Author's Note:

Hello everyone! To my (and probably yours as well) complete surprise, here's the next chapter for Earth's Mightiest Huntsmen only a few days after the last chapter dropped! While much of my work has been focused on my NaNoWriMo project, I still found a lot of time these past two days to focus on this story as well. Writing sprints with a few friends certainly helped. And, because of it, I got this chapter rolled out far quicker than I thought I would. But before we get into it, let's answer some reviews!

GothmogOnslat: I'm certainly entertained! Granted, I'm the one writing this story, so if I'm not entertained with my own writing, that means I'm doing something wrong.

CRUDEN: I mostly knew Darkhawk from the Avengers Arena comic they put out a while back and found him pretty cool. He's got a Raptor amulet, so think of him like the Fraternity of Raptors from the last arc, but a good guy.

Cbrandes17: Glad you're liking this story so much! Trust me, the next arc will be extremely exciting.

superjoeyf721: I can neither confirm nor deny the appearance of any more Death Battle characters and am not at liberty to tell you if they show up in this chapter.

Blackmetalzane22: Let's face it-is Nebula ever in a friendly mood?

Thank you all for your continued support. Now, let's get back to the story.

Sakaar—October 16th (Earth Time)

Gnar the Chomper lunged forward, opening his jaws wide and trying to bite down on Pyrrha's arm. She swung under the strike and stabbed him in the shoulder with Miló. He roared in pain as Pyrrha yanked her weapon free, slamming in the face with Akoúo̱. He moved back several paces, blood leaking from his face.

"What a brutal shot from Nikos!" the Ringmaster yelled as the crowd went wild upon seeing the blood. Pyrrha heard none of it; she was too busy focusing on her opponent, who was preparing for another attack.

"You're dead, girly!" he roared. "You may have survived this long, but I will be the one that ends you for good!"

Pyrrha ignored his comment, keeping her muscles tense and her javelin ready for whenever he decided to attack. Gnar was certainly a lot bigger than her and had far more time fighting on Sakaar. But his attacks relied on brute force and trying to remove his opponent's limbs with his teeth. Pyrrha was smaller, but faster and more agile. And that, she knew, would give her the slight advantage in this fight.

Gnar charged again, swiping at her several times. Pyrrha dodged each swipe before kicking him in the jaw. This sent him sprawling and caused the crowd to cheer again.

"And another attack from Gnar fails!" the Ringmaster crowed. "He just can't find a way past Nikos' defenses!"

Gnar picked himself off the ground, gnashing his teeth. "You think that was funny?" he growled. "You think you can win?"

"This guy's all talk when he's being outfought," Pyrrha thought. It was a common trait amongst the gladiators that she had noticed over the past three weeks.

Three weeks. She could still hardly believe that it had been that long since she wound up here. Nearly every day had been a battle for her; the Grandmaster clearly wanted to parade his prize new fighter around to the masses, showing off the strange being from a world no one had ever heard of before. It was taxing work to fight almost every day against creatures and fighters twice her size and experience. But she kept the fight going. She had to do it if she wanted to survive.

At least, for the moment, there had been no sign of any of her friends, which she decided was a good thing. After all, she didn't want to have to see them trapped in this endless game of violence and death like she was. Worst still would've been if she had been forced to fight one of them—or worse, kill one of them.

She was very reluctant to kill people in the arena. It had only happened once before, during her second week of fights. A Kree warrior (as Chris had told her they were called) had been pitted against her, only to lose badly. The Grandmaster had ordered her to kill him. She had refused. This had earned her a massive shock through her control disk and led to the warrior's demise when a guard came in to do the job for her.

The rules were clear in this regard: kill who the Grandmaster wanted dead in the fights. They only could live if he allowed them to live.

Luckily, she had not been forced to kill anyone else since that day, mostly because her opponents had been more animal like than anything else. Pyrrha mostly fought of those creatures as like the Grimm. That had made the job easier.

