Mahad watched the battle from behind, impressed. He could clearly see that the pharaoh standing there was a lot stronger than before. He was definitely different but he was also the same.
Mana clung to him, watching the battle intently. "That is the Pharaoh there, isn't it?"
"A stronger version of himself," Mahad replied. "If… no when they are victorious, I hope this is the future pharaoh that will lead and protect Egypt for many years to come."
Atem stood confidently on the field with his two friends now summoned as magical spirits. He thumbed through the cards he had drawn. That last counterattack battle had depleted a number of his cards, so he'd have to pull some more. "I play Pot of Greed to draw three more cards."
He closed his eyes, relying on the heart of the cards to give him something he could use. Sure enough, the deck gave him something he could tuck away for later. "I play this card face down and end my turn."
Usagi smiled as Sailor V high-fived Jounouchi and Honda. This was going well, and that worried her a bit. After how powerful Set seemed to be, this battle quickly favoring their side of the field. Perhaps they could finish it quickly before Set pulled any sort of underhanded tactics.
Relying on her heart, she drew another card. It wasn't another soul of her friends, but it was some sort of magical upgrade card. She thumbed through her cards for the one matching the description. She had exactly what she needed. "I use these two cards, the Sword of the Silver Crystal and the Venus Chain, to double V-chan's attack and defense!"
The red heart-shaped chain manifested around her waist. It was a familiar sight, something she had used as Venus but not as V, but she wasn't one to dwell on technicalities. The swordnow in her hand was also familiar. It was the stone sword that they'd found in the Moon Palace during their first visit. With both the items, she could perform a multitude of attacks along with the ones she had as Sailor V.
She stood poised for battle, holding the sword proudly in her hand, expecting a command for an attack yet none came. She peered back at Usagi. "Princess?"
Usagi looked nervous. After that last chain of counters, she was hesitant to call a command to attack. Set still had cards in his hand, and she had no way of knowing what spells he had. If it were just her, she'd attack with a magical blast from a wand or scepter or whatever, but this was different. She was playing with souls. It wasn't a game, even if it felt like one. Her worry was starting to get the better of her.
"Usagi-chan," V took a knee, placing the sword in the sand then taking Usagi's hand in both of hers. "We all know that this is a fight of life and death here, but when has it ever not been? Look, I know it's hard, but let us do the fighting for you. No matter what happens, you can't give up."
"I'm not giving up at all, Minako-chan," Usagi shook her head, rubbing at her eyes. "I don't want to lose anyone. Everytime we fight, people die."
"And then you bring them back," V pointed out. "Look, we all know how dangerous it is to be your guardian. It comes with the territory. We've fought so many forms of chaos and even our own allies before. We can't back down. I want to go hang out with everyone and play card games and yell at Rei-chan when she can't get the name right. No matter what happens, we're always your guardians and friends. Now let's go kick this guy's butt together, right?"
Usagi nodded, rubbing at her eyes with her hand. Now wasn't the time to have doubts. "After this, we're going to get parfaits." She pulled at her skirt, kicking off her heels and digging her toes into the sand. She wanted to see everyone again, to have fun and play card games badly. She pulled another card from her hand. "I summon a second to the field. Come forth, Guardian of Thunder, Sailor Jupiter!"
A bolt of thunder crashed from the sky, Sailor Jupiter appearing from it in a flurry of rose petals. "Aw, yeah, I'm back!" She flexed a bit, rearing for a fight, before glancing at V. "What are you wearing?"
"I'm a buffed up Sailor V, just accept it," V replied as if it were nothing unusual, flipping her hair over her shoulder. "We're gonna go kick that god of chaos's butt."
"That's all I need to know," Jupiter nodded assuredly.
Usagi nodded. She had to trust in her friends like she always did. She placed a hand on her heart. She could feel their strength and warmth swell within her. "Both of you, attack Set directly!"
"You got it, Princess!" Jupiter wound her arms together, whipping a leg around before spinning quickly and gathering the winds around her. "Coconut Cyclone!"
Winking, Sailor V pulled the chain from her waist and winding it around the sword. "Venus Wink Chain Sword!" Her attack combined with Jupiter's, the combined assault careening towards Set.
"Activate spell card."
Those were the words neither Usagi nor Atem wanted to hear, but Set had clearly said them.
"Attack Negation!" Set pulled the card from his hand, absorbing the attack and simply phasing it out of existence.
"Man that guy pisses me off!" Jounouchi hissed. "He's got some answer for everything, doesn't he?"
"We'll find a way around this, Jounouchi-kun," Atem assured him. He'd been in worse situations where the battle seemed absolutely hopeless or impossible. That seemed to be a summary of Battle City. Everything was a challenge or a binding situation that he had to find a way to escape. He had to play this a bit more cautiously as souls were at stake here.
However, he was also aware that destroying a summoned monster or spirit in this time return it to its point of summon, in this case, his card. But he couldn't imagine it was exactly pleasant for his friends to experience. Nor did he particularly want to see his friends fall before him.
But Atem was concerned about what Set had up his sleeve. So far, he'd played a counter deck, one capable of countering everything they threw out. But one could only have so many spells and trap cards before a deck became utterly pointless. He could defend until the ends of the earth but if he didn't have any decent monster cards to summon, it would be a long battle slowly draining the life out of both sides.
Perhaps that was his plan. If either Atem or Usagi ran out of cards, they would automatically lose. It would be the most excruciatingly slow way to win, but it wasn't an impossibility.
