Disclaimer: The Arcan Blades don't own Beyblade. Nuff said.
Author's Note: Well, no one has reviewed yet…that's o.k. We'll keep trying. Anyway, here's chapter three. Oh yeah—we don't know what Sanquinex's blade's name is so…maybe you could tell us, then. Read and Review!
CHAPTER THREE
The Vampire Attacks
As the group walked on to the store, Alexia fell back in the pack, feeling only slightly out of place among all the Bladebreakers. She had long since known about them, and she knew how good they were, and how easily they adapt to their opponents' power levels. She had to be careful…
"You're part of his team, aren't you?"
Alexia nearly snorted back a laugh. "We're not his team. We're our land's team." She looked up at him. "But why do you ask, Kai?"
Kai only looked obstinately ahead for a moment, and then he said, "I just wanted to make sure." After another pause, he added, "I want to challenge your leader."
Alexia nearly laughed again, and Kai glared at her. She shook her head and said, "Are you sure you want to do that? That might not be a very nice move."
"Why do you say that?" he asked.
"Look, don't take this the wrong way, Kai, since I know how you fight and I know that you have potential for almost unsurpassable power. But...I think I speak for my team's opinion when I say that…well…you might want to rethink that move. I'm not saying that we're brilliant bladers," she quickly added as soon as Kai's face went purple in anger, "because I know there are better bladers than us. But, I think you know as well as I do that you guys are still inexperienced."
Kai stared hard at her for a moment with narrowed eyes, looking somewhat suspicious, but he turned back ahead and said, "I suppose you have a point there…"
Alexia smiled at him. "Don't sweat it. You guys are good, I know it. You did win the first part of the world championships, right?"
Kai looked at her and seemed to have wanted to say something more, but thought better of it and said nothing instead. And for the time being, there was silence all the way to the store.
In the back of the cabin, Ray and Jade walked over to the large pile of logs and the chopping stump. She looked at the pile and sighed. "If we need to keep the fire going for breakfast for all of us, we're going to need a lot of it."
"Yeah, I know," Ray laughed. "I mean, with the way Tyson eats and all…"
Jade laughed. She looked a him and asked, "Are you sure you want to help me with this?"
"Of course," said Ray with a grin.
Jade smiled and shrugged. "Okay…" As she walked over to the logs, Ray shifted uncomfortably for a moment before asking, "Um, if it's all the same…I didn't quite catch your name earlier."
"Oh," she said, turning to him and whipping her hair over the shoulder facing him as she bent down, picking up logs, "It's Jade. Jade Star. And the girl who went with the rest is Alexia Raven."
"Oh…" Ray watched as she put the logs on a standing position onto the chopping block. He looked around for the axe, but to his surprise, found no trace of one.
"Um…Jade, we don't have an axe," he said. "What do we hack the wood with?" Although he asked this, he had somewhat an idea of what they will be using. After all…bladers had their methods…
Jade turned and grinned at him. "Beyblades, of course. It's good strength training too. I saw your blade—it should be pretty useful for this sort of thing."
"Yeah," said Ray with a nod as he took out Driger from his pocket. "I'll just use his Tiger Claw and we'll be done in no time."
"Nice blade," she said, grinning at the shining Driger Fang in his hand.
"Where's yours, then?" asked Ray as he loaded the blade onto his shooter, and Jade pulled out her beyblade from inside her jacket. It glinted in the sun, and Ray's jaw dropped.
"That's…your beyblade?" he gasped.
And he should have been quite surprised. The beyblade seemed to be totally made out of a heavy-looking shiny metal alloy. It was a metallic green color and shining bright, with curving points all around the defense ring. Which is nothing to say for the attack ring in itself which was a five-armed spiral galaxy-like ending in sharp points like the pointed end of an arrow and yet sharp blades. And the point of its base was also sharp pointed and surrounded by smaller spikes. He could not see its bit piece too clearly yet.
"This is Auran," she said as she looked down at it. "My beyblade."
Ray stared at it for a moment, unsure of what reaction to give away. "It's…it's…really…unique, I'll say."
"Thanks…I think," said Jade, getting a sweatdrop. She looked to the logs again and said, "Hey, we better get to hacking these logs before the others come back."
