Burning Lungs (Underwater Combat Class, Open to Two)

Haze had rounded Springwood lake three times, carefully selecting the site of this class. A thin layer of algae topped most of the lake, beetles were fighting in the water and acting as prey for giant blind salamanders. Around great sections of the water's edge fishermen sat, loosing great hunks of meat on hook and line in an attempt to draw the aforementioned salamanders. She could see rid of them with ease, a flick of the wrist and a layer of poison; the fishermen would flee and life would drain... but they made ideal hazards for the class she had planned. Using the waters surrounding Bellmuse was too difficult, the ebb and flow of tide would interrupt the class, so she would have to utilise the waters of inland Bellmuse.

She'd found what she deemed to be a good entrance, near the most northern point of the water body (nearing the point where Springwood turned to Skylight Forrest) where few salamanders were visible and there were only a couple of fishermen within ten metres of the entrance. The Goddess Haze, mace in her left hand and bag over her right shoulder; she drew forth a small plate like device, pressed a button near its centre, and threw it into the water; a rope emerging from it she anchored it to a nearby sapling. Folding outward the plate became a floating disk, only having a radius of around two metres it jostled uneven on the rather still water. It was designed to float but little more than that, a fighting stage designed to flip and rock under the stress of battle. She drew another devices from her bag, throwing it on the shore it flipped out and expanded to form a lounging beach-chair. Setting the bag by her side, twirling her mace, she would await the students she had called.

Completely randomised, two students had received a scroll message to meet Madam Haze at Springwood lake on Sunday, one PM sharp. They were to bring their equipment but outside that they received no details about this class. Above the Summer sun was emerging, from behind dark clouds.

Finally! Rika hadn’t been able to attend a lot of academy classes yet, she’d had to take all those remedial lessons first to make up for her lack of formal education first. Lessons that were just SO boring, the pigtailed cat faunus had thought she’d never get out of them. She probably wouldn’t have either, without Sakura’s help, but either way she was finally going to get to attend her first class since her arrival at the academy.

The scroll message had been a bit weird, though Rika not having much experience on how most of these things worked largely shrugged off any weirdness she might have noticed regarding the lack of details involved. Rika was more distracted by the fact it was a COMBAT class. Something she found exciting, though she didn’t know anything about the instructor, fighting was something she could do. Much better than trying to figure out that stupid stuff with numbers they’d been having her do for the last few weeks, Rika had in that time discovered a new level of hatred for the dreaded maths. The martial artist had followed the instructions to bring her stuff but didn’t really get why they were meeting at a lake.

Weren’t classes supposed to take place in classrooms? It didn’t matter, and the outdoors better suited the faunus in the end anyways. The pigtailed girl had gotten distracted a few times, by various things on her way to the meeting, such as a fisherman catching a remarkably big and yummy looking fish. But Rika had somehow actually managed to make it on time for once. She saw one of those beach chair thingies she recalled seeing when she’d volunteered for that shadow mission on the cruise ship, as well as a weird thing in the water. She blinked at the woman in the chair, wondering if this was the instructor woman, she hadn’t really thought to actually learn anything about WHO the instructor was.

“Hiya!”

Jordan juggled his knife around while walking to his class. He counted every time he successfully juggled. He almost got to forty until his knife got stuck in a tree. Jordan's hands were still doing juggling motions for 3 seconds before he finally realized his knife is gone. "Umm,where did my knife go?" Jordan looked all around the forest and eventually found it stuck in a branch. "This is the third time this happened. Maybe I should just stop juggling my knife around," Jordan said to himself. He grabbed the knife and took it out of the branch easily. "That's better. Now,where was I supposed to go again? Oh yeah,the lake! Time to go then."

Jordan arrived rather quickly,since he partially knows his way around the area. He spotted the weird thing in the water first. A platform maybe? Or some type of thing used to scan the water or take something from it. Probably not the latter,as Jordan can't see any apparent signs of it sucking anything up. He did however,notice the professor for the class. Or who he can only assume is the professor. He walked over to the chair she was sitting in,and gently,very gently,poked her shoulder with a trembling hand. After he poked her though,he immediately jumped back and went invisible on instinct. "Maybe that wasn't such a good idea," he said,,completely oblivious to Rika,who was near him.


