Episode 37: Our Flame Is Greater Than Yours

[Noland Hardy]

The result of the battle between Allen and Jamal was so catastrophic that both brawlers were physically unable to exit the battlefield on their own. Gorem and Vulcan were still in monster form at the time.

The rules prohibited the Silver Knights and the Royal Guard from getting involved in the battle or they would risk disqualification for the brawler that's on their side. They were supposed to leave it to the "professionals." Whoever that was didn't matter; no one was waiting that long. The next best choices had to jump into action: the two remaining combatants. 

Noland and Damian simultaneously leaped to the battlefield to help their respective battling partners. Kyuki was amused by this, especially in Damian's case since the Spartan leader actually cared about what happened to Jamal and Vulcan. He decided to change the rules for this final battle. Noland and Damian were going to share life gauges with their respective Subterra brawlers; they were either going to win or lose as a duo when it came to the gauge. By extension, this meant that if Noland lost, then Allen was going to be penalized along with him; the same thing was applied to Damian and Jamal's case. 

Jamal finally disclosed a hidden piece of information to Damian. If Damian is able to defeat Noland and it impresses Kyuki, he'll disregard all of the penalties for the Spartans, assuming that he was honest. Damian asked Jamal why this wasn't revealed much earlier. Jamal wanted to tell Damian when he looked like the person he called a friend, and that by assisting him like this, he could see that Damian cared and was still there. Damian scoffed at this emotional talk and told him that he'll handle things from here.

Allen made sure Noland knew that there was a lot riding on this battle. Noland could tell that this battle was about to get nasty, but he was ready to face it for what it was head on, because everyone else - especially Seiki - came here and fought from the heart. Noland wasn't sure what would happen when this was all over, but he knew what he could do now with his power. He knew what he had to do, so he was going to do it. 

The announcer called for the final battle between Noland and Damian. There began the Master Blaze's greatest challenge yet...

(Boss Theme)

[Damian Knight]

The final battle...Damian versus Noland...Helios versus Drago...the Destroyer versus the Master Blaze. This time, it didn't look like this would be interrupted or a tie. The fire in their eyes burned fiercely enough to show that there was going to be a clear winner this time. If there was a tie, then they'd drag themselves through tooth and nail to get a win.

That wasn't just because of their respective penalties or rewards for winning. Their rivalry was fierce. It can even be considered deadly, both in their clashing ideals and their power. Damian had this in mind when he took his place on the battlefield. Despite gaining a newfound respect for Noland, Damian still intended on burning Noland to a crisp.

In fact, neither of the leaders have said anything to each other until the ref called for the battle to begin. Even after that, they were still in a motionless standoff. Damian made the first motion.

"Well, Noland, this is a bittersweet moment," Damian complained with a smile on his face. "I haven't had such an entertaining rival in a long time, and now it's less fun pushing your buttons because people actually like me more than you now, aside from your annoying bodyguards. You've been a good sport."

Damian activated his BakuMeter. Helios moved himself into Damian's right hand so he could be thrown in.

"This is it right here, Noland. No outside help. No one butting in. It's just between you and I, Helios and Drago. You think you can still hang with me?" He tossed Helios once as he said, "Bakugan brawl!" and threw him to the battlefield. "Stand, Gamblignant Helios!"

Helios bounced on the ground a few times, unintentionally - really intentionally - creating a blaze of fire from where he touched. When he stood, he was seen covered with his wings as usual. He let out a battle roar loud and powerful enough to shake the Earth.

"Come, Drago! Let's settle this!" Helios challenged.

[Noland Hardy]

Even someone as irritating as Damian knew when to buckle down and take things seriously. It didn't sound like it, but compared to the previous times Damian has opened his mouth, this was a significant change. He was definitely here to brawl, and that was a very scary thing for people to know about. Why is that? Noland knows something about Damian now that no one else is going to pick up on as fast as he will.

"Helios' power is almost just as dense as Dante in Valiant Strive, and he's only in his base..." Noland discovered. "Yeah...this is about to be a fight..."

"So you noticed it too?" Drago suddenly asked Noland. Even on Noland's shoulder, Drago could tell that Noland can pick up some things that most humans wouldn't notice until it's too late.

"Yeah," Noland calmly acknowledged. "So now it's an even fight."

Noland took Drago in his right hand so they could get this brawl underway. "I dunno if I really feel the same way about you when it comes to our rivalry, Damian. Allen's pretty humble, Tank is way less of an asshole, and Alana doesn't usually let her Hydranoid play around with his food to the point where he actually gets outclassed by someone he could have destroyed," Noland retorted. "I will say this though. You've done one thing they would never live up to. You motivated me to want to take you down more than anyone else has ever done in the arena. There are plenty of more important people than the general audience who have invested a great deal of time in making sure you get officially taken down. As someone who can take your best without dying, I can safely say I'm up for the job, just as I always have been."

