Legend of Kingdom Hearts

Chapter 20 Artemecian Tounrnament

"Must you do this?" Charles asked him. "Now, of all times?"

"Do you want the treasure or not?" Ganondorf replied. "We need to capture both of them in order for that to happen!"

Charles said nothing and rested his head in his hands. He said nothing for a few seconds. Then, he raised his head and said, "Alright. Do what you must, Ganondorf. Just capture only one for now." He grinned. "What fun would this be if we didn't give the heroes a fighting chance, eh?"

"Alright then." With a swish of a cloak, he turned from him and walked to the door. He stopped in front of it. "Who do I send for the job?"

Charles chuckled. "Do you always have to have someone do the job for you, friend?" He heard Ganondorf give a snigger, then the door closed. His voice was muffled, but Charles could still hear him when he said, "I'll send who I want, whatever that bastard says…"

"Wow…"

Kiyoko spoke for all of them when they landed. The pillars were quite large, the statues larger still. The group wondered for a second on how the world could support all of that without collapsing. Sunlight glinted off the steel of the coliseum, blinding all who looked upon it, especially upon the armor of the statues. The behemoths looked down upon them, which disturbed Kari slightly. As they took their eyes off it, they noticed a faint sound of cheering and jeering from the crowd beyond the great doors.

Kiyoko finally said, "I don't know about you guys, but the tourney isn't going to wait for us. Come on!" Lionel followed close behind.

Agreeing, they went past the doors. They found a large lobby, also somewhat silver colored like the steel outside. Smaller versions of the columns supported the inside. Directly in the middle was a wooden desk; a woman occupied it currently and was eyeing them. She gave a long yawn.

"Can I help you?" she said in a monotonous voice. Her eyes were half open as she spoke.

"Yeah," Kail replied. "We'd like to enter the tournament being held. Do you have any room for six more fighters?"

She said nothing and slowly reached for a drawer near the bottom of her desk.

"Make it five," Kiyoko suddenly said.

"Huh?" Sora, Link, and Kari said at once.

"You mentioned looking for someone, right? Someone should stick behind and look around."

"Then I have to go with you," Zelda told her. "I'm the only one who can tell if we have found the right person."

"Great!"

Kail gave a sigh of annoyance. "Oh alright. Make it four fighters."

The woman stayed silent. She brought a paper out on her desk and motioned for them to come to her; they did.

"What is your team's name?" the woman asked them. She pulled out another drawer and picked a pen out. The group noticed that her fingers were a horrid red color, like blood. They looked at each other silently and shrugged as one.

Kiyoko suggested, "How about Clan Nutsy?"

"WHAT?" the four fighters protested at once.

"Clan Nutsy it is," said the woman in the same dull tone, though there was a bit of humor in it. She wrote the name on the paper along with a few others. "Names?" They told her; at the same time they were giving dirty looks to the mage. She merely stared back with a grin, with Lionel mirroring it.

"Clan Nutsy, go to the door on your left," the female secretary continued. "Stay in your locker room until you are called."

"How many are fighting?" Link asked.

The woman looked at him, particularly at his clothes, and said, "There are ten seeds."

"Sweet!" Sora shouted.

"Thanks, miss," Kari thanked for them. They began heading for the door.

"We'll keep an eye out for you know who!" Kiyoko shouted to them. Zelda and she went to the opposite door.

The crowd roared about them as the two took a seat somewhere in the center of it. It wasn't just humans that were there; creatures of varying sizes were jeering, from tattooed blackened faced lizards to the arguing goblins, the large silent Ogres with their always alight lanterns to their smaller, greener companions that also carried one (along with a knife). Kiyoko looked at the little ones in fear.

"This is exciting!" she shouted to Zelda, trying to hide her fear. Zelda could only just hear her and nodded her head. She began taking small glances at the mob around them.

"Any sign?"

"Not yet," the princess yelled.

"Ugh."

Kiyoko slouched down in her seat. She abruptly sat back up when she felt a steel tip at her back. She turned to find the goblins and lizards screaming curses at each other, their weapons drawn. One was thrown out of its owner's hand; Kiyoko barely escaped having it slicing her back.

