A Bitter Encounter [Closed]

With the sudden wall of ice, his suspicions were confirmed: the Faunus' sword and gauntlet were Multi Action Dust Weapons, like his own. Trained ears picked up the familiar sound of the Dust chambers being reloaded. Tyonis did likewise, although now he switched back to the .44 Magnum rounds.

He fired three bullets straight at the ice wall, aiming at her image through the translucent barrier. He also used the sound of her reloading to more accurately triangulate her position, since there was a probability of image refraction through the ice.

Through Tyonis' Refraction, the trio of bullets aligned themselves right behind one another, creating a slipstream effect to greatly enhance their speed and overall penetrating power. Once they were all aligned, Tyonis increased their velocity to match that of an anti-material tank rifle.

The effect was obvious: the first two bullets drilled through the shield almost instantly and the final one, propelled by both the slipstream and Tyonis' Semblance, burst through what was left.

For his second step, the swordsman fired two more bullets and curved them around the ice barrier to prevent his adversary from dodging to either side.

He saved his sixth bullet, predicting that the Faunus would jump above to evade his three-pronged trap...

She had no choice, she was forced to jump out of there. But she could at least make things a little more interesting. The moment she jumped out of her cover, she fired three flaming bullets towards the boy in an attempt to throw his aim off, and upon landing she would punch the ground with her gauntlet, sending a pulse of electricity through the ground and towards the boy. Without hesitation, she ran towards him the moment the electricity began pulsing towards him, but rather than attacking, she expected him to counterattack so she placed her blade in front of her and readying for a form of counterattack.

As soon as the Faunus jumped, Tyonis fired his last bullet, his trap triggered. He intended for the shot to hit her as she hung, suspended in mid-air, and unable to change her trajectory. However he could not see the result of his gambit as a trio of bright flashes emerged from her person and momentarily blocked her from view.

Tyonis recognized the danger but didn't flinch. The flaming bullets veered off, missing their target by several inches. They cratered the arena floor behind him - his Semblance was easily capable of deflecting anything up to medium arms fire. As long as the bullets failed to hit their mark, the Fire Dust they were packed with proved useless.

He used the few milliseconds to reload his weapon with Dust capsules. Now that his opponent had upped the ante, regular bullets would not be enough.

As the lightning flew toward him, Tyonis knelt and thrust his weapon into the ground in front of him with his revolver set to lightning. Once the wave hit, Tyonis activated both his Semblance and his gunblade to redirect the blast away from him. He picked up three discarded shell casings with his free hand and readied his weapon just in time to clash with the Faunus' charge.

The moment their swords clashed, she looked in his eyes in an attempt to intimidate. Her burning red eyes bore into his as she growled, using her full strength to push her sword against his. Slowly, she brought her armored hand up and reached into one of her many pouches on her belt and pulled out a small spherical object. Without hesitation, she threw it on the ground, causing the spherical object to release a thick smoke screen. The moment it engulfed both of them, she stepped aside so she was just out of view, giving her time to rummage through several of her pouches as she began to look for something.

Years of dealing with life-or-death situations made Tyonis practically immune to the Faunus' attempts to intimidate him. He simply returned her glare with one of his own as they locked blades.

Once she retreated into the smoke, Tyonis did likewise, leaping backward from the explosion's epicenter.

With a wave of his sword, the smoke screen dispersed as if cut, pushed away by his gunblade's Wind Dust setting.

Only a short moment after the boy cleared the smoke did Rachael decide to make her presence known.

"You done goofed." she said, placing her armored hand on the boy's shoulder. Rather than pulsing electricity through him like she normally would, she simply left her hand there. "Don't let me do this again." she warned as she pointed her sword at the back of his head. Her intimidating demeanor was gone, as was her smile. At this point she just seemed downright annoyed.

