Disclaimer: No I do not own the concept of the Yugioh card game, but I do own the world of Temarocia.
Song of Temarocia
Chapter 3: Welcome to Temarocia
A single heavy metal gate stood tall against in the light breeze of the spring day, the rays of the sun illuminating its ancient bolts and bars that held it together from the inside out. The road that led to it appeared well-traveled, definitely something commonly used by merchants and traders. Today though there was no traffic traversing the road, as it was clearly obvious that something was wrong.
Black clouds never seemed to focus on one specific point in the distance…and they never naturally followed over the path of a winding road as if they were accompanying something.
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The first thing that Jason did when he awoke was make a resolution to kick that long-haired jackass in the skull the next time he saw him. ("He took me down with a flick to the head…a flick to the freaking head!") His eyes opened and he immediately realized that he was in a room somewhere, the stone walls warmed thanks to an unknown source. "Where am I?"
"The town of Acudacia," Flair said from his seat in a chair next to the young man's sickbed. "You've been unconscious for about a day, and yet when we got you here the healer's said that you would survive with little to no problem. You're quite the resilient dog, I must admit that much."
Sitting up in his bed, Jason pulled the covers down just enough to see that his normal clothing had been replaced by a brown tunic and brown pants. "Ugh, I look terrible in these…"
"If your first complaint is against the fashion here then I'm leaving." The black-haired samurai started to stand up, but stopped the moment that Jason shot a glare at him. ("It's that look again, the one he had before.") "You want to duel me once more?"
"I was close last time; you wouldn't have won if not for that lucky draw." Jason tugged on the hem of the tunic, wincing as he realized that the bandages underneath it were still rather fresh. "Anyway, what are you doing here? Do you have business with me or is this just a visit for the sake of mocking me?"
"I want no more to do with you then you do with me, but Alita feels that she owes you something." Flair sat back down in his chair and crossed his legs. "You're not from this world, but I'm sure that's not of any surprise to you. I'm willing to answer some questions, since I've got some time on my hands while she prepares supplies for the next leg of our journey."
Silence followed, as Jason rubbed his chin thoughtfully. "What is this place?"
"This is the holy land of Temarocia," The samurai tilted his head to look at one of the walls of the windowless room.
Jason realized that if the curt answer he had just gotten was any indication that he was going to be asking a lot of specific questions to get the answers he wanted. "How did I get here?"
"To sum it up, Alita did the impossible and when she summoned a random creature to assist her you wound up coming out of the portal." Flair sighed in frustration as he remembered the girl's reaction. ("I suggested we just kill him, but no…she feels like it is her fault that he's here. While it might be, I don't give a damn…we've got places to be and this dog is in our way.") He tilted his head back towards Jason and shot the young man a cold glance.
Jason didn't back down from the look. "How do I get home?"
"The city of magic, Mudeia, would be the best place to look for a magic user that possessed the power to tear dimensions with that kind of accuracy."
"And how would I get there?" Jason's right eye had developed a tick halfway through the last sentence, as his patience started to wear thin.
"It's a long and complicated road," Flair smiled coldly. "Whether it be coincidence or not, that is also our final destination." Noticing the hopeful look in the young man's eyes, he narrowed his own dark orbs. "However, I have no intention of taking you along with us."
"What?" Leaping out of his bed, Jason grabbed the samurai's robe from the front and pulled him in close, their noses nearly touching. "Why not?"
"You have no magical powers at all. Not even the slightest bit." Flair's eyes continued to narrow dangerously. "Everyone in Temarocia, from the lowest animal to the tallest tree, has at least a little bit of magical power in them. You have absolutely zero. Therefore to carry you along with us would be the biggest waste of effort. You can't even be trained to become stronger, because there's nothing to work with."
"Now you listen here!" Jason shouted. "Because of that girl I can't get home without going to this stupid city you were talking about, so you're going to tell me what I have to do to become strong enough to be useful to you right now!" He released Flair's robe and feel into a cross-legged sitting position on his bed.
"It's nothing special." The samurai silently removed five red-backed cards from within the folds of his robe, fanning them out in front of him. "You just have to gain the magical power necessary to at least be some use to me. Because of your complete lack of such a thing though, there's only one method for you to become stronger."
Jason blinked in surprise as the cards were handed to him. "What's this, more of your stupid broken Life Deck cards?"
"Something like that," Flair smirked. "Those are called Prize Cards, and they are created when an Adventurer kills a wild monster. That monster turns into such a card, and those cards can be turned in for experience, money, and other such things."
Lifting an eyebrow at the man, Jason tried his hardest not to start laughing. ("This is like some kind of Role-Playing Game brought to life…isn't it?") He looked down at the cards. "So what am I supposed to do with these?"
