Chapter 22: Double Shadow Match Pt. 1
After the initial anger that Shisei had felt towards Kou for losing his duel, he was back to normal speaking terms, and the three were once again, wandering through the forests of the island, looking for duels. "You know what I just realized?" Shisei asked his teammates.
"What?" Namia responded to his question with her own.
"We don't have a team name." Shisei stated.
Kou frowned, realizing this was true. "Yeah, your right. What kind of name should we use?" he asked. Namia immediately began to think of names involving fire. Shisei thought of team names involving the Dark Magician. Kou thought of names that included gladiator, or warrior.
"How about: The Fire Brigade!" Namia asked excitedly. Shisei looked at her as though she were crazy. Kou did as well.
"What the hell do you mean, making up such a stupid name!" Shisei was beaten to say this by Kou. Namia glared at him angrily.
"Its not stupid!" she said hotly. "If you have any better names, then I'd like to hear them!" her eyes flared dangerously, but Kou got right up into her face anyway.
"As a matter of fact, I think "The Incredibles" sounds great!" he glared. Namia stopped glaring and fell to the ground with laughter. Shisei followed her lead, soon Kou couldn't get the laughter to calm down or stop. "Hey, come on!" Kou yelled at his team members. They didn't acknowledge him, but the next voice, they did.
"How about you all shut up." was a low, slow voice from the darkness. Immediately Shisei and Namia sprung together, holding each other out of fright, when they couldn't trace the voice in the darkness of the night.
"Oh, are the little ones scared?" asked another voice, this sickeningly high, but still obviously male. "Hehehheheheheh!" the voice laughed louder. "Wee little duelists, all alone and una- OOF!" there was a loud bang as the owner of the voice fell out of a tree which had fallen due to Kou slashing it in half. With the loud bang belonging to the tree.
"Ah, so one of the wee duelists can fight, I'm surprised." the slow, yet strong and low voice said. The small man that had fallen out of the tree grumbled and stood up to clean the bits of grass and dirt off of himself.
"Yeah, I bet you were planning on coming up here at night, scaring us and then taking our fingers, eh?" Kou asked, a low growl in his throat. "Well I'm afraid that won't be happening. Your not getting our fingers without a duel!" he raised his duel disk.
"We aren't here to duel you, boy." the low voice emerged from behind a tree. The two men were comical together. The one with the higher voice, was short and built with little muscle. The larger man, had the low and strong voice of a man. They both wore black cloaks and looked extremely dangerous. "We do wish a duel however." the taller one said.
Shisei stood up. "With me or Namia then?" he asked, not thinking it was suspicious, after all, Namia was the regional Champion of London, and he had beaten Kou in the last Japan tournament.
"Yes, and it shall be a tag team duel!" the shorter man squeaked. He inserted his deck into his duel disk. "My name is Piercer, and this," he motioned lazily toward the big and low voiced man. "is Blocker."
Namia stepped forward and looked at Shisei, who nodded his approval. "Then you bet your two fingers, and we'll bet two of ours!" Namia stated. She didn't bother to introduce herself, as, being a regional Champion, they should have already known her name.
"Oh, yes, normally that would be the stakes…" Blocker said. "However, this time…" Kou was waiting for an answer, when he noticed that it seemed to be getting darker and darker, and he could hardly see Shisei now…
'YOU IDIOT, HE'S CHALLENGING THEM TO A SHADOW GAME!"' yelled Chiro suddenly. Kou rushed towards the sphere of darkness, but before he could even touch it, the four had already disappeared into the Shadow Realm.
Shisei looked around in shock. "Hey, what happened to the lights? Where the heck did Kou go?" he asked, suddenly realizing the absence of these two things.
"Were not on the plane of reality that you know of, I'm afraid!" Piercer screeched in satisfaction, his high voice bouncing off the walls of the realm. "We are now in a place where losing a duel, means losing your soul!" he finished. Shisei paled. He had never been in a shadow match , he turned to Namia, who was stone faced and ready for the duel.