Noland activated his BrawlX to put himself into play. He reeled back and was ready to throw. "Be at your best. This guy's no joke. You know that," Noland warned Drago.

"Right back at ya," Drago sent back.

"Alright. You know what to do, so just do it. Here we go. Bakugan brawl! Stand, Sentinel Dragonoid!" Noland threw Drago with precision to aim straight for Helios. When Drago emerged, he carried the momentum from Noland's launch and attempted to tackle Helios.

[Damian Knight]

Helios followed Drago's lead by colliding into the latter with a shoulder tackle of his own. The contact created a forceful wave powerful enough to act as a nice breeze for the audience, assuming they could tolerate that much force to where it was natural for them. The two rebounded back to their respective sides afterwards.

"Awww. That's so thoughtful of you. You actually managed to describe me in fewer words than normal. I'm impressed," Damian sneeringly acknowledged. He got prepared to begin the process of playing this and that over and over again in hopes of beating the other brawler down, just like always. "At least you seem to know the reason why you're here in front of me as opposed to the others who have a problem with me. You're actually brave enough to show your true skin and fight like a brawler, unlike certain people here who are totally not white."

"And the fact that the others are so easy to execute besides you for some reason," Helios added on.

"That too. But that's what makes it fun, right?" Damian placed an ability on his BakuMeter. "Ability activate! Savage Air!"

"Here I come, Drago!" Helios chose to use this evasive ability as a lead on purpose to pressure his foe from the start. This granted him a significant boost of speed that was great enough to amplify the flames already emanating from his body. As he dashed towards Drago, the flames on his body became very intense, enough to melt most abilities on contact without requiring Helios to do anything about them.

[Noland Hardy]

"That's fast!" Drago had little time to say that before Helios rushed in to close quarters against him. He could keep up with Helios' blows as he was without using any abilities, but one would be required to get this ferocious beast out of his face. Drago blocks the initial punch without any signs of burning from the intense heat nor any bruises from the impact. Helios then tried to get the drop on him with a heel kick, but Drago responded by using his wings as a shield to keep the imprint of his face off of Helios' feet.

"I wonder why I'm surprised that you reached this level too," Drago remarked of Helios' power based on the hits he was taking. "Noland?"

"I got you. Ability activate!" Noland was right on target with this one. "Rage Fire!" A direct hit would do nicely, but a repulsive wave would be even better. Drago lit his tail on fire for the first time ever with this ability. He then slammed it on the ground to produce a wave of fire that circled around his person, repelling any target within range and giving them a burning reminder as to why Noland is the Master Blaze.

After repelling the monster, Drago sprang forward with identical intensity. He was about to teach Helios a lesson on what it means to fight in close quarters.

[Damian Knight]

"The boy taught you some new tricks, didn't he?" Helios casually asked as he was blown backwards. The thought of Drago being able to go through Helios' flames without activating an ability was sort of interesting. It was good that Damian wasn't expecting Noland to be weak or he would have been incredibly disappointed.

"Ability activate! General Quasar!" Damian was about to show Noland that he could be just as cunning in his own moves as well. Rather than go for a direct hit, Helios would do a more strategic option, considering that Drago would most likely block the blast anyway since it is one of his weaker options.

Helios would charge a fireball in his mouth in about a second. Once he completed it, he shot it straight down to the ground. The impact resulted in a rocking explosion, enough to cause a concussive force to travel upwards and stun the advancing Dragonoid. Thanks to Drago's attack adding onto the momentum that Helios carried with him, it was only fitting to deliver that blazing firepower into a monumental punch when he rebounded in the sky.

[Noland Hardy]

Drago had no choice but to put his arms up and guard; he wasn't in the position to block his sight of Helios right now with his wings when he can't get his wings there fast enough to absorb the hit. He was smacked back down into the ground, forming a crater with his body. He quickly bounced off of the ground and onto his feet again, sliding backwards as the momentum carried.

"Tsk...ability activate! Grand Destructor!" Noland went with this one to put the pressure on Damian. If this didn't provoke a reaction, then he knew which direction this fight was going to flow. Still, anything that gives Drago a boost in the form of a distraction was worth it in his eyes.

Thanks to his acquisition of the Switch Code, Drago didn't need to spend a lot of time amassing the energy necessary to use this attack as he did before. A meteor-grade fireball was quickly launched into the air from his mouth. Once it reached a certain height, it dispersed into a multitude of meteors that quickly rained down on the battlefield.

