All three groups slowly made their ways back to the center. Everyone but the Mario brothers had an orb with them containing a flickering ember. At the same exact time they all entered into the main chamber. Floating in the center was the being that Mario and Luigi saw earlier. It levitated steadily in the very middle of a altar like structure, its beady little eyes darting from person to person.
"Heh, you have all finally arrived." It said to them giggling in a slightly high pitched voice that. "Now that you all have made it here I shall inform you of your next task."
Task? What next task?" Sonic asked the specter.
"The task that you need to accomplish in order to progress in the temple." he continued.
"And that-a is what?" Mario inquired.
"To defeat me in combat!" As he said this the dimension began to shift as did the shape of his upper body. This change was also simultaneously accompanied by a deepening of his voice.
The form of his upper body gradually began to resemble that of a very muscular humanoid. The dimensional plane was completely different now, it was like a void. A large barren field of nether energy greeted the group. The spirit floated in the center of the dimension looking at all of them still. The air around them was thick with nether vibes.
"Now, which one of you wants to try first? Wait, I have a better idea." He said this while flexing his pectorals and suddenly he smirked while narrowing his eyes. "All of you come at me at once."
Mario was charged up his fire based abilities instantly and quickly charged into the fray of battle. Eying his opponent he smiled, and then stormed ahead to confront him in battle. Joining the battle as well were Mario's companions, all tensed up and ready to fight. Clashing with the mustached hero, both Mario and the poltergeist erupted into combat with a flurry of fists. Each blow they sent collided precisely with one another's strikes.
Sonic, using the speed of his ring appeared behind the specter and clamped both of his hands together raising them above his head in preparation for an attack on him. Just as he was about to swing, the poltergeist turned around and swiftly round-house kicked him in the gut, sending the blue hedgehog plummeting back down to the ground. Witnessing this, Mario charged some fireballs and let them loose upon his foe. With ease the specter moved from side to side dodging every single one of them even deflecting one of them back at the mustached plumber.
Mario quickly spun out of the way of his own attack, while Luigi jumped high into the air coming right up behind their foe. Pulling out his hammer he swung with all of his might, the metal of it colliding with him. Flying back the specter was put into a small daze that only lasted a few seconds. When he regained his composure he utilized the essence of the nether and warped almost instantaneously towards Luigi. Once there, he once again used the nether energy to rapidly bombard Luigi, warping at him diagonally downwards and inflicting bodily harm with each collision.
Luigi was too slow to react to assault of the specter and soon found himself descending back to the ground. Sonic had crashed into the ground seconds before Luigi got his behind handed to him, but was not physically harmed very much by the landing. This was more so apparent when he did a back-flip out of the hole he created. Brushing off the dirt on his body, he watched as Luigi met the ground shortly afterward. He helped the plumber up and then rushed back into the fight.
Aragonite came into the scene, and rushed to a spot on the ground that was directly under the specter. Pointing his sword straight forward with one arm, he then began to spin around. Faster and faster he spun, creating a whirling vortex, himself being at the eye of this vortex. The quicker he rotated, the larger the vortex became, until eventually the vortex was big enough to consume their foe up within it. The specter was caught in the current and tossed around inside of it.
"This pitiful excuse for an attack will not stop me." He laughed as he extended one of his arms and pushed it against the current of the vortex.
Focusing nether energy into his palm, he began to combat the force of the current with it. Eventually his energy overpowered the force of the current and caused an explosion of energy. The vortex dissipated and the specter came out with not even a single scratch. Mario jumped above the specter, and doing a flip, he aimed a kick towards the specter.
"Too Slow." The spirit said as he grabbed Mario's leg and then delivered a rapid succession of punches to the plumber's body before tossing him away.
