Never in his life did he imagine he'd be here at a party sending both of his feet into a scumbag's body. That ended up becoming reality as he did exactly what was stated, kicking off the guy formerly atop of the girl who caught his attention earlier tonight.
After the kick had landed—which ended with the guy crashing into the wall—Ashton landed on his back in between the legs of the girl he saved, his feet pointed towards the other male in the room. Seeing his stunned state, Ashton knew time was of the essence as he immediately lifted himself up to check on her. Brown eyes immediately landed on her red ones, seeing the glassy look in them still didn't change, and neither did her current condition. Her body was slowly moving, but each movement was so odd that it gave away the obvious answer filling the room.
She had been drugged.
"She needs a doctor, but I have to get her outside to everyone else where she'll be safe until then."
Taking out his phone, the first he did after powering it on was slide the phone icon for emergency calls on his lock screen. His finger successfully inputted nine-one-one as he made the call, putting it on speaker before hopping off the bed to help the drugged student. As he was taking hold of her, the call cutting alerted him before he sent a glance down to his screen. "No signal" was the only thing it said.
"How?! The signal was perfectly fine up until now!"
"What do you think, dumbass?" The voice got him to turn his head, Ashton's eyes landing on the other student just like him.
He was a black-haired man with cold blue eyes, his face, features, and structure giving him the classic playboy stereotype. The grin that he gave was practically sickening, and the way he displayed how easily he didn't care was unsettling. However, Ashton was focused on his appearance, but the A.R.T system on his left arm. The screen at the center was turned on, code running wild in the background underneath a program that was enabled. His eyes couldn't make it out, but he wouldn't need to as he was already aware of what was being done.
"Your A.R.T system has a built-in jammer?" Teeth clenched tightly as Ashton asked the question, his blood boiling as he pulled the girl into his arms.
"Had no choice but to get one. People tend to get the wrong idea whenever I'm out with her."
The response only served to make him seethe, unable to understand how anyone could resort to these kinds of actions to take advantage of someone.
"All she does is push me away, show off her sad ass face wherever I go, and it leaves people sticking their noses where they don't belong. And no matter how many times I show them why she's mine, I'm getting hassled about it day in and day out."
Without giving Ashton the chance to speak, he brought his A.R.T system closer to his face. His right hand rose up to the screen, tapping against it a few times before coming to a sudden pause. Then he extended his arm out, letting Ashton get a glimpse at the file presented to him. However, all he needed to see to understand the big picture was the name, and classification.
Name: Alice Rainelle
Classification: S.I.D/Slave in Debt
"As you just saw, I OWN her. So do me a favor, and stop wasting my time. I have a night to enjoy with my slave."
'So she is a slave. I had a feeling, but I was hoping it wasn't true.'
"You deaf all of sudden? Put her down, and get the fuck out of this room."
'Still, I can't leave her in here with this bastard.'
Ashton glanced down at her form, seeing her form that was barely responsive to anything else but his touch. He wanted to book it out of the room, but her added weight would make that impossible to get away.
"Man, I can't stand you pussy ass wannabe heroes."
As quickly as the words left his mouth, Ashton lifted his head to see the man before him closing the distance quickly. With no other choice, he leaned back to dodge the attempted grab, being successful in doing so. Her arm brushed up his chest, the A.R.T system she wore managing to appear in his vision for a split second. Quickly as it left his eyes, it forced him to recall a memory, one purely from instinct from having been through it so many times already.
The rules of C.R.E.
Maneuvering his hand over her stomach, Ashton managed to click the power button of her A.R.T system. Once it came to life, the world "emergency protocol three-nine" slipped past his lips.
[Emergency protocol recognized. What seems to be your conflict?]
"How the hell do you—"
"Me and Alice's owner are currently butting heads about her situation as his slave. She's not safe with him in any capacity, so I want to take ownership to remove her from his care."
[... Yes sir, conflict has been acknowledged. Registering nearby devices of conflict for the duel.]
It didn't take long before two beeps of both A.R.Ts entered the registry. Ashton watched the frustration appear on his opponent's face, more likely than not angered, but shocked by how he knew about the emergency protocol.
[Identities confirmed. The match between Ashton Faulter, and Varren Rivers will begin shortly. Please relocate to a larger space for the match before we begin.]
As the AI's message was declared, Ashton didn't waste time in pulling away from the now revealed Varren to create as much distance as possible. "Downstairs in front of the entrance to the house where the party began. She needs help, but a place to rest for now until we're is what I'm demanding at the protocol's initiator" escaped his lips before quickly departing out the room, and heading towards the end of the hall on his right.
_____
"Seeing how you knew about the emergency protocol, you must be hiding your rank in the game?"
