Chapter 3: Tourney's End

Soon after, the Dibble Dop fell and the Pew Pew was no challenge for Pit to maneuver around and take down. Like the Urgle, the two of them were warped out in a green flash of light. Letting out a breath, he turned to face Viridi.

"Well, it wasn't a perfect run, but I win this round!" Pit declared triumphantly.

Viridi smirked, "Don't get a big head; it'll make you a bigger target for my next troops." She held up her hand, "For the next round, a Jitterthug, a Blader and a Pip."

The gate opened again and three more of Viridi's troops came out. The one on the right was a pink cell-like creature with a leaf growing out of the yellow center. The center troop was a slightly humanoid plant creature made of leaves and stems and thorn-like claws on its feet with two leaf-shaped blades for hands and a yellow eye in the center of its leaf-shaped head. The remaining left creature appeared to be an animated green bush with branches sticking out of its arms acting as fingers. It walked around on stubby legs with branch toes and wore a mask which had a resemblance to an old man with grassy eyebrows and a long grassy mustache.

Pit took another second to glance at the cell-like creature. 'It (should I use he or she?) doesn't look like much. Why would Lady Viridi have this one in this fight?'

'You'll see soon enough,' Viridi's voice sounded in Pit's head. Pit looked up at Viridi, who was smirking confidently. She raised her hand and said, "Round 2, begin!"

The Blader rushed forward immediately as the other two Forces of Nature spread outward and (you know what? Pit went with his gut and said "she") she started slashing at Pit with both her leaf blades in a clothesline spin. Pit easily ducked and then slid backwards to avoid the leaf creature's suddenly jutting knee as she turned the spin into a pirouette sticking her slightly sharpened, segmented knee out to strike lower at him as her foot rested against her straight leg's knee.

But as he was sliding back, something halted his progress and he felt a slight stinging on his back as he touched whatever barrier he'd come across. A quick glance over his shoulder revealed it to be the Pip. He had been so focused on the Blader that he hadn't noticed the cell creature sneak behind him!

Unfortunately, Pit didn't have time to think over his mistake as the Blader extended her bent leg and kicked Pit into the air, scratching the front of his toga at the same time with her thorn toes. As he was sailing through the air, a red glow caught his eye, and he looked to see the Jitterthug doing a dance as he summoned three fireballs. Pit took aim with his First Blade and fired, trying to throw off the bush creature's aim, but the shots just bounced off his body. Pit growled as the fireballs sailed low, towards where he would land, and he couldn't do anything to stop them. Crossing his arms, he focused on covering his face as the three fireballs hit him and burst on impact, creating a cloud of smoke.

The three Forces of Nature triangulated around the cloud of smoke, the Blader waiting to see the damage her and her subordinates' combined efforts did. They were explicitly ordered to not kill Pit, but she was sure they could control themselves to make him submit, but not do any fatal damage.

Suddenly a large blast of energy signifying a charged shot flew out of the smoke towards the Pip. He didn't have time to dodge and was shot in the middle by the attack, blasting him into two blobs of cytoplasm. Soon after, Pit came rushing out of the smoke with the top of his toga not much more than tatters, with the much more durable, sleeveless navy blue undersuit still intact, and some sparkles of light healing the burns on his arms. His Health Recovery power was first aid equivalent at best, mostly numbing the pain rather than fixing it, but he couldn't let his strength be diminished by burns on his arms.

'So that's his gimmick!' Pit saw the two blobs become two separate Pips. 'If I want to have room to dodge and maneuver, I'll need to take care of this one first! Or… these two…'

Slowing down once he reached them, Pit started bashing them with the back of the First Blade, making sure not to slice them, or else they would just separate again. He heard rapid footsteps approaching behind him and knocked both Pips away with the flat of the blade before turning and engaging the Jitterthug. His mask had flipped, resembling an angry monster rather than an old man now. The creature's body had also taken on a blood red color. It rushed towards Pit, clawing against the ground with the branch fingers in an effort to go faster.

