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n the city of Atma, a small branch of the Spirit Training Academy stood tall and proud, the building was big and wide mostly, with many facilities to train the new generations of Spirit Wielders.

The bell rang indicating the end of the day's lessons, so now it's time for the young Wielders to do their thing.

A young boy of 16 stood near the training hall, he had pale blonde hair and greenish blue eyes, he was wearing an orange shirt, a red undershirt with the thunderbolt symbol on the centre of it, brown shorts and red and black running shoes.

He leaned on the wall of the big building, checking his Spirit Locket while waiting for someone.

"Arthur" he heard a girl's voice call for him, as he looked up he saw his friend ever since he started this school, she was wearing a medium-sized blue skirt that reached barely below her knees and a black blouse with long sleeves, her long, navy blue hair flowing behind her as she moved. She jogged until she stood in front of the boy, "Sorry for the wait."

He simply smiled at her, "It's okay Julia, I just arrived here myself."

She faced him with a smile on her face, "Are you ready for a quest today?"

"You bet I am!" he stated, pumping his fist with the look of utter determination on his face.

They went inside the building to get to the mission centre.

_________________________

The mission centre was a classroom-sized room, with a few terminals that give out requests made by the civilians, the quests issued can vary widely, from mundane services to Spirit hunting quests.

Arthur and Julia left the room with disappointed looks on their faces, "Well that was a waste of time." Arthur let out a sigh.

"Well we could try some time tomorrow. The place is open on the weekends," Julia tried to cheer him up, but it seems that her words fell on deaf ears.

They suddenly started hearing a commotion coming from the fields. "What's going on?" Arthur asked as he and Julia made their way to the source of the commotion.

When they arrived a bright light was sparking at the centre of the field, when it dimmed out and disappeared indicating the end of a Spirit Challenge, a couple of figures, one was a tall senior from Arthur's and Julia's class range, and a short Junior from the class ranges below theirs.

The senior was golden haired, with bright blue eyes, wearing white and gold clothing. "And to think you thought you could beat me." He swiped his golden strands backwards, clearly in a narcissistic manner.

The shorter kid, had olive green hair with a white streak going from the side to the back of his head, he was wearing a green shirt and sandy yellow pants. He punched the ground in frustration at his loss.

The snobbish Wielder stepped forward a bit, raising his hand slightly. "I shall take my prize then." His hand gave a faint glow, just as the same glow began emitting from the kid's deck case, a white card, clearly from the light element was pulled out from the case and floated towards his hand.

"Wait!! Give that back!!" The junior tried to catch the card in his hand, but he missed it by a few inches. "Capricorn!" he called out as if that would change anything.

The other light Wielder took hold of the card and quickly gave it a look over. "What a piece of trash. No wonder you lost, if this thing was your key Spirit." He looked at it more, "I think I will use this as enhancement material for my Lancelot."

"No please!!" the young Wielder begged.

"Oh what's the matter? Baby going to cry?" a feminine voice called behind the senior, as a girl with the same clothing as the narcissistic Wielder walked up beside him. "Don't listen to him brother, just waste this trash, it won't be worth a point for Lancelot." They were flanked by a group of other seniors.

"You know I might just do that, Matilda" he said as he and his group walked back towards the school.

The crowd dispersed, leaving the junior to his sorrow.

Arthur and Julia walked over to the kid slowly, then Arthur placed a hand on his shoulder "You okay there?"

The young Wielder sobbed and wiped his eyes as much as he could "I'm… not… I just… I just lost… Capricorn," at that he started sobbing harder.

"Don't fret, we can always get you another one," Arthur tried to comfort him, only to be smacked on the back of the head by Julia. "Ouch!! What was that for?!"

Julia fixed him with a hard glare, "You can see how he's distraught right? That specific Capricorn meant a lot to him."

Arthur realized his mistake and took another look at the practically destroyed boy, he tried pulling him up, "Come on, let's get you something to drink."

____________________________

In a small cafe shop in the city, the trio sat down and ordered a few drinks. The young boy introduced himself as Harold, or Harry for friends.

"So, can you tell us what's the deal with your Capricorn?" Arthur asked once he made sure that Harry was calm enough to speak properly.

Harry took a sip from his juice before speaking, "That Capricorn was given to me by my grandfather before I became a Wielder, we practically grew up together. He was my grandfather's at first, then he entrusted him to me when I decided to become a Wielder. He was like a brother to me." He started sniffling lightly again.

"And what was your deal with that guy?"

"His name is Rudolf Evermore," Julia stated as she typed a few instructions in her Locket's holo-pad "It says here that he was a favored candidate to take the world championship last year. It also says that he battled the current world champion on equal footing." Typing a few more instructions, she swiped at the holo-pad, making it change into a screen, then swiped it again, making it float towards Arthur. Sure enough, it was an article reporting what Julia just said.

Harry calmed down again, "I was admiring my Capricorn, when he suddenly came over to where I was, praising my spirit and commending me for having him. He then challenged me, when I accepted, he said that we should bet on our key Spirits."

At that piece of information, he did a spit-take and coughed loudly, "But gambling on challenges are illegal, taboo even. Why did you accept?"

"I know that. But he started calling me a coward and a weakling that has no business in being a Wielder." Harry looked down at his legs in shame and regret for ever accepting that challenge.

Arthur gave it some thought, before he gave a look of determination, "Let's confront him next week. We will make him give you back your Spirit."

Julia nodded as they both looked over at Harry, who briefly glanced at both, then their determination rubbed off on him as he gave the same look, nodding his head as well.

When all three agreed on a time and place, they left each other's company for the day.

______________________________

Back in the dorms that night, Arthur was lying down in his bed, looking at the card of his own key spirit, thinking about how he would feel if he ever lost his Draco. That thought fueled his hate towards Evermore.

Julia was at her house, which was in the suburbs of the city, checking a few things in her deck, making sure she was ready. If things go the way she feared, they should be ready for a battle.

Harry was in his home, also in the suburbs, he laid in his bed, a few tears threatening to fall and soak the pillow, thinking about his Capricorn and if he will ever see him again.

_____________________________

The next week.

The trio met at the gate, agreeing to meet at the training hall and confront Rudolf.

The whole school broke off for lunch, the trio decided to fuel up on some snacks before their showdown. But there, they saw Rudolf and his gang making their way to the cafeteria as well.

"Hey!! Rudolf!" Arthur called to him as he strolled towards their group, followed closely by Julia and Harry.

"That's 'Mr. Evermore' to you. Who are you and what do you want?" Rudolf asked with a hint of irritation.

"I am Arthur Haunts, I want to speak with you."

At that, Rudolf smiled smugly as he swiped his hair backwards, "Oh, a fan I see. I'm sorry, but I don't give autographs during school hours, you'll have to wait to the end of school, and wait your turn. I can't neglect the others after all." Then he turned to a few girls and winked in their direction, all of them swooned and fell to the floor.

And this disgusted Arthur greatly and he couldn't keep the venom in his voice hidden, "You can keep your autographs. I come for a different reason." Rudolf scowled at him, but remained silent. "Harry here told me that when you challenged him, you gambled on your spirits. As a fellow Wielder I think that gambling your spirits is totally illegal and would threaten to have your Wielder license revoked for life should anyone know of this."

The students around them began murmuring and whispering, finding that piece of information to be pretty much unbelievable, after all: Rudolf was a favored candidate for last year's world championship, how could someone like him instigate such a thing, with a younger Wielder at that?

