"Well, looks like I'll have to kick your butt again, Bogdan." Ilena laughed.
"Actually, I've been praying for this match-up, so I can have my revenge." He smiled back.
"I saw before what your deck is capable of, but do you think you have what it takes to challenge me again?"
"I am in the finals, aren't I? Did you bring your serious deck this time?"
"I'm your finals opponent, aren't I?"
"Then I guess this is going to be interesting after all."
"You can bet on it."
"I just hope you're not taking me lightly again."
"Oh, no. You've proven yourself and I'm not making the same mistake again." They went to the center of the field and a judge approached them.
"Pick a coin side." He said.
"Heads!" Ilena snapped first. She's nervous, Bogdan thought. The Judge flipped the coin in the air, and caught it as it fell back down.
"Tails! You go first, kid." He pointed at Bogdan. "Now give each other your decks for shuffling, and you can start the duel." The judge announced and stepped back. They shuffled each other's decks and went to their designated places, where they put their decks in the duel disks and activated them. The four hologram projectors fixed on the four angles of the field flashed at the same time with rainbow-colored light, ready to project the 3D holographic monsters. Bogdan drew six cards and initiated the duel.
"I set three cards and a monster on the field and end my turn." Bogdan commenced the duel.
"I set a monster and two cards on the field and end my turn." Ilena almost mimicked Bogdan's move.
"I flip my set monster which is Morphing Jar, and its flip effect activates. We both discard our hands and draw five cards. Now I activate my set trap card Torrential Tribute. When a monster is summoned I can destroy all monsters on the field. And since flip summons are summons nonetheless, it is a legal activation for Torrential Tribute. So both my Morphing Jar and your set monster are destroyed."
"My set monster was Sangan, and when it's sent from the field to the graveyard I can search my deck for a monster with 1500 attack points or less. And I choose Black Salvo, because it has only 100 attack points, which makes him a legal target. Please continue." She took the deck out of the disk, searched for the desired card, and put it back in the disk after adding the card in her hand. Well, it's to be expected she'd be unfazed by Torrential. And she searched a tuner, huh? Yes, this is a new deck, she's using. This might turn out a little more troublesome than I originally thought, but that's only gonna make this duel more fun, Bogdan thought.
"I see you've got some new surprises in store for me. Too bad you won't have the chance to show them to me, as I intend to end this right now!" Bogdan declared. Other than narrowing her vision in alertness, Ilena was unimpressed. "I activate my second set card which is my quick-play spell card Mystical Space Typhoon and with it I destroy your set card from the left. Heh, Dimensional Prison is such a pesky card" He scoffed as he saw the revealed card before it disintegrated into pixels. "Then from my hand I activate my continuous spell card Card of Safe Return, which lets me draw a card each time a monster is special summoned from my graveyard. And now, I activate my third and last set card, my trap card Revival Gift, which lets me special summon a Tuner monster on the field and special summons two Gift Tokens on your side on the field, both with 1500 attack and defense points. I choose one token to be in attack and one in defense mode. And I special summon Nitro Synchron that was discarded earlier via Morphing Jar's effect, and draw a card via Card of Safe Return." As the living NOS canister appeared on Bogdan's field, two gelatinous little fiends formed on Ilena's side of the field. One had its arms crossed, and the other open, signifying the battle positions. "I discard a card, this Quillbolt Hedgehog here, in order to special summon The Tricky from my hand. Now I tune my level two Nitro Synchron to my level five Tricky in order to synchro summon Nitro Warrior." A horned goblin with what looked like a jet engine for a tail appeared with a roar on the field. "Because Nitro Synchron was used to synchro summon Nitro Warrior, I can draw a card. And last, but not least, I normal summon my tuner monster Krebons, and since I have a tuner on the field I special summon the Quillbolt Hedgehog on the field, draw a card by the effect of Card of Safe Return, and tune these level two monsters