Jaune stretched out a bit as he got ready for the first doubles match to start. Weiss and Yang were going against two of Atlas's team FNKI, and the blond leader couldn't help but wonder if Atlas came up with team names and gimmicks for them at the same time. Ah well.
Watching his friends get dismantled at the start, he turns to Ren. "Think you can adapt that skater girl's moves into your arsenal just from watching?"
The teen with a pink stripe of hair shakes his head. "Not as well as if I experienced them. And I'm not sure if I could even use them in the first place. She might have a similar weapon type, but that doesn't mean I could use her techniques." His explanation done, Ren looked back to the screen. Oh, it looked like Weiss and Yang managed to make a comeback, at the sacrifice of Weiss's clothes today. It was a good thing their combat attire was so durable, she might have shown quite a bit more than intended otherwise. As it was, that outfit would probably be scrapped and replaced after the match.
The shielth fighter nods a bit, and flexes an arm, trying out a last minute idea. He could feel his Stand empowering the limb, but it was... lacking. Like he'd be missing a good portion of the strength The... Stand could give just on its own. Maybe next combat class he'd have it fine-tuned.
As Yang was declared victor and sent on to the finals, Jaune and Ren exited the changing room. They gave the girls high fives as they passed, one more enthusiastic than the other on either side. Striding onto the stage, desert and city configuration being selected as the four students got to position, the boys drew their weapons as their older opponents from Haven did the same, a simple rapier and a mecha-shifting bastard sword. The male-female duo flourished their weapons appropriately, the silver-haired young man spinning his thinner blade a few times while the young woman with black and fuchsia hair done up in two odd buns set her weapon on a shoulder with a cocky grin.
Ren took a stance with his legs wide and arms set so the blades of Storm Flower faced away from him, one pointing towards Jaune but never threatening his team leader. Jaune just brought his shielth up in front of him, his sword hanging loosely down by his leg, looking over the stances their counterparts took up. Oobleck and Port introduced them as Pierre Polnef and Irene Joystar. To the members of team JNPR, neither name meant anything besides designating targets.
Irene charged first, not the fastest to either since they were either naturally faster or had experienced being on the opposite end of faster opponents. Running through sand towards their pavement didn't help. Jaune walked forward, and swung his shielth to parry the swinging bastard sword with practiced ease of movement. The stinging that went through his arm was expected while Irene spun with the momentum, bringing a low swing at his legs. Jaune hopped over the attack before swinging his own sword from low to Irene's chest. Thanks to her aura, Irene stumbled back with only a bruise under the web-designed shirt. The lack of anchorage meant he hadn't been able to put much weight into that either.
Pierre's sudden assault was a bit harder to deal with, especially when he summoned... the hell?! That Stand looked like a knight of old, with a bit more spikes than should be normal! Jaune redirected the young man's rapier with his shielth and surprised him by using his sword to parry seemingly nothing but air. While most of the audience and commentators wondered what he was doing swinging at nothing, Pierre jumped back, looking at the blond incredulously. "You can see Silver Chariot? But, no one at Beacon was supposed to have a Stand this year! You..." Gritting his teeth to keep from spilling more info, the silver-haired boy sped forward. Jaune couldn't tell if his speed was natural, aura augmented or Stand augmented.
Glancing to his side before re-engaging, Jaune saw Ren was not having the best of luck against Irene... and her Stand, which had taken her sword and using a different form. Pyrrha wasn't the only Mistrali with a sword that turned into a polearm it looked, though the Haven student went with a trident while using a net... made out of webbing? Weird. Still, Ren was managing to hold his own in a mix of movement between sand and pavement right now and Jaune wasn't fast or skilled enough to fight a running battle just yet. Thankful for his Stand's eyes adding a second level of vision, the Arc began parrying the two rapiers. He didn't have much room to maneuver while keeping his own Stand hidden.
"Is this all you can do? Come on, at least use your Semblance! Otherwise you'll never defeat the fastest Stand in the world!" And like those words were magic, Silver Chariot sped up. To the still silent Jaune, it started to have an afterimage following every move. This was very different from Blake's, which were just one copy that existed for a short time. Pierre himself kept up his usual speed, or what Jaune thought was that. Fighting such an agile opponent was not something he'd trained for, but the constant defensive effort was a lot easier on the blond than staying on the offensive for so long was for Pierre. The silver-haired young man was more used to his opponents going down quickly, it seemed, since he started huffing a bit every few moves but didn't slow down. Yet.
