Chapter 101-Gaia vs Zippy

"Dammit," Gaia grunts as he looks around, finding himself surrounded by a maze of iron walls thirty feet tall.

Gaia raps his knuckles against the tall.

"Huh…" Gaia mutters to himself, "These shouldn't be too hard to break through…"

Gaia then turns forwards again, finding himself standing across from Zippy.

"So…WHY am I facing you…?" Gaia asks as he peers over at his opponent, "I heard about you from the others. You're Zippy, right? Noah defeated you in the Land of Water. Shouldn't you be after him…not me?"

"Meh, as much as I would have preferred to have my revenge on the Water Charger, my boss called dibs on 'em. Leader vs leader makes the most sense," Zippy smirks as he crouches down into a sprinter's stance, and electric-yellow sparks of energy begin to burst and swirl around his body. "All the others called dibs on their opponents, so…here I am. Which is fine by me 'cause the Water Charger…will NEVER survive a second battle against the boss…"

"I'll mess you up so bad that you'll be seeking revenge on ME, instead," Gaia replies with a sinister smirk as he aims his wand at Zippy.

"EARTH CHARGE, LEVEL ONE: PITFALL!" Gaia shouts as he aims his spoon-wand downwards, and swiftly, a pitfall opens up beneath Zippy's feet.

But before Zippy can fall into the dark abyss below, Zippy shouts: "Thunder Charge, Level One: Blitz Speed," and dashes forwards, dodging Gaia's pitfall before it can open.

Gaia recoils. "Damn, he's fast! NO ONE should be able to dodge the speed of my pitfalls opening!"

Before Gaia can defend, Zippy slams a fist into Gaia's gut, sending Gaia flying backwards, his back SLAMMING into the iron wall behind him, in a cloud of dust.

But before Gaia can get a chance to catch his breath, Zippy charges Gaia through the cloud of dust.

"THUNDER CHARGE, LEVEL TWO: SONIC SLASH!" Zippy shouts as he swings his leg towards Gaia's throat, which is armed with a serrated blade at the front and back of Zippy's ankles.

Swiftly, Gaia ducks down, and Zippy's leg slashes through the iron wall behind Gaia, causing it to crash to the ground, rather than Gaia's throat.

"That…was close…" Gaia pants.

"Crap…" Zippy grunts as he hobbles backwards on one foot, while rubbing the sore ankle that he used to accidentally slash through Tungsten's iron wall, "That kinda hurt…"

Gaia smirks, seeing his chance to strike.

"Earth Charge, Level Two: Stone Fists!" Gaia shouts as he thrusts his wand upwards, causing pillars of rock each to shoot up from the ground.

"Shit!" Zippy cries as he watches Gaia's attack fly towards him, powerless to do anything with his injured ankle.

Gaia's attack then pummels Zippy, sending him flying backwards, and this time, Zippy's own back crashes into the iron wall behind him, in a cloud of smoke.

But then…Zippy's eyes widen as he watches a second volley of Gaia's stone fists fly through the smoke towards him.

In order to dodge, Zippy uses his super-speed to push off the wall behind him, and dash towards Gaia.

"THUNDER CHARGE, LEVEL ONE: BLITZ SPEED!"

"Earth Charge, Level Four: Earthquake!" Gaia shouts as he aims his wand towards the ground, and instantly, the earth begins to tremble.

"Woah!" Zippy cries as he begins to stumble around, the rumbling earth having knocked him off balance.

"You can't run while the earth is this unstable, eh?" Gaia smirks as he aims his wand towards the ground, and instantly, a pitfall opens up beneath Zippy's feet, "Earth Charge, Level One: Pitfall!"

Unable to use his speed over the unstable, shaking ground, Zippy is forced to fall into Gaia's pitfall, and screams as he falls down into the black abyss below.

"That takes care of things," Gaia smirks as he dusts his hands off, while the rumbling ground settles down.

But then…Gaia hears some stomping noises come from underneath the earth within his pitfall.

"Huh…?" Gaia asks.

And then…Zippy BURSTS in front of the pitfall, and flies into the air.

"GHAHAHA!" Zippy cackles as he begins to fall back to the ground, "Did you SERIOUSLY think I couldn't use my speed to escape your pitfall?! By moving fast enough, I can rapidly push off a wall step by step, allowing me to basically run up a vertical surface!"

"WHY would I think that?!" Gaia cries.

"Thunder Charge, Level Two: Sonic Slash!" Zippy shouts as he begins to dash across the now-stable ground towards Gaia.

Anticipating Zippy's impressive speeds and after already preparing his defense immediately after his attack, Gaia shouts: "Earth Chare, Level Three: Rock Shield," and coats his chest and throat in a rocky outer-layer.

Zippy's ankle blades slam into Gaia's rock-plated chest in the form of a mighty kick, and when it does…Zippy's eyes widen. For Zippy's attack fails to so much as push Gaia back. Instead, Zippy's ankle blades crack upon making contact with Gaia's rock shield.

"M-my blades…" Zippy whimpers.

Gaia smirks. "See?" He asks, "What did I tell you?"

Swiftly, Gaia shoots a hand out, and grabs the stunned Zippy by the throat before Zippy has the chance to zip away.

"It's time for my last-ditch effort…" Zippy growls, before opening his mouth up as wide as possible, "Thunder Charger, Level Three-"

"SCREEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEE!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!"

Zippy coughs, once his screaming spell ends and clutches his throat in agony.

"That should…have done the trick."

Zippy then looks up to face Gaia again, noticing that Gaia is unphased by Zippy's attack.

Zippy's eyes widen.

"HOW?!"

But then…Zippy notices that Gaia's ears have been completely sealed off via the rock plating encasing them.

"Smart…" Zippy says, letting out a painful cough from his injured throat.

"I can't hear you, but you're probably complaining about how your spell didn't work," Gaia explains, "You're a Thunder Charger, so if I predicted that you could fight using sound to your advantage. So…when you opened your mouth up wide like that, I anticipated a sound-based attack coming, and used my Rock Shield to plug up my ears."

"Earth Charge…Level Two…" Gaia growls as he chambers his other fist.

"-STONE FIST!"

With a roar, Gaia SLAMS his rock-plated fist into Zippy's gut, causing the Thunder Charger's eyes to roll into the back of his head as he's sent flying backwards, before completely shattering and flying through the iron wall behind him.