Inside the Olympus Coliseum, the Hero's Rumble match was raging on. Logan Jindrak and Luisa Madrigal were still locked in their wrestling contest, whilst Rachel Goodfey was dominating her sword duel with General Grievous. So far, only Flintheart Glomgold had been eliminated from the match, with the sixth participant about to enter by the end of the timer.
('Strange World' from Dragon Quest VIII)
As the melody taken straight out of a fantasy video game started playing, everybody waited to see who would come out. When the louder part of the melody kicked in, the participant walked through the pit's entrance gate... and very few recognized him. Wearing a saffron overcoat with a blue tunic, this young man had a red bandana wrapped around the top of his head, hiding most of his brown hair, and plain gray trousers with brown boots. A saber and spear were strapped to his back whilst a boomerang was tied to his waist by a belt, and a shield was strapped to his left arm.
"Oh my cheese!" Logan exclaimed in surprise. "It's the Hero! From Dragon Quest VIII!"
"What's Dragon Quest?" Luisa asked.
"It's a video game franchise from Square Enix; you probably don't know them. This guy's the protagonist of the eight installment."
"And what's his name?"
Logan rubbed the back of his head. "Officially, he's just known as 'Hero'. It's because in RPGs like the one he's from, players get to name the characters instead of them having a single name. However, to help distinguish him from other heroes in the franchise, he's also known as 'Eight' - as in 'the Eight Hero'."
"Oh. Thanks for that little piece of information," Luisa said. "Now, let's resume our fight!" She charged at Logan and locked in a clinch with him.
As Eight approached, Grievous couldn't stop one of his eyes from twitching. "Is this some sort of joke?! Have they found nothing but children to take part in this battle?!" The Knightslayer jumped in the air with two of his sabers raised, bringing them down upon the newly arrived participant. This last one lifted his crimson-red shield that surprisingly blocked the two glowing blades. Grievous briefly looked in surprise before swinging his third saber at Eight's side, the young man parrying it with the saber he swiftly grabbed from over his shoulder. After a brief power struggle, Eight managed to push Grievous back and jumped away to assume his fighting stance.
"What is that supposed to mean? Back in my world, the only thing that can block or counter a lightsaber is another lightsaber! And now, every child around here can walk with a weapon able to oppose a lightsaber?!"
"These are not just any weapon," Eight declared, showing his katana-like saber with an orange blade. "This is the Dragovian King Sword, the most powerful sword in my world! And this (he showed his shield) is the Dragovian Shield; the only shield that cannot be penetrated!"
"Another swordsman? This competition is getting more and more fun with every new entrant!" Rachel remarked with an excited smile.
Logan, who was fighting nearby, looked in their direction with a surprised expression. "Wait a minute, you can talk, Eight? I never heard you say anything before!"
"That's because I play the role of a silent protagonist in my game - the developers made me so in order to help the players project themselves upon me," Eight explained. "I'm kinda like Link from The Legend of Zelda. But outside my game, I can talk."
"Wow, you learn a little more every day," Logan said with a chuckle, just before getting tackled to the ground by Luisa.
Glaring at each other, things quickly turned into a triple threat brawl between Rachel, Grievous and Eight. Rachel shot a fire spell with Maleficent's Bane that Grievous blocked with his lightsabers before kicking her away and turning his attention to Eight. He collided his lightsabers against the young hero's Dragovian King Sword and Shield until he rolled between the droid's legs and went for a vertical slash that he avoided by jumping back. "Zap!" Eight launched a powerful lightning attack that the Jedi Hunter blocked with his three lightsabers, not without getting pushed back a little.
"He knows magic, too? Interesting," Rachel thought as she went to attack Grievous once again. Ducking a swing of his lightsaber, she hit the flat side of her sword under his jaw for an uppercut that stunned him long enough for Eight to attack him from the side.
"Sizz!" he exclaimed, launching a line of fire that burned some of the Knightslayer's metal and knocked him aside. He then turned his attention to Rachel. "You fight with a sword and no shield? Must I understand that you're a skilled knight?"
"I'm no knight, but yeah, even with just one sword, I can be quite the threat," the Sword Mage confirmed with a grin.
