Yu-gi-oh: Rise of Arcadia
Chapter 4: Earning of the Halo
HeroSpirit: "Here we go! The conclusion!"
Ryo: "Come on Haru! You can do it!"
Takuya: "No he can't."
Haru: "Shut up rich boy!"
Haru: 4000 LP
Takuya: 4000 LP
I examined the field before beginning my turn. All I had was Kuribon (300ATK/200DEF) on my side of the field in defense mode, while Takuya had a menacing monster on his field known as Gemstone Beast (2200ATK/0DEF). Luckily, I wouldn't have to deal with Gemstone Beast for a while due to it's effect. Takuya already explained that since he just used his monster's effect, he had to switch it to defense mode until the end of his next turn. This at least bought me some time.
"I draw!" I cried as I drew from my deck and examined the card.
"This will be useful later."
"I set one card face down and switch my Kuribon into attack mode!" I said as my Kuribon uncurled itself and glared it's eyes menacingly. The way I figured it, I could destroy Takuya's Gemstone Beast because it doesn't have any defense points. Even with Kuribon's little 300 attack points I could still take it out and prevent it from becoming an issue later.
"Attack mode? So this means you're going to sick your sissy monster on me?" Takuya heckled. I ignored this comment and continued.
"No, not before I attach this equip spell to it. I activate, Massive Determination!" I called as I slotted in the spell card. The spell card had a picture of a small child in casual clothing beginning to charge, having an intense red glow about him.
"Maybe now rich boy will shut up."
"My Massive Determination equip spell has the ability to power up my monster whenever it attacks. That is, as long as it's attack points are lower than the monster it's attacking. With the spell's effect, my Kuribon gains attack points equal to the monster it's targeting. Not just that, but my Kuribon can now do piercing damage!"
"What?" Takuya gasped, obviously surprised by the move.
"Go Kuribon! (2500ATK/200DEF) Destroy Gemstone Beast!" I commanded as Kuribon launched itself at the monster. I had confidence that I was going to win this fight until I saw Takuya pick up a card from his hand.
"What's he doing?"
"I didn't want to use this yet, but I guess I have to now. From my hand, I activate the effect of my Gemstone Guard! (0ATK/2000DEF)"
"Huh?" I gasped at this, unknowing of what was to come.
"My Gemstone Guard's effect can be activated whenever you wage an attack on one of my monsters. With it's effect, my Gemstone Guard is summoned to the field automatically and your attack is directed to it instead!" I heard Takuya explain as a monster suddenly appeared on the field. It appeared to be another monster comprised of a lot of the same types of precious gems from Takuya's last monster, but this time the monster was in a humanoid shape carrying a shield that looked like it was made of diamond.
"No worries, my Kuribon still has enough power to take it out!" I insured, but Takuya wasn't so sure about this.
"I don't think so, since your Kuribon's attack points are higher than my Gemstone Guard, your Massive Determination equip spell loses it's effect and your attack points return to normal!"
"Crap! I completely forgot!"
I saw my Kuribon slam itself against Gemstone Guard's shield, but unfortunately it's efforts were in vain as it lost it's bonus from my spell card. The attack failed and I took damage equal to the difference in Kuribon's attack points and Gemstone Guard's defense points due to the basic rules of duel monsters.
Haru: 2300 LP
Takuya: 4000 LP
"I set one more card face down and end my turn." I sighed.
"Fine then." I heard Takuya scoff. "Then I summon my Gemstone Polisher! (100ATK/100DEF)" I heard Takuya call as he slammed a monster card onto his duel disk. I soon saw a smaller gemstone monster fly out of a blue portal and fall into Takuya's field. This monster looked like a midget version of a humanoid-shaped creature, of course retaining the feature of being made of gems.
"Oh man, that polisher is a tuner monster!"
I of course knew this from my previous duels with Takuya, as he always used synchro monsters to deliver the final blow to me. It was his way of adding insult to injury.
"Next I synchronize my level four Gemstone Beast and my level three Gemstone Guard with my level one Gemstone Polisher!" I heard Takuya cry as his polisher shattered, only to leave behind two glowing orbs that began to circle around Gemstone Beast and Gemstone Guard until they made two glowing rings. From inside these rings the Gemstone cards began to glow, and a blinding light was created leaving me to shut my eyes.
"This can't be good." I said to myself as my vision started to clear. The only knew monster I could see was another humanoid monster that appeared to be some sort of centaur. This centaur-like monster carried a diamond sword and shield as it's weapons, and it body shined with it being made of only pearls and topaz.
