Disclaimer: No I do not own Yugioh.
Vanguard Generations
Chapter 4: Hanging on by a thread
Megumi tittered and slid a card into her disk. "I set one card face-down on the field and then I'll activate my Giant Trunade magic card, sending all magic and trap cards on the field back to their owner's hands!" All around them the field morphed and warped as Skyscraper left play.
Shinsei's eyes widened as he realized why she had done that. "Oh no…"
"Firstly, my Map of Buried Treasure trap card activates when it is sent face-down on the field and back to my hand. I can discard it to draw two cards." Megumi discarded the trap and added two more cards to her hand.
Shinsei looked down at the four cards in his hand and then felt some sweat drip down his face. ("This might be the end…")
"I activate the magic card Heaven-Hell!" Megumi laughed loudly as Gunman exploded into dust. "This is the end, for now my Dark Torturer returns to play!" The demon appeared out of the ground and hefted its spear up, howling for blood. "Your duel ends here…as does your life! Without any monsters or cards in play, you lose! Go Dark Torturer!" The demon charged at Shinsei and roared again, spear held up high.
Shinsei threw up one card from his hand and Bubbleman appeared on the field just in time to get pierced by the spear of the Dark Torturer and blown apart. "The trap card you sent back to my hand was Hero's Memorial, which when returned to my hand while face-down allows me to discard it to special summon one Elemental Hero from my graveyard to the field in defense mode!"
"But my monster can deal damage through defense, how did you survive the overflow damage?" Megumi yelled at him, and he replied by laughing. "What's so funny?"
"Your own magic card caused that to happen." He held up Hero's Memorial, which had a picture of a statue of Shining Flare Wingman standing tall in front of a town hall. "You see, when Hero's Memorial is returned to my hand by the effect of an opponent, all battle damage to me for that turn is zero if I discard it. And because Elemental Hero Bubbleman was summoned, I can now draw two cards!" Sliding two more cards off of his deck, he winked at her. "Sorry, but I'm not so easy to defeat."
She smiled slightly and slid two cards into her disk. "I set two cards face-down on the field and then I'll end my turn." As the two cards shimmered into existence on the right side of Heaven-Hell, she returned the wink. "You'll need more than charming good looks and a good outlook on dueling to survive this duel against me."
Shinsei drew. "First, let's return Elemental Hero Bubbleman from my graveyard to the field!" The blue superhero reappeared in another burst of blue bubbles. "And as before, because I have no other cards in play, I can now draw two!" Sliding two more cards off of his deck, the boy added them to his hand. "Alright, I'm ready to attack with my full power against you! First I activate my Metamorphosis magic card! This card allows me to sacrifice one monster in play to special summon a monster of the same level from my fusion deck! And my choice is…" Bubbleman's armor grew sharper and much stronger looking. (800/1200) "Bubbleman Neo!"
"Bubbleman Neo? But his attack points are the same as before. Even if you replayed Skyscraper and attacked, all you would succeed in doing is destroying both of our monsters." Megumi crossed her arms across her chest and eyed the supercharged-looking Bubbleman.
Shinsei held up another card. "We'll see about that! Go Bubble Shooter!" A giant bazooka-like device fell from the sky and landed over the shoulder of the superhero. "Because Bubbleman Neo counts as Bubbleman, he can be equipped with this card! This card increases the attack power of Bubbleman Neo by 800 points!" (1600/1200)
"Also, let's take this to the right ground!" He opened his field magic card slot and slammed Skyscraper into it, the land around them changing to the cityscape that powered up all Elemental Heroes by 1000 points when they battled against stronger monsters.
Megumi gasped in amazement. "No!"
"Yes! Bubble Shooter!" Shinsei pointed at the Dark Torturer and Bubbleman Neo's weapon unleashed an explosive blast of water that hurtled towards it. (2600/1200)
"Reveal face-down card!" One of Megumi's face-down cards flipped up and a blast of red light shot from the card, piercing Bubbleman Neo's chest and dissolving him into nothing. "Hell Prejudice allows me to call one word, and all cards with that word in it that are in play or in the graveyard are removed from the game! I call Bubble!"
Shinsei stood there in silence, a wind blowing some dust across his now empty field. ("She blew away not only Bubbleman Neo, but the Bubbleman in my graveyard.") "I'm not done yet!"
"And neither am I!" Megumi's other face-down card flipped up. "Reveal Heaven's Last Treasure! This card activates when I remove cards from both your field and graveyard with the same effect. For every card remove, I can draw one card. Now name the cards you lost."
Shinsei snarled and started to count off the cards that had disappeared. "Bubbleman, Bubbleman Neo, Bubble Shooter, Bubble Shuffle, and Bubble Illusion." As he ticked the names off on one hand, she drew a card for every name he spoke.
Megumi looked at her new five cards and smirked at him. "What will you do now?"
