Author's Note: I had wanted to get this chapter up this past Sunday, but instead I spent that whole afternoon mowing the lawn and helping my dad cut down a dead tree in our front yard. Then after that I had a whole bunch of research I had to do for my current online class this week, so I got pretty behind where I wanted to be on this thing. Ah well. Stuff happens, I guess.
Disclaimer: I do not own Yu-Gi-Oh! ZEXAL.
Chapter 9: A Hopeless Struggle
"It's my move!" Gauche declared as he drew his next card. "I'm going to end this duel right here and now!"
"Have we been playing the same duel?" Alnia sarcastically asked. "In case you haven't noticed, I have you completely at my mercy."
"Guess again, because the tables are about to turn!" Gauche declared. "I summon Heroic Challenger – Extra Sword in Attack Mode!"
Appearing on the battlefield by Gauche's other two warriors was a warrior clad completely in green and yellow-green armor with spiked shoulders. In each of his hands he carried a large sword.
"And now I use my three level four monsters to Xyz Summon Heroic Champion – Kusinagi!" Gauche announced.
A red vortex appeared in the center of the battlefield and pulled in Gauche's three warriors as balls of orange energy. Emerging from the center of the vortex moments later was an extremely large warrior clad in orange and dark-red samurai armor. He had three balls of orange light orbiting around him, and in his right hand he carried a sword with a single long flame as the blade.
"Thanks to Extra Sword, Kusinagi's ATK rises from 2500 to 3500!" Gauche announced. "But I'm not done there! I equip Kusinagi with the Spell card, Magnum Shield!"
Suddenly a piece of armor appeared and attached itself to Kusinagi's right upper arm. The armor in question was a red shield with gold trim. On each end of the shield was a pointed blade adorned with a small red gem.
"Since he's equipped with Magnum Shield, Kusinagi gains ATK equal to his DEF." Gauche announced. "Which means his ATK has now gone up to 5900!"
"Am I supposed to be impressed?" Alnia asked. "You can power up that monster as much as you want, but in the end it won't make a difference."
"I'm afraid Alnia's right." Durbe remarked up in the stands. "Kusinagi may have more ATK than Lucifer at the moment, but Lucifer is still a Number. Which means that Gauche can't destroy him in battle."
"At least he can take out most of Alnia's life points." Gilag pointed out.
"Actually, if everything goes exactly right, Gauche may actually win this thing." Droite told them.
"What do you mean?" Kotori asked.
"Gauche is hoping that Alnia will activate that face-down card she has on the field to block the damage from Kusinagi's attack." Droite explained. "If that card is a Trap, Gauche can activate Kusinagi's effect to negate it and boost his ATK even higher. If that's what happens, the damage from Kusinagi's attack would bring Alnia's life points down to zero."
"That really is a good move." Anna agreed.
"It is a pretty big gamble, but it just might be crazy enough to work." Droite replied.
"Kusinagi, attack Lucifer!" Gauche commanded. "Heroic Flame Sword!"
"I activate my Trap, Imperial Number Flash!" Alnia announced. The large card she activated showed an illustration of Lucifer standing in front of a shining golden light. "Since I have a Number on the field, this card negates your attack and inflicts damage equal to my Number's DEF, meaning you'll take 1800 points of damage!"
"You did just what I wanted you to!" Gauche smirked. "I activate Kusinagi's effect! By detaching an overlay unit, I can negate your Trap and boost Kusinagi's ATK even higher!"
Suddenly Kusinagi's body gave off sparks of red electricity. At the same time, Gauche's duel disk sparked with the same red electricity, causing him to pull his hand back.
"Hey! What gives?" Gauche demanded to know.
At this, Alnia grinned. "You dumb ape. When Imperial Number Flash is activated, my opponent can't activate any cards in response! Meaning all you've done is dig your gave even deeper!"
Just as Kusinagi was about to swing down his flaming blade, a blinding flash of golden light radiated from Lucifer's body. A wave of energy radiated out over the entire battlefield and pushed Kusinagi back. The wave also struck Gauche and nearly knocked him off the edge of the stage. His life points had dropped to a mere 600.
"Dang! It really looked like Gauche had her there just now!" Yuma observed.
"It's like a said before. Alnia is on a whole other level as a duelist." Kaito told the others.
"So are you done, or are you going to try flexing your muscles for a bit longer?" Alnia asked.
"Dammit!" Gauche cursed. "I… end my turn."
"Good! I'm starting to get bored with this duel." Alnia declared as she drew her next card. "I now activate Lucifer's third and final effect! By detaching an overlay unit, I can call forth a portion of Lord Zorc's power from the Millennium Ring and cast the die of fate!"
One of the balls of golden light orbiting the demon pharaoh entered the ring-shaped pendant hanging from his neck. The eye on the front of the pendant shot out another ball of gold light that stopped halfway across the battlefield and changed into a large red six-sided die. The one-side bore the same eye-like symbol as the Millennium Items.
"Here's how this works." Alnia began. "On my command, the die will roll. If the result is a one, two or three, all cards on your side of the field will be destroyed. But if the result is a four, five or six, all the cards on my side of the field will be destroyed."
"Pretty risky betting the whole duel on a fifty-fifty bet like that." Gauche told her.
"We'll see." Alnia replied.
"That Alnia girl sure is confident." Anna remarked. "A bit too overconfident if you ask me."
"I wouldn't be so sure about that." Vector spoke. "I think this little game of chance Alnia is playing is rigged."
"What makes you think that?" Durbe asked.
"Alnia doesn't strike me as the kind of person who'd use such a risky effect unless she knew she could win using it." Vector answered. "How ever this game of chance is rigged, I think it has something to do with that other effect Lucifer used earlier."
