Chapter Three: Chaos Unleashed!
"Rikuo, I bet this duel isn't even close to getting started. Neither of us has unveiled even half of our power I bet. So why don't we stop holding back and truly unleash our power upon each other? No reason to play the wait and see game. We should both give it everything we've got and hope to have to give it more. Because if I'm right about you, then you could be my chance at achieving my desired goal." The wolf-demon gave his opponent a confused look, not knowing what he was talking about.
"What is it you want to achieve from this duel? It is just for fun isn't it? There isn't some dark and hidden agenda to this whole thing is there?" Drake chuckled at this, obviously not realizing how many times that Rikuo had ended up in a situation where there really was a dark and hidden agenda to the duel. Despite their common bonds as duelists and fighters, the two didn't know a thing about each other.
"My goal since I became a duelist. One simple thing I desire. To experience the ultimate duel where both players exceed their limits! Show me your full power and I'll show you mine, and together we can achieve that greatest height of dueling! I'm certain that this will be the ultimate duel that I desire!"
Drake slipped two cards onto his disk, and they appeared in front of him, giving him four total cards on the field, not counting his two monsters. The Spirit Barrier/Astral Barrier combo, and his two face down cards. Of course Rikuo had no need to attack and risk those face down cards when he knew that until he crushed the barrier combo he couldn't attack anyways. "Go ahead Rikuo, reveal your power to me. Show me what kind of duelist you really are."
The wolf grabbed a new card and didn't bother to look at it yet, because Refined Spellweaver was raising it's wand into the air. The new aura was a purplish color, so Rikuo assumed that it meant now they'd have to draw for a trap card. That was fine with him, traps were always useful. He picked up six cards before reaching one, then reshuffled his deck. He had five cards to work with, but no way to attack yet, so he'd have to wait. "Looks like you'll have to wait for me to show you the kind of duelist I am. All I can do is set three cards. Two of them are either magic or traps, and the third is a monster. Now why don't you show me what kind of duelist you are?"
Rikuo now had two defense monsters and Y-Dragon Head with five thousand attack points. He had two of his own set cards, ready to be unleashed on Drake, and his Legendary Weapon Howling Sword equipped on Y-Dragon Head. With that kind of attack power available to him he had no reason to worry about his opponent taking him down. Even the Blue Eyes Ultimate Dragon couldn't defeat a monster of that great an attack power. As he watched, a yellowish aura covered the field. "And now for a monster again huh?"
Drake nodded and the two duelists started drawing again, giving Drake six cards and Rikuo four. The way this was going they'd deck out pretty quickly. Rikuo was busy examining the monster he had gotten, but was snapped out of it by Drake's sudden laughter. "You wanted to see what kind of duelist I am? Well get ready, because here I come! Activate Shot From The Dark, to play Shrink from my cemetery at no cost!" Rikuo cursed, hardly believing that Drake had such a powerful card in his deck. It put his Replay to shame. What was worse was the target of Drake's Shrink card.
"Your Y-Dragon Head may be powerful, but magic gave it that power and magic can take it away. So I target it with Shrink!" The machine dragon roared as its body was reduced in size, becoming a pint-sized machine. Instead of looking like a fearsome weapon, it looked like a child's play thing. Drake had ruined his Y-Dragon Head, but at least he hadn't beaten it. Twenty-five hundred attacks points was plenty of power to deal with whatever Drake summoned. Plus he had his face down cards.
"That's not all I'm doing. I summon Refined Spellweaver's rather unstable brethren, Twisted Spellweaver(1800/800) to the field!" The new magician could have been Refined Spellweaver's twin, or him on a really bad day. Their general appearance was the same, but Twisted Spellweaver's suit was on wrong, and his wand was all smudged up. His hair stuck out at wild angles and he had a goofy grin on his face. Twisted Spellweaver was a raving lunatic.
"I bet you figure I can't defeat your monster since I've summoned and don't have monsters of great enough attack power. You're right, I don't. At least not separately. But together my magicians can easily defeat your boosted dragon!" His laughter was echoed, albeit rather more insanely, by Twisted Spellweaver. Refined Spellweaver just shot his counterpart an annoyed looking glare. Obviously the two didn't see eye to eye. The thing that surprised Rikuo was how life-like they were acting, and he wondered whether Drake could be doing it. That would mean he had magic though.
