Chapter 22: Start the Training (part 2)

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No excuses, let's start.
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Colosseum, No POV

After the stunning opening fight Raechel showed, all the students were either fired up or terrified about fighting one of the other Terrarians. However, now one was more prepared than Pyrrha, who was getting ready to volunteer herself to fight, but she wanted to face Bianca.

[Hart: Alright, who's the next fighter?]

Pyrrha was about to raise her hand when Jaune stood up, a rare look of determination on his face. CRDL started laughing that he was standing until Bianca snapped her fingers, instantly shattering their collective auras.

Bianca: CRDL get an F. Jaune, who are you fighting?
Jaune: I... I want to fight Dylan!

The other Terrarians leave the arena as Dylan pulls out a silvery blade with a giddy smile on his face.

Dylan: Get ready then come on in! I feel like I've done the least out of my friends so far.

Miniskip, Jaune POV

As I walk into the open, Dylan stretches out his hands, and his ears disappear... wait what?!

Me: How-
Dylan: My semblance makes me a Faunus, my handicap is that I have to melee without my wolf boost. I'm also not allowed to use my Mirror Sword, as that'll probably be too much. So this is my weapon.

Right, only Raechel wasn't handicapped for fighting. Raising my shield, I charge with a yell and full-body swing my sword... which gets deflected effortlessly and knocks me back. Not deterred from trying again, I make the same mistake of full-body swinging my blade towards the red-skinned(literal) swordsman, and I get promptly knocked to the ground.

Dylan: Are you done with your warmup?
Me: I... yes, that's what I was doing.

No POV

Jaune learns his lesson and raises his shield without charging. Dylan waits for a moment, then gets bored of nothing happening and charges. A shield blocks his blade and a sword catches his side. Not wanting to waste this small window, Jaune tries to under-arm swing and disarm Dylan, only for the ex-wolf to clash blades and deflect Jaune away from him.

Dylan: Did you know each of us have titles to our names? Like Y/n is Valiant, Bianca is Blood Mage, etc.

Jaune looks at him with confusion.

Dylan: My title is "Untouchable Mirror", and there's a major reason. You're not going to hurt me; easily at least, but I can win this before you even get me into the yellow. Try to make it to 10 minutes.

The two continued this movement, of Jaune being knocked back by being parried and Dylan rarely being stuck when he missed. They traded until the timer buzzed: Jaune's aura is at 16%, and Dylan's is at 93%. Securing his team a B, Jaune returned to his seat, and promptly collapsed into the chair in exhaustion. Now that the class had a better idea of what fights against the others may look like, no one wanted to fight Raechel or Bianca. Except for one...

[Hart: Who do you want to fight, Miss Sustrai?]

Emerald POV

Me: Bianca.

Cinder wants me to fight her to prove she can be of use to her. After she found us with that shadow person, the "vampire" has been asking to meet her.

Flashback, CEMN Dorm

The ghostlike thing laughed and the lights just vanished in the room. Suddenly, the person who followed the ghost was illuminated by a red magic circle, her eyes glowing the same blood-red. Cinder relights the room with a fireball in her hand.

Bat Faunus?: Now, let's do a back and forth: I ask, you answer, and vice versa. As a show of good faith, you go first.
Cinder: Are you a maiden, if not why do you have magic?

The Faunus looked confused for a moment.

Bat Faunus?: What does being a virgin have to do with my ability to do magic?

Cinder facepalms, Mercury starts laughing, and I'm just... holding my head in embarrassment. Looking back up, the ghost-thing is giving a disappointed look to the demon.

Vampire?: I'm a vampire, not a bat Faunus if that's what you're thinking. Now my turn. What are maidens?
Cinder: (recovered from earlier question) Four people with magic tied to a season. What is the ghost?
Vampire: She's an inverted soul; the result of someone dying of depression itself. Although this one has a regular soul tied to it. Who's the "Mistress"?

We all pause at that, until Cinder throws the fireball in her hand. The vampire doesn't even flinch as they're set on fire and start burning.

Vampire: I burn in the sun all the time, why do you think it would bother me when I'm at my strongest? Answer my question.

Present

We kind of just talked until she was satisfied then. But I am fighting her in the day, while she's handicapped. I have nothing to fear now. Bianca holds what looks likes a chunk of crystallized blood in one hand and an umbrella in the other.

Bianca: Alright, since this is my first match, I'll tell you my handicap: no one-shot or draining spells. My abilities and this umbrella are fair game.

[Hart: Alright, start.]

I open fire at the vampire, who doesn't move out of the way, and I charge forwards. Bianca raises the crystal and spikes erupt from the ground before me. Not being deterred I try to run around them, only for spikes to form in front of me directly and the first row slowly fade away. Wait... as long as she can see me, she can spike me from the ground! Maybe, if I get airborne... Using my semblance to make it seem like I ran farther to Bianca's left, I charge right and open fire again. She manages to hit me with some of the spikes after realizing the illusion was, well, fake. Prepare it to charge directly for her, I create an image of me leaping in the air over the spikes. As I'm about to swing my blades, an ice wall appears in front of me?!

[Hart: Weiss Schnee! No interfering with another student's match.]

As the ice wall breaks, I see Bianca staring at me holding a small clear Dust crystal.

Bianca: I'm talking only to you, Emerald. My semblance allows me to collect aura in the for of dust whenever someone gets hurt near me. Meaning I can temporarily use any semblance of anyone. That wasn't part of my handicap.

No POV

Bianca then uses Dylan's semblance and grows wolf ears, hidden from the audience by her umbrella. Immediately after she uses Weiss' again to speed herself up and starts pummeling Emerald with the black umbrella. Due to Dylan's semblance, she's part wolf and deals more melee damage, and using Weiss' glyphs to make herself too quick to dodge. In the stands everyone is watching in awe and fear of the "blood mage" being able to fight so well in cqc. Everyone, except the Terrarians, Cinder, and Mercury. However, Dylan's dust runs out, and Bianca doesn't want to use all of the Weiss Dust, so she stops dead in the center of the arena, and Emerald is on the ground behind her. 36% of her aura is left, while Bianca only lost 15%. Not going down that easily, Emerald makes an Illusion of herself surrounding Bianca, except for the real one which is invisible to the vampire. She stands and swings both blades...

And Bianca glitches into the air using Raechel's one semblance. The moment Emerald realizes what happened, she's surrounded by Biancas. Looking up, she sees the real one holding another dust crystal with a slight green glow to it; Emerald's semblance. Bloody spikes erupt under Emerald, shredding her aura in seconds.

Bianca: Everyone, let it be known: I AM THE STRONGEST TERRARIAN!

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