Rudolf however was sweating lightly, "I don't know what you're talking about. Even if I did, there were no others that could have witnessed that at the time, so you have no proof." He strolled over to Arthur and faced him directly. "And if you ever start this tumor again, I will personally destroy you and your little gang here." He turned to leave for the cafeteria.

"Wait!" Julia stopped him this time. "Please, try to see reason and find compassion in your heart. That Capricorn is dear to Harry, and it would mean a lot to him if you gave it back. Maybe you guys can become friends instead of enemies like this," she tried using her peace tactics to reason with him.

But it didn't work. "Hah!! Me?! Friends with that twerp?! You must be joking!!!" he laughed briefly as if Julia just told a joke. "You country hicks and your useless friendships. What use is that if you can't benefit from it in anyway? Simply pathetic." He shrugged with a smug look on his face. "Well I guess you couldn't expect anything more from worthless 'inbreds'."

That got a gasp from everyone around them. Arthur tightened his fist and was on the verge of feeding him his own teeth. All the while, Rudolf was laughing along with his little group as if he said something funny, and on their way.

When they neared the cafeteria, a student wearing all black clothing and glasses bumped into him, but the guy kept walking as if nothing happened.

"Hey!!" Rudolf called to the student, who stopped and slowly turned towards him. "The least you can do when you bump into someone is apologize."

The all black wearing student straightened his rectangular glasses before speaking, "Oh, my apologies. I thought I bumped into a stone pillar of sorts." His voice and tone were both calm and relaxed.

The clear insult was loud and could be heard easily by the gathered crowd, as a few students including female fans of Rudolf gasped loudly.

A big guy from Rudolf's group stomped over to the student grabbing his shirt and pulling him up, "The hell did you just call my friend?!"

He didn't answer as he turned to Rudolf. "Hey, Blondie," this made Rudolf's eyes twitch and he stuttered over his words, while the student pointed at the big guy holding him, "Could you call off your 'hound'? I have to go to the library before class."

This earned another round of loud gasps from the audience, obviously this guy was asking for a beating.

"Why you little..." the guy holding him pulled back his fist a bit, ready to pummel his face in.

"What the hell is going on here?!" that was the booming, deep and rough voice of the academy's battle instructor, who preferred to be called coach. He was wearing black and red-trimmed gym sweater and tracks with the same colours and patterns. "Heartfield!! What did I tell you about causing trouble?"

The big student, Heartfield, slowly lowered the student, who straightened his glasses and shirt so casually.

"Now does anyone mind telling me what is going on here?" the coach's voice boomed once again.

Everyone either looked away or tried to think of a way to exclude themselves, until the black wearing student raised his hand, with a small smile on his face. "It was nothing sir, I was just in a hurry that I bumped into Mr. Evermore and didn't stop to apologize. Heartfield here was just protecting his 'friend'." He then turned to face Rudolf, bowing slightly. "I am so sorry about that Mr. Evermore, I should've looked where I was going." Anyone standing on either side of the student could see him discreetly giving Rudolf the finger, while he was forced to remain silent, since the coach couldn't see the dark clothed student's front from where he was standing, it would look like Rudolf was being a complete jerk, which was highly frowned upon in this academy.

"Hmm, well as long as you know your mistake and apologize for it, then I guess there is no issue here." the coach then turned to Heartfield. "But I better see you in my office by the end of today's classes, arrive late or neglect to show and I'll personally suspend you." With that last warning he began walking away and back to his duties.

The student raised his head with a mischievous grin on his face. This ticked Rudolf off. "Don't think that this is over, you insolent brat."

"Hey what's this?" The same student called to know one in particular, holding a card in his hand, when Rudolf looked, he saw that it was the Capricorn he got from the kid last week, he frantically searched his pockets and deck, trying to find it, but to no avail, the one the kid was holding was the same card. The student looked the card over, it had the portrait of an anthro ram, white furred and wearing silver and golden shoulder pads and chest armor, golden bracelets with small diamonds embedded in them, a long waist cloak with the same coloring and large diamonds lining around it, it had plantigrade legs with legs braces with the same design as the wrist braces, it carried a large spear, also with diamonds embedded on either side, with its horns made out of iron.

He checked it's name and stats briefly, "Chivalrous Capricorn. That's is quite the rare find." He admired the card for a few seconds "Marvelous"

Rudolf stomped towards him, "I'll take that." He grabbed the card, but the kid had a vice grip on it.

When Rudolf turned back to him, he saw that his look changed, his eyes turned from relaxed and mischievous to cold and dangerous, "I'll be watching you Blondie. Try not to pull the same stunt as last week again." And before he let go of the card he had something to admit, "Oh, and before you ask, I was there when you challenged the boy and I heard everything, from the challenge and it's rules to your little bet. So if you don't want to lose your shot at becoming the world champion Wielder, I suggest you do the adult thing and return that card to its owner, it's too good for the filthy likes of you." With that he finally let go of the card and made his way casually to the library as he intended, leaving everyone baffled at what just transpired.

______________________________

The end of school bell rang finally.

Arthur, Harry and Julia started looking around for the new student.

They looked for him in the library, but they couldn't find him anywhere.

They heard a sudden commotion near the school gates. When they went there, they found Rudolf and the new student, breaking up after discussing something, "What's going on here?" Arthur asked one of the students gathered.

"Rudolf and Javen just agreed on a challenge this weekend. They will meet in the academy's training halls," the student answered, his voice filled with excitement.

"Javen?" Arthur crossed his brows in confusion.

Julia did a quick check, "He is a new student who joined the school last weekend. But since it was the weekend he couldn't attend."

Arthur looked in the distance at Javen's back, then he decided, "Let's go," he urged the others as he jogged behind the new student.

"Hey! Javen!!" Arthur called to him, Javen stopped in his tracks and turned back to them, his eyes still had their uninterested gaze in them.

"Yes? How can I help you?"

Arthur stood in front of him breathing for a few seconds "I am Arthur Haunts." He then turned to the others, "This is Julia Summers and Harold Bens." Both nodded when they were introduced.

"Javen Drake, pleasure to meet you." He extended his hand for a firm shake.

Arthur accepted the shake then got down to business, "Heard that you're going to challenge Rudolf Evermore. Hope you know what you're getting yourself into."

Javen simply nodded, "I know, but it was he who challenged me, not the other way around."

"But you must know that he took second place in the previous world championship."

Again, Javen simply nodded, "Yeah I know, so what?" He shrugged as if it was nothing.

"Aren't you afraid that he will win, not to mention that he seems to have a thing for illegal gambling with Spirits." Arthur tried to make him see reason.

Javen however simply smiled, "That's what I'm betting on." He turned and resumed his way home, leaving the trio even more confused than during lunchtime.

_________________________

The weekend came pretty quickly, and everyone was excited for the battle taking place today.

Arthur, Julia and Harry were all waiting for Javen at the training hall doors.

When they saw him coming closer, they saw another senior jogging towards him just as they were about to call for him. The new senior had long dark hair done in a ponytail, wearing a green shirt, and long black pants. Javen and the senior talked for a few minutes before they both nodded and Javen kept going.

Just as Arthur was going to speak, Javen cut him off, "I know that I'm playing with fire here, but don't you worry, I have my own ways of extinguishing that so-called fire." With that he went into the training hall.

