Chapter Four: Power of Recycling
"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.
"Alright Rikuo, I'll end my turn by playing the last card in my hand. A permanent magic card called Effect Economics. As long as it's in play neither of us has to pay life points to activate effects. Now see if you can recover from the trouncing I just gave you." Drake finished his turn and then drew a card, giving him another option to play with when it became his next turn. Supply Lines, despite its usefulness, was starting to get on the wolf-demon's nerves. Sure it helped him as well, but he'd rather his opponent didn't get any help. Not with the added draw power of the twin spellweavers in the mix.
Rikuo rolled his eyes when the field became a dark yellow and immediately started drawing for a monster. He got the routine by now and it was starting to get annoying. Every single turn he had to draw more cards and discard. At least this time he only had to discard one card before reaching a monster. That meant more luck for him. "I'll start by summoning X-Head Cannon(1800/1500) in attack mode." The purple bodied cannon machine appeared in front of him and leveled its weapons at Drake. His reason for summoning it in attack mode was about to become clear.
"First I play this magic card which you've helped me gain the power to pay for since I don't have to pay at all. Shield of Revealing Light. As long as it's in play you can't attack at all. It normally costs one thousand as upkeep per turn, but your Effect Economics saves me from paying that cost." A glowing barrier was revealed in front of him, of blue and white. It would keep Drake from attacking him, but it wouldn't save him forever. Sooner or later Drake would find a way around it, just like he had found a way to defeat Drake's barrier combo. It was only a matter of time.
"I have no intention of losing any more cards to your two monsters. So I'll have X-Head Cannon blast Refined Spellweaver into oblivion!" The machine turned its cannons to face the magician. Then it launched its energy attack, sending it screaming straight at Drake's weakest monster. When it was within just a few inches of the magician Drake's face down card was revealed.
"I could destroy your monster right now, but I'd rather get rid of the permanent problem of your Shield before it even effects me. So I use my face down Dark Magic Revival to play Mystical Space Typhoon from my cemetery." A bolt of lightning shot out from Drake's card and skewered his new shield, blowing it away. Now he had no defense, but the attack of X-Head Cannon went unheeded and blew Refined Spellweaver straight to hell. Although it wasn't much damage, it was the first damage Rikuo had dealt in the whole duel, and he needed it. (DLP: 6800)
"Nice move Rikuo. Oh, and since Mystical Space Typhoon has fully resolved the effect of Dark Magic Revival now places it in your cemetery." The punk duelist sent the card spiraling towards the wolf-demon duelist who caught it easily and then shoved it into his cemetery slot. Although Drake's spellweaver monsters were now separated, Drake didn't seem too bothered by it. Then again, he still had his two chaos magicians with twenty-eight hundred attack power each.
'Once again he proves clever. He could have brought back Shrink and destroyed my X-Head Cannon, but then he would have been stuck waiting and hoping for another way to blow up my shield. Instead he took the first opportunity and shot it down before I even got a chance to use it. But that cleverness can be his own undoing so long as I play it right.' Rikuo smirked and slid a card into his disk, watching as it appeared face down on the field in front of him. That was all there was between him and Drake's mighty chaos monsters.
Suddenly something clicked for Rikuo, and he understand more of Drake's strategy. "I get it now! Playing Mystical Space Typhoon from the grave using Dark Magic Revival, getting it back with Black Magician of Chaos, taking my magic card with White Magician of Chaos, Shot From The Dark...it's all part of your sub-theme! Your deck is based around magicians and recycling your magic cards in and out of the cemetery. A Recycling Deck....I've never faced anything like this before."
"I'm surprised you managed to figure it out so quickly. Most people never really think of it at all. They just know I keep having the cards I need over and over again. That separates you from most of my opponents in the past. But just knowing that won't help you, you'll have to find a way around it if you think you can do something." Rikuo just smirked, countering Drake's smirk with his own. Both of them had to admit they were having fun, and neither would be had the stakes been higher. Each of them could remember duels where lives had been on the line, where lots of pain was involved and there was no time for fun. But now they could just sit back and enjoy themselves, taking their dueling skills to the absolute limit.