"In this town there is a place called a Refinery, where Adventurers take Prize Cards to have them broken down into their base elements." Flair leaned back in his chair. "The machine there sucks in all magical energy from out of the air, and then distills it into a container for the refiner. It's very dangerous to any Temarocian because without magic in your body you die, but in your case you seem capable of living despite your lack of magical power…"
Jason caught on and his right eye started twitching even faster. "You can't be serious…you're suggesting I try distilling the magic in these cards into my own body?"
"Precisely." Flair shrugged his shoulders and stood up. "We'll be leaving in one hour, regardless of whether or not you are with us or not." He opened the door to the room and walked out without another word leaving his lips. ("Alita is out of her mind to suggest I tell him about such a theory, but it doesn't matter. If he dies then so be it, I don't really care what happens to some piece of low-life trash.")
Jason started shuffling the cards slowly, eyes closed as he thought about his options. ("I really don't have a choice, do I? I've got to at least try this insane method.")
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Flair closed the door to Jason's room and walked down the halls of the healer's slowly, one hand resting inside his robe. ("I do not understand what Alita is thinking, giving such rare prize cards to a foolish dog. The selection was rather interesting though,") He knew next to nothing about how magic, what he had been telling the fool was just what Alita had asked him to say. "Oh well, it doesn't seem to matter…"
A tingle ran up his spine. ("Damn it, I know that feeling too.") As much as the samurai had wanted to avoid having to fight for a while, it seemed he didn't have a choice. ("Whether by random chance or some odd turn of luck, it seems that a plague-touched has found their way to this town.") Resting a hand on the hilt of his katana, he started marching towards the entrance to the town. "I hope this one actually is a challenge, the last two were pitifully easy to crush…"
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The black clouds had arrived, and now they were surrounding the outer walls of the town slowly. Only one person had the courage to stand outside the protective iron gate of the town at this time, and that was the person which was being followed by those same foreboding clouds.
He stood with his cape blowing in the wind created by his own personal weather effect, his short and spiky red hair bobbing in the strong breeze. Eyes closed, he faced the heavy gate of the town with a sneer on his scarred face. "How nice it must be, to be stupid enough to think that some silly pieces of stone and metal would keep a true threat out of their home."
His eyes opened slowly to reveal the red of his irises, the vibrant blood color pulsing within its containers as if his eyes were entities separate from their owner. "It's such a shame that they're all going to die here."
A blood-red circle appeared etched into the earth at his feet, arcane symbols forming in the rings of the object slowly. "By the power of the Hell, I begin this duel…with my opponent being the town of Acudacia." The circle pulsed and expanded outwards, passing through both trees and earth as it grew large enough to encircle the whole town, outer walls and all.
Lifting up one arm, the man sneered as his Carrier activated, though this one's slots had two decks of red cards. "Duel!" He drew five cards from the deck in the left slot, fanning them out in front of him as he drew a sixth from that same slot. "Now let's see what I'm up against…" (8000/9000)
The heavy Iron Gate now had a glowing display over it. (0/3000)
"Heh," The man ran a finger along his tongue and then grasped a card from his hand. "That's a pretty good gate. Against wild monster attacks it would hold for days on end. It's such a shame though…" The card was flicked into the air, light coming from its edges. "…that I'm not an ordinary monster! Come out now, my Mad Bomber!" A blood-red portal appeared where the card had been and a cackling hunchback creature of the same color leapt down and landed in front of him, lovingly rubbing the edges of the black metal sphere in its grasp. (300/300) (8000/8800)
"And for good measure, a spell as well." Another card was tossed from his hand into the air, the piece of thick paper dissolving instantly. "Invasion of Hostile Forces will be useful when I crush a defense mode monster during this turn." (8000/8400) His hand lifted and he pointed at the gate. "Go now, Mad Bomber."
The creature cackled and ran head-first into the heavy slab of metal, exploding and instantly blowing a rough hole through the locks of the gate.
"At this time the effect of Invasion of Hostile Forces activates!" The man sneered and fanned his deck out in front of his face, two cards sliding free from the rest and floating into the air. "Two level four or lower monsters will be special summoned from my deck without costing me any magic points at all."
The two cards dissolved into portals of blood-red light, and a pair of huge bull-headed humanoids emerged from the two holes in the sky angrily, landing in front of the man and running their hooves through the soft ground below them. (1600/1300)x2
"My cute little Labyrinth Minotaurs, when special summoned, gain 800 attack points." The man licked his lips as the displays above his monsters ticked upwards rapidly to 2400. "Also, when Mad Bomber attacks all battle damage to me is zero and he destroys the opposing monster. Now then, go in and start killing them all."
