Sorry for the delay, folks, Spiceracksargent001 here, bringing you the latest chapter of Yu-Gi-Oh Virtual, Enter the Element Reavers.
ELFI: Special mention to The Phoenix Champion for inspiring the Captain to create this story. The Captain also does not claim ownership of Yu-Gi-Oh itself.
Spice: So, in this chapter, we have our first PvP battle, Cloud and Diana vs. the mysterious Beast-Warrior chick! Who will win? Let's find out, shall we? So, without further ado, on with the story!
-Cloud's P.o.V.-
This, is not good. Practically the second Wynn went to talk with the Petit Dragon, Diana and I get ambushed by a Beast-Warrior chick and her Monsters. What's worse is that she'd gotten the drop on us by throwing Daggers at us with an ability that cut into our Defenses. I was now down to 90 DEF while Diana was down to 70, and given that I'd taken 30 damage before the DEF drop, this fox chick's ATK was 130.
"Quite a bit of nerve," I call to her, "attacking two Players from behind like that. Who are you, anyway?"
"Defeat me, and I may tell you," she replies coolly, drawing an Iron Shortsword in her left hand - and given that her Bracer's on her right arm, I'm guessing she's left-handed at best; ambidextrous at worst - and entered a stance that I'm pretty certain maint she was a practitioner of Japanese swordplay. Pulling up my Bracer even as I drew an arrow, I used the motion to scan her and her Monsters.
[Serina Mordred: Dark/Beast-Warrior, Lvl 3. LP: 700, ATK: 130, DEF: 90]
[Command Knight: Fire/Warrior, Lvl 4. LP: 400, ATK: 120, DEF: 190 (95 Passive)]
[Silver Fang: Earth/Beast, Lvl 3. LP: 300, ATK: 120, DEF: 80 (40 Passive)]
I cringed a bit, both from what she had with her, and from the lingering pain where her Dagger had embedded itself in my left arm as I knocked the arrow. She had a level on both Diana and I, and her Command Knight was no slouch either: that DEF meant there wasn't much we could do to hurt her when she was actively defending, and even my magic alone would only be able to hurt the Silver Fang...
-no P.o.V.-
Serina swept her gaze between Cloud, Diana, and the Monsters at their side. Harpie's Brother began flapping his wings as he hovered just off the ground, clawed bracer held at the ready, while Dance Princess took a much looser stance, snowflake shields held at her sides and radiating with arctic energy. At her own sides, Silver Fang lowered itself on its haunches, hackles raised and lips curled back, revealing razor-sharp canines as it growled menacingly. Command Knight, meanwhile, drew her sword and entered a more European-style ready stance compared to her own Kenjutsu stance. She was handicapped by the Village of Beginnings not having any Japanese weaponry - European blades, even a Shortsword and Daggers like she was current using, always felt too heavy and clumsy to her - but she would work with what she could get for now...
Her first priority would have to be Diana. It was still night out, and she knew the girl was the stronger of the two Players at the moment; unless Skywind had some way of magically empowering his arrows, there wasn't much he could do at the moment.
As if sensing her intent, Cloud's hands glowed emerald with magic power as the winds began to stir. Before Serina's eyes, the wind picked up and began to swirl around himself before doing the same with his partner. Curious, Serina reached into her sleeve before quickly tossing a dagger at Diana, only to watch as the dagger was caught by the wind and slowed enough that the Vampiress swatted the blade out of the sky with ease using the shaft of her scythe. Serina smirked in anticipation, it would seem these two will be a worthy challenge after all...
Nodding to her Monsters, Serina's Command Knight and Silver Fang began to circle outward as she herself took a step towards Cloud and Diana, who draws back his bowstring and holds her scythe out behind her, respectively. On an unspoken signal, the fight began, Harpie's Brother flew at Command Knight while Dance Princess created skates on her feet and froze the ground beneath and directly in front of her feet as she skated towards Serina's Silver Fang. Diana leapt towards Serina, who mirrored her vampiric opponent as sword blade clashed with scythe shaft, deadlocking the two.
