Disclaimer: No I do not own the rules of Yugioh. I do own Temarocia, and everything in it.
Song of Temarocia
Chapter 4: Birth of a Grafter
("What were their names again…those cards the ass gave me…") No matter how hard he tried, Jason couldn't recall their names.
Call upon us and we will aid you, remember that.
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Asdei looked at Flair and then at the cards in his hand. ("This opponent is skilled, very skilled…I cannot attack him wastefully.") He knew that his enemy was a samurai class and a darkness element. ("I don't have anything that can counter his element, but I do have this.")
Brushing back his bangs, Flair looked at the red-eyed magician coldly. "Well, are you going to make a move or do you not mind being attacked directly?"
Asdei- 7400/7100
Flair- 8000/3100
"Don't worry, I've finally made my decision about which of these cards is best suited to crush you." Grasping one of his hand cards, Asdei threw it out in front of him. "I summon Stone Golem in attack mode at the cost of 300 magic points."
Asdei- 7400/6800
Flair- 8000/3100
A giant pillar of rock exploded out of the ground in front of him, shattering and spraying hunks of stone all across the street. "Come out now, my servant." The stones lifted up into the air and combined into one humanoid of stone, the newly summoned creature roaring at Flair. (1700/2000) "I'll end it there."
The samurai drew from his Life Deck calmly, though now he was worried. ("I understand now, his deck runs cards that can counter my sword strategy.") A Stone Golem's ability allowed it to halve all damage dealt by slashing and piercing type weapons, so his normal attack was useless against it. "Very clever."
"Isn't it though?" Asdei sneered cheerfully. "Tell me, samurai, just what you can possibly do against me now that I've got this creature in play? You'd have to hit it with a 3400 point attack just to break its covering."
"That's true." Flair grabbed one card from his hand. "It seems I have no choice then, but to take you seriously." A shimmering purple aura erupted around his body. "I hope you had fun terrorizing those other towns, because after this fight you won't be terrorizing anyone ever again."
"What are you babbling about, weakling?" Asdei held up his carrier. "You had only 6000 magic points at the start, and I began with 9000. That alone says my power is one hundred and fifty percent of yours."
"That's a nice rationalization," The aura grew brighter and stronger. "If everyone was stupid and never held back. From my hand I activate the spell card Release of Power at the cost of 2000 magic points to raise my magic points by 10000, draw three cards, and increase my overall power to its highest level."
"Release of Power?" Asdei was forced to close his eyes as a storm of dust was blown into them. "For you to have that card would mean that your energy is high enough that you need to keep it sealed."
"Precisely." Flair felt the aura slowly reach its calming point, the purple energy dying to a dull glow around him. "If I walked around with my full power released all the time then I would wind up exhausting myself, as well drawing creatures to me that I'd rather avoid. It's the tactic of the wise, and as such I'm sure you can understand now that in the realm of power you are bit outclassed."
Asdei- 7400/6800
Flair- 8000/11100
One arm in front of his face, Asdei couldn't help it anymore…he had to smile. "You don't even realize your mistake yet, do you?" One of the cards in his hand started to glow. "These guys I'm holding do, and they look forward to making you pay for your ego! I activate the spell card Magic Plague!"
"Magic Plague…" Flair's eyes shot wide as he suddenly felt dozens of stabbing pains in his chest. Looking down, he saw a group of small mosquito-like creatures that were attached to his chest and sending their piercing noses into his skin and muscle.
"Magic Plague can be activated when the opponent would increase their magic points through an effect. Their magic points return to normal and then their magic points drop by 1000!" Asdei laughed wildly as he watched the energy that had been coming from the samurai fade away rapidly. "Do you understand now, just how futile this battle is? Against me, your power means nothing. A single-minded pursuit of the sword is utterly useless against me!"
Asdei- 7400/5800
Flair- 8000/100
Dropping to one knee, Flair snapped his katana up and slashed the monsters attached to his chest away before they could suck up anymore of his power. ("I made a miscalculation in this battle. I hadn't expected him to be ready to face a powerful opponent using such a method.")
"Oh well, power doesn't mean everything right?" Asdei tapped the side of his head with a finger. "Go on ahead and draw for Release of Power, let's see what you can do shall we?"