The two Minotaurs roared and tackled the broken remains of the gate, sending it into a fit of shuddering. Their broad shoulders slammed again and again until finally the heavy slabs of metal blew away from each other, revealing the beginning street to what appeared to be a rather bustling town.
A deadly silence held over gathered men that stood in a straight line about one hundred feet from the now destroyed entrance to their town. At their head stood a tall man wearing a captain's uniform, his hands running through his nearly trimmed mustache. "A pair of Minotaurs? They're the attackers? If so, then they shouldn't have gotten through the gate that easily…" His eyes widened as a crazy laughter pierced the air and the red-haired man walked past the two enraged monsters without a care in the world. "For those creatures not to attack you, you must have been the one to summon them…"
"That's correct." The man's pulsing red eyes flickered across the empty street, reflecting a bit of disappointment. "This is such a shame. I was expecting some civilians to kill too." His eyes closed and he made a dismissive little motion with his hands that seemed like some kind of mocking way of praising the town guard. "You boys outdid yourselves, getting all those people to safety in such a short amount of time."
The guard captain frowned angrily at the robed man. "Who are you, bastard? You're the one that created that strange circle around the town limits, didn't you?"
"That's right," Folding the four remaining cards in his hand up and hiding them in his robe pocket, the man motioned to everything in front of him. "My name is Asdei, a second level officer of a man I'm sure you all know far too well, considering this town is located within his territory."
The captain's eyes widened in slow understanding…and fear. "You can't mean Kyris the Plague, can you?"
"The very same." Asdei smirked, the glow of his eyes growing in intensity. "And just to let you know, Kyris isn't pleased with the way Acudacia hasn't been sending him any tributes. After all, without Tem in the coffers how can he afford to properly rule the country of Aeiro?"
"None of us asked for an insane man to show up and declare himself the ruler of everyone that lives in this country," The captain motioned to the men behind him, who lifted their bows. "And Acudacia will not be paying any tribute to a dictator we do not acknowledge."
"…" Asdei closed his eyes and slowly smiled wickedly. "I was hoping that you'd be like the last three towns...they all said the same stupid thing." His eyes opened and his right hand came up to show he was holding his four card hand again. "The duel hasn't ended yet, so let's continue. After all, until you surrender my beautiful minotaurs will be destroying this place." He pointed in front of him. "Go get them, guys."
The two bull-headed monsters roared and charged forwards towards the gathered line of guards.
"Ready, aim…" The captain lifted his arm above his head, not budging at all in the face of the charging monsters. ("They are just two creatures, we can easily handle them!")
Asdei drew a card from his deck and held up a different one. "Don't underestimate the power of my Town Destroyer Deck, fool! If you think I can't stop your pitiful attempt to defend then you are dead wrong!" The card disappeared and in the air above him a pair of blood-red eyes appeared, releasing a blast of crimson light that washed over the row of archers and guards and left them frozen, unable to move. "I activate Eyes of the Hell at the cost of 500 magic points." (8000/7900)
("I can't move…") The captain could only watch in horror as the Minotaurs tore down the length of the abandoned street towards his defenseless men. ("There was no time to contact any Adventurers in the area…without them we can't stand against this kind of power…") His eyes widened even more, pupils dilating as his eyes reflected the image of the approaching monster…
Asdei's laughter reached its crescendo. ("I love it. The feeling of crushing these fools that would oppose Kyris' reign over this country…")
"It seems…" Flair said from his position about five feet between both the Minotaurs and the frozen guards, "That you gentlemen have bitten off more than you can chew." Two of the six Life Deck cards in his hand were flipped over to reveal the same picture of a pair of menacing eyes glaring through the darkness. "I discard two Shadow Intimidation spells from my hand as the cost to summon my avatar to the duel." (1000/1000)
"Who in the hell…" Asdei's eyes widened in surprise at the appearance of the samurai. ("Where did this guy come from?")
"From my hand I activate Showdown of Warriors!" Flair's eyes narrowed slightly as the two Minotaurs froze in their tracks, horns inches from his face, and slowly withdrew. "This spell, at the cost of 300 magic points, allows me to negate all attacks during this turn and make all battle damage zero, but during the next turn I must attack with all monsters on my field." (8000/5700)
Asdei snorted and a slow smile crept onto his face to replace his surprised expression. "You're not bad, mystery man. That's fine, I'm actually glad you stopped my monsters. I was looking forward to a good battle."
"You won't find it here." The black-haired samurai ran a hand through his bangs, stroking them out of his face. "I have no intention of playing a game with you, since I know how the men of Kyris the Hell operate."
