Chapter 23

The way the Beacon Entrance tournament worked, it was half free-for-all, half a marathon run of fights, one right after the other, until it got to the 'graduation group' - the seventy five that had been deemed to have 'passed' and would attend Beacon no matter what happened for the rest of the day. That was when it went from anywhere from five to even ten fights happening in tandem, to much more singular one-on-one bouts; and from there the fights continued until the two who had made it to first and second place finished things off. It lended itself both to the entertainment and reassurance of the populace, but also to the reputation of the rising Huntsman and Huntresses - winning in first place looked a lot better than just barely scraping by for last place. The reputation one would garner would help determine the quality and frequency of the jobs one would get after graduating. Aldric understood it as the difference between a highschool diploma and an Ivy League diploma - one could get a job with both, but one clearly was better than the other. So while the citizens of Vale could derive entertainment from the tournament and could see how strong their rising Huntsman were before any of the 'real', 'formal' training, they could also use it as an opportunity to build a list of who's who.

Considering the sheer amount of things he'd survived during his half-year on Remnant, Aldric had no doubts that he'd make it through this little tournament Beacon was holding. In all seriousness, he was using it first and foremost as a means to not think about Amber and Rayne for a few good hours. There was, however, a wrinkle in the plan - not a full on problem, but a wrinkle that deserved some thought.

The way his powers worked, he could either have a major, practically insurmountable amount of offensive power - enough such that he could get into a pseudo-beam struggle with a Maiden and win - or he could shunt all of that offensive power into his aura shields, trading the ability to damage his opponent for the ability to take no damage from his opponent. For his purposes before today, he'd long since figured out how to use this effectively: He put everything into offense, leaving zero room for his aura shields, under the idea that he could use his semblance to deflect and dodge his opponents, and could use armor and the Power Glove to blunt whatever made it through. This was how he'd managed to fight Maidens, but was also where he'd gotten a lot of his new scars from. The wrinkle in the plan came in that the rules of the tournament considered aura depletion - and not even that, but rather one's aura reaching a certain threshold - as grounds for defeat.

So suddenly, Aldric had to drain a lot of his power to make sure he wouldn't get thrown out, either because the computers would think he had no aura shields period, or because he did, but one lucky shot would break them like glass. The bad news was that he would neither have his maiden-busting strength, nor could he try and get creative and try to crack open his Master abilities; the good news was that this wasn't, on the whole, a bad thing. After all: He'd long since figured out how to creatively boost his strength past certain limits, his 'mantis punch' came to mind, then there was also the fact that his shield was impregnable, and his new arm hit like a rocket-powered dump truck, and now that he was fully reliant upon his Radar to detect attacks coming, that meant it was easier to deflect and counter them.

And ringing out your opponent was a perfectly viable tactic for victory, in this instance.

But as good as such a development may seem to solve his problems at first glance, the wrinkle spread a bit further than that.

How much further?

Well: Draining his power also meant the range and the clarity on his radar pulse also tanked. Whereas this very morning he would have called himself some unholy fusion of Matt Murdock and Neji Hyuga, now all of a sudden - in order to fuel his aura shields - he was closer to what he'd wanted to portray Goud Etiolate as, than he'd initially intended. He hadn't gone fully blind, not by a long shot, but whereas earlier he could have seen clear past the arena's outer walls, and comprehend each and every little detail in that range, now his range barely reached the edge of the rings he fought in, if he stood in their center. The visual quality hadn't had nearly as much of a downgrade, but if a fully-fueled Radar Pulse was like a high-budget action movie with photorealistic CGI, then this neutered one he was working with looked like something from the turn of the millennium: Definitely passable, but dated hard.

So, while it only served to remind him that he couldn't skate by on the radar forever, and that he definitely needed to stop by the Garden again and check in on when his robo-eyes would come in, those were problems for later. Right now, all of the small handicaps he had to adopt in order to fight here, added together to mean he was much closer to fighting like a blind man than he'd initially intended. Putting more focus into fixing the visual problem meant his semblance suffered just enough that he couldn't deflect attacks as easily as he could in any other situation, which translated into taking hits, which would only spell doom for any prospects of surviving until the graduation group with enough stamina to not fall out of the fight in last place. Cover be damned, an admittedly large part of him wanted to know how he stacked up to the main cast with this handicap.

