Seeing is Believing
---------------------
The Akuni with Chain smashed through the rock formation sending bits of boulders scattering to the floor. Miles watched as Steve, in duel monster form, retracted the usual trap card and swung it in circular motions with his hands. "The trick is not to focus on your target, because if you do then you'll miss," the Battle Steer grunted and released the weapon again sending it smashing through the second set of rocks. "You can't control where the rocks are, but you can control other things, hand movements, the power you release it with, where your focus is. It's all about hand-eye co-ordination," he retracted the chain and handed it back to Miles who fingered it gingerly.
"So, how did these things created, I mean do you make them or were they just here when you arrived," he started to circle the chain much like Steve had. Unfortunately it slipped out of his grasp while spinning and went flying off behind the two and crashed into a wall, "Damn it."
"We create them, but other equips like…Salamandra have to be learned by spellcaster monsters," Steve redirected Miles swing but this time when he released the Akuni flew well wide of the target.
"How does that work," Miles swore when once again he missed the rocks he was aiming for.
"When a spellcastor gets enough power he can bless, if you will, a duel monster with a special ability. Polymerization is one, beast fangs is another, basically any equip card you've ever heard of, a spellcastor can perform, like this," he pointed to the Akuni with Chain. "Dylan created it a year ago for me, but when I die, it disappears, just like any other equipment weapon. Except for ones that take a hell of a lot of power to create, Axe of Despair is one, Horn of the Unicorn another, Sword of Deep Seated. Others work differently, when the wearer of a Black Pendant is killed the pendant drains 5% of the monster responsible for his deaths power, in the game when you can pay life points to put an equip card back on top of your deck, well it works kinda the same here it just drains a certain percentage of your power. Malevolent Nuzzler drains about 30% of your power. Everything here has an adverse effect."
"It's kinda confusing," Miles replied while once again swinging and missing, "shit!" he cursed, Steve laughed, "I think I'll stick to my swords," Miles handed the trap back to Steve who on first attempt smashed through the rocks he'd been trying to hit. "What about traps?"
"They work kinda the same," Steve replied not looking at Miles, a certain cavern can be blessed with an ability as can a monster. You heard of Michizure?"
"Sure, when one of your monsters is destroyed you can destroy one of your opponents," Miles replied while scratching the back of his head.
"Exactly, if say Dylan blessed you with that whoever killed you would be killed themselves," Steve sighed and took a seat next to him.
"My head hurts," Miles grabbed his head, all this was a bit much to take in.
Steve laughed, "And I'm not even halfway through explaining it all yet."
"Tell me about it," Miles muttered, "I still have like a million questions," he let himself slip back into his human form to take a break, Steve followed suit, "it must be pretty hard then to kill a monster without getting killed yourself."
Steve shrugged, "Not really, there are so many duel monsters around that meeting one with a Michizure effect on the battlefield is rare, I've never seen it happen."
Miles glanced to his right where footsteps alerted him coming through the doorway, Dylan grinned broadly seeing the warn out kid, "How's it going Miles?"
"Lousy," he muttered, "I'm as much use to you as a hamburger is to a vegetarian."
Dylan glanced to Steve who smiled, "He's doing pretty good, the skill he has with his swords is impressive to say the least. With a bit more practice he should be a great addition to the squad."
"Glad to hear it," his mood then turned sour, "but we have to prepare, the Kintari squad is going to arrive within the hour. They've got heavy wounded so get the red and blue medicine ready for distribution."
"Got it," Steve stood and exited the training area while Dylan walked over and stood in front of Miles.
"I'd like you to meet some of the Kintari warriors, they're one of the oldest groups of rebels on this planet. In fact they were the first group of rebels, you can learn a lot from them," he extended a hand that Miles took and got yanked to his feet.
---------------------------------------
It was horrible, the blood, the screams, the pure agony etched on the warriors face as he clutched at the wound in his thigh that spilled blood onto the stone floor staining it a deep crimson. Miles watched quietly from the entrance to the medical room where seven Kintari men were being treated for various wounds.
