Chapter 2 – Pilot – Part 2
Both duellists drew five cards from their decks in their new duel disks, eyes down to look at them thinking of their opening moves, before returning to face each other again.
"Since the disks are sayin' so, I go first! I draw!" Mason drew the top card from his deck, adding it to his hand of five to make six. "I'll start simple, by summoning Vorse Raider in attack mode!"
The muscle-bound beast-warrior monster appeared in front of Mason through the hologram projectors, carrying its axe; the duel disk showed it had 1900 ATK and 1200 DEF.
"Then I'm settin' one face down card on the field!" The face-down card manifested behind Vorse Raider. "And that's that! I end my turn!"
"Then it's my turn! Draw!" Yudan drew his top card in a slashing motion. "And I'll start by summoning Musket Quickdraw!
A biomechanical humanoid in black armour appeared, carrying two muskets on its holster. Its navy-blue eyes and face mask armour were mostly concealed by a dark brown cowboy's hat with a gold star on it. It was a normal monster that had 1600 ATK and 1400 DEF.
"Before you start saying that you're monster's stronger, I'll activate the spell card Blustering Winds! It will give Musket Quickdraw 1000 ATK until the start of my next turn!"
A circle of visible wind appeared around Musket Quickdraw, its attack power going to 2600.
"I'm going to battle! Musket Quickdraw, attack Vorse Raider! Double Musket Shot!"
In the blink of an eye, Quickdraw Musket took out both its musket rifles and fired at Vorse Raider, growling as it was destroyed. Mason instinctively guarded his face from the shards of light from Vorse Raider's destruction with his duel disk hand, life points ticking down to 3300 as he did so.
"And before YOU say that YOUR turn's over, I'll activate my face-down card! The trap card Time Machine!"
Mason pressed a button on his disk, making his face-down card go face-up to reveal his Time Machine card. The card physically changed to the machine depicted on it, with steam wafting around. The doors opened and Vorse Raider came out, growling intensely.
"In case you somehow don't know, Time Machine brings back a monster that destroyed, simple as that. You can end your turn now."
"I will."
"Then back to me! Draw!" Mason looked at the card and it was exactly what he wanted for his situation. "I don't want to wait until the power-up on your monster's over, so I'll tribute Vorse Raider for this!" He removed Vorse Raider's card from the monster zone to make its hologram disappear and slapped on a new card in its place. "Caius the Shadow Monarch!"
The dark, hulking, horned monster in black armour appeared with 2400 ATK. Yudan knew this was not good.
"Since Caius was tribute summoned, it can banish your Musket thingmajig straight off the field!" Mason continued.
Caius shot out a purple ball of energy from its hands at Musket Quickdraw, making a minor explosion that not only caused Yudan to grunt, but caught the eyes of the rest of the people in the arena. When the holographic dust settled, Yudan's monster was gone.
"Just consider yourself lucky ya monster's not a dark attribute, or this would hurt even more! Caius, direct attack!"
Caius fired another explosive blast, this time at Yudan, dropping him to his knees and his LP to 1600.
"See? There's nothing to worry about, Eric!" Mason turned sideways to face him. "This duel will be over soon enough!"
Eric kept silent, doing his best to keep the camera steady as to not miss anything from view.
To Yudan's annoyance, a mass of people was stood beside the arena to be closer to the duel taking place, one of which was trying to get a decent view.
"Hey, I wanna see! Can someone move please?"
A late-teen boy who was moving to the front was wearing a simple pear green shirt and seaweed green cargo trousers. He had dark skin and black hair, though most unusual of all, he was wearing on top of his head a steel helmet that was painted a murky green, though flakes of the paint had come off from being worn so many times.
"What's this duel going on for?"
"No idea". a man in the crowd answered him. "Though they don't seem to know each other either".
The helmeted teen stood in wonder, waiting for what was going to unfold next.
"Aaaaaand my turn's done!" said Mason, revelling in his attack. "Man, I could beat you anytime of the week if I needed to, this is easy!"
"Then you could have just waited until the tournament, instead of resorting to what you did". Yudan retorted, standing back to his feet. "You low life".
"A man's gotta do whatever it takes keep goin' in times like these".
"Then I'll do whatever it takes to win this duel! Draw!" Yudan fired up and drew his card, then studied his hand for his next play.
"I set a monster and a face-down, I end my turn!"
"That's all? Then back to me, draw! Joining Caius, I summon Dark Blade!"
The warrior monster with spiky black armour and two silver blades appeared with 1800 ATK.
"Caius! Attack the face-down monster!"