"You mean that effect that allowed her to equip a monster in Gauche's hand to Lucifer?" Durbe asked.
Vector nodded. "Lucifer hasn't gained any boosts in ATK or DEF from having War Hammer equipped to him, so there must be another reason why he'd have an effect like that."
"Go, die roll!" Alnia commanded. "Reveal to us the path of fate this duel will follow!"
The large die stopped hovering and struck the ground with a loud clack. It bounced off the stage floor and rolled to land with the five-side facing up.
"A five, huh?" Guahce observed with a smirk. "Too bad."
"Yeah, for you." Alnia responded. "When Lucifer would be destroyed while he's equipped with an opponent's monster, the monster equipped to him is destroyed instead and my opponent takes half that monster's ATK as damage!"
"What!" Gauche exclaimed.
Suddenly an explosion burst up from the ground under Lucifer. The demon pharaoh was unharmed, but the stone shield he held baring War Hammer's likeness shattered to pieces. The larger stone pieces of the shield flew across the field and struck Gauche with enough force that he was knocked off the stage. Gauche hit the ground as the little life points he had dropped to zero. With the duel at an end, Lucifer vanished and the sky above the stadium cleared. Yuma and most of the other competitors ran over to Gauche's side to find that he had been knocked unconscious.
"Hey ref! Aren't you forgetting something?" Alnia asked the stunned referee.
"Uh… oh! Right." The referee responded. "The winner of the final duel of today's preliminary round is… Alnia!"
There was a very mixed reaction from the large audience up in the stands. A few of the spectators cheered while most others merely talked amongst themselves. They could tell that there was something off about the duel they had just witnessed. Alnia meanwhile rejoined the other two Death Queens in the dugout.
"Well that was a slam dunk." Samantha remarked. "I would've thought that guy, Gauche would've been more of a challenge since he's some big-shot pro duelist."
"It's like I was saying before, these prelims are always full of wimps." Alnia replied. "Of course the second round won't be much better for me, since I'll be up against Chronomaly boy."
"It seems though that you've found a way to entertain yourself a bit in tomorrow's matches." Chitose interjected. "At least I assume that's the reason why you were so friendly with Ms. Ford before when she was here."
"The two of you should be more worried about your own duels." Alnia told her two subordinates. "As I recall, Anitak, you got your ass handed to you the last time you dueled that idiot, Alit."
"That will not happen this time." Chitose assured her. "This time I will crush Alit once and for all."
"You better." Alnia replied before turning to Samantha. "As for you, Mitaka, I don't know what issues you have with the other Arclight brother, but you better not lose to him!"
"Don't worry Alnia. There's no way in hell I'll let Thomas Arclight get the better of me." Samantha assured her. "Of course if both Ani and I win, that would mean we'd be facing each other in the next round. What're we supposed to do if that happens?"
"What the hell do I care?" Alnia replied. "Figure it out on your own time. Right now, let's just get the hell out of here."
"The first duel of tomorrow's preliminary round will be between Yuma Tsukumo and Kaito Tenjo!" the referee announced. "The duel will begin at noon sharp!"
After the duel, the medics at the stadium had quickly arrived and had taken Gauche to the hospital. Yuma and the rest of the gang went to the hospital as well to see if Gauche was okay. As they waited for a doctor to arrive and deliver some sort of news, Michael and Cleo used the time to tell Stacy about what was truly going on in the Millennium Tournament.
"This… this all sounds so preposterous!" Stacy declared after Michael and Cleo finished their explanation. "Inter-dimensional aliens? Reincarnation? Do you honestly expect me to believe all this?"
"I know it might seem hard to believe, but it's the truth." Michael assured her. "I've been dealing with this stuff for most of my life."
"And a code that can be used to alter the very fabric of reality?" Stacy continued. "I'm sorry, but this all just farfetched."
"You can believe whatever you wish." Cleo told her. "You asked for an explanation and we've given it to you."
"Now that we've clued Stacy in, what the heck are we going to do about Alnia?" Shark asked. "She's definitely one of the toughest duelists I've ever seen."
"Not to mention the craftiest." Vector added. "Her deck's loaded with a lot of tricky cards."
"At this point, it looks like it's up to me to come up with a way to beat her." Michael pointed out. "Since I'm up against her in the next round."
"You better be careful against her, Michael." Yuma told him.
"I'll be fine, Yuma." Michael assured him. "Right now, you should be more worried about your next duel."
"Oh yeah… good point." Yuma replied as he looked over at Kaito. The photon duelist looked back at him with a serious expression.
At that point, a male doctor with dark thinning hair and glasses entered the waiting room. "I understand all of you are here about Mr. Gauche?"
"How is he, doctor?" Droite asked.
"He should be fine." The doctor answered. "The fall didn't hurt him that badly. Though because of the head injury, we're going to play it safe and keep him here overnight for observation. You can all see him in a few minutes once we've moved him to his room, though I do ask you to keep your visits short."
"Thanks, doctor." Droite replied.
With that, the doctor nodded and left the room. When he was gone, Kaito stepped forward.
"Droite and I will go visit Gauche first." Kaito decided. "Once we've all seen him, we should go home and get some rest. And Yuma, I expect you to be sharp for our duel tomorrow."
"Don't worry, Kaito! Astral and I will both be ready!" Yuma assured him. "And whatever happens, I know we're gonna have a blast!"
Author's Note: Sorry for the rather short chapter. Part of it has to do with how the duel between Gauche and Alnia was originally only going to be a single chapter. Plus I confess I didn't really have it in me to do a real long chapter because of all the stuff that's been going on with me this part week.
Please review and let me know what you think.