[Argent Steele]

He nodded, forgetting that she couldn’t quite see him from where he was over fortifying the entrance with the dirt they’d gathered up from digging up the ditches. It was a surprising amount, even more than he’d expected - even tamping it down as best as he could, it was still more than enough to cover the doorway entirely, and was nearly three or four feet thick. Not exactly an impregnable fortress wall, but definitely thick enough to serve as a significant obstacle. Much like the sandbag walls armies would use in foreign territory to fortify any positions they made, that wall of dirt would be hard to shoot through and even harder to cut or punch through. Perhaps a full half minute or more of the offending team blasting away at it with their weapons might tear it down, but the snake Faunus wasn’t planning on giving them the opportunity to do so.

Argent stamped down the last of the dirt into place, and dropped from it’s height to the floor below, landing on his feet and cushioning the impact with a crouch. His footsteps on the dirt flooring as he darted to join his partner by the side of the entryway were imperceptible, barely making any noise. A cursory glance looked the veil up and down, and he nodded to himself. It was a solid sheet, but thin enough that his arrows would pass through with little to no difficulty. Three of those arrows were pulled from his back mounted quiver and stabbed lightly into the dirt at his feet, while three more were nocked to his bowstring in a peculiar grip. He could see through the thin material and the darkness beyond as clearly as though it were day - as soon as he saw movement, the Faunus would pull the string back and let fly, using his Semblance to ensure the three arrows would home in onto their target.

He was ready.

324 words // @ tag // notes

☀

[Mika Willow]

Running pell-mell throughout the complex was truly grinding on Mika's nerves as he carried his teammate with him. The entire complex was empty, desolate, barren and a thousand more words for the lack of action he could indulge upon. Hearing the warning from Flower about the last two rooms has the giant grin viciously, "Finally." Coming around the final bend that leads to the left and right Mika did pause before catching sight of the darkening hallway to their left.

"There you are." Mika muttered to himself before reaching back to Flower, "Hand." There was going to be a small change in plans as the giant spun in place using the momentum and the slowly dying sparks of his Bolt to bodily toss the small girl up through the tarp and atop the wall. Content that she would know what to do Mika moved onwards to the fully darkened hall now. Of course, the fact the whole hallway is pitch black, with nary a glimmer of light does put a whole damper on the charging in recklessly. 

It takes a moment more to decide on his course of action, Mika unslung Dandelion free for the first time from his back in the entire match and takes aim down into the darkness.

KA-BLACK!!

The muzzle fire billows through the darkness for a brief moment revealing in a snapshot a terrible scene, ditches something on the wall and just the hint of a turn around the corner. It looked almost as if someone had smeared bacon grease through the entire hallway before the shadows reclaimed their territory. Grunting in displeasure at the roadblock Mika frowned before looking up after where he had tossed Flower. It wouldn't fit in with the plan of being a distraction for Flower to secure the win, but between falling for traps and being bogged down to helping his teammate with the troublesome duo Mika knew what he had to do. Stepping back for some running room the giant took off for the wall where he had tossed his partner and took a leap of faith.

KA-BLACK!!

Thankfully Dandelion didn't disappoint as the shotgun blast kicks Mika up through the tarp and over the wall small tendrils of smoke trailing after him, a shell left in the wake of the blast. The kickback from the gun was always a problem, but here it worked out to his advantage as he sailed over the concrete below. Wait, that was to fa-

*TING*

Aura flashed in protest as a black arrow streaked through the tarp from area 1 as Mika was falling towards it making the giant grumble at the impact. The tarp ripping fills the air as Mika crashed down the fully darkened room, the ground cratered from the impact as the giant stares into darkness.

*TING*


That one hurt even with the benefit of foreknowledge that someone was shooting him, the aura was running low in that case, not good. Yanking up Dandelion in the general direction of where that damnable arrow had come from Mika squeezed the trigger.

KA-BLACK!!

A plume of roaring fire erupts from Dandelion's maw illuminating the room very briefly if the shot hit he wouldn't have known as the darkness took back the brief bit of light his gun gave. Cocking the gun once more to discharge a smoking shell Mika shouted out, "Keep going!" Then Dandelion continued to talk for the giant.

*TING*

SON OF A-

[Wolfe]

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[attr=class,punkiduoinneropacity]Combat Moderation Post

Due to the shallow ditches that Elena dug at the very corner of the hallway, when Mika paused at the turn in which he saw the darkness, he slid into them and momentarily lost balance as he was pelted by three arrows in quick succession. Using the secondary perk of Bolt, however, he was able to fling his partner up through the tarp in the ceiling before his aura audibly shattered in bright yellow pieces with the combined drain of constantly using Bolt since the scenario started and the unexpected assault of three arrows hitting in quick succession. A completely blind blast of shot from his weapon fired off, but hit the left wall about three meters away from him harmlessly as a last ditch attack as his aura shattered.

"Mika Willow's aura has reached zero." their teacher's voice on the loudspeaker noted, essentially announcing that he was completely out of the fight.

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[Flower Fiorella]

❝What do your eyes see?❞

[attr="class","flowerb"]

A lot of things were happening. She couldn’t exactly say that she understood all of it at once. Really that was just the thrill of the fight and it was also the trap that Mika and she couldn’t really anticipate.

“Hand.”

It was all she really heard, it was all she understood before she went flying. Mika was strong, and naturally, Flower wasn’t very heavy. She was prepared to become a projectile, but at the same time, she couldn’t really prepare to literally become some kind of torpedo. No, that wasn’t right either. She simply came to conclude that she had never voluntarily decided to become a projectile until that battle. Well, there was a first time for everything.

