Level Rising
By Copper Thrice
Duel of Promise 2/2
I don't own Yu-Gi-Oh GX
"Man," said Kyle sitting down next to Cain. "Jake better pull somethin out of his hat or this duel's done…"
Cain nodded solemnly.
"That Ellie girl's pretty good though. Ya think Jake has a chance," asked Kyle to Cain.
Cain stayed silent, looking intently at the battlefield in front of the Society of Light dorm.
Kyle and Cain heard sniggering behind them. They turned to see a small gang of Society of Light duelists.
"If yur rooting for that guy down there you might as well stop." Said one student who was ahead of the pack. His grey eyes and white blazer blended in with his group. "Ellie Watcher was the one who got us to see the Light. Soon that kid will follow in our footsteps. He's just another foolish rookie who faced her."
"I'm not so sure," said Cain. The white students faced Cain. Cain turned to Kyle. "You faced him, you should know." Cain shot Kyle a grin. Kyle grinned back.
"Yeah," said Kyle turning back towards the match.
Jake: 1900
Ellie: 3000
"Alright," said Jake, "I summon my Armed Dragon LV 3! (1200/900)"
A small, yellow dragon with pieces of armor appeared n front of Jake. It gave a small roar when it was summoned. Ellie blinked in surprise when the dragon did that.
Jake was usually fazed by stuff like that, but right now he was too focused on the match.
"Now I'll activate my face-down card, Level Up!" yelled Jake as the hologram of a spell flipped up. "I'll use it to transform my dragon into Armed Dragon LV 5! (2400/1700)"
The little dragon glowed and grew larger. Its scaly skin became a deep red and its armor thickened. In its hand appeared a black, spiked club. The newly empowered dragon let out a new, powerful roar. Jake merely stared straight forward, but Ellie flinched.
"This," she thought, "This is unnatural. Even for a hologram. Maybe…" she glared at Jake, "Maybe he really has changed."
"Woah," said Kyle. Then he turned to Cain. "Did you hear that?"
Cain looked at Kyle, confusion covered his face.
"What are you talking about?" asked Cain, "The only things I hear are you and those Society members over there."
Kyle blinked then spoke, "But… that dragon just…" Cain shrugged him off and watched the match.
Kyle looked down at the field. "Something's going on here," he thought.
"Alright," thought Jake as his monster silenced, "I don't have another monster in my hand to sacrifice for my dragon's ability, but my dragon's still stronger than her Reflect Bounder. I should be fine for now."
"I'll place a face-down card and end my turn," said Jake as a hologram of a card appeared at his feet.
"My turn," said Ellie drawing. "Hmmm," she thought, "Saartorius' cards… I could use these, but…" Ellie looked at Jake. "I can use this and Jake will lose pretty quickly. Do I really want to beat him? Maybe I should—"
"AAAAAHHHHHHH!!!" Ellie yelled as she clutched her head. She felt piercing pain in her head, and then a voice that seemed to calm the pain.
"Ellie…" said the voice softly, "Ellie…"
"M-master?" Ellie said aloud. She looked up and saw Jake was yelling something at her, but she couldn't hear him.
"Ellie… Why do you hesitate," said the voice of Saartorius in a slightly scolding tone. "Crush him my servant. Use the cards I gave you."
"N-no…" Ellie said. Then a new spike of pain stabbed her mind.
"You are mine, Ellie Watcher," said the voice, "I will give you my power."
Ellie screamed as blinding light surrounded her. The spectators had to shield their eyes. Jake's eyes felt pain even though he shielded them. It was so bright, but at the same time it felt… evil.
Ellie's scream subsided and she bowed down to the ground.
"Ellie—"yelled Jake worriedly. Suddenly the hologram of the dragon stepped in front of Jake. It looked at him over its shoulder and seemed to tell Jake to stay back.
Jake knew it was a hologram, but he stayed back and watched Ellie rise.
When Ellie stood, her eyes were closed and she began laughing. Her eyes opened and the iris's were pure white. An evil white aura surrounded her.
The voice of her Master spoke to Ellie, "Crush him."
"Yes, Master," she replied. Then she pulled a card out of her hand and played it. "I activate my Ritual Spell card, Shinato's Ark!" A spell card appeared in front of her.
"Now I sacrifice a monster from my hand and my Reflect Bounder to summon…"
The mirrored monster and a hologram of a card were sucked into the Ritual Card.
A new light shone from the sky. It somehow held a mysterious power within it.
A huge monster came down from the light. It was a humanoid monster with six wings and a flowing, white robe. Its arms were armored and so were its legs. Its head was adorned with a pointed, gold crown.
"Shinato, King of a Higher Plane! (3300/3000)" proclaimed Ellie as the monster took its place behind her.
"Great," thought Jake, "The last time I faced a powerful monster Jaden was able to help me, but now…"
"Shinato! Destroy his pathetic dragon!" yelled Ellie.
The monster focused energy between its hands. The monster rose its hands high and threw the ball of energy at Jake's monster.
"I activate my face-down, Rush Recklessly!" Yelled Jake as the ball of light came towards him. "It increases my Armed Dragon's attack by 700 points!"