"Right," nodded Ray, still eyeing the beyblade as he got ready to fire Driger. As he did, he thought, I've never seen such a beyblade before… There's no doubt that she's a member of Mike's team—just the beyblade alone is enough to prove it… And just by the looks of it, it really does look powerful…
He looked at her and asked, "Where's your shooter?"
"Right here," she said, taking out her bow and quiver of arrows. She took out one long arrow, and Ray saw that it had a grooved edge for a shooter. And she fitted it into her bow, that had a shooter at the center where the arrow was aimed at. She looked at Ray and grinned as she loaded the beyblade and aimed the bow sideways so the beyblade's tip pointed to the ground.
"Are you ready?" she asked, smiling at him.
"Yeah!" said Ray, beaming. He aimed Driger right at the logs and yelled, "Let it rip!! Go Driger!!"
Driger pounced with all the ferocity of the white tiger that he was. He shot right at the logs like a bullet and slammed into them with shaking force.
"Tiger Claw!!" Ray commanded.
Driger roared in reply and came once again in crashing impact into the logs. There was nothing more than three shining cuts of light for a brief instant, and when the light died, Driger flew back to Ray's waiting hand. Ray grinned, and a second later, the five large logs on the block crumbled into even bits of firewood.
Jade was clapping. "Well done! You're really good, Ray. You handle your blade well—like a real veteran."
"Uh… thanks…" said Ray, looking embarrassed. He saw her still holding her blade and leapt forward. "I'll get the logs this time, and you shoot."
"Right," she nodded. In truth, Ray was very interested in seeing exactly how this beyblade was going to attack. It wasn't any thing like he'd seen before, so, although he didn't exactly want to act like Kai at this point, one couldn't help but wonder exactly what this one was going to do.
Jade pointed the blade at the logs and pulled back the bowstring with the arrow. "Let it rip!!" she yelled, and she let go of the arrow and the string.
There was a loud crack like a whip as the string released and the beyblade flew out of the shooter in incredible speed. Only the people who'd actually witnessed or do archery would know how fast an arrow exactly goes when released and, being the ripcord, it only made the beyblade go faster.
The green metal blade flew like a green, sparking rocket that went right at the logs like a gunshot and crashed through the logs while at the same time slicing them all to firewood. The beyblade smashed right through the logs, across the yard and into the cabin wall, making a large carve into the cabin. It bounced off, though, and flew right at Jade's outstretched hand.
Jade caught it with a flourish and smiled as the firewood fell from the sky. She looked at Ray with a smile and said, "Well, that should do it. That'll be enough firewood for all of us."
"All right…" Ray said, completely taken aback. That blade didn't even attack…it was only its release power…that's amazing…what kind of a beyblade is that?!
"I see that you couldn't wait to blade today."
The two looked up and saw a face peeking out the window near the gash made by Auran on the wall. It was a boy with messy black hair and brown eyes, and a large scarf that wound around his neck covered the lower half of his face and muffled his voice slightly. He was raising an eyebrow and said, "Who's that, Jade?"
"Oh, Patrick, this is Ray," said Jade, grinning. "He's another friend of ours, Ray, this is Patrick Crowe. You know Ray, don't you, Pat? Of the Bladebreakers?"
"Oh, yeah," nodded Patrick. "The Japanese team who won on Block A."
"Nice to meet you," Ray said, smiling.
"Yeah…whatever," said Patrick, waving it away as he vanished back inside. Jade looked at Ray apologetically. "Sorry, Ray. But Patrick's nice. He's just cranky when he's just woken up."
"Don't worry about it," said Ray, smiling at her. "Tyson's crankier when he doesn't get fed."
And the two of them just laughed.
"This should do it, don't you think?" asked Max as he came out of the store with an armful of food in a brown paper bag, and Kenny, holding a plastic bag in one hand, laughed, "Yeah, even Tyson can't complain anymore…"
"I heard that," Tyson said, coming out of the door, looking irritated, but he was also carrying a bag like Max.
"Yeah, yeah, all right, Tyson…" Max glanced back next to him as he said this, where Alexia was, also with her arms full, and Kai between her and him, and Kai happened to only have his arms crossed over his chest. He wasn't carrying anything.
Max leaned to Kai as they began walking back to the cabin and said, "Hey, Kai, aren't you going to be a gentleman and at least offer to help Alexia out with that?"
