Episode 7 - Taro Teaches Melody; Duel Monsters 101 Part 2 - The Duel

After having gotten her deck prepared, Taro and Melody began to shuffle one another's Decks as Taro explained. "Alright, we're gonna do a Duel with 4000 Life Points. And you remember all I told you, right?"

Melody nodded as both placed their Decks onto opposite sides of the table.

"Duel!" Taro said, as Melody blinked then said "Oh! Duel."

Both now had Life Points of 4000 set up, also drawing their first five cards. Taro smiled softly as he said "Melody, feel free to go first if you'd like."
Melody smiled and said "Thank you. My turn then." She drew her sixth card, examining her hand. She remembered her Deck didn't have many strong Monsters... so she'd have to play them in different combos to keep them on the Field. She took one Monster Card and said "I summon Petit Dragon in Defense Mode."

Melody's card was placed horizontally, showing it was in Defense Mode. On the card was a very petit-looking dragon with a yellow body, small wings, a cute smile, big green eyes, as well as stripes along its' belly.

PETIT DRAGON

Wind/Dragon/2/600 ATK/700 DEF

Melody then took another card and said "And then, I will place a card face-down for later. Turn end."

'Not bad. She's gonna need to take time to get out her strategy, but I think I can at least give a good fair Duel by playing my best.' Taro thought. "My turn. Draw!" He drew his sixth card.

He looked at his hand and saw he had Gradius and Gradius's Option. He could take an early lead this way. So he nodded as he said "I summon Gradius in Attack Mode."

With Taro's summon, a futuristic fighter jet similar to the one in the Konami video game, Gradius, which the card was named after, appeared, locking onto target. This was Vic Viper, known as Gradius in some circles.

GRADIUS

Light/Machine/4/1200 ATK/800 DEF

Taro then took a card from his hand and added on. "And thanks to Gradius' summon, I can Special Summon this guy from my hand. I Special Summon Gradius's Option!"
Right next to Gradius floated a small orb with a diamond-like shape in front of it. Suddenly, it morphed into a clone of Gradius, floating right next to it. Taro then smiled as he said "And now! Gradius, attack Melody's Petit Dragon!"

Gradius locked onto target, and shot a blast of energy from its' lasers right at Petit Dragon as Melody then quickly flipped over her face-down card. "Activate Trap Card! Draining Shield!"
Taro looked in surprise, but then smiled as he knew Gradius's attack was halted, Melody's Life Points going up to 5200.

DRAINING SHIELD

Normal Trap Card

Effect: Negate the attack of 1 of your opponent's Monsters and increase your Life Points by an amount equal to the attacking Monster's ATK.

Taro smiled as he said "Well, I can still at least try to attack with Gradius's Option, but where's the fun in that? I'll just set one card face-down... for later as well."

Melody smiled and said "My turn then." She drew her next card, her hand size now 5 cards due to her having played Petit Dragon last turn, then having used Draining Shield. She examined her hand and smiled when she saw a most intriguing Magic Card. That Magic Card was Enchanting Fitting Room. She nodded and said "I will now use the Magic Card, Enchanting Fitting Room!"

Melody knew her Life Points would go down by 800 points for using Enchanting Fitting Room. Her LP was still 400 points higher than Taro's, being at 4400. She then picked up the four topmost cards of her Deck, examining them.

ENCHANTING FITTING ROOM

Normal Magic Card

Effect: Pay 800 Life Points. Pick up 4 cards from the top of your Deck and Special Summon any Level 3 or lower Normal Monsters among the picked-up cards to your side of the Field. Return all the other cards to your Deck and the Deck is then shuffled.

Taro blinked as he said "Get anything good with Enchanting Fitting Room's effect?"

Melody smiled, then winked. "That'd be telling! You'll see for yourself. I now Special Summon Gigobyte, Mokey Mokey, and Haniwa with the effect of Enchanting Fitting Room, all in Defense Mode."

The 3 Monsters of Melody's were all small ones, just like Petit Dragon, but each looking interesting. The first one, Gigobyte, was a small green reptile with spikes on his elbows, knees, and along his shoulders. He also had yellow wrapping around his wrists and ankles. This was a much smaller version of another Monster in the game known as Gagagigo... at his earliest stage.

GIGOBYTE

Water/Reptile/1/350 ATK/300 DEF

The second Special Summoned Monster, Mokey Mokey, was shaped like a block of white tofu, with round hands and feet, small yellow wings, and a pink kind of antenna-style halo almost shaped like a question mark. It also appeared to be kind of confused.

MOKEY MOKEY

Light/Angel/1/300 ATK/100 DEF

And finally, the last one, Haniwa, was a brown idol-shaped creature with dark blue arms and round hands with no fingers, as well as similar colored legs, but brown feet. It also had a yellow mouth with black around it, and similar eyes.

