Next Up

*Woosh!*

At the clearing of the pink smoke with a one strong gust of wind, all the spectating students moved to the edge of their seats. They were all curious on what really happened after that killer-move that the Elite Student just pulled off.

And at the arena, there they saw Jin and Nora's figures.

Jin's hand-chop was seen stopping only an millimeter away from Nora's stomach, who just closed her eyes and clenched her teeths together in a useless and weird attempt to brace herself for the attack.

"He didn't hit her?!" Was the general thought of the crowd.

Jin's hand didn't really hit her and he just made it stop mid-way through the attack. Not feeling anything at all other than the wind, Nora slowly and cautiously opened her eyes, only to find out that Jin was now looking at her with a smug smirk on his face.

"Hit." He blurted out.

"....."

The bubbly girl was dumbfounded for awhile at Jin's statement. After that scary but awesome attack that he did, not only did he cancel on connecting it but the next words that came through his mouth was just 'hit'? That was the most anti-climactic crap she's ever seen!

'That...was not awesome.'

No fun at all!

Think of her as insane or anything, but she was disappointed that he didn't really hit her with that killing blow. Though the cold sweat on her cheek said so otherwise.

The crowd were even wide-eyed in shock and slight disappointment at the scene. They expected for the oranged-haired girl to be heavily injured, or at least have her Aura go to the red zone and be defeated immediately.

They even looked at the holo-screens on the banners, and there was no movement of Nora's Health Bar budging at all!

Looks like the situation was truly unexpected. But still, they were kinda being of a psycho for wanting that killer attack to really hit her.

"By death's hand..." Blake noted.

"Told you~!" Yang called out with a humming tone.

"What's happening!" Weiss muffled out. She desperately wanted to see the scene that seemed to make everyone shocked and speechless, but fate -Yang's features- didn't seem to let her.

"Wait a minute! He didn't hit her, but why did the room shake?!" Jaune asked out loud, wanting to find an answer of his wonder.

"I don't know..." Pyrrha said before all the people in the group turned to the Jin-expert, Ruby.

"W-why are you looking at me?! How the heck should I know?!" The girl herself whined.

Maybe the Tiger was just 'that' strong and skilled.

Feeling the world-weighting worry off his shoulders, Ren sat back to his seat with a deep sigh. His heart almost jumped out of his mouth the moment Jin did that attack, but it looks like he didn't mean for it to connect, making the Asian boy relax.

So Nora was all safe and sound. But the aftershocks and collateral damage of the display that Jin just did, already showed everyone of what would've happened if the strike actually connected.

Nora's Aura Being Depleted immediately and suffering a heavy injury? No! - Dying? Of Course! - Nora's body being sliced in half? Definitely!

It was all fun and games...Until someone gets sliced on half with a karate chop.

Backing away from Nora in a blink an eye, Jin looked at her with a smirk as he gestured his hands in a taunting motion, "Come on, Nora, get up. We're not done yet. Hehe, you have to show me more."

"Ugh..." With a groan of dissatisfaction, Nora reluctantly got up as she ruggedly picked her hammer off the arena floor, "Sparky...your no fun at all." She whined.

Each fighter now stood across each other in the ring, one sporting a mighty grin at the other, while the other one was panting.

Nora was quite exhausted earlier. During the time where she went wild on her game of human wack-a-mole, she spent alot of her stamina on her swings to make them faster and stronger.

But all of it was obviously useless, as Jin just dodged them all with minimal effort. Though, she wasn't really frustrated, not even a little bit.

But if Yang was in her shoes though, then her hair would burn and her eyes would be fiery red in annoyance and frustration.

"You alright, Nora? You seem to be a little tired there." Jin noted.

Still panting, Nora finally began as she properly stood up, but was now leaning on to her mighty hammer to keep herself still.

"Finally..! *pant* At least... *pant* You're... *pant* Someone worth fraggin!" Nora tried to cheerfully beam out, with a mighty grin of her own.

Even though her dialogue had some panting sounds between them, she still showed her eagerness to continue on the match.

"Then do your best. Hit me with the most powerful attack you have..." Jin taunted with a smile, quite confident on whatever Nora has in store for him.

He knew that would be able to deal with it easily.

