Haas had to let out a slight chuckle at the girl's energy, though it was probably the nerves. She was asking if he'd seen her brother,, basically the same person with a samurai jacket on. "Hm..." Haas had to think for a moment. Did he see someone like that? It doesn't seem like it... Hayate got the point though, switching topics in a heartbeat back to the original topic. "Ah, alright. Let me see that." Haas ordered, grabbing the Duel disk and turning it around a time or two. Seemed Hayate took the folding disk, so she might be an Action Duelist...
The older boy found the button to activate the suspenders and have the thing secured to your arm soon enough, nodding to himself. "Alright, give me your arm for a second." he said, and when Hayate's arm came out he placed the operating part of the disk the screen-side up, pressing the button. "You just place it like this and press the button. Simple, right? Though up... You forgot one thing." Haas took out a small, gray box of sorts that same with the disk but wouldn't open. He slid it onto the screen a it suddenly folded itself open, revealing the area you'e supposed to be playing cards on. "That. And your deck goes into the area that's facing towards the outside. It's a little unconventional, but it saves space."
As time went on, the amount of students around the display had been decreasing, the waves of new students moving towards their chosen seats in the far corners of the room. Most of the students had chosen their Structure Decks and packs, and the line to the display had cleaned up a bit because of it: there wasn't as many people pushing and shouting to get their Decks before someone else did. Still, there was some level of tension - there were only so many archetypes, and it wasn't unlikely that someone's desired archetype would be taken by another student. The teacher at the display was somewhat pleased at the proceedings, there weren't many students left before he could go and do something better with his time. The next student in line was about to move up to the counter, before they were... blown backward by a burst of smoke.
The smoke cleared, revealing a boy clad in a purple ninja garb. Some of the students were taken aback by his sudden appearance in the room. How he had managed to do that was a complete mystery. Did he even use the elevator? Hell, did he even come here on the bus? The teacher at the counter sighed. He wasn't paid enough to deal with this kind of thing.
"What Structure Deck do you—"
Almost immediately, Venwyn placed something on the counter, it was the Ghostrick Ghouls Structure Deck. The teacher shook his head in response.
"You can't just bring your own Structure Deck, you know." The teacher said, moving to the row of Structure Decks.
"It has to come from the Tower." The teacher went to grab what would be the Duel Tower's Ghostrick Ghoul Structure Deck from the layered shelf.
...
...
It wasn't there.
Venwyn had managed to take it without anyone noticing, but when? The teacher widened his eyes ever so slightly, before returning back to his regular, unimpressed self.
"Alright, go and get a Duel Dis—"
Once again, Venwyn placed another item onto the counter. This time it was one of the folding Duel Disks. The ninja boy hadn't said anything yet, and simply waited with an expectant look.
"...Right. I assume you've taken the Booster Pack already? Show me."
The teacher proved to be correct. Venwyn proceeded to reveal the Primal Origins Booster Pack. The bored teacher didn't even bother checking to see if it was still there.
"Finished?"
"Yeah."
With that, the ninja boy disappeared in another puff of smoke, leaving the line of students to continue as normal. It should be noted that the student behind Venwyn had been on the ground throughout the entire ordeal, and was pretty lost as to what just took place.
A few seconds later (if it's a 'few seconds later' it doesn't really need a title, but whatever)
Reappearing in one of the many seats that lined the corners of the room, Venwyn proceeded to open his card pack and Structure Deck, systematically rolling through the cards to view what he cards had obtained.
Akira watched the girl walk away and turned toward the other guy whom he now knew to be Angelo.
"Well nice to meet you Angelo I'm Akira." He said still smiling. "So which structure deck did you go with?" He asked curiously as he tapped the deck in his duel disk. "I went with Master of Pendulum personally, I think I'm going to like it."
@Keyblade87 I went with the dragunity structure deck. I feel it connects with me more then any other. Plus I love the sick combos I can perform with this deck Angelo said grinning as he sat down and watched all the other duelists show up and Angelo took out his deck from his pouch and stated looking through it to read all the effects they are able to use
"I never used any duel disk before so this is all new to me you know..." Hayate responded upon hearing the explanation of how to use her disk and realized she hadn't asked his name yet but let it slide and instead just asked about his deck instead "so what structure did you go for" Hayate took out the box of her structure deck to show off "i picked this one... this is the only I would like to expand upon, Blue-eyes is my favorite card you know. it just looks so powerful and mighty as if it could win anything" slightly geeking out about the card itself without knowing it
After a short while she figured it is a good time to finally introduce herself "Since we didn't introduce myself yet, my name is Hayate Ray I have a twin brother called Hayato" and simply followed up by asking if he'd like to look for her brother with her, rather than waiting for an answer she simply dragged him along like she would with her brother "Time's up Let's go!" Hayate said with her usual energetic voice pulling the young man along with her not realizing she forgot to ask for his name again
After arriving on one of the last buses, Richie was glad to finally be out of that stuffy deathtrap. He was one of the only ones on this bus, and it had arrived late because of a flat tire. He rushed inside the facility and looked around, completely amazed. There were kids all over the place, and the facility was on the cutting edge of technology.
Then he saw the line, oh the long waiting line to the check in counter. After waiting what seemed like an eternity of kids struggling to choose a deck, duel disc, and some booster packs, it was finally his turn. He already knew what all he would choose.
Teacher: "Welcome to the Duel Academy, please choose a structure deck from the ones we have available."
He scanned each row, trying to find it. He was beginning to lose hope that it was there, when he spotted it. He pointed straight at it.
"Synchron Extreme, if you'd please."
The teacher grabbed the deck and placed it on the counter in front of him, then waved him over to the duel discs. Instantly he saw what he wanted, a Hybrid Duel Disc, usable with standard dueling, but even more importantly to Richie, Turbo Dueling. He sat it on the counter with the deck.
Teacher: "And will you be taking a booster pack?"