Years of assassination attempts on his life had long taught him to always be aware of surprise attacks to one's exposed back, especially while one's vision was obscured. Moreover, like any novice, his Aura was sensitive enough to detect nearby threats even those outside his field of vision.

When the Faunus finally decided to make her move, Tyonis had no need to even face his adversary. In the same instant she crept up behind him and grabbed his shoulder, he countered by positioning his the tip of his sword squarely against her chest, his blade held in a reverse-grip to keep her from stepping forward lest she impale herself on his longsword.

"Do you honestly think a smoke screen would be enough to hinder my perception?" He replied calmly, his head still facing forward and away from her. Tyonis referred to the basic skill of Hunters' sensitivity training. One of the fundamental aspects of Aura proficiency was the enhancement of senses - even without one's Aura unlocked, it still functioned as a heightened sense of awareness to danger. It was a simple matter to track her presence through the smoke screen. It was how he was able to hit all his targets accurately in the exercise prior to the match, despite having his eyes closed.

"She can predict when I use my Aura. So she excels at esoteric detection." He finally concluded. It explained how she was able to cope with the sudden changes in bullet trajectory and acceleration. If she subconsciously knew it was coming, she could adapt her movements to compensate.

"But even notices are capable of using their Aura to sense nearby targets, so what about her is different?"

Tyonis' setting was still on Wind Dust, so he decided to break the stalemate. A point-blank, gale-force wind exploded from the tip of his blade to blow his opponent away from his back.

"You'll have to use more than cheap gimmicks to defeat me. Unless hopping around like an oversized-rabbit is all you are capable of."

Rachael didn't make a sound when she was knocked back by the burst of wind, she only looked at the boy with a slight smile. Upon recovering from the burst of wind, she looked him up and down before sighing. "You're confused, I know. Any normal person would be when someone like me is avoiding their attacks the way I am." she looked at him for a moment before taking a deep breath. "I'll tell you now, it's not because I underwent some sort of special training to sense aura or predict movements before they happen or blah blah blah. It's my semblance." she said as she stabbed her sword into the ground.

"My semblance is the innate ability to sense other people's aura. Everything you feel and do is reflected through you aura, which I can sense and use to predict your next move. I feel your emotions and your movements without having to do so much as look at you." she said. "And now we know eachother's semblances and weapons, as well as fighting styles and the like. Now it's just down to raw mind games." she said as she reached into one of her pouches. She didn't exactly pull anything out, as she was just rummaging around to see what she had on her, as well as give the boy time to think.

Tyonis reloaded his Wind Dust and readied his weapon. There was still one aspect of his Semblance he had yet to demonstrate, although he wasn't sure he would need to. If she could read his emotions and his Aura, he would simply have to hide his intent.

With an exhale, he summoned a mask of apathy, conditioned through years of formal training. He was a noble. Therefore he had to learn how to keep his emotions in check in order to avoid showing weakness to his fellow aristocrats. Like an opaque mirror, he revealed nothing.

His Aura was another problem, but if she was using his emotions to help her predict his movements, stripping himself of them might partially blind her Semblance.

Tyonis charged, his gunblade switching to ice. He launched a quartet of icicle, Refracting all of them to match the slug of a hunting rifle. One flew straight at the Faunus, two attempted to pincer her from both sides, and the final one arched up and over the first to neutralize her vertical movement.

It was a prison of flying spikes - a four-pronged assault on the basic planes of movement.

As he begun to close the distance, he held his blade at the ready.

"You don't get it do you...?" she said, barely loud enough for him to hear. Just before the icicles hit, she once more used her gauntlet to amplify her aura. The red crimson that was essentially her life force erupted from her body, shattering the icicles before they could hit her. The moment the boy came in range, she didn't budge. She waited for him to do something so she could demonstrate how well she could dodge his blade. "You have one minute before I leave out of disinterest." she taunted, her expression cold and bitter.

Once more, she overpowered his attacks through excessive force. He would continue to chip away at her Aura until she succumbed to exhaustion.

