-casually steps back into your life as though nothing happened- Hey, look! It's another chapter! :D

"Your turn, abomination," the woman said, smirking at me and waving around the two cards in her hand. Welp, let's get this started...

I drew my first hand, trying not to think about how great her first hand was. She was using my deck, but the hand she got was one I would never in a million years get. Why didn't I ever get that lucky on my first draw? So far, she had drawn Sanctuary in the Sky and Valhalla Hall of the Fallen in one turn, along with one of my strongest monsters, The Agent of Judgment – Saturn, and I didn't even want to think about what else may have been in her hand.

I bit my lip when I looked over my first cards. I didn't have any strong monsters in my hand to defend me, but I had some pretty good magic and trap cards. I could fend off her monsters until I got something better. My eyes slipped down to look at the pulsating flesh that lay dormant on my feet, becoming conscious of the burning sensation that it was leaving on my skin. Man, that's definitely going to leave a mark... and if I'm not careful, it'll do much more than that. My heart rate sped up at the thought, and I could have sworn I saw the thing shiver in response.

Putting my game face on, I set one trap card down and activated the Ookazi I was holding. It wasn't a bad start; at least I wasn't the first one to lose life points. I activated the card, slamming it violently on my duel disk. "There's a hell of a lot more where that came from you sick bitch!" I hollered at her, shaking my fist at her and taking a step forward, only to feel a searing pain shoot through the nerves of my left leg. I gasped and let out a shriek, shutting my eyes tightly. Was my leg stuck? My first attempt at moving it ended with me nearly dislocating it, so it went without saying that I wasn't too keen on trying that again.

I felt my gut knot itself countless times as I watched the demons at Viola's feet rise up her leg slowly, stopping just after her knees. My eyes then moved over to her face, observing her expression closely, but there was no change -still that same all-knowing smirk, which grew in size at the sound of my own pained yelp. Didn't she feel anything? How was she still standing?

I sucked in a deep breath, feeling it hitch on the way in, and I tried as hard as I could to push the pain of my ankles into the back of my mind. They made it look so easy in the books and the movies, pushing away the pain, being strong and brave... having courage. Maybe it wasn't as hard as I thought...

"Did I forget to mention that you can't move any part of your body that has been touched by the demonic spirits?" my opponent replied in a smug tone, as though I were the only one in danger, as though she didn't have half of her legs consumed. What kind of woman was this? "Their venom contains a paralyzing agent that works on the immediate area that the spirits are feeding on."

"Won't you fall over then?" I asked her meekly, looking down at my feet. Paralyzing agent? My feet are... paralyzed?

"Well, I've taken care of that as well," she replied, setting a hand on her hip delicately. "You won't be able to move your legs, but you can still stand up if you have the energy to." How? How could she talk about this so casually? This was literally a life or death situation. She could really die.

I could die...

Then it hit me.

She knew she was going to win from the very beginning. She was using my deck, after all, so she must have known its ins and outs, its weaknesses, its strengths. She had designed her whole strategy in order to defeat me in this duel. Why did this woman want me dead so badly? What was in it for her? Who was she working for?

"Make your move before I start to get impatient!"

Her voice brought my train of thought to an abrupt halt, making me look up at her rather than the less than aesthetic sight below me. I quickly realized that I hadn't finished my turn yet, and I could blame that on my extremely short attention span, but wouldn't it be so much easier to blame it on the gory appendages that clung to my feet like leeches? Whoever was to blame, I still had to finish my move.

I felt like crying, though. I really did.

"I – I summon the Agent of Creation – Venus!" I announced, my voice missing its usual zest – hard to be zesty when you're facing imminent death, though. "In defense mode!" I added really quickly before setting the card down on my duel disk.

A mere couple of paces in front of me, Venus materialized, looking more like an angel than a monster, surrounded by her billowing, golden cascade of hair and suspended in the air by a pair of majestic ivory wings that beat steadily, causing a light breeze to blow over me. It was one of the few times that I didn't mind the simulators. The wind was light and cooled my face, which was dripping gallons of sweat. It didn't do anything to ease my nausea, but it felt good, and I couldn't help but crack a smile while I watched Venus cocoon herself with her wings.

I cast an idle glance at Viola's Agent of Judgment –Saturn and frowned slightly, for a mere hour ago, he was protecting my life points, not hers. For a minute, I almost thought he was looking back at me solemnly, but when I looked closely, his dark lavender eyes were fixed on Venus.

