A Sky Pirate’s Life For Me! – Balthier vs. Vyse

: Alright, our fighters are ready!

Catch the Prelude Here: A Sky Pirate’s Life For Me! – Balthier vs. Vyse | Prelude

: Between these high-flying rogues, who will reign victorious in an aerial assault?

: Let’s find out in the Clash! Alright, I’ll sit this one out, I gotta save some classic Dylania gameplay for Season 2!

: Then it’s you versus me Lash. You want first dibs?

: Sure, I’ll play as Balthier then.

: Then I’m Vyse. Let’s do this!

: Wooooooo! I’m rooting for you two! More so Boss cuz I wanna keep my job!

* * *

Location: The Vast Skylands – Aboard the Delphinus – 11:00 am

Nestled in amongst the azure skies, beyond the clouds that dapple its horizon, lay The Vast Skylands. Monument to this world’s ambitions, it was once the temple retreat of a powerful mage of magnetism. Though the mage lived a long life, he was no immortal, and so he passed away in the clouds, above all others in the world, lonelier than any other. Alas, his life’s work, now derelict, still glides above the clouds, becoming one of the most elusive and sought after ruins in the world.

The perfect target for the ambitions of a sky pirate.

The metal hull of an airship, jetstreams at the tips of its wings and its massive blue hull, soars through the sky. On the bridge stand four close friends, as well as crewmates on the crew of the Blue Rogues: Enrique, former prince, now king to Valua, or at least what is there thanks to his efforts in rebuilding, Fina, a Silvite and the heart of their crew, Aika, the navigator of the Blue Rogues and childhood friend of our final member, and Vyse, the captain of the Blue Rogues and helmsman of the Delphinus.

“Aika! What’s our heading!” He asks.

“We are due north captain!” Aika responds, eyes on her compass.

“Alright!” Vyse says, reefing on the wheel and turning hard to port to correct their course.

“I wonder if the rumors are true?” Fina says, studying the clouds. “Do you really think that the Heart of the Planet would be located so high up?”

“From what I’ve read,” Enrique states. “The Heart is an artifact that allowed the Magna Magus to force these islands to float in the first place. Well, at least to float so high anyway.”

“Yeah, and if my assumptions are correct, it’s the reason why those islands are floating so much higher than the others in all Arcadia as well,” Vyse adds.

“After doing what research I could in New Valua with the records I managed to recover,” Enrique begins. “It seems the Magna Magus’ magic required some kind of catalyst. That’s how he could make the magic take effect even after he stopped feeding the spell to the island.”

“And that’s probably why the spell is still in effect after his passing,” Aika adds, then taps her compass. “Oh! Due east!”

“Since we’re running a bit low on funds,” Vyse makes another adjustment to their heading. “Returning that Heart of the Planet will net us enough to live comfortably for the next few months I’d imagine. If not years, heh!”

“Geez Vyse!” Aika exclaims. “You make us sound like we’re gonna ransom it!”

Aika notices a small mirage on the starboard side of the ship. It blinks out of view shortly after, seeming to fly under a thick, cumulonimbus formation below them.

“Relax Aika!” Vyse says. “Its not like I’m trying to make us out to be petty thieves. Then again, we are pirates.”

“Did anyone else see that?” Aika asks.

Everyone turns to Aika’s side of the bridge, looking out the windows.

“I don’t see anything.” Fina asks.

“What was it you saw?” Enrique asks, wandering over to her side for a better look.

“Well, it looked like a mirage or something…” Aika says. “Maybe it was my imagination.”

“Alright, let’s keep an eye out just in case,” Vyse says, plowing the Delphinus through another cloud.

“Oh wow~…” Fina manages.

“So it really is still up here,” Enrique says as he steps toward the front of the bridge.

“There it is everyone!” Vyse exclaims, pointing straight ahead. “It’s The Vast Skylands!”

Before them, sitting amongst the clouds is a giant mountain retreat, with hard white limestone acting as the base of the island. Chiseled into the stone face were several dilapidated temple passages and carved architectural marvels, like buildings engineered to be upside down. The top of the main island had lush greenery covering almost every square inch of space, at least anywhere there wasn’t a clearing indicating a lake or river. Waterfalls led to nowhere as the waters plunged off the side into cloudy vapor. Other, smaller islands, some purely tree-covered, some with trees and a lake of its own, and others that were just floating rocks with thick blankets of moss, orbit the main island from all over, but never in a pattern or with the speed needed to collide into one another.

“What a beautiful island!” Aika says, grinning wildly with her hands seemingly glued to her cheeks.

“Let’s take the Delphinus in by that small outpost on our portside,” Enrique says as he sees none of the other islands go near it. “If we want to ensure the Delphinus doesn’t get hit by those orbiting islands, it seems that area is being avoided intentionally.”

“Sounds good! Let’s go!” Vyse exclaims, steering the ship over smoothly.

* * *

“Alright, while you all set up, Aika and I will be investigating the island for some clues,” Vyse says.

“While you’re out, we’re low on food,” Enrique says. “If you come across some wild game, please don’t hesitate to bring some back.”

“Sure thing!” Aika says. “See you soon!”

With that, the two take the bridge into the main island. The deciduous trees are tall and have thick trunks, and the edge of the water is as crystalline and clear as the deeper parts of the large, central lake. It looks like a wooded wonderland.

“I kinda see why that mage guy would want to preserve this place as his home so much,” Aika says. “Enrique was saying how he raised this place before the Rains, right?”

“Yeah, it’s a miracle this place wasn’t shot out of the sky,” Vyse replies. “But that might just be owing to his magnetism.”

“Yeah, I guess,” Aika says. “So, have you heard about that new Black Mark too?”

“The mystery pirate?” Vyse replies, cutting an overgrown tree branch in their way. “Yeah, it’s said that he has a lust for valuable treasures. He’s stolen all kinds of things from all manner of places, and before they can shoot his escape vessel down, it vanishes before their eyes.”

“Well, I hope we don’t run into that guy,” Aika says. “Eyewitnesses said they saw a vicious half-woman, half-animal dealing with the muscle protecting those treasures. Feral, yet dignified, and all bad news.”

“I don’t think you’ll have to worry about that, Aika,” Vyse states. “That guy sounds like more of a city-based thief if anything.”

The two come upon another clearing, one with a large living quarters dead-center. It stands tall, crafted from the same limestone as the base of the island, intricately carved with each brick, arch, and domed roof. Aqua-colored frescoes run along the wall, wrapping around the building like a ribbon around a present.

“Look at this Aika,” Vyse says, marveling at the structure. “This must be where the Magna Magus lived.”

“Incredible…” She mutters. “It’s stood the test of time too, it doesn’t even look like it’s going to crumble or anything.”

Something catches Vyse’s eye by the far corner of the building, so he leaves Aika’s side to investigate. Aika continues to stare wide-eyed at the building, walking up to it, running her hand across the smooth stone surface. She crouches down and admires the few flowers mingling by the building as well, musing to herself about how the mage must have been a gardener too.

