Tournament Stories part 14
"Now finish him off, Giant Axe Mummy (1700/2000)! Corrode away the rest of his life points!" A youthful girl commanded a zombie card of hers. But contrary to the verb that she used, "corrode," the mummy trudged up and, with its huge axe, made a huge virtual gash on the right side of some other boy's dueling platform, taking his life points down to zero.
Doug spoke to me as the two duelists and Linda were taking care of business, "Interesting. I never knew that there existed a monster card version of Destruction Punch. But Giant Axe Mummy's effect only works when it's attacked as it's face down," he added. Jack interjected, "Heck, I never knew that there existed a female ZOMBIE duelist!"
"Duelists numbers 13 and 14, please report to the arena at this time!" Linda shouted into her megaphone as the girl and recently defeated boy walked away, both wearing smiles.
Suddenly realizing that I didn't know Jack's OR Doug's card number, I turned to my right and asked Doug, "Hey, what's your number?" He stood up and showed me his card numbered 13, "Wish me luck!" he happily said as he patted his black leather deck box hitched onto his belt. And Jack answered before I could ask, "Twenty two."
We all watched Doug descend the stairs and make his way to Linda. But we didn't see any opponent get up from the stands. Suddenly, we noticed Travis's friend walking in from the left by the tunnel that leads out to the island. We all held in laughter after foreseeing what was about to happen.
The instant Doug and Travis's friend saw one another, their faces turned surprised and then angry. Finding it obvious that this duel should start as soon as possible, Linda rushed over to her little tower and rose up first. Travis's friend, whose name we later found out to be Jim, took the red platform. Doug obviously took the blue one. Then the usual happenings occurred, and Jim let himself go first. Jack, Andre, and I made our way down to the bottom of the blue platform just as Jim was making his first move, "I'm summoning Robotic Knight (1600/1800) in attack mode, followed by setting one card face down."
Doug drew his sixth card. And even though we couldn't see them from where we were standing, his body language told us that his hand was rather good. He kind of took a step back and lightly shook the cards forward once or twice with both hands.
"I'm activating the magic card Reasoning-" he was interrupted by Jim, "I'm activating the trap card Type Zero Magic Crusher. Every magic card discarded from my hand results in 500 damage to you!" "Fine, but now it's time for MY card's effect. Reasoning has you declare a monster card level. Then I pick up, but not draw, cards from my deck until a monster is reached. If that monster is the same level as the one you've declared, all the cards I picked up are sent to the graveyard. If it's a different level, the monster is immediately special summoned onto the field in face-up attack or defense. So declare a monster card level!" Doug proudly announced.
Hah! And since Doug hasn't played ANY monster cards yet, Jim has no basis on which monster level is the most likely to be next! That was a clever move. I only hope he doesn't go through more than 4 cards to get to his next monster! I thought as Jim shouted, "Level 4!!"
I, personally, would have said that monster level as well. Level four seems to be an all too popular monster level because such monsters typically have high attack for an immediately summonable monster.
Doug heard what Jim had said and looked at the top card of his deck. He took it off the top, still face down. We looked up and accidentally saw it but instantly began cheering. Noticing us, Doug looked beyond the card at us and then instantly flipped it over.
"Cool! A monster card on the first try! And it's a level 5, not 4! So my Molten Behemoth (1000/2200) is going in defense mode!" Doug said as he searched his hand for additional options. From within the arena, we could hear machinery grind and sputter as certain circuits were triggered in order to conjure up the huge rock. The three of us couldn't see too much of it because we were so close to the edge of the arena; we'd have to back up or be in the stands to see it.
"Next, I'm setting one card face down and normal summoning Darkfire Soldier #1 (1700/1150) in attack mode!" I backed up enough to see most of the duel as Doug slid his card onto the field. I could just barely see his soldier's flames as he commanded it to attack his opponent's Robotic Knight. I saw it jump into the air and heard it slash at something and Jim's life points go down.
Suddenly, we all heard loud humming coming from the arena and mechanized doors opening up. We looked up at Doug to see his head following something from the ground. As it rose higher, we could see what it was. It was this current duel with card graphics and stats, and duelist pictures with life points all sprouting up from the middle of the playing field. And right to the left of it, once it reached its full height, was Linda on her tall tower tapping away on some control panel I've never noticed before.
