First off, I'd like to give a tremendous apology to all of my readers. I
should have posted this thing two months ago, but because of multiple
circumstances, including getting my wisdom teeth out, preparing for and
then taking the test for my Learner's Permit (ye, I can drive, the roads
are no longer safe), and just being a lazy bastard in general, I haven't
been able to post until now. Considering this is the second-to-last day
before school starts for me, I decided I'd better post while I can still
choose when to write. However, I have discovered that I work well during
the school year, so expect more updates soon.
And now, time for a few review responses.
The Helldragon: Honestly, I had to look up Sun Tzu to understand what you were saying. Of course, as soon as I read the title of his book I remembered it being mentioned in "Bearing a Red Sword" by Piers Anthony.
thegymrat: Well, I sort of wanted it to feel that way, although I'm not sure whether I should take the comparison to the anime as a compliment or an insult, heheh.
Yoshimo: Kinetic Soldier is a promo that was released along with Fairy King Truesdale and Slate Warrior (aka Newt). As for the duel, if you thought that was fast-paced, wait just about (checks watch) two minutes.
Roll the tape!
I can't, it's rectangular.
Tokyo Tournament
Chapter Twenty-Four: Broken Sword
Also Entitled: The Plot is Revealed!
Lin grinned as he activated his Duel Disk. Now was the time. He lived for this, to let loose and not hold back. He was in the finals of the tournament, meaning he was up against the best, and he would have to give his.
His opponent, Nick, seemed less excited. Not only did cloths cover more than three quarters of his face, but also his one visible eye showed no emotion. It stared, almost as unblinking as the red decoration on the eye- patch that covered its partner. The remainder of his body did not appear relaxed or tense, and he simply held out his arm unenthusiastically as his Duel Disk activated.
Lin quickly drew six cards, showing that he would take the first turn. Nick drew five in response, and the garb covering his mouth moved slightly. Had the garb been absent, Lin might have been able to read Nick's lips and tell that he had just whispered, "Prepare to be consumed, courageous warrior."
"Alright, let's get this started!" cried Lin enthusiastically as he glimpsed briefly at his hand. Suddenly he noticed that the center of the dueling arena had gone dark, a blotch of some strange purple substance occupying the area. "What the crap?" said Lin as the black and purple splotch expanded across the floor and everywhere else as well. Soon the entire room was enveloped in darkness, leaving all present in shock.
Suddenly, Cerberus fell from the balcony and landed on the floor in a crumpled heap. As he landed, a resounding crack could be heard. Then, a being of darkness, identical to the one that Joey and Mai had seen after their double duel, emerged from Cerberus's body. The body of shadow let out a bellow of laughter and spoke with a voice that struck fear into the hearts of all that heard it, "I grow bored of this meager competition. It's time I raised the stakes a little."
Then the darkness of the Shadow Realm became more focused in multiple areas surrounding the witnesses of the duel. Tea, Serenity, Tristan, Bakura, Mokuba, Joy, Kevin, and Zachary immediately fell to the ground and let out cries of agony. Kirbin stooped to hold up Joy. Giyan clutched his chest in pain. The others, except for Yamato, Term, Lin, and Nick, stood shocked. The remaining four leapt into action, as Lin and Nick charged toward Cerberus, the former with a sword in his left hand that had appeared from nowhere. They were stopped at the wall of the arena as a black force field held them in. Yamato drew a pair of large pistols and opened fire on the dark being. Term leapt through the air at the figure, blades suddenly sprouting along his whole body.
The being simply laughed louder as Yamato's bullets passed through its apparently nonsolid body. Term landed in a crouch and attempted to rake his newly formed claws across the being, but they passed through it just as Yamato's bullets had.
The darkness lifted what passed as an arm and pointed it at Term, who was immediately hoisted into the air by some unseen force. "An interesting life- form," spoke the darkness, "a soul not quite human, but not animal either. Too bad such a unique being will have to die now. I would have liked to experiment and see if it could have been copied." The then darkness waved its arm again, and the Shadow Realm refocused on Term, who cried out in pain as his soul began to tear apart. "Those that came before me all made a common mistake," mused the darkness, "they chose to trap their enemies in the Shadow Realm rather than kill them. Such sentimental fools."
