"It's now time for the last match of the semifinals!" Boris said as Tyson and Miguel both stepped up, staring each other down, neither blader flinching or looking away.

"It looks like our two contestants are ready for a big match!" Brad said from the commentators' booth. "Hello again, everyone! I am Brad Best, alongside my partner and good friend AJ Topper, and what a spectacle we have for all of you folks!"

"I couldn't have put it better myself, Brad!" AJ replied. "Tyson from the Bladebreakers is looking to take on Miguel from Barthez Battalion! Their skill is evenly matched, and this is a fight that a lot of fans have been waiting to see since the Battalion's surprising return to the world of Beyblade!"

"True enough!" Brad said. "Tyson is the leader of the Bladebreakers, and his strong determination are only matched by his powerful bit-best, the mighty Dragoon!"

"But that's not to count out Miguel either, Brad!" AJ noted. "If his natural skill weren't enough, then his tough-as-nails Dark Gargoyle bit-beast could certainly do the trick for him!"

Boris smiled. "Let's see the dish!"

"What dish do we have prepared for the last match of the semifinals, AJ?" Brad asked.

"This one is the circus dish, and while it may look pretty, it's actually a very tricky one to get around!" AJ replied. "If I could think of a strategy for this one, then I'd tell you, but I'm just too stumped on ideas and pumped for the match!"

Boris then grinned as he spoke up. "Bladers, ready? 3... 2... 1..." As both bladers prepared their launchers, beyblades firmly attached and rip-chords lodged in tightly, Boris finished the final three words, joined by the uproarious crowd. "LET IT RIP!"

"Go for it, Dragoon!" Tyson yelled as he launched.

"Let's make this one quick, Dark Gargoyle!" Miguel replied, launching his own beyblade.

Both beyblades circled each other around the ring of the circus, closing in as they spun around before colliding with each other, breaking away and then doing it once again, engaging in a quick little grinding battle before Dark Gargoyle backed away for a bit.

"Seems like they're setting a pretty decent pace so far," Max said. "For such an urgent battle, you'd really think that Tyson would be more aggressive."

"I think that he should save his energy for Miguel," Kenny said. "As we all know, Tyson can be very persuasive when he wants to be."

"But will that be enough for Miguel?" Dizzi said. "Ooh, listen to me. I almost sound like Brad and AJ up in their booth!"

"Eh, you're not half as annoying," Kenny said with a chuckle. "I guarantee that if you had a face, you'd be up there with them."

"Why would I need a face if we've never seen those two?" Dizzi pointed out.

"I think he means that you need to be a human," Ray said.

"Eh... no thanks. I'll remain the pile of circuitry, knowledge, and awesomeness that I am, thank you very much!"

Hilary giggled. "That's our Dizzi."

Back at the dish, Dark Gargoyle and Dragoon were still colliding against each other, picking up their pace ever so slightly as their battle continued, both bladers staying measured and playing very smart.

"So, how does it feel to be out of retirement, Miguel?" Tyson asked his opponent. "I bet that you'd be helping me out now if Barthez and the others hadn't brainwashed you."

"Even if I wasn't brainwashed, I would never help you," Miguel coldly replied.

"What do you mean?" Tyson asked.

Miguel glared harshly at the Bladebreakers' captain. "What I mean is, I purely hate you for what you did to me. When I was cheating, I was winning. Not in the best of ways, but I was winning. But then you showed up and got to me with your 'cheating is wrong' crap, and I started blading honourably. And then guess what happened?" Miguel's next three words were punctuated with harsh slams from his beyblade. "I... kept... losing!"

"So what if you did?" Tyson said. "Sure, you might have kept losing, but you never complained about it then because you were happy. You were finally free of Barthez's control, because when you broke away from him, you bladed your way, and your way was honourable. Your own way of blading is something that every kid out there should aspire to." Tyson's Dragoon was then slammed rather harshly by Dark Gargoyle, but the hat-wearing blader still spoke, gritting his teeth. "Why give that up now?"

"I wanted to be stronger..." Miguel said. "I was so sick of losing, Tyson. Even when I lost on purpose just to help Barthez back then, I didn't feel good. But winning? That feels good. And frankly, I don't care about honour at all. I just care about finally defeating you and taking that title from you." Miguel then grinned widely. "And that's exactly what I plan on doing."

"Not even in your wildest dreams..." Tyson challenged. "If you think that you're going to defeat me in your current state, then you're even more delusional than I thought. Dragoon, let's go!"

"Don't hold back, Dark Gargoyle!" Miguel replied.

Both beyblades then collided harshly, causing some reverberation throughout the dish as they both broke away from the intense hit. Both soon shook it off and engaged again, clashing over and over before Miguel stepped back with his beyblade, thrusting a closed fist forward as his blade struck Dragoon hard.

