Within a few days, Yuma and Shark were ready to come back to school. During that time, I kept an eye on Girag, Alito, and Mizar. Mizar was probably giving Alito and Girag a hard time. Because of that, the two of them were often sitting in the BARian, sulking. Well... Girag did the sulking; Alito, on the other hand, was getting ready to challenge Yuma. I wasn't worried that Yuma would have any trouble with him. They look like they'd be pretty good friends if Barian and Astral World weren't in such a clash.
At first, Mizar was a little tricky to track; his mind was relatively quiet in general. There wasn't much that actually stuck out in his thoughts. He was often roaming around the city at night and resting in trees during the day. I've always been a night person, so I understand why he likes it so much. There's a difference in terrain, though: he travels on the ground; I roam the rooftops while I'm phantomized. He doesn't even know that it's me when I'm up there.
On the day that the boys were back from the hospital, I passed by the BARian to hear arguing, along with mental clashing.
"You know what'll happen to you if you lose, don't ya?" I heard Girag's voice. I went closer to it while staying out of sight. In response to Girag's question, Alito sighed.
"Yeah, I know. But I don't care, Girag; as a matter of fact, I welcome the danger! I mean it; I'm willing to put my own future on the line to prove I can outduel both of them!" From checking their memories, I found that if a Barian loses a duel in their true form, their strength becomes critically depleted.
"I won't let you do this," Girag growled; Alito waved it off and walked away.
I quietly rushed back to the road so that Alito wouldn't get suspicious. Not a moment too soon, I got there just as he opened the door. We stared at each other for a moment as he thought, That looks like the same girl that I saw when I was trying to win over Tori. Then he shrugged and climbed up a small tower, standing at the top.
"This will be the most dangerous duel I ever had," he said to himself. "And I can't wait!" His thoughts went still as he noticed I was still standing there. His returning thought came back up, Yup; that's her.
Alito slid down the ladder and approached me, sizing me up when he was close enough. He didn't seem too worried at the fact that I was noticeably taller than he was. We both began to walk side by side to Heartland Academy.
"Actually I'm also looking forward to your duel, Alito," I told him with a smile.
He gave me a childish grin, "I'm sure it'll be - wait." He started to glare at me, "Why are you being nice; aren't you on their side?"
I sighed, "That's just it; Phantoms don't choose sides. I don't know why, but everyone thinks we're double agents."
He cocked his head, "Then how do you fight?"
"Phantoms go to the source of a clash and do what they can to help. We turn a longstanding feud into a meaningless quarrel that dies down and disappears." At the start of the paved road, I stopped as I felt a sudden spike of Barian power. Shadowpriestess of Ohm and Dark Elf appeared from my deck, reporting of an outmatch duel being set against Yuma. "Alito," I revealed, "Looks like you're friend is hoping to pull a fast one."
He immediately understood as he thought, After what I told him he still won't let me do it myself? He asked, "How will we get there?"
"We'll take the rooftops; they're faster. If we hurry, we can stop him in time."
Alito nodded, and we both climbed up a building.
Lead the way, I ordered my monsters; they flew off, and I followed them with Alito not far off. After leaping some buildings, we got to a point where we heard shouting. I activated my duel gazer tattoo while Alito's left eye turned red. As soon as the vision link was established, a variety of monsters came into view. In the middle of it all were monsters I recognized: Big Jaws, Zerofyne, and Gagaga Cowboy.
I suggested, "We should get our d-pads ready; Girag's pulling an outmatch duel, and we have to stop it." Alito nodded and set his gear up, but when I activated the duel mode on my d-pad, my gear vanished. I was about to shout in protest when the same indigo mist from before appeared again. It circled my left wrist in a double helix, creating a thin, silver wrist gauntlet around it. The pad itself resembled a three-point star mounted on the gauntlet by one point. It was colored lavender and indigo outlined in silver. As the touch screen, there was an indigo, diamond-shaped crystal on the forearm of the gauntlet with the deck case atop the wrist. Cool, Alito awed at my new gear; my thoughts exactly. Alito and I synced into the Battle Royale once we were ready. We both used our powers to get in the middle of the action. He tuned into a shower of red lights as I disappeared into the shadows.
Alito and I seemed to get into it at the right time from what was happening. Ray was restraining Yuma while a mob of duelists were preparing a mass attack. Alito yelled, "I'll put a stop to this, Yuma; go Lightning Clinch! I may lose 3000 LP, but you and your army are gonna have to try a different approach if you want to KO us to get to Yuma!"
