[justify][h1]EVERY MAN IS GUILTY[/h1]

Beramode could not help the invisible smirk that passed over his face when Krü revealed that he was not only prepared to [b]duel[/b] but had been hiding his very own [b]game mat[/b] in plain sight this entire time. Unlike Krü, the King of the Night had ascended beyond hatred long ago, had quite literally torn it from his chest and cast it out into the stars where it had evolved over the course of thousands of years to become its own lifeform.

What the people of Neo Babylon now called [b]The Dragon[/b].

With a snap of his wrist one of the shadows hiding up his sleeve shot straight out and then back, forming what by outward appearances was the blade of a scythe stretching back along the outside of his forearm. A modification of, one might even say edgier version, the infamous [b]duel disk[/b]. When Beramode placed his deck against the bulky pivot point connecting the blade to his wrist it sank into the shadows, melding with them, disappearing from sight completely before depositing five into his waiting hands. [color=662d91]“Excellent,”[/color] Was his only reply. Whether he meant the game or his hand unknown. [color=662d91]“Tell me about yourself, Krü, I do not mean to brag but I am at least somewhat infamous on this side of the central finite curve while you have managed to elude my senses until this very moment.”[/color]

Beramode placed two cards face down on the bottom rung another face up.

[color=662d91]“I play Pack of Dogs in defense mode, as you can see, they will open fire on any monsters you play. Suppressing Fire, I believe they call it, the overall effect will lower their attack and defense for the next turn if you don’t do anything about it and leave you open to my next ploy.”[/color]

Just as he spoke, one of the floating metalloids picked up on the divine exchange between them, it splits into five different bodies like a peeling fruit and each took the form of a Black Dog soldier. Crouching on Beramode’s side of the field, guns aimed in Krü’s direction, they too wanted to play.

[h1]OF ALL THE GOOD[/h1]

[We’ve lost visual on the target.] [Switching to ether vision.] [Retreating to a safe altitude.]

The Black Dog’s comms were a buzz with chatter about the newest development but if the troops felt anything akin to fear or intimidation, it did not show in the hollow static of their voices, that alone pleased Rodrigo who did naught but raise his right hand to flag down his second-in-command.

[color=808080]“Maintain suppressive fire, I’m going in.”[/color]

With Ether Vision the world was a glow, the flow of potential energy laid bare for his men to see, Rodrigo did not need goggles when he had already upgraded his eyes to see the nascent dreams of the world. Stronger in living entities than in inanimate objects. Webbing itself through the fetid flesh of newly made corpses exposing the lich’s cursed magic for it really was, parasitism, he weaved around the nearest weed zombie with criminal ease moments before it exploded a second time from incoming suppressing fire and made his way towards the center.

Juanito Deleto had been Hector’s right-hand for quite a while, his nickname though silly had been well-earned, many of the drug lords enemies political or otherwise had disappeared from this life so to see him twitching back into being with fetid mold springing out of the gaping bullet wounds brought no small joy to Rodrigo. His body took to the mutagenic agents with frightening alacrity, growing stronger than before where already he’d been a massive man in every sense of the word, but even the crustacean claw that ripped out of the fragile flesh of his right arm was not enough to catch Rodrigo with its first sweeping snip.

“You’ve always been an arrogant prick, Rodrigo.” He said with blood bubbling in his throat. “Always bragging about how tough you are but all you ever do is dodg—”

With but a single tap of his knuckles the conversation came to a close. It seemed no faster than a pat on the shoulder but the ripples that flowed throughout Juanito’s belly pulverized what remained of his skeleton like crashing waves before all at once, he exploded backwards, broad shouldered back bursting open to shoot chunks of bone and smoldering gore in the direction of Hector and his friend. There was a lot of killing ground left between him and his quart. Plenty of time for them to bring a new trick to bear, but with the helicarrier drawing back into position and the scouts taking their bead, it wasn’t like Rodrigo planed to let his quarry rest easy while he stalked towards them.

[color=808080]“Is this what you signed your life away, Hector? All I’m seeing are the same old tricks.”[/color]

[h1]HE DID NOT DO[/h1][/justify]