"Your first answer was correct," she responded to Abyssal's answer. She had no idea why she said it was a drake—it looked nothing like a drake at all, but she just let that slide for now. She was too nice to let it not slide. "The Kurogg was a type of dragon from fairy tales and legends. It was said to have l-lived near Mistral. It was one of the th-three dragons that the hero Andas encountered on his journey to the eastern falls, and it was the most ferocious of them all..."
She continued to go on and on with her lecture, and her students attempted to follow as she went on and on about the Grimm Dragon. Of course, she didn't realize it yet, but some of her students had begun to grow sleepy from listening to her. Not only that, she seemed to be carried away by her own lecture that she didn't seem to notice the bell ring.
One of the students raised his hand slowly and tried to get the teacher's attention. "Ummm, Professor? It's already time for us to go."
"Huh?" she briefly glanced at him and then at the clock, which said it had been five minutes after class had officially ended. Her cheeks flustered pink as she stuttered, "Ah-a-a-ahm... I-I'm sorry! Th-that's all for today, w-w-w-we will be continuing this lecture next time, okay? T-t-t-take care!"
As she watched her students leave the room, she covered her face with both of her hands, her face growing redder and redder. "Oh my god, it happened again," she muttered to herself. "Why does this always happen?"
Amphitheater
Collab by Storm, Nach, and Faal
Avena shook off the comment Adelaide made earlier about anyone being able to do what her semblance does. She just leaned back in her chair and chuckled. They didn’t fully grasp what her semblance truly was. It wasn’t just knowing when to take a shot. They didn’t see the things she saw when her semblance is activated. They didn’t witness time slow down and the world turn into a purplish haze. They didn’t see the trajectory that was being made that would create the perfect shot every time. Knowing this, Avena remained cool and took it with a grain of salt.
The teacher pondered for a moment at Sirina’s method of utilizing her Semblance. Well, the first one wasn’t unorthodox at all—echolocation is an increasingly common way for blind people to see, and not necessarily something unique to her—but the second one may certainly fit what Adelaide was talking about. Indeed certain vibration frequencies can loosen the bonds of molecules enough for objects to break, but can Sirina actually do that? Smiling she asked, “Your Semblance is manipulating sound waves, right?”
"That is correct," Sirina nodded. "My semblance is basically the complete manipulation of any sound wave, as well as the detection of said waves. In doing so I can echolocate, which is why I can walk around without seeming blind. I can also manipulate them to change my voice to sound like anything." She mimicked Adelaide's voice, "Or anyone."
The others all glanced at her and chuckled. It was all too similar for their ears. Sirina smirked and returned her voice to normal, "Sorry about that. But I couldn't resist."
“Impressive,” Adelaide quickly caught on. “That isn’t all you can do, is it? Your question may have certainly shed light on your other abilities.”
“Well, I can turn sound waves into a weapon, and do a sort of banshee scream,” Sirina explained. She knew that giving away her semblance would put her at a disadvantage in fights but, she liked being at a disadvantage. “Or sonic-cut things. I could also use sound as a shield. I also can hear better than humans and Faunus alike. To be honest, I have been practicing with the idea of using sound to weaken molecular structure and break things for a while now. And I am not bad at it if I do say so myself.”
Chuckles now turned to inaudible chatter from the bleachers. Sirina can break molecular bonds with sound waves now? Even the teacher was impressed. Just how far would she take that new power, and were there limitations to it? The way that Sirina described it made it look like there were no limitations at all—but there was only one way to find out—it had to happen eventually with any of her students. “All right,” she walked towards the edge of the arena, picking up her sheath and wearing it around her waist. The teacher didn’t mind that she wasn’t in her combat uniform—she figured she’d do just fine in her teaching uniform. Grasping the handle of her sword she smirked, “I believe you haven’t tested it out on someone yet. Sorry if it’s inconvenient, but allow me to be the first, Miss Zezili. Don’t think I’ll go easy on you.”
Jackson was astonished that his sister would issue a challenge to a student of her own accord like that. A teacher just challenged a student. It was out-of-character for her to do that—especially since she was the kind that wouldn’t engage another in combat unless challenged. A teacher that wasn't known for fight unless she was challenged had just challenged a student who rarely fought. What the hell was Miss Silver thinking?
Carmina and Avena on the other hand were much more welcoming of the fight. Action, thrill, and excitement were desired from these two girls, otherwise this would’ve been a mundane and boring class. In fact, upon hearing this, Avena shot up from her chair and leaned against the railing. As usual, fighting got her full attention and focus. If school was nothing but combat classes, Avena would be a straight A student. Unfortunately, this was not the case and she was doomed to forever make D’s.
