Round 2: Arbor Banks vs. Janya Anders

Honestly Janya couldn't believe she made it to the second round. She guessed she got lucky with her first round opponent, he fought back for a moment there, but it didn't last long and he got terrified which was his down fall. Now here she was sitting in a big library staring across some tables and things at her opponent. What was her name again? It started with an A.... The blonde girl didn't know. Her memory was terrible. She just hoped her enemy didn't have bone manipulation. If she did then this wouldn't be a good fight.

Arbor knew she would make it to the second round. She would not forgive herself if she didn't steamroll everyone in her way, didn't make sure that she'd solidify herself as the top student in the school. It was pertinent to her mission. It was necessary toward her life goal. Still, however, she pawed at the place where Diana's sword had pierced her, at the area between her torso and abdomen. It seemed to itch like a bug under her skin, taking her back, a pinpoint place with no physical pain but heaps of mental reminders. She almost died there. If it were real, she probably would have.

The girl took a book from the shelf beside her and flipped through it. The pages were blank, each one of them, the title revealing itself to be that of a famous book. A cliche book. The whole thing seemed cardboard, almost. Millions upon millions of meaningless, fake boxes of empty paper. She threw it on the ground between her and her opponent. The echo clattered up the layers of library, booming with an intensity that even surprised her.

As soon as Janya heard the ding of the bell to start the fight, she decided to transform. She wanted to play this safe, since she didn't know what this girl's gift was it was best to stay away until she could figure out what that was. Maybe it would be a good idea but she could take that chance. Quickly the skeletal dragon took to the air, flying up until she sat on top of a bookshelf a good distance from the girl. Her claws digging into the wood. As she stared down at the girl. Time to figure out a plan of action against the girl.

Arbor seemed a bit taken aback by the transformation. She stepped backwards a tad, the footfalls tapping into the spacious, echoing air as her narrow eyes looked up at what'd become of the girl. Another dragon. This one was peculiar looking, but a dragon was a dragon. She remembered that girl who latched onto Cayden, the one with the condiment for the name. She was a handful. Hopefully this one was easier.

With the initial shock of the transformation dissipating, she watched the creature fly away. What was she doing? This was a fight, and the monstrosity was retreating further towards the ceiling. Did she want to battle or not? The look's glare was that of peevish disgust, like she had a place to be and she placed her hands to her pockets and craned her neck, standing there. She stood there for a while. A minute of silence passed. Sounds seems to create themselves in the moments of actionless glaring, where the books seemed to grow legs and scamper in places unseen, or simulated mice ran across simulated halls and tripped over simulated hazards. Books seemed to fall from the highest of reaches, or at least seemed to by sound. Arbor thought about ending the docility by shooting her, by taking a penny and aiming it at the creature's throat, but the sound of books falling from nowhere gave her an idea.

When Arbor aimed her penny upwards, balancing it calmly on the bent tip of her right thumb, she did not aim it at the perched dragon. Rather, she aimed it at a bookshelf high into the building, at the floor and the wooden arches that held it above them. The magnetic energy pulled at her fingers, harder and harder, seeming to twist her cells in on each other and provide a pressure deeper, stronger into her hand, a positive energy that she flipped like a lightswitch. A negative burst boomed through her fingertips and out her thumb, snapping back her wrist violently as the small girl let the coin explode off her hand like a bullet. It dinged emptily, a bullet train letting out its vacant horn, and whizzed over the dragon's head, further, shattering the wooden beam a floor above and becoming lost in the floor it once held up. The beam fell, as did another, and the bookshelf it exited through toppled with a section of the floor, although not as big of a section as Arbor hoped. It began to fall, books and all, onto where the dragon idly resided.

Janya watched the girl as she did something. She was a bit to far to see exactly what was happening but she could see the girl aiming something, at first it looked like she was aiming for her, but she adjusted. It still looked like she was aiming for the skeletal dragon, but it was slightly different. The skeletal dragon's head twisted around as she watched something strike a surface and wooden structures began to fall, which headed for the dragon. With the opening of boney jaws a brilliant blue fire escaped the creature burning up the material which headed for her, enough so that the small pieces just bounced off her or fell through. The girl was going to have to try harder than trying to crush her with wooden material.

Not wanting to stay perched on her bookshelf anymore, which was probably going to light up from the flaming falling debris, the dragon took off again ducking behind somethings and out of sight of the girl. Moving around out of sight of the other person. Carefully the dragon landed behind a bookshelf and gave it a shove sending it down towards Arbor on the ground floor.

The dragon vanished again. She should have known it could breathe fire; Arbor shoved her hands in her pocket with irritation as she watched it fly away and saw that she did nothing at all to it. Furthermore, the kindling she lit seemed to land on a wood bookshelf, though it went out in its own black charredness before catching the wood under it, which smoked with a trivial effort to ignite. Arbor looked back up. The dragon was nowhere to be found, but it couldn't hide forever. She began to move, when suddenly, a shadow became cast over her. It melted into the ground and over her like a sponge, and she looked up to see a structure falling over her: a shelf. She dove. The shelf shattered on impact with the ground, and a splinter shot up and ricocheted, a missile landing itself in her calf.

Arbor fought back any kind of verbal cue, gritting her teeth and rolling under the main clearing, where the floors overlooked. She crawled into the shadows, gritting her teeth and checking the wound. It had wedged itself deep, like schrapnel from a grenade; she sat behind a shelf as quietly as possible, save for the few curses she exhaled under her breath. It was a bad day to wear shorts.