She was very high, headed towards the ceiling. Except the ceiling wasn’t actually a ceiling, it was a tarp. She only had seconds to spare. Swinging Bloom in front of her light, she could become a blade that would pierce through the tarp. She wasn’t really sure how strong the tarp was, bud it couldn’t have been very thick or tear resistance since it was only a tarp and it still allowed some bits of light to fade through. Her intention was to stay high, she didn’t want to get low. If possible, then get up on the topside of the tarp.

No, it wasn’t their original plan. But Flower had heard Shadecloak’s voice on the loudspeaker.

"Mika Willow's aura has reached zero."

She was on her own now, against two opponents. One against two. She didn’t know how Mika had been taken out, but she knew she didn’t want to be down on the floor against the both of them. When outnumbered, a huntsman only had so many options. She needed to find the stuffed animal, she only had two options this room and the last one. She needed to create chaos and confusion on her side.

She didn’t know where her opponents were… She had to assume that they possibly knew where she was. She tightened her grip on Bloom and stuck the blade in the tarp, and then she ran for it. Flower was rather fast and currently very light, her intention was to run across the tarp to simply run for it and cause the ‘ceiling’ to fall upon behind her and potentially on her opponents if they so decided to come after her as she ran. She had a little bit of hallway left and then she would hitch right, still dragging her sword behind her to rip through the tarp. Room one was ahead she still needed to check it for the objective, if she was even able to make it that far.

Still sprinting as fast as she could, suddenly the girl was lit aglow with a bright lavender aura. It was time for her to enable her semblance. Still dragging Bloom behind her to cut through the tarp, suddenly her arm took on the effects of metal as well. Once a light dent in the tarp, now Flower would become a very large object that the slipping tarp would likely have trouble holding up. Flower stretched out her arm, the limb would extend and flatten itself, becoming large round shield. Flower aimed herself downwards. She couldn’t see where the objective was up above, she needed to get back down on the ground. She curled herself into a ball jumped forward, stabbing Bloom through the tarp once again. She would fall from the ceiling with a slight angle, pushing herself forward into whatever dirt and cement would crash into. She was made of pure metal now, her body faintly glowing for the transformation. She was using her shield-arm as something of a break to land on.

If her movements had been successful, she would have landed near the middle of room one, around and created quite a large crater and disruption of earth from her fall from so high. She could only hope that neither of her opponents were beneath her. She had become a metal meteorite of sorts and hopefully either taken down quite a bit of tarp with her and exposed the smaller half of room and initial hallway with the giant, ripping hole. She immediately looked for the stuffed animal, metallic eyes darted back and forth regardless of where she would have or should have landed. She raised her shield-arm, it was a large-round shaped shield, roughly half a meter in diameter.

She whipped out Bloom with her other hand, pulling it closer to herself, she flipped the sword back into its gun form. The two edges of the sword split apart, revealing the barrel of a gun. She was ready if they shot at her, but she still needed to find the stuffed animal above all else.

---

Weapon: F Rank, Bloom
Semblance: D - Rank Transformation, Material Mimicry, 1/4
Strength, Durability, and Moldability (Shield) Boosts
Abilities: F Rank Speed, F Rank Marksmanship

WORDS 797

TOTAL WORDS 2481

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[Argent Steele]

There was no time to celebrate as Willow’s Aura shattered into small pieces, Argent’s shots having struck true in that moment of distraction. The giant’s parting shot, while completely ineffectual in terms of raw damage, did manage to accomplish one thing.

One of the most common and basic flaws of night vision technology was the inability to adapt to sudden changes in the light level of the surroundings. Such technology worked on the principles on enhancing ambient light to produce a clearer image, but it also meant that when the light level changed drastically in a short period of time, the feedback would be intense while the technology struggled to compensate. A single candle flickering in the night was bad enough, but turn on the lights in a darkened room, and you would have a useless operator for as long as his eyes needed to recover from the sudden change.

Biological night vision, such as the type encountered in the eyes of the Faunus, varied in many different ways from it’s technological counterpart, but worked vaguely off of the same principles, those being the enhancement of light in a dark area to gain a clearer picture, often at the cost of color and fine detail. In low light conditions, a pupil would dilate to absorb more light, more so than their diurnal human counterparts.

Which also made them cripplingly weak to drastic changes of light in a small amount of time.

The sound and fury of Willow’s shotgun blast flared bright in the darkened confines of the hallway. Argent had been intent on his opponent, his focus fully on the other - which meant, unfortunately, that he took the full brunt of the explosion, seared across his eyes in a bright flash that left him completely unable to see anything. Scrunching up his face in a wince and squeezing his eyes shut, Argent shook his head and blindly fumbled his way back behind cover, blinking rapidly in his bid to reorient himself and restore his vision. Groping his way along the wall, he leaned back against the concrete, offering him some small amount of comfort and stability as he rubbed at his eyes with a hand, smearing a streak of dirt across his forehead.

“Mika Willow’s Aura has reached zero.”

Instructor Shadecloak’s voice echoed from hidden speakers, confirming the kill. Argent grimaced and blinked again, the white nothingness finally resolving itself into vague colors and shapes.

“Thorne,” he ground out, snapping his head towards where he thought she was from memory on the other side of the hallway. In fact, he was off by a good meter, staring at the patch of ground to her left, but that didn’t reduce the urgency in his voice any.

“Fiorella went up top. She’s going for the objective, and I can’t see. Can you-”

The earth shook, and Argent had to brace himself against the concrete wall to keep from falling over, dropping into a crouch immediately after to minimize his profile. Though his vision hadn’t resolved into anything clear, one hand still grasped around for one of the arrows he’d planted in the dirt earlier, and when that couldn’t be found, he went for one still in his quiver, nocking it to his bow and pulling the string to his cheek.

