Chapter 38- The Final Rounds! Dozed Over

Helen stepped out from the group, looking a little nervous and shaking a little as well. Drake couldn't blame her. After all, William was right. Helen hadn't won but one shadow game, and that game was when there was four-on-four. She quietly raised her disk in front of her, almost in a defensive way, as if she could beat off the fiend that now stood before her with it.

"So, you pitiful woman, do you plan on actually opposing me?" The fiend said, standing up straighter to make himself slightly more intimidating.

"I suppose…" Helen said. "That's why we're here, right?"

"If you want to back out of this and join us, it's not too late." The fiend grinned evilly.

"Come on, do you think someone of her intellectual prowess will fall for that feeble, outdated trick?" Matt said, methodically shredding a fiend who had tried to sneak up on Julie. "And isn't this supposed to be some kind of fair, epic face-off? Why, then, William, are you sending your fiend warriors at us?"

Drake turned around and blanched. There was a large, still expanding pool of black fiend blood and a huge pile of fiend corpses piled up behind them. More of the monsters were moving towards them.

William reddened. "Damn it, I have to get rid of that Matt freak…"

"Don't even bother with a spirit cage again." Matt said, holding a fiend up in midair with one hand and skewering it with a soul lance formed in his other. Blood spewed everywhere. "Because one of these guys will just release it."

"Fine, fine, I'll stop them." William said, clearly frustrated. The oncoming fiends disappeared over the horizon. "Let's get back to these duels, shall we?"

"Very well." Matt said, the lance melting back into his hand. "Smash him, Helen. But, ah, not necessarily with Smashing Ground."

Helen smiled a little at Matt's quip, then turned back to the fiend, looking a bit more determined. "Let's get started."

Matt should have gone for a career in motivation, Drake thought. He can motivate anyone.

"Not everyone." Matt whispered in Drake's ear. "You can never motivate some people." Drake laughed nervously and focused on the duel. He really didn't want any stray thoughts coming in that Matt would read, especially the embarrassing ones.

"So, you think you can actually win this?" The fiend said, growling.

"I should hope so. I haven't studied dueling for this long to just lose to scrubs like you." Helen said. The fiend smiled evilly.

"You calling me a scrub? You fool, you have no idea."

"We won't find out until your life hits zero."

"Let's duel!"

Helen: 4000

Fiend: 4000

"I'll go first!" Helen said, drawing a card. "I set this one monster facedown, then add a facedown card. That will be all."

"A boring, and very standard, first move." The fiend said. "Come now, have you got nothing better?"

"Stop your pointless banter, and actually play the game." Helen said.

The fiend frowned. "You're no fun to mess around with. I don't think I'm going to enjoy this duel that much." He drew a card. "Not that that matters. I'll crush you anyway and revel afterwards… as you writhe in pain in a pool of your own blood! I summon Berserk Gorilla (Earth/Beast/Effect, 2000/1000). As you probably know, he cannot be in defense mode and must attack every turn, but with 2000 attack points, I don't think that will be a problem!" The fiend chuckled.

"Shut the fuck up!" Helen shouted. "Get going, I don't want to be standing around here in the snow forever!"

The fiend was little taken aback by Helen's sudden outburst. So was Drake. He had never heard her curse before, and right now she looked livid. Her eyes are focused so hard and harshly on the fiend that it looked like they would burn holes through solid steel. The only other person that Drake had seen with such a savage look was Matt after Bentz had been killed. It scared him.

"If you keep rambling like this, I'm going to make your death extremely unpleasant." Helen snarled.

"Uh, okay, okay! Calm down, woman." The fiend stuttered, completely thrown off balance. "I attack your monster with my Gorilla!"

"Ha! The monster I had set facedown was my Man-Eater Bug, which now destroys your Gorilla!"

"Curse you, you did that on purpose!" the fiend growled. "But I will have my vengeance… I set two cards facedown and end my turn."

"I'm sure you will." Helen said mildly. "But it won't be until I'm through with you." She drew a card. "I summon Insect Knight (Earth/Insect, 1900/1500) in attack mode! And now, since you have no monsters to defend your life points, I attack you directly!"

"I activate Sakuretsu Armor, to destroy your monster!"

"I set another card and end my turn."

"Hehehe… and now to start the countdown!" The fiend said. "During your end phase, I activate the trap card Destiny Board!" A bluish ghost bearing the letter "F" appeared on his side of the field. "Now, the Destiny Board reveals a letter every turn, spelling out a message. It will only take a few turns, and when the message is revealed, it will spell not only the end of the game for you, but the end of your life!" The fiend laughed.

"How's that?" Helen asked, thoroughly unperturbed. "Even in a Shadow Game, the loser doesn't die most of the time, especially when they've been in several. And I have been in several and lost quite a few of them, so I don't think I would be at risk for that."

