(A/N: Hey, folks. Been a while. Sorry about that. Working from home takes more energy out of me than I thought it would. I'll try to keep these duels more consistent, but it's going to take some time. I know I don't have to get them out fast, but I don't want the hype to die).
"As a defending regional champion, I'll allow you to go first," Leon told Rafael.
"You're going to regret that," Rafael told him and drew the top card of his deck. "I set one monster card face-down," he said, setting the monster. "Then I'm setting two cards face-down and ending my turn."
"All right, my draw!" Leon declared, drawing the top card of his deck. "And I'm summoning a favorite monster of mine: Forest Wolf!" A brown wolf dressed like an aging grandma appeared on the battlefield with a staggering 1,800 attack points. "Forest Wolf, attack his monster!" Leon declared.
Forest Wolf charged forward at Rafael's face-down monster, only to reveal Rafael's beefy Backup Gardna and its 2,200 defense points.
With one mighty arm, Gardna halted Forest Wolf's attack, surprising Leon.
"Nice try, but my monster's a bit too powerful for your puppy to destroy. Guess you lose this round."
Leon grit his teeth as his life points fell to 3,600. "Then…I'll also place two cards face-down and end my turn."
Rafael nodded. "Then it's my turn now. I draw!" He pulled the top card of his deck to his hand. "And first, I'll begin by activating this spell card: Wicked-Breaking Flamberge – Baou, and equipping it to my Backup Gardna." A massive, cursed-looking sword appeared in Gardna's hand. "In exchange for discarding one of my cards to the graveyard," Rafael said, sending a card there, leaving him with 2 in his hand. "I can increase the equipped monster's attack by 500 points."
Backup Gardna, though in defense mode, gained 500 attack points, giving it 1,000 total.
"And next, I summon, from my hand, Guardian Baou!" The purple, imp-like creature emerged with its dark cape surrounding it. The monster had 800 attack points and 400 defense points. "Next, I activate Backup Gardna's effect to transfer Wicked-Breaking Flamberge – Baou to its rightful wielder, allowing Baou to receive the 500 attack points instead."
Baou stood with its sword in hand, 1,300 attack points strong.
"And next, I activate the spell card, Shrink. This will allow me to turn your wolf into a miniature mutt, cutting its attack points in half!" Rafael declared.
Forest Wolf shrank in size, reducing it down to 900 attack points.
"And now, Baou attacks!"
Guardian Baou rushed forward and slashed its sword straight through Forest Wolf's face, causing a flash of light as the monster was split in half, destroying it.
Leon's life points fell to 3,200.
"And that's only the beginning," Rafael said. "Since Baou destroyed a monster, he gains 1,000 attack points."
Guardian Baou's attack power surged, bringing him up to 2,300 attack points as a dark aura surrounded him.
"Face it, kid. You might be a junior champion," Rafael said, pointing at him. "But you're in the big leagues now. This tournament's no place for runts. So why don't you forfeit while you still have the chance," Rafael said, gripping his fist. "Before my guardians and I crush you."
"Is Rafael okay?" Yugi asked Yami.
"What do you mean?" Yami asked him.
"He seems rather different from our duel. Remember? He was always going on and on about righteousness. Even when he dueled Junko," Yugi said to him.
"Hmm, perhaps something changed him during the time we last saw him," Yami stated.
"I don't know if it's a good change," Yugi said, frowning. "I'm worried."
"Why don't we observe a little more?" Yami asked. "Perhaps he is simply intimidating his opponent. After all, we only knew Rafael under the influence of the Orichalcos."
"I suppose that's true," Yugi said. "Still, he's Sonia's older brother. I'd like to think he was always a decent guy."
Despite Rafael's declaration that Leon should forfeit, the young boy was smirking. "I could guess just from looking at you that you were a tough duelist. You're the crown prince of Novoselic after all. Glad to know you're ever bit the challenge I thought you were going to be."
Rafael just grunted, unamused by Leon's praise.
"But now it's my move! I draw!" Leon exclaimed, swiftly pulling the top card of his deck to his hand. Perfect. "I summon Little Red Riding Hood! In attack mode!" A chibi little girl with 800 attack and 1,200 defense points looking just like the story book character appeared on Leon's side of the field.
