Final Fantasy XV - Kingdom Hearts

Part 64

Summary: Two warriors of Light, the Chosen King and Keyblade Master, face an unseen Darkness.

A/N: Very fighty chapter today! Have fun!

*Month Two, Day Thirty-Two*

*Arena*

Gathering up the entire party to the arena after a good and filling breakfast by Sora and Ignis, the fourteen guardians readied themselves for their next month of rigorous training. Before that, however, the master was already writing up the next sparring sessions to see how much progress was made with the less experienced keyblade wielders.

"Okay then, everyone ready?", she asks, finishing up her notes and addressing the party. There is a collection of confirmations and affirmatives. She smiled gratefully and turns to the two royalties. "Right then, Kairi, Noct? Step into the ring", she says.

With a smile, Kairi skips to the ring while her opponent casually walks to it. The king of light rolled his shoulders as he calls for Night's Sky, facing down Kairi while she called for Destiny's Embrace and immediately shifted into her stance. Truthfully Noctis was rather eager to finally spar with Kairi, not that he sees this as an easy win of sorts (he kinda does) but after seeing all she could do back home and from what the others had told him, there was a sense of excitement within him.

Like himself she was still getting her feet wet with the keyblade and a good part of him was very curious to see exactly what Lunafreya had been teaching her. It will be fun to fight someone who he considered a decent fellow student. He just…hoped Sora won't tear him a new one by the end of this.

"This time it'll be who submits or who's unable to continue, first to fall loses", Aqua instructed, stepping out of the ring, "Begin!".

Both apprentices dashed toward the other, keyblades meeting instantly with sparks popping from the contact of two holy weapons. Like dancers, the two royal bloodlines clashed, Kairi using two-handed gripped attacks while Noctis with just a single arm. The king phases from her attacks and kept trying to strike her at her sides, Kairi would catch him immediately with a parry or deflect his attack back at him, disrupting his footing while using his momentum against him.

Noctis steps back from a swipe of Kairi's key dismissed his divine weapon and calls for his daggers. Kairi braced herself for a swarm of quick flurried attacks by his majesty, striking at every spot and direction while nimbly spinning his daggers in hands to throw her off. The princess rolls away from him on his right and then dashed away to create space between him and her. Noctis warps into the air just above her, calling for Sword of the Tall.

With a loud "eep" from the girl, Kairi jumps to the left to avoid being crushed by the giant weapon. When Noctis struck the ground, he instantly phased warped to Kairi just as her feet touched the ground and called for his spear. With a swing, he smacks Kairi in the stomach with the pole and throws her across the field. Her boots digging into the ground to halt her momentum, Kairi grunts out and rubbed her bruised stomach.

The king calls for the Sword of the Father and rushed into Kairi. When in range Noctis begins to unleash a slow but devastatingly strong slew of attacks Kairi forced Kairi onto the defense. Every precise attack felt like she was trying to fend off Gladiolus, and with each of Noctis' attacks, a hologram is left after every swing that not only harmed Kairi if she so much as brushed her shoulder against them but they lingered on the battlefield a tad bit too long for her liking.

When he brings down the sword onto her, Kairi holds her keyblade up to defend herself and halt the onslaught of strikes. Still, with only using just right hand as Kairi pressed against his forceful press down, Noctis gives her a cocky smirk. "Come on, you can do better than this right?", he taunts/encourages. At that Kairi gave the king a rigid smirk of her own and retorts: "I'm just warming up!". Kairi pushes him off her and flips over the king while her left hand glowed in a reddish/orange light.

When she landed back on her feet she lifted her left hand, a sphere with several small glyphs of sundials and clocks were dancing in her palm. Kairi then cried out: "Haste!". For a moment her body was encased by the glyph, now a small dome for less than five seconds before it disappeared. Then Kairi suddenly vanished before Noctis' eyes. The king looked around for her but was then given a kick to his back.

He staggered forward before he spins around and swipes at nothing but air. He feels something rough bypassing his shoulder, followed by something moving too quick for his eyes to track but even creates a wind strong enough to blow his clothes. Absolute confusion and bafflement was adorned on his handsome features as he tried to follow whatever this was, only for Kairi to appear right before him.

Kairi's stance was moving quicker as her breathing seemingly increased in speed as if she were moving so fast the world was too slow for her. She again vanishes before the king's eyes, only by him raising his ancestor's shield did he prevent her from dealing what could have been the coup de grace. Kairi struck at his wall of a shield with so many invisible strikes it was like she was a whirlwind of destruction, moving so fast the king couldn't combat.

Noctis dismissed his sword and calls for his magic flask, chilling with frosty air. He shield tackled Kairi during her barrage and lucky for him the combination of the weight of his shield and his superior physical strength countered Kairi's speedy light form. Kairi is staggering backward as Noctis dismisses his shield, backflipping while throwing the magic flask at Kairi. The flask hits Kairi and explodes, creating a small blizzard for both royalties.

