Disclaimers: No layers! I mean, no Yugioh owned here. No sue me!
Author's Note: Okay, here goes a major kick butt chapter and the first of several major duels in this arc of this story. Get ready, cuz here it comes!
Quote of the Chapter: "Fear leads to anger, anger leads to hate, hate leads to suffering..." -Yoda, Jedi Master, Episode I
Chapter Twenty-Five: Taichi's Return and the Hidden Devil
A dark haired, blue-eyed boy of about fifteen glanced up from the small fire he had been making and saw a large horse approach at a gallop. A smile crossed his face as the rider of that horse jumped from it and did a flip in mid-air, managing to turn it over successfully and land gracefully in front of the boy. "Hello there. What can I do for you?"
"You could die if you were really in a friendly mood. I'd like that." The dark haired boy sighed and rose to his feet, brushing off with pant legs. Slowly he stretched, cracking his back, his neck, and popping his fingers. Then when he seemed satisfied he fully turned his attentions on the black haired man in gi in front of him.
"Takuya was it? Sorry, I'm not taking requests of that nature. Of course if you're really determined to see that through, then if you win the once in a life time contest I can grant that for you." Kensai sneered at these words, his hand falling to his pocket as he activated his duel disk. He could the others approaching from far behind, and knew that by the time they arrived they wouldn't be able to intervene at all.
"You know something? I'm going to take you up on that. One duel to determine who lives and who dies. Eight thousand life points and no deck master. That should make this good for both of us. But don't expect to last long." His opponent, Taichi Nobuki, picked up the duel disk that lay next to him and placed it on his arm, activating it. Now both duelists were ready, decks shuffled and minds ready to go into action.
"That's all fine with me, but if you really intend to beat me you're going to have to develop new and improved skills really quickly, because without that you don't stand a chance." Kensai grinned and pulled the card in his pocket free, opening the space on his duel disk that was reserved for field cards. Then he slapped the card down, and grinned as the circle started to form around them, and the six pointed star began to make its connections.
"I don't need new skills, because I have the Seal of Orichalcos, which will grant me dark power! Power that I will use to crush you!" His hair swirled about from the force of the power of the seal, and upon his forehead formed the symbol of the seal, that dreaded six pointed star etched in green.
Taichi cocked an eyebrow in surprise at this new development, but chose to ignore it as he drew six cards, signaling that he was going to take the first move. He did so, playing a very annoying card as his first card. "My initial move is the card Defense Wall, which lets me set any number of monsters from my hand onto the field. I'll set three monsters, and then place a card face down to end my turn."
The four cards appeared, four of them horizontal and the other vertical behind them. With this out of the way, Kensai drew his sixth card and looked at it, deciding on his move. Already he had the perfect way to take his opponent down. "You're being stupid Taichi! Defense monsters can't protect you from me. So here go two cards face down, and now I summon Shield Cleaver(1600500/500) which gains dark power, increasing its attack by five hundred!"
Kensai's monster was a heavily armored warrior wielding a bladed chain which he twirled with great skill. As soon as he unleashed it, Taichi would be finished off. "Shield Cleaver, attack the middle defense monster!" The warrior hurled his bladed chain, and pierced right through a purple glob.
"Fool! You've helped me out by destroying Giant Germ, dealing five hundred damage to you and letting me summon two more in attack mode!" The two purple globes formed in front of Taichi, but the dark duelist's laughter was cut short as he heard the tinkling sound of the life point counter dropping. His eyes fell to his duel disk and he watched in horror as his life points took a severe drop. (TLP: 6000)
"Confused Taichi? Well there's a reason he's called Shield Cleaver. Defenses are worthless with him around, because he can deal damage even if your monster is in defense, and because your germ had such a pitiful defense, you lost two thousand life points! And now it'll be your turn!"
The blue eyed boy drew a card and glanced at it briefly, before playing it in one of his magic zones. The card appeared in its holographic form in front of him, revealing a scarred looking man digging up coins from the burnt ground. "Treasure From Hell! Lets both get drawing!"
The two duelists pulled free cards from the bottom of their decks, Taichi drew five cards and Kensai drew three cards, making them even at six cards each. However now was the moment of truth, as Taichi would unleash his deadly combo. "Prepare to meet a combo so unstoppable that...well you won't be able to stop it will you? Flip face down monster, Morphing Jar!"
Kensai gasped as the creepy little creature appeared, and both players followed its effect, discarding their present hands and drawing five new ones. But one thing confused Kensai. Why would he make them draw cards, then discard them? "I bet you wonder why I made us draw and forced us to discard. Simple, so this card would be more effective. Go face down card, Forced Requisition, which makes you discard the same number of cards that I did, so say goodbye to your new hand!"
The warrior duelist growled deep in his chest, and shoved the five cards into his cemetery, leaving him with an empty hand. Now that the disgusting part was over with, the idiot Taichi was left with an extremely weak monster face up. "As effective as that move was, it doesn't really accomplish anything but to give me a weak target to crush!"
Taichi tutted and wagged his finger in disappointment. Then he lowered his hand to his duel disk and grabbed hold of one of the other cards on his field, but what it was Kensai couldn't tell. "I'm disappointed that you think so little of me. I'll have you know that I planned this out quite well. So I'll show you exactly how well, by flipping Shadow Demon(400/400)!"
The new monster was a big bulky shadow shape with tentacles darting in and out of the shadows. Kensai was certain he also saw a big claw at one point, but it vanished too quickly for him to be sure. "What the hell is that thing going to do?"
"Do? Why when flipped it lets me flip an monster on the field into face down defense mode. Guess what happens next...I flip Morphing Jar face down!" The shadow sent a jet of black fire at the creepy black creature, which vanished under it, and when the fire faded away, all that was left was the hovering holographic card of the face down Morphing Jar.
Kensai cursed as he realized what that meant. But then again, he had a way past that. This combo was deadly, but nothing he couldn't get around. "Don't worry, it gets better. I now activate the second effect of Shadow Demon, which lets me flip it face down once per turn!" The shadow vanished and was replaced by its card from, exactly like it was at the beginning of the turn.
Kensai marveled at how well planned this combo was, and how incredibly deadly it could be. Taichi truly was an astonishingly skilled duelist who never failed to impress his opponents, and himself of course. Taichi didn't impress anybody as much as he impressed himself. "Think I'm done? Not quite! I'll summon Demon Soldier(1900/1500) and place two cards down on the field. That's enough out of me, so go ahead and show me what you're made out of."
The warrior drew a card and without looking at it began to berate his opponent. Something about the power flowing through him was making him act this way, he just couldn't help it. Not in the least bit. He was becoming nearly as dark as Taichi was.
"Your combo is impressive, but it won't stand a chance against me. Not only can my Shield Cleaver deal damage when your monsters are in defense, but it can also destroy any monster it attacks face down without going into the damage step and without the monster being flipped. All I have to do is destroy your Morphing Jar with my Shield Cleaver, and then your combo is undone!"
Taichi just shrugged and grinned slightly, obviously unafraid of Kensai's threats. Well he'd just have to make Taichi fear him...and his newest card would help with that. It would also help him reduce his opponent's monster number. "I summon Iron Hans(1200500/1000)!" Kensai's new monster appeared on the field, revealing a bearded wild man holding a stout axe. It let out a bellow of challenge and swung its axe around, ready to do battle.
"Now according to its effect I special summon one Iron Knight(700500/500) to the field in attack mode!" The monster shimmered into view as a black armored knight hefting a jousting stick that appeared extremely sharp at the end. It was weak, but it had its strong points, particularly its ability to be special summoned so easily.
"Ooo, two weak little monsters and one stronger one. Do you really think you can beat me just by summoning lots of pathetic warriors?" With these words Taichi burst out laughing, his ice blue eyes shining with mirth. The idea of him losing to Taichi was laughable, but then again there was something different about this duel then any other.
"That's right, they will! Its called strength in numbers Taichi, or don't you know the basics about battle and math? Let me demonstrate strategy for you as I cut down your Morphing Jar using my Shield Cleaver's effect, and slice up your two Giant Germs with Iron Hans and Iron Knight!"
The three monsters went into action, the axe wielder and the knight charged across the field, weapons at the ready. The Shield Cleaver simply hurled its bladed chain with incredible speed, sending it flying towards Taichi's face down monster. "I chain with Taunt, a permanent trap that lets me make one monster on my field the attack target of all your monsters!"
Kensai gasped as his monsters changed direction towards the Demon Soldier, which brandished its wicked look blade menacingly look. By the look of things his two weaker monsters would reach the soldier first, and he'd lose life points, which he didn't need to lose. "Go face down card, Waboku! Protect my monsters!"
The demon casually batted aside both the Iron Knight and Iron Hans with a slap of his blade. The two monsters were knocked backwards to their starting points, where they landed on their backs. The Shield Cleaver however had simply changed the direction of its bladed chain, which pierced into the demon's belly. (TLP: 5800)
"Idiot! That move may save you once, but it gets rid of one of your better monsters and lets me clear up the field. With Demon Soldier gone, next turn I'll be able to attack your other monsters and ruin your combo!" Kensai raised one clenched fist out in front of him, smirking as he taunted his opponent. It wasn't like Taichi to make such a stupid error, but maybe Kensai was just better then he had been before. Yes, under normal circumstances that move would have smashed his other monsters and left Demon Soldier intact, but the seal had saved him.
"Who said my soldier would be gone? As a matter of fact it'll be sticking around thanks to another permanent trap card called Remnant! By reducing my soldier's defense power by five hundred I can let him stay on the field even though he would have been destroyed!" Kensai could only grimace as the demon pulled the bladed chain free of its belly, and hurled it back at Shield Cleaver, who caught the chain and once again readied himself for combat.
Now it was Taichi's turn again, and Kensai knew exactly what was going to happen. He was about to lose a lot of cards, and he couldn't do anything about it. Taichi smirked as he looked over his hand and casually folded it up, ready to make his move. "Remember how it goes? First I flip Morphing Jar, causing us to discard or hands, three from me and none from you. Then we each draw five, and Forced Requisition makes you lose three cards from that hand thanks to the cards I discarded."
Again the Morphing Jar flipped up, and the two players went into action, drawing the necessary cards required of the deadly jar. Then Kensai selected three cards very carefully and shoved them into his cemetery. "Next up, I flip Shadow Demon to flip my Morphing Jar face down!"
The shadowy creature appeared again, and this time it forced the laughing jar back into face down position using several gross looking tentacles, and to Kensai's surprise, the claw he thought he had seen. "Now I'll flip Shadow Demon face down again. Fun isn't it?"
The monster issued forth a belch of some kind of noxious gas, and then reverted into its face down position, leaving Taichi free to pull off the combo in the next turn. That is, if Kensai didn't find a way past Demon Soldier in the next turn. "Poor fool, you've left your weak Iron Knight out in the open, so I met as well relieve you of it. Demon Soldier, decapitate that weakling!"
The demonic creature rushed forward and jumped into the air, swinging its serrated scimitar down at his much weaker Iron Knight. If the attack connected then Kensai would be down one monster, and down seven hundred life points. "Activate Monster Relief! Now I can return one of my monster's to my hand, and then I can special summon a level four or less monster from my hand!"
Taichi grinned, expecting Iron Knight to vanish and be replaced by another monster. But to his surprise Iron Hans vanished, and was soon replacing by the familiar face of Marauding Captain(1200500/400), who brandished his two blades and grinned mischievously. "And since Marauding Captain was summoned, I'll summon Swift Black Ninja(1700500/1000) from my hand!"
In a blur the black clad ninja appeared, holding his daggers and moving in quick, jerky motions. It was obvious he was a speed freak, and didn't like sitting around and not being in action. Taichi just grinned at this, knowing that Marauding Captain hadn't been summoned in time to stop his attack from connecting with the Iron Knight, who feebly threw up his metal clad arm in defense. "Say goodbye to your knight!"
But to Taichi's surprise the knight fended off the demon's scimitar and then thrust his jousting stick straight into its belly, piercing it. The demon soldier grasped its belly and staggered backwards, keeping its blood from flowing. "How is this possible? My demon was seven hundred points stronger!"
Kensai just smirked, and began to explain. "Iron Knight comes with an added effect, when Iron Hans is not on the field he gains one thousand attack points, putting him up to twenty-two hundred, three hundred greater then your Demon Soldier." Taichi grimaced as his life points dipped slightly, and he was forced to drop his demon's defense points down to five hundred.
