Fox, Krystal, and Tricky advanced a little further into the Moon Mountain Pass, only to have their path blocked off by the meteor that crashed earlier after they walked passed six small craters that shot out steam into the air. Fox was clearly very frustrated by the inability to advance forward. "Well this stinks. How are we supposed to get to the Krazoa shrine with this dumb thing blocking the way?"

"I suppose you were using more of those figurative expressions your culture likes to use, weren't you? Anyway, I think those steam vents may have something to do with it. Take a look."

Fox, Krystal, and Tricky examined the steam vents and saw that each one shot out steam at quite a bit of force. There were six steam vents in total, with one being close to the meteor, two more only slightly further away from it, at least a foot and a half, spread out at least five feet from each other a few feet from the steam vent closest to the meteor, two more steam vents that were further from the meteor that were closer to each other, and one more steam vent in the center. The trio thought that maybe they should find something that would allow them to use that to their advantage to lift up the boulder. Krystal announced, "I think that any meteor fragments floating around this area may come in handy in clearing this boulder from our path."

Fox asked, "You sure pushing or punching the meteor out of the way wouldn't work?"

Krystal, with a "you're-missing-the-point" kind of tone and expression replied, "Of course, I'm sure because doing anything of the sort would do nothing more than waste time and energy."

"How about climbing up on the rock and moving above it?"

"See previous answer. Besides, if we succeed, how are we going to get Tricky across it?"

"He could piggyback on one of us."

"That would make you even heavier."

"All right then. Let's split up. Krystal, I suggest you look for anything useful on the left side of the valley while Tricky and I search the right."

Krystal agreed. " All right, let's move out!"

Fox and Tricky both replied simultaneously, "Yes, ma'am!"

As Fox and Tricky headed over to the right side of the wide area where the meteor crashed. There, much to Fox's chagrin, yet another Kalda Chom popped up again. Just like when he fought the other ones, Fox hit it with a Ground Quake, stabbed the purple spot on the creature's back, then repeated the whole process again, killing it. Finishing off the beast was easy, but groan-inducingly tiresome. Fox picked up the resulting MoonSeed in case he might need it later, but then he noticed a suspicious patch of dirt nearby. He asked Prince Tricky, "Tricky, you mind digging here?" Tricky obliged and dug the suspicious patch of earth that Fox specified. While he waited, Fox climbed a short wall into a small, nearby cave, and broke a few SharpClaw supply crates, grabbing a few Puk Puk eggs, Dumbledang pods, and Fuel Cells in case he and Krystal might need them later.

When he came back, Tricky had already finished digging the hole. Tricky called, "Hey! Fox! Look what I found!"

Fox took a look. It appears as though Tricky has found a weird rock. Fox would have been underwhelmed and disappointed if he didn't notice something peculiar about the rock that Trickey found. The rock seemed to have some kind of weird red glow around it. Fox felt that it looked incredibly foreboding and he was instantly afraid that the rock would be too dangerous for him to touch. He hesitated for a few seconds, took a deep breath, then reluctantly picked up the rock, afraid of what kind of physical harm might be inflicted on him if he were to touch it. Apparently, his fears were confirmed. The rock felt so hot that he had to drop the rock immediately. Fox took out his staff and used it to push the rock towards the steam vents like a janitor sweeping trash with a broom. It felt tedious and boring. After a few feet, though, Fox wondered if using the Ice Blast could make the meteor fragment safer to touch. He blew some of the Ice Blast on the fragment, and when the tried picking it up, it was okay for him to touch. He breathed a sigh of relief. Fox picked up the rock and when he reached the steam vents, he put the rock into the steam vent closest to the meteor blocking the path.

