A/N: All right, the update you've all been waiting for -- part 2 of Kyle's fast-paced duel with a magician. About time, huh?
Mira: Aww! Thanks re: duel. But I doubt the horse or its rider are much inclined to slow down. And of course you're pleased! How could you not be?
Monica: For a while after I wrote the duel I wondered what I should call it. The name seemed to fit. Unfortunately, the shield can't protect him from every kind of harm -- but it's been doing well so far.
Wolfwings: Both. I love plot development and I'm an absolute nutcase. I hear most geniuses are insane. And I might not be a genius, but I sure am a taco short of a combo plate.
-------
Kyle's LP – 3900
Magician Duelist's LP – 3800
--
She thought she heard it, off in the distance. There was no mistaking the sound. Once you heard it, you never forgot it. Only one creature could make that sound, a creature that wasn't even real. A hologram, whose structure was based on a Duel Monsters card.
Only three versions of this card existed.
And one of them was being used now.
It roared again, and there was no question in her mind now. Someone's dueling with my Blue-Eyes! Damn it, I want out of here so I can go kick their ass! These geezers should keep their damned hands off my deck! How dare they!
She struggled in frustration, but for her efforts, she was rewarded with a bony elbow in her side. She bit her gag and tried to keep herself from crying out. Damn you, you old fart. Just you wait until I get out of this and get my Blue-Eyes back. They'll chomp you and your little friends here for all you're worth... and then some.
She sighed. Kyle... where are you? What's going on?
--
Though Kyle's view of the rider was somewhat occluded, he could still see his opponent's face, which paled at the sight of the massive beast. Kyle allowed a small grin. Bet you didn't think I'd actually get lucky enough to use it, huh? Maybe you should think twice before challenging me to a duel. Especially when it's my friend's life on the line.
"Blue-Eyes White Dragon attacks Illusionist Faceless Mage!" Kyle shouted at his duel disk.
Blue-Eyes's mouth craned open and let loose a streak of lightning. The mage was incinerated, leaving the rider defenseless.
Defenseless where monsters are concerned, anyway. Let's see if he's got anything else I should be worried about. "Black Dragon Jungle King attacks opponent's Life Points!"
The Jungle King obediently jumped across the expanse and, with a swipe if its vicious claws, reduced the rider's LP to 1700 – less than half of his starting amount. Beat that. Kyle pointed a finger at the rider to let him know it was now his turn.
The rider offered a glare to Kyle as he drew his next card, which he subsequently placed face-down on his m/t field. Then he selected another card from his hand and likewise slipped it into a magic/trap slot... but he activated this one.
Between the rider's m/t field and Blue-Eyes, there appeared a heavy, dark maroon curtain, which hung on a massive skull and bone crossbar. Kyle's eyes narrowed. I recognize that one, but I can't remember...
Dark Magic Curtain. It allows him to summon a Dark Magician from his hand or deck without sacrificing monsters to do so. However, he loses half of his Life Points.
That takes him down to 850 Life Points, and he's got to know a Dark Magician is weaker than a Blue-Eyes.
Few are unaware of this fact, Kyle.
Har har.
A Dark Magician (2500/2100) sporting blue armor – identical to the one Jade possessed – appeared on the field, his arms crossed in defiance, his staff held loosely in one hand.
Kyle blinked, though, when the rider indicated it was Kyle's turn now. He put his Dark Magician in attack position. While Blue-Eyes is out. And he didn't even attack Jungle King. He's goading me.
As you so quaintly put it, Kyle... "duh".
Kyle was too engrossed in the situation to find the retort even remotely amusing. He drew his next card and frowned at it. Not gonna do me much good. He looked back up at Blue-Eyes, whose wings – despite the ferocity of the wind – were flapping slowly and surely as it waited to make a meal of the Dark Magician floating there.
Kyle shook his head. I have to attack. Otherwise he'll get even more leeway. Can't have that. He shouted at his duel disk, "Blue-Eyes White Dragon attacks Dark Magician!"
He could see the rider smirking, though, and he immediately knew that he'd fallen for a trap. He wanted to squeeze his eyes shut, but between the road and his balance, he had to force himself to keep them open and lay themselves upon the trap card that was flipping face-up.
Spellbinding Circle. This guy's got a serious bent for spellcasting, Kyle mused. The attack's negated and now Blue-Eyes can't attack at all. It's nothing but a target for his Dark Magician if he powers it up. But only if he tries to attack... and if he does, he's a fool. His turn.
