A Beacon of Hope in a Castle of Ice.

No Hair, No Dress, No Logic

Pov: ???

"Begin!", Professor Goodwitch screams, starting to look at her scroll and gauge the aura levels of myself and my opponent. I look ahead of me to see the six foot, slender physique advancing towards me. She is wearing a light-brown and gold colored strapless top that has more of a corset-like style to it with how it hugs and flaunts her concave love handles. Above her top she wears a long bronze gorget that hugs her neck. At the center of it is a green gem that pales in comparison to the vivid-green of her eyes. Above her eyes, but hidden beneath her bangs is a bronze circlet that can be seen more clearly from the side of her head. To cover her waist and thighs she is wearing a red A-line miniskirt, completing her outfit with a bronze bracer on her left hand that she uses to help hold her shield.

I take a deep breath and begin my advance towards her. Her long, waist-length hair swaying behind her as she approaches me with a smile on her face. I am up against the girl who is on the cover of every box of one of my favorite cereals: Pumpkin Pete's Marshmallow Flakes. Why did Goodwitch have to pick me to go up against Pyrrha? A world-renowned fighter who has spent hours of her evenings training me to better myself.

"Shield up!" I hear her command me.
I quickly grab my sheath from my left hip and hold it in my left hand. I draw my sword from it, at the same time making the sheath expand to display the large emblem of two arcs that almost resemble a crescent moon on the front of my sheath-shield hybrid. My poor Crocea Mors will be going against the deadly combination of Miló: Pyrrha's short sword, spear, and long-range rifle hybrid, and Akoúo̱: her trusty shield that has a concave cutout on each side that gives her the ability to strike with her spear out without needing to expose herself to an attack.

As Pyrrha and I near each other, she quickly starts off the temp with an overhead strike with Miló in its short sword form. My training with her has given me a chance to hone my reflexes, but it still amazes me at how fast I am able to lift my shield up and parry her strike and follow with a horizontal slash of my sword. Pyrrha sucks in her stomach and pushes her hips backwards, bending her abdomen just enough to avoid the tip of my sword, but surprisingly I cut a small piece of the fabric.
Is she going easy on me?

"Pyrrha! If you're holding back I won't forgive you!" I stare at her, switching into my defensive stance – my shield out in front of me, and my sword held firmly at my side with the tip pointed towards her.

"I'm sorry, Jaune. Very well." She answers, giving me another smile. This time she steps up and does the same swing, I raise my shield up once again to block it, but this time see her strike is going diagonally downward, missing both me, and my shield, and sending her into a quick spin

"Shit, it's a feint!"

I realize it too late, her spinning motion giving her enough momentum to smack me firmly with her shield in a derived motion of a spinning back fist. The impact is strong and sends me rolling away from her and quickly rising back to my feet. She truly isn't holding back now and is already right back in my face. We begin exchanging strikes of sword and shield. One strike from me being blocked results in her throwing two strikes in return, flaunting her talents and dominant fighting form. She outclasses me in every aspect: speed, power, cunning, but there is something I am worried about. I know all of her tricks with her shield and sword stance, I can keep up with her just barely, but if she switches to her spear I am done for. I have never sparred with Pyrrha using her spear, and I am sure that if she is going all out, she may decide to use it. If I am going to beat her, I am going to need to be a little unorthodox in my approach.

I begin counting her steps, building her rhythm within my head along with the sounds of our exchanges.

Step, strike, strike, step, block, step, strike, step, strike, strike, step block.