"Hiding? Get real. Nothing good ever comes from playing this shitty ass game."
A smirk and a glare was exchanged between the two, Ashton wishing he didn't have to go through his. Brown eyes landed on the sight of Alice on the couch a few feet from his body, an ice pack resting atop her forehead in an effort to cool her body and reduce the sweating. Her breathing was still irregular, and the twitches she gave every now and then with closed eyes was an indication she was suffering.
"Lying isn't doing you any good. I mean look at her." Varren pointed a finger towards Alice. "Nothing good comes from playing C.R.E, then how come I got her?"
"Because you're a sick fuck who can't keep his dick in his pants."
"... I know I didn't like you from the beginning, but I'm starting to hate that damn mouth. Still, it won't matter once we get the bets in order."
Ashton didn't answer him, eyes staring down at the device attached to his arm. The screen was surrounded by a red rim, feathers of angels decorating it from top to bottom. The same could be said for the deck slot as well, the section of it being split into two parts. The lower rack used to hold discarded cards, and the top rack used to hold the actual deck for multiple purposes aside from drawing cards. Aside from that, the leather straps under it held the A.R.T system tightly on his arm.
[Field location has been recognized. Place your bets to resolve this conflict before we continue.]
Ashton looked towards Varren, brown eyes sharp in his objective.
"If I win this match, you have to resign ownership of Alice to me. That, and I'll be making sure you're in the hands of the police once paramedics arrive."
The statement only served to make him laugh. A taunting cackle with Varren himself believing that Ashton might be stupid. Probably even a moron for believing he had a chance at winning. Still, he humored him, ignoring the obvious glare trying to burn itself into his soul.
"Yeah, sure. Whatever you say lil bro. If you lose though, I won't just own Alice, but you as well. And I'll make sure that you personally spend the rest of your life paying back every cent of her debt that she was using her body to pay it up with."
A scowl escaped his lips as he heard that, keeping in mind that no matter what, he couldn't lose this. With nothing left to take care of, the twin screamed in unison "A.R.T, response?"
[Response engaged.]
Hearing the activation forced Ashton to look down, his body going stiff as he watched the magic happen. White outlines of code began to trail out from the system, and onto his left arm. It climbed up his limb, making him wince instinctively with it finally reaching his neck. Once the white outlines made their way on to his face, his left eye went half-lidded, nearly closing from source coursing through him. Finally, the outlines reached his eyes, making it widen with the system's power finally showing its true colors.
His once human eye turned into a slit like that of a cat. The original brown color it carried exchanged itself with a pure white doze, a black outline appearing for his iris to tell the difference between that and his sclera. His now dilated slit for an eye began spinning in a circle alongside his pupil for reasons unknown. However, once it finished, his left eye began turning back to its original state before the sudden morphing of his sight's design. All it left Ashton was moderate irritation.
"Aww. Little baby can't handle the game's invsileye?" Varren taunted, but was ignored for doing so. Ashton's choice in doing so made him want to finish this quickly.
[Take five from your deck.]
They did so without question, looking over their hands. Only Varren decided to make a face for what he drew.
[All conditions have been met. Last race standing wins. And remember players—]
"EXTINCTION IS IMMINENT!"
Their combined scream echoed off the walls of the entrance room. The code from their A.R.T systems began to spread through the area. Code of ones and zeroes began taking over the physical world, leaving their mark behind as the original lurking about disappeared from inside the area. With its task complete, all that was left happened to be the match "welcoming" his return. Ashton Faulter, vs Varren Rivers. Only one winner could emerge victorious from this.
Ashton - 100LP [Hand: 5/Arsenal: 55/Zone: 0] Cemetery: 0
Varren - 100LP [Hand: 5/Arsenal: 55/Zone: 0] Cemetery: 0
And Ashton planned to walk away victorious.
"To decide who gets to go first, we'll roll dice created by the A.R.T system." One dice manifested into their hands, Ashton clenching his tightly before saying "I'll roll first."
With a toss of the dice, it smacked against the ground multiple times before finally coming to a stop. It landed on five, making him nod his head before Varren threw his own. The same motion of bouncing across the floor was repeated by the second dice, but a scoff soon erupted from Ashton as his eyes caught a six in place of the roll. He lost by one. It caused Varren to laugh, being met with Ashton's heated glare only for the former to ignore it.
"Even C.R.E knows you're meant to lose against me. Moving on, let's get tonight started with this." He flashed a card to Ashton, seeing the latter's confusion for what he was looking at. "I summon to my field, Wind-Meister Asora."
Taking the card from his hand, Varren swung his arm out to toss it away from his hold. After the card escaped from his hand, it managed to get at least three feet away before suddenly dispersing into binary code.
