Haven't worked on this for awhile (In fact, half of this story was written up a couple year or so ago, so much so that I made a blunder in that first duel.) Anyhow, enjoy.
Cypher City, Main R&D Department.
The citizens of Cypher filed in, they walked in person after person, filling up the rows of seats laid out in the presentation room, an area set aside for meetings like this, some noted the researchers standing against the walls, allowing people to pass as they waited for the line to thin out. Hiro and Basil found themselves a seat in the 3rd row, now waiting for the meeting to actually begin. It seemed like another 7 minutes passed before the coats moved towards the front of the room, holding the door open as a young adult on a Segway pulled into the room, an awkward smile on his face.
"Greetings!" he said, his voice shifting from loud to quiet randomly and that word alone had three shifts to it, "As you know, I am chief Theos, It's a pleasure to see you all back so soon~" Theos ruffled his hand through his messy black hair, it looked like he hadn't slept a wink but in contrast he probably had more energy than anyone in the room. "As you know, we've had an abundance of Momentum recently, and as a team the research and development workers got together and wanted to figure out what to do with it. Eventually we decided that we really needed to 'give back to the people' sooooo….we made these!" A large screen slowly lowered from the ceiling. Once the top of it cleared the opening, Theos hit a button on his Segway, causing the video to play.
The video's initial moments displayed a close up of some sort of Pilot's suit. The torso, shoulders, and lower legs were all composed of some type of metal, and the helmet looked similar to one might wear when driving a motorcycle; Visor and all. "Aaaaaayyyyggiiissss" Theos stated out loud, startling everyone who was trying to figure out what the point of the suit was, stretching out the use of the word 'Aegis'. The video feed changed, now revealing 8 of these suits. "Aegis, AKA the suits, is a special kind of magnet, so to say. The exact term for it is probably out of your reach~" Another change on the feed, this time the monitor displayed a very basic outline of Cypher; a caricature to some extent.
"Momentum is a very interesting source of energy, in the fact that it can be channeled infinitely; but as with any source of infinite energy we have to use it in some form to 'divert its focus' that reason alone is why we have so many devices that require the energy of Momentum." The picture was now surrounded in a green circle. "Recently however, we came up with a truly beneficial find, but before that I'm to inform you that Momentum; as the name would suggest, is an energy that is always on the move so the energy supplied through our reactors is not a 'perpetual' machine, but rather perpetual energy that moves between all four machines. Recently however we discovered that one can; through proper methods, change the area momentum moves thus changing its overall position."
"What you see, this green circle that is, is the effect of moving momentum to the furthest extent that we can through our means but because Momentum continues to progress infinitely in order to fill this zone we must take more ambient Momentum to fill in this empty zone within the boundaries. In doing so we can fully create a zone called 'The shade'." Another screen change, back to the suits. "Aegis is truly remarkable, despite the sleek appearance, it actually follows the same principles as our reactors, however as a cost it requires just above twice the amount of reactors we need, 12 in total, though the last one serves a vastly different purpose from the other 11. " Hiro's expression brightened, along with that of the other citizens, piecing together what Theos was saying.
"The inner workings of this suit are essentially a second body, thousands of microscopic veins that direct the flow of Momentum from one reactor to the other. The reactors in this suit, much like the ones for our city, push this energy outwards – to propel itself. The 11 reactors that preform this task are as follows: The front and back of your shoulders, the center of your torso, the palms of your hands, the knees and the bottom of your feet. Now you may be asking, what does the twelfth reactor do? I'm glad you asked. One may not know it, but each of us is subject to radiation created by all this Momentum in the air. The more obvious effect of this is a mutation that allows us to see the momentum generated solid vision we use to project images; like the cards from Duel Monsters. Luckily for us though, that anything we see through this is outlined with a green outline, helping us discern the real from the not-so-real. Still, the dangers of this are still present, which is something this system helps with. The final reactor of Aegis is in the back of the helmet."
"The back of the head? Why would I put it there? Ah~ I'm glad you asked. Because this momentum that we absorb through the course of our life grain by grain, fills up inside of our heads. I guess you could say everyone in this room is a miniature reactor. Don't worry, aside from the vision, there is no true 'harmful' effect of this but not being able to discern reality from fiction is still a problem we face as a whole. Momentum's direction can be altered scientifically, but that process takes too long – roughly a month on such a wide scale operation such as the shade. But if one were to synch up their own Momentum with another reactor, they could influence such a change with their mind; or rather their subconscious, directly."
