Turn one
Ida: 4000
Dominic: 4000
"I'll go first" Dominic declared, "Draw. I summon Marauding Captain"
LV3, 1200 ATK, 400 DEF
"Using his effect, I'll summon a second Marauding Captain"
Ida rubbed his forehead, "Oh great, an attack lock. It's gonna be one of those duels"
"I'm not done yet. I activate the continuous spell The O. Forces. The effect of this spell changes depending on how many warrior or spellcaster type monster I control, since I control two warrior monsters I control cannot be destroyed by card effects. Now I place one card face-down and end my turn"
"Nevermind, it's an attack lock with backrow. Lovely stuff." Ida placed a hand on his deck, "allow me to screw it over. Draw. Since my opponent controls a face-down card, and I control no face-down cards I can special summon Truth Seeker from my hand"
Lv 4, 1600 ATK, 0 DEF
"When this guy is summoned, I can shuffle any number of cards from my hand into my deck, then draw the same number of cards, so I'll shuffle two" He takes two cards from his hand and puts them in his deck, then draws two, "This'll work." he grins, "by sending one card from my hand to the GY I can summon Power Seeker"
Lv 5, 2000 ATK, 1500 DEF
"And while I control a 'Seeker' monster that has a higher level then 1, I can summon Shelter Seeker from my GY
Lv 1, 100 ATK, 100 DEF,
Ida's Grin widened, "now I activate a Glory effect."
"Great, time for BS mechanic 101" Dominic rolled his eyes
"Hey, bite the weenie moron. Last time I checked, you got your ass handed to you by that 'BS mechanic'"
"Yeah, A BS Mechanic that only you and your family can use" Dominic raised an eyebrow,
Ida adjusted his position uncomfortably, "aunt Sarah said it was rare"
"And that didn't set off any alarms for you. Do you have any idea where these things come from?"
Ida was silent
"They didn't tell you anything did they"
"Shut it! The Glory effect of Glory Seeker activates" a light appeared from Ida's extra deck, and started shining on Shelter Seeker, "When a monster is summoned Glory Seeker can place Glory counters equal to the number of monsters I control, and that's three" the light from Ida's extra deck collected around Shelter Seeker, giving it a yellow glow
"Hold it," Dominic pointed a finger, "if I remember correctly, In order to Glory summon the card you're trying to use as material must have counters equal to or exceeding the Glory monster Glory value. Glory Seeker has a value of 6, so you would need 6 or more counters to use it"
"Objection", Ida pointed back, "the effect of Truth Seeker. I can tribute this card to double the number of Glory counters on a card." Truth Seeker placed his hands on Shelter Seeker, causing the light around her to glow brighter before he disappeared, "now that I have enough counters, and have activated it's Glory effect this turn I can Glory summon Glory Seeker." the light around Shelter Seeker grew until it was impossible to see the monster anymore. At this point Ida knew it was time to begin the summoning, "Seeker of golden light" Ida chanted as he pulled a golden card out of his extra deck, "who has traveled countless land in search of that which makes a soul" he threw the card into the light around Shelter Seeker, "Come forth and show these creatures the meaning of honor. Apper, Glory Seeker"
Lv, 5 Gl 6, ATK 2200, DEF 2200
"Glory Seeker, gains ATK equal to the number of Glory counters on it x100"
Glory Seeker ATK 2200 → 2800
"Wow, so much ATK. I'm so scared. If only I had an attack lock, oh wait" Dominic mocked
Smiling, Ida reached for his GY, "don't be so sure. You see, while I control a Glory monster I can shuffle Shelter Seeker from my GY into the deck to target one monster on the field and flip it face-down. Now where was that oh so powerful attack lock you were going on about"
Dominic took a step back as Shelter Seeker's effect washed over his left Marauding Captain, coating it in a veil of water."ah sh.."
