Yu-Gi-Oh!

Duel for the Souls

RAPTOR'S RAGE III:

All's Fair

Last Time:

Mai Valentine puts up a valiant fight, but loses to Rex Raptor. Then, Joey Wheeler steps in, and challenges him to a duel—almost doubling the stakes. And, little to Joey's knowledge, someone of great power is watching him, waiting for the right moment to pounce.

"Lets get this duel over with," Rex Raptor said. "I've got a date to go on now, thanks to you!"

"Is that so? Well, you haven't won yet—especially considering that the duel hasn't even started!" Joey Wheeler shot back. Joey was a tall blond-haired teenager, who was just about the start his senior year at Domino High School. He was the runner-up of the Duelist Kingdom tournament, and a semifinalist of last years Battle City.

He had been in many tough battles, even managing to hold his own against Yugi Muto, the best duelist in the world, and former Duel Monsters World Champion Seto Kaiba. He'd even beaten the Intercontinental Champion "Bandit" Keith Howard, and Japanese Regional Champion Weevil Underwood. He was good at this.

His opponent, Rex Raptor, was a man of medium height, with brown hair. Under his red stocking cap, a single white lock was visible. He had on a rugged green jacket and blue jeans. On his white T-shirt was the picture of a T-rex taking a bite out of a stegosaurus. Rex was the runner-up from the last Regional Championship. He also beat one of the toughest non-title holders in the world, Mai Valentine.

"But I will win! Today's my lucky day. I took out Mai easily, and now I'm going to teach you a big lesson, about losing."

"Hey, bone-head. I've lost a few duels in my day—against Yugi, Kaiba, Duke Devlin, and Marik Ishtar."

"You've lost playing in the yards of the giant dogs. Lets see if us big dogs can take you down, too!"

"I won't lose to you!" Joey spat.

"You know, Wheeler, this duel will warm me up for when I go up against the people who beat you."

"Oh, I'll warm you up—and wear you out!"

"Would you two boys stop bickering and duel already?" Mai Valentine shouted. She was a tall woman, whom Joey thought was very beautiful. They got off to a rocky start as friends—they started out being rivals. Mai had been a greedy girl, trying to claw her way to the top of Duelist Kingdom by beating the weakest people she could find. And who was weaker than Joey Wheeler, a nobody who happened to wander in to the big leagues. He was even in a weakened state at the start of the tournament; he and Yugi both had one of the sought-after Star Chips, while the other duelists had two.

Mai joined up with Joey and his friends for a while, and then Yugi saved her from being kicked out of the tournament. She eventually paid him back, giving him five Star Chips after he lost to Seto Kaiba. She also gave Joey her Glory of the King's Hand tournament entry card, after she lost to Yugi in the finals.

Now, Joey was dueling for her. Rex had challenged her to a duel for a kiss, and won. But, before collecting his prize, Joey stepped in and offered a new challenge, which Mai supplied Joey's end of the deal for. But, if Joey won Rex would have to leave Mai alone, without getting anything.

"So, what are we waiting for?" Joey asked. "Lets duel!"

"I'll let you go first—loser's honor, after all."

"Actually, the loser gets to pick who goes first, so I think that you just filled that slot."

Rex clenched his fists, and growled. "I'll show you, you little . . ."

"So, for my first turn—" Joey looked down at the six cards in his hand. Chasm of Spikes, Little-Winguard, Rocket Warrior, Salamandra, Battle Warrior and Giltia the Knight. I can use these, if I play my cards right. "I set a card, and summon Little-Winguard in attack mode." The pair of hologram generators placed two meters on either side of Joey began to glow, and a giant card back materialized, hovering in the air in front of Joey. Then, a squat wizard with a blue cloak, giant hat, and staff appeared on the other side of it.

"My turn, and I'm already in a position to crush that little fairy so hard that it won't even leave a fossil!"

"Seto Kaiba!" someone roared.

Kaiba smirked, recognizing the voice as that of Espa Roba, a phony psychic. Roba was once a circus performer, along with his four younger brothers. Once their act was cut, the Roba family began to be the frequent target of bullies. Only Espa's dueling talents kept them at bay.

More recently, the oldest of his younger brothers became a duelist with skills that rivaled his brother's. Kaiba challenged him to a duel less than an hour ago, and easily won.

He stopped, setting his metal briefcase on the ground. Inside were his Duel Disk, deck, and a large collection of technological trinkets and trading fodder. "What do you want?"

"I want to challenge you, for what you did to my brother. It wasn't nice or fair, to remove him from his very first tournament like that."

"Fine. But I did it, so what are you going to do about it?"

