A Lesson on Holding Back - Private w/ Ela Motley

[Nata Rainwalts]

The battle had been going for a good part of an hour. Three Grimms were left from the nine that were spawned at the start: one Ursa with two Beowulfs. Standing in the middle of the arena, the White Tiger ferociously swinging away with her metal bat, fire in her eyes. Each time a swing connected, it let out an explosive clash against the hardlight projection, ragdolling the Grimm off its course. On the other side, the Grimms didn’t seem to falter either, constantly pressing the advantage and attacking the tiger from multiple sides. The Faunus took some rather hard hits, few from the bigger Grimm sent her flying, but each time she got down, Nata quickly got back up and charged back into the fray

Nata brought one hand up to brace herself against a large paw from the Ursa, using the momentum of the monster’s own attack to push her further to one side before bringing the bat down onto the Beowulf from the side with a satisfying crunch. Keeping the aggression, she brought her knee up against its jaw before taking a step back and swung so hard at the beast’s head, it took the entire thing into the air. As the hologram disappeared, that brought the Grimm’s count down to two.

By the time Nata turned her attention back to the big Ursa, the last Beowulf lunged from around the corner of her vision and pounced on her back. The attack pushed Nata off her feet, pushing her face into the arena dirt, but just as she was about to get back up, a nasty blow landed at the back of her head. Rattled, Nata quickly turned to elbow the beast before picking up her bat, following the movement to slam the spike against the monster’s head, putting the pointy end through the Beowulf’s skull, bringing the Grimms down to one. The last stretch of the road wasn’t easy. The Ursa could take quite a heavy beating, and each hit felt much more impactful than the Beowulfs. However, for each hit she took, the White Tiger dished out twice as much in return. Her spike wasn’t long enough to deal any impactful damage, but the sheer force of the bat swings itself dealt remarkable damage.

One swipe blew through Nata’s defense and slapped against her face, knocking her off balance and bringing her aura to dangerously low.. Any other person would’ve had their brain rattled, reeling in pain after that hit, but the Faunus simply bounced back, using the bat to brace herself from falling then twist her whole body for a powerful swing, punching back at the Ursa’s side. With a flourish of attack, the Tiger slowly brought down the creature one hit at the time, chipping away at its defense, before leaping into the air, coming spiraling down into a devastating downward slam straight to the Ursa’s head. The hologram shattered into tiny bits that slowly dissipated, ending the fight.

With the fight concluded, the battle report showed she had spent almost 50 minutes fighting the stipulation. Full of life and still high on adrenaline, Nata dusted herself from the ground and returned to the terminal, readied to spawn a few more Grimms to continue the fight.

[Ela Motley]

Ela had walked into the training room after an extensive warm-up just a few meters away, she knew someone was fighting, but it had taken quite a while for the battle to go anywhere by the sound of it, she had entered the room, wearing a casual tank top and shorts combo, a towel draped over her shoulders, using it to wipe some sweat from her brow.
She was now standing above the arena, leaning over the training reigns.
Hm, this cat faunus had some skill, holding out against that many Grimm in a rather confined space by herself, Ela then took a cursory look at the console, wanting to see what kind of exercise this girl was doing.
Oh, she had started with MANY more Grimm, no wonder the fight had taken so long, oh she was really cutting it close here, the console showed that her aura was already lowered, yet she showed no signs of exhaustion, she must have nerves of steel!
Ela could respect that, she observed more, this girl was really reckless, always pressing the offensive and there she got punished for it, with her staggering like that and with her aura now sinking to an uncomfortable level Ela kind of reckoned that the fight may be over, Ela was half tempted to turn of the hologram, but she gasped seeing her just walk it off, those weren't just nerves of steel...what was she made off ?!
Ela herself was no wimp, but to take a hit like that with no extra protection besides her own aura and just take it and keep going was something else.
Maybe this was her semblance ?
There were many defensive semblances she had seen, maybe hers just reduced damage she took and made attacks like this more bearable ?
Well, something along the lines, a person in pain could not swing that fast and aggressively.

That was quite a show, Ela was content with just leaving at this point, but then she saw her walking back to the console and she could see on the top floor display that she wanted to continue.

