(Continued from Decade Gold Lore)
Gregory slides his lunch tray down the table, gently bumping into Hino’s. Gregory follows down the bench and addresses the group.
“Alright, you guys notice that Professor Whirlybird’s been off his game the past week?”
“Yeah, he’s up to something again.” Replied Hikari. “He’s been muttering to himself both in the hallways and class.”
“All we’ve done this week is pre-recorded video lectures and worksheets.” Amanda meekly added.
Nord lets out the best roar he can in tiny dragon form “If he tried to snatch me again, I’ll give him what-for!”
Hino shakes his head “I doubt that’s it. We cleared up that whole misunderstanding.” Suddenly a chill shoots down Hino’s spine as an ice cold claw grabs his shoulder. “Well, I already figured it out” replies the owner of the hand. Hino turns to the voice to see Jewel standing behind him.
“Please stop shadow walking just to scare me.” Hino shakily asks the vampire, clearly unsettled.
Jewel lets out a trill laugh, “ohhohoho~! This time there was a reason. I was tailing that troublesome professor for you.” She daintily drops a note and Gate Keycard onto the table for the kids to investigate.
“How did you get this?!” Amanda half asks, half scolds her Gate Master.
“You see”, Jewel continues, ignoring Amanda, “It seems Whirlybird got himself in quite the pickle of his own fermenting. He’s been working to find an Energy source on a new world. However, he bit off way more than he can chew. Not only are the natives of this planet not happy with the mining operation, but he’s lost contact and control of one of the operatives he sent in. This new Source he’s been hunting turned out to be extremely dangerous.” Jewel puffed out her chest, looking for praise. The friends ignore her.
Gregory downs the rest of his milk, “Well gang, how about after school we use this key to pop over to this planet Whirlybird has been harassing? See if we can help them out and get him to knock it off.”
“The rest of my day is open.” Hikari responds.
Hino nods “I think my folks will be out watching one of Hikaru’s games. I can ditch it.”
“I’ll be staying behind” Amanda shares “Sounds kinda scary.”
“No worries, Amanda” Smiles Nord, “We will let you know how it goes! To adventure and glory!” Hino cuts in “After Calculus and Physics class”
Meanwhile, in plains held by Gath forces, Kaar’thul can be heard shrilly screaming. “This was not part of our deal!”
“Well, it wasn’t exactly part of the plan.” Coldly replies Dr. Curios, the target of Kaar’thul’s wrath. While the Orc Wizard gets more and more irate, Curios casually rests upon a stone while wearing Vesuvian robes to blend in.
“I take you to the source of the Skorg and YOU kill the humans for me. EASY! Yet, that MONSTER of yours rampaged through my lands!” Kaar’thul’s eyes light up with an electric fury as he continues to berate his once benefactor.
“Listen, Kaar, buddy. YOU never mentioned that this Skorg power source had mind and body altering properties to it. Not my fault we got caught off guard by it. Besides, Erya is heading in the right direction now, yeah? She’ll deal some serious damage in Arengard, then you’ll be all good to invade.”
“INVADE?!” Kaar’thul screeches “With WHAT army, fool? That monster wiped out..” Dr. Curios proceeds to tune out the rest of what the wizard was yelling as he check the notifications on his smart watch. “Yeah, yeah. Whatever you say, chief.” Curios waves off Kaar’thul. “I’ve got a whole thing to deal with back home. So, you’re on your own now. Best of luck.” And with that and a final tirade from Kaar’thul, Dr. Curios warps back to Earth.
Professor Whirlybird is power walking down a steel corridor in the lab he’s borrowing from Senator Skylark. Curios pops out of the Gate Gadget on Whirlybird’s wrist and walks down the hall, not missing a beat. “What’s the damage, boss?” Curios asks.
“It’s not good.” Whirlbird answers bluntly. “Erya is still unreachable, Erin is still in confinement, we’ve had to send home and end contact with Rose and Reighette. At this point, Skylark isn’t wanting to risk losing another off worlder. McGee is hopping mad about his investment going south. And I lost my spare Gate Key Card linked to Arengard. Not sure how much worse it could get.”
