Fierce Black

After breakfast with the Arcs, Silva's day took yet another unexpected turn. Aleanor Arc dragged the snow leopard faunus outside to a nearby clearing, with everyone else following them. Silva looked at the bustier Arc matriarch as she stretched with a massive battle ax in hand. The ax was double-sided with blades that were at least two and a half feet in length, if not longer, and a thick metal haft that was as long as five feet. The snow leopard faunus looked at his own weapons in his paws that Neopolitan retrieved at Aleanor's request and said, feeling more than a little jarred at the sudden changes.

" Explain this to me again, Mrs.Arc."

" While Jeanette likes you, I still want to get your measure, and seeing that you are a fighter in some capacity, what better way than a friendly sparring match?"

Silva looked at Giles and his other wife to silently ask if she was being serious, and they both nodded that their shared spouse was being serious. The Arc patriarch whispered to his significant other with a concerned tone.

" We better be ready to stop Aleanor before she goes too far."

" I sent Jade and Garnet to grab our weapons in case Silva flips Aleanor's switch."

Giles looked at Jeannette in surprise at hearing this and asked quietly.

" What exactly did your Semblance show you about this young man?"

" He reminds me of your father."

The Arc patriarch's eyes narrowed and demanded in a whisper.

" In what way?"

" Young Silva has experienced a lot in his short life that has scarred him and made him who he is now."

Jade and Garnet brought their parent's weapons to them. Giles put on his heavy gauntlet and readied his greatsword in preparation to intervene if necessary during this spar. Jeanette kept her hands on her sheathed dual rapiers as she watched Silva and Aleanor get ready to go at each other. The bustier Arc matriarch finished stretching while the snow leopard faunus wondered how his morning turned out like this but disregarded his idle thoughts to focus on the fight ahead. Part of Silva was looking forward to facing an experienced Huntress that wasn't Raven to test his mettle.

Aleanor then took out a coin from her pocket and told Silva.

" When this coin hits the ground, our match will start, big guy. That good with you?"

" Yeah, that's fine."

The bustier Arc matriarch had an infectious grin that the snow leopard faunus soon mirrored. The Arc siblings cheered for their mother.

" Kick his butt, mom!"

" Show him what the Arc family is made of!"

" Go, mom!"

Aleanor flipped the coin in the air, and as it soared, Giles asked Jeanette.

" How long do you think that young man will last, honey?"

The bespectacled Arc matriarch shrugged as she answered.

" Hard to say, dear."

The coin hit the ground with a louder-than-expected clang, and Silva immediately used Flash Step to cross the distance to launch a swift front kick against Aleanor. The busty Arc matriarch wasn't expecting that kind of speed from someone of the snow leopard faunus's size, which sent her unguarded self flying into a nearby tree. Silva did not stop there as he soon fired a blast of dark energy from Dark Wrath. Giles Arc muttered, sounding exasperated.

" Whew, boy. Aleanor's switch is definitely going to be flipped now."

Jeanette gave a tired smile as she nodded in agreement. Soon laughter could be heard from the dust cloud from the snow leopard faunus's attack and was dispersed by Aleanor's swing from her ax. The busty Arc matriarch had a savage grin as her eyes glowed white from her Semblance, Adrenaline High, which boosted the potency of her adrenaline to a frightening degree and roared out.

" I knew I liked you for some reason!"

The hairs on Silva's neck stood on end, but that only made him grin as well since that meant he might be getting a long overdue challenge. Aleanor swung her ax, Rampager, downward and launched an aura slash that tore through the ground. The snow leopard faunus met the attack with his black Aura ax and deflected it to the side. He then raised his electric blue ax to meet the busty Arc matriarch's follow-up strike, which cracked the ground underneath them. As the clash continued, Aleanor pulled the trigger on her battle ax that activated the Gravity Dust in it, which made it significantly heavier.

Silva feeling the shift in weight immediately pulled back, and Aleanor created another dust cloud from striking the ground with Rampager. He launched streaks of electricity from his blue ax with a swing of it into the cloud, and the Arc woman charged through them. Even as they hit her, she ignored the jolts of electricity without any yelps of surprise or pain and tried to cleave the snow leopard faunus with her weapon. Silva used Flash Step again to move to her exposed flank and swung both his black and blue axes at Aleanor.