"Right now the suit recognizes basic commands such as forward, up, down, left, and right, just as your body does. Accordingly the suit once receiving these commands will focus on the appropriate reactor and then proceeded to exert the energy. Your mind controls your movement, but just like with anything you have to learn, you need to refine your mind to subconsciously move. Consider it not simple 'flying' but rather 'swimming' in the fact that if you don't learn to, there is a good chance you'll die." He said, adding a wink to the end. "Because of the expense of what is required to make these suits, we've only been able to create 10 in the last two months, along with what we save to pay for future projects and maintain research on some current ones; we can only create an additional three suits per month."
Hiro wasn't sure who, but someone from the crowd asked if they could make ten suits, why were there only eight in the line up from the video? "More questions?" Theos replied, as if annoyed, "We're currently testing them; you see recently we rewired the system so that one could duel with the suits. We even have a new field – a work in progress, albeit - but it's functioning to some extent, perhaps you would like to watch the current test? Those who feel obliged to return to your normal lives now are excused, the remainder of the meeting being optional." Theos turned around, heading into the pathway he entered from, the group nearly split in half those who had the time followed Theos, while the others resumed the rest of their daily activities.
The inner workings of the building was like that of a movie, bottles and beakers everywhere, it even descended into lower levels; a large box type room in the bottom of the facility. "That's where it is, I have some things to return to, so feel free to follow those stairs till you get to the observation area." Hiro and co. followed the stairs, small chatter amongst themselves, some more anxious to see the suits in action than others. "So coooool, right Hiro?" Basil asked, getting a shrug from his friend "I'll have to see it first, but it sounds pretty awesome."
Finally entering the observation deck, they found themselves staring into a large empty room, save for one distinct feature - the person currently racing around the room. The suit covered all of the visible features of this person, so naturally no one recognized them, though the opposite could not be said for the person in question, who nigh instantly saw the onlookers and moved towards the window. They remained stationary, thinking about something, only to remove his helmet.
Whoever this was had short blonde hair, neatly falling down his head. But perhaps it was the eyes that really set people off, cold blue lacking a distinct feeling behind them. His vision twisted to the door on his left, now opening; along with the rest of the lookers welcoming Theos of all people. "I'm thankful you're still here, Anselm, I figured you would have left by now." Anselm, the person in the room, seemed amused by a comment "Oh? I didn't think you were one to assume." Theos shrugged, opening the door connecting to the room Anselm was in; quickly grabbing Hiro's sleeve and tossing him in there "Byeee~" he waved, closing the door.
Hiro was completely caught off-guard by the sneak attack, angered too, "What was that for?!" Anselm sighed, "Don't you get it? You're going to help him test it, the Aegis that is." Hiro's expression brightened up, but then he realized that Theos had neglected to even check to see if he wanted to test it. "At the very least, he could have asked me..." He mumbled to himself, the door opened once more, Theos appeared in its doorway holding up an Aegis, "Put this on."
"Are you sure you want me to do this, what happens if I lose control and smash it?" Whatever was funny about this, Hiro would never understand, but it sent Theos into a crazed laughter; wiping a 'tear' from his eye. "Just don't try to ruin everything I've worked on, okay?" Man I hate this guy. By now, Hiro was already fitted, and both he and Anselm were standing now, just waiting for the OK. Like any good competitors, there was a little pre-game smack talk, "So, Anselm was it? All I have to do is duel you right?" No answer. Just as he was about to speak up again, Anselm finally picked up, "No, you're going to try your best to not lose to me, and I'm going to count how many turns it takes."
"Real nice one, aren't you?" he wasn't sure, but he thought he saw Anselm smirk at such a remark, "The nicest." Before the conversation could get anywhere else, each duelist would promptly receive a message on the inside of their helms, a little neon indicator that resembled a Street light with the yellow light already switching to red. "In case you didn't know, this is simply how you know the armor is booting up – Yellow means it's turning on, Red means base functions are enabled – you know, like an actual street light?"
