Here's chapter nineteen of my Yu-Gi-Oh GX fanfic. For those of you who have been asking questions I will not answer any questions regarding Crypt, Tao, or anyone to keep the mystery up and see if you can figure anything out.
To recap on the current duel a duelist claiming to be Tao's murderer named Crypt has challenged an Obelisk Blue student named Lance Nye who has been gaining Intel on the current inhabitants of the Slifer Red dorm. Crypt is currently left with 2200 life points three cards in his hand, no monster on the field…for the time being, one face-down card and one face-up trap card, Cryptic Shield.
Lance is currently left with 3700 life points, two cards in hand and one monster on the field, Mutated Astro Warrior.
DISCLAIMER: ALL THE CREDIT FOR YU-GI-OH GOES TO KAZUKI TAKAHASHI AND SHONEN JUMP. I OWN ONLY SOME OF THE OCs AND THE DECKS USED BY THEM.
Duel XIX: Logic Against Belief; Cryptid-Species v. Sci-Fi, Part 2
"I summon Cryptid-Species Death Raptor (?/?) in attack mode!" Crypt shouted as a stray bolt of lightning struck the middle of the battlefield. Crypt's eyes frenzied as the humanoid form of a creature covered with feathers, two large wings attached to its back, and long arms and legs with claws at the end of the hands and feet took the battlefield with a piercing screech.
"Isn't that a level seven monster?" Lance said able to see the card through the howling wind and pelting rain.
"It's simple, if I control no monsters and you control at least one with more than 2000 attack points I can automatically summon him to the field. Still don't believe in monsters?"
"Nope, because that's nothing but a hologram," Lance said confidently. "It causes nothing but artificial pain. Give me your best shot!"
"Then be prepared," Crypt said. "Death Raptor is one of four cards in my deck that have a stranger growth rate than the others. I take the up to three Cryptid-Species cards from my graveyard or my removed from play zone and then I add their growth rate together and that becomes Death Raptor's growth rate. So by returning Chupacabra, Sasquatch, and Mongolian Death Worm to my deck my growth rate for Death Raptor becomes 500+700+800 which totals up to 2000 every other standby phase."
"That is to say it has no attack points currently, right?" Lance observed.
"Exactly," Crypt replied. "I end."
"Hmm," Lance thought. "He has one face-down card, one trap card that'll protect him so long as he has it, and a monster that has a growth rate of 2000 every two turns, but has no growth in between. He's too confident for it to be simple stupidity, it has to be that face-down. He's putting misguided faith into it, so let's take care of that," he finished looking at his cards, "It all goes into this draw then."
"What if I were to tell you that this card will be the last card you battle from my deck?" Crypt asked in a challenging manner.
"I'd say you need stronger meds, or a powerful sedative. Draw!" Lance declared. "Yes!" he thought in success. "I sacrifice my Mutated Astro Warrior to summon Cruiser Captain (2100/1900) in attack mode!" he called out summoning a man with a gray military suit. "And thanks to him I can destroy that face-down card!" he declared as the man pulled out a pistol and shot it past the large creature and then destroyed the card directly behind him. "Now attack, Charge Shot!"
The man shot his pistol again with his hand behind his back and recoiled back as it fired a charged bullet towards the seemingly helpless creature. The Death Raptor screeched in a high pitched scream which stopped the bullet and made it fall to the ground. Lance widened his eyes as the monster charged the man and slashed through him with elongated claws. Lance watched as his Captain was slashed in half and then destroyed.
"You made him mad," Crypt said. "On the turn in which a card other than Death Raptor was destroyed by a monster effect and that monster then attacks him he negates the attack and then destroys the monster."
"Interesting," Lance commented. "I'm guessing this is all based on the idea that it's a territorial creature?"
"You would be correct in your assumption," Crypt said.
After a few seconds of silence Lance placed a card face-down leaving him with one card in hand.
"Hey, Lance," Crypt called out with his voice calming. "Have you ever heard of monster poisoning? It's a condition that is rarely seen and never talked about because it would reveal the existence of these creatures. It's caused when a creature like Death Raptor or the Mongolian Death Worm attacks but fails to kill its prey. The small bits of poison circulating within the veins of the creature is then extended to their means of attack or defense, the condition takes up to ten years to fully kill a person, but that time decreases by half every time you get attacked by another creature. Tao was attacked twice, he was going to die after five years by the Mothman scar the Death Raptor scar simply speeded up the process. In some cases people are shown to have deformities in their body, but in two cases this was shown through direct body changes."
"What do you mean?" Lance asked. "What do you mean two cases? Is Tao one of them?"
"No…" Crypt said shaking his head. "…I am. The other is already at this school, and you've seen him, you've talked to him, and worst of all, you've trusted him."
"Who're you talking about?" Lance asked.
