Wow. I'm really getting punished for trying to insert something table-ish. I apologize for the sloppiness of the score count below. I lost patience with the formatting and said to hell with it. I hope you can adequately make sense of it.

Anyway, YES! Two reviewers! I can't wait for further input! I'm not being sarcastic, as sad as it might be, I'm ecstatic about finally having some reviewers. It's been a while since I felt that glee that comes with seeing a review alert and just wondering with baited anticipation what wonderful comments I may or may not have received from you, the reader(s). Haha. ahem Anyway, it's definitely an inspiration to see a new reader. Thanks, all of you who support my work.

Chapter 9: Chaos

By: Agent Baron

As the six duelists clashed back and forth, monsters came and went, Life Points rose and fell. Every duelist was giving every once of effort they could to the duel, each fighting for his or her own reasons. To the Doma soldiers' dismay, not one of them had drawn the 'Seal of Orichalcos' card. However, the longer this duel stands, the greater the chances of that evil card being drawn will be.

Current state of the duel:

+Zombie McZombiefeister (LP: 6100)

--Monster(s): Mystic Swordsman LV6

--M/T: 1 set M/T

+Lighty von Light-Light (LP: 4800)

--Monster(s): 1 set monster

--M/T: 1 set M/T

+Mecha-Dog Marron (LP: 5000)

--Monster(s): 1 set monster, 4 Sheep Tokens

--M/T: 2 set M/T (both disabled by Xing Zhen Hu)

+Baron Von Stupor (LP: 7300)

--Monster(s): 1 set monster

--M/T: 2 set M/T

+Rebecca Hawkins (LP: 9400)

--Monster(s): Guardian Angel Joan, Diamond Head Dragon

--M/T: none

+Amy Anderson (LP: 7500)

--Monster(s): Star Boy, Mobius the Frost Monarch

--M/T: Xing Zhen Hu, A Legendary Ocean

"I've played my 'Creature Swap' card on you, Rebecca… so what's it going to be?" asked Lighty. "Are you going to lose your Powerful Diamond Head Dragon or are you going to lose your ever-useful Guardian Angel Joan?"

"The last thing I ever want you to do is gain any more Life Points! Take the Diamond Head Dragon!" Rebecca responded with burning determination.

Her Diamond Head Dragon flew over to Lighty's side of the field and his set monster card whisked its way to hers.

"Next I'll play the magic card 'Raigeki' on Amy." Lighty continued. "All of your monsters are now destroyed!"

Lightning shot down and struck both the Star Boy and Mobius, felling them both.

"Now I'll use my new Diamond Head Dragon and attack your Life points directly, Amy!"

Lighty's Diamond Head Dragon made a beeline for Amy, and as it approached her, it swung its tail, striking her hard in the chest and knocking her over. Her Life Points fell to 4600.

"Ah…! I'm in danger!" she cried.

"Don't worry, Amy!" Rebecca assured her. "I'll help you out with this! I summon the Injection Fairy Lily!" A small fairy nurse materialized and waved a syringe about, happily. "By sacrificing 2000 of my Life Points, I can increase the Injection Fairy Lily's attack by 3000 points, bringing it to 3400! Now, I'll order it to attack your Diamond Head Dragon, Lighty!"

"No!" he cried in surprise as the fairy injected itself and bulked up heavily. It gave the dragon a quick one-two punch in the face, and the dragon fell instantaneously.

"Now…" said Rebecca. "I order Guardian Angel Joan to attack your Life Points directly, Lighty!"

Joan soared over to Lighty and sent her sword straight through Lighty. Lighty grabbed his chest in agony, and when she pulled her sword back out, he dropped to his knees from the pressure.

"Arg… only 1500 Life Points left…" he groaned.

"I will draw," Marron announced. "I will sacrifice my set Nimble Momonga in order to tribute summon the Manticore of Darkness."

On the field materialized a massive anthropomorphic lion with rippling muscles. It had the tail of a scorpion and broad black wings protruding from its back. "My Manticore shall attack Amy directly."

Swimming over to Amy, the Manticore slapped her legs out from under her, sending her Life Points spiraling to 2300.

"I draw… and I'll set one M/T card. That ends my turn." Amy said, wincing from the blow.

"My turn!" said Zombie. "I'll summon the Gene-Warped Werewolf!"

"Unbelievable! I didn't know a four-star monster with 2000 base attack points existed!" Amy exclaimed.

