Chapter 10 - The Keyblade Dual-Wielder

“R-Roxas!?” Riku shouted out in shock, unbearable pain still rushing through him.
“Well … I never expected you to turn up so soon.” Xaphire admitted, lowering his Blade ever so slightly. “Actually, I never even expected you to be reborn in ‘this Castle’ of all places.”
“Funny, I was wondering about that myself. But when I heard the fight going on, I just had to intervene.” Roxas acknowledged, carefully making sure he doesn’t drop his guard for when Xaphire makes his move.
“Hmph. I guess it does even out the playing field …” Xaphire began, but then he let go of his left Blade and clicked his fingertips. “… for a few seconds longer.”
Suddenly, Roxas swiftly switched around, his Keyblades out at the ready and instantly clashed with the Keyblade of Darkness that swung round from behind. Sora's Heartless locked eyes onto Roxas. The Heartless then struck again by lunging his Keyblade forward. Roxas leapt to the side out of the way as the Keyblade of Darkness closed on him. Swiftly, Roxas slid behind Sora's Heartless and stuck it with both Keyblades in the back. The Heartless lurched forward but retaliated with a spinning strike. Roxas parried the incoming Keyblade and leapt away to gain distance, landing right in front of Riku. Xaphire carelessly risen his free arm into the air and clicked his fingertips once again, causing a small spark of light to erupt from the fingertips. Sora's Heartless instantly halted its attacks and stood facing Roxas and the wounded Riku.
“I’ve always wondered how you fought, but I should have guessed it would be similar to our fallen Sora: lousy.” Xaphire commented, showing he didn’t have a care in the world.
“Thanks for the input.” Roxas answered sarcastically. “If it’s true that you are who you say you are, then why is it that I’ve never seen you around during my time in the Organisation?”
"(Sigh…) Fine, I’ll tell you. Before you arrived, I was the original Number XIII. That was until Xemnas decided to demote me due to an ‘insignificant’ attitude towards his plans. The reason why we never met was that on the day you arrived, Xemnas had me posted to watch over this Castle until my mission was complete. But when the time finally came ... The Organization was already destroyed." Xemnas reluctantly explained, sounding like it was a drag to explain.
During the time Xaphire explained his reason; Roxas carefully reached into his right trouser pocket through the gap of his Keyblade. He took out out an Elixir vial. Riku caught sight of this but Xaphire didn't. Roxas then flicked it behind towards Riku’s direction, keeping fully aware of Xaphire. Riku successfully caught it, a surge of pain stretched through his wounds as he reached for it. Unfortunately, Xaphire caught notice of Riku’s movement for the Elixir. Xaphire swiftly threw his arm right towards Riku’s direction; a dark energy sphere was realised from the palm of his hand. Roxas instantly blocked the attack with the Oathkeeper Keyblade while the other parried Sora’s Heartless’ sudden incoming strike. Riku quickly gulped down the Elixir. Instantly, the wounds on his body healed and faded away, renewing Riku’s energy to fight. Riku then leapt his feet and grasped his Way to the Dawn Keyblade as it appeared by his side.
"Very sneaky, to think a newly reborn Nobody would have his own stash of supplies.” Xaphire commented spitefully, lowering his Blade again.
Roxas kicked Sora’s Heartless away to gain some distance again, and stood beside Riku.
“Roxas, how did you get this?” Riku asked him curiously, holding up the empty Elixir vial.
"It was right next to me when I woke up in that corridor back over there." Roxas answered, pointing his thumb at the door of where Sora and Riku (and Roxas presumably) had entered.
Riku then gained a sudden flashback of when Sora executed the backflip from the wall of the room they had woken up in. Riku remembered something had fallen out from Sora left pocket.
"(Sigh ...) I told him to strap up those pockets of his!" Riku frustratingly complained, face-palming from the embarrassment. “But he thought it would be cool to leave them open.”
“Really!? I thought that would be something you would do!” Roxas joked, putting on a cheeky smile. “Although … at least he had the decency to be prepared for the unexpected.”
“… Shut up.” Riku murmured as his face turned red in embarrassment, turned his head away to hide it, “How could he of been prepared if he kept on dropping the supply everywhere!?”
"Well … What the-!?"
Roxas had been interrupted by Xaphire who appeared right up close in front of him, holding his right Blade aiming for Roxas’ neck.
“You bore me.” Xaphire eerily spoke, his deep voice echoing the Throne room.
