Slifer Red Bronze Dorms
Evan set down his backpack on his desk and slumped down on his bed exhausted from the long walk from school. He rubbed his hand up and down the side of his face and sighed. Another bad day. Another big loss, this time he went up against Bastion, who he started to feel jealous of. He was a wiz in the class, helping students with their assignments and, in Evan's conceited opinion, was acting like a total show off. What set him off was when he was assigned to do a project with two cute girls named Kami and Wisteria (Tag Force), both of whom were from Obelisk Blue. They weren't as prejudiced as the other students were, and acted somewhat nice to him, but Evan could tell from the looks on their faces that they wished they had someone better in their group. Evan grew bold and impatient, and almost added a powder to the concoction, but Bastion yelled at him to stop from halfway across the room. He dashed toward him and grabbed his wrist with a vice-like grip.
It's a good thing Bastion noticed, otherwise Evan could have blown up their table. Bastion scorned him for not paying attention to the instructions and then Kami and Wisteria started praising Bastion for his intellect. After class, they immediately became good friends and started swapping their phone numbers. Once again, Evan's ego got the best of him, and he challenged Bastion after school. Needless to say, it did not go well. He remembered how it all played out that day.
Earlier that day...
After asking around the school, Evan was told that Bastion headed for The Dragon's Tongue, which was a triple waterfall located in the jungle not far from the main campus. Evan bought a few packs with some money his grandmother sent that morning. Without even thinking about what the cards were or what they did, he stuffed them into his already oversized deck and headed for the waterfalls to find Bastion. He followed dirt paths for almost an hour until he found the three famous waterfalls thundering down the face of the mountain. They were surrounded by tall and thick beautiful snowy-white white trees with ruby-red leaves that were only native to Academy Island. Evan looked around and noticed the ruins of an old castle that was swallowed up by the jungle. Only the walls and a few ramparts remained. The giant face of an ancient king tilted under one of the waterfalls so that they poured down its surface instead.
"There he is!" Evan said, spotting Bastion.
His spot was on a mossy rock with a tree growing out of it and a vine-covered stone lantern that was tilting to the right. Bastion was sitting underneath the middle waterfall with his legs crisscrossed. He only wore gray athletic pants and had no shirt on. His eyes were closed and his hands rested on his lap, fingers laced together.
"Hey!" Evan called. His voice rang across the sanctuary but Bastion didn't even move. He was still like a rock. He must have been meditating, Evan guessed, but enough was enough. "HEY!" he shouted even louder.
Evan took a step closer to the edge of the pool and the water came to life. Evan yelped and froze, watching in horror as the water churned and bubbled. Suddenly, out of the middle of the pool arose a giant sea serpent made from water. It rose higher and higher until it was almost as tall as the waterfall itself, its red eyes burned with anger. The serpent hissed and let out a screeching cry that sent Evan falling backward.
"KYAAAAHHH!" he screamed in sheer terror.
Bastion opened his eyes and slowly looked up. "Oh," he said after a long pause. "It's you."
"What is this?" Evan said.
"It's my Water Dragon," Bastion answered. "The ace of my water deck. I always have its Solid Vision Hologram patrolling my spot when I meditate. It's useful for scaring off fools who think they can disturb me in my time of peace. It's all right, Water Dragon. He is no threat."
Water Dragon hissed one last time and sank back into the pool.
"Well...good job," said Evan. "He sure scared the crap out of me. Damn, does everyone make a habit of hanging out with their Duel Monsters?"
"Some do," Bastion said. He closed his eyes and his head crept downward as if he fell asleep.
"What is this?" Evan asked. "Some kind of dueling exercise or something?"
Bastion opened his eyes again and looked up. "No. Believe it or not, my life doesn't always revolve around dueling. I am practicing Takigyo, which is meditating under the cold waters of the waterfall. The objective of this meditation is to clean the body, mind, and soul. The waters of the falls act as purification. It tests my limits but it allows me to achieve maximum efficiency in mental training. Something we all need when it comes to school."
"Well, let's see how tough your Water Dragon is, Bastion! I'm challenging you to a duel!"
"Hmm. There is a lot of aggression in your voice. Something tells me you're not challenging me to a game of Duel Monsters for the fun of it."
"No! Of course, not! You think you're so smart! So cool! You think you're all that so you can make people like me feel bad every time we make a mistake?"
"Ah, you're referring to what happened in the chemistry lab today? Well, Evan, what was I supposed to? Just stand there and let you blow up the school just so you could impress your pretty lab partners? What good that would have done you. They have boyfriends, you know."
"Yeah, right! You just couldn't wait to show off your intellect to Kami and Wisteria. And better guinea pig than me, huh? I don't appreciate that one bit, Bastion. I got some new monsters before coming here and they're just itching to take you down. And your Water Dragon. Say, why don't we make this interesting?"