The whole building was a large domed stadium, with a wide area in the centre for the different battles taking place in there. There were six podiums lining the edges of the arena, there the Wielders stand and give commands to their Spirits during battle.

Arthur and his group found a few seats for themselves, just as Javen was taking his own podium, the one facing Rudolf's, who was looking in a mirror and tidying his hair, "And here I thought that you would have chickened out. No matter, I shall win either way."

Javen scoffed, "Well then, how about you put down the mirror and start this challenge 'princess'?"

The name got a round of laughter from those in the stadium, forcing Rudolf to get his act together, "Oh I'll make you eat those words, right after I take your key spirit."

"We shall see," Javen stated, just as the announcer, a member of the academy's journalism club, stood on a special podium that took to the air and began floating around the arena.

"Welcome ladies and gentlemen. Today we have a spectacular battle for you. On the left side we have our own champion fighting to protect his honor. Rudolf Evermore." That got an applause from the stadium around them. "And on the right side, we have our own challenger who seems to have something to prove. Javen Drakes." This got a small cheer from the stadium, but was easily drowned by the booing from Rudolf's fans.

"Ooohhh, looks like there's little love for our little challenger, well no matter, this battle will decide who gets to be cheered and who gets to be booed. And now, without further delay, we go to our battling Wielders and let them decide the challenge rules and mode."

Rudolf spoke first, "Since I'm the one who issued the challenge, you get to choose the rules." With that, the two Wielders placed their Spirit Lockets on a small socket at the centre of the podium, then a large hologram of the pocket dimension's world, it was a parallel copy of Neos, but the details were different, like the regions and their maps for example.

Javen looked at a screen, thinking for a few minutes. The current screen is used to determine the mode of the challenge, the next is used to choose the map, then the final screen will choose the rules of the challenge.

Javen made his choice of both the game mode and map: the game mode was War, and the map was the Deep Jungles.

"What?!" Harry almost jumped from his seat.

"What is it?" Julia tried calming him down.

"That was the mode that he defeated me with. Mr. Drakes better be careful, Rudolf is a genius in this mode." Harry explained as he sat back down, but he only made him and the other two worry more.

"Looks like you only dug your own grave here," Rudolf taunted, but it fell on deaf ears, as Javen simply set the rules of their War.

"Looks like everything's set," the announcer called the attention of everyone around them. "And with that, ladies and gentlemen, what do we say?"

"ZONE RELEASE!" the whole stadium called out as a bright light beamed from the arena as the gate to the selected map opened and swallowed the whole arena.

As the light consumed the insides of the stadium, everyone was transported to the selected map. The Deep Jungles were a mix of thick woods, swamps and bogs all around, the perfect place for stealthy units and Wood elemental Spirits.

On either far side of the map, were two large structures. One was a large white castle, with two pillars at the gate, the whole castle had white chess design, and the other was a large purple, crimson and black-colored battle base.

Both structures had a command room to accommodate the Wielders, or Commanders when using this battle mode.

Rudolf was in his castle's command centre, which was decorated in marble and gold, wearing a royally designed white and golden armor, with a long cape fluttering behind him.

Javen was in his base's own, his clothes also changed to a black cloak with silver tribal designs, also wearing leather gloves with silver metal claws, his glasses also with silver trims and had a draconic design, his command room was just like his war base, scientific design with red, purple and black coloring. Both had a bunch of holo-screens facing them, with more monitors around the room filled with cyber android AI, automatically inputting commands and calculating the recourses and mana gathered by their respective Commanders.

"Now that everything is set. LET THE GAME BEGIN!!!!" the announcer called out, getting a loud cheer from the audience.

Javin was sitting at a seat in the middle of the room, facing a wide window that overlooked the map, while he inputted some commands on his holo-screens. The first thing he did was located the mana fountains located near his base.

Mana fountains are a crucial resource used to summon troops and cast Effect cards. After locating the closest ones, Javin set his harvesters loose, those were a mix between a stingray and crustacean, but were cyborg in the making. They found the located fountains, three in total, one was near the bogs and swamps, one was in a small clearing in the forest and the last was located near the roots of a large tree.

The Harvesters dug large holes to reach the fountain more, before producing a small beacon and planting it in the ground. The information reached Javin instantly, he inputted a few more commands, then large shafts opened on the back of the base, where equally large pods were launched.

The pods flew and landed in the designated areas and started opening and morphing into small towers that transferred the collected mana to Javin's base directly, and will continue to do so until there either deactivated on Javin's commands, or destroyed by the enemy, that's why the Harvesters have another use, Javin's all climbed on the towers and spread their bodies around them, creating small shields around them, plus the ability to create force-fields around them, adding more defense to the towers.

The Commanders have a small surface that held their decks, in Javin's case it was a hard-light hover board of sorts. He tapped his deck once and a small screen with all his cards appeared above it, he checked his Minion cards and his mana income, he decided on concentrating on the Minions for now, until he could locate other fountains on the map.

He chose a few long-ranged troops and some stealth troops as well, letting them loose on the map and having them on standby with an 'Ambush' setting.

An 'Ambush' setting is used for the stealthy and long-ranged troops and generals, having them hide in nearby locations in a certain area and wait for the enemy to come in their line of sight.

Javin saw that Rudolf have done pretty much the same as him, his own towers and troops all having a chess design to them, just like his castle.

Out of the map, the audience were cheering for both players, the majority cheering for Rudolf, "Looks like our Wielders are setting up for a great battle ahead of them. Let's see what they do from this point forward."

Arthur and his small group were watching with anticipation, Harry was softly biting his thumbnail nervously, until he felt a hand on his shoulder. When he looked up, it was the ponytailed senior from before. "No need to be nervous there, Javin will surely win this." He looked at the empty seat beside them, "This seat taken?" They all shook their heads as he took the seat.

"How can you be so sure?" Julia was the one asking, her tone filled with nerves and worry, "He's up against someone who battled against the world champion on equal footing."

The senior nodded his head, "I saw him battle countless times, he knows how to choose his battles, and taking this one without any thought, means that he will win." He reached his hand towards them, "The name's Jun Amada. Pleasure to meet you."

The trio shook his hand then all of them returned their attention back at the match.

___________________________

In a large building, located near the centre of the city. The building was a company that owns a large array of entertainment facilities and small business, like hotels, cruises and much more.

The owner and president of such building is none other than Jonathan Drake, Javin Drake's uncle from his mother's side. He sat in his office going over a few papers, his office was wide with the wall behind him made of bulletproof glass, overlooking a good part of the city and beyond.

The man himself was tall with wide shoulders, and because his suit was a bit on the wide and loose side, it didn't show much of his body, but anyone who saw him under there, they would say that he was a man that is not to be messed with. Thick and heavy muscles lining his arms, his pecs were hard and firm, and his washboard abs were to kill for, not to mention that his thick sideburns and spiky hair made him look more intimidating, with a hair crown to hold a good part of it backwards.

A knock came on his door, "Enter," was his deep voiced reply.

A slim man wearing ridiculously round glasses entered the office, "Sir, we have received word that your nephew is engaged in a Spirit War."

John lowered the papers to his desk, opening a desktop computer on his desk, he inputted a few commands and a screen appeared, showing both the stadium and the announcer, as well as a separate screen showing both Rudolf and Javin as well as both their respective troops.

"Hmm, that's quite an opponent he found for himself," was the only thing he said, his voice void of worry and nerves, he instead spoke with pride.

