Tournament Stories part 26

AUTHOR'S NOTE: This is the final chapter of this story, and I think that this may even be the final story I ever write on this site. You see, I can't write concisely as is evident- especially in the last four chapters. And the more I write on one topic, the less original and exciting it becomes. I'm sure that some of you found yourselves bored as the story dragged on and on and as the duels got slower-paced. I'm going to try and restore my energy for this last duel but it'll be tough; I began this fanfic a LONG time ago. I had no idea how long this series would be. And I had no idea that it would be this long...

Now that I'm in college (Richard Stockton, namely, in case anyone who knows me is reading this- which I doubt), I'll have to focus my writing talent elsewhere. But it's been fun. And if I didn't have to be so long-winded and detailed with my stories, I'd probably write a fanfic for Ico (the best game you've never heard of) next. So here's the last installment of Tournament Stories... I probably could have thought of a better name for this whole series, too...

The helicopter hovered in mid-air over the helipad on this host dude's private island. The house was enormous! I could see it through the clouds as we descended! The air around us ran away as the chopper got lower to the ground. Then, with a rumbling thud, we touched land and some well-paid (as could be told by their new-looking suits and gelled back hair) men opened both sides of the helicopter. But we didn't know that as Linda and I both went out of my side of the helicopter.

The second my feet touched the cement of the helipad, the huge mansion jumped out at me. It must have been the largest home I had ever seen! If he can afford a place like that, what kind of rare cards could he possibly have in his deck? I was tempted to take out my deck and flip through it, but decided against it; the wind from the rotors was still kinda powerful.

"Good afternoon Ms. Linda and honored Duelist #1. The host anxiously awaits you both! Now if you'll follow me..." he smiled fakely, turned around and began walking away from us. For a second we actually forgot that he said to follow him because he said it so quickly and so monotonously that we had to practically lower our IQ's just to hear him. So we took a few quick steps and trailed the robot guy past needlessly fancy fountains and open pastures in which could be found NOTHING- not one horse, not one flower, not one tree- just endless, slightly uncut grass. We passed stone statues, marble statues, wooden statues, crystal statues and the weirdest mailbox I'd ever seen. It was definitely wood, but it was carved funny. It looked like whoever lived here wasn't a very good carpenter and tried assembling this mailbox himself in an attempt to make one of those mailboxes you see in cartoons: with the red flag on the right side that goes up and down, the flat bottom and curved top and the front hinge door that unfolds and folds up easily... it was amusing but seemed out of place in all this glamour; even his doorbell was made of crystal. Or at least I think that it was, because the robot guy led us right past his front door.

And then it hit me: Why is LINDA here? She's not competing, and I seriously doubt she cares if I duel this guy or not... Even if I do, it's not like she'd cheer me on. So I asked her, "Why'd you have to go with me to this guy's house?"

She looked surprised that I had asked her that and replied, "Gree Island is EMPTY now, kid! The boat with all the other losers has left already. Didn't you see it depart from port as we lifted off?"

"No... I was on the right side of the helicopter," I answered.

"Well yeah. Anyway, I took a helicopter there and I received instructions from the host during my phone call that I was to take that helicopter here. Whether or not I'm supposed to be walking with you is unknown to me. But if this guy is taking us to the host, then I guess it's fine," Linda rationalized and explained her situation. But that really didn't answer my question of WHY she was here. What she told me more or less answered the question of 'how.' I wanted to know her reason of her presence here as in why he wanted her here. But I could tell by the look on her face, which wasn't particularly negative, that she didn't want to talk anymore...

And then something else hit me: How does Josh know the host? He referred to his dueling skills as if he had experienced them first hand. Could this head honcho dude be a rare hunter also? Is that why S and J gave me those booster packs? Is that why Josh seemed to go easy on me? Did they want to let their BOSS have the pleasure of taking my Black Skull Dragon? OH! And Linda knows that I have it too- she even spoke to me about it! Could she play a part in this? Is that why she's here? Too many thoughts. I looked in a lot of directions as I mentally talked to myself. It was weird how all of that seemed to instantly form a jigsaw puzzle that was already half put together. All those experiences in that tournament- it appeared to partially come together like a bad soap opera...

I toyed with different ideas in my head as the robot man led us further down the brick path, walking upon which made our shoes sound like army boots. Eventually we arrived at a serene gazebo overlooking the treeless, flowerless pasture. The house wasn't too far away behind us. The robot dude instructed us, "Board the gazebo and we will begin."

Uh... what? Before we could understand what he meant, but after we followed his instructions, he pulled a lever and with a jolt, the heavy wooden structure sank into the earth. I've ridden up and down on platforms all day- this was a dramatic snooze.

After less than a minute we were at our true destination. It looked like a secret passage used for escaping the IRS. It was rather warm in comparison to the chilly wind we had just been walking through and was nicely lit. It wasn't too bright or dim- just perfect. The gazebo stopped moving and the robot guy stepped out first, "Now follow this way," was all he said. We kept up with him as the gazebo rose up to the surface again.

I noticed that we were walking toward where the house would be if we were still above ground. I wondered why we had to walk all the way to the gazebo if we could have just entered his front door, and went down to his basement, which is where I guessed that this passage ended.

I found out when the robot man stopped. He was standing in front of a huge door. It would almost resemble a vault if it didn't have that shiny doorknob. The robot guy spoke, "This is it, good luck to you." And he didn't even open the door! He just walked off back the way we came.

Linda spoke, "Don't worry. The boss warned me about that guy. He said that if we were to get him, that it'd be okay to come in without knocking." So she grabbed the shiny knob, violently twisted it and shoved it open before I could even fully comprehend her last sentence.

The door groaned open and Linda went on ahead as if she had business to attend to. But she just stopped to get a better view of the ceiling. That room was beautiful. There wasn't any stained glass or priceless artifacts or anything like that. But there was a huge staircase in the center, a glowing candle chandelier near the top, a tasteful tile floor- not the boring marble black and white variety- with the darkest of blues and a grey slightly darker than the alt key on your keyboard (given if the keyboard you use has white and grey keys). The open curtains were some weird color that somehow complemented the grey parts of the floor, and the clear windows sparkled as they let the light in. It was still bright outside, but there was some mysterious light-muffling effect going on in here. I could still see easily; it wasn't at all dark, but the light seemed less in this room than in the hallway we were just in.

