Yu-Gi-Oh: Dark Destiny

Chapter 4: Kuriboh Combo, Infinite Assault!

The top floor of the Central Tower..., Master Bedroom

Looking into the room, you'd think you had stepped into the bedroom of a king. Velvet carpet, cultural objects everywhere, a plush king-sized bed, and a gigantic monitoring and communications console at the far side of the room.. What you wouldn't know was that a great evil inhabited the room.

Rames Akhma sat in a chair, his body seemingly without a soul. A copy of the Pyramid of Light was held in his hand...

Yugi: 4000 Akhma: 1400

Tea, who had stood aside up until now, yelled, "Atem, don't let that guy beat you! Don't let him get away with that poor guy's soul!"

"Urgh! I'm utterly confused," Atem thought, "to think that Anubis had a descendant...and at the same time, an incarnation of an ally of my past? There are too many things coming at me at once!"

Akhma grinned, "now with the effect of the Tomb of Rituals card, I summon Crab Turtle from my hand!" A gigantic turtle hybrid of a crab burst forth from a sealed rock, its menace filling the air, "and since I have already passed my battle phase, I end my turn!"

Atem gritted as he drew his card, "I can't lose this duel, or Akhma will have all the souls I wagered on this duel, and the little one won't be saved!"

Atem looked at the body Akhma had possessed for this duel, Reuben. "If I can save him," he thought, "I'd have an ally on my side that wants to get Akhma just as much as I do."

"Come on, Pharaoh," Akhma crowed, "stalling won't help you."

"I switch Gazelle and Opticlops to defense, and also set a monster facedown," Atem said, "turn end."

"It's time for payback for what you did to my ancestor," Akhma snarled, "I now pay 500 life points (A: 900) to activate Tomb of Rituals' second effect! I can revive one of my ritual monsters from the graveyard!" The Hungry Burger card reemerged on the field.

"Hungry Burger, Crab Turtle, attack his monsters!" Atem winced as his remaining defense was destroyed.

"I then set another card, and end my turn!" Akhma cackled.

Nervously, Atem drew his next card, "All right!"

"What!?" Akhma exclaimed as Swords of Revealing Light encased his monsters, sealing them for three turns. "Just as I had him cornered..."

"I'm safe for now," Atem thought, "but I'll need to find a way to destroy that Tomb of Rituals card before it gets out of hand."

"Damn!" Akhma cursed under his breath, "no matter! I will first special summon Dancing Soldier from my hand!" A woman in an Arabian dancer's garb appeared. (1950/1850)

"Just one more ritual monster," Akhma thought, "I then activate my facedown card, Gift of the Mystical Elf! For every monster in play, I gain 300 LP (A: 1800)! I also activate my other facedown card, Phasing Light!"

I've never heard of that card before, Yugi thought.

"No doubt," Atem said, "that his little cult made a few new cards of their own when they hacked into Industrial Illusions' card database."

"I know what you're thinking, Atem," Akhma said, "and you're right! This card was designed by yours truly and made real by Pegasus' technology! This card makes you discard your hand, in exchange for me paying half of my LP (A: 900)."

"Blast..." Atem thought as he discarded his hand.

"Your turn, Atem" Akhma said.

"Then I shall counter with Queen's Knight in attack mode (1500/1600)," Atem said, "and I'll flip up my facedown monster, King's Knight! (1600/1400). With both of them on the field, I can special summon Jack's Knight from my deck!" (1900/1400)

"Next turn, I can summon a God Card from my hand," Atem thought, "the Winged Dragon of Ra. Akhma won't be expecting it with the show I've put on so far."

"So you have three weak monsters," Akhma simpered, "My turn now." He drew his card. He grinned.

"I've drawn my ultimate monster!" Akhma proclaimed.

"What?" Atem gasped.

"First, I special summon Black Luster Soldier from my hand," Akhma said, as a navy-armored soldier made its appearance.

"Then, I use the card Polymerization!"

"No!" Atem shouted as the four ritual monsters of Akhma melded together, and something massive took its place. A gigantic serpent-like creature, covered in dark scales. Its fangs were as big a person, its build as tall as skyscraper.