Roxas ducked down swiftly to avoid the strike and executed a counter-strike with an uppercut using both Keyblades. Xaphire's easily parried it with the left Blade as it returned at his will, and struck Roxas in the back by the right Blades guard. Roxas tumbled across the floor, but instantly leapt back to his feet. But as he did this, Sora's Heartless ruthlessly elbowed him in the side, making him fall back onto the floor. The Heartless then placed its foot on Roxas's side to hold him down, and aimed the tip of the Keyblade of Darkness at Roxas's neck, ready to strike. Suddenly, Riku struck the Heartless from behind, making it lose its balance. Making this his chance; Roxas launched his foot into Sora’s Heartless’ abs, the impact threw the Heartless off its feet. Roxas leapt to his feet and tensed his body. Both Riku and Roxas jumped back, landing back to back with each other.
"Have you still got a grudge on me for ruining your life after our fight under Memory Skyscraper?" Riku curiously asked Roxas, coolly smiling.
"Get real, that in the past! Besides, you are going to have to pay me back for saving your butt with the Elixir!" Roxas answered, smiling back.
Xaphire stood watching the two bicker on. On the other side of the platform; Sora’s Heartless leaped back to its feet, showing no sign of injury through the dark aura engulfing its body.
“(Sigh …) It’s time to end this nonsense.” Xaphire sighed in annoyance, nodding to the Heartless.
Suddenly, Xaphire and Sora's Heartless began charging at Roxas and Riku from different directions.
"I'll take on Sora, you fight Xaphire!" Riku hastily told Roxas, becoming serious.
"So we even out the playing field? That’s fine by me!" Roxas agreed confidently.
They both leaped towards their opponents with weapons grasped in hand. Roxas clashed his Keyblades against Xaphire's Blades; Roxas forced Xaphire’s Blades out of the way as he struck his foot into Xaphires chin. Xaphire leapt back in retaliation, landing on his feet. Xaphire cuffed the blood from his bottom lip.
“That was a dirty move.” He growled darkly.
Riku clashed his Keyblade with the Heartless’ Keyblade, causing both the weapons to ricochet against each other. Riku then opened his free hand underneath the Keyblade.
“Dark Firaga.” He roared.
A dark aura engulfed his hand just before he struck his free hand against the Heartless’ chest, causing the aura to explode on impact. The Heartless was thrown back off its feet by the unexpected blow, soaring across the arena. It took a moment to recover, but was able to leap back to its feet the moment it collided against the platform. The Heartless’ eyes then locked back onto Riku, digging into his mind. Riku leapt towards the Heartless, both hands grasping his Way to the Dawn Keyblade.
“Come on, Sora! Give me everything you’ve got!” Riku bellowed assertively at the Heartless.
Roxas leapt towards Xaphire for another strike, both his Keyblades by his side. But just before the two Keyblades made contact, Xaphire disappeared once again from sight. The caused Roxas to lose his balance, hopping on left foot to try and keep himself from falling. He fell and tumbled across the platform, swiftly recovering back to his feet. Sora's Heartless also swiftly disappeared from sight just when Riku tried to strike, causing him to back off in retaliation. Roxas scanned around for any signs of Xaphire and Sora’s Heartless’ whereabouts. Riku did the same.
"Where did they go!?" Riku shouted out in annoyance, swiftly turned his body in every direction.
"Do you think they retreated?" Roxas wondered, cautiously tensing his body for any surprises.
"No, I’m sure Xaphire has too much pride to just randomly leave the fight." Riku guessed from his experience so far.
Suddenly, Roxas heard a sort of slicing sound from behind. Both He and Riku swiftly turned round to face the direction of the sound, but there was nothing.
"What was that!?" Riku asked out, caught out by surprise.
"Don't know." Roxas cautiously answered.
Suddenly, the same sound echoed from their right; they both turned quickly towards that direction, but there was still nothing.
"What is going on!?" Roxas shouted out in frustration.
Suddenly, the sound began to get faster and more frequent. Roxas and Riku kept turning and switching about as the sound continued to increase. Suddenly, from out of nowhere, a flash of light filled the whole room, blinding the both of them. The sound kept on increasing in speed, now it sounded like some sort of tornado as it also felt like a large gust of wind spinning around them. Even though they were temporary blind, they still kept on turning about, following the sounds. The slicing sounds got louder and faster as the gust of wind got stronger. Suddenly, something cut Roxas’ left arm, tearing the sleeve of the cloak and his skin. And then Riku felt a cut slice his cheek. Both Roxas and Riku began to get cut up, faster and faster, and the slices kept on becoming more painful and deeper. Riku quickly realised what was happening to them; they were being tortured by sound itself. Riku closed his eyes calmly, blocking out the sound from his mind and listened carefully for attacks heading towards him and Roxas.
Then he heard one.
"Roxas, to your left!" He bellowed out.
Roxas held out his left Keyblade out swiftly, suddenly rebounding with another blade.
"Roxas! Quickly close your eyes and (argh!) listen carefully for attacks coming at you! Block everything (ah!) around you!" Riku shouted out to Roxas.
