Hello everyone and welcome to the ninth chapter of DBF.
This story hasn't been updated in thirteen months, and I feel sooooo horrible about it. I mean I can reason with the 'why' of it really well. Like I had to find the original Pinocchio book and had heaps of trouble with that, and school assignments, school assignment, school assignment. But thirteen months is inexcusable, never let me do it again. PM me if think I'm not updating enough, I'll try harder.
As a side note this chapter is not Pinocchio, it's the coliseum. I'm double updating and next chapter will be Pinocchio. I should have that chapter out by Christmas. Then it can be a Christmas present for you guys. I hope it makes up for the giant update gap a little.
Anyway, I tried real hard with this chapter, cause you, thirteen months is a long time and if I just something bad I'd feel even more horrible about not updating. But I hope you all enjoy it.
Disclaimer: I do not own Kingdom hearts, Square Enix does.
A dance with demons
The ship sailed soundlessly through the realm of stars. Crowtassha sat by in the corner running through sign language signs with Sora. He was improving, but he was far from her efficiency. Not that she expected that of him, she'd been around Luke and his use of sign language for years. For Sora the time was much shorter. Sitting by they left the piloting up to Luke.
Time passed by quietly, punctured occasionally by the soft murmuring of Sora and Crowtassha. Sometime more passed and the ship drew to the halt. Rocked slightly by the force of it Crowtassha got up to see why Luke had stopped.
Practically crawling onto to him over the chair she peered past him to what was visible through the screen. There was a world portal. She purged her lips, then turned to Luke, "You sure we haven't been to this before?"
He gave her a look that signed, 'How can you tell that?'
"All the swirly colours, I've seen one like this before." She said waving her hand in the direction of the portal. "Ah!" She exclaimed suddenly, "it's that fighting place, you know that coliseum with that hottish topless guy who was going on about an upcoming tournament."
Ignoring her 'hottish guy' comment as best he could, Sora came up from behind and asked, "How can you tell it's that place?"
"Photographic memory, never forget a portal." Crowtassha boasted before jumping up and down and yelling, "come on let's go to it. I want to see if I can convince that hottish topless guy to let us enter that tournament, it should have started now."
Luke meanwhile had been counting something on his fingers, which Sora could only presume was the number of worlds they'd been to so far. He suppressed a laugh, remembering five worlds wasn't really a reason for Crow to boast.
Noticing his lack of attention Crowtassha slammed her hands down on the dashboard, "Oi, listen you."
Jumping at the loud bang Luke looked up to Crowtassha. Sighing she repeated, "I said I want to go down and see if we can enter that tournament."
He gave her a look and signed, 'Are you sure we have time?'
She frowned at him, "Oh don't be like that, come on we need a break don't we? I think it would be fun." Turning excitedly to Sora she enlisted his help.
"Don't you agree Sora?"
He nodded, "Sure, I think we deserve a break after fighting an all-powerful man using genie magic."
"Not to mention all be heartless we took out to get to him." Crowtassha added.
Luke didn't look convinced, in fact in a last ditch plea he signed to Sora, 'Don't you join in too.'
"Why not?" he questioned with a smile, "I agree with Crow, it could be fun."
Slumping forward, Luke waved them off conceding at last.
Giving a winning cheer Crowtassha high fived Sora. "Ha ha Sora, we win over Mr grumpy peridot."
Without a word Luke did as they asked and drove the ship into the waiting arms of the portal.
…:…
Their welcome to the coliseum on the other hand wasn't so hospitable.
The earlier referenced 'hottish topless man' mentioned by Crowtassha didn't respond to their questions about the 'Games' he'd mentioned last they met him overly positively.
The man of peculiar appearance, clawed feet, lionish tail, random patches of sandy fur and in human golden slitted eyes, seemed unwilling to let them participate. He declared the trails he'd put them through weren't enough to merit entrance to the tournament. A fact he'd stated last time much to their annoyance. He waved them off.
Sora stayed trying to convince him. Luke stood by his side, the assumed knowledge that this man didn't know sign language completely silencing him. His annoyed gaze the only means of communication to back up Sora's arguments.
Crowtassha sighed loudly in her irritation and left the room through the door behind them. Luke threw her a questioning look as she ducked out of view, but she returned it with one of nonchalance.
Striding down the steps Crowtassha stopped and complained, "Haaaa, stupid old man, why can't he just let us participate. What's the problem?" Pouting she crossed her arms grumpily.