But right now, that possibility was getting smaller and smaller. He was running out of cards in his hand. Yet Set still stood confidently on the other side of the field.
"I want to punch his stupid jackal face," Jounouchi fussed.
"Same," Jupiter agreed. "Nothing quite like the direct approach."
"I like the way you think!" Jounouchi grinned.
Usagi stared at the remaining cards in her hand. She really didn't understand how trap cards worked, but she had seen Atem use a few. Maybe she really should've read the rules a bit more. She pulled the trap card out of her hand, reading over the description for a bit, hoped it worked, and set it out. "I put this card face down and end the turn."
Jupiter rocked on her feet. She wanted to punch this guy, but it didn't take her long to realize they were bound by some rules of a game. She hadn't really paid much attention to the rules of Duel Monsters, leaving that up to Minako and Usagi to obsess over and Ami to claim she wasn't obsessing over it. She hit her hand in her fist, ready for action.
Set drew a card, a large smirk pulled up at his jackal lips. "Well well." He turned the card around. "I summon the Goddess of Destruction, Sekhmet!"
From the ground rose a woman with a lioness head, wrapped in white linens and adorned with jewelry. Her lion tail swished behind her as she leaned forward, ready to pounce.
"Seriously? God cards again?" Jounouchi huffed.
"This is a Shadow Game," Honda chided him. "She probably is a goddess."
"Like that'll stop the goddess of love," Sailor V proclaimed.
Atem scowled a bit. So this was Set's plan. Bide his time before he could pull out the big punches.
Set jabbed a finger at the opposing field. "Sekhmet! Destroy!"
Sailor V and Jupiter defensively stood in front of Usagi, planning to absorb the attack to prevent her from being harmed as the goddess of war opened her mouth and fired off a massive beam of light.
"Not so fast!" Atem shouted. "Reveal my face down card. Kuriboh!" The small ball of fur appeared before the quartet of summoned friends, chittering happily as it zipped around in the air.
"You have to be kidding," Set scoffed.
"I play this spell card from my hand!" Atem continued, dismissing Set's commentary. "Multiply!"
With a happy chitter, the small fuzzy kuriboh multiplied over and over and over again, blocking Sekhmet's attack. A few kuriboh were destroyed in the process but they multiplied to replace those which had fallen.
Atem grinned. "Even the smallest of monsters can become something great if played right."
"Aww, they're kinda cute," V gushed. "I bet they're soft."
"V-chan…." Jupiter sighed.
"You're making a farce out of this!" Set shouted at them angrily.
"Someone's got his skirt in a knot," Jounouchi commented.
Set seethed. For awhile there, he thought it would be fun to squeeze the life out of his opposition, to enjoy the battle and kill them slowly, watching them suffer as their friends died with them. But that wasn't going to work this time. They were making a mockery of this.
Pulling their allies out of time was supposed to guarantee a complete victory, but somehow they still could get their hands on the souls of their friends. Their friendship and heart of the cards nonsense. It was time to just eliminate them and take the Silver Crystal and the Millennium Puzzle for himself.
"It's time I take the Sun and the Moon's power for myself," the god of chaos proclaimed, holding his cards in one hand. "I sacrifice half my deck to employ Sekhmet's ultimate ability: Obliteration."
"That doesn't sound good," V took a defensive position. "Brace yourselves!"
Sekhmet rose her hand to the sky, causing it to blacken with dark and ominous clouds suddenly. The clouds rolled in, blocking the light of both the sun and the dimmed crescent moon hanging low in the sky. The dark clouds also rolled in along the sands, driving forward and making quick work of the kuriboh defensive line.
"Not so fast!" Atem jabbed a finger at Set. "I activate my-" he cut himself off when his card began to turn to sand, falling through his fingers. He gasped as his two friends began to turn into sand as well. "Jounouchi-kun! Honda-kun!"
"Minako-chan! Mako-chan!" Usagi shouted, reaching for them. Their fingers barely touched as she grasped for her friends, but they turned to sand, leaving her with nothing but a pile of what once was her friends. She had to find a way to counter attack. Anything, anything would do. She shuffled through the cards, each one turning to sand and falling through her fingers.
She felt the life drain from her as she fell to her knees, gasping for air. "Atem-kun! What's…" she fell face first into the sand.
So this was his plan. Obliterate the deck and force a forfeit. Atem's reasoning wasn't that far off of how Set planned to win, he just didn't expect it to be so immediate and so incredibly effective. Everyone was relying on them. It couldn't end like this.
...
Author's musings!
Counter decks are perhaps some of the most annoying things to play against. They sit there and counter you again and again with reversals just to tick you off. They also rely on chance, and when it's a shadow game, you might just have chance on your side if you're an ancient god of chaos.
Sekhmet is the goddess of destruction, a lion-headed woman who is buddy-buddy with Set. Legends say she can destroy things with her mouth. (honestly that's like half of the pantheon in general.)
Obliterate is a legitimate card, though to use it, you sacrifice Exodia, not your deck. It also doesn't turn cards to sand, though if it did, damn that would be one way to end a duel.
There's a sneaky reference here
"Nothing like the direct approach" – my favorite line in the DiC dub. Jupiter says this when blasting into Tokyo Tower to get the Rainbow Crystals. Mercury goes through a lot of calculations and Jupiter just kinda blasts through the front door. 20 years later and I still remember that scene clearly.