Aside from Chiharu's early struggles due to Ren's scatterbrained explanation, she'd been holding her own against the Dark Plant without too much trouble. Ren, for his part, had been paying more attention to that duel than his own. Almost like he was disrespecting the Ai opponent, Ren slid a card into his duel disk without even looking at it. It was Insect Armor with Laser Canon, boosting up the 300 ATK Petit Moth he'd summoned a turn earlier up to 1000 ATK. Taking his eyes briefly off Chiharu, he glanced at the change slime and said [color=#EF581A]"I'll use Book of Taiyou to change that face-down monster face-up."[/color] The monster revealed by Ren's spell card was 8-Claws Scorpion, who's attack was much too low to withstand Petit Moth. Ren threw his hand forward and commanded his Petit Moth to [color=#EF581A]"Attack that monster!"[/color] with the creature obeying so. The canon which was now on its wormy little back flared up and shot right through the scorpion, hitting the Change Slime behind it and causing both to melt away into a goop. Ren could hear Chiharu finishing her own duel, but he didn't get a chance to congratulate her.

[color=#EF581A]"Gngh-!"[/color] Ren choked, feeling the crushing weight of Chiharu's arms collapsing his ribs despite being inside of a virtual world. Ren wasn't exactly sure [i]why[/i] he could feel the pressure of his friend's grip leaving him to struggle for air, but whatever the case was, he tapped her hands with his own. [color=#EF581A]"I give up...! I give up...!"[/color] he choked out, trying to get the overly excitable vice of death to let go of him. Ren coughed a few times when he was released from Chiharu's grip, they had a laugh about it and he praised her for a job well done.

[color=#EF581A]"That was good for your first time, Luna-chi! Maybe next we should-"[/color] he said, about to suggest dueling each-other, but was cut off when he noticed something squirming behind Chiharu. Ren stepped around and in front of her, thrusting out his arm to block another Dark Plant from approaching his friend. [color=#EF581A]"Oops... or not. Seems like there's still more coming!"[/color] he yelled back at her, powering up his Duel Disk again for another round. Despite his intent to protect Chiharu, more and more monsters started to gather around the cart they were protecting. Chiharu didn't have a choice but to throw herself back into dueling again.

They each finished off another two or three monsters, but the amount gathering around them was increasing at a faster rate than either of them could handle. The monsters started taking them on in a two-on-one, then three, leading to both Ren and Chiharu almost getting overwhelmed by their numbers. Just when the situation started to get dire, though, another person's voice rang out. [color=#EBF5FF]"From my hand, I activate the spell cards Raimei and Sparks!"[/color] it cried, small bolts of lightning and a mild fire igniting one of the Dark Plants Ren was facing. Having come from a blind angle, another [url=https://i.imgur.com/lMCHRoZ.jpg]person[/url] was standing next to Ren with his Duel Disk activated.

Ren was about to ask where the silver-haired gentleman came from, but he got about as far as [color=#EF581A]"Where did you-?"[/color] before his saviour cut him off.

[color=#EBF5FF]"There's no time for that now. Watch out, more of them are coming!"[/color] he sternly warned Ren. Together with this mysterious stranger, and the help of a couple of other players who eventually noticed the commotion and joined in the monsters were successfully repelled... after a time. After the exhausting ordeal, the merchant who the players had saved started handing out cards to the participating players. The more monsters they had defeated, the stronger the card reward was. The man who'd helped Chiharu and Ren out approached the duo to introduce himself after it had all been resolved. [color=#EBF5FF]"Sorry about earlier. I had spotted you two having some trouble from a distance, so I thought I'd come help out. My name is Silver_Bullet, but you can call me Silver if you'd like."[/color]