Round 1: Ivanov / Ashina vs. Michiba / Grayson

The sound of her name, or what was supposed to have been her name, had thrown her off so much - she'd hardly managed to answer at all. "What?" Ishiko took a step back, caught in admiring as the very girl beside her eased her way into a glittering new form. She bit her lip and nodded. "Y-Yeah, ready as I'll ever be, Cuh-san-dra." The corner of her mouth curled a bit. She was told her partner had some... past troubles and that she could turn into a magnificent diamond of all things. In truth, Ishiko had felt outclassed by far, but she'd been training hard with the big Bear ever since she's arrive and she was confident she could carry her own weight in this match. Probably, anyways. Hopefully without breaking too many things.

The ice beneath Peter's feet bubbled and cracked with every step he took, and steam crept out from beneath the fissures, bathing the flooring surrounding him in a pale cloud. He calculated everything around him with a dedicated precision - the temperature, the height and width of the laboratory, the thickness of the walls, and the drafts that ran in and out of the room. There was no room for error this year. The Winter's parents had made sure of it. After his lackluster performance during last year's summer tourney, they'd berated him viciously for months afterwards. To make a victory the following year solid, they'd pushed him into two additional martial arts classes.

Peter hated fighting. With every punch or kick his family forced him to take, anxiety bloomed within him like a parasite. He would have much preferred to be digging into a good book at the library, or tending to his plants back at his dorm room, but Нет места для ошибки. No room for error - not in the Ivanov household.

The Spring sucked a deep, sharp breath in and exhaled fresh steam through his nose.

Нет места для ошибки.

Walking farther into the frosty terrain, Pepper let out a breath of hot air and watched as a small steamy cloud disappeared into the air. She didn't think the simulator would actually be cold, but it was, and the Spring shivered as she rubbed her arms. While she'd never been a fan of the cold, she had no choice but to accept it. Today was the Summer Tournament and she was determined to do good this year. She'd be working on her gift all year and now she had a chance to show her growing power.

Looking around, Pepper spotted her so called partner, a mechanic looking boy who seemed like he was deep in concentration. Walking up to the student, she let out a soft cough to inform him of her presence. "Ready for this?" She asked, tilting her head to the side in a curious sort of way.

Peter wasted no time.

Within seconds, fiery energy was pumping through his limbs, and steam rocketed out from beneath his feet as the surrounding ice melted and turned to vapor instantaneously in the sudden burst of heat. As much as every fiber of his body despised violence, he was ready for this. He'd been ready for a whole year. He had to be - he had no other choice.

The moment Cass lunged for Pepper, Peter set his gaze on her partner. She was quite small in stature, but Peter knew better than to underestimate people at this school. Last year had taught him a hard lesson. Whatever her gift was, though, he wouldn't let it phase him. He'd find a way to work around it.

He'd gathered so much energy up that he could feel the skin closest to his arms and legs beginning to grow and tender. It stung immensely, but he did not flinch. With one last, deep breath to calm the last of his jittery nerves, now wreathed in a thick swirl of steam, Peter launched himself forward with the intensity of  jet engine, leaving streaky rivulets of heat in his wake. Shattered ice, steam and water droplets burst suddenly in every direction at his takeoff. Ishiko was locked firmly in his sights. It had begun.

Cassandra had sped off with no hesitation, leaving her to herself. So much for teamwork, she'd thought, near letting out a harsh huff - if she were even given the time. In the same way, their opponent had sped off straight for her, like a rocket. Literally. She hadn't the time to think of much to do. This place was big, but it wasn't that big. Her first instinct was to make a run for it, leave a flurry of snow kicking behind her as she dashed for cover, and so she'd tried. With the bitter cold nipping away at her skin and sharp whine of the fierce winds, it was all too easy to forget it was real. She made a break for an old snow engine.

It wasn't real. Not real.

Why was she afraid then? Ishiko screamed, gripping onto the steel forks of the heavy machinery and ripping them off their frozen, former host. The Peter guy was rushing in at the corner of her eye and she did the only thing she could think of doing in that moment: she made a swing for him.

As if the world was moving in slow motion, Pepper watched as the diamond girl raced towards her. She could feel her heart thumping in her chest as the girl got closer and panic started to set in. She didn't think the battle would start so fast, but then again, she should've learned from last year.

