Chapter Five: A Game of Destiny
"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!"
The magician duelist drew his card and lifted it up so he could get a good look at it. Then he threw back his head and started to laugh. Rikuo groaned, knowing that laughter was never a good thing. "I can't believe it! My first time playing this card and watch what happens. Go Supply Lines!" He smirked as the card resolved and went to the cemetery, its effect now covering the field.
"Wait a second. Isn't the effect of Supply Lines already active? I could have sworn you said it was a normal magic card. That would mean that even though it got taken out of the graveyard we'd still have to follow its effect." The big grin on Drake's face told him he wasn't going to like what was to be said. He hoped he wasn't right about what Drake was going to tell him.
"You're right Rikuo, it hasn't faded. But since Supply Lines has been played a second time its effect stacks. Now we must each draw two cards during the end phase of our turns!" Rikuo grimaced even though he knew it would help him as well. It seemed that most of Drake's plays required multiple cards to be effective. So getting three cards each turn would definitely help him out. Rikuo didn't have as many obvious combinations, so it just gave him extra cards.
"Now that we've gotten that little technicality out of the way, I'll set a monster on the field and end my turn. Of course now I draw two cards as per the effect of the two Supply Lines that have been activated during this duel." He snapped two more cards off his deck, giving him brand new options. Now it was Rikuo's turn to see what he could make of this so-called 'brand new game.'
The wolf-demon grinned at the sight of his newly drawn card, knowing full well that he was about to have a full army of monsters at his command. Meanwhile Drake only had one monster in defense mode and no cards on the field. This game was in the bag. "I summon Wolf Demon Soldier(1400/1200)!" The demonic armored wolf took shape, making it Rikuo's fourth monster
"Now it looks like the duel is over! Z-Metal Tank, destroy his face down monster!" The tank rolled right over Drake's defense monster, which immediately shattered into thousands of pieces. Suddenly it reformed into another face down horizontal card. "What the hell? I just destroyed it!"
"You did, but my monster was Apprentice Magician(400/800) which lets me special summon a level two or lower magician from my deck when it is destroyed in battle. So bring on your attacks!" Rikuo snarled, realizing that if Drake had two more of those things in his deck then he'd be able to fully block each of his monster's attacks. Or Drake could have placed a monster with a flip effect, who knew what could happen.
"Screw waiting, I'll crush them all! Wolf Demon Soldier will start off my attack rampage, then Irios will follow it up and Wolf Demon Avatar will end it!" The soldier raced out and smashed apart Drake's set monster, which was then replaced by yet another face down one. It too was destroyed by Irios' metal fist and replaced. Finally Wolf Demon Avatar trashed the fourth monster with a swipe of its claws.
"That last monster was a special one. It was called Sage of Everlasting Light, and when it's flipped I get to flip a coin. If I call it correctly I draw five cards, if not I discard five. Considering my recycling strategy, all in all it'll help me either way. So I call heads!" He took a coin out of his pocket and tossed it high in the air, watching is it came spiraling down. Drake caught it in his open palm and then held it up for Rikuo to see the face looking back at him.
Rikuo growled in frustration as his opponent drew his five free cards in one pull, giving him a massive hand of seven cards. He'd have so many combinations in the next turn that Rikuo could only hope he would be able to last against them. "I place a card face down and end." Then he too drew two cards, restoring part of his hand.
Drake picked his next card and then fanned out his massive hand of eight cards. He looked through them all, weighing his options before he finally settled one a card to play. He smirked widely and pressed a button on his disk, opening the side slot of his disk. Rikuo grimaced, because he knew what that slot was for. "Shortly we'll find out whose destiny is strongest Rikuo. Mine or yours. Because I activate the field magic card Destiny's Way!"
The entire room was suddenly darkened and filled by a path constructed of glowing stars. Everything was illuminated by the glowing pinpoints of light and their marvelous energy. Rikuo didn't even want to know what a field card with that kind of name could do. "This field card will determine who has true strength as a duelist and which of us is most determined to win. Our decks will answer our call!"
"Destiny's Way requires me once per turn to declare a number of life points I'll pay in increments of two hundred up to a total of one thousand. Effect Economics negates that cost. I also must name a type of card: magic, trap, or monster. Any card we draw that isn't of the named type gets discarded. You ready?" Rikuo grimaced, knowing that with the double draw at the end of the turn and this card in play there was a chance that this power could deck one of them out easily enough.
