I'm so sorry guys! I know it has been over a month since I have updated, but school is finally over. I had finals and all kinds of projects due. . . It has been a hell of a month. Anyway, this chapter is about the length of most of my older chapters, but I am trying to steer away from that and go longer. I tried to do that by coupling the finals in the tournament all together in one chapter, but that made it 17 pages long. So I separated them. The final match of the games is chapter 19, it is quite a bit longer than usual. It is a length I am going to try and go for. Anyway, on with the story!
Disclaimer: I do not own Yu-Gi-Oh.
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Ateyda stood in the ring the next day waiting for her opponent to arrive. She got there early that morning before Yami even woke up. Even though she had arrived well before he did, the stands were already half full. She did now know exactly why, but she felt something bad in the air. It was as if there was a dark spot in the back of her mind that threatened horrid events to come to pass. She looked down at her staff. She knew that if she truly believed in herself, and never gave up that she could beat whoever she was to fight that day. Then she remembered what Lamasse had said the night before. He was to be up against the white-haired fighter, Bakura. Worry hit her, and she tried to push it back, but the dark spot in the back of her mind still lingered.
"Be strong, Lamasse," Ateyda said to herself, "Don't you dare lose this match on me."
She only had to stand a few more minutes for the rest of the stands filled up and almost overflow. She leaned on her staff and watched as a large, slightly familiar fighter approached the ring. She felt her heart start to pound faster as she saw whom it was. His name was Shalim, and he was the champion of every tournament in the kingdom for the last six years. He was extremely large. He dwarfed a large man like Lamasse, and it seemed that he would burst if he flexed his muscles. His talent was all too well known. She knew she should have expected him to be there, but after seeing Bakura fight, she was almost glad to see Shalim.
"I've watched you fight," he said as he entered the ring, "You're pretty good, but now that you are against me, we are going to see how good. I have a prediction though. You won't last the first five minutes."
"You think you can take me down that easily?," Ateyda said raising an eyebrow, "Big words from a big man, but can you back them up? I'm not going to go as easy on you as I did my other opponents. My prediction is that after five minutes I will have the upper hand."
"This match won't last that long," he replied. She could see something in his eyes that was unsettling, "People like you don't deserve five minutes of my time."
"People like me?," she asked remaining calm.
"Yes," he replied, then dropped his voice to barely above a whisper, "Murdering bitches like you."
"Murdering?," she laughed, "And on what premise do you have to convict me of murder?"
"You killed your own flesh and blood, did you not? You killed your own father!"
"All is fair in war," she said coldly thinking back on the battle at the palace.
"That is just what I would expect a treacherous murderer like you to say," he hissed, "Your father would be ashamed, but it isn't like you would know that now that he is dead at your hands."
She merely smiled back at him, "I see your game. You are trying to throw me off by messing with my head. I know full well by watching you over the years that you care about nothing but yourself. I did wonder why you accused me so furiously of my father's death, and now I know why. I'm sorry to tell you, but that trick won't work on me. Especially on a dead memory from my past like that one."
It was then that Mito walked up. "Both of you know what is at stake here. The winner of this match will move on to the final match of the tournament. Now, let's begin."
They both glared and walked slow circles around each other. Ateyda glanced at his weapon. It was a chijiriki. It was long spear with a long length of weighted chain on the other end. It was a difficult weapon to master, but once a warrior learned all its uses; they were a difficult contender. They stopped and stood ready to fight. She watched him closely to see if he would strike first. When he did not move, she decided to make the first attack. She brought her staff down with a diagonal attack. He blocked and threw it with such a force that it almost knocked her off her feet. As she was trying to gain back her balance before she fell, he brought around the chained end and hit her hard on her side. She hit the ground, but had to throw herself back before he skewered her with the speared end of his chijiriki. She quickly flung herself onto her knees and dug one end of her staff into his Achilles' tendon on the back of his ankle. He yelled out in pain as his ankle collapsed and he rolled on it. She took this advantage to get up and sidekick him down, but before he hit the ground, he flung out the chain and it wrapped around her leg. She felt herself being pulled off her feet. She slammed into the ground, but before the chain lost its full grip on her, he jumped up and flung her across the ring. She felt every grain in the sandy floor below burning her skin as she skidded to a halt on her back. He ran at her, but she got up and forced herself into his knees. He flipped over her back. While he was still falling, with all of her strength she slammed her staff into him. His falling body spun off into the other direction and landed with a crack at the edge of the ring. He slowly got up panting. He licked the blood from his lip and smiled. He wrapped the chain end of his chijiriki around his hand and he lunged the spear end at her. She easily dodged it, but then she saw his fist come out of nowhere. The attack with the spear was a distraction. She felt it collide with her face, but she did not fall down. With a powerful hit, she smacked the hand with his weapon, making him loosen his grip, and then spun around and kicked him in directly in the face while his guard was down. She could taste blood in her mouth from his hit, and now she wanted to see his.