Somewhat caught off guard, Pepper made haste and transformed right before the diamond girl was able to hit her. With a flash of light, the once small girl transformed into a huge white beast with gleaming pink eyes. She smashed through the top of the building with ease, sending glass and debris to fall on the people down bellow. Standing high above the now shattered building with her, she almost too high to see anything unless she lowered her head since parts of the structure were still in tact. Thankfully, the girl's punch just barely missed her, though she did feel something come in contact with her now giant and scale covered leg.

Last year, it would've taken her a few moments to regain her bearings, but this year, she was ready for action. The dragon gave a low rumble from the bottom of her throat and looked around at the frozen, barren wasteland that surrounded the building. Looking back down to the research lab, the demolition had caused it so that dust and debris to fill the air and even for her it was a bit hard to spot anything on ground level.

Letting out an ear splitting roar, Pepper stood up on her hind legs and stretched out her wings, giving a couple flaps as if she was going to fly, sending even more of the building's roof down upon the people bellow. Part of her was worried that she injured her partner, but pushed it aside. Besides, he could probably take care of himself if he even dared to enter the tournament.

Setting her front legs back on the ground, the dragon shook the earth and looked down to the Mostly demolished building. So far, the battle was off to a great start and Pepper was confident in this year's tournament.

Only a few seconds before Peter would have collided with his opponent, a mass of concrete suddenly tumbled down from the ceiling as a result of Pepper's transformation, crashing into the floor between them and sending a million, tinier fragments exploding into the air.

Peter had to scramble to reverse the thrusters on his calves in a sudden effort not to crash head-on into the slab, but that was not enough to prevent a hard landing. The sound of metal colliding with concrete send an ear-splitting ringing sound throughout the building. Head throbbing, Peter raised his arm to shield his eyes from the flying debris, gripping a crack in the slab to hang on to. His partner's lack of consideration would cause problems not only for their opponents, but also for himself..

.. But he could work with this, if he was careful to avoid falling debris. Scanning the area wildly to make sure nothing was coming his way, he climbed further up the fallen slab. There was a large, loose piece that he figured he'd be able to launch if he mustered enough energy up.

Leaping backwards off of the rock, Peter somersaulted mid-air and set his thrusters to maximum output. With all of his force, he slammed into the loose rock with one shoulder and sent it reeling down towards Ishiko with a tumultuous boom.

The entire roof. The entire roof had suddenly come crashing down on them all by one hideous, oversized dragon. Another shrill scream escaped her throat, chocked away by the sudden shock wave of dust and debris that swept over them all. The Summer let her makeshift bat collide with the floor, cracking into the snowy earth and ducked for cover under the heavier machinery. It all fell around her with deafening collisions. Somehow, she'd managed not to be squished like a little any, throwing her arms up and cowering away in what crevices she could until it all had passed.

Would she ever be so lucky in reality, she wondered.

Ishiko had resigned to take a moment, to try and get her breath back, before she'd heard the strangest sound - a voice, much like an echo, calling her name. "C-Cassie?" she shouted back. It was enough to draw her out of her hiding place. The girl sprang out and made a run for it. Another sharp crack of gravel. The sound of jet engines bouncing off the old walls. A large boulder flying straight at her.

Her yelp caught in her throat. Nothing to grab or anything else to hide behind. Ishiko swung her fist back, throwing her arm forward and piercing through the stone on little else but a prayer. It's sting was one of the sharpest things she'd felt before, shooting up her nerves and cracking through to the back of her neck, but the rock had shattered in near half, pebbles mounting up at her feet. Hefty with her breath, the girl knelt down, picking up one of the halves and sending it back swinging at Mr. Roboto.

Again, she wasted little time in seeing if it ever hit, sprinting back to the diamond girl's side. "Cassie-san!" She grabbed away at the girl's shoulder, near squeezing too hard out of her own anxiety. (Would she be strong enough to break the girl? She didn't want to find out for herself.) "What do we do?"

OOC: let hell on earth commence.

IC: Unable to see anything bellow the layer of dust and debris, Pepper peered down into the building that didn't look so much like a building anymore. She knew she only had one choice, no matter how fatal it might be and she also knew that she needed to hurry up and preserve her strength.

The dust was still thick and while she wasn't able to see very well into the chaos bellow, the smell of fear filled the air. A shrill shriek filled could be heard  and she wondered what the reason for the scream had been. Had her partner already taken down one of their opponents? Well, whatever he'd done so far, he better be good at parkour. Of course she could've changed into a smaller dragon to fight on the ground, but that would've taken too much energy, so she had to think up other options.

