Chapter 9

The black aura surrounding the strange man pulsed like a heart beat as it expanded and contracted around him. Oddly, the aura didn't seem attached to him, it just seemed to float around him like a shroud of smoke. Jade's eyes narrowed as she watched it. That's also when she noticed his duel disk, recognizing it from mental images sent by James' Duel Spirits. It was the same design as Deathless' disk.

"If you want to duel, then get out of the way so I can get my disk." Jade's clipped tone snapped at the man. He grinned evilly in response.

"I could do that, but that would make things fair and I don't have orders to allow a fair fight," The black aura seemed to agree as it surged for a moment. "Besides, I can use the power given to me to bring out beasts to tear you apart without a duel."

In response to that declaration, the aura expanded further than it had been doing until now. Out of it came half a dozen beasts. They looked like wolves, but their fur was exceedingly dark, their claws were powerfully sharp and they each had a pair of bull horns on their head. Growling and snapping their jaws, they showed off knife-like fangs. The man was laughing his head off as the wolf-like beasts advanced on the Warden, who merely crossed her arms with a scowl on her face.

"My own personal pack of hellwolves. There won't be anything left of you when they're through!" The wolves lunged at Jade, who showed no sign of being worried by the beasts. As the nearest ones came close, Jade shot out a hand in a chop. Apparently, her hands were blades as her chop cut through the beasts like they weren't even there. She met the rest of the hellwolves with a chop each, their bodies reduced to smoke before they touched the ground again.

The man stood there, flabbergasted, "My hellwolves...I raised them from pups...how did you slaughter them so easily?"

Jade stretched out a bit before answering, "If they were dire hellwolves, I would have been a little worried. You apparently do not know much about Duel Spirit Wardens. We all have divine backing in our job so it is easy to get anything we may need for work. Take my titanium-plated gloves, for instance. I, myself, may not be magically inclined like some other Wardens, but these gloves have many Saint enchantments on them."

Snapping out of his daze during the explanation, the man stepped off to one side to allow Jade access to her motorcycle while remarking, "Saint enchantments...high-level holy magic. Now I get it. My precious wolves didn't stand a chance."

While watching the man out of the corner of her eye, Jade walked up to her bike and opened her storage attached to the back. She reached in and pulled out a custom disk. At first glance, it could be mistaken for an Orichalcos disk except it was a light platinum color and its runes were vastly different. The disk activated and the tray extended, which was like a slimmer version of a normal disk, unlike the scythe of the Orichalcos that the evil disk would have. The evil man activated his disk, but unlike Deathless' disk, the dome that became the tray didn't split into three sections for the slots. Instead, it extended away from the base and very slim slots popped out between the dome and base like they were spring loaded.

With a snap of her fingers, a deck appeared in Jade's right hand, which she quickly loaded into the deck slot on the base. As the man was loading his, he commented on her summoning her deck, "That was quite a trick for someone who isn't inclined towards magic."

Jade's answer was, "There is a difference between not having inclination towards something and not being able to do it. I would rather be at a gym than studying old, dusty books. Because of this, the few strong spells I can use on my own would be ranked 5 if you went by D&D standards."

He frowned, "So you're saying that if you wanted to, you could master magic like a wizard could? Quite a bold claim, little girl."

A smirk came with the answer, "Being a Warden means having the power needed to subdue mighty beasts that can be equal or greater to forces of nature. Not that I really need that kind of power to whip you good."

The man scowled, "Enough inane babble."

"LET'S DUEL!" They shouted in unison.

(Jade-8000LP, ?-8000LP)

The unnamed man drew his hand, "I'll start!"

Jade merely shrugged as he thought out his turn. He took two cards from his hand, setting one down in a magic and trap slot before setting the other down above it.

"I'll set one card down and summon Elemental Hero Stratos!" (1800/300) A man with blue skin fell from the sky to land in front of the mystery man. He wore futuristic armor over his lower body and parts of his upper body with a pair of fan-equipped wings on his back.