“Hey Aika, come here, there’s something I need you to see,” Vyse says.

Aika rises and heads over to Vyse, who is crouching by the back corner of the building. He seems tense.

“What is it Vyse?” She asks.

“Look at this,” He replies, pointing at a large, copper-colored harpoon stuck in the ground.

“What is that?” She asks, looking up the harpoon to find the cord vanishes about a two meters up.

Vyse takes his finger and pulls the cord like a guitar string, letting the cord wobble a moment. The brief glimmer of a large oval-shaped ship hanging in the sky alert them both immediately. Vyse adjusts his eyeglass, seeing the Strahl for all it is.

“Hey, that’s that thing I saw!” Aika says. “Back in the Delphinus!”

“A ship…” Vyse says. “That turns invisible… And that oval shape…”

His eyes shoot open.

“You don’t think…” Aika asks.

“Let’s head back to camp, it’s clear that we are not alone,” Vyse states, taking Aika’s hand and rushing back in the direction they came.

Except that two figures now stand in their way, one with short brown hair and an ornate vest and white sweater while the other wore assuming leather armor and has long white hair and rabbit ears.

“Even after saving the world twice-over, a sky pirate can never earn the first of his Forty Winks…” The man says, looking down to Vyse and Aika. “My, aren’t headhunters getting younger by the day.”

“You two…” Vyse says. “You’re those pirates! The newest Black Marks!”

“Ah yes, the blackest marks in all Archadia,” The man states resting his rifle on his shoulder. “The pleasure’s mine and the name’s Balthier. My associate here is Fran.”

“In all Arcadia…?” Vyse mutters, holding his cutlasses at the ready, Aika readying her boomerang blade as well. “Hmph… I’m Vyse, this is Aika. Now, what are you doing here?”

“Oh please, relax would you?” Balthier says. “I’m not here to take anything of yours if that’s why you’re worried. I’m here for the Heart of the Planet, what other reason would I have?”

“Then… You found it?” Aika asks.

“Well, see for yourself,” Balthier says.

He pulls a large purple chunk from his back pocket and tosses it to the ground. The shattered piece crumbles further as it lands on the ground. Vyse looks down at it, perplexed.

“You should’ve asked if we found what’s left of it,” Balthier continues. “It was like that when we found it in the hands of a skeleton, likely that Magna Magus fellow. No struggle or anything. It looked as if he tried destroying it himself.”

“I don’t believe that for a second,” Vyse says, annoyed with the unforeseen development.

“I didn’t either,” Balthier says. “It may just be speculation, but I’d imagine he finally relented and wanted companionship in his final hours. Living in solitude can do that to a man, I should know. He likely grew too weak to stop the spell, so he tried breaking the catalyst instead, the Heart of the Planet you see before you. His spell must have been in effect for so long it became a force all its own.”

“There’s no way…” Aika says, defeatedly. “We needed the artifact…”

“Wait a minute…” Vyse says. “You said you’re those mystery pirates? The ‘Blackest Marks in all Arcadia?'”

“This is getting us nowhere,” Fran says.

“Perhaps, but we’ve been living in solitude together for some time, haven’t we?” Balthier replies cheekily. “Nothing wrong with some socialization. Yes Vyse, we are.”

“Then maybe this is a turn of luck for us!” Vyse says with a grin. “Aika, change of plans, let’s take them down! We can claim their bounty at the guild!”

“Aye captain!” Aika exclaims, throwing her boomerang blade at Balthier.

“Well, so much for civility,” Balthier mutters.

Fran steps into action, pulling out her bow and knocking three arrows. They fly, striking the boomerang with enough force to knock it off-course. It weakly glides through the air back into Aika’s hand.

“Aika! Now!” Vyse commands, rolling out of the way.

Aika grits her teeth and spins her boomerang in her hand, letting loose a gust of energy blasts.

“ALPHA STORM!”

Balthier ducks out of the way, but Fran is hit with the full brunt of the attack. She pushes through the energy gusts, until she manages to leap out of it. Aika follows with her eyes, only for Fran to unleash a series of thin energy shockwaves from each of her midair kicks. The blades explode around her disorienting her and knocking Vyse away.

“Aika!” Vyse cries, rushing back to her aid.

“I’d stay still if I were you,” Balthier says, aiming his rifle at Vyse’s head. “Lest you’ve grown weary of having a head.”

Fran lands and closes the distance on Aika surprisingly fast. Aika recovers in time to swing down with her blade, but Fran strikes the flat of the blade with her open palm, parrying it. The Viera lands a plethora of punches before lunging with a kick into Aika’s gut, sending her beyond the treeline.

“I leave the boy to you now,” Fran says. “I will finish the girl.”

She bounds into the forest after her quarry, leaving Balthier to just shake his head.

“Tsk,” Balthier mutters. “You don’t have to say it like I was expecting you to do all the work…”

Balthier returns his gaze to Vyse, who took the moment of Balthier’s distraction to ready himself to fight.

“So, now that it’s the two of us alone,” Balthier says. “What’s your game? Plan to wipe out the most infamous sky pirate to boost your ego or some such?”

“It’s never about glory,” Vyse says. “It’s about freedom. One pirate to another, it’s nothing personal.”

“Always motivated by wings we pirates are,” Balthier muses. “But unfortunately for you, you failed to recognize one detail. In this story, I’m the ‘leading man.'”

With that he squeezes the Mithuna’s trigger, as Vyse swings down with his cutlass. A fiery bullet flies as a blade shockwave soars.

“And the ‘leading man’ never loses.”

* * *

* * *

The two projectiles collide, but the shockwave cuts clean through Balthier’s bullet. The shockwave travels straight to Balthier and explodes against his chest, launching him into a large tree trunk.

“Urghk!” He groans. “Perhaps I’ll leave the ‘leading man’ comments until after the egg’s off my face.”

He shakes off the attack and Vyse leaps in, slashing fervently. Ducking, Balthier somersaults out of the way, leaving Vyse to carve the tree with his Sky Fangs. Vyse keeps up with Balthier and swings his blades again and again, only for Balthier to weave around the errant swings with grace. Vyse lunges with a grunt and Balthier backsteps, giving the two plenty of distance.

“Swordplay?” Balthier says, holstering Mithuna on his back. “If that’s your forté, then perhaps I will follow.”

From his hip, he unsheathes the crimson Karkata and on his arm, the Gendarme, the invisible shield, sits.

Running to his foe, Vyse slashes with his cutlasses once more, with Balthier blocking every strike. Balthier delivers his own few slashes, swinging swiftly and with elaborated movements. Vyse sees an opening and lunges for Balthier, only for Balthier to deflect the massive Sky Fang blade with his invisible shield.