It was Jim's turn now, "I'm activating my machine's effect! By sending these three magic cards to the graveyard, you lose 1500 life points! HA ha haha!" Jim laughed as we saw Doug surrounded by a field of bright blue electricity. He scrambled around the small space of his dueling platform, yelling a little bit and using choice words that many of the duelists in the stands laughed at. "Next, I play Gearfried the Iron knight (1800/1600) in attack mode, set one card face down, and attack your Darkfire Soldier!" And a few seconds later, the huge screen TV towering above us all displayed a thick green bar below Doug's picture sink 100 points lower than the 6500LP mark. Jim's were still strong at 7900. But on the upside, Jim's hand was completely empty now. So Doug had a slight reason to relax. "I hate direct damage cards!" Jack said out loud for no apparent reason.
"Now it's my turn!" Doug said more to himself than anyone as he drew a card and looked at his face down card. "Since it's my standby phase, I'm activating my face down card, Non Aggression Area! After I discard one card from my hand, I prevent you from summoning at all on your next turn! I now sacrifice my Molten Behemoth to summon a monster whose attack points are equal to my Behemoth's defense points, Twin-Headed Fire Dragon (2200/1700)! But that isn't all. I'm playing the field card Molten Destruction! Every fire monster gets an attack boost of 500 and a defense loss of 400!" With that, a huge volcano slowly sprouted up from the left side of Doug. We knew it was there because it was even taller than the scoreboard, spewing holographic lava everywhere. "Now he attacks your knight!" Doug said as the dragon, with both heads, vaporized his knight with a flood of flames. Jim's life points went down to 7000.
"Doug made a surprisingly good move… With 2700 attack points and his opponent not able to summon anything this turn, this duel is really one sided right now!" Andre said, never once thinking that he'd sincerely be complimenting Doug. Jack looked at him and frowned a little. It seemed to me like Jack was still upset from his loss to Doug last night before the practice duels.
"Finally, I'm setting my last card face down, ending my turn," Doug said as he glared at the scoreboard.
Jim anxiously drew his next card. "First I'm sending this magic card, Miracle Dig, to the graveyard to drag your life points down to 5900," on the scoreboard, the thick green line under Doug's portrait was now a slightly thinner yellow line. "And I may not be able to summon anything this turn, but I am able to take control of ANOTHER monster already summoned! Change of Heart," and he flipped over his face down card, "Let's me take control of one of your monsters until the end of the turn. So now I attack!" he declared.
"You may wanna reconsider that after THIS is activated," Doug said as he flipped over, "It's one of my favorite trap cards called Physical Double. I now special summon one mirage token in face up attack position to my side of the field. This token has the exact same attack, defense, level, type, and attribute as the monster you just took from me, not to mention the same shape." Slowly, the gray ball of slime, or something, twisted and morphed itself into an exact duplicate of the other Twin Headed Fire Dragon. Doug continued, "Now that there's more monsters on the field than before, the replay rule comes into effect. You can choose if you want to attack or not," He said as I looked back and forth at both identical dragons staring at each other. But Jim didn't think too long, because, seconds later, I saw a huge fireball decimate Doug's token right after it's attacked the real dragon, both were destroyed, and it was Doug's turn once again. He was nervous for what this card might be.
"Now I summon Burning Beast (1500/1000) in attack mode. He gets an attack boost due to my field card. And now he attacks your life points directly!" Doug said as the red-hot creature tensed up its back, causing lava to well up within capsules. He launched them from his back, and the whole stadium watched in awe as they homed in on Jim's dueling platform and exploded in a conflagration of damage. Jim's life points stood at 5000.
"Yeah! Nice move, Doug!" I said as the bar beneath Jim's picture turned yellow as well. We all waited for Jim now…
He really did look annoyed as well as disappointed with the next card he drew. "I would usually discard this card to inflict damage to you, but I need a monster on the field, so here comes the stupidest move ever…" he paused and then activated, "Autonomous Action Unit... At the cost of.….. RRRRGGHH! 1500 life points," many amused groans were heard throughout the stadium as his life points sped down to a shaky 3500, "I bring back your Twin Headed Fire Dragon from the graveyard to my side of the field and equip him with this card." He dejectedly waited for the card's effect to take its course.