As Caius launched another ball of energy, Yudan's monster was flipped to reveal a cartoonish looking cactus with a cowboy hat and a red bandana, which had a serious looking face and was rooted into the ground. It embraced Caius' attack and instead of an explosion, the ball of energy bent the cactus back as it held it in the stem arms grown from its body, grunting heavily.
"What in God's name is happening!?" Mason yelled.
"It's Block Cactus' effect!" Yudan answered. "It can't get destroyed until after three attacks! And it will work nicely with this, my trap card Receive Return!"
Yudan pressed a button on his duel disk, and with a 'beep' sound his trap was revealed.
"When one of your monster's attacks doesn't destroy my monster, the attacking monster gets destroyed!"
Block Cactus then hurled the energy blast back to Caius, destroying it in an explosion.
"That's not a problem, really!" Mason lied, breaking a sweat. Despite Block Cactus' DEF being 1200, he saw no point in attacking with Dark Blade. "I end my turn!"
Yudan drew his card and he looked at it long enough for Mason to notice.
"I can't use you right now, my field's not prepared enough" Yudan thought. "Hopefully Block Cactus will buy me some time".
"I'll just end my turn".
"Fine, my draw".
When Mason looked at the card he drew, he almost let out a laugh. Oh, this was going to be great.
"Time to play the game winnin' move! I activate the spell Cost Down!" He inserted the card into spell and trap reader, and it was projected to face Yudan. "By discardin' a card, all the monster's levels in my hand go down by two, meaning I only need one tribute for this!"
Dark Blade lost its form to become a mass of purple energy that sank into the ground, creating a black portal that had visible purple electricity circling around it like a never-ending current, triggering an updraft in the air. All of a sudden, a titanic, dark magenta purple dragon came surging through the portal, occupying most of the space on Mason's side of the arena and towered over everything else. It had tough-looking scales with strange blood-red spheres with eyes latched on the centre of its wings, staring at Block Cactus. On its neck was a large, scratched chain that it wore like a necklace. As if its size hadn't alerted all the people on the floor of its appearance as it floated on the field, it let out low-pitched, deafening roar.
"Say hello to Dread Detonator Dragon!" Mason said proudly. The monster carried a hefty 2800 ATK and 1800 DEF.
"Wait, how did he summon that? That monster's cool and all, but it needs two tributes!" The teen in the helmet questioned.
"Are you not paying attention? His Cost Down just made it level six, you just saw that!" The random person said, visibly annoyed he had to explain that just after the ceremony of a duelling tournament.
"Really? Oh… Sorry…" The teen in the helmet retreated back slightly into the crowd.
Mason pointed his finger to Block Cactus. "Dread Detonator, attack! Shatter Shock!"
Dread Detonator Dragon lifted up its neck to charge up the purple electricity that was leaking slightly out of its mouth, though Yudan was confused. What was the point in attacking his monster?
Mason's dragon released its electric breath and struck Block Cactus in what felt like an instant; the attack triggering Yudan's monster to explode into shards of holographic light.
"But how?" Yudan wanted an answer. "With Block Cactus' effect it should have- "
"Not been destroyed right?" Mason interrupted. "Dread Detonator negates the effects of any defence mode monster it takes on, and that's not even the end of it! It then deals damage equal to the destroyed monster's defence!"
Dread Detonator Dragon flapped its wings to shake off the eye spheres of its body, generating wind as it did so. The spheres of eyes then blew up like grenades in Yudan's face, sending his LP to a low 400 from the 1200 effect damage.
Eric breathed a sigh of relief. With Mason's signature monster out, the duel would be over soon.
"And the turn's over! Well Eric, I told you that money's good as ours, didn't I?" Mason looked back to Eric, ignoring the crowd. "At the end of the day, the cream of the crop is the only thing risin' to the top, and it certainly isn't this guy! He wouldn't have the skill or determination to get out of this, he's just a spoilt punk who doesn't understand anythin' about the things people have got to do to succeed!"
"What makes you think I don't understand?" Yudan said coldly in response.
"'Scuse me?"
"I have had to scrap together a lot of stuff just to get to Vegas, let alone a decent deck to play with, not that I used any of my family's money to get it. I earned these cards, and I can remember how I got every single one! I know for certain there's cards in here that'll destroy that dragon, and I'll draw one of them!"
"Alright, show me what you got then, rich boy!" Mason dared.
"Then let's rock! Draw!" Yudan slashed the top of his deck, creating the sound of an unsheathed sword as he did so. When he looked at the card he drew, everything came together in his mind.