"Synchro summon! Gemstone Knight! (2850ATK/2300DEF)" Takuya smiled as his monster gave a wave of it's diamond sword. "The fun doesn't stop there though, with Gemstone Beast off the field, it's effect is worn off and I can conduct my battle phase! Go Gemstone Knight, attack Kuribon!"
"Crap! If that monster's attack is successful the duel is done!"
I saw the shining monster charge at me with it's four horse-looking legs, using it's sword as a lance targeting my Kuribon which was still in attack mode. Luckily I had planned for this.
"I activate my trap card, Kuribonds!" I called as a purple trap card flipped up beside me revealing a picture of several plain Kuriboh monster holding each other's hands.
Suddenly, several Kuribohs started to fly out of this trap card, each one charging at Gemstone Knight only to latch onto it like it was trying to hold it down. Once about twenty of these Kuriboh monsters were out on the field doing this, the Gemstone Knight began to struggle in an attempt to get the Kuribohs off.
"What are your fur balls doing to my monster!" Takuya demanded to know as he helplessly watched this.
"They're lowering his attack points. My Kuribonds is a trap card that lowers your monster's attack points by 200 for every level it has." I finished, giving off a subtle chuckle. "So, according to my math, your knight is a level eight monster, and it loses 1600 of it's attack points leaving it with 1250 left."
"Whatever, my knight will still destroy your Kuribon!" Takuya remembered as his knight waged it's attack once more with all the Kuribohs still on him.
"I don't think so, not after I activate my second trap, Protector of the Weak!" I called as I revealed my second trap card. This card had a picture of a teenage boy using his body to protect several small children in the background.
"Another trap?" Takuya asked, I nodded.
"My Protector of the Weak is a continuous trap that prevents you from destroying my monsters if the difference in both of their attack points are less than 1000 points." I explained.
"So that means..." Takuya began, but he didn't get to finish before I interrupted.
"It means to destroy my Kuribohs, your monsters have to have 1300 attack points or more. Unfortunately, your knight is now 50 points short of that description." I finished.
I saw the Kuriboh- covered Gemstone Knight attempt to stab my Kuribon with it's diamond sword. Unfortunately, thanks to my trap, the knight's sword bumped into an energy shield instead and was launched backwards back to Takuya's field.
"This is great. With my Kuribonds and Protector of the Weak traps on the field, Takuya can't use his knight to attack. This will give me some time to draw a counter attack."
"Fine then, I place a card facedown and end my turn." Takuya finished.
"My move then!" I drew.
"My Kuriclone spell card? This will come in handy later, but I shouldn't use it now."
"I set a card face down and end my turn." I finished. I ended my turn all to quickly, but there wasn't much I could do that round with only Kuribon and the Kuriclone spell card.
"Alright then." I heard Takuya call as he drew. Takuya looked at the card he just drew and went wide eyed. I started to see him chuckle to himself with a sort of crafty grin.
"What's he doing?"
"This is it, loser. I just drew my triumph card!" I heard Takuya smile.
"Oh man, this can't be good."
"From my hand, I activate the continuous spell card, Buy Off!" I saw Takuya yell as a spell card appeared on his field with a picture of two men exchanging mags of money.
"Buy Off? What does that do?" I quizzed taking a step back as this spell was played.
"With Buy Off I can give 500 of my life points to you at any point during the duel to destroy a card on your side of the field!" he bragged as he started to laugh. "You are so in for it now!"
"Uh oh." I said to myself quietly.
"He can use that card to destroy either of my trap cards, or even my Kuribon if he wants."
"Next I'll activate my Buy Off spell card right now, and I'll use it to destroy your Kuribonds!"
Haru: 2800 LP
Takuya: 3500 LP
I saw my trap card shatter along with the Kuribohs that were originally holding Takuya's Gemstone Knight. All I could think at this point was how Takuya was going to wage an attack. With my Kuribonds gone and Gemstone Knight's original attack points restored, my Protector of the Weak trap would lose it's effect on his knight and he could easily get to my Kuribon.
"Next, now that my knight's attack points are restored, I'll attack your Kuribon!"
"I knew it."
I saw the bejeweled knight charge, holding it's sword up high in the air and and as it waged it's onslaught on my monster, I smiled.
"I activate my face down card, Tag Out!" I called as I revealed my trap. This card flipped face up as it revealed a picture of two wrestlers in brightly colored outfits giving each other a hi-five. "This trap lets me take a monster on my field and switch it with a monster in my hand! Not only that, but after this trap has resolved, I can search my deck and remove a spell card known as 'Tag In' and put it into my hand." I explained as my duel disk began to shuffle my deck. It shuffled for a good ten seconds before it ceased and the deck was perfectly stacked with a card slightly pulled outward. I removed this card to see it was the spell card I was referring to a few moments ago.