That must be Fiorella, he thought, eyes straining to acquire a target. The Faunus loosed the arrow in what he thought was the right direction and pulled another, the movements swift with the ease of years of practice. The grip on his bow shifted to compensate, from a vertical grip that emphasized power to a horizontal grip that would make it easier for him to shoot accurately. The bowstring was drawn to his neck, and he fired off another shot at the first movement he saw, not bothering to check if he hit and pulling yet another.

“Is that her? Take her out, Thorne. Any means necessary.”

655 words // @ tag // notes

☀

[Elena Thorne]

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[attr="class","puppycat"]942 words

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[attr="class","puppycat"]5095 words

Elena was so focused on maintaining her constructs she didn’t stop keeping them up until Argent noted that Flower had gone up top. She had of course heard their instructor note that the big guy’s aura reached nothing, but she didn’t hear the toss at all or the tarp ripping. She wasn’t paying attention to that at all, and it showed.

She released focus on the constructs, an act that disintegrated all of them and destroyed everything that wasn’t natural in the hallway. It was a feeling akin to dropping a heavy weight physically, and there was a sharp exhale as the girl opened her eyes again to refocus and look around to see what shadows she could pull from the room. The tarp was only semi-transparent so it there was a good amount of it to work with, and only after a short delay a good chunk of it was able to be prepped for use. It was the sort of satisfying feeling like popping a soft drink can or something, just a quick little thing to get them primed and ready to go.

Unfortunately for her, the loud as fuck crash completely broke all concentration that she had. This meant that any offense was delayed by a second or two, which left her a sitting duck. In most cases that term would be used figuratively, but this was a case where it was quite literal. Elena was still sitting with her back against the wall and made absolutely zero attempt to get up or move a muscle during this entire exchange. There was no point, because the Vacuo native wasn’t exactly a physical fighter to begin with and it did nothing but waste energy to pretend that she was. Plus, because she stayed down she was a smaller target for any ranged attacks the last woman standing had up her sleeve and was much harder to spot visually in the very same cloud of dirt and dust that had been kicked up throughout the room that obscured the defending team’s vision.

That didn’t mean that she wasn’t participating, though. Far from it. While her attack came a little bit later and was pretty unfocused, it was pretty clear that the girl wasn’t exactly conserving aura. There was a lot of dust that was kicked up because of the fall, but that was a huge advantage at least for a moment or two because it meant the entire room was enveloped in shadow. While she couldn’t exactly see her opponent, what she could do was create spikes everywhere in that general direction which all came from the ground with violent force both upwards and away from the defending team. Each of these spikes would be strong enough to pierce through stone, and got around the problem of being gated primarily by amount of matter manipulated by being long, thin, and light.

This massive use of aura wasn’t the smartest, but it ensured that their opponent would get damaged and potentially damaged quite a lot. She didn’t need to win the match by herself, she just needed to do her part in order to whittle down the other girl’s aura enough for her teammate to finish the job. Her aura dropped from roughly two thirds full to under twenty percent in the span of only a few seconds. The myriad of spikes would do a lot of damage if they managed to hit but having only a general idea of where their opponent was meant that the spikes covered an area that was far wider than Elena would have liked.

If there were any flashes of light or any other indicators of Flower's location, the spikes would be able to be much more targeted. The instant one completed its eruption from the ground to a full length of about half a meter, it disappeared instantaneously because it no longer served a purpose. She would only be able to maintain this offense for a few more seconds, but if she managed to locate with more accuracy the location of their opponent then she would just continue to spam the hell out of Shadow Construction and just recreate the spikes as soon as they disintegrated in a much smaller area.

If her opponent ended up running backwards out of the range of Shadow Construction and she was aware of it, Elena would immediately stop the spike spam and conserve her aura enough to make one final push. The wanton nature of her initial volley of attacks, though, virtually guaranteed that Flower would be hit at least once or twice because the entire region was carpet bombed. Whether Elena would take more aura damage out of the exchange than her opponent was an open question, but even if that was true then the brunette would have still done her job and exploited the advantage they had two against one. They had twice the aura to burn through, so even taking bad trades they had enough combined aura to force this to end before the short girl was able to break through into the last room with the objective.

Truth be told, though, it was as much panic as any sort of understanding of strategy that fueled the massive bursts of Shadow Construction. Elena was scared to death of being eliminated before she did any damage and being labeled the weakest student off the bat, so she did everything in her power to make sure that a flashy display of her semblance was on the table for the entire class to see – and if it happened to be actually effective in the process, all the better.

MADE BY MIZO

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[Flower Fiorella]

❝What do your eyes see?❞

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An arrow came flying. It hit her shield. It came from the front of the room, likely where the pair had been preparing. It hit Flower’s shield, she heard the clink as metal struck metal. It didn’t hit her square in the shield, but she realized that meant the enemy now knew where she was.

Metallic eyes watching as a dust cloud kicked up in the room. From what she could tell, there weren’t any noticeable figures or forms. The stuffed dinosaur wasn’t in this room? But if it wasn’t in that room, it meant it was in the other. The last room, room 4. She knew she needed to run there if she had any chance of getting to the objective. Bloom was in its gun form, she could hold off for just a little bit longer.

“Is that her? Take her out, Thorne. Any means necessary.”

