Chapter 21

Snow had a small smile on his face as he watched the reaction of the seven men before him, each one just witnessed snow knocking out three competitors with one hit each. Snow was only wearing his brown combat boots, white baggy jeans, an under shirt, and his beanie. His coat left forgotten by the unconscious students by him. Snow let his gaze shift to the only female member of the group, Tifa Lockhart who was only wearing black biker shorts, and a white sports bra. But she didn't show much skin for she bandaged her arms and any other exposed upper body skin, not that it hid her figure as the bandages clung on to her like a second skin. Snow noticed that her fighting stance was similar to his, but that couldn't be possible, for he learned his families fighting style. No one was allowed to learn the Martial arts of the Villiers family.

Snow was forced to stop his thinking when the remaining seven men regained their senses. Two charged him straight forward and Snow was quick to engage. It took the two men a second to realize that Snow was now behind them, and a little longer to realize that they were incased in ice. Snow stood facing the remaining opponents in front of him with his fist outstretched in front of him, a trail of frost on the grass behind him. Snow kept the pose a little longer with his head down and his eyes closed, he had nothing to fear from these people. Boy was he in for a surprise.

Snow reacted half a second slower than his instinct told him when he lost his breath due to an unexpected blow to the gut. His eyes were forced open to see a Blur of black and a dust cloud slowly dissipating. And within the same second Snow found himself launched into the air from a second hit to his jaw that was followed by a kick to his temple. Snow found himself on the ground right next to one of the people he knocked out. It just registered in his brain that he had been hit, and hit hard. Forcing himself to stand, he coughed as he tried to get some oxygen back into his head, and saw Tifa go back into her stance. He just realized that the girl attacked and landed three blows faster than he could recover from is shock. 'This woman is dangerous.' Was his only thought.

Tifa stood watching and waiting for her opponent to react, she knew that she didn't pull back her punches so the fact that this man can still stand after three hits proves that he is in a whole different league. She looked to her side and motioned her temporary allies to be ready. "I'll keep him busy when you get the chance, hit him with your best shot." The remaining five nodded their understanding; each knew that they couldn't stand toe to toe with Snow.

Tifa decided to engage before Snow, hoping to land another punch before he reacted. Sadly Snow reacted faster this time, slapping her punch away he through his own, only to find air as Tifa was already countering with a right hook. Snow blocked the punch and threw a quick jab only to miss again. Soon the two found themselves in a stalemate; Tifa's punches were blocked, while Snow's were avoided. Each competitor moving too fast for the other competitors to see.

"Wow she is actually holding her own with Snow!" Serah shouted in excitement. Fang couldn't hold in the laugh that escaped her throat, "I don't think you realized, that Snow has so far shrugged off, each punched. Tifa may be able to knock him down, but she cannot hurt him. The only thing keeping her in this fight is the fact that Snow is the slowest, of our class. The moment Tifa takes one of his frozen punches, she would be out cold." Fang said with a serious look in her eye.

"It's true Tifa is using her speed, to her advantage." Zidane said with an equally calculated look in his eyes. Everyone starred in shock at Zidane. "I mean using those bandages to make her boobs and ass more compact help reduce the air resistance." Fang nodded her head in agreement while everyone else deadpanned.

"Excuse me guys while I'll go discipline our local pervert." Riku said as she reached and dragged a still focused Zidane. "Those two should definitely hook up." Vanille said. "They pretty much act the same until Zidane becomes a pervert, but then Rikku takes it upon herself to discipline him. They practically already act like a couple." The group of friends thought about it again and they all had to agree with it. Vanille makes a point. "I'll try to talk to Rikku about it." Yuna said, "But let's focus on the battle, Cloud just took out one person, by surprise, and he is no were near Snow and Tifa.

"Squall how long can Tifa keep up her speed?" Tidus asked.

"Last time I checked a good 10 minutes, 15 if she pushes herself."

"Fang how good is Snow's stamina?" Again Tidus asked.

"At the rate he keeps throwing and missing, I say he got about 15 minutes, with magic, and 30 without. And I think Snow is betting on out lasting Tifa considering he stopped his magic flow." Everyone looked back to the fight which already went on for about three minutes, Tifa just starting to sweet, Snow looking as if he was having fun, despite all the hits he took, there wasn't a single bruise.

