Heaven vs. Hell [CLOSED]

There was quite a bit of ruckus coming from inside the arena, it would seem, as young Rachael Lorelei practiced her various fighting techniques. She made it part of her daily schedule to come and practice against dummies to try and learn to not rely on her semblance so much. It seemed she ended up meeting other people here a lot and ended up fighting them, mostly because she wasn't the nicest person in the world. Maybe the next time she met someone, they could actually become friends...?

"Too much effort. Probably not." she mumbled to herself as she moved to set up a dummy just a few feet in front of her. It didn't take long to pick one up and move it halfway across the arena. Now she just needed to load her weapons, which would take her a minute. "I should make it so I can do this faster..." she said, already getting impatient.

Skylar walked down towards the arena, stretching her arms high into the air, Wow, it's a pretty nice day out. She thought as she lifted her face to the sun, soaking in its warm rays. As she approached the arena, she heard the sound of someone else practicing on some dummies. She entered the arena, seeing a blond faunus girl doing what looked like loading her weapons. She peered a little closer, seeing a pretty wicked looking gauntlet strapped to the girl's arm, along with a blade in her other hand, Woah, that thing is sweet! She thought about the gauntlet before calling out to the girl, "Hi there!" She said, a smile both on her face and in her voice, "I hope I'm not interrupting!"

Rachael froze for a moment, looking over her shoulder and at the person who had entered the arena behind her. It was a young girl, around her age that looked generally upbeat and happy. She turned sideways to look at the girl as her eyes turned from their normal yellow to red. She looked generally irritated that this young girl had interrupted her practice, and, without responding, she simply sighed and tried her best to calm herself.

"Hi, and no. You're fine..." she said, barely audible for the girl to hear as her expression changed from irritation to just a blank face. Without thinking twice about the girl, Rachael turned around and continued to load her weapons.

Skylar's eyes narrowed a bit as she saw the girl's eyes change colour, but she blinked and they were back to their interesting yellow colour. She shrugged to herself, thinking it might have just been a trick of the light, Or she could be like me when I use my semblance. She thought. She walked over to the other girl, peeking over her shoulder and watching as she loaded her weapons, Some sort of way to shoot Dust or something. She stood silent for a moment before saying, "Those are some cool weapons." She said as she looked closer at them, "How does the Dust work into them?" She asked, curious as to exactly she was loading into what looked like a pair of melee weapons.

Rachael felt very uncomfortable, but her face didn't show at all. She was intent to be nice at least once in her life. 'Wait, why?' she thought to herself as she paused for a moment. 'Why be nice?' Normally she would have probably flipped the bird and told the girl to leave her be, or else. But for some reason she hadn't.

"They... both channel dust to create various effects." she would come to say in response to the girl's questions. Despite wanting to turn around and punch this girl in the face for disturbing her, she was being nice for once. There was only one other instance of her being nice in order to try and make a friend, and that ended up surprisingly well. Maybe if she did it again, she could be less angry about people?

Rachael finished loading her weapons and looked back at the girl, her eyes flashing red for a moment once more before turning yellow again. She wasn't hostile, she was actually being nice. Most other humans who took the time to speak to her were usually bitter and angry, but this one was nice. It warmed her heart for once, and even caused her to smile a little bit.

Skylar smiled back at the girl, Yeah, definitely saw the eyes that time. She thought. She looked around a bit, seeing only a couple dummies set up around the area. She looked back at the girl, "By the way, my name's Skylar, Skylar Hart." She paused for a moment before asking, "Any chance you're up for a spar? I'm itching to get some actual combat practice in."

"Ah, sure. I need the practice anyways." she said as she turned around to face the girl completely. She still looked kind of blankly at the girl, but she tried her best to try and act friendly, at least.

"How do you want to go about this then?" she would ask as she closed the dust chambers on her weapons, having fully loaded them. She leaned her sword over her shoulder and looked at the girl, looking her up and down as to judge her physical abilities. Her mental abilities would be shown in combat, and Rachael would take time to judge them carefully.