Suddenly, a voice before I could finish evaluating the room, "At last we meet!"
Our attention was directed toward the stairs as a man in a casual suit walked down them. I walked towards him because I didn't want to be rude, since he was obviously talking to me.

"Hello, I am the host of the Gree Island/Peninsula Tournament, Mr. Nathaniel K. Streverson... but you may call me Nathan if you like," he looked like a relatively harmless guy. But what a name! I was expecting someone expected such as Pegasus, that Yugi kid, or that jerk Kaiba. I doubt that ANYone's heard of this guy...

"I think I will do that, Mr. Streverson," I said, testing him to see how determined he was to have me call him Nathan.

"Please, Nathan!" Nathan was overly excited, it seemed. And this conversation was quickly becoming awkward... "So! You are the champion of my tournament." He was telling me more than asking me, "Congratulations," and he stuck out his hand in a friendly gesture. Right before I shook it I took a quick, unnoticeable second to examine this eccentric man. His hair was kind of like mine: a mix of black and blonde that sometimes looks brown and sometimes looks blonde, all depending on the light you're in. It was styled like mine also- usually slightly combed with loose hairs everywhere, but nothing ever dramatic to take away from the "life is too short to care" look. His hazel eyes were lightly squinted. Tiny wrinkles on either side of his eye indicated that he wasn't as young as he was trying to sound. There wasn't a facial hair to be seen, his chin came to a point and looked like it could be buried in his vest if he tilted his head down enough. His black jacket hung loosely and unbuttoned on both sides of him. But his grey vest made it not matter. He wore plain black slacks that looked like they'd been worn a hundred times before and- sneakers? This was the first time I had ever shook a man's hand who was wearing a suit and sneakers, "Thank you, Nathan," I replied to his compliment.

"Well then, I know that you must be anxious to return home and see your friends so let's get right to it. Would you like to duel against me?" Suddenly I put my guard up again. I almost forgot that Josh spoke as if he knew this guy. And I was under the impression that if he won, he'd get to take one of my cards. I don't know why, but I felt the need to look at Linda just then.

She looked back at me, "Don't look at me kid."

"It'll be just like any duel that you'd played in the tournament with only one small difference. We'll start with 8000 life points, forty cards per deck, we'll obey the forbidden cards lists if you don't mind, but the winner takes a card from the loser, regardless if it's part of your deck or not!" he just then sounded deceptively aggressive. I think that underneath that carefree exterior was a vicious duelist. But I remembered where I was- the HOST'S house! I didn't think that there was any possible way I could win! I felt like saying no, but he continued, "Before you say no, I need to tell you this. If you lose, then for every 100 life points of damage I received, you will win $50. That may not sound like much, but think of it like this: say like you lose having done 7000 damage to me. Divide that by 100, you get 70. Then multiply that by 50 and you win $3500... That's a lot of money!" It WAS a lot of money, he was right. But was it worth my Black Skull Dragon?

"What if I win?" I asked.

"Ha ha ha..." he silently laughed, "IF you win, you get $100 for every 100 life points I lose, so you would win $8000. But not only that, you get one of MY cards and then you get to ask for anything possible that you could possibly want!"

Linda interrupted, "And I still have those $2500 that you're entitled to in this envelope, here," she reminded me.

Nathan continued, "...Hundreds of rare cards, thousands of dollars, even millions of screaming fans, if you like, are up for grabs here. What do you have to lose aside from ONE card?" He presented a decent argument. But even though my Black Skull Dragon wasn't in my deck, I could lose it now. I always felt it was safe away from my other cards. But now, EVERYTHING was fair game. And I didn't want to lose my favorite card, either, which was, obviously, in my deck. And my favorite card is pretty rare and powerful which makes for an easy choice... I had to decide.

There sure is a lot of money involved. I've never been near any amount remotely close to such numbers! They must think I'm pretty shallow or something... but it's just a duel. And my Black Skull Dragon isn't even that rare anymore, anyway. There are plenty of cards that can defeat it nowadays, and it's actually kinda rippled across the center... yeah, I'll do it!

"Nathan- let's duel!" We shook hands on it.

He commented, "Excellent choice. I'm glad you decided to duel me!" Then he pressed one button on his cell phone and said, "Harrison, ready the arena! He's accepted! And Linda, you are to referee this duel."

"Yes sir," she complied as she caught up with Nathan and me.

It was just a short walk up the stairs and through the door to the right.

The tile floor I described earlier continued up those stairs and into this room as Linda closed the door behind her. Before I even entered the room, lights automatically flickered on and removed any traces of shadow. In the center of this room was the most high-tech dueling arena I had ever seen! It was sharper in design than the ones we held the final five sets on and looked like it had better holographic capabilities too. I so badly wanted to just then slap a monster card in attack mode onto the field just to see how it would look. But Nathan spoke to me right after Linda shut that door, "Here we are, champ! This is where you will prove just how great a duelist you are! "

Personally, I didn't much like it when he called me 'champ.' Something just didn't seem right about the way he said it. But that wasn't really important right now.

"You can choose whichever side you want to be on, too," he friendly let me take first pick of the side.
So I selected the metallic blue half, Nathan went to the metallic red half. Linda was already in her tall tower and told us to put our decks on the glowing rectangles. A prism capsule surrounded them and the platform whizzed downward and right toward the other player. When I saw a capsuled deck again, it was Nathan's. So I generously shuffled his deck and put it back on the glowing rectangle when I was finished. Then we received our decks back the same way… I love technology.
"I think we're ready to begin!" Linda said as she pressed a big red button. To all of ours left, a miniature scoreboard popped up with the life point counter, and number indicating what such as hands, graveyards and so forth… very cool.
"Would you mind if I went first?" Nathan asked.
"Not at all," I replied as I hastily drew my first five cards.

He started off the duel with a magic card, "I activate the highly annoying and yet highly effective magic card Ground Collapse! From now on, two of your monster zones are unusable!" As soon as he slapped the card down, my two monster zones to the left turned red and I was left with only three available spaces. "Then I'm setting one card face down and setting a monster card. You're up, champ!"

