Board Thread:News and Events/@comment-933831-20160123205543/@comment-24572299-20160127021157

Well against my better judgement I have decided to vote. And I vote for...Az and Leo. This is a really close fight and normally I wouldn't be able to pick a winner. The thing that tipped it for me was the battlefield. The downtown of a massive city can be a sprawling and confusing place to navigate Darian has some experience with this but only 2 years worth. The rest of his time was spent at Refuge Academy, as he had nowhere to stay, and Beacon which has live in dorms that he makes use of. While he probably goes into the city of Vale occasionally  it probably wouldn't be enough to grant him a huge knowledge of sprawling urban centers.

Az on the other hand has lived in the city proper from what I discerned from his backstory and worked as part of the mob his family was a part of for a decent amount of time. This would allow him to have a very good understanding of the layout of the downtown area of a massive place like Vale. After all, "When you want to know a city, ask the rats."

Penelope being from upper class housing probably knows less about navigating Vale's downtown than most people do. Leo probably doesn't either but he has Az to guide him and as has been said is very good at following orders. Why do I think this matters so much? Because the downtown of a city isn't just big streets. There is the buildings they can hide in yes but there is also another thing. The sewers. With proper distractions like Az's illusions Leo and Az can get around easily and without being seen by traveling through the sewers. Meaning that with the right positioning and timing both of them to move around and hit Penelope with a two on one offensive.

Now Penelope has her cards, Semblance and Darian to back her up of course. But the big thing against her is that she is a very squishy individual. After all during a training mission when the group she was apart of was ambushed by Grimm a stray shot from a fellow student hit her wings and obliterated most of the bones. I take from this that Penelope's Aura is not very strong. And Az's main form of combat is using a Sub-Machinegun. As we saw with the fight between Coco and Yatsuhashi vs Emerald and Mercury automatic fire is better off being dodged than blocked if it even can be blocked all at once.

While Penelope is very agile like most people she needs to be able to see in order to dodge. So if Az blinds her with the use of his semblance before attacking this hampers her ability to dodge his shots significantly. With automatic fire on his side I think Penelople with her not very strong Aura could be taken down relatively quickly though she may get a few good hits in. Even if it's just him with Leo distracting Darian.

Then it's down to a two on one against Darian. This part just comes down to the fact that the way I see it Darian is a match for Leo and vice versa. However if one or the other has something that tips the scale then their opponent rapidly comes to having a disadvantage. In this case the tipping point would be Az. With Az's sub-machinegun fire to keep the pressure on Darian I think that while he will hold out for a while with his semblance it will rapidly come to the fact that Darian is wearing himself out rapidly. Thus securing the win for Az and Leo.