Chapter Three: Battle
(A/N: Before anyone tells me, YES I KNOW that the Ring is the only Millennium Item that can bring Duel Monsters to life, and that the Puzzle can't. But in this fic Yami taught himself how to do it cos he was a bit annoyed that the Tomb Robber could do something which he himself couldn't. Also, in this fic, Yami is pretty skilled in the art of healing. See? I have all the little details of this fic worked out. smirks smugly I'm so clever.)
…………
Ryou woke up in the morning feeling considerably refreshed. He had stayed up late into the night talking to his new friends. By the time everyone had fallen asleep, Ryou had learnt a lot about Will and Lyra, and they had learnt a little about him. Ryou had found out that Lyra was from Oxford, her dæmon was called Pantalaimon, and she had crossed into this world on a bridge built by her father, Lord Asriel. Will came from a different world, where they didn't have dæmons. He was in hiding from some men who were out to get him and his mother, who Will had left at his old piano teacher's house, because he thought it was one of the few places where she would be safe.
The only things Will and Lyra had learnt about Ryou were that he was sixteen, he liked reading books and his favourite food was cream puffs. Ryou had never been a very talkative person, and he didn't really have many hobbies, as Bakura dominated most of his life. He felt a bit uncomfortable not telling them about the yamis, and knew Yugi felt the same way. But it was probably for the best. The less people that knew about Bakura, the better.
He leaned over and poked Malik, who was still half-asleep. "I'm going for a walk, OK?" he whispered. The Egyptian mumbled something unintelligible and rolled over.
…….
Ryou walked slowly through the trees. The sweet birdsong and gentle swishing sounds the oak trees made when their branches rubbed against each other filled him with a great sense of peacefulness and tranquillity. The deep carpet of soft brown leaves shifted and crackled under his feet, and-"Ooof!" He had walked into solid rock. Ryou rubbed his forehead and looked up. The huge rock face in front of him went up for hundreds of metres, and, stepping back, he realised the forest was at the foot of a massive group of cliffs. Wow.
Ryou sat down on a nearby boulder, slippery with moss, and gazed around him in wonder. Rummaging in his pockets produced a biscuit left over from last night. It was starting to go soft but he munched it all the same.
All of a sudden, the biscuit was snatched from his hands. "Hey!" Ryou protested. The thief cackled and crammed the food into it's mouth, slobbering disgustingly. The creature was about half as tall as Ryou, with a scrawny body and big leathery wings. When it opened it's mouth he caught sight of suprisingly sharp teeth, which it bared at him in a grin.
Ryou felt around in his belt for a dagger and pulled one out, brandishing it threateningly. The creature let out a high pitched squeal at the sight of the weapon. Ryou raised an eyebrow. "Is that the best you can do?"
He fell silent as a similar squeal, but magnified a hundred times, answered the call, ringing through the cliffs and bouncing off the cliff. He turned around, to see about a hundred other bat-like creatures flying towards him. They did not look friendly. Ryou gulped. "Uh oh…" Turning, he ran back through the trees towards his friends, with the awful things pursuing him.
………….
"Here he is!" Lyra looked up as Ryou burst upon them, panting heavily.
"Run! Run for your lives!" he gasped dramatically. "They're coming!"
"Who are?" Lyra asked him. Ryou described the creature to her, and she frowned. "It sounds like cliff-ghasts. I heard stories about 'em. They're weak on their own, but hundreds of 'em, angry, is totally different."
Malik pulled out the Millennium Rod. "Sounds like trouble," he observed.
"Sounds like a battle!" Bakura exclaimed happily. Ryou had been too tired to offer much resistance, so he had taken control quite easily.
Will looked at Yugi. "Do you need a weapon?"
Yugi shook his head. "I'll be fine," he answered confidently. Bakura thought he saw the Puzzle glow briefly, and knew Yugi was going to let mou hitori no Yugi do the fighting. Which was probably a good thing, as the Pharaoh's pet hadn't killed anything bigger than a spider in his life, and would probably faint at the sight of blood. Bakura smirked at this thought.
"Prepare yourselves everyone!" Will yelled. "They're coming to attack!"
………..
The next half an hour or so was total pandemonium. The air was filled with shouts and screams and Egyptian curses.
Yami had his deck out, and was using the Puzzle to bring his monsters to life. Will and Lyra watched in amazement as a life-size Dark Magician appeared, and started beating the senses out of the nearest cliff-ghasts.
"What is THAT?" Will gaped at it in astonishment.
"Don't worry, it's on our side," Yami reassured him. Will didn't look too convinced.
Bakura saw what Yami had done, and rolled his eyes. "Trust the Pharaoh to find a way to fight without getting his royal hands dirty," he commented to no one in particular. He and Malik were fighting back to back, carving a long circle of bodies around them. It was a mesmerising, if truly gruesome sight. Ryou was ambidextrous, so Bakura had a long white knife in each hand, and was hacking off heads left, right and centre. Malik had turned the Millennium Rod into a dagger, and was fighting with that.