Stats

HP:200/200
Aura:90/100

Haze half reacted when a small, red haired, girl showed up before her. Just a raise of a brow before returning to her mace twirling. When a boy attempted to approach and touch her however that mace twirling sped up, the weapon's heavy golden head would race to collide with the boy's finger before it could make contact; at the very least preventing him from touching her and at most bludgeoning the finger with her trademark excessive force. Her eyes narrowed to where he stood before vanishing, her pupils were red and cut light hot daggers. "You will not touch me without my express statement that we are engaging in combat you strange child. Make any more attempts and you shall lose far more than a finger to the Goddess Haze. You will do as I say or things will get nasty, both here and for your academic career."

She rose from her chair, now twirling the mace before herself and spoke to both students. "Today I wish to observe your capabilities fighting both on and in water. With Bellmuse being an island nation it is likely you will have to travel by boat at some point, thusly you should be prepared to deal with Grimm in water and other potential threats." Haze pointed to the disk, now flatter on the water but still lightly jostling. "You two are going to fight on that, you may enter the water as you wish; the fight will continue until one of you surrenders or an aura is broken. Of course... it will be difficult to concede under water, so do keep that in mind Fufufufu~ One both of you stand on the podium combat may commence."

"As for myself, I shall observe and give pointers. Should I find neither of your skills to be adequate I shall step in and this will become a three person free for all, you best impress me and pray that doesn't happen." The Goddess smiled upon them and gestured to the floating podium with her free hand; "Now go, impress me with your show and try to earn my praise."

Attacks:

Rika blinked when the weird guy walked up and poked the teacher, not sure why he was doing it. Her eyes widened when he disappeared before she heard him say something a moment later from the same spot. The pigtailed girl thought invisibility would be an awesome semblance, imagining all the great pranks she could pull off with it before the instructor began speaking.

She talked real weird, referring to herself as a goddess…Weren’t goddesses supposed to be magic and stuff? She wondered what the woman was the goddess of? The pigtailed girl shrugged it off, not altogether thinking much of the attempted excessive force as such concepts were lost on the ignorant cat faunus. Instead she began paying attention once the instructor lady started talking to both of them, rather than just invisible dude. Rika’s eyes followed the instructor’s finger to where a disk thingy was floating in the water, immediately getting the idea as a grin spread on her face.

She’d trained on unstable platforms before, as it was a great way to train in balance as well as agility, but never really had the opportunity to spar someone on one, except for Siegfried who was too far above her own level to really count. Then her train of thought stopped when something the instructor said came to her. “Wait, ya aint gonna join in the fight?” Rika asked, somewhat disappointed. A combat teacher would probably be a really strong fighter, and she was kind of hoping the instructor would join in. Her disappointment clear to anyone around before she brightened up again realizing she could probably get to see what the instruct could do later. The pigtailed girl decided not to wait for an answer though, grinning at the prospect of having an enjoyable fight. Whether Haze responded or not, Rika would prepare herself for a moment, before breaking towards the platform in a dash, leaping just as she reached the edge of the water.

The cat faunus sailed through the air, landing in the center in a crouch and causing the whole thing to bob up and down a lot before it finally settled. Rika waited until it stabilized before standing up, waiting for her opponent to get onto the thing as she extender her whip to full length, though leaving it where it normally hung to her side. Instead she adjusted her bracers slightly, smirking before giving the guy a cheeky wave, waiting.

Jordan grabbed his finger,more of instinct then pain,from when the professor hit him with that mace. "That was a bit excessive,don't you think?" he asked Haze while deactivating his semblance,"I only wanted to make sure I get your attention. That's all!" Jordan wasn't one to talk back to teachers,but this one wasn't really justified in his viewpoint to use force on him. Goddess Haze? Goddess? That makes no sense,why would she call herself a goddess? Does she have some type of god complex or something? Jordan listened to Haze's explanation to the exercise. 'So that explains the thing in the water,' he thought to himself. This will be a battle on and underwater then? This is going to be fun yet horrible at the same time.

