Visiting the training facility [Private:Warren]

Warren rolled his shoulders, letting his armor clink and clank off itself, getting himself comfortable to its weight and presence once more, helmet tucked underneath his shoulder. His injuries had left him unable to exercise as much as he had liked to, and he had been completely unable to practice any sort of fighting under the doctor's extreme insistence, one of the few concessions he'd given in order to expedite his recovery, and now that he had a clean bill of health, he was looking to get back into shape. It'd been a while since he'd last come to the arena, though he doubted that there would be anyone else there at the moment, considering the time of day, as well as the time of year right now. It was safe to say that he was rather surprised when he saw a girl there, with long black hair and a rapier in her hands. Warren quirked a brow as he saw her, wondering what it was that she was doing, moving off to the side to watch her work, leaning up against the wall.

He watched her silently as her Aura shimmered into view, her eyes changing in color to match it. Warren let out a quiet click of of his tongue as he saw how brilliant it was, though it was luckily drowned out as music seemed to begin to fill the air around them. He looked around to look for the source, finding no one, and that the sound seemed to be originating from the girl. Curious, he thought to himself. Watching her movements, Warren could see that she was well practiced as he moved to swing and stab her blade at the air in a flurry of movements, almost a dance it seemed, matching the tune and rhythm of the song that seemed to play from her Aura, and if certain people were right in claiming that an Aura was a physical manifestation of a man's spirit, than perhaps her soul as well. Her footwork was perfectly choreographed, utterly silent, even in those high heels of hers, and it truly seemed as if she was moving with an unseen partner, much more fitting at a high class party or a ball rather than the dirty and battered arena supplied here for the students. Warren was vaguely impressed, giving a quiet nod of approval unconsciously, but he wondered how well all that practiced flare would match up against someone in a real fight.

As the girl finished, her Aura faded, along with the music, and she sheathed her blade with almost a sense of finality. Warren began to clap, his gauntlets letting out a much louder and distinct 'clank' as he began to walk towards the girl. "Well, that was a nice show. Pretty impressive, if I do say so myself." As Warren neared her, he took the chance to glance over at her sheathed weapon. It didn't seem like anything more than a simple blade. "You seem to have those movements down to a pat. How long have you been training for?"

Warren quirked a brow as the girl turned away from him. It didn't seem necessary to hide her face from him, and it wasn't as if he was doing anything for her to look away from. Warren shrugged it off, though the nervous and shy look did seem to suite her well, he noted in his head. Her clothes, her weapon, her hair style, all of it seemed to fit the image of a rather prim and proper lady, and the shy head turn accentuated that very well, he thought.

He gave a snort as Mana started to answer his questions. "I'd call you stupid if you tried the exact same set of movements you did here in a fight," Warren said roughly, but still in a good natured manner. "Glad to see you aren't one."

Warren gave a smile and shrugged in response to Mana, accepting her handshake, though it was a little awkward considering the fact that he couldn't feel her hand through his gauntlet. "Well, aren't you eager to introduce yourself? My name's Warren. I like to think that I take my training seriously. I do normally come here in the mornings, though not usually this early, I'll admit. I recovered from an injury recently, so I'm just trying to get back into shape after laying around for a few weeks, you know? Figured I needed the extra time. What about you? Are you new here? If you came here regularly this early, I think I'd have seen you before."

Warren rolled his neck in response, letting it pop and crack. "Got caught up in an explosion. Some kind of bombing of whatever, I think the whole thing is still being investigated." He gave a shrug. "It's actually what happened to that building you're asking about. Blew the whole thing up." Warren brings his hands together, and then throws them outwards, slowly spreading his fingers, mimicking an explosion. "Don't worry about me though, I'm all healed up now. Just here to make sure I didn't get too rusty while I was laying around."

He scratched at his chin for a moment, before nodding. "Sure, a fight sounds good. Sounds exactly what I need right now." Warren shifts his helmet from under his shoulder into his hands, tossing it in the air once before catching it, giving it a little bit of a spin. "Any ground rules you want to lay down first? Anything you don't want to allow or anything like that?"

