[Skylia]

“Good afternoon friends, competitors, and sponsors alike and welcome back to the forty-first bi-annual Vytal Festival tournament!” a refined and silvery female voice would say through the arena’s sound system, sounding increasingly annoyed at having to repeat the same part of the script every match. "Today we have an intense match between two Beacon...students.” Twitching with anger at the thought of the entire first year 1v1 bracket being from Beacon, Prim would push her script to the side of the desk and continue. They didn’t get paid enough for this anyways. ”In this match we have Samantha Quartz, whose echolocation ability makes sense considering she looks like she lives in a cave. We also have Camelia Sol whose gravitational semblance will surely affect that big chest of hers.” Surprised her mic didn’t immediately get cut, Prim would motion towards Hunter to introduce the environmental spinner.

Briefly surprised by Prim, Hunter had an uneasy grin as Prim basically took Hunter’s role as the announcer duo. ”Eh? Isn’t that a little too harsh?” However, Hunter saw an amazing opportunity as his grin easily turned shit-eating. ”Or maybe you’re a little jealous because you’re lacking in some areas?” Quickly (and hopefully) diverting attention away from his little comment, he screams in excitement, ”LET’S GET READY TO RUUUUUUUUUUUMBLE!” As Hunter just sentenced himself to death, a sound system breaking ”I’M VERY COMFORTABLE WITH MY SIZE, TH-” could be heard before the mics were inevitably cut for the 100th time during this tournament.
 
A large holographic image of a lottery machine appears on all sides of the arena, with two spinners. The spinners spun so quickly, making it nearly impossible to make out the passing words. It ticked through the options slower and slower until it finally stopped on Swamp and Ice.
 
The floor of the arena lowered and, in its place, arose two new floors. On Samantha’s side, the area would be difficult to traverse. Murky water would take up most of the arena, and what isn’t water is mud or trees. As for Camelia, the entire floor was filled with ice, as ice pillars of varying sizes and shapes stand tall.

As the spinner finished its job and faded away, the doors on each side of the arena opened to signify the start of the match.

(A coin flip has decided that Camelia will get the first post. The arena size is identical to that of the 1v1 arena in the show, however, it features scaled down biomes to fit the size. Good luck, and may the best combatant win.)

[nathan67003]

Camelia jumped in place a bit, even with her gear's significant weight. Yes, she was nervous. Of course she would be. This was her first participation in the Vital festival, after all. A competition watched by pretty much everyone and their mother throughout the four Kingdoms and even beyond. Speaking of which, wh-

Her thoughts were immediately cut short at the announcer's comment. Nervousness? Fuck that trash heap, she just wanted to break some teeth right about now.

Thankfully, the other announcer took care of applying some burn in her stead, allowing her to get back to the matter at hand; namely, the match. She looked at the spinners as they slowed down, landing on 'swamp' and 'ice'. Well then, that's quite the mashup.

Taking out Orion and half of Unity, she stepped forward and onto the time, being careful to have firm footing at all times. Since she wasn't exactly a ranged type, she just slowly moved forward, using her shield and any ice formation large enough as cover.

[Glow]

Despite keeping her vision on her opponent throughout the announcers' speech, Samantha's ear flicked under her drawn-up hood at the statement about her - come on, she'd at least put a tiny amount of effort into style for once, in that she... couldn't think of something that she did over the norm, really. Eye visibly twitching at her own failure to come up with anything, she slid into a more flexible stance, waiting for the battle to start as the field changed around her.

The sudden appearance of a swamp under her feet didn't cause any particularly fond emotions for the event so far, admittedly. At least the commentator revealed something useful, though; Camelia had a semblance involving gravity. 'Now, whether that means localised, projected, or self-cast...' She mused, but judging by the slow but steady marching forwards of her opponent, it would be best to keep at least some distance; and she could manage that, with both of the playing fields here left her theoretically more mobile thanks to her chains.