Suddenly, a beautiful bolt of whitish blue lightning sparked down from the sky, struck Doug's graveyard and continued to surge into it until a mechanized image of Doug's dragon rose up from it as if it were being rudely awakened from a restful sleep. The lightning seemed to have a magnetic effect on it as it dragged the dragon over to Jim's side of the field and disappeared once arriving there.
"Now your card is under my control for good!" he said as the card grew in strength due to the field card still out. "Now melt away his beast!" he commanded the metal reinforced pyro card. With two more deep breaths, the dragon made quick work of Doug's Burning Beast, and took his life points down to 5200. The dragon let out a mighty roar. And as a result from the sudden air rushing through its throat to supply that noise, some of the screws in its neck fell out and hit the ground with an amusing dinging sound. The metal obviously didn't do anything for it.
After Doug drew his next card, he instantly set it in defense mode and ended his turn, with a smile. It appeared as if Doug was planning something.
On Jim's next turn, he drew and discarded Remove Trap to his graveyard, bringing Doug's life point total to 4700. Then he attacked Doug's face down monster, Iron Blacksmith Kotetsu. "I'm sure you know from watching our friends' duel that this card, once it's flipped, allows me to take an equip card from my deck and add it to my hand without shuffling my deck afterwards!" We watched Doug finger through his deck as he hummed some unrecognizable tune, to us at least. He found an equip card, showed it to Linda as proof, and began his next turn.
"I'm summoning the card I just drew, MY Robotic Knight (1600/1800) in attack mode. His attack rises to 2100 thanks to my field card. And now for the equip card I had my blacksmith craft for me, Salamandra! It gives any fire card a 700 attack point boost, meaning HE'S got 100 more attack than… MY fire dragon! Robotic Knight, destroy the Twin-Headed Fire Dragon!" The machine inserted his newly equipped fire sword into a slot on the side of his gattling gun arm. The barrel rotated faster and faster until the first shots rang out. But only this time, they were completely ignited like miniature rockets speeding right towards the dragon, only there were tons of them! In a matter of seconds, the dragon could withstand no more and let the bullets shove him against the front of Jim's dueling platform. And his life points went down to 3400.
"Hmmph, what a loser," Jim said as he drew his next card. "Well! It's about time my luck turned around! Make way for Pot of Greed! I get to draw two cards from my deck! …And what beautiful cards they are! First, I'm playing Soul Exchange to force one of your monsters to be a tribute for my… Timeater (1900/1700)! And you'll find out what its effect is on my next turn, because Soul Exchange forces me to skip my battle phase. Now go," he commanded with an evil smile.
"I'm simply setting this one card in defense mode and ending my turn," Doug obliviously said.
Oh man, Doug's got no idea how tight of a spot he's in! I thought as Jim began his next turn, smiling.
"I'll discard the magic card Frontline Base to the graveyard to inflict 500 more points of damage to your life points!" We all watched as another shock of blue electricity once again jolted Doug's life points down to 4200. "And now my Timeater attacks your face down card, activating its effect! Whenever Timeater destroys one of your monsters in battle, you must skip your next main phase 1!" Jim said as he crossed his arms, closed his eyes and recited from memory.
"Well, the card you've destroyed ALSO has an effect. She's the Lady Assailant of Flames (1500/1000) and you've activated her flip effect. By removing the top three cards of my deck from play, I can inflict 800 points of damage on you!" So before she disappeared, the Lady Assailant of Flames ignited her dagger and tossed it into the air, aiming right at Jim. The incinerated knife never actually touched him, but the holographics made it seem real enough as his life points lowered to 2600. The scoreboard displayed a red line even thinner than the yellow line right below Jim's picture. Doug smiled as he placed the three top cards of his deck away from the rest of his cards. He then drew a card to begin his next turn.
"Don't forget! You can't do your main phase one. And since you have no monsters in attack mode, you can't conduct your battle phase, which means your turn is over!" Jim sneered and Doug looked at Linda, "He's right, kid. Sorry about that," she said regrettably as Doug passed his turn.
"Hah, my turn again," he drew a card greedily. "I summon Gradius (1200/800) in attack mode! And your field is wide open for a combined attack of 3100!" Many of those in the audience gasped. I spoke to him, "Don't give up, Doug! You're still in this! All you've gotta do is draw a fire monster with an attack of 1500 on your next turn!" He nodded a bit as a dark, deep spiral of dark energy smothered him from our view, and as laser blasts randomly seared through his dueling platform bringing his life points down to 1100.