Sirina remained neutral while other students chattered. For normal people it would have been inaudible, but to Sirina, she could hear most of it. People didn't seem to believe her. Doubt. They doubted her. Much like many people in her past, though it used to be just because she was blind. But it was still doubt. But then again, somewhere less doubtful. Sirina was forced to bite her lip.
Sirina swallowed and took a deep breath. She didn't really want to fight Miss Silver, mainly due to the fact that Sirina believed she stood no chance against a teacher. But how could she decline it? This was a rare occasion and she felt the eyes of every other student on her. Maybe it was peer pressure—or maybe it was just Sirina wanting to prove to her doubters that she could do it. Could she? Regardless, Sirina closed her eyes and stood up slowly and picked her cane up.
With a deep breath she opened them and faced Miss Silver's direction. "Very well." She said with a nod and started for the arena. Sirina had only really tested it with sheets of metal, glass, porcelain, etc., but never on someone else or in a combat situation.
Carmina stood up from the bleachers, went to the rail and cupped her hands in front of her mouth. As Sirina approached her opponent, she yelled, “Kick her ass for me!” The redhead needed someone to beat the teacher for her, having failed last time. “Yeah! We want revenge!!!” Avena shouted as she shook her fists, having failed in that aspect too.
Sirina stopped completely for a moment upon hearing two voices. Voices from persons that Sirina didn't know very well. But yet, it sounded like something a friend would say, if that friend wasn't a Ningcompoop. Why would they go out of their way to say something like that? Not only that, but also, why say it with hope? Sirina could hear it in their voice, there was hope. Though whether it was in order to pump Sirina up or just because Carmina and Avena wanted Miss Silver beat, Sirina could not know. That said, it was still comforting in a way.
Who knows? It might have been the encouragement she needed.
Sirina turned to face the source of the voices, smiled, and offered a thumbs up. A simple "I'll try" was all Sirina said before turning back to face Miss Silver. She held her cane ready in its rapier mode and took another deep breath, "I'm ready."
The holoscreen updated with Adelaide’s and Sirina’s portraits on them, with an Aura level bar under each of them. Adelaide placed her right foot in front of her and unsheathed her sword, slowly manifesting a long and glowing blue blade from the sheath. The blade seemed to sound with the winds of a gale, singing the haunting ballad of the frigid Atlesian giants of legend, giants known and feared for bringing winter wherever they went. The students looked on eagerly at the two combatants as they posed in their respective stances, waiting for one of them to make the first swing. This was it—teacher against student, sound manipulator against master swordswoman—two Daredevils about to face each other to the
A slight humming sound could be heard throughout the arena. Its source was obviously Sirina. The sound that she was creating was a sort of armor to help defend against Miss Silver's sword. Once the sonic shield was up, Sirina struck. It was a fast barrage of thrusting strikes, each thrust created another sound, which Sirina would amplify to increase the strength and striking area. If hit with this amplified sound wave, it would have been much like a powerful punch. Sirina first needed to know how fast Miss Silver could move and this was the best way to figure it out.
Sensing that a rush of vibrated air was about to hit her, Adelaide immediately dodged and countered with a quick swing of her sword. The bluish Dust blade touched the surface of Sirina’s shield, glazing a part of it in a streak of ice. The air loudly cracked and appeared to condensate in a large vapor cloud—large enough to obscure the combatants from view. Another swing was added, breaking the ice and giving the teacher an opening.
The shattering of ice gave Sirina a perfect warning. She could see the blade coming almost perfectly, minus color, and quickly jumped out of the way. When she jumped back, she turned her Siren's Song into the pop gun mode and took aim at Miss Silver. With a single, quick but deep breath, she pulled the trigger. It started as a simple hum in the barrel, but quickly blasted out of the pop gun as a powerful sound wave, clearing the vapor around the two. Once she landed, she pulled the trigger more, sending a barrage of weaponized sound waves at Miss Silver. Each sound wave was a different frequency, but all of them had more than enough punch to knock Miss Silver back.
The force of the first sound wave was so powerful that it threw Adelaide backwards in a flip, but she gracefully landed on her two feet as the vapor cleared. Quickly sheathing her sword and pulling it out again to reveal a glowing purple dagger, she quickly dashed towards Sirina, dodging the deafening sound blasts one by one and readying to deliver another quick strike. The heels of her shoes clipped rapidly with each and every step as she ran. Sirina could hear Adelaide’s footsteps clip louder and louder, moving in an erratically serpentine pattern. Sirina turned her weapon back into rapier mode, Which way are you going? she thought and brought her rapier up. All of a sudden the clipping stopped far too close for Sirina to strike. Miss Silver was about to strike from an angle, but she wasn’t going to be caught off-guard that easily. The rapier turned back into a cane while Sirina brought it down at incredible speed in order to block the dagger’s strike.
