Tournament Stories part 15
"Don't talk to me!" Duelist number twenty said to her friend.
"What?! I'm sorry that you lost, but don't-" he was cut off by his friend's yelling, "But nothing! You ARE the reason why I lost!" she paused for a second as her friend looked at her kind of angry and concerned at the same time.
"There I was, confident in my plan because she only had 1400 life points left with one measly defense monster on the field. Then I hear you mumbling something about the Polymerization card I had in my hand-" "But I didn't-" "Lemme finish! So I looked at my hand closer and saw it right there, Polymerization, Niwatori, and Blue Winged Crown! I played my Polymerization and fused those two monsters together to form my Punished Eagle (2100/1800). But then she activated her De-Fusion card, which sent my winged beast back to the fusion deck zone. The card itself is rare enough. But for someone to actually have it set down in anticipation of their opponent summoning a fusion monster is even more rare. But lucky for me, that was a special summon… right?" she paused for a second as her friend's face got slightly sadder. "No, cuz then I normal summoned my Harpie's Brother which was immediately destroyed by her Trap Hole, leaving me totally defenseless. Then she sacrificed her face down card, summoned her Swordstalker, and eliminated me from the tournament." She finished talking. Now it was her friend's turn to defend himself.
"First off, I had no idea you had a Polymerization card in your hand; I was talking to myself about different fusion monsters that I've seen. And secondly, even if you hadn't heard me talking, that situation couldn't have been avoided because she already had those cards set down!" he said, causing her to go quiet for a few seconds.
"Sounds like your right. But I'm still upset that we can't advance to the next set together…"
"What can I say? Eight is my lucky number!" he obnoxiously giggled as he revealed his card numbered 8.
That was the conversation that took place as a recently defeated girl and her friend walked up the stairs to where they were sitting within the stands.
"Duelists number 21 and 22 will duel in four minutes!" Linda announced as she rose up in her platform for the eleventh time during these final five sets of duels. In no time, Jack and some other guy had five cards in their hands. And after they showed their decks' bottom card, Jack would be going first.
"Alright! I'm summoning my Harpie's Brother (1800/600) in attack mode followed by two cards face down. Then I activate Dian Keto the Cure Master, giving me 1000 more life points!" he said. The green bar below his picture then got even thicker than how the green line originally was, turned blue and extended further than how it originally was. The number to the right of his name displayed 9000.
"Hm…" Jack's opponent cheerfully considered his next move. After one look at him, you knew that there was something about him… if you know what I mean. "Okie doke! I'm setting one card in defense mode accompanied by this one other card face down!!" he smiled as he pointed his nose slightly up towards the sky and flicked his fingers at Jack with his palm facing the ground.
"Uh…? Okay, I'm sacrificing my Harpie's Brother to summon my Curse of Dragon (2000/1500) to attack your face down card," Jack said. His evil looking yellow dragon opened its mouth and a deep purple ball of energy manifested itself in front of it. Then the ball of evil energy was unleashed at his face down monster, which turned out to be the Prickle Fairy (300/2000). Since her defense points matched the Curse of Dragon's attack, nothing was lost, but she did have an interesting effect.
"Ha! You've attacked my Prickle Fairy. And ANY monster that attacks this card is switched into defense position after the damage step. So even though you take zero damage, your dragon is switched into defense mode now, ha!!" he smiled brightly but was nonetheless rude. "Is there anything else?" he continued.
"No. My turn is over," Jack said.
"Oh, goody. Now I get to attack!" he cheered as he drew a card "Ready? Okay, here we go. I'm summoning Maha Vailo (1550/1400) in attack mode! And then I'm equipping her with her favorite book to read, Book of Secret Arts! It raises her attack and defense by 300 points! And, due to her own effect, she gets an additional 500 attack points bringing her stats to 2350 over 1700! Now, attack his Curse of Dragon!" he commanded in the manliest voice he could, which wasn't much.
