Chapter 31
Champion
Everyone ran to avoid the spinning Keyblade. Bartz summoned it back whenever it passed its targets and threw it again, sometimes aiming for Sora but other times aiming for his friends. Riku, Kairi and Mickey were able to avoid the attacks, but Donald and Goofy had much closer calls. Goofy managed to block the weapon with his shield, but he was sent flying back several feet.
Regaining his footing, Goofy threw his shield at Bartz. Bartz blocked it with his sword, but he was thrown off balance. Donald took advantage of the opening and cast Thunder, causing a bolt of lightning to hit Bartz in the foot, knocking him down. Goofy ran in, caught his shield, then threw it down and jumped on it. He slid across the water's surface as if he were water skiing, and zoomed straight for Bartz just as he was picking himself back up. The shield hit him in the legs while Goofy's flailing arms hit him in the chest.
When Bartz recollected himself from the attack, he raised his arm. His eyes flashed grey and a replica of Donald's staff materialized in his hand. Yellow sparks surrounded the head of the staff. A bolt of lightning came down from above and hit Goofy, stunning him. Bartz dismissed the staff and conjured a shield shaped exactly like Goofy's. He shoved the shield up against Goofy's chin, sending him flying. He then threw the shield at Donald, hitting him square in the chest.
"Why are you attacking us?" Sora asked from across the spring.
"I heard you beat Hercules and have been causing trouble. Killed some people. I'm here to put an end to that," Bartz answered, apparently trying to sound heroic. He threw the shield again, but Sora knocked it out of the air with his Keyblade.
"What? I think you're mistaken. We're fr—" But Bartz wouldn't let him finish, as he summoned Donald's staff again and cast Thunder at him, forcing Sora to flee the spell.
No use. He's not going to listen to reason like this, Sora thought. Gonna have to fight.
Sora, Riku and Kairi jumped in and attacked Bartz from all sides, hoping to overwhelm him, but Bartz simply used his sword and the copy of Goofy's shield to block the attacks, then kicked Riku in the stomach. However, this created a new opening, through which Mickey cast Pearl. Bartz was hit, but he landed on his feet and smirked. His eyes once again turning grey for a quick second, he conjured a copy of Mickey's Keyblade, bewildering the mouse. He pointed the weapon at Mickey and shot a similar pearl of light at him.
Sora's eyes widened when he realized what was happening. He's copying our moves, just like my Dimension Links. He's not a Keyblade wielder or anything, just a copycat. He dismissed his Keyblade and ran straight at his adversary. When he drew near, Bartz swung his sword at him, but Sora ducked to the side, vaulted himself over with one hand, and kicked Bartz in the stomach. Bartz took a step back to recover from the hit, then conjured two shields and punched at Sora with them.
"Hey, you're pretty good," Sora complimented, blocking each hit with his hands, though he could feel the pain and realized that he could not keep this up forever. So, instead, he shoved each shield to the side as they came in for a hit, then threw himself at Bartz, putting all of his weight into a brunt force shove with his upper arm, pushing him off-balance.
Kairi appeared and tripped Bartz while he was flailing about, then Riku grabbed him by the arm and threw him out of the spring and into the wooded area. Sora, Riku, Kairi, Mickey, Donald, and Goofy followed him.
When they entered the woods, Bartz attacked with both Keyblades, but Sora and Mickey countered with their own. Since they were the genuine article, along with their own strength which was superior to their opponent's, they easily overpowered him. Sora dismissed his Keyblade and shoved him with both hands into a tree.
"Gravity!" Kairi shouted, though instead of raising her Keyblade up and bringing it down on him, she pointed it forward, causing the black hemisphere to push g-forces horizontally, pinning Bartz against the tree, which started to creak as the force tried to tip it over.
"Now that we can actually talk now," Sora began, approaching Bartz, "what made you think we were enemies of Herc?"
Bartz sighed. "Some guy with a flaming head told me that you beat Hercules in a fight, that you'd been butting your head where it didn't belong, and you even killed some of the guy's friends."
"Was it a blue fire?" Sora asked.
"Yeah. And bluish-gray skin. He wore a dark robe."
"Hades," Sora, Donald and Goofy said at once.
"Hercules is a friend of ours. We actually teamed up with Herc to fight Hades," Sora explained. "Hades kidnapped Herc's girlfriend and sent the Hydra to destroy the Coliseum."
