Chapter 5: Game of Shadows
Leo saw Pegasus's face flash on the screen. Leo was a bit intimidated as he was meeting the very creator of duel monsters. "Greetings Leo, I trust there's no need for introductions" Pegasus says, Leo knew he was reading his mind, after all most millennium items have an effect on the mind, plus the fact its an eye would be fitting for the mind reading millennium item. But Leo decided to start up conversation seeing as he wasn't going to make a bad first impression
"Well Pegasus, its a pleasure to meet the Willy Wonka of the gaming industry, even if through a screen" Says Leo.
Pegasus began laughing at Leo's statement. "Now that's a first. But thank you for your compliment."
"Yeah, you're awesome! Plus you always are a bit extra seeing as your hosting this tournament on a literal island" Leo says
Pegasus smiled and shook his head while closing his eye "Its always nice to meet a fan, but you see I have heard something mighty interesting about you Leo. And I trust you know what it is"
Leo held up his millenium scale and Pegasus began clapping, "Correct you are. That scale of yours you won from that man made me curious about your dueling skills. So I wish to play a little game with you. Our duel will have a time limit of 10 minutes, and when those ten minutes are up if neither of us have been defeated the player with the highest life points wins."
Leo crossed his arms and smirked, "Well this is a video tape, why not I just fast forward the tape to see all the moves you play then rewind it so I can counter all your moves accordingly?"
"Oh but where would be the fun in that? Well my little green friend, this duel won't be the way you think" Pegasus responds as he reveals his millenium eye which begins glowing. Leo sees the room around him go dark. "Now you see, we-" Pegasus is interrupted by a button press as Leo hits the fast forward button on the tape, "You see-" He hears Le push the button again, "We-" another push "You can't fast forward this Leo so please stop pushing the fast forward button." Pegasus says with mild annoyance
"Well it was worth a shot" Leo says as he saw the TV fade away and in its place was Pegasus with a table facing him. Leo sits on the other end of the table, he had a strategy in place to deal with Pegasus's mind reading but it would be difficult to pull off. "Lets begin our game Pegasus" Leo says as he shuffles his deck and places it in its designated area and the clock starts. "You're the creator of this game, so you can go first"
Pegasus nods "You have good etiquette, I'll give you that. But it won't save you in a duel against me. I am unlike anyone you've faced" he says as he sets two cards and ends his turn. Leo was a bit frustrated, he knew Pegasus usually played toons but he suspects he wouldn't use it here so he hoped to gain insight onto what deck he'd be using here. But at least now Leo could test his strategy
"I'll draw this from my deck" as Leo says that Pegasus's millenium eye began to glow. "Well you certainly won't win with tha-" Pegasus stopped looked confused, he read Leo's mind but he card he was holding was unfamiliar to him 'Morphtronic Datatron? I don't recall making that monster, matter of fact ... I don't remember creating any of those cards in his hand!' thought Pegasus seeing Morphtonic monsters with relating spell and traps in his hand.
Unbeknownst to Pegasus this was Leo's strategy, Leo didn't look at the card he drew nor his hand. His plan was to imagine they were the cards from his usual deck to throw off Pegasus, the next step would be that he'd be quickly looking at his hand to see what the cards really were and play them, but he had to be fast and then empty his head of it before Pegasus could read his mind again. "Nevermind, you can make your move"
"Gladly" Leo says quickly looking at the card he drew and summoning it "I summon ally of justice cycle reader!"
Ally of justice cycle reader level 3
Dark/machine/effect
(1000 atk/ 1000 def)
Pegasus raised an eyebrow 'That isn't the card I saw him draw or any of the cards in his hand.' Pegasus shook his head 'I just played that shadow game with Yugi, perhaps my mind a bit spent after it.'
"My my, it appears you're using Gerald's new cards. Well this is nothing I can't handle. I'll use one of my traps, cosmic rust storm, since you summoned a machine to the field it is automatically destroyed. And you take 200 damage for each level on that monster of yours"
Leo grimaced as he felt a storm of rust sweep away his monster and shrapnel hits the side of his head
(Leo: 1400-Pegasus: 2000)
"And when a machine monster is destroyed I can call forth this from my hand, techno beast!"
Techno beast level 2
Earth/machine/effect
(1200 atk/ 1500 def)
Leo knew he had to come up with something quick, he decided to gamble on the chance that Pegasus not currently reading his mind on the moment and quickly looked at his hand, and he saw polymerization, failing to see the faint glow from the millenium scale which he set down next to his chair. "I play polymerization, fusing my turtle racoon and ally of justice thousand arms, to form ally of justice turtle shredder!"
Ally of justice turtle shredder level 6
Dark/fusion/beast-warrior/effect
(1900 atk/ 1400 def)
Leo quickly looked away from his hand, "Ally of justice turtle shredder, attack his techno beast with arm blade onslaught!"
(Leo: 1400-Pegasus: 1300)
Pegasus recoiled as his monster was destroyed by the attack, surprised at the boy's fusion summon
'Okay, I'm in the lead for now, right now I just have to outlast him until the timer runs out, and hope he doesn't have anymore spells' Leo thought
"So you plan to just wait it out now, are you?" Said Pegasus flashing a grin. Leo set a card he knew was a trap on the field. The trap in question he didn't know, but he hoped in the long run would help him. "I'll end my turn Pegasus." Leo then smirked.
