Lily spent much longer in the women's locker room than she had intended. There wasn't a whole lot she had to do in way of preparation. Unlike most students, Lily had no weapons. She didn't use any dust, or anything really. Sure, she had schematics in the works, but she was no artisan and wouldn't be able to produce anything for quite some time. No, she spent her entire time in the locker room reflecting.

Previous to her time at Vytal, Lily had only ever fought when her life was on the line. Each time she brought her claws out, something or someone would die. She hadn't killed many people, but until her fight with Raven, every person she'd wielded her claws against had wound up dead. Her fight with Raven was an abrupt one. A fight born of anger and childish pettiness. It was nothing like the multiple fights she'd had with her good friend Aegle, who had been her first opponent in non lethal bout. Aegle had taught her that it was okay to fight a friend, and though Lily still wasn't used to the idea of fighting against people at all, let alone drawing enjoyment out of it, she did definitely see her skills developing in ways that they'd been stagnant in before.

She had predominantly fought the creature of grimm, with only six human opponents under her belt prior to her joining Vytal. Having to fight more mindful opponents allowed her to shift her thinking, and fight in more complex ways herself. Her training with her friends had been good, and it had spurred her to do her meditations more often in the training grounds, where she could observe other people fighting and learn from them. It was an excellent habit, and killed two birds with one stone. When she finally stood and faced the door, she smiled, eager to try out this new opponent, whoever they might be. She had a quick look in the mirror before exiting the training room, and saw her dress, simple and black, extending down to just above her knee. It had fit her better ever since Guinevere had helped her to sew it properly. It accentuated her hips and her bust in all the right ways, not that Lily was fully aware of that. She just liked that it fit snug now, and that it wasn't tattered and threadbare any longer. She took a moment to retie the ribbon in her hair so that her hair would not get in the way during the upcoming fight. As one final adjustment, she licked her hand and tidied up the fur on her ears, before plodding eagerly down the hall and towards the arena doors. She threw the doors open and plodded into the center of the arena, facing her opponent. Her eyes were immediately drawn to scars that littered his body, and she placed a hand on her midriff. How could he display them so openly like that? Lily's scar was one thing that she hardly wanted anyone to see at all. Her eyes were then drawn to the horns atop his head, and her feline ears twitched. She had killed the last several faunus she had fought, but this boy didn't have the look of the wilderness upon him. He likely had no idea what life was like in the tribes, with slave taking bandits, territorial tribal leaders, and wandering bloodthirsty nomads. His scars were many, so she was not totally certain what his story was, and it was clear that he'd undergone his own strife in life, but she would not falter no matter how battle forged her opponent may be. The students who had gathered around might as well have been mannequins for all the attention Lily paid them, her eyes were determined, and focused on the boy in front of her. Her bare feet were cold standing on the cool tile of the contest floor, but this was how she preferred to fight. Feeling the action through the calloused soles of her feet. Though she wore them now, shoes never did seem to fit the girl quite right. They felt constrictive, and unnecessary. She took a few steps forward and bowed, clenching her left hand into a fist and putting it into her open right palm. A greeting from her tribe that she still remembered even after they had abandoned her.

"I am Lily, and today I will be your opponent." She said, her voice eager, and excited. Her eyes never left the boys, the gunmetal grey pools staring at him through the occasional strand of ebony silken hair. "I wish you a good fight."

At that, she prepared herself, hopping from foot to foot and preparing to run or dodge at a moment's notice. As soon as the ringer indicating the start of the fight went off, she would charge her opponent with every ounce of speed she could squeeze out of her semblance.

Lily smiled at the flustered young boy as he stammered out his words. It was nice, to be treated with this sort of flustered nervousness. She was more accustomed to cold stares and people who would avoid eye contact. She had been branded an outsider since her first day in the academy, and had grown used to the treatment that came with that brand. She had thrown herself into her classes and her training with the kind of feverish abandon that could only be maintained by someone with a sufficiently empty social life as she possessed. She would not let the fruits of her labor be wasted here, even if the boy's arsenal proved superior. Even if she lost, she would leave this field of battle stronger than before.

As the fight began, Lily hung back for only a moment, long enough to see what the boy's intended attack method was. As he fired his initial volley of bullets, she dodged to the left. Not quickly enough to avoid the first flurry of bullets entirely though, as a couple clipped her. One in the shoulder, the other in her torso. Her aura was luckily able to protect her from the worst of the shots, but she still didn't like fighting an opponent with a weapon that could fire so rapidly. As soon as the initial volley was over with, her aura cloaked her form for a moment as she entered into her semblance state. As time seemed to stop, the mach two girl charged at the boy at max speed. Just before she reached him she used her powerful legs to launch herself into a flying knee attack, aiming her knee for his center torso. She let her claws out as soon as she made contact, and dug her left hand into his right shoulder, using the momentum from her jump to swing over his shoulder. Anchored to said shoulder, she swung around to his back, where she planted her feet firmly as she exited her semblance state, which is when she chose to use him as a spring board to put some additional distance between them. She was tempted to stay close, and fight in melee range for the duration of the fight, but she had yet to discover what his true power was, and didn't wish to risk anything so early in the fight. She didn't however, stand idly behind him and await for the next volley, and instead chose to make herself more difficult to hit by running as quickly as she could without her semblance. Her standard speed was well beyond what an average huntsman was capable of. She found that she tended to be half-again as fast as any of her standard opponents, and hoped that this additional quickness would make her a difficult target to aim for. She made sure to change direction randomly, to help throw off his aim when possible.

