With yet another round won, Team JDGS was on an unexpected winning streak. Or at least unexpected to the ever critical satyr coach who was enjoying the fights all the same. "Alright, next up is Team Hard Hitters!" Ruby stepped in for the next fight. Watching all her friends fight got her excited to do the same. 'Team Hard Hitters' consisting of four Shadows, three Blue Rhapsody's and... a pair of floating armored hands. They looked just like the metal boots they saw earlier...which looked eerily similar to the limbs of a certain Heartless they fought before. Donald hummed in suspicion as he rubbed his chin. "Hang on. Something's screwy here."

They didn't have time to think about it as the fight was starting. Together, Donald and Sora shot a fireball spell at two different Blue Rhapsody's. Ruby did the same to the last by shooting at it with her Crescent Rose in sniper form. With the speedy aerial enemies out of the way, the rest would hopefully be easy pickings. The four shadows charged at Goofy but he charged at them with his shielf forward and sent them all flying back when barreling through them. Sora and Ruby took the initiative to hack away at two of them as Donald swung his staff like a bat at a third one. The Gauntlets bared their clawed appendages like fists and punched in a one-two pattern at Goofy. The first hit he managed to evade, the second was blocked but the third strike came at him from the side and knocked him over.

Ruby saw her friend knocked prone and about to be pulverized, so she quickly dashed with her Semblance to save him. Just as Goofy was about to be hit, he felt something grab him and pull him out of the way in the nick of time. As he wobbled to a stop, he looked to see it was Ruby who got him out of the way. "Thanks Ruby. I owe ya." he said with a smile, which Ruby returned before turning her attention back to the remaining enemies.

As Jaune, Donald, and Sora slew the last of the smaller Heartless, the Gauntlets recovered from their failed attempt at pummel and suddenly began to spin.

"Look out!" Goofy called, running past Ruby who only just noticed it herself. Everyone quickly scattered as their last standing foe whirled dangerously in their direction. Ruby quickly dashed toward Sora, pushing him out of the way. Donald's stature saved him as he hit the deck, but Jaune ended up stumbling over his own feet. He didn't have time to raise his shield, but Goofy managed to raise his as he jumped in front of the young huntsman. With a yell of surprise, he raised his shield, only for one of the clawed nails to snag his shield. "WOOOAAAAAAOOOOOOHHHH!" Goofy thankfully wasn't in any risk of physical harm, but boy was he being sent for a spin. "Goofy!" Jaune and Sora called out. What happened next was...quite a bizarre display.

"WAAAAOOOOOH! I'M SCARED TO HOLD ON BUT I'M SCARED TO LET GOOOO!" Goofy howled out in fear as he spun around by the force of the hands. Ironically, he was surprisingly safe where he was, despite the horrible whiplash and dizziness he'd likely be suffering once it ended. Though when the hands DID cease their spinning, Goofy did not. He simply kept on spinning round and round and round, his hands outstretched, shield swinging dangerously as he spun back and forth. Somehow, his shield miraculously struck the palms and wrists of the floating hands, ironically pummeling them when they had been trying to do so to him. Everyone watched in the bizarre sight as the captain of the guard unleashed what could only be described as an unintentional new technique upon their foe.

"Wooo! Yeahaaah! I love a good improvised move!" Phil cheered, attempting to mimic the spin Goofy was performing, only to end up teetering from the inability to balance on one hoof before falling on his rear. "Try not to give yourself a fur-wedgie or something spinning like that, Phil." Yang joked, drawing an unamused frown from the satyr.

With the floating hands now trying and failing to strike at the spinning Goofy, Jaune noticed that they were vulnerable. "Sora! Donald!" Donald and Sora quickly stood up, realizing what Jaune was pointing out. Passing a nod t each other, they raised staff and Keyblade, and thrust them outward. "FIRE!" they both yelled out, unleashing two blazing projectiles that homed in on the hands the moment Goofy finally stopped spinning. The spells struck true and a moment later, the hands burst and vanished. The round was won!

