"…And that's how you can work out the weak spot on the majority of Grimm."The students amidst the class were doing various things. Vertiya, Ruzovi, Fen, Tristov, and a couple of others from the other two teams were carefully scribbling down notes based on what Professor Naranja was saying. Yimesz was busy not paying attention alongside the other two from Team FEKT: Emeric and Karmin, alongside the only guy from Team TDAL, Derek. Vertiya, though, couldn't help but notice that every now and again when she looked back to glare at Yimesz, that Emeric was giving her a few glances, with a slight smile. On top of that, Pluto was nowhere to be seen – until he burst in, drink in hand, a little more drunk than he usually was. This got a bunch of laughs from the guys in the back, and a collective sigh from both Vertiya and Fen."Sorry I'm late," Pluto said, his voice slurred a little from the alcohol as he collapsed on a seat in the back, resting his legs on the desk in front of him. Vertiya knew full well that Pluto said himself he had a high tolerance, so she knew he'd been drinking. A Naranja, however, was not as amused as Yimesz was. "A little bit more than late, Mr Hawkrest. The lesson has nearly concluded, and you have been absent for the entirety of it. On top of that, this has been a very important lesson on recognising weaknesses of Grimm, and I will have to set you extra work so you can catch up.""Weak spots?" Pluto said, with a quirked eyebrow. "Simple enough. Anywhere were the bone is extruding out of a Grimm is often a harder point and as such is resistant to any type of weapon which uses piercing to attack, however it can crack after repetitive hard blunt-force trauma which often reveals the softest flesh which is easy to damage. Commonly Grimm are armoured on top, which will leave their underside exposed and thus vulnerable. On top of that, no Grimm are armoured around their eyes which are distinguishable by their red glow, meaning that if you have a very good aim and sufficiently small enough weapons or bullets, they can massively cripple a Grimm. Is there anything I missed?" Pluto asked, taking his feet off the and Fen blinked, again simultaneously. Vertiya knew that Pluto was relatively well-learned, but not to that level. Even Professor Naranja lowered her glasses and looked at Pluto for a moment above the lenses, before returning them back up to her eyes. "Very well. I expect you on time for the next lesson, though, otherwise there will be more consequences. That is all," she said, resulting everyone packing up.
"How did you manage to acquire the lazy ones who also manage to know everything?" Fen asked as she and Vertiya left the classroom, sighing a little. "I swear my team are trying to give me a heart attack by raising my blood pressure. Tristov at least tries, but Karmin and Emeric… Fancy a swap?"
Vertiya laughed at that. "Hey, not all my team are star pupils, after all my brother seems to have taken the same route as those two. Not that that is unexpected, though," she explained. Yimesz had pretty much point blank told Vertiya that he didn't expect he'd have to do lessons whilst at a Huntsman Academy. Vertiya wasn't entirely sure how to respond then. "Oh, which one was it, Emeric I think, kept looking at me?" Vertiya asked, reminding herself of that.
"Hmm? Oh, he more or less said you were hot or something along those lines," Fen replied in an offhand manner.
Vertiya's eyes went a bit larger than normal upon hearing that. Emeric was alright looking – jet black hair that fell just above his shoulders at a similar length to Yimesz's, but Emeric's was heavier on one side; bright amber-yellow eyes that stood out more with his dark hair; followed off by a slender build, and taller than Vertiya which was a key point – but his personality wouldn't really suit what she was looking for. After all, it would almost be like dating her brother, and that was not something Vertiya could think would work. "Was that… all he said?" Vertiya asked.
"Oh, there were a few choice phrases he also used, but I am dignified enough to not repeat them to you," Fen replied, checking her scroll. "Ah good, duelling is coming up soon. Getting to single battle some of the people here should be good fun."
Vertiya was not looking forward to that quite as much. Vertiya was the bookworm type, after all, and she admitted to it. She enjoyed the lessons and learning about things, but she never was good at single combat, especially in a spar against another person. After all, a lot of her cards were designed to target Grimm or groups of people, rather than a single person. "You reckon you can beat most of the people here then?" Vertiya asked, curious.
"Most likely. Once you know how someone fights, you can work out predictable traits that they use and use it against them," Fen explained to her. "I reckon your Ruzovi would put up a good challenge, because she seems like a skilled fighter in that sort of combat. Copper from CNMN could also be an interesting one. Other than that, there's no one who I'm not confident I could comfortably dispose of."
"Well, here's hoping I won't get put against you," Vertiya said with a small smile. Sure, Fen was sometimes a little overconfident, but she had the skill to back it up, and she never really got to a cocky level. "Unless you'll go easy on me?" she added, as they made their way into the classroom for their next lesson.
Fen let out a rare laugh at that. "Not a chance."
The next lesson, Physics, passed similar to most of the other ones – same people writing, same people not paying attention. There was the slight difference that in this case, a lot of the people were a little confused as to how something like that could possibly be useful as a Huntsman or Huntress, but Vertiya understood rather well. It was more mechanics than atomic structure or such that Vertiya cared about, but as someone who had to work out trajectories and power for every card she used, she knew how useful it could be. So much so that she was still going over her notes long into the dojo session.
