Chapter 47: The Hunt Is On.

"Forgive me my King! Forgive M-!!!"

Alice's terrified cries cut off as the shadows engulfed her before exploding into black wisps, leaving nothing behind but a hand mirror that fell to the floor and shattered.

"Was that really necessary my King." Asked Umbral as image the two of them were watching faded away to reveal the surface of a large bronze like mirror that was hung on one of the walls at New Order Headquarters.

"She lost and was about to fall into enemy hands." The Orichalcos King stated as picked up a handful of nuts from a bowl beside his throne.

"But she wouldn't have talked, she was a good agent."

"Just because she was once your student, don't think that give you the right to question my decisions again." His icy tone sent shivers down Umbral's spine.

"Forgive me my lord." He fearfully pleaded with his king.

"You are forgiven." He said as he waved his hand and a kaleidoscope on new images appeared on the bronze mirror in front of them.

This was a special scrying mirror forged of ancient alchemy and Orichalcos magic, and was the means by which the Orichalcos King was monitoring the second stage of the WDC. Although his Generals and agents were equipped with communicators capable of overcoming whatever blocking field Faker had deployed on the island, this only applied for a short range and was incapable of reaching across the ocean back to Heartland City.

And New Order could hardly expect to rely on the media coverage to be able to monitor the situation when it was also under Fakers control, this left them using old magic like this. Sometimes the old ways were best.

Although the Orichalcos King had reprimanded his spymaster, he understood where the man was coming from with his outburst, Alice Song had been a very good agent. It was just unfortunate that she fell to Kites hand. If it had been an ordinary duellist or even another of Fakers operatives then it wouldn't have mattered. He would not have had to interfere and force the Shadow Charm on her to self-destruct and banish the girl to the Shadows.

But whether it be Kite or Drake, New Order could not allow either of them to get their hands on a New Order member who knew the location of this headquarters. Drake was still too mysterious to understand what methods he had available to him to extract information from a captive, and Kite was too ruthless, too driven in his desires to underestimate either.

As for everyone else? it seemed like they would not care at this point. But that was also what didn't make sense. Ever since Proteus had so foolishly summoned the shadow of the Great Beast, New Order had been preparing to be hunted down by City Security, but still there had been no such mobilisation. It was like Fakers obsession with the destruction of Astral World and the collection of the Numbers had blinded him to all else. It was in unnatural.

The Orichalcos King also suspected it was deliberate. But so long as it didn't interfere with his own plans then all was good in his books, but it didn't solve the problem of Kite and Drake. That's what the Shadow Charms were for.

They had had only a couple of days since they had determined it would be too dangerous to use the Sacred Seal in the second round of the WDC and working none stop Wyvern, as their only Shadow mage, had only been able to make a half dozen of these magic items that drew on the powers of the Shadow Realm.

But like the Seal of Orichalcos, the powers of the Shadow Realm were tightly bound by the ancient rituals and convents that had evolved into what was known today as duelling. No matter how powerful the magic it meant nothing unless his agents could actually win the duel.

The changing images on the scrying mirror began to slow as the attention of Orichalcos King was attracted to a particular duel in the heart of a mechanical city of robots, cyborgs and extra-terrestrial beings.

Hadn't he already dealt with this problem?

---

"Get ready to be crushed traitor, no one turns their back on New Order and no one defies our King! Especially not a snot nosed kid like you. I activate <Scapegoat> this lets me special summon four Scapegoat tokens to the field. And thanks to that my <Gyaku-Gire Panda> gains another 3200 ATK thanks to the effect of my spell card."

[x4 Sheep Token – Lv1 ATK:0/DEF:0, Gyaku-Gire Panda – ATK:2100 > 5300]

"Not good…" whispered a large kid wearing a cap backwards with his hair sticking out of the front and sides. It was Yuma's best friend Bronk who was duelling against a New order agent in the Megaroid City Zone.

On his side of the field was the mechanical titan <Metrohold the Moving City> and a facedown while his opponent, who looked like a middle-aged balding teacher with a pair of thick square rimmed glasses, named Alonso, now had four colourful sheep token alongside a berserk panda that had been equipped with the equip spell <Unite We Stand>.

Thanks to that equip spell it gained 800 ATK for each faceup monster he controlled and his monsters had its own ability that boosted its attack by 500 for each monster Bronk controlled, meaning it had now reached a strength of over 5000.

[Metrohold the Moving City – Rank 4 ATK:2000/DEF:3000 OU:2]

"Gyaku-Gire attack!"

With an animal snarl the giant panda jumped towards the towering mechanical giant that was in defence mode and slashed down with is razor claws.

[GGP ATK:5300 > MMC DEF:3000]

*CLANG*

Great gashes were ripped through the chest of Bronks monster damaging its power core, however…

"I activate Metroholds effect! By using one Overlay unit my monster can't be destroyed by your attack."

[Metrohold the Moving City – ATK:2000 > 1000/DEF:3000 OU:2 > 1]

And since Metrohold's attack depended on the number of Overlay units it had, its strength appropriately dropped as it absorb one of its Overlay Units to begin its repair cycle. Steel plates melded back into place as wires and cables threaded back were they came from. Soon it was as good as new.

