When the Gods become bored, they will sometimes warp the very fabric of time and space to bring forth something worth their interest. This is the result of such things.
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When the Gods Become Bored
Conflict 1: Badass versus Whelp
Duelists: Rikuo Amero and Ichigo Pilkington
Location: Duel Academy Obelisk Blue Arena
Reason: Exhibition Match
Life Points: 4000
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"It's been a while, hasn't it?" Amidst the cheering of the crowds, Ichigo could barely hear himself. However he knew that the old jackass could hear him just fine.
From across the field Rikuo tugged on the collar of his black leather jacket and yawned. "Yeah, I suppose it has been. From what I've heard you've become stronger since our last duel, but to be honest I can't see any difference in you from before. After all, just look at you."
"Yeah, I hasn't changed all that much as of lately physically, but in my dueling skills there's been an amazing transformation." Ichigo activated his duel disk, having already shuffled his deck. He had been looking forward to this duel for a long time.
"We'll see about that." Activating his older-style duel disk, the raven-haired wolf demon cracked his knuckles a couple of times to get the blood flowing through his hands. "Who would you like to go first?"
"I don't particularly care." Ichigo watched as their life points appeared in the air above them both. "Duel!"
"Duel." Rikuo didn't sound quite as excited as Ichigo did.
Ichigo- 4000
Rikuo- 4000
"It looks like I'm going first!" Ichigo drew and looked his hand over. ("Rikuo tends to make a powerful play during his first attacking turn, so all I have to do is shut him down temporarily when he does and this duel is mine.") "I set one monster facedown and one other card behind it." A pair of cards appeared on his field. "Your turn, Rikuo."
"Very well," The wolf demon drew and then sighed at Ichigo. "You're already done, whelp. Against me you know better than to set a monster facedown and try to hide like a coward, even if it is for only a turn. From my hand I activate Nobleman of Crossout!" An armored blond-haired knight appeared on his field and leapt forward, slashing through the set monster card. Both of the pieces dissolved immediately, showing they had been removed from the game.
"So my facedown monster got blasted?" Ichigo shrugged his shoulders. "Oh well, I guess you can't win them all."
"You won't even be winning one." Rikuo threw a card down onto his disk and a black-armored cyborg appeared on his field. "I summon Psycho Shock Assassin in attack mode." (1200/1000)
"This is new…" Ichigo frowned at the cyborg. "What does it do?"
"It does death." Rikuo slid a card into his magic/trap zone behind it and the body of his Assassin was suddenly lit up by an aura of soft yellow light. "Twilight Sacrifice lets me discard a monster from my hand to add that monster's attack to the power of a monster on my field. My discard is Irios the Steel Monarch, with an attack of 2700!" (3900/1000) "Direct attack!"
"Reverse card open!" Ichigo's facedown card flipped up to reveal a trap with a picture of a powerful explosion out in the expanse of space. "Big Bang Appearance lets me negate your direct attack and special summon an Infinity…"
"Save your breath." Rikuo's Assassin slashed through the trap and then through Ichigo, sending the half-demon to his knees in pain. "Psycho Shock Assassin activates when you use a trap. It negates that trap once per turn, and then during this turn if it hurts you then you lose a monster from your hand."
Ichigo- 100
Rikuo- 4000
Ichigo felt the Assassin's blade fall again, but this time it cut the Infinity Chaser in his hand away instead of hitting his life points. ("No way, he stopped me from summoning Chaser that quickly?")
"I set one card facedown." A single card shimmered into existence behind the Assassin. "End turn."
"Draw!" Ichigo bit his lower lip at the sight of Premature Burial. ("I don't have the life points to use it. Therefore I've got only one choice.") "I activate Card Destruction. Both you and I discard our hands, then draw cards equal to the number we discarded!"
Rikuo inserted the single card in his hand into the graveyard and then drew a card. ("Pot of Greed...") "Thanks for the draw."
"You're welcome." Ichigo held up a magic card with a picture of an asteroid falling towards a planet. "Meteor Break Blast lets me destroy the strongest monster in play, followed by which I draw one card and I pay half my life points!" His life points fell to 50, but that didn't really matter to him. Meanwhile from the sky above a single meteor fell and crushed the Assassin instantly.