[Damian Knight]

While Helios was still looking in Drago's direction even after he shot the meteor into the sky, Damian was observing it and found it quite interesting. "That seems a lot faster and stronger than last time..." Damian noticed. "So my presence did teach you something. I'm flattered."

Being a similar scenario as the last time they've fought, Damian was going to activate the same ability he used to shield Helios from the meteors.

"Ability activate! You guessed it. Burst Mode!" The scales on Helios' body changed its color to a brighter shade of red as his body temperature shot up. The heat itself formed a barrier around Helios that activated when an opposing force comes into close proximity of it. Each individual meteor that tried to tap him to be disintegrated.

"Sorry, Drago, but you should not be expecting me to hold back my power because you're sending me weak attacks! Increase your fire. Show me that ire that's burning in your heart!" A crimson aura formed around Helios as he shot down towards the grounded Dragonoid.

[Noland Hardy]

Noland and Drago smirked when Helios basically guessed what they were planning on doing, part of it anyway. "You want it? You got it," Noland obliged. "Ability activate! Pyre Might!"

This ability did one thing that no one would ever want fire to become: sporadic and uncontrollable, only for anyone that's not Drago.

That made himself and, by extension, his meteors more lethal in nature. If Helios wanted to use fire as a weapon, then Drago would want to as well. Drago was able to light himself on fire using this power, and then he used it to shoot up in a diagonal line and meet Helios. That did little to deter the aggressiveness being shown from either side, and that was okay. The meteors were still coming down onto the field, and they could still be used.

"You shouldn't flatter yourself so much. That's a disease. This power that we have is beyond what you could cause," Drago corrected.

For the meteors that were either within range of hitting Drago and/or not being close to Helios' flame barrier, Drago handily used them as another form of attack. Taking what he learned from his fight with Apollonir, Drago replicated what his father did to his meteors and did the same with his own attack. He used his tail to hit the projectiles so he could slam them into Helios. The added velocity from Drago hitting them and their power increase would definitely be enough to overtake Helios before they're reduced to nothing.

[Damian Knight]

Noland was fighting like a master brawler just by doing that. The intense flames made it somewhat difficult to see clearly, and meteors were soaring towards Helios like bullets. Helios had to tilt his head to the side a few times to dodge a couple of attempted headshots and move his body out of the way to dodge a few body shots. Many made contact with him though, and they did some impressive damage, even with Burst Mode active.

To make it even more of a spectacle, the meteors that Helios managed to dodge ended up hitting the barrier intended to keep the audience safe from the powers of the Bakugan, and it cracked so easily. It wasn't difficult to detect fear around the stadium.

"Ability activate! Sol Breaker!" Helios' scales glowed as bright as the sun. Without warning, beams of light started leaving his body at a breakneck rate. It was obliterating everything in all directions, destroying the rest of the meteors to stop Drago from shooting him, and leaving Drago with nowhere left to hide or run. He was about to be swept away in a field of destruction.

"Choke on this!" Helios asserted his signature line.

[Noland Hardy]

There was that attack again, the one where Helios starts obliterating everything around him with the most devastating area of effect move seen so far. It blows Drago's Grand Destructor out of the water in terms of power, even with Drago's improvement over his power.

"Drago! Hold your ground!" Noland commanded him to do. He didn't want Drago to become flustered over the incoming blasts, not that he would. "Ability activate! Novia Blade!"

Drago knelt down to prevent a few of those shots from striking him. He knew that if he were to take the full force of this attack, he could probably be finished within five seconds. At least he'd be tougher than the stadium's protective barrier; it received even bigger cracks from Helios' attack than what Drago did to it. Despite that, Noland remembered this technique's crucial weakness from before: Helios has to remain still while he's shooting. It has been said plenty of times, but some just never seem to learn from other's mistakes. NEVER stand still against a Dragonoid.

"You choke on this!" Drago shouted. The tip of his horn extended across the field in a beam of light. It served as a nice defense against the blasts that were heading directly towards him as it pierced right through them. Before it made contact with Helios, it split into four different blades that were aimed at his arms and legs. Helios was then stabbed in all four regions, and his attack was ended prematurely due to the absorbing attributes of Drago's ability.

"I'm sorry, Helios, but that earlier comment you made about my power goes both ways. I never told you I'd be staying level with your weak abilities," Noland scolded.

Drago was able to pick the struggling Helios up off of the ground, still holding him with his extended horn. He swiftly slammed him on the arena grounds and deactivated the blade. What came next was when Drago suddenly showed up in Helios' face when the latter's body flailed off of the ground from the impact.