Rafael said nothing, but his gaze intensified. Leon was clearly up to something. Nobody plays a monster at this level without a plan, he thought.
"Say, Rafael, did you ever read fairy tales when you were my age?" Leon asked him.
Rafael's gaze was as unflinching as ever as he spoke. "I used to read them to my little sister."
"Fairy tales are nice. They have happy endings with cleverly woven narratives."
"Depends on the fairy tale, kid," Rafael said.
Leon nodded. "You're right about that. Not every fairy tale is a happy story. Some are even downright dreary, but you know what's one of the best parts of fairy tales sometimes? Interpretations."
"Interpretations?" Rafael echoed.
Leon nodded, clenching the fist of his free hand. "Yeah, see, when stories are written, they're usually based on something. When I heard Pegasus was creating cards based on fairy tales, I was excited, but also a bit confused. After all, the game's originally based on monsters and warriors from Ancient Egypt. So, I did a little digging, and guess what I found?"
"Does this long-winded speech have a point?" Rafael asked impatiently.
"My point is," Leon said, holding up a card between his index and forefinger. "Is that with the right amount of magic, a children's fairy tale can regain its true power and become a legend! So now I activate the spell card: Legend of the Crescent Moon!"
Rose gold tinted rose petals swirled around Little Red Riding Hood, becoming a whirlwind.
"With this magic card, Little Red Riding Hood ceases being the naïve girl on her way to grandmother's house and regains her true power. Behold the legend of Carmen, the Wolf Hunter!"
Carmen turned out to be a girl as young as a teenager with rose-red hair, silver eyes, carrying a big scythe with a hole at the sharp end of the pole like a gun barrel. She was dressed from head to toe in an outfit made from wolf fur with a cape as red as blood instead of her usual red hood. Rose petals of silver, red and rose gold fluttered around her as she smiled, like a heroine of justice arriving at the scene of a mugging.
She had 1,400 attack points and 1,400 defense points. Jaws dropped open across the audience.
"All right, Carmen! Let's go!" Leon exclaimed.
"Let's go? Your monster still has 800 points less in attack than Guardian Bow and that pea shooter can't even pierce through Guardian Baou."
"That may be true, but I'm not aiming at your monsters. With her speed and scythe rifle, Carmen can aim for your life points directly!"
"What?" Rafael gasped.
Spinning gracefully, Carmen slammed her rifle into the ground and gazed down the handle of her scythe like a scope before pulling the hidden trigger on her scythe handle and releasing a rose petal shaped projectile right at Rafael's chest, forcing him to stumble back.
He winced and grunted as his life points fell significantly below Leon's to 2,600.
"Nice shot, ugh," Rafael stated.
"Thanks," Leon said. "Anyway, my turn ends. So it's your turn now."
Rafael nodded as he drew the top card of his deck. He looked at it and then looked at the field, his gaze honing in on Leon's face-down cards. "You worked so hard to say goodbye to that monster, but your effort will be wasted. Baou! Destroy Carmen!"
Carmen was cut down by Baou as she was thrown back and crumpled on the ground. However, rather than being destroyed, a red aura around her body fizzled and then vanished.
"What's going on?" Rafael demanded to know, calmly.
Carmen lifted her head up, put one leg in the upright position, palmed her forehead and shook her head.
"You didn't think a monster that requires so much effort to summon would be so easy to destroy, did you? Carmen's special ability lets her survive one battle per turn without being destroyed. I still take damage though," Leon said as his life points fell to 2,300, 100 points below Rafael's.
Carmen then leaned back and leapt to her feet, ready for action.
Rafael looked at the single card in his hand: Guardian Grarl. He could summon it and put Leon in a corner, but Carmen could attack him directly anyway. Nodding to himself, he simply said, "I end my turn."
"All right then, my move!" Leon said and drew the top card of his deck as a red aura enveloped Carmen. "And since your turn ended, Carmen gains her protective aura back. And now, I activate one of my face-down cards: The tower of Rapunzel!"
A massive tower erected itself behind Leon, the hologram blocking the view of his back to several spectators.
