The Rise and Fall of History: A Past Unseen

by Medigo

The world of dueling has reached a standstill. Many stories have been told through these cards, and the final story pits every side against each other. It is a game no more. Duelists are divided, and an unknown enemy watches from afar. In the midst of all this chaos is one man who brings a new power that can forever end the conflict; a stranger to this world and to himself.

16. Slow and Steady

Annex 016: Slow and Steady

Two hours or so was how much time Emily took to prepare her deck. After that she and her family and friends went into the training room. The rest of the synchro guild also turned up to witness this duel, since Cassius was her opponent. Only Uno did not show. He had yet to return. "I've decided to run with a turn limit challenge. Each player starts with 10000 lifepoints. Whichever duelist has the most amount of lifepoints left after six turns, wins. So hold nothing back. As much as I would love for you to join us, you still have to prove yourself to the rest of the guild. Now that I have set this ultimatum, you may decide who gets the first tyurn." With a system like this, most players would want to take the second turn. "I go first." Emily placed one monster down and one trap card to show that she claimed the first turn instead. "Yo, Em! What are you doing? Now you get less attacks than he does!" Eric had 'loud' issues with her choice, though he was a bit late with that. "I'm not going to be careless, Eric. I work better by letting the attacks come to me. Also, this has 'trap' written all over it."

Cassius LP: 10000 Emily: 10000

"You think I would trap you? I promised I wouldn't edit my own deck to counteract yours. I never asked what deck you'd be using." In older times, Emily used mostly reactive/defensive decks. "Then let's even things out, seeing as how Eric kept talking up your Speedroid deck. I'm using Superheavy Samurais." Emily bluntly admitted. "Oh? That is a surprise. Not much has changed. Then, let's begin." Cassius drew his card. "When I control no monsters, I can special summon Speedroid Terrortop." He opened with the spinningtop toy-snake(3/1200/600). "Terrortops effect activates. I can add a speedroid to my hand." Cassius took the tuner of his equation out of the deck. "Speedroid Tri-Eyed Dice!" He normal summoned this roid; a four-sided dice(3/300/1500) with one eye on each side. "I synchro summon a level 6 monster!" Terrortop and Tri-Eyed Dice were mixed together. Their stars of energy created a machine that largely resembled a sword and ball toy(6/2200/1600). "Hi-Speedroid Kendama! Emily, I'm afraid the first hit is still mine." Cassius removed Speedroid Terrortop from his graveyard. "Kendama can banish one speedroid each turn, to inflict 500 points of damage!" The machine fired a small blast at its opponent.

Emily's LP: 9500

"You would have taken the first hit anyway, with a monster like that." Emily was not going to fret over a measly 500 lifepoints. "Correct. However, now I am also going to make a second strike." Cassius had the second turn, and thus the first battle phase. "Kendama will also always inflict piercing damage when it attacks defending monsters!" The Hi-Speedroid flew forwards and impaled Emily's facedown monster with the dagger tip of its body. "Heh. That's fair." Emily's monster was a big rat(4/1400/1450) with average defense points. It died and she lost more life.

Emily's LP: 8750

"But do you know the consequences of that? When you kill 'Giant Rat' I can summon any earth monster with 1500 or less attackpoints from my deck!" Her smile grew very wide as the Giant Rat special summoned Emily's ace warrior; Superheavy Samurai Big Benkei(8/1000/3500). "1500 attackpoints is not much, but 3500 is!" Benkei could use its defense to attack others. It even switched itself to defense position as soon as it was summoned. Now she had the heavy hitter. "Well that makes sense." Cassius was familiar with Superheavy Samurais, but he had never seen anyone summon Big Benkei this way before. Mostly because the Samurais were not that popular in the tournament circuit. "I will set two cards and pass the turn back to you."

"Thanks, Aaron." Emily had waited long enough for her first battle phase. "I summon this guy, Blue Brawler." A steampowered machine-warrior(3/0/2000) landed on the floor with a heavy thud. "Brawler goes to defense mode whenever I summon him. Also he can't be destroyed as a result of battle." The Samurai crossed its stomping arms, yet it still looked ready to fight. "Thanks to Big Benkei, all Superheavy Samurais I control can attack with their defense! Big Benkei will go first!" Steam blasted from the back of the Big Samurai as he charged towards Hi-Speed Roid Kendama. "Oh, you're a bit too slow, Emily!" Cassius waited until the two monsters clashed weapons to spring his trap. "Quickplay Spell card: Limiter Removal! My machine's attackpoints are doubled!" The Kendama vanished in an instant and re-appeared behind Benkei. It(4400/1500) charged a counterattack. "You sure about that, Aaron?" Within the same damage step, Emily flipped her own trap card. "D2 Shield! I double the defense points of my monster!" Benkei(1000/7000) turned around and glared at the HiSpeedroid. The blast bounced harmlessly off its metal armor. "Oh." Kendama's time was up, Cassius' synchro monster was cleaved down the middle by the Samurai's weapon.