"No, I'll stick with what I have for now, save up for the good stuff."
The teacher nodded, and waved him out of the way as more students were waiting. Richie looked around and found an unoccupied seating area on the far side of the room. "Good, less noise and less crowds, easier to concentrate." He thought. He walked over and opened his structure deck, looking at the cards within.
The ruckus in Arena B was enormous, with all of the students having arrived and all but a few structure decks having been claimed. Each student was doing their own thin, be it socializing, planning or throwing up from the nerve-wrecking atmosphere the entire thing had. Soon each and every one of them would have to display their skills, and maybe entertain the crowd if they so desired. But one thing was for sure, in a few moments time, everyone would be holding their breaths for the duels to come. Or chat anyway if they felt like being rude.
An ear-deafening noise blared from each corner of the room, almost the sound of someone dropping their microphone and then trying to pick it back up. That noise was soon followed by a voice on the other side... Or... Multiple? "...ir... e... ve..." The first of them was barely audible, merely a few syllables coming out faintly. Some students started giggling, what was this supposed to be even?
"LIVE?!"
Blasting the ears of the students again was another voice, very clearly a higher-pitched male one. That same voice cleared their throat about three times, before finally getting to the point they were trying to get to in the first place. "Welcome students to the Duel Tower!" they started off. It was clear a few technical issues was at hand here. "I hope you've all enjoyed your free time up to this point! But where are my manners? I'm Melchior Cane, resident duel commentator and HERE, to bring you the scheduled..." Melchior seemed to take a small pause, before suddenly blurting out "PLACEMENT DUELS!" loud enough to again deafen anyone in the room. This man had trouble with keeping his voice down, it seemed...
Some shouting came from the other side of the microphone again, this time clearly audible what the other man was saying. "KEEP DOING THAT TO THE STUDENTS AND YOU WON'T BE COMMENTATING ANYTHING, MELCHIOR!" was the response. A very silent and meek "yes sir..." came out again, contrasting to the bombastic announcement earlier. "Anyway, if you would all please turn your attention to the four LED-screens hanging in the middle of the room, you will see names written on them! Those names are your fellow first years, and a random drawing of who will be facing who will occur in just a moment's time... In fact, it seems to have started!" On cue, a line shooting from Megan's name was worming it's way through the list before connecting with Akira's, and straight after, someone name Venwyn Ael did the same with Ethel Cilente. "Oooour duelists are... MEGAN Vs. AKIRA! Melchior announced first, then took a pause. "And over in arena two, we have VENWYN Vs. ETHEL!"
When those two names connected, the screens changed to a different channel which showed the faces of the two duelists and the corresponding arena they would be fighting in. Akira and Megan would go to Arena one, the closest to the podium, and Venwyn and Ethel would go to Arena 2; the closest to the door. "In order to get to the arenas, please go to the side of the audience podium. Each of you will find a door there, leading into a hallway that leads to the arena. I will give post-commentary on each and every one of your duels, so make sure to entertain! Oh, and remember. These placement duels will affect the dorm you are placed in, so be sure to show of your very best! Melchiooooor out!" And then, the students were left to their own devices.
Ethel was sorting through the cards she got from her pack, eyes settling on two the girl could use. Then some annoying person came and took a seat next to her, again, and bothered her. Again. Ethel was about to blow a gasket, but soon after the introduction an ear-screeching noises came, causing the girl to drop her cards and have her go into a quite out-of-character mini panic to frantically pick them up. Anyone who'd dare laugh at her misery would get a swift kick to the knee. When the bluenette scrambled back up, she replaced two of her deck's cards with what she got and focused back on the announcements that came out...
Haas let out another light chuckle at Hayate's excitement and energy, gaining a little smile to boot. "Well, I'm no expert either. We're all going to school to learn something new, right?" He listened to what Hayate had to say, then nodded in approval after hearing her name. "Hayate and Hayato huh? Heh, maybe I'll end up in the same dorm as you guys! Light, of course, that is." Giving a small wink to the girl, Haas actually began feeling kind of tired again. He held up his hand to catch the yawn coming out, and was about to introduce himself. Then everything went fast. Hayate asked to look for her brother, mumbled something out and then proceeded to drag Haas along. "H-Hey! Wait!" the boy shouted, nearly tumbling to the floor.
When Hayate would eventually decide it wasn't worth running around frantically anymore, Haas let out a sigh of relief at being released from his endless jog. Never trust a bubbly girl with directions again... Haas told himself in silence, and made a mental note of it. Then the announcement came out, causing the boy to nearly bolt at the freakin' NOISE! After standing through the whole thing, courtesy of Hayate, Haas nodded and stared at the screen. "Seems those four are up, huh. Wonder who will win their duels?" It was more of a throwaway, but Haas turned his head to Hayate to see if maybe she had any predictions.
"Placement duels? Oh wonderful...looks like it's time for some plebs to put up or shut up." Andre grumbled as he sat up and walked over towards the arena to find a seat. His face was plain disdain for the predictament he was in. Hopefully he would be placed somewhere near the end. Less people would be there. Less eyes watching. He had no intent on making a show for a bunch of people he could care less about then trash. He put his deck in it's place in the duel disk and pulled out one of the top cards he had placed on top. "Archfiend Emperor...I'm going to do all I can to break my enemy. So you're going to help me buddy. I got plans. I just need to know what my opponent is playing. And you...you're going to live up to your name Lord of Horror." Andre grumbled none to happy about having to duel in front of a live audience, which reminded him of his 'good old days', too much. Andre decided to go to Arena 1 though he had no preference one way or another.
===
Ben smiled feeling like he was a new man. He was wondering if he was going to be dueling in front of others! It was time to make a good impression on his opponents. And his hopefully future classmates. He didn't care how well he did as long as the duel went well. He knew Andre would probably be wanting to kill someone metaphorically but he suspected he would be in for more than he could handle. Or he could be wrong Andre was a beast no matter who his opponent was. He was one of the Three Brothers of Destiny after all. Back home they used to call them the strongest family team in the city. If only their big brother was here...but he was working for Industrial Illusions at the moment. Andre looked at Noble Knight Borz and Medraut from his deck and smiled. "Well guys only one way to prove ourselves. That's to get our game on." Ben said smiling as he ran off towards Arena 2.