Suddenly something about what Drake had just said snapped into place, and he came to a very specific conclusion. "Damn...a fusion." Two monsters who looked almost identical, and talk of using the combined power of the two monsters to defeat his dragon? What else could it be but a fusion, and Drake still had four cards in his hand, so there was a good chance that one of them was Polymerization. And if it was, that would be a bad thing for him. Hopefully the fusion wasn't too strong, or he would be in trouble.
"Don't think I'm such an average duelist as to automatically count on a fusion. No, that's hardly my method of dueling. Though you never know, I could whip out a fusion at some point, you can't tell. But the method I had in mind was rather different. It's this next magic card: Magician's Cross! This will allow my Twisted Spellweaver and Refined Spellweaver to attack together and make their attacks equal to three thousand! Now my spellweavers, combine your power and obliterate Y-Dragon Head!" The two magicians crossed their staffs and aimed straight at the machine monster. And together they fired a wave of powerful red energy right at Y-Dragon Head. With a five hundred point difference in power the two magicians were going to win.
"Hahahahaha! This is where you see the kind of duelist I am Drake! Your barrier combination is really effective, but so is this trap combo! First up is Windstorm of Etaqua which will force your monsters into defense mode, and then Dark Mirror Force to remove your defense mode monsters from the game! Say goodbye to your attack and your monsters!" A black barrier raised around Rikuo's monsters, ready to reflect an attack. At the same time a powerful gust of wind was starting to blow across the field, forcing the magicians to struggle against it.
"Rikuo, Dark Mirror Force doesn't cancel attacks. Which means without Windstorm of Etaqua in this situation it's pretty useless. So I activate my quick-play magic card, Negative Morality! This will negate the effect of your windstorm at a cost of one thousand of my own life points. And since none of my monsters are in defense mode your Dark Mirror Force fails, and your Y-Dragon Head dies!" Rikuo raised one arm to block dust coming at him as his dragon was blasted into oblivion by the combined attack of Drake's spellweavers. Rikuo had played an excellent combination, but Drake had seen the flaw in it and capitalized on that flaw. (RLP: 7450, RLP: 7000)
The wolf general smirked, despite the fact that his strongest monster on the field and his only attacker had been destroyed by Drake's combination. He was smirking for a very specific reason. "Despite your confidence the score stands in my favor. I may have lost one monster, but I've got two more. You can't defeat Gear Golem right now, and you have no clue what my face down monster is. Do you dare to attack it?" Drake smirked right back and pointed a finger at Rikuo's defenseless defense monster.
"I think I will. Black Sorcerer will crush it!" Just like White Sorcerer before it the Black Sorcerer formed a titanic ball of black magic and then hurled it at Rikuo's set monster. It was blown into millions of pieces, briefly revealed as Rikuo's Nightmare Machine(800/2000) which was just a few hundred defense points shy of managing to block the attack. Now all he had left on the field was Gear Golem the Moving Fortress and its twenty-two hundred defense points.
"Since Black Sorcerer destroyed another monster in battle, his effect activates. I can name one type of card, and then you have to discard one of that card from your deck. So take a trap and discard it." The wolf-demon growled and searched his deck for a trap, finally settling on Reverse of the Reverse and then sent it to the cemetery. Meanwhile Drake was busy ending his own turn by placing a card face down, and then drawing because of Supply Lines. Now the turn was back to Rikuo, and he had to figure out exactly what he was going to do.
When Rikuo drew his card, a dark green aura shrouded the field. He saw that now both spellweavers were using their wands to create the aura, accounting for the darker color. It was magic again, so apparently it was a cycle, not random or chosen by Drake. "Rikuo, before you draw I want you to know that my spellweavers are a special brand of magician called Unity Magicians. When they are together on the field they have extra powers. In this case the power I choose to invoke is one that Twisted Spellweaver can only use if Refined Spellweaver is on the field. Now you must discard all cards you draw before you reach a magic card instead of shuffling them back into your deck."
