Chapter 24

~ An interesting class ~

Narrator POV:

Pyrrha dashes slicing at Cardin, he barely manages to block the attack, Nikos not wasting time, quickly slashes backward while spinning around, Cardin yet again, barely deflecting it. One of his teammates goes in for an attack, but Pyrrha slices down low, parrying the hit and she sees that she's getting surrounded, as the two other teammates of Cardin attack, she spins her weapon around, blocking all of the stray attacks, opening herself a way for an attack, so she goes for it, knocking one to the ground with a downwards slash.

She stops paying attention to the two remaining standing guys around her and starts running towards the leader, Cardin, in a charge attack, as she gets closer and closer, she readies her attack, quickly slicing from the side, which Cardin blocks, allowing him for an attack, which gets blocked by Pyrrha's shield, right after that Pyrrha continues her attack, an upwards slash followed by another side attack, quickly managed by a dash through with a few fast jabs, throwing Cardin off balance, forcing him to go on one knee.

As Cardin looks behind him, he doesn't see the girl, he quickly looks up, to see her above him. He hastily rolls out of the way, so Pyrrha spings her spear-like weapon and throws it at him, but it gets blocked by one of his teammates, who has caught up with the girl. But yet again, she quickly knocks him down with a crouch-down kick to his legs, in the meanwhile, she picks up her weapon from behind her. Allowing her to quickly change the weapon's form to allow her to shoot once blocking the other guy's shot, right after she turns it back to the blade form, and alongside her shield, blocks a big right-side attack.

She quickly turn attacks with the spear form, causing the man to go on the defensive, with continuous and quick attacks and weapon form changes, Nikos easily beats the long stick carrying man, prompting him to basically fly away from the multitude of strong attacks. Cardin's teammate flies past him, as he refocuses his attention on the red-haired girl, who dashes at him yet again, with the blade form hitting from left to right, Carding successfully blocks it, but Pyrrha doesn't stop there, she continues attacking, from right to left again, Cardin deflects it, allowing him for a quick attack of his own, which Pyrrha blocks with her shield.

But because of that long blocks from the girl, Cardin has enough time to wind up a massive attack, Pyrrha of course dodges it, and for a good reason because the attack made a hole in the ground. Because the hit was also infused with dust, causing it to also explode at the same time. Cardin quickly spins his mace, hitting Pyrrha's shield. Causing her to slide back from the power. She quickly glances back to see the guy with the halberd winding up for an attack, she dodges it expertly, but in the meantime she also sees Cardin doing the same, she's somewhat pinned down.

But due to her masterful battle prowess, while in mid-air she blocks the attack from Cardin with her shield again, throwing him off a bit, allowing her to spin-land on the ground, she's in prime position to spin-kick the halberd man down, in fact, she does exactly that. The long stick holding guy is yet again on the ground. Pyrrha kicks herself off of the ground, in the process dodging a ground slam from Cardin.

Nikos quickly jumps over Cardin, throwing her shield at him, which hits him square in the chest, also going from him to his teammate, knocking him down at the same time. The girl jumps up, catches the shield in mid-air, and lands on the knocked down man's back, effectively taking out of the battle for good. She intensely looks up, to see only three opponents remaining. As Cardin slowly gets up, the two remaining teammates rush in for an attack on the girl.

First is the man with two daggers, who quickly... And quite embarrassingly gets disposed of by a strong shield-slam from the said girl. Right after that, she spin parries the man with the sword, allowing her to continue spinning and attacking him back. she does that twice, the last one being an upwards strike causing the man to block upwards, prompting for the girl, to spin one last time and powerfully kick him right into the face and making him go flying, but the man still hangs on there, doing a few summersaults and landing on his feet. In the meantime, Carding rushes past him and jumps up, winding up a massive attack yet again, hitting the ground as he lands, Pyrrha again dodges out of the way.

While she does that, she changes her weapon form, to its gun form, shooting multiple times in quick succession, but it gets deflected by the daggers man, who is back in action. And he has a lot to prove, so he starts running, jumps up, and starts spinning in summersaults and when close to the girl, he extends and tries to kick the girl, but it gets blocked by the shield. But because it was blocked that way, the guy can reset in air and as he lands back on the ground, he slashes downwards with his daggers, it gets blocked again.

