HA16

"No way?" Cinder laughed. "Oh, Jaune. I see a way out right behind you. All I need to do is go through you to reach it." Cinder floated up into the air. Eyes flicking back, she turned and stabbed a hand out, summoning a blast of wind that knocked a charging Neo away and into a wall. "You forget yourselves!" she sneered. "I was able to hold you, Neo and Roman off at one time, and that was when I had only just come into my new power. Now, I am more practiced."

He'd taken the moment she started speaking to try and sneak forward, then broken into a charge when she turned to deal with Neo. If Cinder wanted to talk, great. He'd try and cut her head off. Unfortunately, she turned back to mock him with Neo dealt with and Jaune froze with a deer in the headlights look, caught halfway between where he had been and her.

Cinder's eyes narrowed.

"Oh fu-"

The wind blast caught him in his stomach and was angled upward. He flew up into the air, crashing into the ceiling and wreathed in the smoke congregating there. He choked, falling back down like a paralysed falcon to splat on the stone floor. The impact tore his shield and sword from his hands, sending them skittering away.

More wind caught those, driving them further and further until they slapped into the back wall with a metallic clang. The wind continued to grow, building and swirling in the small vault like a self-contained hurricane.

Jaune grit his teeth as it caught and dragged him back, making him slide across the floor on his breastplate.

"You're both melee fighters," Jinn said unhelpfully, "So Cinder has decided that rather than use fire to deal with you, she'll keep you away with constant wind attacks. Neither of you can harm her if you can't reach her."

Cinder glared at the woman. "Do you mind not revealing my strategy?"

"The very fact I am able to means that they know your plan," Jinn said. "I'm simply articulating it. They're not idiots."