"You can't live very long against me just by clearing my monsters, whelp." Rikuo motioned to his set card, which flipped up to show a picture of a howling robotic wolf perched atop a pile of broken metal parts. "Cyberwolf Cry activates when a machine-type monster on my field is destroyed. I send both the White and Black Cyberwolves from my deck to the graveyard and in return you shuffle two monsters from your hand into your deck. If you don't have that many I instead get to discard cards from your hand until the total number of cards you've lost is two."
Ichigo gasped as the three cards in his hand appeared above him. (Infinity Traveler Lightning Soul, Research on the Pot of Greed, The Afterlife)
"I choose The Afterlife and that monster." Rikuo sneered while the monster disappeared into Ichigo's deck and he discarded the field card into his graveyard. "I know about your back-up plan. If your life points would hit zero you could use The Afterlife to set your life points back to 1000 and stop me from ending this for a turn. There's no chance I'll let you do that, whelp."
"I set one card facedown and end my turn." Ichigo knew this was the biggest gamble of all, but as it was he had little choice in the matter. ("If I don't do this then he'll crush me.")
Rikuo drew and started to reach for his Pot of Greed. ("Wait…") His hand stopped a few inches from the card. ("Why wouldn't he activate the ability of Research on the Pot of Greed to draw a card? With his life points only at 50 such a thing would be the wiser decision.") "I set one card facedown and end my turn." A single vertical card appeared on his field facedown.
"Draw!" Ichigo tried to hide his disappointment at this turn of events. ("He's seen through my plan? Not good.") "Then I guess I'll set a card facedown too. End turn." A second set card appeared on his field next to Research on the Pot of Greed.
("As I thought.") Rikuo drew and immediately knew what the deal was. ("This little whelp thinks I'm so stupid as to activate Pot of Greed just because he wants me to?") "Fool. I open the trap card Crushing Overpower, discarding one card from my hand to destroy all set cards on the field. If the number destroyed on your field is more than the number I lose then I take 300 points of damage per card destroyed. I discard the Pot of Greed you wanted me to activate so badly!"
Ichigo- 50
Rikuo- 3400
Ichigo watched both of his set cards explode with a smile on his face. "Actually Rikuo, I just needed you to send Pot of Greed to the graveyard. Even if you didn't activate it, it still did just what I wanted it to do." A trap card appeared on his field. "You triggered the effect of my Shifty Trap. When this card is destroyed while facedown by your effect I draw one card." Pulling a single card from his deck, he grinned widely. "And now it's your turn, Infinity Channeler!"
A comet of dark blue light slammed down onto Ichigo's field and formed into a slim robot covered in mirrors. (100/2000) "When this card is in my removed from the game pile and a magic card goes to the graveyard I can use its effect. During this turn by discarding a card from my hand I can special summon it and copy the effect of that magic card!" The single card he had drawn was inserted into his graveyard. "Therefore Pot of Greed activates now, letting me draw two cards!" Pulling a pair of cards from his deck, he grinned at the confused look on the wolf demon's face. "You seem a bit unsure now."
("Infinity Channeler…") Rikuo sighed. "So that was it, huh? The other effect of that annoying card effect lets you remove two cards from your graveyard while it is removed to activate a set magic card on your field. In other words you risked losing to draw an extra card…"
"Right. If you had activated Pot of Greed then Research on the Pot of Greed would have let me draw two cards instead of one." Ichigo waved the two cards in his hand back and forth teasingly. "Of course because of your actions you stopped me from getting more cards then I could have. Oh well."
"Irritating little whelp." Rikuo slid the remaining card in his hand facedown into his disk. "I set a card facedown. End turn."
"Draw!" Ichigo held up one of the other cards in his hand to show a monster with an attack and defense of zero. "By discarding Infinity Recoiler from my hand while I have no Infinity Travelers there I can search for an Infinity Traveler. My choice is Lightning Soul."
A bolt of lighting crashed down onto his field and formed into a ball of pulsing energy. (0/1500) "Lightning Soul's special ability…for every machine in your graveyard it gains 300 attack points!" (1200/1500) "Also I activate the equipment magic card Infinity Crystal Charge!" A trio of crystals appeared around the body of his Traveler. "The equipped Traveler gains 1500 attack points." (2700/1500) "Direct attack!"
"It really doesn't matter, since you lose anyway. Ring of Destruction!" Rikuo's set card flipped up and a ring of grenades appeared around the Lightning Soul's body. "The monster destroyed by this trap deals its attack in damage to both players!"
