Gilag LP: 4000
Katie LP: 4000
James LP: 4000
"I'll take the first move," Gilag asserted. "I draw! First, I Normal Summon Fire Hand!" In a whirl of flames, a giant molten hand appeared complete with an armoured wrist. As it took to the field, a second smaller hand extended from inside the wrist and attached itself to Gilag's shoulder, who gasped in pain and clutched at his arm. Red lightning coursed across his body, and the massive man staggered forward, his eyes narrowed in agony.
Fire Hand: Pyro-Type/FIRE/Level 4/ATK 1600/DEF 1000
James took a step back. "Did... did he just equip himself with a monster?" he said shakily. Despite his earlier bravado, this man's powerful presence combined with his monster's unusual behaviour was starting to unnerve him.
"Calm down James," Katie called. "It's just a monster. He's trying to psyche you out, nothing more."
"Heh, you wish..." Gilag chuckled, finally regaining his composure. He hadn't expected Summoning his Barian energy-infused Hand monsters to be quite this painful. "I place one card face-down and end my turn." His set card appeared at his feet.
"My turn then, I draw," Katie said. Before making a move, she examined her hand carefully. 'It might be better to play defensive,' she thought. 'At least to start with. I want to get a better idea of this guy's Deck before I go charging in.'
"What's the matter?" Gilag shouted. "Frozen up with fright already?"
Katie ignored him. "I'll just set one monster in Defence Position, plus one other card face-down. Turn end." Her two set cards materialised.
"My turn, draw!" James, in the meantime, was thinking very different things to Katie. "I activate the effect of Thunder Dragon in my hand! By discarding it, I can add two more copies of Thunder Dragon from my Deck to my hand." James sent the card from his hand to the Graveyard, while his duel disk extracted two more copies of the card for him to put in his hand. "Now I activate the Spell Card, Polymerization!"
Gilag was mildly surprised by this. "A Fusion already?"
"With this, I fuse the two Thunder Dragons in my hand! Fusion Summon!" The two serpentine creatures briefly appeared, then burst into particles of light, which streamed into the Polymerization card. "Appear, Twin-Headed Thunder Dragon!" The Spell blazed with light, and from within it emerged a giant orange dragon with two rounded heads, each one sporting a vicious-looking purple horn.
Twin-Headed Thunder Dragon: Thunder-Type/Fusion/LIGHT/Level 7/ATK 2800/DEF 2100
"I end my turn there." Secretly, James was rather pleased with himself about this move. Katie had taught him ages ago that playing defensively and playing offensively early on in a duel could invoke very different reactions, depending on the opponent. By going in offensively, James knew he'd be putting pressure on his opponent and possibly force Gilag to reveal his stronger cards much sooner – which Katie could then respond to, either with her face-down card or with her monsters on her next turn.
Katie had already cottoned onto what James was doing, and was silently proud of her boyfriend for making such a seemingly simple, yet highly tactical play. Her face-down was more a precaution than a vicious reaction card, but the cards in her hand would still allow her to make a strong counteroffensive on her next turn, just as James had planned. She smiled to herself, admiring James' strategic thinking in the face of adversity.
Gilag had also spotted what James was doing, and couldn't care less.
"My turn, draw!" he said. "Brace yourself, because now I-" Suddenly he froze, staring at the card he'd just drawn, his massive hand shaking. 'Barian's Force…' he thought, his mind filling with dread. 'The Barian's ultimate weapon… if I use this, I can Rank-Up my Number into a Chaos Number and crush these two with ease… but still… I couldn't, could I…?' Gilag was really struggling. Like Alit and Mizael, he'd been informed by Durbe about the contract he'd have to take out with his Chaos Number, where he would be forced to offer up his own life energy. That could be fatal even if he won the duel. If he lost... well, who knows what would happen.
Katie watched Gilag's reaction with surprise. The last time she'd seen a duelist act like this over a drawn card was Montsu, the Dragon Sage who'd dueled Matt. And come to think of it, hadn't they met Gilag when he was on his way to see Montsu and the other sages not long after that? Were the two events connected somehow?
While she was pondering this, Gilag finally reached a decision. He placed the card he'd just drawn into his hand, and instead plucked another pair of cards from his hand to play. "I Summon Fire Hand!" A second copy of the fiery hand monster materialised, and like the first, hooked itself to Gilag's shoulder - the same shoulder as the first one. Again Gilag cried out in pain as the energy blazed through his body like a wildfire.
