Combat Class Sparring, Pt. 1
Obaz was frowning, but for once it seemed to be for a reason. He looked to the rest of his team; "On the subject of names..."
Regis jumped on that before any of them could blink; "Yes, Obaz, your name is hilarious and weird. No need for a reminder."
"No, names of weapons. Ruby Rose spoke to me before about weapons being named rather specifically; she has Crescent Rose, for example, and Sophia has Matenlock. Do your weapons have names?"
Regis and Laera both nodded, Regis choosing to continue on with seriousness. "My greaves here are called Sable Regalia. Laera's oversized falchion-looking thing is called Precious Surge."
Laera huffed at Regis' impressive summary. "Precious Surge is dust-conducting basilard, made in a line of glyph-based technology close to Weiss' Myrtenaster."
Obaz nodded. "I see. If such titles are common among Hunters, I suppose she would be rather underwhelmed by Mk. III, or Mk. IV for that matter..."
Glynda's voice halted basic exercises and announced the first pairing for spars; "Ruby Rose... and Laera Daylight." Regis patted Laera's shoulder, telling her it was a good day to get owned. She smacked his hand away and climbed the steps onto the stage, face to face with the smaller, cheery girl. She couldn't be as tough as the rumors had her believe... could she?
She drew her own blade, extending it to full length and setting the slide on the back to latch on the white dust cartridge. Ruby whipped out a scythe bigger than she was, twirled it around like it was nothing and cocked the mechanism for firing high-velocity bullets.
Ms. Goodwitch motioned for the match to commence, and Ruby was on her in a second. The younger girl was already inches from her with Crescent Rose raised, coming down for a vertical slash that Laera dodged just barely. Skipping forward and carrying the swing around her back to a good side swipe, the upper edge of the curve skinned Laera's blade once she held it up to defend herself. At the back end of that swing she fired, propelling herself after her opponent still retreating to come at her on an upward angle; Laera formed a glyph under her when she made this move that amplified her launch force and made her jump much higher than she had intended to with the slash.
Laera started an offense as Ruby righted herself, coming down with another swipe of Crescent Rose. Slipping to the left of the attack, Laera snapped a foot over toward Ruby's head that she ducked, but brought the leg back to stand on the shaft of Crescent Rose and pin it to the ground under her weight. Ruby was forced to let go of her weapon in order to dodge a sword coming for her abdomen, backing off until Laera gave chase, stepping between her and the scythe. Ruby used her semblance to get around Laera quicker than she could react; taking back Crescent Rose first, she carried the enhanced speed into a powerful drop kick sending Laera end-over-end across the stage.
Laera formed a glyph that she struck not so elegantly, having used it to keep her in the arena boundaries and from losing from a ring out. She clambered to her feet and deflected two swings of Ruby's scythe, taking a slash of her own at Ruby's legs which she hopped over easily, and they both took measured steps from one another once they broke away.
Unlike Weiss, who could maintain a number of Glyphs at once or within a short time span of one another, Laera was limited. Her glyphs were large and usually had a solid power behind them, but couldn't be used the way Weiss used hers; Laera accelerated herself with the use of her glyphs now, but had them appear at exact points where she would need a boost or need to make a sharp turn; easier to track, but harder to catch. Ruby began using her semblance again, and the two were clashing all over the stage before Laera finally gave up on out-manoeuvring the little scarlet speed demon.
Laera bunkered down and waited for Ruby to come to her, thinking she was getting nowhere with going after her. Ruby continued using her semblance, feinting a shot from the right to hit her from directly in front when she went to block the attack, jabbing Laera in the stomach with the pointed end of Crescent Rose's shaft and quickly using the blunt back of the scythe to bat her into the air. Ruby led the upswing into placement against the ground, firing while jumping at the same time to close in on Laera mid-air and give her a vertical whirling slash that sent her into the ground. Laera got up, having blocked it, but shakily as the force she was struck with and impact to the ground had both been hard.
"Winner: Ruby Rose." Glynda caught them both before they lunged again, Laera sighing and sheathing Precious Surge. After some words of encouragement and things to improve on from the teacher, she and Ruby stepped down from the same stairs, chatting with smiles like they weren't just hitting each other.
Regis leaned Laera's way as they both came back, the rest of RWBY now present having assumed Ruby would stay and chat with either Laera or Obaz. "How's that whiplash, Laera? Pretty big wreck you were in."
"Do you ever speak outside of jokes and flirting?" Weiss interjected on her approach. He continued to harry Laera a little but kept the volume down, his eyes drawn more to Obaz and Yang standing side-by-side.
Obaz was still sore about the proclamation of a date she made some few days ago, and in spite of her best attempts at hinting she was sorry, he could either hold a grudge well or wouldn't acknowledge such subtle attempts. Regis wasn't entirely sure why she even wanted to be on good terms with the guy, but he could guess; most likely would be Obaz growing closer with her sister. Ruby probably had nothing but good things to say about him, and with the guy on Yang-specific lockdown she couldn't get him to say for what reasons he met with her younger sister. Obaz mostly studied and trained in his free time, but more than once Regis had seen him and Ruby simply talking.
