Valey wasn't the last person on the field this time, standing at the ready for her second encounter as two challengers approached. Saffron was one of them; she had paid enough attention to the bracket and the end of the last fight to know that. This was the last free-for-all. If she won this, there would just be two duels left: the semifinals, and the end.
"Hey there, sugarcube," Saffron said, a cut on her cheek and a burn mark marring her side. She gave Valey a challenging look, eyes glittering. "Lucky us, running into each other this early. This is gonna be a fight to remember."
"Oh really?" Valey raised an eyebrow, returning the challenge.
Saffron laughed. "Don't you go easy on me just because we're friends, now. I won't do the same for you. I'm in this tournament for a good tussle or three, and I didn't climb the ranks this far to throw in the towel at the best part. En garde!"
"You sure?" Valey blinked. "You look kinda..." She was about to say beat-up, then saw the third contestant: a blocky, chocolate-brown earth pony with a beard and broad shoulders, sporting two black eyes and a significant number of scrapes and bruises along his chest and back. "Woah. Dude. If all that damage is a ploy, I'm not falling for it, just saying now."
Saffron whistled at the stallion's state. "Hey there, Hank. Hard-fought last battle?"
Hank roared with laughter, his eyes making it known he wasn't down yet. "Can't use my heal after the first fight if I want to see it through to the championship! Had a real contender last battle. Practically had to go two against one to beat her!"
Valey bit her tongue. She knew there were healing potions available between rounds, and hadn't had any reason to ask for one, but Hank made it sound like there was only one per fighter... Maybe it was a good thing Diego and Master Kickface had left her alone.
"Heh. Well, you've got yourself another real contender here," Saffron remarked, scuffing the ground in Valey's direction. "But I'm doing no team-ups today. This here is a battle I've been waiting for."
"Yeah?" Valey grinned. "Well, ready when you are..."
The fight began, but neither warrior took initiative. Hank was too hurt to expose his back with a first attack, and Saffron was smart enough not to underestimate either of them. And so they circled, Valey becoming increasingly certain she would have to be the one to make the first move.
She circled toward Saffron, watching her more frequently than Hank. It wasn't just that the unicorn was a ranged, healthier, more-dangerous opponent. If she went for Saffron, Hank would try to backstab her, and that was obvious enough that she could play off Saffron seeing it coming... She prepared to lunge, when her cutie mark suddenly warned her of danger below.
Time slowed, and Valey moved her hooves carefully, paused mid-stride and certain she was about to step on a trap. She adjusted accordingly, deliberately keeping herself from looking while stepping over the hazard. Time resumed, and she continued walking, not looking at Hank in hopes she could distract him with an opportunity and make him trigger it instead.
Crack! The backfire noise from early into Saffron's last battle sounded, and Valey realized with a start it had been her, not the smaller, unstable unicorn. Her gaze immediately flew to Hank to see what had happened, spotted the stallion jumping back from a cloud of smoke... and her cutie mark immediately told her that Saffron was exploiting her distraction to charge.
"Nice try!" Valey whirled, catching Saffron mid-jump with a leg hooked around her barrel. Saffron's eyes widened in surprise as her kick went wide, and Valey swung her, slamming them both to the ground.
"How did you-?" Saffron didn't have time to finish. Valey knew that Hank was charging immediately, and rolled over with Saffron still grappled, forcing the mare to use her horn to defend herself or else be crushed between them. Valey forced a hoof at the back of Saffron's head, angling her horn like a spike toward Hank as he jumped...
Saffron teleported, leaving Valey prone and about to be crushed by a leaping stallion.
Valey didn't have time for a quip, shadow sneaking and falling away into Hank's impending shadow. He hit the ground with a thud, and was immediately blasted from the side by a bolt from Saffron's horn, falling away with a grunt. Unfortunately, that moved his shadow away from Valey, and she was immediately thrust out onto the ground, straight in the path of a follow-up horn bolt.
"Hey!" She pumped her wings, doing her best to dodge, but the bolt was too far along. It struck her squarely in the side, causing her muscles to briefly spasm and numb with a burning, tingling sensation and a faint whiff of smoke.
Hank capitalized again, and this time, Saffron waited and summoned her shield instead of coming to anyone's defense. Forcing her legs to move through the tingling, Valey twisted on the ground, slamming two hooves up to block Hank's strike with a punch of her own and immediately kick him in the chin. She felt her legs complain from the sheer weight difference, but Hank was injured already and had just been hit by the same bolt as her. He fell back enough for her to roll to her hooves and rub her smarting side, glaring between her opponents.
Saffron wasn't finished. Shield surrounding her like a bubble, she charged again, this time targeting Valey. Valey set her teeth, certain Saffron recognized her as the more dangerous of her opponents... but her cutie mark didn't read as much danger as it usually did.
