Tournament Stories part 19
It had been a long morning. But the duels were more than half over after Doug's loss to Jon. And to speed the duels up even faster, Linda called for duelists number 18 and 19 to approach the arena to "get this show off the road." I swear, that's what she said!
Anyway, duelist number 18 was that strange guy dressed in black that Andre was so convinced was a rare hunter. It was amazing how quickly he wiped duelist 19 out.
After that, it was time for duelists 22 and 24 to compete. We all wished Jack luck as he walked, a few steps ahead of us, into the red platform he chose.
Linda ascended in her taller platform, the decks were shuffled, each player had 8000 life points and 5 cards and the duel began with Jack going first.
Briskly, he said, "I'm summoning Harpie's Brother (1800/600) in attack mode, setting two cards face down and ending my turn. Your go."
"Wow, that was quick. Okay, I'm gonna summon White magician Pikeru (1200/0) in attack mode." As soon as he put the card on his side of the field, a bright, happy little ball of light gleefully zipped around the field until landing on the spot corresponding to where he put the card. In a tiny flash, the cute little girl holding her magic scepter appeared and winked at whoever this opponent of Jack's was. I'm glad we never learned his name. "Also, I'm gonna play Ground Collapse, which renders two of your monster zones useless. Then I'm gonna go and activate Kaiser Colosseum. As long as this magic card is on the field, you can't have more monsters on the field than me, as long as I at least have one monster on the field. NOW I'm gonna activate The Dark Door. So now each of us can only attack once per Battle Phase. Finally, I'm gonna set this one card face down and end my turn!"
"Whoa. I must say, I am impressed with this little pipsqueak!" Andre said in a normal tone of voice. "Oh gee, thanks for the vote of confidence, jerk," Jack replied. "What! You can't deny that he has you in a tight spot!" Andre was being bluntly honest. And it was true, really. Unless Jack had a whole hand of De-Spells or a Harpie's Feather Duster somewhere, this guy had Jack very confined. "Don't you have anything in your hand that can help you?" I asked as he drew a card. "Yeah," he smiled deviously. I may only be able to attack once, but as long as the monster is stronger than that puffball he's got, it should be no problem.."
To his opponent, "I'm sacrificing my Harpie's Brother to summon Curse of Dragon (2000/1500) in attack mode!"
"Alot of good it'll do ya! I'm activating the trap card Gravity Bind! With this on the field, ALL monsters of level 4 or higher can't attack, but their positions can be changed- what a waste!" The little pipsqueak giggled with immature glee.
"What a LOSER!" Jack said only loud enough for us to hear.
"My turn!" The little pipsqueak drew a card. "It's my standby phase now. So, by my spellcaster's effect, my life points go up by 400 for every monster I've got. So now my life points are 8400. And NOW I summon the Trojan Horse (1600/1200) in attack mode! That's it now."
Jack drew a card and spoke to us while still looking back and forth between his hand and opponent, "I can't attack, even if I could it can only happen once. I can never have more monsters than him which is never gonna happen, anyway, because of his Ground Collapse card!" he examined his problems. "I TOLD you he had you in a tight spot!" Andre echoed what he had indeed said not too long ago. But this time, Jack agreed.
He grabbed two cards from his hand and said, "I'm setting one card in defense mode and activating Dian Keto the Cure Master. My life points go up to 9000. Your move."
This duels' gonna be so BORING if someone doesn't attack soon! I thought as the little pipsqueak drew his next card.
"It's my standby phase again. So this time my life points go up by 800 to 9200. Next up, I'm sacrificing my Trojan Horse to summon Metal Armored Bug (2800/1500) in attack mode!"
"Hold on! A monster that strong needs more than one tribute; you just cheated!" Jack accused the pipsqueak.