"So it does, but then again I've got this!" Ichigo held up a card with a picture of a translucent angel hovering over the shoulder of a rather unassuming man that had just avoided getting run over by a truck. "By discarding Guardian Angel from my hand I can reduce one instance of effect damage to zero!"
"Thanks, that means I take no damage either." Rikuo smirked at his opponent. "Anything else?"
"When Infinity Crystal Charge goes to the graveyard I draw one card!" Pulling a card from his deck, Ichigo nodded to Rikuo. "End turn. Notice that you've got nothing left, while I still have Infinity Channeler protecting me."
"Draw." Rikuo took one look at the card and then slid it into his graveyard. "I activate Graceful Charity." Drawing three cards, he then discarded two. "I discard Jinzo and Rare Metalmorph. I set one card facedown and end my turn."
Ichigo drew, but didn't bother announcing it. There was something about Rikuo's last play that was bothering him. ("He announced what he discarded? That isn't something Rikuo normally does unless…") Glancing at the set card, he knew what it had to be. ("Call of the Haunted, without a doubt. He intends to use it to revive Jinzo without any risk, and then the duel will definitely be in his favor.") However, he had drawn a card earlier that would stop this from happening. "I activate the continuous magic card Dark Rift. This card, when activated, forces us both to remove a card from our fields. Of course these cards can't be activated in response."
Rikuo pulled his set card out of his disk and inserted it into the back pocket of his jeans, while at the same time Ichigo removed his Infinity Channeler from the game too. "Nice play, whelp."
"I knew you had set Call of the Haunted the moment you announced that you had discarded Jinzo." Ichigo grinned smugly. "You're not all that clever after all."
Rikuo shrugged his shoulders. "And what will you do?"
"I'll set a card facedown and end my turn." A card appeared facedown on Ichigo's field next to his Dark Rift. ("The effect of Dark Rift is that when it is removed both players return their removed cards to play, so I'll keep this set card as my insurance.")
"Draw." Rikuo drew and then pulled the card that had been removed earlier out of his back pocket. "Unfortunately for you, whelp, you're extremely gullible. The card I set facedown was actually something else…" Flipping the card up so its picture could be seen, he sneered. "Treasure of the Different Dimension, when removed from the game, returns to my hand during my standby phase. After that both you and I draw two cards."
Ichigo's eyes twitched a couple of times, but he drew anyway. ("Great, so I just made an ass of myself…")
Rikuo drew a pair of cards as well. He was feeling pretty good now. "I just love exploiting the stupidity of fools with no strategy whatsoever. From my hand I set three cards facedown and activate Treasure of Slashing Life! I draw until I'm holding five cards, and in five cards I discard all cards in my hand!" Pulling five cards from his deck, he quickly removed one of his set cards and held it up for Ichigo to see. "The card I set was the magic card Roar of the Darkest God. I'm sure you know what that does, but I'll tell the audience."
He pulled four of the cards in his hand free, revealing four traps. "This card activates when I draw multiple cards, and every time I draw a trap card that card is discarded immediately and it gains a counter." He slid the four traps into his graveyard, drew four more cards, showed them all to be traps, and then discarded them into his graveyard. "Eight counters now, and I draw four more, since the effect of Treasure of Slashing Life says I draw until I'm holding five. Therefore until I've got five non-traps in my hand I'll keep drawing and discarding."
He showed the next two cards to be traps, and then after discarding them drew four more cards. This time they were monsters and magic cards only. "Ten counters in one shot…definitely impressive. Therefore you get to experience what I had intended for you a bit earlier than expected, whelp!"
His Roar of the Darkest God exploded, taking his field with it. "When this card reaches eight or more counters it destroys itself and removes my field. After that, guess who comes out?" He placed the two set cards into his back pocket and held up a card from his hand. "Fenrir-Destroyer of Gods is special summoned!" A howl shook the stadium and the audience went silent while above him a titanic wolf with black flames for fur appeared in play. (4000/4000)
"That can't be all." Ichigo knew that the power of Roar of the Darkest God had more to it than just bringing out Fenrir easily.
"Keh, you're right of course." Fenrir started to salivate, the lines of drool coming from its muzzle hitting the floor around Rikuo and burning straight through the steel. "This card allows one other bonus, and that is with it I can special summon a pair of friends along with Fenrir. My Demi-God Cards, Hell Fang and Heaven Claw are special summoned from my deck or hand to the field!"
