Spirit Stalker 9
'Looks like she's gone.' Yarden's gaze was over his shoulder, at the tree he knew Alexis had been hiding behind and keeping an eye on things.
It was a stroke of luck she'd come across him when he was going to hunt down Jinzo. It meant he wouldn't have to explain duel spirits or anything like that to her, he could just let her get a look at what was going on and come to her own conclusions.
Then he could just fill in the blanks when she eventually came to ask him about it all. It would save him all the effort of trying to convince her about them himself.
"That guy was tough!" Baby Dragon laughed, drawing his attention back to the situation at hand.
He really was, Yarden had to agree. His eyes took in all of his spirits out and about in this clearing that had taken part in the fight. Dark Magician Girl, Hyozanryu, Serpent Night Dragon, Relinquished, Lesser Dragon, Baby Dragon and Unhappy Maiden.
And even after being taken off guard initially, Jinzo had held his monsters off amazingly.
"So, how do we do this?" Yarden asked, his eyes going to the voluptuous blonde haired spirit who was directing the mass of energy left behind by Jinzo into the air above her. It had formed into a huge glowing and crackling red ball easily a good twenty feet in height and width.
"Oh it's simple master, just have the spirits you want to get stronger absorb the energy." Dark Magician Girl helpfully informed.
Alright, seemed simple enough. And he'd already decided on the spirits he wanted to absorb the energy left behind by Jinzo. He'd discussed it with his monsters earlier, and he'd been recommended to give it to three of his weaker dragon spirits, that were already bonded with him. With them already bonded to him, the power of their evolution would apparently flow into him as well and make it easier on his soul.
Two of them were already out, so he reached within him and summoned Petit Dragon.
"Can't you be a bit gentler when summoning me out? You don't need to just yoink me you know," the little dragon rolled his eyes, "You're really much too gung ho."
Yarden rolled his own eyes in amusement, but didn't bother replying. He instead gestured to the large spherical ball of energy, "Alright you three, just like we discussed, munch it up."
Lesser Dragon nodded, giving a grunt of understanding. While Baby Dragon cheered, "Gotcha boss!" the muscular orange dragon replied. All three of them lined up together and waited.
"Here you go boys!" Dark Magician Girl giggled and swiped her scepter up at the energy. The sphere of energy split in half and floated through the air towards the trio of dragons.
Immediately, it split again into three parts and flowed into the three dragon's bodies. Moments later, Petit Dragon erupted into red light, followed by Baby Dragon a second later. Yarden watched in awe, it was like watching pokemon evolve!
Their body types didn't change, but they grew massively. Petit Dragon went from not even the length of his arm, to as long as he was tall, while Baby Dragon practically doubled in size.
As they reached the apex of their growth, two streams of light shot out towards Yarden, forming into small rectangles in his shape of cards.
He looked down at his hands as the cards stopped glowing, just at the same time the pair of dragons did.
'Ranryu and Hundred Dragon?' Yarden noted the new names on the cards and the fact that both had orange cards. They'd become effect monsters.
Before reading the cards, his eyes went to the forms of his newly evolved dragons. All things considered, they hadn't changed all that much in appearance. Baby Dragon, now Hundred Dragon looked a lot like Thousand Dragon, only much younger, and basically, in the prime of his life. While Ranryu looked very much the same as before, except, instead of the cuteness he had before, his features were sharper, less cute and much more fearsome, his wings much larger.
"Oooh I feel great! I can't wait to fight like this!" Hundred Dragon cheered excitedly.
Ranryu idly examined himself, "Hmm, I do like this," the first spirit Yarden bonded with grinned lightly, "This is quite the upgrade indeed. I'll be much more useful like this too."
Yarden's eyes strayed back down to the cards in his hand.
Hundred Dragon - Dragon/Wind/Level 4/Effect: 1600/1000
'Once per turn: You can have this card gain Levels equal to the number of cards you control, and if you do, it gains 100 ATK for each Level gained. These changes last until the end of this turn. If this card is sent to the GY: You can target 1 face-up monster you control that was Special Summoned, the first time that face-up monster would be destroyed by battle or card effect, it is not destroyed. When this card enters the graveyard, you can Special Summon one Baby Dragon from your deck.'
Well now, that was a very nice upgrade. Hundred Dragon could reach up to twenty four hundred attack points if he controlled eight cards on the field. And on being destroyed, he could give any of his other special summoned monsters basically what amounted to invulnerability for the rest of the turn and bring out a Baby Dragon from his deck to help defend him.
And Ranryu was just as good.
Ranryu - Dragon/Wind/Level 4/Union/Effect: 1500/200
'You can only control 1 "Ranryu". If you control a Spellcaster or Dragon monster, you can Special Summon this card (from your hand). If this card is destroyed by battle or card effect and sent to the GY: You can special summon one Petit Dragon from your deck. If this card is in your GY, you can banish one Petit Dragon from your GY, then Special Summon this card. While this card is on the field, you can equip it to one Spellcaster or Dragon monster, that monster gains five hundred Atk points. If it would be destroyed by battle or card effect, this card will be destroyed in its place.'
