Chapter 29: Crouching Phoenix, Hidden Dragon
The newest dragon that appeared on Ryuko's field glowed with white light. It had shimmering blue eyes that glowered at Namia and her monsters. "Now I'll activate my facedown card, Reversal of Dragonic-Kamikaze!" Ryuko's last facedown card flipped. This one pictured two monsters, a Black Skull Dragon overcoming a Masked Beast, even though they had the same attack points. "This allows any dragon monster to come out on top when the fight would normally be a suicide!" Ryuko declared. All his dragons glowed.
"No!" Namia gasped in shock as she realized what this meant. His Omega Dragon (3500/3000) and her Phoenix of Gold Fire (3500/3500) were tied in attack strength, but because of his trap card, his monster would win in a battle.
"That's right, I'll now switch my Hyozanryu (2100/2800) into attack mode!" his diamond dragon stood up and roared as he said this. "Then I'll attack your Thestalos (2400/1000) with my King Dragun (2400/1200)!" The odd looking dragon laughed with mirth and blasted a mix of wind and lightning at Thestalos.
"Counter attack!" Namia commanded her samurai, though she knew it was useless. Her monster did as commanded and sent a giant ball of flame at King Dragun just as it was blown to pieces. The flame soared through the air and almost hit Ryuko's dragon, but a symbol appeared and spun the fire out.
"Nice try, but you can't beat a dragon with any elemental attack!" Ryuko yelled happily. "Now I'll attack your Blue Phoenix (1500/1500) with Hyozanryu (2100/2800)!" the diamond dragon head butted the weaker beast. "Take out her last bird, Blue-Eyes Omega (3500/3000)!" The final attack was a giant ball of white thunder shot from the mouth of the dragon. Namia's monster blew a golden flame at him as a counter attack, but it met the same fate as Thestalos's fire. "End turn!" Ryuko smirked and did a little victory dance as Namia drew her next card.
"I'll set on card facedown and summon Blast Magician (1400/1700) in defense mode!" Namia said. A red robed mage with a sour look on his pale face appeared in a kneeling position. "End turn." Namia stated. Ryuko clapped and drew, ignoring his LP drop due to Backfire.
Namia-4500
Ryuko-3500
"It really was a nice try, but you're about to lose." he congratulated. Namia didn't seem to mind his mockery of the duel. "I'll start with Pot of Greed!" the brown haired boy slid a card into his disk, and took to others from the top of his deck.
'One down, six to go!"' Namia thought, as a spell counter appeared before her Blast Magician (1400/1700).
"I'll now activate my Dragun's special ability, and bring the Luster Dragon (2400/2000) to the field in attack mode!" another shimmering blue dragon appeared, this one full grown and growling. "Say goodbye, Hyozanryu (2100/2800) blast her mage into the next dimension!" Ryuko ordered. The diamond beast head butted towards the Blast Magician. The magician looked shocked, but didn't manage to utter a cry as it was obliterated. "Now I'll end this duel, Blue Eyes Omega Dragon (5250/3000) attack!" the boy yelled. His beast launched another white lightning as Namia pressed a button on her disk.
"Activate Scapegoat, now you'll have to get rid of my sheep tokens before my LP!" Namia stated. Ryuko shrugged and pointed to her remaining three tokens. Luster Dragon (2400/2000) and King Dragun (2400/1200) blasted two of them to pieces.
"End turn." Ryuko smirked at the female duelist.
"I'll draw then!" Namia picked up her next card and looked at the other cards in her hand. "You know, Osmos won't return the Blue-Eyes White Dragon cards." Namia stated, studying the field. "HEY!" she yelled just as Ryuko was about to say he believed Osmos. "Your monster has WAY more attack points than before!" she yelled to the boy.
Ryuko chuckled. "Yeah, my Omega Dragon (5250/3000) permanently gets half the attack points of any monster it destroys in battle, your Phoenix was no exception!" Ryuko laughed. "And Osmos promised he'd return my grandfather's cards, so there!" he finished defiantly.
Namia sighed with sadness. "Osmos is an evil man, he won't help you if he can help it, Ryuko." she stated. Ryuko glared at her.
"HE WILL!" he yelled, still more defiantly.
