Chapter 11-

Joey vs. Yugi:

Part 2

Yugi and Joey climbed onto the platform, shuffled their decks, and began.

"I'll go first," said Yugi, letting Yami take over.

"I draw, and then summon Gazelle the King of Mythical Beasts (Atk: 1500/Def: 1200) and end my turn."

"Alrighty, then," announced Joey, "I put one card face down and set a monster in defense mode. Your move, Yug'."

"I attack your face down defense monster, with Fanged Pounce!"

Gazelle leaped on top of the defense card, and gnashed its dagger like teeth. The card revealed itself to be a purple cannon on a blue base.

"You've attacked my Roulette Barrel, and since its defense is 500 points more than your monsta's attack, you lose 500 life points."

"I end my turn," grumbled Yugi.

"I activate my Roulette Barrel's effect," said Joey.

Roulette Barrel made a sort of humming sound, then blasted something onto the field. The thing started to bounce rapidly, and then it slowed enough that you could make out a white cube with dots on all six of its sides. Sure enough, Roulette Barrel had launched a plain die on the field.

The die stopped on four, and Joey pumped his arm and shouted, "Yeah!"

"Whatever number th' die reads when it stops, I can destroy one monster with the same level. And I choose your Gazelle!"

The die dispersed, but the humming noise was heard again. This time Roulette Barrel fired a cannonball at Gazelle, and it exploded in a flash of sparkling confetti.

"And I end my turn."

"Nice playing, Joey. But this duel is far from over. I summon the Wizard of Enchantment (Atk: 1300/Def: 1100) and I attack your Roulette Barrel! Spell of Destruction!"

Yugi's Wizard recited an unpronounceable scramble of words, and immediately the Roulette Barrel glowed bright white and shattered to pieces.

"But how?" asked Joey.

"My Wizard's special ability switches all opposing monsters to attack mode, and you lose 300 life points."

"My turn. I summon Gagigo (Atk: 1850/Def: 1000) and equip it with Razor Fins."

The fins and reptilian skin that covered Gagigo grew longer and more blade like.

"And that's not all. I activate Final Countdown!"

A circle of flame appeared above Yugi's side of the field.

"Every turn, that circle of fire will get a little bit lower, and after twenty turns, it will be level with your playing field, and I win the duel. But, to be on da safe side, I use Gagigo's new effect. I add up both our monsters attack points together, which is, uh, 3150, and send it to your life points!"

Gagigo ran into Yugi's life point counter, with its sharp fins out in front of it.

Yugi has 4350 life points, Joey has 7700 life points.

"Of course, this new ability allows you to draw an extra card every turn. But it's a small price."

"Very fine card play," Yugi complimented Joey, "Your strategies are superb."

Joey smiled. "Well, duh! I learned from you!"

"To start my turn, I activate Arrival of the Elite. This card allows me to special summon up to three level five or higher spellcaster type monsters from my deck or hand, and I special summon only two, Chaos Command Magician and Dark Magician girl. I activate two Quick Attack magic cards and with Dark Magician Girl, attack Gagigo!"

Dark Magician Girl pointed her staff at Gagigo, and fired a blast of energy at it.

"And now, I attack your life points directly with Chaos Command Magician!"

Chaos Command Magician did the same thing as Dark Magician Girl, only at Joey's life point counter.

"Now I sacrifice my two magicians, to special summon the Sorcerer of Dark Magic!And I attack your life points directly!"

"I activate my quick play magic card, Redirection of Assault! I offer 1000 life points to redirect half of the attack to your life points and the other half to increase my life points!"

Yugi grimaced as his own life points went down, while Joey's went up.

"C'mon, Yugi! I know you can pull yourself out of this!" said Joey.

Yugi smiled. "That I can, Joey!"

"Well, you're gonna have ta wait, cause it's my turn nex-"

"That's my Wizard's other effect. For only one time during the duration of the duel, as long as it's on the field, I can skip your whole turn, and make it my turn."

Yugi drew, and smirked.

"I end my turn," said Yugi.

What's up with that? Thought Joey.

If it were me, I would have taken advantage of a whole other turn. Yugi must be up to something.

"I summon Mystic Swordsman LV 2! And I equip him with Axe of Despair!"