Term looked at the darkness with a look of hatred mixed with pain and spat into the face of shadow. The face shaped itself into a scowl and the darkness spoke again, "For that little action, I'll just make sure you are the first to die at the hands of Youkai." And with that, Youkai formed his right arm into a blade and reared back to cut into Term's very soul. As the blade swung, Youkai suddenly howled in pain as currents of what appeared to be electricity ran through his body.
Youkai reeled around to face his attacker, who turned out to be the large Yamato that had just attempted to shoot him. Yamato had apparently removed one of his gloves and pressed a small jewel into Youkai's back. This jewel was radiating an immense light. Upon closer inspection, it would be obvious that the hand that held the jewel was not made of flesh. Youkai let out a cry of fury and slashed Yamato across his chest. Yamato was knocked backwards by the blow, his trench coat torn almost in half, revealing a chest made entirely of metal. Youkai then focused more of the Shadow Realm around Yamato, causing even him to cry in pain. Youkai became calm, and he proceeded to take pleasure in killing almost everyone in the room.
Then, as suddenly as Shadow had covered the room, a bright light filled it, and all traces of darkness disappeared momentarily. Then the light faded, and Youkai erupted in fury as he looked about erratically for the cause of the flash. He didn't have to look for long, as Giyan stepped forward challengingly, the twin-bladed sword of the Warrior of Balance held high in his hands. But then Giyan suddenly collapsed, exhausted from the tremendous exertion of filling the room with light.
Youkai grinned and focused the Shadow Realm on Giyan as well as those he had done so on before. "I must commend you, Guardian," he said in a statement directed apparently to Nick, "you chose bodyguards for the Pharaoh quite well. A manipulator of Light and Dark, who just now prevented me from killing anyone through Shadow powers with that last effort of his. A robot with a soul, a half-human, and one with eight souls inhabiting his body to give me difficulties in separating their souls from their bodies. Although I am not sure what the swordsman's purpose was."
"You'll have to wait to find out when we defeat you," replied Nick.
Youkai laughed in disbelief, "Take a look around, Guardian. There are only three of you left, two once one of you wins that duel. The pink-haired boy won't do any good now that he's weeping over that girl. Not one of you alone stands a chance against me alone. So, stop trash talking and get on with the tournament. I'd like the Pharaoh's Puzzle as soon as possible."
Nick tore his glare from Youkai and looked about the room to see that the being was right: Kirbin was in a world that consisted only of he and the body of Joy. However, Youkai was also wrong in his statement. Kirbin had seven long-lived entities that would help set him back towards his goal within the hour. Nick just had to hope that was soon enough. Around Kirbin were the shocked faces of Yugi, Joey, Mai, Kaiba, Mike, and Kai. The final two were in shock, but the others were doing as Kirbin was, mourning over the fallen. Joey and Kaiba clutched their younger siblings close, and felt the familiar pain of loss. Mai was trying to comfort Joey, and Yugi's face was a mixture of sorrow and fury. The Puzzle was glowing a brilliant gold. Nick knew that right now, Youkai was wallowing in their pain, but he also knew that soon that pain would be eclipsed by rage.
Nick turned to Lin, and, while attempting and nearly succeeding not to choke, said, "Lin, take your turn."
"With pleasure," Lin quickly snatched several cards out of his hand and laid them on the field with vigor fueled by anger, "I'll begin by summoning the Hayabusa Knight (1000/700) in attack mode!" The humanoid bird warrior leapt out of the Shadows and landed in front of Lin, its rapier ready. The bird stared down Nick, who met its gaze calmly. "I'll also place two cards facedown, and then end my turn."