Now it was Drake's turn and the two of them were drawing for a magic card. But this time Rikuo didn't have to discard since Refined Spellweaver wasn't a threat anymore. Drake carefully examined his hand of cards and then shrugged before raising one hand and thrusting it palm out towards Rikuo. "Attack him directly!" The three monsters all raised their weapons and launched individual energy attacks at the wolf-demon and his X-Head Cannon. If these attacks connected it would be over for Rikuo.
"Reveal reversed card, Mirror Force!" Drake grimaced as the easily recognizable trap erected a barrier in front of his monster's attacks and then reflected them all back. In moments his monsters were all destroyed under the power of Mirror Force, and he had walked directly into it like an amateur. That was what his confidence gave him, a taste of dust and the destruction of some of his best monsters.
Rikuo smirked at Drake's despair, and then decided to rub it in. After all, there was no point in not rubbing it in while he still held an advantage. "Pathetic. Your own cleverness got you into trouble. I was certain you'd find a way to destroy my Shield of Revealing Light, so I set Mirror Force for when you did. I knew that as confident as you were you'd run right into it. Anything else you wanna do?" He crossed his arms smugly, awaiting Drake's next move. Whatever it was, Rikuo knew he could handle it.
Drake rolled his eyes and then took a look at his hand of four cards. He still had options to work with and hadn't summoned this turn, so he was in the green. "You know Rikuo, if you ever have a kid I'll bet they'll be really vindictive. Anybody pisses them off for any reason and I'll be they'll even blame on that person's grandkids." Chuckling he picked out a card he wanted to play and then casually placed it onto his duel disk.
"My next monster is called White Magic Summoner(1200/500), and he'll be the cause of your demise sooner or later." Drake's newest monster was a small white robed magician who didn't look like he could bring anybody's demise. The magician didn't look like a threat at all, not with such puny stats.
"My X-Head Cannon can crush your little summoner with ease. I don't see it causing the demise of any of my monsters in the future, let alone myself." He smirked and crossed his arms over his chest, confident that he now had a distinctive advantage. If Drake thought he could recover by summoning a wimp like that he had another thing coming.
"Remember the Howling Sword Rikuo? Well you aren't the only one who uses equip cards, so I'll boost my monster with Magician's Tome, rocketing his attack power to nineteen hundred!" A large locked book appeared in front of the magician. It magically unlocked itself, and then the White Magic Summoner began to flip through the pages at incredible speed. The more it looked through it the more its power grew until it finally settled at a power of nineteen hundred as it finished reading the book.
"You may have boosted your monster to a strength past my own, but you've already conducted your battle phase for this turn. So I've got another turn to take that thing out before it can even try and come after my life points." Drake just grinned and took one of the cards from his hand, slipping it into his own duel disk. The smirk that was starting to spread across Drake's features told Rikuo that he may have spoken too soon.
"I activate Renew Battle! This will allow one monster on my field to attack again this turn, even though the battle phase is ended! So White Magic Summoner will crush your X-Head Cannon!" The magician smirked at Rikuo, and then snapped its fingers. Suddenly a massive dragon appeared above it and sent a stream of fire at the machine. Rikuo's monster was melted into scrap metal and the dragon faded away. (RLP: 1150)
"What the hell was with that dragon? I thought your monster was a magician, so where did the dragon come from?" Drake ran his fingers through his hair, holding back a laugh. He wasn't sure how much he should say, because he wasn't familiar with a few things about Rikuo and...certain other things.
"You've never played Final Fantasy have you?" By the blank look Rikuo was giving him he knew the truth. The wolf-demon duelist had indeed never played the greatest RPG of all time. Oh well, that wasn't a big deal. "Okay Rikuo, since White Magic Summoner dealt damage I get to add a magic card from my deck to my hand."
He ejected his deck from the holder and started scanning it, looking for a very specific card. Once he spotted it he plucked it out and added it to his hand. Lastly he reshuffled his deck and replaced it into his deck slot. "Here it goes, I activate Chaos Renewal! This allows me to revive one monster with 'chaos' in its name from the cemetery or special summon one from out of play. So I'll bring back my Black Magician of Chaos(2800/2600)!"