Tifa starred into the eyes of the taller and clearly stronger man, no matter how many hits he took, he made it seem like they tickled. She was starting to get frustrated, taking a brake watching the last two people who is helping her jump the senior. The other's were quickly knocked out but these two were Juniors, one was using Light magic to blind Snow while the other used his barrier magic to absorb any hits he took. They couldn't hurt the blonde but they did the job of buying her time, to recover. 'Keep buying me some more time guys, I just need a few more seconds to prepare myself. After dancing around this man's punches I know his fighting technique, and I know in order to beat him I need to use that.'

Snow was starting to get a headache, not due to the blows he took to the head, and not because of Calculus, but due to the light show one of the juniors were giving him. Closing his eyes Snow tried to pinpoint his enemies by the sound of their movements. Swinging literally blind, he would manage to punch, or kick one only to feel some kind of force repel his attack. 'It seems I'm just going to swing blindly till these guys exhaust themselves. Oh well now I can think on how this one girl can predict and easily dodge my attacks, it take not only speed but knowledge of the Villiers technique. I might have to use my magic's second phase to put her down quickly. No sense of preserving my energy to face off Barret since someone took him out. Tough bastard got beat by some freshman.

Snow stood straight eyes closed, and didn't even flinch when one of the juniors kicked his face. "Oh shit, back away from him." The other junior said, quickly the juniors found themselves side by side with Tifa standing a few yards away from Snow. Time seemed to freeze as everyone watched Snow draw breath from his nose. The temperature seemed to drop with each breath he took. Small frozen particles started to swirl around him, and the grass around his feet was being covered by a small coating of frost. Tifa stood in a ready position while her back up mirrored her actions. What happened next made Tifa shiver. Snow opened his eyes, and in that same instant, the ground near him turned into solid ice, the clothes around his body were covered in frost, His skin was also covered in a layer of frost, the temperature was clearly below freezing now, but what made Tifa shiver was the look in his eyes. A pale frozen blue color stared back at her with a glare colder than the air.

"Well then shall we begin," Steam came out of Snow's mouth as he spoke, his voice sounding unbelievably cruel. "Tifa, you should leave." One junior said, "You need to find more people to help you against this man, we will buy as much time as possible." The other junior said, covering himself with his barrier magic. Tifa looked at her allies then back to Snow, the man starting to take off his shirt, strangely causing the air to get colder. Tifa in turn stood steady and started to breathe slowly. The air around her started to swirl around her in turn, her hair flowing with a breeze of warm air. The Grass around her flowing to the visible energy that now covered her body. Her allies and Snow watched with amazement.

Tifa opened her eyes, and they seemed to be calm, suddenly her team mates were covered in a golden light and they notice the fatigue that started to slow them down was gone, in fact they felt stronger than ever. "I'm not going anywhere; my magic will increase our physical capabilities." The two juniors gained shared a look and smiled, "Maybe now we can damage this guy." Tifa's temporary team got into their ready positions while Snow now stood shirtless and his shaggy hair released from the beanie.

Somewhere near by Cloud was leaning against a tree with another two motionless bodies being carried away by the medics. Cloud dropped to the ground letting his sword fall out of his grasp. "What is the score keep now," he asked the medic that stayed to make sure Cloud could continue. "Right now you're on top only one point above, Snow who is in second. And your four points above Tifa who is in third. There are a total of six people left." The medic gave cloud a bottle of water. Cloud took the bottle and drained half the contents in one go, letting out a grateful gasp. "Thank you for the update." Cloud struggled to stand, and with a little help from the medic was now standing with his completed sword on his back. "Are you sure you can continue?" Cloud looked at the medic and said, "Am I breathing?" The Medic nodded confused. "Then I can still fight." Cloud started to stumble his way through the flora, leaving behind a speechless medic.

'Damn it I just had to play tough.' Cloud said after he managed to stumble across 250 yards looking like a drunken man. Cloud was now on his back starring up, watching the simulated clouds drift by. "If only Vanille was here, she could heal me." Cloud heard something in the nearby bushes moving. 'Great now here comes someone to take me out and I can't even lift my sword anymore.' A girl stood out of the bushes, starring at the downed blonde. "Well look who we have here. The freshman upstart, Cloud Strife."

"….." Was Cloud's response. "Well I am Selphie; Normally I would beat you down and take five points, but you see I made a deal." Cloud managed to find the energy to raise an eyebrow. "Rinoa is my friend, so that makes Squall my friend, and that also makes you my friend. Rinoa and Squall told me to find you and heal you if you can't fight, and considering your down and can't move. I guess it's time for me to use my magic."

