Chapter 49: Trial of the Maze (II)

At the edge of the Ritual Sanctuary Zone, before a large marble arched gateway a group of a half dozen New Order members had gathered at the command of the Silver General. A soft golden light curtain was cast across the yellowed brick road, the Duel Zones energy barrier, this was one of the connecting path ways to the Toon Kingdom Duel Zone.

A man walked towards the group from down the street between the Roman styled building that predominated this part of the Ritual Sanctuary Zone. He wore a light silver armour consisting of mostly a chest piece, shoulder guards, a vambrace on the arm free of his duel disk and leg greaves that came up past his knees. He wore no helmet, allowing one to see his short curled blond hair as behind his back billowed a black and dark moss green chequered cloak.

"Are the preparations complete?" Hal asked his subordinates.

"Yes sir" one of them said as he stepped forward and initiated a trade link with the Silver General.

Under Hal's orders the group had gather together the best possible skills and items available to them in the short period of time they had since arriving on the island so that they now transfer these to their General along with much of their remaining duel points.

"Good. Carry on with the operation." Hal said, pleased with the resources these agents had passed to him.

Without a seconds thought Hal activate a duel pass he had received and made his way through the Zone barrier leaving his subordinates behind to continue in the WDC, unaware of what was about to happen.

Soon Hal had disappeared from sight as the members of New Order planned their next moves, what challenges to conquer, which duellists to defeat. When suddenly!

"Get them boys!" came a sharp cry from the buildings all around them as crimson duel anchors were launched towards the now panicking cultists.

A large group of men in Heartland security uniforms appeared and began to duel. Having transferred all of their duel skills to the Silver General previously and caught completely off guard, the chaotic melee of duels quickly against New Order.

"Ally of Justice Decisive Armor attack!"

*Boom*

"I summon Ancient Gear Hydra!"

*Zzzap!*

"I fusion summon Gaia Drake the Universal Force!"

*Whooosh!*

"I activate the ability of Heroic Champion – Excalibur"

*Slash!*

As the last of New Order duellists fell in defeat and was forcibly tied put with stout rope, he demanded of his captors.

"Who are you? what are you doing! We have done nothing wrong!"

A boot knocked him onto his back, before stepping on his chest. The flame haired captain bent down and looked the struggling duellist right in the face.

"Done no harm, don't make me laugh. Take them away for questioning, I'm going after the other one." Said Nistro, second captain of the Black Elite.

"Sir!" the reply came from all the members of the Black Elite that had gathered here along with their Captain. Some of these men were survivors from New orders attack on their base. The ones Dextra had managed to save.

And now they were here for revenge.

No matter what Heartland and Faker said, the Black Elite would not let New Order go. Just like Kite these men no longer care about Faker and Heartlands plans because this was personal. Dextra had been an excellent and charismatic leader, a symbol these men had pledged their loyalty to. A cold beauty that had been loved and admired, which was why when Heartland had ordered that no action would be taken against New Order, they had decided to deal with the situation themselves and secretly gone rouge.

Because of their duties and Fakers plans for Shark, many members of the Black Elite were a part of the WDC, giving them this perfect opportunity. As the Black Elite herded the New Order members to a secret interrogation site they had set up, Nistro proceeded onwards to the Duel Zone Gate.

Nistro didn't know who Hal was, or exactly how important he was to New Order. Their Black Elite's most important targets were Shark and the Black General Wyvern, those that had been in charge of the attack on the base. But having watched all these gathered duellists hand over their skills and duel points to that guy in silver armour Nistro knew that guy had to be very important, he hoped that by trailing him he would lead Nistro to his prey.

Without hesitation he activated his own Duel pass and followed.

---

Drake was at this moment sat on a bench beside an automated hot dog stand, chomping down on a ketchup covered bun.

"Yum.." he said, enjoying the almost perfectly prepared sausage as he casually read a daily electronic newspaper downloaded from the food vendor.