Even from this distance, Kyle could see the rider's eyes narrowing at the card he'd just drawn, as if he were trying to decide whether he should take the risk of playing it. A moment later, however, Kyle's opponent made his decision and placed it face-up on his monster field.
Next to his Dark Magician, there appeared Time Wizard (500/400).
Kyle balked. Oh, boy. He probably figures I've got something waiting to stop him from attacking Blue-Eyes in its weakened state, so instead he's gonna try clearing my monster field. But if he fails, Time Wizard and Dark Magician will explode and destroy his Life Points in the process. Would he really risk it?
The rider spoke into his duel disk, and an instant later, the dial on Time Wizard's staff began to spin.
Kyle badly wanted to clench his eyes shut against the sight, but instead of that, he turned away from it and made sure the road ahead didn't have any upcoming curves or potholes to it.
A blue light surrounded Time Wizard; Kyle saw it out of the corner of his eye and looked back to the field, just in time to see that the dial had stopped moving at a Time Warp slice.
He ground his teeth. Damn. I can still get him back, but damn.
Blue-Eyes and Jungle King were swept away by the force of the time warp. Blue winds encircled Time Wizard and Dark Magician as well, but Kyle was less interested in those as he discarded his two monsters.
When he looked back up at the field, however, he saw that Dark Magician had been affected by the time warp. It was now sitting cross-legged in the air. It sported a long white beard, and its staff had become of gnarled wood and was studded with gigantic emerald orbs.
He frowned. Is there something I missed? I thought Time Wizard didn't affect monsters on its own side of the field.
In the case of Dark Magician, that is not so true. You have seen this card once before. When the effect of Time Wizard is activated the way its controller means it to, and there is also a Dark Magician on the same side of the field, that Dark Magician can be sacrificed in order to special summon–
Dark Sage (2800/3200). Kyle remembered now. And when it's summoned, the controller takes any magic card from his deck and brings it to his hand.
The rider was performing the latter operation just now. When he made his selection, he shoved his deck back into the deck slot and let the auto-shuffler do its work.
Kyle narrowed his eyes at Dark Sage. Fine, then. Attack me if you dare.
A moment later, the rider informed Dark Sage to do just that.
Dark Sage raised its massive, emerald-studded staff at Kyle and prepared to unleash his full fury on the younger duelist.
Kyle pressed a magic/trap activation button. Not so fast.
The trap that flipped face-up was none other than Mirror Force.
Streams of multicolored energy shot out from the field representation of the trap, speared through Dark Sage and Time Wizard, and obliterated them.
Strangely enough, the rider didn't seem disturbed by this. Instead, he ended his Battle Phase and placed another magic/trap on the field, then activated it.
Gah! Monster Reborn! Damn it!
But Kyle frowned when the monster that returned from the graveyard proved to be the Dark Magician. Not Blue-Eyes? Not Dark Sage? Dark Magician's weaker than either of those...
Not necessarily. Not when your opponent uses that card.
Kyle's eyes flitted to the rider's m/t field to see what Theoris was talking about. Again he frowned. Polymerization? Does he have two fusion-material monsters in his hand?
The rider placed a monster on the field to reveal what he was fusing. Kyle blinked. Versago the Destroyer (1100/900). If I remember right, that can replace any one monster in a fusion summoning. So where's his other fusion-material?
I believe the answer to that question is, "Already on the field."
I thought Dark Magician wasn't fusion material!
The Dark Magician and Versago the Destroyer – a dark humanoid fiend wrapped in a grid of green metal – lost their forms, twisted around each other, and merged together in front of the Polymerization card.
The result produced a monster that appeared similar to Dark Magician, but this one's armor was black with fierce orange trim. The armor was also more severely cut than Dark Magician's armor; this monster had more the appearance of a warrior. That appearance was only further substantiated by the staff it bore. No longer was it the magician's staff that the so-called "ultimate wizard" bore... instead, it was now a lethal, spiked bardiche, waiting for Kyle to place a monster before it.
Apparently, Kyle... you thought wrong.
The attack and defense factors appeared underneath the new creature.
(3900/2400)
Jeez... what IS that thing?!
I know not, but it behooves you to find a way to destroy it, and quickly at that. You are fortunate in that it cannot attack this turn.
Rummage through my memories and see if you can recall anything like that monster. I've got to keep playing. It was now Kyle's turn, and he drew his next card swiftly. Pot of Greed. This is a must-have. He played it and drew two new cards as the greenish pot hologram grinned maliciously at the rider and his mysterious fusion monster.
