[X] It was a young man, probably only twenty or so, with a vicious grin on his face.
"Aglaeca Wulfgang!" The announcer declared, as the young man hit the ground. As he hit the ground, he flexed, and his shirt was ripped off with almost explosive force, revealing-
Oh wow those abs.
Yang really wished she had a camera on her.
Aglaeca took a moment himself to look over Yang staring at her face as if trying to figure out her age, before giving a disappointed sigh and moving into a combat stance. Shocked out of her admiration for some really well defined abs, you could grate cheese on those things, Yang moved into a combat stanec of her own, and tried to focus on his weapons over his well muscled arms.
He seemed to be similar to Yang, in that he was wearing gauntlets. Though, they were rather slim, and Yang didn't see any gun parts on it...
A series of green markings on Algaeca's arm lit up, and Yang moved her arms to a guarding position, as he kicked off the floor and flew at Yang.
Yang's fist struck out to meet her opponents, and the smoke that still lingered was pushed aside by the wind of the blow. Algaeca pulled back as he swung his next fist, and again, Yang met hit fist with her own.
These flying fists continued to collide for some time, with Algaeca blocking all of Yang's blows with his fist as Yang did the same to his. The speed of the conflict continued, as they stood in place and continued punching, until Yang decided to change things up a bit.
As their fists came together on the same point once again, Yang opened her hand at the last second, catching Aglaeca's fist on her palm, and holding it in place. When he was surprised at his inability to pull back, Yang stepped forward and punched at his face with her left hand. At the same time, Aglaeca's fist flew next to hers, nearly hitting her arm.
They struck each other's face in unison, and Yang fired Ember Celica as they clashed. Both of them were sent backwards by the force, but Yang merely skidded on the floor for a moment, while Aglaeca was sent slamming into the wall on the other side of the pit.
Standing up first, Yang took advantage of Aglaeca's moment of weakness to open fire, unleashing Ember Celica as fast as she could to send a dozen projectiles at Aglaeca.
Unable to dodge all of them, the warrior skid to the side and crossed his arms to guard his face and chest sidestepping as many projectiles as he could while shielding himself as best he could. His Aura flared as Yang's projectiles exploded against him. As the last projectile hit, he hesitated a moment, before looking past his arms just in time to see Yang dashing in to punch him up close.
Firing Ember Celica in his face again, Yang noted how he seemed to expect it this time, and was able to brace himself and not go flying. Undeterred, she danced around beside him and struck again. He lurched forward to dodge the blow, before spinning around and moving to kick Yang. Yang held up her arm to block his roundhouse kick, then grabbed his leg and used it to pull him off balance.
As he stumbled towards her, Yang brought her knee upwards, hitting him in the chin and sending him up, right into her fist as she struck and shot downwards. Aglaeca hit the ground, and Yang continued firing Ember Celica downwards.
The young man rolled to the side, grabbing Yang's leg and using it to pull her down. Yang put her arm down and bounced off it as she fell, propelling herself upwards so she could flip in the air and land on her feet again, but by the time she had done so Aglaeca had recovered his own footing.
As she turned to face him, Aglaeca punched Yang in the stomach. Yang heard the sound of shattering steel as the force of the blow sent her flying into a wall, hitting her hard enough to knock the air out of her lungs.
Aglaeca approached Yang slowly, shaking his fist as he did so. Yang noticed that the gauntlet seemed to have broken under the blow, and was crumbling off. An intentional design choice, probably, judging by how it had shattered in the perfect way to leave a makeshift brass knuckle in place of the gauntlet, but what purpose would that serve?
Some sort of trick to his Semblance, maybe? The force of the blow which had broken the gauntlet had been a lot stronger than any of his previous attacks...
Pulling herself off the wall, Yang grinned and made her own slow walk towards her opponent. Whatever the trick, it had hurt. But that just meant her own Semblance was starting to get to work.
Waiting until Aglaeca was mid-step, Yang moved with all her speed to get to his side before he could react properly, reeling back a fist as she did so, and used all her momentum to strengthen the blow as fast as she could. She stepped past him, and her fist came forward to hit him in the face as she passed.
