Julio breathed out a sigh as Terra began to speak. It took a while for Terra to finish what he was saying and activate his semblance, and Julio wasn't going to let the opportunity slip. Before Terra could strike the ground with his spade to order the seven spectral balls of fire towards him, he already shot three bullets that was infused with fire dust. Hopefully that would catch him by surprise.

But the fact that seven balls of fire were heading towards him was still there. He had to get out. But there was no way out. With all seven coming at him at different directions, there were only little gaps in between. He began analyzing what he had in a short moment. He had to tank a hit. But he'd lose... wouldn't he?

Julio turned and began heading to the fireball that was behind him originally. He would tank that one. He headed towards the ball of fire and dove in between that and the other ball of fire, but he was sure to get hit. But he would at least be safe from the others. He hated having to show his semblance at such an early time in combat, but he had no choice. He at least wanted to win. Before his aura would go lower than 15%, a pale yellow color would envelop Julio and his aura meter would go back to 50%.

@Polaris North
Terra took the hits especially well considering they were setting him alight, the focus on his face was intense as he was manipulating the aura flames around them.

The fire hit him hard, it's burning brilliance practically burning a hole where it hit him, earning over 5% aura damage, but at least he'd avoided it... Right?

He quickly found he was wrong. The other 6 flames were still around and having missed him the first time, were reeling around to come at him once more, spiralling in the air.

Julio couldn't help but let out a soft laughter even as he realized that his jacket had a hole at the abdomen part. For the first time in a while, he was actually enjoying fighting. Once he noticed that the other six fireballs were following him, his feet went on autopilot. It was fast, yes, but the one who was controlling them was stagnant. Julio took out his rifle once more and then started shooting lightning-dust bullets at him. After around five, he put it down again to focus on trying to avoid the aura flames.

@Polaris North
Terra took further hits, his aura dropping to 20% as even his strong resolve was starting to break under the pain he was taking.
"Fool..." he muttered as the fireballs chased their target. But unexpectedly, another appeared from Terra's back and looked to intercept Julio in his run. If this one hit him, it'd leave him wide open to the rest and it would surely end this bout.

Julio cursed under his breath as the other fireball appeared. His tail held onto the wind dust that he originally used, as it was not depleted yet, and his left hand slipped into one of his many pockets to fish out gravity dust. He activated the gravity dust first and took a deep breath as he leaped up when it was seconds before the impact. He then activated the wind dust to propel him forward. He noticed that the fireballs didn't make sharp turns - it still followed the laws somewhat. But he was certainly burning through his dust crystals.

Two fire cartridges left - one after he had reloaded. One lightning cartridge. One gravity dust crystal and two wind crystals. He had to end this as fast as possible before he ran out of dust to use. He was still propelling forward and he'd certainly land a few feet behind Terra. If he had another fireball in his arsenal, Julio would certainly collide with it. He was aware of that. So he had to shoot. Now. He shot five more fire bullets - but he wasn't sure if the last two would hit. For the first time, he was unsure solely because he was going at a pretty fast pace.

@Polaris North
Terra was still standing still, controlling his flames as they hounded Julio. They weren't giving up quite yet, but they were losing their brightness slightly the longer they were around. But he was still tracking Julio with his eyes and when he tried to fire again, Terra took the moment to dodge him, only just outrunning the shots and still taking one of them head on, his aura dropping so close to critical. He didn't produce any new flames as the 7 still out were circling around to come at Julio from all sides, using a variety of angles to cut off chances of escape.

A last chance. Either Julio or Terra. Julio landed quite hardly on the ground so he rolled and then positioned himself right again, facing Terra who had his back turned as of now. Julio wasn't sure if they guy would turn around or not. Seeing as there was virtually no escape, he took the last two clear shots [this time with one fire bullet and one lightning] he had before attempting to make a futile escape by trying to do the same thing he did earlier - dive through one and hope he gets out.

