Chapter 4 – Bountiful Challenge
Yudan and Zahir had woken up to the second day of the tournament. After their duel in the first few hours of the first day, they had not come across any other passing duelists, so as the moon rose, they dismounted their horses, set up their tents, cooked their food and after Yudan gave some duelling advice to Zahir, they went to bed. They were now riding their steeds across from each other in the desert, the heat of the sun just as vile as the day before, but their horses were still willing to press on.
"We're set to arrive at a town by the Amargosa Valley in an hour, if the horses keep up well" Yudan studied his watch, keeping his balance as Maroon trotted across the dry earth.
Zahir recalled something and pulled out a leaflet in his trouser pocket.
"Yeah, the KaibaCorp info sheets say that place has a big wildlife refuge near that place too!"
"We can't spend any time sightseeing, if we take too long, we'll be even further from any duelists, or worse, too far away to reach Battle Mountain on time".
"Oh, sorry! I need to get serious; I always need to be ready for dueling! Yudan, give me another duel question!"
"I've ran out of ideas for those, you've done so many at this point my mind's gone blank" Yudan rubbed his eyes slightly.
All of a sudden, a blur flew by, Maroon groaned and immediately slowed down, Zahir pulled back his horse to match Maroon's new speed, though it wasn't long before Maroon came to a holt and lay sideways on the ground, Yudan spilling off the saddle and his duel disk fell out of his bag.
"Maroon! Maroon, what's wrong!? Zahir, did he get heatstroke, what's going on!?"
"No, he didn't, look!"
Zahir pointed to a purple feathered dart that was hanging from Maroon's neck, thoroughly pierced through the skin. Yudan quickly pulled out the dart as Maroon groaned once more, inspecting the dart to see a see-through liquid leaking out slightly from its tip.
"Damn it, not again!" Yudan let out his anger, immediately standing up and looked across the desert frantically. "WHERE ARE YOU!? JUST FACE ME! YOU DON'T NEED TRICKS TO DUEL ME, COWARD!"
"I'm here, Yudan Raines".
Yudan and Zahir quickly looked to the right to face a tanned man in his mid-twenties with long black hair that was standing on a large rock. His cargo pants, sleeveless shirt and vest were all completely blending in with the beige earth along with a large silk cape. The only thing that didn't blend in was his duel disk and his horse that hiding mostly out of view behind the rock it was attached to.
"What did you do to my horse!?" Yudan yelled.
"It's a sleep tranquilizer. It's just my contingency plan to make sure you can't escape me" the man answered in a Spanish accent, taking of his cape and letting it fall to the floor. "It will only last ten minutes, but that's all I need".
"Yudan, do you know this guy?" Zahir asked.
"No, but I know now he's a man who's got no honour".
"I have no need for things like honour" The man said, readying the laser on his duel disk. "But I do want that money! I'll face you, just stand still!"
"Yudan, no!"
The man aimed his duel disk laser at Yudan's duel disk that was on the ground and fired, but Zahir jumped in front of him, the laser instead firing at Zahir's duel disk that he was wearing. As Zahir collapsed to the ground from his leap, both his and the man's duel disks activated.
"What, Zahir, why did you do that!? This is my problem!" Yudan yelled as he picked Zahir up from the ground.
"Sorry, instincts went off, I felt you were in danger".
The man looked very displeased. "Fine, it seems I'll have to defeat this runt first, before I can take on the main course". He placed his deck from his trouser pocket into disk and watched it as the cards shuffled. "Listen up boy! My name is Hernando, once I defeat you there will be no more interruptions, that bounty on Yudan Raines will be mine!"
"Bounty? Like in the Wild West? You mean wanted?" Zahir pondered.
Hernando faced Yudan "It seems he doesn't even know who you are! I have no idea why you are with this boy, but you'll have to just spectate as per the rules!"
"Yudan, don't worry! I'll win this duel, and you can look after Maroon!"
"This shouldn't even be happening! You don't understand!" Yudan was becoming angry, but he knew that once a duel was locked in, it couldn't be changed. "Be careful, if this guy wanted to do this just to duel me, then he must be a persistent duelist. Just remember what I told you, and I'll explain myself when the duel's over".
"OK! I'll bring home victory! Or to bring it to the tent at least!" Zahir faced Hernando with a serious expression. "I don't what your problem is with Yudan, but I'll still defeat you!"
"Let's do this, then!"
