Authors note: Hello again! I hope you enjoyed teh first installment, and hope you will enjoy this one too. Hopefully people who read the first one will be reading this, and hopefully wwe'll get new readers soon also. Enjoy!
Chapter 1
Sitting in the stands amongst the teachers, looking down upon the action, Rory remembered a year ago when he had been down there, testing his new deck, and hoping that he would be able to join the illustrious academy.
There were hundreds of would-be students across from him, and he was trying to assess which would be interesting duellists at the academy. He had seen a variety of deck strategies now, but not many were managing to out-do the duelling proctors. Rory could sense the fear of the next wave of duellists, as they entered a duel that would shape their lives forever.
Rory had volunteered Professor Crowler's new option for second and third year Obelisk students, which was to help as proctors for the new students. He had already duelled a couple of students that day, using the proctor deck which he had been given.
He had obviously gone easier on them, enjoying the chance to relax. As such, his duels had already admitted three of the five duellists he had duelled, one of whom had played a level two monster deck that Rory found to be quite interesting.
He had one more opponent on that day, and made his way downwards towards the arena where he would be duelling the next student. As he wandered slowly down the stairs, once more examining his proctor deck, Rory heard a voice from behind him calling his name.
"Ror!"
He turned instantly, happy to see his friend, Richard, who had also volunteered to help, and had just left the arena below. The taller, brown-haired boy approached him, smiling.
"Those new duellists are really trying their hardest!"
"Yes, I noticed that too." Rory noted "I only have one more. How about you?"
"No. I just finished my final duel. It was a British girl who nearly cried when I attacked her. She played a rock deck, like I usually do. I had to go easy on her in the end."
"You let her win!" Rory gasped "Why on Earth?"
Richard blushed, but Rory was called to the arena below, so received no answer. He hopped down to the duelling level, where he slapped his deck in to his duel disk, and turned to face his opponent.
In front of him stood a boy only slightly shorter than Rory, with fairly short brown hair, who seemed eerily familiar, though Rory could not place him.
"What's your name?" Rory said, inconspicuously trying to remember him.
"I'm Michael Theseus." The boy said in a calm, peaceful voice. "What's yours?"
"Well, I'm Rory, and I'll be your proctor today! So, ready to duel?"
The two boys lifted their duel disks and a 4000 life point counter appeared by them both.
"You can duel first," Rory stated "So try to amaze me!"
"Ok." Muttered the boy, who was obviously nervous. "I set a card face down, and summon my Machine king Prototype in attack position."
Rory watched the two holograms appear; the blank card and the large red android, which held out its arms and glared at him through a cybernetic slit. (1600 /1500).
"Nice start." Rory nodded "I'll summon my mystic horseman in attack mode and play sword and shield. This card switches our monsters attacks with their defences."
The centaur appeared next to Rory, and it glowed as the spell card activated. (1550/1300).
"And now, because of my spell card, your monster only has 1500 attack points, so I'll attack your machine king!"
"You've forgotten my cards effect!" Michael yelled out
"No I haven't! Your monster has no way of stopping my attack!"
"Oh no, the attack will go on, but I activate my trap, DNA surgery!"
Rory gasped. He had not seen this strategy coming, and watched as his horseman became covered in steel armour.
"Now for my machine king prototype's effect. He gains 100 attack for every machine-type monster on the field, and since I just made your horseman a machine, my monster gains 100 more points!" (1600/1700)
Rory's horseman exploded, and his life fell to 3950. He grimaced, and looked back at his hand.
"I set one card face down, and end my turn." He said. "You're doing well, just keep it up!"
"Thanks." Michael said drawing a card, and attempting to smile. "I summon cyber phoenix in attack position, so my machine king gains 100 attack!" (1700/1600)
The large metallic bird appeared in front of Michael, and let out a metallic screech. (1200/1600).
"Now, both my monsters attack you directly!" Michael stuttered.
Rory was blasted by the large metal bird in front of him, before the machine king smashed him with its sword, lowering his life points to 1050.
"Now, to end my turn, I play future fusion." Michael murmured "I can send monsters in my deck to the graveyard to summon a fusion monster in two turns."
As Michael said this, he took a large number of cards from his deck and placed them in to his graveyard. Rory raised an eyebrow.
"Are you sure that you're summoning a fusion monster, because you removed an awful lot of fusion material monsters from your deck."
"Oh no. I knew I'd do something wrong! I thought that I should have done that but now I can see how stupid it was. I end my turn."
Rory frowned. He didn't want to make the boy upset, but he was still confused about the card, as it had appeared that Michael had removed all of the monsters from his deck.
"Ok, I activate my call of the haunted! It allows me to bring back my mystic horseman in attack position! Then I'll tribute it to summon my millennium shield in attack mode."
A large brown metal shield appeared in front of Rory, and he smiled. (0/3000).
"And now I'll end my turn."
"Why would you end your turn? You only have an attack position monster with zero attack!" Michael yelled.
"You'll see." Rory grinned
"Fine. I summon my perfect machine king by tributing both my monsters! And since my DNA surgery is still on the field, he gains 500 more attack points!"
Both of Michael's monsters disappeared, and a massive android with white armour appeared. (3200/1500).
"Now, since you have no face-down cards, I can attack directly through your millennium shield and win the duel!"
"Wrong! I activate my Book of Moon!" Rory interrupted "It turns your monster in to face-down defence position, stopping your chance to attack!"
