Turn 3: The Life Force Duelist - Heal it to Win it
Beatrix yawned as she sat in her very first class; she was tired from the last night's duel. A tie with the sickly strong Candace made for an eventful first day, but the week long detention made for the most memorable, but in a bad way. She looked around her; the room looked like a rainbow, a very bland rainbow consisting of red yellow and blue. Combine that with the dull lecture the teacher was giving and her own tiredness, she soon fell asleep.
Without warning, Beatrix awoke to a gentle shaking. She gave a meek groan as she opened her eyes to a trembling world. In a hushed voice, Beatrix could hear the girl sitting next to her, "Don't get caught sleeping during Alphase's lecture. He doesn't like it."
It was a second year Obelisk Blue student with purple hair and blue eyes. Beatrix yawned again, "Oh, thank you." She said, although she did not like being roused from sleep.
At the end of class, the teacher and headmaster of Slifer Red exited the room, off to his room of the humble red dormitory. Whatever it was that he always rushed off to do escaped everyone who had ever had him as a teacher, but no one had ever bothered to try and find out what it was. As Beatrix gathered her things, she heard the voice of the girl who waked her, "So, do you doze off during class often?" She asked, her voice not sounding at all as judgmental as Beatrix would have thought it to be.
"Oh, me?" Beatrix said in surprise, "No, I'm just tired is all. I stayed up after curfew last night dueling Candace."
The girl nodded, "Yeah, I heard of that. A lot of the Obelisk students know of your tie with the princess of the prep school. Its quite the news story. My name is Freya, and I already know that yours is Beatrix."
Beatrix laughed nervously, she was not used to being famous, "Well, hello Freya. Well, I'm new here, and I have a break after this class, so what is there to do around here?"
Freya beamed, "I have a break too, so I'll show you what we do around here on break."
After a brief walk down the hallways of Duel Academy, Beatrix found herself in front of a massive circular shaped room with a large field on it for duel monsters. Beatrix was wide-eyed looking around the arena that rivaled even the one in the Blue-Eyes White Dome. Several adults and students were seated in the bleachers watching the duels. Freya clasped her hand on Beatrix's shoulder and pointed to the men and women in the bleachers, "See them, those adults in the seats up there? They are all either teachers or administrators here at Duel Academy. They watch the students' duels here."
Beatrix looked worried, "Are they even grading us while we're relaxing?!" She asked Freya nervously.
"Nah, they watch out for talent so they can set up good duels during the monthly exhibition events. Some people are too nervous to duel here because of it, and others duel here all the time to show off their stuff and maybe becomming the next Kaiser."
"Kaiser?"
"You don't know who the Kaiser is?!" Freya blurted out all of a sudden, "Oh, right, you're new here. Kaiser is the king of duelists, the best duelist in the school. The current Kaiser was recognized after serveral duels here and during the events. I've never met him personally, but I've seen him duel. He is the ultimate master at controlling duels." Suddenly, Freya's eyes became dewy and Beatrix looked at her with a raised eyebrow, "He duels like an artisan, controlling his opponent's moves with his perfectly planned strategies."
Beatrix smiled at her, "Awww, you like Kaiser!" She said as if she made some great discovery.
"N-no I don't ! I just think he's a good duelist." Freya managed to stammer out, a blush clearly on her face.
Beatrix laughed at her new friend's apparent crush on this Kaiser, king of duelists. As Beatrix was laughing and Freya was adamantly pleading with her friend to stop, a group gathered before them consisting of a wide variety of the students at the academy. Beatrix and Freya quickly composed themselves, and they looked at the gang with wonderment, "So, what's up?" Beatrix managed to ask them.
The group of students did not answer her, instead blankly staring at Beatrix, almost afraid to ask her what they wanted. Fortunately for them a voice came from above and to the right and voiced their desire. He was a third year Obelisk Blue student with blonde hair, "They want to see the one who defeated Kaiba and tied with Candace."
Freya jumped in surprise, "Kaiser!" She said, covering her blush with her hands, "W-what are you doing here?"