"What exactly is the point of summoning a monster I'll destroy with ease?" asked Yugi.

Joey answered, "You of all people, Yug', should know the duelist shouldn't play a strategy, or summon a monsta' without knowing what they're doing. I didn't make that mistake."

Joey flipped his face down card up to reveal the magic card Megamorph.

"But Joey, your life points are at 6750, and mine are at 2750. If you equip your monster with Megamorph, its attack will be halved," contradicted Yugi.

"That's why I'm not equipping to my monster. I'm equipping it to yours!"

Yugi gasped, than smiled slightly.

"Since your life points are higher than mine, whatever monster you equip Megamorph with, that monster's attack will be divided by two. So, you equipped it to my monster, making its attack less. I didn't think of that sort of use for Megamorph."

"Right-eo, Yugi! But now, I attack your monster!"

Mystic Swordsman picked up his sword, and plunged it into Sorcerer of Dark Magic's chest.

"And, I set three cards face down, and I end my turn."

Very cunning strategy, Joey, but it's time I take over the winning streak, thought Yugi.

"I remove from play, my Wizard of Enchantment and Sorcerer of Dark Magic, to special summon, the Black Luster Soldier- Envoy of the Beginning!"

Yugi's monster, a blue and gold warrior with a determined look underneath its knight's helmet, was surrounded by a golden aura, and it crackled with electricity.

"You're finished, Joey. I attack your Mystic Swordsman-" Black Luster Soldier easily cut through Joey's monster with his jewel incrusted blade, "- And I attack again, straight at your life points!"

Joey has 3650 life points, Yugi's at 2750.

"And I end my turn."

Joey clapped his hands. "Bravo, Yugi! I knew you could pull yourself out of your predicament!But, I think I could do better.I activate Monsta' Reborn, and bring back my Mystic Swordsman LV 2! And I offer it to summon Mystic Swordsman LV 4! But, that's not all! I activate The Cheerful Coffin! I discard three cards from my hand to the graveyard. And I end my turn."

"With Black Luster Soldier, I attack your Swordsman! Blade of Destiny!"

"I activate Time Shackles!"

A pair of thick iron cuffs grabbed Black Luster Soldier's ankles, and stopped him from attacking.

"My Time Shackles", Joey began, "Restrain your monster from attacking for a certain number of turns."

"And the number of turns is decided by…?" asked Yugi.

"Yugi, Yugi, Yugi. You know my chance related duelin' tactics. By a coin toss, of course!" said a very satisfied Joey.

"Since there are four monsta's in both our graveyards, if da coin lands on heads, it can't attack fa' four turns. If tails is what it lands on, than its disabled fa' four turns. It won't be able to attack or change position fa' four of either of our turns either way, so at least there'll be no suspense. And I call heads!"

The coin flew off of Joey's thumb, and onto his palm.

"And da winna is…"

Joey slapped the coin onto his arm and looked at the result.

"Tails!" announced Joey.

A sort of timer appeared on each part of the shackle that wrapped around Black Luster Soldier's ankles. On the timers, were the numbers 1, 2, 3 and 4. There was an arrow that started in the middle of the timer that pointed to the 4.

"I end my turn," said Yugi. The arrow on Black Luster Soldier's timers moved and pointedto the 3.

"So far, that's twelve turns till your defeat, Yugi," said Joey. "So you have twelve turns to defend yourself. But what's this? I activate Time Keeper's Clock! This card turns the turn counter ahead three turns, so now, you only have nine turns to do something."

Now, the circle of fire was nine feet above Yugi.

"But, I know you're gonna find a way to release your Black Luster Soldier, so I'll add to my defense. I remove two of the three monstas I discarded last turn from play, D.D. Scout Plane and Dimension Traveler. I can now special summon Chaos Emperor Dragon- Envoy of the End!"

A tall gold and green dragon with a red mane appeared on Joey's side of the field.

"And the very useful effects of the two cards I removed from play, they come back to my side of the field! And I sacrifice both of them to summon the Red Eyes Black Dragon!"

Holy crud, thought Yugi, Joey's skills are good. A little too good But, if I'm careful, I'll survive this duel before my nine turns are up!