THE FIERY LEADER OF SALAMANDER GYM
Like Pistris City, Salamandra City was a port city. Unlike Pistris City, which was all cityscape and waterways, Salamandra City's harbor was outlined by a grove of palm trees that separated the harbor from the city proper. Tall buildings could be seen over the tops of the trees. Yuka stood at the rail of the ferry, watching the harbor get closer with each passing moment. Soon, she and her friends would be on their way to the city and Yuka's third gym badge.
She was already a quarter of the way to finally completing her qualification to enter the Duel Monsters Championship League tournament in Domino City, and defeating Cole Colter would put her one step closer to getting to that point.
"Come on, let's dock already," Yuka said, gripping the rail with anticipation.
"Easy, Yuka," Hugo said. "We'll be there soon enough and then you can have your match. Just remember what we said last night."
"Yeah, yeah, I got you," Yuka said confidently. "You guys are worrying too much."
"Of course we do," Shelly said. "Cole Colter has a habit of being ruthless when he duels. If you're not careful -"
"If I'm not careful I'll lose," Yuka interrupted her. "Trust me, I'll be careful. Look, we're docking."
Twenty minutes later, the ferry was docked, and they were making their way through the grove of trees and into the city proper. Almost immediately they felt the heat from the glass and concrete radiating up and out. The city was bustling, with people walking along the streets and vehicles speeding along. An ambulance siren wailed in the distance, and they could smell a nearby pretzel cart.
"I think the duel gym's just a few blocks away," Hugo guessed.
"You know where it is?" Shelly asked.
"I've been here once or twice during my travels; I've seen it, yeah," Hugo answered. "Come on, follow me."
They had to push their way through the crowd of hundreds of people as they made their way down the street. Two intersections were between them and their destination; they had to wait for the flow of traffic to stop before they could move on, moving with the rest of the crowd.
The whole trip took another twenty minutes, but they soon arrived at their destination; it was a four story tall building painted and decorated to look like fire, with red and yellow and orange highlights. Even the trees that lined the walkway seemed to be specifically chosen to have fire and flame-related colors. Also lining the walkway were small lava lamps, the wax inside the bulbs rising and falling in a rhythmic pattern.
Inside, the walls were lit up with holographic images of fire, giving the feel of a cozy fireplace during winter. The floor was painted to resemble volcanic rock and hardened magma; even the thermostat seemed to be set to warm, giving off the feel of heat in the air. The room itself was large, sizable enough to fit several semi trucks inside. The roof stood over them at a height of twenty-five feet, the beams fitted with several lights and a digital projector that pointed downwards, to the center of the room.
It was in the center of the room where two people were standing, one a boy about the same age as Yuka and her friends, the other a tall, broad-shouldered, dark-skinned man in his early thirties that they guessed was Cole Colter.. Given the three monsters that stood between them, they were in the middle of a duel, though they had no way of knowing who was winning. The boy's one monster was a purple scaled and red winged dragon, Komouri Dragon; Cole's two monsters were Volcanic Rocket, which resembled a fighter jet covered in flames, and the Link 4 Link Monsters Accesscode Talker, a humanoid figure in brilliant white armor with gold trim.
"Accesscode Talker, attack his Koumori Dragon and end this duel!" Koumori Dragon cried out as Accesscode Talker's lance pierced it and destroyed it.
And judging by the the look of despair and sorrow on the boy's face, his life points had just dropped to 0.
"No!" the boy cried out. "I lost!"
"It's your own fault you lost, kid," Cole said as his monsters vanished from the field. "You should have built your deck better and not fill it with such weak monsters."
"But they're all my favorite!" the boy countered.
"Good deck building has nothing to do with cards being your favorite or not," Cole said. "All that matters is winning, and you did not. Come back and face me again when you've got a deck worth dueling against."
"Sheesh, can you believe this guy?" Hugo asked. "You'd think he'd be encouraging the kid."
"Yeah, really," Shelly agreed.
Yuka said nothing, just watched the boy gather up his cards and slowly walk towards the exit, his head hung low, his brown hair hiding his eyes. As he went past, she could hear him sniffling, trying to hold back tears. Without talking to this boy, she had no way of knowing how the duel was going before she and her friends got here, but like Hugo said, Cole should have been encouraging this boy to keep trying and not give up, and even give him some deck building tips.
I'll have to track him down later and talk to him, she thought. She turned to Cole, who was just gathering up his own cards. "Hey. Cole Colter, right?"
"Who wants to know?" Cole asked.
"A new challenger, that's who," Yuka answered. "I'm Yuka Rumiko, and I challenge you for my third Duel Gym badge."
Cole laughed. "You already have two? I can tell you're already better than that last kid. Okay, Yuka Rumiko, you're in luck; a spot just opened up. So step on up, Yuka, and let's see if you have what it takes."
"Just remember what we said about getting too confident, Yuka," Hugo warned her.
"I'll be fine," Yuka said. She put her deck into the deck slot of her duel pad and stepped into the center of the room, across from Cole.
Both duelists activated their duel pads, set their life points to 8000, drew their first five cards, and said "Let's duel!"