"With all due respect sir: but your nephew is battling against one who took second place in the world championship, how could he--"

A single sharp glare from John's intimidating, primal eyes, shut the guy up.

John let out a sigh before looking back at the screen, he inputted a few commands. The window behind him tinted and darkened a bit, putting the office in a semi-dark environment, just as a holo-screen appeared, showing whatever the computer showed on it, "Just watch. My nephew is going to win this."

His secretary watched as one of Javin's Bronze troops getting annihilated, "Again with all due respect sir, but it looks like Javin's losing."

Another sharp glare made him flinch, "You're more blind than I thought. Just look closely at Javin." The secretary did just that, gasping as he saw a small sadistic smile cross his lips, John then went to explain, "My nephew had this habit even when he was little, he prefers to play with his prey, before going in for the kill."

____________________________

Back at the War Zone

Another of Javen's units was destroyed, as Rudolf's units and two generals made their way forward towards the swamps now. One general was a large armored paladin with the castle design of a rook, while the other was a tall armored warrior with a knight's design, both were white and golden in color.

“Looks like you're all talk there," Rudolf jabbed at him. “How about you give up and give me the win. Along with your precious cards."

Javin simply kept waiting, his deck lying there untouched for a while.

In the stadium, Harry was biting his thumb nail again, more nervous than before, “This is getting bad, very bad."

Jun patted his shoulder. “Have some faith. He'll win, you'll see."

Arthur turned to Jun. “How can you be so sure." He pointed towards the closed zone, “He's clearly losing this one."

“No he's not." The surprising announcement came from Julia, as she watched the match closely, concentrating on Javin's side, “Let's watch this to the end."

Rudolf's units were making their way to the entrance of the thick swamps. But stopped once they saw a black dragon dragon with a golden mane going from the top of his head to the base of his neck, his muzzle was slim with sharp jagged scales shaped like fangs at the tip. It wore a sleeveless jacket with roughed up fur around the arm holes and the back of the collar, he was also wearing a pair of shorts with the same rough fur design as the jacket, both pieces of cloth black and navy blue in color.

“And who is that? You expect him to defeat my all my troops?" Rudolf asked smugly.

Javin looked over and pulled out a card from his deck. It had the portrait of a biwa, the instrument had shadow designed tribal markings on the front and back, the design was of two swirling shadows on either side, with the head of an oni on the headstock.

“Equip: Strings of Dismay," he commanded as the card gave a bright glow and shot from the command room, floating in front of the dragon before dispersing and taking form of the portrait on the card. The dragon general took hold of the instrument and gave it a few tweaks to test the strums.

Rudolf looked over, but his face twitched in confusion as he didn't know if he should be irritated or amused. “And what's that supposed to do? Dance for my troops as you surrender?" He laughed as a few others in the audience did as well.

Arthur and his group didn't find this funny at all. Jun, however, was smiling softly. “He lost," was the simple statement.

Harry turned to him. “What do you mean? Didn't you say that he was going to win this? Now you're saying that he lost?" The young junior was close to tears, his Capricorn seeming to move farther and farther out of reach as the match progressed.

Jun shook his head. “I meant Rudolf." This caught the small group by surprise, but before they could bombard him with questions. “Just watch."

Javin pulled an ability card from his deck. “Tune of Despair." The card glowed and moved in front of him, before shooting forward and hitting the dragon's back, his aura glowed briefly as he grabbed the pick in his hand.

The dragon then gave a mighty strum, then stopped for a few seconds, then it began.

He began strumming a loud, depressing and ominous tune, the spiritual shockwave flowing in all directions, hitting Rudolf's units head on, covering them in the ominous aura as well.

Rudolf and the audience watched as the dragon played masterfully on the biwa, but Rudolf shook his head and concentrated on the battle. “That's supposed to do something?" He pressed a few commands and a map of the zone appeared, this way a commander can directly control his units' movements and placements.

Rudolf gave the direct order for all his troops to advance and beat up the bard… nothing happened. “H-hey. What's going on?!" He started repeating the same commands, but with the same results, his units refused to move one inch.

Then a screen with Javen's face appeared on both the battlefield and the stadium. “I hope that my Mitsunari's performance was to your liking. That was the power of his signature equipment, the Strings of Dismay and its ability the Tune of Despair. It puts the enemy troops in a depressing and fearful mood, which in turn greatly decreases their morale, making them unable to receive their commander's orders, directly nor indirectly."

“What the hell?!" Rudolf yelled, as the audience cheered, seeing both an Equipment and Ability that was unknown to their region.

Morale is another system in the War game mode. Morale greatly affects the unit's ability to receive orders as well as carry them to the letter, plus the units get extra buffs or debuffs depending on the level of morale.

“Come on you useless tin cans!! Protect your king!!" Rudolf yelled at his troops who still refused to move.

“Not happening anytime soon," Javin began explaining, “The Tune of Despair has a set casting duration, so until that time runs out, your troops will remain still and helpless." He gave a sadistic smile. “Which reminds me." He snapped his fingers, a few seconds later, one of the Minion units was pushed back and hit the floor, what seemed like an arrow was stuck to it's body before it disappeared.

Rudolf's eyes twitched as he began sweating buckets. “Wait… d-don't tell me." Then more of his units began falling down one by one, when everyone looked up, they saw a large volley of arrows descending on Rudolf's units, taking them out until the General's were left, but with very little health. Finally, two arrows, one for each General took them both down.

Rudolf stood there, baffled and confused. His units, his powerful organized units, taken down in an instant. Then the dragon- Mitsunari gave a final strum on his biwa, indicating the ability's cast duration ending.

The crowd was silent for a few seconds before exploding in cheers and praise at Javin's strategy. Harry was still dumbfounded. “But how?"

Jun smiled and began explaining, “Here is what he did: Remember the archer units he placed in the entrance of the swamps?" The trio nodded their heads, then it clicked in Julia's, Jun saw that and pointed at her. “Exactly. Long-ranged units and stealth units both have an ability called 'Ambush' or 'Overwatch' to most long-ranged units, this let's them remain on standby in their current positions and watch out for enemy movement or attack a certain area or point on command, all while still hidden from sight if placed properly."

Back in the map Rudolf slammed his fist on the command monitor in front of him with anger, but suddenly smiled. “Thanks for that, you cocky brat. Now I know where your troops are!!" He stated as two more squads appeared on either side of the swamps, making their way inside and started walking towards Javin's mana harvesting towers.

The crowd and especially Rudolf's gang cheered loudly, with Rudolf proving his genius in the War mode. Harry was biting all his nails frantically now, nervous and dreading what would happen, the same could be said about Arthur and Julia.

Javin however simply sighed out of boredom. “This is a waste of time." Rudolf's units began walking inside the murky swamps and began losing health.

“What is it now?!" Rudolf watched as his small low healthed units were sinking into the deep swamps.

Javin smiled. “Dark Troll and Slime troops, advance!!" he commanded as large and heavily muscled monstrosities appeared from below the swamps, carrying large clubs made out of black and heavy metal, as well as humanoid creatures made out of green and purple slimy material also appeared all around them. Both types of troops appeared on both sides around both of Rudolf's marching squads and began taking them down, the troops handled the small copper foot-soldiers while the overwatching rangers took out the bronze units. After all that, even the shields of the towers remained unscathed.