"I'm going to get back his locator card, and take you out of this tournament!"

Kaiba smirked. "Is that so? Well, I guess I can duel you—for two locator cards?"

"Yes. Then I'll have three, and my brother will get his locator card back."

"That is, if you win." Kaiba already put on his duel disk by this time, and had his deck shuffled. "But I doubt you can do it."

"Come on, let's get this over with."

"Funny. I was thinking exactly the same thing. I'll let you go first."

Espa Roba began to draw from his deck, when Kaiba asked, "Are the 'cosmic forces' telling you anything about the outcome of this little duel?"

"Yes, indeed they are. They say that it's obvious that, since I am fighting for someone other than myself, then I am going to win."

"Aren't you the altruist? Well, I'm ready and waiting for you to make a move."

"Good. I'll summon Reflect Bounder, in attack mode. I'll also set two other cards face-down."

"This is almost too sweet. For my first turn, I'll set a monster and three cards facedown. I'll also activate Nobleman of Extermination to slice one of your cards out of the game."

"My Mind Control card!" Espa cried. "If you'd attacked, it would have taken control of your monster!"

"But now, it does you no good. Seeing as how only a Miracle Dig card can return cards from the graveyard."

"That's not fair!" Espa cried.

"So what? It's your move."

"I'll summon Cyber Raider, and attack your monster."

"Shadow Spell, wrapping your monster in chains and stopping it dead in its tracks."

"Oh, no!"

"And I'll attack with this monster, La-Jinn the Mystical Genie of the Lamp, bringing you down 1100 life points."

"I'll use Soul Exchange, sacrificing your facedown—" He watched as his card revealed a Dimensional Warrior card. "—Dimensional Warrior to summon Jinzo, negating all trap cards."

"That's not good."

"I'll add in this magic card called Ground Collapse, limiting you to three monsters on the field. And, by playing Amplifier, I can give my Jinzo 2700 attack points, raising with each passing turn."

Kaiba lips twitched in a smile, hiding his fear. "Just great."

"I summon Twin-headed King Rex, and equip him with Raise Body Heat, bringing his attack to 1900 points. Attack that Little-Winguard!"

"Not so fast, Rex Crapper. I have a trap card set."

"A trap?"

"Yeah. It's a little something called Chasm of Spikes. When you attack, it destroys the monster and deals a quarter of its attack points as damage to you. Since you powered it up, you take 475 points of direct damage."

"You'll pay for that. I'll play Nightmare's Steelcage, to keep you from taking advantage of this."

Joey sighed in relief. He'd managed to draw Rex out in anger. And, Rex had given up his best chance of winning the duel—his Kaiser Sea Horse card.

In his duel against Mai, Rex played a rare and powerful card called the Kaiser Sea Horse. It was a level-four monster with 1700 attack points and 1650 defense. But that wasn't what made it so good.

Kaiser Sea Horse had a very powerful special ability—which made a must-have for duelists that had high-level LIGHT main-type monsters. According to the "tribute summon" rules, a level seven or eight monster needed two sacrifices. For LIGHT monsters, the Sea Horse counted as both of those sacrifices, instead of just one.

Joey managed to get Rex to think that only it made it so he could beat Mai. He also said Rex would never be able to summon his best card, Seiyaryu, without its special ability. Rex took the bait, and removed it from his deck.

"Fine by me. I'll just switch my Little-Winguard to defense mode, and play Battle Warrior in defense mode. I also set one card face-down."

"My turn. I'll summon Uraby in attack mode. I'll also play Wasteland, a field magic card that will raise its attack 200 points."

"My move. I'll play Rocket Warrior, and use his special ability."

"What's that?"

Joey sighed and shook his head.

"What? What is it?"

"Oh, nothing big. It's just that it can lower the attack of any mosnter by 500 points, whenever it wants. Since your Steelcage only blocks attacks, it can't stop my Rocket Warrior from colliding with your monster." Even as Joey spoke, the warrior transformed into a small rocket ship, and took off, burning a hole through the thick iron bars surrounding Joey.

The rocket flew around in circles, and then slammed into the raptor, exploding. When the dust cleared, the Rocket Warrior—now back to its original state—leapt through the hole in iron bars. Uraby, when the dust cloud dissipated from around it, looked half-dead.

"Now your Nightmare's Steelcage is gone, so we can go back to attacking each other."

"Right." Rex drew a card. "You know, Wheeler, I lied when I said Seiyaryu was the most powerful monster in my deck. There's one more monster that's got more power—and a killer effect. But you'll find that out later. First, I'll play Armored Lizard, in attack mode."