She blinked. Shadows? Amorphous solids took shape all around her. Metallic eyes only looked around in a mix of curiosity and caution. Whatever this was, it was… a massive use of Aura. Flower could be nothing but impressed by the display that surrounded her. But Flower wasn’t afraid of the dark, nor of shadow monsters. She dug her feet into the ground, holding her shield higher up to protect herself. Spikes of shadow shot up from everywhere, it seemed that the instant cloud of dust had been enough to create some shadow for her opponent to work with. Flower didn’t know how the manipulation semblance worked, but she also was well aware that speed wasn’t her strong suit. She could move fast, but she was hardly a marathon runner and she wasn’t that agile.

What Flower could do however, was take a hit.

The spikes were random, chaotic, it was apparent that the enemy only had a vague idea of where Flower was. The spikes broke through concrete, hard enough to break stone, but Flower wasn’t made out of stone, she was made out of metal. Some random spikes still hit her, likely enough to cause a few dents, but she wasn’t broken. Suddenly a rather large spike nearly a meter in length shot up from the ground, still bracing herself Flower took the full force of the attack with her shield. Grunting at the impact, Flower held fast, digging her feet deeper into the broken ground. Her aura was being chipped away, but she didn’t want to act rashly. Her opponent was in a desperate panic,. It was best to keep it that way.

Meanwhile, Flower’s head rushed in her options. She was on her own. Mika was down. The objective was in the other room. She could run there but there was still a pair of enemies after her. But, if her calculations were correct, then whoever among them had the shadow manipulation semblance wouldn’t last so long with the crazy amount of aura they were shooting off. She remember the arrow, that likely belonged to the snake faunus boy, he had a bow weapon. That left the shadow semblance to the cute brunette girl, she didn’t have a weapon? Flower would facing off against a ranged attacker, assuming that the shadow girl wouldn’t be able to continue the fight after her desperate attacks. That would be bad, Flower wasn’t the best at ranged attacks, nor was she agile enough to dodge them. The only thing she had yet going for her was her metal durability.

Take down the enemy or prioritize the objective? She only had seconds to decide.

She breathed out, standing tall. She lifted up Bloom, holding the rifle up with one arm. She took a step back, heading toward room four, but she didn’t run, not yet. Dust was settling, shadows couldn’t stay manipulated, Flower could understand that much about the girl’s semblance. She needed shadows to manipulate, that was why the dust had created such an opportunity for a large scale attack. Flower looked up, wondering if light from above could weaken her opponent.

She was still in opponent territory, nothing seemed out of place.

Now, a true, final desperate attack. Shadows expanded, spiking up from the ground and everywhere else before Flower could really think about dodging or preparing for the hit. Another hit her, side striking her shield. It was more of a surprise than an attack that did significant damage. With heavy metal steps, Flower’s shield arm just deflected the striking shadow with the same large thud sound.

Flower’s aura was nearly at half.

Flower looked back to the front of the room, presumably where her opponents were.

She held Bloom’s barrel just above her shield arm and shot wildly. If she could barely make out figures in the fading dust and light, that was all she needed for a target. She still had time, and if the shadow semblance girl had really just blasted all her aura, then it was a one on one fight.

---

Weapon: F Rank, Bloom
Semblance: D - Rank Transformation, Material Mimicry, 2/4
Strength, Durability, and Moldability (Shield) Boosts
Abilities: F Rank Speed, F Rank Marksmanship

WORDS 824

TOTAL WORDS 3305

@tag

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[Elena Thorne]

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[attr="class","puppycat"]1014 words

[attr="class","lemonsoda"]

[attr="class","puppycat"]6109 words

If there was an advantage to being a little bit older than the general incoming class, it was the fact that Elena had more time in order to know her semblance. With all the dust kicked around, there was no way she could see her actual aura level… but she could make a damned good guess and be within a couple of percentage points because she knew exactly what kind of constructs burned through exactly how much aura because she did it so damned often. The bright side of failing so much was that there was a lot of learning each time you failed, and by that metric Elena must have been a wise old master or something because she was fantastic at failing things that she tried over the years. It was probably her greatest skill, in fact!

After the secondary flurry of spikes, the brunette’s aura was roughly five percent. The reason for this peculiarity was threefold: first, she had seen one of their classmates exit the scenario with bullet wounds in the first match of the day and keeping even a tiny amount of aura in reserve ensured that her body could sustain damage from at least one bullet without injury. This, combined with the fact that she was a very small target sitting down on the ground made the probability of her getting seriously injured very small, small enough for her to take it willingly. The whole dust cloud thing and the inevitable ‘multiple people firing wildly while essentially blind’ bit made sure that she wanted at least some aura to protect herself in case a stray bullet came her way, though, so self-preservation was always a worthy goal.

Second, it withheld information from her opponent. Without the announcement and the audible aura shattering that happened with her teammate, Flower would have no idea how much aura Elena had left and would have to be more cautious. Not knowing she wasn’t in a straight one versus one with Argent meant that she had to take things more slowly, which meant the timer continued to tick away. She didn’t quite know how close they were to the end because none of them had any indication and she couldn’t exactly remember how long this was supposed to go but it had to be getting close to quitting time, right? It took the other team forever and a day to make it over to this room, and there was still that dirt wall that would take at least some time to go through even if their opponent was strong enough to crater the center of the room or whatever.

If she didn’t get hit by a stray bullet, the aura holding was a bluff and very little else, but that ‘very little else’ was the third reason why she did this. Flower could either fall for the bluff and act more cautiously to waste time or assume that Elena was holding out on one percent or one very small number of aura and go all out. If she did the latter, the Vacuo native would have enough aura to do one last attack that had any bite to it – and it would be easy as hell to line up if she was flatly ignored. If she was focused down, that would give Argent the opportunity to attack freely anyway so there was really no downside to holding aura other than risking injury – but risking injury was just part of enrolling at a Big Four Academy in the first place, so she wasn’t too concerned… at least before there was actual, legitimate danger to put a damper on strategic analysis.