Given how quickly Theos reached for the last switch that caused the light to shift to green, it was fairly obvious the question was rhetorical. With the final light, Anselm's suit started to lift from the ground - the small circular reactors had a blue neon light to indicate they were working correctly.
Hiro, on the other hand, was standing around looking like an idiot, jumping up and down as if that would lift him from the ground. His opponent actually having to wait on him before they could get anywhere was also pretty embarrassing. '..Right, he said something about being controlled by your thoughts, didn't he?'
Unlike how many likely would have thought it to be, it didn't take a lot of concentration for Hiro to lift himself off the ground. In fact all he had to do was picture in his mind what it was he wanted to do. Personally the feeling of just hovering above the ground was both amazing and horrifying, it was like he had been falling but suddenly was suspended in the middle of the air, moving forward make it worse, though he needed to do so in order to meet up with Anselm.
He had almost forgotten while trying on the suit that he had no idea how he was supposed to hold his cards. Anselm seemed to sense this and offered the answer he was searching for. "Don't count on me to help you every time you screw up, but you'll notice along your arm one of the reactors is distinctly larger than the others? You can open that one up and use it to hold your deck - from there you should be able to figure out what to do."
He had noticed that particular reactor, originally, but the fact that it was also a compartment hadn't occurred to him. Following Anselm's advice, Hiro inserted his cards into the small pocket. Doing so caused five cards to appear in his hands, while within his helmet it held a small section dedicated to the duel - like a simulator in his head, he was able to see a generated image of his hand, matching cards present.
"What you see now-" Theos' interjection got a scowl from Anselm, growing more impatient as timed passed, "Is a niche feature I added. I'm taking advantage of our mutations, so to speak. Because I know how much you kids love your dueling, I added a feature within the suit to act as a living AR creator. The cards you see in your hands aren't the real ones, but they're solid vision duplicates to help you simulate the duel as if you had an actual duel disk. In your monitors you see each individual hand, as well as a layout of the field - much like your suit these too are controlled by the mind."
"I suppose in short, it might be a little too far fetched for you, but just duel as you normally would, you won't notice too many changes."
That was enough for Hiro, who took the first turn from Anselm by commanding his suit to do so - or rather, by thinking it. "I normal summon my Burning Knuckler - Mauler!" (1900/400) Anselm, caught off guard by Hiro's action, shot him a sneer.
"Sorry bro, you were taking too long. Don't worry, that's all I'm going to do. Turn's over." Anselm's next card materialized in his hand. Anselm began floating away from Hiro, with his speed increasing. "The point of this is to test out the suits, don't forget that, so you need to stay mobile during the duel."
The concept of driving and dueling wasn't unheard of, in fact he had heard of a city whose majority focused only on that style of dueling, however flying and dueling was a new concept all together as far as he knew. Plus, the fact that everything was operated by his mind? Oh boy. Given Anselm's experience with the Aegis, he was able to glide around the room with ease, whereas Hiro's arm was grinding against the wall at every sharp turn.
True to his words, Anselm kept his advice to himself this time, instead focusing on the duel at hand. 'Burning Knucklers? A rather simple deck, this shouldn't be too challenging.' Glancing at his side, the figure of a small mechanical building, a spiral-like tower sat beside him. "I normal summon Holy Lightning - Babel." [1200 ATK]
"By activating the effect of Babel, I can special summon a Holy Lightning monster from my hand with it's effects negated as long as Babel exists on the field, though I can only use this effect once per turn should I use the effect of Babel twice, it will be destroyed. Now then, I call upon my Holy Lightning - Fighter." [1700 ATK]
The fighter took the form of a energy being with yellow plates of armor attached to its fists. "Not bad, Anselm, was it? So are you going to summon an xyz monster or something?"
"A move like that at this point would be stupid, especially considering that I can activate the spell - Transmodify, to send Babel to the grave and summon a monster from my deck a stronger monster, a level five light monster." White wings extended from Anselm's back, naturally throwing Hiro off, but as he examined the scene a second time it wasn't that the wings were emerging from his back - the monster itself was simply behind him. A winged woman in a white gown. "So with Transmodify, I'll special summon Tethys, Goddess of Light." [2400 ATK]
Blinding rays of light piercing through his monster, emerged from behind Tethys, Hiro nearly crashing due to their blinding effect. However, even as the light faded away his boxer stood tall. "By discarding my Burning Knuckler - Clinch, I could negate your attack, and then even prevent Tethys from attacking on your next turn."
