Chapter 507: Severed Wings

Hum—

As the duel began, flames engulfed the entire dueling arena. Shinji shouted angrily that Crow was a traitor, while Crow didn't utter a single word, just kept his cold face and chased after Shinji.

Behind them, the police officers who had rushed back also witnessed this scene.

"That brat Crow..." As a fated worker, a super beast of burden, Ushio had been slacking off in the morning before suddenly receiving new orders to pursue a kidnapper, so he hurried over.

He could ignore other things, but kidnapping kindergarten children was something he could not tolerate!

He held a megaphone and shouted at Shinji: "Shinji Weber! No matter what your demands are, we can talk it out. Put down the child you kidnapped. Whatever it is, the child is innocent!"

Hearing Ushio's shout, Shinji's expression didn't change in the slightest.

At this very moment, he was completely occupied by the power of the "Earthbound." The desire for destruction and malice in his heart were stimulated to the maximum. He was already a person with an extremely extreme personality, prone to taking things to the edge, and now, guided by the power of the evil god, he was even more manic.

However, manic as he was, extreme as he was, his own "logic" had not failed.

"You talking nonsense, you people only know how to be high and mighty, treating us in the lower city like cattle to be ordered around at will. Even our efforts, our voices, are just viewed as a joke—"

"Besides, you keep saying children are innocent, but aren't you the ones grabbing children today!?"

What Shinji said was exactly about the scene he and Crow had seen earlier regarding the capture of Serena.

At the time, the speaker had no intention, but the listener did. Shinji, who had finally launched a rebellion against the upper levels only to be on the verge of being suppressed, was lacking ideas. Seeing Crow going to save the child, he immediately thought of the opposite approach.

Since he couldn't defeat the current upper district with power, he would just perish together with them and let the upper district see their fury!

"You—" Ushio looked at him with the eyes of someone looking at a madman.

"I'm just doing the same thing as you people in the upper levels. What did I do wrong!?"

Ushio gritted his teeth but couldn't refute anything.

Because during this period, the filthy things the nobles of the upper district had done were disgusting even to him, a police officer.

"Crow, you should be able to understand too, right!? I'm just using their methods to deal with them! Why can't you understand me!"

"Shinji!!" Crow gritted his teeth, driving his vehicle, and confronted Shinji head-on. "Protecting children is an instinct everyone should have. If we even hurt children, wouldn't we be worse than beasts!? Even if the rebellion succeeds, wouldn't you just be the next noble?!"

"You actually dare to compare me to them?!"

"You are doing the exact same thing as them right now!"

Zzz—

The two vehicles collided side-by-side. The two children wailed loudly. Serena wanted to reach out and grab the child, but she didn't even touch them; they brushed past each other, and she grabbed at empty air.

At this moment, Crow instinctively closed his right eye and drew a sharp breath in a low voice.

"Ha... Crow, your leg seems to be injured, huh?" After colliding with Crow's D-Wheel, Shinji keenly noticed Crow's discomfort.

As a Turbo Duelist, and one of the first in this generation of this dimension to learn Turbo Dueling, he placed special importance on driving technique and driving state, and he immediately discovered the problem with Crow's condition.

Seeing this, he made a judgment almost immediately—

Hum...

At the moment of the final turn, he abruptly changed his previous driving speed, causing the positions of the two vehicles to change. Crow turned the corner a step ahead of him!

Seeing this, Crow's expression changed.

"What's wrong? You go first!" Shinji said.

He looked at those pursuing him from behind and sneered.

As long as he defeated Crow, there would be as many brothers behind to support him as he wanted, and these useless security police officers couldn't possibly catch him.

By then, he could use these two children to threaten the families of the upper-level people.

On the other side, Crow gritted his teeth. He looked at his hand cards, then at Shinji on the side, deliberated for a long time, and whispered two sentences to Serena.

Serena looked at him in surprise, not quite understanding, but at Crow's request, she still nodded.

"My turn!"

Crow drew a card.

He took a look and said: "Normal Summon, Blackwing - Mistral the Silver Shield!"

A crow wearing a silver shield mask flew out from his card and guarded his field.

Blackwing - Mistral the Silver Shield, Level 2, Dark Attribute, Winged Beast-Type, DEF 1800.

"Set one card, end turn."

"... Is that it? Crow!" Seeing Crow end his turn like this, Shinji's right hand couldn't help but tremble. "Your body is already in such a tattered state, yet you are still here stopping me?

