Chapter 57: Chapter 57: Duelling Power.
[Turn 3 - Shark LP:4000 Hand:2, Blaster Blader LP:4000 Hand:3]
Shark was not intimidated as he faced down the duel bot that stood before him, its card combo of Buster Dragon and Buster Blader seemed very powerful but so long as Shark had his Numbers he was certain in his eventual victory.
"I draw!"
It was time to show this pile of scape metal just what..?!?!
"I activate the third ability of Buster Dragon! During my opponents turn I can equip one Buster Blader I control with a 'Destruction Sword' monster in my graveyard. So return Dragon Buster Destruction Sword!" interrupted the Destruction Swordsman.
From the grave rose once more the green jewelled blade, pulled from the ground by the might hand of the original Buster Blader.
"Like that will help! I summon <Lantern Shark> to the field! When this card is summoned I can then special summon a level 3, 4 or 5 water monster from my hand in defence, this includes my level 5 <Eagle Shark>!"
[Lantern Shark – Lv4 ATK:1500/DEF900, Eagle Shark – Lv5 ATK:1000/DEF:1800]
"Thanks to Lantern Sharks second ability, when this monster is used to Xyz summon a water monster then I can treat it as a level 3 or 5 monster. So with my Lantern Shark and Eagle Shark I now build the Overlay Network! Rise! Rank 5! Number 73: Abyss Splash!...."
Shark and his followers stood there silently, waiting for the formation of the familiar black vortex to consume Sharks monsters and give birth to his Number, but they were met with empty silence and clear space. Sharks monsters continued to sit on the field like guppies before the whale that was Buster Blader.
"Dragon Buster Destruction Swords second effect, So long as it is equipped to a monster, my opponent cannot Special summon monsters from the Extra Deck. This includes all Fusion, Synchro and Xyz monster." The Duel bot explained the failure of Sharks Xyz summoning.
This meant that so long as that card was on its Buster Blader, Shark had no way of summoning the Numbers cards his deck relied on.
For a moment Sharks vision shook and the sight before him changed once more, the armoured warrior he was facing replace by a figure in golden armour, with pale teal skin, his heterochromic eyes seemed to look upon Shark with scorn.
Eliphas...
The strange and unfamiliar name seemed to echo in Sharks head before fading away along with the vision before him, leaving behind a strange feeling of hate and beneath that… fear.
"I am not afraid of you, or anything!" Shark cried out in anger as his new monsters had their type transformed to Dragon and further boosted Buster Bladers attack by 1000.
[Buster Blader ATK:3100 > 4100]
The power within him beginning to furiously churn and burn inside. He felt it rising, almost overflowing along side his determination to win. Nothing would stop him. Not Faker, not Kite, not the Numbers, not even Drake! And certainly not some stupid visions.
"I switch Number 47 into attack mode!...."
---
While Shark was duelling against the guardian of the Dragons Throne Room, Drake found himself at a loose end in a staff rest room at the Maze of the Minotaur. It wasn't that he was not concerned about the current status of his fried duel disk, it was because the matter was in hands far better suited for the task than his at the moment.
His Duel disk lay on the table in the centre of the room in a partially dismantled state, around it had gathered an assortment of duel monster spirits Drake had materialised to help him. The first two, Kozaky and the Magical Scientist, were two genius monster scientists which were tasked with understanding and fixing the hardware of Dr Fakers Duel Disk.
Kozaky adjusted his square spectacles before moving a stray lock of his black hair behind his pointed ears. Rows of spikes along his back jutted through his white overcoat which struggled to contain his purple body as the monster reached into its jeans for a screw driver to pass to its fellow scientist.
The Magical Scientist looked quite ordinary as he accepted the offered tool without pause as he examined a particular sphere of black metal through his thick round glasses. He was more use to biological experimentation but he had experience with cybernetics and robotics which was useful here.
The two long-time friends were total absorbed in the study of the mechanisms before them, as three others worked behind them on the disk's software.
SPYRAL Quik-Fix, the cyber spy/hacker was being assisted by two advance digital life forms from the Cyberse series of monsters. The multi-talented 'Cyberse Gadget' and computer like 'Defect Compiler'. Between these five monsters Drake was confident they all the skills need for the job at hand.
Which left Drake nothing to do but ponder the mysteries of Duel Spirits, and from there Duel Energy, as he ate a packed lunch that Yuma's Grandmother had prepared.