"With this magic card in play, I can select one monster on the battlefield and if that monster is attacked, I can negate one attack made against it per turn. And I choose Carmen, of course."
Carmen spiraled her way up the tower and positioned herself atop the conical roof of the tower, giving Rafael a raspberry like she was a child half her age. Then she readied her rifle and aimed at him like she was atop a sniper's nest.
"Go get him, Carmen! Attack!"
Carmen pulled the trigger of her rifle again and let loose a blast towards Rafael.
"Not this time, punk! I activate Spell of Pain!" Rafael exclaimed. "This magic card redirects the damage I would take onto you!"
Leon gasped as the rose bullet pierced Rafael, but he was the one to stumble backwards and take the pain. His life points plummeted to 1,100.
"I guess I'm setting one card," Leon said, panting, "And ending my turn."
As Rafael's turn began, Rapunzel seemed to appear in her tower and she bore a striking resemblance to…
"Sonia?"
"Huh? Something the matter?" Leon asked.
Rafael clutched his head like he was having a bad headache.
"Rafael, are you all right?" Yami cried out in alarm, wondering if he'd have to call the match early.
"I'm fine," Rafael grunted. "Just a random headache." He drew the top card of his deck. "My move!" He looked at the card he drew. It was time to end this. "First, I set a card face-down," Rafael said. "And now, since it's the only card in my hand, I special summon my Guardian Grarl!"
A giant, saurian warrior appeared on the battlefield with a hefty 2,500 attack points.
"Game's over, runt!" Rafael declared. "Baou, attack Carmen!"
Baou flew towards Carmen, but she spiraled down the tower and evaded being hit.
"Your attack failed," Leon told him.
"I'm aware," Rafael said. "But I needed Baou's attack to fail so that Grarl could destroy your monster and end this duel. Now! Grarl! Destroy Carmen!"
Grarl rushed towards Carmen, fist at the ready as the young huntress flinched.
"Not so fast!" Leon shouted. "I activate Mirror Force!" he exclaimed, the iconic card flipping face up. "This will destroy all of the monsters you currently have in attack position!"
"Sorry, but that's not going to happen," Rafael said. "I activate Seven Tools of the Bandit! At the cost of 1,000 life points, I can negate the activation of any trap card!" Rafael exclaimed. Rafael's life points fell to 1,600. "But at least my monsters will be safe!"
"Rafael still cares about his monsters," Yugi said, feeling reassured that Rafael couldn't have changed that much if his basic strategy was still the same.
"And it looks like he's going to win the duel," Yami added.
As Rafael's monster's fist dove towards Carmen, there was a flash of bright light. No one saw a blur leap from the Tower of Rapunzel in the process or the explosion that followed right after it. When the explosion cleared, people could see what happened. The Tower of Rapunzel was on fire, Carmen wasn't flinching, instead looking at the figure that had just leapt down to save her bacon.
Standing in Grarl's path, dressed in a gold shirt with a brown, tattered jacket over it and black tights on was a woman with golden blonde hair and purple eyes with thick, golden gauntlets on her arms. Her palm was blocking Grarl's fist, clenching it.
"Where'd she come from?" Rafael gasped. He then noticed that Leon's other face-down card had been flipped face-up. "Huh?"
It was a quick-play spell.
"Legend of the Burning Tower?" Rafael uttered, reading the card's title.
Leon was quick to explain. "Just like with Carmen, when the conditions align, a story stops being a story, and a legend regains its true power. Meet Raphaela, the Golden-Haired Brawler. She appeared when I activated my Quick-Play Spell, Legend of the Burning Tower, which forces the spell card itself to be destroyed and allows me to send one Princess Rapunzel from my deck to the graveyard so I can special summon Raphaela directly from my deck."
Raphaela had 2,000 attack points and 1,600 defense points. A golden aura vanished from her as Grarl backed off and she smirked, her attack points suddenly rising to 2,500.
"Wh-what happened to your monster?" Rafael asked.
