World 031: How Can This Small Heart Beat?
Team Echo's LP: 16000 Team Champion's LP: 16000
"I link summon Mistar Boy! The materials will be two water monsters!" The Legendary Fisherman kept summoning monsters that you would not find in any real sea, this time by using his Deep Sea Diva and Deep Sea Artisan as link materials. Mistar Boy(1400/LINK 2) {Downleft/Downright} [Extra Zone 3] was a one-eyed red seastar with a mouth full of teeth and a dapper mustache. "All creatures of the sea now gain 500 attackpoints!" With its brightly colored tentacles the star(1900 atk) lifted his tophat to share his powers with Marincess Marbled Rock(1750 atk), Marincess Coral Anemone (2500 atk) and Number 101: Silent Honor ARK: 2600/1500).
"One more summon is coming your way! I activate the White Mirror spell! Now I can raise one fish from the dead, and add another with the same name to my hand!" A small pond of white water settled before the fisherman, and the Buzzsaw Shark(2100/1000) [Zone 1] poked its head through the surface. "Buzzsaw Shark can special summon one fish from my deck, with the same level as a water monster I control! Though I cannot summon anything but XYZ-monsters for the rest of the turn!" Only one water monster could be targeted, Buzzsaw Shark itself. And with that level, the Fisherman could bring out a metallic silver shark(4/2000/1400) [Zone 2], with rows of lantern lights shining on the bottom of its long body. "This is the Lantern Shark, and it can special summon one lowlevel water monster from my hand in defense mode. But not too low!" The Shark's lanterns spotlighted the last empty zone in front of the Fisherman and gave it to the second Buzzsaw Shark(4/2100/1000). Now you've waited long enough. This is my final XYZ! I use the Lantern and defending Buzzsaw to summon Variant Shark Lancer!"
Buzzsaw Shark and Lantern Shark could both treat themselves as a level 5 monster if there was demand for it, and the next XYZ-summon did need those kinds of attachments. The Fisherman summoned not a number but a still fearsome warrior of the ocean: Valiant Lancer the merman black knight(R5/3000/2100) who was covered in red spines and wide ray fins. "Once a turn, Valiant Lancer detaches one of my XYZ-materials to destroy one of your monsters! That is how your Odd-Eyes Advance Dragon will die!" The Lancer took out his mechanical blade and absorbed one of its materials to charge it up. Like a harpoon the energy got launched into the crimson Odd-Eyes and a burst of bubbles and flame consumed it from head to tail. "Now, this is where I will have to attack. You made me do this, just remember that." The Fisherman looked away from Echo as he attacked Heleil's last monster. The claws of Ray Lancer found Odd-Eyes Pendulum's chest core and broke the whole dragon to pieces. After that it was open season: Marincess Coral Anemone, Marbled Rock, Silent Honor ARK, Mistar Boy and the first Buzzsaw Shark unloaded blast after of blast of pressurized water. And they all hit Baron Schwarzwald.
Team Heleil's LP: 4650
"Ghhff!" He got pushed back to the very edge of the battlefield. "That was quite the battle." Any single duelist would have lost then and there. "But I do not understand why you focus all your hatred on me. I was not the one who destroyed your friend." The baron said as his eyes turned towards miss Echo. "Hate? I don't.." The girl flinched. "That hatred comes from me, Baron! Not her! I am the rage she cannot be!" The Fisherman snarled at the man. He'd gotten so mad he could not be bothered to explain why his handsize increased. He simply activated Lifeless Leaffish's effect from the graveyard, banishing ad returning three other dead fish to the deck to draw one more card. "Khan is the same as you, and you would have done the same as him. They saw you are not in control fo yourselves anymore, but that is a lie. You know what you want, and what you have done." Fisherman placed one card down and ended the turn. "I will not forgive any of you."