"I declare magic and now we must each draw five cards! So let us begin!" The two duelists swiftly picked up their five cards and fanned them out to take a look at them. Rikuo's jaw dropped as he saw exactly what he had drawn. Dark Catapulter, Bronze Wind-Up Knight, Silver Wind-Up Knight, Blowback Dragon, and Quicksilver Orb. All monsters!
Drake chuckled as he watched Rikuo shove his entire drawn hand into his graveyard. Then he added his other cards to the new hand of five and smirked broadly. "Looks like my destiny and strength as a duelist is greater. I drew three magic cards!" The wolf-demon snarled, knowing that he was in trouble now. If he was right Drake used more magic cards than anything else, so it was most likely he'd easily be able to draw the cards he wanted, whereas Rikuo had an even chance of having to discard cards.
"I play Magic of Revival to special summon a magician from either cemetery. I call back Chaos Magician(2400/1900)! Then I activate Instant Replay, reusing the effect of Magic of Revival to restore my Chaos Magician Girl(2000/1700) to the field! Husband and wife together!" Rikuo grimaced as the two monsters rose onto the field, but knew that his monster was still the strongest. Wolf Demon Avatar couldn't be defeated easily.
"Chaos Magician Girl gains three hundred for every card removed from play. I have two, you have five. So that's seven. She now has forty-one hundred attack power. But that's not my plan at all. I'll show it to you shortly after playing this card: Shrink! I'm sure you'll remember its power lets me reduce your Wolf Demon Avatar to a squealing weakling." The mighty demon ruler reduced in size until he was scarcely bigger than Wolf Demon Soldier.
"Next I summon Scholarly Magician(900/1500) in defense mode. He may seem weak, but he'll prove deadly as this duel progresses." Drake's newest monster was a nerd, plain and simple. He wore rumpled robes like he hadn't payed attention to them in a while, had glasses on the bridge of his nose, and was surrounded by a pile of spellbooks, and was idly flipping through them. Rikuo raised an eyebrow, curious as to its usefulness.
"Now I'm going to special summon another monster through its own effect. This monster is more powerful than any creature you could possibly imagine. You'll soon find out why. I must sacrifice two high level magicians to summon it, so I offer both magicians to summon Sorcerer of Dark Magic(3200/2800)!" The two magicians vanished, and were replaced by a fearsome looking monster wearing teal robes and wielding a pronged staff. With thirty-two hundred attack power he could easily crush the weakened Wolf Demon Avatar.
"This next card is the reason I didn't use Chaos Magician Girl for the attack. It's Diffusion Wave-Motion! Its cost is negated by Effect Economics, but it requires a level seven or higher magician to play it with. And Sorcerer of Dark Magic fulfills that cost. Now he'll destroy every single monster on your field!" The mighty magician raised his teal staff and sent what looked like streams of electrical energy shooting out of it. He swept it across the monsters and blew each and every one of them away. It would also have crushed his life points.
Rikuo smirked and raised his duel disk to proudly display the exact same number as before. "Safeguard shields me from one instance of damage, and since you attacked with one monster it was one instance. So while I lost my monsters I didn't lose any life points. Plus I get a few new things. Black Pendant deals you five hundred damage and Wolf Demon Soldier lets me special summon Wolf Demon Lord(2400/1000) to the field." Rikuo's physical avatar took shape and flicked Sorcerer of Dark Magic off, obviously not caring that it was stronger. (DLP: 9300)
"You saved yourself again Rikuo. But do you honestly think you can keep this up? End turn." Then he drew two more cards, giving him a total of six left in his hand. Rikuo was surprised. All of those cards and Drake couldn't set a single one of them? Pretty sad for him, not that Rikuo was going to complain. He smirked and drew his card.
Casually Rikuo drew his next card and looked over his hand of three. He didn't have much to work with, but he'd try it all out anyways. "I set up two cards and place a monster face down. Now Wolf Demon Lord will destroy Scholarly Magician. Howling Sword!" The demon swung his sword and unleashed a stream of phantom flames. Suddenly a glowing rainbow colored barrier appeared and absorbed the blast. "But you had no set cards!"
