TRP is a post-Great War AU RWBY RP set in Mistral City and Haven Academy with no canons, no rank claims, no maidens, and no god interference. We offer a progression system and site-wide events that change the setting based on player actions.
Post by Kishka Burzanova on Sept 12, 2019 23:24:36 GMT -5
KISHKA BURZANOVA
Geez, couldn't this guy ever just loosen up? Honestly, Kishka couldn't remember ever seeing him genuinely enjoying himself. Except for, perhaps, when he was berating Qiu'li, or uh... Well, berating anyone, really. Seemed like insulting his classmates' was the only thing he really enjoyed, aside from winning tournaments (that he definitely cheated his way through.)
Not that she didn't take pleasure in that as well. It was perhaps their only form of bonding, aside from both being Sanctum graduates, and thus of a superior stock than the dregs rounded up by Haven recruiters. Delinquents, urchins, criminals, literal homeless people- you name it, there was probably a trainee fitting that description.
Though what he said next did bring a slight raise of the eyebrow to her face. Oh? The great Magneto admitting that there was someone out there he stood no chance against? Well, it was Bel after all. Kishka didn't pity her opponents in the Vytal Festival, not one bit. Not even a little. She'd annihilate most of her competition without breaking a sweat.
Literally.
Her fighting style was practically immobile, in an ideal situation. She moved her hands to direct her hard light, but that was essentially it. Minimal effort, a large amount of the time.
Which only made it that much funnier when Sanctum's top student tore through her like a bullet train. The way she scrambled to get some distance, fought to even land more than a glancing hit or two. It was almost sad, really. She had been so used to winning all her fights that she had forgotten what a challenge felt like.
And then the little chickenshit left Mistral to escape Cressida's shadow. She'd probably gotten used to winning again.
Kishka and Colton would just have to remind her what defeat tastes like.
First, though, she needed to get a team squared away. She didn't exactly have one in mind yet, for the same reasons Colton gave- most of the other students were trash. Nobody good. Though, she did disagree- quite strongly- with one of his remarks. She wasn't an idiot; Colton paid as much attention to his classmates as she did, arguably more. He was always looking for weaknesses to exploit in the event he had to face anyone in classes. And anyone who wasn't blind, deaf, and dumb, knew that her and Argent were close, and anyone who had more than five brain cells (aside from Argent himself, the sweet, oblivious, man) would be more than capable of seeing that things went a bit further than friendship. At least, on her end, anyways.
She couldn't tell, therefore, if that was an intentional dig at him, or if he was really just rattling off the top ranked students aside from himself. Granted, Qiu'li and Carmim were fucking idiots, but Argent was not. He may not have a lot of common sense sometimes, and sure, he took a long-ass time to get his shit together and stop getting fucked up in fights all the time, but he wasn't just some poser idolizing Colton.
Patiently, Kishka waited for him to finish talking, nodding along as he spoke about proper team construction, and strategy. Grade school shit, nothing special. Honestly, though, his proposed plan did have a ring of cleverness to it- she might have to take that one herself, lure Bel into a false sense of security before closing in on her melee range.
"Reasonable enough. You only get four members to a team- it would be fucking stupid to have redundant members. For maximum effectiveness, everyone should be filling a distinct niche, while covering at least one other member's ass. Ideally, you'd have a tank to eat attacks and stall, someone who hits hard up close, someone who hits hard at range, and support of some kind- either someone with a buff/debuff semblance, healing, or someone with some unique skill that adds survivability or extra firepower to the other three members. At the same time, your tank and support need to be decent enough to at least potentially take out an opponent one on one, and your frontline and backline attackers need to be tough enough or dodgy enough to survive without the backup pair. And one member, ideally the backliner or support, calling the shots so everyone's on the same page. Basic shit." Sadly, not everybody was fully aware of what she considered to be basic shit. In fact, from the looks of their classmates, it seemed like very few of them really knew what they were doing at all.
Figures, when barely any of them had graduated from a combat skill, let alone somewhere as prestigious as Sanctum. Hell, some of their classmates still read at a preschool level.
