Chapter 3 – The Tournament begins
It was 1.15 PM, Yudan had made sure to get a taxi to the KaibaCorp outpost as close to the expected time as possible to avoid getting into any more altercations before the tournament began. Hordes among hordes of competitors were visible from the street, standing away from the road as to not interfere with the busy traffic and onto a vast desert where the outpost began, and where the city roadwork stopped abruptly. As Yudan stepped out the taxi, he went into one of the colossal blue tents that protected both people and horses from the thirty-eight-degree heat.
He cautiously joined a large line in the tent and when he eventually got to front, showed his I.D card that he won back from Mason to the staff there.
"OK, we will now need to take your weight and measurements for your horse, if you could please go onto the scale".
After being weighed and his height measured, his height of five feet and ten inches, and weight one hundred and fifty-four pounds. He was given a ticket that was numbered '623' and was told to wait. After five minutes, his number was called, and he was guided to a brown Mustang horse with black hair and a white streak going straight across from its nostrils to the top of its head. It was already wearing all the necessary riding equipment. The brown leather saddle had the same number from Yudan's ticket on both its sides in white.
"Its name is Maroon, take care of him, any malpractice or abuse of the horse will result in a two-thousand dollar fine and elimination from the tournament".
Yudan put the necessary food for Maroon in his duffel bag and was told to ride the horse out of the opposite entrance of the tent. When Yudan and Maroon came out, there was a vast fenced row of squared horse pens in the shape of a starting line; many competitors had already got their horses and were waiting eagerly in their own fenced squares, spread out enough as to not stress the horses, for the tournament to begin. As expected, there were many television broadcast crews to display the start of the tournament to the wider public. Yudan was instructed into move to his pen, which was once again numbered from his ticket, and waited.
After ten minutes, when what appeared to be all of the competitors had all lined eagerly on their starting squares, Yudan checked the watch on his left wrist. It was 1.57PM.
Despite the heat, a man in a suit and sunglasses hurried to the front of the fences with a megaphone, ready to make an announcement. Everyone was ready.
"To begin the Odyssey Tournament, Mr Mokuba Kaiba!" The man in sunglasses passed the megaphone to Mokuba as he made his way to the front of the pens with a security team.
"The Odyssey Tournament is ready to commence!" Mokuba's voice boomed through megaphone, clear enough for even people in the back of the fences. "The resolve and strength of many duellists here will be forged into the mightiest of steel! But before that, you must survive this first phase, of which at least half of you will fall!"
Mokuba took a pocket watch out from the chest pocket of his suit and checked the time, studying it carefully, then he looked back to the competitors and returned to speaking.
"Your Odyssey Duel Disks will only allow duels to commence once you are one mile from this location! Your horses will now be let through! Let the tournament… BEGIN!"
Dead-on 2PM, KaibaCorp staff then opened the gates of the front fences, to which the duellists began to trot out of the fences with their horses to leave carefully. However, when Yudan and Maroon had their chance to get through, taking their time, he could see most of the horses that had already got out had begun to gallop out into the desert, Yudan thinking they wanted to get to the first mile as soon as possible to start duelling. He thought it better to reserve Maroon's stamina and kept his speed at a brisk trot. The tournament had begun.
An hour later, Yudan and Maroon were past the first mile, trotting across the shrub covered desert, staying close enough to an empty motorway where a car came past every four minutes or so. As per the advice recommended by KaibaCorp before the tournament, duellists should stay nearby the motorway so that they were never too far away from a gas station in case of an emergency. Despite this, Yudan had saw no one on horses or any gas stations for the past forty minutes. His eyesight was weak from the strong sunlight and the desert in front of him only seemed to blend into a dry nothing. Yudan thought before the tournament he would be able to tolerate the temperature and having no one else to be with him, even looking forward to it, but the reality of the situation was cruel. He wondered if he should call the KaibaCorp number at the next gas station, to announce his resignation from the tournament, but his thoughts lingered on his family, and carried on without stopping when he passed the first gas station that was in his distance.
