Just as Phil said, the Heartless the team encountered were noticeably more dangerous than before. Team JDGS and their tag partners found themselves up against Large Bodies, Fat Bandits, magic Heartless, air soldiers, bandits, the ghostly Heartless that Yang took to dubbing 'Search Ghosts' from inspiration brought about by Goofy's analysis of having to search for them when they vanish, pot spiders, and even barrel spiders. "What is with these Heartless and spiders!?" A question for the ages from Jaune as he ended up getting exploded on by one that just had to make its mere existence all the more stressful by being capable of detonating.
The weirdest however was the mushroom-like Heartless they encountered. An oddly durable trio of mushroom-like Heartless. Their movements seemed so spacey and downright zoned out much of the time, yet Goofy and Jaune learned the hard way that they were far more than they seemed. For these Heartless unleashed a cloud of poison gas upon the pair that left them feeling weak and ill for much of the fight. A grim reminder of the airship Jaune rode when he and his friends first came to Beacon. The day he would be remembered as 'Vomit Boy' by Yang and Ruby.
More still, the Heartless had another trick where it's entire body became as solid as stone, deflecting all sorts of attacks both physical and magical. But fortunately, with some clever thinking by Weiss along with quick thinking by Sora and Jaune, team JDGS managed to emerge victorious. Just like every round beforehand...with a slew of critical comments from Phil, of course. Though he was certainly impressed with Nora and Ren's performances, especially Nora's raw strength. A display that, in his eyes, would give Hercules a run for his money.
Now, they found themselves at the final round with Pyrrha tagging in for Yang. "This is it, you guys!" Sora cheered with renewed excitement. "The last round. After this, we'll win!" The display drew a smile to the faces of his companions both in thee ring and in the audience. "Looks like Sora's back to his old self." Goofy said cheerfully "That's a relief. Seeing him so sad just doesn't feel right." Pyrrha said with a nod of agreement. In many ways, Sora reminded her of Jaune. Well apart from certain feelings she had toward the blonde in question of course, but that was a whole other can of dust. And not one she was going to open in front of everyone.
"Alright folks, this is the last round! One final clash to decide the winner of the Pegasus cup!" Phil announced. "The last opponents will be... Yuffie Kisaragi and her partner in this round tournament, Leon!"
The moment those names were announced, everyone stopped short with identical expressions of surprise. Well except for Ren and Nora who weren't savvy to who said contestants were. But they would soon as the aforementioned pair entered the ring from the other side of the arena. "Wait... Yuffie and Leon?!" Ruby exclaimed in surprise. Weiss was just as gobsmacked as her partner as she wracked her brain to make sense of this. "But... hold on, when? How? Why?"
"You know those people?" Ren asked them. "They're from Traverse Town. The world we've been using as something of a base to rest and resupply ourselves," Blake explained. "There are a couple others over there too." Yang added. "Like us, they lost their home to the Heartless. The world they're from was the one ruled by that Ansem guy we read about." "Huh...So what are they doing here?" Nora inquired. A question that hopefully the pair would answer.
Smiling with enthusiasm to match Nora's, Yuffie waved to her and Leon's six opponents. "Hey guys! Good to see you!" A cheer that was met with absolute befuddlement from Team JNPR's leader. "Wait, wait, wait, wait, wait! I don't understand!" Jaune said, his head practically steaming from confusion. "Me neither. Why are you guys here?" Sora asked, just as confused as he was.
"To fight in the rest of this tournament, of course." Yuffie answered with nonchalant simplicity. Sora, Donald, and Goofy blinked, looked at each other, then looked at her again. "That's not what he meant!" Donald yelled.
Fortunately for the sake of Sora's sanity, Leon interjected, readying his Gunblade. "I wanted to see how much stronger you've become, Sora. So don't hold back or you will get hurt." That ever serious tone of his made it clear enough to Sora why he was here. And more than enough to make Sora gulp nervously.