Noctis lands on his feet, keyblade called as he readied for any more surprises from his opponent. He didn't wait too long for Kairi's voice, though harder to hear thanks to the bellowing icy winds, called out and suddenly a green gale of wind sends the blizzard aside. When the air was cleared, he sees the girl had several bits of frost on her clothes and even some on her cheeks and hair. She shivered from the cold but luckily for Noctis he could see the spell had finally worn off.

Kairi shakes her body to throw off the cold and spins Destiny's Embrace before crying: "Here goes!". The weapon shifted into the Dual-Blade sword as her clothes took on her Strike Form colors, Kairi spun the weapon over her head and around herself before it catches fire from tips to hilts. Then to show off how far she had progressed, Kairi managed to unlock the blades and wield both at once.

Noctis grunts both in exasperation and admiration of the girl's ingenuity, he had to give her credit her versatility was not to be underestimated. He called for Katana of the Warrior instantly as Kairi ran at him with blazing swords, meeting her dual-wielding tenacity with quickdraws and wide covering strikes. Sparks of light brighten up their battle as from the spectators' perspective it was as though Kairi was wielding flames while their king combated her with crystals.

Kairi stuck at the king with an upward cut from her left-handed sword and swings at him with her right, Noctis, in turn, parried the right and sidestepped the other. He sheathed the blade entirely and quickly drew it, the power behind this attack not only made Kairi lose her footing and be temporarily thrown off the ground but the gale from the attack blew out the flames.

That wouldn't stop her though because she reattached the weapon into its original form jus as Noctis calls for his Bow of the Clever. He unleashes a barrage of bolts at her but much like when she first sparred with Sora, Kairi spins her weapon and performs a leaping dance of sorts to cover the distance between the two, slicing and cutting the bolts of crystal into nothing. Kairi easily closes the gaps between them and performed a thrust that Noctis narrowly evades but feels the tip of the blade cutting his cheek and some of his hair.

He phases away from her and stares down at her, feeling a trickle of blood leak down. The first blood had been drawn by her, and with that confident, borderline cocky, smirk on her face, he knew she was taking a lot of pride from that achievement. Kairi spun her weapon with both hands, firing off arcs of wind blades at him, cutting the ground like swords cutting the earth. Noctis calls his shield to block the attacks, the blade attacks breaking apart upon contact.

Noctis runs at the girl while the gale blades still struck at him, merely thumping against his wall shield. He blocks one more blade and after that, he spun while running and throws the shield at Kairi despite its inhuman weight and size. It flies towards the girl as the king warped into the air and just as Kairi swung her bladed weapon at the shield to knock it aside it disappears back into his majesty's pocket dimension. Her guard exposed, Noctis called for his Mace of the Fierce. Kairi raised her hand to create a crystal barrier above her just before the king brings down the mace.

He shattered the barrier after one strike, but the magical defense of the princess repelled the attack. This gave Kairi time to change her weapon back into its original form and with a quick chant from her left hand just as Noctis landed on his feet, she cast another spell for herself. A see-through blue wall taking on the appearance of shells formed in front of her temporarily and disappeared.

Noctis re-calls for crossbow and fires a barrage of them at Kairi. Kairi smacks a few of them while some managed to strike her shoulder and stomach but to the surprise of the group, it looked as if she didn't even register the attacks. Even with one brushing past her cheek and drawing blood she didn't even bat an eye at this. Noctis grunted out a curse, worried this spell she used may have made her impervious to pain for all he knows.

He calls for Blade of the Mystic, performed the three-warp strike attack before he warped to Kairi. The princess managed to parry the ghostly apparitions and clashed with Noctis once more. His longer and larger blade weighed down on the girl, along with reach and strength difference between the two. Kairi's heels dig into the ground as she holds her ground against the king of light, their weapons clashing wildly as Noctis powered through her.

Kairi managed to parry the king and while twisting their weapons together and with a step forward she shouldered the king, causing him to drop his weapon and stagger backward. She thrusts her keyblade at him, only hitting a crystal blue afterimage of her opponent. The princess spins around to see Noctis grabbing her forearms and then he throws her over his shoulder. During her flight while upside down in the air, she sees him throw two flasks at her.

Kairi quickly flips in the air and then air dashed into the air just to avoid the flasks. When she was relatively high enough in the air, Kairi crosses her arms for a moment and then outstretched arms and legs with a cry. Her body glowed in the divine light that was the purest heart's light, behind here is a bunch of balls of light. She flies down to Noctis while her balls descend to the king like a meteor shower.

Kairi flies across the battlefield and passes Noctis as her attack hits the ground and creates several pillars of light. Noctis tries to evade as many as he could but even with his warping powers and phases, he is struck by several pillars or from the explosions that hit him like runaway trucks. When the final pillar of light disappeared, the field was decorated with small holes as if mines had gone off, the king pants from the pain and his frantic dodging.

Kairi rushes him during his break, swinging her keyblade and using the back blunt side of the keyblade she knocks Noctis across the field. He rolled onto his side but scrambled back to his feet as Kairi returns to her stance. He weakly chuckled at the turn of events, being pushed to his limits and Kairi was keeping surprises in store for them. But thankfully for his majesty, he still had his backup plan.