WDC continues! Underdogs list to watch out for! Tornado crisis averted in Hawaii – great success for Paragons industries new Weather Shield Atlas! Market shares in Alderham Electronics plummet, take-over rumours rampant! Scientists still baffled over celestial lunar eclipse phenomenon.

Drake was not in a rush as he ate his lunch and read his paper, occasionally looking up to observe the building across the way.

The Maze of the Minotaur.

It was massive looking at it from outside, easily the size of a couple of football stadiums. Over its entrance were statues of various Duel Monster Minotaur like monsters, the Battle Ox, Battle Steer, Man Best of Ares and others Drake could not name off the top of his head.

Drake was waiting, waiting because he knew that he was being watched. But it had been almost an hour now and there had been no signs of anyone making a move, just a few ordinary duellists that had tried to enter the Maze. But they had failed to met the requirements to enter the Maze and had to leave in disappointment.

Drake had hoped to deal with anyone after him out here because although he had some information about the Maze, he had no idea what special duel rules might be active inside. At least out here there was only the Toon Kingdom rules, but after so long he was tired of waiting.

Finishing the last of his Hot Dog, Drake wipe his fingers before tossing his napkin in the nearby bin.

He moved to enter the Maze of the Minotaur.

<<NOTICE! Entrance Requirements detect! Entrance requirements: Reputation 10+ or Maze Key. Checking…Checking… Drake Atlas. Reputation Score: 22, ACCESS GRANTED.>>

*Hissss*

White smoke blasted out of either side of the double doors as they opened up, no not smoke Drake changed his mind as he ran his hand through one of the streams. Water vapour. Harmless but visually impressive.

He stepped through the doors and into a single chamber. Apart from the door he had just entered from there was another sealed door in front of him, decorated with nonsense hieroglyphs. A new notice appeared on his duel disk.

<<Entering Outer Maze – Duel restrictions in effect. All Duels in the Outer Maze must use preconstructed WDC decks or decks made from acquired WDC virtual cards only, all other Zone rules and duel skills cannot be used. Entrants may download one deck from selection… >>

The notice continued to list a selection of a half dozen prebuilt decks. They didn't give full card lists just the deck names. Toon Assault, obviously a kind of toon deck Drake thought, which was very appropriate in Toon Kingdom. Dragons Lair, Sunken Forces, Soldiers of the Mist, Guardians of Stone and Fist of Flame.

Drake wasn't going to turn down free cards, even if they were virtual ones. He picked the Guardians of Stone. He really liked dragons but he already had plenty of Dragons cards in his main deck so he passed on the Dragons Lair deck. On the other hand his reward from the Trial of the Six challenge he had first passed had been an Earth attribute themed prebuilt deck.

A prebuilt deck would have a standardised strength, so if Drake wanted to have the best possible chance in this maze it would be better to construct a new deck for himself, and between a earth attribute deck and what he could only assume was a Rock type monster deck it would easier to find complementary cards.

And he was right, soon after Drake finished constructing his virtual deck and loaded it as his default deck for this challenge zone. It was no where near perfect but it was the best Drake could come up with at this moment.

The sealed door opened and Drake entered the maze.

---

A short time later Wyvern finally reached the entrance to the Maze of the Minotaur, according to their spies Drake had only entered the Maze a while ago. She would have been here sooner except she had to stopped and complete a couple of challenges so that she could actually enter the maze. Having expected Drake to have immediately entered the maze almost an hour ago.

Now the thrill of the hunt was coursing through her, her prey was almost near enough for her to smell him. This time would be different, this time she was prepared to go all out in order to earn the promised favour of the Orichalcos King.

"There you are my dear lady Black."

By the Great Beast! What rotten luck! She thought as she turned to see her fellow General smugly approach from the other direction. He was the last person Wyvern wanted to see here. Her face screwed up in a grimace.

"Now what's that face for my dear. Or did you forget our Kings instructions.?" Hal smugly asked Wyvern.

The Orichalcos King had been very clear with his generals. In order to take care of Drake Atlas once and for all, he expected his Generals to work together if the opportunity arose, in spite of any personal disagreements between them.