He remembered that the first time he encountered Leon, the only reason he supposedly 'won' was because Leon was holding back. In the end, it was Sora who tired himself out. If Leon was going to be putting in effort this time, he knew he had to be careful. "R-Right. I'll show you that I've gotten stronger." he said, steeling himself for the match to come. "That's the spirit, Sora! And don't worry. We won't go too hard on you." Yuffie reassured, drawing a little kunai and readying herself. Whether they were still going easy or not, this was going to be a really tough one. Sora could tell. Donald and Goofy definitely could too, but with a nod to Sora, they were determined to stand with him.
Jaune couldn't deny he felt a bit nervous as well. But thankfully, Pyrrha reassured him with a hand upon his shoulder and a nod. With a smile, Jaune returned it and readied his sword and shield along with Pyrrha. "Go get em, guys!" Ruby cheered exuberantly from the stands.
"Let's go!" Sora yelled out, running to action with his comrades behind him. He took a swing at Squall who countered, clashing his gunblade against Sora's weapon. He was still in that same relaxed stance as when they first fought, but Sora could tell Leon was putting in more effort than before. His moves were more direct and focused, whether they were held back or not.
Jaune and Goofy rushed at Yuffie who simply smirked at the two of them and playfully taunted, "Come and get it!" When they took her up on the challenge, they swung at her, only for Yuffie to backflip out of the way, resulting in both Jaune and Goofy hitting each other. Jaune was struck in the face by Goofy's shield, and Goofy in the head by the pommel of Jaune's sword.
As his comrades ended up hitting each other, Donald took the moment to strike by shooting a blizzard spell at Yuffie. It was a direct hit, causing her to flinch with distress...Or so it seemed, as to Donald's surprise, she suddenly smiled again, replying in an unimpressed tone, "Is that supposed to hurt?" Before he could respond, she suddenly threw a shuriken at him. Narrowing avoiding the thrown weapon with a distressed "WAK!", Donald felt the blades graze his tail, causing him to look behind and see she'd given his tail feathers an...unflattering shave.
"Why I oughta-!" Donald said, grumbling with indiscernible quacks as he rolled up his sleeves and raised his staff. "Thunder!"
The bolts rained down and though they went sporadically in an area in front of him. Astoundingly, Yuffie had no problem flipping back, dipping to her sides, and weaving around. "Hey, this is great!" she cheerfully giggled as if she was just playing around.
From the stands, Nora grinned a little wider, looking toward Ren as she pointed at Yuffie. "I like her." She earned a small smirk from Ren as he let out a brief huff of a chuckle, shaking his head. Of course Nora would like somebody with as much energetic spunk as her. It was why she and Yang usually got along or often challenged each other. No doubt Nora wished she was the one in the ring right now.
Leon casually walked around the stage with his eyes locked on Sora, who was right beside Pyrrha. Though nervous, Sora kept moving to keep his own pace and distance. In a full tilt, Leon rushed to him. "Get this!" At his words, Leon swung his gunblade and Sora rolled away at his side and swiped at him but the reflexes of his opponent stopped him before jumping back, his free hand gathering flame into a ball that shot out at him. Again, Sora rolled away before regaining himself. "You've become more evasive. Good." Leon said stoically then charged at him again, avoiding a gunshot from Pyrrha with a side step.
Pyrrha couldn't help but be astounded at how easily Leon managed to dodge a shot from her rifle. He was holding back against Sora, but in that instant, she could tell that Leon was considerably stronger than him by a long shot. She took aim again, attempting to shoot again, only for Leon to turn toward her and launch a ball of Fire in her direction. Pyrrha was forced to hold up her shield to protect herself, only to suddenly see Leon dashing up to her. "It's over!" Leon exclaimed swinging his gunblade in a vertical strike, knocking Pyrrha's shield away before coming back down toward her. She barely managed to switch her rifle to spear mode as Leon brought down his gunblade. "You're better than I expected." he said, sounding legitimately impressed. Or at least mildly so. "Well, I don't like to brag, but I was the top student of my class in Sanctum Academy when I was training." she said, straining against Leon weapon. "Well that's a coincidence. I also was among the top of my class when I was your age." he retorted, firmly keeping her on the defensive. Pyrrha had to admit, whatever training Leon had, he would most likely best her if he was fighting at full force. Just how strong were these new friends of theirs?