Balthier swings the Karkata, aiming for Vyse’s neck for a clean chop, but the sickle-blade of the Sky Fang comes up in time to block the attack. Using Balthier’s swing, Vyse allows the momentum of the strike to carry him away, making some distance between the two of them. Gliding backward through the air, Vyse lets loose a flurry of shockwaves, only for Balthier to block each one with his Gendarme. Vyse lands, and looks to Balthier, who has an amused face.

“Impressive swordplay,” Balthier says. “Even if you don’t seem formally trained. You must’ve fought many fights to have gotten that good.”

“Heh, thanks!” Vyse grins a bit smugly. “You’re not half-bad yourself.”

“I appreciate it,” Balthier says, sheathing his sword. “However, I’m a sky pirate. I have much more than just swords and guns on my belt.”

The gentleman pirate brandishes a strange, gold-colored cylinder, the Makara. Vyse runs to Balthier again in an attempt to stop whatever he’s doing. He attempts a stab at Balthier’s chest, but his opponent sways back and plants his foot in Vyse’s gut, sending him back where he came.

Vyse looks up, noticing Balthier had just swung the contraption upward. Vyse follows the direction of movement and finds a volley of explosives raining on him from above. He covers his face in defense as the bombs land all around him.

“BOOM!”

Engulfed in thick, black smoke, Vyse was nowhere to be seen. Balthier shakes his head disappointingly.

“Well, I suppose he was all talk,” Balthier says. “And my Stun Bombs did the trick. I suppose I should go find Fran. If the boy was the captain, I’m sure she’s dealt with his lackey by now.”

As Balthier is about to turn away, the cloud disperses when a figure leaps upward out of the smoke. Planting his feet on the side of the tree at his back, Vyse smugly grins at Balthier, who watches with an amused grin.

“What captain would I be if an underhanded tactic like that finished me off?” Vyse says, vaulting from the tree directly at Balthier.

“Fair point,” Balthier replies, unsheathing a red greatsword with serpentine designs. “I’ll have to keep that in mind!”

Vyse swipes his blades in tandem while Balthier swings Ragnarok with all his might. The blades collide, but the weight of the Ragnarok is too much for Vyse, who’s sent sailing into the sky once more. Not missing a beat, Vyse lands on his feet and lets loose a salvo of wind blades at Balthier. His foe jams Ragnarok into the ground as makeshift cover, blocking each shockwave, as he pulls out his Mithuna again.

Vyse stops himself too late, recognizing the rifle from earlier, and a bullet flies into the hilt of his large Sky Fang, knocking it from his hand and sending it clattering away. While Balthier takes the time to reload, Vyse lunges for his blade and faces his foe once more.

“Huh?” Vyse mutters.

He comes face-to-face with nobody. His foe is no longer there. He looks around, looking at the treeline, looking for any hint of him being there, any trace of his escape, but could find nothing.

Meanwhile, Balthier, under the effects of Vanish, walks up to Vyse with Ragnarok held overhead, ready to end the fight.

You may have been unaffected by Stop and Immobilize, Balthier thinks. But I’d like to see you show immunity to a sword in the skull.

“He could have joined his partner to go finish Aika…” Vyse thinks aloud.

That’s right, it’s like I’m not even here, Balthier thinks, raising the blade in order to cut the young pirate down.

Vyse grins and his eyes narrow.

“Or he could be right in front of me,” He says, raising Sky Fang and cleaving into Balthier’s shoulder.

“Gahh!” Balthier exclaims as his invisibility wears off. “Cheeky rat, how did you know?”

“Sorry, can’t reveal all my secrets,” Vyse comments. “As the saying goes: ‘Loose lips sink ships.'”

“Heh, no, you’re right,” Balthier states. “I suppose it matters little though. A cut this shallow won’t be enough to deter the ‘leading man.'”

As he finishes the last word, he glows bright blue, and moments later, a white orb flies from his hand and into himself. As a wash of light engulfs him, his shoulder cut, once profusely bleeding, nigh instantly sealed itself, leaving only the bloody sleeve and the torn fabric as evidence of the cut ever existing.

“How’s that for a sky scallywag?” Balthier says smugly.

Vyse’s grin disappears, as if to symbolize him not suspecting how tough Balthier would really be, and he lunges forward again. Balthier glows lime green for a moment before a thick slick of oil sprays over the Blue Rogue as though he were sprayed by an octopus.

“Eugh!” Vyse spits, wiping his eyes incessantly. “Puh! Puh! Eugh! Kaff! What the hell is this!”

Finally wiping the oil out of his eyes, he looks at his chest to find the Mithuna pointing point-blank at it.

“It’s oil,” Balthier states. “Deadly when lit with an open flame. Speaking of, why don’t I give you a demonstration, courtesy of some Wyrmfire Shot?”

Before Vyse can run, block the bullet, or knock the gun from Balthier’s hands, his body feels like it is being cremated. With a large explosion, he goes flying through the treeline, snagging a few branches before landing in a heap.

Balthier follows at a range, coughing with some soot around his front.

“I suppose I should’ve stepped back a bit before firing…” He mutters to himself.

Vyse groans, hopping to his feet quickly. Looking over his body, his coat has singe-marks and is burnt up in several places and his skin is red with burns. He holds his weapons low and focuses, a green sigil appearing beneath him.

“Now what’s this?” Balthier wonders curiously, watching the event unfold.

“Moons!” Vyse exclaims. “Give me strength!”

Suddenly, a green aura washes over him, and his burns lessened and turned the tone his skin should be. He faces Balthier and chuckles.

“You’re not the only one with the power to heal,” Vyse states.

“Is that so?” Balthier replies. “Seems I’ll have to finish this with one blow then.”

Balthier fires a no-sell shot at Vyse’s face, only for the Blue Rogue to parry the bullet itself.

“Yeah,” Vyse says. “Seems that way to me too!”

Balthier holsters his Mithuna, and Vyse takes a solemn stance.

“Pirates of old,” Vyse says. “Defend our cause!”

A figure emerges behind Vyse a stoic skeleton with a cutlass and deep, dark sockets, except for the glint of red, murderous intent. Balthier simply furrows his brow at the sight.

“An Esper?” Balthier mutters to himself. “No, that shape… The Occuria? I thought I washed my hands of that business long ago. I suppose this goes to show that the past always catches up then…”

Unholstering the Makara once more, Balthier lobs a volley of Mud Bombs at Vyse, only for the skeleton at his back to parry them all into the air, where they detonate harmlessly.

“Well then–” Balthier manages to say before the skeleton rends the air, firing a blade of wind at the sky pirate.

Balthier ducks and rolls out of the way by the skin of his teeth, as the blade proceeds to vertically bisect the trees behind him. Vyse rushes in, attacking with his blades in a flurry of slashes akin to a dance. Balthier avoids each hit narrowly.

The Occuria… No, that thing… Balthier thinks. It doesn’t seem to be attacking on its own… Could it be that it only counterattacks?

