(A/N: "Meet the new boss! Same as the old boss!" -The Who, during one of the most popular songs in all of music history)
**!Long chapter alert!**
**This one went a fair bit over 2k words, but there was no way I was splitting up the sparring class into two parts. Just doesn't feel right.**
If past me knew how long the chapters could get now he'd probably go crazy. For reference, every chapter in SoiB so far (and likely all of them) is longer than this one..
Ping!
15 minutes until class!
That's the reminder Jaune has set. He has practiced swordplay stances for half an hour now, looking remarkably poised for just a little bit of training. Maybe it's his improved mood?
Those aren't the thoughts in his mind right now though. What is in there is the sparring class. Who is he gonna face against?
It surely won't be Pyrrha…
Wait, what is he talking about! This is sparring class! He wants a win. And who better to beat than Cardin, the one who tried to extort him around a week ago! Although it feels like an eternity since then…
He can just imagine it now. Dodge the mace and get as many slashes as he can. The hubris will do all the work. No way will he be a winless loser this time!
Jaune finally stops practicing and begins to head over. He enters the arena confidently, looking around at the arena. He sees Glynda, who notices him but doesn't change her expression from the usual "teaching". Oh well.
Ah yes, a 'teaching' expression. I know what that looks like. You know, the one where she is toying with an apple in one hand and a piece of chalk in the other, staring with a slight menace at students doing a packet of something? Yeah, something like that. Except that's actually thinking about what that would entail when using that figure of speech, which I didn't when writing that.
He sits on the left. He is actually about 5 or 6 minutes early for this, with only a few people in the class right now. This is another one of those where everyone shows up.
He watches the students begin to filter in. Ruby comes in first, looking happy again. Yang follows right behind, in much the same mood.
Then comes Ren and Nora, Ren being his usual self, but Nora looking a little sad… that's never good. That also means he probably ran out of pancakes. Oh no…
Then Velvet shows up, looking happy. But not a genuine kind of happy. A forced kind of happy. Jaune can see hints of fear in her eyes. She looks back at him, and that fear seems to come to the surface for a moment before she looks away. That's odd. Jaune would never hurt anyone! He starts to plead with his eyes but Velvet is already walking away.
Weiss walks in next, dainty as usual. She sees Jaune almost immediately, and turns away with a disgusted look on her face. She runs and sits on the far right, as far away as possible from him.
Last to show up, right at the bell, is Coco. She's dressed up in a special-looking red shirt. She looks around and sees Jaune, and the smile that donned her face turns into a really big grin. She almost skips her way over sitting right next to Velvet. The fear in Velvet's eyes comes back again, this time stronger. Poor girl…
Glynda calls attention and everyone turns around.
"Alright. Let's see who will be the first two up." She looks around, noticing Cardin's always-on smirk.
"Cardin Winchester. You look very ready to join us."
That smirk does not change, proving her correct.
She looks through the list again.
"How about… Pyrrha Nikos."
"Pyrrha isn't here. I wish to volunteer in her place."
"Alright Ren, you may go up to the arena." Glynda makes a "crossing out" kind of marking on her paper.
Jaune looks a little disappointed, but that is just a fleeting feeling. Besides, it's Ren. He'll make defeating Cardin look like the easiest thing in the world!
Cardin stands up and walks in the arena, mace dragging on the floor.
Ren calmly does the same, with almost no noise whatsoever. As soon as he gets into the arena, both hands go to each of the dual guns of StormFlower.
Cardin prepares his mace, sporting the usual smug look on his face, as he always does.
"Begin!"
Cardin goes for the simplest strategy right out of the gate: Swing hard and fast.
If Cardin can get a nice smack in, he could potentially cause Ren to stumble. And StormFlower's blades won't be much of an issue either. He just has to get him down.
Ren manages to shoot before Cardin can even move. This shot is dead center, hitting the fire crystal and causing a big explosion. Cardin has to extend him arm as far away as possible to avoid being burned.
From there, it's not even a contest. Cardin is left to just try swinging at him, but Ren avoids it all with ease. Shooting with the grace of a ballerina and the accuracy of a sniper, Ren begins to break him down, hitting (almost) all his weak spots and even chipping off portions of the mace. Cardin looks like a headless chicken, as Ren barely even gets touched during the entire encounter. It only lasts just over a minute before Cardin's Aura drops into the red, ending the match.
Lie Ren: 98%
Cardin Winchester: 12%
"Lie Ren is the winner."
Cardin's smug face is gone. Jaune could have totally beat him though. Maybe not as gracefully as Ren, but it still would have been exciting.
