Disclaimer/Author's Note
Okay, I've waited until now to introduce dueling into the fic. So be happy, I'm back and the competition is about to begin!!!! (kind of...)
Chapter three introduces the last main character: Mystic.
Ruling Alterations:
I removed the attack restriction of Tribute Doll.
YuGiOh: Hallowed Darkness
The Top of Down Under
At school the next day, Adriel's backpack was bulging. "Let us see it!" said Aldrai.
"No," responded Adriel. "You're going to have to wait until lunch when I fight that kid from yesterday."
Aarion sighed. "Come on, Adriel! Just a peek! We won't even make you turn it on!" he said.
"Fine," said Adriel. He took the disk out of his backpack. Aldrai and Aarion goggled at it.
"Dude!" shouted Aarion. "My disk isn't anywhere near as cool as that!"
Aarion produced his own disk, a fairly common Draco model. It was a more advanced form of the disk used in BattleCity years ago with a sleeker, lighter build and a more stunning color scheme.
Without saying, Aldrai pulled his out as well. It was a Ryu model, almost identical to the Draco model with a few slight differences, but it operated the same way. The bladelike models were the more expensive ones.
"Well I don't know how it performs," lied Adriel, who had been experimenting with cards all night.
"We'll find out at lunch, won't we?" said Aldrai.
A few hours later, lunch finally arrived. Adriel, Aldrai, and Aarion were walking through the campus, looking for the same boy that was there the day before. How unfortunate that they should be challenged. "Hey, you three!" said a confident voice. The three turned to see Mystic Galloway, the school champion from Australia. He drew equal with Adriel's height and had steel-gray eyes. His hair was jet black like Adriel's and had a crew cut. His attire was a melding of Aarion's and Aldrai's with white cargo pants and a blue shirt with his school's insignia printed on it with an orange overshirt, unbuttoned.
"Yeah?" asked Adriel rudely, not knowing of Mystic's stature.
"What do you say to a duel? I mean, you've got a disk so I assume you can duel, right?" Mystic asked.
"I can duel fine." said Adriel.
"Wait, no he can't!" shouted Aldrai.
"Yeah, he's not any good!" added Aarion.
Adriel was about to yell something at them before Mystic altered the challenge; "Okay, that's fine. Then how about a three-on-one?" he asked.
"Okay!" chirped Aarion, fearing Adriel would do something...painful.
"I'll start," said Mystic, turning his disk on.
"Fine," replied Adriel, doing the same. The night before, Adriel had tried to wear the disk on his wrist and noted that it was fairly difficult to do. After reading the manual, he found that it was to be worn closer to the elbow. Everyone passing by stopped to see the duel, and they were all impressed by Adriel's disk. Almost as much as Mystic, Aldrai, and Aarion were.
"That's an impressive disk." said Mystic.
"Thanks," replied Adriel, sticking his deck in his disk. The other three did the same.
"Ready?" asked Mystic, pushing a button on his disk. Two holographic projectors launched themselves into the area.
"Yeah," replied Aldrai, doing the same with the same result. Aarion quickly followed, and six projectors were strewn across the area.
Adriel looked at his disk and tried to remember which button launched the projectors. "Right," he said, pushing the button. Ten small objects burst from the metal of the disk and embedded themselves in the ground.
"It's so cool!" said one person.
"Right," said Mystic, recovering. "Time to duel. I'll start with Skilled Dark Magician in attack mode!" (1900/1700) "Then, laying two cards face down, I'll end my turn."
Control of the duel passed to Adriel. "Okay, I summon Swarm of Dragon Scales in defense mode!" (1500/2500) "And since I have to offer one spell or trap card during each of my end phases to keep this monster, I'll set one card face down and end my turn." A card appeared on Adriel's side of the field before being eaten by the swarm and destroyed.
It was Mystic's turn again. "Interesting card...anyway. I summon my Dark Magician's counterpart, the Skilled White Magician, in defense mode!" (1700/1900) "Now it's Aldrai's turn."
Aldrai drew. "Okay, I'll summon Gemini Elf in attack mode!" (1900/900) "Then I lay one card face down and end my turn."
Mystic drew again. "It's gonna get interesting soon...I summon this monster in defense mode and end my turn!"
Finally, it was Aarion's turn. "I summon Marauding Captain to the field!" (1200/400) "And his effect lets me summon this from my hand! Go, Zombyra the Dark!" (2100/500) "Finally, I end my turn."
Mystic smiled. "And now it gets interesting. I play Pot of Greed to draw two cards from my deck!" Mystic drew his cards. "Furthermore, by flipping my Magician of Faith into attack mode, I retrieve my pot to use again!" Mystic used his magic to draw another two cards. "And in case you didn't know, I only have to play one more magic card to unleash the effect of my skilled magicians! So I play Tribute Doll to sacrifice my Magician of Faith and summon Dark Magician!" (2500/2100) "And since that was the third spell, I sacrifice both Skilled White Magician and Skilled Dark Magician to bring out Buster Blader and a second Dark Magician!" (2600500/2300 2500/2100)
"But wait!" Mystic continued. "All of those summons were special summons! So I now tribute my Dark Magician to summon Dark Magician Girl!" (2000300/1700)
"Hold on," said Adriel. "Why would you sacrifice a stronger monster for a weaker one?" he asked.