Megan gave a sigh as she was announced to be part of the first duel. It would've been nicer to watch some other people go first. Besides she didn't even know if those was going to be an action duel or just a regular duel.She took one last look at her deck then inserted it into her disk and headed to arena since that was apparently where the duel was. Against someone named Akira hm? Megan took deep breaths as she stepped onto the platform and looked across to where her opponent should be.
Akira grinned at the announcement. Being part of the first duel meant he had to turn up the action before sitting back and watching the others Duel. After saying a quick goodbye to those he was talking to and double checking his deck he walked up to the arena where his opponent stood waiting.
"You must be Megan, I'm Akira its nice to meet you and I hope you do your best inspite of us all getting new decks" he said with a smile.
"Same goes for you, I'm Megan," she said cheerily as she viewed her hand. At least it wasn't an action duel because she wouldn't have had any idea what to do. Of course this wasn't the nicest hand in the world either. If she set her command knight she risked it being destroyed, but she couldn't put it in ATK mode without using her equip card as well. Of course if he had a spell card that could destroy it or just somehow a monster with more attack she would be in big trouble. Reload might give her a better hand but it also might just make things worse. Oh Megan was just overthinking things now. "I'll normal summon my Command Knight in attack mode. Then I'll play Wicked-Breaking Flamberge - Baou, to activate its effect though I'll discard Reload from my hand." A warrior in red amour appeared on the field and its longsword was quickly replaced with a weapon that lived up to its name.
Command Knight: 1200 ATK -> 2100 ATK
"Now between her effect and my equip card she had a total of 2100 ATK, I'll set one card and end my turn." Megan said confidently. Beating 2100 ATK would require him to do some sort of special summon and he didn't have any cards out yet so it should be hard for him to try it. Right?
"All right my turn!" Akira said grinning as he drew his sixth card. "Get ready for an awesome first move." He began. "I'll start by activating Stargazer Magician and Wisdom-Eye Magician to the pendulum zones." He added grinning as his two long haired mages appeared. On either side of him. "Now I'll activate Wisdom-Eye's pendulum effect. Destroying himself he gets replaced with another magician! Rise up Timegazer Magician!" He called as the black clad mage appeared next to him. "Now from my hand I pendulum summon Odd-Eyes Dragon!" Chuckling as he watches the red strange looking dragon rise from within the card. He knew he could attack and probably should but he wanted to see what Megan was made of.
Megan looked at the field in distress. He already had a 2500 ATK monster out? And from what little she knew of pendulums even if she destroyed it he could bring it right back. She'd need one of the powerhouses in her deck to beat it but she didn't have those right now. It looked like all she could do for the time being was stall. But if Megan normal summoned Dark Blade then he couldn't attack Command Knight for another turn, which just might allow her to get another equip card. Or another monster to stall again. "Alright, I'll normal summon my Dark Blade in attack mode, then end my turn" Megan called out confidently, her actions betraying none of her uncertainty.
Akira smiled brightly. "And with Odd-Eyes' effect you also take half the original attack of your monster as damage." He said as he grinned at the situation and started laughing. "I'm sorry, but I haven't had this much fun since I started playing." He said beaming. "Anyway Odd-Eyes Dragon will attack Dark Blade!" He said sending his dragon forward toward the warrior.
Megan was a little put off by her opponent laughing. Was she really that weak? She was forced to watch helplessly as her monster futily put up his swords, then was destroyed and her LP paid for it between the attack difference and his monster's effect. Hopefully her next draw would remedy the situation
Megan 4000 -> 2800
Akira grinned again and set a card in his spell trap zone. "Alright with that I'll set one card and end my turn."
Megan barely resisted moaning helplessly at her next card. Still uesless, not even a monster to stall with. Now she was really gonna get her butt handed to her. "I'll change Command Knight to defense mode, set one card, and end my turn." If she could get ROTA or just draw the monster she needed then she could make a come back. That or one of her D.D monsters. Anything!
Akira smiled and looked up to Megan. "Hey now no need for a long face, we're supposed to be having fun up here." he said with a smile drawing his card. "Alright I summon Inari fire in attack mode and my dragon will come in at your Knight!" He said chuckling.
Once again the dragon destroyed her monster easily and she dealt with the aftermath of his effect. Her next draw would determine how this duel would end, she couldn't live another turn at this rate. It'd suck to have her first duel go like this, without even a chance to fight back.
Megan 2800 -> 2200
"Okay that'll be my turn so have at it!" He said waving to Megan trying to cheer her up.
Megan sighed, "A lot easier to have fun when you're winning." she muttered to herself looking at the next card she'd drawn. Now if she'd just saved her equip spell then everything would've been fine and dandy but she'd had to buff out her Command Knight didn't she? Megan did a bit of math in her head. Lets see, 200 damage from that, then another like 1150 damage from that, and 1500 from that. Yeah she had to summon him or she would lose. On the other hand her opponent had been lax before, so she could try to wait for an equip spell next turn then summon her monster. Argh.
Megan wouldn't rely on someone's else taking pity on her to have a hope of winning. "I'll set one card, then summon Swift Gaia The Fierce Knight from my Hand. Normally he would require a tribute but since I don't have any other cards in my Hand I can summon him normally." The knight on his steed appeared on the field lance at the ready. "Now I'll use him to destroy your Inari Fire!" Megan announced as he rushed at the little fox creature with overwhelming speed.
Akira: 4000 -> 3200
Megan gave an inward sigh of relief, at least she'd done damage. It hadn't been a total curbstomp. "Your move." she said calmly, wondering how much longer it would take her to lose.