Gnar was her first sentient opponent since that time. He was one of the more popular gladiators and seemed to overly relish his job as a fighter. While Pyrrha didn't want to kill him, she hoped that she would knock him down a peg or two.

Gnar came at her again, roaring with rage. Pyrrha raised Akoúo̱, letting his massive fists strike against the shield with a loud CLANG! When he pulled back, Pyrrha slammed the shield into the side of his head, following it up with a javelin thrust to his other shoulder. The combined blows forced him down to his knees, where he remained, struggling to get up, but too dazed from the multiple head injuries he had sustained from Akoúo̱.

"And it looks like Gnar is down for the count!" the Ringmaster exclaimed. The crowd roared with approval. "And now, let's see the Grandmaster's verdict!"

Pyrrha turned her gaze to the top box, where the Grandmaster was standing, safe behind the glass. He stared down at her, and Pyrrha could barely make out a small smirk on his lips. "He knows I don't want to kill people like this," she thought. "He's enjoying watching me wonder if he's going to make it happen again."

The Grandmaster slowly raised a fist, and, to Pyrrha's relief, put his thumb up. "And the Grandmaster has spared Gnar the Chomper!" the Ringmaster announced. "Pyrrha Nikos has done it again and defied the odds to achieve another victory!"

A few guards entered the arena to help Gnar to his feet and to escort Pyrrha back to the pits. When she arrived, she was met with a round of applause from Chris, Hercules, and Bug.

"Another stunning performance!" Hercules declared with a booming laugh.

"Well done, Pyrrha," Chris complimented her.

"You were—tik—fantastic!" Bug agreed.

Pyrrha nodded. "Thank you." She walked over to them and leaned against the wall to rest. The fight had taken a lot out of her; she needed to relax and let her Aura recharge itself.

At this point, her Aura was the only reason why she was still alive. It had kept her from taking multiple lethal hits over the past few weeks. She had to make sure it was kept at full strength for every fight she had to be in, or she was going to surely fall in battle. It wasn't easy, with all the constant fighting she had to go through, but it was what she had to do.

"No one's going to disappointed with you beating Gnar," Hercules told her. "He is a cruel man who loves tearing young gladiators apart. It is good that you knocked him down a peg, though I imagine that he will try to take revenge on you later when you are off guard."

"Then let's hope she is never off her guard," Chris said.

Pyrrha slowly nodded. "I'll be fine."

"Well, I must be off," Hercules said, walking away. "I fight soon. It will be a glorious battle!"

"He says that about all his fights," Chris said, sitting down next to Pyrrha and fingering the amulet around his neck.

Pyrrha had learned fairly quickly that this amulet wasn't any ordinary one. As she had seen when she had first watched Chris fight weeks ago, it was an amulet that transformed him into a hero known as Darkhawk. But despite this power, it was unable to help him escape.

"These damn control disks are keeping us all prisoner here," he had explained. "No way to get them off. No way to fight back against them. We're just stuck like this until we die."

Pyrrha clenched her fists slightly, thinking about the situation she was in. There was no doubt that she was in quite a bit of trouble. After all, with the control disk on her, she could retaliate against the Grandmaster or escape. The moment she tried to do anything, it would activate and force her to stop.

But luckily, she was starting to learn more about not only Sakaar, but also the rest of the worlds that were important in the galaxy. Chris had been a big source of information and had shared with her many things that she apparently had to know if they ever got out of there.

"The best place to go once off Sakaar is probably my world, Earth," Chris had explained. This had puzzled Pyrrha greatly, as the Grandmaster had said that Ultron was from Earth. But Chris had quickly told her that Earth was full of heroes that had driven Ultron off Earth years earlier.

"They call themselves the Avengers," he had said. "And they're the greatest, strongest, most powerful people on Earth. If anyone can protect you or help you get back to Remnant, it's them."