They both return to their seats. Ren gets some comfort from Nora, but Cardin gets a lot more from the rest of team CRDL. The real surprise is no one even bothers to cheer or anything for this one. Such depressing. Much sad.
Glynda looks back over her list of names, adding two small strokes to the list. Her brow furrows as she scans through the list again.
"Let's see. How about.. Velvet Scarlatina and Yatsuhashi Daichi."
"LET'S GO VEL! WHOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO!️!️!️!️!️!️!"
One extra letter changes the meaning of a word so, so much.
Velvet's ears cringe at the loudness of that scream. She harshly taps Coco on the arm, which shuts her up for but a brief moment.
She walks up with Anesidora out, ready to photograph.
Yatsuhashi walks up with a neutral expression. He looks over toward the Students, and sees Jaune giving him a small smile. A smile appears on Yatsu's face in turn and he walks up with his weapon out.
But after seeing the ocean blue of Anesidora's lens, he hides his weapon behind his back. Not gonna let that happen too easily.
Velvet's timidness is much less noticeable now, just a small tinge showing via her facial expressions. They stand opposite each other, each eagerly waiting for Glynda's voice to boom out.
"LET'S GO VEL! BEAT HIS ASS!"
Not you, Coco!
️
"Begin!"
Neither move for a second, before Yatsu tests the waters with a close swing. No movement.
Suddenly, a bluish tint enters the arena. It quickly forms into a near-identical copy of Fulcrum, size and all. But how? Velvet didn't take any pictures?!
Then everyone realizes. She stored it on film, and brought it up now, just for this match.
That clever little rabbit.
Yatsu resets his mind and prepares to use the one advantage he has left; size.
He waits. Velvet goes in for a quick slash to try to knock Fulcrum out of his hands, but a small movement parries that off quite easily.
Yatsu goes on the offensive now, attempting to do the same, but Velvet's quick movement allows her to dodge, keeping the sword in hand.
It turns into a swordplay fight for a while, as each one tries to catch the other making a wrong move. But neither do. It's clear to everyone that Yatsu outranges her, like he does with almost everyone.
They exchange hits, but no one can gain the upper hand. And then the light blue vanishes from the field.
With Velvet weaponless now, Yatsu plays even more aggressively, trying his hardest to corner her. Luckily Anesidora is made of pretty tough material, as even direct hits from Fulcrum don't even leave a scratch on it. The same can't be said for Velvet, however.
It's now a game of cat and mouse, with Yatsu as the hungry, hungry cat. With no real options, Velvet tries a desperation move; going under his legs. Her approach is simple, Get Yatsu to turn around, duck back under and take a quick picture before he can move out of the way.
She runs directly at him. Yatsu swings straight ahead to go for a clean headshot. But she's not there anymore. He feels her move under him, and turns around to try to catch her coming back up. Wrong move.
This leaves the sword out, easy pickings for Anesidora. She takes the picture and a new sword appears again. Now they are back near equal strength. But strength will not matter anymore.
Yatsu corners her again and tries to make another set of slashes, but she not only ducks under them, but also hits him from behind with her sword. This push, combined with the momentum of Yatsu's slash, carries him out of the ring. The attempt to stick his sword in and launch himself back up falls painfully short.
Velvet Scarlatina: 38%
Yatsuhashi Daichi: 67% ≺≺OUT OF BOUNDS≻≻
I don't think there actually is an 'out of bounds' for the sparring class. But, I like the idea of that being an extra consideration. This may have been 'borrowed' from a fanfic I have long, long forgotten about, but I like it too much not to use.
Also, no one uses Velvet in fights, like ever. It's really a missed opportunity, considering how extensible a semblance that allows you to copy weapons is. I tried it here because I wanted to challenge myself a bit. Is it decent? I would really like to know.
"The winner is Velvet Scarlatina."
This time, cheering breaks out. That fight was really, really good. Coco is, of course, the loudest of all.
"YEAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAA! GOOD JOB VEL!"
Every student is covering their ears for this one. Plus Glynda.
The scream eventually dies down, and hands return to their sides.
Both participants are clearly very tired from this one, but especially Velvet, who collapses back into her spot. Yatsuhashi calmly walks back to his spot near the middle of the audience.
As they sit down, there is a bunch of talking going on about this fight. Even Blake looks up from her book to launch a few comments. The most prevalent mood is one of confusion. Why these two? Only Glynda will know that one.
Glynda scrolls through the list once again, crossing off the names, and picking the participants for the 3rd of 4 fights planned today. She finds the first name she was looking for quite fast. It was second from the top after all. But who will be the second name? Her brow furrows once again for a moment. If you look really closely, you could see the pair of dice rolling in her mind right now. It lands on 9! Great! Now she has the second name…
"Jaune Arc and Yang Xiao Long."
