Author's note: Any cards highlighted in bold are not actual Yugioh cards.
Chapter 17: Gate of Wrath
Returning to the main screen with our five Keys, we saw that part of the grey cross had turned green. The section branching off to the blue square was colored green, while the other three segments of the cross were still grey.
"Where now?" I asked.
"That is entirely up to you, though the battles will still be difficult," came Carnivore's response. I knew that we were probably going to run up against one of those Sacred Beasts anyway, so…
"Make it yellow."
"Yellow it is."
From there, we walked down the Yellow-colored corridor, which would have been straight if coming from the direction of Nightshade and Hunter-killer. Going through the door, we were instead greeted with a Yellow Arena and a woman in a yellow cloak.
"Are you one of the Gatekeepers?" I asked her
"Yes. Can we start the Duel now? I've got meat to put through the grinder!" she sighed, sounding somewhat irritated, yet excited at the same time.
With that, we began. I started again by placing a card face-down. Carnivore, strangely, also placed a card face-down without summoning anything. This Gatekeeper started out with the Continuous Spell Card Crystal Tree. From there, she played Graceful Charity to draw three cards and discard two, then used Crystal Blessing, targeting two Crystal Beast monsters in the Graveyard and Special Summoning them in the Spell and Trap Card Zone as Continuous Spell Cards, reviving Crystal Beast Topaz Tiger (1600/1000) and Crystal Beast Amber Mammoth (1700/1600). Once that was done, she declared that she was Tributing three Spell Cards to summon Hamon, Lord of Striking Thunder (4000/4000), and with that, two of her Crystal Beasts disappeared, as did Crystal Tree, and were replaced by the giant yellow monster. The only thing that saved us from a direct attack was the rule forbidding attacks for the first round.
Looking at my hand, it wasn't really good. My face-down earlier proved useless; Joyful Doom. That wasn't of any help as the monsters were by then Spell Cards. The only thing I could do was Set another face-down and end my turn.
Carnivore drew, and summoned Miracle Jurassic Egg. Her second card was Card Destruction, making everyone discard their hand and draw an equal amount of cards. That in turn, increased the counters on her Miracle Jurassic Egg all the way to eight. From there, she Tributed it to Summon from her Deck her Super Conductor Tyranno (3300/1400) and ended her turn.
When the Gatekeeper drew, things got really ugly. She Special Summoned Grinder Golem (3000/300) to my side of the field and gained two Grinder Tokens (0/0) on her side.
"Now, young nameless boy, you will suffer for daring to challenge us! Hamon, Lord of Striking Thunder attacks Grinder Golem!" she shouted. Her monster destroyed mine, bringing me down to 3000 Life Points, and horribly electrocuting me at the same time. Once the monster was gone, the shock increased and forced me onto the ground. As I got up, feeling really numb, I saw that I had lost another 1000 Life Points.
"Is… is that Hamon's ability?" I asked, gasping for air.
"Indeed, if it destroys a monster by battle, the controller takes 1000 points of extra damage! But that's not all. I'll make sure you drop dead soon!"
From there, she played Impact Revive, reviving a monster destroyed this turn with a 500 ATK boost, choosing the Grinder Golem I had lost. Not only that, but that also allowed her to attack again. Once again, Hamon destroyed the Golem, and once again, its ability activated, in total dealing 1500 damage to me. I was on the floor, barely able to hold my hand of cards, and with only 500 Life Points left. Thankfully, she had to end her turn.
I just managed to stand up, and activated the second card I had Set in this Duel: Scapegoat, giving me four Sheep Tokens. From there, I used another card, Token Thanksgiving, destroying all Tokens and giving me 800 Life Points for each one. In total, my Sheep Tokens and the Gatekeeper's Grinder Tokens were destroyed, giving me 4800 Life Points to put me on 5300 and also restoring some of my strength in the process. Finally, my new Hand was something I could work with. I placed two cards face-down to end my turn.
"Now is when you pay for what you did just now, Gatekeeper bitch!" Carnivore shouted as she drew her card. She Special Summoned a Gilasaurus (1400/400) from her Hand and fused it with her Kaitoptera (also in her hand) to form Horned Saurus (2000/1000). At that point, she also activated Card of Demise to draw until she had five cards on condition that she discard her hand in five turns. That was followed by her Torturous Jurassic Hunger Continuous Spell Card, reducing the DEF of all of her Dinosaur monsters to 0, but increasing their ATK by the amount of DEF lost. Now, Horned Saurus was with 3000 ATK and 0 DEF, while her Super Conductor Tyranno was with 4700 ATK. She Summoned her Babycerasaurus () and activated the ability of Super Conductor Tyranno; by destroying a monster, she could damage the Gatekeeper by 1000 points. Her Babycerasaurus was the Tribute for this ability, and that Gatekeeper was on 3000 Life Points (with her also gaining Tyranno Infinity at 0 ATK). From there, she used the ability of her Horned Saurus to attack directly on the turn it was Fusion Summoned. Since it was powered up by her Spell Card, there was nothing the Gatekeeper could do to prevent losing her remaining 3000 points.
"Now give us your Key!" Carnivore's voice was filled with malice. In some respect, it was scarier than our first meeting
"Fine! Here!" the Gatekeeper obliged. "Don't think you will survive the last Gatekeeper if you can barely stand up to me, little piece of trash!"
It was at that point that Carnivore kneed her in the stomach and quickly motioned me back into the corridor. "You okay?"
"Somehow," I spoke. Although the healing effect of Token Thanksgiving had made me recover somewhat, I was still a little damaged.
"Don't worry, we only have one more Gatekeeper to trounce, then we should hopefully be home free."
Looking at the most recently acquired key, colored pure yellow, I hoped that what Carnivore said was the case.