(GS3) Field: Umano Underground Slums

[Lance Korilum]

Cero tossed Hikari a pair of gloves.  "Put these on, you'll have a more...  Exciting experience," followed by Cero putting on a pair of the same type of gloves.  He put in his own deck on the table, and shouted "I won't grovel to you, no matter what the result."

[Kisaragi Zane]

"Oh?" Hearing faint voices in the shadows, he stepped into the zone.

Late at night, Jellal stepped from the shadows and into the devastation known as the Umano Underground Slums. Most people would be home right about now, but not Jellal. He felt like something here had attracted him. The place spelled trouble, to which any normal person would've turned away from it. But Jellal stood tall, soaking in the air and looking up to the night sky. He opened up his phone and pressed the button at the top: emitting a small light revealing the time: 11:45 PM. He was perplexed but not bothered.

"I attack!" from a distance. Jellal looked up and saw a group of people collectively gathered around fight tables.

"They're playing...Vanguard?" he said to himself. After closely examining them, he noticed that the fighters all shared the same trend: older, vicious, and loud. "They look like a bunch of savage thugs". He closed the phone which illuminated his whole face from bottom to top and slid it into his back pocket. As Jellal took two steps, his foot collided with something: a can. Tumbling down the pile it sat on, Jellal was startled just a bit as it made a loud noise per each second. Finally hitting the ground, it made the loudest and obvious commotion, causing all of the fighters to slightly turn their heads into the direction that our blonde-mix boy was at.

He was startled, the expression on his face was one not shown to many. "Maybe I should.. turn back.." he thought. He was concealed in darkness, so it would be his best chance to run away before they came to investigate. Taking the step back to regret everything, a light shined above Jellal revealing to the fighters who was causing the ruckus.

"Tch" he said to himself, thinking it was too late. "Well.. I guess.. it's now or never." He smirked for the thrill, braving his usual face and approached the rough crowd of fighters, expecting almost anything. His eyes were aimed forward, but he could feel the glares and the smirks from each one. Their smug expressions made Jellal want to see what they were capable of. He took to the empty fight table while everyone watched him bypass all of them, as if he was a celebrity ignoring common citizens. He went into his bag trying to grab his deck case, however while inside the back, Jellal noticed he was shaking. Whether it was fear or excitement he couldn't tell and for that matter, he didn't care.

"Late at night, in a place like this..." he thought as he pulled out his deck case with his newly frozen hand. "I dunno, could be fun." He was ready for battle as the expression on his face wasn't too far off from those whom just glared him down. All he had to do, was wait.

[Helios]

Getting bored from this Cardfight, Hazama looks around at the poor conditioned area. I spot an old acquaintance, "Jellal, what in  the world are you doing here," I say to myself.

I start walking towards the fight table where Jellal is standing. Once I am close enough, I say to him, "Well, you are one of the last people I would expect to see here. Though why are you here?" Hazama asks him. "You know its not the friendliest of places."

[Kisaragi Zane]

He looked up and saw the familiar face of Hazama, the Dark Irregular player from the other day. Even in the darkest of nights, he still retained his radiance from his hair to his complexion. Jellal averted his eyes from Hazama towards the thug-like cardfighters who were previously glaring him down, to just turning away. At first he was a bit relieved, but he was still entranced in the thrill of what goes on in this area.

"I could ask you the same." he retorted while looking back at Hazama.

[Cherry]

Yukino put on the glove, then regret doing so. A girlish, high pitched shriek came out of her mouth when the shocks for each damage occurred. A blush, embarrassed by how pathetic she looked from the pain. It hurt enough for her to shut her eyes close, not seeing how Cero responded to it, but she could hear his pained grunts.

Once again, the first fight was interrupted. But not by them trying to kill each other, instead, a thug comes by. Apparently he's the older brother and one of the underground's higher ups... which was ironic. The giant man demanded they cease and leave, stating that there's no place for "their" kind. The King and Queen, at first, ignored him. Though, after his pestering, their patience simultaneously reached their limits, and they bashed the guy's head into the table together, then kicked him down further for good measure.

