~The Great Cookie War~

~Chapter 7: A gift~

"Well my prince this event is many things~! Mostly though it's a chance to get back at princess cookie for how poorly she treated you yesterday!"
Affogato told Dark choco grin clear on his face. Dark choco raised a brow as he looked at Affogato now curious. While Affogato simply continued on explaining.
"Basically me, Carmel, and Red arranged a event with permission of the queen of course and made the excuse of this being a bonding experience for you and princess-"
"Please get to the point Affogato.."
"Ah sorry- well the point is you and princess will be participating in a sparing event! The cookies in this event are of course you and princess but also red velvet, Carmel arrow, some guy named knight cookie, and a few others within the castles whereabouts"
"Heh, so you're basically giving me a free pass to beat the shit out of others"
Dark choco and Affogato laughed. Then they talked for a few more minutes before Affogato finally left the room. Dark choco then looked over at the gift that Affogato brought to him. He then went and picked the pink gift up slowly opening it thinking it was some kind of bomb or curse but then looked in slight awe. It was a gorgeous blue heart shaped locket with some golden detail and a gold butterfly on the center. Dark choco was rather flattered by the gift but was also curious why princess would give him something like this. Then he looked at the wrapping paper it was in trying to find a note or tag explaining the sudden gift. Only to find a small tag with cursive heart and nothing more. Dark choco now cautious placed the locket in the top drawer of his bedside table top. He then left his room making sure to grab his sword for the event. Right outside the door waiting for him was none other than princess cookie herself. Dark Choco slightly jumped not expecting her. They both simply stared at each other blankly as Dark choco closed the door behind him now fully in the hallway. Then Princess broke the silence.
"So your buddy's set up a sparing event....and I've now been given the misfortune to take you to the area.....So just follow me..."
Princess spoke quickly as she turned and set off. Dark choco quickly followed behind rather stunned but Dark choco then snapped out of it.
"Of course....and um thank you for the small gift...."
Princess suddenly stopped and shot around looking right at Dark choco.
"What gift?!"
"....well then I guess that answers my question"
"Ok no seriously what gift.?"
"Well my advisor came in my room early and gave me a gift that was supposedly from you but I guess now it was just a set up gift"
"Tsk, that seems like something my family to make people like me"
Princess then turned back around and continued walking until her and Dark choco finally reached the spot. It was outside the castle near the gardens. Cookies of all kinds were gathered around what seemed to be the battle ring. Princess noticed Dark choco spacing off while looking around and coughed catching his attention.
"You better go to your area and get prepared because the first round is one of your guys versus one of our best guys"
Princess said as she pointed to where dark choco would be. His area had all his friends and plenty of armor and weapons.
"Alright....I head off then thank you princess"
Dark choco quickly went over to his area while princess did the same. As soon as Dark choco stood in front of everyone they all turned to him. Then Dark choco took a silent head count. There was Affogato, Red Velvet, Carmel Arrow, and Crunchy chip. Dark choco hummed in approval and sat next to red who was struggling to place armor around his cake arm.
"You need help with that red velvet?"
"Thank you my prince but no I don't need help..I'll figure it out."
"Alright then. Affogato! Do you know who's up first for the fight?"
Affogato turned towards Dark choco and nodded.
"Yes! Carmel Arrow is up first and she up against someone named wild berry! Here I have the fight chart"
Affogato handed Dark choco the chart and Dark choco's heart dropped. He had remembered what princess said about one of there strongest being up first. He placed the chart to the side and went over to Carmel Arrow who was warming up for the match.
"Carmel Arrow may we talk for a moment?"
"Of course my prince!"
"Ok good now I'm not one to startle you but I've been informed the guy you're fighting against is one of the stronger men on the holly berry side."
"Hm... So you're saying it's a unfair match?"
"Yes but it does not mean you can't win."
Dark choco got behind Carmel arrow and pointed at wild berry from across the field.
"That's wild berry correct?"
"Yes my prince."
"Perfect, now by the looks of it he's the kind of warrior who is all strength but no agility. You can tell from the kind of armor he wearing and the hand gauntlet. Now I'm thinking if you want to win against this guy you'll have to use your speed and iq to get behind him and get some good shots at him from the back and end the match quickly."
Carmel arrow listened while staring at Dark choco in awe. She admires Dark choco a lot for his strength but also honors his intelligence. The others of course over heard the conversation and also began to analyze the wild berry opponent finding out quickly Dark choco was correct. Red velvet who finally got the armor on turned on the ground towards the two.
"It's always so surprising how much you know about combat"
Dark choco laughed and replied.
"I don't see why I was practically raised on combat"
"Ok that is true but still it can shocking at times!"
Dark Choco and the others chuckled a bit at the childish conversation before a horn was heard in the distance. A cookie who stood on a box with the horn cleared his throat and began to speak.
