Disclaimer: No I do not own Yugioh. I do own Temarocia though, and everything that happens in it.

Song of Temarocia

Chapter 14: The Legendary Power of a Graftborn

Flair- 8000/6000 (2200/1000)

Raiza- 8000/14000 (1000/600)

"Flash Cut!" Flair disappeared, feet leaving the ground as he moved with amazing speed towards Raiza.

"I activate Dodge!" Red hair bristling, Raiza shot backwards like a spring and evaded the high speed slash that would have parted him like a hair had it connected.

Flair- 8000/5600

Raiza- 8000/13800

Sheathing his katana, Flair frowned slightly. ("This opponent is a high-speed fighter, like myself. I wonder if he can pose a threat to me though…")

Raiza tapped the top of his Life Deck. "I pay 1000 magic points to activate Stealth Speed!" Then he disappeared, the only thing that even indicated he was in the large hallway being a number of afterimages of his movements that bounded everywhere.

Flair narrowed his eyes and twisted on one heel right before he felt a trio of metallic cat claws slash three shallow lines of blood into his neck, barely missing his vital arteries. "A Vital Cut attack?"

Flair- 6000/5600

Raiza- 8000/12200

Raiza shimmered back into view, the rising cloud of dust around his feet saying that he had actually been moving too fast for Flair's eyes to keep up, and had not been using an illusion. "You're quick to catch on, swordsman. Yes, thanks to my Stealth Speed ability I can move so fast that using assassination-based attacks like Vital Cut are possible even if the opponent knows that I am nearby. And because my ability lets me double the damage my opponent takes if my attack is direct, my fighting style is perfect for Adventurer Duels, where an unblocked attack is direct."

"I see." Flair tightened the strings of his robe and sheathed his katana, slipping into his quickdraw stance. "Then I'll just have to make good use of your momentum when you do that and cut you in half. At that kind of speed you most certainly can't stop yourself from running into my sword."

"You'd be right," Raiza disappeared and appeared directly behind the samurai, his cat claws resting against Flair's neck carefully. "Except that I've been in this hellish place for fifteen years. I know the grooves of these walls like the back of my hand, and therefore I can easily navigate them even when going at full speed. Give it up, swordsman. While we're in here I'm invincible."

"Are you always this full of yourself?" Flair slammed his elbow into Raiza, getting only a moment's resistance before he felt the killer disappear again. "Draw." Tapping the top of his Life Deck he was suddenly lit up by a powerful aura of purple energy. "Release of Power!"

Flair- 6000/14600

Raiza- 8000/12200

(2800/1000) After tapping his deck three more times Flair grabbed his katana's hilt and steeled his gaze, trying to find traces of the opponent. "I activate Heat of Battle. For the next five of my turns all of my magic point costs are negated, but during the fifth of my turns from this time I lose half of my original magic point total."

With that done he drew his katana and snapped it up above his head, the edge glowing a purple-black color. "Chorus of One Thousand Shadow Swords!" A spray of purple-black crescents exploded from the blade, tearing huge gashes all across the hallway. After a few moments there was a scream of pain and Raiza collapsed to the ground from somewhere on the ceiling, a bloody line along his chest.

Flair- 6000/14600

Raiza- 5200/12200

"From what I can tell," Flair pointed his sword at the unmoving killer. "When you're using your Stealth Speed you can't defend against attacks. That means all I have to do is get a couple of good strikes in on you and this battle is over."

"Believe that you want, fool." Raiza leapt to his feet and tapped the top of his Life Deck before his arms dropped limp to his side. "And now I have no choice but to kill you with my ultra-high speed attack…Flash Genocide."

"Flash Genocide huh?" Flair scoffed as the killer disappeared so quickly that even the air around where he had been didn't seem to realize he was gone. "That's a high-speed blind attack where you slash apart everything in sight in the attempt to kill your target along with everyone else in the way."

