Leo had been following closely behind the silent crusader for what seemed like forever in silence. Though, this wasn't an awkward and painful silence, it was more of a comfortable silence while the two unlikely of pairs were lost in their own thought.
Leo looked up toward the ceiling of the cavern as she wondered about the challenge. A challenge to defeat every challenger she would face in order to go home... It was kind of an unfair challenge, especially since she didn't get the rules until AFTER she accepted. And even if she did, Leo thought she wouldn't believe it and accept anyway, just out of curiosity. What would happen to the other challengers, would they be able to get home? They get turned into trophies if they take too much damage, would that happen to Leo as well? Or would she just die? And did Meta Knight count as a challenger? Would he turn on her once they reach the end?
Leo shook those last two questions out of her head and pulled her scarf over her freckled nose as she looked down at the dark knight. Leo could tell that he was lost in his own thought while he lead her through the cavern. She had to admit, it would have just been easier for him if he had just killed her and moved on. But here he was, leading some weird young girl around in a dark cavern as she hid under her scarf. Well, when she thought about it like that...
"Thanks." Leo said aloud, looking straight at Meta Knight.
The sudden noise seem to startle the dark knight as he turned. "What for?"
"You know, not stabbing me." The young girl put her arms behind her back.
Meta Knight turned back around, but kept his eyes toward her direction. "I didn't know that required gratitude." He mused.
"I guess. But you could've stabbed me and you didn't, and I think that's pretty cool."
"'Pretty cool'?"
Leo nodded.
Meta Knight stayed silent for a moment before saying, "You're welcome, then."
Leo sped up to walk next to the dark knight and asked, "Hey, do you mind if I ask you a couple questions about this tournament?"
He nodded.
"Okay, so how many challengers are there?"
"I'm not certain, it changes every tournament."
"There are more of these?" Leo scratched the back of her head and sighed, "So are all the challengers in this super cold cavern or...?"
Meta Knight shook his head, "There are many biomes or areas that have a different climate in each one. For example, you may be walking in a desert for some time, and then a snowy mountain could be just a few yards ahead of you."
"That's weird. How do they do that?" Leo asked, but then said. "Wait, more importantly, who is they? Who runs these challenges?"
The dark knight's eyes glowed red for just a moment as he said, "That's what I would like to know." His voice was shadowed and intense, so Leo decided to drop that subject.
"Oh, uhm, will you be able to go home if you lose the challenge?"
"Yes. Unfortunately, it seems like you will not."
"How many challengers do I have to defeat in order to return home?"
"All of them."
"Does that include you?"
Meta Knight went silent as he looked at Leo, causing her to immediately regret asking that.
"Errr, never mind. We'll burn that bridge when we get there."
The dark knight seemed to be amused by her saying, making the atmosphere around them grow lighter. Leo smiled at this and continued.
"Okay, so what happens if I... turn someone into a trophy and they're carrying a bunch of trophies, does that mean I get all of them?"
"Very perceptive of you." He said.
Leo smiled again and said, "Alright, one last question. Where do the trophies go? I mean, look!" Leo pulled Charizard's trophy out of her non-existent pocket, despite its rather large size. "And don't tell me that's some inventory magic, because I don't have an inventory!"
"Can I ask you a few questions?"
"Sure." Leo said, putting away the trophy.
"Where do you come from?"
"I live on Earth."
"Earth... I've never heard of it before."
Leo pulled her scarf over her mouth and shrugged, "I'm not surprised."
Meta Knight looked at Leo with question, but then moved on as if it was not important. "How did you come upon the challenge?"
