Star Knight and the Nine-Tailed Fox

by Rakoon1

Rothbart's Ultimate Spell

At the Crystal Empire, in Shining and Cadance’s bedroom, the first was preparing his armor, arranging his helmet as he looked in the mirror. Cadance entered in the room and asked:

"Are you really sure you want to do this, Shining? We both know how dangerous Rothbart and Medusa are? She's more powerful than her sisters and he managed to defeat Chief Strongpaw."

"This is a great opportunity to capture them" Shining replied, approaching his wife. "They still haven't realized that we found them and we need to use the element of surprise. Besides, Blue and some guards of his are coming to help us."

"I just hope you two are careful" Cadance said. "Blue may be immortal for being a General, but you are not. Please promise me you’ll come home well."

"Don't worry" Shining said, kissing Cadance. "Everything will be fine."

And, having said that, he left. Along with two of his pegasi guards, Shining Pegasus went to the Crystal Empire train station to wait for the arrival of his best friend and brother-in-law. It didn’t last for the light express to arrive and Blue got out, along with two unicorn guards.

"I'm glad you're here, my friend" Shining said, giving a hug to Blue. "I need your help."

"Sorry for the delay," said Blue. "I could have come with Golden Paladin, but he's with Star, training him."

"Don't worry" Shining said. "Just with your help, I feel more confident."

"And where are they now?" asked Blue.

"They are near the Oasis of the Heart" Shining replied. "Fortunately, its magic prevents any villain from approaching."

"Come on then" Blue said. "I don't want to miss the opportunity to capture some of the villains who are after my son."

And they went in the direction of the Crystal Mountains with their guards.

At the Great Light Canyon, Star continued with his training to be able to combine the Spiraling Sphere with his wind energy. However, his attempts continued to result in failure. His clones disappeared after one more failed attempt and Star fell on his knees, gasping and sweating terribly.

He couldn't believe how hard it was to do that task. If he concentrated only on the Spiraling Sphere, he couldn't change the nature of his magic, but if he concentrated on changing the nature of his magic, he couldn't perform the shape changing. With this paradox haunting his head, Star lay belly up, starting to observe the clouds passing quietly. The question about whether he would be able to combine the Spiraling Sphere and the change of nature began to torment him, but then he began to remember Moonlight. Remembering her smile, her voice... and how she was now under the influence of the Lord of Chaos.

That boosted him up and then he summoned more clones to begin the training. While the pairs of clones scrambled to try to run that task that seemed impossible, one of the clones began to be involved by the demon fox cloak. The original, repairing that and the changes his body was suffering, exclaimed to the other clones:

“Be careful, guys! We have another one turning into Nine-Tails!”

The clones moved away from the one that was suffering the transformation, while he roared with three tails. The tails of energy began to wave while reaching the clones that disappeared. The original fell on the floor and exclaimed to Golden Paladin:

“Golden, help us!”

Golden Paladin activated his chains that erupted from the ground and surrounded the clone. With this, the red energy dissipated and the clone vanished, along with the chains. Star sighed with relief, while cleaning the sweat off his face. Golden approached and asked:

“Are you okay?”

But Star decided to not answer his question, but Golden, noticing his silence was the answer, said:

“It’s had been one full day since we started to add the wind energy to the Spiraling Sphere and you are using two hundred clones now. You just achieve what regular unicorns would take days to do. But I guess that’s not enough for you.”

“This training is impossible” Star answered. “I can’t concentrate on my magic control and I feel that two hundred clones is my limit. I think I will not be able to master it. It takes all my concentration to form the normal Spiraling Sphere in the first place. And adding the nature changing to that… It’s just too much.”

“You’re unusually negative” Golden Paladin observed. “That’s not like you. You don’t sound like the Prince Star Knight I know, the one who never gives up from learning a new kind of spell.”

There was a pause and then the alicorn prince said:

“I don’t know. I have no reason to think it’s gonna work this time.”

“You have to do it anyway” Golden Paladin said.

