Tournament Stories part 23
It was time... Jon and I had approached each other right in front of Linda who could practically see the tension stretched between my long time rival and me. But before anything happened, she interrupted, "Okay, guys," we all looked at each other. And it was indeed just four guys left: Andre, Jon, Josh and myself... "Your not going to like this final twist... for the duels from here on out, you're going to have to obey the latest Forbidden Cards rules. We did not choose to enforce them earlier because too many people rely on such cards to help them win. But since you are the final four, the host wants to see your true colors without the help of such cards. So here you all are..." she paused every time she handed out a paper, "Use these lists... to remove or limit the cards as so... because we are following the limited and semi-limited restrictions... as well. Use the next few minutes to make the necessary changes. Duelists #1 and #16, tell me when you are ready."
So I looked at the list and took comfort in the fact that I haven't even heard of most of these cards: "Confiscation?" "Mirage of Nightmare?" "Delinquent Duo?" Anyway, I first looked at the Forbidden list. Those are the cards that no duel is allowed to have ANY in both the main deck and side deck. (But since these duels don't happen in sets of three, side decks are rather useless here.) The cards that I had to remove from my deck were: Change of Heart, Monster Reborn, Painful Choice and Witch of the Black Forest- CRAP! As for the limited and semi-limited cards, I didn't have to worry about them. But I couldn't believe that I had to take out my Painful Choice and Witch of the Black Forest. Are there seriously that many powerful cards with 1500 defense points or fewer? That pissed me off...
AUTHOR'S NOTE: In response to the anonymous review that said that you can't normal summon Andro Sphinx: you can. Read the card's effect. What you can't do is special summon it from the graveyard or attack with it in the same turn that it is normal summoned or special summoned.
Also, thanks to the real Andre for explaining to me the differences between the rarities of the cards! Now returning to the story...
So I took those four cards out of my deck and put my Skull-Mark Ladybug, plus three others, back in. As I looked through my deck, I noticed that there were quite a few cards that I hadn't played yet. (Let's face it: using the big guns earlier in the story would have made their appearances in this duel less shocking and heroic, right?) So I was ready a few seconds before Jon. He was mumbling angrily to himself, probably because he had so many cards on the ground. I noticed a Dark Hole, a Change of Heart and a Pot of Greed but that was it. He did his best to balance out the hole and said after heaving a sigh of air, "I'm ready now."
"Good, good! And now, you two get to pick from these four cards. As your reward for making it to the top 4 in this tournament, you are entitled to one card with at LEAST 3000 attack points!" Linda proudly announced. The four of us, even Josh, went, "Whoa..." as I mentally drooled.
I took a card after Jon, tore it open and was happy to see the numbers (3500/3000) at the bottom. It was called Ultimate Obedient Fiend! It was a fiend card, and the most powerful fiend (attack point wise) I had ever seen! But it's effect was piss poor which was why it never went into my deck: It can only attack if there are NO other cards on my side of the field and if I have NO hand... seriously, how often does that happen? So even though it's possible that I could just summon it and just leave it there as a solid wall between me and my life points, I decided to stick with cards that I'd actually use...
Jon was pretty annoyed with his card also, "What? A fusion monster? I don't have the monsters for THIS thing! Dammit, and it's so powerful, too!" We ended up not putting the cards into our decks...
"Okay... the Forbidden Card lists have been distributed, you got your prizes for being in the top 4... we're set! Shuffle each others' decks, and let's go!" Linda sounded unusually cheerful and she looked at me more often than at Jon as we shuffled the decks. I wonder why she is so interested in my Black Skull Dragon? I thought to myself. It's not like it's all that rare anymore. And it's so old that there are many cards that can easily vanquish it... Maybe the rare hunters need 40 of em and they only have 39? I stopped thinking and took my deck back. Linda was already in her platform ready to witness what was about to be a pretty cool duel.
We rose up in our own platforms. I, of course, picked the blue one. And Jon went first.
"First up, I activate the field magic card Yami. It gives our fiends and spellcasters a 200 points attack and defense boost. Also, it decreases fairies' power by that much but whatever. And I'm summoning Malice Doll of Demise (1800/1900) in attack mode followed by one card face down. Go," Jon was already plotting. There was a trap ready to get me. There was the first fiend which will eventually fuel his Dark Necrofear. I just hope to get mine out there before he does...