"Having some trouble I see?" a smooth voice said from behind her.
Jumping Crowtassha twisted around awkwardly on her feet, almost tripping over in the process. Straightening up her eyes fell upon a twisted looking man. He was lazing by the steps, so close to where she had been a moment ago Crowtassha couldn't figure how she hadn't seen him as she passed. She grew suspicious.
"What's it to you?"
"Oh nothing," the man shrugged, flicking his wrist to pull something from his sleeve, "Maybe I'm feeling generous." He threw whatever he held at Crowtassha.
She caught it deftly and brought it to her face. He'd thrown her three tournament entrance tickets. She eyed him distrustfully. "And your given me these why?"
"Oh I don't know," the man mused, raising up, "Maybe I'm tired of all the fighters that old coot enlists. Perhaps I want some excitement."
Crowtassha pursed her lips and looked to the tickets in her hand, she returned her gaze to the steps to say something further when she saw the man was gone.
She blinked in confusion. She looked around but he was truly nowhere to be found. Eyeing the tickets with a similar measure of distrust which she gave the twisted man, she tapped her fingers against them. She was unsure whether or not to take him up on this offer. Flicking her eyes from the paper slips in question to the closed door or the coliseum Crowtassha decided.
She gripped onto the tickets. What was the worst that could happen? It's not like you could specifically curse tickets could you?
So she walked back into the building.
Sora was still arguing his point futilely. Luke it seems had gotten bored of the conversation and was leaning up against the wall.
Crowtassha approached the two arguing parties.
"Oi, you, tail man!"
He turned his gaze to Crowtassha in obvious irritation.
She suppressed a laugh at his expression. She flipped up the three entry tickets for all to see. "Would these be enough to end this argument?"
The man looked noticeably shocked. "Where did you get those?" he asked.
"Oh from someone who felt like helping us out?" Crowtassha smirked.
The man regained his irritated expression, but by dictation of his own rules, entry tickets meant entry to the games. So he was forced to concede. "Very well, if you have tickets there is nothing I can say against you entering. But don't expect to get far."
"Oh we'll see about that." Crowtassha laughed. Smiling she handed the man the tickets.
They worked like a charm.
…:…
Sora gripped the key blade. The man had let them into the preliminaries. If they won here they could move forward in the tournament. He smiled, this would be a fun change from fighting heartless day in and day out.
Crowtassha beside him appeared to hold a similar sentiment. Luke didn't let much past, but the slightest bit of amusement had slipped onto his face. Sora took it that he agreed with them.
Their opponents wafted out onto the stage. Sora blinked, sure it was nice not to be fighting heartless, but he was pretty sure that those people in front of him were demons.
Tilting his head he whispered to Crowtassha, "Crow, I'm seeing that correctly right."
The woman appeared bemused quite the same. "Yeah, I think you are." She allowed a quick glance at the stands, "Seeing how no one in the audience is reacting to them I think they must be normal here." She shrugged, "Oh well, at least it's a change from heartless."
"A little." Sora tacked on.
Crowtassha snorted, "Yeah, a little change."
Jokes over, the tailed man who conducted the tournament instructed both parties to get ready. In three seconds more he called "begin!"
Sora jumped forward, slicing down with the Keybade the demon closet to him caught the blow and parried it with its bare claws. Stepping back to avoid the next hit it sent his way, Sora narrowly dodged the blow. Advancing he began hitting back at his opponent. Quite contrary to all the Heartlesses he had fought in the past the demon seemed much more knowledgeable in how to fight. Most Heartlesses only displayed sense of fight, battling until their numbers were zero. This demon was smart. Crowtassha was probably right in assuming that they were simply a natural inhabitant of this world.
Sora ducked under another blow before returning it full force. There were five demons in all. One Crow had dealt with swiftly, another three which were preoccupied with fighting the three of them one on one. The last was nipping at each separate fight like a snake.
Sora continued his fight. Dodging as a claw raked past his left eye, he was forced to jump over the lone demon without a fighting buddy. Stumbling slightly he blocked an oncoming attack from his other opponent. Seeing movement in the corner of his eye Sora bashed the handle end of the Keybade into the chin of the demon in front of him. He was knocked off his feet and smashed his head on the ground. Soundly knocking him out cold.
The movement Sora had seen had been an attack from the last demon. He twisted around too slowly to face this next opponent though, and didn't have enough time to bring his Keybade up to protect himself from the demon's three inch claws that were zoning in on his face.
