Chapter 4: A Fight for the Ages
Authors Note: Good news! Well, kinda. I finally sat down and wrote out an entire timeline of events for the rest of this story. I have a sense of direction, but it is subject to change. Like, really frequently. I've decided to only allude to the pasts of my main OCs and not completely reveal them. This is so progress can be made and seen. I will reveal their pasts, eventually, if you choose to read for that long. In this story I'm going to focus of building my characters and setting the stage for further story elements and such.
Moving on from long term. If you need a refresher for the last chapter or can't tell from the title of this chapter, today is Cordovan vs. Shao Long! I'm writing this AN before I write the chapter so I have no clue how it's going to turn out. Hopefully well. Without further ado, let us begin and happy reading!
[Edit: I'm so sorry for the long delay, Halfway through writing this chapter I got writers block and then school started and I was bombarded with things like Track and tests and grades and ugh… Again, I'm sorry for the delay and I wish you guys don't kill me… That is if anyone is actually reading this story…]
Disclaimer: RWBY and all its characters belong to Rooster Teeth!
Terence
I think I done goofed.
What was I thinking? Sparring against Yang Shao Long of all people!
Yet, I feel oddly confident. Like I can find a way to beat her. Exploit a weakness or pull a trick.
I watch nervously as the timer counts down. She readies her fists, her own gauntlets cocking and ready to fire. I put one foot forward and take stance. I put my fists in front of me, my gauntlets inactive. 3.
I take a deep breath. 2.
No turning back. 1.
"Begin," the automated voice chimes and I watch as Yang charges. My instincts take over and I take steps backward to avoid her rapid punches, each one getting closer and closer to my face.
She expects me to keep retreating, so I duck down and sweep my leg under her, causing her to trip up and stumble backwards.
"Tricky," Yang says, "I can see why Glynda chose you."
"You're not too bad yourself," I say, getting back up, "Powerful, I've got to say."
"Don't get too relaxed there," Yang punches, sending bullets my way.
Stunned for a moment, I can't dodge the bullets. They blow me back and I hit the wall, creating a dust cloud. I can hear the sound of the aura bar on the screen go down and gasps in the crowd.
I sit up, footsteps approaching fast. I dodge out of the way as another barrage of bullets hits the wall. I cough as I emerge from the cloud of debris.
"Found you!" Yang shouts as she jumps from above, her fist clenched and ready to serve a devastating blow.
I stick my hands in front of me to defend myself. A transparent curvature appears before my hands as I block off Yang's assault from above.
Her fist collides with the shield. She's surprised, but doesn't lose her composure. She uses the shield to push off as she does a somersault and lands gracefully.
"Careful there," she wags her finger at me, "your semblance is showing."
"What gave it away?" I think of how to fight her. I can't retaliate without using my own gauntlets, but I need to find a weakness.
She grins and launches forward once again. I block a punch, and another, and another. Jeez, this girl punches hard.
I catch one of her punches and not even a second after, it fires. I manage to dodge most of the bullet as it grazes my arm.
I roll out of the way, slowly backing into a corner. Great.
I kick off one of the corners and jump off the other, vaulting over her. I roll and use an aura shield to force her back, reversing our roles.
Unfortunately, the shield doesn't hold for long as she literally takes two punches to the barrier and it's down.
"Almost had me there," Yang says with a smirk.
"Yeah, I'd really hoped so too," I run in the opposite direction.
"Oh no you don't," Yang sprints up behind me and jumps in the air, another aerial assault.
I barely manage to dodge as she punches the floor behind me, sending shock waves throughout the stage.
A shockwave knocks me back once more; I need to think more offensively. What can I use to my advantage?
As I take a second, Yang's already running up for a drop punch on me. Drop punch? Wait… I might have something…
I cross my fingers and hope I haven't screwed up.
"Given up already?" Yang's almost at me now, "but we've only just begun."
As I predict, she lunges upwards and readies a shot downwards, straight at me. My gauntlets take a second to assemble and I shoot to my right, sending me sliding backwards. She wasn't expecting that. I quickly switch dusts and take two ice shots, one colliding with her left fist and the other her ankle.
She lands and rolls, cracking the ice, "Ooo fancy."
"Well you can't be the only person who loves to punch things," I respond, my gauntlets switch to fire.
Yang shouts as she charges forwards. Now that I have my gauntlets out, I can block her effectively. Her punches as deflected as I return them with my own.
She seems to grow angrier. I don't know if that's a good thing or a bad thing as I might be able to use her anger against her.
She shouts again, louder this time and punches once more. This one way harder. Not only does it send me sliding across the floor, but also engulfs her in flames.
Flames? She's fireproof? Or seems like it. I laugh to myself, I've been using fire dust this entire time and I think I've only been making her stronger.