It occurred to me then that these monsters weren't holograms in this duel. No, this was a shadow game, which meant that Venus, Saturn, Shining Abyss...they were all real – and I had just put two of my Agent monsters up against each other. Did that make me a horrible person? I decided not to think about it too much because if I lost this duel, I would be a horrible dead person and I would much rather have been a horrible living person.

Now, my Agent of Creation had zero defense points, which meant that she could be killed by virtually any monster in her state, but I had a plan for that – and I just hoped that it would protect me, at least until I got some stronger monsters to defend me. I activated Mist Body and equipped Venus with it. This magic card protected my monster from other monsters' attacks, which meant that it couldn't be destroyed in battle, and as long as she was in defense mode, I wouldn't lose any life points either. I mean, sure, with Sanctuary in the Sky on the field, neither of us would lose life points when a battle involved one of our fairies, but as far as Viola was concerned, she could easily dispose of that card and attack. I just couldn't risk it.

"Mist Body?" Viola asked, raising one of her eyebrows and cocking her head to the side as the air around my Venus became thick and foggy.

"You know what it does!" I snapped, not really in the mood to talk to her. It was bad enough that this mist was humid and irritating, however, if it could protect my monster, then it was worth the discomfort.

A shrill laugh sounded in the alleyway and when it was over, Viola was grinning like the Cheshire Cat. "That I do! Anything else you wanna do before I begin my turn?"

I scanned my hand quickly, trying to figure out whether any of the cards in my hand would be useful at the moment, but there was nothing I could use so, after biting my lip tightly, I replied, "Your move."

She swiped a card from the top of her deck quickly and when her eyes lit up, I could have sworn my heart stopped beating. I put a hand to my chest and clutched the material of my shirt tightly, forcing myself to remain calm or I wouldn't have the energy to stay on my feet anymore, because if I fell over, I wouldn't be able to pick myself back up – not with two paralyzed feet. I tried breathing in deeply, chanting to myself.

She can't destroy Venus. She can't destroy Venus. She can't.

"Time to make things exciting!" Viola cried out, raising the card she had just drawn in the air. "I'm going to sacrifice my Shining Abyss -" -No, not a tribute summon. She can't attack me anyway. She can't attack me anyway. - " - and I'm going to summon an old friend of yours!" I held my breath, trying not to shiver and shake in my spot. "Say hello to Airknight Parshath!"

Usually, the sight of my own monster standing in front of me made me giddy – I mean, who doesn't like to stare at their own monsters in awe? - but as Airknight Parshath positioned himself beside Saturn, I felt every hair on my body stand on end and the blood in my veins froze. You see, in case you weren't paying attention in my last duel, that particular monster had a very... useful effect. It could deal piercing life point damage when it attacked anything in defense mode, and my Venus was in defense mode.

"Now, I can't destroy your monster because of Mist Body, so Saturn will have to sit back in this round," the woman said with a small sigh, but her smile was wide when she spoke again. "But my Parshath can still deal some damage." My Parshath. He's my Parshath. The word 'damage' sent a trickle of acid down my throat. "Airknight Parshath! Attack the Agent of Creation – Venus!"

I didn't know why, but as her monster galloped towards me, I glanced over at Saturn, begging him with my eyes to protect Venus. They were supposed to be allies. Why wasn't Saturn doing anything?

Please, do something.

If my heart weren't caught in my throat, I would have let out a derisive little chuckle at the thought. Saturn wasn't about to do anything. He wasn't my monster in this duel; he was Viola's monster, and he didn't give a rat's hairy ass what happened to me.

Airknight Parshath's blade thrust into my Venus, and as I expected, she wasn't destroyed; her whole body shifted out of the way, blowing to the side like the wind, shrugging away his attack, but his advance didn't stop there. He continued to dash towards me, and no pitiful glances at either Saturn or my own monster, Venus, could halt his approach, though I saw Venus standing timidly to the side, watching me, her head bowed slightly and her hands folded over her heart. It was all she could do for me.

I dug my nails even deeper into the fabric of my shirt and squeezed my eyelids shut, bracing myself for impact, but there was no way I could have been fully prepared for the sharp, throbbing ache, the feeling of having the wind knocked out of me, the sting of my feet as they struggled to keep me from being thrown back against the wall behind me. My eyes began to protest as my lids pushed roughly against them, and I began to tear up.

I couldn't do this. I couldn't. How in the world was I expected to be ready for this – ever?

Viola: 3200

Lorna: 2100

No. No. No. This means...