Bastion looked away in disgust. "Ugh. I haven't even agreed and already you want to make this interesting." He sighed. "But I think I know where this is going. You want us to ante up our rarest cards."
"Heh, I knew you were going to agree, alright. I know eggheads like you never back out of a challenge. So what do you say?"
"I say you're a fool challenging me like this. But if you think you're going up against my Water Dragon, you're wrong. You're not worthy of his time. I'll duel you with my Yokai darkness deck instead."
Bastion went for his messenger bag. He dried himself with a towel first then took out a small briefcase made of polished cherrywood, which contained his decks. He quickly picked up his darkness deck and placed it into his duel disk.
LP 4000 - Bastion
Evan - LP 4000
Turn 1
"Since you are the challenger, Evan, I'll go first."
"Fine! Go ahead! It doesn't matter who goes first, Bastion! You're going down! I may be in Slifer Red but I'm not letting some egghead bully me around."
"You call that bullying? I practically saved your life and the well-being of my friends. If you call that bullying, Evan, heaven help you if ever come across a real bully. I summon a monster in defense mode. That ends my turn. It's not too late to back out of this, Evan."
Turn 2
"Whatever! I activate the spell, Fires of Doomsday! This is one of the sweet rare cards I got from the packs I opened today. It lets me summon two Doomsday Tokens to my side of the field."
Two one-eyed ghosts made of black and green flames burst over the water. The Solid Vision Holograms were so accurate, that their reflections were even displayed in the water.
Bastion gave a nod. "Hmm. You managed to earn some DP it seems?"
"Yeah, I beat a few guys from my dorm earlier today. I'm on a roll, Bastion!"
"So jealousy and complacency led you to me. You poor fool. You'll never make it far in this school."
"Whatever, Bastion. Now, going back to my Doomsday Tokens. They can't be used for tributes unless it's for a Dark monster. And guess what? I just so happen to have one! I tribute my tokens to summon Zoa!"
The flaming ghosts dispersed and made way for a giant blue fiend with spikes and wing-like appendages coming out of its head. Zoa came running out of the red-leaved forest and splashed into the edge of the pool next to Evan. He felt so mighty seeing that big monster snarling and panting next to him. A rush of confidence and satisfaction surged through his entire body, making him feel invincible.
ATK/2600 DEF/1900
"Read it and weep, Bastion! And don't think your puny defensive monster is going to get in Zoa's way. Cuz I activate this! Tribute to the Doomed. By discarding one card from my hand, it allows me to destroy a monster you control leaving you defenseless."
Bastion's face-down monster shattered but he remained unphased. He did not move. He did not react. He just stood there, staring Evan down.
"Oh, acting like the tough guy, huh? Let's see how tough you are when Zoa gets at your Life Points! First, I'm going to set three cards face-down. Go, Zoa! Attack Bastion directly!"
Zoa charged, running on water to get to Bastion's Life Points.
Bastion narrowed his eyes and scoffed. "Is that so? Go, Crow Tengu!"
"What is that?" Evan said as a humanoid crow in red garments and carrying a rod flew out of the water. Large droplets rained down from its soaked feathers and rod. Zoa and the crow clashed for a few seconds, and in that time, Evan thought Bastion had done something to stop his monster. But Zoa finally slashed the crow monster with his claws. A fiery blasted ensured. Bastion stood still as the grass swayed at his ankles and the towel around his neck danced over his chest. Suddenly, the rod the crow carried came out of the spirit world. It flew to Zoa, going right through his head and blasting him.
"My monster!" Evan shouted over the explosion as it radiated across the jungle.
"He's gone," said Bastion. "You see when Crow Tengu is destroyed and sent to the graveyard by an opponent's card effect, I can destroy one Attack Position monster you control. Sorry, Evan. But my Life Points are safe. Yours are not, however. My turn!"
Turn 3
"Oh man," Evan gulped. Bastion must have known I was going to do that. He really is good. Dude, Evan, what have you gotten yourself into?
Bastion drew a card. "Nervous, Evan? You should be. I activate the spell, Dark World Dealings. Now, we each draw 1 card and then discard a card."
"Okay, that's what I'll do," said Evan. He discarded and drew. "Sweet!" he thought when he got a new monster. Man-Eater Bug. If Bastion is dumb enough to attack this, it will destroy any one of his monsters. Oh, this is going to be good!
"I now summon Shinobi Necro in attack mode!" Bastion yelled. He summoned an undead ninja with flaming red eyes and a sinister grin on his face.
ATK/800
"Now, I'm going to banish the monster known as Mezuki from my graveyard so I can special summon Crow Tengu!" The crow cawed coming out of a white portal from the Graveyard. It landed next to Bastion and cackled. "Now," Bastion continued, "my Shinobi Necro's special ability activates. I'm allowed to draw one card and discard one card. Next, I shall tribute Crow Tengu and Shinobi Necro to special summon Nine-Tailed Fox!"
