Hey all, Raydark here with another fantastic intro for this chapter. Ok, maybe not fantastic, but it'll be somewhat good because it's short. Surprise, we actually updated a bit earlier than normal. please enjoy the second part of this epic duel and please be sure to leave a comment to let us know how we're doing. Thanks again to our beta, Eneko95, for dealing with our craziness and helping us making this series better.
Chapter 28
Showdown of Twilight
Part II
Duel Arena
Nick - 8000
Daiyu - 6300
The blast hit its mark, releasing a powerful explosion with a shock wave that passed all the way to the back rows of the arena. No one in the audience didn't feel the power, though obviously Nick himself and the front-row students-including Barclay-felt it the hardest.
After a few seconds, the energy dissipated as the smoke died down, revealing a charred impact zone and, surprisingly, a completely undamaged Blackwing Armor Master.
A lot of the students were confused as to why the attack connected yet the monster was still around.
The red-haired teen lowered his arms and looked at his field, realizing that his Steam Token had been destroyed.
"Wow, all that just to destroy the Steam Token? Seems like overkill, doesn't it?" Nick questioned.
"I can destroy your monster anytime I want," Daiyu replied with cockiness. "This was just a show of power to make you recognize the low chance of winning. I will now end my turn and give you the opportunity to surrender and walk away with something of your dignity still left."
A lot of the West Academy students jeered and mocked the red-haired teen. Nick, on the other hand, had a look of amusement as he chuckled at what she had to say. "Two things you need to know about me; One, I find it funny when someone thinks they're muy chingon and try to trash talk me. Second, I've never given up on a duel in my life, regardless of what my chances were, and I'm not starting now."
A lot of the Central Academy students did their own jeering, especially Nick's friends when they heard that.
"Yeah… he gets pretty stubborn once things start looking bad for him," Barclay sighed as he remembered how many cards he had to destroy before he beat Nick. "With this new swarming deck, it's only gotten much worse."
"I'll draw and then activate the spell Dark Eruption. This lets me add any monster back to my hand from the grave with 1500 or less attack points. Come on back, Kalut!" As he said that, the ground shook as his monster erupted upward onto the field.
Amongst the most birdlike of the monsters Nick had summoned so far, Kalut's wings were massive compared to the rest of its black-feathered body. However, there was a blank space just below its eyes were a beak would be on a normal bird, and its head was wreathed in a mane of yellow feathers. A red crest on its forehead looked remarkably like a pair of eyebrows.
He then turned to his master and flew towards his duel disk, disappearing into it as his card ejected out of the grave slot for Nick to grab. "Please, was that really the best card for you to bring back?" Daiyu asked. "Seems to me that you are just grasping at straws at this point." "Well, let's test my luck then shall we? Go Bm, attack her Ultimate Dragon with Shadow Pulse!"
Everyone gasped at his decision, wondering what was going through his mind.
Armor Master spread its wings as the six orbs on each end of his wing glowed, shooting six simultaneous dark blasts that headed towards the large beast.
Though when it connected, the mighty beast roared its three heads, creating a barrier around it and protecting itself from the attack. It also sent it back to Armor Master, causing it to roar out in pain as the blasts pierced him.
Daiyu grinned and chuckled, though her good mood quickly vanished when she saw the monster's eye glow, causing its body to heal from the damage.
She double checked Nick's life points through her visor, realizing that it did not go down at all.
"What did you do?" she demanded. "What was the purpose of that attack? Why wasn't your monster destroyed or your life points reduced?"
"I'll explain my attack in a little bit. To answer your other questions, BM's effects keep him from being destroyed during battle, and thus keep me from losing life points. He can also do this," Nick replied.
The monster slammed both his taloned hands together, pulling them apart and summoning another crystal-like spike once again. This time, he threw it at the dragon and pierced its head.
"When he attacks and the monster's still around, he can place a special Wedge Counter on that monster. That's it for me, your turn." Daiyu growled as she drew her next card.
Before making her move, she pressed on the side of her visor, bringing up the information of everything on the field. Her gaze focused on Armor Master as his information popped up, making her frown in irritation.
"Fine! I activate Majesty with Eyes of Blue from my hand," she said. "By sending a Blue-Eyes from my deck to the graveyard, I can target a face-up monster on the field and make it unable to attack as long as it remains in play."
A single card ejected from her deck as she grabbed it and revealed it to her opponent. "I will send Dragon Spirit of White (8/2500/2000) to the graveyard and I will seal away your Armor Master's ability to attack."
All three of Neo Blue-eyes' heads turned to focus on Armor Master. Their eyes glowed and shot beams of light at Armor Master, causing the bird's black armor to turn blue.
"Next, I activate another Return of the Dragon Lords to bring Dragon Spirit of White to the field."
