Houki was tricked into a duel by William, the insect duelist. William set a trap for her and she fell right into it. With a little help, William slipped a card called Infectious Parasite in Houki's deck and forced her to play it. Now, she's caught in William's little web. Houki currently has all her life points with Hito of the Blazing Flame. However, Infectious Parasite is turning all her monsters into insects. That's a problem because William has Insect Barrier active to block insects, and a powerful monster named Ultrasonic Cricket at 2200atk points with William having 3100LP.
"What's wrong, Houki? You look like you have a little bug." William taunted.
"You little creep." Houki said.
"Call me whatever you want, but it's not going to change anything." William said. "Since your Hito isn't a warrior anymore, your Murasame Blade can't power it up." He was right. Now that Hito's an insect, his power dropped to 1700atk points. "Ultrasonic Cricket, attack Hito!" His cricket jumped right over his barrier and tried to attack Hito.
"Not so fast! I still have my trap: Sakuretsu Armor!" Houki said. When she played her trap, William's cricket jumped straight into a barrier and was instantly destroyed. "Nice try, William."
"It doesn't matter. As long as that parasite is on your field, your monster are insects. My spell card prevents you from attacking with insects." William said as he placed a facedown and ended his turn. Houki hated to admit it, but he was right.
"My turn!" Houki said as she drew her card, but there wasn't much she could do. She looked at her hand and saw nothing could do anything with that parasite. 'As long as that parasite or that spell card on the field, I can't do much. I've got to figure out how to get rid of them, but I have nothing in my hand that can do that.' She thought as she was in a tough situation.
"You can do it, Houki!" Charlotte cheered.
"That is right. Someone as shameless and shrewd as him can't beat the likes of you." Laura said.
"Is cheerleading really all the two of you can do?" William taunted. "All of it's pointless because she can't do a thing."
"I might not be able to do anything yet, but I will find some way. For now, I'm just going to switch Hito into defense mode and end my turn." Houki said as Hito dropped down to a knee and had 1200atk points.
"That's right. That's all you can do!" William claimed as he was getting ahead of myself. "My turn!" He drew his next card and liked what he saw. "I summon Pinch Hopper to the field!" He summoned out another insect as it came out with 1000atk points. "Next, I'm activating Multiplication of Ants! By tributing one insect, I gain two Army Ant tokens!" His insect vanished and two giant green ants came out with 500atk points.
"I don't get it. Pinch Hopper is stronger, so why summon them?" Charlotte questioned.
"I know why. He wanted to activate his Pinch Hopper's special ability." Houki said as she knew something bad was coming.
"That's right! When Pinch Hopper goes to the graveyard, his special ability allows me to summon an insect from my hand!" William said. "I'm going to summon my mighty insect."
"Your what? Do you mean your Vicious Moth of Demise? I thought there was only one way to summon that monster." Houki said.
"I'm not talking about that. I'm talking about something that's just as powerful." William claimed. "I give you Insect Centaurus Juggernaut!" William managed to summon out a much greater insect as it crawled out on the field. That Insect had the lower body that resembled a light blue rhinoceros beetle. The upper body was human-like, red, and muscular with the face white and having purple glassy eyes and antennas coming out of it. It even had insect wings coming out of the back. As it unleashed a terrifying roar, it's power showed with it having 2500atk points.
"I think we just found the star to a horror movie about insects." Houki said as that thing greatly disturbed them.
"And the horror is just beginning!" William said. "I activate Juggernaut's ability!" His monster grabbed one of his ants and opened up its mouth wide. The girls felt disgusted with what the monster did to one of the ants. "By feeding on fellow insects, Juggernaut grows stronger! Infact, he'll continue to grow. I activate Insect Princess Buffet! As long as this trap is activate, my monsters will grow stronger each time they destroy an insect!" He claimed as Juggernaut's power increased to 2800. "Now, my great and mighty insect, attack with Devastating Insect Wrath!" His monster unleashed terrifying power as it unleashed power from the beetle horn and it's mouth. It completely destroyed Houki's Hito. "And now my trap makes him even stronger!" Juggernaut grew stronger as his power increased to 3100.
"Good thing Hito was in defense mode." Houki said.
"Yes, but that won't save you. If you don't do something soon, you're done for." William said.
"I hate it when creeps like him have a point. If I don't do something soon, his giant bug is going to eat me." Houki said. "It's my turn!" She drew her next card and tried to think of a way out of this. "This might work, at least I can still deal some damage. I summon Bladed Samurai to the field!" She summoned out a samurai that wore jagged armor came out with him having 1600atk points.
"Did you forget that your new parasite turns all your monsters into insects?" William said. The parasite took affect with Houki's samurai having insect-like features.