Skylar smiled, removing her weapon from her hip and springing it to full size. She twirled the staff around a few times before putting one end on the ground, "I say we just go!" She said with a laugh in her voice. She gripped her staff with both hands, dropping into a defensive stance. She considered unveiling her semblance early, but decided instead to wait to see what the other girl was capable of. She began slowly stepping to one side, her staff still raised up in front of her in case of a sudden attack.

Rachael didn't respond with words, but rather actions. Her sword was held in her right hand, and her gauntlet was worn on her left as she took about two steps forwards so she was in the girl's face before she brought down her sword in a vertical arc. She expected the girl to retaliate, possibly via a parry, so she held her gauntlet hand just between her chest and face so she could block if necessary.

Skylar's smile didn't waiver as the battle began. She saw the girl's attack come shooting towards her head, so she spun her staff, knocking the blade off to her right. She used the momentum of the parry to aim a jab with her staff towards the girl's stomach, We'll see how she deals with this counter. Obviously we're just feeling each other out right now. She thought as her staff shot at her opponent.

Rachael had made a good move, preparing for a strike to her torso. She swatted away the jab with a downward sweep of her hand and brought her sword back around for another swing. So far so good, thought the canine. As long as she didn't pull something strange, she was good. At the moment, her semblance was not activated, meaning she had to rely on actual skill rather than her foresight.

Skylar leaned back, pushing off and rolling back to avoid the girl's next strike. She hopped quickly back to her feet, bringing her staff back up to face the girl. She took a step forward, feinting a strike at her opponent's side before stopping and spinning around, aiming a swing at the girl's head.

Rachael balanced herself as her opponent rolled backwards. The feint had fooled her into attempting to block her side with her sword, but she quickly realized her mistake and barely managed to duck under the swipe at her head. As she lowered herself closer to the ground, she twisted her body to the right, and then back to the left as she stabbed her sword at the girl's abdomen. She didn't stop there, she pulled the crooked trigger of her sword which fired a bullet of flaming dust at the girl. It wouldn't pierce her flesh, but it would singe it at least.

Skylar managed to see the girl's blade come stabbing towards her gut. She twisted out of the way, but was unable to anticipate the gout of flame coming out of it's point. The Dust caught her on her side, burning her exposed skin. She let out a Tsk of pain, the Dust hurting pretty badly, Damn, underestimated that weapon. She thought as she came spinning back around. She aimed another swing at the girl's arm, striking across and downward at her wrist to attempt to knock the blade out of her hand.

Skylar's blow succeeded in knocking Rachael's weapon out of her hand. The blade flew to the side as Rachael jumped backwards and out of the way. It was now she decided she'd have to use her semblance. Her eyes turned crimson for the third time since the girl entered the room, and she looked into Skylar's eyes. Rachael growled a little bit as she attempted to make a run for her weapon which was several meters to the side. It would be easy to know when to dodge when she needed to with her semblance, and maybe even counterattack. With a sigh, she felt for the girl's aura as she ran for her sword, waiting for the inevitable attempt to try and stop her.

Skylar smiled as the girl's eyes burned red again, That must have to do with her aura. She thought, I knew there was something up with that. She closed her eyes for a split second, feeling a great rush of power come welling up from inside of her as she opened the first Gate. Her eyes snapped open, now glowing white with her power. Her hair followed suit, making it look as if she had white flames flowing out behind her. She pointed her staff towards the girl, sending out her aura to prevent her from reaching her weapon. A rod of her white aura extended from the end of the staff, and she swung the elongated weapon at her opponent's gut.

Rachael didn't even need to look to know that the rod was aimed at her gut. What actually made her look, was the fact she felt the girl's aura extended from something, in this case it was her staff. Without thinking, Rachael leaped over the rod, doing a flip mid-air as she did so in order to dodge the staff. She landed into a roll and quickly grabbed her sword before turning to the girl once more and holding her sword up to try and defend from her next attack.