The demonic duelist had to pick up and throw away three perfectly good cards before he reached a magic card that he could add to his hand. He squinted at his hand, and then raised his duel disk to peer into the graveyard. Mentally he did a count and came to a conclusion. 'I get it now. Drake made me discard a trap not just to get rid of danger, but because next turn we'll be drawing for traps, and I've already gone through five traps. Since I have less traps than any other type of card in my deck, I'm bound to lose lots of cards because of his spellweavers. Clever. I have to kill them before they can accomplish that.'
He scanned his cards, and then noticed the card he had drawn thanks to the weavers. Combined with the monster he had drawn, he was about to unleash a great deal of power upon his opponent. "Thanks for the cards Drake. Now I sacrifice my golem to summon my own physical avatar, Wolf Demon Lord(2400/1000) to the field!" A duel monsters version of himself appeared, wielding what appeared to be the howling sword. Only this one was just part of the card, and didn't give any extra effects.
"Now I activate the magic card your weavers gave me. Lord's Ascension! By tributing a monster with 'lord' in it's name I can special summon a stronger version, in a manner of speaking. So say goodbye to me, and hello to my father. Wolf Demon Avatar(5500/3000)!" The monster that took shape on Rikuo's field was an enormous creature with attack points that could easily devastate his life points. It roared at Drake, and the punk duelist took an involuntary step backwards. This monster was astonishingly powerful!
"Remember how earlier I said I'd find a way to destroy your card combination and then it would be open season on your life points? Well it is now, because I've found the way! I play Chain of Tornadoes! All I have to do is select one word, and any card on the field with that word in it's name will be destroyed. And the word I choose is barrier!" Drake grimaced as a blast of wind formed into two tornadoes that whirled across the field. They struck his Spirit Barrier and Astral Barrier and blew them both apart. Now his perfect defense lock was dead and gone, and he was face to face with Wolf Demon Avatar, an incredibly powerful monster.
"I'll set two cards face down for later. Now it's like I said. Open season on your life points. Wolf Demon Avatar, rip his Refined Spellweaver to shreds!" The behemoth of a monster lunged towards the now cowering spellweaver. This attack was going to blast away more than half of Drake's remaining life points and give Rikuo a true lead. This was going to be really satisfying watching the duel monsters form of his father break down Drake's monsters and strategy. It wouldn't be stopped!
"Wolf Demon Avatar is a powerful monster. But he's not immune to effects, so he won't last through this turn! Reveal Dimension Magic! This quick-play card can only be used if I have a magician on the field, which I do. I sacrifice a monster on my field and then get to summon another from my hand. So I'll nuke Black Sorcerer and thereby remove three of your cards from your deck, and then special summon the Dark Magician(2500/2100)!" A golden coffin closed around Black Sorcerer, and then when it opened the Dark Magician was now standing in its place in all his purple robed glory. But Dark Magician was no match for Wolf Demon Avatar either.
"Where does my monster's demise come into play with this one huh? You said it wouldn't last the full turn. So what will you do?" Rikuo smirked confidently, knowing that it was unlikely his opponent would be able to stop the attack of his father's physical avatar. He had this duel in the bag already, and all it had taken was a single monster. Seemed almost too easy. 'Almost too easy...it's never too easy. Damn, something bad is going to happen!'
"I don't need to make any further play to destroy your monster because I've already made the play that will kill it! The final effect of Dimension Magic kills one of your monsters on the field, so I destroy Wolf Demon Avatar!" Dark Magician raised his staff and fired a beam of purple energy. It collided with the monster's chest and pushed him back, shattering him into digital fragments that quickly became dust in the wind. Rikuo snarled, outraged that his father's avatar had been destroyed so soon after having reached the field. He had sworn he had Drake!
Finally Rikuo took the time to grab the top three cards of his deck to remove them from the game. He grimaced at the sight of Spirit Mirror. Not only had he lost a good card, but he'd also lost another trap. And since Drake still had both his spellweaver's on the field, Rikuo could potentially lose a lot of cards in this next turn. "My turn is over."
