pq pq pq pq pq pq pq pq pq pq pq pq pq pq pq pq pq pq
Rosé was nervous. She had the pretournament jitters. It was natural. I bet Pyrrha had it when she competed for the first time too. It was an edge that other participants would have over Rosé. It was a slight mental edge and it wasn't to be underestimated. The mental edge was every bit as important as the physical one. If you don't believe you can win, then you've lost.
Plus her family was going to be there and she hadn't seen them in forever and she wanted to put on a show. She was putting a lot of pressure on herself. I could see it in the way she was tapping her foot while we waited in line to enter the stadium. It was early morning and they hadn't opened it yet. There was nothing to do but wait and it was killing her.
"Relax. Hey Rosé. Seriously. You need to relax."
"So much could go wrong today. How can I relax?"
"Figure it out. Something has to work for you. What's the worst that could happen?"
"I could make a fool out of myself in front of the entire kingdom. For one."
"You won't though. Especially if you just breathe. Everyone is entering the same tournament you are. There's nothing to fear."
"But other people have been in tournaments before. I haven't."
"There is no substitute for experience. But you can't give your opponent that leverage over you. You can be competitive but only if you really focus. Only top sixteen is televised and on the big stage. You won't make it that far if you can't calm down. It's double elimination so you have a second try. Just try and breath. Will finding your parents help?"
"N-no I-I-I don't want to see them. I-I want them to see me on the big stage."
"Well then breathe. Come on. Deep breaths."
The line in front of us started to move as they began to let people into the multifloored stadium. There was the big stage on the top level but on lower levels there were smaller arenas and locker rooms. Rosé was given a tag to pin to her clothes and I got a tag that marked me as a coach. Then it was more waiting while we took the time for the tournament to actually start. People were warming up and stretching all around us. Rosé noticed this and began to warm herself up as well. It gave her something to do which was nice. It gave her the ability to finally get her mind off of her parents. She was horrifically anxious all the way up until they called her name for her first match.
"Rosé Gainsborough to the ring eight. Gainsborough to ring eight."
I gave a little start. I had thought...
She stood up and pulled her weapon from over her side. She exhaled hard and made to step out onto the platform with a shield around it so that the fighters could use guns and not, you know, shoot the spectators.
I grabbed her by the wrist gently but firmly. She looked up into my eyes with her mouth slightly agape. She looked afraid of what I might say.
"Rosé, you have got this. You're more than Beacon ready. Find their weaknesses before they find yours."
Then I let her go.
She stared a moment longer before she walked out into the ring. She gave her weapon a few experimental swings. She went through the first five angles of attack that I showed her, perhaps subconsciously.
I took my seat with the other spectators. There were only a handful. Later, as the participants dwindled, the areas around the rings would get more packed but for now it was still early and there were a lot of matches ahead of Rosé. There were four hundred some odd contestants in total.
The boy in the ring with Rosé whose name I hadn't caught spun a glaive around his shoulders and leveled it at Rosé. Rosé took him in. Blue hair and red eyes, he stood out in a crowd.
"Three… two… one… begin!"
The boy spun and lowered his weapon, holding it against his shoulder revealing that it was indeed also a gun. It was a very long rifle with a blade at the end. He shot at Rosé. She dived forward at him firing back as she rolled. Then she came up and twisted her weapon back into a sword and she jabbed at him now that she closed the gap. Like a regular person confronted with something like that he just stepped back. He brought the blade of his weapon down on her but she stepped inside with the swing. She slashed him across the chest and she paused. She seemed to be surprised. She was acting like she hadn't expected to get this far but now she was inside his guard with a shorter weapon and every advantage and she just straight panicked herself out of dominating her opponent.
"No!" I shouted from the sidelines. I wasn't sure if she could hear me through the shield. "Keep fighting!"