"Armored Lizard isn't even a dinosaur card—it's a reptile monster, and pretty weak at that."

"You idiot! If you knew anything, you'd know that dinosaurs evolved from reptiles!"

"So what? It's not like you have a Time Wizard or anything like that to make it grow."

"But I do have a very powerful device, that will accelerate the evolution of my monster, and bring out the greatest terror in my deck."

"What's that?"

"A magic card, known as the Ultra Evolution Pill!" The Armored Lizard drank from a test tube, and then started to glow. Joey shielded his eyes against the glare, and when he looked back, a giant black dinosaur stood where the lizard had been.

"Say hello to my mightiest creature, Black Tyranno!"

"I've never heard of the Black Tyranno!"

"Well, you're about to see it in action. Destroy Joey's Rocket Warrior!" The black T-rex stomped down on Joey's shuttle man, and it exploded. Since the Rocket Warrior could only use its effect during Joey's turn, he took the 1300 points of damage.

Oh, man. I've never seen anything like this! It's only the third turn of the duel, and already I'm in way over my head. There is no card in my deck that could take it out!

"You don't have anything to stop Jinzo! While it's on the field, it negates all trap cards. So don't even bother playing any. Now, Jinzo, Dark Energy Blast!" The robed android groaned, and fired a quivering ball of darkness at Kaiba's green magician. The ball hit, and the genie was sucked inside it.

Kaiba didn't even blink. He knew that this was just a temporary setback. Besides, he had a plan. He always did. He drew a card from his deck, and growled in disappointment. He needed a Lord of Dragons and Flute of Summoning Dragons card if he was going to win this.

But I can still set up a defense.

"I play Monster Reborn, reviving Dimensional Warrior to defend my life points. I'll also summon Wall of Illusion to strengthen my defense."

"What will that do?"

"Dimensional Warrior will destroy Jinzo if it attacks, and my Illusion Wall can send it back to your hand—ending its trap-negating effect and letting me set a trap to keep you from summoning it."

"What if I find another way to destroy them?"

"It won't matter. I have a backup plan—I play Heart of Clear Water to keep Wall of Illusion safe from any attacks."

"So you think that can stop my Jinzo?"

"It'll hold it off for a while." Until I can get a Blue-eyes White Dragon on the field and blast that old machine. "I'll end my turn."

"Good. But, Kaiba, I know what your planning. And I'll tell you why it won't work."

That was interesting. "What plan would that be?"

"You plan to play a Blue-eyes White Dragon, since, right now, it has 300 more attack points than my Jinzo."

"I don't see any flaws in it yet. I congratulate you, by the way, on figuring it out."

"With you, everything is Blue-eyes."

"That's true enough, but why won't it work?"

"Simple. Amplifier."

"It raised Jinzo's attack power to 2700. So what?"

"That's not all it does. Each turn, Jinzo will gain another 300 attack points. And soon he'll be more powerful than the Dragon Master Knight!"

"If I don't find a way to stop him," Kaiba snarled. Well, that's out of the question. There's only one way to beat that thing now. I need Saggi the Dark Clown and my Crush magic card. They can win this for me.

"For my turn, I'll summon Cyber Falcon, and use it as a sacrifice to your Dimensional Warrior, leaving you with only one of your monsters to stand in my way." The mechanical falcon fired off its rockets and collided with the lanky humanoid. A small black hole appeared, sucking in both monsters and destroying them.

"Now all I have to do is take down that pesky Wall of Illusion. Then you'll be wide open for an attack."

"Really? But how do you intend to do that? Heart of Clear Water makes my Wall impenetrable."

"We'll see. You know, Heart of Clear Water only blocks attacks and cards that designate targets. If I play a non-designating card, it'll be all over."

"We'll see, all right."

"Man, that is one tough monster," Joey said. "How am I going to beat it?"

"Give up now, Wheeler, because you can't beat it."
"Then I'll just have to set up a defense." Oh, no! It's Weevil's old Parasite Paracide card. Wait! If I can bluff him into not attacking it, I can use it to infect his deck. "I'll set one card face down and end my turn."

Rex began to laugh.

"What's so funny?"

"You just made the biggest mistake of your whole career, Wheeler!"

"How's that?"

"My Black Tyranno has a special ability, and your last move just activated it."

"A special ability? Was it playing a monster card?"

"No, you fool. It was leaving your monsters in defense mode."

"But then you could attack my life points!"

"But now I can still do it!"

"You mean that this is a big Mad Sword Beast?"

"No, Wheeler. When you have only defense mode monsters, he can attack directly!"

"What do you mean? Like an Alligator's Sword Dragon?"