The two monsters turned into flames, which combined to form a fire cyclone. It went out, revealing a giant white fox with nine tails tipped with red.
"Nine-Tailed Fox is one of my most precious monsters!" said Bastion. "And its flaming fangs will bring me victory! But first, I'm going to activate this. Polymerization! I fuse together Netherworld Banshee and Red Ogre to create the powerful Dragonecro Nethersoul Dragon!"
Evan gulped again, recoiling when he saw the evil dragon rising out of the water slowly. Its skull-like face was locked in a horrifying grin as water cascaded down every crevice and ridge on its body. Finally, it towered over Bastion's shoulder. "Hmm, hmmm, hmmm, hmmm, heh!" the dragon laughed before snarling like a crocodile.
ATK/3000 DEF/0
"Now, this is the end for you, Evan! Nine-Tailed Fox and Dragonecro will attack you directly!"
"I think not! I reveal my face-down card, Waboku! Now, I'll take no damage this turn."
"I see. Good play. That ends my turn."
Turn 4
"Now it's time I showed you the true power of my new deck! Draw! I should thank you for letting me draw a card with your Dark World Dealings card, Bastion. I have what I need to take you down. I set a monster in defense mode. Then, I'm going to activate the trap card, Metalmorph! This will transform Zoa into the all-powerful Metalzoa!"
"Auugh!" Bastion gasped.
Zoa's body turned metallic. He became a whole new beast with 3000 ATK points.
"But wait, there's more! I now activate my second trap card, Call of the Haunted. This will bring back regular Zoa. Now I have two powerful monsters! And I'm going to boost Metalzoa's points with Black Pendant! This will increase his attack by 500 points! First, I'll attack with Zoa! Destroy his Nine-Tailed Fox, my great beast!"
Regular Zoa fired a rainbow beam shaped like an X and blasted Bastion's fox. The explosion caused the water to ripple and the trees to shudder, dropping a rain of leaves across the falls. Water rained down on Bastion as his Life Points decreased to 3600. Again, he did not move. His calmness was making Evan madder and madder. No matter what he did in their match, Bastion did not take him seriously. He thought perhaps his next attack would cause him to react the way he wanted. He wanted Bastion to flinch and scream! Come on! Just this once! He thought.
He pointed at Bastion's dragon so fiercely, that his arm wooshed in the air. "Now, attack his Nethersoul Dragon, Metalzoa!"
The fiendish cyborg dashed over the surface of the water and slashed the dragon with his claws. Again, an explosion ensued, but Bastion wasn't phased. His LP decreased to 3100.
"What do you think, Bastion? Got you on the ropes now, huh?"
"No. Quite frankly, I don't think you do. Because you destroyed my Nethersoul Dragon, I'm allowed to summon a Dark Soul Token to the field." A fiery purple ghost burst next to Bastion. The ghost cackled with a high-pitched voice.
Evan placed his hands on his hips. He leaned backward and scoffed uncaringly. "Big deal. I'll get rid of it on my next turn."
Turn 5
"Next turn? There isn't going to be a next turn for you, Evan. I've already calculated your defeat. Watch." He drew his next card. "Perfect! This is more than enough to take you down. I activate the spell, Graceful Charity! Now I can draw three cards and discard two."
"Heh, you're only left with one card, Bastion. That's not going to do much to stop me!"
"It's going to be more than enough to defeat you, Evan. I will activate it now! Book of Life. This lets me select one Zombie monster in my graveyard and one monster in yours. I can special summon mine and yours gets banished."
"So you got rid of my Celtic Guardian. Big deal."
"Oh, it's a big deal, alright. You throw away your monsters like they're nothing, thinking they will grant you power. Little did you know, getting rid of your monsters so carelessly led to your downfall. Observe as I summon my Nine-Tailed Fox! And save it! I don't want to hear your pointless monologue. I know you're going to brag that your Zoa's are stronger. Well, one of them anyway."
"What do you mean?"
"Look at your Metalzoa, Evan!"
Evan looked at the ATK stats beside it. His ATK points were 0. "What! Metalzoa has no attack points!" He looked at Metalozoa itself and to his horror, he was being burned by purple and yellow flames and his armor was rusted up. Laughing purple ghosts flew out of every crack and in its body.
"That he doesn't. You see when you attacked Dragonecro, you activated his special ability. Monsters who do battle with him are not destroyed, however, if they survived a battle with him their ATK points become 0, leaving your Metalzoa vulnerable for the killing blow."
"Killing blow? Even if your Nine-Tailed Fox defeats Metalzoa, it won't deal enough damage to beat me."