While weaving around slashes, Balthier glows orange and backsteps to make some distance between him and Vyse. A blue aura with the sound of an accelerated clock’s ticking surrounds Balthier. Vyse lunges, trying to take advantage of his mark’s stationary standing, but he greets the air with his blade and nothing else.

“Thanks boy,” Balthier says, stepping with exaggerated speed as if every movement he makes is twice as fast as it should be. “Now I have to speak slowly so we keep up this quipping game.”

Vyse skids to a stop and grins.

“I can match that!” He says, a blue sigil appearing beneath him. “Moons! Give–“

“Ah, the naive ambition of a young pirate, always trying to compare themselves to the greats…” Balthier mutters as he goes in for a side kick to Vyse’s abdomen.

However, the Pirate of Old at Vyse’s back has other plans, grabbing Balthier’s foot with his off-hand. The skeleton raises his cutlass in aggression as…

“–Me strength!” Vyse finishes, allowing a blue wind to overtake him.

“Damn–!” Balthier manages before the skeleton slashes him, sending him careening through a tree.

The sky pirate stands up, holding his bloody chest with one arm while brushing off the splinters of wood covering him with his other. Vyse follows after him and aims a dropkick to Balthier’s face, only for the Archadian to raise his arms in defense.

“Ghr! Not a moment’s rest between your attacks!” Balthier fumes, shakily holding off Vyse’s strike.

“Of course!” Vyse exclaims, his enhanced speed almost outpacing Balthier’s expiring Haste. “Explosive attacks…”

Vyse vaults off Balthier’s arms and manages to slice at his foe’s shoulders with shallow cuts.

“Like the storms of old!” He finishes, kicking Balthier in the back.

Balthier falls to the ground and slides through the leaves and dirt on his front.

“I don’t know what kind of ‘storms of old’ you’re talking about,” Balthier replies as he glows yellow once more. “You look like you’re twelve. Hardly the age to talk like a crusty-old captain.”

“I’m seventeen!” Vyse spits back.

Vyse rushes in for another flurry of slashes, only for a dark orange aura to cover him. On his next step, he trips and loses balance, having to catch himself before proceeding. He moved his arms in front of him, and they seem to move more lethargically than they had moments ago.

“What the…?” Vyse mutters, confused. “What did you do to me?”

“Nothing really,” Balthier’s wounds start to close up as he proceeds forward, allowing his innate Regen heal his wounds. “I simply tampered with time. Sped myself up a moment ago, but slowed you down just now.”

“What?” Vyse says, his own tongue felt slower, but he wills his words to come out at normal speed. “But I have… Wait… Does that mean?”

Vyse’s eyes dart to his fingers and he inspects them carefully. Eyes growing wide, his eyes peek around the battlefield for a moment, until a small object reflects the sun and shines brightly… An item Balthier smugly tosses up in the air and catches.

“Lose something did you?” Balthier asks. “I found this beauty of a ring lying around here not too long ago. You seem like you know your pirate booty, can you tell if this is rose gold?”

“Hey!” Vyse cries, running forward. “Give my ring back!”

“I thought the bauble was nullifying my afflictions,” Balthier says, stepping backward in response to Vyse’s desperate lunge. “When you’ve been around Ivalice as much as I have, you see a lot, like all manner of accessories that do this. Very annoying.”

“You can’t just steal that!” Vyse shouts.

“Heavens boy,” Balthier says, unholstering the Makara again and dropping the ring and a bomb inside. “I’m a pirate. It’s in my nature to take what I want.”

With that, and a lukewarm swing of the hand-bomb, the ring explodes into small silvery shrapnel. Vyse angrily rushes forward, but Balthier glows purple, this time letting loose an amethyst-toned orb from his hand. Vyse stops in place and guards, but the orb flies through his cutlasses. An immense pressure engulfs Vyse, causing his clothing to tear at the seams, his skin to ripple and rupture, and his eyeglass to crack. Not even the Pirate of Old at his back could stop what was happening.

Balthier waltzes forward, the Renewing Morion having successfully healed him to the point he has stopped caressing his chest.

“You know,” Balthier begins, watching Vyse grit his teeth, listening to the groaning of his bones. “I would say this fight is over if you would just give up. Honestly, is my head worth more than your life?”

“Sorry,” Vyse replies, smiling confidently, looking Balthier dead in the eyes with blood starting to drip from his own. “I don’t know what skysea you come from, but a pirate giving up on his ambition IS death.”

Vyse takes a step and then lunges with all his strength, leaping through the gravity magic and landing a slash on the surprised Balthier. And then he lands another slash, and another, and another, until he swings upward with an uppercut from both his blades. Balthier, bloody, looks up to see Vyse crashing down with the force of a comet.

“CUTLASS FURY!!”

The final slash ends in an explosion, and Balthier is sent hurtling through the trees.

“Aaaaargh!!!” Balthier cries, rolling along the ground.

He comes to a stop in a clearing at the edge of the main island. Struggling to his feet, Balthier glows bright blue.

“If this is how my career continues, failed theft then incessant beatings, I’m apt to give up sky pirating altogether…” He mutters as a white orb flies into him, instantly healing the damage he just sustained. “Then again, something does feel nostalgic about this.”

Vyse steps out from the underbrush, holding Sky Fang at the ready.

“If you give up sky pirating,” Vyse says. “It’d be easier to collect your bounty and we can all go home happy.”

“I’ll have to refuse,” Balthier says, slinging Mithuna back into his hands. “I’d say your speech earlier is nothing less than the credo of a pirate. What pirate would I be if I were to dishonor that?”

He squeezes the trigger and a Silence Shot flies through the air. Vyse parries the bullet with ease and replies with a shockwave that slices the Mithuna’s barrel clean in half. The pieces of the barrel fall over the side of the island.

“That was a one-of-a-kind gun you know,” Balthier says dejectedly, tossing the other half of the gun off the side.

Vyse takes advantage of the brief moment to call upon the powers of the Moons again, a silver sigil appearing around his feet. A silver bubble appears out of nowhere and in a moment, his lethargy is dismissed.

It’s a shame Quika and Skull Shield have worn off… Vyse thinks. I can’t use Quika so long as he has that Slowing magic, but Skull Shield seems to have incapacitated most of his combat options.

Now that his ring is gone, he should be susceptible to status magic, Balthier thinks. But that silver bubble he just formed will render the action naught if I do. Hmm… Perhaps its time for a change of plan…

Vyse tries raising his cutlasses to the sky, ready to summon the Pirate of Old once more, only for Balthier to intervene with a flurry of explosives, interrupting the Super Move.

“I’d hoped you wouldn’t try such a dangerous move again,” Balthier says.

“Fine then, let’s see how you like this!” Vyse exclaims. “Moons! Give me strength!”

A blue sigil appears at his feet and a blue fog surrounds Balthier’s head.

“Gah!” He exclaims, taken off-guard. “What the–?”

The haze lifts as quickly as it fell, and Balthier is left… Standing there.