in order to synchro summon my level four Armory Arm. Now I activate Armory Arm's effect and equip it to Nitro Warrior. "Armory Arm flew up and attached itself on Nitro Warrior's right arm like a glove. "He gets 1000 more attack points and every time he destroys a monster, my opponent loses life points equal to the destroyed monster's attack points. At this point I activate Pot of Avarice and return five monsters from my graveyard to my deck, shuffle it, and draw two cards. So, Morphing Jar, Nitro Synchron, Krebons, The Tricky, and Marauding Captain, which was discarded from my hand via Morphing Jar's effect alongside Nitro Synchron, all go to my deck, and I draw two cards. And since I activated a spell card this turn after Nitro Warrior was synchro summoned to the field, he gets 1000 more attack points via his own effect. So he has 4800 attack points, 2800 base attack points and 2000 more from Armory Arm and his own effect when I activated Pot of Avarice. Nice play, huh? I disrupted your hand with Morphing Jar's effect by replacing your cards with others, I pulled off two synchro summons, I have a monster with attack points equal to more than half your life points that;s about to attack twice, which I'll explain why in due time, and I have six cards in my hand, due to all the drawing that replaced the cards I used. And if my math is correct, this should turn into a "One Turn Kill". Now, I attack the attack position Gift Token and you lose 3300 life points, and because the Gift token is destroyed-" But he never finished that sentence. Ilena interrupted him by revealing a set card.
"I activate my set card Fake Explosion. The damage calculation continues as normal and I lose 3300 life points, but the monsters that are attacked this turn aren't destroyed, so Armory Arm's effect and your second attack won't happen because the attacked monster survived. Fake Explosion also lets me special summon a Summon Reactor SK on the field from my graveyard or hand, and since I discarded one via Morphing Jar's effect, I summon Summon Reactor SK from the graveyard. Do you have anything else to do in this turn?" Ilena was still unimpressed.
"Nope. I wanted to, but I can't anymore, so I end my turn." Bogdan shrugged. She had the perfect response to his combo, dismantling it with a single trap card. He just sighed.
"I activate my spell card Double Summon, which lets me conduct two normal summons in this turn. So I summon Trap Reactor Y FI and Spell Reactor RE. Now I activate my spell card Trade In, which lets me discard a level eight monster to the graveyard and draw two cards, and I discard Flying Fortress SKY FIRE. Now I activate Summon Reactor SK's effect and send him, Trap Reactor Y FI and Spell Reactor RE from the field in order to summon Flying Fortress SKY FIRE from the hand, deck or graveyard, and I choose from the graveyard to special summon the one I discarded via Trade In. "The three World War Two airplane-looking robots started to open up small cartridges and hollow places all over their metal bodies and then combined in order to form a great World War Two bomb carrier airplane-looking robot which looked down on Nitro Warrior. Bogdan gulped with fear, but soon realized that SKY FIRE is much weaker than Nitro Warrior.
"But Moving Fortress SKY FIRE has only 3000 attack points, while Nitro Warrior has 4800, how do you intend to…an effect…what sort of effect does this thing have?"
"A great one. Watch and you'll see. I discard a card in order to destroy one card on your side of the field, and I chose Nitro Warrior." As she discarded her card, Moving Fortress SKY FIRE launched a missile, which blew Nitro Warrior up. "And Armory Arm goes with him, since it's equipped on him at the time of the destruction. Now I switch in attack position the Gift token you special summoned in defense position and attack you directly with the three monsters." The combined attack of the two Tokens and the artillery barrage from SKY FIRE caused a massive explosion on Bogdan's side of the field. Although the holograms are harmless and all the explosions and lasers are just for show, he still instinctively braced before being hit. "So 3000 attack points from SKY FIRE plus 1500 from each Gift token makes 6000 life points direct damage. Now you have 2000 life points and I have 5700. How's that for a combo? Not nearly as long and complicated as yours, but twice as destructive. Short and sweet." She grinned confidently, emphasizing the last three words.