He had already eaten before entering the maze but had since had a gruelling Shadow duel and was now supporting the form of five duel spirits with his personal Duel Energy, so he needed to keep his strength up as he had no intention of depleting the duel energy he and Critias had stored up on something so trivial.
Duel Energy, Duel power, Spirit energy, Life Force… it was known by so many different names and had so many wonderful or terrible uses, yet so few people would ever touch it in their lives. It could summon monsters, cast spells, imprison souls and commune with other worlds to list but a few uses.
It was such a strange power, a power that could be harnessed through the ritual of duelling and was strongly influenced by the will and emotions of users, becoming anything from a blazing beacon of hope that could inspire miracles, to an all consuming darkness that dragged souls to the depths of despair.
Apart from a few natural talents, those geniuses that only appear once or twice every few hundred years, most humans needed a medium to connect with the power held within themselves. Mediums like the Millenium Items, The Seal of Orichalcos or contracts with powerful Spirit beasts like the Crimson Dragon or the Number Cards. And in Drakes case it was obviously the power of the Legendary Dragons, the power of Critias. While someone like Shark awakened a special bloodline that was beyond human.
Some mediums had special abilities that amplified one's own energy while others were a source of power themselves that far surpassed what a mere human like Drake naturally possessed, if not for his connection to Critias then Drakes power would not even be a quarter of what it currently was.
But in truth, even enhanced by Critias Drakes own personal power was still very weak when compared to someone like the Pharaoh without even considering the added benefits the Millenium Puzzle would provide.
Summoning these five duel monsters was a strain to Drakes drained personal energy at the moment but it was still manageable. This was because the five monsters were all relatively weak and Drake did not need them for combat, summoning a single Blue-Eyes White Dragon would have used only slightly less energy than it had required to summon the five monsters before him now.
If it was an emergency then Critias could have lent its own energy through their bond but although Critias had been awakened for some time, and in his normal state possessed hundreds of times more energy than Drake did, in truth its own energy was still terribly low at the moment after crossing worlds and then later fighting the projection of the Orichalcos Beast. It needed to conserve and recover its own personal duel energy as much as possible which took time, which was why it slept so much in Drakes inner world.
There was always the option of using the duel energy they had collected through their duels and was stored in the Mirror of Critias, but that was the final resort, that supply of energy was far more potent, more concentrated and refined than normal Duel Energy. While its volume seemed much smaller compared next to Drakes power, its quality meant the energy within dwarfed what was available to Drake on his own by dozen of times.
However, this pure energy could only be renewed through duelling, it was a expendable resource compared to Drakes own energy that could replenish itself.
As for why Drake didn't simply slowly refine his own duel energy and store it over time, the reason was simple. He couldn't. To refine Duel energy like that, one had to process it with their own duel energy, if the two energy's were too similar then the energy meant to be refined would just be absorbed by the refining energy instead.
Usually a persons energy would contain characteristics of the world they were born from, especially in extreme cases like the Astral and Barian Worlds where their duel energy had reach a higher level. So, as Drake and Critias were beings of different worlds they should have different types of duel energy, but due to his bond with Critias, Drakes power had instead taken on the same form/attributes/wavelength as the dragons own. They were basically the same even though Critias capacity was overwhelmingly greater.
So Critias could not refine his own energy and he could not refine Drakes. Which is why they had to gather and refine Duel energy released in their duels against others in this world.
Ever since Astral had taken up residence with Yuma in Drakes inner world he had considered asking them to donate energy for refinement, but Yuma's soul needed all the energy it could get to remain stable without his own body to support it over this long period of time. And at Astrals request Drake had strengthened the bond between the two of them so that Astral could share his energy and support Yuma.
So Drake dare not take any energy from Astral at this point either.
"Fascinating!" Kozaky interrupted Drakes thoughts as he studied a particular piece of the equipment in front of him.
After Kozaky told Drake what the two scientists had found so far Drake didn't find it fascinating at all, instead he found it frightening.
Looking past the standard shell and the usual electronic components any duel disk would require to properly operate, many of these parts could be told apart from the custom components by the Paragon Industries logo they were marked with, what was underneath that was something completely outrageous.
Drake refused to believe for a moment that every duel disk in this WDC was as twisted as his own turned out to be. Apart from the various forms of analytical equipment hidden inside which had been built to do a comprehensive analysis on Drake deck and even on Drake himself, which Drake had been expecting and was not surprised by, the Duel disk also contained a number of more… lethal options.
The two scientists were agreed that Drakes Duel Disk was fully capable of channelling enough electrical current into Drake to kill a herd of elephants, its audio system could double as a sonic weapon that could scramble his brains within seconds and there was even a clever injection system ready to pump several vicious poisons into Drakes veins.
