I don't own anything.
A fist crashed into my shield, stopping cold when it hit the black surface. Using the opportunity it presented me, I lashed out with my sword, the tip looking to carve a chunk out of my opponent's aura. Light on her feet, she didn't dodge so much as slip by the blow, letting it pass harmlessly through the air next to her as she launched a jab at my throat.
Yang Xiao-Long, I had found, was not an easy person to beat.
My shield swept up, pushing her jab off its course and letting it breeze past my head. Meanwhile, I pulled Crocea Mors back and let the edge skitter over her exposed shoulder. It did virtually nothing to her aura, but that was the point. My whole strategy in this fight was to whittle the brawler down without letting her Semblance activate properly.
It would take a while, mostly because Yang was both really good, but also because she had the second largest Aura reserves in class after me. Even Pyrrha didn't have as much as Yang, though that hardly mattered when the redhead never got hit. Hitting her hard was a horrid idea, though. I had seen how strong she was when her Semblance was working its magic, and I wasn't sure that I'd be able to win if she got it up.
So, I just chipped at her, and it was working.
She had only gotten a single hit in. A glancing blow that I hadn't been able to defend in time before we settled into a rhythm. It had taken maybe 5% of my aura off, and activating Chitin Shield took a little less than that. Yang, on the other hand, was suffering death by a thousand cuts.
I had hit her no less than 17 times at this point, each a glancing blow that managed to shave off some aura, but never a hard enough hit to push her into a frenzy.
Instead of hitting me, this time she tried to grab the edge of my shield in one hand to pull it to the side. I'd learned from Torchwick, though, and while Yang was good, she wasn't nearly as good as the thief. The second she grabbed the edge and tried to wrench it out of my hand, I channelled a sliver of aura into Crocea Mors.
Sparks leapt from the blade as Yang let her other fist fly at me. I leaned back, wincing internally when I saw how close the fist came. That didn't stop me from unleashing my own attack, though. A small bolt of lightning discharged from the tip of Crocea Mors, guided by my aura as it raced towards the nearest conductive object, AKA Yang.
As I let the dust attack fly, I jumped backwards to make some distance. The lightning would hurt, aura or no aura, and it might be enough to push my fellow blonde into her Semblance.
The bolt wasn't as big as I would have liked, but that had more to do with how inexperienced I was with casting than anything. According to Weiss, it would both get easier to aim the bolts and less energy would be lost as I got the hang of using my aura to guide the attacks. Practice makes perfect, she had said.
My shield intercepted a blast from Yang's gauntlets idly as she closed the distance once again. I could see the faintest hint of fire in her hair, and her eyes had darkened a tad. Her semblance wasn't active just yet, but it wouldn't take much to push her over the edge.
So, I went on the defensive.
Yang came at me with a rapid flurry of punches, interspersed with the occasional shotgun shell. I blocked, deflected and dodged for all I was worth. I took a single punch to the shoulder when I missed a feint, but other than that, I came out of the exchange unscathed. I had to hold myself back from capitalising on some of the openings that appeared when I batted her blows aside and caused her to overextend, but I couldn't risk pushing too far, too fast.
But when the fire faded from her hair and her eyes went back to that vibrant shade of amethyst? Well, she was fair game.
A stab took 5 percent of her aura, even as I let a punch tag me in the shoulder to slam my shield into her nose. Her head shot backwards, and I took the opportunity to try and sweep her legs with Crocea Mors. I hit air, though, as Yang bounced backwards, simultaneously firing both of her gauntlets at me.
I ducked behind my shield, minimizing the damage as what little buckshot that wasn't aimed at centre mass pinged off my aura. Before I could lash out, the girl was already back in my comfort zone, a manic grin on her face as she let a haymaker fly. I didn't panic, simply taking a step back while I lifted my shield and blocked the punch.
She followed, but she took a glancing blow from Crocea Mors from it and I channelled my aura into the sword again, electrifying the blade. I leaned left to avoid the next straight to the head and shot forward shield first before her next hit could get more than halfway.
It was an awkward position to be in for the girl as she couldn't put enough force into the hit for it to matter, nor could she retreat because that would leave her open for my sword. She tried to compensate for it with a blast from Ember Celica, but Chitin Shield proved to be more than enough to block it.
The metal face of my shield slammed into the girl, pushing her back and leaving her open. Crocea Mors stabbed out again, sparks leaping off the blade as it sliced across her raised arms. The blow took a mighty chunk out of her aura, but it was just short of taking her below that 30% mark.
What it did do was activate her Semblance. Glowing golden hair, crimson red eyes and a manic grin were all I could see as she charged at me. I got my shield up in time to block the first hit, but even through Chitin Shield I felt the impact. The second blow came so fast that I hadn't been able to brace myself yet, and it pushed me back a step.