Seeing an opportunity to try and take down the Jitterthug, Pit activated his Tirelessness power and took off running, alternating between keeping an eye on the Pips and Blader that had taken to higher altitudes to avoid the bush creature's rage and firing behind him to try and damage the rampaging creature. One other thing that Pit noticed is that his shots were having effect now, blasting off leaves from the Jitterthug's body.

With one last charge shot, the Jitterthug was knocked clear off his feet and was warped away before he hit the ground. Focusing back on the Pips again, Pit shot them each with a few more controlled shots, while dodging some laser strikes from the Blader, before they were warped away too. The Blader glided down before touching back on the ground. Pit let out a breath as his Tirelessness wore off and smiled as he held the First Blade casually over his shoulder.

"So… you're the leader of this trio, are you? Pretty slick move with that combo, but this was my favorite toga." Pit grabbed most of the remnants with his left hand and tore off what was left of the top portion of his toga. The brooch that had been holding up the toga was revealed to have been fastened to his under suit. His undersuit was formfitting and didn't seem to be that durable, but it was barely scorched and not even cut. Feeling the unspoken question on her mind, Pit flicked his undersuit with one finger from his left hand. It gave a sound similar to Kevlar. With that answered, Pit pointed his First Blade forward in challenge, "If you wanna beat me, you're going to have to give it your all! I'm the captain of Lady Palutena's guard for a reason!"

Pit got a sense of excitement from the Blader before a voice he didn't recognize spoke in his head, 'Good fight. Worthy opponent.'

Pit smiled in return as the two of them rushed forward. The Blader forewent spinning towards Pit and directly swung the leaf blades in an overhead arc towards Pit. Pit held his own blade over his head horizontally to catch both blades, but the Blader slid her blades forward and caught his First Blade in a notch within her leaf blades' design. Sensing the disarming maneuver coming, Pit twisted his body and jumped, pulling his weapon away from the deadlock. The X-shaped slash that followed from his pulling back barely missed his leg. Pointing his weapon forward, Pit fired a shot right in the Blader's face.

As she backed away, trying to get her bearings, she could hear his scuffling feet and held her blades behind her. The resulting clash of steel on steel proved she had made the right choice. She started spinning, holding her blades and knee out to give herself some space and to help shake her head clear.

But without her subordinates, she felt Pit simply fire at her from a distance. She had lost. But she didn't regret it. It was nature. Pit was stronger, Pit was smarter, ergo, Pit won.

Once the Blader was warped away, Pit lowered his weapon and let out a breath. He had two more uses out of his Health Recovery, but he wasn't that badly hurt and wanted to save them for the last round. His other power was also a good failsafe.

When he made eye-contact with Viridi, she seemed mildly impressed, but when she spoke, there was a taunting tone. "Well done. Bladers are my field commanders, more versatile and able to give simple orders to other troops. I should warn you though; this next trio has my best troops, each of them a deadly force on their own."

"I never back down from a fight!" Pit proclaimed boldly.

"All right, you've been warned," Viridi said. Then she pointed up to the ceiling as a wooden crate with only air holes poked towards the top on all sides was lowered. "That box has one of your opponents, a Clobbler. He'll be supported by a Flage and Captain Flare."

After she said this, a creature popped into the arena out of nowhere with his arms spread out, floating in the air. He had a ball of fire representing his head with a single yellow eye and a smile as he looked at Pit. He also wore something representing a stereotypical superhero suit over his short but buff body that was camouflage green and had brown gloves, boots and a belt with a fireball symbol for the buckle. His cape was navy blue and seemed to lead right into space, with glowing stars and lights shining from the spread fabric. Pit guessed that this one was Captain Flare.

Pit was taking this in when he saw a shadow move across the arena. He looked down and saw the silhouette of a skinny creature that appeared to have blades for hands. Once something shimmered in the green light of the arena, Pit looked and saw a creature become visible that was just that. It was another cellular creature, appearing to be made of cytoplasm, even having some of it trickling down. It had no other defining features aside from its single yellow eye in the middle of its head and the long blades it had for hands.

As Pit had been observing the two Forces of Nature, the crate finished its descent with a quiet thud. Pit entered his opening stance, keeping the First Blade close to his body, ready to block.