Jordan watched as a red haired girl jumped on the platform and cause it to move around unstably,then even out. It worked with her,but what about him? He's most likely heavier,and taller. But anything can happen,right? Jordan crouched down and pulled out his knife. "Hope this works," he said to himself. He started running,like the girl did and leaped to the platform,landing on it,but causing it to jostle more violently. He tried to use his knife to slow him down,but ended up falling right in to the lake. His head came up from the water moments later,his hair sticking to his face and water dripping off of him. "That was a bad idea. cough Next time I should swim." Jordan climbed onto the platform slowly,stood up straight,and moved the hair off his face. "So,are you ready to fight,Miss?" He asked as he held his knife in his mouth by the handle.

"Foolishness. You can get someone's attention without touching them. Stop whining and hurry up." Haze wasn't going to have any of this backtalk, to strike first was to win; there were ways of getting the Goddess attention without talking her. Making a sacrifice of gold or jewels for example, flattery in the case of the poor. The Goddess frowned as the pair made their way to the platform, one more comically than the other, "Hurry up and begin, this isn't some kind of meet and greet; go for the throat, do what it takes to win! Dealing first blood is inreadibly important! Why would you offer to wait?!"

Haze began to spin her mace faster, the weapon's tip beginning to glow red as the metal began to heat up. Already she was tempted to toss a fireball among them, already she wanted to beat them both into the water, but patience was a virtue. She'd wait it out, three strikes before she would strike them. They were children after all, foolish and childish children. They knew no better than to act as such. Soon they'd be grasping at each others throat in an attempt to impress the goddess, attempting to ring the life from each other on her most basic of whim. It wasn't the the goddess enjoyed violence, just the ability to command others; an ability granted by her position.

Rika had to put some effort into retaining balance when the guy failed to repeat her own feat, as his sudden weight had disbalanced the platform, but the guy climbed up soon after, and Rika had let him climb back up, mostly too busy laughing at the scene. The pigtailed faunus had found his fall into the water hilarious, and only stopped when the instructor yelled for them to start already.

The pigtailed girl grinned, unaware for the most part of their instructor’s apparent annoyance. This was gonna be fun, and the faunus wasn’t too concerned by the instructor’s comments. She didn’t really know if this fight would be as tough as she would prefer. The guy’s weapon wasn’t as bad as a larger one would be, she’d imagine someone with a larger weapon like a Warhammer would have a problem, but she still had the reach advantage in terms of weapons. The fact that he obviously was heavier, meaning the platform naturally shifted more in his direction and giving her some advantage as well. “Alright let’s fight!” The pigtailed girl exclaimed, grinning wildly.

The faunus girl, shifted into a stance, before deciding to begin the fight right off the bat, the dust hidden in her bracer would give her some advantages, but Rika decided to open with her whip, extending it to it’s full length with a gesture that caused a loud crack to rip through the air, before she decided to open the fight. Rika would open with two lashes to either side, and her whip’s length would make avoiding such attacks difficult, it could easily reach anywhere on the platform, meaning she could attack from anywhere while they were on it. The first lash would come from the right side, aimed closer to shoulder, while the other would be aimed lower, and coming from the other direction, Rika meanwhile, didn’t stop here and all the while pulled out a crystal, a dark green one, and funneling her aura through it to make an attack of her own.

The attack came right after her second lash, slamming the crystal into the whip just as she whipped a spot right in front of the tall guy. Thorned vines would shoot out, spreading out as the moved at Jordan to make evasion to either side difficult, and the added weight to Jordan’s side of the platform could also be a problem for her opponent.

150/150 HP 170/170 aura

Actions taken: Two normal lashes with the whip from either side and an attack with thorned vines (dust). 30 damage for each whip attack and then 50 for plant dust attack.

110 damage possible without defenses.

