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"There’s gotta be someway out of here!" Fiddlesticks growled as it looked around frenzied. Waving its lantern arm around, searching for an exit from Ekko’s trap that didn’t exist.
Ekko smirked, "All the trouble I went through to bring you here and you wanna leave already?"
Fiddlesticks glared at Ekko before raising its scythe-wielding hand high.
"I brought my board, let’s play Harp!" The monster chirped as they slammed their scythe down on the ground, and out from the point of impact, a chessboard spread across the floor of the pocket dimension.
"Never been a big fan of chess." Ekko began "being ten steps ahead of everybody, always made it seem kinda pointless."
For some reason, his dismissal of the game seemed to upset the corrupted guardian even more. They leapt towards him with a swing that would’ve cleaved him in half had he not dodged. Even after dodging, he found no respite. Fiddlesticks hounded him, lashing out with a multitude of strikes.
"H-hey hold on! I thought the king could only move one space at a time!" Ekko quipped, inwardly, however, he was surprised. He had known Fiddlesticks would be powerful the type of opponent that would take the whole team to defeat, but knowing and seeing are two different things. As things stood, it was only a matter of when the creature from the chaos realm would kill Ekko.
Ekko only lasted four minutes and thirty six seconds before Fiddlesticks landed a devastating strike, leaving Ekko on the floor in two pieces. As his life drained away, he pulled on the power given to him by the First Star, reversing time in the area around his body to bring it back to perfect condition.
"Let me out! Please! Let me go!" Screamed Fiddlesticks as they swung their scythe wildly, trying to brute force their way through the prison Ekko had trapped them both in.
Rubbing his stomach where it had previously been bisected, he said unapologetically, "Sorry, I couldn’t even if I wanted to. The only way out is if someone on the outside lets us out."
The creature of darkness paused, turning slowly to face him with a look of confusion on its face. "Star… Guardian?"
"Yes?"
"Diiie!" It lunged, and the deadly dance began again.
"I don’t suppose we could talk this out?" He parried a strike that would’ve taken his head off. "I’ll take that as a no."
Ekko fought his hardest, sneaking in strikes in between all the ducking and dodging, but none left a scratch. As numerous star guardians before him had learned, crossing paths with Fiddlesticks was a death sentence. He lasted longer this time—five minutes two seconds. Fiddlesticks’ powerful offensive had forced him to give ground constantly, and it wasn’t long until he backed up into one of the oversized chess pieces littered all over the place. His final words couldn’t escape his throat before it was separated from his shoulders.
Reversing time yet again, Ekko picked himself off the floor and said, "It doesn’t matter how many times you kill me if I don’t stay dead."
Tightening their grip on their scythe Fiddlesticks grinned "EveRy guArdian Falls eVentually."
"Well, isn’t that ominous." Ekko replied as he raised his sword.