"Behold!" Akhma proclaimed, "the Serpent Lord of Rituals (5000/5000)!"

"What is this beast?" Atem wondered.

"Allow me to explain," Akhma said, "this thing cannot attack the turn it comes out, but has five special abilities. First, all spells and traps on your side of the field, so say farewell to your swords!"

"Urgh!" Atem gritted as his only means of protection was destroyed.

"Second, its gains 300 attack points for each monster on your side of the field (5900/5000). And third, it can't be affected by magic or traps." Akhma finished.

"And the fourth and fifth?" Atem questioned.

"I'll leave that to you to find out," Akhma whispered.

"Fine!" Atem thundered, thinking, "now, I can sacrifice all my Knights to summon Ra, and use his special ability to destroy both himself and the Serpent."

"I now tribute my three Knights!" Atem yelled, but stopped, staring, "Wha-?"

Indeed, the Knights stayed on the field.

"But how?" Atem exclaimed.

"The Serpent's fourth ability," Akhma explained, "you can't tribute your monsters for any reasons whatsoever! Did you really think I was oblivious of your plan, Pharaoh? Fool!" he laughed.

"This is not good," Atem thought, "I switch all my Knights to defense mode, and end my turn."

"You're minutes away from your demise, Pharaoh," Akhma said, drawing, "I activate my facedown card, Pyramid of Light!"

"Damn! Everything just keeps getting worse!" Atem thought as they were transported to the Realm of Pyramids.

"Yugi! Atem!" Tea managed to cry out before she was knocked back. When she got up, she could see no one, but knew they were there.

"Please be safe," she thought.

"Another mystery," Atem thought, examining his surroundings, in which they seemed to be floating in space, surrounded by pyramids, "the Realm of Pyramids. What exactly is this place?"

"Sorry, Pharaoh," Akhma snickered, "but I'll tell you what. If you or your friends manage to defeat me in the finals, I'll tell you all you have to know. Now, I'll show you my Serpent's fifth and final ability!"

Brace yourself, Atem, Yugi shouted.

"He can attack all of the monsters on your field!" Akhma shouted, "Fire of the Cosmos!"

The Serpent reared up, and engulfed Atem's monsters in a field of flame. Atem stared hopelessly.

"And that's not all!" Akhma said, "you also lose 1000 LP for every monster it destroys!" (Y: 1000).

Atem sunk to his knees. He was finished. He had no way of defeating this beast without the God Cards.

Don't give up, Atem! Yugi cried from inside the Puzzle.

"But, Yugi," Atem said, "it is hopeless."

No, it isn't, Yugi shouted, remember all those times where it seemed we were finished? We got out of those jams, because we didn't give up! Remember that, Atem?

Atem did remember. He thought of Pegasus, Duke, Kaiba, Marik, and Dartz. Finally, he stood up.

"I will now draw!" Atem declared, "please, Heart of the Cards, guide me." He drew.

Atem looked at his card, and smirked, "I play the card Ancient Pot of Greed, allowing me to draw three cards!" Atem drew, looked, and proclaimed, "I win."

"What? Impossible!" Akhma laughed.

"I don't think so," Atem said, "first, I play Kuriboh, in attack!" (300/200)

"Have you lost your mind?" Akhma guffawed, "such a weak monster, not even worthy to show its face to me!" The Kuriboh made an angry face and puffed up.

"Next," Atem smittered, "I play the card Multiply, which allows me to multiply my Kuriboh by the minute!" All of a sudden, at least a hundred Kuribohs emerged on the field.

"More fodder," Akhma thought, "what is he up to?"

"Then, I play coup de grace," Atem said, "the spell card Sacrifice Assault!"

"No!" Akhma gasped as Atem placed the card in his Duel Disk, "that card, its supposed to be one of the rarest, how-"

"This card requires me to tribute at least 10 monsters to activate," Atem explained, "but in return, every card on your side of the field is destroyed, even your magic-impervious Serpent! And finally, your LP automatically goes to 0."

"No, wait, stop," Akhma begged, but in vain.