I drew my sixth card and examined my hand: Sangan, Ominous Fortunetelling, Rush Recklessly, Bait Doll, Dark Necrofear and Nobleman of Crossout. That wasn't a bad hand, but I didn't like the idea that I had no monsters able to attack, really… but I had my Bait Doll and could ease my fears of that one face down card, "I play Bait Doll to force the activation of one of your face down trap cards. If it's a trap but activated at the wrong time, it's negated and destroyed. So what's that card?"
"Oh dear, it's a trap alright: my Enchanted Javelin… oh well," he sounded depressed- what an actor.

I also noticed that I could destroy his face down monster with my Nobleman of Crossout. But what was I going to do to his blank field, attack him directly with my Sangan? He could pull out a Gemini Elf next turn or something, who knows? But, then again, some damage is better than no damage. And, if I end up losing, that's $500… but am I being driven by money? Victory? Glory? I hope I'm dueling for the right reasons…
"I play the magic card Nobleman of Crossout! It destroys and removes from play a face down defense monster. If it has a flip effect, both players search their decks and remove the same cards in their decks from play. And then the decks are shuffled. So what ya got, there?" I asked him informally.
"Hmm, well done. You've destroyed my Man-Eater Bug (450/600)," We both searched through our decks and I removed from play my own Man-Eater Bug. And then I summoned my Sangan (1000/600) and took that chinsey 1000 shot on his life points. The scores were 7000, Nathan to 8000, me. And then I set my Ominous Fortunetelling for the heck of it. Then I ended my turn.

"Nicely played for your first turn, champ," Nathan drew a card as he spoke, "But leaving such a weak monster in attack mode with almost no protection just isn't smart. I summon Pixie Knight (1300/200) and equip her with Gravity Axe- Grarl which brings her attack up to 1800." I've seen this equip card before and noticed that green glow from the last time it was played against me. The same green glow outlined my usable monster zones and I wondered why. Nathan then explained it to me, "As long as this card is face up, battle positions of your monsters cannot be changed. So now, Pixie Knight, attack his fiend monster!" She wielded her newly equipped Gravity Axe and took a mighty swing at my Sangan. During this attack, I took the opportunity to activate my face down card, "I'm activating my Ominous Fortunetelling trap card! I'll let you know what it does later!" I announced as the attack continued. Sangan was sliced in two and I lost 800 life points.

But at least I got to use its effect, which is why I played it to begin with. I took a monster with 1500 or fewer attack points from my deck and added it to my hand: Sonic Bird in case it means anything.

I drew Spear Cretin, which brought my hand total to four. And then it was my Standby Phase, and I explained the effect of my trap card to Nathan, "Now I get to select one card from your hand and guess which type of card it is. If I guess correctly, then you lose 700 life points, ready? I choose the card to your left…. Is it a trap card?"
"Sorry, champ- but that would be my Stop Defense, which isn't a trap. Better luck next time!" Nathan gloated.
Ignoring his voice, which was beginning to annoy me, I noticed that nothing alone could stand up to his wimpy Pixie Knight, and I felt kind of distressed. But I looked at this situation optimistically, THIS meant that I'd later draw stronger cards more often, right? So I summoned my Sonic Bird (1400/1000). Then, as its effect instructed me, I took a ritual magic card from my deck and added it to my hand. Just for suspense, I'm not going to tell you what it was until I use it. Then I set my Rush Recklessly and ended my turn.

"You had better come up with better battle tactics than this, champ!" He sounded as if he was getting annoyed with my cautious playing. He drew a card, set two of them and set his last in defense mode. That meant no Ominous Fortunetelling next turn for me. And then he attacked my Sonic Bird with his Pixie Knight. Eager to damage his life points further, I activated my set Rush Recklessly which boosted my bird's attack power to 2100 and easily destroyed his spellcaster and made for 300 points of damage… but I wasted a powerful quick play magic card that could have been used on a more powerful monster.

"And now my Pixie Knight's effect comes into play. Because she was destroyed in battle, you now have to select a magic card from my graveyard, which will go on top of my deck. And, since there is only one in there, I'll take of that for you," he gleefully took a card from his graveyard and put it on top of his deck. "It's your turn!"

I drew Bottomless Trap Hole, which brought my hand total to four. That seemed to make Nathan's day because he activated a trap, "I activate Penalty Game! I can activate it when you have four cards in your hand. Now, I can either force you to skip your next draw phase, or make you unable to set or play magic and trap cards this turn. I'm going to make you skip your next draw phase," he declared.

"Fine by me," I said. I set my Bottomless Trap Hole and did not attack his face down monster because it probably had better defense than my bird's 1400 attack.

Nathan drew his Gravity Axe again and smiled, "You aren't the only one with under-handed tricks up your sleeve. I flip summon my face down Medusa Worm (500/600). When it's successfully flip summoned, I get to destroy one monster on your side of the field. So it's bye bye, birdy!"
A bit of panic…. Now my field was bare and he was able to deal some damage to me. The only other card I could play from my hand was my Spear Cretin because Dark Necrofear needed to be specially summoned and I didn't have the proper monster in my hand for the ritual magic card- and I COULDN'T draw next turn…

"And now I equip my worm with Gravity Axe, which raises his attack to 1000. Attack HIS life points directly!" he commanded.

The worm, without hands to use the axe just ate the glowing green weapon and rushed straight for me with its mouth wide open. It chewed at my platform and brought my life points down to 6200- 500 fewer than Nathan's. "Your move," he said.
I turned to my deck and thought about drawing, but instantly remembered that I couldn't because a clear and solid plastic bubble was surrounding it. Hah- okay. I set my Spear Cretin (fully aware that his only face down card was his Stop Defense) and ended my turn.