Skylar's brow creased a bit, Hmm... She thought, I wonder... She retracted her aura from the staff, taking a step towards the girl. She pressed one end of her staff on her thigh, causing it to shrink into a one-handed nightstick. She held it in her left hand and held her other hand open by her side. A white flame appeared in her right hand, morphing and twisting into a glowing white sword about three feet long. She leaned forward before sprinting at her opponent, her hair streaming out behind her like the tail of a comet. She crossed her arms before striking outward at the girl, bringing each weapon across her body towards her enemy's neck.

Rachael barely managed to see this and block it, the flame with her gauntlet and the weapon with her sword. The flames felt hot and her skin felt like it was getting singed just by being even remotely close to the flames, but she had an idea for retaliation. Although she didn't think it would quite work whilst her gauntlet was still touching the flames. Without much thought, she kicked at Skylar's stomach in attempt to get her away so she could actually do something.

Skylar grunted as the kick landed, driving the wind out of her. She slid backwards, disengaging for a moment. She swung the blade of aura at her opponent, increasing its length as she did so in order to reach. The slash was aimed to cleave down on the girl's right shoulder, We'll see if my theory was correct. She thought as she loosened the bindings that held the second Gate closed, Not gonna go easy on her just because this is a spar, and its been too long since I unlocked this much power.

Rachael easily saw the girl's attack, blocking it with her own sword. "Hm, so you can make weapons out of your aura?" she said as she pushed the flaming sword of aura away with her own sword. "Interesting..." she mumbled as she knelt down and punched the ground with her gauntlet. Normally this would be a stupid idea, as the ground was not her target, but lucky for her she had a super special gauntlet. Not even she knew what it could actually do.

The ground in front of her turned a pale light blue before ice sprouted from the ground in a line from Rachael to Skylar. She pulled back, standing upright and taking a step backwards as her gauntlet gave a bluish glow to show that it still had notable amounts of dust in it.

Skylar released her hold on the flaming sword, causing it to fall apart and disappear. She saw the line shooting towards her and, figuring it probably wasn't all that safe, dove to the left, landing in a roll and quickly popping back up to her feet. She put her weapon between her hands and pushed it back into its compact form, returning it to her belt. I might regret it later, but here we go... She closed her eyes again, feeling the second Gate swing open and a flood of energy fill her body. Her eyes snapped open, and she quickly manifested three fireballs out of her aura, which she hurled at the other girl. Without her realizing it, a ring of flame appeared on the ground near her feet. She smiled as her aura was unleashed, Here's where things get interesting.

Rachael focused on the flames that were flying at her, watching their paths and positions. She sidestepped one and sliced another in half with her sword. The last one was crushed with a burst of ice from her gauntlet. 'And now's my chance' she thought as she charged the girl. Still holding her sword with one hand, she brought it down on the girl in a powerful arc. The blade was colored orange with the extreme amount of heat it was holding, both from the girl's flame and from the fire dust building up within the blade.

Skylar smirked as the girl thought she had a free shot at her. She held up her right hand, forming a solid shield of aura in front of it. The blade smashed down on it, halting in its tracks. Her arm was jarred a little, but she held off the attack. She formed her left hand to a fist, using her aura to create a solid dome around it. She thrust a punch towards the girl's gut, moving her arm about halfway before sending the dome at her stomach on its own. She continued forward with her punch, aiming to land a double-blow with the combination attack.

Rachael felt the aura forming around the girl's hand, and she immediately looked down just as the dome started moving towards her. She jumped back, slicing the dome as it came flying towards her. The punch was already out of range from when she leaped back and out of the way. When she looked back at the girl, she didn't move, she just examined her.

'She can make anything out of her aura, but it must have limits on how much aura she has like my own semblance. Okay then, I'll go one step further.' she thought to herself as she thrust her sword into the ground, letting it sit there as she held out her gauntlet in front of her.

"Shall we take this one step further, then?" she said as a low whirring sound was heard. It wasn't long before a red mist-like substance began flowing from her body until it slowly engulfed it. This was her aura. She picked up her sword and held it with both hands this time as she charged the newcomer. With the trigger held down, she swung horizontally at the girl with all her strength, twisting her upper body as she did so for maximum effect. When the sword came in contact with anything, it would release a powerful torrent of fire towards the object it hit.