V watched the wall of screens, each one showing a different area with different players. Many of the humans still celebrated Wyo's recent win against the first floor boss, some had begun the long trip back to the nearest city where the once inactive portal now stood glowing, and others remained behind at the now empty lair as they retrieved the duel disks of those who failed to conquer Great Maju Garzett. Most of those that gathered the disks simply brought them up the the open air, digging holes and placing the duel disks within before covering them back up and erecting make-shift tombstones. A few despicable players simply grabbed the decks from the discarded disks, tossing the now empty tools aside while they sorted through the cards to see what all they could scavenge.
It made V sick.
'At least they weren't selected as Champions,' he thought to himself as every screen flashed over to his Champion. She marched quietly with her friends, who were all cheerful and chatting with each other as they all made their way towards the city.
"Da-... I mean, sir!" A voice, high and soft, interrupted his thoughts. Turning, he found Epinoia standing behind him with her exaggerated salute cemented in place. Dropping her salute when he turned back towards the screen, she added, "Figured I'd let you know we've got the update all ready like you asked. You can run it whenever you are ready."
"Good," V replied as a menu appeared in front of his face. Looking it over he felt the strong urge to reach up and hit 'Install'. Pushing the impulse down, he forced his finger to press the 'Remind Me Later' button. "We will hold off for now on the update. No sense in rushing The List. Besides, there's something else I want to take care of beforehand."
A new menu popped up in front of his eyes filled from top to bottom with the current card list. He slowly and methodically scrolled through the list, selecting a monster here and a trap card there. Soon, his first deck would be ready. He only hoped that Wyo would be too.
The days began to blur together for Wyo. She remembered stepping through the now-active portal to the second floor, remembered feeling like she would lose her lunch if she had the ability to vomit, and remembered taking a deep breath as she stepped forward into the second floor's starting town. After that, things became hectic. Players had discovered a new selection in the Deck Builder menu labeled Skills. Most only had one unlocked, those being the players who hardly dueled outside of a town. Others, like Wyo, Hela, and those who had dueled plenty of times, had closer to three or four. A few of the skills were simple, like automatically playing some of the weaker Field Spells at the start of the duel or starting the duel with an extra thousand Life Points, but others Wyo noticed had so much potential. And that potential inspired hope.
That hope had only bolstered every players' resolve. To Wyo's surprise an army of duelists pushed their way out of the city, eager to search out more skills, cards, and the boss. It didn't take long to find it. News spread like wildfire when the floor boss was found, and just as quickly news of its defeat reached Wyo's ears. That was three floors ago. Now sitting comfortably in the main city hub of the Fifth Floor, Wyo leaned back in her chair and let the warm digital sun wash over her.
"Can you believe it?" Hela asked, dumbstruck as she reread the news article in front of her. "It wasn't just some rando duelist who beat Boss Number 4. It was that nitwit... oh what was his name? Animal? Snake?"
"Beast?" Wyo offered.
"Yes! THAT nerd. Says here that he's been leading the charge lately."
"Kind of shocking considering he used to be scared of leaving the Havens."
"What did you expect? Unlocking Skills really boosted everyone's confidence. Player deaths have decreased dramatically according to the latest numbers."
"That's a relief. Any news from Ranger?"
Hela opened her messages menu and shook her head.
"I'm certain the kid'll be alright," Hela reassured. "He's tough, and his deck is a masterpiece, if I do say so myself."
Ranger. The kid had been adamant about going out alone on this floor. Something about "proving himself as a true duelist". Wyo had argued that he already had by beating Gaia the Fierce Knight, but he wouldn't listen. The day their group had arrived on Floor Five, Ranger slipped away into a dense crowd the moment Wyo and Hela took their eyes off of him.
"He better be," Wyo huffed. "How else am I supposed to kick his butt for dipping out on us without so much as a goodbye?"
"You're starting to sound more and more like a second sister if you ask me."
Wyo's breath caught in her throat at the comment. Ranger's older sister, Barret, had been the first casualty in the game. Killed off by Wyo herself in a forced duel-to-the-death. Wyo had FINALLY managed to forgive herself, and gain the forgiveness of everyone else in the game by beating the First Floor Boss, but Hela's comment made her think. Maybe she wasn't truly over what she had done.
Slapping her cheeks and ruffling her hair, Wyo forced herself to think of something else. Anything else.
"Well, well, well. If it isn't Buzz Lightyear herself," someone announced loudly behind Wyo.
Wyo, confused, turned towards the male voice and found Beast striding over towards them, a stupid grin plastered to his face.
"'Buzz Lightyear'?" She asked, grinning despite herself.
"Yeah, because you know, 'To infinity and beyond'!" Beast puffed out his chest and did his best impersonation. "You gained quite the reputation with that infinite combo of yours."