Pyrrha hoped this was the case. She also hoped that the people on Earth would help her find her friends. Based on Chris' guess, they had probably been scattered all over the galaxy when Ruby had smashed that gem, whatever it had been. This could be good or bad, considering how many horrible planets there were out there. But, with any luck, they would've wound up on Earth.

Pyrrha hoped that she would find them. Especially Jaune. She wanted to make sure that he was and okay.

"Pyrrha?" Chris waved a hand in front of her face. "You okay?"

Pyrrha blinked. "Yeah, I'm okay, Chris. Thank you."

"Hey, look!" Bug pointed up at the flickering monitor positioned at the far corner of the room. "They're talking about you!"

Pyrrha looked over at the monitor as a news broadcast played. "And the huntress from Remnant, Pyrrha Nikos, has once again triumphed in battle," the announcer was saying. "For more on this, let's hand it over to our fight analysts, Wiz and Boomstick!"

The monitor panned to a smaller newsroom where the two fight analysts were. "This battle was incredibly close to call," Wiz, the taller, lankier Spartaxian began, "After all, while Gnar had the edge in brute strength, Pyrrha was easily the faster opponent."

"Gnar may have been able to lift a three-ton boulder," Boomstick, the shorter Spartaxian went on, "But that didn't matter as much when Pyrrha could simply dodge his attacks. And since her strength was relatively close to his own, that meant she could close the gap far quicker than he could land a death blow."

"Pyrrha was also generally cleverer," Wiz continued. "Gnar's brute tactics, as we've seen before in the arena, have won him some victories, but when it comes against a trained fighter as Pyrrha clearly was, they just don't work as well. In the end, Pyrrha was just too fast and too well armed for him to get a good hit in."

"I guess you could say that this was a Gnar-ly victory for the rising star in the Grandmaster's arena," Boomstick concluded.

Pyrrha lowered her gaze from the monitor, not wanting to watch anymore. Yes, she was becoming more and more popular in the arena as the weeks went on. But that didn't matter as much to her. She didn't want to be here. She wanted to be out finding her friends, or trying to find a way to stop Ultron.

This was no place for her.

Later that night, Pyrrha joined the others in the small group that she had gotten relatively close to in her time on Sakaar in their own corner for a meager meal. The food that they had been served was mostly tasteless, but at least it was something.

Hercules was, of course, talking about one of his better fights on Earth. "He came at me with his hammer," he was saying. "Lightning was crackling, thunder was booming! And then—wham!" He slammed his fist down on the floor. "He strikes me in the chest and sends me straight through the mountain!"

"What did you—tik—do then?" Bug asked.

"I got up, of course!" Hercules boomed. "If you think the God of Thunder can keep the mighty Hercules down for long, you've got another thing coming!"

Nebula rolled her eyes. "Oh, please. We all know that Thor kicked your ass by the end of that fight."

"Aha!" Hercules challenged in response. "He may have, but it was a good fight nonetheless!"

"It is good for him to talk about his victories," Mantis said, keeping her eyes closed. "It helps him keep his confidence up for the battles ahead."

"Battles like those don't tend to happen here very often," Chris said. "Not unless you want to die to the Champion."

"The Champion?" Pyrrha looked up. This was the first time she had heard of this. "Who's the Champion?"

"No one really knows," Chris explained. "We've never seen him before. No one's challenged the Champion since any of us have been here. Supposedly, if you become good enough and strong enough, you can be allowed to battle the Champion for your freedom."

"The Grandmaster lets you go if you beat this Champion?"

"It's all a lie," Nebula interrupted. "We all know it. The Grandmaster won't let any of us go, no matter what happens. We're stuck here until we die."

"Oh, I don't think—tik—that's true, Nebula," Bug told her. "I think that—tik—someone will free us eventually."

"Like who?" Nebula asked him. "The Guardians? They're too busy stopping thugs. The Asgardians? They don't care about us. The Kree? The Shi'ar?" They're too busy running things in their own territories to care about this operation that the Grandmaster has. Not that they would do anything anyway. Hell, I wouldn't be surprised if Ronan the Accuser has sent people here."

