I Know What the Ladies Like

Xal and the pale woman stood apart, blades drawn. They were standing motionless, the world around them silent as if anticipating their battle. The woman summoned some kind of symbols in the air, which appeared to be glyphs, a force multiplier, perhaps? Xal activated his visor's red glow, intimidation being its only purpose, it also reinforced the notion that he was some kind of machine, a fun little game he decided to indulge in with this human. Another second passes and then they explode forward, their blades clashed and Xal was surprised to find himself struggling to keep a grip on his sword, such was the force of that first blow.

All consecutive clashes were far less powerful, but the woman was fast and Xal was having trouble getting his timing right, a slash to his chest clashes against his shields. If he weren't so tired it would be easy to grab her weapon and disarm her, but alas, this was an impossible feat for him in his current state. He blocks the woman's follow up strike with his sword, heating her blade to dull red, it didn't cut, but that wasn't really surprising, considering a plasma grenade produced more heat than his energy sword. They continued to clash blades, Xal using his reach advantage to keep his opponent on the defensive. The woman stepped into his guard, ducking his attempt to grab her and producing more glyphs in the same instant, surrounding him with the strange symbols. Xal reacts too late to stop the woman from bouncing from glyph to glyph, seemingly hitting him from all angles at once.

When she finished, Xal's shields had been depleted and he had been forced to one knee, his armor was fine, though, metal slashing weapons weren't made for taking on metal armor, but he still felt the force of each of those blows. He was learning so much, he hoped he survived long enough to use this information. His shields recharged while the woman was busy smirking at her success, his shields weren't particularly strong, but they recharged very fast, she wasn't happy about that.

They clashed again, though this time, Xal waited until the woman was mid-swing before mounting an attack of his own. His blade struck flesh, or would have, were it not for the barrier that protected her. But she felt pain, Xal could see it etched across her features, and judging by the intensity of her grimace, she didn't expect the amount of pain that the blades of searing hot plasma would cause. That is good. The distraction allowed Xal to finish his chain of blows, which consisted of two more slashes and a hard kick, which sent her flying instead of killing her, but she most definitely felt that.

Now it was Xal's turn to smirk. "My, aren't you an impressive creature?" Xal hadn't spoken in so long, it felt good to have a foe to banter with, she was durable, but she didn't have a way to actually kill him, a perfect partner. "Not many can say they've challenged a First Blade to a duel and survived for more than a few seconds. May I know your name, warrior?"

"You will answer my questions, not the other way around!" The woman had recomposed herself and was showing Xal the tip of her weapon.

Xal chuckled. "Ask away then, but first, your name."

The woman promptly ignored him. "What were you doing trespassing on Atlesian Military property?!" She wasn't exactly shouting, but was still being far louder than she needed to be.

"Your name!" Frustration, not something he wanted to deal with right now, to lose his composure would be to admit defeat, but this human's refusal to answer his one question in exchange for any of the vast knowledge at his fingertips was grating on his nerves.

"That is classified, now cooperate." Was she trying to take advantage of his emotional slip-up? How quaint.

"Humans, too proud to take what is offered to them, how unfortunate." Xal resumed his combat stance, seeing that this conversation was going nowhere. It didn't matter, the sooner he incapacitated her, the sooner he could sleep. He exploded forward with a series of blows, taking control of the fight. The woman tried jumping to create distance, foolish, jumping was incredibly easy to punish, so easy in fact, muscle memory took over and Xal had a hand around her ankle and her on the ground in short order, his follow up thrust was dodged and then countered with a slash across his faceplate. It wasn't all that much of a surprise, what was a surprise, however, was the bird in his face. Xal waved it away only to be pounced upon by an ethereal white wolf creature, it was such a jarring experience that Xal lost his sword, like an idiot.

