Elsoem : That moment when you update all the character sheets except for Pyrrha's age... Oops, well at least it's fixed now x)
Neo's first couple matches were easy. Not that her opponents were new to the tournament, but they just weren't good enough to get anywhere near the finals, let alone pose a significant treat to her.
She had trained for this, and figured out how to use her illusions without being obvious. And a few other tricks for that matter.
After a lot of testing, Neo had found a way to keep her illusions from shattering on impact, and keep it up through combat. It required large amounts of Dust, but she really wanted to fight here, so she made the investment.
And while Dust was forbidden inside the arena, it wasn't like they had anything to block it. This meant that, so long as she kept it's use hidden, nobody would blame her. Illusion Dust wasn't known to exist, so nobody would consider her use of illusions as Dust related, much less expect it.
And there was another type of Dust she could use here. The effect of gravity Dust wouldn't be easily noticeable by the judges if she hid it's glow thanks to her illusion Dust. And to her opponent, it would only feel like she was hitting harder than she should be.
The only remaining issue was where to store the Dust. If she used it on Hush, then it would cost extra illusion Dust to maintain the illusion, since Neo didn't want her weapon to be seen. No, the best option was to keep the Dust somewhere else. But how could she do that without being obvious ?
Eventually, Neo figured it out. Thanks in no small part to her years of training under Glynda, she made small pearls of Dust that she put together in a necklace. Now, she had one necklace made of white illusion Dust pearls, and one made out of black gravity Dust pearls.
The two necklaces around her neck would be her source of Dust during her matches, and would also allow her to continue using Dust even if she somehow had to let go of Hush. Neo almost felt like an idiot for not thinking of it before.
Anyway. Her plan to win was simple. Hush was disguised as a rapier, but she would still be able to open it to block her opponent's attacks. It would mess with their perception, and the confusion should help her win easily, along with the gravity Dust to add strength to her attacks.
It had worked so far, but it was now time for her first real opponent. Chili Scrapper, the one who was champion before Pyrrha took the spot away from him.
Name : Chili Scrapper
Age : 28
Level : 16 (18%)
Class : Fighter [You spend your life fighting]
Path : To the Arena [You have decided to fight in the arena first and foremost. Your skills are specialized for this type of fighting]
Title : Arena Contender
HP : 16/16
AP : 151/151
STR : 22
CON : 16
DEX : 14
INT : 12
WIS : 14
CHA : 12
Semblance : Rough skin [When hit, deals up to 1d6 damage to what hit you]
Status effects :
Child of Remnant [You are from Remnant and follow different rules than other worlds. Your HP is always equal to your constitution and any bonuses that would normally improve it are transferred to your aura]
Defenses :
AC : 22
For : 24
Ref : 20
Will : 20
(-)
Fjale : a broadsword. Nothing special really.
Proficiency bonus : 2
Enhancement : 4 to attacks and damage
Melee damage : 1d10
This was what Neo was up against. Any hit was sure to kill her in an instant, and he had a 50% chance to hit her. However, Neo had her tricks up her sleeves, and a 75% hit chance.
Still, it would be her toughest match-up yet. Quite fitting as the one she had to face just before Pyrrha too. If she failed here, it meant she wouldn't get to fight the three-time champion, but it also meant she wouldn't have had a chance in the first place.
The two fighters walked into the ring and got ready. The moment the bell sounded the start of the fight, Chili ran towards her and swung his sword from left to right.
Neo smirked, and slapped Chili's broadsword away with Hush before getting into his guard and throwing him over her shoulder.
- 14 AP
The audience could barely believe their eyes. To them, Neo had just stabbed Chili with her rapier and used it to swing around a man twice her size. It was unbelievable. Even more so when they saw that Chili had almost lost 10% of his aura without Neo taking any damage, even from his semblance.
Neo's opponent was starting to suspect something wasn't right, but she wasn't worried. She only planned to participate this one time. It didn't matter if she was found out, so long as it was after her fight with Pyrrha.
Neo had to struggle not to put Hush back on her shoulder, and instead took one of the many basic stances Glynda had taught her. Their focus may have been with handling Dust back then, but she still had learned most of how to fight with the deputy Headmistress.
Chili growled at the nonchalance Neo was showing, and quickly got back to his feet. Putting his sword in front of him, he cautiously walked up to his opponent.
Neo had to stop herself from rolling her eyes. Now if he was going to try and probe her, this would be boring. She quickly closed the distance between the two of them, and used Hush to keep his broadsword for interfering with her movements.
