Ch 35: The Invincible Girl Vs The Firecracker

"Our next pair will be Pyrrha Nikos vs. Yang Xiao Long. Would both students please enter the arena." Glynda announced as Ray saw Blake and Cardin out of the arena.

"Alright!" Yang banged her fists together and jumped down into the arena.

"I look forward to our fight." Pyrrha said politely as she also took up her position.

"Ready?" Glynda raised her crop and looked at Pyrrha and Yang.

Yang deployed Ember Celica with a series of clicks and entered a kickboxing stance. She nodded to Glynda.

Pyrrha held Akouo up in front of her, so she could just peer over it and deployed Milo into its javelin form, resting it on top of her shield pointed at Yang. She nodded at Glynda.

"Begin!" Glynda swung her crop down with a swish.

Yang fired her gauntlets behind her to launch herself at Pyrrha. Pyrrha braced herself and took Yang's punch head-on with her shield. The ground cracked beneath Pyrrha as she redirected the force of Yang's blow through her body into the ground without moving an inch. With both of Yang's feet still off the ground from her flying punch, Pyrrha tried to stab her with her spear. But Yang fired a shot into Akouo, pushing herself backward out of range, and fired another shot from her other gauntlet at Pyrrha's feet.

The cracked floor shattered beneath Pyrrha, and she temporarily lost her footing. Pyrrha stabbed Milo into the ground to maintain her balance as Yang dashed back in and delivered a swift one-two punch combo augmented by blasts from her shotguns. The first punch and shot Pyrrha redirected away from her with her right hand as she released Milo. The second, she was forced to block with Akouo. The force of the blow sending her sliding back. Regaining her footing Pyrrha used her Semblance to pull Milo back into her hand as Yang pursued.

Arriving before Milo, Yang stomped down hard with her left leg and with her right kicked up Pyrrha's shield that she had braced in preparation to block Yang's punch and threw a backhand with her left hand to deflect Milo, that Yang could sense coming up behind her. Pyrrha wasn't expecting the kick but was able to keep a hold of Akouo. However, it left her torso exposed for Yang's right hook that was barreling towards her. Pyrrha redirected Milo to dodge Yang's backhand and fly into her hand. She spun it to deflect Yang's right hook as she hopped back to gain some distance.

Pyrrha took the brief reprieve her retreat gained her to change Milo to sword form and reevaluate her opponent. Surprisingly Yang didn't immediately pursue and press her apparent advantage. Yang had felt something off before when Milo had dodged her backhand. It was almost like her gauntlet had been slightly resisting her movement.

In fact, it had, when Pyrrha had redirected Yang's punch with her hand earlier, she had marked Yang's left gauntlet with her Aura. She could now use her Semblance to influence its movements. Usually, as long as she kept the adjustments small, this would go unnoticed by most opponents and give Pyrrha the edge she needed to keep her invincible record alive. Unfortunately for Pyrrha, Yang was very used to a similar tactic that Ray liked to use and knew how to detect and counter it. Worse, Yang had learned from her little brother the value of tactics and deception during combat and carefully hid the fact she was aware of Pyrrha's trick.

Pyrrha was the one to initiate the fight this time. Yang ducked below Pyrrha's cut. Pyrrha leaned back to dodge Yang's uppercut. Yang's punch countered Pyrrha's shield slam hard enough to knock it off Pyrrha's arm. Pyrrha changed to Spear-Milo and stabbed, swiped, and cut at Yang as she used her Semblance to bounce Akouo around the arena to attack Yang from her blind spot. Yang parried, blocked, and countered Pyrrha's offensive before performing a backflip over Akouo, not forgetting to aim the toe of her boot at Pyrrha's chin as they went by. Pyrrha leaned back and dodged as she grabbed Akouo and changed back to Sword-Milo.

The two proceed to exchange a flurry of blows, counters, dodges, and parries. The ground shattering beneath them from the force of their deadly dance as they each tried to land a defining hit on the other. During their exchange, Pyrrha was able to mark Yang's other gauntlet with her Aura as well. She could now control both of Yang's weapons.

After that, Yang couldn't seem to get in a clean hit. To the students watching, it looked like Pyrrha had read all of Yang's moves completely. And while Yang couldn't land any clean hits on Pyrrha, Pyrrha had been able to land several good, if not decisive, hits on Yang. It looked to everyone watching that the invincible girl's winning streak would continue. Except for a certain pair of twins.

[Yang should almost be charged up now.] Ruby calculated as Yang took a kick to her side.

Yang's Semblance was called Burn. Simply put, she could absorb the damage she took and dish out twice the damage in return, though Yang still felt the damage she absorbed. Yang had been letting Pyrrha manipulate her gauntlets and taking those hits to lower Pyrrha's guard while she built up power for a game-changing counter-attack. That was the fighting style she had developed through years of sparring with her family, an outwardly offensive counter style. Now it was time for her comeback.