"That was- in small part- what was wrong with the setup of the group on Perimeter Defense with me. I handled my role as backliner and team leader, if you could call it that, capably, but our tank went AWOL and nearly got himself killed, our frontliner did jackshit, and our support was Aegle, who was actively detrimental to the rest of the team. If there were any half-decent students here, aside from the what, six or seven, tops, I can think of, that would have been a perfect team setup. Except a team with three dysfunctional members is as unstable as the least stable part."
She paused again, giving Colton time to react to what she'd said, if he had any plans to, before continuing, circling back to his comments about Argent. Comments that were both incorrect and utterly uncalled for.
"Frankly, aside from the two of us, the only other students I can think of with any real skill or potential are Ameli, Rose, Theia, and Argent. And I guess if her performance on the train wasn't a fluke, Ruqa, but Clover was also one of the top performers of that mission, and I'm not entirely sure whether she's dumber than Nik or not, so who could say for sure if Ruqa's actually someone worth watching or not. Oh, and by the way, while I'm thinking about it..."
She didn't respond especially maliciously, and in fact, masked her anger extremely well- she was, after all, a pretty decent actress. In very similar style to the dispassionate way Colton rambled off his complaints about his classmates, she replied to him plainly, and with no hostility, as if she were just stating simple facts, things a child would be expected to understand. "Argent isn't copying you. He's adapting tried and proven strategies into his own combat style. And don't flatter yourself, Magneto- what might look, to you, like he's copying your style? I put him on a strict diet of Cress's old tournament videos a while back." She paused for a moment, looking thoughtfully skywards, before turning her attention back to Colton, with an amused smile. "Not that there's anything wrong with that. 'Good artists borrow, great artists steal.' I'm just saying, calling him out for taking a few tricks and concepts from a legendary Huntress is a little funny, coming from her number one fan. You bit her style so hard I'm surprised you have any teeth left. No offense. I'd probably have done the same if I hadn't developed my own style around the time she started really making waves." She wondered a little bit, exactly how mad he'd get at her remarks. Truthful, as they were, she expected at least a bit of hurt ego. As was fair, considering he'd taken the initiative in disrespecting Argent like he did. Granted, he probably could have said a lot worse, but the fact that he didn't showed her that he didn't take Argent to be a joke like he did Carmim and Qiu'li. Calling him a "worse version" of himself was a pretty lame insult, frankly.
But still one that was pretty deserving of rebuttal. She didn't fuck around when it came to her man.
Post by Colton Deraine on Sept 13, 2019 10:24:05 GMT -5
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Bravery is believing in yourself, and that's one thing nobody can teach you.
When Kishka laid out her ideal team structure, which he didn’t really disagree with, and then whined about how that basic structure was nonexistent in her Perimeter Defense mission, Colton just shrugged. ”I still stand by my earlier statement that I would’ve just smashed their auras to begin with.” It would have solved the entire problem, really, one way or another. Either they were smart enough to be very cautious, fled the scene to tattle, or got wasted immediately so they were nobody’s problem. Simple and effective problem solving, really.
”None of that contradicts anything that I said.” he’d note, a smug and self-assured smile spreading across his features as he said that. It had started when she started to defend Argent but spread as he realized her argument in doing so was awful. She had held it in for so long, too, and had time to formulate one. Usually when given some time to come up with a vigorous defense, a failure to this degree meant that he was right. Colton oh so loved being right, and loved it more when the other person didn’t want what he was saying to be true.
”Cressida’s semblance was vastly different from mine or Argent’s, and she wasn’t capable of tossing weapons except with the aid of gravity dust. Neither of ours are in the same league, because neither of us can crush Grimm to atoms while also immobilizing them with gravity. She was a melee specialist, and if he’s going to copy that style he’ll always be a worse version of myself. The weapons throwing, angles, and general strategies with Polarity are all me – and it’s always pretty obvious when somebody copies it. Copying my ranged style and her melee style just means that he’s worse at range and melee than I am, which circles back to why would I consider a hybrid with the same weaknesses but lower strengths than myself to be part of my team?”