Cloud, meanwhile, held his bow taut, channeling the winds into his arrow. Deciding to try something new, he began changing the shape of the arrow's enchantment compared to what he did before. Glancing to his left, he watched Harpie's Brother clash with Command Knight, clawed bracer and arming sword releasing a shower of sparks as their weapons deadlocked, and a quick glance to his right showed that Dance Princess easily had Silver Fang on the defensive as she jumped on the Beast-type Monster with her skates, slamming it into the ground with her literal ice skates impacting it right between the shoulders as she jumped off again and sticking the landed on a freshly-made patch of ice with a little twirl.
Returning his attention to his and Diana's opponent, Cloud let the arrow fly right as the Vampiress and Kitsune broke from their deadlock, striking the ground at Serina's feet before the winds began to stir, pulling against the Beast-Warrior type Player, who suddenly found it much harder to move. "What?!" he could hear her cry out in surprise before looking between the arrow and himself as he drew another arrow. Diana, in the meantime, took advantage of Serina's momentary distraction and rolled such that she was behind Serina before jumping up with a spinning slash, catching her opponent from behind with the scythe blade and launching her to the side, her wind bindings growing in length as the arrow keeps her tethered, though Diana admittedly was surprised at how quickly Cloud was developing ways to integrate his magic into his archery, and wasn't sure how the increased distance would affect what was obviously a tether, though she was certain it would still have some negative impact on Serina's mobility.
Diana looked back to Cloud, about to thank him for the assist, when she saw the Command Knight charge him right as their wind shields dropped. "Cloud! Behind you!" she shouted to her companion, who, rather than looking back, immediately dodge rolled to the side before firing another of his tethering wind arrows at the Command Knight's feet moments before Harpie's Brother swooped in and interposed himself between Serina's Monster and his Player.
Serina clicked her tongue as she found moving easier, but still impeded by the arrow, still lodged in the ground, that had previously been at her feet. That archer was quite clever, figuring out a way to enchant his arrow to impede his opponent's mobility. This was proving more interesting than she thought. Her gaze swept between the Cloud and Diana before looking past them to see Wynn watching from the edge of the battle, a card in the Wind Charmer's hand.
Sighing, Serina sheathes her sword and holds up her hand, motioning for her Command Knight and Silver Fang to stand down. "I yield," she says, further showing that she conceded defeat in this battle.
Cloud raises a skeptical eyebrow and looks to Diana, who returns his skeptical look with a shrug before they motion for Harpie's Brother and Dance Princess to stand down as well, but to remain on guard. "How do I know you're not just saying that to open us up to another surprise attack?" He asks.
"Your Wind Charmer has obtained her Familiar," Serina replies. "Once you'd have summoned it, I would only have a small window of opportunity to defeat the small dragon before you merged it with her, which would spell my defeat."
At that, Wynn deemed it safe to walk up to Cloud and hand him the card in her hand, with him nodding his thanks to the young Charmer and pat her head, earning a beaming smile from her. He then turned again to Serina and, seeing as she was serious in her surrender, pulls out the arrow tethering her, dispelling the wind bindings, returning it to his quiver before doing the same with the arrow he'd shot at Command Knight's feet. Once everyone had collected themselves and Cloud had healed everyone, they all gathered together to talk.
"My name is Serina Mordred," the Beast-Warrior player says, introducing herself. "Before I joined this virtual world, I ran a Beast and Warrior deck."
"Cloud Skywind, Wind Duelist," Cloud says, then shrugs. "No real theme, but, I suppose if I actually had to name one of the decks I've put together in my spare time, it'd have to be Harpy."
"And I'm Diana Dust," Diana says, introducing herself last. "I ran an Ice Barrier deck."
Serina nods as she looks around the clearing. "Perhaps further conversation would be best reserved for when we return to the Village."
