Chapter 6

Trapped!

Max, Ryo, and Hope were walking along the shore line when they came across a cave.

"Well, this is the only other place we can go since Kurt and Will are covering the other way," Hope said.

"You know, places like this scream "Ambush!" when you're being hunted down," Ryo pointed out.

"I agree with Ryo, but we have no choice. This is the only way to go forward," Max reasoned.

"Into the cave then," Hope said.

Only one second after entering the cave, a boulder fell, covering the opening.

"See?! I told you!" Ryo exclaimed. "But does anyone listen to me? No!"

"Shut up," Max said. "And let's see if we can find another way out"

The continued into the cave, passing by carcasses of dead Duel Monster.

"I wonder what happened to them?" Hope asked with a blue face.

"I did," a voice called out from nowhere.

"Another Judge? Figures," Max replied.

"I'm amazed that you fools are still alive. Kurt promised to kill you all, but it seems he was too weak. Guess I will have to complete the job myself." As the voice finished speaking, the ceiling started to fall. Ryo, Hope, and Max barely made it out of the room before getting crushed by the spike covered ceiling.

"A Descending Ceiling Battle Summon? I guess this guy has this cave loaded with Traps to kill us. And this would also explain all of those carcasses back there," Max stated.

In the next room, on the right side of the wall were spiked section and on the left side were sections that looked punctured.

"Needle Wall," Ryo pointed out.

"Well, let's run across before we can get smashed," Hope said and broke into a run, but Max grabbed her by the back of her sweatshirt, pulling her out of the room before the first spiked slab flew across the room and collided into the other wall.

"Not a good idea. We need to figure out the patterns to the walls to avoid getting hurt," Max said watching the walls. He noticed that out of the five sections, the third one slammed twice.

"Get ready..." He waited for the first one to retreat back to neutral position and the second to start slamming. "Go!"

They ran across the room, successfully dodging the walls.

"Phew," Ryo heaved out, and started to walk forward. "Close oneeee." The floor gave out from under Ryo and he jumped back. "Dust Chute. And there are likely more of them."

"Let's go then," Hope said and they jumped over the first hole and began to run at top speed to avoid falling down any other Dust Chutes.

Meanwhile, watching from a chamber above them, a shadowed figured watched them pass through the traps he set up.

"Impressive, but they still have no chance against me in a Duel." The cloaked figure then started to walk to a large room to wait for them to arrive.

Max, Hope and Ryo entered a well lit room with sand for the floor.

"$5 says that is a Quicksand trap," Hope picking a stone and throwing it at the ground and watched it get swallowed by the shifting sand. "Pay up! ^_^"

"Later. Right now we need to figure out how to get across this floor without dying. Anybody have a Lifeline?"

"I do!" Ryo said instantly. "My deck contains Gambling cards and cards that other people would view as useless."

"You got the useless part right," Hope laughed. "Who in their right mind would use Demon of Questionable Loyalty?"

"Stop talking; we have work to do," Max said.

Ryo used his Lifeline card and extended the rope to the other side of the room, then they began to cross the room on the rope.

"All the blood is rushing to my head," Hope complained as they crossed. Hope then accidentally slipped off the rope but Max caught her with his left hand, putting Max in position to possibly fall of the rope as well.

"Come on, grab the rope already!" Max managed to say while straining himself to keep him and Hope from dying.

"Thanks," Hope said after grabbing hold of the rope again.

"No problem," Max replied.

After crossing the rest of the room, they made their way up a staircase into a dimly lit room. On the other side was standing was a man with blue hair with gray in the front. He was wearing blues pants and a sleeveless black shirt.

"Welcome to my arena," the man said. "I am the Judge know as Kai. Who shall be my victim?"

"I will duel you," Ryo said, stepping forward from the group. "And you're going down!"

"Heh. Not likely. I choose to duel without a Deck Master."

"You can do that? Oh well, I guess I won't use one either, as AM-1 Slot Machine is useless," Ryo responded.

(Kai: 8000 Ryo: 8000)

"I'll start," Kai stated. "I set five cards facedown and end my turn."