"Like Carmen, Raphaela also has a special ability. Like, Carmen, who can direct attack, Raphaela, can also prevent herself from being destroyed once per turn, while I still take the damage." Leon said as he came down to only 600 life points. "However," He continued, "Raphaela doesn't direct attack, but instead absorbs the power of the monster that attacked her, increasing her power by the damage I would've taken. And since your last capable monster just attacked, I guess that means its my turn now. And that means, I'm going to win." Leon drew the top card of his deck. "Thanks to Seven Tools of the Bandit, you put your life points just low enough for Raphaela to destroy Bao and then Carmen can eliminate you with one last direct attack."
Carmen pivoted gracefully and took aim at Rafael. Raphaela raised her fists, ready to punch at a moment's notice.
"Good duel, Rafael, but it looks like I'm going to take this win."
"I don't think so!" Rafael shouted. "I activate the trap card Crystal Seal!"
A blue crystal started to form from underneath Carmen and began to encase her inside of it. Raphaela gasped as she turned around and tried to break the crystal with her brute strength, but she could only watch helplessly as her fellow warrior was encased in transparent crystal, a look of fear forever emblazoned on Carmen's face as she reached for her friend. Raphaela continuously pounded on the crystal with her gauntlets to no avail.
"It's useless," Rafael said, "Crystal Seal can't be destroyed by other effects. It completely immobilizes and traps your monster. It's like it's not even on the field."
Raphaela turned around, eyes flaring red momentarily, teeth grit.
"Credit where credit is due, kid. My strategy involves usually protecting my monsters while giving up my life points, so your little scythe twirler poses a big problem to me. No hard feelings." He smirked. "I'm actually sort of impressed." He drew his thumb across his neck. "But if you want to win this duel, you're going to have to do it the old-fashioned way, getting past my monsters and then at my life points!" Rafael declared as his guardian monsters growled at various pitches.
"Don't mind if I do," Leon said, his face joylessly serious. "I'll just activate this spell card, Gingerbread House. I'll save Carmen, and Raphaela will be the monster I use to help me win."
"Good luck with that, shrimp."
"Raphaela! Attack Guardian Baou! Destroy it!" Leon declared.
Raphaela, enraged, charged forward and slammed her fist into Baou's face, destroying him and bringing Rafael's life points down to 1,400.
With two cards left in his hand, Leon looked at them and then declared, "I end my turn."
"Big mistake kid!" Rafael declared. "Because this duel is ending right now! I draw!" He put the top card of his deck into his hand.
"I don't think so," Leon said with a smirk. "Because Gingerbread's effect activates."
The doors to Gingerbread House swung open and sucked in Guardian Grarl.
"Grarl!" Rafael declared in alarm.
Leon smiled. "Don't worry about Grarl, he's just been invited into the Gingerbread house for a nice sugary snack."
Grarl was then spat out via the mouth on the side of the house, but he was now bulging from his entire torso like a balloon.
"What did you do to my monster?"
"Gingerbread house has a special ability that I can increase the attack points of any number of monsters on your side of the field by 600, then, I can destroy all monsters on your side of the field with 2,500 or more attack points."
Grarl continued to inflate and then burst in an explosion of light.
"Then, for each monster destroyed," Leon said as his life points went back up to 1,100, "I gain 500 life points."
Rafael grit his teeth. This was not good. Without Grarl, he had no means of destroying Raphaela. Now all he had left was Backup Gardna and it was going to be destroyed next turn.
Let's see if the card I drew will get me out of this mess, Rafael thought and looked at it. Not the best card I could've drawn, but it will suffice. "I'm setting one card face-down," Rafael declared. "And ending my turn."
"All right then, I draw!" Leon declared and drew the top card of his deck to his hand. "I start by summoning another fairy tale monster: the famous Cinderella!"
Raphaela turned her head as the dainty princess appeared on the battlefield next to her. She had 300 attack points and 600 defense points.
"And, of course, what would Cinderella be without her trusty Pumpkin Carriage!" Leon declared, placing the card face-up in defense mode directly from his deck. The card had 0 attack points and 800 defense points.
Leon held up one of the last two cards in his hand. "And what would Cinderella be without her famous glass slippers?"
A pair of glass slippers appeared on Cinderella's feet. They offered no attack point boost.
"And now, I attack with Raphaela against your Backup Gardna!"