Whew. These will do me good. Now it's time to lay all my cards down, so to speak. Kyle slipped one magic/trap into an open slot, then prepared to activate two others. For 800 Life Points, Premature Burial will get Blue-Eyes back, while Monster Reborn takes his Copycat – then I can copy that creature's attack power, and destroy both. Then Blue-Eyes can clean up the rest of the duel. Hopefully.
Kyle played Premature Burial first; his Life Points dropped to 3100 accordingly, but just as he was about to retrieve Blue-Eyes from his graveyard, he felt his duel disk buzz and saw his Life Point counter blinking a word at him.
NEGATED
A frown split his brow. What? "Negated"?
At that moment, the strange fusion monster on the duelist's field leapt across the distance and hacked its lethal weapon straight through the holographic version of the Premature Burial card, cutting it in half and sending it to oblivion.
The duelist was sporting a wide grin.
Okay... let's try this again. Kyle slipped his Monster Reborn card into his duel disk and activated it. Forget Blue-Eyes for the moment, let's just see if we can at least bring Copycat back to the field–
Again, the disk buzzed. NEGATED
What is going on?! Kyle looked up at his opponent, in time to see that he was discarding the one card remaining in his hand – one? I thought he had two at the end of his last turn – and in response, his dangerous monster again bolted across the fleeting expanse to cut Kyle's card in half.
That's got to be another special effect it has... whatever the first one is. Discard a card from your hand, stop an opponent's magic card from working. But now he doesn't have any cards in his hand, so I should be able to go unchallenged for the rest of the turn.
He inspected the last card he'd planned on playing. I hope you do well for me. He placed it on his m/t field and activated it. Reasoning will either get me a goody or it'll give me a loser, but I need a monster.
The rider held up his fingers to show his guess for the level of the next monster card Kyle would draw. Kyle smirked. Level 7? Okay, but I don't have too many of those, not since I gave my Labyrinth Brothers to Jade.
Kyle slipped the next card off his deck and inspected it.
His eyes grew wide. Whoa. And then he grinned. My friend, you are about the most welcome monster on my field.
And with that, he placed his Level 11 Gate Guardian (3750/3400) on the field in attack mode.
The massive warrior appeared slowly, as if the holoprojectors were undergoing a great strain in putting Gate Guardian on the field. If Blue-Eyes hadn't blocked the majority of Kyle's view of the rider, Gate Guardian most certainly did. It was bar-none the largest monster on the field.
There are very few ways you would have been able to accomplish that, Kyle. I am impressed.
So am I, but his monster's still stronger. I'll just let him attack and go from there.
With Gate Guardian in attack mode?
You should watch more closely when I'm placing my traps. Kyle pointed at the rider.
The rider drew his next card but hardly paid attention to it. He had a huge grin across his face.He spoke his instructions into his duel disk.
The opposing creature hefted its bardiche and jumped high into the air. Its trajectory was to take it straight to Gate Guardian.
You see? Kyle smirked as he pressed the activation button for the trap he'd placed last turn. The tables have turned.
Kyle's Widespread Ruin trap card flipped face-up on the field and blew a dense orange cloud of flame at the attacking creature. The monster was engulfed in the flames, and when the cloud cleared away, the attacker was no more.
Ha. Take that.
The rider paled even whiter than he had when Blue-Eyes had come onto the field. Kyle's smirk grew. This guy's not as good at Duel Monsters as he apparently thinks he is. I'll bet all his hopes were riding on that monster. These people should know better. He's only got one option now... to lose. And with Gate Guardian on my field, and his Life Points at 850...
The rider grit his teeth. And then he reached a hand out.
A white aura surrounded the hand.
Kyle's eyes grew wide, and the Millennium Shield's golden aura instinctively appeared around him. Don't even bother–
The white bolt of energy flew across the expanse.
But the bolt wasn't targeting Kyle.
Too late, he realized where it was heading.
The bolt speared through the front tire of his motorcycle. The tire burst, and the reaction was instantaneous: the bike bucked up under the force of the explosion. Half a thought occurred to Kyle, to try to pull the front of the bike up higher so that he could pull off a wheelie and coast to a stop–
The half-thought occurred too late.
The front fell back to the ground. The metal rim, not meant to tread the road – and especially not at a hundred miles per hour – sparked against the pavement.
Kyle froze. He couldn't move a muscle, save for his eyes.
His eyes could only watch as, inevitably, the bike began to tilt to the right, unable to balance properly on the wobbling front rim.
No–!
The motorcycle toppled onto its right side, and took Kyle with it.