"Very impressive move. It appears that you've improved by a great degree. I'll set two cards face down to end my turn." With that, two more cards appeared beside his other three face up cards, filling up his magic and trap zones. Kensai grinned, not caring about these new cards, they couldn't help Taichi. (TLP: 5500)
He pulled free the top card of his deck and examined it carefully before deciding on what move to make. Now was the time to unveil another effect of his seal besides the dark power it granted him and his monsters, now was the time to unveil true power. "First I'll set one card face down. And next I'll summon Iron Hans, which will let me summon another Iron Knight and drop my other Iron Knight down to twelve hundred again!"
The bearded woodsman appeared and was followed by a second armored black knight, who hefted his jousting stick and marched up next to his companion knight. With this summoning it made a total of six monsters, which made no sense at all. "That's impossible! You can't have six monsters, there are only five monster zones."
"True, but the effect of the seal lets me play monsters in my magic and trap zones. Meaning that at the most I can play a total of ten monsters! Now I'll send Swift Black Ninja and Shield Cleaver in to attack and finally destroy your Demon Soldier, opening the way for me to attack!" With that his monsters erupted into a frenzy of motion, attacking with deadly force.
Swift Black Ninja raced across the field and slashed the demon's chest with his knives before the demon could even react. Then the demon soldier was knocked to the side by Shield Cleaver's bladed chain, which dug into its shoulder. When the chain was ripped free, black ichor shot out, staining the ground in front of the demon. "That should finish our monster off." (TLP: 5000)
But despite his sureness that these attacks would totally destroy the demon soldier, he learned different. One of Taichi's face down cards flipped up, revealing a massive army with shields overlapping in a phalanx maneuver. "My trap card Amass Defense boosts my monsters defense strength by seven hundred times the number of defense monsters I have, which happens to be two, raising Demon Soldier to nineteen hundred defense, letting me drop it to nine hundred to save it from being destroyed!"
The warrior pounded his fist into his thigh, furious that once again Taichi had been able to stop him from successfully beating his strategy. At this rate however, Kensai would drop Taichi to zero life points just by attacking his Demon Soldier. "Fuck. This guy is really getting on my nerves. Fine, end turn!"
Taichi drew another card, bumping his hand up to four cards, meaning that when Taichi performed his combo Kensai would be losing that many cards. Luckily it wasn't that damaging, and in fact dumping monsters into the cemetery was helping him pave the way for his soldier. "Ready or not, here comes Morphing Jar!"
They dumped their hands into the cemetery, Kensai not having to ditch any, and then they drew new cards, Kensai ditching four of them, leaving him with only one card left in his hand. Taichi on the other hand had five cards, but at this rate he would deck himself out. "Idiot. You're going to ruin yourself instead of me."
"Think so do you? We'll see. I flip up Shadow Demon, and then flip down Morphing Jar! Next I'll flip Shadow Demon face down to complete the deadly combo!" Again the vicious shadow creature appeared and covered the jar in a wisp of black fog, placing it down before it too returned into card form. But this combo was becoming more damaging to Taichi then it was to him.
"Now I'll show you exactly why the combo won't be ruining me! A special magic card called Renew the Body! By its effect I can take any number of cards in my cemetery that were discarded by a card effect...and shuffle them back into my deck!" Kensai cursed again as the younger duelist ejected his cemetery and sorted through the pile, leaving only eleven cards in his graveyard, counting Renew the Body itself.
"Next up, I sacrifice my germs to summon Invader of Darkness(2900/2500)! So here comes the invader, straight at your Marauding Captain!" The cloaked and cowled demon cracked its sharp claws and then raced across the field, slashing down at the much weaker monster. However Kensai had other things in his mind.
"Activate Jack of All Trades! I'll sacrifice Iron Hans to special summon Jack's Knight(1900500/1000) to the field in attack mode! And since he and Jack of All Trades are both in play, you get no battle phase!" Iron Hans vanished in a blaze of fire, and replacing him was the armored blonde warrior that was Jack's Knight. The invader was halted in mid-attack, and slowly drifted back to its spot on Taichi's field.
"You're pathetic Taichi! Already you've come to witness the power of my deck and yet still you try on! In just a few measly turns I've assembled an army of powerful monsters, only one of which doesn't have an attack power of over two thousand! You don't stand a chance!" At this moment both duelists heard the clip-clop of hooves fast approaching, and they turned to watch as Mai, and the others arrived on horseback.
They got off the two horses and approached, but to their surprise the first to try and get past the glowing green area of the seal, Autumn, was blown backwards by its powers. "Kensai! Be careful in there! Taichi is dangerous, you could get hurt, or worse!"
The warrior duelist laughed at these words and turned back towards Taichi, gesturing for him to continue with his turn. None of that mattered, all that mattered was his oath and his determination. Taichi would be ended upon his hands. "Ignore them, they don't effect this."
Taichi grinned and selected one card from his hand, obviously intent on using it. The malicious look on his face was enough to tell Kensai that whatever was about to be played wouldn't be very good for him. "Witness a unique magic card of my own invention! Black Death! This virus seeps throughout the land and kills all who come in contact with it. Therefore its place on your field and at the end of your turn it will destroy all your monsters and reduce your life points by half your monster's combined attack strengths! My math says you'll drop to eleven hundred life points!"
With these words a black fog spread across Kensai's field, and he watched in horror as Taichi flicked the card to him, and it magically settled into one of his m/t zones, ready to destroy him come the end of his turn. Worse yet, there was nothing Kensai had that could stop it! "Damn it....what do I do?"
He could hear the others cheering him on from the outside, but he understood in his heart and in his mind that he had to win this on his own, without anybody else's support. Otherwise he'd never be a true warrior. 'Well, here goes everything...', "Draw!"
He held the card down for several seconds, and then quickly turned it up so he could see what it was. The image that appeared on it told him exactly what he needed to know. This card was something special indeed. "You've actually helped me out Taichi, because you gave me fodder that I can afford. Fodder for the magic card Emergency Provisions, which lets me destroy your Black Death card since its on my field, and then I gain one thousand points!"
The black fog faded away as the holographic card exploded, and his magic card granted him the bonus life points for it. And now that he had that out of the way he could move on to the next step of this turn, and hope that he had someway to defeat Taichi's combo. (KLP: 8500)
"My next card is called Pot of Thieves! It's the brother to Pot of Greed, except I won't be drawing two cards from my deck....I'll be drawing them from yours! So toss me the top two cards of your deck." His opponent scowled, but pulled free two cards and tossed them across the field to him. Kensai snatched them up with one hand, and looked over them to find out exactly what they were.
Upon doing so he discovered he could get in some serious damage right here and now, clearing away the threat of the combo, even from being used once. Now was the time to end Taichi's reign of terror! "I'm sure you recognize this card since it's yours. Genocide Bomb! At a cost of one thousand well-earned life points I can destroy every single card on the field!"
The black bomb appeared on the field and started glowing, and then it exploded, covering everything in thick smoke, which remained for over a minute. Eventually it cleared out, somehow released from within the seal's barriers. When the smoke was gone there was nothing left between them. No monsters, no magic cards, and no traps. Just open space. (KLP: 7500)
"Since the field is clear I can use Spirit of Darkness(1600500/1000) to attack you directly and drop your life points past the half-way mark! Dark Bomb Attack!" His newest monster, actually Taichi's originally, was completely shrouded in shadow, much like Shadow Demon was. And as Kensai gave the command to attack, the dark spirit sent out a sphere of darkness which raced towards Taichi, intent on destroying him.
The ball exploded, and a loud shriek could be heard. Kensai watched in confusion as something was engulfed by the darkness, but it definitely wasn't Taichi. It didn't make sense, there was nothing on his field to protect him! "What the hell was that?"
Taichi let out a deep, and extremely fake, yawn. Then he picked up and displayed the card that he had used. Upon seeing it Kensai understood, but he was also confused. "Kuriboh? What are you doing with a Kuriboh in your deck. You run demons don't you?"
The blue eyed duelist let out a deep laugh and collapsed onto his butt, then dropped to his back. Kensai growled deep in his chest as he watched the other duelist roll around on the ground, clutching his sides as he laughed hysterically. "Damn it! What's so funny?"
After about a minute more of this idiocy the dark duelist managed to shake off the laughter and rise to his feet, still clutching his sides to avoid breaking out in another fit of laughter. "You and how stupid you are. Kuriboh may be a pathetic furball, but it's actually a demon. It may be cute and cuddly, but it happens to be a fav...never mind that. Is your turn done?"
Kensai nodded, absently wondering what Taichi had been about to say before he had corrected himself. The only time that he had heard the other duelist correct himself was when he had been doing it to be taunting, which didn't fit in that instance.
Taichi finally got full control over his laughter and took that time to start up his turn. Kensai just had to hope that of the two cards that Taichi had, neither was useful. Right now he had a good advantage, and he wanted to keep that. "Kensai, you're very eager to crush me aren't you. But you can't beat me using my own monster, that's just foolish. Because eventually it will just return to me."
"Maybe under normal circumstances it might, but since I summoned it the Spirit of Darkness belongs to me. Its my monster now!" Taichi just shrugged and inserted one of his two cards into a m/t zone. Upon activation the holographic form appeared, and Kensai understood exactly what Taichi had been talking about.
"Snatch Steal grants me permanent control over your monster, all that is needed is that you will gain one thousand life points during each of your standby phases. Of course, since at the moment you can't defense yourself, I'll attack directly!" A giant bag dropped over his dark creature and pulled it over to Taichi's side, where the bag opened and it was released. Then the dark spirit shot out the black sphere that was its attack.
The black bomb exploded across Kensai's chest, hurling him backwards and into the edge of the seal, which shocked his back. Gasping for air he struggled to his feet and stood strong, knowing that despite the sudden change in control, he wasn't out of the running quite yet. "Now I'll set a single card face down, and end my turn." (KLP: 5400)
Kensai started off by drawing a card, and when he did so he also gained the life points from Snatch Steal. To his great delight he discovered exactly what card he had drawn, and it would turn the duel back in his favor. "Prepare for this deadly charge! Swift Knight Gaia(2300500/2100), mow Taichi down!"
The purple clad knight marched down on his horse, and then at Kensai's command he took off across the field at a swift trot, readying his jousting stick to deal serious damage to Taichi. "Black Death isn't the only disease awaiting you. And since you just wandered into leech infested waters, I'd say you're in for a nasty surprise. Activate face down card, Leech Virus!"
Gaia let out a loud bellow at the same time as his horse neighed, and Kensai saw why. Climbing up the horses legs and onto Gaia's armor were red and black leeches, each one pulsing with a strange inner light as they covered the knight and his horse. "What's going on?"
"Leech Virus is a permanent trap that acts as an equip card. It prevents Gaia from attack or changing positions. And of course each turn my virus will leech away some of your knight's power, granting me half of its attack power to my life points each turn." Kensai cursed again, causing Taichi to laugh at him. Already the situation had turned against Kensai, with one of his best monsters trapped and helping Taichi. (KLP: 6400)
As soon as Taichi's turn began, the reason for the leech's inner light was discovered. Globes of red light filtered out of the disgusting creatures and were absorbed into Taichi's body, powering him up for each globe. "Excellent! Now I'll just set one card and end my turn." (TLP: 6400)
Kensai started off his turn by gaining the life pints from Taichi's magic card. However unless the card he drew was a monster he'd be in bad shape. Slowly he turned his eyes down upon the card, and grinned as he did so. "Wandering Hero Freed(1700500/1000)! Appear and help me destroy Taichi by destroying the Spirit of Darkness!"
The blonde warrior was summoned to the field, the green symbol of the seal shining bright upon his forehead, giving him a sinister look. He raised his blade high overhead and then started a charge to reach the Spirit of Darkness. "Apparently you didn't learn your lesson about marching through leech infested warriors the first time around. Reveal trap, Blood Leech!"