"I never get tired of that."
"Now with my Tag Out's effect, I switch Kuribon with Halo Kuriboh in defense mode!" I smiled as slammed Halo Kuriboh's card onto my duel disk and took off Kuribon from it. Before I knew it, my monsters were switched around and the only thing that existed on my field was a plain-looking Kuriboh monster with a bright, shining, floating ring above it's head. The monster was curled up in an armadillo-like position, signaling it was in defense mode.
"Fine then, my Gemstone Knight still wages it's attack!" Takuya called as his knight continued to charge.
"Wait a second, something's wrong."
"Phoooooo." I heard something growl.
I instantly sensed something was deeply off. It seemed like this attack being waged by Takuya's knight seemed to go into slow motion. As I saw this attack happen frame by frame, I looked at my Halo Kuriboh in defense mode. I saw it suddenly uncurl itself and see what was attacking it. With a now surprised stance, Halo Kuriboh seemed to whine at this, and it uttered it's Kuriboh call.
"Phoooo!" it called in a sad tone. I saw the hologram turn to me with a deeply worried and sad expression on it's mouthless face. It's beady eyes starting to... water.
"My god, how is that possible?"
As I could only stare at the now crying Halo Kuriboh, I couldn't help but feel like I had done something wrong. I needlessly sacrificed Halo Kuriboh to save Kuribon.
"I could have used my Kuriclone spell card to save Kuribon from destruction, and instead I took it out of harms way and used Halo Kuriboh as a shield."
I saw Halo Kuriboh turn back around as Gemstone Knight drew closer. This feeling that I had done something wrong growing stronger. I knew it seemed irrational to feel for a holographic card, but these emotions of guilt and dismay still grew.
"I... I have to save it. I have to save both of them."
As I thought this, I nodded to myself and reached for a card in my hand. Time began to run normally once more, and I slotted the card in.
"Not so fast Takuya! From my hand I activate the quick-play spell card, Tag In!"
"What?" Takuya grunted, somehow surprised by this move.
"That's right! Remember that card I fished out of my deck with Tag Out? Well I'm going to use it right now! With this spell card, I can switch out my monsters once again and put Kuribon back onto the field and put Halo Kuriboh back into my hand!" I widely smiled. I looked back to the Halo Kuriboh hologram that was still on my field, and it was jumping around with joy like a living creature.
"I don't get it, you wasted a spell and a trap to bring you back where you started. Are you trying to lose now?" Takuya asked. He didn't ask this in a mocking way, but in a sincere way like he was truly curious as to what my move was about. I ignored this question as I placed my monsters and switched them around.
"Now I'm guessing you're still going to wage your attack, so I'm activating Kuribon's special ability!" I informed as Kuribon began to glow. "With this ability, whenever Kuribon is attacked, I can end the battle phase as long as Kuribon gives you life points equal to your monster's attack points!"
Haru: 2800 LP
Takuya: 6350 LP
"So your giving me life points just so I don't destroy your fur ball? Are you serious?" Takuya started to laugh. While Takuya could only mock this strategy, I could only smile.
"It's worth the risk, I mean normally I would use Kuribon's effect before resorting to traps or spells to defend it, but I didn't want you to obtain any more life points than you already had. However, I recently had a change of heart and I decided to use it!" I confidently replied. I truly believed that if this deed with my monsters went through, my monsters would pay me back in some way, shape, or form. This is because what goes around comes around.
"Fine then, I'll end my turn." Takuya shrugged as he folded his arms.
"My move then!" I yelled as I reached my hand for my deck, however, something strange happened.
I saw my deck begin to glow. This glow of a bright white light seemed to pierce my eyes and force me to shut them slightly. I looked back at Takuya who didn't seem to notice it. Once I looked back at my deck, I could hear a faint call.
"Phooooo."
I looked back at my hand. The Halo Kuriboh card in my hand seemed to have a smiling expression, like it knew exactly what was going on.
"What's going on here?"
I couldn't help but think this as I drew, and as I did, the light instantly ceased and I looked at the card in my hand.
"Halo Beacon?"
That's what the card said. It seemed to have a lot of text underneath it as well, like it had a long or complicated effect. The picture on the card was a bright white circle in the middle of storm clouds shining down on the ground. It seemed to make a spotlight as it shined on a monster in it's light. This monster seemed to be...a Kuriboh?
"You must be kidding."
I began to read the card's effect, line after line, sentence after sentence I was focused on finding out what this card did, and how it could help me in this duel. Once finished, I smiled.