“Was that supposed to… Uh… Do something?” Balthier amusedly says.

What? Slipara didn’t work? Vyse thinks. Fine, let’s try some Drilnos!

Moments later, a yellow sigil appears beneath Vyse, causing a black cloud engulfed in static to descend over Balthier next. The Blue Rogue swoops in close for a violent slash. Suddenly, his vision is obscured by gold as thousands of coins rain on his face with immense force.

“Ack!” He cries, stopping his advancement. “Urk! I think one’s in my eye!”

Following up, Balthier fires a high-tension roundhouse kick into Vyse’s neck. As the Arcadian Pirate reels back, the Archadian Pirate rushes in with a one-two punch to the blue-coat’s chest, then the combo culminates in Balthier grabbing his foe by the arm and throwing him over his shoulder. The air is knocked out of Vyse’s lungs as his back is slammed into the ground.

“Well, it was fun Vyse,” Balthier says, a coldness in his eyes replacing his earlier easy-going energy, Karkata pressed on Vyse’s throat. “But I think this is where I walk away with today under my belt.”

Vyse only grins in response, as a red sigil appearing below him.

Then… Nothing.

Balthier looks around, darting his eyes around the battlefield.

“What did you do?” Balthier asks hesitantly.

It was at that moment he notices the grass turning from green to yellow and then to red. Balthier feels a heat tickle at the nape of his neck and he lunges out of the way. Vyse follows suit, backwards somersaulting out of the way before a flaming meteor strikes the ground where both of them stood.

“You have got to be kidding…” Balthier looks up to find a miniature rain of fireballs incoming from the high sky.

He immediately takes evasive action, pulling out his invisible shield and aiming it upward, blocking as many incoming fireballs as he can. Several of them singed his clothes, burnt his hair, and roasted his skin. All the while, Vyse stood by the edge of the island, storm clouds gathering above him. Balthier narrowly avoids the final fireball when Vyse leaps into the sky. Lightning crackles and flows straight into his swords, only for him to slash them groundward.

“RAIN OF SWORDS!!!”

Balthier avoided the storm, but he couldn’t prepare for the ensuing rains. The energy bolts that erupt from Vyse’s blades jet down to the ground, igniting into large explosions around Balthier, loosing his grip on gravity as he is thrown upward. Vyse dives down, and impales his rising enemy, then kicks Balthier away to a large boulder by the edge of the island.

Falling into the boulder with a loud thud, Balthier leans forward, blood pouring from his chest wound and his head, running down his face and staining his eye. Balthier musters the strength to look up to find Vyse walking toward him, a silver sigil appearing beneath him once more.

Glass-like silver spears form in the air, all of the thousands of them pointing directly at Balthier.

“This is just some insurance,” Vyse says. “This magic will instantly kill whoever is the victim of it. I hate to use it, but you won’t rescind your ways in being a Black Mark, so I can’t just let you off the hook. Sorry, but you’ll soon be a sky pirate without a sky.”

With that, Vyse turns and walks away. Balthier, in immense pain, closes his eyes…

Vyse stands still for a moment, waiting for the sounds of impalement. Then he hears it, just a moment later…

Coming from him.

“AAAAGH!” He cries, a silver spear impaling him through the liver. “Why!?”

Then another, and another. Soon enough, he finds himself the pincushion he expected to turn Balthier into.

“‘Sky pirate without a sky?'” A voice from behind him says. “Tell me about it. From the number of times I’ve been ‘killed,’ held in dungeons, spelunking ancient temples, and all the damn walking, I’d say I’m closer to being without a sky than you’d think.”

Vyse turns for a moment and finds Balthier sitting up, spitting a mouthful of blood out.

“So,” Balthier says, standing up and using Curaga on himself. “If this is a game of fashion, I’d say the ‘leading man’ is the best dressed, no?”

A Ruby Ring lies on Balthier’s ring finger, which he rubs lightly. Vyse sees the correlation to what happened moments ago and a green sigil appears beneath him, his attempt to quickly heal from the silver spears of Eternum.

“And what’s this about instant-death?” Balthier says, interrupting Vyse’s magic with a kick to the jaw. “How cheeky you must be to lie about that. You’re still kicking, aren’t you?”

He grabs Vyse by the collar and drags him to the side of the island, dangling him over the edge.

“Now do me a favor,” Balthier says coldly. “Give me your best, last lines in this life. No good going down without something exceptional to say.”

Vyse looks up at the floating islands above them in a daze, managing to snap out of it to look Balthier in the eye again. Vyse’s frame is weak and shivering, clearly in extreme pain. But through it all, he lets loose a smile that could break the will of a lesser man.

“I’m a Blue Rogue,” Vyse manages, gripping Balthier’s arm. “And I will never stop fighting for freedom!”

And with a pump of Vyse’s legs and the vicegrip he held onto Balthier with, the two sail over the edge and plummet from the Skylands.

Shocked by Vyse’s action, Balthier loosens his grip, allowing the boy to wrestle free.

“Are you insane!?” Balthier exclaims. “You would kill us both!?”

“I don’t remember claiming this suicide!” Vyse cries, a green sigil appearing beneath him and allowing him to finally heal. “When I set my mind to something, I never stop until it’s done! Not even a nation’s armies can halt my ambition!”

“Tch,” Balthier, recognizing his lack of ranged effectiveness due to the loss of Mithuna, he pulls out Makara.

“I figured you would do that!” Vyse says, a purple sigil appearing beneath him. “Moons! Give me strength!”

Balthier winds his arm back, ready to lob more explosives at his enemy, only for a chunk of ice to materialize around his arm, locking the hand-bomb in a frosty coffin.

I wasn’t expecting that… Balthier thinks. I should have kept the Ruby Ring on, the Ribbon doesn’t guard against attacks like this!

Planting his feet on the ice chunk, Balthier tries to wring his arm free, even letting go of the Makara in order to do so, but he simply couldn’t. His hand was frozen around the weapon, he had no leeway to drop the Makara, let alone uncurl his fingers.

Vyse hangs in the air, watching Balthier’s fruitless attempts to free himself.

I know what magic he has been using hasn’t been the same as mine… Vyse ponders. So he really doesn’t have anything that can free him from that like Red Magic, huh?

Seeing an opportunity, Vyse dives, blades overhead. Balthier manages to shift his weight and pivot the ice chunk in the air in time for Vyse to chop cleanly through the chunk. The Makara is no more, and off fly three of Balthier’s fingers, the others bluish-purple from the cold.

“I think it’s time for a change of tactics with you…” Balthier says, glowing yellow.

Moments later, sheets of light surround Vyse as a yellow sigil appears below him. As Vyse lets loose an Electres, the sheets of light cut into him, burning him. Recoiling from the pain, his aim strays and Balthier narrowly avoids the stream of volts.

The two fighters are distracted from each other as their eyes fall on an island rising from below them. Much like the other islands, white limestone is the base, but the surface is covered in greenery and a large lake sits in the center of the island, surrounded by a small, white sand beach.

