[Deleted]

This wasn’t going to end well.

Ryan wasn’t actually sure of why that thought kept repeating over and over in his head. He had sparred countless times in his life. Both with and without limitations or supervision. He had gotten his fair share of broken noses, bruised body parts and sore, even torn, muscles. This should’ve been second nature to him. And yet, his mind seemed to be against him since it kept repeating the same.

That this wasn’t going to end well.

Taking a deep breath, he adjusted the neck of his undershirt. Part of the school uniform which consisted of a black jacket with a light gray outline around the edges, said undershirt he was adjusting now, and a white band around the left arm. Somehow, it felt way more constricting that his suit. And that’s saying something.

Resting his free hand in Aarden’s pommel, he let out the breath he was holding. He needed to calm down, it didn’t matter if he didn’t know why he was nervous in the first place, he needed to do it. Though for anyone seeing him right now, his face hadn’t changed even once since he entered the Arena. No matter how nervous he was internally, in the outside he still had his cold, emotionless and stoic expression.

‘Remember what father taught us,’ Aarden’s voice resonated inside his head. ‘Check the surroundings.’ Following his brother advice, his head slowly moved as his eyes processed the arena. It was made of dirt, better than nothing since dirt at least offered some cushion, and it’s quite big. Good enough for him to use his semblance without worries of accidentally crashing into a wall.

‘Now your opponents,’ Yet again following his advice. Ryan’s eyes slowly turned towards the students overlooking the Arena. Eyeing each and every one of them. Trying to guess how they would fight or move depending on their body size and weapons. A pointless exercise for the most part, as those two factors usually didn’t gave the full picture. But it helped him to relax and focus his mind in what was to come.

As he eyed his classmates, he noticed that some of them were snickering. Of what? He couldn’t tell at first, but then he noticed that most of the people snickering were carrying relatively complex guns. Were they laughing at Aarden? Most likely. After all, Ryan was damn aware that his gun was a memory of a past era. An obsolete piece of technology in today’s age.

But Ryan didn’t cared. He had used Aarden since day one. It was another part of his body. He knew it to painstakingly detail. Every nook and cranny of it. And now that Ryan noticed it, why was nothing happening? Shouldn’t he have an opponent by now? Looking over at the faculty member, he saw why. She seemed to be busy talking through a scro- oh, she finished. Never mind.

Clearing her throat, the teacher apologized and said the name of Ryan’s opponent.

“Aegle Epione Verdant, would you kindly step into the Arena?”

Ryan had no idea who she, or he, was. Yet, his mind turned against him in full force in a second.

This won’t end well.

---

Word Count: 537
Total Word Count: 537

[Aegle Verdant]

Aegle hated fight day. A grueling parade of violence, well suited to the other, more martial members of her class, the only thing she'd ever gotten out of these sparring sessions was a twisted wrist and a fat lip. Part of her aversion was surely from the strangeness of the ritual. Where most of her classmates would be well used to having to prove their mettle before a watching audience, Aegle had never been to a prep-academy, nor taken any classes where earnest combats were a feature. She'd begged off the exercise a few times before but, following the utter debacle at the walls of Mistral City, which she was stood right at the heart of, Aegle had been unable to avoid this week's exchange of blows.

'Just think of it as fightin' Carmim.' She told herself, but that was an argument made in bad faith. This was nothing like her private sparring match with Carmim. Nevermind how she'd actually managed to win that fight, there hadn't been anyone watching it and judging her every move and short coming. It had just been Aegle and her best friend, with no other prying eyes. There was a world of difference between that, and having to fight a total stranger in front of the whole class.
'If they don't already think I'm an unfit weaklin', this ought'a prove it for them.'
That felt a little nearer the truth. Still, there was always the chance that she wouldn't even be called on to fight; There was dozens of trainees in her class after all, most much more eager than she was. That was bad faith too, blatant self-deception. Having missed the last half dozen sparring sessions, Aegle's fighting today was all but inevitable.