Haze heaved a deep sigh, already bored by the students. One was already soaked, having jumped and failed to land upon the disk before asking if the other was ready to fight, while the other seemed much too confident in their ability to overcome her fellow student. This would likely be a slaughter if she didn't get involved, well... then it would simply become a different kind of slaughter. A more rightful slaughter, a slaughter from an individual with virtue. Haze pressed a button on her mace, continuing to spin it dark yellow crackles of electricity began to pounce from the weapon's head. She watched as the student made her three attacks and then, a ball of crackling yellow at the head of the Goddess' mace, she rose from her seat and dove forward; the spinning of her mace stopped and with it the lightning ball launched forward, spinning toward the centre of the faunus girl's back. It was not designed to launch her, though it could certainly cause some muscle spasms, rather it was an attack intended to stop the student in her tracks. Landing on the side the red haired student held meant Haze just about balanced the disparity in weight the plant dust had created. The platform shook as a result of the multiple sudden weight changes.

"If that runt is going to keep things boring then I suppose I'll just have to do it my self. Don't worry, I'll pull your body from the water after you fall. I am a merciful Goddess after all. You'll be beaten and broken, but I'll let them fix you so you can tell of my brilliance." Lightning continued to crackle from the mace-head; she swung from right to left and vice versa; two bolts of lightning surged from the weapon and raced toward the girl's torso at their rather close range. That done Haze would press the button on the mace once again, the yellow tinge of lightning disappeared but cool air seemed to be emanating from the Goddess' possession.

---

Damage- 35 Damage, dust based x 3

Rika smirked when she saw her attacks hit home, the guy she was fighting ending up stuck on some vines just off the side of the platform. Only for her to suddenly stiffen as a surge of electricity coursed through her body, causing pain even with her aura negating any of the real physical damage. Rika did make note to get some electricity dust, this stuff seemed like it’d fun to play with working it into a combat style.

The pigtailed girl felt the ground under her shift as the woman jumped onto the platform, but at the same time she figured that the vines she’d used against the guy might have also had something to do with that. Either way the pigtailed girl wasn’t just going to let herself be attacked again. And instead prepared herself. The pigtailed girl used one of her crystal to put a wall of ice between herself and the woman just before the two attacks were launched at herself. The electrical onslaught made some damage to the ice-y wall, but the defense held, and Rika used her dust to make the wall burst into shards, directing the ice-y shrapnel at the instructor in something similar to a shotgun blast.

The cat faunus didn’t stop there, using water dust hidden in her brace to control the water on the left side of the platform, making it launch out in a surging geyser at the lecturer. Rika would make the geyser begin freezing with another ice crystal after it impacted, assuming the attack were successful. And hopefully freezing her opponent as well.

“That was a cheap shot ya know!” The pigtailed girl said, frowning at the teacher.  While her idea of honor was somewhat more flexible than some other martial artists might have had, attacking someone from behind without even having been in the fight beforehand was definitely wasn’t cool. Despite her annoyance though, the pigtailed girl smirked at the chance to fight the instructor head on. This was gonna be great!


HP  125/150   AP 170/170

Three dust attacks. 50 dust damage without defenses per attack. Last attack meant to cause freeze, roll for effect.

There would be no waiting, Haze would be the one to control the pace; not this brat. As the ice wall shattered before her, rather than try to avoid the attack, Haze (with the use of the wind dust now coursing through her weapon) launched herself straight through the remains; sustaining damage but enduring. Racing to the girl, the poor student's frozen surge falling short of the Goddess' as she advanced with mace as propulsion. Her heels would slam into the ground, rocking the platform as she came to a sudden halt, but her right arm (the arm that held her mace) wouldn't be completely subdued.

Held in reverse grip, mace head toward her pinky, the force of the wind would cause the mace to keep moving. Utilising this momentum the Goddess would twist her upper body, bringing the mace across herself. The air jet would act like a blade should the girl stand her ground, slicing from right to left across her body, however should she take a more loose stance it could potentially blow her back. Regardless of this, how holding the mace in her right hand on the left side of her body, Haze would being to spin the mace between her fingers; it would take just three rotations before a twister would form around her fingers; only around a foot tall but a perfectly maintained spiral. Ceasing the spinning however the tornado would explode into an air-current, weaving like a giant serpent it would go across Haze's body to the right; briefly creating a blockade, before chasing around from the left; the air yet would prickle like being stabbed with a bundle of needles should it make contact; currently it was aimed toward her head.

