The legend returns

Chapter 35

~Free POV~

Free looked up at his opponent, Cuza Ackerman, who was hanging from a stalactite above the beystadium. This must be the launch he was talking about when he came back with Valt and Rantaro. He thought. "3...2...1...LET IT RIP!" The two yelled in unison. Cuza let go of the stalactite, allowing himself to fall before launching his bey and landing on his left hand in a handstand. Free pulled the ripcord in the blink of an eye, veins appearing on his arm for a split second as he did. Fafnir landed in the stadium and spun around it in its normal left rotation while Cognite landed hard on the slope and rocketed down it towards Fafnir. "Warped Launch." Cuza said. His launch and the way our beys landed in the stadium is allowing him to come at me right off the bat. Free thought. The beys collided and Fafnir was knocked towards the wall but it never hit. The yellow bey picked up speed and continued to spin around the stadium. "Do it now! Absorb Break!" Free yelled. The tip on Fafnir dropped allowing the teeth to lock together and give the bey a massive boost of speed. The yellow bey rocketed around the stadium and came up behind Cognite. Fafnir hit Cognite from behind and sent the white bey flying towards Free. The yellow and red haired blader caught the bey in his right hand and burst it before crushing the chip with his thumb. The purple faded from Cuza's eyes and was replaced with their normal gold color. Free pieced Cognite back together and tossed the white bey to its blader before picking up Fafnir. A creaking sound came from the ceiling, causing the bladers to look up. "Go! Parkour as fast as you can!" Cuza yelled, turning and parkouring towards the door. The rest of the bladers followed, the ceiling getting closer and closer with every passing moment. One by one, they reached the last stalagmite and jumped through the door and into the hallway. Valt and Rantaro hugged the acrobatic blader. "I missed you guys too! Thanks for helping me out." Cuza said, hugging them back.

~Sora POV~

After the reunion, the bladers walked farther down the hallway and the door quickly shut behind them. Sora, Shu, Rantaro, Valt, Diago, Cuza, Vin, Dante, Sable, Damian, and Wade looked at each other with wide eyes. "RUN!" Valt yelled. The bladers took off running down the hallway. The door behind them was set on a track and it began moving towards the group at a fast pace. There was an ice sheet at the other end of the hallway, seemingly blocking the way out. "We're gonna become pancakes!" Hearts yelled. "No we're not!" Sora said. The group got closer and closer to the ice sheet and the door was close behind them. "We're running out of room! You better have a way to get us out of this, Hagane, Kurenai!" Lui yelled. "Just keep running and don't stop!" Shu said. "Great plan Kurenai! Just let us smack straight into a block of ice and become pancakes!" Lui yelled, his voice dripping with sarcasm. "Coming through!" Wade yelled. The other bladers moved to the sides of the hallway, allowing Wade to get in front of them. The gray haired blader ran towards the ice sheet and crashed into it, shattering it and opening the way out of the hallway. The bladers ran through the opening and the door stopped as it reached the end of its track. They looked back at the door and saw it was where the ice sheet used to be. "That was way too close!" Hearts said. "Thanks Wade." Sora said. The bladers not wearing jumpsuits started shivering at the cold temperature of the room. "I'm too pretty to be an icicle!" Honcho said. "You've got a jacket you know." Free said. The bladers who had jackets quickly put them on and closed them up all the way. Free was the only blader without a jacket. "T-They tried to o-overheat us, t-then tried to t-turn us into p-pancakes, and now t-they're trying to k-kill us by h-hypothermia." The yellow and red haired blader said as he began to shiver violently from the cold. The mountain by Koma village is colder than this. I survived that and I'm used to it. Free isn't. He's used to the warm temperatures of Spain. Sora thought. She took off her trench coat and walked over to Free. "W-What are y-you doing?" Free asked. "I can tolerate the cold. I'm used to it. Besides, I don't want one of my friends freezing to death." Sora said. Free took the coat and put it on. "Thanks." He said. "No problem." Sora replied. The group continued walking through the tundra based battle room, the snow crunching under their shoes. Sora was thankful for the fact that there was no wind blowing as the cold was already chilling her bare arms. Eventually the group reached the pool of frigid water that surrounded the beystadium for the room. In front of it stood a familiar turquoise haired boy. "Toko?" Valt called, afraid that the boy in front of him was his brother. The boy turned to face the group, it was Toko Aoi. His once green eyes were now purple. His face was expressionless. "What did Ashtem do to him?" Rantaro asked. "Same thing he did to you Honcho." Sora answered. Toko turned to face the pool of frigid water and ran towards it. When he reached the edge he jumped onto an ice sheet that floated to the stadium and around to the otherside. "So, who's gonna battle him?" Hearts asked. "Toko's bey is a stamina type like Free and Honcho's beys. I would go up against him but I battled Honcho and I have a feeling they'll only let each one of us battle once." Valt said. "If that's true then you and Rantaro are out of the question. Since Luinor is an attack type, I'll go against him." Lui said. "Go for it then." Sora said. The blue flame haired blader ran towards the pool of frigid water, reaching the edge before jumping on an ice sheet and floating to the Beystadium. "I'm surprised Lui volunteered to battle Toko." Shu said. "Well, he has changed since the last time you guys met." Sora said. Shu only hummed in response.