Unfortunately now wasn't the time for questions as Yuffie cheekily reminded Sora, who was staring in awe at how Pyrrha was holding her own against Leon, by throwing a shuriken at him. Thankfully, the flat end of it smacked him in the face instead of the bladed part. "Ow!" he yelled out, looking to see the culprit grinning playfully and sticking her tongue out at him. Donald jumped up from behind with a quacking yell, striking Yuffie on the head with his staff. She flinched a bit, but that was all his endeavor seemed to do. "Is that supposed to hurt?" she asked before cartwheeling around Donald, making him struggle to keep up with her, only to get whacked with the blunt end of a shuriken and slump to the ground, eyes rolling round and round in his head.
"Whew! This is great!" Yuffie said cheerily while rolling one shoulder around behind herself to work out any kinks in her joints.
"Glad you're having fun." Jaune said sarcastically as he and Goofy regained themselves, slowly standing back on their feet.
"I am. Aren't you?" Yuffie replied, seemingly oblivious to Jaune's tone before running to him with another shuriken ready. When seeing her come close, Goofy held his shield up and felt the ninja girl strike at him with it as if it was some sort of dagger. Jaune tried coming in at her blind spot but missed as Yuffie cartwheeled away again then threw the shuriken which Jaune smacked away with his sword until another was held in her hand.
"Seriously, how many of those things do you have?! And where do you keep them all?!" Jaune asked in a mix of astonishment and confusion.
Yuffie giggled and winked. "Sorry. But I wouldn't be a very good ninja if I told you all my secrets, now would I?"
Sora tried thinking of how they could best Leon. He was definitely holding back before now that he could see the man fighting up close like this and making even Pyrrha remain on guard or able to fight back against her. "Hey. You need a break?" The words seemed taunting and it made Sora's brow furrow as he somewhat thought back to the time he was in this coliseum fighting against Cloud... that's when it clicked in his mind. Sora focused with his Keyblade up in front of himself as it glowed.
"Hey, isn't that-?" Ruby muttered, remembering the time she saw such a technique Sora was preparing.
"Let's go!"
After his battle cry, Sora thrusted forward right at Leon with his Keyblade pointed forward. It caught his opponent off guard and as he felt himself get hit, Leon jerked back from the momentum. It didn't stop there though as Sora halted at one point then attacked Leon again in the same way, six more times. Afterwards, Sora was catching his breath but only for a few moments and smiled in pride at managing to get a few strikes in.
Despite Yuffie's boast about not being a very good ninja if she told secrets, she ended up getting distracted from the fight when she saw Sora suddenly unleash that barrage of attacks on her partner. "Leon!" That distraction was just the opening Jaune and Goofy needed to close the distance and strike her while she was occupied. The two of them struck true, bashing her with their shields and making her stagger backwards with two noticeable bruises. Yuffie narrowly managed to recover enough cartwheel out of the way of their follow-ups "Hey! Ease up!" she complained as she reached into one of her rear pockets and pulled out a potion, which she immediately chugged, healing her wounds.
"Hey She just healed herself with a potion!" Ruby exclaimed, pointing at Yuffie. Her indignant tone earned an arch of the brow from her teammates and Phil. "Yeah, so? You guys do that stuff all the time." Phil pointed out, making Ruby sputter for some kind of retort. "He's got a point Ruby. Plus, Sora and Donald have used their magic to heal us plenty of times." Blake's counter made Ruby groan and sit back down. Only for Weiss to lean in with a glare at their team's leader. "Ruby, were you seriously thinking that it isn't fair for our opponents to heal themselves?" "I've already suffered one betrayal too many today, Weiss. Don't you add to it too..." With that whiny little bemoaning, Weiss simply sighed and decided not t pursue that line of inquiry any further. But she did settle for muttering, "Such a child." under her breath as she and the rest of the group watched the fight.
