Background: This story takes place in the world of Yugioh. The time is after the Battle City arc. While the main characters of Yugioh will be in the tournament, the spot-light is not going to be on them for awhile.
Disclaimer- No I do not own Yugioh. The only things in this story I own are the cards listed at the bottom.
Demon Duelist Legacy Chapter 1- Daniel vs. Robert
"Ladies and Gentlemen, let the PQ (Pro qualifier) tournament begin!" All around the announcer the crowd broke into rounds of applause and cheers. Down below the stands for the audience was another set of stands that was closer to the ring.
Milling around in those seats were all of the duelists that were in the tournament. The ring itself was right below that area and was a rather non-descript metal platform with holographic projectors set up to support the widely used Kaiba corporation Duel Disk system.
"As all of you know the top four players of this tournament will be given invitations to the Shadow corporation cup that will be held in three weeks." Another round of cheers came up as the name of the famous newly founded world tournament was mentioned.
It had been announced by the chairmen of the famous and well known military hardware company that to show their support of Duel Monsters and the strategies it teaches everyday people they are going to host a world tournament. The winner gets a wish that is within the power of the company granted. And considering the Shadow Corporation's connections in the world, not much was out of their power.
The announcer waited for the crowd to calm down before continuing. "As an added bonus, the winner of this tournament will be given a very rare treat indeed! He will win the prize of one of the rare Supreme Duelist Series packs." The pack in question appeared on screens all around the area.
The pack itself was simply covered in gold foil and looked rather unremarkable, but anyone who knew about Duel Monsters knew that the five card pack contained special cards that no one else had a copy of. Every card in the Supreme Duelist series was one of a kind. That is why there were only 200 copies of the packs ever created, each one holding five unique cards of incredible power.
The announcer was silent for a moment while the screens all over the arena flickered with the names of all of the duelists in the tournament. The randomizer system came to a stop on a pair of names and the announcer yelled out, "Will Daniel Pilkington and Robert Mulcher please proceed to the dueling arena?"
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Daniel sighed. He stood up and tugged on his blue t-shirt out of habit. "I'll see you guys in a minute." He tried to put a nonchalant tone to his voice, but he knew he was failing miserably. This duel was going to be tough.
"You'll win this one. Just keep your cool and remember what we discussed last night about your deck," Deondre readjusted his cap and threw Daniel a conspiratorial wink. Daniel smiled and threw a thumbs-up to his friend. "Wish me luck you guys." His other friends CJ, Allon and Janeam all gave him rather casual nods. They knew not to make a big deal about this duel or else he would get nervous.
("Here we go.") Daniel walked onto the metal staircase that led to the arena and marched down it with his eyes locked on his opponent, who had already made it into the ring.
The guy that he was up against looked like he had just gotten out of a military academy, with his flat top blonde hair, his camouflage pants and shirt and his medium sized muscular frame.
Robert Mulcher stood with his arms across his chest and a grin on his face as he looked his opponent over. The guy they put him up against didn't look to be all that experienced of a duelist. With his slightly bent and worn glasses, his lean frame, and his messy red hair, Daniel didn't exactly look like a top-notch player. "You're my opponent? You sure you don't want to try your luck at the junior tourney?" He laughed heartily and watched as Daniel took his spot across from his opponent on the arena floor.
Daniel's duel disk clicked into place and he drew his five card hand. "You just go ahead and underestimate me. It'll make destroying you in this duel all the sweeter."
Robert snickered and his disk clicked into place too. "You're a funny guy huh? Let's see you laugh after I crush you."
The announcer yelled into the microphone, "Begin!" The score counters in the holographic projections above the two of them and on their disks lit up at 8000 and the holographic projectors of the arena hummed to life.
("So we're playing with the extended gameplay version of Duel Monsters.") Daniel really wasn't surprised. It made the duels last longer and that tended to mean more mistakes could be allowed by players without worry of losing the match because that mistake.
Not that Daniel had even the slightest intention of losing this match or making any mistakes. He had just looked his hand over and already knew exactly what his plan was in this duel. "Hey Mulcher, I'm so confident that I'm going to win that Supreme Duelist Series pack that I'll let you take the first move. How's that sound?"
Robert drew his sixth card and put on his best intimidating face. "Sure wimp. I'll set two cards face down and one monster in the defense. End turn." The brown-backed cards appeared on his field and a light over Daniel's life point projection lit up, indicating it was his turn now.
Daniel raised an eyebrow as he looked Robert's field over. "Playing defensively?" ("I wonder what his deck is meant to accomplish. If it was a beatdown strategy I would have expected an attack mode monster his first turn, but then again he might have plans to use a face-down flip effect to set me up for an attack on his next turn.")