The good news, though, was that if there was one thing he'd learned in this world, it was how to take a punch, and with his aura shields playing a factor where they usually didn't, that meant it was only easier to take the hits, tire out his opponents, and rope-a-dope them right out of the ring. Now more than ever he was glad most of his combat strategies revolved around bolstering his defense, be it because he had a shield that really was after Captain America's heart, or because he could use his semblance to dodge, block, and deflect attacks like he were in the Matrix. His strategies were practically built around taking hits and using the opportunities they would reveal to counter his opponents and deal equal or greater damage, because that meant he could spend all the time he needed to adapt to this wrinkle in the plan, and take the hits he otherwise wouldn't.

It was the single closest call of the morning that helped him cement exactly how he would fight when computers were running. Aldric, already winded from a few fights that took longer than he would have liked and sporting a few bruises that hadn't been there when he'd woken up, was called to the next stage with a text to his scroll. He made it there at about the same time his opponent did, though where Aldric's entrance was a ginger landing that couldn't have been heard over the noise of the battles around him, his opponent's landing in the arena sounded as though a stone from a trebuchet had slammed into the arena, and he'd left a crater to match the analogy. Aldric's opponent was a mountain of a man, so big and burly that he had trouble believing the guy was under eighteen. He looked closer to the Incredible Hulk than he did to an ordinary teenager. Locked onto both of his hands was an equally enormous pair of cestus, giving the guy a look as if he could break apart concrete with his fists, could punch his way out of a bank vault, or into a nuclear bunker. Aldric stowed his white cane in his coat and adjusted his grip on his shield. There was no referee for the fight - only their aura monitors, and a single message sent to their scrolls that sounded the proverbial starting gun.

The mountainous teen launched himself forward, Aldric used his semblance to snap his shield around and block his titanic right jab. The impact managed to overpower the sounds of everyone else's battles with a loud bell toll, and even attracted quite a few eyes from the audience as they searched to locate the source of the toll. Aldric dodged the man's next few strikes and continued perpetuating the image he was building, that no one could hit him - they could only miss, or otherwise hit his shield. The Mountain grew angry after a few missed strikes, and after the two separated, his next punch was aimed at the ground - a shockwave blasted outwards as their ring quaked. A few stalagmites sprouted out from the ground, putting Aldric on the back foot, but the Mountain's plan had likely been to attack once Aldric's attention was focused more on moving away from the damaged part of the ring. Unfortunately for him, it was at this point functionally impossible for Aldric to take his eyes off of someone - for more reasons than the obvious.

So when the Mountain leapt forward again and crashed through the stalagmites in a minor explosion of rocks and dust, one fist reared for a mighty blow, Aldric remained unperturbed, already prepared for it. His shield snapped up to defend against it, and the mountain of flesh's fist slammed into the red white and blue discus with another bell toll of metal striking metal. Aldric skidded back a foot, and it was here Aldric made his counter - wrenching his shield to the side, stunning the Mountain, and smashing his fist into the his opponent's gut with a loud 'thud'.

Instead of going flying like he'd hoped, the Mountain skidded back a scant few inches, as if he weren't hit by a jackhammer and were instead smacked by a baseball bat. Aldric flexed the fingers of his gloved hand, as he and his opponent recovered from their brief spat. It felt like he'd punched a block of solid iron, and the telekinetic pulse he'd put behind the punch hadn't done nearly enough to the guy. With the computers running and monitoring his aura levels, Aldric couldn't pour more power into it, and since he couldn't run the risk of experimenting and burning stamina at the beginning of a day-long marathon of fights, he needed a less resource-intensive solution.

But before he could make a decision, the Mountain charged again. Aldric met his charge with one of his own, lunging inside the mountainous teen's range, using his semblance to deflect one attack and his shield to take the other. With the Mountain stumbling back, Aldric pounded his gut with two more strikes before he hopped upwards and roundhoused him in the face. It had a desired effect, clearly doing some sort of damage, but not nearly enough to fully stun him - as the Mountain grasped Aldric's leg, and that was all the warning he got before he was smashed into the ground like a useless sack of potatoes. Aldric hit the ground so hard that the impact jarred his shield from his hands, and he heard some grunts and groans of pain echoing out from the audience above. After the third impact, Aldric was able to gather his senses just long enough to throw one of his hands out - and with the sound of metal scraping against concrete, he dug his mechanical fingers into the ground and grounded to a halt. The Mountain was so unprepared for this tactic that Aldric's foot slipped out of his grip.