Nathan drew a card, reached down to his hidden card and activated it, "Stop Defense flips over your face down monster and switches it to attack. But I'm not so sure that'll happen because Gravity Axe is out." As soon as he flipped it over, a huge white X appeared and crashed into my defending Spear Cretin (500/500). It was flipped and switched into attack mode, to everyone's surprise. Nathan looked closer at his Gravity Axe card, "Oh I see now- it says that monsters on your side of the field can't change THEIR battle position, signifying that you can't change them, okay. That's certainly interesting…" he continued, "I set one monster face down and attack your Spear Cretin with my worm. The worm's huge jaws pulverized my fiend card, and I lost another 500 life points. But at least I got to revive a monster from my graveyard. So did Nathan, unfortunately. So I brought back my Sangan in defense mode. He brought back his Pixie Knight (1300/200) in attack mode. I was feeling kind of outnumbered and overpowered… until I drew my next card.

On my next card, after that clear plastic bubble vanished, I drew my Archfiend Soldier! I love that card so much because it's so powerful for just a level four monster, so I wasted no time, "I now summon Archfiend Solider (1900/1500). And I'll have him attack your Medusa Worm!" A perfect combination of blinding speed and deadly accuracy effortlessly brought this ugly worm down. All that could be seen through this skillful display of an attack was my fiend's sword glistening as he held it still above his head as the rest of him dashed forward and carved the worm a new eye socket. It was destroyed, along with the Gravity Axe, and Nathan's life points went down to 5800. This duel seemed to progressing along quickly, but it seemed kind of slow action-wise… I was beginning to think that this guy wasn't much better than I was, if at all, regardless if he was the host or not. I ended my turn because I had nothing else to do.

He looked at the field. And since he was pausing, so did I. We both had two monsters on the field. He had a Ground Collapse activated, and I had an Ominous Fortunetelling activated along with one other trap face down. I had two cards in my hand and he had none. Nathan drew a card and looked reasonably happy, "And now I tribute my Pixie Knight to summon," I hovered my hand over my face down Bottomless Trap Hole, "Jinzo (2400/1500)!" My hand angrily withdrew from over the trap card, which Jinzo prevents from activating. The spellcaster card dissolved into a sphere of yellow light. The sphere darkened into a purple shadow. Jinzo slowly emerged from this form and glared at my trap cards, daring them to activate. His glowing red eyes disabled my Ominous Fortunetelling, too- not that it would be much use since his hand is always empty. "Now attack his Archfiend!" Jinzo clasped his hands together for a second but them spread them apart slowly to reveal a glowing black ball of energy. Without doing anything else, he launched the attack right toward my fiend and destroyed it, bringing my life points down to 5200. I figured that it was just luck… but the hard times were just beginning…

My turn again and I drew Giant Germ. I got excited because it was a fiend and had a decent effect, so I set it and ended my turn.

Nathan took his deck's top card and played it, "And now I'm going to tribute my face down Giant Germ (1000/100) to summon Ancient Gear Beast (2000/2000)!" I had never heard of this monster before, so it made me kind of nervous because it looked REALLY powerful. "Attack the monster to the right, Ancient Gear Beast!" With a rusty start, this colossus ran toward the monster on my left and took a massive slash at it with its huge metal claws.

"You just destroyed the Sangan (1000/600) that I brought back with Spear Cretin's effect. So now I-" Nathan stuck up his right index finger and interrupted me, "HOLD on, there! Ancient Gear Beast has a rather good effect. Once he sends a monster to the graveyard because of a battle, any effect that the destroyed monster had is negated, so that means that you DON'T get to search your deck for a monster that blah blah blah…" It turns out that he DID, in fact, have some formidable cards in his deck! "And now, Jinzo, attack his final monster!" Jinzo destroyed my face down Giant Germ (1000/100), and he lost 500 life points, like its effect said.

And so it was my turn again in a pretty grim spot. Even though I now had more than enough fiends in my graveyard to special summon my Dark Necrofear, I wasn't sure if summoning it would be a good idea. What other kinds of monster cards does he have with odd effects? I drew Mask of Darkness and set it… and I reluctantly decided to special summon my Dark Necrofear, but I had to make it sound like I knew exactly what I was doing… "And now for me to take control over this duel! I am removing from play three fiends from my graveyard," at that moment, Nathan grinned evilly and I could have sworn he said, "Aha, the Necrofear!" I continued, "to let me special summon the Dark Necrofear (2200/2800)!" Three dark purple spheres rose up from my graveyard and huddled together in the air right above my center monster zone. They hovered and pulsated while slowly meshing together and changing form to match the silhouette of the monster. From out of the sky, a thin beam of white light pierced the top of the shadow. The shadow began to bulge and crack revealing bright patches of light underneath. Suddenly, the shell burst shooting pieces of black everywhere leaving behind only the Dark Necrofear surrounded in an eerie white aura. "Attack his Ancient Gear Beast!"

The fiend stood there motionless, only staring at this target. His white eyes were fixated on the mechanical wolf. Then, a single blink; black eyelids concealed his piercing white eyes for a fraction of a second and then his attack began. A constant barrage of white streams of power shot out of his surrounding aura and homed in toward the machine monster who took each shot of that attack painfully. Faster and more accurately the white beams of energy pursued the monster until one final larger beam shot straight up out of the aura and came crashing directly down on the Ancient Gear Beast and evaporated it… pretty cool.

"I always enjoyed watching that card work," Nathan commented with a detectable tone of evil in his voice. His life points decreased to 5100 and it was then his turn.

"Y'know, I kind of knew from the very start that you'd be the victor of this tournament, despite all of your difficulties." Something didn't feel right. In fact, it felt remarkably similar to one of those RPGs' moments when someone who was thought to be on your side for a very long time reveals himself to have been actually working for the enemy the whole time and is about to attack you. He drew a card and continued, "I'll admit that Jenny wasn't much of a challenge for you. Craig may have been a bit easy. Justin was a bit of a challenge, but lost it in the end. Z. K., you remember him? Probably came the closest. S was merely a pushover, as I saw it. That boy, Travis, who defeated your friend showed you mercy! Otherwise, you would have lost! The water duelist Christina often kept to herself but proved to be a challenge, right?" I nodded as he kept reading from a piece of paper he pulled out of nowhere… "Larry, the fire duelist gave you a run for your money… Jon, your old rival, was put in his place. And, finally, Josh…" I paid extra attention to what Nathan had to say about this guy, "Josh was also doing very well in this whole tournament. But I was surprised that he hadn't drawn nearly as many of his rare cards in his duel against you as he had in some of his other duels…"
"Did you know him, Nathan?" I asked trying to figure out this mystery once and for all.
"No, not in the slightest… why?" he asked a bit puzzled by my ridiculous question.
"Well, after our duel, he talked about you as if he knew you personally," I mentioned as Nathan looked quizzically at me.