"Nice try, but I activate my face-down card: Guardian Formation!" Rafael declared, revealing his trap card. "This trap card negates your attack by moving my monster to another monster zone!"
Raphaela darted towards Gardna to strike it down by the horned, orc-like creature slid to one side and avoided her attack.
Raphaela nearly tumbled over, but kept her balance and then leapt back to Leon's side of the field.
"Next, I'm allowed to activate any spell card directly from my deck," Rafael declared. "And the card I choose," he said, thumbing through his deck, "Is this one! Celestial Sword! And I equip it to Backup Gardna!"
Gardna now had 800 attack points total.
"Has Rafael lost his mind?!" Yugi exclaimed.
"No, I think I know what Rafael is planning, but it's quite the gamble. But, Rafael is an excellent duelist. If anyone can pull it off, he can."
"All right, next I attack with Cinderella. And thanks to Pumpkin Carriage, she can attack your life points directly."
Cinderella flung her glass slippers off and pelted Rafael with them one by one, the shoes shattering on contact. They reduced Rafael's life points down to 1,100 as the large blond rubbed the bridge of his nose after the impact.
The shoes then miraculously appeared back on Cinderella's feet.
"Now, I'm placing one last card face-down onto the field," Leon declared, setting it. "My turn's over."
"My turn's over," Leon stated. Let's see what he's planning.
"All right," Rafael said, as he went for the top card of his deck, "I draw!" He looked at the two cards he had drawn.
"I activate the magic card Soul Release! This removes up to five cards from my graveyard and I choose, Baou, Grarl and three other cards! This allows me to special summon my favorite monster, Guardian Eatos!"
Eatos took to the field from the heavens and flew down, creating a gust of wind that caused Raphaela and Cinderella to each take a cautionary step back.
With her impressive 2,500 attack points, Eatos stood solidly on the battlefield.
"This duel is finished. I might have a problem getting around your legendary warrior, but Cinderella is a different story, she's completely unprotected!" Rafael exclaimed. "So I'm going to destroy her and end this duel! Eatos! Attack! Guardian Wind Blast!"
Eatos gathered a ball of wind in her palm and then dispersed it into dozens of crescent wind blades at Cinderella.
"Not so fast," Leon declared, "I activate a trap card: Negate Attack!"
The crescent blades were sucked into a vortex that magically appeared on the field from out of nowhere.
Leon wiped his brow. "Phew. That was close."
Rafael growled lowly under his breath. "I suppose I shall activate Gardna's special ability to equip Celestial Sword to Eatos, and end my turn."
"Now, what's he thinking?" Yugi cried. "Gingerbread House is going to destroy Eatos next turn, if Leon's monsters don't do it first!"
"I don't know, Yugi," Yami said, closing his eyes gently, completely at a loss. "Rafael, just what are you planning?" However, just as soon as Yami's eyes closed, they shot open. He gasped and recalled Rafael's duel with Junko.
"Sorry, but I'm through playing your games, Junko," Rafael said, getting to his feet. "We're playing mine now, and once I'm done with you, you won't be playing games with anyone, not ever again."
"Ooooh, edgy. Well then," Junko said with an interested smile. "Show me."
Rafael stood firmly on his feet. "When you destroyed Guardian Eatos, you woke something up. Eatos was the only thing holding me back."
"Holding you back from what?" Junko asked.
"From doing this! I special summon from my deck, Guardian Dreadscythe!"
Yugi could feel Yami shaking. "Pharaoh, are you okay?"
Rafael, have you been freed from the darkness, or haven't you? Yami's thoughts were to him alone, inaudible to Yugi's ears.
"I guess it's my turn. I draw!" Leon declared, pulling the top card of his deck to his hand. The spell card in his hand revealed a Cinderella in rags and tatters, looking at the castle on fire with the stroke of midnight clearly emblazoned on the giant clock of the castle's tall tower. I'm definitely going to need this later.
"I set one card face-down," Leon said. "And since I can't destroy Eatos with Raphaela, I'm switching her to defense mode."
Raphaela crouched down, putting her golden gauntlets in front of her. Her defense points were 1,600.
"So that's why Rafael gave the sword to Eatos. Raphaela is immune to one attack per turn!" Yugi exclaimed.