Nick drew calmly, and examined all six cards in his hand before playing one quickly, "I play Card Destruction, forcing us to discard our hands and draw new ones." He quickly pressed his five cards into his graveyard, and Lin did the same with his three. Then both looked over their new hands and mentally formed strategies to screw their opponent over with. "Now I shall begin my assault! First I remove one Fire monster from my graveyard so that I can Special Summon the Inferno (1100/1900) from my hand!" The ghostly image of a Great Angus appeared, then burst into flames. The flames quickly began to manifest into the head of some sort of creature. Twin sapphire eyes appeared in the face of flames, and it opened its mouth to reveal it to be full of human skulls.
"What the Hell is that?" Lin cried in surprise as the flames grew taller, as if the beast were rearing back to strike.
"It is the very personification of flame," stated Nick, "just as fire can inflict extremely serious injuries to a victim, the Inferno can cause extreme damage to its opponent's Life Points even if it bests an opposing monster by a miniscule amount. Now, I ply Shield and Sword, reversing the attacks and defenses of our monsters (Hayabusa Knight: 700/1000, Inferno: 1900/1100)! Now, I'll have Inferno roast your bird!" The beast of flame charged forward and engulfed the Hayabusa Knight, melting through armor and burning feathers. Eventually, all that remained was a rather large roast chicken (comic relief!), which quickly disappeared.
"I won't allow you to attack without receiving at least some damage in return," stated Lin as one of his two facedown cards flipped up, "so I'll activate Attack and Receive, dealing you 700 points of direct damage!"
Nick: 3300 Lin: 1300
"This duel isn't over yet, Nick," stated Lin, "I have not yet even begun to fight!" He quickly snapped a card off the top of his deck and slapped it on his Duel Disk, "I play Monster Reborn, Special Summoning the Hayabusa Knight (1000/700) in attack mode! Then I equip him with the Lightning Blade, increasing his attack strength by 800 points!" The bird-headed warrior reappeared, its sharp rapier tightly clutched in its talon. The blade of the rapier began to crackle with electricity, and the Knight's attack rose to 1800. "Hayabusa Knight, strike down the Inferno, then attack directly!" The Hayabusa Knight charged forward, bringing the lightning- charged rapier in a sweeping motion that cut through the flames of the Inferno. Then the knight continued on and thrust its blade into Nick's chest, causing him to stumble backwards.
Nick: 800 Lin: 1300
Nick clutched his chest, which was now charred and bleeding. He then stumbled to his feet and grabbed a card from his deck, dripping blood on several others as he did so. He then placed the card on his Duel Disk, "I summon Blazing Inpachi-"
"No you don't!" Lin interrupted as his facedown card flipped up, revealing a Trap Hole. Nick's monster, a burning humanoid tree, appeared momentarily before it fell into a pit.
Nick's one visible eye narrowed slightly, but he merely selected another card from his hand, "I had not wanted to take this risk, but I'll have to. I play Reasoning, which causes me to pick up cards from my deck until I reach a monster. The other cards are discarded. Then you guess the monster's level. If you're right, it's discarded. If not, I get to Special Summon it to the field." He immediately picked up the top card of his deck and signaled to Lin that it was, in fact, a monster.
Lin thought for a moment. He had dueled Nick before, and knew that the only monsters Nick had left with over 1800 attack were monsters that required a sacrifice. "I call level 6."
"Sorry, Lin," said Nick as he placed the monster on his Duel Disk, thus smearing the device with trace amounts of his own blood. "The monster is Drillago (1600/1000), a level 4 monster who can attack directly if all your monsters have at least 1600 attack points and are in attack mode." Drillago, familiar to those who had seen Marik use it at the Battle City finals, appeared with a buzz of its dozen drills. Then Nick ordered it forward and it burrowed underground. Second later it emerged from the Earth and struck Lin multiple times, ending the duel.
Nick: 800 Lin: 0
Lin's soul was claimed by the Shadow Realm, and his body had been beaten badly. Nick's hatred towards Youkai nearly doubled in an instant as he thought of how the evil spirit was pitting those who sought to defeat him against each other. At this rate, the winner of the tournament might be so fatigued they would fail to last a turn. Nick picked up Lin's body and carried it out of the arena as Joey and Mike entered. As they passed each other, Nick whispered, "Good luck, to both of you."
