All right, the tournament has now officially began! Let's do this!
Chapter 7 : The Preliminaries (Part 1)
Riku and Atlas enter the arena as the invisible barrier went up, summoning their keyblades as their first opponent entered there as well. Their opponent had on a blood red haori with blue lining, kept closed with a thick, black and blue strap with two brown belts wrapped around it. The man has his left arm tucked into the front of his haori, making it look as though his arm is in a sling. There is also a brown shoulder pad on his left shoulder that is intricately decorated with tan, green, and blue patterns, as well as a beaded ornament that dangles from it. He also wears black pants and shoes, the latter of which have brown straps and triangular metal plating adorning them, a black shirt with a peculiar, grey collar with intersecting brown straps that is high enough to cover his mouth, short hair that is dark grey and spiked, and he seems to have some light stubble on his chin. There is a large scar over the right half of his face and over his eye, which is shut and his left eye is amber colored.
"Strong and silent type." Atlas guessed.
"Looks like it." Riku agreed.
The man then places his sword on his shoulder, "My name... is Auron."
(Boss Battle 5 : Auron)
(Battle Theme : Battle Theme - Final Fantasy 10 OST)
Auron then charged at the two and swings, only for Atlas to dodge it and Riku blocks it with his keyblade. Atlas then delivers a jump kick to Auron's shoulder that pushes him back and Riku slashes horizontally, which Auron blocks with his blade. Atlas then delivers an upper slash at Auron that makes him jump away from them. Auron then jumped at them and performs his Divider Attack, causing Atlas and Riku to counter with their own combo to block the attacks. Auron finishes his attack with a horizontal slash to push the two back, them landing on their feet and attacks. Atlas casts Double Fire and Riku using Dark Aura, the two projectile attacks damaging Auron as he lands back on the ground.
"Not bad so far." Atlas commented.
Auron then channels some energy into his blade and charges at the two as they readied themselves for the attack. Auron then performs Banishing Blade, stabbing his blade into the ground and firing several dark flares at the duo. Riku charged in as he deflects some of the flares that came at him and delivers a barrage of slashes at Auron, who had to block and dodge the slashes with a couple hitting to damage him. Atlas deflected the rest of the flares that came at him and ran around to the other side of the arena to then charge at Auron from behind. Auron saw him, however it was too late as Atlas hits him in his side with the blunt side of his keyblade, followed up with Riku delivering a left hook to make him fly back. Auron recovered back up to his feet upon landing and gets into his battle stance once more. He then charged as he channeled energy into his blade again and swung at them, only for Riku to use his Dark Shield. However, the hit of the attack blasted through the shield with an explosive impact, making the duo fly back. Riku recovered back onto his feet with a backspring and Atlas landing on his back before rolling back up to his feet.
"That was unexpected." Atlas commented.
"Gee, ya think?" Riku sarcastically replied.
"Haha, funny." Atlas said back.
Auron puts his sword back on his shoulder as the two ran at him, one on each side. Atlas came at him with a horizontal slash and Riku with a downward slash, making Auron jump back out of the way. However, Riku fires a Dark Firaga at him as he lands on the ground, hitting him dead on. Auron lands on his feet, only to stagger back on one knee.
(End music)
(Atlas levels up to: 6)
(Max HP up)
(Ability learned: Magic Combo)
(Riku levels up to: 6)
(Max AP up)
"Match #1 is wrapped up." Phil announced.
After Auron left the arena, the next opponent enters. The first thing they saw of their next opponent is his short, thick black spikes with bangs framing his face, along with bright blue eyes. He wears grey armor, two silver pauldrons, black gloves, a brown guard over his abdomen that is worn over the armor, two belts over the aforementioned guard, blue pants and turtleneck, and brown, knee-high sandals with black socks underneath them. Small parts of his outfit also has swirl designs on them. The weapon he wields is a long blade with a curved hilt with spiral designs and a lengthy handle.
"Time for Match #2." Phil announced.
Atlas and Riku got into their battle stances as the opponent pulls out his sword that was on his back, "Name's Zack. Nice to meet ya." He said with a determined smile.