"How right you are- about the tributing part. It's true that a level 8 monster such as my insect here needs two monsters in order to get it onto the field. But When my Trojan Horse is used to tribute summon a monster of earth, which my bug is, it can be treated like TWO monsters. So even though I used one monster, that monster's effect let me summon my bug with ease. But relax: my Gravity Bind is still out there. Then again, my magician isn't even affected by it, so attack his face down monster!" The happy magician's eyes glared as meanly as they could at the hidden monster and aimed her scepter at it. Gracefully, a transparent rainbow flowed out of it and rushed over Jack's revealed Magician of Faith (300/400). "Heh, thanks. Now I'll just get my spell card back."
Jack began his turn and drew a card, very happy with the result. "Here we go- I'm first activating Dian Keto again to get my life points up to an even 10000. Next, I'm summoning Familiar Knight (1200/1400) in attack mode. And now, since it's only level 3, I'm attacking your white magician with him!" Heroically, the knight sped forward and quickly attacked his spellcaster, she tried putting up a fight by hitting him with her scepter. Both attacks connected and both were destroyed because of the equal attack points. "And my warrior has a special effect. When he's destroyed as a result of a battle, we both can special summon a level 4 monster from our hand to the field," Jack was obviously happy about this. "I'm special summoning my Rare Metal Dragon (2400/1200) in attack mode!"
"And I'm summoning Zolga in attack mode," the little pipsqueak said. "My turn, and you better hope I don't draw a high-level monster!" He drew a card and looked at it approvingly, "I rely so much on my Gravity Bind, so I stock up my deck with lots of low level monsters,"So you're a staller, in other words. I thought to myself as he continued, "I'm summoning Karate Man (1000/1000) in attack mode. Now I'm activating his special effect. I'm doubling his attack and attacking your Curse of Dragon. This will destroy them both." The Karate Man unleashed a barrage of lightning quick kicks while the dragon attacked with a bright metallic red fireball at point blank range. Both monsters hit the floor and were destroyed. "Your move."
Jack drew a card and set it down in the magic/trap zone.
"Perfect, I now have you right where I want you." The little weirdo drew a card and activated it. "I activate Remove Trap on my own Gravity Bind to enable us all to attack with our monsters again. Well, more exactly, monster because Dark Door's still out. So attack his dragon, my insect!" The huge bug lowered its head, tightened its legs and blindly sped directly for the Rare Metal Dragon. The dragon was tackled and destroyed resulting in 400 life points loss for Jack. "I activate Attack and Receive. When I take damage of any kind, I can activate this and inflict 700 points of damage on YOU!" Both scores lowered at the same time leaving Jack's at 9600 and the pipsqueak's at 8500. "Oh, you're such a meanie!" the little pipsqueak complained as Jack drew his next card.
"I'm activating Stray Lambs. Now, TWO sheep tokens are summoned to the field in defense mode. It's your go now."
Randomly from the sparse number of people in the stands was heard, "COME ON! ONE OF YOULOSE ALREADY!"
Everybody laughed, especially Jack and the little pipsqueak. The truth was, one of them WAS going to lose this. And right now, it looked like Jack.
"A bunch of sheep is the best you can do?" Pipsqueak commented while he drew a card. "Well, I'll just hold onto this card and attack one of your stupid mammals with my bug."
One sheep token remained, which was enough for Jack. He set a card face down and used his last sheep token to summon his King of Yamimakai (2000/1530) in attack mode. Then he destroyed Pipsqueak's Zolga, which brought his life points down another 300.
Pipsqueak drew a card and set it face down. Then he set the card he drew last turn in defense mode. Finally, he attacked Jack's king with his gigantic bug. "It's not gonna be so easy to get rid of my life points," Jack activated the card Numinous Healer. "It increases my life points by 1000 after I take that 800 damage. So my life points actually go UP 200 points because of your attack!" Jack was pleased with his additional lead, despite his barren field. "Very well, your turn," the little pipsqueak said.
