Two battle-ready youths stepped forward from the crowd, prepared to beat the living crap out of eachother. One was wrapped in viridian-green from head to toe - head in a scarf, body in a cloak - with only his scarlet eyes visible. The other was clad in much more traditional clothing, with blue pants, a magenta shirt and a deep violet ponytail.

Varin twirled a kunai lazily around his right index finger, a steady eye scrutinizing his foe as he stepped up to the arena. This curious dark-skinned girl was a berserker in most definitions of the word, so he wouldn't have a hope in Tartarus if he were to try and meet her head-on. His trademark tricks would be needed to stand any chance in this duel.

Iris was itching to show that snake what-for, hopping with excitement up to the battlefield. She'd heard many things about him - much of which was either too fantastical to believe or too mundane to believe - but if she knew anything for sure, it was that anyone who had to trick people to win would cave under her blows like the French. Not that she knew who the French were, of course.

"Combatants, arm yourselves," commanded Professor Mekano.

Varin slipped his kunai back into his left sleeve, before grabbing a metal bar from inside his cloak. He opened it in half to expose a blade, bringing the formerly opposite sides together. Iris, meanwhile, lifted a pair of Ulaks from the holsters at her waist, and crouched into a battle-ready stance.

The lights dimmed, and the professor spoke again. "Ready… Fight!"

Iris gave a mighty battlecry and leapt at Varin, who crouched and… vanished? She came to a halt and looked around, confusion killing her yell.

Then she heard a gunshot, and felt cold grip her left foot. Varin appeared to her left with a revolver in hand - he had just shot her with an Ice Dust bullet, freezing her to the spot! Roaring with anger, she ripped her foot out of the ice and leapt at her opponent.

Varin barely had time to whip his balisword back into her path before she started punching with her hand-blades. Slashing reverse-grip like he was used to, he was startled to find the teeth atop her weapons could snag his blade. Stashing his revolver, he continued to parry her blows, then- BAM! He took an opening and triggered a button on the base of his sword, jabbing her right in the chest with a spring-loaded extention to the weapon's handle.

Iris tumbled back, winded. That last blow had driven a fair bit of breath from her. She looked up, and saw Varin turn his weapon around, now holding it like a naginata.

Fully transformed Witstick in hand, Varin went on the full offensive, using his weapon's range to reach past her fists and strike Iris directly. When she tried to snag the blade, he just swung the back end at her. This was getting frustrating for her, so she did the smart thing: grab her shotgun, point the barrels at his chest, and give him both of them.

The shot sent him flying back, landing on his ass. Quickly glancing at his scroll, he saw that his Aura was in orange. In front of him, Iris was clipping her Ulaks to the barrels of her shotgun, forming a very formidable ax.

Iris was grinning. That little snake was lying on the ground in a daze! She could finish this in one strike, with her patented RyuOnoTaifu attack!

Varin was no stranger to flashy finishers - back at Lumios, it had been the norm for everyone to have such a move. His personal preference was to make the performer screw it up and take advantage of them while they were recoiling from surprise. So when Iris leapt at him while spinning like a top, ax out and ready to slash, he didn't panic - he just tossed three kunai from his left sleeve at her and rolled out of the way.

Iris wasn't expecting any attack from Varin, so those kunai were about as pleasant as diving into an ice-cold pool. In fact, they actually startled her as much too, making her lose focus, drop her ax, and tumble to the ground mere feet before the spot Varin had just been.

…Except she didn't hit the ground. A sharp yank on the back of her head announced itself, causing her to yelp in pain and more surprise. Varin had gotten to his feet and grabbed her ponytail, putting her in something of a compromising situation.

He had just the word for this situation. "Haircut?"

Iris had two in reply. "F*** off."

It was at this point that Varin pulled off a move that would stay with him forever: in one fluid motion, he yanked Iris by the hair up into a kneeling position, leaned back, and gave her a solid kick back into the ground. It would have looked glorious in slow-motion.

Iris was too dazed by meeting the floor to focus.

Varin landed on all fours and ninja'd to the other side of the arena, with the aid of some Wind Dust in his cloak. Standing, he collapsed his naginata into its compact bar form, and swapped it for his revolver. Then he aimed it at Iris, cycled a shot forward, and waited.

It took a few seconds, but she did eventually pry herself off the floor. Seeing as she probably only had a little Aura left in her, Varin decided to fix that. He cycled forward another shot in his revolver, and fired it directly at her.

Iris lifted her head and tried to pull her thoughts together. That snake would pay for that low blow, oh yes he-

A Fire Dust bullet exploded and flung her aside, but she managed to land in a halfway-standing position. Turning to look at Varin, she saw him just standing there, waiting. Rising to a full standing position, she hefted her ax and-

At that moment, a loud buzzer rang out and the lights came on in full.

"Iris, that will do."

Icterine Mekano, the professor who had overseen the match, stepped forward. "Iris Ryuzyu's Aura is now in the red, which means the match goes to Varin Hanro!"

Varin bowed, as the crowd gave their obligatory applause. Ninja'ing one last time to collect his kunai, he walked down the steps to meet with his team, all of whom were in their uniforms.

"Whoa, man, that was EPIC! I mean, her spinning finisher was cool too, but you totally just nulled it like it was nothing! Amazing!" gushed Davy, hopping up and down like a little kid.

"Yeah, you kinda killed the action there for a second," frowned Navy, towering over all of them. "But then again," he relented, "your little trick with her hair was kinda cool."

"Yeah," chuckled Varin in reply. "She kinda… threw me off when she no-selled that Ice Dust bullet, but I got there in the end."

"You let her shoot you in the chest, point-blank," stated Rust. It wasn't an observation, but an accusation. "Why didn't you dodge?"

"Well, I could have if I'd wanted to," Varin retorted. "but my strategy needed her to use her finisher."

Rust gave a 'not bad' face. "Fair call."

Icterine called out again. "The next match will be: Ochre Gaoger versus Diamond Traluce!"

Varin and Navy looked at eachother and spoke in unison. "Dis gun be gud."

Rust gave them an odd look.

Davy clarified. "Grizzly old veteran versus Schnee bootleg. He'll probably see all her moves coming, but will he be able to stand up against them at that age?"