Drawing three cards from his Life Deck, Flair looked at them all before holding one up. "I activate the spell card Warrior's Training. I draw up to four cards and then return four cards from my hand to the top of my deck." He removed four cards from his Duel Deck and returned the four Life Deck cards in his hand to the top of his Life Deck, since he no longer had the magic power to use any of them. ("Warrior's Training doesn't cost any magic points, so I've got 100 left to use as I see fit.")
"Your true power has been sealed for this battle, my dear swordsman." Turning his back on the samurai, Asdei threw his hands up as his voice reached an echoing pitch. "What tragedy, what horror, what fun!"
He turned to face Flair and sneered insanely. "To think that I'd run into such a powerful opponent in this town, and that I just happened to have the necessary cards together to seal their powers. I wonder now, just how much of a coincidence this is, eh?"
Flair caught the sarcasm, and knew that what was simply supposed to be a method to pass the time had now turned into a fight to the death. ("This one knew about my being here, and that means he might know something about…") His eyes widened in terror. "Alita…"
"Ah, you mean the cute girl I was told to do away with?" The mage shrugged his shoulders innocently. "Whoops, I let it slip."
"Damn you…" Flair knew that he'd have to chastise himself about this later. His guard had been down, and therefore he hadn't thought someone would have known about himself and Alita. ("We weren't cautious enough, and now I have to win without my energy.") "I set one monster face-down and three cards face-down on my field, end turn." Four face-down cards appeared across his field, and he sheathed his katana while standing up tall. "I don't know how you know about her, but it doesn't matter…I won't let you bring her to harm."
"You can't stop me. She's my secondary objective while I'm here, the primary being the destruction of this town." Asdei drew from his Life Deck. "Here we go, sealed guardian! I activate the item card Dimensional Warp Portal at the cost of 400 magic points for the initial activation."
A crackling portal appeared in the air behind him. "With this in play I can teleport my monsters to any location within the duel ring, meaning that dear little Alita won't be safe no matter where she hides!" (7400/5400)
"You can't send them to her without knowing her location, or have you forgotten that?" Flair felt the sweat building on his forehead as he realized just how dire the situation had just become. ("I can't leave this location as I am now. My power is sealed away because of his spell, and until the effects wear away I'll be using all my remaining strength just to stay alive…")
"Of course I haven't forgotten." Asdei threw a card into the air above him. "I summon Seeker Raven!" An eagle-sized black bird appeared in the air where the card had been, cawing and circling overhead as it waited for his order. (400/400) "This creature, when summoned, lets me special summon the other two at the cost of 600 magic points." Two more Seeker Ravens appeared in the air, circling along with the other one. (7400/4500) (400/400)x2
("Damn it, his deck is built perfectly for this situation…he left nothing to chance!") Flair did not feel his resolve waver, but the reality of the situation was slowly crashing in on him. ("Alita cannot die…too much is riding on her safety!")
"Find the girl and then inform me of her location." Asdei watched the three birds fly off over the small town with a smile on his face. "I'll end my turn there. Come on, sealed guardian, show me that your Duel Deck has the power to stand against my precautions."
Eyes narrowed coldly, Flair pulled the top card of his deck free strongly. ("I can't lose here…I mustn't lose here!")
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Shoving another hunk of scorched wood out of the way, Alita slowly dug deeper into the pile of rubble that was all that was left of the Refinery. ("That complete idiot, how did he manage to blow up the whole place within less than three seconds?")
The Refinery shouldn't have even been active, and yet somehow he had caused a chain reaction with it in the amount of time it should have taken to even figure out what the machine was. ("It doesn't make any sense at all!")
High above her, a black-feathered form cawed once sharply, and then it dove down at its prey.
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Asdei's head turned to the left slightly. "Over there, eh? Good, because I'm getting rather bored with this battle." His second Stone Golem and his other two monsters, a pair of lumbering masses of muscle called Strength Golems, rumbled quietly from their positions in front of him. "These boys agree with me too, you're really boring…"
Asdei- 7400/3600
Flair- 800/100
Blood dripping down his chest and arms, Flair kept his dignity and did not show his pain. ("One more turn…that's the most I've got. He already removed me from the battle, so all I've got is my set card.") His face-down card was Waboku, which would guard him during this turn from the damage that would otherwise kill him.
Asdei drew from his deck…and then winced painfully. "That little bitch, she just killed one of my Ravens!" Eyes twitching in fury, he grabbed one of the cards in his hand when he realized that Flair was laughing at him. "You think that's funny, huh? Eat my killer card, fool!"