As the Hero monster landed, Jade had a scowl on her face while saying, "A man who raises hellwolves using a Hero deck. You are a very twisted individual."

The man grinned evilly as he welcomed the insult, "Thank you, I do like to be complimented on my work. However, flattery will get you nowhere in this duel. Stratos' effect activates!"

Jade closed her eyes as she interrupted, "When he is normal or special summoned, you can select one of two effects. Either you add a Hero monster from your deck to your hand or destroy spell and/or trap cards on the field equal to the number of Hero monsters you control other than Stratos himself. Is that what you were going to say?"

Seemingly like he had been slapped in the face, the unnamed man did manage to get out, "Yes...and since I'm starting this duel, I'll add a Hero monster to my hand."

A card slid out of his deck and he showed it to Jade, "Elemental Hero Bladedge (2600/1800) is my pick."

Jade's eyes narrowed as he set it in his hand and plucked a different card to play. A Continuous Spell card appeared on the field, its image of a group of skycrapers being sucked into a warp hole. She once again spoke up about the card he played, "Future Fusion. You select fusion material monsters from your deck and send them to the graveyard. After your second Standby Phase, you get to summon the monster those fusion material belonged to. So, who are you going to bring out?"

An evil grin was his response as five cards slipped from his deck. The number of cards caused Jade's eyes to narrow once more, even more so when they were revealed to be Elemental Hero Necroshade (1600/1800), Elemental Hero Neos (2500/2000), Destiny Hero - Dasher (2100/1000), Destiny Hero - Disk Commander (300/300), and Neo-Spacian Air Hummingbird (800/600). He casually tossed them into the air and a vortex appeared out of the Future Fusion card to catch them. Looking over his hand once more, he snapped his fingers and said, "I'm done."

"Fine then, my turn!" Jade snapped the top card from the deck. She hardly even looked at her hand before she began her move. "I will start off with Sunlight Unicorn!" (1800/1000)

A bonfire ignited in front of Jade, but she didn't flinch, before burning out to leave a beautiful white unicorn with blue fire in place of its mane and tail, as well as, around each leg near the hoof. At its appearence, the evil Hero duelist burst out laughing.

"A tough as nails ex-general using My Little Pony. How cute." Jade just stood there, letting him laugh. When his laughter started dying down, she spoke.

"You have never seen what wild mustangs are capable of doing to a person, have you? Unicorns like this one can do a whole lot more. This perticular breed, for instance, lets me pick up the top card of my deck. If it is an Equip spell, I add it to my hand, but if not, then it is sent to the bottom of my deck. Prominence Forge!"

At the command, the fires on Sunlight Unicorn grew in size before washing over Jade. The top card popped loose for the Warden to pick up. She didn't even look at it before playing it.

"I activate Horn of the Unicorn!" The horn her monster had became coated in crystal, extending its range. (2500/1700) "This equip grants a 700 point increase to ATK and DEF. Now, I have a theory about what your set card is. Let us see if it holds water. Burning Impalement!"

Her unicorn's horn was engulfed in blue fire as it rushed the winged Hero with speed that'd put a sprinting racehorse to shame. Stratos had no time to react before the crystal coated horn pierced his chest, shattering him to pixels.

(Jade-8000LP, ?-7300LP)

As the Hero disappeared, the set card lifted up to reveal the image of a dark cityscape with a searchlight bearing a D on the clouds. With its image now revealed, the card produced its own searchlight as a card was ejected by the man's disk.

"Destiny Signal. Seems I was right." Jade muttered as the man plucked the card from the deck and played it. From a rooftop above them fell a crystal-masked hero wearing a dark suit and cape with several crystals seemingly growing out of him. "And it seems that your choice was Destiny Hero-Diamond Dude." (1400/1600)

Frowning, the man spoke up, "I'm sorry, but do you like stating the obvious? I can understand hammering the details into amateurs, but I am fully aware of my cards and actions."

Jade didn't react, only taking two cards from her hand and setting them down. Their holograms appeared behind Sunlight Unicorn as the duelist declared, "Turn to you."