"Not so fast, I need my dragon on the field, so I'm activating Waboku! For the rest of this turn, any damage done to my monsters or me by one of your monsters is decreased to zero. So my dragon remains," Jack said. Maha Vailo's intensely bright red attack of dangerous energy bounced off the barrier triggered by the trap card's activation and disappeared.
"Oh darn. Well, I guess it's your turn, then," Jack's opponent said dejectedly, but still sounding rather perky.
Jack drew a card, and immediately set it face down. "I set one magic/ trap card face down, and then sacrifice my dragon to summon Invitation to a Dark Sleep (1500/1800) in attack mode!" Jack confidently put his card onto his platform. He really did look like he knew almost exactly what he was doing. His monster of darkness entered the duel quite dramatically. The zone on the field corresponding to where he placed it on his platform became all dark and shrouded in a dark green mist. Then he slowly rose up from the zone with his hands on his shoulders, his arms crossed in front of him. When he was completely summoned, his hands reached out in front of him with his fingers spread apart and his evil bright green eyes seemed to explode an intense concentrated beam directly at Jack's opponent's spellcaster. She tried fighting its force, but then succumbed to the green beam's force and fell asleep, although she was still standing.
"Ah! What's going on?" His opponent cried.
"When this monster is summoned I select one of your monsters who cannot attack as long as my monster is face up. So, obviously, your Maha Vailo is paralyzed until further notice!" Jack laughed a little. "Anyway, he isn't strong enough to attack anything, so I guess it's your turn."
His opponent drew a card and was overjoyed, "I didn't expect it to be THIS easy!" he happily said as he declared to Jack, "Okay, and NOW I'm sending my two monsters to the graveyard as tributes to make way for my WingWeaver (2750/2400)! Say hello, honey!" he said to his card as he placed it on the field.
I had a flashback to my duel against Em in which she played her own WingWeaver. I was lucky to have my Last Turn trap card out. I wondered what strategy Jack had… if any. But the WingWeaver's entrance to this duel was quite bright, as I remembered it to be. There was an endless tower of light originating from the ground and graciously sprouting up to the sky. Everything else seemed dim compared to this only beam of light. From the clouds, descending within this column of illumination, could be seen an angel-like figure. And, of course, holographic feathers were being randomly tossed about the duel along with mystical angel choir music being heard from an undeterminable source. Finally, the fairy touched the ground and stepped out of the light. Her clothes were the same color as the light- a beautiful golden yellow, and her wings were the purest form of light blue I've ever seen. Then the light slowly focused itself into a thin line, suddenly drawing all the feathers back into it, and sinking back into the ground. The vocal music faded too.
"Yay! She's here! And now for her favorite accessory, the equip card Cestus of Dagla! This raises her attack by 500 points. And whenever she inflicts battle damage to you, I get to increase my life points by the same amount! So let's see if it really works, WingWeaver, attack his spellcaster!" he commanded loudly, yet loudly.
Her recently equipped weapons reflected the sun perfectly. But the two weapons' gleam made them seem harmless. Instantly, his fairy dashed forward with perfect balance and gallant as she wielded her golden instruments perfectly. Their blades sliced right through Jack's monster. It fell to the ground, and he lost a major 1750 life points.
The scoreboard showed his life points decreasing rapidly down to 7250. His opponent's, on the other hand, were now blue and soaring and stopped at 9750. "Wheee! That was fun! At this rate, I'll be unstoppable by my next turn!" he clamped his hands together and held them close to him in front of his chest.
Ugh- shut UP you freak! I angrily thought as Jack nervously drew his next card. A monster with 3250 attack points isn't a cinch to beat.
"I'm setting one card in defense mode," Jack said as he looked at his face down cards again to make sure what each one was.
"Hah, you sure? Cuz now I'm activating Light of Intervention. From now on, until this trap card is destroyed, monsters can't be placed in face down defense position. They can only be placed in face up defense position," his opponent said as spotlights came down from the sky and touched every single monster zone on the field and stayed there. They revealed Jack's recently set monster, the Magician on Faith (300/400).
