Gravekeeper's Trial

Jaden woke up and found that he had a horrible headache.

"Aw man, it feels like my head is going to explode." He said. Jaden opened his eyes and saw that he was in a city made mostly of stone.

"What the? What is this place?" Jaden asked even though no one else was around. Jaden heard a gentle sound next to him and turned around to see Winged Kuriboh floating next to him. He failed to notice that Winged Kuriboh looked far more solid than usual.

"Hey little guy, nice to know that I'm not alone." Jaden said. Winged Kuriboh made a happy sound. Jaden then looked around.

"Any idea where we are?" He asked. Winged Kuriboh shrugged showing that he had no idea.

"Man, this place looks awesome. Someone should pinch me because I think I'm dreaming." Jaden said. Winged Kuriboh floated up to Jaden and pinched his cheek using his tiny claws. Jaden jumped at the pain and rubbed his cheek.

"Ow, Kuriboh that hurt." Jaden said. A second later he realized what he just said.

"Wait, that hurt?" Jaden said in confusion. Jaden reached out and to his amazement realized that he could touch Winged Kuriboh.

"What's going on here? I've never been able to touch you before." Jaden asked. However because Kuriboh was unable to speak Jaden had no away of knowing if he knew anything or not.

"Anyway we can't just sit here. Let's go and find the others." Jaden said. As he stood up he noticed that there was something at his feet. Jaden then reached down and picked up his duel disk.

"How did this get here? I thought I left it in my room." A very confused Jaden said.

"Oh well, I might as well take it with me." He added as he strapped his duel disk on his wrist.

Jaden began to search the city to find someone. Finally after several minutes of looking Jaden saw someone wearing a black cloak.

"Hey excuse me, do you know where I am?" Jaden asked.

The cloaked person turned around revealing herself to be a young woman. She appeared to only be about twenty years old or perhaps even younger. She had black hair and grey eyes.

Before either of them could say a word they heard the sound of footsteps coming their way. Jaden was about to call out to whoever was coming, but the woman suddenly covered Jaden's mouth and dragged him into a nearby building.

Jaden, who was still being held by the woman watched several armed men pass by the building. Luckily none of them noticed Jaden. The woman released Jaden once she was sure the men were gone.

"Stranger, you must leave this place at once." The woman said.

"Sure I'd love to, except I don't know how to, plus I've got to find my friends." Jaden said.

"Your friends." The woman whispered as a thought occurred to her.

"Stranger wait here, I will see if I can find your friends." The woman said.

"You will, gee thanks a lot." Jaden said. The woman was about to leave when Jaden said something.

"Hold on, what's your name anyway?" He asked. The woman stopped at the doorway.

"Yasmin, my name is Yasmin." She said before she left the building and disappeared from sight.

Jaden waited for what felt like hours for Yasmin to come back.

"She sure has been gone for a long time, you don't think she's in trouble do you?" Jaden asked Winged Kuriboh. Winged Kuriboh let out a confused sound.

Before Jaden could decide on what he should he do he heard voices coming his way. Suddenly several cloaked men carrying weapons appeared at the doorway and restrained Jaden. Now that Jaden was restrained the chief walked in closely followed by the veiled woman.

"Who are you, and where's Yasmin?" Jaden asked.

"She is of no concern to you right now. You should be more worried about yourself and your friends." The chief said.

"My friends? What have you done to them." Jaden demanded.

"Your friends were caught trespassing in our city, and our law says that any intruders will be buried alive." The chief said.

"What you can't be serious. We didn't even want to come here." Jaden said.

"Perhaps you will be willing to fight for your friends freedom." The chief said looking at Jaden's duel disk.

"What kind of fight? Do you mean a boxing match?" Jaden asked. The chief sighed at Jaden's naivety.

"No I was thinking of something you may be more familiar with." The chief said as he signaled one of his men to bring him something. Within a few seconds the man returned with a duel disk made entirely of stone.

"You want to duel me? Alright that sounds fun." Jaden said happily.

"Trust me, this will be a duel like none you have ever experienced before." The chief said. "Guards take him to the valley."

Soon Jaden and the chief were standing on opposite sides of a deep valley.

"Alright this is going to be awesome." Jaden said.

"I don't think the others think this is as you say awesome." The chief said.

"What do you mean?" Jaden asked.

"Look down there." The chief said pointing to the valley below.

Jaden looked down and to his horror saw Ryan, Alexis, Bastion, Chazz and Banner had all been wrapped up like mummies except for their heads and placed in coffins with the lids waiting at the sides.

"Hey, what's going on here?" A very confused Jaden asked.

"Don't you see, if you lose you and your friends will be buried alive here." The chief said.

"What! This has to be some kind of joke, right." A slightly panicking Jaden said.

"I can assure you that this is no mere joke, this is very real. Now then, shall we begin." The chief said as he placed his stone duel disk on his arm, which much to Jaden's surprise began to glow with a mystical light.

At the bottom of the valley Ryan and the others were very worried.

"What are we going to do?" Chazz asked.

"I'm afraid that the only thing we can do is hope Jaden wins the duel." Banner said.

'Good luck, Jaden. You'll need it.' Ryan thought.

"I will go first." The chief said. "I activate the field spell Necrovalley. This card prevents us from moving any monsters from the graveyard and it also increases all of my Gravekeeper's attack and defense by 500." The chief said.

"Next I summon Gravekeeper's Curse in attack mode and when I summon this monster you take 500 points of damage." He explained.

Gravekeeper's Curse ATK 800 DEF 800 LV3 DARK Spellcaster.

Gravekeeper's Curse ATK 800 + 500 = 1300 DEF 800 + 500 = 1300

Jaden LP 4000 - 500 = 3500

Jaden felt an intense pain shoot through his body as his life points went down. Also as Jaden lost life points the coffin lids slowly began to move into place.

"What happened? I actually felt that." Jaden said.

"I warned you. This duel is very real." The chief said.

At this point Jaden's smile disappeared as he realized how serious the situation was.

"Wait you really meant it when you said that you'd bury us alive." He said.

"Of course I did, now make your move." The chief said.

Jaden started his turn.

"I summon a monster in defense mode and end my turn." He said.

The chief's turn started.

"I summon Gravekeeper's Spear Soldier in attack mode and when this card attacks a monster in defense mode it deals piercing damage." The chief explained.

Gravekeeper's Spear Soldier ATK 1500 DEF 1000 LV4 DARK Spellcaster.

Gravekeeper's Spear Soldier ATK 1500 + 500 = 2000 DEF 1500 + 500 = 2000