"Snooze!" Eight launched a blue spell that Rachel swiftly avoided before clashing her sword against his shield, the two of them engaging in a close combat. Eventually, the young warrior jumped back and swiftly grabbed his boomerang that he tossed at Rachel. The Sword Mage ducked the item, that then deviated and came back her way. It was about to it the back of her head... but she lifted her sword to block it at the last second.
"Pal, you take me for an idiot, or did you really assume I didn't know what a boomerang can do?" she sarcastically asked.
"Didn't cost anything to try," Eight replied with a shrug. "Now, Falcon Slash!" He dashed at Rachel and gave two swift swings of his sword that she parried, not without having the second one leaving a little cut on her shoulder.
Suddenly, General Grievous jumped between the two swordsmen and began spinning his three lightsabers horizontally so fast that he literally became a spinning buzz saw. While Rachel parried the sabers with her sword, Eight protected himself behind his shield, until Grievous grabbed his head with his foot claws and tossed him away, allowing him to give all his attention to Rachel.
The Sword Mage managed to stand her grounds against the evil droid until they clashed their blades in a test of strength. "You may fight like a Jedi, Grievous, but you're far from being like them!"
Grievous scoffed. "What could a pathetic human like you possibly know about the Jedi, or even me?"
"Enough to know that what you're doing is wrong!" Rachel declared. "Let me ask you something: what would Kummar think of all you've done?"
As soon as she pronounced the name 'Kummar', the evil droid widened his eyes before growling and aggressively swinging his lightsabers at her. "DON'T MENTION THAT NAME! THE YAM'RII HAVE BEEN MASSACRING AND ENSLAVING MY PEOPLE FOR GENERATIONS! THEY TOOK HER AWAY FROM ME! IT WAS MY RIGHT TO CLAIM REVENGE FOR HER BY EXTERMINATING EACH OF THOSE STUPID SPACE BUGS TO THE LAST! BUT THE JEDI GOT IN THE WAY! I WILL HAVE NO REST UNTIL THEY HAVE ALL BEEN WIPED OUT!"
Despite having to deal with his fury, Rachel managed to pay a close ear to everything the angry droid said. "Grievous, what happened to you is horrible, but revenge won't give you what you are looking for. There are better things that you can gain in life - things like friendship and family."
With a growl, the Knightslayer pushed her back. "Spare me your little speeches! I have no reason to live other than to exterminate both the Yam'rii and the Jedi! Even if I must sell my soul to the devil!"
Rachel sighed, understanding she could not change her opponent's mind. "Fine then. Come at me!"
On the other side of the fighting zone, Logan held Luisa's head under his arm for a Guillotine Choke. Despite Logan's best efforts, the Rock of the Madrigal Familia managed to break free and toss him many feet away. "Phew! I must give you my compliments, pal; it's the first time in forever that I'm being pushed back like this!" Luisa said with wiping some sweat off her forehead.
"And I'm not even giving my best!" Logan declared with a grin, ready to keep the fight going on. "Come on; all of this is fun!"
"Luisa!" The two participants froze on the spot and looked at the audience to see who yelled. To Logan's horror, it was none other than Alma 'Abuela' Madrigal...and she didn't look happy. "It's him! This young man is the one who kissed Mirabel without her permission this summer!"
Luisa widened her eyes in shock...before slowly turning to glare at Logan. "What...have you done...to my little sister...?!"
Logan felt himself shrinking under the powerful woman's glare. She could turn an entire stadium upside down when in a good mood... So imagine everything she could do to him when enraged! Soon, the audience found themselves laughing in amusement as the poor boy ran round the fighting zone, squealing in panic, with the enraged Luisa after him. She launched punches strong enough to create craters on the ground, Logan pushing a scream every time he avoided them. At the same time, the timer reached zero.
('Guardians Inferno' from Awesome Mix Vol. 2)
Everybody recognized the altered theme of the Guardians of the Galaxy and all jumped with excitation as Drax The Destroyer entered the arena, clad in what looked like wrestling trunks. Getting pumped up before jumping in the action, he pretended to hold machine guns and 'shot' with them as pyros exploded in tandem around the entrance while he did so. He then pushed a battle cry and ran into the fighting pit, turning his attention to Logan.