Tyson held his stomach at the impact, but he had little time to recover or recuperate as another attack struck, this one making the Bladebreaker raise a hand to his cheek, wincing slightly in pain as several more strikes followed soon after.

"Things were looking pretty even, but now Miguel is keeping Tyson on his toes!" Brad said.

"The champ has bounced back from worse, but this is a very tough call!" AJ said. "If Tyson's not careful, then this could all be over!"

'I've got to hold my ground here...' Tyson said, not moving away from Miguel's hits.

"What's Tyson doing?" Hilary said. "It's like he just froze up or something."

"Maybe he's trying to goad Miguel into a false sense of security?" Ray suggested with a shrug, not too sure of his own response.

"I think that Tyson just wants to talk to Miguel normally," Max said. "Maybe he's risking the match so that we can move forward."

"I don't think that it's so cut and dry," Kai said. "He'd never give up a match, ever. He never has. But, although he does know how important it'll be if he wins, I think that he's more focused on trying to get Miguel to listen to him."

Back at the match, Miguel was smirking. "What's the matter, Tyson? Are you too afraid to fight me?" His blade once again slammed against Dragoon. "Am I tiring out the champion already?"

"You know me, Miguel..." Tyson said, taking a few slow breaths as he held his stomach again from the shot. "I don't get tired easily..."

"Then why aren't you fighting back?" Miguel asked.

"Because I don't fight people that don't think for themselves." Tyson then lifted his head to look at Miguel. "I know what you're going to do, so you can save me the history lesson. I know what I did. I know my losses and my wins, I know my best moments and my worst ones. They're all going to stay with me forever because they made me who I am today."

"And you think that all matters?" Miguel said. "What do we really learn if we lose? Nothing." His words were punctuated with even more slams. "We only learn that we can't defeat the one we lost to, no matter how many times we get put up against them. We only learn that losing is losing, and nothing more!"

"Losing teaches us to not make those mistakes again!" Tyson clarified, slamming back of his own accord for what seemed like forever in this fight. "Losing makes us realise our limits, and it helps us to overcome them, so that even if we do lose more to the same person, we know that we'll never be strong enough to beat them." Another harsh slam from Dragoon struck Dark Gargoyle hard. "I didn't think that I had to tell you that, considering that the same thing happened to you when you started blading without cheating."

"I don't care! At least I was winning back when I was cheating!" Miguel said, his beyblade moving more erratically as the tone of his voice rose in its harshness. "I didn't care that I got hated for it, and I didn't care that everyone loved me when I started losing while fighting fairly. I just liked winning! And that's what you took away from me!"

As his sentence finished, Miguel glared at Tyson, the former's face grimacing in pain as he screamed before commanding Dark Gargoyle to attack. As it did, Tyson kept his arms over his body to block himself, hoping to soften the blows somewhat as Miguel kept up his offence.

"I've never seen Miguel so mad!" Brad said in the booth. "I'm starting to get worried for Tyson!"

"Same here, Brad!" AJ replied. "If the champ isn't careful, then we could have another brutal finish on our hands from the Barthez Battalion!"

"Miguel!" Tyson yelled. "You need to control yourself! You can't let Barthez affect you like this!"

"HE HAS NOTHING TO DO WITH THIS!" Miguel yelled. "I DON'T NEED HIM TO WIN! I DON'T NEED ANYONE'S HELP!"

Tyson grunted, looking down at his feet. "You leave me with no choice..."

Kenny then looked at the dish, and saw Miguel's eyes. "Whoa..."

"What is it, Chief?" Ray asked.

"Miguel's eyes... there's something about them..."

"Well, if you like the whole pretty-boy thing, then you keep on going with it," Dizzi joked.

"It's not that," Kenny defended. "Just keep recording the battle, Dizzi. I think that I might just have something."

"Like what?" Max asked.

"I'll let you know the answer to that one after I've gone over it tonight," Kenny said. "For now, extremely exciting beyblade match. Focus on it."

"Roger that."

Back at the dish, Dragoon had picked up the pace once more, clashing evenly with Dark Gargoyle as Miguel kept laughing manically, clearly having lost any control that he claimed to have had earlier.

"You won't win this one, Tyson!" Miguel said. "I'm going to take you out, once and for all!"

"I'm not backing down from you, Miguel," Tyson replied.

"Then I'll make you back down! Dark Gargoyle, Fire Execution now!"

"Dragoon, Evolution Storm!"

Miguel's attack started first as his bit-beast rose from its beyblade, roaring proudly. It then dropped down around its beyblade, covering it up before turning into fire that surrounded the beyblade, causing a whirlwind of pure fire to spin around it as it charged at Dragoon, giving off intense heat.

