Duel 3: Soul-Snatchers Contest
"Duel!"
Wick 4000
Marik 4000
"I'll start!" Wick said, drawing a card out of his Chaos duel disk. "I activate the Field Spell, Savage Colosseum!"
A battered coliseum carved of white marble rose out of the floor with a great rumbling and shaking. Rubble rained down as Marik looked on in interest. "I see," he growled, then laughed. "Not that anything it does will stop me!"
"Perhaps not," Wick said, his gold teeth glinting. "But it will certainly get you going!"
"What?" Marik said warily, no longer laughing.
"You see, Savage Colosseum has a very interesting effect on the game. Now, just like the gladiators that once fought on its ground, we have no choice but to battle each other. If a monster is in Attack Mode, it must attack if able! We also each gain 300 Life Points each time one of our monsters attacks. And if a monster is in Attack Mode but couldn't attack, it's destroyed at the end of its controller's turn."
"Oh, one last thing," Wick said, grinning evilly. "Savage Colosseum is what's known as a Binding Card. It also has an effect that affects the players themselves. If either of us has no cards on the field, other than Field Spell cards, we can choose to Special Summon ourselves to the field as Normal Monsters that have ATK and DEF equal to our Life Points at the time. And I think you can imagine-" Wick laughed- "what happens when you get destroyed. Let me clear it up for you. You lose... the game and your soul!"
"Now I'll place a card facedown," Wick continued, "and summon Spirit Reaper in Defense Mode!" A holographic reaper with a long purple cloak and leathery skin appeared, wielding an enormous scythe. "That ends my turn."
Turn 1
Wick 4000
Spirit Reaper, 200 DEF
Field: Savage Colosseum
1 facedown
"Impressive!" Marik cackled, his eyes widening. "It looks like this might be more of a challenge than I expected! It will be interesting to see you fed to the shadows!"
"Just go already," Wick said, looking bored.
"Very well! I'll place a card facedown as well. Then I'll bring out Granadora, in Attack Mode!" The hologram of a hideous beast with as many eyes as it had mouths appeared before Marik. It screeched at Wick.
"When Granadora is summoned, I gain 1000 Life Points!" Marik crowed gleefully, watching as his counter raised.
Marik 5000
"Because of your Colosseum, I'll have to attack your Spirit Reaper. Say goodbye!"
"Not quite," Wick replied calmly. "Reaper, Counterattack!"
The zombie leapt up and intercepted Granadora's attack, blocking the slash with its scythe.
"What's this?" Marik said, his eye twitching. "Your Spirit Reaper should be in the Graveyard. Why is it still on the field?"
"It seems I forgot to mention Spirit Reaper's special ability," Wick said, his eyes flashing. "It can't be destroyed in battle with another monster."
"EH?!" Marik roared.
"Yes, and it's pointless trying to get rid of it, so why don't we move on so I can go?"
"Rrr," Marik said, grinding his teeth. "Very well, I end my turn."
Turn 2
Marik 5300
Granadora, 1900 ATK
1 facedown
"My move," Wick said, taking a card from his duel disk. "I summon Zolga, in Attack Mode!" A projection of a fairy with a metal headdress and billowing cloak appeared on the field. It had a glowing red eye set into the forehead of its helmet. "Zolga is one of the two Monster Binding Cards. Due to his effect, he is unaffected by the effects of Binding Cards other than himself. And now I'll play a third Binding Card. Go, Final Countdown!"
Wick held up the card, and something shot out of it into the sky above the coliseum, exploding into a circle of twenty burning stars. The dark sky swirled in the middle of the circle, forming a funnel. "I bet you're wondering what this does," Wick said casually, indicating the circle.
"Not particularly," Marik sneered, trying to look disinterested.
"Right," Wick said sarcastically. "Well, regardless, allow me to shed some light on the situation."
The stars flared brighter as one suddenly flickered out and was sucked into the swirling funnel. The cloud formation took on the shape of a face, with empty eyes and a dark, all-consuming mouth that was split wide in a leer to rival Marik's.
"You see," Wick continued, smirking at the slightly bemused expression on Marik's face, "as you might've guessed, this card counts down the turns until the end of the duel. For each turn, this card gains one counter, and one of those stars is consumed." Wick pointed to the sky. "After all twenty stars have gone... I win. And what's more, I get to keep you as a prize!"
Wick laughed. "This was turn one. Your next turn will be turn two, and so on. And what's more, the Final Countdown is a Field Spell, but it can be activated in the Spell & Trap Zones, so I can still use the effect of my Savage Colosseum!"
"That's the end of my turn," Wick said, his gold teeth glinting at Marik. "Your move."
Turn 3
Wick 4000
Zolga, 1700 ATK
Spirit Reaper, 200 DEF
Field: Savage Colosseum
Field: Final Countdown (1 counter)
1 facedown
"I draw!" Marik ripped a card out of his duel disk, looked at it, and laughed. "This will put an end to your weak strategy. First, I'll Tribute my Granadora for the mighty Helpoemer!" Granadora disappeared in a flash of light, to be suddenly replaced by a fiend on a throne of runes, with no visible eyes and faces all over its body. "And then I'll take out your foolish Final Countdown with Mystical Space Typhoon!"
A whirling tornado emerged from the card and made its way across the field, slowing as it reached its destination. But instead of annihilating the Final Countdown, the typhoon stopped and faded away altogether.
"No!" Marik shouted. "What now?"
"Another property of Binding Cards," Wick said, smiling at Marik just to incense him, "is that they can only be destroyed by cards such as Heavy Storm that destroy multiple cards at once. You won't get anywhere with cards like that. Which reminds me, there's another counter on the Final Countdown."
Field: Final Countdown (2 counters)
"I can still attack your Zolga with my Helpoemer!" Marik yelled, his eyes wild. "I attack!" Helpoemer moved forward to where Zolga stood and struck it, but nothing happened.
Marik screamed and tore at his hair. "NOT AGAIN!"
"Remember, Zolga is a Binding Card too," Wick told a very distressed Marik. "Though I still take battle damage, Zolga stays put."
Wick 3700
Marik 5600
"Don't feel too bad," Wick grinned at Marik. "You still have more Life Points than me. For now."
Turn 4
Marik 5600
Helpoemer, 2000 ATK
1 facedown
"Here we go!" Wick said, grinning mischievously as he drew a card. "First of all, there's another counter on the Final Countdown."
Field: Final Countdown (3 counters)
"And now," Wick boomed in a triumphant voice, "my master plan unfolds. I summon Mystic Tomato to the field!"
There was an awkward silence. Then Marik burst out in cruel laughter. "And what," he sneered, as the jack-o-lantern-faced tomato bounced onto the field, "is this supposed to do against me?"
"It's not supposed to do anything but attack," Wick replied steadily, and the tomato did just that. Bouncing up to Helpoemer, it smashed itself against the other monster and burst like a bad fruit (which it was, of course).
Wick 3400
"A shame," sighed Wick, staring at the rapidly fading mess of holographic tomato. "That was one of my favorite monsters." He turned back to the angry and bewildered Marik. "When Mystic Tomato is sent to the card Graveyard as a result of battle, it lets me summon another monster straight from my Deck! It must have 1500 or less ATK to be summoned, but the monster I have in mind is quite within that range."