Jack drew his next card and was at first heavily disappointed. But after a few seconds of looking at his opponent's huge bug and then at his two face down cards, he had an idea. And it proved to be a good one. "I'm summoning Electric Snake (800/900) in attack mode!" Many confused gasps resonated from the stands as the little pipsqueak gawked at Jack's seemingly foolish move. "It's your turn now." Jack calmly said. His plan obviously relied on one or both of those face down cards he had- he couldn't have made it more obvious by leaving SUCH a weak monster in attack mode. In fact, it was so obvious that the little pipsqueak began to laugh.
"Aha ha ha ha ha HA! You must think I'm some sort of idiot! It's obvious that you're going to activate one of those face-down cards if I attack that minuscule card of yours. You couldn't have made it any more obvious if you had shown me those face down cards before you set them down!"
"But that's just it!" Jack said back, "YOU have noidea if these cards are even traps or quick plays at all. They could be just plain old magic cards there to throw you off. Or maybe theyARE trap cards, but are completely useless in this situation! And further more, if theywere to end up being trap cards, you can't begin to figure out what effects either of them would have. Perhaps one of them is a Mirror Force, resulting in the loss of both your monsters AND your Kaiser Colosseum. Maybe the other is a Waboku, which would render your attack useless, allowing me to tribute my snake next turn. You just can't take that chance... Then again, it's an opportunity to deal 2000 points of damage to me! How many times has a chance like this been presented to you?" Jack was definitely messing with the little pipsqueak's mind. Any of those possibilities Jack mentioned could have been true. Maybe he WAS just bluffing. And if the pipsqueak were to attack, Jack would lose 2000 life points. "So I'm gonna end my turn. You do whatever you want!" Jack left it all up to the pipsqueak.
He drew a card and paused for a short second, "Okay, it's my standby phase, and I'm activating my face down non Aggression Area. By discarding my only card in my hand, I prevent you from normal summoning, setting and special summoning next turn- so it gives me time to think. I end my turn." As soon as that card was discarded, a purplish pink force field appeared around Jack's monster zone almost like the one printed on the card itself. It looked kinda cool how it glowed and pulsed.
"What a wuss!" Andre said to me as Jack drew his next card.
"That's okay. I'll just bide my time and set yet another card face down- your move."
Pipsqueak was still a bit confused on what to do. I suppose it would normally be an easy decision to make. But against someone you've never met before, it's hard to call. Against a friend of whose deck you are somewhat familiar with, it's easier to take risks. If I were in Pipsqueak's spot, I would definitely NOT attack no matter what the tempt was.
So Pipsqueak drew a card. "Was the extra turn worth it?" Jack asked. Upon looking at the card he just drew, Pipsqueak admitted, "Yes- come to think of it. I'm setting this card face down and NOT attacking."
"Okay," Jack drew a card. "Heh, time for more mystery. I'm sacrificing my Electric Snake to set one monster face down in defense mode. And now it's your turn again."
A sigh of relief came from Pipsqueak. No longer did he have to deal with the pressure of the previous dilemma. Though you could tell by the expression on his face whether or not he thought the choice he made was the correct one. He drew a card, "I'm summoning Nin-Ken Dog (1800/1000) in attack mode-" He was interrupted by Jack, "And I'm activating Trap Hole to send that card to the graveyard... you may continue."
"And now- I AM attacking your face down monster!" Pipsqueak announced.
Anxiously, everyone watched to see if Jack would let his only monster be destroyed, if he would activate any of his cards or what. Our wonderings were answered when the bug made full contact with Jack's face down Nobleman-Eater Bug (900/1200), "Alright! You fell for myreal trap! The Nobleman-Eater Bug is kind of like it's little brother, only HE gets to destroy TWO monsters! Say goodbye to your big bug!" Jack proudly told Pipsqueak the trouble he was in. Before the insect vanished, he launched both of his claws towards Pipsqueak's monsters, destroying them. But, unfortunately, the face down monster Pipsqueak had was the Skull-Mark Ladybug which increased his life points by 1000. The good part was, though, that Kaiser Colosseum, since Pipsqueak didn't have one monster on his field, was now destroyed. But best of all, it was Jack's turn. If he were to draw a monster with a high enough attack, Jack could possibly get his lead back.
