Chapter 47: Clash Of The Beasts

Yami, Seto, Joey and Rose all stared up at the Great Laviathon in utter shock. Even after they had summoned their best monsters and they had received help from the monster world itself, all of their efforts were futile. With one blast, the beast had destroyed all of their monsters, including their last line of defence: the three legendary knights. Dartz's menacing laugh echoed around them as they stood there speechless, almost unable to move from the terror that faced them. Joey voiced his concern about destroying the beast, and they suddenly noticed all the monsters that were helping them were grabbed by tentacle-like objects that spurted from the skin of the Laviathon, drawing them towards it. The group stared up in horror, watching the beast consume each monster with ease, pulling them into its skin. Rose was trying to think of a new plan of action when her thoughts were interrupted by something invading her personal space. She let out a shriek at the presence of a dark coloured tendril reaching for her, and jumped backwards from it, but it only kept coming.

"Rose!" Yami called out, having been alerted to her current situation by her shriek. Rose was still quickly backing away from the thing, when her back hit a pillar, and she looked up with wide eyes. The extension of the beast suddenly lunged for her, and she squeezed her eyes shut, as the three men called out to her.

A moment passed, and nothing happened. Rose opened her eyes to see a familiar wall of light surrounding her, blocking her from the beast's attempts to capture her.

"Ha!" She yelled in triumph, jumping in her spot. "I've got the Millennium Heart, therefore you can't touch me, Dartz!" She saw the three men relax where they were, before they were caught by surprise by another 3 sets of tendrils reaching for them.

"You may be safe Rose, but your companions are not!" Dartz bellowed, and Rose pushed herself away from the pillar as the three men fought off the beasts advances. Rose didn't know if she would be able to control the light shield that the Millennium Heart could conjure, but she made the decision in that moment to try. She ran over to them, just as Seto and Joey were pulled off of their feet, and she just managed to grab onto Yami's arm before he was pulled away, also.

"Joey! Seto!" she called out to them, but all she could do was watch as they were pulled up to the Laviathon. Yami turned to look at her, shocked at her attempts to keep him on the ground as they both struggled to free him from the grip that the beast had on him. "I won't-" Rose grunted as she pulled on his arm, "let you-" with much effort, she was able to pull him back a bit more, "get consumed-" she was then able to grab hold of his waist, "by the beast!" While one tendril was wrapped around Yami's waist, challenging Rose as she pulled Yami back, another one reached for her, but as expected, the Millennium Heart lit up and blocked it. She was hoping that it would protect Yami also, but maybe if she was closer to him it would work for the both of them.

Eventually, the beast withdrew it's attempts at grabbing them both, and Rose and Yami relaxed for a moment, still holding on to each other. Rose breathed a sigh of relief, letting go of the man, "Are you alright?"

He nodded, "Yes, I'm fine. Thank you." Rose gave him a smile in return, before she looked over his shoulder and her eyes widened. She spotted several tendrils heading for them now, and she knew she wouldn't be able to fend them off just by playing tug-of-war this time. "Grab me!" she suddenly demanded, wrapping her arms around his waist in a constricting hug. Yami was caught by surprise, but upon looking over his shoulder and seeing the oncoming threat, he complied, holding her as tight as he could manage, and hoping that the Millennium Heart would know what to do.

Please Millennium Heart, Rose thought, Don't let them get to us. She squeezed her eyes shut once again with her head resting on Yami's shoulder, her arms becoming sore from how tight she was holding him, and she felt the heart light up on her chest. She silently cheered, as she felt the presence of the light shield around her, but something wasn't right. Her thoughts were interrupted when Yami let out a startled gasp. Rose's eyes flew open and she noticed that the Heart shield was only surrounding her, and the several tendrils were now on them, prying Yami from her arms.

"No!" she grabbed onto him tighter, "Why isn't the heart protecting you?!" She felt his hands grasping the back of her shirt, as he replied.

"I don't know," he rasped in her ear, as the tendrils wrapped around his body, "But you're out only hope."

"Wait!" Rose shrieked, but Yami was torn from her arms, and she cursed, wishing she knew how to control the heart. "Pharaoh!" She watched as he was pulled up towards the beast with her other two comrades, and without even needing to think about it, the heart created another shield around her as the remaining tendrils reached for her. "Damn this!" Okay, now she needed a plan. She was the only one safe from the beast thanks to her Millennium item, but how was she going to help them now?