Furious, they fought each other for another round two like before. The sparks flying between the rival royal paladins were beyond measure, the Underground rejects all hyping it up and cheering. Neither side was even cheating, just a raw display of skill from both ends. During both fights, Yukino showed splendid command of her deck. The knights and high beasts following behind her loyally, and she herself acting in tandem with the King's power. They needed it to rival the King of Beasts, Garmore's raw power born from the formation of Snogals. In the midst of the fight, the holy knights on her end were getting worried. The queen got ahead, but then the king shut her down to five damage in one swoop. But using five total counterblasts to Superior Call Blaster Blade with Alfred's skill, and moving an antagonistic Palamedes off the board, she got back in control.

fitting music

Margals all flew to her aid, the formation of the King, Palamedes, Marron, Blaster Blade, Lien, and Pongal all came together to see the end. When the King ran out of luck, having no way to stop her next turn, Stardust Trumpeter sounded her horn. The Royal Paladins began their song of victory as Alfred dealt the finishing blow to Garmore.

Visualized on Cray, a number of Hikari's allies jumped on her for a mosh pit, and she was more than happy about it.

On Earth, Yukino threw her arms into the sky, then yanked them down, clenching her fists, fistpumping. Her majesty bounced about happily, trouncing the king once again. Pain aside, she felt amazing.

"Now, you see that I am not bluffing! I am Cray's Chosen Sword for a reason!"

Royal Paladins +10 Affinity

[Helios]

"I am here to scope out what goes on here Jellal. I'm not the type of person to stay in one place and see all the same people over and over, day after day. And besides, this is a new way of cardfighting, so naturally I would check this place out, though I do look a bit out of place here. Anyway this is a place that tests your skills mentally and physically." I get out my deck case, look through the cards, then place all 50 cards on the deck slot.

"Are we gonna do this or what?" Hazama asks with confidence even though he knows what happens when you fight in the underground.

[Lance Korilum]

Cero was smirking as he watched Hikari put on the glove, knowing all too well how much pain they could cause.  Her shrieks were a satisfying sound to him, but the gloves were still painful enough to him to cause grunts despite all the cardfights he'd been through already here.

Like their previous encounter, the first fight was interrupted.  However, it wasn't their hatred of each other that caused it this time, despite that game being neck and neck.  Instead, the older brother of one of the underground's higher ups attempted to break up the fight due to "their kind" not being allowed here, something Cero had been dealing with throughout the day.  Although Cero and Hikari managed to ignore him for a while, he eventually tried to force the fight to be ended, only to get his head slammed into the table by both Hikari and Cero at the same time, causing the table to break, followed by him being kicked to the ground just to make sure no one else would interfere again.

Their second fight was once again extremely close.  They were matched blow for blow at first, with the intensity of a storm on both ends, giving rise to massive amounts of cheering and the gathering of a large audience.  Cero and Hikari refused to cheat in the fight, simply giving their all to their opponent.  During both fights, Cero masterfully crafted his fields to maximize his attacking power with what was available to him.  He managed to bring forth a full backrow of Snogals lead by his King of Beasts, the Fang of Light Garmore, a card capable of rivaling Hikari's King of Knights, Alfred.  Although Hikari managed to get the lead from Cero at first, he quickly turned the game around and pushed her into a corner with a single turn.  However, she responded to her situation by bringing out her second Blaster Blade, which took out Cero's strongest Rear-guard, Palamedes, allowing Hikari to take the lead from Cero once again.

Even though he managed to have all four Snogals out in an attack formation, he was unable to overcome Hikari's defenses, leaving him wide open to the final blow from Alfred.  Cero, believing the fight couldn't be over yet, believed he could pull his final heal trigger from his deck and survive the turn, but this belief was only a fantasy, leaving Cero to take the final damage and suffer a severe shock that brought him to his knees.

Cero was left in shock, both figuratively and literally, that he lost to Hikari yet again.  Despite having just suffered a shock that should've rendered him unconscious, Cero stood up and pointed at Hikari, shouting "You, Hikari, I declare as the rival of Europe's King of Vanguard, Cero Kirguis!!  Don't you dare lose a cardfight until I claim my victory against you," this time having accepted that she was stronger than him.

Hikari +1 Affinity

[Cherry]

"I will match your might once again when the time of our rematch is upon us! Don't you go losing either!"

About time he acknowledged her.

Cero +1 Affinity

[Kisaragi Zane]

"I am here to scope out what goes on here Jellal. I'm not the type of person to stay in one place and see all the same people over and over, day after day. And besides, this is a new way of cardfighting, so naturally I would check this place out, though I do look a bit out of place here. Anyway this is a place that tests your skills mentally and physically." I get out my deck case, look through the cards, then place all 50 cards on the deck slot.

"Are we gonna do this or what?" Hazama asks with confidence even though he knows what happens when you fight in the underground.

"This again?" Jellal said. "Not to burst your bubble but I already fought you." He said with such coldness in his voice. However an idea popped into his head.