Yang changed her stance from an upper-body focused stance to a more balanced one. With a quick double hip twist, she slipped her foot inside Pyrrha's guard and delivered a swift flick kick, first to Akouo and then to Milo, catching the other girl off guard. Her kicks may have been light and fast, but they applied just enough force to push them out and away from Pyrrha's body leaving her open. Yang stomped down hard between Pyrrha's legs, entangling their legs together and preventing Pyrrha from swiftly retreating as she brought her right fist down with all her strength aiming for Pyrrha's center of mass.

Pyrrha leaned back as far as she could to avoid the meteoric fist as she brought Milo and her right hand down to the ground and her left hand with Akouo up, planning to balance herself on her right hand as she cut into Yang with the sharp edge of her shield. But, seeing she wasn't going to get out of the way in time, Pyrrha began slowing Yang's Ember Celica just enough so that she would make it.

Feeling the change in her momentum, Yang's eyes flashed. Her Aura flared around her gauntlets, erasing the Aura Pyrrha had left on them and enhancing the coming blow. At the same time, Yang triggered her Semblance. Her eyes turned red, and her hair appeared to ignite into flames as she added twice the force of all the blows Pyrrha had dealt to her during their fight to her attack.

Pyrrha's eyes widened, but there was nothing she could do as she caught a quick wink and a smile from Yang just before her punch drilled into her chest. Pyrrha slammed into the ground with enough force to create a three-foot-deep pit. Obliterating the arena floor as chunks of it flew up into the air. Dust and rubble filled the air as the students and Glynda stared in surprise at the sudden reversal.

They all turned to look up at the scoreboard above the arena. Yang and Pyrrha's pictures were next to a health bar that represented their respective Aura levels. Pyrrha's Aura level had plummeted from 75% full down past the 15% red level to leave only a sliver remaining. The invincible girl had lost. They all just looked at that for a moment, trying to wrap their heads around it until someone shouted.

"Look at Xiao Long's Aura!" They all turned their attention to Yang's Aura level and froze again. Yang still had more than 75% of her Aura left. How could that be? After all the hits she had taken, how could her Aura still be so full?

It was just one shock after another for them, and none of them were able to react as Ruby cried out, "Great job Yang. Good fight Pyrrha." beyond turning their attention to the clearing dust.

"Good match, Pyrrha." Yang said as she slid down into the pit she had created and reached out a hand to Pyrrha.

Pyrrha blinked, fine, thanks to the protection of her Aura, but was a little winded and dazed from how fast it had all changed. With a shake of her head and a genuine smile, she accepted Yang's assistance and let her haul her to her feet.

"Thank you, Yang. That was an excellent match." She had finally lost. Pyrrha felt like a weight had been lifted from her shoulders. She was no longer the invincible girl. She'd given it her all and had still lost. Maybe now she could finally start coming down off that blasted pedestal everyone had been placing her on all her life.

Pyrrha didn't need to look up at the scoreboard to know how little of Yang's Aura she had been able to chip away. She had been keeping track on her scroll she had attached to the inside of Akouo before the match started for just that purpose.

"It's amazing how much Aura you have, Yang."

"Ahh, it's nothing much. Ray just taught Ruby and me a small trick that helps us grow our Aura."

"Really? Do you think he would be willing to teach me?"

"He should be teaching it to everyone as part of his Aura Manipulation class."

Yang and Pyrrha talked to each other as they walked back to their seats. Behind them, Glynda used her Semblance to pull all the pieces of the arena back together and repair the damage their fight had caused.

"Excellent fight, you two. Both of you showed great mastery of your fighting techniques, Semblances, and battle tactics." Ray praised the two girls as Glynda finished repairing the arena. Glancing at her and receiving a nod to let him know she had finished, Ray continued. "Now, our next pair will be… Jaune Arc and-" *Bleurgh*

A retching sound cut off Ray's words as Jaune suddenly threw up upon hearing his name. Thankfully, Ruby, who was sitting in front of him, was hyped enough from watching her sister's fight that she was hyper-aware of her surroundings and was able to completely dodged the puke. However, Weiss, sitting next to her, wasn't so lucky. The focused girl's pristine white dress was decorated with colorful splatterings of Jaune's partially digested lunch.

"You Complete Dunce! Do you have any idea how much this dress costs!" Weiss began to yell at the unfortunate 'Vomit Boy'.

*Sigh* "Ms. Nikos, since you have already finished your match, would you please take your leader to the nurse's office and ask them to take a look at him. And Mrs. Schnee, if you would like, you may go back to your dorm and change quickly." Glynda said as she adjusted her glasses. At her words, Weiss ran out of the classroom with a quick, "Thank you, Professor Goodwitch."

"Of course, Professor." Pyrrha said as she went and supported the sickly green Jaune out of the classroom. She didn't seem to mind the stench and traces clinging to the front of Jaune's clothes

"You're really going to get stuck with the Vomit Boy nickname at this rate." Ruby whispered to them as they passed her. Jaune just hung his head lower.