Luigi jumped up and caught him throwing him back towards the spirit. Preparing another attack on the creature, he took out his hammer, and swung it once he was near him. Blocking with both of his arms, the specter, chuckled again, but to his surprise Sonic had begun to spin dash. Sonic released his dash and came hurdling at the specter's back. The specter was trapped in a corner at this point, or so Mario and Sonic assumed until he pulled off a warping move. This left the blue hedgehog to slam right into the mustached plumber's frame.
The specter drifted back to the ground, watching the two roll from the sky on to the ground, Both got up quickly and turned to face him once more.
Tails came into the fray, armed with a mecha suit launching rockets at the specter, followed closely by his fist. Shaping his hand into a knife like form. He then swiftly used this new shape to slice the incoming rockets in half and doing it skillfully enough that he canceled out the detonation process. When the fist of Tail's mecha came at him, he merely stopped it with his hand and using focused nether energy, he ripped the limb from it's socket. Tails backed his mecha up afterward, and regrouped up with Mario and Sonic.
"Enough! Playtime has ended a long time ago. Allow me to take off the babysitting gloves and properly introduce you to the big league." He announced to them as he began to gather the energy of the void.
Aragonite and Luigi soon joined up with the rest of the group as they watched him power himself up.
When he completed this task, a wave of raw energy was thrust out from his body in a large radial area. The heroes felt this, as they shielded their eyes. Upon looking at the specter once again, they saw nothing. Within a split second, the specter had already warped and was near Aragonite, and Sonic. Doing a whirlwind with his arms fully extended, he spun and knocked both Aragonite and Sonic away from the group. This attack was followed by the specter stopping his rotations and then clamping together both hands. He aimed them towards the ground. With an explosive amount of energy, he slammed them into the ground, and caused a massive earthquake. The nether like ground was torn completely into chunks of ruble.
The power put into that seismic attack caused Mario, Luigi, and Tails to be thrown up into the air. While they were ascending, the specter then warped closer to them. Rising alongside them, he focused some of his nether energy. Suddenly he began to warp back and forth between all three of them, playing pinball with their bodies. Three minutes of chaotic pummeling later, and then he grabbed at Mario. With one hand gripping his throat, he only had one arm left to deliver any attacks. To fix this, he formed three more hands extending from his lower abdomen. Once this was completed he let loose another flurry of punches on to Mario's frame.
Luigi and Tails fell from the sky to the ground, Luigi was unconscious because of this. Luckily for Tails, His mecha saved him from such a fate. Up in the sky, Mario was getting thrashed. After the punches, the specter gripped him with two hands and then began to spin him around. Once he completed 3 rotations he tossed him even higher into the air, and then warped. When Mario was at the peak of his ascension, The specter appeared just below him ramming his head right into his gut.
He followed this up with another multi-warping attack, slamming multiple times into Mario's frame before elbowing his back and sending him hurdling back to the ground. Needless to say, Mario was nearly out of commission at this point. When he slammed into the ground, he was in crippling pain. His vitality was too low to efficiently maintain the fire powers of his ring and thus he powered down for now.
Tails was next on the specter's hit list. Charging at Tails who prepared to defend himself, He began to fire down a array of beams all aimed directly for the mecha. When these beams collided with the exoskeleton of the mecha, shields activated. However the energy of the mecha was being drained fast from the sheer amount of power the beams had.
Tails only lasted a few seconds before his shields gave out and the mecha of his was destroyed. The explosion sent him flying from the cockpit of the mecha and sent him barreling into the nether dirt. The specter counted the total of people knocked out and figured out that there were only two combatants left. He turned to face them.
"Grrrrr, I'm gonna make you pay for doing that to our friends!" Sonic said in a pissed off tone.
"You shan't be allowed to proceed after doing such a dastardly deed." Aragonite chimed in.
"Do you even think you have the powers to stop me from doing it? So far you and your companions have proved that you are not worthy of passing this trial." The specter replied. "You are both finished, so why not give up now and return from whence you came."
