Chapter Four: Melting Point.
The fight had kicked off a bit slower than Neo had been hoping for. She supposed that Pyrrha probably thought that the fight would be over after the first strike. As soon as the fight started, Pyrrha had done nothing but jab at her repeatedly with that spear of hers, exercising that extended reach to great effect. Neo was constantly on the move, dipping, darting, and dodging every jab and swing with her constant movements. With every piercing strike of hers, she advanced a step forward, giving Neo less and less room to breathe. Just as her heel tapped against the wall, Pyrrha pressed the advantage by swiping diagonally downwards whilst Neo was unable to step back to avoid it.
To the warrior's surprise, Neo managed to run backwards up the wall a couple of steps, before jumping off and landing behind Pyrrha, dodging her attack and turning the advantage of space against her all of a sudden. Now that Neo was up close and personal, the reach of the javelin would be turned into a detriment. Luckily, Pyrrha's reflexes and momentum from her swing helped her turn around just in time to block a swing of the parasol with her shield. Then, as a second attack came from an entirely different angle, Pyrrha blocked the hit with her spear. The two were locked in a stalemate for a second, before Pyrrha's overwhelming strength began to dominate the position. As the spear began to point towards Neo, she watched in horror as it began to shift into a rifle. A rifle which was gradually being brought downwards to face her forehead. Just before it was lined up for a shot, however, Neo opened the parasol, deflecting the rifle to one side as the sound of the bullet being fired cracked through the air.
Pyrrha's shield clashed against the parasol and several more rounds were fired at near point-blank into it. Truth be told… that pink fabric was far, far stronger than it would have appeared. Even at this range, it was able to take the blasts, leaving only a small scorch mark upon the pink décor. Seeing how her weapon was ineffective at piercing the parasol, she shifted tactics. She shunted the girl backwards with her shield, then fired at where her feet would be, as her parasol would be brought upwards by the force of her shove. Once again, however, Pyrrha was surprised to find that her plan had not gone as she had expected. Immediately after being pushed backwards, Neo jumped, dodging the blast but surrendering the positional advantage in favour of more manoeuvrability. She landed a short distance away and simply folded her parasol, before covering her mouth with one hand and making an oddly teasing, mocking expression. It was like she was asking: 'Was that all?'
The Invincible Girl had to admit…Neo was more skilled than she had previously given her credit for. She proved to be unpredictable and able to turn a disadvantage into an advantage at the tip of her hat. 'Okay,' she thought, 'time to step this up a notch.' Pyrrha tossed her shield at Neo, who dodged it by leaning backwards, still having her hand over her mouth. The shield arced past her and then immediately deflected itself off the side wall and rebounded at an impossible angle to attack Neo from behind. Before Neo could dodge the second attack, Pyrrha fired a shot at Neo, aiming to where she thought she would dodge to; upwards. Pyrrha had noticed that she liked to jump up and over incoming attacks, so it stood to reason that she would do the same out of instinct. Assuming that the shield didn't just smack into her whilst she was too busy taunting her.
The shield flew at Neo's back as the shot was fired a little over Neo's head, as if aiming for the black feather of her hat. And once again, Pyrrha's machinations lay undone by Neo suddenly doing the splits and the shield soaring an inch over her head. Maintaining the momentum and attempting to exploit Neo's compromising position, she caught the shield with her free hand and leapt towards her, aiming at her with the rifle and firing the last round in her magazine before she switched the weapon into its third form; a shortsword. Specifically, a xiphos. The shot was deflected by a hastily readied parasol yet again, as was the first swing absorbed by the fabric.
What happened next was a flurry of attacks from both sides. The parasol struck against shield and sword, whilst Pyrrha's strikes seemed constantly juuuust shy of their marks. Despite the long fight thus far, neither side had landed a proper hit on each other. Until now. Neo had been on the defensive as Pyrrha rapidly swung the blade at her. Every step forward for Neo would result in two steps back. However, Neo was wise enough to know that after an enemy's greatest attack comes their greatest moment of weakness. She had waited for that moment when Pyrrha swung just a little too recklessly, letting Neo block it with the side of her parasol and then land a devastating roundhouse kick against Pyrrha. By attacking her right side, Pyrrha was unable to block it with her shield due to the momentum of her strike suddenly being diverted away from her intended course. The heel of Neo's boot connected squarely with Pyrrha's temple. This disorientated Pyrrha for a moment, as she had been blindsided by the sudden counterattack and the fact that Neo had just kicked her in the face. Before she could launch a counterattack of her own, Neo followed up the hit with a second kick which swept underneath her and made her stumble, almost falling over. It was very bamboozling how Neo was able to move so quickly. Especially how she was able to switch so fluently between a devastating jumping roundhouse to a low sweep in such a short amount of time.