"Had enough, Noct?", Kairi taunts panting, "I'll accept your surrender!".

"Keep dreaming, I'm not out yet!", retorts the king.

As much as he hated to get serious right now, his pride was on the line and after having his backside handed to him by Aqua, he'll be damned if he goes down without a fight. He clenches his fist and unleashes a cry, going full Armiger. All his royal arms circle around the king as his wounds patched up, standing tall before Kairi. The girl's eyes narrowed in concern and apprehension, realizing the king was starting to get serious.

Noctis instantly warped in front of Kairi, two of his weapons immediately striking her keyblade and knocking her into the air. Noctis flies and fires his weapons at her, Kairi clashes with the ghostly weapons while simultaneously being thrown further into the air. The princess's wild frenzied attacks against Noctis' ghostly weaponry did not go without a mark on herself, several nicks and cuts on her body as well as her clothes.

She desperately tried to cast a spell to escape this onslaught of attacks but with so many spaces covered by Noctis' weapons, she had no time to conjure a spell nor have any room to move. It seemed the king believed she was out of options because as he throws four weapons at her, he grabbed onto the Sword of the Wise and warped above Kairi. His blade struck the princess and sends her careening down back to the ground.

Kairi looks up at the flying king with gritted teeth and with one eye closed from the pain. Wrecked with pain and weariness, she used a small portion of magic to heal herself enough to at least fight without feeling like she was gonna break apart. She backflips and spreads her arms and legs out like a star, slowing her fall and feeling the wind rush through her. Noctis aimed his keyblade at Kairi and fires all his royal arms toward her.

The princess could only gawk at this attack as she fell, but with determination, she grabs her keyblade with both hands and reels it back. "Please work…", she mentally begged. Kairi throws her keyblade at the weapons, bypassing them thanks to its thin frame. Kairi's body turns into a shimmer of light and then she vanishes through the weapons. Her body takes form outside of the barrage of weapons, grabbing her keyblade and within proximity of Noctis, she brings her keyblade down onto him.

Caught off guard by the warp-like ability of Kairi's, Noctis had enough brainpower to clumsily raise Night's Sky to defend himself against her keyblade. They kept clashing in the skies before Noctis' ghostly shield appeared above Kairi and slammed onto her head and slammed her back to the ground. Kairi tries to round herself upright but slammed onto the ground in the end, bouncing off it. But this wouldn't stop her from getting back onto her feet as Noctis himself collapsed onto the ground with a heavy thud.

Two keyblade wielders got back on their feet, weary and aching as Noctis glared at her. "W-When did you, learn to warp!?", questioned the king. Kairi giggled tiredly as she stabbed the keyblade into the ground and rested on it, looking at the king. "W-Watching you…", she admitted, "It, it wasn't that hard to mimic when you get it down".

Noctis grunted out a groan as he shagged in his stance. "Copycat…", he insults. Kairi stuck her tongue at him while lifting her hand. "Alrighty then, how bout I-

Noctis' mouth moved but nothing came out. He blinks in confusion, then opened his mouth to speak again but nothing comes out. He rubbed his throat, completely baffled by the silence that was his lack of sound. "What the hell!?", he thinks to himself. He keeps trying to speak but no matter how hard he tries nothing was coming out but silent breaths.

Many of the spectators were watching with complete confusion…all but Lunafreya, who was beside herself with laughter, clutching her stomach and giggling profusely at the sight of her boyfriend trying to figure out why suddenly his vocal cords had decided to take a nap. Never had the party seen the Oracle laugh so hard before, she was crying with laughter and nearly fell out of her stump-seat with giggles.

Aqua looks at the woman with her lips cracking a barely restraint smile. "W-What did she do?", she giggled, the woman's laughter was very infectious. Lunafreya giggly replied: " *Snicker* K-Kairi, silenced Noctis… *giggle* literally!". Noctis keeps waving his arms while looking like he was yelling silently at the Oracle for answers, knowing Kairi couldn't do this before her training. This only made the woman burst into more laughter.

"N-N-Noctis! HAHAHA! S-Stop it! It's too funny!", she pleads.

Even some of the others were starting to laugh along with her, further embarrassing the king as Kairi held onto her keyblade, no more for the sake of keeping her to fight but to prevent her from falling with laughter. "N-Noct, I'm so sorry but…pfft HAHAHAHA! You look so funny!", Kairi laughs. She wiped her tear from her eye and faced him, only to cease her laughter and yelp in fear when he came at her with the Sword of the Tall, face bright red with anger and embarrassment. The blade easily weighed Kairi down enough for her legs to buckle and fall on her back, holding back the blade with her own.

"I take it you don't find it as funny as me?", Kairi gritted out with a terrified smile. The rage in his eyes answered her question as he pressed down harder on Kairi. The princess tried to push him off but with all her magic spent and body ached with all the hits the king landed on her and falling onto the ground like a sack of potatoes did nothing for her either. Noctis was silently (literally) swearing at her as he pressed down on the poor girl, the keyblade pressed against Kairi's chest and her nose inches away from the sharp-edged blade.

