A small anxious noise escaped Autumn's mouth as she placed her foot onto the slightly elevated platform at the center of the arena. Lifting herself up, she was all too aware of her body. Her hands were shaking a little bit, and she was reflexively clenching them into fists, before forcing herself to unclench them (only to forget and clench her hands into fists again) in anticipation of the imminent fight. Blinking her eyes a couple times, they finally focused on the opponent across from her. Noir was decently tall, but most people were tall to Autumn. She had seen him earlier in the tournament, he was built well, and oh god where was his bird? She craned her neck, scanning the sky but seeing nothing. Was it not allowed to fight with him? The announcers said something about the bird, and Autumn caught the tail end of it.

"-Without his familiar for this fight, though he is still the expected winner," A pained expression crossed Autumn's face momentarily. All she had to do was hit him, she reminded herself. All she had to do was hit Noir. Hit him with Once Bitten, and the fight would assuredly be over. No way he could take a single shot, right? Twitching slightly, she felt the weight of the gun on her back all the more now. Her eyes traced his form, trying her best to gather information about his mood. Slumped slightly, his eyes narrowing whenever the crowd got particularly loud. Had he just woken up? Was he just not taking the imminent sparring seriously?

The scoreboard suddenly lit up with new information, drawing Autumn's gaze immediately. A slot machine's "reel" effect displayed different possible terrains for their battlefield: grasslands, mountains, jungle, all wizzed by. Slowly the two reels locked into place. A light density forest and. . . A frozen lake with pillars of ice? The scraping of metal against metal, of gears turning, met Autumn's ears. She jumped a little, glancing backward as the battlefield began to make itself. Rising from where the large metal slabs had once been was a patchwork of greenery and ice. Giant columns of ice rose into the sky first, coming to uncomfortable points, while tree's of half their height followed soon after. An unfriendly alliance between the two was found halfway between Autumn and Noir, sharp turns allowing an icy spear to form in the forested area, and a large tree to form with icy roots.

A countdown was visible on the scoreboard suddenly, and Autumn met eyes with Noir for the first time, eyes and resolve hardening.

---

The last fight had been a long tiring thing, exciting, but he'd used a lot of aura and so quite promptly had opted out of watching any of the matches afterwards...which had been all of them. He was glad his team had passed, but honestly he wasn't particularly thrilled that they'd decided to stick him up here, shaking him awake barely 20 minutes before he was slated to take the stage, as it were. He rubbed an eye and sighed, frowning almost imperceptibly as he stared across at the girl who would be his adversary. As he tried to order his thoughts the announcer's voice boomed out and his eyes narrowed, a look of faint irritation crossing his features before being smoothed away.

Autumn Lily?

Who?

He looked back at his opponent.

Ah, right. Yeah, that made sense.

He hadn't heard too much about her, though he supposed he'd really missed his opportunity to gather intel when he'd taken that nap.

God he didn't like this.

Whatever.

He flexed his aura, dark--but faint--bluish energy crackling at the edges of his silhouette as he did so.

In...

Noir took in a slow deep breath...

Out...

...and let it go just as slowly. Then, unceremoniously, he slapped his face slightly, shook his head and pushed his right foot back, taking what could almost be called a stance. Noir's fingers flexed and spread as he focused, aura licking out from him before finally settling. A tingling warmth pulsed through his body, his semblance briefly activating before fading to nothing. There was no perceptible physical change, but he was significantly more awake now.

Good.

"Relish that advantage while you can," he said quietly, largely talking to himself before he raised his voice. "Well, let's make it a good one, yeah?" He flashed her a smile and flexed his right hand, but now with intent. The mechanical harness on his back that held his weapon, Chimera, shifted slightly.

"Ladies first?"