The frown only deepened as her opponent drew his card. It disappeared as he saw the card. "I'll activate the effect of Destiny Hero-Dasher from my graveyard. Be summoned, my second Elemental Hero Stratos!"

Just like the first, the Hero monster dropped out of the sky and landed in front of his summoner. The man frown in thought as he looked over the field.

"I now have a decision to make. Which of your cards to destroy. Your set cards could easily be traps that would destroy my monsters if I attacked, but I could miss and hit the one card that won't stop me." The dark aura that still surrounded him pulsed and squirmed for a moment before the man continued speaking. "They won't do anything to stop my attacks, it seems. In that case, I'll take the direct approach and have Stratos destroy your Horn of the Unicorn!"

The futuristic Hero's fans created a powerful gust of wind that shattered the crystal covering on Sunlight Unicorn's horn(1800/1000). Afterwards, the crystal shards reformed into a card on top of Jade's deck.

"Now that I don't have to worry about that, I'll use Elemental Hero Necroshade's effect to summon Elemental Hero Bladedge without tribute!" From around a corner behind the man, came a huge, golden armored Hero with blades on his forearms and on his back were wings and a jetpack. He stoically crosses his arms in a way to point the blades at Jade. After a moment, the unnamed man pointed to Diamond Dude and said, "I'll wait a moment and let my gemstone Hero work his charms. Fate's Reflection!"

The back of a card appeared to reflect off the Hero's crystals, only to turn around and reveal itself to be Destiny Draw. A quick flash of light indicated the top card of the man's deck went to the graveyard. His mouth spread in an evil grin as he chuckled, "Oh, Destiny Draw. Lucky!"

With the grin still on his face, he then pointed to Bladedge and commanded, "Lead the charge, my Hero. Rocket Cross Cleave!"

The Hero's jetpack ignited, but the armored man braced himself to allow it to build up pressure for a powerful launch. As this pressure built up, though, both of Jade's face-down cards lifted to reveal two Continuous Traps.

"Reveal DNA Surgery and Berserking! All monsters will be Beasts!" DNA Surgery glowed with an unsettling light, which spread out to shine on the monsters. While nothing happened to Sunlight Unicorn, the three Heroes elongated and hunched over as their bodies changed and became bestial, bearing resemblance to primate species. Then, Jade continued speaking. "Berserking's effect activates now. I choose two Beast-type monsters. One loses half its ATK, which the other one gains for the remainder of the turn. I choose to half your Bladedge's ATK and add it to my Sunlight Unicorn!"

Berserking glowed with a rage red aura as Sunlight Unicorn gained the same aura and its muscles bulged (3100/1000). The armored Hero seemed to cringe away in fear, even as his rocket's thrust finally forced him to launch at the enemy before him (1300/1800). In his fear, Bladedge tried to turn himself around to escape, but he lost control of his jetpack and ended up impaling himself on Sunlight Unicorn's horn. The armored form shattered into triangles as the Hero duelist's lifepoints ticked down.

(Jade-8000LP, ?-5500LP)

The man glowered as he took one of his remaining cards and set it. His voice sounded almost feral when he growled, "Your move."

As the turn changed, the fiery unicorn reverted back to its previous bulk. With a stoic expression, Jade drew her card. Again, she didn't even look at it before adding it to her hand, but that isn't surprising as both duelists knew that it was Horn of the Unicorn. For a moment, she looked over the field before starting her move.

"Activate Ancient Rules! Now, one level five or higher normal monster is special summoned from my hand!" A scroll appeared, depicting a castle and a blue fiery dragon. The dragon image came to life as the scroll was consumed in similarly colored flames. A powerful neighing was heard as out of the fire came a violet horse carrying a blue armored rider, who was wielding two red lances. "Introducing Gaia, the Fierce Knight!" (2300/2100)

Not slowing down in the least, she took Horn of the Unicorn and slid it into an empty slot. Immediately, Sunlight Unicorn's horn was once more encased in the sharp crystal. (2500/1700) Not stopping there, she slammed her last card down onto an empty monster slot. Another powerful neighing could be heard as a dark wind coalesced into a darker version of the horse and rider she had just summoned. "When he is the only card in my hand, Swift Gaia, the Fierce Knight can be summoned without tribute!" (2300/2100)

The black aura around the unknown man shuddered a bit as the man himself adopted a look that said, 'This is going to hurt'. Jade merely shot out a hand and commanded, "Double Spiral Joust!"