"How can someone like you, that betrayed our Order, have the audacity to use the very cards we gave you!" Alonso complained.

He was a devout believe in the Order and its goals, practically a zealot, so when he had ran into this infamous traitor who had been gifted with the power of the Orichalcos only to reject it and his king, while in a duel against an enemy of the Order, Alonso had been unable to hold back his impulse to duel him.

"Betray?! I was kidnaped and brainwashed! Used like a puppet against my closest friend! I hate New Order and will help Drake to take you goons down once and for all!" Bronk shouted angrily.

"You hate us but you still use the cards we gave you. The power we gave you."

Bronk clenched his fist in anger, what Alonso said was right. He was still using the deck New Order had given to him. After Drakes duel against the Gold General although Proteus had escaped his assistant hadn't and Drake had recovered the deck New Order made Bronk use along with Yuma's sealed soul.

Later Drake had given the deck back to Bronk, minus the Orichalcos cards of course, when the boy had begged Drake to let him help in recovering Yuma's body from the rouge Number 96. At first Bronk had wanted nothing to do with the deck that was responsible for all their current problems, the cards he had used to seal away his friend's soul. It was a reminder of what had happened to him, what was done to him, what darkness he was capable of.

But Drake had been brutally honest with him, without power there was nothing Bronk could do to help save his friend. Bronk knew his abilities and his old deck was too weak compared to New Orders creation, so he had reluctantly accepted it. Drake had helped to rebuild it to work without the Orichalcos cards and it was just as strong, perhaps even stronger than before.

There would be time after Yuma was saved and New Order was crushed to toss this cursed deck into the garbage where it belonged. Maybe then he might be able to begin forgiving himself.

The turn moved to Bronk as Alonso placed a facedown.

[Turn ???? Bronk LP: 2300 Hand:3, Alonso LP:4000 Hand:2]

"I draw!"

Bronk didn't know whether or not New Order would allow their duellists to use the Seal in this round of the tournament, Drake had told him it was unlikely but there was no guarantee, so he needed to finish this duel as fast as possible.

"I can special summon <Boot-up Corporal – Command Dynamo> from my hand and equip my <Ancient Gear Gadget> and <Silver Gadget> to it from my Graveyard. For each gadget equipped to it Boot-up Corporal gains 1000 ATK!"

[Boot-up Corporal – Command Dynamo – Lv4 ATK:0 > 2000/DEF:2000]

A teal and grey coloured robot on two large wheels appeared as two gadgets, one silver one bronze attached themselves to the monsters wheels, a constant hum began buzzing as its inner working generated a strong electrical charge.

"Then thanks to Megaroid City Zone field rule, when I summon a machine monster I can send another from my hand to the grave and draw a card, so I discard my <Boot-Up Admiral – Destroyer Dynamo>."

<<Megaroid City Zone Rule – Recycle Progress. Whenever a player summons a machine type monster they may discard a machine type monster to the graveyard, if they do they then draw one card.>>

Boot-Up Admiral was one of his stronger monsters but he lacked the means to summon it, so it would better just to discard it and hope he drew a better card. Looking at the card he drew Bronk knew that he had a chance.

"I play <Boot-Up Order- Gear Charge>! With this continuous spell I can now special summon any number of 'Gadget' monsters equipped to my Boot-Up Corporal back to the field, so return Ancient Gear Gadget and Silver Gadget!"

[Boot-up Corporal – Command Dynamo – ATK:2000 > 0]

[Ancient Gear Gadget – Lv4 ATK:500/DEF:2000, Silver Gadget – Lv4 ATK:1500/DEF:1000]

The two gears detached themselves and transformed back into their robot forms.

"And when Ancient Gear Gadget is special summoned I can declare a card type, until the end of turn whenever a monster I control attacks you can't activate cards of the declared type until the end of the damage step. And I chose Trap cards!"

Alonso felt the sting of that move, his facedown was the trap <Storming Mirror Force> a powerful trap that could return all of Bronk's attacking monster back to his hand. But now he wouldn't be able to use it this turn. But he was still confident, he could not see any way that Bronk would be able to beat his monster.

"Thanks to Gyaku-Gire Panda's effect it gains 500 ATK for each of your monsters." Alonso stated.

And Bronk had now summoned an addition three monsters to the field.

[Gyaku-Gire Panda – ATK:5300 > 6800]

"Lets do this! I switch Metrohold to attack mode, then I attack one of your Scapegoats with Ancient Gear Gadget!" declared Bronk.

[AGG ATK:500 > Sheep token DEF:0]

*BOOM*

With zero defence points even a weak monster like the Ancient Gear Gadget was capable dealing with these tokens. And with one less monster on Alonso's field it caused his panda to lose 800 of the attack points gained from Unite We Stand.

[Gyaku-Gire Panda – ATK:6800 > 6000]

"I attack another token with Silver Gadget!"

[SG ATK:1500 > Sheep token DEF:0]

*BOOM*

The silvery machine blasted out a laser beam from its chest and shattered the red sheep token, again reducing Alonso's pandas attack.