"Of course, it won't. So I activate the effect of the Mezuki monster I discarded with Graceful Charity."
"Oh no! Now you can banish it to summon a Zombie monster from your graveyard!"
"Correct! And I choose another monster I discarded with my spell. Behold Doomking Balderdroch!"
He summoned an undead lord that looked like a dragon with a skull head topped with a crown. The giant monster ripped open a hole from the netherworld and loomed directly over Evan.
ATK/2800
"Oh no!" Evan wailed. "Noooooo!"
"Oh, yes. Doomking! Destroy his Metalzoa!"
Bastion's Doomking aimed his staff made of bones made of gold at Metalzoa. He fired a red beam and destroyed him, dealing 2800 points of damage to Evan. As Evan got up, Bastion announced that when his Nine-Tailed Fox was brought back from the GY, it gained the ability to do damage to Evan's LP even if his monsters were in defense mode. Evan already knew it was over. His Man-Eater Bug only had a DEF of 600 and Nine-Tailed Fox had 2200. He closed his eyes and accepted defeat.
Present time...
Evan groaned, trying to get the memory out of his head. How could he have been so stupid to think a few new cards would give him an edge against a duelist like Bastion? He looked at his cards, flipping to see each and every one of them. He sighed and tossed his deck at the wall, the cards splattering in all directions.
"I'm never going to get far like this," Evan said. He held on tightly to his gut, trying his hardest not to cry. "My cards are crap! I...I always lose!"
What was he going to do? In just a few days, he developed a bad reputation for himself. Everyone in school was making fun of him. And deep down, he so wanted a girlfriend. Alice was the closest thing he had to a friend here, but he screwed that up because he couldn't help taking a peek when her skirt got lifted and exposed her. Now she hated him for that. And she told Alexis and her friends what happened so now they all probably thought he was some creep too.
Evan figured he might have better luck dueling the other guys in his dorm. Perhaps he could rack up some DP and buy two packs each down, praying he'd get something good. He went downstairs to the dining hall for some food and maybe even an opponent to face. As soon as he walked out of his room, the fart-smelling stench of the bog assaulted his nose. Some of the other bronze Slifer Reds were used to it and were hanging outside like it was nothing. A small group of them were having a cookout with the camping grill outside the motel. Frogs croaked somewhere in the darkness and crickets chirped from all directions. Fireflies lit up the air and the paper lanterns hanging outside the motel were on to give the students some light. Evan couldn't believe how accustomed these guys were to staying here. They were laughing, drinking soda, and eating food from the grill. Some had boom boxes on the picnic tables blasting trap music or heavy metal. A few of them sat around campfires near the edge of the swamp. One kid with a cowboy hat was sitting on a stump playing crude songs with his guitar as his friends sang along by fire next to the water, which sparkled in the moonlight, adding a small touch of beauty to the swamp.
Huh. Even though this was the bottom of the barrel, most of the Slifers here were making the most of what they had. For some students, it didn't matter what the rank or quality of the dorm was. It was a privilege being able to study at the legendary Duel Academy. As Evan slapped a mosquito away from his ear, he admitted that once you get passed the smell, the guys passing gas to be funny, and the low-quality food, the place wasn't so bad. Still, he did not want to be here forever. He wanted to go to the bigger dorms with Jaden and the others. He could see the lights of the academy glistening through the trees, the sight only fueled his resolve. He sucked in some air and headed for the mess hall downstairs.
It was like a rowdy tavern in there. A wooden fan slowly spun over the sitting area, which consisted of orange leather booths, each with a light hanging over them and windows offering a panoramic view of the swamp. A portrait of Slifer the Sky Dragon hung over the fireplace in a sitting area where some fellow Slifers were trading cards or playing games. There were three arcade booths including House of the Dead 2 and Tekken, which was the most popular game in the dorm. A crowd of Slifers flooded around two players as they were holding up cards and handfuls of cash.
Mumble rap played from someone's phone, amplified by speakers at the corner of a table. The owner was a kid with a black pompadour hairstyle selling rare cards from a big black binder. He had fake gold and silver rings on his fingers to make himself look like a gangster. He had a Duel Pet on his shoulder. A skull monster covered in purple smoke called Shadow Specter.
Hanging on the wall of his booth were pictures of hot female pro duelists modeling bikinis at the beach. The creme-de-la-creme of the collection was a centerfold of Mai Valentine lying on her belly in the surf wearing nothing but a tight black thong. There was a picture of a girl in a blue bikini lying on her back, but her head was covered by a picture of Alexis Rhodes's face.
He was just the person Evan wanted to see. He took a deep breath and walked up to his booth to see if he could afford any of the cards he was selling.
"How do you do?" said the boy. "Name's Jonas Miller. I'm the Slifer Red's supplier of rare cards. Now, what can I interest you in? Go on, take a look, everything's for sale. And there's a discount on normal rares I'm sure will tickle your fancy."
