Suddenly, without warning, Roy slashed upwards quickly, and a small smile crossed his face.
Mario gasped, as he saw behind Roy an arrow that suddenly ignited. It split in half before completely burning up. Link had a smirk on his face, his bow drawn, apparently having shot the arrow initially.
"This should be fun," he said, smirking.
Roy wasted no more time, and took off right at Link, and swung his blade right down at Link's head, but Link strafed to the side, and countered with a sweep kick, which Roy jumped over nimbly. Link looked up, and from his arm shot a hidden chain at Roy's leg, but Roy turned upside down, and grabbed the chain with his free hand. Without hesitation, he yanked the chain upwards, pulling Link up towards him, and drew back his sword, then thrusting it forward at Links torso, but Link twisted out of the way, and retracted the chain, and drew his sword.
He yelled, as he began spinning towards Roy, increasing speed with every turn. Roy's eyes widened, and a split second before it was too late, he rose his sword to intercept the attack.
As steel hit steel, clangs resounded and sparks lit the arena. Roy grimaced as he held back the brutal offense. As the attack subsided, Roy countered and swung his sword against Links, propelling himself backwards and to the ground, in which he skidded backwards across the arena. After a moment, he stopped, regaining his balance completely.
Link also touched ground in a crouch, his eyes down. Suddenly, Link's body shifted in features. The triangle emblem, The Triforce symbol, on his gloves seemed to glow a golden light, and expand slightly. A look of focus settled over Link's face, and power blasted back at Roy, whose sword also burst with a powerful fire, as if in expectance for the coming clash.
Zelda gasped, as did Mario. Air blasted back from the two forces, reacting just from their mere proximity, and Tendo's eyes widened. He snapped his fingers, light surrounded the arena: more shields coming into being to protect the spectators.
Link charged right at Roy, and Roy charged right at Link, and yelled, " Burst FLARE!" and swung his sword at Link as Link swung his own blade at Roy, seeming to slice through the very fabric of the air itself ….there was a colossal explosion that obscured the entire arena. The recoil of the collision shattered the extra shields that Tendo put around the arena, and even through the shields, the intense air blasted fighters and spectators alike backwards.
It took a few moments for the smoke to clear, and when it did, to everyone's surprise, Roy and Link were both still on their feet, swords drawn back. The triforce emblem on Link's arms slowly began to fade away , and the blaze around Ro's sword dissipated. They both were breathing hard, clearly fatigued from the strikes.
Then, Roy stood up straight, as did Link. They both sheathed their swords, and Link actually smiled. Zelda looked at link, and caught his drift.
"We forfeit," she said suddenly to Tendo.
Mario gaped in surprise.
"What?" asked Marth, also in surprise.
Roy's eyes also widened. "We're equal," He said. "We both should be eliminated, if anything. Otherwise, how can we determine a fair winner?!"
Tendo thought about it for a second, but then shrugged. "If they forfeit, then you win by default. Those are the rules…."
Roy stared at Link, who turned back to Roy, smiled, and wagged his finger at Roy in a joking manner that seemed to say 'We'll settle this someday.' Roy grimaced, but nodded, and they both leaped out of the arena. Roy noticed that his Flare strike had singed Link's clothes and had burned away at bits of the stage, but then he also noticed on the arena a deep cut in the earth that spanned about 30 feet.
Zelda turned, and saw Peach, smiled and waved. Peach kind of looked surprised, but then she smiled and waved back. Marth walked over, and steadied Roy. The spectators quieted down, as Tendo began to speak.
"Aaand that's if for our first round fights. The remaining teams are….Mario and Luigi, Kirby and Metaknight, Roy and Marth, and Wario and Waluigi. Congrats guys!"
The spectators cheered loudly, and Mario smiled, as did Kirby and Luigi. Mario looked for Wario and Waluigi, but they had vanished mysteriously. Mario thought for a second, but then just let it go.
"The winners will be called tomorrow back here for the semi-final matches! Until then, rest up, and get something to eat. Laters!" he finished, and he disappeared in a flash of light.