He brought down the spear end to slice her, but she blocked it and threw it to the side. She shoved one end of her staff into his stomach making him double over and stumble back a few steps before she flipped it under his chin, giving him an uppercut, then coming down on his upward and exposed face, breaking his nose. He sputtered through a rush of blood for a few moments, but then quickly attacked by slicing her arm with an edge of the spear. She gripped the wound feeling her hot blood ooze from it. He tried to do the same move again which was a mistake she did not think he would make. She grabbed the staff part of his weapon just below the sharp spear, kicked the end of the chain making it spin around his wrist, and then hooking her staff at his wrist also, while she kicked the other end of the spear at him. In a split second, she had made his own spear slice a nice piece of his face. She watched him touch his face. He reached in his pocket and pulled something out. He grabbed the end of the chain. While he seemed to be preparing something, she went on the attack. She swung her staff at his torso, but before it collided, he wrapped the chain around her wrist. With his massive strength, he flung her over his back and onto the floor with extreme force. As she struggled to gasp for the breath that was knocked from her lungs, she noticed the chain around her wrist was not loosening. She looked over to see he had attached a hook at the end that had fastened the chains completely on her wrist. She felt herself being dragged again. This time he brought her face to face with him with her feet not touching the ground.
"I should have known you wouldn't have been prepared," he said. Then he kicked her in the stomach, but instead of being knocked back, he tugged on his chijiriki and she was launched back into his awaiting fist. She flew back again, but on this time as she came back she kicked away his attack and with the rest of her strength smashed her staff down on the chain end of his chijiriki. It shattered on impact with shards of wood splintering toward them. She whipped off the chain, wrapped it around the chijiriki, took it from him, and double attacked him with both weapons. He was on his back, and she came at his throat with the spear end. She stopped inches away from killing him automatically making her the winner.
The crowd's deafening shouting finally reached her ears. She had almost forgotten that there was anyone watching, let alone a crowd of thousands of people. She got up and smiled over at her brother who had his hand in the air and was shouting something about her winning. She could not hear a thing over the crowd's shouts and cheers. Yet with the end of the fight, not only did the sound of the crowd come, but also the aches in her body. There was a thin sheet of blood running down her arm, as well as the faint taste of it in her mouth. She gritted her teeth and took it with pride. Shalim was standing up. He glared at her, let out a big sigh, but then put on a grim smile and held out his hand for her to shake.
'Finally,' she thought, 'I have an opponent who sees me as an equal.' She smirked and shook his hand. Yet as she released his hand, the shouts coming from the crowd were not cheers any longer. Their eyes all were looking over at the other ring. The look on her brother's face was what started to panic her. His eyes were wide, and his teeth were jammed together. She turned to look behind her, and saw a broken and bloodied form on the floor of the other ring. Bakura stood above him with a manic grin.
"Lamasse?!," Ateyda shouted and started to walk toward him, but her brother grabbed a hold of her and held her back.
He started to get up though his movements were shaken. He wiped some of the blood draining from his mouth. Bakura laughed a little at Lamasse's efforts. Lamasse held up his naginata ready to fight again even though it was obvious that his senses were terribly skewed. Bakura faked a lunge at him and laughed while Lamasse almost slumped sideways trying to block it.
"Come on, Lamasse," Ateyda said quietly, "Don't let me down. You promised me a fight in the finals. You had better not give up on me."
"You're not looking so well," Bakura jeered at him with a deep, evil voice that rasped with his every syllable, "Perhaps you should spare yourself, and just fall down. You were very foolish to think you could defeat me. You are not of my rank."
"I'd rather die fighting than walk away from a challenge," Lamasse spat back through the blood that was running from his nose and mouth. Large welts had already appeared on his skin from powerful blows. Ateyda had never seen such a thing on a fighter. Most of them were toned and in shape enough that it would take a considerable amount of force to cause such an effect.
"You are more of an idiot than I originally thought," Bakura said, "I guess I will just have to show you why." He tried to smack Lamasse's face, but he blocked it. Bakura quickly flipped his staff under the attack, stepped on one end, while exerting a terrible amount of force with the other. It was aimed directly for Lamasse's jaw. In one hit, they heard the crack of his jawbone and watched him fall to the ground with a crash.
"No! Lamasse!," Ateyda was fighting weakly against her brother's grip. The crowd's cheers bore down on her. They cheered her friend's defeat. Bakura was declared the winner, and Ateyda broke Mito's hold on her. She ran to Lamasse's side to find him completely unconscious.