She then slashed Chili's face and moved behind him, ready to stab.
- 19 AP
Her opponent wasn't going to let her do so easily though. He was already swinging around, at around the height of her head. Neo ducked, and stabbed him in the leg.
- 23 AP
Chili was almost down to 60% aura, but Neo didn't try to go further. Instead, she retreated a few steps. Staying would've been to risky, and she knew it.
The crowd was breathless. To them, it looked like Neo had found a way to counter Chili's semblance. Even the commentators were wracking their heads at trying to found how she could avoid taking any damage to her aura.
Neo's opponent charged in. Stalling was not an option anymore, he had to deal some kind of damage to the teenager in front of him if he wanted any chance at winning.
Chili swung his sword again, and just like at the beginning of the fight, Neo blocked and dashed inside his guard. However, doing the same move twice was something a fighter of this caliber could easily deal with. Chili was already trying to knee Neo as she got past his sword.
Neo had planned for that though, and she used the incoming leg as a foothold to jump over him. Chili tried to turn around to face her and stab her while she was in midair, but Neo kicked his face to temporarily stun him, before stabbing down his throat.
- 15 AP
- 18 AP
She narrowly missed, but it wasn't over yet. She used her gravity Dust, and pushed herself to the ground, along with her sword still inside Chili's flesh. Aura protected him from taking any significant damage to his own body, but the pain would remain as Hush's tip trailed all the way down his chest.
- 32 AP
As Neo took her blade out of Chili's body, his aura meter went just below 20%. The fight was over, and the only damage Neo ever took was in the form of her now wrecked footwear, courtesy of Chili's semblance.
Glynda was in her classroom, showing the current Mistral tournament to her students so they could learn from watching professionals fight. Or at least semi-professionals, for the most part.
The new contestants were lackluster for the most part, as usual for a tournament that had little to no bar of entry. The were only maybe two exceptions. The first girl to have fought against the reigning champion was one of them, as Glynda had seen how close she had been to hitting Pyrrha, closer than anyone before.
The second one was the other teenager about to fight against the champion in the finals. She had proven to be at the level of a fully fledged Huntress despite her age, just like Pyrrha. She was probably one of the best fighters in that tournament, aside from Nikos herself.
The small teenager's fighting style looked familiar to Glynda, but she brushed it off as mere coincidence. She had taught hundreds of students, so this girl had probably picked up some moves from watching an older sibling she had trained before.
For now, there was a bit of downtime before the finals, to let the participants regenerate their auras and take a breather. For Glynda, it was the time to quiz her students on what they just witnessed.
"So, does anyone know how miss Talmynd avoided taking damage from her opponent's semblance ?" she asked her class.
No hands went up, and most students stayed silent. Glynda decided to interrogate the one students she expected to know the answer, despite her being too shy to put her hand up.
"Miss Scarlatina, do you have an idea ?" Glynda asked
"Uhm... does it have anything to do with how her boots were damaged after the fight ?" asked back the student.
"You have good eyes Miss Scarlatina." answered Glynda, "Yes. As you all know, aura protect not only our bodies, but also our equipment from damage. However, from the state of miss Talmynd's shoes, we can determine that she purposefully avoided protecting her footwear, and most likely her weapon, from mister Scrapper's semblance. Can anyone tell me why this is unusual ?"
"Cause without equipment she won't be able to fight ! She's stupid !" shouted a student in the back row.
"It's true that, without equipment, she won't be able to fight." explained Glynda, "However, she is far from stupid. While not protecting your equipment during a mission is foolish, in a tournament setting, where there is time between each match to change gears, it is perfectly acceptable. Of course, she risked having her sword break before the end of the fight, but it seemed that everything worked out just fine."
"So she was just lucky !" shouted another student.
"She took a risk." shot back Glynda, "Just like any Huntsman and Huntress would over the course of their careers. Knowing when to and when not to take a risk is what we're hoping to teach you before you leave this academy."
Glynda let the students talk between themselves, and turned towards the display. The next match was going to start soon, and the two contestants were entering the arena. She sighed. No matter how good that young girl was, she wouldn't be able to beat Pyrrha Nikos. With a semblance like hers, the tournament's settings were simply way too favorable for the reigning champion.
Still, while Pyrrha Nikos was sure to win, hopefully her opponent will give her a tough fight.