Viridi spoke up, "I don't have much control over Clobblers, so the round will start when the crate opens."

"Bring it!" Pit challenged.

With that said, the Flage sliced the top clean off the crate before vanishing with its camouflage. By its shadow, it was stalking around the arena, probably to get a good angle of attack on Pit. Captain Flare also grabbed the corners of his cape and wrapped it around himself, growing smaller until he vanished. The four walls of the crate fell with a creak and a thud, revealing… the cutest sleeping creature Pit had ever seen.

Pit blinked, and then blinked again, trying to see if it was a mirage. After it was clear that it wasn't, he said, "That… is… so cute!" The Clobbler took the form of a peach-like creature with two leaves on the top of its head. It sat on the ground, asleep with its long skinny legs stretched out in front of it. Curly-toed shoes were on its petite feet, and Pit felt bad for having to fight such a cute creature.

However, by the time that Pit had exclaimed how cute the Clobbler was, it started stirring lightly and opened its cute brown eyes, blinking them sleepily. Once it was fully awake, it saw Pit waving in a friendly manner, saying, "Hi there, little fella!"

In a matter of moments, the Clobbler started to grow, becoming disproportioned and bulgy. Pit jumped back slightly and held his weapon ready to defend himself. He might have gotten distracted, but he remembered that this was still a fight. If this really was one of Viridi's most dangerous troops, he should have his guard up.

As the Clobbler continued to swell, the bulges covered its former eyes and legs. The leaves at the top of its head wilted and turned brown, but still stayed. Four green muscled arms with veins throbbing sprouted out of the Clobbler's body, two of them wrapping around the bulbous body and locking behind, as if to hold the mass together. Once the creature had finished growing, its two other arms got into a ready position to fight, one fist curled, and the other hand open, a yellow eye at the end of each finger and the thumb.

'So that's why it's called a "Clobbler…"' Pit thought offhandedly as he noticed the shadow of the Flage moving by his side. He fired a few sweeping shots as he ran in the opposite direction, hoping a few of them would hit. The Clobbler raced forward with a sliding haymaker, but luckily for Pit, it was way too slow. Its fist slammed into the arena wall, crumbling it only for a few seconds before it was restored with a slight glimmer of light.

However, while Pit was distracted, he was hit by two small flaming meteors. He hissed in pain as they bruised his body before bursting and burning the exposed parts of his arms and legs. He looked ahead and saw Captain Flare floating in mid-air. Pit aimed his First Blade to attack, but only two shots hit before Captain Flare swept the cape over him again and disappeared.

Pit heard the shuffling sound of sand being pushed around again, and dodged perpendicular to where he heard the approach.

Pit shouted as he struck a pose while dodging out of the way, "Olé!"

When he saw that the fists were going to slam into the ground, he shielded his eyes when the sand blasted outward.

When he heard blades scraping behind him, he quickly looped around backwards and jammed his fingers into the Flage's cytoplasm body, holding it in front of him while dodging the swings and stabs the cell creature blindly took. Under the cover of the descending sand cloud, Pit shouted, "Hey, Clobbler! Your tree had termites!"

Pit braced himself and faced the Flage towards the backhanded fist that swung outward. The Flage splattered and Pit was sent flying straight back into the wall of the arena, cracking the stone with his impact before dropping to the ground. He clutched his chest. Even with his undersuit being fireproof and resistant to slashes, it didn't offer that much protection against blunt force.

Pit felt something hot approaching him, so he rolled out of the way as three meteors struck the area where he'd been a moment ago. Scrambling to his feet, Pit activated both remaining uses of his Health Recovery power. It brought the pain in his back and the throbbing in his chest that he was sure was from some cracked ribs to only a slight thrumming feeling.

Facing upward, Pit leapt backwards and fired a massive shot from his First Blade. He didn't know how it worked, but he had a theory that the backwards motion forced the energy from the base of the weapon to the tip, ready to be fired. Captain Flare couldn't bring his cape up fast enough and fell to the ground before being warped away.