Then 'boom!'
Sora stumbled back surprised. The demon had burst into flames without warning. His mind failed to comprehend what had happened, since he himself always forgot the use of magic, then logic sunk in.
Searching the area his eyes settled on Luke holding a fire mythacite crystal, both his and Sora's demon decorated similarly with flames.
Blowing out a sigh of relief, Sora waved him thanks. "Thanks for the save."
Luke nodded, then signed which Sora vaguely caught as, 'Thought you could use it.'
Sora smiled at what he guessed was a joke. A final smash of metal on claws signalled Crowtassha's beating of her opponent.
Smiling, she met the two of them in the middle of the arena. "First rounds ours." She exclaimed in excitement, smiling for the fun of it.
They were shooed off the battle stage for a while so that the other preliminary fights could take place. But soon they were back on with a new opponent to face.
This one threw Sora for a spin. It was a single woman. She was slim and dressed from head to toe in black. She had a strange look on her face which Sora couldn't put a name to. Most worrying of all though were the six inch claws which she had growing from her left hand. To Sora she was a puzzle, even Luke seemed unable to identify what was up with her. Only Crowtassha looked on with some sort of worried comprehension.
Once again the tailed man called for them to prepare, then in three, "Begin!"
The woman lunched forward with a look of pure insanity spread across her face, and before she had landed her attack something clicked in Crowtassha's head.
"Sora! Look out she's about to-"
And then, before she even touched the Keybade Sora held up in protection, the woman transformed into a black monster with humongous twelve inch claws sprouting from each hand.
Sora balked, "What the-?"
"I'll explain later!" Crowtassha yelled, the only one in their small group not surprised by the woman's monstrous transformation, "but first we need to take her down!"
"Yeah." Sora agreed, finding himself being pushed back by the woman's great strength as he defended with the Keyblade when her blow hit. "But I might need a little help here."
"Sure thing!" Crowtassha yelled whamming the woman in the face with her shield. The woman flew left where she was then bombarded with shots of fire and water which Luke summoned like a madman.
This time, unlike the demons she acted with a wild fervour mindless of all about it bar those it could destroy. Destruction seemed its only purpose. She ducked in and out of their blows, paid no attention to when she was hit. She was burned, bashed and sliced, but she continued her assault, barely stopping for breath.
Siding up close to Sora after the battle was beginning to dull his senses, she tore a long gash down his arm with her claws. She was promptly smashed in the head by Crowtassha and the wound was healed by one of Luke's mythacite. Open to attack as she went sprawling from Crowtassha's hit Sora took his chance.
He took up the Keyblade and landed a mighty hit to the side of her head. She fell, finally rendered unconscious. Watching her as she lay there, the woman began changing back from beast to her slim human form.
Sora and Luke shared the same expression of wonder whilst Crowtassha barely looked on it twice.
Sora opened his mouth to question her as she began to walk off stage but she waved him off sensing the question coming. "I know, I know, you two are gonna want the explanation for this one. I'll give it to you once we reach the stands."
Three of them walked to the end of the arena and on to the dusty ground surrounding it. There they met up with the tailed man. He watched as they passed and brought them to a halt by saying, "Hmmm, you're not doing too badly, but you're not the best I've ever seen." He mused.
Crowtassha sighed at his response, almost as if to say, 'This guy's never going to except us as good isn't he?'
Sora shared her opinion.
About to move off, the sound of approaching steps halted Sora. He looked up as a man unknown to him passed by. His hand was covered by a gauntlet and about his shoulders was a tattered red cloak. His hair was blonde and spiked. He held Sora's gaze as he walked by, but passed without a word.
In front of them the tailed man watch him passively. "He looks like a strong opponent, you should pray that you won't be facing him."
Crowtassha seemed to take offence to the words, but it wasn't until they got back to the stands that Sora realised why. He'd basically politely said you're going to lose and not make it far.
Sitting down in the stands, Sora turned to Crowtassha, "So, what was that woman before?"
Seeing he was talking about this Luke tuned in as well.
"Oh her," Crowtassha flicked her eyes up to Luke, "Well you've probably heard the term before you've just never seen one. It's Sora I feel sorry for here. That woman was an anti-form."
"A what?"