Ranryu outright became a Union monster! He could buff other monsters and protect them from destruction at the cost of himself more or less once and could be special summoned easily as long as he had a spellcaster or dragon on the field. And even like Baby Dragon brought out protection in Petit Dragon if he was destroyed and could then float back to the field if Petit Dragon ended up in the graveyard as well.
Not incredibly powerful monsters. But their effects were amazing!
Just as he finished reading the cards, he was forced to look up when Lesser Dragon erupted into light like the other two before him. Yarden watched once more in awe as Lesser Dragon grew much larger in size, until he like Hundred Dragon practically doubled in size. But then, unlike the other two, he hunched over, going from bipedal to quadruped.
A moment later, as the light began to die down from around him, a stream of it shot towards Yarden's hand and a third card took up residence in his hand. He chuckled as the card was revealed. This time, it was a monster he actually knew!
Rare Metal Dragon - Dragon/Dark/Level 4/Effect: 2400/1200
Lesser Dragon's new form was that of a large four legged dragon covered in sharp, spiky metallic scales, a large golden horn jutting from his snout.
It kind of made sense too since Lesser Dragon formed Metal Dragon by fusing with Steel Ogre Grotto, a pretty weak machine monster. Gaining the power of a much stronger machine monster, would of course make it become an even stronger metallic dragon!
Rare Metal Dragon let loose a rumbling growl as he admired his new form. He seemed very pleased with it.
And Yarden was too. Sure, Rare Metal Dragon couldn't be normal summoned or set and needed to be special summoned. But he was a twenty four hundred attack point beat stick that could be easily summoned by the effect of King Dragun or from the grave. And as a level four, he could be used with Cyber Dark Edge, Keel and Horn.
For a moment, Yarden had a panicky thought. That, thee cards wouldn't be legal and wouldn't register on the duel disk. But he calmed down just as quickly as the thought appeared. If Banner could make an all new card, or the Sacred Beasts make ones that were legal, then there was no reason why these ones shouldn't work and be legal as well.
A thought occurred to him though. "Wait, how did he become a monster with attack points as high as Jinzo's when he only like took a sixth of Jinzo's full energy?" Yarden wondered.
"Silly master," Dark Magician Girl giggled, "The power of a spirit isn't fully reflected in their cards. Besides, Jinzo is much easier to summon and his effect as a card is incredibly powerful, while Rare Metal Dragon's effect is more a penalty than a benefit."
Well, she had him there.
He nodded in understanding, "Got it," he replied before pointing at the remaining half of the energy sphere floating above her, "What about that though? Why'd you only use half of it?" if they got the full thing, wouldn't they have become even more powerful?
"Oh this?" she sent him a coy look, "Well, since Master is all about getting stronger. I thought I'd use half of Jinzo's power and infuse master with it directly. With this, I can enhance your own natural Ba and make it stronger before it ever takes form."
Oh yeah, he'd actually forgotten. People actually all had a natural Ba that could be born from their soul. That was where all the spirits born in the human world actually came from initially.
But wait.
"Isn't the whole point of me not bonding to you and Serpent Night Dragon and the like because I'm not strong enough for it?" Yarden raised an eyebrow at her, "Won't my soul go splat or something if you put that in me?"
"Well, I don't think it would be that bad, and that's from full out having you bond with it to get stronger," Dark Magician Girl shrugged, "This is different master, though kinda hard to explain. You won't have any access to this power for a while, it'll be kinda locked away until your natural Ba fully forms and only then will you get access to it. Think of it like its sealed off from you until your Ba forms, if you can understand."
He still didn't really get it. Wouldn't it still actually be latched onto his soul? The whole point of all this slow going bonding was the fact that his soul could only contain so much power before it grew stronger.
But, she was the expert in all this and he'd trust her.
Besides, the thought of him forming his own Ba and it being like Red-Eyes Black Dragon or something was far too appealing a thought not to want to power it up before it took form!
"Alright, I'll take your word for it," Yarden grinned and spread his arms wide open and welcoming, "Juice me up baby!"
Dark Magician Girl giggled happily in amusement at his actions. She rose her scepter into the air. Unlike before though, a pink outline of her own power surrounded the energy left behind by Jinzo and a moment later it sunk into him.
And Yarden felt absolutely nothing. Weird. He could feel the strength and energy in the link between him, Rare Metal Dragon, Ranryu and Hundred Dragon, their power had increased exponentially, and he could feel as his soul strained with it.
But from the other half of energy left behind by Jinzo? Bupkis. Absolutely nothing.
...Weird.
'Well, whatever.' Yarden shrugged and put it out of mind. Instead, he let his excitement from everything that had happened so far today catch up to him and he pumped his fist into the air, "Let's fucking go!" he cheered joyfully and summoned all of his spirits that were bonded to his soul and called out the ones not yet bonded to him from their cards.
"Let's party!" he whooped. "Get the booze!"
Do do, do do do, do do do do, do do!