”If you actually believed what you were saying, you’d take him on yours in a heartbeat. If you actually believed he could copy Cressida’s melee style better than me, you would have been confident enough to put that to the test. If you thought that he could come up with a ranged style better than mine, you’d do the same and he also wouldn’t be copying my openers. He’s probably better at ranged while you’re probably better at melee, so there’s not this large skill gap like why I wrote him off. You have to work with what you have, after all, and if you wait too long you might get stuck on a team with Reynard, Aegle, and Nik for the Vytal Festival. For you specifically if you were going to go double hybrid I’d rate Erytheia higher since you and Argent have basically the same semblance, but isn’t your whole ideal proving people wrong anyway?”
The smug smile only widened at that last part, because he was simultaneously giving what he considered to be good advice while being the caustic little shit he so enjoyed playing the role of. The fact that he didn’t comment on her four standout choices was admission by omission that he didn’t really disagree with her. Argent, Erytheia, and Kishka were the manipulator hybrids that Colton would be comfortable going on a huntsman mission with along with Carmim – but wouldn’t really consider under most circumstances to be part of a team because being the manipulator hybrid was his role.
While Rose was his first target to form the core of a team, he wasn’t going to outright say it. Ameli’s semblance intrigued him, but he wasn’t going to commit without seeing more tape of how well she could handle herself without it. If he verbalized that, it would cause Kishka to scramble to get in good with Ameli early on and he didn’t know her well enough to know whether flattery would work well or not. It was safer to keep quiet, and keep the possibility that he was going to ask Erytheia open since she was a melee focused hybrid unlike Argent and could theoretically fill a role he was looking for.
”Plus, if you don’t snatch them up maybe Qiu’li forms a super team with all the hybrids and starts feeding your boyfriend a strict diet of crayons for the next three years.” There was a slight pause, then, before he warned: ”He’s not toothless, by the way, and could definitely beat you or Argent solo. Maybe Erytheia could do it better because touch gated semblances are a bitch when the enemy wants to just pummel you to death anyway up close.”
It was a threat that Colton himself wasn’t concerned about, but arguably should be. His watch and wait approach was passive and had a high risk, but he didn’t perceive the current crop as being capable of actually winning the Vytal Festival. Without the chance to win, there was no point in forming a team for him. The team round could be carried through if needed, but the doubles round was why he needed Rosalia to be on his team so badly. That round mattered and he wasn’t good enough to carry that on his own even with a favorable draw, and the singles round really just spoke for itself in terms of difficulty.
He would continue to offer help and advice to Kishka for as long as he perceived that doing so was in his best interest. The second he perceived her as an actual threat, he would stop. It really was as simple as that, because at the end of the day while it would be ideal for multiple Haven teams to have great showings… as long as Colton won the whole damned thing it didn’t really matter how good or bad anybody else did. History would only remember the champions, after all, and whichever Academy won was the strongest that year and got all the glory and media attention that came with proving themselves the strongest.
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1007 words
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D rank semblance, D ranked martial arts, D ranked durability, D ranked weapon, E rank weapon enhancement, E rank stamina
MADE BY MIZO
Last Edit: Sept 13, 2019 10:32:34 GMT -5 by Colton Deraine
Post by Kishka Burzanova on Sept 13, 2019 11:53:27 GMT -5
KISHKA BURZANOVA
"Fucking hell."
She kind of laughed the words out. It was hilariously predictable. But that didn't change the fact it was also predictably hilarious. He had reacted exactly as she figured he would- not a damn sign of weakness, like her best crafted burns hadn't even singed him. They probably hadn't. Truth was, she didn't think she ever could crack his shell, but it was damn fun trying. That kind of armor was something honed over years. He was a cocky fucker, with a wall of self-assured arrogance and a biting wit.
"Just once, I want you to try to have your feathers ruffled. I guess I'm like a dog chasing its tail there, though- don't know what I'd do if you ever actually did/i] get your feelings hurt by some shit I said. Still, always entertaining to try." She sighed. Maybe it was pointless effort, but it was amusing. She was probably the only person she knew who could actually take some enjoyment out of the futility of trying to wound Colton Deraine's pride. Some day, she'd get him good. Just not today.
