Okay, so here's the update ;D Fashionably late. I was listening to the song "Out Alive" by Ke$ha the whole time while writing and planning out the duel xD You oughtta listen to it while reading. It's a super fun song. Also its fun, upbeat, techno vibes made me feel like I was in the middle of an Xteven video (God bless his little soul, for his videos are duel monsters perfection) His videos definitely influenced this chapter... just a bit.
Anyway, the bulk of the duel is in this chapter. I wanted to make the duel realistic and I didn't want it to be too easy for Lorna, so this chapter is pretty long.
"Thanks, Tristan," I said over my shoulder to the boy who had come to my aid. His hands were holding my shoulders and I suddenly felt uncomfortable with his humid breath on my neck and the intimacy of our positions. I mean, when I fucking said I didn't want to be paired with Tristan, I fucking meant it. I mean, there's nothing wrong with Tristan, but when I say something in chapter two, you'd better believe that I still hold true to it five days later. "You can let go now." I shrugged my shoulders slightly to emphasize my point.
The hands were immediately retracted from my body and I heard a meek "Sorry" from Tristan.
Still, in spite of the awkwardness, Tristan really did help me out with his cheesy and over-the-top friendship display. I had no idea what would have happened to me if he hadn't showed up to calm me down, but I was positive that I would have lost the duel. I wasn't quite sure what had come over me before, but I knew one thing for sure, my hallucinations were getting more and more vivid and grotesque, and I still had to find out why I was even having hallucinations to begin with. If I was going to avoid things like this, I needed to keep a level head and keep myself on guard at all times.
Ha. I'm doomed.
I glanced at the boy who was my opponent, feeling my heart swell up in frustration at my inability to realize who he was immediately. Rex Raptor. Rex -fucking- Raptor. How could I not realize that I had been dueling him? I mean, the dinosaurs were a fucking planet-sized tip! He also looked just like Rex Raptor, so that was also a huge giveaway. Well, of course he looked like Rex. I mean, he was Rex... and I'm rambling, but the point is -Rex Raptor, guys!
"Well, are you going to make your move or not, Schizo?" my opponent hollered from the other side of the field, his face an ugly sight, and that was not part of my hallucination.
Rex: 3700
Lorna: 3050
"Hold your horses, dino-breath! I'm thinking up a strategy to whoop your sorry ass back to the stone age!" I hollered right back at him, casting my gaze back down at my cards. This was the last turn of my Swords of Revealing Light, which meant that this turn needed to count because I had no monsters on my side of the field, while he had four, and not only that, but he would also be able to attack me on his next turn. Plus, a card in face down defense mode? That practically screamed 'STRONG MONSTER INCOMING'
I placed one monster card from my hand onto the field and watched as my monster materialized in front of me. "I'm going to special summon my Airknight Parshath to the field!" I declared, glancing over at his Herra. Thanks to the effect of Valhalla, Hall of the Fallen, I was allowed to do that without sacrificing a single monster. Man, I loved that card.
It was a huge gamble summoning Airknight Parshath. He only had 1900 attack points, so the glance I cast at Rex's monster (2300 attack) was more than a bit tentative. If the look on my face wasn't convincing enough to Rex, the centaur defending my life points was looking more than threatening as it stared down at each one of the dinosaurs opposing him. It may not have had enough attack points to pulverize Herra, but both Velos and Guaiba each had 1700 attack points, and that face down monster didn't seem like a cause to be alarmed either. Maybe I would start with that...
Rex broke out in obnoxious laughter, seemingly dumbstruck by my choice of monster. "That pony is no match for Herra! Or should I add math to the list of things you don't know how to do -right under duel monsters!" Oh, once that little buttface finds out what I have in store for him, he'll be wishing he wore a diaper under those stupid baggy pants of his -if you know what I mean.
"Oh, shut your trap and let me finish my move!" I yelled back at him, making no effort to disguise my irritation with the boy. "Next, I'm going to have my Airknight Parshath attack your face down monster!" I announced, blocking out the sniggering coming from the other side of the field, but it was like the Happy Tree Friends theme tune, impossible to tune out no matter how many pillows you piled over your head, while the excited crowd seemed like gentle ambient noise in comparison.
