Inter Mission: Dance Prep, part 1

After making sure our things were set in our dorm room I took Mercy and Emerald to find someplace we could get some sparring in unobserved. I had all of Cinder's skills, powers, and memories but no practice in using them. Luckily due to martial and Soul talent a little bit of training would go a very long way. The classroom sparring gyms were of course all in use but I remembered some private spots that could be used for informal training Cinder had found when scouting Beacon from before my tenure. I found one that was not in use and better yet fairly private. Someone might walk in on us but we'd see them coming. Perfect.

"And what are we doing here Cinder?" Mercy asked petulantly.

"I'm feeling a bit rusty in my skills and want some light sparring to work out the kinks. Besides both of you were pretty sloppy in our last fight and could use some practice yourselves." That was more Emerald than Mercy in the fight with Amber but no point adding fuel to their rivalry, not that their trying to one up each other in pleasing me hadn't been nice these past few days but the bickering I could do without.

First things first I needed some work on my Semblance which gives me another opportunity, if you want to call it that, for anyone not familiar with the concept. I'm assuming my thoughts and actions are being recorded for anyone who might be going through this game afterwards, either beta-tester or client, and some of you might not know anything about Remnant though I sure as fuck wouldn't want to run this blind. So cliff notes version; people here can unlock something called Aura, think of it as a forcefield powered by your soul, it can also accelerate healing and some other tricks though. It extends to your gear so as long as your Aura is intact a blade won't cut your shirt and is how I can get away with using glass swords that don't shatter with one hit. Why glass swords Cinder you're probably asking, well we'll get to that. But first Semblance.

Your Semblance is another thing that your Aura powers. Anyone that unlocks their Aura gets one though it can take a long time to figure it out and they are wildly different per person though can overlap. The girl we saw earlier that disappeared in a spray of rose petals, that's her semblance. Emerald can make people experience things that aren't real fooling their senses. Me, I make things burn. Somehow this also lets me manipulate glass and Dust, I'm not sure why. We'll get into Dust later, just think of it as magic sand for now. Super heating things was easy. Look at a section of ground I wanted to heat up and boom, explosion. Hold up my hand and visualize a curtain of superheated air just beyond and bullets flamed out before they could even impact my Aura. I couldn't flash fry a person or even heat up their weapon while their Aura was intact though, but I could heat up my own weapons and a near molten glass arrow in the chest wasn't any fun.

Manipulating glass took a bit of work even with Cinder's memories. You had to visualize it flowing like liquid into the pattern you wanted. Dust let me do even more though because it could be impregnated into other things, like cloth, letting me manipulate them. For instance I have a few different outfits I could swap out with a thought, the glass bangles on my non Company bracelet were actually them and my weapons minimized. With around an hours practice I was swapping dresses with ease and could have my blades out at a moments notice, not bad at all. I wasn't going to practice any of the Fall Maiden magic stuff out here because I wasn't sure if it would alert Ozpin, actually Ozphellia in this world my memories told me, who was the head of Beacon academy and secretly the source of the Maiden's powers so wasn't worth the risk.

On to weapons then. I brought out my two single edged red and gold glass swords Midnight and linked them together making a bow. How do two swords linked at the hilts make a bow you ask? Let me just say that physics is a bit wonky in Remnant, the Rule of Cool is literally a thing here. Now I actually had some skill as a archer pre Cinder so I can tell you in full confidence she cheats. I'm using glass arrows, and my Semblance lets me manipulate glass so yeah I can guide these things around corners if I want to so I'm not missing any target I can see. I know for a fact I can cause an arrow to split going around say a shield then come back together on the other side to strike my target dead on. No wonder Cinder could fire three arrows at the same time. Okay, no need to practice this.

On to swords then. I separated Midnight and sparred with Emerald for a time. She started off skittish and slow which worked for me and by the time she relaxed I was easily matching her. I switched over to Mercy then who was the better fighter of the two. Sword vs boot was quite a different feel than going up against Emeralds sickle guns and Mercy was all over the place in her fighting style. Still I kept up with her, struggling at first true but soon enough with no problem. Cinder really was a better combatant than either of my minions, it was just a matter of adjusting to her reflexes. Eventually I was sparring against both women together and still holding my own, part of this I think was while they were tiring my Fall Maiden powers were fueling my efforts without my trying. Hopefully a subconscious use wouldn't be noted. That was good for now, time to hit the showers and reward my girls for their efforts. I'd have two more bracelets in the morning and I knew just who I wanted to have them.