"Hmm, I wonder," Yami thought.
"What is it, pal?" Yugi asked him.
"If Leon attacked with Raphaela now, the attack would fail and it would gain 300 attack points at the cost of 300 of Leon's life points. He's going to get 500 points from destroying Eatos with Gingerbread House, so why not take the risk? He could also destroy Rafael's Backup Gardna since it's now open to attack." Yami wondered.
"Maybe he feels it's not worth the risk," Yugi speculated.
"I don't know," Yami thought. "I have a bad feeling about this."
"Cinderella now attacks your life points directly!" Leon shouted.
Rafael was once again pelted with Cinderella's glass slippers, dropping his life points below Leon's down to 800.
The score was now 1,100 to 800 in Leon's favor.
"I end my turn," Leon said.
"It's my move," Rafael said and drew the top card of his deck.
"Hold it right there," Leon said. "I activate Gingerbread House, allowing me to destroy your Guardian Eatos with the power of sugar snacks."
"There's a sentence you don't hear often," Téa commented.
Eatos was sucked into the Gingerbread House before being fired back out and bloated until she burst. Rafael stood there with his eyes clenched tightly, taking a deep breath, fists balled, crinkling the card in his hand.
"And that's to that, more life points please," Leon said, his life points increasing to 1,600.
Rafael then started to laugh, startling him, Yami and some of the spectators.
"Leon, you fool," Rafael said, eyes shooting open. His smile became twisted. "By destroying Eatos, you've allowed me to summon my most powerful monster: Guardian Dreadscythe!"
Using the hologram technology, the ground was made to look like a lanky arm punched through the arena floor and pulled itself out of the graveyard as the long-haired, masked Dreadscythe stood upon the battlefield menacingly.
"And when Dreadscythe is summoned to the field, I must destroy every other monster I control."
Dreadscythe clenched the head of Backup Gardna and caused it to lurch and scream as it was destroyed.
"And next," Rafael stated. "I can automatically equip Dreadscythe with his special weapon: Reaper Scythe directly from my deck!"
A massive scythe found its way into Dreadscythe's hands.
"This magic card increases Dreadscythe's attack points by 500 points for every monster card in my graveyard and I have two: Eatos and Gardna!"
Dreadscythe's attack power shot up to 3,500.
"Since you foolishly left Cinderella in attack mode, I'll use Dreadscythe to destroy her and end this duel. It was a good game, kid, but this time the game is really over." Rafael slowly raised his arm and pointed a thick finger at Cinderella. "Dreadscythe. End it."
With an unholy noise emitting from Dreadscythe, the monster charged to cut down Cinderella, but as he neared a tower of flames emitted from everywhere around the battlefield.
"What's going on?" Rafael gasped.
"My final quick-play spell card," Leon explained. "I activate Legend of the Midnight Flare!"
Suddenly, Carmen vanished from inside Crystal Seal and the flames erased Raphaela from the field. Even Gingerbread House, and the Pumpkin Carriage were caught in the blaze.
"What's going on?"
"You're not the only one that can throw away your entire strategy for just one monster. I told you before," Leon said as his eyes reflected the blaze coating the battlefield. "When the conditions are met, a story evolves beyond a fairy tale and a legend regains its true power."
Dropping to her knees, hands clutching her head, Cinderella cried out as her hair turned ashen gray and flames surrounded her.
"Not every fairy tale that ends in a happy ending stays that way. Sometimes, the legend takes a darker turn and a power unlike anything anyone's seen before comes into being."
A fire tornado wreathed itself around Cinderella like a cocoon.
Within the blaze, Dreadscythe swung its scythe out to try and cut through the flames, but its weapon was met with a blade forged with condensed, obsidian black glass. The flames died down and now a woman in a scarlet red dress with golden hems with hair the color of ash. Her hair was as gray and lifeless as used charcoal stood. The woman's eyelids emitted flames.
"And some fairy tales don't get a happy ending. Meet Ashley, the Dreamless. A version of Cinderella that was never able to gain her happy ending, leading to a path of burning vengeance."
Ashley, the Dreamless had 2,500 attack points and 2,000 defense points.