Kai cranked up his glare to 'withering' and Max got a sweatflood as he backed away. "Okay, okay…geez, don't look at me like that…" Max sighed. "People are cranky today…"
Although Kai glared at Max like this, he looked at Alexia, and for a moment, he said nothing as they continued their walk. Max, Kenny and Tyson were too busy chatting and squabbling with each other as of the moment, so he took his chance. He looked again at Alexia and asked quietly and yet in his usual cold baritone, "Do you need help or what?"
"Huh?" Alexia looked at him, confused a moment, but Kai kept staring hard ahead, not repeating his previous statement. She laughed a bit and said, "Oh, don't worry, I'm fine."
Kai bristled, but said nothing. He certainly was not going to say any more, now that Tyson and Kenny were now looking at their direction, whereas Max was snickering from behind his paper bag. In all truth, Kai wanted to cuff Max for that, and would've very well had his beyblade do that for him when, as soon as they were in a more secluded area of the grounds, a flash went from nearby.
Kai immediately reacted—it was a beyblade. "All of you, get down!!" He saw it shooting out from the sky, a light-magenta beyblade armed with fangs, and heading rapidly down to their group.
"Watch out!" Kai said as he pushed off from his position and propelled himself and Alexia out of the vicious beyblade's path. The bags flew out of their hands and some of the food scattered on the ground as the Bladebreakers hit the ground to avoid the blade.
Tyson looked up with a groan along with the rest of them to see the blade spinning in front of them, looking almost smug for being able to knock them all down like it did. "Oh no…" said Tyson. "I think I recognize this blade..."
It was Sanquinex of the Dark Bladers' Dracula blade.
Kai got up and looked down at Alexia, who was near him. "You all right?" he asked.
"Yeah, thanks, Kai, but you didn't have to do that, you know," she answered as she sat up and she grinned at him, which made him realize what he just did and he had to turn away to keep his composure.
There was a laugh from the trees up above and a caped figure leapt out, casting a shadow down to the ground from his billowing dark cape. The death-white fanged pale face was unmistakable.
"Sanquinex!" Tyson snarled as he looked up at the swooping figure who dropped down to the ground.
Sanquinex laughed in a maniacal fashion to himself. "Well fancy seeing you kids here…"
"What do you want?" Max demanded.
"Heh…what do you think?" he asked. He smirked at them and then said, "Actually, I came here for you, Bladebreakers, looking to settle the score. I didn't expect to see a member of the Arcan bladers with you." He hissed menacingly at Alexia. "Nice seeing you again, girlie—don't think it's all settled between Team Who and you infernal Arcans."
Alexia frowned back at him, and Kai stepped slightly in front of her. "Back off, bat boy, or we'll trash your blade like we did before."
"Yeah, why don't you just give it up?" asked Tyson.
"Well, like they say, try and try until you succeed..." Sanquinex snorted. He picked up the blade on the ground and said, "And seeing as how only one blade sent you guys scattering, I think I can take care of this alone."
"Are you crazy?" Kenny demanded. "All of us against you alone?"
"No, I'm not crazy," he answered calmly. "Why, are you all afraid of me?"
"Dream on," said Tyson, taking out his Dragoon and aiming it at him. Max followed suit with Draciel, and finally, Kai aimed out his Dranzer. However, he glanced at hesitant Alexia, who had yet to take out her blade--assuming, of course, she had one. She looked at Kai a moment before looked back at Sanquinex.
The vampire sneered and said, "If you guys are too afraid to make a first move, then I'll do it myself! LET IT RIP!!"
The vampire blade shot down at them and Tyson and the rest of the Bladebreakers leapt to action. "Go Dragoon!!" Tyson yelled.
"Go get him, Draciel!!" Max cried.
"Take him down, Dranzer," said Kai imperiously.
All three blades came tearing down at the single vampire blade, but, it appears, true to Sanquinex's bragging statements, it now had a tactic to, if not defeat all, at least down a couple, of the blades that now came at it. Kai's Dranzer was obviously the most dangerous opponent as of the moment, and as it now came charging at it, the vampire blade quickly shifted position, ducking Kai's blade.
"What the—" Kai snarled.
The vampire blade shifted around and suddenly crashed into Tyson's blade with surprising force. Dragoon shot sideward and started going unsteady, as if energy had been sucked right out of it upon contact with the vampire blade. "Oh no, Dragoon!" Tyson exclaimed.