But despite her boasting of mind-games, his icicle tactic seemed to have her trapped. If an opponent couldn't counter, all that was left was to beat him into submission.

So Tyonis halted his charge and repeated his four-pronged assault, as if daring her to abuse her Aura again.

With a sigh, Rachael once more flared her aura to destroy the icicles, but rather than simply standing still, she began to slowly walk towards the boy. Her intention was not to intimidate, but to simply close the gap. She'd let him waste more of his dust and ammo reserves, and she'd eventually get to him and finish this. At least, she hoped. She was beginning to become fatigued, but she didn't show it in the slightest. It was minor exhaustion, nothing she hadn't dealt with before. Should he fire more projectiles, she would dodge and block. It wasn't that hard, right?

Rachael realized quickly that if she didn't cut down on the aura usage then she would quickly expire. It was not something she wanted to do. But neither was losing to this stubborn child. For the time being, she decided that she would lower her aura so that it wasn't visible and cut down on the usage. She could only use her semblance for a while longer, after that then she'd have to rely on actual combat skills, which she didn't want to do.

"She's finally catching on. I guess this dog can learn new tricks."

He maintained the icicle barrage, intending to wear her down as much as possible with the same tactic. He was rationing his Ice Dust by creating icicles using only the minimum amount of Dust and energy, so he could continue the four-pronged assault for several more rounds.

With each step forward his opponent took, Tyonis took one back to equalize the distance and to maintain his range advantage.

After a moment or two or dodging, Rachael decided to quicken her pace. With a single step and flash of her sword, another icicle was gone, and the rest were behind her. For a moment, it seemed as if all had stopped for Rachael as she looked into the boy's eyes. It was at this moment that she took a deep breath, and began sprinting at him, carefully maneuvering herself around the projectiles whilst carefully placing her sword to block them as well. It didn't take long for her to close the distance and swing her sword in a horizontal slash at him, still staring into his eyes with a cold, uncaring glare.

As soon as she came within striking distance, Tyonis switched his gunblade to the purple setting, increasing the kinetic impact of his attacks.

The swordsman used his blade's superior reach to intercept her horizontal strike with a swift thrust to her wrist, aiming to disarm her in a single stroke.

Rachael did her best to foresee this, pulling her hand out of the way whilst aiming an electrified punch to his shoulder. Whilst she did this, she planted herself firmly in front of him and readied her sword to be swung back around.

Tyonis used a localized Aura barrier around his left palm and pass-blocked the shoulder punch so it sailed harmlessly off to the side. In that same instant, he flipped his sword up to lock her blade away from her center to keep her from countering with another slash. He ignored the electricity emanating from the gauntlet. As long as he maintained a small barrier between his hand and the gauntlet, the Dust was no threat.

With one of her arms extended toward his shoulder and her sword arm locked to the side, his adversary's head was completely open. The three shell casings he picked up earlier would now serve their purpose.

Tyonis turned his left wrist and used his thumb to flick the three shell casings toward the Faunus' face and sternum, Refracting them at point-blank to match the muzzle velocity of a shotgun.

"So close." she said as a whirring sound could be heard from her armored hand. "But not close enough." and before he could react, the last bit of dust she had on her was used in her gauntlet's secondary effect. Without warning, crimson erupted from all over Rachael as her aura literally exploded from her body. The force was enough to knock away the casings and hit the boy, knocking him far away from her.

As he was thrown back, Tyonis handsprung then backflipped, landing in a sliding crouch, the front half of his body glowing white. His Aura peeled off him as he came to a stand.

He took a moment to mentally analyze his resources. His physical stamina was fine, he had hardly moved at all during this fight. Despite heavy use of Refraction, his Aura was still relatively high. Refraction in itself didn't take that much energy to use, especially since the objects he was Refracting weren't too dense. As a defense, his Aura was above-average, but that didn't mean he could block every single attack with it. As long as he gave himself time to recharge and refrained from using his stamina, he would win in a battle of attrition.