A pair of black bullets came flying down from the sky and crashed into the ground, forming into a pair of half-sized Fenrir-like creatures. One had a crescent moon etched into its fur, and the other had golden streaks going through its flaming body. (2550/2300) (2100/2600)
"Demi-God Cards?" Ichigo blinked at the two monsters. "What do they do?"
"Hell Fang, when it attacks, prevents the activation of trap cards and also does damage through defense. And while Heaven Claw is on the field in defense mode my beast-type monsters cannot be affected by the opponent's magic cards." Rikuo placed a monster facedown on his disk and then pointed at Ichigo. "I set a monster and attack directly! Black Inferno's Roar!"
Ichigo motioned to his set card, which flipped up to reveal a magic card with a picture of a dark blue hole in space. "Infinity Space-Time Warp allows me to change the phase by either pushing us forward by one or pushing us back by one!"
"Your card is a normal magic card, punk!" Rikuo tsked and shook a finger at the boy. "So foolish!"
"Have you forgotten Infinity Channeler so quickly?" Ichigo grinned while the field seemed to skip forward, having skipped Fenrir and company's attacks. "Sorry Rikuo, but this duel isn't over yet!"
"So it isn't…" The wolf demon shrugged his shoulders and slid a card into his disk. "I'll place a card facedown and end my turn."
"I'm confident to say that card is a bluff!" Ichigo drew and then snapped up a monster card that had a picture of a pod which had a mecha inside it. "Infinity Recovery Pod lets me discard it from my hand to add one Infinity named machine from my graveyard to my hand! My choice is Infinity Chaser!" Picking up his key monster card, he proceeded to hold up a magic card with a picture of a crystal which had the silhouette of Infinity Chaser within it. "Infinity Pulse lets me special summon an Infinity monster from my hand to the field, but at the end phase of the turn it returns to my deck! Come out now, Chaser!"
A comet of dark blue light fell from the sky and crashed down into play, forming into the dark blue mecha which represented the key to Ichigo's whole strategy. "I activate the effect of Chaser, returning a magic card that is face-up in play to my hand to gain 300 life points!" Dark Rift disappeared and his Infinity Channeler appeared in play once more while his life points shot up to 350.
"So you gained a few life points, so what?" Rikuo sighed and shook his head. "Nothing you've got will beat the power of Fenrir and his children."
"So says you, the guy about to lose his superior stance in this duel!" Ichigo held up magic card with a picture of Chaser standing atop a cliff while behind it was the bright glow of the sun. "Infinity Grace lets me special summon an Infinity Traveler from my graveyard to my field! Lightning Soul comes out and immediately Contact Fuses with Chaser as per the effect of Infinity Grace!"
"Contact Fusion?" Rikuo snorted derisively. "What exactly is that going to accomplish?"
"More than you'd think!" A bolt of lightning exploded out of Ichigo's graveyard slot and into the sky, as did Chaser. The two disappeared from sight and a new monster dropped down into play. It looked like Chaser, except that it had lightning bolts painted all over its body and one of its arms was a cannon. "Static Chaser is special summoned!" (2000/1000)
"What's a little static cling going to do besides annoy me, eh?" Rikuo snarled at the new fusion.
Now it was Ichigo's turn to smile. "The power of Static Chaser is a bit of a kick in the face for you, machine duelist. For every machine monster in your graveyard and on your field this monster gains 500 attack points, and combining that with the fact that his other effect forces your set monsters to be face-up and I bet you'll be a bit angry!"
Rikuo gasped while his set monster was revealed to be a red mechanical dragon. (1500/1600) "My Y-Dragon Head!"
"Plus the five in your graveyard equals 3000 attack power plus!" Ichigo's Static Chaser started to glow brightly with built-up energy. (5000/1000) "Static Chaser, attack Hell Fang now! Lightning Crusher!" His monster snapped its cannon up and fired a piercing beam of blue energy straight at the wolf monster.
"Oh no you don't!" Rikuo motioned to Heaven Claw, which suddenly was in place of its brother. "When you attack I can redirect it to Heaven Claw!" The beam pierced his monster and shattered it violently.
("I thought I had him too…") Ichigo wiped a bit of sweat from his forehead. "Sorry to tell you this Rikuo, but the effect of my Chaser fusions doesn't send them back to my deck like it would with Neos fusions. In other words, you're the one with the weakest monsters in play now. End turn."