But now, Pyrrha is in a slight pinch, since both the daggers man and the sword guy, are attacking her at the same time, quickly and without stop, making sure that the girl doesn't have time to attack back. Pyrrha is forced to stay on the defensive for a bit, before the two attackers let up, by jumping over her, Pyrrha quickly looks to the side, seeing Carding close to her, winding up yet another attack, this time not from above, but from the side, but he just doesn't learn and it gets dodged by a low roll from the girl. Who right after standing up, turns her blade to its gun form and starts shooting again.

Carding easily blocks the shots while spinning his mace, while also walking closer to Pyrrha, as he gets closer, he stops spinning his weapon and lightly jumps up in the air for an attack. Pyrrha does the same, changing her weapon to its blade form and knees Cardin in the face, slightly disorienting him, but he quickly recuperates and spin attacks the girl, but it gets parried by her, Cardin goes for another quick jab-like attack, it gets blocked by the shield, also he gets kicked in the chest, causing him to step back involuntarily.

But he still has enough balance to strike downwards, which gets blocked by the shield, the two strike and parry each other a few times, before Cardin gets overwhelmed by the fast fury of attacks from Pyrrha, causing him to tank a few attacks with the back of his armor. After that, he turns quickly and tries for a surprise attack, but the girl quickly crouch-dodges it and goes for more fast attacks, Cardin tries to keep up, but it just doesn't go his way, after a few more hits he gets hit in the back twice, which forces him to retreat.

From behind him, the man with the two daggers rushes out at Pyrrha, attacking quickly several times, all of which gets dodged and side-stepped by Nikos, during that time, she changes the blade into the spear and spins it around her neck, she also spins in tandem, throwing her shield at the opponent and also doing a spear slash at the same time, knocking the man down to the ground.

Right after him, comes in the man with the sword. who deflects two of the girl's spear attacks, in that time the shield lands from the air right in the girl's arm and as she charges at him, he turns his sword into its gun form and just starts blasting everything he has at the girl, who just blocks it with her shield... If only he shot anywhere else, but the shield, maybe he could've done some major damage, but he may have a need for glasses, Pyrrha jumps side-slashes at him, the man jumps over, rolling to the side a bunch of times, which causes him to disorient himself and probably made him slightly nauseous.

While the man gets back his bearings, Cardin has finally gotten up and in slight frustration, he hits his teammate in friendly fire due to him winding his attack, but this attack is quite strong, as instead of just blasting a hole in the ground, it makes a whole huge line, which Pyrrha summersaults with finesse and style. After landing, she quickly dashes at Cardin, who had no time to react, she attacks from above and that's the only attack that the man had the ability to block, she attacks a few more times, all of them hitting the armor pieces of Cardin, she dashes behind him with one more attack, hitting him perfectly and launching him in the air.

Pyrrha jumps up, right after him, the two of them exchange a few blows in mid-air, with Pyrrha getting in the last one before Cardin gets blown to the side. Nikos while in the air, positions her shield under her legs and powerfully launches herself off of it, prompting her to fly like a bullet at her target... Which is Cardin who can do nothing as he gets grabbed and elegantly spun around by the girl, before Pyrrha, grabs him by the jaw with her spear and drives him straight into the ground with a multitude of spins, even breaking some pieces of the ground as they land. But for a quick finisher, she also kicks him once more straight into his face, which makes him fly up and down to the ground again. Now... Was that a necessary move? Most likely not... But was it a pleasure to witness? Absolutely.

And with that, Pyrrha catches her shield and somewhat gets ready for another attack, but none come and why would they? She beat four people, with barely any struggle, finally, she can relax as she sees professor Goodwitch walk up from behind Cardin who's still on the ground.

"And that's the match" Glynda says as she struts to the middle of the 'arena'.

"Ugh... Lucky shot" Cardin gets out, right before collapsing.

As Glynda throws a glance at the collapsed man, she starts talking to Pyrrha.

"Well done, Miss Nikos. You should have no problem qualifying for the tournament"

"Thank you, professor" Pyrrha says, while gracefully bowing her head a little.

Glynda taps her Scroll "Alright, now I know that's a tough act to follow, but we have time for one more sparring match" Glynda looks around at the observing students "Any volunteers?" She pauses for a moment, only to hear some coughs and nobody stepping up for a challenge, so she continues on her own "Ms. Belladonna?" The sudden mention of her name causes Blake to slam her book shut and stares wide-eyed at Glynda "You've been rather docile for the past few classes. Why don't you-" But the professor gets cut off by somebody else.

Mercury raises his hand from behind Blake and says "I'll do it"

Glynda looks at the man for a moment, while adjusting her glasses "Mercury, is it? Very well, let's find you an opponent" As she goes to look at the scroll in her hands, she gets interrupted by the voice of Mercury.