Fire Hand: Pyro-Type/FIRE/Level 4/ATK 1600/DEF 1000
"Then, since I control Fire Hand, I can Special Summon this card from my hand. Appear, Prominence Hand!" A globule of golden burst into life on his field, before swiftly reforming into a bright gold skeletal hand. Like the previous two, this one reached down with its tiny secondary hand and gripped into Gilag's opposite shoulder, causing him yet more discomfort.
Prominence Hand: Pyro-Type/FIRE/Level 4/ATK 600/DEF 2000
'So you want me to start playing offensively do you?' he thought. 'Well, let's just see how much of my power you can stand.'
"Three Level four monsters," Katie muttered. "Watch out James, here comes trouble!"
"Here we go! Level four Fire Hand and Prominence Hand, Overlay!" Two of Gilag's monsters morphed into fully red energy signatures, which then flew upwards, leaving a single Fire Hand behind. On Gilag's field, a galaxy-shaped portal opened up. "I use these two monsters to construct the Overlay Network! Xyz Summon!" Both monsters spiralled down into the portal, which erupted with a maelstrom of flames. Gilag cried out as the flames struck him, and red electricity coursed across his body once more. It was even more agonising than he'd imagined. But he held ground and, determined to complete the Summoning, pushed through the pain. "Smother the entire world! Number 106: Giant Hand!"
The brilliant orange number one-hundred-and-six flared across the field, and the raging flames were suddenly scattered as the Number's sealed form descended: a huge, ornate-looking structure that put the Deltas in mind of a vase. Slowly, the structure unfurled itself, the excess stone falling away until a colossal hand loomed above them, coming up taller than most of the surrounding buildings. It's thick, rocky skin was a light grey colour, and six strange red orbs were set into its surface – one in the centre of its palm, and one in each of its fingertips. The way their coverings folded back to reveal them made it look like the creature had six huge eyes, all surveying the field below them. Two orange Overlay Units traced circled around it. Beneath it, Gilag had managed to remain standing throughout the ordeal, but was breathing heavily from the exertion.
Number 106: Giant Hand: Rock-Type/Xyz/EARTH/Rank 4/ATK 2000/DEF 2000 – 2 OLU
"W- what the hell?!" James gasped. "Number 106... a Number that goes over one-hundred... how the hell is that possible?!"
"James, calm down," Katie called. "Don't get so worked up. Remember, we only assumed that there were a hundred Numbers – that is, we don't know for sure. There could well be more."
"But the Stranger said there wasn't," James protested. "The Stranger said that there were only a hundred-"
"I don't know who the Stranger is," Gilag called, snapping their attention back to him. "But whoever he is, he's right. In your world, there are exactly one-hundred Numbers, numbered from one to one-hundred."
"In our world..." Katie repeated. "Does that mean your Number is from another world?"
"Or maybe it's the Professor's doing," James suggested. "Maybe that snake's been creating artificial Numbers for his other minions to use."
"Maybe... who knows?" Gilag laughed. "Now on with the duel. Go, Giant Hand, attack the girl's face-down monster!" The colossal hand opened its fingers wide and released a huge yellow shockwave. Katie's face-down monster only appeared briefly before being completely incinerated.
Featherizer: Spellcaster-Type/WIND/Level 2/ATK 700/DEF 1100
"I activate Featherizer's effect!" Katie declared. "When it's destroyed by battle, I can send one Gemini monster from my Deck to the Graveyard, then draw one card." She sent Solstice Armed Mage to her Graveyard, then drew her card.
"Pointless," Gilag replied. "Fire Hand, attack her Life Points directly!" He clenched his own fist and drew back his arm as if in preparation to punch someone. Above him, the fiery monster mimicked his movements.
"No you don't! I activate the Trap Card, Damage Diet!" Katie's face-down card activated. "With this, all battle damage or effect damage I take for the rest of this turn is halved!" At that moment, both Gilag and Fire Hand punched downwards, smashing the concrete road in front of her and knocking her back onto the pavement behind her. She landed heavily, and felt the breath rush out of her.
Katie LP: 4000 → 3200
"You ok, Katie?" James called.
"I'm... fine," she replied, gingerly getting to her feet. "Attacks from that monster feel as real as attacks from Numbers..."
James nodded. "Guess we were right. This guy's not your average duelist."
While they were talking, Gilag was going over the rest of the cards in his hand. Besides Barian's Force, he had two extremely devious Trap Cards. Almost of his own accord, a plan began formed in Gilag's mind, and he chuckled quietly as he pulled the two cards from his hand and placed them on his duel disk. "I place two cards face-down. Turn end."