"Exactly!"

"Joey, keep your cool. You can still stop it!" Yugi Muto shouted. Joey's long-time friend and undisputed champion of the Duel Monsters world, Yugi was trying to save two of his friends, Tea Gardner and Tristan Taylor, from an evil soul-snatcher.

"I can? How?"

"You still have ways to stop an attack. You just have to think about it, and trust in your deck."

He's right. I got Kunai with Chain, Fairy Box, Magic-arm Shield, and a bunch of other traps. And if I play Panther Warrior with a Lightning Blade, I'll match that overgrown iguana point for point. He smiled. Rex isn't unstoppable!

"But right now, Mr. King of Games, Joey can't do anything."

"Yeah, I'll take the hit." The force of the physical blow knocked Joey to the ground. He landed hard on his left arm, and cradled it as he struggled back to his feet. He was down to 3800. He was down, but not out.

"I'll set a card this turn," Joey said, wincing as he repositioned his left arm so that he could draw and place cards on the Duel Disk strapped to it. "I'll also flip up my Parasite Paracide card, so that it will infect any monsters you play, turning them all to Insects."

"What? Insects?"

"That's right. And, you can't sacrifice any of these monsters for a tribute. Only a Machine or armored monster can hold this off!"

"But that means that I lose my field power bonus!"

"Right. So, here's where it all gets turned around. I summon Island Turtle in attack mode." The giant turtle yawned, shaking the palm trees and grass covering its back. "I'll also switch my Little-Winguard to attack mode."

"That's it! I'll make you pay for that," Rex growled. "I'll attack your monsters with my Black Tyranno!"

"Oh, no!" Yugi cried. "If that attack hits, Joey will be down to 2300 life points!"

"Now, I think I finally have a way to take out that wall. Who said I had to take it out while the Heart was protecting it?" The blue-haired sideshow freak said.

"What?" Kaiba asked. "What do you mean?"

"I can take out that Heart card without touching your wall. And there's no way you can stop me!"

"Why not?"

"Because you can't play any counter-traps! Jinzo is keeping them all at bay, remember? Or was it only luck that gave you your title?"

"We'll see. What if I had a way to destroy your Jinzo without a trap card?"

"There is no way!" Espa exclaimed. "Joey Wheeler only won because he used a Roulette Spider card, and its outcome was based entirely on luck."

"But I've beaten Wheeler and his luck. That means that I'll be able to beat you easily."

"But I've improved since Battle City—whereas you always have the same old tricks, from what I've heard. Have you ever not played a Blue-eyes White Dragon in a duel?"

"Of course I have—I got my title using other cards."

"Then let me see what you've got."

"Fine. I will. But I will not let that little Jinzo card of yours get in my way."

"How do you intend to destroy it—during my turn." As if it were alive, the Jinzo crossed its long, machine-implant-coated arms across its robed chest.

"I've been meaning to ask you, Espa: How did you get another Jinzo card after Joey Wheeler won it from you?"

Espa was taken aback. "Do you think that I'd only have one of my best card?"

"So you had two all along?"

"Precisely."

"Well, now you only have one, and I'm going to take it down."

"But for my turn, I'll play Mystical Space Typhoon, taking out that Heart card."

"That's not good," Kaiba breathed. "Now all I have is an undefended Wall of Illusion card."

"Right. Now, I'll summon Slate Warrior, and attack that wall, sending it back to my hand, but taking out your monster. Now, my super-powered Jinzo, attack Kaiba's life points directly!"

Kaiba now had 4100 life points—Espa Roba had 6900.

"It's time to get revenge on that overgrown machine of yours."

"How do you intend to do that?"

"With this. First, Lets clear away all of our magic and trap cards with this Heavy Storm!" Roba lost a few trap cards, plus amplifier. The tornado also tore away Kaiba's Negate Attack and Ring of Defense.

"Now my Jinzo is back at 2400 attack points!"

Kaiba smirked. "Precisely. Now that I've taken care of that little problem, I'll set two cards face-down." What he doesn't know is that this is a combo attack. He's about to get a taste of the cards that laid Yugi to waste back at Duelist Kingdom, and what sealed my fate in my duel against Pegasus.

Crush Card virus is going to take apart his deck, destroying all of his monsters with more than 1500 attack points. Since this psychic clown relies on powerful cards like Jinzo and Fiend Megacyber, he won't stand a chance once he activates the virus.

"Now, I'll play the magic card Stop Defense, forcing your monster into attack mode." When the card was revealed, he laughed. "Saggi the Dark Clown? This is a joke!"

