Staten Island vs Queens Squad, Part 2

"Not bad, but you haven't even gotten a taste of what I can do!" Ralph says as constructs a glowing olen bow out of his Cursed Power, before knocking back a golden arrow, and aiming it at Grover. "Morale Arrow: Homing Strike!" Ralph shouts as he fires his arrow Grover's way.

Grover, at last, teleports onto the building that Ralph is standing on, dodging Ralph's attack but also preparing a counter attack. "Wormhole: Green Roundhouse!" Grover shouts as he chambers his leg, before aiming a Cursed Power Barrier reinforced kick towards Ralph's head, from Grover's place in the air. But before Grover's attack can connect, Ralph's arrow pauses mid-air before slowly turning around, then swiftly flying towards Grover again, aimed right towards Grover's face.

"Woah!" Grover cries as he teleports out of the way of Ralph's attack, unable to land his roundhouse kick.

But again, just as before, Ralph's arrow pauses, before changing direction, and flying towards Grover yet again.

"What the heck, is this arrow following me?!" Grover cries as he teleports out of the way again, only for Ralph's arrow to continue tracking him.

"There's a reason why we allowed Team Luis to put me alone with Grover. By using my Homing Arrow, I can get Grover to waste his Cursed Power dodging a singular attack by using multiple wormholes, while I only have to use one attack to do so," Ralph smirks to himself.

Unable to dodge Ralph's attack, in a last ditch effort, Grover teleports directly in front of Ralph, allowing his back to face the arrow, embracing his arms around Ralph tightly

"Eh?! What are you doing?!" Ralph snaps as he tries to wiggle out of Grover's grip, but Grover's Cursed Power Barrier reinforced hug doesn't budge.

"If I can't dodge this arrow, then I can at least let you get pierced alongside it!" Grover explains.

"You do realize that I can't get harmed by my own arrows, right?" Ralph asks.

"Oh yeah? Are you so sure about that?" Grover smirks. "Maybe you should call off your arrow, before we both get hurt."

"Grover's right…when I first unlocked my Morale Arrow, my ability was weak because I didn't have much faith in it, but I didn't have much faith in it because it was weak, leading to an endless cycle. At first, my arrows harmed me and my allies when we were pierced by them, due to their lack of faith caused by my own lack of faith. I had to work to build up confidence in myself, to trust in my Cursed Ability, so that I can gain the trust of others and become strong…" Ralph mutters to himself under his breath. "AND THAT'S HOW I KNOW THAT MY ARROWS WILL NEVER HARM ME! BECAUSE I SPENT YEARS BUILDING UP MY CONFIDENCE IN THEM!"

With a roar, Ralph's arrows pierces straight through Grover and Ralph, forming a bloody hole in Grover's chest, but not injuring Ralph in the slightest. Grover's grip on Ralph weakens, as Grover slumps to the ground. "You…didn't deactivate your arrow…" Grover grunts.

"Did you really think I would?" Ralph smirks back.

***

"Come on, Grover…what are you doing?!" Jamie wines.

"Hey, I thought killing was strictly forbidden?!" Mikey snaps. "I wanna do that!"

"Have some more faith in Grover," Austin smirks as he does the anime glasses guy thing again. "Do you really think that the future Chairman of the Slayer Organization would allow that attack to kill him?"

And surely enough, Grover stands back up to face Ralph again.

***

"Oh, so you can still stand?" Ralph smirks.

"Yeah, and I found the perfect way to take you out!" Grover replies. "In close quarters!"

Grover releases a flury of Cursed Power reinforced kicks upon Ralph, starting without a front snap kick into a step behind and a round house quick then followed up with a back kick. Ralph blocks all three. Grover aims for a sweep towards Ralph's legs, which Ralph jumps over. Grover then aims one, two, three back spinning kicks at Raph. Ralph ducks under the first two, but the third back spinning catches Ralph off guarding, knocking him clean in the chin. Ralph stumbles backwards, dazed.

Grover draws a few kunai knives before charging Ralph again, who constructs a glowing golden arrow in each hand, wielding them like knives, before charging Grover back. Grover and Ralph's blades clash, struggling against each other for a brief moment, before retracting their blades, and slashing one another with a flurry of knife attacks, until Grover kicks Ralph off of him.

The arrow in Ralph's right hand then morphs into a golden bow, as Ralph knocks back his second arrow, firing it at Grover. "Morale Arrow: Homing Strike!" Ralph then raises his bow into the air. "Morale Arrow: Valley Shot!" Ralph shouts as he fires a second arrow into the air, which soars into the air for a bit before exploding, sending dozens of miniature golden arrows falling to the ground towards Ralph and Grover.