-TURN 04-
"Is that the case? Than I should probably not tell you what happened to Sundown Mephistar." Schwarzwald said with a barely restrained grin. At this point the card banished by Deep Sea Minstrel returned to his hand. "What? Mephistar? Where is he? What did you do?" Echo panicked at the mere mention of his name. "Echo, he is trying to upset you. Do not lose focus on the duel, that is what he wants." Charles shouted. Even if his ability to help Echo was limited, he would damn well try. "Y-yes. You're right."
"Hm? Is she talking to herself now?" Wagnerok wondered out loud. "Who can tell with her?" Schwarzwald shrugged and activated Allure of Darkness: drawing two cards and banishing one DARK monster (Red-Eyes Gearfried Knight). "Forget about her. What were you talking about?" Meanwhile his partner Heleil was beginning to think she'd not been told everything she needed to know. "Oh, Sundown? Remember Judge Hieronymus? He was the one who took him out, he was the traitor among the Heroes of Pandemonium. But he turned out to be nothing more than a more advanced ADI, just like the Fisherman over there. I took care of him long ago." Schwarzwald spun his tale, while using more spells like Cards of the Red Stone. With that he discarded two Red-Eyes monsters, Red-Eyes Black Dragon from the hand and Red-Eyes Black Flare Dragon from the deck, to draw two more cards. "Hieronymus? Then she was behind that?"
"No! I was not. That was Static! And Sundown was more than that! He was.." Echo protested, but the Black Baron activated an effect to cut her off. "Never mind your lies, miss Echo. We will sort everything out after this. I can discard Neo Kaiser Glider along with one normal monster to my graveyard! Now all monsters you control lose 500 attackpoints and I can special summon one normal monster from my graveyard!" A nightmarish one-eyed dragon flew down into the abyss and dragged Dark Magician down with it. Shadows spewed forth from the hole it left behind, shadows that weakened all monsters on the other side (Marbled Rock: 1750 atk, Coral Anemone: 2000 atk, Mistar Boy: 1400 atk, ARK: 2100 atk, Valiant Lancer: 2500 atk, Buzzsaw Shark: 1600 atk). The hole also released the Red-Eyes Black Flare Dragon(7/2400/200) [Zone 9], a Red-Eyes with sharp scales and always burning wings. "But the point of my story is simply an introduction.. to the card that helped me defeat Sundown. I activate Dragons Mirror and special summon Red-Eyes Dark Dragoon!"
It came at last. Dragons Mirror banished both the original Red-Eyes Black Dragon and Dark Magician for its fusion materials. "That destroyed Sundown?" The Fisherman felt a new emotion as he laid eyes upon the winged dragon paladin(8/3000/2500) [Extra Zone 4] of destruction; dread. "Indeed. This monster can destroy one monster for each normal monster fused into it!" There dreaded number here was two. "If that is how you destroyed Sundown, then never again! Valiant Lancer can use his effect during your turn too!" The Fisherman made a brave attempt to stop the Dragoon before it could target even one card. "What in.." But he found out he could only target Red-Eyes Flare Dragon. "Oh I do apologize. I completely forgot to mention that my Dragoon cannot be targeted or destroyed by effects." That did not mean that the Fisherman would give up, one dead Red-Eyes benefitted them regardless. And Schwarzwald allowed the Lancer to skewer the Black gemini dragon...
Because that death would not stick either. "I activate Red-Eyes Retro Dragon's effect! Or rather, you activated it. Killing my Red-Eyes makes this monster appear and he summons all monsters that were destroyed!" A small four-horned black dragon(4/1700/1600) [Zone 10] with bloodred markings across its scales flew out of the barons hand. Time's flow reversed in its wake, and the Red-Eyes Flare Dragon [Zone 9] came back into existence as if it had never been destroyed by the Valiant Lancer. "Rgh! Then I activate Ice Dragons Prison! I can special summon one monster from your graveyard and banish one monster on both sides of our field if they have the same type and attribute!" With a nontargeting banishing trap like this, even the Dragoons demise could be assured. "Ah, and I will negate it." Schwarzwald discarded a Pandemic Dragon card and let the Dark Dragoon blast past the Ice Prison. It(4000/2500) gained more strength as a bonus. "What!?" The Fisherman could not believe how many powers this fusion possessed. Now he understood how Sundown could lose.
