Not much of a cliffhanger when the next chapter comes right behind it. Either way, lets get to the freaking fight!

Chapter 10: A New Kind of Flame

Gaiden threw his arm up and closed his eyes as the beam of light surrounded him. He was surprised that Michael had found enough leechstone to make a sword blade out of it. The amount that Michael had in that sword alone would have took years to accumulate. Most of the Guided Ones only had enough to cover the top of one of their hands. This black rock could absorb a demon's power. It could then redirect the power back at the offending demon. It did not simply shoot the demons fire back at him, it simply uses the power from that attack and turns it into an energy more suited to the wielder. That was why this hurt so much. In effect, it was as if Gaiden had attacked himself.

Gaiden opened his eyes just in time to see Michael flying towards him, sword behind him. "You think you can handle this kind of power!?" he yelled at him. With a wild cry he unleashed a barrage of fiery slashes at the incoming Guided One.

Michael shook his head, chuckling, and intercepted the slashes with his leechstone sword. Gaiden's eyes widened as Michael closed the distance, untouched by his attack. "Overconfident fool" he said and kicked Gaiden across the face. Gaiden flew into the wall and stuck there.

He groaned and lifted his head. "Damn it." He growled. He pushed himself out and kicked off the wall, flying towards the calm Michael.

Marth and Meta Knight faced their respective opponents and attacked. These Guided Ones had only regular swords. They were doubled bladed and had a crossguard similiar to a fencing sword. Both of their opponents were slower than they were but had more strength. Marth grunted as he strained to push his enemy's blade aside. "Why are they so strong, they're only human!" He jumped out of the way as the Guided One pushed him away.

Meta Knight easily sidesteped his opponents sword and responed with a thrust. "I have a feeling that we'll find out later, for now just focus and fight!" he caught the sword on his own spiked blade and twisted it to one side, throwing it's bearer with it. Link wrapped his chain around his own Guided One and kicked him threw a wall. He stabbed down at him and as soon as his blade connected, there was a bright light and the chains where left empty. Link rolled his chain up scratched his head. "Now, how did that happen?"

Marth nodded and countered a side cut with a upwards backhand, leaving his opponent open for a quick kick to the side. He jumped over his opponents next attack and landed behind him, back to back. Without looking he swung his sword behind him and felt it connect. He twirled around, sword ready for another strike, and saw his opponent on the floor clutching his throat. The gem on his shoulder pad began to glow and with a flash he dissapeared.

Meta Knight's advesary had just found out the hard way that this little sword fighter could fly. The masked knight rained blows from above before swinging his cape around him. The Guided One looked around, confused. A hiss of steel was heard and all of a sudden Meta Knight was infront of him, sword stretched to one side. A cut appeared on the mans chest and with a cry he dissapeared as well. The two warriors looked at each other and shrugged. Who cares what happened, so long as their gone.

Samael looked at the fighter opposite of him and tried a smile. "Could you possibly fight one of the others?" he pointed at the wounds that had covered his body. "As you can see, I have already been beat on and-" without finishing his sentence he flew forward and thrust his sword threw the other man's chest. The man gasped, looked down at the sword in shock and with a cry dissapeared in a blinding light. Samael clutched his side and sat back in his chair. "Amateur."

Ike jumped towards his opponent and missed on purpose. Will he take advantage of this opening? He asked himself. Sadly, the man jumped away in fright. He had almost no time to register this big man's attack. "Why did I have to fight such a coward?" he asked to no one in particular. He walked towards the Guided One with his sword on his shoulder.

He looked down at the man and lifted his sword slowly above his head. "How about you block it this time, instead of running like a wimp." The large greatsword came flashing down and landed on the Guided One's hastily thrown up defense. The man drew a dagger from his coat and stuck Ike in the side. Ike coughed blood as the blade hit home.

He looked down at the man and then looked at the knife inside him. "Nice." Then he calmly lifted his sword up and smiled. "That's how you use an opening." He lifted his sword above him with two hands and it glew with regular flames. "Now that you've at least hit me, I don't have to hold back." Then he thrust down. The man screamed as the burning sword broke through his own blade and cut him from shoulder to hip. The blade kept going and sunk into the ground. As it did so, the Guided One vanished like the others before him.

Gaiden was the only one still fighting and he wasn't doing as well as the others had. He kept charging his sword up, only to have Michael's sword greedily suck it up. Flair walked up behind Samael as he watched the fight. He noticed her presence and pointed at Gaiden. "You see how he just recklessly uses his power?" she nodded. "Everytime he does this he is getting weaker" He then pointed at Michael. "And he gets stronger." He continued on. "Leechstone weapons don't just absorb demonic power. They give that power to the user and Michael has killed alot of demons."

Flair glanced at him and then went back to the fight. "Why don't you tell Gaiden to stop using his power then?" Samael shrugged. Flair glared at him. "But he could die!"

Samael shook his head at her. "I thought you were smarter than this, girl. He needs to learn the hard way otherwise he'll never be a great fighter."

Flair watched with growing worry as Gaiden was pushed back by a particularly strong blow. It seems unreal, seeing Gaiden losing. She shook that thought away. Gaiden would win, he always wins. Her worry turned to horror as Michael smacked Gaiden's sword away and stabbed his sword through his chest. "GAIDEN!" she yelled.

Gaiden was having problems. He knew why Michael was so strong. Everytime he killed a demon he would get stronger, thanks to that damned sword. But he'd never expected him to be so strong. Gaiden had never had reason to question his own strength, except against two people. It looked like he'd have to add this guy to his list. Time seemed to slow down as his sword was batted away from him. How? Then that black sword pierced his body and began to absorb his essences. His eyes began to dull, blood running down his chest. Then Samael was there and he was pulling the sword out. Gaiden looked up at him. "Damn dog." And then he fell to the ground.