The mix of physical exertion and commanding a Stand takes a toll on anyone, but having to keep your attention on swinging four arms at once, and doing so elegantly, seemed to make the silver-haired swordsman use up more energy than Jaune keeping one arm close and angled while swiftly swinging the other. The blond was starting to lose feeling in his arms again, so he fixed that by flowing some aura throughout his body. The slight white glow would also distract Irene whenever Jaune got a chance to do it, only twice now in this match, giving Ren a breather. He was less used to drawn-out bouts than anyone currently in the ring, even after sparring with his team leader for progressively longer periods.
Having gotten a feel for Pierre's rhythm, Jaune decided now was a good time to break it. Parrying Silver Chariot's rapier again, the blond ducked and snapped out his leg in a sweep kick. The Haven student hopped over his leg, then received a shielth edge to the gut. Falling to the ground without any air in his lungs, his Stand returning to his mind's cage, Pierre Polnef found the edge of a sword held to his neck after landing painfully. "I yield! I yield!" The sound of a buzzer acknowledged the forfeiture. Along with another one signaling someone else's defeat.
Jaune looked to his friend, and saw Ren down for the count. He was bleeding from a few cuts, many more littered his outfit, but looked more like he had collapsed from exhaustion than anything from Irene. Giving his sword a spin, the blond looked at the bun-haired woman who still looked quite cocky, if panting heavily and sweating a bit. The martial artist had given better than he'd got, but he couldn't last very long in combat just yet. Jaune figured he'd try and fix that when they were done recuperating from the Tournament.
Walking toward Irene, Jaune saw that her Stand was a blue with a dash of black humanoid type. The two closed in on each other slowly. Irene's Stand passed her mecha-shifting trident back to her, where she promptly turned it back into a bastard sword. Given Jaune had only heard Ren's bullets throughout the match, he wouldn't have to deal with any shenanigans in that regard. Still, seeing that sunglasses-wearing Stand floating along behind Irene was a little intimidating. Still, the blond didn't summon his Stand, it would be a waste at this point. And he did want to keep it hidden for the last match.
The two sword wielders stood a few meters away from each other now, sizing the other up. Jaune had gotten a few cuts and holes in his clothes, along with some along his limbs that weren't visible any more thanks to his aura healing them, while Irene was still bleeding a bit from the various cuts Ren had gotten on her. No bullets had managed to pierce her it seemed, so the Arc spun his sword in his hand before taking a pose that let him be ready for a sprinting attack. Having tested it out with all of his friends and teachers, he knew the best time to stop running. However, he wanted to test something this time. If it didn't work, he'd just return to his normal attacks for the remainder of the match.
Irene sped forward first, both hands on her bastard sword as she readied for a horizontal slash at his side. Jaune took a few steps forward before swinging his sword at the suddenly swung net of black strings. This was an odd Stand, he'd-oh crap, there went his sword. And it landed in the sand, great. Note to self, don't try and get caught up in those strings. He skipped back to avoid blocking the bastard sword swing before watching as Irene reached into a pocket and grinned.
The black-fuchsia haired woman pulled out a steel ball, which was then wrapped in a single black string. "How many times do you think I can hit you with this?"
Jaune felt it prudent to not stand still and find out, so began to run away. "Hey! Get back here!" Four shoes hitting pavement echoed a bit as the blond ran through the miniature city. It wasn't quite in ruins, but... there! Taking a few more steps, he then ducked and slid feet first through a broken door. That wasn't what he was counting on to surprise Irene.
After the young woman pulled the door open with her Stand's black strings, she cautiously walked in. There wasn't much visibly going on, to her. The audience all saw that Jaune was waiting with his feet somehow kicked into the ceiling, his shrunken shielth in his left hand as his right gripped a hanging light. To most of the viewers, Irene was standing one second and the next she crumpled. The buzzer signaled the end of the match, Jaune the victor and moving on to the finals.
To everyone able to see Stands, which to Blake's knowledge was only her but could've been upwards of half of the audience for all she could tell, they saw a golden flash knock into Irene's head before it disappeared. Only because she knew what that flash actually looked like was Blake able to understand what had attacked the Mistrali. Anyone else would likely think Jaune's Stand was just a yellow bar or something. Having encountered only two before joining Beacon, the cat Faunus was sure that there were bound to be Stands no one could accurately tell what they looked like. Not even their own users. For now, she just turned to make a positive comment to Pyrrha before raising an amused eyebrow.
"Pyrrha, clean up your drool."
The champion quickly felt her face, because that had definitely happened while watching Jaune train before, and gave Blake a short mock-glare for that before looking back to her partner as he retrieved his sword. "He's come a long way."
Ruby nearby nodded, curious how he got Irene to just fall like she'd been hit by something. "Yeah. I wonder how he unlocked his Semblance?"
Green and amber eyes met with a bit of smirking before the three girls got up to go see to their teammates, Nora having left as soon as the medics picked up Ren.