First, the normal Fierce Knight galloped forward, jabbing with his lance as the wind pressure became a cutting spiral on his lance. A similar spiral shape appeared on Diamond Dude's chest upon impact, shattering him as the pressure of the blow continued on to hit the older man. Then, the darker version shot forward, a similar cutting spiral forming on his lance as he bore down on Statos. Just like with the original Gaia, the air pressure of the blow formed a spiral on Statos before he shattered and the force went on to strike the duelist behind him.

(Jade-8000LP, ?-4100LP)

However, before Sunlight Unicorn could begin his charge, a square hole reminiscent of a doorway appeared on the man's field. Out of it popped a man in a mostly light blue suit with large CDs on his wrists and like wings on his back. He landed in a crouch, using the disks on his wrists like shields. After that, the man drew two cards while saying, "I probably don't need to say this, but the attack allowed me to activate Damage Gate. Since it allowed me to summon a monster from my graveyard with ATK at most equal to the damage I took, I choose to summon Disk Commander."

"And since he was summoned from the graveyard, you got to draw twice. Rather smart of you to wait so that I would have to attack him with Sunlight Unicorn. It is common instinct to clear the path for the strongest monsters to attack directly." Jade commented offhandedly.

"I noticed something as well. You didn't activate Berserking's effect when it would have increased the damage I recieved." The dark aura seemed to pulse confirmation of this as the man glared at Jade. "Why didn't you?"

The Warden shrugged as Sunlight Unicorn charged, piercing Disk Commander with the crystal covered horn. The Hero shattered and then she indicated that her turn was over. Immediately after the man drew his card, Future Fusion glowed before releasing a chaotic vortex. A powerful form emerged from this swirling energy with a silver cord connecting the two, a massive white-suited Warrior wearing gold armor with a winged motif. With a battlecry, he stretched himself out before staring down at the duelist before him. (2500/2500)

Mad laughter erupted from the man, "You don't stand a chance now! Behold, Elemental Hero Divine Neos!" He took a moment to calm down before continuing, "However, before I get ahead of myself, I will activate Destiny Draw in my graveyard."

He drew twice more, but then immediate took a card from his hand and played it, "But why stop at one? I can activate Miracle Fusion to remove Dasher, Necroshade, Neos, Stratos and Air Hummingbird in my graveyard from play to fuse together a second Divine Neos!"

A vortex similar to Future Fusion's formed on the ground as specters of the selected monsters left the man's graveyard slot and were pulled in. Instantly, another monster identical to the other one on the man's field shot out of the vortex before it closed shut. However, Jade's opponent wasn't done. He had swiftly played another card from his hand, the holographic card that appeared on the field had an image of an angelic woman with a glowing card above her hands.

"With this Graceful Charity, yeah I get to draw three cards, but more importantly to my strategy, I discard two cards after that." A womanly form appeared and touched the top of his deck. Unlike the woman on the card, this woman seemed more like a fallen angel; black tattered wings, crimson hot pants and a matching tube top with short black hair. She smirked evilly at Jade before disappearing after the man drew his cards. He didn't really hesitate before he discarded two cards from his hand. A smirk similar to the woman's crossed the man's face.

"I have everything I need to hit you hard for the stuff you've put me through. I summon Armor Breaker!" (800/800) A small, armored man that wore what looked like a massive hammer mallet for a helmet appeared next to the much larger, armored figures. Jade didn't react to this revelation, but the man didn't care as he continued. "Now, I'll union this guy to one of my Heroes."