But the Goddess wasn't done yet. She had two more plans. The first wouldn't do much directly, rather it would make all future actions more difficult; not only for the student but for herself. She turned her mace such that the head was above the water, the wind would push down and create a wake at first, shaking the platform, before (with a twist of the wrist) a small whirlpool would form next to the platform. The platform was roped onto the land, that was true, but the twisting of the whirlpool was causing a consistent shift. It was as though they were on a ship at sea during during a storm. Then would come the final attack, time to make use of the shifting ground; disorientate her further in the hopes she'd fall off. Her empty left palm was held wide, poisonous purple smog began to overcome the far side of the platform. It wasn't being particularly controlled so it relied on the girl's breathing to take effect, but it was the blinding of the dark purple haze that the goddess was relying upon. If the girl was poisoned so be it, she'd recover in hospital.

---

165:200 Hp 100:120 SP

Damage - 35 Dust based x 2, 20 for 20 semblance damage performed x 1, poison status at affinity one attempted.

The pigtailed girl hadn’t expected the instructor to charge right through the storm of frozen shrapnel that had once been her shield against lightning attacks. As a result, she hadn’t had time to think much of the attack’s possible charging with dust, dodging back only slightly as though it were a physical blow only to be caught by the jet of air behind it and getting thrown back. Though she managed to land on her feet and recover quickly enough. The pigtailed girl didn’t wasn’t going to just stand around, and when the twister like attack was sent at her, it instead met a giant mass of ice that the pigtailed girl used as a springboard, summoning it as more a launch platform than anything and further disbalancing the platform even if what Rika was planning to do next would make that would make that a moot point.

The whirlpool that formed while she was airborne could put a damper on her plans, but the cat faunus didn’t even consider that, instead aiming her hands down at the instructor. A flash being the only warning before the explosion launched out, the blast radius would cover a significate portion of the platform, likely she had left a hole in the platform, and the explosion itself launched Rika back in a flip, she landed on the far end of the platform just as a weird purple smog appeared. Rika had no experience with things like this, and as such had not known the detrimental effect of the smog. She’d only realized something was wrong about the stuff after having breathed it in, and her lungs burned as a result of the poison. The pigtailed girl blinked, confused at her body’s reaction before shrugging it off. She wasn’t sure what was going on, but she activated her semblance regardless, accelerating her healing hoping that would help. She couldn’t really see anything going on outside the smog so the effects of her actions were lost on her.

HP 95/150 Aura 140/170
Poisoned.
Actions: One explosive based dust attack 50 damage without res. Semblance activated, healing.

The explosion would absolutely sink the barrage. The weight of ice on one side, some plant matter on another, certainly didn't help as the platform quickly vanished bellow the depths. The lake was not at its deepest in the area, but the waters would be above the faunus girl's head and likely even Madam Haze's. Speaking of the Goddess the explosion did catch her off-guard, throwing her both significantly upward and slightly backward. Pressing the button on her mace the last cylinder was loaded in, a dark green hue and lines like vines appearing on the head of the mace. Without hesitation she threw her weapon arm down, from her mace a beanstalk raced downward and pierced into the ground; forming a root system to stabilise itself. Toward the bottom three great leaves manifested, creating a new platform.

Haze scanned the water for the child, bringing her poison cloud closer and maintaining it; it hung around the beanstalk's entirety like fog around a lighthouse. Unable to find her the goddess would call out; "I hope you're prepared to pay for that, damaging school equipment so blindly. If I weren't enjoying beating you down I'd have called this class off by now. Show yourself such that I might end this." She would make two blind attacks through the fog, utilising the plant dust that emanated from her mace. The first attack would take the form of a seed that would expand to form a tumbleweed of bramble, two metres in diameter. The bush was thrown in the direction the platform had been in. The second attack would take the form of a great flytrap head, appearing in the water beneath the toxic cloud and circling the spire once before vanishing into the depths.