"That might be true, but it's not going to stop me!" Houki said. "I activate Bladed Samurai's ability! By not battling this turn, I can take half of the attack points of a monster on your field and use it to deal damage."
"Say what?!" William said as he didn't expect that.
"You heard me, and I choose your Insect Centaurus Juggernaut!" Houki said. "Since this isn't an attack, your barrier can't stop this from happening!" Her samurai unleashed a series of attacks that blasted William and his life points dropped down to 1550.
"Enjoy that while you can because it won't happen again." William said.
"We'll see about that. I end my turn." Houki said.
"And I think it's time I ended this!" William said as he drew his next card. "I activate Juggernaut's ability. Eat up, my monster." He said as his Juggernaut grabbed a hold of his other ant and gained more power from it as Juggernaut's power grew to 3400. "Attack, my monster! Demolish her Bladed Samurai!" His monster unleashed it's attack again and sent the power was heading towards Houki.
"I activate Tachikawa the Shifting Tide's effect from my hand! By sending this card to the graveyard, the damage I take is cut in half!" Houki said as she discarded the card. The attack still came, but Houki's samurai was still destroyed and her life points dropped down to 3100.
"There goes your only chance to actually beat me. Face it, Houki. There's really nothing you can do now." William said as his monster grew stronger and now had 3700atk points.
"Don't listen to him, Houki! There must be something you can do!" Charlotte said.
"She's right! You must not allow yourself to be defeated by the likes of him!" Laura called.
'I know that, but what can I do? His giant bug is only growing stronger, and I still don't have anything to get around his barrier.' Houki thought. 'I can't play just defense or else I'll never win. It might not look good for me, but I know my deck won't let me down.' Houki is hoping she can draw something that can get her out of this. "I draw!" Houki drew her next card, but it still didn't seem like something that could help. 'Dang it. Not what I was going for.' Houki thought she was in a real pickle now.
"It looks like you didn't get what you were hoping for, not that there is much you can do. As long as I have my Insect Barrier and you have Infectious Parasite, you're helpless!" William said. Houki was getting annoyed with his arrogance, but what he said just might be able to help.
'Wait! That's it. Infectious Parasite is on my field!' Houki thought. 'It's still a monster, which means I can tribute it.' When Houki realized something so obvious, she felt stupid, but saw a way she can win now. She actually laughed at the foolish oversight.
"What are you laughing about?" William said.
"William, your whole strategy was to infect my monsters and make it so I couldn't attack, but you gave me the wrong card to do that." Houki said. "You didn't take into account that I can use Infectious Parasite like any other monster!"
"What?!" William said as he didn't like how that sounded.
"I sacrifice Infectious Parasite so that I can summon Shinoka the Dark Twilight!" Houki said as she released the parasite and summoned out a female samurai wearing a black kimono and purple stars. She also had a total of 1900atk points. "Since the parasite you gave me is now gone, my monsters are pure warriors again. It's going to take more than a little bug to stop a strong and skilled warrior."
"But how can that monster help you when it's so much weaker?" William said.
"You're about to see once I play Dark Oni Katana!" Houki said. Her samurai's katana was replaced with a dark one with a dark aura coming from it. "This drops the attack points of one of my monsters by 800." Her monster's attack points dropped down to 1100.
"What? Why would you weaken your monster?" William questioned.
"Because when my monster attacks now, you're the one that's taking all the damage!" Houki said.
"Say what?! Hold on a minute!" William said as he didn't like this.
"Don't think so! Shinoka, attack with Dark Iai Slash!" Houki ordered. In one swift movement, Shinoka unleashed a powerful slash that smashed right into Juggernaut. It might have been stopped, but William was the one that took the damage as his life points dropped all the way to zero. This duel was over.
"This... This can't be.. My insects... I had everything..." William stuttered as he dropped to his knees.
"That might teach you to quit pulling lousy tricks like that to win." Houki said.
"Way to go, Houki!" Charlotte said.
"Very nicely done." Laura said.
"Thanks, guys." Houki said as she was glad it all went well. She looked down at her points and saw it increased to 2830. "And a pretty good point total as well. Now, as for William..." She turned back to him, but she saw him running off.
"I'll remember this! You and your dweeby friends will be sorry you ever met me!" William called and just ran off.
"We already do, you squeezy bug!" Houki called. "That twerp will never learn, will he?"
"Probably not, but at least you didn't lose to him." Charlotte said. "And now, a couple more duels like that and you will be in the next part of the tournament."
"Yeah, and I'm sure Ichika will be there." Houki said as she was getting excited. 'Wait for me, Ichika. I'll be there soon.' She and Ichika are even closer to the finals. Houki might have squashed a sneaky bug, but it's not over just yet. They've both fought some strong and intense duels, but that's helped them get closer to the goal. They'll be in the finals soon, but that will be when the real challenge begins.