From the ground came a huge blood red leech which slammed into his warrior's chest, knocking him backwards. In a swift motion it wrapped around Freed's body, making him too heavy to do any moving. "Now your hero can't attack or change positions, and of course each of my standby phases you lose life points equal to half its base attack. Now you're trapped even worse!" (KLP: 7400)
Taichi drew his next card, and his two cards went into action. Again dozens of globes of red light filtered out of his knight and were absorbed into Taichi's body. Then the massive leech around his hero squeezed tight, causing him to cough up blood. And to Kensai's surprise he discovered that his lip was bleeding. He was reacting with his monster! (TLP: 7800, KLP: 6550)
"Now here's a unique monster for you, a weak demon with the ability to attack directly. Demon Brain(400/300)! He's got another ability, but for the moment I'll just use him to inflict direct damage!" The monster was a brain about the size of a person, except this brain had tendrils with sharp suckers on the ends extending out of it. And using this tendrils it lashed out, striking Kensai across the face and cutting into his skin. He grimaced and wiped the blood off, ignoring the shouts of terror from his companions outside the seal. (KLP: 6150)
Kensai picked up his next card, not really noticing as he regained life points. He would have been gaining life points faster then he was losing them, but now with that Demon Brain attacking him, it was turning around. And Taichi was gaining life points as well! "Graceful Charity."
He picked up the three cards and looked over them, quickly deciding exactly what card he wanted to keep. Now he was about to crush that little brain and deal some serious damage! "I remove one light type and one dark type from my cemetery to special summon Chaos Emperor Dragon-Messenger of the Apocalypse(3000500/2500)!"
Two streams of energy erupted next to him, one of dark and one of light. They quickly merged together and formed in a bright flash the mighty dragon that was the second of his two mightiest monsters. "Nuke that puny little brain!"
His dragon opened its mouth wide and sent out a stream of multi-colored energy which streaked straight towards the brain. But at the last moment the brain latched on to Spirit of Darkness with its tendrils, and the energy missed it, crashing into the barrier. "Remember that other ability I mentioned? Well during my opponent's turn my Demon Brain can union with another demon on the field, and at that time the demon monster its unioned with cannot be the target of an attack. So you can't attack me at all!" (KLP: 7150)
With that out of the way it became Taichi's turn, and once again the leeches on his knight strengthened Taichi, and he lost a little bit more blood from the leech on his Freed. It wasn't enough blood to make him woozy, but it was annoying. (TLP: 9200, KLP: 6300)
"Here we go, Payment of Debt to draw three cards." Taichi picked up his three cards, examined them and casually set two of them down on the field. Then he commanded his Demon Brain to attack, and it did so, this time slashing Kensai's chest and drawing more blood with this sharp suckers. (KLP: 5900)
As he started his turn, Kensai was fully aware that any attack he made would be futile. At this rate it wasn't worth anything to just continue the way they had, because at this pace it would take forever for Taichi to actually drain his life points. No, he had a better way to deal with this. (KLP: 6900)
"Say goodbye to your new combo Taichi. I pay the one thousand life points necessary to activate my dragon's special ability. Apocalyptic Eruption!" His dragon tilted its head up and sent streamers of multi-colored energy shooting above them. The streamers arced back down, crashing into the ground with dreadful force.
"I won't lose like that! Activate Forced Ejection Machine, sending that monster back to your hand!" Kensai blinked in surprise as a machine appeared beneath his dragon, and then shot it straight up, where it vanished, letting him pick it up off his duel disk. That move made no sense at all. Taichi should have known that sending it back to his hand wasn't going to stop its effect. That was an amateur move...so what was Taichi up to?
Smoke filled the air, and when it had all faded the field was clear of monsters, and according to Kensai's math that meant that nine cards had gone to the cemetery from his monster's effect, meaning Taichi would take twenty-seven hundred points of damage. (TLP: 6500, KLP: 5900)
"You know Taichi, you actually helped me just then. Because my dragon is a special summon and I never went into my battle phase, you just gave me a chance to put the hurting on you. So by removing another dark type and another light type, I'll summon it again!" For the second time in that duel his massive dragon rose up, and let out a deafening roar, nearly knocking both duelists off their feet by its sheer force.
"Apocalypse Flame!" His dragon arched its head and then shot it forwards like a striking serpent, sending a wide stream of multi-colored power at Taichi. The beam of lights struck Taichi dead center in the chest and picked him up off his feet, pressing him up against the barrier of the seal. After several seconds of this the energy faded, and Taichi dropped to his feet, his shirt gone and his chest scorched from the deadly energies. (TLP: 3000)
The blue-eyed, dark haired duelist reached towards his duel disk with a shaky hand, his body quivering and nearly dead from the horrible power of Kensai's last attack. A direct attack of such magnitude in the reality that came under the Seal of Orichalcos was apparently more then even Taichi could take, because Kensai knew that Taichi had healed himself of heavy injuries before.
Slowly the dark haired duelist tilted his eyes up to connect with Kensai's, and he started to laugh. The laugh came from deep within his belly and soon built up to something that was almost hysterical. Kensai was certain that Taichi was basically insane...but there was something odd about this laughter. "The end is about to come Taichi, it will soon reach out and grasp hold of you!"
As he spoke these words five spaces in front of him exploded...and giant holographic card forms of the five pieces of Exodia rose up and floating above them, resting over Taichi's head. Was Taichi about to summon Exodia? But how? He had no monsters! "This card will cause your demise! PACT WITH EXODIA!"
Kai let out a deep sigh as he relaxed in the waters, lounging there and cooling off his body. Several feet away, also in the water, Serenity and Drake were either having a very loud discussion, or they were arguing.
After a bit of fast talking on his part, Drake had managed to convince Serenity that he hadn't been spying, a feat which amazed Kai. Of course he realized that all he had to do was blurt out that Drake had indeed been spying and things would go south very fast or Drake. But just sitting here and relaxing was more enjoyable then watching Drake suffer.
Upon careful inspection Kai realized that the two were at the water's edge, and were speaking very loudly about none other then Duel Monsters. Apparently Serenity was getting lessons, and Drake was trying to make sure she knew everything she could about the game. What was odd was the almost manic way that Drake was going about it. It was like he was worried she would end up in a duel for her life and not be able to make it out...
Heck, he was acting like a man using up his last hours and trying to do something important. It wasn't like in an hour or two Drake would be gone. "I'm worrying about nothing. Right now, I just have to relax."
Taichi's laughter continued as five dark beams of energy exploded from the five pieces of Exodia. The darkness collided and a shape began to form, slowly revealing a full-sized Exodia with a few oddities. It was black instead of tan, and a dark aura surrounded it, making it even eerier then ever. "Now you have met Exodia Necros(1800/0)! And with this invincible creature I shall claim victory! End turn!"
Kensai scoffed at this and drew his card, glancing at it briefly before activating it. Upon doing so a giant image of it appeared, revealing a scene from Frankenstein. "The magic card Restore the Dead lets me move one random monster in my cemetery to my hand. And with this play I'll crush you completely! I summon Iron Hans, thereby bringing out Iron Knight!"
The two monsters appeared, the image of the seal shining upon their heads. All he needed was to crush this new creature with Chaos Emperor Dragon and then he'd be free to finish off Taichi's life points. "Chaos Emperor Dragon, Apocalypse Flame! Burn that Exodia fake to cinders!" The blaze of energy consumed the black Exodia, hiding it from sight. Kensai laughed as he saw the energies consume it. (TLP: 1300)
However, when the light faded away it was revealed that Exodia Necros was completely intact, not beaten at all! Yet he had seen Taichi's life points drop, he had seen the blast strike. The creature should be dead! "Idiot! I told you he was invincible, and I meant it. You can't destroy him like that!"
Kensai just smirked, knowing that he had his own method to get rid of this paltry monster. If he couldn't deal with it through battle, he'd just crush it using his dragon's special effect, dropping Taichi down to his lowest level of life points. "Well then let Exodia Necros burn in the fires of my monster's great power! Apocalyptic Eruption!" (KLP: 4900)
For the second time in that duel the dragon tilted its head up and shot out the streams of energy. They crashed down upon every creature there, including the dragon itself. He heard his monsters cry out in pain as they were consumed, and he heard Exodia Necros bellow as well. (TLP: 400)
The warrior duelist blinked at that number, not understanding how it was possible. There had been four cards on the field. His dragon, Iron Hans, Iron Knight, and Exodia Necros. That should have been twelve hundred points of damage, leaving Taichi with just one hundred left. If he still had four hundred then that meant. "HAHAHAHAHAHAHA! Exodia Necros won't be beaten by monster effects either! He literally can't be destroyed!"
And there he was, the mighty form of Exodia Necros towering up above him. He gulped, understanding that he had just foolishly cleared his field of monsters, and he had no magic or trap cards to defend himself with. "I don't care if you can attack me directly, because all I need is a monster with twenty-two hundred attack points to win this duel! Your monster is invincible, but its still weak!"
To his surprise Taichi just laughed at this, and as soon as he started his turn the aura around Exodia Necros grew slightly, and the power meter for it rose as well. But it didn't make sense, how could it be getting stronger? "Weak is it? At the moment perhaps, but during each of my turns it gains five hundred attack points, meaning now its at twenty-three hundred, and you need a monster of twenty-seven hundred or more attack points to beat it!"
He grimaced, and Taichi just laughed again, before casting out his hand and declaring an attack. Exodia Necros raised one fist and thrust it forwards, connecting directly with Kensai's chest, sending him flying backwards. His friends shouted out for him to stay strong, but he ignored them. "Now I'll set a card down to finish off my turn." (KLP: 2600)
Taking a deep breath Kensai drew a card and looked down at it. Then he broke out laughing, a cold and victorious look on his face. "Twenty-seven hundred or higher you said? Well how about thirty-five hundred? Rise up, Chaos Soldier-Messenger of Creation(3000500/2500)!" The ground exploded with dark and light energies colliding together all over the field, slowly coalescing into the mighty black and gold armored warrior that was Kensai's favorite monster.
"With this one attack I will rid the world of your horror, and you can't escape it. Want to know why? Well that's because when you lose a duel under the influence of the Seal of Orichalcos...you lose your soul! And with no soul you won't be able to do anything at all! Now for the final blow, Chaos Blade!"
His soldier met a horizontal sweep with his blade, sending a ribbon of golden power streaking across the ground towards the weaker Exodia Necros. Kensai's grin followed that ribbon of power each inch of the way, all the way until it collided with a wall of...something dark and moving rapidly. "Dark Wall of Air prevents me from being attacked by monsters this turn! A wasted effort!"
As soon as Taichi took his turn, Exodia Necros' aura expanded again, raising its power to a more impressive twenty-eight hundred. But it was still too weak to match up to the Chaos Soldier, whose enormous power was boosted by the darkness of the Seal of Orichalcos. "Pot of Greed."
Taichi examined his two new cards, and then casually placed them on the field, grinning as they appeared in front of him in holo form. Knowing that he had nothing else to do in this turn, he declared the end, and watched as Kensai drew his card. Now it was time for Kensai to make his decision.
'If I attack, I could conceivably defeat Taichi here and now. But those two face down cards are almost definitely traps. I could use my soldier's removal effect, but who knows if that even works on his Necros. And of course that won't get me past his traps.' Thoughts like these filled his head as he warred with himself on whether or not to attack, realizing that this could be a crucial moment.
"What are you waiting for Ken? Don't tell me you're afraid of my weaker Necros! How absolutely pathetic. I thought you were a strong person because of how willing you were to challenge me knowing how I had crushed every other duelist I've faced. But now you back down? How laughable!" And of course he tossed his head back and laughed maniacally. Mai and the others outside the seal shouted to Kensai, praying that he wouldn't fall for such an obvious mind game. He couldn't possibly be that stupid.
"Back down? Me? Not a snowball's chance in Hell! Chaos Soldier, slice and dice Exodia Necros like it was a Thanksgiving Turkey!" His soldier gave him a quick nod and then slashed its sword twice in the air, sending an x-shaped golden energy beam at the weaker Exodia Necros. Outside the seal the others groaned in agony, and Taichi laughed his head off.
"Reveal face down cards, Time Jump and Cracked Hatchet! Cracked Hatchet reduces one monster on the field by five hundred attack points times the number of turns its been set...and Time Jump accelerates time by three turns, dropping your soldier by fifteen hundred and raising Necros by the same amount!" The now even mightier Exodia Necros batted the golden beam aside and then swung with its other fist, crushing Chaos Soldier in a single blow, shattering him and most of Kensai's life points.