Thankfully for Vertiya, due to the fact it was the first single spar, it was optional. Vertiya had therefore decided to stay by the spectator area, going over her notes from the lessons passed and occasionally looking up to see what was happening. Ruzovi had a challenging fight against Karmin which she narrowly came out on top of; Yimesz ended up fighting one of the girls from TDAL, Aurolia, but from the snippets Vertiya saw, she couldn't help but feel they were flirting more than battling, and Fen, who had decided to stay on, had managed to successfully dispose of two members of both TDAL and one of CNMN one after the other: Derek, Lissandre, and Nickel, and she was currently winning a battle against Nave of CNMN. Vertiya, knowing full well that Fen would probably beat her as well, went back to her notes on Grimm. Sure enough, Vertiya could hear Professor Lazuli saying that there was only enough time for one more, and if anyone wanted to challenge Fen they were more than welcome to give it a go. Knowing that Yimesz and Ruzovi probably did not want to go up for another fight, and Pluto had been busy drinking, so there wasn't really anyone she was interested to see fight against Fen. After all, she probably wouldn't fight against someone from her own team.
"I'll do it."
Vertiya perked up at that, as did a few others. Pluto, apparently, was not drunk enough to not do a fight, and stumbled his way into the sparring area in the middle of the dojo. Fen momentarily raised her eyebrows, but soon after shook her head, getting into a fighting stance.
"You sure that's a wise idea considering your state, Plutonine?" the professor in charge, Lazuli, asked. "I am aware of your combat style, but even so, you seem not quite as apt for a duel."
"Ah, what's the worst that could happen," Pluto said, grinning and taking a swig before looking over to Fen, giving a slight bow before gesturing to her. "Well, ladies first."
Fen looked over to Professor Lazuli, but all he did was shrug and take a few steps back so he wasn't in the sparring area. Shrugging as well, she turned back to Pluto, raising her fans. "Well, I guess I might as well make it five out of five. This should be quick," she said, more to herself than anything, before darting forward towards the unaware Pluto, swiping her fans horizontally towards his neck.
Well, at least, everyone thought he was unaware. At the last possible second, Pluto half dodged, half stumbled backwards, taking another swig before looking back to Fen. "You missed," he said with a slight grin, beckoning her again.
Fen, whose eyes flashed at the taunt, lunged forwards with a double uppercut of both her fans, but feinted at the last second, using the fans as cover to hide her attack of side kicking towards Pluto's lower torso. Pluto didn't see the kick coming, but it didn't matter as he just took it full on, without even taking a step back to keep himself balanced. "You're going to have to kick harder than that, sweetheart," Pluto said, before landing a palm thrust on Fen's chest, causing her to slide backwards. Pluto went to take another swig, but it was at this point that he realised that he was out of alcohol, and as such he swapped his flask into his usual hammer. "Might as well spice things up a bit, right?" he questioned.
Fen glared, opening up her fans again. "You could say that," she said, going in again. Pluto swung his hammer towards her waist level, but Fen masterfully slid underneath his attack and swept out his legs – or more accurately she would have, had Pluto not over swung causing him to stumble again and dodge the attack, dropping his hammer in the process. Fen, still sliding, spun and shot out hooks from her fans towards the middle of Pluto's back, but Pluto, going to pick up his hammer, successfully fell over face first which resulted in Fen's hooks missing. Pluto however, whilst still on the floor, made eye contact with Vertiya and pushed himself back off the floor, winking before spinning around. It was at this point Vertiya realised: Pluto wasn't stumbling around by accident, this was part of his duelling style.
Pluto went for an overhead smash with his hammer, which Fen easily sidestepped, following up with one fan slash feint to Pluto's head, her actual target to spin slash at his legs. However, Pluto, reading the feint instead dived into her, collapsing on top of her as she went to try and sweep out his legs, rolling over her and tossing her over his head. Fen flew back through the air, but carefully backflipped, managing to land on her feet and one hand, skidding a little before coming to a stop.
Vertiya could almost see the grimace beneath Fen's bandana as she pushed herself back up, before shooting more hooks from her fans at Pluto. This time they did hit, but Vertiya wasn't entirely sure what the purpose was, because from what she could see nothing was happening. Pluto, however, answered that question for her.
"Draining my aura, hmm? Interesting," Pluto said to Fen. Vertiya did realise at this point Fen had never actually shown her semblance, and therefore that must be what it was. Pretty similar to Yimesz, which was odd… Vertiya made a note of it. It definitely was faster acting than Yimesz's, but without any form of aura counter – Professor Lazuli hadn't bothered to set it up, because he could tell whether he needed to intervene by eye – she wasn't sure how strong it was. "That being said, I might have to stop you there."
Pluto grabbed onto the wires trailing from the hooks, and although Fen quickly realised what was happening and attempted to make a move to throw Pluto through the air, Pluto was quicker. By falling over backwards, Pluto managed to catch Fen out, who made the smart move to release her weapons rather than get thrown into the air. Whilst he was still on the ground, Fen leapt up, before dropping down with frightening speed towards Pluto, foot extended in a stomping posture. Pluto saw this, and awkwardly fumbled with the wires he was still holding, before getting his flask and somehow lobbing it at Fen, which managed to catch her straight in the face and knocked her out of her attack, landing on her back on top of Pluto. "You know, this is not the position I would have thought to be in in a fight," Pluto said, before chucking her off him, stumbling back up onto his feet.
Fen landed on her back, a little winded, before rolling backwards, picking up her fans mid roll. Whilst Pluto was leaning down to pick up his flask, Fen went in for a double sweep, but Pluto was baiting the attack. Using his body to hide the flask transformation, Pluto, with hammer in his right hand, backhand swung and caught Fen square on in the side of the torso with enough force to completely knock her out of the sparring area.