Akira smiled after drawing his card. "Now you've got it! Oh yeah time to get fired up!" He said as he drew his card. "Allright Odd-Eyes attack!" He said smiling.
Another monster destroyed, more LP lost, she had plenty of cards to beat this stupid monster so why couldn't she draw any of them!
Megan looked at the next card she drew hopelessly. Well that was it, game over. Unless Akira hated winning she'd lost. Whatever. "I'll activate Fairy Of The Spring to return Wicked -Breaking Flamberge - Baou to my hand. Turn end " she said dully, patiently awaiting the finishing blow. Even if she drew another monster and he didn't kill her its not like she could use her flamberge anyway.
Akira smiled at the cards in his hand. "Well its been fun but its time to end this. Rise up Dragonpit Magician!" He cried. As the mage rose from the card. "But he wont be here long because I'm going to overlay my two monsters to Xyz summon Odd-Eyes Absolute Dragon!" Akira said laughing as the ice covered dragon appeared before them. "Now Absolute Dragon attack and end this!" He said watching the dragons attack.
Megan 1450 -> 0
Megan looked at her opponent with a bit of repressed anger. Pointlessly summoning a bigger monster just because he could to win and laughing all the way. "Good game" she said lifelessly and walked back into the crowds.
Akira smiles and watches Megan leave before bowing to the crowd and racing off hoping to catch up with her and apologize. Racing through the hall and around to the stands searching the crowd looking for her and not seeming to have any luck.
Megan stepped out of the crowd and put a hand on Akira's shoulder as he stepped past her. "Look you won, I lost. That's how duels work. You had some fun. You don't need to comfort me, I'm not some china doll that breaks if you drop it too hard." At least that's what she guessed his intention was given the concerned look on his face. Megan released him and walked away back to the stands. Maybe she could watch some duels and learn a thing or two.
Akira watched as Megan retreated back to the stands and walked off to find his own seat this time eager to learn all he could about his new school mates.
Megan tried to go too ham and got rekted by Akira's first turn 1-8 scale odd eyes summon.
Ethel saw the names flash up on the screens hanging in the middle of the room, clicking her tongue as she was one of the first to go. Still, it's better than constantly hanging around people who seemed to adore annoying her to death. The speaker in the next corner over announced Megan and Akira first, then soon after followed by Venwyn and Ethel. The hooded girl picked up the disk laying on her side, sliding the structure deck into it as well as putting the extra deck into the modified built-in zone. The girl rose up. "I'm going now." they informed the boys gathered around, then began walking off. She made her way down the audience seats and into a small entrance near the desk from earlier, the hallway into Arena 2. That disk on Ethel's wrist was weighing down hard, and when she arrived she took a moment to take in what she was actually doing. Everyone in this side of the arena was staring at her... And something else. The blue-haired girl turned her attention back to the field.
On the opposite side of the arena was Venwyn. He was sitting down, arms and legs crossed. He didn't seem to acknowledge the stares of the students in the arena at the time. It seemed as though he had been waiting for a while, and yet nobody seemed to see him move onto the field at any point. Weird. Still, upon getting Ethel's attention, the boy stood up and activated his Duel Disk. With a few clicks, the Duel Disk had set itself without issue, Venwyn placed his newly-made Deck inside of the compartment and awaited his opponent to do the same.
"Let's begin," Venwyn said with a neutral expression.
Ethel raised up her Disk as well, holding out her arm so that it was facing towards Venwyn at a perfect 90° angle. She liked him already, unlike others he didn't waste time. "...Agreed, let's begin." The momentum in the hybrid disk flared up, showing the rainbow colored pattern underneath it.
"Duel!"
Turn 1: Venwyn Venwyn 4000 LP, 5 cards in Hand Ethel 4000 LP, 5 cards in Hand
Venwyn drew his five starting cards, nodding in approval.
It was a...defensive hand, to say the least.
"I place three face down cards, and end my turn." As the boy said it, three face down cards appeared on the field. One was in the Monster Zone, and two were in the Spell and Trap Zone.
"Your move."
Turn 2: Ethel Venwyn 4000 LP, 2 cards in Hand, 1 Set Monster, 2 S/T Ethel 4000 LP, 6 cards in Hand
Ethel drew hard card, then clicked her tongue. The hand wasn't bad by any means, but great wouldn't be the right word either. "...Summon. Blackwing - Shura the Blue Flame." The girl picked the card from her hand and slid it onto the rather large disk, revealing a humanoid raven of sorts flying up out of a vortex.
Blackwing - Shura the Blue Flame: 1800 ATK/1200 DEF Level 4 DARK Winged-Beast
"Kris the Crack of Dawn's effect... Summon." Once more a vortex opened, next to Shura now, and another humanoid bird flew out. Their mask had two glowing dots in them, and a positively creepy smile was on Kris' face.
Blackwing - Kris the Crack of Dawn: 1900 ATK/300 DEF Level 4 DARK Winged-Beast
"Battle Phase... Shura, kill that monster!" A sinister smile crossed Ethel's face when she spoke those words, the feeling returned by Shura as he launched up into the air and shot three feathers into the face-down monster.
"Sakuretsu Armor," Venwyn said, revealing one of his face-down cards. As the Blackwing monster went to attack, spiked armor emerged from Venwyn's face down card and pierced through the bird creature, destroying it.
Ethel clicked her tongue as Shura shattered into pixels, though this wasn't going to stop her. "...Kris, kill it instead!" the girl shouted, making her monster flinch a little. It slid its hand over the blade firmly locked into their talon, rushing forward to try and slash at the card.
"A life for a life,"
Venwyn said as the second Blackwing Monster attacked his face-down card. The card flipped up, revealing his hidden Monster.
Ghostrick Doll: 300 ATK/1200 DEF Level 2 DARK Spellcaster
As quickly as it appeared, the bisque doll was destroyed, but not before activating some kind of magical wave that seemed to do nothing. Venwyn's expression didn't seem to change in the slightest, though.