"Ha, Logan, there you are!" he beamed, happy to see his wrestling sparing partner. "I knew you were going to be here! Let us have the fight of a lifetime-" However, Logan did not respond to him and simply ran past the Guardian of the Galaxy whilst still squealing. "Logan? Where are you going? Don't you recognize me?"
"Talk later; run for now!" the young man yelled.
Blinking his eyes in confusion, Drax turned to see Luisa, now fuming red, still running after Logan. "I see; she must be the fiercest fighter in the competition!" The Kylosian pushed a battle cry and intercepted the young Madrigal with a Spear (the wrestling move; not the weapon).
"Get lost! My beef is with this guy; not you!" Luisa declared, pointing at the escaping Logan.
"Forget Logan! I'm your opponent now!" Drax declared with a smirk. He charged at the young woman and locked in a clinch with her, entering a test of strength. Despite doing his best, the Kylosian found himself getting pushed back by the stronger participant, who made him flip around and end up on his rear end. "She's stronger than me? Are you of the same breed as Thor?"
Not taking the time to answer his question, Luisa charged at Drax, who caught her with a back body drop. When the Rock of the Madrigal Familia got back on her two feet, the powerhouse of the Guardians unleashed a barrage of strikes and uppercuts at her, until she grew tired and grabbed his arm to slam him multiple times on the ground, just like Hulk did with Loki. "I understand your pain!" Loki called from the audience.
"And don't get in my way again!" Luisa warned Drax before looking all around in search of Logan. Suddenly, she felt two arms getting wrapped around her waist from behind before she got lifted for a German Suplex. Immediately after, Logan stunned her down with a running knee strike to the jaw, making sure he'd live for a bit longer.
"Drax, you alright?" he asked his wrestling partner, who blinked his eyes multiple times.
"That woman... She's fiercer than Gamora...," he remarked whilst Logan helped to get him back up. "What have you done to make her so angry at you?"
"That's a long story," Logan admitted and rubbed the back of his head. Drax suddenly clotheslined him down to the ground. "Hey! What was that for?"
"Sorry, but it's everyone for himself in this battle. One of us must go, and it will be you!" Drax grabbed Logan and attempted to throw him out of the fighting zone, only for the young man to flip him around with an Exploder Suplex.
If a wrestling match he wanted, then a wrestling match Logan would give him. He grabbed Drax and lifted him up for an actual suplex followed by an elbow drop to the chest. He then used his super strength to try and throw Drax away, but the alien headbutted him in the face and placed his head between his thighs before trying to lift him up. Logan, however, surprised him by lifting him on his shoulders, waving his hand in front of his own face, and throwing him down with a fireman's carry slam. "Nice try, but you won't get me today, Batista!"
"'Batista'? What are you talking about, kid? His name is Drax!" someone in the audience yelled.
"I know; that was just a pro wrestling reference!" Logan yelled back in response. He and Drax started trading blows with each other until Luisa surprised them both with a double clothesline that knocked them down like dominoes. With nobody to bother her anymore, she unleashed a barrage of furious punches upon Logan before lifting him up and hitting a running powerslam.
Focusing all of her strength into her legs, Luisa jumped high into the air, and aimed for Logan, looking to crush him down like a pancake. Fortunately, the young man recovered just in time to roll out of the way of what would've been a deadly impact. Once all the debris sent flying by Luisa came back down, Logan hit the side of her head with a roundhouse kick, causing her to stagger long enough for Drax to slam her down with a spinebuster.
"Seriously, what did you do to make that woman so mad, Logan?" Drax once again questioned.
The Owl nervously rubbed his arm. "I...may or may not have drank too much alcohol...lost control of my mind...and kissed her sister against her will, thus angering her entire family..."
Drax widened his eyes and remained still...before a wide grin formed on his face and he broke into a fit of laughter. "You did what?! Oh my gosh, that's so funny!" Logan tried to stop his alien friend, but it was too late: "HEY, EVERYONE! MY FRIEND HERE HAS KISSED THIS WOMAN'S SISTER! AND SHE DIDN'T EVEN WANT HIM TO! HE GOT DRUNK AND ACTED LIKE AN IDIOT!"
