3rd Person POV:
Left to face Mercury alone, Ruby without having Crescent Rose on her person prepares herself to engage in hand-to-hand combat.
Mercury smugly awaits her move as Ruby goes in for a straight jab, which her opponent easily counters as this attack was merely a fake out for the silver-eyed girl to use her semblance.
Rushing in a flurry of petals, Ruby passes the assasin and reforms into herself while continuing to sprint towards the arena. However, Mercury suddenly appears before her and lands a strong kick to her stomach as the force launches her back to the exit tunnels.
Attempting to contact reinforcements, Ruby pulls out her scroll as Mercury destroys the device with a powerful blast from Talaria.
Mercury: (lowering his leg from its kick) Let's just keep this between us friends. (moves towards her)
Elsewhere, multiple shockwaves are seen occuring in the air as Y/N and Tetsuo clash fists once more before parting.
Y/N: (fires a blast of energy) Get out of my way!
The beam of energy is abruptly absorbed into Tetsuo's right hand, which briefly radiates the stolen power.
Tetsuo: Thanks for the meal.
Y/N grits her teeth and blitzes her opponent with multiple strikes as the flurry of high-speed punches and kicks ends with a devastating double axe-handle smash, which sends the gluttony demigod falling from the sky.
Tetsuo quickly recovers from the strike and with a shout of anger, suddenly unleashes cyan-clad flames that bare a strong resemblance to a familiar wrath demigod's attack. Y/N evades the oncoming fire and channels more aura into her being before rushing in to attack once more.
Meanwhile, in the tournament arena, Pyrrha and Penny are set on stage as the match has been official declared.
Penny: (hands on her hips in excitement) Sal-u-tations, Pyrrha Nikos! It's an honor to finally meet you!
The troubled Pyrrha doesn't respond, looking at her hands as she clenches them in attempted determination.
Penny: (not noticing her opponent's reluctance) This is going to be so much fun!
Oobleck: (counting down as General Ironwood calmly sits to observe the fight, Nora and Ren cheer for their teammate while Jaune simply watches anxiously, and Emerald sitting within the crowd leans forward with a glare) 3, 2, 1...(leans forward)...BEGIN!!!
Penny summons Floating Array and launches her volley of swords at Pyrrha, who rushes in, stopping only for a half second thanks to a blade blocking her path, before continuing her charge. Responding to the charge, Penny then tugs on the strings to recall the blades, which she then uses to continually block Pyrrha's strikes with Miló and Akoúo̱.
Port: My word! What a tremendous display by Miss Polendina!
After Pyrrha is pushed back, she backflips before performing a second charge, this time leaping on one of the swords before landing a downward strike on Penny. However, the synthetic's defenses forces Pyrrha back again, which makes her flip backwards in midair before landing to block the next few blows from Penny's swords.