"Great," Evan said, sitting down.
"Feel free to peruse," said Jonas, sliding the binder his way.
Evan flipped through the binder and noticed that they had numbers at the bottom of the sleeves next to a big DP. "What's that mean?" Evan asked.
"What's that mean?" Jonas laughed. "Man, you've been on this island like what? Three days, and you don't know what Duel Points are?"
"N-n-no. I...I haven't really gotten up to speed with anything."
"You sure look like it. Well, Chancellor Sheppard put in this really cool system to help ease the financial burden off the students. Duel Points or DP are a form of currency that we students earn when we participate in duels. What we earn depends on what rank we earned at the end of the match, with the top rank being S. You get graded or penalized depending on what you did to win the match. The higher the rank, the higher your payout will be. You can use these credits to pay for booster packs, structure decks, sleeves, and even cool decorations for your Duel Disk."
"That sounds pretty neat. Well, I have played a few matches. Maybe I have some credits on me."
"All right, open up your academy PDA and let's see what you've earned."
Evan found the app that let him check how many credits he had. His face sunk when he saw that he only had 150. Jonas started laughing.
"Sounds like somebody's been losing a lot. Yeah, I can see why you've come to me for help."
"What does it matter?" Evan said, gloomily flipping through the pages. "I can't afford any of these. I need to get good cards so I can play better."
"You want good cards, you need good credits. Of course, you can always pay with real cash."
"An option for bottom-of-the-barrel students like me, huh?"
"Well, everyone gets their equal chance somehow, right? Look, I don't condone what those gangs are doing out there, but if you hang with them, you can score some good cards without having to worry about paying up."
"You mean steal?
"That's one way to put it. Look, those are the only options you got. You can either scrape up credits with each loss of yours and buy just one card here in my collection. Or you can roll with one of the gangs and take what you want by force. There's strength in numbers, you know. So long as they don't get physical or hurt anyone, there's nothing Campus Security can do to stop them."
"I guess so," Evan said. "That's really the only option I've got. I'll go try joining that group Boris hangs around with."
"Look, it's good that you're aiming high, but that's too high. Boris and his boys are total scumbags, but they're really good. And now's not a good time to be seeing him. Boris is in a foul mood because he lost to some girl earlier today."
"A girl?"
"Yeah, some cutie named Alice. Her Sacred Phoenix cards mopped the floor with him. I saw it on the vids not too long ago. Man, I've never seen him so distressed in my life. He really got his ass kicked."
"Well, that's one thing me and him have in common. I want to get back at Alice Fenix myself."
"Oh, you know her?"
"I used to. I didn't mean to upset her, but she got mad and slapped me before she finally stood me up."
"What happened?"
"I don't know. Some Duel Monster flew up from behind her and created this wind. And...well…"
Jonas laughed, slamming his fist on the table. "Let me guess, her skirt went up and you saw home base, eh? Dude, you probably didn't even try to make it look like you didn't notice. If that's the case, I don't blame her. If you were a girl, would you ever want to see a guy who looked at you the way you did her ever again?"
"I guess not, but it was an accident."
"You should have looked away and been a gentleman about it, especially towards girls who are higher ranked than us. Anyways, if you feel you wanna have your revenge against her, I ain't gonna stop you. But you're not gonna fix things with her if you go this route."
"I don't need her. And she doesn't need me, she made that very clear." Evan rubbed his cheek as though it still stung from the slap Alice gave him the other day. "Do you know where I can find Boris?"
Jonas sighed, squeezing his eyes shut and pinching the bridge of his nose. "All right. If you want to join him that badly, I guess he's probably over at the coasts trying to show off his authority to the higher-ranked Slifer Students. May God be with you. He's not in the mood to see anyone right now.'
Evan nodded. He stood up and thanked Jonas, then walked out to look for Boris. Although, as soon as he crossed the bridge to the Slifer Dorm, he stopped. It was pitch black in front of him and creatures of the night were in the middle of their eerie chorus. Evan dashed for the coasts as far as he could. After running for a few minutes, his sides began to hurt. Seagulls still called out from the dark skies. He was close. Then he saw the lights from the lamps lining the road casting the living area with an orange glow. Evan let out a sigh of relief when he saw Boris and his gang storming down a lit path surrounded by palms into the jungle.
"Hey!" Evan cried out.
He tried to catch up to them, but he was completely worn out. After what seemed like hours, Evan noticed what looked like a cabin made of glass tile and wood with a lamp hanging over the door. The air was moist and there were puddles all over the ground. He heard laughing coming from the bushes nearby. On the edge of the light cast by the lone lamp over the door, he could make out red jackets and black slacks. It was Boris and his friends. Evan slowly walked up to them.
"Hey, you Boris?"