"Because of this!" shouted Mystic, playing Polymerization. "I fuse Dark Magician and Buster Blader to form Dark Paladin!" (2900500/2400) "And that means my Dark Magician Girl's attack is now 2600! If that wasn't enough, I plan to use both of my remaining cards! Go, Sage's Stone and Knight's Title!" Dark Magician Girl cast a spell on a stone that suddenly appeared in front of her, and the final Dark Magician burst onto the field, but was barely recognizable before it was transformed into a knight. (2500/2100) As the light receded, a beam of energy from the newest monster decimated Aldrai's hidden trap card.
The odds of winning were not looking good. Mystic had Dark Magician Girl with 2600 attack points, Dark Magician Knight with 2500 attack points, and Dark Paladin with 3400 attack points. And he still had two cards face down.
"Wanna give up?" asked Mystic. "You have no spells or traps and your monsters can't stand up to mine. No?" he asked, seeing the looks of determination on his opponent's faces. "Fine. Dark Paladin, attack Swarm of Dragon Scales!" As Dark Paladin was about to slash Adriel's monster, Aarion blocked it with Zombyra the Dark.
"Aarion!" shouted Aldrai as Aarion's life points fell to 2700.
"I'm fine..." said Aarion.
"Not for long. Because now I attack Marauding Captain with Dark Magician Girl!"
Another interception was thrown as Aldrai sacrificed his Gemini Elf to save Aarion, along with 700 of his life points. "Aren't you going to help us?!" he asked Adriel.
But Adriel had a plan. As Mystic took the bait and attacked with Dark Magician Knight, Adriel blocked with his Swarm. The attack drew even. "Yes," he told Aldrai.
"Very good, Adriel. Waiting until the opportunity was right. I commend you. Your turn." said Mystic.
Adriel drew. "Hm." he said, piecing his combo together. "Mystic, you have three spellcasters on your field, right?"
Mystic nodded. "Yes, why?"
"And three in your graveyard as well?" Again, Mystic nodded.
"Okay, thanks. I activate Tag Team Match!" The crowd watched as three semitransparent Dark Magicians appeared on the field and tapped the shoulders of Mystic's monsters. The three current monsters switched places with the Dark Magicians.
"Nice going, Adriel!" complimented Aarion.
"Anyway. If I'm correct, and I hope I am, I sacrifice my Swarm of Dragon Scales to summon Dragon of the Thousand Blessings!" (2450/2200) "This card has several effects that I can use. Firstly, I use its Life Point Settle effect. The life points of all players in the duel become equivalent. Meaning each of us should have..." Adriel quickly did the math in his head, "3500 life points. Next I'll use its ability to balance the number of cards in our hands. Each player draws cards until we all have the same number in our hand. You happen to get the most benefit from this, but we all should now have four cards...Aldrai and Aarion both have four already, and I get to draw one more."
Adriel smiled. "Perfect...in a way. I was hoping for a powerup card that could give my monster more attack points, but I prefer to simply summon Dragon of the Thousand Curses through my other dragon's effect from my deck in defense mode." (2450/2200) Several people wondered why it was in defense mode, but it didn't matter since Mystic's Dark Magicians were stronger anyway. "Now then. You know that this monster has as many effects as my other one, right?" he asked.
"I would say so," said Mystic, still confident.
"Good. Anyway, I activate this monster's most potent effect. You lose all of your spell and trap cards, and this card loses all of its attack points. Similarly, your monsters each lose half of their attack points if I lose life points equal to this monster's attack. Meaning I am now down to 1050 life points. But now I can destroy your monsters! Switching back to my Dragon of the Thousand Blessings, I can sacrifice 1000 of my life points to let it attack every monster on the field."
"But wait," said Mystic happily. "You can't attack! Aarion's Marauding Captain is still in attack mode!"
A book appeared in front of the Marauding Captain, and as it opened, the monster was sucked inside. The book dropped on top of Marauding Captain's card.
"Wait, what?" asked Mystic, confused.
"I activated Book of Moon. Helps when you have weaker monsters or flip effect monsters. In this case, Aarion's Marauding Captain is now in defense mode."
Adriel smiled. "Excellent. Now I will attack with Dragon of the Thousand Blessings! Go, Rain of Justice!" Adriel's dragon roared to the sky and meteors began to fall, striking every monster on the field. Adriel's other dragon was destroyed, but since it was in defense mode, Adriel took no damage. Mystic, however, was not so lucky.
"No! My trio of magicians!" he shouted as the three Dark Magicians shattered into pixels and Mystic's life points dropped by 3600, enough to win the duel!
