Yu-Gi-Oh!: The Legacy of Tarot

Chapter 6: The Ruling One

Fast-forward 3 days, to the night of the dress ball. Like clockwork, Nick, Mark, Alyssa, and Bertram arrived, decked in their fanciest attire—all provided by Mr. Bertram and his large wealth of cash, naturally. They were greeted, much to their surprise, by a gargantuan ball room with a dome-shaped skylight in the center and chandeliers hanging from above, everywhere. The walls were beautifully decorated with paintings and garland, while roses could be found in vases all over the ballroom. Not a single person in the room looked out of place—shimmering ball gowns, snappy tuxedos, and dazzling jewelry were abound. To be quite frank, it was almost as though one was walking into the center of a magical fairy tale, filled with dancing princesses and princes, chatting and chuckling politely, and having a jolly good time. And, indeed, everyone was—the room was filled with talking and laughter, not enough to disrupt one's train of thought, and certainly not comparable to that of a rock concert, but it is clear that those present are having a good time.

"It doesn't appear that the mayor has arrived yet," Bertram noted in his thick British accent, one eye peering through his monocle and the other, unaided. His hands, covered in white gloves, held tightly a beautiful walking stick decked with diamonds and other assorted jewels and made of the finest ebony. It looked like it must have been worth an absolute fortune—hundreds of thousands, if not hundreds of millions—and even the group began to wonder just how he could afford such a thing.

"Thank you, Captain Obviou—" Alyssa began, quickly cut off by a hushing motion from Nick. He simply shook his head as if imploring her to behave nicely towards Bertram, if only for this one night. A sigh escaping from her form, she nodded reluctantly and moved into the room.

"So I guess we just wait for him to show up, then. Any ideas?" Mark began. Alas, there were no ideas to be had before an announcement was made. All heads in the room, as splendidly dressed as they were, turned to gaze at the figures standing at the top of the grand twin staircase. Mayor Muto and his wife, apparently, dressed in clothes finer even than any single person present, if that were even thinkable. The mayor made a friendly wave with his hand and began stepping down the stairs, his wife's arm interlocked with his.

"Good evening! I—we—thank you all for coming. Young, old, friends, foes, we thank you. I trust that, of course, some of you aspiring duelists are here to duel me for the grand prize of $1,000…"

This was accompanied, quite naturally, by a loud cheer from the apparent duelists in the crowd, and Nick was no different. The mayor merely chuckled, drawing a deck of cards from a holster about his waist. Shuffling it idly in his hands as he surveyed the crowd, the mayor randomly set his eyes on the anticipating face of Nick.

"You there!" He spoke, extending a finger towards Nick, who immediately grinned from ear to ear. "You seem awfully excited to be here. Would you like to duel me?"

Nick didn't even need to speak; he immediately kicked forward and darted through the crowd, pushing people aside as he went (incurring the odd "What a rude little child!"), until he arrived in front of the mayor. Seemingly impressed by the young lad's enthusiasm, Mayor Muto patted him on the shoulder and began leading him down the stairs. A few waves of his hands cleared out a large area on the floor, to the side of which Nick was lead. In an astonishing mash of gears and flurry of sound, the floor opened its gaping maw and out crept a dueling arena! Even Nick was surprised; he had figured that dueling was the Mayor's hobby, not his life!

"Nothing special; just a little arena I had built a few years back. I really do love dueling, you see, and I had this made to accommodate any duels that I might hold. Does it suit your tastes, lad?" He asked before moving a muscle. Nick merely nodded, merrily, at the question. "Very well. Make your way to the podium. What is your name?"

"Nick, sir!" He replied, practically running over to his stand. The thought of $1,000 was too much to ignore, and he was anxious to get this underway.

"Very well, Nick! Let's begin!"

*  *  *  *

After a little preparation, everything was underway for the battle to begin. Both players had set down their decks, and they had each drawn 5 cards. Their podiums flashed with the numbers "8000," signifying their life points—this was not to last, for they would soon be whittled away by the vigour of the duel. A coin flip had decided that the Mayor would go first. He did so.

"It's time to get this battle under way, my worthy opponent!" He announced. Somehow, by some virtue, he sounded much more authoritative and confident, as though he had already brought this duel under his thumb and there was no way he was going to lose. "I'll place two cards face down, and I'll play this card: my loyal Commander Knight, in Defense mode!"

The creature appeared, sword drawn, in defense mode – with 1900 defense points, it was easily more powerful, defensively, than anything Nick could pull out on his first turn…. or was it? There was one way, depending on the luck of his draw, that Nick could pull out a monster in one turn to destroy the Commander Knight, and he knew it. "I've got to get rid of that Commanding Knight, and fast… because once the mayor plays another monster, I'll have to attack it, and not the Knight! But the only monster I'd be able to play in one turn with enough strength is the Harpie Lady Sisters, and I don't have the right cards!" Looking up, Nick could see a confident grin on the mayor's face. He was clearly an accomplished duelist, and he didn't exactly get filled with creeping dread at the sight of Nick. What he didn't realize, however, was that Nick was just as accomplished.

"I'll play Gemini Elf in attack mode, and I'll place these two cards face down. With that, I end my turn."

"Very well. But I'm afraid I'm going to have to put a sever hamper in your plans by playing another Commander Knight in defense mode!" After a little thought, the effect of this was rather apparent: "As long as these two cards are the only ones on the field, your monsters have nothing to target: the Commanding Knights protect each other, and my life points! And that's not all! Because of their effects, they boost each other's attack scores by 400 points!"

