Chapter 159:

"There seem to be a fair number of faint sounds coming from somewhere up ahead. Please be careful."

Ishizu's voice sounded softly at Rowan's ear in warning, though she herself stayed hidden, not manifesting.

Rowan gave a quiet nod, then gestured to Alexis and Bastion.

"Found the direction. Follow me."

Of the group, only Jaden and Chazz shared Rowan's ability to see Duel Spirits directly.

Everyone else had no way of spotting the round Kuriboh at all.

The only option was to simply follow wherever Rowan led.

"Is it the round Kuriboh? Or Gravekeeper's Assailant...?"

Alexis blinked, then quickly worked out the likely reason on her own.

She and her two friends fell into step beside Rowan, following his lead through the trees.

After the group pushed through a long stretch of forest, a broad expanse of tawny, rocky wasteland finally opened up ahead of them.

At the far end of that clearing stood a massive, cylindrical structure, unmistakably shaped like an ancient gladiatorial arena.

"What is that?!" Jaden, Bastion, and Chazz all froze, eyes going wide as they stared up at the ancient arena.

Since when did the island housing Duel Academy have some foreign structure like this sitting on it?

And judging by the look of it, the construction seemed remarkably fresh. Like it had all been built just recently.

"So it really is that muscle-bound Amazoness lady," Rowan muttered under his breath, eyeing the oddly familiar arena.

"Let's go take a look inside. That'll tell us what's actually going on," he said, already moving toward the arena's massive entrance without waiting for a response.

The others fell in behind him at once, wary and alert.

Once inside, they found the arena's interior supported by row after row of stone columns, with a series of stepped platforms rising along the walls.

On those platforms, a good number of Duel Academy students were hard at work with crude, primitive tools, straining to pry loose massive blocks of stone and earth.

Among them, Rowan spotted an all too familiar figure: a head of blond, mushroom-shaped hair.

"Are those... the missing students?" Alexis said, clearly startled.

"And Professor Crowler is here too?!"

Jaden, Chazz, and Syrus all gaped in unison at the unmistakable blond mushroom head laboring away among the crowd.

"Hm?!"

Off on one of the distant platforms, Professor Crowler, shovel in hand, prying at stone like common labor, heard the commotion and spotted the new arrivals.

His face went slack with bewilderment.

"Mamma mia, they got even the failing students dragged into this too..."

"ROAR!!"

Right then, a ferocious tiger's roar tore through the air nearby.

Rowan and Alexis both turned just in time to see a massive, savage, blue-eyed tiger, one eye scarred and ruined, appear at the edge of the arena.

Barely a few meters away from them.

"Whoa! It's a tiger!"

Jaden, Syrus, and Chazz all froze stiff, a bead of cold sweat rolling down each of their faces.

The next instant they bolted, screaming, straight for the nearest stone pillar behind them.

In a single fluid motion they scrambled up in a blur, piling on top of each other in a perfect human pyramid clinging to the column.

Their speed was honestly almost impressive enough to rival Professor Crowler's legendary dodging through the underbrush earlier that year.

Rowan's face twitched watching this unfold.

He genuinely wanted to ask where exactly these three had been hiding that kind of speed.

And why, somehow, none of it seemed to be rubbing off on his side of the group...

"ROAR!!"

The vicious, one-eyed blue-eyed tiger let out another snarl and lunged straight for the four of them still standing their ground, Rowan and Alexis included.

"The tiger's coming this way!" Alexis's two friends shrieked, clinging to each other and squeezing their eyes shut in terror.

Even Alexis herself froze up for a moment, genuinely startled, completely unsure what to do.

Only Rowan stayed perfectly composed.

He could, after all, summon Camula out at any moment to take the hit for him.

As a vampire wielding her own Shadow power, dealing with one tiger would hardly be a problem for her.

Even if that tiger technically happened to be a physically manifested Duel Spirit, some kind of pet belonging to the Amazoness woman.

"Hah!"

But just as Rowan reached for the dark card, ready to summon her over from the cabin where she'd stayed behind, a composed figure in black robes beat him to it, a low, sharp cry escaping her lips as she rose up from the deck at his side, serpentine dagger already drawn.

Gravekeeper's Assailant, half solid, half spectral, lunged forward and struck at the charging tiger with her blade.

"SHRK!"

A flash of cold steel, and the savage tiger let out a pained, blood-spraying howl, sent flying by the blow, crashing down hard some distance away.

It scrambled back up quickly, but didn't dare come at them again so recklessly.

Instead it stayed put, growling low and wary at Rowan from a distance, while Gravekeeper's Assailant, her attack finished, faded back into the half-visible form only Duel Spirits and their bonded partners could perceive.

As a fellow Duel Spirit, the tiger could plainly still see her there.

"Kuri kuri!"

It could even see the round Kuriboh, perched smugly on Gravekeeper's Assailant's shoulder, sticking its tongue out at the tiger, riding the coattails of someone else's victory like it had done all the work itself.

"..." Rowan's face went a little red.

Where exactly had this little guy picked up that kind of attitude?

He was supposed to be raising it with nothing but wholesome, positive values, and somehow it kept learning all the worst habits anyway.

"Was that... just now, was that Gravekeeper's Assailant?" Alexis asked, turning to Rowan, clearly startled.

From where she'd been standing, she'd only caught the faintest glimpse, a familiar shape in black robes flickering into view for a split second right as the huge, savage tiger lunged, before vanishing again just as fast.

Her two friends, Jasmine and Mindy, hadn't seen anything at all.

They'd shut their eyes on reflex the moment the tiger charged, clinging to each other, and were currently just confused about why they were both still in one piece.

The tiger, meanwhile, was still crouched some distance off, growling low and wary, clearly in no hurry to try its luck again.

Hearing Alexis's question directed at Rowan, both girls turned to look at him too, waiting for an answer.