130:200 HP 80:120 SP

Damage 35 Dust based x 2, 20 for 20 Semblance x 1

Rika had meanwhile found herself in the water, as she’d had far less warning of the impending sinking due to both the poisonous fog obscuring her vision, as well as other factors, as such Rika had ended up in the water at first, before she was able to use some earth dust to raise a platform of her own. The bramble attack caught her unaware, coming out of the mist, which had moved to a weird…thing over in the distance.  

Rika frowned at the mist. She’d not been able to see exactly what the teacher had done, but figured the teacher probably had her own platform if she was sending out attacks. The pigtailed girl didn’t really want to deal with that weird smoke stuff right now.  She was still feeling really weird as it was now, and while her own platform was somewhat small, maybe a five or six feet length square of rock and stone, she had no clue what type of foothold the teacher must have found. Still the pigtailed girl at least had a direction, and she could at the very least use that to her advantage. Rika jammed charged her whip with a crystal, though her first attack would utilize dust in her bracer instead.  The pigtailed girl shifted her stance slightly, she made a downward chop with her left hand towards the cloud of weird mist stuff, water surged upwards, creating a upward surging vein that extended into the cloud in the rough direction of where the last attack had come from, it wasn’t all that long wide, perhaps a couple feet, but the force of the water shooting upward itself was in itself a powerful attack, as pressurized water could do a lot of damage, though Rika didn’t know if this attack would work or not.

The pigtailed girl flowed into another attack, her whip still where she’d placed it on her side having left both hands free for her initial assault, Rika committed to an open palm thrust in the same general direction, though one would notice her facing some resistance for a moment as the dust was activated.   The water below meanwhile, reacted to the manipulation, pushing forward, expanding and raising into a large wave that surged forward towards the instructor’s weird purple fog thing, Rika’s hand grabbed the whip as the wave surged forward/

As the waved moved forward, Rika drew her whip and with a horizontal lash sent a crescent of fire at the Fog as well, aiming it at a few feet above where the wave would have been at this point, the flaming crescent would likely strike first, and a bit high, hoping to catch any attempt to avoid the attacks by air.

The cat faunus let out a breath, still not feeling well from whatever the purple haze had done to her.

HP 65/150 Aura 140/170
poisoned
Actions.  Three dust attacks, 50 damage before defenses.

Stood on the plant mass, Mace in her right hand, Madam Haze was prepared for combat. If the student hadn't arrived, nor was she making any sound, then there were two... maybe three options. The first, most likely, she had been defeated and thus either ran for her life or fallen, hopefully not into the depths and thus two her death. Second was that she intended to fire blindly, make ranged dust attacks as she been using and refuse to approach... this was possible, Haze would likely be able to deal with it, but it was possible. Finally was the option that the student was simply awaiting the cloud to drop, a foolish choice as it gave the Goddess time to prepare but equally it did greatly limit the Goddess' options.

With this in mind Haze opted to immediately drop the cloud, no long being held down it quickly rose into the air as though it were a more matural smoke cloud. As it left her ten metre range the smog would vanish. Doing so gave the Goddess just enough time to react to the geyser the student had created, evidently she had been intending to do option two! She threw herself left as the jet of water came through, there was a great cracking noise as it passed with the top of the stem breaking where the met. The plant remained upright, though the leaves on the back of the platform were split from the mass and fell into the water. This meant the Goddess couldn't run to the back of the plant in order to weather further blows!

Seeing the oncoming wave, the fire in the sky, Haze knew she had no choice but to take a hit. She reached into the back of her dress and drew forth a final crystal, one she had hoped she wouldn't have to use educating these brats but it made the most sense given her current situation. Taking the crystal in her left she struck it into two and leapt into the air, as half the crystal met with the plant-platform and explosion would occur; launching her further and faster into the air than a regular jump would have allowed. Soaring into the air she shot through the flames, aura crackling across her body as the flames briefly consumed her. She raised her mace over her head. Emerging from the other side, still airborne, she locked onto the student and her platform. The remaining half of the crystal was released before her, she let the mace swing downward; hitting the orange crystal and splitting it into three.