My first six cards were: Soul Exchange, Giant Germ, Soul Tiger, Offerings to the Doomed, Big Eye and Gagagigo. "I'm setting one card face down and summoning Gagagigo (1850/1000) in attack mode! Attack his fiend card!" I commanded my reptile. He slithered forward. The darkness of Jon's field card made him appear even more stealthy as he took a violent slash at the doll. He destroyed it and Jon's life points went down to 7950- a small start. But then MY life points went down to 7300. "I activate the trap card Attack and Receive. I'm sure you know that when I take damage and activate this card, you receive 700, right?" Jon really didn't need to explain. That card is from the Pharaoh's Servant booster pack. I think everyone's seen it. "My turn," Jon drew a card. "Ahh... HERE we go! I'm summoning The Bistro Butcher (2000/1200) in attack mode. And next I'm equipping him with my NEW favorite equip card, Axe of Despair! It raises his attack by 1000 points!" So now Jon had a monster with 3000 attack points on the field. Since he had activated an equip spell card, I definitely could have activated my Offerings to the Doomed and made Jon feel pretty stupid. But I knew about The Bistro Butcher's effect and wanted to draw two cards. "Attack his puny reptile, my powerful fiend!" So I let his monster make minced meat, literally, out of my reptile. My life points went down to 6150, but at least I got to draw two cards out of it. The cards were Skull-Mark Ladybug and Black Pendant. Plus, I drew my Spirit Barrier card that saved my butt in my duel against Larry.
"I'm setting one monster in defense mode and setting one card face down. It's your move again," I informed Jon. He happily drew his next card. "I activate the magic card Dragged Down into the Grave. You and I look at each other's hands and tell the other which card to discard to the graveyard. Then we each draw one card," Jon was in full torture mode. He always tries to screw his opponent over. "That's fine by me, Jon, but I'm activating this in response to your spell card, Offerings to the Doomed. At the cost of my next draw phase, I get to destroy one face up monster. So it's obviously gonna be your Bistro Butcher." I smiled an antagonistically friendly smile as he frowned and took the two cards and slapped them into the graveyard. And then his magic card took effect. Jon saw the cards in my hand and told me to get rid of my Soul Exchange. His hand only consisted of Summoned Skull and Soul Reversal. I made him ditch the fiend card. And then we got to draw a card, which compensated for my loss of my next draw phase. And when I drew it, my mood improved by 3100. I had drawn one of the rarest cards of them all: Invader of Darkness. It was a shame that Jon had just made me get rid of my Soul Exchange. I could have had an early win. But it was still Jon's turn anyway. And he was lucky to have drawn a monster which he set in defense mode. And he also set his Soul Reversal.
I couldn't draw, not that the solid clear plastic bubble around it would let me anyway. It was funny how it just appeared there. But I got an idea with my Big Eye. Since he's a fiend, he'll get a 200 point boost. And the Black Pendant gives any monster a 500 point boost... I put my plan into action. "And now I'm summoning my Big Eye (1400/1200) in attack mode. And then I'm equipping him with the Black Pendant which raises his attack to 1900! Attack his face down monster!" All of his eyes closed and then opened at the same time all unleashing steams of blue light, since his eyes were blue... it made sense. But the attack failed because the defending monster was Wall of Illusion (1200/2050). So not only did Big Eye get returned to my hand, but I lost 150 life points, sinking my total to an exact 6000. But John's went down to 7450, and that made me feel slightly better. But I was going to leave nothing to chance. I used this opportunity, "Since I have just received damage to my life points, I can activate a quick play spell or trap card. So I'm activating my Spirit Barrier. As long as I have a monster on the field, I receive NO battle damage!" I smiled. Jon again frowned and even yelled, "That's not fair!"
"Well keep in mind," I reminded him, "It's only effective when I have a monster on the field, right? So once you destroy my defending monster, I'll be wide open cuz it's your turn now..." I had a plan.
"I know I know!" Jon acted as if I was trying to insult his intelligence. He always did act like a know it all... He drew a card and set it in defense mode.
I guess even the toughest of duels have their slow spots...
The next card I drew was Rafflesia Seduction. I set my Skull-Mark Ladybug instead because I was a bit behind on life points.
Then the duel finally picked up with Jon's next draw, "HA! I've drawn it!" Jon laughed.
"The Dark Necrofear?" It was too early for me, and so I prepared for the worst.
"No, but he'll screw you over; I summon Kycoo the Ghost Destroyer (2000/900)! Whenever he inflicts battle damage to you, I get to remove two cards in your graveyard from play. Also, as long as he's face up on the field, YOU CAN'T remove monsters in either graveyard from play, so even if you draw your Dark Necrofear, it won't help you! And now he attacks the first monster you set!" Kycoo used his beads as a boomerang: he swung them around his head for force and let it go towards my hidden Giant Germ (1200/300).