The wolf demon snorted derisively and drew. "So what? Fenrir isn't so easily defeated! During my standby phase the effect of Treasure of the Different Dimension adds it to my hand and we both draw two cards." Placing the card back into his hand, he pulled two more cards free and sneered at what they were. "A nice back-up plan, but it doesn't matter. Have you already forgotten exactly what Hell's Fang does to defense mode monsters? If you have then let me remind you! Hell Roar!" The remaining child of Fenrir charged towards the Infinity Channeler with its jaws bared.
Ichigo paled at the charging monster, already knowing that had been coming. ("I thought I was done for, but…") Then he snapped up one of the card's drawn by Treasure of the Different Dimension. "I activate the effect of Hope Born of Despair! By destroying a monster on my field I can gain 1000 life points!" His Channeler exploded, and his life points jumped. "Of course this card doesn't leave my hand by doing so."
Ichigo- 1350
Rikuo- 3400
Rikuo growled and snapped his fingers, Hell's Fang skidding to a halt and padding back to his field. "Keh, escaped did you? That's a matter of opinion, really. I'll switch Fenrir to defense mode, and place two cards facedown. End turn." His mighty black-furred god collapsed on its rump, while two flashes of light appeared behind its giant body.
"Draw!" Ichigo looked at the drawn card nervously. It was sinking in just how desperate this duel had become for him. ("I'm staring down the man that controls the creature which can destroy gods. No…he is the creature that can destroy gods!")
Static Chaser's body released a few crackling charges of energy, a deep hum coming from it.
And it was that hum which reassured Ichigo. ("That's right. I'm no god, and if I'm not a god then what can a big overgrown ball of fur do to me!?") "I activate the magic card Graceful Charity, drawing three cards and then discarding two." He inserted Dark Rift and Hope Born of Despair into his graveyard, since their usefulness was done. "Static Chaser, attack Hell's Fang now! Lightning Crusher!" His fusion leapt through the air and brought down a roaring crash of electrical power onto the beast-type monster, blowing it apart.
Ichigo- 1350
Rikuo- 950
"Alright!" Ichigo pumped his fist into the air excitedly. "I got rid of the other one! Now all that's left…is…" His eyes widened in fear as he realized that the air around them was starting to turn the color of night. "A darkness game!?"
"Not quite, whelp." Rikuo motioned to Fenrir, which was now snarling angrily. "I open my trap card, Release of Fenrir. This card can only be activated when my life points are 1000 or less. When this card is activated all cards on my field are destroyed, Fenrir included." His God Card roared and all of the cards on his field exploded. "For every card destroyed the opponent suffers 200 points of damage."
Ichigo couldn't hear this over the sound of his own pained screams, body lit aflame in a black blaze.
Ichigo- 350
Rikuo- 950
Then the pain disappeared as the fire was pulled off of him, and pulled itself over to Rikuo's field. "From my deck or hand the Avatar of the Destroyer is special summoned." The flames pulled themselves around Rikuo's body, burning away his jacket and leaving him bare-chested. Black runes blazed into existence across his chest, arms, and face. His hair lengthened, the raven strands nearly reaching the ground. And when his eyes opened they revealed the living flame burning within them. Baring a single almost sabertooth fang, he smirked at Ichigo. (5000/5000) "I'm going to crush that insult to machines you have on your field, and with it your pride, whelp. You should learn that by now…I am a god. What exactly are you?"
Ichigo felt like he was only a few inches tall, even though their height difference was close to negligible. It was the aura though, a blazing black aura of fire that swelled up dozens of feet into the air around Rikuo's body. ("I'm facing a god.") He'd beaten Fenrir before, but the real question was...could he defeat the man that was dangerous enough to control Fenrir?
"Regardless, the turn is still yours. Hurry and cower in fear in the face of Fenrir's power." Rikuo's voice was deep and all-consuming, a representation of the fire it housed.
"I set three cards facedown!" A trio of cards appeared behind Ichigo's fusion. "End turn."
"At the end phase of a player's turn, the effect of Avatar of the Destroyer triggers. One random card on your field is destroyed, and the top five cards of your graveyard are removed from the game." The inferno around Rikuo burned brighter (relatively speaking, considering the nature of the dark flames) and Ichigo's center set card burned away, its smoke mixing with the smoke coming from his graveyard slot. "And before I forget to mention, while Avatar of the Destroyer is in play everything that goes to the graveyard is actually removed from play."