Michael frowned. "I end my turn."
"Ok!" Rory shouted "I activate nobleman of crossout! This card removes your monster from the game!"
Michael gasped as his monster vanished before his eyes, leaving him defenceless.
"Next up, I use monster reborn on your perfect machine king!" Rory screamed "It allows me to place it on my field. Now I use exchange! My spell card lets us look at each others hands and take a card."
Michael looked at Rory's hand, though there was nothing that could help him there, so he took a jar of greed. Rory then looked at his opponent's hand, and happily took the limiter removal from it.
"Now that I have this," Rory began "I activate it to double my Machine kings attack points until the turn's end. And since he already has 3200 points, he now has 6400!"
The large android which was now under Rory's control shone as it's circuits trembled with power, and it smashed a fist directly in to Michael, whose life points fell to 1600.
"Perfect." Rory smiled "Now I change my millennium shield in to defence, and end my turn, which destroys perfect machine king."
As Rory smirked, the android that he had stolen from the grave earlier that turn burst in to flames and returned to where he had taken it from.
Michael drew. He frowned looking from card to card, before turning away from his cards.
"I activate the effect of my future fusion." He stuttered "It allows me to fusion summon the monster I removed fusion material monsters for two turns ago. And the monster I chose was my chimeratech overdragon!"
"Your what?" Rory gasped, his face going pale and his voice going squeaky. He now understood the meaning of the numerous monsters that had been sent to the graveyard. He had thought it looked like all of the monsters were leaving Michael's deck, and it turned out he was right.
Michael had a machine deck, so by removing all of the machine monsters in his deck, as well as one of his cyber dragons, he would be able to summon an undefeatable monster.
"Now," Michael laughed, the stuttering gone from his now clear voice. "I guess you know my monster's effect. Since I used 20 fusion material monsters for its summoning, it has twenty heads, twenty attacks, and 16,000 attack points!"
The whole of the stadium floor began to shake as a single cyber dragon floated in to the air, though it soon connected with the hundreds of other machine monsters appearing in a flash of blinding light.
Amongst the creatures there were ancient gear monsters, cyber monsters and loads of other types of machines. As the searing light they joined in got too bright to look at, Rory covered his eyes, still trying to look upwards through his fingers at it, though his attempts were in vein.
When the light cleared, an enormous metal dragon with twenty large, fanged heads appeared, so large that it covered the entire of the building's floor, leaving little space in the other duelling arenas for the competitors to battle, though almost everyone in the building was already watching the duel anyway.
Richard sat open-mouthed, sitting next to Damien, who was profusely worried, and a girl with brown hair. All three of them were gazing at the dragon as if it could not possibly exist.
But the one who was most sure of the dragon's existence was the one who most wished it didn't exist. Rory was now directly underneath the creature's massive underbelly.
"You tricked me!" Rory yelled at his opponent, keeping his eyes firmly on the dragon.
"How? By pretending that I was insecure about my duelling skills? I think that you should know that by now, Rory! You should always be on your highest guard! I can't believe-" Michael roared, before frowning and shaking his head. "Chimeratech overdragon, destroy his monster!"
The monster evaporated, and Rory gulped, closing his eyes before the blast. But there was no second blast. He opened his eyes again, to see Michael standing beneath his dragon looking at him.
"I set a card and it's your turn, Proctor. My dragon only gains multiple attacks for every monster on your field."
Rory nodded, and drew from his deck. He was now certain that he could not win, but he could always hope for a draw.
"I activate ring of destruction!" he yelled. "It destroys your monster and we both lose life points equal to its attack!"
"You mean it's original attack?" Michael smiled. "It's original attack of zero?"
Rory gasped, unbelieving that he had been tricked by such an easy trap.
"I can still wipe out your life points now that your monster is gone! I summon great white in attack mode! Now he attacks your life points directly."
As Rory said the final words, he noticed the lone face-down card on his opponent's field, and realised his mistake, but it was too late.
"I activate my magical cylinders, and that means that you fail this duel!" Michael yelled, as a blast of energy shot directly at Rory, blasting him backwards against the wall.
He looked up to see the holograms gone, and the boy walking slowly towards him, a deep confidence surging through him.
"Good duel. I guess that means I can join the academy?"
Rory dropped his scowl and smiled. "Sure, maybe we can duel again sometime. Then I'll use my real deck and teach you how to duel!"
"Maybe." Smiled Michael, before turning and walking away from the arena.
Rory also turned, walking back up the stairs to where Richard was sitting with Damien. He approached them, looked at the girl sitting beside Richard with a puzzled look, and sat down beside Damien.
"Don't worry, Rory." Damien grinned "Weren't you saying just the other day that you needed a new opponent worthy of your power?"
Rory nodded once.
"Then isn't this the perfect opportunity? As soon as term begins, I'll start training you up for your duel against him. Good idea?"
Rory nodded again, and then smiled.
"That means that at the end of the year, it won't be this pathetic newcomer who duels you in the grad match, it'll be Richard or I!"
Damien grinned again, and this time it was he who nodded.
"Well," Damien stated in a hushed voice "that is if Richard doesn't have something better to do."
He pointed over his shoulder with his head, at Richard, who was sitting with the brunette girl, who Richard guessed must have been the one from the duel he had been told about.
Rory laughed silently, not wanting to get on his friends bad side, and turned back to Damien.
"As soon as term starts, back to practice. I promise you, Michael is going down!"