"Well, looks like you've activated her effect, once she's flipped, I can bring back a magic card from my graveyard to my hand. And I'm choosing my Dian Keto so I can activate it again! My life points are now at 8250!" Jack happily said as his life point counter once again rose up, turned blue and stopped at 8250. I wondered how long this duel would take.
"Alright, my turn. And I'm summoning Tornado Bird (1100/1000) in attack mode. It's flip effect can't be activated, so I may as well use it to destroy your Magician of Faith! Go, Tornado Bird! Blow her away!" The huge bird began flapping its wings and beating them faster and faster in the Magician of Faith's direction. Before we knew it, two medium-sized tornadoes were making their way toward Jack's spellcaster. They both collided with her at the same time and destroyed her. "And now it's time for you to suffer a direct attack from my WingWeaver! Attack him!" he commanded her.
His fairy card, put away her recently equipped weapons, closed her eyes, and put her hands together, not folding them, with her fingers pointing towards her chin. A bright white light began to appear within her hands that looked like she was praying. After bringing them apart slightly, a brilliant ball of energy was beginning to be summoned. She spread out her hands wider, rotating them slightly with each motion. Winds around her began to pick up as the light got brighter and brighter. She ended up with the ball of light resting on her palms pointed to the sky. The size of the orb was unbelievable. And the brightness of it put the sun to shame. The winds suddenly died down, as she opened her eyes, focused on Jack. She slowly moved her arms in front of her. Her hands were now curved on the sides of the glowing orb, as she tried to control its power. Suddenly, she spread her hands as far apart as they would go, slowly launching the ball of light at Jack. He began to looked panicked as his opponent smiled a little joyous smirk. The orb traveled faster and faster and began to sound like it was tearing through the air. The sound had become all but deafening right before it collided with jack, full force. Completely submerged in light, we couldn't see if Jack was alright. Even the crowd in the stands gasped at the tremendous power they had just witnessed.
When the light had subsided, we saw Jack, perfectly still. It looked like he had his palms pressed against his platform in an attempt to recover. His head was slightly bowed.
All of a sudden, "NO!" his opponent yelled as he saw a card, recently turned face up and revealed toward him.
Jack's head jerked up as he stood up straight, "Afraid so. I've activated Nutrient Z! Before I take any of that 3250 attack, my life points increase by 4000 first. So it really means that my life points are going up by 750, back up to 9000!" Jack's life points beeped up to his original spot, 9000. "I'm not out just yet!" Jack commented as he drew his next card.
Trying to hold back a huge smile, he just set his recently drawn card face down and summoned his Dancing Fairy (1700/1000). "And now I'll attack your Tornado Bird with them!" Jack said as his playful little fairies all stopped giggling with each other and looked angrily (or, about as angry as fairies can look) at his opponent's Tornado Bird. Then they suddenly all let out battle cries and dashed toward the bird with mean glares.
I felt like I was watching an episode of The Powerpuff Girls with these three fairies that were traveling all around this poor bird at blinding speed landing occasional punches and kicks. The punching and kicking quickly got faster and faster, until the bird was all but destroyed. Then the three gathered together on their original monster zone and all pointed all their fingers at it, millions of grains of pixie dust exploded from their hands, surrounding the bird, and enveloping it, destroying it, causing his opponent to lose 600 life points, leaving his life points at 9150.
"Ha! That pretty much evened the score! And I wouldn't attack if I were you, by the way," Jack intimidated as he crossed his arms and looked at the top of his deck, smiling.
"Whatever. And if it weren't for his flip effect, Tornado Bird wouldn't even be in my deck," his opponent replied as he drew a card, making his hand three cards. "I'm setting one card face down, and setting my Dreamsprite (300/200) in face up defense." Then he went quiet for a second, obviously deciding if he should attack or not. After Jack warned him. And Jack is known to give good warnings every now and then, but his opponent had no idea who he was, nor did we know who his opponent was. Eventually, he did make the decision to attack, and that sealed his fate.