The humor of it all almost managed to cut through her anger, too. Almost- she still was none too pleased to have Argent talked about that way. But she did have to stop and think. Argent on her team?
The thought hadn't occurred to her, but not for the reasons Colton had assumed.
Honestly, she wouldn't mind it. But not in Vytal. He would just distract her from Bel- she'd be worried about keeping him safe, and Bel would just go straight for him, to fuck with her, anyways. But you know what? Fuck it, if Colt was going to crack jokes about it, maybe she would team up with Argent for Vytal. Couldn't be worse than the lack of ideas she had so far.
"You make some good points. I hadn't considered Argent for my team, because I haven't had the chance to stress test our team synergy in the field, under pressure. I'm not too proud to admit that I don't always have a great grip on my emotions, and there's a chance having him on my team against Bel would be a liability. That said, I do believe everything I said about him. I don't think he could outmatch you in melee. Not a chance, you're the strongest melee fighter at Haven, by far, and your ranged shit is just icing compared to that. Thick, strong icing, but icing. But I think he can eventually overtake you at range. And as far as my semblance goes, not everyone leans on their semblance like you do." Frankly, she rarely considered the fact that she and Argent had similar abilities. His were far, far, more versatile than hers, and that was fine by her. While she subscribed to the same philosophies on semblance that Colton always talked about, she wasn't kidding herself with regard to her own. It wasn't powerful enough to be properly utilized, so she made up for it in other areas.
She threw Colton a smile, though, half as smug as his. "My semblance is decent, in a pinch, but far too limited. I don't even factor it into how I would function on a team with Argent, or anyone- it has its uses, and I make full use of it, but it isn't Polarity, and it isn't Vector Manipulation. Won't help me beat Bel anyways, she cracked that code years ago." She chose to ignore his remarks about getting stuck with the worst of the worst. That was a nonfactor. Wouldn't happen. The Qiu'li joke got a laugh, though. Always did.
"I mean, he did kill your chair. The man's a menace."
Suddenly, a delightful thought occurred to her. Probably not a very good idea, but it was a fun idea, and she genuinely just wanted to see what would happen. Plus, Colton had made the mistake of assaulting her man's pride. Nobody got out of that unscathed.
She snickered to herself, as if she'd just seen the funniest thing in the world. "You know... I don't think I've seen you fight without Polarity since Sanctum. And you've talked an awful lot of shit about Argent today. So why don't you put your Lien where your mouth is?" She grinned, her violet eyes filled with mischief. "I'm thinking... He'd kick your shiny metal ass in a one on one. No semblances. Three days from today, Shade's class. If nothing else, set my curiosity to rest- you seem to think he's a second-rate clone of a second-rate clone, yeah? Well, let's see if you're right about him. I don't think you are."
Post by Colton Deraine on Sept 13, 2019 20:10:36 GMT -5
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Bravery is believing in yourself, and that's one thing nobody can teach you.
When Kishka revealed her plan, Colton laughed at her. It was genuinely funny, but he thought at first that it was a joke. Simply put, he wasn’t sure Argent had enough firepower to hurt him at all without his own semblance… which was mostly the only reason why he was good at ranged combat to begin with. Without his semblance, Argent wasn’t even a person. That wasn’t even a knock on him since so many others in the school were in the same boat, but to challenge the former Mistral Regional Tournament Champion of all people to a fight without semblances was a plan that the brunette gave all the respect that it deserved.
After a good fifteen seconds or so of laughing, he opened his eyes and saw the none so enthused look on Kishka’s face. It appears that it wasn’t a joke, which made the entire boast even funnier. ”Oh my god,” he choked out in between breaths, ”You’re serious!” he’d manage to get out, before laughing even harder. He couldn’t form any more words for a solid thirty seconds, treating the declaration of war with all the due consideration and thought that it deserved.