These three would tumble toward the girl, one to hit her platform directly while the other two would stray slightly; one in front of her and to the left while the other behind her and to the right. Upon contact with the platform, the water or Rika herself these crystals would explode into small domes of flame; creating a knock-back of force with them. The first would land in front of her, then behind her then aimed for her. The Goddess would crash into the water far behind her, growing angered as she was soaked but pressing a button on her mace. She would linger beneath the water for a moment, opting to swim in the direction of the shore. She'd emerge at a point she could stand, facing he centre of the lake, soaked but prepared.

---

Explosive Dust used, 35 Dust based Damage x 3

HP 90 : 200 Aura 80 : 120

When the weird purple smoke stuff disappeared Rika was rather relieved, as she knew that she kinda sucked fighting blind, and as such it would have been a pain to continue fighting her opponent without seeing her. The instructor’s use of explosive dust clued her into it’s presence, and when Rika saw the explosives thrown her way she was suitably, caution, causing her to use more earth dust to launch herself into the air, far higher than the explosives and as such out of the blast radius of the dust attacks, her whip lashing out once again with a water crystal once again coming out to be used to charge the whip and causing a geyser of water to shoot up and send her higher. Rika would end up far above the instructor, and the water that had boosted her would remain floating in the air for a moment, comparable to tentacle before it seemed to turn towards where the instructor would emerge, the tentacle comparison becoming more apt as it simply collapsed on top of where Madam Haze would have emerged, whether it hit or not, the move had fulfilled its main purpose.


Rika was now far above the lake, and she wasn’t about to let the altitude go to waste as she activated an ice crystal. What would follow would be hail, thin, sharp hail that would rain down within a twenty-foot radius of where the instructor would have emerged. The attack could easily be considered excessive, as it would likely rain down on huntress and fauna indiscriminately, though Rika paid enough mind to at least be sure there were no obvious civilians in harms way as the hail storm was unleashed.

HP 60/150 AP 140/170
poisoned

Actions; Used earth dust to dodge Haze’s explosives, two dust-based attacks 50 damage each before defenses.

Total possible damage before defenses: 100

Seeing the girl airborne, unsure whether her explosions had launched her there or otherwise, Haze did know this girl wasn't defeated yet. The pillar was easy enough to dodge, as she emerged she would jump right and thus sidestep the collapsing of the water spout. The goddess could visualise the attack being prepared behind it, these ranged attacks made using her semblance far more difficult. At least, that was what someone average would think. The Goddess would cup her right hand and, in the direction of the girl, a thick cloud of fog would chase her... but this cloud was shaped with a very specific technique in mind. It was a hemisphere, angled to block the girl's vision passed it though not overcoming her yet. Then, crystals of ice striking her body, Haze would press the button on her mace and its head would begin to spark yellow. Utilising the blockage of sight, she quickly spun the mace and then brought it upward in a slicing motion. From the tip of the mace a line of electricity would crackle; piercing through the veil of poison fog and angled to raze straight up the girl's body and further into the sky.

Most of the shrapnel had bounced off of her dust but, feeling a numbness in her right arm the Goddess reached to her shoulder and drew out an icicle stained in crimson; throwing it to the side she allowed her fog to vanish as the semblance use hadn't ever been intended as an attack. She would then, at the sight of the girl moving rather than falling spin her mace once-more. Memories were welling up in her of combat when she was younger, the rush of beating down an opponent but... there was another feeling she hadn't experienced in some time. The feeling of it being closer, the feeling of being stuck by an opponent with all their will and feeling it before striking them back with all her practice and skill. Taking a breath she would slash her mace once left and once right, bolts of lightning would come for the student like a set of rhinoceros beetle mandibles. They were racing toward the centre of her opposing ribs.

That done the Goddess would step backward, making her way out of the water and back toward her seat... keeping her eyes on target the girl and pressing the button on her mace once-more.