"I'm more interested in fighting those thugs, but you seem like you want to have a challenge. So..." his voice trailed off looking at the group of rogue cardfighters. "Let's take out as many as we can; play by their rules. If you have more wins than me, then I'll fight you. How's that?" Jellal, however, is very clever. His aim was to weed out the weaker competition while also seeing how far Hazama can go, in addition to studying his play style and deck. He had no reason to accept a request to someone he previously lost to, but Jellal was tense, motivated and focused. Adrenaline coursing through his veins, wanting to bring out his true potential and to bend the Shadow Paladins he held to his will.

[Cherry]

Gazing off to the side, she noticed the savior of the pervert from yesterday. Before leaping at him, the queen also saw Jellal. Tossing the fight glove aside, an approach was made, just to speak with him. A sort of compelling force to just communicate, but Blaster Blade warned her of Blaster Dark's presence.

Watch yourself around a wielder of Shadows, but more importantly, do not fall for Blaster Dark's envious glare.

"Hello, Jellal", Hikari greeted, taking heed of her avatar's warning.

[Kisaragi Zane]

Gazing off to the side, she noticed the savior of the pervert from yesterday. Before leaping at him, the queen also saw Jellal. Tossing the fight glove aside, an approach was made, just to speak with him. A sort of compelling force to just communicate, but Blaster Blade warned her of Blaster Dark's presence.

Watch yourself around a wielder of Shadows, but more importantly, do not fall for Blaster Dark's envious glare.

"Hello, Jellal", Hikari greeted, taking heed of her avatar's warning.

"!?" Jellal looked and saw the white haired woman from the other day. "It's you..." he said with his usual expression. "The one who talks to their cards." He didn't expect to find someone as 'aristocratic' as her to be in a place like this, especially during the night.

"Don't you two have better places to be at during this hour?" he said staring at both Hazama and Yukino. Turning to Yukino, something caught his eye, her deck box. "Right..." he thought "She has Blaster Blade..."

[Cherry]

"I do, but I was looking for new, strong players. I didn't find any here, unfortunately, so I would up dealing with a European pro", Hikari casually told Jellal her reason and her activities. She noticed his gaze, and felt Blaster Blade's personal unease. This was understandable, but the human fighter himself didn't seem the terrorist-type like his units.

"Why are you here?"

[Azuki Frappé]

Ighanna's car arrives at the hideous slum, stench was rising from the litter scattered scarcely across the road, to be honest it wasn't even a road, just a dug up path of dirt. Surrounding both sides of the "road" was cheaply made houses, constucted of just wood and plated aluminium as a roof. She wouldn't be surprised if shady business were being dealt here.

"Are you sure its this place" Ighanna asked her passengers as her driver proceeds forward into the depths of the slum. Sunlight seems to fade the further the car sinks in. It seems like they were stuck in a jungle with no escape. To her surprise, Ighanna sees two figure standing afar dressed quite formally, perhaps they are the person Hana-san was asking to meet.

"Is that the person?" She asks to reassure as the chauffeur stops and car and Ighanna steps out of it, inviting her two new friends to step out with her.

[Kisaragi Zane]

"I wandered here, saw people playing vanguard and wanted to join in." He said while retrieving the Shadow Paladin deck. He held it in his hand while staring at both Hazama and Yukino. It felt like they were all drawn here for some reason or another.

"Royal Paladin..." he thought while looking at Yukino. "Dark Irregulars" turning to Hazama. "And.." staring at Blaster Dark, the knight of darkness. Much like his avatar, Jellal felt determined and slowly placed the deck by his side while aiming at his looks at the two fighters.

"So what now?"

[Hope]

"Let's go Mii-hime..." Hana whispered as she gestured Miyuki to keep moving forward.

Hana didn't like the feeling that this place gave out, but since Miyuki had to get home as quickly as possible, there was no other choice it seems. Hana kept a close and caring eye on Miyuki to make sure that she was alright even though Hana was scared of this whole place herself. The surrounding noises made this venture even more nerve-chilling, the sound of running electricity, the sight of the underground fights. This was a new sight to her, a sight which at some points forced her to have to close her eyes. Hana loves Vanguard, but not this kind of Vanguard.

When she suddenly caught sight of her sister, she thought that was hallucinating, as if this were just something that she was seeing in order to calm down. After a couple of consecutive blinks, she realized that it really was her sister. What was she doing here? She called out to Yukino both in worry and excitement, a saving grace.

"YUKINEEE!!!" she waved at her sister.