"I don't, but I told you Scholarly Magician would make this game interesting. His infinite knowledge of magic lets me activate a magic card from my hand during your turn at any time. And all of my magic cards become quick-plays. The card I played was Mirage Magic, which negates the attack and increase my life points by that amount." He grinned and displayed his own duel disk just like Rikuo had done a few moments before. Instead of a steady amount it increased until it was once again annoyingly high. (DLP: 11700)
With no cards left in his hand, Rikuo had to end his turn. Then of course he drew two new cards, and glanced down at his dwindling deck. This was going way too fast for his taste, hopefully he could get rid of at least Destiny's Way. Drake glanced at his new card and smiled. 'This is going perfectly. Not only do I have him on the run but with Destiny's Way in play I can easily get the cards I need.'
"I declare magic, so draw your cards Rikuo. Five once again." They took five new cards off the top of their decks and surveyed them. Finally the both discarded three, meaning the two of them had only drawn two magic cards. Rikuo felt grateful that Drake hadn't drawn more, but wished the other duelist hadn't drawn any.
"Sorcerer of Dark Magic will wipe out most of your life points by destroying Wolf Demon Lord!" Once again the supreme magician unleashed a stream of lightning energy, intent on destroying Rikuo's duel monsters avatar. But he was ready for it, because he had two face down cards. The duel was about to even up.
"Activate Drill Mirror Force! This trap will negate your attack and destroy your monster. Then you'll take its attack points as damage to your life points!" He threw back his head and laughed as the barrier rose up, ready to obliterate the Sorcerer. However to his surprise it thrust its free hand forwards and the barrier shattered like a bubble, allowing the energy attack to destroy his demon.
"Sorcerer of Dark Magic can negate and destroy traps that are played at my command. He may be harder to summon, but overall he's stronger than Jinzo. Not that it matters now that the duel is over." Rikuo chuckled and waved one finger back and forth, clucking in a disappointed manner.
"Shame on you Drake, for thinking I can lose so easily. Like all my other opponents you were caught off guard by my demon's effect. When he is destroyed I don't take damage at all. So looks like I'm still in this duel." He smirked and folded his arms, awaiting Drake's next move. He might not be able to play traps now, but he could still protect himself. And all he had to do was summon a monster more powerful than Sorcerer of Dark Magic and he'd be able to recover.
"Your field is about to be emptied really quickly! I activate Renew Battle! Sorcerer of Dark Magic, blast his face down monster into oblivion!" The sorcerer extended his arm, palm facing out, and unleashed a wave of power that blew his monster into a million pieces. It was briefly revealed to be some kind of silly looking train, and then it was gone.
"You flipped Dekoichi the Battlechanted Locomotive(1400/1000). When flipped I can draw a card. You don't have to worry about the second effect though as it doesn't matter right now. You done?" Drake slipped two cards onto his duel disk and then nodded, showing that his turn was indeed finished. Rikuo idly thought to himself that so was he if he didn't figure a way out of this mess and do it soon.
The wolf-demon duelist stared at his newest card and then looked back at the rest of his hand. He looked up and around at the dueling field, and then down at his duel disk. More specifically at his cemetery slot. "It could work...okay! I play Sacrificial Boost. I'll discard Perfect Machine King to raise my life points by its attack power of twenty-seven hundred." He dumped the card into his grave and relaxed as his life points rose. (RLP: 3850)
"Next I'm going to play a card you should remember. Reduce Cost. Since I don't have any monsters in play it just reduces the cost by one summon. However I activate Replay. Normally this costs half my life points but your economics card saves me that payment. I replay Reduce Cost so I can summon this monster, Barrel Dragon(2600/2300)!" The giant machine dragon stomped onto the field and loaded its barrels, ready to fire away at Rikuo's command. Sadly it couldn't attack this turn.
"Remember how Reduce Cost keeps the summoned monster from attacking? Well I don't care about that. I just needed Barrel Dragon on the field so I could play this card. Spiritual Fusion! I can fuse one monster on the field with one in my grave, and I choose to target Blowback Dragon. Together they form Gatling Dragon(2600/1200)!" The two creatures merged together and finally formed into a huge hulking behemoth of a monster. It was decked out in so much weaponry that it barrel looked like it could move.
Drake raised an eyebrow in surprise. This wasn't a monster he had ever heard of. 'A twenty-six hundred attack power monster fusing with a twenty-three hundred one and the result is twenty-six hundred? Its effect has got to be its strong point...but what is it?' Drake had a bad feeling he was about to find out.
