"Whoo boy, I'm out of shape." Phil groaned as he doubled over, panting from the narrow escape from the three headed monster in the arena. Sora, Donald, Goofy, Ruby and all her friends were all taking moments to catch their breath.
"What was that thing!?" Jaune exclaimed, leaning against the thick, heavy block. "That was Cerberus, guardian of the Underworld." Phil said, barely managing to even out his breathing. "The Underworld? Like... the after life?" Weiss asked skeptically as she pushed herself up. "Yeah but Hercules has dealt with things like that on a regular basis. So he'll be fine," Phil said in confidence before they all jumped at the sound of Cerberus' roaring. A roar which caused Phil to worriedly add "But... then again, even Hercules has his limits."
"Guess this means the games are cancelled?" Goofy said with a shrug. "That's really not important right now!" Donald said, unable to believe how clueless his friend was being. They had much bigger issues to worry about than the games being cancelled right now!
Pushing herself to her feet alongside her partner, Ruby exclaimed "We can't just leave him to fight something like that all on his own! we've got to do something!" "And what exactly do you propose we do that, Ruby!? We don't even know what that Cerberus thing is capable of!" Weiss interjected.
As Ruby and Weiss argued back and forth, Jaune had gone silent. His purple eyes closed in contemplation as he looked toward the doorway to the arena. "Jaune." Pyrrha gently spoke up, placing her hand upon his shoulder. She could tell what he was planning. And the instant he looked at her, Pyrrha gave an encouraging smile and nod. She knew what he was thinking, and she agreed with him.
Sure enough, Sora was of a like mind as he stepped forward and nodded to Jaune and Pyrrha with equal determination in his eyes. Even if the games were cancelled, this was still their chance to show Phil that they had what it took. And they were going to take it.
Phil noticed the looks the three of them gave each other, and immediately warning bells went off in his horned, balding head. "Kid, you're not entering the arena, are ya?" He asked, marching up to Sora incredulously. "I mean, Pyrrha I can understand. Heck, even Jaune's had more o' my trainin', but you?! You barely started!"
Ruby, Weiss, Donald, and Goofy immediately turned toward the three standing in front of the Arena entrance with varying reactions. Ruby was joyful to see that they were willing to help out, Weiss was incredulous at their impulsiveness, Donald sighed wearily as he could tell where this was heading, and Goofy was more than happy to join Ruby's enthusiasm to help.
Phil however was less confident. "This ain't just some match! This is for real!" It wasn't that he had no faith in them. He was simply worried about their safety with how little experience they seemed to have.
Sora, however, was not deterred. "I'm not afraid. You can decide if I'm hero material or not." The certainty and determination in Sora's voice was clear as day.
"I've been striving to fulfill this dream since I was young. I'll show you I've got what it takes, Phil." Just as it was in Jaune's.
It seemed Phil had little choice but to have faith in them. "Be careful, kid!" Phil wished them well...though it was uncertain which 'kid' he was referring to. Regardless, he just hoped they'd be okay as they ran back into the Underworldly danger that awaited them.
Back in the arena, Hercules had Cloud slung over his shoulder. The muscled man would have been able to handle Cerberus just fine on his own but he couldn't leave Cloud at the beast's mercy. One of Phil's many hero rules was to ensure the safety of any and all nearby innocents before yourself. The problem was now he had only one usable arm and he had to carefully handle Cloud while facing off against Cerberus. He had to think fast because now his back was to a wall and the triple set of large fanged canine heads hungrily stalked toward him.
Right as its heads reared back to bite, all six ears of Cerberus perked up at the sounds of footsteps coming behind. Lots of them. Sora and the gang were all together and ready to fight with what was likely going to be their hardest battle yet. Hercules took the opportunity while Cerberus was distracted to run away with Cloud held firmly in his grip.
"Kid? I got two words of advice for you," Phil said as he popped back out and ran away the next moment. "Attack!"
Cerberus roared, locking eyes onto the seven people standing across from him. All the while, a confused Goofy looked back where Phil formerly stood "Two words?" he wondered before snapping out of it at Ruby's cry of "Here he comes!" Sure enough, the three headed canine was approaching them fast.
"Scatter! There's seven of us and one of him! Even with three heads, he's got one body and can go only one way!" Jaune shouted in suggestion before running around to the left side of Cerberus's massive body. Donald and Goofy went opposite ways with Ruby rushing on the other side of if, leaving the beast surrounded. "We've got him now!"
Sora's victorious cry was cut short as a growl of irritation emerged from their foe's throats. As quickly as it rose, Sora's confidence faded voiced as Cerberus proved him wrong. Before any of them could act, Cerberus suddenly reared up and slammed its forepaws into the ground, causing a forceful shockwave. Everyone was forced to scatter away from it, or was knocked away by it. The latter being far more of Jaune, Sora, Donald, and Goofy.
"You were saying, Sora?!" Weiss griped as she hoisted the shocked boy to his feet. With how overconfident he got, he wouldn't have lasted a minute against a grimm.
Sora didn't have time to wonder how it did that, as Cerberus was once again on the offensive. As Ruby and Pyrrha attempted to strike it, two of its heads lashed out at the girls. With them forced back, the three headed canine began to launch big, blazing fireballs at them, then at Donald and Goofy. Both of them flailed about comically as they scrambled to their feet and dove out of the way of it.
Jaune, now recovered, took a breath as he carefully watched their canine foe. It was similar to a grimm in terms of animalistic behavior, but it was far more like an attack dog than a full monster despite its appearance. His thoughts were suddenly interrupted when Pyrrha yelled, "Jaune, move!" Jaune barely had an instant to move when a geyser of dark fire suddenly burst up from the ground he was standing on. Everyone else had been taken off guard by the similar dark flaming geysers bursting up from under their feet. The source was none other than Cerberus, exuding some sort of dark purple mist or flame from all three of its mouths.