Rudolf took a few step backs out of shock, tripping over his chair and forcibly sitting. Javin then used a healing effect card to heal his damaged units as well as a rejuvenating effect to revive the units that fell.

“And there's another of Javin's protection methods: The Poisoned Water technique," Jub began explaining again, “He stations his units with a poison aura passive abilities in the watery areas to spread their poison around, this is a most effective method against marine units and the units that are able to cross the water, but it's only weakness is when used against Automatons, who are immune to poison."

Then came a loud 'DING' sound. Everyone, including both wielders in the map, perked up at the sound. Then both Javin's and Rudolf's cards that were used until now, came back to them, went into their decks and finally their reformed decks shuffled for a few minutes.

“And there it is ladies and gentlemen, the Recycle & Shuffle phase of the War mode," the announcer boomed into his mic, “For those who are not familiar with War mode, the Recycle & Shuffle phase is the only phase used in War mode, and activates every 10 minutes in the match, where the cards you already used are returned to you, allowing you another shuffle, giving you new chances and more opportunities depending on whatever you get. But the catch is that your deployed and still alive units are not recycled and will remain on the map."

Rudolf's hand shook as he went to draw a card, slowly taking the top card in his hand and pulling slowly. When he saw the card however, his mood brightened, then he started laughing loudly. “Now you're gonna get it, this card will turn everything around." The card in his hand glowed brightly as it shot from his hand and into the field.

The card then expanded and grew into a tall feminine figure, when the light dispersed, the figure of a woman wearing a long white robe with golden trims, as well as a metal mask that covered her eyes and a crown with a wing design appearing. She had four big white wings on her back, making her look like an angel of sorts, she was holding a long staff with a bright blue orb at one end, orbited by two golden rings. “Sage of Peace: Ariel!!" Rudolf called out as the light completely dispersed from around the sage.

“Now you'll see the holy might of the light element," Rudolf called out as his deck shone brightly as two cards were pulled out, instantly flying out to the field in orbs of light as well. When they dispersed, two General spirits appeared.

One was that of a white anthro maned wolf with digitigrade legs, it also had thickly muscled arms and frames wearing silver, bronze and golden trimmed gauntlets with large claws. “Here's the mighty wolf prince: Skoll."

The other was that of a tall wide framed warrior wearing all white and gold armor with a flowing cape behind him, his whole outfit had a draconic design. “And here's my greatest warrior: Warlord of Chivalry: Lancelot."

The whole crowd cheered and roared, finally seeing Rudolf's greatest trio in action. Rudolf then began explaining, “With Ariel's passive ability, upon summoning her, I can call up to two more same- or lower-tiered Generals from my deck, at no cost to my mana pool."

Javin simply sighed in irritation, Rudolf noticed this. “What is it?"

“I simply find it a waste of time, this final desperate struggle of yours." Javin then opened his deck screen, he picked out a spirit card. The card glowed with ominous black before shooting towards the field.

The card then was engulfed in black flames as it floated on the map's ground. When the smoke cleared, the figure inside was that of a tall dragon, his body filled from top to bottom with average but thick muscles, a large sword at his waist and his whole outfit was that of samurai warlord, complete with rectangular thigh and shoulder pads, as well as foot and hand braces. His whole outfit was black and purple in coloring, he also wore a shogun's war helmet on his head, which had a long bright purple feather jutting from the top.

“You showed me your trump cards and your key spirit, well here's my key spirit and trump card, both in one: Demonic Warlord Dragon, Nobunaga."

The crowd, except Rudolf's group cheered loudly, while Arthur looked over at Javin's units, deep in thought. “Penny for your thoughts?" Julia asked him, breaking his train of thoughts briefly. Arthur then turned his attention back to the match. “Nothing major, just the appearance of Javin's units so far, they're not from this region."

Both Julia and Harry looked over and noticed what Arthur mentioned, but it was again Jun who answered. “That's because his units belong to the Sengoku region to the east. He studied the arts of war there, that's why he is also a genius when it comes to War mode."

Back at the match, Javin chose three more cards from his deck two spirits and one effect card. The spirits flew to the field and transformed into their full forms. Both also had a samurai like outfits in design.

One was a drake, a wingless dragon with a long white mane, his scales were dark blue in color, he also had a samurai's outfit, but he wore loose silk pants instead of the waist armor, he also had a two long sword at his waist, one on either side.

The other was an anthro spider with a strategist's outfit, his fur was completely black with his face having the normal spider's appendages on both sides of his face,which was humanoid in looks, but still held the spider's features, like the multiple eyes and lipless mouth, his top was sleeveless and the whole outfit was black and white in color.

“And here are his two trusted associates: the Silent Sword, Mitsuhide and the Vile Being, Tsuchigumo," Javin introduced his own spirits to the cheering of the crowd.

Javin held the last card in his hand, thinking for a few seconds before sighing, then showing his sadistic smile. Jun saw this. “It's over," was his simple statement to the confusion of Arthur and his small group.

Javin pulled out another effect card. “Cast: Tactical Retreat," he called, then all his troops gave a bright glow and returned to him and his deck, but left Nobunaga, Mitsuhide and Tsuchigumo.

“What's this? Finally giving up?" Rudolf asked smugly as he saw Javin's troops leave the field.

“No. Just putting the final touches. To your demise that is." The effect card glowed with a dark and ominous light, before shooting upwards and standing right at the tip of the tallest antenna of the base. A few seconds later it began spinning, increasing in speed slowly until it became a blur and started emitting a dark aura that swooped over the entire map.

A few minutes passed, but nothing happened. Rudolf laughed loudly at this. “And what was that supposed to be?" He continued laughing until Ariel let out a scream of pain. “What the?!"

It was revealed that she was hit by something, but when everyone looked, it was revealed that the one who attacked her was Skoll, Rudolf's second-in-command spirit. “Skoll?! What the fuck!!" Then the smaller units began attacking both Skoll and Ariel, with the generals fighting back as well.

Everyone including Rudolf looked over at the massacre among the ranks of his army, the others on the far sides of the map were affected as well, destroying and killing each other, while their commander stood confused and unable to wrap his mind around this. “Hey what's gotten into you all?! Stop this instant." He inputted commands in his monitor, ordering them to stop, but they kept on fighting. “THE FUCK IS GOING ON?!" He screamed loudly as he roughly scratched his head. The only one who seemed to be unaffected was Lancelot.

Javin, chuckled a bit, before laughing loudly like a maniac. “Oh yes!! That's it, that's the face I was looking for." He laughed loudly again to the confusion and the growing fear of the others. He then started explaining, “How do you like my map-wide effect card: Illusive Rebellion? This shade elemental card casts a great illusion over the whole map, and every unit it hits sees everyone else as enemies. Oh how funny it is to see your enemies destroy themselves from the inside out."

Rudolf was terrified, was there really a card like that? He then saw Javin's units. “If it affects all the units then why are yours not affected?"

Javin simply shrugged. “Because I gave both Mitsuhide and Tsuchigumo anti-illusion amulets, while Nobunaga himself is immune to all illusion effects." He looked over towards Rudolf's troops. “Looks like your Lancelot is as well." It then clicked in Javin's head. “Wait, you didn't know that did you?"

Rudolf stiffened and began looking around, nervous and sweating buckets. This caused Javin to snicker then laugh loudly even more. “Oh my god, you didn't know? He is your so-called 'ace spirit' and you didn't know he had a passive ability like that?! HAHA!! This is so rich, you don't even know your spirits' abilities and then dare to call yourself a wielder." His face turned to a hate filled scowl. “And it's people like you who make me sick to my stomach!"