"Watching the duels probably," Beatrix answered, "Well, if its a duel they want, I'm game!"
Suddenly the students' attitudes turned from bold to sheepish, as none of them wanted to duel against Beatrix. The girl looked annoyed, since it did not look like she would have an opponent, but then something unexpected happened, "I'll duel you."
Beatrix turned her head to Freya, "Alright, I'd love to see a second year in action."
Freya look at Beatrix, she was smiling but her eyes were focused and steely, "Sorry Beatrix, but I won't hold back." She said, and then thought to herself as she spied the Kaiser in the corner of her eye, "I will show you my skill Kaiser, my controlling strategy that I hope will make you notice me."
Beatrix saw in Freya's eyes what she was thinking, and nodded to her as if she had not noticed it, "I wouldn't have it any other way."
Beatrix and Freya stood opposite of each other on the large duel field, and drew their cards. The student's scrambled to get to their seats, and watch this duel. Kaiser also sat down where he had addressed Beatrix, intent to see exactly what her skill was. Perhaps he would even duel her if she was strong enough.
"Challengers first, draw!" Freya swiped the sixth card off the top of her deck, "I'll set a monster face-down in defense mode, and activate my Spell Absorption in stereo!" She said the two hologram cards appeared in front of her, facing her opponent, "This spell card gives me five hundred life points when a spell is cast, and since I activated another one, I'll gain five hundred life points.
Freya's Life Points: 4500
"That's not all, I have two more spells to cast. Dian Keto the Cure Master will give me a thousand life points, and my two Spell Absorptions will give me a thousand more!"
Freya's Life Points: 6500
"And finally I'll activate Life Force Cannon, and pay five hundred life points to damage you by five hundred, but we all know that I'm actually going to gain five hundred."
A small white laser cannon cannon appeared on the field in front of Freya, there was a short and wide tube in the back of the cannon, and an aura of blue energy flowed from Freya into the cannon via that tube. The cannon shone to life and fired a small beam of blue light at Beatrix.
Freya's Life Points: 7000
Beatrix's Life Points: 3500
Everyone in the audience gasped in awe, on the first turn of the duel this girl they did not even know of had gained such a good lead on the favorite to win, "That will be the end of my turn."
Beatrix laughed, she had never seen such a good opening move. Simultaneously decreasing her opponent's life points and increasing her own, and it was a large increase. The lead Freya had on her was almost unfair. Was this the strength of a second year student? Beatrix was intent on finding out, "Wow, you sure have me in a pickle!" She said as she drew and looked at her hand, "I'll start off with Celestial Transformation!" The card then appeared on the field, a spell card, "Sure, you'll gain five hundred life points, but I'll get Bountiful Artemis to sacrifice for Airknight Parshath." With that, the fairy she had special summoned appeared and disappeared making way for the heavenly adorned warrior of heaven.
Airknight Parshath ATK 1900 DEF 1400
Freya's Life Points: 7500
"Now, I'll attack your face-down monster with Parshath!" Beatrix says as she prepares to draw a card because of her monster's effect.
Parshath's shining sword lunged toward the horizontal face-down card, and as it did, the hologram flipped over and it revealed a white shield with transluscent blue tubes stretching into the ground toward Freya. The sword comes to a dead stop on the shield, and as it did, white energy funneled from the sword through the shield and into the tubes, and then a white aura surrounded Freya.
Freya's Life Points: 8100
"You attacked Life Force Shield - Mecha Tech II!" Freya announced, "Instead of taking damage when you attack this mighty shield, I gain life points."
Life Force Shield - Mech Tech II ATK 0 DEF 2500
Beatrix snapped her fingers, "Well darn, I can hardly believe that such a monster exists! Well, I'll set a card face-down and end my turn."
Kaiser, who had been carefully watching the duel up to this point was slightly impressed, "Well, that Freya ha managed to get her life points well above twice her opponent's in one round. It seems she is even more interesting than this newbie who is supposedly defeated the propietor of this school."