"Oh gods, he IS a nerd," Hela rolled her eyes dramatically before burying her face in the newspaper once more.
"Oh c'mon!" Beast cried out. "How is that considered 'nerdy'?"
"The fact that you actually have to ask that," Hela replied from behind her newspaper.
"Are you this mean to everyone or only to those you crush on?" Beast asked, crossing his arms with a smirk on his face as Hela slowly lowered her paper.
"'Crush'? Were you dropped on your head as a child?"
"You didn't answer my question," Beast pointed out, a smug grin spreading further across his face.
Hela slowly lowered her newspaper, her cold and piercing glare fixating on Beast with such intensity that Wyo began to worry about the man's well-being. Hela finally tore her gaze away long enough to neatly fold her paper and set it down gently in front of her.
"One chance," Hela said, crossing her arms and leaning back in her chair.
"One chance for what?" Beast asked, caught off guard.
"To impress me of course. Beat me in a duel, and I'll go on a single date with you. Impress me, and I'll even throw in a kiss. If you lose, however, you have to duel in your underwear until you reach Floor Fifteen..."
"Sounds like a deal to me," Beast began, only to be cut off by Hela holding up a slender finger.
"... AND you'll have to be my personal servant until Floor Twenty-Five. Deal?"
"Really?" Wyo groaned, rolling her eyes at her friend. "Why do you do this ANY TIME a guy shows ANY interest in you?"
"Because it's fun," Hela winked. "That and if they can survive being my servant then I'll know for sure if they are worth keeping around any longer after that."
Hela's duel disk snapped into position as she drew her first five cards, a mischievous grin across her face. Beast followed suite, only pausing after he'd drawn his cards.
"Wait, 'survive'?"
"Too late. Duel!"
Hela - 4000 LP / 35 deck
Beast - 4000 / 35 deck
"I'll start things off with something simple," Hela said, smiling slyly as she placed a card face down in the spell zone before setting a monster face down. Waving an inviting hand at Beast she added, "I'll end my turn there. Let's see what you can do."
"Plenty against a weak defense like that," Beast smirked as he drew his card. "I activate the ability of the monster 'Danger! Thunderbird!' You get to pick a random card from my hand and if it's 'Danger! Thunderbird!' then it gets discarded and I destroy one of your set cards. If the card you pick isn't 'Danger! Thunderbird!', however, I get to special summon it to my field and draw a new card to boot. So go ahead, pick a card, any card."
"Fine." A digital screen appeared before Hela's face with six face-down cards to choose from. She selected one and watched as the one she selected lit up in Beast's hand. The card flipped over on her screen to show the spell card Monster Reborn.
"Lucky me," Beast said as he special summoned his monster to the field and drew his extra card. "Luckily for you it's the only monster I'll summon this turn. For now, I'll attack your face-down monster."
The giant red bird dove quickly upon Hela's monster, shredding it to pieces with its talons before beating its giant wings and returning to its spot on Beast's side of the field. As the digital dust began to settle, however, Hela's monster reformed into that of a jar filled with inky blackness. A pair of eyes and a Cheshire grin peered out at Beast and his monster before exploding into digital fragments. Hela smiled sweetly.
"Thanks for that. Now Morphing Jar here forces us to discard our entire hands and draw five new cards."
"Oh thank god," Beast sighed. "I had NO monsters in my hand and hardly anything else worth using."
Wyo watched as both players discarded their hands and drew five new cards, each player trying to hide their smiles at the new cards they drew. She then had to bite her knuckle to keep from laughing at Hela's reaction as Beast mimicked her wave.
"You're turn, ma'am."
Hela - 4000 LP / 30 deck
Beast - 4000 / 28 deck
"Do NOT call me 'ma'am'," Hela growled as she drew her card. "I flip over my face-down card, The Shallow Grave. With this we both special summon a monster from our graveyard back to the field in face-down defense position. I'll select Morphing Jar, and if I remember correctly you said you had no monsters in your hand when you discarded. I guess no monsters for you. I'll set another monster face-down and end my turn."
"Hela, you're toying with him," Wyo observed, warning Beast as much as scolding Hela with the simple comment. When Hela simply waved her off as if she were an annoying fly, Wyo turned to Beast and added, "I'd stop pulling punches if I were you. You're already down a quarter of your deck within the first two turns. Just think of what she can do if you let her get serious."
"Good point," Beast nodded in agreement, drawing a card to start his turn. "I'll activate the effect of 'Danger! Nessie!' in my hand. You get to select and discard one random card in my hand. If you discard Nessie I get to add any one Danger! card from my deck to my hand, except Nessie. If you discard any other card, I get to special summon Nessie and draw a card from my deck. Now, pick carefully."
