A/N

So before this chapter starts, I just want to say that these first few chapters are going to be a little short since they are mainly for setting up the characters, their combat abilities and the themes the story will cover but from chapter 5 they will be at least double the length. Also combat is very tough for me to write and tiring for people to read in massive chunks so I have split this chapter into 2 parts. I intend to publish the next part on Saturday and try my best to keep that as the upload date but please don't be mad if I miss it by a day or two.

Also I want to say a massive thank you to those who followed and special thanks to RandomwriterJ for the kind words in his review. Please let me know how this chapter reads because I am rather nervous about this one. Anyways enough rambling, please enjoy.


Chapter 2 – The Claiming

Camea Thystel

"Undoubtedly you have seen the ten banners lining this room," Professor Lionheart continued. "These banners are your goals for today."

Camea watched as the people around her moved slightly closer the the walls in a attempt to get there first. She however stayed where she was, knowing that it would not be that simple. Professor Lionheart had clearly noticed the shifting too, and so had the other teachers, who were already scribbling something on their clipboards, except one who was arguing with himself.

"However," Professor Lionheart continued. "These are not your only objectives. We call this test The Claiming, your goal is to claim one opponent. Touching the flag while touching your opponent will make them your partner for the next four years. They must not go willingly however. Drag them kicking and screaming or simply knock them out and drag their unconscious body to the flag, it's your choice. Oh and this fight is also a free for all."

Noise immediately kicked up at that. People were suddenly whispering to themselves and the shuffling of their feet gave away that they were trying to get into close proximity of the person they wanted.

"Well, looks like you all get to clean up after me," said the man with the sword that Camea had seen outside earlier. "I always wanted a bunch of servants," he added with a wink to the nearest student.

The man clearly did not see the trouble he was in, it was obvious that multiple people had already set their sights on him, Camea would consider him to be lucky if he only had five of the students in the room rushing him. Further more, no-one seemed to be realising exactly what this task meant in the long run. The first person to touch a banner would be at the most disadvantage. In fact, holding out until all ten flag had a pair gave you the pick of who you wanted your team to be.

"Now you will be graded on your performance here by these fine teachers," Professor Lionheart pressed on as he pointed to the five teachers behind him. "And your grade will determine the leader of each team. You now have five minutes to prepare, the test starts when the gong sounds."

The room tensed considerable as everyone activates their auras and tried to decide not only who they could take on in a fight and win, but who else would be going for that person too. Camea had already decided that going for the guy with a sword would be far more trouble than it was worth and began looking around for a more suitable choice as she removed her dupatta and wrapped it twice round her waist before tying it off. After assessing the crowd, her eyes landed on a girl wearing a pink duster holding a revolver. Deciding that the girls ranged style would suit her own close combat style perfectly, she made her mind up. Revolver girl was her target.

The next few seconds were an explosion of movement and sound. A gong sounded throughout the room and the first person to move was the man with the sword, his movement was quick and fluid as he slammed the back of his metal covered hand into the boy closest too him. The resulting forced sent the poor boy soaring across the room and all eyes followed him as he slammed hard into the wall. Fortunately he stood back up, albeit on shaky legs, but once he was on hit feet, all hell broke loose in the room.

Her target had barely moved. Instead she had simply drawn another gun into her right hand. Camea gave her shoulders a shrug backwards to released a pair of round shields with bladed rims, they slid down the zip tricks on each arm and locked into place on her bracers. Not wanting to waste any more time, Camea set off at a run towards her target.

Her reaction was instant, in the blink of an eye Camea was staring at a twin barrel revolver pointed directly and her and in the next blink the gun fired with the sound of a small explosion. She raised her left shield, Shriek, to block the shot and felt an impact far too strong to be a dust round. Camea knew this feeling. These were old fashion, pure metal bullets; and from the force of the impact she knew they were big. Very big. The girl however had not seemed fazed by what should have been an immense amount of recoil to shoot with one hand, in fact her hand had barely moved. Camea rolled to the side as she saw the girl finger twitch again and narrowly avoided the second shot before attempting to continuing her rush. However she was met yet again by the barrels of the girl left gun. This time she had just enough time to see blue trail behind the bullet as she blocked it again. This time the impact was much less but a shock travelled up her left arm. Dust in the left, metal in the right., she realised. Blocking would do her no good in the fight. The sheer impact strength of the right gun would put a stop to her charge instantly and the left would easily chip away at her aura.

Deciding to change tactics, Camea began her advance once more and as expected the girls right gun fired off but this time she was ready. Camea raised Shriek at an angle this time, allowing the bullet to glance off the shield instead of taking the full impact. Her charge slowed slightly but didn't stop her completely and in no time she found herself within two meters of the girl. Close enough.

Camea swing her right arm forward sending her second shield, Shrill, soaring through the air and forcing the girl to sidestep. That was her first mistake. Camea tugged her forearm back towards her chest, yanking at the wire that kept Shrill connected to her wrist. This caused the shield to return on a slightly altered path, just enough to clip the girls left shoulder. Pink aura flashed for a second, showing that it was indeed a good hit. But now that she was in close, she could get to work.

She felt Shrill clip itself back into position and lashed out with a wide swing that the girl barely avoided only for Camea to connect a quick jab from Shriek. Not wanting to lose the momentum she had gained, she brought Shrill up into an uppercut that the girl dodged with a small backwards hop. Camea couldn't allow her to get any distance so she stepped forward in response. Suddenly she felt something glide along her stomach, and a shimmer of purple aura flowed up her arms to signify damage being taken. It didn't take her long to find the culprit. A blade had at some point extended between the barrels of the girls left gun and she had taken the opportunity of Cameas advance to get in a quick swipe.