With all her mana, Kairi yells: "Aeroga!".

Beneath the princess a powerful gale of wind formed, blasting both her and Noctis upward into the air, dislodging their deadlock and throwing the girl higher than Noctis because of his sword's weight. However, that didn't stop him from using his keyblade to warp strike the girl and close the gap once again. Kairi evades his attacks while striking at him too, keyblades clashing in the skies. Noctis managed to knock her keyblade out her hands, forcing Kairi to air dash away from him.

She recalls her keyblade and warp struck back to the ground as the king joined her, glaring at her as she shakily stands up. "If I give your voice back will you agree to call this is a draw?", she pleaded. Noctis frowned, rubbed his throat before with a silent sigh, nods to her. Exhaling a breath of relief, Kairi snapped her fingers and dispelled the silence spell plaguing the king. He croaks out some groans and tests his voice, before turning to Lunafreya.

The woman was still suffering from aftermath giggling, finally calming down but still snickering slightly. He opened his mouth to give her a stern lecture but what came out instead?

"Nya!".

Noctis instantly slammed his hand to his mouth, completely mortified by that sound. It wasn't even the word but a "meow" of sorts. Nobody dared to speak, most of them were caught completely off guard by this. Lunafreya on the other hand…

She burst into a roaring fit of laughter, falling back from her stump and rolled on the ground laughing. Kairi snickering profusely at this before she had broken down into a fit of laughter, clutching her stomach, completely beside herself. The spell wasn't taught to her by Lunafreya, but during her training one of the spellbooks Merlin left for her had shown her the power of changing certain voices to communicate with animals.

And there is no better-suited animal for Noctis then a kitten.

"PFFT! HAHAHA! Noct, I'm so sorry but at the same time I'm not!", she laughs. She takes a deep breath to control herself to face him, only to bear witness to the king's murderous gaze. She snaps her fingers again to give him back his voice again, for real this time. "…you know the only reason I'm not going to murder you is because Luna's having fun with all this…and because I like Sora", he reminds. Kairi giggled and nodded, at least he was being honest.

Before she could reply with more giggles, but then as quick as the wind, she was hit in the stomach by a flask. It lands before her feet and she saw it was cracked. "Oh dear…", she gulps. One blustery explosion completely trapping her a fog of cold, when it disappeared, she had large lumps of snow on her shoulders and hair and looked close to becoming a frozen statue. Teeth chattering and her shaking madly, she glared at the king, smugly looking back at her.

"We're even", he states.

"F-F-Fair enough..", Kairi speaks, with chattering teeth.

Their fight concluded with three masters happy with their progress, more stating Kairi's versatility growing more and with Noctis' endurance and how long he could warp while swapping weapons out quicker than before. Both new keyblade wielders were slowly catching up with the others, and as Aqua watches Kairi join Sora, more and more does her faith in her grows.

Still shivering, the princess was about to take her spot before she turned to Sora, opening his arms for her. She was cold, and her boyfriend was warm, so Kairi jumped into his arms, sitting on his lap and he wrapped his strong limbs around her, not even bothered by the cold hugging her body and clothes. Then he leans into her ear. "Need me to warm you up?", he asks. Kairi nods, but then giggles when he starts to pepper her neck with light butterfly kisses. He was doing his job wonderfully.

"Alright, Axel, Ven? You're next", Aqua announces.

The two warriors entered ring just as Mickey himself stepped in, facing them. Both looked at each other, realizing they were about to take on one of the strongest masters amongst them, probably even tougher than Riku. Mickey smiled as he calls his keyblade, the Star Cluster. The Star Cluster is modeled after the Kingdom Key D (His original) and, by extension, Sora's Kingdom Key. It features a gold handguard, and a blue blade patterned with stars in the manner of the Star Seeker (Another keyblade both he and Sora used)

The concave rain guard has now been replaced by a diamond-patterned bell shape. At the top, two corners of the handguard are five-pointed star designs, while the bottom two appear to have massive golden screws. Between the handle and the rain guard is a glass-like dome, deep blue and speckled white like a starry sky, and on the guard below the handle is a gold crescent moon. The teeth of the blade are now silver, and the crown shape is lined. The Keychain is unchanged from that of the Kingdom Key D.

The two called for theirs as Mickey's smile turned into determined just before Aqua declared the match to begin.

Ventus makes the first move by immediately using his Fever Pitch and nearly disappears as he dashes towards Mickey. The boy makes several concentrated swings at the mouse king, except with Mickey's size being only a few feet tall and his amazing acrobatic skills, Ventus mostly struck at naught but the air. Mickey easily evaded half his attacks just by small leaps and flips over the keyblade, and when he clashes with the boy he easily brushed aside the keyblade.

Ventus and Mickey fought with the king, any seasoned warrior could tell, was putting in little effort to match the boy's strikes. He rolled away from Axel's sweep, dodging the flamed shaped teeth of his keyblade and jumping over them both. Ventus dashed into the air to chase the king, increasing his speed as his body glowed in the green light. Mickey turns to Ventus and parried all his attacks before he flipped over him and aimed his keyblade at the boy.