That was to say, none whatsoever. By the time he started talking at the end of that thirty seconds, he was still chuckling at the absurdity of it all. This was simultaneously the dumbest and most unorthodox duel request that he had received during his time at Haven, and basically consisted solely of Kishka throwing her beloved boyfriend to the wolves to get humiliated in front of everyone by losing even when Colton was at a severe disadvantage in not being able to use Polarity.
His classmate’s assessment about his over-reliance on his semblance wasn’t even wrong. He wasn’t skilled enough to simply not use it against others, but that was a disadvantage only in the broadest sense because any mere mortal was going to be reliant on their semblance. It was what made them unique and able to attend a Big Four Academy in the first place… or, well, was supposed to be. Just because standards have dropped so that some of the idiots here didn’t even have a useful semblance to slap onto their useless bodies didn’t mean that everyone had to. Colton was solid in melee without his semblance, and against some enemies with little to no ranged capabilities he might even be able to win without using his and them still using theirs.
All of his ranged capability came from his semblance, though, which opened up a glaring weakness due to his complete and utter lack of mobility. It was something that someone like Argent could theoretically take advantage of, sure, but Colton was extremely confident that he simply wasn’t good enough to do it. The former champion had seen how the Faunus blew up in training exercises, becoming out of breath before most others in classes. In other words, while he had in theory the skill set to win in a fight without semblances, yes…
In practice he would simply tire himself out to the point of embarrassment before he managed to make any significant dent in Colton’s aura even if he didn’t bother to move. Then, once the enemy was exhausted Colton could just run the exhausted and defenseless Faunus down when his lungs were burning too much to run properly. It was a remarkably sad and exploitable weakness that didn’t come into play much when semblances were on due to how fast battles usually ended… but without semblances Colton had essentially no way to attack Argent and simply had to wait him out unless a lucky shot just completely demolished his aura before then.
”If you want to sign him up to be humiliated in front of everyone like that, I’m not going to say no. We’ll let Shadecloak pick the environment, because it doesn’t really matter what it is. It’s not like you to get this blind, Kishka. I’m sure your Faunus friend has many redeeming qualities, but in a normal fight I could beat him with both hands tied behind my back. Being good at math homework doesn’t make you a good fighter.”
While that was obvious, it seemed like the girl’s affection for the nerd had caused her to lose what little sense of perception she had to begin with. Perhaps the saddest part about all of this was that Argent had nothing to do with the sequence of events that would leave him humiliated in front of everyone like Qiu’li was before him out of no malice on Colton’s own part. While he harbored no dislike for the man, the former champion also wasn’t going to hold himself back from beating the absolute shit out of him to prove a point to Kishka and indeed everyone else that he was far from incapable even without Polarity.
It was just that it was faster and more efficient to lay waste to the trash without moving a muscle. Sticking with solely Polarity was something he only did against those who could be overwhelmed with an initial use of his semblance alone. Opponents like that were high in number at Haven, and that was why he sometimes went days without doing anything else. It simply wasn’t worth the effort, frankly, and Colton wasn’t going to give more respect to an enemy than they deserved. To do so would only invite leaks of strategies and tricks he had kept up his sleeve the entire semester for the Vytal Festival – because there were absolutely some classmates who had such sour grapes that they would try to give as much information as they could to the brunette’s opponents in the Vytal Festival. He didn’t see most of them as valued companions, and instead looked at them more like unstable liabilities. It prevented him from being in mortal danger thus far, and thus seemed to be a much better strategy than the peace love bullshit practiced among soldiers in denial that they were in fact soldiers.
Sad, really.
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D rank semblance, D ranked martial arts, D ranked durability, D ranked weapon, E rank weapon enhancement, E rank stamina
Post by Kishka Burzanova on Sept 16, 2019 21:58:23 GMT -5
KISHKA BURZANOVA
Normally, and if it were anyone else doing the laughing, Kishka would have been very irate at Colton's response to her plan, but instead, she simply maintained a relatively neutral expression until he stopped. The realization that she was serious came as a shock to him, which wasn't entirely unfunny- had she ever been anything but dead serious when it came to her plans?
