C.1 - Seeking Battle
"These cards!" He realised as he held that Rare Hunters' Deck. He could feel it on his fingers, the strange greasy substance on each of them. Like ink almost. "That's how he was so sure he'd what he needed and why he kept glancing down at his own deck so often. He was cheating!" He growled.
This man was a fraud and despite having some powerful cards he'd desecrated his own cards. He truly had no care for them did he. This Rare Hunter… he'd even treated the mighty Exodia poorly.
If the Rare Hunter wasn't already a collapsed husk on the floor he might've had half a mind to give him some kind of penalty game, something that would make him pay for his crimes as a rare hunter and his disrespect to his own cards, especially for disrespecting such a card as Exodia, but it seemed that someone else had a far more cruel punishment in mind.
This Marik, whoever he was, he was brutal. His penalty game that he forced his own minion into was just cruel. Leaving a man who had served him to just become a vegetable.
He let out a breath he hadn't realised he'd been holding and turned to walk back to his friend. Joey was looking on with disdain at the fallen Rare Hunter.
Quickly fetching the card he'd won from the duel, the Red-Eyes Black Dragon, he offered it to his friend. "Here."
Joey looked over to him. For a moment he looked happy, but then it turned to hesitation before he just simply shook his head at him. "Sorry Yuge, I can't do that, you won it, it's yours."
"But Joey…" He responded, on one hand that was honourable, but on the other, he deserved his card back.
"Nah! I won't take no for an answer, ya hear me?" Joey clicked his tongue. "You earned it's yours, I trust you'll treat them well.. And well… I'll win it back like any other duelist here would."
Joey beamed at him. "You're my friend, but I can't expect you to bail me out of every problem. In this tournament, I'll get to the finals on my own and there, that's when we'll face-off, that's when I'll win my Red-Eyes back. I promise ya that!"
He was stunned, but he had to accept it. Though he did so begrudgingly. He still smiled however. "Alright Joey. Best of luck to you." He pocketed away the Red-Eyes, as well as the Rare Hunter's Exodia Deck.
"You too Yuge, now why don't I start things off with a bang!" Joey then looked past him.
Ah, yes.. In the moment he'd almost forgotten, when they'd looked around for the Rare Hunter with Joey's Red-Eyes they'd found him in the shade of a Café on a computer, but also sitting at the table had been a second Rare Hunter. Dressed in the same dark robes as it seemed most Rare Hunters did.
The Rare Hunter was in fact still there as he turned around to look. They sat there finishing a cup of teà and crossing their legs.
Joey marched up towards him. "My friend beat your friend, so now it's time I beat you!"
"Hmph." The remaining Rare Hunter scoffed. "I have no interest in you, maybe another day, but today the only thing i'm hunting, unlike seeker, is Yugi's head."
"What!" Joey growled. "You can't just turn down my challenge, have you no pride as a duelist!"
"I could honestly care less." The man scoffed again. He then pushed up out of his seat and pointed towards Yugi. "You, face-me or do i have to find some ultimatum to make you agree? Perhaps a kidnapping or two?"
He narrowed his eyes dangerously at the hunter. "You hurt my friends and you'll regret it."
"Then save me the trouble and duel me right here!" The Rare Hunter ordered.
"Fine! You have your challenge, Rare Hunter." Yugi announced to the robed man. "I'll turn 2 locator cards to 3, making it so I'm halfway to the finals already."
"Ha!" The Rare Hunter mocked him. "All it takes is a single loss and you'll be in the Shadow Realm. They call me the goat of the mountains, I'll keeping fighting on stubbornly no matter how much you attack!" He raised his arm and pulled back the robe on his arm to reveal his Duel Disk which immediately turned on, extending out and snapping together.
Joey just had to hold his tongue and back-off. "Freakin' 'ell, i just wanted a duel. This is the worst."
"Don't worry Joey, you'll have your chance." He assured them before snapping his eyes back onto the rare hunter. Very quickly he reset his own deck, taking the cards out of his graveyard and shuffling them back into his deck from the last duel.
After an intense few seconds of shuffling he set the deck back into his Duel Disk and turned the device on. "Let's Duel, Goat-Man."
Goat-Man shrugged his shoulders. "As good a name as any I suppose, let's get this started."