Rudolf stepped back, fear taking over as his units annihilated one another, leaving Lancelot to fend for himself against Javin's Generals.

Nobunaga began stepping forward ready to strike, but Javin stopped him. “Hold it Nobunaga." The dragon turned his head to the commander, his eyes showed clear irritation. “You don't need to waste your energy on the likes of him. Let Tsuchigumo take care of this." The arachnid spirit stood beside Nobunaga, clasping his fist in his palm then bowing slightly. Nobunaga looked at him then back to Javin for a few seconds, before scoffing and standing back, Mitsuhide already had a small chair ready for Nobunaga, who sat down with his sword held in front of him with both hands, waiting to see if Tsuchigumo does the job right.

Tsuchigumo took a stance, ready for battle, while Lancelot did the same. The two charged at each other and began fighting, Lancelot fought expertly, despite the armor he wore, while Tsuchigumo adopted the hit and run tactic, jumping in, delivering a few strikes then jumping back before Lancelot could strike.

Rudolf regained his thoughts, just as he managed to open his deck screen, looking for a certain card. When he found it, he instantly cast it, despite the high mana cost. It was revealed to be the Ancient Sword; Excalibur, Lancelot's signature equipment. “Let's see you handle Lancelot now," Rudolf mocked, but Javin was still unfazed.

Javin simply pulled out an equipment card of his own, three in fact. One for each of his generals. He cast all three easily, since he made sure to use his mana sparingly, that's why there weren't many of his units on the field to begin with.

The first two were long swords, one was a long tachi with a dragon's design on both the hilt and handle, with the engravings in the shape of a dragon on both sides, that one was for Mitsuhide; the Eye of the Dragon. The other was for Nobunaga, it was a normal sword made out of black metal that emitted an eerie aura, it seemed to be filled with dark and negative energy; the Blade of Corruption. The third was for Tsuchigumo, it was of metallic spider's legs, with long and sharp claws at the end, made out of the same metal that Nobunaga's blade was made of; the Arachnid's Delight.

Both Mitsuhide and Nobunaga grabbed their swords, while Tsuchigumo's was attached to his shoulders. Now both Tsuchigumo and Lancelot took a fighting stance, then charged at one another, three of Tsuchigumo's claws shielded him from Lancelot's sword. They clashed swords for a while, before Tsuchigumo jumped back, then through his metallic claws shot some balls of web, Lancelot dodged a few then stroke the others, tearing them apart before dashing at Tsuchigumo, again clashing swords, with some sparks flying whenever their swords hit.

Javin had enough of this. “This is taking too long." He pulled out an ability card, it belonged to Tsuchigumo. “Ability cast; Demon Spider's Web!!" The card glowed and shot towards Tsuchigumo, hitting him in the back.

Tsuchigumo's eyes all sparked with dark energy, before jumping back, his metallic claws glowed with the same dark energy, before aiming them upwards and shooting the said energy towards the sky. The clouds cleared and the sky turned dark purple as the moon showed with the silhouette of a spider's web covering it's surface.

The whole area turned into something out of a horror movie, forcing all the remainder of Rudolf's units to their knees, then Javin began explaining before Rudolf asked, “This ability greatly decreases the enemy's overall stats, making them weak and turn them into easy pickings." Tsuchigumo began walking slowly towards Lancelot, before stabbing him with one of his metallic claws. The metallic claw lifted the warrior with ease, before he started stabbing him mercilessly with the rest, not giving him a chance to defend and slowly corroding his HP. Rudolf looked over with fear at the torturous scene. “Stop...please stop." Tsuchigumo still stabbed away, slowly torturing the warrior in his grasp when their was only one hit left of Lancelot's HP, the arachnid pulled one of his claws back slowly as it glowed with ominous energy.

Finally stabbing him in his throat, taking away the rest of his HP, then throwing him aside like a rag doll, leaving Rudolf quaking in fear, as his whole body shook in its place.

Everyone in the audience all had the same scared expression, all were silent as they saw the bruised and mutilated body of Lancelot as it slowly disintegrated and returned to Rudolf's deck and out of the remainder of the match, unable to go on with those kinds of injuries.

“Now it's time to finish this," Javin announced as he pulled out another ability card, this one was for Nobunaga himself, somehow knowing that his turn came along, the dragon-warlord stood from his seat and took hold of both his swords, the normal and the equipment, unsheathing both at the same time, ready for the final battle.

“Ability cast; Warlord's Decree." The card shot from his hand and hit Nobunaga, who let out a very loud roar that shook the whole map as his body, as well as Mitsuhide's and Tsuchigumo's, released an intimidating amount of energy. This scared Rudolf as he checked their stats, finding that their overall stats skyrocketed through the roof. Javin explained once again, “This is an ability exclusive to Nobunaga. This allows him to create an aura around himself that affects the other generals nearby, raising all their stats greatly. Also it makes all those affected to become invulnerable to enemy minion and general units that are on a lower tier than themselves." He chuckled a bit, “And guess what: all three are golden-tiered and the only one who could have hurt any of them was your precious Lancelot, who is now lying defeated and bruised in your bench area."

All three of Javin's generals began advancing slowly, all of them burning with dark energy. Rudolf now became desperate, so despite Javin's explanation, he used all the mana he had left and summoned all the minions and generals he could, who were all ranging between bronze and silver, then he remember that he had one more golden general. “I call: Chivalrous Capricorn!!"

“WHAT!!?" Arthur, Julia and Harry all exclaimed in astonishment, but Arthur spoke, “That's not your card, you cheater!!"

Despite Arthur's outburst, Capricorn appeared on the field, he was a tall and intimidating specimen, his body brimming with muscles, a slim but well defined athletic build, fit for a fighter class, he stood there in his golden outfit, waiting for some order.

All three of Javin's generals stood in front of the Capricorn, who stood there unfazed. “Now Capricorn, fight for your master!!" Rudolf commanded…… but Capricorn refused to move. “What the FUCK is wrong with you?! I said attack!!" Still the fighter class spirit refused to move.

Then he did something that shocked everyone in the audience, he slowly lowered himself until he sat on the floor indian style, closing his eyes as if to say that he doesn't care what happens next, which was pretty much true. “Wha-what are you doing?!" Rudolf inputted more direct commands, but all fell on deaf ears and blocked mind.

“This is what happens when your spirits lose their loyalty to you, or if they didn't have it in the first place." Rudolf looked over as a screen with Javin's face appeared. “Spirits that are not loyal to a wielder are prone to refuse commands, which happens more often than you think. You have to build your relationship with them slowly, then they will decide if you're worthy of their loyalty or not. So you can't possibly expect a spirit you only got a week ago, illegally at that, to listen to your every whim."

Rudolf fell on is chair out of fear, just as Javin smiled softly, raising an arm and stretching it forward. “Now my generals, advance," he gave that simple command and all three of his spirits began advancing slowly, Capricorn still remained sitting still, once they passed him they put more speed, now speed-walking as they all unsheathed their weapons before jogging, then finally a full run.

Rudolf ordered all his generals and minions to attack, but it was pointless. Nobunaga alone took out half of them easily, leaving the rest for Mitsuhide and Tsuchigumo to clean up, before all three charged towards Rudolf's base.