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Alita tapped her staff against the ground and aimed it at the diving Seeker Raven calmly. "So you're after me, mystery enemy? Then take this! Wind Arts; Spinning Cutter!" An explosive crescent went from the green crystal of her staff and slashed the large bird into little pieces that went up in a burst of black flame. "Sorry, but I'm not something which can be easily defeated by the likes of scout monsters."
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"That's fine," Asdei sneered as he watched the smoking body of Flair slowly fall to the ground, unmoving. "Little girl, as a wind element magician you should know better than to pick fights you can't win!" The portal behind him shimmered and his two Stone Golems disappeared. "Tear her head off."
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Alita wasn't very surprised when the two Stone Golems appeared about twenty down the road from her. ("If I was smart I'd run…they're not very fast.") Then she glanced back at the demolished remains of the Refinery and her eyes started watering. "No, I can't run away. It's my fault that wound up here, and it's my fault that he might just be dead. If he's alive though…if that one possibility is true…" She would not run. It was her fault Jason was here, a magic-less person in a place where magic ruled above all things…
One of the two Golems howled and stomped towards her rapidly, feet creating craters in the ground.
"Wind Arts; Roaring Hurricane!" The blond-haired girl slammed her staff into the ground and the creature disappeared within a spinning pillar of powerful winds. "Don't underestimate my power, whoever you are!" She shouted this up at the last Seeker Raven, which was out of shooting range.
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"It's useless," Asdei crossed his legs as he sat atop the shoulder of one of his Strength Golems with a sneer on his face. "Wind elements are naturally weak when used against earth element targets, and considering the difference in our power already it means…" His lips curled upwards and he started laughing again.
Flair's face twisted in pain as he tried to revive himself…but it didn't matter. Without his magic power all he had was a weapon that was useless against this enemy. ("Golems…the ultimate constructs that Kyris the Hell employs against his enemies. Those things are naturally resistant to bladed weapons and cutting attacks, the key methods of combat used by samurai class and wind element magicians…")
Their one weakness was their enemy this time, and that meant that all was done for. They were both dead…and he had failed in his mission to protect Alita.
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Alita screamed as the Golem back-handed her into the pile of rubble that Jason was buried somewhere under. ("This is futile, I can't create a wind powerful enough to blow them away or focused enough to cut through their bodies…")
The stone monster pounded its fists together and slowly approached her. "I commend you for not running, little girl, but this fight is over." The voice came from the creature.
"You…you're the one that controls these creatures?" Alita stood up and twirled her staff over her head. "Wind Arts; Spinning Cutter!" A crescent of slashing air shot from the crystal of the staff, and was casually blocked by the hard-bodied golem before it continued its approach.
"That's right," Asdei laughed through the projected voice coming from his creature. "You cannot hope to win this battle. The element of your opponent makes it strong enough to resist your magic, and on the other hand your power is apparently weak. I don't practice wind magic, but I can tell that your spells are very sloppily formed…such a weak effort."
Stepping back, Alita growled and clenched her hands tighter around her staff as she charged up her powers even more into the crystal atop the length of wood. "Regardless, I can't run here! My responsibility is under this rubble, and I can't leave him here to die!"
"Then you're a fool." Asdei's Golem continued its approach, crunching some broken glass under one of its feet. "Your swordsman guardian is already beaten, girl, and while I'm still not sure why Kyris wants you dead I'd have to be crazy not to do it if the opportunity provides itself."
"Flair…was beaten?" Alita's eyes widened as she remembered what he had told her in the past. ("If he was ever beaten by an enemy, I was supposed to run away as quickly as I could.") It was too late now though. "Don't hurt him…please…"
"I don't have any intention of killing your caretaker, girl," Asdei snickered coldly. "Right after I wrap up this business I'm going to infect him with The Hell, and then Kyris will gain another servant."
His laughter picked up louder and louder as he thought about how much destruction someone as powerful as that swordsman would cause when under the maddening effects of The Hell. "Flair Tsukimaru will make an excellent servant, and with his defeat it signals the end for you as well!" His laughter reached an insane strength.
Alita dropped to her knees, a hopeless look on her face. "No…this can't be the end…"
"I'm trying to sleep!" Suddenly the ground underneath the Golem exploded upwards and Jason stood up slowly from the rubble. "Do you have to be so loud?" Then he blinked and patted his chest a couple of times, coughing from the clouds of dust he created when doing so. "Wow, how'd I get so dirty?"