The leather wearing magician reappeared on the field, restored from his demise in the out of play pile. Now not only had Drake gotten back his favorite monster at no cost thanks to Effect Economics, but he got to take a magic card from his grave and add it to his hand. 'It's over. All he has to do is take back Renew Battle and I'm finished. Damn it...'
"By the look on your face I bet you think I'm going to take back Renew Battle. Well I would, but unfortunately the effect of Renew Battle can't be stacked. It says one monster once in a turn and it means it. So even if I grabbed it I couldn't play it yet. As that's the case I'll just place a card down on my field. Back to you wolfy." Rikuo heaved a sigh of relief, happy that he got to take another chance to turn this duel around and defeat his opponent.
The wolf-demon grabbed his next card and smiled on the inside as no aura appeared. It was satisfying to not have to do a bunch of drawing in a turn, something he hadn't gotten a chance to do in quite a long time. His new card however changed that. "Pot of Greed. And of course you know what it does."
The other duelist nodded, and Rikuo slipped two cards off the top of his deck. That gave him a total of six cards, and looking over them he got a really nasty idea. This was going to be good. "I'll start off by playing Magic Shard Excavation! So I'll dump two cards to take back a magic card from my graveyard!" He picked his two cards and then inserted them into the graveyard, then ejected another from it and added it to his hand.
He looked at Drake's set card and then smirked, certain that he knew exactly what it was. Drake would have been playing it down for later, and since he was on the offensive there was no reason for it to be a defensive card. That could only mean it was one card. "I bet you forgot something Drake, otherwise you wouldn't have let me play Magic Shard Excavation. Your face down card is without a doubt Negative Morality, but it seems to have slipped your mind that the card I needed went to my graveyard thanks to you!"
Drake's eyes widened as he realized exactly what Rikuo had been talking about. He had been tricked into allowing Rikuo to use Magic Shard Excavation because he had been confident that whatever he took could be negated with Negative Morality. But it was his own card that he couldn't stop. "Go Mystical Space Typhoon! Blow away his Negative Morality!" Drake could have chained, but that would have been stupid, so he just let it be destroyed.
"This is the card I wanted to keep you from negating. And it's going to be the cause of your demise! I activate Monster Reborn and call back my Wolf Demon Avatar(5500/3000)! This time he won't be going anywhere anytime soon!" For the second time in the duel the massive beast took his place on the field, his power easily dominating the field. Not even the strength of Drake's two magicians combined could defeat this mighty creature.
"You're right Drake, the power of recycling is a deadly weapon. One that I've learned to use as well! Oh, and I think I'll counter your equip card with one of my own. So first I normal summon Z-Metal Tank(1500/1600) and then I add Black Pendant to him, boosting him to two thousand attack strength!" The tank monster appeared next to and beneath the massive demonic wolf, its power seeming pathetic compared to the other monster. A little pendant appeared and attached to its chest, raising its attack by five hundred.
'I've got no face down cards. There's no way to stop his attacks!' Drake grimaced, realizing that his entire field was just about to be cleared of monsters, and he was about to take a significant amount of damage. Rikuo had just proved his power and was about to make his awaited comeback.
"Wolf Demon Avatar, crush Black Magician of Chaos. Z-Metal Tank, destroy White Magic Summoner. Put his life points within striking range of your power!" Wolf Demon Avatar swept downwards with its claws, slashing Black Magician of Chaos into tiny pieces. Meanwhile Z-Metal Tank had run over White Magic Summoner and was backing up to finish the job. Drake grimaced as his life points took a dip. (DLP: 5000)
Rikuo opened his mouth to complain about the lessened damage, but Drake got there first. "Don't complain about my life points wolf boy. When Magician's Tome hits the cemetery I gain one thousand life points, hence the difference." The demon duelist snarled once again, his patience wearing thin, and declared the end of his turn. He had the advantage, so there was no need to dwell on a little bit extra. Next turn he'd crush Drake.
Drake snapped the top card off his deck and then added it to his other two cards. He looked them over for several seconds and then slid two of them face-down on the field. They appeared in front of him and Rikuo was certain he saw a slight smile twitch on Drake's face. "Those two face down. Now I activate this field magic card, Recycling Bin!"