"Shhhhh!" Boris and his friends all said.
"Shut up, dumbass! You're going to blow our cover!" said a guy with blue hair underneath a black beanie.
"What do you mean?"
Boris sniggered. "Hey, you're Evan, right? Yeah, I heard a lot about you. They say you're making us Slifer look really, really, bad."
"I know that's why I…"
"Shhhh!"
"Shut up!" growled Zack.
"What's going on?" Evan asked.
Boris sniggered. "Take a look," he said, stepping aside to reveal a long, narrow hole with a warm orange glow coming out of it.
Evan knelt down and peered through it. He saw nothing. Something pale was blocking the way. He shivered, realizing what he was looking at was a long, slender leg. When the owner of the leg stepped aside it revealed that the room he was looking in was the Slifer Red girls' showers. And they were occupied. The girls were washing themselves very thoroughly and it looked like they were having a good time in there.
"AUUUUGHH!" Evan cried out.
Boris and his friends smacked their hands over his mouth. Evan could still see inside. The girls noticed his scream and started to panic, grabbing towels to cover themselves.
"Oh, God! Someone's watching us!"
"Who's out there!?"
Suddenly a girl Evan recognized walked out of her shower stall and wrapped a pink towel around herself. Evan's eyes widened.
Trix! Trix! Trix!
"What's happening?" Trix asked, her face blushing. "Is there some perv trying to see us naked?"
"I don't know, I heard something from outside," screeched a girl with green hair. "Someone do something."
"Hang on a second," Trix said. He grabbed a bucket and filled it with boiling hot water from the shower stall. She noticed the hole in the wall and guessed the perv was outside looking at them from there. What he probably failed to notice was the vent on the wall overhead. She tossed the hot water through it.
AUUUUUGGGGHHHHH! It sounded like a direct hit.
"There is someone out there!" screamed a girl.
Trix blocked the hole with a bottle of shampoo."Forget that! There are lots of them! Those were multiple screams! HUON! HUON! HUON HELP!"
"HUON!"
"HUON!"
HELP! HELP!"
"HUON HELP!"
Boris and his friends took off running, leaving Evan rolling around in the mud in agony. That water burned him, and he took most of the hit. Suddenly, a very loud barking echoed in the night.
"Run!" shouted the guy with the beanie. "It's Huon!"
Evan didn't need to hear that twice. He got up and ran after them. The barking was getting closer and he heard a tag jingling from the shadows. He was getting closer. Evan didn't care about the pain in his sides anymore. This was a dog that could hunt and kill lions. What would it do if it sunk its teeth into him? He didn't want to stop and find out.
Evan followed Boris and his gang into the jungle back into the swamps. Huon's barking faded, but they didn't want to stop and find out if he was chasing them or not. Finally, they saw the warm glow of their dorm shining like a jewel in the middle of the swamp. Once they reached the front garden, they stopped and fell to the ground to catch their breath.
"Phew," Evan breathed. "Man, that was close. HURK!"
One of Boris's boys grabbed him by the collar of his jacket and lifted him up. "Yeah, no thanks to you, idiot!"
"Yeah, you ruined such a beautiful moment for us. They were just getting started."
"Sorry, sorry, sorry!" Evan begged them to let him go.
Boris walked up from behind the guy holding up Evan. "What were you doing all the way out there looking for us, Freshman?"
"I...I just wanted to join your gang."
"And why the hell would we do that?" asked Zack.
"I need to have good cards in my deck. I heard you guys are the best group in the whole dorms who can help with that. Please, I'm desperate."
Boris nodded. "Yo, Seth. Teach this punk some manners. If he wants to join the Red Crusaders, he's gonna have to prove he's no wuss."
Seth, the boy with the blue hair and black beanie stepped forward, holding up his wrist to show off the black Duel Disk underneath. "Well, let's go! Get your stuff out and let's play."
Evan did as he was told. He was nervous, but hey, this guy was a Slifer Red like he was. Maybe this match would be a lot easier. He followed them to the back of the dorms. It was even darker back there. The lamps on the side of the building did very little to illuminate anything. They got into position and powered on their duel disks.
Seth 4000 LP
Evan 4000 LP
Turn 1
"You're going down, reject!" Seth said. "I'll go first. Hmm, this hand sucks. So I'm going to use Card Destruction. Now we discard our hands and draw the same amount of cards we had before. Hmm, that's much better. I set two cards face-down and summon a monster in defense mode. Let's see what you got."
Evan felt a little confident. It wasn't too bad. At least he wasn't swarming the field with monsters as the higher-ranking students did.
Turn 2
"All right. Bring it on! You hear me. Bring it on!" he shouted loudly and caused an awkward silence. He coughed and drew. "For my first move. I use Polymerization, fusing M-Warrior One and Two to make Karbonola Warrior!"