“That’s easy for you to say” Star answered. “Why don’t you tell me this? Could you look to the left and the right at the same time?”

Understanding the problem Star was having, Golden Paladin had an idea and said:

“Oh I see. If you are asking me, I think I can do it.”

That made Star look to Golden, with a surprised air. The General of Piece stood up e accessed to his magic, creating then a clone, and the original said, while looking to the left:

“I’m looking to the left…”

“…while looking to the right” the clone said, looking to the other side.

“This is what you meant, right?” the original asked.

Seeing that, a smile started to appear on Star’s face. That was the answer. How could he had forgotten the answer? After, he already used it once. He got up and said:

“I get it!”

And he created more clones.

At the Crystal Mountains, Shining, Blue and their guards searched until they found what they were looking for. Hiding in the rocks located above, they spied Rothbart and Medusa.

"I still can't believe I let you talk me into coming to the North Pole" Medusa said, while walking behind Rothbart. "Do you know how cold it is? I don't know if you noticed, but I'm part reptile."

"Don't complain" Rothbart said. "You were able to turn some villagers into stone and I could gain more power."

"Just for you to know, that your new magic is disgusting" Medusa said.

"Yes, but I didn't ask your for an opinion" Rothbart replied.

Watching the two villains, Blue asked Shining:

"Do you have any idea?"

"Maybe…" he replied. "I was thinking of using the element of surprise. What do you say?"

"Let's do this" Blue said.

At the Grand Light Canyon, Star returned to try, but this time the attempt was successful. While Star and one of its clones were doing the Spiraling Sphere, a third clone was getting the wind energy. The result was a sphere of wind spinning at high speed in a concentrated way. It could hear a buzzling sound.

“All right!” one of the clones exclaimed.

“I think I’m finally getting the hang of this thing” the other clone said.

“I see…” Golden Paladin said. “So that was your idea. It took of you to do the original Spiraling Sphere: one to control the magic emission and the other to control the changing form. Well done.”

“Right” the clone who was addind the wind nature said. “I realize I would need a second pair of hooves to do add the wind nature. If I can’t look at the left and right at the same time all by myself…”

“…Then I just needed to create more clones and make them do it for me” the other clone continued. “This way I can divide all the responsibility.”

“Then my clone gave you hint, didn’t it?” Golden said, knowing that only Star would have the energy and the skill to do something like that. “That’s what I expected from the future ruler of the Light Kingdom.”

“Thank you, Golden” the original Star thanked, ceasing the Spiraling Sphere and undoing the clones.

"Golden…" a voice called.

He turned and saw Mirror Coat.

"What?" he asked to the General of Knowledge.

"Rothbart and Medusa were seen in the Crystal Mountains."

"What?" Golden asked. "Are you sure?"

"Prince Shining Armor sent a message to Princess Twilight to inform her about it” Mirror Coat said. "Prince Blue Sword went to there immediately with some guards to help."

"My dad?" Star asked.

Mirror Coat waved.

"But what are Rothbart and Medusa doing near the Crystal Empire?" Star asked. "As far as I know, there's no Jinchuriki there."

"It's true, though I prefer not to know the reason" Golden Paladin said.

"I think we'd better give them support" Mirror Coat said. "I don't think they have enough power to defeat them alone."

Golden thought for a bit and then turned to Prince Star Knight and told him:

"Young Prince, what do you say to intensify your training even more?"

Realizing Golden Paladin’s intention to ask that, Star smiled and said:

"Yes!"

"Wait, you're not thinking about..." Mirror Coat began.

"Give us just a couple of hours" Golden Paladin replied. "After that, we’ll move immediately to there."

Although he thought it was a bad idea, Mirror Coat consented with his head and said:

"As you wish."

Rothbart and Medusa continued walking when suddenly the gorgon’s snakes turned back and hissed menacingly. That made her turn around and take a deep breath.

"What?" Rothbart asked.

"Looks like we've got company" she replied.