But with his distance reset, Tyonis switched his setting back to ice and unleashed another wave of icicles, utilizing the same four-pronged trap. But this time, he tripled the number of icicles for a total of twelve, and warped them into aerodynamic arrows to enhance their accuracy and velocity.

This gambit would drain him of his Ice Dust, but he deemed it strategically sound.

Three icicle arrows shot at his adversary in a straight line, riding within the slipstream of the first to increase their velocity and penetration power. Two more sets of slipstreaming arrows were Refracted to pin her laterally, and the final set arched up and over to neutralize her ability to evade vertically.

As a final measure, Tyonis timed his projectiles to all land simultaneously. With the increase in force, velocity, and number merely blocking would not be enough. Even if she could manage to shatter the leading arrow with her sword or gauntlet, she would still have to compensate for the remaining two that flew right within its slipstream. If she were to conjure a wall of ice, she could perhaps block the first two waves before the final one drilled through, but doing so would limit her maneuverability even more than his own trap would.

It lead to one conclusion Tyonis could think of: she would have to greatly expand her Aura yet again to defend against multiple waves.

This time, he aimed to burn her out entirely or risk taking heavy damage.

With a sigh, she quickly reloaded her dust chambers as the boy sprung away. Her sword was still fine, but she had to reload her gauntlet's chambers with yet another kind of dust. It was the same kind she had initially loaded, kinetic dust in order to increase the speed at which she could move her arm. Just before the icicles hit, she released another explosion of aura. She didn't like abusing this power, as it drained her of her dust reserves quickly. Four times she estimated she could do this, and she just used one of them.

The explosion shattered the icicles, allowing her free movement once more, except this time she had a small plan. She wasn't good at planning whilst constantly fending off projectiles, but now that she had a moment, there was something she wanted to try out. Quickly, she reached into one of her back pockets to pull out precisely three knives. There was something special about these knives, as they had incredibly thin wires attached to them. Unless the boy was incredibly perceptive, he wouldn't notice them and just use his semblance to redirect the knives without any knowledge of the wires.

"But he's gonna find out so I gotta think of something to work around THAT..." the girl sighed, muttering. "What a bother..."

With a quick flick of her wrist the knives were sent flying towards the boy's chest. Should he choose to stand still, he'd be in for a nasty surprise.

As a Hunter, Tyonis never allowed himself to feel accomplished just because one of his gambits paid off, at least partially. What the Faunus used wasn't necessarily Aura, but a massive discharge of Dust. Still, Dust was vital resource, and to waste it all on defense meant she was still leagues behind him when it came to strategic analysis.

Since he was out of Ice Dust, he took the opportunity to reload his empty Dust chamber with a yellow capsule. He still had five other Dust types left. With a single blink, his next move was planned.

Tyonis knew something was off the moment the girl drew a trio of throwing knives. His opponent had been so intent on mindlessly closing distance; the sudden switch to ranged techniques was a dead give away she was finally trying to plan something.

"Knives?" He questioned as they flew at him, thrown at speeds no regular person could manage.

"On the battlefield, complacency is a cardinal sin." His father's mantra echoed in his head. It meant underestimating your opponent and overestimating yourself equated to death in battle.

Although he could not understand his opponent's scheme, it was this conditioned vigilance that made him switch to Red and shoot down the knives with a set of flaming bullets.

The moment the boy aimed at her knives, she had already pulled out two more items from one of her many pouches. With a sigh, she took the first item, a grenade, and used her teeth to pull the pin before she threw it at him. By the time she had thrown it, the knives were shot down, so he would easily see it. The second item, however, was a much smaller and compact item. It looked like a white sphere made of fragile materials. With a powerful throw, the sphere was sent flying towards the boy's feet. Upon making contact, it would create a bright flash that would blind him if he were looking anywhere near it. And with one final action, she pointed her sword at him and fired a volley of six bullets made entirely of flame dust. She wanted to give him little time to react, whilst observing his motions to make sure she wasn't caught off guard.