"I don't know what to tell ya…" He looked back at the paper which I assumed had my statistics and what not printed out on it, "Rare or powerful cards played: Judgment of Anubis, Last Turn, Dark Ruler Ha Des, Dark Necrofear, Nobelman of Crossout, Invader of Darkness, and …Black Skull Dragon…. just to name a few." He paused before and after saying 'Black Skull Dragon,' which caught my attention and made me highly suspicious…

He continued, "So other than that, you've been through a lot in this tournament and you've earned this duel we're in. And, speaking of which, let's return to it, eh? The score is 5100, me to 5200, you and it's my turn…"

He drew a card, set it in defense and thought about what to do. He could destroy my Necrofear with his Jinzo, but I'm sure that he's familiar with Necrofear's effects. I'll give him the benefit of the doubt and assume that the HOST knows more about more cards than the average duelist… He still had his Ground Collapse out. And my Bottomless Trap Hole was still face down, useless as long as Jinzo is present. It looked like he had most of the control over which way this duel went. He decided to attack my face down Mask of Darkness (900/400) whose effect didn't much help me since I had no traps in my graveyard. Nathan was happy with this move and ended his turn.

I drew Mask of the Accursed and put it in my hand with the unknown ritual magic card. I needed to prevent my Dark Necrofear from getting destroyed. But that Jinzo on the field wasn't my situation either. Why is always the common cards giving me grief? Powerful cards I've never heard of before like his Ancient Gear Beast came and went. But it's always the typical cards that make life so rough for a duelist! So I made up my mind, "I equip YOUR Jinzo with Mask of the Accursed, which prevents him from attacking and causes you to lose 500 life points for each of my Standby Phases! And next I'm attacking your face down monster with my Necrofear!"

Just as before, my powerful fiend monster blinked and electrified his hidden monster with white energy. But, as luck would have it, his hidden monster was Wall of Illusion (1000/1850). So his monster was destroyed, but my monster was returned to my hand. And I only had two fiend monsters in my graveyard to use at this point… tough luck at its best…
Nathan drew a card and set it in defense mode, "Heh heh heh, your move again!"

I drew my Poison of the Old Man, Nathan lost 500 life points because of my equip card, and I set my spell card. It would get my out of trouble, but only once. I wondered for how much longer my luck would hold out…

Nathan noticed my predicament and smiled. He drew a card and summoned it happily, "And now I'm summoning a little creature called Nightmare Horse (500/400). This zombie guy can attack your life points directly, even when there are monsters on your side of the field. So that's exactly what's going to happen. Attack him now!" The flaming blue horse spit blue flames directly at me and made full contact. But I lost no life points because of the quick-play card I activated. I chose the positive effect of my Poison of the Old Man card and replenished my life points to 5900.

"Hmm, somebody's a soldier of fortune, yes?" Nathan said… and asked me at the same time… "Anyway, I end my turn."

I began my next turn and couldn't wait to damage his life points again at my Standby Phase. I wondered for how much longer he would allow this to continue. I drew my Magician of Faith and his life points went down to 4100. I was nearly 2000 life points in the lead! I set my magician and ended my turn. There still wasn't much that I could do.

Nathan drew a card and happily summoned it, "I summon Goblin Attack Force (2300/0) in attack mode! They attack your face down monster!" The crazed army ran forward with their maces and axes and bashed my hidden Magician of Faith (300/400). I happily used her effect but was unhappy with my limited selection. I could have sworn that I used more than just three magic cards during this duel. But no, just Nobleman of Crossout which I could use on his face down monster, Rush Recklessly which could be set and used later, or Poison of the Old Man which can damage him or heal me… I chose the latter option and took another 500 point hit from his horse. My life points stood at 5400, and his Goblin Attack Force was automatically resting in defense mode.

My turn again. I grew suspicious of how long Nathan was keeping his masked Jinzo alive. It seemed like he could have at any moment removed the mask and wreaked havoc on my side of the field. Was he waiting for some kind of perfect moment? Anyway, I drew Bait Doll which was useful in the beginning of this duel but was horribly unusable right now because he had nothing face down except a monster card. On the upside, Nathan took 500 more points of damage, taking his life points down to 3600 So my Bait Doll joined the Necrofear, ritual magic card and Poison of the Old Man, which I then set in preparation for a direct attack.

It was a very bad situation. I had no monsters on the field (and couldn't have more than three, ANYWAY), my traps were still useless, and he had four monsters. And it wouldn't have surprised me if he were to summon another monster on his next turn…

Nathan drew another card and smirked at it, and then at me. "I equip my Nightmare Horse with Axe of Despair! It increases his attack power by 1000!" He laughed at me and my vulnerability, "Aha haha ha ha! Look at you and your vulnerability! I've neutralized your traps, I have a monster that can directly attack you even if you have a monster on the field, and your hand seems to be completely useless to you!"

He was right. Bait Doll was useless right now. My Necrofear was still one fiend monster away from being summoned. And I still had that ritual magic card- useless. The only thing on the field that was helping me was the Mask of the Accursed and my hidden Poison of the Old Man. But he could easily overpower it with his horse's attack at 1500 now. What could I do? Was this guy going to beat me?
"But you're lucky. Goblin Attack Force can't go back to attack mode until my next turn. But I still have my horse, here. Attack him directly again!" The axe that was equipped to it was loosely embedded in its blue flame body now surging with strength. His fire breath was significantly stronger than last time. Instead of sputters, this was a huge flowing river of fire and embers! The air around me rippled as the incendiary attack shook my platform relentlessly. My life points decreased to 3900. That's when I activated my Poison of the Old Man for the last time. But this time I chose to inflict 800 points of damage to Nathan. The elderly man that appeared when I activated it hurled the purple vial at him. It exploded upon his platform and eroded a small amount of it away, only virtually. So his life points went down to 2800. Even though I was still in the lead, that could very likely change soon despite it being my turn…

I weighed the situation one final time. Next turn, he would be able to attack with his goblins again. And who knows what that face down monster is? It must have an effect that affects monsters or he would have activated it by now. If I don't draw a monster this turn, it's over, I thought as I gripped my deck's top card. I yanked it away from the rest of the deck and Nathan lost another 500 life points. He had 2300.