As soon as Drake drew his card the weaver's raised their wands and generated a dark purple aura. Now was the moment of truth. If Rikuo couldn't draw a trap quickly, he would be in big trouble. Rikuo snapped the top card off his deck, praying for something good. He turned it over and discovered something interesting. "Ha! Your strategy didn't work, my first card is a trap!" He smirked widely at his good luck and top decking skills, but lost some of his delight when Drake too drew a trap first thing. Again they were even.
"I play Pot of Greed." Drake drew two new cards off the top of his deck accoding to the effect of Pot of Greed, giving him a total of six cards in hand. That was double the number that Rikuo was holding. He once again had plenty of options to work with. Drake scanned his hand, and then smirked. He was radiating confidence now, and Rikuo could also feel energy building around his opponent. 'Now is the moment. Let's see how Rikuo can handle my full strength. My maximum as a duelist all in one move.'
"I begin with Mystical Space Typhoon to destroy your left face down card!" Drake's magic card appeared on the field, and then it sent a bolt of lightning at Rikuo's set card. It held up against the force briefly, but then it was blown away, briefly revealing Negate Attack. He was down another trap, and it looked like he was in trouble. But he still had one face down card, even though he had no monster to defend himself with. There was no telling what would happen now.
"Before I continue, I wanted to explain something. I've always had a lot of darkness in me, but at the same time I've had light in me. Light that was provided by my friends and my family. They keep me from slipping into the darkness and becoming part of it completely. Therefore I feel I have a combination of the powers of light and dark. You can get two things when you combine those two. Balance, or chaos. Now I'm going to show you chaos! Activate Baptism of Light and Dark!" His magic card took shape on the field, revealing a monster that seemed to be charging forwards on it. He didn't recognize it though.
"Baptism of Light and Dark requires that I sacirifice a Dark Magician, which I have and will. Then it allows me to special summon the second of my chaos monsters and my personal favorite from my deck. Black Magician of Chaos(2800/2600)!" A wave of energy surrounded Dark Magician, and when it died down he was changed. Now he was taller, with blue skin, and an outfit made of black, red, and blue leather. He held a deadly looking staff and he had a stern look on his face. He also had quite a bit of attacking power.
"The instant Black Magician of Chaos hits the field I can take a magic card from my cemetery and add it to my hand. In this case I take back and activate the card I just played earlier. Mystical Space Typhoon, and I'll blow away your last face down card!" Another bolt of lightning shot out, destroying Rikuo's quick-play magic card called Safeguard. It would have protected him from one instance of damage, but now he was completely defenseless. No cards in hand or on the field. This was going to be bad.
"I'm not even remotely done Rikuo. I sacrifice Twisted Spellweaver and Refined Spellweaver in order to summon White Magician of Chaos(2800/2600) to the field to join his counterpart!" Rikuo gasped as another blue skinned magician appeared, only this one's outfit was themed in white, green, and blue instead of black, red, and blue. They stood side by side, power virtually radiating off of them. And together they had fifty-six hundred attack power, enough to cut down most of his life points.
"When White Magician of Chaos comes into play I can take one card from out of play and put it in my hand. Now show me your out of play pile." The wolf-demon pulled the six out of play cards from his pocket and walked to the middle of the field, Drake walking to join him. He extended the cards to Drake, who looked them over for a decent amount of time. Finally Drake's eyes lit up and he selected the card he wanted and put it in his hand. The two then returned to their places and Rikuo slipped the five cards back into his pocket.
"Thanks for the card Rikuo. I play it now, Return of Tribute! I'll discard one card to revive Twisted Spellweaver and Refined Spellweaver to the field. Only I'm comboing it with Amendment to change it's effect. Now both my spellweavers will be back for good instead of being destroyed at the end of the turn!" Rikuo grimaced as he counted up the total attack points on the four monsters that Drake had managed to summon in one turn. Together they had nine thousand attack powers, enough to defeat him in this turn. That meant it was all over, just because he had held back a little bit. He had unleashed almost all of his power in his combo to get out Wolf Demon Avatar and destroy the barriers, but now it was too late. Maybe if he had just tried harder he would have won.