"Go, all of my Kuriboh!" Show him your might!" Atem ordered, and the Kuribohs charged Akhma's field. The Serpent roared as barrage after barrage of Kuriboh exploded against it, and reared up and blew into bits of flesh. Akhma screamed as the remaining Kuriboh blew up the area he was standing in. (Akhma: 0000)

When the dust cleared, Atem could see they were back on Earth. He saw that Reuben's body was slumped on the ground, glowing as Akhma's control over him was extracted.

"Damn you, Pharaoh Atem!" Akhma's voice cut through the air, "you may have defeated me this time. But this was just the testing round. I will make sure your bloody corpse is around to see the resurrection of Anubis!" With that, Akhma left Reuben's body.

Atem changes to Yugi

"Yugi!" Tea came running over, "are you okay?"

"Yeah, I'm fine," Yugi said, "but that Reuben guy, let's go help him."

Yugi shook Reuben's shoulder, "Hey, are you alive? Answer me, please!"

Reuben slowly opened his eyes. He pushed himself up. "What happened?" he asked.

"Oh, I remember now," Reuben thought, "that Ishizu person told me about me being some kind of sorcerer...then that Akhma guy beat me...aw geez, my head!"

"There's been a lot happening while you've been sleeping around," Yugi said, "my name's Yugi, and this is Tea."

"Hey guys," Reuben said, slowly getting his bearings, "the name's Reuben Kaine. Before anything else, tell me what the hell is happening?"

Yugi then preceded to tell Reuben of his predicament. Reuben's eyes widened,"so the Anubis Cult's behind this.."

"You knew of the Anubis Cult?" Tea asked.

"Yes. You see," Reuben explained, "I'm a scholar of Egyptian History and Mythology, and its common for me to stumble upon supernatural theories about the Egyptians, and I didn't believe any of them. Until I saw a picture of you on the Duelist Magazine, Yugi." Yugi wasn't surprised. Like it or not, he was famous.

"I now knew that if the Millennium Puzzle was real, some of the other theories may have been for real, too," Reuben continued, "and so I first began with the tale of a young pharaoh facing a sorcerer named Anubis, and I believe you know the rest of that story Yugi, and you too, Atem."

"Actually, no," Yugi said, looking down, "that's the only memory Atem and me haven't remembered yet."

"I see," Reuben mused, "we'll get to that later. Anyway, later I heard rumors about a huge blue pyramid appearing in one of Kaiba's facilities. Once again, I used my research to theorize it was the work of Anubis of some sort."

"That's right," Yugi said, "Anubis managed to temporarily revive himself and tried to kill everyone."

"Well anyway, soon after, I used my sources from the university my Dad works at to find out about the rumor of the Cult of Anubis, and their motives. Since only I knew that this was true, I then resolved to stop them from resurrecting Anubis," Reuben said, "and that's when Ishizu Ishtar came to me at the Domino Museum while I was researching. She told me how my duty to stop the Cult was tied to me being the sorcerer who helped the Pharaoh. That was then when Akhma challenged me to a 'friendly duel". The next thing I knew, I was here.

"Hmm," Yugi mused, "it seems that Akhma know more about our pasts with Anubis better than us. Our only chance is for us to duel our way to the top, Reuben!"

"Fine, I will join your team, Yugi," Reuben said, "but without a deck, I..." he suddenly felt something in his back pocket. He pulled out a deck box.

"My deck!" Reuben cried happily, "Akhma must have never thought to remove it!"

"This is great," Yugi thought as Reuben pranced around, "we've beaten Akhma in the first round, and now we've got a new friend."

True, Yugi, Atem said, however, I have a feeling that Akhma wasn't throwing all his weight against us that duel. Next time won't be so easy.

Akhma crushed the Pyramid of Light in his land. "Damn Yugi," he snarled, "I've lost one soul that I need! Well, he won't get away that easily! My best duelists have already targeted him, and are heading his way. And even should they fail, I already have a back-up plan."

Akhma turned and swept away from his office.

Next Episode: Joey, while still trying to figure out the Fortress' locations, encounters Mickey Hart, the Aussie duelist! Will Joey be able to take the Outback Fury Deck?

Chapter 4: Crocs and Koalas