She grabbed Zelda's hand and dragged her out of her seat. "Let's move!" Zelda looked at the fight and agreed silently. Lionel leapt onto his usual perch and they moved away to seats closer to the arena.

Kiyoko yelled, "I'm going to look for some snacks, k? You guys save my spot!" And with that, she began squeezing through the crowd for the door.

The crowd roared as Kail made his way back to his team. He cracked his fists with a smile; the heartless were hardly a challenge here.

"Nice job!" Kari told him.

"Ah, it wasn't hard," he dismissed. "You're up, Sora."

"Yes!" the brunette shouted as he jumped from his seat. He almost immediately sat back down with a yelp of pain. They had forgotten that Sora had broken his arm on their way to Kiyoko's house.

"Maybe we should find Kiyoko," Kari suggested. "She'll know how to heal that maybe."

"No, there's no time for that," Link interjected. "The man's here to get you on the arena. You'll just have to duke it out with one arm."

"Oh thanks," Sora said dryly as he walked into the arena.

There he saw his opponent, a quite large heartless. Or rather his stomach. It had on the same helmet as the soldier type, but it was quite small for his head. Around it's hands were broken chains. It glared at Sora with the same yellow eyes as the others had. He said nothing and summoned his keyblade.

"Fighters ready?" called the man. "Begin!"

Sora began circling the field, keeping distance from the new heartless. He wouldn't resort to magic unless he had to, seeing as he was still new to it despite the practice they had on the ship. The heartless leaned back, which caught Sora off guard. What caught him more was when it leapt at him; he barely managed to evade it. This thing is faster than it looks! he thought. Gotta keep a better eye on it.

The heartless tried once more to jump at him. This time, Sora leapt to the side and slashed at it's stomach. He was thrown back by the impact, but his opponent had no visible scratch surprisingly. He rolled to the side, barely missing the giant fist; his broken arm throbbing.

Their fight continued like this for a while. Finally, Sora managed to get behind the heartless and slash at its back. Only then did it fall to its knees. He rushed again at the weal point, trying to attack the only known weak point. After a few hits, though, once more he was thrown back. Now his opponent was mad. A dark aura suddenly surrounded it.

What now? Sora thought irritably. He brought his keyblade up in defense, but became thoroughly confused at what his opponent. Instead of charging at him, like it usually did, it stood looking him squarely in the eyes for a few seconds. It then took a large hand and slapped its belly once. In a minute of puzzlement, Sora lowered his keyblade, a costly mistake. In a moment, the heartless charged at him once more, much faster than before, and sent him flying about twice as far. He landed with a loud skid on the ground.

Sora almost immediately cried out in pain for his broken arm. He gingerly stood back up, feeling blood trickle slowly down his legs. He gave the beast a dirty look and resummoned his keyblade into his good hand.

Again, it smacked its stomach before running at him again. Sora knew this would happen, and he leapt to the side. The beast kept going and eventually slammed into the magical barrier around the arena. Sora vented his anger into a deadly lunge, aiming for its back. Instead he collided with the belly, and he fell back a few feet, unharmed.

He was startled by this. How could've his opponent gained more speed like that? And what about its strength? It was as if it was magic….

That's it!

Sora grinned despite the pain he felt. He leapt back a few more feet, barely touching the barrier. The heartless began to lumber slowly towards him. He pulled his keyblade level with the monster and, remembering the word Kiyoko had taught him, shouted loudly, "Fire!"

A ball of flames erupted from his weapon. His opponent stared at it, confused, before both, fire and heartless, disappeared.

The crowd jeered and shouted. Sora waved at them with a huge grin plastered on his face before leaving the arena and meeting up with his teammates. They all shouted something cheerful at him as he did.

"If you'll excuse me," he told them, "I need to go find Kiyoko. Got to get this arm fixed."

"Well, nothing seems very tough right now," Kari said as she sat down in her spot in the locker room thirty minutes later. The four fighters were taking a small break from their matches so far, Kari being the most recent. She felt some of the exhilaration from her fight, even though it was only a few shadows and soldiers.

