Chapter 9. Titan Emerges

I let out a sigh of content. And listened as all of the Slither students cheered at my performance. I left the stage, and found myself with Jayden and Syrus waiting for me by the exit. “That was a rad Duel man! I love how your cards work! They totally can attack with a lot of damage, but also have crazy effects!” I smiled at Jayden's take on my deck, while Syrus nodded to say he agreed as well. “Thanks for watching guys. I’m just glad I was able to pass y’know?” Syrus agreed fervently while Jayden didn’t seem to mind that much. “Win or lose, it’s all about fun!” He yelled as he was up next.

I checked my PDA and saw that I had around 4,000DP. I smiled while thinking of what kind of extra cards I could get. Just as I was thinking about leaving early, I was stopped by Alexis, Jasmine, and Mindy. “What are you doing to cheat! It’s not gambling, if you never fail!” Jasmine was shaking me while yelling to get me to reveal my lucky secrets. Mindy had to pull her back, and while she did she smiled at me and winked. I gave her a confused look, and noticed Alexis approaching me as well. “You do know that we are not together right?”

I looked at Alexis for a second in shock. Then I began to laugh at her, making Jasmine stop cursing at me, and just watch from surprise at my expression. “Are you sure? I could totally see you guys going the distance.” I said sarcastically to her, causing her to sigh in disgust at just the thought. I laughed more at her reaction and started to walk past everyone. “Yea… I could tell his obsession of you, as soon as he opened his mouth.” Just as I went past everyone, I ran into another roadblock. In the shape of a tall person, in a black jacket, dark blue hair, and a cool aura around him.

“Zane, I presume?” I said with a confused tone of voice. ‘Why is he here?’ He looked down at me and nodded. “Alexis told me to come and watch both you and Jayden’s duels. I must say that you rely on luck too much.” I scoffed at him. “You draw cards from a deck that you have no control over, what you get, and when you get it… What do you call that?” This made Zane raise an eyebrow at me while squinting just a bit. “There will always be some luck to dueling, but a true duelist must have cards to rely on consistently.”

I shrugged at him and nodded. Trying not to get angry at him, or at least not show it. “I guess that’s true… Maybe I’m just not cut out to be the next king of games. Go look through that door if you wanna see someone that really is a good duelist.” I started to walk away, but Zane spoke up to talk to me. “If you don’t want to be the best, you should just stop dueling.” I stopped in my tracks, and looked at him. He was still giving me that cool guy frown that he always wore. I rolled my eyes at him.

“Are you serious? Let me give you a word of advice… The way you give advice sucks... Seriously, I know you have the cool guy demeanor, but whenever you open your mouth to try and say something profound and meaningful, it just crashes and burns... You just want to tell me to shape up, be a better duelist and take things more seriously right? Then just say that! My god! You seriously broke your brother with how you stupidly phrase things, and now the poor kid can’t even use his cards correctly because of the PTSD you caused! So that’s my words of advice… Learn to talk, and get your head out of your ass.”

I threw more curses at him under my breath, talking about how he shouldn’t judge my cards like that. “Knowing shit about others when you don’t even know how to speak correctly. You gotta be kidding me. Piece of…” I walked away with my hands in the air, and shaking my head to cool down, leaving the rest just standing frozen in place. I was long gone before any of them could actually talk with how stunned they all were. “I should probably go talk to him.” Alexis said as she went after me, leaving her friends behind.

Mindy was still stunned at what I just said to the top duelist in the school, and Jasmine was stunned at how much I was actually keeping back in my head. She assumed I just only had a few things to say that I didn’t like about anything, but now she saw in full view how much I could berate someone when I was really unhappy. At that point, she really didn't want to know all that I might have to say to her if she pushed me too far. Zane was mostly stunned about what I mentioned with Syrus, and looked over at his little brother. Only to see Syrus shaking just from his gaze.

I was outside of the school, and on my way back to the dorms. I could feel all of the Duel spirits around me trying to comfort me and calm me down. I sighed to let out some of my frustrations. “Thanks guys… I don’t know why I got so worked up to begin with.” I then began to see an image of Goddess of Whim appear in front of me. She was not fully corporeal, but I was able to see her just fine. “You got mad for us… It was nice to see actually.” I stared at her, confused. ‘Was I really that mad because he insulted you guys?’ Just thinking that did start to rile me up, proving her right. She giggled as she flew around me, with a teasing smile.