And then a magical beam was casted against them and the two dodge, but then, out of nowhere, Shining’s guards appeared, ready to punch them. But the villains reacted immediately, with Medusa finding her opponent’s eyes and turning him into stone and Rothbart launching a little of his explosive clay that hit the guard and threw him back with the explosion.

"Crystal Ponies" Rothbart said, seeing the hurt guard he had attacked. "That means..."

"We have a Prince among us" Medusa concluded.

"Medusa, behind you!" Rothbart exclaimed.

She turned and saw Shining appearing, shooting magic beams against her. They were so fast, that Medusa didn't know if she would be able to dodge. Darkness appeared and protected Medusa from Shining. It had been Rothbart, who had concentrated his magic to create a barrier of dense darkness to protect his partner.

"Thank you, Rothbart" Medusa thanked. "Now it's my turn."

Leaving the barrier, Medusa launched her snakes that were in the direction of Shining who dodged them. Approaching the wounded guard, Shining asked, while creating a barrier around them:

"Are you okay?"

"Yes, my Prince, don't worry about me" the guard replied.

Medusa approached, with her snake hair raising her, and she said, while beating with her hair on Shining’s barrier:

"That is not polite, Prince Shining Armor. How dare you to attack a lady in the back like that?"

"I would attack in a different way... if you were a lady" he replied.

And he undid his barrier, doing it in order to release energy that made Medusa tip. Shining took advantage of this to prepare a new shoot, but Rothbart appeared in front of him with one of his hooves, the one that wasn't really his, turned into a talon, saying:

"I don't think so."

But when Rothbart was preparing to give him a blow, the wounded guard gave him a hard shove that threw him to the ground.

"This was for having me blown up!" the guard exclaimed.

Taking advantage of that moment, Shining shot at Medusa, reaching her eyes, what made her take the hooves to them, saying, as she fell on the floor:

"My eyes!"

"Now try turning ponies into stone with your eyes under the effect of a blinding spell, Medusa!" Shining exclaimed. "Now, we only have to deal with Rothbart."

Blue and the two guards were watching everything, hiding from a safe distance. As Shining was a prince of the Crystal Empire, his presence could be somewhat expected by those two villains. But they didn't know that Blue and his guards were also there, to analyze and to wait for the right moment to attack.

"Smart enough" Rothbart said to Shining, getting up. "First, you got rid of the immediate danger: Medusa’s eyes. But the truth is that she only becomes more dangerous when someone hits her weapon of choice."

Shining and the guard turned to Medusa that was erected by her snakes and she said, with an air quite mad:

"You're going to pay for this!"

And she released her free snakes against Shining and his guard, but the unicorn prince created his barrier that protected them. But Medusa’s attacks were so filled with rage that were stronger than before and it didn’t last for cracks to appear on his barrier.

At that moment, Shining felt a tremor in the ground and looked for Rothbart and noticed that the talon he had used to try to beat him was gone. The instinct made him say:

"Jump!"

And Shining ceased his barrier and he and the guard jumped, in time to avoid Rothbart’s lost talon that got out of the ground, ready to attack. Having failed in its surprise attack, it fell and it was revealed that it had gray threads coming out from it connected to a tangle of threads that looked like a beating heart. More threads appeared from it and connected the heart and the talon to the place where Rothbart’s talon was and, after connecting, the tangle brought back the talon, while Rothbart said:

"You, royals, don't stop to amaze. But I also have some hidden tricks."

The tangle entered into Rothbart, while the talon connected itself to Rothbart.

But Shining didn't have time to think because Medusa tried to attack him and his guard.

"You can try to run as many times as you want, Shining Armor!" she exclaimed. "I can still smell you! You and your puppy!"

In one of her attacks, she almost hit Rothbart, but he created a dense darkness, creating a wall that protected him.

"Be careful where you attack with those things, Medusa!" he exclaimed.

Meanwhile, in the Great Light Canyon, there was a huge explosion, which forced Golden Paladin and Mirror Coat to jump up the canyon. Watching a huge crater at the base, the General of Knowledge said, impressed:

"Amazing…"

Golden smiled, impressed with the enormous power that Star had generated.