She looked across the barren arena, little more than a gray cell with featureless walls and a floor scuffed from hard use, at the boy who'd just been called, who had already taken up his position on the opposite side of the room. She didn't know him, but then Aegle didn't know most of the people in her class; Even a month or so in, she'd only really spoken to a handful of them. Most kept their distance from her, like what she had might be catching. Aegle couldn't blame them; Kishka had made sure that her behavior on her first and only mission was common knowledge, and she was pretty recognizable as far as rumors went. That little episode during Shadecloak's class hadn't helped matters either. Truly, Aegle how a powerful reputation for being weak bodied and willed, and about as fragile as a porcelain doll. Any self respecting trainee wasn't like to get close to her.
At least she had Carmim, and Erytheia, and Eva. She even had Reynard, though gods only knew why.

Snickering reached her from those waiting nearby. Aegle searched for its source, only to find that it was coming from multiple people. People with mean-spirited grins and eager eyes.
'What're they so happy about?' She wondered, noting how some were staring at the boy, standing out alone in the cell, waiting for his opponent to be announced. He wasn't especially funny looking. Tall maybe, but then all people were tall to Aegle, but certainly not to a humorous degree. He was armed only with a sword, and quite a big one at that, even compared to his already long limbed frame. Aaron used a sword and spear, but her brother preferred a shorter blade for more flexibility in combat. That sword was anything but flexible; A hand shy of a meter, it was also close to a hand thick. A mean piece of steel, and no mistake, meant for slashing and hacking as much as stabs and parries. Aaron probably would have used his spear, to keep out of range of its cuts, or else stuck close to try and hamper him with his shorter blade. She found herself wondering what she might do, faced up against such a weapon.

It seemed she would find out.

"Aegle Epione Verdant, would you kindly step into the Arena?"
Aegle could have cursed. Instead, she closed her eyes in bone deep disappointment, and listened to the nearby snickering as it went up a notch.
'Aye, and why not. Ought'a be a thrillin' show, seein' the cripple go against a sword near half as long as she is tall.'
Aegle sighed. Just once, she'd like to not have her most pessimistic thoughts confirmed for her

Dropping down reluctantly, Aegle half stumbled into the arena floor. She wanted to get this over with. Get her fat lip and get out. She could still hear the snickering as she half limped towards her mark. Aegle was not a sight to intimidate anyone. A little over a meter and a half at her tallest, she took up position across from her opponent in a hunched down crouch. She wore the same uniform as he did, with pants in place of a skirt and shoes that were hilariously oversized for her comparative smallness. The jacket of her uniform bulge and creased unnatural in places which, with her already crooked shoulders and hunched back, gave her a terribly uneven and twisted appearance. Her head hung to one side as she stared across at her opponent, like she hadn't the strength to hold it all the way up. She tried to ignore the giggles and chuckles and hushed remarks as she squared up. Doubtless, she looked to most of them like she was barely able to stand. Between her bald head, deathly pale skin, sunken in eyes, and gaunt face, it must have seemed like a particularly small, skeletal, and crooked corpse was getting ready to fight for their amusement.
Again, she couldn't really blame them. They weren't wrong in the least.

"Hey." She said, to the tall boy waiting to fight her, giving him small nod. Just because they would soon be beating one another up didn't mean she couldn't be polite. Might as well be courteous to the guy about to bloody her nose. It was all the pleasantries they had time for though.
"The fight shall continue until one or both combatants have exhausted their auras," Said a tinny voice over the arena's speakers, "Please get ready."
Aegle got ready. Bringing her hands out of her jacket's pockets, fingers wrapped up tight in strips of linen, she assumed a mixed guard, though neither one of them was in striking range of the other. That didn't mean he wasn't some sort of manipulator though, or that his sword didn't have some hidden ranged capability. Though, getting a closer look at it, it really did seem to be just a sword. She couldn't even see a groove for Dust, like Colton had on his.
"Fight!"

Aegle threw herself into a run, arms held up defensively before her face and chest. She wasn't a fast runner, thanks to legs both short and twisted, but she would have to have been a fool to wait for him to come to her. There wasn't much of a plan, other than that she should get close and do her best to keep inside the reach of his big sword. Such a long blade needed room to swing, and it would be easier to parry and dodge if he did not have it. The only alternative would have been staying out of reach but, lacking a weapon of her own, that wasn't really an option. She would have to get close and stay close, and hope that made him uncomfortable, hope that his long sword had gotten him used to fighting people at arm's length.
'Infighting', her brother had called it, and it was Aegle's only option.

