Waddle Doo made the first move after little to no prior thought. He simply charged forward, arms flailing. Bandanna Dee sighed. That was exactly how it happened the last time, and Waddle Doo was left bedridden for a week as a result of it. He should've learned his lesson after that.

The Dyorux guy easily avoided the reckless assault by sidestepping and comically sticking his foot out. Waddle Doo tripped right over it and went tumbling head-over-heels (or, in his case, eye-over-feet) before coming to a stop a few feet away, grumbling in anger.

Despite a minor knock to the head and some dirt in the eye, Waddle Doo wouldn't be discouraged so easily. He rolled to his feet and charged forward again, which produced results identical to the last. Standing up once more, Waddle Doo finally remembered that he possessed the ability to fire electric whips from his eye, albeit much later than he should have. After a bit more thought than the previous two attempts, he managed to develop something resembling a feint strategy.

Waddle Doo charged forward again, pretending as if he just hadn't learned his lesson. Just as Dyourx turned to trip him again, he stopped short. Without a moment's hesitation, he whacked Dyorux with a very low-powered energy-whip. The cloaked character reeled backwards a step, releasing a grunt.

He recovered in an instant and finally performed an actual attack, flinging a fireball from his flaming hands. His aim was, thankfully, not the best, as the fireball went sailing harmlessly past Waddle Doo and puffed out in the inflammable dirt. Waddle Doo countered with a weak burst of energy from his eye. Dyorux sustained a direct hit and was sent skidding backwards.

"All right!" Sir Kibble said as he pumped his fist into the air.

"Ooh!" Bandanna Dee gasped and covered his eyes. He practically felt it.

Waddle Doo chortled and said sarcastically, "You sir are certainly a powerful fighter. I haven't encountered anyone as tough as you since Bandanna Dee and I faced off against that practically-sentient mold in the back of the refrigerator last month."

Bandanna Dee shuddered at the thought. That truly was a disgusting mold, not to mention nearly impossible to clean out. Never again would he forget to throw out the leftover casserole. He felt sick just thinking about it.

"I really wish I knew what all the hype was about." Waddle Doo continued, "Because what you've shown me so far isn't nearly as impressive as I expected."

"Silence, knave! Thou hast not yet endured my incredible wrath!" Dyorux shouted. "Thee shall-" "Bah, quiet down!" Waddle Doo interrupted. Without attempting to speak again, Dyorux began to unleash a flurry of fireballs on his adversary again. Waddle Doo didn't even try to move out of the way of the abysmally aimed attack. He ran forward and began to counterattack.

Bandanna Dee, having several taboos against violence, wasn't exactly enjoying the fight. He was proud that Waddle Doo was able to hold his own in a fight with an alleged sorcerer, but only because it meant that Waddle Doo wouldn't get too badly hurt, if at all. He felt bad for Dyorux, even though he was rude to him. Waddle Doo was fighting with a power level equivalent to getting whacked with a thin stick, it could still smart a bit.

The fight went on for a while longer, with Waddle Doo and Dyorux on even footing. Although they seemed to be equal, Waddle Doo seemed to hold the torch of superiority just a bit more often. Bandanna Dee had enough and was about to try and stop the fight.

"Stop!" somebody shouted before he could. Waddle Doo stopped in mid-dodge and Dyorux in mid-attack to look toward the source. Bandanna Dee and Sir Kibble looked as well. Walking from the direction of the festival was another Dee-sized being clad in a cloak nearly identical to Dyorux's, save for a purple coloration.

Dyorux immediately forgot about his battle with Waddle Doo and ran up to Purple-Cloak. Waddle Doo made a bewildered "wha?" sound. Dyorux knelt at Purple-Cloak's feet, which for a Dee-sized person with no legs consisted of hunching forward a bit and looking at the ground. "My master." he said, "What duty dust thou bestow upon me?"

"Cease and desist immediately." Purple-Cloak said. "There's no need for you to fight with these people. Now, return to base."

Dyorux replied, "My almighty master…if I dust depart, who shalt smite yonder adversary?" he turned to glare at Waddle Doo for a moment.

"I'll take care of it." Purple-Cloak said. "Now go."

"Ast thou wish." Dyorux said before standing upright. Paying no further attention to Waddle Doo or Bandanna Dee (and still paying no attention whatsoever to Sir Kibble), Dyorux walked off into the night.

Waddle Doo was up in Purple-Cloak's face in an instant. "Who do you think you are, stopping the fight like that?" he asked, exasperated.

