It rose up, casting a shadow over the field. The spectators cried out in fear. Even Kaito gripped the armrests of his seat tighter at the sight. Beside him, he saw Allen and Sayaka huddling together and Yuya and Yuzu - or maybe Yuto and Ruri - reach for each other's hand.
"Thanks to Power Bond, Cyber End Dragon's attack points are doubled!" Ryo shouted, and its ATK rose from 4000 to 8000.
"Is this what you used to wipe out our comrades?" Kurosaki asked.
"It is," Ryo replied. They shared a moment of silence. "Battle phase! Cyber End Dragon attacks Ultimate Falcon! Eternal Evolution Burst!" All three of End Dragon's mouths glowed until streams of energy blasted out into the air. Kurosaki leapt to an action card. Ryo leapt for an action card as well, but this time was a little too slow.
"I activate Ace-in-the-hole! I can detach Blaze Falcon from Ultimate Falcon and Special Summon it, then redirect the attack to it!" Kurosaki indicated as Blaze Falcon returned in defnse position, its 2000 DEF displayed.
"I guess you don't know - Cyber End Dragon inflcits piercing damage!" Ryo shouted. Kurosaki cried out as the beams slammed into Blaze Falcon, causing a huge explosion. The people in the audience strained to see him in the smoke before he strode out, still with 2000 life points as well as another action card he'd activated and now one card left in his hand.
"Stand Together. I sent two cards from my hand to the graveyard so that I could add two of my monsters' defense points to the third. Rise and Ultimate Falcon both have 2000 defense, so Blaze Falcon had 6000 when it was destroyed." Kurosaki stood across from Ryo as the rest of the smoke cleared, staring through him.
"Is it that easy, Hell Kaiser? Are you so used to crushing Xyz duelists like that?"
"It was never just Xyz duelists," Ryo said, prompting a start from Kurosaki. "I was a top enforcer for Academia. Whenever there was dissent on the front lines, I was called in."
Kurosaki gasped, but Ryo didn't seem to be listening to or even looking at him any more.
"Of course, Academia chose its soldiers well," he went on with a bitter chuckle, "most were too naive to question the doctrine or too twisted to care. Even when it wasn't mostly defenseless civilians we were attacking anymore, as more patrols went missing, as there were ever more defeats and setbacks, still there was always going on about our 'superiority.' Even so , though, you saw the divisions forming in the Fusion Dimension, in Academia's own territory? The reason you didn't see that on the front lines was duelists like me." Ryo stopped staring into space and looked back at Kurosaki. "I set a card and then proceed to the end phase." He discarded the action card he'd found. "I activate the trap, Rainbow Life! By discarding a card, instead of losing 4000 life points from Power Bond, I'll gain 4000 life points!" A series of gasps rang out as his life points increased to 4900.
"After all that, he has more points than he started with," Yuzu groaned.
"It's your move," Ryo said simply. Kurosaki huffed as he drew his next card.
"I detach the final Xyz material from Rise Falcon to raise its ATK by Cyber End Dragon's!" With the third overlay unit absorbed, Rise Falcon's ATK rose to 15800. Kurosaki paused for a moment, thinking. "I banish the Rank-Up Magic Raid Force from my graveyard along with a Raidraptor card from my hand to add Doom Double Force back to my hand. Now, battle! Rise Falcon, attack Cyber End Dragon! Brave Force Revolution!" Rise Falcon erupted in flames once again and dove towards Ryo's monster. However, Ryo revealed the card he'd set.
"I activate my quick-play spell, Limiter Removal! The attack of all Machine monsters I control is doubled!" Cyber End Dragon charged up another set of beams as its attack shot up to 16,000.
"No!" Kurosaki cried, and was blown back by Cyber End Dragon's counterattack. Standing back up, now with 1800 lif points, he then slammed a card into his duel disk.
"I once again activate the quick-play spell, Rank-Up-Magic Doom Double Force! I return Rise Falcon to the field and rank it up to a monster with double the rank!