"Get some help for him!," she screamed at some of the by standers. They merely stood and stared at her while glancing nervously over at Bakura. "What the hell is the matter with you?! I said get some assistance for his wounds!" It was not until Bakura left the ring that they dared enter it. Ateyda stood over him watching as they tended to his wounds and broken bones. Lamasse was one of the strongest fighters in the whole kingdom. If Bakura could have taken him down as badly as that, what chance did she have against him?
"Who won the other match?," she heard Bakura ask a terrified sideliner.
"It. . .It. . . It was the queen," he managed to say through his shaking. She felt his fiery gaze turn to her. She looked straight at him showing him that she was not afraid. She did not care how badly Lamasse looked. She was not going to let Bakura get away with beating him so savagely. She did not want a sick man like that win the games, and it was up to her to make sure of it. He merely smiled, and walked into a lavatory.
"Ateyda. . .," she heard Lamasse's cracked voice calling out to her. She whipped around and knelt beside him. "You must promise me something. You must drop out of the games. Do not fight Bakura. He will kill you if you go on and challenge him." He was talking the best be could with his jaw broken, and kept wincing from the pain.
"You know I can't do that, Lamasse," she said stonily.
"You can. You HAVE to promise me not to fight him," Lamasse pleaded.
"I cannot let him get away with this. I will not take the path of a coward and forfeit to him. I won't let him get off that easy. He does not deserve such mercy, and do not worry for me. I will beat him."
"Please, Ateyda," Lamasse begged her, but they started to carry him off to the infirmary.
"Ateyda. . .," her brother began.
She cut him off, "You heard my answer, Mito. I will not drop out of this fight." With that she walked into her own lavatory to clean up.
She went over to a basin that was filled with cool water. She rinsed her mouth of the blood she could still taste in it. She scooped up a handful of water and let it wash down her arm. She could feel the deep cut stinging as the cold liquid filled the crevice and washed the arena floor's dirt from it. A few servants came in and started to bandage it up with ointments and gauze like cloths. She did not like people serving her and helping her, but they were doing a much better job than she would have done. She wiped the rest of the dirt from her skin as they finished bandaging her up. She rinsed off the sweat that had begun to glisten on her body. She walked over to a long cushioned seat, and laid down. She stared up at the cloth shrouded ceiling above her wondering how Lamasse was doing. Her body was aching from being slammed into the ground, and she wondered how well she could fight Bakura when she was already tired from the last match. She knew she had time since the finals were at the end of the day after all the other games were finished, but she still wondered how she would fair. She knew she promised Lamasse that she would beat Bakura, but seeing Lamasse lying there not only scared her but kindled anger in her toward the white-haired warrior. Her words would only take her so far, and her skills seemed to be diminishing before her eyes as she tried to compare herself to Bakura. She would fight with her best, but she was not sure if that would be enough to survive the match. If he did end up killing her like Lamasse warned, then she would accept it for she never backed down from a fight and she was not going to start that now. It had taken her years and a lot of encouragement from Yami to enter the games, and she was not going to stop now.
She heard the door open behind her. She was lying on her side with her back to the person walking in. She heard their sandals tap on the stone floor as they approached her. She felt a hand sweep over her arm and a soothing, deep voice greet her.
"Are you all right?," Yami asked sitting down next to her.
"Fine," she merely whispered.
"I know there is no stopping you from fighting Bakura," Yami said quietly, "Your brother is extremely worried. He told me to come in here and talk you out of it."
"Is that what you are going to attempt?," she asked rather coldly.
"No," he replied, "Because I believe you can beat him. I know after seeing what he did to Lamasse, it was a shock, but I know you are better than Lamasse and Bakura together. I know you can do this. You just have to promise me one thing."
She turned around to meet his gaze. His eyes seemed to sparkle more, and they seemed to be more damp than usual. "What?," she asked very seriously seeing his expression.
"You must promise me you won't lose," he replied.
She reached up and put her hands on his shoulders. She pulled him down very close to her face and left her fingers stroke his soft, bronzed cheek, "I promise that I will not lose. I will not let you down." She felt his lips meet hers. She had been so caught up with the games and training that it had been a while since she had savored the taste of his lips. She felt his hands slowly glide up her back and she felt every pain and ache in her body ebb away. They were replaced by the burning of her desire that his fingertips induced. He laid himself down, and she wrapped her arms around him. He laid his head on her chest and she laid her own in his soft, multi-colored hair. She could not think of anything she would rather be doing. Her heaven was being with him. She slowly felt herself drift of to sleep.
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R&R! Next chapter is the match between Ateyda and Bakura!