"WOO! Nice going, you guys!" Ruby cheered as everyone in the stands applauded.

"A rather unorthodox technique by Goofy at the end," Weiss said, ever the critic, though a far more warm smile worked its way onto her lips as she finished. "But it did work, I'll give him that."

A sentiment Pyrrha agreed with as she finished clapping. "It certainly was an interesting move. Perhaps if I can train myself to resist the dizziness that would come from it, I could use my Semblance to replicate and even enhance it." she said curiously.

Jaune

Jaune gave his own insight on the matter. "Sora has seemed to unlock other abilities as he fights so I guess it can happen to others, too." His smile faded a little as he sighed. "Wish the same would happen to me."

"Hey, I'm sure your time to shine will come, I'm sure. Hero rule number 27: Don't give up hope." Phil said as he came over to pat his shoulder.

After the team swapped Pyrrha for Ruby, the next match started once they were all ready. This time they were fighting 'Team Indomitable' consisting of six Green Requiem's and two Large Body's. The whole team looked in shock before grimacing. "That's gonna be annoying." Donald said with a huff, knowing how much vitality the Large Bodies had to go with their high defense from the front but also how the Green Requiem's would heal any damage they took.

"Take out the smaller ones, first. They don't seem to be able to fight and aren't as usually as fast or jumpy as the other magic using Heartless. If those rolley pollies get too close, back away. They won't get vicious until we've started hurting them, enough." Ruby said as they readied her weapon.

"Uh, Ruby? They're called Large Body's, remember?" Goofy pointed out with his shielf up.

"Oh, right. Sorry. Still getting used to calling them that." Ruby said with an embarrassed laugh.

The fight commenced and Yang smiled. "I'm so proud of my baby sister. She remembered all the stuff about the different enemies and is fighting strategically."

"Well, a certain somebody helped analyze the fighting patterns and informed us all of what he noticed. He's quite the strategist, himself." Pyrrha said, winking to Jaune. Of course, clueless to cues as he seemed to be, all he noticed was Pyrrha smiling at him. He passed a friendly smile and a thumbs up back to her in response...which was not exactly the reaction Pyrrha had hoped for. Weiss looked between Jaune and Pyrrha, raising an eyebrow at the differing emotional meanings of their gestures to each other. To this day, she had absolutely no idea what Pyrrha saw in that blonde dunce. But if he'd made it this far... "Well...I suppose he's good at something." she said with a shrug. Though deep down she had to admit, it was impressive how far Pyrrha had been able to guide him.

Of course, in the midst of the action, the fighters followed Ruby's suggestion and began to assail the healing Heartless first. The Large Bodies provided a bit of a hinderance, but their sluggish strikes were easy enough to avoid. And with a well timed block from Goofy and Sora, they were briefly stunned and left dumbfounded. One by one the Green Requiems fell until finally the Large Bodies were left without support. Remembering their injury-induced rage state, the group made sure to be careful once they started to deal damage to their backs. And with no healing to sustain them, the Large Bodies fell with a teamworking strike of Sora and Jaune, with the other being cleaved by Ruby.

"Judges, Juries, and Executioners!" Jaune called out, putting on a throaty 'cool guy' voice one would expect from some kind of dramatic superhero as he struck an equally dramatic pose. One which made Donald facepalm, Sora blink with confusion, and Goofy snicker with Ruby.

In the stands, the only one who was applauding with some sort of enthusiasm was Pyrrha, though it seemed a bit...forced, despite genuinely being happy for Jaune and their friends' victory. Blake simply stared blankly at the silly display, Yang had to cover her mouth to stop from laughing at Jaune's one-liner, and Weiss and Phil pinched their brows with a synchronized groan. Well at least they won.

The next fight was against team 'Wild Corps' consisting of four Power Wilds and a pair of the Gauntlets along with the Hammerlegs. "Those things again?" Sora asked in confusion.

Goofy seemed to realize something but didn't get a chance to say anything as the fight started. Sora noticed three of the Power Wilds hopping up at Weiss and used one of his newer spells. "Wind!"