From Zombie's duel disk burst a warped creature, only vaguely resembling a wolf. It was white, yet with no fur, and had four arms. It had a dog's ears, sticking straight up, yet no muzzle, and barely any fur covering its eyes. It glared menacingly its foes and hovered above the water by an unseen force. "Ha… all comes with working for Doma! Now I'll use my Mystic Swordsman to attack your face-down monster!"

The Mystic Swordsman leapt over to Von Stupor's set monster and stabbed it fiercely with its sword. Extracting an imp from the card, it disappeared.

"My Spear Cretin's effect doesn't activate…" Von Stupor observed forlornly.

"None of your flip effect monsters stand a chance against my Mystic Swordsman!" taunted Zombie. And as long as you keep defending, I'll keep chopping down your lone monsters, and attacking you directly with my warwolf! Go, my warwolf, and use your feral slash attack!"

The warwolf was nearly unseen as it dashed to Von Stupor. With its four arms, it gave Von Stupor two quick slashes and leapt back to its position in front of Zombie.

"I will play 'Final Flame'!" declared Von Stupor upon drawing. "This card inflicts 600 points of direct damage to the enemy!"

Flames erupted from the ground and engulfed Zombie, Lighty, and Marron, sending their Life Points down to 5500, 900, and 4400 respectively.

"I draw, and summon the Hysteric Fairy!" announced Lighty. "Next, I'll use this monster to attack Amy's Life Points directly!"

"Not so fast!" Amy snapped back. "I'll activate Tornado Wall! This card reduces all Battle Damage done to me to 0, as long as 'Umi' is face-up on the field!"

A mass of tornadoes appeared as the Hysteric Fairy flew towards Amy. As fast as it charged in, it was thrown back out and landed in the water before it could restabilize in the air. Failing to get out of the water, it swam back over to Lighty's field and merely treaded.

"Alright, this is it!" whooped Rebecca. "I'll summon the Fire Princess! This monster has a special that whenever I gain Life Points, my opponent takes 500 points of direct damage!"

A princess appeared on her side of the field, wearing a long red robe and holding a wooden staff. She seemed to emanate small flames all about her body, like an aura. "Now I'll sacrifice 2000 of my Life Points to increase my Injection Fairy Lily's attack by 3000, and I'll attack Lighty's Hysteric Fairy!"

The Injection Fairy Lily bulked itself up once more and drilled its knuckles straight into the hysteric fairy's skull, wasting the rest of Lighty's Life Points.

"What?! How could I lose?!" Lighty roared.

"Now, Guardian Angel Joan! Attack Zombie's Mystic Swordsman to protect Von Stupor's set monsters! This will also restore Life Points to me equal to the attack of your monster!"

Obeying Rebecca, the great angel flew to Zombie's Swordsman and called a bolt of lightning to strike it down while it treaded water.

"Marron!! Where is the Seal of Orichalcos?!" Lighty bellowed.

"It is in the deck. Odds are in favor of drawing it any moment now," Marron unenthusiastically responded.

"Stop talking about odds and just draw it! We can't be wasting our time here!"

"Stop relying solely on that card to win! 'Tis exactly why you lost!" Von Stupor berated him. "Now take your place on the losers' bench as we finish the rest of your friends!"

"You're one to talk about losing, Baron! You can't even put up a decent assault!" Zombie replied.

"I want my deck back from Baron Von Engar!"

Suddenly, Lighty and Zombie appeared surprised.

"You know Engar?" Lighty asked him.

"No, but he sure knows me! I can't figure out what that guy wants from me, but he stole my deck, and I made this one a replacement while I track him down! Is he with Doma?"

"Ha… why should we tell you? Not like it matters anyway. Your soul won't be around long enough to see him or your deck again."

"Why would you say such a thing? What inspired you three to be so evil anyway?"

"We're not the evil ones. You are," Zombie cut in. "We are merely harbingers of a new beginning."

"A new beginning?"

"I have drawn the card," Marron interrupted.

Everyone looked to Marron.

"You finally got it?" Zombie spoke. "Awesome! Now we can finish this duel!"

"I will activate 'Seal of Orichalcos'," Marron continued. "With this card, the odds of victory have now become significantly more favorable."

The all-familiar blue lights lit up the surrounding environment as the remaining five duelists became trapped within its borders.

"Oh, no…" Von Stupor lamented.

"Things are looking much worse for my Life Points…" Amy groaned, as the legendary ocean and tornado wall both faded away with the replacement field magic card, 'Seal of Orichalcos'.

"We can't afford to make any more mistakes…" Rebecca said to herself, well aware of the true danger she now faced.