"Are we going to talk all day, or are we going to duel?" she asked. The opposing tag team and Shisei and Namia took off their fingers and sat them down in the grass, so as none of them could switch with a fake finger, and readied their disks.
"DUEL!" they all shouted, drawing their opening hands.
Blocker-8000
Namia-8000
Piercer-8000
Shisei-8000
Blocker drew first. "We'll go alphabetically!" he told them Namia and Shisei nodded in comprehension. "I'll set two cards facedown and one monster in defense mode!" he told them. Shisei turned to Namia, who drew.
"I'll start with, Horus the Black Flame Dragon LV. 4 (1600/1000) in attack mode!" she articulated. Her mini dragon of the black flame appeared to protect her. "I'll also set this card, go." she pointed to Piercer, who drew.
"I'll summon, Drillago (1600/1100) in attack mode!" A monster made completely of drills appeared, drills growling as it settled into its attack position. "I'll end my turn there." he nodded to Blocker.
"I'll set three cards facedown, go." Shisei said without missing a beat. 'Now that they can attack, I'll get to see their strategy, and if we can match up to it."' Shisei though worriedly.
"Alright kid, I'll sacrifice my set monster,"Blocker removed the card from the disk and slid it into the graveyard slot. "to set this card facedown, make your move girl." he pointed forcefully at Namia, who smiled and drew.
"I'll activate Backfire, now if a fire monster is destroyed, one of you will lose 500 LP!" she set another card in the monster zone as well. "Then I'll set this monster into defense mode." she commented.
"I'll go then!" Piercer smirked. "Now I'll activate, Limiter Removal, and Double Drillago's attack!" his magic card increased his Drillago (3200) to above the other monsters on the field. "Now, Drillago (3200/1100) directly attack the boy!" his drill monster charged at Shisei.
Shisei, not expecting the attack to hurt all that much, just closed his eyes. "AHHHHHH!" he was suddenly shrieking as blood splattered on the ground of the Shadow Realm. It covered his eyes so he couldn't see to bat the drilling beast away. Finally, it stopped, and Shisei got up, though still bleeding. "Wh-wha..?" he looked around, disoriented and found that he had a large gash on his left arm. For the tournament he had worn a white shirt and black pants, a green windbreaker over his shirt. Now all of these were soaked in his own blood.
Blocker-8000
Namia-8000
Piercer-8000
Shisei-4800
"HAHAHA! Like the shadow Realm much boy!" Piercer asked with malice in his high voice. Then he and his burly partner began to crack up with laughter. "Your pathetic, fool, you shouldn't have agreed to the duel!" Piercer wagged a finger as Shisei found the strength to activate his trap card.
"I'll play N-nu-" he struggled to read with his gaze flipping in and out of focus. "numinous healer, giving me LP!" he smiled in pleasure as his gash closed slightly.
Blocker-8000
Namia-8000
Piercer-8000
Shisei-5800
Piercer shrugged and slid another card into his own disk. "I'll summon Bowganian (1300/1000) in defense mode, end turn." he stated. An odd type of machine appeared, it had one eye with a spear coming from the space around it, the spear was pointing at Shisei at the moment.
Namia glared at both of her opponents. "Are you okay?" she asked Shisei. Shisei flashed the thumbs up and drew.
"I'll be fine, just make sure you can take down these guys!" he commented. "I'll set one more card facedown and end my turn." he stated. His card appeared and Blocker drew.
"Okay, kiddies, now I'll set one more monster in defense mode, and activate Tribute to the Doomed, to destroy your Horus (1600/1000)!" he smirked as her monster was surrounded by bandages. Just as they rapped around the dragon and began to drag it below the surface of the duel field, it was surrounded by a purple mist and destroyed, courtesy of Shisei's activated Magic Jammer Trap.