"Ready to suffer under Gatling Dragon? Well here is it's power! I can now flip three coins, and for every result that is heads I can destroy one of your monsters. All I need is one and I'll be happy, so let's give it a toss!" He picked three coins out of his pocket and threw them into the air, watching as they all came clattering down on the ground. One of them had the wrong side facing up, while the other two were heads. Rikuo smirked as his monster began to creak.
"Gatling Dragon, blow both of Drake's monsters straight to Hell!" The creaking halted and suddenly the dragon opened fire. A rain of bullets and missiles swarmed across the field, creating a huge explosion that continued for several seconds. Rikuo couldn't see Drake's field at all under the maelstrom of explosions. But when it all faded away Drake didn't have any monsters left at all.
"Perfect! Gatling Dragon, attack Drake's life points directly!" He smirked as once again the machine dragon opened up on Drake, spraying bullet after bullet and missile after missile at the punk duelist. However at the last moment a golden barrier rose up around Drake, keeping the explosions from touching him. Yet from what Rikuo felt, it wasn't an effect. It was magic. (DLP: 9100)
"You've got magic?" Drake smirked and a spot on his shirt shimmered. A small golden disc appeared on it, hanging on a simple chain around his neck. Rikuo recognized it, as he had once in the past experienced a taste of a similar item's power. He cursed violently, realizing that this duelist was more than he had thought.
"One of The Seven. You're one of the reincarnations or something aren't you?" Drake shrugged and grinned at Rikuo, obviously not wanting to talk about. The wolf-demon growled, knowing that if this had been a regular battle he might actual be defeated by this human. From what he knew of the power of the Millennium Disc it was nearly unlimited power. Even he couldn't defeat that kind of strength.
"Fine, my turn is over. But keep in mind that I'll go medieval on your ass next turn once again. This duel is going to be mine sooner or later. Just wait and see!" Wit the declaration of his turn's end he got to draw two cards. But suddenly Drake's face down card flipped up, and the entire field shimmered and revealed Drake's monster, totally unharmed.
"Thanks to Mirage Ruler you didn't attack me or my monsters. You attacked our mirages. So I've still got my monsters and my life points, all it costs is one thousand life points. Of course I don't have to pay that at all, now do I?" Rikuo snarled like the wolf-demon that he was, knowing that his move had been bested. And since he only had one monster and one face down card the next move was going to be trouble.
'One card allowed him to bypass all of my efforts of this whole turn at absolutely no cost? Damn it...that card is powerful. Then again, some of the cards I've thrown at him have been extremely powerful as well. Wolf Demon Avatar, my Legendary Weapon card. Yet despite it all he keeps on coming. If I don't find a way to shut him down quickly I'm going to lose this duel!' The demonic general stared at his measly hand of two, trying to see a way in that hand to defeat his opponent.
"It looks like you don't have a leg to stand on Rikuo. Maybe you should use your tail. Now watch as I show you the ultimate in power. In this turn I'm going to unleash upon you the power of my strongest monster. In moments you'll witness the god of all magicians!" XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX
Author's Notes: I realized something while doing this chapter and looking back on Drake's duel with Kai where both Recycling Bin and Destiny's Way are revealed. I never said that either was a permanent magic card or field card. I had Recycling Bin down as a permanent magic, but Destiny's Way as a field. In this I just ended up making both field cards.
VoidTemplar: It is annoying. At least it didn't really start over, just both got their cards back.
WolfGeneral: Thanks for the support on my illness. Glad you liked the Eri comment. :)
Gryphinwyrm7: You know, I can't even type your name, I have to cut and past it. Another fan of the Eri comment. And as for Hell Meteor, honestly I haven't decided if I'm going to have Rikuo use it or not. After all, there's lots of discarding going on.
Original Cards(the same message)
Drake: Supply Lines, Sage of Everlasting Deck, Destiny's Way, Magic of Revival, Instant Replay, Chaos Magician Girl, Scholarly Magician, Renew Battle
Rikuo: Wolf Demon Soldier, Wolf Demon Avatar, Safeguard, Wolf Demon Lord, Drill Mirror Force, Sacrificial Boost, Reduct Cost(mine), Replay, Spiritual Fusion
Anime Original Cards
Drake: Mirage Magic, Mirage Ruler
Gatling Dragon: Its true! This card recently came into existance with the Japanese expansion set Flaming Eternity. Cool huh?