Cassius' LP: 7400

"Looks like I am winning now, Aaron!" While she still was in a good mood, Emily called out her second attack. The Blue Brawler came for Cassius himself. "Fortunately. But I'm going to have to keep the gap 'manageable'!" Cassius banished yet another card from his graveyard. "I can remove Speedroid Tri-Eyed Dice! It's effect will negate one of your attacks!" The Die was thrown against Blue Brawler, stopping it in its tracks. "Heh. I knew that Dice could do that, but you didn't use it against my first attack eh?" Emily ended the battle phase. "I know you, you always try to trip me up. I would have taken the damage if you had defended on the first attack, and countered the second. You're still the same."

"Well now. Your sister's not half bad." In the audience stand, a familiar face joined the crowd at this point; Jet the blackwing duelist. "Not that she 's going to win though." He chuckled. "If she loses, she can try again. Emily will never give up." Alice argued. Her sisters blockheadedness was well documented. "Meh. Maybe she will get it eventually. Everyone gets lucky sometime. And then I suppose it is your turn to try eh?" Jet asked, still with a wry grin on his face. "No. I don't want to join your club." She claimed. "Is that so? I think you're just too scared to try." The duelist scoffed. "Why are you here?" Mrs. Brandt intervened. She did not like this mans tone. "Oh, pardon me madam. I just came to deliver a message. I was looking for the chief, but he is busy. So, I will just leave it here." He waved around a print-out. "This was emailed to our address this morning, I think your friend Uno will find it interesting." Heather took it. "Was that all?" She would give it to Cassius later. "As far as I care yeah. Have fun!" He sauntered off. He had no investment in this duel or in the message. "..Tch, that guy." Eric spat.

"I activate the effect of my synchro monster in the graveyard! Hi-Speedroid Kendama can special summon itself to the field!" The Kendama machine(2200/1600) came back in attack mode, after it was destroyed only one turn ago. "I cannot activate its other effect this turn. I can't normal summon or set monsters either. Special summons on the other hand.." Cassius summoned a toy helicopter robot(3/600/1200) from his hand. "When I control a wind-type monster, Speedroid Taketomborg can be called out." All speedroids were wind-attribute machines, so all he required was the HiSpeedroid. "Taketomborg can be tributed to summon a speedroid tuner monster from my deck. Though I can only summon wind-monsters for the rest of the turn now." Cassius exchanged the Taketon robot for his golden six-sided dice(1/0/0). "Speedroid Red-Eyed Dice!" Now that he had a speedroid in his graveyard, Cassius could begin the next stage of his plan. "I play Shock Surprise! I remove a speedroid to destroy a card you control!" Taketomborg was banished by the spell, and a shot was fired directly at Big Benkei. That was the obvious target.

"Not gonna happen, Aaron!" Emily responded by discarding a monster from her hand. "I activate Superheavy Samurai Soulfire Suit!" An armor of fire covered the Heavy Samurai(1000/2700). The shot was absorbed by the flames. "Soulfire Suit's effect can be triggered when it is in my hand. This turn it takes 800 defense points away from a Superheavy Samurai, but it also makes that samurai indestructible." Attacks and effects would not kill Big Benkei until his turn was over. "Aha. That is the real strength of the Samurais, their hand-traps." Cassius answered with his own trap, just as he started his battle phase. "Speed Turn! I can reduce a monsters defense and attack to zero! I target your Brawler!" Kendama flew away at the speed of sound, creating a sonic boom. The armor of Superheavy Samurai Blue Brawler (0/0) was cracked by the noise. "And of course, I attack it!" Kendama stabbed the samurai from behind. Because of its own effect, the Brawler did not die. But Kendama could still inflict piercing damage.

Emily's LP: 6550

Speed Turn, Normal Trap
If you control a "Speedroid" monster: you can target 1 monster on the field; reduce its ATK and DEF to 0 until the end of the turn.