The pain from Airknight Parshath's attack was beginning to dull; it was no longer the raw torture it had been just moments earlier, but I knew another pain was coming. I didn't want to open my eyes yet. I didn't want to watch it happen. It was enough that I could feel it all over me – the wet, slimy feeling... It was crawling up my legs, burning through my leggings to break through to my sensitive skin, expanding itself and making me feel incredibly stiff. My legs ached and the burning sensation only increased the longer they lasted. They stopped their approach when they reached my waist, but the pain didn't stop with them.

Before I knew it, the tears were dripping down my face almost as steadily as the sweat and I couldn't tell which salty droplet was which when they slid past my lips and onto my tongue. My legs hurt so much. I just wanted it all to stop.

"If you surrender now, you won't have to go through all of this." The voice penetrated the fog of my mind and echoed dully against my consciousness. "I promise you, your death will be quick and painless. Just give in." Give in. No, I couldn't. If I gave in, I would die. I couldn't die. I had a lot to live for: my parents, my friends back home, my friends in this dimension, Joey, Yugi, Téa, Tristan, Mrs Muto, Grandpa Muto... But the force that dutifully hung on to the bottom of my heart begged me to surrender.

"No!" I cried out, forcing my eyelids open and staring right at my opponent. My voice was weak and my resolve even weaker, but at least I had a voice and resolve. "N-Now end your turn!"

"Are you sure?" Viola asked, her eyes clouding over briefly. Venus also had an unmistakable look of uncertainty in her eyes. She had slipped back into her spot right in front of me, giving the impression of a duteous protector when in reality, I was the one who had taken the blow on her behalf, losing nearly half of my life points in the process, as well as half of my body. "Very well, then!" she cried out, snatching a card out of her hand. "I'll set one face down card and end my turn."

My arms felt heavy as I drew a card from my deck. Hoshiningen (500/700). My lip quivered as my thumb nail dug into the plastic surface of the card. I was about to die and the best my deck could cough up was fucking Hoshiningen? In normal circumstances, this monster may have saved my life with its special ability, which gave each of my light monsters 500 attack points, but Viola's monsters were also light monsters, making its ability obsolete. I could also summon Marie the Fallen One (1700/1200), a much stronger monster than Hoshiningen, but being a 5 star monster, it couldn't be summoned without a sacrifice, and it wasn't worth sacrificing my only line of defense, Venus.

My opponent's mocking tone slithered over to me in the form of an ironic laugh. "Looks like luck isn't on your side, abomination."

It never has been. And stop calling me that.

"I'd like to hurry this up, so if you could keep your sad little inner monologues to a minimum..."

My eye twitched uncontrollably as my hand moved mechanically over to my duel disk, the Hoshiningen card gripped tightly between my fingers. "I'm going to summon Hoshiningen in attack mode." Each monster on the field gained 500 attack points, bringing Viola's Saturn up to a whopping 2900 attack points. "Then I'm going to put the Agent of Creation – Venus in attack mode as well." At least my life points would be safe in case Viola had Airknight Parshath attack again since his special ability only affected me as long as my monsters were in defense.

Here's me hoping that she hangs on to her Sanctuary in the Sky just a bit longer.

A star-shaped monster about the size of my torso came into existence in front of me, hovering nonchalantly with two rainbow ribbons waving about behind him like a mockery of Venus's gorgeous feathery appendages, which retracted and left her standing upright in front of me. Where Venus had a determined spark in her eyes, Hoshiningen's expression was decidedly sarcastic, like he wasn't taking my life or this duel seriously.

I glared at the three cards in my hand, the same three cards that had been sitting there uselessly from my very first turn. I was going to lose this duel, and I was going to die.

"I end my turn," I murmured passively, trying to look anywhere but Viola's vicious sneer, but when the alternative was the mass of demonic spirits climbing their way up my body, I had no choice but to close my eyes and listen instead.

"With just that?" she asked, seeming like she had actually expected more of me, but what more could I do? I couldn't even keep a straight face like her when I lost life points. There was no way I could win against her, but if I was going to die, at least I would fight until the end, because at least I was capable of doing that much if nothing else.

"Yes," I replied with a broken voice. If you looked closely, you could see the individual pieces of my spirit breaking and crumbling away with each beat of Venus's wings.

"Well, well, you look positively pathetic right now," Viola cooed then wagged her tongue at me teasingly. She drew a card and set it on her duel disk; it was Bio-Mage (1150/1000; now 1650/1000), a humanoid monster in a black headdress and armor, and also the first weak card she had summoned throughout this duel. But why? Was she stocking up on monsters to annihilate me with? "I'll also set two face down cards and end my turn."