Both players raised their arms, levelling their duel disk at one another and each shouted out at once. "Let's Duel!"
Yugi (4000LP) VS Goat-Man (4000LP)
"You defeated my partner, so the least you can do is allow me the first draw." Goat-man decreed before he drew from his deck.
"I'll allow it." He answered. Deciding not to fight on the matter.
"Great, because I'll start things off by discarding a Thunder Dragon from my hand, using his effect to add two more Thunder Dragons to my hand."
"So what, now you got two monsters in your hand you won't be able to summon." Joey pointed out. "That card's level 5, ain't it?"
"And its Attack Points aren't comparatively high compared to the cards released nowadays." He noted. That meant only one thing then. "He's probably planning to use it for some other purpose." He knew Thunder Dragon could fuse with itself for a Fusion Monster, but he wondered if there was anything else he'd do with those cards.
"I'll now play this card, Blade Knight! In Attack Mode!" The literal knight in shining armour appeared on the field, a thin sword and a shield in their hands. (A:1600/D:1400/LV:4)
"I'll then set two cards face-down and end my turn." The Goat-Man said, finishing off his turn.
"An impressive opening." He admitted before drawing from his own deck. "But it's not good enough. I'll begin by activating the spell card, Remove Trap, with this I can target a face-up trap card on the field or any Set card you control and then shuffle it into the deck, so I'm choosing your face-down on the left."
He then saw the Goat-Man sneer at the play. Did he do something wrong?
"I'll activate that face-down spell card! Scapegoat! Summoning 4 Goat Tokens onto my field."(0/0)
All four little sheep appeared on his field, before his own spell resolved, but now since that face-down was now a face-up spell, his card fizzled without shuffling it into the deck and they both just went to the graveyard. "Now you've just wasted a card, Yugi, make more mistakes like that and it'll be an easy victory for me."
He wasn't fazed, as unfortunate as losing a card that can remove things from the board was, he still forced his opponent to play those goats early. Now he could adjust his strategy accordingly.
"Graceful Charity, letting me draw three cards." He drew the cards from his deck then quickly discarded Buster Blader and his Archfiend Of Gilfer.
"I summon this card, the mighty Jack's Knight!" He declared. Appearing on his field A bright blue warrior themed after a playing card raised their sword towards the sky before cutting it downwards striking a solid pose. Standing sternly like a guard. (A:1800/D:1500/LV:4)
"Now we battle! Jack's Knight, destroy Blade Knight!" His monster ran forwards, the Goat-Man looking thoughtful for a moment before shrugging ever so minutely that he almost missed it. His Jack's Knight's attack went through, parrying the Blade Knights attempt to stab his warrior and bisecting them down from the shoulder diagonally.
Goat-Man (3800LP)
"That's nothing." The man assured himself.
"I'll set two of my own cards and then end my turn." Yugi declared.
"Mhm." Goat-Man nodded. "My move, draw!" After drawing he then chuckled to himself, it's time I ramp up this duel. I play Metamorphosis! Tributing my Goat Token in order to summon the legendary Thousand-Eyes Restrict!" (A:0/D:0/LV:1)
"Hey! Wait! Isn't that Pegasus' card you told me about Yuge!" Joey called out from the sidelines.
"What!" Yugi's eyes almost bulged as the little sheep grotesquely transformed into the eldritch abomination with a thousand eyes. That was Pegasus' card! He knew it's been a few months since Duelist Kingdom and thus plenty of time for the card to enter the public, but still.
"They don't call us the Rare Hunters for nothing!" The hunter cackled. "Now as per Thousand-Eyes effect. Monsters besides him cannot attack, they cannot manually change the battle positions of face-up monsters either! You're a sitting duck. Now Restrict! Devour the Jack's Knight!"
The abomination began creating a vacuum that sucked everything before it into its stomach mouth, his Jack's Knight was powerful before that power and found themselves blown off their feet into the monster's mouth. But he wasn't gone for long, appearing a minute layer on the monster's fleshy outer shields that it began to turtle behind. (A:1800/D:1500/LV:1)
"Now!" Goat-Man declared. "Attack Yugi Directly!"