"Don't you think it's strange? You have a person here who has a double personality, a boy who spent three days locked in a pyramid and then became the most depressive person since, well I can't think of anyone more depressive, a girl who can barely remember her own past yet can always seem to look to the future," Crypt said as Lance began to look at him with widened eyes. "You also have a student who became possessed by his own heirloom, one student who practices black magic, and so many other people whose stories have yet to be told in entirety, but right now I'm only interested in your story. You came from a modest background, one where without any kind of recognition of what you could do, at thirteen you were offered fifty college scholarships, but none intrigued your more than the one that came from Duel Academy. Back then you didn't know how to duel, you gathered every bit of knowledge you could and then perfected a style that was all your own. Enrolling at Duel Academy you declined the scholarship with only these words, 'Nothing is more valuable than the feeling of when you do something knowing it was only you.' You scored highest on the test and then you beat the proctor within five turns overpowering, analyzing, and proving to the world that without logic one can't be a good duelist."
"That's me," Lance said shrugging his shoulders.
"But," Crypt said. "Despite all these awards, all these honors you never made friends with anyone, you never talked with anyone, and you repeatedly ticked off teachers by correcting them and then going as far as to taking over for the entire class period. The next day the teachers all tried to get you expelled, and when that didn't work they hired bounty hunters who cornered you and broke both your legs then leaving you for dead. Without anyone missing you, you stayed there for nearly six hours until you stood up and walked back to the academy with two broken legs, falling over a little more than a couple of hundred times. All that time saying one thing, 'Nothing is more valuable than the feeling of when you do something knowing it was only you.' After being treated and subjected to surgery you stopped your rants against teachers who repeatedly made mistakes, until one day. You told yourself that you are who you are and that meant that no one should be able to take that away from you."
"What's your point?" Lance asked.
"You say you don't believe what's not written in stone, but you walked back to an academy two miles away on two broken legs, you showed mercy in that you never brought the teachers to light who hired those thugs, but you've also done one more thing that makes me and you more alike than you'll ever know; you held to your belief," Crypt said.
"How do you know this?" Lance said referring to the information Crypt revealed about everyone.
"I've always known about you people, because I've met you all. That's how I know about Tao, and that's how I knew how to kill him! My move!" he declared drawing his card as the creature in front of him screeched as its attack and defense rose from 0-2000. "I activate the trap card in the graveyard Deadly Discovery!" he declared as a trap card flew out of the graveyard. "This card is only activated on the standby phase of the turn after it was destroyed, with it I can draw one card, if it's a Cryptid I remove it from play and then add attack points equal to its growth rate to any one monster I choose and then that power is added to the monster's current growth rate."
"What?" Lance exclaimed.
"And the lucky card is, Cryptid-Species Yeti (?/?)! This card has a growth rate of 900 every turn, so that's now added to Death Raptor," Crypt explained as his monster screeched again with its attack growing from 2000-2900. "The added benefit for you, I only gain these attack point every other turn. Death Raptor, ATTACK!" he shouted as his monster charged Lance slashing at his mid section which made Lance cry out in pain with his life points dropping from 3700-800.
Gasping for breath Lance stood up slowly and met with Death Raptor's eyes who screeched at him. Swinging a fist Lance gritted his teeth as the fist went right through the monster who simply flew back to Crypt's side of the field.
"Who're you looking for?" Lance asked with his head down far enough so you couldn't see his eyes.
"What?" Crypt asked.
"Are you looking for someone here?" Lance asked again.
"As a matter of a fact, yes," Crypt said.
"It's Destiny, isn't it?" Lance said bringing his head up. "You're almost exactly like Tao, you don't know when to quit, but as long as I'm alive, you won't touch anyone in this institution."
"Why are you protecting them?" Crypt asked.
"I'm the manager of the blue dorm, when the dorm head finds he is unable to complete his duties, I take it upon myself to do them. I have to interact with everyone, I have to make sure everyone's fine, but more than all that, I have to protect them against people like you who think that I'm just gonna stand-by and let the same thing that happened to my legs happen to anyone else," Lance said bringing his duel disk to a ready position. "Draw!" he declared. "I summon a monster in defense mode and end my turn."
"Bring it on!" Crypt said drawing his card. "Death Raptor, attack!" he declared as the monster slashed through the card Lance had just summoned revealing it to be a small red lizard with a yellow underbelly and a long tongue.
"Meet the Alien Amphibian (500/500) when destroyed by battle your monster cannot attack for five turns," Lance said clutching his abdomen.
"You'll regret this," Crypt said ending his turn.
"My turn!" Lance declared. "I play another Alien Amphibian in attack mode and end my turn."
"My move!" he declared as Death Raptor's attack rose from 2900-5800, and its defense from 2000-4000. "I end," Crypt said disdainfully. "All it will take is four turns, until you die."
