Rogue Huntsman
One-Sided
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A shrieking vibration ripped through the stands as a cracking wind nearly shattered the windows of the arena's wide room. The metal stage below might as well have just given in under the pressure and warp, but it held its ground.
Surprisingly.
Seems the architects of this academy actually put some sweat and tears into their product.
Too bad they couldn't do the same to the planet's population.
"I believe that is quite enough, Miss Xerious," Glynda spoke out through the thume in the air, her gaze locked on the same two combatants under the blinding spotlight of the most recent spar down below.
Or, the only one down there now anyway.
A quiet whine emitted from the hole in the wall where a body was embedded, sweaty golden hair clinging to the cracked stones in the masonry as Jaune Arc lay buried in its dusty grip.
Good for him. Actually penetrating something for a change.
With a girl no less.
First time for everything, I guess. Even if this is likely the only time it'll happen for the man.
Light purple eyes flicked back over the crowd as I watched Skyla sheathe her weapons, her gaze fleetingly passing over my position before she cracked a smile.
Something that weirdly reminded me of ice cream…
And space.
She gave a tiny wave that went ignored from my end before making her way off stage, letting nothing but an Arc's whines of pain and the echoey click of Glynda's heels fill the air now.
"I understand that our most recent unexpected… school event may have been trying on many of you. However, administration gave you several days to recuperate your strength and regenerate your aura."
Glynda seemed content to just stand down there on the arena ground and rattle off old news. That was all literally last week.
None of us want to be here.
More specifically, I don't want to be here.
But if it got me out of a face to face meeting with the falsity of Ozpin in the highest room of the tallest tower in this sad excuse of a beacon of hope…
Then for my sanity's sake why couldn't this be even remotely interesting…
I growled silently as my seat creaked, black boots settling over the backrest of the row in front of me as I let darkness settle over my eyes again.
I'd rather stare at the interior of my hat than that woman's face.
"With this being your first combat class of the week, I'll be picking these battles myself to reacquaint those who haven't fought yet with what this class will be offering you," the witch continued, "That being said, would Kitsuki Aeolus please make her way down."
A muffled thump that may as well have been a gunshot in a quiet room sounded out as I heard the kid in the beanie drop the glinting knife he's been lazily twirling.
Lucky. Ray actually brought something to play with while he sat boredly in his chair.
My eyes fell on the kitsune to my right, the one sat next to my other teammate.
The one with feathers.
The younger one.
The submissive one.
After a few long moments of still silence and Glynda's gaze, Kitsuki finally pushed herself to her feet with startlingly rigid tails and flat ears.
Seems like something like this wasn't a stroll in the park for her.
That made sense.
Nobody's seen her fight.
"Thank you, Miss Aeolus. Now," Glynda's attention fell onto her wide scroll as she tapped a few simple instructions into its screen, Kitsuki's image and aura appearing on the screen above.
No matter who she chooses, she still won't fight them at full strength.
Hell, nobody knew if she could even fight at all.
It wasn't like we had anything to go on. The only one who's seen her in action is dead.
"As for your opponent," Glynda continued, her eyes flicking over the crowd before settling somewhere that forced me to peer out from beneath my hat.
You little-
"Mister Niro Ezdeil, will you please make your way down to the arena?"
So I can knock your teeth in?
Gladly.
Any chatter, side talk, flirting, or whatever other side projects the audience had today suddenly grew deathly silent as I stood up.
Seemed like everyone suddenly had an interest in this fight.
Too bad. Not all of you get to see it.
Now then… I guess it's high time this ridiculously constraining and stupidly vague mystery started to solve itself.
Who killed who. What killed what.
And who the hell cared enough to cover their tracks.
Three answers.
One move.
Even Anoel turned her attention to the match as my fingers placed down slowly on the wall of the arena.
With an uncaring flourish of black fabric, I slipped over its edge, ignoring the sudden micro-interests both Ray and Dante suddenly had on this fight too as I landed with the silent killing of my downward momentum.