"Agreed," Cloud says as he looks to Diana, Harpie's Brother, Dance Princess, and Wynn, who all nod in agreement before Wynn reaches up with her arms.
"Up?" Wynn asks, making Cloud smile and chuckle before kneeling on the ground, allowing the Wind Charmer to climb on his back as the archer gives the now giggling young Spellcaster a piggyback ride as the group starts making their way back to the Village of Beginnings. Cloud also noted that he'd gotten an Upgrade Point thanks to Wynn netting him the Petit Dragon via diplomacy, but, with his hands full, he'd decide what to do with it later. He also shot Diana and Dance Princess a silencing look when he saw that they were about to fawn over Wynn again.
~Several minutes later, The Village of Beginnings~
-Cloud's P.o.V.-
"Well, here we are again," I say as I look up as best I can at Wynn, who's still clinging to my back, but starting to nod off.
"Yeah, maybe now we can-" Diana starts as she looks past me, only to cut off and look around in confusion. "Where's she go?"
Blinking, I look around and notice that Serina had vanished at some point during our walk back to the Village of Beginnings. "Huh, she was just next to us."
"Great," Diana groans in annoyance, "and she's the one who promised that we'd be able to talk to her more once we got here."
"Guess we'll just have to wait until we run into her again," I reply with a shrug, about all I could really do with Wynn clinging to my back.
Diana and Dance Princess look at me skeptically. "What makes you so sure we'll see her again?" Dance Princess asks, snowflake shields connected to the back of her belt and arms crossed as she shifts her weight onto her right leg.
"Let's just say that I can feel it on the winds," I reply cryptically, looking up at the starry sky, Harpie's Brother nodding beside me. "You always did have a sort of sixth sense for reading the wind and predicting things to come," my ever-faithful companion replies. "If you say we'll meet that Serina Mordred character again, then it's not a matter of 'if', but 'when'. Besides, that Command Knight and I still have a fight to finish."
"You'll get your chance, my friend," I promise. "You'll get your chance."
"Well, I'm exhausted," Diana says, interjecting herself back into the conversation. "Let's head back to our rooms so we can sleep and get ready. The Open Market is tomorrow, after all."
I nod. "Right. Let's get back to the Warp Gate."
-Serina's P.o.V.-
Having given Cloud and Diana the slip when we'd passed through the gate to the Village, I watched from a nearby rooftop as they began to leave for the Warp Gate, making plans for the Open Market tomorrow. Command Knight and Silver Fang watched from beside me, before Command Knight looked my way. "Why did you have us split off from them?" she asks. "I understand you logic of wishing to operate independently of others for now, but even the greatest of Knights require aid sooner or later."
"The Archer intrigues me," I reply, keeping my gaze on Cloud until he's out of sight, my gaze still lingering where he'd vanished still as I continued. "Even so, I will not follow him yet. He must first prove his worth. Until he can truly best me in single combat, I will not follow him, nor will I allow him to fall before anyone but myself."
Command Knight nods, accepting my reasoning. "Very well," she replies. "The dawn approaches, milady. As your humble servant, I must advise that you retire for the night. Tomorrow shall be a busy day."
I nod and motion for my two companions to follow as I begin making my own way back to the Warp Gate. 'Cloud Skywind... I do hope that you don't disappoint me,' I muse in my thoughts as I jump onto the roof of the weapons and armor shop. 'For while I have admitted defeat to you this time, I will ensure that you will find victory to be much more elusive in the future. Only I am allowed to defeat you now.'
Bit short this time, but, hey, sometimes short is best. So, yeah, Serina Mordred has introduced herself, and seems to have something in mind with Cloud. What could she be planning? You'll just have to wait and see. Anyways, next time, we tackle the Open Market!
ELFI: As always, the Captain welcomes and appreciates all constructive criticism that comes his way.
Spice: And flamers will have their comments hit with ECM. So, until next time, this is Spiceracksargent001: signing off.