Sometimes She Feels Like a Monster

[Demi Smith]

"Yeah, that's right!" Demi yelled, throwing her hands down and shooting more dirt and dust to the floor of the arena. Her training uniform was almost completely covered in the debris, the sweat she'd worked up making it cling to her even while her power pulled it away. The sprightly girl smiled in a way that made her look less like a girl and more like some kind of maniac.

It probably didn't help that her latest "sparring partner" was nursing a bleeding nose and looked as though she'd just gone a few rounds with a professional wrestler. Demi looked winded; this girl looked beat. And so did the two others that Demi had worked through.

The lean cultist turned and spat, the dirty glob splattering onto the arena floor. "See, this is why I'm better than you!" she yelled, pointing a hand. "Your crappy, weak little people can't even last against me! C'mon!" She slapped her chest, sending clouds of dust flowing.

"What's the matter?" Demi spread her arms wide. "Too scared?" Demi grinned, bits of dirt and dust showing in her teeth as she circled, pointing at people. "What about you? Or you? Or maybe you?" she pointed at one, walking a few steps toward her. "You're all nice and pretty, but at least you look older than these chumps," Demi jerked her head back to the others. "You think you can actually last?"

Amanda Stephans

[Amanda Stephans]

Amanda was impressed, this young lady was beating up on kids and making it look as if she hadn't even batted an eyelid. Amanda had come out to train a little but she had grown distracted by the crowd around one group of individuals that were battling it out. Dust and dirt were swirling all around and in the middle of all of it was a girl, apparently by the name of Demi. How'd she know who the girl was? She simply asked another one of the spectators, of which was very surprised she wasn't aware of who this girl was... 

She looked up as Demi began calling out to the crowd, she had just finished with her latest toy and was now looking for a new one... And while Amanda was curious, she didn't expect to get called out like she did, and called clean none the less. She frowned a bit and began walking forward, clean? How could she not be clean? It's not like it was hard to keep the dust and bits of dirt off of her, plus she hadn't even expected to fight now. "I guess we will find out.." she kind of grumbled to herself. It wasn't that she didn't think she could last, it was more or less the fact that she had been called out. It seemed to have hit a nerve somewhere in her.

From watching Demi previously, she liked to throw stuff. As she entered to sort of circle that the students had formed, she began to walk confidently and slowly around. The brunette wondered how long she could go with pushing the dirt just slightly to the side, enough to miss her but doing her best to make the misses minuscule enough to where it would take a moment for Demi to figure it all out. Plus she felt like it would be amusing if a ball of dirt flew and hit an unsuspecting crowd member... "So then miss Demi, you aren't going to hold back on me now that you've gone and called me out, right?"

[Demi Smith]

Well, at least the other girl had some confidence. Demi had to give her that much. Usually the ones who were at least somewhat confident weren't complete wastes of Demi's time either. Didn't mean Miss Pretty would actually beat Demi, but it increased the odds that this would be a lot more interesting, and that made Demi grin.

Demi shifted, easily falling back into her regular stance. She was tempted to go for another quick win: shoot clods at the girl until she made that pretty face bleed. Though if the girl was at least half as good as she acted, then Demi supposed that wouldn't be too quick. Still, she didn't think she needed to enter full Flow yet.

Instead she quickly hopped around, doing a few scrapes with her feet to kick up some dirt and pebbles which started moving in her orbit. With her eyes locked onto the other girl, Demi threw some wild punches, sending a spray heading for the other girl.

[Amanda Stephans]

Even if Amanda didn't have a ton of confidence, she more or less had a little bit of the upper hand... She hadn't been in any spars like Demi and she knew what Demi's power was. She smiled as she locked eyes with Demi and the fight began. Amanda would give it to the girl, she was very quick and didn't even test the waters before jumping in. She kicked up some dust into the air, hoping she could hide a little of her movements as she watched the dirt come at her. She honed in her focus and moved her left hand slightly and push one of the dirt clods just off to the side, one missed her without having to do anything to that and the other hit her in the shoulder.

She lessened the impact of the clod by flattening it out as it hit her, sure it still wasn't fun getting hit but it was much, much more bearable than if another person had been hit. In all the movements and dust and dirt clods, she began collecting dirt underneath her shirt, giving herself a comfortable amount of padding, though really it was just a safe place to hide what she was doing. The girl chuckled and wiped at her nose with a sniff, "I'll give it to you, you're quick, and getting hit wasn't all that fun.. But is that all you that you have?"