A dragon with alabaster skin that slowly turned blue as it neared the tail and light blue armored scales protecting portions of its body flew upward before landing onto the field. Its body, while still larger than anything on Nick's side of the field, was smaller than any of the other dragons that Daiyu had yet summoned. As always it had bright blue eyes.
"Next its effect triggers; By summoning this monster in any way, I can target a spell or trap card you control and banish it," Daiyu continued. "So, I shall banish that face down card you have."
The dragon slashed at Nick's side of the field, its claws tearing open a portal that sucked the indicated card out of the arena.
"Your turn, Xiǎo niǎo," she finished.
Nick smiled before drawing, deciding now was the time for his payback.
"Remember that counter that's on your dragon's head? It's time for BM to show you what it does; By removing it during my turn, I weaken your monster's power to zero." As he said that, Armor Master flew upward, concentrating and focusing energy into his eye as he released it, shining red light onto the spike.
It broke in an instant, showering all over the monster as its entire body started turning black.
Neo Blue-Eyes Ultimate Dragon (4500/3800 - 0/0)
The headmasters exchanged surprised looks at this sudden reversal.
"Insane, he managed to make that dragon the weakest card on the field," Laura said in awe.
"Even his weakest monster could destroy it now," Takashi added.
"This is the bre-break he needed!" Atsuko remarked with joy.
"If he can destroy that monster then he should be able to keep the momentum on his side!" Sera exclaimed.
"This new deck of his is quite impressive," Erhard agreed.
"Don't go getting ahead of yerself, min," Barclay muttered as he leaned forward.
"Now I Flip Summon my facedown monster, Pinaki," Nick continued as his bird friend took the field once more. "Even though Bm can't attack your dragon, this guy has no restrictions and he's not gonna face your beast alone either," Nick remarked as the monster prepared to attack.
It grabbed an arrow from its quiver, pulling it with its bow and aiming right at the large dragon in front of it.
"Thanks to Kalut, he's about to get a major power boost, so do it Pinaki! Destroy her dragon with Moon Shadow Arrow!"
The spirit of Kalut appeared on the field long enough to make eye contact with Pinaki. Then it entered the turbaned monster's arrow, causing the fletching to change from red to black.
Pinaki (1200 - 2600)
"I banished a Return of the Dragon Lords from my graveyard, remember?" Daiyu asked. "Your birds can't kill my dragon no matter how powerful they are!"
Indeed, while Pinaki's shot hit its mark and the dragon roared in pain, a familiar aura surrounded Neo and kept it from vanishing. The attack's own dark aura, however, continued on through the dragon to hit Daiyu dead-on once more, knocking her to the ground.
Nick - (8000)
Daiyu - (6300 - 3700)
"Maybe, but I hope it was worth being down to half your life points already," he replied. "I end my turn with that."
Daiyu got back up once more, panting slightly as she started her turn. However, she soon noticed the black coating on Neo Blue-Eyes peeling away like a band-aid and smiled. "Well, if only one of us can feel better after that attack, I'm glad it's Neo."
The three-headed dragon was indeed as shiny and dangerous-looking as it had been before, roaring loudly as everyone in the audience covered their ears.
Neo Blue-Eyes Ultimate Dragon (0 - 4500)
"Let's return the favor, Neo, incinerate that puny Pinaki with Hyper Neutron Blast!"
For a third time, the three-headed dragon charged its destructive attack once more and blasted Nick's side of the field. The white-blue light completely enveloped the turbaned bird archer. Pinaki was cast in silhouette for just a moment, before being consumed as the attack moved on to strike Nick himself.
Nick - (8000 - 4700)
Daiyu - (3700)
Daiyu sighed happily as Nick had been knocked down, causing his friends to yell his name as he stood back up without much trouble.
"That will be the end of my turn," she said as both of her dragons roared.
Nick took a bit to regain himself as he dusted himself off, and looked back at his opponent.
"Before my turn begins, I activate Pinaki's effect, and just like before I can add any Blackwing from my deck to my hand."
Another feather appeared on Nick's hand, allowing him to place it once again on his duel disk, causing a single card to come out.
"I'll add Blackwing - Blizzard The Far North (2/1300/0) to my hand."
"Useless effort," Daiyu mocked.
Nick glared at her and drew, looking at what he had.
"Daiyu, why are you acting like this? I saw your sister duel; she was a little hot-headed, but I think she gets what dueling really means. Your anger isn't a way of showing respect, and it definitely isn't letting you enjoy the game," Nick asked, trying to sound more sympathetic than annoyed.
"Nǐ shénme yě bù zhīdào!" Daiyu growled. She then realized that he would not understand her words. "You know nothing, Xiǎo niǎo."
Whoops. "Then I'll show you what it means to duel. To start, I summon Blizzard onto the field in attack mode."