As Yudan ran to tend to an unconscious Maroon, both duelists made sure their horses were tied and gave each other enough space to duel. "I shouldn't have to shoulder my burdens to another person I just met" Yudan thought. "If it wasn't for these rules, Zahir wouldn't have even put himself in this situation. I just hope he can win, though I don't have any clue how this spineless guy would duel, let alone if Zahir has the right deck or skill to take him down".
"Duel!"
Zahir and Hernando drew their opening hands as the coin toss gave Zahir the first turn.
"Alright! I draw!" Zahir's first new card was the monster Gokibore. "Normally I'd want to get this one on the field to attack straight away but…."
Zahir's mind flashed back to the conversation he had with Yudan the day before as they ate during sundown.
"In your opening turn you don't have to play a monster in attack straight away, sometimes it's better to start with a defence" Yudan told him.
"Oh, so I don't take any damage when my monster gets destroyed?"
"Yeah, but also gives you a chance to anticipate your opponent's moves and plan around them for your next turn. Plus, you can set up your own trap for your opponent, just don't tell them it's one".
"OK, will do!" Zahir gave a military-like salute as his mind went back to the present, looking at his card.
"I set a monster and end my turn!"
"That's all? Then I draw!" Hernando took no time picking a monster to summon. "I summon Lich's Knight in attack position!"
With 1600 ATK and 0 DEF, a knight monster with a rotting body and purple eyes entered the field, carrying a broadsword that needed both arms from the monster to carry.
"Lich's Knight attack!"
Gokibore revealed itself from its face-down position and was carved into two by the knight.
"I set a card and it's back to you!"
"OK, now it's time to fight back, draw!" Zahir quickly drew his card and placed a new monster.
"I'm bringing out Big Insect!" A large black ant was summoned with 1200 ATK and 1500 DEF, as Hernando was perplexed from the older monster cards.
"But in order to beat your knight, I'll equip Insect Armour with Laser Cannon! It'll give my Big Insect a 700 ATK boost! Now attack!"
The Big Insect, now with 1900 ATK and large cannon attached to the back of its body, fired a shot of light that destroyed Lich's Knight.
Hernando wasn't displeased at all as his LP went to 3700.
"Now the real pain begins! Lich's Knight's effect activates!"
"Wait what?"
"When it is destroyed, by discarding a Zombie-type monster from my hand, Lich's Knight returns with 300 extra ATK!"
Lich's Knight rose from the ground with 1900 ATK.
"And it gets worse! I activate my trap card, Call of the Haunted! I'll bring back the card I just discarded, Ryu Kokki!"
A creature made from skeleton heads with 2400 ATK rose to join Hernando's knight.
Zahir did his best to keep his composure, though he was visibly nervous.
"I-I-I set a card and end my turn!"
Tending to Maroon, Yudan looked across to Zahir with a worried look.
"So, this guy's playing a full-on zombie deck, this might be too much for him to handle" Yudan thought, though he switched back to talking with the opposite thing in mind. "Don't worry, Zahir! Keep calm under pressure!"
"No need for commentary, I'll get to you soon enough! Draw!" Hernando interjected and took his turn. "Join my field, Shutendoji!"
A red ogre-like monster with yellow hair and 1500 ATK appeared.
"Now I'm equipping the spell Axe of Despair to Lich's Knight!"
Lich's Knight replaced its sword for the large, flesh-covered axe, raising its attack power even further to 2900.
"Now, Lich's Knight, destroy that Big Insect!"
"Not just yet!" Zahir pressed a button his duel disk revealing his trap card. "Go, Lair Wire! By banishing my insect monster Gokibore from my graveyard, your monster is destroyed!"
Lich's Knight got caught in a large web that was shot out of the trap card's hologram, suddenly becoming electrified and destroying the knight.
"No matter, since your trap was already sprung, I can still attack with my other monsters! Ryu Kokki, finish the job!"
The skeletal monster mauled the insect with large swings from its arm, then proceeding to swallow it and deal 500 points of damage to send Zahir's LP to 3500.
"Shutendoji, follow up!"
With a strong slash, the monster struck Zahir to take his LP to 2000. Despite the attack being holographic, he still jumped back slightly and winced. As the monster retreated back, Zahir saw that he was trembling from head to toe. What was this heavy feeling? He recalled a thought. He remembered that if he lost again, it would only take another one him to be forced out of the tournament. Zahir gulped, the fear sitting on his consciousness like an immovable weight.