Rex's monster flipped over, revealing a small, green dinosaur with its legs poking through a broken eggshell that it wore around its waist. Awww... it was the most adorable reptile I had ever seen, and that was a lot coming from someone who despised every lizard, iguana and chameleon in the animal kingdom, and I believe that, at least today, I had seen enough reptiles to last me a lifetime. The small dinosaur looked comically panicky as my centaur raised his blade and ran for the small creature. I didn't picture my Airknight Parshath as a creature with any remote willingness to kill infants, but I suppose he made exceptions for gross lizards, especially if they were controlled by my opponent. The sword went cleanly through the dinosaur's chest, making its image shatter. I almost felt sorry for the little guy. I mean, it would certainly have been more gratifying to see that sword shatter that fatass Jurrac Herra over there, standing all high and mighty, mocking me with its very existence.
Rex: 2300
Lorna: 3050
"Wait! Wait! Wait!" Rex blurted out, watching his life point counter go down with a look on his face that made my heart flutter in one of the purest forms of happiness -revenge. "My Babycerasaurus was in defense mode!" he protested, his surprise growing greater with each second. "I shouldn't have lost life points!"
I smirked, fanning myself with the cards in my hand, while looking over at Tristan smugly. I could tell that he was struggling to hold back the triumphant yelp that was caught in his throat. Looking back at poor, confused Rex, I decided to humor him with an explanation. "I guess you don't know Airknight Parshath's special effect," I told him, faux sweetness dripping off of each syllable. "Even if your monster is in defense mode, my Airknight still makes you lose life points. Pretty nifty, eh?" I couldn't shrink the smile on my face even if I wanted to.
"Argh! You'll pay for that!" he growled, shaking his fist at me, and I almost laughed at how pathetic he looked.
"I really hate to kill babies, y'know, but you probably shouldn't leave them defenseless on the field like that," I told him with a pitiful shrug. Then, going straight back to business I added, "My Airknight has one more effect!"
The dino duelist harrumphed, crossing his arms and staring pointedly at me. "Oh, please, tell me..." he said flatly.
"Every time he deals damage to your life points, I get to draw a card!" I reached for my deck and pulled out a card, glancing at it warily. I sighed lightly when I realized that it wasn't the monster that I was waiting for. I guess I needed to stall for time somehow. I looked over at my hand and pulled out a trap card, setting it face down behind my Airknight Parshath. "I'll just set this down and end my turn."
Rex rolled his eyes before drawing a card from his deck. He gave the new card a disappointed once over, reassuring me that the strong monster that he was cooking up somewhere in his deck still hadn't made an appearance. He decided to start things off by declaring an attack. Thankfully for me, he only had one card that stood a chance against my Airknight and I had only one trap to stop the advance of his Herra.
"Herra! Attack her Airknight Parshath!" he ordered, and it was the cue for his dinosaur to begin darting towards my monster. Before it could make contact, however, I activated my trap card.
"Not so fast!" I told him as my trap card revealed itself to be Negate Attack.
His slightly jubilant grin faded when his monster's flaming attack was repelled by a transparent shield that surrounded Airknight Parshath, who reared up, his front hooves waving scoffingly at the dinosaur. Yes, my friends, holograms really did make everything better.
"You can't hide from my monsters forever! I'll get you next turn!" he warned, hardly even looking at his hand before setting down a third card in the spell/trap zone. His ever growing scowl was doing wonders for my happiness levels. And let me tell you; happiness levels were serious business, guys.
And so it was my turn again. My Marie the Fallen One raised my life points by 200, bringing it up to 3250. The stage was being set for my ultimate monster -whenever it decided to come up in my hand. As I had expected, it wasn't in my hand this turn. Though, I knew one way to bring it out: Airknight Parshath's special ability.
"I think that I'll attack your pesky little Guaiba! Go, Airknight!" I shouted over the sound of the crowd going wild. Bitches just love me, y'know?
The thrill of finally starting to beat this asshole was making me laugh uncontrollably, and I could only hope that I didn't look hysterical -or at least, anymore hysterical than I already seemed given that I had acted pretty hysterical earlier when I was hallucinating. Airknight demolished that dinosaur and I waited patiently for the beautiful sound of Rex's life point counter decreasing, but it never came.
"Hey! What gives?" I called out.
"I activated Divine Wrath!" Rex replied, the grin on his face looking almost rabid as his Divine Wrath smote my monster. "This trap negates any card effect that I want; then it destroys the card!" Not good. Not good. Not good.
My mouth set into a solemn line as I looked over my hand. I needed to protect my life points and there was nothing there to help me out. Except for maybe...
"I activate Beckoning Light!" I exclaimed, setting the trap on the field.
Rex looked taken aback. "What's that supposed to do?"