Left with little choice, Pyrrha took a step back to reorientate herself. Neo had stood up to her full height (which was still not very impressive) and gestured for her to 'bring it on,' with her left hand, whilst standing exactly where she had been when she had landed those kicks. The warrior could feel her blood beginning to boil. It was one thing to be losing, but it was another thing to be on the receiving end of such blatant disrespect. She could understand that Neo was doing her best to show off her skills to Ozpin – who just seemed to be enjoying an invisible bucket of popcorn – but this was not the way to do it. Was this not the person that Pyrrha had done a favour for? Why was she being bullied like this? It was making her wish she had just refused her ridiculous request.
As for Neo, she really hated to be pushing Pyrrha's buttons like this when the girl had been so warm, welcoming, and genuinely helpful to her. But she knew that she couldn't keep up this combat forever. She was growing rather exhausted, even if she didn't show it because of her semblance. She needed to end this fight and quickly. And the only way to do that would be if Pyrrha went all out in her entirety. Taunting her was the only way to increase the odds of that happening before Neo lost the ability to fight her any longer.
It did get her what she wanted, though. Pyrrha's previously friendly and colloquial smile had gradually eroded from her face. It was practically gone by the time the fight had started, but now it had evolved into a look of grimace. She was going to have a hard time making it up to her once the fight was over, that's for sure. But she had more pressing matters to worry about. Like how the sword had turned back into a spear and was now flying towards her at speeds which would threaten to shatter the sound barrier. Neo was just able to dodge it, as it barely grazed her cheek. Were it not for her aura, it would have sliced her cheek open. That was when it came back at a sideways angle, threatening to clothesline her from behind, whilst Pyrrha charged headlong at her, aiming to sandwich her between a shield and a concentrated blunt force.
This was the perfect situation for Neo.
To Pyrrha's absolute shock and horror, as both shield and javelin collided with Neo at the same time, she felt something shatter. For a moment, she thought her attack had managed to break Neo's aura, alongside every bone in her torso. Time seemed to slow down like they did in the movies, as she looked into Neo's eyes and watched the look of terror look back at her…before everything she was staring at began to crack like a painted glass window. Even after the shards began to fizzle away into a pink haze, she still hadn't been able to figure out exactly what happened.
That was when she felt something loop around her ankle from behind, being pulled suddenly, and her face hitting the floor in slow motion. She reached for her weapon, which had bounced off her shield when it smashed into Neo, but the sight of those black and white heeled boots came down and punted the weapon out of reach. Before she could channel her Polarity Semblance to pull the spear back into her hand, she felt a needle like metallic tip pressing against the back of her neck. In her peripheral vision, she could just make out the image of Neo standing atop her. One boot was pressed firmly against her back whilst the other stood on the floor, bearing the majority of Neo's weight. That sharp metallic object, which was threatening her, had emerged from the tip of Neo's parasol as if she'd been intentionally hiding it from Pyrrha.
The warrior sighed with reluctant acceptance of her situation, before that free hand of hers tapped the ground thrice, signalling her defeat. As much as she hated to admit it, Neo had managed to beat her, despite the fact that Pyrrha still had a significant amount of her aura left. She could have still fought back if she had wanted to…but it was clear that Neo had her right where she wanted her. Had the fight continued, Neo could have jabbed her full of needle-sized holes before the javelin reached her hand. It was better to simply accept when you are beaten. Upon her signal, Neo removed her foot from Pyrrha's back and took a step backwards, before offering her hand to the defeated crimson-haired student. She stared at it for a moment, then at Neo's face. That mocking, taunting sneer had been replaced by an apologetic look, but only for a moment. It was as if she were trying to say how she actually felt, whilst still putting on a confident face against the judgement of Ozpin. She wasn't certain if she trusted the shortstack, but she took her hand regardless. It proved to be dependable, as she felt herself rise back up to her feet and stood next to the small combatant. Pyrrha then watched as Neo twirled her parasol around so that she was holding it by the wrong end and used the hooked handle to scoop up Miló and fling it up into Pyrrha's hands.