A flurry of bullets erupted from the middle of the room just before the dust settled, and some of those bullets embedded themselves in the same wall that Elena was leaning against. While that whole ‘reserving aura’ explanation sounded really good in her head a couple of seconds ago, it wasn’t too much of a consolation now as bits of the stone above her crumbled down to rest in her hair alongside the dirt that absolutely covered her head to toe at this point from the earlier … excavation exercises.

Hands clasped together so tightly that the girl’s knuckles were white to hide the shaking, and an intense amount of effort was required to fake being calm and not panic by moving and drawing attention to herself. She could probably kind of blend into the wall if she just kept a hold of herself and didn’t completely lose her shit and panic. Easier said than done, of course, but at the moment with the bullets flying she was honestly too spooked to move a muscle except to involuntarily shake at the stress of it all.

The guy who got carried out earlier had multiple bullet wounds and was knocked the fuck out when he got carted off – and believe it or not Elena did not particularly want to suffer the same fate. Especially because the parts of her body above the ground level were kind of important like the head which housed the brain, chest which had the heart, and the arms she needed for basic daily tasks like stuffing food into her mouth. None of those were parts that she really wanted any bullets in, to be honest, and that fear was enough to stop the shaking at least momentarily because she knew any sort of movement would just make her get focused much sooner than her partner who was presumably moving around and doing whatever archer stuff that archer people did in a fight.

Either way, her role in this was basically finished and she was powerless to do much else except a final sneak attack if things worked out perfectly. It was all up to her partner, now, who needed to either outlast the timer or take down their opponent – and the first one was probably easier than the second because their opponent just survived a massive burst of spikes without her aura breaking, and that didn't exactly happen every day.

MADE BY MIZO

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[Argent Steele]

People who can shoot a gun really have it made.

That was Argent’s sour, irritated thought as he was struck a glancing blow in the arm by one of the wild bullets Fiorella was spraying off like a fireworks display gone mad, a shot which knocked his arm away from Subtle Calamity and sent his arrow flying out of his hand. For all his talk about how guns were cheap and easy things that required no skill to use, Shin had never managed to get his protege to hit anything of note at any range, with any form of the gun that could be carried around. Sure, Argent could handle a squad mounted weapon planted on the ground with bipod or tripod support, but that just wasn’t practical in combat. Weapons like the pistol or rifle, which could actually be used on one’s own, stood little chance. It wasn’t quite broad side of a barn at point blank, but it was close.

Despite earnest attempts to learn, guns just felt dead to the young Faunus. Even the exceptions, like the older Huntsman’s Daisy Cutter, which had a character all it’s own, a pulse in the worn metal that felt warm and alive, like a living being, simply refused to work with him. The way a gun kicked back in his hands was utterly unlike the flex and work of a bow, something he could feel and instinctively get. Still, there were advantages that arrows had which bullets did not.

Crouching for cover and scrambling along the side of the concrete wall, Argent moved away from his teammate sitting as still as she could on the other side of the door, using one hand to navigate his way. His vision finally cleared, though the corner of his eyes still watered and the occasional spot still swam across his vision, but at last he could see in more than vague shapes and colors, which wasn’t any help at all when it came to a large, obscuring cloud of dust around everything that made it even harder to see. His steps grew sure and quick, and soon Argent was darting alongside the wall as quick as he’d ever been. The corner loomed ahead, and he veered off to the right, following the southmost wall as he nocked another arrow to his bow and pulled the string back.

The important thing now is to keep moving and keep fighting, he thought, letting the shot fly towards the dark shape spouting bullet fire in the cloud of dust. From the way Thorne had spoken of her own capabilities earlier, she was very clear as to her limits with regards to her Semblance, and it didn’t sound like she had particularly huge reserves of Aura for that purpose either. Which meant that that last attack had probably been all that she could reasonably give without tiring herself out to the point of exhaustion.

Another arrow was nocked and loosed, speeding into the dust without the use of his Semblance. Fiorella had been trained at a combat, and was probably no fool. The fact that Thorne had eased up on her assault meant one of two things - either that she was low on Aura, and thus conserving her energy, or she was preparing for a new assault, and thus gathering up her strength for another wave. In either case, if Fiorella was so inclined, she would go for Thorne, and if she could get a clear shot on the immobile young woman, Argent would be down a teammate. So it was important to give her something to shoot at, a visible enemy, as well as keeping her own head down. Which in turn, also meant not using his Semblance as much as possible in order to minimize the Aura loss.

In the worst case scenario, Fiorella would still be at a hundred percent Aura, having successfully avoided all of Thorne’s attacks - or if Thorne had simply had enough bad luck to miss entirely. A rough gauge of his own abilities put him at about seventy five percent of his full Aura capacity, which would put him at a severe disadvantage. If Thorne were taken out, then the other young woman would only need to put him out of commission in order to win, not even needing to break through the dirt barrier they’d put up, which would make all the effort spent shoring it up useless. Now that was a thought that pissed him off, still covered in the detritus of construction.

However, if there was one thing that Shin had taught him, it was that there would be no reward without risk. In a high stakes situation like this, you didn’t fold and try to minimize your losses. No, you doubled down, played big, and aimed for the jackpot. You didn’t play to not lose. You played to win. Sprinting along the southernmost wall and loosing arrows at his opponent, he could hear the older Faunus’ voice, as clear as day.

There’s always a king. There’s always a queen. And there’s always a wolf. They’re all strong cards.

