Annex 028: Sitra Achra
"Hey girls." Uno returned to the ring to see the pleased smiles of Alice and Emily. "And you other guys." He also detected some animosity. The synchro guild did not look happy with the loss of Akai. "I knew she wouldn't make it." Boris scoffed. "Made it more than you, Boris. The better duelist won that's all." She was satisfied with how the duel went down, and she wouldn't take sass from someone who did not even get into the tournament. "Well I think that was spectacular." Cassius backed them both up a bit, since his words would carry more weight. "If one of ours had to go down, better to him than to one of the XYZ-guild. I am proud of you either way, Akai." For the guild only the winner of the entire tournament mattered. "But chief, what if you have to duel him? What if it comes down to just the last of us and the last of the 'Oddballs'." One member still voiced a legitimate concern. "I wouldn't worry about that. This is all a game for Dom to see how far I am willing to go. He probably rigged the matchups so that I would have to duel against one of you first." Dom could not count on Uno making it to the finals. But at least he would probably make him duel someone from the Fusion and XYZ-guild before he would get to Zach and Iria. "There's five more rounds to smooth things over.."
And so the duels continued. Cassius and Alice were not called in yet. The gang used that time to discuss matters like their victories and upcoming fights. "You loved every moment of that, didn't you?" Emily also liked to point out how much Uno talked it up in his duel. "And you didn't? The entire country was watching us win, watching us in action." Uno could not simply describe how he felt out there. Having all those people around was similar to having an infinite amount of friends. If he could not know himself, he would make the world know him. "I dunno. I just put them out of my mind while I was up there." With how focused she had been, it was just another normal dueling experience to her. "Actually it's closer to a dozen million. This is broadcasted in other countries too. You shouldn't underestimate the popularity of this game." Cassius said. "A dozen million? That is like.. one percent of a billion." Alice said with a shudder. "I don't even know that many people by name." It was hard enough to deal with every spectator here. "This is so..."
But the world was not that large after all. "Eric!" For Alice saw the face of someone who lived right next to them. "Eric? Where!?" Emily snapped her head to her left and her right. "No, above! I saw him walk along the upper ring! I'm positive!" Alice kept pointing to the rows in the back. "That's hard to believe." Emily did not see Eric anywhere, yet she knew her sister would not make something like this up. "Color me surprised. Guess he wanted to see us duel after all?" Uno was a little happier thanks to that thought. This event wouldn't feel complete without him. "Maybe. He's probably trying to look for us." Emily shook her head; Eric was going the wrong way if he was. "Got lost in his own town, right? Maybe I should go out to meet him. To see if he is even there." Cassius offered. But Emily raised her hand. "No. It should be me. You might get called out soon." It would be better if she went alone, since she had finished her duel already. "I am have chased Eric many times by now. I'll be back if something interesting happens. Seeya."
She was gone for good five minutes when Doms voice went into day's eleventh duel was starting. "ALRIGHT PEOPLE! WE HAVE REACHED ONE THIRD OF THE FIRST ROUND! The first break is coming up. But before you enjoy the taste of our free food and beverages, I will let you savor the taste of POWER!" It seemed like Uno's prediction about Dom was not unwarranted, as the master talked like he knew which duel was going to happen before the big screen had settled on two names. Either that or he was just told in advance so he could prepare his lines. "You will not want to miss this! From the XYZ-guild comes second-class duelist William Wilson! And from the independent Guild 'Dreamworld' comes our very own Iria Silver!" The masters applause dominated the soundscape as the woman in black walked down the stairs. "I see it is finally time for the disciples to make their entrance." Uno could not miss this.
Iria's LP: 8000 Williams LP: 8000
"Hmph. You're that bigshot from dreamworld? Feh! I've never seen your face before. Don't think you can waltz your way here with just your name!" William met his opponent and it was clear that he was not impressed. That assessment was mutual. "I would prefer for you to not talk during this engagement. Any sentence not involving the duel is pointless." She said dismissively and she was not done. "Nor do I require you to prattle on about the effects of your cards. I already know all I need to know." Dom would explain everything to the masses anyway. "So in fact, it would be better if you said nothing at all."
