Fortune's Son!

"So.... remember anything?", RJ asked the skeleton as he watched him dart about.

As soon as RJ summoned Senior Hippie from the [Spirit Garden], the skeleton had this dumbstruck look on his face as his head kept darting about. The way he acted reminded RJ of how he saw tourists gawk about whenever he saw them around the city, mixed with how fish-out-of-water characters acted in most films.

"I...sort of. It's weird", Senior Hippie said as he kept looking around, "Everything here seems so familiar yet so distant. Like a melody in my head with no words, a photograph with no faces in it...a mural without any lines".

"Well that's just downright poetic", Tatterhood commented as she cleaned her purple shades, "But you're sure that whatever is in that skull of yours is connected to here at least, ja"?

"That much...I can confirm", Senior Hippie nodded, "I guess we should just wander until something kicks in"?

"Alright".

"Sure".

After confirming their non-existent plan, the trio proceeded to just walk further into Haight-Ashbury...until a giant sickle suddenly came flying out of nowhere and almost pierced RJ's face! Luckily, Tatterhood managed to bat it away after turning her handbag back into a spoon.

"Well that was dangerous", Tatterhood commented nonchalantly.

"Whoa!", RJ exclaimed as he made an involuntary step back.

"What the hell was that?!", Senior Hippie yelped as he ducked out of the way.

The sickle proceeded to spin in the air before suddenly changing shape.

The sickle had suddenly turned into a humanoid weasel girl with claws that resembled kitchen knives.

"Awww, I want to take you out before you blinked. Your companion there is surprisingly perceptive", the weasel girl said as she impatiently clicked her claws together, "I'll make sure not to miss again".

"Who the hell is-", RJ began to ask, only to get interrupted.

"Oi!", a gruff voice called out "I thought I told you undead weirdos to stay the hell out of the Haight"!

RJ, Tatterhood and Senior Hippie turned to see who the owner of the voice was.

The owner of the voice was a elderly man with a bushy beard, wearing a "Grateful Dead" bandana, a military jacket decorated with patches, camo pants and pair of heavy duty combat boots.

Everything down to his bearing screamed military veteran.

Unusually though, he wasn't wielding a gun, a knife or a even baseball bat. Instead, he had a dowsing pendulum made of amethyst hanging out of his right hand.

"Now just hold on a-wait, you can see him?!,RJ exclaimed.

"You can see me?!", Senior Hippie parroted in confusion.

"Damn straight I can see you, you skeletal bastard! And now I'm gonna exorcise both you and your master. Kathy! Dowsing Kusari"!

"Sure thing Donnie!", the weasel girl named Kathy said with a bow before leaping into the air towards the old military man.

As she sailed through the air, her body began to change once more into that of a giant, almost transparent weasel with massive claws for hands and a huge sickle blade for a tail. At the same time, the military veteran named Donnie threw his pendulum into the air whilst holding the chain.

A flash green light of occur as weasel and pendulum made contact.

When the light faded, Donnie was now standing there spinning around a clearly magical, ornate sickle and chain that had an amethyst blade.

"Oh shit he's magic too!", Senior Hippie couldn't help but yelp in surprise, "Wait, why did everything stop moving"?!

The trio didn't know when or how, but the world around them had suddenly became very quiet and stopped moving. Checking his watch, RJ soon realized that time had paused once more.

"Wait, what's that sound?", RJ said as his ears picked up a weird sound.

The sound of speakers suddenly crackling to life soon echoed around Haight-Ashbury, followed by the voice of the game.

[A duel has been declared in the area. Magi, prepare for Arena Overlay and get ready for one groovy battle]!

Reality suddenly began to waver around them as the speakers suddenly began to blare rock n roll music.

"Is that...'Fortunate Son'?!", RJ commented as he recognized the tune.

As the song kept playing, the space around RJ and Donnie suddenly began to dilate and expand as a strange colosseum began to construct itself around them in beat with the song. Additionally, huge trees with platforms built into them began sprouting out of the ground. (Un)fortunately for RJ and the gang, the sudden arena expansion had separated them from the sickle wielding veteran.

When the song came to an end, the arena had finished building itself and the voice of the game came back into focus.

[Welcome to the Jungle Arena. The duel will commence in 3...].

"Wait duel? What does it mean by duel?", Senior Hippie asked in a panicked voice.

[2].

"As the game says", Tatterhood replied while turning her outfit back into her usual battered battle garments, "we're about to toe-to-toe with another mage".

[1].

"Have you ever done this before?", Senior Hippie asked again.

[Battle]!

"No", RJ answered while pulling out his bronze and silver bagua mirror.

[DOWSING SICKLE!], a weird vaguely echoey voice suddenly called out from within the mess of trees and platforms. A moment later, a huge spinning sickle attached to a chain came flying out of the trees and went straight for the trio, again.

But this time, they were ready...sorta.

Making use of the bagua mirror and [Qi Flow], RJ managed to somewhat predict the path of the incoming sickle and learned how to avoid it...mostly.

"Tatterhood dodge left, Hippie go right and I need to fall- ACK!, RJ managed to yell before limboing himself to avoid getting decapitated. Tatterhood and the skeleton bard did as instructed and proceeded to dodge left and right respectively.

Unfortunately, RJ didn't manage to completely avoid it and got a cut on his cheeks for his troubles.

"Ouch! Okay, looks I can feel pain in this world, great...", RJ muttered to himself.

"Look out, it's coming back!", Senior Hippie cried out.

The spinning blade of death hovered for a few seconds before launching itself back at the group again!