"Battle, Power Seeker, attacks the right Marauding Captain" Ida commanded, and his monster obayed smashing his mace into the skull of Dominic's monster
Dominic LP 4000 → 3200
"You're not out of the woods yet, Glory Seeker attacks your face-down monster, as if I don't know what it is" Glory Seeker took his sword and held it pointing at the face-down card as he jabbed and destroyed it. "And I think you remember what happens now"
Dominic scowled, "when Glory Seeker destroys a monster by battle he can tribute one 'Seeker' monster to attack again"
Ida's grin widened, "Battle, by tributing Power Seeker, Glory Seeker can perform a second attack" Glory Seeker crossed weapons with Power Seeker , who shattered into pieces which fused onto Glory Seeker, "attack directly"
Dominic LP 3200 → 400
Dominic fell to the ground as Glory Seeker's sword struck him. However despite being in pain, he started laughing. "you've gotten better" he told Ida, "last time it took you way more than this to even scratch me. I'm almost proud seeing as, you know, i'm kinda the cause of your growth" he slowly got to his feet, "but the thing is, I've gotten better too. Trap activate! Heart Touching Appeal, when I take damage from an attack, I can summon one monster from my opponent's GY"
"From my GY?" Ida asked as a card was forcefully rejected from his duel disk and sent flying into Dominic's fingers
"And the card I chose" he revealed it to Ida, "is Truth Seeker" he slapped it onto his duel disk
"Truth Seeker?" Ida puzzled as his own monster appeared on his opponent's field, "why would you chose him? Power Seeker has more ATK."
Dominic looked into his opponent's eyes, "because I have to… let go of my pride" a light appeared from his extra deck, glowing red instead of Ida's gold, "I activate the Glory effect of Herculean Warrior, when a monster is special summoned to a column I can place counters equal to the number of cards in that column. In the center column there is Truth Seeker, Glory Seeker, and The O. Forces so that's three counter and I'll place them on The O. Forces." the continuous spell gained a red glow similar to the one Shelter Seeker had earlier, "also, I gain LP equal to the number of counters placed x400"
Dominic LP 400 → 1600
Ida was completely speechless. All day he had run head first into things that questioned his way of life, but after thinking about it…. He had no Idea where Glorys came from… and now Dominic had one, "h-how?"
"I guess I should explain, after all it's kinda your fault" Dominic chuckled, "kinda funny how i caused your growth, and you caused mine"
"What the blood soaked shadow realm are you talking about?"
"You see, when you tore out my shoulder… I, well. My mom couldn't pay for a prothstetic one, but there was no way I could enter the Turbo Duel circuit with a bad arm. I was thinking about giving up on my dream, but then this guy came along and he fixed everything. He gave us the money to get my arm fixed, and we even had enough left to fix up old Blazing Gold. Then he gave me my own Glory monster, and he only wanted one thing in return"
"And that was…" Ida feared the answer
"Cleo" Dominic said, pointing to the closet, "also to kill you if I could, but he'd understand if I didn't have the heart for it"
"Well" Ida regained his composure, "good luck with that, seeing as how I about beat you already"
"That can change, my turn" he draws, "I activate the effect of Truth Seeker by tributing this monster I can double the amount of Glory counters on a card" Truth Seeker placed his hands on The O. Forces and the red light around it grew.
Ida shook his head, "apparently your crash course on Glory summoning forgot something. When a Glory monster is summoned it's placed in the Glory zone, a zone in the dead center between both fields, while it's empty you can summon to it no problem, but while a monster is in there, like my Glory Seeker the monster you're attempting to summon needs to have more counters to contest it out. Glory Seeker has six counters on it, so you would need 7 or more to contest, and The O. Forces only has six"
"Guess I'm gonna have to gamble" Dominic looked at the card he drew, "I summon Marmiting Captain,"
Lv3, 1200 ATK, 400 DEF