"That was an amazing, although slightly unorthodox, fight you had there, your resilience surely is something else."
Ela said, as she walked down to Nata's level.
"But I would recommend taking a break, your aura is almost entirely depleted, and you should probably drink something."
She then produced an unopened water bottle from her waist band, she had planned to drink this on her way back to her room, but this faunas definitely needed it more right now.
She waited for a second, looking at the console once more, then taking a closer look at Nata, she looked a little younger, a first year probably, specially since she had not seen her before.
"I can't recall seeing you around before, so you're a first year student, I assume ? I'm glad to meet a new face, my names Ela."
She extended a hand towards Nata, showing her a warm smile, hoping that this greeting wasn't too awkward.

[Nata Rainwalts]

“Eh? Who’s this girl coming in?” Nata gave a rather quizzical look at the newcomer approaching her. She must have been observing the fight for quite a bit. “Thanks for the concern, but I’m good for another one. If you want to use the equipment I’ll make it a quick one. I’m just working out some steam.” The Tiger almost waved off the comment suggesting she should take a break. As far as she knew, she still had plenty of energy to spare, so another quick round should be no issue. She had had way worse before. Though the drink offer isn’t unwelcomed. “Name’s Nata. First year, yeah… Think we already met.” The White Tiger gave a quick nod before turning her attention back to the terminal. Though alluded to the incident in her dorm room, she really didn’t want to talk much about it.

The Ursa proved a challenge, but Nata was assured she wouldn’t have that much problems fighting one by itself. Last time was only so difficult because she had to fight a lot of enemies at once, so with only one enemy, she will have to up the challenge to even the odds. The terminals quickly shuffled past a lot of enemies, stopping at a Beringel. Of course, the difficulty slider is set all the way to red, whatever that means. Once everything was in place, Nata returned to the battlefield as the countdown began. The damn thing is almost three times her size. Perhaps she might have bit off a bit too much.

True to her words, the fight indeed didn’t last long. It was almost one-sided even. Not five minute into the battle, the Grimm hologram completely wiped the floor with the young trainee. The fight started off much the same to most when the two quickly rushed at each other. The Tiger was ready with a strong baseball swing, aiming to deflect the incoming giant fist of the gorilla monstrosity. However, the contest of strength was barely an even match. The punch delivered completely blew through Nata’s counterattack and swatted the young fighter off her feet, sending her a short distance away. Quickly regaining balance, the White Tiger quickly sprung back to action, giving the Beringel little time to react and threw a flurry of swings and blows toward the beast.

Pressing the advantage, things looked like it was leaning more toward Nata’s side before the Grimm got a secure grip of her leg and swung her like a mace, continuously smashing the Tiger against the earth beneath, aura flaring brightly with each swing. Through great difficulties, Nata managed to swing her bat heavy against the Grimm’s hand, digging the protruding spike into the hardlight enough to break the grip and send the Tiger high into the air. Barreling down back into the fight, the Faunus aimed to bring her weapon down, aiming for the head. But before she could manage that, the Beringel, with its superior reach, swung a massive hand up and smashed against the girl’s body and sent her flying away. Finally, the aura gave way and shattered as the White Tiger bounced and skipped against the fighting arena.

It took some effort to reorient herself upright. Nata wasn’t used to being thrashed and threw around so much. However, when she got back up and readied to go for another round, the fight already concluded. A moment of confusion soon gave way to a much more frustrated Tiger who seemed more annoyed that she had lost the fight rather than the damages she suffered during said fight. A few choice words were thrown along the way as she made her way back to the terminal.

[Ela Motley]

Ela paused for just a second as she was greeted, oh!
Right, she had met this girl, the first year student who blew up her own dorm, she had honestly forgotten her face already, but considering how she just blew up herself up the last time they met that was no surprise.
"Oh, I apologize. I didn't recognize...considering your face is less...
She stopped, Nata wasn't listening and probably also didn't want a reminder of her explosive homework failure.

Ela then watched her walk away again, wait, she could not seriously consider taking on another horde ?
That wasn't just reckless, it was stupid.
She wanted to talk up and stop her, but then saw what she intended to fight, a Beringel, she just sighed, there was only one medicine for this level of self-destructive behavior.

She stood there and watched Nata get tossed around, it was brutal and Ela really had to hold onto herself not to rush into the arena and stop this one-sided beating, but she stood there, in hope that this would teach this overconfident tiger some restraint, she had to flinch as she saw Nata getting flung across the room, that just must have hurt.
Surprisingly, she got right back up, what was she made off that allowed her to do this, it had to be her semblance.

