Chapter Seventeen – A Turn for the Worse

"Yami!" Yugi wrapped his arms tight around the neck of his rescuer, certain that he'd been saved. When they continued to fall, he turned his head to look at Lord Yami's face. The Shadow Lord had appeared next to him and reached out for him a moment after he started falling amid after the destruction of the Shadow Lord's 'Curse of Dragon'. "We're still falling?"

"Yes."

"Uhm... How about conjuring some wings?"

"Do I look like Lord Seto to you? I should drop you for suggesting that!"

"No, no! I just...!"

Yami's red eyes warmed as a smile brightened his face. "I'd never drop you."

"But, how does this help? We'll just crash into the ground together."

"A delicious way to die, to be sure, if I'm with you, but I'm not planning on dying today. Mustn't give those two preening lords any reason to think they're better than me in anything." Yami looked up. "I do hold it to the Shadow Dragon's credit that he's trying to save you. He might be weak in power, but he's strong in heart – or whatever a skeletal dragon has that inspires him to such courage."

Yugi gasped. "He's okay? The Chaos Dragon broke him into bits!" Yugi looked up. The Shadow Dragon, somehow made whole, folded back his skeletal wings and dove toward him. Unfortunately, Yugi was certain he and Yami were falling too fast for the dragon to reach them before they crashed into the ground.

"I felt it. His agony is what led me to you. Not to worry, though. I am the Lord of Shadows and despite my earlier misgivings, he is one of my minions. I have full dominion over him – which in this case means if I command him through the power of Shadows to reform, he does. I'm sure you don't mind." Yami winked. Yugi's arms tightened briefly around Yami's neck, this time not in an instinctive cling to a rescuer, but rather in a heartfelt embrace.

"Thank you." Yugi glanced down. Between them, somehow Seto and Joey had dissipated the weird and terrifying breath of the Chaos Dragon. Seto was even now winging up toward where Yami and Yugi were falling, closely followed by a group of the largest of his dragons. "Are you going to let Lord Seto save us, or..."

Yugi's supposition earned him Yami's red-eyed glare again. He smiled impishly into the Shadow Lord's face and suggested, "Well, do something then!"

Yami nodded with all the haughty gravity only one supremely confident in his power could exude, and smiled gravely. The next thing Yugi was aware of was the total inky blackness of the Shadows. A scant moment after that, and he was being set on his own two feet on the ground. Lord Joey pummeled him on the back in an excess of relief, very nearly knocking him down.

"Stop mauling him," Lord Seto commanded, as his alit on the ground again. "Good of you to deign to join us." His voice dripped contempt as he turned toward Yami and addressed his fellow lord. "Have you decided to stop being such a prima donna and actually fight?"

Yami's glare was so heated Yugi wondered if he would have to intervene between the two to stop a fight between them. Wait a minute. Fight? Fight! He turned his gaze upward. Sure enough, the Lord Dragon of Blackness and Chaos was watching the scene below with interested, serpentine eyes. Catching Yugi's gaze, he winked, and shrugged, as if to convey 'don't mind me' and turned his attention back to the growing conflict below.

"Guys, we have a bigger problem. A much bigger problem!" A strange thought, at odds with what had happened, told Yugi that even though Yami had saved him from the fall that at that height would have killed him when he hit the ground, the energy of that fall should still have done something – unpleasant – to them. It wasn't the first time the phrase 'law of gravity' wandered across his mind, but he wasn't entirely sure what the phrase meant, or why anyone would try to impose laws upon gravity. It was a force of nature and not subject to any human-crafted law. Still...

"Yami, there was, uhm, force pulling us into the ground before, when we were falling. I'm really glad we didn't crash into the ground when you walked us through the Shadows, but shouldn't we still have had that force pushing us into the ground when we arrived here?" Yugi winced, not entirely sure he was being clear with his question.

"When I was first learning how to use my powers years and years ago, yes, there were a few instances where I got knocked to the ground changing direction like that by walking through Shadows." Yami winked. "I learned how to dissipate those forces in the Shadow Realm along the way, but this time, I thought I'd try to do something a bit more interesting with them." He gestured toward where the Lord Dragon of Blackness and Chaos had come uncomfortably near (though Yugi thought any proximity was miles too close) and snapped his fingers.

Yugi noticed the tell-tale somber glow of a tiny shadow portal appear right next to the Lord Dragon's head.

WHUMP!

The Lord Dragon's head snapped violently sideways, as if he'd been smacked in the face – hard.

Lord Joey snickered. Lord Seto raised an eyebrow at Lord Yami. Lord Yami smirked.

"Uh-oh," Yugi said.

The Lord Dragon was not amused. Wicked dusty red spikes sprouted all along the length of his tail. Each one was barbed, and as large as a ballista bolt. "You've pushed me too far, upstart lordling."

Yugi, Seto, and Joey were each seized by Knaves. So sudden was the action that no one had a chance to respond, not the lords, nor their Dragons or Warriors, as the three were carried past a line of ringing Shades, leaving Yami in splendid isolation as the sole target for the Chaos Dragon's ire. The Shades, many of them unconfined to a solid form, reached up from their initial ring to form a dome completely surrounding Yami.

"Though I may jest with the Hero, it is a mistake not to take me seriously. A grave mistake, as I will demonstrate now," the Lord Dragon of Blackness and Chaos warned. "Behold!"

Yami's face showed strain, and a hint of panic.

"Ah you sense it. Didn't you know, my dear Lord of Shadows? Ringed about by my lovely Shades, your forces' direct opposites, your powers are cut off. You are just an ordinary man, unable to summon your Shadows, or Shadow Walk out of harm's way. Only, I haven't anything as innocuous as 'harm' planned for you. No, no, that won't do. Certain destruction is your fate. It might alter the path of destiny for the Hero, but I'm sure fate will manage to work something out. If not, we will just have to wait however many thousands of years it might be for the right alignment of Kindly Lords reborn along with the fated Hero to try this again. Of course, in the meantime, I get to reign supreme, so you can see how this is an acceptable outcome for me. Silly lord. If you had not blind-sided me unprovoked, I could not have attacked you with killing power in earnest like this. Sadly, it's against the rules. Thank you, for giving me this opportunity to directly thwart fate. Your death, and those actions I take against everyone from this day forward, are on your head, Yami, Lord of – well, perhaps you are about to be true to your other title as the Lord of Blood – your own!"

Pinned by the Knaves, the Lords of Fire and Ice were unable to summon their special elemental powers. Their Warriors and Dragons, without the power of Yami's Shadows to assist, were unable to break through the dome of Shades surrounding the doomed lord.

The Lord Dragon of Blackness and Chaos whipped his tail forward snapping it decisively as it reached the end of the arc, and shot hundreds of the barbed spikes directly at the Lord of Shadows.

"YAMI!" Yugi shouted in desperation.

Author's note –

Next chapter teaser – The Tip of the Sword