'A lucky break', Anselm quietly ended his turn by setting two cards, leaving just a single card in his hand. Despite the previous exchange in that last turn, Hiro was still having troubles both flying and focusing on the duel, when he focused on one he nearly lost track of the other - for example, during his turn instead of steadily gliding across the room, he was shaking and threatened to run into the wall at each turn.
"Right now I'll be calling on my Burning Knuckler - Glassjaw." [2000 ATK] 'Glassjaw' was more muscle than anything, a hulking green brute with black gloves, unlike most of the other Knucklers instead of quickly swiping at the air it threw a single - powerful looking, punch. Taking a look at his field, he thought about the possibility of going into a Xyz play, but Anselm's set cards are what troubled him. Still, he'd be able to inflict some damage with this play, plus he had a surprise for his opponent when he tried to attack Glassjaw - who'd destroy itself and allow him to add his Clinch back to his hand to negate another attack.
"Glassjaw attacks Fighter!" Though fighter in its own right was a strong contestant, Glassjaw was even more so. Anselm, knowing this, referred to the activation of his set card 'Sudden Shift'. "With the activation of my trap, you get two options after you target my monster for an attack or a card effect. You can either target one of my other monsters, or cancel out the action all together."
"Damn, guess I'm going to have to cancel my attack then." The stronger of his boxers returning to his side soon after the cancellation.
"Of course you are. Now for the record, you're at turn three so you should really be thinking of what you're going to do from stopping me from winning." Was he serious about that? He said something akin to that earlier but Hiro had just thrown it off as idle trash talk. "Don't worry, I'll be just fine. Now then, I'll send Mauler to beat up fighter!"
Fighter, thinking he was off the hook, was caught in a surprise headlock by Mauler. The stronger monster quickly striking Fighter's head again and again. His monster began to crack, the effect of Mauler prevented it from destroying other monsters in battle - thought it did manage to destroy one of the 'gloves' fighter bore on its hands, only to construct the image of a card - which added itself to Anselm's hand. "I activated my trap, Defense Draw, reducing the battle damage to zero as well as drawing an addition card."
Above Tethys' head appeared a silhouette of a card, bathed in a blue light. Beside it appeared three more just like the first. "As long as Tethys exists on the field, should I draw a fairy monster I can reveal it to draw another card. In case you haven't figured it out, I'm able to repeat this effect as many times as I feel appropriate." In order from left to right, the cards began losing their light and revealing their true form: 'Holy Lightning - Wings', 'Holy Lightning - Guardian', 'Holy Lightning - Sword', meaning the last card, which wasn't revealed was a spell or trap - or a non fairy monster, though that didn't seem likely.
Still it was unnerving, truly, Hiro was sure he had the advantage as it was, even though Tethys was the stronger monster. Now Anselm held five cards in his hand, and he hadn't even began his turn yet. As one last move, Hiro called yet another boxer, "If I control a Knuckler, I can special summon Burning Knuckler - Spar from my hand." [1200 ATK]
"I draw." The two passing by the observation deck's window,with Hiro taking note of his friend's similarly worried expression.
"I normal summon Holy Lightning - Wings."The appearance of 'Wings' was marked by a small beacon of light entering from some unknown entry in the room, a black machine, just barely larder than Anselm and Hiro themselves, emerged from this beacon - carrying itself to Anselm's side of the room with the wings its namesake was derived from. [1200 ATK]. "With this, I am able to special summon a Holy Lightning monster from my hand as Wings was normal summoned, so I'll special summon Sword from my hand, in defense position!"