After school, Hino and the rest all meet up in Mochi Park. Each one of them is dressed in attire they think would fit in a medieval world. Hikari choose full plate armor, Gregory is wearing druid robes, and Hino went with canvas and leather armor. As for their Gate Masters, Excalibur found itself strapped to the back of Hikari, while Nord managed to scrape together a tabard to wear. Bonnie, as usual, was staying on her home world until she was needed.
“Everyone ready?” Asks Hikari as Hino, Nord, and Gregory nod.
“Want to do the honors?” Gregory asks as he hands the Arengard Gate Card to Hino. “This card has a connection to Venus, so it only seems fitting.” Hino smiles as he takes the card. As he inserts it into his Gate Gadget, the entire group gets warped to a planet the few from Earth have ever visited.
As their eyes adjust to the bright mid-day light of this new world, the quartet see beautiful sweeping grasslands come into view. Nearly perfectly flat with few trees and hills as far as the eye can see. A comfortable temperature with soothing breeze catches the 4 friends off guard. They expected things to be far worse with Whirlybird making a mess.
“YOU FOUR! TURN AROUND SLOWLY.” Booms a voice behind Hino and company. Startled and worried, the group does as they are told. When they turn around they can see that a massive army was behind them the whole time. The forces consist of humans, Pegasi, and gryphons. The commanding voice they heard was from the man at the front of his forces. Dressed in sturdy armor with a heavy sword and shield, it was clear that this man was in command of those behind him. “What brings you to the edge of Arengard and how did you arrive?”
Gregory steps forward, doing his best to defuse the situation. “My apologies for our unexpected arrival. We are here to hopefully help. Someone from our … lands … is causing trouble. Or so we heard.” Gregory glances around at the army, trying to figure out the best way to explain their technology. “We arrived here using … magic. Teleportation magic.” Gregory adlibbed an explanation after seeing what seemed to be spellcasters in the crowd.
The commander glances at an elderly wizard close behind. The Wizard nods, seeming to indicate that Gregory’s story held merit. “Very well.” The commander relaxed a bit. “I will hear you lot out. Tell me all you know about this trouble you speak of. At this time, we are only aware of a single powerful monster headed this way. I, the Oathsworn Captain Tristan, have been dispatched to slay this beast.”
The four friends do their best to explain the situation to Tristan as they help set up camp for the night. The Arengard forces are resting for the night here as they are aware of the monster being about a day’s travel out. Hino and company can only speculate as to which of Whirlbird’s Units this monster could be. “We know it’s not Dr. Curios at least.” Sighs Hino with relief. “Yeah!” Nord follows up “That guy was annoying!” “Do you think this so called monster could be Corona?” Asks Hikari. “I doubt it. This sounds more like something from Mercury or Saturn. Besides, I doubt Corona would be willing to cause too much trouble these days.” Responds Hino.
Gregory returns to the group after talking with Tristan. “Alright guys, looks like we’re going to be spending the night. I’ve got our assigned tent locations from Tristan. Did you guys text your folks and make sure that it’s ok to camp out on another planet?” Hino nods and Hikari gives a thumbs up. “Alright then! Check back in with you tomorrow.” And with that the 4 friends head over to the groups where their tents are located.
When Gregory reaches the grouping where he’s spending the night, he notices a large tent in the middle surrounded by still lit torches. As he walks in several Mages and Tacticians wave him over. “Glad you’re here” a younger tactician states “Give us some insight on your group’s abilities for the upcoming fight.” An older wizard strokes his beard while eyeing up Gregory “Quite. You’re quite the unusual party. A Grovekeeper with a dark complexion, a young man who seems to be the master of a Drazil Dawnbringer, and a Sword Maiden with an enchanted blade. Certainly not your usual group of travelers.” Gregory shrugs “What can I say? Where I come from your people would be considered the unusual ones.” The old wizard laughs. “I suppose that’s the way travel works, isn’t it?”