Ethel slid a card into her disk, revealing a face-down S/T before muttering "Turn end." Then, Kris forced itself down and disappeared under its own card back. "...Wait, what? What did you just do?!" Ethel was taken aback by this, and her voice reflected that as such.
"Ghostrick Doll's effect forces all face-up monsters face-down at the End Phase," Venwyn explained.
"It would also allow me to special summon a Monster with the same level as the number of Monsters turned face-down, although I won't use that part."
"Drawing," Venwyn said, drawing the first card of his turn.
"I activate the field spell, Ghostrick Mansion." As he said this, he placed the card into the Duel Disk field spell area. The field seemed to rumble and shake as walls erected themselves around the two Duelists. Dusty and old furniture appeared, lights flickered and spectral wisps flew around the room, accompanied by childlike laughter on the occasion.
"I also place one more face down card," the boy said. Another face down card appeared in the S/T Zone to replace the one he had used previously.
"Continue."
Turn 4: Ethel Venwyn 4000 LP, 1 cards in Hand, 2 S/T, 1 Field Spell Ethel 4000 LP, 4 cards in Hand, 1 Set Monster, 1 S/T
"My turn, Draw!" Ethel swiped the card from her deck, and didn't even need to take a closer look to know if it would help her or not. Damnit! "...Activate Cards for Black Feathers. Banish Blackwing - Damascus the Polar Night. I can now draw two..." After the explanation, Ethel revealed Damascus in her hand and put it in the box she got for the structure deck, it hanging onto her skirt (somehow) as an improvised deck holder.
She drew two more cards and again saw nothing useful amongst them, infuriating her even further. "...Kris will now come back." the girl informed, flipping up the card on her disk to reveal the same creepy bird stroking their blade.
"No it won't," Venwyn said, clicking his fingers as the Spell Card on his side of the field flipped up.
"Book of Moon."
As quickly as Kris had appeared, he disappeared again under his card once more. A large blue book appeared, it's cover depicted many ancient symbols - one of which was a large black crescent in the centre of the cover of the book. The book opened, revealing a creeping darkness which forced the Blackwing's card face-down.
Kris stared at Venwyn for a second, dumbstruck and humiliated. It grabbed the card back they threw away and just sunk back under it, completely ashamed to have even tried. Ethel wasn't so happy with this. "Argh...! ...Fine, Normal Summon Raidraptor - Sharp Lanius!" Ethel's face changed to a frown, signalling that she was starting to lose it slowly. A vortex opened up next to Kris, this time a mechanical bird shooting out and flying into the sky. It had four light-blue, glowing eyes and razor sharp talons sticking out of its red-painted armor.
"Battle Phase." Ethel's calm had come back, her taking a breather and telling herself not to get so wound up. She stared at Venwyn's face-down card, scared, but also thinking it can't be worse than before or Venwyn'd have used it on Kris. "Sharp Lanius, hurt Venwyn!" the girl declared and gained that sinister grin again, pointing with her free hand to the ninja teenager. The bird happily obliged, letting out a cry and flying up higher. It scanned the area, then locked the blades on it's side forward to try and divebomb Venwyn.
The ninja simply allowed the Monster to attack him, although he didn't quite react to the strike of the divebomb as much as one would probably hope. It was just a small wince.
"Ghostrick Mansion will halve the damage of any Monster that isn't of the Ghostrick archetype. "
True to what he said, Venwyn had only lost 850 Life Points.
Venwyn 4000 LP > 3150 LP
Sharp Lanius made a sharp turn once having passed through Venwyn, flying back to its vantage point near Ethel. "...Turn end." she said, passing the turn order back to Venwyn.
Turn 5: Venwyn Venwyn 3150 LP, 2 cards in Hand, 1 S/T, 1 Field Spell Ethel 4000 LP, 3 cards in Hand, 1 face-up monster, 1 Set Monster, 1 S/T
Venwyn silently drew his next card, his facial expressions were relatively constant, so it made it difficult to discern whether what he got was good or not. It was like... an ultimate poker face of sorts.
"I place (yet another) face-down Monster and end my turn."
As he said this, another face-down Monster Card appeared onto the field.
Turn 6: Ethel Venwyn 3150 LP, 1 card in Hand, 1 Set Monster, 1 S/T, 1 Field Spell Ethel 4000 LP, 4 cards in Hand, 1 face-up Monster, 1 Set Monster, 1 S/T
"My turn. Draw." Ethel put yet another card into her hand, then groaned. Still nothing. She had a major advantage though, with two monsters staring Venwyn down. "...Ghostrick Mansion's effect." The girl gained a smug smirk, knowing about that card since she had learned about it.
"...Monster Reincarnation." Ethel revealed the spell card, not bothering to explain the effect. She showed Blackwing - Abrolhos the Megaquake in her hand and deposited in the graveyard, then put Shura back into her hand. "...Come back, Kris. Summon Shura." One after the other, both birds flew back into the field. Kris ESPECIALLY didn't look pleased, that grin from before now aimed downwards while pointing the sharp edge of it's blade to Venwyn.
Blackwing - Shura the Blue Flame: 1800 ATK/1200 DEF Level 4 DARK Winged-Beast
Blackwing - Kris the Crack of Dawn: 1900 ATK/300 DEF Level 4 DARK Winged-Beast
"Battle." Ethel pointed to Shura first, who flew further up into the air and spread its wings. "Ghostrick mansion, right?" She grinned, Shura matching the sentiment with black feathers starting to rain down on Venwyn.
"Unfortunately, not this time."
Venwyn activated the trap card he had placed face down for a while - since the beginning of the duel, actually.
"Negate Attack."
It was something which he had placed since the start, as a damage control of sorts. It was a temporary halt to the issue at hand, but good enough for now. Feathers bounced off of a translucent barrier of blue and red, falling to the floor harmlessly.