As the hail of ranged assults came, Tyonis began mentally catergorizing each threat while running to his left to evade.

Instead of shooting the grenade down, Tyonis Refracted the grenade to his right as he gained distance on his left. If he detonated the grenade in mid-air with a flaming round, he would rain shrapnel on himself. He could Refract the shrapnel, but that would be a pointless waste in Aura and attention.

He did the same for the flash bomb, realizing too late what it actually was. But his Refraction managed to move bomb far enough that the epicenter of the flash was out of his field of vision. But his peripheral vision was still temporarily compromised.

He switched to the violet setting as the bullets came at him, and continued running to evade their trajectory. Each bullet exploded a few steps behind him, but even at his pace, he could not dodge all six and he did not want to use his Aura to defend.

He felt the heat of the fifth bullet just behind his ears and finally activated the violet Dust. It served to increase Tyonis' applied kinetic energy, so with his next step he cleared the sixth bullet with ease and charged his opponent, closing the distance between them in a single lunge, his foot crushing a crater into the ground as he leapt forward.

He unleashed a flurry of strikes, his sword glowing a royal purple. His intention was to push her back into the same ice wall she created before, which had just begun to melt. With her back pressed to a wall, her maneuverability would be greatly limited.

With a sigh, Rachael tossed her sword a few feet into the air, letting it spin for a moment before catching it with her gauntlet hand. Usually she held her sword in her right hand, whilst her gauntlet sat on her left. However, in extreme cases she would move her sword to her left so she could gain the benefit of dust through both her gauntlet and her sword for maximum effect. In this case, she needed the kinetic dust in her hand to keep up with the boy's motions. It wasn't easy, but she managed to keep up with him without backing off through a combination of dust and semblance. Without thinking much, she sidestepped a swipe from the boy's sword, bringing her knee up to meet forcefully with the boy's stomach. Her other knee was bent slightly, prepared to jump out of the way if necessary, and her sword was still at the ready in case of any more strikes from his sword.

Their swordplay continued for a few seconds, with neither side gaining ground until the Faunus chose to break the stalemate by dodging to the left and attacking with a knee to his stomach.

At this range, Tyonis couldn't parry or block the knee smash conventionally. With her sword at the ready, he couldn't force her into the defensive either. So he countered with a fierce smash of his sword's pommel against her lifted knee, intending to cripple her on the spot. With one leg uplifted, it meant her balance was slightly off; if his hilt smash hit, it could force her back toward the ice wall.

"A good defense is a good offense, I suppose," he thought.

Without more than a slight grimace, she took that hit to the knee with a quick stumble backwards. Before she could think much of it, she tried her best to quickly regain her posture and move back in as quickly as she could. With her sword held in front of her, she charged towards the boy whilst throwing another three knives, again with thin wires attached. She prepared for the worst, another barrage of ranged attacks, or another flurry of sword strikes. She tried her best to peer into his aura and monitor his movements, hopefully so she could outmaneuver him and actually land a blow for once.

Tyonis backflipped to regain distance as she drew a three more throwing knives. He Refracted the oncoming knives as he spun in mid-air and they sailed off to the side. He landed in a crouch, the barrel of his weapon trained on his opponent.

He came to a slow stand as he evaluated his resources again. He still had quite a bit of Violet Dust - enough for two or three more protracted melee engagements. His peripheral vision was finally returning to normal - he needed to buy time for it to recover, which was why he chose to engage her in close combat. The sudden change of pace was meant to throw her equilibrium off.

Given a moment to reevaluate the situation, it was now he finally saw the thin glint of metallic wire originating from one of the knives.

"Ho? So that's the trick," he thought eyes narrowed.