"I'll start this off," Cole said. He scanned his hand, which included one monster, Volcanic Scattershot; two spell cards, Pot of Prosperity and Foolish Burial Goods; and two trap cards, Torrential Tribute and Call of the Haunted. Not a bad starting hand, all things considered. "I set one card face down," he announced as he set Torrential Tribute. "Then I'll summon Volcanis Scattershot in attack mode." The monster he summoned resembled a metallic lizard with three heads, its entire body surrounded by a roaring flame. "I'll end my turn there."
Yuka looked at her first five cards and cringed. None of these cards were useful right now. She had two trap cards, Solemn Warning and One Or Eight, and the rest were spell cards - The Claw of Hermos, Advanced Ritual Art, and Stamping destruction. At best, only the trap cards could work, but she'd have to set them first. Unless the next card she drew was something useful right now.
It was another spell card, Chaos Form. That wasn't going to help her right now. There was only one thing she could do right now, which was to set her two trap cards and hope for the best.
"I set two cards face down and end my turn."
"That's not like Yuka," Shelly observed. "She usually has something to get her dragons out."
"Yeah, but look at her face," Hugo said. "I've seen that face a lot in duels. That's the face of someone who's got a brick hand. Setting those two cards was obviously the only thing she could do."
"Is that all?" Cole asked with a raised eyebrow. "Okay. I draw. And now I summon a second Volcanic Scattershot." Another Scattershot appeared next to its brother. "And now that I got two Fire Attribute monsters on the field, I can set my circuit ablaze to Link Summon." The two monsters morphed into tornadoes of fire. "The summoning conditions are two monsters, including at least one Fire Attribute monsters, so I set both my Volcanic Scattershots in the Link Arrows. I Link Summon Link 2 Hiita the Fire Charmer, Ablaze!" The monster that appeared was a young teenage girl in a black top and brown shorts; the top was short enough to expose her entire midriff. Tattoos ran down along her middle and her arms, and she wore her trenchcoat open to show off her figure. A small red animla hung onto her shoulder, and she looked at Yuka with a cocky grin.
"I activate my trap card, Solemn Judgement," Yuka countered. "I have to give up 2000 life points, but it stops that summon and destroys your monster." Hiita let out a surprised cry as she exploded in a column of flame.
Cole let out a frustrated huff. "I set one card face down and end my turn."
Yuka drew her new card. It was another spell card, The Fang of Critias.
WHY?! she silently screamed. "I end my turn without playing a card."
Cole drew a new card, another Foolish Burial Goods. "I activate my trap card, Call of the Haunted, to bring Hiita back to the field, and she's immediately going to attack you directly." Hiita's staff was lit ablaze as she prepared to attack.
"I activate my second trap card, One Or Eight," Yuka called.
"One Or Eight?" Cole repeated. "What in the world is that?"
"Since my life points are lower than yours, I can draw the top card of my deck," Yuka explained. "If it's a Level One or Level Eight monster, I can either add it to my hand or special summon it to the field. If not, you get to choose to either increase your life points to 8000 - which they already are - or decrease mine to 1000."
"Yuka, are you crazy?" Hugo yelled. "Do you have any idea how horribly that might backfire on you?"
"Your friend's right," Cole agreed. "You can't seriously be hoping this duel will be decided with what's essentially a gamble card."
"Gambles can pay off," Yuka said. She closed her eyes and slowly drew the top card of her deck.
Slowly, she opened her eyes to look at the card she'd just pulled.
It was another trap card, Return of the Dragon Lords.
Yuka gritted her teeth and growled in anger as she showed the card to Cole, before adding it to her hand. "I think I know what you're going to do."
"You're right," Cole said. "Say goodbye to all but 1000 of your life points." Yuka watched as her life points dropped from 6000 to 1000. "And now, since its still my Battle Phase, we have a replay, so Hiita, attack her directly and finish her off. Punish her for that stupid, bonehead move." Hiita's staff was once again covered in flames, and she pointed the staff at Yuka, shooting out a large torrent of fire akin to a flamethrower.
Yuka screamed as the fire engulfed her. Even though it was holographic, she felt like she was actually on fire, felt like her skin was being melted right off of her bones, smelled her hair start to catch fire, all as her life points dropped to 0.
The flames subsided as Hiita faded away from the field. Yuka collapsed to her hands and knees, her entire body shaking from that final blow. Without a doubt in her mind, this was the worst duel she'd ever been in. Everything that could have gone wrong had gone wrong. She kept telling herself that it wasn't supposed to happen like that, but it still had.
"What a stupid rookie move," Cole said, though Yuka could barely hear him; she was in her own head, not paying attention to anyone or anything around her. "Playing a card like that? Your friend was right, it backfired on you. It more than backfired on you, it blew up in your face. You said that gambles pay off, but you forgot that when you gamble, you eventually lose. Though I suppose in your case 'eventually' was the first time. When you decide not to make a rookie mistake like that again, come back and duel me. Until then, get out of my gym."
Hugo and Shelly hurried over to Yuka and gently helped her stand up. "Come on, Yuka. You're okay," Hugo said softly.
"Let's just get out of here and recover," Shelly added. She and Hugo, each holding one of Yuka's arms and shoulders, gently escorted her to the door. Hugo looked over to Yuka; her eyes were wide, her pupils shrunk, and he and Shelly could still feel her body shaking.
"I screwed up," Yuka said, her voice no more than a soft whisper. "I totally screwed up."