Do you want to prove that you are the right one that much?"

"I don't want to prove anything, I just think children shouldn't be dragged into this!"

"Then don't blame me, Crow!!" Shinji roared. The Dark Mark on his wrist began to flicker, symbolizing his belief, and the most fundamental Earthbound power began to surge, making the surrounding corridor of flames even gloomier. "Normal Summon, Level 2, Tuner monster, Bee Force - Sting the Poison Needle!"

A physical gale blew through the dueling arena.

A mechanical bee appeared on his field, with venom exuding an ominous aura dripping from its micro-needle.

"When this card is Summoned/Special Summoned, activate. Add a Bee Force monster other than this card from the Deck to the hand. I add Bee Force - Twin Bow the Attacker to my hand!

Then, immediately activate its effect, activate during my Main Phase. Special Summon this card!"

"Tuning with two monsters!"

"Roll up the explosive gale with membranous wings, open the path of truth with the stinger!"

"Synchro Summon, Level 5, Bee Force - Azusa the Spirit Bow!"

An anthropomorphic bee holding a bow and arrow appeared in the air, aiming its bow and arrow at Crow.

Bee Force - Azusa the Spirit Bow, Level 5, Wind Attribute, Insect-Type, ATK 2200.

"Battle, use Spirit Bow to attack your Silver Shield!"

Azusa the Spirit Bow slowly drew the bowstring, aiming the arrow at the crow guarding Crow's field. Then, after a moment of aiming, it suddenly pulled the bowstring, and the arrow shot out instantly, piercing through the monster. But that wasn't all; after the arrow penetrated the monster, it actually shot at the D-Wheel, causing Crow, who was originally further ahead, to have his speed drop sharply.

Not only that, this arrow seemed to be aimed at Crow's leg, causing Crow, who was already injured, to lose control and cry out in pain.

"That's too despicable, aiming at someone's wound!" Among the security police officers chasing the two, someone instinctively shouted.

Although there were methods in Turbo Dueling to use monsters to attack the main body directly, causing the opponent to be unable to continue driving and thus win, such methods, let alone those Turbo Duelists in the lower city who pursued "freedom," even the security police wouldn't use—at most, they would just summon monsters to block the road.

But that wasn't all.

Because they could see that this duel was no longer a "duel image"; it seemed that due to some factor, Shinji's monsters had "physical form" and could truly cause damage!

However, after suffering this pain, Crow was not too surprised. Instead, in such a situation, he actually erupted with power once again, controlling the vehicle to crash into Shinji.

"Seeking your own death!" Shinji's eyes were red with killing intent; he didn't care at all what Crow was thinking.

Bang!

"Ahhh!!!" Crow screamed.

Shinji wanted to strike and retreat, but found that this time Crow was controlling the vehicle tightly, sticking to him fiercely.

"What are you doing—" Shinji was startled. He looked back and saw "Rin" actually standing on the D-Wheel regardless of her life, jumping directly toward his side. "Are you tired of living—"

Even if you jump over, so what? Anyway, you haven't untied the rope bindings. When the time comes, I'll just shake you off, and won't you be finished?

Yet, unexpectedly, the moment Serena jumped over, the binding rope actually loosened inexplicably!

He didn't know what had happened, and he couldn't see—

He couldn't see that a panda had been thrown over by Serena when he first collided with Crow, and it had been secretly untying the knots just for this moment!

The next second, Serena jumped off the vehicle even more recklessly, just like that, taking the two children away from Shinji's vehicle!

"Crow!!!!"

Shinji went completely insane. He crashed into Crow regardless of his own life—

After Crow finished all this, as if he had finally fulfilled his wish, he completely lost all support and could no longer spend the effort to duel.

He understood Shinji and was smart enough to have long since figured out how to save the two children.

Then, as the price... as someone who initiated a duel but didn't put his mind on the duel, being knocked away was only natural.

His D-Wheel was knocked away, and the huge impact force slammed him directly onto the guardrail of the lane. But just like how he had "flown down" from a higher lane relying on a glider before, the lane, which had had a large number of guardrails destroyed by the Fusion Army, could no longer protect the rider.

He fell from the sky. The crow that had lost its "balance" could no longer fly. He fell crazily from the sky like a meteorite, and finally...

Bang.

A cracked crater was smashed into the open ground of the lower level.

Crow lay in the crater, looking up at the sky, his eyes gradually becoming lifeless, completely losing their luster.

(End of chapter)