"The Battle Phase ends."
Whatever good mood Ethel had disappeared in a flash, the scowl from earlier returning. "...Set card. Turn... End."
Turn 7: Venwyn Venwyn 3150 LP, 2 cards in Hand, 1 Set Monster, 1 Field Spell Ethel 4000 LP, 1 card in Hand, 3 face-up Monsters, 2 S/T
Venwyn drew forth yet another card. Whereas for most of the duel he was relatively level-headed, there was a brief moment of surprise in what he had drawn, although he quickly returned to his regular self.
"I place a spell card. Pot of Duality."
He proceeded to place the Spell Card onto the field, and a pot - split down the middle - appeared from the card that had been placed. He didn't deign to explain the effect this time - the card was relatively well known as is. Instead, he excavated his cards and systematically dictated them as they came.
"Night Assailant, Gravity Bind, and Tour Guide from the Underworld"
Analyzing his current situation, Venwyn went with the most defensive option - Gravity Bind. Showing the card to his opponent, he placed it into his hand and shuffled the other two cards back into his Deck.
"I place one more face-down card and end my turn."
Ethel bit down on her tongue, knowing what was coming next.
Turn 8: Ethel Venwyn 3150 LP, 1 card in Hand, 1 Set Monster, 1 S/T, 1 Field Spell Ethel 4000 LP, 2 cards in Hand, 3 face-up Monsters, 2 S/T
"My turn. Draw." Just as announced, Ethel drew. She knew what the face-down card was going to be and also that she wasn't going to like it. "Battle." she announced "Shura, hurt Venwyn." The bird-man flew up high again, bracing its wings to fire another volley of feathers.
"Gravity Bind," Venwyn said, activating the card. It was a somewhat obvious activation though, since he had specifically chosen and set it in the last turn.
A blue sphere appeared in the middle of the field, it pulsed with an energy which pressed down on the Monsters currently on the field, sans Venwyn's own face-down Monster. Noticing the look on Ethel's face, Venwyn assumed that she understood what was happening, and decided not to explain Gravity Bind's effect.
"Main Phase Two. Spell card activate." The first facedown Ethel had set revealed itself to be Dark Mamebele. "It Banishes Gravity bind with three DARK monsters." Ethel explained the card to Venwyn, a guillotine blade suddenly falling onto the Gravity Bind out of nowhere and slicing in in half.
"Set card. Turn end."
Turn 9: Venwyn Venwyn 3150 LP, 2 cards in Hand, 1 Set Monster, 1 Field Spell Ethel 4000 LP, 1 card in Hand, 3 face-up Monsters, 2 S/T
"Alright," Venwyn said, drawing his next card.
"I flip my Monster face-up," Venwyn said, raising his hand. The Monster Card on the field lifted, revealing a large sitting Yeti, slightly sleepy from the time it had spent under its card.
"I will then summon Ghostrick Mummy in face-up Attack Position."
As he said this, another Ghostrick Monster appeared on the field. A large Mummy - around the same size size as the Ghostrick Yeti. Surprisingly, it seemed to be just as tired despite not having been on the field at all this Duel - something which the Ghostrick Yeti pointed out in incomprehensible growling, to which the Ghostrick Mummy shrugged.
"I will overlay the two Monsters in order to summon Ghostrick Alucard."
Venwyn overlaid the two level three Monster Cards. A black card appeared on the field over the two Ghostrick Monsters. A vampire clad in a cape and formal attire rose from the image of the card.
Ghostrick Alucard: 1800 ATK/1600 DEF Rank 3 DARK Zombie/Xyz
"...Overlay?" Ethel inquired, quite obviously having never heard of it.
"Overlaying is the act of Xyz Summoning a Monster. A type of special summoning." Venwyn said, trying to sum up the process in a quick way. He wasn't exactly a teacher.
"Moving on, I activate Ghostrick Alucard's effect, on the S/T Card you placed earlier." Venwyn detached a card from the current stack of Monster Cards. The vampiric Monster glanced over to Ethel's face-down Spell/Trap Card, the one she placed on her previous turn. The Monster clicked it's fingers, and the card developed a series of cracks before shattering to pieces and dissipating in a yellow particle effect.
The card Venwyn destroyed left an image for just long enough to show it was Black Return.
"I'll now go on to Xyz another Monster - Ghostrick Angel of Mischief."
Venwyn went on to overlay yet another card onto the current pile of Monster Cards. The Ghostrick Alucard shrugged, disappearing in a yellow particle effect akin to the card he destroyed. Several pink and purple hearts welled out of the card that Venwyn had placed, and an angelic figure appeared in the place where Alucard once stood.
Ghostrick Angel of Mischief: 2000 ATK/2500 DEF Rank 4 DARK Fairy/Xyz
"And now, I'll use the Ghostrick Angel's effect to obtain a Ghostrick Trap Card from my Deck," Venwyn said, detaching the Ghostrick Mummy and putting it into the graveyard. Venwyn proceeded to obtain the trap card Ghostrick Vanish, which he showed to the opponent before adding it to his hand.
"I'll then place two face-down cards, and end my turn."
Turn 10: Ethel Venwyn 3150 LP, 0 cards in Hand, 1 face-up Monster, 2 S/T, 1 Field Spell Ethel 4000 LP, 2 cards in Hand, 3 face-up Monsters, 1 S/T
"My turn. Draw." Ethel looked at the card she drew and instantly slid it into her Duel Disk. "Mystical space Typhoon. Destroy your first set card." Ethel motioned, beckoning Venwyn to get rid of the trap card he set first on his previous turn.
As the card in question was destroyed, it was revealed to be Ghostrick Break. A storm raged over the face-down card, before shattering it to pieces.