Aldric yanked himself forward and out of the reach of the Mountain, rolling across the ground and back to his shield. When he got back to his feet, he spun around with a flourish, the back of his coat billowing like a cape as he came to face the Mountain, the enormous fighter frowning in equal parts frustration and concentration. Aldric stomped on the edge of his shield and caught it as it bounced upwards, but instead of affixing it to his left arm, he put it on his right. His left hand felt as if he'd just spent hours putting it up against a belt sander, but using it like he just had, gave him an idea. His right hand was flesh and bone, there was only so much power he could use to increase its impacts before he needed to use more to ensure he didn't tear it out of its socket; this meant that while he could certainly punch like a jackhammer with it, there was only so much it could do - especially under the computer's limiting eye.

But his other arm? It was firm and unyielding, made of stronger stuff than flesh and bone. It could take, and dish out, a lot more punishment than his fleshy one, and that was before he added any of his tricks to the mix. So what was stopping him from using that to his advantage? It wasn't like this was completely new tactic - it literally had a name. Whenever he was under the computer, he could just fight southpaw, and avoid - at least for today - needing to come up with any creative workarounds.

So, with his shield now secured to his right arm, Aldric flexed the fingers of his left, before clenching them both into fists and charging forward. The Mountain met his charge with a war cry and charged himself, but he clearly expected Aldric to do as he had thus far: Take the attacks and open up an opportunity to strike back. Instead, Aldric ducked under his opponent's meaty fist and swerved around his back; the Mountain was quick enough to spin around and avoid a strike to his back, but Aldric's response was a brutal cross to the huge kid's cheek. With a bone-crunching thud, the Mountain stumbled back a few steps, dazed from the impact. Aldric lunged forward, delivering a one-two chop to the throat with his shield and another punch with his cybernetic hand. The Mountain snapped out of it now, but his wide swings were easily deflected, dodged, and blocked by the faster of the two.

Aldric thought he might have something going for him, until - as if he'd switched gears - the Mountain sped up. Aldric barely was able to bring his shield up to block the strike, but it still sent him skidding to the edge of the stage, with only his semblance keeping him from falling off entirely. But before Aldric could recover, he had to plant both feet firmly on the ground, and use his semblance like a wall - because the Mountain leapt into action without a moment's hesitation, leaving a small crater at his feet, and hitting Aldric hard enough to create another deafening gong, this one strong enough to send out a shockwave that left Aldric's hair and coat billowing in the resultant winds.

Unfortunately for the Mountain, this was the final hint he needed to finish this puzzle. The Mountain left a crater when he first landed, was able to hit like a rocket-powered dump truck, could leave craters whenever he moved fast or suddenly, and could move faster than his size should allow. Aldric was willing to bet a lot that his semblance had something to do with mass manipulation, and while that may not seem like it could help him initially, it was when he'd given the guy a good sucker punch just a minute ago that let him know how his semblance worked: He had to be braced for it, prepared for it. It wasn't always high mass or always low mass, and the decision to alter that mass was a decidedly conscious action, so if Aldric could catch him unawares, as he had moments ago, this iron-like durability that the Mountain boasted wouldn't even be an issue.

Problem: His only idea involved giving up the shield, and that left him open for an assured beating.

But he'd long since learned how to take one of those.

So after recovering from this most recent attack, Aldric slammed his fist into the Mountain's iron gut again, this attack getting him to take a step back, giving Aldric the space he needed to lunge forward, tackling the Mountain and pinning his shield against his chest. He pounded his opponent's ribs over and over again as he forced the two of them away from the edge of the arena, taking a few hits of his own as a result, and feeling a nasty welt welling up on his back. Once he wasn't in danger of falling off of the arena again, Aldric hopped back, breathing heavily and frowning. The Mountain briefly pressed at his ribs, eying Aldric with anger in his eyes, which briefly flashed to fear before settling on confusion when Aldric reared his right hand and chucked his shield as hard as he could. It crossed the distance between them in a flash, but the Mountain dodged to the side even faster than that, watching as the shield flew on by with a befuddled look, before he turned to look at Aldric, instantly dropping to a defensive boxing stance when he saw him charging forward.

