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

Song of Temarocia

Chapter 24: Casino Golden Battle; The Gun Priestess and Shadow Swordsman

"It seems that we're going to be rather busy cleaning some pests out of the casino." Don Karot brought his attention onto Jason. "It's time to kill this annoying cockroach by crushing the head!"

The Grafter was swallowed up in a blast of dirt and emerged from it in his Stonequill Graft. "You'd better watch where you put those feet, Don Karot. It won't be my fault if you wind up losing a leg."

Kim lifted her eyebrows at Jason's appearance, pushing up the tip of her duster so she could look at him clearly. "Hey, why do you look like some kind of weirdo porcupine?"

"This?" Jason laughed and waved one hand dismissively. "Don't worry too much about it. I'll explain everything after I crush this guy's dreams."

"I doubt that will be happening." Don Karot lifted up his still-molten right hand. "Even now dear Saika-chan is suffering, and here you all are chattering away like a bunch of mice."

"Actually," Saika asked as she got into the conversation between Kim and Jason, causing the Warlord to stare at her in amazement. "I was kind of wondering what kind of animal you are right now, Jason."

"It's called a Stonequill." Alita threw in proudly, seeming to magically appear alongside the other two girls. "It's a docile creature that exists in rocky mountain areas in this country. They are known for their amazing defense power. They can even stop the falling landslides from the mountains they live around without taking any damage."

"Really?" Saika clapped her hands together in amazement. "That's so cool!"

"Isn't it though?" Alita opened her giant tome and flipped to a certain page in it. "They can do stuff like that because they weigh over fifty tons. See, aren't they cute little tanks of destruction?"

"Yeah!" The Rainbow-haired girl waved at the Grafter and started cheering. "You're cute Jason, just like the super-cute Porcupine Stonequill!"

After listening to Saika go on and on about how cute he was for ten seconds, the Grafter tilted his head over to look at the one that had chosen what Prize Cards he had received before he had entered the Refinery and narrowed his eyes. "…Hey Alita. Did you choose all of my Prize Cards before I walked into that Refinery?"

The blond-haired girl froze up at the dangerous tone in the Grafter's voice and she started sweating nervously. "Well…I chose Stonequill and Burst Fox, while Flair chose Curse-Eater and Subzero Shark. Why?"

"On what basis did you choose them, might I ask?" His right eye was twitching now.

"On the basis of exceptional abilities and how cute they were." The blond-haired girl gulped as the witching of his right eye picked up in pace. "Why, what's the matter with that? I didn't know that you were somehow going to absorb all five of them so I made sure that if you got one of the ones I picked that you would look cute."

("I guess it can't be helped.") The Grafter sighed in frustration before bringing his attention back to the very confused-looking Warlord of Pleasures. "What's your problem?"

The bronze-skinned man looked down at his hand, and then up at Saika. He repeated this action a couple of times before his right hand stopped glowing and he slapped his cheeks in horror. "Not Excellent! Why is she immune to my torture technique?"

"You're a bit slow too," Kim and Alita added in from the side.

"Don't worry, Don Karot," Gansaku snapped up a pair of pistols he had removed from his coat, aiming them at Saika's face. "I'll deal with the problem!"

"No you fool!" The Warlord gasped right before the hunter pulled the triggers of his weapons, sending a pair of bullets right at the rainbow-haired girl. "If she dies then I'll never find out the location of the Mirror Wildcat's Prize Card!"

"Then she won't die." Flair slashed the two bullets in half, the pieces hurtling past the girls and pounding through random objects in the distance. "You should be more careful with your toys, little…" His eyes started watering and he went silent.

"Huh?" Alita leaned in and poked the samurai's side, watching him instantly crumple to the floor. "Oh that's right, you got beat up pretty bad by that one guy with the dreadlocks, didn't you? That reminds me, where is King right now?"

"Alita, could you please help me up?" The samurai grumbled this out, because at the moment he was having trouble moving.

