Disclaimer: No I do not own Yugioh.
Tournament of Tears
Chapter 26: I am of the Dragon
As they ran up the stairs towards the top of the building, every member of the group had their doubts that it would be easy to make it to Midnight. Ichigo had already been forced into an agreement that he wouldn't duel anyone up until they reached Midnight, so that he could preserve his strength. That left Ryu, Kenshin, Deondre, Judai, and the others to deal with any of the remaining priests that got in their way. Out of their group, the only duelists left who hadn't already broken away to duel one of their obstacles were Ryu, Adriel, Ichigo, and Eri.
"Do you think that we can make it the rest of the way with the few duelists we have left?" Ichigo wasn't afraid to tear down any of the duelists that got in their way if necessary. "It won't matter if I'm fresh if we can't make it to them."
"It won't be necessary. If we have to, we'll stop and wait for the others. The Game of the Gods won't start without another duelist to challenge Midnight who is strong enough to survive the energy it brings and who is obviously against the challenger." Ryu could feel three strong prescense that would be a problem, but beyond those three anything else would be trivial. ("Sestros and two others, eh? That's fine…I can deal with Sestros on my own.") Before they had entered the building, Ryu and Rikuo had both decided to use their secondary decks to make sure that Midnight or Sestros wouldn't be able to see their new strategies. Therefore, he had his back-up Dragon Deck on hand. ("It will be enough to beat Sestros. Especially thanks to the upgrades I made to it not too long ago.")
Suddenly they were standing in empty space. It was simply blackness, and yet they could see each other clearly, meaning that it wasn't because the lights had been turned off.
"Who's there?" Ryu could feel one of those three signatures, but he wasn't sure which one. ("I doubt it is Sestros. Midnight knows that Sestros should be the last line of defense, since I could just send one of the younger children against the Torture King and keep going. No…he'll be my opponent.")
A cloaked form emerged from the blackness calmly. "Who will be my opponent?"
"Leave it to me." Adriel stepped forward, and then glanced back at Ichigo. "You had better not lose, got it?"
"Got it." Ichigo turned and ran forwards, not surprised to feel his feet touching steps as he headed up the stairs. "Come on you two!"
Ryu frowned, but followed Eri up the stairs slowly. ("Adriel…I trust that you will win.")
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As the three disappeared, Adriel finished shuffling his deck and inserted it into his duel disk. "Are you ready?"
"I hope you will prove to be entertaining, boy." The black-cloaked form lifted its arm to reveal a black duel disk strapped to its arm. "My name is Zayphen, Priest of Space. I will allow you to go first, so be pleased with my generosity."
Adriel- 4000
Zayphen- 4000
Adriel snapped the top card off of his deck and threw it onto his disk. "I won't be made a fool of by your ego! Go Sapphire Dragon!" (1900/1600) A large sapphire-encrusted dragon appeared on the field and roared loudly. "End turn!"
Zayphen drew. "Your move was rather simple. Therefore, I will try and make this simple for you to understand. Firstly, I play the magic card Condense Core." Adriel's Sapphire Dragon roared and suddenly disappeared, a small black sphere left in its place. "Your monster had been removed from the game. Also, I play the magic card Dark Matter Condenser." A face-up card appeared on his field. "This continuous magic card gains one counter for every monster card you have removed from play." A single glowing counter appeared over the card.
("A removal deck of some sort?") Adriel looked at his hand in frustration. ("My deck has no such counters for those kinds of cards…")
Zayphen slid a card into his duel disk. "I place one card face-down on the field. Also, I will place a monster card face-down on the field and end my turn."
Adriel snapped the top card off of his deck, confident in whatever it was. "Regardless of whatever your deck is, I will win!" Looking at the drawn card, he snickered. "Perfect…I play Jewel Smuggler! During this turn, I may summon one dragon type monster with a gem name or Crystal in its title without sacrifice! Go Diamond Dragon!" (2100/2800) A large sinewy dragon covered in diamond appeared on the field and snarled at Zayphen. "Diamond Breath!" His monster unleashed a blast of power that slammed into the set monster and blew it apart. "As I thought, that was a weakling. I place one card face-down on the field and end my turn."
Zayphen drew. ("Even as he duels, he doesn't seem to realize what my deck really is. That is too bad.") Another face-up magic card appeared on his field. "I play another Condense Core! Your Diamond Dragon is removed and another counter is added to my Condenser!" The giant dragon faded and a new counter of light appeared around the continuous magic card. "Now you are defenseless again."
"Not this time! I expected this effect once more!" Adriel's face-down card flipped up. "Go Crystal Hatchery! When a monster on my field leaves play because of an opponent's card, I may special a normal dragon monster from my deck that is a lower level than the removed monster to the field! Diamond Dragon was a level seven, and my choice is the level six Emerald Dragon!" (2400/1400) A new dragon covered in emerald scales appeared on the field and roared at Zayphen. Suddenly it disappeared. "What?"