Aldric leapt into the air and threw the Mountain a wide superman punch. It was caught by his raised arms, and though Aldric managed to keep up the momentum and force him back a few feet, the Mountain put him on his back on the ground with one punch to the chest. Aldric coughed, and rolled out of the way of another one, the Mountain's huge fist burying into the arena, as if he were punching through cardboard. Aldric sprang to his feet, only to receive a savage cross to the cheek, which threw his glasses from his shade. He jerked both of his hands up to intercept the Mountain's next jab, though he was still sent skidding back several feet.

Though it hadn't been a part of his plan, the stunned, shocked expression on the Mountain's face and his freezing up played well into it, as Aldric's shield hit the wall of the arena and, with a push from his semblance, came flying back much faster. The Mountain stayed standing there, stunned at Aldric's blank black pits, just a moment too long - and the shield came flying in, ramming into his back like a speeding car. Completely unprepared, the Mountain was finally sent flying as easily as he had so often propelled Aldric. With a single step to the side, Aldric got out of the speeding mass of flesh and muscle's way, catching the shield as it passed him by.

Aldric watched the Mountain claw at the ring to try and slow himself down, but a timely pulse of his semblance made the mountainous teen fail to get his grip in time. He careened over the edge of the ring, and aside from his scroll vibrating, that was the only signal to the end of their fight. Aldric considered not doing anything further, but when he saw the mountain's face crack into a grin, he knew he owed the guy something - his metal hand was still sore from that first sucker punch.

"Hahaha!" The mountain laughed, as Aldric approached the edge of the ring, sliding the sunglasses back on his face. "Nice hit, man! How'd you figure out my semblance?"

Aldric knelt down and shook the man's meaty hand - itself twice the size of Aldric's. "Saw the crater you left when you leapt into the ring, and you didn't leave one on a second jump. The little earthquake thing and my first sucker punch was what really sold it, though." He said, as the mountain shook his head and walked away. "Is it mass or density?"

"Little bit of column A, little bit of column B." The man called over the sounds of the battles raging in the rings around them. "You better make it, blind man! I don't wanna see you here again next year unless it's to watch fights!"

Aldric was soon called to another fight, which wasn't nearly as interesting as this one, especially now that he had a much better way of dragging out as much stopping power and strength out of his strikes as he could. He lost a few spectators as his fights slowly progressed into him getting used to fighting southpaw, playing with his food and then ending it with a TK punch after his heart got pumping, but what caught his attention was that a teacher or two were watching him. He wasn't not okay with this development, but considering he'd outed himself to Ozpin, having teachers that worked for him, watching one of the kids from Mistral, didn't bode well. There wasn't much he could do about it though, so he kept fighting.

The marathon lasted for another forty five minutes, until finally the bell sounded, and all fighting ceased. The crowd erupted into cheers and applause once it was announced when all those who remained standing were officially Beacon's next attending class, and that the tournament would begin once the rings would be rearranged into one single, enormous stage. Aldric took the time to find the 'students section' and promptly dropped his shield and his cane and collapsed into a seat, water bottle in hand, pressed against his head.

The rest lasted all of ten seconds before Yang came along, smacked him across his scalp, and with an ear-to-ear grin said, "ha! Knew I'd be seeing you again!"

"Strange, Yang. I didn't think you'd have worked up such a sweat." Said Aldric before he took a swig from a water bottle, who could see the thin film that clung to her head and matted some of her golden hair.

She scoffed and blew some of said hair out of her face, "a fight's not good unless you get wet afterwords!"

Aldric choked on his water. "Fuck -" He coughed, "fuck you!" He pointed at her, a faux-angry expression on his face, before his finger and his frown dropped and he grinned, "that was good."

Yang rolled her eyes, "besides, I see you there, hugging a cold bottle like that. You worked up a sweat too, don't deny it."

"I don't see what you're talking about." Aldric said, pursing his lips, though cracking a grin when Yang chuckled.

As the fighting rings in the arena down below were all broken apart and reorganized, and as he and Yang made more idle talk, mostly regaling eachother about the fights thus far, Aldric probed through the no-longer-prospective students to see where any familiar faces were. Upon noticing a distinct lack of the other blonde, Aldric decided he'd play with a theory.

"So..." He cleared his throat, "is this the only place they're holding tests?" He asked, "because if you're going to tell me it's not... I've gotta tell you, I'll be pretty pissed."