Ryou, who was watching silently from his soul room, could feel his yami's mounting excitement at the masses of blood and gore around them, and knew that Bakura was about one second away from charging in and drinking all the blood he could find.
Bakura plunged a knife into the chest of a particularly over-eager cliff-ghast, and blood gushed out, all over the knife. Bakura yanked the knife out and licked it. "Blood!" And with that, Bakura's last remaining shred of self-control went. Malik, glancing over at his companion, saw the bloodlust in Bakura's eyes and knew instantly what had happened. For a second he hesitated, wondering if he could stop him, then realised that nothing he would do would make any difference, and continued fighting determinedly.
But that second's hesitation cost him dear. A single cliff-ghast, braver than the rest, flapped towards him and sank it's sharp teeth into his arm. Pain shot up Malik's body, and he grabbed the offending creature's neck in one hand and started squeezing, angry beyond belief. "I'll teach you to bite me, you little…" Malik's sheer fury caused him to let his mental guard fall, and, sensing his anger, Yami Malik came to the surface of Malik's mind and took control.
"DIE!!!" The Eye of Ra glowed brightly on his forehead as he slashed at anything within reach. Some of the cliff-ghasts actually retreated, sensing his terrible rage.
……….
Meanwhile, just as Ryou had known he would, Bakura charged into the mass of yelling, screeching creatures, waving his knives wildly. "Blood!"
He had managed to kill than twenty of them when it happened: a large group of cliff-ghasts grabbed his arms and legs, lifting him into the air. His bloodlust faded away as fear took over. Bakura struggled desperately but to no avail. "MAAAAAALIK!!!" he screamed. "HEEEEEEELP!"
Yami Malik paused and looked up; he see Bakura held at least five metres in the air, and rising rapidly. His sheer astonishment made him throw back his head and laugh insanely, and Malik took advantage of this moment to mentally knock him aside and regain control. Yami Malik hadn't totally blocked him out, and he had watched his yami's actions with rage and a strange sense of helplessness.
But now he was back in control of his body. He gripped the Millennium Rod, and it glowed brightly as he commanded: Release him! Under the control of the Rod, the cliff-ghasts let go of Bakura instantly.
Bakura let out a shriek as he plummeted seven and a half metres to earth. He landed on the ground and blacked out instantly.
Malik started running to his fallen friend, but suddenly stopped. "Huh?" For no reason that he could see, the cliff-ghasts were retreating!
"The witches are here!" he heard Lyra cry. Looking up, he saw about twenty young women clad in black silk soaring overhead, shooting arrows quickly and accurately into the mass of cliff-ghasts. The creatures fled, knowing that they were out numbered.
Lyra came running over. "Malik! It's going to be all right! The witches are here!" As she said this, one of them swooped down gracefully on her cloud pine branch, and landed next to them. "Serafina!" Lyra exclaimed, giving her a hug. Serafina returned it, and then turned to Malik. He blushed slightly under her penetrating gaze, and then wondered at himself. Serafina looked almost exactly like a beautiful young woman in her early twenties. Her eyes were jade green, and were the only part of her that betrayed her real age (around 500), because they were filled with an inexplicable sadness, as if she had seen so many sad things in her long life that she could never be truly happy again. There was a little chain of red flowers in her fair hair.
"I am Serafina Pekkala, queen of a clan of witches in the far north." She looked at Bakura's prone form. "Is your companion still alive?"
Malik's heart nearly stopped. He stooped down and placed two fingers on Bakura's neck. The faint pulse almost caused him to faint in relief. "Yeah. Unconscious, but alive."
Will and Yami joined them. Yami glanced down at Bakura's twitching body. "My Ra." His eyes softened around the edges, and he seemed to slouch.
Yugi looked curiously at Serafina. "Excuse me, but who are you?" Malik had noticed the change, but no one else appeared to. However, Serafina looked at Yugi a little oddly before replying. "My name is Serafina. I am a witch-queen."
"Wow." Yugi paused. "Um, shouldn't we get Ryou some medical attention? He looks like he needs it."
"There is an inn about two hours walk from here," Serafina said quietly. "I will come with you; I have valuable knowledge of herbs and potions that will help him recover."
Yugi nodded, satisfied, but Will asked, "How are we going to get Ryou there? It's not like he can walk."
"I'll carry him," Malik said harshly. He bent down and lifted Ryou's limp body up as easily as if he were a rag doll. Will raised an eyebrow, but said nothing.
…………
(A/N: Did that make Malik sound gay? I don't think so, but just in case of any doubt – Malik feels guilty 'cos his yami took over, and blames himself for what happened to Bakura. Kinda like Ryou and all his angsty feelings, really.)