"Jeez! This puppy's just full of tricks, isn't he?" Jaune exclaimed, raising his sword and shield as Cerberus continued to assail the group. And even though Ruby, Pyrrha, Weiss, and Donald managed to get some hits on him, Cerberus showed no signs of slowing down yet.
Goofy was running from the erupting geysers until they stopped then turned around and ran to the heads of Cerberus. The farthest on the right saw him and reared its head back to snap its jaw at him but Goofy ducked then retaliated by making a leaping uppercut with his shield held horizontally in his fist. The battle cry from the otherwise easygoing and friendly dog-man showed he put much force into his attack. For the moment his shield struck the chin of the afflicted head, it appeared to knock Cerberus for a loop.
Jaune noticed right away that not that head, but all three of them seemed affected to a degree. And just like that, he had an idea. "It's heads! You guys! We've gotta hit it hard enough to daze all three of its heads!" Ruby realized what Jaune was saying. "And since it's got three of them, that means three big targets for us!" Weiss and Pyrrha caught on immediately and all three opened fire on the canine's heads. The attacks seemed to work as it flinched and grunted from the sustained fire, but not nearly enough to deal any particularly crippling damage.
Everybody was keeping their distance while still shooting at Cerberus. One of the heads at the sides gathered heat in a giant sphere from its mouth before launching it to Ruby, who reacted by running at a blurring speed away. The other heads were shooting more while walking to them. The team scattered to narrowly avoid them until Sora had an idea. "Sora! What are you doing?!" Donald exclaimed as the boy just stood there while the fireball came right at him.
Sora's eyes were fixed firmly on the fireball approaching him. Clutching the hild tightly, he suddenly swung his Keyblade just as the flaming sphere was about to impact him. The fireball bounced off and went right back to Cerberus, causing it to slam into its face and explode. The three headed canine roared in pain and staggered from the unexpected reversal, while Sora's face lit up with cheer. "Jaune was right! It's heads are its weakness!" He cheered. "Thank you, Sora! We figured that out already!" Though Weiss was less enthused about him telling him what they already knew.
Sure enough, the instant the fireball smacked right back into one of its faces, the three headed dog was forced to shake off the force from the heated explosion. Yet still it came at them, determined to make a pile of dog bones out of them for all three of its ravenous heads.
But with this newfound knowledge, the would-be heroes all held a new brash of confidence. Realizing the weakness of the heads, Jaune began hatching a plan. "Pyrrha!" he called out, raising his shield. Pyrrha looked between Cerberus and her team leader and nodded, raising her shield as well. "Goofy!" The guard captain turned to Jaune, as Pyrrha raised her shield with him. At first he wasn't sure what they were doing, but then he looked to Cerberus who was rearing all three heads up, ready to strike. Quickly, he raised his shield too. The instant the three heads tried to bite them, Cerberus's teeth got snagged on their shields. "Now!" Jaune yelled to the others.
Sora, Donald, Ruby, and Weiss unleashed everything they had on the three heads. As Ruby, Donald, and Weiss unleashed bullets, dust, and magic, Sora got an idea and dashed behind Cerberus, grabbing ahold of his tail and climbing up his back. By the time Cerberus realized that something was on his back, he began to buck, trying to get Sora off, rearing up to force everyone to scatter from the shockwave that resulted from the impact of his forepaws. Though Sora was flung upward, he managed to land back on top of Cerberus, clutching his Keyblade. "Time to finish you!" Sora yelled leaping up and bringing his Keyblade down on the left head, dazing it from the force, before following it up with another two handed slam of his keyblade onto the right head. "This is it!" Sora yelled, jumping up for the third and final hit.
But Ruby noticed something that Sora hadn't. The middle head reared back to lunge and bite Sora out of the air! "Sora! Look out!" But it was too late. Sora was already swinging and the Keyblade wouldn't hit the head in time!
Or so it seemed. Noticing the movement of Cerberus's head, Pyrrha quickly reached out her hand, and with a slight gesture of the outstretched appendage, a black light seemed to envelop the Keyblade. And suddenly, as if propelled by both Sora's hands and the unseen force, the Keyblade swung faster and harder, slamming right into the canine's jowls, resulting in a final monstrous canine whimper and a yell of shock from Sora as both fell to the ground.
A moment of silence passed as Sora picked himself up and stared alongside everyone else at the sight of the fallen Cerberus.
"We...We did it! We won!" Ruby finally broke the silence with that cheer, and a collective smile or sigh of relief emerged from everyone else's face. "Whoa...That was crazy. I...I can't believe we actually beat that thing!" Jaune said, squatting to sit down from the head rush that struck him. Soon Sora, Donald, and Goofy joined Ruby in the cheering while Weiss simply smiled proudly.
Pyrrha knelt down beside Jaune and pat him on the shoulder and exchanging a smile with her leader. "You did great, Jaune. You should be proud of yourself." she said encouragingly. "Naah, I didn't do much, Pyrrha. Sora's the one who took that thing out. If anyone deserves the credit-" "Jaune~." Pyrrha interrupted in a playfully chiding manner as she poked him in the cheek. The son of Arc got the message, stopped in his tracks and rubbed the back of his neck with an awkward smile, saying, "Y-You're right...Thanks Pyrrha." His awkward smile soon gave way to a genuinely proud one. Pride in what he and his friends accomplished here.
"I am proud. Of all of us."