"Shit. I should have known. I'll place one card onto the field and declare my turn's end!" The card materialized, leaving that as his only defense between him and the mighty Exodia Necros. There was absolutely nothing else to stop Taichi from rampaging all over the last of his remaining life points. (KLP: 300)
Taichi grabbed the next card off his deck and laughed evilly, a wide smirk spreading across his face as Exodia Necros reached a level of forty-eight hundred attack points, far higher then anything Kensai could bring out of his deck. "Exodia Necros, attack him directly and end this foolishness!"
The giant black destroyer swung a punch at the weakened warrior duelist, who quickly pressed the button on his duel disk for activating a card. At that moment his face down card flipped up, and Necros' attack was stopped. "Weakening of Attack stops your attack and ends your battle phase. You done?"
Taichi just grinned and played a card into one of his magic zones, which appeared as a giant fat demon sucking up everything in his path, including a village below him. "The magic card Evil Absorption increases my life points by half the amount of life points you've lost in this duel. Since total you've lost twelve thousand and seven hundred life points...I gain quite a few!" A massive aura of light sprung up around Taichi, raising his energy levels by a great deal and healing him slightly. (TLP: 6750)
Kensai quickly grabbed his next card, and then grinned right back at Taichi. "Payment of Debt!" After seeing Taichi use the card he had seen its useful and put it in his new assembled deck, knowing how helpful it could be. So now he drew three cards, and understood exactly what he had to do.
"Monster Reborn! Revive my Chaos Soldier!" The armored warrior was revived onto the field, and swung his sword in several lazy arcs as he prepared to do whatever Kensai wanted of him. And what Kensai wanted was to get rid of Taichi's irritating Necros once and fo all!
"Banish Exodia Necros!" His soldier raised its blade and fired out a jet of light that headed straight for Necros. However at the last moment the giant creature swept the jet of light aside, letting it collide harmlessly with the edge of the barrier. Kensai moaned, realizing that Necros was also immune to being removed from the game. He should have known.
"I'll place two more cards face down. That's all I can do for now." His two cards appeared, ready to defend his soldier from an attack. Hopefully they would be enough, but he just wasn't sure at all. If Taichi found a way around them...then it was all over.
Taichi drew his next card and smirked, not even bothering to really look at his card. He raised one arm and declared an attack, sending Necros into a frenzy of punches that would crush his monster. "Mirror Force Activate!" The barrier rose up, blocking the attack but failing to destroy Exodia Necros. However, all Kensai had really needed was the attack negation effect of Mirror Force. He knew it wouldn't destroy the massive creature.
"Very well, if that won't do...then how about this? Leech Seed!" To Kensai's horror a small leech was shot out of the card at high speed, colliding with his soldier and gripping tight onto its armor. For several seconds it stayed there, and then his soldier let out a cry of agony as his energy was stolen. As Taichi's life points rose again, Kensai counted the amount and understood that Leech Seed had increased Taichi's life points by half his monster's attack strength. (TLP: 8500)
Kensai took a very deep breath and drew his next card, grimacing when all he saw was a measly monster. This wouldn't help him much at all. "I'll move Chaos Soldier to defense, and summon Queen's Knight(1500500/1600), also in defense mode. That's all I can manage." His queen appeared, hefting her shield in front of her as she crouched there, ready to defend herself. Chaos Soldier dropped to one knee and lifted his shield up in front of himself, keeping himself defended.
His enemy drw a card, and Exodia Necros' aura expanded a little bit more, pumping it up to a ridiculous level of fifty-eight hundred attack strength. "Crush his Chaos Soldier!" Necros put both fists together and then slammed them down on his soldier with all its might, crushing the chaos warrior instantly. But Kensai wasn't done yet.
"I chain with the trap card, Thanks To The Hero! When one of my warriors is destroyed in battle I can special summon another warrior from my cemetery in attack mode. So I'll revive Iron Hans, thereby special summoning Iron Knight!" The two monsters rose up on the field for what seemed like the twentieth time in that duel, giving him a total of three monsters to defense himself with. It wasn't much, but it would help.
Taichi just shrugged and declared the end of his turn, letting Kensai draw his next card. He forced himself not to curse violently when all he saw was a monster. But then again, he couldn't think of a single card in his deck that could save him. The situation was becoming hopeless. "Marauding Captain in defense mode."
The warrior appeared, crouching next to Iron Knight. The captain cast a scornful glance at the weaker monster, but then cast its gaze away when it noticed the towering form of Exodia Necros, which made them all seem puny. "I'll switch Iron Hans and Iron Knight into defense mode as well." Letting out his breath he passed his turn to Taichi, knowing that the end was fast approaching. Taichi had been right, Exodia Necros had just been too much for him.
Taichi picked up another card and added it to his hand. At the same time Exodia Necros was bumped up another level to sixty-three hundred, more useless power unless Taichi was able to get past his defense wall of monsters. "Ken, that card I drew last turn...the reason I didn't use it...well it requires me to have other cards in my hand. That and it requires me to give up my battle phase in the turn that I use it in. So I'll discard my other card and give up my battle phase as the activation cost of Explosive Reaction!"
Kensai gulped as the ground beneath his monsters began to bubble and boil. He didn't know what Taichi's card did, but with a name like Explosive Reaction it was bound to be something bad. "Want to know what happens next? You do? Good! Now all cards on your field are obliterated!"
He jumped backwards just in time as the ground beneath his four warriors exploded with deadly force, burning them to cinders instantly. The heat from it was scorching his skin, but at least he was still alive, at least for one turn more. There was not telling what would happen next turn. "Now that we've gotten your defenses out of the way....I'll just end my turn since I can't attack."
He could hear the cheers of his friends on the outside, could hear the pounding of the seal against his head. He could hear the voice of his master deep within his mind, calling out to him about victory and defeat. It was a lesson he had to learn....but what had he said? "Quite dawdling Kenny, you only have about five or so more cards in your deck and its your turn. So draw and lets get this over with! I have other people to kill you know."
What had his master told him? What was the lesson? He had said...yes that was it! His master had said it after his last tournament, when he had lost the final round to a fighter with several years more experience. His master had told him that the very last lesson of a warrior was the lesson learned when the warrior found himself in a situation where victory was impossible and defeat too dangerous.
He had been told that at a moment when a warrior found himself in such a situation, that it was at that moment that the true heart of that warrior was determined. Would he be crushed beneath the pressure, or would he discover the true meaning of his life and find a new path.
Slowly he whispered to himself, coming to understand exactly what his master had been talking about. For this was such a situation. "There isn't a single card left in my deck that can get me victory, so that's impossible. And if I lose then too many others will suffer, and I can't let that happen. But what is the alternate path?"
The true question he had to ask himself...was what meaning did his life have? Could he actually accomplish anything? Was he a worthwhile person who could change the course of history, or even of another person's life? This was his moment to learn the truth, his moment to discover what sort of person he truly was. This was the moment where his true warrior's heart would be determined.
"I am Takuya Shinomori! I am a warrior, and my true heart tells me exactly what I need to do to take that alternate path. Taichi Nobuki, in this moment I cannot defeat you, but I cannot afford to lose either. Therefore I will draw my card, and I will determine the truth!" He pulled the card free with great force, watching Taichi's face as he did so.
Taichi obviously didn't seem to care what he drew, because Kensai had just admitted that there was no way to win. The rest of what he had said was all useless babble to Taichi, it had no meaning. "I'll place one card face down, and that will be all!"
Taichi smirked, drawing his card and grinning as Exodia Necros jumped to sixty-eight hundred attack points, higher then any monster really needed to be. But that didn't matter, the more power it had the better. Kensai had already admitted he would lose, so now was the moment to finish him off. "It's all over little Kenny. I've won! How pathetic of you to actually think that you could defeat me! Fool!"
At that moment Kensai's face down card flipped up, and the moment Taichi saw what it was his eyes widened as far as they could go and he mouthed incoherent words of despair. But none of that mattered to Kensai. He had discovered exactly what his life meant, and he had discovered the alternate path. He had finally become a true warrior. "Are you ready for it to end Taichi? All I have to do is press this button and Self-Destruct Switch will destroy us both."
"Idiot! What do you think you're doing? If you do that we'll both be consumed by the explosion! You won't survive the blast and neither will I! We'll both be headed straight to Hell because of your idiocy!" Kensai could only smile a quiet smile, knowing exactly what it all meant. It didn't matter, because he had determined the truth.
"Then I'll be sure to knit you a nice handbasket for your trip. Goodbye Taichi. And...goodbye everyone. Father, mother, master....everyone. Goodbye. I wish you all well, because this is for you. This is what my life means. My life means that others can live, that is what it means. So one last time I say it. Goodbye." And then he pressed the button.
The nuclear energy stored within the card were unleashed with that single touch, and both duelists were vaporized in under a second, the blast only contained by the power of the seal, protecting those outside from being consumed as well. In that brief second, Kensai could have sworn he had seen Taichi smile....
Far away from the nuclear fires that had consumed two strong duelists, Hiyazaku and his three soldiers stalked through the desert, intent on finding their way out of this strange place and finding Dartz. Once they did Hiyazaku would challenge Dartz, claim victory, and then he would be the true ruler of Atlantis!
The four of them stopped as they discovered someone standing just ahead of them, shadowed a bit by the darkness. Hiyazaku reached out with his Seer powers to try and learn something of this new mystery figure...but to his surprise his powers didn't touch this stranger. "Who are you and what do you want?"
The figure approached and was revealed. Whoever he was he didn't look very threatening at all. He couldn't do anything to them...he just happened to be untouchable by magic....that must be it. "What do I want? Well its been a long time since I've just hurt things....so I guess its time again."
Hiyazaku never saw it coming. Red flashed in front of his eyes as the knife was buried into his stomach, and with a twist and pull it was wrenched free. As he fell, blood clouding his vision, he saw the stranger dart in and out of his soldiers, cutting them down with a great savagery. "Who...who are you?"
The insane smile was the last thing he saw as his life faded away, and the last thing he heard was the answer to his final question. "I'm the one the Devil fears."
Mai and the others sat there, just staring at the scorched earth where Kensai had stood just twenty minutes earlier. So far they had been unable to move from that spot, feeling so down and out that they couldn't do anything at all. He had given his life to defeat Taichi...he was gone for good. There was no way to get him back.
"What's with all the long faces?" Autumn was the first to look around and spot the young man approaching them. He was young, just around fifteen or sixteen, and he was slightly shorter then six feet. He wore blue jeans and a black t-shirt with an image of a Blue Eyes White Dragon on it. His hair was blonde and was spiked into small locks that fell against the side of his head.
Hinata bit back a sniffle and briefly offered an explanation, a simple thing. "A friend of ours...he just died." The stranger looked abashed at bringing up the subject, but before he could apologize they all heard something like thunder.
Each of them turned to look in the direction of the thunder...and to their surprise they discovered a herd of various duel monsters charging towards them. It was a stampede! The stranger yelped and immediately took charge, ushering them towards the horses. It was a tight fit but they all made it on the two horses, and then they were off through the woods, racing away from the spot of Kensai's death.
"Sorry about that back there, didn't mean to take charge like that. I'm Kevin Hunter, and who might all of you be?" And with that a new face had joined the group, but he could not replace Kensai. What part Kevin would play in the future was yet to be determined, but Autumn had this funny feeling that in the end he would play some kind of big role.
Author's Notes: Bet that was a big surprise for you all. And Edgar, there ya go, Kevin Hunter is here. Also, Exodia Necros in the actual game can be removed from the game and is able to be destroyed by monster effects.
Original Cards
Taichi: Defense Wall, Treasure of Hell, Shadow Demon, Remnant, Amass Defense, Black Death, Renew the Body, Genocide Bomb(used by Kensai), Spirit of Darkness(also used by Kensai), Leech Virus, Blood Leech, Demon Brain, Payment of Debt, Evil Absorption, Leech Seed, Explosive Reaction
Kensai: Shield Cleaver(submitted to me by G.O.T. Nick), Jack Of All Trades, Pot of Thieves, Restore the Dead, Payment of Debt, Thanks To The Hero
Other cards: Time Jump & Cracked Hatchet(used by Little Yugi against Yami), Taunt(from the newest Japanese set, Soul of Duelist), Iron Hans & Iron Knight(used by Leon in KC Grand Prix Arc), Dark Wall of Air(Malik in Battle City arc against Joey)
Card Clarification: Weakening of Attack, which I've used more then once, is actually Negate Attack. In the Japanese anime Negate Attack is a quick-play magic card, just like Skull Dice is. I chose to make a differentiation by separating the cards and using the name translation for Negate Attack that Janime uses. See, there ya go.