Armed Dragon LV 5: 3100/1700
The ball of energy struck the empowered dragon, but the energy wasn't enough to stop Shinato's blast.
With a final roar, the red dragon shattered.
Jake: 1900
Ellie: 3000
Jake looked up at the angelic monster. Hope was dwindling for him.
"Oh, by the way," said Ellie, a cruel smile on her face, "Whenever my monster destroys another monster in battle, their Defense Points are subtracted from your Life Points."
Jake's eyes widened and he looked at his duel disk. Sure enough, his LP was draining.
Jake: 0200
Ellie: 3000
"Hmmm…" thought Ellie, "If I underestimate Jake's chances again, I might pay for it…"
"I'll activate my Swords of Revealing Light!" yelled Ellie as the evil aura of light around her shined brighter. "It makes it so that you can't attack me for three turns." Ellie laughed, "But I guess before turns it will all be over. You can at least take pride in knowing that this was some of your best dueling." Ellie laughed again.
Swords made of pure light surrounded the field around Jake.
"I'm going to lose," thought Jake, "I can't win this… I shouldn't have even come. What was I thinking challenging her? I've been dueling her for years and I haven't beat her once."
Suddenly, Jake opened his eyes and he was no longer on the battlefield outside the Societies' dorm. He was standing in some kind of ancient temple room. There were old stones that made up the walls and a single hole in the ceiling that provided light.
Jake looked around and saw five crystals. They were emerald colored and they were as big as he was.
"Hey," said a young voice from one of the crystals.
Jake turned around to see a short figure 'melt' out of one of the five crystals. It instantly lost its radiance.
The figure was child-like. He wore a pointed helmet and a sash around his mouth. He was clad in light, purple armor and he had a sword sheathed at his side.
"How's it goin, Jake," the warrior asked crossing his arms.
Jake blinked, "You… you know my name." Jake shook his head. "Wait, wait a minute. Your not real, you're a—"
"Duel Monster?" said the warrior sarcastically, "Well, your half right." The warrior drew his sword and Jake took a step back. "Oh, like I would hurt you. Yeesh." The warrior held his sword out and proclaimed himself.
"I am the Mystic Swordsman," The warrior sheathed his sword. "Jake, It's time that you finally met the crew."
Suddenly, three figures 'melted' out of the crystals.
One was a warrior about Jake's height with a blue, flowing robe and blonde hair. On his back was a great sword with magic symbols on it.
"That's Silent Swordsman," Said the Mystic Swordsman, walking up beside Jake.
The next figure was a silver, birdlike dragon that was about up to Jake's stomach. It chirped and a tongue of black flame shot from its mouth.
"That's Horus," Said the Mystic Swordsman.
The last figure to emerge was very familiar to Jake. It was a small, yellow dragon with plates of light armor. It landed in front of Jake and croaked something at him.
"That's Armed Dragon," said the Mystic Swordsman, "He's apologizing for not being of much use during your match." The dragon gave a sad, guttural sound.
"Uh," said Jake taking all this in, "That's okay… Your roar was pretty good though."
The dragon nodded happily and walked over to its allies.
"Listen, Jake" said the purple warrior standing by the others. "We need to talk, something's come up. Something evil."
"Yeah," said Jake, "The Society of Light, I know. You know, you guys are a bit late on finding that out. They've been around for a while."
"Yeah, yeah. You don't have to worry about the Society. We've received word from the NeoSpacians that its going to be taken care of." Said the Mystic Swordsman.
"The Neo-who?" asked Jake.
"Never mind," said the Mystic Swordsman shaking his head. "We've recently found out that a new force is rising. If or when the Society falls, this new evil will arrive and try to upset the balance of Light and Darkness. I believe you met with a couple of this new evil's servants. They were the Charles brothers, Yin and Yang."
Jake blinked, he remembered those two. They had faced him and Jaden and almost won.
"The monster they summoned, Dark Dreadroute was a servant of this new force. If you had lost to it, chances are that you would dwell in Darkness right now."
"Wow," said Jake taking all this in. "Listen, guys, I'd love to help, but I'm in a little fix right now. In case you have forgotten, I'm sorta in a duel right now."
"Yes, we know that all too well and we want to see Ellie back as well. If we interfered in any way, the duel will be forfeit, so we've never helped you in your duels. We're pretty surprised to see your progress, though." Said the purple-clad swordsman.
"Yeah, but apparently I'm still not that good, I'm going to get stomped." Said Jake
"We know," said the Swordsman solemnly. "But, on the off chance that you do win, you'll have to face the new force. But… If you want to just lose this match and become a Society member, we can try to get someone else to beat you and return you to normal… You could lead a normal life after that."
Jake thought for a moment. Could he really just give in and all this weird stuff would be over. He could stay in the Society with Ellie and…
"No…" Jake said aloud. The monsters looked up at him intently. "You know, I could lose this duel and things may end up okay, but…" Jake looked up at the hole in the ceiling where pure light poured on him. "I made a promise…."
The monsters looked at each other. The Silent Swordsman gave a grin and Horus chirped happily.
"To help Ellie, if she ever got into trouble…"
The Armed Dragon's tail twitched happily and he gave a small roar.