The purple knight could barely be seen in the dark. But Evan could make out the gold and silver trim of his armor. The holographic stats appeared beside him showing 1500 ATK.
Evan took a deep breath and ordered his warrior to attack. He let out a loud battle cry that startled Evan and forced him to cover his ears. The battle cry echoed into the swamps and the warrior charged, the steel of his sword flashing in the moonlight.
CLLCKKK! His sword cut apart something boney. Evan smiled when he saw he had just taken out a Skull Servant, a practically worthless monster in his book.
"Yeah! Ha! A Skull Servant? Seriously? Even I know he's the most pitiful monster in the game. What are you doing running that thing in your deck? You're not so tough!"
"I hope you're enjoying yourself while it lasts, Evan. Because this next monster is going to make you piss your pants the way your friend Alice did."
"She's not my friend! She never will be."
Turn 3
"Ooo, of course, she ain't. She's an Obelisk! She's the enemy, get that. They never look at us as equals. Just trash or some cockroach that needs to be squashed. We used to be laughed at, but thanks to Boris, the Obelisks, and the Ras have grown to respect us. Soon they'll fear us. But that can't happen if suckers like you get all chummy with them. Got it? Now, where was I? Oh, yeah. I use the trap card, Call of the Haunted. What this card does is revive a monster from my graveyard."
Oooooooooo!
Ghostly howls filled the night like the wind, causing Evan to shiver. His teeth chattered and he felt a trickle of urine going down his pants. He gulped. Boy, this Solid Vision Tech was a little too real. Certainly not like the games he and his friends had back home. It was times like this that he wished he was back there instead of dealing with these scary holograms.
Suddenly, the ground beneath Seth's feet started to quake. A bony arm reached out. Then a skull with flaming blue eyes came out of the muck. Skull Servant was back.
"Now, I'm going to sacrifice my Skull Servant in order to summon the mighty Lich Lord, King of the Underworld!"
Skull Servant burst, his bones scattered everywhere, clinking and clattering along the rocks and dirt. Then a skull with bones the color of decay took its place. He grew black feathered wings and a robe magically formed over him, with a plate of steel over the right shoulder. He held out his hand and a golden staff with a red jewel crowning the top formed. He wrapped his bony fingers around it and flew over the field. Evan could barely see him. All he could make out was a dark red silhouette and burning red eyes. His black feathers were outlined in silver from the moonlight.
Lich Lord, King of the Underworld
ATK/2400 DEF/1200
"Oh, man."
Seth growled as he smiled. "That will teach you to laugh at me, fool! Lich Lord, King of the Abyss, attack his Karbonala Warrior!"
Lich Lord let out a horrible groaning roar and used his staff to suck the life out of Evan's fusion warrior. The warrior's skin shriveled up until it became dust and left his bones behind, which exploded.
Evan 2600 LP
Seth 4000 LP
Turn 4
"This...this is not good. I draw."
Hmm, this is the Man-Eater Bug. Perfect. If he attacks me with his zombie, I'll be able to destroy it with this card. Hopefully, he has nothing left in his deck for me to worry about. All right, and this is the Mirror Force card my sister gave me and Draining Shield, too, which increases my Life Points by the attacking monsters' attack points. So even if Seth does swarm a bunch of monsters out on the field, I'll be ready for him.
"I set a monster in defense mode and set these cards face-down. That ends my turn."
Turn 5
"If that's all you can muster, I'm sorry to say that the game is over. First off, I use Pot of Greed and draw two extra cards. Next, I activate the effect of my Plaguespreadder Zombie! I send a card from my hand back to the top of my deck and I get to special summon him."
"He sure is creepy looking," Evan said with a shiver, but he was quite confident his defenses would keep him safe.
"Oh, he's about to get worse, I can assure you. Next, I activate my trap card, Ultimate Offering. Now, by paying 500 of my Life Points, I can make an extra summoning. Now, first off, I'm summoning Gernia in attack mode. Now, I use my trap to pay 500 Life Points to summon the mighty King of the Skull Servants!"
The earth shook and then a giant version of Skull Servant rose out of the swamp behind Seth. Its eyes burned blue. Evan felt like he was in the middle of a Dark Souls game facing that creature.
"You thought Skull Servants were weak, huh? Yeah, alone they're not much. But together, they can form an unstoppable army. Picture them as a less handsome version of us Slifer Reds. Alone, the other students look at us as weak. They can laugh at us. They can ridicule us, but just like these skeleton monsters, there's a burning resolve to show the world we're so much more. Together, we can form a powerful force that can make them fear us. Just like you are right now, Evan. A while ago, you were laughing at my Skull Servant for being weak. Well, who's laughing now?"
King of the Skull Servants
ATK/? DEF/ 0
(ATK ? → 4000)
"Wait, why did his attack points rise so high?"