Aglaeca had raised a fist of his own to catch the blow, but with the momentum behind the blow, his hand was forced back at a fractionally slower speed, hitting him in the face all the same. He reeled, letting go of Yang's hand and taking a step back, right into the path of Yang's next blow, which struck the back of his head at the same time she fired her shotgun gauntlets, sending him tumbling to the ground.
Yang leaped over him, getting to the other side of him even as he tried to flip upwards, ready to hit him again before he could do anything. In mid-air, the young man clenched the fist with his brass knuckle on it, holding it tight enough to shatter the remained of the steel, and raised his arm to block Yang's shotgun blast before it could hit his face.
Landing on his feet in front of Yang, Aglaeca caught her fist as she sent it towards him, then quickly shot his elbow up under her neck and used it to lift her into the air. Running forward and pinning her against the wall, Aglaeca held her still and ignored her kicks and manoeuvring, punching her in the face repeatedly while she tried to pry his elbow away from her neck with her good hand.
Each blow knocked Yang's head back into the wall, essentially hitting her twice, and she gritted her teeth for a moment. Her Semblance allowed her to grow stronger while taking punishment, so-
As the next fist came at her, Yang used a burst of strength to wrench hers caught arm to the side, pulling the elbow away from her neck, and lunged forward to headbutt Aglaeca and send him stumbling back a step.
Taking the opportunity to turn the tables again, Yang swept a leg around his torso, then pulled it back to slam him against the wall while she pushed off of it.
Behind her, Aglaeca laughed.
"So that's your trick." He grinned. "You get hurt, you bounce back stronger. You're at your strongest when you have to suffer for your strength."
"Still working on yours." Yang countered. "Let me guess, breaking things make you stronger?"
"Consider it a limit break of sorts." Aglaeca admitted, as Yang turned to him. "When I break a weapon while the thrill of battle is in my veins, I get stronger like you. In a way, we both get stronger as we continue. It's just that your strength comes from pain, whereas I grow stronger as I approach the most natural form of combat."
Chuckling to himself, Aglaeca grinned like a madman.
"Man, I'm excited." He said. "But you know what? I kinda want to see what you're like at your strongest. I guess I'll just have to go all out to see it."
Before Yang could react, he slammed his weapon against the wall, leaving a large dent in the pit's wall and shattering both gauntlet and brass knuckle in a single blow. Then, with speed Yang would usually expect to see from experienced warriors like Winter and that mercenary she had fought, he was in Yang's face, pausing momentarily so she could see the fist coming down at her.
Yang reacted as fast as she could, punching at the fist coming towards her with all her might. Fist met fist, and both fighters were forced back by the force of the blow, not helped by how Yang fired an explosion just as she hit Aglaeca.
A moment passed, and Yang heard a crack. Eyes wide, she looked down at Ember Celica.
On her left fist, there were growing cracks all over her gauntlet.
"Forgot to mention." Aglaeca noted casually. "Semblance lets me ignore Aura when hitting anything but flesh, and breaking other peoples weapons makes me just as strong as breaking my own."
He moved at Yang again, and the yellow-haired girl responded by turning and running.
Her one advantage in this fight was her ranged attacks, which she took full advantage of by firing her right gauntlet at her pursuer. As she approached the side of the wall, she ran up to it and circled around, continuing to fire at Aglaeca as he tried to cut her off, dodging to the wall to the right of Yang and running up that.
Yang kicked off the wall, firing her weapon at it to get away from it faster, and took a moment to roll on the ground. Her Aura strained from the explosion and force of hitting the ground, but that just made Yang stronger.
As she landed, Aglaeca flashed in beside her, and Yang swept her left arm at him, slammed it into where he was as he ducked under it and kicked at her. Yang gritted her teeth as she stepped back, and responded with a kick of her own that forced Aglaeca to step back.
"I felt that one." He said, panting slightly. "By the looks of things, your Aura should be at the point where you're about a hit or so away from being below the point where the fight is called."