The dust cleared and Mystic began to laugh a bit. "Excellent job Adriel, just excellent! Unfortunately, not excellent enough."
Adriel's mouth dropped open as Mystic's life points suddenly stopped falling at 1100 and Adriel's life points fell to zero. "How did you do that?" he asked.
"Well, I activated Scroll of Karma when my last Dark Magician was about to be destroyed, seeing as how each attack is still considered individual. The life point damage that would have been done to me was rerouted to you, meaning you are no longer a threat to me."
Adriel stood in shock as his lone dragon disappeared and his DuelDisk automatically shut off. "I lost my first duel...." he muttered.
"That's alright, dude!" shouted Aarion.
"Yeah, we both still have 3500 life points left! We'll win and then you'll win since you were on our team!" encouraged Aldrai. Leaving their friend to brood over his not-yet defeat, Aldrai and Aarion noted that the field was totally empty, Mystic's turn rolling around.
He drew. "Thanks to Adriel, I now have four cards, since I used Scroll of Karma from my hand. Now then..." Mystic considered his options. "I'll summon Double Coston in attack mode and set two cards." (1700/1650) "Then, I attack...hmm...neither of you can defend yourselves, so I'll attack...Aldrai!." Aldrai braced himself as the two identical ghouls shot through him, taking away 1700 of his life points and bringing him down to 1800.
"My turn," he said, drawing. "I summon Breaker the Magical Warrior in attack mode!" (1600/1000) Breaker burst forth from his card. "And since I just summoned him, he gets 300 more attack points!" Breaker's shield glowed and the gem in its center began to glow. "I'll now set two cards face down and attack Double Coston with Breaker! Attack now!"
Mystic grinned. "I activate my trap card Magical Cylinders!"
As the two cylinders appeared, Aldrai smiled. "I counter by activating my trap card, Seven Tools of the Bandit!" A pocketknife appeared, and as if a phantom were operating it, it dismantled the cylinders.
However, Mystic wasn't to be caught off-guard. "I counter by activating my own Seven Tools of the Bandit!" As the first pocketknife disappeared, a second one took its place and repaired the cylinders. Aldrai could only watch as 1900 points of damage were redirected at him, and he was blown out of the duel.
"So that's two of you out of the duel, and one more to go." said Mystic.
"But now you only have 100 life points left," said Aarion, hoping that Mystic wouldn't be able to summon another monster; "And with only one card in your hand, there's only a small chance that you'll be able to summon it out alongside your other monster!"
Mystic wasn't fazed. "Well, that's okay. Because since I just drew this card, you'll be finished!" He slapped a card onto his DuelDisk. "I play The Shallow Grave to bring back my Dark Magician!" The Dark Magician appeared in face down defense position on Mystic's side of the field as a hidden monster appeared on Aarion's side.
"And since you know it's the Dark Magician," Mystic said confidently, flipping his monster, "I will activate Dedication through Light and Darkness to special summon Dark Magician of Chaos!" (2800/2600)
"This monster's effect lets me draw a spell card from my graveyard and place it into my hand!" Mystic did so. "Time to once more activate Pot of Greed!" Mystic drew two more cards. "I'll start by playing Raigeki and destroying your monsters!" he shouted. A bolt of lightning fell from the sky and eliminated Aarion's monster. "Now then, I'll attack you directly, Aarion!" Aarion was blasted by a wave of magic, and his life points fell to 700. "Your move," said Mystic confidently.
"You may have a strong monster, but you still only have 100 life points!" Aarion drew.
"Yes! First, I activate Change of Heart on your monster!" Dark Magician of Chaos hovered over to Aarion's field. "Then, I'll tribute it for Total Defense Shogun!" (1550/2500) Aarion grinned triumphantly. "Now I'll get revenge for the way you defeated my friends! Total Defense Shogun can attack while in defense mode, and I intend to have him do just that! Attack now!"
The shogun threw a blade at Mystic, who smiled and activated the last card in his hand. "You're going down just like Adriel did," he said as another Scroll of Karma was activated.
"No!" shouted Aarion as his life points fell to zero. Everyone's disks shut off and the duel was ended.
"Wow, you beat all three of us!" said Aldrai in wonder.
"I was the top duelist in my region back in Australia." said Mystic. "But you all got me down to 100 life points! And from what I hear, Adriel has no experience and you two aren't known for dueling..." he added, trying not to be offensive.
"Yeah, I guess..." said Aarion.
"Anyway, you all seem pretty good to me, you just need to work on your strategies a little bit. If you want, I can teach you."
"I'll do it," said Aarion, looking at his friends.
"Yeah, me too." agreed Aldrai.
I lost to him and now he wants me to let him make me his student...no matter. I'll let him tell me his secrets and then I'll use them for my own good. He'll be sorry... Adriel thought while Aarion and Aldrai had agreed to Mystic's offer.
"I guess I don't have much choice, then."