Chapter 4! All right! I'd like to thank all my faythful (haha) readers for reviewing and keeping my motivation up. This is where the fighting is going to start to heat up so hang on to your shorts cause we're about to unleash a can of whoopass on this story. Chapter 4 is so action packed that it's going to be in 2 parts, so enjoy!

Disclaimer: I do not own any of the characters, songs, and places. They belong to SquareEnix(. The song "There's Gonna Be Some Rocking" is owned by AC/DC.

Chapter 4-Part 1: Men's Opening Bouts

There's gonna be some rocking

At the show tonight," AC/DC

Seymour smiled as dawn broke over the regal Bevelle Stadium. "And so it begins," he smiled.

The locker room was full of other men as the members of cabin 101 entered. Tidus wore a solemn face as he sat down on a bench with his armor and sword. He began his routine armor check before he began to put it on. For some reason, it seemed lighter today than usual. He shrugged the thought away, no use wasting your thinking time on useless crap like that. As he finished putting on the last of his shin guards, a man in tournament officials clothes began to hand out protectees. These belts were nothing but a brown leather strap with a blue orb in the middle. Although it looked useless, Tidus knew that a protectee was the only way you could survive in a tournament. The blue orb in the center prevented death by making hits blunt on the body instead of sharp. You could still get seriously hurt but only by bludgeoning. Tidus took one from the man and attached it carefully to his waist, slipping the strap so that it fitted tightly against his abdomen. Wakka walked over and sat down next to him, his elbow guards were big and almost hit him in the face as the burly redhead sat down. "Can you hear the crowd?" Wakka said excitedly.

Tidus made a habit of drowning the crowd out with concentration before matches, now he listened to their deafening cheers and smiled remembering that one of those screaming voices was Yuna's. " I hear them Wakka. We better give them a show, or else we'll have fans for opponents," he joked.

Wakka laughed at this thought, which attracted Auron to their bench. "What's so funny?" he asked in his monotonous voice.

Tidus grimaced, what's his problem?, he thought. Luckily, the starter's bell rang and Tidus quickly rose to meet it. "Let's rock," he said as they headed for the hallway to the stadium.

The crowd was roaring and the noise rocked the entire stadium. Tidus clutched his sword and took a deep breath, exhaling it slowly. He saw Wakka turn to him," You okay, ya?" he asked in a concerned voice.

Tidus smiled," I play all day and I fight all night and when the time comes I'm gonna do it right," he recited. It was a blitzer game chant. Wakka smiled. The doors to the arena opened with a loud DUM! Tidus began to walk forward with the other fighters. The game is on!, was his final thought before the cheers hit him.

Orri the Shadow was four feet tall with a katana that was 2 feet bigger than him. Tidus had to restrain himself from laughing his ass off. He had to bend down to shake his hand before the introductions began. As they announced names, Tidus spotted Yuna in the vast crowd and waved to her. She waved back and he smiled, god was he head over heels for her. He switched his concentration back to Orri, small or not this was a fight and he would treat it that way. Maester Seymour appeared at the judge's podium amidst the cheers of the crowd. He held his hands up for silence and then began to speak," People of Bevelle! Welcome to the Grand Maester's Tournament!" he waited for the wave of roaring cheers to subside before resuming," Today we will begin round one of this tournament. These battles are not eliminatory and are only to determine placement in Round 2. I wish the best of luck to all of our contenders. Now without further ado, begin!" He ended as the crowd burst into cheers and yells. A voice over the intercom said calmly," Round one of men's placement fights begins......... Now!"