The armored man leaped into the air and formed into a massive hammer, which was caught by the nearest Divine Neos. However, the man then spoke some more, "Everything's almost set up. Now, I activate both of my Neos' effects. I just remove a Hero monster in my graveyard from play to give their ATK a 500 point boost and give them the effect of the removed monster. So the one equipped with Armor Breaker will remove the Elemental Hero Wildheart I discarded with Graceful Charity to make himself unaffected by Traps while the other one will absorb the other monster I discarded, Destiny Hero - Dunker!"

Two phantoms floated out of his disk; one a heavily tanned, muscular man wielding a massive scimitar and the other a muscular man in grey armor with a green face and violet dreadlocks. The first was absorbed by the Divine Neos with the Armor Breaker hammer, gaining a huge scimitar in his other hand while the other phantom was taken by the unequipped one, which turned his armor grey. (3000/2500 x2)

"I will activate the effect of my Divine Neos that absorbed Dunker. I merely have to discard one Destiny Hero to slam dunk 500 damage on you. So I'll get rid of these Destiny Hero - Malicious and hit you for 1000 damage!" The man declared as he tossed two cards form his hand. Two balls of light formed in the Hero's hands, which he threw at Jade with the force of a railgun. Both exploded on contact, but when the smoke and dust cleared, she appeared to be unaffected.

(Jade-7000LP, ?-4100LP)

Seemingly not surprised, the man then commanded, "Divine Neos, destroy Sunlight Unicorn with God Hammer!"

The horned equine stood proudly as the hammer came down on it. While the shockwave of the impact shattered Berserking, Jade stood unmoved by the powerful blow. Again, no surprise showed on the man's face as he continued with the other one, "Attack Swift Gaia with God Ball Slammer!"

The massive Warrior put his hands close to each other and a ball of light appeared between them. Similarly to when he used Dunker's effect, he threw the sphere at the dark horseman with incredible force. The horse he rode whinnied before they both shattered. All the resulting impact shockwave did was blow Jade's hair and jacket with the wind.

(Jade-5800LP, ?-4100LP)

Her enemy smirked, the scimitar faded from the hand of the one Divine Neos and the gold color returned to the armor of the other, as he concluded, "Turn's yours."

She drew, but they both knew it wouldn't help her as it was Horn of the Unicorn. All she did was shift her remaining monster to defense, the knight crossing his lances as his horse got down on its front knees. The guy shrugged as his turn started, "Eh, what else could you do?"

He drew and then declared, "I'll remove my other Stratos and Diamond Dude to power up my Divine Neos!" A replica of Stratos' wings appeared on the back of the Neos that had the hammer while each gauntlet of the other Neos gained several sharp crystals. (3500/2500 x2)

"You know what to do, my Neos. God Hammer and God Adamant Fist!" Once more, the impact of the giant hammer sounded the death of Jade's monster. The second Neos hurled his massive fist, which Jade caught easily with one hand. This did give both the man and his aura pause as the massive Hero was thrown back.

(Jade-2300LP, ?-4100LP)

"How strong are you? From what our agent said, James struggled to hold back a blow that was weaker than that one." The man's aura surged as if it was struggling to answer that question.

Jade smirked cockily as she spoke, "He's only been a Warden for about five years and he's more magically inclined. So his strength was comparable to a Judgeman's. I've been a Warden for over twenty years and am more physically inclined. My strength is more comparable to a Master of Oz!"

The man scowled as he then asked, "If that's the case, then why do Duel Spirit Wardens get so strong?"

"Removal of limiters," came Jade's simple reply.

Comprehension dawned on the man's face and his aura shifted to indicate a similar understanding, "So that thing about divine gifts that James mentioned? He was talking about some divine entity removing his body's limits. The master will be pleased to hear this. I'd better finish up this children's card game and report to him."

Jade's expression changed in an instant. Her eyes hardened with rage as she spoke with a steel edge, "What did you just say?"

The man apparently didn't understand what was wrong, as he spoke rather confusedly, "About my master?"

Her next words came out as a combination of a command and a bark, "No, about Duel Monsters!"

