BOOOM!
The explosion shattered the evening quiet as a massive blade of wind collided and combusted with a shield of ice, sending crystalline fragments and air pressure waves rippling around.
"Maria," Carmella breathed, having just returned from the disciplinary office where she'd been sanctioned for her earlier actions. She'd taken a shortcut around the building used for physical training and the one where second years had their Alchemy practical classes, when she suddenly found herself ambushed.
Maria stood twenty feet away, her usually neat white hair now wild and disheveled, falling in thick waves past her shoulders. Her almond eyes, normally bright and determined, now burned with something far more dangerous. She wore her standard academy uniform - a fitted dark blue jacket that hugged her curves, the white shirt beneath slightly torn at the collar from whatever confrontation had preceded this moment. Her pleated skirt swayed as she shifted into an aggressive stance.