Responding to what I said to him a few seconds ago, Doug said before even drawing his next card, "Simple…" then he drew and immediately, without looking at it, activated, "Monster Reborn!" "What? How'd you know that you would draw that card?" Jim shouted as Linda also looked at him. Doug explained, "Remember my blacksmith? He allowed me to search through my deck to put an equip spell card into my hand. It never said I had to shuffle it! So I just kept track!" he then smiled and continued his turn, "And the monster I'm reviving is my Burning Beast! (1500/1000) He receives a 500 attack point boost because of my field card…" he looked to his left at the massive volcano still spewing silent holographic lava. "And that was a special summon so now I normal summon my Freezing Beast (1500/1000) and attack your Gradius with it!" Instantly, his glistening beast stood as tall as it could on its four legs. Little pieces of ice flaked off as it moved for the first time. Then icicles protruding from its slick skin launched off its back and homed in onto the shiny machine and went right through it, destroying it. Jim's life points went down to 2300. "And now my Burning Beast will attack your Timeater!" he continued as lava bubbles rose out of its back and sped toward the dark mechanical clock, destroying it and bringing Jim's life points down further to 2200. "And here's the best part. Now that it's my Main Phase 2, I can do something very special with these cards. I can perform a union!" Doug announced as Jack and I gasped a little bit. The rest of the crowd, except for Christina and Alex, who had still yet to duel, including Jim looked confused. "A union??? You mean those two hideous things are gonna have-" Jim was swiftly interrupted as the other thirty duelists, six of which who were now spectators, laughed.
"NO!! Get your mind out of the gutter and just watch. By equipping my Burning Beast with my Freezing Beast, a special effect is now activated. As long as my freezing beast remains equipped to my burning beast, when it inflicts battle damage upon you, I get to destroy one face down spell or trap card on the field. It doesn't really apply to anything now, but another special effect is also triggered. If you manage to attack with a monster with more attack points than my Burning Beast has (2000), it's my Freezing Beast who takes the hit, leaving my life points intact. Because you destroyed him as an equip card!" Doug finished as Jim drew his next card.
"Crap!" he yelled at the top of his lungs. He said, "I'm discarding 7 completed to the graveyard to inflict 500 points of damage to you!" as another bolt of blue electricity brought Doug life points to 600. The thing red bar beneath Doug's portrait was blinking even at the 1500LP mark. Jim's was still as thin and as red, but not blinking. But it didn't matter. In a few seconds, this duel would end!
"Gee, I imagined this duel to be more of a challenge than THIS! Ha ha ha ha ah ha ha!" he laughed dryly sarcastically and drew the final card of this duel. "I'm activating Remove Trap which gets rid of your pesky Type Zero Magic Crusher. It was fun while it lasted, though. So now, because it's my Main Phase 1, I'm unequipping my freezing beast from my burning beast. NOW I've got two separate monsters attacking you at the same time!" he said as they both used their attacks at the same time, the wall of steam resulting melted away Jim's life points right down to zero. The scoreboard displayed Jim's picture shrinking, and bringing Doug's picture to the center and enlarging it with the word, "congratulations!" above and to the right of it. Doug gathered up his cards and smiled at us all as his platform lowered to ground level.
We all followed him to where the two guys met up with Linda who mediated the exchange of a card and the awarding of $250 dollars to Jim. She looked at Travis who was standing behind Jim and said to everyone in general, "Y'know, you don't all have to wait here for all these duels to take their course. I only led you all in here so you'd know where to go once your number is called. There are speakers connected to this microphone that are hidden all about the island that you will hear the next match-up from. And if you've lost with nobody else that you know who is dueling, you're allowed to board the very special boat we've got, docked at the island's harbor. It's reserved only for the 32 duelists who came out on top."
As if they were right next to us listening, a few of those in the stands started making their way to the exit. Then Linda walked onto her special platform and said into a microphone, "Duelists number fifteen and sixteen, your duel at the stadium will begin in five minutes. "…only twenty-five more duels to go until this whole stupid tournament is over," I heard some random kid behind me say. And he was barely in hearing distance, too, because I, at first, thought I heard him say, "Only Trent (1500/1800) fires schools until this whole stupid torn ligament is a clover."