Quickly latching on to a tree behind her, she pulled herself off her feet and backwards onto a branch, drawing herself away from her opponent and trying to get at least out of sight before drawing Ashen Howl off her back. Whether the theory of having a ranged advantage would hold up if that semblance let her opponent leap about, she didn't know. 'Either way, it should give me some time to at least get in a few potshots and gain some information.' She'd be able to tell where her opponent was if they got close, even if they took cover; and she had the advantage of non-monochromatic terrain to hide in over this side.

[nathan67003]

As Camelia edged ever closer to the demarcation between the two sides of the arena, she sheathed Unity as quietly as possible - might not do much against someone with echolocation but trying's better than nothing - and crouched down behind her shield as she went, ending up with her entire body behind it.

Now, there was no way in hell she'd move into the swamp area. That terrain was beyond stupid to intentionally fight in. She hadn't seen her opponent, either, which made her suspect that 1) she was a mostly ranged assailant 2) she had some form of protection from the mobility-hampering terrain. In all cases, fighting her there would never turn out well for Camelia.

So she just waited at the edge of the terrains, solidly camped on the ice, on her knees. She merely had to raise her head a bit to glance over Orion.

[Glow]

Samantha took the time to set her rifle out, eyes narrowing from her position as a little spot of brown showed against the blue-white background. Her opponent had taken point and didn't seem particularly inclined to move from her position behind their shield - and if that was the case, she'd take the brief reprieve. Loading a cartridge of dust rounds into Ashen Howl, she pushed her semblance into the charging round, taking aim through the scope.

The fox faunus still wasn't admittedly the best shot - she could hit relatively close with snap shots at closer ranges, now, but it still wasn't anything to write home about. However, a sitting target, with time to set up? Even she wasn't that bad. Though the confidence her opponent displayed just using the shield as cover was a little off-putting, however; there was probably some gimmick to it in that case, though that was the same for a majority of hunter weapons.

Nonetheless, Samantha had chosen one of her disabling cartridges to test her opponent with, rather than anything relying solely on firepower; alternating ice and gravity rounds. While demolitions and smashing down walls in her path was her usual technique, there was no point wasting stamina if it wasn't going to have an effect, and she'd have better luck hitting the more focused shots if her opponent had hampered movement in some way. She took the first shot of the match, the sound itself subdued to a dull click by the charging effect of her semblance. The bullet would release a burst of frigid wind, a cluster of ice forming around the impact itself - and Samantha had aimed it just to the side of the shield, hoping to catch either that or her opponent's feet in the ice.

(Shot: -5% stamina (semblance charge), -2% aura (splash), -5% aura (freeze))

[AURA: 100%]
[STAMINA: 95%]

[nathan67003]

As Camelia glanced over the shield, a wave of freezing air washed over her her from the right, accompanied by a small detonation and the formation of ice. Damn, she hadn't thought about that kind of long-range attack. Now Orion and her feet were frozen in place, but that wasn't exactly much to worry about. Now she also knew her opponent's position, as well, since she'd been looking when the bullet (was that really a bullet?) came. With a slight effort, she ripped Orion free, then brought it down in force, smashing through the ice enclosing her feet. She just really couldn't afford to wait anymore, not with splash damage being a risk. Orion was good, but it didn't surround her body.

She switched Orion to its secondary form and, after making sure she was aligned with the water's surface, used one of the shield's Ice charges. A large portion of the swamp froze almost instantly with loud cracking sounds. Basically, she had three options: get up close right now (a bad idea), force the terrain to her advantage (good, but the less tricks people know, the better - it would also be straining) and finally, flushing the ranger out. She'd opted for the latter option.

Aura: 93%
Orion: 1/2

[Glow]

Checking from her position above how the ice affected her opponent, Samantha halted for a moment as she re-aimed the shot as Camelia moved forward before firing out another round. The gravity dust rounds had an interesting effect with her semblance; the resultant shockwave briefly made the target weightless, causing them to briefly hover in the air and be vulnerable to another attack - useful with her ice rounds, as they often got stuck straight after since they were unable to run off,

The resultant wave of ice erupting from the Sheila gave her brief pause, before quickly launching off two more rounds - uncharged ice and gravity rounds, each just causing a small burst of the resulting element on hit - and then once again wrapping her chains around a different tree branch, relying on the bullets to keep her opponent distracted in one way or another to try and stay at range for now. Hopefully, the gravity round would help find out a bit about her opponent's semblance, depending on how they reacted to it.