The gust of wind that rose up around her caused the simian Heartless's blow to be thrown off ever so slightly. But that slight change was just enough for Weiss to raise her weapon and defend herself as the Heartless tried to correct the course of its blow. In that same moment, Weiss spun and elegantly cleaved the simian Heartless with a sweep of Myrtenaster. As Donald shot a fireball at one of the downed enemies, Weiss turned to Sora, briefly contemplating her next move. With a sharp wave of her free hand, she conjured a glyph, but not on herself. The glyph illuminated around where Sora was standing in the form of a clock with roman numerals whose hands began moving at rapidly surging speed before vanishing. Sora wasn't sure what was happening as he felt a surge of energy coursing through him. Everything around him felt as if it was moving in slow motion. Or like he was moving at a much greater speed than he'd ever done before. His atttacks, despite being ever unrefined and basic, blurred with every move. Phil, Donald, and Goofy could barely keep up when they looked over at Sora. And the instant he defeated the Power Wild before him, he turned toward the ones Donald and Goofy were occupied with while Jaune struck down the one he was faced with. In a veritable blur of blows, Sora slew Power Wilds and moved on to the Hammerlegs. Fortunately, Goofy kept the punches of the Gauntlets at bay, allowing Jaune and Sora to move in to slash and smash its open palm with their blades until it burst. Donald meanwhile took the opening to freeze the second one with a blizzard spell, giving Weiss the opportunity to dash toward it, lunge, and skewer it. The precise blow caused the ice to crack and as it shattered, so too did the hand within.

As the surge of speed and energy faded from Sora, he looked down at himself as he felt everything going back the way it was. He looked over at Weiss with a rapid blink as he asked her, "Whoa...What was that?" "One of my glyphs." Weiss responded nonchalantly.

Sora didn't quite understand how it worked, but considering what it allowed him to do, he wasn't going to look a gift horse in the mouth. Especially something that allowed him to do something like that. "That was so cool! I've never moved that fast in my life! The way I took them down so quickly, just, WOOSH WOOSH WHAM!" Sora stopped his little tangent when he saw Weiss raising an eyebrow at him judgmentally. Clearing his throat, Sora righted himself and said, "U-Uh, I mean, thanks, Weiss." The Schnee heiress gave a nonchalant shrug and brush of her hair as she turned to the stands. "Well you helped me by raising that wind shield of yours, so it was only right to return the favor. We're teammates, right?" Despite her seeming nonchalance, she couldn't hide the grateful smile that touched her lips. Though she wasn't about to say it, she was happy to know she could rely on Sora to watch her back in a pinch.

"Alright, tag out for the final round, twinkle-toes!" Phil called out. Yang turned to Blake, smirking and clapping a hand on her shoulder encouragingly. "You're up, Blake. Go get em!" Blake perked up, realizing that she was the one up next perked up with surprise. She wasn't expecting that she'd be the final one up, half expecting Yang to ask if she could fight in the final round instead, yet there she was encouraging her to get in there herself. Her surprise faded as she smiled at the sunny disposition bearing pugilist and nodded, hopping to her feet as Weiss strutted up to the stands with Yang, Pyrrha, and Phil.

"We did it, guys! We're at the final round!" Sora cheered enthusiastically to Donald, Goofy, and Jaune. All of them were excited as could be, having come this far in the tournament. Perhaps a bit over excited in Jaune's case as he once again tried to put on a 'cool' display as he spun his shield around. "Heh. We've already beat them. They just don't know it yet." He tossed his shield up, attempting to catch it in his hand with his eyes closed...only for it to bonk him on the head and fold up as he winced with a silly "Ow!" He barely managed to fumblingly catch it in his hands before slipping it back onto his left hand with an awkward chuckle. The display made Sora blink, Donald cross his arms unamused, and Goofy scratch his head. Of course, it wasn't as scathing as Ruby giggling, Weiss groaning, Yang chuckling, and Phil facepalming. But fortunately for his pride, he didn't see them doing it.