"And you know what…?"
The Mystic Swordsman gave a chuckle as he put his hand on his blade.
"I keep my promises!" said Jake with new resolve.
"In that case, it's time to break out the big guns." Said the Mystic Swordsman. He then pointed towards the only crystal that still shined.
Jake walked up to it and put his hand on the crystal.
After a flash of light, Jake was back at Duel Academy, Shinato still loomed menacingly over Ellie and her white aura.
Jake gave a grin as he lowered his hand onto his deck.
"My turn?" Jake asked
"I don't see why you're in such a hurry to lose," said Ellie, "But, yeah it's your turn."
"Got it," Jake said drawing. "Alright," thought Jake.
"Hey, Ellie," yelled Jake across the field.
"What?" she responded angrily.
"You might remember this card. A long time back, I said that I'd use this card as the Flow of my deck. Here it is!" said Jake as he played his newly drawn card.
A new figure, the size of a child, was summoned. It had a long, white robe in front of it with a blue outfit on underneath it. It had a short, magician's rod and a white, pointed hat. Its hair was long and grey; it went down to its shoulders.
"Meet Silent Magician LV 4! (1000/1000)" The mage looked up at Ellie with its deep, blue eyes.
"That monster may be the core of your deck," said Ellie, "But it still pales in comparison to my King of a Higher Plane."
"Yeah," said Jake with a grin, "But watch this! I activate Excavation of Mage Stones! I can discard two cards from my hand," Jake sent his two cards to the graveyard. "Now I get a spell card from my graveyard of my choice. I choose… Level Up!"
Jake drew the spell from his graveyard slot on the duel disk.
"Now I activate my spell to turn my Silent Magician LV 4 into…" The mage lifted itself into the air and pure light surrounded it. Its magician's rod grew and energy cackled around it. Its grey hair grew down to its back. It grew until it was taller than Jake by about a head.
"Silent Magician LV 8! (3500/1000)" yelled Jake as his monster formed.
It hovered with a magical hum in front of Jake and it was then that Jake, after years of having this card in his deck, noticed something.
"What the…" Jake said to the monster, "You're a girl?"
It was indeed true that the Silent Magician was female. She turned towards Jake and crossed her arms as if to say, "Is that a problem?"
Jake just shook his head. "Keep it together," he thought. The Magician turned back towards Ellie with a determined look in her eyes.
"I have to finish this duel now, or Ellie will counterattack." Thought Jake.
"I activate my equip spell, Megamorph!" yelled Jake as he played the last card in his hand. "It doubles the attack points of the monster I equip it too as long as my Life Points are lower than yours."
The Magician knelt down and a magical circle surrounded her. Magical energy poured into her and she rose. Her energy completely overshadowing Shinato's.
Silent Magician LV 8: 7000/1000
"Now, Silent Magician," yelled Jake, "Attack!"
The mage lifted high into the air, energy trailed behind her.
"Wait," said Ellie worriedly, the aura of light fading around her. "My swords make it so that you can't attack on your turn. The swords of light shot up at the mage to stop her.
"No, they don't," said Jake, "My Magician can't be touched by any of my opponent's spell cards.
The mage held out the hand that didn't hold the rod and a wave of blue energy shot at the swords. The swords fell to the ground, useless.
"ELLIE," yelled Jake at his old friend, "I KEEP MY PROMISES!"
The mage charged a massive amount of energy into its rod and it formed into a huge ball that was almost the size of the Society's dorm. With a silent yell, the mage hurled the sphere at Shinato.
The monster didn't even try to counter.
It knew it was done.
In a flash of blinding light and waves of energy…
It was done.
Jake: 0200
Ellie: 0000
The aura faded from Ellie who was now on her knees. Her eyes closed and she fell to the ground.
Jake turned off his duel disk and rushed over to help her. The holographic dust disappeared in an instant.
"Ellie?" he asked as he rose her up from the dust. "Are you alright?"
She stirred and opened her eyes. Her uniform turned dark blue and her eyes returned to hazel color.
"Jake," she asked softly, "Why are you at Duel Academy?"
Jake smiled and gave a short laugh which confused Ellie.
"What's so funny?" Then she looked at her duel disk. "Life Points… Zero…" Then she saw Jake's disk.
She sat up with a shocked expression. "Don't tell me we dueled and I… and I…"
Jake crossed his arms and grinned.
"I lost…" Ellie said softly, then they both laughed. "Not bad, Jake, not bad." She said approvingly. Then she looked at Jake's side of the field.
"You might want to turn off your duel disk, though. Continuous hologram usage drains the battery." Ellie said standing up. 'Nice monster though, you finally managed to summon her. Told you she was a girl"
Jake grinned and stood up. He pointed to his duel disk and Ellie's eyes widened.
The duel disk WAS off.
Ellie turned back towards the monster who, smiled and faded away into the light.
"What hologram?" he asked with a smile, "C'mon, I'll fill you in on the way to the KaibaCorp embassy."
And so the two friends walked together once again…
But is their journey really over?
Epilogue and Author's notes soon
Thanks for viewing--------------------------Copper Thrice