"when he is normal summoned I can shuffle one card from my hand into the deck, then I can draw one card and if it's a monster I can summon it," he took a card from his hand and placed it into his deck, then closed his eyes as the automatic shuffler finished its job and he placed his hand back on the top of his deck, "Draw!" he revealed the card the card to Ida, "I drew Blazing Gloves and now I'll summon it
Lv 3, 300 ATK, 300 DEF,
"Now the Glory Effect of Herculean Warrior activates, I place counters equal to the number of cards in the same column as the summoned monster. Blazing Gloves is on a column by itself so that's only one counter" Dominic's extra deck started glowing once again, and just like last time the red light gathered itself around the continuous spell, "also I gain LP equal to the amount placed x400"
Dominic LP 1600 → 2000
"Now that I meet the required amount of Glory counters," he grabbed a card from his extra and threw it into the light, "I Glory summon Herculean Warrior"
Lv 8, Gl7, 2800 ATK, 2700 DEF
"I'm far from done, by returning one warrior monster from my field to my hand, I can activate The O. Forces from my GY" Blazing Gloves vanished into a stream of light that traveled to Dominic's hand, and The O. Forces returned to the field, "now I activate the effect of Blazing Gloves equipping it from my hand to a monster I control" Dominic placed Blazing Gloves in his s/t zone, and the monster appeared attached to Herculean Warrior's hands, "with its effect I can tribute a monster I control, being Marmiting Captain, to deal damage equal to the equipped monster's level x200"
Ida LP 4000 → 2400
Ida winced as the flames from Blazing Gloves started licking at his legs, "I felt that"
"That's the thing about Glory monsters, they make games much more interesting" Dominic smirked, "Battle, Herculean Warrior attacks Glory Seeker"
"But why" Ida questioned, "both our monsters have the same ATK"
Dominic pointed to his continuous spell, "While I only control one Warrior or Spellcaster, The O. Forces keeps any monster I control from being destroyed by battle. Now attack"
Both Herculean Warrior and Glory Seeker charged at each other, meeting in the center with a clash of steel that shook the room
"I activate the GY effect of Truth Seeker" Ida declared, "By shuffling this card from my GY into my deck, I can prevent the destruction of a Glory monster I control"
"The O. Forces also prevents my monsters destruction, but you want to hear a meme?"
"Your memes suck but…
"YOU STILL TAKE THE DAMAGE. When a monster equipped with Blazing Gloves attacks an opponent's monster I can deal damage to my opponent equal to half the attack target's ATK"
Another shot of flames came from Blazing Gloves, striking Ida square in the chest, "Gah!" he cried, "dang that smarts"
Ida LP 2400 → 1000
"I'm gonna take a wild guess as to what you're planing. You're thinking that on your turn you can attack Herculean Warrior with Glory Seeker again, but since you'd be the one attacking you could activate the GY effect of Power Seeker giving Glory Seeker an extra 2000 ATK to finish me off. The problem with that plan is, well, you have to attack. I activate the effect of Herculean Warrior with this I can move one card on the field to another column, I move Glory Seeker to the leftmost column"
Ida scratched his head, "and what did that do?"
"You'd know if you'd read the card. Card's in columns other then the column Herculean Warrior is in can't attack, also while I control the Glory zone, monster's in columns other then Herculean Warrior's can't activate effects" Dominic explained
"You're joking" Ida gasped
"Nope, turn end." Dominic looked at Ida's despair ridden face, "Wow, you're in one heck of a pickle. So you know what I'll cut you a deal. I don't want to kill you and I definitely don't want to hand Cleo over to someone I barely know, and I won't… on one condition"
"No, just no. I don't care what you're trying to offer me. If it's from you I don't want it. I hated you before, I hate you now, and I always will hate you."
"Ida at least hear me out…"
"NO! My turn, draw" Ida lower his head in an expressionless, emotionless way, "I end my turn"
Dominic shook his head, "you had your chance. My turn, draw. Battle, Herculean Warrior attacks Glory Seeker" Dominic's red haired warrior readied his sword and…
"Psych, I activate the effect of Vengeance Seeker, when a 'Seeker' monster i control is targeted for an attack I can summon this card"
Lv 4, 1800 ATK, 1000 DEF
"Also, now you have to attack him instead, or you could call of your attack. Whichever you choose."