("She has five cards in her hand…") Looking down at his hand, Shinsei's eyes widened slightly. ("That combo will work now!") "I first play Warrior Returning Alive to pick up one Elemental Hero from my graveyard and add it to my hand!" Holding up a new card, he threw it onto his disk. "I owe this to your Dark Torturer for getting it into the graveyard! Go Elemental Hero Wildman!" (1500/1600) A brown-skinned jungle man with a sword strapped over its shoulders appeared on the field. "Also, I set four cards face-down in play and then I end my turn."
Megumi snickered. "Is this your last chance to win?" She drew. "Then get ready to lose!"
"Not yet! Reveal face-down card!" One of Shinsei's face-down cards flipped up. "Greed Illusion! This continuous trap card activates during your standby phase and can only work if I have no cards in my hand, otherwise it is destroyed! I draw until I have the same number of cards in my hand as you, and then during my standby phase I must discard that same number of cards from my hand!" He slid six cards off of his deck. "Alright, continue."
Megumi licked her lips and held up a card. "First, that Skyscraper is getting on my nerves, so here comes my Hell Desecration magic card! This card removes all field magic cards in play from the game!" All around them, the huge buildings of Skyscraper dissolved into nothingness. "Now that your annoying little endless power-up effect is gone, it's time to finish off the last little sliver of life points you have left! Revive, my Heaven Gatekeeper!" The angelic ritual monster appeared next to her Dark Torturer. (1900/1800) "Now let's continue the game! Go Dark Torturer! End this duel now!" The demon charged in and stabbed Wildman right in the gut with its spear. "Your life points are gone."
"Not yet!" One of Shinsei's face-down cards flipped up and blew the demon back to Megumi's field. "Negate Attack will stop your attack and end the battle phase."
Megumi slid a card into her disk. "Very well, but I shall bring out my field magic card now that I know you just used up one of your defensive trap cards!" Her field magic card zone opened and she slid a card into it. "Go Purgatory!" All around them, the air grew hazy with golden flames. "Within this place both Hell and Heaven are one, and therefore the effects of both pain and pleasure exist within this card. It can only be activated when Heaven-Hell is in play, and it sends it to the graveyard!"
The continuous magic card faded away. "Purgatory copies the effect of Heaven-Hell, and it also adds a new effect. When a monster is special summoned from our graveyard and we have more than one monster on our field, we must sacrifice one monster. In return for this pain, we gain life points equal to the attack of the sacrificed monster!"
Shinsei knew this effect was good for both of them, but he was sure that Megumi's entire deck was made to use this to her advantage. "And what are you playing to gain an advantage?"
"I'm playing my continuous magic card called Forbidden Pleasures. This card activates when a magic or trap effect requires that I sacrifice a monster on my field. I can instead sacrifice the top three cards of my deck, and if the effect is supposed to give me an increase then depending on what kind of increase it is decides what happens. If I am to gain life points, then I gain 3000 life points if the number is determined by something about the sacrificed monster."
("So every time she special summons from her graveyard, she discards the top three cards of her deck to gain 3000 life points….freaking perfect.") Shinsei bit his lower lip and looked down at his hand. ("At least she can't attack.")
Megumi held up another card from her hand. "Now I play my Purgatory Reset card, which puts us back into a phase that was ended because of a card effect. So we'll return to the battle phase from before! Go Dark Torturer!" The demon howled and charged right at Wildman, weapon held up high to strike.
"Reveal Reduction Barrier!" Shinsei pointed at one of his now face-up trap cards. "This card allows me to cut the damage I take from battle during this turn to one tenth its original amount! In response I reveal Emergency Provisions as well! By sacrificing my Greed Illusion and Reduction Barrier in chain, I can also gain 2000 life points!"
Megumi- 1900
Shinsei- 2200
Then the Dark Torturer pierced Wildman's chest with its spear and blew the hero apart.
Megumi- 1900
Shinsei- 2170
Megumi snapped up her free hand at Shinsei. "Dark Torturer's special ability activates now! My opponent, when they take battle damage from my monster, discards the top five cards of their deck!"
Shinsei grimaced and did so, feeling the sweat on his forehead build up at the fact that he wasn't going to last much longer against this opponent unless he managed to draw something to overpower her monsters and her strategy.
"Go Heaven Gatekeeper!" The holy angel sang out and Shinsei shivered as the Reduction Barrier reduced the normally painful music to a simple chilling tune.
Megumi- 1900
Shinsei- 1980
Megumi ran her slim fingers along the edges of her cards slowly. "It's a shame you buffered the damage enough that I couldn't draw an extra card, but in the end it doesn't matter. You see, I have plenty of cards still in my hand." She inserted two cards into her duel disk. "I place two cards face-down on the field and then I end my turn."
