[ON HIATUS] We're Not Dreaming (Mercury x OC)

Sparring Match

Blanche's POV

So apparently Team RWBY and Team JNPR had started a food fight in the cafeteria about ten minutes after my team and I left. I shook my head in slight amusement as Professor Goodwitch strolled into class, RWBY and JNPR trailing in behind her giggling over what seemed to be another one of Nora's stories about a dream she had. Something about Ursa skin rugs?

Goodwitch cleared her throat and everyone scurried to their seats above the fighting stage. "Today is a choice day. You get to pick who you want to spar, and you can choose whether to go against an entire team or simply spar as singles. Who wants to go first?" Team CRDL immediately stood up,"We want to go against Blanche," Cardin snarled. "Miss Volpes, is this alright with you?" I smiled evilly, and stood up,"Sounds perfect." "Kick their asses for us!" I heard a bunch of people holler. It will be my pleasure.

A few minutes later, I stepped out onto the fighting stage, Cardin and his cronies stepped out to meet me. "May the best fighter win. 3, 2, 1, go!" I immediately began swinging my chain around, quickly making it become a blur. Sky and Russel rushed me first, weapons waving. I snagged Sky's halberd with my chain, whipping it out of his hands and straight into Russel's body. He went sailing back, and I ran towards Sky, dislodging his weapon out of my chain. As I jumped up, I sent the weighted end sailing towards his head, knocking him sideways into a wall and into unconsciousness. He was immediately disqualified from the fight by ring-out and aura level. I tied my chain back to my waist, drawing my sword and slashing at Dove as I came back down. We struck at each other, blow for blow before I noticed Cardin out of the corner of my eye. I blasted Dove back with a sheet of ice, and leapt back, narrowly avoiding an explosion set off by Cardin's mace.

"Ugh!" Russel slammed into me from the side, knocking the breath out of me. I rolled out of the way of his dual blades while dodging bullets from Dove's gun-sword. I sheathed my sword and drew my tessen; I used the fan to send a gust of icy wind towards Dove, forcing his bullets to fly back at him. Russel came barreling towards me, allowing me to create an illusion. I slipped out of the way, and watched him crash through, shards scattering all over the ground. I landed a solid kick on his back, causing him to stumble forward right into a detonation that Cardin had intended for me.

I backflipped out of the way, and ran straight for Dove. I drew my sword and swung at the bullets he fired, deflecting some and slicing others. I was thankful he was too dull to think about using Dust-enhanced bullets. I drove my blade into the ground, sending large spikes of ice towards him. He was flung into the air and landed next to Cardin. As he stumbled to his feet, Cardin knocked him backwards with his mace, effectively knocking another one of his teammates out. I leapt into the air to avoid the explosion, and rolled out of the way as I landed, Cardin's swings missing me by mere centimeters.

As I dodged his blows, I wracked my brain to find a way to beat him. None of my usual techniques would work to take him down because of his armor, and he used brute strength to smash his opponents. A huge blast knocked me back and into the ground as I watched white lights dance in front of my eyes. Groans echoed throughout the classroom, and I staggered to my feet, head spinning. I created another illusion, making the image run towards him with sword swinging. The rest of the class watched my illusion and I could see Professor Goodwitch shaking her head in exasperation. I ran behind him and began twirling my chain, turning it into a blur. As Cardin smashed my illusion to shatters causing gasps throughout the room, I threw my chain and wrapped it around his ankles. I gave it a hard yank, causing him to faceplant into the ground. I slammed my sword hilt-deep into the floor, shards of ice erupted from the floor, tearing a line from my blade to Cardin. The ice drove itself through his clothes, pinning the mace-wielder in place.

Cardin roared in fury, ripping himself free of the ice shards. "Damnit!" I screamed. Seriously how strong is this guy?! As he righted himself, I threw the chain towards him as hard as I could. As Cardin turned around, the weighted end struck him square in the face, a crack echoing around the room and dropping him like a rock. I breathed heavily and collapsed to my knees. "The winner is Blanche Volpes! Congratulations young lady, that was an incredible display of fighting prowess." I nodded tiredly and gave Professor Goodwitch a thumbs up. "Beginner's luck," Cardin groaned, still on the floor. Amazingly, he hadn't sustained a broken nose, which I found impressive considering how hard my weapon had hit him. I staggered to my feet, feeling my aura start the healing process. I glanced at the screen to check our Aura levels. Cardin's aura was in the red, but barely so; he was in much better shape than his teammates. Both Russel and Sky, the former who had suffered a terrible blow from his own team leader, had no aura left while Dove was in the red. "Mr. Winchester, I suggest taking your teammates to the infirmary, and to work on your teamwork skills. You knocked out two of your teammates during that brawl," Goodwitch turned towards me,"Blanche, I suggest you go to the infirmary to get checked out as well, that was quite a fight."

I was too exhausted to answer. Even though I had beaten Team CRDL, I was drained. Xander hopped down from the stands and picked me up bridal style. I was too tired to complain, and I laid my head on his chest, allowing him to carry me off of the fighting stage. CRDL walked ahead of us, Cardin carrying Russel and Sky slung over his shoulders and Dove limping along next to him. I was surprised Cardin still had the strength to carry two of his teammates. Or that he even bothered to help them. I stared at the backs of CRDL while I contemplated this. Maybe the guy wasn't as bad as people thought; he just happened to act like he deserved a foot up his ass.

"Can we just go back to the dorm room? I want to sleep," I mumbled against Xander's chest. "Are you sure? You took quite a hard hit back there," he looked at me concerned. "I'll be fine. Besides, Team CRDL is way worse off."

After Xander dropped me off in our dorm room, he headed off to dinner, telling me to feel better and to get some rest. I stripped and took a shower, planning on going to sleep later.

Final version published September 25, 2016 at 9:52pm ET.