As Linda rose up in her platform and Jim and Travis slowly walked out of the stadium, Doug finally turned around to face us and immediately showed us the card he took from Jim's deck. "Whoa!" the other three of us said at once. "He had the Yamata Dragon in his deck?" Andre asked, extremely surprised. "Apparently so, and now it's mine! And with my Molten Destruction card, this is now my most powerful and rarest card!" he proudly said as he touched the top card of his deck before I mentioned, "But you know it's a spirit monster, right? At each of your End Phases, he returns to your hand. And that's not good because he requires two monsters to be summoned," I said before he showed me the top card on his deck, Spiritual Energy Settle Machine. "Oh, that's a good solution…" I was silenced as we all began walking to the blue side of the arena to see who would be dueling next. I knew that one of them would be Jon, because he had earlier showed me that his card had the number 16 on it. But Jon must have taken the red platform because on the blue one was his opponent. He looked like he had participated in tournaments before and that this would be no hassle. This guy was laughing to himself on his way up with his arms crossed and good-sized dueling deck in his right hand. The usual hassles occurred, Linda announcing which duelist was what, seeing the bottom card and so forth. It turns out that Jon would be making the first move…
The duel was short. Even though this guy looked experienced, this had to be his fourth or fifth REAL opponent ever. A word to the wise: DON'T activate Messenger of Peace if your de-spell is in the graveyard and if all of your monsters have over 1500 attack points AND if your life points are at 2100. Well, looks like that guy will have to chalk it up to experience.
Although, I didn't like the look on Jon's face when he snatched a card from that guy's deck. He was smiling maniacally, glaring directly at me. I figured it was the rarest card in this guy's deck, like Jon said he'd be taking from everyone he beats.
For a few seconds, I tried visualizing the scenario if Jon were to win a duel against me today. We'd approach Linda, who would be kind of sunburned from all that time in her little tower. She'd tell me to show him my deck, and he'd get angry because he's got nothing to do with my Black Skull Dragon (probably my rarest card) and he's already got a Dark Necrofear! So he'd probably either take my Last Turn (my rarest trap card) or my Goblin Attack Force. Those wouldn't be devastating losses; I very rarely use my Last Turn trap card, as it can only be activated on my opponent's turn when my life points are a mere 1000 or less. And Goblin Attack Force has great attack (2300) for only being a level 4 monster, but it has to switched, and stay in, defense mode through your next turn. So if your opponent has Gravity Axe- Grarl equipped to a monster, which prevents you from physically switching your monsters' battle positions, that monster is screwed. Even though I treasure my rare cards, some of them really stink.
"That concludes the west division of the first of these final five sets of duels. Now, to begin the east division's first set, will duelists number 17 and 18 please report to me immediately," and her microphone clicked off, resounding that same message through the whole island. I watched as the scoreboard's display morphed from showing Jon's grinning picture with the word "congratulations" by it into a tournament standings chart. It looked like a huge root system or a perfectly even family tree.
Everyone was represented by his or her number within a box. From the first round, those that were eliminated had a line going as far up as the perpendicular line touching it where an X was drawn. And across their number was a huge slash. Those that moved on to the next round had a line tracing the lines up to where the next highest box was. Only the left side showed any advancement. And there my number was, in the box above my first matchup. My next opponent would be Christina. I could hardly wait.
The next two duelists arrived into the arena at about the same time and began chatting with Linda, who seemed to have temporarily forgotten the she was this tournament's rules and conduct enforcer. But then her eyes caught a shot of the scoreboard changing back into a scoreboard and then prompted the two duelists to choose a platform. I then felt a nudge at my right side.
"Rare hunter," Andre said quietly as he looked ahead at the kid in the black clothing walking in the direction of the red platform. But I thought he was talking about the guy with the tight gray shirt on with baggy blue jeans and a red baseball cap rising up in the blue platform. I didn't even see the guy in the black clothing until he appeared on the blue side. However, contrasting with his totally black outfit was his bright yellow hair. I had trouble figuring out if was natural or bleached, too. Of course, I was pretty far away.
Then another very short duel began.