Samael shook his burning hand. That thing sure is dangerous, at least to demons. Luckily he'd had plenty of time to hone his skills as a swordsmen. Since the beginning really. Ah well, down to business. Drawing his sword he held it point down. "So Michael, killed anybody important lately?" He ignored Gaiden as he fell to the floor.

Michael smiled at him. "Now that you mention it I did kill Asmodeus just the other day."

Samael shrugged but seemed impressed. "The last of the original Princes of Hell? I didn't like him anyway."

Michael nodded. "He was rather unpleasant." He pointed at Samael's sword. "So do plan on fighting me now or after I kill Gaiden?"

Samael shook his head, his expression blank and his eyes locked with Michael's. "I don' t plan on letting you kill Gaiden and I don't plan of fighting you."

Michael laughed lightly. "Then what do you plan on doing Samael?"

Samael grabbed Gaiden and put on his shoulder. "Getting out of the way."

Michael raised an eyebrow at this and then detected movement behind him. He duck and barely avoided Ike's sword stroke. "Who are you?" he asked spinning around so that he was facing his new adversary.

"Ike and I already heard your name. Now if you don't mind, I don't like waiting to fight strong opponents so lets do this." Without another word he jumped towards Michael and struck out with Ragnell.

Michael blocked the blow and countered with a blindingly fast combo. Ike managed to block most of them but still took hits to the shoulder and leg. "Wow, you're really fast you know that?"

Michael thrust forward and aimed for Ike's heart. Ike blocked it with his own sword but was being pushed back, kicking up dust in their wake. He grinned as Michael continued to push him back. "Strong to, I think I'm gonna enjoy this."

Planting his feet, Ike stopped moving. He grabbed over his sword and grabbed Michael's wrist. Michael's eyes widened in shock as Ike drew him closer and then flung him away. The Guided One hit a couple of tables and smashed into the stair's banister. Getting up he saw Ike running towards him, a big grin on his face. "Your up already?" Michael jumped out of the way as Ike's sword erupted in flames and struck the spot that he was just in. The fire cut straight through the steps and blasted through the wall.

Ike flung his sword over his head to block the blow that he felt coming. He reached behind his back and found a hold on Michael's arm. He bent over and pulled Michael over, slamming him onto the floor. "Well, well, look where we are again."

Michael once again avoided Ike's monster sword and jumped a safe distance away. "I think it's time to end this." He pointed his sword at Ike and a stream of light blasted his way. Ike ran towards the stream and drew his sword back. He swung his sword in a giant back hand and it connected with the beam of light. With a great yell, he flung the energy attack away, blasting away most of the doors.

Michael was stunned. "What!? What did you just do?" How can a regular human deflect my attack like that?

Ike didn't bother giving an answer. He just blasted towards the suprised Guided One and began to deliver a storm of blows. "Does it really matter? How about you actually try killing me?" He said this in a voice that honestly scared Michael.

"Do you want to die, you crazy bastard!" he yelled, returning in kind with his sword. He watched in satasfaction as he succeeded in slashing a deep wound across Ike's chest. Blood poured from the wound and Ike put his hand to the cut. Bringing his bloody hand to his face, his features took on a manic light. He licked some of the blood off and began to laugh.

"Hahahahahaha! You're one tough son of a bitch!" he showed the blood to Michael and continued laughing. "Bwhaahahaha! I don't want this to end but it seems I'm going to have to wrap this up!" he took a couple of breaths and looked at Michael with something akin to regret.

Michael stepped back in shock as Ike began to glow with a rainbow aura. "What is this?" he asked.

Flair stared at Ike. "How is he going to use his Final Smash! I didn't see a smash ball anywhere!" Master Hand floated beside her and tutted.

"If a smasher becomes strong enough then they can use it without the aid of a smash ball. For the sake of the tournament, they are forbidden to do this and can only use their Final Smash with a smash ball." He gestured at Ike. "And Ike's one of our strongest smashers."

Ike raised his sword above his head as it multiplied in size, resembling Gaidens attack except that his was the color of regular flames. "Great Aether!" he yelled and swung the blade at Michael.

Michael blocked the flaming blade and gritted his teeth as he strained against it's power. "What the hell kind of technique is this?" then his guard was broken.

The great blade swung him into the air and was followed by six more slashes. Ike then kicked him twice. He delivered four more blasting attacks before bringing his sword up for the final blow. "I'm gonna miss fighting you, but this is the end!" he yelled at Michael.

Michael watched the attack fall towards him, his body to battered and cut to move. NO! He said to himself. The sword was just about to connect, when Michael dissapeared in flash of yellow light. Ike fell the floor and obliterated the table. "Oops." He said, pulling his sword from the tables remains. He looked around and scratched his head. "Where'd he go?"

Flair looked at Gaiden in concern. He was still out and he needed treatment as soon as possible. She glanced at Samael. "Is he dead, Michael I mean."

Samael shook his head. "No. Every Guided One comes with that shoulder pad you saw. That yellow gem teleports them away whenever they take too much damage. The only way to kill them is to make sure the wound is irreparable." He smiled. "Or break the gem."

Master Hand floated beside them. "Okay, while Ike is looking for his new best friend, let's get Gaiden to the Mansion's hospital."

As they walked away, Master Hand called out. "Hey Crazy! Get your twitchy fingers over here and help me clean up this mess, it takes two to tango you know!"

Hand sighed and his smasher, minus Ike, shook their heads as Crazy Hand came down the ruined stairs in a red and orange mexican dress. "I'm ready!" he called.

I hope you guys enjoyed this chapter. I updated so quickly to make up for my lapse. Please tell me what you liked! R&R. Later.