Chapter Seven: Conflict

Author's Note-Really sorry about the super late chapter, but I was quite busy. Also, for Link monsters I'm going to use the abbreviation ARW for 'arrows'.

Everyone was in shock. The duel was getting exciting and everybody was enjoying it until it ended with a surrender. Jasmine didn't care; a win was still a win. She walked back to the waiting room, where the silence was deafening. The first to speak up was Callum.

"What was that?" he asked, his voice almost inaudible. Even so, Jasmine could still hear the evident disappointment in his voice.

"What are you talking about? I won the duel. You should be happy."

"You won? That wasn't a real win." Callum was speaking at a normal volume now, but somehow that was worse than him raising his voice. "What was that card you had face-down?"

"It was 'Mirror Force'. Look, I know where you're going with this but why does it matter? There are no rules that say you can't bluff! That's a valid strategy!"

"You would have lost that duel, but you could clearly tell that your opponent didn't have much confidence in himself. So, instead of encouraging him to keep going, you took advantage of that. That's not a real duel. You didn't even comfort him afterwards."

Jasmine sighed. "Look, I won the duel and that's all that matters. If you have such a massive problem with that, then I'll just give you some time to calm down."

With that, Jasmine walked out of the waiting room, leaving everyone inside it speechless. In truth, she knew Callum was kind of right, but Jasmine still believed that winning was more important. It would probably be the best for both of them to just think things through for now.

Meanwhile, Jake had run far away from the stadium via a different exit than Jasmine. After he was sure that nobody was following him, he finally sat down; he was breathing heavily. I'm just a failure. I'm supposed to be the son of the professional duelist Jack, who is one of the best in the world, and yet I lost during my first duel in the tournament. I know dad never believed in me, but I can see why. I'm completely worthless.

Not knowing where else to go, Jake kept walking until he reached the cemetery. For some reason, he felt like had to come here. Maybe it was because the only person who ever believed in him was his sister. He walked towards her grave, finding comfort in the silence. However, upon finding where his sister was buried, he couldn't believe his eyes.

In the stadium, people had more or less recovered from the previous duel, and now it was time for the next one. Callum was going to be dueling next, and Jasmine still hadn't returned.

"Fine, you can stay away from me Jasmine, but I'm going to show you how a real duelist plays this game," Callum muttered to himself as he picked up his duel disk and walked out into the stadium.

The duelist facing Callum had light brown hair and was taller than him. Callum was about to say something, but his opponent beat him to it.

"Get ready to be annihilated! Your deck is repugnant compared to mine!" he yelled.

"Um, I'm looking forward to a fun and entertaining duel!" Callum yelled back awkwardly. Maybe he's just enthusiastic? I'm sure he doesn't mean what he said.

"I meant everything I said! Now, let's get started and I'll show you how much more superior I am to you!" the man shouted.

"Hold on! I'm the one who starts the duels!" the commentator complained. "Also, Albert has requested that the type of deck each player is using should not to announced immediately to make it a surprise. I have decided to agree to this, so we have no idea what decks these duelists are using! The coin flip has decided that Albert should go first. Now, let the duel begin!"

Well, that seems to be fair. I guess my opponent's name is Albert then. I do hope he stops with the pointless insults. Callum thought, slightly annoyed.

Callum (?) 8000 LP VS. Albert (?) 8000 LP

Turn 1 - Albert - 8000 LP - 5 cards in hand - 0 monsters on field - 0 spells/traps on field

"For my first turn, I'll start things off nice and simple to give your pitiful deck a chance. I set everything in my hand face-down into my Spell & Trap Card Zone and I end my turn."

Turn 2 - Callum - 8000 LP - 5 cards in hand - 0 monsters on field - 0 spells/traps on field

Callum was trying to stay calm and have a fun duel but Albert was making it very difficult for him. "I draw! I'll start off by setting two cards of my own face-down. Next, I normal summon 'Unchained Twins - Rakea' (Lv3 ATK 1500/DEF 1500) and I activate its effect destroy my face-down trap 'Escape of the Unchained'. When Escape is destroyed, I can special summon any Unchained monster from my deck. So, I special summon 'Unchained Twins - Aruha' (Lv3 ATK 1500/DEF 1500) from my deck in attack position. Now, since a card I control was destroyed, I can special summon 'Abominable Unchained Soul' (Lv8 ATK 3000/DEF 1500) from my hand and by discarding an 'Unchained Soul of Disaster' from my hand, I will target and destroy your middle face-down card."

"Ha! You idiot! You destroyed my 'Artifact Achilleshield' (Lv5 ATK 1500/DEF 2200)! When it is destroyed on my opponent's turn, it special summons itself in defense position and it stops you from targeting any of my Artifacts for attacks until the end of the turn!"

Callum sighed. "Could you please try to be a bit more respectful? Fine, I activate..."

"I'm not done yet!" Albert interrupted. "I activate the trap 'Artifact Sanctum'! It allows me to special summon any Artifact I want from my deck, so I special summon 'Artifact Scythe' (Lv5 ATK 2200/DEF 900)! Its effect now activates, stopping you from special summoning anything from your Extra Deck for the rest of the turn! Next, I activate the quick-play spell 'Artifact Ignition' to destroy my face-down 'Artifact Aegis' (Lv5 ATK 1200/DEF 2500) and special summon it in defense position! Now, you can't target any of my Artifacts with card effects until the end of the turn."

