Sora's eyes slowly opened, he looked at his clock, and saw that it was almost twelve thirty…he had slept through the start of today's games!

"Oh, crap!" he hissed.

Still dressed in his Keyblade Wielder's garb (save for his jacket, which he didn't bother to grab), he bolted out onto his balcony and leapt down into the streets of Crocus. He sprinted all the way to Domus Flau cursing to himself the entire way. He made his way to the stands and saw Doranbolt sitting a little higher up.

"What'd I…miss?" Sora panted as he rushed over to him.

"Hibiki from Blue Pegasus just beat Jager from Quatro Cerberus." Doranbolt briefed. "That was the first match, so you're fine."

Sora took a seat next to Doranbolt as Rocker from Quatro Cerberus and Lucy Heartfilia from Fairy Tail were called to the arena. Lucy was a buxom young woman with blond pigtails and brown eyes. She was armed with a whip and wore a revealing white tube top with yellow lining and a blue heart on it, a collared vest with yellow lining, blue belle sleeves with white ruffles at the end, a navy blue miniskirt with a white belt, black leggings, and rather plain brown boots. Rocker was a rugged man clad in black leather with yellowish orange hair styled into two tufts. When the gong sounded, Rocker's entire lower body began spinning drill-like and he sped toward Lucy who cartwheeled out of the way and began lashing furiously at him with her whip. Rocker held up his arms to shield himself for the vicious lashes, then grabbed the whip and with a mighty swing, threw Lucy. She tumbled across the sandy ground, but was back on her feet in an instant with what appeared to be a golden key in her hand.

"Open, gate of the Golden Bull…Taurus!" she cried, and a large, muscle-bound white bull with a few black spots, a humanoid body and an oversized axe appeared.

"MMMMOO-OO-OO!" Taurus bellowed. "I know the lady's got a nice body, but you better give her some roo-oo-oom!"

He swung his axe with such speed and power that it sent a torrent of sand toward Rocker, who shielded his eyes and sped toward Taurus. His leg also started spinning like a drill and he managed to knock Taurus' axe toward Lucy, who gave a yelp and ducked. Rocker and Taurus matched fists and traded blows for a bit until Lucy thrust her whip toward Rocker and wrapped it tightly around his arms. Taurus lifted his fists to pound Rocker, but Rocker began spinning his lower body and drilled his way down through the sand. Sora guessed he was tunneling his way around Lucy, hoping to surprise her.

"Thanks, Taurus!" Lucy called to her protector. "Virgo will take it from here!"

Lucy held up the key she used to summon Taurus and he dissolved into particles of gold light and disappeared. She then pulled another key out of the leather pouch she kept attached to her belt as Rocker burst out of the ground behind her, clearly he wasn't quite skilled enough to pinpoint her. She leapt away from him, shouted "Open, Gate of the Maiden…Virgo!", and summoned another ally. This time it was a woman with short pink hair, a classic maid's outfit, and heavy chains and shackles on her wrists.

"Get him, Virgo!" Lucy commanded as Rocker went back underground.

"Yes, Princess." Virgo replied nonchalantly and drilled her way down after Rocker.

Princess? Sora thought?

A deep rumbling sound came from beneath the sand, it went on for a minute or two and then all was silent until Virgo clawed her way out of the sand, covered in bruises but victorious. Lucy was declared the winner and Sora actually had to cover his ears when screams of joy erupted all around him. Lucy gave Virgo a hug, and Virgo whispered something to her with an eager look on her face. Lucy suddenly looked creeped-out and sent Virgo back to wherever she came from. Sora's stomach gave a small gurgle, he wished he could get something in there, even something small, but he was going to be called down to fight before he knew it and didn't want to lose whatever he put in it.

"Erza Scarlet, the illustrious Queen of the Fairies will now face the champion of Quatro Cerberus, the Drunken Falcon, Bacchus Groh!" the announcer cried.

Sora covered his ears again as the crowd went absolutely wild again.

Bacchus was the first to make it down to the arena. He was a tall, lean, yet muscular man with slick black hair tied back in a bun. He was topless, save for a suit of high-collared blue armor that covered his arms and shoulders and wore dark gray breeches and blue soft-soled shoes. Erza marched out moments after him and Sora was awestruck by her beauty. She was quite tall for a woman and had a mane of Scarlet hair, which the sun's rays painted with fiery highlights. She had dark maroon eyes that looked as though they could pierce a man's soul and a look of stoic determination on her face. She wore a silver breastplate and pauldrons over a tight-fitting black t-shirt, matching silver armlets and gauntlets, a blue pleated skirt, and black knee-high leather boots.