Getting in striking range, Aegle threw a backhanded sweep with her lead hand, her left at that moment, as she chambered a hook with her right. The backhand was meant to do nothing more than turn a blow that might already be heading for her, parry aside that blade of his. It was the hook that would do the damage. A quick combination, one she'd ample practice with.
'Here's hoping it works...'

---

words - 1,366
total - 1,366

[Deleted]

So at the end his head proved to be right.

As soon as the teacher said the name of his opponent, Ryan's head immediately moved towards the students once again to see who would stand up. But he did not expect to see what he did. Of all of the people present, the one to raise was a short girl(?) who looked like she could barely hold herself, even less stand upright.

He silently followed her with his gaze as she seemed to drag herself into the Arena and crouch down into her spot. Looking at her with his ever present stoic masquerade, Ryan couldn't help but feel some sort of pity at the girl. She was hunched, and seemed like her body could really barely hold itself togheter. Her gaunt face didn't helped at this, nor did her unsettlingly pale skin. It was ok for him to fight her? What if he accidentaly killed her? Hell, was she even alive to begin with?

"Don't!" Aarden scolded him. "If you pity her, you won't fight at your full potential. Just finish this as quickly as you can." He nodded at his brother's advice. Better to end up this as quickly as he could.

"Hey," he heard the girl say with a nod. But before he could even think of what to reply, not that he would do so, the Arena's speakers interrumped them.

"The fight shall continue until one or both combatants have exhausted their auras. Please get ready." As soon as the speaker went silent. The girl stood up and took out her hands from the jacket's pockets, her hands being wrapped around some sort of cloth. She assumed her stance. Wait... Did that mean that she fought with her bare hands? 'Oh, boy' Ryan thought as he slowly shifted his feet, waiting for the sig- "Fight!"

As soon as the voice announced the beggining of the fight, Ryan jumped backwards to try to create as much distance as he could between himself and the girl. And, as soon as his feet touched the ground, he would run towards her in a semicircular path at full speed after activating his Semblance. Unsheathing his blade in the space now created, he would stop dead on his tracks the second she was within striking range and try to strike her with a diagonal, downwards slash with as much strenght and speed as he could muster.

An honorless way to fight, according to his father, but there were no men with honor alive in a battlefied. And so far, Ryan was still alive. No matter how small, or dead, his opponent looked. He wasn't taking any chances.

---

Word Count: 416
Total Word Count: 950

[Aegle Verdant]

Aegle had been expecting any number of things from her opponent; That he might lunge in to meet her, before she was quite ready to strike, that he might reveal some semblance ability that would intercept her before she got close, or else some other sort of ranged attack to make her regret her head long charge. She got none of those things. Instead, with speed that seemed impossible for a man moving backwards, he leaped back then, just as suddenly, changed directions to swoop back in on her left.

It was a breathlessly quick movement, and almost certainly not unaided. It seemed his semblance augmented his speed somehow, and it had caught her perfectly unaware, left her swinging at empty air. Very neatly done. Not that she'd had much time to appreciate it, not when there was already a sword whistling down towards her face, from where there hadn't even been a person a heartbeat before. It was all she could do to get her arm up, already out of position, in a panicked attempt to deflect the blow.

There was a hideous scraping sound as steel met steel, and Aegle's upraised arm was flung back down with the force of her blow, which just about spun her about in the bargain. Her whole arm was left numb from the impact, fingers tingling at the end of a lifeless piece of meet.
'And here we are,' Aegle thought, face creased up in sudden surprise and extremity, as she swung around, 'That beautiful, stretched out moment between stubbing a toe and feelin' the pain.'
She staggered around, putting half a stride between them, before the pain and the blow finally hammered home. An exquisite agony raced up her forearm then, all the way up to her shoulder, while her fingers twitched in a spasm as she attempted to reform a fist. Still, she'd have rather taken it on her arm than on her head. Her opponent wasn't messing about.