"Hm, interesting move boy, now I'll have to end my turn, I suppose." Blocker said,stopping his motion of discarding a card due to Tribute to theDoomed's effect.He then let the only female duelist, Namia, draw.
"Ok, get ready for the burn, cause its coming!" Namia took her Horus (1600/1000) off the disk and put another monster in it's place. "I'll sacrifice my Horus (1600/1000) to summon my Phoenix of White Fire (2000/2000) in attack mode!" a mighty bird with white feathers and white fire blazing around it, emerged to light the Shadow Realm. Though the fire didn't help for long, as soon the power of the Shadow Realm overtook the light. "Now my Phoenix has a few special abilities, but they'll come into play later, for now, I'll just have it attack your," she pointed to Blocker. "tribute set monster!" she smirked as her Phoenix of White Fire (2000/2000) flapped its wings and blew the flames at the monster.
"HA! You attacked my Woodborg Inpachi (500/2500) which means you lose 500 LP!" he snickered at her move.
Blocker-7000
Namia-8000
Piercer-8000
Shisei-5800
Blocker's eyes widened as he saw his own LP count on his all black duel disk. "What happened, you should have lost LP, not me!" he glared at Namia.
"True, but the first Special Ability of my monster allows it to deal you all the battle damage I should take!" she pointed again at Blocker. "Nice try, now I'll end my turn!" she said. "Oh and my Horus gives you 500 for the effect of Backfire!" she finished, Piercer drew.
"Alright, now my Bowganian (1300/1000) will activate it's special ability!" he smirked as Namia and Shisei wondered what this was. Shisei didn't have to wonder long. He had given Namia a look, when he heard something swish by his ear. He looked at the shadows behind him to see a spear that had previously been attached to Bowganian. "Hahaha! Scared? My Bowganian allows me to deal you 600 direct damage per turn!" Piercer exclaimed as Shisei gulped. "And that was just my standby phase, now I'll also activate, Scapegoat!" he smirked as three miniature sheep of many different colors appeared on his field. "End turn." Piercer ended and Sei drew.
Blocker-7000
Namia-8000
Piercer-8000
Shisei-5200
"Alright, I'll start by playing, Equal Sharing!" he flipped a magic card that Namia had never heard of. "Now everyone gets as many tokens as one person has on the field, if they can't summon that many, then they must tribute monsters until they can!" Shisei smirked as Four sheep tokens appeared on his and Namia's field, and Blocker got rid of his facedown defense monster to receive four. "Now I'll end my turn!" he smirked.
Blocker shrugged and drew his next card. "Well, what do you know, I've drawn quite aninteresting card, say hello to my Token Thanksgiving!" he smirked as all of the scapegoats disappeared and his LP increased. "This destroys all tokens and gives me 800 LP for each one!" his laughter hardly stopped long enough for him to say this, as he was covered in a shimmering light.
Blocker-19800
Namia-8000
Piercer-8000
Shisei-5200
Namia looked at Blocker's LP with shock. 'He has more LP than me and Shisei put together!"' she thought to herself as Blocker switched the turn to her. "Okay, I'll draw!" she did so, though not very confidently. Seeing the card renewed her confidence. "Okay, I'll activate Pot of Greed!" she drew twice more. "Now get ready, I'll activate, Third Degree Burns!" she slid the card into her disk. "Now whenever I use a fire-type monster to destroy another type, we all lose half of the destroyed monster's attack in our LP!" she smirked, then inserted another card. "Next, Flame Shield will protect anyone from direct damage as long as they have a fire monster!" she stated. "Finally, I'll summon Blazing Inpachi (1850/0) on my partner's field!" she declared as a flaming tree that stood on it's bark appeared before Sei. "Now, attack Piercer's Bowganian (1300/1000)!" she commanded her Phoenix of White Fire (2000/2000).
