Please read this.
Sorry for not updating for so long! I was going to do it this last week, but I had finals this past week... I had to study...
And also, I was reading and watching Yu-Gi-Oh! GX sub during Christmas break, so now I'm use to the Japanese names... So it depends on you guys but I might change to their Japanese's names. Please PM or review to tell me what you think. If no one reply, then I will change it to the Japanese's names.
Anyway, hope you'll like this chapter, and please review!
"So where is this Master Zeke's place anyway?" Jaden asked Kyle as they walked down the different streets of the town. He wanted to start a conversation since there was an awkward silence for the longest time.
"We'll be there momentarily, please have a bit more patience," Kyle apologized for their long walk. "Here we are: Master Zeke's workshop." Kyle pointed to a building with a logo of a bow and arrow forming a X.
"Sweet, let's go in," Jaden said excitedly as he entered the building. Alexis and Kyle soon walked in after him. As they went in, Jaden started to have an uneasy feeling about all this when he started to look around the inner building. The hall was covered by different sets of armors. The hall was also dark only lightened by the torches on either sides of the wall. "Something is not right here." Jaden thought, but he quickly threw that thought away once he entered a big giant room that looked like a practice hall for battles.
"Welcome, I'm glad see you guys here," a mid-aged man came out of the shadow smiled. "I'm Master Zeke." The man proclaimed.
"So what kind of awesome techniques are you going to show us?" Jaden asked excitedly.
"Well, for starter, how about this?" Master Zeke asked as he threw a dark orb toward Alexis.
"Watch out!" Jaden caught in surprise by the fact that the master would attack them, especially against Alexis who had no experience in fighting whatsoever. Jaden then quickly ran toward Alexis to push her out of harm's way and ended up taking the attack for himself. "Argh!" Jaden cried as the pain shocked throughout his entire body.
"Jaden!" Alexis cried disbelief by the fact that the young lad would throw himself to protect. It was true that everyone in the kingdom, or at least every knight in the king's armies, was supposed to give their lives to the royal family. However, she didn't suspect Jaden, who never really show any care about her, would throw his own body in order to protect hers.
"Fine by me, I'll just get rid of you first," Master Zeke shrugged his shoulders. "Kyle, close the gate!"
"Yes, master," Kyle simply followed his master's order and pushed a red button causing the iron doors to fall down from the ceilings to lock Jaden and Master Zeke inside the battleground.
"Jaden!" Alexis shouted in worry as she grabbed on the bars of the iron doors (the doors are like jail-cell doors). She pushed out to the hallway when Jaden saved her.
"After all, Boss did say I can do whatever I want in order to capture the princess," Master Zeke said as he's ready for another attack.
"Capture the princess?" Jaden said as he slowly tried to regain his balance as he stood up. "Then does that mean you are with those two?"
"Who? Celina and Nigel? Yes, I'm on the same side as them, however, I am much more powerful than they are together," Master Zeke admitted. "And much more crueler as well, haha."
"Then this should be a good battle, huh?" Jaden grinned ready for the fight. "Sorry, to say this, pal, but you're not taking the princess unless it's from my cold dead hands, or at least that's what I promised to my friends."
"Cocky boy, aren't we?" Master Zeke asked. "I'll change that." Master Zeke said as he pulled out a bow and arrow in midair. "You might call me a liar for tricking you into a battle with me, however, my ability as an archer is never a lie. I am the best in town and I'll show you why, Jaden Yuki."
"Woah!" Jaden shouted in surprise by the fact that the enemy somehow knew his name. "How… Did you know my name?"
"I've done my study. I will not fail like Nigel and Celina did. Boss should have just asked me to do the job, instead of wasting his precious time with those two losers," Master Zeke said with a hint of disgust in his tone.
"I see, then I can't wait to test that theory out," Jaden gave Master Zeke his most famous smile, ready for a duel.