He was panting hard now, the air coming out hot and heavy on his tongue and lips. His boots thrummed a steady rhythm on the dirt as he ran, pushing his body to the limit. His arms and legs burned with the strain of shooting as he ran, but he shook sweaty hair out of his eyes, blinked away the last cobwebs obscuring his vision-

The ace is weaker than all of them, but also strong than any of them. The ace is versatile. The ace is the card you want in your hand when the chips are down. They can play with kings and queens and wolves, but remember. The man who plays the ace…

Kicking out his right foot, the Faunus tucked his left beneath him and lowered his center of gravity, skidding along the ground for a few moments as he arrested his momentum. The dirt tore at his legs and rear and the sudden deceleration sent violent tremors through his bones, acting as brakes for his entire body. In a few moments, he’d gone from sprinting to a stop, bracing his feet to give him that one moment of stability, that one moment of opportunity-

“…always has-”

Aura blazed up, silver and grey, around his arm and the three arrows he’d drawn from his quiver. Subtle Calamity keened quietly from how far he’d pulled the string back - and then the snap forward, the release of tension, three shards of silver that could smash stone apart streaking through the air-

“-the last word.”

1108 words // @ tag // notes

☀

[Flower Fiorella]

❝What do your eyes see?❞

[attr="class","flowerb"]

The dust was settling, and in the fading light Flower saw it. There was a wall in front of Room 4. Metallic eyes blinked once, converting all her thoughts a simple, logical conclusion. She had already lost. There wasn’t time to climb the wall, she didn’t have the time to dig through it either and she didn’t have Mika to launch her over it either. Perhaps she really had lost the moment she lost her partner. There was no use in continuing the fight, yet her enemies still were fighting anyway.

Another arrow.

She was ready this time, she jumped to the side. A sitting target was really all she was, and while she likely could have taken another direct hit or two, the shield she had was still a part of her and she didn’t enjoy being hit so many times in a row. The arrow would glance the shield again, but she twisted her body in the jump, making herself a smaller target. She was fast enough, but not fast enough to dodge a speeding arrow.

She landed back on the ground, digging metallic feet hard into the rock below. She was only getting arrows though, so she was probably right, Elena’s semblance had been used up to a fault. Either that or she was waiting for another trap. Flower couldn’t really think of how the girl could set up another big display of her semblance again. She tilted her head, looking over her shield. She couldn’t really see where her enemies were now. That was bad too. She really would be walking into a trap if she just blindly rushed in.

And there was another arrow. She was beginning to wonder just how the Faunus could shoot. It was aimed at where she had been though, rather than where she was now. Did he not see her? Was he just shooting blindly too? Flower looked to where the arrows were coming, around the corner?

She blinked again. Was that a figure running… sideways? She supposed it made sense, move while shooting would make him a harder target if she decided to retaliate. But she didn’t. And so Flower held up her slightly dented shield up again. Flower stood her ground, seeing that the the young man’s dramatic display was something like a desperate last move. She really didn’t have a chance to yell at him or stop him, he seemed dead set on whatever he was doing. And so three arrows glowed silver, his semblance? It was hard to try and figure out what it was exactly, but she could guess that it had something to do with the silver glow.

She took the hits, it was her decision. Arrows hitting the shield again and again, denting her metallic metal shield with each strike. She could still feel her aura chipping away, she was low but that was about all she could tell. She didn’t show herself tired or hurt, she simply stood and took it. She dropped her weapon at her feet, grunting only slightly as she covered her metallic body. A few dents, a few scrapes, likely it would transfer to bruises whenever she transformed back, but at the moment, being made of steel just made her more durable.

She looked down, seeing that the arrows had broken and dented themselves off her metallic shield.

She looked to Argent, skidded on the cement floor. She raised her metallic, unmorphed hand.

“I surrender. I cannot continue this fight. My partner is hurt. If I do continue, I will hurt myself and my opponents unnecessarily when I ultimately cannot reach the objective.” Her words were short, her voice monotone. A literal, metallic cold stare showed a rather emotionless face. She bowed once, surrendering herself to her opponents and hopefully to a merciful end. She knew Shadecloak was watching as well as every other remaining student, and she couldn’t recall if any other fight came to end like this one.

Flower could recall Qiu’li getting hurt in his fight. And maybe… it was her fault that Mika had been hurt as well. They were her friends. She knew that somewhere within her, that she needed to continue the fight til its proper end, but she didn’t see a reason to continue if she would just strain herself and her opponent. She saw her options, she didn’t have any that would lead her to the stuffed animal in the short amount of time that she had left. That was the point of the exercise, and if the objective was impossible to achieve, there was no reason to continue.

She looked to the snake Faunus, metallic eyes stared blankly. Her metallic body was dented slightly, dust and small debris left on her limbs and her arm-shield was badly dented. If pushed herself, she could continue, that much was obvious. She had pushed herself to her limit before, she knew what that felt like, but this was not the place to put everything on the table. She understood that much.

---

Weapon: F Rank, Bloom
Semblance: D - Rank Transformation, Material Mimicry, 3/4
Strength, Durability, and Moldability (Shield) Boosts
Abilities: F Rank Speed, F Rank Marksmanship

WORDS 840

TOTAL WORDS 4145

@tag

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[Elena Thorne]

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[attr="class","Chromeright"]

[attr="class","Chromeoverlay"]

[attr="class","puppycat"]923 words

[attr="class","lemonsoda"]

[attr="class","puppycat"]7032 total words

The dust was finally starting to settle after the fall from Flower and the immense amount kicked up from the earlier display of Shadow Construction. In hindsight, that was pretty damned smart because it kept the shit visibility for all parties involved and did an absolutely fantastic job of stalling out those few crucial seconds they needed. It was completely accidental, so she couldn’t really take credit for it… but if other people thought it was on purpose… you know, she just might not correct them and let them assume that she was smarter than she was.