Daniel drew his sixth card and slapped a monster down. "I summon X-Head Cannon (1800/1500) in attack mode!" A blue and yellow mechanical robot appeared on the field, a pair of cannon barrels pointing out of its shoulders. "X-Head Cannon fire!" The machine's weapons hummed to life and barraged Robert's face-down monster with energy.
As the bright light from the blast cleared, Daniel grimaced at what he saw on the field. Sitting in crouched position on Robert's field was an odd looking creature that looked like a machine version of a football player. "He had a Battle Footballer (1000/2100) on the field."
Daniel- 7600
Robert- 8000
Robert busted out laughing. "What kind of idiot attacks the first face-down monster on their opponent's field?"
Daniel went silent and stone-faced, sliding two face-down magic/trap cards into place on his disk and pressing the button that passed his turn to his opponent.
Robert drew his card and put on a smug grin. "Now I sacrifice my Footballer to summon Beast of Talwar. (2400/2000)" As the Footballer faded away it was replaced by a tall demon wielding a pair of falchions. "And now my monster will crush your pitiful excuse of an attacker." The Beast of Talwar howled a battle cry and charged forward, blades out to chop Daniel's X-Head Cannon down. Right before it got there though the ground underneath its body exploded, destroying the creature in a flash of heat and sound.
Robert's smile faded into a look of confusion. "What was that!?"
Daniel smiled through the smoke from the holographic explosion and slid one of his face-down trap cards into his graveyard. "That would be my Widespread Ruin trap card. It triggers whenever you declare an attack and destroys the strongest attack mode monster on your field. Now who's the idiot?" When Robert growled in anger and pressed the end turn button on his disk, Daniel knew he had the upper hand.
Drawing his card he picked up his X-Head Cannon and slid it into the graveyard. "Now I'll sacrifice my X-Head Cannon to summon my personal favorite. Let's give a warm round of applause for the real trap master, Jinzo!" With a mechanical howl, a tall green armored humanoid exploded up from the ground and crossed its arms across its chest menacingly. "And just so you don't make an even further idiot of yourself, I'll warn you not to use any traps near this guy. He doesn't like that at all, do you Jinzo?" When the metal monster nodded its head in agreement, everyone in the crowd blinked in confusion. Were the holograms supposed to interact with the players?
Robert snarled even louder. "Just make your move! I know what Jinzo's special ability does!"
Daniel feigned a hurt expression. "No need to yell at me." ("Alright Daniel let's not mock him anymore.") He lifted his hand and pointed at his opponent. "Jinzo unleash your Cyber shock attack!" Jinzo cupped his hands together and a ball of black energy formed. The gathered energy stretched within Jinzo's hands for a moment and then launched itself at Robert, slamming into his chest and sending him staggering backwards.
Daniel- 7600
Robert- 5600
Daniel returned the smug smile that Robert had once been wearing and saluted his opponent. "I end my turn." The odd part was that Jinzo mirrored his master's salute.
Robert drew a card off the top of his deck and looked even madder than he did before. "I set a monster in defense mode and end my turn."
Daniel drew a card and suddenly his entire strategy changed. ("I had just planned to beat him down with Jinzo, but this card had much more potential for a devastating combo.") He picked a trio of cards out of his hand and set two of them underneath his duel disk and then laid the last one face-down and in a horizontal position. "I'll set one monster face-down on the field, and two cards in my magic/trap zone. End turn." That struck up a round of whispers amongst the crowd. Though Daniel kept his poker face, inside he was smiling. ("Won't they be surprised when they find out why I didn't attack.")
Robert scratched the back of his head and shrugged. He wasn't to argue with his opponent. If the fool didn't want to attack then it was all the better for him. He drew his next card and sighed. "I'll set another monster in defense and end my turn."
Daniel drew his next card and set it in the magic/trap zone on his disk. "End turn." Once again the whispers were getting louder.
Robert on the other hand was grinning from ear to ear. "You're one dumb guy, you know that right?" He drew and busted up laughing. "Now watch as I wipe you and your freak of a monster off the map." He slid a card face-up in his magic/trap zone. "I trigger the Change of Heart magic card to seize control of your face-down monster." The face-down monster card on Daniel's field slid over to Robert's field. "And now I'll summon my ultimate destroyer! I sacrifice every monster on my field to summon forth my all-powerful Earth Crusher! (4000/2500)"
There was an ear-splitting roar and as the three cards disappeared an enormous statue had taken their place on the field. The creature was at least 40' tall and made completely of black steel. It looked vaguely humanoid and the only distinct part of its body was the glowing red hole in the top of its skull.
Everyone gasped at the immensity of the creature. Even Daniel was a little intimidated by the thing, though unless its ability got rid of his face-down cards he wasn't too worried. "So what's your hunk of steel do?"