Yang glared at him, stepping back as she rubbed her fist slightly.
"As it so happens, so is mine. So what do you say we end this right here, right-"
Yang stepped forward, suddenly forcing Ember Celica away from her open palm and towards her opponent, firing as she did so. Before he could process that he was being attacked, the explosive round hit him in the chest and he grunted, bending forward in pain, and an alarm went off.
Aglaeca looked at Yang with a somewhat disappointed expression, but then smiled.
"Serves me right from not losing myself in the fight enough." He dismissed. "I'll see you again, Yang. I'll want a proper ending to this another time."
And with that, the pit's energy field lifted him out, and Yang took a moment to look at her damaged weapon.
Damn it, that'd take a few days to repair. The firing mechanism was busted, by the looks of things, which halved her rate of fire. Not to mention that it looked like the ammo storage was cracked, so she'd need to take it apart to fix that and recover the shots...
A thud alerted her to her next opponent, a giant of a woman who swung a large halberd around her head. She charged at Yang, who grabbed her weapon and pulled it towards herself.
With the halberd woman pulled off balance, Yang was able to jump at her. The girl with yellow hair wrapped her legs around the chest of her bigger opponent, and started punching her for in the back of the head, firing rapidly few a few moment. The large woman dropped her halberd and started running backwards, apparently seeking to slam Yang into the wall.
At the last second, Yang spun around to the other side of the woman, kicked off of her, and fired. Between the strength she had at this point, the weapon, and the woman slamming herself into the wall, it was enough for the alarm to sound, and the woman was lifted out with a look of dismay.
The third opponent stepped into the ring a moment later, a rather elegant looking man with long hair, with a visor covering his left eye. He held up his sword as the round began, and as Yang opened fire on him, his sword fell apart, unfolding into multiple...
...Flying drones, apparently?
The dozen or so sharp devices flew, and Yang noticed momentarily that the man was following their movement with his gaze. Or perhaps, more correctly, they were following where he was looking? The visor was some control mechanism?
Yang ignored the airborne projectiles as she dashed for the man, getting into his face as quick as she could and firing at him as soon as she could. A drone took the hit for the man, falling to the ground and growing immobile as it did so, and the man simply looked at her. The rest of the drones converged, and Yang slammed her fist together to flare up her Aura and let her flames damage them.
Yang dashed at the man again, backhanding the drone the man piloted to guard his face, and moved to punch him in the face. At the last second, she opened her hand and grabbed the visor off the man, ripping it off of him and crushing it in her hand as it fell out of the protection of his Aura.
The man seemed annoyed, but merely pressed a button of sorts on the hilt of his sword, and all the drones around the two exploded. Both of them were pelted by the shrapnel, and the man's Aura was reduced immensely in an instant, but Yang was already at the verge of defeat when she was hit.
There was an alarm, and for a moment, the man spoke.
"You did well." He said. "With that technique used, my next foe will defeat me for sure. This victory over you was rather pyrrhic."
"I suppose that makes me feel better about losing." Yang admitted, as she was lifted out of the ring. She was placed next to Blast as the energy field let her go, and he turned to Yang as she landed.
"Good fight." He said. "Taken out in your third round? Not bad for a first timer. I've still only made it to two."
"I suppose I'm just better than you, then." Yang grinned.
"Beginner's luck." Blast dismissed, snorting. "I could still kick your ass."
Yang watched, as the kid who looked like Marcus fell into the ring and started his own fight. As he kicked the man and rapidly started dominating the match, Blast turned to Yang.
"So, are you gonna stick around for the rest of the fights, or..."
Yang thought on it for a moment.
[X] "Yeah, I'll watch until Melanie finishes, then I can head back to Junior's."
[X] "I should go talk to dad about fixing up the left gauntlet. Hey, if Melanie stops by, tell her I'll be waiting out the front."
[X] "I'm not doing anything better, may as well check the news on my scroll and see if there's any possible leads while I'm here..."