"First, for me to activate her magic card to summon her, I must give up 1,000 life points," Leon said, as his life points fell back to 600. "Then, as you saw, I must destroy every other card I own on the field, at the cost of 100 life points per card and not including Cinderella herself." His life points became 100. "Then, for every card destroyed this way, Ashley, the Dreamless gains 1,000 attack points for each card destroyed minus one. That means her attack points go all the way up to 6,500 points."
With a flick of her wrist, sword in hand, Ashley flicked away Dreadscythe from her position. And now, it was time for a counterattack.
"Ashley, end this. Burn Dreadscythe to embers. He's just another bump in the road to you who has lost all faith."
Ashley turned her sword to dust and then conjured all the fire used to summon her into a big ball of flame in between her hands as she floated up into the air, then she raised the fireball up above her head and then channeled it through her hands. Then, from her hands, she unleashed a massive stream of flames and utterly burned Dreadscythe into nothing.
The hellish blaze forced Rafael to put his arm in front of his face as he was thrown back and landed on his back, life points falling all the way down to 0.
On screen, Rafael's chibi had fallen over and Leon's chibi was doing a happy dance.
"Leon! Leon! Leon!" audience members chanted while others chanted, "Wilson! Wilson! Wilson!"
Leon rubbed the back of his head as Ashley disappeared, feeling embarrassed.
Rafael groaned as he got up, surprised to find Yami looming over him, hand outstretched to help him up. "Pharaoh?"
Yami just extended his hand a few inches further. Rafael, not one to turn down the Pharaoh's good will, let him help him up.
"You all right?" Yami asked him.
"I'm fine," he said, looking at Leon. "Kid's got spunk." He stared at the ground. "I completely lost. I suppose our rematch will have to wait." He then began to walk away.
"Rafael, wait!" Yami called after him.
Rafael stopped on a dime.
"About Dreadscythe…" Yami wasn't really sure what to ask, or how to phrase the question. He was just hoping Rafael would know what he was driving at.
"Dreadscythe is a part of me now," Rafael said. "There is darkness to people just as much as there is light, but that darkness," he said, turning towards Yami and giving him a calm, serene smile, "doesn't have to be a bad thing."
"Huh?" Yami was surprised to hear him say that.
"I'm going to go say goodbye to my little sister and then I'm going to head out. I have things I need to take care of. Before I go though, I have one last thing to say."
"What is it?" Yami asked.
"I was wrong about Junko. She's a good person. You should get to know her better."
Yami smiled. "Thank you, Rafael. And…I look forward to when we meet again."
"Likewise," Rafael said and then marched off.
Turning his attention away from Rafael, Yami turned to Leon. "Excellent dueling, Leon. Very impressive."
"Wow, getting a compliment from you, Yugi. I'm honored."
"I look forward to seeing how far you'll go in this tournament. Your deck is…rather interesting."
"Oh, uh, thank you."
Mokuba made a hand gesture in direct line of sight to Yami that they needed to move things along.
"Ah, right, I suppose we will have a chance to chat later," Yami said.
"Yeah," Leon nodded. "Later." He then sprinted for the break room.
Once the tournament had enough of dead air to cut to a commercial break, Mokuba was back to announce the next match. "Let's start match number four of round one of the Kaiba Corp Grand Prix! Let's go ahead and reveal finalists seven and eight!"
The next match could not have been more fitting, but no one that followed the Japanese competitive scene could've predicted this round one shocker.
"Bandit Keith Howard and Espa Roba, you're wanted on the dueling arena!" Kaiba's voice thundered through the break room.
Keith put out his cigarette and polished off his beer. "Show time," he collected and pocketed his deck as he caught up with Espa Roba making his way to the opposite side of the arena from the exit out of the break room.
"Aw, man! This is gonna be awesome!" Kazuichi exclaimed.
"You bet it is!" Ibuki asserted, index fingers pointing to the side.
"What makes you two say that?" Mahiru asked.
"Bandit Keith and Espa Roba are renown machine-type duelists. There's a lot of generic machine-type support cards so this duel could get crazy if they start getting their wires crossed, if you catch my meaning."
"Yeah, what Kazuichi said. Two heavy metal duelists throwing down with their ace monsters. This duel is gonna be hardcore!"