Lifting her head so that she was looking up to the sky, Pepper let out another roar and stomped a foot on the ground, making the earth shake again. Once the shaking slowed to a stop, she lifted her long, white tail and slammed it onto the floor. Dragging it along the ground and swinging her behind around, the beast struck down the rest of the standing walls so that only what looked like ruins stood. Who ever was in the building either got smashed from her tail swinging around or somehow how jumped/ducked out of the way, but it didn't really matter to her at the moment. Bricks and chunks of metal flew every which way and while it might have seemed that she was just smashing everything out of random, there was a method to her madness. Drive the enemy out of the building.

She said it like it was the easiest task in the world. Ishiko gritted her teeth, nodding and ducking the way out of falling debris. Color her impressed that Cassandra was able to hold the giant beast's tail at all. A feat of strength like that was something she could only imagine herself doing. Perhaps that really meant they were supposed to be a great team together. "Right!" With a quick breath to steel herself, she grabbed a nearby beam and made a leap for it, grabbing onto one scale with ease and hoisting herself up, climbing and bunching every muscle in her body to hang on as she hurried her way up the dragon's body. Far from the ground, running past her leg and towards her back, a harder spot for the monster to reach.

"If it's here and breathing, it can be killed!" she shouted, her own little cheerleader. With a screech, she snatched away what she could at the scales, ripping with all her might and stabbing at the skin with her sharp, broken slice of building.

And then it all came crashing down.

Once again, the Spring found himself dodging an avalanche of rocks as Pepper's tail swept across the ground, destroying whatever support beams had been left standing after her last fit. Metal screeched, frigid air roared in from the outside, and dust and ice was being kicked up into the air in droves. It was more of a volcanic explosion than a battle.

The only way to go now was up, where Peter could both escape the collapsing building and have a clear, aerial view of the scene. As he flew upwards, he had to cover his face and peer between the gaps of his forearms as stones hailed him from all angles. What kind of partner gave no consideration for their opponent and let a whole building collapse on top of them? Was she so narcissistic that she expected to not need any help? She couldn't just flail around in blind hopes of crushing her opponents forever. Everything - even a dragon - had a weakness waiting to be exploited.

On his way skywards through the dust, Peter caught a glimpse of somebody below gripping onto Pepper's scales, poising for what looked like a nasty strike. As much as he was beginning to revolt the idea of working with the dragon-shifter for her reckless actions, again:

Нет места для ошибки. He couldn't afford to shame his family for the second year in a row, even with such a careless partner. With this in mind, he halted his flight, swiveled rapidly around, and began a full-thrust dive downwards to dislodge the girl. A flaming energy began to fester at the palms of his hands, gathering and gathering in strength while he descended. As he neared his target, the energy erupted and shot forwards in a golden explosion.

Letting out a bellow of anger as one of the girls grabbed onto her tail and the other began to climb her leg, Pepper looked around, soon spotting her partner flying towards her. She hated dragging him into all of the chaos, but there was no other choice. 'I'll have to apologize to him later,' she thought to herself and snapper her head back to the diamond girl that was holding onto tail, her eyes filled with an icy fire. While it was a valiant effort to keep her tail from slashing around, simply holding down her tail wasn't enough to stop her. Lifting her tail with Cassandra in tow, Pepper swung it upwards in a flicking motion, hopefully flinging the girl off.

The one thing to be thankful for, when it came to the robotman's power she supposed, was that it was impossible to not hear him coming. Ishiko whipped her head around and saw a glorious day of energy gathering, aimed straight for her. 'うんこ!!' She made a break for it, leaping down the length of the dragon's back and abandoning all behind her; a sickening, strange sizzle erupting behind her as she left the explosion to strike away the creature. Not all went as smoothly as she would have hoped. The force of the attack near sent her flying, tumbling down and gripping on to anything she could manage to grip in her grasp, scales, building, diamond girl- "Cass!"

The Summer held her partner around the torso, holding with all her might and kicking away towards the sky, she sent them back on a clumsy roll back towards the earth. Cassandra, she'd probably be fine, but Ishiko was certain she could already feel the cuts and scrapes and bruises from her daring escape. The girl coughed and pulled herself back up off the crumbling earth. "We can do this..." She told herself. "Go! She picked up the girl by her hips and shoulders and, with one mighty swing, sent her flying back up towards the beast - towards old wounds.