The King of Blades

Chapter 9:


The morning after their first victory, the Next-Gens were sleeping in late. They had been up very late celebrating with their opponents surprisingly. But never the less it was a good night and they had made new friends, especially Craig who had instantly hit it off with Lauren and Jason who had taken an interest in Inga.

Daniel woke up first and left the hotel without informing anyone. The rest of the team woke up and went about their own business of checking their blades and spare parts since they would be battling again that evening. Their battles would take place every day that week for the group stages.

Vic decided he would stay in longer at the hotel when the others were going out. "Where are all of you off to?" He asked. "Don't forget we have a match today and where the hell has Daniel gone?"

"Whoa easy Cap. Inga and I are just doing more sightseeing at the mall. From there we're gonna go train at the stadiums practice arena so we'll be where we need to be." Drigo responded.

"And you Craig?" Vic asked curious that he wasn't going with them.

Craig grudgingly spoke. "I ah, was just gonna visit the Tech's"

To see Lauren no doubt. Vic genuinely regretted exposing him as he had pretty much the same problem. "Alright, we have a match at six so I'll see you guys at five so we can be prepared." And with that everyone was on their way.

Vic decided he'd go earlier and train before everyone else at the facility provided at their accommodation. In truth he was quite excited to be sending Carbuncle into the dish, after all he had only just discovered Carbuncle's ability and had not had time to try it again since the previous night. He was just thinking about how it would now affect his battling style and was just glad about the incredible effect winning his first match and gaining a new ability from his bit-beast had on his confidence and morale. The facility was completely empty which was just how he liked it. He picked a dish and launched Carbuncle into it.

"Alright Carbuncle," he said as his blade spun around the centre of the dish and just before he summoned Carbuncle a familiar voice rang in his ear.

"Not a bad first round noob."

Victor turned to face the speaker. "You again." He said.

The person before him was the same black clad individual he had met before but this time instead of a balaclava he had on his face a white porcelain mask. "You again? That's not very polite. I have a name you know, and you do know." He spoke.

Vic responded. "Yes but I'm not even about to go through such a mouthful each time I speak to you. And why hell are you calling me noob, I told you to quit that."

"Well you didn't seem keen on 'student' last time so I thought that would do." The phantom replied.

"That's because I'm not your student nor am I 'noob', I have a na-" He trailed off at the irony and seeming hypocrisy of his words. "Okay, what do you want?"

"..."

"A Guy Called Dark Phantom." Vic felt even sillier than before having to say it.

"That's better, and as for what I want. Isn't it you that needs guidance?" The phantom said. "My original words rang true did they not?"

Vic remembered Carbuncle's awakening before speaking. "Okay so you were right about that, but at no point did I ever say I wanted your help."

"The key word here is 'need' my friend. Just listen, I want to know the conditions under which you used Carbuncle's ability."

"What do you mean 'conditions'?" Victor asked puzzled.

"I mean how were you feeling at the time?" The Phantom said.

"What are you my therapist? What does that have to do with anything." Vic asked.

"Maybe it's important and maybe it isn't, just answer the question. Were you angry, scared, were you hopeful or thinking about winning?"

"No, I mean I was kinda anxious but I just sort of willed it to happen. you know."

"Interesting." The black clad boy was listening attentively much to Vic's surprise.

"Uhm, so what does it mean?" Vic asked.

"I don't know." the Phantom replied abruptly.

Vic sweat dropped. "Then what was the point in asking in the first place?" Vic snapped.

"I don't feel like telling you yet, get ready to launch. It's time for your training."

"My training?" Victor although surprised was partially hoping for that, after all training with someone was a chance to try new tactics. "Heh, let me warn you this won't be like the last time so you better be on your guard." he taunted.

"Tch, listen to the noob, learns a little trick and thinks he's ready to take on the world." the Phantom shot back.

They both launched into the dish and their blades clashed then separated and circled the centre. The Phantom's blade then ramped up the side and came sliding down for an attack but Vic just smiled.

"I was waiting for that, in fact I just thought of a name for this: Carbuncle Blink!" The white blade immediately disappeared and the blue one came to a halt at the centre of the dish as Vic's blade reappeared a short distance away from it.

"Oh ho not bad, just like in your match and not a bad name for your technique. I wonder though, when your Carbuncle disappears does it actually become invisible or just give the impression that it's not there?"