"I'm with Bug," Pyrrha spoke up. "We will get out of here eventually."

Nebula snorted. "You can think that way all you want, huntress. But your hopes of escape will soon be dashed. Face it—we're stuck here. The only thing you can hope for here is a quick and painless death."

"Maybe you'll get that wish if your father decides to come this way," Mantis told her.

Nebula glared at her. "He is not my father," she growled softly. "I'd just as soon see him dead for what he's done to me."

It looked like this was a touchy subject for the usually cross Nebula, so Pyrrha decided to drop it. "I believe that we'll escape this place eventually," she insisted. "Someone will come for us."

"Pray that they do, young one," Hercules told her. "For if your winning streak continues, the Grandmaster will surely unleash some of his most deadly creatures onto you to push you even further to your limits. And trust me—I've seen horrors in this place that even I would not wish to meet in battle."

"And that alone should scare you," Chris warned. "Herc always looks forward to a good fight. If there's some things out there that he wouldn't want to fight—then you may not have any hope of defeating those things alone."

Pyrrha slowly nodded, listening to what her allies were saying. But there wasn't anything she could do. Most of her fights she had to win or she would die. Victory or death.

She missed the simple fights that she was getting into back on Remnant. Her team had been doing quite well in the tournament. She would have gone on to the singles round had Ultron not interfered. And she might have even won it all. Everyone knew she was one of the top huntresses in training in all of Remnant. She could've made it all the way. But even if she had lost, it wouldn't have been the end of the world. Life would've gone on, and that would've been the end of it.

Here, though? Losing meant almost certain death. Winning was the only thing that kept her alive. And it was the only way that she was going to keep going. She had to keep going. Not just for her sake, but for the sakes of her friends. They were out there somewhere, maybe looking for her at this very moment.

And it was Pyrrha's job to make sure that she survived long enough for her to see them again.

Sakaar—October 24th (Earth Time)

The Grandmaster calmly sipped from his wine glass as he looked over his roster of gladiators he had remaining. A fresh group of them had just been brought in and had fought that morning, so they were once again filled up. None of them would last very long on Sakaar, he knew, but at least he would get a few entertaining matches out of them.

He smiled slightly when he came across the face of the Remnant girl. She had brought him lots of profit in recent matches. More people were starting to bet on her and winning big because of it. "It might be time to give her a real challenge," he decided. "Just to make the betters nervous and potentially raise her worth even further."

The elevator doors opened, and a guard entered. "Excuse the interruption, Grandmaster," he said. "But there are some people here that wish to see you."

The Grandmaster looked up. "What people?" he asked.

"I believe they are from the Brotherhood of the Badoon."

"Ah, of course. Send them in."

The guard left. A few minutes later, the elevator opened again and a large, green Badoon warrior stepped in. "Grandmaster," he greeted. "I've come to sell you one of our more…difficult slaves."

"Is that so?" the Grandmaster asked.

"Yes. This one has been…somewhat resistant to our methods of torture. I think she would be much better suited to experience death in your arena."

"I see." The Grandmaster set his wine glass down. "And what is your price for her?"

The Badoon crossed his arms, flashing a dangerous smile. "Well, since she seems to be a unique specimen, I'd say a few million units would suffice."

"Unique, you say?"

"Yeah. It took some torturing, but she revealed she's from some world called Remnant—not on any of the star charts."

"Remnant?"

The Badoon nodded. "Of course, if you're not interested, I'm sure your brother would pay a handsome price for someone like her—"

"I'll give you five million units," the Grandmaster offered.

The Badoon grinned again. "Done. Transfer the units over and we'll drop her off with your guards. A pleasure doing business with you, Grandmaster." He turned around and left, heading down the elevator once more.

The Grandmaster looked down at his gladiator roster, focusing on the face of the Remnant girl he already had. Had he stumbled upon someone else from that mysterious planet? And were the words of his rising star true in that everyone from her world was just about as strong as she was?

