[h2][centre][colour=2c75ff]Cereza Floriciente[/colour] vs [colour=cc0404]Rima Tempest[/colour][/centre][/h2]

Cereza would be lying if she said that her stomach hadn’t clenched when her face appeared in the screen. She had fought against people before; her brother had brought in a slew of tutors when she was younger who had all trained her, and she’d practised against Midas as he was the only person who had been available as a sparring partner. However, she had never been in a combat situation with so many people watching.

Initiation had been different; it was do or die. This was merely practise, and no one else was fighting for their lives at the same time so all eyes would be on her and her opponent.

Rima didn’t even pause before getting up to head down to the arena, gathering her fur stole around her and her Arctic Fox tail swishing slightly as she walked. Nothing seemed to bother the tall woman as she swept her way into the locker room, and Cereza followed her impassive opponent.

In what seemed like no time at all, the pair were stationed in the middle of the arena. Cereza fiddled with the vambraces and rerebraces she wore as she waited for Professor Goodwitch to start the fight, and wiggled the blades of Llaw Du like fingers in one last reaction test. Rima didn’t even look at the other blonde, instead smoothing down the fur she still wore around her shoulders and checking the dust capacity on her lance.

[colour=b18fdf]“Students, are you ready?”[/colour] Glynda called out. Cereza took a deep breath to settle her nerves and shut out the gaze of so many people watching the spar, while Rima finally glanced up at Cereza, [colour=b18fdf]“Begin!”[/colour]

Cereza reacted immediately, lashing out with a roundhouse kick. It looked like a futile effort, considering the distance between the two, but the pistols strapped to her boots quickly dissuaded anyone of that notion as they fired upon her opponent. Rima dodged to one side, getting clipped by a couple of bullets from the arching spray of pistol rounds before firing a blast of pressurised water from her lance.

Cereza used her polearm as leverage to take her up and over the attack, lashing out with her other leg as she landed. Rima followed her example, jumping over the spray of bullets as she charged forwards, lance at the ready.

The hacker spun to one side as the icy woman grew closer, swinging her polearm around to attack the woman’s relatively unprotected back. The Arctic Fox Faunus rolled forward with the attack as she activated her semblance, and the temperature in the room started dropping. Another spray of dust emitted from the tip of her lance as she rose to her feet once more, turning the piercing weapon into an oversized sword. 

She lunged at Cereza, who quickly brought her own weapon up to block the strike. Mid-swing, the sword reformed into an axe, and it crashed heavily onto the hacker’s weapon. Cereza’s arms trembled in effort to keep the axe from hitting her, and the technophile quickly switched tactics. Tilting her weapon and bringing the blades around to create an acute angle, she allowed Rima’s weapon to skitter along the shaft that housed all the electronics for Llaw Du. As the axe head hit the angle, she raised a foot and kicked the other woman in the stomach, firing her pistol at the same time.

Rima took a step back from the impact, though she didn’t lose her grip on the weapon in her hands. Instead she dismissed the dust surrounding the tip of her weapon, sending it outwards in a spray of ice that peppered the arena and Cereza with small shards as she slipped the lance from Llaw Du’s clutches.

Cereza dodged back from the other blonde, cartwheeling a few times in an attempt to put some space between them. She ended in a handstand, her hands holding onto her weapon instead of being flat against the ground, and fired a spray of bullets from both heels before falling backwards and using the momentum to roll to her feet.

Rima retaliated with a wave of water spraying forth from the lance, which quickly froze into large spikes from her semblance before flying at the hacker. Cereza spun Llaw Du in front of her to block the spikes, sending them flying in random directions around the arena. She lashed out with another kick in attempt to shoot her opponent once more, only to curse as the pistols simply clicked.

[i][colour=2c75ff]’Shit! Eject!’[/colour][/i] She thought to herself, and the pistols ejected the empty magazines. Rima took the opportunity to send a wave of water over the lithe girl, not bothering to freeze it this time. The water washed over Cereza, and paired with the icy temperatures she could feel the cold bite into her. Frost formed on parts of Llaw Du and her armour, though thankfully nothing that could impede her movements.

With a practise motion, Cereza crouched and replaced the magazines in her pistols using the spare ammo clips attached to her thighs, though she had to let go of Llaw Du as she did so. Rima took the opportunity to hit the polearm with a concentrated blast of water that quickly froze over, rendering the pivoting points of the blades useless. Cereza cursed, picking her now frozen weapon up against as she lashed at with more kicks. 

The Arctic Fox Faunus rolled underneath most of the bullets, though a few still clipped her as she came up again much closer to Cereza. She conjured another weapon at the tip of her lance, this time an oversized hammer, and lunged at the messy-haired girl with the intention of crushing her.

Cereza reacted without thinking, throwing her polearm like one would a javelin. The three blades impacted heavily on Rima’s shoulder, knocking her off balance and diverting her strike to hit the ground beside Cereza.

Cereza lashed out with a series of kicks and punches in this moment, utilising the opportunity offered to her and the armoured plates on her legs and arms to inflict as much damage as she could while her opponent was down. Rima lashed out with her lance, shifting the ice into a large sword as she did so, which Cereza dodged by cartwheeling backwards. As the hacker put distance between the two of them, she fired her remaining weapons.

Rima took the hits in favour of unleashing a torrent of highly pressurised water from the tip of her lance at the retreating figure, only for the buzzer to sound. Her impassive face broke and she glanced up at the boards above the pair of combatants, even as Cereza was hit and knocked back into the wall of the arena, to see her own face crossed out. A slight scowl crossed her features before she huffed and stalked away from the arena, not even bothering to listen to Glynda’s congratulations.

Cereza winced as she picked herself up from the floor, glancing up at the board herself. Her aura levels were actually lower than Rima’s at the moment; however Rima had eliminated herself first by taking the hits from the hackers pistols in order to land a heavy hit on Cereza herself.

[colour=b18fdf]”Good match, ladies.”[/colour] Professor Goodwitch congratulated the pair as Cereza collected her weapon again and left the arena, rolling the match selection once more. The pictures displayed this time were of another pair of ladies; an extremely pale girl with black and white tiger ears poking out of white hair that had a black streak on one side and deep blue eyes was opposite a lightly tanned face set with a pair of dark brown eyes and surrounded by fiery red hair with blonde highlights. [colour=b18fdf]“The next match shall be between Tsukiko Baise and Maple Arboretta.”[/colour]

Only one of the girls called stood up, however, and both Maple and Professor Goodwitch glanced around the class in search of the red-heads opponent.

The lemur tailed team leader scanned the classroom for her teammate when Tsuki failed to appear, [colour=crimson][i]“Actually, I didn’t see her this morning…”[/i][/colour]

[colour=b18fdf]”Well, Miss Arboretta. It seems you get a bye.”[/colour] Professor Goodwitch told the Raccoon Faunus, who pouted in mild disappointment before sitting down again. The blonde woman turned to the leader of LBRC. [colour=b18fdf]”Miss Zhu, next time you see Miss Baise, would you please remind her that classes are a necessary and important use of her time here at Beacon?”[/colour]

[colour=crimson]“Yes Ma’am,”[/colour] the red haired student affirmed.

[colour=b18fdf]”Then we shall move on to the next match.”[/colour] She tapped her scroll again and started the selection process once more. In no time at all another pair of faces were visible on the screen; a light olive-skinned young man with silver hair and pale blue eyes was opposite another young man, this one with fair skin and blue eyes underneath a shock of red hair. [colour=b18fdf]”Argent Roan and Berry Caerulus Balaur.”[/colour]