There was no harm in that, right? Actions speak louder than words and all that. Blue eyes closed for a few seconds as the girl was content just to listen to the sounds of fighting and stay the hell out of it for a bit longer, hearing the whistling sound of arrows being released and the metallic thunk of the impact with something or other – sounded like something solid like a shield. It was odd, she didn’t see either enemy start off with a shield so that was pretty odd. Was it a gun that transformed into a shield? Or a shield that transformed into a gun… but that would suck, why the hell would you have a weapon that transformed into a not weapon? Fucking weird weapon choices, these days.

When the Vacuo native’s eyes opened again, they beheld their last opponent that seemed to be now made of metal with her arm extended upwards and proclaiming her surrender. She chose to forfeit rather than continue fighting because she couldn’t make it to the objective, which Elena had to admit was really kind of anticlimactic. If there was any disappointment, however, that didn’t show on her face nor her general demeanor because the very first thing that the girl did was raised both hands in the air clenched into fists and begin to fall over sideways from the sudden movement as she realized just how tired she was in that instant that her body weight shifted.

”Fuck yes!” she yelled out in elation as the sheer force of her yelling and expressing her excitement at pulling that one out got the best of her in that moment.

Unfortunately for her, she tilted left towards the hole in the ground that she had dug earlier. Fortunately for her, she still had enough aura left to stop her plunge into the ditch with what amounted to a shadow seatbelt that yanked her back into an upright position. A win was a win, and whether it was on a technicality or earned wholesale was a matter of semantics that she was not currently even willing to think about. At the end of the day, she was the half of the class that got the W in front of everyone else on the first day so the first impression of everyone else was that she was a winner. A winner who won things covered in dirt.

Oh, fuck.

She was still covered in dirt. It felt like the grime had melded in with her skin and hair at this point and would probably clog up the shower or at least make it very uncomfortable for anyone using it after her. That was an unfortunate turn of events, but not really one that she could do anything about at this point. It was dirty, it was regrettable, but it was also the strategy that got them in a place where she got to walk out with her head high like she accomplished something. She was down to probably like… three percent aura at this point so the fact that the forfeit happened was all well and good. Both hands pressed against the ground to push her body back up to a standing position as blue eyes swapped from Argent to Flower as the real elephant in the room was addressed:

”So, do any of you know the way out? I don’t have enough aura to get us up the wall.” she asked sheepishly, then pointed with her thumb back to the hallway where the big guy was probably still lying in a heap. ”We should probably get your partner up and out of here, too.”

She thought it was kind of weird that their instructor’s voice didn’t immediately end the exercise, but she supposed that the timer hadn’t completely ran out yet so Instructor Shadecloak might just be waiting for that. An odd decision, to be sure, and one that made possible false surrenders maybe. That was a weird thing to think about, and Elena wasn’t quite sure she liked the implications of not ending the match immediately with a surrender but supposed it didn’t really matter in this case because both Argent and Elena’s aura could be shattered, and the opposing team still wouldn’t win because the destruction of aura was not the objective. The objective was the plushie toy that was sitting in the last room completely and utterly unharmed, with the entrance still blocked by a giant dirt wall that somebody would have to take down if this scenario was to be used again.

That surely wasn’t their job, even if they were the ones to put it up. Even if it was, Elena had absolutely zero problem just ignoring it and not drawing the least bit of attention to that fact in the hopes that someone else would take care of it. Someone with a full aura that was less tired and less smothered in dirt.

MADE BY MIZO

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[Argent Steele]

Argent didn’t just sit there and plan to take any counter attack, of course. Had his attack failed to put in as much of a dent as he expected it would, he would have been nothing but a sitting duck if he were. So it was that Fiorella’s dropping of her weapon and stating her surrender would see the snake Faunus already halfway to his feel, arm bent over his back for another arrow and bow held out ready to fire.

The dropping of her own weapon was enough to give him pause, and her little speech afterwards was enough for him to lower his own weapon, after a moment’s consideration. It certainly seemed sound enough that he couldn’t fault the logic in getting to the point, but Argent couldn’t help thinking that it would have made it a lot easier on both teams if that realization had been present earlier. He wouldn’t be covered from head to toe in dusty dirt particulate, and Willow wouldn’t be lying unconscious in the middle of an entrance with his ass in the air and his face in the ground.

Oh well. Some things were just a lot more obvious in hindsight. Nodding in response to Fiorella’s declaration of surrender, Argent straightened up, regulating his breath into long inhales and exhales, the better to cool off with. The motor inside Subtle Calamity whirred quietly as a thumb depressed a button, and the bowstring disappeared within, unfolding the weapon into it’s spear form. And then Thorne let out a jubilant cheer, garnering his attention quite rapidly and efficiently.

“If we exit here and turn left, we will be in the corridor that leads to the entrance we came in through,” was the response to his teammate’s question, his empty left hand vaguely pointing out the path they’d taken through the corridor on the other side of the walls until it trailed off, presumably where the entrance was. Now that the adrenaline was starting to wear off, he could feel the protest from his legs as being used as brakes for his entire body, most noticeably the bones of his shin and his feet beginning to ache, which garnered a wince as he gingerly and raised his foot up on the toe to subtly rotate an ankle, hoping that would alleviate the pain somewhat.