Freya drew her next card, "My turn! Now, I'll summon Life Force Director - Mecha Tech I!" Another machine appeared on Freya's side of the field, a white humanoid with a wide blue funnel in its back and a laser cannon in its chest.
Life Force Director - Mecha Tech I ATK 1100 DEF 1500
"Now, I can pay five hundred life points so Life Force Director can attack your life points directly. I'm glad its the only attacking monster I have, because its the only attack I can make this turn!" Freya says, as a blue aura flows from her into the funnel in the back of her monster. The cannon in the front of the Life Force Director hummed to life as it charged with the life force of its summoner, and then blasted forth a blue beam of light that striked Beatix on the chest and knocked her back a few feet.
Beatrix's Life Points: 2400
"That's not all! I activate the quick play spell card Sebek's Blessing from my hand! Now I gain the life points you just lost, not to mention the life points I get from my Spell Absorption!" Freya adds with a serious tone of voice.
Freya's Life Points: 10200
"Wow, over ten thousand life points in but two turns! But what are you gonna do with them all?" Beatrix asked Freya, happy to be dueling against such a strategy.
Beatrix's joy seemed to rub off on Freya, and despite the fact that she was dueling so as to gain the love of Kaiser, she could not help but have a bit of fun with her new friend, "Heh, well, you'll see in a minute Beatrix. End of turn."
Beatrix drew her card, "Alright, I'll activate The Sanctuary in the Sky, the venue of the angels!" With a great wipe of white clouds, the entire arena looked as if the duel was now taking place in the sky. A great white castle appeared behind Beatrix, and shined like a beacon of hope for the girl who stood before it, "Now I'll summon Zeradis, Herald of Heaven!"
Freya's Life Points: 11200
A winged creature weilding a great spear emerged from the castle and settled before Beatrix. The fairy stood firm in front of it opposition, strengthened from the powers of the castle and bolstered by the confidence its summoner had in it.
Zeradis, Herald of Heaven ATK 2100 DEF 800
"I'll deal more damage if I attack with Zeradis, but if I attack with Parshath I'll get to draw. I think I'll draw instead, since Freya'll probably only heal it on her next turn." She thinks to herself, "Airknight Parshath will attack Life Force Director, Heaven's Sword Slash!"
The heavenly swordsman dashed toward the machine on Freya's side of the field, and slashed it with an upward diagonal slash from left to right, rending the machine apart, and causing a rush of holy energy that hits Freya.
Freya's Life Points: 10400
"Parshath's effect allows me to draw." Beatrix says as she swipes a card from the top of her deck, "Well, I could use this, so I'll save it for later." She thinks to herself as she places the card in her duel disk, "I'll set one card face-down and end my turn."
Freya drew her card, "I'll sacrifice Life Force Shield to summon my Life Force Tank - Mecha Tech III!"
The shiled is replaced by a large white tank with similar blue tubes pointed toward Freya. The tank readied its cannon, and imposed a force upon the field that no other monster could match.
Life Force Tank - Mecha Tech III ATK 2400 DEF 1500
Freya pointed her finger at Zeradis, "Life Force Tank will attack Zeradis, Herald of Heaven with Energizing Blast!"
The tank aims its gun at Beatrix's monster and charges some sort of energy in its inner mechanisms before firing a shell at Zeradis. When the explosion cleared Zeradis was nowhere to be seen and a blue aura covered Freya again.
Freya's Life Points: 12500
Beatrix frowned, "Hey, your life points went up again!" She exclaimed.
Freya smiled, "Yeah, its Life Force Tank's effect; when it destroys a monster, I gain life points equal to that monsters attack. So by destroying Zeradis, I gained twenty-one hundred life points! I'll end my turn with that."
Beatrix looked at the situation with a critical eye. There was a powerful monster on the field that increased her opponent's life points with every monster it destroyed, and she only had Airknight Parshath on the field to oppose it. She would have to come up with some sort of delay tactic to et her strength up to not only defeat this tank, but to lower Freya's incredibly high life points to zero.