"Hahahaha! You've got some nerve! But in case you haven't been watching, my guild has won every duel they have been in so far! I am looking forward to breaking that snotty attitude of yours with the power of XYZ!" William drew five cards. "I will talk as much as I like!" William activated a continuous spell, Supply Squad. Then he summoned his monsters. "Tin Goldfish!" A toy tin fish monster(4/800/2000) was placed flat on the ground. As the host gracefully explained on the screen, Tin Goldfish could special summon a level 4 monster from a players hand when it was normal summoned. "And Star Drawing!" A young sprite-faced spellcaster(4/1600/1000) with crossbolts all over its clothes was then special summoned with the effect of the Goldfish. "And Inari Fire! And Nefarious Archfiend Eater of Nefariousness!" The next two monsters were special summoned. The fiery fox Inari(4/1500/200) and the feral marmot Archfiend Eater(4/1500/200) could be special summoned if a spellcaster existed on the field.
Their effects were very similar to a certain other duelists monsters, Uno noticed. "Is his deck the same as Stans? I thought there were rules against that." He objected. "It must be different enough to satisfy Doms variety stipulation." Cassius reasoned. This deck seemed less focused on reptiles for one thing. When it came to the extra deck though, all bets were off. "XYZ-summon!" William overlayed Star Drawing with Archfiend Eater. "I draw one card!" Star Drawings effect allowed its player to draw once, after it was used attached to an Xyz-monster. "And I summon Gear Gigant X!" The result was neither man nor beast. The overlayed cards formed a red/green and blue robot(4/2300/1500) with a gear on its back. "And I activate his effect!" Gear Gigant searched the deck for machine monsters of the 4th level. William detached Archfiend Eater to add a second Tin Goldfish to his hand. "Then I activate the effect of Archfiend Eater! It destroys a monster to revive itself!" The Nefarious one ate the flames of the fire fox and resummoned himself back to the field in defense position.
"Why did he do that?" It looked like a backwards move to Alice. "To help his spell." Cassius referred to Supply Squad. Once each turn, when a monster was destroyed, Supply Squad would draw one card for its duelist. Inari Fire's destruction added a new card to Williams hand. "Lady Dreamworld, you are very lucky that the first turn fell in my lap. Next turn you won't know what hits you." William placed a trap card face-down. After all that, he still had two cards in his hand and three monsters on his field. "I can imagine it." Iria still spoke like nothing had changed. "Next turn you will summon something like Diamond Dire Wolf next turn. That rank 4 XYZ-monster destroys beasts you control, to destroy cards I control. Archfiend Eater is a beast, and it can special summon itself each turn. Inari Fire meanwhile special summons itself after it was destroyed, during your next standby phase that is. Together with your spell card and Gear Gigant, you intend to start a process that will fill your hand and field at the same time. Am I wrong?" William kept his mouth shut this time, which proved that she had him figured out. "Of course I am not. I know every kind of maneuver you might attempt with cards like those."
Iria drew her card. "Since power is the only thing you seem to understand, I will tell you about mine and show you." She played a Mystical Space Typhoon spell card to destroy Williams face-down Solemn Warning counter trap card. "A power that no amount of numbers can overcome." Iria then took two cards from her hand. "Wait.." The big screen zoomed in on her dueldisk so everyone could see. Uno was the first to recognize why the disk got that kind of focus. "Her disk has Pendulum zones!" The left and right side of her field lit up, Iria placed two pendulum monsters! "Scale 1: Qliphort Disk. Scale 9: Qliphort Scout. With these cards, monsters from level 2 to 8 can be pendulum summoned." Strange new machines appeared in the pendulum pillars. A disk-shaped spaceship was in the blue zone. A scoutship with an intricate golden framework on the top hovered in the red zone. "All Qliphort monsters will gain 300 attackpoints while Qliphort Disk is placed in my pendulum zone. And now with Qliphort Scout is in the pendulum zone, I may pay 800 lifepoints to add one Qliphort monster from my deck to my hand, once during my turn." Iria payed the cost right away. "I claim Qliphort Carrier."