"That's hardly a choice" Dominic scoffed, "I'll continue the attack, go Herculean Warrior" Dominic's monster readied his weapon once again, this time targeting the housebacked Vengeance Seeker, "At this time the effect of Blazing Gloves activates once again, and you take damage equal to half of Vengeance Seeker's ATK" another shot of flames threw themselves at Ida
Ida LP 1000 → 100
"That's fine" Ida winced though the pain, "cause now you've lost. The effect of Vengeance Seeker activates, if it's destroyed by an opponent's card I can revive one 'Seeker' monster in my GY and it's ATK will be doubled until the end-phase. I chose Power Seeker" a GY portal opens and Power Seeker steps out, "now due to the effect of Vengeance Seeker the ATK of Power Seeker is doubled
Power Seeker ATK 2000 → 4000
"Now I activate a Glory effect"
"Another one?" Dominic asked, puzzled
"When a monster is summoned, Paladiknight Wanderer can place 2 counters on that monster for every thousand ATK points it has, as of right now Power Seeker has 4000 ATK so that's 8 counters" Ida's extra started glowing again, this time a pure white light that converged on Power Seeker"
"I-I end my turn"
"Ready to admit defeat" Ida snickered
Dominic rolled his eyes, "it doesn't matter. Even if you summon a new Glory monster Herculean Warrior will just move it to another column, thus making it unable to attack"
"I beg to differ. My turn, draw" immediately after Ida drew his card he reached into his extra deck, "Paladin from the whitelands" he took the card and threw it into the light, "gifted by the angles to unite this shattered world" Power Seeker disappeared by the light still remained, with a new monster forming in, "appear and defend out hope" the new monster was now visible. It was a warrior with shattered armor over a ragged hood, and a white scarf tied around its mouth, "Come forth, Paladiknight Wanderer"
Lv7, Gl7, 2500 ATK, 2000 DEF
Dominic shrugged, "well, I'm impressed… kinda. However this doesn't change a thing. I activate the eff… what, it won't activate?" Dominic stared at his duel disk,
"When Paladiknight Wanderer is summoned by a contest neither player can activate any cards or effects from their field until the end-phase" Ida explained with a kind of smugness in his voice
"Still doesn't matter, since you contested Herculean Warrior out of the Glory zone, I can place it in any main monster zone I chose. I chose the far right, which neither of your monsters are so, thus they can't attack"
"That would be the case, but Paladiknight Wanderer is unaffected by effects that don't target him… so he can attack just fine" Ida told him, still very smug, "brace yourself meatball, this is gonna hurt. Battle, Paladiknight Wanderer attacks Herculean Warrior, go Strike from the sky" Paladiknight lept into the air and the heavens open, sending down rays of light to assist his attack, "at this time I'll activate the effect of Power Seeker. Since my Glory monster is attacking your monster, I can shuffle it from my GY into my deck and give my attacking monster a bonus 2000 ATK"
Paladiknight Wanderer ATK 2500 → 4500
"Now that I've done that, I activate the GY effect of Vengeance Seeker, by shuffling him into the deck, I can destroy up to two spell/trap cards you control. I destroy Blazing Gloves and The O. Forces" a veil of shadow washed over Dominic's s/t, destroying it, "and the attack continues, and this time your monster can be destroyed by battle" the wanderer's sword collided with Herculean Warrior's head, sending it to the GY
Dominic LP 2000 → 300
"And now that you're wide open, Glory Seeker attacks you directly
Dominic LP 300 → 0
Ida WINS
Ida had won, the thing is, one can only endure three large burn wounds for so long. Soon his adrenaline ran out, and rather then facing the intense pain, his body passed out from shock
Dominic looked down at the victor's body, and chuckled. "You've gotten better Ida, and that's good. Not sure if it's good enough yet, but it's good" he turned to Cleo's closet, "well, time for your prize mighty hero" and he unlocked it
Cleo swung the door into Dominic's face, smashing his nose in as she ran to Ida's side, "Ida you okay?"
"He's fine Cleo" Dominic said, massaging his nose, "he's just in shock, don't do anything stupid with his body and he'll wake up good as new"
Cleo blinked at him, "oh… um thanks?"she stood up, "just out of curiosity... If Ida had taken your offer, to let us go, what would you've asked in return?"
Dominic sighed, "to go with you" he pressed a button next to the garage door, opening it and letting then both gaze at the beautiful sunset beyond, "now that you're on the run you are gonna face danger left and right, and I wanted a part of that, to be one of you guys, a Glory user. Just you, me, and Ida vs whatever the world threw at us"
"Is that all?" Cleo put a hand on his shoulder, "heck, you still can. I mean, if it's a dangerous as you make it out to be we'll need all the help we can get"
Shaking his head, Dominic moved his shoulder out from under her hand, "nah, If Ida doesn't want me there, I'm not gonna force myself on him" on put on his helmet and sat down on 'Blazing Gold'
"Where are you going" Cleo asked softly
"Away from here," he revved the engine, "when your uncle finds out I failed… well, I don't want to be in his crosshairs"
"Lance can forgive you"
"I wasn't talking about Lance, I was talking about Zin." and he sped off
Cleo looked in the floor in deep regret, "goodbye"