"Ha, when he's sent to the graveyard as a result of battle, you lose 500 life points and I get to special summon my other Giant Germs in my deck. Then I shuffle it!" So Jon's life points decreased to 6950, I summoned my other Giant Germ (1200/300) from my deck and shuffled it. Jon wasn't too happy about that. My skill had definitely improved since our duel in those virtual pods and even more so since the school tournament. "But you'll never inflict battle damage on me as long as I have a monster on the field!" I answered him back as he could do nothing more. He ended his turn.
Now would have been a perfect opportunity to tribute my two monsters and get my Invader of Darkness onto the field. But I didn't want to risk him using a kamikaze Necrofear move next turn, now that he had three fiends in his graveyard. I wanted an extra monster on my side of the field, just to be safe. So I drew Opticlops but set the Rafflesia Seduction I drew before. I left my second Giant Germ in attack mode just to antagonize him. Even if he destroys it, HE'D get damaged, not me! I really love that Spirit Barrier card!
Jon became angry, as always, and drew his next card, "And now I tribute my face down Dark Mimic LV1 (300/1200) to summon Patrician of Darkness (2000/1400). My Dark mimic LV1 has a flip effect. When he's flipped, I get to draw one card from my," and so he did. He looked at it in disappointment but probably figured it would later be useful, so he set it face down. While he's on the field, I choose the target of your attacks. And, speaking of which, Kycoo attack his center card!" Kycoo's lame bead boomerang attack pulverized my defending Skull-Mark Ladybug (500/1500). And, as its effect says, my life points went up to 7000. Jon didn't like that... he doesn't like anything.
"And now my Patrician of Darkness attacks your other face down monster!" His zombie monster blinked his black eyes and unfurled his cape. From behind it, an entire horde of bats screeched to my side of the field and destroyed my defending Rafflesia Seduction (300/900). Then he ended his turn.
I needed to hold him off somehow. I knew that it wouldn't be long before he'd summon another powerful monster, so I had to protect my life points, or at least my last monster on the field. I drew the Magician of Faith and set her in defense- hoping that something would go my way more than a chinsey 500 life point hit.
Jon wouldn't back down, "Ha ha ha ha! I tribute my Wall of Illusion to summon The Earl of Demise (2200/900)! He attacks your face down monster! And there went my Magician of Faith (300/400), with whose effect I brought my Soul Exchange back from the graveyard. Then Kycoo destroyed my Giant Germ. Sure, he lost 500 life points (again) bringing his total down to 6450. But I lost 2000 life points because of the attack from his Patrician of Darkness. My life points plummeted to 5000.
At my next turn, a miracle happened. I drew Mask of the Accursed. Immediately I activated it, "Jon! I'm equipping YOUR Earl of Demise with Mask of the Accursed. Now it can't attack, and you take 500 life points damage for every one of my standby phases!" I activated the card, and a huge mask took form onto the field. It seemed to be magnetized to the fiend's face. Then it shocked the monster with red and blue electricity until it could barely stand. Then I set my Soul Tiger and ended my turn.
"Stop hiding! Fight me like a man!" He taunted as he drew a card but held onto it. "Kycoo! Attack his defense monster!" This time, the boomerang of beads failed to destroy my defending Soul Tiger (0/2100) and the necklace split apart, some of them hitting Jon's platform. He lost 100 life points. "Ugh, whatever- your move," Jon grunted.
As soon as my turn began, I became happy. Not only did I draw Ominous Fortunetelling, which I set, and not only did Jon lose 500 life points because of my mask card- bringing his life points down to 5850- but I was now able to finally summon my Invader of Darkness!