The wolf wasn't hard to dispatch, it was only slightly stronger than the others, he stabbed it in the head with a wrist-mounted energy dagger and threw it off. He immediately began looking for his sword until he felt immense pain from his hip to his shoulder, he found his sword. Xal dropped to his knees and put a hand to his chest, unfortunately, his armor was the same color as his blood, so he couldn't see it on his gloves, but he could see it on the grass. This wound would most definitely scar.

The woman approached, his sword in hand. Xal would need that back, it wouldn't do to let a human hold it for long. "Specialist Schnee reporting, the subject has been subdued, aw-" Xal activated his camouflage and sent his fist into her gut, spun, and elbowed her between her shoulder blades before throwing her against the downed dropship, finally breaking her protective barrier.

"That was impressive, my expectations for humans are always low, perhaps I'll reevaluate that stance in the coming days." Xal decloaks and flips the woman, no, Specialist Schnee, and pins her with his hoof. "But unfortunately, allowing you and your search party to return home would be a grave mistake." Xal raises his sword. "I'll remember your name."

Before he could deal the finishing blow, however, he was struck by a powerful shotgun blast that knocked him off his feet. He was starting to truly feel the past week's effects on his body, his stims had worn off days ago, he found he was unable to stand. He glared balefully at his newest enemy, a scruffy man with a red cape before a blow to the head knocked him out.

Ladies Like Armor Plating

Today was Daisy's last day to submit her application. She had spent the past two weeks researching this Beacon Academy, so far, she liked what she found, and she was just about the right age to fit in with the rest of the first years. The Academy wasn't the only thing she learned about though, she also learned that humans were terrible no matter where they were, if they couldn't hurt their own they'd hurt someone else, at least there were no Elites, then nobody would be having a good time. Enough of that, today was a happy day, for the first time, Daisy got to choose to fight, got to choose who to fight for, for the first time, Daisy's life was her own.

Daisy stepped out into the sun, donning her armor. Only two people on the planet have seen her in it, so it only made sense that she'd get a lot of stares. She made her way to Green's booth, ready to face anything the exam could throw at her. She ran into Ilia on the way there, come to think of it, she ran into Ilia a lot over the past couple of weeks. Daisy didn't think it was all that weird, just statistically unlikely, especially since Daisy always went out at different times and explored different parts of the town. Maybe it was a little weird. "Why do you follow me around? I didn't think I was all that interesting."

Ilia started at the sudden question, the two women had slipped into a comfortable silence some time ago. "You're taller today." Was she blushing? What did she have to be embarrassed about?

"Yeah, the armor adds a few inches." Daisy shrugged. "But you didn't answer my question, why am I so interesting to you?"

"W-well, you're new here, I just wanted to make sure you didn't get lost." Ilia's blush deepened, Daisy didn't know what to feel about that. Was it because of her? "So, that's some nice armor, where'd you get it?"

"That's a loaded question." Not to mention all the answers were classified. By who? This planet was obviously uncharted and completely independent of the UNSC and its colonies. No one would ever find out. Answering would also piss off someone important, a sweet bonus. "It's too personal." She couldn't move past any of it people knew, they would pity her or treat her like a tool, she didn't need that.

Ilia nodded, seemingly in understanding. "So you're going off to be a huntress?"

"Yeah." Daisy straightened out her papers. "Killing monsters and making friends, what's not to love?"

Ilia was about to say something before she was interrupted by Mr. Green. "Good to see you, I thought you got cold feet." Green showed no outward reaction to MJOLNIR, as if he'd seen stranger things. The man stuck out his hand in greeting.

Daisy returned the gesture. "Just needed to think on it for awhile."

"Well, I'm glad you're here." Green said, releasing her hand. "Now, let's see," Green was flipping through the application packet, after a few seconds he holds the papers out to her, pointing an inconvenient little line. "Looks like you forgot your last name."