He sighed quietly and sheathed his sword. "Therefore I'm sure of it now. I had my doubts at first, but in the end you proved me right." Flair suddenly turned and slashed the air behind him quickly, his sword only out of its sheath for a second. "You're an idiot."

A crash rang out behind him as the slashed Raiza ran headfirst into the wall of the hallway. (+1000 damage)

Flair- 6000/14600

Raiza- 1400/10200

"How…" Raiza gasped out, his body contorting in pain as he tried to stand up.

"I know all about the Flash type physical attacks." Flair slowly walked towards the fallen killer. "Flash Genocide is a mass-target killing attack, but you used it for one opponent in an enclosed space?" His face contorted in anger. "It doesn't matter if you know how to navigate the hallways of this prison at high speeds if you've got no idea how to fight, you waste of training! It angers me just looking at you!"

"It's too bad then," Raiza suddenly leapt to his feet and launched towards Flair, his body twisting rapidly as it turned into a spinning blur of color capable of blending anything its metal tip touched.

"Are you doing this on purpose just to make me angry?" The samurai side-stepped the spiral and stabbed his sheathed sword into it, sending it crashing into the wall alongside them both. Reaching down he picked up the piece of long sharp metal on the ground. "Oh look, your claws broke." (+1000 damage)

Flair- 6000/14600

Raiza- 400/10200

Raiza coughed painfully, spitting out a tooth. "How…how did you see past…"

"Have you ever seen a fan in movement?" Flair frowned and walked past the fallen killer, heading back towards where he had left the dog's friend and the dog. "All it takes is one little push and the whole thing loses control. Remember that and maybe the next time you fight you won't make yourself look like a complete amateur…just a partial one."

He turned on one heel and slashed a deep cut in Raiza's chest, stopping the killer's attempt to stab him in the back with a knife easily. "And don't sneak up on me after I've already beaten you, even for a lousy killer it's undignified."

Flair- 6000/14600

Raiza- 0/10200

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A loud crash shook the inside of the prison as a person was blown straight through the wall and into a large circular arena-like area.

"Oh," Ruerto stepped through the hole he had created with Jason's body. "So we wound up in the arena? Good, this is the perfect place for me to kill you!"

"We'll see about that!" The young man emerged from the billowing clouds of dust his impact had created with a sneer on his fanged face, the green-gray of his head-fur mixing well with the bleak colors of the prison. "I'm not dead yet, creepy guy!"

"What an annoying kid," Ruerto started laughing as the Stonequill-fused Jason charged at him, running him through with his shoulder spines. "I thought after you saw what happened with the samurai that you would figure out getting close to me is a bad idea!" His arms swept in to try and pin the Grafter against his chest.

"You won't catch me off guard that easily!" Jason kicked the man in the stomach and slid back a few feet. "This is my Defense Graft anyway. What good will impaling yourself on me do?"

"From the way you said that…" The holes in Ruerto's body shuddered, the pierced flesh around them changing to wood and closing easily. "…you've got multiple Grafts. That's a pretty unique ability, boy."

Jason groaned, swallowed up in a blast of dirt that cleared to reveal him back to normal . "You're like those other guys? You're going to call me boy for the entire fight, aren't you?"

"Perhaps," The ex-general's Carrier appeared on his wrist. "Let's see how well you do against me. The Adventurer Duel begins here!" Tapping the top of his deck five times, Ruerto licked his lips and motioned to the lit sconces around them, the shadows flickering up into the empty stands. "Our audience is here, Grafter! They are the spirits of the dead, of those that I killed with the powers that we both possess…"

He smiled darkly to reveal two rows of sharp wooden fangs. "This is the power of my Wild Fusion! With it, I am invincible!"

"Invincible?" Jason willed his Carrier into existence and touched the top of it five times. "That's sad really; that you can believe something like that makes you invincible…it shows that you're really weak."

"Oh, what about that makes me weak?" Ruerto pounded a fist into his open hand strongly, the impact creating a weak blast of air. "Tell me, I'm all ears."