Pegasus then used his millenium eye to read Leo's mind in an attempt to find out what the trap he set was but instead of that he read what Leo thought 'I know you can read my mind', Pegasus's eyes narrowed as he drew his card.
"Let me call out a really nice helper of mine. The faceless mage!
Illusionist faceless mage level 5
Dark/spellcaster/normal
(1200 atk/ 2200 def)
"I trust you're going to equip it with eye of illusion next?" Asked Leo, Pegasus looked at Leo with a bit of a confused face, he activated the card and then replied to Leo, "You're correct. And you know that how?"
"Its a popular strategy, able to get your field with a generous number of monsters while leaving your opponent with little options" Leo said, it wasn't truly a lie as Leo read about how in the early days this was a popular strategy to counter beatdown decks.
"Well now I use monster reborn bringing back your turtle racoon from your graveyard"
Turtle racoon level 3
Water/aqua/normal
(700 atk/ 900 def)
Pegasus then smirked, "I'll attack your turtle shredder with my faceless mage, and since I have eye of illusion neither of our monsters are destroyed. But my faceless mage will hypnotize your monster. Now this will for sure pack a punch, I'll attack your turtle with shredder!"
'Okay, lets hope my gamble paid off!' thought Leo, "I reveal this trap!" Leo says flipping over the trap, and it was the trap card shadow spell. "Well this trap is shadow spell, not only does it loose 700 attack points but it also chains up your turtle shredder preventing him from destroying my turtle. Just like the TV show demonstrates." Leo jokes.
(1200 atk/ 1400 def)
Pegasus then begins to laugh "Okay that was actually pretty funny. You have good taste in cartoons. But my friend, you should know neither of those are going to help you win our duel. Take a look at this rare card, hinotama! You will be taking 500 damage points". Leo's eyes widened and he was unprepared as a fireball hit him nearly scorching his clothes and hair.
(Leo: 900-Pegasus: 1300)
"Well I suppose now is as good a time as any to end the turn. Now Leo lets see what other moves you have in store" Pegasus remarks as Leo looked nervous. 'Okay, the timer is almost up, I need to either finish him in this turn, damage him for 400 or more points, and gain 400 or more to make it a draw or my victory'. Leo quickly thought before emptying the thought out of his head, he couldn't slip up for a second with this strategy.
Leo drew his card 'this will help' he thought, "I play pot of greed, this handy dandy card lets me grab two more cards from the deck." He then drew the cards and smiled and he says "Read my mind Pegasus!", Pegasus obliged and saw the cards he drew, blue medicine and king of the swamp. "So you plan to even our life points?"
Leo nodded and activated blue medicine
(Leo: 1300-Pegasus: 1300)
Pegasus attempted to see the rest of Leo's hand, but the cards Leo was holding were again unfamiliar to him and he was holding more cards than he should even have, 'what are those ... Stardust dragon, Black Rose dragon, ancient fairy dragon, again I have no recollection of creating those cards.' Pegasus thought eying the one labeled Power-tool dragon.
"I now use king of the swamp's special ability, I discard it to add polymerization to my hand! And now Pegasus I'll play my own monster reborn bringing it back, now I fuse meteor dragon and king of the swamp to bring on out this great beast! Meteor Black dragon!"
Meteor Black dragon level 8
Fire/fusion/dragon/normal
(3500 atk/ 2000 def)
"So you summoned Gerald's ace card, the mighty meteor black dragon. Well, color me impressed." retorts Pegasus. Leo then confidently says "It's over! I attack your turtle shredder with my meteor black dragon! And this duel is over!"
Pegasus begins laughing causing Leo to raise an eyebrow. "You're right this duel is over! I activate the magic cylinder trap I set a while back, now that attack of yours will be redirected to you. And that dragon's attack points are far greater than even double your current life points. So now Leo I-" a ringing noise is heard and the monsters disappear.
"My my, that was a close one Leo. Had the attack been completed your life points would've gone caput.". Leo then crossed his legs, "W-Well I knew time was nearing it end, I just wanted one last hail mary before our game ends.
"Well either way if you are being truthful about that or not, you do have some mighty fine spirit Leo. Spirit I am looking forward to seeing when you duel at the tournament. Until next time." Pegasus said as the world around Leo went back to normal.
"Well, at least that whole thing with the videotape is better than being doomed to die in a week after watching that." Leo muttered as he collected himself. Leo then exited the hospital heading back to Gerald's place with his things.
"Welcome back old sport" says Gerald as Leo enters back into his house. "Good to be back Gerald. I had an eventful evening, you?"
"Just watching the new Transformers movie, ya like Transformers old sport?" asked Gerald to which Leo responds "Oh you have no idea, I'd love to watch, but I gotta get packing for duelist kingdom. Maybe when I'm done"
Gerald nods in understanding as he turns back to his TV as Leo goes upstairs and begins packing.
To be continued
Author's note: Apologies for the late release, trouble with collage and a few issues in my personal life