"Hey, you said Kendama could not activate effects anymore!" Eric shouted. "Yes. But its piercing power is not an effect you 'activate'. That is the difference between trigger and continuous effects, Eric." Cassius shifted to the second main phase. "Now I'll tune Red-Eyed Dice with Kendama! Earlier I activated its effect, which can give a speedroid any level from 1 to 6!" When Red-Eyed Dice was summoned, it used its effect to modify the level of Kendama(5/2200/1600). "I synchro summon Stardust Charge Warrior, in defense mode!" The Hi-Speed synchro and the golden dice had a combined six level stars. The two became materials for a warrior(5/2000/1300) in white armor that resembled a dragon. "Stardust?" Emily did not expect a non-speedroid synchro at this point. But it was a wind-type warrior, so it bypassed Taketomborgs restrictions. "A synchro summoned Charge Warrior draws one card for me." Cassius took the card from his deck. He smiled as he saw what it was. "I set this card and end my turn."

"You think you're gonna avoid damage by defending?" Emily drew her next card and summoned it. It was the Superheavy Samurai Swordsman(3/1000/1800), who switched himself to defense position. "Not if I keep pumping out samurais!" Now she had three attackers, Speed Turns de-boost no longer affected the Brawler(0/2000) either. "The Swordman attacks!" Any of her cards could destroy his. Unfortunately, Cassius had a better way to trip her up this turn. "Follow Wing!" A continuous trap card targeted Cassius' monster. The mechanical wings of Stardust turned into wings of pure energy. "Any monster that battles my Synchro monster is destroyed at the start of the damage step!" It was too late to cancel the attack now. "Ah hell.." The 'wings' impaled the Swordsman and burned it up from the inside out.

"Language, Emily." Her mother chided her for her choice in curses. "Sorry, mom." Emily grunted. This was not going well. Benkei(1000/3500) and Brawler were stronger than Charge Warrior, yet they couldn't attack. She had only one option now. "I set a card in my spell/trap zone and I play the spell; Card of Demise! I can not inflict damage for the rest of the turn, or special summon monsters. But I can draw cards until I have three in my hand!" Emily added three cards to her empty hand. "When this turn ends, I have to discard everything I drew.. So." Emily had only drawn monsters. None of them could be summoned. However one could be equipped. "I activate Superheavy Samurai Soul Bang Cannon, to give my Samurai more defense power." A cannon attachment was placed on the arm of the Brawler(0/3000), to improve its defenses. "That was it." Emily discarded two cards from her hand and ended her turn.

"You know, using spells and traps weakens a deck like that, Emily." Cassius stated. He knew every Superheavy Samurai card, and a lot had their effects restricted if spells or traps were in their masters graveyard. "Like I said to that guy from Dreamworld before, I had to fill in a lot of gaps." Emily was well aware, she just did not use those samurais. Some she did not have anyway. "So did I, until I joined the guild. Hmm, this is the last turn. I could just end it and take the victory, but.." Emily had one set card left, he could not risk having it blow up in his face. He did not want to win that way either. "I will give it the finish it deserves!" He activated the effect of Hi-Speedroid Kendama again, reviving the machine from his graveyard for the second time. "I attack Superheavy Samurai Big Benkei with Stardust Charge Warrior!" The dragon warrior spread its empowered wings and dove down towards the samurai on the ground. "Then I will.. do this!" Emily activated her trap; Sealing Ceremony of Mokuton. "!?" The trap could tribute earth-type monsters to banish cards from her opponents graveyard. "I use the ceremony to sacrifice Brawler. I banish Red-Eyed Dice and Shock Surprise." It didn't really matter which cards were banished, as long as the Brawler was reduced to dirt and its Soulbang Cannon went down with it.

"What are you..!" Cassius figured out the plan, and he could do nothing to stop it. "Yeah-heh. You get the picture. Soulbang Cannon can activate its power from the graveyard, because I still have one Superheavy on my field. I can banish it to negate your effects that activates during the battle phase, and all monsters will be destroyed! Also we will both take 1000 points of damage!" Cassius could either activate Follow Wing and trigger Soulbang Cannon, or he could just let it go and have his Stardust warrior smash headfirst into Benkei's superior defense. Either way he would lose LP. "But you will still be behind him!" One synchro guild member from the audience reminded her that both players would take damage from the Cannon. ".." So Cassius attacked anyway, and set off the chainreaction. Soulbang negated Follow Wing as it targeted Big Benkei. A massive blast was unleashed that wiped out the Samurai, Stardust and Kendama. Cassius was caught in the explosion as well. Yet Emily.. was untouched.