"You triggered my Bottomless Trap Hole card." Zayphen's face-up card was of a monster getting pulled into a seemingly endless pit. "This card activates when a monster with 1500 or more attack points is summoned. That monster is removed from the game." Another counter appeared around his continuous magic card. "Now I'll just place a card face-down and end my turn."
Adriel snarled darkly and drew. ("He keeps removing my monsters, but I refuse to fall!") "I play Dragon Egg! One level four or lower dragon type monster is moved from my deck to my hand." He removed a card from his deck and threw it onto his disk, a new dragon with ruby scales appearing in play. "I summon Ruby Dragon!" (1600/1900)
"And I reveal D.D. Ring!" Zayphen's set card flipped up. "This trap removes one face-up monster on the field from the game!" A prismatic ring of light appeared around the Ruby Dragon's neck, and then it disappeared. Another counter appeared on his continuous magic card, making it four now.
Adriel slammed a card into his disk. "I place one card face-down on the field and end my turn."
Zayphen drew. "You are running out of hand cards."
"And so are you." Adriel was still unsure what his opponent was trying to accomplish. ("Is his deck meant simply to buy time?")
"I play Pot of Greed." Zayphen drew two more cards from his deck. "Now I place three cards face-down on the field and end my turn." The Priest no longer had any cards in his hand, and it was unsure whether he was bluffing or not.
Adriel drew. "I have just drawn your doom."
"That is nice to know." One of Zayphen's face-down cards flipped up. "Dimensional Attraction allows me to select one monster in your removed from play pile and force you to add a monster of the same level and type from your deck to your hand. I choose your level four Sapphire Dragon!"
"Then my choice is Topaz Dragon!" Adriel added another card to his hand. ("This is my best chance. Topaz Dragon cannot be affected by trap cards while face-up on my field.")
Zayphen pointed at another of his face-down cards. "Go Mind Crush! I call one card name and if that card is in your hand, you discard it! Topaz Dragon!"
Adriel blinked in surprise, but slowly complied by inserting his card into his graveyard slot. ("Why would we do such a thing? Playing a risky trap card like Dimensional Attraction just to force one more card from my hand to the graveyard. It didn't cost me anything, and it forced him to use up two cards…")
Zayphen's last face-down card flipped up. "From the look on your face, you have idea why I did my last two moves. Allow me to show you with this trap card. It is called Disappear, and it allows me to select one monster on your graveyard and remove it from the game. Topaz Dragon is removed!" A fifth counter appeared around his continuous magic card. "And now Dark Matter Condenser activates! When there are five counters on this card, I may destroy all cards in play and in both player's hands!" The card exploded loudly, blowing Adriel's set card away and the two cards in his hand as well. "Now neither of us has anything in play."
Adriel's right hand flexed slowly. ("I cannot do anything now.") "End turn."
Zayphen drew. "And that is the power of my deck. It is the power to easily place my opponent into a situation where they have nothing left. I summon Kycoo the Ghost Destroyer in attack mode!" A masked monk holding prayer beads appeared on the field. (1800/700) "Kycoo, Ghost Obliteration!" The monk threw a small slip of paper across the field that slapped onto Adriel's forehead. It flashed and suddenly started to burn against his skin painfully.
Adriel- 2200
Zayphen- 4000
Adriel collapsed to his knees and screamed, scratching at his head furiously to remove the burning piece of paper. ("I will not let this stop me…but it burns!")
"The holy power of my monster is destroying your evil blood, and anything it touches as well." Zayphen swept his cloak back. "You may take your turn when you can."
Adriel slowly stumbled to his feet, his face stained by a small stream of red and black blood that ran down his face from a rectangular wound on his forehead. "D…draw!" Sliding the top card off of his deck weakly, he looked at the piece of cardboard weakly and then inserted it into his graveyard slot. "I play Pot of Greed, drawing two cards."
Zayphen's cloak fluttered in the blackness. "And your cards?"
"Hydrogedon in attack mode!" (1600/1000) A brown-colored dinosaur made of water appeared on Adriel's field, grumbling into the air. "Also…I equip it with United We Stand! This equipment magic card allows me to raise the attack and defense of the equipped monster by 800 points per face-up monster on my field!" Light flowed around the strange monster's body as it grew stronger. (2400/1800) "Go now, Hydro Press!" His monster unleashed a torrent of muddy water that slammed into the monk and blew it apart.
Adriel- 2200
Zayphen- 3400
Adriel pointed at his field, where a new Hydrogedon appeared. "When Hydrogedon destroys a monster as a result of battle, I may special summon another! Direct attack!" (1600/1000) The new Hydrogedon sprayed Zayphen, who seemed unaffected by the attacks.
