Chiroptera was unimpressed by Knuckles and his attitude. When asked why he was fighting Scaris, the echidna snarled at her to mind her own business. When asked if he understood why Rouge wasn't fighting Scaris, again she was warned that this was business between treasure hunters. Her plan to disgrace Rouge had failed.

Knuckles had completely lost track of time since he had entered the caves. The arena was surrounded with a faint glowing yellow light. The female bats had placed small lanterns around the cave to allow Chiroptera to see clearly. He was glad that more light was available this time around since he wouldn't be allowed to use the stalactites as weapons anymore.

Scaris was perched upside down on a nearby wall. His shaggy green fur had been combed and he wore a black bandana tied around his forehead. Knuckles noticed he was still sporting the small dagger in his utility belt. He would have to be on his guard.

So the battle began Scaris took flight into the air a few metres above the echidna. Knuckles began to climb the wall with speed for some extra height and prepared to make a glide attack. Suddenly a flash of pulsing white light was coming towards him. The ball of light smashed into the wall with great force sending a rain of debris across the whole arena. Knuckles had dashed across to the other side in the nick of time.

An attack from behind slammed Knuckles onto the floor, this was followed by a sharp kick to the ribs. Scaris made to dive on top of his opponent only to be greeted by dust. Knuckles grabbed the bat's large ears and pulled hard. The resulting scream echoed around the caves and Scaris thrashed out from side to side in anger. It was all Knuckles could do to recover from the sever winding he'd received moments before.

As the echidna let go Scaris spun around,

"How DARE you!" He exclaimed. "You're going to pay for that with your life!"

With this he charged into the air with a spinning turning kick and struck one of the nearby rocks. Knuckles began to throw smaller rocks at the young bat until he stopped kicking. He timed his throws just right to let the last rock sail towards its target and then dug under the ground to meet Scaris, with a devastating upper cut punch. His opponent staggered towards the wall and wiped his arm across his blood stained lips.

"Got yourself a tough one here sweet heart." He smiled unpleasantly at Rouge and spat.

With renewed determination Scaris decided that close combat might work better than fighting from a distance. He took his dagger with a firm grip and sliced towards his enemy. Knuckles dodged to the left and then jumped from spot to spot avoiding the deadly weapon but the bat was still unnervingly quick.

"Stay still!" Scaris grunted hacking and carving up the air where Knuckles had been seconds before.

"How about we settle this without your little toy?" Knuckles gritted his teeth and caught the bat's arm dragging it to the side before slamming the whole limb into the wall.

Scaris dropped the dagger and clutched his arm in agony. As a counter he attacked with a front snap kick with lightning speed into Knuckles' chest. Next he threw grit into the echidna's eyes and withdrew to a safe distance. He took the black bandana and wrapped it around his arm pulling it tight.

Knuckles' eyes were streaming and it was extremely painful to blink. He held out his arms looking for a wall to stand against and get his bearings but he was in the very centre of the arena. He clutched his chest trying to breathe and conserve his energy.

"I need to start blocking a little more." He muttered to himself.

"Knux - get your arse in gear!" Rouge cursed. She watched as her grandmother folded her arms and smiled to herself. If Knuckles didn't win Rouge would have no choice but to stay and become the new chieftain.

This time Scaris wrestled his opponent to the ground and began punching him again and again. Knuckles curled into a ball and threw the bat onto the hard ground. He held up his arms to protect his chest and focused on waiting for an opening.

Scaris promptly swept his legs underneath Knuckles and knocked him the ground. He was laughing now thoroughly enjoying the crunching sound as the echidna landed. He picked up the echidna by the dreadlocks and swung him around several time before letting go.

Knuckles felt ill and could feel a trickle of blood pouring from the side of his head. Scaris had also succeeded in pulling off one of his prized red dreadlocks. He looked at Rouge who was genuinely horrified by the scene. Scaris was hysterical catching the lock of hair from one hand to the other and declaring his victory.

"That is IT!" Knuckles yelled and slammed into Scaris crashing the pair onto the floor. Unexpectedly the floor gave way leading to another chamber underneath. The fighters fell through and landed roughly. Knuckles held the bat down in a headlock he could hear the chokes and splutters of his opponent as he struggled against the tight grip.

"Seems I'm facing a little déjà vu!" Scaris hissed between gasping breaths. "These caves are so fragile it's very easy to have an accident if you're not careful."

"What are you talking about Scaris?" Knuckles released his grip and pushed him away.

"Kathleen disapproved of me as a potential partner I had to make sure the inheritance was mine no matter what."

At this point it appeared Scaris was one sandwich short of a picnic. Whether the concussion to his head was starting to affect him or he was just plain mad Knuckles couldn't tell. He felt that staying here with Scaris in such a mind state was not a smart idea.

"What did you do Scaris?" Knuckles spoke slowly and quietly so the others could not hear. The whole colony had surrounded the gaping hole where Knuckles and his opponent had fallen through.

"The cave in - it was my doing."

"You murdered someone?" Knuckles backed away from the bat taking it all in. "How could you kill one of your own people like that?"

"Well it doesn't matter because you will not leave here to tell another soul!"

Another fizzing white ball of energy exploded from Scaris and Knuckles had to dive out the way. He was beginning to regret more than ever waking up this morning and following Rouge on a wild goose chase for an ancient echidna scroll. The walls surrounding them were beginning to crumble the whole top layer of the colony was becoming unstable. More rocks began to pour into the chamber sending dust and grit into the air. Knuckles and Scaris were still fighting amongst it all leaving Rouge and Chiroptera to sound an evacuation.

"Collect all the pups and get to the outside quickly! The whole place is going under!" Chiroptera barked.

"What about Scaris and Knuckles?" Rouge shouted over the chaos.

"Tell them to get out of here. The battle will be over for them both if they're crushed!"

As the evacuation began Rouge flew down to the next chamber shielding her eyes looking for any sign of the two fighters. She spotted them a few yards away still punching and kicking completely unaware that death was staring them in the face. One of Scaris' wings had been torn off and her knight in shining armour was sporting several nasty looking wounds himself.

"Knuckles the whole place is coming down. We need to go!"

"What about the fight?" Knuckles yelled back, dodging yet another low kick at the same time.

"Forget it! I need to fly you out of here right now!"

"Time to go Scaris," Knuckles said firmly to the battered green bat.

"What's wrong echidna can't finish what you started? I'm not going anywhere!"

Scaris was making a last ditch attempt to win the fight. If he couldn't become leader he wasn't going to let Rouge or Knuckles escape either.