Fan Fiction ❯ Black Orchid ❯ An Old Friend, a New Opponent ( Chapter 15 )

FIGHT! : Thasrigh, it's Coliseum time! Are they going to see Cloud? Well, it's someone with blonde hair anyway. So, did you like my villains? I hoped you recognized one of them. If you didn't, he's in this chapter. The others…are OCs, so you shouldn't recognize any…though one, and his world, is highly based on something that has nothing to do with KH, so if by some weird coincidence, you read the same stuff as me, you might recognize him…not likely though. *ashamed* I couldn't remember Phil's full name! Oh well, not that anyone cares. Anyways, read and review, my loyal fans! It makes me happy. (and I apologize about my choice of places to leave off at…but it was the right length, and was an okay spot, so….)

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"So, this is the next place?"

They looked around. They stood in the doorway into a large entry ground, surrounded by huge pillars. The ground was sandy yellow dirt, and across from them stood a large stone structure, highlighted by two enormous golden statues of gladiators doing battle. Orchid, Montblanc, and Arc now stood in the Olympus Coliseum.

"Kupopo…" said Montblanc, "I think so…the map had a two by it right? So it should be the next world…"

They walked down, across the open area, and up to the doors under the titanic statues. After a slight pause to look at each other, they pushed open the door and walked in.

Inside, there was a small, fat, goat-legged man with matching goat horns bustling around busily.

"Hey, Herc," he shouted, not even turning around. "Where have you been? We hafta get ready for the preliminaries and this place is still a …"

He stopped when he turned to see the trio standing in the doorway. He stared for a moment, and Orchid waved cheerfully at him. Grunting, the satyr jumped down from the box he was standing on to walk over to them and stare with a scrutinizing glare.

"What do you runts want?" he asked gruffly. There was the familiar sound of grinding stone, though now it was more of contained rage than of restlessness.

"Runts?" Arc said slowly, eyes glinting dangerously.

"Okay, so two runts and one ignoramus," admitted the goat man grudgingly.

"Ignoramus?" continued Arc, the sounds of his hand beginning to mimic the start of an avalanche.

Sensing the impending disaster, Montblanc interceded quickly.

"Kupo, we wanted to know about what's going on here," he interrupted.

"Oh, it's just a tournament that's going to be held," said the satyr, going back to polishing and cleaning. "The preliminaries are today."

He turned to see the eager look in the trio's eyes. He immediately decided that he didn't want any runty hero wanna-be's running around.

"That part's not for spectators, so you guy's should come back later."

This pushed Arc too far.

"That's it, old man!" he said, struggling against Orchid and Montblanc, who had a grabbed an arm and a leg respectively. "I'm just going to use you for my punching bag now, then I'm going to punt your furry butt to god-knows-what world, and then I'm going to kick the tar out of every little crap in the preliminaries, and then, then I'm going to drag you back here and-"

He was interrupted by a loud and confident voice that practically bulged with muscles by itself.

"Whoa, whoa, whoa!" said the newcomer. "I think both of you need to calm down and put down your fists," he said as he picked up the now flaming red satyr, who was gnashing his teeth and waving his arms, and was also now waving his legs in a futile effort to get at Arc. "Phil, calm down."

"Herc, didn't you hear what he sai-" started the fuming Phil, stopping his flailing momentarily to yell at the man.

"I heard, I heard," interrupted the man. He was tall, had brownish blonde hair, stunningly blue eyes, almost golden skin, and more muscles than anyone could possibly know what to do with. He wore leather armor, sandals, and a headband. He was the embodiment godly perfection to the point of almost looking fake; Orchid was almost afraid to touch him lest he fell down like a cardboard cut out. "And I expect you had been telling these 'runts' that they couldn't enter the tournament."

"This is fighting, not babysitting!" yelled Phil.

"What about Sora? Huh, Phil?" said the man like he was holding discriminating evidence in the satyr's face.

"Well he, was, well, the master of the keyblade, so he's a bad example," stuttered Phil, starting to lose fuel for his rage.

Orchid decided to take this chance to bring out Vineguard. She held out her right hand, concentrated, and the leafy green weapon appeared in it. Though it was very different from any of Sora's keyblades in many ways, it was unmistakably a keyblade, a fact that not even Phil could overlook, and apparently hadn't, if anything could be judged by how far his jaw had dropped.

"My name's Hercules," the robust man said, making introductions and extending a hand. "And the angry goat is called Phil."

"And I'm Orchid," said the blonde girl, taking the hand and shaking it. She winced as he shook back vigorously and almost crushed her hand. "The man in the white trench coat is Arc, and the moogle is Montblanc."

Introductions were exchanged, and Arc and Phil even got calmed down enough to shake each other's hands without trying to break them; Arc was actually gracious enough to use his left, though that caused slight confusion at first.

"So, you want to be in the tournament?" asked Phil, now sounding a little less condescending. The trio merely nodded. "Fine. Just don't come crying to me when you get hurt."