"An anti-form. People who have spent some part of their lives too close to the darkness. It leaves a lasting effect on them. If you imagine it as a line and put a mark in the middle, those on the first half of the line have a personality change, those on the further half transform into monsters. Like the woman you saw before. Of course on either side of the line the further you are down the line the worst you are. That woman looked like she'd been holding it back for a long time, so I don't think she was a bad case. If you were on the end of the line you'd transform with the slightest tick. It's quite terrifying actually."
"You've seen them before?" Sora asked.
"Once or twice, most of my knowledge comes from other people. But their easy enough to pick. The most notable part of their monster form is still a part of their human one. Just in a smaller size, like that woman's twelve inch claws which were only six before she transformed."
"Hmmm, how come it happens do you know?" Sora asked curious.
"Not a clue in the world." Crowtassha shrugged. "The even weirder thing about it is that it has no set pattern who it effects. Not everyone who has ever been associated with darkness becomes an anti-form. Stranger still is that the longer you spend with the darkness the less chance you have of becoming an anti-form. Of course there are still freak cases, but they're rare."
Staring off at the continuing competition Crowtassha made sure to add, "You shouldn't judge an anti-form though, because even though they have spent a part of their life in darkness, the fact that there here now, means that they tried to get out."
…:…
The remaining battles of the round passed by and the new round began. Fewer and fewer opponents were victorious, leaving a much smaller number of combatants. For victims of the tournament, some stayed on to watch the remaining fights, others sulked and trudged away from the arena leaving the tournament firmly behind them.
Soon, Sora, Crowtassha and Luke's next fight came.
Much like the first fight their opponents were black demons. Though amongst their ranks they counted a creature similar in look to the tailed man who was holding this tournament. His reddish colourations and fur were a matter of interest, but it was soon forgotten as the tailed man called for the fight to begin.
It ended much like the first. The three of them rose victorious without too much trouble. But the demons did make interesting opponents. The reddish one even complimented them on the good fight. Whoever he was he was a pretty good sport.
While waiting in the stands for the next fight, the tailed man admitted bashfully, "You three might be a little better than I've given you credit for. Lucius might even enjoy these fights."
"Lucius?" Sora perked up.
"The two of us are the guardians of this coliseum. But at the moment he is otherwise preoccupied." The tailed man replied. Dropping the conversation he soon walked off to properly survey the continuing fights.
Sora watched him go, wondering what type of person the guy he was talking about was like.
Their next fight arrived even sooner than their last one. The available combatants narrowed down to four groups. The final was a victory away.
The fight when they walked onto stage was to be against the first group of purely human fighters they'd versed thus far. Excluding the human woman who'd been as Crowtassha had called her, an anti-form.
Sora, Crowtassha and Luke readied themselves, as did their imminent opponents. This battle was harder than the previous, apart from the difficult ferocity of the anti-form, since these opponents seemed to have great idea of what they were doing. Unfortunately for them, it seemed Crowtassha had an even better one. She made sure to inform Sora and Luke of the best ways to get the upper hand on their opponents, in the quickest way possible. The fight was long and involved endurance over offence. But Luke was there to heal them when they were worn down, and Crowtassha was there to direct them both to the best solution. In the end, the victory rested on their shoulders.
The head of the group breathed out a sigh after an end was called to the fighting. She approached Sora holding her hand out for him to shake, "Good fight." She said.
Taking her hand and shaking it Sora replied, "You too."
The girl shook her head and almost laughed, "Seriously though, that friend of yours there knows her stuff, she saw through every one of our combos."
Crowtassha laughed, "Well, back where I come from I'm the head of Knights, I hold over ten solid years of fighting experiences over these two here. Gotta be good with a boast like that." She joked.
But the girl just stared at her strangely, "Knights?" She questioned with a queer look.
"Ah!" Crowtassha squeaked realising a touch too late that the logic of her world didn't necessarily pass into this one too, "Nothing to worry about, fighters, just fighters, yeah." She rushed out flustered, waving her hands about.
Sora laughed at her mistake, and Luke bit on his lip wearing a great big smile on his face at the hilarity. "Oi, shoosh, you too, it's not funny." But this only made it funnier to Luke, and even Sora couldn't stop himself from laughing some more.
Calming down Sora noticed that the woman's fellow fighters didn't seem as jovial as her. Their disgruntled faces said much about what was in their head.
"Um, I don't think your friends agree with you." He mentioned.
Glancing at them she hummed, "Ahhhh, yeah I think you might be right. Don't worry they're just nursing their bruised egos, it's alright."