"Well," the blonde started. "It all happened when I saw one of my friends with this new game, and I saw advertisements about it and whatnot before but I didn't know it was so cool until I saw her play, so I decided I wanted to buy this new game because it was really cool and all my friends started getting it and stuff, and so I saved up all my money by working really really hard nonstoplikeforrealitwasnonstopandIevenaskedmymomifIcouldtakealoanorsomethinglikethatbutshesaidnoandIwasbummedbutitwaswhateverbutthenmybestfriendhaditandthatmademeextrajellyaboutitbutitwaswhateveragainsoIgotmyselfajobandOHthatremindsmeabouthowshereallyrockedatthisgamewhichI'mnotreallygonnatellyouaboutbecauseyou'dbeallconfusedaboutwhyitexistsorsomethingstoiclikethatbutanywaysothisgameshewasreallygoodatseemedsupercoolsoItriedtoworkreallyhardtogetitand-"
"Stop!" Meta Knight looked like he was having a headache, "Skip the details."
Leo shrugged, like she didn't know what was wrong. "I was playing this game, and a window popped up that said "JOIN THE ULTIMATE CHALLENGE" or something. It didn't have any details and I didn't really know what it was, so I accepted."
"It was just a game?"
Leo nodded.
"Why would you accept the challenge?"
"I thought it was apart of the game."
Meta Knight looked to the ground, as if deep in thought. After a moment or two of silence, he spoke up saying, "How far have you been trained?"
"In what?" Leo asked.
"Swordsmanship." He nodded to the sword on her back.
"Oh, this? This is the first time I've picked up a sword."
"None?" Meta Knight seemed shocked by this. "You've never wielded a sword before?"
Leo shook her head, "Nope. I like to run sometimes, if you count that as training." Leo swung her sword off of her back and into her hands, "I think this swords pretty cool, though. And it's pretty easy to hold to." Leo stood it up straight on the floor and said, "You wanna try it out?" She dropped the sword for Meta Knight, and it made a booming metallic thump as it hit the ground. "... I know that sounded like it was heavy, but it's really not. Go ahead, try it."
Meta Knight looked at her skeptically, before trying to pick up the blade. Though, despite his best efforts, the knight was out of breath without the sword even budging. His eyes narrowed at this sudden development, but Meta Knight's suspicions disappeared when he saw that Leo was surprised herself.
"Does this mean... I have super strength?" Leo wondered aloud. She quickly ran over to a nearby boulder and tried to move it. She pushed as hard as she could, but in the end was not able to do anything. Leo sighed, slightly out of breath, as she sunk into a criss-cross sitting position, "Okay, just the sword then. That's still kind of cool, I guess."
Meta Knight walked over to the young girl, saying, "... You're very strange."
"Err... Okay?" How was somebody even supposed to respond to that?
He turned around, and said, "Pick up your sword, we need to start moving. By this rate, we'll starve to death."
Leo did what he asked, remembering that hunger was a thing. When was the last time she ate? She definitely didn't make it to dinner, or get those Oreo's she wanted. Now that Leo thought about it, she was famished! No thanks to that reminder... In fact, Leo started to realize she was a lot of things, and comfortable wasn't one of them. She was achy from the fight she had with Charizard, tired from the terrible sleep she had from getting brought into this challenge, and sore from all of the walking she had been doing.
Leo looked over to see if Meta Knight was showing any signs of distress. And, not to her surprise, he was unreadable as usual. Leo yawned, wondering if he was going to take a break anytime soon. She decided that she would wait until he was tired before she rested, so Leo didn't ask.
After a lot more walking and silence, the pair made it outside of the cavern. Leo welcomed the warm outside air with opened arms and a big sigh. "Oh, blessed day, we finally made it out of the cavern!" It was nighttime, and they seemed to be on a rocky mountain, but anything was better than the dark and dank cave behind them. "I thought we were going to be stuck in there forever!" Leo smiled.
Meta Knight made no comment and just continued walking.
Leo quickly made her way to a stream that was only a few yards away from them. She bent down on all fours and drank the cool refreshing water, not caring whether or not that was really sanitary. The small knight behind her didn't wait for her to finish, and continued on. Because of this, Leo quickly sat up and sighed with relief, eager to catch up with her smaller friend.