"Jon..." I said in an almost cryptic tone, "Are you ready to witness the power of a fiend greater than the Dark Necrofear's?" I asked him. He didn't feel like answering, so I just grabbed the only magic card in my hand, "I activate Soul Exchange on your Patrician of Darkness. Also, I tribute my Soul Tiger in order to summon one of the darkest fiends of them all, the Invader of Darkness!" I proudly announced the name of one of my most prized fiends. It's a secret rare card. And when I slapped that card onto my platform, the dark arena of the Yami card grew even darker. The lazy hum of my Spirit Barrier went quiet. And even the real life wind seemed to stop for a second as the tributed orbs of the Soul Tiger and the Patrician of Darkness hovered close together in the air. Then one lightened and one darkened, they made distance between them and then collided at high speed in the middle of the field. White and black branches of electricity tore through the air. Each half of it seemed unwilling to back down from the other until they just seemed to smoothly fuse together. The black half wrapped around the white one, now turning gold, in the form of a lengthy, ominous cape. The gold one morphed very jagged and took on the form of one of the most evil fiends you will ever see. When he stopped sparking, he was lowered onto my center monster zone. "Say hello to the Invader of Darkness (3100/2700)," I said. The field lightened back to the condition of the current field card as I continued, "But since I used Soul Exchange to help summon him, I must skip my battle phase. You're lucky," I made it perfectly clear how much destruction this fiend was capable of. I doubt that even Jon has heard of this guy before; it's SO rare! "And by the way," I added more bad news, "as long as he's on the field you CAN'T activate quick-play spell cards!" Jon, obviously, wasn't too happy about that. "Your move," I ended my turn.
I really hoped that he would not draw the Dark Necrofear because that would just suck. Luckily he didn't. He just set one card face down, switched both of his monsters to defense and ended his turn.
My go. I drew one of the cards that I put in as a result of taking those four out, Mine Golem. Then it was my Standby Phase. Thanks to my Mask of the Accursed, Jon's life points decreased to 5350. But I didn't know what to do with my hand. I still had my Big Eye and Opticlops and now I had Mine Golem. Playing either one would be a good choice. I decided to set my Big Eye, so I could know what the future holds. And then the fun began, "And now my Invader of Darkness attacks your spellcaster!"
I gave the command and my fiend's left fist began to glow a dark yellow. He just stood there as his body developed an entire dark yellow outline. Then this outline all conjoined into his fist. Beginning at his head, finishing at the last part of his cape, the dark yellow produced a constant stream leading directly into his left hand, clenched tight with the power inside it. Then he angled his arm with his fist against his right shoulder, and in one smooth movement, opened his palm directly at the defending spellcaster. But contrary to the energy's initial color, this attack was bright gold and moved very quickly. (If any of you have the trap card Absolute End, that's a good idea of what's happening here...) When it hit Kycoo, a sound similar to a huge balloon bursting only longer, deeper and louder resonated through the arena accompanied by a huge, mainly white explosion and random bursting spheres of gold energy all around the spellcaster. It was, for lack of a better word, obliterated.
"It looks like I've officially taken control of this duel!" I felt relieved to be practically untouchable by my rival... practically
Jon dubiously drew his next card. But his eyes nearly popped out of his head when he saw what it was. I even saw this from the other side of the field and instantly expected the Dark Necrofear, of course. Jon began, "It may not be the Necrofear, but it'll get rid of your Invader of Darkness! First I'm switching my Earl of Demise back into attack mode. And now I activate the magic card Dark Core! At the cost of one card from my hand, I get to remove one face up monster from play!" Jon announced to my fiend monster, mainly.
"Oh crap, that's not good," I said to myself.
"So I discard The Dark-Hex-Sealed Fusion from my hand to activate my Dark Core and remove your Invader of Darkness from play!"
The second he placed his discarded monster in the graveyard, a small black, navy and dark green ball of energy formed right above my fiend's head. Then it began to grow eventually becoming twice the size of my monster. White and blue lightning burst out of this sphere of darkness as it grew and also as it shrunk again. But the Invader of Darkness was nowhere to be seen. The dark sphere shrank out of existence leaving me one monster short. But then I activated a trap card.
"In response to your magic card, I activate my Ominous Fortuntelling that I had face down. During each of my standby phases I select one card from your hand and guess if it's magic, monster or trap. If I'm right, you'd lose 700 life points in addition to the 500 you lose because of my Mask of the Accursed," I tried to keep my grasp on this duel. But I was fully aware of how easily it had just slipped.
"Whatever. I don't even have a hand right now. But I end my turn since I can't attack with my Earl of Demise," Jon turned it over to me. I began my turn by searching through my graveyard. I was surprised to find only two fiends in my graveyard and they were both Giant Germs. It felt like I had more fiends out there... But oh well. I drew my next card. It was a spell card called Gift of the Martyr and I had never used it before. But before anything happened, Jon lost 500 more life points. His total stood at 4850. All I did that turn was set the Mine Golem I drew a few turns ago.
Jon drew a card and said, "It's time to end this series of measly 500 point hits from your annoying equip card. I tribute my Earl of Demise to summon the Beast of Talwar (2600/2350), one of my most powerful fiend cards!" When Jon said his name in such high regard, I was a little confused because I had never heard of this card before. But I'll never forget the way it introduced itself.