As Hikari headed to her section, she noticed a man in armor and what seemed to a be a female mage around a fire. The armored solider say Hikari’s approach and waved her over. “The commander says you’ll be deploying with us tomorrow.”
Hikari nods.
“I take it as a sign of good luck, having your with us.” Said the mage.
“Why’s that?” Asked Hikari.
“It’s always a sign of good luck to have an enchanted sword with us.” Stated the soldier. Hikari was a little surprised how easy it has been for everyone on this plant to tell how special Excalibur is.
“At any rate, get some rest.” encouraged the mage. “We’re keeping watch and will wake you when it’s your turn.”
Hino spent his night alone with Nord, not really able to sleep much. He kept thinking about the text he got back from his parents. His brother, Hikaru, he won all of his matches today. That wasn’t anything new. What’s special is that this means that Hikaru has qualified for the world tournament.
“He’ll be fighting her again…” muttered Hino.
“You talking to me?” asked Nord. Hino didn’t hear him.
Magnolia, his brother’s main rival. The national champion from another country. There was just something about that girl that terrified Hino. For the rest of the night, Hino tried not to think about it and instead worked on his deck. Preparing for a battle against one of Whirlybird’s Finale Unit creations.
At dawn, the horns are sounded to wake up Tristan’s forces. Once everyone is assembled, Tristan addresses his army as he points in the distance”Soldiers of Arengard, our scouts have determined that is the monster across the horizon. We have been sent to exterminate it and protect our lands. All units prepare for combat!”
As the “monster” gets closer to the forces, Hino manages to have his Gate Gadget get a scan on it. Maybe he can figure out which unit it is and what it’s skills are. Unfortunately, this unit comes up as something he’s never seen before.
“Skorg Horror, Erya!?” Hino excalims! “That’s not one I’ve heard of” Nord replies “Give than it’s a Normal Unit, there’s no way that’s one of Whirlbirds.”
Hino shakes his head. “We will just have to figure out what’s going on once we beat it.”
“ARCHERS! READY!” Tristan yells as he holds up his sword to signal his longbowmen. “FIRE!” As Tristan swings down his arm, a volley of arrows fly towards the charging beast. Getting stuck with dozens of arrows doesn’t even seem to phase the titanic insect.
“Archers to the back. Warriors to the front. Mages prepare your spells!” Tristan makes his next commands. “My time to shine, let’s do this Excalibur!” Hikari proclaims with Excalibur humming with excitement himself.
“Right with you!” Cheers on Nord as he moves up Next to Hikari. Joining the two friends are an Elite Swordsman, Tristan himself, and Dawnbringer. With Gregory, Nord, and a Frostmaiden making up the backline.
“This aught to do it” Gregory states has he draws one of his cards. “Cast, Sinkhole!” As Gregory slots the card into his Gate Gadget, a massive pool of mud forms around Erya’s legs trapping her for long enough for the rest to attack.
Hikari and the Swordsman each slash at one of Erya’s legs. With a roar, the beast goes to swing her scythe-like arms the duo but is parried by the Dawnbringer duo’s hammer swings.
Erya starts to free herself from the mud, but doesn’t get far before Tristan launches into his combo. “Shield Bash!” Tristan’s heavy shield slams into Erya’s left eye, rupturing it and knocking her back down into the mud. “AND ARREST!” Tristan’s cuffs expand and clasp around the monstrous insect, permanently disarming Erya.
With this much damage, the battle was over. As Erya faded from consciousness, a red magical mist dispersed from her body. As the evil left her, Erya began to return to her original form. A cheer rose from the visitors from Earth and the rest of the Arengard forces.
Tristan was about to walk forward and kill Erya while his men celebrated, but at the same moment, Dr. Curios warps in front of the fallen queen. “Sorry, pal. But I can’t let you kill this one.” Tristan jumps back and gets ready to fight again. “Woah there! I’m looking for a brawl with y’all.” Dr. Curios raises his hands in a defensive stance. “Help me out here, kids.” The Salesman calls out to his boss’ students to back him up.
“I dunno…” Replies Nord. Hino, more diplomatically, asks “Were you the one to cause this trouble.”