Logan wished he could've just disappeared at this very moment. Laughs and exclamations rose from the audience, whilst everybody part of or related to the Madrigal family glared daggers at the young man. Della rubbed her eyes and shook her head in embarrassment for her friend. With his shame turning to anger, Logan glared at his wrestling partner and delivered a powerful wrestling chop to the most sensitive part of his anatomy in retribution.
"MY NIPPLES!"
Going away from the wrestling triple threat to the sword one, Rachel forced Eight on the defensive as she jumped back and then shot an ice spell at him. "Bounce!" Creating a magic barrier around him, Eight sent the spell back to its caster, trapping her in ice. He charged into her with his shield, breaking the ice and knocking her to the ground.
"How many spells do you have in your arsenal?!" Rachel asked, surprised by all the moves the young hero could pull off.
"Too many to count." Taking him by surprise, Grievous slashed his lightsabers a few times at Eight's shield to throw him off balance and then proceeded to deliver many punches to different parts of his body, ending his combo with a moonkick under his jaw that sent him in the air, landing on the ground with a thud. Rachel recovered and reached to her belt to grab some jambiya daggers she threw at Grievous, the Jedi Hunter deviating them with his robotic arm.
Rachel and Grievous clashed with their swords once again, the Sword Mage slowly gaining the upper hand. Eventually, Eight jumped up and launched another spell at them. "Kasizzle!" Throwing his hands forward, he sent a powerful jet of fire that not only knocked his two opponents down, but even left them with burning marks.
The audience watched the timer about to reach zero once again, and sang together: "Ten, nine, eight, seven, six, five, four, three, two, one!"
('Duel of the Fates' by John Williams)
Hearing the famous Star Wars song, every fighter stopped what they were doing and turned over to see who was about to join them. Walking through the entrance gate was an orange alien woman that Rachel instantly recognized and widened her eyes. "A-Ahsoka?!"
As soon as the former Jedi entered the fighting zone, Grievous went to meet her first. "I remember you: you were Skywalker's little pet." He towered over Ahsoka with a smirk. "And I was afraid to go through this entire competition without having the chance to take down any Jedi."
"I'm not a Jedi anymore," Ahsoka simply responded, not looking the least intimidated by the Knightslayer. "There's no need for hostilities between us anymore, Grievous."
"Oh, yes, there is. You may have escaped me twice before, but this time, I won't let it happen again, Jedi scum!" Grievous declared with hostility and disgust.
Seeing there was no room for discussion with the general, Ahsoka took out her two silver-white lightsabers, a long one, and a small, shoto one, assuming her Jar'Kai stance. Grievous was the first one to attack, clashing his stolen lightsabers against the Togruta master's. The crowd cheered louder than before, as they did not expect to see a lightsaber duel in the middle of the Hero's Rumble.
Ahsoka performed acrobatics to move everywhere around Grievous, using the Force to dodge his lightsaber strikes and hit from every direction. The former Padawan had gotten quite good since the last time they faced, even though the Jedi Hunter refused to admit it. Their little confrontation ended when Ahsoka swiftly dodged a swing and managed to cut off one of Grievous' hands, leaving him with only two of them, and then Force pushed him many feet away.
The match's attention was now entirely on the powerful Force user. Drax pushed a battle cry and charged at her, only to suffer the same fate as Grievous and get knocked away by a Force push. Luisa used her super strength to jump high in the air and try to pounce the Togruta, who rolled out of the way, letting her smash a crater on the ground. After dodging a few punches, Ahsoka lifted her up with the Force and tossed her away. Taking advantage of her being distracted, Eight jumped and went for a vertical slash at her. However, she had sensed him coming and crossed her two lightsabers behind her head to block his sword. They engaged in a brief sword duel until Ahsoka broke the young man's defense and delivered a few kicks followed by a Force push that knocked him away.
Rachel stepped forward with a smile. "Hey, Ahsoka, it's been a while." Ahsoka turned her attention to the young Sword Mage, smiling at her Magia Genus partner.
"It is good to see you again, Rachel." Ahsoka then looked at Logan, who was standing nearby. "I recognize you: you were with young Ezra Bridger during the Sorcerer's Arena Tournament, weren't you?"