"Actually, I wanna fight... her" He points at Pyrrha.

"Me?" Nikos asks slightly surprised.

"I'm afraid Miss Nikos has just finished the match. I recommend you choose another partner" Glynda says back with no shits given attitude.

"No, it's fine!" Pyrrha says turning back to face the professor "I'd be happy to oblige" She adds.

Mercury struts into the arena, visibly sizing up Pyrrha. As they face and stare at each other in preparation for the fight. A loud voice calls out and stops it.

"Wait just a minute"

Both of the competitors look towards the position that they heard the voice. So, does everybody else in the class. And they see a standing Faunus, that everybody knows quite well. For she's the only one with two tails, not to mention they are red now. Obviously, she doesn't wait for Glynda to say anything and just jumps down in the arena and with a natural seductive strut in her step, walks closer to the two who were about to fight.

Glynda comes out and looks at Grimmerin, which she still thinks is Crystal, as unlike with everybody else, Grimmerin didn't bother to introduce herself.

"Miss Rose, what is the reason for you stopping the sparring match between Mister Mercury and Miss Nikos?"

"A simple one, why don't we turn this sparring match of a duet... Into a trio, hmm?" She looks between Pyrrha and Mercury, while Pyrrha looks back at her somewhat intrigued by the offer, Mercury can barely withhold the hatred in his eyes for the Faunus girl.

"You want to join in the sparring match? Why didn't you volunteer for a match before then?" The professor asks Grimmerin.

"I didn't want to?"

"What changed then?"

"I started wanting to do it"

"That..." Glynda starts, but only sighs right after, she turns her attention to the two other contestants "Miss Nikos, Mister Mercury, do you agree with letting her join?"

Mercury without thinking says yes, while Pyrrha looks for a moment at the Faunus, but also agrees. Grimmerin smiles and gets herself ready... Which is just to stand in place.

"Oh, by the way, Miss Rose"

"Mrs. Rose"

"Right..." Glynda rolls her eyes "How could I forget, you're married... Anyways, you aren't allowed to use your semblance in this particular match"

Grimmerin pauses for a moment to take in the information... "Wait, what?" She turns to look at Glynda.

"You see, these matches are... training for the Vytal festival tournament. And you see, the battles there are until an opponent loses their aura and loses that way, or gets thrown out of the fighting zone. And... Seeing as the semblance of Mrs. Rose requires for you to get hurt and not use your aura, technically you'd instantly lose the very first fight, if you even took any actual damage, therefore, you aren't allowed to use your semblance, by default"

"That is stupid"

"Yeah, well, those are the rules"

"And they are stupid"

"Call them whatever you want, now are you going to continue with this 'trio' challenge? Or will you back out?"

"Of course I will continue, I already issued the challenge, no way am I running away... But one quick thing"

"What is it?"

"You do realize, that this 'tournament' is majorly unbalanced and unfair to people that don't have a lot of aura... Right?"

"Indeed, but, it's yet another lesson for future hunters and huntresses, if they can win with what they have, even against all odds, then they deserve the spot as the winner"

"Right, right, lessons, whatever you say... In a real battle, you will be forced to fight without aura eventually, so I have no idea what this actually teaches the young hunter trainees... Oh, wait... Yes, I know... They are being taught how to play around, instead of being serious, am I right about that? Imagine them, going into a real battle, never having experienced any form of pain from battle... So when their aura gets destroyed and they get barely touched for real, they scream like babies and faint like some stuck up rich harlots"

"What is that analogy... Anyways, you'd be wrong, it teache-" Glynda starts, but gets interrupted by the Faunus.

"Yes, yes, very interesting, I am learning so much, wow, such knowledge... Now, how about you be a good little professor and let us and our aura do the talking in the arena, hmm?"

Glynda only squints her eyes at Grimmerin, harrumphs, and walks away, while shouting "Begin" She still thinks that something is wrong with Crystal... cough, cough. Maybe someday she'll know.

Well, now that Grim can't stand around and just mockingly stare at the two of her enemies, she needs a new strategy... She knows that Pyrrha's semblance is Polarity because of Crystal... So she can't actually use her knives, but she also can't use her tails, because technically she'd be losing aura with every parry that Pyrrha would do... This is something she rarely does, but her battle plan is... Be Crystal. That thought gets a quick second of her head being uncomfortable, but it stops because Crystal has to agree... She does run, dodge, and not fight if unnecessary.