"Very impressive, but remember I'm about to draw my seventh card. This practically guarantees a comeback of epic proportions." Bogdan smiled as well. Ilena's expression became instantly serious.
"Your turn. Do your worst." She exclaimed.
"I activate Lightning Vortex which, when I discard a card as a cost, lets me destroy all attack position monsters on my opponent's side of the field, so I discard my second Quillbolt Hedgehog." He discarded Quillbolt Hedgehog, and the next moment three thunders, out of the blue, struck the three monsters on her side of the field and destroyed them. She covered her eyes with her hand in bitterness. "Now I summon Marauding Captain, and when he's normal summoned I can special summon another level four or lower monster from my hand, so I summon my tuner Psychic Commander. Since I have a tuner on the field, I can special summon Quillbolt Hedgehog from the graveyard and draw a card from Card of Safe return's effect. Now I tune Psychic Commander's level three, Marauding Captain's level three and Quillbolt Hedgehog's level two and synchro summon Red Dragon Archfiend!" The crimson dragon emerged from the synchro rings with a loud bellow, made a loop and landed beside Bogdan. "Go, my crimson behemoth, attack her directly!" Red Dragon Archfiend hovered straight up in the air, then charged at her and breathed fire over the place she was standing. It made a U-turn behind her, flew back and landed at his post behind Bogdan. "Now you have 2700 life points. I set a card and end my turn." As the smoke cleared Bogdan could see Ilena being pissed off. She yanked the card violently.
"I summon my tuner Black Salvo, and when he's normal summoned I can special summon a level four DARK machine monster from my graveyard, so I summon Trap Reactor Y FI. Now I tune Black Salvo's level three and Trap Reactor Y FI's level four in order to synchro summon Dark Strike Fighter."
"Another one of these old school aircraft monsters? You seem to have a thing for old machines. First an archetype of monsters called "Ancient Gear", which consisted of rusty, ugly machines, and now WWII planes?"
"I just like machines, and this particular WWII aircraft will ensure me victory, a thing the others failed to do. Now I activate my spell card Synchro Blast Wave, which, when I control a synchro monster, lets me destroy a monster on my opponent's side of the field." Dark Strike Fighter fired a shockwave from its hand which blew Red Dragon Archfiend to pieces. "Now, Dark Strike Fighter, attack him directly and end this duel!" Dark Strike Fighter shot two rockets from under his wings, but the set card on Bogdan's side of the tennis court raised and revealed itself before the rockets reached him.
"I activate my set quick-play spell card Shrink! It halves the attack of a monster on the field of my choosing. So Dark Strike Fighter's 2600 attack points become 1300, just a little below my 1500 life points, and I survive this turn." Dark Strike Fighter literally shrunk to half its size, and so did the two rockets that hung in the air as if the time stopped, waiting for Shrink's effect to resolve, so they can continue to their target. Then they suddenly gained momentum and blew up where Bogdan was standing.
"No, Bogdan, you don't survive." Irene calmly responded.
"What?!"
"You have only 700 life points left, which is way lower than the burn damage Dark Strike Fighter is about to inflict to you."
"Burn damage?!" He was shocked.
"Yes. You see, Dark Strike Fighter can tribute a monster and inflict damage equal to the level of the tributed monster times 200."
"But you don't have any monsters to tribute… Except… Dark Strike Fighter himself!" Bogdan understood.
"Exactly. Dark Strike Fighter can tribute my monsters, including himself, and inflict the burn damage. So I activate his effect and destroy him to defeat you. Like in chess, you have to sacrifice some pawns in order to achieve victory. This duel goes to me, Bogdan."
"Wrong. This duel isn't over yet."
"What?!" But Dark Strike Fighter already blew himself and just before the counter of Bogdan's duel disk started to decrease towards zero, he discarded a card. The decreasing stopped, and his life points went back to 700.
