Chapter Eight
"It is a nice thing that you're doing," Pyrrha commented casually, as we walked towards the center of the destroyed arena.
"What?" I asked, having no idea what she was talking about.
That got me an amused look. "Trying to match your skill to theirs, and utilizing previously displayed techniques by others against your foes, to show the rest their value."
"Um, Pyrrha," I replied, trying to figure out how to phrase this. I could lie, but, from what I've already seen from her, she'd figure it out in, say, ten seconds. "I'm learning how to do this as I go. I already knew some hand to hand, but this entire swordsmanship thing is catch-as-catch-can."
She hesitated, confused. "Truly?"
I nodded. "Yeah, I've always been a quick learner when I put my mind to it," something that my 'talents' will kick into overdrive, "but it's gotten a lot faster lately."
"Hmmm, perhaps it's your Semblance, given that your. . . wings are natural," she suggested.
"Are there Semblances like that?" I asked. "I thought they were all more, well, active." I waved towards the rest of the group.
Pyrrha laughed, "Oh yes, there are. I once fought someone who's Semblance allowed them to counter any fighting style with one of their own that their ability gave them."
"How did you defeat them?" I asked skeptically. Given her moniker as 'The Invincible Girl', she obviously had, but I didn't see how.
She smiled, "One does not fight against a spear and shield the same way you would against a sword and shield," she shifted her weapon's form, "or the same way you would a rifle and shield," she changed it again. "Because the forms were not his, he couldn't transfer between them, and it took him several seconds for his Semblance to kick in. That was a very enjoyable match."
"Well," I said, "Hopefully this fight will be just as fun."
"I'm sure it will be," she reassured me, "but for entirely different reasons. You haven't bragged how you're going to 'show the world a woman could never defeat a true man."
I considered that, "Was this one of your first fights?" she shook her head. "And you'd defeated men in tournaments before?"
"Dozens," she smiled.
". . . some people, man," I shook my head, walking over to my place on the broken arena floor, and she did the same. I took a battle stance, sword and shield raised, and nodded to her. She nodded back, then casually shot me in the shoulder with her rifle, not even lifting it up.
I shot her a flat look, the only ranged weapon I had, and she just smiled, "You can't rely on your enemy appearing to aim, Jaune," she noted, and I could see her finger tightening on the trigger, bringing my sword up to cover my shoulder with the flat of my blade, sending the shot ricocheting away.
"Good!" she smiled, before charging me, weapon shifting to a spear as she turned, sending her buckler spinning towards me, Captain America style.
Blocking it with my own shield, and shoving it away she closed with her spear, stabbing at me, the blow greatly telegraphed. I was able to block it with my sword, knocking the point away, but her other hand shot up, grabbing the butt of her spear, and smashing it into my face with enough force to send me staggering backwards.
It wasn't even that hard a blow, but my stance, left foot back, right foot forward, to meet her attack, had left me open to an attack swinging in on the left. Pyrrha just smiled, her shield 'bouncing' back to her and easily caught.
"You need to teach Ruby how to do that," I pointed out, smiling to myself at the difference in her skill versus the other's, not having expected the move.
"Another time," she agreed, charging forward once again, hand high up on her spear to make it closer to a short-sword with a long handle. Her stab was caught on my shield, my slash on hers, but she leaned back, lashing upwards with a kick that struck my blade, sending it high, as she twirled the tip of her spear pushing my shield down.
Off balance, again, she tried to stab me, again, but I leapt backwards, only for her to flick something on her weapon, the spear's gun component in the back 'firing', sending it shooting forward to stab me in the stomach in an instant. Grabbing the spear again, her hand now near the end, she pulled it back just a few inches as I frantically tried to bring my shield in to knock it away, and stabbed me, again, hard, following through on the motion and sending me flying, casually shifting it to a gun and shooting me three times as I fell.
Hiding behind my shield, I was able to deflect two of them, but, trying to watch her, she shot me in the eye, causing me to blink, and when I opened my eyes again she'd already closed half the distance to me.
Flaring my wings into existence I flapped twice, stopping my backwards momentum and overshooting her, twisting my feet up even as she stabbed at them with her spear, and landing behind her. I charged her back, sword ready for a stab, and she turned around, slamming into my side with her spear, wielded like a staff.
However, I could see it coming, and tanked the blow, stabbing forward as hard as I could, only to feel my weapon dragged off to the side as it darkened slightly, missing her by inches, her shield slamming into my head and sending me flying once more.
She waited as I got up, and I asked, "Really?"
"You are learning, would it be not against the purpose of this exercise if I didn't show my full capabilities?" she smiled, and I glanced upwards. My Aura, from those three hits, along with the gunfire, was down to 88%, while hers was still at 100%.
"There's no way I'm going to win this," I announced, "But I'm going to hit you once."
"You are welcome to try," she agreed, with a small, closed mouth smile.
Shaking my head, I cautiously approached her, holding my weapon tightly. She copied me, folding her spear down to a sword. As I moved forward to strike, she copied me, not exactly, but with slightly better form, which I copied, as easy as breathing, going faster and more accurately, and which she then improved upon in response.