From nowhere, a screech infiltrated his ears, forcing Ashton to cover them as he winced. Green winds began overtaking the area, beer cups and other trash being pulled by the force of said element as it began spiraling into the center of the room. His eyes went up after a second screech was heard, his sight landing on what appeared to be a white and green-feathered eagle. A silver ring went through its beak as it spread out its wings, white and green feathers falling down to the floor as a saddle began appearing over its back. Its black talons had wind circulating them, a scarf suddenly manifesting itself by taking on a full white appearance.
Finally, it soared down to the ground floor, landing before its master. The animal gave Varren a screech of recognition, allowing the former to pet him before directing its gaze to Ashton. Another screech flew from its beak, Ashton groaning in response to the eagle recognizing him as the enemy.
Wind-Meister Asora GRD1 - ATK: 11/DEF: 6
"With his successful summon to the field, I can now summon Wind-Meister Nest Raider from my hand."
Green winds began picking up once more next to Asora, Ashton having to shield himself from them as another eagle began to appear. Its color schemes matched Asora perfectly, a spiked collar with a metal chain attached to its neck to differentiate the two. Strangely enough, Nest Raider was wearing black eyeliner, and had a spiked red mohawk. The winds gathered around it continued to remain, circling each of his talons in the same way it did Asora. Pretty strange if you ask me.
Wind-Meister Nest Raider GRD1 - ATK: 8/DEF: 2
//Wind-Meister Nest Raider is a grade one winged-beast wind attribute monster that can summon itself to the field whenever another Wind-Meister monster is normal summoned.\\
"Now I'll activate Asora's ability. Whenever another Wind-Meister other than Asora is summoned, you must destroy the top card of your arsenal. If it's a monster, you take damage equal to half that monster's original attack. Get to drawing."
Ashton complied, placing his hand on top of his (Alice's) deck. The moment he pulled the card, it suddenly burst into wind pixels, cutting his face once as he winced from the action. The damage felt as real as he remembered. However, what got him to pay attention was his health dropping.
Ashton - [100 - 12 = 88LP]
"I'll set the last three cards in my hand face down, and end my turn. Entertain me, future slave."
"As if that's happening." Ashton took the top card of his deck, looking it over alongside the rest of his hand.
Ashton - 88LP [Hand: 6/Arsenal: 53/Zone: 0] Cemetery: 1
Varren - 100LP [Hand: 0/Arsenal: 55/Zone: 5] Cemetery: 0
His eyes glanced over every card in his hand, a problem already coming to mind. He knew nothing about Alice's deck. No combos, no extenders what he was supposed to be searching—now he had to figure out everything on the fly. Especially if he wanted to save Alice from this nightmare of a human before him.
"By the way, I should let you know…" The pause of his voice caught Ashton's attention, looking toward Varren who finished his statement by saying "I've beaten this deck countless times. It being in your hands isn't gonna change anything."
"... Shut the fuck up." A growl escaped Ashton's lips before he went back to looking over the six cards in his hand.
Angel's rite, merchant's medicine, angelic sanctuary, heaven's list of refined judgement, wishful wishing well, and eye of purity. He may not know how to use this deck, but there was a first time for everything. Of all these cards here, the best one to start things off would be—
"I'll activate the magic card Heaven's List of Refined Judgement!" Ashton flashed the card to Varren, an overwhelming light beginning to consume it before trying to overwhelm the latter's vision. "With this card, I can add one "Angelic" monster from my deck to my hand, and then choose another one from the arsenal to summon to the field."
"As if. I activate the cursed card, Lock and Keychain!"
//Lock and Keychain. A curse/hex/trap card that can negate the activation of a player's card, and destroy it. If this card was activated in response to a monster or magic card, that card and others with its name can't be used for the rest of this turn. This card can't be activated the turn it's set.\\
"Your spell is now negated, and you can no longer cast it for the rest of your turn."
Before his eyes, Ashton watched as the magic card suddenly began to short circuit in his hand. The electricity caused him to wince as he dropped the card, watching it explode into nothingness.
"Try again, future slave." Varren's cocky nature earned him a scowl before Ashton looked over his hand once more.
"Let's try this then. I'm activating the continuous magic, Angel's rite!" Ashton threw the card towards the field, watching it disperse before the ground beneath him started.
Behind him, a quartz stairway pushed out from beneath the breaking ground, trash falling inside as a result. Torches lit each stair to give enough light to a sculpted angel with her wings spread. She gave a small prayer towards an object, the object in question being an altar that had miniature models of humans worshiping. Water flowed out from the basin of the altar to drench each model that worshipped it for as long as needed.