"Hey," one of the Kintari men Miles had noticed came up beside him and reached out a hand, "Jasper Conrad, leader of the Kintari rebels, pleased to meet you."
Miles shook hands with the unimpressive leader of the rebels, he was a short balding man with thick black glasses and a crooked smiles. "Miles, Miles Davies, pleased to meet you," he took a look back into the medical room, "what happened?"
Jasper sighed, "Same thing that always does, one of our men got spooked and in a deal for his survival he let the Mythic Dragon know where we were, they invaded with three times our numbers. We didn't really stand a chance," he wetted his lips with his tongue, "I lost over seventy good men and women," he jammed his eyes shut, "and this isn't doing any favors for the morale of my troops either."
"All you can do is try your best," Miles murmured quietly.
"My best is getting my soldiers killed," he turned back to face the wounded who had now stopped crying, one in fact was now white, his dead eyes staring up at the stone ceiling, "I wish I'd never come to this god forsaken place. I wish I'd never convinced my men to come here too."
Miles remained silent, unsure of what to say to the obviously distraught Kintari leader, "You're doing what's right, they died doing what was right. And at least they still have their honor," the voice came from Dylan who was approaching from the rear of the tunnel, "the rest of your troops are fine," he glanced past them into the cave, "How're they?"
"Six will live, Enrique though…" he trailed off as the dead Psychic Kappa was covered with a sheet.
"I'm sorry Jasper, he was a good man," Jasper nodded dumbly, he pushed his glasses back onto the bridge of his nose with a sigh. Dylan remained silent and instead turned to Miles, "Can I talk to you for a second."
"Sure."
Leaving down the tunnel Dylan stopped and turned to Miles, "Do you now see what it's like here," the youngster nodded solemnly. He watched as five of his troops passed in non-duel monster form, he ran a hand across his mouth and swore, things were getting worse by the second.
"How many factions of rebels are there?" Miles said, he was really beginning to question whether coming to this place was a good idea or not.
"Now," Dylan thought about it for a moment, "around thirty remain, each contingent has anywhere from 50 to 200 men and women."
Miles quickly did the math inside of his head, "So maximum we have six thousand men, maximum."
Dylan groaned, "Oh god don't, you're depressing me."
Miles wasn't so sure he wanted to ask this next question but decided that he needed to know, "How many soldiers does the Mythic Dragon have?"
For a moment Dylan said nothing, he just stared into space as if he hadn't heard the question, Miles did definitely not like this. Just when it seemed that Dylan wasn't going to reply he blurted out words that made Miles' good mood completely vanish, "We don't know."
"You don't know?" Dylan shook his head, "well that's just f'ing marvelous. And they have all dragon types at their disposal," a nod of confirmation, "But if they're so unbeatable then why the hell did these people decide to start a war against them?"
"Because they thought they'd have help," Dylan replied quietly.
"From who?" Miles cried incredulously earning him a few strange looks from a Hitotsu me Giant and a Water Omotics.
"The other realms?" Dylan could see the questioning stare on Miles' face, "Steve…didn't tell you about the other realms?"
"No…he didn't."
Frowning Dylan pushed himself off of the wall he'd been leaning against and sighed, "Apart from us and the Mythic Dragon there are other forces on this planet. It's not just…us v them, you have to take these kingdoms decisions into account too. The Mythic Dragon knows this and so does everything through them first."
"So they help him?"
"No, there are four other major kingdoms total, there are also small groups of others with say…500 duel monsters or more. But the major kingdoms consist of these types, Demon World," he raised one of his fingers, "which is basically a haven for dark type monsters, fiends, zombies…and so on. Fire Mountain…" he raised a second finger, "which is pretty self explanatory, but the two are currently engaged in a war of their own. Metal City, which is full of machine types, and finally the Noble Sword which is full of warrior types. The four are powerful individually but if they joined forces could definitely give the Mythic Dragon problems."