"Now I end my turn! Seriously boy, save everyone their time and concede this duel! Big Insect? Gokibore? I do appreciate your nostalgia act but I'm a busy man! Surrender!"
Zahir considered, though he looked at the cards in his hand and recalled moments that were attached to each of them.
"Surrender?" Zahir looked at him, readjusting the helmet so it was level again. "Surrender!? There's no chance I'm surrendering! The only way your getting a victory from me is when my life points go to zero!"
"Please, no need for stupidity!" Hernando pinched the bridge of his nose and looked up, visibly annoyed. "I know your type, the sort to scrap together a leftover of a deck just to get a chance of achieving a delusional pipe dream! This is reality, there is no miracle, only facts, strong and weak, give up!"
"Not happening! I don't care if logic says I need a miracle just to survive my next turn, it's a miracle I get to be hear in the first place! There's too much at stake to just back down, let's do this, draw!"
"That's it, Zahir, press forward" Yudan thought. "Show me unwavering resolve, show me the strength of a duelist!"
Zahir swung his hand as he gripped and drew the top card, quickly registering the card in his mind and activated it.
"Here comes Pot of Greed! I draw two cards from my deck!"
Just as intensely, Zahir drew his cards and added them to his hand. With the cards in his hand, he recalled the strategy he used against Yudan, though this time with a twist.
"I activate the spell Colony Enlistment! I summon a Colony Token with 500 ATK and DEF in attack mode! Then I'll use another spell, Prestigious Colony! When I have a Colony Token out on the field, I can normal summon any Colony Monster from my hand, and I've got Colony Queen!"
With a token, the crowned ant monster appeared.
"When I summon the queen, another token joins in!"
Another attack mode Colony Token was summoned.
"What would you possibly do with those!?" yelled Hernando.
"Hold on a minute, I'm not done! I activate a continuous spell, Colony United! A Colony Token gains 400 ATK for each Insect monster on my field! Then I'll use Colony Queen's effect to power-up that token even further by 600 for every other insect! Colony Token, get super charged!"
With both effects, the Colony token began to glow and pulsate with green energy, ATK surging to 2900. Hernando was shocked to see such a sudden change of pace in Zahir's strategy.
"Super Colony Token, attack the skeleton thing!"
The token leaped with supernatural strength and ploughed through the 'skeleton thing', Ryu Kokki, destroying it.
"And I'm not done! Colony Queen, attack his other monster!"
Colony Queen fired a beam blast from its body gem, destroying Shutendoji.
"Finally, little token, attack!"
The regular Colony Token scuttled to Hernando, leaping and nibbling on his arm for a second, before being pushed away by him and scuttling back to Zahir's side of the field. The overall damage dealt sent Hernando's LP down to 2200.
"No matter!" said Hernando. "I'll just attack your token to finish you off next turn!"
"That's not going to happen! When it goes to the end of my turn, Colony United makes sure all Colony Tokens get switched to defence!"
To the annoyance of Hernando, when Zahir's turn ended, the tokens knelt down, underneath each of them a sideways card hologram appearing to signify the switch to defence mode.
"Darn it Zahir, if you told me you had a card like that in your deck, I wouldn't have had a tangent about you leaving yourself open when we duelled" Yudan thought. "Just makes me look stupid. Anyway, this is good, you've made a comeback and have control of the field, this will keep him occupied" He took notice of Hernando's horse. "Speaking of occupied…."
Hernando's breath accelerated. "I must admit, this is a more interesting predicament than I first imagined. It appears your time warp of a deck had a secret strategy lying in wait the entire time".
"You bet it has!" Zahir announced triumphantly. "And the colony plans to finish you off!"
"You're not the only one who can comebacks, it's a duel after all, draw!" Hernando fiercely drew his card to make a hand of three. "First, I activate the spell card De-Spell, destroying your Colony United card!"
De-spell's hologram shot out a green light that hit the Colony United hologram, giving the card red static across it before being shattered into fragments of light.
"I then activate The Dark Door, so only one monster is allowed to attack each turn! Now I set a monster and end my turn!"
"Then my turn, draw!" Zahir glanced at his card before refocusing his attention to the field, delighting in the fact that it seemed Hernando hadn't had the right cards to fight back. "My Colony Tokens may not have the power to attack, but the Queen is still ready to go! Colony Queen, attack the face-down monster!"
As the Colony Queen charged up a beam of energy from its gem, Hernando smirked as his monster was revealed to be a turtle carrying a pyramid on its back as a shell.