After saying that the specter warped behind Aragonite and wrapped his arms around his abdomen. Lifting him up with ease, he then suplexed him into the ground. He let go of him and then turned to face him aiming his palm at Aragonite, and charging a ball of energy. Sonic wasn't fast enough to respond in time, as the specter fired it at him. Aragonite's gut endured the bulk of this attack, and the amount of power put into the energy surpassed what he was able to withstand and this caused him to slip into unconsciousness.
"No! Aragonite!" Sonic raged. "That is it! No more!"
Sonic's rage was fueling him now, after having seen all of his companions knocked around by this poltergeist. Going into Super Sonic mode, he raced towards the spirit and began to unleash his fists at him. The specter blocked each and every one of his fists with ease. Sonic's next attack was a combo of kicks, with fists, and then topping it off with a rapid spin dash. All of these were dodged, blocked, and parried by the specter. He was playing with Sonic, and this became all too apparent to Sonic.
"And I thought you would have gained more power with this form of yours, I guess I was sorely mistaken. You are still weak, and shall remain weak." The poltergeist said to him.
He then rushed Sonic, spinning at him with his fists extended again, slamming multiple punches into Sonic's face before ending it with a kick to Sonic's gut. Sonic tried to counter with a kick of his own, but he blocked it. Another idea came to Sonic, as he began to spin in a rapid circle. He created small vortex, and flung them rapidly at the specter. They entrapped him within a makeshift wall of spiraling wind. Sonic then hopped into one of the vortexes and using the current he threw himself while in spin-dash formation at the specter. When the specter blocked this attack of his, Sonic jumped off the block, into another vortex. Hopping from vortex to vortex, he quickly moved around his foe, confusing him greatly.
When he found an opening that he thought would be successful he spun at the specter, but every single time he was blocked. Suddenly, in a fit of rage, he emitted an expanding radial area of energy to dissipate the vortexes. This caused Sonic to be cast out into the open once more.
"Enough games, This ends here." The poltergeist said as he quickly closed the gap in distance between him and Sonic.
Once he was in close quarters with Sonic, he started throwing focused punches in the hedgehog's face. Sonic did his best to block the blows, but there was too much power in the attack. When he put his arms up, he found them being violently jerked away from what he wanted to protect after each punch. He was sustaining many bruises now whilst suffering through the array of pummelings. The last attack that he endured sent him back a bit and skid himself into the dirt a bit. The power of it, had caused his skidding to make an indenture into the ground.
As the specter approached him, Sonic was sure it was the end. Raising his palm the poltergeist began to charge energy for a final attack. That was when Sonic heard a voice call to him. He wasn't sure where it was coming from but apparently he was the only one who heard it.
"Do you desire to win? Do you wish to defeat your enemy? Do you want to overcome the trial set before you?" The voice asked him.
"I just want to survive this and protect my friends!" Sonic answered within his head.
"Very well, I shall grant you the power to do so, but in return you will help me in the future, agreed?" The voice responded.
"Agreed." Sonic replied.
As the energy collected at the base of the specter's palm his eyes narrowed at Sonic who was starting to radiate another type of light.
"It will not work, you have nothing left that can even hope to defeat me, don't even waste your energy trying." The specter told him nearly finished with his preparations.
"No. I am not finished, Not even close!" Sonic called out as the radiant light burst forth and enveloped his entire body.
Spaulders covered Sonic's shoulders, and on his chest he wore some sort of armor with a sphere in the center that spun with energy within it. His legs were wearing greaves that were designed for rapid speeds, and upon his head he wore a helmet of some sort that covered the spikes of his hair as well. His hands donned on gauntlets that had a small dagger like blades attached at the wrist end of the armor. The color scheme of this set of armor was a combination of red, orange, and yellow. It represented the colors of flame, and also depicted patterns of fire on each individual piece.