Hela rolled her eyes as another screen appeared in front of her face with six cards listed. Without looking she hit a random card and the screen vanished.
"Dang. There goes Nessie," Beast groaned. Grabbing his deck, he flipped through it and grabbed a card and added it to his hand. Placing the deck back in its slot, his duel disk automatically shuffled his cards before settling once more. "I selected the equipment spell card 'Danger! Feets of Strength!'. Next, I'll equip it to 'Danger! Thunderbird!', increasing its attack and Defense by eight-hundred points each, bringing it to 3600 attack and 3000 defense. It also cannot be destroyed by card effects. Finally, my equipped monster is able to attack up to two monsters in a single turn. Next, I'll normal summon 'Danger! Mothman!' to the field. Now, let's start attacking. Go, Thunderbird, attack her monsters!"
The giant bird swooped in, both of its razor sharp talons easily slicing through both of Hela's monsters with ease and revealing them before smashing them to pieces.
"You remember Morphing Jar, right? Since it was attacked first, we both discard our hands and draw five new cards. Next, you flipped one of my favorite monsters. Needle Worm. When it gets flipped it sends the top five cards from your deck to your graveyard. Hope you weren't needing them."
Beast groaned as he drew five new cards and watched the next five go straight to the graveyard. Checking the counter on his duel disk, he silently cursed.
"I can make due with sixteen cards. No problem. I'll finish my turn by attacking you directly with 'Danger! Mothman!'. Your turn."
Hela - 2200 LP / 24 deck
Beast - 4000 / 16 deck
Wyo knew Hela was up to something the moment she saw her friend's eyes twinkle with unreleased mischief.
"I activate the Skill 'Lifeblood'! Once per duel I'm able to pay half of my lifepoints and send half of my deck to the graveyard to Special summon any monster from my deck regardless of its summoning conditions. And I choose Vampire Genesis!"
Hela - 1100 LP / 12 deck
Beast - 4000 / 16 deck
Beast stumbled back as the king of all vampires roared onto the field, its purple skin glistening sickly as saliva dripped from its fanged mouth. Its three-thousand attack points, however, still failed to tower over Thunderbird's, making Wyo wonder what exactly her friend was up to.
"I'll summon him in defense position, of course. Don't want your little birdy doing anymore damage to my lifepoints. Next up, I'll activate my vampire's effect. By discarding a zombie card from my hand I can special summon a zombie monster from my graveyard with a lower level than the one I sent. So, I'll send my level eight Vampire Voivode to the graveyard and special summon my level six Vampire Curse. Next, I'll activate my equip spell card Premature Burial. By paying eight-hundred lifepoints I can equip my spell to a monster in my graveyard and special summon said monster to my field. And I choose my level six Vampire Grace. And to top it all off, I activate Monster Reborn from my hand, and I choose the monster I just sent to the graveyard a moment ago... my level eight Vampire Voivode!"
Hela - 300 LP / 12 deck
Beast - 4000 / 16 deck
"That's good and all, but none of your monsters are even close to my Thunderbird!. Not to mention it can't be destroyed by card effects."
"Don't need to destroy your monsters," Hela scolded Beast. "I only need to destroy your deck. I overlay my level eight Vampire Genesis with my level eight Vampire Voivode in order to XYZ summon The Vampire Zombie in defense mode! Next up I activate Vampire Grace's ability. By declaring a card type I can force you to discard a card from your deck that matches that card type. I choose spell card."
Beast flipped through his remaining cards and pulled a spell card from his hand and sent it to the graveyard, placing his deck back in its slot.
"Fifteen remaining," he said, though Wyo could have sworn she heard a slight tremor in his voice. "What's next?"
"What's next is I now overlay my level six Vampire Curse with my level six Vampire Grace in order to XYZ summon Pilgrim Reaper." The cartoonish, grotesque looking reaper slowly crawled its way out of the ground in front of Hela's feet, its scythe's blade shining bright as it reflected the day's sunlight.
"Two XYZ monsters?" Beast asked as he watched their overlay materials swirl around their bodies. "Do I even want to know what these guys can do?"
"Probably not but you're gonna find out anyway. First off, Pilgrim Reaper gains attack and defense based on the total number of dark type monsters in both graveyards multiplied by two-hundred. According to my screen there's a total of... thirty?! Guess all of those Danger! cards being dark attribute didn't help you much, huh? That brings Pilgrim Reaper's attack and defense to a staggering six-thousand, more than enough to wipe out your lifepoints if I were to attack your Danger! Mothman!. Luckily for you, I won't need to attack. For starters I'll activate Pilgrim Reaper's ability. Once per turn I can remove one material from it to have both of us discard the top five cards from our deck to the graveyard. Next, I'll activate The Zombie Vampire's ability. Once per turn I can remove one material from it to have both of us discard the top four cards from our decks to the graveyard."