"Wait, that's Pyramid Turtle!" Yudan had just returned to focus on the duel to see the monster get blasted away by Colony Queen. "Zahir got lured in!"
"Pyramid Turtle's effect activates! When it is destroyed from battle, I get to Special Summon a Zombie-type monster from my deck, as long as it has 2000 or less defence!"
"That's still OK!" Zahir kept his positive look. "I will destroy whatever monster you summon to defend yourself next turn!"
"Zahir, you don't understand! He- "
"Of course he doesn't understand!" Hernando cut Yudan off. "Almost every Zombie monster has low DEF naturally, so I can summon a high-level monster straight away!"
"Wait you can!? That seems unfair!" Zahir recoiled.
"Oh, it's very fair! The monster I choose to summon is this! Come forward, Necro Tusk Mammoth!"
A titanic and imposing elephant monster that had rotting, purple skin towered above everything else in the desert as it rose from beneath the ground. Despite being level eight, it had 2200 ATK and 500 DEF, meaning it fit Pyramid Turtle's summoning criteria.
"Necro Tusk Mammoth's effect activates! It gains 300 ATK for each Zombie in the graveyard! Since I have four, watch as it rises to 3400!"
"Alright, Alright! I need to defend…. Um… I set a card and end my turn!" Zahir hesitantly inserting his card in his disk as his right hand began to shake.
"Then I draw! I equip my mammoth with the spell Corrosion Breath! Now to battle, Necro Tusk, attack the queen!"
Necro Tusk Mammoth sprayed noxious purple gas from its nostrils, wafting as if it had a will of its own to Colony Queen, causing it to be destroyed. However, the gas lingered on Zahir's field, destroying his tokens as well.
"Hey! It can't fight all three!"
"Corrosion Breath's effect! When the equipped monster destroys a monster, all lower-level monsters than the monster destroyed on your field are destroyed as well, with 200 damage for each!" Hernando explained, Zahir's LP plummeting to 200.
"I active a trap card, Disturbed Hive! When my insect monster is destroyed, I summon a level four or lower normal insect! I... uhm... one second!" Zahir frantically weighed his options, choosing a monster that stuck out in his mind. "I summon Flipping Grub!"
A slimy grub worm with 500 ATK and 300 DEF flailed wildly on its defence mode card, as if it was a fish out of water.
Hernando was appalled at what he was looking at. "This is ridiculous..."
"Zahir? Is that really you what all you have left? This?" Yudan was concerned.
"Don't worry Yudan! This card will bring home a victory, I can feel it in my stomach!"
"Looking at that creature is making MY stomach churn. I end my turn, let me put that... THING out of its misery"
Yudan had to agree that the end was coming. How Zahir could turn that grub monster into a victory was just far too much a stretch of the imagination.
"This might be the biggest gamble yet... but I won't back down, Mr Hartford please..."
Zahir reminisced to the last time he was at his employer's abode, after rushing as politely as possible to get there, Zahir proudly displayed the contents of his new deck to his caring boss.
"So that means the Insect deck is ready, and not a moment too soon, I got to be on that plane in 6 hours!" Zahir announced, speaking in his natural Hindi.
"Well done, my boy, but I got one more surprise left for you!" A jolly, but slightly plump, Mr Hartford displayed a card from his shirt pocket. "It reminds me of you!"
"Wow, it's a... Flipping... Grub..." Zahir's face turned to disappointment. "I remind you... of a worm".
"Not in a literal sense, boy! I mean that people may dismiss as nothing at first..." Mr Hartford reached further into his pocket to reveal two more cards. "But you are a powerful individual! Now do me proud, that is my final job for you!"
Zahir refocused back to the duel and gripped the top card of his deck, praying it in a preposterous chance that it would be the card he wanted. He closed his eyes as he slowly drew, when he mustered the courage to look, his pupils grew in amazement.
"YES! I'm gonna win!"
"What could you possibly have that you could use to beat me!?" Hernando yelled.
"I'll show you! I summon Growth Gold in attack mode!" Zahir slapped his card onto his disk to project to his field a small root plant wrapped in gold that was buried into the earth itself. The monster had 0 ATK and DEF.
"Growth Gold's effect activates! When Flipping Grub and Growth Gold are on the field at the same time, I fuse them both without needing Polymerization!"
Growth Gold's roots suddenly rose from the earth and wrapped itself around Flipping Grub, keeping it in place. It then emitted a powerful in which both Yudan and Hernando had to cover their eyes.