Well her semblance may allow her to be this sturdy and shrug off damage, but something was also wrong in this girl's head, to once again attempt to walk over to the terminal.
This time she would step in.
Ela walked up, blocking her path to the terminal, now staring her down with her arms crossed, she tried to put on a stern face, but just ended up looking concerned.
"Your durability and determination are admirable, but it's time for a break."
While Ela was telling her nicely, she was ready to stop Nata by force, she would not watch this girl kill herself.

[Nata Rainwalts]

The trek back to the command console felt long and arduous. Nata’s bonking stick dragged heavily on the ground behind her back to the terminal. The Tiger carried a painful grimace the entire way through, rubbing her left shoulder to help with the soreness. She took quite a rough landing, and since her aura broke on the way down, Nata felt all of that impact skidding along the ground. Her shoulder took the brunt of the impact, followed by everything else. No doubt that’s going to bruise for the rest of the day.

The Faunus closed her eyes to rub the soreness away from her shoulder and set her posture upright, and as such, she almost walked head first into Ela when she stepped up in front of her. The White Tiger stopped just mere centimeters in front of the girl, her grimaces morphed into a more annoyed expression. “I’m only gonna say this once, but you better step back or this bat is aiming for your face next, big girl.” Craning her face up to meet Ela’s eyes, Nata growled in a low tone underneath her breath, hand gripped tightly around her weapon.

“You think just cuz’ you’re an oversized human that I’m going to be intimidated? I still have one more set before I’m done, so kindly get out of my way and wait for your turn.” Taking a step closer, the both of them would’ve been face to face if their heights difference allowed them to. Despite her aura being depleted, it was as if the Faunus was readied to enter another battle immediately after. Even lifting the metal bat up to her shoulder prove to be more difficult as her arm's muscle bulged and flexed as she did so. Though, despite all the effort, and no doubt pain, Nata sold a quite convincing poker face, remain as stoic and annoyed as possible.

When asking nicely didn't do the trick, Nata would took the matters into her own hand. The girl threw her full weight behind a shoulder tackle to push the giant girl aside, just far enough to open room for a strike. Much slower without her aura amplifying her power, Nata practically hurled the bat off her shoulder, using the twisting motion to generate more momentum for a side sweep. If Ela was able to caught the blow, the Tiger would let go of her bat and turn her body fully around for a powerful backhand swing aiming for the kidney.

[Ela Motley]

Ela was expecting this, Nata was defiant to a fault, something that Ela remembered from when the white tiger had blown up her dorm room and got into a yelling match with Mr.C.
It slowly dawned on Ela why she had not remembered much of Nata, while this girl was slightly dishelved at the moment she diden't look nearly as bad, as when her homework blew up in her face, Ela, as bad as she felt about this, had tried to repress her first impression of the tigress.
"No, you're clearly overestimating yourself, it would be irresponsible of me to allow you to continue like this."
She had her arms at her side, ready to stop Nata from proceeding.

Well, she had somewhat expected this next reaction.
Without her aura Nata's movements were slow and sloppy, predictable in other words.

The tackle diden't do much as Ela was already braced and ready to stop Nata, only alerting her to what came next.
A loud CLANG was heard as Nata's bat hit rock, as dense as steel, a gauntlet having formed in the time it took for Nata to strike, Ela's stone arm having grabbed her bat.
She did not see the kidney blow coming, flinching as it connected, yet Ela stood, her expression of concern now having shifted to annoyance, not only was Nata reckless and rude but violent aswell, her behavior was edging on plain stupidity.
Ela was hard to anger, and she wasen't angry, yet Nata's behavior in combination with her attacking Ela did get on her nerves, if this was the only way Nata could communicate, so be it.

"I may lack qualification for this, but I think here and now is a good opportunity to teach you."
Ela said, as she stood up straight, ignoring the kidney blow as with her aura being barely scratched Ela moved her grip from Nata's bat to the faunus herself, lazily tossibg her back into the arena, Ela following with a leap.

"If you are truely so ignorant to think that you would stand a chance against the Grimm fighting that recklesly and in your condition, then by all means, try and get trough me."
Now, before Nata wasen't just a tall girl anymore, but an even taller stone clad behemoth, in a relaxed pose, on hand on her hip the other waving at Nata to come get her.

Ela felt just a bit bad doing this, she had thought of punching Nata but diden't feel as if that would be a good idea, either she would have injured Nata or just sunken to the Tigress level, neither of which she wanted to do.
But she was also determined to prove to Nata that fighting like this would only get her killed.