I looked at the card I drew and was instantly paralyzed… Of all the luck in the world… why?
…Why NOW?

…Why did I draw this card now?

I said to Nathan, "And NOW I activate the ritual spell card Contract with the Dark Master!" Nathan took a step back and nearly fell off of his platform. He was completely shocked. I don't doubt that he knew what the card that was about to appear does. But I knew for a fact that he DIDN'T know that I had one because I never once played it during this entire tournament! I was about to reveal my most favorite and truly most powerful monster!
As soon as I slapped that magic card down, the whole field went black. In the spot I used the card, a crack in the ground with something glowing green below it manifested itself. The ground split apart slowly resembling the most evil spider web imaginable. The jagged curves and broken lines all with green light emitting from them created a genuinely frightening sight indeed. Suddenly, there was a huge explosion. From the depths of the underlying hole, an immense stream of energy burst up and out of the fissure drowning the entire arena with a deafening sound similar to a hurricane's winds and the green glow that was present from the beginning. Then, from the resulting cosmic windtunnel, an abstract preliminary form of a monster slowly rose up from the chasm. The red and evil purple cloths in which it was wrapped violently flailed around in the wind below it. And all that could be seen of it at this point were its glowing green eyes and fiendish claws longing for power.

I had to shout over the earsplitting noise the chasm was making, "I NEED to offer a MONSTER with EIGHT level stars or more from my HAND or my FIELD in order call forth this monster! I tribute the DARK NECROFEAR in my HAND!" I lay my fiend monster into the graveyard.

Just then, amidst the wind, noise and green light, the Dark Necrofear appeared in front of all of us. His surrounding white aura grew noticeably brighter and stretched itself out into a path leading to the covered monster. It seemed to be hurting the Necrofear? And then I noticed why, slowly the white aura was closing in on him, literally evaporating him away. A high pitched scream resonated all throughout the room as the white energy got thinner until it was as thin as the rest of them beam leading toward the ritual monster.

Then, the curved white line sank into him. It was back to me to complete the summoning. "And NOW! It's TIME for DARK MASTER – ZORC (2700/1500)!" I said as loudly as I could while I carefully slammed him into attack mode.

All the green light around us turned into mist and got heavier. It sank to the ground and slowly tumbled like smoke toward my all powerful fiend card. While this was happening, the open chasm closed up and his red and purple rags meshed together to form an evil-looking cape colored a shadowy red- suitable for a fiend. Once the last bit of green fog collected inside the concealing cape, the arena got darker and his eyes got much brighter. He exploded out of his cape with a wicked, tremulous roar as a mighty, unexplained wind pushed around his spiked green and black hair and whipped around his red cape. The green fog remained perfectly still, though, passively floating about from Zorc's waist and down. When the wind calmed, the lighting returned to normal and gameplay could resume. Every few seconds, I heard my fiend monster make a low growl at the numerous monsters he saw across the field.

"Well! This is certainly an exciting turn of events. But just tell me champ... Remind me what this fellow does…" Nathan said trying to sound as smart as he could. Maybe he didn't know what this guy does?

"Hah. Better yet, I'll SHOW you! But I'll need a die…" I said aloud. Instantly, a nice-sized white die and a video camera mounted to my platform appeared. I never would have noticed that it was there otherwise. I took the die and the camera rotated and followed the die's movement. I tried to fool it by rapidly waving it back and forth, but the camera kept up. And then I noticed the scoreboard to the left with the image the camera was captured. Then I held the die in my hand and explained to Nathan, "I'm going to roll this die once… If I roll a 6, all of my monsters are destroyed. If I roll a 3, 4, or 5 one of your monsters is destroyed, and I get to pick which one. But if I roll a 1 or 2, ALL of YOUR monsters are destroyed! And that's just his effect! I can still attack afterwards if I want!" After I finished speaking, Nathan just stood there wide-eyed. Let me tell you, it wasn't a very dignified look for somebody like him. It was as if he knew EXACTLY what was going to happen next. But this was all relying on a die-roll: purely chance. In fact, the most likely outcome would be that he would lose only one monster, which was only 50. He finally said something, "O-oh. Okay then," he recovered himself. "Carry on then, champ."

"Here we go!" I announced. I tossed the cube high into the air. Well, I only tossed as high as I could while still being sure that it would land on my platform. The higher it went, the slower time seemed to pass. I prayed for a 1, 2, 3, 4, or 5. Nathan watched as bravely as he could. And then time seemed to speed up the closer it got to my platform again. It landed right near my deck and bounced and ricocheted all around my little area until it clicked and tumbled to a stop revealing the number 2, yes!
"Sorry, Nathan. But that means that all of your monsters are history!" I said as Zorc perked his head up. He glared at all of Nathan's monsters. Nathan was gripping his platform in a calm panic. And I was anxious to see what this effect would look like!
Zorc raised his right hand with angled knuckles up to chest level. From the murky green mist, four dark blue orbs. This surprised me. But I wasn't complaining. The four orbs gathered into his hand. He faced his palm toward the other four monsters and extended his fingers. Then, like homing missiles these orbs sought out and attached themselves to a monster, even the face down one. Then, each of them flickered at their own pace- alternating between white, yellow and their original dark blue. Faster and faster they flickered until they turned as green as Zorc's eyes. When that happened, the orb sent out a huge surge of green electricity out in all directions. But the bolts were magnetized right back to the monster from where they came and that monster was destroyed in an explosion of green and grey smoke! One by one, each monster met their demise by this boomeranging lightning. It was so cool!

After the smoke settled, I saw only Nathan standing there with a resentful look on his face. He wasn't angry or negative in any way. He just looked bummed that he was about to lose.