Hela - 300 LP / 3 deck
Beast - 4000 / 6 deck
"But wait, there's more!" Hela taunted, a crazed light dancing behind her eyes as her combo unfolded before her. "I now activate Gravekeeper's Servant. This little continuous spell card requires us to send the top card of our deck to the graveyard if we want to attack. Nothing major, I know, but it leaves only one card in my hand remaining. And that card is Card Destruction! We now discard our entire hands and draw the same number that was discarded. Because I have no cards in my hand, I don't have to draw. You on the other hand, that's five more cards. I'll end my turn at that. Let's see what you can do, my little Beastie."
Beast gulped as he drew five new cards, noting the lone remaining card in his deck and praying that he could pull off a win.
Hela - 300 LP / 3 deck
Beast - 4000 / 1 deck
"You made a big mistake not finishing me off with an attack," Beast laughed as he drew his last card. "Perfect. I activate the equip card Big Bang Shot. My Danger! Thunderbird! gains four-hundred more attack and can now inflict piercing damage to your defense position monsters! Next I'll use my own Skill. Beast Onslaught! All of my beasts, beast-warriors, and winged-beasts attack points become double for this turn only. Then they get destroyed and sent to the graveyard. Small price to pay to win this duel if I do say so myself. Say goodbye to your Zombie Vampire and the rest of your lifepoints! Danger! Thunderbird! attack her vampire and end this duel!"
Wyo stared wide eyed and even blinked for a few moments in disbelief. She'd never known Hela to just throw a duel like that, to be so cocky as to not go for the finishing play when she was right at the finish line. It was only with Hela's chaotic laughter that Wyo realized something was off. Looking from Hela to Beast, Wyo slowly figured it out.
"Thunderbird?" Beast asked, confused as he looked up at his monster. "Dude, you're embarrassing me here. Why aren't you attacking? Do something, anything."
"Sorry, Beastie, but your forgot the price of admission," Hela taunted as she pointed to her spell card, still active on the field. "In order to attack you gotta pay the price. One card from the top of your deck, please... oh wait, you just drew it. No more cards means no more attacks."
"Son of a -... I forfeit."
Wyo watched as Beast placed his hand over his deck and the duel was ended. Hela cackled like an evil witch at her victory and Beast... Wyo wasn't sure but she could have sworn she'd seen a faint hint of a smile tug at the edge of his lips.
"My god you two are ridiculous."
"How so, Wyo," Hela asked as she stalked her way over to Beast.
"You love tormenting and teasing, and I think Beast here enjoyed every second of it."
"Wh-What?! No. I d-don't know what you're talking about," Beast stammered, his face flushing red.
"Now, now, Beastie, no need to be embarrassed. I can't have my thrall blushing every time the truth is told." Hela walked her fingers along his chest, up his neck before coming to rest on his chin, "Now, come with me, servant. I'm hungry and you're buying."
V's screen watching the duel vanished and he once more turned to the list of cards floating in front of him. The duel hadn't been with who he had wanted, but learning as much as he could about those that Wyo surrounded herself with was info that he could use, info that was necessary. He pressed a purple finger against the screen to select another card and the screen went blank.
"Deck complete. Would you like to set this as your main deck?" The screen flashed before him. Selecting 'Yes', a beam of light shot from the screen to V's duel disk as the system loaded the deck for use. Turning his duel disk over every which way to view the deck and disk alike, V smiled happily. Another screen appeared, making V's smile falter if only for a moment.
"Update ready. Ready to Install? Install Now/Remind me later."
V pressed remind me later, struggling to the point that he had to grip his wrist with his free hand and drag it to the correct selection.
"Not yet, dammit," V growled. "There's still one last thing I want to do. I just pray Wyo is ready for a duel with me."
*Author's Note: Sorry about the long hiatus. Life kept me busy and I had to put other things first. This duel changed quite a bit from the planning stages to the final outcome and took a lot of research on cards I had no idea existed (that's what I get for not playing since the GX era and trying to play catch up now). As usual, if I messed up with a card ruling please let me know. Also, I'm gonna start accepting deck and character submissions. Feel free to leave a comment or DM me directly with the submissions (please include the following: for characters - character's name outside of Duel Links as well as their username within, their playstyle/deck/ace monster or card (please stick with a certain archetype or creature type, nothing too OP or else it makes for uninteresting duels), character's gender and gender identity (cis male, trans woman, etc.), and character's background and history.
Also, how's everyone enjoying Master Duel? I'm loving the CodeTalkers myself. Just wish it was easier to get gems for card packs.