The spell caused all of the monsters' attacks to be stopped. Girag wanted to know why we were helping Yuma, but he said that was his business. Alito managed to get up from the aftereffect of his spell and handed it over to me.
I drew and summoned my Lord of Dragons to play a Flute of Summoning Dragon. That way, I got, Curse of Dragon and Curse of Dragonfire on my field. Then I tributed Lord of Dragons to summon Invitation to a Dark Sleep. I overlayed all three lvl 5 monsters in order to Xyz summon Yinlong, who came out with a shrieking roar and venomous undertone. I immediately activated her special ability, "By using an OLU, Yinlong can destroy every enemy monster and deal damage equal to their atk; go Umbral Outburst!"
The words for the ability just appeared in my head the way my spells do, and it seemed to work. Yinlong shot a stream of light purple energy into the ground, causing a wave of glowing shadow to cut through each monster. Once every monster was destroyed, blades of pure shadow shot from the ground at the students, wiping out their LP.
As the AR link let down, all the Barian symbols marking the students disintegrated as they collapsed. My d-pad disappeared and the deck case detached, leaving only the gauntlet on my wrist. The crystal on it seemed to radiate with the Shadow Realm's power. I wasn't sure how this new gear could help me from here on out. But I was sure that the Arclights will be taken by surprise when they see it.
Alito was a little worried about how Girag would react to him helping Yuma.
"You... traitor," he growled in a dangerous tone before shouting, "How dare you! Whose side are you on, Alito? We were given a mission! We need that kid's Numbers to save our world, and it's our job to take 'em any way we can!"
Alito confirms, "I'm aware of that... I know what I need to do!"
Yuma interrupted, "What the huh; you mean you're from Barian?!" As everyone was shocked, I looked down, giving Ray - a.k.a Vector - a mental command to show his true self. His eyes slightly glowed red, but he managed to resist my powers, though I don't know how.
"So why are you standing in my way?" Girag inquired, clenching his fist.
"Oh you know why," Alito fired, "I already told you I'll beat Yuma and Astral by myself!"
Girag declined, "There's too much at stake; we can't afford to take any chances this time. This Yuma's a lot tougher than you think!"
Alito glared back, "He's a great duelist; I know. That's why I want to confront him all alone; I'll beat him and take all his Numbers, proving I'm the best. My loyalty is to Barian world, but I'm a duelist first. That's why I decided to settle this my way: by dueling with honor! It's a disgrace to rig a battle the way you did! Now get outta here!" Girag hesitated, still wanting to protect Alito; he clearly needed a hand to make him scram.
"You heard him, Girag," I snapped, "Beat it!" Girag cringed at the harsh words before disappearing.
Alito turned back toward Yuma and asked, "You will duel me, won't you?"
Yuma asked another question, "Hold up; if I accept I'm gonna have to put my Numbers on the line, right?"
"Of course. But Yuma, we'll both be dueling for Numbers and for our very survival. I'm willing to risk everything to duel against you! I'll beat both you and Astral!"
"He is determined to confront us," Astral observed, "Like it or not, sooner or later we will have to face him."
I nodded in turn, "That may be, but he definitely won't pull any underhand tactics. Besides; if your worlds weren't so tense, they'd likely be good friends."
Yuma glared at Alito, "Then why wait? Let's do it. If you're so eager to battle us, then bring it on; we're ready!"
Alito boldly grinned back, "I knew you wouldn't let me down! And I promise not to disappoint! I activate a Barian sphere field!"
Just like last time, the sphere cube's shell broke and created the field, this time without me in it. I didn't want a relapse of what happened with Mizar, so instead I climbed up a roof for a good, safe view. Yuma, Astral, and Alito were materialized in the field by the time I got up there.
"Now Yuma," Alito smiled hopefully, "We'll make this the most epic battle ever!" Yuma agreed and tossed up his d-pad as Alito brought out his Barian d-pad. Everyone set their duel gazers, I got up my tattoo, and Alito's eye turned red again. Everyone seemed a lot more relaxed about this duel with Alito than the one with Mizar.