Sanquinex laughed triumphantly. "This is my new technique, true to its name as a vampire. The Energy Vampire attack!!"
"Dragoon's weakening..." said Dizzi.
"Draciel, get that beyblade!" Max commanded, and the green beyblade stormed forward, the beyblade with the longest endurance and best defense among the other bladers'.
The vampire blade went right at Draciel and had a powerful collision. Max's blade was amazingly pushed back. It wavered a bit, but kept going with the metal-ball defense it possessed.
"You think that's going to stop us, huh?" Sanquinex snorted. "Tackle it!"
The beyblade suddenly leapt forward, bounding off a rock and came with a startling crash at Draciel's bit. "Draciel!" Max exclaimed as the beyblade began to wobble as well.
Sanquinex's blade came to a swerve and remained in position as he laughed. "Two down—one to go," he said, smirking at Kai and Alexia as Max and Tyson's blades came to an eventual stop.
"You've got another thing coming if you think that you can beat me," Kai sneered.
Sanquinex laughed. "I wouldn't be so arrogant." He looked to Alexia. "Hey, you. Are you going to stand there all day and be the damsel in distress, or are you going to help your friends?"
Alexia glared at him, but looked at Kai, who glanced at her silently. He said nothing as he glared down at the vampire blade, but it was obvious that he wanted to see the blade himself. Alexia then slowly reached into her trenchcoat to take out her beyblade, but hesitated.
Kai snorted and said, "Dranzer, go now!"
The phoenix cried out as Dranzer stormed to Sanquinex's blade. Sanquinex merely smirked as an scene appeared--his blade was evading Kai's and whatever Kai's did it could not make contact with the vampire blade. The vampire blade then began swirling around Kai and knocking hits at it, but pulls back before the Dranzer can fight back.
"Fight like a man, you coward!" Kai snared as Sanquinex's blade continued to evade his.
"Ha!" Sanquinex laughed. "There is a reason on why no one has ever caught a vampire before, you know. Now, attack!!"
The Dracula blade stormed at Kai's blade and smashed right at it like it did before causing sparks to fly. However, like its attack, the energy seemed to be draining from Dranzer.
"What the—pull back, Dranzer!" Kai commanded.
"There's no escaping me now," Sanquinex laughed as now it seemed that the vampire blade would not release Dranzer until it had been completely drained.
"Grr…Dranzer..." Kai muttered, clenching his fists.
Alexia glanced at the blade, and then at Kai, and then reached into her trenchcoat to get her beyblade. And she would've too, if not for that which suddenly happened.
"Leave them alone, Sanquinex!"
They all stopped, and something that flashed in the sun temporarily blinded them, and as they looked up, they saw that something was coming down like a silver, black and blue comet. And they all had the vague impression that some sort of wolf was bounding down to them on its massive haunches.
"Is that a..." Tyson gasped.
"A beyblade!" Kenny gasped.
A huge silver blade that they have never seen before in silver, black and blue, with huge swirling clawed blades on the attack ring and it literally seemed to be sparking in energy. The extra large silver claw blades seemed to be like sharp double curved horns on opposite sides of the beyblade. A glinting blue bit piece was on it, and it seemed to be made out of the same heavy-looking glinting metal that made up Jade's, except that this one looked more designed for direct attacking at it looked as imposing as a wolf that comes charging.
The beyblade came crashing down at Sanquinex's taking it completely by surprise and cracking its attack ring. The vampire blade was thrown from Dranzer and flung right into the air, and landed into Sanquinex's hand. He stared at the blade in horror as he saw that it had nearly been crashed apart. "My blade!" he gasped.
The blade that had done this was still spinning triumphantly on the ground. It really looked quite imposing and massive as it did. "What a blade..." Max breathed.
"And it practically cracked apart Sanquinex's attack ring," said Kenny breathlessly. "Then just the weight of that blade alone was a powerful attack to crack it!"
"But...whose blade is..." Tyson began.
"Hey Sanquinex. That has probably got to be the most pathetic attempt at a challenge in the world."
They all looked up, and saw someone standing across them, his arms over his chest, and holding a shooter that was shaped like a dragon-ended sword handle with a ripcord strung in it already. The red cap waved slightly in the wind, and the boy who stood there smirked at Sanquinex.
