Standing in the underground arena for the first time, Kane eyes the booth with the evaluation team, then all the people who came to watch his first rank match on the spectator stands. Lucy and Amy are together in the stands, and he’s pretty sure Minerva is also going to turn up to watch.
His ego might actually get a little bit bruised if she doesn’t. He’d texted her about the match and everything, the second thing he did with his new phone, in fact. The first thing was put in Lucy and Amy’s numbers, as well as get lectured on phone etiquette by the former of the two.
A smile flits across his face before he sees someone walking into the arena on the other side of him. His judgments of his opponent are swift and decisive. His opponent is male and judging by his aura, Gamma tier at best. He has a wooden sword, probably for some type of freezing technique, as well as two psitech bracelets. None of these things phase Kane, but on the assumption that lethal techniques aren’t allowed, fighting into a primarily freezing focused psychic is his worst matchup.
Why? For the simple reason that objects imbued with freezing techniques and psychic energy are considered separate targets for absorption from their user, so unleashing his aura in full won’t be enough to fundamentally stop his opponent’s technique unless he burns a little more time.
Now that he thinks about it, that’s probably why his opponent looks like a freezing specialist, it would be plain enough from just the theory behind absorption that it would be the most effective counter. Jolting him away from such thoughts is a voice from the speakers around the ring.
“Alright, Kane Baelirus. This is your first ranked match. Your opponent is rank 45, Arran Nichols, remember the rules?” Kane nods to the evaluation booth, and the voice continues. “Right, introduce yourself, then we’ll count you down.”
Kane takes a step forward to the white line in the orange dirt, noting the holo-projected dueling bounds from the ceiling as the line covers his foot when he steps over it, then looks up at his opponent readying his sword on the opposite line from him.
“Kane Baelirus. Nice to meet you, Arran. Let’s make this good.”
“Ha! I got chosen to test you out, can’t let a rich kid like you have an easy time!” Arran’s taunt is accompanied by a very genuine sounding laugh, and Kane chuckles to himself as well.
Kane lets his mind fall into focus as he hears the first count of ‘three’. His opponent is ranked quite highly here, is Gamma level, and is a freezing specialist. He’s not heard the name Arran Nichols, so fore-knowledge of his opponent is out. The particular freezing technique he will use on that sword is also unknown, but the sword’s make looks to be close to a Meser, with a larger crossguard than what Kane believes is average. ‘Two’.
Kane stops holding back his absorption aura, his opponent may not be in range of it yet, but making him stand in it as much as possible is a win condition as good as any. The two psitech bracelets are probably support items for a close-quarters fight, probably to assist with ignition techniques Arran isn’t comfortable with. ‘One’. All of Kane’s mental prep complete, he hunches down lower to get more power out of his initial step, and waits. ‘Begin!’
Kane makes it three steps forward before whatever freezing technique Arran is using is fully applied, and Arran also activates one of his psitech bracelets.The single blue psychic slug that it fires off dissipates harmlessly in Kane’s aura before ever having a chance to reach him, but that clearly wasn’t the main attack, Kane knows. The second bracelet is activated immediately afterward, as well as a separate ignition technique of some form.
Judging from the sheer power and speed behind Arran’s leap forward, it was a combination to accelerate himself, but it lost about half of its oomph the moment Arran got within Kane’s aura, which is exactly as Kane expected. The sword’s imbued energy is, also as expected, dissipating much more slowly. Arran also appears to be slightly unnerved by Kane’s unleashed aura, something Kane plans to exploit fully by throwing a punch directed at Arran’s head.
Arran’s training appears to win out over his discomfort, and his sword moves to parry faster than Kane thought it would. In addition, Kane gets a good look at its properties, as the parry knocks his hand away with far greater force than would ordinarily be possible. In fact, from the force, he thinks it felt more like getting hit with a sledgehammer than a wooden sword. He’s even momentarily thankful it didn’t break his wrist. Taking a step back, Kane takes the time to verbally confirm his suspicions, and perhaps distract his opponent.
“Ah, I get it, the sword’s a bluff, the technique makes it more like a hammer meant to throw people out of-” Kane ducks under a one handed slash from his opponent mid-sentence. “Bounds, right!?”
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Judging from the grin on Arran’s face, Kane thinks he hit the nail on the head. To avoid himself getting hit on the head, he slams his left leg into the ground, and thrusts forward closer to Arran, aiming a palm strike towards his stomach. Arran activates both bracelets at the same time, and Kane almost considers backing away, but decides against it as he notes the speed of Arran’s backhop is drastically less than his initial charge.
“Ignition techniques assisted by those bracelets, then, rather than using them on your own.” Kane makes sure to take a taunting tone this time, before charging into his opponent’s range.