I wouldn't falter, though. I would be taking second place in Combat today. I took a quick glance up at my aura meter, and I smiled when I saw that I had just about half left, if not a little more. Meanwhile, Yang was sitting barely above 30%, and it would only take a single hit for me to secure my victory. To be fair, though, a single solid hit from Yang might just take me down to 30% as well.
I took a step back to avoid a hook and raised my shield to block a straight, wincing at the sensation of my arm vibrating. It had been a while since I'd had to deal with impacts like that, Chitin Shield had spoiled me. As I stopped her arm dead, though, I lashed out with Crocea Mors, but she had seen that coming and bent backwards at an almost ninety-degree angle to allow the blade to pass her.
What she didn't see coming was the foot that suddenly crashed into her knee.
"Winner, Jaune Arc!" The buzzer sounded and Ms. Goodwitch called the end of the fight as the light kick took Yang under the threshold. In a real fight, I would have probably never done it, mostly because the kick wouldn't have done much damage but also because it put me completely off balance and open for a counterattack.
In a fight with a clearly defined objective like these spars, though, it was an all-too easy choice to make.
Looking over, I noted that Yang's hair still blazed and her eyes were still red, but the girl didn't move. Instead, she stood perfectly still as she looked at me with a strange expression on her face. It was almost as if she couldn't believe that she'd lost, as if that was a foreign concept to her.
To be fair, if you'd told me that I would beat Yang in a spar a month or two ago, I would have laughed you out of the room. Back then, I hadn't even been able to beat Cardin. Still, I just stuck out a hand to the girl as her hair began to lose some of the fire and her eyes began to lighten back to that pretty shade of purple. She looked down at it for a moment before a huge grin settled on her face and she took it.
"Good fight Vomit Boy." She said, "But don't think it'll be that easy next time."
"I'm counting on it."
"No! You have to heat up the path you want the lightning to take!" Weiss growled at me from the sidelines, nursing a cup of coffee. "It needs to be hotter than the surrounding air so that the lightning has a path to follow with a higher conductivity. Try using small sparks guided by aura to prepare the channel and then fire."
Tires as she was, her advice was good. I took a deep breath and let a small amount of aura trickle into the dust in Crocea Mors' handle, activating the crystal that sat there. Immediately, sparks began leaping off the blade as it was electrified, but I reigned it in. Instead, I began sending those sparks into the air right in front of the blade, which was pointed at a target dummy.
One, two, three.
On the count of three, I surged my aura into the dust crystal. A bolt of lightning, larger than the one I'd sent at Yang left it, searing a thin line into my retina that blazed purple when I closed my eyes. The smell of ozone filled the room again, and I felt a sneeze coming along.
"ACHOO!"
"Bless you." Weiss muttered from her seat on one of the benches in the training room.
I moved over and sat down next to her as I waited for Crocea Mors to cool down a little. The smith at Bearing Arms had assured me that it would be fine as long as I didn't try to shoot lightning until it melted, but better safe than sorry.
"You know, I don't get why I can't just guide the lightning with my aura like I do to heat the air up." I commented, and it was true. It had worked just fine when I'd sent one at Yang, and I hadn't needed to stand there waiting like an idiot while the air heated up.
"That's because you're a dunce." Weiss barked before letting out a sigh. Her makeup might be doing a mighty job covering it up, but I knew that she was exhausted. Last night had been her third trip down into the city, and with no results to show for it yet, it was taking its toll. Regardless, after a moment to gather her thoughts, she explained.
"Guiding the lightning with your aura works in a pinch, but it is amateurish. The lightning can only move as fast as your aura does, which, while not slow, has nothing on the speed actual lightning moves at. By understanding and utilizing the actual physics behind it, you save aura and get a much more powerful effect because you are not trying to fight nature."
As she said it, she stood and grabbed Myrtenaster from where it leant against the bench. She pointed the weapon at the dummy and after a moment, a streak of lightning left the sword and struck the dummy. Not even two seconds later, a thunderclap sounded throughout the room, and I winced at the bright flash that all but blinded me.
"The second blast was much more powerful, and you weren't able to follow it, nor would you be able to dodge it." She commented, walking back to her seat. "Heating the air does take time, but nobody said that the process of heating it can't be an attack in and of itself."
And then I understood. By sending a bolt guided by aura, she heated and ionized the air while she attacked, giving her the setup needed to shoot an actual bolt of lightning at her target. One that they couldn't dodge.
"Hey Weiss." I looked over to the white-haired girl with a big grin. "Thanks, I'm glad you're teaching me this stuff."
"And don't you dare forget it."
Hey guys, I just spent 2 hours reading a bunch of material on the mechanics behind lightning, and it's quite fascinating. Did you know that lightning actually makes a sort of tunnel of ionized air down to the ground before it strikes? And after that, it sends a positive charge back up from the ground through that same tunnel.
Sorry for how late the update was btw. FFNet was down and then I kind of just took a little break because Chapter 38 was kicking my ass.
Anyways, what do you guys think?
And as always, have a good one!
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