Right now, Yang was standing next to him but couldn't find the words it so seemed. She struck up a bit of smalltalk, wherein she got his attention, and in seconds he was just walking away and she looked ready to crush his head. Regis stifled a laugh, hearing Glynda start picking and choosing again;
"Russell Thrush, and Lie Ren." That wasn't even worth watching. It would be a surprise if the match lasted any more than a minute. Even so, the little escapade after his loss where Cardin and the gang tried to cheer up and insult the guy simultaneously would be worth witnessing, so he chose to visit Cardin for a spell. Sophia watched him turn to the dark side with an irritable expression.
"I just don't get it. I don't. It's like being friends with a rock that everyone stubs their toe on aside from you." Obaz stood unmoving, listening to the analogy Sophia made with little else to give his attention to. His gaze flickered to Blake at intervals; Ruby had let slip a day ago that her black-haired team member had a tendency to process her for information each time she met with him. According to RWBY's leader, Blake was always the first to attentively listen when Ruby brought him up, and often kept her going on the subject. It seemed like she was still convinced they were acquainted from somewhere beforehand, and it was gnawing at the back of her mind. While his ears were trained on Sophia's grumblings and the fight on stage, his eyes were being drawn to that as well as Blake and Ruby, thinking about where they might have met given she really did recognize him. It was unlikely he had helped her with car troubles.
It was a shame that not one member of team STNH had this class with them. The twins had transferred in and out, but much like RSOL they were pieces that the teachers found hard to fit into the puzzle of Beacon scheduling. Of course they had combat class, just not the same one they did. Jaune probably wished they were here more than Obaz did simply so Steven could populate a class he were in with Cardin; Steven heard about the instances where Jaune was victimized by the villain but was never there when such things actually happened. Apparently, Steven was the type of guy who only needed a direct excuse to start either intervening peacefully or throwing punches.
Ren descended the steps, dusting off his sleeves and sharing a word with Nora. Nora shared at least fifty with him, mostly congratulations and compliments but when she said she would do just as well against any opponent she got, Glynda noted this.
"Alright then, Nora Valkyrie. Let's see... ah, Sophia Towers." The girls stepped up to the arena, Nora ready to crash down and Sophia prepared to break through. All eyes were glued to the stage as Glynda gave the go-ahead, Sophia springing her shield and Nora charging toward her.
The quarter-circle plate jumped in to defend against the battering force of Nora's repeated hammer strokes at Sophia's beckoning, and she was using the mechanism that set down and unleashed the shield to meet with a strong force of her own. Nora leaned back to evade a hard swing of Sophia's lance, but stumbled back when struck by the bottom of the gun barrel that Sophia rammed forward with. Sophia stepped out of the way of a kick, and nearly got demolished by an explosion-propelled attack as her opponent recovered.
She hadn't expected something like a war hammer to be swung by this hyperactive redhead at such speeds; watching Sophia successfully shield the bold weight of Nora's assault was like watching a battering ram bash into the gates of a fort but at a rate of twice per second. Even worse, she showed no signs of stopping anytime soon, and when she came in with an underhand stroke it took Sophia off her feet it landed her on her back. Thinking fast, she dodged the next meteoric hammer swing by drawing back Matenlock's lance and extending it against the floor, much like the spring mechanism of the shield the lance slid her across the arena floor and out of the impact crater that formed right behind her.
Now that there was some distance and Sophia had a handle on Nora's speed, she held her back with some thrusts of her lance that made Nora pick her ways to strike more carefully. This didn't last, much to Sophia's dismay, as Nora lost patience and hit the ground so hard the tremor made Sophia falter in her steps and let Nora start trying to shatter her defense again. Sophia made her own daring move once Nora came in for a horizontal stroke, stabbing the Matenlock into the floor and bringing up both hands for an axe-handle that knocked the hammer off course, over her head. She brought her clawed hand in for a backhand, punch to the jaw, and got one last kick to Nora's stomach before Nora jolted forward and not only slammed the top of her head into Sophia's nose, but kicked Matenlock out of its place in the ground, away from them both.
Nora got into a frenzy of hammer swings, and though Sophia manoeuvred around a good five of them the sixth caught her without a weapon. She blocked with her arms, but was sent careening over the side of the arena. "Winner: Nora Valkyrie." They had both been in the yellow area of their auras, neither of them had taken a great deal of damage, but the distance one was sent by Nora's attacks was simply too much.
Nora smiled a dazzling and bright grin, asking Ren half a dozen times if he saw as well as telling Sophia she did well. Ms. Goodwitch advised Sophia not to take gambles, and they briefly discussed Obaz' abandonment of the Mk. III being a mistake when he first fought against Yang Xiao Long before she was let go.
"That will be the last spar of the day. Class dismissed."