Ch 36: Lightning vs Lightning Rod

"Ok, then." Ray said, shaking his head at what had just happened. "In that case, it looks like our next match will instead be…" Ray raised his eyebrows and looked at Glynda, "Rajeev Rose vs. Nora Valkyrie?"

Glynda nodded, "Yes, that is correct, Mr. Rose."

Ray shrugged as he turned to look up at Nora in the stands, "You ready for this, Nora."

"I was born ready, Sparky!" Nora declared as she leapt down from the stands. Unlike Cardin, she didn't need to waste Aura to land with an impressive BOOM.

"Bring it on, Thunder Thighs!" Ray fired back.

"Kick his butt, Nora!" Ruby shouted from the stands.

Ray turned to look back up at his treacherous twin, "I'm sorry, Ruby, she is going to lose."

"Ha, Nora's Semblance is the perfect counter for yours. None of your tricky tricks will work on her. You're going down, little brother."

"Yeah! Crush him, Nora!" Yang joined in. The two girls may love their little brother, but this and that were two very different things. After years of being toyed with by their brother, getting so close to winning, and then having it snatched away from them when they fell into one of his traps, they were looking forward to seeing him fight someone who was naturally immune to them. Most of them, at least.

*Gah* Ray clenched his hands to his chest and stumbled back a few steps as if their words had dealt fatal damage to his heart.

Nora's Semblance is High Voltage. It allows her to produce, absorb, and channel electric energy into her muscles, lending her incredible strength. So, not only would Ray's electric-based attacks not harm her, but they would instead enhance her power.

"Hey!" Nora called out, slamming the handle of her hammer into the ground, "Are we going to fight, or what?" Nora was getting annoyed that Ray was ignoring her.

"Ready?" Glynda raised her crop and asked.

"Ready!" Nora said as she hefted her hammer, grinning.

"Let's go." Ray put his sunglasses on and dropped into a fighting stance.

"Begin!" Glynda swung her crop down.

"Heeeerrrrrrreeeeee'sssss Nora!" Nora shouted as she charged forward and lept into the air bringing a full force overhead hammer strike down on Ray's head.

*Bam* Nora's hammer slammed into the ground right next to Ray, who had slid to the side to dodge her strike. Before Nora could react, she felt a quick jab to her side.

"You over-extend when you bring your hammer down. Try to choke up more on your hammer unless you have pinned your target down. Else, they will dodge, and you will leave yourself open." Ray advised.

"He-yah" Nora pulled her hammer out of the ground and swung it at Ray's side.

*Swish* Ray leaned unnaturally far back and dodged the strike while delivering a light kick to the inside knee of Nora's pivot leg. The tap ruined Nora's balance, and she fell to one knee.

"Don't put all your weight on one foot like that while swinging. Keep your body balanced and light even as your swings remain heavy."

"Are you here to fight or teach!?" Nora complained as she rose back to her feet.

"Teach." Ray replied straight-faced, and teach he did. For the rest of their match, Ray would dodge Nora's strikes with minimal effort and then deliver a light blow to a part of her body she had left exposed and give her some advice on how she could improve her fighting style. As they progressed, his instructions became more detailed and precise as he was using his right eye to learn everything he could about her.

Off to the side, Glynda nodded in approval as she watched Ray work. His advice was clear and detailed while being distinct and to the point. She could actually see Nora steadily improving as the fight progressed. Nora had always been a rather instinctual fighter. It wasn't that she had poor learning capability, it was the opposite in fact. Nora's battle instincts were so good that no teacher had ever been able to guide her on how to improve her technique without hurting her personal style before. Now, under Ray's hands-on tutelage, Nora was finally getting the chance to smooth out some of the rough edges of her fighting style.

[He might just have the makings of a great teacher after all. As expected, Ozpin didn't make a mistake in his assessment of Ray's capabilities.] Glynda thought to herself as she watched.