"Ah, but this is special win condition, like summoning Exoida, different from the standard 'hack away at your opponent's life points' strategy. Because of that, if someone loses to it, they almost certainly will die!" The fiend laughed again. William smirked from behind him.

Suddenly their surroundings went dark, and all Drake could see were the people around him. Helen was picked up off the ground and lifted into the air with no visible support. Blood spurted from everywhere on her body, sending a crimson cascade over all those watching.

What the…?!? But the duel's not over!!! She can't be dead! Drake thought, watching the limp body fall. Then, light came back to their surroundings. The blood was gone. Helen was still alive, albeit now considerably more pale than before the illusion.

"Good work, my loyal servant." William said. "We can finally eliminate this pest, after her having survived so many games that she shouldn't have."

"What was that all about?!?" Drake shouted at him.

"Oh, I just thought I'd show you what's going to happen shortly." William said. "So it isn't so shocking lately."

"No, you did it to try and break Helen's morale." Matt said, frowning. "You are quite unfair."

"I don't want you saying anything more for the rest of this duel." William sneered. "You're a fool, and a dead one at that, you cannot interfere any more here. Go away, you weakling!"

Something flared in Matt's eyes, and he crossed the field and seized William's throat. "You will die a horrible death for that. Once someone defeats you in a duel, I will spill every ounce of your blood I can before you die." His fingers tightened. "As a matter of fact, why don't I just kill you right now?"

William gagged and swung an open hand at Matt's head. Matt barely moved and avoided William's feeble assault. Matt threw William to the ground and turned around.

"Get down!" He shouted. Drake turned around in time to see a fiend take a swing at his head. Drake tried to duck but was late and the fiend's claw hit him across the side of his head, sending him spiraling to the ground. The impact left him seeing stars. The fiend advanced on him, clearly intending to spear him with the crude pike in its other hand, but before it got close, hands reached out of the ground and grabbed its legs and feet. Matt appeared in between him and the fiend.

"I said 'get down!', now 'turn around!'" Matt said, flicking his wrist. A lance with several points sticking out in different directions materialized from his hand.

"Sorry!" Drake said, getting unsteadily to his feet, and unslinging his rifle. He never got a chance to fire it. Matt skewered the fiend at its throat, causing to spray black blood all over him. Drake turned to see fiends everywhere around them. Most of them had been bound down by the hands that had come out of the ground. Several other fiends had gone down, victims of Keith's SAW and Flynn's deadly knife-fighting skills. Julie was holding off a fiend with her rifle before it got its legs ripped off by the ground-hands.

Matt dashed forward and slashed through the few remaining fiends, then turned back to William. "Stop doing cheap crap or I really will kill you."

"Ah, but you can't unless you actually duel me." William said, smirking.

"Trust me, I'll find a way." Matt said, staring William down grimly. "Don't make me find that way."

"Fine, fine, let's get back to the main event." William said, waving a careless hand. "I won't spawn more fiends if you stop threatening me."

"Do you actually expect us to believe you?" Keith said, prodding a fiend's head with the tip of his SAW. Apparently he was unsatisfied with something, because he pulled the trigger, causing the fiend's head to explode.

"No."

"Of course he doesn't." Flynn said, twirling his knife around unnecessarily. "But he's going to tell us that anyway."

"Just stay on your toes then." Matt said, absorbing his lance into his palm and gesturing upwards with his other hand. The hands that had seized the fiends from below griped the ground and pulled full human bodies up after them, like zombies rising out of the grave. Of course, they were simply spirits that Matt had sent there.

Did he expect that, or was he just being cautious? Drake thought, watching a headless girl rise out of the ground. Either way, that's just weird.

"Okay." The fiend said. "Let's get back to this, fine, girl?"

"Don't call me 'girl'." Helen said. "Or I'll rip you to pieces."

"Fine then. On the end of your turn, I get to play another bit of my Destiny Board, the Spirit Message 'I'!" A card stuck out from the duel disk on the fiend's arm and he slotted it next to the Destiny Board. A floating "I" appeared next to the "F". "You have three turns." The fiend announced, and drew a card. "Until you are ripped apart by the forces of the Destiny Board. I summon Fox Fire (Fire/Beast/Effect. 300/200) in defense mode! That will end my turn."

"Trying to stall, huh?" Helen said, drawing. "It won't work."

"Ha! You cannot escape destiny."

"Can't she…" Julie said mildly. "I seem to have escaped mine."

"Ah, but people like us can bend that little aspect of life." Matt said. "We are shaped by destiny, but we also shape it."

"That makes little sense." Drake said.

"Don't argue with the sage-ish guy." Keith said. "It will get you nowhere but very confused very fast."

"I summon Chainsaw Insect (Earth/Insect/Effect, 2400/0) in attack mode! Now, I'm not going to attack this turn… because that would give you an extra card, and that would be bad, and not only that, it would be pointless. I'll end my turn."