"Holy crap! Jeez, that is a lot of face down cards, but I will still beat you. I summon King's Knight! (1600/1400) Attack you life points directly!"

"I activate Claymore Mine, killing your monster."

"Crap! End turn."

"I set another card facedown and end my turn."

"I summon Landmine Spider and then play the Magic Card Tempest!"

"I counter with the Trap card Judgement of Anubis! Which negates your Tempest and kills your Spider in the process, and causes damage equal to his attack points to your life points!"

(Kai: 8000 Ryo: 5800)

"Well, this dueling is very boring," Kai said while yawning. "I place one card face down and end my turn."

"I summon Queen's Knight! (1500/1600) And now I play Raise Dead on King's Knight. And with King's Knight effect, I special summon Jack's Knight! (1900/1400)"

"Impressive. 3 monsters in one turn, but that won't help you at all," Kai said.

"Knowing you, I expect a trap card. So I will end my turn without attacking."

"Fatal mistake. I activate Avatar of Apophis! (1600/1800) And I order my monster to attack your Queen's Knight!"

(Kai: 8000 Ryo: 5700)

"I sacrifice King's Knight for Maximum Six! And using his effect, when he is summoned, I can roll one die to increase his attack 200 times what I roll." Ryo rolled a two. "So my Maximum Six is at 2300 attack power. Now I attack your Avatar with Maximum Six!"

"Activate Exploding Sacrificial Embrace! When you attack with a monster that was sacrificed summoned, I can destroy all of your attack mode monsters and deal 1000 damage to your life points!"

(Kai: 8000 Ryo: 4700)

"Now I activate one more Avatars of Apophis! And attack you Life Points with both of them!"

(Kai: 8000 Ryo: 1500)

"I play one monster facedown and end my turn."

Damn it, Ryo cursed to himself. I have to turn this duel around somehow. But how?

"I draw....Yes! I play Magic Regeneration! I can put two Magic cards from my hand into my graveyard to recover one magic card already in it. And I chose to activate the card I recovered! Tempest!"

Kai watched in horror as his Avatars and his other face down traps got destroyed, but he reminded himself of his facedown card.

"Now I summon another Landmine Spider and attack your face down monster! Heads!" Ryo called the coin right. "Yes!"

"You destroyed my Executioner Makyura, so I get to play a trap from my hand. Go Metal Reflect Slime in defense mode! (0/3000) Now for my turn! I play the Magic Card Pharaoh's Shrine and end my turn."

Wait! I know what that card does, Max said to himself. Ryo is in trouble.

"I play two cards face down and end my turn." Ryo was almost laughing.

What is so damn funny? Hope said to herself. He is about to lose and all he can do is laugh?!

"You are done fool! I sacrifice my Metal Reflect Slime to summon Holy Beast Selket! (2500/2000)"

"I chain with two face down cards; Seal of Time and Magical Scripture! Seal of Time stops you from getting a draw phase next turn, and Magical Scripture allows me to look at the top three cards and rearrange them in any order I want."

"So? That won't save you! I attack with Selket!"

(Kai: 8000 Ryo: 1200)

"And after my Selket eats your Spider, it is removed from play and it increases Selket's attack by 500! (3000)"

"Won't matter. I know what my next two cards are, and they will seal your demise," Ryo said unshaken. "I play Reverse Quiz!" Ryo said, not looking at his newest card. "This card discards every card from the field and our hand to the graveyard and I guess what kind of card is on top of my deck. If I get it right we switch Life Points. And I know for a fact that is it a Queen's Knight." Ryo drew and proved it to him. "So we switch Life Points. But since I have no cards in hand, I end my turn." Ryo smiled.

(Ryo: 8000 Kai: 1200)

"Damn you! I pass!" Kai yelled out.

"I summon my Queen's Knight and finish you off!"

(Ryo: 8000 Kai: 0)

"I failed....no matter. There are others to succeed where I failed. Continue down this path and you will reach the exit." And with those words, Kai vanished into thin air.

"Good job Ryo. I'm impressed," Hope said.

"Why thank you," Ryo said grinning back.

"Let's get going," Max said. "We still have work to do."

End chapter

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