Meanwhile on the other side of the valley, Krystal ran into yet another Kalda Chom, thinking the same thing Fox felt, and killed it with two run-throughs of the use-Ground-Quake-then-hit-purple-spot-on-monster's-back routine, picking up the MoonSeed and using it as a necklace due to its crescent-moon-like shape then continued on. After coming across a circle of strange-looking dirt with craters shooting out a strange yellow vapor into the air, and somewhere around the mysterious landmark was a rock that was on fire. Krystal put out the flame with her Ice Blast, and then picked up the fragment, and placed it onto the one of the steam vents closer to the meteor. It was at that moment where she rendezvoused with Fox and noticed that he found another rock just like the one she brought over. The two exchanged friendly looks at each other, before examining the craters for a bit. Krystal asked, "Fox, would you mind if Tricky partnered up with me for a bit? I noticed a bit of ground that he might be able to dig in order to find something useful."

"All right." Fox turned to Tricky for a moment. "Tricky, you mind partnering up with Krystal for a bit?"

Tricky nodded. Fox kept searching the right side of the valley again, while Krystal and Trickey headed toward the left. As soon as Krystal and Tricky approached the weird patch of earth and Tricky dug up the hole, unveiling the meteor fragment. Krystal attempted to pick up the fragment, her hands burned and she kept waving her hands due to the pain caused by touching something so hot. She quickly cooled the rock down with her Ice Blast.

Tricky pointed out, "Fox had that idea too!"

"Didn't he? I supposed he would." She returned to the area with the steam vents and placed the rock on the center steam vent. Then all of a sudden, steam started shooting out from underneath the boulder and it started to rotate around. And the third fragment got elevated even higher than the first two. Krystal got excited. She turned to her right shouting, "Fox! Over here! You need to come over here and see this!"

Fox immediately dashed towards the rest of the group. He spotted the boulder floating in the steam vent. "All right! Nice work! Only three more meteor fragments to go."

"Actually, um…" Krystal then shrugged.

"What?"

"We searched the whole valley. There aren't any more."

Fox was baffled by what he just heard. "What!? How are we supposed to get past that stupid meteor now!?"

"Well, I don't think our goal here is to place a rock into all of the steam vents, but rather to place each rock on a specific vent."

"What do you mean?"

Krystal picked up the meteor fragment put into the steam vent closest to the meteor, which was only just barely being pushed by the steam in the vent. Much to Fox's surprise, the steam beneath the large meteor was still pumping out. Krystal only theorized it would happen, but she didn't seem all that surprised for some reason. She placed the meteor fragment on one of the vents on the more southward sections of the group of steam vents, and then the steam underneath the meteor got even more intense causing it to rise up even higher. Fox wondered if the steam vent right next to the two vents that made the steam underneath the meteor rise was the correct one, so he placed the last meteor fragment there, and the meteor was being lifted so much that Fox, Krystal, and Tricky could finally pass through.

Fox, Krystal, and Tricky did pass through the opening, only to come across yet another Kalda Chom. Fox and Krystal got sick and tired of the whole use-Ground-Quake-then-hit-creature's-back-twice pattern, so, they decided to gang up on the creature instead. They approached the beast from each side, confusing it, with it turning back and forth every which way, and Fox and Krystal readied their staffs ready to stab at the creature's back. The moment the Kalda Chom started turning more wildly, Krystal waited for it to turn its back to her, and when it did, she stabbed at the purple spot on its back. This angered the beast and it turned to attack Krystal, only to get stabbed by Fox from behind and die. Fox picked up the MoonSeed that resulted from the creature's corpse, and planted it on a nearby patch of grass next to a cracked cliffside, and asked Tricky to set fire to it. After the flames caused the vine to grow on the crack on the cliffside, Fox, then Tricky, then Krystal climbed up the vine to the top of the cliff. When they got there, Fox fed Tricky some more GrubTubs and then the group continued moving forward.

After reaching a ledge, the group walked down a downward slope to a level that gently lead them to the area below the ledge. Krystal planted the MoonSeed she used as a necklace earlier, then asked Tricky to ignite it so the vine could grow. After the vine grew from Tricky's flames, the group climbed up the vine, and then climbed up a few upward slopes, leading to a stone opening leading to a small room with a glowing pad inside. As soon as Tricky entered, Fox asked him, "Tricky, do you mind waiting nearby?" Tricky nodded. Fox and Krystal stepped on the pad and the pad grew brighter beneath their feet. The two vulpines felt weightless until they found themselves transported to their destination: the second Krazoa Shrine.