The monster struck at him, raking its metallic claws over his body before retreating back to his opponent's field and shielding itself once again.
Yugi (2200LP)
"Ugh!" He winced, he felt that one. So this really was a shadow game. Though it doesn't seem this person was all that strong at using it, probably because his powers over the realm were gifted to them by Marik. That attack could've caused serious harm if they were proficient with their powers, instead it just felt like someone had dragged a knife across him without breaking skin.
"Following that, I'll set a monster and end my turn." The Goat-Man explained before passing the turn over to him.
"Hm.." He really had to consider how he could destroy that card. It wasn't a mere matter of summoning a monster with more attack points. Thousand-Eyes Restrict blocked all attacks and even if you did manage to destroy it, it could sacrifice the monster they stole from you to protect itself.
Meaning the simplest solution would just be to use two destruction spells back to back. Which isn't something he could easily afford to do. His opponent had plenty of set cards to negate his attempt as well as plenty of card in their hand to come back quickly making such an expense of resources unwise in the long term.
"My move, draw!" Looking at the card he drew, he grinned. "Okay then… I'll summon my Feral Imp in defence mode and then set this card face-down, end turn." Now he had three set cards that he could use against his opponent. (A:1300/D:1400/LV:4)
The Goat-Man hummed. "Interesting." He muttered before drawing from his deck. "But I digress, I activate my other set card, Raigeki Break! By discarding a card in my hand, like this Thunder Dragon, I can destroy your Feral Imp."
"Wrong, I counter with the Quick-Play Spell Magical Hats!" He called out, revealing the spell card. "Now I get to set down two more spells or traps from my deck and hide my Feral Imp amongst them." Three Magical Hates appeared on his field, one covered his green imp and began shuffling itself around. "Now which hat will you choose!"
"Agh!" The Goat-Man fumed at the inconvenience. "I'll strike at the one in the middle!"
A bolt of lightning crashed down, incinerating the hat. But as the smoke faded, he could only smile. "It seems you picked… poorly." The destroyed hat revealed no monsters.
"Damn it! But if you think that'll stop me then you're wrong." The Goat-Man explained. "Thousand-Eyes attack the next hat." His abomination closed its shields around its body and manipulated his Jack's Knight's body, using it as a puppet to slash with their sword over his hat bisecting it.
Revealing nothing inside of it except a glowing magic circle on the ground.
"Wh-what is that!" He called out.
"See, some cards have effects built into them when they're destroyed. Now the trap card or spell card usually doesn't specify whether it needs to be destroyed by battle or card effects like most do, because well, there should be no way for someone to battle a trap card right?"
The Goat-Man gasped as he realised what he might've done.
"Yes!" He confirmed. "That's right, by destroying my Spellbinding Circle, you trigger its graveyard effect, now all monsters you control lose 700 attack points and cannot declare an attack for the rest of this turn."
Goat-Man grimaced. "Whatever, you're only stalling me, but while you do that, I'll only build up my field even more! I'll first play the Quick-Play spell card Dimensional Hole, this lets me target a monster I control and Banish it until the End Phase!" His Thousand-Eyes quickly disappeared, vanishing into a small cut in reality.
"Next, I'll play Pot Of Greed, drawing two cards, then flip into attack mode, my set Magician Of Faith," Something he could now do since Thousand-Eyes wasn't on the field anymore to prevent Battle Position changes.
A smart move, he had to admit, unfortunately.
"I'll use her effect, letting me add Pot Of Greed back to my hand, where I'll use it to draw two more cards on top of that!"
That wasn't good, four more cards! That's a bit excessive.
"I'll set a pair of cards face-down and then play Tribute Doll, this spell card lets me tribute any of my Goat Tokens to summon a level 7 monster from my hand. And of course I choose to play the mighty Mystical Knight Of Jackal." A monster akin to an Egyptian deity in appearance. A humanoid and armoured body with a jackal's head atop it appeared on the field. (A:2700/D:1200/LV:7)
"That's it for my turn. Your move Yugi." As the Goat-Man said that, his remaining hats disappeared. Leaving only a single set monster on his field. Additionally Thousand-Eyes Restrict returned to the field. (A:0/D:0/LV:1)
Yugi nodded and drew for the start of his turn.
