Mercury, and Sun.
"Very well! You can now decide who you will face! Don't worry though, we won't leave any lasting damage." I said with an evil smile.
"Mr. Tula, please be careful, you are live in all of Remnant…" said Oobleck from his box. I just raised my hand in response, as a sign I got the message.
"We want to go against Ais Wallenstein." Said Ruby. She nodded in response.
"We will take the big boss over there." Said Coco
"Little old me? Very well."
"We will take on Hinata Sakaguchi." Said Weiss. Ooh, bad idea. Paladin-waifu isn't good at holding back.
"Heh, you are looking for a beating."
"And we will take on Ruby Rose." Said Blake
"Ooh, I get to test out my weapon finally!" my wife said.
"Very well, since you all chose your opponents, you have ten minutes to prepare a strategy! You are facing off against seasoned 'Hunters' after all. The time starts now!" said Jaune.
The first match was ragtag team RRNY against Ais.
They stood opposite each other and waited for the start of the match.
"Aren't you going to equip some armor or weapons?" asked Yatsuhashi
"Alter." Ais said. Jalter materialized behind her and fused with her, completing the integration. Ooh, she went for the showy process I see… I will do the same. "Happy now?"
"Very much so." The gentle giant said.
The countdown ended and Ais disappeared. Actually, she was just standing above Yatsuhashi's head. Ren saw her and started mag dumping his SMG's, which startled the big boi. Well, who wouldn't when someone shoots you without reason?
Ruby and Neo looked over and saw that Ais was standing there as if nothing happened. Neo used her semblance to hide both of them. Ais could obviously see them, but she ignored them to give the girls hope.
Yatsuhashi regained his cool and started attacking Ais with his greatsword. She defended herself with her banner, deflecting the hits just the bare minimum so that they wouldn't hit her. She also added a 'light' tap as a counter to each parry. 'Revenge' apparently includes counterattacks, so she is also the Goddess of counterattacks.
Ren was a nuisance with his SMG's and was actually hitting Yatsuhashi with a couple of stray shots, so Ais hit his head with the banner, shattering his aura and knocking him out. Ruby then came with her scythe and tried attacking her neck. I stopped right as it touched Ais' skin, not even leaving a blemish.
"Was that supposed to hurt?" she asked, inclining her head cutely.
"Uhm… Yes?"
"I see."
Neo then shot her several times with the modified 'Hush', but those were directly nullified by the armor. Well, of course I wouldn't give her a weapon that can hurt Incarnations, though that thing is made to kill even Origin Gods. It will recognize the enemy's strength and regulate the 'deadliness' automatically. Pretty nifty.
Back to the fight, Ais punched Ruby in the gut and knocked her out, while Yatsuhashi got the blunt side of her sword.
"This is the daughter showdown!" commented Yang.
I smiled and continued watching. Neo was using her semblance to try and distract or confuse Ais since she knew that their levels were worlds apart, literally. Ais defended everything with her sword, giving her some light taps on the head, side, and hands when there was an obvious opening, which was often. This continued for a few minutes, until Neo ran out of steam and surrendered.
Ais hugged her and said: "Good job, sister."
Like that, the first 'singles' match ended with Ais displaying her power to all of Remnant.