So now all three contestants are looking and sizing each other up. And as Mercury throws a glance at Grimmerin, he quickly refocuses on Pyrrha and charges at her for an attack. His kick gets blocked by her shield and she slashes downward at his legs, knocking him to the ground, but he quickly leaps off of the ground and jumps back with multiple flips.

After that exchange both Pyrrha and Mercury look at each other for a moment, before Pyrrha quickly dashes at him, Mercury spin kicks the attack away and quickly kicks at her again, Pyrrha blocks it with her shield again. So, Mercury continues to kick at her, she blocks with her weapon and her shield repeatedly. After a few seconds like this, Pyrrha strikes him away with her shield.

After he slides away, he stops for a moment and again looks at his opponent and hums in 'approval'.

Grimmerin looks at the two... She seems to have been forgotten... But at least because of that, she can easily pick up Ruby saying "Hey, your friend's doing pretty good" To Emi, who looks back at the younger girl with the most forced fake smile that Grim has ever seen and just after Ruby turned back to look at the fight, the Faunus seen Emi rolling her eyes... If only Ruby stared longer at her, Grim has to wonder if Emi could've held her fake smile any longer.

And just like that, Mercury jumps at Pyrrha with a powerful spinning kick, he quickly goes low and tries to sweep the girl off of her feet. but she sidesteps, but Mercury persists and kicks from above, causing Pyrrha to jump back, away from him. She changes her stance, with one knee on the ground and her sword held differently, she waits in a defensive position for more attacks.

Mercury runs at her, jumps, and starts kick-walking the shield a few times, before landing on the ground, he kicks from the right and then left, making Pyrrha block with her shield, her sword falling out of her hand. so Mercury seeing the chance, slightly jumping up, throwing a powerful left kick, which Pyrrha had to block with her forearm, Mercury blinks for a moment, but quickly continues with his offensive kicks, he spins and kicks her, she blocks with her shield, also catching her weapon in the process.

But the multitude of kicks in an instant knocks Pyrrha's weapon out of her hands, it gets stuck in the ground. both of them look at the sword for a moment, before glancing back at each other and they continue their fight, as Mercury goes for a back-spin kick at Pyrrha, he is forced by Pyrrha's semblance to miss the attack and just spin an awkward circle, forcing him on one knee.

As he gets up, Pyrrha charges him, he jumps up off the ground and with both of his legs, leaps off of Pyrrha's shield, launching himself away from her. But while he's flying, he didn't expect to receive a very strong attack from the side. Which caused him to fly into a wall. As he gets up from the attack and shakes his head to get out of the daze, he looks at the Faunus who's mocking him by not even looking at him and showing her back to him. He grits his teeth, he wants to continue fighting, but he has got what he wanted already, so Pyrrha charges at him, after she throws a glance at Grimmerin. He calls out. "I forfeit"

Causing Pyrrha to almost stumble as she steps beside him.

"You... Don't even want to try?" Pyrrha asks him.

Mercury shrugs nonchalantly "What's the point? You're a world-renowned fighter. We're obviously leagues apart. Besides, our match has interference in a form of a spectator who just can't help herself and meddle in other people's business" He throws a glance at the Faunus, who still ignores him by looking to the side.

"In that case... Mercury Black is out of this match, it shall be continued between Crystal Rose and Pyrrha Nikos" Glynda says from the side.

Emerald smirks at the announcement, but also frowns right after, she needs to have a talk with Mercury about antagonizing Grimmerin, it might end badly for him and she doesn't want that to happen. Mercury tries to ignore the displeasure inside of him because of the Faunus and sneers smugly at Pyrrha. Who has an annoyed and disappointed look on her face, also placing her left hand on her hip. The three aura displays above them are shown as Mercury's is changed from green to red indicating his loss.

"Next time, you may want to think a little harder before choosing an opponent" She says to Mercury as he starts walking away.

"I'll be sure to do that" He says back and leaves the arena.

"Now, you two may continue" Glynda says and Pyrrha gets ready again as she looks at Grimmerin, who's looking back at her without a stance.

"Hmm..." The Faunus hums loudly, causing Pyrrha to raise her eyebrow "I also thought of forfeiting"

"Huh?" Pyrrha lets her guard down a little at that statement.

"You see... This kind of match is really not my... forte. My aura is... Not fit for it"

"Mrs. Rose, either you forfeit and that's it, or continue with the fight" Glynda says from the side.

"Right, right, whatever... Well, Miss 'World-Renowned' Fighter, how about we show the audience and the professor, why I am very bad at this kind of fight and why it's boring, hmm?" Grim asks looking straight at Pyrrha.