Dauntless falcon, hoist up the flame of anger, and become the light that sears the land to ash! Rank-Up Xyz Change! Soar, rank 8 Raidraptor - Satellite Cannon Falcon!"
The white and gold falcon floated upward, the gems studding its body glowing green light. Kurosaki must have known that he just had to end his turn and Limiter Removal would destroy Cyber End Dragon, but that clearly wasn't what he wanted.
"I detach a material from Satellite Cannon Falcon to activate its quick effect: your Cyber End Dragon loses 800 attack points for every Raidraptor monster in my graveyard! With me having just detached Rise Falcon, I have eight - so your monster loses 6400 attack!" The light from Satellite Cannon Falcon's gems grew brighter as it spread out the fins on its back and its array of cannons charged up with the same light.
"Fire one!" Kuraski shouted. "Two! Three! Four! Five! Six! Seven! Eight!" Satellite Cannon Falcon fired a barrage of green beams into Cyber End Dragon. It reared back, though it still had 9600 ATK.
"I activate another quick-play spell: Instant Overlay! I target an Xyz monster I control with no materials and this card becomes a fresh one! Now I can activate Satellite Cannon Flacon's effect a second time! Fire again!" Cyber End Dragon was blasted again and its heads slumped downwards, now reduced to 3200 ATK.
"Ultimate Falcon, attack Cyber End Dragon! Final Glorious Bright!" Ultimate Falcon formed a crackling black hole in its center and launched it Cyber End Dragon, blowing the other monster to pieces.
Ryo sprawled on the ground, now at 4600 life points. Kurosaki looked over the faces watching, like he was looking for an answer to some question from them. Then he locked eyes with Ryo, who paused as he was climbing to his feet and silently nodded.
"Satellite Cannon Falcon attacks directly! Eternal Avenger!" The Cannon Falcon soared upward, projecting the Raidraptor emblem from its body, until it was out of sight. Then a blinding beam blasted down and tossed Ryo aside.
"Good thing I padded my points out," he winced. He had 1600 life points left to Kurosaki's 1800 - suddenly, the duel was a whole lot closer.
"All your talk and I haven't seen anything different," Kurosaki said. "You're just throwing a bigger Fusion Monster at me every time the last one fails, underestimating Xyz Monsters..."
Ryo's eyes flicked back and forth from the card he'd just drawn.
"I've changed more than you can imagine," he said at last. "I banish the Cyber Dragon Core in my graveyard! Since only you control monsters, I Special Summon a Cyber Dragon from my deck! Then I Normal Summon Cyber Dragon Drei!"
"Cyber Dragon this, Cyber Dragon that," Kurosaki cut in, "what's new?"
"It's true that Cyber Dragon Drei also becomes Cyber Dragon on the field," Ryo replied, "but it has one extra effect. When it's summoned, I can make all Cyber Dragons I control become level 5!" Drei's level increased, matching the original beside it.
"So you have two level 5 monsters?" Kurosaki asked. "What's the..." he trailed off as realization flashed on his face, the same expression that swept across the crowd.
"I build the Overlay Network!" Ryo shouted, and sure enough his monsters collapsed into particles of golden light, swirling together into a black hole. "By overlaying my two level 5 LIGHT Machines, I Xyz Summon rank 5 Cyber Dragon Nova!"
Kurosaki reeled back, stunned, as a serpentine mechanical dragon emerged, black armor gleaming, metal wings spreading, red lines lighting up along its body.
"You look surprised," Ryo remarked, "and I know more than just summoning it! I detach a material to activate Cyber Dragon Nova's effect!" One of the overlay units orbiting it was snatched by its mouth, the light spreading over its body. "I target a Cyber Dragon in my graveyard and Special Summon it!" As the Cyber Dragon returned, it was immediately drawn into a portal.