Amanda was a fan of the mental games, sure they didn't always work but it just came naturally, the various taunts, chuckles at inappropriate times and a lot of the times they got to her competitors, giving her enough of the upper hand to make a joke of them and come out with a win. "Come on Demi, you're the one that called me out here."

[Demi Smith]

Huh, she actually took the hit. Seemed to have some kind of motion or something too, though Demi wasn't too certain. She kept her attention honed in on the other girl, watching. She saw the gesture.

"I'm just getting warmed up," Demi replied. She stomped her foot, sending some of the dirt flying upward. The girl didn't waste any time, but rolled forward, stopping the motion a short distance from Amanda. Then Demi snapped forward, again using the momentum to offer another spray of debris at the girl.

Another test, though Demi knew she could, and maybe should, change tactic to start getting up close and personal. Just give her a bit to warm up first.

[Amanda Stephans]

Amanda frowned, so much for trying to stall, with as little reaction time as she was given, she didn't feel like taking this girls full on attack so with that in mind, she moved to the side swiftly, pulling some bits of Demi's attack with her and hurling them right back at her. She wasn't sure how Demi's reflexes were but, it was worth a shot.

She let the dirt and dust around her body seemingly glide down her arms and spread around her, like her own personal dust cloud. As well as her dust cloud, she had balls of dirt in her hands, ready to use a similar strategy to Demi's, throw clods of dirt in their direction as quickly as possible and hope that when the dust settles they don't want to go anymore.

Amanda smirked at the girl, even going as far as to wink at her. She really wasn't much of an attacker, so her long term goal was to just tire the girl out, with the occasional counter that she could only hope to catch the girl off guard with. "Alrighty Demi, I suppose that now my secrets out, it's time to play rough.." She said, throwing another two balls of dirt in Demi's direction.

[Demi Smith]

The balls weren't connecting, or at least, not connecting like they should. Demi could see the other girl holding them in her hands as if judging them. Before Demi could process much further, the twin balls went heading her way.

The smaller girl let out a sharp cry, half surprise, half glee, as the projectiles launched her way. She probably could've jerked out of the way of one, but it suited her better to block. Both hands went up, shielding her upper body and her face, and she grunted as she felt the dirt hit against her. Demi gathered it about her arms, letting it slide into place.

"So, you're a terrakinetic too, huh?" Demi asked. Her arms felt a little tingly, but it wasn't enough for her to even take notice. She turned and spat again. "Haven't fought one of those in a while," she took a few steps forward, keeping her attention focused. Projectiles weren't gonna work, but fortunately, Demi had just a bit of training in hand to hand combat...

[Amanda Stephans]

Amanda filled with pride as she connected one of her shots with her target, sure, it might not have affected much but there was a simple feeling of pride with her when she hit something, along with the slight disappointment that it didn't really do anything. She could have agreed to not seeing a lot of people that could manipulate the earth, she had seen/met very few and if she wasn't currently in the middle of a fight, she might have stopped to think as to why that was.

She watched as the girl moved closer to her, already knowing what she was going for in a way. Demi was making the fight a lot closer range. With this, she drew dirt down her arms and around her hands, while she might not have the greatest hand to hand combat skills, at least when it came to dealing out the shots, she was very defense oriented and was good at stalling these kinds of fights out until her attacker grew tired enough for her to get a solid shot in.

She wondered how well it would work against Demi though, considering they had the same power for the most part. Amanda was good at taking hits, and a lot of it was due to the dust and dirt she covered her arms and gut in. She watched and solidified the area that was being attacked, semi in an attempt to injure the persons hand when they hit her, cause it was basically like punching the ground.

[Demi Smith]

So weird, fighting someone who had the same power. Demi had experienced that a few times with her Honer back home. Ceres had been totally badass though: beating Demi up relentlessly while teaching her all the best moves. Ceres never did anything without then insisting that Demi follow suit. Demi could remember far more from those few weeks of training than she could from months of training here.

But now it seemed like this girl was going to do something similar to Demi. She grinned: they never saw that coming. "I'm so gonna enjoy punching your face in," Demi said. she wasted no time, launching herself forward, yelling as she extended her arms into position to punch. The dirt and debris around her started to swirl a bit more too, carried by Demi's emotions.

[Amanda Stephans]

Over the next second Amanda felt like she had thought about one hundred different things she could/should do, the real question was though, what would be the most surprising of all them? She flashed the girl a smile back as Demi grinned. Demi was quick but Amanda was ready.

She knelt down slightly, enough for her hand to barely brush the ground as she gathered loose dust and dirt in her palm. In a quick burst of speed, she threw the dust upwards towards Demi's face, if not blinding her then hopefully distracting her while Amanda side stepped and brought her elbow back towards where she felt like Demi's back would be, but she could easily be wrong, it all depended on how quick Demi was.