"Shit." Daisy spat under her breath, she forgot her last name years ago, no point in remembering after her hopes of escaping the Program were mercilessly dashed right in front of her face. She'd have to make one up. "Right, let me see that." She took the papers and pondered what to jot down. A flower maybe? She thought. *No, my first name is already a flower.* A color then? She could just choose any color and call it a name, the guy in front of her is named Nickel Green. *Am I thinking about this too much?* Daisy had never been in this situation before. *Bellis!* The genus in which daisies are a part. She was overthinking this! Daisy finished signing the packet and handed it back to Green.

"Alright, everything checks out, follow me to the course and we'll get right to it."

After a somewhat lengthy hike away from Kuo Kuana to an isolated section of the beach, Daisy saw some kind of machine, it was small, likely meant to be semi-mobile, she couldn't really puzzle out its function from its outward appearance. It was an odd collection of cylinders, camouflaged for sand. *Guess I'll find out in a moment.*

"This is the exam site," Green announced, increasing his volume so that he is heard clearly, "and this devious little machine is going to bring in your test." He slapped the top of the device. "Once activated, it will let out a signal that will attract Grimm to this location, you will fight and kill Grimm until either your aura breaks and I have to interfere, or until you have achieved the maximum score. Any questions?"

"What Grimm forms should I expect?" Daisy asked, really not wanting to deal with any more explosive animals.

"The wildlife in Menagerie is dangerous enough that most Grimm don't make it past their first year, so expect mostly Beowulves and Creeps, but also be prepared for the occasional Ursa or Ursa Major." *Ugghh.* "It'll take awhile to get points with most of those types, I hope you brought a lot of ammo." That said, the examiner activated the Grimm attractor and stepped back.

Daisy drew the security pistol she borrowed from the Belladonnas, preparing for the fight. After a short while a single contact appeared on her motion tracker. Creeps. Daisy rolled to her right as the burrowing creature burst from the ground where she was standing less than a second before, it earned three shots to the head. Daisy scanned the area for more contacts, wondering if there would be more, before hearing the sound of falling trees and the stomping of many heavy feet.

"Damn, sounds like a Deathstalker." Said Green with a worried and apologetic look on his face.

"The fuck is a Deathstalker-" Daisy barely got out before a massive scorpion burst out of the trees, it was covered in short spines and very thick, bony armor. That answers that.

"If you need help-"

"How many points do I get if I kill it?" Daisy interrupted.

"You'll exceed the max score." Green said simply, very concerned for her safety. "But this is out of your league, it takes entire teams of first-year academy students to put something like that down."

"Watch me." Daisy said a smile growing on her face. *This'll look great on my transcript.* Daisy put away the security pistol and drew her shotgun, getting ready to take on the massive tank-like beast charging at her.

She waited until the heavily armored Grimm had pulled its claw back to strike at her, she waited until its face was exposed before pulling the trigger and jumping out of the Deathstalker's reach. A few pellets hit one of its eyes while the rest embedded themselves into its armor, causing the Grimm screech in rage and pain, mostly rage. Now the giant scorpion was shielding its eyes with its claws while it began striking blindly at her with its tail, some sixth sense telling the Grimm her general position. She dodged each strike, forming a plan of action: her shotgun wasn't exactly designed with armor penetration in mind, the exact opposite actually, she also doubted her magnum could do anything more than piss it off, so that left the needler. The flamboyant weapon could probably shred that bone plate, but she didn't really have any way to reload it the moment, so missing wasn't an option.

The next time the Deathstalker's tail came down Daisy sidestepped it and grabbed on tight with one arm, the needler in her other hand. The tail went back up less than an instant later, Daisy entered Spartan Time, the world slowing down around her as the top of the Grimm's carapace came into view, she wasted no time in unloading the needler's entire caddy into said carapace. The subsequent super combine stunned the Deathstalker and left a gaping hole in its now bedazzled armor. All that was left to do was finish it. Daisy pressed the barrel of her shotgun to the struggling creature's exposed flesh and pulled the trigger.

Daisy turned to Green, smiling behind her visor. "Did I pass?"

I've done it! I finished the chapter! Special thanks to Healthcare.gov for all their help with editing. Please leave a review to tell me what you thought.