"Mr. Yajima, I understand these two have something of a score to settle." the announcer said to his counterpart as Bacchus took a swig of something presumably alcoholic from the jug he carried.

"That's right." said the older man. "My sources say that every time these two fought in the past, it ended in a stalemate."

"Yeah?! Well times change! Ain't that right, Erza?!" Bacchus spat. "In fact, how 'bout we make a little bet!"

"Sure!" Erza called back to him. Her voice was deep and womanly, her tone firm but polite. "As long as it's nothing degrading or unreasonable, of course!"

"Well excuuuuse me, your royal hiney-ness!" Bacchus spat, now definitely drunk. "I just thought we could have dinner and a few drinks if I won! That sound reasonable enough for you?!"

"Certainly!" said Erza. "And since you sound so confident…if I win, your guild's entire rum supply belongs to Fairy Tail!"

"Deal!" said Bacchus with a savage grin. "We got lots of other kinds of booze, anyway!"

Erza reached out with her right hand and conjured a silver broadsword with a cross guard shaped like a pair of wings as Bacchus darted toward her with his palms glowing white. Every time, she blocked one of his thrusts, it created a spout of sparks. Bacchus kicked her in the jaw, sending her stumbling back and in an instant, her sword was replaced by a halberd, which she tried to bring down on his head. Bacchus caught the halberd by the blade, gripped it tightly and hurled Erza over his head. Erza flipped in the air and gracefully landed a few yards behind him. She then produced a mace as Bacchus began chopping at her with her own halberd. She parried each chop with seconds to spare.

"Wow!" the announcer shouted. "The stones on this guy!"

Bacchus and Erza locked weapons for a few moments until Erza leapt away from him and became enveloped in pale cyan light. Bacchus darted toward her with her Halberd at the ready, but she zipped around him in the form of a cyan energy bolt. When she returned to human form, she was wearing a white robe with yellow embroidery, a pale blue chest plate with matching embroidery, pale blue pauldrons, armlets over dark gray gauntlets, pale blue greaves over dark gray boots, and a white ribbon in her hair, which was now in a braided ponytail. She jabbed the tip of the massive blue spear she carried into the back of Bacchus' neck and discharged a nasty surge of cyan lightning into him. Bacchus let out a jabbering cry and fell face-first into the sand. After a few moments, Bacchus stayed down and Erza was declared the winner. Sora stuck his index fingers in his ears as the crowd wailed with praise for Erza. Finally, Bacchus dragged himself to his feet, shook hands, with Erza, picked up his jug and dragged himself back to the stands.

"Our last match for today will commence after a fifteen minute intermission." said the announcer.

Great…thought Sora. everyone but me gets to fill their stomachs and empty their bladders. But I've definitely survived worse.

He sat patiently for the intermission and once everyone was seated again, he was called down to the arena, followed by Lyon Vastia of Lamia Scale. Sora's excitement for a good fight and eagerness to prove himself gave him the vigor he needed. With this sudden burst of energy, he hopped from the stands down into the arena and strode to the center as Lyon made his way out. Lyon was a young man with frosty white hair dressed in a sky blue tunic with a midnight blue mantle over his shoulders, dark gray slacks, and gray boots. He carried himself in a refined, almost aristocratic manner.

"I'm looking forward to this, Keyblade Wielder!" Lyon announced in a smooth, boyish voice. His tone–while full of smug confidence–had a certain debonair charm. "Shall we follow Bacchus and Erza's example and make a bet?"

"Alright." said Sora, as he summoned the Sleeping Lion. "What do you have in mind?"

"If I win, I'll have that Keyblade of yours!" Lyon declared, prompting a few gasps from the audience. "And as a consolation prize, you may join Lamia Scale…as my pupil of course!"

"That's not your decision to make, Lyon!" an old woman's voice shrieked from high above.

"Fine!" said Sora, detaching the Sleeping Lion's keychain and attaching the Starseeker's.

He won't be able to use it, anyway. he thought.

"But if I win, I want to be treated to lunch!"

"Really?" Lyon questioned. "That's all you want?"

Sora nodded.

"Alright, it's a deal!"