Rikuo drew from his dwindling deck, and the inferno around him increased in size. "During each standby phase Avatar's attack power increases by 500 points." (5500/5000) "And now for my attack…Aura of Black Inferno." The hellish flames around him blazed once more, and Static Chaser started to sizzle.
"Reverse card open!" One of Ichigo's set cards flipped up. "Spirits of Shadowed Friendship activates when a Final Shadow on my field is attacked! I'm allowed to send up to Five Final Shadows from my deck to the graveyard, and for each one that goes there I buffer 500 points of damage that would be dealt through the attacked monster! My choice is five!" He held up five monster cards. "The four Final Shadow Gods and Chaser!"
"And they get…" Rikuo narrowed his eyes as the creeping tendrils of black flame were suddenly dissipated by a flash of bright light. "Hm?"
"I open my other facedown card, Lightforce Negation! I can use this counter trap to negate one effect!" Ichigo smiled and slid the five monster cards into his graveyard. "Sorry, I'm putting monsters in my graveyard regardless of what you say!"
"If that's your resolve then let me respond to it with my answer as to why you're a dumbass." Rikuo slid a card into his disk and the flames which engulfed and destroyed Static Chaser immediately enwrapped Ichigo's deck. "I discard one card from my hand to activate the quickplay magic card Morphing Blast. Instead of dealing you damage, I'll just convert what damage you would have taken into cards leaving your deck, one for each 200 points, rounded up."
Ichigo paled as three cards were burned off of his deck. "That's fine…it doesn't end this duel!"
"Have you forgotten what I was holding so quickly?" A card appeared facedown behind the wolf demon. "I set a card facedown, a sacrifice to the Avatar's effect since otherwise it would have to be destroyed." His newly set card shuddered and burst into smoke, as did the top five cards of his graveyard. "End turn."
"Draw!" Ichigo spared a glance at the new card and then placed it onto his disk. "I summon Infinity Slot Machine!" The monster which appeared on his field was a light and dark blue futuristic version of a slot machine. (0/0) "When this monster is summoned I shuffle my graveyard, and then afterwards we both look at the top card. Depending on its effect we'll get something different!" The revealed card was his Research on the Pot of Greed. "If it's a magic card I draw one card. Then I set two cards facedown and end my turn." A pair of cards appeared on his field behind his slot machine, followed by which his slot machine shuddered and melted along with the top five cards of his graveyard.
"Draw! At this time the effect of Treasure of the Different Dimension activates!" Rikuo added the removed card to his hand and drew two more, while the aura around him stretched towards the ceiling. "Musn't forget your standby phase either." (6500/5000) "And now, whelp, this duel ends. Like any God Card, Avatar is immune to traps and granted limited immunity to magic effects. This is the end."
Ichigo felt the air around him pulsing, and he watched that hellish aura slowly bear down on him almost as if it was in slow motion. ("I'll die if that hits me head-on.") "Reverse card open!"
"Useless." Rikuo casually tossed a card from his hand through the air, watching it turn into a black comet which engulfed and burned the emerging trap. "By discarding a card from my hand I can negate a trap once per turn. Sorry whelp, but you're a dead man." The inferno dropped down onto Ichigo, lighting him aflame. "Now burn in the fires which even hell cannot contain."
"I'd love to." Ichigo gritted his teeth, the black flames around him licking at his skin. "But a guy can get lit on fire only so many times before it just gets redundant! Black Inferno's Roar!"
Rikuo's eyes widened as the black flames of his avatar's aura were pulled into a spiral that hurled them up at the ceiling, where they hit the stone and steel harmlessly. "What in the nine layers of hell?"
Ichigo had changed, a flowing black trenchcoat around his chest and his hair black, long and flowing like Rikuo's was currently. His eyes opened calmly and he lifted the silver blade of the katana which had appeared in his free hand up, before stabbing it down into the dueling arena to brace it. "You aren't the only one with a bit of the Destroyer in them, you grungy old wolf bastard."
"Keh, so you've got a few interesting tricks left to show me?" Rikuo noted that Ichigo's life points hadn't changed either. "And what's the deal with your life points not changing?"
"Another trap, Reflex Defense." Ichigo shuffled his deck a couple of times and placed it back into its slot. His strange costume and hairdo disappeared in a burst of black fire, along with his katana. "I shuffle two cards back into my deck and during this turn all card effects and damage against me is pointless."