"It's the fact that you're relying on that ability to do your fighting for you," Jason cracked his knuckles. "Oh well though, if that's the way you want to fight me then I won't complain. I'll just show you the error of your ways by kicking your ass."

"That's an impressive resolve you've got." Up in the stands the shadows started to flicker more violently. "The audience is growing impatient! Let us begin, Grafter!"

Ruerto- 8000/33000 (1700/1200)

Jason- 8000/5000 (?)

"Let me start us off!" The ex-general tapped the top of his deck. "I activate the spell card Grand Battle. This effect will remain in place for the rest of the game. All magic point costs are negated. For every technique card played by an Adventurer they may attack an additional time plus their normal attack per turn. All life point damage is halved, the other half going to your magic points instead. For the last part, both players now draw until they are holding six cards during each of their draw phases. That way, we can both fight at full force without having to hold back."

"That sounds fine." Jason yawned out of boredom. "Step up the pace a little bit, I'm already getting tired of listening to you flap your gums."

"Sure, let me just activate a pair of Contingencies and I'll end my turn." Ruerto snickered slightly at the confused look on Jason's face. "So you don't know what a Contingency is? Think of it like a technique that you set as a trap card. It will trigger when certain conditions are met."

"Oh really?" Jason tapped the top of his deck. "That's good to know, thanks for filling me in. Now then, I'll end this battle in one shot!" He disappeared within a pillar of fire and when it cleared his hair had become flaming red, the same with his eyes. A series of molten tattoos were along his arms as well. (1700/300)

"Oh, the fire Graft you used to beat Bull?" Ruerto smiled coldly. "You intend to make good use of the firewood in front of you, huh?"

"Something like that," Jason's tattoos started glowing brighter. "Inferno Spray! Eat this!" (2100/300) Taking in a deep breath of air, he exhaled a plume of fire that swallowed up the ex-general. "Hah, this must be the weakness that Wing was talking about! If you're made of wood then it might be easy to regenerate from slashing and piercing attacks but one good hit from a fire-based opponent and you're finished!"

"Is that so?" The flames died down to reveal Ruerto unharmed. "Unfortunately you're barking up the wrong tree, so to speak."

Ruerto- 8000/33000 (1700/1200)

Jason- 8000/5000 (2100/300)

"Huh?" Jason blinked at his opponent in confusion. "You guarded against it? That's fine, I guess I'll just have to try again!" He charged towards Ruerto while at the same time mentally activating the second Inferno Spray in his mind along with the Surprise Attack spell card he was holding too. ("I'll catch you off guard and give you a direct fire damage attack to your face!") (2500/300)

Ruerto sneered as the young Grafter got about ten feet away from his. "You went and did it, so don't complain to me…that you triggered my contingency by getting too close to me."

Jason yelped in pain as painful brambles exploded out of the ground and entrapped his legs, a huge circular patch of the dry thorny plant material emerging from everywhere in a twenty-foot radius of the ex-general's body. "Ow! What is this stuff?" He grimaced and sucked in a deep breath, exhaling his charged up Inferno Spray to the ground around him.

"It's no use," Ruerto slowly approached the now immobile Jason, walking through both the fire and brambles with no problem at all. "Bramble Trap. An ability granted by my Wild Fusion. These little patches of briar will hold you in place and deal you 300 points of damage during each of your standby phases."

Grinding his teeth together, Jason quickly figured out what the problem was with his method of attacking. "You're immune to fire, huh?"

"My Wild Fusion is a creature called a Wasteland Troll, a regenerating wood monster that is completely immune to fire damage which is normally the main method to dealing with Trolls. It's rather disappointing, isn't it? What you thought was your best chance actually has a zero percent chance of winning against me."

"Heh, if you think I'm giving up that quickly then you apparently don't know me." Jason sneered confidently, despite the pain the brambles were causing him as they cut tighter and tighter into his ankles.

