Round 2: Ivanov / Ashina vs. Jung / Waterson

"Let's not test that before the match..." Matty ran his hands nervously through his hair, tugging at the ends lightly. They'd just made it through the first round; he hadn't even survived himself. Managing a weak smile, his eyes glanced around and took it all in. There wasn't match that reassured him. Jules was the only thing that gave his team hope. If anyone would do well, it would be her.

As the girl spoke again, Matty let out a sigh. He stared down at his hands. Useless. Whatever this was, it was usless now. The new student had no control. However, he was determined to do something other than flail about this time. Jules had kept them going last time, he could only attempt to return the favor. After adjusting the strap that held his staff, the boy looked up and locked eyes with her, "I will try my best."

Standing next to Peter in the new simulation, Pepper looked around. She'd never been in space before and had to admit, it was sure something. Of course she wasn't going to be able to transform to full size here, seeing that she would send everyone flying into the vacuum of space, but even so, she had other ideas to use on their new opponents.

"You ready for this?" the Spring spoke, turning her head to the mechanical boy who was her partner.

Matty knew he couldn't take metal man. Pepper would have to be his opponent, he wanted to catch her before she changed. As soon as the start was called, he raced towards her. Hopefully a few blows with the staff would get some damage in. After the last battle, he was more used to the feel of the weapon. Gripping it tightly, Matty swung the staff towards her head

Before they could even do anything, Peter was already out of the fight and she stood alone against her two opponents.

Turning into her partial dragon form, she ducked down, avoiding the staff and jumped backwards to avoid any other swings from the boy but one of Jules' knives was lucky enough to impale a part of her wing, ripping through the soft tissue. Letting out a screech of pain, she snapped around to the girl and let out a vicious breathe of fire, engulfing the entire area where she stood on the bench.

Matty's eyes widened as he watches the girl partially transform. This was new. Everyone stayed perfectly human last round.. well as human as they were. His staff missed on the first attempt. But he was stilll determined to help Jules win the round. The flames that exploaded from Pepper's mouth surprised him. But she was focused on Juliette. This was his chance.

Without hesitation, the summer boy shot forwards. The combination of determination and now having a more intimate knowledge of the feel of his staff caused Matty to have more timed and precise blows than before. Even if he still harbored the mixed and confused emotions from before, he pushed them aside now. It was hard for the overwhelmingly kind side of him. That thought echoed in his head as he swung once more for Pepper. This time the attack was from behind and aimed at her head. Following shortly after, he swung for the knees. She was up on her feet now, but with any luck they could keep her close to the ground and an easy target.

Watching the other girl hop over to a table to do who knows what, Pepper was about to attack when something smacked against her head, making the world around her spin.

Dazed, she dropped to her knees, but every muscle screamed her her to get up again. Trying to regain her bearings and wincing at the aching pain in her wing and now head, the dragon girl swung her her legs under the boy's legs, making him trip to the ground. Scrambling over to him, she sat on top of him, holding his arms under her hands. Opening her mouth, she breathed out another flame, one that would surely torch the kid at this range.

Matty was in too high alert to get pinned down that easily. He'd been the victim of many attacks, and if he was good at one thing, it was getting out. After falling to the ground, something in him snapped. Everything here was reminiscent of his last day at school. That other boy.. standing over him.. the Summer subconsciously flew back to that day. The desire to protect himself was overwhelming. No one should be victimized, no one should have to put up with people like that!

"You stay the hell away from me!" The shout tore from his chest and his hands raised in self-defense. And then the strangest thing happened, Pepper was thrown backwards. A tingling sensation, similar to what had happened that one day before, seemed to over take his palms. He watcged with wide eyes as she was thrown backwards by an invisible force. Glancing over at Jules with a dropped jaw, he managed a slight grin, "Holy shit.. I guess I'm not entirely useless after all.."

Before much fire was really able to escape her mouth, Pepper was struck with an unknown force and flung backwards, just barely missing a spear that was thrown at her chest. Unfortunetly, she slammed into a desk, seeing that it was a small space and let out a gasp of air. Falling to her knees, Pepper took a moment to catch her breath and used the desk to help her get back on her feet.