Iria's LP: 7200
"What are these?" It was safe to say that Iria had abandoned her Monarch deck. This was something unheard of; a deck full of pendulum monsters. "You don't know either?" Cassius and the rest of the duelists had the same amount of knowledge about the Qliphorts... nothing at all. "Dom." Uno witnessed the kind of Pendulums the Master had created.
"I summon two Qliphort Carriers." In between the light pillars two one-eyed carrier ships(6/2700/1000) hovered. "Qliphort Carrier's level will be reduced by 2 stars and its original attackpoints will be lowered to 1800. This limiter is applied to any Qliphort which is special summoned. You would say its power is only awakened during a normal summon" The intense glow inside the Carrier ships(4/2100/1000) decreased. "Therefor they need tributes... or they need to be tributed." Iria sacrificed both her monsters. "!" A higher level Qliphort was tribute summoned, a white/green machine shaped like a gastropod shell(7/3100/1000). "Qliphort Shell. It's effect has been unlocked. Qliphort Shell may attack twice if it was normal summoned." Laserpanels on the side of the monsters shell aimed directly at William. "Haha.. is that supposed to make me shake in my boots, lady? I will still have plenty of monsters left after this attack! And lifepoints! And cards in my hand!" William shouted. "Before you speak, you should look, mister William. What monsters are you standing in front of you now?"
"Eh?" William did a double-take. Only Tin Goldfish stood between him and Qliphoth Shell. "Did you truly not notice? When it was tributed, Qliphoth Carrier removed one monster from the field and forced it back in your hand. Just because your fingers neglect to touch the card, does not mean the dueldisk has to keep them visualized." Iria pointed two fingers at her opponent and his remaining card. "It is time to dispense with you. You take pride in your tactics, as if this game takes effort to understand. A monkey can play this game. All you need to win is force." Iria activated a spell card from her hand, Limiter Removal. "Sonnuva!" Limiter Removal doubled the attackpoints of the mechanical Shell(6200/1000). William was doomed. "And. I am the disciple of he who can shape power as he pleases. This is my first fight in one of your tournaments, true. I would not be here if not for the Master, true. Yet there we were.. who was going to win?" Qliphoth shell fired a precise beam to destroy Tin Goldfish.
Williams LP: 4200
"The answer was exceedly obvious to anyone with a brain." The second laser struck directly.
Williams LP: 0
"INCREDIBLE, BEYOND MY WILDEST EXPECTATIONS! NOT JUST A ONE-TURN KILL, BUT A FIRST-TURN KILL! The first of the tournament!" Dom was rather proud of his disciple's accomplishments and he was not above displaying said pride. "Beyond his wildest expectations? Does he mean that?" Uno hoped not. Or else the creator of cards had no clue what he wanted to unleash on the gaming world. "The last thing these people need is something like a Pendulum guild." Of course the more immediate problem was Iria herself. Now Uno saw what Dom really wanted. He wanted to see which pendulums were better. Though that implied something Uno had not considered before. "He didn't make my cards?" It was a question for later. The first round still had to end. As Iria returned to the skybox, leaving her opponent silenced and dispirited, the big screen started flipping faces again. Though there would be a 15minute break, Dom wanted people to know which duel they could look forward to next.
"What the.." Jet from the synchro guild was one of them. "That's just funny." And his opponent was Alice.
"She has to fight against my guild too?" Cassius was starting to see Uno's point from before. This all was a bit too coincidental for his tastes. "Hey, Alice.. I.." He wanted to put her at ease, if he could have. "Alice?" But she wasn't there anymore. "She's gone?" The girl was nowherein sight. "Aaron? Who is gone?" Emily came back just in time to hear his outcry. "Your sister.. she.. We didn't see her leave." Uno said. Like Cassius, he had been to captivated by Iria's performance to look at anything else. "I saw her go inside, to the breakroom area." One of the other guild duelists spoke up. "She did? Why would she.. is she trying to find Eric? Did she forget something? I told her to make sure she had her cards with her! Gah, now she'll miss her duel!" Now Emily had to go look for someone else too, since Eric had eluded her so far. "You don't have to go. I will look for her. She can't be that far." Uno felt partly responsible for this. She was a member of his guild. "Fine. You do that. Just get her back quickly." Emily was too exhausted from all that running to do it again anyway. "I wouldn't bother, we all know who is going to win." Jet snickered. "Jet, hold that thought." Uno sighed. There was no time to get in a discussion with that guy. "Be right back!"