Warren let out a laugh at Mana's surprise of his survival. "Well I wasn't exactly standing right on top of the bomb or anything! Besides, I didn't come out of it unharmed or anything, and I'm still feeling sore in a couple places right now, but nothing that'll bother me too much." Warren flexes one arm and shoots Mana a confident grin to show her that he was just fine.

He scratches his chin in thought for a moment before nodding. "So just a straight up fight then? Nothing fancy involved? Sure, I can get behind that. Becoming too reliant on Dust or Semblances can be a disadvantage. I can work with that." Agreeing to the rules, Warren walked to the other side of the arena, making sure that his armor was secured correctly, tightening and loosening pieces as needed.

Warren threw on his helmet, knocking on it once before settling into a combat stance, legs spread and fists raised to guard his face. Under his helmet, he was smiling. It'd been a while since he'd been in a proper fight, and to be honest, his heart was pounding in excitement at the prospect. It was good to be able to put his skills to the test, and he was particularly eager to see how his skills matched up to another Hunter. Warren was always aiming for higher and higher goals, and he'd love to see if Mana would be a new benchmark or not for him, or at the very least a challenge. She seemed like she just might be, considering the skills she'd shown just moments earlier. "Ready..." Warren said, giving the girl notice of the fact that the duel was officially on.

And with that, Warren was off, attempting to get off the first strike. Mana seemed to hold the advantage this fight, and while some may have seen it as unfair, Warren simply saw it was an obstacle to overcome. She had a weapon, a rapier, compared to Warren's fists, and without the use of Dust or Semblance, that meant that, if nothing else, she had range over him. His armor should've been able to keep him safe from the worst of her blows, particularly in the chaos of combat, but if she was able to strike with as much precision as she had shown earlier in this fight, then the fight was almost assuredly hers. He needed to get within arms length of her right now, where it'd be harder for her to do the thrusting actions necessary for a rapier to be effective.

His feet pounded across the packed dirt of the arena, pouring his all into his charge, and his lungs seemed to burn just a little more than they should have. Already his lack of recent practice was beginning to show. He was sure that the girl was faster than him, even with the exoskeletal augmentation of his armor, so he'd have to get her through surprise. Reaching close, Warren dived into a slide, dirt rising in a massive cloud behind him as he aimed for Mana's legs, arms stretched out to grab at her, and hopefully bring her into the ground. If he could do that, he could either disarm her, or use his heavier weight to hold her down.

Was it the sounds of fighting that drew her near or was it just inevitable that she would eventually wander into the training arena? It certainly wasn't on purpose as Willow was mostly just exploring the dorm where she could and began to hear grunts and clashes behind a wall or building. And considering how eerily empty the courtyard was during the summer, said sounds managed to echo quite nicely, drawing in any potential spectators that enjoy watching a friendly brawl between two students. And with how calm things have been in her rather short time in the academy, other than her roommate's arguing with Richard, she had been looking for something exciting to distract her from the mundane. And she certainly wasn't in the mood to study all alone in her dorm.

When she finally reached the battlegrounds, Willow was surprised to see who it was that was fighting. The first participant was a girl: black hair, rapier, and high-heels; it was fairly obvious that it was her new roommate fighting. She watched Mana dash and dodge around the battlefield, mentally judging her movements and and her speed. And when it came to speed, Willow felt that she was one of the experts in that field. But Mana... she was nearly as fast, if not slightly faster than the tomboy. That kind've hit Willow's pride ever-so-slightly.

But that's not all she noticed about Mana's fighting style. She watched how she seemed to dance around the battlefield, something that Willow herself never could do, nor did she ever want to. It was then that Willow remembered who Mana reminded her of: Clair Novack, her mother. The similarities were uncanny, if you didn't count the way Mana acted when she was out of combat. But when she was fighting, she saw the grace and poise that her mother held. Already, she could tell that this girl could be a fencer that could rival even Mrs. Novack. Willow thought that was a bit of a scary thought and decided not to dwell on it, or Mana, much longer.

Instead, Willow shifted her attention to Mana's opponent, finally. Folding her arms across her chest, she narrowed her eyes. She was fighting an enemy that was completely armored, as well as unarmed. Tilting her head to the side, she tapped her chin as to wonder why. Why would this faceless individual fight Mana without so much as a weapon? And why in the world did his armor seem so familiar? Willow looked over the details of the armor, trying to figure all these questions out. If she were in that situation, why would she? To challenge herself, of course. Could that be what this was as well?