Unlike the previous, dark-framed monster, 'Sword' was mostly all of a golden hue - the crown to its head being a red color; the monster appearing like a set of five swords, using the farthest two as wings while the largest blade acted as the main body of the monster. [1000 DEF]
"By overlaying Wing and Fighter I can Xyz summon the Rank 4; Radiant Photon Paradios!" When each Holy Lightning monster was summoned, they all descended from a beacon of light, Paradios on the other hand was like a hot flash of light, quickly forcing Hiro to cover his eyes. Slowly lowering his guard, Anselm drifted further ahead, his new monster was a warrior in bright white armor, a glass-like blade of light gripped firmly in his right hand. [2000 ATK]
"By using up both overlay units, I can reduce the attack of Mauler to zero; and by doing so I can negate its effects." The two blue units encircling it were drawn into the body of the monster, releasing another harsh flash of light that blinded Mauler, making it that much more vulnerable, its strength falling to the lowest possible - zero.
"Paradios attacks!" The monster, little more than a living orb of light, swung through Mauler, its blade bisecting the fighter easily. Hiro, having been blinded by the light, swung into the wall as his life points took a major hit, dropping all the way to half of their original value; 2000.
Pushing himself back up, Hiro took a moment to regain his composure- and that meant that he waited until Anselm was once again within speaking range before lifting off the ground himself. He noticed the form of his opponent bounding around the turn, his own hint as to kick off. "Trap activate! Cross Line Counter, whenever I take battle damage during your turn, I can increase the strength of one monster I control by the amount of damage I received; doubled!"
Spar, the target of the trap's effect, pushed itself so that it was obstructing Anselm's way, a literal aura of flames erupting from the monster, its strength being incresed by 4000 points meant that it currently had a power of 5200, and that meant.. "In addition, the trap also forces our two monsters to battle!"
Paradios' light was consumed by the heat of Spar's aura, the flames eating away at it completely, leaving nothing left. Anselm, however, already held the key to avoid such an attack; "I discard my Holy Lightning - Guardian, to reduce the damage I take to zero, in addition Paradios is not without its merits, for penitence of failing his master and being destroyed - I can draw one card!"
Hiro was tense, if that was a monster, than Anselm might be able to replenish his hand once more - and that was something he dearly hoped wouldn't be the case. Luckily, that wasn't the case, Anselm once again silently ending his turn; setting two set cards to protect him.
They were reaching the fifth turn, and Hiro's field contained his sparrer who held the highest attack as a amazing 5200, and Glassjaw who came in third with 2000 points. Anselm not attacking Glassjaw last turn meant that he simply knew of its effects - and despite Paradios' own effect being able to negate Glassjaw's he chose Mauler instead. What could his reasoning be?
Speaking of which, Anselm had managed to make it this far into the duel without taking a single point of damage, and his field contained Tethys, the second strongest monster currently, who held 2400 points. And then there was Holy Lightning - Sword, with 1000 defense points acting as a guard should Tethys be destroyed. And then there was the two face-downs..
Still, as much as he wanted to do something about them, he couldn't. Overlaying his two monsters into falcon cross as it was would have been a silly move, given that Spar was so strong as it was. With his field as it was, he'd be able to get rid of Anselm's front line. "Spar, attack Tethys!" The passionate fighter gave a full charge towards the angel, but the holy lady responded with her own powers - forming a wall of light that separated the two, one in which even Spar's fists couldn't break.
"My trap - Intrigue Shield, while equipped to my Tethys reduces any battle damage I take from her battle, and prevents her from being destroyed in battle once each turn. you should consider giving up, you're not at the level where your attacks will have any effect."
The obvious taunt worked to some effect, Hiro's brow narrowing as he sent in his Glassjaw for a follow-up attack, Sword being the target. "It seems you also have trouble comprehending my words, very well then let me demonstrate: The trap - Shift, activates! With this I redirect the attack towards Tethys!"
"You're going to what?" Glassjaw, too close to Anselm to retreat back, was intercepted by a frenzy of stars, each bouncing off his body as they continued to pelt him, and as a result of the counterattack - along with his monster's destruction, Hiro's life points fell to 1600.
"Ugh, it's so annoying, this guy won't let me get anywhere.." Anselm hadn't allowed Hiro any sort of headway, and it was starting to irritate the red head. "I'm ending my turn with a set card." Though Hiro was more or less fuming at this point, Anselm could care less.