"Well, I discard all three cards in my hand to the graveyard, and in their place, I can put three light monsters from my graveyard in my hand!" I explained, demonstrating the card effect as I spoke. I chose to return my Airknight Parshath, my Dancing Fairy, and my Spirit of the Harp. "And to finish things off, I'll use Valhalla, Hall of the Fallen to special summon my Airknight Parshath back to the field!" The centaur reappeared on the field, more menacing than ever and looking royally pissed off at Rex after his short trip to the graveyard. "Then I'll set one face down monster and end my turn," I told him, setting my Spirit of the Harp down. These high defense cards always took people by surprise for some reason, and that was why I loved them so much.
Sure, it was shitty protection since my monsters were sitting ducks, but I needed to buy time until I got the card I needed. C'mon, Neo-Parshath! Where are you?
I watched him draw a card then scowl again. He still hadn't drawn it! I smiled weakly. At least his luck was just as shitty as mine!
"I'll summon another Jurrac Guaiba to the field!"
Fan-fucking-tastic. As if I really needed another one of those. I mean, I had just gotten rid of that fucktrumpet only to have him summon it again! Now he had two Velos, a Guaiba and a Herra, and each of them packed a punch! Not to mention those trap cards he had behind his monsters...
"Herra, attack that oversized pony!"
Oh, I'll show you oversized pony, you little dick.
Needless to say, my Airknight was blasted to pieces. However, when he decided to target my Spirit of the Harp with his Velo, he was wonderfully surprised by the fact that its attack was 300 points lower than my monster's defense. Serves him right...
"I activate Return Damage! Now you lose the 300 points of damage that I would have lost!"
Shit...
Rex: 2300
Lorna: 2950
I was still in the lead, though, so even if I had no monsters on my side of the field, I still had a chance to win this. I mean, I hoped I still had a chance to win this, because I couldn't afford to lose, for reasons that I still didn't know. Like, you'd think that I'd be more motivated to win if I actually knew what I was fighting for. That mysterious voice had been awfully quiet for a while now... I wondered what it wanted from me...
Lorna! You're in the middle of a duel! You can think about this later!
I started off my turn by gaining another 200 life points. Man, I loved Marie the Fallen One. I drew a card. Pot of Greed. Still not Neo-Parshath. Damn it! Where was he when I fucking needed him? Still, with Pot of Greed, there was still a chance that I could draw Neo-Parshath. I tried my luck again by activating my spell, only to draw Black Pendant and Gravity Bind.
Black Pendant was an equip spell card, which would be all fine and dandy -if I fucking had anything to equip it to! Of course, I still had Dancing Fairy in my hand with 1700 attack points, but equipping it with Black Pendant (raising it up to 2200) wouldn't help me defeat Herra, sadly. Gravity Bind was pretty useless at the moment. It's effect made it so that only monsters with 3 stars or less could attack, and this could stop all of Rex's monsters in their tracks, but it would also be counterproductive considering the fact that Neo-Parshath wouldn't be able to attack either (whenever I fucking got him).
After a moment's thought, I decided to summon Dancing Fairy and equip Black Pendant to it. Sure, it couldn't defeat Herra, but it could still kick that Guaiba's ass over to its brother over in the card graveyard.
"Oh, look! Your baby fairies are back -so I can torch them again!" Rex said with an evil glimmer in his eye.
Oh, it's on like Donkey Kong, motherfucker.
…
Not that it hasn't been on like Donkey Kong before, but you know...
"Shut up! I'm going to destroy you and all your oversized chickens! Just you wait!" I retorted, feeling my cheeks burn up in frustration -and maybe burn wasn't the best word... Shaking my head and getting my head back in the duel, I announced loudly, "I'm gonna have my Dancing Fairy attack your Guaiba!" The three fairies didn't hesitate to obey me, fluttering over to the glorified lizard and showering it with sparkly magic, but it was deadly sparkly magic which made it totally badass sparkly magic as opposed to harmless, lame sparkly magic.
Rex: 1800
Lorna: 3150
He let out an exasperated sigh and glared at me. "My turn!" he declared.
"Do your worst!" I taunted, but I didn't really mean it. If he wanted to go easy on me -hey, he could even surrender if he wanted -I would be totally okay with it.
"Oh, I will!" he replied, grinning at the card he had just drawn.
Oh, great. He drew it. That was probably the strongest monster in his deck, the Regina George of all of his monsters. I was probably doomed unless I figured something out soon...
No pressure, Lorna.