"What the hell, King's here too?" Kim looked around angrily. "Why wasn't he helping our dearest Saika-chan in her hour of need?"

"It's okay Kim-san, really…" Saika tried to assuage the girl's rage, but it didn't seem to be working.

"Could SOMEONE give me a little bit of help please?" Flair started waving his sheathed sword around to try and bump one of the girl's into action, as they seemed to be having more fun talking to each rather than assisting him.

Jason rubbed the back of his head with a clawed hand. "Wow, the tension in the air is gone."

"Indeed." Don Karot watched the three girls talk with his right eye twitching. "They seem to forgotten that we're in the middle of an important battle."

"By the way," Kim muttered dangerously. "Why are you dressed like that Saika?" She poked the girl's side for emphasis. "That fishbowl-headed Casanova had better not have anything to do with that or else he just forfeited his life."

"No," Saika blushed and turned away, fiddling with her hair nervously under the other girl's cold glare. "I was working here as a waitress, and this is the normal uniform for the female staff."

During all of this Bronzo had been standing alongside Don Karot and tapping his foot against the ground at a crazy tempo. Finally he stamped his foot down and pointed at the three girls. "Quit wasting my time! If we're going to fight then let's fight!" His foot left the ground and the rest of him followed within a twirling current of air as he rocketed towards Saika. "I'll be taking the Boss's ticket to riches back, thank you!"

His hand got inches from Saika's skin before suddenly he was staring down the barrel of a revolver. "I don't think you have any say in the matter, scum." Kim pulled the trigger, not at all surprised as the bronze-coated man twisted himself in mid-air and got out of the way before the bullet fired itself past him.

"You're in the way, Gunner!" Bronzo's right hand started to twist and a current of wind charged up around his arm. "Cyclone Spinner!" His hand flicked and the current exploded forwards like a drill, tearing a hole in the girl's brown cloak.

Kim smiled slightly, her body contoured so that the burst of wind blew through fabric only. "And you're in my way, Magician." Her hand moved quickly, spinning her revolver around by the trigger guard and pistol-whipping the man across the face forcefully with the butt of her gun.

"You're trying to knock me away?" He asked as his head twisted away from hers. "It won't work against me. And you're wrong, I'm not a Magician." All of a sudden he was moving in the opposite direction he should have, using the momentum to crash his right fist into her cheek.

Kim skidded back a couple of feet, her left hand in front of her face and holding the bent remains of her revolver that she had used to block the crushing blow. "You're right; a Magician wouldn't have that kind of punching power." She tossed the ruined weapon away. "You're a Graftborn, aren't you?"

"That's right." Hovering in the air for a moment while he straightened himself out, the bronze-coated man touched his feet down onto the ground and adjusted his glasses. "I bonded with a Wild Fusion called a Tornado Ferret. It lets me control the wind currents around my body, so there's no way your bullets are going to touch me."

"A Tornado Ferret?" Alita flipped open her tome and ran her fingers through the pages until she found the one she was looking for. "That would explain how you twisted through the air like that. Tornado Ferrets are from the same family of animal that Burst Foxes come from. They possess incredible speed and the power to create wind currents around themselves."

"Who cares what it's called." Kim swept back the folds of her cloak to reveal her Carrier. "I'll show you that there isn't a thing in this world that I can't shoot."

"A Gunner against a Graftborn with the ability to control air currents?" Don Karot started laughing. "This will be no contest." He looked over at Gansaku. "Go get Saika-chan and…" His eyes bugged out of his head as he realized that Flair, Alita, and Saika had all disappeared. "Where did they go?"

"Don't worry, Don Karot." The hunter picked up his rifle from where he had placed it. "I'll catch them."

"I'm counting on you." The Warlord turned to look at Jason. "So tell me, Jason-kun, do you think you can win in a fight against a War Merchant when they are surrounded by their riches? It is a task that even the mightiest Adventurers know not to attempt."