"Ha, YES! I warned you, but you didn't listen!" Jack said as the WingWeaver prepared her weapons. "I'm activating the trap card Really Eternal Rest. It does exactly what the magic card does, only this is the trap card version. That means that your all powerful WingWeaver is now a thing of the past!" Jack finished as his opponent's fairy was dashing forward again. But she stopped as her weapons began to glow a green color. She held them in front of her, wide-eyed. We all watched in uneasy anticipation of what would happen next. We all knew that she would be destroyed, but none of us knew how. Still holding them in front of her, the green glow quickly intensified. Suddenly, she tilted her head sharply over her shoulder down and to the left, closing her eyes tightly with a desperate, sad expression on her face at the peak of its brightness. The weapons exploded in a huge cloud of white smoke, removing her from the field.
"NO! My beautiful fairy! How could you? You'll pay for that!" his opponent complained as he looked through his hand for any additional options. He saw none and signaled it to be Jack's turn.
"Come on, I need a monster card this time!" he said loud enough for the three of us to hear. He looked at his next card and said, "Yes! Now I'm summoning one of my favorite monsters Zolga (1700/1200) in attack mode! Attack his Dreamspite!" Jack commanded his fairy that looked like something out of the Grandia video game… from the Tower of Temptation, more specifically. From under its blue cape, it raised its arms and unleashed a powerful blue electric attack upon his plant card, destroying it. "And since you HAVE no other monsters on your side of the field, her effect can't be activated," Jack said to his opponent. "And now my trio of fairies will attack your life points directly!" Jack announced as they charged forth and punched, kicked, and launched fairy dust at his opponent's dueling platform until his life points were at 7450.
"This duel is just getting started, hun!" he accented his accent to appear more annoying than he already was as he drew a card. "I'm summoning my Kelbek (1500/1800) in face up defense. Then, by removing my Maha Vailo and Dreamsprite from play, I can special summon my Soul of Purity and Light (2000/1800)! Attack his Zolga!" he commanded his transparent fairy. She flew about the arena as she collected power from some mysterious force within her wings. She then stopped, turned toward Jack's Zolga, stiffened her wings, and pointed one finger at it. Light blue energy began to spark and fizzle at the tip of her finger. And then with great spontaneity, a thick beam of the same color power rushed toward his Zolga. "Not quite yet," Jack smirked as he revealed his last face down card. "This Rush Recklessly card increases my card's attack by 700 until the end of this turn, so kiss your soul of purity and light goodbye!" His Zolga absorbed the blue blast with ease, amplified it, and fired it back at his opponent's specially summoned fairy card, destroying it, and inflicting another 400 points of damage unto him.
"This just isn't your day! You didn't even get to use your fairy's special effect, and it's already gone," Jack said.
"Ugh, WHATever! Just go, okay?" he said, very annoyed.
"Not a problem," Jack said happily. "And NOW I'm using my Zolga's special effect. By offering it as a tribute for a tribute summon, my life points increase by 2000!" Numerous "Whoa!"'s were heard throughout the stadium as Jack's life points beeped all the way up to 11000! He had tribute summoned his King of Yamimakai (2000/1530) and attacked his opponent's Kelbeck. And even though his fiend was returned to his hand, he had destroyed his opponent's only monster on the field, leaving his life points open to another attack from his Dancing Fairy, bringing his opponent's life points down, again, to 5350. Jack smiled, looked at his opponent's face down card and said, "That card isn't doing much for you, is it?"
"Just be quiet now, okay? I'm very unhappy," he angrily said while he drew a card. "Fine, I'm summoning Agido (1500/1300) in defense mode. Attack that card, too, if you like," his opponent said slyly. His annoyingly happy attitude was returning.
Agido! I know what that card does! I thought as I waited, anxiously for Jack's next move. I'd have loved to help him out, but telling him what to do wouldn't prove that he had much skill.