Pyrrha doesn't say anything in return and only gets back to her stance.

"So, got no words for me... Well then... Instead of my last statement, how about I just lose the match in style"

Grimmerin takes out two knives, she looks at them for a moment. And quickly throws one of them at Pyrrha, she blocks it with ease, getting slightly confused at the weak attack. She sees the second knife flying at her, she dodges it even easier, she blinks a few times at the Faunus, who looks sadly at the knives, one of them broken because it hit the shield and the other one also broken because of hitting a wall.

"Well, there go all of my weapons..." Grim comments sadly.

Pyrrha of course doesn't let her guard down, even if she knows that Grimmerin's semblance may have no weakness, without it, she has a chance. Even if some people may call it 'unfair' to have a match like this, to her it doesn't matter. A fight is a fight. She'll never look down on an enemy or let up her defenses.

Grimmerin starts slowly and calmly walking towards Pyrrha. And just as she puts her leg down, she quickly dashes at Pyrrha, who was ready for an attack, Grimmerin's punch was blocked by the shield, as Pyrrha goes for a counter-attack, Grim pulls another knife out of her sleeve and cuts in a straight line making Pyrrha rethink her attack and forcing her to use her semblance to throw the knife out of the way.

Grimmerin doesn't give any time for Pyrrha to think of attacking, by throwing a kick at her head, it getting blocked by the shield again, right after that, she throws her tails in an attacking motion, which Pyrrha goes to parry with her sword, but it was a fake, as Grimmerin jumps over Pyrrha and pulls yet another knife out of her another sleeve and throws it at her, while also spin kicking her from another side, making Pyrrha block the kick with the shield and deflect the knife with her sword.

Right as Pyrrha does that, Grimmerin throws her tails again, but this time it's not a fake attack and they almost hit Pyrrha, but she quickly crouches, kicking the Faunus' legs to try and sweep her off the feet, but it doesn't succeed as Grimmerin uses her tails to throw herself in the air, who said that you need legs to jump when you got tails to work like springs.

Grimmerin throws her tails for another attack while in mid-air, as Pyrrha goes to parry them with her spear, she wiggles them around it, taking a hold of it, and because she was still in the air, she spins to the side, knocking the weapon out of Pyrrha's hand, or that would've been the case, if Pyrrha didn't tighten her hold on her own weapon, therefore flying with it and landing perfectly to the ground.

As she goes to stand up, she quickly spots four different knives flying at her from different sides, her eyes slightly widen in the wonder of how that happened, but she uses her semblance to knock them each one to the side, but she didn't expect for a fifth knife to come at her right in front, she quickly puts her shield ahead to block it, but she doesn't feel an impact. And that's because that knife was attached to a wire, which is held by Grimmerin, who is now in the air again, thus the knife flies above Pyrrha's head as she moves it to the side, barely missing her ear. Grim slightly tsks at that.

And so, Grimmerin lands back on the ground, and the two stare at each other. For the first time since they started their exchange, there's a pause.

"Nice fight so far, but I think it's gone on too long. Time for me to lose, ain't it, Pyrry?" Grim says smiling.

"Eh? Pyrry?" Pyrrha asks confused at the sudden nickname.

"Meh, that's the best I could come up at the moment. Anyways. I will do one last attack. My knife play didn't really work out and it seems you're getting used to them, so I won't be able to surprise you with them anymore"

"Indeed... And you also evaded my weapon when you attacked with your tails... Because if I hit them, you'd lose aura"

"Exactly, in fact, you touched them once in all of that, and would you look at that, 8% of my aura is gone just because of that. Now you see why this style of combat doesn't fit me? My aura is most definitely the weakest thing in existence, even a leaf is tougher"

"I... Wouldn't say it's that extreme..." Pyrrha comments.

"Right, so, this will be my last attack. It will be one big frontal charge, so I recommend putting up your best defense, otherwise, I might just win instead of losing"

"why... Are you telling me your plan?"

"Because none of what we are doing matters anyways, if it was a real battle, you'd be on the ground looking up at your superior. This is just a game to me, so I am giving you one more handicap, alongside me not being allowed to use my semblance"

Pyrrha doesn't say anything to that again, but Grim can see from her displeased look that the red-haired girl doesn't agree with her view.

"Anyways, get ready"

Grimmerin puts everything in her legs, turning off all of her senses except for eyesight. She can feel her legs' chemical pumped muscles just waiting to burst out of her fleshy cage, but sadly, they aren't allowed, as they are forced to stay inside, just as they were forced to enter Crystal's body, to begin with.