Preparing to hit the water’s surface, Balthier splays out his arms and legs to slow himself down. Vyse, on the other hand, has other plans and dive tackles the former Judge out of the sky, knocking him into the drink below.

Balthier struggles to swim through the water after having the air knocked out of him, not even recognizing which way is up. Vyse lands in the water more shallowly than Balthier had, and manages to reach the beach before seeing Balthier emerge from the water in the center of the lake, whipping his head around in a panic. He starts swimming to the shore to continue his duel, but Vyse, with a blue sigil beneath him, hasdecided a different fate for his foe.

I don’t have the resources to keep this up, He thinks, swimming with all his strength. He must be getting low too. I need an opening now, and I should have a way to beat him.

Suddenly, the drink starts to pulsate. Balthier’s strokes slowed to a crawl, with him almost staying perfectly stationary before a current appears out of nowhere, pulling him back to the center of the lake.

“What now?” Balthier manages before he’s swallowed by the water, which forms itself into three needles, whirling like tornadoes.

Vyse watches on as the three twisters combine into a cyclone, completely engulfing Balthier as it rends his flesh and steals his breath. As soon as the cyclone forms into a violent tornado, Balthier’s silhouette stops sinking. Flailing turns to calculated movements as he reaches behind himself and grips the handle of a new weapon.

“What is tha–” Vyse manages to say before the marvel that happens next.

With a single swing from a sunflower-shaped blade, the wind and water storm is bisected and the two halves fail to retain their rotation, causing them to de-stabilize and explode. Water droplets rain from above, covering the shore and forest in water. From the center of it all, Balthier descends, falling to the shore. He lands mere steps away from Vyse, toting his signature Tournesol.

“So bright-eyes,” Balthier huffs, catching his breath as he steps toward Vyse. “What’s your plan now? We fell off the main island and no-one knows where we are. We may as well be shipwrecked.”

“I…” Vyse says before his eyes shoot open. “Crap! I didn’t even think of that! I don’t want to be a castaway again!”

Shaking his head, Balthier slides his Ruby Ring back on. Vyse notices a subtle change in Balthier’s demeanor. His movements aren’t meandering or boatsful anymore, he moved aggressively and with clear, murderous intent. A bead of sweat slides down Vyse’s brow.

“You’ve made a terrifying enemy,” Balthier says coldly. “I have afforded you mercy too many a time. Now? I’m out for blood. There were so many ways for this to end, but I’ve now decided that we will end this with one of us losing our head.”

“I’m a Blue Rogue. It’s my duty to hunt down injustice, and Black Marks like you make all skies dangerous for those who can’t defend themselves,” Vyse replies, narrowing his eyes and tempering his body with his resolve. “You can run to the edges of the world, and I will still find you and take you down.”

“What the devil kind of pirate are you?” Balthier says. “A civil servant more like. But, if you’re insistent on your decision to stop me once and for all, I suppose mercy was never a choice.”

Twirling the Tournesol with surprising grace, Balthier blocks Vyse’s leaping slash, the force of which causes the trees around them to shake violently and the water to ripple. Vyse slashes again and again, with Balthier blocking each hit. The Blue Rogue slashes skyward, Balthier stepping back to avoid the uppercut, and holds his cutlasses over his head.

“CUTLASS FURY!”

Before Vyse’s final slash can land, Balthier ducks in swiftly, planting his foot into Vyse’s midsection.

“Kaff!” Vyse coughs as the air is jettisoned out of his lungs.

Regaining his composure, Vyse steps back, avoiding a decapitation blow from the sunflower blade. A yellow glyph appears under him and he forms a ball of lightning in front of him.

“Moons!” He exclaims. “Give me strength!”

He fires the electrical blast at Balthier, who doesn’t even flinch. The ball hits, but the magic bounces off the sky pirate, flying back to the sender.

“Woah!” Vyse exclaims, swaying back just in time to avoid the blast. “I forgot you have that little trinket.”

Balthier doesn’t quip this time around and instead casts Horology once more, sending several sheets light out to surround Vyse before cutting him. The captain kneels in pain, finding movement harder as blood leaks from his mouth, nose, and bodily cuts. Holding his Tournesol by his waist, Balthier pulls it back and rushes it forward. Vyse struggles to his feet in order to slash at his foe too, only for him to get impaled through the chest.

“Gaaakhh!” Vyse cries, coughing up blood.

Wincing, Balthier pushes the blade deeper as Vyse struggles more. However, Vyse’s throes of immense pain and near-death gave way to a bloody, toothy grin.

“Finally let the pain drive you mad then?” Balthier asks, only for Vyse to lift his cutlass into the air.

As if to represent its name, the Sky Fang bites into Balthier’s hand, slicing the last of his one hand’s fingers cleanly off. In pain, Balthier himself steps back, unsheathing the greatsword from Vyse’s vitals. Vyse fights through the immense damage and his innards dripping out, casting Sacrulen on himself to recover from the gaping wound. His grin did not cease, especially so when he shows Balthier what he has in his hand.

He fought off the pain and the shock of such a wound… Balthier thinks. All in order to take my Ruby Ring off of me? He’s insane!

“I took what you said earlier to heart,” Vyse says, still visibly shaken by the pain he had just endured as he slides the ring onto one of his fingers. “I’m a pirate, right? I should take what I want.”

Balthier stands dumbfounded for a moment before grinning at the comment. He manages to slip another accessory onto his finger with some help from his mouth, seeing as all his fingers on one hand have been cut clean off.

“All that effort just to use my own accessory against me?” Balthier muses. “Sorry to break it to you kid, but all your efforts just now were wholly pointless.”

The Archadian glows purple once again and from his hand flies Graviga. Vyse did not move from his spot, expecting the magic to bounce back at Balthier. Suffice to say, Graviga still hits Vyse, blasting him with an immense amount of gravitational energy, rippling his skin, warping his bones, and rupturing his organs. It felt as though his Sacrulen magic had never happened.

“Wh-what!?” Vyse cries, falling to his knees in an effort to withstand the magic. “Is this ring something only you can use?”

“Not quite,” Balthier replies, showing off his new accessory. “I’ve got an answer for just about everything, even my own equipment. Opal Rings ignore the powers of Reflect you know. This is why knowing how to steal comes in handy, you could have just taken this piece off of me.”

“I see…” Vyse says, yet grins after a brief chuckle to himself. “Then I’m glad my gambit was successful.”

“Hm?” Balthier cocks his head before his eyes shoot open, realizing what position he is in.

“Thanks for focusing so much on this Reflect stuff,” Vyse says, a blue glyph appearing below him. “Makes this next part easier!”

You mean he took advantage of me trying to take advantage of his foolhardy decisions!? Balthier grits his teeth, glowing blue. Shit! I don’t have time to switch out accessories! Not with a bum hand at least. I have to try to anticipate what he’s about to do and hope for the best!