A cold wind blew across the field as a white feathered bird soared in. The tips of the feathers on the wings were black and some black feathers grew on its head, giving the appearance of eyebrows and a crest on its forehead. Its head was similar to that of a penguin and it had a rounder, plumper body than any of the other birds that appeared so far.
"Now his effect activates; When he's summoned, I can bring back a level four or lower Blackwing monster from the grave to my field, and I choose my Kalut!"
After revealing that, a powerful spiral of cold wind appeared as a giant pillar of ice emerged onto the field. In seconds, it cracked, revealing the monster that Nick chose to bring back. "Are you just going to keep flocking the field like this?" Daiyu questioned in annoyance.
"If you think that's bad, watch this! Now I tune together my level three Kalut with my level two Blizzard in order to Synchro Summon my level 5 Assault Blackwing - Sohaya The Rain Storm (5/1500/2000)!"
Blizzard flew upward, turning his body into three more black rings that covered Kalut as another black pillar of light exploded. When it died down, the newest monster on the field revealed itself as electricity surged around its body. It was clad in stylized blue samurai armor with a pair of metallic wings mounted on its back. The creature was humanoid and under the helm was a more human-like face than any other monster that so far stood on Nick's side of the field. On its left side hung a katana and its hand and foot appeared to be bird feet while the right hand and foot were armored.
"Pretty cool, right? What's even cooler is that when you summon him using only Blackwing monsters, he becomes a Tuner," Nick added.
Daiyu and the other students of the west realized what was about to happen.
"So now I tune together my level seven Armor Master with my level five Sohaya in order to Synchro Summon the strongest monster I have, Assault Blackwing - Onimaru the Divine Thunder (12/3000/2000)!"
Once again, three rings appeared around Armor Master as another pillar of black light engulfed him, only this time the sounds of thunder could be heard throughout the entire arena.
Then a bolt of lightning shot down onto the field, vaporizing the pillar and temporarily blinding both duelists. Thunder rumbled again as they opened their eyes.
Nick's newest monster wore black armor similar to Armor Master's, but with orange trim on the torso area, and yellow lightning bolt patterns on the legs and its left shoulder. Its left arm and wing were both noticeably robotic, the latter in particular being three slightly curved blades. Onimaru appeared to have a human face like Sohaya, but its helmet was unambiguously a crow's head with three lightning-shaped yellow plumes on the back. An orange crescent with three feather decorations floated above and slightly behind the helmet, and the edge of its lightning-shaped sword crackled with static electricity.
Everyone was in awe by what they witnessed, it was an almost incredible sight to behold, just like when Daiyu summoned her monster to the field.
"My Ultimate Dragon has nothing to fear from your swordsman," Daiyu insisted, but she could feel the momentum swinging in Nick's favor.
"You're right, it doesn't," Nick replied casually.
Daiyu did a mild double take. "I…what?"
"But I'm targeting your Dragon Spirit of White, not Neo. I don't blame you for assuming I'd target the biggest thing on the field, but if I did that Onimaru's effect wouldn't help as much."
The warrior spread his wings and flew upward towards the ceiling, where he waited patiently.
"See, because I Synchro Summoned him using two other Synchro monsters, he gets another 3000 attack points during the damage step when he attacks."
"6000 attack?" Daiyu gasped as she looked at Dragon Spirit of White and her remaining life points. Dread welled up inside her as she quickly did the math in her head.
"Take it down, Onimaru! Black Volt Blade!"
The winged beast shrieked a battle cry and drew his sword, pointing it at the ceiling. Black lightning struck the blade and covered it in extra power. Onimaru then grabbed the hilt with his other hand and dove straight down towards the smaller dragon, swinging it as hard as he could.
Dragon Spirit roared even as its body split in half, then exploded in a surge of black electricity covering most of the arena, particularly Daiyu's half.
Nick - (4700)
Daiyu - (3700 - 200)
"Daiyu!" Mei shouted as she saw her sister fall to her hands and knees.
"Well, now that we've both taken out one of each other's monsters with our respective best cards, I'd say we're even," the red-haired teen remarked.
Daiyu was silent as she struggled back to her feet and drew her next card.
"I play these two cards face down," she said as the cards materialized before her. "Now, you mentioned the effect of your monster only works when you attack. "
Daiyu closed her eyes, inhaled deeply then slowly released the breath. Her eyes opened and resolve filled her being.
"Destroy."
Rather than charging beams again, this time Neo Blue-Eyes Ultimate Dragon roared as it stretched two of its heads towards the monster. In seconds, they bit both his wings and pulled him forward as the monster struggled.
However, it was too late for it as the final head opened its mouth and chomped into the creature, destroying it instantly.
The audience, headmasters included, looked away from the brutality they saw in front of them.