"You got courage, boy. I'll give you that much," Master Zeke grinned. After Master Zeke had said that, Jaden quickly drew out his bow and arrows ready for Master Zeke's attack. However, instead of attacking, Master Zeke just stood there and watched him carefully. "Go ahead, attack. I'll let you have the first hit." Master Zeke said after seeing Jaden's confused face.
"Then those can be your last words, ready?" Jaden pulled his arrow as far and as hard as he could before he released the aimed arrow toward the old master. Instead of dodging it, Master Zeke simply swung his hand to destroy Jaden's arrow. "What…!?" Jaden said in shock.
"That's all you got, boy?" Master Zeke simply asked. "Then it's time for your lesson, Jaden." He said as he prepared his bow and arrow. "Lesson one: arrows are like part of your body. Anything you channel through your body can be channel through the arrow as well." Master Zeke then drew back his arrow. "For example, your magic," Master Zeke gathered his magic and suddenly the arrow started to glow in red. When the red became crimson red, Master Zeke released the arrow toward Jaden.
"Ah!" Jaden shouted in pain when the arrow landed right next to him and a huge flame started to engulf him. Since it was a magical flame, the flame did not last forever. After a while, the flame left Jaden's burned body.
"So how does that feel?" Master Zeke asked after the magic had left and the arrow had disappeared.
"It… it was… nothing," Jaden barely got those words out as he grabbed his bow tightly and slowly tried to get up once again.
"Jaden!" Alexis shouted as she tried to break down the gate to help him.
"Get away from there," Jaden warned her to make sure she was away from harm as far as possible.
"Mm, I'm surprise you still got the energy to get up. How about a deal, buddy? Give me the princess, and I'll let you become my apprentice," Master Zeke decided to offer Jaden a deal.
"Ha, in your dream," Jaden laughed while wiping the dirt off his face. "I already told you I promised I won't let anything happen to the princess. And beside I'm determined to defeat you right now so there's reason for you to teach me anything once I surpass you."
"Hm," Master Zeke took a deep breathe. "Then the battle continues. Lesson two: the best kinds of attacks are the ones you cannot see." After he said, Master Zeke shot an arrow offside of Jaden, causing the boy to be confused by the master's action.
"Where are you shooting that…?" Jaden taunted before being cut off by a sudden shock of pain on his left shoulder. "Argh!" Jaden quickly fell to his knees then looked closely at his shoulder to find an arrow sticking to his shoulder. "How…?" Jaden asked as he carefully tried to pull the arrow out.
"I told you, lad: the best attacks are the one you can't see," Master Zeke repeated himself.
"Master's illusion shot never misses its target," Kyle said as he carefully watched the battle next to Alexis.
"No way…" Alexis said in disbelief. She had; in fact, saw the path the arrow had traveled. The arrow was indeed aiming toward the wall, but before the arrow made contact with the wall, the arrow was bounced to a different direction, as if there was an air force pushing it back.
"Master's attack uses wind to push the arrow toward different directions, thus making it impossible for one to predict where the arrow is," Kyle revealed the secret of Master Zeke's attack. "Don't worry. I'm not going to do anything to you. Master Zeke hasn't order me to do anything to you yet," Kyle said coldly when he said the fear in Alexis' eyes. "Or are you worry about the boy who is in battle with my master?"
"Jaden won't lose!" Alexis said in determination. Instead of replying to the young lass' comment, Kyle simply looked to the battle once more.
"What do you say, boy? Ready to give up?" Master Zeke asked as he took a step toward Jaden.
"No, way, the fight is just getting interesting,"
"I'm tired of this. One who doesn't know when to quit is just simply an idiot. And I have no tolerance toward an idiotic enemy," Master Zeke raised his bow ready to deal the final blow toward Jaden. "It's a shame, really, to throw away a talent like yours." Master Zeke sighed as he aimed the arrow toward Jaden's head.
"Jaden!" Alexis cried in fear when the master released his hand to let the arrow fly freely.
All Jaden could do was bow his head in shame for the fact that he had just lost the battle since his entire body was in too much pain to even move.