The young prince was at the center of the crater and, when the dust settled, Golden went down where he approached Star.

“Did you see that, Golden?” Star asked. “I am so close. I bet no villain will stand against me.”

“Probably, but you’ll have to be careful if the Lord of Chaos sends a villain capable of using the fire nature” Golden said.

That made Star become a little confused.

“I think you didn’t learn this because the academy doesn’t teach its students to use their magic offensively, but there are positive and negative relationships between the six basic natures.”

“What do you mean?” Star asked.

“The six natures: fire, water, earth, darkness, light and wind, all have a different way of relating to each other” explained Golden Paladin. “Perharps a diagram will help you to understand.”

He summoned a piece of parchment and a quill with ink and started to draw representative symbols of the elements in circle with the order fire, wind, light, darkness, earth and water, while saying:

“The six main natures can be depicted in a circle like so in paper. Now, if we move clockwise on the circle, the one before has more strength relatively the next one. For exemple, fire is a nature that is superior to wind, however is inferior to water nature. Each nature is superior to one, but also inferior to another in the circle. In this way, no nature can get stronger than the others, in other words, they are in balance.”

“I see, fire can be extinct by water, but why is fire stronger than wind?”

“Well, try to picture on your mind” Golden Paladin said. “With fire, when the wind hits it, it only makes it burn harder, but, on the other hoof, the fire goes out with water. So, if you hit a villain’s fire magic with your wind magic of equal strength, you’ll only create a stronger fire magic against yourself. But, even if wind is inferior to fire, it is superior to light, what means you can use your magic to villains who use light magic.”

“Wait, but I thought the Lord of Chaos’ villains didn’t use light magic” Star said.

“Light is part of natural magic that can be used by every being” Golden explained. “Even if light nature is more common between the Lord of Order’s followers, that doesn’t mean villains can’t use it. Take Ulysses and Princess Luna as examples. Ulysses can generate lightning because he has an affinity for light and the Lord of Chaos used his magic to enhance that. Princess Luna, in her turn, can control the moon and the night, what it is possible thanks to her affinity for darkness nature.”

“I see…”Star said. “That means my wind spells are stronger against that jerk…”

“But don’t forget that advantage is not everything” Golden said. “Our strength can become our weakness.”

Star nodded and then Mirror Coat appeared and said:

“It seems your training is coming along very well, prince Star Knight. Now, are we ready to go?”

“Yes” Star said.

“Wait a minute” Golden said to Star. “We still need a little more time, I’m afraid. There is one more thing I want to try with you, young prince.”

Listening that, Star became quite curious about what Golden wanted to try.

Medusa continued with her blind and violent attacks. It seemed that nothing would stop her from hitting Shining and his guard. It was then that magical shots hit her and shot her back, causing her to fall back to the ground. Blue’s guards appeared, using their magic to create bonds of light to hold Medusa and contain her. Seeing them, Rothbart said:

"Light ponies. Here? That means...”

But before he could finish, he felt an immense pain on his back and then his heart being pierced. It had been Blue, who went through Rothbart’s body with his horns turned into a light sword.

"How...?" Rothbart asked. "I didn't even feel your presence..."

“Sorry about that” Blue answered.

“My magic…” Rothbart said. “I can’t use it… I should had defended that… How could you…”

“I saw everything” Blue revealed. “While Shining and his guards were attacking you, I and my guards were waiting for the right moment to attack. As the General of Balance, I can’t see the nature of every kind of magic and I could see through your magic, Rothbart. The magic you used in your defenses is not dark, but natural. Your nature is darkness, isn’t it?”

“You were able… to see through my magic?” Rothbart said, trying to tolerate the pain.

“If my understanding about natural magic is correct, darkness is inferior to light” Blue said. “It’s not your lucky day, it seems.”

“Impressive…” the crystal guard said.

“Blue sure learned some tricks when he became a General” Shining said, smiling. “But is just good for us. Furthermore, we knew Rothbart was the hardest to defeat.”