Blake decided to keep her opinion of Jaune's silliness to herself. Though the subtle movement what lay underneath her bow certainly made it clear what she thought. She instead chose to focus on the task at hand. "Are you all ready?" she asked, drawing Gambol Shroud. The four boys snapped to attention, drawing their weapons, with of course Jaune brushing off his embarrassment as he drew his sword, all saying, "Ready." They were gonna be champs.

After the time passed and the stage was set, the group saw their opponents of team 'Shadow Batallion' having four Yellow Opera's, four Blue Rhapsody's and one very familiar looking enemy. "Hey... ain't that the Amored Heartless we fought the first time in Traverse Town?" Goofy said curiously. Sora realized it, too. "But... it's just the body?"

"Oh! That's what those gauntlets and metal boots were!" Jaune said, piecing it all together. "They were different parts of that Guard Armor thing!" That instant

"But why did we fight them separately here? Why not just keep the Heartless as one single entity like when we fought it in Traverse Town?" Blake inquired.

The match started as the four magic using Heartless scattered. "No time to worry about it now! Let's go!" Donald said as he aimed his staff at the Blue Rhapsody before him. "Fire!"

He incinerated the blue Heartless, only narrowly avoiding a lightning bolt from the Yellow Opera focusing on him, which Goofy rushed to and leaped up with his shield raised to strike. In that moment it was airborn, Sora followed after by chopping down his Keyblade at it.

Blake had both of the other remaining minions at her sides, both reading their spells. At the last moment, she used her semblance to let the shadow clone take the dual strike then switched her weapon into the ranged shape, swinging it to cleave them both.

"Nice work, team!" Juane cheered before turning serious and readying himself at the last opponent. "All that's left is the big guy."

Given the times that they fought him while complete, Sora, Donald, and Goofy were confident that they had this in the bag. Especially now that the little Heartless were taken care of. "Let's get him!" Sora yelled out, as they charged their foe. Blake jumped to action first, switching Gambol Shroud to kusarigama mode. She flung the blade at the armored torso, the blade embedding itself in the metallic body. She pulled herself toward it, preparing to pull the blade back to engage it in close combat, however Blake realized too late that she made a grave miscalculation. For after she struck it, the torso suddenly lowered to the ground and began spinning erratically. Blake cried out in shock as she was suddenly pulled off the ground and was forced into a spin cycle by the Heartless. She barely managed to recover and disconnect the blade of gambol shroud before she could be flung into her fellow competitors, though she ended up flying toward one of the arena walls.

"Blake!" Sora called out in worry. Thankfully, it wasn't anything Blake couldn't take as she kicked off the wall and rebounded. But before she could run back to join them, she noticed something to the upper right of her peripheral view and skidded to a halt. It was her bow! She gasped and quickly changed her trajectory to grab the ribbon and quickly try to fasten it upon her head again. "Blake, you okay?" Sora asked, rushing over to her, concern evident in her voice. Blake stiffened, keeping one hand upon her ribbon, and the other upon her head. "I-I'm fine, Sora! Don't worry. I just have to...There we-Ugh, come on!" she said, struggling to fasten her bow before turning back to the concerned boy. "Don't worry about me. I was just careless. So...give me a few seconds please." Sora blinked at Blake's odd behavior. He had no idea why she seemed so panicked from just losing her ribbon. "Uhh, okay." he said, rushing back into the fray.

"Thunder!"

As Donald unleashed the magic conjured bolts of electricity upon it, big Heartless didn't seem very phased at all. Donald was forced to retreat as it charged at him, but in the nick of time, Jaune and Goofy ran up to the Heartless with their raised shields. They grunted strenuously from the force and momentum of the Heartless's blow colliding to them but stayed firm before pushing back, together. The combined defense was enough to knock the Heartless back, leaving Donald a perfect chance to launch a fire spell at it.

