Salem and Akira - A victors cry

"I went ahead and signed you up on the Phil cup" Phil said as he flipped through his papers. Salem glanced at the Phil cup trophy that sat on the display. It was a bit smaller than the rest, however engraved on it was the name Sora. Etched into its side. He walked on to each trophy and every single one had the same thing, Salem's idle had won every match offered here. "What's the hardest tournament you guys have?" the blonde asked Phil curiously. "Let's see, the hardest one we still offer here is Gold Match." Phil informed. "But that's WAY out of your league kid so don't you be getting any ideas." He said grumpily. "I want that one." Salem said coolly. "Hey now Salem." Hercules intervened. "Phil is right, there is no way you can take on that without winning the others first." Unlike Phil's tone you could tell the man genuinely didn't wanna see Salem or Akira get hurt. However, regardless the blonde didn't waver. "I don't care, if Sora could do it. Then so can I." His eyes burned with an intense fire of determination. "Alright." Phil said erasing their names from the one sheet and put it on the other. "WHAT?! Phil you can't be serious!" Herc was in pure shock at his coach's decision. "Herc I'm getting old, I don't have time to fight with you kids. If he wants to get himself killed he can be my guest. I'll see you two here an hour from now." The old goat said as he waddled down the dark corridor. Hercules let out a large sigh and then turned to Salem with deep worry in his blue eyes. "I hope you know what you're doing." "I've never been so sure about anything in my life." Salem winked and put a thumbs up to reassure the Greek hero. He looked to Akira, then back to Salem, still not feeling confident of the change of events. "Just be careful out there you guys." He said as he walked down the corridor as well.

Salem turned to Akira who was leaning against a wall the whole time with a look interest in her face. "You sure you're gonna be able to handle this?" she asked as her eyebrows rose with the question. "Of course I can, I've never felt more alive in my entire life, I feel like I could take out a god! And with you fighting beside me we should have no problem." He grinned wildly at the young girl, and Akira only smirked at the youthfulness behavior of he held. "Alright well we have an hour; perhaps we can take a look at this." She said as she pulled out a book out of her bag. The book had a gold cover and seemed a bit tattered. "What is this?" he asked. "It's a book Faylin…" pain stung in her face at the mention of the word. But she pushed through it. "Gave to me at the mansion in Twilight Town. It's supposed to teach you the basics of magic." "Like the crazy shit Gail can do?" His eyes flashed with excitement. "Umm yeah I'm pretty sure there is nothing that advanced in here, but I mean hey it's a start right? And it can't hurt to have some magical abilities under our belt before we take on this 'Gold Match' you signed us up for." She said as she air quoted the words Gold match. Salem opened the book and inside lied explanations, illustrations, and all sorts of information for elemental spells, and even healing spells. If master Yen Sid could see him now looking at a book he was sure the old man would have a heart attack and croak on the spot. He looked at Akira who smiled with anticipation, "Alright let's go outside and do this!" he said raising his hand for a high-five. "Sorry you're not cool enough for high fives yet." She winked at the boy playfully and began to walk outside where the giant gladiator statues stood. "Hey that's not nice!" Salem laughed. "I'm a heartless; I'm not supposed to be."

"Well this doesn't look to bad." Salem said. He looked at the picture of a man lifting his weapon to the sky, and all that he said was thunder and a barrage of lighting would stream down from the sky. And so he followed the example and lifted his keyblade effortlessly to the heavens. "THUNDAR!" The blonde shouted and sure enough lighting came pouring down on top of them. "Hey!" Akira snapped as she flipped just barely out of the way from one of the sudden lightning strikes. "Watch where you're pointing that thing!" "Oh woops, my bad." He said sheepishly. "But you have to admit that was pretty awesome!" "Yeah awesome if you like killing people!" she snarled back. And snatched the book from him. "I'm going way the hell over here so I won't be considered target practice anymore." She glanced at the book. "And by the way genius it says here that the lighting goes for the first tallest thing around you. Try not to make that ME!" and she stormed off. The hour passed within seconds it felt like, and before Salem even knew it the sun had dimed and provided little light for the two as they stood outside practicing. Salem had managed to figure out how to conjure his lightning strikes within a set region around him, but there was no control possessed yet. He didn't really pay attention to Akira much during their solo session but on occasion he saw her create fire in her palm. Like him there was not much power behind her casting but it was a start.

"HEY! WOULD YOU TWO GET IN HERE? THE MATCH IS ABOUT TO BEGIN!" Phil shouted at the two, and like children being called in for dinner the teenagers rushed inside the coliseum. The torches were all lit now throughout the previous dark corridor. But the shadows that illuminated around them made the journey to the arena that much more eerie. There was a tight knot in Salem's stomach as they approached the opening that would lead them to their challenger. But he tried to shove his nerves to the back of his mind. He was going to do this; he had no doubt in his mind. He stepped out of the corridor to be welcomed by hundreds of fans, all who were screaming and cheering his name with excitement and awe. "What is all of this?" Akira asked the grumpy midget as she eyed the crowd with an odd expression on her face. Her hand grasped her neck as if it was sore or raw and her face bore an uncomfortable look in her eyes. However Phil didn't even pay attention as he stared out at the sight. "Pretty impressive turn out, a lot more than I was expecting. Word got out there was another keyblader fighting in the games and they came pouring in." He said with pride in his voice. "Bout time people started to show respect for the games other than JUST the competitors." He said as he wiped his nose on his arm and grinned. You could tell the old satyr lived for his coliseum, and to see it filled to the brim with supporters made his day. He took a deep cleansing breath and Phil's proud demeanor soon turned back to his average grumpy and serious tone. "Are you sure you're ready for this? No one deserves to lose his life for their ego." He said very sternly, mainly focusing on Salem. "Stop badgering me Phil I know I can do this." Salem fussed at the man's lack of support and marched onto the arena floor. A fidgety Akira following behind him, her eyes never releasing from the crowd around her. As soon as the two both entered the cleared marble floor a magical barrier locked the two inside. It was a type of white magic Salem thought because it looked a lot like the barriers Yen Sid would lock him in whenever he wasn't pay attention to one of his lessons. The earlier knot from before grew more intense as the feeling of claustrophobia seemed in his mind. He glanced at Akira and there was something wild in her eyes. She still had a firm grip on her throat only this time it seemed like her nails were beginning to dig into her skin. Her head twitched around the invisible box they had been put in and she looked like a caged animal.