The light ponies, however, weren't being able to hold Medusa still. She squirmed, struggling to get free.

"Prince Blue Sword!" one of them called.

Understanding the call, Blue realized that they couldn't contain Medusa for much longer. So, knowing that Rothbart’s heart was too damaged to be cured by his dark magic, Blue take his light sword out, undoing it. Rothbart fell to the ground.

"That was a low blow, Blue Sword!" Medusa exclaimed, still blind and smelling Rothbart’s blood. "You went straight to his heart? I thought you played clean."

"Not when you're the opponent" Blue. said "Now, get ready, Medusa. You're about to be placed in a cell in Tartarus."

Blue prepared to summon the cellblaster when Rothbart appeared suddenly in front of him and gave him a kick so strong that shot him against a rock wall. Medusa smiled and said:

"Well, it looks like you didn't expect that, did you?"

The General of Balance stood up, wondering what had happened. After all, he knew he had reached Rothbart’s heart.

"Let's get this over with, Rothbart" Medusa said to his partner.

"That's the plan" Rothbart said, taking off his cloak.

He took it and revealed to everypony how his body was. His body was covered with stiches and, on his back, there were five masks, each with one of the following colors: blue, red, yellow, grey and green. The blue mask was damaged, and it was there where Blue hit.

To the horror of everypony, the back began to open up, as the masks were trying to get out of Rothbart’s body. Meanwhile, Medusa was able to free herself from the bonds of the two guards. It was then that the stiches just opened and the masks came out, each with bodies made of tangles of threads.

“What are those things?” one of the light guards.

“And why isn’t he dead?” the other said. “We saw captain stabbing him.”

“Knowing this guys and how faithful they are to their master, they can’t no longer surprise me” Shining Armor said.

Medusa put herself on the edge of Rothbart and asked:

"What about starting taking this fight more seriously?"

"For me, it’s all right" Rothbart said, while his back sewed itself and their masks won different bodies of the tangles of threads.

It was then that the blue mask, that was broken, roared, while Shining and the guards adopted a defensive position. But the creature simply fell to the ground and melted, like it was ice cream. Everyone asked to themselves what had happened for the creature to collapse in that way. Blue realized that was the mask that he had reached earlier.

"Medusa, without your eyes, you're too vulnerable, even if you still have your senses of smell and hearing" Rothbart said to his partner. "Why don't you relax? I got this."

"No way" she said. "I don't like when somepony hit me in eyes. In addition, we have already planned how to coordinate our movements."

"Do what you want" Rothbart said.

And, with this, Medusa used her hair to rise up and began to attack Blue, who tried to dodge as much as he could. Then, suddenly, the grey mask appeared and its mouth opened, releasing a strong gust of wind capable of cutting the rock itself. Shining and the guards also felt such power. The prince of the Crystal Empire created a barrier to protect them.

"Blue!" Shining asked, worried about your friend.

The wind stopped and Shining and the guards exchanged glances with Rothbart, while waiting for his next move. It was then that the yellow mask made electricity go through its body.

"Since you are so fond of light, take this!" Rothbart exclaimed to Shining.

"Both of you, help me!" Shining exclaimed to the two light guards.

"Yes, sir!" they said.

The mask fired a powerful electrical current so fast that Shining and the two guards did not have time to activate its magic. But then Blue appeared in front of them and, using his power as General of Balance, tried to negate that attack. He was hurt and weakened because of the wind attack of Rothbart’s grey mask, but he gave his best to defend that attack.

"Blue!" Shining called.

It was then that the electricity stopped. Blue was able to deny it completely, although its front hooves have gotten hurt because of it. He puffed, tired by the effort exerted.

"Are you okay, Blue?" Shining asked.

"Yes…" he replied.

But he knew something strange was going on. From what he had learned with the other Guardians about elemental manipulation, be able to use so many natures was unlikely. The only one he knew that could do that was Purple Smoke, but still Rothbart had already used darkness, wind and light.

Medusa then appeared with her body only slightly hurt, maybe due to the fact of having a hard skin.