He fires a pure pearl of light that struck Ventus in the back, blasting him back to the ground. He tumbled and rolled onto his side as Mickey lands a few steps from him. Mickey spins around to face Axel, who brushed his nose and smirked at the mouse king. Next, then they see is Axel switching his keyblade back into his chakrams, and then dashed towards the king, leaving a trail of flames in his wake.

However, instead of attacking him head-on, Axel skirts around the mouse and combined his weapons into one giant chakram of fire and lifts it behind Mickey. The mouse spins around and raises a stone pillar to protect himself, blocking the burning wheel of fire. Axel's attack broke through the stone but not enough to touch the king, allowing Mickey to leap away from him just as the stone broke apart.

Axel dashes around where he lands and begins to strike at him with a flurry of burning wheels. Mickey, undeterred, parried and dodges his attacks like a nimble dancer. Mickey flips over Axel after the latter sweeps his chakram at his legs, leaping several feet away from the former nobody. Axel turned on his heels in time to raise his chakrams to block a pearl of light, holding his ground and refusing to budge.

Mickey readies himself for the next bout as Ventus re-joins Axel's side, staring down the king as Axel spins his chakrams with his fingers. He nudges the boy and with a smirk, lifts his weapons. Nodding at the silent plan, Ventus spins his keyblade and dashes at Mickey once more as Axel performs his usual t-pose like stance.

On guard for their silent plot, Mickey meets Ventus immediately. Their keyblades clash as Ventus goes for more a "hit and dash" tactic, only striking Mickey and air while keeping a balance between distance and close range. Mickey's mobility and agility made it difficult for Ventus to maintain any form of distance for a period but because he was striking at him with key and light magic he at least prevents Mickey from attack him with anything too much for him.

Mickey's attack was parried by the young boy's own and when he flips away from him, Ventus is suddenly surrounded in a cyclone of roaring flames. Glowing in a golden-red light as his keyblade is bathed in flame, Ventus activates a new command, the Fire Raid. Levitating in the air as a small patch of fire is beneath him, he flies towards Mickey, leaving trails of fire beneath him. Ventus' swung his keyblade, each leaving trails of fire with each swing and even if they didn't contact Mickey's key the roaring flames caused the mouse to dodge either way.

Ventus flies high into the air and aimed his free hand at Mickey, firing a torrent of fireballs at him. Large ones that were as bright as day with intense heat that could be felt to the others, Mickey is now put on the defense as he evades the balls of fire, leaping and jumping all over the field like a grasshopper while using his magic to defend himself from them. Ventus then swings his keyblade and fires off burning arcs of fire that were powerful enough to split the ground and burn them in tow. This and his balls of fire were more than enough to keep even as agile as Mickey on the defenses.

Mickey grabs his keyblade with both hands, realizing Ventus is giving it his all to prove his strength. A surge of pride rushes through his majesty before his keyblade glows, it was time for the king to get serious. His keyblade shines bright and extends, taller than the mouse man as it takes the shape of a great sword, the light bright as the sun and the magical power is so great even masters of magic like Aqua stared in awe of its power.

The king rushes to Ventus, cutting down his arcs and balls of fire easily while using some as steppingstones. One last jump off the final ball and closes the gap between him and Ventus. His blade struck the boy even as he lifted his keyblade to defend himself, fire and light clashing hotly in the air. In the end, the fires died out and Mickey's swing throws Ventus back to the ground as his fiery powers are extinguished.

Ventus grunts and dashes to the ground instead of falling onto his back in defeat, he wasn't out of this fight yet. Mickey lands in front of him, and before he tried to end the boy's determination to fight, his eyes fall to the forgotten opponent. Axel was surrounded by fire, even hotter and far more intense than even Ventus' command as he spins his weapons quicker. With a crazy smile, he flattened them together and cried out: "Lets heat things up!".

The flames licking his shoulders ran down his arms and covered his chakrams before the golden flames turned into raw red wildfire taking the shape of a blade. Axel performs one swing of his weapon, dousing only enough fire to show off his keyblade's second form change, the Ring Blade. A single-edged curved broad sword that shared the usual length of an average broad sword, except it had nine rings on the blunt side of the curved weapon that had his chakram design, the hilt was shaped like his chakram with Flame liberator's color scheme.

Spinning the weapon with one hand, Axel runs at the mouse king to give his ally a break. Axel's attacks were quicker and much more focused than when he wielded the chakrams, plus with the weight of the sword is much heavier than Ventus' keyblade. Meaning for the master blocking and parrying the sword would be more difficult and stamina consuming for him, making Mickey go back and lean on his agility to evade parrying.

Axel's ring blade kept making noises that strangely off-sets Mickey's coordination and the noises got to his ears, causing him to make mistakes. It would seem Axel must have figured with great hearing from those round ears of Mickey's, they also came with sensitivity that could truly distract him. The rings served their purpose and with the weapon giving him familiarity like it does for all keyblade wielders, it seemed Axel had finally gained control over the fight.