Whoa, this is it! After I attack, I'll have won this duel! The ONLY card he has out is his Ground Collapse, but that didn't help him much at all. It just intimidated me, kinda. And now, with his field empty and life points that can't withstand Zorc's direct attack, I will win this duel!, I thought as I looked unbelieving at Nathan and my monster who had just reduced all of his monsters to atoms with one motion.

"Hurry it up now, champ. I do pay money to run this place!" A bit of hostility could be detected in his voice at this point. ..Perhaps I was taking too long in my thoughts.

"Okay then! Zorc, attack him directly!" Hearing this ultimate command, the arena went dark again and Dark Master – Zorc angled both of his arms at the ground where the green mist was. Arcs of electricity jolted and jumped up his arms and body and collected everywhere inside of him. He stopped when his eyes could barely contain the power occasionally bolting out back toward the ground. Then with a yell to the sky and shooting his arms into a Y, the green lightning exploded everywhere into the most chaotic display of green and black I had ever seen. The lightning fizzled and cracked going anywhere it wanted. It all rapidly spread out like cracks on a pane of glass until Zorc stopped his thunderous yell. The lightning paused wherever it was while Zorc faced and frowned at Nathan. He lowered his left arm to his side again but kept his right arm fully stretched at neck level with his fingers barely extended. Then with one more opening of his palm, even more green electricity shot out of his hand, and the other energy that had spread out until he stopped yelling followed. The lightning rapidly closed in on Nathan and electrified his platform for a good ten seconds until the final spark vanished.

Nathan's life point counter beeped down to zero. We both silently gathered up our cards. Linda lowered herself down on that platform. And the three of us gathered together right near Linda.
Nathan spoke, "Well, I've been defeated... But that was a very lucky draw, I must say," he implied how easily he could have won on his next turn. "But anyway," he began again while he reached into his jacket pocket, "here are $8000." Linda handed me the envelope marked 'G I/P T' and said, "And here's that envelope with your $2500, kiddo." We all were silent for a second while Nathan thought of something to say. "Not bad, eh? $10500! I'd say that's adequate compensation for a few days' worth of duels, wouldn't you?" I agreed as I quickly flashed back to my many opponents and experiences. This whole thing didn't seem to take long at all. I felt like I had cheated my whole way through. But no, how could I have? It felt so weird and somewhat wrong to be standing there with so much money after doing precious little…

"Oh! But this isn't the end! You get to pick one of my cards to keep as your own," he reminded me as I faced him expecting him to reveal to me his deck's other cards. But he kept talking, "Although, you may want to choose from a slightly wider selection of my whole card library…" he walked off in front of me and Linda and I followed.

About a minute later, he led us to a room that looked like somebody's study. There were books on shelves. Some you needed a ladder to reach. But I saw no ladder when I gave the whole room a good, long stare. Nathan walked over to his desk, which faced the door we just walked through and pushed some loose papers aside. He reached under his blotter and typed on what sounded like an electronic keypad. I heard about 6 high-pitched beeps and then a click sound signifying that something had been unlocked.

"Walk up the stairs," he said to me. But I didn't remember seeing any stairs in this room…? I looked to the left and noticed his highest bookshelf extending its shelves. The lowest came out the furthest. The highest one emerged only slightly. It was a full-fledged staircase from top to bottom! But what the hell was going on? I didn't see anything at the top of this staircase. Nevertheless, I did as I was told and nervously reached the top, taking a seat on the shelf at the summit and looking down at Nathan and Linda.
Nathan said, "Now reach for the underside of that shelf and press the button." I felt like a fool. But I still obeyed. I felt underneath the shelf I was sitting on for a button of some kind but found nothing. So I walked down a few steps and looked upwards at the underside of the top step to see where it was. I found it, pressed it, and watched the stone wall at the top of the stairs push itself in a slide away. "Now just take the book in there and bring it back down here!" Nathan informed me.
I ascended the stairs again and walked inside the revealed doorway. It was like an Indiana Jones movie. And the book he described couldn't have looked more valuable. It was locked, in a small, dark room, on a white pedestal, bathed in a bluish-white light, and covered in a thin layer of dust… jeez, how dramatic…
I brought Nathan the book and he pressed one button which closed the door and sunk the staircase back. He unlocked the book with a key and gave me permission to flip inside for whichever one card I wanted. I couldn't believe some of the cards he had in here: Beast of Talwar… Dark Magician of Chaos… Gatling Dragon…Judgment of Anubis… Skilled Dark Magician… and Yamata Dragon to name a few. Most of them were very rare cards. Those that weren't rare were extremely powerful cards. I flipped back and forth between all the pages… What was I going to choose? And then I saw it. It was a fiend monster just calling out to me. And I'd always wanted a Great Maju Garzett ever since I saw that Andre had one and I didn't… So I told Nathan the one I wanted. He gave me permission to reach behind the plastic and pull out the card, further protected by a sleeve. I felt like I had won something truly remarkable… My fiend deck felt complete! Dark Necrofear, Dark Ruler Ha Des, Invader of Darkness, Dark Master- Zorc, Summoned Skull (of course), Spear Cretin, Kiseitai, and all the rest. I was so happy.
As soon as I removed the card, he closed the book and locked it. Then he said, "And now for your ultimate prize… Since you have defeated ME, you get to ask for anything possible that you could possibly want, like I said earlier… Have you decided on anything?" He asked as if it was something to easily and instantly have an answer to.
"I gotta be honest, no I haven't. I thought I was going to lose that duel. And I WOULD have, had it not been for my lucky draw… like you said earlier. And I also gotta tell ya, I'm already swamped with prizes and glory, here. So I don't feel that I should take anything el-" I was interrupted by Nathan.
"NO! Nonsense. You earned this. And lucky draws are part of the game, are they not? I mean, there have been plenty of instances in which you had lots of UNlucky draws, am I right? So enough with this humble stuff and dream up your ultimate prize!" Nathan certainly was a hospitable host. What if I wanted to take his entire deck? According to him, it had to be done since it was POSSIBLE (the word he kept using), so he'd have to hand it over by his own words…
But did he WANT me to be greedy? I mean, it almost seemed as if he was trying to distract me with money, cards and whatever else was possible… And then I got an idea. Maybe he WAS trying to distract me! I told him what I wanted, "I want to know why half of my opponents wanted my Black Skull Dragon so badly!"
Nathan's smile shrank into an expressionless stare. Linda even took a cautious step back from where she was standing. I kept looking at Nathan for an answer. I had to know why this one card that I had was such a desirable one by just about everyone I met.