The dark purple orb of the tributed Earl of Demise hovered in the air, slowly bobbing up and down until Jon put his fiend card in attack mode. Instantly, the orb pushed two huge swords out of itself. The blades of the swords cut deeply into the ground and remained standing upright waiting for its owner to arrive. The orb pulsed and changed colors between dark purple, midnight blue and dark green. Then it exploded with a huge dark green shockwave as far as the holographic emitters could reach. From inside the burst orb emerged a fiend 5 shades away from pure shadow. I could only see its dark blue wings, yellow eyes, parts of its green body and the silver swords that found their own way to his hands.
"Attack the first card he set!" he commanded his fiend. The swords glowed a dark silver as he held them in front of him. Then he whisked his arms away and launched forward the silver aura that was surrounding his swords toward and destroyed my defending Big Eye (1400/1200). Its flip effect activated. And, since both Jon and I were fiend duelists, I didn't feel the need to explain his effect. Anyway, the top five cards were 4-Starred Ladybug of Doom, Master Kyonshee, Dummy Golem (another card I hadn't played yet), Poison of the Old Man and Princess of Tsurugi. Let's number them 1-5 respectively. I arranged them: 4, 5, 1, 3, 2. Then Jon ended his turn.
I drew the Poison of the Old Man and set it down. And then I took a look at the Beast of Talwar's stats again: (2600/2350). Those were, of course, augmented stats because of Yami. But they were high enough to be a problem. I got the obvious idea of using my Gift of the Martyr with my Opticlops, but that would risk him using a trap card... but what other choice did I have?
"First I'm summoning my Opticlops (2000/1900) in attack mode. Next, I activate the magic card Gift of the Martyr! All I have to do is send one monster on my side of the field to the graveyard and a different monster's on my side of the field attack points rises by that amount. So I send my face down Mine Golem (1000/1900) to increase my Opticlops's attack to 3000! A hollow white silhouette of my Mine Golem appeared over my Opticlops and an orange beam enclosed my fiend with the white silhouette as its source. A sound kind of similar to a plastic cup filling up with electrified water signified the power-up, which I found weird. Then the ghost of my rock card leaving only my souped-up Opticlops ready to do battle, "Attack his Beast of Talwar!" I ordered him. My fiend was oddly quick for his size. He was bearing his head down intending to skewer the opposing monster with his horn but that's where Jon activated a trap card, "Come on, I'm not gonna just LET you destroy one of my favorite fiends like that. I activate Mask of Weakness. It decreases your Opticlops's attack to 2300, 300 points weaker than my monster!" When he flipped over the trap, a familiar mask appeared and homed onto my fiend's face and caused the action to pause like in a video game. A reddish white light of the mask made my monster's appearance less intimidating and, when the action unpaused, his speed slower. In response to his trap, I activated my quick play magic card, "Jon! One way or another, you're losing life points! I'm activating Poison of the Old Man. I can either increase my life points by 1200 or damage yours for 800. So your life points are going down to 4050!" The old man who appeared once I flipped that card over dropped the green vile and threw purple one at Jon. All the while, Jon's Beast of Talwar was slicing my Opticlops with one of his two swords. The glass of the purple beaker shattered and the liquid inside only virtually dissolved his platform.
My life points were still at 5000 and I had no monsters on the field, with it now being Jon's turn. I was pessimistically expecting his Dark Necrofear to make an appearance now, because that would just make my day: two powerful cards with a field power bonus and me with two ineffective trap cards. I was beginning to realize just how stupid I was to use my Gift of the Martyr in such a sacrificial way...
Jon drew his next card and set it in defense mode, luckily. But he still attacked me with his monster, "Attack his life points directly!" The Beast of Talwar smiled only slightly. His dark yellow eyes didn't change a bit. In a flash of darkness, he suddenly appeared right in front of my platform and made a violent slash. My life points took a nose dive all the way down to 2400. If Jon summoned a monster next turn, I'd be finished.
I drew my Princess of Tsurugi and set her. Then I waited to see what Jon's next card would be.