There was only one way to find out.

Sakaar—October 25th (Earth Time)

It had been over a month now since her arrival on Sakaar, and Pyrrha's strength was continuing to ebb away. Her clothes and armor were becoming more ragged and dented from the impacts she had taken from the various monsters she had to face in the arena, and her hair, normally pulled back into a pony tail, was now dangling around her head, unbraided and barely combed.

Her popularity in the arena had continued to grow, and she was now one of the favorites to bet on during fights. She had probably made a lot of money for the Grandmaster with all the bets, which would explain why she had been forced to fight more often than some of the other gladiators. Even Hercules was going out less than she was.

She tried to put these thoughts out of her head as she sparred with Chris, who was now in his Darkhawk armor. Sparring between the gladiators was very limited, as the guards didn't want to risk anyone killing one another while there wasn't a crowd around. Already two guards were keeping a close eye on the pair, making sure no one was going to get seriously hurt and lose the Grandmaster money.

Chris' eye visor glowed with energy as he fired a beam at her, which she blocked with her shield. She was forced back a few paces from the force of the laser before she recovered, grinding her heels into the floor and slowly forcing her way towards him. When she got close, Chris took off, hovering a few feet in the air as high as he could go.

Pyrrha aimed her javelin at him and threw it. However, it simply bounced off his armor and impaled itself in the wall, nearly taking off Mantis' head as she mediated. However, she didn't seem bothered by it at all.

Chris flew down quickly, slamming into Pyrrha and taking her into the wall, pinning her gently there. "Give up yet?" he asked.

Pyrrha shook her head and concentrated, using her Semblance. Chris' armored body flew back as she concentrated on it, forcing him into the ground and keeping him pinned there. She calmly walked over and looked down at him.

"Okay, okay, I give," he said after a moment. Pyrrha dropped her Semblance's effect, letting him go free. She then reached a hand down and helped him back up. "Although," he added, "to be fair, your powers certainly give you an advantage over me."

"I'll admit that's true," Pyrrha agreed, grabbing Miló from the wall.

"Nikos!" A guard approached her. "You and Darkhawk are needed in the arena!"

Pyrrha's blood ran cold. "I'm…fighting Chris?" She had to admit that she enjoyed Chris' friendship. The idea of fighting him to the death sickened her to her core.

"No," the guard told her. "You're fighting with Darkhawk and a new contender in a trio team. The Grandmaster himself requested this fight. Now get moving."

Pyrrha and Chris exchanged a look with one another, but were forced to follow the guard out or risk getting punished through their control disks. They were led to the arming room, where they were told to wait by the guard as he walked away, talking on his comm to someone, probably the Grandmaster himself.

"This is unusual," Chris admitted. "The Grandmaster rarely puts seasoned gladiators with a newcomer."

"I don't think a month here makes me a seasoned gladiator," Pyrrha pointed out.

"I've seen you fight, Pyrrha; trust me, you're better than most everyone here. Except maybe Herc, but he's essentially a god, so that's to be expected."

It hadn't taken Pyrrha long to learn about some of the workings within the galaxy, including the existence of both gods and magic. While there were stories about these sorts of things on Remnant, she never really expected any of them to be true. Yet here she was, hearing about the power of Thor and the Asgardians and the magic of heroes like a Doctor Stephen Strange and villains like the evil Doctor Doom.

Hercules himself was imbued with godlike strength and power, though he wasn't an Asgardian. Instead, he was an Olympian, which was a completely different set of gods—though the difference between them didn't seem like much in Pyrrha's eyes.

"Get out there!" a guard ordered as the doors began to creak open. Pyrrha and Chris both walked out into the sunlight, where they were met by the roaring of the crowd.

"And there they are, ladies and gentlemen!" the Ringmaster shouted. "Pyrrha Nikos is back once again, this time with another strong contender in the arena, the Darkhawk!"