Within minutes Uno found her. "Alice!" He saw her sitting on a bench in the hallway. "Alice? Hey what's wrong?" When he got closer he also saw that something was definitely up. The girl was shivering and breathing at a rapid rate. This was not just her tiring herself out. "Uno!?" She let out a startled cry. It was only when he stood right next to her that she realized he was there. "N-nothing's wrong! I just... I was.." The girl tried and failed to get a sentence out. "Alice. You didn't just forget something, did you?" Uno had an idea what this was about. "Is it the people? Are you worried about how you will do in front of everyone?" Though she did not answer him, she did not deny what he said either. "That's nothing to be ashamed of. It's perfectly natural. I mean we have a word for it and everything; Stage fright. You know what entertainers like to do to combat this feeling?"
"Y-you picture the audience..naked?" Alice said with a shaking voice. "No. Not exactly. That'd just be distracting." Uno laughed. His response managed to get a brief smile from Alice as well. "Y-yeah. I guess. It wouldn't work on people I-I can't see anyway." It would be hard to picture everyone who was watching from the other end of the TV. "Indeed. No, I think you should try to laugh it off. Laughter is the best medicine, in my opinion. Just get your mind of what is going to happen in ten minutes and use the time you have now. If you want I could hit you with my best jokes! Or we can check up some funny videos online, anything you want." He sat down next to her and held her trembling hand. "And if that doesn't work, If you really do not want to do it, I'm okay with it." He was serious. If she couldn't do it, he would not force her. "No..I.." Alice's hand stopped trembling. "I can't do that! I'm your only partner! I can't..let the oddballs down." She got up. Seemed like her anxiousness had disappeared. "I will do it. I can do it."
"Are you sure?" He asked. She nodded her head with determination. "Alright. Then I suppose we should get back. Unless you want something to drink." She shook her head this time. "No. I am ready. But..Uno.. don't tell Emily about this when we get back. Just say I tried to find Eric." Alice made her request. On the surface Uno understood why, since she probably did not want to make her sister worried. "Of course." Still he wondered if there was more to it.
...
"Sir. Might I bother you with a question." Zach approached his master. Dom now had some time off from shouting over the mike. "Bother me? Never! I want to hear every thought that pops up in your mind, Zachary." Dom sat down in yet another massive chair and waited for what Zach had to say. "There have been rumors that the bracket is fixed. First with Uno's duel and now this Alice girl. I checked the duel logs and she has dueled Jet before. I just wanted to know if there was any truth to this. If my duel will be fixed too." Zach just found it too convenient. Dom had promised a big plan for Uno, and it would all be ruined if he accidentally ran into Iria and Zach too soon. "Well rumors are ugly. I might have made things a bit more interesting here and there." Dom said nothing specific and basically admitted his guilt at the same time. "Not for you though. I know you and Iria don't need it, you know you don't need it. Your opponent will be randomly chosen." Dom spun around and looked down at the dueling stage. "But in this case I couldn't resist. I wanted to see this rematch as soon as I found out which new deck Alice picked."
(To be Continued in Annex 029: Stick to the Shallows)
New Cards used by Iria Silver
Qliphort Scout
Qliphort Disk
Qliphort Carrier
Qliphort Shell
-
Mystical Space Typhoon
Limiter Removal
Cards used by William Wilson
Tin Goldfish
Star Drawing
Inari Fire
Nefarious Archfiend Eater of Nefariousness
Gear Gigant X
-
Supply Squad
-
Solemn Warning