"Ha! Now it's my turn. And you know what that means…"

"No, I don't. What does it mean?" Helen asked sarcastically.

"Since you ended your turn, Destiny Board gets another letter!" A floating "N" appeared next to the other letters. The fiend drew a card. "Only two more turns until your doom! I hope you're prepared for it. But for now, I'll just summon Peten The Dark Clown (Dark/Spellcaster/Effect, 500/1200) in defense mode! That will end my turn."

"Your stalling will get you nowhere." Helen said, and drew a card.

"On the contrary! It has gotten me within two turns of victory!"

"Hmm…" Helen studied her hand.

"From the look on her face right now, I would say that the fiend has a fair point." Keith said.

"Eh, maybe." Matt said. "There are some insect cards with weird effects. If she can use some of those effects well, she can get somewhere. You can never tell."

"Like what kind of effect?" Julie asked.

"Well, anything that could rip apart the opponent's deck and try to get rid of the three copies of one of the spirit messages that the fiend hasn't played yet would be useful, but she may not have a card like that." Matt said, scratching his chin. "Or, a piercing monster would work. Those re-spawning monsters are irksome, but they have weak stats."

"I'm going to summon Pinch Hopper (Earth/Insect/Effect, 1000/1200) in defense mode. That's all I can do for now." Helen said.

"Ha! A pathetic move by a pathetic duelist. And you have squandered yet another turn! For now the next letter of Destiny Board will appear!" A ghostly "A" appeared next to the other letters. The fiend gave it an approving nod. "Now to draw this out one more turn. I summon Giant Rat (Earth/Beast/Effect, 1400/1450) in defense mode! His special ability will allow me to loop in three more monsters to defend me, so have fun breaking this! I end my turn."

"I think I can…" Helen drew a card. "…and this will help. I activate the Spell Card Insect Imitation. By sacrificing one monster on my side of the field, I can special summon an insect from my deck a level higher than the sacrificed monster. So, I'll say good-bye to Pinch Hopper, and I'll bring in the mighty Grasschopper (Earth/Insect/Gemini, 2350/1000) in attack mode! Then, Pinch Hopper's effect activates, allowing me to special summon any insect-type monster I have in my hand. So, I'll bring in Saber Beetle (Earth/Insect/Effect, 2400/800) in attack mode! And if you think that's bad, I'm still not done. I'm going to remove Man-Eater Bug and Insect Knight to special summon Doom Dozer (Earth/Insect/Effect, 2800/2600) in attack mode! And if that wasn't enough for you, I haven't summoned this turn. I'll use my normal summon this turn to make Grasschopper an effect monster!"

"So what? How are you going to destroy me like this?" The fiend said. "There's no way you can do enough damage!"

"Ah, on the contrary. Grasschopper's activated effect allows me to attack all monsters on your side of the field with him."

"No!"

"Go, Grasschopper, cut down Fox Fire!" The giant insect sliced the little beast to pieces. "Now, slice up Peten!"

"Ha! I can remove him to special summon another Peten the Dark Clown!"

"So what, he'll get cut down like the rest!" The insect swiped again, taking off the new Peten's head. Another one appeared to take it's place, only to be cut cleanly in half by the Grasschopper. Then it turned on the Giant Rat, which was actually quivering in fear because of the bug. It met a quick demise at the hands of the Chopper.

"Grr… I'm going to die if this happens again… I summon Black Stego (Earth/Dinosaur/Effect, 1200/2000) in attack mode with the effect of Giant Rat! It changes to defense mode when it is attacked." The dino appeared and roared, only to meet a quick demise at the hands of the frenzied Chopper. In only a few seconds, the fiend's blockade of monsters had been reduced to absolutely nothing.

"Now, this duel is over! Doom Dozer and Saber Beetle, attack him directly and end the duel!"

Helen: 4000

Fiend: 0

The fiend screamed as it was lanced by the beetle, then run over by the Dozer, flattened by the massive bug and laying in a pool of the black fiend blood. Helen breathed a sigh of relief, shuffled her cards together, and turned to face the others. She took a step towards them and suddenly staggered.

"Are you okay?" Drake asked, running up beside her.

"Just… a little tired. I guess that was more intense than I realized." She said. She shook her head and stood straight up. "I'm fine, you don't have to worry about me."

William was absolutely fuming behind them. Not only had his sneak attacks failed, but his fiend had lost to someone who had lost most of the shadow games she had ever played. "THIS ISN'T OVER!!!" He shouted. "I STILL HAVE THE ADVANTAGE!!! AND I WILL WIN!!! YOU…" He pointed ominously in Julie's direction. "…BY THE END OF THIS DUEL YOU WILL BE MINE!" He looked at the last remaining fiend. "KILL HER!!!"