Mario, Luigi, Peach and Toadsworth had said their goodbyes to Kirby, and Metaknight, and walked out of the stadium. Peach and Toadsworth were talking to Mario about the fights, then Mario snapped his fingers, as if he had forgotten something. He quickly asked about the orbs, Crea and Prea, realizing they hadn't made a sound since the 3rd and 4th matches. Luigi gasped as he remembered, looking around frantically. Peach laughed.
"They're with me, Mario in my dress."
Mario at first did a double take, thinking he had misheard Peach. However, at closer inspection, he then noticed Peach's dress now had tings of blue and red besides her regular pink and white.
"I think they're sleeping."
Mario and Luigi both sighed with relief, but the relief was short-lived. Mario's eyes widened, as if he felt something in the air. His head snapped up, and he looked behind him, and saw a figure about twenty feet away. Luigi, Peach, and Toadsworth noticed and looked, and Luigi began to stutter and point as he saw the adversary, like he had seen a ghost.
The figure was clad in red and black, skinny, and appeared to be wearing a helmet of red and white, with a crystal mounted in the center. He also had long, golden hair.
"So you're the ones who took the Baby Elves."
He spoke quietly, a cold look in his gray eyes. Luigi then choked, still stuttering. He remembered the pantheon hunters he fought in the forest, and although those enemies had been clad in blue armor and faceless, this figure looked similar. But Luigi could also tell that this adversary was not at all like those other enemies he had dispatched of.
"M-M-M-" Luigi stuttered, but he was cut off by his brother, who shouted, "Who are you-a!"
"Not important." responded the figure. "Just give me back the elves." He drew from his side a saber, one that appeared to be made of a green light, connected to a short white handle.
"Not you again!" cried a voice suddenly. Prea suddenly flew out of Peach's dress. "Why don't you go away, you mean reploid!"
"Yeah, you fake!" cried Crea, who also flew out of Peach, both of them hovering close to her.
The "reploid" sighed, and shook his head in what might have been disdain. Mario grimaced, and got into a battle stance, expecting confrontation, and sure enough, the figure reacted. He drew his saber, and suddenly disappeared in a flash of speed.
"Huh?!" exclaimed Mario, looking back and forth.
Luigi saw something, and cried, "Mario!" and pointed.
Mario turned, and just in time saw the reploid to his right. Mario could barely force down his shock at the figure's speed: at that moment, he knew he wasn't dealing with an ordinary opponent. As his adversary swung the saber right at the red brother's head, Mario bent backwards, barely dodging, seeing the blade pass over him right where his head just was a moment ago in what seemed like slow motion.
The reploid skidded forward from the momentum, turned, and instantly took off towards Mario once more, but this time, Mario intercepted the blade with his hammer, which knocked the reploid and himself backwards with the impact.
Mario closed the gap between him and the reploid with a single leap, and swung down at him, but he spun out of the way, and twisted to slash at Mario's torso, but he quickly blocked with the hammer's head; but Mario's eyes widened as he felt a ripple of pressure, and suddenly, he was blasted into the sky from the sheer force of his adversaries strike.
The reploid took off after him with a powerful skyward jump. "Do you know who that is?" asked Peach from the ground worriedly, towards the orbs, but they both said nothing. There were clashes across the sky as Mario and the reploid struck at each other, then disappeared, only to strike each other again. This repeated several times culminating as Mario swung at the reploid, who also swung his saber.
There was a flash as the two strikes collided…..then the head of Mario's hammer fell towards the earth, severed, leaving Mario with only a wooden shaft.
Mario cried "Mama mi-" but didn't even get to finish his statement, as the figure slashed him 5 times and as Mario recoiled, slammed his fist into Mario's stomach, sending him rocketing back towards the ground. Mario hit the ground with a great impact, blasting earth backwards.
Peach and Luigi screamed, "Mario!"
Toadsworth's eyes were wide as plates, and he was stuttering, "M-Master!"
Mario was on his back in the rubble, looking ragged. He groaned, and struggled to get up, but the reploid stood before him, pointing his saber at Mario's throat.
"Pretty good," He said. "Better than a lot of mavericks I've had to deal with…"
Mario glared at the figure, who drew the saber back, but then, a voice cried "Wait!" Zero turned his head.
Crea and Prea were hovering a few feet from him.
"Don't kill him!" cried Prea.
"Don't kill him, Zero!" repeated Crea.