That did the trick, as Yang seemed to never pass up an opportunity to try and get a rise out of him. "Well, hate to tell you, but nope. This is the biggest place, yeah, but there are a few other places out there. They're just a bit smaller and low-key." She leaned in close, an ear-to-ear grin stretched across her face. "How far did you have to travel, and how fast, to make it here?"

"Too far, too fast, too soon." Aldric responded, as he finally felt he had some small amount of proof that Ozpin definitely knew Jaune Arc's transcripts were faked, but still let him in. Probably because he thought something like that took balls and he deserved something for it, and that at the very least, it would be hilarious.

Something curious, though, was that among the eyes he'd attracted over the course of the marathon, right now he seemed to have the eye of of a certain redhead, who was eying him with a curious furrow to her brow. Aldric wondered what he'd done there, or if this was one of those 'good senses evil' moments.

"So." Yang said, as she slid down the row of seats and dropped into the chair right next to Aldric's, "how long do you think this'll go for?"

Aldric arced an eyebrow, as he started slugging down the water bottle. "What, you don't know?"

"Well I've got an idea, but come on. I want to hear your 'professional' opinion." She elbowed him in the ribs.

"Hm." Aldric nodded, "yeah. 'Professional.'." He scoffed, "seventy five folks... About that many fights... Half that again and again until the finals, where the real fighting will start, and you start seeing more and more semblance use and flashy fighting." He shrugged, "we'll probably be here until dinner."

Yang gave him an exxagerated expression, "you know there are easier ways of asking a girl out." She said, leaning back in her chair and resting her legs on the wall in front of them, an overly smug grin settling on her face.

Aldric threw it right back at her, "bitch, if I were asking you on a date I wouldn't beat around the bush."

She rolled her eyes, "lemme guess, you're one of those 'don't know what I have until it's gone' kind of guys?" Aldric stared at her, expression blank, and kept staring at her until the grin faded away. "Oh." But the effect was ruined when he snorted, which earned an angry exclamation from her and another swat on the head.

"Hurtin' a blind man. I'm ashamed of you, Xiao Long."

"Shut up, Beebee." She waved him off as the first fighters were called to stage, to the crowd's uproarious applause.

Without the computers constantly watching over him, Aldric was able to safely fuel his radar and extend his 'sight' so he could watch the fights, though that didn't stop Yang from trying to narrate them. It was a while yet, and nearly half the roster - with most of the faces he recognized having gone at east once - until one of them was called, and much to Yang's dismay, she had to wait even longer, as he was the one who got called up. Much to his surprise, however, he recognized the name going against him.

"Goud Etiolate." Said one of the professors over the loudspeaker, "and Cardin Winchester!"

"Ooh..." Yang leaned back, looking over to Aldric's left, where he could sense the tall huntsman-in-training getting to his feet, a confident smile and a light chuckle playing his features as he pointed out Aldric's size - in both stature and physical build - in comparison to his, saying the fight would be over before anyone knew it. "Big guy." She commented.

To which Aldric said, "I have literally fought bigger, today."

He briefly debated adopting a 'so overt it's covert' approach and pulling another superhero landing, but decided against it. He and Cardin made it to the massive fighting ring at about the same time. But where Cardin threw his hands out, riling the crowd up and attracting as many cheers as they were willing to throw his way, Aldric merely stepped up to bat, a neutral smile on his face, his hands in his coat pockets, and his shield hanging from his back. He continued showboating his way to their positions on either side of the arena, and by the time they made it to their spots, he had most of the crowds cheering his name.

I'm tempted to think I'll wipe the floor with him... Aldric thought, waiting for either his opponent to be done, or for the match to start. And maybe I could on a better day, but he did make it this far. That counts for something. He thought, as the screens above them showed their respective aura meters - Aldric's was actually a bit lower than Cardin's, which only reminded him not to take this fight lightly. He's also got a damn mace. That's an anti-shield weapon. Though Aldric wondered exactly how it would hold up to the physics-defying fuckery that was his Power Glove.

As the countdown began and the announcer called out the numbers, Aldric slid his shield onto his good arm, and his opponent hefted his mace onto his shoulder, confident smile still plastered across his face. When the timer hit zero, and the buzzer sounded, the taller of the two charged the smaller. Aldric merely drew his pistol and started firing, but Cardin was prepared for this - switching to a reverse grip and holding the end of his mace in front of his face, it proving good enough to protect him from Aldric's gunfire. He gave a sidewards nod, impressed, and stowed his gun away as Cardin drew closer. Unfortunately for Cardin, Aldric had tricks of his own, and while it was clear that the bigger of the two would, if all else was equal, have bested him in a feat of strength, that didn't translate too well into speed, which meant Aldric figuratively had all the time in the world to use his semblance to deflect Cardin's wide, powerful swings, backpedaling as he did so, with the end result looking as if he were just lazily dodging each attack.