She clapped her hands together as a wave, "Guess I'll be seeing ya again. Be nice to verse you again sometime if we ever come face to face once more." And with that she skipped back to her group. Vaguely Sora could hear her saying, "Everyone, come calm down."
Crowtassha laughed at the display of grumpy faces. "Ah, such a funny bunch of sore losers."
'Reminds me of you when you lose.' Luke signed when she was looking his way.
"Don't you start." She growled.
He didn't mention anything more but the smile remained on his face. Sora smothered a laugh.
They retreated to the stands as the last semi-final fight was to begin.
…:…
Two figures stood watching the end of Sora's fight. Concealed by the shadows of their alcove, a man with chaos twisted features smiled, "That kid, win the next fight and he's your opponent."
The man across from him opened his eyes and watched the boy in the distance still standing on the battle stage. "Our contract only says I have to kill Lucius."
The chaotic man twitched in irritation. He glared at the blonde standing against the wall. "I know I know," he reasoned, "but you know, these are only some games to have fun in you know. What's a casualty or two? Just adds to the fun I think."
"Hmph." The blonde man didn't respond, but instead hoisted himself off from the wall and began to walk to the arena. Whether or not he would do as asked by his benefactor was still up in the air.
Left alone, the chaos twisted man cracked his knuckles in pure, ferocity. He glared at the retreating back of the contracted man. "Annoying little snot. Dare defy what I ask." He calmed almost immediately. "But ahhh well, luckily for him suckers like him are hard to come by. He turned his back on the fighting. "And there's always a plan b."
…:…
The second semi-final fight had been delayed, so getting caught up in conversation amongst themselves, none of them had paid much attention to it. As such they didn't really know who their opponent was to be until they were standing in front of him.
With a little surprise, Sora saw that it was the blonde man who had passed him before. The tailed man must have been right to call him a strong looking opponent. As he stood before them now, his huge sword which he bared at them only contributed to his threatening aura. It didn't help that he alone was the only single fighter to make it all the way to the finals.
Still Sora couldn't quite put a name to the look in his eyes.
Behind them the tailed man called, "Ready? Fight!"
The man swung his sword to the side in preparation for a swing, and Sora jumped back just enough to escape the range of the swipe. Stepping back again Sora only just managed to get a firm stance as the man lurched forwards with a new attack. He swung his sword downward. Catching the blow with the Keyblade, the sheer weight almost caused Sora to lose his grip on it. The sheer necessity to use it to protect himself was what kept his sore fingers from dropping the weapon.
The man drew the sword away, readjusting it in his hands. He swung in again. This time Sora ducked under it and dodged backwards. Crowtassha jumped in a landed a hit to the man when he was mid blow. Throwing him off balance, she took another chance to land some hits when she could. Sora joined in her escapade. They were only given this opening for an accumulation of a couple seconds before he regained his footing and readied his blade again. They dodged back out of the danger range.
From his blind spot the man took a shot of fire to the back. Reacting he twisted on his toes to see Luke standing back in a safe spot firing another shot off at him. He caught the next one of the blade of his sword then turned back on his toes to block an oncoming blow from Sora and Crowtassha.
The fight continued on much the same. It was certainly the toughest they'd faced so far, the man was an experienced fighter with some good endurance. He grew harder the more hits they managed to deal him. He elongated his sword strokes to widen the damage range, and the failure to react to this in time caused Sora to be hurt many a time. To his luck Luke had early on taken on a healing position.
After a long, tiring fight the man fell to his knees. Defeated.
Sora was about to walk up to him to congratulate him on a good fight when a rumbling shook the arena. The stones beneath his feet shook and a loud inhuman roar signalled a worse fate to come.
A giant shadow creature climbed over the bounds of the arena and onto the battle stage. In a step it all but crushed Sora's opponent between its feet.
"Sora!" Crowtassha yelled, pulling him back from the beast. The crowd screamed in horror. Many demons who seemed to be much the same in composition apart from size were even scared by the appearance of this monster.
Watching its gigantic stature Sora murmured, "What the…?" The demonic beast had come out of nowhere.
People ran past them in fear scrambling for the only entrance not in the demon's path. Contrary to this flow of movement a single force rushed past them to the face of the monster.
A man had slammed the monster back with a mighty force. It stumbled but didn't fall over.
"Run!" The nameless man shouted.
For now they complied with his wish, and joined the other parties running for the entrance.