'I can't believe it's about to end. Shot down by some duelist nobody has ever heard of and who only recently appeared in the dueling world. The great Rikuo Amero, general of thousands of battles, victor of hundreds of darkness games. I defeated Sestros, I beat Valeus and won the Game of the Gods. But here I am in the last moments of a duel with some punk kid I just met who's about to wipe the floor with me. How did it come to this?' He turned his gaze away and closed his eyes, ready to take the attack that would end the duel. It was all over for him, he had failed.
"This is the power of my chaos Rikuo! This is what happens when you face me without using the fullest extent of your power! This is me dueling at my maximum, and now you face the consequence of holding back even by the smallest fraction! Unity Magic Attack!" The four magicians raised their weapons to the sky and sent streams of energy up above them, colliding together to form a mass of pure magical energy. It was easily the size of a car by now, and still growing. Finally it stopped at about the size of an SUV, and the magicians dropped their staffs towards Rikuo, sending the ball of energy hurtling towards him.
The magic attack collided with him, blasting him off his feet and backwards by several meters. He slid to a stop and coughed up some soot, watching as the last bits of energy faded. He pushed himself to his feet and then started to chuckle. Drake raised an eyebrow, confused as to why Rikuo was laughing. "What's so funny?"
"I'm laughing at myself really. I was so stupid right before the attack that I forgot about something that had happened the first time I had to discard thanks to your weavers. At the very last moment I remembered, and I was able to activate a very special effect. That of Super Electric Turtle(0/1800) to negate one attack. That means your Black Magician of Chaos didn't connect it's own attack, and I'm still in this." He raised his duel disk to show Drake his current life point total. Low though it was, it was definitely better than zero, so now he had a chance to recover. And now he knew he couldn't hold back even for a moment or he would lose. (RLP: 1250)
Drake grinned at seeing how Rikuo had managed to survive. It was truly impressive that Rikuo hadn't been defeated by that assault of powerful monsters. It had taken a lot of effort to set up that combined assault, and Rikuo had managed to save himself from defeat, and it was thanks to Drake's own monster effects. 'I think this could be it. Continuing under such an assault is amazing. If he can make a defense for himself then I'll know for sure. This is going to be the ultimate duel I desire!'
"This duel keeps getting better and better. But believe me, my chaos magicians won't be defeated easily. I've got one last move to make, and then you can take your turn. Better hope it's a good one, or you're going to lose in my next turn." The two grinned confidently at each other, both of them planning how to take the other down.
"This is the thirteenth turn Drake, so if you
believe in superstition one might say it was bad luck for me and that's
why I lost so much of my life points. But I'm not one to believe in
that sort of thing and I doubt you are either. I know it happened
because I still doubted your strength, but now I know for sure that
you're at least as strong a duelist as I am. Of course we're going to
have to figure out which of us is the stronger. So bring whatever moves
you want, I'll still defeat you!" He raised a clenched fist in a
gesture of challenge, and Drake brushed his leather trench coat back,
sending it flaring outwards. The duel was heating up once again.
XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX
Author's Notes: Yeah, I know Rikuo lost a lot of life points in this one thing. Just don't complain okay, I'm quite good at scripting duels and I know what I'm doing. Probably....either that or I'm making it up as I go along.
Time Mage: See, you were right. He was holding back, both were. But even in this chapter Rikuo held back a little and payed for it. One last thing: Who the hell is that morman dude you mentioned?
Voidtemplar: See, Drake evened the odds. And Drake also appreciates the support.
Gryphinwyrm7: No biggie about Invader, I'm probably the only one who noticed. Oh, and I'm sure Rikuo appreciates the support.
Wolf General: Good thing Daniel is around to keep Rikuo in line neh?
Original Cards(Again, Rikuo's cards are his unless stated otherwise)
Drake: Twisted Spellweaver, Shot From The Dark, Magician's Cross, Negative Morality, White Magician of Chaos, Amendment
Rikuo: Nightmare Machine, Wolf Demon Lord, Lord's Ascension, Chain of Tornadoes, Wolf Demon Avatar, Safeguard, Return of Tribute(used by Drake)