Rather dismissively, the man answered, "It's a card game made for kids by a man who looked like he hung around gay bars. Honestly, people try to use it to solve conflicts way too much these days. I miss the days where actual fighting was used to determine the strong from the weak."

Jade glared at him like an angry statue before asking, "Is that your turn?"

The man blinked before nodding. Jade didn't waste a moment before drawing her card. She paused before saying, "For insulting the respect of countless Duel Spirits, your punishment will be death."

Surprise met this statement as she played the card she had just drawn, a green smiling jar materialized in front of her and spat out two cards. Immediately, she played one card facedown in a monster zone and set the other one down behind it. She then crossed her arms and glared at her opponent. While a bit thrown off by her sudden change in attitude, he took her action to mean that it was his turn. He drew his card and grunted with displeasure as he removed Bladedge for the power-up of the hammer-wielding Neos and Disk Commander for the other one. The first ones gauntlets gained blades while the other one gained the CDs for his. (4000/2500 x2)

"Go, Piercing God Hammer!" As the mighty swing came down, Jade's facedown card flipped up to reveal Negate Attack. A barrier sprang up and intercepted the blow. With a huff, the man gestured for her to go. She drew and immediately set the card. After that, she flipped her defense monster face-up to reveal the familiar blue-grey of Morphing Jar. She discarded Horn of the Unicorn while the man discarded his four cards and then both refreshed their hands.

As soon as all the cards were drawn, Jade declared, "It's time for your punishment. My facedown Monster Reborn will bring back Gaia, the Fierce Knight!" The intricate item from the card materialized and then glowed. A portal formed below the crystal and out of it leaped the blue-armored knight on his steed. However, she continued on before her opponent could question her actions. "Next comes Polymerization! I'll fuse my Gaia with this Curse of Dragon in my hand to form Gaia, the Dragon Champion!"

A skeletal Dragon appeared next to the ready Knight and both were sucked into the vortex that Polymerization had called. Out of this vortex came the blue-armored knight while riding the Dragon he entered with. (2600/2100) After this, Jade another card from her hand, this one bore the image of a Berserk Gorilla covered by a surging aura of power. "Now, Wild Nature's Release! Because I still have DNA Surgery, my Dragon Knight is a Beast monster. So, this will increase his ATK by his DEF!"

The Dragon the knight rode howled as its power surged and a deep red aura surrounded both rider and mount. However, Jade wasn't done even now. She then played her other cards, both revealed to also be Wild Nature's Releases. The aura deepened with each card played, with the Dragon's howl reaching otherworldly in its sound. (8900/2100)

All the man did was curse before sighing, "Well, looks like I won't be winning this one." Then he caught a glimpse of Jade's face and what he saw frightened him to his core. The dark aura that was with him from nearly the beginning fled in obvious pain and terror as the Warden looked almost demonic with the combined glow of her and Gaia's auras.

Her voice also seemed to gain a non-human depth as she said, "You will not walk away from this blow alive! Now, accept your punishment disrespecting every Duel Spirit that has existed because of Duel Monsters! Wild Annihilation Flare!"

The mount of the Dragon Champion roared powerfully as intense energy surged in its maw. After several seconds of charging, the mighty energy was released as a stream of utter destruction. Before this surge of power, the targeted Neos was punched through like he wasn't even there. All the man could think as the stream headed straight for him was, This won't kill me. It can't possibly kill me. This is just the hologram of a children's card...

"Police are baffled by the explosion that occurred last night at the mostly abandoned warehouse district. While a frequent hangout for gangs of various natures, everyone found near that area were unconscious. Reports are that no one was injured by the explosion as there was no body found near the location of the blast." This news report came from the big screen TV in the living room of James' house. Though, only Duel Spirits were watching as James and his friends were at school and his parents were at work. It was near impossible to identify every single spirit that had crammed into that room, but, an Elemental Hero Sparkman, one spoke up and expressed the thought that all spirits present felt as they watched.

"Bastard deserved that."

Alright. That's it for this chapter. Hope the next one comes out faster. Anyway, please review.