"What did you just do?" Ilena asked, visibly frightened by the unpredicted outcome of the situation.
"I discarded Hanewata."
"So? What does that card do?"
"It's a level one LIGHT fairy tuner with a nifty little effect. When I'm about to receive burn damage, I can discard Hanewata and negate it."
"What!? You sneaky little…" Ilena stopped herself before she said something she would later regret. There were mixed exclamations from the crowd, those that were cheering for Bogdan were relieved, and those that were rooting for Ilena were disappointed. "Ok, you weaseled your way out of the danger this time. But with only 700 life points next turn you will definitely lose. I set the two cards in my hand and end my turn."
"We'll see about that, depends on what I draw. I activate my spell card Reload. I can return all cards from my hand to my deck, shuffle, and then draw the same number of cards I returned. So I redraw three cards." Bogdan shuffled his hand back in the deck and drew three cards, slowly, one by one, looking at each card before drawing the next. A smile grew on his face with every drawn card. "Yes! Time to end this duel!" He laughed. She lost all color from her face. The crowd was under pressure of all the suspense and was waiting eagerly for the development of this situation. "First I activate my spell card Heavy Storm, which lets me destroy all spell and trap cards on the field, so your back row protection goes to hell."
"Not so fast! I activate the trap card Threatening Roar as a chain to your Heavy Storm! Now you cannot declare battle for the rest of the turn."
"God damn it, I almost had you that time. I activate One Day of Peace, which lets us both draw a card and neither of us takes any damage, battle or effect, until the end phase of your next turn. That should keep me safe for the moment. I set a card and that concludes my turn."
"Allow me to thank you for One Day of Peace since not only have you given me the card I needed to defeat you, you've basically given me the opportunity to do this! I activate my spell card Soul Charge! It lets me summon as many monsters as I want from my graveyard, but I take 1000 points of damage for each monster I summon. Since One Day of Peace prevents me from taking any sort of damage, this part of Soul Charge's effect doesn't apply."
"How could I have been so stupid!?" Bogdan cried out in despair, slapping his forehead.
"Don't hit yourself, you had no idea I had that card in my hand." Ilena smiled compassionately, then turned serious again. "But that doesn't mean I'll go easy just because of your little blunder. I summon Dark Strike Fighter, Summon Reactor SK and Black Salvo. Now I tune my level three Black Salvo to my level five Summon Reactor SK and synchro summon Dark Flattop in defense mode." A giant plane with a runway built-in on top of it and a metallic ring on its far side slowly emerged from the synchro portal above her. Bogdan checked its stats. It had zero attack and 3000 defense points. Ho-boy. What the hell does this thing do now? "At this point I activate its effect! If I have a Flying Fortress SKY FIRE in my graveyard that was previously special summoned successfully I can special summon it ignoring its summoning conditions. Come forth again, Flying Fortress SKY FIRE!"
"Not him again! Well, this time you won't catch me by surprise because I know now how the card works. Chain! I activate Call of the Haunted! I select from my graveyard Red Dragon Archfiend and special summon it, then Call equips itself to Red Dragon, and if it's destroyed, Red Dragon goes with it. This way, since Flying Fortress SKY FIRE isn't on the field yet, you can't destroy Red Dragon with its effect when it's summoned." First the crimson behemoth flew from a hole in the ground manifested by the effect of Call of the Haunted and landed beside Bogdan, then the metallic ring on Flattop's far side produced a portal from which the bomber plane flew out and transformed in a giant robot mid-air, then landed beside Dark Strike Fighter. "Also, you have no cards in your hand and can't discard to destroy cards on my side of the field with SKY FIRE's other effect, and since One Day of Peace's protection is still active, Dark Strike Fighter's effect is useless until your next turn. That should give me the next turn to do something about this predicament. "Bogdan explained.