"Pitiful…your bluff, I mean." Ruerto tapped the top of his deck three cards and then he lifted his right arm up. "Branch Spear." His right arm changed to wood and warped into a piercing spear-like shape. "This card increases my attack power and lets me attack through defense." (2100/1200)

His foot slammed down and cracked a section of briar beneath him as he wound up to run the immobile Jason through. "I'll pierce your heart!"

"Since fire won't work…" Jason disappeared within a torrent of dirt, and when the spear connected it found that it hadn't found flesh, but had instead hit a bone spike. "Graft Metamorphosis." (1500/3000)

Ruerto snorted in disgust. "Back to defense, huh?" His skin shuddered and turned brown, suddenly resembling wood. "That's fine; the power of my other Contingency is the power of my Wood Armor Item card. It becomes a 1000 damage point barrier for me, meaning the backlash damage I would have taken is negated."

Jason narrowed his eyes in frustration, the Stonequill attributes of his body tensing as they were pushed to the limit just holding the Graftborn back. ("This guy is really good…") His lips suddenly quirked into a slight smile. ("Good, a fight isn't truly exciting if you aren't pushed to your limit during it.")

"What are you smiling about?" Ruerto's spear-arm suddenly exploded, spraying Jason with painful splinters that pierced his skin. "Do you think this is fun?" He chuckled at the suddenly surprised look that crossed Jason's face as his body seized up. "The fun has just begun."

"I…can't move…" Jason felt numb all over, as if something had stolen his body from him. (1000/3000/Switch to attack mode)

"That would be my Splinter Strike." Though he was now missing an arm, Ruerto was still smiling confidently. "I sacrifice an item that my body created to equip it to my opponent, switching them into attack mode and also changing the attack and defense increases of the item to decreases."

"That's a dirty trick," Jason managed to mutter out weakly.

"You're not one to talk." The ex-general aimed his stump at the young man's chest. "Branch Hammer!" A new wooden arm, the hand of it balled into a fist, exploded from where the original arm had been and slammed right into Jason's exposed body, forcefully tearing his legs free from the briars minus some skin and some blood. (+1500 attack points, technique card) (3200/1200)

Ruerto- 8000/33000 (3200/1200)

Jason- 6900/3900 (1000/3000)

Because of his head was positioned Jason could see that he was heading straight towards a wall. ("I need to be able to move, but how…") His eyes widened in realization. ("That's it!") Then he collided with the wall explosively.

"If this is the best you've got then I don't see what made the Grafters so legendary." Ruerto's new arm shifted back to flesh and he cracked its knuckles a couple of times. "Come on now, you can't tell me that you, who has multiple Grafts, can't beat one single Graftborn in a fight. Regardless of my power compared to yours, the abilities that a Wild Fusion grant surpass such trivial things. Therefore a Grafter should be similar, or else what's the point of devoting yourself to those foolish creatures you've bonded with?"

A cold chill ran down his spine and something landed on his head. Reaching up his brushed a bit of melted ice through his hair. "What's this?"

"Graft Metamorphosis!" The explosion created by Jason's collision with the wall cleared to reveal a flowing white mist. "Ice Wall." The mist faded just enough to reveal the beautiful sparkling wall of rough ice that had appeared between the wall of the arena floor and Jason, who was now dressed in a white and blue bodysuit with ice-colored eyes and hair. "If I freeze your little wood splinters while they are in my body they can't hurt me, now can they?" (1600/900)

"An ice Graft this time?" Ruerto started laughing. "Just how many of these grafts do you have, boy?"

"Again with the boy, huh?" Jason muttered this coldly to himself before he tapped the top of his deck six times and lifted his hand to aim at the ex-general. "Let me remind you why you shouldn't call me boy, kid, or anything else like that."

Ruerto sneered darkly. "You're not in any position to demand a single thing from me yet, boy."

---------------------------

Flair walked back into the hallway that the entire skirmish has started from, not expecting to find King casually sitting on a fallen piece of debris smoking a cigarette. "Where's Alita?"

