Rio seemed to have a better grasp on battling than in his two other fights. For one, while his movements were still clunky, he was able to evade some of Zeke's more telegraphed attacks, and block the ones that would have caught him by surprise before. Of course Zeke had no problem dealing with Rio's attacks, the few that actually landed felt like virtually nothing to the seasoned fighter.
"C'mon, Rio, ya gotta hit harder than that!" Zeke scoffed, landing a swift jab to Rio's gut. The Blaziken hopped from one foot to the other, embers gently dispersing with every hop.
"Oh yeah? How's this then?" Rio threw himself forward, thrusting out his palm. Zeke sidestepped it, confident enough to keep his back to the Outlander.
"Really? I don't mean to be rude, but that's waaaaay too slow to- AAHK!" In the middle of his sentence, Zeke was suddenly shoved forward. Rio had quickly pushed himself off the ground and rammed his shoulder into Zeke's back.
Proud at landing an actual solid hit on Zeke, Rio stood with his paws on his hips and a smirk on his snout. "Hehehe! It worked!" The Lucario cheered. "A few more of those and this battle is mine!"
"You do realize you're being overconfident, right?" Zeke shook the hit off and faced Rio. "I'd love to see you manage that again, but something's telling me you won't be able to. What say we kick up the heat a little, huh?" he smirked, spewing a small flame from his beak.
Rio didn't decline, and instead took the initiative and ran towards Zeke, throwing out his palm. He got one hit on the Blaziken before being grabbed. Zeke chuckled and lifted Rio above his head, spinning around and tossing the Lucario far behind him. Before Rio touched the ground, Zeke hit him with a powerful kick, sending him flying back..
"Don't lose that confidence, Rio!" Zeke said. "I thought you were gonna win this?"
"I-I'm not out just yet!" Rio exclaimed, although his body would beg to differ.
Zeke smirked. "Alright, that's what I wanna hear! Let's see how well you do against a flamethrower then." The Blaziken rolled his shoulders and threw out his fist. "I'll hold most of it back, since I don't wanna hurt you too much. Just enough to make you give up."
Zeke let out an exhale of embers as his wrists shot out red and orange flames. He did some flashy spins before throwing a punch in Rio's direction, shooting out a blast of fire. It was about as tall as Rio, and it was coming in hot! He didn't have any time to move out of the way, thanks to his body struggling to listen to his directions. The most Rio could do was throw up his arms and block the attack.
The fire was so hot at first, almost entirely engulfing Rip. But... it didn't hurt? Rio felt something spark inside his body, a heat of his own, and his arm band started to glow. Then just as fast as he was swallowed in flames, the flames wrapped around his arm and exploded in a glorious gold and red burst of energy. His body felt pumped up, and a warm glow appeared around his body.
"Whoa..." Rio blinked. "Was that... supposed to happen?"
"I, uh... no?" Zeke shrugged, just as confused as Rio was. "There's usually, like, smoke. And it's supposed to explode, er, differently."
"Maybe try it again?" Kora suggested from the sidelines. "Maybe you missed?"
"How could I-" Zeke groaned and shook his head. "Fine, I'll just try it again."
After a much less flashy display, Zeke fired another Flamethrower. This time, Rio's body reacted on it's own, holding out his arm. Mimicking some of the movements that Zeke made, Rio threw his palm forward and instantly dispersed the Flamethrower without causing an explosion. A flurry of embers danced and glided through the air before vanishing.
"..." Rio looked in awe at his paws, then over to the others, equally amazed at.. whatever it was that just happened. They were all in silence for a minute, until it was shattered by Jax and Kora.
"THAT WAS SO FREAKING AWESOME!" The two overgrown children roared with pure excitement.
"RIGHT?!" Rio exclaimed back, with just as much energy as the other two. Minerva, Nate and Zeke each groaned.
"Now there's a third child to take care of..." Nate sighed.