He drew a card. "I'm summoning Dancing Fairy (1700/1000) in attack mode. Attack his life points directly!" And for the first time this whole duel, one's life points went down more than 500 with the trio of pixies zapping Pipsqueak down to 8500.
He drew a card and got quite angry, "Gruh, I can't even do anything with this card. I've got to pass."
Jack drew a card and said, "You're lucky you've still got The Dark Door out!" He summoned Mysterious Puppeteer (1000/1500) in attack mode and attacked Pipsqueak directly, bringing his life points down to 6800, and ended his turn.
I then turned to Andre and said, "Something confuses me- how come the duels came so close earlier in the tournament, but in these final 5, life points go up high and stay up high?" He agreed and said, "Yeah- especially with Jack... I dunno. Maybe these duelists are SO good that they would rather increase their life before going all out...?" I answered saying, "I guess that sounds right," and the duel went on.
Pipsqueak drew a card praying for a monster. He slowly looked at the card and said, "Aw man, come on! ...Oh well, it's better than nothing... I summon Dark Zebra (1800/400) in attack mode."
"Good, then my life points go up by 500 to 10300 due to my puppeteer's effect." Jack said happily.
"But now my Dark Zebra's attacking your warrior card!" The zebra charged rather quickly toward his mysterious puppetmaster and skewered it with its horn and destroyed it taking Jack's life points down to 9100. "I've just taken damage to my life points. So I'm activating another Attack and Receive trap card! In addition to the 700 you normally take, you are damaged an extra 300 because of one Attack and Receive already in the graveyard!"
Angered, Pipsqueak could only listen and watch as his life points went down by another 1000 points.
"My move!" Pipsqueak snatched the top card off his deck. Then it was his standby phase and his zebra automatically switched to defense mode as it says on the card's effect. After looking at the card he just drew, the little pipsqueak set the other card in his hand face down and graciously ended his turn.
Jack drew a card and said, "Hmm! That's lucky!" And then to Pipsqueak, "And now I summon Element Dragon (1500/1200) in attack mode. And he gets a special power, now, thanks to my fairy card, a wind attribute, on the field: If he destroys a monster of yours as a result of battle, I'm able to have him attack again. So, Element Dragon! Attack his defending Dark Zebra!"
"Not so fast. I'm activating the trap A Hero Emerges. Now you must randomly select one card from my hand. If it's a monster, I special summon it to the field. If it isn't it goes to the graveyard," Pipsqueak smiled as he explained his card.
"But you've only GOT one card in your hand," Jack complained.
"DUH! Why do you think I activated that trap?" Pipsqueak said without waiting for jack to "choose" the card, "I special summon Flame Champion (1900/1300) in attack mode."
"Hey, cool- a fire attribute monster! That activates another one of my Element Dragon's effects. When there is a fire monster on the field, my monster's attack goes up by 500 points!" Jack said happily as his dragon's attack went up to a respectable 2000. "Looks like your plan backfired! Element Dragon, attack his zebra!" And with a mighty blast of fire from his throat, the dragon destroyed the zebra. "Now I can attack again since he just destroyed a monster. Attack his Flame Champion!"
"Yes! FINALLY something goesmy way! I activate the classic, yet effective, trap card Reverse Trap! All increases and decreases to attack and defense points are reversed for this turn. So instead of your dragon gaining those 500 attack points, it now loses those 500 points from his original amount!" Pipsqueak announced as Jack looked a bit crestfallen as the Flame Champion struck back and destroyed the dragon, resulting in a 900 life point loss for him.
"Now it's my turn again," Pipsqueak smiled. "I set one monster card and attack your fairies with my Flame Champion. The brave soldier bounded toward the three panicking fairies and knocked them all out with his fiery shield. Jack's life points reached an even 8000, and the bar above his name reached the normal green again. Pipsqueak's bar was in the yellow with 5800 life points.