She drew her card and looked at it; Swords of Revealing Light. Sure it would give Freya a thousand more life points, but there were no better moves that she could make at the moment with that Life Force Tank on the field, "I activate Swords of Revealing Light and end my turn."
When the spell card entered her duel disk, three swords fell from the sky and stuck fast into the clouds at Beatrix's feet. A shining white light came to life between the three swords, creating a barrier to protect her from any monster attacks. It was a temporary barrier, but it was sure to keep her in the game for the next three turns.
Freya's Life Points: 13500
Freya drew her card, "Well, thank you for the life points, I'll be sure to make good use of them. Like now, when I activate another copy of Life Force Cannon!"
The similar white cannon appeared before Beatrix, "Aww no." Beatrix groans as the cannon fired another laser at her. She folded her arms over her chest after the beam struck her another hard blow. Which stung more than losing the life points, however, was the fact that her opponent was gaining five hundred life points rather than losing them. It was truly an unfair situation, and there did not seem like there was a way out.
Beatrix's Life Points: 1900
Freya's Life Points: 14000
Freya looked over to Kaiser, "Do you see my skill Kaiser? I hope you can see how I show my tribute to you; a strategy of control second only to yours." She thought to herself, "Beatrix, I cannot attack this turn, so I will defer to you." She told her.
Beatrix drew her card and sighed, "Whew, am I glad that you can't attack yet." She said as she looked at her card, "I summon Bountiful Artemis in defense mode and end my turn."
Bountiful Artemis ATK 1600 DEF 1700
Freya drew, "Alright, now I'm no longer going to have to worry about having no cards in my hand for a while. I activate the spell card Life Force Draw! By paying a thousand life points a card, I can keep drawing until I decide to stop, so lets go!" She began drawing card after card, speaking in a hushed voice as she decided when she should stop, and finally ceased after drawing five cards, "Okay, so I drew five cards, so I'll pay five thousand. Thanks to my Spell Absoptions though, I'll actually only pay four thousand."
Freya's Life Points: 10000
Freya smiled as she looked in her hand and thought, "Alright, with these cards in my hand, my victory is assured!" Freya pointed to Beatrix, "This duel ends now! I'll begin your downfall with my final Life Force Cannon."
A beam of blue light struck Beatrix again, repeating the same old process that she was now used to.
Beatrix's Life Points: 1400
Freya's Life Points: 10500
Freya then took out her favorite and most powerful card, and with her life points so much higher than Beatrix's, she would easily defeat her opponent and still have more than two times her starting score. She slid the spell card in her duel disk and began to tell Beatrix of its effect, "This is the final spell card Beatrix. This is Life Force Cannon Mark II! Unlike the first one, Mark II allows me to pay any amount of life points to damage you accordingly! So by paying fourteen hundred life points, I can defeat you and win the duel! You may be good a turning the attacks of monsters, but you cannot stop a spell card!"
A gigantic white and blue laser cannon appeare before Freya, and several tubes on the back side of the cannon stretched out and came within a hair's width of Freya's body. Her body became enclosed in a blue aura again, and that aura was sucked through the tubes and powered the powerful laser. The cannon began charging, and aimed directly at Beatrix through her swords and monsters. Beatrix pressed a button on her duel disk and replied to Freya, "Actually, I can stop that too." She announced as the face-down card that had been on her field for most of the duel raised for all to see, "With Cursed Seal of the Forbidden Spell, I can negate the activation of your Life Force Cannon Mark II, and also make the spell forbidden for you to play again for the rest of the duel!"
Freya looked on in horror as the her cannon slowly vanished from the field, "This can't be happening! Even though I have another Life Force Cannon Mark II in my hand, I can't activate it because of that curse!" She thought to herself.
Kaiser smiled to himself while he was watching the duel, "Well, it appears that Beatrix isn't ready to admit defeat yet."
