"Yes, thank you, everyone for your support!" Lisa smiles to the crowd, as I stumble onto the stage deep in thought, my eyes concentrated on a random point on the floor.
"Hello there Azure!" She says to me as I take out my duel disk. "Why don't we get started?!" She continues perkily.
"Let's duel!"
My voice comes out as a mumble, and I flick through my cards.
"I'll be going first!" Lisa shouts and I let her. "I play Traptrix Myrmeleo in attack mode. Its effect allows me to pick a "Hole" normal trap card from my deck and add it to my hand. I place two face downs and end my turn."
I go through her move in my head, keeping my eyes trained on the floor. How can I try to lose?
"I draw." I mutter, worry clouding my head. "I summon Wind shadow hunter (1400/1600) in attack mode. Its effect allows me to attack you directly. Wind Shadow Hunter, attack Lisa directly!" Lisa's life points drop to 2600. Was that too much? Or am I supposed to make it look like an easy win for her? Lisa snarls and I grimace. Trying a little too hard?
"I place three face-downs and end my turn." I feel a shiver run down my spine as her glare hardens at me. Nothing's wrong with a good defence right?
"I draw and summon a second Traptrix Myrmeloe. Now, one of my Myrmeloe will attack wind shadow hunter!" She spits out her move.
"I activate…" I instinctively start to activate my trap, but I pause as I see Lisa's intense glare. "I.." I stutter but realise she will attack again with her other Myrmeloe… so… "I activate my trap, Negate attack." The Myrmeloe's attack ceases and she glares harder at me.
"Do you remember the chat we had before this?" I instinctively touch my wrists that are still red from her nails, prickly from the gathered heat. "Well, let me give you a reminder. I activate Forbiddon Lance, which lets me target a face-up monster and take away 800 attack points. I choose Wind Shadow Hunter. Traptrix Myrmeloe, attack Wind Shadow Hunter!" My eyes widen. Should I defend?
"I…I act…activate the tr…trap Shadow Defense. This allows me to change the battle mode of a monster being attacked. I choose Wind Shadow Hunter." I say fearfully. The attack hits and both monsters are destroyed. The wind hits against me and my hair flies backwards. I hear gasps and mutterings as the bruise on my cheek is revealed. I scramble to pull my fringe back into place. I feel all eyes on me but keep facing ahead, as Lisa just continues scowling.
"I end my turn. You were lucky. This will be your last turn." She scowls and I draw lightly.
"I summon Water Shadow Hunter (1600/1400) from my hand. I activate it's effect which allows me to gain life points equal to the attack points of a monster I choose on the field. I choose Water Shadow Hunter." My life points rise to 7600. I'm not trying too hard am I? Maybe I should… trigger one of her traps.
"I activate Shadow Spear and Equip it to Water Shadow Hunter (2600/1400). Water Shadow Hunter, attack Traptrix Myrmeloe." A traptrix deck… so probably both her face-downs are traps.
"I activate my trap Dimensional Prison This banishes an attacking monster!" She declares and my Water Shadow Hunter is destroyed. I try to look surprised… which fails. I need to keep looking at the floor.
"I place 2 face-downs and end my turn."
"I told you this would be your last turn. I draw" She snarls at me and continues her turn. "I tribute Traptrix Myrmeloe to summon Gigaplant!"
A massive plant monster appears on the stage and I look to its attack points. 2400 attack and 1200 defence points. Great.
"I see with my last attack you still didn't manage to get the point. Perhaps this will give you a memory break!" She almost yells at me, and I flinch at the intense-ness. Just do what she says. I think clearly in my head, and find myself frozen.
"Gigaplant, attack Wind Shadow Hunter!" I prepare myself for the attack, knowing I shouldn't defend.
"Do something!" A familiar voice shocks me out of my position.
"Fight. You know you can win. You can't let her do this to you." Zane stands there,with the words from last night. He's not shouting, he still shows no emotion, and I'm quite sure I'm the only one who can hear him, standing a few metres from the stage. Fight.
"I activate draining shield." I say quickly, snapping back to the duel. "This negates your attack and turns your monsters attack points into more life points for me."
"I am aware!" She says to me "You'll pay for this later. I place a face-down and end my turn." My life points rise to 1000. I falter in her gaze but a word pulses through me. Fight.
"I draw." I draw in a sharp line, and can't help smiling as I resume my normal way of drawing a card. "I summon Earth Shadow Hunter (1200/1800) in attack mode. I activate Pot of Greed that I set earlier and draw two more cards." I mentally grin at my cards but keep my face straight to puzzle her.
"I activate Polymerisation and fuse Wind Shadow Hunter and Earth Shadow Hunter to form…Shadow Prince Azarias (2500/1500)!"
"I activate Void Trap Hole, which negates the effects of a monster with 2000 or more attack points… your Shadow Prince I think. If this is successful your Prince is destroyed-"
"If it's successful exactly… but my Prince is immune to Trap cards." I say, only just managing to keep my face straight.
"Now Prince Azarias, attack Gigaplant!" The monster is destroyed and Lisa takes 100 points of damage.