A bell rang and Tidus sprung into action. He sped towards Orri with his sword outstretched and his eyes burning. Just as he swung at the dwarf figure, Orri smiled and disappeared. Tidus cut thin air and felt a figure materialize behind him; he sidestepped just fast enough to avoid a vertical swing from Orri's katana. He swung to meet his enemy, but found only empty ground. He felt Orri behind him and dodged his katana again. Shit!, he thought as he swirled around to find nothing but air. Tidus, once more, felt the sensation of Orri materializing behind him, but this time he was ready for it. "Hyaa!" he yelled as he swirled around with his blade slashing horizontally. The blow hit Orri on the top of the head as he tried to dodge it. He flew back a few feet before landing on his feet and disappearing again. Suddenly, Tidus felt him on his right; he swung to meet Orri, but slashed at air. Damn!, he cursed as Orri's blade appeared on his left, an illusion! The blow hit him hard in his arm guard and he careened off balance for a split second, Orri took this moment to kick him square in the legs causing him to fall flat on is back. Tidus quickly rolled to avoid Orri's stabbing blade and counter-attacked with a swift horizontal slash. Orri took it square in the chest and staggered back, winded. Tidus saw this as his chance and dove in for two vertical slashes, throwing the small fighter farther towards the edge. "C-ya small fry!" he yelled as he rushed in for the finishing blow. Orri smirked," You think this over? I just getting started!" he yelled as he disappeared again. Tidus stopped and tried to feel where Orri would strike from, but it was no use for suddenly a loud BANG! Exploded behind him and he was engulfed in black smoke. He heard Orri cackle," Hahahaha. You can track me in the light, but how about the dark?" Tidus cursed, he could see nothing and the smoke prevented him from feeling anything. A blade struck him in the side and he careened off to the side before falling to the ground. He clutched his side and grimaced, How do I sense him?, Tidus asked himself. Another blow hit him in the back sending him flying forward. He picked himself up and did the only thing that came to his mind. He planted his sword into the ground and waited. He felt vibrations from his left and smiled. He dodged the blow just in time to see Orri's hand before it disappeared back into the black smoke. He replanted his sword and felt the vibrations speed up. Left, right, back, and............front! Tidus brought his word up in a horizontal block just as Orri's katana swung down towards him. Just before Orri's hand returned to the shadow, Tidus saw that it was glowing white, he smiled, Orri was using haste! Tidus quickly reverted his every thought to the air and how it moved. Left, right, left, forward, behind.........left! Orri swung down with all his might only to find his blade caught by Tidus' cleverly outstretched hands. As he caught the blade, Tidus yelled one word into the blackness," SLOW!"

White fire shot up the sword and seeped into Orri making him slow to a crawl. He fell to the ground and began to try to get up in slow motion. Tidus pulled him up by the front of his shirt, "You can catch shadows you know," he said to him before he hurled him with all of his might from the black cloud.

Break:

Wakka stared in awe of his opponent, a tall man in a black cloak with a red sash around his head and a golden arm. He carried a large gun and Wakka saw a demon behind his eyes. He walked up to him and said unemotionally," I am Vincent Valentine. Pleased to meet you."

He had a sort of slurred smooth tone to his voice that made Wakka think that Mr. Valentine probably had an easy time with the ladies. "Nice to meet ya. I am Wakka," he responded cheerfully.

Vincent seemed to smirk at his tone and then turned on his heel and trotted back to his side of the platform. Seymour gave his little speech and then the announcer began to read of the names. He heard Tidus' name and turned to look at his platform. He had to keep himself from guffawing; Orri was standing about 2 feet shorter than him. Wakka immediately felt regret for scaring Tidus with all the rumors he had heard. He heard his name and switched his attention back to Vincent. Okay, he thought to himself, he's got a gun. No biggie, just think of it as dodging a realllly small blitzball. Yeah, that's it. Then the starting bell rang.

Vincent brought his gun up in the blink of an eye and began firing like a crazed devil. Wakka immediately rolled to the side and threw his blitzball at the demon gunman. it hit him in the side and Vincent fell off balance, he hit the platform hard but didn't stop firing. a bullet hit Wakka's shoulder pad and glanced off as he tried to retrieve his ball. He picked it up and hurled it in one swift movement and watched as it hit Vincent in the head as he tried to get up. Vincent was thrown back a few feet, but rose quickly and began firing again, this time his bullets glowed a bright red. Wakka rolled and dodged the bullets and grabbed his ball. Before he threw it this time he muttered," Power Break."

The ball glowed a deep red as it sped through the air and hit Vincent square in his middle sending him flying of the platform. Just as Wakka was about to celebrate, Vincent pointed his gun at the platform and yelled," Demon Harpoon!"

A red beam shot from his gun and connected with the platform, it reeled him back to the platform with tremendous speed and in less than a second bullets were firing at Wakka again. He leapt away at the last second as bullets flew past were he had been moment ago. Shit, he thought, now I can't do a ring-out! He felt himself running out of energy, he'd been dodging constantly and was feeling burn now. Suddenly a plan came to his head and he smiled. Wakka concentrated all his energy into the blitzball and it began to crackle with energy. Wakka pulled his arm back and threw it with all his might. It missed Vincent by five feet and sailed away out of the stands. Vincent chuckled as he watched the ball become a speck in the sky, " You're gonna have to work on th-" Wakka cut him off with a swift kick in his chest. He fell back, winded, and tried to get up only to meet Wakka's foot again, this time in his face. Vincent flew back and felt that he was bleeding from his nose. He had not 3 seconds to think before Wakka kicked him high up into the air. Vincent saw the platform fly past him and he pointed his gun at it, then he saw the blitzball fly at him. Wakka smiled as the ball hit Vincent and carried him over two platforms before driving him into the ground.