And to everyone's surprise, the bubbly girl putted on an ear to ear grin as the electric lights in the area seemed to dim in and out of its normal brightness. And a few seconds later, all of the lights in the room turned off before they got back up again.

It was her Semblance at work...

Nora's Semblance is the ability to produce and channel electrical energy into her muscles, which lends to her absurd strength.

She couldn't use the electricity to it manifest outside and shoot it at her enemies like a Sith Lord using Force Lightning. She could only use it to channel it through her body to increase ONLY her physical strength.

Furthermore, she's practically immune from taking electrical damage as she simply absorbs any electrical currents to fuel her strength, and in the same time, let her regain her stamina.

Yep, her Semblance can be quite scary in the right environment and situations. Her Semblance even seemingly has no limit on how much it can absorb, and Jin knew this.

The moment the turning off and on of the lights happened, the students were bustling with murmurs and silent talks with each other about the quick occurence.

"What's happening?"

"I don't know..."

"Did the school have a power problem or something?"

"Was that a short circuit?"

The hammer maiden already absorbed enough from Beacon's own electrical supply as she letted out a mighty laugh, seeming to be magically back at full health and stamina as she energetically reached out for her weapon and began its transformation.

"Ohhh, Sparky! You think I was tired?! I'm about to feed you my special flapjack! So do me a favor and don't dodge this one, ok?" Nora beamed out with a wide maniac's smile.

Yep, her fatigue was totally gone.

Smiling in amusement, Jin spoke out as he reached his a hand towards her, "Lets make this more interesting, hehe. Now let me give you, power..."

Following that statement, Jin shot out five different bolts of red electricity at each of his fingers at Nora like Sith Lord firing Force Lightning.

It was like how Darth Sidious shot out Force Lightning at Mace Windu...

"Unlimited Power..."

Nora received the full might of the bolts of lightning head on, but she was not hurt. Oh no she wasn't. Instead of squirming in pain, her crazed smile were getting bigger and bigger as her body trembled at the lightning's sustenance.

"Uuhhh...Guys. is it just me? Or is it that Nora isn't getting hurt at all." Ruby pointed out.

She knew how powerful Jin's Semblance was. And even though he seemed to be holding back while firing it at Nora, she still knew that it can make anyone in the room faint once they were struck by it.

But Nora wasn't hurt at all! Her Aura HP bar isn't even decreasing! Instead, she was just smiling in excitement.

"She's happy?" Pyrrha noted.

"Oh, no..." Ren groaned, knowing full well of what's going happen next, "Why did he do that...?"

"What's with the 'Oh, no'?" Yang asked.

"Her Semblance..." Ren abstractly answered.

"What about her Semblance?" Ruby followed up.

"Nora can absorb electricity and use it to increase her physical strength..." Ren answered with a sigh. He already had an idea on the damage that might happen in the ring once she attacks.

"Oh...Well that's not good..." Jaune said.

"AHAHAHAHAHA! AS YOU WISH, OH FEARLESS SPARKY! Oh Monty, Bless this thy launcher, that thou mayest, blow thine enemies into tiny bits! In thy Mercy!" Nora chanted with an insane smile.

Time to declare to everyone that she was the most insane of them all...

She then had her weapon locked in place as a pink glow began surrounding its barrel-head. She was preparing for dash-n-wham attack by using her own ultimately enhanced strength to throw herself towards Jin, as well as exploding a grenade for its momentum to further properl her.

The method of attack she thought of, can really drastically increase the power of her strike.

"Well this is not good..." Jin noted to himself.

He may powered Nora up a liiiitttle too much. And now, he has to stop her attack or else Beacon Academy itself might collapse.

He could sense it...His instincts were telling him of the might that Nora now has because of his blessing of 'minor' power-up to her.

'Well, I think Nora and I can work together pretty well in the field. With enough electricity, the strength she can deliver can greatly surpass mine, and I'm possibly the only one that can provide her that...But for now, I have to stop her.'

"Here I come! Do me a favor and don't dodge, Sparky!!" Nora insanely said, her crazed smile still lingering on her face.

Jin was on to her plan and he enacted his own. He just simply waved his hand, firing a small bolt of lightning towards Nora in a single motion, and that time was precisely when Nora clicked the grenade trigger on her hammer.