A small amount of Aura became visible around Noir for a split second, as he made sudden nonthreatening movements. She couldn't quite read his face from here, able to gather the big stuff but not the subtler movements. Noir said something Autumn couldn't quite hear, before offering some starting words. A good one. She felt the words in her mouth, the boredom there. Simultaneous to that thought, Noir said "Ladies first?" Slowly, Autumn got her weapon off her back, palming a bullet and gunpowder packet out of two patches before dropping them into the top of her gun. Anxiety was still rubbing the back of her mind raw, but it was smothered by preparation. Idly, she wondered if he actually could figure out why her gun was muzzle loaded by the end of the fight. Quickly now, she turned around and ran towards the nearest tree-only ten feet back. A golden image of her running form lingered behind, frozen in time.

Autumn was confident that the plan would work, but she wasn't confident in her own execution of said plan. A foot from the tree, she did a slightly aura enhanced jump, kicking off the front of the tree slightly with one foot to land on a branch. Turning around, she raised the gun and watched closely what he had done in the interim. From what she'd seen, his capabilities at range didn't come close to matching her own. It's unfortunate for you, Autumn thought, that the fight will be mostly me fleeing.

On a whim Autumn whistled, a single loud note.

---

As Autumn began moving, leaving behind a figure of aura in her wake, Noir tilted his head and smiled slightly.

Interesting...probably her semblance.

In a fluid motion the handle of Chimera swiveled in its mechanism, falling to the right till it stuck out just above his hip. He grasped its textured grip and drew it in one motion. A sense of freedom washed through him as he continued the motion, gripping harder and releasing the tension in the mechanism even as the speed of his swing suddenly went from a relaxed draw to a swift blur. Chimera whipped out, extending into a swordspear all at once, its tip aimed directly at Autumn in her roost.

As Chimera came to a stop his other hand was already on its haft and with that contact he twisted and then the sound of shifting gears was swiftly followed by a thunderous cry. The projectile fired from the long barrel of Chimera was traveling directly for Autumn, but that was just the start. The kick from the blast compressed the weapon back into sword form and it seemed Noir took that cue to jump into action, accelerating to full speed as he ran towards her in a straight line, his gaze locked on her position, lips quirked in a faint grin.

His teammates had chosen him, so it seemed that he would be forced to prove their decision had been the right one.

The question was. How much effort would that take?

The young purple haired woman was ever so glad that her intuition had been right: Noir hadn't started moving until Autumn had finished loading her gun. Watching him position his weapon, she prepared for an attack and found two. He shot, the crack of the bullet prompting an instant response from Autumn. Autumn disappeared, an after image left on the branch as she appeared directly in Noir's path. The second attack was him moving quickly forward, trying to close the distance. Autumn fired her gun soon after arrival, a gigantic boom filling the air. A beat passed, with Noir doubtlessly covering yards in seconds but Autumn disappeared before he started winding up any sort of melee attack.

Noir's bullet had moved past its mark in the mean time, which meant Autumn had taken up her roost again, preparing to physically jump backwards to create more distance between them. A giggle escaped Autumn's lips, an anxious response. Autumn whistled again, this time two distinct sounds. A cat call.

---

She vanished, but he didn't doubletake, instead Noir noticed the flicker of motion where the outline of aura had been.

Definitely her semblance.

There was the crack of gunfire and he reacted immediately, Chimera held before him, flat forwards, his run stopping, a foot going back as the impact slammed into his weapon. He gritted his teeth, sliding back several feet before stopping and lowering his weapon. Eyes narrowed he considered his options in a flash of rapid-fire thoughts.

She could presumably transport herself between visible imprints she left in the world with her aura. He wasn't sure if that was all her semblance did, but even if it was that meant he had to readjust to how he had planned to fight her. Typically he would close the distance and then lock his adversaries in a constant closing and regaining of distance, throwing them off by changing ranges while relentlessly attacking. Of course, normally he had Mezzanote, not so this time.

All of a second having passed he decided on how he'd have to deal with this new development. In short: Adapt.

He resumed his approach, accelerating to his full speed almost immediately and bringing Chimera up before him as he did, ready to intercept any further shots. Similarly, while some might veer away from the aura, he ran right at it, changing his approach so that there was a straight line that intersected the Remnant on its way to his opponent. When he was about 3 meters away from it he leapt into the air and began bringing Chimera into a position diagonally pointed down at the ground, the flat somewhat forwards. It was still in its compacted, sword mode.