With not even a second spared, Sonic disappeared. His body again coming into vision, but being closer to the specter. He was right next to the hand that was charging the energy, and quickly he swung his gauntlets at the specter's wrist. When he did this, the blade came into contact with flesh, and cut right through the hand of his. Watching it fall to the ground, he then realized the fight had gotten even more intense.
"Now that is what I want to see, You may be able to pass this after all." The specter complimented him, and then jumped back a bit.
Both the combatants rushed at one another, and clashed with each other. The moment the two met at the epicenter of this confrontation, a wave of energy released itself into the void, causing the place to rumble in awe due to the massive amounts of power being used in this struggle. Both of them threw an onslaught of fists so fast that only those with the utmost attention to detail could even hope to see. Swaying back and forth, the two fought with each other. Neither one relenting, not even a bit. Kicks met with kicks, punches impacted punches, and with each blow, a sound resonated across the dimension.
"Not once have I ever found anyone who was able to prevail through such hopeless fighting conditions and reach a level that you have attained during this battle." The specter said to him still letting his fists fly. "It is truly a remarkable sight to behold."
"Heh, Better remember as much as you can, cause it's not going to last for much longer." Sonic told him.
Sonic's energy sky rocketed a bit higher, and he moved with speeds that now even confused the specter. Upon a first glance, the specter started to assume there were multiple Sonic's running around him. This was incorrect, as it was merely the speed Sonic was moving at was so fast that to the untrained eye, it seemed he was in various places at one time. Using this opportunity, he quickly unleashed a wave of attacks that came at all of the specter's weak points. He was able to land successful blows on various regions on his body. He was weakening because of the hedgehog's combos.
The specter then began to do one of his spinning punch moves and began to attack every vision of Sonic he saw. To no avail he wasn't able to hit Sonic at all, and that was when Sonic appeared behind him. He did some fancy flipping acrobats, moving himself into the perfect position to land a powerful kick into the specter's skull. When he reached such a spot, he focused power into his kick, and upon his foot being aimed just right, he unleashed it.
As the foot of his impacted the specter's skull, he gave out a sudden sound of pain. Afterward he quickly descended to the ground, creating a crater when he crash landed. Sonic stepped down on to the edge of the crater and looked in it. The specter was lying on the ground, barely moving. He didn't seem to be that injured though, and soon was back up ready to continue on. When he faced Sonic, the hedgehog noticed blood spilling from his mouth.
"This is it. I've come close to reaching my limits. We must settle this with one final clash." The specter told him. "I acknowledge your superiority in this fight, but the only way to leave this place, is for one party to be defeated."
Sonic listened to his words as he continued to speak.
"So, Let us clash one last time, like warriors one last time." The specter finished up.
Sonic instinctively charged up his arms and covered them in flames. He wondered how he did that, but because of how much focus he had on the fight, he put that question aside for a later time.
He then looked at the specter, and nodded in agreement to his last statement. The specter and him locked eyes, and began to charge one last time. Time slowed down as the two came closer and closer until finally they met. The void was silent for a few seconds before being interrupted by the sound of one final explosive impact.
When the force of the attack had settled, Sonic was left standing there by the slowly vanishing frame of the specter.
"You, ,and your companions, have fought well, and I suspect that if you attained such a form from just seeing your friends in this state, then I'd imagine all of you can achieve this form." The specter said. "Farewell, warriors, you have done well to triumph over this trial."
With those final words the specter dissipated into the air, and with him the entire nether dimension faded into nothingness, leaving Sonic and his companions back in the room they were last in. The doors to the next area opened up afterward. Sonic began arousing his friends out of their slumber. Upon everyone becoming conscious again, they all decided to rest up before exploring any deeper into the temple.
November 17th, 2012 Author's note: Shoo, I felt like this chapter was a bit confusing and maybe a bit rushed in some parts, but It is action packed nonetheless. If there is anything you feel should be edited then please feel free to do a review, but don't forget to review the content as well. ;D Also, if you like the story enough, send the link to your friends and have them read it too. Pretty please!