"The dear angel Alita is right there." King motioned behind him to where Alita had been propped carefully against the wall of a small section of the hallway that had been cleared of debris.

"And where's the opponent you were fighting?" Flair just then noticed a hand sticking out a pile of rocks at the other end of the hallway. "Never mind…it seems you didn't hold back."

"Why should I?" The fake Frenchman stood up and ground his shoe against the empty package of cigarettes he had finished off while waiting for the samurai's return. "That guy was scum. Anyway," He walked over and lifted Alita up in his arms. "Shall we go see if Jace has lost yet or not?"

"I actually intended to go whether you came or not." Flair walked in the direction of the hole that been created by Jason's body when Ruerto had punched him through it.

----------------------------

They both entered the hole into the arena and immediately started shivering. There was ice everywhere. It was on the ceilings in the form of hanging icicles, on the ground in form of frost, and on the walls in the form of clumps of ice spikes.

"It seems that he was busy," King stepped forward and heard something crunch at his feet. Looking down he blinked in surprise at the sight of frozen brambles underneath him, covering the dirt floor as far as he could see into the mild mist that lingered around them both. "What happened in here?"

"This is a battle that only a pair of Graftborn could wage," Flair heard something rustling nearby and his hand was immediately on the hilt of his katana. "I sense a powerful prescense. Apparently the battle hasn't ended yet."

"Are you serious?" King looked around in disbelieve. "They've made a huge mess of the place already, how could they possibly not be done yet?"

"You don't understand the destructive power of the Graftborn, apparently." The samurai glanced around nervously, that feeling of being watched too strong to ignore. "Those who have absorbed the power of a monster become things too dangerous to describe. They possess powers that no class could ever grant, and that no amount of research could ever fully understand."

"Is that so?" King's ears perked as he heard a pained coughing nearby, though somewhere off in the mist. "Hey, there's somebody over there…" He gasped in fear as a bloody and torn normal Jason stumbled into view, collapsing at their feet. "You idiot, you lost?"

"Screw you, I haven't lost yet." The black-haired young man coughed loudly and rolled onto his back, having a bit of trouble drawing breath. "It's just…well…"

"You're out of magic," Flair quickly surmised this. "Considering your low amount of magical power you just don't have enough to go into an extended fight with an opponent."

Ruerto- 8000/33000 (1700/1200)

Jason- 3000/0

"You shut up, ass." Jason broke into a fit of coughing, rolling onto his side as he found himself unable to breathe properly. "I just got caught up in the moment, that's all."

"He got more than caught up in the moment." The mist parted to reveal Ruerto, his body covered from the neck down in wooden armor. "That boy fought well for that last turn or so, though by the end of it he was no longer able to fight. With such a low amount of magical power I'm surprised that he even expected to harm me, which he didn't manage to at all."

"Hmph," King lit up another cigarette and placed Alita down next to Jason, dropping something in his friend's lap before going into a series of leg warm-ups. "It looks like as the top fighter in the Freaks Gang I'll have to be the one to take you down."

"A race then?" Flair grasped the handle of his katana. "The first to take him down wins?"

"Sure, I'm up for a little bit of competition if you are." King smiled coolly, knowing full and well that this was more than likely suicide. "Hey Jace, you beat me fair and square. I hope you enjoy listening to that message as much as I did…"

"You're both a pair of fools if you think you can take me down just because there are two of you!" Ruerto roared at the top of his lungs, the sound strangely beast-like. "Prepare yourselves to feel the power of my Wild Fusion!"

"I look forward to it," Both Flair and King said at the same time.

-----------------------------

Jason looked at the cute little cell phone with cat stickers all over it numbly, before he turned it on. Even though the battery power was low, he didn't intend to waste too much time on it. His hands clicked through the voice messages until he got the most recent one. ("Sai…") Then he clicked the send button, bringing the device up to his ear.

To be continued…