Willow blinked as the thoughts all clicked together in her mind. The armor, the desire for a challenge... it had been a while since they had seen each other, hadn't it? A knowing grin formed on Willow's face as she watched with even more interest.

The corner of Warren's eye twitched as Mana somersaulted over him, twisting in the air with grace, her skirt fluttering in the wind, not that Warren managed to actually see anything, the action being too quick for anything to be seen clearly. Still, he wondered if Mana knew what her clothes were doing while she did all this. That didn't matter though, what mattered here and now was the fight at hand, everything else was secondary.

Twisting around onto one knee, Warren dug his fingers into the dirt, leaving behind small troughs as he ground to a halt, and then he was off again, feet pounding against the ground with heavy thumps, and his arms pumping as he moved to pick up as much speed as he could again. With all the advantages Mana already had on him, he couldn't let her pick up momentum. His best bet would to stay on the offensive, striking as fast as possible without giving Mana time to respond, while staying in close with her. A tough order to make, but Warren was never the kind of man to back down from a challenge. In fact, he enjoyed this, the strain, the struggle, the ragged breaths he sucked in and the rapid pounding of his heart as he and his opponent sought to get one over the other. No matter how this ended, Warren would come out a better Hunter, and that's what he was here for.

He grit his teeth into a smile, almost a snarl as he leaped into the air, fist pulled back ready to strike, riding gravity down towards Mana from his position in the sky, aiming to smash her into the floor. This attack was immensely telegraphed; the shifting of his knees as he prepared to leap, the cocking of his fist, and that moment in the air when his ascent slowed and he began to fall. He was almost assured that Mana would dodge it, and so Warren prepared a second maneuver, readying to land on both feet into a crouching position, using that to propel himself once again towards the girl, arms stretched out to attempt to catch her in a bear hug. If Mana was allowed to pick up the offensive, it'd be a costly mistake, perhaps even a losing one. Force and momentum. Those were his best weapons here right now, but her speed made it aggravating to land a single hit. He had to rely on surprise, otherwise there was no way he'd win.

Warren let out a growl as Mana avoided his move by dodging underneath him. Out of all four directions to dodge towards, she chose the most dangerous one, and the one that completely negated his plan to try and restrain her. He willed himself to go faster, he needed to move faster. This girl was dancing circles around him, and he needed to start matching her.

He felt her blade run against his armor, the hiss of steel on steel ringing out through the arena as he grunted uncomfortably at the pain. Warren didn't wait to act, changing his plan on the fly. She had him engaged now, but getting in close was heat he had wanted all long.

Mana's blade ran against his back, sliding off to his side as Warren stood up and spun around to face her. His first instinct had been to move out of the way of her attacks, but held himself back, letting her rapier dance across his armored body. As she moved to leap back, Warren reached out one arm, bringing his other one back to his shoulder.

He moved to twist his arm around Mana's slim rapier and grasp on at the blade, uncaring of the uncomfortable pressure of grabbing and a sharpened edge, full expecting his armor to protect his hand and arm. Locking the blade to his forearm, he'd yank hard, pulling Mana into him, and the fist he held ready to punch her with, striking at her face.

---

HP 180/200
Aura 100/100

Warren clicked his tongue in annoyance as Mana let go of her weapon, avoiding his fist by flipping onto her hands. Still, he had managed to disarm her, and he celebrated this small victory in his head until Mana's foot lashed out, kicking the rapier out of his hands, where it embedded itself into the ground, blade first, some distance away. Warren snarled, looking up at Mana with- wait, where those black with frills? Warren did not have time to finish this thought as Mana's other foot had Warren seeing stars, his helmet flying off somewhere behind him with a flatter of steel, and the pointed heel of Mana's shoe leaving a shallow gash from Warren's chin up to his cheek.

