Disclaimer: Still don't own any characters mentioned from Nintendo, M.G.S, Sega, Namco, Shonnen Jump, Nippon Ichi, ATLUS, Square Enix/Soft, AKSYS Games, Sony, and any other animes/manga in the story except for my own. Also, in case you did not know, the plot is completely original, the mentioned characters so far are original, (Dark, Death, unknown woman, and the two street fighters) and expect more, but as far as I know, I'm going to introduce characters throughout; some you may recognize, others, not as likely; those characters for certain are made by the companies mentioned above.

The Dark Flame

A Super Smash Bros. Brawl Fan Fiction

Chapter 2: Vassal's Revenge

Several hours had passed since the opening ceremony had commenced; I had learned of my room's location and in which residential area. Sure, it had appeared to be a room that humans shared, and thankfully, it was only a single room, which I was kind of glad to be in. However, after arriving into the room, I had left just afterwards; I found no reason to train in there, since there wasn't enough room. There was enough for meditation, however, I only really needed to meditate once a day, which basically kept me focused for twenty-four hours. Meditation began around what felt like six a.m for me in this world, and I'd be good for until that time. That gives me plenty of time to go to the gym and train.

I left the building basically without much for suspicion, and wandered out to the bus stop, where I expected a bus to arrive at any time. And that is precisely what happened; participants who were training earlier today were walking off the bus and discussing how things went with practicing with them. I walked on when everyone had got off, and I was the only one to have got on. I sat around the back, and like the first time, I was gazing out the window.

"Dark…" I listened, and heard the voice of Death come to my ears, and I knew he was communicating with me. "I'm aware you're up and about, and alone right now… So tell me, have you found anything out of the ordinary there…?" I heard him ask, and I did say that I'd inform him of what was going on and all.

"I haven't seen anything too peculiar just yet… Nothing out of the ordinary has happened just yet… Though, perhaps the most that has happened is basically some imbecilic demon plans to make me his "vassal", whatever that is, if he happens to defeats me…" I explained to him through telepathy and the connection through darkness. I heard him sigh on the other side, as if a bit annoyed by hearing that. "Hey, don't go blaming me; he was just in a very bad mood or something… He probably forgot all about it by now…" I explained, and that appeared to have calmed Death down a bit.

"You know that the longer you stay in your visible state, the more trouble you seem to get in… This is perhaps the oddest thing that's happened so far… But, you have fought against demons plenty of times before, even if they're different than him… He should be no exception should you encounter him once more and he hasn't forgotten." I heard Death explain, and I closed my eyes as I thought it over; he did have a point; I train against beings that had no visible appearance where I go to meditate. Fighting a visible opponent shouldn't be much of a problem because then, I can predict their attacks if I see them.

"I see your point… Look, I'm about to go train a bit to ensure success three days from now… That is the scheduled day for my first fight in this tournament. I'll get back to you when I have the chance, alright…?" I explained to him, and after that, the connection had closed between Death and I, leaving me to realize I've reached the stadium. I stood up, and walked down and off the bus, and wandered into the stadium to where the gym was located. It was across the center arena within the stadium, where Master Hand had made the opening ceremony official. A bridge linked to the battlefield from the one side to the other where the gym was located.

I found myself walking across the bridge, but I could sense that I was not alone here, oddly enough. However, I wandered ahead, despite my hunches, and when I set foot on the center area, I listened as the bridge behind me began to be pulled into the area, and the same was said to the far side. I had no need to be dealing with whatever this was, but I suppose I'll have to in order to press onwards.

"Hee hee hee… I expected that you would come…" I heard, and I recognized the voice as that demon woman who I had a run-in with earlier; Etna. I looked up, and saw that her wings had expanded in size, but only enough to grant her a slow enough descent, and saw her stand before me. She was dressed like she was earlier, only now, in her right hand, was what appeared to be a pole battle axe. In her left was what appeared to be a remote that controlled the bridges that connected the docking area to the gym.

"You ruined my intentions to get rid of Prince long enough to take him home in that state… Now, you're going to have to pay for that… Don't worry though; the pain I'll deal to you is only insignificant in comparison to what I could do to you without this limiter…" I heard her speak, and saw her look at her wrist to glare at the bracelet. I knew her intentions, and though I commonly did not fight women, I had prepared myself since I was searching for one.