His upward swing collides with Mickey's keyblade, throwing it over the mouse's head and out of his hands. Mickey is completely unarmed and ripe for a defeat, Axel brings his sword up and then quickly brings it down. Mickey, undaunted, aimed his gloved hand and fires spell the acted like a small barrier for him that repelled Axel's attack. Axel staggered back as the shock of the recoil runs down his limb and nearly caused him to drop the blade, but that wasn't the end.

Mickey wipes out a crystal-clear card-shaped glass from his pocket and held it up high. A flash of light shines and blasts Axel as away as the light covered the ground, creating a wide ring that surrounds Mickey and not only did it repel Axel, but it healed Mickey too.

The pyro loses his footing while he tried to regain his focus from that surprise attack, rubbing his head while shaking it to shake off the temporary blindness. He grunts out with one last shake of his head as his vision returns to show him, Mickey, recalling his keyblade. "So much for getting the upper hand", he mentally groaned, running at him with the tip dragging in the ground. Grabbing the sword with both hands, Axel yells as he swings the mystical weapon upwards just a few steps from Mickey. Following the blade was a large eruption of fire that rained down on the mouse king.

Mickey merely aims his keyblade at the eruption and cried out: "Blizzaga!". A stream of crystal blue ice soars from the tip and collides with the eruption, near-instantly freezing it entirely. Ice cloaks over the flames and slowly turned it into an ice sculpture, halting the attack. Mickey leaps around it and jumps toward Axel, his speed catching the man off guard and with one stroke of his magical weapon, Mickey struck Axel at his stomach and throws him across the field and into a tree.

Back slammed against the wood, he slumps to the ground in defeat.

He groans out in pain before his Ring Blade turns back into its keyblade form, slumping when his body couldn't get up and resume the fight. Utterly beaten with just one hit from the master, and judging Ventus struggling to stand up, Axel regretfully could say this fight was a loss.

That was until Ventus grabbed his left armored shoulder and slammed his palm on it. When a flash of light appears and disappears, the youngest wielder of the key dons his armor at long last. Ventus' suit of armor shares the coloration of the pieces he normally wears, predominantly sporting shades of green and gold. With his armor he dons a yellow cape to his outfit that is discolored, almost appearing rusted. With the armor on his knee is gold and bears a sharp, upward-pointing hook on the outer side of each one. His helmet has a notably different design from Aqua and Terra's, appearing more squashed and flat at the top. His helmet also has two prongs on either side of his head which point backward and angle diagonally upward.

His body glowed in the intense green light of his Fever Pitch again, but it was more luminous and more jade-colored. He got low with a hand placed on the ground and keyblade raised behind him before he suddenly vanishes in a blur. Mickey looks around for the boy, but his ears picked up his faint steps just barely and he spins around in time to see Ventus in the air.

Mickey quickly swipes at him, hitting him from shoulder to shoulder. Suddenly his body vanishes into nothing but air. Mickey was struck on the left shoulder but when he spins around he saw nobody before him. He tries to pick up on the boy's movements, yet it was as though Ventus had turned into a phantom, an ethereal being that could make no sound yet harm someone. The king had a completely new foe to contend with, someone who could move so fast that they were leaving after-images.

Mickey's eyes spots Ventus moving and running in several places, more and more images of him were scattered around the battlefield as if they were a legion of soldiers. Worse yet Mickey couldn't pick out which of them were the real one, none stuck out and for all the king knows Ventus could have cloned himself to do battle. To his surprise, Ventus dashed towards him like a bullet, and worst of all when Mickey struck at him, he was suddenly attacked from his left and felt Ventus' keyblade hit him.

It is baffling to the king, the attacks came out of nowhere, they were extremely unpredictable and even though Ventus wasn't do half the damage someone like Sora could do, Mickey feared he was employing the wearing down tactic. With this kind of speed and without any methods to strike him in time or even have enough breathing space for him to cast any spell that could cover the field, Mickey was in a bind.

The only thing he could do was merely wait for Ventus to make one bad move, one single mistake is all he'll need to turn the tide. And if he was anything like Sora when it comes to his confidence, it will come sooner than he thinks.

And he was right.

Ventus must have believed he had Mickey on edge, paranoid for the next attack to come or maybe frustrated him to the point where he was going to make a mistake, because the boy was right behind the king just a few steps away from him, knees bent to project himself like a bullet. In his helmet, he grunts and rockets himself towards the king, breaking the earth beneath his feet and a loud burst of a sonic boom echoed in his speed.

Mickey turned right on time to clash keyblades with the boy for the final time. Surprised the king had such a quick reaction time, Ventus couldn't react in time himself to strike him. Mickey struck him right on his right shoulder, stopping his momentum and slammed him back into the ground with a loud tremor shaking the arena. On his back with his armor cracking and some even breaking apart from the attack, Ventus cursed in pain as he slumped in defeat like Axel.