"Not so fast girly, I'll activate Mirror Force, to blow your attack back at you!" he smirked, but Namia just discarded a card and his Bowganian, and Namia's Phoenix, stayed safely on the field. "Wait, what happened, my trap didn't work!" Piercer questioned in his high voice. The two immediately looked to Shisei's field, expecting to see another jam card.
"Not me this time, but Namia!" Shisei smirked and pointed towards Namia.
"Oh, the other ability of my Phoenix allows it to stay on the field after an attack or effect, as long as I discard a card." Namia said with boredom.
"Oh well, your attack was still negated, so now its my turn!" Piercer said, drawing. "Now I'll heat things up with Bowganian's (1300/1000) effect, Mini Spear Shot!" he smirked as Shisei hit the ground to avoid a minituare dart.
Blocker-19800
Namia-8000
Piercer-8000
Shisei-4600
Shisei growled in rage at being the only one targeted.
"Now I'll also play cost down!"Piercer laughed as Namia and Shisei paled. "This lets me play a stronger monster with one less tribute, so I'll sacrifice my Bowganian, for the Perfect Machine King (2700/1500) in attack mode!" Piercer's mighty monster appeared in the same spot his smaller one had dissapeared from, bursting with weaponry. It had gattling guns and missile launchers ready and waiting to fire on command. "Now my creature gains 500 extra attack points for every machine type monster but himself on the field!" he smirked as his Machine King (3200/1500) got an attack bonus due to Woodborg Inpachi (500/2500). "So I'll now attack your pathetic Phoenix (2000/2000)!" he roared. His monster charged up his missiles, but Namia discarded the last card in her hand sadly. The Machine King paused and closed it's missile ports. "Haha, end turn!"
Blocker-19800
Namia-8000
Piercer-6800
Shisei-4800
Shisei drew with a glare. He then looked at the card and smirked. "I'll set this card and switch my Inpachi (1850/0) into defense mode, end turn!" he said. Blocker drew.
"Hm, I'm afraid your souls are ours." he said calmly. Shisei and Namia blinked. "Now, I'll activate, Soul Ressurection, to revive one normal monster in defense mode, my first set monster, Battle Footballer (1000/2100) will do just fine!" he began in his low voice. "Next, I'll sacrifice both of these beasts, for my own Perfect Machine King (2700/1500)!" another machine appeared on his field, and both of them had 3200 attack points. "Now, my monster will attack your bird!" Blocker pointed to Namia's monster, not caring about LP loss. Namia winced as her beast was destroyed. "I'll set this card and end my turn." he finished.
Blocker-18100
Namia-8000
Piercer-6800
Shisei-4800
Namia drew with newfound determination. 'We can't lose, Kou still needs us!"' she thought. She looked at the card she had drawn, and smirked. "Now I'll summon another Phoenix, say hello to the Phoenix of Blue Fire (1500/1500)!" a bird surrounded by blue flames appeared. "Now let's play for real!" Namia smirked as her LP dropped.
Kou looked at the sphere of darkness, beginning to feel how Shisei had during the times he had gone into the Shadow Realm. 'Chiro, we have to do something, anything!"' he told Chiro in his mind.
'I know, but there isn't anything we can do!"' Chiro responded. 'Their both good duelists, I'm sure they'll be fine!"' tried to reassure Kou, but this was hard to do when it sounded like he was trying to convince himself as well.
Kou gulped and tried to see through the sphere for the umtempth time. "Stay safe guys, stay safe." he finally said, looking away from the sphere, and toward the bright blue sky above.
Next time: Kou is lucky he doesn't have double duel against such maniacs as Blocker and Piercer. But Namia and Shisei are dueling them and it takes every skill Shisei has to protect Namia when the power of her Phoenixes are blown away by the traps of Blocker. Can our duo win? Find out next time on Duel Monsters Maximum!
A/N: Well, that was the second chapter this week, I'll still try and get another few, the two chapters a week thing isn't a maximum, its a minimum, so don't worry, as long as you keep reviewing, I'll have enough energy to type up a few chapters.