Kaiba said nothing, but the plump-bodied, stick-armed clown with the distorted face laughed.

"Before I destroy that thing, I'll add this 7-Completed card to my Jinzo, making him 700 attack points stronger. Now, Jinzo, Psycho-shocker Blast!"

"Activate Shield and Sword!" Joey shouted as the giant T-rex ran up to tackle Joey's reptilian giant. "Offensive-defensive flip!"

"What?" everyone around him shouted.

"That's right, Rex—you just walked right into a trap. Now, your monster has 1800 attack points—while mine has a full 2000. That means that you lost your best monster, and your only chance of winning."

"Wheeler, you fool! That's a magic card. You can't play it during your opponent's turn."

"But I thought—"

"Only special magic cards, like Monster Recovery or Pyramid Energy, can be activated while your opponent is making his move. So, you go down to 2300 life points."

Oh, man, that was harsh! Yugi thought. Joey made a mistake, and it might cost him the whole duel. Rex is still at 7525. Joey only did damage with his Chasm of Spikes card so far.

This isn't looking good for Mai's future. Mai had a lot at stake in this duel—and a lot of faith in Joey's abilities to pull it off.

"Fine, then. For my turn, I'll play another magic card, Roulette Spider."

"Roulette Spider? But that is one of the most worthless cards in the game!"

"Not so. It won me the duel against Espa Roba, remember?"

"I also remember what it does—takes away half of the user's life points."

"Yeah, but what else? I'll have it latch on to the giant Black Tyranno card of yours." The cartoon-like spider leapt out, landing square on the dark-skinned behemoth's long muzzle, reaching out to cover its eyes. The T-rex struggled, but still walked to the center of the dueling space. A network of webbing threaded through the dueling arena, creating a hovering platform that the T-rex could spin on.

"Soon, your monster will start to spin. You get to tell it when to stop. And when it does, it'll instantly attack whatever it's pointing at—could be me, could be you. Might be Tiny Guardian or Uraby. Anything."

"But if it hits you, you lose."

"Trust me, it won't."

"Really? Then lets test that theory. Let it fly, Black Tyranno!" The dino started to rotate rapidly, the large red arrow sticking out of the spider adhered to its face pointing at Joey, then his monster, then Rex, and his Uraby. It kept spinning and spinning and spinning . . .

"I'll be back later," the spirit said to one of his nameless minions. "When Ken returns, tell him I went out to see how my tournament is going." Ken was the most loyal and helpful of all of the spirit's followers. He wasn't all that bright, though, but he could get a job done fast and well.

"Yes, master," the suited man said. He looked just like all of the spirit's other minions—a tall, muscular man wearing a black suit and black tie. He wore a pair of Ray-bans and a microphone headset.

The spirit hated them all, but they were necessary. Besides, they could do what he needed them to do, and were perfectly loyal—considering that he had a constant reminder of what happened to those who betrayed him hanging in his office.

The spirit was that of Priest Seto, the ancestor and, in a way, father-of-the-soul to Seto Kaiba. He had led a revolution, five thousand years ago, against Yami the Pharaoh, in Egypt. His forces had marched right into the Pharaoh's throne room, facing his most trusted servants.

Yami's forces proved too much for Priest Seto's followers, but he easily destroyed all of them with his ultimate weapon, the living spirit of the Blue-eyes White Dragon. But it was not enough to stop Yami. Somehow, he performed a miracle, and defeated the priest, sealing him inside one of the seven Millennium Items.

Inside each Millennium Item was a piece of the powers that led up to this Great War, the Shadow Games. Like the modern-day card game Duel Monsters, the Shadow Games had monsters, magic, and traps. Only, in the Shadow Games, it was all real, with even more dire consequences for failure.

After his victory, Yami also sealed himself inside a Millennium Item, to safeguard them all. His spirit now resided inside Yugi Muto's Millennium Puzzle, the next item on his list.

The spirit had already taken the Millennium Eye from Pegasus, and the Rod from Marik Ishtar. Even though he was a spirit locked inside the Millennium Ring owned by a boy named Bakura Ryou, he would still gain all of those Items.

Now, though, he had to get suspicion off of his vessel, Bakura. So he would act as an entrant in this competition he had started, and work his way to the finals. Yugi might be there, if all else failed, so he would win the Millennium Puzzle from him.

Somehow.

And he would do it because it was his right to rule the world that should have been his, five thousand years ago.

TO BE CONTINUED . . .

Note: Once again, before you go bonkers, the Spirit of the Ring thinks he is Priest Seto, just as the spirit in the Puzzle is Pharaoh Atem. This is a key point in their future struggles.