"Time we ended this little duel. I suppose you should applaud yourself for lasting six turns, but this suit is rather humid so I'd appreciate being able to get out of this thing as soon as possible. To that effect, I activate the effect of Tethys and reveal my drawn monster -" Great, just another thing Hiro was dreading, "Holy Lightning - Arrow." Taking yet another card, Anselm merely revealed it as well, meaning that with Tethys yet another card would be on it's way. "Holy Lightning - Boomerang." A third card, and given the smug look visible from Anselm's helmet, it too must have been a monster. "Holy Lightning - Dios the Thunderer." Fortunately the next card wasn't a monster, but the damage was done at this point.
"I normal summon Holy Lightning - Arrow." Despite what the name might suggest 'Arrow' itself wasn't simply the item its name was derived from, appearing as a mechanical box with a single arrow resting inside of it. [1000 ATK]
"As it was normal summoned, I trigger the effect of Arrow - Banishing another Holy Lightning monster, such as my wings; to destroy your Spar." The box unfolded, revealing it not to be the container of the weapon - but the bow itself, the emblem of the fairies visible just barely visible should one look close enough. Unfortunately though, using the arrow it was armed with a single shot was enough to put Spar down, piercing through the monster, and nearly hitting Hiro himself.
"In addition, I also play the spell - Soul Release, and banish Clinch, Spar, and Mauler from your grave. All three of Hiro's monsters vanished from his grave, much to his dismay.
'Had he been planning to use that from the start? Is that why he decided not to attack Glassjaw earlier?..No, that couldn't be right; based from the card positioning, that was the card he drew from Tethys' effect.'
"Haven't figured it out yet? Why I choose not to negate Glassjaw earlier? I already knew you couldn't defeat me. So I was simply playing a game. Gambling, if you will, to see if you could some how devise a way to utilize the monster I gave you." Anselm still held two cards in his hand, in addition to Dios and Boomerang, a total of four. "I activate the spell - Level Meister, sending the level three Boomerang from my hand to make both Sword and Arrow the same." By abandoning a card in his hand, both Arrow and Sword shimmered briefly, their levels each falling to three.
"I overlay my two level three monsters to call upon my Holy Lightning - Boltic Cross!" His two monsters, becoming bright orbs of yellow hues swung into each other, a dome of light encasing Anselm. This dome soon began to shrink, or rather, it was being compressed. Blue sparks of lightning clung to the body of a black cross, veins of nano electricity coursed through the 'veins' that outlined this creature; though this form was only temporary, the crossbars of ths cross lurched forward, small fingers extending from their frame as the face that all Holy Lightning monsters wore as their emblem emblazoned itself into the center of Cross's 'intersection'. [1700 ATK]
"...It doesn't look that strong." Was Hiro's first comment, though to some degree he already knew its effect must be worth it, Anselm seemed like the kind of opponent who made sure all his moves counted for something. "I detach Arrow from my Cross to equip a Holy Lightning monster from my hand to Cross; then Cross will gain strength equal to half of the equipped monster." Dios the Thunderer, who held 2400 points by itself, transferred half of its power to Cross, raising its power to 2900. In addition to the power boost, a slight, minute, change occurred, the neon-like blue glow that it emitted slowly morphed into a subtle green color, a result of mixing the yellow energy the Holy Lightning monsters typically dressed themselves with.
"Tethys, attacks first." 'First' he says, like he knows what Hiro's set card is. "Trap activate - Negate attack; this stops your attack and ends the battlephase!" Despite how quick he was able to trigger his card, Glassjaw was still subject to his own effect, self destructing and leaving Hiro wide open. "It's a good thing Negate attack also ends the battlephase.."
"Congratulations, you've actually managed to stay another turn. I'm ending my turn, but you should enjoy your luck while it lasts - I don't plan on letting you simply continue as you please."
As if he had been letting him so the entire game, Hiro's hand contained a couple of useless cards and Switchhitter. Now of all times, if he could just get-
"Draw!" That glimmer of hope returned to his eyes, if he could just get rid of Boltic Cross before it became too strong, then everything would be fine. "I normal summon Burning Knuckler - Switchhitter!" Hiro's saving grace, along with the image of Glassjaw, stood firmly at his side. [1500 ATK]
"Switch's effect brings back a Knuckler from my grave when he's normal summoned, under the condition that I can't special summon any non-Knucklers this turn. But that won't matter, it's time I constructed the overlay network; these two level four monsters will Xyz summon my Burning Knuckler - Falcon Cross!"