Throughout the run, she kept her eyes trained on her opponent, hoping to see any sign of a change in tactic. She had retracted her claws as soon as she had dug her heels into his back, but she doubted their presence had escaped his notice. Fighting an opponent who was ready to fight, and had their aura primed was much different than her combat experience in the wild, where she would normally streak by and end an unprepared combatant before they were even aware of her presence. To be on even footing with her opponent wasn't something that she had experienced prior to coming to the academy, and it required a different kind of thinking. She had to adapt as the fight wore on, instead of fleeing until she might be able to try again. Her battle with Raven had proven that she was more vulnerable in this setting, but she wouldn't let it stop her from giving it everything she had.

Lily continued to dodge and avoid each of the boy's carefully aimed shots to the best of her ability. Another solid round struck her in the shoulder, and her initial thought was that it was just a lucky shot, however, she chided herself for dismissing her opponent's skill. To attribute that shot landing to anything other than the boy's expertise with his chosen weapon would be doing a great disservice to the skill that her opponent had cultivated. She watched carefully. Counting each bullet that each gun fired, hoping to get an understanding on how many bullets the gun could fire before requiring a reload. She couldn't help but notice that he favored his right pistol over his left. This meant that it would empty of bullets first, and he'd be more vulnerable once he was forced to reload.

Her path was never static, she even began incorporating the walls into her dodging pattern. She had tested his defenses already, now his offensive capabilities would be put to the test. Once she felt confident that she understood his ability to attack, she would decide on a course of assault that exploited his weaknesses and marginalized his strength. He seemed to be a ranged fighter, but Lily was a difficult target to hit by anyone's standards. Her speed, as well as her ability to change direction fluidly and rebound off of walls without a hint of tiredness or any sign of slowing down was one of her greatest strengths. She preferred fighters who could attack at range though. Her fights with Aegle, Raven, and Zari had all taken place in close quarters.

Just another form of training. You'll have to get used to this as well if you're going to do good things at this school.

She told herself as she leapt towards a wall, before rebounding back onto the ground and taking off in a zigging and zagging pattern. She wanted to taunt him, but she was too focused on watching the guns, waiting for him to need a reload. At that exact moment she would close the distance and strike him again. She wondered how quickly the boy would be able to reload once the need arose. She had watched many fights in the training yard, those fighters who used ranged weaponry were always limited by an ammunition of some sort. If she could outlast this boys hail of bullets, she could win this without any real issue. She contemplated using her semblance once more and attempting to knock the guns out of his hands at her full mach two, but that was a dangerous gambit, and if she failed then she would be in point blank range of his guns. Perhaps that would be better than trying to outrun his ammunition stockpile. She afterall had no clue how much he was packing. Though, based on his bare chest, free of the bandoliers that some gun wielders kept their extra ammunition stored on, she couldn't imagine he had that much.


Aura
-5 defense last turn
-10 semblance last turn
-5 defense aura this turn

100/120 AP remaining

Lily's eyes had been trained on the boy the entire time. She had been doing her best to count shots, which was pretty easy to do considering each one resounded in her ears. There was actually a fair amount of pain in her ear drums from the consecutive blasts. He still managed to clip her a few times, but her aura was holding steady, last minute defensive boosts were one of the more useful tools she'd taken away from her training with her father, though repeated application of the ability chipped her aura away faster than one would expect. She'd always thought that guns were loud when seeing them in other fights, but her sensitive ears were not used to being in such close quarters with the explosive weapons. She flattened her ears against her head to help block some of the sound. Each concussive impact was followed by a tingling sound that reminded Lily of bells almost. This gave Lily an idea.

The moment his right gun stopped firing, and he moved to reload the piece, she acted. As her semblance reactivated, Lily immediately began sprinting towards the fighter from the right side. When she was nearly upon him, instead of hitting him once more with an attack, she slid past him, ducking under one of his arms, and scooping as many of the discarded bullet casings off of the ground as she could manage. She regained her feet just behind him, and the momentum carried her quite a ways past him.

When she came out of her semblance mode, she leapt at the wall. Planting both feet and hands against the surface and seeming to hang there as the inertia tried to keep her body moving through the wall. As soon as she felt that effect wear off, she bounded back onto the ground positioning herself more towards his center before rushing him directly once again. As she started moving, she activated her semblance a second time. This time when she sprinted towards Jeremy she waited until she was right upon him to let go of the handful of bullet casings just before she came into melee range. As she did so, she leapt into the air. Her trajectory would have just carried her over the top of his head, if she hadn't extended her claws and reached down to attempt to grab each of his shoulders. Just as her head crested his own, she came out of her aura. She would again, attempt to plant her feet on his back, and keep him immobile as the bullet cases slammed into his chest. By the time Lily had exited her aura state for her second time, the light from her first application hadn't yet faded, leaving the arena glowing with a white T marking Lily's trajectory through the fighting ground. One point beginning where Lily had stood beginning her first attack and ending just before the wall that she'd jumped to meet. The second beginning where she'd landed, and ending just above Jeremy's head. The mass of energy left in her wake was as wide as her own torso, and blinding in intensity. That she happened to travel just past his face on her second attack was more a consequence than an intentional attempt to temporarily blind the student. A second consequence of the white light of Lily's aura was the sense of peace, and calming, that now surrounded the pair of them. For the briefest of moments, the battle seemed far away in Lily's mind. She was used to the effects of her own aura, but she was not usually surrounded by two of her semblance streaks at the same time. The sensation was, temporarily, euphoric.


Aura 70/100
Semblance use (x2)
Defensive aura (x2)