Even Ray's damn partner turned her attention to the stage instead of staring longingly at his beanie.
My drop caught Kitsuki's attention immediately. Marigold eyes watched me carefully, the girl standing just across the way at the opposite side of the arena as I made my way toward my own position.
Whether this was staged or by complete spiteful coincidence, I didn't care.
My gaze slipped over her fur for a moment before I fixed my hat, letting my eyes drift toward the cameras in the room.
They seemed focused on the fight now too, one of which adjusting just inside to get a closer look at me.
Somebody was watching this fight intently.
And despite Ozpin being behind his desk right now with that sick smirk of his, he hadn't noticed yet that he didn't have full control over his own system.
Well, sorry to break it to you. Both of you.
But no machine is going to record what's about to happen here.
"Now, do I need to repeat the rules to either of you?" Glynda asked the two of us.
We all know who you were directing that to, witch.
Kitsuki lightly shook her head no, her ears remaining flat on her head.
Glynda's gaze then met my dead eyes. Does it look like I care?
"Very well then. I reserve the right to call the match and will intervene if anything goes too far," Glynda stepped out of the ring and the lights in the stands suddenly flicked off, bright spotlights flicking on just overhead now before she adjusted the screen above to show my data off too.
They actually seemed to get a pretty good picture of me at some point in the forest. But my aura gauge failed to even appear on screen.
I see. Incompetence ran thick in this academy.
"Combatants, ready yourselves."
Kit slowly lowered herself closer to the ground, her eyes regarding me carefully as she placed a gentle hand on the ground just beneath her.
A stance for speed and mobility, huh?
Draw your weapon.
You'll need it.
"Begi-"
Glynda's petty words went mute as a bright fluctuation of my aura passed from my body and into the floor at my feet.
"Nobody intervenes with my fights," I muttered, a bright glow flashing across my eyes just beneath the rim of my hat as I pulled it down.
Half my gaze grew covered as I smirked, the energy I flooded into the floor channeling outward as more and more of it drew out of my body.
Anyone ever tell you staring at the sun could blind you?
The entire arena shuddered under a new breaching crash through its solid foundation. Every electrical wire and structural bar in the floor supported the energy I coursed through the ground before every bit of shining light collected at the edges of our fighting ring and stopped.
Glynda seemed to give me a confused but guarded glare as she took a step toward the energy ring.
I couldn't help but widen my smirk.
That was the last thing she saw before I ripped the energy out of the ground and surged an encircling column of blinding lime green light straight out of the ground on all sides of the fight.
I poured more aura into it, slowly widening the field to force Glynda back even further and make the fight inside hazier to observe.
For the average student, something like this was already impossible to see through.
But I hated the over-achievers too, so I let my barrier breach the 4 feet margin before letting it stop there.
A surrounding, steady, overbearing energy field of solid, shining light… 4 feet thick…
Have fun watching this one, Ozpin.
"Now… draw your weapon," I stated lowly, the sound of the roaring walls around us growing muffled with a small passing movement of my hand.
She leveled a confused stare at me, her stance faltering for a moment as she looked around.
"Keeps the simpletons from seeing this. That bother you?" I asked.
She shook her head again.
"Good. Then you know no one's watching this that you don't want seeing you fight. If you can fight at all, that is," I continued, my body finally moving as I took a slow step to my right.
The sleeve of my coat brushed against the field of energy beside me as I watched her mimic my movements, moving to her right now as well.
It was gonna be one of these stupid talky dances, wasn't it?
Albeit 100% one-sided.
Kit didn't respond with anything, not even a sign. Just eyeing me as we circled each other at the furthest reaches of the arena.
Fine then.
The cloth of my glove pulled taut as I tightened my fingers, drawing aura out of the wall just behind her to force her toward me.
But the girl swiftly stepped to the side to avoid its touch, keeping her eyes on me.
Spacial awareness is high, reaction high as well.
Just like the kid that died.
So why the hell is he 6 feet under and she silent about this whole thing?