She backed up and set her stance to intercept a shield charge anyway, noting Hank getting to his hooves and preparing to attack again as they clashed... until Saffron suddenly teleported again, leaving Valey facing nothing. Hank immediately dodged, and Valey sat back and watched, knowing she was safe as Saffron appeared straddling the stallion's singed back, wrangling his neck and trying to force him into a run. Her eyes blazed with fighting spirit as she turned to Valey. "Feels like I'm doing all the work here myself, sugarcube!"
"Alright." Valey purposefully trotted forward as Hank rolled over, attempting to crush his opponent and being met with another teleport. "How's... this!?"
Saffron appeared in a spark behind her, and Valey was already whirling, using her danger sense to tell where the unicorn would appear. She caught Saffron's shoulder, locking both of them in an embrace and twisting out of the way of two kicks, sliding smoothly to her adversary's other side. Saffron teleported instants before Valey could turn her block into a punch to the head, but made the mistake of instantly firing another horn bolt, letting her know exactly where she would appear.
"Yaaah!" Valey kicked around the bolt in a zigzag, outrunning Hank as he attempted to pursue and striking the startled Saffron squarely on the chin. Catching her off-balance, she flipped onto her back, sliding, and hit Saffron's chest upwards with a powerful rear kick. Valey pumped her wings against the ground, throwing herself into the air to follow, but Saffron's glowing horn pulsed, and she teleported again.
Valey growled, getting upright and rounding on Hank as he caught up, sidestepping a blow and not getting any danger sense as to where Saffron was this time. She bodily slammed his shoulder, and he almost caught himself into a pivot but his leg gave out at the last second and sent him sprawling.
Unicorns... Unless Saffron was going to get tired, she had to stop the teleporting. She was far too good at mixing magic and martial arts for Valey's tastes. Most unicorns specialized in one of the other...
Saffron appeared again above Hank, dropping her shielded body on him like a glass ball. The shield shattered from the impact, but Hank's attempt to save his balance went down. Saffron kept her hoofing on him as he fell with dancer-like grace, angling her horn down and blasting him with energy before flipping away as Valey gave chase.
Valey jumped over Hank, stomping him mid-leap to ensure he stayed down, and skidded to a stop, Saffron landing facing her. "Whew there," Saffron panted. "You reckon it's just us two now?"
She chanced a glance over her shoulder, and was thankful when there was no danger of a counterattack. Hank groaned, swore, struggled... and fell flat again when he saw the two mares' relatively good conditions, giving up.
"Looks like it." Valey brushed her singed fur where the magic had struck her. "You're good. Let's go!"
This time, Valey had no worries about being backstabbed and happily took the initiative. Saffron was good with her hooves, but still delicate and clearly didn't like opponents who got in her face. A tinge of danger sense warned her of another magic smoke mine Saffron had placed, and she juked around it, but her friend saw the dodge coming.
Valey hit the ground, dodging barely as a bolt of energy soared overhead, but the move cost her momentum, and she wasn't able to escape as Saffron's telekinetic aura hardened around her. Swiftly recalling her experience fighting unicorns, she pushed against the cloud, trying to escape by moving in the same direction it was pulling her... but Saffron had experience fighting pegasi, and pushed her hard into the ground, leaving her no way to run.
All Valey could do as Saffron came in for a kick was block with her hooves, her legs stinging badly as a result. Putting the telekinesis to her advantage as best as she could, she scraped at the ground with her wings, using the increased traction to shove herself forward into Saffron's legs. She lashed out at the unicorn's underside, but Saffron's unusual form and long legs put her barrel just out of reach. She retaliated with a swift punch into Valey's belly, and Valey was suddenly relieved she hadn't eaten immediately before the right.
"I'm not going down that easily!" Valey snarled, flailing chaotically and tangling herself in Saffron's legs. Whatever next attempt at a kick Saffron was attempting ended in her toppling, and Valey was already grabbing on and preparing to pound her before she vanished in another flash.
But the teleportation provided a reprieve from the telekinesis, and Valey lunged into the air, the backs of her wings stinging from being used as impromptu oars. "Bananaaas!" she yelled, swerving straight towards the new source of danger. Saffron was charging a horn bolt, which meant she wasn't about to teleport...
Ignoring safety, Valey plowed straight through the bolt and into Saffron, taking the brunt of the energy straight to her chest and barely holding together through it. But she did hold on, knocking her hat away with a wing and swiping the banana peel stowed carefully beneath. She thrust the peel forward as they collided, wrapping it like a sleeve over Saffron's horn, and plowed into her with a tackle that sent both of them tumbling.
"What the...!?" Saffron yelped, scraping at the peel on her head.
"Special delivery!" Valey cackled, ending the tumble on top. Saffron was held in a thorough hooflock, and her horn pulsed weakly, prevented from igniting by the peel clinging to it. "I win. Again."