"Now I activate the spell card De-fusion! This de-fuses my Shadow Prince back into Wind Shadow Hunter and Earth Shadow Hunter. Now, Wind Shadow Hunter, attack Lisa directly!" Lisa's life points decrease to 1100. She still has a face-down left, but it's probably another traphole spell, and hopefully it can't harm me. "For the final move, Earth Shadow Hunter, attack Lisa directly!" My Earth Shadow Hunter draws his Bow and takes and arrow from his quiver. He pulls back and as he releases it becomes laced with rock and it hits Lisa bringing her Life points down to nothing.
The crowd stand up in appreciation, and I find myself breathless looking down at Lisa on the floor. I've never been looking down at her before. Always up. I step off the stage and try to hurry to the exit, but a wave of exhaustion comes over me. I guess all those late nights have had an effect on me. I stumble through the door, trying to get away, though I'm not sure where I'm going, and I feel an arm hold me up in a familiar grip.
"You did well." He says to me.
"Well! Just well?! Zane, she did amazingly. Taking her down after many turns of trying to lose, coming back in one turn to defeat her. Azure you were amazing." I see Alexis coming round to my other side to keep me up, and I feel my legs wobble. I scowl at Zane, knowing he told Alexis.
"Whatever." Zane replies to me.
"Come on Azure, you don't look so good, we'll take you to Nurse Fontaine." Alexis smiles sweetly at me, and I manage a small smile back.
"She's suffering from exhaustion and stress. She should be fine after a few good hours of sleep. Though it seems like she's been having some minor anxiety over the past few weeks, she should take things slowly and try not to get involved in anything too emotional." I hear Nurse Fontaine's voice as my eyes start to flicker open in a blurry motion.
"What about duelling?" I hear Alexis' voice vaguely, and catch sight of her honey blonde hair. "She'd be upset about that."
"Duelling should be fine…as long as she doesn't get too riled up, but she doesn't seem like that kind of duellist." Nurse Fontaine answers.
"Okay, that's good." I force my eyes fully open, and start to push myself up.
"Azure, you're awake!" Nurse Fontaine tries to push me back down but I succeed in sitting up.
"What happened?" I ask, and see Alexis and Zane around me in the Medical wing.
"After your duel with Lisa, you kind off went a bit…into a daze. Zane and I got you halfway to the here before you passed out, but Nurse Fontaine took care of everything." Alexis replies. My duel with Lisa.
"Did I… Did I-" I start.
"Win? Yes, you did." Zane finally speaks and I see the smallest of smile push its way onto his face.
I won… against Lisa. Suddenly I realise there's a paste on my left cheek, over my large bruise. I see Alexis smiling sympathetically. Hang on… I won! What will Lisa do when she finds me? She told me to lose, she told me to let her win or else she'd do something! And I didn't even lose a point! I disobeyed her completely! What will she do to me now?
"Azure it will be fine." I hear Zane's voice and I realise my eyes have widened and my breathing has turned into desperate gasps. A headache starts to cloud my head and I put my head in my hands and scrunch my eyes shut, the questions screaming out in my head, demanding to be heard.
"Her heart rate's rising, she must be having anxiety. We need to calm her down." Nurse Fontaine says, while I put my hands over my ears, trying to get the questions out of my head. She's going to kill me! Why did I fight back? How could I have done such a stupid thing?! What's she going to do to me now?! I can already picture it… no matter where I go she'll get to me eventually!
"Azure, calm down, you need to relax. Tell us what's wrong!" Alexis tries soothingly. I shake my head and bring my knees up and rest my head against them. What will she make me do now? I'm through to the next round, and she's out, what if she wants me to leave the tournament, give up? What if she tries to get me disqualified? She's going to kill me!
"She's going to kill me…" I gasp out the words leaving Alexis confused, and I tighten my grip on my head over my ears unknowingly.
"Azure… she won't do anything to you. She can't. We won't let her." I hear a familiar voice, but in a soft tone I've never heard before. My curiosity gets the better of me and I look up. Sure enough, Zane's standing there, but instead of the emotionless gaze, it's hardened, defensive, and comforting. …won't do anything to you… we won't let her… The words break through all my thoughts, shattering them into pieces, and my hands slowly fall to my sides, and I lean back, trying to steady my breathing.
Her heart rate has gone back to normal. Azure, are you okay? Would you like a drink of water?" Nurse Fontaine asks sweetly. I nod slowly and force all my thoughts of Lisa out of my pounding head. I sip the water gratefully and my headache washes away. I lie back down and curl up into a ball and try to relax. Before I know it, my heavy eyelids have dropped down and I'm asleep.
"Azure, something is coming." I'm dreaming, but Adynn is standing before me.
"What is it?" I ask concerned.
"I cannot be sure… but I feel as though… as though something will come up, something that may cause you to lose control." He continues.
"Lose control? I never lose control, I learn to have no emotion when I'm duelling at all, and nothing distracts me." I exclaim, pondering his words.
"This thing… it's demanding to be heard. Something from the past. We need to be careful." He says. I'm frozen by his words. Something from the past. I nod slowly, and the dream world washes away…
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