Tournament Arc: Kailyn Keison vs Ela Motley

[Kailyn Keison]

Kailyn didn't get nervous very often.

Big tests? Either she studied enough to be confident or didn't study at all and thus didn't have anything to be nervous about because she knew going in that it was going to be a train wreck.

Dates? She didn't do those. She preferred the classic time-honored tradition of hanging out with friends and realizing that nobody had eaten anything all day and proceeding to find the nearest restaurant that was still open and wolfing down food.

Public speaking? She was an extrovert, for Brothers' sake!

This fight, though, had her feeling nervous. She was about to enter a ring with Lin's big sister, and they were going to beat the snot out of each other. Plus Ela was bigger, stronger, and older than her. Anyone who wasn't nervous was either really strong or really dumb, and Kailyn was neither.

Standing in the middle of the ring, she waved weakly at her opponent. "Don't go easy on me," she said with a weak smile, "but please don't hit me too hard in the face."

[Ela Motley]

Ela was nervous about a lot of things.

Her studies?
She'd never forgive herself is she didn't do her best on a test, she owed this prestigious academy that much effort, otherwise she'd be smudging the good name of Beacon.

Social interactions, by the brothers, her anxiety would kill her if she slipped up and embarrassed herself somehow in front of others.

But this, a duel she was not sweating it, Kailyn was a good friend of Lin and an associate of hers, she had no fear of messing up in front of her since she knew her and what she was capable off prior to this, plus, Kailyn was just really nice, Ela had never once felt her anxiety spike up around the serpent faunus.

So, when she approached the ring, Ela had a relaxed smile on her face, doing a little last touch up to her poncho and fixing her belt, as well as doing a few stretches to loosen up.
"I promise I'll be nice."
With that comment, Ela took her battle stance, confidently and calmly, giving Kailyn the chance to make the first move as the gong signaling the start of their fight rang.

[Kailyn Keison]

Kailyn wasn't small, but compared to Ela EVERYONE was small. Based on what she knew about Ela's fighting style and Semblance, Kailyn was confident in being faster as well. She was less confident about winning a melee brawl, though - not when she had better ranged options than Ela did.

No time like the present to test her opponent's formidable defenses. As soon as the gong rang, Kailyn's knives, each one imbued with Gravity Dust to enhance their speed, shot out toward Ela, targeting different vital points - jugular vein, femoral artery, back of the neck, armpit, navel. At the same time, Kailyn lowered into a slight crouch, assuming a classic quickdraw pose.

Let's do this.

[Ela Motley]

Ela knew that Kailyn was a smart girl, and she also knew her preferred form of attack, so unless Kailyn had spontaneously decided to throw the match she'd fly backwards and attack with her knifes.
The knifes would not do much in terms of damage, not against her armor, but Ela needed a few seconds to get that going.
As soon as the gong rang, Ela's lower arms and legs were quickly engulfed with rock, taking a low stance with her arms covering most of her torso and head, leaving very few weak points.

The gravity dust infused knifes mostly hit her rock chipping away the rock to a barely noticeable degree, but one did manage to hit her shoulder, which, stung and depleted her aura bit, but Ela barely reacted to it, as the knife was soon pushed aside by her rock armor climbing up to cover her chest, which along with her head was the only thing left not protected by rock.

[Kailyn Keison]

That armor was no joke. Kailyn knew Ela didn't have many ranged attack options, but if she couldn't land any damage from range the point was moot.

Thankfully, throwing things from range wasn't Kailyn's preferred method of attacking. With a thought, she launched herself at Ela and drew her sword, closing the distance in just over a second and aiming her strike at Ela's chest. Her armor was closing that vulnerability quickly, but not quickly enough that she couldn't get in a strike there and at her head before she'd have to figure out a different way to fight Ela.

[Ela Motley]

Ela, while slower than Kailyn, was still no slouch, she couldn't run as fast as her, but she could see a telegraphed attack like this coming, while her armor was of course the reason she could defend so well, her mind was still what truly made her defense as hard to crack as it was.
So when Kailyn raced toward her, Ela ducked further down, her torso only being partially covered still allowed her to duck well enough, so Kailyn's swords just cut air, with the redhead so close Ela raised herself back up, using her whole upper body to launch a punch that impacted with Kailyn's gut with Ela's....not full force, she'd feel bad if she'd hit Kailyn's stomach with her full concrete crushing power after Kailyn had asked for her to go easy.

Speaking of full power, Ela turned back to where Kailyn was, as with a stonie crunch her armor had finally fully formed around her chest, as it was now her head that was the only thing uncovered.
Stone already crawling up Ela's neck as her hair, tied in a ponytail, was tucked under the armor.

[Kailyn Keison]

Ow.

Ela's punch lifted Kailyn into the air. Rather than fall, though, Kailyn continued to drift up slowly as the knives that had fallen to the ground after bouncing off Ela's armor all rose into the air to shoot back toward her unprotected head.

This fight was going to be a slog, she knew that. Ela wasn't going to go down easy, and Kailyn was going to have to keep her distance. Hopefully her knives would carve their way through Ela's Aura before Kailyn's own ran out.

"Ready for round two?" she asked her opponent as she settled once more into a crouch, this time while in midair.