His leg became engulfed in white hot pain, and a split instant later, his arm followed suit.
He didn't have time to think anything else as his head cracked against the pavement.
--
Monica felt her captor pull back on the reins, and she heard several other horses around her whinnying in protest. Her brow furrowed. Why are we slowing down?
They came to a complete stop, and sat there for several moments. She became acutely aware of a cramp developing in the small of her back from sitting down so long. She squirmed, trying to alleviate the discomfort, but there was only so much she could do without earning another painful elbow to her side.
What was that screeching noise? It was like metal scraping against metal... almost sounded like Blue-Eyes, but not quite... a lot more horrible...
"Is he dead?"
Her eyes widened instinctively. Dead?! Who?
She heard a pair of feet drop to the pavement and take a few steps to one side. There were a few shuffling noises. Then... "His heart does not beat."
"Take it off him, then."
There was some grunting. "I cannot..."
"You fool, it is strapped too tightly to him. Cut his arms off if you must, but take it, and take it quickly."
Another grunt. A shout.
"Theoris–!"
"As long as I live, you shall not have what you desire."
Monica blinked at the tone of the voice. It was familiar, but there were extra qualities to it... qualities that made it sound beyond human. It echoed within itself, and it resonated with a power that she couldn't even begin to try to identify. She shuddered at the very sound of it.
"Your host is dead, Theoris. You have bonded with him – it will not be long before you suffer the same fate. And then... we take what should have been ours so long ago." A pause. "By all rights, you should have died millennia ago. But do not worry. You will still have someone to mourn your loss, even after all these years."
Monica felt someone grab the hood over her head, yank the knot at her neck out, and pull the hood away from her face. She blinked in the sudden sunlight and tried to get her eyes to focus.
"Behold, child, two dead men in one broken body."
Her eyes finally focused.
There was Kyle... lying motionless on the ground, his right leg pinned under his wrecked heap of a motorcycle. A wide red streak was on the pavement, starting at his body and ending almost half a mile behind them – or was it the other way around? He had a duel disk on his left arm, and it was in battle mode, and it had Gate Guardian on it in attack mode, but there were no holograms... cards were strewn all around him, having fallen out of the deck slot on his duel disk. His right arm was lying against the ground and it seemed to bend in at least two wrong directions, but how could that be... his body and his clothes and his face were covered in some sort of red fluid – her mind took a moment to register it as blood because she didn't know how a human body could possibly have that much blood – and his eyes were closed and he looked so still, so still...
She couldn't help it. She cried out at the very sight of him, and she tried to yell out his name, to get him to wake up. "Kwwwl! Mm-mmph! Kwwwl!"
One of the men smirked at Kyle's body. "Perhaps I was mistaken. It is not your loss she will mourn, Theoris. It is his. Fitting. Besides our clan, no one from this time even remembers you. And that is as it should be."
Monica struggled against her captor, suddenly uncaring of whether he hurt her or not. Kyle needs help! I need to get out of this and help him!
Her captor snorted at her efforts. "What shall we do with her? If he is dead, there is no reason to keep her..."
The man who'd been speaking to Kyle looked up at Monica's captor and regarded him with an ice cool stare. "For the moment, we must. The shield will refuse to pass to us while Theoris remains within. Give it time. An hour, at most. We release her when we have the shield, not before."
"No..."
Monica's eyes widened even further – which she hadn't thought was possible – when she saw the strange light glowing on Kyle's forehead, his lips moving... that powerful voice ringing out among them. He's still alive! He's still alive! He's not dead! "Kwwwl! Hwwlff!"
"Theoris, your stubbornness never ceases to amaze us," the senior man sniffed. He looked back to Monica. "This is what happens, my dear, when we are not given what we demand. People are hurt. We will spare you injury, however, provided this decrepit soldier would be kind enough to simply die, along with his young companion. But for now, you must stay with us."
With that, the hood was again pulled down over her face and tied off at her neck. She cried out more loudly. "Kwwwwl! Hwwlff mmph! Mm-mmmph! Mmmph!"
Kyle's warped voice echoed across the valley; the words it spoke were in such a tone that it almost sounded as if he believed they would be the last words these people would ever hear him say.
"We do not fear you!"
She heard laughing, and then her captor urged his horse to start running again. The sounds of hoofbeats on the pavement and wind whistling around them drowned out everything else.
But that didn't stop her from shouting for a very long time.
--
Kyle! Where are you?
...
Kyle! You must wake up! Monica is still in danger!
...
KYLE!!!
...
Kyle... please wake up... you cannot be gone... do not die...
...