Once in the safety of the room beyond Sora asked the tailed man incredulously, "What was that?"
"A high demon." The man replied, "Lucius should be able to take care of it, but…" he hesitated, mumbling in a quieter tone, "It's been a long time since any one here has fought a demon of that size." He seemed unsure of his own declaration. His eyes flicked from the exit back out towards where the demon and Lucius as Sora now knew him to be called were in the midst of fighting, and the one in which people were still escaping through. The question of whether or not to stay and guard their safety played in his eyes.
Watching his painful indecision, Sora stepped forward, "We'll go back and help him."
The man jumped in surprise, and looked him in the eyes seriously, "You can't be serious. A high demon isn't anything like you versed in the tournament. It's on a whole other level."
"It's the least we can do, I can't leave here knowing I've left someone in danger." Sora argued.
"Yeah," Crowtassha jumped in, "We gotta help him."
Breathing out an exasperated sigh the man conceded, "Okay, but be careful, really careful."
Nodding to his warning, Sora rushed off back into the arena, Crowtassha and Luke following him.
Coming out into the stadium, the giant demon rose high above them, wreaking destruction on the arena where the tournament took place. In front of it stood a man holding it at bay, the blonde man from before slung over his shoulder. They presumed the man fighting was Lucius.
Seeing it in its full size clearly now without the distraction of fleeing audience members and what not Luke froze. He stared at the demon for all of two seconds before he reached into his pocket and pulled out Heiki mythacite, and summoned his weapon.
He signalled to Crowtassha he was good to go.
She threw him a disbelieving stare. Focusing on the demon who stood before them she pulled her dagger from its sheath and readied her shield. "Sora don't believe anything he says, he just means he's not taking a step near that thing. He's staying and healing. Leaving all the work to us the bastard."
"Ah," Sora hummed in understanding. Summoning the Keyblade he stood ready. "That doesn't affect that we have to help that guy, a demon that big has to be hard to deal with alone."
"Yeah" Crowtassha agreed.
Without a word the two rushed to alleviate Lucius in his fight. Reaching his side Sora told him, "Get that guy to safety, we'll deal with the demon."
Readjusting so that the man sat more firmly on his shoulder Lucius nodded, and ran back to the coliseum's entrance to get the man to safety.
Standing firm, Sora readied for the fight. The demon struck out with one of its sizeable clawed hands to brush Sora out of its path. Sora slipped under the blow and struck its hand with the Keyblade. Crowtassha began striking at the legs in and attempt to bring the colossal being to its knees. Blows to its head seemed like they'd serve much more lasting damage any way.
So the fight played out thus. It hands played the biggest danger factor for most of the battle. They were large and clawed so when they struck they dealt great damage. Both Sora and Crowtassha were cut up a number of times in failed attempts at dodging. It made them grateful that Luke had decided to stay back and heal. Even if he had done it selfishly.
They were able to deal out a large enough amount of damage to its right hand that midway through the battle the pain it felt to move it was a big enough deterrent not to attack them with it. This was only a small victory though as it took this chance to begin spitting fire balls.
"Serious!?" Fireballs!? Crowtassha yelled as the first one sailed past her head. She went on to mumble some obscenity about fireballs under her breath.
The addition of fire made the battle increasingly dangerous. Even Luke had to relocate to a safer place to ensure he didn't get hurt. Though even with his constant healing any hit from the fire was troublesome. The blows were so painful they were paralysing, and until Luke could see to them they were left virtually defenceless, leaving them perfectly open to other blows. Increasing Luke's work load along with the danger. This troublesome factor made Sora and Crowtassha stay pretty stiffly on their toes, but they were not perfect. They still slipped up occasionally.
They were more focussed now on breaking in its legs in hopes it'd fall. A good hit to the head might knock it out. And at its size that was about the best they could do.
The rest of the fight become one massive endurance run. It took many minutes before its legs began to weaken. When a fierce hit finally brought it down to one knee, Crowtassha boosted Sora up so he could get to its shoulders. Swinging the Keyblade back he swung it forward and smashed it into the side of the demons head. It fell stunned and another blow from Crowtassha's shield knocked it out for sure.
With the demon successfully defeated Sora gave into his exhaustion from the battle. He fell to the ground, sitting as he tried to get his breath back. In a similar state Crowtassha eyed Luke as he approached them from where he had been hiding from the monsters wrath.
He signed to Crowtassha, 'Good fight.'