So, there ya go. If anyone read this chapter and said "What the Hell?" or anything of the like, say so in a review and I'll send in an email explaining everything, because I don't really want to explain things right now.
And now, time for a few review responses.
The Helldragon: Honestly, I had to look up Sun Tzu to understand what you were saying. Of course, as soon as I read the title of his book I remembered it being mentioned in "Bearing a Red Sword" by Piers Anthony.
thegymrat: Well, I sort of wanted it to feel that way, although I'm not sure whether I should take the comparison to the anime as a compliment or an insult, heheh.
Yoshimo: Kinetic Soldier is a promo that was released along with Fairy King Truesdale and Slate Warrior (aka Newt). As for the duel, if you thought that was fast-paced, wait just about (checks watch) two minutes.
Roll the tape!
I can't, it's rectangular.
Tokyo Tournament
Chapter Twenty-Four: Broken Sword
Also Entitled: The Plot is Revealed!
Lin grinned as he activated his Duel Disk. Now was the time. He lived for this, to let loose and not hold back. He was in the finals of the tournament, meaning he was up against the best, and he would have to give his.
His opponent, Nick, seemed less excited. Not only did cloths cover more than three quarters of his face, but also his one visible eye showed no emotion. It stared, almost as unblinking as the red decoration on the eye- patch that covered its partner. The remainder of his body did not appear relaxed or tense, and he simply held out his arm unenthusiastically as his Duel Disk activated.
Lin quickly drew six cards, showing that he would take the first turn. Nick drew five in response, and the garb covering his mouth moved slightly. Had the garb been absent, Lin might have been able to read Nick's lips and tell that he had just whispered, "Prepare to be consumed, courageous warrior."
"Alright, let's get this started!" cried Lin enthusiastically as he glimpsed briefly at his hand. Suddenly he noticed that the center of the dueling arena had gone dark, a blotch of some strange purple substance occupying the area. "What the crap?" said Lin as the black and purple splotch expanded across the floor and everywhere else as well. Soon the entire room was enveloped in darkness, leaving all present in shock.
Suddenly, Cerberus fell from the balcony and landed on the floor in a crumpled heap. As he landed, a resounding crack could be heard. Then, a being of darkness, identical to the one that Joey and Mai had seen after their double duel, emerged from Cerberus's body. The body of shadow let out a bellow of laughter and spoke with a voice that struck fear into the hearts of all that heard it, "I grow bored of this meager competition. It's time I raised the stakes a little."
Then the darkness of the Shadow Realm became more focused in multiple areas surrounding the witnesses of the duel. Tea, Serenity, Tristan, Bakura, Mokuba, Joy, Kevin, and Zachary immediately fell to the ground and let out cries of agony. Kirbin stooped to hold up Joy. Giyan clutched his chest in pain. The others, except for Yamato, Term, Lin, and Nick, stood shocked. The remaining four leapt into action, as Lin and Nick charged toward Cerberus, the former with a sword in his left hand that had appeared from nowhere. They were stopped at the wall of the arena as a black force field held them in. Yamato drew a pair of large pistols and opened fire on the dark being. Term leapt through the air at the figure, blades suddenly sprouting along his whole body.
The being simply laughed louder as Yamato's bullets passed through its apparently nonsolid body. Term landed in a crouch and attempted to rake his newly formed claws across the being, but they passed through it just as Yamato's bullets had.
The darkness lifted what passed as an arm and pointed it at Term, who was immediately hoisted into the air by some unseen force. "An interesting life- form," spoke the darkness, "a soul not quite human, but not animal either. Too bad such a unique being will have to die now. I would have liked to experiment and see if it could have been copied." The then darkness waved its arm again, and the Shadow Realm refocused on Term, who cried out in pain as his soul began to tear apart. "Those that came before me all made a common mistake," mused the darkness, "they chose to trap their enemies in the Shadow Realm rather than kill them. Such sentimental fools."