"Just know, I won't be holding back, whether or not you're a woman… I fight demons more commonly than you think…" I explained, taking the disguised Soul Eater in hand, and held it so the bladed end was on the bottom side of my hand, holding it somewhere two thirds to the blade with my right hand, and my left held it further away, however, held it comfortably to my senses. I saw that Etna stood in what appeared to be a semi-graceful stance, holding her axe out to the side.

"Oh, I didn't expect you to hold back; it wouldn't have been fun then if you did…" I heard Etna say, and saw her suddenly charge at a sudden speed, swinging her axe suddenly. The first strike I blocked with the blade, knocking her attack off target as I tried to counter attack, but watched as she backwards somersaulted a bit to recoup. I lunged forwards, but she quickly leapt high. I watched as her axe was pointing down as she charged at a sudden speed downwards. However, as she was in mere ten feet away, I simply stepped to the side, narrowly avoiding her initial strike. However, I saw her smirk before she kicked off the ground and leaped backwards, her foot kicking me in the jaw. The demon landed firmly on the ground a ways away, leaving me to recover from the glancing blow.

I decided it was time for a swap, and I charged towards her, swinging my scythe, yet she appeared to be dodging without too much difficulty. Time for a distraction, I figured; I gave one strike that purposefully missed her, the top of the scythe hitting the ground in a vertical position. However, I swung my legs around, and it was just enough propulsion needed to be able to be able to make contact. I kicked her not once, but twice; first in the cheek and the second in the stomach, knocking her back a fair distance; she wanted a contest of fancy fighting styles, I'll gladly give her one. As a quick insurance since her guard was down, I summoned a relatively decent sized fireball and tossed it at her.

However, she saw it coming and easily deflected it with her axe's blade; it diminished at some point since it was not burning on a solid surface. I saw her quickly charge again, swinging her axe violently like the first time, and again, I was moving well enough to dodge or block her attacks. I soon saw the pattern in her strikes, and soon enough, when she swung once, I reached in and grabbed the pole and quickly brought my elbow to strike her stomach. I knocked her back a fair bit away, releasing the axe to let her get knocked back; when she recovered, I could see that she was quite angry.

"Alright twerp, you want it that way, let's alter things up…" I heard her speak, and watched as her axe swapped shape into the form of a spear, and knew her fighting style will mainly revolve around thrusts now, and were a bit harder to avoid than slashes and strikes. I saw her make another offensive charge; she's becoming quite repetitive with her attacks, so I decided to change things up myself. When she was close enough, I brought my hand out and quickly tightened it into a fist on the ground, and what appeared to be a pillar made completely of fire was formed where Etna stood, burning her quite a bit as she was sent upwards a bit. In the process, I was surprised as she threw her spear up in midair, and saw it split into multiple spears made of complete fire.

She probably saw my attack coming, and expected something like that to be able to counter with this. I knew it may not be enough, but I was able to create a small firewall around myself, just as the fire spears all charged towards me, causing me to leap up to dodge them. I avoided a majority of them, but two struck my body, though their collisions were similar to a fireball colliding to me, so it was no big deal. Though I knew my protection against it wouldn't be so useful here, so that is why I felt more burning than usual.

I fell, but, I recovered in time by using my spear to break my fall, and prepared for an attack. But I saw that Etna was becoming quite mad at this point; perhaps she was reaching her point of going all out. I took a lunge towards her and swiped my scythe, yet she easily leaped up to avoid it.

"Haaa… Prepare to die!" I heard Etna cry out, and watched as her spear had disappeared, and spheres of energy surrounded her body. Next thing I knew, I watched as she attacked each bolt to have them fly towards me at high speed. I swung my scythe at each orb that came my way; they were fairly simple to deflect, yet, I could feel a strong power inside her. I watched as she lifted her arms, and a large fire sphere hovered above her head. In almost any time at all, she swung her arms in the motion, and watched as it literally charged towards me at high speed. That's not good.