The room goes silent. Every person save one is shocked at the fact that these two students were selected. But the one holdout among the faces has a look of happiness on his.
It would be unwise to confuse this with arrogance, however. Jaune knows he is going to lose. But he also knows it will be a good match.
Glynda hopes for the same. She wants to see all of three days of training be put to good use.
Jaune walks into the arena more confident than anyone has ever seen him. No slouching, no timid facial expressions, no nothing. Many take notice of this, and even Glynda has to hide a look of S-surprise.
Yang, to no one's surprise, has the same confidence. Except it also comes with the added bonus of an evil-looking grin on her face, almost as if she has been waiting for this moment.
This unnerves Jaune a little bit on the inside, but he successfully keeps it hidden. He looks out to the crowd for reassurance. Most people are either actively cheering on Yang or don't really care (and/or have their face glued in a book), but he sees two defectors, who he quickly recognizes as
Nora and Yatsuhashi. They are cheering for him.
With good feelings in hand, Jaune stares down Yang on the other side of the arena, still donning that grin. He's also thinking about some possible strategies. Maybe play low? Let her exhaust herself? All qualifying as ideas.
"B-"
*ZOOOOOOOM!*
Yang almost false starts taking the first shot. Jaune manages to block it, but he is significantly pushed back, being just an inch or so from being out of bounds. He rushes back off the edge, only to meet her fist. He gets pushed to the side, where Yang is already loading up for another shot.
Looks like the exhaustion strategy is out the window. If he tries to avoid all her rounds, Yang is all but certain to pin him in a corner and go to town on him. And that's not a fun image to be thinking about.
Jaune tries the only thing he can really do, which is go low. This seems to work for a time, as keeping the shield over his face while crouching down to do some damage does seem to be working.
He feels the pain from those rounds even through his shield. But he continues to try with all his might, even taking out one of Yang's legs with a surprise shield bash. That one got a few gasps from the crowd. But the dual nature of those gauntlets is really tough to crack.
It's essentially a 2 on 1 battle with those weapons. Trying to push it in with his shield does nothing. Trying to hook her arm leaves his face wide open. There's nowhere to put his sword into to break the gauntlet. Other than the barrel… But that is certain to destroy his only weapon AND probably break his arm, rendering him basically incapacitated.
The shots are getting more and more powerful with each passing second. After about 90 seconds of this torture, even his shield just isn't enough, and he stumbles. Another round puts him down on the floor, with no real options left. At least he got some damage in…
It's painful down there. He covers his face, just praying that this will be quick. He can't resist peeking through. He sees Yang… doing nothing? She's just staring over him now, eyes red and the most evil grin he's ever seen on her face.
Needed an adjective for the red eyes.
She sees him looking. A quick shot to the ribs makes him cry out in pain.
Everyone can hear it. That's a cry of surrender. His body confirms this as his Aura finally drops into the red after taking hits from several punches and rounds from Ember Celica.
"The winner is Yang Xiao Long!"
Jaune Arc: 9% ≺≺DANGER! DANGER! DANGER!≻≻
Yang Xiao Long: 83%
Jaune relaxes. But Yang does not. She continues to stand over him, completely silent. She puts her foot down mere inches away from the "family jewels". She puts both her hands out as if to charge up. Glynda notices this first and tries desperately to stop her.
"Yang Xiao Long, this match is over! Exit from the arena!"
Her whip begins to tense. She really does not want to have to use it.
If Yang heard her, she did not do anything different in response. Her gauntlets take aim at Jaune's head and body. There are 4 rounds left in each. There is no way to block them all. Taking them all would cause severe damage to anyone even with full Aura, but one that is at very low Aura like Jaune could face an unthinkable sight.
But no one has any time to think about that idea, as Yang is already putting it into practice live in the arena. The two shots hit before anyone can move. Glynda activates her whip and puts a shield over the gauntlets preventing more shots.
Yang fires the second set before noticing, sending a shock of pain through both of her arms.
But that is nothing compared to the pain Jaune is experiencing right now. He does nothing but scream. Several students cover their ears. Several more are stuck in a look of shock.
He is rushed down to the infirmary again. Without the advantage of being unconscious, he's feeling every bit of pain. The staff moves fast, but they could never be fast enough for him. The minutes are agonizing. But they get him on painkillers.
Oum seems to be watching over him. No permanent damage. But even the gods can't intervene in this nightmare…
(A/N: I told you he wasn't gonna be overpowered.)