Adriel- 2200
Zayphen- 1800
Adriel's eyes started to cross slowly and he dropped to one knee, his leather jacket feeling cold against his back. ("I promised myself I would not lose to anyone. I will not fail my promise again!") Forcing himself back to his feet, he pointed at Zayphen defiantly. "Now the tables have turned against you, puppet! End turn!"
Zayphen drew. "No, they haven't. I play Swords of Revealing Light." A storm of swords made of green light fell from the sky and slammed down around Adriel's monsters. "For the next three turns you may not attack. End turn."
Adriel drew, and though his brain was still throbbing from the burning pain it had been subjected to, his memory told him what card he had drawn. "I summon Oxygedon in attack mode and end my turn." A large pterodactyl made of water appeared on his field. (1800/800)
Zayphen drew. "I play the magic card Inertial Release. One target or equipment card in play will be destroyed and negated, allowing me to draw one card." Adriel's Hydrogedon shuddered and returned to its normal stats. "United We Stand is destroyed and I draw." Sliding the drawn card into his disk, he nodded his head to Adriel. "I set one card face-down and end myturn."
Adriel drew, his mind still muddled. ("I have to strengthen my barrier against an attack.") "I play Bonding H2O! Offering two Hydrogedon and one Oxygedon, I special summon Water Dragon from my deck!" (2800/2600) His three monsters were pulled together and a giant dragon made of water was formed. "End turn."
"So you have summoned a monster with an attack power of 2800?" Zayphen scoffed. "What a pointless move. Draw." Removing the top card off of his deck, he held it up. "I play the magic card Space Theorem. I draw one card for every monster in your removed from play pile, and then discard down to one card." Discarding four cards from his hand, he pointed at his set card. "Now I reveal Dark Graceful Charity, which returns cards discarded by a magic card effect to my hand." Those four cards were spat out of his graveyard and he added them to his hand.
Adriel's eyes wavered and he nearly lost his balance. Apparently his focus wasn't on Zayphen anymore.
"Losing consciousness?" Zayphen held up a card. "Go Magic Release. I will remove up to five magic cards from your graveyard, and for each one removed I will gain 200 life points. I choose United We Stand, Bonding H2O, Jewel Smuggler, Pot of Greed, and Dragon Egg." Those named cards left Adriel's graveyard slot.
Adriel- 2200
Zayphen- 2800
Zayphen slid two cards into his graveyard. "I place two cards face-down and play Griffon's Feather Duster. All magic and trap cards on my field will be destroyed, and for every one destroyed I will gain 500 life points." His two set cards and Sword of Revealing Light exploded into nothing.
Adriel- 2200
Zayphen- 4300
Zayphen then placed a card from his hand onto his disk. "Now I summon Spatial Disturbance (?) to my field in attack mode." A large vortex of black and purple appeared in the air above him. "For every removed from play card you have, this monster's attack and defense are increased by 300. Since I have removed ten cards, its attack and defense is 3000!" (3000/3000) "Vortex Violence, eliminate Water Dragon!" The anomaly unleashed a blast of purple energy that slammed into the dragon and destroyed it instantly.
Adriel- 2000
Zayphen- 4300
Adriel pointed at his field, where three fountains of water appeared. "When Water Dragon is destroyed, I can revive its sacrifice components!" One Oxygedon and two Hydrogedon appeared on his field. (1600/1000x2) (1800/800)
"That is fine." Zayphen's Disturbance started to pulse. "When you special summon monsters during my turn, they are destroyed and you take 500 points of damage for each one killed!" The three dinosaurs shattered.
Adriel- 500
Zayphen- 4300
Zayphen crossed his arms across his chest. "End turn."
Adriel was nearly down completely, barely holding himself up with only one arm. "I…will…not…"
("Adriel…you're way too uptight about this.") A very familiar voice rang in his head.
("Pilkington? What are you doing in my head?") Adriel's vision faded in and out, showing that the damage from this game was starting to catch up with him. ("Leave me alone. I have no intent on giving up to this weakling. You are my prize, and no one else's.")
("I heard you the first 1000 times.")Ichigo's voice sounded truly irritated. ("Did it ever occur to you that it isn't healthy to obsess about stuff?")
("Why are you still talking?") Adriel somehow managed to stand up. ("I will finish this, and I do not need your help to succeed! I will win this duel!")
("You keep saying that, but I do not believe you. Adriel, are you telling me after all this time that you couldn't feel it calling out to you?")
("Calling out to me? What are you talking about?") The half-dragon demon wiped a hand across his face, and came back with a hand that was nearly painted blood red. Wiping the liquid on his coat, he started to reach for the top card of his deck. ("This is it. If I do not win…")
("They are waiting for you.")Ichigo's voice faded away slowly.