Alita stared slack-jawed at the young man. "Jason…you're…fine?"
"Yup," Running a hand through his black hair and blanching at the amount of dust his palm came back with on it, he turned to grin at the tearful look on the blond-haired girl's face. "What's the matter, did you think I died?"
"What else was I supposed to think?" She screamed at him. "The store exploded with you in it, idiot!"
"It did?" As if for the first time, Jason noticed the fact he that there was a giant walking pile of stone behind him. "Oh? And what's this thing? A statue?"
"Insolent bastard, who the hell are you?" The Golem roared angrily and pounded its fists together once more.
Jason tugged on the hem of his tunic and sneered. "Who wants to know, blockhead?"
"You would dare to insult one of my creatures, commoner?"
"Yeah, I would." Hands resting on his sides, Jason glared at the Golem. "I heard you say something about the ass, what was it?"
"If you mean Flair Tsukimaru, it's that soon he'll become the servant of Kyris the Hell, and with that the whole of this country will tremble in even more terror than before in the face of our forces!" Asdei's monster roared in triumph, mirroring the sense of accomplishment its master was experiencing.
"Sorry, but I can't let that happen." Jason just noticed that he had no pockets, and that was a bit irritating since he had nothing to put his hands in. "After all, that guy and I have a score to settle and I certainly can't let you interfere with that. Guys of no consequence like yourself should just get out of the way."
"Guys…like yourself…" The Golem started to growl angrily, stone fingers burrowing slightly into the dirt. "You insolent commoner, do you even know who you're talking to?"
"Nope, and I honestly don't care." Jason turned to look at the terrified look on Alita's face. "What's the matter with you?"
"Have you lost your mind?" She stood up and slapped him in the back of the head. "That guy beat Flair, and you are telling him that he's of no consequence?"
Ignoring the blow, the young man nodded resolutely. "Yup, he doesn't mean a damn thing to me."
Alita gasped and leapt backwards as she saw the Golem approaching rather swiftly. "Look out!" But whether he heard her or not, Jason didn't move at all until the huge monster bounced him off of its shoulder and sent him flying backwards into the wall of the next building.
"Beware your words, or next time I'll make sure the pain you feel is far beyond what this minor amount can cause." Asdei began laughing…until he realized that Jason was still standing.
Brushing himself off, the young man spoke through the spray of blood he was coughing up as his tunic was stained by the wounds caused by his own ribs piercing his muscle and skin. "Like I said, you're of no consequence or importance. If you had been, I wouldn't still be alive."
Eyes trembling, Alita stumbled out of the way as she realized that this guy was truly insane. He had just been dealt a wound that, if not treated, would kill him…and yet here he continued to say that this magician was nothing. ("He really is suicidal…he must want to end his pain here…")
"Die, you insane pest!" The Golem roared and leapt towards Jason rapidly, fist raised to flatten him into paste.
"Your time to kill me is up, buddy." His dusty hair obscuring his eyes, Jason snapped his right hand back and a white-colored Carrier appeared there.
"Where did that come from?" Asdei's voice reflected the surprise that his Golem could not as it continued on its charging course to run the young man down.
"They said to call upon them if I needed them…" Jason's left hand grabbed the top five cards of his Life Deck, two of them disappearing immediately. "Well now's the time to see if that theory works." Then he disappeared as the Golem engulfed him in a powerful bear hug, its massive arms crushing him.
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Asdei sneered darkly at the image he could see through his portal. "What an idiot. He could have stayed down and lived for a little longer, but instead he had the audacity to tell me that I was of no consequence."
Then he could no longer speak as pain exploded in his ribcage, as if he had been stabbed repeatedly in the chest. ("What…what is this?")
Asdei- 6100/3600
Jason- 6300/5000
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"That's why I told you," Jason muttered out, the collapsing remains of the Stone Golem still impaled by the rock-hard spikes which had erupted from his arms and had stopped the creature's charge completely. "That you're not important to me. It's because…" His lips curled up to reveal a fang where a normal human's canine tooth would have been. "…I'm not normal anymore." (1500/3000)
"What…what was that…" The second Golem turned to look at the remains of the Refinery, Asdei's pained voice seeming to make the creature's movements rather slow.