The reploid, Zero's eyes widened slightly, and he grimaced.
"I don't know how, but they stole you from Ciel. I'm here at her request."
"No! They didn't steal us!" exclaimed Crea.
"They saved us from a bunch of Pantheon's!" finished Prea.
At this, Zero's eyes turned back toward Mario, and while he was unfocused, Mario flipped back up to his feet, ready to continue the fight.
"….Pantheons." he spoke quietly.
Then, he looked at his arm bands, as if noticing something. A voice from Zero's ear region, spoke, "Zero!" Mario's eyes widened, and he lowered his arms, still wondering what was going on. Luigi also got to Mario's side, still looking incredibly afraid.
Zero replied, "Ciel."
"I've been trying to contact you for hours!" exclaimed the voice, which sounded female. "When the transporter malfunctioned, no one knew where you went!"
Zero looked around, and then back at Mario.
"…..Where is this place."
Mario frowned, but then responded in quick Italian. Peach ran over towards Mario and Luigi along with Toadsworth.
"Are you all right?" asked Peach, but she stopped when she saw Zero.
"Did you get that, Ciel?" asked Zero. A typing sound was heard from the background.
"Hmmmm…near a place called Mushroom Kingdom? I've never heard of such a place…and we can't even find you in our retrieval database…."
Zero's eyes widened at that in surprise for a split second, but then he regained his calm demeanor.
"Wherever I am, I located the Baby Elves." he said.
The voice gasped. "Did you?! Are they with you now?"
Zero looked at Peach and Toadsworth. "More or less. They were found by a few people from here."
The voice said nothing. Then, "Are they safe?"
Zero nodded, and said, "Yes."
There was a sigh of relief in the background. All of the sudden, there was the sound of static.
"Zero! We're breaking up due to - inter-."
Zero's expression changed to one of worry.
"Ciel!" he yelled.
Then the static stabilized. "Wherever you are, connecting to you is taking a lot of power…. We're going to try to get the transporter working again. In theory, that should be able to return you and the elves to the Resistance base. In the meantime, maybe you could try to find out more about your location?"
Zero nodded, and said, "Okay."
"Zero….please be careful…..and please keep an eye on the Baby Elves," the voice spoke, and Mario noticed she sounded really worried. He guessed that whoever that person was, she must really care about him.
"I will." replied Zero.
The transmission cut off. Zero said nothing for a moment.
"Excuse me." Said Peach suddenly, who stepped forward despite Toadsworth's protests. Zero turned to face Peach.
"Are you lost?" asked Peach .
"…." Zero was silent.
"Answer!" cried Prea on Peach's behalf.
Zero still said nothing. Then, he "sheathed" the saber, meaning the green energy dissipated. He turned his back on Peach, and began to walk away.
"Wait!" exclaimed Peach. "What's your name?" she finished. Zero stopped. He turned his head to look back at Peach.
"Zero." he replied. He turned his head back to its original position, the back facing the group. Then, "Keep them safe. I need to find out more about this area" And he disappeared instantly, just as he had fighting Mario.
Peach looked into the distance, then turned, laughing embarrassingly, as Toadsworth ran forward, saying, "Princess! Don't you ever-!" and began rambling about how what she did was too dangerous, and how she shouldn't put herself at risk. Mario also looked into the sky. He recognized how strong Zero was, how he was an opponent that even he might've not been able to defeat. He felt something poking his shoulder.
He turned, and saw Luigi, looking ashamed, holding the golden head of his hammer, the part Zero sliced off. Mario smiled, and patted Luigi's shoulder. He took the piece, and picked up the sliced wooden shaft off of the ground. Peach saw, and said "Oh…". Toadsworth also saw, and he stood up tall, and said, "Don't worry, Master Mario, we'll fix it for you before your next match!"
Mario nodded in appreciation. 'Shall we go?" asked Toadsworth, and sure enough, a golden pipe had appeared from the ground in front of them. Peach took Crea and Prea, and hopped into the pipe, Toadsworth close behind. Mario took a step forward, and then look backwards, to the area that Zero had just left. Mario turned to Luigi. "Luigi." Luigi turned, and his face had an emotion that was very unlike him: determination. Mario nodded, and they clasped hands together in "bro" hand slap, and both jumped into the pipe.