"Here goes nothing," he muttered.

The gunshot had shaken Autumn amply, making it hard to think for a split second after. Noir had blocked the bullet with his gun, and looked like he was thinking about how to approach the situation. He decided to try to close the distance to the first image, accelerating much faster than Autumn could.

Autumn quickly stuck her middle and pointer fingers into the side of her left hip dust pouch, feeling around for a quarter-second before pulling out a cool blue ball of gunpowder. She did something similar with her pinky and ring finger to grab a bullet from the pouch nearer the middle before dropping both into the gun's muzzle; the former then the latter

Before Autumn could exactly realize what Noir was doing, he jumped into the air, weapon primed.

That looks dangerous She thought, considering the best approach momentarily.

Autumn hopped down from the tree at an angle, putting the large tree's trunk between the two of them, as she tried to create more distance. She hadn't put the gun onto her back, but instead pressed it against her chest, creating an uncomfortable landing. On touchdown, she reminded herself that she couldn't get too far from her first image, but since Noir didn't know that he would have to remain wary of that image.

Maybe it was just Autumn's imagination, but she thought she heard booing from the crowd.

---

Retreat. How...uninteresting.

Noir's weapon released all its pent up tension shooting down at the icy ground like an arrow, but with far more force. It struck the ice and shattered it in a radius of 3 meters. The force of the maneuver pushed him up through the air, but he arrested his movement by retracting it in hardly a moment and aiming it behind him, his eyes narrowed. She'd made a mistake losing vision of him.


His gun went off and this time the kick--what with his being airborne--was far greater. A purple haze could be seen at the exit point of Chimera. The acceleration was so great that had he not had an aura it would have been quite dangerous. Even with it unconsciousness briefly strained at the edges of his vision.

He'd sent himself hurtling up and forwards in an arc. As he flew he used his semblance, enhancing himself very slowly, just enough to properly move and control his weapon, swinging it so it flew out to the side and buried its blade--chain extended--into a pillar of ice.

"Should've...kept...shooting," he managed through the roaring wind as he traveled, his semblance channeling through his weapon in one swift burst. Clenching his jaw, muscles straining, he whipped his weapon back to him and as it came out of the pillar the whole pillar shifted and then violently exploded towards both of them, raining snow and shards up into the air where they began to fall. At the same time, the maneuver slowed him down significantly and as Chimera came back to him its form already back to normal. Swiftly he aimed it down and fired, slowing his momentum further.

He hit the ground, rolling once and coming up in a sweeping slash--now only 5 meters from the tree she'd hid in--and released a diffuse blast of fire. However, it wasn't at her, in fact it veered upwards into the near avalanche of ice particulate and as it struck the ice turned to vapor and a obscuring mist began to drift down over their arena.

The crowd was silent for a moment, then roared...then gradually went quiet as they realized that the impressive maneuver would make watching the fight rather difficult.

Noir smiled.

A small shattering sound happened behind Autumn, followed swiftly by the crack of a gun. The sounds urged Autumn to run a bit faster as she glanced over her shoulder. Noir wasn't visible on either side of the tree, so he was making some other sort of play. Three steps later another sound was made, crumbling and shattering of. . . One of the pillars maybe? It sounded higher up then the first sound. He had made a plan it seemed. The roar of flames behind Autumn caught her attention, immediately worrying that her cover was going to be torched, but what drew her eyes instead was the icy storm above her.

A blast of heat radiated through it, and the air readily carried mist onto the battlefield. A favorable wind carried the mist further in front of Autumn, and it helped clarify Noir's intentions with this play. Noir wanted Autumn to have a hard time attacking from the ranges she preferred. It was a small blow to his own capabilities at range in exchange for a large blow to her capabilities.

Autumn could use her semblance to scout, drawing near him before blinking back to an image and shooting at an approximation of where he was, but that trick would only work once or twice. It cost her more in aura to attempt the trick then it would cost him to block two shots and figure it out.