Pit dodged another sliding haymaker from the Clobbler, and then jumped over the backhanded swing following after. Pit noticed that the Clobbler kept one hand open, trying to watch Pit with the eyes on its fingertips. Jumping backward to avoid a cross punch from the swinging arm, Pit took aim and fired a charged shot at the Clobbler's open hand. The fruit creature let out an enraged growl as it closed its open hand in a fist and started swinging around blindly. Pit ran out of its range and kept firing shots.

Unfortunately, Pit forgot about the creature's massive bulk as a weapon. Using the eyes on its uninjured hand, as it put its hands palms down on the ground, the Clobbler sighted Pit and then leapt upward before crashing down right near Pit, causing another cloud of sand to rise. Before Pit could run away, he was gripped by a hand that swept out under the cover of the sand and then slammed straight in the side with a haymaker.

As he went flying, Pit had a serious case of déjà vu. 'I can't even fly,' he internally lamented, 'and I still get enough air time in battle.'

As Pit slammed into a different portion of the arena wall, this time causing a few loose bricks to crumble on top of him, he was sure that he felt one of his legs break from the impact, even through the reinforced leather of his shin guard which now hurt as it clung around his leg. His body started getting a slightly red hue to it and he started breathing hard. Crisis Mode. But he wouldn't be able to do anything with a broken leg.

As Viridi watched the Clobbler rush over to Pit, she started raising her staff to warp the troop back to his containment chamber when she saw a spark of magic surround Pit. And she could've sworn that she'd heard the snap all the way at her throne as his leg was set back in place.

A few of his other bruises also faded slightly, and Pit let out a calming breath as his mind was clearer and the red hue faded from his body. Crisis Recovery might've made a difference in his first battle with Twinbellows, but no point looking back on what he didn't have back then. He snatched up his First Blade and took careful aim.

The Clobbler saw what he was doing and closed its other hand, shielding its eyes as it swung its arms broadly to try and bar Pit's escape. That was what Pit wanted. He dropped to the ground as a blind swing came towards him and he rolled out of the way to avoid the swinging punch and massive body. The Clobbler's hand punched into the wall, breaking it down again, and Pit quickly got behind him and fired all over the back of the creature's body. As one of the shots grazed the leaves on top of its body, the creature growled in pain and turned around. Pit noticed the reaction and focused on charging a shot as he dodged backwards.

The Clobbler jumped into the air again, but Pit aimed where it was going to land and fired right before the impact. The cloud of sand still rose, and Pit immediately left it, but before it even cleared, Viridi spoke up.

"Well, congratulations, Pit. I didn't actually expect you to win."

Pit smiled as he said, "Told you I had skills!"

Viridi laughed, "Well, you'll need rest after getting slapped around by my Clobbler. Also, you need a bath. You're covered in sand, and I can smell you from here."

Pit gasped and clasped his hands together, "Does that mean there's a hot spring?! Please tell me there is!" He hadn't seen one when he was exploring with Don earlier.

Viridi was slightly weirded out by the strong reaction, "Uh, yes?"

"Yes!" Pit cheered. "I'm going to go find it!" Completely forgetting how tired he was, Pit dashed off through the hole in the wall that the Clobbler had made and could be seen retreating down the hall past the stone portcullis. Viridi hadn't bothered to restore that new hole, since one way or another, the match was going to be over soon at the time.

With Pit gone, Viridi paused in confusion before waving her hand, dismissing her troops in the stands and her commanders. She stayed in her throne, though. Viridi tilted her head as she put a finger to her temple. The angel just seemed stranger and stranger the longer she knew him.

'During battle, he was completely focused and coordinated, even being able to afford playing around with one of my Bladers before finishing off the round with no further damage. He even got through three of my best troops, as a group, all with quick thinking and even somewhat of a sacrifice play, taking a major hit to take out my Flage while he had the chance. And no tricks or strategies ever worked on him twice.' She thought.

'But off the battlefield, he acts like a dorky, sweet kid (who loves hot springs), like he's just a regular person instead of a skilled warrior.'

Viridi shook her head as she stood up and left the arena herself. Perhaps she would have more time to observe and think on the curious angel while he was staying at her sanctuary.