"Ahem! By the orders of queen Holly Berry the sparing event may now began may the first challengers step up to the ring!"
Dark choco hearing that smiled and patted Carmel arrow on the back before she ran off and hopped into the ring. Dark choco took the time then to analyze the environment they were fighting in. The ring was rather large so one can easily move around while fighting as well as the flooring of the ring just being dry dirt easy to slide around but also keep your ground on. The battle field overall was a very fair playing field it was just up to the strengths and weaknesses of the challengers. This made Dark choco worry a bit for Carmel arrow hoping what he told her was enough to help. As Dark choco stood watching more nervously now the horn blew again as the starting signal for the fight. Carmel Arrows opponent immediately rushed forward readying a punch. To which Carmel arrow flung herself to the side readying her bow to aim at the enemy's back but just as she pulled the string back on her bow the enemy had recovered and turned readying his fist with a pink aura around it. This caused Carmel Arrow to panic and shoot the arrow right at her opponents face. To which surprising worked and luckily for the opponent the arrow heads were replaced with magic so nobody would be killed or injured badly. Wild berry fell back a bit one hand covering his eyes from pain but used his gloved hand to shove the pent up magic towards Carmel Arrow knocking her back enough to his hit the battle rings fencing hard. This caused the Cacao empire cookies to all share the same look of shock and nervousness. Luckily Carmel Arrow managed to make a quick recovery and took the opportunity of distance to ready three arrows at once but Wild berry also had recovered and began to charge at Carmel Arrow. Even though it was only the first round everyone was on the edge of their seats. Wild Berry was quickly closing in on Carmel Arrow but she didn't panic. She only closed one of her eyes taking aim and building up more magic. Dark choco and the others began to panic seeing that if wild berry gets one good punch on her it's a instant lose now. Wild Berry was just about to fire his punch with only a few inches left between the two but finally Carmel Arrow released the arrows.... Everyone stood still everyone stopped....the arrows flew right past Wild Berrys head. This caused Wild Berry to freeze highly confused especially since Carmel Arrow held a large grin on her face.
"Do you have a death wish?"
Wild Berry asked aiming for her head.
"Kinda!"
Carmel arrow laughed. This slightly angered Wild Berry who began to quickly lower his fist ready to end the fight only to stop again because of a sharp pain in his neck....then his back....and finally his head. He was stunned yet again. Carmel Arrow quickly took the chance to kick Wild Berry hard in the face knocking him out. Right after he fell to the ground a horn blew the fight was over and loud cheering was heard. Carmel Arrow had won. She lifted her bow in the air out of pride which caused more cheering. She then looked over to Dark choco and Affogato who were both basically screaming their cheers at Carmel Arrow. This made her smile and run out of the ring hopping the fence and hugging the two boys, who gladly hugged back. Once they all finally stopped hugging then Dark choco spoke.
"That was amazing Carmel! I should have known you would use homing arrows!"
"Heh! Thanks Dark choco, though I wouldn't even have thought about it if you didn't give me advice!"
"OooH, don't you try to turn this on me! This is your victory own it!"
They laughed as the horn blew again which turned their attentions over. The same cookie who had the horn spoke again.
"In conclusion for the first round the victory go's to the Cacao empire! The next round will begin within ten minutes or more to clear the field!"
This made Dark choco pick up the battle chart again to see who was next. It seemed to be red velvet versus knight cookie.
"Red it seems you're up next so get ready!"
"Of course my prince-!"
Dark choco went over to Red velvet and stood beside him. Red velvet was struggling to get another piece of armor on. This made Dark choco scoff and take the piece of armor from Red velvet.
"My prince I-"
"Shut up! You could have been ready minutes ago if you would just let people help you! We are not going to judge you if you ask for help!"
Dark choco began to lecture him as he helped Red velvet with the rest of the armor. Meanwhile Crunchy chip was staring at the two rather jealous. This was noticed by Carmel arrow who paused her conversation with Affogato.
"What's wrong Crunchy?"
"...nothing"
"Don't lie to me you're staring daggers into Res velvet what's up?"
"It's nothing really it's just.....What's the relationship between those two...."
"Ah you're jealous! If it makes you feel better they are only best friends as far as I'm aware"
"First of all I'm not jealous..! I just don't trust the red guy..."
"Because you're jealous! That or it's just some weird dog hybrid thing going on between you two!"
"Oh shut up Carmel...."
Crunchy chip growled as he stormed over clearly frustrated. This made Carmel arrow sigh as she walked back over to Affogato continuing where she left off. Then the horn blows again.....
"It's time for round two!"

~Authors note~
So I'm going to start doing authors notes like this now so it's a-lot more simple and less time consuming. So first I'm sorry for the slow updates I didn't realize how busy I was going to be this summer break. I would also like to say thanks for the 500+ reads! And that's all I gotta say thank you for your patience. (Also sorry for the bad fight scene- it's really difficult to write/describe them lol)