Dartz' laugh echoed around them once again as Yami, Joey and Seto tried to fight free of their confinements. "I'm afraid your resistance is futile gentleman, for in a few short moments your energy will be given up to feed the Great Laviathon, and you shall join your friends inside the belly of the beast!"

Rose looked up at her friends who were now being pulled into the beast, and heard voices calling out to them. Is that...all the other souls...? Her thoughts were answered when she heard her friends voice that they could hear everyone inside the beast, as they were slowly pulled in.

"Rose!" Joey called out to her as he fought against the beast, "You gotta help us!" They were waist deep by this point, and Rose was left standing there almost speechless, her mind a blank sheet. What could she do? The heart could do nothing but protect her, and not even of her own control, it would just activate on its own. The sound of all the captured souls were making it hard to think and Rose tried to block them out, but in doing so, a thought occurred to her. That's when she noticed a duel monsters card lying on the ground. She picked it up and found that it was one of Yugi's dragons, and it gave her another idea that would help her out. She looked up at the monsters in the sky that hadn't been captured yet. If the doorway is open...she thought...then the monsters are real! She held the card up, summoning the monster to her.

"Winged Dragon, Guardian of the Fortress!" she called out, before the very dragon appeared before her. She jumped onto its back and told it to take her up to her friends, and it complied, flying up around the Laviathon and dodging it's attempts to fend them off. They finally reached where her three friends were trapped, but they were almost completely consumed by the beast. "Pharaoh, Joey, Seto," she grabbed their attention, though their heads were submerged, she knew they could hear her, which was part of her plan. "I have an idea, if you can hear all the souls that have been captured, then they should be able to hear you!" She almost thought she heard Yugi voice that he agreed to the idea, and the beast took a swipe at Rose and her dragon. Unfortunately, she had not been ready for such an attack, and she was knocked off of the Dragon as it was captured by the beast. Her scream echoed around them as she fell back down towards the island of Atlantis, but she never hit the ground. She opened her eyes, to see that once again the Millennium Heart was lit up, and surrounding her was the familiar gold shine, stopping her collision with the ground.

"Really?" she said to herself in disbelief, looking down and finding it odd that her feet were still off the ground, "What else can this thing do that I'm not aware of?" While she was distracted, the Heart let her down, and she fell onto her ass. Rose let out a groan as she rubbed her sore behind, before looking back up at the beast. In the time that she had been distracted, something big had obviously happened. The ground started to shake, light was pouring through the thick clouds, and Yami, Joey and Seto were spat out of the beast. Rose watched with wide eyes as they landed on the ground, and she blinked at them in confusion.

"How did you...?" She trailed off as she stared at the three, seemingly unharmed. Sure, she'd gotten an idea for how to help them, but she hadn't quite expected this.

Yami nodded towards the sky, "By summoning them." Rose turned her head skyward and her eyes caught sight of what was causing such a commotion. The three egyptian gods were descending from the skies, sheer power simply rolling off of them. Rose had seen them in action before, during Battle City, but never had they been all together, fighting against the same target rather than each other. Thus began the fierce battle between the three gods of Egypt and the great Laviathon, said to be twice as old. However, even though the beast of darkness was alive long before the pyramids were built, that didn't necessarily mean it was stronger.

The four duelists watched as the battle soared up into the skies, far beyond their sight and into the clouds. They could hear the fierce roar of the Laviathon as it stood its ground, with Dartz commanding it to attack the gods with all of its force. Great flashes of lightning lit up the darkened sky as the beasts clashed, before readying themselves for one final head to head attack. The group stood and listened, waiting for a victor to be declared. In an instant the dark clouds were lit up and there was a sound of a great explosion, echoing across the seas. Rose stood beside Yami, still staring up into the sky and hoping the gods were able to pull through for them. Soon, their prayers were answered when they caught sight of the Great Laviathon falling down through the clouds, before landing in the ocean and disappearing from sight.

"They did it!" Rose cheered. "That means all the souls Dartz captured will be set free, right?" she turned to Yami with a hopeful smile on her face.

He nodded, still looking out over the ocean, "Yes. See all those small sparks of light?" He pointed over where the sea was still rippling from the impact of the beast, and there were thousands of little dots of light rising from the ocean and heading to the bodies of which they belonged to. It was quite a sight to see, and Rose's eyes widened in awe. They didn't have much time to enjoy the sight however, for the island they were standing on soon began to shake.