"Thanks for the boosts, Fisherman. Now I can even special summon Red-Eyes Darkness Metal Dragon!" The baron banished a dragon, Red-Eyes Retro, to bring out the metallic black resurrection dragon(10/2800/2400) [Zone 8]. It used its powers to special summon the recently discarded: Pandemic Dragon(7/2500/1000) [Zone 2] a dark-purple serpent dragon with six thin wings that curved outward to imitate the symbol of a biological hazard. "Pandemic Dragon can also destroy one monster with less attack than it! And I have decided who will be the lucky candidates!" The Dragoon raised the burning spirits of the Dark Magician and Black Dragon and threw them towards Marincess Marbled Rock and Valiant Shark Lancer like meteors of devastation. "Gahhh! No! Echo!" The blaze that erupted killed both monsters and gathered 5000 points of effect damage. Damage that the Fisherman desperately wanted to shield Echo from with his own body. "Raaargh!"
Team Echo's LP: 11000
"Fisher!?" Echo could do nothing by cry out for him and watch the inferno burn his back. "It's... alright, miss Echo. I told you, I am your shield." He smiled at her, comforted by the knowledge that she at least had not felt anything. "How could you. How could you let him hurt her? Both of you!? She would never do that to you!" He snarled at Heleil as well.
"Hurt? You don't think you've hurt anyone?" Heleil hissed. She would have lashed out more, but the Fishermans sudden act of martyrdom made her more confused than upset. "Indeed. Pain does not have to be physical, nor does she have to inflict it herself. So I want to ask you this. Did you do that because you wanted it? Or because she wanted it?" Schwarzwald tantalized his opponent with the question, and at the same time he destroyed Mistar Boy with Pandemic Dragon. "Because I want to, of course!" The Fisherman growled as he activated Mistar Boy's own effect to recycle a Water monster (Deep Sea Diva) from his graveyard. "How can you be sure? Who is to say you are not merely a tool for her to do what she can not? If you are alive, as you say you are.. Then you can also be affected by the power you know she has." Schwarzwald kept pushing, with attacks as well. The Red-Eyes Dark Flare Dragon destroyed Marincess Coral Anemone(2000 atk) with its fire breath attack, and inflicted damage equal to its attackpoints with its effect.
Team Echo's LP: 8600
"Because I would do the same for him!" And it was Echo who took the damage this time, pushing the Fisherman aside to accept the flames. However some of them could still be extinguished. "I activate Marincess Crowntail from my graveyard! Now that I have done this, if she is banished for good, we wont take damage that is less than hat is less than the combined link rating of my fallen Marincess Link Monsters, times a thousand!" A crown of water burst out of the graveyard and would rain down for the remainder of the turn. Though the Coral Marincess died, she let no battle damage pass beyond her. "But Miss Echo. You are.." The Fisherman winced when he saw that the Flare's effect damage had left her clothes singed and her left hand scarred with scorch marks. "I had to know. I had to know what it feels like. Not just for you, but for Valkyrion too. But now I still do not understand, why people would do this to each other.." Echo showed no signs of feeling her injury. She only showed sadness through tears. "It shouldn't be like this!" This was the moment her skill card got revealed.
Go In Peace, Skill Card
During the endphase of this turn, send all monsters to the graveyard that declared an attack this turn.