"No problem!" Grover exclaims as he teleports and weaves through Ralph's attack, but with Ralph's homing arrow flying towards Grover, he finds himself overwhelmed. "Shoot, how do I dodge?!" Grover cries he's pierced by Ralph's following valley shot, before dodging Ralph's homing arrow in the nick of time, which simply turns around and begins flying towards Grover again.

"My homing arrow is impossible to dodge, it'll keep tracking you until you're skewered!" Ralph booms.

"How do I dodge something that keeps tracking me…" Grover nervously grumbles as he stares down Ralph's arrow, which continues streaking through the air towards Grover. But then, a light bulb goes off above Grover's head. "That's it, I don't dodge!" Grover then stands back up, facing Ralph's arrow.

"Accepting your fate, eh?" Ralph smirks. "I'll become the Chairman of the Slayer Organization, not you!"

"Not exactly!" Grover smirks back. "Wormhole: Hall of Mirrors!" Multiple wormholes then open up around Grover, fully encompassing his body.

"Oh…I see what you're doing…" Ralph grumbles.

"Ralph's arrow then flies towards Grover, but instead of piercing Grover, it flies straight into Grover's wormhole, before exiting out of a second wormhole.

"Your arrow is mine now!" Grover cackles as he opens up a second "Hall of Mirrors," this one, around Ralph. Ralph's arrow flies into one of the wormholes around Grover, before exiting out of the wormholes around Ralph.

"What?! My undodgeable attack, he…dodged it?!" Ralph cries.

"You thought that your Homing Arrow was a good counter for me, but it looks like I'm the perfect counter for it!" Grover laughs.

"It's no matter, my arrows can't harm me anyway!" Ralph booms with a weak smile

"Are you so sure about that?" Grover smirks as Ralph's smile falters. Ralph's arrow continues flying towards himself, piercing Ralph straight in the chest, and this time…the arrow hurt him.

"How…can this be?" Ralph grunts as both his arrow and Grover's wormholes dissipate, and Ralph falls to the ground, defeated. "I lost faith in my arrow…because it was turned against me…"

"I want this dream more than you do. That's why I won," Grover sneers. But then…Grover's slips curl up into a smile. "But when I become Chairman…you can be my second in command!"

Grover then drops to the ground, clutching his wounds and gasping for breath. 

***

"And with that powerful finishing attack, turning Slayer Yajiri's own arrows against himself…SLAYER MIDORI IS THE WINNER!" The announcer booms.

"Alright, Grover!" Nick smirks.

"YEAH!" Jamie and Austin cheer as they jump out of their seats. But after seeing what he is doing, Austin blushes, then sits back down.

Mikey remains apathetic.

"What, you don't care that Grover won, Mikey?" Jamie teases.

"No, I don't," Mikey snorts, causing Jamie to roll her eyes. "But…I'd rather my squadmate win over a stranger," Mikey finishes, causing Jamie to smile. "And besides, I need Luis to win."

***

"Wind Control: Hurricane Slash!" I shout as I wrap my wind around my blade and slash my katana towards, sending a powerful gust of wind flying towards Lycan, who hurdles over my Hurricane Slash, before pouncing towards me, baring its fangs. I bring my katana up to block, using my katana to keep Lycan's teeth at bay.

"Knockback Wave!" Ella shouts as she sends another orange ring of Cursed Power towards Lycan, knocking him off of me. "Luis, where's Ivy?! We need to find her!" Ella cries.

"I know!" I reply. "Air Control!" Using my Air Control, I tried to feel the movement of Ivy's fingers or flute playing against the air, but can't sense anything. "Damnit, I can't find her!" I snap.

"Ivy has to be close enough for Lycan to hear her flute," Ella replies.

"A wolf's hearing is better than ours, afterall, but even with my Air Control, I can't hear Ivy's flute," I say as I continue fending off Lycan with my katana, and my Air Control to help predict his movements, but then…I pause.

"What is it?" Ella asks.

"What if…Ivy isn't controlling Lycan?" I suggest, causing Ella's eyes to widen.

"Lycan would go berserk without Ivy to control him…" Ella begins to say. "But with neither of his allies in his range, that wouldn't matter!"

"And just look at how Lycan's fighting," I add, as I slash through another one of Lycan's fireballs with a Wind Blade. "He's fighting more boorishly, rather than how acrobatically Ivy controls his body."

"But wouldn't that make Ivy useless on her own?" Ella asks as she sends Lycan flying backwards with a Knockback Wave.

"The two wouldn't have bothered separating if Ivy is useless alone," I answer.

"True, I suppose Ivy snuck a bear into the arena, or something," Ella mutters to herself, causing me to chuckle.