I gained a smile just seeing her happy. Too bad that I had a hard time looking at her beauty. She only wore a single green dress that contoured her body too well. I felt like I could see everything. She continued to smile and giggle while noticing my dilemma. She came really close to me, and was about to do something before she saw something behind me, and disappeared. I looked back to see Alexis jogging towards me. I sighed at how she was going to make me apologize to her closest guy friend.

“Don’t wanna talk about it… Why are you even here anyway? Shouldn’t you be watching Jayden beat Chazz?” I stopped her before she could talk, and tried to change the conversation. Alexis sighed as she walked closer to me. “I’m too busy making sure that you're ok.” I looked at her with confusion. “Why would you do that?” I was honestly confused by her. To my knowledge she was always interested in Jayden way more than almost anyone else. She loved dueling, and she was missing an amazing fight just to talk to me. Her priorities, and what she was doing were disconnected.

Alexis frowned while seeing my genuine confusion. She didn’t even fully understand why she wanted to make sure I was ok either. She just followed her instincts to chase me here. “You are a good duelist, and I want to make sure you wouldn’t do something stupid like throw away your deck for having it criticized by the top duelist in our school.” She just gave the first excuse that she could think of. I shook my head fervently at her. “Absolutely not… I will never abandon these cards…” I said, determined to face hell or high water to make sure not to lose any of these duel spirits.

Alexis gained a smile seeing my determination for sticking to my cards. After saying that as an excuse she was partly worried about it being true. Alexis didn’t want me to lower my own power by listening to Zane. “Good then…” She said as she started to go back inside the school building. I sighed after calming down a bit, and decided to just head off back to my room.

I made it inside and placed my duel equipment on my desk. I then took out all of my duel spirits out of my pocket and placed them beside my deck as well. I could see all of them coming out of their cards and moving around my room. I smiled seeing them all enjoy their time, and saw some of my other duel spirits from my deck appearing as well. The Goddess of Whim was the first, and enjoyed being able to float around my room. Right behind her was Spirit of the Breeze. She was just as beautiful, with her long blue hair and green skin giving a sense of calming tranquility. The Unhappy Maiden was next, with her orange hair that hung over her eyes most of the time, giving her a shy looking demeanor, and a blue dress that barely fit over her. After her was Dreamsprite. She was a smaller blue skinned fairy. She wore nothing and only had her long orange hair to cover her chest magically.

Dark Witch was the last duel spirit that I noticed. She had long dark purplish hair, and large wings that looked like it could encompass her body, and she wore a yellow sleeveless dress that left little to the imagination. I then noticed a pattern that I was only staring at the girl Duel spirits. They seemed to realize this too and began to smile and float around me. “What are you looking at?” Dark Witch asked in a sultry voice. I frowned and blushed from embarrassment. “I’m gonna go to sleep… You all do what you want, just make sure not to wake anyone.”

I took the option to run from that conversation, and began to just lay down in my bed. I got under the covers and began to drift off. As I was falling asleep I began to feel extra warm. It was a comforting feeling, like I was being enveloped by my covers better. I slept extra soundly that night. I woke up to find myself being hugged by Goddess of Whim. She had been holding me throughout the night, and I had been resting my head on her chest. I freaked out and started to break free from her grasp. This woke her up as she realized that I was awake.

She smiled at me as I just stared at her. “Good Morning Rakki.” She said with mirth in her voice. “I… You- I-” I was just stammering while staring at her in shock. She chuckled while getting up. “I know what you are going to ask. I am fully corporeal at the moment.” She reached out and grabbed my cheek tenderly. “How…?” Was all I could say with how stunned I was. She giggled again as she started to explain with a smile. “Duel spirits can become partners with humans, and reside inside the souls of humans. When this is done, we increase each other’s strength. I can even become strong enough to materialize.”

I just nodded at her while my brain was whirling, trying to comprehend all that she said. She chuckled more as she kept on going. “Your soul is exceptionally strong, most likely from already being bonded by other, stronger Duel spirits. So we took the opportunity to make a bond with you.” There was one word after she was done that stood out to me. “We?” It was then that I was suddenly bombarded with all of the other girl duel spirits from my bed. Dream Sprite, Spirit of the Breeze, Dark Witch, and Unhappy Maiden all jumped at me from over the bed towards me.