Leave it to the metal head and the mechanic to be enthusiastic about this matchup, Mahiru thought.
"All right Espa! You can do it! Knock that bandana wearing jerk outta here!" Tristan exclaimed.
"Why do you want Espa to win so badly, Tristan?" Miho asked him.
"Bandit Keith put Joey through hell in Duelist Kingdom. I'd root against a pile of garbage if it was dueling against him."
"Come on, Espa! You can do it!" Serenity cheered.
"You two sure are fired up. The duel hasn't even started," Téa said, trying not to laugh.
Up on stage, Espa and Bandit Keith stared each other down. "Espa Roba," Keith said with a jerkish grin. "I've been wantin' to throw down with you, punk."
Espa chuckled. "And I you." Espa extended a pointed index finger at Bandit Keith. "The time has come to find out which of us is the superior machine-type duelist. And while you've been toiling away in obscurity, hustling in bars for money and thrills, I have been tempering my psychic power beyond human comprehension!"
"Fire yourself up however you want dweeb. It'll make it that much more satisfying when you lose."
"Bandit Keith," Yami barked from his seat. "I am watching your every move," he said sternly. "If you cheat, I'll know."
"I won't need to cheat to beat this runt," Keith said with confidence. "When this duel's done, everyone will know that I'm the best machine duelist in the world. Bandit Keith Howard, accept no substitutes."
"Please, as I said before, you've no chance at victory," Espa said. "My psychic powers will see to that."
"Psychic powers, huh? Hey, ref. If this guy starts going all telekinesis on me, you gotta call him out for it. I mean, it's only fair, yeah?"
Yami nodded. "Espa, no mind reading."
"I would not dream of it. My psychic energy is for more than just reading the cosmos. It is the energy that fuels my dueling spirit. I shall not lose to this scoundrel."
"Ohoho, scathing," Keith said sarcastically. "But talk is cheap anyway. Let's get to where the money is and settle this with our cards."
"I couldn't agree more," Espa stated. "Shall we begin."
"Yeah, let's," Keith said with a big grin.
Espa and Keith drew their hands as their life points climbed to 4,000 each. The stage was set for the highest-ranking cybernetic duel Japan, and possibly the entire duel world had ever seen. Espa Roba or Bandit Keith, one would be crowned King of the Machines, the other would forever be marked with the dishonor of being second-best.
"Let's duel!" Espa and Keith declared at the same time. The fourth match of the first round of the Kaiba Corp Grand Prix had officially begun.
(A/N: Oof, my server is prolly pissed at me. I swear I didn't make Leon win just to make you guys salty. That was already a guaranteed thing to happen looooong before I came up with the idea for the contest. Blame yourselves for betting on the wrong horse XD.
Jokes aside, yes, RWBY fans, your eyes are not failing you, three of Leon's monsters are tributes to Ruby, Yang, and Cinder. I know I'm pretty much on record saying how much I hate Cinder, but given Leon already has a Cinderella fairy tale card, the gimmick was staring me in the face.
As for why I bothered with the whole "fairy tales becoming legends thing", well, it's quite simple actually. There are so many different interpretations of classical fairy tales—Team RWBY is even a spin on those very tales—that I wanted to add a little bit of mythos that your typical kids fairy tale came from a much darker story—looking at you Little Mermaid. And a lot of stories and tales typically end up from a game of telephone. So why not make Red Riding Hood a badass wolf hunter, why not make Rapunzel a brawler who escaped her prison from the witch by taking the time to grow her strength and then set the place ablaze. Why not make a Cinderella that had either a Happy Ending Override or whose jealous stepmother set the castle on fire and turned Cinderella into a tragic monster?
If you like the concept, lemme know and I'll continue to expand Leon's lineup. If you don't…I'll limit it to just the three and try to work with what I got. But y'all in the server were saying Leon needed a serious boost to his deck and I needed him to win, so there you go. This was my answer XD.
But yeah, so Espa Vs Keith. I don't know how many of you saw this coming. Let me know in your review or your comment on the server. Place your bets and, until next time, as always from all of me, to all of you, let your hearts stay human and your wrath draconic. Ja ne!)