“Effect cast; Dark Surge," Javin called out as a fast ball of shadows shot past his generals and crashed into Rudolf's barrier, black electricity surging through the energy walls, before the barrier corroded away and disappeared, leaving Rudolf's base vulnerable and bare.

“Now for the finishing touches," Javin announced as he pulled out three ability cards. Those three were very strong and rare cards called Finisher cards, used mostly to end a match by releasing a very powerful attack or effect, those were exclusive to certain spirits or specific spirit classes, families or elements.

Mitsuhide gathered his energy around his Eye of the Dragon, as cherry blossom leaves swirled around his sword, before it burst into a bright energy blade, striking down hard, creating a sharp shock wave. “Sakura no Sh?gekiha!!"

Tsuchigumo did the same with his claws, gathering energy around the tip of each of them, before stabbing the air in rapid succession, shooting small but sharp energy bullets. This ability is one of those exclusive for the Insectoid family. “Rapid Stinger!!"

Nobunaga gathered dark energy in both his swords, then put the together to form one huge blade, striking diagonally sending a powerful shockwave. “Demon Dragon's Wrath!!"

All three attacks came together to form a huge wave of pure power, flying at high speed at Rudolf's base, which was giving warning signs on every monitor, with the bigger one showing a countdown to impact. “This can't be happening." 9 seconds to impact. “This is not how it was supposed to be!" 6 seconds. “I came second in the world championship!!" 4 seconds. “I should be VICTORIOUS!!!" 0.

*BOOOOMMM* The whole base went up in flames, as Javin's generals stood facing away from the ruins, sheathing their weapons away.

Everyone was silent as the whole map disappeared and both wielders were brought back to the real world, even Arthur and his group were left slack-jawed.

The announcer shook himself awake. “What a turnabout people!! Looks like our initial hopes were dashed and crushed, our local champion fell easily to the strategy of a newcomer!! Now let's give a wild cheer for Javin Drake!!" The crowd, despite their shock, roared in cheers and praise chanting the new student's name, as Rudolf, the one who proclaimed himself the strongest in the region fell to his knees in disbelief.

After the initial excitement everyone left the stadium, but a small crowd remained behind to witness Rudolf humiliated into keeping his word. Javin stood in front of him, holding his hand out. “This is not a handshake if that's what you were thinking, I wouldn't be caught dead being friendly with someone like you. The card."

Rudolf turned his head, then shocked everyone with what he said next, “I don't know what card you're talking about." There were loud murmurs and whispers passed all around.

“If this is some sort of joke then it's a bad one, 'cause I'm not laughing. Now I'm going to ask nicely one last time. The card." Javin had hate burning in his eyes.

“Like I said, I don't know which card." Rudolf however was more determined than previously thought.

“I see." was Javin's simple reply.

“Hey, where is Matilda?" One of the students asked no one in particular.

“She was here a few minutes ago," Another female student confirmed.

Javin started chuckling a bit to himself. “You really think that I'm that stupid?" He snapped his fingers once.

A few seconds later. “Let go! Let go of me you disgusting slime-ball" Matilda, Rudolf's sister was carried kicking and screaming by a Slime minion that belonged to Javin.

“I knew that you were a sneaky bastard, but I never expected this." Javin shook his head in mock disappointment. “But I left one of my minions out and about on the school grounds, just in case you actually tried something so futile."

The slime then threw the girl in his arms to the ground, covered in the sticky substance, which was now gluing the dirt to her. “Now that the nice way was proving useless, it's time to ask the hard way." At that statement, the slime turned one of his hands into a sharp spike, aiming it right at Matilda's throat.

This move scared everyone in the crowd, not expecting Javin to actually try something like this.

Rudolf was now clearly shaking, his eyes darted in all directions, but Javin's patience was thinning. “I'm waiting." His slime minion presses his weaponized arm more into Matilda's throat, not too deep, but enough to draw some blood.

Rudolf remained strong, his group began urging him to give back the card. But it was Matilda who gave in. “Please stop!! You want the card?" she rummaged through her purse before pulling out Capricorn's card. “Here take the blasted thing!!" She threw the card in Javin's direction, who caught it easily, but Matilda wasn't done.

“It was that cheap cheat's idea," she admitted, pointing at Rudolf. “He wanted to keep the card no matter what, so he told me to take it and quickly do anything with it, even trade it for another Capricorn so no one would know the difference. I had nothing to do with it I swear!! Please!!" She pleaded as much as she could and actually cried as she kept begging.

Javin however wasn't fazed by her tears, crocodile or not. He checked the card himself, he felt the same energy from when he picked it up the first time, but he still needed to make sure. “Hey green-bean," he called, pointing at Harry, who pointed at himself as if asking if the nickname was for him. “Yeah, come over for a second." Harry did as told, only to have the card handed to him.

“Is this the same Capricorn?" Harry concentrated a bit, a few seconds, he smiled softly nodding his head, confirming that it was his Capricorn. He then made a sad face, as he attempted to hand the card back to Javin, but the senior simply pushed it back into Harry's hand. “It's yours isn't it? I could feel his beaming happiness from here once he was back in your hands."

Harry smiled widely as Capricorn's card glowed, as if confirming what Javin just said. Javin then snapped his fingers, his slime minion pulled back his spiked arm, before morphing back into a card and floated back to Javin, who returned him to his deck. “This is extortion you know!" The sudden outburst was from Rudolf. “Threatening a wielder with force is illegal and punishable with a prison sentence!!"

Javin couldn't help but laugh loudly for a few minutes, when he calmed down, he wiped tears from his eyes. “Oh that's rich, the biggest sleazebag around talking about rules and laws. For your information: Wielders fight and threaten each other all the time in the wild, so what I did there wasn't that illegal. I admit that I might have overdid it a little, but it wasn't punishable in any way, not like spirit gambling, which is punishable by revoking your wielder license permanently." Rudolf froze in his place, he couldn't run away from this, too many witnesses around and his sister just confessed and testified against him.

Javin looked at his own hand, seeing his Spirit Locket, which was shaped like a gauntlet that wrapped around his hand, with the Locket itself on the back of his hand, shaped like a crescent-moon and embedded in a golden plate and the crescent was purple in colour. He inputted a few commands, which pulled out a small screen that he wrote a few things in.

“What are you doing?" Rudolf asked as his heart slowly sank to his stomach.

Javin finished writing and pressed a command that sent whatever he wrote to someone. “I just wrote a small report of this incident to a friend of mine. He has connections to the IWA (International Wielder Association) so he will contact them and you will soon have your license revoked for all eternity." He said all that with a wide smile on his face.

“No please!!" Rudolf suddenly began pleading, “I can't lose my license. I'm the future world champion, it can't end here."

Javin's brow twitched in irritation. “Self-centred to the bitter end, huh?" He shook his head, this time in genuine disappointment.

“Please!!" Rudolf pleaded again, just as his deck began glowing. “What's happening?!" Then three cards shot from his deck case, the floated away and faced Javin.

It was the spirit cards of Rudolf's aces. Javin looked at the three cards in confusion. “Lancelot. Ariel. Skoll" He took the cards in hand, before his eyes glowed softly and his mind was taking to a small memory trip.