With a grunt, they both cast magic on each other. Balthier’s flies to Vyse’s face in the form of a light projectile, while Vyse’s covers Balthier’s face in a blue cloud. The two stand for a moment before Balthier falls to the ground, fast asleep.

“Finally,” Vyse says, walking over to Balthier. “Now I can finally end this fight. Take this!”

With a psychotic grin, Vyse sweeps his cutlass down on Balthier’s neck, decapitating the sky pirate.

“That’s it!” Vyse exclaims. “I won!”

Then he notices that another Balthier is perched on a tree branch, looking at Vyse. He nestles his nose under his armpit for a moment then looks at Vyse again, his neck jittery and twitchy.

“No way,” Vyse says, looking down at the deceased Balthier at his feet. “You should be dead!”

He flings a blade shockwave at the perched Balthier, who leaps off the branch before it’s cut. Balthier flaps him arms and, in an instant, he’s gone.

“What the hell…?” Vyse says, rubbing his eyes. “Did he just, fly away…?”

Rubbing his eyes only seemed to worsen his confusion. He looks around and finds there are five more Balthiers just standing around him, conversing with each other about how weak and foolish Vyse is.

“No way…” Vyse repeats. “This can’t be happening! Leave these skies for good dammit!”

He proceeds to go on a massive rampage, slashing through all of the Balthiers, but only finding more whenever he turns around. Vyse manages to have himself surrounded by Balthiers by the time he grows tired. Then, suddenly, every copy of his opponent turns to Vyse and collectively say:

“We aren’t the real enemy, Balthier.”

Vyse looks down only to find his clothes are no longer the tattered blue coat and red scarf or brown boots he wears. Now he is wearing an ornate vest, white sweater, and has dark slacks. He looks up and finds that all the Balthiers have turned into Vyses and they have all gotten into a battle-ready pose.

“I…” Vyse mutters. “I was Balthier all along… Then I only have one thing left to do.”

He takes the Tournesol in his hands and he plunges it into his chest…

* * *

Vyse comes to, the Sky Fang embedded in his chest which now bleeds profusely. He tears the weapon from his chest and swiftly casts Sacrulen, healing the wound, but not before he woozily feels his eyes shutting on their own. He forces them open and shakes off his fatigue. Looking around him, he sees his warpath, having stricken down several trees and decapitated rotting logs on the ground.

“So it was all a hallucination?” Vyse wonders. “It’s almost like Panika…”

A moment later, one of the downed trees is tumbles over, revealing Balthier with blood dripping down the side of his face.

“Looks like…” He huffs, his ring now gone and a ribbon now on his lapel. “My gambit… Paid off as well…”

The two look at each other, bloodied, exhausted.

“I wish, it hadn’t paid off with a tree to the face though…” Balthier says before he asks: “I assume you’re almost out of magic too then?”

“Yeah,” Vyse replies.

“Fine then, let’s finish this like civilized gentlemen,” Balthier says, glowing brightly a myriad of colors.

The world around them darkens, leaving only a charcoal-colored, clouded space around them with streams of what looked like miniature nebulae floating about. It is unclear what they stand on, as the space didn’t technically have a visible floor, but they stood across from each other.

Balthier holds his hand out in front of him concentrating. Vyse holds his cutlasses up, ready for what may come. Suddenly, six spheres of light surround Balthier. With a flick of his wrist, he sends them hurtling at Vyse.

“Take this!” He shouts.

“FIRES OF WAR!”

Light engulfs them both, with only Vyse feeling what felt like the heat of a sun burning every square inch of his skin. As the light dissipates, Vyse stands resolute, still guarding with his cutlasses.

“That wasn’t enough to finish you off, eh?” Balthier says, proceeding to wave his hand in the air, a blue trail following the tip of his fingers.

Shaking off his fatigue and pain, Vyse rushes forward, swiping wildly with his cutlasses. While he paints the compass in the sky, Balthier manages to back off from several attacks until one errant slash gets him in the side, causing him to fall over. Vyse lunges to cut Balthier’s head, but his foe puts his fingerless arm up in defense. It flies off his body like a non-factor, but manages to slow the slash’s speed enough for him to only receive a nick in the neck.

“You’re not the only one with the willpower to fuel his ambition!” Balthier cries, whistling with his good arm. “Now it’s my turn to drown you!”

A flood of water appears from nowhere behind him, smashing into Vyse and taking him under the deluge.

“TIDES OF FATE!”

Another wave crashes down from above, slamming into Vyse and dragging his senses away with the undertow. He lost track of which way is up as soon as he was thrashed into the currents. Vyse’s eyes fly open and he sees that he is under a sea’s worth of water. The last of his breath escapes his lips as he sinks under…

Balthier watches on from above, unperturbed by the sight. That is, until the water starts swirling around, as if a current is now being created.

“What the…?” Balthier manages before seeing the water whip swiftly into a whirlpool.

“Behold…” Vyse mutters, his eyes rife with fury.

At the very bottom, now emerging, is Vyse, a tornado collecting at his feet and lightning and wind energies collecting at his blade. A new set of stars, a foothold in the form of a rocky outcropping, and a navy blue and purple sunset fights with the space that exists in the current dimension. Space warps and twists, unable to accomodate the overlapping realities.

“Fine then,” Balthier says, draping a pendant around his neck and glowing pink. “Go and collapse another dimension then!”

As Vyse is on the verge of swinging his cutlass and letting loose all the collected electrical energy, a black and pink energy swirls around him. The magic pops like a bubble a moment later and Vyse vanishes, not a trace of him left. The whirlpool subsides and drains away, leaving Balthier standing upon a glyph in his own personalized dimension.

“Ah, it’s done…” He manages.

Before he can dispel the space, however, he feels a rumble. He looks around the dimension, top to bottom, until he finds a small crack growing at the tip of the bottom.

“I should’ve known better than to say such a thing so soon,” Balthier says. “I suppose it’s time for Plan B then.”

The bottom of the dimension shatters, revealing another dimension beyond it, and a familiar blue-clad figure sails through the void. Vyse’s brow arches, determined, his cutlasses glowing bright blue.

In response, Balthier forms two doppels and together, they all leap to the top of the dimension. All the while, the other dimension continues shattering the dimensional hole larger and larger. Space-time warps within the dimensions as they collide and vie for supremacy. As the Quickening dimension crumbles more, Balthier finally reappears, having taken on a meteoric form.

“Behold…!” Vyse exclaims.

“Heads up…!” Balthier exclaims.

The two fighters sail toward each other incomprehensibly fast. That is, until the two collide, causing the very fabric of the dimension they were in to shake.

“PIRATE’S WRATH!!!”

“ELEMENT OF TREACHERY!!!”

The Sky Fang cracks, the meteor grows several fissures down its length. Chunks of the meteor fly off into the void, striking stars and causing supernovas in the far distance. Yet neither fighter can gain the upper hand.