"Whether or not you're surrounded by your greed, it doesn't make a difference in the end." The Grafter's heavy tail slammed into the ground at his feet, creating a little earthquake throughout the surrounding area. "I'll still crush your dreams."

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(1300/600) Kim- 8000/13000

(800/1200) Bronzo- 8000/18000

Kim glanced to her left and the form of Gansaku as he chased after the others. ("It seems I'm going to have to take this guy seriously. If I play around too much then Saika could wind up injured. That Alita girl looks like she can handle herself, but I've already seen how that curly-haired guy handled his guns. He was a pro.") "Shall we begin?" She tapped the top of her deck six times.

"Oh yeah, I've been waiting for a chance to stretch my legs." Bronzo tapped the top of his deck five times. "Trust me, lady; regardless of how skilled you might be at aiming with your gun you won't hit me. Not unless you can control the bullet after it leaves the chamber."

"Unfortunately I can't do such a thing." Kim pulled another revolver out from under the folds of her body-covering cloak, swinging the cylinder open and checking to make sure it was loaded. (+400 attack points) "In fact I did a lot of fighting on my way to this place. Some of those monsters took way too many bullets from me. All I've got left are the six shots in this revolver."

"Is that so?" Bronzo held up a finger and wagged it at her disapprovingly. "You aren't going to declare that you'll beat me in those six shots, will you?"

"You look a little too strong for that." She suddenly ran at him, leaping up into the air over his head and aiming at the center of the top of his skull. "One!" Her finger tightened around the trigger and she squeezed off one round, the bullet flying out of the barrel and deflecting right before it hit the bronze-coated man's head, blowing a hole in the ground.

"If you know that then why did you just waste your attack?" Bronzo tapped the top of his deck and then pressed his hands against the ground. "Cyclone Upwind!" A powerful current roared to life and pushed the Gunner dozens of feet into the air, tearing little pieces of her cloak away. "You guarded against it so the damage to your life points was zero, but if you'd kindly note that the ability of a Tornado Ferret is that when it is attacking an opponent that is airborn it gains 1000 attack points during the damage step."

Using one hand to keep her duster on her head, Kim didn't say anything as the henchman hurtled upwards after her.

"And now I activate Surprise Attack!" Bronzo exploded forward the last bit of distance between them faster than Kim could have dodged and drove his nails into her stomach as the sound of a gunshot echoed across the open air around them both.

(1700/600) Kim- 7900/13000

(800/1200) Bronzo- 8000/17200

("She blocked it?") Bronzo looked at his hand and realized what that gunshot noise had come from. ("Interesting, she fired her revolver and used the force of the shot to move her hand into position to block my attack with the body of her gun.") "You've only got four bullets left."

Kim tapped the top of her deck and kicked the bronze-coated man in the chest, sending them moving away from each other in different directions. Clicking open the cylinder of her weapon she jerked it roughly and the four bullets and two empty casings inside were put into free-fall with her. Grabbing one of the four remaining bullets, she brought it up to her lips and kissed it. "Oh Holy Flame, bless this messenger."

Regaining his current of movement, Bronzo launched at her again. "I don't know what you expect to accomplish by staying in the air but it won't work."

Locking her Revolver again, Kim brought it in line with the approaching henchman's head. "Bomb Shot!" She pulled the trigger and was sent into a vertical spin because of the recoil from the heavy weapon.

Bronzo sneered at the bullet, easily able to follow its movements. "You won't win if you keep wasting your shots like that!" He twisted out of its way, the piece of lead flying past his face. "Now will you?"

"Nope, I won't." She twisted in the air and landed on the balcony of the second floor of the casino, already kissing another of her bullets. "Oh Holy Water, bless this messenger." Reloading the single bullet into her gun she aimed directly at him. "This one will hit!"