He drew it and then set it down below the monster he just set. That actually plays into my princess's effect. And then he did something weird. He flipped over his defending Spear Cretin (700/700). He obviously wanted me to attack it so he could bring back another monster of his. I would also be able, but I'm sure his selection would be better. Then he finally attacked and destroyed my face down Princess of Tsurugi (900/700). Her flip effect caused Jon to lose 2000 life points: 500 for each magic and trap card on the field- that includes his field card, of course. His life points were near mine now at 2050. Jon said, "Little miniature strategies like that aren't going to win you the duel. Why don't you just attack my Spear Cretin. I flipped it over just so you could see what it was. When he's sent to the graveyard, we can both special summon a monster- what have you got to lose?" He suggested trying to sound as resentful as possible.
But I was considering attacking anyway... I drew my 4-Starred Ladybug of Doom and actually summoned it (800/1200) in attack mode. Jon was laughing at the weird choice of monster. But when you can only draw one at a time, you're not presented with very many options. And if Jon really wanted to revive a monster, he'd let me destroy his Spear Cretin. "And now my ladybug attacks your Spear Cretin!" I had never seen this thing attack before and was surprised, I guess, at the show it put on. First it used its wings to hover in the air. Then the four green stars on its back lit up and each launched one green star at the target. They spread out and then homed in like heat-seeking missiles all resulting in four tiny explosions. The fiend was laughably destroyed and now we could get one monster back from our graveyards.
Jon knew what he was doing too; thanks to his Dark Core magic card, my Invader of Darkness was removed from play, so I couldn't get him back.. In fact the strongest (attack point wise) monster I had in my graveyard at that time was my Opticlops because he could get a power boost from Yami. But anyway, Jon had already special summoned his Summoned Skull (2700/1400) that I told him to discard because of his Dragged Down into the Grave. And when I remembered what card I would draw next because of my Big Eye, I knew something had to be done so I set my Big Eye again. I wanted as many options as I could salvage.
Jon drew his next card and continued to get more powerful, "And now I equip my Beast of Talwar with the Sword of Dark Destruction. His attack rises by 400 points while his defense falls 200 points. (3000/2150) And now my Summoned Skull attacks your face down monster," said Jon. Summoned Skull's trademark lightning strike vaporized my Big Eye (1400/1200). But at least I got to use his effect again. The top five cards were Dummy Golem, Master Kyonshee, Kiseitai, Last Will and Judgment of Anubis. Once again, numbering them respectively 1-5. I ordered them: 1, 3, 2, 4, 5. Hopefully, that would give me some kind of positive result... But Jon continued his turn in the meantime, "And now my other fiend destroys your ladybug." Using his newly equipped sword, my ladybug was diced into little pieces.
It was all down to the Dummy Golem I drew. I set it in defense and ended my turn.
"Ah...HA!" Jon said after drawing his card which he set next to his sword. (How lucky it was that he kept drawing magic and trap instead of monsters!) "Looks like this duel is mine. I guess you still can't beat me, even after that fluke defeat in those pods, eh?" Jon looked at his two powerful fiends and commanded his Beast of Talwar, "Attack his final monster!" That sword slash seemed to go by in slow motion probably because I saw my last acts of desperation disappear. Then Jon saw that the card he destroyed was my Dummy Golem (800/800). "Ha, yes! You're not gonna like this! That guy has a flip effect. Once it's activated, you choose one of your monsters to switch places with him! But here's the thing. Even though his flip effect was activated, you destroyed him which means you get no monster in return, get it? It's perfectly fair!" I was smiling as Jon glared at me, "Shut up. Here, have the Summoned Skull." It felt as if a huge weight had been lifted off of my shoulders as soon as I saw that fiend on my side of the field. And THEN I drew my Kiseitai! I set him and let Jon take it from there.
He drew his next card and stood there expressionless for a second. Now, his expressionless face looks more like he's slightly agitated about something. So it would take someone who's been around him long enough to know that his face was expressionless. Andre thought that, judging by his face, Jon drew a bad card as could be told by the laugh he made: y'know, the little laugh that you do when you know you have the upper hand and you just have to admire your opponent's will to continue...? Well anyway, I'm going somewhere with this, Jon heard this, looked up from his card and thought that I was the one who had laughed. He said, "You won't be laughing after I do this!" As mighty as that bellow sounded, I wasn't the one who laughed, so Jon just made himself look like an idiot in front of 5 other people... it could have been worse...