This was certainly interesting. That Mystical Knight Of Jackal was quite strong. If Thousand-Eyes Restrict ever leaves the field that monster would be able to pick up the slack. He knew of the rare card's effect too, that being to return whatever monster it destroyed by battle to the top of the deck, preventing him from drawing any card except one that already lost to the monster.
He'll have to be careful with it.
"I'll summon Breaker The Magical Warrior." A magical knight in red-robe like armour and carrying a sword and thin sword in their hands appeared on the field. (A:1600/D:1000/LV:4) "When they're summoned they gain a spell counter and gain 300 attack points from it. But it won't stay that way for long. I'll spend it to use their second effect to destroy a spell or trap card you control."
He then pointed at his opponent's card on the far left. "That one will be my target!"
Breaker's sword glowed with ominous power before it slashed it through the air, bisecting the set card which revealed itself to be Mirror Force.
"Ah!" The Goat-man grunted out in frustration as his battle trap was found out.
"Yeah!" Joey fist-pumped the air. "You're pulling it back, keep it up, Yuge!"
"You're quite some duelist. Seems your last tournament victory wasn't a fluke." The Goat-Man also seemed to compliment, albeit backhandedly.
"I'll then set a card and end my turn."
"My move!" The Goat-Man drew from their deck and immediately went to use their Thousand-Eyes Restrict's powerful effect again, this time eating up his Breaker The Magical Warrior and gaining all of its attack and defence points in the process. (A:1600/D:1000/LV:1)
"Now attack his Feral Imp!" The Goat-Man ordered.
"I'll counter with my set Magic Cylinder!" Yugi called out, revealing the trap card he'd just set. Thousand-Eyes' attack was reflected right back at the goat-man, carving through their own life points instead of his. (2200LP)
"Ah, I'll just end my turn there then, I guess." The Goat-man was forced to say, ending his turn on a dour note.
"My move." He replied, drawing a card from his deck as he did so. Finally, he drew the card he needed. "I play the spell card Double Snare! With this magic, I can target a face-up monster on the field and negate their effects until the end phase. I'm targeting your Thousand-Eyes!"
The Thousand-Eyes lost its many abilities. All at once, its attack prevention, battle change prevention, protections and ability to gain power from its equip cards were all stopped. Leaving it an empty shell of itself. (0/0)
"No!" The Goat-Man shouted out in dismay.
"Well then without that Thousand-Eyes to stop me, I'll flip summon my Feral Imp and activate my set card. Magic Formula!"
He grinned as he explained his card. "See i can Equip this to any monster i control, at a small cost, see it's effect changes depending on the type of monster i equip it to, if my Feral Imp was a Spellcaster, they would've gained 700 attack and defence points, as well as be capable of inflicting piercing battle damage."
He then continued to explain as he shook his head. "But since my Imp is a Fiend monster, they can instead be treated as two tributes for the tribute summon of a monster!"
"Wait so!" The Goat-Man said in alarm.
"I tribute my Feral Imp and use it as two tributes for the Tribute Summon of my Dark Magician!" His ardent ally now stood on his field by his side. Floating just off the ground with their sceptre in their hand and with their arms crossed over their chest. (A:2500/D:2100/LV:7)
"Dark Magician, Dark Magic Attack!" He declared, his Ardent ally spun their staff and pointed it towards the weakened Thousand-Eyes."
"Not yet, i play my quick-play spell, Token Thanksgiving, using it to destroy my two tokens you left on the field, i can gain 1600 life points."
The Dark Magic attack landed, vaporising the monster, though not before his opponent quickly healed some of the damage they had taken prior. (3800LP 1300LP)
"S-s-so what if you destroy them? I play my set Call Of The Haunted, reviving my monster and all of their effects.!" The goat-man pointed out as his trap card rose and the Thousand-Eyes dug itself out of the ground from between the stone tiled floor. (0/0)
"Well, then…" Yami considered what his next move should be for a moment, before deciding on one. "I'll play Swords Of Revealing Light and end my turn." Three massive blades of light fell from the heavens and jammed into the ground around Goats-man. Locking his monsters in place.