Ethel thought for a bit. She saw what Venwyn had done earlier to summon Alucard... Was that what those black cards were for? It couldn't hurt to try... "I'll... Overlay Sharp Lanius and Shura..." True enough, the same vortex from before opened up in front of Ethel's monsters. It was kind of intimidating, but Sharp Lanius and Shura didn't seem to mind as they quickly turned into two pulsating lines of dark energy. Both lines jumped in and mixed inside the vortex, revealing a flash of light exploding from within moments after. "Sharpen your claws to protect your precious home from the robbers who try to steal away the riches... Xyz Summon!" From the vortex a blue, crystallized wolf of sorts jumped out, baring its fangs and digging their claws firmly into the ground. It had a gray armor on with red outlines, and two curved crystals ran from it's back but seemed to stop halfway before connecting. "Sacrifice to protect, Diamond Dire Wolf!"
Diamond Dire Wolf: 2000 ATK/1200 DEF Rank 4 EARTH Beast
Ethel was kind of... Taken aback by how easy that went. Now she knew what those cards were for... She looked towards the wolf, two purple glowing orbs floating around it in a circular manner, parallel to eachother. The girl then glanced down at her disk, seeing how she put two cards over each other with Diamond Dire Wolf on top. But... "Wolf's effect... I destroy Kris and Angel..." Ethel commanded, the wolf giving a threatening roar to Ghostrick Angel after absorbing one of its overlay units. Kris was panicking, but seemed to find some sort of resolve in Diamond Dire Wolf's behaviour, lunging forward blade first to try and get rid of the other Xyz monster.
Kris plunged it's blade right into Angel's shoulder, the Ghostrick wincing in pain from the sudden strike. She bit it back and blasted a magical bullets straight into Kris, shattering him and her at the same time.
"Now I activate Creeping Darkness..." A spell card materialized on the field as two monster cards popped back out of Ethel's grave, Abrolhos and Kris. She showed them to Venwyn, putting them alongside Damascus in her deck holder and adding Blackwing - Bora the Spear from her deck into her hand. "Summon." Staying as deadpan as ever, Ethel slid Bora's card onto the disk as the humanoid raven shoots out onto the field, wearing an even more creepy smile than Kris while being unable to see their eyes.
Blackwing - Bora the Spear: 1700 ATK/800 DEF Level 4 DARK Winged-Beast
"Battle. Both my monsters will hurt you." Ethel's eyes lit up with glee again after speaking those words, both Diamond Dire Wolf and Bora the spear lunged forward with their respective ways of attacking to take a chunk out of Venwyn's lifepoints.
Venwyn LP 3150 > 1300
"Turn end." Ethel's joy from earlier went as soon as it came, passing over the turn to Venwyn.
Turn 11: Venwyn Venwyn 1300 LP, 1 card in Hand, 1 S/T, 1 Field Spell Ethel 4000 LP, 0 cards in Hand, 2 face-up Monsters, 1 S/T
"Quite the summon," Venwyn said, although he was rather dismissive about it. Although he didn't show it, the situation was definitely dire. Some level of strategy would have to go into his next move, otherwise there would be a problem.
"Draw."
...
...
"Pot of Dichotomy."
A card appeared on the field, and from it materialized a pot that was split down the middle, akin to the Pot of Duality seen in a previous turn, except the juxtaposition here seemed more sinister here. Venwyn once again systematically called out cards - this time they would be Monsters to add to his deck. "Ghostrick Mummy, Ghostrick Angel of Mischief and Ghostrick Doll."
Adding the cards to his deck, and drew two more. The air around Venwyn became less heavy. He could work with this. It was extremely dependant on luck.
"Tour Guide from the Underworld," Venwyn said, placing the card on the field.
Tour Guide from the Underworld: 1000 ATK/600 DEF Level 3 DARK Fiend
"The Tour Guide of the Underworld allows me to summon a level three Fiend Monster, although its effect is negated."
As Venwyn said this, another Monster appeared on the field alongside the Tour Guide. It was the Night Assailant.
Night Assailant: 200 ATK/500 DEF Level 3 DARK Fiend
"Overlay," he said, overlaying the two cards.
"Three times a curse."
For the third time, a black card manifested itself on the field, but this time, it was...different. Whereas the Ghostrick cards were somewhat lighthearted, this one was not.
"Vinyl Fiend."
From the black card swirled an ominous purple aura, the miasma cloumping together to create a robed, wraithlike and skeletal figure that wielded a silver scythe.
Vinyl Fiend: 1800 ATK/0 DEF Rank 3 DARK Zombie
The creature itself was intimidating, however, Venwyn opted not to attack this turn for some reason. Instead, he simply placed a face-down card and ended his turn as normal.
Turn 12: Ethel Venwyn 1300 LP, 0 cards in Hand, 1 Face-up Monster, 2 S/T, 1 Field Spell Ethel 4000 LP, 1 card in Hand, 2 face-up Monsters, 1 S/T
"My turn. Draw." Ethel swiped the next card from her deck, then decided to take a quick look. Her lips curled upward ever so slightly. "Monster Summon." She declared, a man-raven wearing some sort of red feathered shawl behind it's head, facial features obscured by the bird-like appearance of it.
Blackwing - Estian of Two Swords: 400 ATK/1600 DEF Level 3 DARK Winged-Beast
"Wolf's effect activates." Ethel declared, detaching the remaining overlay unit as Diamond Dire Wolf gave off another threatening roar. The girl lowered down her finger and pointed at Vinyl Fiend, intent on destroying them. Estian jumped back a little, but same as with Kris, found something motivating in that roar. It braced itself, then rushed forward with its razor sharp talons to try and take Vinyl Fiend down with it.
"Chain."
Seemingly aware of its impending death, the Vinyl Fiend smiled as though it were in on something Venwyn had planned. The ninja boy removed one of the Xyz materials from the card, and a piece of the purple miasma broke apart from the Vinyl Fiend as the enemy Monster approached, creating a Miasma Token in Defence Position.
Miasma Token: 500 ATK/500 DEF DARK Fiend/Token
As Estian struck the Vinyl Fiend, it quickly dissipated into a particle effect, except it was in an unusual purple colour.