I tried to move out of the way, but knew it wasn't likely, so I did the only thing I could think of. I raised my scythe in the arch of a blocking motion, and next thing I knew, I was inside an explosion. If it hadn't been for the bracelets we wore, I'd have been very injured; here, it wasn't as bad but stung like hell. When the explosion came to an end, there was quite a bit of smoke, and when it dispersed, I saw I was still standing, and Etna was standing a ways away from me, her spear in hand. She appeared a bit off guard, mainly because I was still moving, then it changed to her in a pissed off attitude.

"Wha-! How'd you-! Ugh!" Etna was yelling all these to herself, and I knew that was perhaps her best attack in her arsenal. I still had a trick up my sleeve as well; time to take things seriously. I swung Soul Eater and released it, throwing it to the side, away from her purposefully, and she saw it.

"Uhhh… Perhaps that made your attacks incapable of making contact…?" I heard her say, but I swung my right harm, the garnet ring glowing as I released three fire balls in three separate motions, and she saw them, and easily moved out of the way of them. At this point, the scythe was directly behind her, and made a pulling motion. In a blinding motion the scythe came towards me, striking her back to knock her towards me. I began to deliver strike after strike with the scythe, using the blunt end as much as possible.

"Oh powerful darkness, hear my call;

Towards this victim, bring their fall.

Soul Eater show your true self,

And cut down this being, to eternal hell!"

The words I spoke were in an understandable language, and that was when Soul Eater reverted to expose its true form as the strikes turned and began to deal what appeared to be heavy-hitting slashes. Due to the bracelets on both of us, it prevented Etna from receiving devastating scars across her body. The next thing that happened was I paused for a moment, focusing my power, then, while she was unprepared, I swung the mighty Soul Eater in an upwards motion, knocking her upwards in doing so.

I took a moment to recover; using that attack took quite a bit out of me, and Soul Eater reverted to its normal shape. In the process, I heard a thud land behind me, and I saw that it was Etna, but she was in a pose in her trophified form. Her spear was in hand, and an axe behind her as she leaned against the spear. Nearby was the remote that controlled the bridges, which I picked up, but knew I shouldn't leave Etna as she was. I looked to her trophy, and remembering how I had Laharl recover from his state, I touched the stand that held Etna's form, and saw her begin to glow. I stepped away as I saw Etna return to normal, she was sitting on the ground, trying to make sense of what happened to her.

"N-no way… I couldn't have lost… I refuse to lose to you…!" I heard Etna speak, and saw her struggle to return to her feet to try and finish off the fight, but she collapsed once more. I pressed the button that I thought opened the bridges, and they expanded once more.

"You'd seriously strain yourself further due to that amount of hatred towards me? As you are now, you can't stand to fight for too long; sometimes you have to pick your fights, and when to recover from their injuries. "Live to fight another day…" a common quote I've heard over the life I lived, and I stand by it. If I know a fight is too much for me, I take time to understand my adversary's attack patterns, and devise strategies biased on them to earn a more efficient and successful victory." I explained to her, twirling Soul Eater and placed it on the makeshift sheath on my back, looking away from her. "In all honesty, if you had taken time to learn of my fighting style, Etna, you might've been more successful, and I would've been the one who was trophified… However, your impatience to fight and defeat me led to your downfall, despite your best efforts… Perhaps next time, you'll understand…"

I closed my eyes as I finished up what I said, and walked away while I let my words sink in, whether she would accept them or not is up to her. My words had never comforted a demon before anyways, why would they suddenly start now? Then again, I did provide her with some advice that may inevitably lead to my own downfall, yet I did not care. I had overcome worse situations than what had just happened now; demons much worse than her had much harsher combat training than her; hell they all came naturally in comparison to Etna.

As I entered the gym, I thought it over; Etna served Laharl; considering how powerful she merely was, then it would be assumable that Laharl may potentially be even stronger. Huh. Not that I really seem to care at the moment, but perhaps I should train against his hologram with increasing difficulty for every defeat it comes up with until it's equivalent to his abilities. It'd be an interesting fight, I'd admit, though, for some odd reason, I had the strangest feeling I was being watched or followed. I looked into the darkness, and despite my good eyesight into it, I could not see a thing. The further I walked in, the more battle-oriented sounds came to be heard. It was quite evident at this point that I was, obviously, not the only one here; I grasped my scythe as I approached, prepared for whatever I may run into…