"Of course not," Kail replied as he, too, took a spot next to her. "This is only a novice tournament. But keep your guard up all the same."

Link nodded his head and said, "I second that. It's been too easy till now, but that does not mean it will be so all the way."

"Yeah. I've been hearing a rumor about magic wielding heartless abroad in the matches beyond.. Just be careful."

"Yeah, yeah," Kari said as she waved her hand at him. "Don't worry yourself."

"I can't help it," Kail said.

"Why?" she asked him. She stood up and began stretching. "Think we can't handle it or something?"

"No, I just don't want you-"

"Clan Nutsy!" interrupted a voice with a snigger. They turned to a man who stood in the doorway. "Send your next fighter!"

"My turn," Link said with a smile. He patted the Master Sword's familiar weight on his hip and bade them goodbye before heading to the arena.

When he went out of the darkened locker room to the bright sunlight, he automatically shielded his eyes like before. He tried to search for Zelda, Sora, and Kiyoko in the screaming crowd, but to no avail. He sighed and unsheathed his sword to meet his opponent: a few drillers, soldiers, and shadows in formation. They jeered at him, but Link simply blocked them out from his mind and brought his shield up.

"Ready?" called the man who brought him over the shouts. "Fight!"

The shadows leapt at him, followed closely by the soldiers. The drillers walked slowly to him, staggering along the way. Bringing his shield up Link easily defended from the shadows' leap, cutting them in two soon afterwards. Their pools of black leaked into the ground satisfyingly. The soldiers took the advantage and made for his chest. Again he defended, using his sword to knock the drill out of the way before obliterating it. He did the same to the other and waited for the drillers.

But he only saw one. Where's the other? he thought. He spun around and was thrown onto his back; the heartless had slashed into his tunic and knocked him down. Link was quite sure he feltcuts but ignoredthem as he stood back up. The two drillers began advancing on him slowly, their yellows eyes gleaming hungrily.

Link slowly backed away from them, conscious of the fact that he could not leave the ring. He slashed at the heartless, but they deflected it with their drill arms. He soon felt the edge of the arena beneath his heel, and he stopped moving. The drillers jabbed at him. Using his quick reflexes, he managed to jump over them. Landing behind them, he yelled two words at their backs.

"Din's Fire!" he cried out. Instantly, a bright shield of fire surrounded him, including the drillers. They were immediately destroyed in the fire. The inferno then disappeared before it could cause more damage.

"Winner!" shouted the man.

Link was panting slightly, but he managed to give the crowd a smile before heading to the rest of Clan Nutsy. There, he was high-fived by his other two teammates.

"Nice job out there!" Kail congratulated,

"Thanks," Link answered. He sheathed the Master Sword and took a seat. "I wish the heartless would at least put up a decent fight." He stretched and yawned, as if he was bored by his fight. "Sora's not back yet?"

Kari answered, "More than likely he'll be stuffing himself somewhere around her. If we know him well enough, who knows how long that would take?"

"Wish he could've waited for me," he said mischievously as he patted his stomach. Both Kail and Kari sighed as one.

Well, I've changed last chapter's text slightly. For those who like to decode, I re-did what Kiyoko says in the Ancient Language. I'll give a plush doll of whoever they want to the person who figures out what she says! Here's a small hint: It's not Al Bhed. Good luck! (if anyone tries at all)

Master of the Dark Trio- No offense taken whatsoever. It's the truth really.

Ninja Mage- Kiyoko wants me to let you know that she feels flattered. . And thanks!

Mikol- I think I'm having a revolt about my update speed. --; To answer your question, Merlin is in another world doing…..stuff. Not sure if he'll appear at all in this fic.

L4by4- Well that sucks. I'm sorry about that and I hope you can get back your internet soon. Use your bro's loaded wallet, I say!

Note: Check profile for updates on how the chapters are going. Those interested in my drawings can also look for my Deviant Art account in there too.

And to those who read but don't review this, REVIEW DANG IT!

Med