"Thank you, Miss Nikos. You may go, now." Ozpin said, calmly, breaking the moment of awkward tension between the two.
Pyrrha hesitated for a moment. How could she leave now? Just go back to class as if she hadn't just had one of the most challenging – yet infuriating – battles of her life thus far? She was glad she had paused for a moment, as Neo had gently tapped her on the shoulder and held up her scroll.
'Sorry for taunting you like that. I want to clarify that I meant no ill will from it. I just needed to make you angry in order to make my plan work. Can we catch up later?'
Pyrrha just sighed. She wasn't quite sure what Neo meant when she referred to making her irritated so that a nondescript 'plan' would work out in the shortie's favour.
"We'll talk later." She replied. Neo just silently chuckled to herself, knowing that only Pyrrha would be doing the talking, as she watched the girl leave the room. But now, she faced a task most daunting. A one-on-one private chat with Headmaster Ozpin after she had just bullied her way into beating the rising star of the academy.
"Let me start out by saying that you are quite talented. Managing to defeat Miss Nikos was not something I had expected; I was actually intending to see how long you lasted against her…but it seems that I had underestimated you. Furthermore, you seem to have a good sense of strategy since you held back using your semblance until a particularly pivotal moment. For someone who is apparently 'self-taught,' you have a unique talent to flip the scales of battle in your favour." He said, piling on the praise in that calm, almost monotone voice. It made Neo smile, as she had always been a fan of admiration. However, it was an uncertain smile…as if she expected bad news and this was just a means of softening the blow. "With that being said, I cannot say that your planning skills are flawless, as you failed to understand a rather pivotal part of your overarching plan has a rather tragic mistake to it. You see…after Beacon Academy – or most other combat schools for that matter – open their doors to the applicants and accept students into their roster, once those positions are filled, there are very few things that can vacate them. We may be a particularly large and prestigious academy, but we always aim to fill our dorms to the brim."
Neo's heart dropped in her chest and her face reflexively fell. There was no point in covering it up with her semblance as there was no doubt that Ozpin saw her smile droop. Was this his way of saying that this was all for nothing? Why couldn't he have just said so, instead of wasting her time and making a fool out of Pyrrha's trust?
"And so, though you are clearly very skilled and tactical…you are also very lucky." He spoke, as Neo raised her head once again with a confused expression.
'Lucky? Why so?' She thought to herself, as Ozpin paused for a moment before continuing to explain.
"You see, two days ago we began the initiation. Students were tasked with setting out into an untamed section of the nearby outdoors, retrieving an item, and returning back with it. We perform a large number of these trials in order to get through all of our students in a tactical but simple way, as it allows us to keep track of the strengths and weaknesses of each student during the trial. However, though it is rare for a student to come to harm during the initiation, they must understand the risks that were involved. Unfortunately… one student didn't make it back, this time around."
Neo had activated her semblance, about halfway through Ozpin's explanation, as she could tell where it was going and didn't want to let her emotional reaction to the news make Ozpin think she was a psychopath. It was, most certainly, bittersweet news. A child was no longer with us. That same child's disappearance was the reason why Neo now had a chance to attend Beacon. And yet, she couldn't stop herself from smiling a little. That wasn't to say that she didn't care about the life of a child being lost, of course, but the joy of having a place to live, obtain qualifications for a high-demand job and perhaps make some friends outweighed the feeling of grief for the loss of a person which she had never met; nor would ever meet.
"We were considering reaching out to some students which fell just short of our standards by the end of the week…and then you came along. A mysterious someone with a diverse set of combat skills and the desire to use her abilities to fell the Grimm. So, now that I have seen your talents in person, I would like to confirm some details with you. Assuming all goes to plan, I'll explain what will happen next since your situation is quite different to the usual."