"Okay," Jack drew a card, "I'll set this card face down, and use my Dancing Fairy as a tribute to summon my King of Yamimakai (2000/1530) again. Annihilate his Agido!" Obediently, his fiend card clenched his fist. A multicolored, but altogether white, sphere of power gathered and intensified, ready to demolish whatever was in its way. Then he threw it at his mechanical fairy card (another card that looked like something from Grandia. This time, it looked like one of those things flying around in the Garden of Alent). His opponent's monster was destroyed, "Ha ha ha! Guess whaaaaaaat… You've just activated that cards effect by battling it and sending it to the graveyard! I now get a chance to bring back one of my fairy cards in the graveyard. I get to roll a die once. The number that comes up is the number of level stars of the fairy that I can bring back. I've only got fairies of level 4, 6 and 7 in there. Come on four or six!!" he gleefully pleaded the virtual die.
It clicked and rolled as realistically as it could. In no time, it revealed a six.
"Yay! I got a six, which means I can revive a fairy of level six- or higher! So guess who's paying us another visit… WingWeaver!" he announced. But instead of another flashy display of light and feathers, she just appeared after a second of yellow and white sparks that seemed to form a portal.
"You are winning. But you haven't won," his opponent declared.
"Crap! And Jack was doing so well, too," Doug commented out of the blue. Although, it did seem a bit hopeless. Despite Jack's unbelievably high life point amount, it will only be a matter of time until he is overtaken by his opponent's powerful fairy card, especially if Jack only draws one card per turn. And it's not likely he'll draw anything powerful enough to take on WingWeaver, because flip effects still cannot work.
"My turn!" his opponent happily said. "Oooohh! I just drew a good card!" he commented as he activated it, "Fairy of the Spring lets me take an equip card from my graveyard and add it to my hand. But the equip card can't be activated this turn, so I'm returning Cestus of Dagla to my hand so I can equip it to my fairy next turn and do some serious damage, people!" he said out loud as his obvious accent got on many people's nerves. "Attack his evil king now!" he commanded.
As if she were just summoned, she called forth another huge sphere of light and obliterated Jack's fiend with it, causing 750 damage, until jack activated his face down card, "It's Numinous Healer! When I take damage, I can activate this and receive 1000 life points!" Jack proudly said as his life points rose to 11250, the highest life point amount I've ever seen! He could survive two direct hits from the Blue Eyes Ultimate Dragon (4500ATK)!
"Okay, it's my turn now," Jack said. He uneasily drew his deck's top card and was very annoyed with what it was. "I activate Remove Trap. I can finally get rid of your stupid Light of Intervention!"
"Ha, whatever! You're in for it now, buster!" he smiled and drew a card. "I'm setting this card… face DOWN, equipping my WingWeaver with the Cestus of Dagla and attacking you directly! And with absolutely nothing in the way, your life points are in for a major hit!"
The fairy card made quick work of 3250 of Jack's life points.
"Ugh, back to 8000, how boring," Jack commented as he looked up at the scoreboard. His were at a green 8000. His opponent's were at a thinner, yellow 5350.
After drawing a card, his face showed relief. "I'm activating Monster Reborn. This has to have been my luckiest draw ever! I'm reviving your Kelbek in defense mode! Your move," Jack had protected himself for one turn, at least.
"Hah, your luck is about to run out," he then drew a card, "but not with THIS card! Rrrrrrr… oh well. I'm sacrificing my face down Spirit of the Harp to summon Dark Witch (1800/1700). And now… ugh, my WingWeaver gets rid of the Kelbek." His opponent reluctantly made his card attack because they both knew Kelbek's effect. After the amazing light show, the Kelbek zapped the WingWeaver with electricity that forced her to disappear, returned to his opponent's hand. Then the Dark Witch attacked him directly, leaving jack at 6200 life points. It suddenly got close.