This kid was obliviously a new student, seeing that she'd never seen him before and he didn't seem to quite understand his gift yet. Well, who ever he was didn't really matter now. Running forward more clumsy like than usual, Pepper slashed a both her hands full of sharp dragon claws at the boy's face, making a sort of x pattern.

The pure exhaustion hit him like a truck. The adrenaline seemed to fade underneath a lack of energy. Whatever he had just done seemed to drain him. Fuck, Matty thought to himself. At first, he'd been so pleased with the fact he did something. Now, he felt near useless once more. It took a few moments for him to stand up and recover. A stinging sensation welled up on his cheek but it was quickly swept away. Jules was here to save him once again.

In that moment, he vowed to someday become powerful enough to protect her from things, or at least to help. Currently, Matty was just another thing to worry about. The boy groaned as he stood up. Shaking away the drowsy feeling, his hands gripped the staff again. Even if it felt like moving through molasses, this wasn't over. The wooden stick swung through the air. The same precision as last timw was there, but not as much of the speed or strength. This needed to be over. In such close quarters, he and Jules could end this.

Falling to the floor qith wide eyes, Pepper held up her arms as to block her face from a punch but got a nasty surprise instead.

Opening her clenched shut eyes, a dagger had been strabbed through her left arm and the half dragon, half girl let out scream of pain. Blood gushed from where the weapon sat snug in her flesh and she scrambled backwards, away from Jules who was practically standing over her. Standing up, Pepper let cry and grabbed onto the dagger. Pulling it out of her arm made the bleeding even worse and she threw the knife to the ground.

Having accute hearing, she snapped her head to where Matt stood swinging his staff towards her. Ducking down just in time, the staff missed her head by a few inches and she could've sworn she felt it brush up against her head.

Taking a few steps back, she clenched her teeth at the pain in her arm and wing. Breathing heavily, the Spring clenched onto her bleeding arm, trying to figure out some sort of plan as fast as possible. She couldn't turn into a full sized dragon unless she wanted to die with them, and even then she wouldn't have had enough energy to transform to that size. But there were still other options.

Wincing at the pain, Pepper transformed into a full dragon form, though this version was much smaller, about the size of a great dane dog. Holding her left leg up from the ground as to not put too much pressure on it, the dragon let out less ferocious roar than her giant form, although to any normal person it would've sent them running for the hills.

Tucking her wings in close to her back, she ran forward with her left paw close to her chest, and leaped towards the boy with her eyes looking to the ground so as ram her to hard, thick scale covered head right into his gut.

Matty was watching her the whole time. He was prepared for the next move. But, it all happened so fast. His eyes widened as she fully transformed. It was still such an unusual thing to see. The boy blinked a few times, still trying to make sense of everything he was seeing. He tried to side step, but her head still caught his side. A grunt of pain broke from his lips. His feet stumbled backwards. Hands flying to his side, the boy dropped his staff for a moment. He looked up just in time to watch his partner jump at the back of the dragon. There was no way she could miss. Pepper had been so focused on him.

Hope surged in the boy's chest. It was almost over. Trying to push the pain aside, Matty groaned as he bent to recover the staff. His hands shook as the wooded staff was gripped tight in his fingers. Instead of swinging it this time, the slightly pointed tip of it aimed for the side of her head in a quick jab. Hopefully, this would get some damage in.

Ramming into the boy was satisfying to say the least, but her satisfaction didn't last very long.

Before she was able to assess her surroundings, a sharp pain was sent up her spine and a gust if air socked her in the chin as little dragon flopped onto the ground with a screech.

Unable to move, Pepper laid there beginning to panic and almost forgetting about the fact that this was a simulation. She assumed that the girl must've hit her actual spine through her not as strong scales, seeing that she wasn't able to move anything.

With a flash of light, Pepper turned back into her normal self; no dragon parts attached. In doing so, the hole in her shoulder and now in her back was even more horrid and her breathes started to become more shallow as she laid there. She'd be defeated and there was nothing she could do except wait for the final blow to be given. Of course anyone would've been bummed to not have gotten farther than the second round, but at least she'd made it this far.

Matty simply watched on in horror as she was killed. It was over. They had won another match, all thanks to Jules. That in itself was a relief. But, he wouldn't be able to get the image of her broken frame out of his head anytime soon. At least it was just a simulation. He tried to manage a smile, but it came out a grimace, "Another round down, partner."