Crowtassha scowled, she could almost hear the sarcasm of his words. "Yeah one you didn't even participate in." She complained. She nudged Sora to back her up. "Hey, right?"
Sora looked up from catching his breath and looked at the two of them staring down at him. He paused for a moment, "Well he did help us."
"Oi, he wasn't the one getting shot at by fireballs now was he?" She complained even louder, slightly offended Sora didn't take her stand point.
Luke looked like he thought Crowtassha's grumpiness was funny, he signed, 'I felt them though, those fireballs were hot.'
He looked specifically at Sora, 'Right.'
Sora hadn't gotten the entire of the first sentence, but recognising fire and hot gave him the basic gist.
"I suppose." He responded.
"Suppose!" Crowtassha yelled, "Are you insane they were boiling!" Growing fed up she put up her hands in defeat. "That's it, you've both gone insane I'm leaving, that cynical tailed man is better company then you."
With that she walked off in a huff.
Watching her retreating figure Sora chuckled. "We should probably go and apologise to her for messing with her."
Luke nodded in agreement. He hesitated for a moment after that, and then after considerable thought he held out a hand to help Sora up. He avoided eye contact, the action seeming a little awkward. But Sora appreciated it, especially coming from Luke. He took it and got up off the ground. "Thanks."
Returning to the coliseum entrance they found Crowtassha, Lucius and the tailed man were the only ones inside.
Seeing Lucius, Sora asked, "That man from before-?"
"He already regained consciousness. He left through that door." Lucius mentioned pointing to the door out, "Though I don't know if he's still outside."
"Oh." Returning focus to Lucius, Sora clarified, "You've Lucius right?"
The man nodded, "Yes, your friend here has already introduced herself, and you are?"
"Sora. He's Luke." He told him pointing to the boy behind him.
"Well, then Sora I'm guessing my tailed friend beside me has something to tell you which he won't unless I make him." He gave a hard look to the man beside him. "And that is?" He probed.
The tailed man pulled a face before admitting to Sora, Luke and Crowtassha, "If you can defeat a demon like that I suppose I should let you enter the proper tournaments."
"Really," Sora sounded surprised, "That's great!"
"Finally lightened up a little." Crowtassha quipped.
The man hmphed, "Not at all, you people still aren't anywhere near as good as Lucius here. You pale before him. Now would you leave, after that interruption I have a lot of cleaning up to do of my poor coliseum."
This reaction made Sora and Crowtassha sigh, but Lucius just laughed it off. "Don't let him bother you, this is just how he is. He doesn't hate you. In fact I can't wait to see you in these tournaments again."
"Of course." Sora replied.
"Yeah." Crowtassha tacked on.
"Well I'll see you then." Lucius replied as he saw them out.
When he was sure they were gone the tailed man crept up and said in wonder. "You know, but I'm surprised people like them could take down a high demon. Those are tough creatures."
Laughing a little Lucius admitted, "Just between you and me but I'd worn it down quite a bit first."
The tailed man smirked, "I won't say a word."
…:…
Outside much to his surprise, Sora saw that the blonde man from before was still sitting on the steps furthest from him. So, crossing the large gap between them he approached him.
"Hey you-"
"Cloud." The man mumbled in response, looking up to Sora's inquisitive form with vibrant blue eyes.
"Oh, well I'm Sora. Are you alright?" Sora appeared worried.
"Yeah." He cut him off shortly. He remained silent for a time then said, 'Sorry about before."
"About what?"
"There is a man here named Chaos, we had a contract, and he asked me to take you down." Cloud explained quietly.
"Why'd you do it?" Sora asked.
"I'm looking for someone, Chaos promised to help." Here he paused once again, then continued, "I tried to exploit the power of darkness he held, but it backfired. I fell into darkness, and couldn't find the light." He paused.
"You'll find it." Sora spoke up "I'm searching too."
"For your light?" Cloud asked.
"For what's precious to me." He answered.
"Don't lose sight of it." With those parting words Cloud got and walked past them. Leaving them alone in front of the coliseum, all by themselves in the middle of the great dusty entranceway.
Hope you liked the chapter.
I don't like how I wrote the last scene, but I couldn't fix it up for some reason.
I tried much harder with content differentiation compared to the game in this chapter than with the last one. Though one of the main reasons I had trouble with Agrabah was that I had trouble adopting the original story to a KH format. It's easier with the coliseum since I created my own story for it.
Please review, I love you for it.