Pyrrha looks at Grimmerin first battle stance... Which is not even a battle stance, it's just a running stance that people do when they are about to start running. But because she was there when she saw Grimmerin remove those cameras around Beacon really fast, she knows what's coming. So that's why Grimmerin said her plan out loud... It would've not mattered, because Pyrrha instantly would've understood what the Faunus is going to do.

And just like Grimmerin said, she gets down on one knee, her shield in front and her other hand dropping the blade to the side and also holding the shield from inside for more stability. And so, she braces for an impact, probably of such magnitude of which she has never faced before.

"Ready or not! Here comes the Grimm bullet!" Pyrrha hears Grim shout loudly from behind her shield and just as she heard that sentence, so also feels the ground tremble... It's not trembling, it's just that the ground is breaking from the impact of the Faunus' legs.

Grimmerin runs as quickly as she possibly can, making the distance between her and Pyrrha in a mere second, with holes left in the ground and just as she gets a few meters away from her target, she leaps off the ground and starts spinning fast because of the speed and force of the jump, just like a bullet would. And just like that after loads of spins, her legs make a connection with Pyrrha's shield. The impact making a loud ring all over the class, unfortunately for the audience, the dust from the ground holes that Grimmerin made, rose with her spinning and blocked the view, they only heard the scenario and didn't see it.

But as the dust finally settles, they see what happened. Pyrrha was forced to slide quite a distance from the impact of the 'Grimm Bullet', Grimmerin standing at the position that Pyrrha was previously in, with her leg muscles visibly moving around, which is quite a disgusting sight to some people.

However, the most prominent thing that the people are looking at is that a big part, almost a half in fact, of Pyrrha's shield was broken off and sent flying to the side, sticking to the wall just like a sword would.

"Phew, now that was pretty fun, what is that shield made out of?" Grimmerin enthusiastically comments looking at it.

Pyrrha silently looks at the broken shield in her hand, then quickly back at the Faunus, who's looking at the broken-off piece as if it were a toy... If that attack hits a human or a Faunus target head-on... Wouldn't that instantly kill them? With that thought Pyrrha realizes that she could've died here... How is that a game exactly?... Then she remembers who's her opponent... All life is a game to this person... If she can even be called a person, she called the attack a Grimm Bullet... She speaks of herself as if she was a monster... They really need to somehow get Crystal back, before somebody in Beacon angers her and gets their life cut short. And also, now she knows who killed those 17 Atlas soldiers, with attacks like these, she understands how those bodies could be barely recognized.

She shakes off the goosebumps from these thoughts and finally gets up from the ground and looks towards the professor. So that she'd call out the winner... Even if she doesn't feel like one, because just like the Faunus said, she'd be on the ground looking up at her if they fought for real... If she even had the power to look at that point, this is worse than she thought, she needs to talk with team RWBY about this and headmaster Ozpin himself.

As Glynda comes in view of everybody to announce the winner, she gets interrupted by Grimmerin.

"Now, why doesn't Pyrry here, show why I would've lost in an aura battle" Grimmerin spreads her arms out after saying that and smirks at Pyrrha "This is why I wanted to forfeit before, here, attack me, with the same amount of strength as you used in your fight against team CRDL"

"No, there's no need to do that" Pyrrha says shaking her head.

"Oh? Come on, it's just a demonstration, nothing bad will happen"

Pyrrha looks at professor Goodwitch for confirmation, only getting a tired nod from her, it seems what the Faunus said was correct, Crystal and Glynda really did live together for a while, it seems she's somewhat used to this.

And so, Pyrrha readies one last attack, dropping her shield to the ground and dashing straight at the Faunus, swinging downwards in a powerful strike, which connects, launching Grimmerin backwards, but she easily lands on the ground.

"Nice hit, now, if you'd look at my aura input... You'll see that I lost 44% of it just from that one attack... So two of those and I'd lose the battle by default, three of those? And I'd be injured, so it's great that I don't have a team and am not even permitted to enter the tournament, I'd have no chance at winning it"

"Mhm, you'd be correct... Now, since Mrs. Rose has accepted defeat, Miss Nikos wins this match... again"

An alarm sounds which jolts Blake who has nodded off, somehow all of the commotion from the previous battle didn't manage to accomplish that.

"That is all for today. And remember, the dance is this weekend. But you all have your first mission on Monday. I will not accept any excuses" Glynda says sternly as everyone leaves.

~ End of Chapter 24 ~