"Whatever, I'll begin my turn by playing my Thousand-Eyes Effect and absorbing your magician." His Thousand-Eyes did so, devouring his magician and adding it to its hideous shield. (A:2500/D:2100/LV:7)
"I can't do anything else this turn, so I'll end it there." He said, quickly ending his turn.
"My turn, draw." He did so and looked at his card before ending his turn there abruptly.
"What are you up to?" The Rare Hunter questioned him as they drew from their deck only to end their turn immediately as well. Already two turns from the Swords Of Revealing Light had been used up.
"My turn again," He called out as he drew from his deck. "I'll then use my Brain Control, paying 800 of my life points to take control of your Mystical Knight Of Jackal, then I'll use them as a tribute for my Summoned Skull." His life points dropped down to 1400 as the armoured jackal man was lured to his side of the field by a ghostly hand pulling their hand, only for the jackal to break off into a flash of light and be replaced with the bony form of his Insurmountable Summoned Skull. (A:2500/D:1200/LV:6)
"So? It also can't attack." The goatman pointed out.
"You seem to think the only way I can win is if I attack you. If that is so, then you're severely under informed when it comes to what is possible here." He warned his opponent.
"It may not be the only way, but it's certainly what your deck relies on the most." The Goat-man responded, though he sounded more suspicious than he had before.
"Is that what you think? Well, It doesn't matter anyway." He said offhandedly.
"What do you mean by that!" The Rare Hunter couldn't stop himself from asking.
"Just that with this card on my field you no longer threaten my life points. Now I can just wait until I draw out my entire deck. If I wanted to, that is."
"Why would you want to do that!" The Rare Hunter demanded to know.
But he didn't answer and instead just stood there in silence, letting the Rare Hunter's mind become paranoid. If things went according to plan, then what the Rare Hunter would assume by just letting a person draw cards, he'd associate something like that to the most obvious card strategy that likes doing that.
A plan also helped by the fact that that same strategy was also played by the person who'd just duelled before this Rare Hunter, the person whose deck he took.
On a good day, the Rare Hunter would take his vague statement as confirmation that he was playing Exodia.
Which he wasn't, those cards were marked at the moment so he wasn't going to play them, but this Rare Hunter had been so prideful sitting down and sipping his teà nonchalantly and uncaringly that he most certainly wasn't paying attention to realise that.
He was sure he wasn't.
As if on cue the Rare Hunter's head snapped over to the Exodia Hunter, more specifically their empty duel disk that lacked a deck at the moment. The Rare Hunter snapped back towards him and all he had to do was give him a confident smile.
The Rare Hunter's pupils shrank and he stumbled back a step. "You wouldn't!"
He didn't say anything again.
"Speak damn it!"
"Okay…" He said quietly. "I end my turn."
It was clear the Rare Hunter didn't appreciate his flippant tone. They snarled indignantly. "You… I won't let you just stall me out!" He shouted before drawing from his deck, he barely even looked at the card before pointing towards him. "Thousand-Eyes, attack the Summoned Skull!" His monster moved forwards to attack.
"What! But it only has the same amount of attack as Summoned Skull.!" Joey pointed out.
"Yes!" He answered his dear friend. "But the Thousand-Eyes can save itself by destroying the monster that gave it strength. So while my Summoned Skull will be destroyed in mutual destruction, their Thousand-Eyes will survive!" He spoke urgently.
"That's exactly right!" He shouted out. "Now go on, use the Dark Magician as a shield, my beast! Show them what we're capable of, his eldritch might shall cause you to quiver in fear!"
"Or it would be if you weren't especially foolish…" He retorted.
"What?"
"Trap, activate! The card I set a while ago, Mirror Force! Which will destroy all attack position monsters you control, including your Thousand-Eyes and Magician Of Faith!"
Panic washed over the Goat-man's face. "It won't, i activate my Thousand-Eyes Restrict's final effect, cast off the Magical Master so you'll survive!"
A barrier of light appeared around his Dark Magician, as the abomination slashed into it the barrier let off an explosion of light that consumed the field.
"What a foolish move…" was all he had to say as the light faded. "You've played yourself."
"Wh-what do you mean!" The Rare Hunter stammered as the light faded completely revealing the Thousand-Eyes Restrict, with no monster on its shield, had been impaled at the end of the Summoned Skull's long arm.