As soon as Fox and Krystal reappeared in the Krazoa Shrine, Fox climbed up the later with Krystal following him, and as soon as they got up the ladder, they went into the next room, they noticed they had to swim past a small pool to get to the other side, where a tiny flame blocked a stone wall that led to where our heroes needed to go, and hovering above that ledge was a glowing jellyfish-like wraith like the ones Krystal dealt with in the previous Krazoa Shrine. This sounded inconsequential to them on paper, but then they noticed that there were two tiny whirlpools in the middle of the pool. This both baffled and worried the two vulpines because whirlpools could only exist in natural bodies of water, but they had to keep moving. Thankfully, for them, the whirlpools were tiny and only appeared on two of the corners of the room: the left corner on their side of the pool, and the right corner on the other side. Krystal dove in first into the right corner of her and Fox's side of the pool, then swam to the center of the pool and then to the left corner of the far side of the pool, then got up on the nearby ledge. Fox followed the same pattern as Krystal, getting him across the pool safely. Krystal put out the flame blocking their path, while Fox used the Fire Blast to shoot down the wraith, killing it. He and Krystal then climbed up the stone wall, and then noticed that there was a pool of water down below, but no means to get across to the other side, apart from a ledge that our heroes could potentially shimmy across. So Fox decided to give it a try. He lept to the ledge nearby one of the walls and walked along that ledge, but at the end of the ledge, the positioning of the column made it a little tricky for Fox to jump to the other side. Fox took a few steps back and then charged forward so he could leap forward. Unfortunately, he had so little ground to get a head-start with, causing him to slip off the ledge in an instant and fall into the small pool below. He splashed into the pool and quickly swam back up to the surface again. Krystal giggled at Fox's misstep, much to his annoyance. Grinning and bearing it, Fox climbed up the ladder back up to the upper ledge again, but noticed something peculiar along the way. An arc hanging above the previous pool at the shrine's entrance had a Fire Blast switch on the other side. He shot at the switch causing the water in the shallow pool without the whirlpools to rise up so that Fox and Krystal could swim across, which they did.

After they got to the other side, Fox and Krystal passed into the next room and turned right to another room where a series of narrow ledgeways. Fox and Krystal approached the walkways but noticed something peculiar and foreboding about the walkways. The walkways had metal grates that were beneath flame jets that were on the floor below the narrow walkways. This startled the vulpine duo at first, but then Fox decided to count the number of seconds between streaks of flame. He started counting after the flamethrowers took a break from shooting. One… two… three… four…

The flame shoot up again. Krystal held to Fox's arm. "Fox…"

Fox replied, "We'll be okay. Just follow me. We'll walk across the walkway single-file. As soon as I cross the flame jet, I'll keep moving for a few more seconds. So I want you to wait for a few seconds before following."

Krystal said, "Okay." They walked across the walkway with Fox going first, and Krystal following behind. He struggled to figure out the proper speed. If he and Krystal went too slowly, they could get incinerated by the flame jets on the floor while trying to pass them. If they went too quickly, they could slip off the walkway. Fox and Krystal took a few steps along the walkway, right before the first flame jet. They stopped and waited for the flame jet to stop shooting fire. Then as soon as the flames stopped, Fox walked just slightly faster until he got past the first vent. He slowed down his movement and walked slowly on the part of the walkway leading to the left. Krystal walked a few steps toward the metal grating above the first flame jet, then immediately after the flame went away, walked slightly faster until she was past the grating. She slowly walked along the pathway, speeding up her walk only slightly just to catch up with Fox, with the pathway then going along the wall to the left side of the room, then they walked along a path leaning to the right. On that pathway, they came across another metal grating which was above another flame jet. The grate was a bit shorter than the previous one, though, so Fox and Krystal should have no problem getting across it. But they used the same strategy. Fox crossed the grating first, then a few seconds later, Krystal crossed the grating after Fox had created more space between him and the area past the grating. They walked to a part of a walkway that was connected to the wall on the right side of the room, then one that turned left of where they were, then, when there was one more part of the walkway where they turned right, and it was above the last flame jet. Fox made a slight dash across it after the flame died out, reaching the other side of the room. After he made it across, Krystal followed him after the flame stopped as well. With the two vulpines across the walkway, they were relieved to be on solid ground again, but now there was a closed gate standing between them and the Krazoa Spirit.