Two more branches of light broke free from the wall, one where she was walking, the other where she'd likely dodge, but she somehow slipped around each by flipping through the small gap I left in a quiet escape.
"You can move like you can fight. So, why don't we?" I asked, moving forward now to start closing the gap.
"Because this doesn't matter."
It was the first time she signed to me since this started.
"Doesn't matter? Or is it just that you know I don't care enough to beat into you?"
"Both. You're not going to kill me, so I don't need to fight at my best."
So, she was the kind of person to only try when it truly mattered.
The tip of my hat lowered for a moment, my fingers going slack as my gaze hid away from her line of sight.
Our footsteps grew quiet after that moment, my boots coming to a halt.
I've always hated those kinds of people…
"Then I guess I'll just have to kill you."
Her confusion rose as her tails stilled, the smallest bit of hesitation passing through her shiny eyes as I let a smirk play across my lips.
Let's see just what you're made of, kitsune.
Energy separated itself from the walls around me before sharpening into a thin, slicing arc.
The entire wave lurched toward her frail neck, sliding through the air and closing the distance in a fraction of a second.
It took her entire body just to narrowly dodge its edge.
My frame tipped forward in the next moment before I moved into her guard, Kitsuki just now blinking as I tore a sparking green light through the air and reached for her neck.
She'd only just registered what was going on and sprang backward in whatever space she had, only for the back of her head to catch into the palm of my glove as I stepped behind her escape path.
Draw it.
My fingers squeezed around her head for a moment before she dug a heel into my leg and forcefully brought her other leg back, kicking my arm away from its grasp on her before kicking away.
She was quick to move her eyes back to me as she slid back on the balls of her boots, the pads of her fingers gliding across the ground as she watched for my next move.
"Keeping yourself unarmed won't do you any good," I commented, drawing more energy out of the wall and twisting four streams around my tightening fist and forearm.
Guess it came down to this.
I stepped forward before disappearing from her awareness, the crunch of bone and slamming of skin against skin ripped out into the air in the same moment as I sent both fist and energy into her side and shattered her aura shield there.
Fragments of it rippled across her body before just barely reforming her shield, the rest of herself crashing against the glass-like barrier before falling into a pained crouch, hand on her side.
"Bruises heal," I muttered next to her ear, the kitsune sliding away as soon as she realized how close I'd moved.
She moves fast at least.
Faster than Arex.
But not fast enough.
Eight clusters of energy in sets of three strands surged out of the wall as she ran to create distance, forcing her to dodge and lithely turn her body through the air just to avoid them.
I caught her mid-flip, the energy just melting harmlessly around my body as I brought down another strike to the small of her back, seeing her reduce the impact with a cradled roll on her side.
Still not drawing it?
Green energy swept back into my grasp as I tore it forward, glowing strands of light hardening and forming a manifestation large enough to slam into her side and send her careening toward the other half of the arena.
"You're clever," I spoke again, catching her by the back of the neck before forcing her down to slam her into the floor.
But she still somehow managed to get a leg beneath herself to step forward and rotate backward, grasping my arm with the both of her own as she flipped around it and tore herself back out of my grasp.
"You can dodge, recover, and reduce the impact of blows with nothing but your arms and legs," I continued, slowly standing back up as she created more distance.
She only leveled her calm gaze back onto my own as she dipped her chin into her scarf, one fingers back on the ground as her tails splayed out behind her.
She was still just intent on letting this play out.
Then I guess I needed to try harder.
More energy drew itself from the wall and wrapped around my leg as I leapt forward and brought my heel down onto her, two hands and her forearm glancing the blunt strike into the ground before she planted a boot on my knee.
A blur of white passed my vision as I saw her use my shoulder as a stepping stone, throwing herself into a slow spin in the air as I met her gaze again.
Murderers run or stay with a plan.
Victims hide.
The intent in her eyes…
She wanted nothing more than to run from where this was going.
"I'm sorry to break it to you," my hand reached up as a field of streaking strands formed from the walls around her, hiding away the ceiling as they laced together just behind her twisting body, "But I'm not letting you run from this."