Bandanna Dee called out weakly, "Waddle Doo! Please don't get in another fight!" If Dyorux referred to Purple-Cloak as "master", that inherently meant that the master would be the stronger of the two. Even though Waddle Doo was able to nearly best Dyorux, the master would probably be a lot stronger.

"Quiet, Bandanna Dee!" Waddle Doo said, not taking his eye off of Purple-Cloak. "Why did you do that? I was just about to win!"

Purple-Cloak nodded. "You probably were, but I couldn't have you hurting him. I mean, I broken assistant isn't any better than no assistant, is it?"

"Assistant? What?"

"Look, it's a long story." Purple-Cloak noticed a cluster of picnic tables off to one side. "Let's go have a seat over there, and I'll explain everything." When he didn't receive a response, he motioned at a paper bag he had in one hand. "I have cookies."

"We're in!" Bandanna Dee and Sir Kibble said simultaneously.

Once they were situated, Purple-Cloak passed out two cookies to everybody and began. "My name is Kurai, and I'm a professional magician who performs all over Dreamland. You may have-" "Just cut to the chase." Waddle Doo interjected impatiently.

Sir Kibble tore a chunk of cookie off and tossed it into the slot in his helmet. With his mouth full, he said, "Yeah. While I'm sure that you have an interesting life, I'm more interested in finding out what the story is behind the Dyorux guy."

Kurai sighed. "Fine. As you might've guessed, Dyorux isn't all right in the head. He thinks he's a sorcerer from medieval times who serves as an apprentice under the great wizard Kurai. Before you ask, no, I do not know why." He nibbled a bit on one of his cookies. "Basically, I couldn't get rid of him. No matter what I tried, he just wouldn't go away. Eventually, I figured out that an assistant who worked for free actually wasn't so bad. We just go around and do shows, and I just tell him we're performing for the King's court or some other nonsense."

Bandanna Dee had already gobbled up both of his cookies. "Isn't that a little…wrong?" he asked. "Why didn't you get him some mental help instead of just using him for free labor?"

"I tried. But whether I took him to a doctor or had a therapist do a house call, he'd always freak out and attack them with those fireballs."

"Is he actually a real sorcerer?" Waddle Doo asked.

"No. He's just pyrokinetic, like a Hothead or a Burning Leo. I don't know why he thinks he's a sorcerer either, so don't ask." He reasserted himself in his seat. "Now, wait. Why were you fighting him, anyway?"

Sir Kibble told the story. "We were leaving the festival, and Bandanna Dee just bumped into him. He started yelling, and Waddle Doo picked a fight with Dyorux to defend Bandanna Dee."

"Ah. Well, I admire the care that you have for your friend." Kurai said to Waddle Doo.

"Why did he start yelling at me when I bumped into him?" Bandanna Dee asked.

He shrugged. "He tends to have a really explosive temper. If anything even goes slightly wrong, he usually flips out and starts yelling at everyone." He chuckled. "I will admit, that was an impressive fight. You're in the King's army, aren't you?"

"Sure, but you can't really call it an army." Sir Kibble grumbled. "We're more like just a group of people that gets paid to stand directly in Kirby's way if he goes looking to stop the King."

"Oh?" Kurai seemed very interested. "So you don't really do much fighting?"

"It all depends on who we are. People like Waddle Doo use their beam whips, and people like me use these sharp boomerang things." He snorted. "Heh. It doesn't take much skill at all. We don't even receive any formal training."

"You don't?"

"None at all. I guess it's just not worth the time and money to train us to annoy Kirby whenever he goes on an adventure once every few months." He sighed. "He usually just plows through us anyway.

"That's right." Waddle Doo confirmed. "And when he does, it's usually for something stupid. A couple years ago, he went ballistic because he lost a piece of strawberry shortcake. I mean, who does that?"

"Hey now." Bandanna Dee said. "He's a really nice guy. When the King told me (of all people) to stop him from getting to the castle arena, I got really scared. I explained the situation to Kirby and he let me go without a scratch."

"Yeah, but-" "That's enough about Kirby." Kurai broke in. "I just need to confirm something: so you guys receive no formal military training whatsoever?"

"No."

"Nope."

"Nu-uh."

Kurai snickered. "Interesting."

"Why do you ask?" Bandanna Dee asked.

"No reason. Just curious." He looked at the watch that he didn't have and rose from his seat. "Well, I'd best be going. It's been nice to meet you. I'm sure we'll be seeing each other again sometime soon." He walked off in the same direction as Dyorux.

Bandanna Dee innocently asked, "What do you think he meant by 'seeing each other again sometime soon?'"

"Heck if I know." Sir Kibble said as he dove forward. "All I care about is that he left the rest of the cookies behind!"