Author's Note: Okay, here goes a major kick butt chapter and the first of several major duels in this arc of this story. Get ready, cuz here it comes!
Quote of the Chapter: "Fear leads to anger, anger leads to hate, hate leads to suffering..." -Yoda, Jedi Master, Episode I
Chapter Twenty-Five: Taichi's Return and the Hidden Devil
A dark haired, blue-eyed boy of about fifteen glanced up from the small fire he had been making and saw a large horse approach at a gallop. A smile crossed his face as the rider of that horse jumped from it and did a flip in mid-air, managing to turn it over successfully and land gracefully in front of the boy. "Hello there. What can I do for you?"
"You could die if you were really in a friendly mood. I'd like that." The dark haired boy sighed and rose to his feet, brushing off with pant legs. Slowly he stretched, cracking his back, his neck, and popping his fingers. Then when he seemed satisfied he fully turned his attentions on the black haired man in gi in front of him.
"Takuya was it? Sorry, I'm not taking requests of that nature. Of course if you're really determined to see that through, then if you win the once in a life time contest I can grant that for you." Kensai sneered at these words, his hand falling to his pocket as he activated his duel disk. He could the others approaching from far behind, and knew that by the time they arrived they wouldn't be able to intervene at all.
"You know something? I'm going to take you up on that. One duel to determine who lives and who dies. Eight thousand life points and no deck master. That should make this good for both of us. But don't expect to last long." His opponent, Taichi Nobuki, picked up the duel disk that lay next to him and placed it on his arm, activating it. Now both duelists were ready, decks shuffled and minds ready to go into action.
"That's all fine with me, but if you really intend to beat me you're going to have to develop new and improved skills really quickly, because without that you don't stand a chance." Kensai grinned and pulled the card in his pocket free, opening the space on his duel disk that was reserved for field cards. Then he slapped the card down, and grinned as the circle started to form around them, and the six pointed star began to make its connections.
"I don't need new skills, because I have the Seal of Orichalcos, which will grant me dark power! Power that I will use to crush you!" His hair swirled about from the force of the power of the seal, and upon his forehead formed the symbol of the seal, that dreaded six pointed star etched in green.
Taichi cocked an eyebrow in surprise at this new development, but chose to ignore it as he drew six cards, signaling that he was going to take the first move. He did so, playing a very annoying card as his first card. "My initial move is the card Defense Wall, which lets me set any number of monsters from my hand onto the field. I'll set three monsters, and then place a card face down to end my turn."
The four cards appeared, four of them horizontal and the other vertical behind them. With this out of the way, Kensai drew his sixth card and looked at it, deciding on his move. Already he had the perfect way to take his opponent down. "You're being stupid Taichi! Defense monsters can't protect you from me. So here go two cards face down, and now I summon Shield Cleaver(1600500/500) which gains dark power, increasing its attack by five hundred!"
Kensai's monster was a heavily armored warrior wielding a bladed chain which he twirled with great skill. As soon as he unleashed it, Taichi would be finished off. "Shield Cleaver, attack the middle defense monster!" The warrior hurled his bladed chain, and pierced right through a purple glob.
"Fool! You've helped me out by destroying Giant Germ, dealing five hundred damage to you and letting me summon two more in attack mode!" The two purple globes formed in front of Taichi, but the dark duelist's laughter was cut short as he heard the tinkling sound of the life point counter dropping. His eyes fell to his duel disk and he watched in horror as his life points took a severe drop. (TLP: 6000)
"Confused Taichi? Well there's a reason he's called Shield Cleaver. Defenses are worthless with him around, because he can deal damage even if your monster is in defense, and because your germ had such a pitiful defense, you lost two thousand life points! And now it'll be your turn!"
The blue eyed boy drew a card and glanced at it briefly, before playing it in one of his magic zones. The card appeared in its holographic form in front of him, revealing a scarred looking man digging up coins from the burnt ground. "Treasure From Hell! Lets both get drawing!"
The two duelists pulled free cards from the bottom of their decks, Taichi drew five cards and Kensai drew three cards, making them even at six cards each. However now was the moment of truth, as Taichi would unleash his deadly combo. "Prepare to meet a combo so unstoppable that...well you won't be able to stop it will you? Flip face down monster, Morphing Jar!"
Kensai gasped as the creepy little creature appeared, and both players followed its effect, discarding their present hands and drawing five new ones. But one thing confused Kensai. Why would he make them draw cards, then discard them? "I bet you wonder why I made us draw and forced us to discard. Simple, so this card would be more effective. Go face down card, Forced Requisition, which makes you discard the same number of cards that I did, so say goodbye to your new hand!"
The warrior duelist growled deep in his chest, and shoved the five cards into his cemetery, leaving him with an empty hand. Now that the disgusting part was over with, the idiot Taichi was left with an extremely weak monster face up. "As effective as that move was, it doesn't really accomplish anything but to give me a weak target to crush!"
Taichi tutted and wagged his finger in disappointment. Then he lowered his hand to his duel disk and grabbed hold of one of the other cards on his field, but what it was Kensai couldn't tell. "I'm disappointed that you think so little of me. I'll have you know that I planned this out quite well. So I'll show you exactly how well, by flipping Shadow Demon(400/400)!"
The new monster was a big bulky shadow shape with tentacles darting in and out of the shadows. Kensai was certain he also saw a big claw at one point, but it vanished too quickly for him to be sure. "What the hell is that thing going to do?"
"Do? Why when flipped it lets me flip an monster on the field into face down defense mode. Guess what happens next...I flip Morphing Jar face down!" The shadow sent a jet of black fire at the creepy black creature, which vanished under it, and when the fire faded away, all that was left was the hovering holographic card of the face down Morphing Jar.
Kensai cursed as he realized what that meant. But then again, he had a way past that. This combo was deadly, but nothing he couldn't get around. "Don't worry, it gets better. I now activate the second effect of Shadow Demon, which lets me flip it face down once per turn!" The shadow vanished and was replaced by its card from, exactly like it was at the beginning of the turn.
Kensai marveled at how well planned this combo was, and how incredibly deadly it could be. Taichi truly was an astonishingly skilled duelist who never failed to impress his opponents, and himself of course. Taichi didn't impress anybody as much as he impressed himself. "Think I'm done? Not quite! I'll summon Demon Soldier(1900/1500) and place two cards down on the field. That's enough out of me, so go ahead and show me what you're made out of."
The warrior drew a card and without looking at it began to berate his opponent. Something about the power flowing through him was making him act this way, he just couldn't help it. Not in the least bit. He was becoming nearly as dark as Taichi was.
"Your combo is impressive, but it won't stand a chance against me. Not only can my Shield Cleaver deal damage when your monsters are in defense, but it can also destroy any monster it attacks face down without going into the damage step and without the monster being flipped. All I have to do is destroy your Morphing Jar with my Shield Cleaver, and then your combo is undone!"
Taichi just shrugged and grinned slightly, obviously unafraid of Kensai's threats. Well he'd just have to make Taichi fear him...and his newest card would help with that. It would also help him reduce his opponent's monster number. "I summon Iron Hans(1200500/1000)!" Kensai's new monster appeared on the field, revealing a bearded wild man holding a stout axe. It let out a bellow of challenge and swung its axe around, ready to do battle.
"Now according to its effect I special summon one Iron Knight(700500/500) to the field in attack mode!" The monster shimmered into view as a black armored knight hefting a jousting stick that appeared extremely sharp at the end. It was weak, but it had its strong points, particularly its ability to be special summoned so easily.
"Ooo, two weak little monsters and one stronger one. Do you really think you can beat me just by summoning lots of pathetic warriors?" With these words Taichi burst out laughing, his ice blue eyes shining with mirth. The idea of him losing to Taichi was laughable, but then again there was something different about this duel then any other.
"That's right, they will! Its called strength in numbers Taichi, or don't you know the basics about battle and math? Let me demonstrate strategy for you as I cut down your Morphing Jar using my Shield Cleaver's effect, and slice up your two Giant Germs with Iron Hans and Iron Knight!"
The three monsters went into action, the axe wielder and the knight charged across the field, weapons at the ready. The Shield Cleaver simply hurled its bladed chain with incredible speed, sending it flying towards Taichi's face down monster. "I chain with Taunt, a permanent trap that lets me make one monster on my field the attack target of all your monsters!"
Kensai gasped as his monsters changed direction towards the Demon Soldier, which brandished its wicked look blade menacingly look. By the look of things his two weaker monsters would reach the soldier first, and he'd lose life points, which he didn't need to lose. "Go face down card, Waboku! Protect my monsters!"
The demon casually batted aside both the Iron Knight and Iron Hans with a slap of his blade. The two monsters were knocked backwards to their starting points, where they landed on their backs. The Shield Cleaver however had simply changed the direction of its bladed chain, which pierced into the demon's belly. (TLP: 5800)
"Idiot! That move may save you once, but it gets rid of one of your better monsters and lets me clear up the field. With Demon Soldier gone, next turn I'll be able to attack your other monsters and ruin your combo!" Kensai raised one clenched fist out in front of him, smirking as he taunted his opponent. It wasn't like Taichi to make such a stupid error, but maybe Kensai was just better then he had been before. Yes, under normal circumstances that move would have smashed his other monsters and left Demon Soldier intact, but the seal had saved him.
"Who said my soldier would be gone? As a matter of fact it'll be sticking around thanks to another permanent trap card called Remnant! By reducing my soldier's defense power by five hundred I can let him stay on the field even though he would have been destroyed!" Kensai could only grimace as the demon pulled the bladed chain free of its belly, and hurled it back at Shield Cleaver, who caught the chain and once again readied himself for combat.
Now it was Taichi's turn again, and Kensai knew exactly what was going to happen. He was about to lose a lot of cards, and he couldn't do anything about it. Taichi smirked as he looked over his hand and casually folded it up, ready to make his move. "Remember how it goes? First I flip Morphing Jar, causing us to discard or hands, three from me and none from you. Then we each draw five, and Forced Requisition makes you lose three cards from that hand thanks to the cards I discarded."
Again the Morphing Jar flipped up, and the two players went into action, drawing the necessary cards required of the deadly jar. Then Kensai selected three cards very carefully and shoved them into his cemetery. "Next up, I flip Shadow Demon to flip my Morphing Jar face down!"
The shadowy creature appeared again, and this time it forced the laughing jar back into face down position using several gross looking tentacles, and to Kensai's surprise, the claw he thought he had seen. "Now I'll flip Shadow Demon face down again. Fun isn't it?"
The monster issued forth a belch of some kind of noxious gas, and then reverted into its face down position, leaving Taichi free to pull off the combo in the next turn. That is, if Kensai didn't find a way past Demon Soldier in the next turn. "Poor fool, you've left your weak Iron Knight out in the open, so I met as well relieve you of it. Demon Soldier, decapitate that weakling!"
The demonic creature rushed forward and jumped into the air, swinging its serrated scimitar down at his much weaker Iron Knight. If the attack connected then Kensai would be down one monster, and down seven hundred life points. "Activate Monster Relief! Now I can return one of my monster's to my hand, and then I can special summon a level four or less monster from my hand!"
Taichi grinned, expecting Iron Knight to vanish and be replaced by another monster. But to his surprise Iron Hans vanished, and was soon replacing by the familiar face of Marauding Captain(1200500/400), who brandished his two blades and grinned mischievously. "And since Marauding Captain was summoned, I'll summon Swift Black Ninja(1700500/1000) from my hand!"
In a blur the black clad ninja appeared, holding his daggers and moving in quick, jerky motions. It was obvious he was a speed freak, and didn't like sitting around and not being in action. Taichi just grinned at this, knowing that Marauding Captain hadn't been summoned in time to stop his attack from connecting with the Iron Knight, who feebly threw up his metal clad arm in defense. "Say goodbye to your knight!"
But to Taichi's surprise the knight fended off the demon's scimitar and then thrust his jousting stick straight into its belly, piercing it. The demon soldier grasped its belly and staggered backwards, keeping its blood from flowing. "How is this possible? My demon was seven hundred points stronger!"
Kensai just smirked, and began to explain. "Iron Knight comes with an added effect, when Iron Hans is not on the field he gains one thousand attack points, putting him up to twenty-two hundred, three hundred greater then your Demon Soldier." Taichi grimaced as his life points dipped slightly, and he was forced to drop his demon's defense points down to five hundred.