Granted, most of them were longshots, and sounded crazy. But that was what good strategists did. The unexpected. Making a gamble and watching it pay off twentyfold. He continued laughing as she stared blankly back at him, wasting a solid minute of each of their lives in the process. "Finished?"
She listened relatively calmly as he began responding to her "joke," letting a smile creep slowly onto her face until she was grinning ear to ear at the end of his tirade. He really thought that highly of himself, huh? Commendable. Nobody ever got anywhere worth going in life without a little arrogance. "I'm anything but blind, Colton; I love a good gamble, when it pays off, but I don't take risks that have no chance of success either. I'll admit freely, as far as semblances go, yours is currently stronger, though Argent's has greater potential for growth, as it basically does the same thing yours does, but without the magnetic limitations. If he fought you without the semblance stipulation, right now, you'd win, easily. But, take away both of your greatest weapons, and you'll see that my 'copy of a copy' isn't as far behind you as you think." And that was true; he was underestimating Argent pretty badly, and she was excited to see the look on his face when the fight took more effort than he expected.
And honestly, it was a win-win scenario for her and Argent anyways.
If he won, then he just brought Colton Deraine down a peg in front of everyone. Not to mention, she would be proven right, which would hurt Colt's pride even worse than the fight's outcome. But if he lost, it depended on how badly. If it was a close fight, that still looked more favorable on Argent than it did on Colton, simply because of their reputations. And would still prove that Argent was being underestimated hard. And if he lost badly, then that would make Colton look like the asshole, and would give her and Argent a lot of material to work with in planning a more successful rematch.
It was an ideal strategy. One she was proud of, especially considering she'd come up with the idea on the spot.
"Although, I suppose if you really want to beat him with your hands tied, that could be arranged too... But then, that might be an insult to Argent. No challenge in kicking a declawed kitten, after all." She tossed Colton a wink, knowing fully that he wouldn't appreciate her joking little jab as much as she did. But who knows? Maybe he really would show up with her arms tied behind his back. Now that would be a sight to see...
It wasn't as if she was underestimating Colton, either. She knew exactly what he was capable of, and she knew it wasn't going to be a cakewalk for Argent, when she eventually told him about the challenge she'd just issued on his behalf. She had, after all, been his classmate at Sanctum, and was still his classmate at Haven. She had seen him fight many times, with and without the use of his semblance, and she had a good feeling that without Polarity, Argent stood a solid chance against him. Not a guaranteed win, but a good enough chance that she felt confident in him. At the very least, it would be a good match to watch, and pretty educational in her own eventual goal of fighting, and beating, Colton.
The long game. That was what Kishka excelled at playing. And for someone who'd faced so many setbacks and defeats in her life, she was no longer deterred by them, whether in banter and a friendly argument, or in a competitive one on one combat setting. Winning took patience and time, as well as a masterfully constructed plan. There was a possibility of losing this battle, but the war? That was hers and Argent's to win. And she doubted very seriously that Colton could do much to stop them.
She didn't see much point left in hanging around here any longer, assuming Colton would just continue laughing at her. Not that she didn't find that entirely amusing- he was a supreme ass, but his insults lost a lot of their sting when they were thrown at her so often. There's only so many times you can rephrase the same "you're delusional and wrong," before it started to sound funnier than hurtful.
So, once Colton said whatever he inevitably had to say in response to her, would simply smile and stretch out a bit, before looking off in the direction she'd been walking in when she bumped into Colt. "Well, it's been fun, but these ragtag morons aren't going to hard-carry themselves through midterms, and I've still got one more person to help. Good talking to you, though- you're an ass, but you never fail to entertain." She started walking away, a smug grin on her face as she waved back at Colton, turning her head just as much as she felt was needed so he'd hear her. "Just make sure you don't get sloppy, now, Magneto. Or Argent's only going to make you look bad."
As she stepped into the dense underbrush, she snickered to herself, a devious little laugh. Her worst friend, indeed. Now she had something to look forward to in the coming week, though, so it wasn't all bad. Still- with only a little time to train, she'd have to find Argent pretty quickly, and make sure he was up for the challenge. Which he would be, of course.