"Another annoying whelp defense." The wolf demon slid a card into his disk and then held up a magic card. "I set a card facedown and play Draw Dummy, drawing the top card of my deck and replacing it with this face-up card." He did so, smirking. "While its face-up on my deck I skip my draw phase, so I won't be decking out anytime soon. End turn." His set card and the top five cards of his deck disappeared in a flash of black flame.
Ichigo looked up at the roaring flame around the body of Rikuo, and yet this time he didn't feel fear. ("I can hear them, the souls of the Travelers.") At first he had thought about staying in the form called Phantom of Twilight for the rest of the duel, but then he realized this wasn't his fight alone. "I'll show you, the biggest ego of them all, that the power you think is weak and pointless can actually fell even your precious destroyer."
Then he drew, and smiled at what it was. (Avatar of the Destroyer: 7000/5000) "I activate the magic card Ever Shadow of the Cyber Infinite Galaxy, or ESCIG for short. I select Infinity Travelers, Final Shadows, Cyber Shadows, or Ever Shadows. Then I shuffle five of those monsters from my graveyard back into my deck to get a different result. I declare Final Shadows!" Five cards slid out of his graveyard, revealing the four Final Shadow Gods and Chaser.
Rikuo crossed his arms across his chest, a cold snarl on his features. ("He intends to end this duel now? Hmmm, let's see him try.")
Finishing with the shuffling of his deck, Ichigo grasped the top three cards. "I'm sure you know what the Elemental Hero card Hope of Fifth does, right? Same deal. Shuffle five back in, draw two or three depending on if you have cards or not!" The three that left his deck brought a confident smile to his face. "This is it! I activate the magic card Limit Overdrive! During this turn my life point costs become zero, but at the end of this turn I lose 3000 life points!"
"And then I play the magic card Infinity Avatar! At the cost of 2000 life points I special summon Chaser from any location!" A blast of dark blue light erupted from his deck and formed into the super-powered mecha of his choice. (2000/1000) "And then I activate the magic card Infinity Doubles! At the cost of 1000 life points I special summon a pair of Travelers from my deck!" Two more comets of light shot out of his deck, the two of them becoming a pair of silver-bodied metallic humanoids. "I special summon Forward Runner and Reverse Runner!"
"A pair of draw and graveyard revival abilities?" Rikuo already knew what was coming, and yet at the same time had no idea what the end result would be. "Triple Contact Fusion…"
"You've got that right!" Ichigo's three monsters launched into the air, and the dark flames which lingered around them suddenly disappeared as everything started to twist and turn, both air and ground mixing together into a swirling vortex of energy. "Come out now, Chrono Chaser!" A metallic roar came from all around them and then a completely silver, almost liquid-bodied version of Chaser stepped through thin air onto Ichigo's field. (2800/2000)
"Chrono Chaser…a time controlling monster?" Rikuo already had an idea where this was going. And he already knew it was going to be annoying.
"Chrono Chaser's ability allows me to, once per turn, send a card from my deck to the graveyard to remove a monster from your field for one turn! Time Disruption!" Ichigo grinned while the flames around Rikuo disappeared abruptly. "This is it! The end of the game! Chrono Chaser, attack with Future Fist!" His monster shimmered and disappeared once more into thin air, appearing behind the defenseless Rikuo moments later.
"I'm not going out like this." The wolf demon's ears flicked a couple of times and he turned to look the super-mecha right in the eyes. "Badass Stop!" His fist came up and punched Chrono Chaser in the side of its metallic skull, sending it rocketing through the distortion around them before it exploded right before it reached the stands.
Ichigo, as well as the rest of the audience, stood in jaw-dropped silence while the half demon's life points ticked down to zero. "Wha…"
Cracking his neck a couple of times, Rikuo walked over to the side of the arena and picked up his spare shirt and jacket, putting them on without paying them any mind. "I activated the magic card Badass Stop from my hand, discarding one additional card from my hand to negate your direct attack and deal you 1000 life points of damage."
Ichigo collapsed to his knees, just like the audience in that he was unable to reply. Finally he managed to pull his jaw up into place, only to stammer a couple of times while Rikuo turned and walked off with his hands in his pockets. "Remember that in real life being a badass always beats that stupid friendship crap, whelp." Rikuo glanced over his shoulder, slipping on a pair of gold-tinted sunglasses. "You might have won had you stuck with that katana form. Maybe…"
End