"Very impressive move. It appears that you've improved by a great degree. I'll set two cards face down to end my turn." With that, two more cards appeared beside his other three face up cards, filling up his magic and trap zones. Kensai grinned, not caring about these new cards, they couldn't help Taichi. (TLP: 5500)
He pulled free the top card of his deck and examined it carefully before deciding on what move to make. Now was the time to unveil another effect of his seal besides the dark power it granted him and his monsters, now was the time to unveil true power. "First I'll set one card face down. And next I'll summon Iron Hans, which will let me summon another Iron Knight and drop my other Iron Knight down to twelve hundred again!"
The bearded woodsman appeared and was followed by a second armored black knight, who hefted his jousting stick and marched up next to his companion knight. With this summoning it made a total of six monsters, which made no sense at all. "That's impossible! You can't have six monsters, there are only five monster zones."
"True, but the effect of the seal lets me play monsters in my magic and trap zones. Meaning that at the most I can play a total of ten monsters! Now I'll send Swift Black Ninja and Shield Cleaver in to attack and finally destroy your Demon Soldier, opening the way for me to attack!" With that his monsters erupted into a frenzy of motion, attacking with deadly force.
Swift Black Ninja raced across the field and slashed the demon's chest with his knives before the demon could even react. Then the demon soldier was knocked to the side by Shield Cleaver's bladed chain, which dug into its shoulder. When the chain was ripped free, black ichor shot out, staining the ground in front of the demon. "That should finish our monster off." (TLP: 5000)
But despite his sureness that these attacks would totally destroy the demon soldier, he learned different. One of Taichi's face down cards flipped up, revealing a massive army with shields overlapping in a phalanx maneuver. "My trap card Amass Defense boosts my monsters defense strength by seven hundred times the number of defense monsters I have, which happens to be two, raising Demon Soldier to nineteen hundred defense, letting me drop it to nine hundred to save it from being destroyed!"
The warrior pounded his fist into his thigh, furious that once again Taichi had been able to stop him from successfully beating his strategy. At this rate however, Kensai would drop Taichi to zero life points just by attacking his Demon Soldier. "Fuck. This guy is really getting on my nerves. Fine, end turn!"
Taichi drew another card, bumping his hand up to four cards, meaning that when Taichi performed his combo Kensai would be losing that many cards. Luckily it wasn't that damaging, and in fact dumping monsters into the cemetery was helping him pave the way for his soldier. "Ready or not, here comes Morphing Jar!"
They dumped their hands into the cemetery, Kensai not having to ditch any, and then they drew new cards, Kensai ditching four of them, leaving him with only one card left in his hand. Taichi on the other hand had five cards, but at this rate he would deck himself out. "Idiot. You're going to ruin yourself instead of me."
"Think so do you? We'll see. I flip up Shadow Demon, and then flip down Morphing Jar! Next I'll flip Shadow Demon face down to complete the deadly combo!" Again the vicious shadow creature appeared and covered the jar in a wisp of black fog, placing it down before it too returned into card form. But this combo was becoming more damaging to Taichi then it was to him.
"Now I'll show you exactly why the combo won't be ruining me! A special magic card called Renew the Body! By its effect I can take any number of cards in my cemetery that were discarded by a card effect...and shuffle them back into my deck!" Kensai cursed again as the younger duelist ejected his cemetery and sorted through the pile, leaving only eleven cards in his graveyard, counting Renew the Body itself.
"Next up, I sacrifice my germs to summon Invader of Darkness(2900/2500)! So here comes the invader, straight at your Marauding Captain!" The cloaked and cowled demon cracked its sharp claws and then raced across the field, slashing down at the much weaker monster. However Kensai had other things in his mind.
"Activate Jack of All Trades! I'll sacrifice Iron Hans to special summon Jack's Knight(1900500/1000) to the field in attack mode! And since he and Jack of All Trades are both in play, you get no battle phase!" Iron Hans vanished in a blaze of fire, and replacing him was the armored blonde warrior that was Jack's Knight. The invader was halted in mid-attack, and slowly drifted back to its spot on Taichi's field.
"You're pathetic Taichi! Already you've come to witness the power of my deck and yet still you try on! In just a few measly turns I've assembled an army of powerful monsters, only one of which doesn't have an attack power of over two thousand! You don't stand a chance!" At this moment both duelists heard the clip-clop of hooves fast approaching, and they turned to watch as Mai, and the others arrived on horseback.
They got off the two horses and approached, but to their surprise the first to try and get past the glowing green area of the seal, Autumn, was blown backwards by its powers. "Kensai! Be careful in there! Taichi is dangerous, you could get hurt, or worse!"
The warrior duelist laughed at these words and turned back towards Taichi, gesturing for him to continue with his turn. None of that mattered, all that mattered was his oath and his determination. Taichi would be ended upon his hands. "Ignore them, they don't effect this."
Taichi grinned and selected one card from his hand, obviously intent on using it. The malicious look on his face was enough to tell Kensai that whatever was about to be played wouldn't be very good for him. "Witness a unique magic card of my own invention! Black Death! This virus seeps throughout the land and kills all who come in contact with it. Therefore its place on your field and at the end of your turn it will destroy all your monsters and reduce your life points by half your monster's combined attack strengths! My math says you'll drop to eleven hundred life points!"
With these words a black fog spread across Kensai's field, and he watched in horror as Taichi flicked the card to him, and it magically settled into one of his m/t zones, ready to destroy him come the end of his turn. Worse yet, there was nothing Kensai had that could stop it! "Damn it....what do I do?"
He could hear the others cheering him on from the outside, but he understood in his heart and in his mind that he had to win this on his own, without anybody else's support. Otherwise he'd never be a true warrior. 'Well, here goes everything...', "Draw!"
He held the card down for several seconds, and then quickly turned it up so he could see what it was. The image that appeared on it told him exactly what he needed to know. This card was something special indeed. "You've actually helped me out Taichi, because you gave me fodder that I can afford. Fodder for the magic card Emergency Provisions, which lets me destroy your Black Death card since its on my field, and then I gain one thousand points!"
The black fog faded away as the holographic card exploded, and his magic card granted him the bonus life points for it. And now that he had that out of the way he could move on to the next step of this turn, and hope that he had someway to defeat Taichi's combo. (KLP: 8500)
"My next card is called Pot of Thieves! It's the brother to Pot of Greed, except I won't be drawing two cards from my deck....I'll be drawing them from yours! So toss me the top two cards of your deck." His opponent scowled, but pulled free two cards and tossed them across the field to him. Kensai snatched them up with one hand, and looked over them to find out exactly what they were.
Upon doing so he discovered he could get in some serious damage right here and now, clearing away the threat of the combo, even from being used once. Now was the time to end Taichi's reign of terror! "I'm sure you recognize this card since it's yours. Genocide Bomb! At a cost of one thousand well-earned life points I can destroy every single card on the field!"
The black bomb appeared on the field and started glowing, and then it exploded, covering everything in thick smoke, which remained for over a minute. Eventually it cleared out, somehow released from within the seal's barriers. When the smoke was gone there was nothing left between them. No monsters, no magic cards, and no traps. Just open space. (KLP: 7500)
"Since the field is clear I can use Spirit of Darkness(1600500/1000) to attack you directly and drop your life points past the half-way mark! Dark Bomb Attack!" His newest monster, actually Taichi's originally, was completely shrouded in shadow, much like Shadow Demon was. And as Kensai gave the command to attack, the dark spirit sent out a sphere of darkness which raced towards Taichi, intent on destroying him.
The ball exploded, and a loud shriek could be heard. Kensai watched in confusion as something was engulfed by the darkness, but it definitely wasn't Taichi. It didn't make sense, there was nothing on his field to protect him! "What the hell was that?"
Taichi let out a deep, and extremely fake, yawn. Then he picked up and displayed the card that he had used. Upon seeing it Kensai understood, but he was also confused. "Kuriboh? What are you doing with a Kuriboh in your deck. You run demons don't you?"
The blue eyed duelist let out a deep laugh and collapsed onto his butt, then dropped to his back. Kensai growled deep in his chest as he watched the other duelist roll around on the ground, clutching his sides as he laughed hysterically. "Damn it! What's so funny?"
After about a minute more of this idiocy the dark duelist managed to shake off the laughter and rise to his feet, still clutching his sides to avoid breaking out in another fit of laughter. "You and how stupid you are. Kuriboh may be a pathetic furball, but it's actually a demon. It may be cute and cuddly, but it happens to be a fav...never mind that. Is your turn done?"
Kensai nodded, absently wondering what Taichi had been about to say before he had corrected himself. The only time that he had heard the other duelist correct himself was when he had been doing it to be taunting, which didn't fit in that instance.
Taichi finally got full control over his laughter and took that time to start up his turn. Kensai just had to hope that of the two cards that Taichi had, neither was useful. Right now he had a good advantage, and he wanted to keep that. "Kensai, you're very eager to crush me aren't you. But you can't beat me using my own monster, that's just foolish. Because eventually it will just return to me."
"Maybe under normal circumstances it might, but since I summoned it the Spirit of Darkness belongs to me. Its my monster now!" Taichi just shrugged and inserted one of his two cards into a m/t zone. Upon activation the holographic form appeared, and Kensai understood exactly what Taichi had been talking about.
"Snatch Steal grants me permanent control over your monster, all that is needed is that you will gain one thousand life points during each of your standby phases. Of course, since at the moment you can't defense yourself, I'll attack directly!" A giant bag dropped over his dark creature and pulled it over to Taichi's side, where the bag opened and it was released. Then the dark spirit shot out the black sphere that was its attack.
The black bomb exploded across Kensai's chest, hurling him backwards and into the edge of the seal, which shocked his back. Gasping for air he struggled to his feet and stood strong, knowing that despite the sudden change in control, he wasn't out of the running quite yet. "Now I'll set a single card face down, and end my turn." (KLP: 5400)
Kensai started off by drawing a card, and when he did so he also gained the life points from Snatch Steal. To his great delight he discovered exactly what card he had drawn, and it would turn the duel back in his favor. "Prepare for this deadly charge! Swift Knight Gaia(2300500/2100), mow Taichi down!"
The purple clad knight marched down on his horse, and then at Kensai's command he took off across the field at a swift trot, readying his jousting stick to deal serious damage to Taichi. "Black Death isn't the only disease awaiting you. And since you just wandered into leech infested waters, I'd say you're in for a nasty surprise. Activate face down card, Leech Virus!"
Gaia let out a loud bellow at the same time as his horse neighed, and Kensai saw why. Climbing up the horses legs and onto Gaia's armor were red and black leeches, each one pulsing with a strange inner light as they covered the knight and his horse. "What's going on?"
"Leech Virus is a permanent trap that acts as an equip card. It prevents Gaia from attack or changing positions. And of course each turn my virus will leech away some of your knight's power, granting me half of its attack power to my life points each turn." Kensai cursed again, causing Taichi to laugh at him. Already the situation had turned against Kensai, with one of his best monsters trapped and helping Taichi. (KLP: 6400)
As soon as Taichi's turn began, the reason for the leech's inner light was discovered. Globes of red light filtered out of the disgusting creatures and were absorbed into Taichi's body, powering him up for each globe. "Excellent! Now I'll just set one card and end my turn." (TLP: 6400)
Kensai started off his turn by gaining the life pints from Taichi's magic card. However unless the card he drew was a monster he'd be in bad shape. Slowly he turned his eyes down upon the card, and grinned as he did so. "Wandering Hero Freed(1700500/1000)! Appear and help me destroy Taichi by destroying the Spirit of Darkness!"
The blonde warrior was summoned to the field, the green symbol of the seal shining bright upon his forehead, giving him a sinister look. He raised his blade high overhead and then started a charge to reach the Spirit of Darkness. "Apparently you didn't learn your lesson about marching through leech infested warriors the first time around. Reveal trap, Blood Leech!"
