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Fox needed to close the case on Link's second life quickly if he was going to hang on to his advantage, but he just couldn't seem to find his edge anymore. He grabbed for his blaster again, but gave up after Link easily blocked the first shot. Fox then tried to juke out Link with a quick roll around, but Link was unjukable, and tossed him into the air with a high air slash. Then Link the Unjukable slashed him into the air again, and followed him up to thrust his sword upward and hit Fox even higher. Fox fell on the low tower and waited as Link followed, finally getting his break by catching Link with a low tail sweep. At his high damage the move sent Link high into the heavens to end his second life, though Fox hadn't held onto much of a lead as he himself was in danger of being knocked off at 108%.Link drifted down from the resurrection platform to the right of the level, and when Fox foolishly tried to attack him despite his invincibility, he simply threw a high sword jab and hit Fox up and away. He then jumped off the middle platform to stab Fox again into the air, sending Fox to the right of the awning with heightened damage. Link touched ground to the left of the awning and quickly sprinted underneath it to put an end to Fox, jutting his sword out at Fox before he could quite recover from his fall. Fox wasn't sent out far before he was able to jump nearly back to the platform, and while still out in the open air he burst into a firefox attack aimed directly at Link. Link stood his ground, raised the Master Sword high above his head, and as Fox raced towards him like a comet, Link brought the sword down and sent him soaring backwards into the right edge of the stage. Link raised his sword in a victory taunt as he finally tied up the match.
Fox fell down from the tower where he was resurrected, and Link, coming off some major momentum int he match, jumped into Fox with a hard slash attack, but with Fox still invincible it had no effect. Just then Fox tried to torch Link with the firefox that had failed him just before, but he aimed too high and missed, landing to the left of the tower where Link was waiting for him. Fox hopped into the air and gave Link a back kick to Link's jaw, and Link answered with a strong hack of his sword to knock Fox back. They got back into a rhythm of rolling and grappling, for awhile just shuffling back and forth trying to gain an edge in position. Link dodged right behind Fox, Fox dodged left to get some distance, Link dodged left to get behind Fox again, and finally Fox took the opportunity to land a hit, dropping into a smash attack split kick to make Link tumble to the right. Fox then fired his blaster at Link, but Link shielded it and responded with his boomerang. All Fox had to do to respond in kind was to power up his reflector, but Link was able to shield the reflected boomerang in time. Fox once again had the lead, having brought Link's damage up to 46% to outweigh his own 18% by quite a bit. Now it was crunch time, as a whirlwind kicked up on the middle platform of the high tower; the match would be decided in the next minute. Try not to fall off the edge of your seat!
Fox dashed at Link and slid into a kick while Link let the kick meet his shield. Fox let off a blaster shot and instead of leaving up the shield, possibly out of fear of being grabbed if he shielded too long, Link jumped over it, which allowed Fox to catch him in a juggle kick that resulted in three successive juggles before Link could free himself from the attack, bringing his damage all the way up to 114%. When Link finally was able to gain control, he caught Fox with a high sword stab that sent him right into the grips of the whirlwind that spun him up to 42% damage. After being spit out by the whirlwind, Fox fell down into the mosh pit area near the awning on the right of the level, where Link was waiting for him. Just before he hit the ground, Fox knocked Link off kilter with half a juggle kick. Then before Link could get back to his feet, Fox erupted into a firefox attack right into the Hylian hero. Link was at high damage by now, and instead of trying to press the attack he simply had to free himself from Fox's non-stop assault, so when Fox jumped back up at him to take the fight to the air, Link used his spin attack to jump over Fox's imminent juggle kick. But despite Link's best efforts, Fox wasn't about to stop while he had the momentum going, and air-hopped over to catch Link in the juggle kick. Link suffered the hit, but when Fox came back for seconds, Link dropped low and them air-hopped back up to give Fox a high stab. Link was feeling the hurt at 155%, but he was sure going ot give Fox a run for his money, even if Fox was only at 58%.
Link touched ground under the awning as Fox fell down from the left, and Link swung his sword high to snap Fox back, spinning him end over end until he hit the ground in a heap. Link tried to catch him with another hack, but Fox rolled himself to safety adn then once on his feet he let loose with multiple blaster shots. With Link shielding every hit, Fox's patience snapped and he gave up the blaster attack to try to jump over and catch Link off guard. But Link was one step ahead and met Fox in the air with a high stab, following it up with an aerial spin attack to blast Fox back to the middle ground of the roof. Link was still on death's door at 177%, but Fox's damage was rapidly rising to smashable levels, already up to 98%.
The two young heroes met under the tower and Link made for a death blow with his deadly spin attack, but Fox dodged backwards to safe ground just in time. Either out of tricks or reluctant to engage head-on, Fox once again reached for the blaster to hammer out one shot after another of blaster fire, but Link just held his shield up and waited for Fox to try something else. It all came to a head as Fox made the same mistake as last time, dropping the blaster fire to make for an aerial assault, and once again Link took advantage by jumping into a high stab attack. Somehow, out of nowhere, Fox was able to recover himself enough to air hop back to Link, and before Link could react Fox seized the opportunity and spun himself into a double-kick that launched Link end over end into the great beyond!
And that was all there was to it! Close as it was, Fox's speed and aerial acrobatics won out over Link's swordplay. Could things have gone differently had Link made better use of his extensive arsenal of weaponry? We'll leave that question up to the philosophers, because in this tournament all that matters is winning, just like in real life (sorry kids but it's true). Still, a good match for both opponents, and Fox should make a good showing in the semi-finals, which start now!
Mario, Donkey Kong, Luigi, Captain Falcon, Kirby, and Fox will meet in the semi-finals, and it's still up to you to decide who battles who and how they rumble. With the lesser fighters weeded out and the stakes higher, this is bound to be even better than the last round! First up is Donkey Kong, so get out there and vote!
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