Finally, Spring break! I didn't know Duel academy would be so hard! You'd think a school that teaches a card game would be easy, considering the manuals that come in every starter deck tells you every rule, but it turns out it's more for teaching strategies, combos, little known facts, counter strategies and the like. They give out free duel disks, but I opted to keep my own, which I've saved for years to get along with a state of the art duel runner. My disk resembles A blade gauntlet, when it opens, two "wings" swing out from the blade, then two more wings slide out of the first two.
I had just gotten my first Duel runner. You have to be 21 to legally own and pilot a duel runner because of the risks involved. Anyways, I'm currently out in Utah to test my runner. It's black and silver with a superconductor levitating the front half on the earths magnetic field. I'm currently in Wendover, right on the Utah Nevada state line, and on the northwestern corner of the salt flats. With a population of 1800, I wasn't expecting any dueling, so I only brought two decks aside from my turbo deck.
I was just about to head out to the flats, when I heard a familiar voice behind me.
"Hey James! Fancy seeing you here."
I turned around to see my good friend and rival, Jacob. "Hey Jacob, what're you doing here?"
"This is a hotspot for turbo duels, so I came to see some. Damn! Is that your runner?"
I looked my runner proudly. "Yep, she's all mine. Until my wife decides to get back together, I'm taking care of Silver and taking classes at duel academy."
"Jeez, you got in?"
"Yep, hey, I was just about to go test my runner, but how about a duel?"
Jacob got a twisted grin on his face, "Sure but don't cry when you lose."
(I'd better use my tough deck if he's still as good as he was in high school) I thought to my self as I reached into my jacket and switched decks.
Jacob used a standard duel disk, modeled after the Battle city disk from the anime, but it was a light shade of metallic red. After our disks activated, the duel began.
"As I recall, your Lightsworns trounced me the last time we dueled, so I'll take the first turn!" I drew my cards
Gift card
Rain of mercy
Marshmallon
Messenger of peace
Dark cure
"Son of a bitch…" I muttered
I drew a card, Shield wing
"I set two cards facedown, then set a monster in defense mode. Your turn"
He drew his cards, "I set two cards, then activate Solar Recharge! By discarding Wulf, Lightsworn hunter, I draw two cards and discard two from the top of my deck. Then I summon Lumina, Lightsworn Summoner."
A beautiful woman appeared on the field, her hands glowing.
ATK 1000 DEF 1000
"I activate her effect! By discarding Garoth, Lightsworn Warrior, I can revive Wulf!
An anthro man appeared on the field, holding a bladed staff and wearing a gauntlet with three glowing blades coming from it. ATK 2100 DEF 300
"Wulf, attack his facedown!"
Wulf sprang forward, just then, my facedown revealed itself to be marshmallon.
ATK 300 DEF 500. Wulf slammed his staff into marshmallon, but his gooey makeup absorbed the impact.
I smirked, "Marshmallon cannot be destroyed by battle, and when he's attacked while facedown, you take 1000 damage."
Marshmallon then caused Wulfs staff to rebound, sending him flying into Jacob, who was knocked to the ground. LP 7000
"The hell was that?" he shouted.
"That, is my ability Jacob. Sometime after high school, I found I could make the effects of cards real. I think it's called Psychic dueling. I can nullify the power, but I want you to see me at the top of my game."
Jacob got up, "Wow, I thought that was just in the anime. I end my turn. Luminas effect discards the top three cards from my deck."
Alright, my turn. I drew Bad reaction to simochi. "Fuck yeah!" I set one card face down and activate Messenger of peace!" I controlled my voice to make it sound like Messenger was the card I drew. "Now, you cant attack with anything with over 1500 ATK. Your turn!"
He drew his card. "By tributing Wulf, I can summon Celestia, Lightsworn angel!"
An angel in white and blue armor wielding a staff appeared on the field ATK 2300 DEF 200
"I activate her effect, by sending the top 4 cards from the top of my deck to the graveyard, I can destroy your marshmallon and messenger of peace!"
Celestia then shot rays of light at the cards, cousing them to explode into shards of light.