Mickey pants himself, haven't been pushed this far in some time as he dismisses his keyblade after he heals the boy. Ventus weakly deactivates his armor and once he was in sight for everyone else, they all looked in horror at the state of the chosen wielder. They see his bare arms had more bruises and cuts along with his face contorting in absolute agony with one eye closed.

Mickey looked ready to panic; positive he didn't hit the boy that many times to put him in such a state. Instantly Aqua was by his side and assessed his state, her panic looks quickly shifting to concern and annoyance. "Ven, you went overboard", she lectured while calling Master's Defender. Mickey's looks of worry turns to confusion as Aqua starts to heal the boy. Noticing her fellow master's confusion, she clears her throat and explains: "Our armor does more than protect us from the darkness. If tempered and trained, we can use them to enhance our power".

Axel was lifted to his feet by Riku, the master deciding the man had enough today as he helps him join the others. "That explains how Kairi could do all the crazy stuff with it", comments Riku, helping Axel sit down on the stump. Axel grunts out in pain as Donald tended to him, looking at Aqua. "So, when do we get our fancy armor?", Axel asked, "Just saying…could do with some protection". When Aqua finishes healing her brother, she helps him to his feet and then turned to Axel.

"Well traditionally, you should have been given it by your master when you're nearing your Mark of Mastery Exam", she explains, "Sadly I was never taught the process, nor Mickey and certainly not Riku".

"Mark of Mastery"?", Noctis pipes up, "What's that?".

"The final part of our training to become keyblade masters", Riku says, "When we reach that level, we usually pass an exam to test the strengths of our hearts. We pass, we're masters".

This made the human king fold his arms in thought before Aqua smirks. "Don't get ahead of yourself, Noct, you are FAR from ready to take that exam", lectured the master herself. Noctis gives her a frown in response saying: "What? How do you know?".

"Considering you failed your history, geography and math exams? I dare say becoming a keyblade master is a bit out of your reach", Ignis reminds with a subtle smirk of his own. Noctis turns on his advisor with a growl. "Oh come on, like math is important for mastering the keyblade?", he challenges. "It'd help to have the ability to count on your shortcomings for one thing", Ignis retorts without missing a beat.

There are snickers made as Noctis huffs in response. "Well what exactly do you have to do?", he asks, diverting their attention away from him. Not his fault he fell asleep through most of his math classes. "Well for me and Riku we had to go to sleeping worlds for our exam", Sora said crossing arms in recollection. This gets Aqua's attention as Riku hums along in agreement. "Resolve some personal issues, awaken worlds that hadn't been properly restored and fight off new breeds of monsters", Riku lists with a sigh, "While constantly being taunted by Xehanort when he was a punk".

"Whoa, dude…sleeping worlds?", Prompto says with awe. "You have no clue what that means do you?", Gladiolus says with a deadpanned tone. "Not a clue!", confirms Prompto. "Shocker…", says Gladiolus.

"Worlds that were never properly restored after we beat Ansem", Sora explains, though he frowned when he thought back on Traverse Town. "Me and Riku had help wake them up by entering them through sleep".

"Sounds like you two had it pretty rough", Gladiolus says, "And because of Xehanort you couldn't pass?".

"Pretty much…", sighed Sora, scratching the back of his head, embarrassed and sheepish. At that discovery, Kairi frowns. Among all the team she could think of who deserved to be a keyblade master, none deserved it more than Sora. She wasn't thinking like that because she was his girlfriend, her feelings had nothing to do with it. For everything, he had done, and not being chosen from the start, he should have been made one. Sure from what Riku said he was a bit overconfident when they announced he'd be taking the exam but who wouldn't be after all the things Sora managed to do?

She couldn't wait to face Xehanort, another reason to kick his butt had just been added to her list.

"But that was probably nothing compared to Aqua's!", Sora says with a grin. Aqua turns pink as Ventus snickered behind her, remember her exam. "Yeah, how'd yours and Terra's go?", Riku asked, curious. "Yeah Blue, yours anymore exciting?", Gladiolus joins in. Aqua rubbed her neck with an awkward laugh, suddenly feeling unworthy and very self-conscious. "W-Well…no…in comparison, ours were more tamed".

"Our first part was showing how much we had learned from our master, and then… a dual between me and Terra", she explained.

"Seriously? You and Terra had to fight each other while Sora and Riku had to reawaken worlds?", Noctis asked incredulously. Aqua nods shyly, sheepishly. "I-In our defense, the worlds were still awake and going. We lived in a time of peace", she argued. "Not to mention we needed to learn the power of waking to help Ventus and at the time Terra", Riku says defending Aqua. "I'm sure if she took the exam during our time she'd probably pass it with flying colors".

Sora nodded eagerly. "Yeah! I mean have you guys seen what she could do?", he asked. Much of the party affirmed in the boy's rhetorical question, some even mentioning some of her greatest feats in Eos while the woman, flustered, tries to talk down her feats. All the while Ventus was watching her with a bright smile on his face, knowing Eraqus would be infinitely proud of her if he could see what she had done.