"I banish a Cyber Dragon to make Cyber Dragon Nova gain 2100 attack points!" His monster's ATK doubled to 4200. "Battle Phase! Cyber Dragon Nova, attack Ultimate Falcon!" Nova flew upwards, its wings glowing with red light, and fired a stream of laser beams that carved into Ultimate Falcon, sending it down in flames. Kurosaki was flung off his feet as his monster crashed and flattened several buildings, still staring at Ryo's monster in shock as he staggered back up with just 1100 life points.
"Now for your other monster," Ryo said. "In main phase 2, I rank up my monster!" Yuya froze - he could really rank up without a spell card?
"Metallic Dragon, push past all limits and forge ahead into the new age!" Ryo chanted. "Rank-Up Xyz Change! Appear now, rank 6 Cyber Dragon Infinity!"
It looked even more vicious than before, red energy arcing off its body, its tail curling behind it in an infinity symbol.
"Cyber Dragon Infinity gains 200 attack points for each material attached to it," Ryo explained as its ATK increased to 2500. "So, I think I'll also take your monster!"
"What?!" Kurosaki cried.
"I target your Cannon Falcon and attach it to my Infinity!" Ryo declared. His dragon's eyes glowed brighter and Shun's monster shrank into an orb that floated across the field where it became another overlay unit orbiting Infinity. Its ATK changed again to 2700.
"End turn," Ryo said simply as everyone else stared in stunned silence. Then Kurosaki gritted his teeth and drew. His eyes widened when he saw the card.
"I activate Rank-Up Magic Soul Shave Force!" he shouted as his life points dropped to 550 and the figure of Ultimate Falcon rose behind him. "I pay half my life points, then this Special Summons my Ultimate Falcon back from the graveyard and then, ranks it up two ranks higher - into Raidraptor - Final Fortress Falcon!"
"I don't think so!" Ryo shouted back. "I detach an Xyz Material to activate Cyber Dragon Infinity's effect!" Infinity bit down on one of its overlay units, rose into the air and shone rays of light onto the hologram of Kurosaki's card, which faded to gray and shattered. Ultimate Falcon sank back down and vanished.
"Once per turn, Infinity can negate and destroy any card my opponent activates," Ryo said.
"What?!" Yuzu - though Yuya could see it was actually Ruri - had stood up from her seat. "How is that fair?!"
"Take your turn," Kurosaki said through gritted teeth. It sank in what he'd likely already figured out: even if he took an action card, Ryo would just be able to negate it.
"If you insist," Ryo replied. "Battle phase! Cyber Dragon Infinity attacks directly!" Kurosaki was thrown backwards, smashing through what was left of a wooden wall.
"SHUN!" This time, people were left staring as, for a moment, Ruri really was standing where Yuzu had been. Ryo's eyes shot up to her, then over the terrified faces of the crowd and the ruin that had been left of the field before it faded, and he averted his gaze bitterly.
"...I won."
Next time: With everyone still reeling from Ryo's victory, Yuya and Yuzu take some time to dig into how he came to LDS.
Original cards
Outdraw - Action Spell, unique to Wild West Duel Town. When your opponent activates a card or effect: negate that activation, and if you do, destroy that card.
Ace-in-the-hole - Action Spell, unique to Wild West Duel Town. When a monster you control is targeted for an attack: Special Summon one monster that was used as a Tribute or Material for its Summon, then change the attack target to the monster Summoned by this effect.
Stand Together - Target 1 monster you control and choose either its ATK or DEF: Discard any number of cards from your hand; for each, the target gains the ATK/DEF (the same as what you chose) of 1 other monster you control during Damage Calculation only.
Thanks for the new round of reviews.
Guest: Maybe; Union was more supposed to be more a generalization of how Manjoume's deck works. In any case, I've stopped adding the deck titles out of risk of interfering with the story.
nightshroud96: I've started to regret the way the duel in chapter 5 turned out myself, but I'm leaving the story as is for better or worse. I can promise that the story is about to start getting darker.