Leon panted as he looked at Sora in the wake of the unexpected technique he unleashed. "I see you've learned a new trick with that Keyblade." Leon said, impressed. "You bet, Leon. And this time, I can hold my own against you." Sora said confidently after catching his breath. "You think so? Well we'll see about that." Leon said, straightening up, still with his gunblade slung laxly over his shoulder.
"This one's gonna hurt." Along with Yuffie's words, she held up one of her shuriken as it glowed and expanded. Jaune was a little unsettled and Goofy seemed worried. When it was thrown around, they avoided it but to their further worry, it moved like a boomerang to come right back at them. At one point as it went through the air, Goofy was hit across his back and fell face first, making Yuffie grin. "Heh. This is easy."
Sora only had a little magic left but it was enough for him to do something, twice. He created two aero spells, one for Pyrrha and then one for himself. "Pyrrha, let's get him!"
Realizing what Sora was planning, Pyrrha went along and moved to one side of Leon as Sora ran to the other as fast as they both could. Both of them managed to keep him on the ropes. At least it looked that way. Every time Sora attacked, Leon would block or counter but Pyrrha tried following up only for the same thing to happen. At one point Leon managed to land a strike to them but the wind barrier around them lightened the impact, at least a little. The plan didn't seem to be working like Sora thought because Leon was too fast and perceptive to be overpowered by them. As much as she tried not doing this, Pyrrha figured it was the best chance they had right now. Her shield was retracted so her free hand could use her semblance. Leon's current swing was heading for Sora but he realized his gunblade was moving away in the direction he meant it to move. For that brief moment of surprise, Sora leaped with a higher jump and swung his Keyblade down with both hands, landing a much stronger strike on the dome of Leon's head and toppling him back as he groaned in pain.
But Leon wasn't done just yet. "Alright. Guess I was wrong. I can't hold back as much as I thought anymore." Leon said, pushing himself up to his feet. His words made Sora blanch with shock. If he was still holding back, then he wasn't sure he wanted to know for certain what other tricks Leon had up his sleeve. Unfortunately, him and Pyrrha were about to find out as Leon suddenly leapt up into the air, his gunblade reared back behind him suddenly glowing with bright, fiery energy. Jaune, Goofy, and Donald noticed this as Yuffie playfully called, "Uh oh! Better hit the deck!"
"Oooh boy. Looks like the runt might be forcin' that guy to break his limits, even while holdin' back." Phil said, watching Leon intently. "What does that mean!?" Ruby asked worriedly. "It means, hit the deck!" Phil yelled at the same time as Yuffie as he flopped onto his rotund belly and ducked. Ren quickly dove onto Nora and all of team RWBY quickly went prone to avoid the shockwave of whatever Leon was doing.
But before anyone could even wonder out loud what she meant by that, Leon suddenly yelled out, "FATED CIRCLE!" and swung his gunblade in a circle, unleashing the blazing energy in a ring all around him. The blazing ring spread out across the arena, striking Sora and Pyrrha and throwing back across the field by the force of the attack. Jaune and Goofy tried to block it but even they were blasted away. The only one who managed to avoid it was Donald, though he ended up with a few singed tailfeathers. With his attack finished, Leon came back to the ground, slinging his gunblade over his shoulder as he looked at their mostly downed foes. "Guess you've still got a long way to go." However, before he or Yuffie could bask in their victory, they heard Sora say, "I'm not...finished yet." Sure enough, he was pushing himself to his feet with the aid of the Keyblade. Both of them were surprised that Sora was so determined to win. "Just give up. It'll be easier that way." Yuffie said with a sigh.
Everyone from the stands got up but kept their heads down to be safe, looking at the group on their last legs. Ruby was the most worried as Sora groggily standing. "No! I'm not gonna quit! I never quit on anything!" Despite his protest, for a moment he keeled over.
