A Simple Bet Between Friends

Chapter 9

Yang sighed in irritation as the Professor continued to talk. School life had seemed to catch up to her and it had finally started to stress her out.

Usually Yang loved combat class, it was one of the few exciting classes the school actually had, but over the past week the class had only served to irritate her more and more for no good reason. Combine that with Oobleck and Port's classes and Yang was on the verge of tearing someone's hair out.

She took a deep breath and attempted to calm herself. It didn't help all that much.

For not the first time, Yang's eyes drifted to Jaune in the row across the isle from them. The two hadn't said a word to each other since the day of the food fight. They had stopped training and their teams had sat as far apart as would not seem rude when the two were around.

Yang thought on the words the two had said to each other and again regretted what she had said. Was she right? Yes, but she knew she had said it wrong. Jaune cared for his partner tremendously, and Yang had insulted her.

Her head hit the table with a soft thud and she released a groan. She knew she had no right to be mad at him, he was the one who had reasons to be upset, but she was mad anyway. That only served to make her mad at herself before making her even more unjustifiably mad at him. In a never ending cycle.

Her partner nudged her slightly with her elbow and she sat back up. Blake looked at her with narrowed eyes and her patented 'what are you up to' look. Yang had the common since to not respond. Even if she wanted to talk about it, this was professor Goodwitch's class. There was nothing more idiotic than talking during her class.

Blake looked away and Yang released another sigh, her eyes moving over to Jaune.

"Jaune Arc and Cardin Winchester." Yang was surprised by the sudden utterance of names, she hadn't been following along and so missed the point when the combat portion of combat class was supposed to kick in.

The two opponents grabbed their gear and then made their way onto the arena. The lights in the rest of the room dimmed and the aura display was brought online.

The professor gave her standard speech about the rules and stepped aside.

The two boys squared each other off and waited for the fight to officially start. When it did however, neither of them rushed off immediately, instead both waiting for the other to make their move first.

It went on longer than it really should have, and had Yang been the one fighting either of them she would have won already.

Finally Cardin got bored and launched the first strike, something that was clearly a probing attack meant to get Jaune to attack back.

Jaune slid the lunge off his shield and stepped back, prompting Cardin to follow. There were a few more exchanges like this, Cardin attacking and Jaune retreating.

The audience seemed incredibly bored, being as how this was probably the slowest paced fight all year, but Goodwitch seemed curious. Her eyes as ever were glued to the fight but something about her posture didn't read 'kill' for once but rather curiosity.

Cardin, large brute that he was, became frustrated. What little patience he had wore off and he finally committed to an attack, landing a solid hit on Jaune's shield before he retreated once more, leaving him basically on the edge of the arena with nowhere left to run. The next lunge however Jaune's plan finally slid into place.

Cardin launched an attack, it was over extended as usual, and committed to the attack with all his force.

Call him what you will, but Cardin was actually fairly good at getting a read on a persons fighting style. He sucked at knowing when to back off or not engage someone but he could make a fairly good guess at what you were gonna do next once he got to know your style, so long as he kept his cool.