"It's time..." Jon removed three cards from his graveyard from play. The monsters he chose: Spear Cretin, Wall of Illusion and Earl of Demise all shrank into three dark purple spheres. "I remove three fiend cards in my graveyard from play to special summon...!" He paused for a quick second to build up the obvious suspense, "Dark Necrofear!" He slapped the card on his platform and instantly the three orbs went into a frenzy. They zipped everywhere almost randomly, but you could tell that they were slowly converging onto one spot. As soon as they joined, they made one big sphere and turned black. The already dark field went even darker as the sphere grew taller. It stopped and then just stood there for a second. Then it slowly began to crack. Now that was the coolest part... Imagine a black egg hatching with bright white cracks spreading across it. The black oval shaped capsule was being covered with these bright white cracks and splits, spilling white light out of it wherever the crack was big enough. Then you could see a white ring form around the cracked capsule. As soon as it stopped cracking, the ring quickly reduced its size and shattered the already damaged capsule to pieces. Black shards of whatever that was flew everywhere. And beneath that layer was the Dark Necrofear. At his he appeared all white, glistening like a very tall angel without wings and a few mechanized body parts. But then he became very dark very quickly. Soon, the only white that could be seen was the mere outline of his body. It made him look more shrouded and mysterious than he was... But the most mysterious part was by far the broken doll he... or she?... was carrying. Damaged as it was, it almost seemed soothed to be in the Necrofear's arms...
"Give another warm welcome to the Dark Necrofear (2400/3000)!" Jon said as the field went back to Yami darkness. "And now, next turn, I'm going to take you out of this tournament. Dark Necrofear- attack Summoned Skull!"
Dark Necrofear frowned and smiled, but mostly frowned, at the same time. Even though its attack points were lower than the Summoned Skull's it had to obey its master. This is what most people do with their Dark Necrofears: summon them so they can be destroyed, but get control of an enemy monster at the end of the turn. But unlike the last time Dark Necrofear attacked, it simply positioned its left arms so that the green gem on its arm shield was facing my fiend. Then it sacrificed all of its white outline, making it less fearsome, to power up the green stone. Then a surprisingly huge beam of power erupted from this tiny armband. It looked devastating, but the Summoned Skull kept his ground. While it was still being assaulted, Summoned Skull launched its counter attack using the green beam as a channel. He sent a generous bolt of electricity right toward the Dark Necrofear and destroyed it, Jon's life points decreased to 1750. Mine were at 2400. That's a 650 difference...
"Oh dear! My Dark Necrofear's a goner! Whoops..." Jon tried to sound as surprised as he could without making his voice crack. But then he said, "Beast of Talwar, attack his face down monster!" I couldn't have been happier. As soon as his final fiend attacked my hidden Kiseitai (500/1000), he slithered up his sword and anchored himself into Beast of Talwar's back, as an equip magic card, as his effect says.
"Now, during every one of your standby phases, my life points will increase by half of your monster's attack points- that's 1500 life points!" I smiled as I prepared to reveal another secret indirectly hidden up my sleeve...
"It doesn't matter because NOW I'm ending my turn and using my dark Necrofear's effect to take control of the Summoned Skull!" Jon forcefully said as he extended his fingers out at the only monster I had on my side of the field.
"It's not gonna happen," I said. Jon noticed that, even though his turn was over, my Summoned Skull remained on my side of the field.
"What the heck is going on? I ended my turn, so now I should get to control one of your monsters because my Dark Necrofear was destroyed!" Jon complained.
Finally figuring that he couldn't figure it out I explained, "Your Dark Necrofear needs a space on your trap/spell zone in order to control another monster. Your zones are all filled up, with your four face down cards and your Sword of Dark Destruction. So you lost a few life points AND a powerful monster for nothing... weren't you keeping track of what you were doing?" I was actually surprised that a fiend duelist such as him forgot about one of the most power fiend's effect. I'll bet Jon was mentally kicking himself right then. But it wasn't over yet. After all, Jon had FOUR face down cards. It's not like I could have attacked anyway, but I would definitely think again if I could have attacked.
But anyway, I drew my Master Kyonshee and set him in defense to keep my Spirit Barrier's effect strong. I then ended my turn.
Jon drew his next card and resented the sound of my life points going up, quite a bit, to 3900. He set the monster that he drew and destroyed his Summoned Skull with his Beast of Talwar. My life points were fine but my monster count was not. I had just a face down Master Kyonshee and my Last Will was the next card I drew.
I was desperate, so I activated my Last Will and then attacked his Beast of Talwar with a small amount of comfort. After all, I wasn't going to take any damage, and I could special summon a monster after he's gone, so it'd all be good. But Jon had to activate a trap.
"I activate Shift. It lets me change the target of one of your attacks or the effect of a magic or trap card activated by you. So instead of my fiend, you're attacking my face down monster!" Panic-stricken, I watched Master Kyonshee's (1750/1000) path sway to the right of his fiend and strike his face down Mystic Tomato (1400/1100). I was angry that I didn't get to use the effect of my Last Will.