"Great, 'cus Jax wasn't enough, right?" Zeke shook his head. He looked up to Rio and grinned. "Well, Outlander, I'd say we did a good amount of sparring. I'm impressed, you got the drop on me for a second, and for how little you're used to being a Lucario, your attack still hurt a tiny bit. I'll enjoy making a fighter out of you!"
Rio grinned proudly. "Thanks! I'm looking forward to it!" He flexed his paws and felt the heat flowing through his body, and watched the band glowing faintly. "I have no idea what this is, but I think it's gonna come in handy! I've gotta learn how to use it."
After a little while, the heat and the glow faded, leaving Rio feeling heavy again. Along with the heaviness came a sudden exhaustion, and Rio started panting and stumbled a bit. As he fell, Zeke caught him.
"Yeah, you definitely can't fight any longer," The Blaziken chuckled. "Let's go ahead and rest for a bit."
"Alright, next up are two powerhouses, Minerva and Nate!" Jax announced, a grin plastered on his face. "We might wanna take a step or two back, there's gonna be a bit of a splash if they really go at it!"
"You really enjoy this announcer thing, don't you?" Kora asked.
"It's the second best part of a fight, next to actually fighting of course," Jax replied, placing himself beside the Zoroark. He then turned to the two on the field. "Alright, whenever you guys are ready!"
Nate was about ready to get this fight going, but Minerva looked a little out of it. The normally bold and abrasive tomboy had a rather uncharacteristically distant and glum expression on her. Something was getting her down, clearly.
"You alright?" Nate asked, catching her attention.
"Huh? Yeah, I'm good." Minerva answered, readying herself to fight. "Ya gonna come at me or what, Gatr Boy?"
It was a step back to her normal attitude, but Nate still felt something was wrong. Who knows, maybe he was just overthinking it. "Well if you're gonna call me 'Gatr Boy,' maybe I shouldn't hold back against ya?" he smirked, getting on all fours.
After Jax did his countdown, Nate shot a Hydro Pump, which was just barely evaded by Minerva. She swiftly closes the gap between them, trading blows with Nate and them both getting unbalanced and stumbling back. Minerva quickly recovers and runs back in, punching Nate in his gut. Nate returned the hit in kind with an Ice Punch, taking her hit well. Unlike Nate, Minerva really felt that one, staying on the ground longer than normal.
"You got this Minerva!" Kora cheered, trying to push away the worry in his chest. Minerva stood back up and faced Nate, her facade of confidence starting to falter as whatever was troubling her came back.
Nate crouched down and fired another Hydro Pump, the semi-distracted Minerva hardly dodging it this time. She tried again to close in on Nate, zig-zagging towards him. He fired another when Minerva was close, but she was able to avoid it and slugged Nate with all her might, sending him back several feet. A smirk came onto her face as she started to catch her breath.
"How's that, huh?" Minerva gloated.
"Eh, I've felt harder hits. Hope that's not everything you got," Nate replied with a smug grin, but his smugness left him when he saw Minerva tense up. "I-I mean, it's not something I want to get hit by again, so I can't get reckless now!" he quickly backpedaled, hoping he didn't hurt her feelings. Unfortunately for him, Minerva was filled with a sort of blind rage.
Minerva charged Nate down at a terrifying pace, her claws extended and her snout in a fierce snarl. She wailed on Nate, forcing the Feraligatr to be solely on the defense right then. His arms got scratched up, and he had to decide to either sit there and take it or to get the raging feline off forcefully. He tried to take it for a bit longer, but once he felt her cutting into his skin, his own temper got a bit out of control.
"ENOUGH!" Nate roared, swinging his arms out to push Minerva away. A torrent of water engulfed Nate's tail, roaring like a raging river as he swung it towards Minerva. She either didn't care or was blinded by her fury to see the attack, still charging the reptile down. Instead of getting any hits in, Minerva had the mighty force of Nate's Aqua Tail slam into her.