“RRRRRRAAAAAAAGGGGGGHHHHH!!” They cry.

Then, the dimension shatters, unable to hold the force of both combatants. The Skylands come back into view and the meteor manages to overpower Vyse. Together they fall through the sky, knocking the island itself out of orbit.

“NO!” Vyse cries. “I REFUSE TO GIVE IN!”

He strikes the meteor with his Sky Fang, shattering the weapon, but he manages to carve a hole to where Balthier is positioned. With his sickle-blade tonfa, Vyse lunges at Balthier.

Then the meteor makes contact with the planet’s surface. A shockwave ravages the lands, which is shortly thereafter consumed in a fiery blaze.

* * *

Hours later, the smoke lifts and there lay Vyse, blade in disembodied hand, strewn across the ground. Balthier stands above him, blackened by soot, arm missing, leg burnt to a crisp, and a gaping wound in his gut. He manages to move his charred lips ever so slightly, looking down at the mangled corpse of Vyse laid out before him.

“Sorry… To say… Vyse…” He manages, his bloodshot eyes and lids fluttering, trying to keep conscious. “But the… ‘Leading man’… Never…”

Balthier falls over from exhaustion, unable to complete his comment.

The smoke clears up a bit more as the Strahl flies in, a harpoon landing by Balthier’s face. He manages to look up at Fran rappelling down the line, and he manages a smile before passing out.

* * *

* * *

: Wow, gotta say, even though I lost, that was pretty fun!

: Hell yeah! Now, that fight was actually pretty close! But, there are a bunch of factors that put Balthier just slightly ahead of Vyse.

: Firstly, let’s talk about Attack Potency. Since we don’t have enough angles to appropriately determine how many stars are in their respective dimensions that they can form, we are just going to use the highball/lowball technique to compare them. So, for Multi-Solar System Level, the highball is 2.517×10⁵⁶ Tons of TNT, or, for simplicity’s sake, 10.53 ZettaFoe. Lowball is 4.799×10⁴⁷ Tons of TNT or 20.08 TeraFoe.

: If we use these numbers only, they’re pretty even, but then we need to qualify their outputs in regards to their feats and buffs, and then we can figure out who is stronger. And no, we won’t be using Gilgamesh’s strongest output to scale Balthier to. Gilgamesh’s speed should be fair game, but it’s obvious he was holding back in their fight since later and deadlier marks like the Yiazmat who are weaker canonically, yet are deadlier in the actual fight than Gilgamesh. So no, Balthier does not scale to Low Multiverse Level.

: Balthier and Vyse are capable of their respective Multi-Solar System Level feats without equipment, so, under the assumption that their weapons and buffs add to their strength per point of attack damage and so on, we can figure out exactly how they compare damage-wise.

: Using this technique, Balthier’s Tournesol, Berserk status, and the Bravery status, all grant him a 138%, 50%, and 30% respective increase to his AP.

: As for Vyse, the Sky Fang, Captain’s Hat accessory, and the Increm status, all grant him a 225%, 80%, and 25% respective increase to his AP.

: Well, with those far greater percentages, you would think that Vyse would win out in AP, but we haven’t factored in a key detail. Primarily, their AP is also found from their ability to harm other dimension makers/breakers, such as Vayne Solidor and Ramirez. And remember in the prelude that they were powered up in their final fights beyond the scope of Multi-Solar System Level.

: For Balthier, facing off against Vayne Solidor, who is already Multi-Solar System Level, who is then powered up by Venat, a being far beyond Multi-Solar System Level in power, who then becomes The Undying. Such a modifier suggests that since Balthier beat him, we should multiply his base AP by, at the very least, 2. So, instead, his highball starts at 21.06 ZettaFoe while his lowball is 40.16 TeraFoe.

: Unfortunately for Ramirez, he is already at Multi-Solar System Level, but he fused with Zelos, a Gigas who unfortunately only boosts his power by a magnitude of Multi-Continent Level, which is pathetically low compared to the numbers we’re using now, which may as well be a non-factor.

: Which means, Balthier’s AP total highballed is 66.9708 ZettaFoe, while his lowball is 127.7088 TeraFoe. Vyse on the other hand, has a highball of 45.3915 ZettaFoe and a lowball of 86.344 TeraFoe. Those numbers just don’t equal up that well unfortunately, so Balthier takes the cake by having almost 1.5x more AP than Vyse highballed.

: As for their speed, Vyse is simply outclassed. Balthier is a solid MFTL+ no thanks to Gilgamesh scaling, but Vyse’s best feat is reacting to Zelos’ attacks, which only put him at FTL. Even if Vyse was stronger AP-wise, Balthier would still be able to speed blitz by being literal magnitudes of speed and thousands of times faster.

: Even if the rumor that Vyse is MFTL+ because of how he flies in his Pirate’s Wrath Super Move, sans math or info supporting it, making these two closer in speed, Vyse can only make himself faster with Quika. Balthier, on the other hand, can use Haste to speed himself up, Slow to slow enemies down, use Stun Bombs to inflict Stop, which freezes the target in time, and so on. Chalk another one up for the anti-speed blitzers!

: Seeing as both of the fighters’ durability is basically just a copy+paste of their AP, Balthier takes the win there too. In terms of their intelligence and tactics, they are surprisingly equal. Both are critical thinkers, able to read their opponents easily, genius tacticians, and so on.

: Versatility in battle is also quite even. Balthier can use Vanishga to turn invisible, but Vyse’s eyepatch sees through invisibility. Balthier’s Achilles Technik is kind of useless when Vyse can just switch the color of his weapons and, by extension, what his elemental weaknesses and strengths are. Both have their Ribbon/Constitution Ring, and the list goes on.

: And though Vyse’s haxxy equipment like his Defensive Aura can shut out basic 1v1 combat, it can be bypassed by magic or Super Move usage. He may have the Valuan Medallion that makes him immune to instant-death, but Balthier’s Warp doesn’t necessarily count as instant-death in an exact way. It literally just moves the target to another dimension. Similarly to Balthier’s Oil magic, which just coats the foe in oil. In fact, Oil can be removed with a literal Handkerchief in Final Fantasy XII, implying it isn’t a conventional condition.

: Speaking of magic, Balthier does hold the edge in magic and equipment just because of how much more effective it is. Vyse’s magic is very limited, and the majority is offensive. And while Vyse can only use magic based on his MP, which may as well be a fixed number of uses, Balthier’s MP regenerates over time and through combat, or he can just wear the Turtleshell Choker and take advantage of his Gil. He also has Techniks he can call on to fight with, with some like Sight Unseeing being a conditional, borderline one-shot.

: But Vyse holds the edge with Super Moves being far more useful than Balthier’s Quickenings for their own versatility and spammability.

: But all things considered, Balthier just holds too many advantages in this bout. Vyse, with a few more advantages could’ve won, but what he has doesn’t fly against his opponent!

: The winner is: Balthier