Proved Him Wrong

Clay looked at all the spirits that had gathered around him, kneeling to him as if they were his servants. It made him feel uncomfortable, but also really good at the same time, the sight of these powerful monsters bowing to him and acting as if he was the greatest being in existence.

But he wouldn't let that get to his head, after all, it isn't good to get so full of yourself. He sat back down and thought about what he should do with them. After all, he had initially planned to give this deck to Riley for him to use instead of his other deck, but if they were spirits then it might be better for him to hold onto the deck.

"What will happen if I give your cards to someone else? Will I be able to bond with you? Will you obey my orders?" If he could gain the benefits then he wouldn't be hesitant to give them away, but if he couldn't then he would have to think of a different deck to give to Riley.

"No matter what, we will always serve you. If you our cards are far from you then it may take longer for us to listen to your orders, but if we bond with you first then there will be no problem with you giving our cards away." It was Vampire Fraulein who answered Clays question.

Now with confirmation that there will be no problem, Clay wasn't worried about what he would do with Riley. It would take a while for him to actually be able to bond with them, but after that was all done then he would be able to get Riley on board the bandwagon.

Clay nodded his head and turned back to the desk where his PDA was sitting and reached for it. He opened the call function on it and called Riley to organize the duel they would have. Being the weekend, it didn't take long for Riley to answer and them to organize the duel.

They agreed to meet in an hour by the old well where the Obelisk students went to dump their cards. With that planned, Clay turned his attention back to the spirits and began questioning them, trying to get to know them better and understand them.

Eventually he called his other spirits, the Itsu brothers. Since they had been bonded with Clay they had gained more substance in their appearance, they even cast a faint shadow when they were just in their regular spirit form.

Some of the other spirits he had gathered from the well also appeared as they too had either bonded with or were in the process of bonding with Clay. The ones who had bonded already had more to them, but not as much as the Itsu brothers.

Clay looked at all of his spirits and wondered when he was going to get those enhanced abilities he had heard about from bonding with the spirits. He asked the spirits themselves and they too seemed confused as to why he hadn't noticed a difference.

"Did you not feel anything? Apparently when spirits finish bonding there is meant to be an increase in all your abilities." Soitsu answered the question for the brothers who were all nodding their heads.

Hearing that he was correct with his thoughts of the physical boost he tried to concentrate to see if there really was a difference in his abilities, and to his glee there was. It took him a while to notice but he was able to hear a bird at least 100 meters away from his room.

"You're right. My senses seem to have been enhanced, I don't know about my strength, but I can assume that I can probably lift more than I could before. It seems that I just need to concentrate to access those enhanced abilities." He gripped his hands into a fist and proceeded to release the fist.

"Now that were finished bonding with you, you can probably bond with a few more spirits. You probably can't bond with anything too powerful, like some of these Vampires here, but some of them should be doable." Koitsu was the one to speak for the spirits once more.

"Your small friend is correct, bonding with some of us is possible, but I believe you should leave for your arrangement." Vampire Grace spoke out and reminded Clay of his duel with Riley. It would take a few minutes to reach the old well, so he started heading out right away.

He grabbed his duel disk and his deck and booked it out of his room and ran for the well. It took him a few minutes, but he could see that he was the first to arrive. He leaned against the run-down wall of the well and waited for Riley to show up, which he did around five minutes later.

Clay waved to Riley who only gave him a small nod in return. It may have seemed rude to some, but to Clay it was process. He knew his reputation within the Obelisk dorm and the affect it had on anyone associating with him, so it was clear that Riley was still stuck in the 'old ways'.

"I assume that you received all the cards required to build a deck then?" Riley asked as he had been waiting a while for Clay to contact him again. If he was being honest, he was kind of excited to have a new deck, that is, if it worked.

"You bet, and I have to say, it is one of my finest works." Clay had a smile on his face and he proceeded to grab out the deck for Riley to have a look. These cards were going to be his so there was no harm in showing them to him.

Riley didn't really pay too much attention to the cards, only briefly glancing over their effects and the fact that they required Life Points to activate some abilities. Some of them even costed as much as 2000 Life Points to activate. This completely blew his mind.

"Master, is this the human that you intend to give our cards to?" Vampire Grace appeared behind Clay and voiced her question. He didn't answer though, instead, Koitsu appeared and spoke for him so as to not look crazy in front of Riley.

"Yeah, this is the guy. There isn't really anything special about him, I just found him interesting and thought I should help the guy out. Also, I figured that if I was this supposed 'Champion of Time' then I would need some help along the way." Koitsu voiced Clay's answer to Vampire Grace, and she adopted a look of understanding.

"I see, you intend to use this human as a pawn in your game. I must say, I would not have thought of something like that. Paying attention to those below us is something that we Vampires struggle with." She seemed to had taken her own understanding of what Clay was trying to say, so he immediately went to remedy it.

"No, I just want someone reliable I can depend on. Although there is Jaden and Alexis, I feel like there should be others out there that can have my back. People who I can trust. Also, I may just want some more friends to hang with." This explanation caused a confused look to appear on her face, but she didn't question it and just evaporated from view.

The entire conversation that Clay had with Vampire Grace took no more than a few seconds, enough time for Riley to have a brief look through all of the cards in the deck.

"You expect someone to be able to win with these cards? They'll lose all of their life points before anyone even has to attack them with these effects." Riley took a moment to realize that he shouldn't have gotten his hopes up, but he was really excited seeing the way Clay dueled so he thought it would be something amazing.

"I can tell you're disappointed, but just wait till after we have our duel before you go and criticize these cards. I'll show you that they shouldn't be trifled with even if they may have some high costs." Clay took back the cards and walked some distance away from Riley before taking out his duel disk.

Riley did the same and prepared himself to face down Clay alone. He believed he had a chance now, looking at those cards and the effects he was sure that Clay would likely kill himself before he even had to move a finger.

"Alright Clay, I expect you to show me everything this deck can do." Even if he didn't think those cards could give someone a win, if it was Clay who wielded them, he didn't doubt for a second.

"You bet, let's get this show on the road."

""Duel!""

Clay: 4000

Riley: 4000