Having regained her footing, Aegle threw herself back in as fast as her feet could carry her. That was certainly not as fast as his feet could carry him though, but they were already in striking range, if only she could land a punch. Using her throbbing forearm to guard, Aegle chambered an uppercut with the other, doing her best to mask the telegraph behind a weave, then twisted and threw a fist cleaving up towards her opponent's jaw. She had no better ideas, being honest.

---

words - 416
total - 1,782

[Deleted]

As soon as the sound of steel against steel reached Ryan's ear he knew that something didn't went according to plan. And this was merely confirmed by the fact that he never felt that feeling when Aarden clashed against someone's skin. Was she wearing some sort of armor in her arms? He shook his head. That didn't matter.

She was still combat capable. She was still a threat.

With his semblance still activated. Ryan was able to sidestep her uppercut with relative ease. Dropping his sword, as at this close range it was mostly useless, he would try to knee her in the chest. If the blow connected, he would once again jump back to create distance once more, after grabbing his sword obviously, and would run at full speed around her and try to strike her with the pommel of Aadren in the back of her head. It would give her a hell of a headache if it hit her, but it was better than risking having this combat extend itself and having himself run out of stamina.

---

Word Count: 179
Total Word Count:[7b] 1,129

[Aegle Verdant]

It didn't come as much of a surprise when he got right out of the way. Not a parry or a block, but simply stepped around her rising fist like it had been moving through molasses.
'It's like fighting Aaron.' She thought, despairingly. Her brother was blindingly quick, to the point that it always seemed like he was fighting at regular speed while his opponents move in slow motion around him. She'd never fought him, not in earnest, but, if she had, it might have given her some idea of how to deal with Ryan. Aaron was definitely the faster of the two, but his fleet-footedness was not an aspect of his semblance, so far as Aegle was aware. Not so with this bespectacled boy. There was nothing natural in the way his feet moved. They were too quick, too precise, seemingly without any concern for momentum or impulse. He could stop and start, seemingly, as suddenly as he pleased and with very little Aegle could do about it. With feet like that, it was a wonder he was using a sword at all, and not simply trying to kick her into unconsciousness...

His knee caught her in the chest. Aegle had seen the blow coming but, with one arm uselessly out of position and the other still next to useless from the smack he'd given it, there was little she could do to stop it. It hurt, but nowhere near as much as it might have had she given him space to swing his sword in its place. Knees and punches, Aegle could handle, Doc had given her plenty of experience with both. Blades and steel were a different matter. Grunting, winded by still standing, Aegle stumbled half a step back and answered with a flailing jab that caught nothing but air. Ryan had already moved out of the way. She blinked, shocked; Where had he gone. Her hackles went up immediately.
If fighting Doc had taught her one thing, it was to fear an opponent most when you couldn't see them. The old battle-axe loved her blindspots, and made Aegle pay every single time she lost sight of her. Perhaps it was the memory of those hard, teeth rattling punches that saved Aegle. Perhaps it was the briefest glimpse of a blur at the corner of her vision. Perhaps she merely got lucky. Whatever the case, she jerked her head to the side and twisted, and the blow that had been meant for the back of her head landed instead upon her shoulder. Or, more specifically, it struck home upon the metal armature which connected the battery pack of her brace to the joint at her shoulder. Most of the metal Aegle wore was on her back, after all, hidden beneath her jacket and shirt. The force of the blow was still significant however. It clubbed her down, almost to one knee, and made her already aching arm scream with pain.

Any reasonable person probably would have tried to make some distance just then. Taken by surprise and from behind by a much faster opponent, and already hurt into the bargain, someone with more sense would have seen she was in a pretty poor position. Aegle was never one for doing the sensible thing however. Instead of moving forward, she backpedaled, springing off her bent legs to barge against the swordsman at her back. That knee had hurt less, much less, than the sword did, and she was not of a mind to give him space to use anything else.