The girl tore from her exposed sleeve. Gritting her teeth on a splint that had cannoned to the wall nearby, she ripped the wood out of her leg. The pain shot through her like one of her pennies, quick and ever-moving, spreading further and further through her body at a non-stop pace the further she pulled the giant splinter. The girl tried hard to not make noise. She couldn't make noise. The dragon was out there. She began to wrap her leg in the tatters of her sleeve, attempting to stand and put pressure on the wound. It hurt, enough to make her retaliate weakly on the first step, but the more she did it, the better it felt. Her limp was evident, however.

The small girl stayed behind the shelf, calmly peeking out, pressing her back to the wood and her hands along the side. It had to be looking for her.

It was hard for the dragon to see if the girl had gotten hit by anything or not. She knew the girl didn't get crushed because she saw the girl dive out of the way, but she didn't see where she went afterwards. The dragon stepped up to the edge to look for where the girl was but couldn't find her. Taking a jump the creature extended her wings and flew down to the ground level once again. Landing on another bookshelf, but she landed unevenly knocking it over on purpose. Well time to light this place up. Maybe the smoke could drive the girl out.

Stepping back from the recent bookshelf she knocked over, the skeletal dragon breathed her blue fire towards it lighting it up, but she also directed it at the other bookshelves around her. It would help keep her hidden but also maybe reveal Arbor to.

The dragon was making a lot of noise. Arbor stayed back, trying her best to stay in place and examine. It was then that she heard it, the belching of flames. Suddenly, there was a fire. That was quick. Despite this, Arbor breathed deeply, as much as she could before the smoke came to a full affect. She needed to pepper it quickly, before it could drive her out. She shrunk back a little, taking another penny out. Holding a sleeve to her face, she aimed and shot the coin towards the center where the dragon was. Out in the open, she focused on the coin, compressing the metal with her hands, bringing them together against the magnetic pull apart. Further, further, further. She fought against the blackening smoke of the ground floor until she couldn't any longer, and suddenly, the pressurized penny popped in an explosion.

There were a few staircases along the ground floor. She was nearby one of them. She limped toward it, racing as fast as she could and trying to gain height on the smoke and flames that still lingered low.

Janya's mouth closed as soon as she heard the explosion of another penny being fired, though she didn't know exactly weird it came from. Then she felt it, the penny had managed to go through her rib cage taking two bones with it. The broken pieces falling to the floor with a clatter that could barely be heard of the roar of the flames. The dragon dug her claws into the floor at the pain from the two ribs being gone. Despite being a skeleton when it came to bones being removed like that it hurt a lot. Though the pain only made the creature angrier.

The summer knew the smoke and the heat from the dancing blue flames probably drove Arbor else where, but where she didn't exactly know. Maybe he would attempt to go higher. Well she couldn't have the girl getting away from her. The dragon rose her head towards the second floor, and breathed out the blue flames towards the second floor hoping to create a dangerous situation up there to for the other student.

Arbor ascended the stairs as fast as she could with her leg injury, skipping some if she needed. When she got to the second floor, however, it suddenly became alight with blue flames, the heat radiating to meet her like a wall. The girl had to go to floor three. She continued to climb, this time even faster, ascending almost primarily by pulling herself up with the rails. She made it to the next floor in no time. Taking no moment to breathe, she promptly began to throw pennies from the entrance to the stairwell, one after the other, chucking some and laying some flat nearby. Once again, the girl climbed, only a ten or so steps, enough to reach the top of the first flight. She sat against the wall, catching her breath, and outreached her hands. She began to curl her fingers, to bring her palms together, slowly but surely, as long as she could.

If Janya could growl she would have. Arbor still wasn't being driven out. Janya could only guess she was going higher trying to escape the heat and smoke. Well if she was going higher then Janya could prevent that. Stretching out her wings the creature rose into the space rising up to the upper most floor. She landed on the floor, her claws clicking against the ground as she did so. The skeletal dragon let out her blue flames once again setting that floor on fire. Eventually the fire below would rise and spread to the other floors, and if it didn't then she would make sure it did.

The smoke was starting to enter the stairway leading to the fourth floor, and she knew she had to move soon. Once more, the fire was climbing; if she didn't release the pennies soon, they'd melt. Still she lingered, though, for a few seconds, squeezing her hands tighter and tighter together. Finally, however, when the air around her had become black, she coughed, and released the compression she was having on the coins that dappled the third floor. A dozen pennies popped in explosions, the balconies falling in thousands of pieces, flaming bookshelves toppling to the fire pit that was the bottom floor. It was a little too close for comfort for Arbor; she did not expect the sheer force of the blast, and a wave of fire and heat licked the entrance of the stairwell, blowing hot air into her with enough force to ruffle her hair. She squinted, coughed some more, and forced herself up. She had to keep moving; the creature could still be alive.

Janya jumped off the top floor once she was satisfied with how it was burning, she was going to drop to the lower floors and maybe search for the girl, but she found herself being shoved back up from a force of an explosion some of her bones cracking from the force, but not enough to stop her. Shaking her head for a moment and steadying herself with her wings she went to the floor just below the top one. She could see below that the fire was starting to rise. It wouldn't be long before the girl was flushed out. Opening up her boney jaws again the blue fire was released onto the floor catching on the books and the wooden structures.