From the ground came a huge blood red leech which slammed into his warrior's chest, knocking him backwards. In a swift motion it wrapped around Freed's body, making him too heavy to do any moving. "Now your hero can't attack or change positions, and of course each of my standby phases you lose life points equal to half its base attack. Now you're trapped even worse!" (KLP: 7400)
Taichi drew his next card, and his two cards went into action. Again dozens of globes of red light filtered out of his knight and were absorbed into Taichi's body. Then the massive leech around his hero squeezed tight, causing him to cough up blood. And to Kensai's surprise he discovered that his lip was bleeding. He was reacting with his monster! (TLP: 7800, KLP: 6550)
"Now here's a unique monster for you, a weak demon with the ability to attack directly. Demon Brain(400/300)! He's got another ability, but for the moment I'll just use him to inflict direct damage!" The monster was a brain about the size of a person, except this brain had tendrils with sharp suckers on the ends extending out of it. And using this tendrils it lashed out, striking Kensai across the face and cutting into his skin. He grimaced and wiped the blood off, ignoring the shouts of terror from his companions outside the seal. (KLP: 6150)
Kensai picked up his next card, not really noticing as he regained life points. He would have been gaining life points faster then he was losing them, but now with that Demon Brain attacking him, it was turning around. And Taichi was gaining life points as well! "Graceful Charity."
He picked up the three cards and looked over them, quickly deciding exactly what card he wanted to keep. Now he was about to crush that little brain and deal some serious damage! "I remove one light type and one dark type from my cemetery to special summon Chaos Emperor Dragon-Messenger of the Apocalypse(3000500/2500)!"
Two streams of energy erupted next to him, one of dark and one of light. They quickly merged together and formed in a bright flash the mighty dragon that was the second of his two mightiest monsters. "Nuke that puny little brain!"
His dragon opened its mouth wide and sent out a stream of multi-colored energy which streaked straight towards the brain. But at the last moment the brain latched on to Spirit of Darkness with its tendrils, and the energy missed it, crashing into the barrier. "Remember that other ability I mentioned? Well during my opponent's turn my Demon Brain can union with another demon on the field, and at that time the demon monster its unioned with cannot be the target of an attack. So you can't attack me at all!" (KLP: 7150)
With that out of the way it became Taichi's turn, and once again the leeches on his knight strengthened Taichi, and he lost a little bit more blood from the leech on his Freed. It wasn't enough blood to make him woozy, but it was annoying. (TLP: 9200, KLP: 6300)
"Here we go, Payment of Debt to draw three cards." Taichi picked up his three cards, examined them and casually set two of them down on the field. Then he commanded his Demon Brain to attack, and it did so, this time slashing Kensai's chest and drawing more blood with this sharp suckers. (KLP: 5900)
As he started his turn, Kensai was fully aware that any attack he made would be futile. At this rate it wasn't worth anything to just continue the way they had, because at this pace it would take forever for Taichi to actually drain his life points. No, he had a better way to deal with this. (KLP: 6900)
"Say goodbye to your new combo Taichi. I pay the one thousand life points necessary to activate my dragon's special ability. Apocalyptic Eruption!" His dragon tilted its head up and sent streamers of multi-colored energy shooting above them. The streamers arced back down, crashing into the ground with dreadful force.
"I won't lose like that! Activate Forced Ejection Machine, sending that monster back to your hand!" Kensai blinked in surprise as a machine appeared beneath his dragon, and then shot it straight up, where it vanished, letting him pick it up off his duel disk. That move made no sense at all. Taichi should have known that sending it back to his hand wasn't going to stop its effect. That was an amateur move...so what was Taichi up to?
Smoke filled the air, and when it had all faded the field was clear of monsters, and according to Kensai's math that meant that nine cards had gone to the cemetery from his monster's effect, meaning Taichi would take twenty-seven hundred points of damage. (TLP: 6500, KLP: 5900)
"You know Taichi, you actually helped me just then. Because my dragon is a special summon and I never went into my battle phase, you just gave me a chance to put the hurting on you. So by removing another dark type and another light type, I'll summon it again!" For the second time in that duel his massive dragon rose up, and let out a deafening roar, nearly knocking both duelists off their feet by its sheer force.
"Apocalypse Flame!" His dragon arched its head and then shot it forwards like a striking serpent, sending a wide stream of multi-colored power at Taichi. The beam of lights struck Taichi dead center in the chest and picked him up off his feet, pressing him up against the barrier of the seal. After several seconds of this the energy faded, and Taichi dropped to his feet, his shirt gone and his chest scorched from the deadly energies. (TLP: 3000)
The blue-eyed, dark haired duelist reached towards his duel disk with a shaky hand, his body quivering and nearly dead from the horrible power of Kensai's last attack. A direct attack of such magnitude in the reality that came under the Seal of Orichalcos was apparently more then even Taichi could take, because Kensai knew that Taichi had healed himself of heavy injuries before.
Slowly the dark haired duelist tilted his eyes up to connect with Kensai's, and he started to laugh. The laugh came from deep within his belly and soon built up to something that was almost hysterical. Kensai was certain that Taichi was basically insane...but there was something odd about this laughter. "The end is about to come Taichi, it will soon reach out and grasp hold of you!"
As he spoke these words five spaces in front of him exploded...and giant holographic card forms of the five pieces of Exodia rose up and floating above them, resting over Taichi's head. Was Taichi about to summon Exodia? But how? He had no monsters! "This card will cause your demise! PACT WITH EXODIA!"
Kai let out a deep sigh as he relaxed in the waters, lounging there and cooling off his body. Several feet away, also in the water, Serenity and Drake were either having a very loud discussion, or they were arguing.
After a bit of fast talking on his part, Drake had managed to convince Serenity that he hadn't been spying, a feat which amazed Kai. Of course he realized that all he had to do was blurt out that Drake had indeed been spying and things would go south very fast or Drake. But just sitting here and relaxing was more enjoyable then watching Drake suffer.
Upon careful inspection Kai realized that the two were at the water's edge, and were speaking very loudly about none other then Duel Monsters. Apparently Serenity was getting lessons, and Drake was trying to make sure she knew everything she could about the game. What was odd was the almost manic way that Drake was going about it. It was like he was worried she would end up in a duel for her life and not be able to make it out...
Heck, he was acting like a man using up his last hours and trying to do something important. It wasn't like in an hour or two Drake would be gone. "I'm worrying about nothing. Right now, I just have to relax."
Taichi's laughter continued as five dark beams of energy exploded from the five pieces of Exodia. The darkness collided and a shape began to form, slowly revealing a full-sized Exodia with a few oddities. It was black instead of tan, and a dark aura surrounded it, making it even eerier then ever. "Now you have met Exodia Necros(1800/0)! And with this invincible creature I shall claim victory! End turn!"
Kensai scoffed at this and drew his card, glancing at it briefly before activating it. Upon doing so a giant image of it appeared, revealing a scene from Frankenstein. "The magic card Restore the Dead lets me move one random monster in my cemetery to my hand. And with this play I'll crush you completely! I summon Iron Hans, thereby bringing out Iron Knight!"
The two monsters appeared, the image of the seal shining upon their heads. All he needed was to crush this new creature with Chaos Emperor Dragon and then he'd be free to finish off Taichi's life points. "Chaos Emperor Dragon, Apocalypse Flame! Burn that Exodia fake to cinders!" The blaze of energy consumed the black Exodia, hiding it from sight. Kensai laughed as he saw the energies consume it. (TLP: 1300)
However, when the light faded away it was revealed that Exodia Necros was completely intact, not beaten at all! Yet he had seen Taichi's life points drop, he had seen the blast strike. The creature should be dead! "Idiot! I told you he was invincible, and I meant it. You can't destroy him like that!"
Kensai just smirked, knowing that he had his own method to get rid of this paltry monster. If he couldn't deal with it through battle, he'd just crush it using his dragon's special effect, dropping Taichi down to his lowest level of life points. "Well then let Exodia Necros burn in the fires of my monster's great power! Apocalyptic Eruption!" (KLP: 4900)
For the second time in that duel the dragon tilted its head up and shot out the streams of energy. They crashed down upon every creature there, including the dragon itself. He heard his monsters cry out in pain as they were consumed, and he heard Exodia Necros bellow as well. (TLP: 400)
The warrior duelist blinked at that number, not understanding how it was possible. There had been four cards on the field. His dragon, Iron Hans, Iron Knight, and Exodia Necros. That should have been twelve hundred points of damage, leaving Taichi with just one hundred left. If he still had four hundred then that meant. "HAHAHAHAHAHAHA! Exodia Necros won't be beaten by monster effects either! He literally can't be destroyed!"
And there he was, the mighty form of Exodia Necros towering up above him. He gulped, understanding that he had just foolishly cleared his field of monsters, and he had no magic or trap cards to defend himself with. "I don't care if you can attack me directly, because all I need is a monster with twenty-two hundred attack points to win this duel! Your monster is invincible, but its still weak!"
To his surprise Taichi just laughed at this, and as soon as he started his turn the aura around Exodia Necros grew slightly, and the power meter for it rose as well. But it didn't make sense, how could it be getting stronger? "Weak is it? At the moment perhaps, but during each of my turns it gains five hundred attack points, meaning now its at twenty-three hundred, and you need a monster of twenty-seven hundred or more attack points to beat it!"
He grimaced, and Taichi just laughed again, before casting out his hand and declaring an attack. Exodia Necros raised one fist and thrust it forwards, connecting directly with Kensai's chest, sending him flying backwards. His friends shouted out for him to stay strong, but he ignored them. "Now I'll set a card down to finish off my turn." (KLP: 2600)
Taking a deep breath Kensai drew a card and looked down at it. Then he broke out laughing, a cold and victorious look on his face. "Twenty-seven hundred or higher you said? Well how about thirty-five hundred? Rise up, Chaos Soldier-Messenger of Creation(3000500/2500)!" The ground exploded with dark and light energies colliding together all over the field, slowly coalescing into the mighty black and gold armored warrior that was Kensai's favorite monster.
"With this one attack I will rid the world of your horror, and you can't escape it. Want to know why? Well that's because when you lose a duel under the influence of the Seal of Orichalcos...you lose your soul! And with no soul you won't be able to do anything at all! Now for the final blow, Chaos Blade!"
His soldier met a horizontal sweep with his blade, sending a ribbon of golden power streaking across the ground towards the weaker Exodia Necros. Kensai's grin followed that ribbon of power each inch of the way, all the way until it collided with a wall of...something dark and moving rapidly. "Dark Wall of Air prevents me from being attacked by monsters this turn! A wasted effort!"
As soon as Taichi took his turn, Exodia Necros' aura expanded again, raising its power to a more impressive twenty-eight hundred. But it was still too weak to match up to the Chaos Soldier, whose enormous power was boosted by the darkness of the Seal of Orichalcos. "Pot of Greed."
Taichi examined his two new cards, and then casually placed them on the field, grinning as they appeared in front of him in holo form. Knowing that he had nothing else to do in this turn, he declared the end, and watched as Kensai drew his card. Now it was time for Kensai to make his decision.
'If I attack, I could conceivably defeat Taichi here and now. But those two face down cards are almost definitely traps. I could use my soldier's removal effect, but who knows if that even works on his Necros. And of course that won't get me past his traps.' Thoughts like these filled his head as he warred with himself on whether or not to attack, realizing that this could be a crucial moment.
"What are you waiting for Ken? Don't tell me you're afraid of my weaker Necros! How absolutely pathetic. I thought you were a strong person because of how willing you were to challenge me knowing how I had crushed every other duelist I've faced. But now you back down? How laughable!" And of course he tossed his head back and laughed maniacally. Mai and the others outside the seal shouted to Kensai, praying that he wouldn't fall for such an obvious mind game. He couldn't possibly be that stupid.
"Back down? Me? Not a snowball's chance in Hell! Chaos Soldier, slice and dice Exodia Necros like it was a Thanksgiving Turkey!" His soldier gave him a quick nod and then slashed its sword twice in the air, sending an x-shaped golden energy beam at the weaker Exodia Necros. Outside the seal the others groaned in agony, and Taichi laughed his head off.
"Reveal face down cards, Time Jump and Cracked Hatchet! Cracked Hatchet reduces one monster on the field by five hundred attack points times the number of turns its been set...and Time Jump accelerates time by three turns, dropping your soldier by fifteen hundred and raising Necros by the same amount!" The now even mightier Exodia Necros batted the golden beam aside and then swung with its other fist, crushing Chaos Soldier in a single blow, shattering him and most of Kensai's life points.
"Shit. I should have known. I'll place one card onto the field and declare my turn's end!" The card materialized, leaving that as his only defense between him and the mighty Exodia Necros. There was absolutely nothing else to stop Taichi from rampaging all over the last of his remaining life points. (KLP: 300)
Taichi grabbed the next card off his deck and laughed evilly, a wide smirk spreading across his face as Exodia Necros reached a level of forty-eight hundred attack points, far higher then anything Kensai could bring out of his deck. "Exodia Necros, attack him directly and end this foolishness!"