Drake wasn't sure if even his dragon made body could handle any of these treatments, let alone all of them together.
And to power all of this murderous hardware?
A small Baria Crystal. The small, crimson crystal of Barian energy glittered from within the duel disk as the Magical Scientist opened up a small black sphere placed in the heart of the device. This crystal was not only acting as this duel disks battery, it was also the source of yet another lethal trap.
While SPYRAL Quik-Fix was still in the middle of debugging the corrupted code in the Duel disk, one thing he had already found was part of a self-destruct program which would force the crystal to implode.
Considering the concentrated energy contain in the crystal, such an implosion would easily level a city block. The thought made Drake shiver in fear.
If Drake didn't have Astral and his Number cards would Faker have even allowed him to compete in this WDC second round? Or would he have simple eliminated him when he put on the duel disk? Looking at the black sphere that housed the crystal Drake wondered just what kind of shielding it was that this madman had used to prevent even Drake from realising that such a potent power source was concealed within his duel disk?
Wait… a power source… a Baria crystal was basically a condensed form of energy from Barian World, a form of impure Chaos energy, which was a higher form of duel energy itself. Which was why the Mirror of Critias could use it to create cards. Chaos energy like what he had absorbed in the Nexus. In which case… what was the saying again? About turning misfortune into blessings.
---
"ARGH!" Cried Shark as his Xyz Slidolphin was blasted to bits by his opponents own avatar, Buster Blader, the Dragon Destroyer Swordsman!
[BBDDS ATK:4800 > XyzS DEF:1800]
[Buster Blader, the Dragon Destroyer Swordsman ATK:4100 > 3100]
If not for his trap card <Spirit Barrier> then Sharks 2400 life points would have been wiped out by his opponents penetrating attack just now.
Since the duel bot he was facing had sealed his Xyz summoning, things had gone from bad to worse. Shark had tried to counter attack with his Nightmare Sharks ability for a direct attack, but it had block one attack with Negate Attack and on the sixth turn it had fusion summoned out that Dragon Destroying Swordsman, its abilities not only gave it a 1000 attack for each dragon Shark had (Which was all monsters he had on the field thanks to Buster Dragons effect), but it also forced all Sharks dragonized monsters into defence and prevent them from activating their special abilities.
Together with its ability to deal penetrating damage against a defence position monster, it was only luck that Shark had managed to draw his Spirit Barrier in his next turn to save himself. Spirit Barrier meant that so long as he controlled a monster then his opponent could not inflict any battle damage to him, and because Nightmare Shark was a Number it couldn't be destroyed in battle except against another Number.
But as dire as the situation was, Sharks blood was racing. His power pulsed along with the beating of his heart, seeking some kind of release. Flashes of battles long over and forgotten to the mists of time flashed across his mind as he could hear the voice of Number 32 crying in his soul. Destroy, destroy! DESTROY!
Yes! He must destroy all his enemies!
[Turn 9 – Shark LP:2400 Hand:1, Buster Blader LP:2000 Hand:3]
"I draw!" Shark roared to the cheers of his followers.
Thing may have looked bad but Sharks energy and drive inspired confidence in them even now.
"I activate my <Cosmic Cyclone>! By paying 1000 life points I banish your equipped Destruction Sword."
[Shark LP > 1400]
The galactic winds blasted out from above them and pulled the sword from Dragon Destroyer Swordsman hand and tossed it into the void. With it gone, so was the seal on Sharks Extra Deck.
"Next I activate from my graveyard <Xyz Revive Splash>! With my Rank 3 Number 47: Nightmare Shark I rebuild the Overlay Network and Xyz Summon Rank 4! Number 32: Shark Drake!"
[Number 32: Shark Drake – Rank 4 ATK:2800/DEF:2100 OU:1]
Shark actually had to thank the stupid bot for sending this trap card to the grave several turns ago. This allowed Shark to summon his Crimson Hunter to the field, and with this card he would destroy anyone or anything that stood in his way!
"I then activate Xyz Slidolphins effect in the grave to attach it to Shark Drake as an Overlay Unit."
[Number 32: Shark Drake –OU:1 > 2]
Sharks power was rising, overflowing, it demanded to be released and Shark had the perfect card to do just that.
"And lastly, prepare to face a terror like no other! I activate <Rank-Up-Magic Barian's Force>!"
Weekly Power Status
-- Power
Ranking 
-- Power
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