"But if the Mythic Dragon is such a problem then why don't they just join forces and destroy him," this actually caused Dylan to burst into laughter, "What's so funny?"
Composing himself Dylan shook his head, "Don't you think we've tried that, we've been sending messengers to each domain for years now trying to form some sort of pact."
"And?"
"And, if it'd worked we wouldn't be standing here having this conversation now would we?" taking a deep breath Dylan decided to explain it to him, "Let me put this simply Miles, Fire Mountain hates Demon World and the Noble Sword have absolutely no interest in Metal City at all. They're never going to get along."
"Have you ever tried going there in person?"
Dylan gave a small smile and shook his head, "What's the point Miles, if we go out there we risk getting slaughtered by the Mythic Dragon and for what? A rejection, we can't put soldiers lives on the line for a pointless crusade."
"We have to try at least," Miles urged.
Dylan laughed at the youngsters enthusiasm, Miles reminded him of when he'd first got here. All wide eyed and gullible, "I appreciate your suggestions Miles but it's…" he was cut off as an explosion rocked the caves, bits of rock splintered from the ceiling and crumbled to the floor, "That's not good," he muttered somberly.
"What's going on?" Miles' voice was filled with panic as loud shouts and screams drifted through the tunnels.
Squinting into the distance Dylan saw Mel rushing towards them, "Dylan!" she called, "we're under attack."
"That's impossible," Dylan roared, "how the hell did they find us," not waiting for an answer he turned to Miles. "Well kid, looks like it's time for you to find out what kind of life we lead," in front of Miles Dylan morphed into his duel monsters form."
Miles glanced at Melanie who was also now in duel monsters form, swallowing nervously he turned to Dylan, "O…okay," concentrating he opened his eyes and used his muscular arms to unsheathe both swords from his back, "I'm ready."
---------------------------------------
To Be Continued
By Boulder
---------------------
The Akuni with Chain smashed through the rock formation sending bits of boulders scattering to the floor. Miles watched as Steve, in duel monster form, retracted the usual trap card and swung it in circular motions with his hands. "The trick is not to focus on your target, because if you do then you'll miss," the Battle Steer grunted and released the weapon again sending it smashing through the second set of rocks. "You can't control where the rocks are, but you can control other things, hand movements, the power you release it with, where your focus is. It's all about hand-eye co-ordination," he retracted the chain and handed it back to Miles who fingered it gingerly.
"So, how did these things created, I mean do you make them or were they just here when you arrived," he started to circle the chain much like Steve had. Unfortunately it slipped out of his grasp while spinning and went flying off behind the two and crashed into a wall, "Damn it."
"We create them, but other equips like…Salamandra have to be learned by spellcaster monsters," Steve redirected Miles swing but this time when he released the Akuni flew well wide of the target.
"How does that work," Miles swore when once again he missed the rocks he was aiming for.
"When a spellcastor gets enough power he can bless, if you will, a duel monster with a special ability. Polymerization is one, beast fangs is another, basically any equip card you've ever heard of, a spellcastor can perform, like this," he pointed to the Akuni with Chain. "Dylan created it a year ago for me, but when I die, it disappears, just like any other equipment weapon. Except for ones that take a hell of a lot of power to create, Axe of Despair is one, Horn of the Unicorn another, Sword of Deep Seated. Others work differently, when the wearer of a Black Pendant is killed the pendant drains 5% of the monster responsible for his deaths power, in the game when you can pay life points to put an equip card back on top of your deck, well it works kinda the same here it just drains a certain percentage of your power. Malevolent Nuzzler drains about 30% of your power. Everything here has an adverse effect."
"It's kinda confusing," Miles replied while once again swinging and missing, "shit!" he cursed, Steve laughed, "I think I'll stick to my swords," Miles handed the trap back to Steve who on first attempt smashed through the rocks he'd been trying to hit. "What about traps?"