Nick - (4700 - 3200)
Daiyu - (200)
"My turn ends," Daiyu said calmly.
Although his best monster was gone, Nick didn't look worried so much as just sad. "See, there's that anger I was talking about earlier. I get that you're trying your best to win, but that doesn't mean you have to be brutal about it. Dueling's still about having fun even when you get competitive."
"Fun is nice, but winning is what matters most," Daiyu muttered. "I don't know what caused you to have this kind of attitude, but to make sure you see the truth, I'm about to show you the full power of this deck."
"I really hope Nick knows what he's doing," Laura remarked as Nick drew.
"Me too. I really thought Onimaru would lock down the win," Atsuko added.
"Girls, come on! We've never given up on him before and we aren't starting now," Takashi pointed out.
"With swarming decks, if he gets the right card then he should still be able to pull this off," Sera said.
"Viel Glück…" Erhard muttered.
"I'm sure ye've got something up yer sleeve there, ye thrawn warmer." Barclay said.
"Now I summon one of my old pals, Kris, in attack mode."
Once again, the monster appeared onto the field with its dagger in hand, ready to go on the offensive.
"Don't forget about my Whirlwind spell, which means another Blackwing gets added to my hand," Nick continued as another orb of light entered his duel disk.
A single card once again ejected itself and allowed Nick to grab it to reveal.
"This time, its my Blackwing - Gale The Whirlwind (3/1300/400) and I'm Special Summoning him in attack mode."
A gust of black wind similar to the spell appeared next to Kris and slowly turned itself into a new monster. Gale's body was dark purple rather than true black (except for a white "collar"), and he didn't appear to have any weapons or armor on him. His head was covered in green feathers, two of which stuck out from the sides of his head like neck frills, and he had a small yellow beak.
"Gale's effect also lets me cut any monster's attack and defense by half, and I choose your Ultimate Dragon!"
Gale crossed his wings and stared upward at the beast, making his eyes glow red as they shot out two beams of red light and hit Daiyu's monster.
In mere moments, the dragon began to roar as its body was slowly cracking and losing its lustrous shine, eventually becoming a shadow of its former self. Neo Blue-Eyes (4500/3800 - 2250/1900)
"It does not matter!" Daiyu shouted. "None of your monsters—"
"One last thing, Gale is a tuner monster, and you know what that means. Now, I tune together my level four Kris with level four gale in order to Synchro Summon my level seven Assault Blackwing - Chidori The Rain Sprinkling (7/2600/2000)!"
For what felt like the final time, the three rings surrounded Kris as the black pillar emerged and engulfed him, causing bolts of electricity to fly everywhere.
A lot of the students yelled out in fright despite knowing that the safety system was protecting them from any real dangers.
When the pillar stopped, a new monster had been seen on the field, holding a blade in hand.
Massive black wings spread out behind its green armor clad humanoid body. With this monster, only the feet appeared to be truly bird-like while the cowl gave an avian profile to distract from the humanoid face underneath.
"It seems I have failed…" Daiyu said as she slumped to her knees. "That was our last chance to win…"
"Maybe, but you have to admit, seeing something like this is amazing."
Daiyu raised her head to see what he meant, getting a look of surprise with what was in front of her.
Every single Blackwing monster that was sent to Nick's graveyard was back on the field, each one giving a confident look at their opponent. "Chidori's effect allows him to gain the strength of every Blackwing monster in my graveyard, and that's fourteen monsters for 300 attack points, giving him a grand total of 6800."
Chidori turned to his fallen allies, bowing in respect as they did the same, turning into orbs of light that entered into the monster's body.
When the last one entered, the beast turned around and roared out as electricity surged in him as it transformed him into a lightning variation of himself.
Chidori (2600 - 6800)
Daiyu couldn't help but look at the monster with joy in her eyes, seeing how amazing it actually was.
"Let's end this! Chidori, destroy her Ultimate Dragon with White Volt Strike!"
He gripped his sword with both hands, disappearing almost instantly and reappearing right behind the dragon, sheathing the sword in one quick motion. As soon as he did, a powerful shock of lighting hit the monster, causing it to roar out in pain before it exploded.
Nick - (3700)
Daiyu - (200 - 0)
He did it! Huzzah! I'm sure there are a few readers out there who are not at all surprised by this outcome, but it was a little surprising for us when we conducted this duel. It really did look like Daiyu had the upper hand the entire time, what with her Ultimate Dragon never going down, but Nick managed to whittle away her Life Points the whole time. All that's left now, I suppose, is the aftermath of this match. Will it be nuclear fallout or will it all blow over like a bad storm?
Translation:
Muy Chingon - sarcastic way of saying so amazing.
Nǐ shénme yě bù zhīdào - you know nothing
Viel Glück - Good Luck
ye thrawn warmer - you stubborn fool