Alito took first draw, summoning lvl 4 Battlin' Boxer Headgeared. Since he can't attack first turn, he special summoned Battlin' Boxer Sparrer. He used his Boxers to Xyz summon his rank 4 Lead Yoke, like last time; apparently Astral noticed the familiar style. Alito also reminded Yuma and Astral about Lead Yoke's ability: "you can hit as hard as you like in battle, but it's impossible to destroy. And on top of that, it gains 800 atk." Yuma recalled how that monster kept knocking him around as Alito ended his turn with three facedowns.
Astral suspected that Alito was setting up his "counter strategy" from last duel. That was genius, Yuma's mind complimented, Alito countered every move against him and it made him even stronger. I barely managed to find a way around it. I was so absorbed in those thoughts, I shot something at him without stopping myself: As if I don't know that already, Yuma? I was there and watched the whole duel. I didn't realize that I did it until he spun around and shouted, "Who said that?!"
...Oops.
Thankfully, Yuma shrugged it off and did his draw when Alito demanded, "Stop stalling and make a move already!" He summons lvl 4 Gagaga Magician and special summons lvl 2 Gagaga Child. Upon that, Yuma activated the little mage's ability, having him chomp an ice pop to become lvl 4, too. He overlays them to Xyz summon Utopia, who Alito claimed was going to be his soon enough. Yuma decides to put three facedowns the same way Alito did.
Alito figured that Yuma was trying to take out his strategy again. Yuma was about to end his turn when Alito activated Overlay Flash; Shark said he activated it to catch Yuma off-guard. With the spell, Alito used one of Lead Yoke's OLUs to negate Utopia's abilities and raise its atk to 3000. Astral considered Alito's tactics as "more aggressive than I expected." Yuma had a trap called Fiery Fervor that would double Utopia's atk since Lead Yoke's atk increased; he could activate if it was Alito's turn. Since it's facedown on Yuma's turn, they couldn't activate it; with a slight sneer, Yuma ends his turn.
Right after taking his draw, Alito commands Lead Yoke to attack Utopia, which resembles his attack on Gauntlet Launcher last time. Yuma also tried to use Battle Rush again, but the same scenario from last time reoccurred: Alito destroying it with Fancy Footwork; another bye-bye Battle Rush. Then Yuma pulls Xyz Strike and was ready to draw. But before he did so, Alito activated the Counter Clash trap to destroy Xyz Strike and deal double the damage for Yuma during the battle. Alito clearly could learn from his mistakes. After Lead Yoke blew up Utopia, Yuma and Astral were both sent to the wall, LP dropping to 3000. Thankfully, Yuma wasn't badly hurt this time upon hitting the wall as Alito ended his turn.
Yuma complimented that Alito's move was outstanding, and he was "totally feeling the flow on that last attack." He was as ready as ever with this duel, and the young Barian returned the attitude. He was hoping to go one-on-one until the best duelist is left standing. He sounds just like Yuma, Astral realizes as Yuma declares he's not "pulling any punches" activating the Xyz Revenge spell. Using Lead Yoke's other OLU, Yuma was able to bring back Utopia and attach the OLU onto him. Alito was glad that the unit was gone, since that also broke the rest of Lead Yoke's chains, raising his atk to 3800.
Meanwhile, keeping his facade up, "Ray" called a bad move on Yuma's behalf, and that now the enemy monster would be harder to beat. Shark, on the other hand, didn't think so as Astral had Yuma use Fiery Fervor. Utopia had his atk doubled to 5000. Alito stared in awe as he realized he fell for a perfect counter move from Yuma as he had Utopia destroy Lead Yoke. Alito flew to the wall as his LP became 2800. Tori thought Yuma could finish him off, but Shark knew this was far from the end.
Astral was easily comparing Yuma and Alito as they both were. It seems Yuma and Alito are perfectly matched as opponents; I am curious how this duel will evolve moving forward. A sudden pain shock ran through him from the Barian sphere field. This Barian sphere field is starting to drain my powers just at the moment Yuma will most need my help.
I wanted to help Astral in that field, but I was having my own power crisis. Slow pounds worked up my back, my neck, the base of my skull. When it hit the top, a vicious stab of agony rapped at my head, making me fall back on the roof I was on, screaming and clutching my head. A crude vision claimed my sight: Alito getting brutally beaten by Vector's true form as I was desperately fending him off. Vector preparing a power ball at Alito as I leaped in front, making a shield of my own power. Vector's power shattering my shield, and exploding in cruel red.
"I should've killed you five years ago, Star," Vector cackled in the vision, "You little brat..."