"Y-Yes. I'm Logan Jindrak, Master Tano," Logan properly introduced himself.
"Ezra speaks highly of you. I hope you will provide an interesting challenge today."
"Me first!" Rachel brandished Maleficent's Bane and got ready to face her friend. "Let's make this a fight for the ages, shall we?"
"I wouldn't have it any other way." Ahsoka smiled and assumed her own fighting stance.
The two friends engaged in a close combat, trading strikes that sent sparkles flying everywhere. From Logan's perspective, they were evenly matched, with neither of them managing to break through the other's defense. Ahsoka swiftly jumped all around and attacked from everywhere, but Rachel was so skilled with her sword that she parried and countered all of them. Not wanting to lose too much energy on a single opponent, Rachel decided to jump back and sent an ice spell that Ahsoka countered and lifted her up in the air with the Force.
"I'm sorry, Rachel. We may be friends, but the goal of this match is to win, so I'm gonna have to take you out." The Togruta pushed her friend away with enough force that she would be sent outside the fighting zone.
Whilst shooting across the air at a tremendous speed, Rachel made Maleficent's Bane disappear and summoned another one in its place. This one had a blade with dinosaur fangs protruding from the front side and a green t-rex head serving as the handle. She made the blade disappear and the dinosaur head come to life as it extended itself and planted its fang in the ground, halting her launch when she was just a few feet away from the limit of the fighting zone.
"This is a new sword? I've never seen it before," Ahsoka remarked in surprise at the trick her friend just pulled off.
"Indeed," Rachel confirmed as she retracted the dinosaur head and brought the blade back. "I present to you the Raptor Slasher, a sword that is inhabited by the spirit of a t-rex!"
"I was with her when she got it," Logan pointed out.
The two Magia Genus partners engaged in a duel once again, Rachel fighting with her new dinosaur sword this time. Whilst this happened, Logan noticed the timer about to reach zero, announcing the arrival of the ninth participant in the match.
('Free the Flame' by CFO$)
Seek the truth and let the wildfire set you free
Don't you remember
The lights around the entrance gate turned off, plunging it in the dark. Some staff members brought objects near the entrance as a figure walked out.
One ember sparks a fire
One ember feeds the flames
Now burn, burn, yeah!
The figure reached a hand forward and launched a spell at the objects before her to set them on fire, revealing them to be branches that created a bonfire. As the figure did this, a message appeared on the titantron: "Bonfire Lit!" Seconds after, the lights were turned back on, revealing a beautiful wolfess with snow-white fur clad in a silver knight's armor with red marking around her eyes and a red sun tattoo on her tummy.
"It's the Sun Knight!" young Arthur beamed from the audience, cheering loudly alongside all those who have been helped by the wolfess in the past.
Seek the real and let your heart burn to believe
Always remember
One ember sparks a fire
One ember feeds the flames
Now burn, burn, yeah!
With the support of the crowd, she made her way into the fighting zone, ready for the challenge of a lifetime. Logan was the first to greet her. "Cheese and crackers, Sunny! I didn't know you were participating!"
Sunny gave him a smile in return. "Hey, Logan. I was honestly hoping that you'd be here; glad it's the case."
"Of course I'm here! This is the competition of a lifetime; I wasn't going to miss it, even for the most delicious strawberry smoothie in the world!" Logan declared, throwing a fist towards his canine friend. "Let's do our best and make sure that one of us wins the gold, okay?"
This kind of enthusiasm caused the Sun Knight to giggle in amusement. "My, you look more decided than ever! I like that! Yeah, it's definitely going to be one of us!" She met Logan's fist with her own, the two of them sharing a laugh together.
As this was happening, they failed to notice Rachel and Ahsoka had stopped fighting and gave odd looks in their direction. "Ahem!" Rachel coughed to get their attention. "You know this girl, Logan?"
"Oh, right, I should do some introductions," the young man realized. "Rachel, I present to you Sunny the Sun Knight, a paladin and one of the new friends I made this summer. She was among those who helped me to save Sora - she even defeated Axel!" He then turned to the wolfess and introduced his fellow Dream Defender. "Sunny, this is Rachel, the girl I told you so much about. She's the second-in-command of the Dream Defenders and among the ten strongest mages in the Magical World."