"I'll win this duel and ask for Kaiba to ante the cards, then you won't have to listen to Osmos, right?" Namia asked. Ryuko's eyes went wide.
'Is this broad serious!"' the young boy thought. "I don't believe you!" he yelled to Namia, he sounded unsure of himself though. "JUST GO!" he said angrily.
Namia smiled politely. 'I may be getting through to him. I can't let Osmos toy with other people's lives like he's toying with ours."' Namia though with her own flaming defiance. "I'll start my turn with Monster Reborn, to revive my Phoenix of Gold Fire (3500/3500)!" she smirked. "This time, I'll use its special ability!" The mighty Phoenix and the rest of the field suddenly burst into flames. "Now all of your monsters are gone." Namia declared. She then gasped.
"HAHAHAHAHAHA!" Ryuko burst out laughing, tears in his young eyes. "My King Dragun is a fusion of Lord of D. and Divine Dragon-Ragnarok, it negates effects that would target dragons, and my Omega Dragon has the same effect!" he stated as Namia's monster and half of her LP disappeared without any negative effect to her opponent, excluding Backfire's effect.
Namia-2250
Ryuko-2500
"I still get my Phoenix Egg (0/0), it may seem weak now, but it gains 500 attack points every turn end." A glowing egg appeared as per the effect of the female duelist's strongest Phoenix. "Now I'll set these two cards. End turn." Her final cards appeared and her minute egg (500/500) grew larger.
"I'll go now!" Ryuko drew and slid a card into his disk. "I'll now summon the Blackland Fire Dragon (1500/800) in defense mode." another dragon, this one with green skin and a deep, dangerous growl, appeared. "I now have an army of dragons, and your fire monsters have burnt out." Ryuko stated. "I'll attack your egg (500/500) with my King Dragun (2400/1200)!" the egg was close to being blasted by thunder, but suddenly, a whirlwind swept up and stopped the attack.
"Nice try, but I activated my Negate Attack. It targets your battle phase, not your monsters, so it works." Namia stated, wiping sweat from her brow. Ryuko shrugged and motioned for her to go. She drew. "I'll now activate Pyro Clock of Destiny!" she activated the card she set in the disk earlier and her egg (1500/1500) grew even larger until a crying Phoenix baby emerged. "End turn." she stated. Her Phoenix suddenly disappeared and a white shine filled the room as the Phoenix of White Fire (2000/2000) emerged. "Meet my newest Phoenix monster!" Namia stated. Ryuko shrugged and began his turn.
"I'll start by setting this card and attack you Phoenix with my Blue Eyes Omega (5250/3000) ending the duel!" he laughed manically as his Blue Eyes Omega blasted the final attack of the duel at the Phoenix of White Fire.
Namia-2250
Ryuko-0
Ryuko did a double take as he saw the fading LP score. "Wha-" he asked, dazed at how his LP showed zero, and not his opponents.
"Sorry, but you're my monster's special ability allows me to make you take all the battle damage for an attack- WHA!" Namia asked as the Hologram of Blue Eyes Omega (5250/3000) flickered and reappeared.
Ryuko wiped a bead of sweat from his forehead again, realizing how dangerously close he was to losing. "I activated Reversal of Dragonic-Final Battle, now you chose a monster in your deck and on of the monsters I have on the field will do battle. Basically the same as Last Battle, only its activation is limited to my LP reaching zero while I have a more powerful monster on the field than you." Ryuko stated.
"Sly, I'll choose.." Namia picked her deck up out of her deck slot and looked through all the cards, realizing no normal monster, nor any effect monster she could find, had enough attack points. Then her eyes widened as she saw another of her Phoenix cards. "This is it, I'll bring out my second in command of the Phoenix monsters, he may seem weak, but he's plenty strong, say hello to: Phoenix of Silver Fire (3000/3000) in attack mode!" she yelled. Another Phoenix, the exact same as the others except with silver wings and flames whipping around it, appeared.
"Bravo, bravo, you've successfully brought a monster that's more than 2000 attack points weaker than my dragon, any last requests?" Ryuko asked mockingly. Namia only wagged a finger.