The gong sounded and Lyon raised his hands and sent a flock of birds at Sora…birds made of glistening ice. Sora raised the Starseeker above his head and shrouded himself in an Aeroga shield, which caused every ice-bird that touched it to shatter on impact. He dashed toward Lyon, and the ice wizard conjured a pair of panther-shaped ice sculptures, which took off toward him. Sora pointed the Starseeker between the two ice panthers and a yellow orb appeared above them, traveling with them as they ran. Two lightning bolts snaked down from the orb and both panthers were shattered. Sora leapt over their remains toward Lyon, who dove to the left just in time to avoid being struck.

"Fire, ice, wind and lightning…that's quite a bag of tricks you've got!" he exclaimed. "And I assume you have more!"

Yeah, but I want to save the good stuff for tomorrow's opponent…whoever it is. thought Sora.

Sora shot three fireballs at Lyon, who blocked them with a massive ice-shield. The Starseeker then became enveloped in flame and Sora hurled it at Lyon's shield, causing it to split and fall to the ground.

Gray watched from the ledge as his old friend and rival struggled against the Keyblade Wielder. As soon as Lyon's ice-shield was broken, Sora's Keyblade appeared back in his hand and he tried to get up close and personal, but Lyon kept him at bay by making icy quills protrude from his body. Sora shot three more fire balls at the needles and his Keyblade was flaming again. He began furiously slashing the quills, burning away Lyon's defense again.

"It's like watching you and Natsu, only much more civil and far less annoying." Erza concluded.

"I guess so." said Gray. "Wonder what this kid's story is, though. None of us even heard of him until yesterday."

"Yeah, an' ever since he got here, he's been kickin' all kinds of butt." Natsu remarked. "Pretty soon, everyone's gonna be talkin' about him instead of us! Wouldn't that suck?"

Sora vaulted over the flying ice-dragon Lyon sent after him and attempted to cast Thundaga, but the dragon turned right around, grabbed him in its teeth, and lifted him into the air. Sora tried to chisel away its jaw, but it began shaking its head, causing him to drop the Starseeker. The dragon then dropped him and he landed on his back, the sand barely cushioning the fall. He looked up and saw Lyon walking toward him, holding the Starseeker…but Sora wasn't worried.

"An extraordinary weapon." he admitted. "If only it were ice or lamia-themed…then it would be perfect for me."

He lifted Sora's Keyblade to strike him, but suddenly his arm dropped. He grabbed the hilt with both hands, but it crashed to the ground and he could not lift it back up.

"C'mon, what's with this thing?!" he growled.

He kept trying feebly to lift the Starseeker, and it turned a bright burning red. He gave a painful shout and released it, staring down in shock at his now blistered hands. Sora summoned his Keyblade back into his hand as Lyon's ice-dragon came crashing down behind him. He threw himself toward Lyon and dealt a few sharp blows to him, sending him tumbling back. He cast Aeroga again and produced a whirlwind underneath Lyon, a whirlwind so powerful that it sent him spiraling up into the air. He then juggled him for a moment by peppering him with fireballs and finished it with a powerful Thundaga bolt. Lyon hit the ground in a matter of seconds, covered in burns. Happy for the first time today, Sora offered the injured Lyon his hand. Lyon took Sora's hand graciously and Sora helped him to his feet. They took a moment to enjoy the cheers they were receiving and Sora helped Lyon back to the stands where his guildmates were waiting.

Sherry Blendy's cousin, Chelia, a petite girl with vibrant blue eyes and magenta hair like her cousin's used her magic to heal Lyon's wounds while the rest of Lamia Scale introduced themselves. Lamia Scale's master, Ooba Babasaama was an eldritch woman with long earlobes, her hair tied back into a loose bun, and a seemingly permanent scowl on her face. Despite this, she complemented Sora's impressive skills in a fairly pleasant voice and told him he would be a welcome addition to her guild. Sora politely turned down her offer and explained that he would be to leaving Fiore and returning to his home some time after the games ended. He remembered Yuka from his fight with Gray and Yuka introduced him to Toby, a dog-faced boy with a whiney voice and less than admirable people skills. Last and definitely not least was Jura Neekis, a large robed man built like a mountain. He had tan skin, a bald head, and a dark brown beard that went down past his chest.

"So, where do you want to go, Sora?" Lyon asked when he was healed.

"Someplace with a buffet!" Sora hastily replied.

"Okay, okay…" Lyon chuckled before addressing his guildmates. "See you guys later."