The next blow is a two-handed slash which Kane opts to sidestep to the right, but being mindful about the bounds of the arena, he opts not to dodge the follow-up stab, instead performing a mock parry with his knee. The recoil and impact of which makes him stumble a little, enough for Arran to try a vertical two-handed slash. This strike Kane dodges by ducking low and rolling back in the direction he had only just dodged from, and launching a kick at his opponent’s legs.
Arran manages to twist his body out of the way and activate one of his bracelets at the same time, and the resulting hop, though weak, is enough to carry him out of the way of the trip. In the time it takes Kane to push himself back up to a standing stance, Arran takes a different sword stance than the one he was using before. Kane stops for a moment, paces to the left a bit, then drops out of his pace for a head-on approach.
The one-handed stab Arran sends at his approach is undoubtedly a feint, but Kane is confident to charge through it regardless. Arran himself probably hasn’t noticed it, due to Kane’s aura and the accumulated frostbite, but Kane certainly has noticed the sheer tiredness in Arran’s movements. He’s sure that within only one more of these exchanges, he’ll have won by simply attritioning his opponent’s energy.
Arran’s counter off of the feint is assisted by yet another activation of the bracelets, a twist of Arran’s body, throwing his left leg to the side, and switching his grip to two-handed. The resulting diagonal sloping slash is not something Kane would be able to dodge if he was twice as fast as he is. However blocking is possible, and Kane planted both his feet into the ground and took a sturdy stance the moment he saw the activation of Arran’s ignition bracelets as well putting both of his arms up in defense.
As the wooden sword reaches just a few inches shy of Kane’s waiting hands, he twists his body, crosses his arms, and throws out his legs similarly to how Arran had, and quite literally rides the force of the blow until the force added by the technique and Arran’s own strength can’t push him through the dirt any longer. Keeping his right hand firmly on the sword to lock it in place, Kane stomps forward and lashes out a jab aimed at Arran’s arms.
Perhaps smartly if this were a fight to the death, Arran abandons his sword and turns to activate an ignition technique. However, in a sparring duel, against himself, Kane has absolute confidence that nothing Arran can put out with his meager quarter of his initial energy would scratch him. Whatever attack Arran was just trying to bring to muster in his disarmed state is absorbed before it even forms.
“Well, I guess I win?” Kane announces to Arran, and hands him back the sword, hilt first, while suppressing his aura again.
“No shit dude! How the fuck did you just pull that counter off… Fucking rich kids, man.” Kane doesn’t think Arran’s jovial tone matches the words he just said, but he took the sword back and put his hand up in a defeated way regardless. “Seriously, all you used was that absorption thing? And I’m this exhausted… God damn…”
“Ah, you actually had a pretty good matchup. Freezing techniques are pretty much my counter, so I only won like that because you couldn’t use a real sword.” Kane does his best not to sound arrogant, and Arran looks like he gets it, even if he doesn’t respond to that statement in particular.
“That technique of yours… it really does make it damn hard to think straight… Plus… that creepy feeling, ugh.” Arran shivers a bit and Kane tries to laugh off the comment before the speakers blare again.
“The match goes to Kane Baelirus. Would both of you please stop talking and get back here, we’ve got more than one of these today, you know.” Kane looks back up at the evaluation booth, and spots Professor Agnola looking a little bit annoyed.
“Ah, I think our talk is overstaying its welcome.” Kane sagely nods at Arran’s words.
----------------------------------------
“So the rumors of you beating Lucy are true, then?” Arran asks as Professor Agnola types away at her laptop, and Kane stops trying to read what she’s writing to answer.
“Ah, yeah. We actually learned our CQC stuff under the same teacher, so we both already knew that I would counter her lightning pretty hard. It was just a friendly spar.”
“That so, eh? Well, I’ll catch you around man, I’d love to spar with you again, rich kid.” Arran waves a hand at him lazily as he walks off, and Kane can’t help but feel at least a little bit confused.
“Professor… Is he always like that?” Even knowing she isn’t looking, Kane still points in the direction of the door Arran had left through.
“He’s actually one of the more normal high ranks here. By comparison, I’d call your friend Ms. Smith’s occasional outbursts more crazy.”
Kane scratches his head in silence at the honest and actual admission that Lucy is a little bit crazy. His respect for Professor Agnola steadily rising, he decides not to press his luck with potentially ignoring her any more.
“And… Done. You have a phone, right? Once you get your student account set up on our network, you can see your rank update in real time with any changes. You’re going to be ranked 43 at the start.”
“Huh? I beat 45, wouldn’t that make me 45, at the absolute most?” Kane cocks his head to get a peak at the screen she had been typing on up until now.
“You were weighted a little higher by your actual combat prowess and your history with Lucy, that’s all.” Professor Agnola shrugs after that, then takes a sip of what Kane assumes is coffee.
“Ah, thank you, Professor.”
“Not a problem, and Mr. Baelirus, please refrain from turning that technique on like that anywhere other than the arena, ok? Even what you just did in there nearly ruined some important sensors.”
“I will keep that in mind…”