"Where that confidence comes from, I wonder!" Bronzo lifted his right hand, a swirling tornado of wind energy around it. "Cyclone Spinner!"

"Bomb Shot Ignite." Her brown cloak blowing around her as she took aim, Kim kept her left hand on her duster so it didn't fly away while she brought Bronzo in line with the barrel of the revolver.

("I can easily dodge another stupid bullet, it's no problem at all!") The henchman was about to dodge when the bullet he had dodged earlier exploded forcefully, creating a powerful blast of hot air that hurled him straight towards Kim. "Oh crap!"

"True Shot." The Gunner squeezed the trigger and her bullet blew out of the barrel in a strange fashion, leaving almost no recoil for her because it was cutting straight through the air currents in its way like they weren't there. "True Shot can't be negated or stopped, so eat it wind boy!"

Bronzo felt burning pain as the bullet blew straight through his left shoulder, dislocating it and probably making it useless for the rest of this fight thanks to the fact it went through the muscle tissue like some kind of insane laser. Even as he was coughing up blood though, he continued his dive and slammed his right fist into her face. (+1000 damage from True Shot in combination with increased speed from Bomb Shot)

A powerful current of wind created itself around them both and then it went in the direction of the one it was against, hurling Kim straight through the wall behind her and then through the next couple of walls after that. (+1500 attack from boosted wind current force)

(1700/600) Kim- 7300/12000

(800/1200) Bronzo- 5300/16800

Bronzo grimaced at the score that was in his mind. "So you blocked it again, huh? I bet that means you had to use that bullet block trick again."

"That's right." Kim stepped into view, holding up the last bullet from her revolver. "This is my final shot, and then I'm done."

"Well maybe you can make it work, Gun Priestess." The henchman snickered at her. "Yeah, I know all about you people. The Gun Priests and Priestesses, a group of Adventurers that got some kind of weird affinity with guns. They can even enchant their bullets to do amazing stuff, like you just did with those two shots from before."

"I don't believe I was surprised that you knew about me." She loaded the last bullet. "This is it. I won't need another Blessed Bullet to take you down. Instead I'll show you something interesting…" Standing up to her full height, she dropped the revolver down to her side.

"It's my turn though, do you think you can survive one more round against me with only one of your precious shots left?" Tapping the top of his deck, Bronzo started to build up a swirling tornado around his right arm. "Cyclone Spinner." He exploded towards her, right fist cocked back to crush her body with his attack. "Like you said before, sis, eat it!"

"That phrase really doesn't suit you when you don't have access to both of your arms." She closed her eyes and turned her back to him, her cloak billowing around her. ("If ever there was a time…if ever there was a time for one of that guy's retarded inventions to work it would be now.") She kicked her foot against the ground roughly and her heel made a loud hissing noise before she was blown upwards into the air by about twelve feet.

"What the…" Bronzo shot right under her, staring in horror at the two pieces of wood left behind where she had been standing. "AHHHH, her legs blew off!"

("Just like that idiot Jason.") She aimed her gun at the back of his skull. "Miracle Shot Countdown!" Cocking the hammer of the weapon with her thumb, she felt the numbers tick through her mind. ("Three…two…")

Bronzo heard this and was already building his currents around his body to defend himself. "Even if you don't have legs anymore, I'll still take you down for the Boss!"

"I see your boss and me might not have so little in common after all." Her bare feet coiled underneath her cloak, she pulled the trigger. "We both know somebody way too gullible for their own good." An explosive blast of white light erupted from her Revolver and engulfed everything its path, Bronzo included.

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Alita screamed and dove for cover while the statue near her head had a hole blown in its face. "I hate guns!"

"You're not the only one," Flair growled out as he tried to resist giving in to the pain of his wounds. ("If I wasn't injured I'd proceed to cut that annoying gunman in half.")

Saika kept her hands over her head as she cowered behind cover. "What are we supposed to do?"