"What's the matter, eh?" The red-eyed man sneered mockingly. "Are you some kind of idiot? Did you jump into this battle because these men were in danger and you had to save them?"
"Che, don't misunderstand." Flair rested one hand on the hilt of his katana. "My partner suddenly declared that she had something to do, so she told me to go kill some time." The thin slot in his Carrier started glowing. "Shadow Intimidation, when discarded for the summon of a Darkness Element Avatar, lets the user draw a card at the cost of 200 magic points." Two cards left his Life Deck and were added to his hand. (8000/5300)
Asdei threw back his head and laughed in amusement. "So this is just because you're bored?"
"Precisely." The samurai drew to indicate his turn had started. "Back and forth rules fine with you?"
"I don't really care, it's just nice to finally meet an Adventurer that didn't run in fear when they found out who I work for." The red-eyed lifted one brow crazily. "You do understand the penalty for losing to me, don't you?"
Flair scoffed and placed a hand on his hip. "It's not any big secret what happens if someone loses in a magical duel or battle to anyone infected with the Hell. They become infected themselves."
Asdei looked extremely amused now. "I love how laidback you are about it."
"I'm glad you enjoy the fact that I'm not afraid of you in the slightest." The samurai held up a spell card. "At the cost of 500 magic points I activate Item Summoning, adding one random item from my deck to my hand."
A card slid out of his Carrier and he grabbed it, sneering as it faded away. "My choice is Shadow-Cutting Sword, which forgoes its cost in a battle by instead costing me 1000 magic points and the top card of my deck. It raises my attack points by 1200." (2200/1000) (LP/MP: 8000/3800)
The guard captain couldn't believe their luck. ("I didn't know that any Adventurers had been in town, but luckily this one showed up and is willing to help save us!")
Flair tossed two cards into the air and slashed through them with his katana, not flinching in the slightest as an aura of energy appeared around him. "I activate the spell Swordsman's Fury and the technique card Power Slash, which in total costs me 600 magic points to activate. During this turn when I attack a monster my power rises by 500, and I may pay an additional 100 to attack another monster after my attack if it is successful." (LP/MP: 8000/3200)
Asdei narrowed his eyes angrily. ("That bastard…")
"Here I come." Flair disappeared, the ground where he had been standing erupting with dust. Less than a second later he was standing past the two Minotaurs, which were already falling to the ground as corpses. (2700/1000) (LP/MP: 8000/3100)
Asdei growled and snapped his hand up. "At the cost of 400 magic points I choose to negate the actual physical damage to myself from your two attacks!" A barrier of crimson came to life around him and a pair of thin slash-marks appeared in it before it faded. (LP/MP: 7400/7100)
Clicking his katana back into its sheath, the samurai exhaled quietly. "End turn." (2200/1000)
The red-eyed man drew angrily, his eyes trembling. ("This guy is definitely a professional that much is certain.")
Flair had something different on his mind at that moment. ("Where did Alita need to go to in such a hurry anyway, we were just about to leave too…")
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Jason sighed exaggeratedly while he looked at Alita's caped back. "Listen, I don't need you to walk me through this distilling process. How hard could it be anyway?"
The blond-haired girl glanced back at him. "I don't want to see you die, and if you tried to operate a Refiner on your own I do not doubt that it would probably malfunction and blow you up."
The New Yorker's right eye twitched a couple of times in agitation. "You're just like that pompous bathrobe-wearing ass that follows you around when you talk like that. Do I really look that unreliable?"
"It's not a matter of looking unreliable; it's a matter of dealing with things that you couldn't possibly understand because you're not from this world!" She turned and poked his chest a couple of times to try and get the message through to him. "Now stop asking questions and just do what I say!"
"…" Jason stepped past her and power-walked down the street of the very quiet and almost-lifeless town. "I've had as much as I can stand of you. Apparently if you can't do freaky stuff like pull people through other dimensions or look like someone pulled you out of a bad samurai action flick then you aren't a person. Well then screw you and screw this weird magical surgery you intend to do to me!" Kicking open the shop door next to him, he stuck his tongue out at her and stomped inside.
"Of all the impudent…" Alita was about to stomp in after Jason and give him a piece of her mind, when she noticed the sign on the door. ("This is the Refinery…he didn't just choose randomly…") It was closed though, which meant that there was no one minding the equipment. "Wait, no one minding…"
Then her hair was blown back violently as the wooden building exploded in a spray of splinters and flames, leaving her to stare at the burning remains of it with a slack jaw. "How did you manage to blow it up before I even stepped in the door, you idiot?"
To be continued…