And he was going to show Colton who the real failed copy was.
Post by Colton Deraine on Sept 18, 2019 0:08:11 GMT -5
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Bravery is believing in yourself, and that's one thing nobody can teach you.
The fact that she honestly believed the faunus had a chance was kind of funny. She really had no idea how to evaluate talent, and that was something to keep in mind for the future for sure.
The smug, self-assured smile didn’t waver throughout the girl’s entire tirade. He didn’t feel threatened in the slightest by Argent and thought her assessment that her boyfriend’s semblance could hold a candle to Polarity. Their semblances were alike, sure, in the same way that a steel sword and a stick could both be considered weapons. One was actually balanced for use in combat, and one was a stick. One actually had the cutting power to rend flesh and bone… and the other was a stick.
While Polarity was not the most powerful semblance, it was still stronger in both current power and potential than any other manipulator in the school. He had the rare mixture of both an immense amount of control and an immense amount of power behind Polarity that made him versatile in a way that Argent simply wasn’t. He had control, sure, but not the brute force power that was necessary to seriously compete with Polarity. He had a higher ceiling than his current level, sure, but so did Colton. Argent didn’t work as hard as the former champion did, so would never catch up.
Kishka made a huge mistake, though, and that was engaging with his point of tying his hands behind his back. She both mentioned it would be an insult to Argent, and that he’d easily win if Colton was dumb enough to do it. ”You think so? I think I can win without my left hand.” he’d start, and then double down immediately afterwards. ”Actually, in that case I wouldn’t even need to bring my shield. I’ll just not bring it and not use my left arm at all.” he boasted, shrugging his shoulders as he did.
It turned the entire situation on its head, frankly. It meant that if he lost, he had a built-in excuse because he was obviously not fighting at full power due to only using one hand. It also meant that if he won, and he planned to win, Argent would be exposed as being extremely far behind Colton in skill level even without his semblance. He was confident in his ability to do it, because his strategy would remain exactly the same as it would have been even with the shield being in use.
The confidence on the other side was immense, so it would be all the better when it all turned to ash in front of everyone. She was so confident that she was signing Argent up for a fight that he objectively couldn’t win, so Colton was more than willing to embarrass him to counteract those delusions. He didn’t have anything against Argent, frankly. The unfortunate faunus was just collateral damage that was necessary to make his point. Even without semblances, there were only a few people who even had the slimmest possibility to beat Colton… and Argent wasn’t one of them. He simply wasn’t good enough, and that wasn’t an insult or a disparagement.
The fact of the matter was that Colton was exceptional and would have been exceptional in any of the Big Four Academies. In any of the Big Four he likely would have been the front runner even with much stiffer competition, and there would have been no shame in being his lesser there or here. The only difference, really, was how much of a lesser people ended up being. To copy the attack patterns of someone else was to implicitly admit that your own style was inferior, because if it wasn’t why would you steal the moves of someone else? It would have been an actively detrimental move if the new move set wasn’t strictly better.
And Colton’s was strictly better. He had more experience, he had better training, he had more talent, and he was much more confident in his abilities than Argent was. There was no contest, and when Kishka went off to leave Colton just gave her a nonchalant wave as she went. The pact was made, and the former champion was going to thoroughly embarrass her boyfriend in front of the entire student body at the earliest opportunity. You didn’t win the Mistral Regional Tournament by being a fucking scrub, after all.
”Just make sure he doesn’t lose his nerve and back out. I’m excited for the match, now.” he’d taunt as she left, the same smug and superior smile plastered all across his face. He did it on purpose, too, because the more riled up Kishka got the more riled up Argent would get. The Argus native wanted to see the faunus all hyped up and ready to prove a point, because it would make the fight so much more entertaining as he slowly realized just how far out of his league he was. Colton was more than quick enough to cut the arrows right out of the air almost, and he might even be able to do it consistently without semblances involved.
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D rank semblance, D ranked martial arts, D ranked durability, D ranked weapon, E rank weapon enhancement, E rank stamina