Card Spirits 2

Yarden had to admit, that it was a bit of a trek to get to the well. It made him idly wonder why so many people made the effort to get out there just to dump their cards.

"Woah," he murmured looking up into the sky above him, circling around the trees was a gang of incorporeal looking spirits. Freaky. If he didn't know this forest was pretty much harmless for the most part and that these spirits were really weak he would be freaking out right about now.

The mere fact that he could see the duel spirits though was just way too cool to describe, it overshadowed any doubts within him and just got him too excited to be scared at all.

One of the spirits broke off from the others, swinging down at him with an attempt at a ghastly cry, "Begone!" it attempted cry out threateningly, phasing through his stomach. A small shudder went through his body, but it failed to cause anything worse to happen, especially with its squeaky voice.

He recognized the card spirit. As it swung around him and made to fly back up and join its companions, he called out to it, "Wait!"

The spirit paused, turning to look at him and he pounced on the opening, "You're Petit Dragon, right?" he asked. The white washed form and ghostly look it had made it harder to recognize, but he knew that card anywhere. Petit Dragon was one of the first cards he ever got, a gift from a friend whom had gotten a bunch of cards for his birthday just when they first came out, his friend had passed ten of them on to him to start with. All of them little dragons besides one.

That was where his preference for the dragon type cards came from, besides their cool designs. They were the first cards he ever got. Even still had them in his original body to this very day.

The translucent spirit peered at him for a moment, before with a pop it took on corporeal form. A small serpentine green dragon with tiny little wings atop its back, "Why are you here human?" it asked gruffly. Well attempted to at least.

Its cute looks completely ruined the attempt.

Yarden resisted the urge to literally shout in excitement. It was so damn awesome! A real honest to god duel spirit! He fought himself as hard as he could to keep his composure, "I'm looking for a well that other students have taken to dumping their unwanted cards in." he replied.

A small growl escaped the small dragon spirit, "Are you another human looking to get rid of useless cards like us then?" it asked.

"Hell no!" he blurted out before he could stop himself. When the dragon peered at him curiously, he rushed to explain himself, "Look you might not have the outright benefit of newer more powerful cards, but that doesn't make you useless!" he said vehemently.

And he meant it. There were quite a few combo's one could use even a weak vanilla monster like Petit Dragon for.

The dragon drifted closer to him, floating around his side and coming to a rest on his shoulders. It was almost like Pikachu with Ash, he had to resist the urge to crow out in glee, "Oh?" it hummed curiously.

His hand twitched, he withheld the urge to pet the small, surprisingly warm feeling spirit on his shoulder, "You can be used to to fuse Darkfire Dragon, and while it only has an attack of fifteen hundred, it's below level six as well so it can be equipped with Fusion Weapon bringing its attack points up to three thousand," he told the little dragon. That was actually a combo he'd used before, "And even without that, you can be set in defence mode to and let Dragon's Gunfire be used and in the graveyard as a dragon you power up cards like Red-Eyes Darkness Dragon."

"Huh," Petit Dragon made an odd sound, like a cross between a squeak and a cough, "Y-you seemed to have put a lot of thought into this." he said. Its voice was fairly masculine despite being squeaky, so Yarden was of the opinion it was a male at this point.

He shook his head, "Not really," he replied, "It's just a combo I've used before in a few games."

The small green dragon floated up off of his shoulder and came to a rest in front of his face, staring straight into his eyes, "If you are not here to toss cards, then why are you here?" he asked.

"My deck was stolen," Yarden replied bluntly, keeping to his story, "I headed out here so I can grab the cards in the well and make a deck."

Petit Dragon was silent again for a moment, "And what about when you get stronger cards?" he asked, "Are you just going to abandon us again?" the dragon questioned, voice level.

No freaking way. Regardless of any potential, he'd never thrown away a single yugioh card. He had thousands of them in his old body packed away that he added to when a new card came out that he took a liking to. The latest of the batch had been Void Ogre Dragon, he'd loved the looks of that card and despite being hard to summon, it was a complete and utter beast, especially equipped with Follow Wing.