"When this card is activated, I get to add one "Angelic" monster from my deck to my hand."
"Before you do that, I'm gonna activate the continuous hex, Free Call from the Sky!"
Varren's facedown rose from the field, displaying a black card that began to generate green winds to surround itself. Clouds suddenly began appearing from above, spinning around in circles as if to create some kind of portal leading to the clear blue sky.
"As long as I control this trap, I can arsenal summon any grade Wind-Meister monster during either of our turns as long as I control another Wind-Meister with a grade lower than the one I'm summoning. Which I'm gonna do now to summon Wind-Meister Skiller!"
From above came Skiller, his feathers falling from above while spinning downward in a spiral. Twisting his body, he descended ever so gracefully onto his owner's side of the field, wings flapping as he screeched at his enemy. A strange device was attached to his back, lightning cackling from every now and then while wires twisted and curved itself around his legs. Green winds accompanied his talons just like the rest, but the spark of electricity that flashed through his eyes every so now and then was telling.
Wind-Meister Skiller GRD2 - ATK: 23/DEF: 17
"Oh great." Ashton grimaced.
"Now the abilities of Asora and Nest Raider activate. Asora will make you destroy the top card of your deck, and Nest Raider allows me to choose a card from your hand and discard it. As for the card I select, I choose the one on your far left."
Ashton complied with the card's effect, discarding it from his hand.
"Now, destroy the top card of your deck."
His hand grasped the top card of his arsenal. As he drew it, it suddenly exploded, forcing him to shield his eyes from the black smoke before coming to a realization. He didn't feel any pain this time.
"Tch! Guess luck does come into play after all…" Varren began before snapping his fingers, another trap rising up just to reveal the image of green and white eagles surrounding a fallen comrade. "However, it won't help you with the cursed card "Memory of the Nest. I can now send one Wind-Meister from my arsenal to the cemetery, and if I control a Wind-Meister with a grade higher than that monster, I get to revive it."
'This guy does everything but let me do something on my turn.'
A card pushed itself out from Varren's arsenal, his smirk never changing before discarding it to the grave. Suddenly, the ground began cracking to his right to reveal a dark hole containing the souls of the deceased. Each spirit swarmed around the countless others, but one of them was different from the others as it went against the current of departed. With a new found purpose, it shot out from the depths of the ground, turning itself into the element of air. Then its form began to reshape itself.
The green and white circle that spun around like a ball suddenly had bones appearing from nowhere to protect it. Its soul began taking form into that of a heart, organs manifesting from nothing with flesh beginning to accompany it. The green winds of Asora, Nest Raider, and Skiller began wrapping around the body, feathers of white and green beginning to appear from top to bottom alongside a yellow beak and black talons. Finally, it came to a close once a screech was heard, a new alley appearing on the field to join his brothers.
"Welcome to the pack, Wind-Meister Grenader!"
Wind-Meister Grenader GRD1 - ATK: 11/DEF: 5
"You've got to be kidding me."
"Thankfully, I'm not. Now, both Grenader and Skiller's effects activate. Since another Wind-Meister was summoned, I can target one card you control, and its effects are negated for the rest of your turn."
Angel's rite began to spark uncontrollably, sparks hitting the floor which made Ashton clench his teeth. Because of his card being negated, the stairway, sculptures, and altar began turning gray because of it.
"Now we can focus on Grenader's effect. Since he was summoned to the field, you now take damage for each Wind-Meister I control times three. You got twelve damage coming your way, slave."
All four eagles began closing their wings. There were sharp looks in their eyes signifying harm, and they were intent on delivering. Which they silvered without delay opened their wings, sending rapid fire shots of wind slashes right for Ashton. All he could do was shield himself, taking the attacks to his body directly. "Ahh" escaped his lips as he flew backwards, crashing against the steps which shot pain throughout his entire system.
A grunt escaped his lips, wincing as he slowly moved his form. Luckily it was virtual, otherwise the damage could've been far worse. However, he didn't have long to think on that before his life counter popped up before his vision.
Ashton - [88 - 12 = 76LP]
'Already? It's only the second turn of the match and I'm twenty-six points away from being at half my life.'
Ashton didn't stay in his thoughts too long before standing up on the quartz steps. He twitched from the jolt of agony remaining in his form, only able to send glares at Varren who chose to laugh it off.
"Now that I'm done, do what I said earlier. Entertain me, slave."
Four monsters, and one continuous hex on Varren's field. That cockiness of his radiated off of him, and Ashton all could do was keep pushing. As his eyes glanced over to Alice, her pained expression showing itself as her body spasmed and moved ever so slightly, there was only thing he could do now in hopes of helping her.
Win the duel.