There was another option though, she could-

Autumn leveled her gun on the tree, center mass, and fired. The gunshot was followed by the crackling of ice this time, and groans of protesting wood. Large shards of ice stuck out of the wood, taller than Autumn was, but decently fragile. Autumn quickly jumped up onto a relatively level shard, her foot slipping slightly before she caught herself and pushed off again. The shard detached with the second impact. Landing on a branch she couldn't reach before, Autumn made quick work of climbing up to the highest point of the tree that still gave her a good view of the ground. A golden aura radiated off her skin as she put an image in this vantage point.

Then Autumn simply hopped down, landing with a roll as she clicked Once Bitten over to its Twice shy form. Quickly she slid two shotgun slugs into the dual barrels, before paying close attention to what was happening around her.

---

Sound. It was key now that he'd made his move, obscuring much of the battlefield. Fortunately, his adversary decided to make sound.

He smiled and as soon as he heard it--the soft contact of footsteps on ice--he lept forwards and into a side crossing 1 meter of the total distance between them. As he landed he swung Chimera. Pressure and the faintest of clicks signaled the weapon's rapid expansion to its full length midswing, its blade parallel with the ground. In a blur the blade struck the base of the tree and cleave almost halfway through its width. He reeled in the weapon, or rather...it reeled him in, pulling him forwards with tremendous force. It was time for this to really begin.

Little did Noir know, that all this had occurred before his adversary had jumped from the top of her new perch. Though as he came within visible range of the tree--roughly 2.5 meters--he would note the spike of ice in the tree.

Things were about to get interesting.

Hearing the commotion, Autumn didn't hop down from the tree immediately as planned, though she still went through the process of loading the shotgun slugs. She couldn't tell exactly what he had done to the earlier tree, but she somehow doubted it had fallen. Not enough noise. Reaching inward to her aura and her semblance, she activated the second image she had placed. Autumn fell slightly, having to catch herself with one hand as her other arm went out with Twice Shy to steady herself. It made a bit of noise, but Autumn had already planned on making more.

Hopping down from the tree, the sound of leaves crunching followed her landing, followed by a small scraping noise as she stood up. Autumn leveled the shotgun in front of her, twisting it slightly to make the reflex sight run parallel with her line of sight. She advanced slowly forward, happy to be in an area she was used to traversing. Her teenage years spent in forests meant she barely had to glance at the ground to avoid making noise.

The fog was playing tricks on her, dark shapes drawing her eye only for it to be a particularly dense area of water vapor. Finally something came into view and only clarified as she got closer.

---

Chimera brought him to his destination, but Autumn was further still so kept up his advance, shifting the mechanism of his weapon slightly as he ran. He began to jump and zigzag on occasion when he started to hear the noises of her movement. Visualizing their battlefield he recalled the positions of trees and pillars--obstacles and hiding places. He was a beast in the fog, his presence assuring violence, while his adversary was more like a hawk...waiting for an opportunity to strike from afar.

He grimaced, it was an imperfect analogy. No matter.

Estimating his distance from her and doing his best to triangulate her location he decided to make things easier for himself. He jumped and fired Chimera downwards, shooting him just above the cover of fog. The mechanism shifted again and he fired, a small burst of light appearing as he did so. The shot didn't rocket him away like the earlier one had, instead it merely pushed him away--and using his spatial awareness and memory--he sailed past a tree, catching it with a briefly clawed hand just a moment after a blast of flame struck the ground and cleared some of the fog.

Not the fog he was in, but his best estimate of where she'd been. On the ground where the bullet had struck there raged a flame and it was the heat of such that served to scatter the fog in a 15 meter radius around itself.

Autumn fingered the trigger as she drew closer to the shade, but it evaporated into the fog. Nothing and no one. A shuddering breath escaped her lips, but the sound of someone quickly crossing the battlefield drew her aim. The sound paused, a shadow came into sight as a flame suddenly bloomed off to her right, while the shadow continued moving away and to the left of her. The fire would outline her against the fog clearly visible from where he would arrive. Hell she might already by visible. Autumn took her opportunity and fired once, trying to predict his movement so as to catch him with the slug in mid air.