Neo nodded in understanding, having finally wiped that smile off of her face and dropping her semblance. She wasn't sure if Ozpin had figured out the details of her semblance yet, or even knew that she was using it to mask her expressions, but she only planned to use it when it was needed to cover up some knee-jerk emotional reactions. Ozpin gestured for her to follow him, and the two walked out of the Amphitheatre and toward a particularly giant tower which loomed over the rest of the campus. It was a rather short walk, but the silent tension between the two was thick enough to be sliced through with a bladed instrument. As much as Neo wanted to strike up an ice-breaking conversation, she lacked the ability to speak and writing a message to Ozpin would be difficult since he insisted on walking a couple of paces in front of her. She didn't have the courage to try and tap him on the shoulder just to ask about the weather, either.
Instead, the two walked towards the massive tower, until they arrived in a large, spacious lobby room with mirroring curved staircases which led up to a small balcony which overlooked the hall. An intrinsic clockwork-like pattern was built into the floor, whilst various suits of armour and decorative weaponry stood on display. Various portraits loomed on the walls of various members of past royalty, members of staff and, of course, Ozpin himself. Neo took a moment to observe some of the depictions of huntsmen and huntresses locked in combat against the monstrous shadowy beasts known as the Grimm and could not help but feel either courageous perseverance in the face of evil… or the urge to simply curl up into a ball in a corner and await her inevitable death.
The man in green walked up the closer of the two staircases without even peering over his shoulder to make sure the short, curious girl was following behind him. Instead, he simply reached the apex of the flight of stairs and approached an elevator. The man reached into his pocket and withdrew his scroll and then, like it was a credit card, swiped it through some kind of scanner. The whirling sound of cogs meshing together filled the room as the elevator descended from on high. Neo snapped out of her art-induced haze and hurriedly clambered up the stairs and stood by Ozpin, waiting for the elevator to arrive. She watched as he nonchalantly raised his mug and took one final sip of the contents, draining all that was once within. The shortstack could not help but wonder how effectively this man could run a combat school when he was this…laid back. Admittedly, she preferred it to it being some kind of army boot camp as nobody likes to be bossed around by a buff military man with a steel rod up his rear end, but she had expected him to be more…serious.
The doors signalled their opening with a dull chime, and the man stepped inside the impressively large elevator, followed shortly thereafter by the mute. The doors then closed, and Neo felt the weight in her stomach increase as the platform began its ascension. After a short wait, the doors reopened and the two stepped out into a rather large, circular office room. It featured bookcases, filing cabinets, simplistic décor, and a large desk at the far side of the room. The chairs were oddly reminiscent of clockwork gears and had a… peculiar shape to them which made Neo suppress a silent giggle. The most interesting thing about the room, however, was the glass floor which revealed the inner mechanisms of a giant clock built into the floor. Needless to say, it was this massive abyss of spinning cogs and gears which powered an immense clock on the side of the tower.
Ozpin took a seat at his desk, placed his empty mug down inside one of those instant coffee machines and pressed a button, causing it to begin to fill once more. As this happened, he reached into one of the drawers of his desk and withdrew a sheet of paper, an inkwell, and a black quill. Neo awkwardly took the hint to have a seat opposite him. She looked at the sheet of paper and noted that it was simply asking for some of her various details. Name, date of birth, next of kin… The normal stuff. But then, there was the interesting stuff. Semblance name, Weapon name, dominant hand…etc. She dipped the quill into the inkpot and began to fill out her various details. Admittedly, she did lie about one thing: her age. By adjusting the year of her birth by a few years, she claimed to be eighteen years old. Sure, that may not be the most honest thing, but it wasn't like she meant anything malicious by it. She was just a bit…wary of what others might think of her being roughly six years older than the other students. It wasn't like they'd be able to tell she was lying, either. According to any international records in existence, she didn't exist. Or so she had figured.
As she wrote, Ozpin spoke.
"I figured that I should mention…what has been granted can be taken just as easily. You're not 'officially' a student yet, but as long as you do well during the initiation and upcoming mock exams, you have nothing to fear. Once we're done here, you'll be shown into the dorms to meet the other students in attendance. And then we'll start the final wave of initiation tomorrow. Try to make a good impression, since three of them will be your team members for the next four years."
Neo gulped. How did she forget about that aspect when she made this plan of hers?