"Remember when I trashed my hand earlier with Card Destruction? Well, I had two more Skull Servants and another King of the Skull Servants in my hand. King of the Skull Servants' original attack points become the number of Skull Servants and King of the Skull Servants times 1000. I have four skull monsters. You do the math."
Evan dug his sneakers deep into the dirt. I'm ready, Come on. Attack me. I dare you!
"Now for the final soldier in my army of the undead. Synchro Summon! I tune Plaguespreadder Zombie and Gernia to call upon Revived King Ha Des!"
A robed fiend with rotting skin rose out of a pink-colored hexagram. He cackled and spread his arms to make his robes look like wings.
Revived King Ha Des
ATK/2450 DEF/0
Evan felt a tear roll down his face. He was horribly frightened by these undead creatures. Boris meanwhile let out a terrible laugh. "Damn, Seth. Take it easy, man."
Seth couldn't help but snort. "I don't think so. I hope you aren't going to use those spells on me, man. Now, I use this card. Harpie's Feather Duster! I nabbed this of an Obelisk the other day. Boy does it sure come in handy. It will destroy all of your face-down cards."
Dark clouds covered up the moon. All Evan could see of the zombies were their glowing eyes and their illuminated ornaments. Then, lightning crashed from the clouds and destroyed Evan's traps.
"Help! Help!" he cried.
Seth howled and held out his fist. "Now, Lich Lord, attack his face-down monster!"
Lich Lord zapped Man-Eater Bug with a beam from his staff. The giant insect growled, fighting through the beam, ready to take one of Seth's monsters down with him.
"When Man-Eater Bug gets—"
"—I know what he does, Evan. But don't think for a second that its effect is going to destroy my monsters. Revived King Ha Des will negate your monster's effects when they battle against my zombies. Too bad. Now, King of the Skull Servants! End this duel!"
King of the Skull Servants conjured a flaming sword and smashed it on Evan, ending the duel. Evan was launched a few feet backward and hit the ground hard. He rolled to a stop.
"Nothing to it, Boris."
Boris fist-bumped his friend when he came back. "My man! Nice moves!"
"Hold...on!" Evan said, struggling to get back on his feet. "I demand...I demand another duel. I'm sure I can get one of you guys this time."
"Is this guy for real, bro?" Zack asked. He blew a bubble with his chewing gum it went out with a loud pop.
"Come on! Come on!" Evan shouted. "I'm not afraid of either of you! I want another match. NOW!" he shouted so loud his voice reverberated into the jungle.
The skateboarder, whose name was Skylar, walked forward. "I'll take him on."
Evan and Skyler started their duel. Skyler skipped his turn, then Evan summoned Ax Raider to attack his Life Points directly and powered him up with all the equip-spells in his hand, raising his attack to more than 3000. He attacked, but Skyler banished 8 cards from the top of his deck to summon a mechanical monstrosity known as Gizmek Orochi, the Serpentron Sky Slasher. At 2450, it wasn't enough to hold back Ax Raider, but Skyler didn't mind at all.
A few turns went by and during that time, Skyler used two Pot of Desires and other spells and effects that banished cards from his deck and graveyard. Evan thought he was nuts trashing his deck like that. Until he summoned his ace. He wasn't a rare monster, but if played the right way, he was a force to be reckoned with.
Gren Maju Da Eiza.
His attack and defense points equaled the number of banished cards Skyler had times 400. And he had 28 cards that were banished, which totaled 11,200 attack points, the highest Evan had ever seen in his life.
The powered monster slashed Ax raided in half with his claws and took Evan down with one hit. Still, Evan got back up for more. He really wanted to prove himself to the gang.
Evan got beaten over and over again but he continued to get back up. And with each duel that went by, he got closer to winning. He was getting stronger, Boris could see this. Evan almost beat Skyler, taking him down to the last 800 of his Life Points. Even though he lost and developed a few bruises and cuts, he still stood up and wanted to go again.
"All right, all right," Boris said. "Hold on now, everybody. I think he's got spunk, this one."
"Spunk?" Zack asked.
"Yeah. Backbone. No matter how many hits he takes, he's willing to take more and step up to the plate. And I don't know about you guys, but he was getting really close. You're getting better, Evan. You use your losses to get stronger and stronger. Those are the makings of a good duelist."
"Boss, you can't seriously be considering him to join the gang are you?" Skyler said with disapproval. "He lost all the matches."
"The deal was he had to impress me. And impress me he has. All right, Evan, you want good cards. No problem. We'll give you access to our stash. But first, you've got to show me you've really got what it takes to be a Red Crusader."
"What do I have to do?"
"You're going to have to pull a few favors for us. Meet up with Skyler and Seth tomorrow. They'll inform you of your first task. Don't screw up, kid. This is your only chance."