Bartz's eyes widened. "Aw, man. I can't believe I let myself get tricked like that," he lamented.
"Don't beat yourself up over that. That's something Hades just does. He finds a promising warrior, makes them an offer they can't refuse, and tricks them into fighting for him."
Bartz slumped, which made him realize that the Gravity spell's effects had worn off. He picked himself back up and dusted himself off. "Well, sorry I attacked you like that," he said. "I'm Bartz. Bartz Klauser."
Sora shook his hand. "Sora," he introduced himself.
"Riku."
"Kairi."
"Mickey Mouse."
"Donald Duck."
"Goofy."
"It's nice to meet you. And I've gotta say, you guys are pretty good in a fight," Bartz commended.
"You're not half-bad yourself," Sora replied. "How did you copy our weapons and abilities like that?"
"Mimicry," Bartz said with a proud grin. "Whatever skills and powers I see in action, I can recreate. This involves using a copy of the weapons and items used to carry out those skills."
"That's pretty cool. So, are you here to train with Herc and Phil?" Sora asked.
"Yeah, I am. I was just about to head in when Hades showed up," Bartz answered.
"Well, I suppose we should head back and introduce you to Phil," Sora said. Bartz nodded and joined them as they passed through the woods and reentered Thebes.
Phil saw the seven warriors enter the Coliseum courtyard and wiped sweat off his brow. "Phew. Glad to see you took care of that centaur all right. Don't worry. Everyone's safe. The people are even starting to pick up the damage that Nessus caused," he informed them. He then did a quick double take as he realized that there was an extra person with them. "And who's this guy?"
Bartz waved. "Hi, I'm Bartz. I'm the guy Hercules recruited months ago. He told you about me, right?"
Phil thought for a moment, but then remembered. "Ah, yes. Herc did tell you about me. He said you were going to take a while to get here. To be honest, I started training another guy about your age, thinking he was the guy Herc told me about, until he realized my confusion and cleared it up."
By then, the party of six plus Bartz had met up with Phil in the center of the courtyard. "So, you're the legendary trainer of heroes, Philoctetes?" Bartz asked.
"I'm your guy. Call me Phil," the satyr replied. "Herc said you had a lot of potential. I'd like to judge that with my own eyes."
Just then, several Heartless appeared around them. There were Large Bodies, Neoshadows, and Soldiers, as well as three other types: Lance Soldiers, skinny humanoids wearing what appeared to be bronze armor and carrying conical iron lances with zig-zagging tips and jagged "mouths" cut out; Trick Ghosts, white blob-like floating creatures with dangling arms, a jagged purple mouth, a pair of eyes above and a pair of eyes below the mouth (almost as if it could have a face both ways), and a striped stocking cap; and Aerial Masters, flying humanoids with purple armor, a pair of black, curled wings, and brass knuckles on its hands. Sora was not sure how the Aerial Masters seemed familiar, since he had never faced them before, but decided to worry about it later.
"Well, Bartz, now would be a good time to show off your skills," Riku said before attacking a Lance Soldier. The lance jabbed forward, apparently of its own accord rather than its wielder's. This grazed Riku's side, but he retaliated by slashing at its head, putting a substantial dent in the helmet. The lance bounced around angrily and flew around, taking the flimsy Heartless with it. It's like a Berserker Nobody, Riku thought, recalling the brutes' cursed hammers. Riku dodged the point as it flew at him and grabbed the handle, kicking the Heartless free. The lance dragged him through the air, but Riku threw his own mass around to steer the living weapon, eventually driving it down onto the Lance Soldier. Lance Soldier and lance exploded into smoke. Immediately after landing on the ground, Riku turned around and slashed through a Soldier Heartless.
Bartz conjured a Knight's Shield and threw it at an Aerial Master, clipping its wings and dropping it out of the sky. He dismissed the shield and pulled out his own sword, which he used to stab the Heartless in its exposed face, making it dissipate. He sheathed the sword, cupped his hands, and vaulted Kairi into the air and over a Large Body, allowing her to slash at the lumbering Heartless' exposed back when she landed.
Donald cast magic on the Trick Ghosts while they were engaging Mickey at close range. Noticing the attacks, they flipped upside-down and drew out candled. Floating away from Mickey, they started blowing fireballs at Donald, forcing him to run and Goofy to come to his defense. Mickey took the opening to close in on the now-long-range-focused Trick Ghosts and cut through them.