@Polaris North
The two shots struck Terra clean in the back and he keeled over forwards... but the second he hit the floor, his flames surrounded Julio in his attempt to roll and delivered deadly aura damage, dropping his aura below 15%... the students, and miss Lariet, looked stunned.

"Double K.O!" She called out over the students as both Terra and Julio hit the floor. "Incredible, absolutely remarkable." She was practically beaming as she made her way onto the arena to give both students a hand up. The little screens above showed an x over both their images, but let out a little animated spurt of confetti over them both.

Terra was struggling to stand, knees wobbling a bit as he was using his weapon as a crutch. "Ugh... you alright there...?" he looked toward Julio.

How many times did he fall in the duration of the fight? Three? Four? He lost count. But nevertheless, the feeling of hitting the ground is something that won't be missed anytime soon. And the feeling of flames engulfing you certainly left a mark... or two. He heard Miss Lariet scream something about a double K.O. and how amazing it was. But for now, Julio didn't care much for it. The cold floor felt so... comfortable. He wanted to close his eyes then and there to sleep.

However, that wasn't something advisable. He struggled to get up, hands still wrapped around his gun. It was like it was some sort of inseparable part of him. The crystals he used were scattered all over the floor. He was now sitting up and looked up at Terra who was more or less in the same condition as him. Maybe better since Julio tanked so many hits. "I've been better. Way better." He replied with a light chuckle before attempting to stand up. He stumbled a little but he regained his balance quickly. "You?"

@Polaris North
"Very much the same." Terra chuckled wryly as he managed to regain his standing, still using his monk spade to stand him up. "It was a worthy bout."

"And then some." Miss Lariet greeted the pair of them as she stepped inbetween the two, first addressing Julio. "Excellent Tenacity Mr Taiyou. Your usage of dust was excellent in both keeping your opponent at a distance and dealing damage, especially considering the disadvantages. Very good indeed." she smiled before turning to Terra. "Mr Cottra, good job at closing the distance, but you must improve your reactions and counter moves to elemental dust, you needed to close the gap and land strikes far more often than you did, but your usage of your semblance was perfect. You've both earned a rest."

Julio nodded in agreement to his statement. It was certainly a good fight. Tiring, painful, but a good fight. He looked at Miss Lariet as she addressed how he fought and she praised his use of dust. He smiled. Dust and sniping were the two things he trained at continuously for all these years so he was quite happy to be praised like that. "Thank you ma'am." He said before practically staggering back to his seat and collapsing on it.

What a great way to start the day.

@Sho Minazuki@Polaris North@Shadow Daedalus@Eklispe

"Go get changed you two." Miss Lariet smiled as Terra managed to head off to the changing rooms to put his weapon away, returning in his uniform as he sat back with his teammates.

"Well, for what seemed one sided, that was particularly intense." Yasmin commented, hiding a private smile at her team's performance thus far.

"You were awesome Julio!" Cedar grinned happily once his fellow Faunus returned to his seat.

"Any other volunteers?" Miss Lariet addressed the audience.

---

Venator let out a low, impressed whistle as Miss Lariet announced the Double K.O. He was surprised by the results, and Julio's resilience through the fight. 'The monkey's tougher than he looks...' He watched as the two of them headed off to get changed and put their weapons away. As he waited, he looked over the rest of the class, going over various scenarios in his mind before Terra came back and made his way back to his seat. "That was a good fight Terra, even if the end was a little unexpected..."

He leaned back in his seat again as he spoke, his head turned towards his monk-like teammate before Miss Lariet once again asked for volunteers. Venator's golden eyes turned to her, his head following soon after before he shrugged and raised his hand.

"I volunteer."

He stood smoothly and made his way to the arena. As he reached Miss Lariet's podium, He turned and looked at the instructor. "If no-one else volunteers, you can just spin the wheel. It's not like I have a particular person I want to fight."