"Huston, we have a game changer."
"Today loser! Make your move today!" Takuya nagged as he tapped his foot. I looked back at him, and I figured I might as well do as he says.
"Fine then, from my hand I activate the trap card, Halo Beacon!" I called as a slapped this trap card down and it instantly stood up on my field.
"You can't activate traps from your hand you loser!" Takuya acknowledged, I nodded to this.
"Normally you're right, but because of Halo Beacon's effect, if I don't have any monsters on my field I can activate it from my hand on my turn." I explained. Takuya didn't seem to have a counter argument, so I continued. "With Halo Beacon's effect, I can special summon Halo Kuriboh from my hand!"
I slapped down Halo Kuriboh back onto the field and it emerged with confidence in it's body language and brilliance in it's appearance. With Halo Kuriboh it presence of Halo Beacon, it seemed to glow.
"Now, with Halo Beacon's effect, my Halo Kuriboh is about to get a well deserved upgrade!" I announced. Takuya actually seemed scared at this. He didn't know what was coming, but I did.
"With Halo Beacon's effect, I tribute Halo Kuriboh, in order to special summon... Halo Kuriboh LVL 10! (300ATK/200DEF)" I called. Suddenly, the Halo Beacon trap card shoot a blinding light at Halo Kuriboh, and as it did this, I shut my eyes to protect myself from it. I felt the light vanish, and opened my eyes once more. Only to see in it's place a creature like never before.
The monster was no longer just a Kuriboh. No, it was no longer a puff ball or bag of fur. It was a full fledged monster. What I saw was a bright white serpent on my field with a length that could stretch this entire duel arena. This serpent wore leather straps that wrapped themselves around my monster religiously covering it in cool looking attire. At the top of the serpent was not a head, but rather a mask. A golden mask with a pointed beak like a bird. This mask was expressionless, and it's hollow eyeholes revealed nothing, just a pitch black end. The only other feature on this new monster was a precariously floating ring above it's mask. The new monster wrapped it's body around to avoid covering so much of the field, and as I saw this new monster on my duel disk, I grinned.
"It doesn't even look like a Kuriboh anymore."
"I now activate Halo Kuriboh LVL 10's effect. When it's summoned, I'm allowed to draw until I have five cards in my hand. Of course, this is only if I discard two of these cards next turn." I explained. "But I doubt there will be a next turn."
"Why is that? Your monster is bigger, but it isn't stronger. It still has 300 attack points and is no match for my knight." Takuya realized, feeling much less threatened by my monster knowing this. I ignored this and drew my cards.
"Just what I needed."
"Before I conduct my battle phase, I activate the spell card, Magical Recycle Bin!" I called as I activated my spell. This green spell card had a picture of an average-looking recycling bin with an ominous dark glow about it. "With this card, I can take a spell card in my graveyard and use it for the remainder of this turn, and I choose to use, Massive Determination!" I smiled. As my graveyard began to glow, I saw Halo Kuriboh LVL 10 start to uncurl itself, as though it were ready for my next command.
"Now I'll have Halo Kuriboh LVL 10 attack Gemstone Knight with the effects of Massive Determination! You remember how this works right? My monster gets attack points equal to your monster's attack points. Which means this will end quick. Go, Halo Kuriboh LVL 10, attack Gemstone Knight!"
My new serpent of a monster opened it's mask from the mouth of it, and shoot a beam of energy out. This light crashed into Gemstone Knight and the two seemed locked in combat.
"Big deal! I'll only lose 300 points from this battle, and next turn I'll use Pay Off to destroy your monster!" Takuya snickered. I shook my head at this loophole that Takuya thought he found.
"There won't be a next turn, because before my Halo Kuriboh attacked, it's secondary ability activated." I smiled.
"Secondary ability?"
"That's right, with it's second effect, whenever it attacks a monster with a lower level that it has, it gains attack points equal to the monster it's attacking until the end of my turn! Since my monster is a level ten while you're knight is a level eight, It's attack bonus just doubled!"
"What?"
"That's right, so instead of Halo Kuriboh getting 2850 points, it gets 5700! Bringing it's attack points to 6000!"
As I said this, Halo Kuriboh's beam of energy suddenly breaks through to Gemstone Knight and destroys it. Instantly causing damage to his life points.
Haru: 2800 LP
Takuya: 3200 LP
"You should have checked your math loser, because I'm still standing with 3200 life points!" Takuya mocked, but I had once final ace.
"Not for long, because I activate my quick play spell card, Adrenaline Pump!" I called. My final spell card was activated. Revealing a green card with a picture of a card engine with a green glow about it. "This spell card can only be activated when I recently destroy a monster through battle. With it, my monster gains the attack points of the monster it just destroyed, and it gets to attack once more!"