(Charged gravity shot - -5% stamina (semblance charge), -5% aura (impact); uncharged rounds - -3% aura each (impact))

[AURA: 100%]
[STAMINA: 90%]

[nathan67003]

Camelia barely had the time to propel herself forward before she turned weightless, momentarily confusing her since her semblance wasn't active - wait, hold on... Yep, it wasn't. For now, she (un)gracefully floated along the ice at a leisurely pace, climbing a teensy bit in altitude as she went. She'd use her semblance if she was about to go over the edge, but for now, this actually provided extraordinary cover, since she could tuck herself right behind Orion and was just far enough away from the ground to not really be affected by any shots like she'd just received.

Didn't keep her opponent from taking a few more shots, though. One round cracked the ice underneath her and the other bounced off her shield. Still, the shots weren't exactly hidden, so once she dropped back to the ground, Camelia ran to the ice's edge closest to her target and used one of Orion's Fire charges. The air briefly seemed to shimmer like water before most plants caught in the heat caught fire.

Caught directly in the heat: 15%; indirect damage caused by the fires: however many % you think makes sense
Aura: 93%
Orion: 1/2 1/2

[Glow]

Her opponent seemed to stumble for a second, but quickly got back to their senses, managing to make their way around quite proficiently - somewhat suspiciously so. Noting the action down, Samantha kept dragging herself away from the first year with her large shield. She was quickly thankful for it, as Camelia rapidly brought themselves to the ground and shot what she could only call a plume of fire, plants setting alight from the shimmering heat. Cursing briefly at being caught in the edge of it, with even that much being enough to sting, she dragged herself back further, using up what she could of the swamp's trees while they still remained and loaded in another cartridge.

This particular ammunition was probably her favourite with Ashen Howl, if only for the fireworks - emphasis on fire. The fire dust rounds sent out a burst of flame around their impact site, and their destructive force - while spread out over an area - was still great for demolitions, especially with the shockwave a charged shot let out. Her speciality. Taking what little time she had, she used the charge she'd built up over her backwards movement, and fired out three rounds; one charged, and two uncharged fire rounds towards her opponent.

(Damage from fire: -5% aura)
(Charged fire shot: -10% aura (flames, lowering from centre of impact), -3% aura (shockwave), -5% stamina (semblance charge); Uncharged fire shots: -5% aura (flames, lowering from centre of impact))

[nathan67003]

As a bunch of foliage burst into flames, a metallic glint attracted Camelia's attention to the very side of the blaze. By the time she looked, she only saw what looked like a chain move past, but there'd definitely been movement. Well, not that she needed to stick around any longer, anyway. The flora would consume itself in due time, she just had to retreat to the more hospitable terrain that lay behind her.

Going back into a prone position, she made Orion go back into its normal form while keeping it between her and the enemy. Which didn't sit still, either; Before she knew it, a loud clang resonated from the other side of the shield, quickly followed by a quantity of flames. The impact knocked her down, exposing her for just long enough to get caught by another bullet.

Camelia quickened her withdrawal behind the ice pillars, entirely covered by her shield and ready for any other impacts or indirect fire.

[Aura: 88%]
[Orion: 1/2 1/2]

[Glow]

Samantha paused again, though channelled her semblance into her rifle once more, musing on the situation. Camelia really was fighting incredibly defensively and reactively in comparison to what she'd expected. She wouldn't complain too much, though; it did work for her. She was far enough away to avoid any immediate threat from the flames - the sodden bark of the trees helping to slow its progress - but at the same time, they were locked in a bit of a stalemate right now. That didn't mean she wasn't going to milk the situation for all it was worth, though.