It still wasn't going down though. So Jaune ran around to its left side side, while Donald and Goofy ran to the right. Sora dashed between them raising his Keyblade to deliver three swift strikes as he closed the distance. Raising his weapon up, he slammed it down onto the ground, using the Stun Impact ability he recently learned. He'd grown more accustomed to unleashing the energy from his Keyblade, but even so, just like his spells, there were limits to how many times he could use such techniques in one go. Worse still, his confident smile was replaced with shock and surprise when he learned the hard way that his attack didn't appear to do much damage or even stun it. The Armored Torso took advantage of Sora's shocked state and smacked into him, sending the boy tumbling.

"Sora!" his comrades called in worry. Jaune and Blake, abandoning her fumbles to fasten her ribbon, rushed to his side while Donald and Goofy kept the Heartless at bay.

Fortunately, the blow wasn't something Sora couldn't fix with a simple cure spell. "Ow...I'm okay. Heal!" With that, Sora healed himself and got on his feet, no less confused about the less than optimal results of his attempt. "Ugh...What happened? How did that attack not stun it? It worked on all the other Heartless I used it on."

"Maybe it only works on small fries? I mean all the other Heartless we've faced were much smaller and weaker than this one" Jaune theorized with an uncertain shrug. In truth, he was only spitballing as he knew about the Keyblade about as much as he knew about Humanity's war with the Faunus. He'd never live down the frustration and embarrassment that came with interpreting Pyrrha's miming of 'night-vision' as 'binoculars'.

"I...don't know. Maybe?" Sora responded. He wasn't sure how that would make sense, but...perhaps that was the case? He just didn't know.

"Now isn't the time for theorizing. We have a fight to finish." Blake reminded the boys, hoisting Sora to his feet as Goofy flopped backwards from his guard being broken. "So let's save it for after we've finished this thing." Sora and Jaune didn't need to be told twice as they got their heads back in the game and charged back in to help Donald and Goofy. Along the way, Sora couldn't help noticing something about Blake's head where her ribbon usually was. It looked like...a pair of ears? No! Now wasn't the time to get distracted. They had to finish this fight.

Jaune led the charge, slicing at the bottom rim of the Armored Torso with Blake doing the same as she leapt to strike its upper rim. As Goofy recovered, Donald used his magic to cover both of their slicing comrades, casting Aero to protect them both as the Armored Torso attempted to retaliate.

Hopping back up to his feet, Goofy ran full tilt with his shield held in front of him, letting out a battle cry as he smashed into the Armored Torso, amazingly causing it to flinch when he impacted against it. That flinch was just enough for Blake to close the distance after she finished with her bow. As she dashed toward the Heartless, she switched to Gambol Shroud to firearm mode, making sure not to be so careless as she closed in, transformed it back to, blade mode, and raked it across the Armored Torso. All the while, Donald took that opportunity to chug down an ether and continue pelting it with magic.

One would think the Heartless was getting annoyed as it began to rev up another dangerous spin. And in that crucial moment, Sora remembered the finale of the first time he, Ruby, Donald, and Goofy fought this thing. Specifically, what happened when this thing's spinning met with a powerful enough blow. He quickly reacted, calling out, "Blake! Strike it now!" Trusting Sora's greater experience with the Heartless, Blake swung her blade as hard as she could the instant the armored torso began to charge at her. She stumbled backward as her blade made contact, but she looked to see the armored torso shudder and its head fall to the ground with a clank, stunned.

Jaune smiled at Sora's quick thinking and clapped the younger boy on the shoulder. "Nice, Sora!" he cheered, making Sora chuckle and rub his free index finger under his nose. "Now let's go get us a trophy!" Sora cheered, charging toward the stunned heartless with Jaune, Donald, and Goofy. And with another great, big, all-out attack, the big heartless sparked with luminous energy before fading away with a large heart sailing up into the sky. With this victory...this meant they won! "We did it!" Goofy cheered as the rest of the party celebrated their victory for the round, and for the Phil cup itself!

Standing at the top of the stadium chairs were the winners of the final round, everyone turning with their own smiles to Sora, who raised his Keyblade high and said with pride, "We're the champs!" right as confetti fell from the sky around them. The crowd cheered, Ruby, Weiss, Yang and Pyrrha being part of it, congratulating their friends on coming in first place. They won!