Term looked at the darkness with a look of hatred mixed with pain and spat into the face of shadow. The face shaped itself into a scowl and the darkness spoke again, "For that little action, I'll just make sure you are the first to die at the hands of Youkai." And with that, Youkai formed his right arm into a blade and reared back to cut into Term's very soul. As the blade swung, Youkai suddenly howled in pain as currents of what appeared to be electricity ran through his body.
Youkai reeled around to face his attacker, who turned out to be the large Yamato that had just attempted to shoot him. Yamato had apparently removed one of his gloves and pressed a small jewel into Youkai's back. This jewel was radiating an immense light. Upon closer inspection, it would be obvious that the hand that held the jewel was not made of flesh. Youkai let out a cry of fury and slashed Yamato across his chest. Yamato was knocked backwards by the blow, his trench coat torn almost in half, revealing a chest made entirely of metal. Youkai then focused more of the Shadow Realm around Yamato, causing even him to cry in pain. Youkai became calm, and he proceeded to take pleasure in killing almost everyone in the room.
Then, as suddenly as Shadow had covered the room, a bright light filled it, and all traces of darkness disappeared momentarily. Then the light faded, and Youkai erupted in fury as he looked about erratically for the cause of the flash. He didn't have to look for long, as Giyan stepped forward challengingly, the twin-bladed sword of the Warrior of Balance held high in his hands. But then Giyan suddenly collapsed, exhausted from the tremendous exertion of filling the room with light.
Youkai grinned and focused the Shadow Realm on Giyan as well as those he had done so on before. "I must commend you, Guardian," he said in a statement directed apparently to Nick, "you chose bodyguards for the Pharaoh quite well. A manipulator of Light and Dark, who just now prevented me from killing anyone through Shadow powers with that last effort of his. A robot with a soul, a half-human, and one with eight souls inhabiting his body to give me difficulties in separating their souls from their bodies. Although I am not sure what the swordsman's purpose was."
"You'll have to wait to find out when we defeat you," replied Nick.
Youkai laughed in disbelief, "Take a look around, Guardian. There are only three of you left, two once one of you wins that duel. The pink-haired boy won't do any good now that he's weeping over that girl. Not one of you alone stands a chance against me alone. So, stop trash talking and get on with the tournament. I'd like the Pharaoh's Puzzle as soon as possible."
Nick tore his glare from Youkai and looked about the room to see that the being was right: Kirbin was in a world that consisted only of he and the body of Joy. However, Youkai was also wrong in his statement. Kirbin had seven long-lived entities that would help set him back towards his goal within the hour. Nick just had to hope that was soon enough. Around Kirbin were the shocked faces of Yugi, Joey, Mai, Kaiba, Mike, and Kai. The final two were in shock, but the others were doing as Kirbin was, mourning over the fallen. Joey and Kaiba clutched their younger siblings close, and felt the familiar pain of loss. Mai was trying to comfort Joey, and Yugi's face was a mixture of sorrow and fury. The Puzzle was glowing a brilliant gold. Nick knew that right now, Youkai was wallowing in their pain, but he also knew that soon that pain would be eclipsed by rage.
Nick turned to Lin, and, while attempting and nearly succeeding not to choke, said, "Lin, take your turn."
"With pleasure," Lin quickly snatched several cards out of his hand and laid them on the field with vigor fueled by anger, "I'll begin by summoning the Hayabusa Knight (1000/700) in attack mode!" The humanoid bird warrior leapt out of the Shadows and landed in front of Lin, its rapier ready. The bird stared down Nick, who met its gaze calmly. "I'll also place two cards facedown, and then end my turn."
Nick drew calmly, and examined all six cards in his hand before playing one quickly, "I play Card Destruction, forcing us to discard our hands and draw new ones." He quickly pressed his five cards into his graveyard, and Lin did the same with his three. Then both looked over their new hands and mentally formed strategies to screw their opponent over with. "Now I shall begin my assault! First I remove one Fire monster from my graveyard so that I can Special Summon the Inferno (1100/1900) from my hand!" The ghostly image of a Great Angus appeared, then burst into flames. The flames quickly began to manifest into the head of some sort of creature. Twin sapphire eyes appeared in the face of flames, and it opened its mouth to reveal it to be full of human skulls.