"It's amazing how you handled that combination, Prince Blue Sword" she said.

"You were able see beyond my tricks so far, but let's see how you deal with this" Rothbart said, making a gesture.

The red mask began to move and it opened its mouth, releasing a torrent of fire against its opponents. Blue and Shining dodge, along with the guards, but one of the unicorn guards was not able to dodge in time and was burned alive.

"Damn..." Shining said, not believing that one of the guards had been caught.

Medusa directed her attacks again to Blue, who did his best to dodge them. He waged the attacks and stopped on the edge of Shining and their guards, while Medusa kept on the edge of Rothbart.

"This is becoming tiring" Blue asked.

"And they have defeated two of our guards" Shining said. "If we don't do something, they will end up defeating us. And my blinding spell won't last much longer."

"What I don't understand is how Rothbart still stands" the light guard said. "Captain Blue Sword caught him with his light sword. How is him still alive?"

“You’re right” Blue Sword said. “I went straight to the heart. He should be dead already. But, instead, I took down one of the monsters that sprang from his body. I suspect it died in his place.”

“And the way he attacked me and my guard earlier” Shining said, remembering the way how Rothbart’s talon came out from the ground. “He attached his talon with something that looked like a beating heart. And was moving all of its own.”

It was then that an idea came to him.

“Of course, that’s his new trick” Shining said.

“What do you mean, captain?” the crystal guard asked.

“I mean that those dark figures with him, not to mention Rothbart himself, all have separated hearts. And yet, all five are his.”

“But that’s impossible!” the light guard exclaimed.

“You’re right, Shining” Blue said. “And I already destroyed one of them. Now we need to destroy the other hearts.”

“Very observer, once again” Rothbart said. “Each of this hearts belongs to ponies that I kill. This is my ultimate spell, a way to extend my power, to be more than just a pony who turns into a monster. Each of this hearts can be replaced… with your hearts for exemple.”

That made the guards to swallow dry.

“Now I understand” Blue said. “Taking the hearts, you are able to incorporate their natures.”

“Enough talk” Medusa said. “Let’s battle!”

And she advanced towards Blue. That made him to move to dodge her attacks, while doing so, Rothbart advanced towards one of the guards and punched him against a stone. While dodging Medusa, Blue saw the figure with the red mask approaching and firing balls of fire that he was forced to negate, but short before having dodge the red mask, the yellow one appeared and fired a beam of light capable of penetrating the rock. Blue, fortunately, was fast enough to escape. But the grey mask appeared and fired shoots of wind, but Shining appeared and defended Blue with his shield.

Meanwhile, the crystal guard, although injured, managed to tackle Rothbart, but then the green mask appeared, it open his mouth and shoot pieces of roch, fortunately, the light guard used his magic to protect the crystal one and then fired a beam that forced the green mask to retreat. The yellow mask approached and started to fire lightning. Fortunately, the crystal guard had enough energy to take his companion and fly out of the yellow mask aim.

But then Rothbart extended his different talon to catch the crystal guard throat and take him, what made the light pony fell on the ground. The green mask then approached and took the light guard against the ground, preparing to shoot him with his shards of stone. Shining attempted to approach to help them, but the yellow mask appeared on his way. Thinking fast and using his speed, Shining dodge its attacks and made it hit the green mask. With it destroyed, the body collapsed just like the blue mask.

“No!” Rothbart said, while bringing the crystal guard to him. “You’ll pay for that with your heart!”

And turning the other hoof into a talon, Rothbart trew it against the other guard, just like he did with the other, and took him by his throat, bringing him back.

“Just die!”

While he tried to strangle the guards, Shining was being pursued by the yellow mask, while Blue was dealing with Medusa, the red mask and the grey mask.

“Shining!” Blue called. “Change with me!”