Dr. Curios sheepishly scratches the back of his head “Well, in a sense. Erya here is one of our Agents, but he’s not part of Whirlybird’s deck. It’s a long story. Basically we sent her out here on a simple mining operation , but that stuff we were digging up had properties we had not counted on. She got possessed and lost control.” Dr. Curios shurgs and shakes his head “I’m just going to take her home and this planet will never hear from us again.” Curios then turns to Tristan. “As a consolation prize, this ‘monster’ here actually did a number on the Gath Forces back at the Crucible of Plains. You shouldn’t have to deal with them for a while.” Tristan glances back and Hino and company for confirmation. Gregory nods. Dr. Curios may be sketchy but he keeps his word. At this, Tristan sheathes his sword. “Very well, blue man.” He address the doctor. “But if I ever hear tale of you in our lands again, the full force of Arengard will be brought upon you.”
Dr. Curios nods. “Seems like a fair deal to me.” He puts his hands on Erya and holds up a card. “Bring us back boss.” A moment later, the two of them had vanished.
Tristan turns to the visitors that assisted him. “Thank you for your help. My forces and I will be returning home now, I suggest you do the same.” Hino, Hikari, Gregory, and Nord all shake hands with Tristan before warping back home from their adventure.
EPILOGUE:
Raianna stands in her throne room on Ceres. Looking out at the rolling storm clouds through a broken stained glass window. One that she, of course, destroyed in a daily fit of rage.
“The queen is thinking…” States the head priest of the seal, looking into the throne room through the door. “She never thinks.”
“Yes” Replies Lithenia, the head priestess of the seal, with a worried look on her face. “Our magificent goddess has been acting different after her recent trip. I must go check on her.”
“Do as you wish” sighs the priest walking away “I for one do not have a death wish.”
Lithenia approaches Raianna and bows deeply. “Your magnificence seems to be lost in thought. Is there anyway that my lowly self can aid you?”
Without turning around Raianna responds “I left Ceres.”
Lithenia was so shocked she raised her head to look directly at Raianna. “Your trip was to another world?”
Raianna nods “That worthless human that I am tied to thought it was all some kind of VR video game. But I could tell right away. I was no longer on Ceres. Parts of the spell still bound me, but now I know there’s a way I can be free of these chains.”
Lithenia’s eyes sparkle at the possibility that her goddess may be able to carry out her goal of exterminating all life on Ceres even with the great spell controlling the fates of all on the planet.
“However” Raianna continues seriously “I have now been dealt two defeats in this new world order control by cards.”
“A… A mere fluke, your highness!” Exclaims Lithenia “There is none more powerful than you!”
Raianna doesn’t move “Yes. In raw power I am unbeatable. But now there’s more to it than that. I have begun to realize that I need a new way of fighting. I have seen others in these other worlds that I may be able to use to overcome the restrictions of the great spell.” Raianna clenches her metal fist. “Perhaps my loathsome link is right about one thing. Perhaps I shall give this ‘friendship’ thing a try…”
A Word from Rhydon
Thank you all for reading this short story. It was great to be able to fully write out the conclusion to the Speedrobo Games 10th Anniversary story line. I’m excited for the future stories I will be able to tell with characters from all over the Speedrobo Universe. This feels like the end of one of the greatest chapters of my life.
I would like to give an especially huge thank you to Keith Rice, Legacy’s Allure, and Plutonian Shore Games. Getting the privilege to work on Legacy’s Allure has truly been a once in a life time chance and I will forever be grateful for it. The people that I have met through Legacy’s Allure will be part of my life for decades to come.
To get to incorporate Legacy’s Allure into this story has been a dream come true for me. The characters, world, and game that Keith crafted are really something special.
These past 5 years have been the best of my whole life. Claim, System Gate, Card Battle Spirit Link, Card Duel Champions, Eat Putin, and Legacy’s Allure have all been amazing and I’m looking forward to what is to come with them all in the future. The next decade looks just as bright and I cannot wait to start the next chapter of my life.
Rhydon Vassay
Owner of Speedrobo Games