"Nope," he made sure to reply, "For one, you guys are duel spirits, that's worth way more than some measly attack points, and secondly, if you guys don't fit in the deck with newer cards, I'll just make multiple decks to fit you all." It was that simple and it was something he liked to do when he used his cards previously. It threw off his friends back when they were hyped on the anime and played and collected cards constantly.

Yarden reached an arm out towards Petit Dragon, "So what'ya say?" he asked, "Wanna come with me?"

There was a moment of silence before a small smile spread across the dragon spirits face, "...Very well," he said in return, "I have no reason to refuse and do admit that I feel quite excited at the thought of participating in a duel again."

There was a shimmer of green light around the dragon as he closed his eyes. And then, the shimmer of green spread to his palm, before splitting apart a second later to reveal a card sitting upon his hand.

Petit Dragon – Level 2/Wind/Dragon – 600/700

Awesome, just completely awesome. It seemed like the duel spirits could keep their cards with them at all times, or materialize cards of them. Both were pretty awesome, though there were some insane benefits to the second one if true. He'd need to check that out later.

Yarden nodded up towards the spirits still floating about above them, three of them if he counted right, "What about your friends?" he asked the green dragon in front of him, "Think they'll want to come as well?"

"I hope so," Petit Dragon replied, "I'd be quite lonely if my friends didn't want to come along." With that said he floated up into the air, the other three incorporeal spirits stopping their spirited flights around the air and turning their attention to the small green dragon.

He could hear them chatter for a few moments as Petit Dragon attempted to convince them. But a minute or two later, all four of them swooped down in front of him. There was a myriad of flashing colours in front of him, forcing him to shield his eyes for a second until they dyed down. When he pulled his hand away from his eyes, his jaw almost dropped in shock.

Three other small dragons were floating in front of him. Though one of them couldn't really be called small, it was half his size with broad chest muscle and orange scales. Alongside it was another small serpentine green dragon the same as Petit Dragon, only with darker green scales where as Petit's were a lime green. And finally a tiny little turquoise dragon little bigger than his finger.

He knew all three of these dragons.

"So you're gonna use us in duels huh! That's so cool!" the buff little orange, Baby Dragon crowed in excitement, punching two closed fists into the air one after another in a set of rapid punches.

The Petit Dragon look alike floated elegantly around him, "A pleasure to meet you friend of Petit Dragon," Fairy Dragon intoned softly with an airy, gentle female voice.

They were friends already? That was quick. Not that he minded.

"H-hello," the tiny little dragon, Decoy Dragon waved shyly, halfway hiding behind Petit Dragon.

Yarden couldn't help the grin that overcame his face, "Hey guys!" he greeted them excitedly, "It's great to meet you! So you wanna tag along?" he asked, holding his hand out to them.

"Heck yeah!" Baby Dragon shouted energetically, an orange light enshrouded its form just like Petit Dragon before it and in his hand appeared its card form.

Baby Dragon – Level 4/Wind/Dragon – 1200/700

The other two kept silent, Yarden thought it was mostly that Fairy Dragon didn't speak much and that Decoy Dragon seemed very shy. But like the other two before them, they glowed with bright lights before two cards appeared in his hand.

Fairy Dragon – Level 4/Wind/Dragon – 1100/1200

Decoy Dragon – Level 2/Fire/Dragon/Effect – 300/200

Then one by one, they disappeared into the cards in his hand, all except Petit Dragon who hung around, curling around his shoulders and resting atop them like a snake on a perch.

"Awesome!" Yarden shouted himself in excitement, "Fairy Dragon can be used to make Kaiser Dragon, Baby Dragon can make both Alligator Sword Dragon and Thousand Dragon and Decoy Dragon is another thing entirely! Who would get rid of a card like Decoy Dragon? It's so amazing when it comes to special summoning powerful dragons from the grave."

"Decoy's previous owner could not appreciate his effect," Petit Dragon replied from his reclined position, "A power duellist was only interested in high attack power."

Yarden almost sighed, he did shake his head though, "Absolutely shameful," and it was true. This world revolved around duelling and the best of the best was known for using weak cards like Wattapon and Marshmallon, so why did people ridicule weaker monsters when the best of the best used them? Such arrogance. He bet it was mostly rich, arrogant Obelisk Blue's that got rid of the cards here.

