Crash!

His purple hair began to blow in the harsh wind and the young boy felt dust and debris scratch at his skin as it was pelted at him in the harsh gust. In an instant his head was up, sea blue eyes wide and tears dry on his cheeks. There was a deafening roar from behind him – and I mean right behind him. Hiro gulped.

"Oh god, please no..." Slowly, the purple haired teen cranked his head round, body somewhat frozen in the fear of what he might see – no, scrap that, in the fear of what he knew he would see.

Deliora stood mere metres away, blood swirled drool dripping from his large canines and dropping to the floor in puddles, scraps of flesh and bone mixed into the slimy mess. Hiro felt his blood run cold.

'Maybe this is just a hologram, like my mum and me earlier.' His mind buzzed, trying to soothe his clawing nerves, but a thunderous step from the beast behind him and a slow, deadly rise of humungous claws made every calming theory vanish.

Hiro blinked and rolled out of the way of the bone-breaking attack just in time, raising his hands to defend his face from the on slaughter of rock and stone that made up the after math of Deliora's claw crashing to the ground. The violet haired teen cried out in pain as a large slice of debris sliced through his side, creating a huge gash on his lower stomach.

"Damn..." He cursed, one cerulean eye squeezed shut in pain while the eyelid of the other trembled in anguish. Deliora roared again and Hiro looked away from his wound and at the monster before him as the horrendous being pulled his fist from the cracked and broken ground, turning his head immediately to face his prey.

'There's no time to sit still.' Hiro hissed in his mind, his brain frantically working to assess the situation and choose the best method to deal with the problem at hand. He was wounded, and Deliora was a hundred times stronger than the young teen even if he was at his fittest, so fighting was way out of the question. 'That means my option is to run – Argh!'

Another swing of blood-soaked claws got Hiro diving to the side again, but this time he didn't stay still. As soon as the attack landed on the ground beside Hiro, the cerulean orbed boy done a tuck-roll onto his feet, one hand pressed onto his wound to slow the bleeding while the other gripped onto a chunk of wall for support. He gave a quick glance at his attacker before cringing and beginning to run, a trail of blood following him. But that didn't matter anyway; Deliora wouldn't be following the trail, but the smell – that meant that he had to get out of the mirror to fully escape.

But he had a feeling that even that wouldn't be the end – The Game had a thing for making life hard, after all.

There was a clatter as the sword fell to floor, followed by a thump as Alithra sunk to her knees, chest rising a falling rapidly and scratches littering her usually smooth skin. The yellow of her eyes was dimming as her magic began to fail her. This was the fourth time she had changed animal form, and the fourth time that her opponent had countered every one of her attacks.

"Looks like I underestimated you." The white haired girl heaved, one eye shut permanently as blood oozed out from the large gash down the left side of her face. "You planned this from the start, didn't you?"

Fallon was also panting, and she too was covered in scratches, but none as serious as Alithra's – the auburns wounds were more like paper cuts, appearing worse than they actually were. Fallon felt a smirk tug at her cracked and dry lips, and her three bladed sword was dripping crimson with blood.

Alithra tried to stand, but the eighteen year olds legs gave way beneath her and she slumped to the floor again. The smoke clogging to battlefield was clearing now, and the two enemies could see each other clearly once again.

"You didn't just set up this smoke so that you could make sneak attacks..." Alithra huffed, having finally seen through all of Fallon's plans. "You done it so that you could hide for a while – during that time, you set up various alchemic circles along each of your arms before pulling down your sleeves and engaging me. You purposely lured me into a sword fight because you already had everything set up, you knew that you couldn't lose."

"You've got sharp eyes." Fallon croaked, throat dry from fighting. "But it's too late now. My magic takes longer to use, but if set up skilfully, there is no close-combat battle I can't win because my weapons power is stronger than anything."

Alithra let out a short laugh and closed her one good eye, a soft smile gracing her features.

"I see. I was really stupid wasn't I? Jumping in like that..." The snow haired girl put one hand on her knee and began to push herself off the floor, legs trembling from the effort. "You were even strong enough to beat the strongest of my animal spirits..." Silver flecked eyes, now faded back to normal, looked over to the fallen dragon on the floor, one of the strongest spirits from the Animal Spirit realm.

Fallon sheathed her sword, eyes closed gently.

"Yes, but there's another power that you haven't used yet, right?"

Alithra chuckled again and slumped against a nearby mirror, her pitiful state reflected in the spotless glass. She looked at herself and felt her heart thump painfully.

'Nero...' Her thoughts echoed. 'What would you say if you saw me now? I'm pathetic...'

She sighed.

"You're right that I didn't us every one of my powers... But I only use the last to read the emotions of enemies..." At this, Alithra snapped her face up to look at Fallon dead in the eye. "And we're not enemies... The enemy is whatever sick bastard set this whole thing up. So Fallon," Alithra took a few shaky steps forwards, blood dripping from all of her wounds and leaving crimson droplets on the floor. Fallon's eyes grew wide as she felt her hand being grabbed and held in a firm hand-lock. The auburn haired teen looked up at her 'enemy' a small gasp leaving her lips at what she saw. Alithra was smiling, a whole-hearted, happy smile. "Live and kill the mage who made us fight our allies, and put an end to this once and for all... Oh, and one more thing..." Alithra's hand began to slip from Fallon's as her final scraps of strength seeped from her body. "Make sure... you don't cause my partner too much pain... to me... he's still my precious friends..."

And her body fell backwards, hitting the floor with a thump, eyes still open, yet no longer seeing. The smile was still on the fallen girls face and Fallon couldn't help but mimic her past foes expression, the hand that Alithra held just moments ago clenching into a tight fist.

"Ah... Leave it to me..."

Arg! This is going to take up yet ANOTHER CHAPTER! But oh well, it's fun to write, Already this has become my favourite to write out of all the tournaments so far! Alithra has passed on, but she left her will with Fallon, and now the former enemy charges on towards her comrade! But what about Hiro?

I am officially caught up with all of the chapters of Naruto, so... YAY!

I went to Hyde park yesterday to watch the Olympics on the Big Screen. It was way too hot though and I ended up sitting away from everything in the shade, the only screen I was able to see was showing the equestrian... yuck! But, they had Ramen stands and I got to eat Noodles while wearing my Naruto shirt, which made me happy! But I wish the weather had been cooler, then I could've stayed long enough to see Usaine Bolt in the 200m... :(

Doesn't matter though, it was a good experience, considering that this will probably be the only time in my life that the Olympics are held in my country! And now I'm rambling... Sorry, I'll shut up now...

Thank you for the reviews! You guys are awesome! *get's hit over the head with frying pan* Yeah yeah, shutting up, I know...