AN: New cover!

Chapter 67 - Dulled Polaris

The fight started anti-climatically. Both combatant backed away from one another, and began to circle one another. Pyrrha acted first. She transformed her sword into its javelin form and hefted it at the Courier.

Markus had always had a pretty good reaction time. Not enough to avoid a javelin at less than three meters, but pretty good none the less. It was his wired synapses that dilated his perception of time in the presence of adrenaline that allowed him to grab the weapon out of the air with his left hand. Pyrrha's weapon was actually remarkably heavy. he supposed increased weight was one of the problems caused by multi-form weapons. He wondered if he should make one of his own. That would take too long. Besides, the more moving parts, the more fragile a weapon was.

The surprised expression on Pyrrha's face was soon mirrored in his mind as he felt the weapon tear from his grip and return to Pyrrha's hand where she transformed it back into its sword form. She then launched herself at him in a flurry of attacks.

The Courier was pushed on the defensive. It was clear that she was far more skilled with her weapon than he was with his. While he was an expert with all melee weapons, she was a master at the use of her own. The only thing that kept him from getting hit was his superior reflexes. He simply reacted to each of her strikes faster than she could. Her attacks were relentless, allowing him no room for offense. She used her shield to further crowd him and prevent him from doing anything other than reacting. In many instances he was forced to dodge rather than block.

Then, she did something with little tactical sense and lots of flair. She flipped over him. Very much a flashy move. Unfortunately for her, while performing the acrobatic feat, she was vulnerable, and the Lone Courier had the reflexes needed to take advantage of it. He smashed the golden eagle head of the staff into her. She landed on one knee and skid backwards about a meter. Her Aura was not significantly damaged.

Pyrrha launched herself back at him with unabated ferocity. As she came at him, he launched his own series of attacks, relying heavily on feints to keep her occupied and the greater length of his weapon to keep her at a distance. However, Pyrrha transformed her own weapon into a spear, with even greater reach. Markus parried its singular point of damage aside and moved in. He activated VATS. The reason he did this was because he had a very short window of time in which he could strike before Pyrrha changed her weapon back into its sword form. While Aura protected from actual damage, it did not protect from pain. He therefore targeted various nerve clusters meant to weaken her. As he could not match her skill, at least not with his current methods, his best bet was to weaker her.

He attempted a peroneal strike on both her legs as well as a strike to her right shoulder muscle. If successful, this would disable both her legs and disarm her as well as make her right arm unusable for a short period. All effects would be temporary and not particularly painful. VATS gave it a 95% chance each. While Pyrrha was in very good shape, she lacked the muscle mass to render virtually any pressure points ineffective. Even a single one of these strikes would be capable of turning the fight. She could not do without any one of her limbs after all. It was over.

But then, the inexplicable happened. Not a single of the strikes hit, all missed by inches, almost as if deflected by an unseen force. The percentage chance of missing three hits in a row was 0.0125%. It was so ridiculous to the Courier that he actually put a good three meters between him and Pyrrha in order to give him time to think this through.

His mind whirred as he thought through all the possible explanations as to how this had happened. There was no way his luck could be this bad.

A possible explanation was that his Pip-boy was slightly damaged, leading to each of his blows falling slightly short. That didn't make any sense however as there was nothing that could have damaged it. Besides, the Pip-boy had never shown more than a scratch despite the many times bullets or shrapnel had collided with it. That left only one conclusion: it had something to do with Pyrrha.

He knew from the food fight that Pyrrha had some kind of kinesis as she was capable of moving the soda cans without touching them. Perhaps she was capable of using her semblance to deflect his blows. That was a hypothesis worth testing.

So, basically his plan was to try to hit Pyrrha as much as possible and see if this phenomena could be repeated, making extensive use of VATS all the while. It was not the most creative of plans, but as far as plans go, simpler was typically better.

Markus advanced at Pyrrha, delivering his own series of lightning strikes. The sword and shield combination that Pyrrha favored combined with her prodigious skill, meant that any openings would now need to forced. He could not rely on exploiting her mistakes. Deception was his ally.

He faked a missed overhead swing and intentionally took a follow-up shield bash from her. The force was far greater than it should have been, the effects of Aura apparent. Despite this, he moved in as Pyrrha did the same. He activated VATS once again. He targeted much broader areas, whole limbs. He was much less interested in finishing the fight, and more with testing his hypothesis. He was solely focused on learning Pyrrha's capabilities. Once again, all the strikes missed, diverted at the last second. It was settled, Pyrrha was capable of deflecting attacks using her semblance.

No plan survives contact with the enemy however, as Pyrrha capitalized on his wasted motion and unleashed her own attack. She smashed her elbow into his solar plexus. This hurt, but as he was used to getting shot and pounded by super mutants, he did not budge. However, there was a distinctive shattering sound and a peculiar glow covered him. A buzzer sounded. He caught Pyrrha's sword in his empty hand a few centimeters from his throat.

"That's the match," he said.

In his planning, he had not taken his stunted Aura into account. It was only now that he realized that he did not be defeated to lose, only take a certain amount of hits, and a very small amount of hits at that.

"That's it?" said Pyrrha, somewhat dazed by the sudden end of the fight. To her, the fight seemed to be nowhere near over. Markus did not seem remotely damaged or even fatigued from it.

"Why's your Aura so…" she asked.

"Weak?" he supplied, and launched into his story.

"My father has had chronic illness all his life, meaning he was never in a state to be unlocking anyone's Aura and my mother died in childbirth. Paranoia on my father's part prevented the proper unlocking of my Aura. What I currently have is the best I could do myself. Not very effective, but good enough."

"I could unlock your Aura," said Pyrrha a little hesitantly, "I mean, it would be helpful for the tournament."

"If you think it's a good idea," he said, speaking no less hesitantly than she did. Markus was placing a great deal of trust in Pyrrha. He was literally allowing her to mess with his soul.

Pyrrha stepped closer to him and put her hand on his shoulder.

"Now, close your eyes and concentrate."

The Courier did so silently, but apprehensively. He could feel his own Aura, weak and feeble, and also Pyrrha's strong and well trained one. He heard Pyrrha's voice in his mind saying something very strange.

For it is in passing that we achieve immortality. Through this, we become a paragon of virtue and glory to rise above all, infinite in distance and unbound by death. I release your soul, and by my shoulder protect thee.

Markus opened his eyes, he was glowing. His entire body was radiating Aura. Pyrrha suddenly hunched over. He grabbed her shoulder.

"Pyrrha?"

"I'm fine, unlocking your Aura took a lot out of me. I'll recover in a couple minutes."

He nodded and released her shoulder. He was relieved that that had gone as well as it had. The last thing he wanted was to accidentally damage Pyrrha.

As Pyrrha started to look better, he asked, "Out of interest," he paused before looking directly at her, "What's your semblance?"

"Oh," she said, "My semblance is polarity."

"You're going to need to be a bit more specific than that, polarity has a lot definitions, especially scientific ones."

"It allows me to control magnetism and through that move metal objects."

While this explained to Markus how all his attacks had proven unable to hit, and completely defied all kinds of laws of physics, to him there was a more significant aspect. With her semblance, Pyrrha was one of the few people who could kill him. If Pyrrha chose to, at any time she could easily end his life, and that was enough to send a chill down his spine.

AN: As usual, make sure to review and visit the forum.