"Well, his loss then." Yarden concluded. He turned his head slightly to peer at Petit Dragon, "So, can you lead on to the well? I've not got much time before I need to get to class."

It had taken him a good twenty minutes to get this far, and he'd spent a good ten minutes getting the four dragons he had now to join him. Classes started at nine, so he had to get a move on.

"Very well, let's get going then." Petit Dragon replied.

It took another five minutes of walking before he reached the well. Just like he saw Chazz do, he swung the rope ladders attached to the top of the well down and descended into the hole in the ground.

The sunlight from the hole shone down with enough light to illuminate the cavern he landed in at the bottom and he looked around himself in awe. Looking at all the scattered cards. There had to be hundreds of them! Good thing Banner had given him the rucksack he held over his shoulder to store the excess cards in.

One thing he noted though was that there were no spirits floating around like the other four were outside. "Where's all the spirits?" he asked the small dragon on his shoulder.

"Most cards here prefer to sleep within their cards rather than live the dreary existence of an abandoned cave dweller," the dragon explained to him. Cocking its head up, Petit Dragon called out loudly, "Awaken spirits! A duellist has come to liberate you from this lonely existence!" his squeaky voice echoed around the well.

Almost immediately voices started shouting back. Some in disbelief, some in excitement. But they all came. One by one he saw different coloured shapes and bodies shoot out from the cards. In moments he was surrounded. Dozens upon dozens of spirits surrounded them.

Yarden could not keep the awe from showing on his face as he looked around them. Lesser Dragon! Oh wow Soul Tiger! Then there was Spirit of the Breeze, she was pretty cute! Most of the smaller spirits crowded around him, meanwhile some larger spirits took residence behind the others. Two dragons stood out as the biggest. Identical in body shape, size and even face. The only difference between them being their colours. One blue and one red.

The Winged Dragon's, Guardian of the Fortress', numbers one and two.

Perfect! Number one was the other half used with Fairy Dragon to make Kaiser Dragon. It could work as a decent beat stick

A number of voices chattered at him from all around him, he could barely make a word out edgewise though because they were all talking over each other, shouting at him, towards him, pleading even in some cases.

Just when his temper began to simmer when they wouldn't calm down, a silky voice cut through the cavern. It wasn't very loud, but somehow it thundered above all the other voices and quieted them down.

"Quiet." was all the silky voice demanded, and they all complied.

Yarden's head rotated towards where the voice came from and his eyes widened in shock as he noted a large serpent purple dragon reclining lazily atop a rocky perch above him and all the other spirits.

"Serpent Night Dragon!" he whispered in shock. Excitement above all else he'd felt so far flowed through him, his body shaking with it.

"He is the strongest spirit here," Petit Dragon whispered in his ear, "He was abandoned here over a year ago by a duellist that had trouble summoning him."

Yarden could understand that. Serpent Night Dragon was lack luster compared to Tri-Horn Dragon whom was quite a bit stronger, less rare and could be summoned for the exact same as Serpent Night Dragon. There was a bit of a saying that went around about the card when he was in his original body.

'Serpent Night Dragon is worth nothing.'

The only reason people tried to get a hold of it nowadays was because of the nice card art. But to Yarden, Serpent Night Dragon had a special place in his heart. Red-Eyes was his favourite monster, but Serpent Night Dragon was the first ever card he had ever gotten. He'd found quite a few ways to play it over the years just due to sheer nostalgic fondness of the card.

"So human," Serpent Night Dragon's voice cut across to him, "Just why are you here?" the silky voiced dragon asked of him.

"I've come to take any of you who agree with me to build a deck with." he replied promptly. Best to not beat around the bush. As far as mythology was concerned, dragons were not fond of meekness, for the most part.

There was a chitter of excitement from the spirits around him, but they dared not speak up too loudly while Serpent Night Dragon was holding court as it were. "Oh?" the serpentine dragon mused in interest, "And why would you want to make a deck with us? As you can see, I am by far the strongest monster here and according to my old duellist I am quite unwieldly and not at all worth playing." he continued to comment, because there was no doubt that silky voice was male to his ears.