We went from trading blows, to swirling attacks, to a whirlwind of blades until, suddenly, she blocked my blow not to stop it, but to deflect it upwards as she tilted to the side, catching me with a blade to the neck in what felt like a beheading blow, sending me sprawling to the side.
82%
"It's definitely your Semblance," she informed me. "Though the question is, do you keep your newly gained skills?"
I knew the answer was yes, as it wasn't a Semblance at all, but there was no way of telling her that. "We'll have to do this again next weekend to test it," I grinned, getting a nod and a warm, if polite, smile back from her.
Charging her again, she stopped playing the 'anything you can do I can do better' game, or teaching me, depending on how you looked at it. Swinging her sword out, it extended to a spear mid-arc, and slashed across my legs, starting to trip me up. However, I recovered, stumbling and trying to slam my shield into her, only for her to step around me easily, spear twisting around her body to strike me from behind and send me stumbling off again. Specifically to strike me from behind, in the behind.
"Whoo!" Yang called. "Beat his ass!"
"Yang, he's on your team!" Ruby's voice reached us, chiding her.
"He can beat my ass later," she dismissed. "That makes it fair."
Turning around, I saw Pyrrha blushing slightly as she stared at me, eyes lowered. "I don't mind strikes, just don't stab me there," I requested. "I don't swing that way."
"I would never!" she protested blushing brilliantly, before taking a breath, looking to the screen above us as my Aura count ticked up from 76% to 77%. "Are you trying to buy time to recover?"
"Not intentionally," I promised her, smiling, "Though I don't want the fight to be over yet. I still haven't gotten my hit in."
That got a smile in return, "I don't think you'll be able to hold out that long, Jaune." With that she charged me, jumping the last few feet and coming down and past me in a swing which I could see coming, and knew was likely a trap, but had to defend against anyways.
Twisting so that I faced her as she passed me, I caught her first swing on my sword, and as she landed and rolled, she swung upwards toward my thighs, my shield catching that too. I tried to kick her, and got a sword to the calf for my trouble. The phantom pain of a cut tendon causing me to stumble even as I tried to move out of the way of another strike as she stood, bringing my shield up, even though I was out of range, as the sword shifted to spear, striking my defenses and pushing me off balance fully, falling to the ground.
Rolling away, I could hear her follow me, bringing my shield up to catch a strike that came in low, for my head, trying to use my shield to trap her weapon against the ground. Instead, I was tossed upwards, as she'd taken a knee, using the thigh of her planted foot as a fulcrum to flip me, fluidly standing and spinning to catch me, while still mid-air, with the tip of her spear. Seeing it coming, my shield stopped the blow, but the force still sent me tumbling backwards.
Twisting to get my feet under me, stumbling, I was upright once more, even as she closed again. Blocking her spear at a downwards angle, I slashed myself, but she spun out of the way, throwing her shield at me at the end of her turn, at point blank range, slamming it against my forehead. As I reeled back from the blow, she casually took a few steps backwards away to catch her shield and holster it on her back.
74%
Pyrrha didn't go for power-moves, at least not when compared to anyone else on our teams, but she didn't need to. Bullying my way through this wasn't going to work. Trying to look for openings wouldn't work either. No, I had to try to get tricky.
However, the gladiatrix wasn't going to give me time to figure out a trick as she charged me, holding her spear with both hands.
She had range, and, as she stabbed forward and I stepped into it, deflecting the blow and stepping in with one of my own, I wasn't terribly surprised when she twisted into the strike, which bounced off her shield still on her back, sweeping forward with a low kick.
I lifted my leg, trying to stomp on her own, but she withdrew it the second before I could make contact, rolling backwards. She slammed the butt of her spear into the ground and lifted herself on it in a move that looked nothing so much like a pole-dancer, though the kick she slammed into my chin felt like I'd been headbutted by a rhino, her high heeled boots focusing the pain but not diminishing the momentum in the slightest.
I felt myself lifting from the force of the blow, lashing out with a kick of my own, but she fired her weapon, rising up in the air with me, out of the range of my strike. Upside down, she slammed her spear into my side, under my sword arm, and sent me flying once more.
I didn't bounce off the wall, though I almost wish I had, as it would've given me more time. At the very least I managed to roll, ending on my feet and behind my shield as I heard a gunshot and saw her, upright now, twisting her weapon around to rifle-form, and started shooting me, still in mid-air herself, again.
Learning my lesson, I hid my head behind my shield as I charged, moving the shield to cover myself right before I got hit, listening to the faint warning of 'danger!' in the back of my head.
Hearing her land, I knew I was getting close, and heard her stop firing, starting to drop my shield. However, I listened to that warning, pulling my shield up and blocking one last shot for my head, the sound of her gun only a few feet away, and spun around in a swirling strike.