Freya smiled, "Well, it seems that you have stopped my most powerful card Beatrix!" She comended the younger duelist.
Beatris smiled back at her opponent, "That isn't the best part, when my trap was activated, I can draw one card." She said as she looked at the card she drew and smiled even wider when she saw what it was, "And since I drew Voltanis the Adjudicator, and the activation of my counter trap card was a success, I can special summon him! I offer Airknight Parshath and Bountiful Artemis as tributes to summon Voltanis the Adjudicator!" The two fairies in front of Beatrix disappeared and were replaced by the great fairy descending from upon high. Voltanis settled in front of Beatrix and raised its staff into the air, "Also, I can destroy cards on the field equal to the amount of tributed monsters, so say goodbye to your Spell Absorptions!"
Voltanis the Adjudicator ATK 2800 DEF 1400
The purple light from the Adjudicator's staff struck Freya's spell cards, and caused them to disappear. Freya looked almost delighted to see that Beatrix, who had been under her heel the entire duel had not only stopped some of her best spells, but she had a monster on the field even more powerful than her tank, "Well, that's surprising."
Beatrix sighed in relief, glad to finally have the field advntage, "Well, how are you going to end your turn Freya?"
Freya looked at her hand, which now had three cards in it, and the perfect situation to summon her own key monster, "Well, I'm not done yet. I'll pay eight hundred life points to special summon Life Force Director - Mecha Tech I."
Freya's Life Points: 9700
"And now I'll sacrifice my Life Force Cannon and Life Force Director to summon my ultimate monster; Life Force Giant - Mech Tech IV!" Freya exclaims as her two monsters disappear to make way for a gigantic white machine with thick forearms and red stripes running up and down, defining the figure of the imposing giant.
Life Force Giant - Mecha Tech IV ATK 1000 DEF 1000
The giant mech's blue eyes shined to life, and it opened its palm and thrusted down toward its summoner. A massive blue tube shot out from its hand, and Freya's blue aura began to enter the machine, "Sure, its original attack points are low, but when its summoned, I can give up any amount of my my life points to increase both its attack and defense by the same value, and I'm going to pay six thousand!"
Freya's Life Points: 3700
Life Force Giant - Mecha Tech IV ATK 7000 DEF 7000
Beatrix looked on in awe as the giant gained so much power, "Well, way to make my monster look insignificant..." She said feeling downtrodden, "Oh well, at least my Swords are still in effect so you can't attack for two more turns."
Freya chuckled, "Yeah, but good luck defeating my Life Force Giant!"
Kaiser leaned forward, taking great interest in this duel. He had heard stories of the Life Force Giant, that it was a card foresaken by hundreds of duelists lucky enough to have gotten it, because of its incredibly hard to use effects. It was great to see someone actually use that card to its fullest potential,. Beatrix was no dueling slouch either; she had managed to completly dismantle Freya's best strategy, and did not look like she was ready to give up, even in the face of a seven thousand attack point monster.
Beatrix drew her card, "Darn, nothing. Your turn."
Freay drew, "I'll set a monster face-down in defense mode and end my turn."
Beatrix followed suit, but this time she smile wide when she saw what card she had gotten, "I activate the spell card Smashing Ground to destroy your monster with the highest defense strength, and since that is most obviously your Life Force Giant, it will be smashed."
Freya waved her finger in front of her, "Not so fast Beatrix. Life Force Giant can negate your spell if I pay a thousand life points, so its your Smashing Ground's that's gonna get smashed!"
As the massive fist was about to collide with the giant, the Life Force Giant began to glow a bright blue created from Freya's life force. The fist hit the head of the huge machine, and instead of crushing the monster like it had many others, it shattered and the giant was left unharmed. Beatrix laughed as she took her Smashing Gounds card, and put it in the graveyard slot of her duel disk, "Wow, now that's a monster! How am I gonna beat it?"
Freya's Life Points 2700
Freya smiled, but her voice was serious, "You can't, not when I play it. All I need to do is wait a few more turns, and I will defeat you."