"I'll activate Monster Reborn to revive Block Cactus!" The iconic spell card appeared, returning his monster from the graveyard to the field, though that wasn't Mason's top priority. It definitely wasn't the card Yudan just drew, had he been saving it?
"Then I'll normal summon this, my Dispatch Falcon!" Yudan summoned a bird covered in red armour and a silver mask that covered most of its facial proportions.
"When Dispatch Falcon is summoned, I can immediately perform a tribute summon! I'll tribute Block Cactus and my falcon to summon Outlaw Jetstar!"
Both of Yudan's monsters dispersed from his field to make way for a biomechanical warrior monster with crimson red body armour and helmet that had its green eyes peering out. It was wearing a blue scarf on its neck that was wafting in the air and had a golden four-pointed star displayed on the forehead of its helmet. It carried an orange-glowing blade mounted on each of its gauntlets and equipped directly into its back a silver machine that had the appearance of jet thrusters. The screen on the duel disk displayed its 2500 ATK and 2000 DEF.
"Big deal, that card hasn't got enough attack!" Mason pointed out.
"It will when I equip him with the equip spell Advancing Heart!" Yudan's card emitted out energy that went straight to where Outlaw Jetstar's heart would be. "It powers his attack by 500!"
Mason and Eric began to sweat nervously as Outlaw Jetstar ATK went from 2500 to 3000.
"Battle! Outlaw Jetstar, attack Dread Detonator Dragon! Sunrise Splitter!"
The thrusters on Outlaw Jetstar's back came alive and ignited, propelling it above ground as the blades on its gauntlets were mechanically pushed forward from its knuckles. As it soared, it rapidly sliced through Dread Detonator Dragon's chest with each of its blades, bringing the dragon to the ground and blowing the dragon monster up into light. Mason's LP went to 3100.
"That was a good move" Mason admitted. "But I'll make a counterattack next t- "
"No, you won't. We're done here".
Mason let out a quiet 'What' that was heard by nothing.
"I activate the effect of Advancing Heart! When the monster equipped destroys a monster with a higher level, I can send the spell to my graveyard to attack again!".
Since Outlaw Jetstar was level seven and Dread Detonator Dragon was level 8, it was possible, to which Advancing Heart was sent to the graveyard and Outlaw Jetstar, still in the air and ATK returning to 2500, dove down and slashed Mason in a downward strike, decreasing his LP to 600.
"I'm…. still standing…I…can draw- "
"Outlaw Jetstar's effect will activate, once per turn, when I successfully attack and I have no other monsters, he attacks again!" Yudan pointed at Mason to signify the end.
"Another attack!?" Eric's camera slipped out of his hand.
Mason looked in shock as Outlaw Jetstar simply stood in front of him, plunging its right blade into his chest. Though he felt no pain, the emotional damage was enough.
As Mason's LP fell to 0, he dropped to his knees in disbelief. Outlaw Jetstar slowly turned around and walked away, fading out from view when the hologram projectors deactivated.
"Wow, I can't believe that guy came back and won the duel, that was crazy!" the teen in the helmet had his jaw agape as Yudan's monster made its series of attacks, now finally declaring excitedly along with the rest of the crowd.
When Mason turned to look up, Yudan was standing to look at him, reattaching his hologram projectors to his duel disk and holding his I.D card that he took from the centre of the arena in his teeth. When he was done, he took the card out of his mouth and spoke.
"That is only a fraction of what I am capable of, and I lost any respect I could ever have for you when you chose to steal. I am now prepared for anyone like you who attempts to challenge me down my path. Consider yourself lucky I won't do anything about your friend either. See you in the tournament".
As Yudan walked off the arena court, Mason tried to retort, but nothing came to his mind to say. He just weakly stood up and walked back to Eric for comfort. Instead, Eric just walked off, panicking as he went down the staircase. Confused, Mason went off to follow him.
The crowd watching the duel dispersed when Yudan walked to a table to double-check his belongings hadn't been stolen again during the duel. The only one left was the teen in the helmet who walked up to him to talk.
"That was a good duel! Where did you get that card? The Jetstar thing I mean!"
"No offense, but I think I've spoken too much before the tournament, sorry" Yudan carried his belongings back to the elevator, not giving eye contact to him.
"Um…. OK! I hope to see you in the tournament, bye!" The teen waved as he Yudan went past, not that he was able to see the gesture.
Yudan got in the elevator and pressed the button to get to the ground floor, looking at his new Odyssey duel disk as he went down.
"Best to go back to my hotel and hold off being in public view before the tournament" He thought. "But just watch Dad, I'll show you why I'm here, what I'm going to prove to you, and I'm not gonna let you stop me from achieving it".
END OF CHAPTER