"What the Hell is that?" Lin cried in surprise as the flames grew taller, as if the beast were rearing back to strike.
"It is the very personification of flame," stated Nick, "just as fire can inflict extremely serious injuries to a victim, the Inferno can cause extreme damage to its opponent's Life Points even if it bests an opposing monster by a miniscule amount. Now, I ply Shield and Sword, reversing the attacks and defenses of our monsters (Hayabusa Knight: 700/1000, Inferno: 1900/1100)! Now, I'll have Inferno roast your bird!" The beast of flame charged forward and engulfed the Hayabusa Knight, melting through armor and burning feathers. Eventually, all that remained was a rather large roast chicken (comic relief!), which quickly disappeared.
"I won't allow you to attack without receiving at least some damage in return," stated Lin as one of his two facedown cards flipped up, "so I'll activate Attack and Receive, dealing you 700 points of direct damage!"
Nick: 3300 Lin: 1300
"This duel isn't over yet, Nick," stated Lin, "I have not yet even begun to fight!" He quickly snapped a card off the top of his deck and slapped it on his Duel Disk, "I play Monster Reborn, Special Summoning the Hayabusa Knight (1000/700) in attack mode! Then I equip him with the Lightning Blade, increasing his attack strength by 800 points!" The bird-headed warrior reappeared, its sharp rapier tightly clutched in its talon. The blade of the rapier began to crackle with electricity, and the Knight's attack rose to 1800. "Hayabusa Knight, strike down the Inferno, then attack directly!" The Hayabusa Knight charged forward, bringing the lightning- charged rapier in a sweeping motion that cut through the flames of the Inferno. Then the knight continued on and thrust its blade into Nick's chest, causing him to stumble backwards.
Nick: 800 Lin: 1300
Nick clutched his chest, which was now charred and bleeding. He then stumbled to his feet and grabbed a card from his deck, dripping blood on several others as he did so. He then placed the card on his Duel Disk, "I summon Blazing Inpachi-"
"No you don't!" Lin interrupted as his facedown card flipped up, revealing a Trap Hole. Nick's monster, a burning humanoid tree, appeared momentarily before it fell into a pit.
Nick's one visible eye narrowed slightly, but he merely selected another card from his hand, "I had not wanted to take this risk, but I'll have to. I play Reasoning, which causes me to pick up cards from my deck until I reach a monster. The other cards are discarded. Then you guess the monster's level. If you're right, it's discarded. If not, I get to Special Summon it to the field." He immediately picked up the top card of his deck and signaled to Lin that it was, in fact, a monster.
Lin thought for a moment. He had dueled Nick before, and knew that the only monsters Nick had left with over 1800 attack were monsters that required a sacrifice. "I call level 6."
"Sorry, Lin," said Nick as he placed the monster on his Duel Disk, thus smearing the device with trace amounts of his own blood. "The monster is Drillago (1600/1000), a level 4 monster who can attack directly if all your monsters have at least 1600 attack points and are in attack mode." Drillago, familiar to those who had seen Marik use it at the Battle City finals, appeared with a buzz of its dozen drills. Then Nick ordered it forward and it burrowed underground. Second later it emerged from the Earth and struck Lin multiple times, ending the duel.
Nick: 800 Lin: 0
Lin's soul was claimed by the Shadow Realm, and his body had been beaten badly. Nick's hatred towards Youkai nearly doubled in an instant as he thought of how the evil spirit was pitting those who sought to defeat him against each other. At this rate, the winner of the tournament might be so fatigued they would fail to last a turn. Nick picked up Lin's body and carried it out of the arena as Joey and Mike entered. As they passed each other, Nick whispered, "Good luck, to both of you."
So, there ya go. If anyone read this chapter and said "What the Hell?" or anything of the like, say so in a review and I'll send in an email explaining everything, because I don't really want to explain things right now.