Never Change

Chapter 20

Percy stepped onto the arena, to the view of thousands on them, and millions more watching from around the world. He sent a nod to Yang, and she retorted with a salacious wink, blowing him a kiss.

He rolled his eyes at the ever so flirtatious blonde, positioning himself so that he was next to Pyrrha and Mercury.

"Ladies and gentlemen!" Port bellowed into his microphone, "The moment you've all been waiting for, the singles round!"

"Ah yes!" Oobleck chimed in, "There will be three days of one on one matches, with eight contestants total that will slowly be eliminated. Instead of a bracket system, each round will be randomly determined immediately before the match takes place, allowing the contestants no time to plan or devise a strategy for their opponent."

"Much like any good old hunt, there will be zero time to prepare!" Port rejoiced into the microphone, even if that didn't make any sense.

"Ah, yes, yes. Now let's who our first match will be!" Oobleck exclaimed, as the randomizers began rolling.

"Yang Xiao Long of Beacon versus Mercury Black of Haven! Will all other combatants please leave the stage!"

Percy shot Yang a reminding look, and she rolled her eyes as if to say, I got it!

He could only hope Emerald's hallucinations weren't too overwhelming.

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Yang ducked under a roundhouse kick, retaliating with a sweeping kick of her own. Mercury jumped, bringing his heel down onto Yang. The blonde rolled away to put distance between them. Ember Celica shot fire dust with shot after shot raining down on him, but Mercury moved from side to side, using his boots to propel away from her shots.

She narrowly dodged a kick, but Mercury adjusted, and the boot slammed into her side with devastating force. She rolled with the kick, keeping her momentum, but when she came back up, Mercury was already firing his blasts into the air.

Oh no you don't, she thought. She'd seen the devastation they could bring. Not giving him any more time, she boosted forwards with Ember Celica, launching a tirade of punches at him.

Mercury was able to avoid more than a few of them, blocking with his forearms, and Yang tried to fire Ember Celica at him, but he ducked, kicking upwards. Yang was sent in the air, and Mercury slammed his boot into her stomach.

She slid back, but he kept on the offensive, and Yang had to keep ducking. Somehow, her punches wouldn't land, as he used his knees and his hands to deflect them. He ducked another punch, delivering an uppercut to her, and another jab. Yang tanked it all, delivering a haymaker that just barely missed as he back handspringed away. She fired Ember Celica at him but he ensured she didn't land a hit, using his boots to propel air blasts so that he zig zagged from side to side. He launched at her in a tirade of different kicks, adjusting every time she moved away. She blocked a kick to her side with her forearm, and deflected another punch, but it ended up just being a distraction as a boot slammed into her stomach.

She grunted in pain, sliding backwards and managing to keep her balance, but the bastard used more time to fire even more blasts into the air. She pushed on the aggressive, thinking she'd have a free hit.

Mercury ducked at the last second, grabbing her hair as a handhold and raining punches and kicks onto Yang. The pain felt far away, though. At the moment, she could only think of one thing.

That fucking bastard touched my hair!!!

Yang's eyes turned red when said bastard had the ingenious idea of twirling the lock of blonde hair in front of her eyes. Before she could move, however, Mercury kicked her upwards into the air. He jumped into the air and twirled to gain momentum, and it was all Yang could do to block as he pummeled her into the ground with a kick. Blasts rained down on her like hellfire; explosions were all she could hear with her ears.