The giant black destroyer swung a punch at the weakened warrior duelist, who quickly pressed the button on his duel disk for activating a card. At that moment his face down card flipped up, and Necros' attack was stopped. "Weakening of Attack stops your attack and ends your battle phase. You done?"
Taichi just grinned and played a card into one of his magic zones, which appeared as a giant fat demon sucking up everything in his path, including a village below him. "The magic card Evil Absorption increases my life points by half the amount of life points you've lost in this duel. Since total you've lost twelve thousand and seven hundred life points...I gain quite a few!" A massive aura of light sprung up around Taichi, raising his energy levels by a great deal and healing him slightly. (TLP: 6750)
Kensai quickly grabbed his next card, and then grinned right back at Taichi. "Payment of Debt!" After seeing Taichi use the card he had seen its useful and put it in his new assembled deck, knowing how helpful it could be. So now he drew three cards, and understood exactly what he had to do.
"Monster Reborn! Revive my Chaos Soldier!" The armored warrior was revived onto the field, and swung his sword in several lazy arcs as he prepared to do whatever Kensai wanted of him. And what Kensai wanted was to get rid of Taichi's irritating Necros once and fo all!
"Banish Exodia Necros!" His soldier raised its blade and fired out a jet of light that headed straight for Necros. However at the last moment the giant creature swept the jet of light aside, letting it collide harmlessly with the edge of the barrier. Kensai moaned, realizing that Necros was also immune to being removed from the game. He should have known.
"I'll place two more cards face down. That's all I can do for now." His two cards appeared, ready to defend his soldier from an attack. Hopefully they would be enough, but he just wasn't sure at all. If Taichi found a way around them...then it was all over.
Taichi drew his next card and smirked, not even bothering to really look at his card. He raised one arm and declared an attack, sending Necros into a frenzy of punches that would crush his monster. "Mirror Force Activate!" The barrier rose up, blocking the attack but failing to destroy Exodia Necros. However, all Kensai had really needed was the attack negation effect of Mirror Force. He knew it wouldn't destroy the massive creature.
"Very well, if that won't do...then how about this? Leech Seed!" To Kensai's horror a small leech was shot out of the card at high speed, colliding with his soldier and gripping tight onto its armor. For several seconds it stayed there, and then his soldier let out a cry of agony as his energy was stolen. As Taichi's life points rose again, Kensai counted the amount and understood that Leech Seed had increased Taichi's life points by half his monster's attack strength. (TLP: 8500)
Kensai took a very deep breath and drew his next card, grimacing when all he saw was a measly monster. This wouldn't help him much at all. "I'll move Chaos Soldier to defense, and summon Queen's Knight(1500500/1600), also in defense mode. That's all I can manage." His queen appeared, hefting her shield in front of her as she crouched there, ready to defend herself. Chaos Soldier dropped to one knee and lifted his shield up in front of himself, keeping himself defended.
His enemy drw a card, and Exodia Necros' aura expanded a little bit more, pumping it up to a ridiculous level of fifty-eight hundred attack strength. "Crush his Chaos Soldier!" Necros put both fists together and then slammed them down on his soldier with all its might, crushing the chaos warrior instantly. But Kensai wasn't done yet.
"I chain with the trap card, Thanks To The Hero! When one of my warriors is destroyed in battle I can special summon another warrior from my cemetery in attack mode. So I'll revive Iron Hans, thereby special summoning Iron Knight!" The two monsters rose up on the field for what seemed like the twentieth time in that duel, giving him a total of three monsters to defense himself with. It wasn't much, but it would help.
Taichi just shrugged and declared the end of his turn, letting Kensai draw his next card. He forced himself not to curse violently when all he saw was a monster. But then again, he couldn't think of a single card in his deck that could save him. The situation was becoming hopeless. "Marauding Captain in defense mode."
The warrior appeared, crouching next to Iron Knight. The captain cast a scornful glance at the weaker monster, but then cast its gaze away when it noticed the towering form of Exodia Necros, which made them all seem puny. "I'll switch Iron Hans and Iron Knight into defense mode as well." Letting out his breath he passed his turn to Taichi, knowing that the end was fast approaching. Taichi had been right, Exodia Necros had just been too much for him.
Taichi picked up another card and added it to his hand. At the same time Exodia Necros was bumped up another level to sixty-three hundred, more useless power unless Taichi was able to get past his defense wall of monsters. "Ken, that card I drew last turn...the reason I didn't use it...well it requires me to have other cards in my hand. That and it requires me to give up my battle phase in the turn that I use it in. So I'll discard my other card and give up my battle phase as the activation cost of Explosive Reaction!"
Kensai gulped as the ground beneath his monsters began to bubble and boil. He didn't know what Taichi's card did, but with a name like Explosive Reaction it was bound to be something bad. "Want to know what happens next? You do? Good! Now all cards on your field are obliterated!"
He jumped backwards just in time as the ground beneath his four warriors exploded with deadly force, burning them to cinders instantly. The heat from it was scorching his skin, but at least he was still alive, at least for one turn more. There was not telling what would happen next turn. "Now that we've gotten your defenses out of the way....I'll just end my turn since I can't attack."
He could hear the cheers of his friends on the outside, could hear the pounding of the seal against his head. He could hear the voice of his master deep within his mind, calling out to him about victory and defeat. It was a lesson he had to learn....but what had he said? "Quite dawdling Kenny, you only have about five or so more cards in your deck and its your turn. So draw and lets get this over with! I have other people to kill you know."
What had his master told him? What was the lesson? He had said...yes that was it! His master had said it after his last tournament, when he had lost the final round to a fighter with several years more experience. His master had told him that the very last lesson of a warrior was the lesson learned when the warrior found himself in a situation where victory was impossible and defeat too dangerous.
He had been told that at a moment when a warrior found himself in such a situation, that it was at that moment that the true heart of that warrior was determined. Would he be crushed beneath the pressure, or would he discover the true meaning of his life and find a new path.
Slowly he whispered to himself, coming to understand exactly what his master had been talking about. For this was such a situation. "There isn't a single card left in my deck that can get me victory, so that's impossible. And if I lose then too many others will suffer, and I can't let that happen. But what is the alternate path?"
The true question he had to ask himself...was what meaning did his life have? Could he actually accomplish anything? Was he a worthwhile person who could change the course of history, or even of another person's life? This was his moment to learn the truth, his moment to discover what sort of person he truly was. This was the moment where his true warrior's heart would be determined.
"I am Takuya Shinomori! I am a warrior, and my true heart tells me exactly what I need to do to take that alternate path. Taichi Nobuki, in this moment I cannot defeat you, but I cannot afford to lose either. Therefore I will draw my card, and I will determine the truth!" He pulled the card free with great force, watching Taichi's face as he did so.
Taichi obviously didn't seem to care what he drew, because Kensai had just admitted that there was no way to win. The rest of what he had said was all useless babble to Taichi, it had no meaning. "I'll place one card face down, and that will be all!"
Taichi smirked, drawing his card and grinning as Exodia Necros jumped to sixty-eight hundred attack points, higher then any monster really needed to be. But that didn't matter, the more power it had the better. Kensai had already admitted he would lose, so now was the moment to finish him off. "It's all over little Kenny. I've won! How pathetic of you to actually think that you could defeat me! Fool!"
At that moment Kensai's face down card flipped up, and the moment Taichi saw what it was his eyes widened as far as they could go and he mouthed incoherent words of despair. But none of that mattered to Kensai. He had discovered exactly what his life meant, and he had discovered the alternate path. He had finally become a true warrior. "Are you ready for it to end Taichi? All I have to do is press this button and Self-Destruct Switch will destroy us both."
"Idiot! What do you think you're doing? If you do that we'll both be consumed by the explosion! You won't survive the blast and neither will I! We'll both be headed straight to Hell because of your idiocy!" Kensai could only smile a quiet smile, knowing exactly what it all meant. It didn't matter, because he had determined the truth.
"Then I'll be sure to knit you a nice handbasket for your trip. Goodbye Taichi. And...goodbye everyone. Father, mother, master....everyone. Goodbye. I wish you all well, because this is for you. This is what my life means. My life means that others can live, that is what it means. So one last time I say it. Goodbye." And then he pressed the button.
The nuclear energy stored within the card were unleashed with that single touch, and both duelists were vaporized in under a second, the blast only contained by the power of the seal, protecting those outside from being consumed as well. In that brief second, Kensai could have sworn he had seen Taichi smile....
Far away from the nuclear fires that had consumed two strong duelists, Hiyazaku and his three soldiers stalked through the desert, intent on finding their way out of this strange place and finding Dartz. Once they did Hiyazaku would challenge Dartz, claim victory, and then he would be the true ruler of Atlantis!
The four of them stopped as they discovered someone standing just ahead of them, shadowed a bit by the darkness. Hiyazaku reached out with his Seer powers to try and learn something of this new mystery figure...but to his surprise his powers didn't touch this stranger. "Who are you and what do you want?"
The figure approached and was revealed. Whoever he was he didn't look very threatening at all. He couldn't do anything to them...he just happened to be untouchable by magic....that must be it. "What do I want? Well its been a long time since I've just hurt things....so I guess its time again."
Hiyazaku never saw it coming. Red flashed in front of his eyes as the knife was buried into his stomach, and with a twist and pull it was wrenched free. As he fell, blood clouding his vision, he saw the stranger dart in and out of his soldiers, cutting them down with a great savagery. "Who...who are you?"
The insane smile was the last thing he saw as his life faded away, and the last thing he heard was the answer to his final question. "I'm the one the Devil fears."
Mai and the others sat there, just staring at the scorched earth where Kensai had stood just twenty minutes earlier. So far they had been unable to move from that spot, feeling so down and out that they couldn't do anything at all. He had given his life to defeat Taichi...he was gone for good. There was no way to get him back.
"What's with all the long faces?" Autumn was the first to look around and spot the young man approaching them. He was young, just around fifteen or sixteen, and he was slightly shorter then six feet. He wore blue jeans and a black t-shirt with an image of a Blue Eyes White Dragon on it. His hair was blonde and was spiked into small locks that fell against the side of his head.
Hinata bit back a sniffle and briefly offered an explanation, a simple thing. "A friend of ours...he just died." The stranger looked abashed at bringing up the subject, but before he could apologize they all heard something like thunder.
Each of them turned to look in the direction of the thunder...and to their surprise they discovered a herd of various duel monsters charging towards them. It was a stampede! The stranger yelped and immediately took charge, ushering them towards the horses. It was a tight fit but they all made it on the two horses, and then they were off through the woods, racing away from the spot of Kensai's death.
"Sorry about that back there, didn't mean to take charge like that. I'm Kevin Hunter, and who might all of you be?" And with that a new face had joined the group, but he could not replace Kensai. What part Kevin would play in the future was yet to be determined, but Autumn had this funny feeling that in the end he would play some kind of big role.
Author's Notes: Bet that was a big surprise for you all. And Edgar, there ya go, Kevin Hunter is here. Also, Exodia Necros in the actual game can be removed from the game and is able to be destroyed by monster effects.
Original Cards
Taichi: Defense Wall, Treasure of Hell, Shadow Demon, Remnant, Amass Defense, Black Death, Renew the Body, Genocide Bomb(used by Kensai), Spirit of Darkness(also used by Kensai), Leech Virus, Blood Leech, Demon Brain, Payment of Debt, Evil Absorption, Leech Seed, Explosive Reaction
Kensai: Shield Cleaver(submitted to me by G.O.T. Nick), Jack Of All Trades, Pot of Thieves, Restore the Dead, Payment of Debt, Thanks To The Hero
Other cards: Time Jump & Cracked Hatchet(used by Little Yugi against Yami), Taunt(from the newest Japanese set, Soul of Duelist), Iron Hans & Iron Knight(used by Leon in KC Grand Prix Arc), Dark Wall of Air(Malik in Battle City arc against Joey)
Card Clarification: Weakening of Attack, which I've used more then once, is actually Negate Attack. In the Japanese anime Negate Attack is a quick-play magic card, just like Skull Dice is. I chose to make a differentiation by separating the cards and using the name translation for Negate Attack that Janime uses. See, there ya go.