Everything came crashing down on her as she reached her peak, dropping with enough force to crush her into the ground.
And that was when I finally heard it.
My smirk slowly formed again as a metallic ring flooded through the air, the air splitting around something sharp as it swept into the center of my falling strands and tore them open.
The rest of them fell away, crashing into the ground with enough force to shake the arena as I saw her falling just after them.
A white streak followed the movement of her hand. Thin, shining cloth trailing just behind her grip as she landed with a soft tap and turned to face me.
"So that's what your neck looks like," I commented, moving forward now too.
She'd drawn her blade.
Kitsuki's eyes narrowed at my approach, the tip of my hat merely just dipping for a moment as I regarded her eyes with a proper greeting.
It'd be even more unfair if I drew a weapon of my own too.
"Try not to blink."
The step in my walk stalled for just a moment to tip my frame forward, her perception drawing into a thin line again as I made my way around her.
Her eyes tracked me this time, unlike the rest of the times I'd done the exact same move.
She was actually trying now.
Now to find out if I'm right.
My gaze watched her pivot in time to swing the metallic cloth of her scarf toward the base of my neck, the fabric whipping into a rigid, double-edged sword for just a brief passing moment.
The very moment it'd make contact.
And it did.
She tore the scarf toward her as soon as it dug into my skin, ripping through a shallow portion of blood, skin, and tendon as she carried that momentum around and drew an upward slash across my chest.
She was faster now too.
Her next slash met the back of my glove, the fabric of my own weapon glancing her scarf away as I stepped forward into her guard.
It was there I found something crucial out about all this.
Her scarf whipped forward in a flash, without a slicing motion this time, as she brought the bend of it around my back and caught the fist I'd just pressed into her side.
She leveraged it back before her body slipped around my own, disappearing beneath my free arm before a deep gash drug itself up my back with a follow-up slash.
She flourished inside guards.
Her boots reconnected with the ground as I pivoted, turning to face her again only to see the falling traces of her flowing hair as she dipped beneath my swinging arm again and wrapped another end of her scarf around its wrist.
She threw her entire body into a vicious twist as she kicked up over my leg and passed my opposite shoulder, forcing my arm up with her.
Turning an opponent's strength against them, huh?
I stopped the pull just before my fist could knock off my hat, forcing her back down toward the ground as I took a grip of her scarf and yanked.
The girl fell toward my rising knee, but the weight at the end of the scarf suddenly vanished as she let go and bent her body just around the imposing impact, pushing away from my shin to land on her hands.
She moved quickly again, dashing up for just long enough to kick my risen leg outward to widen my stance, taking that moment to break my guard again and reclaim her scarf with a healthily deep cut into the palm of my hand.
So…
She landed back on the ground just a few feet away, attention sharply on me as she let her bloodied white scarf dangle toward the floor.
I was right after all.
Her gaze was still as calm as it had been since the start, a strong indifference just inside her irises as I flexed my sliced hand then lowered it toward the floor.
Blood continued to seep from the wounds across my body, slipping down my arm and over my fingers to fall softly to the arena floor just below.
It was easy for her to figure out I wasn't using aura to shield myself after the first hit drew blood.
But…
It wasn't easy to accept it just as easily as she did.
Which means…
We're done here.
Death was just a part of her life.
And she hated it.
My smirk fell as I moved forward, finding her slip beneath my arm in the same moment as she caught my reaching hand by the wrist with her scarf and entangled it.
Cold cloth whipped tightly around in a coil before a razored edge tightened into my flesh.
The kitsune's white scarf suddenly snapped like a vice as she ripped it downward, cutting down to the bone of my arm as the entire scarf unraveled against my flesh, dragging the full edge of its blade through me.
But it didn't go further than that.
"We're done, Kit," I said evenly, the intent in my gaze falling away as my wounds began to seal themselves.
It was the first time she hesitated to make an actual move, getting ready to move away while my arm still stayed outstretched above her.