"Right! (Ow!)" Roxas nodded as he shut his eyes.
They both started to parry the incoming attacks, trying not to miss any out. They continued to parry more frequently as time flew by, but so did the incoming attacks. They began to parry without any stops or delays, spinning their Keyblades and sometimes dodging the incoming strikes. But then, everything stopped. Roxas and Riku cautiously opened their eyes, squinting due to the bright light. Roxas had shouted something out but the word had been drowned out for some reason. Then suddenly they heard Xaphire's dark, cold voice echo the arena.
"Dreaded ... STRIKE!!!" Xaphire bellowed out.
That was when Roxas and Riku panicked. They couldn't see or hear the incoming strike so it'll be almost impossible to parry, block or deflect. And then ... it began. Both Roxas and Riku were thrown up into the air by a sudden force. They hung there in the air ... prevented from moving. Suddenly, a force hit both of them squarely in the back, completely taking the air out of them. Straight after, like a whirlpool, they were struck from all around by infinite blades. Beaten up badly, both Roxas and Riku were suddenly struck in the stomachs. Everything stopped. The arena dimmed back to normal brightness, everything around them was in sight. Suddenly, both Riku and Roxas fell to the ground, agonising pain surged through their whole bodies on impact. Xaphire and Sora’s Heartless strode over to their positions and towered over them. All of a sudden, Xaphire’s dark cold laugh echoed the arena.
"Oh how the great Keyblade wielders fall." Xaphire taunted over them, giving out the eerie smile that got Roxas and Riku shuddering, “What happened to all that hope of yours? Did I throw it all away?”
"Th-that’s enough! No matter … how many times y-you take us down … we’ll always keep fighting!" Roxas protested in agony, wheezing and stuttering.
"I haven’t seen much improvement …" Xaphire continued to taunt. “Face it: the Light has fallen mercy to Darkness.”
“We don’t bow down so … easily!” Riku rejected, trying his best to get back to his feet.
Gradually, both Roxas and Riku struggled to push themselves to their knees and eventually to their feet. Xaphire just stood there watching the two of them, eyes piecing into them.
“Fake determination … how pitiful.” Xaphire whispered under his breath.
“R-” Roxas began to spit out.
Xaphire raised an eyebrow in curiousness.
“Ragnarok!” Roxas bellowed, putting on a small, dark smiling.
Xaphire was completely caught out by the surprise, but was too late to evade or parry. Roxas instantly unleashed a swift, solid combo of strike with both Keyblades, rising from the platform with Xaphire as the victim. Sora’s Heartless tried to intervene but Riku, who seemed fairly unharmed, prevented the Heartless from doing so, clashing blades with one another. Roxas struck Xaphire with an uppercut, sending him high into the air. Swiftly, Roxas pointed both Keyblades in Xaphire’s direction. Instantly, a light orange aura engulfed the tips of the Keyblades, constantly enlarging. With enough charge in the Keyblades, Roxas executed the final section of his attack. Rays of light launched out of the Keyblades and encircled around Xaphire, prevent him from escaping. They closed in on him and exploded on impact. Xaphire was sent hurtling to the floor of the arena, tumbling to the side. Roxas strode over and stopped in front of him. Unexpectedly, Xaphire recovered and instantly swung his Blades towards Roxas. Roxas retaliated and leapt back to evade the incoming Blades, readying for the next attack.
“So you were bluffing the injuries?” Xaphire questioned curiously, surprisingly calm after the surprise attack.
Roxas spotted that although Xaphire’s body had a few burns and injuries from the surprise special attack, they seemed to be healing rapidly.
“I wouldn’t say ‘bluffing’, more like ‘over-exaggerating’.” Roxas corrected, smiling with confidence. “That attack of yours won’t finish me off as easily as you think.”
Although Roxas had stated this with confidence, he and Riku were in fact badly wounded from Xaphire’s special attack. They were only just able to cope with it due to Regen magic Roxas was able to cast just before the main finishing strike.
“Well then, I’ll make sure not to hold back as much next time.” Xaphire assured; no sign of pain anywhere in his voice. “It’s just a shame your best friend wasn’t so … resilient weeks ago.”
“Wha … What’s Axel got to do with this!?” Roxas asked out, caught out by surprise.
“That’s right … you never knew.” Xaphire teased, a grim smile appeared across his emotionless face.
All of a sudden, Xaphire leapt at alarming speed, closing in on Roxas ready to strike. Roxas swiftly braced with his Keyblades, just in time as the weapons clashed against each other. Instantly, it became a battle of brute force between the two of them, trying to push against each other’s weapons. Then, from out of nowhere, Xaphire’s voice whispered inside Roxas’ mind.
“Let me show you the truth of Axel’s demise.” The voice echoed eerily.

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