"Oh man, now what?" Joey asked, looking around as he tried to keep his balance. Rose wasn't having much luck with her own balance, and stumbled into the blond, who laughed as he held his arms out to steady her. They were then alerted to the sound of concrete breaking as they noticed the pillars cracking and tumbling to the ground. "We've gotta get out of here!" Joey announced, pulling Rose by the arm as he turned to run in the opposite direction. Yami and Seto quickly followed as they made their way back to the passage which took them there, the island collapsing around them as they ran. Joey was running a lot faster than Rose anticipated, and because he was holding onto her arm, she soon tripped over broken bricks. Joey quickly let go of her and turned around just as Seto came up and grabbed her by the arm, swiftly pulling Rose to her feet.

"You really must practice this whole staying on your feet thing," Seto commented with a smirk as they continued to run towards the passage.

"Very funny," Rose muttered, before falling behind Seto so that they could enter the passage one by one. Joey reached it first, soon disappearing through the swirling doorway, and just as Seto crossed through, Rose noticed that she couldn't hear the sound of footsteps behind her anymore. She skidded to a stop in front of the passage, narrowly missing going straight through it, and turned around. Yugi had stopped where he was a few paces behind her, and she gave him a confused look. "What's the matter?" she asked.

Yami's spirit appeared next to the small duelist, "Something's not right." Rose then noticed movement behind him, and when she looked to the source, her eyes widened. Yugi noticed this, and turned around, as Dartz appeared before them, his usual smirk only slightly faltered.

The man before them straightened up, a devious glint in his eyes, "Why so shocked? I couldn't say goodbye just yet." With the finish of his sentence his figure disappeared, and in his place the evil embodiment of the Laviathon rose up before them, its skin radiating the dark energy that fuelled it. Both Rose and Yugi had their mouths hanging wide open, unable to believe that the beast had returned after such a devastating attack from the three egyptian gods. They were sure that it was slightly weakened however, and hoped that this fact would work in their favour. Yami's spirit stood beside Yugi as the man summoned Timaeus and declared an attack. However, the beast was too much of a match for the legendary knight, and Yami quickly told Timaeus to return to his deck.

"What do we do?" Yugi asked, turning to the Pharaoh.

Yami's eyes narrowed as he stared up at the beast, "We fight."

"But we've tried everything," Rose commented, "And nothing seems to have worked." Not to mention that they were now down two people.

"So you've come to your senses and given up?" Dartz asked, his voice echoing around them once more.

"Wrong," Yami growled.

"Haven't you figured it out yet? All the monsters in the world combined together couldn't destroy my Laviathon," Dartz boasted.

"Don't you see the Orichalcos is just brainwashing you?" Yami said, "You were lied to, lead to believe that mankind must be destroyed."

"Human beings aren't the evil ones," Rose added, stepping forward with clenched fists,"It's you!"

"And all of this madness started when those Orichalcos stones arrived," Yami explained, "Before that, your people lived in harmony in Atlantis, but then everything changed."

"Face it Dartz," Yugi said, "The orichalcos is using you to do it's dirty work!" They all stared up at the beast, waiting for an answer. Despite their persuasive speech however, Dartz didn't seem phased by their words, and simply laughed at them.

"Fine," Yami said, stepping forwards with his arms wide, "It seems you're never going to see reason, so if you want to wipe out mankind you'll have to go through me!"

The Laviathon instantly replied with a menacing growl, before it sprung from its place, heading straight for Yami, who stood his ground confidently, his eyes never leaving the beast.

Yugi's eyes went wide as panic enveloped him, "Pharaoh, no!"

Hey guys! So I'm really sorry for taking forever to write this chapter, usually I write each chapter for all my stories fairly promptly after I finish the last, but I got about halfway through this one and then had to work four days in a row (8 hour shifts kill me i swear) and I have to get up at 5am tomorrow to do another long shift, but it's done! So I hope you liked it, and there should only be one more chapter for the dragon arc, and then we'll be onto season 5! ooh im so excited for this xD there will be an interesting twist or two in this story very soon... :D and a few smaller ones, so get keen!

Anyway, please tell me what you think!

PharaohsThrone :)