Robert frowned and the Earth Crusher howled in anger at being taken lightly. "I can only summon this creature during my first main phase. When I summon it all of the monsters on your field are destroyed and you lose 4000 life points, though it cannot attack the turn it was summoned." His frown shifted into that smug smile again. "Say bye-bye to favorite monster." The Earth Crusher reared back its fist and brought it crashing down, the shockwave from the blow annihilating Daniel's Jinzo and knocking Daniel himself to the floor.
Daniel- 3400
Robert- 5600
Daniel somehow managed to keep his poker face from breaking down as he got back onto his feet. ("That thing will wipe me out in one hit if it gets a direct attack on my life points.") Daniel drew his next card and didn't even bother to look at it. If he didn't stick with his plan then he had lost this duel anyway. "I set one monster in defense mode and end my turn."
Up in the duelist stands Daniel's friends were starting to see that maybe their friend wasn't ready for this level of play after all. He had forgotten to attack his opponent twice and that had given Robert all of the time he needed to gather the necessary creatures to summon the Earth Crusher.
Allon looked over at Deondre and grimaced. "The two of you worked on his deck last night right? Doesn't he have something to get rid of that other guy's monster?"
Deondre was so focused on the duel he didn't even hear Allon. ("I know what you are getting ready to do Daniel, but are you sure it was the wisest choice?") He could only hope that his friend managed to pull through.
Robert drew his next card and growled. ("I need another monster or else I won't be able to get to this guy's life points.") "Earth Crusher will now annihilate your face-down monster!" The huge statue reared back its fist and then slammed it down over the card, the monster under it instantly destroyed. "You can't hide behind your weak defenses forever. End turn."
Even before he drew Daniel was smiling widely. "I don't need to hide behind my defenses anymore. You ready to lose Robert?"
For a moment fear flashed across Robert's face, and then it dissolved into laughter. "Oh I get it! You're trying to bluff me. Too bad I don't scare that easily."
Daniel shook his head. "I'm dead serious. Watch closely now. First I reveal my face-down trap card Pyro Clock of Destiny, which moves the turn count of the duel forward by one." An ancient clock appeared in the air and the hand on it spun forward rapidly before the hologram faded from view.
Everyone sat in silence now, unsure how using that card had affected the duel at all. Finally the silence was broken by Robert. "Was that random move supposed to scare me?"
Daniel shook his head again. "On its own it wasn't. However when I combine Pyro Clock of Destiny with my face-down Rise of the Machines continuous magic card you might start seeing the possibilities. You see Rise of the Machines lets me special summon one machine type monster from my graveyard for every turn that it has been set on the field and that I have not attacked you. Thanks to my trap card that makes four turns and therefore four machine monsters."
A conveyor belt appeared out of nowhere and started rolling, with the end of it touching Daniel's monster zone. "I'll choose to first bring back an old friend. Come on back Jinzo!" The belt screeched as the revived Jinzo came out from it. The metal humanoid floated out of the way of the belt and spun to chuckle coldly at Robert.
Robert smirked back at Jinzo. "What's that piece of junk metal going to do to my monster?"
Daniel snapped his fingers and the belt started up again. "Next up I will resurrect the three other machines in my graveyard. You've already met X-Head Cannon, but let me introduce you to Y-Dragon Head and Z-Metal Tank." The conveyor belt spat out the blue and yellow X-Head Cannon next, followed by the red Y-Dragon Head (1500/1600) and the yellow Z-Metal Tank. (1500/1300).
Robert snorted derisively. "So what does all this mean? They're still a bunch of inferior monsters compared to my Earth Crusher." Behind him the Earth Crusher released an unearthly howl of anger as if in agreement with its master.
Daniel sighed. "Let me just show you. I combine my three pieces to form the XYZ Dragon Cannon." (2800/2600) The three robots seemed to blow into pieces and then reconfigure to form an enormous hover-tank bristling with weapons. "And before you say anything else, let me show its special ability. By discarding one card from my hand I can destroy any card on the field."
Daniel slid a card into the graveyard and the Dragon Cannon began to gather energy in all of its weapons. "I target your precious Earth Crusher." In a flash of laser energy the Cannon blew the Earth Crusher to pieces, leaving Robert with nothing to protect him. "And for the finale I'll trigger the magic card Monster Reborn to revive a monster from either graveyard. I choose to bring back your Beast of Talwar under my control!" As the falchion-wielding demon appeared all three of Daniel's monsters prepared their attacks, simply waiting for his signal.
It never came. Robert placed his hand on his deck and sighed. "I surrender."
To be continued...
Next Chapter: CJ vs. Commander
Author's notes: By the way I am looking for characters/decks. So far I don't really have a limit on how many more character/decks I need. Please contact me if you have anything to offer. I also accept original card ideas too.
Original cards used in this chapter
Earth Crusher
Rise of the Machines