Katie nodded. "Back to me then, I draw! First, I Summon Gemini Scorpion!" A pair of warriors – one with red hair and one with white – took to the field, both wearing dark armour with red highlights that didn't quite stretch all the way down their arms. They both carried two curved daggers each.
Gemini Scorpion: Warrior-Type/EARTH/Level 4/ATK 1600/DEF 400
"Gemini Scorpion's effect activates," she declared. "When this card is Summoned, I can Special Summon any Level four or lower Gemini monster from my hand. I choose-"
"You choose nothing!" Gilag interrupted. "I activate Giant Hand's effect! When a monster effect is activated on your field, I can detach one of Giant Hand's Overlay Units to negate the effects of any monster you control!" A single orange orb was absorbed into the 'eye' in Giant Hand's palm.
Number 106: Giant Hand: 2 → 1 OLU
"Fatally-Paralyzing Pressure Point Strike!" The Number curled itself into a fist with its first two fingers pointing directly at Gemini Scorpion, and from the fingertips, a pair of vicious-looking conical spikes emerged. Suddenly, the monster surged forward, each finger striking one of the warriors in the centre of the chest, prompting a cry of pain from each of them as their effects were sealed.
"Damn!" Katie cursed. "That effect's powerful. But you won't stop my move now."
Beneath the mask Gilag's left eye widened slightly, suggesting that he may have raised an eyebrow. "Hmm?"
"From my hand, I activate the Spell Card, Swing of Memories!" The Spell materialised on her field. "With this, I can revive any Normal Monster from my Graveyard. I choose the monster I sent to the Graveyard with Featherizer's effect! Be revived, Solstice Armed Mage!" A pale-skinned magician appeared, wearing a dark red trench coat and carrying a long staff. At the end of the staff was a sculpture of a dragon wrapped around a crystal ball.
Solstice Armed Mage: Spellcaster-Type/Gemini/FIRE/Level 4/ATK 1800/DEF 200
"Let's go! Level four Armed Mage and Gemini Scorpion, Overlay!" Both monsters morphed into amorphous masses of energy – one red and one orange – and shot upwards. Where they had stood, a galaxy-shaped portal opened. "I use these two monsters to construct the Overlay Network! Xyz Summon!" The two Material Monsters blazed down into the portal like miniature comets. The portal exploded, and a column of fire rose from it. "Be born! Number 91: Flarestormer!"
A bright red number ninety-one flashed above the field. Out of the column of fire rose the Number's sealed form – it resembled a piece of rock in a V-shape, with volcanic veins pulsing over its surface. A massive crack rent the stone in two. Then another split, and another, each one revealing more of the monster hidden within. It was a centaur, with a burning body. With a roar, the creature freed itself from its shell, and stretched its arms to the sky, as though trying to embrace the sun itself. Its body seemed to be made entirely of magma, with only a few black strips of armour and its orange bat-like wings giving it any semblance of bodily features. Two red Overlay Units orbited it.
Number 91: Flarestormer: Pyro-Type/Xyz/FIRE/Rank 4/ATK 2000/DEF 200 – 2 OLU
Author-made cards:
Solstice Armed Mage
Spellcaster-Type/Gemini/FIRE/Level 4/ATK 1800/DEF 200
This card is treated as a Normal Monster while face-up on the field or in the Graveyard. While this card is face-up on the field, you can Normal Summon it to have it become an Effect Monster with this effect. ●This card's original ATK becomes 2400.
Number 91: Flarestormer
Pyro-Type/Xyz/FIRE/Rank 4/ATK 2000/DEF 200
2 Level 4 monsters
This card cannot be destroyed by battle, except by a "Number" monster. Once per turn, during either player's Damage Step, when a face-up monster(s) on the field battles: You can detach 1 Overlay Unit from this card, then target 1 of the battling monsters; that target gains 100 ATK for each monster in your Graveyard until the end of the Damage Step.
Fun Fact #21: Alright, now that Alit's cooled off a little, let's move on. Let the Gilag-related carnage begin.
Fun Fact #22: Remember, these duels all take place before the WDC finals in the canon ZEXAL's universe. This means that we're restricted a little by future events. For example, no-one can spam The Seventh One (which is a good thing in a way, as it actually allows us to show off the Barian Lord's Decks rather than totally ignoring them in favour of their Chaos Number 10Xs). Also we can't have Gilag use his Chaos Number in this duel, because the time he used it against Yuma and Vector was clearly the first time he'd ever used it. Still, don't cry for Giant Hand Red. There's still plenty of other Chaos Numbers we can show off.
Hand Pun #1: I like Gilag's hands-on approach.
Hand Pun #2: It's very handy.
Hand Pun #3: Hands up if you agree.