Alita looked just as surprised too, her eyes wide as she immediately recognized some rather unique features. ("This form…")
Jason's black hair had been replaced by a grayish-green mane of thick strands of fur. From his back a long spiked tail swept along the ground slowly, digging tears in the dirt below. His fingernails had lengthened into claws, and a series of bony spikes were sticking out of his arms.
"Stonequill…" Alita slowly walked up to Jason. "One of the cards I gave you was a Stonequill, a rare earth element monster Flair and I defeated weeks ago…and that fur…those spikes…"
"Yeah." Jason turned to look at her and smirked, his tail slamming once into the ground and creating a small tremor in the earth below them. "I can't explain it, but it's in me. The other Prize Cards too, all of them have given me their power." The wounds he had suffered were completely gone. "I guess I should have just said so, but I had wanted him to attack me while I was in defense mode and he might not have had he known."
"A Grafter…" Alita's eyes suddenly lit up and she hugged him, being careful not to cut herself on the spikes coming out of his arms. "Amazing, it actually worked! That theory wasn't incorrect, it was spot on!"
"This…" Blushing and rubbing the back of his head a little confusedly, he frowned. "…isn't the reaction I was expecting."
"Well, it's just that I wasn't sure if the theory about such a legendary class was true or not." After getting another confused look from him she stepped back and placed her hands behind her back. "Let me try this again. The theory is that when a Refiner distills the energy from a Prize Card that energy just for a short amount of time retains the essence of the creature it was created from."
"Okay…" Jason was only listening half-heartedly, as this sounded horribly boring.
"A Grafter is someone that is born with no magical power at all and who undergoes the process I had intended for you to undergo in the Refiner, which would have infused you with the essence of one of those five Prize Cards powers." She clasped her hands together, stars reflected in her eyes to show the awe she felt right now. "Instead though you somehow gained all of their powers! That's incredible! And this is just Stonequill's powers too; I can't imagine how you'd look when using the other Prize Cards' powers."
"That's nice," he muttered right before yawning. "Listen, I know that this is incredibly fascinating to you but…" He tapped the Carrier sitting on his right forearm and the two cards pinched carefully in his left hand to avoid piercing them with his claws. "I'm kind of in the middle of something."
"A defense of 3000, huh?" Asdei's Golem started to glow a bright reddish-pink color. "It's still my battle phase, boy, so I'll activate the technique card Meteor Tackle! This will let my monster double its attack when it attacks a defense mode monster during this turn!"
Asdei- 6100/3100
Jason- 6300/5000
"Get out of the way, Alita." Jason turned to face the charging Golem with a smirk on his face, his tail swaying behind him slowly. "Bring it on, insignificance."
"Die, you loud-mouthed fool!" The Stone Golem turned into a swollen fireball of pink energy that quickly filled the surrounding area with light of the same color as it prepared to overtake Jason. (3400/2000)
"From my hand I activate the technique card Spike Aura!" Jason held up the card and it dissolved from his grasp. The greenish-grey fur that was his hair suddenly lengthened until it covered him like a cloak. "At the cost of 500 magic points it doubles my defense if I'm in defense mode and am about to attacked!" The strands of his fur suddenly hardened and stood out perfectly straight, a thick protective coat of spikes which surrounded him perfectly. (1500/6000)
"What?" Asdei then screamed as his Golem tackled the young man and immediately shattered.
Asdei- 3700/2700
Jason- 6300/4500
Alita stared in amazement at the crumbling remains of the Golem, and then her head slowly turned to look at Jason. ("This is incredible; he jumped into the battle in Flair's place and is winning just through defense alone…")
Jason's fur returned to normal and he sneered at the pulsing portal that was still in the air. (1500/3000) "Let's wrap this up soon, shall we?"
"You bastard…come and get me if you're so eager to continue!" The portal shuddered and disappeared.
Picking up her staff, Alita wasn't sure what to feel right now. Part of her was afraid because all their hopes now rested on a guy that was apparently suicidal, but the other part of her was absolutely amazed that he had actually become a Grafter like the theory had said. "Jason, can you beat him?"
"What part of 'of no consequence' did you not understand?" And then he started heading towards the direction of the gate near one edge of the town. "Now let's go wrap this up. I've got a score to settle with the ass, and that means I'm going to have to save him."
To be continued…