It had the desired effect, Cardin growled out, "hold still!" And with both hands, swung the mace with all of his might.

Aldric snapped his shield up and intercepted the attack, and while it did press the shield against his side, it clearly didn't have remotely the effect Cardin had wanted. The taller of the two had hoped to stun his opponent, or even disarm him, but instead the shield absorbed the force of the blow and left him stunned. Aldric lifted his hand and splayed out his fingers, letting them rest in front of Cardin's sternum.

Cardin barely got out a, "huh?" Before Aldric clenched his fist and shoved forward, sending his opponent skidding backwards with a mechanized one-inch-punch.

Aldric kept up with the momentum, throwing his shield at the mace-wielder. He would give Cardin some credit, though: He recovered fast enough to take up the mace as if it were a baseball bat, and swing it at the shield - batting it right back to Aldric; but Aldric had seen this trick before, and without breaking stride, leapt up into the air in a spinning roundhouse, and kicked the shield right back at him. While Cardin wasn't quite fast enough to keep up their impromptu tennis match, he was able to snap up the heft of his mace and use it to deflect the shield. Aldric, however, was close enough that he didn't need to keep Cardin off balance with another round, and instead caught the shield with his left hand and spun around rapidly, before smacking Cardin with the side of his shield, as if it were an enormous, red white and blue frying pan.

Cardin stumbled to the side from this, but used the weight of his mace to his advantage - planting it in the ground and using it to stabilize himself. This led to him being much more prepared for Aldric's follow up than Aldric would have liked, and he smashed Aldric's next punch out of the way with a heavy swing. While this should have caused Aldric to overextend himself and present his back to his opponent, Aldric instead pulsed his semblance and used it to spin him right back around. With a wide, circular right hook, he aimed not for Cardin, but his weapon - punching its haft and then grinding right down to the mace itself, and using his strength, momentum, and a little help from his semblance to overpower Cardin's natural strength, and force the mace to the ground, leaving it splintered from the impact.

Aldric followed this up by leaping over the mace and slamming both of his feet into Cardin's chest; this broke Cardin's grip on his weapon and sent him stumbling backwards onto his rear. From the livid look that began to stretch across his face, which only intensified when he looked up and saw his aura dipping lower than he wanted, Aldric could tell he was furious. What surprised Aldric, though, was that instead of blindly charging him, Cardin got back to his feet and clapped his fists together.

Then he charged him.

Aldric might not have known Cardin's entire intent here, but he at least knew that Cardin wanted him to back up and dance with him again, so he could take back his mace and get back to swinging. So, instead of standing his ground, Aldric met his opponent head on and charged into the fray. He ducked under and deflected several of Cardin's boxing-style jabs, but it was when he allowed one to connect with his shield that he realized Cardin's full intent. The impact didn't hurt Aldric at all, but there was a force behind it - as if Cardin's fist had exploded on impact with Aldric's shield. That sent the less sighted of the two skidding to the side, until he was able to use his semblance to overcome the momentum. As he skidded away, Cardin straightened up, his cocky grin once again on his face, as he sauntered over to his mace and, with a pose that would have made Thor jealous, ripped it from the ground and hefted it into the air; the crowd loved it, the cheers briefly overwhelming Aldric's ears.

Cardin, in response, loved them, but was tipped off to Aldric's next attack when the cheers suddenly became shouts of surprise. Cardin whipped around, only to get beaned in the face by Aldric's shield. As he stumbled backwards, Aldric came rocketing in as fast as his feet would propel him, before he leapt into the air and caught the shield, before spinning into a back kick and sending Cardin flying, both from the strength of the impact, and from the force from his semblance. He recovered fast enough that he buried his mace into the ground, and that was enough to make him grind to a halt well before he hit the edge of the stadium.