"You really don't know when to give up, do you? It's over, Bogdan, save some face and forfeit this duel! On my next turn Dark Strike Fighter will burn you for about 2000 damage, SKY FIRE will burn you for 800 damage if you set cards or summon monsters. If by some miracle you manage to destroy SKY FIRE, Dark Flattop will simply bring him back again for free, and not to mention the battle phase itself. Give up, please." Ilena pleaded. Bogdan just smiled as he prepared to draw. This enraged Ilena. "Have it your way then. I end my turn. I'll even tell you how it's going to go. You can't set or summon anything because you'll lose your measly 700 life points, nor you can switch Red Dragon Archfiend in defense, because both SKY FIRE and Dark Strike can run over it. You'll probably attack Dark Strike Fighter, destroy it and inflict 400 points of battle damage. Then I'll draw, discard the card I drew to destroy Call of the Haunted, then attack you directly with SKY FIRE. But please, by all means, your turn. Show me what you got!" Ilena exclaimed. Bogdan drew his card and started laughing again. This pissed Ilena off to no end. "What's so damn funny now?" She demanded.
"You know, I built this deck with a goal in mind that the 41 cards in it should be capable of handling any sort of obstacle presented before them, mostly because nobody ever plays match duels, and therefore doesn't use a Side Deck. So I tried to cram in as much stuff as I could and keep it cohesive, and also give it an answer to a myriad of specific situations. For example, my deck is full of weak monsters that combine themselves to pull the strong synchros, right? So I was thinking, what if my opponent had a boss monster out and I had only wiener monsters in hand? Or what if I had a boss monster out and my opponent took control of it to use it against me? So I added cards that act as a solution to these two exact situations, and several others I thought I might encounter along the way. If these cards were to be a dead draw at any other point I could simply toss them to summon The Tricky or as a bluff trap cards." Bogdan droned on. Ilena rolled her eyes in annoyance.
"Get to the point, Bogdan." She snarled.
"Ok, then. I have two spell cards in my hand. SKY FIRE doesn't activate when I activate spells or traps, only sets and summons, so I can freely use them. First I activate Creature Swap! We both select a monster on our respective side of the field, and swap control of them. I only have Red Dragon Archfiend, so you can have that one."
"That's your big play? Here, take Dark Flattop, both Red Dragon's and SKY FIRE's effects can destroy it effortlessly." Ilena scoffed as both monsters hovered to the other side, switching places.
"Excellent! I was counting on you giving me Dark Flattop. Don't get me wrong, it was the logical choice and I would've done the same. At first I was thinking of giving Red Dragon and ending, this activating its effect of destroying all monsters on its side of the field that didn't declare attack this turn, but I had no way of dealing with it later when you'd inevitably attack me with my own monster, so I came up with this alternative. I switch Dark Flattop in attack mode, and activate my second spell card, Owner's Seal! Now we both regain control of our own monsters, meaning you get back Dark Flattop, and I get back Red Dragon Archfiend." Now they hovered back to their original position.
"Oh, fuck me!" Ilena realized what Bogdan did. He repaid her for her win back in Genoa, when she survived total annihilation of her deck with a card he completely disregarded, with the stupidest combo in Yu-Gi-Oh! history. And worst part is, this is broadcast live across Italy, then it will be uploaded on the internet for the rest of the world to see. Fucking great. She sighed, then chuckled. Well played, Bogdan. Well played indeed.
"Maybe later. Red Dragon Archfiend, attack Dark Flattop and end this duel once and for all!" The dragon spread its wings and soared up in the air, then swooped and engulfed the carrier in flames, causing it to explode, emitting a shockwave that made all other hologram projections disappear.
"And the winner is… Ok I'm gonna mess this up… Bard… Blod… This kid!" The judge exclaimed.
"It's Bogdan." You inbred. Bogdan sighed as he approached Ilena. He got over the fact that his name was too hard for the Italians a long time ago.
