[5/14 - Morning]
At the announcement of the victor, Clerval exhaled slowly, the rush of power from summoning his Persona slowly dissipating as he holstered his Evoker and slid his sword back into its sheath.
His arm grabbed the Scroll in his pocket as he took a quick glance at his Aura level. 64 out of 74 Aura units remained; the spar used up 13% of his Aura if his math was correct. With all the nicks from Sky's halberd and his passive enhancement of reinforcing the body via Aura, it was well within the range...
That meant that the spiritual energy spent for using Skills didn't count as Aura usage; that was good to know beforehand.
"Students, as you can see from Mr. Lark's Aura, it has dropped into the red."
From the spectator stands, Professor Goodwitch's voice echoed clearly across the arena as she floated down to the arena floor, surrounded by a purple aura. The barrier surrounding the arena flickered out of existence as she approached with the clicking of her heels.
"As explained earlier," she continued, "following the Vytal Festival Tournament format, the announcer will call the match in favor of the combatant with the higher remaining Aura."
Her head turned to Sky Lark, who was crouched, groaning in pain.
"Mr. Lark, you underestimated your opponent and overestimated your own close-quarters proficiency. There were multiple instances in which you could have switched your weapon to its secondary form to apply ranged pressure or utilized other tactics to assess Mr. Grayson's capabilities."
"And as for Mr. Grayson," she turned to look at him, "Your performance was satisfactory, but there were moments when you could have used your Semblance to gain a further advantage during the first few minutes of combat. Your restraint on using only close-quarter combat for the first half of the match is commendable, but unnecessary caution can cost you initiative in a real engagement."
He gave a nod of understanding.
"Good." She turned back to address the rest of the class. "I trust everyone has learned something from this exchange. I hope you all understand the rules and expectations of our sparring matches. You will have five minutes to review and process what you've observed. After that, I will select the next two participants. This cycle will continue until the end of class. The two of you are granted ten minutes to cool down and redress into proper school attire."
With that, she floated back up to the spectator stands, eyes fixed on her Scroll as she typed what appeared to be a combat report on the spar. Clerval turned his attention to the still-crouched Sky and stepped forward, extending a hand to help him to his feet.
The gesture was met with hostility. Sky slapped his hand away. "Fuck off," he muttered, rising on his own. Clutching his side, he shoved past Clerval, bumping rudely against him as he made his way to the locker room door.
He watched Sky Lark's retreating back for a moment, then shrugged and followed after him, with a sense of feeling that his proficiency had grown somewhat from the experience gained during the spar.
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After a quick shower to rinse off the grime and sweat from the spar, he walked back to where Team Ruby and Juniper were gathered, only to be instantly bombarded by a flurry of questions. Most of it was incoherent gibberish, excited shrieks, and rapid-fire hypotheses, but the main consensus was clear—
His shirt collar was suddenly yanked as Weiss, more than ten centimeters shorter than him, lifted him off the ground and shook him with surprising force entirely unbefitting her size.
"How did you just summon that?! Is that your Semblance?!"
Yang, the stronger one in Team Ruby, stepped in and pulled him out of Weiss's grip, giving her teammate a playful pat on the shoulder. "Yo, Weiss, chill out."
But Weiss was undeterred, her gaze sharp and indignant. "Do you not see the problem? He just summoned a being! While summoning Semblances are rare, only someone from the Schnee family can summon entities!"
Blake, sitting a good distance from the heiress, finally spoke up. "The Schnee family's hereditary Semblance only summons beings from defeated foes. Maybe his works differently."
Ruby perked up, nodding enthusiastically. "Yeah! I think I read something about that online! I don't think Clerval defeated his summons."
"But why shoot yourself?" Jaune blurted, a tinge of fear in his voice as he stared at Clerval.
Lie Ren offered his perspective calmly. "Perhaps it's a method to channel and focus his Semblance?"
"Semblances are unique and instinctive," Pyrrha added thoughtfully. "I've never heard of someone using such a drastic method to invoke theirs…"
"Oh! Oh! Maybe it's because he has to 'kill' himself every time to use it!" Nora exclaimed. This made everyone stare at her for a moment. Then they looked over at Clerval for an answer. He mulled over a few answers before landing on the one he felt was best apt for the topic.
"It's called Persona—"
"Team Ruby and Juniper, there is a time and place for your inquiries." Professor Goodwitch's voice cut through the commotion, causing everyone to fall silent and redirect their attention to the next sparring match between two other teams.
Clerval, however, noticed a few lingering stares in his direction, giving him the quiet feeling that his charm had grown just a little.
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[5/14 - Lunchtime]
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Classes went on for two hours before finally ending. With an average of twenty minutes per spar, that came to roughly six matches per class period. Unfortunately, his team hadn't been chosen yet, so he hadn't had the chance to observe their skills firsthand.
"So… uh, what exactly is your Semblance, Clerval?"
Ruby asked eagerly, sliding into the seat next to him at the long cafeteria table as he set down his food tray.
Weiss, sitting beside her, shot her a glare. "At least let him sit down first before you question him."
Blake, her face half-hidden behind her book, retorted, "Didn't you do the same earlier?"
"Hmph. That was different, Belladonna," Weiss muttered, crossing her arms.
Nora, sitting on the opposite bench, tapped her fist, clutching her fork and spoon, on the table. "Tell us! Tell us! Tell us!"
"Nora, don't be rude," Lie Ren scolded gently.
"But Renny, that was just so cool! I wanna fight it!"
Seeing the expectant faces of the rest of the group, Clerval realized the topic wasn't going anywhere. He gave a small shrug.
"Persona, the manifestation of one's soul."
That seemed to spark more questions than it answered. Blake tilted her head thoughtfully. "Is a persona not a mask that one presents to society?"
Clerval paused, considering her words, then nodded. "It is a mask that protects me as I walk through life." He rephrased what Igor had explained, lacking a clearer way to describe it himself.
Ruby then asked with a raised hand. "Wait… then where's the big robot? The one you summoned just now is different from the blue lady."
"And what a lady she was..." Yang muttered dreamily. He chose to ignore her comment and turned back to answer Ruby.
"I changed masks."
"That begs the question—how many of these masks, or Personas, do you have right now?" Weiss inquired, clearly more interested in the topic than her food. Clerval raised his hand and held up four fingers.
"Can we see them?!" Nora exclaimed, bouncing eagerly as if she might leap onto the table, only for Lie Ren to calmly place a hand on her shoulder. "Don't jump onto the table when you get excited, Nora."
He gave another shrug and nodded at her question, prompting Nora to pump her fist in the air. "Yes!" she exclaimed.
"After lunch? We don't have classes for the rest of the day," Jaune said, glancing at their year's timetable. Pyrrha nodded in agreement. "We can book one of the gyms. It should give us plenty of space and privacy."
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A/N: Take a Deep Breath was supposed to only have two updates this week, but since I accidentally wrote today (currently it's Sunday for me) as the date for an update, I'll honor it and post this chapter! Hope you enjoyed it!
NEXT UPDATE: 4 March, Wednesday
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