“I do not have any confidence in the strength of my Semblance or my legs to bring Willow off the ground, let alone to the entrance,” was the brutally honest and sincere response after a moment’s inspection of the man’s comatose form. His fellow student was built like a tank, a notion that had only been reinforced in Argent’s mind since the moment he looked at him.

“We would need some heavy duty equipment to lift him and bring him all the way bacl. Perhaps asking Instructor Shadecloak for a loader mech will be necessary. Or at the very least, a forklift.”

491 words // 5406 total words // notes

☀

[Theloria Shadecloak]

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Instructor Shadecloak[attr=class,punkihover1]

1076 words, 4111 total words

This wasn’t the type of match that she or anyone else was expecting, and to be frank many wouldn’t remember this one aside from the ditches and the traps due to the fact it had very low amounts of action and the relevant cameras were useless for decent stretches of the fight, but it was helpful in the teaching sense insofar as it demonstrated another way to accomplish an objective rather than just running in and fighting each other. There were other options than just buckling down and twiddling your thumbs for a defense, and the team of Argent and Elena showed that pretty well. Brute strength was all well and good, but the fight isn’t based at all upon brute strength then it is irrelevant.

Mika’s semblance allowed him to go fast and do a devastating attack at the end of the movement, but he was still stuck on the ground and wasn’t used to looking where he was going. The ground was stable for everyone else, so why would it be different for him? That complacency was exploited, and when he panicked as he slid and fell he was unable to defend himself against the volley of arrows from Argent. He did, however, give his partner the opportunity to at least attempt to win with his desperation toss in what seemed to be a random direction, but it just wasn’t meant to be. Better improvisation could be taught, and it seemed like that a point of weakness for at least some in the class… which was completely natural, all things considered. Lack of real-world experience meant that you were stuck in classroom simulations much of the time, which meant that most students were only used to solving problems that teacher gave them that likely had little wiggle room for creativity or cleverness.

The next morning, packets with performance reviews would be put in the makeshift mailbox outside of each of the weapons lockers of the participants in manila folders with their names on it.

Mika

SPOILER: Click to show

What happened that first day doesn’t define you.

Keep your head up.

Flower

SPOILER: Click to show

Knowing when to cut your losses and leave and when to continue on is a hard thing to learn, but it’s good that you recognize the former is an option. Especially with some clever classmates, though, things may not be as they may appear. The dirt wall, for instance, was hastily constructed and even so you could have broken through rather quickly with your transformation strength. Failing that, frankly, you could have gone out the wall most likely.

From the high ground before you dropped in for that final fight, it was entirely possible to just cut or shoot away the tarp to check from above where the objective was. It would have also clued you in on the dirt wall if nothing else before losing your only advantage in having the high ground and being unreachable by your opponents for at least a few crucial seconds.

Elena

SPOILER: Click to show

You did good. You know the limits of your own semblance and used it very effectively to enhance Argent’s original plan, but at the end you panicked and blew your aura lead because of a lack of patience. If that fight would have continued without a time limit, there’s a chance Argent would have lost that one on one with Flower and you would have been largely helpless to stop it. A stiff breeze would have broken your aura at that point, and you didn’t have enough left in the tank to actually block anything.

Playing for the timer and for the audience may work in low stakes environments like a class, but keep in mind that in a real situation Grimm, bandits, or other enemies won’t just stop and agree to a half hour time out while your aura regenerates because you wasted it assuming nobody else would come. How you train is how you’ll act when the situation becomes real, because you won’t have time to think.

Practice on keeping your semblance running when there are loud noises and other distractions. Shadow Construction is a semblance that can take you extremely far, but it’s only as good as your skill in using it. You’re creative and self-aware enough to use it now, but you’re not skilled enough to keep it running when a grenade goes off in your vicinity or you get ambushed or a flashbang goes off and you need to use it blind. Patience and not losing your cool under immense amounts of stress won’t come overnight, and I have faith you can get there.

Argent

SPOILER: Click to show

Innovative strategy that made very efficient use of time to win the match. Very creative, and I look forward to seeing if that type of planning is reproduceable or whether it was a one time thing.

Very risky, though. If the enemy team had come from the other entrance, the plan would have fallen apart rather quickly. Maybe something else could have been improvised, and if you want that to be your trademark practice is the best teacher in that regard.

One thing to keep in mind, though, that if you use your cleverness as your best weapon it needs to be as reliable as steel in order to work. The blindness that was caused by that shotgun blast in the dark hallway was entirely avoidable if you had one eye closed and didn’t anticipate it or anticipated it and closed both eyes after you had fired enough arrows to fuel your semblance. If you don’t know how to nock an arrow with your eyes closed, there’s no time like the present to practice. Having your eyes open isn’t strictly required for anything but aiming, and you’ll see a lot more of firearms in this school and beyond with their very bright muzzle flashes. You’ll have to learn how to mitigate them at some point with either technique or equipment. Relying on range and cunning is fine, but the fact of the matter is that if those are your tools and someone makes it into melee with you without being significantly battered… you lose.

People are going to write off that match as nontransferable luck and be very confident leading into the next few weeks. They’re going to underestimate you, and it’s up to you to prove them wrong. I’m looking forward to seeing what else you have up your sleeve for future classes.

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[Wolfe]

XP Distribution:

Shade: 41 x 120% = 49

91 + 49 = 140 new XP total.

Elena: 70 x 120% = 84

25 + 84 = 109 new XP total.

Flower: 41 x 120% = 49

153 + 49 = 202 new XP total.

Mika: 19 x 120% = 23

69 + 23 = 92 new XP total.

Argent: 54 x 120% = 65

26 + 65 = 91 new XP total.