Minerva was sent flying backwards, rolling painfully on the ground as she hit it. Nate then subdued his fury, feeling a tinge of regret after hitting her with such a strong attack. Kora got up and dashed to his friend's side, followed by Rio. The two tried to help her up, but were shrugged off by her.
"I got a fight to finish..." she grumbled, glaring back up to Nate. "I ain't done 'till I knock him flat!"
"No, Minerva," Nate stated firmly. "I'm not going to fight you anymore, you couldn't beat me. Look at yourself, you can barely stand." He had a point. As Minerva stood it took all she had to just to not fall back over. Dealing damage was right up her alley, but taking it was an entirely different ordeal.
"Shut up!" she barked. "I'm still standin' so I can keep fightin'!"
Kora wanted to stop her, but found it hard to actually say anything. He knew why she was this upset, and partially blamed himself for it. Rio decided to speak up in Kora's place.
"Minerva, you did great! It was a really cool fight!" the Lucario said. "But you're a bit too beat up to keep going. Maybe next time you ca-"
"Can it, Rio! Ya barely did jack shit in your fight, I don't wanna hear that 'You did good' speech from you!" Minerva snapped, quickly covering her mouth afterwards. "I-I... shit..." She looked back at Rio for a second before running past the fox and jackal, leaving the field without another word.
"Minerva, wait..!" Kora called out as she left, quickly following behind her.
Nate frowned and slumped over a bit. "Aw man, it must've been something I said..." he groaned.
"No, I think it has something to do with whatever Kane said to her some time before we got here," Rio explained. "I'm not so sure what it was, but when I bumped into her earlier she seemed pretty upset about something. You're fine, I think," he hurried after his two friends, wondering what Kane could have possibly said that got Minerva so messed up about it.
There weren't many places Minerva would have gone, and although the bank was the closest, Rio and Kora made a stop by the Bakery first just in case. Upon entering the bank, the two looked around and didn't see anything at first. They walked up to the counter and leaned over to see Minerva laying on the ground with a sour look on her face and the faintest of tear stains trailing from her eyes.
"..." she stared right past them at first, but when Kora tried to poke her she flicked his claw away and grumbled at the two. "The hell do ya want..?"
"To make sure you're ok," Kora replied, again trying to poke Minerva. "Are you?"
"Yes, I am," Minerva answered bluntly, flicking the claw away again. "No get outta here, doncha gotta fight Jax or whatever?"
"Well, you don't really look fine. Kinda like an upset cat that's too grumpy to let her friends help her," Rio said, also trying to poke Minerva.
"Plus, what good is me fighting Jax if you aren't there to see me beat him?" Kora asked, managing to poke Minerva's cheek without being flicked. "How else am I gonna brag about it to you if you don't see it for yourself? You'd just think I made it up!"
"Oh please, if any of us could beat that muscle head, it'd be you. You're crazy strong, and agile..." Minerva trailed off, her sourness turning into sadness for a moment. "..."
"Hey, you're stronger than I am!" Kora said with a smile, falling over the counter beside Minerva and laying beside her. "You could throw me into the sky, and I wouldn't come down 'till dinner! Maybe... I really wouldn't like to test that out, so..."
"Yeah, but what's so good about bein' this strong if I can't… fight?" Minerva sighed, swatting Rio's paw from her face. "I can barely take a hit without goin' down... might as well be weak too, just to fit with how useless I am..."
Kora leaned up and stared sternly at Minerva. "Minerva, Kane doesn't know what he's talking about. We beat him and Eva yesterday! And nobody blames you for this morning, none of us could risk getting close to Zen with how he was!" he said, a bright gleam in his eyes.
"Yeah, that was terrifying. I literally couldn't do anything other than get hit!" Rio exclaimed. "Other than try not to get hit... So if anyone's useless right now, it's gotta be me."
"Kane's just upset that he was used as a weapon, which I don't understand why, it looked really fun!" Kora chuckled, getting one from Minerva as well.