The crowd leapt to their feet, cheering and applauding the arrival of two of their favorite gladiators. Neither one of them felt the need to wave to the crowd to please them further. Neither one wanted to be there, after all.

"And today, they will be joined by a third contender!" the Ringmaster continued. "That's right: a new gladiator will be joining these two in one of the biggest and baddest fights that Sakaar has ever seen!"

The arena door on the far side slid open, and someone else stumbled out, shielding her eyes from the intense sunlight. When she saw her, Pyrrha's eyes widened in shock and horror.

"Blake?!"

It was indeed Blake Belladonna, one of her friends from Remnant—and she had clearly seen better days. Her black vest and white undershirt were torn in several places, she was holding her side in pain, and she was covered in bruises and scratches. Her black bow, which normally hid her cat ears, was long gone, and there was a deep scar running down the right side of her face.

"We may not know who this lovely beauty's name is, but she hails from the same planet as Pyrrha Nikos!" the Ringmaster announced as Pyrrha ran to her friend's side, Chris hot on her heels. Upon hearing this, the crowd cheered even louder.

"Blake!" Pyrrha got down next to Blake as she sank to one knee.

She turned her amber eyes up to her. "Pyrrha?" she rasped hoarsely.

"Get your friend up," Chris warned. "We've got trouble coming in."

Before Pyrrha could ask him what he meant, the ground rumbled as a huge portion of the center of the arena split open, revealing a large chasm. A whirling sound came from below as something began to be raised up from underneath.

Pyrrha helped Blake get to her feet. "No time to explain," she gently told her. "We're about to be forced to fight."

Blake let out a ragged cough. "Fight?"

A loud, inhuman screech came from below, followed by a fierce rattling sound. "I hope you're ready for some carnage today, ladies and gentlemen!" the Ringmaster went on. "Because today, these three warriors will be fighting one of the toughest creatures that Sakaar has to offer!"

The crowd roared again as a massive cage was raised into the arena. It was a massive, pink skinned creature with tentacles and extremely sharp teeth. It rattled against the cage in fury, trying to get out.

Chris cursed. "An Abilisk," he announced just as the Ringmaster said the same thing.

"What's an Abilisk?" Pyrrha asked.

"A really, really tough monster to fight."

"Are you ready for some blood, Sakaar?!" the Ringmaster asked, to which the crowd responded with cheers and applause.

Pyrrha had no time to come up with a plan, or even try to explain anything of what was going on to Blake. The cage door was already opening, and the Abilisk was already sliding out with a roar.

"FIGHT!"

Suprise! Blake's now stuck on Sakaar too! And from the looks of things, she's not in good condition. If any of you know how brutal the Brotherhood of the Badoon are in the comics, you know then that, out of all of Teams RWBY and JNPR, Blake easily was the worst off. And her condition certainly hasn't improved now that she's stuck on Sakaar. But at least she's with Pyrrha, so everything will be fine-maybe.

Blake's appearance here also means that we now know where everyone on RWBY and JNPR ended up! But of course, the question still remains on what's going on with Remnant. Those answers are coming-they're just a long, long way away.

As for what's going on with this chapter, there wasn't a whole lot of combat simply to get things set up. I've laid the groundwork for a potential escape from Sakaar for our valiant heroes. Now we will see if they can pull it off.

The Abilisk, as you may know is the big, tentacle monster from the Guardians of the Galaxy movies. I decided that one would be the perfect creature to be a big fight for Pyrrha, Blake, and Darkhawk to fight. As for the rest of the group in the pits (Bug, Mantis, Nebula, and, of course, Hercules)-don't worry! Their time to shine is coming soon!

And I hope y'all enjoyed the Wiz and Boomstick cameos as "fight annalists" on TV. It seemed really appropriate for them, especially with their ending commentary sort of reflecting how they end traditional Death Battle episodes. I even attempted an infamous Boomstick pun! If I have an excuse to get them back for more cameos in this arc (and beyond), I probably will!

But anywho, that's all from me! Until next time, this is Guest 1138, signing off.