"Hm." The baron for once did not know what to say, his taunts backfired and only made his opponents grow closer to each other. And now she was giving him a choice between war and peace. "Attack." He chose the latter: Red-Eyes Dark Dragoon, Darkness Metal Dragon and Pandemic Dragon could still battle and destroy Number 101 and Buzzsaw Shark. "It can only be this way, miss Echo. And if my cards are to suffer for it, I will end them myself! I Link summon, Darkness Metal, the Dragon of Dark Steel!" And all four dragons at once could serve as link materials with the same type and attribute to upgrade the metallic Red-Eyes into a winged steel-black dragon(2800/LINK 4) {Downleft/Up/Down/Downright} [Extra Zone 4]. Darkness Metal oozed power, which glowed underneath its plates with a hellish red heat. "And I special summon Pandemic Dragon again." Each turn the Link dragon could revive one dragon like the hazard spreader [Zone 5] to one of its marked zones. Though its powers would be sealed. "My turn ends here."
-TURN 05-
"Now is your chance, Echo." Charles cheered her on. He knew she could easily come back from this wipeout.
"To attack.. To fight?" Echo spoke softly. It would be her first battle phase, ever. "To summon... again." Her current main phase however played out exactly the same as the previous one. Coral Anemone, when she died, added the Marincess Seahorse back to her hand. Echo normal summoned her(3/1400/1000) [Zone 2] and used it as a link material for Marincess Blue Slug(1000/LINK 1) {Down} [Extra Zone 1]. Blue Slug added Seahorse back to Echo's hand, Seahorse special summoned herself[Zone 2], and the new linked pair rematerialized into another Coral Anemone [Extra Zone 1]. Finally Coral Anemone, and the Marincess Seahorse she resurrected, turned into the second Marincess Marbled Rock(2500/LINK 3) {Left/Down/Right}. The Marbled Princess added Marincess Seahorse back to Echo's hand, and the dematerialized Coral Princess placed Marincess Wave back in the hand. "I am back where I was and..." She placed a spell card face down.
"...and I stop here."
Her endphase declaration came as a shock to everyone, Charles in particular was left speechless. The Fisherman felt understandably equally upset because, as her partner, he knew she could have gone on the offense. "You're ending it here? Miss Echo? Are you sure?" Yet a part of him saw this coming. "More than anything. I will never do to others, what they did to my friends. I will not. I can not." And she did not want to back on her decision. "Even if they deserve it?" No matter what her friend told her. "Even then. If it was just a game, I could understand. But.. this is real. And I refuse to become like Him."
-TURN 06-
"I don't get it. What kind of trick is this? Don't you want to win?" Of all the things Heleil had seen so far, this made her hesitate the most. "She simply could not act, that is all. Whatever is the truth, we can sort it out after she has been disabled." Schwarzwald tried to course-correct the reluctant champion, with mild success. "You are right. We cannot risk doing nothing." Heleil clapped her hands to psyche herself up and revealed a trap card... "Pendulum Dimension! When I use a pendulum monster as a material, this card can activate an effect depending on what the material is used for! I will start with a fusion summon!" ...and a spell card. "Dowsing Fusion! I fuse three pendulum monsters in my graveyard! In this case I will take three DARK pendulum monsters." The dowser spell found and merged three suitable materials: Performapal Silver Claw, Odd-Eyes Arc Pendulum Dragon and Dark Anthelion Dragon. The latter never reached the extra deck because it left the field as Number 101's XYZ-material. "So I can fusion summon Starving Venemy Lethal Dose Dragon!"
Shadows filled with red eyes spilled across the floor and released the eyeless demonic dragon(8/2800/2000) [Extra Zone 2] in purple/gold armor plates. The shadows wrapped around Starving Venemy like a cloak, while its long tail swept across the field. "Pendulum Dimension activates at this stage! For a fusion of pendulums, I get to summon a monster of the same level from my deck!" The shadows moved aside for a ghostly light, which came from the special summoned bone-plated Odd-Eyes that carried the rainbow in its wings: Odd-Eyes Phantasma Dragon(8/3000/2500) [Zone 1]. "As for Starving Venemy itself. That card negates the effects of all monsters you control!" Heleil stated her intentions.