"Here!" Drago delivered a jaw-breaking punch to Helios' jaw. It sent him flying all the way to the walls. He was lucky that the barrier actually held to break his fall.

"My mistake. I should have let you chew on your own words before he did that."

[Damian Knight]

Saying that Damian was pissed that Noland was gaining a foothold on the battle was an understatement; he was absolutely livid. A loud thud was heard when Helios fell flat on the ground. The internal damage he was receiving from Drago's blades kept him from moving all that well. The punch was just overkill.

"Hmm...you know, it's a very good thing for me that you're not going to get away with doing that or I'd be more angry," Damian mentioned. He looked at Helios over his shoulder. He put his left hand up and showed Helios two fingers. Helios looked up at this and nodded, knowing what he was signalling for.

"You're going to pay for that, Drago!" Helios growled. He wrapped his wings around him as the process started. A bright, red light enveloped his body until his scales started covering more of his body like a set of armor and his wings depicted the color of the sun. Once it was complete, he rose back to his feet and let everyone gaze at the splendor of his Second Layer.

"Ability activate! Melt Stream!" The ability gave Helios supreme authority over rising lava from the ground to the surface and where it would appear. He chose to do it in his and Drago's battle spaces, preferring not to kill everyone else with the ability. The presence of the lava on the battlefield not only made it a steaming battle zone, but miniature eruptions occurred in several areas along the pool. This would easily make things more difficult for Drago, and he'd surely be put to the test of whether he can withstand that high temperature.

"Don't worry. You'll live...I think," Damian theorized with a smirk on his face.

[Noland Hardy]

"Lava?" Noland had a slightly alarmed look on his face when he saw more of what Helios' Second Layer was capable of. This would be the first time he sees it.

Drago got himself off of the ground as soon as possible to avoid it. He wanted to make sure he had Helios in his sight at all times, but there were small eruptions spewing hot lava all over the place that made it a lot more difficult for him to manage. A tiny drop hit the middle portion of Drago's tail, and it melted right through his scales. The only thing that Drago had over this ability when uses a similar one was the poisonous gasses.

"That's weird. Normally, that wouldn't ever happen to me, but he amplified the power of this lava somehow..." Drago analyzed.

If that wasn't enough to create a terrifying situation, Helios was right down there taking a bath in it. His scales were lit up just like it was when his temperature shot up.

"Okay. So you have a lot of power in Second Layer. Now what?" Noland asked, a bit uninterested in making a move just yet.

[Damian Knight]

"Oh, don't be like that. You could at least make an attempt to sound interested in my little combo here. After all, you showed me a good one with that meteor bullet move you pulled off. Now I want to return the favor and show you an even better one. It's rare that I get to do this without coming too close to killing my opponents, so it's nice to cut loose every once in a while. Don't you agree?" Damian placed the signature move for the Second Layer on his BakuMeter. "Ability activate! Malevolent Core!"

This signature move would be quite dangerous with the lava being on the surface. Considering that this ability gives him the power to wield the power of the Earth's core, there was an extremely deadly phenomenon on the horizon.

The ground shook with Helios powering up. The lava became even more unsettling and prone to eruptions from Helios taking these powers even more. More violent eruptions were occurring that were able to cover an even more expanded range, enough to send portions of the lava high into the sky like a liquid stream and come raining down like a fiery rainfall.

If that wasn't enough to warrant Noland's attention, then Helios would personally make the attempt to do so. The core's energy came from the ground and into Helios through several light particles that were steadily rising up. He was getting ready to use it as a weapon. He zipped straight up into the air, nearly missing Drago on his ascent. Despite that, he continued to apply pressure to Drago by staying in his face because all he would have to do is tap the non-enhanced Dragonoid to make him burn.

[Noland Hardy]

Noland expected the situation to get way more dangerous than it already was. He had hoped to see how dangerous it would get before he used anything. It paid off nicely. Jumping the gun against the Second Layer was something no brawler could afford when Damian is serious, even the upper echelon of the Silver Knights.

Even Noland had to growl a little just because he was getting a bit uncomfortable with everything that was going on.

"Ability activate! Molten Ire!" The only logical choice Noland could have made was this move here. The instantaneous, non-straining donning of a dark, red energy veil fortified Drago's body as well as boosting his physical parameters enough to compete with the core-boosted Helios on an almost-even level.

Most people probably wouldn't be able to tell if Drago was on par with Helios in this state or not. The sheer speed and power from their movement and attacks could not be tracked by the average observer. It looked like two beams of light clashing against one another at every single corner of the battlefield. At one point, Drago gets kneed in the chest. At another point, Drago shoves his fist into Helios' clavicle. It was this back and forth tension that didn't really paint the picture clear for anyone, not even Noland and Damian.