"You can't win every fight," Leon said realistically as he pocketed his free hand. "You need to realize when you're out of your league. For your own benefit."
Yuffie nodded, still smiling to follow up on her partners words. "Yeah. He who turns and runs away can live to claim the treasure another day."
"That's not how the saying-" Donald said with a confused expression.
"If I give up on something like this, then how can I expect to save my friends?!" Everyone jumped with Sora's words though Leon was more curious than anything else, still appearing placid as the spiky haired lad continued. "I can't stop! Riku and Kairi need me! It's not about winning a tournament but being strong enough to protect what matters the most! If I fail here then how am I strong enough to do that?!"
His speech made everyone watch in awe whether they were in the stands or on the ground of the arena with him, Jaune with his head down and thinking about the times he wanted to prove himself. Fists clenched and a more determined expression, he slowly stood and moved beside him. Pyrrha smiled through her tired visage and got up with him as Goofy stood with them as well. Donald smiled, using a cure spell on Sora before Goofy gave Jaune a potion. With his strength renewed, Sora used his own cure spell on Pyrrha and they were in peak condition once again.
"Jeez. Guess that kid is gonna learn the hard way." Phil said while shaking his head.
Yuffie let out a sigh at Sora's persistence. His persistence was admirable, but there wasn't much they could do as they were. Though her expression turned to one of surprise when she saw Jaune stand up with Goofy's aid and join Sora, Donald, and Pyrrha. "Oh boy. You guys really are determined, aren't you?" she said, twirling a shuriken along her finger. Leon on the other hand gave a small smirk at their risen and somewhat revitalized foes. "Alright. Don't say we didn't warn you." he said, readying his gunblade. Just like Phil said, it seemed they would have to learn the hard way.
But whether it was a hard lesson or not, they weren't backing down. And the instant Leon began running at them, Sora rushed forward to meet his blade with his own. As they clashed, Sora could feel Leon was putting more force behind his blows. But whether he was holding back or not wasn't on Sora's mind. He had to fight. He had to win! Of course, Yuffie was providing everyone else a bit of a headache with a shuriken flurry. But as Donald and Goofy dipped ducked dove and dodged to the best of their ability, Jaune suddenly realized something. "Pyrrha!" he called out, nodding toward the shurkens Yuffie was pelting their friends with. Immediately, Pyrrha got the idea and thrust out her hand. All the fallen shuriken suddenly were surrounded by a familiar black magentic aura. Jaune smiled as his plan seemed to come to fruition going by the shocked look on Yuffie's face. If they couldn't beat them head on...then they'd turn one of their weapons against them!
It was at this moment Yuffie knew she gravely underestimated them. "U-Uh...le-let's talk this out." That was all Yuffie could say when suddenly, all of her thrown shuriken suddenly converged upon her, thankfully striking her in a nonlethal way, but more than powerful enough to send her reeling when they struck, eventually leading to Yuffie slumping on the ground, utterly worn out and battered. "Okay...Just...gimmie a second." Yuffie was down for the count.
That gave Pyrrha and the rest a moment of relief before turning their attention to Sora who was either rolling away from Leon's swipes or blocking them and trying to counter. They all ran to his side, coming at every angle they could. Even with four people surrounding him, Leon wasn't the least bit overwhelmed. In fact it seemed everyone else was struggling as they tried attacking all at once or erratically around him only to be avoided, countered and at one point Donald and Goofy smacked into each other, fumbling on the ground before Jaune tripped over them both. It was up to Pyrrha as she tried attacking him with swift accuracy but neither she or Leon were able to successfully land a hit. Sora took the moment to attack Leon from behind.
Everything seemed to moved slower as Leon heard Sora leaping in the air. Just as he pushed Pyrrha back, he turned along with his swing. Pyrrha knew the attack was going to go through at the angle Sora was closing in. In the nick of time, Pyrrha used her semblance to lower Leon's gunblade just enough for Sora's attack to strike first, leaving Leon dazed from the impact.