"Your field is empty except for that one face down magic/trap you haven't activated yet. And you've got no cards in your hand. So pray that the next card you draw is a good monster!" Pipsqueak stated the obvious as Jack glanced down at something on the grass near us for some reason. Andre and I looked around to try and spot what he was looking at, but to no avail. And then I wondered what the point was of looking at something behind you and on the ground when you were fighting in a duel... Jack drew a card and set it defense mode.
"My go! Pipsqueak took his top card and looked at his two monsters. I thought for sure he was going to sacrifice them for a high-level, but I guess not, though, "And now Flame Champion attacks whatever card you have face down." The Flame Champion summoned a fireball in his arm and threw it like a discus, hitting its defending target, the Nightmare Penguin (900/1800).
"My penguin has a special effect. I can return one card on your side of the field to your hand. So I choose Flame Champion." Jack initiated his latest strategy in pure desperation then drew a card when his turn began and smiled at it.
"Alright! I'm summoning my Enraged Battle Ox (1700/1000). It's got a special effect, too! As long as he's face up on the field, beasts, beast-warriors and winged-beasts are bestowed a special power. If they attack one of your defense monsters with a defense lower than my monster's attack, the difference is subtracted from your life points! So attack his defense monster!" Obediently, the beast-warrior slashed Pipsqueak's defending Mother Grizzly (1400/1000) in two, resulting in his life points going down to 5100.
"Ah, but this monster's got an effect as well! When she's destroyed in battle, I can special summon a water monster with 1500 attack points or fewer from my deck into attack mode. So here comes Piranha Army (800/200). Don't worry about its weakness; it won't be around for long. So now it's my turn, is it?" Jack affirmatively nodded.
"Perfecto!" he said while he drew his next card. "I sacrifice my Piranha Army to welcome back my Flame Champion (1900/1300) in attack mode! Incinerate his Battle Ox!" And with a slash of his sword of fire, the beast-warrior was gone and Jack's life points went down to 7800.
Anxiously, Jack drew his next card among the laughter and taunts of his opponent. But, to his relief, it was a VERY usable card, "I now remove two light attribute monsters in my graveyard (Electric Snake and Element Dragon) to special summon my Soul of Purity and Light (2000/1800) in attack mode! Reduce his fire card to ashes!" With deceptively kind eyes, this transparent fairy summoned a ball of celestial blue energy to her palms and unleashed a very concentrated and controlled attack at Pipsqueak's Flame Champion, quickly destroying it and leaving his life points at 5000. "That was a very lucky draw," Pipsqueak said disappointedly as he drew his next card.
"Okay, I'll set a monster and end my turn."
"I'll set one too and attack your defending monster with my fairy card!" The blue light was concentrated towards the face down card, but wasn't destroyed. It turned out to be the Skull Dog Marron (1350/2000). It's defense points equaled the fairy's attack, which means nothing was destroyed and no life points were lost; Pipsqueak managed to save himself.
"Hah, I'm so lucky!" Pipsqueak giggled. "And it's my turn now!"
"Aw, come ON! You are such a boringSTALLER! " Andre said. And he was right- to be quite honest, I found myself bored at more than one point in this duel. It felt like the scores were gonna stay like this for the whole duel. Pipsqueak continued his turn, "And now I'm setting another monster in defense- your move again."
Jack looked pretty angrily at this guy who hasn't attacked since his Enraged battle Ox was on the field. He was purposely taking his time- and it was annoying Jack, as well as us, as well as more than half of the spectators. Even Linda, way up there in her own tower protected by her umbrella, put her chin on her hand and rested her elbow on a bar as the duel trudged on.
"Okay, this will at least make things interesting. I'm summoning Mushroom man #2 (1250/800) in attack mode! He decreases the life points of his current controller by 300 during that player's standby phase. And control of him can switch by paying 500 life points at one's end phase- which is what I'm doing now."