Yet it didn’t come from where she was expecting the vibrations to come from. A forceful jab was felt on her back. Expecting Adelaide to follow up on that with a quick slash of her dagger, Sirina instinctively jumped away. She used the sound of her jumping to propel herself to a safer distance. “What was that?” Sirina said to herself and took a more defensive position with her cane turning back to a rapier, Ok Sirina, breathe and focus.
Adelaide landed back on the ground, unsheathing the other handle and revealing a long and curved orange blade. With dagger held firmly in front and a sword to her back, she dashed once more, this time heading straight for the blind one. The clipping of her heels was much more rapid now.
Oh, now there's a sword. Great. Sirina slowed her breathing and focused on one thing. Unheard to anyone, she was testing different frequencies. She found it in a short amount of time, and smirked. The dagger was almost in striking distance when she started to hum, just only a few inches from her face and closing. The dagger started shaking slowly but eventually it sped up and became more difficult to hold. Adelaide tried to grip onto it firmly, but it became harder and harder to do so. Not only that, her ears seemed to be ringing with a tone growing in intensity.
The dagger only stopped shaking when it shattered like wine glass, leaving the students stunned at the sight. Ventus? Shattered? It wasn’t possible, Jackson looked on, even if it was just for a second. Here the teacher was, unarmed for the first time in front of her students, and Sirina about to deliver a decisive strike on her.
Once the dagger shattered, Adelaide resheathed the hilt and swung with her sword, but Sirina turned her cane back to it's pop gun, fired a shot to knock Miss Silver back, and then charged her not wanting to give Miss Silver time to recover. But the teacher landed on her feet again and went in and charged at Sirina as well, slowly drawing a red dagger from her sheath. Another sound blast went off, and another, but Adelaide barely dodged them—her hair the only thing being tossed about by the sound. She threw her dagger with great force at Sirina and slashed with her sword. From the sword came a bright orange streak of light that split the dagger’s blade in two, resulting in a large explosion.
She could hear a hollow metal thing bounce off the floor. From within the thick smoke, Adelaide muttered to herself, “Why didn’t you think this through, Addie?” Smirking to herself she closed her eyes and cleared her mind, and her eyes were sealed shut. To Sirina, it seemed that Miss Silver had been paralyzed by her own attack, just standing there with her sword drawn in the smoke unable to see anything. Maybe this was her chance. What she didn’t know that Adelaide was able to detect the rapid clipping of Sirina’s heels, the minute brush of the wind coming towards her, and the song sung by the air. From the perspective of the students, all they could hear was a series of quick clashes.
Their movements were rapid and graceful, yet behind those moves they hid great skill and power. Even as sound waves were blasted at Adelaide's direction, the teacher would dodge or block those blasts, and even as the teacher responded in kind with swings and lunges, Sirina could sense where they were going to land and block them accordingly. Both had managed to land hits on each other, and their Aura levels were dropping ever lower, but both of them didn't care. Metal just kept on clashing. Carmina and Avena were enjoying quite a show today, for it was 'nothing less than fricking awesome' in the redhead's thoughts. All of a sudden they watched as Adelaide threw a Dust crystal in front of her and slashed her sword, cutting the blade in two and blowing the crystal up in a great explosion.
The students could barely make out what happened, even as the smoke began to clear. Eventually they were able to see the two fighters, and they were astonished. There the two were with their clothes partly sorched, and their hair singed, and they were breathing quite heavily. The tip of Sirina’s cane barely touched Adelaide’s throat, and Adelaide’s sword barely touched Sirina’s—the carbon-copy stalemate. Their Aura had dropped below 30 points, with Sirina's just one point ahead of Adelaide's. The teacher opened her eyes and recovered her sight, and stared into Sirina's closed eyes as Sirina 'stared' at her. She broke a smile and withdrew her sword, returning it in her sheath.
Sirina and the other students must have been astonished as the teacher walked away without saying another word. What was that about? Why did she stop? A few more swings this way and that would've given her the victory over her student. Yet that was not her intention. "That will be all for today," she announced, gazing at the giant clock as she began to remove her sheath. "Remember to read up on Chapter 11 for next class, there will be a surprise quiz. I will be seeing you on Wednesday."