Venwyn seemed unfazed by the disappearance of the Monster.
Ethel was unphazed by the appearance of a token, in fact, this could help. "Battle. Bora kills your Miasma token." On cue, Bora raised it's spear to meet his eyes and grinned like a maniac. He flew forward to try and impale the Miasma Token on it.
Venwyn pointed upwards, causing his hidden (Donald) trump card to rise.
"Mirror Force."
A luminescent barrier appeared in front of the Miasma Token as the Monsters went to attack, releasing a powerful counter-strike (global offensive) that razed the field.
The skeleton-faced Miasma Token seemed to grin wider than before.
Ethel's eyes widened just a little as Bora flew straight into a see-through wall, lighting up with rainbow colors at the moment of the crash. The immense shockwave came out, blowing away both Bora and Diamond Dire Wolf. At the same time however, Ethel's face-down also seemed to get swept up in the chaos, revealing itself to be Raidraptors - Readiness before vanishing.
"...End." Ethel spat out, venom hidden in those words. Venwyn was up to play again.
Turn 13: Venwyn Venwyn 1300 LP, 1 card in Hand, 1 Face-up Monster, 1 S/T, 1 Field Spell Ethel 4000 LP, 0 cards in Hand!
Venwyn silently drew his card. He was focused on the duel now. It had been going on for a while, and he had only just managed to avert a crisis through the combined efforts of planning and multiple Xyz Monsters.
"I place a face-down Monster and end my turn."
Turn 14: Ethel Venwyn 1300 LP, 0 cards in Hand, 1 Face-up Monster, 2 S/T, 1 Field Spell Ethel 4000 LP, 1 card in Hand
Ethel drew her card in silence for once, then grimaced at the sight of what it was. She wasn't helped in any way shape or form by this... "Set. End." One face-down appeared, and the turn was Venwyn's once more.
Turn 14: Venwyn Venwyn 1300 LP, 1 card in Hand, 1 Face-up Monster, 1 Set monster, 1 S/T, 1 Field Spell Ethel 4000 LP, 0 cards in Hand, 1 S/T
Venwyn drew his next card, placing it as a Monster in face-down defence position.
Aside from that, Venwyn also lifted his previous face-down Monster, revealing the Ghostrick Jiangshi.
Ghostrick Jiangshi: 400 ATK/1800 DEF DARK Zombie
"Ghostrick Jiangshi's effect allows me to draw a Ghostrick Monster," he said, adding Ghostrick Lantern to his hand.
"Face-down." Venwyn commanded. As quickly as it had appeared, the Ghostrick Jiangshi's card flipped face-down once more.
"I end my turn."
Turn 15: Ethel Venwyn 1300 LP, 0 cards in Hand, 1 Face-up Monster, 2 Set monsters, 1 S/T, 1 Field Spell Ethel 4000 LP, 1 card in Hand, 1 S/T
"Draw." Once again, Ethel swiped a card from her deck with distaste. At this rate, she'd lose... "Monster, set. End turn." Seriously, what could the girl do right now?
Turn 16: Venwyn Venwyn 1300 LP, 1 card in Hand, 1 Face-up Monster, 2 Set monsters, 1 S/T, 1 Field Spell Ethel 4000 LP, 0 cards in Hand, 1 Set Monster, 1 S/T
Drawing his next card, Venwyn opted to go straight for the Main Phase.
"Flip Summon," he said, flipping over the other Monster Card he had. A small female figure not unlike the Ghostrick Angel appeared, except this one was blond and wearing a witch outfit. The Ghostrick Witch flew out of the card on her broom.
Ghostrick Witch: 1200 ATK/200 DEF DARK Spellcaster
"Again," Venwyn said, prompting the Ghostrick Jiangshi to also summon itself onto the field. Ghostrick Jiangshi's effect also activated, and Venwyn obtained yet another Ghostrick card from his deck. This time it was Ghostrick Nekomusume, which Venwyn proceeded to summon in face-up Attack position.
"Face-down," Venwyn commanded. Only the Ghostrick Jiangshi went face-down once more, whereas the Ghostrick Nekomusume and Witch remained in Attack Position.
"Now I end my turn," Venwyn said, urging Ethel to continue.
Turn 17: Ethel Venwyn 1300 LP, 0 cards in Hand, 3 Face-up Monsters, 1 Set monster, 1 S/T, 1 Field Spell Ethel 4000 LP, 1 card in Hand, 1 Set Monster, 1 S/T
"My turn. Draw." Ethel was slightly panicked. Sure, Venwyn wasn't doing any damage, but he WAS building up a board and it could very easily screw her over. She looked over to her side, at the card between her fingers, and her eyes widened. This was something she could use!
"Flip Summon." From the set card on her field an armored bird shot up, quite a silly one actually. It was Blackwing - Mistral the Silver Shield.
Blackwing - Mistral the Silver Shield: ATK 100/ DEF 1800 Level 2 DARK Winged-Beast/Tuner
"Effect. Normal Summon." Wasting no time, Ethel got straight to the point and slid another card onto her disk, out coming a jet-black raven, this time more bird than man. It's black feathers gave off a menacing vibe with them being stretched out, and it seemed to stare right into Venwyn's soul.
Blackwing - Elphin the Raven: ATK 2200/ DEF 1200 Level 6 DARK Winged-Beast
The powerful Monster appearing on the field seemed to alert Ghostrick Nekomusume. She began to charge what appeared to be some sort of magical spell, targeting the card in which Elphin stood upon. She fired a small amount of magical energy towards the card, flipping it over and sealing Elphin underneath.
"Ghostrick Nekomusume turns all Normal and Special Summoned cards face-down if they exceed level three."
The result was almost comical really, the card raised itself above Elphin's head without it ever noticing and then slammed down without warning, making the menacing birk into little more than a mockery as it trashed around, before sinking underneath and disappearing. