A\N: I listened to "One for All" battle theme from Dream Drop Distance during the first part of this chapter. It spurred my motivation, since it IS one of my favorite battle themes in the franchise. If anyone happens to find it on Spotify, please let me know. I've searched for a long time for it, and the one track I did find was unavailable! During the second part, I had spammed "The 13th Struggle" [Project Destati: Darkness]
Also, if anyone wants to try and guess all the people responsible for the separate elements, I would like to see what you guys come up with.
"Now that we have all gathered, I have an important announcement." Xehanort stood atop the podium, hands clasped behind his back as he stared out at the masses attending the Academy. Participants and viewers of the competition alike all quieted as his voice boomed out across the field in front of the Dome. "Actually, I think I'll let Elder Marluxia explain this part. He is far better at these things than I am."
A man with vibrant pink hair wearing an equally vibrant outfit - a white button down shirt tucked into a pair of fuchsia colored pants, accompanied by knee length boots - replaced Xehanort. He took a moment to mess with the cuffs of his shirt before adjusting the microphone on the podium.
"This year, we have changed the competition. We apologize about the last minute notice, but we hope that you will still participate and enjoy it all the same. This competition will be counted toward an assessment of your progress, or lack of, and will be based on more than just your basic physical capabilities. It will test your endurance, strength, speed and reflexes. It will test you mentally with critical thinking. It will test your will and determination to survive. Thus, this event could last anywhere between a single day and a whole week. But do not be worried, we will be monitoring every participant to prevent any serious injuries. Before I go any further, if anyone wishes to bow out, now is the time to do so."
This was not the competition the others had told him about. Sora glanced back at the crowd behind him, instantly picking out the twins as the stood with the same shocked expression on their faces. They quickly began waving their hands and calling his name, motioning him to forfeit and leave the competition. The brunette noticed several others leaving the crowd and the pressure to do the same weighed heavily on him.
But one pair of eyes dissolved the feeling and caused him to plant his feet firmly. He felt the dare within the sea foam colored irises to leave. Instead, Sora crossed his arms over his chest and shook his head slightly. They had both silently agreed that day in the infirmary that this would happen. Sora wasn't going to bow out now and leave that victory to the shifter. Once the commotion ended and the crowd quieted, Sora and the remaining competitors turned their eyes back to Marluxia.
"Good. The Dome has been fitted and transformed into seven different areas of elements. We have students and Elders alike in control of these elements to further the challenge of the competition and to test you. Participants will be split randomly into these areas, where you will have to overcome the challenges and collect your seven pieces of heart to complete the competition. These pieces include the Aqueous, the Terrene, the Tempest, the Inferno, the Phantasm, the Primitive and the Dusk. The first victor to come out of the Dome with all seven pieces will receive a prize. With that being said, I believe we can start the competition."
Dark orbs appeared across the field. Where some people hesitated to go near the one in front of them, others were walking into them without a second thought. Sora swallowed his pride quickly. He didn't allow himself to think about it as he ran into the dark swirling depths. He rushed forward through the purple and black haze until he felt the ground give way, but it was too late to stop his advance. A rush of wind greeted him as he fell forward, the haze giving way to tree limbs scattered around him and a lake below.
Gritting his teeth, Sora twisted his body in time to dive feet first into the water. He regained his composure quickly, opening his eyes and taking in his surroundings. His eyes landed on something glimmering near the bottom of the sandy floor. This was too easy. It had to be the Aqueous piece of heart he needed. Spurring himself into motion, he glided through the water toward the faint light until it was just in his reach. But his fingertips missed as a rush of water pulled him away, throwing him into a spinning frenzy of a whirlpool. It edged him closer to the surface until he was practically tossed out of the lake and right into a tree.
Sora groaned from the impact but stumbled to his feet, using the tree to keep his balance as he glared toward the lake. A melodious laughter reached his ears as he watched the water was spin and dance, throwing a few others around in its wake. There had to be a way to get to the bottom without getting thrown out. He noted the few others sitting on the bank as they caught their breath, probably wondering the same as him.
Several minutes passed as he sifted through his thoughts, but every idea he had thought possible didn't seem plausible. Then it struck him. The water moved too broadly. The areas that did seem concentrated, like geysers, weren't compact enough and still covered a wide area. Which meant the pressure would only be so strong. Whoever was controlling the water couldn't minimize their manipulation. Instead of fighting the water, they needed to use it to their advantage.
Calling to a few of the others, he laid out a plan. They needed something heavy, a large boulder with crevices to tie ropes or vines around. Their goal was to get the boulder as close to the middle of the whirlpool as possible. From there, it was all luck and timing. Sora helped locate sturdy vines with two others as a burly boy fetched a decently sized boulder. They set to work, wrapping and tightening the vines around the crevices to keep it from simply slipping off. This would only work once. If they failed, they either had to try again with another boulder or think of some other way.
Sora stood and looked over the ledge, spotting the glimmer of stones deep below, before turning toward the barrel-chested boy and nodded. It was now or never. He counted down as the stone was lifted and, once thrown, the brunette took off with the rock and leaped into the air. The vine he held snapped taut, jerking him forward and into the water, straight into the middle of the whirlpool. He felt the water grab his body and spun him with the motion of the vortex, but the boulder held true and kept sinking. Even as the water picked up speed, Sora looked beyond the wall of the watery vortex, bubbles and kicked up sand to catch the glimmer.
There!
The brunette let go of the vine just before his intended destination and was propelled out of the pull of the vortex and straight toward the shining stones in the sand. He stretched out his hand toward the protective bubble of stones, closing his fingers and feeling the soft texture of the sand just as a jet of water had shot by him. He spun head over heels in the water, stopping just shy of hitting the wall of the lake. Sora used it to his advantage and planted his feet on the soft wall before kicking off and swimming straight upward. Breaking the surface, he gulped in a breath of air and pulled himself to the safety of solid ground. A couple of the others followed him, victorious of their catch, while others cried out in frustration at their missed goal.
Sora looked into his hand; a small blue stone with two flat sides and rounded edge sat there, an imitation of swirling water glistening inside of it. Excitement surged in his chest as he gripped it tight. He had beaten the first challenge and now had to find his way to the next. It didn't take him long to find a path to follow and raced toward his next goal as a fleeting thought crossed his mind. How was the shifter faring in the competition?
It was a few hours into the competition and the sun had already reached its peak in the sky. Riku pocketed the second piece of heart he had collected as he traversed his way down a nearly hidden path through the wooded area. The first was the Primitive, a section where the wilderness had been controlled. He had not just dodged the animals, but fought back until he had reached the hovel in the tree where dozens of the stones sat. He felt whoever had been manipulating that area must have gotten angry at his retaliation because he didn't get out completely unscathed. The shifter was forced to tear the sleeve off of his shirt and wrap it around the gash in his arm before he had continued on to the next one.
The shifter had reached a wooded clearing for the next area, but instead of rushing in, he had waited at the tree line and observed the other competitors in order to devise a plan. With quick thinking, he had found a partially fallen tree barely being held by others. Although the task was rough, he climbed and freed the tree from the branches, riding it down into the water as it toppled over the ledge. As luck would have it, the tree splintered and split as it hit the boulder sitting at the bottom, wedging itself into the sand and disrupting the whirlpool. Riku took advantage of the opportunity and swung himself to the other side of the trunk, pushing off with his feet and diving into the water to snatch one of the stones.
So far the competition was easy, albeit time consuming. When Marluxia had said it could last for a few days, it hadn't been an exaggeration. As Riku exited the forest of the water area, he came up on a nearly barren land scared and scorched with what seemed like fire. Walking along the beaten paths of the canyon, he eyed the overhanging cliffs above and the crevices surrounding him on ground level, unease settling in the pit of his stomach. He had a thought as to which element this area was, but he wasn't sure how the challenge was going to test him.
As the shifter rounded the next corner, he hummed at what he saw. The ground ceased to hold and instead turned into the beginning of an inclined slope. The gap was too large to jump across to the next outcropping of land and there was virtually no way up the cliffs unless someone possessed the ability to scale the wall safely or fly. So that only left one way: down the slope. Carefully stepping forward, Riku glanced down the slope and noted the random flat surfaces of land, along with twists, turns and parts of the wall jutting out to create obstacles.
He felt the ground crumble beneath his foot as he shifted some of his weight. On reflex, he shot his hand out just as he began to slide, managing to grab hold of a buried rock next to where he stood. Riku grimaced at the sharp pain in his palm, but it was quickly forgotten when he heard the sizzling and dull noise of something above him.
"Shit..." he growled.
A rather large ball of fire was heading his way, and not only that one. Several others littered the sky above him, each with their own intended destination within the elemental area. Riku bit back another curse as he let go of the rock, leaning back and letting the slope carry him down the hill. The fireball crashed where he had been, immolating the area in a haze of fire.
With the next platform ahead in his sights, Riku dug his heels into the dirt in an attempt to stop his descent. He felt his speed decrease, but instead of coming to a stop, his fingers slipped off of the smooth surface and dropped onto his feet on the slope below. The shifter maneuvered his weight to one side as he heard another fireball hurtle toward him, barely missing a rock spire as it exploded into pieces overhead. Looking ahead, he spotted the ground lift slightly into a ramp formation before it ended in a drop. As he sped closer, he noticed another stretch of ground beyond it. Lowering himself further into a crouch to gain speed, he waited at the pinnacle of the raised land before pushing off into a jump.
At the same time, a wide spiral of fire snaked its way through the canyon below, causing the walls to begin collapsing. Once he landed on the other side, Riku glanced behind him in time to see the shimmering fire arc off of the wall of dirt and head down the path straight toward him. A frustrated growl escaped his throat as he faced forward once again. Riku was feeling the pressure of a possible loss. Even if he found a way to outmaneuver the spiraling flames, the increasing friction of sliding down the slope was generating too much heat beneath his boots. He had to find a way to stop.
"Riku!"
A voice snapped the shifter's attention from his thoughts. Sea foam irises spotted a familiar mane of red spiked hair leaning out from behind an eroded wall to his left with an outstretched hand. Reaching out, he grabbed hold of it. His arm jerked as Axel grabbed hold with his other hand and swung him behind the wall. He felt the heat of the flame against his skin as he barely made it out of the way and slammed into the wall with a grunt. Dirt and debris showered over the pair as the fire kept on. But it wasn't backtracking to chase after them.
"Never thought I'd have to save your hide. Now you owe me twice," said Axel with a sly smirk on his face. Riku grumbled, brushing his clothes free of small stones.
"I thought it was you controlling the fire."
"Puh-lease. I don't have that kind of control. I can breath it, but I can't manipulate it. Haven't the control to do it yet."
Sighing, the shifter noticed they were trapped in an alcove, with the fire blocking the only way out. They didn't have much time since the wall was slowly being eroded by the flames. He glanced at Axel, an idea sparking.
"Can't you fly us to the bottom? Avoid all of this?" he asked the dragon
"I could. But it isn't a smart plan. One, I'm much slower as a dragon. I may be able to take some heat, but it would easily wear me down with the amount of power he has," the redhead supplied, shrugging his shoulders.
Riku raised an eyebrow. "He?" But Axel ignored him and kept speaking.
"Two, even if I could carry you on my back, I have no way to protect you from being blasted off. We may age differently than humans, but I still have a lot of growing to do in my dragon form. I'm really no taller than what I am right now. But I could be able to block the path of the fire. Just gotta start a rockslide."
Axel didn't give Riku a chance to speak as his form shimmered and shifted into a red dragon no taller than he had stood, just as he had said. Huffing a breath, the dragon launched itself through the flame. It didn't take long to feel the ground shake beneath him and the spiral of fire disappeared from the mouth of the alcove. Before he could exit the alcove, though, a few large rocks bounded their way down the side of the terrain, destroying pillars and platforms alike. Once the stream of dirt came to a slow trickle, Riku leapt out of the alcove and landed on the solid slope on the other side, quickly righting his balance as he began to slide once again down the side of the canyon.
Ignoring the shards of stone and flame exploding behind him, Riku focused on descent. It wasn't much further until the sprawling flat ground that marked the end of the challenge. What he wasn't expecting, however, was the massive jutting of rocks as he rounded the next thick spire. The feel of weightlessness took over his body as he flew over the precipice and into the open air. His stomach tightened at the drop he saw before him, even more so when he started to plummet toward the ground.
As luck would have it, a firm grip closed around his right arm. Riku looked up to see Axel, still in dragon form, clutching on to him. But with his weight and the speed of the fall, Axel was being dragged down with him. They spiraled in the air toward as the dragon flapped his wings. As Riku watched him, he noticed that he wasn't actually struggling to keep them in the air, but instead slowing down their fall with careful flaps of his wings. Nearing the end of the slope, he felt Axel drop his arm and the two went rolling down the remaining stretch.
The shifter stood from where he landed, his breath ragged and body aching. But as he looked up from the base of the slopes toward the darkening sky, he realized they were safe. The fire wasn't coming any closer to their area. Looking around, he spotted the red and orange glimmer of the stones. Hoisting Axel to his feet, now back in his human form, he made his way toward them before grabbing one of them.
"The Inferno piece of heart. That was a hell of a challenge. I'll have to commend my brother for his skills," stated Axel as he held his up to view the swirling image of fire within it.
"Your brother?!" spat Riku. He looked at the dragon with wide eyes and disbelief.
"Yeah, he's an Elder here. Way older than me. He has the power to manipulate his fire, as you've seen. But I'll get there one day."
"Huh..." There was only one other fire dragon in the Academy, the shifter mused. He didn't know why he had never put two and two together before. "I need to find a place to rest. Preferably before the next challenge. Any suggestions?"
"I don't know. Let's follow the way out of here and hope we don't get thrown straight into another one."
"There is no 'we' in this. I'm going a-"
"Yeah, yeah. Sure. Whatever you say, wolf boy."
Riku pinched the bridge of his nose before begrudgingly following the dragon. This was going to be a very long competition.