"Right, um, what you said." The judge was a little embarrassed.
"Listen, Ilena. I'll be damned if I didn't sweat myself up good this duel. You almost got me that time with Dark Strike Fighter's effect. At the first moment I didn't notice Hanewata in my hand, so I got pretty spooked." Bogdan admitted.
"Yeah, he's pretty sweet, isn't he?" She smiled at him.
"Hell yeah. Wanna trade for him? I could use him in my own synchro deck."
"You nuts? Of course not, he's the ace of my deck!"
"Well, don't blame me for trying." Bogdan laughed.
"Aw, hell, you guys, why do you have to make all your duels so tense? I almost got a heart attack up there as Bogdan pulled himself out of the shit with Hane-whatsitsname back there." Alberto said, excited over the duel.
"It's Hanewata." Bogdan laughed.
"And that combo, dude! Blew my mind right out of my skull! You took her monster just to switch its battle position for her, then gave it back to her before attacking it! Freaking hilarious, dude! Now I've seen crazy stuff happen, but what you guys do when you duel each other is simply breathtaking!
"Well, we have to give our adoring public a good show." Bogdan smiled and bowed to the crowd. He was awarded a tournament-only ultra-rare Stardust Dragon/Assault Mode, a giant check with a hefty sum written on it and a golden trophy representing the Millennium Puzzle encased in Plexiglas and a mahogany base. Then they were approached by photographers wanting the top three duelists to pose together. Ilena was awarded a silver medal representing the Millennium Ring, a much smaller sum of money, and a tournament-only ultra-rare card. Giacomo was awarded a bronze trophy representing the Millennium Rod and a tournament-only limited edition super-rare card. The reporters swarmed them and began to pour them with questions.
"Mister Bogdan, how and when did you begin to play this game?"
"Sir, what are your thoughts on this tournament? Was it too difficult for you to advance upwards through the qualifications?"
"Do you think you can do as well on the World Championship after two years?" They managed to answer several questions and then got to the cab that was waiting to return them to the hotel.
Later that day, back in Genoa, Bogdan went to the internet café where he always frequented and sent nearly 80% of the prize money to his family via Western Union. The lady that worked there was amazed of the amount of money she was holding in her hands. He told her that it was a lottery prize, because he wanted to spare himself any unnecessary explanations. On his way home he was approached by a well-dressed Italian gentleman, a little on the chubby side, but otherwise his appearance was flawless.
"Excuse me, are you the newly-crowned national Yu-Gi-Oh! champion?" He inquired.
"Who wants to know?" Bogdan was cautious, for something was telling him that this guy was bad news.
"I am a… Talent seeker, if you will, and I offer you my services to represent you. My name is Bruno Lomellini, and here's my business card. What I offer is to be your manager. I can organize your duel appointments, arrange hotel stays for tournaments, and I know of a place where there are duels with lots of money involved, but are of a more… Discrete nature than the tournament you just won." The gentleman explained, choosing his words carefully.
"You mean illegal underground duels?" Bogdan made no effort to be as subtle.
"I wouldn't choose that set of words." He looked around, as if afraid someone could overhear.
"No thank you, I have no wish for legal or any other sort of trouble here in Italy. And I have no desire to be a pit dog for anybody else, to have money bet on my head." The man narrowed his sight at him. Bogdan turned to leave, but was stopped by what the man said next.
"You may need the money. You never know what the future has in store for you. Imagine if something happened to your family, and since they send a great deal of their salaries to you because you're a simple university student, they can hardly afford any decent medical care in case of illness or injury." Bogdan turned to face him.
"Is that a threat?" Bogdan clenched his fists, although unsure he could take him. He tried to pass it as a bluff.
"A friendly word of advice." Bruno saw through it.
"I still stand behind what I said. No thank you." Bogdan was adamant.
"At least keep the card in case of any…events…that would change your mind." There was something ominous behind the man's last words.