I switch to ice dust once more to counter her fire. Water wouldn't be much use as there isn't much around and it probably wouldn't last as much with all this heat.
I glance upwards at the display screen; my aura level seems visibly lower than hers. There's a timer but I can't make out the time.
Yang takes my distracted moment to try to gain an advantage as she throws a punch. I sense her presence and lean away just in time for her fist to fly right past my face.
Everything seems to move in slow motion as I return with a blow of my own. It takes her by surprise as the ice blast sends her flying backwards and into the opposing wall.
Whoops and cheers come from the crowd but I know it's not over. But as the dust settles, a silence fills the room as I spot a long strand of bright yellow hair upon the floor before me.
An angry yell surprises me as I block my eyes from the bright ball of flame that stands before me.
"Do you know how long I need to manage this hair!?" Yang screams. I take a step back; this can't end well.
She charges out of pure anger. I lunge forward, gauntlet at the ready.
I manage to counter her blow, our fists colliding and on impact sends shock waves through the classroom.
Unfortunately, the wave blows me back too. I land on my feet and charge again; Yang does the same.
I slide as she jumps upwards, both readying our gauntlets. We both fire. I'm able to freeze her shotgun pellets before they reach me, falling to the ground with a clink.
She's real angry now, how to use that to my advantage? Honestly, at this point I'm not sure. What do I have in my possession to help me.
For a moment, I think of Luther and his fighting style. Too much range, not enough close combat. Sam? Way too many flips. What about Arin?
Sure I could go for that. I stop to get my bearings. Yang's not that far from me, so I take stance with my fists in front of me.
She's charging. I take a breather.
"AHHH!" She slams her fist down. I kick upwards, using my feet, switching up my fighting style.
This seems to mess her up as I can see her hesitate for a moment. But it's nowhere long enough for me to regain my stance as she throws more punches my way.
I spin, kicking twice at her fists. But this only seems to make myself dizzier. I don't know how Sam's able to do, like, twenty of these, in a row.
I land crouched and fire at the flaming Yang. The ice sends her sliding back. Neither of us are making any headway.
Once again, I glance upwards at the display. We're both around equal aura levels as I was able to deflect some of her shots and make a few of my own. A good punch so could knock either of us out.
I'm distracted. A good punch is what collides with my face, causing me to fly backwards and hit the wall.
I groan and hold my head. I can hear my scroll beeping rapidly, indicating my extremely low aura level.
Yang is growing stronger by the second, each punch she absorbs, every shot that I make, only makes her stronger. I look into the crowd and spot Arin. She looks worried. Man, I need to finish this off soon.
Yang lunches at me and throws herself into the air for the highest drop she's had on me. I put all my strength into my retaliation, using my aura shield and ice blast in the blow.
Our fists collide and we're engulfed in a miniature explosion and immediately surrounded by a huge cloud of smoke.
Gasps fill the classroom as the dust settles and there's a clear victory. Yang stands up straight as I'm slumped against the wall.
"The victory goes to Ms. Shao Long," Goodwitch announces as the screen wall dissipates and the screen displays the results.
"Terence!" Luther jumps down and runs to my side, "you alright?"
He helps me up. I cough, "never better."
"Terence! Oh god you had me worried," Arin approaches as well, Sam not far behind.
"You did good in there!" Sam beams, "You stole that spin kick from me though."
I smile, yeah I've got a great team.
Yang approaches me with her fist out, "You fought well out there, Cordovan. Maybe next time."
We bump fists, "You're pretty good yourself. There's still a long way before I could beat you though."
We laugh, which kinda hurts my chest. Yang puts a hand on my shoulder, "Seriously though, rest up." I guess when she's not an angry ball of fire she's a good person.
We take our seats back on the balcony and Goodwitch immediately begins with questions.
"Can anyone tell me the reason for Ms. Shao Long's obvious victory?"
"Hey!" I say, slightly offended. I might've had it. I can see what other people meant when they said she brutally attacked our egos.
I student from the other side of the balcony raises her hand, she has bunny ears, "Because Terence was distracted watching the screen, allowing Yang to deal a heavy blow." She's got a strong accent.
"Precisely," Goodwitch looks at me, "Know yourself. Be aware of your own aura level without the help of a counter or your scroll. There is no need to know that of your opponents' as in a real battle you won't have scrolls to assist you."
She brings up a good point. I kept looking up at the screen. I thought it would be more effective than pulling out my scroll, but I can see that it's just as distracting.
"Can anyone else point out another weakness in Mr. Cordovan's fighting style?"
Blake raises her hand calmly, "He changed it midway, starting with punches and then changing to kicks."
Goodwitch nods, "Changing fighting styles mid-battle is risky, but can be effective if done properly. As you saw, Ms. Shao Long did at first have trouble countering the new style, but was able to adapt since Mr. Cordovan didn't seem too familiar with the second fighting style."