Twisting around, motors whirring beneath her clothes, Aegle sent a slashing hook out at knee level, masking the swing behind her body's writhing movements. She took stock of her aura as she did it. His first swing had been a good connection. On another trainee, it might have taken a third of their aura to block it. Unlike most trainees though, Aegle was not adverse to a bit of pain, especially when it meant conserving her energy; Parrying the first swing had only taken about a tenth of her aura. The knee, she hadn't bothered blocking at all. It was clear that, for all Ryan's gifted footwork, that kicks were not his focus and though the blow had been hard, his knee had been nothing compared to his sword cuts. The pommel strike that followed, had it connected where it was intended to, might have cut her aura down by another fifth. Instead, it had taken a little over another tenth. That left her with about three quarters of her aura remaining. Not bad, given just how many hits she'd taken, but she was still losing; She had yet to land a single punch of her own, after all.

---

words - 792
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[Deleted]

My goodness, was she wearing a set of armor under her uniform?!

After his knee collided against her chest, Ryan had followed through with his plan. But instead of feeling the bony sensation of a skull through Aarden's pommel, Ryan once again felt metal it crashed against her shoulder instead of her head. Ryan let out a surprised grunt at this. Half of said grunt was because he was surprised she could evade his attack, not completely but it didn't strike were intended and that's a win by itself. And the other half was because whatever sort of armor she was wearing it didn't even seem to buckle under his attacks.

But Ryan wasn't going to stick around to compliment her. As soon as his brain processed that his plan had been foiled. Ryan once again leaped back as fast as he could. Midway through said leap, Ryan found his breathing getting slightly ragged as the urge to let out a pant overwhelmed his brain. It seemed that his decision of going out at all from the very beginning wasn't so sound after all. Well, it would have been. But not against an opponent as resilient as the girl he was facing now. She so far had proved to be able to hold her own ground against three attacks, and taking them head-on no less. It seemed that the rule of "Don't judge a book by its cover" was applying in full force here. Ryan could almost hear his father scolding him for committing such idiocy.

Then, a split second before he touched the ground, it finally dawned on him. He needed to finish this now, or he would seriously end up running out of stamina before lowering her Aura. He frowned as his mind focused on what was to come.

It was now or never.

The second his feet touched dirt, Ryan propelled himself at the girl as fast as his feet could carry him. Readying his sword, he quickly formulated a plan as the girl came closer. He would feint an attack first from the right and then the left in quick succession. Immediately afterward, he would circle her around her left, and, once he was behind her, he would slash horizontally at her neck from her right with all the strength he could muster. If she somehow crouched to avoid the hit, or if the hit itself made her crouch as it had happened before, he would drop the sword and quickly try to follow with an upwards kick to her face.

This was his last attack. If her Aura held out, or if Ryan somehow missed all hits, he will most likely call the battle out. Given that after this especially strenuous combo, he will be out of what stamina he had left.

---

Word Count: 468
Total Word Count: 1,597

[Aegle Verdant]

Having yet to land a single punch, it didn't really come as a surprise when her most recent offering sliced through naught but empty air. Ryan had moved back, with barely a blur to suggest he'd even been stood there to begin with. Too fast for her to do anything about. Aegle grit her teeth in frustration, and had just barely decided to give chase when, unexpectedly, Ryan came to her. It was unexpected because, moving as quickly back as he had been, she could not have expected him to so suddenly reverse direction and come straight at her again. Or, at least, she had not expected it, though everything she'd seen from him and his semblance so far should have had her well prepared for such a maneuver.

It was then, and only then, that she noticed something strange in the way her opponent moved, not that she was nearly so quick as to have done anything with the information. While his feet moved him with blinding speed, his attacks came no faster than she might have expected from any other trainee. She could actually follow the movements of his hands, as they brought his sword up for a leading cut. Aegle's arm twitched up, the steel of her brace turned outward to catch the attack. Ryan, perhaps seeing her immediate impulse to block, turned what had almost certainly been a downcut into a slice from the opposite direction. Slightly slower, but no slower than the swordsman, Aegle's other arm went up and she started to fade back.
It was true, she saw with surprise; His attacks were not faster, only his movements. It wasn't like Aaron's semblance after all.