"Now, I'm going to summon the last duel monster you'll ever see!" he called out.
Yeah, since I was friends with Yugi Muto, that was highly unlikely. Rex was off of his game when it came to taunts like this...
"By sacrificing my two Jurrac Velos, I'm going to bring out my almighty Jurrac Spinos!" he hollered loud enough to let even the people dueling on the other side of the plaza know that I was screwed. The two tiny Velos descended into the ground as sacrifices while another, stronger beast rose up in their stead. The monster that rose out of the ground was a colorful little thing with a huge blaze trailing down its spine. It wasn't as tall as I thought it would be, however, it made a point of roaring loudly to assert its strength and demand our fear and respect -and with 2600 attack points, it probably deserved that fear and respect.
I grunted as a gust of wind whirled around me, like an ominous fanfare to announce the arrival of Spinos. Stupid virtual simulators..
"Spinos, Herra, attack her monsters!" Rex looked absolutely over-the-moon, like he had this victory in the bag. Well, he wouldn't win, not so long as I still had some fight in me!
I braced myself for the wild windstorm that was about to come from the destruction of my monsters. The two dinosaurs sprinted over to my fairies, making my heart ache at the thought of having a completely empty field. Herra scorched Spirit of the Harp, causing her to cry out in pain before shattering under the force of the attack, and at around the same time, Spinos murdered my Dancing Fairy.
Suddenly, a monster began to appear on my side of the field. It looked like a miniature of Jurrac Spinos and it was mine. But how?
"You're welcome!" Rex said, leering at me over the cards in his hand.
"What is that?" I asked.
"It's a Spinos Token. Every time Jurrac Spinos destroys one of your monsters, you get a Spinos Token."
But that meant that my Valhalla, Hall of the Fallen was useless... It let me special summon any fairy from my hand, granted I had no other monsters on my side of the field. How would I summon Neo-Parshath now? Summoning him with Airknight Parshath was now out of the question, and seeing as it would be really hard to secure two sacrifices for him, it wouldn't be easy to normal summon him either.
Rex: 1300
Lorna: 3150
I heard Rex sigh in frustration. "What is it this time?" he asked, rubbing his head and directing his vision towards me for an explanation.
"Black Pendant's effect," I told him. "When it's sent to the graveyard, my opponent loses 500 life points!" I wanted to smile impishly at him, but all I could think about was how he had gotten his ace card and mine still wasn't popping up.
It was a small relief in the face of such fierce monsters that my Marie the Fallen One was still giving me 200 life points each turn. I tentatively reached towards my deck in order to draw, hoping and praying to get a good card. I decided to shut my eyes tightly and beg the Heart of the Cards to show me a miracle like it did during my duel with Joey. Holding the card tightly in front of my face, I slowly opened my eyes. The Agent of Judgment - Saturn...
Damn it, Heart of the Cards! You had one job! One fucking job!
I took a moment to collect my thoughts and considered my options, then I realized something wonderful: The Agent of Judgment's effect! If my life points were greater than my opponent's, I could sacrifice Saturn to deal damage to my opponent equal to the difference in life points -and I had more than double the life points he had! This was an instant win for me! Plus, The Agent of Judgment only required one sacrifice, with which Rex so generously provided me.
"I'm going to sacrifice your Spinos Token to summon The Agent of Judgment - Saturn!" The materialization of Saturn was absolutely glorious. He rose from the ground, standing stiffly and confidently, his robe billowing around his legs, and I didn't even mind the wind effects that the simulators hit me with.I also learned something totally new since, apparently, Saturn turned out to be a guy. Yeah, I kinda thought he was a girl because of the whole robe and all, but uh... he could be a guy, too... especially if he's a sorta hot guy -but I... erm... I probably wouldn't tell anyone that I was perving on my monster. That was probably frowned upon. Too bad I was about to sacrifice him...
"That's still too weak to-" Rex began to say, but I cut him off abruptly.
"I'm not planning on attacking your monsters!" I informed him. "I'm about to activate my Agent's special ability and wipe out the rest of your life points!"
"What-"
"I have 2050 more life points than you, don't I?" I asked in a dulcet tone, watching in sick pleasure as his face twisted in realization. "Saturn! Finish him off!"
"Hold on!" he exclaimed, activating a spell card just as Saturn reached his pathetic, trembling form. "I activate Emergency Provisions!" My eyes widened. I recognized that card. He could use it to gain 1000 life points for each spell or trap card he discards from him side of the field, but by the looks of it, he only had one. Still, one was enough to leave him in the game -barely. Unfortunately, he had two strong monsters, and I just sent my Saturn (my really attractive Saturn) to the grave.