Adriel drew, and he lifted the card up. "I play Card of Sanctity. Both players draw until they are holding six cards in their hand." Both he and Zayphen drew six cards. As he looked at the drawn cards, he slowly felt his thoughts flowing back to him and his strength. ("Is this what you were talking about, Pilkington?") Then he looked up at Zayphen. "From the looks of it…" Suddenly he cracked a rather pleased smile. "…you're finished! From my hand I activate the field magic card Valley of the Dragon King!" All around them the blackness was replaced by a beautiful forest view, with numerous temples in the distance. The two stood atop a large platform of rock, which was perfectly flat for the sake of gameplay.
"This place…" Zayphen sounded absolutely astonished. "This cannot be a real card. No mortal has ever seen this place!"
"Is that so?" Adriel slid a card into his duel disk. "I set one card face-down and activate the effect of Valley of the Dragon King! By sending one magic or trap card to my graveyard, I may gain 1000 life points!" The set card shattered.
Adriel- 1500
Zayphen- 4300
"Life point gain won't save you in this duel, during my turn you will be defeated regardless of how many of your cards you sacrifice." Zayphen's focus had returned.
Adriel just kept smiling. "You don't seem to understand this place like I do." His body was suddenly surrounded by an aura of black energy. "The birthplace of the seven elemental dragons who became the King of Dragons. This is the place of fairy-tales that I heard about when I was child. I am the prince of the Dragon Demons, remember that!" A magic card appeared on his field. "I play the magic card Premature Burial! By paying 800 life points I special summon one monster from my graveyard! Come out now, Hydrogedon!" The brown dinosaur appeared on his field. "And then I tribute Hydrogedon to summon my birthright!"
Adriel- 700
Zayphen- 4300
"Your birthright?" Zayphen took a couple of steps back as the dinosaur was replaced by a giant black-scaled dragon, which seemed to suck in all of the sunlight coming from the valley.
"That is my birthright!" Adriel pointed at the dragon and it roared, the entire valley shuddering in response. "Black Valkyrie Dragoness! One of the ancient protectors of this sacred valley!" (2300/2000)
:"Heh, not strong enough…" Zayphen started to laugh, but that ended right after his body was surrounded by black flames and he started to scream in pain.
"For every card in your hand, you take 300 points of damage." Adriel watched as his dragoness snorted in distaste at what she smelled coming from Zayphen. "Roasted corpse, disgusting."
Adriel- 700
Zayphen- 2500
Zayphen slowly shook the fire off, his smoldering body quivering with rage. "How dare you…"
Adriel's dragoness roared so loud that if Zayphen had been alive his ear-drums would have exploded, quickly cutting off his protests. And then Adriel started to speak. "You, who would cause this world such pain, don't deserve the right to speak. I will silence you." A much louder roar sent an earthquake across the entire valley, and a giant shadowed form slowly lowered onto the field, black shadows coming from its body like wisps of smoke. "Black Titan Dragon is special summoned because my field magic card is in play and you have a monster in play stronger than my monsters." (2100/0)
Both of the dragons roared into the air, the sound magnificent and powerful. And Adriel knew just what they wanted. "I play the last card in my hand, and the magic card to end this duel! Its name is Evolved Chaos Scale! By tributing two dragons from my field…" His two monsters disappeared. "I can special summon Black Chaos Emperor Dragon from my deck to the field!" (3000/2500) The sky seemed to crack open, and giant black and silver dragon floated out of the crack and landed on Adriel's field.
"Chaos…Emperor…Dragon?" Zayphen nearly backed off the edge of the stone platform in fear of the titanic creature which simply loomed over him. "You…you cannot defeat my monster without sacrificing your dragon!"
"That's funny, I intended on sacrificing my dragon right now! Black Chaos Emperor Dragon's special effect requires half of my life points to activate! Shadow Apocalypse!" Adriel pointed up at the crack in the sky, which shuddered and suddenly turned into a vacuum, sucking up both his monster and Zayphen's monster at the same time. "By sacrificing my monster, I can destroy all monsters in play and then we each select the attack score of a monster our opponent controlled, which is dealt in damage to them!"
"Then it's a draw?" Zayphen was relieved, since this meant that he could challenge the boy again and win next time.
"Valley of the Dragon King's special ability activates now!" Adriel's body suddenly became wrapped in a golden sheath of light. "All effect damage to me is zero while this card remains face-up on the field!"
"But…that means…" Zayphen was suddenly staring at a phantom version of his monster that hovered in the sky above him like some kind of deadly parade balloon. "No…NO!"
Adriel watched as the Darkfire version of the monster crashed down onto its master and exploded. "Let this be a lesson to all those who would oppose my will. I will defeat Ichigo Pilkington…just you wait and see."
Adriel- 350
Zayphen- 0
To be continued…