Instead of being sent flying or even staggered by the blow, the Arc matriarch endured the attack and counterstrike and made the snow leopard faunus stagger instead. She did not stop as she swung again with savage vigor and was met with a fierce clash with her opponent, that immediately changed the position of his weapons to avoid the Gravity Dust-empowered mechanisms. The two went at each other with rising intensity as they grinned. The Arc siblings were stunned silent at seeing someone match their berserker-like mother, and their parents were also surprised.

" Jeanette, I am going to use Aura Amp on you; use Hidden Nature to peer more deeply into that young man."

Jeanette agreed with her husband's plan with a nod, as she was more curious than ever about the young man she picked out for her daughters. Giles placed his hand on his wife's shoulder as his pale yellow Aura manifested to enhance Jeanette's Semblance. The bespectacled Arc matriarch looked at Silva's essence and saw more than a few brief glances at his defining moments. She saw his determination, his willingness to bloody his hands, or rather paws in his case, his desire for strength and power, and his sorrow.

It brought tears to Jeanette's eyes to see the weights that Silva had taken up and continues to carry by choice. Giles was more surprised by his wife's reaction and asked gently, feeling worried at what she may have seen.

" What did you see, honey?"

" Too much, Giles."

The bespectacled Arc matriarch wiped her eyes after taking off her glasses and said.

" We need to be ready to stop, Aleanor, if Silva can't tire her out."

The fight between Aleanor and Silva continued as neither grew tired yet. The snow leopard faunus switched from his black and blue axes to his red and white ones. The black and blue axes were his preferred choice in non-lethal fights as they weren't as deadly as his red thermal ax and white vibration ax. In this instance, he felt that the woman in front of him could take care of herself and felt no need to hold back. The white ax let out a metallic screech from its vibrations, and the red ax's blade glowed red from the heat it was producing.

Aleanor charged at Silva with a savage grin and swung Rampager in a wide arc that clashed against the two axes of her opponent. The red and white axes cleave into the large ax that damaged the ax blade. The berserker woman's eyes widened, and she leaped back to examine the damage to her weapon. The snow leopard faunus wasn't going to allow for any breathing room as he used Flash Step to close the distance and slashed with his axes. Aleanor was forced to dodge as she knew she couldn't afford to clash against Silva's axes.

The busty Arc matriarch was on the backpedal, much to the surprise of the rest of the Arc family. The fight devolved into a game of cat and mouse as Aleanor had to be more careful at how to use Rampager, as Silva's axes could destroy her weapon with little difficulty. The snow leopard kept up his assault and even upped it by throwing the occasional blast from Dark Wrath when the Arc matriarch evaded. Giles put himself in his wife's place and wondered how he would fair against Silva, then bitterly realized he wouldn't do much better as he often relied on blocking with his heavy gauntlet to block attacks in its shield form.

Jeanette couldn't do much better despite being an agility-based Huntress with her dual rapiers since she did not feel confident in taking a single strike from the snow leopard faunus. Similar thoughts went through the heads of the Huntress and Huntress-in-training Arc siblings. Jaune looked wide-eyed at seeing his mom being put on the defensive and focused on Silva with a hopeful light in his eyes. Aleanor was starting to tire as being put at a complete disadvantage made her hot-blooded desire for battle cool down along with her adrenaline, making her Semblance's effectiveness greatly reduce.

" Okay, big guy, I give!"

The snow leopard stopped midway from launching another attack as he asked.

" Already?"

" Yes, already! Those axes of yours are honestly cheating, but when is combat ever fair for a Huntress? So I accept my loss this time around. However, you owe me some repairs on my poor Rampager."

" Sure, just give it to me, and I will swing by my lab to fix it."

Aleanor looked confused at what Silva was offering as she asked.

" Do you carry that kind of hardware with you?"

The snow leopard faunus decided to give a small demonstration of Door To Darkness by opening a portal next to himself that led directly behind the woman, as he said.

" Distance means nothing to me."

Aleanor looked surprised, then smiled as she asked.

" Nice, but I thought your Semblance was those energy blasts?"

" I am versatile, that's all."

Silva decided to be vague as while so far he was starting to like the Arc woman, he didn't trust her enough to explain that he had multiple Semblances and alike, let alone the rest of her family. But if the two Arc woman that dragged him into their pace was any indication, he felt like giving the Arc family a chance for now.