Rex: 250
Lorna: 3350
Thinking fast, I did the only thing I could do. I activated my Gravity Bind. I wasn't going to lose this duel no matter what!
"You moron!" Rex called out when he saw what I had just activated. "Now, neither of us can attack!"
"Nope," I replied. "We can't -unless we get a 3 star monster or lower."
When Rex's turn came, the boy had no choice but to end his turn without doing a single thing, mumbling what seemed to be profanities under his breath, and in less than two minutes, it was my turn again.
"C'mon Heart of the Cards..." I murmured so quietly that I doubted even Tristan heard me. He had long since decided to secure a distance of at least two feet between us and I was pretty sure that was for the best.
Little by little, I was decreasing Rex's life points and going around his monsters. Perhaps I really could beat him; after all, he had less than 300 life points. Yugi may have been able to win a duel with even less life points than that, but this was Rex Raptor and not Yugi Muto, so I highly doubted he could find a way out of this pickle. Besides, my whole deck was based on life points and I honestly wouldn't be surprised if I drew an Ookazi or something to finish him off once and for all.
I reached for my deck and grabbed the card on top swiftly, almost as though something inside me honestly believed that a swift draw would give me a good monster.
The Agent of Force – Mars.
I stared hard at the card in my hand, feeling my heart rate speed up.
This was it.
This was the card that would lead me to victory.
On its own, Mars was a 3 star monster with zero attack and defense points, but as long as I had The Sanctuary in the Sky on the field, it had a very special ability. As long as my life points were greater than my opponent's, Mars would gain attack points equal to the difference, which in this case, was a whopping 3300 attack points.
I summoned it to the field, calling out its name with fervor and pride and I almost thought that if I felt any happier, my chest would swell up and explode. "The Agent of Force – Mars -I summon you!" He rose to take the spot his fallen brother, Saturn, had been standing in previously, hammer in hands and his wings flapping majestically behind his muscular form. If you looked closely, you could almost see Spinos and Herra's scared asses shivering in fear at the sight of him. Even the crowd around us seemed impressed. Gawrsh, I was feeling a bit bashful now... but it wasn't the time to be bashful since I still had to wipe out the rest of Rex's life points.
"Alright, Mars! Destroy Jurrac Spinos!" I called out to my monster.
The beating of his wings became much stronger as he made his way over to Spinos and demolished it, taking whatever was left of Rex's life points with it.
See? I told you that dickwad was going down.
Rex: 0
Lorna: 3550
The holograms began to fade away and the two devices which had ejected earlier were retreating back inside my duel disk, as were the ones on Rex's side and I took this as my cue to walk over to my fallen opponent. He was down on his knees now, crushed, and as much as I despised him during my duel with him, I couldn't help but feel a bit of sympathy for him -plus, my hate and competitiveness usually tended to go away as soon as the duel was over.
"You okay?" I asked gently, with no sign of the sarcasm and mockery that had been in my voice earlier, and knelt down beside him.
His fists were firmly on the ground and his arms were quivering under his weight. His face was turned away from me, but I had a pretty good idea of what he looked like. Mortified. Angry. Disappointed.
"Just take them..." His voice was less than a whisper.
"What?"
Without warning, a transparent card -the locator card – and a Jurrac Spinos were tossed my way. I scrambled down to catch them before they got too dusty or got picked up and carried away by the wind. That would certainly be a waste of a well-played duel, wouldn't it?
After that, my opponent got to his feet, towering above my crouching figure. "I'll beat you next time, Schizo!" he cried out, without a single bit of his fire lost. "Just you wait!"
Wait. Did he just call me "Schizo"?
I say! This duel was far too long! -adjusts monocle and sips tea-
I just need to add something here before I leave concerning the random 3rd person chapters:
-These chapters aren't as random as they seem to be. Each of them is from a different POV than Lorna's. What you guys need to do is figure out whose POVs they are and why these characters are important enough to have their own POV anyway. I've decided to warn you beforehand every time I write a 3rd person POV chapter so you guys aren't too taken by surprise when I suddenly post them.
I hope that cleared up some things for you :D
Also, if you find duels long and tedious, don't worry, they won't come as often as they do in canon ;D
This was Lorna's very first victory. The next duels, however, will probably have a bit more drama and suspense... -evil cackling-