He hit her in the side of the head with the butt of his weapon. She stumbled back and he jabbed at her with the blade of the glaive. She deflected and then tried to get inside and reclaim her opportunity but he was hip to her game and forced her back. Unable to get in, Rosé switched her weapon form. She started shooting him and he backed up even more and shot at her.
At the closest range Rosé had the advantage. Outside of that, he did. Then she took advantage again at the mid range and at the longest distance his weapon would let him prevail.
She should be familiar with it and play around his glaive. She should play around at that range where he won with his blade, swapping weapons to poke at him and diving in and out. That was how she could win. Keep him at a disadvantage in that place where she sandwiched him and bounce back and forth between her forms. He would win if he could hold her at bay with the tip of his glaive and force her to use her machine gun and make her uncomfortable that way.
I hadn't taught her that explicitly. I realized that as I watched the fight unfold. I hadn't explicitly explained how to hold your opponent at the range you wanted them to be.
That was an obvious gap in my teaching. What other enormous gaps had I left unfilled? That scared me. That could cost her the tournament. But, worse than that, it could get her killed down the line because I hadn't taught her what she needed to know.
What else was like that? I wracked my brain as hard and frantically as I could. I'll be honest. I had a panic attack in my seat. She was going to die because I hadn't taught her what she needed, needed, to know. This tournament be damned.
I wasn't watching the fight then. I didn't notice anything until she came up to me with a big smile on her face. It quickly schooled into a frown when she looked at me. I missed her match.
"You won," I said stupidly.
"I did. What's up with you? Is it about my last na-"
"I didn't teach you about effective ranges. Your only sparring partners have both used swords. I didn't teach you how to pin your enemy in and always make sure that they are in your range without you ever being in theirs. It's important. Are you listening?" She had a shocked look on her face. "Are you listening to me? Rosé?"
"I… yes I'm listening."
I breathed a sigh of relief but only a little. "Look you might run into an enemy that outranges you like you just did. It's absolutely critical that you avoid those distances where you lose. Hold your enemy within effective firing range or at the tip of your sword. Preferably both if possible."
"What do I do if I run into someone effective at the same ranges as me?"
"You gotta outplay them. It's a straight up fight. Plain and simple. Be better than they are. I never taught you that."
"You're teaching me it now. What's the big deal?"
"If I forget to teach you something you need to know you could die."
"You're putting way too much pressure on yourself…"
I bit my cheek and looked away. This was as serious as a heart attack. Good enough was just not good enough. It just wasn't.
"You did well. That's one round done. The match will be reported and you'll move forward in the bracket. You did… you did well." If she lost, that was on me. If she won, that was on her. Same for if she died and if she lived.
"He was much slower than you and Neo. It surprised me. When I first got in on him I was too shocked. I almost dropped Falchion at how easy it was."
"Your opponents won't be anything like fighting Neo or I. In many ways. Your opponents today won't be holding back. Better drink some water and try to relax again. It's going to be a long time before your next match."
"Really? My adrenaline is really going now. It'll be hard to keep up this energy. Keep it up and put it back down over and over again. I'll be exhausted."
"I think that's tournament life for you. It's about staying power and keeping your mental edge. It's easy to lose and hard to find again. Real fights are much the same way only without the pauses. They can go on and on. A seeming eternity from the inside. You don't want your parents to watch these matches? How come?"
"Um, I just don't want them to see me lose. At least not until I get up on the big stage. If I make it that far, I mean. Then I feel like I'll have made it far enough that they'll have to see how good I am. You know what I mean?"
"Not really but it's your party."
"I only mean that they will have to admit I can be a huntress. That's all."
"Okay sure. If that's how you want it. And about your last name…"
"Um. Yeah?"
"I know I've heard it before. I just can't place where… help me out. I thought you were a Delatour."
"My uncle and mother are Delatours. I'm a Gainsborough. And uh well the thing about that is… I mean to say… I can't say for sure I know where you've heard it before. Yeah. I don't know how to help you."
