A Late-Night Spar

It was dinnertime within the halls of Beacon, and Sophea was sitting solely with a classmate. The food wasn't great, but it was also nothing worth complaining about. Looking up to from her plate to her classmate, she saw a somewhat masculine-looking man with short, blond hair with dark, lime-green eyes. He had no facial hair, and she believed that it was for the better even if he was rather fond of it.

Swallowing her food, Sophea finally said, "So, how has your practice been going, Forrest?"

Acting as if he were surprised, Forrest flinched as soon as she spoke. "Practice? Oh uh," Forrest paused and looked away for a moment. "It has been going okay, I guess."

Sophea, done with her food, moved her tray off to the side and laid her left elbow on the table. With her chin resting on the palm of her left hand, she chuckled before saying, "You know, you've always been a bad liar. I don't understand how you are losing in-class spars when you are such a good brawler in the field."

"That's because the field is way different than the classroom!" Forrest started waving his arms around. "Grimm usually are too dumb to dodge my attacks which makes it easier to put all my strength behind them. And if they do try to dodge, I lose a good chunk of my power trying to follow them."

"Well, all you have to do is lead your hits, you know." Sophea sighed knowing full well he knew that. Seeing that Forrest was nearly done with his food, she grabbed his tray, put it atop hers, and stood up. Walking around the table, one of her hands grabbed one of his arms and the other the stack of trays. "C'mon, we're going to The Arena." Without waiting for an answer, Sophea dragged Forrest out of the cafe, making sure to put the used trays in their appropriate place as she left.

Upon entering The Arena, Sophea had no longer been dragging around Forrest. In fact, he had given up pretty quickly once the pair had exited the cafe. The Arena was empty and silent, the lights still on for those who still wished to training. Reaching the center of the place, Sophea stopped and turned back to Forrest with her hands raised in a fighting stance except that, instead of fists, her hands were open-palm. "Alright! First item on the menu: land a hit on me."

Shocked, Forrest objected quickly to this menu of hers. "Woah woah woah. Isn't it a little quick to be doing that? Besides, we've never sparred before. Are you sure you know how hard I hit?"

Her arms still raised, Sophea explained to him, "It's never to quick. And it doesn't matter how hard you can hit." She added a taunting wink with that last statement.

Forrest shrugged at her confidence and raised his fists as well. "If you say so!"

As her classmate got into a combat stance, Sophea's eyes grew cold and calculating. Her focus, instead of on Forrest's fists, was mainly concentrated on both his shoulders and his feet. She also kept an eye on his calves. C'mon, show me what you've got, soldier. In the next instance, she saw the twitch of his right foot. Right jab. Digging her right foot into the ground, Sophea skipped back and to her left as a fit sailed in front of her. "Faster." She watched as Forrest shrugged and smirked as if telling her he hoped she knew what she was getting into.

Sophea's was silent for the time being as she waited for his next move. It starts now. She watched as his foot twitched similarly to last time. Same punch. Left shoulder twitch. Left jab. Another punch sailed above her head as she dodge-rolled to her right. Recovering her stance, she realized that he was faster than she had anticipated. Another right jab was approaching her right shoulder. Hoping she would be fast enough, she quickly pivoted her right foot clockwise to avoid to hit, but, to her dismay, the hit still connected albeit with less impact. Her aura shined as it connected. The punch sent Sophea back, the pivoting of her foot causing her to spin with it. Damnit. Damage control! With that, as her body connected with the ground, Sophea attempted to roll as far as possible in an effort to use up all her momentum. After not too long, she lay face down on the ground, her shoulder stinging from the hit. Slowly, she got back up with a smile of her face.

Worried that he had badly hurt her, Forrest jogged on over to her. "Hey, are you alright!? I warned you that-". As he neared her, it was clear that she was fine. "Huh? What are you smiling about?"

"That item didn't last as long as I hoped!" Sophea exclaimed as she laughed the pain away. "We can quickly move to the main dish now! We are now going to spar!"

A confused look spread across Forrest's face. "Really?"

"Really!"

"You really are a handful, you know that?." Forrest raised his fists again. "Ready?"

"Of course." Sophea didn't specify which question she was answering. Before he could reply back, she yelled, "Go!"

Sophea's eyes went cold again. No running this time. As if testing to see if she was actually okay, Forrest sent a right jab to her left shoulder yet again. This time, instead of simply dodging, she shot out her left hand to intercept his wrist while taking a step back and twisting her body in the direction of the punch. Adding her momentum to his punch, Forrest awkwardly stumbled forward. In her next motion, she took his wrist and planted it firmly against his back.

With her voice as cold as ice, she said, "I always take these kinds of things seriously. You should know that by now."