Quickly stopping to eat and feed Maroon, Yudan finally saw a moving blur five minutes away in the distance. Instinctively, Yudan got back on his horse and began riding again, occasionally using a hand mirror that he took from his duffel bag to check who it was. When he finally could tell from the sunlight that it was another lone duellist on a horse, the duellists horse began to speed up to get closer to him.
"I haven't seen another person in a while, so there should be no reason to avoid them" Yudan contemplated. "Plus, I have no reason to decline a duel, after all I need to get three victories before I can get to Battle Mountain".
Yudan chose to halt Maroon to a complete stop. Surprisingly, when the other duellist stopped to greet him, Yudan recognized him.
"Hey! Finally, I caught up with you!" The teen in the helmet exclaimed, speaking in an Asian accent, though Yudan couldn't decipher from which specific country. "I've been trying to get to you for ages!"
"Wait, you've been following me!?" Yudan replied, cautious of another Mason predicament.
"Yes! I could have got there a bit faster, but I had a bit of trouble getting to you, riding a horse is hard! Anyway, when I saw you beat that other guy earlier, I knew I wanted you to be my first opponent!" He pointed a finger at Yudan, then proceeded to take out a deck out of his belt that had a plastic green deck box attached to it.
"So…. you don't want the money?" Yudan questioned him further, eyes wandering on the helmet he was wearing.
"Money?" He said, obviously confused. "I know that I get lots of money if I win the tournament, but I don't want any from you".
"….. Never mind, I'm ready to duel you". Yudan grabbed his duel disk from his backpack he was wearing.
"Sorry, I didn't get your name in the ceremonies, my name is Zahir Sharma!"
"Oh, I'm Yudan Raines".
"Alright Yudan, I'm ready to duel!"
Zahir carefully fired his duel disk laser at Yudan's disk, though they were only six feet apart. Both disks activated, Yudan walking away to get space for the duel after tying his horse to a pole he was given by tournament staff to stick into the ground. Zahir remembered this and followed suit. They each ejected their hologram projectors and were ready to duel on the open Nevada desert field, though there were a few dried-up shrubberies in-between them both. They both drew five cards as the digital coin toss on their screens gave Zahir the first turn.
"Great, I'll draw!" Zahir drew his next card, taking no time at all to decide his first move. "I summon Gokibore!"
The large, spherical black roach with 1200 ATK entered Zahir's field.
"And I end my turn!" Zahir exclaimed with some gusto.
"Really?"
"Yes!" he nodded.
Yudan drew his card for his first turn and looked at the monster summoned. It would have felt like he was being goaded to attack, but Zahir had no set cards. If that wasn't the case, why hadn't he set Gokibore? Yudan weighed in all the possibilities in his head, but nothing came to his mind. He thought just to see the field as it was.
"I'm summoning Musket Quickdraw in attack mode!" Yudan summoned the biomechanical warrior to the field.
"Musket Quickdraw! Attack Gokibore! Double Musket Shot!" As Yudan commanded, Musket Quickdraw rapidly fired two shots at Gokibore. With its 1600 ATK, it successfully destroyed Zahir's monster and brought him to 3600 LP.
"I set one card and end my turn!" A face-down hologram materialized on Yudan's field.
"Oh wow! That was good, well for you" Yudan was surprised by Zahir's response. "Hold on, I got to think about what I need to do too…. give me a second".
Yudan just watched awkwardly as Zahir took a while to draw his card for the turn, busy staring at the cards that were already in his hand. When he eventually did, he added the card into his hand and went back to staring, mumbling something Yudan couldn't hear.
"Are you OK? Do you want to take a break or some- "
"No thank you! I'm fine, really! I may not have played this game for too long, but I know what I'm going to do now!"
Yudan couldn't believe what he just heard.
"OK! I'll start by summoning Colony Recruiter in attack mode!" As Zahir spoke, a large black ant on its hind legs wearing a green beret and a holding a small sword entered the field with 1200 ATK and DEF.
"When Colony Recruiter gets summoned, joining him is a Colony Token!"
A smaller black ant compared to Colony Recruiter that 500 ATK and DEF joined the field in attack position.
"Then I activate Colony Enlistment, giving me another Colony Token!" Zahir's spell card created another ant that joined the other in a row.