"NOW you're only winning by 850 life points! Quite impressive since you seemed almost unstoppable a few turns ago…" his opponent rubbed in his latest triumph as Jack drew a card. "I'm setting one card in defense mode, and end-" he was interrupted by his opponent's irritating voice, "Oh no you're noooot! I'm activating the trap card Shadow of Eyes! I knew it wouldn't be too long before you tried setting again, so I was prepared. Shadow of Eyes automatically switches your monster to defense mode. And if it has a flip effect, it is NOT activated, ha!"
"Aw crap! But that's only a Skull-Mark Ladybug (500/1500)!" Jack looked like he was shaking a bit.
"I see you were trying to increase your life points again, hmm?" his opponent began as he drew a card. "Well it isn't going to help you much," his opponent set his drawn card in defense mode. "Attack his ladybug, Dark Witch!" And with a lightning fast swipe of her staff, the ladybug split in half and was destroyed. It would have originally cost Jack 1300 points of damage. But, due to the ladybug's effect, Jack, technically, only took 300 points of damage.
"It's getting closer!" his opponent sang, "You've got 5900 life points now!" he gleamed as Jack anxiously drew a card. I looked up to see if I could catch a glimpse of its image. Another lucky draw! I thought as I managed to see the bottom right hand corner of it, which was all I needed to see.
"I'm setting this magic/trap card face down," Jack declared as he, doubtfully, looked down at his only means of defense. "All he's gotta do now is fall for my trap," Jack said, barely audible.
His opponent drew a card and said, "It appears you're running low on options. So I'll be nice and activate this: Rain of Mercy! It increases both our life points by 1000!" So holographic rain clouds were conjured up by this magic card. Above each duelist began and ended a short rain shower which brought Jack's life points up to 6900, and his opponent's to 6350. "And now for the moment we've all been waiting for, the third return of my WingWeaver! I sacrifice my Dark Witch and face down Pixie Knight to resummon my WingWeaver (2450/2700)!" This time, four bolts of yellow lightning came down from the sky and each struck a corner of the zone in which he summoned his fairy. The came together, and dissipated, leaving only the fairy behind.
"Activate trap card, Trap Hole! You've normal summoned a monster with at least 1000 attack points, so she's immediately destroyed! Heh heh heh," Jack basked in his temporary glory as a giant chasm appeared below her and made her fall to her doom, despite her wings, which really made no sense…
"My move," Jack drew a card as his opponent said, "Oh no, oh NO! I'm wide open for an attack!" he panicked as Jack examined his card. "Alright, not bad. I'm activating the magic card Stray Lambs," he said as, from the magic zone where he put the card, two goat-looking objects flew forth and took up a monster zone. "Your move."
"Hmm? Well, alright," his opponent drew a card and set it down in his magic/trap zone with a sigh, "Now it's your go."
"Yes! I'm sacrificing both of my lamb tokens to summon Gaia the Fierce Knight (2300/2100)! And I attack your life points directly!" he announced.
"No!" his opponent screamed as the heroic knight upon his horse dashed forward, jumped over the face down card which he didn't activate, and used his red jousting spears to make two slashes along his dueling platform. His opponent's life points sank down to 4050.
"Think you've won?" his opponent calmly tried to intimidate him. He drew a card and angrily set it down next to his other one.
Jack summoned his other Harpie's Brother (1800/600) and attacked his life points with both of them.
"Ah, NO! There's nothing I can do! His knight raced forth again in a dash with his winged beast to see who could get to his life points first. Up first was the Harpie's Brother who, with his weapon, made a quick gash at his opponent's dueling platform. Close behind was Gaia. And with two more swipes of his own weapons, his opponent was eliminated from the tournament.
After the usual post-duel meeting with Linda, his opponent walked out of the arena and showed us his new card, "I now own an Altar for Tribute! It should be a good edition to my deck of life point recovery cards," Jack commented as I wondered why he took a trap card instead of his opponent's WingWeaver or something.
"Well, all that's left is for Andre to duel, and then we're all guaranteed FIVE hundred dollars!" I said as Jack and Doug's eyes lit up- right, as if they really forgot. "Hah, yeah. It'll be a piece of cake," Andre agreed as we went back to the stands.