"WHAT?" Takuya gasped, literally falling to his knees at this. He knew what this meant.
"That's right! My Massive Determination's effect may be gone, but Adrenaline Pump will pump my monster's points all the way back up to 5700 with the addition of the attack points it just gained through it's ability. Go Halo Kuriboh LVL 10 (6000ATK/200DEF), finish this duel!" I commanded.
Halo Kuriboh knew what it had to do, and blasted one final energy blast at Takuya, engulfing him it it's attack, and as I saw Takuya's life point counter hit zero, a buzzer sounded, signaling the duel had been won by someone.
I sighed as the holograms all disappeared, and Takuya laid there on the ground like he was unconscious or something.
"I can't believe I won. I won in a duel against Takuya."
I felt like dancing, but that would be poor sportsmanship. Instead I walked up to Takuya on the other end of the battlefield, and looked down on him.
"So rich boy, you still think these 'puff balls' are useless now?" I mocked, giving Takuya a bit of his own medicine. Takuya could only lay there, still in shock of his defeat. His eyes wide, his mouth closed for once, and his cards littering the floor beside him.
"Haru! That was incredible!" I heard Ryo call out from behind. I turned to see the twins running towards me from the duel arena's entrance. "We were watching from the balcony, that finish was incredible! When your Halo Kuriboh unleashed it's... it was incredible! Because after you fired it was... incredible! The win and duel itself was-" Ryo cheered, but I stopped him right about the end of his last sentence.
"Let me guess, incredible?" I chuckled. Ryo laughed at this, and Riley followed up Ryo's praise.
"The duel really was well executed Haru, I was baffled by why you saved Halo Kuriboh in that one round using Tag In, but in the end I found out that you knew all along what it was capable of doing, so you protected it." Riley smiled as he approached and patted my shoulder. "By the way, nice plan using both Tag Out and Tag In on the same turn to throw Takuya off guard. I'm sure you were trying to get him to use his Buy Off spell card so he couldn't counter your next move, right?"
"Uh... right." I lied.
"Wait a second... that Buy Off spell card."
I started to recall that spell card's effect as told by Takuya.
"With Buy Off I can give 500 of my life points to you at any point during the duel to destroy a card on your side of the field!"
"At any point during the duel..." I whispered.
"Oh my god."
I instantly turned around and ran to Takuya who was now starting to get up. I saw Takuya dust himself off as he stood up and started to gather his cards.
"Takuya! I need to talk to you!" I called out as I stopped in front him while he was still crouching for his cards.
"What do you want now?" he asked in a cold and distant tone.
"I wanted to talk to you about that Buy Off spell card." I stated. Takuya stood up fully once he had all his cards and started to arrange them back into his deck.
"What about it?"
"You told me that card's effect was, at any point during the duel, you could activate that card to destroy any card on my field by giving me 500 life points."
"What's your point?"
"My point is that you threw the duel."
Once I said this, Takuya went wide eyed at me, and arched his eyebrow, suddenly intrigued by this serious accusation.
"What do you mean?" he questioned now fully attentional.
"I mean you could have used that spell card to destroy Halo Kuriboh LVL 10 the second it got onto the field. If you had done this, I would have been left defenseless and your Gemstone Knight would have been able to finish me off. After all I only had 2800 life points left and your knight had 2850 attack points." I explained. Takuya smiled at this, as though he found this amusing.
"Recheck your math, loser. My Buy Off spell card gives you an extra 500 life points when it's effect activates. This means even if I had done what you said, you would have been left with 450 life points after my attack." Takuya reminded. I gasped.
"Oh yeah, that's right."
"So the duel could have gone either way if you had activated it." I realized.
"Yeah, it could have, but it didn't because I didn't. So you won, I lost, and that's the price I have to pay." Takuya sighed as he ran his hand down his sleek head of hair once more and started to walk off. I didn't have much to say about the matter at this point, as I was rather confused.
"Takuya admits the duel could have gone either way if he had activated that spell card. If this is true then the duel could have turned out with a different outcome. I guess my question is, if this is the case, why didn't he activate it?"
I didn't know, and somehow I didn't want to know, because I won, and this would be only the first in a long line of difficult and bare wins.
HeroSpirit: "Well what do you know, Haru won after all."
Haru: "I guess so, but I had a good point, why did Takuya throw the duel?"
HeroSpirit: "All will be revealed in due time, just keep reading.
Ryo: "Why must we be in suspense! This isn't a suspense fanfic!"