Krystal spotted a Fire Blast switch on the ceiling. She shot it with her Fire Blast, opening the gate, and they went on through. They walked to the center of the new room and met up with the Krazoa Spirit inside. The spirit spoke to them as they entered the room.

"I have been waiting for you, last child of Cerinia. And it is a pleasure to meet you too, hero of the Lylat Wars."

Fox was baffled and perplex. "It knows about our histories!?"

Krystal replied, "I know. I was as confused about it as you are. But the previous Krazoa Spirit told me that the Spirits know of many things in the galaxy even though they stay on this planet."

The Spirit continued. "Correct. We Krazoa Spirits have an inner connection to the universe. I believe that we can attest to the doomed cries of our brethren. Especially in their dying moments."

Fox exclaimed, "What are you talking…"

But Krystal interrupted, "So you're saying that on my world…"

The Spirit cut Krystal off. "But that's enough talk for now. For now, I shall be yours if you pass the Test of Combat."

Krystal turned to Fox. "All right, Fox. Shall we?"

"However…" the Krazoa Spirit continued, "I'm afraid that your friend must pass this test alone."

"WHAT!?" both vulpines shout in bafflement.

"You, Cerinian, are a great warrior indeed, but your telepathy could make your battles too easy for you at times. Hero of the Lylat Wars, you must pass this test alone."

The spirit started magically lifting Krystal in the air moving her to the edge of the room. And put a barrier around the area around the center of the room. Krystal angrily started pounding at the barrier screaming in rage, "No! I don't want to leave him! We're in this together! I can't…"

But the spirit appeared before her, reassuring her. "Calm down. The Cornerian will be all right. Just have faith in him."

But tears started to form from Krystal's eyes. "But why… I know he's a skilled fighter, but we work best as a team."

"I understand. But Fox's combat abilities need to be tested for when he is on his own. And don't feel too distress. Even alone, he is still formidable. Don't feel too distressed."

Krystal didn't like it, but she knew she had to have faith in the man she loved. Even before he met Krystal, Fox had been becoming skilled with her staff, and even though the one he had now was a bit shorter and heavier than hers, he had become accustomed to it by this point. Hopefully, Krystal wouldn't have to worry too much as Fox was a skilled fighter like she is, so she had to take it like a man. She wasn't one, but she was as skilled and formidable as any.

The Krazoa Spirit returned to Fox in the center of the room to face Fox. "Are you ready for the Test of Combat, Cornerian?"

Fox nodded. "I'm ready."

Author's Notes: One thing about the meteor fragments in the video game version of the story is that they don't cause you damage while you're holding them, they explode when you throw them at something or if one of the flying enemies flies right into it, only to respawn where you find them. So I changed the ways the meteor worked so that it would work for the new medium.

In addition, I felt it would be more dynamic if in this version, Fox was forced to take the Test of Combat alone and once the vulpine heroes came across more Krazoa Spirits, there would be more tests that Krystal would have to face alone as well. Compared to Krystal, Fox is more of an underdog (no pun intended) as he has a shorter, heavier staff and has no telepathy, putting him at a disadvantage compared to Krystal, and I felt that it would be more dynamic if the Krazoa Spirit attempted to prevent the Test of Combat from being too easy for our heroes.