So Jack's life points went down to 7300 as that fungal life form seemed to teleport from Jack's field to Pipsqueak's. But instead of facing Jack, the mushroom man's new enemy, like all of the monsters Pipsqueak controlled did, the Mushroom Man still was facing Pipsqueak with that evil glare in its red eyes. Right after Pipsqueak drew his next card, the warrior card pumped his roots full of something and forced it into the ground. As a result, thin yellow beams of light protruded from the ground and stabbed Pipsqueak's platform. This lowered his life points to 4700.
"It doesn't matter," Pipsqueak began. "Now that I have one extra monster, I can summon this guy one turn earlier than I thought! So, I sacrifice my Skull Dog Marron and your Mushroom Man #2 to summon Hyozanryu (2100/2800) in attack mode!" As soon as he slapped that card down onto the field, an extremely bright diamond appeared on the field not shaped like anything. But the two monsters' spirits who he sacrificed absorbed into the diamond and caused two cracks to form in it. These little cracks spread and split apart the diamond as the erratic lines of the cracks began to form the contour of a creature. Chunks of the diamond began to chip off as big as a person and before we knew it, the diamond gleamed with an intense bright light when the chiseling was done revealing this beautifully luminous dragon. "Now, attack his face down monster!" Pipsqueak commanded.
"My Soul of Purity and Light's effect activates! All of your monsters lose 300 attack points during your battle phase!" Jack announced. Pipsqueak panicked as his dragon's attack went down to 1800. The dragon attacked with a blast from its breath almost as bright as himself. The attack connected but destroyed nothing, but did reveal the hidden Des Feral Imp (1600/1800) which means that no life points were lost either. "My reptile here has a flip effect. I get to pick a card from my graveyard, add it to my deck, then shuffle it. Is your turn done now?" Jack asked. Pipsqueak nodded. "Okay!" Jack began.
AUTHOR'S NOTE": I am not 100 sure of the effect of the Soul of Purity and Light monster card. Even though it clearly says, "As long as this card is face up on the field, decrease the ATK of all monsters on your opponent's side of the field by 300 points during his/her Battle Phase," I'm not sure if the attack points of the opposing monster(s) restore themselves to their value before the decrease, or if they remain that low and continue to go down to zero- before which time anyone would have switched their monster into defense... So I'm going to interpret these rules so that the decrease is permanent because: 1. It wouldn't make sense for the effect of a monster needing to be specially summoned like this to be neutralized after every turn. 2. It said on the card "As long as this card is face up on the field." If you disagree, I apologize, but this duel must end SOMEtime!
"Now I can do some real damage!" Jack said after drawing his next card. "I'm activating the magic card De-Spell to FINALLY get rid of that annoying Dark Door card! So I'm switching my Des Feral Imp into attack mode and attacking your face down monster." The reptile slithered forward and slashed at Pipsqueak's face down Pixie Knight (1300/200). "NOW you get to pick a magic card from my graveyard for me to put on the top of my deck!" Pipsqueak announced. "You have two choices: Kaiser Colosseum or the Dark Door you just destroyed!" "I guess it'll be the Colosseum, then," Jack said. "But I'm not done attacking!" Jack regained his initiative, "Soul of Purity and Light attacks your now weakened Hyozanryu!" Once again, the intense blue beam destroyed his dragon and reduced his life points by 200 to 4500.
"Fine- but now it's my turn," Pipsqueak said. "I hope that Kaiser Colosseum you drew will help you out!" Jack smirked as Pipsqueak realized the tight spot he was in. Jack continued, "Then again, I have no idea what that OTHER card in your hand is!" Jack continued to antagonize as Pipsqueak took his turn, "I set one card face down in defense and end my turn."