HANIWA

Earth/Rock/2/500 ATK/500 DEF

Taro looked in surprise. "Whoa. Now that's one heck of a lineup!"

"I will then just set 2 cards down to end my turn for now. Your turn, Taro-kun!"

Taro blushed at that, but smiled at the thought of Melody calling him Taro-kun. He then shook it off and said "OK, then. My turn!" He drew his next card and smiled softly. 'Cyclon Laser. This'll be handy for cutting through Mel-chan's defense.'

"I play the Equip Magic Card, Cyclon Laser, and equip it to the only Monster it can be equipped by... Gradius!"

With that said, a small set of dual lasers appeared underneath Gradius's frame, locking into place.

CYCLON LASER

Equip Magic Card

Effect: This card can only be equipped to "Gradius". Increase the ATK of "Gradius" by 300 points. Whenever the equipped "Gradius" attacks with an ATK higher than the DEF of your opponent's Defense Mode Monster, inflict the difference as Battle Damage to your opponent's Life Points.

"And now, it's time to do some damage. Gradius, attack Gigobyte!" Gradius locked onto Gigobyte, and the Cyclon Laser attached to it shot a spiraling laser at it, blowing him up to bits. Melody gulped a bit at that as her LP then dropped down to 3000 as she said "What just happened?"
"Gradius gets the trample effect when equipped with Cyclon Laser, Mel-chan. In other words, whenever it attacks with higher ATK than any of your Defense Mode Monsters' DEF, he deals damage. So you lost 1400 LP when Gradius destroyed Gigobyte."

Melody nodded. "I getcha. But now I activate my Trap Card, Human Wave Tactics!"

Taro looked at this and said "Oh, man..."

HUMAN WAVE TACTICS

Continuous Trap Card

Effect: During the End Phase of each turn, select a number of Level 2 or lower Normal Monsters from your Deck equal to the number of your Level 2 or lower Normal Monsters destroyed as a result of Battle during that turn, and Special Summon them to your side of the Field. Then shuffle your Deck.

"OK, so I might as well as continue the attack! Gradius's Option, attack Haniwa!" Gradius's Option locked on then fired, blowing up Haniwa as Melody smiled then said "Nice move."

"Yeah, I know this is gonna hurt me a bit, but... it's worth a shot at least. I'll set one Monster face-down and end my turn." Taro just simply set down one card, then exhaled.

Melody smiled, as she grabbed her Deck then pulled out 2 Level 2 Monsters and said "With Human Wave Tactics, I will Special Summon 2 Level 2 or lower Monsters from my Deck as destroyed as a result of Battle by your Monsters. So... I Special Summon another Haniwa from my Deck, then another Gigobyte."

Once more, another Haniwa and Gigobyte appeared, but this time, both were in Attack Mode, as Melody then shuffled her Deck, setting it down. She smiled then said "My turn. Draw." She drew her next card casually, then held up her card of choice. "I will now activate Pot of Greed. which as you know lets me draw 2 cards." Melody placed Pot of Greed into her Graveyard pile, drawing 2 cards. From her hand of 3, she then was at 5 cards total. She noticed one card in particular that could be the best offense at this point in time.

She then said "I will now use this card. I will activate the Equip Magic Card, Sword of the Sword-Eater."

With Melody's play, a sword that was twisted black with what appeared to be an eye along the center appeared as Taro knew what this meant. "Uh-oh..."
"As you know, Taro-kun, Sword of the Soul-Eater is a pretty strong Equip Magic Card when with a Deck like mine. I will now equip this Magic Card to Gigobyte... and following its' effect, I will sacrifice Mokey Mokey, Petit Dragon, and Haniwa to its' effect."

SWORD OF THE SOUL-EATER

Equip Magic Card

Effect: You can only equip this card to a Level 3 or lower Normal Monster on your side of the Field. When you activate this card, offer all Normal Monsters (except Tokens) on your side of the Field, except the equipped Monster, as Sacrifices. Increase the ATK of the Equipped Monster by 1000 points for each Normal Monster that you offered as a Sacrifice.

Melody then took Haniwa, Petit Dragon, and Mokey Mokey's cards, placing them into the Graveyard pile as she then said "And thanks to my 3 Monsters's Sacrifices... Gigobyte's ATK is raised by 3000 points, 1000 for each of my sacrificed Monsters. That puts it at 3350 ATK. And now I move to attack. Gigobyte, attack Gradius!"

Taro knew his set card wouldn't help here, so he just let the attack go through, his LP taking a 2150 point drop. 4000 points to 1850 LP in one shot. He smiled as he thought 'Now this is the true power of Melody's Deck! Anyone will take a first glance and see her Deck as weak due to the fact her Monsters' ATK are low, but the true power is when a Magic Card like Sword of the Soul-Eater is played.'