"You'll have to compete in the preliminaries today though, to see if you even qualify to participate in the tournament," said Hercules.

"Bring it on," said Arc eagerly, rubbing his stone fist in anticipation.

"Have all the groups arrived?" Phil asked the Olympian hero.

"Yeah, that's why I came over here in the first place," he replied.

"Then follow me," said the satyr as he motioned to the trio of friends and walked through a doorway, taking down a rope that had been hanging across it.

They stepped out into a large, open stadium. It was rectangular, having rows of seats on either side, and a large, ominous gate on the opposite wall. In the middle of the sandy arena was a large, tiled square, which Orchid assumed to be the fighting area.

"Hey, where's the 9th seed?" yelled Phil. Then he muttered, "Jeez, got some more of those weird freaks, and now they're late too."

"Is that…them?" asked Orchid, pointing. All too familiar pools of darkness were scrambling around on the arena floor.

"Oh yeah," said Phil. "Damn freaks. Anyways, get out there and fight!"

He pushed Orchid and Montblanc out onto the tiles; Arc had already walked over. Once they were in the arena, shimmering barriers of magic shot up and prevented any escape.

"If you die, are knocked unconscious, forfeit, or leave the arena for any reason, if you somehow manage to get out of the barrier, you lose!" shouted Phil, now a safe distance from the fighting area.

"Arc, what have you gotten us into?" asked Orchid, gripping Vineguard tightly with both hands as the pools of darkness became Heartless.

-!-

"Is that them?" asked the boy, giving a quick nod of his head towards the arena, where Orchid and her friends were currently fighting a battalion of heartless mages. He was a little taller than Orchid, and also had blond hair. His was mostly about jawbone length, with three exceptions; his bangs were short and only reached his eyebrows, and he had a long lock that defied gravity by curving off into the air from the top of his head, plus a longer lock that stuck out the back like strange ponytail. He wore a dark blue sweatshirt and red shorts, along with dark brown and white boots; these all had armor sewn into them or strapped over them. He had two large belts; off one hung a case carrying several large cards. The most interesting thing was the giant rose quartz colored blade that he carried, all circles and strange design; it was a judge sword, almost identical to Cid's and almost as tall as the boy including the handle.

"Yes that's them," said a figure standing in the shadows, his blue flame hair blazing brightly. Both were behind the bars of the monstrous gateway Orchid had seen earlier. "I need you to beat them. It's just like a, what ever you called it, an engagement, yeah…just like an engagement."

"What are today's laws?" asked the boy.

"Anything…Goes," said Hades slowly, his fires burning red.

-!-

"So the green ones cast Cure," started Orchid, quickly drinking a potion between matches, "and the yellow ones cast Thunder?"

"Right," replied Montblanc. "And the light blue ones cast Water, kupo."

"So, Water against the yellow, and Thunder against the light blue?"

"And anything against the green."

"I wonder who are next opponent is?" asked Arc, looking around. So far, no shadows had appeared, which was strange, since the Heartless seemed to appear almost immediately after the previous battle finished.

"Is that him?" asked Orchid, pointing to one of the entryways.

The blond boy walked out, carrying the enormous judge blade easily under his right arm, that hand holding it up, and the other resting lightly on the handle, balancing the whole thing. His head was lowered, and he was still too far away to make out any details.

"He looks…" trailed off Arc, not really sure what to make of him.

"Familiar," finished Montblanc, straining his little eyes to see who it was.

"Cute," finished Orchid distantly, not hearing Montblanc. She idly wondered what his name was. She didn't have to wonder long; Phil's loud voice cut in when the boy was almost halfway to the arena, reading off the match.

"And the 1st seed is," started Phil, looking down at his list, "Marche Radiuju!"

Montblanc stood upright in surprise. While the other two stared at him, the blond boy stepped into the arena nonchalantly, then was struck with the same look of surprise.

"Hey, I never expected to be on the opposite side of an engagement with you, Montblanc," he said cheerfully, his surprise wearing off.

"Marche, kupo!" exclaimed Montblanc. "Where have you been?"

"It' a long story," started Marche, turquoise eyes smiling, "but in a nutshell, after we got separated, I ended up here. Then some guy approached me with a mission, and with nothing better to do, I took it. So here I am. Didn't know I'd be fighting you."

"I didn't know I'd be fighting you either, kupo," exclaimed the moogle.

"Friend of yours?" asked Arc.

"Yeah, me and Montblanc go way back," Marche answered for his friend. Then to Montblanc, "No hard feelings, right?"

"Of course not, kupo," replied Montblanc.

"I'm not going to go easy on you," said Marche, swinging his judge sword out so that he held it ready in front of him.

"I wouldn't want you to," said Montblanc, taking out his rod and stepping back, putting Arc and Orchid between him and the fighter.

Orchid and Marche looked each other in the eyes; both had the initial reaction of reluctance to fight a child, immediately followed by slight embarrassment as they realized they were about the same age.

"Aaaaaand…FIGHT!" shouted Phil.

And the battle was on.