“Agh!” I yelped as they all tackled me. They all were laughing and giggling about my reactions. “We waited so long for that reveal, and it did not disappoint.” Dark Witch said in between chuckles. All of the other girls were laughing right alongside her, and were latching onto me. They all seemed to like the idea of being able to touch me. I was freaking out about how many girls were surrounding me all at once. I began stammering, and my face turned red as I didn’t know what to do. My reactions only spurred the girls on until a loud knocking was coming from the door.

As soon as that happened all of the girls vanished after saying their goodbyes to me. “Don’t worry, this isn’t over.” “Try and wait for us until then.” “Goodbye…” That last one was Unhappy Maiden, who instead of all the other girls touching, a little too close to certain areas, she seemed the most timid, and only grabbed my hand. I sighed from relief of what just happened as the door opened up. “Hey dude! Syrus, Chumley and I want to have a scary story contest! You in!?” Turns out it was Jayden asking if I wanted to hang out at night. ‘But this set-up… It sounds familiar.’

I then remembered what the story led to. I sighed and shook my head. “Sorry, but I actually have somewhere I need to go tonight.” Jayden looked confused as I was putting on my jacket, and duel disk. “Where ya going so late at night with your gear? Are you having a duel with someone!?” He got excited, and seemed to want to watch if he could, but I had to turn him down. “No, I always just have it when I walk around, just feels weird without it y’know?” Jayden nodded in understanding. “Well, when you get back, check the mess hall! We’ll be there and maybe you can have a scary story by the time you get back!” Jayden laughed and left my room, as quickly as he came. ‘Such a ball of energy.’ I chuckled under my breath.

I then left my room as well, and walked a fair distance from the dorms. “Does anyone know where the creepy dorm is?” I asked the question to any of my duel spirits, hoping one could feel where it was, from the creepy energy. “I can show you…” I heard the low grumbling voice say. I frowned a bit that it was him, and was kinda hoping to be led by one of the girls, but I had to make sure Alexis was ok, and hopefully keep her from being kidnapped inside that haunted place. I could feel the girls were happy about my wanting to be with them instead, and the low grumbling voice chuckled. Just then a monstrous looking arm appeared in my vision.

I was startled by it, and looked back to see what it was attached to, but only saw the arm floating on its own. The low voice chuckled again at me. “I’ll take you there…” He said with amusement still in his tone. I looked back up at where the arm was pointing, and ran off in its direction. I kept running and running, and as I did, I noticed a change. “I’m not as tired as I should be.” I heard the deep voice chuckle again. “Even if your soul is a large container, that doesn’t mean it is powerful. My friend may have bonded with you, but he is just one soul. The more of us bonded to you, the stronger you will be.” There was a lot of information packed in there, but there was only one thing that caught my attention. ‘You’re bonded to me too?’

He chuckled again, but I stopped listening, from the sudden sense of danger in the air. My head snapped back down to look at what it was coming from. I found myself at the front gates of the old dorm. I sighed as I looked at how haunted this place looked. “Why do I do things? I could just leave this to Jayden…” I said under my breath. I grit my teeth as I walked over the low hanging chain link. “Is that really supposed to keep people out?” I shook my head and looked back at the old dorm. This place gave me a sense of danger that made me want to turn and run. I could feel the pull of something sinister coming from inside.

“Don’t know if she’s actually in there… I could always turn back…” Just as I finished saying that, my luck proved me wrong as I heard a loud shriek along with a bright light coming from inside, I could almost feel the source of the light yelling for help to me. “Why do I talk!?” I yelled as I ran inside to help. Just as I did, I was greeted by the overwhelming sense of dread, and terror. I pushed past it though, I had to make sure Alexis was ok. I ran through the main entrance, and into the side room when I saw the flash of light. Busting through the door, I saw Alexis on the floor of this hollowed out room, with this giant standing over top of her.

“Alexis!” I yelled, but she was unresponsive. The giant man in a trench coat looked back at me. He had a half mask covering the top of his face, along with a hat to help hide his identity even more. “Welcome boy… I see you two are acquainted.” He chuckled a bit while seeing the fear in my eyes of her condition. “She will be forever lost… Unless you win her back from me… In a shadow game…” He smiled as he activated his unique duel disk. “Careful master… If you duel here…” I heard Dark Witch try to warn me, but I didn’t care.