[Demi Smith]

Demi was quick. She was also smart and had been training in martial arts and fighting from about the age she could walk and think properly. However, she'd also just spent the last few minutes using her power and getting ramped up. So many months of people treating her like some kind of freak had left Demi perpetually on edge, and recent events had gotten her to the point where she'd been dangling off.

Which made her sloppy.

Demi saw the burst going toward her face and twisted, moving to both get out of the way and fire a blast of her own at the girl's legs. Demi was so focused on the attack and the obvious moves that she missed the elbow though. She felt it slam against her, not quite at the middle of her back, but enough to send her rolling to the ground. Were she in Flow, Demi could have just adapted. But it was damn hard to get focused when you were raging.

So instead Demi hit the ground hard, spinning and spraying dirt and debris around, not really even properly aiming beyond "hit the legs."

[Amanda Stephans]

Amanda didn't enjoy the thought of fighting without a purpose. If she was going to go into a sparring match, she was set on getting something accomplished. She felt a warmth flow through her body from her elbow as the girl felt it connect with something. Amanda needed to work on watching the other person, even while she was attempting to counter an attack.

With the warmth she felt, she also felt something touch one of her legs. After that it was the sense of a loss of balance and the ground coming closer. She threw her arms down to brace herself for impact as one of her legs was swept out from under her. Amanda cursed under her breath as she was down on one knee looking up at Demi intensely.

Demi was skilled, and she definitely had a lot of potential, but Amanda felt like she was just getting warmed up, she felt as though her senses were coming to a peak as she looked at Demi, studied the girl. She knew she couldn't wait too long, else they both would have had plenty of time to recover and she'd pretty much be back at square one.

When she came up, her arms were coated in dirt... "Here goes nothing I suppose.." the brunette said with a huff. One.. Two.. Three.... And four. Four round balls of dirt where thrown in Demi's direction, followed-ish by Amanda, who now was just looking to use her size to try, tackle and pin the girl on the ground, hopefully until she declared defeat.

[Demi Smith]

"Ha!" Demi spat as she watched the girl go down. Served her right: acting like she could handle Demi. The smaller girl was already launching herself forward, ready for another attack. She tasted blood, at least metaphorically if not quite physically yet. Demi was so ready to pound the other girl into the ground. Dirt and debris flew up behind her as she started charging.

Of course, that left her with no room to move as the balls hit at her. Demi roared, launching her hands up. The first she got, blowing aside with her own power so that it just sprayed dirt behind her. The second whizzed by, grazing Demi's shoulder without really connecting. The third slammed into her chest though, nearly tossing her aside and certainly setting her up for that fourth to spray against an arm that just raised up.

Demi had to sink down, breathing hard, feeling her upper body ringing from the attack. She brought her head up as the other girl came close and grinned wide. Her mistake. Demi was already relaxing and gathering materials along her hands, ready for the blast.

[Amanda Stephans]

Even if Amanda had landed a fairly solid attack if she were to say so herself, she was leaving her 'safe' fighting style and rushing at the girl. She had seen something like what she was doing used very well and very effectively so she thought she would give it a shot.. Which was actually a bad idea, one that she caught on to extremely quickly, just not quickly enough.

Amanda knew she had messed up. Her first clue was that she was even trying something new in a fight that wasn't basic training. But everything fell into place as she watched the girl rebound all too quickly. Charging someone was for catching them off guard cause they were distracted, Demi was good at not staying distracted long.

The brunette did what she could, she couldn't let up or she would be in even more trouble, she stepped harder forward and hardened herself, bracing her forearms and gut area with dirt, due to those being the most common places to be hit from attacks. She watched Demi closely as she was just a step or so away, running at her like a football player might have to tackle someone. Amanda wasn't one that would try and play fair, if someone picked a fight with her it was only fair to give it all she could, otherwise that was just disrespectful in her books.

[Demi Smith]

Yeah, the other girl definitely knew how to fight. Demi could feel the excitement fueling her further still, driving her to unleash her full power on the other girl. Demi could see the defensive posture, but she didn't care. She just yelled, pulling her hands up and slamming her covered hands at the other girl, ready to tackle her and get down and dirty.

Had Demi been thinking more clearly or, better yet, trusted herself to get into the proper Flow, she definitely wouldn't have been this reckless. She could take a lot of damage: far more than someone her age and size should, but this? This was practically asking for the bigger girl to just pound the living crap out of her.

The worst part? Demi could practically know it, and she was almost looking forward to it.