It was then that their opponent made its dramatic entrance and appeared before them in the arena. It was a giant Ice beast that towered over them like a three story building. Its entire body was made of nothing but frozen water and the air grew chilled by just being in its presence. The Titian's appearance was overall menacing as the ice protruded in sharp patterns on its body like bones sticking out of a starving dog. The Ice Titan lifted up its leg, which broke off the main formation on the floor, and slammed its leg back into place, causing a huge earthquake underneath them. Salem was knocked back into the barrier, his back making the first impact to the invisible surface and he spat out blood from the impact. Akira however had already summoned her blades avoided the ground by piercing her samurai sword into its thigh with a superhuman leap. The Titan howled with pain and then swatted the young girl away like a fly. She flew to the opposite side of the arena and like Salem had, hit the barrier full force with her body. The Titan then made a ball of ice appear in midair and with a simple hand gesture delivered long ice shard missiles straight for Akira. "NO!" Salem shouted and like before an intense power surged through his body as it began to glow. The ice shards began to slow down as his speed increased tenfold he ran in front of Akira before they could even get near her and with a mighty jump leaped on top of the first projectile. His skin still glowed like a brilliant sun and the friction of his feet moving at this pace made the frozen water melt from underneath him. So with careful precision he aimed his footing and leaped from one shard to the other, each taking him higher and higher off of the ground. A smile grew on his face I'm doing it! I'm really doing it! He thought as he made his final jump heading toward the giant's head and his keyblade released a massive blow of light straight through. Salem's skin began to return to its normal glow and as the steam from his attack began to drift away, Salem grasped that his attack hadn't finished the job like he had thought. The ice Titan screeched with fury as Salem realized that instead of going straight through the monster as he did with the barrel. He had made it from the top of the beasts head, to the middle of his eyes. Salem shrieked with fear as he saw the monster retaliate and went to slap him off with his sharp brutally cold hand. However, instead of hitting Salem the monster only slapped himself in the face and Salem found himself flying through the air. He looked up to see Akira had changed into that monstrous form that she took back in Twilight town. Her hands were gravelly and cold as she held him in midair, and her mouth was a jar to reveal very sharp teeth. This isn't Akira…Salem thought as all of the color in his face vanished in fear.

The Ice Titan fell to the ground at the result of his attack back firing on him. And Akira flew down far enough to drop him without him getting hurt. Her hands were morphed into her own blades from before and there was a look of hunger and bloodlust in her eyes. "So….many…hearts…"her voice came out as a whisper but was coated with gravel, as if a demon spoke alongside her. "I burn for them….my throat hurts so much…" her arm touched her throat as if this motion would somehow comfort her inner pain "Faylin where are you…" a single tear escaped from her eye as the monster inside suddenly took over and she bellowed a malicious roar. She lunged forward and hacked away at the Titans chest with her own monstrous like abilities. The crowd didn't know exactly what was going on, or the true danger that was being presented before them. They just continued to cheer for the massive display of violence that was being shown. Salem couldn't move, he was terrified that if he even breathed that monster would start tearing away at his own flesh. Finally after chopping away mountains of solid ice Akira found the item she sought. A heart the size of her head shown inside the monsters chest and right as she was about to snatch it the Ice Titian made one final attempt at saving its own life. It raised its sharp cold hand up above her head and was about to pierce her body straight through with one finger. It was then that Salem's fear was shoved in the back of his head. "Oh no you don't!" he said as he lifted his keyblade to the sky and said the magic word. He focused hard on just where he wanted it to go, how he wanted his magic to be developed and acted upon. All of his concentration the naïve blonde could muster was now being used for this one move to save his friend. One giant lightning bolt shot from the heaven and straight down on the skull of the Titian. The beast let out a cold breath of air that was certain to be the last one he would ever take. The heartless girl morphed back into her human state and swallowed the heart whole.

However no one seemed to notice except Salem. The crowd was off of its feet and was going crazy for the young man's triumph. Streamers and balloons fell into the arena as the fans did all that they could to congratulate the young keyblader's victory. A smile shown on Salem's face and it was as if his whole body was glowing again, only this time instead of power it was pure happiness. "I did it I really did it." He said out of breath. No one really thought he could do it, and yet here he was the winner of the Gold Match. Phil clopped over to him with Hercules following behind. "Here kiddo," Hercules said. "You earned it kid," Phil added. " I would now like to announce!" the satyr spoke up for all to hear. His voice automatically calling attention from the roudy crowd. "Salem Moss, and Akira Newborn. Winners for today's Gold Match. As honorary Rookie Heroes!"

The cheers from that day Salem was sure could be heard from all across the galaxy as the two victors walked outside the coliseum with their giant trophy. Akira however hadn't said anything the entire time, she seemed depressed. But honestly Salem didn't wanna bring it up. Nothing was going to ruin this moment what so ever. Or at least so he thought….