But before she even finished standing up, Leo spotted a tomato just sitting there beside a bush. What incredible luck! And it was just sitting there being uneaten!
Leo walked over to the tomato excitedly, calling out to Meta Knight, "Hey, I found a tomato!"
The black crusader turned around and at the sight he called back, "Leo, don't!"
By the time Leo processed what he was saying, she was already right next to the delicious fruit. But once she did realize what Meta Knight was saying, Leo immediately jumped back away from it. And with good timing too, because right as she jumped away, a figure pounced out of a bush from behind the tomato. The yellow and slightly annoying figure stood, revealing itself to be none other than Wario!
"Wahaha!" Wario bellowed, his voice sounding like gravel. "I didn't think somebody would fall for something so simple!"
Leo's first reaction was to groan, while she face palmed. She had to face Wario? Really?
Wario seemed to take offense to this, saying, "What? What!"
"Nothing." Leo said quickly, having the courtesy to not tell him he was annoying, "Never mind. Uhm, continue?"
Wario grumbled a bit to himself before continuing, "You might as well lay down and die! Or surrender! Or whatever, just make it easier on yourself and-!"
Meta Knight cut him off, slashing him back with his sword.
"Wah! Hey! Two against one isn't fair!" Wario said, realizing Meta Knight was there.
Leo pulled out her sword, determined to help Meta Knight this time. The blonde didn't like being so vulnerable when fighting Charizard, plus Wario was a lot less scary than Charizard. This was it! This was her chance to prove herself able to fight! There must be something she could do to help Meta Knight in battl-
Yep, Meta Knight was crushing him with no problem. Leo just leaned on her sword as she watched the small dark knight fight against the oddly shaped thug. Though Wario tried to put up a good fight, his tackles and punches were no match for Meta Knight's swordsmanship. Anybody could see that Wario was going to lose this fight, easily.
That was until Wario's attention turned toward Leo. The blonde could see the wheels turning in Wario's head, that he could not win... unless he had leverage. Wario pushed Meta Knight back and charged for Leo. At the sudden adversary heading towards her, Leo instinctively put her sword in front of her like a shield and braced herself for impact. She heard a loud thunk as Wario rammed into her sword, and when she looked out from behind the blade, he was on the ground as stars circled his head. Leo casually tipped her blade over, causing it to fall in Wario's direction.
"WAH!" Wario yelped as the sword hit him on the head. And with that note, he turned into a trophy.
Leo picked up her sword and the trophy, smiling in Meta Knight's direction. "I'd say that was a win." She slung the sword over her back and pocketed Wario trophy.
"I'd say you're right." Meta Knight said. "Though, you seem to excel in luck while you lack in skill."
"Uhm... Thanks-ish?" How was somebody even supposed to respond to that?
"Would you like me to teach you?"
Leo was surprised by his sudden offer. "I -err- yes please!"
Meta Knight nodded, and then turned back around. "Then follow me."
Leo wondered if this entire tournament was just going to be her following him around.
Hey friends! Jelly here, and full of excitement for the new chapters to come! Looks like the newly-made teacher and student have wondered onto the Mountain Biome. But wait, you may ask yourselves, isn't that where Artemis and Kirby are? Ohohoho, so perceptive young hypothetical reader! Guess you'll have to wait for the next chapter to find out what happens!
Leo: Hopefully we won't be put against another super annoying character, I mean honestly!
Wario: HEY!
Leo: Oh, errrr...
Charizard: ROAAARRR! (Translation: At least you didn't have to be personified as some beast without any lines of translated dialogue.)
Wario: YOU can TALK?
Leo (whispering): Hey, Meta Knight, let's get out of this ending sequence! I have a feeling this won't end well for us...
MK: *grooooaaannss at incompetence*
We'll have plenty new and diverse characters that may or may not be friendly with our heroes, so be sure review so we can see what kinds of characters you'd like to see in future chapters!