The girl seized upon the advantage her surprise attack had presented and unleashed a flurry of quick slashes punctuated with occasional shots that put Camea on the defensive. Camea managed to block most of them with her shields,only taking a few light hits, until finally she saw and opening and struck. She once again swing her fist up in an uppercut but this time she was aiming for the girls left wrist. She felt the rim of the shield strike its target this time, forcing the girls arm to swing out to the side and giving Camea the opportunity to slam Shrill shield into the girls chest causing her to stagger backwards a couple of steps. This time Camea recognised the feint and didn't play into it, instead she threw her shield once more at the girl face and was pleased to see it strike the girls nose making her really stagger this time. Camea prepared to rush in to capitalize but found herself bouncing off thin air as she got within a few feet of the girl.

On closer inspection, it wasn't thin air at all, in fact the air around her target seemed to have taken on a pink tinge, almost identical in colour to the girls aura. She struck out once with Shrill to test the bubble that was forming around the girl only for her shield to bounce off of it. She could do nothing as the girl regained her composure and reloaded her guns of the few rounds she had fired during their clash. Once she had finished reloading, the pink bubble began to shrink until it came to a rest, hugging the girls skin, though oddly it did not seem to cover the girls right hand. She gave her guns a quick spin, releasing the blades for both guns this time and took a step towards Camea. At the same time a shout sounded to their right and an almost defeated looking male student charged the girl, obviously he had seen her semblance and liked it enough to make his move.

Camea prepared to fight both of the targets but any worry about the boy was soon removed as the girls eyes turned to him. She raised her right hand with a smile and fired. The sound was telling. She had fired both rounds at once this time rather than the single shots she had been firing at Camea. Both bullets hit the boys shoulder and caused him to do a rather nasty looking backflip. He landed face down on the floor and Camea knew he would not be getting up again until the test was over and someone had claimed him. Her attention turned back to Camea and once again continued her advance.

"The names Nadea," she called out, her voice carried over the sounds of fighting. "And I wouldn't mind you as a partner either but I'm afraid it will be me who claims you." And with that she rushed in.

The girl was fast, even faster than before and Camea only just had enough time to raise her shield as a knee slammed into it. She felt an arm wrap around the back of her neck as Nadea used her momentum to drag both of them to the ground. Camea fell hard onto her back, Nadea hovering over her on a knee preparing to bring her blade down in a vicious plunge. Moving her heard to the side, Camea brought Shrill up in an attempt to strike the girls head and dislodge her but only met Nadeas right hand which grabbed the rim on the shield. When did she holster her gun? In the fall? Cameo shook her head, that didn't matter now as Nadeas hand was in a place she could work with. She stretched out her fingers and grabbed the lever on the inside of the shield and pulled.

The shield groaned to life as the rim retracted to reveal a rough chain with small blades littering its length. With one more pull of the lever, the groaning turning into a bellow as the chain began to rotate at high speed. The girls hand was thrown off the shield with an outburst of sparks and Camea used the chance to pull her left shield into position and ignited the gravity dust crystal embedded in its centre. The crystal threw Nadea up into the the air. Camea launched herself into a standing position and shoved Shrill up into the girls abdomen. She let out a grunt in response and brought her elbows down to knock the shield out of position. It worked enough for her to land safely a few meter away where she quickly stood and fired off two pairs of shots from her right gun in quick succession, Camea deflected one pair but the other pair hit her directly in the chest. Her body erupted in pain as while her aura had blocked the damage, the sheer force made her bones rattle and the breath leave her body. She knew her aura was dangerously low now and that this fight was almost at its end. From the breathless look on Nadea's face, she knew it too.

Camea took a quick breath and steeled herself for one final assault. Nadea was only a couple of meters from one of the banners, if she could just get her there, then she would win. She pulled the lever on Shriek, revealing its own chain. She stepped forward, to be met with another pair of bullets flying straight at her face. She sidestepped them and swung her shield once again at the girls right arm in an attempt to smack it aside. The attempt was successful as the girls speed had slowed significantly due to the damage she had taken. Camea followed up with a left hook, but the girl managed to back-step out of it exactly as Camea had planned. She transitioned her left hook into a shoulder slam with just enough force to push the girl into the wall. She rushed forward, receiving a slash to the face from the girls left blade in the process, and pinned her against the wall with her shoulder while snatching the banner with her free hand. She had succeeded.

"Claimed," She whispered to the girl before falling to her knees in exhaustion. "And I'm Camea."

Nadea Heart

She had lost. And she hurt. All. Over. When she had seen the girl look at her before the gong rang she hadn't expected such a fight. In fact she hadn't even expected the girl to get close to her. She was usually quite good at keeping people at bay but those retractable shields had taken her by surprise. Most surprisingly though she had taken multiple dust rounds and two simultaneous shots from Destroy. Not many people could take the pain from two .50 caliber magnum rounds to the chest and remain standing, even with aura. Nonetheless, she had extremely enjoyed the fight and even been forced to use her semblance. She sighed and allowed herself to finally slide down the wall as she looked around to see what other teams had been formed, so far there were only two banners left that did not have a pair attached to them.

"Good fight," she said to the girl who had named herself Camea. "Partner."