Aegle blinked, and Ryan became a blur once more, his threat of a back handed slice vanished into air. She understood, just as she had before, what losing sight of her fleet footed opponent meant, and this time actually saw the direction he'd been headed in. Not that she was even half so fast as to follow the movement. Expecting another pommel strike, Aegle wove around, shoulders and chest loose upon her hips, intending to stick as close to her foe as could be managed while still avoiding the expect attack. She executed the weave flawlessly and would have easily evaded a pommel strike, had one been forthcoming. As Ryan swung back into view however, Aegle saw she'd fatally misjudged her foe's intentions. It wasn't a pommel strike, but a full on slash, the blade already gliding through the air at head level to the turning boxer.
Aegle winced preemptively, grit her teeth, and closed her eyes a split second before all the light in the world exploded inside her head.

Ryan's slash had been aimed, if she were to guess, at her neck or shoulder. Her attempts to weave aside had put it about level with her cheek however. The point of his heavy blade caught her just behind the ear and raked across her face, whipping her head violently around in the process. The bright lights that flashed in Aegle's head were immediately followed by a burning pain, as the blade opened her cheek, to describe a red slash from her ear all the way to her nose; It was only her reflexive bolstering of her aura which kept the blow from staving in her cheek in the bargain.

Rocked hard, Aegle's body went slack for just a moment, all of it seeming to sag and buckle at once. As she once again dropped almost taken down to her knees, it was only at the last moment that she regained any sense of herself. Ryan was already upon her by then though. Having leaped after her, her clearing vision just barely caught sight of his knee as it swung up to catch her full in her lowered face. Staggered as she was, head still ringing like a cracked bell, nobody was more surprised than she was when both her arms intercepted the rising knee, catching it barely a hand's span from her slashed face. Muscles straining, motors whirring, Aegle was forced back, but not off of her feet, and without adding a bloody nose to an already conspicuously bloody cheek.

She regained her footing after only half a stride and, still half dazed, threw herself back at her, now unarmed opponent. Some deep buried part of herself had enough sense to wonder where his sword had gone, but that part had little say in what her body was doing. Chambering a haymaker punch, sloppily hiding its telegraph behind an altogether unsteady fade, Aegle took aim for Ryan's bespectacled face.

A savage, snarling smile cut itself deep into her pale face, deeper even than the red-raw cut pouring blood down one side of her face. It was a truly hideous sight to see, not the least because most trainees never saw a drop of blood in their sparring matches. Usually, in sparring, one needed to shatter an opponent's aura before making them bleed, but Aegle's aura had not even flexed from the cut she'd received. Had it not been for her face, which was still conspicuously in one piece, one might have been forgiven for thinking she had no aura defense up at all, it was that uncommon for a trainee to let themselves get cut when they yet had aura to block a blow.

---

words - 897
total - 3,471

[Deleted]

Ryan wondered how he could've felt that this was going to end up horribly wrong. Gut feeling? Some sort of premonition? Or just his sheer fear of actually end up killing someone and getting his ass kicked out of Haven and arrested? Whatever was the case, a part of his brain knew something went down the shitter when it felt the tip of Aarden's blade piercing through something. Well, anybody would considering this was a spar. But before he could even think of stopping his now rising knee, that part was overrun by the other, adrenaline ridden one.

She was still standing. She was still a threat.

But once again, he didn't felt what was supposed to. Apparently she still had it in her, given that her arms shot up and grabbed his knee. Stopping it dead on its tracks. Ryan didn't have the time to wonder how she was still able to stand before a fist was in direct impact course with his face. His instincts, using the last drop of stamina his body had left, crossed his arms in front of his face to at least cushion the blow. And that's exactly what it did. Well, sort of.

As soon as her fist connected with his arms, his already exhausted muscles gave out under her strength. With his own arms crashing on his face, he flew back a couple meters as his body itself didn't have the strength to held its ground. It hurt, but nowhere near as much had her fist hit his face directly. Rolling a couple times after hitting the ground, he stood up, panting heavily, with his arms raised in the universal sign for surrendering.