So Echo would do the same. "Not if I am faster..." Since she controlled her LINK 3 Marincess, she could activate Marincess Wave from her hand to negate Starving Venemy's powers. Her monsters could not affected by any other effects for the rest of the turn either. "No. But your bag of tricks has to be running low about now." Heleil asserted before she used her next spell from the hand. "Spiral Flame Strike adds an Odd-Eyes monster to my hand! Odd-Eyes Phantom Dragon!" And her spell on the field. "Sky Iris destroys my Performapal Celestial Magician to add Odd-Eyes Mirage Dragon!" And the spells for the pendulum zones: the green scaled Mirage Dragon (Scale 8) and the skeletal-armored Phantom Dragon (Scale 4). "And now, my skill fit for a champion! I activate Neo Master Rule! and Pendulum summon my monsters!" Miraculously, the pendulum champion managed to fill her entire board with face-up monsters from the extra deck: Performapal Celestial Magician(4/1500/1000) [Zone 2], Odd-Eyes Pendulum Dragon(7/2500/2000) [Zone 3] and Odd-Eyes Persona Dragon(5/1200/2400) [Zone 4].
Neo Master Rule, Skill Card
Until the end of the turn, monsters in the Extra deck can be special summoned to any Monster Zone on the field.
"She used her main zones? It's like she is playing with a different ruleset alltogether!" Charles gasped. It appeared every champion got to have a skill with which to relive their glory days. "There's more to come! I'll activate Darkness Metal's effect and bring back Odd-Eyes Wizard Dragon! Then I will use both his monster and mine to XYZ-summon another Dark Anthelion Dragon!" Her partner came in very handy, as he allowed her to use his link monster. The revived Wizard Dragon [Zone 5] and Odd-Eyes Pendulum turned into a second Dark Anthelion(R7/3000/2500) [Zone 3], and reawakened the continuous trap. "Since I used a pendulum for an XYZ-summon, Pendulum Dimension will take one tuner from my deck and summon it! I choose Performapal Odd-Eyes Synchron!" Even the Performapals could call in their own tuner: a rather short gadget-filled robot(2/200/600) [Zone 5] with a tophat and springloaded arms. "I tune it with Odd-Eyes Persona Dragon! And synchro summon Clear-Wing Fast Dragon!"
"Clear Wing?" Charles could not believe it, the pendulum champion managed to summon the third dimension pendulum dragon as well. Clear Wing(7/2500/2000) [Zone 4] was armored in white and green. Instead of legs it floated in the air and boasted an impressive speed with its wings of bladed light. "You have synchros too?" The Fisherman was equally aghast. "I am not just one champion of one art. Now, for each monster I control: Celestial Magician gains another power!" The somewhat overlooked mage(4/3000/1000) suddenly grew to twice his normal size and folded sharp dragonlike wings out behind his back. "An XYZ doubles his attackpoints! A Synchro allows him to negate a monsters effects! And a fusion gives him the ability to attack directly!" Her battle phase began and the Celestial Magician pulled out two crooked blades that glowed green. "What will you do, Echo? My target is the Legendary Fisherman!" She sent her monster across the field, and let her blades cross out her opponent.
Team Echo's LP: 5600
"Ngh!" The blades cut into the Fisherman's chest. "!? No! I told you not to do that!" Echo shouted with her hands gripping the handles of her chair tightly. "You did not.. have to." The attack left a large digital scar in his chest. "But I cannot lose you too!" The wounds did not seem to heal, and reminded Echo far too much of how the last duel had ended. "Even so I will not stop protecting you, even if you command me too. Because I do not do this because of your power, I do all of this because I am your friend and you are mine. And that is a feeling I do not want to lose."