HP 55 : 200 Aura 70 : 120

Attacks; Semblance Utility action taken to block vision. Electric Dust used, 35 Dust based Damage x 3

Rika had only just completed her attack before her vision was blocked by the cloud.  At first, she expected the cloud to continue rising, which would have been bad enough, except that it ended up being a method of masking the approaching attack, an attack Rika hadn’t expected and as such had no real defense against, meaning that she naturally had taken the full force of the attack, Rika could feel the electricity going through her body, though fortunately she wasn’t left spasming like the first time the teacher had surprise attacked her with electric dust.

Rika didn’t hesitate when the poison fog cleared, and she used an ice crystal to send out a giant chunk of ice, launched directly at the teacher, though it’d be easily dodged, the more potent crystal trapped within would be less clear to anyone, at least until a large explosion was triggered, the second attack hidden by the first. Rika had used the ice more to hide the explosive dust rather than actually depending on the attack, and while it was likely the teacher would be able to avoid the ice, the explosion would be large enough to make it difficult to avoid, barring Madam Haze somehow expecting the attack.

Unfortunately, being airborne, and using what little time she’d had to attack rather than creating any type of defense, Rika would be vulnerable to the attacks sent upwards towards her, and her aura was overwhelmed by the duo of attacks, the electricity coursing through her leaving the pigtailed faunus unconscious.


HP: 0/150

Actions: Two dust based attacks, 50 damage each.   Rika is now unconscious.

Sighting the girl drop from the sky, an ice-block falling from her beforehand, the Goddess saw fit not to evacuate backward as the girl had likely anticipated but to advance forward; casting plant dust at her feet she bolted beneath the tumbling mass as well as the explosion that followed it, through the sudden gust and light did cause the Goddess to pause. Understanding she wouldn't be able to catch the girl before she fell, and that the Goddess didn't want to further dirty her clothes, she wiped her mace and a green crystal flew to the point Rika was falling. Upon contact it would immediately expand into a lilypad, a pink flower in its centre. If the girl would land land peach coloured pollen would fly up into the air, probably prompting a sneezing fit from the already heavily damaged girl. The pad would bounce a bit following her landing but settle, the Goddess would keep making pads of her own and walk to her.

"So... have you learned anything from your thrashing." The Goddess would stand over the girl, assuming she landed and rested in the flower.

The pigtailed faunus fell, realizing possibly for the first time that her aura wasn’t on anymore before she could react, her eyes would widen considerably though when the realization hit her, and before she could really fully consider the implications of that, she found herself landing inside a pink flower of all things, her landing kicking up a lot of weird stuff from the flower thingy. Rika sneezed as the pollen floated up into the air around her, not doing much else outside investigating her own injuries as the lily pad settled.

The teacher’s approach had therefor gone unnoticed until she had spoken, prompting Rika to turn her attention back to the teacher. “guess I shoulda figured out a better landin’” The pigtailed cat faunus answered, not quite sure if that was what the teacher was referring too. “Great fight though, didn’t think ya’d be that tough.” Rika added, grinning up at the instructor like an idiot. She hadn’t lost to many people since she’d come to Syne, and the pigtailed girl thought that the way the instructor had fought had been really cool, even if some of the attacks had seemed a bit too much like cheap shots to her. She’d taken some serious damage, and she’d need some time before she could heal herself.

"It will take some time for the poison to wear off it would seem, you're clearly delusional from it. Give it time, you should be able to walk home... but you should have known before starting this fight that it would end in your defeat, any sane student would understand that when facing the Goddess in combat. Don't be so naive." With a flip of her mace the plant bridge she had walked was detached, the lily-pad began to float to shore. Haze was glad the child wasn't further pursuing combat, otherwise the goddess impacts would be much more permanent. A broken wrist, a shattered jaw, at this point it would be much too easy... but the Goddess had long felt her vicious streak subside. It was a bizarre feeling, the afterglow of a fight, the Goddess' aura still crackling as it repaired itself and the body beneath.

As the small ship arrived to shore Madam Haze would step off, not a hand to the girl but a handful or words. "I hope you will have at least grown stronger from this experience, that's all that really matters. Don't even try to get up until you feel your power returning." And with that, collecting her things, the Goddess would take off. Returning to her home with a great many things to ponder.

-Exit-