"Mike," Kai snarled to himself.
Mike stepped forward and the beyblade flew into his hand. "Nice work, Archonwolf." He looked up at them as Ray and Jade came running up from behind them. And a new blader, one with a scarf covering the upper half of his face, also was with them.
"Guys, what happened?" Ray asked. He spotted Sanquinex and frowned. "Sanquinex."
"Alexia, are you okay?" asked Jade.
Alexia withdrew her hand from her trenchcoat, hurried to Mike, Jade and Patrick and said, "Yeah. Just in time."
"Humph," Kai snorted, as Dranzer almost weakly flew back to his hand. "We could've done it ourselves."
"I don't doubt that," said Mike with no hint of sarcasm whatsoever. Ray glanced at Jade and the rest of the Arcans before running to the Bladebreakers. "You've got some guts showing yourself alone, Sanquinex," he said.
The vampire member of the Dark Bladers snarled and said, "I'll be back—count on it, and you'll be going down. All of you."
"And we'll be waiting," Tyson smirked. Sanquinex snarled again before completely dematerializing into the shadows and vanishing without a trace.
"They came for us, but they've got animosity with you too," said Kenny, looking at the Arcans.
Mike nodded gravely. "That's true. They've been trying to get us, because we defeated them."
"But if you've managed to defeat them before, then you're no ordinary bladers," said Kai, looking at the four other bladers. "Team Who is undoubtedly one of the best in the world."
"It might've been luck," said Mike with a shrug.
"Just...who are you guys?" asked Tyson breathlessly.
Mike and the rest of the group only looked at each other. Patrick looked at them with rather cool regard and said, "We're bladers. Just like you."
Mike looked at his team and said, "Guys, start packing. We've got to get out of here."
"What?" asked Jade. She glanced at the Bladebreakers. "But aren't we having breakfast?"
Mike shook his head. "Team Who's around. We better lose them since they'll get on our scent and ruin our training." He looked at them as well and said, "Sorry to run out on you guys. Really. But we have to go. I'm sure that you know as much as we do how annoying they could be."
He received no response, but he bowed slightly to them. "Hope to see you sometime, guys. Maybe in Russia."
"Yeah...see you," said Tyson.
Patrick said nothing as he followed Mike and they turned away. Jade glanced at Ray and said, "See you, Ray. Nice meeting you..."
"Yeah, see you guys sometime, you too, Kai," said Alexia as she followed the others into another direction, and in a matter of seconds, the group vanished from sight.
Max looked at the others and said, "I don't know about you guys, but something is strange about that team, I think."
"Really? I thought they were a pretty nice group," said Tyson.
"Me too," said Ray, smiling.
"Well, don't forget," said Kai, his voice taking command again, "they're our opponents on the Russian championships."
"Yeah," said Kenny. "And...can you believe that blade that Mike had? It was unbelievable! Just by looking at it now, I'm hardly surprised that it managed to do what it did to that oak tree."
"Yeah," said Tyson. "That was one mean beyblade."
"Jade had a beyblade too," said Ray. "She used her blade to chop the logs and it ran through five logs only in its release force. I had to attack to do it."
"So they must all be the Arcan team," said Kenny. "We didn't get to see Alexia's blade, though. She didn't get the chance to use it."
"They're obviously a powerful team," said Dizzi. "And I think I can safely say that even without analyzing, those bladers will be one of the tournament's top teams."
Max looked doubtful. "Yeah, but..." he looked at Draciel in his hand, "Three of us...couldn't take down Sanquinex... And yet only one smash from Mike's blade did it... I think...I think we better get stronger soon, guys."
"Max is right," said Ray. "That's serious power they're packing..."
"But if they're that powerful, how come we haven't heard of them before?" asked Kenny.
Kai, who'd been silent for the past few moments, now whirled around to face Kenny. "I want every single data you can get about those Arcans. We need all that data fast, so we'll know how much we'll have to train to beat them."
"Right," said Kenny. "I'll get to research right away."
The Bladebreakers looked to the direction that the Arcans had gone. And they knew that they've found yet another powerful rival to the world championships. And this was the first time that the Bladebreakers had ever met the Arcanis Relic Bladers.
Author's Note: Ah, there we go. Things are getting interesting. There'll be more, hopefully, please review!