"Really?" Sunny approached the Sword Mage with a smile. "So you're the Rachel Logan told me so much about? I've been looking forward to meeting you."
In response, Rachel crossed her arms. "What exactly did Logan tell you about me?"
"Oh, just that you're the most skilled person with a sword that he knows, that you almost beat him a hundred times in sparing matches, and that I remind him a lot about you." The two girls looked their male friend, who blushed a bit.
"Well, any friend of Logan is also a friend of mine. You must be quite strong yourself, if you managed to defeat Axel in singles duels," Rachel remarked.
Sunny blushed and rubbed the back of her head. "True to be told, it's thanks to my friend that I won that fight. A team effort, y'see."
"Thanks for giving me credit, Sunny!" Vitani, leader of the Lion Guard, called from the audience.
"Regardless, if Logan holds you in high esteem, then I wanna face you," Rachel declared. She looked at Ahsoka. "You don't mind if we switch opponents for a bit, Ahsoka?"
"Not at all. You go and have fun with your new rival; I'll just fight Logan during that time," the Togruta responded and turned her attention to the young man, who gulped nervously. However, before they could clash swords, Logan was suddenly caught in a sleeper hold by Luisa Madrigal.
"YOU DIDN'T THINK I WAS DONE WITH YOU, CREEP OF A KISSER?!" she yelled whilst choking out the poor man.
Drax suddenly jumped on her back and started to choke her out, too. "I want in the fun too!" The three participants started squirming with one another, leaving Ahsoka to blink her eyes curiously at their demeanor. She, instead, decided to go join General Grievous and Eight, who were fighting one another.
Rachel and Sunny walked around in circles, the wolfess having taken out her longsword. "Even if you are Logan's friend, I have no intention of going easy on you, just to be clear," Rachel warned.
"Good, cause neither will I!" Sunny declared and charged at the speed given to her by her canine legs. With a powerful swing, she hit Rachel's Maleficent's Bane, sending a lot of sparks flying everywhere. She immediately followed with more, wide swings that actually forced Rachel to get on the defensive and step back.
From the audience, Della watched the fight between the Sword Mage and the Sun Knight unfold with a thoughtful expression. "So this is the woman you told me about, Logan... It's true that she's just like you described her: fierce, strong and beautiful... But didn't you also say that Rachel is the strongest member of your group in terms of raw skills and talents? What is your friend gonna do against a woman who faces strong and dangerous monsters on a daily basis?"
Back in the arena, Rachel managed to get out of her predicament by blocking Sunny's longsword and stand on he spot. "You have power behind your swings, I'll give you that," the Sword Mage admitted. "Tell me something, Sunny: how do you intend to win this competition. Even if you beat me, there are still over thirty participants coming up."
"It's simple; I'll defeat them all, too!" the wolfess declared without a hint of hesitation.
"My, what confidence. I like that!" Rachel said with a smile. However, it almost instantly turned into a serious glare. "But do you have the skills to back it up?" She expertly pushed Sunny back and performed a spin to smack her away with the flat side of her obsidian blade. Not giving her time to rest, she made Maleficent's Bane disappear to grab the Raptor Slasher instead and immediately sent the dinosaur head towards Sunny. The Sun Knight managed to raise her longsword in time, but the impact was stronger than she had anticipated.
"Oh no! I can't stop it!" Managing to deviate the t-rex's head, Sunny plunged her longsword in the ground to halt her launch in time, stopping just as her puffy tail was inches from crossing the limit of the fighting zone. "Jeez! that was a close one!" She stared back at Rachel. "Logan wasn't kidding; she truly is one of the best swordsmen around here!"
"Impressive, wouldn't you say?" Rachel asked as she retracted the dinosaur head. "Believe it or not, but that's a very recent trick that I haven't even mastered yet. You know your way around with that sword, I'll give you that... However, just swinging a sword isn't enough to make you a great swordsman; you need to develop techniques and learn spells to help you in battle. If you have any of that, I strongly recommend you use them right now. Hm?" After her little speech, Rachel noticed that Sunny's legs started trembling, sweat rolling down her head. "Why are you shaking like this? Are you afraid because you find yourself in a situation where you can't win?"