"They work kinda the same," Steve replied not looking at Miles, a certain cavern can be blessed with an ability as can a monster. You heard of Michizure?"
"Sure, when one of your monsters is destroyed you can destroy one of your opponents," Miles replied while scratching the back of his head.
"Exactly, if say Dylan blessed you with that whoever killed you would be killed themselves," Steve sighed and took a seat next to him.
"My head hurts," Miles grabbed his head, all this was a bit much to take in.
Steve laughed, "And I'm not even halfway through explaining it all yet."
"Tell me about it," Miles muttered, "I still have like a million questions," he let himself slip back into his human form to take a break, Steve followed suit, "it must be pretty hard then to kill a monster without getting killed yourself."
Steve shrugged, "Not really, there are so many duel monsters around that meeting one with a Michizure effect on the battlefield is rare, I've never seen it happen."
Miles glanced to his right where footsteps alerted him coming through the doorway, Dylan grinned broadly seeing the warn out kid, "How's it going Miles?"
"Lousy," he muttered, "I'm as much use to you as a hamburger is to a vegetarian."
Dylan glanced to Steve who smiled, "He's doing pretty good, the skill he has with his swords is impressive to say the least. With a bit more practice he should be a great addition to the squad."
"Glad to hear it," his mood then turned sour, "but we have to prepare, the Kintari squad is going to arrive within the hour. They've got heavy wounded so get the red and blue medicine ready for distribution."
"Got it," Steve stood and exited the training area while Dylan walked over and stood in front of Miles.
"I'd like you to meet some of the Kintari warriors, they're one of the oldest groups of rebels on this planet. In fact they were the first group of rebels, you can learn a lot from them," he extended a hand that Miles took and got yanked to his feet.
---------------------------------------
It was horrible, the blood, the screams, the pure agony etched on the warriors face as he clutched at the wound in his thigh that spilled blood onto the stone floor staining it a deep crimson. Miles watched quietly from the entrance to the medical room where seven Kintari men were being treated for various wounds.
"Hey," one of the Kintari men Miles had noticed came up beside him and reached out a hand, "Jasper Conrad, leader of the Kintari rebels, pleased to meet you."
Miles shook hands with the unimpressive leader of the rebels, he was a short balding man with thick black glasses and a crooked smiles. "Miles, Miles Davies, pleased to meet you," he took a look back into the medical room, "what happened?"
Jasper sighed, "Same thing that always does, one of our men got spooked and in a deal for his survival he let the Mythic Dragon know where we were, they invaded with three times our numbers. We didn't really stand a chance," he wetted his lips with his tongue, "I lost over seventy good men and women," he jammed his eyes shut, "and this isn't doing any favors for the morale of my troops either."
"All you can do is try your best," Miles murmured quietly.
"My best is getting my soldiers killed," he turned back to face the wounded who had now stopped crying, one in fact was now white, his dead eyes staring up at the stone ceiling, "I wish I'd never come to this god forsaken place. I wish I'd never convinced my men to come here too."
Miles remained silent, unsure of what to say to the obviously distraught Kintari leader, "You're doing what's right, they died doing what was right. And at least they still have their honor," the voice came from Dylan who was approaching from the rear of the tunnel, "the rest of your troops are fine," he glanced past them into the cave, "How're they?"
"Six will live, Enrique though…" he trailed off as the dead Psychic Kappa was covered with a sheet.
"I'm sorry Jasper, he was a good man," Jasper nodded dumbly, he pushed his glasses back onto the bridge of his nose with a sigh. Dylan remained silent and instead turned to Miles, "Can I talk to you for a second."
"Sure."
Leaving down the tunnel Dylan stopped and turned to Miles, "Do you now see what it's like here," the youngster nodded solemnly. He watched as five of his troops passed in non-duel monster form, he ran a hand across his mouth and swore, things were getting worse by the second.