"This is too bizarre." Heleil stared at their display with wide eyes. "They're just acting. Do not let up now. Or.." Khan loudly prompted. Only for Echo to cut him off this time. "You should stop." She spoke with a more tired voice, which did not affect Heleil much either. "Why?" Heleil attacked anyway, using all her remaining monsters. "Because if you keep attacking, it will only bring you pain.." Echo resisted each time. Marbled Rock discarded Marincess Seahorse to negate the damage done by the lightning of Dark Anthelion. "Is that.. a warning?" Heleil sent Starving Venemy in next, unleashing putrid flames upon the Marincess. "Because I could have won already, when it was my turn. But I did not, I did not attack you. Yet nothing has changed. If you do not stop, I will have to defend myself. And even that can hurt you." Marbled Rock discarded a Marincess Seastar to block the fusion dragon's damage.
"No, wait! She is..." The latter made its attack, despite Schwarzwald's realization that Echo would not lie to them. The warning came too late. "You should have listened. I activate Forbidden Droplets!" The Fisherman activated Echo's face-down quickplay spell, discarding his Buzzsaw Shark to use it. "It negates one monster effect for each card I discarded, and halves their attackpoints!" Drops of tainted holy power rained down, and struck the Dragon of Steel(1400 atk). Its flames were reduced to harmless embers, and for the first time since the duel began... Marincess Marbled Rock fought back and caused a monster to be destroyed.
Team Champion's LP: 3550
"Ugh. Why now?" Heleil knew a trap had been inevitable. What she did not get was why the two waited so long to spring it. "Because you attacked with his link monster. And I.. activate Marincess Current. Since I have a Link 3 Marincess, I can play this from my hand." Echo herself activated her handtrap, while Marbled Rock's claws were still embedded in the body of Darkness Metal. "My Marincess inflicts 400 extra damage for each of her link markers. And if she destroyed a link monster during this battle, she does 500 damage for each of that monsters markers." 1200 and 2000 points of effect damage accumulated within the wound of the black barons dragon, and there was no avoiding the blast that followed. "Damn it!" Both Heleil and Schwarzwald were thrown back to the edge of the cliffs, and their lifepoints fell far and deep.
Team Champion's LP: 0
"You did it!" Charles would never have thought it possible: that she could win without ever declaring an attack. "We did it.." But Echo looked to her partner as well, without whom she would never have gotten to this point. "It's over now." To a point where she had both attackers at her mercy.
"I should have listened." Heleil cursed. They would not have been in this position if she held back her attacks, or if she'd reordered her battle phase. "Yeah you should have." Khan bitterly muttered. "Now now." The baron could have blamed the champion for their mutual defeat too, but he knew that would not do them any good. Instead he kneeled down. "We are yours to command, aren't we? What will you do? Tell us to walk off this cliff? Make us leave the network forever?" He simply could not imagine what this girl was going to do next.
"I.. wont do anything to you, Miss Heleil." Echo spoke again. "Because that is not who I am. And because I know you are a good person. So I want to save you.. from him." Echo smiled at the pendulum champion, and only her. Schwarzwald, she only gave an indifferent stare. "You.. I wish I could save you too. But I cannot give you back what Static stole from you. And I do not want steal any other freedom from you. I want to tell you to leave us and never come back. But I can't be that cruel.. Instead I will ask you just one thing."
"I want you to tell everyone here the truth."
(To Be Continued in World 032: Return From Void)
Cards used by Echo
GO IN PEACE
-
Marincess Crowntail
-
Forbidden Droplets
-
Marincess Current
New cards used by Heleil
NEO MASTER RULE
-
Performapal Odd-Eyes Synchron
-
Starving Venemy Lethal Dose Dragon
Clear Wing Fast Dragon
-
Spiral Flame Strike
Dowsing Fusion
-
Pendulum Dimension
New Cards used by Legendary Fisherman
Lantern Shark
-
Variant Shark Lancer
-
White Mirror
-
Ice Dragon's Prison
New Cards used by Baron Schwarzwald
Neo Kaiser Glider
Red-Eyes Black Flare Dragon
Red-Eyes Retro Dragon
Pandemic Dragon
-
Darkness Metal, the Dragon of Dark Steel