Up to this day he didn't even knew how the girl was called. But he had heard rumors of her floating around. Of how she had gotten into Haven only by mistake. That she didn't belonged here. And Ryan, shame on him, even believed them after seeing her at the start of this spar. But she, at least in his eyes, had proved that she had a place in Haven.

'Damn, she sure looks dead but damn,' He raised his head to look at her with a small smile slipping through his masquerade. She sure knows how to soak up a pu-' His smile disappeared as his eyes opened up in shock and horror. That's why he felt Aarden piercing through something.

In the girls cheek, there was a deep, pulsating wound extending all the wat from her ear to her nose. And it was bleeding like if there was no tomorrow. Oh fuck fuck fuck fuck, fuck! What now?! Trying to calm himself down, since he panicking wasn't doing any good to his ragged breath, he ripped one of his sleeves off. First of all, he had to try to stop the bleeding until the faculty member, who apparently ran off to search for the nurse, returned. Sprinting as fast as his tired feet could carry him, he slowly, as to not make the girl believe he would attack her, pressed the sleeve on her wound. To at least try to lessen the bleeding.

---

Word count: 527
Total count: 2,124[/i][/i]

[Aegle Verdant]

Just when Aegle had been sure she would finally land a hit, her hopes were dashed at the penultimate moment. Despite no longer moving quite so blindingly quick as he had been before, Ryan still managed to get his arms up, catching her punch in much the same way that she'd caught his knee. It was a good comparison for their respective strengths, that moment, that his clumsy unarmed attack should be about as effective on her as one of her painstakingly trained punch was against him. Aegle succeeded merely in taking the tall trainee off his feet, and only then because he'd seemed to trip over himself into the fall.

Panting softly, Aegle watched her opponent roll to a stop a few strides away, her fist still extended out with her whole body tensed up behind it. That was the problem with training against a heavy bag and only ever sparring with fighters much better than she was; Having knocked her opponent down, Aegle was not sure what to do next. The thought that she should chase Ryan down, that she should keep the pressure on him, entered her head, entirely disconnected from any reflex or muscle memory. A conspicuous thought, a notion, which she hadn't the first clue how to enact. Part of the problem was also weariness; This sort of physical exertion was not easy for her, and she was already approaching her limits. Her breathing was a cold ache in her chest, while her blood surged in her ears with the panicked rhythm of her heart. Her stamina, as ever, was a sorry thing.

Aegle tried to fight her breathing down to something a little less ragged, as she watched her opponent climb unsteadily to his feet, empty hands held up above his head. The pose puzzled her, and forestalled the continuation of her assault, which would have come much more easily now that her opponent was once again upright. Blinking hard, Aegle flexed her fingers and slowly retracted her fist, to adopt a more guarded stance. She wasn't sure if he was trying to tell her something, or if this mightn't be a trick, and that uncertainty made her hesitate all the more.

Searching his face for some sort of explanation, Aegle was offered none. Instead, she saw only the barest ghost of a smile suddenly drop from the tall trainee's face, right before he bounded towards her on unsteady legs. The sudden motion snapped her from her uncertain reverie, not to mention made her heart fly up into her throat. One hand came up towards her. Some new attack? Aegle didn't know, but her uncertainty didn't matter half so much now as it had a few moments prior, because her body knew what to do when an opponent was approaching her, even if her mind was less certain.

With a hard backhand, using the steel which braced her forearm, Aegle clubbed aside Ryan's reaching hand as soon as it got close enough. Then, sliding forward, she switched up her footing and, with a twist of her hips, hooked her trailing fist into the taller trainee's unguarded kidney.

Only as Aegle let fly did she see the shock and dismay on Ryan's previously stoic face, contradicting every instinct she had in a single glance. There was no calling a punch back after it had been fired, however...

---

words - 562
total - 4,033

[Deleted]

He should have known this would happen. What happens when you have a person high in adrenaline, and most likely still having her mind in combat mode, be rushed by other one? If your response is someone getting hit then you're damn right. And that's exactly what happened to Ryan. His eyes traced the incoming fist. But his exhausted mind and muscles simply couldn't even hope of stopping the punch. With his Aura still up, he could only felt the pain of the punch. But the problem was that she hit damn strongly, specially considering her frame, and Ryan body received it full force.