A few seconds passed, but felt like whole minutes to Javin, the cards then disintegrated into small pebbles of light, and entered his Locket. Then he turned to Rudolf, eyes filled with murderous hate. “You fucking, worthless, piece of shit." His voice was low, but the anger and venom it carried was loud. “No wonder your spirits' morale was non-existent when we battled. Even Lancelot, your so-called ace spirit was fed up with you, you treated them like slaves, training them day and night with no rest whatsoever, punished them when they lost from fatigue, you never even fed them properly."

He stomped towards Rudolf, grabbing him and lifting him up by his shirt. “They aren't cattle that you can do whatever you want with!! They are our companions, friends, even another family and yet you go and do all those things?! To think that you came second in the world championship." He spat on the ground. “Fucking disgusting! It's a miracle that your spirits never escaped from you before now."

They heard a few sirens blaring loudly and was coming closer to them. Javin threw Rudolf to the floor, his hate still boiling away at his insides. “You better wish that taking your license away is the only thing they do to you."

Officers from the association came towards the small crowd, who dispersed slightly to make room for them, then the leader of the small squad stood forward. Their uniform was black all over, with a different colour trims, that were just like the colour of the spirit tiers. The leader of the squad had golden trims, while the others had copper, he had short black hair, which was smoothed back a little, he looked young for his position, but it seemed that did his job well. “Who's Mr. Drakes? The one who reported illegal gambling?" Javin raised his hand silently, the squad leader and the other officers saluted him softly. “We thank you for your cooperation. Your friend also mentioned that there might be some foul-play and spirit care neglect included."

Javin chuckled a bit. “He always was one step ahead in everything." Then turned to face the officers. “Yes, but how about you hear it from the spirits themselves?" Just then, the three cards that belonged to Lancelot, Ariel and Skoll jumped out from his Locket and floated towards the leader, he held them briefly, then the same thing that happened with Javin happened to him, once he was done, the spirits floated away and went back inside Javin's Locket, just as he fixed Rudolf with the same hatred in his eyes as Javin.

“Looks like you're in a bit of trouble there Mr. Evermore, to think that you were close to becoming the world champion, how shameful." He gestured for the others to arrest him. “Rudolf Evermore, you are under arrest for spirit care neglection, stealing another wielder's spirit and most certainly, illegal gambling of spirits."

The officers took away the so-called candidate of world championship away, screaming and making threats and promises.

Javin walked towards the officer. “Thank you for your quick response, Officer…?" The guy introduced himself as Roland Seers. “Officer Seers, but what about his spirits?"

Seers smiled softly. “The others will be returned to their homeworld, this will give them time to heal from both their physical and emotional wounds."

“The others?" Javin asked with a raised brow.

Seers however smiled and pointed at Javin's Locket. “Those three already chose you as their new wielder. It happens all the time, especially to someone who clearly cares a lot for the spirits and their well-being." Javin blush at that, scratching his cheek softly, but then felt guilty for hurting Lancelot like that during the match.

Seers then saluted him once again. “I once again thank you for your assist in this matter, the association will make sure that Evermore is punished for his crime. Good day to you." He turned around and followed his fellow officers, then all the cars drove away with one carrying the still screaming and swearing Rudolf in the back.

__________________________

The coming week was hectic for Javin. Everyone wanted a piece of the new student, he gladly accepted most of them, his fighting methods were simple and friendly, which surprised a few.

When he was asked about the difference between the new matches and the one he had with Rudolf, he simply said that he hated the guy with a passion and wanted to teach him a lesson about acting high and mighty.

Now it was a Tuesday, and the last class for the day was done.

Javin was making his way to the cafeteria for some food before going home that day. He found Harry sitting alone, smiling widely as he looked at his Capricorn card.

“Hey there green-bean," Javin greeted Harry as he stood beside him.

“Hello there Mr. Drakes."

Javin raised a hand. “Please, none of this Mr stuff, I'm not that old." He then saw Capricorn's card. “Hope you've been treating him well."

Harry scratched his head softly. “Yeah, he was upset with me for a few days for gambling him away, even when I knew it was wrong. He had every right to do so, so I'm not mad at him. But he forgave me for it in time."

“Glad to hear it and let this be a lesson to you: never allow anyone to provoke you like that again, ever." Harry nodded as Javin thought about something. “Can I borrow you for a minute?"

_____________________

They made their way to the training hall of the academy. On the way, they found Arthur and Julia just exiting the building.

Arthur waved at them before jogging in their direction. “Hey Harry, Drakes. How's it going?" Javin simply nodded while Harry stated that everything was good. “Good, good. So where're you going?"

“Mr- I mean Drakes wanted to show me something." Harry corrected himself this time.

The group went into the training hall, and into a small area filled with table shaped monitors. “What are we doing here?" Harry asked Javin, who simply asked them to follow him to an unoccupied monitor.

He removed his Locket from the glove and placed it on a small socket on one side, while instructing Harry to do the same with his. Harry's Locket was square-shaped and green in colour, encased in a golden silver frame.

A screen appeared on the monitor, Javin inputted a few commands as his deck screen appeared, he filtered and sorted his cards to view the equipment. He selected a light elemental khakkhara staff, before instructing Harry to do the same and select his Capricorn.

Javin sent his equipment card to Harry, turning its ownership to him. “Wait, I can't just accept this," Harry tried to reason with Javin, the khakkhara staff was a rank 9 golden-tiered equipment, it was something Harry never dreamed of getting, and for nothing in return.

Javin however simply smiled. “Trust me. Now place it over your Capricorn's card."

Harry did as he was told, once the two cards lined up, a very bright light burst from the monitor and lightened the whole room, catching everyone's attention.

When the light dimmed and disappeared, Harry opened his eyes and looked at the monitor, and was not ready for what he saw. “What happened to Capricorn?!"

The Capricorn that everyone saw, wasn't the same one. The new portrait on the card showed the same Capricorn, but with a new outfit and looks. This time he wore loose and wide legged silk pants, no top clothing, with a long golden cloth floating over and around his shoulders with a big dharma wheel floating behind him, while he was sitting in the air indian style and holding the khakkhara staff horizontally.

Javin finally answered Harry's question “You see Harry: Some golden tiered spirits can't evolve into their platinum tier and need certain equipment or items to do so. Like your Capricorn here, he needed a max leveled and ranked golden tiered khakkhara staff to evolve into one of his platinum forms. This form you see is called: Messiah Capricorn."

Harry looked at the monitor and at his Capricorn in awe, still shocked and unable to speak. Javin closed the monitor and took his Locket, fastening it back on his glove. “Congratulations Harry. You are now the proud owner of a platinum tiered spirit." Everyone around them cheered for Harry, patting his back and congratulating him as well for his evolved Capricorn.

Javin smiled to himself before walking out of the room and eventually out of the building.

“Hold it right there." Javin turned around to face a smirking Arthur.

“Need something? I only gave Harry the khakkhara because I don't need it and he seemed to have trouble evolving his ace spirit."

Arthur scoffed lightly. “Yeah I know, I also know that you did it to actually help him become stronger and I agree. Harry might need all the help he can get at the moment."

Javin shrugged at that. “Alright, but you want something else from me, aside from stating the obvious, so out with it."

Arthur pulled out his Locket, which was a red stone shaped like a flame, embedded in a golden plate, aiming it at Javin as it glowed bright red, in turn Javin's Locket glowed in a deep violet colour. “I challenge you, Javin Drake, to a Spirit Duel."

Javin smiled softly, taking his Locket in hand as he returned the same smirk at Arthur. “And I gladly accept your challenge."