The crazed girl's face then softened as time seemed to move slower for her, seeing the small lightning bolt was actually speeding towards the grenade...

"Huh-?"

How did he know on where the grenade would fly off? He even threw that lightning bolt in advance! Such precision and calculation was simple inhumane!

It should be a crime of someone has that kind of ability.

*CRACABOOOOOM!*

The entire building shook with the resulting explosion, as Nora's grenade made contact with Jin's lightning in front of her face, detonating the grenade and sending the girl soaring way back and crashing into the wall with a loud bam.

"Uuuhh, she's alright...right?" Jaune said.

And surprisingly, it was Ren who spoke out with his normal lethargic voice, "She's fine..."

Yep. He knew her so well, it was to the point that he knew what kind of attack that would seriously hurt Nora or not.

Jin just received the explosion by only standing still, not harmed in any way in the slightest. And with that, the entire audience practically rioted in cheers a split-second later.

They loved explosions and stuff getting destroyed! And that explosion was awesome!

"Match victor...Jin Rose," Glynda intoned as she casually strolled onto the ring, obviously nonplussed at both the named victor and the gratuitous wholesale destruction that accompanied the said victory.

Jin granted them all with a small wave as if he was super-star, if only to use the motion as a buffer for his shaded words at the Professor, "Well, I bet you literally wanted a clean match, right?"

"Yes," She helplessly drawled, turning to telekinetically peel the hammer maiden off the wall and to cover her own words in reply.

"Despite the thousands of Lien for the property damages you've caused without a second thought, you really performed well. But why didn't you end the match...neatly?" She growled, strongly emphasizing the last word.

Jin stopped waving as he playfully smiled at the deadpan Goodwitch, while she let a still-dizzy Nora drop by before them before noting, "Hehe, if I didn't, then that'd make things boring. I gotta entertain my classmates too to really make them pay attention, you know."

The Professor just sighed in helplessness before she turned to the side and lecturing Nora, "Now, Miss Valkyrie. You must always be vigilant on no matter what kind of opponent you're facing. Expect the unexpected, always. Now, both of you return to your seats."

"Aww, Jin doesn't get any critiques?" Nora complained with a huff.

"Oh no, Miss Valkyrie. I've been instructed to save a special progress report for Mister Rose during the week, and also, he didn't really perform any kinds of mistakes in the fight. Now, off you go." Glynda said.

Nora's shoulders slumped a bit as both students walked back to their seats, "Lucky..."

"What do you mean, lucky? I'm a genius, so of course I can't have mistakes." Jin said with smuggy face.

"So..." A cross-armed Ruby began with a petulant pout as Jin and Nora approached the group, "Did you enjoy toying with her?"

"Come on, Rubes. You know what I was doing." Jin said before turning to the tied together Weiss and Yang.

'Now how did that happen...'

"What were you doing then?" Ren asked from the side.

Jin turned to him with a smile, "Having fun and checking her fighting style out."

"Ummm..." Yang began as she squirmed in her position, "Uh, guys...Blake, can you get these off of us now?"

"Oh...Uh, sorry." Blake listened as she walked to them to get her ribbon off.

But before she could act, Jin lifted up a hand before physically manifesting his Aura to form out a skeletal projection of his arm towards the tied duo, unclipping Yang and Weiss from their compromising position faster than nearly any of them could follow with the naked eye.

"Ooooh! You should've used that Susanno thing on me in the fight!" Nora exclaimed.

Jin just stared at his ever-happy friend after she asked that question, and then to her partner who had a face that practically said 'wow', before glancing at the thankful faces of Weiss and Yang, and then across everyone else's with a small sigh.

"Nah, you weren't worth it." He said.

The 'Susanno' or Aura Avatar, was Jin's strongest technique regarding to the manipulation of Aura. It really gave him absolute defense and unlimited potential of destructive ability.

But because of the massive amounts of Aura needed to initiate and maintain the skill, he would only use it at the situations where he really deems it necessary to use.

Though he wouldn't mind to use it if the purpose was for showing, or to show other people how powerful he truly was.

"Now for our next match," Glynda said before fiddling with her Scroll for a moment and then continuing. "Miss Yang Xiao Long and Miss Pyrrha Nikos."

Hearing that interesting match-up, Jin smiled in amusement, "Oh, my..."