Nanosuit and Soul Magic: A Crysis/RWBY crossover

chapter 23

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“Alright, since I can get back up from pretty much anything that doesn’t kill me, let’s set up a couple of ‘loss’ conditions. For the first one, how about battlefield removal? You make me touch the walls, I’m out.”

Velvet nodded, shifting into a ready stance. She’d agreed to the spar a lot faster than I thought she would. When I asked, she’d mentioned a tournament happening soon. Part of a big festival, apparently. She seemed pretty surprised I hadn’t heard about it. Guess she forgot that I don’t get out much. Something that stood out about that earlier conversation was that the coliseum for the tournament would be ‘arriving’ soon. Not sure what that meant, but I’ve got better things to be doing right now.

“Second, let’s say that if you can pin me down for ten seconds, I also lose. Sound fair?”

She nodded again, and said “I’ve set my Scroll to play an alarm if my Aura drops too low. That means you win. Let’s get started.” I need to get an Aura sensor of my own. Maybe now that the Dust problem is solved, I can work on that.

I didn’t need to test my guns or my sword, so I’d left those in the corner. Right now it was me and my bare hands versus the bunny and her bare hands. She hadn’t brought her box with her, and hadn’t mentioned it before the spar, so this should be a pretty even test of physical capability.

I raise my arms into a boxer’s stance, and wait for her to make the first move. Neither of us do anything for the first few seconds, and I wonder if I should shout ‘go!’ or something, when she takes off running.

Away from me.

This is probably a trap, but what the hell, I take the bait.

I feed juice to the speed function, and notice that what would normally be a good quarter of my capacitors is only taking out a dribble. Not sure if I still have a mouth inside this mask, but I try to grin anyway, and amp up the power.

Fifty kph, sixty kph, seventy kph. About where I’d be giving it all she’s got before, I hit diminishing returns. Still, Velvet’s almost in arms’ reach now and holyshitduck.

In what has to be my least graceful maneuver ever, I let my legs go limp and urge gravity to stop being such a fucking slacker and pull me down-!

Not fast enough. Velvet’s spin kick catches me under the chin and sends me skidding back across the arena. I dig my fingers into the floor, cracking concrete and stopping my movement.

Footsteps. Velvet’s close, which means that as soon as I’m back on my feet-

I leap upright, raise my arms and amp strength just in time to block another kick. Damn, if I was human my forearms would be powder right now.

I push back, moving her just a little off-balance. Good enough for me, I don’t bother with finesse and go for a straight-punch to her midsection, trying to capitalize on the moment.

She sees it coming and pushes off with the one leg she still has on the ground, flipping over my strike. Unfortunately, you cannot dodge in midair, which is a lesson I learned the hard way in my first fight on Remnant.

I step forward, bring my leg up, and in a motion that has felled countless locked doors, kick her across the arena. No alarm tone, which means that she’s fine, but the whole concept of a friendly spar that would leave a baseline human so much tomato soup does take a little getting used to.

Velvet lands on her feet, and skids across the floor a good ways, keeping her balance almost perfectly.

I run towards her again, rapidly closing the distance. Velvet takes a step forward and throws out a punch that I duck under, taking advantage of the opening to land a couple of quick blows to her ribs.