"Then to equip to Colony Recruiter, the equip spell Tribal Power! It'll give it 500 ATK for every other monster with the same type on the field! Since I have two other insect monsters, it gains 1000 attack points!" Colony Recruiter became wrapped in a green energy and its ATK rose to 2200.
"Now Colony Recruiter attacks!"
"Sorry, that's not happening! I activate Negate Attack!" Yudan's trap went face-up and created a magic barrier that stopped Colony Recruiter from getting closer.
"Ah, so close! I'll just end my turn then".
"Then back to me, draw! I activate Graceful Charity, letting me draw three cards as long as I discard two afterwards" Yudan drew his three cards then sent Graceful Charity and two appropriate cards to the graveyard.
"I'll then summon my Revmetal Swordsman!" A tall anthropomorphic lizard monster encased in re-used crimson red armour wielding a longsword entered the field. It covered its face with a silver metal mask and sported 1800 ATK and 1000 DEF.
"Colony Recruiter can still beat those cards in attack power!" Zahir said.
"But what I can do is destroy one of your tokens and Colony Recruiter loses attack! Musket Quickdraw, attack a Colony Token!"
Musket Quickdraw fired at one of the tokens, destroying it. Not only did Zahir' LP go down to 2500 from battle damage, but Colony Recruiter's ATK reduced to 1700 ATK.
"Now Revmetal Swordsman attacks you Recruiter!"
Colony Recruiter was split in half as Zahir's LP went to 2400.
"Now I set a card face-down and end my turn!"
"Oh, I understand!"
"….. Um, understand what?"
"If I put my token in defence mode, I wouldn't have taken so much damage!" Zahir said, mentally face-palming at his mistake. "At least now I know better".
"Yeah, you should have probably done that" Yudan added. "I suppose we get better when we understand our mistakes, but you shouldn't be learning things like this in a professional-level tournament where everyone is going to playing at their best".
"I know, I know, it's just that I didn't have the practice to polish up my duelling. Time-constraint I think it's called, ha…." Zahir joked, rubbing his neck. "But I do think I can make a comeback; I've still got a token on the field after all!"
Zahir drew his card for the turn and looked visibly pleased at what he drew.
"I now activate the spell card Prestigious Colony! When I have a Colony Token on the field, I can normal summon any Colony monster card from my hand! And I'll summon Colony Queen!"
Visibly larger than Yudan's monsters, an anthropomorphic black ant with a crown sporting many gems was summoned. It had violet purple chest plate with a large emerald on it. Looking at the disk screen, Yudan saw it was a level six monster with 2000 ATK and 1600 DEF.
"Colony Queen when summoned creates another Colony Token!" This Colony Token was placed in defence mode this time. "And what's better is my queen can power-up a Colony Token's attack by 600 for every other insect monster on the field!"
Colony Queen let out some green energy from its emerald that coated the Colony Token in attack position, raising its ATK to 1700.
"My token is going to attack your Quickdraw!"
As Zahir commanded, the token attacked and overpowered Musket Quickdraw before it could fire, destroying it and damaging Yudan's LP for the first time to 3900.
"Now Colony Queen follows up and attacks your swordsman!"
A green blast ejected from Colony Queen's emerald, destroying Revmetal Swordsman and Yudan's LP went to 3700.
Yudan shrugging of the attacks, pressed a button on his duel disk.
"I can now activate my face-down trap card, Revmetal Reinforcements! When one of my monsters is destroyed, I can summon a level four or lower Revmetal monster to takes its place! So, I summon Revmetal Blocker!"
Similar to Revmetal Swordsman, a red armoured lizard monster appeared, instead of holding a sword was carrying a large worn Phalanx shield. It was wearing a horned helmet and crouched behind its shield to signify it was in defence mode. It had a tough 2000 DEF but weak 800 ATK.
"I'll take that monster on next turn! I'll just set this trap card face-down!"
"Alright, then I draw!" Yudan was pleased to see what he drew, though he noticed two odd things on Zahir's field.
"I think I've noticed a weakness in your colony attack".
"Really? Well to be honest I'm all ears" Zahir admitted.