Gotta get one of the girls to teach me then, I glance at Sam and Arin who actually seem to be paying attention.
I take notes as Goodwitch continues to question the students about our battle. Various techniques were discussed as well as the location of our many flaws.
Goodwitch eventually moves on from the match, then discussing the various fighting styles of a hunter. The whole time, I'm taking notes and thinking of ways I could improve my technique. The rest of the class passes rather uneventfully.
I drop my pen on my desk and shake my hand of cramps. We'd finished our classes and were now back in our dorm working away on the pile of homework given to us on our first day here.
I glance over to my teammates. Sam had already fallen asleep with her head propped up with her arm, Luther was scratching his head with his pencil, and Arin was spacing out, unaware that she was scratching a line into her paper with her pen.
I look back down at the history textbook and third page of notes I had taken. There were papers strewn across my desk which I had no use for.
I pick one up and ball it up. I glance behind me at the small trash can next to the door. I turn back and close my eyes. I can sense it. Even being an object without an aura I can still make out where it is.
I toss the ball over my shoulder and I hear it clink against the metal can.
I get up and open the window, letting in the afternoon breeze.
Arin sneezes. "Oh, sorry. I'll close it," I begin to close the window.
"No, it's fine," Arin rubs her eyes, "It's just allergies."
I leave the window open, but only just a bit. I rub my wrists and haul my luggage onto my bed, I hadn't finished unpacking yet.
Out of the corner of my eye, I see Arin get down and plop down face-first into the bed next to mine.
"You ok?"
"History sucks," her muffled voice comes from the bed.
A thud and a yelp come from the tables. We both turn to see that Sam's head had slipped from her hand and had hit the table. Meanwhile, Luther almost had a heart attack as he was concentrating so hard.
I chuckle and open up my bag, huh? Inside was a delivery tube, about a foot long. I shook it and it rattled.
I pop the top off. Two small crystal falls out and onto my bed. A sheet of paper then slips out.
I pick up the crystal and the sheet of paper, I think you'll find a good use for this, it reads. Underneath is a familiar signature that brings a smirk to my lips.
"You seriously wasted a whole sheet of paper for this?" I shake my head. I hold up a crystal into the light, it's a translucent black color. It's got a strange shape though, as if it were cut from a larger crystal.
Arin turns on her bed, "What's that?" Gesturing to the crystal and the note.
"Something from my uncle," I walk over to the table where my gauntlets sit. A press of a button releases the paneling and the insides are exposed. Five dust crystals sit in each of the gauntlets, wind, fire, water, lightning, and ice.
I switch to a blank space and set the crystals inside. A black glow surrounds it for a second as it dims back to its original hue.
"Woah," Arin is crouched next to me now, "And what's that?"
"Crystalline dust," I say, closing the paneling, "More specifically, gravity dust."
"Gravity dust?" Luther's head pops up and he turns in his chair, "How are you supposed to use it?"
Again, I shrug. The gauntlets that I made were experimental and only allowed for me to use a small variety of attacks.
I snap the gauntlets onto my forearms. They hum to life and assemble around my hands. I switch to the new dust variant and a small, dark, orb forms in my palm.
I toss the orb to Luther, just short of his reach. It hits the ground behind his chair. Then it just sits there.
"So… what is it supposed to do?" Luther asks.
I opened my mouth to speak, but the orb began to react. Luther's chair began to tip backwards.
"Woah, woahh!" he wobbles back and forth as the orb tries to pull the chair towards it.
"Terence! Do something!"
"How am I supposed to know what to do?" I laugh. The orb suddenly stops and disappears with an audible pop.
The front legs of Luther's chair touch the floor again and he breaths out of relief.
"That's going to be useful," Arin says patting me on the shoulder, "We'll find a use for it."
"Other than pranking others, I'll come up with something," my gauntlets power down and I set them back down on the table. I glance at my scroll and look through my list of contacts. It's not long, the names of my teammates and one other person.
I open a new message and begin to type. Thanks for the gift, call when you can. Send.
I look out the window at the clouds drifting across the sky, come back soon.
End of Chapter 4
Author's Note: Ok, ok, I know. I really don't like this last scene with the Gravity dust and the brief intro of Terence's uncle. I just couldn't really find a way to end the chapter as the main point of to have Terence and Yang hash it out. Like I said in the AN above, I'm extremely sorry for not posting in over a month now… I don't want to bore you guys with excuses. As Volume 3 has come out with more episodes, I'm considering making it part of the story as this is a year after the events of the Yvtal festival. Other than that, I don't have much to say as I'm still kinda disappointed about the second half of the chapter. Hopefully the next chapter will be better. I also might make the chapters shorter because of my schedule and school and whatnot. Please review to give any insight you have about the story and follow as I don't have a set posting schedule made obvious by the month of silence.
Thanks for reading, 'Till next time.
-T