Cassius' LP: 6400

"Surprise, surprise." Emily had been shielded by, of all things, a tomato with a football helmet on its face. "Interceptomato." That was a card with nostalgic value. Cassius remembered how Emily used that in her old deck as well. Another 'filled gap'. "You discarded that card with Card of Demise." Cassius had known about its presence in the grave; Interceptomato could banish itself to protect its master from one instance of effect damage. "You pulled a fast one. I didn't think you would find a way to get Soulbang Cannon in the graveyard." Cassius had lost this fight the minute the Mokuton trap flipped. "I knew you wouldn't just end your turn, Aaron. You always want to see action. You never just let things go by themselves." That was how Emily could win. Because Cassius had nothing left to hit her with. "My turn is over. You did it, Emily. Just like your cards; nothing can make you budge." He called for the endphase. Time was up and his life was below hers. "Heheh, you got that right."

Cassius LP: X

"Ha! I told you guys she would win!" Eric openly shouted as he celebrated her victory in front of the guild members. They had been whispering about her inevitable defeat for a while now. "She did? Oh well, that's good." Mrs Brandt hadn't really kept up with what happened in the game, but the results were clear. "So now she can become one of them." Allthough Alice was also happy for her sister, she did not reach Erics level of enthusiasm. "Oh come on, Alice. It's not as if she is gonna leave us. She just wants to enter the tournament." Eric was sure she would come back to the village after that mess was done with. "That wasn't why... I.. I guess so." She took a deep breath. It was not the end of the world. "You were right about one thing tho. Uno should have seen this. he would have loved it." Eric would have to tell him every detail as soon as he got back.

"Ah! Yes, Uno." Heather remembered the note Jet had given her. "Aaron. I believe this is meant for you." She handed it over to him, now that the match was over. "Oh?" He read it through. "What does it say?" The others flocked around him like a pack of curious cats. "Well, not something I saw coming. It's a formal invitation for Uno, from the Fusion guild." He showed it so that everyone could see that that was exactly what the paper said. "Fusion?" The mail was a request for Uno and his friends to come to the Fusion Guild HQ. That was it. "Why do they want to see any of us?" Alice could sorta understand inviting Uno, but them as well? That was not even most troubling aspect. "That's two guilds who know him now." Emily muttered. Even if the XYZ informed Fusion, and why would they, who gave the news to the XYZ-guild? "Maybe.. Dreamworld did it?" Alice couldn't come up with a better suspect, they were the only ones who knew that much about Uno. "Why though? What do they get out of it? Tch, this ruined my mood. Uno had better get back here to hear this."

...

"Time well wasted, Uno." Uno was walking about the city, looking for help and getting none. No jewelry store or pawnship could tell him what his pendant jewel was made from. The chain was pure gold, so it could at least sell for a lot. Uno could buy new clothes, eat somewhere fancy. Those were all small desires in the back of his head. But getting rid of something that connected to his unknown past was the last thing Uno wanted to do right now. Well the second to last thing. "I just know what they are going to do, once I step into a hospital. They'll put me in a bed, keep me under supervision, subscribe a million medicines and therapies. That's just no way to life." Uno did not want to chain himself. Not when the tournament was right around the corner. "If only I could get a sign of what to do next." He could not wander forever, he did eventually want to return to the people he actually knew. He just did not know what he could do.

"...Uhhh?" Uno looked down, his gem was glowing again. "This is new for you." He picked it up. The way it changed intensity made Uno think it was picking up on something. "Are you guiding me now? Is this a sign?" Uno started running, while keeping the gems glow hidden underneath his hands. It was reacting to something, he just needed to decipher which direction it wanted him to go. "Okay, pendulum, let's find out"

(To be Continued in Annex 017: A Question of Three)

New Cards used by Emily Brandt
Giant Rat
Superheavy Samurai Blue Brawler
Superheavy Samurai Soulfire Suit
Superheavy Samurai Soulbang Cannon
Interceptomato

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Card of Demise

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D2 Shield
Sealing Ceremony of Mokuton

New Cards used by Cassius
Speedroid Tri-Eyed Dice
Speedroid Taketomborg

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HiSpeedroid Kendama
Stardust Charge Warrior

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Limiter Removal

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Speed Turn (+)
Follow Wing

(+ Based on the trap used by Yugo in YGO Arc-V)