A massive swirl of energy lit up the field, and swarmed in around them. Rikuo had no idea what was happening, but knew that it couldn't be good for him. 'He's got a sub-theme of recycling his cards, and now a field card called Recycling Bin? This doesn't bode well at all.' Finally the energy died down, and what appeared before them was a giant green recycling bin. That was all. No other special effects.
Rikuo raised an eyebrow at the giant bin and then cast his gaze upon Drake. "That was sort of...anticlimactic. Since that was your last card, I guess it's my turn right?" The punk duelist nodded his head, and Rikuo started off. He'd only have two cards in hand to use to deal with this threat, but with the power he already had he was sure he'd easily be able to deal with this new field card.
"Hehehehe. Just in case you can stop me, I've got this for later. Its name is Reduce Cost, and it lets me reduce the summoning requirenment for a monster at a cost of one thousand points. Since I've got two monsters on the field it lowers it not by one, but by two. If I only had one monster or none it would just be one lowered cost. Thanks to that I can summon Irios the Steel Monarch(2700/2300) at no cost!" Rikuo's machine was humanoid in shape, and seemed to formed of cogs and gears like what one might seen in an old clock.
"Luckily for you a monster summoned by Reduce Cost can't attack the turn it hits the field. So I'll just rip you apart with Wolf Demon Avatar and Z-Metal Tank!" The two monsters raced off to make their attacks, and Z-Metal Tank collided with Drake, knocking him backwards. The avatar's claws soared through the air and were about to strike Drake when a mechanical magician appeared in front of it, its face like a mirror. (DLP: 3000)
"You may have struck me with your tank, but my first face down card is Mechanical Magic Mirror. Using it I play Safeguard from your cemetery, protecting me from the damage that would have been dealt by Wolf Demon Avatar." The demon pulled his arm back and waited for Rikuo to announce his next move. Before Rikuo could say anything else he watched Drake rise to his feet and depress the other button on his duel disk.
"I'll reveal my other face down card. Emergency Rations! I'll get rid of my Recycling Bin in order to gain one thousand life points." Rikuo quirked an eyebrow in surprised as the giant recycling bin faded off the field, thereby restoring some of Drake's life points. Life points he definitely needed. (DLP: 4000)
"Why in the world would you put your field card into play and then destroy it?" Drake smirked as he picked his Recycling Bin card off his disk and held it up so that Rikuo could see it. And with his keen demon eyes Rikuo was able to plainly read the text on the card from here, and he wasn't happy with what he saw. Not happy at all.
"As you can plainly see, as long as Recycling Bin is in play there is no cemetery, all cards are considered to be in the bin. But when Recycling Bin leaves play all cards in the bin, which was all cards in both of our cemeteries, are reshuffled into our decks. And of course I gain one hundred life points times the number reshuffled. So get shuffling and give me those life points." Rikuo growled deep in the back of this throat over Drake's gain in life points. He then took his graveyard and shuffled it into his deck while Drake did the same. (DLP: 9800)
'All that effort to drop his life points and then he turns it around in one move and boosts his life points past the starting amount. At least I've got the consolation prize of how my deck restored, but so does he. This duel could last for quite some time.' Once the two were finished shuffling it was time for Rikuo to finish his turn. Since he had no more cards in his hand there was nothing left he could do, so he finished up and drew a new card.
Drake placed his fingers on the top card of his refilled deck and flashed Rikuo a smirk. "With our decks replenished and my life points restored, things are going to change. Get ready Rikuo, because it's a whole new game!" XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX
Author's Notes: Hehehe. I just love Recycling Bin. Anyone who has read my first story will now I changed Recycling Bin from a permanent mgaic card to a field card. Shouldn't be a big deal.
Wolf General: Hehehe. I'm not really surprised that you're rooting for Rikuo. But believe me, it won't be easy for him to win. Drake is a tough cookie.
Original Cards(again, most of Rikuo's will be Wolf General's)
Drake: Effect Economics, White Magic Summoner, Renew Battle, Chaos Renewal, Negative Morality, Recycling Bin
Rikuo: Shield of Revealing Light, Wolf Demon Avatar, Reduce Cost(mine), Irios the Steel Monarch, Safeguard(used by Drake)
Anime Original Cards
Drake: Dark Magic Revival, Mechanical Magic Mirror