"Good one," Lance said. "Maybe you should try going into stand-up comedy. Draw! I sacrifice my Alien Amphibian to summon Alien Warlord (2000/1800) in attack mode!" he shouted summoning a large humanoid alien with black armor, a large mouth lined with sharp teeth, and a long black sword. "Then I place a face-down card and end my turn."
"This may not work in the end, but I have to try, for everyone's sake," Lance thought coughing from the pain in his stomach. "I didn't know the safeguards could be taken off like that to the point of a need for the ambulance without the Egyptian God cards or something akin to them."
Crypt looked at him and then held his head, "What are they to you? They can't be friends."
"You're right," Lance said. "They're not my friends, but they are above all, my responsibility, my comrades, and my rivals. What about you? How did you kill Tao, that guy wasn't exactly the kind to go quietly."
"I killed him after beating him in a duel," Crypt answered. "I don't know if you've noticed but the pain you feel is real, and when you're life points hit zero you go into a comatose like state after entering the Shadow Realm. Originally it was only accessible by the use of seven mystic items, but now I can open that portal. Hope you're not afraid of the dark."
"I don't believe you," Lance said confidently. "I can't believe in something like that, it defies who I am, but I will believe one thing; you're nothing more than a cold-blooded murderer and Tao deserves justice, as long as someone as a life to live, no man has the right to take that away. Keep that in mind."
"My move!" Crypt shouted drawing his card. "I play the card Cryptic Blessing!" he declared activating a card from his hand. "With this I can force you to summon all monsters in your deck that have less than 1000 attack points."
"Fine by me," Lance said summoning a third Alien Amphibian from his deck and then a different monster with a reptilian body, feathered wings, and a small head resembling an anemone in triplicate. "Meet the Alien Avian (900/900). And since I control a dark monster I equip all three to Alien Warlord and he gains all their attack points," he explained as his Alien Warlord gained three sets of wings along with 2700 attack points raising his power from 2000-4700.
"It's still not enough, I guess," Lance chuckled.
"I end my turn with a face-down card," Crypt said.
"Then allow me to end this duel," Lance said drawing one more card. "Perfect!" he thought in success. "I activate my face-down cards, Brightest Day and Blackest Night," he declared revealing his two face-down cards. "Brightest Day gives an extra 1000 attack points to any light monster I control while Blackest Night does the same but for dark monsters I control," he explained as his alien's attack points rose from 4700-5700.
"Close, but no cigar," Crypt said confidently.
"First, I detach my Aliens from the Warlord," Lance said as the three winged aliens took the field in defense with the warlord losing attack points from 5700-3000. "Next I play the spell card Shadow of Eclipse!" he declared as the field began to darken with a ring of light around them. "I can only play this when I have Brightest Day and Blackest Night, for the next three turns your monster's attack is cut in half!"
"What!" Crypt exclaimed as he watched his monster's power weaken to 2900.
"Next is the end, I activate the Warlord's effect, I can sacrifice a monster to give him an extra 1000 attack points!" he explained as his amphibian disappeared and his monsters attack rose from 3000-4000.
"What's your point?" Crypt asked. "The monster's still too weak."
"Not if I reattach them," Lance said as the three avian attached back onto the warlord raising its attack from 4000-6700. "Now attack and get Tao's revenge, Dominating Slash!"
The warlord slashed through Death Raptor and then through Crypt who barely moved after being hit. Lance then looked at the scene in surprise when he felt a large sting in his stomach. Looking up a large spirit form of Death Raptor was stabbing him with the sword held by the warlord as his life points dropped from 800-0.
"My cards don't lose, they fight even after death, and so do I," Crypt said staring at Lance. "By the effect of Hunter's Mistake any damage done to me in battle involving a Cryptid is automatically transferred at the cost of half the growth rate of Death Raptor," he said as his life points dropped from 2200-250. "You lose," Crypt said.
"One thing I have to see," Lance said. "You said you were attacked, what deformity do you live with now? And how long do you have?"
Taking off his gloves crypt revealed sharp claws much like the ones on Death Raptor and then lifted his lip to show a row of sharp teeth much like the Chupacabra.
"I'm seven years overdue," Crypt said. "Now it's your turn to experience pain and feel helpless…all over again," he said placing his hand over Lance's face.
Chanting several words Lance screamed in what seemed like fear as he fainted into a state of comatose.
"Who's next on my list?" he asked himself before walking off into the night leaving Lance in his state in the bone chilling rain and destructive lightning.
Chapter nineteen complete. Talk about weird, and I'm writing this, I hope you people realize that half of this I make up on the fly.
Next time: Lance is down, who's up next, how about the one person who has as much to prove as anyone. Having met Crypt in the past it'll be a duel against old enemies. Next time: Crusade of the Academy; Cosmos v. Cryptid-Species.