"Then he was a fool," Yarden replied promptly again. He heard a series of gasps ring out around him from the spirits but he pushed on, "It's true that compared to other dragons that require two tributes, your attack power is rather low and you have no effect to compensate for that, but it's still easy to play around that kind of weakness easily."

Plus, it was still the GX era. Serpent Night Dragon wasn't too shabby when you got it out onto the field.

"Oh?" the dragon hummed seemingly indifferently, "And how would you work around that?" the dragon asked. But once again, he felt like he was being tested.

Yarden look around the floor for a moment, he could explain easily enough, but without a card to help they may have trouble understanding, especially when he had no access to the card he was talking about.

His eyes trailed across the cards, searching through them. Call of the haunted, not bad, an old version of Polymerization, Ookazi, Dust Tornado, Ultimate Offering, Rainbow Life...there!

A combo came to mind with a few of the cards he just saw, but this one was much simpler.

He walked over to the card he saw and picked it up, holding it in the air towards Serpent Night Dragon, "Do you know what this is?" he asked the dragon spirit.

"I do not." the dragon replied simply.

"This is the Foolish Burial spell card, it lets you take one card from your deck and put it into your graveyard." he explained. He then went through the four dragon cards he'd gained earlier and held up the card for the small shy dragon he'd taken in, "With it, I'd send you to the graveyard and then summon Decoy Dragon here, he may be small, but when he's attacked his effect lets you summon a level seven or higher dragon type monster from your graveyard and change the target of the attack to it."

Before the large serpentine dragon could hope to respond, he walked around picking up three specific trap cars he saw before grabbing Foolish Burial, "With these three alone, if you were in my hand, I could use Rainbow Life to discard you to the graveyard, or any other monster in my hand, then activate Ultimate Offering allowing me to pay 500 life points to normal summon any monster that can be in my hand, but with Rainbow Life, I'd gain 500 life points instead, get to summon a monster and then on my opponents turn or my next turn I'd use Call of The Haunted to summon the monster I discarded to the field from the graveyard." He rattled off the combo he just thought of after seeing the three cards.

There was complete silence for a few moments. Then a silky chuckle broke it, "Interesting! Most interesting!" Serpent Night Dragon exclaimed, it almost sounded delighted to Yarden's ears. Floating up off of his perch, the dark dragon floated elegantly down to meet him face to face and he had to withhold a gulp when he realized just how big the dragon spirit was, it reminded him of a wider, more elegant and beautiful anaconda, "What is your name duellist?" the spirit asked him.

He refused to show fear. Earning the allegiance of Serpent Night Dragon would surely speed things along for him. It was strong, not the strongest out there, not even close but it was decently powerful. And he had a plan.

Jaden had shown it was possible to bond with spirits and gain power through those bonds. Both with Yubel and Honest. He had no power at all besides being able to see the spirits, heck his body was weaker than his original one despite being taller. But he had a plan. Before he could get to quality, he would settle with quantity, bonding with all the duel spirits and powering up through each one. If he got enough of them, surely he'd gain enough power to survive the events to come?

It didn't even matter how far he ran either really. If Jaden failed to stop Nightshroud, or Darkness or whatever the hell he called himself, everyone was fucked either way. And before even that, there was the Sacred Beasts that could cause untold calamities if Kagemaru wasn't stopped. He needed to stay here and grow powerful and make sure Duel Academy never fell if he wanted to survive.

"It's Yarden, Yarden Odhar." he responded quickly.

The regal dragon inclined his head, "Very well Yarden, hold out your hand and I shall call you master from hence forth." he stated aloud.

Keeping his hand from shaking with the excitement still coursing through him, Yarden watched in awe as shadows pooled together around the serpentine dragon before he disappeared along with them and in his hand appeared the beautiful drawn card.

Serpent Night Dragon – Level7/Dark/Dragon – 2350/2400

That was when the dam broke and the other monsters swamped him from all sides. Light blinded him briefly as multiple spirits jumped the gun and just turned into cards appearing in his hand, other cards on the floor levitating up into his palm and one by one the spirits disappeared from the deep well cavern as a large stack of cards continued to pile upon his palm.