"Huh?" Vic hadn't thought of that before, but then again, he didn't usually understand what this mysterious character meant most of time anyway. They clashed for a short time and Vic realized that the phantom was waiting for him to do something.

"Okay Carbuncle Blink Strike!" Vic's blade disappeared as it charged towards his opponents then he made it veer off to the side and up the ramp where it reappeared then vanished again as it came charging towards the Phantom's blade. The Phantom did nothing to react then shifted his blade just as Carbuncle came into view and swooped by.

"Humph, lucky-lucky." a surprised Vic snorted as Carbuncle came back in for the attack vanishing as it did so. The Phantom's blade dodged the invisible Carbuncle five more times until Vic could not hold his frustration any longer.

"How the hell are you dodging my attacks, can you see Carbuncle?" he shouted.

"Good grace no, how can I see him when he's invisible?" the Phantom chirped making Vic even more annoyed. "Okay noob, since you are my student I'll tell you. It's very simple really, I'm not trying to see Carbuncle because I can't. What I can see is the effect it has on it's environment, in this case the dish. The slight superficial formation of scratch marks and the sparks sometimes coming from the bases friction with the surface. I told you noob, I'm the professor here you can't touch me yet."

Vic felt like he had hit a wall. He had just acquired a new talent and already there was a way around it. Worst of all it was figured out very quickly by someone he wanted to beat. Vic was the one who was good at identifying weak points in opponents abilities but he hadn't seen this yet. He sent Carbuncle forward again only to be dodged.

"Dammit." he grated through his teeth. He's reading those stupid signs, what can I do now? As long as he keeps it up I can't touch him.

The Phantom continued to leisurely tease Vic by dodging him when something took him by surprise. Carbuncle disappeared and this time the effects that showed it's position disappeared as well as his blade was rammed by the white blade much to Vic's surprise.

Did he not see it? Vic thought.

"Well what is this?" The Phantom chuckled. "We seem to have a new development. I'm a better coach than I thought."

"We do?"

"What? You haven't noticed what you just did?"

"I made Carbuncle blink again just like before but you're the one who didn't dodge."

"Ah, I see...hmm...you'll come to understand it better if you figure it out yourself."

Victor was not having that. "No tell me now, why couldn't you dodge that last attack, what did I do?"

"What did you do?" came Daniel's voice as he entered the training area. He noticed the odd character opposite Victor. "Uh, who's your friend?"

The Phantom retrieved his blade quickly and spoke. "Ah ha ha, would you look at the time, I need to be somewhere."

"No wait!" Vic exclaimed. "You still haven't explained anything."

"Ah well yes about that, let's see. My diagnosis currently states that you are currently very uncreative in use of your ability and uncreative means absolutely useless. That's the impression you've given me."

"I didn't ask to get insulted." Victor growled but was cut off by the Phantom's raised hand signalling silence.

"But there is a solution. Okay listen carefully to all of my words and you'll be kicking ass in no time: If what I'm thinking is correct, and it usually is, the next time we train, if you will, for heaven's sake use your imagination and you might just make me see things very differently good sir." and with that the black clad youth threw a smoke bomb on the ground creating a cloud of dense smoke with low visibility.

"What the hell is that supposed to mean? Was it an insult or are you just being cryptic again, can't you speak more directly?" Vic shouted after him but he had already vanished under the cover of smoke. When it cleared Daniel spoke.

"Student? You speak like you already know each other."

"Forget that, he has it in his head that I'm his pupil. He's just some mad hatter I bumped into earlier. Just forget about this."

"Whatever. More important news; I did a little recon, tonight we face the marauders and let me tell you that they and the dingoes are going to be free meals." Daniel stated.

"Hmm I see." Vic trusted Daniel's judgement on this one. "What about the last team? Olympus."

"Was getting to that, they are a lot more interesting. Apparently they are trained and sponsored by New Age Blader Inc." Daniel responded.

"What, the very company sponsoring this tourney?"

"Yup, so by virtue of training and their resources, we're going to have to assume that they're strong." he said.

"Can we assume that they're stronger than the Tech's?"

"Too early to say, but we'll face them in a couple of days anyway so let's instead focus on getting the full ten points from the other two teams or the Tech's will capitalise." and with that they both left for the beystadium.