"How many factions of rebels are there?" Miles said, he was really beginning to question whether coming to this place was a good idea or not.
"Now," Dylan thought about it for a moment, "around thirty remain, each contingent has anywhere from 50 to 200 men and women."
Miles quickly did the math inside of his head, "So maximum we have six thousand men, maximum."
Dylan groaned, "Oh god don't, you're depressing me."
Miles wasn't so sure he wanted to ask this next question but decided that he needed to know, "How many soldiers does the Mythic Dragon have?"
For a moment Dylan said nothing, he just stared into space as if he hadn't heard the question, Miles did definitely not like this. Just when it seemed that Dylan wasn't going to reply he blurted out words that made Miles' good mood completely vanish, "We don't know."
"You don't know?" Dylan shook his head, "well that's just f'ing marvelous. And they have all dragon types at their disposal," a nod of confirmation, "But if they're so unbeatable then why the hell did these people decide to start a war against them?"
"Because they thought they'd have help," Dylan replied quietly.
"From who?" Miles cried incredulously earning him a few strange looks from a Hitotsu me Giant and a Water Omotics.
"The other realms?" Dylan could see the questioning stare on Miles' face, "Steve…didn't tell you about the other realms?"
"No…he didn't."
Frowning Dylan pushed himself off of the wall he'd been leaning against and sighed, "Apart from us and the Mythic Dragon there are other forces on this planet. It's not just…us v them, you have to take these kingdoms decisions into account too. The Mythic Dragon knows this and so does everything through them first."
"So they help him?"
"No, there are four other major kingdoms total, there are also small groups of others with say…500 duel monsters or more. But the major kingdoms consist of these types, Demon World," he raised one of his fingers, "which is basically a haven for dark type monsters, fiends, zombies…and so on. Fire Mountain…" he raised a second finger, "which is pretty self explanatory, but the two are currently engaged in a war of their own. Metal City, which is full of machine types, and finally the Noble Sword which is full of warrior types. The four are powerful individually but if they joined forces could definitely give the Mythic Dragon problems."
"But if the Mythic Dragon is such a problem then why don't they just join forces and destroy him," this actually caused Dylan to burst into laughter, "What's so funny?"
Composing himself Dylan shook his head, "Don't you think we've tried that, we've been sending messengers to each domain for years now trying to form some sort of pact."
"And?"
"And, if it'd worked we wouldn't be standing here having this conversation now would we?" taking a deep breath Dylan decided to explain it to him, "Let me put this simply Miles, Fire Mountain hates Demon World and the Noble Sword have absolutely no interest in Metal City at all. They're never going to get along."
"Have you ever tried going there in person?"
Dylan gave a small smile and shook his head, "What's the point Miles, if we go out there we risk getting slaughtered by the Mythic Dragon and for what? A rejection, we can't put soldiers lives on the line for a pointless crusade."
"We have to try at least," Miles urged.
Dylan laughed at the youngsters enthusiasm, Miles reminded him of when he'd first got here. All wide eyed and gullible, "I appreciate your suggestions Miles but it's…" he was cut off as an explosion rocked the caves, bits of rock splintered from the ceiling and crumbled to the floor, "That's not good," he muttered somberly.
"What's going on?" Miles' voice was filled with panic as loud shouts and screams drifted through the tunnels.
Squinting into the distance Dylan saw Mel rushing towards them, "Dylan!" she called, "we're under attack."
"That's impossible," Dylan roared, "how the hell did they find us," not waiting for an answer he turned to Miles. "Well kid, looks like it's time for you to find out what kind of life we lead," in front of Miles Dylan morphed into his duel monsters form."
Miles glanced at Melanie who was also now in duel monsters form, swallowing nervously he turned to Dylan, "O…okay," concentrating he opened his eyes and used his muscular arms to unsheathe both swords from his back, "I'm ready."
---------------------------------------
To Be Continued
By Boulder