Julio turned his head to his two teammates and gave them a smile of appreciation, not trusting himself that what will come out of his mouth wouldn't sound stupid or boastful. He then looked back at the arena. He had already changed into his uniform and placed his weapon away as per the rules earlier on, while he was still stumbling around. He heard Venator volunteer himself and then the faunus descended to the arena and was prepped to fight.

It was always good to see a close battle, in his case it was never get hit and win, or take a hit and lose, since one was a big block of a man, and the other was a faster fight. This one had combatants with similar strengths, and it showed. It turned into a Double K.O which is rare in any fight.

"Yeah not bad. An impressive display", he commented. It made him think though... What about Cedar? During the exam he only showed his ability as a marksman, but he didn't see him use his semblance, and he remembered he wasn't eager to talk about it... Considering they were on the same team now, it was now his and everyone else in this team's business. Although now would not be the best time to speak to him about it.

---

That fight had gone on a great deal longer than Azure had thought it would. At first glance it looked like Terry would win by smashing the other guy into the paste but he'd held his own surprisingly well. Eh she'd always been bad at gauging fights anyway. Terry's semblance thingy had been super cool and the fight had been exciting as far as fights went. "Yay good job Terra you didn't lose!" she said cheerily. Technically not something to get excited over but she didn't seem to mind. Then Ven volunteered to go next. Would she get to see her whole team fight? "Go captain, showem team VALT is all about!" Technically team valentine wasn't terribly intimidating but that wasn't the point either!

@Eklispe@Sho Minazuki@Polaris North@Shadow Daedalus

"Ahh Mr Aurea! Very good indeed." Miss Lariet clapped her hands together as he made his way down to the stage. "So, can anyone else stir up the courage to take him on? Or will the wheel decide?" There was a prolonged period of silence in the classroom... and just as miss Lariet moved to the terminal to press the button;

"Ah what the heck, i'll give it a shot." A dark skinned blonde in the audience stood up with her hand raised.

"Very good, miss Gjaller! Alright, get changed you two." Miss Lariet directed them as the blonde left and returned in her usual attire. She was dressed somewhat smartly, a black trilby with a gold ribbon on her head. Below that, a yellow pinstriped shirt underneath a black vest, complete with grey trousers and simple leather shoes. She brought with her from the changing room, oddly enough, an instrument case. Upon opening it, what looked like an advanced trombone came out and held in her fingers as she stepped into the arena, looking decently confident.

---

As Venator stepped back into the arena, clad in his combat attire and adjusting the bracer on his left arm, he raised an eyebrow at his opponent's choice of weapon. Ordinarily, he's pass it off as a regular instrument but the context heavily implied it was anything but regular. Nevertheless, he switched his weapon out of it's compact carry mode and into its ranged Assault Rifle mode before he stepped over to his starting place and held his weapon in a ready position. He gave his blonde opponent a slight smile, confident but subtle.

"I'm lucky I have such an attractive sparring partner. Best of luck."

@Shadow Daedalus
His opponent giggled a little bit at his comment, sporting a little grin at him.
"Flattery won't win you this round. Nice try though." she retorted, now even more excited to duke it out with him. Above them, their images appeared on the screens with their aura meters.

"FIGHT!"

Pazice was quick to make the first move, raising her trombone up to her lips and puffing into the mouthpiece. A single brass note exploded out of the horn... and with it, a cannonball, crackling with golden energy shot itself out of the horn, headed at surprising speed for Ven.

---

Having prepared for an attack, Venator dived to the left to avoid the attack. Rolling with the action and using his momentum to carry him into a crouch, he raised his weapon to his shoulder and let out a long burst of machine gun fire before getting quickly to his feet and moving.

He briefly toyed with the idea of using dust-infused rounds or even his semblance to end this quickly, but decided against it. He didn't know enough about his opponent, and he could end up giving away more than he stands to get back. For now, he'll use regular tactics until he had a better idea of what he's dealing with.