[Gyaku-Gire Panda – ATK:6000 > 5200]

"Metrohold Attack! Titan Strike!"

[MMC ATK:1000 > Sheep token DEF:0]

*BOOM*

Lifting its might war hammer high, Bronks mechanical giant brought it down in an overwhelming crash on the blue scapegoat.

[Gyaku-Gire Panda – ATK:5200 > 4600]

"This is futile!" Alonso cried, all of Bronks monster with any kind of attack had already attack and he still had a monster with over 4000 ATK at his disposal.

"I play the Quickplay spell <Reckless Charge>! And I use it to give my Boot-Up Corporal and additional 700 ATK so it can crush your final scapegoat!"

[Boot-up Corporal – Command Dynamo – ATK:0 > 700]

[BCCD ATK:700 > Sheep token DEF:0]

*BOOM*

Charge with the power of the spell card Bronks final monster steamrolled over the final scapegoat token.

[Gyaku-Gire Panda – ATK:4600 > 3200]

"And now what! You are out of attacks and nothing you have is a match for my monster, on my turn you lose fool!" Alonso could not believe just how stupid this kid was, his monsters were so weak his Gyaku-Gire would crush them and his life points with its next attack.

"You're the fool here. I activate my face down <Wonder Xyz> with this trap I'm allowed to instantly Xyz summon with the monsters I have on the field. So with my three level 4 monster I now build the Overlay Network! Appear now <Number 81: Mechadom, the Moving Kingdom>!"

<Number 81: Mechadom, the Moving Kingdom – Rank 4 ATK:3000/DEF:3500 OU:3>

The skies darkened as massive monster appeared towered over the field, a mechanical city of spiralling towers, giant cannons, steel ramparts and mighty palaces. All on a motorised tread base, the three Overlay Units orbited the central palace which stood even taller than Bronk's Metrohold and was emblazoned with a silvery white Number 81.

"A Number! Where did you get a Number card from?!" Alonso cried. The power of a Number was comparable to the power of the Seal of Orichalcos in a duel, how did this brat get one?!

Now that Bronk control two less monsters than before Alonso's Gyaku-Gire would lose a thousand of its attack points.

[Gyaku-Gire Panda – ATK:3200 > 2200]

"Number 81 attack with Kingdom Cannonade!"

[MMK ATK:3000 > GGP ATK:2200 – Alonso LP > 3200]

This was Bronks trump card and the reason he had confidence to participate in the second round, the numerous cannons, lasers and missiles positioned around the rolling city took aim and blasted the ant like panda into virtual dust, clearing the field of Alonso's last monster.

Alonso thought that this was it, that he still had a chance to turn things around in his next turn. A Number was mighty but not invincible, and Metrohold was still on the field, a far easier target which could be exploited.

"I am not done! I activate Mechadom's special ability, by using one Overlay unit, once per turn I can activate a Continuous trap card straight from my deck, so I activate <Powerhold the Moving Battery>!"

[Number 81: Mechadom, the Moving Kingdom – OU:3 > 2]

One of the orbiting Overlay units was absorbed into the tallest point of the palaces spire, causing the many gears of the mechanical kingdom to begin whirring. The great gates at the front of the monster opened with a hiss of steam to reveal the cyclops like machine armed by a mounted shoulder cannon.

"This trap card transforms into a monster which then equips one Gadget from my graveyard to itself, gaining double that monster attack points, so I equip my Silver Gadget to give it 3000 ATK. And not only that but thanks to the effect of Metrohold, monsters that I control that are also trap cards gain 500 ATK for each Overlay Unit is has, for a grand total of 3500!"

[Powerhold the Moving Battery – Lv4 ATK:0 > 3500/DEF:2000]

Bronks Silver Gadget was the Overlay Unit Mechadom had used to activate Powerhold and it had the highest attack of the Gadgets currently in Bronk Graveyard making it the logical choice.

"Powerhold finish this! Power Cannon!"

Taking aim, the mechanical monster blasted out in a direct attack against the New Order member, sending his flying into a nearby building under the power of a Numbers Duel.

*Bbbzzzzzzzzzzz*

[PMB ATK:3500 - Alonso LP > 0]

<<BRONK WINS. 250 Duel points & 1x Duel Skill: Power Infusion, claimed>>

"Ha..ha..haha..hahahaha"

Bronk could not help but break into manic laughter at the sight of Alonso's beaten and bruised body partially stuck in the metal wall behind him. This feeling of power, this taste of revenge against the people who had broke him twice, it could not help but feed a dark seed in his heart. A scar left behind by his experiences at New Order despite Drakes efforts to help him and purge the influence of the Seal, a craving for even more power, a desire to cause the ones who hurt him even more pain.

Although Bronk knew it was wrong of him to feel this way, to take delight in the suffering of another, it still felt great!

On the roof of a distant building overlooking the site of Bronks duel, a familiar figure partial hidden by shadows watched the broken boy, unhindered by the great distance separating them.

"He actually has a Number? And it seems he's all alone too. Hahaha perfect." Purred Number 96. The hunt was on.