Chapter 3: Half-Blaked Ideas

As the four students were on the way to their next class, they had a serious discussion about the practicality of prosthetic robot limbs on non-amputees. "But where would you put it?" Sandy asked. "Just a third arm made of metal, like, sticking out of your shoulder? Wouldn't that get in the way a-" She stopped in her tracks and covered her mouth with her hand, letting out a small squeal of excitement. "Oh my God, it's Pyrrha!"

Marco looked forward. "Pyrrha Nikos? Huh, I didn't know she was enrolled here."

Richard looked confused. "Pyrrha who?"

Sandy turned to look at him with a shocked expression. "She won the Mistral Regional Tournament four times in a row! How could you not know her?"

Richard continued to look at her blankly. She groaned and pointed him in the direction of a girl in bronze armor organizing her locker. Her long crimson hair was tied in a ponytail, and a gold circlet adorned her forehead. Richard narrowed his eyes. "Isn't that the Marshmallow Flakes girl?"

"No!" Sandy cried indignantly. "Well- yes, but no!"

"You certainly seem to look up to her." Teddy remarked.

Sandy laughed. "Honestly, if I were gay, it would be for her. I've wanted to be a Huntress since I was little, but she's a HUGE inspiration."

"Well, we've got sparring practice next." said Richard. "Maybe you'll get to fight her."

The sparring room was an indoor amphitheatre with a large screen above the arena in the center, presumably to track the aura levels of the combatants. Team STRM took front-row seats, waiting as the rest of the students filed in. Glynda stood in the arena, taking attendance on a large scroll. As the last of the students got seated, she brought up a spreadsheet. "Alright, everyone," she announced. "Let's begin sparring practice for today. For those of you whose first time this is, the first matches will be decided randomly, and later we can take volunteers. So, getting right into it, our first match will be…"

She pressed a button on the Scroll, and two wheels with each of the student's names on them appeared on the larger screen. They rolled for a few seconds before settling on two different names. "Blake Belladonna and Richard Astra." Glynda called. Richard stood up and grabbed his spear, while on the opposite side of the room a black-haired girl with a large black bow on her head got up. Her weapon was holstered in a rectangular scabbard slung across her back.

Richard and Blake's faces appeared on the large screen, each one with a gauge that represented their Aura levels. As they took places on opposite sides of the arena,their teammates cheered them on. Blake drew her weapon, a curved sword that folded up to fit in the scabbard, which it was connected to by a black ribbon. She held the sword in one hand and the scabbard in the other. Richard didn't seem very concerned. He twirled his spear nonchalantly and smiled. "How ya doin'?" He asked.

"I'm all right." Blake answered. She wasn't smiling.

Richard chuckled. "Good to hear." He took his spear in both hands and got into a fighting stance.

Glynda adjusted the room's lighting to put the focus on the combatants. "Begin." she prompted.

Blake made the first move. She rushed forward, knocking Richard's spear aside with her scabbard and slicing upward. Richard leaped back and stabbed forward, but the black-haired girl jumped up above him to avoid it. As she dropped down onto him, Richard pointed Boltstriker up to intercept her. The spear passed right through her and she vanished in a flash of purple light, reappearing at his side and striking him with her blade. The blow knocked him back, and as he regained his footing, Blake struck again. Richard barely blocked the attack with the shaft of his spear.

Sandy whispered to Marco. "Looks like she can make copies of herself or something."

Marco nodded. "The hit went straight through her."

Richard was now going on the offensive, keeping Blake on the ropes with quick slashes and thrusts. She dodged each of them with surprising agility, and one final stab went through her- another copy. Richard was ready for this one, and got into a low stance, sweeping his spear in a wide arc along the ground. Blake appeared just as the hit connected with her legs, knocking her off her feet. Richard followed up with a downward thrust, but she rolled out of the way.

As the battle continued, it was pretty clear Richard wasn't giving it his all, even though he landed multiple hits. Eventually, Blake struck him with one final blow to bring him down to 13% of his aura, while she was still at 35. Since Richard had fallen below 15%, Blake was declared the winner.

Richard got up off the ground with a smile on his face. He shook Blake's hand and chuckled. "Good fight. Nice work."

This time, she did smile. "Thanks, you too."

Glynda entered the information into a record for calculating the student's rankings. "Excellent work, you two." she commended. "But please, Mr. Astra, try to take your matches a bit more seriously in the future."

Richard waved as he and Blake walked back to his seat. "I'll keep that in mind."

As they took their seats, Blake's teammates congratulated her and patted her on the Back. Sandy put her hand on Richard's shoulder and smiled, but he didn't really seem to need it.

"Ok, let's get started on our next match." Glynda started up the roulette again. "It looks like we have… Zinnia Flora vs Pyrrha Nikos."

Across the room, a golden-haired girl dressed in yellow with a halberd stood and stepped into the arena with Pyrrha, who drew a sword and a bronze shield from her back. Sandy recognized her as one of the girls who had fought with them in the clearing during initiation, who got put into team AZRE.

"Begin." Glynda called.

The girls immediately rushed each other and began the fight. It very quickly became apparent that Zinnia did not stand a chance. Pyrrha dodged and blocked every single one of her strikes, retaliating with quick swings of her sword. Occasionally the sword extended into a spear for longer ranged strikes. At the end of the fight, Zinnia had been knocked down to 12% aura level, while Pyrrha was untouched. There was a lot of cheering among the students, mainly from Pyrrha's teammates and Sandy. The red-haired girl smiled nervously and shook Zinnia's hand, then they went back to their seats.

The remaining fights were nowhere near as impressive as Pyrrha's, and several minutes later, sparring was concluded. As the students left, they talked excitedly about the matches and lightly teased some of the losers, but it seemed nobody blamed Zinnia for losing so badly.

Team STRM was talking about Richard's fight with Blake. "I liked her. She was very… to-the-point." Richard said. "Also really pretty, but I'm biased. I have a thing for black-haired girls."

Sandy stuck her face next to his and smirked, letting her black ponytail fall around her shoulder. "Say again?"

Richard pulled away and laughed. "Yeah, I know. But my old teacher from Signal once said that in his experience, relationships between teammates rarely work out well. So blame him for me not worrying about you too much."

Sandy giggled and put her arm around Marco's shoulder. "Hey, I've got plenty of options left. What do you think, Marco?"

Marco's poker face was impenetrable as he spoke in a monotone voice. "I don't know how I feel about this."