Jack drew his next card. "I'm setting this magic/trap card face down and attacking your card with my Des Feral Imp." The reptile again slashed violently and destroyed the face down Mystic Lamp (400/300). "And now my fairy card attacks your life points!" That same concentrated blue beam of light was now aimed higher right at Pipsqueak. It made full contact and brought his life points down to 2500. "It's nearly over for you. You don't even have a monster to tribute summon with. There's no way your stall deck has anything that will help you, judging by the cards you've played up to this point... care to give up?" Jack was actually being a real bully to this guy! I just can't really convey that by way of written words.
"I'm not giving up." Pipsqueak insisted. How predictable... then again, I don't think ANYone would simply give up when they haven't completely lost it yet.I thought as Pipsqueak anxiously drew his next card. "I don't want you summoning a monster next turn, so I'm first setting this monster in defense, then activating my Kaiser Colosseum again. It's your turn," Pipsqueak said with a bit of recovered resilience.
Jack drew a card and didn't even think about his move. Holding onto the card he just drew, he said, "And now Des Feral Imp attacks your face down monster."
"Perfect, that'd be MY Nightmare Penguin (900/1800). It's defense is higher than your monster's attack; you lose 200 life points. AND his effect now activates- you should know what it is, you've played this very card earlier in this duel. So I return Soul of Purity and Light to your hand!"
"And here we were thinking that this duel was in the bag!" Andre sarcastically said aloud- purposely to get on Jack's nerves. "Jerk," he smiled as he ended his turn.
Pipsqueak drew his card, relieved that he had saved himself for a bit longer. "Okay! And now I'll be settin this card face down! It's your move, buddy."
Jack drew his next card and looked at the field. Smiling, he played his card, "This card is Change of Heart! I'm sure you know what it does..." "Oh crap! My face down card is useless now! And I'm wide open for attacks!" Pipsqueak stated the (very) obvious.
"Both monsters attack your life points directly. That's exactly 2500 damage, bringing your life points to zero- I win the duel!" Jack declared.
"FINALLY!" Linda yelled as her platform slowly sank into the ground. She did a few stretches to loosen herself up after standing, bored, above all the "action." Andre and I followed Jack around to the center side of the arena closest to the exit that Pipsqueak would soon be exiting.
"Okay, boys- let's make this quick. Duelist #22, select one card from your opponents deck to make your own," Linda commanded as Pipsqueak handed over his deck. But Jack stopped him and said, "I already know which one: your Hyozanryu, please." Reluctantly, but with no choice, Pipsqueak handed the card over to Jack. "And for you, duelist #24... $500 awarded to you for making it all the way to the top 16 in the Gree Island/Peninsula Tournament!" She happily presented Pipsqueak with his cash, sealed in an envelope with the letters printed on it: G I/P T.
"Ha ha, that spells gypped!" Jack had already put his deck away as Pipsqueak walked off.
"Why is it 'Island/Peninsula'?" Andre asked.
"Well, it can get pretty wet here around the rainy season otherwise known as summer... So there IS a land mass connecting us to the mainland, but for half the year you can't see it."
"Interesting," I commented as Andre was obviously not interested anymore in the answer to the very question he had asked.
In fact, Andre and Jack were already walking back to our seats... how rude can you be? I was about to follow them. But Linda began speaking to me, "Your host expects great things from you later today. In fact, he told me that he particularly wants to duel you! Could it have anything to do with that rare card of yours?" She asked that more as a rhetorical question because she continued speaking as soon as she asked it, "One never knows. But in any case, judging by your past performances in this tournament, you should advance rather quickly to the "final duel," don't you think?" She looked over my left shoulder, somehow, (remember, this lady is very short...) and said, "Well, I'd better not keep you from your friends. Go on and win this tournament, eh? Hold onto that card of yours!" She advised, almost in a warning tone. What was her problem? I'm here to duel, not get caught in the middle of a card-snatching free for all! I flashed back to earlier this morning (chapter 13) when she first talked to me about my Black Skull Dragon. Perhaps she was just watching out for me?
Well anyway, pretty soon, Andre would be up against Alex. And I needed to get back to my seat; all this standing up during that boring duel was exhausting.