Breaking free from the merging red orbs, was Hiro's ace monster, the white plated boxer brandishing a pair of golden gloves, matching the spreading metallic wings, keeping the monster afloat. [2000 ATK]
Anselm squinted, what was this? He hadn't heard of such a monster before. And while he was permitted use of one of a kind cards like his cross as well, he had yet to encounter another. Just where did he get this card from? The red overlay unit just rounding the front of Falcon Cross was absorbed into it's left fist. "By detaching an Xyz material from my Cross, it gains 500 attack points and any battle damage from battles involving it will be doubled!" The small boost granted it 2500 attacking power, but that was still lacking if he intended to destroy Cross.
Unless.. "I banish my Burning Knuckler - Counterpunch from my hand to increase the strength of Falcon Cross by 1000!" Or rather, this is what Hiro would have done, if it wasn't for Falcon Cross' attack being intercepted by the appearance of a small monster, a oddly shaped monster who resembled the number one. "By discarding my Holy Lightning - Candle, I'm able to negate this attack." He had been stopped yet again? But did this mean-
"You drew that card with Tethys and chose to not reveal it and draw and additional time?" Hiro's question must have sounded like praise, Anselm's expression saying he was still patting himself on the back.
"Don't you understand? If I had revealed Candle with Tethys, there was a chance you would have been able to devise a plan to counter it. This way, I was able to keep it hidden until the time was right."
That was the last play Hiro could make. If he had gotten rid of Cross, that meant Falcon Cross would have remained the strongest creature on the field. "..Turn end."
With the declaration of ending his turn, Hiro finally landed on the ground with the full intent of simply standing. He hadn't the will to push himself forward. Anselm, noticing this examined his drawn card - a spell; Energy Drain. With it, he'd reduce Falcon Cross' attack to zero, and be able to draw an additional card. Surely winning him the game.
Instead, he too came to a stop, removing his helm upon reaching the ground. "I suppose that should suffice for now, hm, Theos?" Hiro turned his head, surprised that Anselm had simply ended the duel as such. Not looking like the type to do so, when the game was clearly in your favor.
Still, Hiro had lost a game in which he was unable to deal even a single point of damage, despite trying his hardest. He had never dueled against someone so strong before, it was extremely depressing for Hiro, slowly removing his own helmet. From behind closed doors, Basil merely lowered his head, not wishing to somehow add insult to injury by speaking with his friend.
"Why yes, of course, despite scuffing up my dear suits that is. Though it will still be some time before we distribute these locally. During the duel I noticed several things I need to fix. Of course, I must thank you both for your assistance." Though Anselm repeated words of thanks for being allowed to test the suit, Hiro was simply removing his, ready to depart; reaching the door before being stopped by a voice behind him.
"Listen, kid." Anselm once again began noting superiority, "If you're going to cry yourself over a loss, that's fine, and I don't care. But don't blame me for your weakness. If you really want to be upset about something, let it be that you weren't strong enough to let me enjoy the game."
Was this some sort of twisted motivational speech? Regardless all it did was plant small seeds of Ire within Hiro. "Right, you're so good at the game that I'm depressed. Listen, I was just holding back against you. Next time I'll hit you squarely in that smug face of yours. I swear on it." Stepping through the door, and entering the observation deck, Hiro simply nodded towards Basil as if saying he was ready to go.
Before the two departed, Hiro cast one last look at the blonde who was still removing his deck from the compartment within the suit. 'Just you wait, I'll be much stronger than I am now. I won't lose like that ever again..'
xXx
So there it was, a second chapter. Since the one review my lowly story got brought this up, I'll mention that as far as I know of at the moment I'll only be using three anime archtypes, and even if this wasn't the case, for the most part my versions of the archtypes are slightly different than their everyday selves.
Card of the Day:
Holy Lightning - Boltic Cross
Rank 3 / 1700 ATK / 1300 DEF
2 level 3 "Holy Lightning" Monsters
Once per turn: You can detach 1 Xyz Material from this card to equip 1 "Holy Lightning" monster from your hand to this card. This card gains ATK equal to half the ATK of the equipped monster. If exactly 1 face-up "Holy Lightning" monster would be destroyed, you can destroy 1 card equipped to this card instead.