"To continue one, I will set one card face-down to end my turn." Taro heard Melody's last move, then moved her Gradius and Gradius's Option to the Graveyard, but didn't mind. He knew he had to defend, so he then said "My turn. Draw!" He drew his next card, then he played his set card, flipping it up. "And I play my Quickplay Magic Card, Scapegoat, to defend my Life Points."

Taro took 4 tokens from his pocket and placed them onto the Field to represent his Sheep Tokens, since he didn't have a Duel Disk with him. He then said "Turn end."

"My turn then." Melody said, drawing her next card. She then said "I will next play Mega Thunderball in Attack Mode."

This Monster Melody had played was a large ball shaped Monster, spikes along the green and blue panels as well as a white one... then a red dot in the center.

MEGA THUNDERBALL

Wind/Thunder/2/750 ATK/600 DEF

"Now, I move to attack! Gigobyte, attack one of Taro's Sheep Tokens!" Gigobyte destroyed the Sheep Token to the far-most right. Melody continued her turn then said "Go, Mega Thunderbolt, attack the Sheep Token! to the right!"

Mega Thunderbolt also destroyed the Sheep Token on the right, thusly, Taro only had 2 Sheep Tokens in play. Taro gulped a bit as Melody smiled sweetly. "Turn end."

Taro nodded as he said "My turn. Draw!"

He looked at his card of drawing, and smiled as he said "I play Graceful Charity." He then drew 3 cards, his hand size at 6 cards. He took 2 cards from his hand, Gradius's Option, and Cyber Falcon, showing them to Melody before placing the, into the Graveyard pile as then he said "And now, I will set one Monster face-down, then end my turn."

"My turn. Draw." Melody drew her next card, then smiled as she said "I will now play another Mega Thunderball in Attack Mode. Now, Gigobyte, attack!"

"Nice try. But I play Negate Attack!"

Melody then blinked as she said "Oh, no..."

"So you know what this means, right? You cannot attack."
"Right. I will set one card down... to end my turn." Melody exhaled, then smiled sweetly. "Live and let live, Mel-chan! You did a good job! Now... My turn." Taro drew his next card, then he smiled when he saw his card. He then smiled as he said "I will now flip up Gear Golem the Moving Fortress from face-down Defense Mode to face-up Attack Mode."

Taro's Monster of choice had a large gear in the center of its' body, which was golden. It also had golden circles near its' arms with spikes protruding from them. And spiked arm-like shields as well. Its' head was curved some, its' eyes red and the same gold color as the gear. It also had small feet, and blue and black lined hazard-like lines along its' body.

GEAR GOLEM THE MOVING FORTRESS
Earth/Machine/4/800 ATK/2200 DEF
Effect: Pay 800 Life Points. This card can attack your opponent's Life Points directly.

Taro then showed one of his Magic Cards and said "I will now play 7 Completed! With its' effect, I can raise the ATK or DEF of 1 Machine-Type Monster on my side of the Field by 700 points. For Gear Golem the Moving Fortress, I choose to power up Gear Golem's ATK!"

7 COMPLETED
Equip Magic Card

Effect: A Machine-Type Monster equipped with this card increases either its' ATK or DEF by 700 points. You cannot change your choice as long as this card remains face-up on the Field.

Gear Golem the Moving Fortress's ATK - 1500 ATK.

"Now, I will also add in the Magic Card, Limiter Removal, doubling Gear Golem's ATK to 3000! But that's not all! I now add in Gear Golem the Moving Fortress's effect by paying 800 Life Points, putting me at 1050 LP! Now... attack Mel-chan's Life Points directly!"

Melody blinked in surprise, her LP dropped from 3000 to 0. Melody exhaled, but smiled sweetly still. "Thank you again for teaching me the game, Taro. I had so much fun Dueling! Is this how it feels for you all the time?"

"Yeah, to be honest, it does." Taro smiled. "And you definitely built a good Deck! You had me on the ropes those last few times! So, next time, we get someone else to Duel against you, and then we can really see your Deck cut loose!"

Melody blushed but smiled. "I'd like that. But... I guess my parents are going to wonder where you are." She slid out of her chair, then smiled as she said "Shall we go?"
Taro leapt out of his chair and nodded. "Heck yeah! Let's go!" Taro chuckled, as he ran up to Melody's side, but then blinked. "Oh! Our Decks!"

Melody then gasped as both grabbed their Decks, putting them back together as Taro placed his into his backpack, then he followed right behind Melody, whom had her Deck in her hand. Melody was about 5' 5" and Taro was 5' 2". But neither minded that, since their friendship, and perhaps something more, would grow easily, as well as endure.

To Be Continued...