He shook his head, trying to refocus his mind, but Mana didn't seem to be willing to give him that luxury, already moving in to strike with her feet once more. The kick to his legs sent him stumbling back, but it was exactly what he needed for him to focus his addled head, adrenaline shooting through his system, drowning out all the pain and confusion, turning him back to the here and now. The girl tried to capitalize on his stumble, be Warren reacted on reflex, raising one arm to block the kick before twisting his arm under her leg in order to lock it, his hand grasping tightly at her inner thigh in order to make sure she couldn't get away. If Warren hadn't just been given a possible concussion, it's likely that he would have taken more time to... Appreciate, the situation he was in, one of Mana's legs high in the sky and one of his arms nearly under her skirt as he held her leg in place.

Instead, however, Warren wasted no time rocking his head back and whipping to forwards in a headbutt, his other hand reaching down to grab Mana's other leg, and with a yank, bring her down to the floor. He would scrabble over her if she went down, attempting to sit on her stomach and grab both her wrists up above her head to prevent her from acting, relying on his weight to hold her down.

---

Hp 170/200
Aura 100/100

With a grin, the tomboy continued to watch the fight with interest, switching her attention between three things. While her brother may not have had time to truly appreciate that scene that was before him because he was fighting, Willow was in quite the perfect position to admire it enough for the both of them at this point. Afterall, Mana had to realize what she was doing, didn't she? How could anyone fight like that and either not do it on purpose or to take precautions to ensure that such secretive things were never revealed in the heat of a fight. Perhaps her new roommate was secretly an exhibitionist? That would certainly make Willow's time at the academy a lot more fun.

Making herself focus on less perverted things, Willow then shifted her attention to her armored brother. Warren was certainly never the fastest in the family, not even close. When compared to Willow herself, her brother was a bit slower, but easily made up for it by how hardy he was. But when compared to their mother, he wouldn't even come close. Although Willow had to admit that he certainly has improved since they last spared roughly a year and a half ago; but with all the training that Willow had done to prepare herself for Syne, she hasn't exactly stayed where she was. Oh yes, the brunette was certainly looking forward for their family reunion.

Warren panted as he sat atop of Mana's, staring at her face as sweat rolled down his own, and a little bit of blood flowed down his chin. He gave her a curious look as she twisted and squirmed underneath him. "What the hell are you-"

Warren's question was interrupted when he felt something bump against his back. Turning over his shoulder to check what it was, he quickly turned back, looking down at his chest to hide a blush. With the way that Mana was on the ground and how Warren was holding her down, Mana really couldn't get the right leverage to do anything particularly harmful to Warren, especially with his armor in the way. However, with all of her squirming down, she had inadvertently hiked up her skirt some, and combined with the fact that she'd been raising her leg to knee Warren in the back, Warren had a very clear view, especially now without the haze of combat obstructing his focus.

He quickly got up off of Mana, walking several steps away. "This fight is over..." Warren said a little too fast, as he tried not to look the girl in the face, though he still offered her a hand up. "You, uh... You should pay more attention to what your skirt's doing whenever you fight, you know..."

Willow's spectating went from amused to mildly confused and then concerned for what was going to happen. The fight certainly had taken an unforeseen provocative turn, one that she wasn't entirely comfortable with watching. And the fact that neither of the participants hadn't seen her yet didn't make her feel more at-ease towards the entire situation. Rubbing the back of her head awkwardly, she did her best to avoid watching the fight directly, glancing around at anything other than her roommate and brother. In addition to that, the slightest of blushes had formed on her face, signaling that the tomboy could, in fact, get embarrassed by some things from time-to-time, depending on the circumstance.

Letting out a sigh of relief, Willow relaxed a bit when her brother luckily had enough self-control and situational awareness to stop the fight before it went on any more. It was at this point that she gathered herself in some ways, now going back to watching how the two handled the encounter after the fight, she thought it could be interesting to watch. Or at the very least funny to watch one of them flounder and have spaghetti fly out of their pockets. Crossing her arms over her chest, she went back to her laid-back standing just in case one of them noticed her watching. The only thing that may have revealed her earlier embarrassment may have been her lightly flushed face.