Marigold eyes cast back up toward me in confusion again.
Oh. Right.
That was the first time I used her name.
Some of it, anyway.
My fingers lowered slowly, nestling onto the top of her head before I rested a clean palm between her ears.
A small, unnoticeable burst of energy trickled over her body to burn away whatever traces of my blood that happened to land on her, finishing with cleaning her weapon clean of crimson and scarlet as well.
With that, I took my hand back and dropped the surrounding field.
The timer above still continued to tick as I made my way toward the edge of the arena.
"I forfeit," I called out, giving dear old Glynda a short wave over my shoulder as I passed the threshold of the arena and walked off.
Arex had her hands tightly gripped on the top edge of the observational wall throughout the entirety of the fight.
The girl's body refusing to even let her continue to sit as she stood away from her seat and at a place as close as she could possibly get to the arena below.
She'd been monitoring Kitsuki's aura, the only stat visible on the screen, which was just recently dipping into the dark orange. And with a painstaking focus on her part, she'd managed to just barely watch the heat signatures inside and see what was going on.
But she was only able to see Kitsuki's, and that scared her.
Niro didn't have one.
When the barrier fell, she couldn't help but breathe a quiet sigh of relief when she saw Kit standing silently at the center of the arena, her gaze watching as Niro walked off and forfeited the match.
Arex didn't really know much about the system here, but it sounded like forfeiting was allowed. And to see Niro go to this extent for a fight, the phoenix began to realize that he had an ulterior motive to everything that went down in that match.
It just pained her to realize she had no idea what that motive was.
Kit's eyes eventually glanced back to where Arex had been sitting, finding the girl at the railing of the wall in the same general area before frowning for a moment.
Even so, it was just for a fleeting second before the silent room suddenly broke with a slow, gentle clap.
Arex's gaze drifted off as she saw Kitsuki's own eyes find the source of the noise as well, the two finding Scarlet, Ray's partner, lightly clapping, the girl standing from her seat while doing so as she beamed a smile down at Kit.
Was she… able to see through the field?
Arex soon noticed Yang stand up off to the side and clap too, then Kyzal as well, intent on keeping the clapping going as he started leisurely doing the same thing his teammate was.
So, some people were able to actually see what happened through the field.
Which meant Niro wasn't even trying for full coverage.
He was targeting something out… or someone...
But, what?
It didn't take long for Dante and Inuba to join in as well, and soon enough Kit was getting a standing applause from a rising collection of people.
Arex turned an apologetic look back to her kitsune stuffing her face into the scarf around her neck, tails tightly winding around her waist to shrink further and further away.
She almost felt bad for her…
But she needed this.
The darkness of the exit hallway fell to light as I made it back out into the locker rooms, the only thing stopping me now was the tap of a silvered cane.
"Blocking the cameras brought me out of my office," Ozpin said, the gaze of his experienced eyes watching me as I flexed my glove and stopped just beside him, "It gave me a reason to come down and observe the fight first hand."
So, it was planned after all.
"Find anything? Did she kill him?" the headmaster asked calmly.
"No. But someone did," I returned, glancing toward him for a moment before moving on.
"Why block the cameras then?"
I gave the man a short wave before making my way toward the exit, "Because someone else was watching."
Hmm… Hopefully that fight was interesting enough to read.
College has started back up. So with any luck, I'll be able to get back into my weekly schedule once I've reacquainted myself with the heavy workloads.
No promises though.
So, what'd you think of a Niro vs Kit fight?
There was a lot that went down in this chapter, more than what was put forward in an obvious manner. This entire fight scene actually played into Kitsuki's history and what's happened to her in her backstory.
There's a big arc that'll directly pertain to that. But for those who have been paying attention, the third party watching the fight has already been revealed.
And no. It was not the lion.
For now, Favorite and Follow.
I look forward to seeing REVIEWS for this. You'll be introduced to a LOT of concepts of mine. Feel free to give me your thoughts.
Cya XP