Switching out the cartridge, she took her time to line up the shot this time, before firing out a highly charged kinetic dust round. Kinetic dust helped to direct the whole of her semblance's blast in one direction, being the direction of the bullet, and she'd waited a while to charge up this one. Not a big area like her others, but it was perfect for direct hits. Considering her opponent was stationary and deliberately ready to try and block attacks... well, she'd find out why her speciality was general destruction, at least.

(Highly charged kinetic shot: -20% aura (impact), -10% aura (semblance shockwave), -10% stamina (semblance charge))

[AURA: 95%]
[STAMINA: 75%]

[nathan67003]

Camelia was patiently waiting behind a pillar, shield between the ice and herself, still crouching. Whatever the gun her opponent had was, it'd made her that much more careful of things.

She was about to stretch her legs when, at almost the exact same time, an ear-deafening crack and an even louder clang resounded, during which period she was outright thrown back. After the surprise had passed, she propped herself up onto her elbows.

Movement brought her attention forward. The pillar which was - or rather, had been - her cover lurched downwards, its weakened point collapsing with a crush, before it  started to lurch.

Towards her.

Scrambling, she took her shield back in hand and rolled to the right as fast as she could, narrowly avoiding the massive chunk of frozen water which split itself into pieces upon impact with the ground. She quickly checked to make sure she was still behind some cover, which she was, and resumed her previous position, albeit this time solidly camped onto her feet. What the hell is up with that girl's weapon?

[Aura: 88%]
[Orion: 1/2 1/2]

[Glow]

Samantha looked on with a keen eye for the effect of the shot - which looked like it had come up short, hitting the pillar. The sudden tilting and crash towards them gave a little grin to her face, but with it looking to have little to no effect, she cursed quietly. It gave Camelia a chance to-

And her opponent still hadn't moved at all. And it didn't look like the shot had done particularly much this time around, really. Well, if Camelia really wasn't going to take the initiative, she could just... kind of sit here, really. Her semblance could continuously charge up, especially in her blades, as she started doing - holstering Ashen Howl and simply storing up energy into Prismatic Performance's twin blades. If she was determined to play that defensively, then she'd just do her own thing.

...yup.

(Charging: -10% stamina)

[AURA: 95%]
[STAMINA: 65%]

[nathan67003]

As stable as she could make herself, crouched behind Orion, Camelia patiently waited for the fire to do its thing.

...And she waited.
And waited.
And waited some more.

Alright, what the hell was taking so long? Ever so carefully, she leaned over until she had the fire in sight. Said fire was busy burning at a snail's pace.

Alright, fuck this. She was not about to wait for three fucking hours for the fire to do its job.

Back in her defensive position, she looked around for anything to use. After all, she wasn't exactly a ranged fighter, but she could probably jury-rig something good enough given - oh. A large grin spread across her face when she found just the thing to use. Camelia started concentrating and not even a second later, the crashed ice pillar was surrounded by a dark, violet glow before it started to float upwards without a sound.

(Continuous use: 3 seconds if uninterrupted)

[Aura: 88%]
[Stamina: 100%]
[Orion: 1/2 1/2]

[Glow]

Continuing to charge energy into the blades, Samantha started slowly spinning the blade around on the edge of its chain, building up more and more velocity on the sword. Conscious of the fire getting closer, she took a brief glance over to the burning swamp - luckily impeded by how wet the area was - and then back to-

Ah. Yea, that slowly floating pillar might be an issue. That was a fairly big pillar at that. Well, she had forewarning and the height advantage, at least. The fact Camelia wasn't just levitating the tree she was on or something like that suggested the range was limited, too - though nonetheless the capacity was impressive. That was a big chunk of ice, after all. But she had options, and the knowledge of the supposed attack-to-be - and the advantage of her position being somewhat hidden. She'd wait, and react, take a page out of her opponent's book. No reason to reveal any cards yet.

(Charging: -10% stamina)

[AURA: 95%]
[STAMINA: 55%]
[HELD CHARGE: 20% - Prismatic Performance]