Looking at his shoulder where he can activate his armor, he gently lays his hand on it. "We're getting there Terra,", he quietly says, "We'll be strong enough to bring you home…I promise". As the boy thinks fondly on his brother, he watches on as Sora and Riku go on about Aqua's feats while the woman was weakly trying to make them cease, even saying they're exaggerating, the boy listens in happily…

*Night*

Another day down and many more to come, Lunafreya finishes drying her hair and exits the bathroom and re-enters her bedroom. Where she was once more under the "harsh" gaze that was Noctis' glare. Though calling it a glare was a bit of an exaggeration considering she neither felt intimidated nor uncomfortable, rather the best way to describe what the king was doing is simply pouting at her.

"Noctis, your attempts to scare me require more than the pouty puppy look", she teases softly with a gentle giggle. The king huffs with his pout deepening and were she not the cause of his pout she'd coo him and cuddle with him. Likely he was still a tad bit, as Prompto says, "salty" from Kairi's harmless jesters. She knows the king knew those spells were taught by the Oracle bar the kitten spell, that delightful spell was a clever construct of Kairi's imagination.

"You could have told me there's a way to fix that…", he growled.

"If I provide you all the answers, how would you learn to adapt and grow?", teases the future wife of the king.

He grunts and crosses his arms, still "glaring" at the woman. Lunafreya had to resist the urge to roll her eyes, her future king was acting like a child who was the unfortunate victim of a harmless prank. "I'm sure Kairi felt very bad for teasing your vocal cords", she assured with a half-assed tone. "Oh I'm not angry at Kairi, I got her back", remarks Noctis with a smirk, "And by the grace of the light you were not maimed by Sora", Lunafreya added. "…ok yeah, good point but it's you I'm mostly annoyed at!".

Lunafreya gives him a fake pout as he stands up. "If I apologize, will his majesty be so kind as to forgive me for such treason?", she says, tad bit sarcastically. This time Noctis' pout turned into a wicked grin, and that was a grin that Lunafreya dreaded. She already missed pouty Noctis. "Nah, an apology isn't enough", he says as he approached her. Suddenly backing up slightly from him and wondering if her running away was the best course of action, Lunafreya gulped.

Before her mind could make up what to do, Noctis lurches forward and grabbed her waist and throws her onto the bed. Quick as lightning Noctis grabbed her wrists and with the nimbleness of a thief picking a lock, he manages to tie them both up against one of the metal poles of the headboard. Bound with her arms, Lunafreya was blushing profusely at this sudden action as Noctis settled on her stomach, a leg on each side of her hips.

"N-N-Noctis!", she squeaks, "S-S-Such a thing should be saved for m-m-m-marriage!". The king still had the wicked grin on his face, slowly brushing his hand down her cheeks like he was soothing her worries. "Gladio and Aqua did it, why shouldn't we follow their example?", he inquires cockily and Lunafreya hated to say it, sexily. Perhaps it was the extended absence between them but was her king always this…desirable? And why did she suddenly wish for him to convince her to take a page out his shield and master's book?

Noctis leaned into her ear and whispered: "Before this night ends…I'm going to make you scream my name".

By the divine light, the Oracle almost tried to rip the bondage that binds her hands and make the man fulfill his promise despite her firm belief.

Slowly the king rubbed her shoulders, massaging them before he lowered his hands down lower to what she feared (and excitedly) thought were her hips, maybe to remove her shorts. No, instead she settled at her sides.

Her eyes widened, she knew what he was about to do.

"Noctis…don't you da-d-d-pfft HAAHAHHAHAHAHA!", shrieks the Oracle as the king started to tickle her sides. The woman's laughter rings out in the room as she struggled to escape her king's evil torture, thrashing wildly as Noctis tickled her. "HAHAHHA N-N-NOCTIS! AAHAHAH! S-STOP! PLEA-HAHAHAH!", laughs the woman.

The king ignored her pleas and kept up his torture, he was a man of his word after all. That…and he missed her laughter.

With luck, that wonderful sound will be made more often by the end of this training…

A/N:

*Bangs head against the wall*

I…had…tried…to…get…this done…for the ENTIRE WEEK! GAHHHHH!

Massive thanks to KakeruPB and VashTheStampede0409 for their help! KakeruPB for Kairi's abilities along with the Mark of Mastery part and Vash for Ventus and Noctis' little incident! You two made this chapter a lot easier to do!

Next time we'll be seeing Ardyn take on certain members of Xehanort's group, how will the man of no consequences fare? (Don't worry we'll have fluff in it too with the heroes)

QUESTIONS!

Q1: Thoughts on this chapter?

Q2: How did you like Noctis and Kairi in this one?

Q3: Who do you wanna see fighting next?

Q4: Anything you want the team to do next?

Q5: Should the Organization be as strong as their Data counterparts (Suggested by KakeruPB).

Q6: Should Axel wear his robes or his new outfit? Just wondering!

Q7: Axel's new weapon?

Q8: How many of you saw what Noctis was gonna do?

Q9: How was Mickey?

As always, thanks for reading! Stay awesome but most importantly (especially with what's going on) stay safe!