Warren cleared his throat to hide his nerves as he pulled Mana up to her feet. "No problem, I, uh... I didn't mean to see anything, it just, uh... You know... Happened." Warren jumped at the chance to change topics though, quickly replying to Mana's offer for another duel some other time. "Yea, sure, I'd love another match. You fought well, really well. Had me on the ropes there for a while. You were really quick on your feet, and you knew how to move. Impressive stuff." He gave her an approving smile before he glanced down at his armor, noting the shallow gouges Mana's blade had put into the carapace. He ran a finger along one, noting how clean the cut look, before glancing down at his gauntlet, remembering that he had grabbed her blade earlier. He saw that there were two clean lines, parallel to each other, one running along the first digit of his finger tips, the other in the middle of his palm. It seemed the blade had cut clean through the armor plating, no real surprise with how hard he was gripping the thing, and a small red line showed where the blade had just cut his skin, barely welling up a trickle of blood.

With Mana up on her feet again, Warren walked off, picking up his helmet, dusting it off as he inspected it for damage, noting that it was fine. He dabbed at the cut on his face, and saw that it was flowing freely still, likely a combination of the fact that it was a head wound and his heart was still pounding rather fast, sending more and more fresh blood to the site of the injury. He ignored it, however, the wound wasn't so serious that it wouldn't heal on its own, and it wasn't going to be bothering him any.

Throwing back on his helmet, Warren walked off to pick up Mana's blade, grabbing the handle and sliding it out of the dirt, inspecting the blade for any signs of chipping or wear and tear. Seeing that it was nearly entirely unscathed, Warren brushed some off some of the dirt still on it before returning it to Mana. "You've got a good weapon there, I can see you keep good care of it. Just try not to lose it again next time, eh?"

Willow shifted her weight between her legs as she stood rather awkwardly. She was rather hoping that one of them would have noticed her standing there by now, but obviously neither of them have. And now she was conflicted. She really wanted them to go through their whole conversation about how skilled they both were, but at the same time she felt really weird to just stand there and listen in on their conversation. But the thing preventing her from leaving was that she very much wanted to say a few words to her brother at the very least. The brother that she hadn't seen or talked to in at least a year and a half. She let out a quiet sigh as she glanced about, waiting for an opportunity to make a decision.

Figuring that enough time had passed and that the two had gotten enough comraderie that they could for the moment, Willow decided that now was the time to act and stop being such a socially-awkward stalker. She brought her fist to her mouth and cleared her throat rather loudly which was followed by a series of claps. As she approached the two, "That was a great fight, guys. Really, that was one of the coolest things I've seen in a while." she sung their praises, "I certainly hope you didn't mind me watching, by the way. But I doubt you would since the whole thing was in public and whatnot."

"But seriously, great show, guys. Really entertaining." Willow stated again before looking towards Mana, "Especially from the view that I had of your skirt-shots." she said with a mischievous grin, which was followed by a playful chuckle, "But, uh... seriously, we should probably have a discussion to prevent that kind of stuff back at the dorm." With that part done, the tomboy switched her attention to the man of the group. She gave a smile and a nod as a greeting, "Hey, bro. It's been a minute, huh? Glad to see you at least went a bit easy on her and everything." Perhaps she could have said something cooler at that moment, but it's not as though she had planned this meeting out. Okay, maybe she was a bit while she was watching the fight.

Warren nodded towards Mana in thanks to her compliments, letting out a friendly chuckle. "Yea, you think so? Well it wasn't all me there, the armor provided a little bit of help." He lifted one arm, slowly bending his elbow, and if Mana listened closely, she could hear the quiet whirring of gears and servos, assisting Warren's movements. "Thank you for the compliments either way though, I'm glad to see my hard work's paying off."

He shrugged off Mana's worry for the scratches on his armor. "Don't worry about it. It only shows me how much extra work I need to put into making it better. It's a more preferable option that this kind of thing happens here, instead of out there in a real fight. These scratches you've put in me are a good thing, trust me." Warren crosses his arms as he looked over Mana's rapier. "So it's a bit of a family heirloom then? I've heard about that kind of thing happening before, generally with more well known families. Are you someone important, Mana?"

The man started as a third voice joined the conversation, and a familiar one at that. Warren's head snapped toward Willow, and he stared at her for a moment, before taking off his helmet and leaning in towards her, as if making sure it was really her.

"...Willow? What the hell are you doing here!?" Warren asked, grabbing his sister by the shoulder and looking her over. "Holy shit it's really you! When'd you get here? You aren't supposed to be coming to an academy for another year, I thought?"