Man, her field was packed. She had almost all of her spell and trap card slots filled up, as well as her field spell card slot. She also had three monsters on her side of the field, and what did I have? Two powerless monsters between her and my life points like sitting ducks before a slaughter.

With shaking fingers, I reached for my deck and swiped quickly, holding my card at an arms-length away from myself. Please, please, please! Let this be a good one! In one fluid movement, I brought the card before my eyes and read it. Mirror Force! This was just the break I needed! Not only did it destroy every monster on my opponent's side of the field, but she would also have to pay quite a lot of life points afterward. I set the card down on my side of the field, hoping for the first time during this duel that she would attack me. Just thinking about it made me giddy, because not only did the total attack points of her monsters add up to well over 4000 points, but the effect of Hoshiningen increased her monsters' attack points, making the damage even more devastating to her. There was a possibility that I could win in this next turn!

However, that would also mean that I would be killing Viola... Sure, she was a bitch and all, but was I really prepared to be the cause of someone's death? Looking into her dark brown eyes, I saw malice, mischief and sadism, but I also saw life, and I didn't quite know how I would feel if I saw them drained and dull... and dead. The problem was that if I let her live, I would die, and I absolutely had to stay alive.

Why couldn't the penalty of this shadow game just be a nice little trip to the shadow realm? At least people had actually come out of that place...

The older woman shook her head and sighed. "Well, let's get this over with, shall we?" She drew a card and grinned. Reaching for a different card in her hand, she placed it on her duel disk. "First, I'm going to activate this nifty little magic card called Raigeki."

That card isn't in my deck...

"I'm sure you've heard of it before, but in case you haven't, what it does is destroy every monster on your side of the field! And I take it Mist Body can't protect your Venus from spell cards, can it?"

No, it can't.

With a loud crack, the whole alley was illuminated and I had to cover my eyes when the two bolts of lightning struck both my Hoshiningen and my Venus down. I couldn't even watch their demise until the blinding light began to fade and it was all over. I didn't even realize I had been holding my breath until I opened my mouth and gulped in gallons of disgusting air, tasting the scorched earth and the dusty atmosphere, sapped dry of all the moisture now that Mist Body was no longer on the field. And the worst part of all was the fact that I no longer had anything standing in the way between her monsters and my life points.

I still had Mirror Force, though. I would be fine. Oh, god I hoped I would be fine.

Viola didn't even give my trap card a second glance when she announced her attack. "Your defeat is now imminent, abomination! Prepare to taste the flames of hell!" she bellowed, extending her arm towards me as though trying to reach something just out of her grasp. "Now, my beasts! Attack her life points directly!"

"Not so fast!" I cried out, hurriedly revealing my trap card. "I activate Mirror Force! Now all your monsters are destroyed! And you lose the rest of your life points!" A transparent wall made of energy rose around my body, shielding me from the three monsters that were heading towards me and blasting them away towards Viola.

I won. I actually won!

"I don't think so! Activate, Emergency Provisions!"

Dammit... But how many spells could she possibly get rid of? I mean, I calculated it in my head, and the total damage caused by my trap card was 5450 points, which would be hard to cushion with her spell card. I swallowed the large lump in my throat and waited for her to continue speaking.

"I'll send five of my spell cards to the graveyard in order to gain 5000 extra life points!" she said, sending her Sanctuary in the Sky, her Valhalla Hall of the Fallen, and her three face down cards to her graveyard slot, leaving her field bare. What was she thinking leaving herself completely open like this? I could easily attack her life points directly. Still, she managed to evade 5000 points of damage... This woman was definitely way out of my league.

Viola: 2750

Lorna: 2100

I opened my mouth to ask her if her turn was done, but she beat me to the punch with "And that's not all. Now that I have four monsters in my graveyard, I can bring out my ultimate beast!"

'Ultimate beast'? My strongest monster was Neo-Parshath the Sky Paladin. What was hers?

"Come out, Archlord Kristya!" Viola screamed, trying to raise her voice over the howling of the wind and the beating of wings as her monster descended from the sky. "Are you scared yet, abomination?"

I didn't have that card either, so yes, I was terrified.

Ain't that a kick in the head ;) Well, this chapter was a bitch to write since I had a different plan for this duel, but it ended up working out a bit strangely with the rules of the shadow game. Besides, it ended up being funner when it was revised x3

Just so you know, the next chapter will be titled "Lumen I" and it will be a 3rd person chapter ;D and those are always exciting (*cough* and require less effort to write than duel chapters *cough*)