"Quitting already, Jaden? That's not like you," a voice said as a person destroyed the arrow easily with a red flash.
"Rena, Jesse!?" Jaden said in surprise seeing his best friends appearing right in front of him. "How… how did you… get in here?"
"Rena learned this cool new magic. It let us teleport to anywhere we want!" Jesse explained to Jaden in excitement.
"I'm still kind of learning. It took me a while to finally sent us here, haha," Rena guilty admitted as she scratched her head with an animated water drop.
"Kyle! How could you let this happen?" Master Zeke shouted in anger looking at Kyle. When he looked toward that direction; however, he found an unconscious Kyle lying right next to Alexis. "What the…?"
"We defeated him before we got into this cage looking place," Jesse put his hands behind his head.
"Whatever, I'll just take on the job myself," Master Zeke shook that off. "I knew an apprentice would fail. They are worthless."
"Jess, let's go," Rena said quietly.
"Right behind you." Jesse smiled unsheathing his sword. They then both charged toward the master, though they quickly stopped their track when Master Zeke shot a bunch of his arrows in the air.
"Rena, Jesse, watch out! Those arrows are unpredictable!" Jaden warned. Although with some effort, Jesse and Rene did manage to dodge or destroy all of the arrows. "That's was close."
"Shoot, we can't get close to him like this. Every time we move, he just kept throwing attacks at us," Jesse said.
"Then we'll just try a long range attack. Heat Wave!" Rena shot a red, crescent wave right in between two arrows, while Jesse blocked out the two arrows for her. However, just like Jaden's arrow, Master Zeke destroyed the attack with ease. "Che," Rena said annoyingly.
"Now what?" Jesse asked.
Rena gave a quick look at Jaden before replying, "Keep on trying I guess. We can't let him take the princess, after all." "And we need to protect Jaden too." Rena thought for the very last part.
"Works for me," Jesse started to charge toward Master Zeke while he avoided the older man's attacks. When Jesse got to the sword range, Master Zeke drew his bow in front of his face to block Jesse's attack. However, Master Zeke was way too powerful for Jesse as he was able to push the blue-hair boy back to where Rena was.
"Jess, you okay?"
"Yeah, I'm fine," Jesse wiped his sweat off his face.
"I'm sick of this," Master Zeke said in a disgusted tone. "Time to finish this once and for all," Master Zeke took a deep breath and gathered all his power into his next shot. As he pulled back the arrow, it started to shine in a bright white light. Rena and Jesse, on the other hand, were preparing for the attack to come. However, before the preparation was complete, Master Zeke dropped his weapons and fell to the ground.
"Wha…?" Jesse and Rena gasped in unison.
"Don't forget about me. I'm still in this fight, you know," Jaden slowly stood up using his bow as a support. "You're right. Unseen attack is the best kind of attacks out there."
"How… could you… possibly learn… the technique so quickly…?" Master Zeke stared at him in hatred eyes.
"Jaden has always been the quickest learner out of all of us," Rena walked toward Jaden and smiled.
"But only when it comes to battle, if you teach him anything in a class, he will forget it in a sec," Jesse added.
"It's like the words were going into one side and come out the other one, right away," Rena agreed.
"Hey! Don't add those unnecessary things!" Jaden yelled in embarrassment.
"You think this… will stop me?" Master Zeke punched the ground trying to stand up as he coughed out some blood.
"Heat Waves!"
"Heaven Glazes!"
Jesse and Rena attacked Master Zeke at the same time to prevent him from standing up and fight again.
"Argh," Master Zeke fell once again, but this time he lost his conscious as well.
"That was close," Rena fell on her butt in relief.
"Guess that's that," Jesse sighed.
"Let's get out of here before he wakes up," Jaden suggested.
"Good idea."
"Yo, princess, let's go!" Jaden yelled toward Alexis.
"Okay," Alexis smiled in relief that all three of them are okay.