"Maybe. Guess the only one that's alright gettin' thrown around is you, twerp," Minerva said with a smile, sitting up and patting Kora on his chest. "But that might just be cuz ya don't gotta worry about brain damage if ya fall on ya head."
Kora stuck out his tongue and laughed a little, laying his paw on Minerva's head. "I'd be hurt if I knew what that meant!" he joked, but then remembered something. "Oh yeah! Rio, bring out the thing!"
Minerva was about to ask what 'the thing' was, but after hearing Rio rummage through a bag and then being sucker punched by the aroma of desserts, the feline had a pie plopped into her lap with a fork stuck in the top. It was fresh, hot, and absolutely mouthwatering. She looked up at Kora and Rio with utter joy upon her face.
"We stopped by the Bakery for a bit, firstly because we thought you'd be there, but when you weren't we decided to buy you a little something," Kora explained. "Clara sold it to us with a 'dis count' or whatever, but we only bought one pie so I don't know what she didn't count. It was a bit cheaper than I thought, so maybe it got messed up or something when they were baking it?"
"I didn't feel like correcting him, still don't either..." Rio whispered to Minerva. "Anyway it's all yours. Nice and fresh!"
"You guys..." Minerva smiled sweetly and stood up, pie in hand. "Ya really don't want any of it? It's just for me?"
"It ain't a gift pie if we had some too," Kora explained, hopping over the counter. "Besides, can't fight with a full stomach! The last time I tried wasn't pretty..."
"Yea, I remember that," Minerva shuddered. "That's probably the first of ya ideas that completely backfired."
Rio felt he knew what had happened, and didn't bother asking for details. So, with Minerva cheered up and a pie delivered, Kora and Rio made their leave. At least until Minerva stopped them. With warning the two, she jumped up between them and caught her arms around their necks, pulling them into a hug from behind, and also accidentally banging all three of their heads together. Thank goodness Kora's mane cushioned most of the back of his head, but that just meant instead of pain, Minerva got a mouth full of hair.
"Thanks," Minerva said after letting go and rubbing her head. "And, I'm sorry for what I said earlier, Rio. I was just-"
"It's fine, Minerva, I had a feeling you were going through something," The Lucario cut her short, giving her a forgiving smile. "I'm pretty sure if you were really mad at me, you'd probably knock me out instead of chew me out."
"You can go and enjoy your pie, I guess I'll just have to beat Jax without a full audience." Kora waved goodbye to Minerva, exiting the tent with Rio right behind him, leaving Minerva to her lonesome with a steamy fresh pie awaiting her.
With the boys gone, she sat on the edge of the counter and placed the pie on her lap. The first bite was just as incredible as the pie they tried earlier, if not somewhat more refined in the ingredients. Everything blended together a bit better, the crust was flakier and crispier, and the chunks of berry were perfectly cooked.
"I bet it would taste even better if they shared it with me," she said to herself as she went for a second bite. "Dammit, why's he gotta be so nice? Those brats off the island wouldn't bat an eye at me if they saw me like that..." For a moment, she thought back to what Kane told her.
"How can you be so ungodly strong, but so utterly, goddamn useless?! Why the hell would you throw someone into, not just Zen, but Zen raging the hell out like that?! Were you trying to kill me, runt?! Are you so unbelievably brain dead, that the simple idea of fighting can't be understood in that thick skull of yours?"
The piece of pie in her mouth tasted sour suddenly, but she didn't care to spit it out.
"I'll show that bastard who's a 'runt' between us..." She swore to herself, finishing another bit. "I'll show him who's really useless, who actually knows what a fight is..!"
Sour again, but just like before, Minerva didn't care. The pie was a gift, and if there's a bit of sour while eating it, she wouldn't let that ruin it. Besides, the sour was drowned out shortly after by a tango of sweet and spicy, which seemed to be led on by the latter. It wasn't a combo she was expecting, but she enjoyed it nonetheless.