His lungs suddenly found themselves without air as his lower section exploded in pain. Dropping his ripped off sleeve, both of his hands grasped where his kidney was as he stepped back a couple times. His mouth opening and closing like a fish out of water as he tried to fill his lungs with air. This wasn't helped by his already present shortness of breath and exhaustion. Finally, after a 30 seconds of panting on his knees. He realized he still had work to do. Raising to his feet, ignoring the screams of protest both by his exhausted mind and pained body, he grabbed his sleeve and ever so slowly, approached the still pulsating wound, his masquerade broken by a pained grimace. He couldn't blame the punch on her after all. It was his damn fault to have rushed her that way, but, in his fit of panic, he wasn't exactly thinking straight.

---

Word count: 257
Total Count: 2,381

[Aegle Verdant]

Well, there it was; The one direct hit she'd been able to score in the whole fight, and it had only landed because her opponent did precisely nothing to stop her. Ryan's body jerked back from the impact of her fist, folding around the blow in that way peculiar to a punch in the guts, as the studied concern on his previously stoic face turned to a look of pained perplexity. In an instant, she understood that the fight, so far as he was concerned, had been over. Aegle's jaw loosened, her mouth fell open and, taking a half step, she held her hands out as if she meant to catch the boy. She was neither too fast, nor sufficiently coordinated to actually catch him though, even had she been possessed of the strength to hold him upright, and so she merely watched slack jawed as he crumpled to his knees before her.

Filled absurdly with guilt, it was a few moments before Aegle heard the gasps from the observers were not for how she had punched a boy who, from every available indication, had no longer been fighting her in earnest. This realization came in tandem with another, more visceral epiphany, as the bone deep ache in her cheek turned suddenly sharp as a razor. Aegle winced, still breathing hotly, and touched a finger to the now stinging spot. Her fingers came away bloody, and that was the first time she realized she was cut. Staring at the redness staining her fingers, Aegle was simultaneously made conscious of the wetness on the lower half of her face, and the trickling warmth that dripped steadily from her chin and down trailed down her neck.
"Sharp." She murmured senselessly, as if that one word could explain away aught that had happened in the past couple of minutes.

Ryan was on his feet again, his expression knotted up in the sort of pain that only came from a gut punch. Staggering and panting almost as badly as she was, he stepped close and, wordlessly, pressed a swatch of cloth to her aching face. He had not said anything the whole time. Aegle winced, teeth gritting against the burning sting of his touch, but did nothing to stop him. Clearly the fight was over. Who had won, she hadn't the faintest idea.

The professor returned a few minutes later but Aegle, conscious of the cut, was already focusing her aura into healing it. By the time Ryan had cause to peel away the sodden swatch of fabric, seemingly a piece of his own sleeve, the wound was no longer gushing blood as it had been. From how badly it had been bleeding, it would undoubtedly requite stitches or Doc's healing touch, but things Aegle was amply familiar with. Despite the professor's fussing, Aegle doubted it would even leave a scar.
"Keep pressure on it." the professor told her, and Aegle reluctantly did as instructed.
"You." She said, turning to Ryan, "Take miss Verdant to the infirmary and see that she gets patched up. Perhaps next time you will exercise some more discretion when wielding an edged weapon against a sparring partner with depleted aura."
Aegle winced. That was unfair, and she expected Ryan would, at any moment, explain that she had not actually been out of aura. That he did not surprised her so greatly that, by the time Aegle thought to say so herself, the frazzled educator was turning back to her class.
"Miss Hock. You are next."

Aegle looked guiltily up at Ryan, her face throbbing behind the wad of paper towel she held over her split cheek.
"I, uh, guess we're goin' f'a walk, aye?"
With a moment of reluctant consideration, Aegle turned for the hallway, hesitated, then walked out of the class.

---

words - 640
total - 4,673

[Wolfe]

XP Distribution

Aegle: 46

16 + 46 = 62 XP new total

Ryan: 23

1 + 23 = 24 XP new total