"Don't get it wrong!" Sunny smirked. "If I'm trembling right now, it's not out of fear...but out of excitation! These kind of moments are exactly what I'm looking for - moments where I hit against a wall that is seemingly impossible to climb over, and then manage to do just that! And for your second point, don't worry; I also have a few tricks of my own."
She held her paws forward and talked in a foreign language to make a ring of fire appear around Rachel, preventing her from going anywhere. Once it was done, the wolfess jumped high in the air and once again mumbled incantations, this time to summon a fireball in her paw that she threw down at the trapped Sword Mage, creating an explosion. Following this excellent combo, the canine warrior gracefully landed back on the ground, waiting for the smoke to dissipate and see the result of her efforts. The smoke did end up fading away...to reveal Rachel had not a single burn mark and was, in fact, protected by some sort of magic barrier.
"What?! Where'd that come from?!" Sunny exclaimed in surprise.
"Phew! Good thing I had equipped a Materia for the MBarrier spell on this," Rachel sighed as she looked at her Broken Sword. "Now, let's try another Materia I haven't used yet: Spiritual Blade!" A blade made of blue magic formed from the broken part of her sword and she jumped at Sunny, going for a vertical strike that she avoided by rolling out of the way.
"Did she really counter my fire attacks with that incomplete sword?! What kind of joke is that?!" Sunny wondered in shock and confusion. Regaining her composure, she engaged Rachel in a sword fight once again. However, just like with Logan at the start of the Hero's Rumble, the difference in terms of experience became rapidly clear, with Rachel overpowering the Sun Knight.
The Sword Mage once again sent the head of her Raptor Slasher forward, planting its fangs into Sunny's shoulder so that she could flip and slam her down on the ground. "Say, Sunny, I've been analyzing your way of fighting since our duel started. It seems to me that your style is more like one to use on a battlefield whilst facing multiple opponents at once. Am I wrong to assume you're more familiar with brawls than you are with duels?"
Sunny did not respond, simply staring at her opponent with her eyes wide open. "... A perfect swordplay, solid magic capabilities...and she even manages to decipher my fighting style in our first encounter? A-Are we really that far apart from each other?" Taking a deep breath, she kept her composure and calmed herself down. "No, no, stay calm Sunny. Just remember what you learned from Dark Souls and Ghosts n' Goblins; don't rush in, take your time, watch the pattern of your enemy, and once you see an opening, go for it!"
At the same time, the countdown reached zero, announcing the arrival of the tenth participant.
('My Time' from Elena of Avalor)
The sound of guitar echoed across the arena before the song began playing.
It feels so weird having my feet on the ground
It's been a while since I've been walking around
With my own eyes, I can once again see
My dream has come true, I am free
Strangely, nobody came through the entrance gate of the fighting pit. This brought confusion to the watchers and participants, until someone in the audience looked up. "Hey, look, up there!" Everybody raised their eyes to see a certain jaguar with macaw wings flying down from above into the arena. Logan and Rachel instantly recognized him.
"TOREN!" they beamed at unison with smiles.
But now that I'm here, there's a mission at hand
To drive that witch out of our beautiful land
I'll banish the darkness and bring back the light
'Cause this time I'm ready to fight
The young Jaquin flew all around, clapping in watchers' hands a he passed by.
This is my time, my time to face my old foe
My time, reclaim what was ours long ago
This is my time to stand up with honour and pride
My time, I've come too far to be denied
After flying around and clapping into enough hands, Toren performed a few aerial acrobatics before landing in the fighting zone with his head high and grinning, the entire coliseum cheering loudly for the Dream Keeper of Animal Kingdom. "Watch out, everyone! The master of pranks that always has your back have arrived!"
"He's pretty cute," Luisa mumbled with a smile.
Once again, General Grievous growled in anger and stormed his way to the new entrant. "This is a true mockery! We are supposed to be fighting the strongest warriors across every single world, and they send a child?! I will not tolerate this!"