Now that Hal and shown up she had to work with him, or else she would be defying her Kings orders. Which was a nightmare for Wyvern and a pleasure for Hal.

"It hasn't been too long since he has entered, so lets go, if you can that is." Wyvern said in frustration.

If she had to work with this lustful fool then it would be better to get it over with as quick as possible she thought. But part of her secretly hoped that Hal would not have the qualifications to enter the maze and end up making a fool of himself.

"Of course my dear, see my subordinates even managed to get me a Universal Challenge Key." Hal replied.

It had cost his subordinates most of their duel points but it was worth it. Many high level challenges either had a reputation requirement or needed a special Key, like the Maze Key this challenge required. The Universal Challenge Key was exactly like its name said, a key that could be used to access any challenge.

"Then lets go." Wyvern said as she marched forwards, trying to keep as much distance between the two of them as possible. And the two of them entered the Maze.

Not even ten minutes later Nistro arrived on the scene, thanks to the parks security cameras that he had used his clearance to forcible access, he already knew that one of the ones he wanted was here so he wasted no time in entering the Maze. Unlike Drake, Wyvern and Hal, Nistro had to use his Black Elite identity to bypass the entrance restrictions.

---

In the Maze Drake had been swiftly moving along, with the directions from the secret information he acquired from the Duel Hunter he had so far only faced obstruction in the form of several duel puzzles and quizzes, like the one before him now.

The path was blocked by the projection of a giant spider, the Duel monster 'Jirai Gumo'.

<<The Trap card 'Huge Revolution' requires which three cards to be face up on your field to activate? You have three attempts.>> the system asked Drake.

"That would be 'People Running About', 'Oppressed People' and 'United Resistance'." Drake replied.

<<CORRECT! PERFECT SCORE!>>

A part of the wall opened up to the left of him as the image of the spider faded away. Because he had answered the question perfectly and quickly on the first try he had achieved a perfect rating, which had opened up this secret passage in the maze. But unlike other times this had already happened to Drake in the maze, this time Drake continued down the original path while following the secret instructions.

According to the info he had, by achieving a perfect rating at this point, a secret path would also have opened up further down the path to his right. This path would lead to the duel vendor that sold extra lives which was what had attracted Drake to this challenge in the first place.

Right, left, carry on down the centre, right, left and he had arrived. Before him was a dead end path, lit by the light of fake electric torches. Moving to the left hand torch on the back of the wall, Drake lifted it out of its bracket, engaging the hidden mechanism.

The wall opened up to reveal a hidden chamber, at the centre of which stood a Duel bot in the form of the Rabid Horseman. Its angry red eyes stared at Drake from across the room. The secret Duel Vendor of the Maze.

But there was one final thing Drake would have to do first.

"Duel!"

<<Duel Bot Rabid Horseman activated! Duel initiated!>>

The duel monster reared up on its hind legs as smoke billowed out of its nostrils, its might arms swung its massive axe around.

"Grrr!"

[Turn 1 - Drake LP:4000 Hand:5, Rabid Horseman LP:4000 Hand 5]

"I draw. I summon <Beta The Electromagnet Warrior> to the field. Then I set two cards face down and end my turn."

[Beta The Electromagnet Warrior – Lv3 ATK:1500/DEF:1500]

A purply pink robot with magnet shaped hands and horns appeared on Drakes field, a improvement of a classic monster Drake knew well.

[Turn 2 - Rabid Horseman LP:4000 Hand 5, Drake LP:4000 Hand:3]

"Grrr… Draw!" the mechanical duellist declared.

"Play <Polymerization>, Fuse <Cannon Soldier> and <Beastking of the Swamps> to summon <Labyrinth Tank>!"

The Rabid Horseman could use Beastking of the Swamps as a substitute for any required fusion material, allowing him to summon the mechanical menace of the maze.

[Labyrinth Tank – Lv7 ATK:2400/DEF:2400]

The large blue tank with multiple ruby red drills burst through the virtual image of the chambers wall, its drill bits spinning away at high speed with its eye like headlights focused on Drakes monster as its engine revved, ready to attack!