Aldric gave him another sidewards nod. I don't think I've seen that yet, actually. He thought, his lips pursed in an impressed frown. Good on ya. He spied Cardin sneaking a glance back up at the monitors above them, and would admit to a small amount of satisfaction at the expression that crossed his face when he saw that Aldric's had barely budged. Granted, Cardin's hadn't either - the only difference between the beginning of the match and now was that Cardin and him were completely equal, statistically - but Cardin was clearly confused, knowing he'd gotten a good hit or two on his opponent.

Aldric decided he'd play with his food just a bit, and bounced the edge of the shield up and down off the ground like a basketball, smirking at his opponent. Surprising him, Cardin snorted, nodding as his cocky smile turned to a light grin. He tightened his grip on his mace, and then charged right back in.

Unfortunately, while Cardin was clearly starting to get Aldric's number, that didn't change the fact that, compared to the blind man, he was slow. The guy had moments of brilliance, but his clear preference of brawn over brains meant that there were times when Aldric didn't even need his semblance to dodge him. Add on that Aldric was getting a good read on him - especially now that he got a peek at his semblance - and Aldric was liking his odds more and more with each swing he avoided. He ducked under a wide horizontal swing, twisted out of the way of a vertical chop, deflected a front jab, and when he saw his opening, Aldric struck.

The sound of bones crunching underneath his gauntlet could barely be heard past him, but the effect was clearly visible to those who watched: Cardin did an impromptu pirouette, seeing as many stars as there were people spectating. He stumbled away, and Aldric followed - throwing a quick front kick into his opponent's back and sending him sprawling onto the ground. Cardin had another minor stroke of genius when he pretended to be incapacitated until Aldric grew close to him - at which point he slammed his fists into the ground like a gorilla, using his shockwave semblance to throw Aldric off balance. He followed it up by scrambling to his feet and swinging his mace with both hands, but Aldric ducked right under it and lunged inside Cardin's defenses. Aldric followed up on his momentum with a powerful uppercut - he heard the sound of Cardin's jaw snapping shut once it met his fist, and by grabbing Cardin's mace with his free hand, Aldric ensured that he went flying without it.

When Cardin landed, Aldric was there a moment later. He was actually astonished at how heavy the mace was - he had to drag it across the ground and make it look like he was trying to be intimidating, just so no one saw him struggle with it, and this guy was swinging the thing around with one hand. Aldric would give credit where it was due, he knew that if his shield didn't work the way it did, he was pretty sure he might have a fractured arm at this point.

Aldric now stood above Cardin, his mace held in both hands. A flash of fear ran through Cardin's eyes as he heard Aldric take in a deep breath and unleash his battle cry - and actually flinched when Aldric summoned up the strength necessary to swing his mace in a full arc. But he seemed to be the only one alive who had actually been fooled by Aldric's gambit, and was thusly the only one surprised when he buried the mace into the ground a foot from the guy's head. Aldric could tell that, after he glanced at his mace, Cardin had considered going for a cup shot, from the way his eyes flashed to Aldric's groin, and his appropriately positioned foot, but Aldric was too fast - he grabbed his chest plate, and with a single, great heave, slid him across the ground and out of the ring, his impact outside accompanied by a great buzzer.

Aldric saw him curse, but neither he nor any of the cheering audience actually heard it. Being a good sport though, he did heft the mace up and walk it over to its owner, presenting it to him with a respectful nod.

"That was a good fight, Winchester." He said, as his former opponent took up arms again. "We'll have to do that again sometime." He added, after sliding his hand through his increasingly sweat-slick hair.

To his credit, though he was clearly pissed, Cardin actually nodded. "Yeah." He said, as Aldric hopped out of the stage. "Next time I won't go easy on you."

There he is. Aldric merely smiled.

When he returned to his spot in the stands after stealing a few new water bottles, Yang was there, already making a swipe at his head. "You know, I thought he had you for a second there, Beebee!"

"If he was just a bit faster, it would've been a better fight." Aldric opined, "the question -" He raised, as he cracked open the bottle. "- is whether or not he'll learn from it." And he took a drink.

It was all promptly spat right out when Yang smacked him on the back as hard as her monstrous strength would allow, when her name was the next to show up on the screen. If she noticed him choking and sputtering on his water, she didn't mention it, instead sprinting for the stairwell the moment her opponent was called.

I'll say this. Aldric thought, as he recovered, and let his radar shrink and he slammed what was left of his water bottle. I like her better than Mercury. He leaned back in his chair, letting his shield rest against the wall in front of him, and his feet rest on top of the shield, as his vision shrank to a scant few inches around him.