"Fusion Summon! Golden Flipper Beetle!"
When the light faded, the duelists saw a titanic rhinoceros beetle with a golden body and exoskeleton towered above the duelists with 2700 ATK and 2500 DEF. Hernando's mammoth and Zahir's new monster became eye-level.
"Now for Golden Flipper Beetle's effect! When it's Fusion Summoned, it can flip a monster into face-down defence!"
"Wait no! This must be some sort of joke!" Hernando cried as Zahir's beetle used its horn to comically overpower and lift Necro Tusk Mammoth into the air, landing face-down.
"Finally, when Golden Flipper Beetle attacks a face-down monster, it deals piercing damage! And since you told me zombies have low DEF..."
"That's exact damage..." Hernando lost his breath.
"Golden Flipper Beetle, horn strike!"
Golden Flipper Beetle pierced into the set card, explosion following Hernando's 2200 LP falling to 0.
"I won, I woooon! A winner is me!" Zahir jumped into the air.
"You did it... you actually did it! By some ridiculous chance you did it!" Yudan joined Zahir's side revelling in Zahir's risk paying off.
"No, no! This doesn't change anything!" They both faced to see Hernando kicking dirt in the air, then pointing at Yudan. "The outcome of this duel didn't matter at all, all I wanted was to defeat Yudan Raines! And I'll do just that after my duel disk time limit runs out! You can't stop me from claiming that bounty brats!"
"Actually, it does matter, because now you'll be getting your just desserts" Yudan's complexion turned grim. "Zahir, Maroon's all better now, we can take our leave".
"Ok, will do!"
"No! You can't walk away from me! You can't even get away on your stupid horses because I'll just-"
As Zahir and Yudan gathered their things and walked away, Hernando saw that not only had the rest of his tranquilizers been broken, but his horse was running around in the distance spilling his belongings across the wasteland. His jaw hung agape, in shock that Yudan unattached his horse and set it out whilst he was duelling.
"Just an eye for an eye" Yudan claimed. "Don't bother sending your friends".
Yudan and Zahir rode out on their path, horses kicking dust at Hernando as he frantically scrambled further out into the open desert.
Hours later, the pair of duellists took a break from riding near a gas station, Yudan treating Zahir to a chocolate bar for a duel well played, though it was too sweet for Zahir's tastebuds to finish, so they shared it between them as they sat down near their horses at by the wall of the station, watching cars go by. Zahir was beaming at the medal placed by his name on his duel disk, doing his best to ignore the red cross that was underneath. Yudan sat solemnly, mustering up the courage to speak.
"Zahir?"
"Yeah?"
"If we're going to keep competing side by side, I need to be honest with you".
"What about?" Zahir turned his head to face him.
"This whole bounty thing, it's... already gotten out of hand. I need you to be aware of what I'm talking about".
"Well, I'll listen".
"Ok, well... my father kind of set this bounty on me..."
"Wait, your own father!?"
"Yeah, he owns a big railway business called Raines Railways and he doesn't really agree with me being here, because I sort of... ditched home. He wanted me back and out of this tournament, even spoke to KaibaCorp itself to make sure I was banned from competing, but they refused. When that didn't work, he set out online a 50,000-dollar hit for anyone to get me removed from the tournament. And that... invites the wrong crowd, so to speak".
"But why did you leave home!? Living with a rich dad like that seems like a dream!"
"It's not as nice as it sounds, especially when you got a family that treats like you're not a human being" Yudan's words turned bitter but refocused his attention back to pressing matters. "What I'm trying to say is that people don't want me here. If you choose to be here with me, they'll put as much as a target on your back as they have for me. And I'd never force anyone to-"
"I'm staying with you".
"What?"
"I already knew when we met that something different was happening with you, but I'm still choosing to be your apprentice! You're an awesome guy, and we're going to get to the very end of this tournament!"
Yudan couldn't believe Zahir had assessed his danger to his tournament chances being ruined, slim as they already were, but continued.
"Then we're set. It's just that... you're not my apprentice, we're equals. But I'm still a duellist, and I still want to be number one, that simple, so I'll beat you again if we must face each other in the finals!"
"I wouldn't want it any other way! So, let's get going, I got more duels to win!"
Both duellists got back on horseback and rode out into the dimming sun and into the unknown, not sure of what obstacles lie ahead, but finding solace that they would both bring each other up to success in their sudden and unlikely friendship.
END OF CHAPTER