"What's going on here!" The Goat-Man demanded an explanation.
"It's simple." He answered. "Mirror Force doesn't negate attacks, it destroys the attacker, so if the attacker were to survive, then the attack continues. But without my Dark Magician here to give you strength at the moment."
"Wh-wait! Thousand-Eyes don't do it! Please!" The Goat-Man protested as the Thousand-Eyes lifted an arm, preparing to make one last stitch effort at an attack.
"It's too late, it is still following through on your orders to attack, it won't get to eat another monster until after this! This duel is OVER!" The Thousand-Eyes Restrict slashed out at the Summoned Skull, only for the Mighty fiend to let out a sigh that turned to steam in the morning air.
Suddenly lightning came crashing down from above hitting the Summoned Skull, it didn't hurt them, but the other monster close by was quickly cooked by volts coursing through their body.
Once the lightning stopped, the cooked corpse of the eldritch abomination tumbled down, flat on the ground before slowly peeling and disintegrating into nothingness.
"I.. I can't believe it.." The Rare Hunter sobbed.
Goat-Man (0LP)
The Rare Hunter fell to his knees. "I can't believe this, after all these cards i've taken and i still can't seem to win…"
"You were never going to win meaningfully with cards that aren't your own." He replied back as he approached his opponent, the holograms around him disappearing. "Now we're finished."
"I…" But before the Goat-Man cut himself off before taking a moment. "You've beaten me, here." Said Goat-Man before they handed him a locator card he kept in his pocket and the Thousand-Eyes Restrict. He took them before narrowing his eyes at the Locator Card.
"I already have this card." Yami told the Rare Hunter, who merely shrugged back at him.
"It's my only Locator Card, I can't help you if you don't like it."
The Locator Cards were little glass cards that had a single jigsaw shaped picture of a portion of Domino City's map on it. Kaiba declared from his blimp that it was from these Locator Cards that he'd be able to find the location of the finals, but what would happen if he had two of the same puzzle pieces.
Hm.. well since they look like puzzle pieces in the first place that probably meant that doubles were entirely useless. But if he ever did lose he could give away one of these instead of a more important one. But ultimately, This duel had been for nought then, other than obtaining that Thousand-Eyes that is.
He was about to ask the Rare Hunter something else but they had walked away and picked up his fellow Rare Hunter. "This is goodbye." They then began to leave, ignoring him despite his protests to get him to explain more about this Marik fellow to him.
"Damn.." He gripped his fist. "It doesn't seem like he'll tell me anymore about this person."
"That sucks, Yuge, but hey, you got another card."
He shook his head. "Not truely, it's a duplicate of a piece I already have." He explained to Joey.
"Wait, really! Aw man, that's rough." Joey bemoaned before bouncing back and encouraging him again. "Well, then you better get going."
"You're sure you don't want to travel together, these Rare Hunters don't seem to enjoy playing fair all that often." He warned his blonde fellow.
Joey stubbornly shook his head. "I said I was going out on my own, so that's what I'm doing. When we meet again, I swear, it'll be at the location of the finals."
He smiled softly at that. "I'll take your word on that my friend, now stay safe."
"You too and best of luck Yuge!" Joey grinned back at him, offering out a hand.
He took their hand firmly and they held there for a moment. "May the best man win this tournament."
"I'll be sure to surprise ya!" Joey replied back.
Ending Notes
Hiya! Mimikree here,
You know when a new idea just pops into your head and you just gotta write it? That's what lead to this fic being made. I felt a need to write a story in battle city but have the characters decks be streamlined a little, so cards have been altered to have them make sense if a Competitive player looked at them, rather than let them be just a random pile.
Well, they are still somewhat random piles, it's impossible to make Yugi's line up not seem liked that. But that'll change over the course of the fic, but now over the course of the next few duels you'll start to see how these decks intend to function with synergies that make sense.
Alright?
Important!
Some people may know of another Fic I write, Unstoppable Approach which has Kaiba be the MC during Duelist Kingdom. That's it's own thing and this story shares 0 continuity with it, though i might share elements. But strictly they are both their own thing/their own cards. So hopefully this doesn't confuse anyone who is reading that story.
This is Mimikree, Signing Off! Buh-bye.