Lurking Darkness

Sparring Practice Pt. 2

"Man, Pyrrha is going to kick ass in the the tournament." Yang states.

"Man I cannot wait to participate. I wonder how it'll work since I'm a one man team."

"Oh man, that's right, teams of four are needed to participate, I have no idea how you-"
Just before Yang could finish, Professor Ozpin arrives.
"Hello Mr. Aspro, Ms. Xiao Long."

"Oh, hey Professor! What're you doing here?"
You're curious as well.

"I need to speak to Mr. Aspro about the Tournament actually." You're more curious now, even though you have a vague idea.

"Oh sure thing, I'm gonna go talk to Pyrrha." She waves as she walks off.

"Hey Professor, whatcha need to speak about?"

"Mr. Aspro, you have 2 choices before you for the tournament because of your special team composition." He states to you.
You look at him, believing to know what he means.

"Mr. Aspro, you can either not be a part of the tournament, because of your special situation...

"Or?" You ask.

"You may participate by yourself." You are stunned.

"Professor, what do you mean by myself?

"I mean you may participate against teams of four and even the doubles round if you are to make it that far, by yourself." You're shocked even more.

"Professor, how would that work?"

"You, Mr. Aspro, would be by yourself, and go against a team of 4 or doubles, in the normal rounds of the tournament. The rules state a full team must be able to compete, seeing as you are your full team, this is fully within the rules of the tournament. And considering how you are on the same level of Ms. Nikos, it should be a problem for you. If you don't want to par—."

"I'll do it." You say with as most confidence as possible.

"Good to hear, but you must do something before the tournament."

"Anything Professor."

"Improve your Semblance control, if you cannot control it to be safe for the spectators and participants of the arena, then you cannot take part in the tournament. We can't have another incident." Little does he know, you have been practicing, hard. Day in and day out of practicing while not doing anything else, has been of just Semblance control.

"Yes sir." You say knowing you'll be okay.
He looks not worried in the slightest, almost as if he knows you've been practicing.

"Fantastic. I'll see you at the festival." He leaves as he has business to attend to.

"Hey Pyrrha!" You call out to her. She snaps her head to you.

"Yes Y/n?"

"Let's spar." You say grinning. She grins back.

"Let's." She struts over to you, pulling her spear off of her back. As you both get into your fighting stance. You activate your semblance to lower your body temperature to a cool 40 degrees F. She gets in her stance as well.

"GO!" You both shout. As you both fly forward at incredible speed, she transforms Miló into its sword form and gets in close, using your spear's weakness against you, luckily, your close quarters combat is close to being on par with her. You are able to get out of CQC with her and transform Thermopylae into its rifle variant and unload its ice dust rounds into Akoúo, freezing her shield and making it impossible to carry. She ditched Akoúo and charged forward with Miló in its spear form, lunging the spear at you at unfathomable speed, you dodge out of the way, had it been anyone else, they would've been hit multiple times. You see an opening when she pulls Miló back, and lunge Thermopylae at her, forcing her to retreat. You continue the attack and keep pushing forward, keeping her on her toes. Just before you land a hit, she uses her semblance to make your spear miss her by centimeters. You smirk knowing you have her on the edge. You keep pushing and all while lowering your body temperature even lower, keeping the pressure coming. Pyrrha knows she's in trouble if she doesn't get closer or further away from you, she kicks off your chest plate, knocking you back while also putting distance between you two.

"Very impressive!" She says while laughing and enjoying the combat.

"I had to use my semblance to not get hit, you're not even that cold at the moment are you?" You smirk at her, welcoming the break in combat.

"I started at 40 degrees F, right now if I had to guess, I'm probably in the low 30s." Knowing you can actually go lower, but you don't want to risk it.  Pyrrha smiles at you, and proceeds to charge you, you weren't expecting this and decide to heat up to defend against her speed, she's able to land quite the combo, but thankfully, your body temp had risen to over 100 before she could get in too close to do major damage. She ends the combo by throwing her shield, hitting you square in the chest knocking you back a few feet. You smirk at her.

"My turn."

You lower your body's temperature to the low 20s this time, at this point, the very ground you walk on is freezing, at incredible speed you blitz Pyrrha, putting her on the defensive, you're too fast for her however and are able to land quite the combo on her Aura. You can tell she's almost out so you push harder, lowering your body's temp to the 10s, you finish the combo by transforming Thermopylae to the rifle and load in gravity rounds, firing at her feet, launching her into the air. She lands with a mighty thud.

"Ms. Nikos's Aura has been depleted and she can no longer finish the bout, Mr. Aspro is the victor." Glynda declares. You help Pyrrha up.

"Congratulations Y/n. It was a very good fight." Pyrrha smiles at you.

"Thank you Pyrrha. Let's get you back to the dorm." You say throwing her arm over your shoulder.

Yaaay a good spar this time, Pyrrha is still Pyrrha and I just had to prove that you're evenly matched with her. So congrats! Anyway, Vytal Tournament is next, so be ready for some more fights, again, thanks for reading! -P