Neo was shivering in excitement. This was it, the fight she had signed up in this tournament for. She didn't care how low her chances were when she wasn't able to fully use her Dust, she would abuse the same advantage Pyrrha used to never get hit and would eventually beat the invincible girl.
Pyrrha took her fighting stance at the edge of the ring, shield first and spear over her head, while Neo stood leasurly on the other side, a smirk on her face.
The bell rung, and Pyrrha shifted her spear to it's rifle form. She then rushed in towards Neo while taking potshots to keep her in place.
Neo blocked the shots with Hush, lightly swinging it to make it seem like she was cutting the bullets rather than stopping them with the parasol's canopy. She didn't move, perfectly fine with letting Pyrrha close the distance.
When she got in range, the champion stabbed with her spear, which got deflected by apparently nothing. Pyrrha couldn't even feel steel touching her blade.
Neo grinned when she saw a look of confusion appear on her opponent's face, even if it was for only a moment, and she used the opening to stab. However, she went a bit slower than expected and Pyrrha managed to bring her shield to protect the back of her head as she turned around and slashed at Neo with her spear changed into sword.
The sword cut through Neo like there was nothing, and indeed there was nothing. Neo had been just a bit to the left, out of range of the short sword. To the audience, it looked like Neo had quickly dodged, but Pyrrha could have sworn she had cut through her opponent, even if she had felt nothing.
Neo groaned inwardly. This move had cost her an entire bead worth of illusion Dust. It was way too expensive in her opinion, but she would be damned if she let Pyrrha win before even getting a solid hit in.
She dashed in and stabbed at Pyrrha, yet her sword was pushed aside easily. It was frustrating that, even if she knew about Pyrrha's semblance, she could hardly do anything against it.
The champion's sword cut up, and Neo jumped over her opponent to dodge. When Pyrrha's shield came to bash her face, Hush was there to block it, and Neo landed a few meters away. The champion rushed her and stabbed with her spear, only to meet resistance from the void once again.
Pyrrha shifted her weapon to it's rifle form and shot and point blank, and Neo pushed forward with her opened Hush. The fighting was too close for anyone to understand what exactly went on, but Pyrrha clearly saw her bullet ricochet on nothing, and felt the round invisible shape surrounding Neo's blade.
The moment the round shape retracted and Neo stabbed, Pyrrha slid to the side and stabbed the empty space where Neo once was. The younger teenager had ducked down and was now sweeping Pyrrha's feet.
Finally, the champion was falling, and Neo grinned as she stabbed down. Yet that was what Pyrrha was planning for, as she pushed Neo's weapon away with her shield and stabbed.
Inside Glynda's classroom, everyone was watching the fight intently. None of the fighters had lost any significant amount of aura. It really looked like this might end by time-out before anyone got hit, yet the fight itself was intense.
That is, until the champion finally managed to hit from what looked like a desperate situation, and everyone gasped.
The hit was shallow, the spear had barely struck flesh, and everyone was at almost full aura, yet there was blood. And Pyrrha's opponent appearance changed, revealing a young teenager in pink, brown and white.
Everyone was shocked, but none so much as Glynda herself, who put her hands over her face and gasped.
"Neo !"
To be continued on April 24th
Name : Neo Politan
Age : 15
Level : 14 (33%)
Class : Illusionist [You add both your Intelligence and Dexterity modifiers to your AC and to Dexterity or Intelligence based attacks as long as you can still cast illusions]
Path : Me, myself and I [You live for yourself first and foremost, no matter what pain you might cause others]
Title : The Gamer
HP : 1/10
AP : UNUSABLE
STR : 11
CON : 10
DEX : 18
INT : 21
WIS : 12
CHA : 16
Semblance : The Gamer
Status effects :
Gamer's body [Your body follows game-like mechanics. You can restore 1/4th of your total HP (rounded down) by resting 15 minutes. You can only die if your HP reach 0 and you fail your last breath]
Child of Remnant [You are from Remnant and follow different rules than other worlds. Your HP is always equal to your constitution and any bonuses that would normally improve it are transferred to your aura]
Fighting for your life [Your aura behaved in the only way that would let you survive, and will continue to do so until you overcome your trauma. You cannot use aura, but you can will any item you wield for it to reflect 100% of any attack that hits it]
Words that shouldn't be said [Your last words almost caused you to lose your life. You cannot talk until you overcome your trauma]
Defenses :
AC : 25(29)
For : 18
Ref : 24
Will : 22