"And now that my tomato's been sent to the graveyard because of a battle, I can special summon one dark monster from my deck to the field in face up attack with 1500ATK points or fewer. I'm choosing my Skull Knight #2 (1200/1400)." I watched his tomato morph into another fiend card as I dejectedly put my Last Will into my graveyard and ended my turn.
Jon drew his next card and waited for my life points to finish increasing to 5400. Then he attacked and destroyed my Master Kyonshee with his Beast of Talwar who I'm sure thought it was a waste of his 3000 attack points. If ONLY I could have used my Last Will card the way I wanted to! Then he reduced my life points to 4200 by a direct attack from his Skull Knight #2.
Things were looking grim because my next card was the Judgment of Anubis that I had won my last duel with. It was useless at it was now, but I set it anyway.
Jon drew a card and kept it in his hand. He smirked as my life points climbed up to 5700. Then after two direct attacks totaling 4200, my life points were at an ironic 1500. I was relieved and yet at the same time annoyed when I drew my Spear Cretin. For whatever monster I would bring back, he'd bring back something better like his Summoned Skull or Necrofear. But I reasoned that a monster is better than no monster at all. But before I did anything, I remembered that it was my Standby Phase, and I had activated my Ominous Fortuntelling a LONG time ago. This was the first time I used it this whole duel... So I announced that I was activating its effect and guessed that it was a magic card. Angrily, he admitted that it was, so he lost 700 life points
He had 1050, I had 1500. I set my Spear Cretin face down and ended my turn.
Jon began his turn with a cautious smile. He's seen me duel enough times in this tournament to know that when I set a monster, it must have an effect; I typically don't use defense. My life points rose to an even 3000 after he drew his card and was almost disappointed with the outcome, "I summon Theban Nightmare (1700/700) in attack mode! ...Um... Attack his defending monster,... Beast of Talwar!" He tried to sound as decisive as possible while he made up his mind about which of his fiends should take his chances with my hidden monster.
"You've flipped and destroyed my Spear Cretin (700/700)! I think you know what to do!" I commented as we both searched our generously filled graveyards for options. He brought back his Summoned Skull (2700/1400) while I was still fingering through my fallen attack force. But then I saw it- how I could win the duel! I grabbed my Princess of Tsurugi and set her in face down defense, like the Spear Cretin allows.
And now it was still Jon's battle phase... one monster stood between him and victory, it seemed. I could see the frantic fire in his eyes. When you're used to someone's dueling technique, you become less surprised, but more scared. Now that you know what COULD be coming, you're afraid of what IS. Every second that went by, time seemed to slow down. It didn't take Jon that long to decide in reality, but it was all the anticipation and tension and excitement that caused for the suspenseful atmosphere. One way or another, he was going to lose, he just didn't know it yet! One way or another, one way or another...
Jon attacked my face down Princess of Tsurugi (900/700) with his Theban Nightmare. As soon as he saw was it was, he slammed his platform with his fist and growled out loud to himself. The princess created an ice crystal. Five 500LP's in blue boxes rushed into the ice crystal right before she launched it at Jon. He just stood there as the shards of shattered ice ricocheted everywhere, taking down his life points to zero. It wasn't a very nice win, or a very strategic one. But a win's a win, right? We quietly collected our cards and gathered in front of Linda where she handed Jon an envelope marked G I/P T with $1000 inside instead of $500.
"But I thought I was only supposed to get $500," Jon said- not that he was complaining.
Linda replied, "Yeah, well, it turns out that the host of this tournament figured that a monster with at least 3000 attack points might not be the kind of thing you guys want since some of them are really hard to summon or use correctly, so he threw in an extra $500 for everyone. But anyway. Duelist #1, select ONE card from duelist #16's deck."
Jon looked at me a bit resentfully, but not as harshly as he did in the past. Perhaps this defeat was just what he and I both needed. And now that I was taking a card from his deck, I could even the score. But I was nice and didn't want to screw his deck completely. And I knew that I didn't want his Beast of Talwar anyway, so I decided on his Dark Core magic card. It's useful enough. He said to me, "...Congratulations and don't lose, jerk."
Andre caught up with me and asked to see the card I just took. Then he gave the card back and looked up at Josh who was watching Jon walk by him towards the exit. This next duel would prove to be interesting. And one of us was going to win and then get the chance to duel the host! But there were still two more normal duels left...