Tyson's own attack was starting up as well, the blue dragon bit-beast bursting forth and roaring as a huge tornado spun around it, arcing up into the sky and bearing down onto Dark Gargoyle as the Dragoon bit-beast flew down the windy spiral that it had created, roaring aloud as it came down to meet Dark Gargoyle's attack, both beyblades colliding heavily and causing a great deal of the dish to fly around, pieces of wood and and marble hitting both bladers as they screamed with their attacks.

"This one looks like it's going down to the wire, folks!" said Brad.

"I hope that all of our fans watching at home have good TV insurance!" AJ replied.

Both bladers were soon knocked back by the harsh impact, despite their best efforts to keep their footing and stay still. As they both rose up from their downed states, they quickly covered their eyes with their arms to protect themselves from any more pieces of the dish attacking them before the dish finally stopped shaking and the dust started to settle.

Both bladers stood up to their feet, wearily and stumblingly walking over to the dish as they waited for the last few thick feet of smoke to clear out. As it did, the audience observed that both bit-beasts had disappeared back into their beyblades, as well as Miguel's own beyblade being on its side now, a large amount of damage having been done to it.

Miguel fainted and fell forward, and Tyson moved as quickly as he could to stop it, but he couldn't reach him in time. Shaking it off and walking further up, Tyson saw his own beyblade spinning weakly before falling onto its side, and the Bladebreaker slowly rose his right arm in victory.

"Both beyblades have fallen in the dish, but Miguel's was the first to go," Boris said. "As a result, Tyson wins, and the Bladebreakers are going to the finals!"

"You did it!" Hilary said, running up from behind and hugging Tyson as he turned around, the rest of the Bladebreakers soon joining.

As a group of paramedics walked out with a stretcher to help Miguel, the leader of the Barthez Battalion wearily stood up, shrugging the paramedics away and simply walking over to Tyson, an almost angry look on Miguel's face.

"Tyson..." he growled.

"I'm sorry, dude," Tyson replied as his hug with Hilary broke. "I'm more than happy for a rematch. Not right now, though. That battle was insane enough."

Miguel simply closed his eyes, extending a hand to Tyson. Confused, the captain of the Bladebreakers shrugged and shook hands with his opponent, a bit surprised at how well Miguel was taking his loss.

"Good luck in the finals..." Miguel spoke, turning around and walking to pick his blade back up from the dish.

Tyson smiled at the surprising show of good sportsmanship from Miguel, especially given Barthez Battalion's taunting and psychological warfare against the Bladebreakers. Regardless, he still smiled before walking over to the dish to pick up his blade as the opposing team stood and walked out into the hallway behind and to the right of their bench.

"Well, tomorrow will be the finals," Boris said. "I'm hoping to see you all there, and I'm also hoping that all of our viewers at home tune in tomorrow!" He then vanished back into the floor.

Tyson huffed out another exhausted breath as Kenny spoke. "You really had me worried there!" he said.

"Me too!" Dizzi added.

Tyson chuckled. "Sorry, guys. I didn't mean to scare you."

"You okay?" Ray asked him.

The Bladebreaker captain nodded. "Just really tired. I could use a nice, long nap back at the hotel."

"Then let's get out of here," Max said, seeing that the audience was a few steps ahead of them. "I think that it'd be best if we left now so that we don't get yelled at for the collateral damage."

Tyson chuckled weakly at his friend's joke as they all walked out into their hallway, grabbing whatever else they needed from the locker room before getting back into their limousine and driving back to the hotel.

As they were being driven there, Tyson's thought process gave him mixed results. On the positive side, his team had won another battle, and they would not only be moving on to the finals, but they would also be one step closer to uncovering what Boris has been up to.

But, on the negative side, Tyson regrets that his team couldn't get through to the Barthez Battalion, despite their best efforts. He felt like with each step forward, they all took two steps back, and that worried the champion.

Alas, he tried to keep all of that worry out of his head. For now, all that Tyson wanted to do was get back to the hotel and get some well-earned rest, wanting to be at his best for the finals the next day against one of the strongest teams the Bladebreakers have ever fought against. And the thought of that alone brought back some spark into Tyson's smile as he waited eagerly for tomorrow to come.

And that's another chapter in the bag! I hope that you all enjoyed it, and I hope that you all liked the talking segments during the battles. By which, I mean, when Miguel and Tyson were talking but fighting at the same time. As I've said before, I don't want to get too repetitive in this story, and I like to think that I'm doing well in that aspect so far. As always, I hope that you enjoyed it, and I'll see you all in the next one. Stay tuned.