"I'd try my magic but…" Alita winced as she felt plaster rain down on her as another gunshot rang across the air. "It doesn't seem sound to go poking your nose out while there are bullets flying."

"What's the matter?" Gansaku yelled out while he reloaded his rifle. "What happened to all your confidence up until now, Saika?" He sneered and shouldered the butt of the weapon, taking aim at the area he knew she was hiding around. "Were all your ramblings on about protecting that stupid beast just that?"

Saika bit her lower lip and started to edge into a leaping action. ("I have to try and run for cover.")

"Those that declare themselves a protector of something are fools." The hunter fired off a shot at the spot that Saika had just been about to leap out of. "When fools want to live their lives like you do I suppose I can't stop them, but I'm telling you it's a waste of time. If you want to protect something then protect your own life and your own interests. Why would you bother protecting the lives of those that nature has determined should be killed?"

"You didn't try to kill that poor Kitty because of nature; you tried to kill it because you're a mean man!" Saika brought her hands back over her head as another bullet blew through her cover, this one nearly hitting her. "There's a difference between wanting to protect others and protecting someone! That's what King told me!"

"Mr. King seemed like one of those kinds of sentimental fools." The hunter reloaded after taking one shot at the cover the three were behind. "You can't hide there forever, hurry up and let's finish it. I'm not the most patient man in the world."

"Come on," Alita whispered desperately. "We have to go find King. I'm sure he could beat this guy!"

"That won't be necessary." Flair, eyes shadowed, crouched his legs and got ready to move. "Hunter, let me ask you something. You said earlier that those who are protectors are fools, correct?"

"That's right, I did. What about it?" Gansaku brought his rifle to bear where he saw the dust being disturbed. ("When he leaps out to try and cut me down I'll blow his head off. No one can defeat me in a ranged battle.")

"I was just double-checking." Flair, still crouched, turned to face the cover they were hiding behind. "Shadow Sword Style…" His legs bunched up slightly as he got ready to move.

Alita recognized the movements. "Get down Saika!" She scooted to the side a little bit.

Gansaku heard that as well. ("Here he comes…the fool is going to die…")

Flair, which was now standing behind Gansaku, slowly sheathed his sword. "The hunter has become the hunted. I'm sure you can appreciate the humor behind such a statement." The ground between where he had been crouched and where he was standing now had a black line going through it. "Hell's Road."

Gansaku let out one weak gasp of pain as a huge slash wound appeared on his chest. Dropping his rifle, the hunter collapsed to the ground. "How…did you…"

"When you are a swordsman of the Shadow Sword, things such as distance and obstacles mean nothing." The samurai dropped to his knees, blood dripping down his chin. "Even this pain, these wounds…they are merely in the way of me cutting you down. That is the road I follow, pursuing the man that once defeated me and fulfilling my duty to the Royal Family of Mudeia by protecting their princess. That is Hell's Road."

Alita stood up and brushed herself off, grinning. "That's just like you Flair, holding such a good technique in reserve until the last moment."

"I apologize for taking so long with that…one…" The samurai pitched forward and collapsed face-first to the ground. "I will join you soon, Alita. Would you go make sure that the dog hasn't gotten himself killed?"

"Right!" Alita extended a hand to Saika. "Come on; let's go watch Jason break that Don Karot apart."

A slow smile crossed the rainbow-haired girl's face and she took that offered hand. ("These people…these people can do it, can't they?")

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Kim sighed tiredly and kicked the smoldering body of Bronzo a couple of times. "I hope you enjoyed that little game, because now I wound up wasting the rest of my free time." She picked up the ruined remains of her 'jet high-heels', as they were called. ("Oh well, if I stayed around then I'd just have to listen Jason making fun of my height.") Down below she heard an explosion. "He should be fine." Standing up and holstering her revolver, the Gun Priestess in Training headed off towards the exit. "Though now I wish I still had a bullet for that stupid fishbowl Casanova's head!"

To be continued…