Nathan began, "Fine… but I'm counting this as your prize, because I wouldn't have told you the truth under any other circumstance," Nathan tried to threaten me to withdraw my bold move.
"I don't care. You're tournament has already awarded me with more stuff than I'd know what to do with: this money, all those cards from other duelists, the free duel disc system (that I forgot I had on my arm this whole time… it was just so lightweight!) and the title 'Best at His Game.' No, now it's time for some truth. So tell me, what's the deal with my Black Skull Dragon?" I asked again. Nathan realized that I couldn't be won over my material things, so he explained the whole story.

"Obviously, it was the rare hunters who wanted your card," he began.
"But you can't be their leader; otherwise, you would have played much rarer and stronger cards during our duel," I interjected.
"Well yeah, of course I'm not their leader. Nor am I myself a rare hunter. But the real leader told me to start this tournament to gather up plenty of people…" I interrupted him again trying to understand every aspect of this.
"How do YOU know the rare hunters' leader?" I asked.

"Well maybe I should have said that I know of him. He just sent me a letter one day telling me to host a tournament with half randomly selected people and half his rare hunters. In all honesty, this whole tournament was set up as a practice range for his new rare hunters. And when it came down to the best rare hunter and the best regular person, the regular person, you, won." He took a breath as if he had just read a whole book to me.

"But that doesn't answer my question. What was the significance of my Black Skull Dragon? Why did they want it so badly?" I asked again.

"Do you remember you first opponent Jenny? Well, she told every other rare hunter in the tournament that you had a Black Skull Dragon after that duel. In fact, the rare hunters communicated to the other rare hunters if there was a duelist with a particularly rare card around. So the more rare or powerful cards you played, the hotter a target you became to them. So it wasn't JUST your dragon. I intercepted their communications and learned of most of the cards in your deck- which is why your ritual fiend monster took me by surprise," he stopped talking again.

"Oh, whoa-" I began. Should I have felt betrayed? Scared? Relieved? I continued, "So that's it? They weren't after just my dragon, but any of the rare cards they heard I had in my deck? And this whole tournament was just target practice for the rare hunters?" I tried to get the facts straight.

"…Uh, yes…" Nathan affirmed.

Just then, I felt really great. So I was like that one moving yellow duck that you just couldn't hit with that air rifle at the local amusement park! A generous helping of triumph through the truth was award enough for me. Besides, I couldn't think of anything else to ask for. Sure, I could have asked for money, more cards, or my own private jet, but that's not how I am. I just wanted to go home…

"…So, now that you know the truth, what are you going to do about it?" Nathan asked in a dejected voice. It almost sounded as if he was expecting a lawsuit or something.

"What-! I won this tournament and won my prizes. I just want to go home. It's not my concern what the rare hunters plan to do…" I boldly stated.

"I dunno- since you beat all of them here, they make consider you a future target, champ," Nathan warned.

"I'm capable of defending myself well enough in a duel. So I'll just deal with things as they come…" I said back.
"I see… Very well then… Alright, congratulations again on your victories and good luck in the future…" he paused and looked at Linda who had her arms crossed and turned her head back and forth as we both took turns talking. "Linda, take the champion back to the helicopter and take this young man home, please," he gently ordered his employee.

"You got it, sir… Let's go, kid," she turned to face me and walked ahead of me and out of the study.

Nathan turned his back very dramatically as Linda got closer to the door. And I followed her for a few seconds until a burning question resurfaced in my brain, "Oh wait! Nathan! One final question!" He turned back around and looked at me, "I don't mean this negatively, but if you were the host of this tournament, then why DIDN'T you have better cards at your disposal?" I asked as politely as I could.

"Heh- the truth is that I actually expected one of the rare hunters to win. And the deal was that if one of them did win the tournament, the head rare hunter said that I would not duel them. I never did find out why not…. But yeah. I was unprepared for our duel, you could say. Even though I more or less knew your deck's contents, it had been so long since I myself had actually picked up those cards," lamented Nathan. He halfway turned toward the window again and tilted his eyes towards the window, which overlooked the ocean.

"Oh…" I muttered in silent awe. "Goodbye, Nathan," I said as he waved and I left the room.

Linda led me all the way back to the helicopter, there was no robot guy this time, and she told the pilot exactly where to go. I pressed the button to detach the duel disc system from my forearm and lay it on my lap. With the back of my head against the seat, I let the rhythmic vibrations of the flying machine lull me to sleep until I ended up back home.

"Wake up, kid!" I heard Linda say in the distance. Then I suddenly pulled myself out of one of the deepest sleeps I had ever been in. "You're home," she informed me.

I looked out the window and saw that we were on the ground right next to my home. It was kind of weird, but whatever.

"Thanks, Linda!" I expressed my gratitude to her.
"For what? Telling you who your next opponents were? For going up and down in that annoying elevator thing forever this morning? Relax, you owe me no apology, ha ha ha." We both shared a laugh. But then she said, "And don't worry. You'll never see me again!" And she smiled, closed the door and violently thrust her thumb upwards. I watched the helicopter climb into the air and then walked to my front door.
"I love goodbyes," I said to myself as I opened the door and noticed that nobody was home… "I'll tell the family how it went when they all get back," I mumbled to myself as I fell asleep on the couch.

AUTHOR'S NOTE: And that's it. The whole saga has come to and end. I'm really sorry about how long it took me to complete this story. In fact, I wouldn't be surprised if I've lost all my readers by now. Anyway, I've decided to provide a small sample of what my next fanfic of ICO would have read like. It will be posted as chapter 27 to this fanfic.

With the completion of this story, my fanfic-ing is over. I have college papers to worry about now. I wish all the rest of you good luck in your stories. If you had any comments, complaints or questions about this story or any of the chapters, now is the time to voice them before I close this chapter of my life, pun intended!