"Haze, who do you wish to battle?"
Charlotte practically jumped. He looked at the red tunics, waiting to see who Haze was and why he wanted to battle him. To his surprise, someone with a Light blue tunic stood up.
"Charlotte."
He said with a calm tone of voice. His accent was a bit strange, which took him slightly off guard. What rattled him was that he appeared on stage, going from sitting to standing and nearly falling over.
"This is a strange occurrence. I never expected someone in your position to be interested in someone new. You better not lose; he has everything to gain while you have everything to lose."
He nods as he adjusts his vambraces, which cover the top of his hand but left the bottom of his fingers and palm strangely unprotected; he doesn't have a weapon like the others, so it seems he is a hand-to-hand fighter like Charlotte. Charlotte shook his head, trying to shake off his uneasiness from suddenly teleporting as he ensured his gauntlets were property set.
"Why did you want to fight me? I'm curious, Haze."
Charlotte took a reasonably defensive stance. His left leg and hand were ahead of him as he held his right arm back, prepared to throw a punch. He let himself get a good look at Haze, but things didn't look good. Haze was significantly taller than him, but the real issue was how long his limbs were. He could attack him from further away, which meant Charlotte would have to step in deeper than usual to turn his body against him.
"Simple, I believe you are the toughest student in this school. I don't mean in strength, of course. You are the toughest regarding durability; your fight with Juba and your training with Fang are a testament to that. If I can break you, the others will be as easy."
He flinched, being underestimated again. That was starting to get on his nerves; he glared at Haze. Haze's stance was much more open; his right hand was slightly ahead of his left. He almost looked like he had a grappling style, but that could be a lie.
The teacher looked between the two and gestured for them to start; Charlotte dashed forward, lowering himself closer to the ground as he slammed his right hand into the stage to rip a part of it out and toss it towards Haze. He followed right behind the rubble; Haze efficiently used the back of his palm to knock the rubble aside. Charlotte tried to grab his hand, but he pulled it away. At the same time, he tried to slam his other hand on the side of Charlotte's head. Charlotte raised his arm to guard it and once more tried to grab his hand, forcing him to take a step back to gain some distance.
He seemed to scowl at Charlotte, and his repeated attempts to try and grab him. Charlotte figured his power had to be used at close range; it would be the only reason he wasn't being attacked from a distance. Although maybe Haze was stubborn and refused to use his power on him.
"What's wrong, scared?~"
Charlotte smirked as he began doing small hops in place; he was trying to get him closer. Haze didn't react, so he thought that maybe it hadn't worked. That was until he disappeared from where he stood and appeared in front of Charlotte. Charlotte had been able to follow his movements. The only issue was that he was mid-hop, so his feet weren't planted on the ground.
Haze tried to slam his palm into his chest; Charlotte moved his hand onto his wrist and managed to grab it before he could pull away. Charlotte got pulled closer as he used his free hand to slam his palm into his gut. The blow itself wasn't an issue. It had hit the chest plate; Haze flinched slightly, so he must have also noticed. The problem was that the blow reverberated throughout his entire body, almost like waves going through him. Anyone else would have likely had something ruptured; he got lucky. That was the end of his luck; his hand had locked up, and he couldn't let go of his wrist. He couldn't feel his hand either; it was almost like he didn't have a hand at all.
Charlotte would plant his feet and pull him closer as he stabbed the claws of the gauntlets into his chest and clawed downwards. They managed to do quite a bit of damage before Haze slammed his palm into his chest, and forced him back. The blow once again reverberated throughout his entire body. His organs were withstanding the damage well enough, but he felt sick, and his vision blurred up for a second there. The distance between the two remained pretty close as he held onto his wrist; the two stayed still for the moment, watching each other.
Charlotte had to be careful; his attacks were similar to the sound bear but way more precise. He is targeting his insides, but with the soul bond making his entire body practically as challenging as the chest plate, he can tank them. The issue was that even if he could tank them, the blows would rattle his organs, eventually making something happen. He had to beat them before then; he couldn't risk just tanking hits.
"You gonna let go?"
Haze spoke, his free hand moving forward slowly, almost asking for his attention. Charlotte wiped the blood off his gauntlet and closed it. As he slowly moved his fist closer and closer to Haze.
"Sorry, couldn't even if I wanted to."
He was serious about it, but Haze had no way to know. Haze froze only for a moment, which made Charlotte tense up; this seemed to be the signal as he pulled towards him. Charlotte opened his hand and slammed the fingers of the gauntlets into his palm before he could hit him. He stopped his attack and tried to use the momentum to kick him in the face.
He made a grievous mistake, as his short leg made him miss entirely. Using that chance, he was slammed onto the ground as he pulled back his hand that Charlotte skewered before slamming it into his chest. He felt blood in his mouth, and his vision blurred as he felt like throwing up. This was worse than he thought; he quickly gathered his Chi around his body and grabbed his hand before he could pull it away. He drew closer to him, kicking him in the gut and sending him flying upwards a bit. This had the unintended effect of sending him into the air with him; the two landed back on their feet as he shook him off and freed his hand again.
The two were back to being in a stalemate; at least, that's how it looked. Charlotte's vision had only gotten worse; the sun's light was getting unbearably bright, and he could barely see the silhouette of Haze before him. He squints trying to lessen the effect of the light, but it barely helped. What the hell had Haze done to his vision.