"When your turn ends, the attack boost on your token goes away and your sitting with a monster with 500 ATK".
"I'm not going to worry about that".
"You should, I also know that face-down is a bluff".
"How would you know that?"
"Apart from you just trying to tell me it was a trap card, which you probably shouldn't do by the way, you didn't draw that card last turn. Which means if it was a trap, you would have set it much earlier".
Zahir's face told the whole story.
"I'm sorry Zahir, but I can't afford to go easy on you, the stakes for me are too high! I summon Dispatch Falcon!"
Yudan's falcon soared onto the field.
"It's not going to be here for long, because I can immediately tribute summon when I summon it! I tribute my blocker and my falcon for Outlaw Jetstar!"
Yudan's powerful monster readied its blades as it entered the field. Zahir knew enough to know what was coming.
"Jetstar, attack the attack mode token! Sunrise Splitter!"
Outlaw Jetstar sped towards the token and sliced it with both of its powerful blades, triggering an explosion as it was destroyed. Zahir's LP fell to 400.
"Now end this duel, Outlaw Jetstar! Use your ability to attack again! This time Colony Queen!"
Outlaw Jetstar rapidly turned its body to face Colony Queen and sliced it, reducing it to shards of light and Zahir's LP to 0. A beeping sound signified Zahir's loss.
A different sound came from Yudan's duel disk as he looked down to see what it was. His name was displayed as the winner and a medal was flashing near his name to show he had acquired one of the three wins necessary to advance to the next phase of the tournament. Next to Zahir's name was a red cross to represent that gaining two more losses meant elimination from the tournament.
Yudan picked his cards of his disk and attached the hologram projectors back on before going to Zahir. To his surprise, Zahir was smiling.
"Thanks a lot for the duel! I feel like a learned a lot about how to improve my strategies!"
"Guess so, though any duel could have taught you that" Yudan responded. "You'll have to learn quickly, because if you lose again twice, you'll have to leave this tournament".
"I won't, after all I swore, I'll get as far as I can in this tournament for my family!"
"You did this for your family?"
"Yes! I came to the United States just do I can win the money from this tournament to support my family back in India!"
"You want to win this tournament to get them money?"
"Yes again! I just need to get to quarter finals to make enough to financially support them, it's been rough, since not much money is coming in. Converting the dollars to rupees even with just five thousand will be good enough, but I don't just want them to be OK, I want them to have the same freedom I have being in this tournament, where my choices matter!"
"Great, that's an honourable cause, I wish I could do something like that for my family" Yudan finally smiled, then he got curious.
"For someone from India, you speak fantastic English. How do you speak so fluently?"
"Oh, back at home our family worked for an American man that supported my village, that's how I got the tickets to get here. When he told the people around that I wanted to enter, he and the people around helped me build my Colony Deck!"
"Ah, I understand" Yudan continued as he walked back to Maroon, Zahir following. "Well, I wish you the best of luck in your tour- "
"Wait, your leaving already!?" Zahir interrupted. "I thought we could go together!"
"What?" Yudan said confused, he had never even considered that as an option.
"You're a great duellist! You've even helped me get stronger when other people just insulted me when I make mistakes! I love playing Duel Monsters, even though my I don't know much about the game! There's still so much I can learn with this opportunity, and I may never get to do something like this ever again! By travelling with you in this tournament I want not only get to the final phase of this tournament but become a duellist everyone can respect! So please, I beg you, let me ride alongside you!"
Yudan considered Zahir's request. He had not wanted to partner up with anyone in the tournament, but Zahir could give him company on the mind-numbing trek and keep him sharp. But most of all, he admired Zahir's resolve and aspirations to become a better duellist and give his family a better life.
"Alright, grab your horse and keep with me. I want to cover more ground before sundown".
"Thank you, thank you, thank you!" Zahir untied his horse and got on. "I won't let you down, I swear on it!"
"Don't swear on anything else, please" Yudan began to ride. "All things considered its still every duellist for themselves".
Zahir didn't seem dissuaded at all. "So, when did you start duelling?"
"Well, it all started when I tuned into this TV channel, where- "
Both Duellists shared stories as they rode across the Nevada desert.
END OF CHAPTER