"I can't believe I didn't know your name. Serious oversight on my part."
"D-don't sweat it."
"Good enough for me."
pq pq pq pq pq pq pq pq pq pq pq pq pq pq pq pq pq pq
Rosé's next match was an entire hour later. She had nothing to do but stretch and stretch again and stretch some more. She drank some water too. Sure sports drinks could work but I had found nothing that could beat plain old water. The stuff was magic.
She fought next against a blonde haired girl with amber eyes and middling height. Her weapon of choice were sickles, two of them, one for each hand. Rosé never fought an opponent using two weapons at once before. The closest thing she had to it was me with my shield. That was not an offensive tool.
Rosé was immediately put on the back foot under the other girl's onslaught. She thrusted and stabbed and cut at Rosé and Rosé struggled to block. Rosé stepped to the side rather than straight back as I had taught her. Rosé sidestepped and made some space and swapped her weapon to the rifle form. She took shots at the girl but there was a small flash of light and a shimmering golden barrier appeared before the girl and deflected the bullets right back at Rosé. The rounds struck Rosé. The girl's semblance was some kind of reflector. That could spell trouble.
Rosé would have to fight up close against that wicked offense the blonde possessed. She seemed to realize it as well and she flicked her blade back out again. The amber eyes girl's semblance forced Rosé to approach. I looked up at the screen with the two girls' aura displayed. The blonde's was green. Rosé's aura was bordering on yellow. She had been struck several times by those wicked sharp blades. She stepped in close and cut horizontally. Her blade was longer than the curved sickles. But not by much. Rosé had to shake off the mental damage of the other girl having a semblance that countered part of her game plan.
That could be hard to do. The mental battle was crucial, however. Rosé needed to keep her head in the game and play to her strengths and avoid the other girl's advantages. It could be hard to do considering Rosé was forced to approach and meet that dual wielding aggression. The blonde struck low then high then low in an alternating spinning attacks that Rosé struggled to deflect the blows of. Then she countered with a thrust to make use of her reach. The blonde countered by hooking Rosé's weapon to the side with one blade and bringing the opposite one down on her body.
Rosé took the hit then got out of there. She backed up but her opponent just waited. She knew that she would win by aura if the match went to time. The ball was stuck in Rosé's court. If she didn't figure something out then she would lose but she couldn't keep taking chip damage when she approached because she would lose that way too. In this regard the amber eyes girl had two different win conditions that she was playing for. And she wasn't tunnel visioning on either one. She was playing both. Rosé was in trouble. She was getting out game planned.
Rosé approached with a diagonal sweep. She pulled back quickly before she could get hooked again and came at the girl in an angle three like she had practiced a thousand times. Her opponent blocked both quickly and counter attacked with the curved weapon in her right hand. Rose stepped in and shoulder checked the girl out of nowhere.
I cheered.
The girl stumbled back and tried to regain some balance but Rosé had no intention of playing neutral with the girl ever again. She had a leg up and she was going to make the amber eyed girl pay right here and right now.
She kicked the blonde in the stomach then she slashed diagonally three quick times and she staggered the fourth devastating slash so that the tip of her sword barely cut the stumbling girl's aura. Then she followed the whole dancing blade with a thrusting angle five that caught her opponent in the chest and knocked her aura into the red and put her ass in the dirt.
Rosé was declared the winner and she shook hands with her opponent in a sportsmanlike fashion. I didn't realize I was on my feet but I was. I had been standing up and cheering for her.
She walked over to me with some pep in her step. She had a sly smile and I applauded.
"Way to stay focused on your win condition, it's important to keep something like that in mind and you played around her semblance well."
"It's all thanks to your training."
"No. It really isn't. You did brilliantly. You kept her right at the tip of your sword and once you had advantage you kept her in a state of disadvantage the rest of the match. Truly well done."
pq pq pq pq pq pq pq pq pq pq pq pq pq pq pq pq pq pq
-WG