When it was almost over, an amusing conversation took place, "Alright, kid. I suppose I've given you slightly less credit than I should have. Fortunately for you, having that second coin toss magic card on the field allowed you to reflip that coin due to Time Wizard's (500/400) effect. And you may have destroyed all my monsters and gotten a piddling 500 point attack at my life points," he continued as he drew a card, "But now I play Soul of the Pure which raises my life points by 800 to 8100! All that crap for nothing, ha ha ha! It will take more to outduel me than sparks and a direct attack from a Time Wizard! Can't you think of anything craftier? Heh heh heh,"
Totally enraged, the kid in the tight gray shirt shouted, "RRRggghh! What CAN I do with all your stupid trap cards always blowing my monsters away?? I was surprised when you didn't get rid of my Time Wizard when I first summoned it with Trap Hole or something!" He quickly shrugged his shoulders kind of and angrily looked up and to the right when he heard his opponent's life points go up beyond the initial starting point, whereas his stood at 3400.
"Aha ha ha, of COURSE I didn't. Trap Hole only works on normally summoned monsters with 1000 attack points or more, you fool!" The guy dressed in black sounded very angry, but was nonetheless enjoying himself.
"…I …KNEW that!" the kid yelled back as his life point meter got thinner and red when the guy in black activated, "Tremendous Fire! You lose 1000 life points. I lose only 500. Then I activate Goblin's Secret Remedy sending my life points to an even higher 8200! Finally, I'm summoning the monster, which will end up destroying you, Great Angus (1800/600)! Attack his Time Wizard and bring his life points down even further!"
This beast looked totally ferocious. Even when he was first summoned, his yellow eyes showed anger and his muscles were tensed up. It rushed forward and suddenly stopped, skidding slightly to the wizard's right, then used his momentum to jump up extremely high so he had enough time to reveal his intensely sharp claws then turn around and land right on top of his spellcaster, claws first. Straight white lines were all about his Time Wizard, destroying it and sending the kid's life points down to 1100. "This will be your final turn," the guy dressed in black commented with a smirk.
"I'm not quitting, regardless!" he said in a shaky voice as he drew a card.
I don't get it! I thought. This rare hunter hasn't summoned a monster with more than 1800 attack points the whole duel! But with cards like Michizure in one's deck, you wouldn't need too many monsters if your magic and traps keep doing the work for you… But still- SOME monsters aren't affected by such cards. And somehow, I doubt he's prepared for them. I finished thinking as the kid set a monster in defense mode.
I sensed that this duel wouldn't take too much longer, so I decided to take a look at the cards that I had won so far in this tournament. There was the Empress Judge that I won from Jenny. She relied way too much on defense mode. And then I saw the Mr. Volcano that I won from Steve's best friend Craig. After that was the rare magic card Spiritualism that I won from Justin. Then it was the Numinous Healer trap card that I've always been making such a fuss over that I won from that conceited blowhard Z.K. I really don't know what I was thinking wanting a Numinous Healer so badly. Maybe it's because I thought everyone else had at least one except for me. Then I won Offerings to the Doomed from that weird rare hunter known as "S" which I still have in my deck to this day. It's extremely useful. And then, most recently, I've won that De-Fusion from Travis. He was the kid who took Steve out of the tournament.
Then that's where it hit me, "Mike! We all forgot about Mike! Who was the guy that beat him? We've gotta avenge him!" I said wide-eyed as the other three, and a few others looked at me kind of weird. I sat down, embarrassed and put my cards away.
"Doug just recently defeated him, remember?" Jack, of all people replied. "I was the one who told you guys about the duelist who defeated Mike. And Jim WAS that guy!" We all watched the guy in the black outfit's Great Angus destroy the other kid's Prevent Rat (500/2000) which was switched to attack mode because of the guy in black activating Stop Defense. And that was it, the duel was over.
Doug then added to our dispersed conversation, "Come to think of it, I DID see a Destruction Punch, Launcher Spider, and Overdrive in Jim's deck as I was searching through it, as well as the 7 Completed he won from Mike. That must have been the same 7 Completed he discarded from his hand on his last turn! …Weird.." he finished talking as Linda's platform sank to the ground, and the two duelists did the usual post-duel chatter… usually involving none at all. But the kid in the gray got $250 and the guy in the black got one of his cards.
Jack's duel wasn't too far away…