As their fight neared its end, Nora was exhausted, her Aura was running low, and she was panting for breath. But, despite all of that, her eyes shone brightly. She had felt like she was being toyed with at the beginning, and it had been really, really frustrating, but now Nora could feel the improvements she had made in just this one fight. Her strikes were heavier, her balance was steadier, and her movements were cleaner. It even felt more natural and flowing than anything she had been able to achieve on her own.

Most of Ray's comments had even turned from criticism to praise as he pointed out what she had done right as an example to the rest of the students for what they should do. She even managed to block a few of his blows. Nora had never thought that she would feel so proud over such a seemingly minor accomplishment.

"Well, it looks like we are just about done here, Nora." Ray said as he looked up at the scoreboard to see Nora's Aura just above the red line.

"I'm not *pant* through with you *pant* yet, *pant* Sparky." Nora gasped out, determined to get in at least one good hit. The arena's lights began to flicker and then went out as she activated the full might of her Semblance, drawing the electrical energy out of the arena's electrical systems around her and channeling the energy into her body, powering herself back up.

Ray smiled at her determination, "Alright then. Let's finish things off with a bang." and fired streams of lightning out of his hands at her Palpatine-style. The bolts pierced into the defenseless Nora, and her body was quickly enshrouded in a cocoon of crackling electricity.

"Nahahahaha! I like your guts, Sparky! Now hold still and try and take this hammer like a man!" Nora cried out as she finished absorbing all of Ray's lightning and hefted her hammer over her shoulder. Anyone else would have been fried to a crisp if Ray had shot so much lightning into their bodies, but Nora loved the exhilarating feeling of power the electric energy gave her and reveled in it. With a shout, she leaped into the air and fell like a meteor towards the calm, smiling Ray flipping end-over-end and firing grenades behind her as she descended to build up even more speed and power.

"Don't worry. I don't plan to dodge this one." Ray said, still smiling, if with a touch of chagrin now. He may or may not have gone a little bit overboard, powering Nora up, but he had wanted to see just how much electricity she could absorb. He'd found it. The minor electrical burns that now decorated Nora's body were proof of that. It's just. He didn't expect her power to reach a level that threatened the school's very survival.

"If I did, you might just sink the whole school into the ground with how much power you have behind that hammer." He muttered to himself as he raised his hand to greet the descending hammer of the war maiden.

*BOOOOOOM!* The shockwave shook the arena and forced everyone to hide and shield their eyes from the wind pressure. When they looked back, they found that Nora was hanging suspended in mid-air, her hammer trapped in a glowing azure skeletal hand made of Aura. The bony arm and hand looked slightly bent and twisted, and they could see some cracks running thru it, but it had held.

[Amazing. I had to use stage 2 Susanoo to stop that blow.] Ray marveled at Nora's capabilities and potential. [I think we are going to be able to work very well together. Once she learns to control all that extra power and use it effectively at least.]

"Final lesson. Never get lost in your power. You knew I had Susanoo, but you still went for a direct confrontation because of all the power you had accumulated and thus ignored the fact that you knew I could block it." Ray gave his final bit of advice as he let her drop to the ground. The backlash from her last strike having taken her Aura level into the red.

Nora landed on the ground with a plop.

"Know that you could block that!? How in the Brother's names was I supposed to know that!? Who could possibly imagine that anyone could have blocked that strike!?" Nora protested. The rest of the students silently agreed. If the power behind Nora's last attack was insane, then the defense of Ray's Susanoo was unimaginable.

"Then you unleashed an attack that you didn't believe I would be able to block and that you knew would be a threat to not only myself but the school itself if I couldn't?" Ray countered, "Either way, you let your power get to your head and didn't think straight. A better option would have been an underhanded swing at a quarter to half power to launch me into the air and then chased after me to slam me back into the ground with your remaining power."

"Well, I mean. I was sure you would be able to do something. I just didn't think you would be able to block it completely, and I would finally be able to smack that cocky smirk off your smug face." Nora complained as she tried to explain herself. Having things laid out that way made it clear to her that maybe she hadn't really been thinking clearly, and she returned to her seat, reflecting on their fight.