Sora defeated two Neoshadows, but was knocked down by a Lance Soldier's attack from behind. Another Large Body jumped, hoping to harm Sora and everyone nearby with a shockwave, but it suddenly exploded in a cloud of darkness. When the cloud disappeared, Sora saw a familiar face.
Where the Large Body once stood, there was now a very muscular man with broad shoulders. He wore sleeveless orange-brown armor on his torso as well as a metal kilt of the same color, brown knee-high sandals with cross-shaped straps, brown wristbands, a reddish-brown headband, a blue cape, and a brown belt with a gold emblem etched with a thunder cloud and lightning design. He had blue eyes, auburn hair, and a friendly smile.
"Hey, Sora," Hercules greeted. "How's it going?"
"Oh, you know. Fighting Heartless, saving people from horse people, the usual," Sora replied, bringing himself to his feet and immediately stabbing a Soldier Heartless behind him with his Keyblade.
"Yeah. I heard about that on my way in. Sorry I couldn't be there to help, but I guess you took care of it without me." Hercules punched another Large Body, this time hitting it in the armor-covered front but still defeating it in one hit. When the smoke cleared, he saw a familiar figure. "Hey, is that Bartz?"
Bartz turned around and waved to Hercules. He conjured a copy of Kairi's Keyblade and delivered quick slashes at a Neoshadow, then he switched to Riku's Keyblade and launched a ball of Dark Fire at an Aerial Master.
"I see you've gotten yourselves acquainted," Hercules said, throwing a Soldier through two Aerial Masters. An Aerial Master divebombed him, knocking him to the ground, but Sora helped him up and cast Fire to destroy the attacker.
The fighting continued until the courtyard was cleared of Heartless. The eight fighters took a minute to catch their breath. Hercules took notice of the three others who were fighting alongside Sora, Donald, Goofy, and Bartz.
"So, they're friends of yours?" Hercules asked.
Sora nodded. "Yeah. Hercules, meet Riku, Kairi and Mickey. Riku, Kairi, Y—" he rolled his eyes as he caught himself before he addressed Mickey by his royal title "—Mickey, this is Hercules."
"It's nice to meet you," Kairi said.
"Likewise. So, Sora. You guys on another adventure?" Hercules asked.
"Yep. We're all together this time. Our best friends by our side, saving the worlds from whatever threatens them, which happens to include a group of powerful villains that Hades himself is aligned with," Sora replied.
"If that's the case, then you're going to need to get as strong as you can," Hercules said.
"So we've been told," Sora said with a grin. "So, Hercules, how do you know Bartz?"
Hercules aimed a smile at Bartz. "Well, some months back, Phil sent me to scout out warriors to train to be heroes. While I was out, I heard that a town was being terrorized by an Erymanthian Boar, pretty much a giant boar. So, I set out to hunt it down. It took me by surprise, and proved to be one tough customer. That's when Bartz came in. He threw some rocks to get its attention and got it to chase after him, then ducked out of the way at the last second and sliced its leg. This incapacitated it and gave me the opening to finish it off."
Curious, Goofy turned to Bartz. "Gawrsh, what were you doing hunting the Eri… the Ermine… the giant boar?" he asked.
Bartz shrugged. "I wasn't. To be honest, me and Boko were just passing through," he answered.
"Boko?" Kairi repeated, wondering who he was referring to.
"My chocobo. A faithful friend and trusty steed," he explained. "I always wanted to go on adventures with my father when I was a kid. So, after my parents passed away two years ago, I climbed onto Boko's back and rode off to see the world. Me and my chocobo just go wherever the trail leads us. I fought some monsters and bandits terrorizing people as I went, and I began to hone my powers. When I happened upon Hercules fighting that boar, I jumped in and helped him."
"I told him he had skills, and suggested that he come here to train and become stronger with them," Hercules continued from where he left off.
"And I agreed, after checking with Boko, of course," Bartz picked up from there. "But I told him that we were going to take the long way and see what we could see, and it would be a while before we made it."
"Well, you made it, kid," Phil said. "So, how 'bout we head inside and start training?"
As the nine of them turned to enter the vestibule, Hades stood in the corner, watching. He was not happy with the way things turned out.
He sighed. "Jeez, Louise, I've got to stop underestimating these heroes," he muttered to himself.