Shinsei took a deep breath to clear his mind. ("This isn't done yet. I am not alone in this battle.") He drew. "First I'll use the effect of Heaven-Hell to revive one of the Elemental Heroes that your Torturer discarded to the graveyard!" A roar of anger filled the air as a giant warrior holding a giant hammer over shoulder appeared on the field. "Elemental Hero Rageman!" (2000/0) "Also, I play the magic card Hero Return! When there are no magic or trap cards on my field, I can special summon one level four or lower Elemental Hero to the field! So return to me, Elemental Hero Gunman!" (1700/1200) The double revolver superhero appeared on the field once more.
"Those two aren't going to be enough…" Megumi started to laugh, until she saw that Shinsei was holding another card up. "Spark Gun?"
"This card would normally require that Elemental Hero Sparkman is in play, but in this case I can equip it to Gunman because of his effect!" A machine-gun like weapon appeared in place of one of the superhero's revolvers. "With this card I'll switch Dark Torturer into defense mode!"
A blast of blue energy shot from the weapon and hit the demon, forcing it to crouch down on the field. "Go now, Rageman!" The giant roared and charged right at the Heaven Gatekeeper. "When Rageman attacks a monster on the opponent's field, he gains half of that monster's attack points!" (2950/0) "Hammer of Destruction!"
"Reverse card open!" One of Megumi's face-down cards flipped up and Rageman exploded into dust. "The power of my Hellfire Blaze trap card can only activate if I have a dark ritual monster in play. One monster in play will be destroyed!"
Shinsei pointed at the Dark Torturer. "Go Gunman, fire!"
"Reveal Golden Light of Heaven!" A golden glow suffused the other superhero and it disappeared. "This trap card is just like my Hellfire Blaze, except it requires that a light ritual monster be in play."
Shinsei stood there silently, his eyes wide. ("What can I do now? She's shot down every one of my strategies…and with all the monsters in my deck removed from the game, I'm eventually going to run out of cards.") Then his eyes hardened and he shook his head out. ("No! I can't let my self fear this lady! There must be a way to beat her permanently!")
"I play the magic card Monster Reincarnation, which lets me discard a card from my hand to add one monster from my graveyard to my hand. I discard my Hero's Dramatic Entrance trap card to add Elemental Hero Nightman from my graveyard to my hand!" He added the new card to his hand and then threw it onto his disk. "Go Nightman!" (200/900)
A pitch-dark superhero appeared on the field, an aura of black energy flowing along its body. "This monster, when summoned and I have no cards in play, allows me to draw three cards as long as I discard all monsters from my hand afterwards. Since I have no monsters in my hand at the moment and there are no monsters in my deck, I just get to draw three cards!" Sliding three new cards off of his deck, he added them to his hand. And then he noticed a black sheen instead of a picture for one of the cards. "How did this card get in my…" His eyes bugged out and he face-fell. "I cheated!"
"Cheated?" Megumi lifted up an eyebrow at the boy. "What are you talking about?"
Shinsei, with huge anime tears dripping down his face, pulled the blank-faced card out of his shirt pocket. "I put this there so it wouldn't be in the way, and I forgot about it! And my Greed Illusion trap card wouldn't have worked because…because…" He hung his head and sighed. "I guess I lost already, huh?"
"Don't worry about it." Megumi smiled at how surprisingly honest this boy was being. She hadn't noticed what he had done, and he would have gotten away with it had he kept his mouth shut. "Since you told me, I'll just pretend it didn't happen."
Shinsei took a deep breath and then lifted his head back up. "Are you sure?"
"Of course I'm sure, now hurry up and make your next move!" Megumi pointed at his chest. "I want to defeat you with my full power and with a true win, not some pitiful technicality!"
"Just because you asked for it, here's my full power!" Snapping up a card, Shinsei smirked as a huge red R appeared in air above him. "Right Justice will destroy Purgatory and put this game back to normal!" All around them, the golden fires instantly went out. "Now I set three face-down cards and end my turn."
Megumi drew. "I play the magic card Return to the Border between Worlds! One field magic card that normally requires a special sacrifice to be played that is in the graveyard is activated now! Return Purgatory to its former glory!" All around them the golden fires came alive once more. "Purgatory doesn't share the effect of my Heaven-Hell card, so you don't have to worry about your only monster being destroyed."
Shinsei could actually feel the fires now, and that worried him. Somewhere, deep inside his heart, he knew this was different than a normal duel. The blows hurt more than they should have, and the monsters felt much more real than normal.
Megumi pointed at Nightman. "After switching my Dark Torturer into attack mode I go after your life points! Go now!" The demon howled and it ran right at the superhero.
To be continued…
To Justin: I might put Kyle in…maybe. I honestly have no idea where to put him.
To Seeker of the Soul: I thought you might like these two ritual monsters and their powers.
To Darksoulkai: I'm not so sure…other than a scant few E-Heroes in his graveyard thanks to Dark Torturer, he won't be drawing any assistance during this duel.
To John: How is that you always seem to say things that make no sense?