"Likewise." Riku and Atlas said back.
(Boss Battle 6: Zack)
(Battle Theme: The Encounter - Kingdom Hearts Birth By Sleep OST)
Zack then charged at them and jumped with a frontflip downward slash upon Atlas. Atlas blocks it, causing Zack to bounce off with a backflip and lands on his feet to then follow up with a barrage of slashes. Atlas blocks them as Riku came at Zack from the side and delivers a upper slash. Zack's blade collides with Atlas' keyblade one more time before jumping back with a backflip to avoid Riku's slash. Atlas then came at Zack and sents a combo his way, followed by an extra swing thanks to Combo Plus. The extra swing hits Zack, knocking him back a bit. Zack recovers and swings horizontally at him, only for Riku to block it and kicks his side to send him flying. Zack lands on his back, only to do a kipup to quickly get back on his feet.
"Not bad. Now, try this!" Zack then jumps high in the air and came down upon the two. The duo rolls out of the way as Zack's blade stabbed the ground on impact. However, the shockwave afterwards caught them off guard and blew them back. Atlas lands on his back and Riku did as well, followed by Riku quickly recovers back to his feet and Atlas rolling twice before jumping back up on his feet. Riku then uses Dark Aura, firing at Zack who is running around the arena to avoid the projectiles as they came, allowing time for Atlas to charge up his next attack. He then does a magic combo, doing a Double Fire, Triple Blizzard, and Double Thunder at Zack.
"You gotta be kidding." Zack said as he blocks while running. Riku then added in a Dark Firaga in the combo, making Zack block it to then get blown back. The double thunder attack hits, damaging Zack as he flew and landed on his back.
"Shocking, isn't it?" Atlas commented.
Zack then got up to his feet, "Funny guy, huh? Try laughing after this!"
He then uses Dark Braver and Light Braver, swinging his sword to channel energy on the ground, which quickly went after the two. Riku easily blocked Dark Braver with Dark Shield and Atlas countered Light Braver with Double Fire.
"Huh, OK." Zack said to himself.
"Hope that ain't all of your tricks up your sleeve." Riku commented.
"I have one more." Zack then pose his sword up, unleashing a burst of dark energy. He then disappears and reappears as afterimages around Atlas, delivering high speed slashes upon him. Unfortunately, Atlas could only block two or three slashes as the others cut his arms, torso, and one on his left cheek.
"Atlas!" Riku said as he quickly ran over and got in front of Atlas to use Dark Shield on all sides to block the rest of the slashes. Zack then reappears high above them and came down. Riku grabbed Atlas and jumped out of the way as Zack landed, his blade stabbing into the ground to unleash the shockwave.
"Atlas, you all right?" Riku asked.
Atlas gets up to his feet, but was forced back down on one knee due to his injuries.
"Here." Riku then uses an Elixir, healing Atlas' energy and his wounds were healed. However, the cuts were still there, but were very faint.
"Thanks. That was painful." Atlas said as he got up to his feet.
The two then charged up energy and ran at Zack, who uses Dark and Light Braver again. The two jumped over the attacks and delivers a tag team jump kick, sending Zack flying and landing on his back.
"Wow, you got me." Zack said as he tries to get up, but was too tired to.
(End music)
"And there goes Match #2." Phil announced.
The barrier then disappears as Atlas and Riku helps Zack up to his feet, "Thanks, uh..."
"Atlas, and this is Riku." Atlas finished for him.
"You guys were good." Zack commented.
"Thanks."
"Hey, you three." They turned around to see Phil, "You two should rest up for part 2 of the tournament."
Atlas and Riku nodded as they left the arena. "Captain Eager, I'm getting impressed." Phil commented to Zack.
"Glad you were." Zack said back.
"Just be sure to bring your A game next time. It was a B this time." Phil said.
"OK, I'll be sure of that." Zack said as he starts doing squats.
Done! All right, two of the preliminary matches have been done! Part two will be up as soon as possible, just need more time on who will be the next opponents. OK, so until then, I will see you in the next chapter, buh bye!