"What an interesting matchup! Two decks which destroy their own cards to special summon their monsters! Well, now we know both of their decks, we can update that," the commentator observed.

UPDATE - Callum (Unchained) VS. Albert (Artifact)

"Well, there's nothing else I can do, so I end my turn."

Turn 3 - Albert - 8000 LP - 0 cards in hand - 3 monsters on field - 1 trap on field

"First, I activate 'Smashing Ground'! This spell allows me to destroy a monster you control with the highest DEF. Since all of them are tied at 1500 DEF, I get to choose, so obviously I'll destroy your 'Abominable Unchained Soul'. Following that, I activate yet another 'Artifact Sanctum' to special summon 'Artifact Moralltach' (Lv5 ATK 2100/DEF 1400) from my deck in attack position. Since I activated Sanctum on my turn, I cannot conduct my Battle Phase this turn and Moralltach can't activate its effect to destroy a face-up card you control, but it's worth it to get one extra Artifact on the field. After your inevitable failure, I'm certain you'll be so humiliated that you'll never show your face around here again! Good riddance!"

Callum loved to duel, but he was not going to tolerate this for much longer. If his opponent wasn't going to respect him, he was going to annihilate him without a hint of mercy.

"Using 'Artifact Moralltach' and 'Artifact Aegis', I link summon 'Artifact Dagda' (Link-2 ATK 1500/ARW Bottom-Left, Bottom-Right). That's not all, because I'm using 'Artifact Achilleshield' and 'Artifact Scythe' to xyz summon 'Artifact Durendal' (Rank 5 ATK 2400/DEF 2100)! Now, I have the perfect setup. No matter what you do, I will win and the crowd will all laugh at your incompetence! I end my turn."

"No, your turn isn't even close to over yet. You've insulted me for the last time. I wanted to let this duel last a big longer so that we could have a fun duel, but I realise now that I should just end this."

Albert scoffed. "What could you possibly do? My Dagda Durendal combo has never failed me before!"

Callum didn't even want to listen to Albert anymore, and he put all of his focus into the sole purpose of winning. "Since 'Abominable Unchained Soul' was destroyed, it special summons itself during your End Phase. By discarding another 'Abominable Unchained Soul' from my hand, I can destroy your feeble 'Artifact Durendal'!"

"That's all you can do after so much bragging? You've just triggered my combo! I'm going to activate the effect of 'Artifact Durendal' as Chain Link 2, and the effect of 'Artifact Dagda' as Chain Link 3! Since chains resolve backwards, Dadga's effect would resolve first, putting another Artifact Scythe face-down as a spell from my deck, and then Durendal changes the effect of your 'Abominable Unchained Soul' into an effect which destroys the Artifact I just set! That wastes your precious effect, and gives me another Artifact to put on the field, even if its effect is useless on my turn."

"Not so fast. I'm activating my quick-play spell 'Forbidden Chalice' as Chain Link 4!"

The commentator, realising that she had forgotten to say anything for a while because of how intense it had been, quickly interjected. "A Chain Link 4? What could it be? Callum must have been toying with Albert this entire time!"

"'Forbidden Chalice' makes your 'Artifact Durendal' gain 400 ATK (ATK 2400 — 2800), but it negates its effect! That extra ATK doesn't mean a thing though because 'Abominable Unchained Soul' no longer has a changed effect. The chain resolves backwards, so you still get your face-down Scythe, but 'Artifact Durendal' has been destroyed along with your precious combo!"

Turn 4 - Callum - 8000 LP - 0 cards in hand - 3 monsters on field - 0 spells/traps on field

The commentator and the crowd were silent; Albert didn't know whether to be shocked or agitated. Despite this, Callum simply carried on.

"I draw and I normal summon 'Unchained Twins - Sarama' (Lv3 ATK 1500/DEF 1500). Its effect sets 'Escape of the Unchained' back to my field and immediately destroys it again. As you already know, when 'Escape of the Unchained' is destroyed, I can special summon an Unchained monster from my deck, so I choose another 'Abominable Unchained Soul'. My first 'Abominable Unchained Soul' attacks and destroys your 'Artifact Dagda'."

Albert's LP 8000 — 6500

"Now, to finish you off, Rakea, Sarama, Aruha and my second 'Abominable Unchained Soul' all attack you directly."

Albert's LP 6500 — 0

WINNER: Callum

As Callum stormed off, he couldn't help but think Jasmine had a point. Sometimes, it was simply impossible to play for fun against strangers.

The cemetery was eerily empty, and the place was completely silent. A woman was strolling past the graves, heading towards a shortcut back to her house which could only be accessed from the cemetery. All of a sudden, she stopped. There was a strange sound coming from close by, but the woman couldn't make out what it was. As she looked over in that direction, she witnessed something she could not comprehend.

There was a man wearing a dark red cape with two gigantic swords on his back hunched over one of the graves. Before she could say anything else, the hunched man stood up and turned around, towering over her at an intimidating height. He looked like some kind of warrior from the fantasy movies she loved to watch, but he was very real compared to any film she could ever watch. In one move, he hit her with the hilt of the sword in his right hand, and she instantly fell unconscious.