Recovering from the smack on his head, Leon realized what happened to his weapon the first time and dashed to Pyrrha. Just as she realized he was towering over her, she was struck by his gunblade, her Aura breaking from the fierce blow. Now her semblance was unusable and she was on her last legs, joining the pile of Sora's downed comrades. "Pyrrha!" Ruby cried out, seeing the tide once again turning back from their favor. They were so close though! They couldn't lose now!
Seeing Leon standing over his fallen friends filled Sora with worry and fury. He wasn't sure what was happening but a sharp, powerful impulse came over him. He refused to stand back and do nothing while his friends were at risk! With as much strength as he could muster, he reeled his right hand back and threw his Keyblade, hurling in to Leon right at his blind spot. Leon turned too late to see the legendary weapon flying right at him, spinning rapidly in the air. Before he could react, he was struck with such force that he was forced to kneel before collapsing to the floor. "No way... I could lose..."
Sora couldn't believe it. That desperate move actually worked! As the Keyblade suddenly rematerialized, his face shifted with surprise, practically asking purely through expression, 'How did I do that?!'
"Whoa! did you see that!?" Ruby exclaimed, pointing at Sora with a jovial smile and an excited bounce in her step. "Woohoo!" Yang cheered, applauding their victory. Even Blake and Weiss couldn't help applauding as well. "OOOOH YEEEAAAH" Nora cheered beside Ren who wobbled as she suddenly lunged at him and hugged him, swinging around and around. Though he did so with a smile on his face. Phil could hardly believe what he just saw, yet eventually, he too started clapping. "I 'spose that was alright...Still got a long way to go." he said, trying to sound nonchalant. But that proud smirk on his face said otherwise. It was clear that he was happy for the victory of his newest proteges.
Once the cheers started erupting, Sora's fallen comrades pushed themselves up, and immediately, they smiled once they saw that Sora was the last man standing. Which meant that they won! "Good goin', Sora!" Goofy cheered, hopping to his feet as if he hadn't just gotten a pummeling of his own. The rest of the group pushed themselves up, rushing with Goofy to congratulate their Keyblade wielding teammate. "You did it, Sora! Way to go!" Jaune said, ruffling Sora's hair and drawing a chuckle from the younger boy. "By the way, how did you do that?" Pyrrha asked cheerfully.
Sora found himself at a loss for words. And again, that question resounded in his head. How DID he do that? "Well...I just did it." he said. Donald crossed his arms and raised his brow at that vague and unconvincing answer. "What do you mean you just did it?" he asked skeptically. "Well it...I didn't want Leon to hurt any of you, and I just threw the Keyblade, and then I did it." Sora explained.
"Hey, we won! That's what matters, right?!" Goofy said with his usual cheery smile. "Exactly," Jaune said with an equally enthusiastic nod. "We won another tournament fair and square!"
After a few moments, Leon and Yuffie managed to recover enough to push themselves to their feet. "Sora," Leon called out, drawing everyone's attention. The young man gave a nod of respect when his gaze met the Keyblade Master's. "Good job. I had my doubts at first but after this...Maybe the Keyblade did choose you for a good reason. I'm sure you and your friends will get even stronger." Before anyone could say anything, he turned back to where he and Yuffie came from, both of them walking off, presumably to return to Traverse Town. Yuffie lagged behind to smile to Sora and the others, waving goodbye to them. "See you guys at Traverse Town!" And with that, they were gone.
Once things settled and the tournament rounds were finished, Sora stood at the top of the coliseum bleachers with Donald, Goofy, Jaune and Pyrrha by his side. Confetti rained down them, more joy overcoming them all as Sora raised his Keyblade high in pride. "We're the champs!" After his victorious exclamation, Phil approached and presented a tall, thin golden trophy with a spike in the middle of two goat-like horns emerging from both sides of the cup. The inscription was filled with the names of everyone from the Phil Cup but also included Nora and Ren's names as well.
The Pegasus Cup was won!