Cloud looked up in surprise, as the short haired brunet girl used some of her magic as he glowed green for a moment. It took some time but Cloud was now feeling better than ever, fatigue and wounds nonexistent. When Selphie was done she collapsed to her knees and was breathing heavy. Cloud got up to his feet, stretching. "Thanks, I owe you one Selphie." The girl waved it off as she smiled, and raised a hand in the air leaving her middle and index finger pointing up and her thumb outstretched making a 90 degree angle, the sign for surrender. "Now I just hope my efforts go to waste, go beet Snow for me." Selphie said, as cloud reclaimed his sword and with renewed energy, thanked the girl one last time and left. Selphie smiled as a few Medics came to check up on her and lead her out of the simulation.

Back with Tifa and Snow, the clearing is now completely covered in ice and we find Tifa's team breathing heavy. Snow was on one Knee and was now standing back up, there was several cracks on his ice covered body that soon re froze, creating his ice armor again. In the past five minutes, Tifa's team managed to work together as a unit, helping each other dodge snow's attack, blinding snow or creating a barrier to protect them from the ice. The team was effective, landing hits that were strong enough to break the ice and hurt Snow. But the team also realized they couldn't make physical contact for too long.

Snow's ice skin was so cold that if you keep your hand or feet on it for too long you could lose feeling in your hands and feet. Snow's body was so cold that you could get frost bite from touching the man. So the team tried very hard to move as fast as possible to prevent getting to cold, and getting caught by Snow's hands. The only person who managed to do a very effective job of this was Tifa, who somehow knew how to dodge and counter Snow's movements.

Snow smirked, 'only a few seniors were able to give me trouble with this form. But this sophomore managed to give me a run for my money, regardless of her help. But the fun will have to end soon.' Snow lunged ahead at a frightening speed engaging Tifa, the only thing letting her dodge in time was her support magic that allowed her to move faster. Tifa jumped back in time to avoid a punch but realized with a shock that everything behind snow was now completely frozen. There was liter lay a wall of frozen air the size of Snow, trailing behind him, not only that but her two friends weren't fast enough to avoid Snow and was now frozen solid.

"I wish to commend you Tifa, the only people who can react fast enough to that had always been, Fang, Barret, Tseng, and a handful of seniors. But I'm afraid I can't hold back against you any longer." Long Ice spires started to grow from the ice skin of Snow, becoming sharp along the edges like swords. Snow looked like a humanoid frozen hedgehog. "Before I beat you please tell me, how you know the movement's of the Villiers's Fighting style."

Tifa stood ready focusing her remaining magic in boosting herself. "My grandfather is a master of martial arts, he learned every style there is, and created his own, He only taught me what he knows. While I'm not as great as he is, I am the best disciple in his dojo.

"I see. Well this has been fun but I believe we are done here." Snow once again lunged but this time Tifa ducked under the attack and punched as hard as she could at his diaphragm. The ice broke and she made contact with his skin. Snow gasped for breath, but reacted by driving his elbow down to her head. Tifa disappeared in an instant and reappeared to kick snow across the face. Snow reacted in time to bring up his fore arms the pikes on the back of his arms pointing out. Tifa couldn't stop her movement and drove her leg through the sword like spikes, not only breaking them but breaking the ice of his arms, causing a huge bruise. Tifa forced herself to jump back to create some room.

Snow held his arm in pain as he grimaced. Looking toward the female he noticed that the white field of ice before him was tainted by a crimson color. Following the trail he smirked when he saw that the leg Tifa used was now bleeding through her bandages. But the flow of the blood stopped in a short moment. The leg of Tifa now tainted red, but the bandages manage to stop the bleeding. Tifa stood up again favoring her left leg. Snow frowned at what he saw.

'I can't lose here; damn I can't feel my right leg.' Tifa thought but when she looked in front of her all she saw was blonde hair. "As much as you want to beat me down….. We need to work together to take this guy out." Cloud stood in front of Tifa, fusion sword out and ready. Tifa, wanted to cry but the cold turned her tears into ice. Her emotions took over she didn't know if she was crying because she was frustrated and couldn't take it out on cloud or if she was relived he was here. "I fear I won't do much with my injured leg, but what I can do is boost you with my magic."

"Do it, just leave the rest to me."