Once again I felt the nudge on my sword outwards, and pushed it back towards her, on target. That tug of war had taken a fraction of a second, and Pyrrha got her shield up just in time, blocking my strike, though I sent her back several steps, off-balance. Seizing the opportunity I took two more steps forward, sword high to come down in a blow that'd at least knock her down, and had to fight against my own weapon again as Pyrrha, eyes narrowed, held it up in the air long enough to firm her stance and stab me in my now open side, firing her spear the second before it impacted to send me backwards again.
59%
Shit, I had one, maybe two more tries to make this work, or I was going to fail. It was just a spar, and I was accomplishing my goal of showing everyone what Pyrrha could do, but part of me rankled at not even being able to touch her.
Feeling that rage pouring through my veins, I let it loose. I wasn't going to lose myself to it, reduced to a berserker, but I would ride it. My wings extended, and Pyrrha, who had started to walk towards me, paused.
The feeling welled up, and I exhaled, prismatic embers dancing in the air in front of me before I leapt forward, wings pushing down as I blasted towards my foe, who pulled her shield out and took a ready position with her sword, waiting for me.
Flaring my wings out right before I would've hit her I stopped, she stabbed, and even though she would've missed she extended it outwards as I planted a foot, twisting out of the way as my other wing swept in when I turned. Pyrrha's eyes widening as she got her shield up, taking the blow on it, but knocked backwards all the same. Her spear twisted over, shooting forwards, trying to pierce the membranes of the appendage that just smacked her, but I met her blade with my own sword, and she was out of range before she could try another blow.
She landed, spear spinning backwards and planting itself in the ground to stop her from falling. Pointing it towards me, she fired it twice to push herself forward as she immediately came back at me, and I charged towards her as well. She stabbed low, and I caught it with my shield, my own sword coming up in a feint while I twisted my wings to get me in position to kick her, which was met by one of her own, her greaves striking the bone of my unarmored legs, but sending her tumbling backwards again, her strength not a match for my own directly.
Twisting through the air, she shifted her spear to a rifle, firing as I closed, but with a better sense of my Aura, I was able to move my sword and shield, catching the bullets before they struck my wings, and I was back on her, launching a low kick which she leapt over, gun shifting to a sword and slashing down at me, shield in position to defend, and she was met by my sword and shield, the impact of our blows sending her up higher.
With a flap I followed, and we took the battle to the air, slashing back and forth, her constantly moving backwards from the blows as I did not stop, not letting up the pressure, but never over-committing enough to get hit either. I drove her to the wall, which she stood against, the force of our blows keeping her there for a moment before she launched herself off, catching my wing solidly with her spear. Pain streaked through the membrane as she flashed past me and I twisted, flapping, and chasing after her again, glancing at the board.
56%
Riding the battle-high, I swooped after her as she landed, and moving past her, neither of us striking solid blows, I twisted around, only to have her in my face, having launched herself upwards to pursue me in the air.
We went at it again, her superior skill versus my ability to move in the air, though she could shift position by firing her spear and riding that as well. A dozen sets of blows, a dozen fruitless exchanges, but then I saw the opportunity and went for it.
Loosely holding my sword, I over-extended, blade high in an overhead blow that had all of my strength behind it. Her eyes narrowed, and her hand glowed blackly, just a little.
Perfect.
As my blade suddenly became stuck in the air, it slipped through my grasp, as I planned, hand closing in a fist as a half-flap pushed me forward while Pyrrha, eyes wide, tried to twist away, but not fast enough.
With a crash, my fist smashed into her face, burying itself in her cheek, knuckles right below her eyes. Finishing the motion I slammed her down, and she flew, as if shot from a cannon, into the ground thirty-five feet below, hard enough to further break the floor, shooting up a plume of stone-dust.
Off Balance, and with my shield to the side, I couldn't defend myself as her spear, radiating black, came flying up faster than I could move against, blasting into me like the punch of an angry god, catching me dead-center of my stomach, slamming me up against the ceiling, pinning me there.
The buzzer sounded and the spear fell away, and I fell with it, limp with relief, slamming down into the ground, wings retracted and in human form, the buzzer sounding twice in warning.
I looked over to my side, where Pyrrha still laid in her crater, breathing hard, as much as I was, to be honest. Her ponytail was a mess, and she already had a bruise forming. However, she was also grinning, not a closed mouth smile, or the fake, somewhat awkward grin she wore at the team formation ceremony, but something I'd see on Yang or Ruby, smiling so widely and happily that it put everything else as a secondary note.
"I do believe, I won," I smiled back, inordinately pleased with myself.
She chuckled, pointing upwards with her spear, towards the scoreboard above us. It read: Jaune Arc 38% Pyrrha Nikos 86%. The green 'Victor' symbol displayed on her side of the screen.
"Pff," I scoffed, "Technology! What does it know? I said I was going to hit you, and I did. No matter what anyone else says, you aren't 'The Invincible Girl' to me, just Pyrrha, my teammate, who can kick my ass five ways to Sunday."
"Not six?" she teased, her grin not lessening in the slightest.
I nodded, "I'd say six, but on the sixth, I punched you in the face."
She laughed, a pure and delighted sound, "That you did, Jaune. That you did."