It didn't take a scientist to figure out what this meant. Without the proper Magic or Trap card, Nick would have to wait for an opportunity to come at him in order to destroy the Commander Knights. However, the mayor's strategy had one flaw that might work to Nick's advantage: neither Commander Knight could attack, or they would be easily defeated by Gemini Elf. That would open up the other Knight to attack, and thus leave the Mayor's life points wide open. However, as long as the two cards made each other immune to attacks, the Mayor had all the time in the world to summon a more powerful monster. But without the necessary cards, all Nick had as an option was to build up his own defenses until another opportunity presented itself.

"I'll play this monster card face down in Defense mode, as well as another card face down." Nick announced assertively, the cards appearing in all their holographic glory on the field before them. The Mayor merely smirked and drew a card. His face lit up.

"Just what I needed. You know, Nick, I thought you were a more accomplished duelist than this—you're going to have to shape up or ship out if you want to best me in a duel!" The mayor boasted, waving a card around in his hand. "This ought to be enough to take down your pitiful Gemini Elf. I'll sacrifice my two Commander Knights; their respectful tributes will allow me to call down the exceedingly more powerful Wingweaver!" A flash of light quickly spread throughout the field, and upon its dissipation, the two Commander Knights were nowhere to be found; in their place, an angel of virtue hovers in the air, staring down the comparatively minuscule Gemini Elf without showing a drop of fear. And for good reason – with an attack of 2750, it was almost twice as powerful as Gemini Elf. "And now, my Wingweaver, use Roaring Trumpet on his Gemini Elf!"

"I can't let you do that, Mayor Muto!" Nick smirked, flipping one of his face down cards. "This is my lovely Claymore Mine; when activated, it destroys one monster on your field with the highest attack. Since Wingweaver is the only creature you have in play, she's about to meet a rather untimely demise." And, indeed, she was: before the Wingweaver's holy trumpet could be so much as lifted to her lips, a violent explosion erupted around her, blowing her, quite literally, to dust. Wingweaver wasn't the only thing missing; the mayor's confident expression was also well misplaced. "And I believe that makes it my turn." His hand slid confidently over his deck and drew a card, as was customary on every player's turn, and he grinned. "I'll play this card, face down in defense mode. Now, Gemini Elf, attack the mayor's life points!"

"Not so fast: I'm going to stop your Elf dead in her tracks with this card! Hexagram Curse!" Flipping the card face up on his playing field, the twin elves were immediately plagued by moaning, haunting spirits of the dead. Frozen with fear, their attack was blocked and they returned to their original position. "Hexagram Curse will prevent your monster from attacking or changing position for as long as it is face up on the field; as a Continuous Trap, your Gemini Elf might be immobile for a good while."

A little disappointed but seemingly not entirely phased by the move, Nick merely motioned with a wave of his hand, signaling for the mayor to make his move. And the man didn't need any more prompting; he was good at this, and he knew exactly what he had to do now that it was his turn. Drawing a card, he grinned.

"This little combo ought to be enough to take a good chunk out of your Life points! First, I'll play Hayabusa Knight in attack mode!"

Even though Nick was well aware that Hayabusa Knight was weaker than Gemini Elf, and by 900 points at that; however, he wasn't about to make any assumptions about the mayor's dueling skills. And, of course, he was right.

"And I'll activate my Axe of Despair, increasing Hayabusa Knight's attack by 1000 points! Considering the fact that Hayabusa Knight can attack twice per turn, I think I can get rid of both your cards! Hayabusa Knight, destroy Nick's Gemini Elf and his face down card!"

Leaping into action, the creature's blade strikes twice, once into the slender bellies of the Gemini Elf, and once into the face-down card on Nick's side of the field. This merely prompted a grin from Nick's face, even though his life points quickly dropped from 8000 to 7900.

"Thank you for activating my monster card, Witch of the Black Forest! This allows me to summon one monster from my deck, provided it has a defense of 1500 or less – perfect for bringing out my Harpie Lady!" He announced happily, drawing the card from his deck and promptly shuffling it between his hands.

"Make your turn, then, worthy opponent."

"Why, thank you! First I'll play my Harpie Lady in attack mode, and I'll place Elegant Egotist on the field! This will allow me to special summon a Harpie Lady sisters from my deck, which I'll do now." With four harpies on the field, Nick's side was looking quite formidable.

"It's still not strong enough to defeat my Hayabusa Knight!"

"No, it isn't. Not yet, that is. I'll activate my face-down magic card, Rising Air Current!" Flipping the card so that its painted face would be visible to all, a fierce current of wind rose up over the field. The mayor's Hayabusa Knight struggled to keep its ground in the midst of the violent current of air, but Nick's two cards merely rose into the sky to greet it, increasing their attack points by 500 each; the decrease of 400 to their defense was the down side, but since neither was in defense mode, it would prove to be little trouble if Nick played his cards right (no pun intended). "I think that means my Harpie Lady Sisters are capable of taking out your Hayabusa Knight—in fact, they'll do so now!" Already sky-high, it was light work for the Harpie Lady sisters to dive, one after the other, talons first, into the weaker knight before them. As their claws sank into his flesh, the Hayabusa let out a cry of defeat before vanishing, taking the Axe of Despair with it. "And without any trap cards to protect your Life Points… Harpie Lady, attack the mayor's life points directly!"

Little more explanation is needed; following in its sisters' footsteps (pardon the pun once more), the Harpie Lady was able to quickly reduce Mayor Muto's life points to 6200. Muto grumbled dejectedly, but quickly regained his composure.

"I've been in more dire straits than this, Nick, and I'm not about to let you overtake me this time. In fact, I hold in my hand the cards that may just bring you down here and now! Prepare to meet your doom, Nick! This duel ends here!!"