Break:

CLANG! CLANG! SWISH! CRRRRRANG! Auron slashed wildly at his opponent as they moved around the platform. On the other side of his sword was a man who identified himself as Squall Leonhart and wielded a blade that proved to double as a huge revolver. Since the whistle had blown Auron had been tooth and nail with the swordsman, blocking every slash and matching each other's moves perfectly. They finally broke apart, panting and sweating. Auron put his sword in the ready position and let his energy flow into it. he watched as it began to glow red. He lifted it and charged at Leon who was still on one knee panting. "Shooting Star!" yelled Auron as he swung at his opponent's midsection. There was a great flash of light and Auron felt his blade hit Leon's sword. When the light had passed and Auron's vision had come back, he saw that Leon still stood on the platform. He had slammed the gunblade into the platform and when Auron had hit the sword, instead of sending him flying off the platform it just sent him skidding half the distance. Auron smiled and said," Nice move kid."

Leon smirked,"' I'm not a kid." And as if to prove his point, cocked his gunblade and fired it at Auron. The huge ball of fire missed him by an inch and when it passed, Auron noticed that his coat was on fire. He patted it out, but kept his eye on Leon at the same time. Then they charged at each other with fire in their eyes.

The protectees lowered your bloodshed, but it still hurt Auron where the gunblade had scored multiple hard hits. He saw that Leon was equally battered and breathing heavily. I've broken one of his ribs, he thought. He turned his thoughts to his own health analysis, his legs felt stiff, his kneecap was on the verge of dislocation, and his arms felt like lead. He felt like falling over and saw that Leon felt the same. He lowered his sword and walked over to his panting opponent with an extended arm. "Truce," he said gruffly. Leon took it gratefully and shook it weakly. Auron sighed silently, it was against his code to truce, but in this case he felt it necessary.

Break:

Zulu Ascot was bigger than a bear, hell; he was bigger than 2 bears. Kimahri gripped his lance tighter as he looked upon his monstrous opponent. Zulu smiled down at him through his strong, tanned face. His muscular chest flexed as he bent down to shake Kimahri's now ridiculously small looking hand. Seymour made his speech and Zulu picked up his steel hammer while Kimahri gripped his lance as if he would break it. The bell rang and Kimahri felt the shadow of the hammer come over him. He dodged it easily and swiped at Zulu's leg with all his strength. He barley knocked the giant back an inch, but Zulu howled in pain and swung his hammer again. This time Kimahri dodged to slow and the humongous weapon clipped his right shoulder sending him sprawling. He rolled to avoid the hammers down swipe and picked himself back up. Zulu smiled, he was having fun kicking the little blue lion around, but now he was tired and decided to end it.. He gathered his energy and brought his hammer up above his head. " Thor's Hammer!" he yelled as he brought the hammer down upon Kimahri's head. It hit the ground crackling with electricity and sent a shockwave out through the entire platform. He lifted his hammer to see if he had hit the little fur ball, but he hadn't, Kimahri stood atop his lance with his eyes shut and two fingers to his forehead. Suddenly he grabbed the lance out from under him and charged Zulu with a burning fire in his eyes. Kimahri leapt into the air and roared," Thor's Hammer!" He brought his lance down on Zulu's head with electricity crackling all around it. The last thing the giant heard before 20,000 volts of electricity knocked him out was," Lancet Bitch!"

Break:

Yuna cheered as Orri flew from the black smoke and Tidus appeared with his fists up. It made her so happy to see that he was okay and hoped he would feel the same after she fought.

Break:

Sneak Peak: Chapter 4- Part 2

It's the girl's turn to fight and it's a royal catfight! And will stone cold Auron fall for happy, sunny Rikku and vice versa? Stay tuned! Me-ow!

Post Chapter Completion Overview:

Cooooooooooooool! Action mucho! I apologize for the lack of substantial mush in this chapter, but this is a primarily fighting story. Well, hope you're psyched about chapter 4-2. C-ya!