"Now, now, now, you should have figured out by now, all of the Phoenix monsters have special abilities, and this one allows me to Special summon as many Phoenix monsters as possible from the graveyard, at the cost of them all being destroyed at my end phase, and they can't attack." Namia stated. Just as she was saying this, the Silver Phoenix (3000/3000) roared it's beautiful song and the ground rumbled as flames of blue, white, and gold shot from the ground.
"Nice, but it's a one-on-one battle to the finish." Ryuko said, obviously bored.
"Ah, but now I can use the secondary effect of my Silver Fire Phoenix (2000/2000), and sacrifice 1000 of its attack points, to increase my LP by the same amount!" her LP increased.
Namia-3250
Ryuko "0"
"What are you doing!" Ryuko asked, clearly confused.
"Just watch, as I use my Phoenix of Blue Fire's (1500/1500) effect to bring the final Phoenix to the field. Behold, the Phoenix of Black Fire (2500/2500)!" she declared. The final Phoenix of the embers appeared and growled with anger. It didn't sing, and the flames behind it were a deep black.
Shisei looked incredulously at the duel in front of him. 'This is incredible, Namia has all of the Phoenix of the Embers on the field at the same time! That's an unheard of move!"' the blond boy thought. He now understood how Kou could have a crush on the fire duelist.
"I'll end this duel with my Phoenix of Black Fire's (2500/2500) effect." she stated.
"Yeah, show me what your birdbrains can do." Ryuko retorted.
"You've probably noticed all of the Phoenix's so far sing a beautiful melody, right?" she asked. Ryuko rolled his eyes and nodded. "Well the reason my Phoenix of Black Fire won't sing is because it was born in a different way than any other Phoenix. It's egg, wasn't a star, but the soul of a deadly demon." she stated. "It will gladly kill its brethren to get power, and its about to do so." she stated. The dark flames spread through the field and the other Phoenixes suddenly began to screech their once beautiful melody. "Now Phoenix, devour your brethren and absorb their strength!" Namia commanded.
"Wh-what are you saying!" asked Ryuko worriedly, now his Dragon (5250/3000) seemed afraid.
"By sacrificing Fire monsters, I can increase my Phoenix's attack by the amount of monsters. Sorry, my Phoenix's, but you will be reborn. Now, Phoenix of Black Fire (12500/12500) Soul of Demon Fire!" Black flames shot out of the Phoenix's mouth, mixed with faint traces of gold, blue, white and silver.
"Blue-Eyes, counterattack." Ryuko said, already knowing he had lost.
Namia-750
Ryuko-0
The holograms disappeared, and Ryuko collapsed with tears in his eyes. "Grandpa, I'm so sorry, I failed!" Ryuko cried. Namia rushed over and patted him on the shoulder, Shisei as well.
"Ryuko, don't you worry, we'll get those cards back!" Namia said. Ryuko slowed his sobbing and looked at them.
"Y-you'd really help me!" he asked. Namia nodded.
"Yeah, now give us the fingers." Shisei stated, Namia hit the blond over the head. "Ow, what was that for!" he glared at Namia, who helped Ryuko up.
"Thanks, really." Ryuko said, brushing himself off. He then gulped. "Oh no, Osmos will probably be contacting me any minute!" Ryuko stated. Just then, his watch, which doubled as a contact device, beeped. Before he could answer it, Shisei removed the watch and tossed it down the mountain.
"Your not going back to Osmos, no matter what. He'll probably take your soul or something for failing." Shisei said, Namia nodding in agreement. "You don't have to stick with us, but don't go back to him." Shisei said.
Ryuko looked up at Shisei and Namia in shock, he sensed something different about these people, some genuine kindness that Osmos didn't carry. He looked at the Blue-Eyes Omega card, it seemed to shimmer with a brighter light than the normal foil shimmer. 'I will, grandpa."' he thought. "Alright, if you'll really help me… I'm in." Ryuko said, smiling. Shisei flashed the thumbs up and Namia hugged him again.
"Well, to the team… as soon as Kou gets back, anyway!" Shisei yelled to sky above him and his two teammates.
Next time: Kamishiro, on his way back to the castle meets up with an anxious to duel Ryuko, Shisei and Namia. After informing them on the death of Kou and Chiro, he accepts a duel with three to one odds. In his opponent's favor! Will Namia, Shisei, and Ryuko win a three to one match against the crafty Kamishiro? Find out Next time on Duel Monsters Maximum!