Far from looking intimidated, Toren narrowed his eyes and puffed out his chest. "Listen, big guy, I managed to defeat three powerful entities you would never believe exist! So I'm not about to back down from a dumb robot head!" Falling for his taunting, Grievous growled and began swinging his lightsabers at the young Jaquin, who simply flew away from them. He noticed that two of his hands were missing, making him grin. "What's wrong? You're not fighting with sabers at once? Looks like you've lost the hang of it!"
Many people - watchers and participants - laughed at the pun. It also fueled Grievous' anger, making him attack more fiercely. After relentlessly attacking for a while, the Jedi Hunter managed to catch the Jaquin with his foot. "Your luck has run out, kid!"
"Nope! Not at all!" Grasping Grievous' leg, Toren activated his joy buzzer that sent a strong discharge across his robotic body. Toren then got back up and taped into his emotions to make his scarf turn orange, making the Jedi Hunter magically float and then tossed him out of the fighting zone.
"General Grievous has been eliminated!"
Toren turned his scarf back to its normal crystalline color and landed back on the ground with a smile. "Looks like I just solved a grieve affair, wouldn't you say?" He laughed at his own joke before being joined by Logan.
"Well done, Toren!" he laughed and patted the young guy on the shoulder. "You really should explain to me how that Crystalline Magic on yours work, one of these days."
"It's simple, Logan: it works exactly like Elena's Emotion Magic. The one she gets near the start of season three!" Toren explained.
These explanations made Logan awkwardly rub the back of his head. "To be completely honest with you, Toren... I never actually watched Elena of Avalor..."
Toren's eye twitched, like his friend just threw him the worst possible insult. He swiftly grabbed the human by the collar of his vest and pulled him into his face. "Listen to me, you, listen very well. As soon as this competition's over, not matter if you win, lose or get injured, you go home and watch Elena on Disney+. Our frindship could very well be depending on it. Is that clear?"
Logan nervously swallowed a lump in his throat, intimidated by his friend's silent anger. "Y-Yes. Very clear..."
"Good." Letting go of him, Toren stepped away and crouched down like a predator ready to pounce on its prey. "Now, let's start our fight!"
This statement made Logan blink his eyes. "Y-You want us to actually fight off?"
"Yeah, it's every man for himself, buddy." He grinned. "I do intend on winning this! Just remember; win or lose, we're all here to have fun, okay?"
Logan remained still for a moment...before smiling. "Okay then, let's do this!" he assumed his pro wrestling stance, ready to face off against his Shifter Trio friend.
Author's note: A lot of things to cover up in this chapter. First off, poor Logan. His drinking mistake from chapter 25 'A bad drink' has returned to haunt him. And Drax is not helping one bit! Hopefully he can make up for it to the Madrigal family one of these days.
Speaking of Drax, it was TheDragonSaver who suggested for me to make him wear his cage match outfit from the Guardians of the Galaxy video game. This is pretty fitting, since the actor who played Drax, Dave Bautista, is a former wrestler. I actually pulled many references to his career and gimmick throughout this chapter. Also, fun fact: his cage match outfit first appeared in the Drax #1 comic that was written by CM Punk, another wrestler.
Rachel got reunited with her old friend, Ahsoka Tano, with whom she teamed up in the Sorcerer's Arena Tournament as part of Magica Genus. And we FINALLY got the long-awaited encounter between Rachel and our beloved wolfess knight, Sunny! You have no idea how excited I was to write the first encounter between the Sword Mage and the Sun Knight, even though the former seems to be the most experienced of the two.
We also got the surprise participation of the Hero from Square Enix's Dragon Quest VIII. While I never played any DQ game myself, the Hero is pretty fun to play as in Super Smash Bros Ultimate. I mostly used a wiki page as well as the Hero's move set from the aforementioned game to portray him in this chapter.
Logan promising Toren to watch Elena of Avalor is supposed to reflect what I'm planning to do in the near future. I never followed the show's story, but I did catch one episode or two whilst I lived somewhere else, a few years ago. I thought the show is pretty fun, even though I never got completely invested into it. But with Toren holding it in such high regard, I thought I'd give it a shot, also to make sure I portray the characters correctly in the future.
New entrants:
-6: The Eight Hero
-7: Drax The Destroyer
-8: Ahsoka Tano
-9: Sunny
-10: Toren
New eliminations:
-General Grievous: taken out by Toren