He nodded. And then the two made their way to change their adversaries, at least the masks, as Medusa was left confused. With this, Blue started to access to his magic and then approached Rothbart and bumped with his hooves on the ground. Water started to appeared and cover the groud, including Rothbart’s hind hooves. When the yellow masked appeared, Blue teleported away when it launched lightning. That caused a great shock to Rothbart and then Blue appeared in midair and fired a magic beam against the villain, what forced him to drop the guards to use the water magic of the heart he took from the blue mask.

Teleporting away from the masks that were pursuing him, Shining appeared closed to the crystal guard and took him, while Blue took the light guard. After they find a safe place, they put the guards down, who started to cough while catching their breath.

“Are you alright?” Shining asked them.

The guards nodded with their heads.

Rothbart turned to his enemies, while Medusa returned to his side.

“I can’t believe they confused me” she said. “If my eyes weren’t… But they won’t fool me again.”

And she opened her eyes.

“Finally you’re one hundred percent” Rothbart said.

“My blinding spell…” Shining said. “It seems it faded away…”

“Be free to turn them into stone” Rothbart said, while his masks placed themselves behind their master. “Just make sure you left at least two hearts for me.”

“Then I choose the one who blinded me” Medusa said.

And she released her snakes against Shining. He then advanced, and started diverting Medusa’s snakes.

"Shining..." Blue said.

"I’ll try to take Medusa as far as possible" said Shining. "Try to vanquish Rothbart."

And, having said that, he started walking away and Medusa, unable to resist revenge, began to follow him, using her snakes, saying:

"No way, Shining Armor!"

"Always so impulsive" Rothbart said, seeing Medusa moving away.

It was then he noticed Blue approaching, running, and the two started a hoof-to-hoof fight. But Rothbart used his magic to be able to defend himself against Blue’s attacks, who used negating magic to defend himself. However, when Blue realized, he was surrounded by the three masks that still remained.

"Do you really think your friend can handle the Medusa all by himself?" Rothbart asked. "It only takes one look at her to turn into stone. Of course facing me wouldn't be much better. As while I have a beating heart, I can't die. Furthermore, you haven't seen all of my tricks yet."

And, before Blue and two guards’ eyes, the red and grey masks merged their bodies.

"Oh no…" Blue said, seeing that.

"If counting with the original, my body can sustain six hearts" Rothbart said. "Thanks to you, I need replacements. That's why I'm going to take yours. First, I'm taking yours, Blue Sword, to replace the one you took from me."

He made a gesture and Blue heard a mask opening and he realized that was the yellow one. It sent lightning, but Blue dodged, what made the lightning go to the red and gray masks that parted slightly to let the lightning yo pass, returning to merge completely.

But after that, they opened their mouths at the time Blue had dodged and they fired against him with the gray mask giving more intensity to the fire of the red one. Reacting on instinct, Blue teleported to behind a great rock, although he knew that he couldn't keep doing that for much longer.

"You call that hide?" Rothbart asked, knowing where he was.

The gray mask shot a wind that pass through the rock where Blue was hidden. Watching that, Blue teleported in time to prevent the firing of multiple wind that followed. But when he appeared in another place, the red mask was quick to shoot a new fire that struck him.

"No!" the two guards exclaimed.

But the Blue that was in the fire turned into water and evaporated.

"A water clone" Rothbart said. "Very well, Blue Sword. But do you have the courage to show yourself and face me like a stallion?"

Suddenly, a bolt of lightning hit the ground where the yellow mask was, shooting down the ground underneath and Blue appeared quickly, starting to fight hoof-to-hoof with red and blue ones. They turned to him and opened their mouth. With them preparing to attack him, he accessed his water nature, creating a water barrier against the intense fire attack. Despite having slowed the attack, he didn’t ceased it, creating only a lot of steam, but this enabled Blue retreat to a safe distance.

But what he didn't expect was that Rothbart appeared nearby, releasing black threads that hooked up around Blue and started to penetrate into his body, directly on the heart. Rothbart launched him against the ground and then arrested him with his talons.

"No, Captain!" the light guard exclaimed.

"Enjoy the next few seconds, Prince Blue Sword" Rothbart said. "They will be the last that you will have with your heart, since it will have a new owner."