Blood Only Glows in the Dark Chapter 37: 37, a yu-gi-oh fanfic

...Hmm. Can't think of anything witty to say here this time.

Oh well. I guess the fic will just have to sell itself - woe the fic MUWAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA!

(ahem)'

Disclaimer: see last chapter

"I don't know, this doesn't seem right at all, guys," Yugi said, fiddling with the lovely protection necklace he was now sporting, "We're stealing!"

"How do ya know dat Hi-ka-ka-whatever guy didn't steal it from somebody else himself first, Yug'?" Jou pointed out, straightening his own.

The only things Yami had let the mortals take from the treasure room had been a pair of necklaces that Yami had noticed in a corner, under a table weighed down with diamond-studded nose rings. They were charmed to protect their wearers from physical harm, so Yami felt justified about taking them, but the mortals got to take nothing else.

Common sense, really - many wicked creatures were fanatically obsessed with what they viewed as their property, no matter whether they could use it or needed it or not. Besides, necklaces like those, Hauru would have most definitely stolen or taken as spoils of murder, so Yami chose not to feel bad about it.

…The minor, not-at-all important fact that Yugi looked very good in gold had, of course, absolutely nothing to do with that decision. Nope, not a single thing!

Past the corridor junction, where the three of them took the path that the mortals had originally planned to take, the third level grew gradually lighter, but in an odd way. Fuzzy patches of lightness hung in midair, here and there, brightening up the corridor. The fact that these patches were always on and around slash and crater-marks in the walls, floor, and ceiling was not lost on Yami - especially what with how walking through those patches gave him a serious case of the chills.

This was White magic residue, and right now only Yugi's schoolmate Ryou was a likely suspect…with the thief's obvious possessiveness of his chosen mortal, and that treasure room back down that last corridor, it all fit.

Unfortunately, so did the ominous floor-shaking and partially muffled crashing noises that started up the further along the three of them went. And judging from the sounds, they were being made by a LOT of mysterious somethings.

"Ah, man, not more nasty monstas," Jou complained, getting a better grip on his flameblade, "Can't dis Ha-ka-whatever guy think of somethin' different fer once?"

The corridor went around a sharp bend, and up ahead was an archway, leading into what looked like a very large room. It was hard to tell at first because whatever size room it was, it was lit far better than the rest of this entire floor.

"Sweet! I can see light! Wonderful, wonderful light!" Jou cheered, charging for the archway, his concerns about upcoming monsters completely forgotten.

But just as the blonde reached it, some sort of gigantic object slammed into the floor of the room, right in front of the arch. The shockwave from the impact knocked Jou off his feet and backwards. Yami, who was only barely able to stay on his feet himself, pulled Yugi out of the way before his larger friend could land on him and crush him easily.

Meanwhile, whatever it was that had hit the floor was straightening up and looking around. The floor rattled hollowly under its feet as it stomped past the archway, heading for another part of the big room. Once it was far enough away not to notice them, Yami and the others entered to room to for a better look around.

This room was very oversized. In height, it would have taken up three stories in a human building, and could have fit Yugi's house inside the walls several times with plenty of floor space to spare. It was shaped to be a very large dome, and there were hundreds of large witchboil sconces on the walls to provide light, though it was still technically very dim.

Running around the floor were thirty or so large brown things, identical to the thing that had landed near them moments ago. They were shaped like men, but were all brown and solid and seven feet tall, with the only non-brown part of their bodies being their ball-shaped, red-colored heads.

"Those things are bad news, right?" Yugi asked

"Hey! They don't look dat tough ta me!" Jou declared, "C'mon, s'not like they're made of solid rock or anything…err, I mean, can you tell if they're made of rock or whatever, Yam'?"

"Rock, no," Yami sighed - well, at least the foolhardy mortal had asked before throwing himself into combat, "Clay, yes. These things are probably just constructs…"

"Den I guess its time fer us ta de-construct 'em!" Jou declared, raising his sword and charging towards the swarming clay-men.

"Is he going to be okay?" Yugi asked Yami immediately.

"…Come on, this shouldn't take too long," Yami said, extending his claws and starting to walk briskly towards this new wave of opponents.

Jou, meanwhile, had already reached the nearest of the golems and had decided to start off with a flashy wave of fire, apparently the favorite part of his new weapon. Four of the clay-men vanished into the flames…and remained standing after the fire had died down, slightly charred but otherwise undamaged.

"Ah damn -" Jou yelped, turning and running away from the golems as they turned around, towards the source of those flames, and charged.

Yami was about to hurry his steps, intending to veer over and help the blonde with his little situation, when a bright flash of white light from the other side of the room caught his eyes. His regular eyesight told him there was one, maybe two other people over there, and that they were fighting against the golems. Yami's sixth senses told him that both of those people were mortals and one of them was using very familiar White magic.

"Ryou and Honda are both over there!" Yugi exclaimed only a few seconds later, "And it looks like they're in trouble! What do we do?"

'We? Since when…never mind,' Yami mentally shook himself, taking in Yugi's determined expression, 'They're his friends, why not, there isn't time to argue anyway.'

"I'll cut through the middle of those golems and distract them," Yami summarized quickly, "You'll have to stay on the edge of the room, and get the two of them to follow you back to the door we entered with, understand?"

Yugi blinked - apparently he'd been expecting Yami to say that it was too dangerous for him to fight, and that they'd have to argue about it - before nodding and heading off to complete his assigned task.

Leaving Yami to exercise his speed and agility by darting in amongst the golems, dodging and otherwise ignoring every attack they aimed his way as he passed, until he was closer to the other side of the room.

As for Ryou and Honda, they seemed to have been nearly holding their own, judging by the amount of scattered clay limbs and bodies that they were surrounded by.

As Yami made his way closer, he saw that Honda had leapt onto the back of a golem, climbing the rest of the way to cling to its head, and in its confusion the clay-man was swinging its arms wildly, smashing everything nearby, including other golems. When another golem swung at the first's head, aiming for the clinging mortal, Honda let go and dropped to the floor, while the golem he had been hanging on to had its head smashed into pieces and fell in a heap of dirt. Ryou was swatting away with his magically enhanced flyswatter, but wasn't causing very much damage.

Another golem jumped at the two mortals from behind, something they failed to spot until it was too late for them to get out of the way. Quickly calling on his magic, Yami flung a crescent-shaped blade of magic at the offending clay-man. Aimed perfectly, the attack sliced the golem's head off its shoulders, leaving the rest of its body to collapse into a pile of harmless dirt.

"Huh?" Honda gasped, blinking as he belatedly realized that they had just been saved by someone, "What the…guys!"

"Finally! We found you!" Yugi announced as he ran over from the sidelines, "Ryou, Honda, we have to hurry! Come on!"

"But…what about him?" Ryou asked as he followed after Yugi, pointing back in Yami's direction.

"He's fine, come on!" Yugi insisted.

As soon as the mortals were in the clear, Yami moved to put himself between them and the golems that were trying to catch up to them. Detecting a more dangerous opponent than mere mortals in the mage-demon, the clay-men moved to surround him, until Yami was standing inside of a ring of about twenty golems.

Before they attempted to strike him down, Yami got to wait very patiently while the clay-men shifted the shape of their clay arms, their blocky hands melting into sharply-pointed blades that jutted from their wrists.

"Will we be playing with sharp objects today?" Yami smirked, "I think I can manage that…"

Shaping his magic carefully, Yami's lower arms and hands were swiftly enveloped in long lavender-tinted blades of pure magical power, which crackled warningly when Yami let their tips touch. That done, Yami gave the looming golems a mocking bow, which they took as the signal to start the battle.