"Also, one of the cards discarded was another Wulf, his effect activates, allowing me to summon him! Then I activate Luminas effect, by discarding Jein, Lightsworn paladin, I can summon Garoth from my graveyard."
A man in armor wielding a glowing halberd appeared. ATK 1850 DEF 1300
"Now, they all attack!"
Lumina shot twin balls of light at me LP 7000
Wulf slashed me with his claws. Damn hard light, that hurt! LP 4900
Celestia shot a beam of light at me LP 2600
Finally, Garoth hit me with that halberd. LP 750
"Yout turn. Lumina discards 3 cards, then because of Luminas discard, Garoth discards 2 cards. One of them was Gragonith, Lightsworn dragon so I get to draw one card."
I draw, Upstart goblin.
"Alright, time to lose. First I activate Bad reaction to simochi, from now on if you gain life points, it's nullified and you take the same amount as damage! So with that, I activate the trap card Dark cure. From now on when you summon a monster(s), I pick one and you "gain" life points equal to half its attack. Then I activate Gift card! This card gives you 3000 life points!"
A card appeared on the field, then merged with Jacobs duel disk. LP 4000
"Now I activate Rain of mercy, which gives us both 1000 life points!"
Rain began to fall, my counter went up to 1750, whereas Jacobs went down to 3000
"Then I activate Upstart goblin, I draw a card and you gain 1000 life points."
A goblin in expensive clothes appeared and punched Jacob in the gut, he fell over his life points 2000.
"I set a card facedown and end my turn."
Jacob got back up. "My turn, draw!" He smirked. "I special summon Judgment Dragon!"
A huge feathered dragon with red claws appeared, dwarfing everything else on the field. ATK 3000 DEF 2600
"I activate it's effect, by paying 1000 life points, he'll destroy everything on the field exept himself!." LP 1000
This was it, now or never. "Chain! I activate The paths of destiny! We both flip coin, and if we get tails, we lose 2000 LP, if we get heads, we gain 2000 LP. Either way, you lose 'em all."
Virtual coins appeared, then they flipped, Jacob got heads, LP 0
Mine flipped. Tails. LP 0
Our disks deactivated, the duel was a draw.
We walked up to each other and shook hands. "Good duel" I told him.
"Same here. So how fast does that runner go?"
I looked back at it. "That's what I'm here to find out. Wanna watch?"
"That's what I came here for, let's go."
I put my duel disk into the console and the machine sprang to life. The engine producing a sound that was a mix of a quiet roar, a rhythmic thrum and a constant whine, the thrusters on the front and back lighting up a neon blue. I got on and was about to take off, when I heard a voice behind me. "Wait a sec!"
I turned around and another duel runner was coming up on me fast. It was a wheel runner, the pilot sitting inside a giant wheel, there was a second white wheel going horizontally with a booster box on the back. The runner pulled up and I could see the pilot.
His hair was brown, almost black and spiked; he wore glasses and had on a dark brown leather jacket. The duel disk mounted on his console resembled a gray shield with twin cutlasses behind it.
We looked at him, "Yeah? What do you need?"
"I've been waiting around here for a turbo duelist to show up, but you're the only one here!"
"Yeah." I told him, since it's spring break, most of the turbo duelists with the money to go anywhere are in Cairo at the Turbo grand prix. I'm new to turbo dueling and before I duel anyone, I want to see what my runners capable of."
"Well how dueling me to find out?" he asked.
I thought about it for a moment. "Ok."
Later
We were at the fringes of the salt flats, then we hit the power switches in our runners.
"Duel mode engaged" both runners said in unison. Our screens temporally showed the field spell "Speed world"
Speed World
Field spell
This card cannot be destroyed or replaced with another field spell. If a player activates a Spell Card, other than a "Speed Spell", they take 2000 damage. During each player's Standby Phase, place 1 Speed Counter on this card for both players (max. 12 for each player). When a player takes damage, remove Speed Counters of the attacked Player from this card for each multiple of 1000 damage taken.
Then the screen went back to the standard layout showing speedometer, speed counters, the field and life points
The duel runners then said "Autopilot engaged."
I looked at the mystery duelist, he looked at me.
"Ready?" I said
"Set." He responded.
We both looked down the flats.
We took of at blinding speeds "Duel!"