Beatrix suddenly looked serious as well, "I will find a way, I refuse to submit."
Freya smiled confidently, "Then let's see who'll win. My turn, draw!" She said as she took the top card off of her deck, "End my turn. Next turn I get to attack, so you'd best be prepared for it Beatrix."
As the final sword disappeared from Beatrix's side of the field, she took her last card and hoped for something that would save her, "I'll set a card face-down and end my turn."
Freya took her last card and pointed at Voltanis the Adjudicator, "You foolishly left your Voltanis in attack mode, so you'll lose when my giant attacks it. You need to be more focused during a duel. Life Force Giant, attack Voltanis the Adjudicator with Ultima Burst!"
The giant mech pointed its right fist at Voltanis, and as it did, a large laser cannon shot out from its forearm. A sharp blue light shot forth from this giant's powerful weapon, and imposed upon Voltanis, but before the deadly light could incinerate Beatrix's favorite monster, the card Beatrix had set rose from the field, "Seems all those attack points have blinded you Freya, because I set a trap card called Magic Cylinder! All of those attack points are going to be redirected toward you!"
The blinding beam entered one of the two cylinders, and came out the other one, this time aimed at Freya, "Oh, no!" Freya shouted as the huge beam completely covered her. When the beam finally dissipated, Freya could be seen kneeling, clutching her side. Even though holograms were supposed to be painless, the horrifying sight of such a powerful laser is enough to convince the mind that it was real.
Freya pounded the ground with her fist lightly, "Darn, I was hoping I could defeat you so Kaiser would notice me." She said silently as the holograms disappeared.
Beatrix walked over to Freya and bent over to talk to her, "Don't feel bad Freya, you are one strong duelist, I'm sure Kaiser will recognize that even if you didn't win. Although, you may want to watch out for those traps in the future." She advised with a chuckle.
Freya laughed too, "Yeah, I was a little blind there."
Footsteps could be heard approaching the two friends; they looked up to find Kaiser, "Well done you two. I haven't seen such a good duel in a long time."
"Oh! Ah, thank you Kaiser!" Freya said hurriedly.
"Please, call me Cyrus." He told them.
Freya giggled uncontrollably so Beatrix had to cover for her, "Well, its better than calling you Kaiser."
Freya was visably blushing while she was contemplating calling the Kaiser by his name, "He he, mister Cytus..." She said silently to herself.
Cyrus did not hear Freya, because he had turned his attention to Beatrix, "You have a very adaptable strategy. We might just cross paths when you pick up your game." Cyrus then turned and walked away.
Beatrix was beginning to fume with anger at Cyrus' arrogant statement, but was cut off before she could by Freya, "Beatrix..." She said in a jealous voice, "Are you trying to steal Cyrus away from me?" She questioned her friend.
Beatrix forgot her anger to quickly respond to Freya, "W-what?! No I'm not! Its not my fault!" She stammered, trying to convince her friend that she was not moving in on her territory.
The school year has just begun, and Beatrix has just felt the presence of the elite at Duel Academy. Even though she had defeated her new friend Freya, she knew that there were even more powerful duelists on this island with her. There was still the rematch with Candace that she needed, and then there was Kaiser Cyrus, the greatest duelist in the school. She would have to meet these challenges head first.
Author's Note: Man, I'm sorry for the long freaking break I took from this story. I sincerely thank everone who has reviewed GX Shuffle, and everyone who has added me as either a favorite author or added this story as a favorite story. That was all the assurance I needed to continue work on this, not to mention the fun I have crafting all these new cards. I actually really like Freya's Life Force monsters, but we haven't even seek Kaiser Cyrus' cards. I hope you enjoy it as much I enjoyed writing it. Now, its time for today's strongest card, brought to you by all of you!
Today's Strongest Card
Life Force Cannon Mark II/Normal Spell Card
You can only activate this card when you have three "Life Force Cannons" in the Graveyard. Pay any amount of life points to inflict an equal amount of damage to your opponent's life points.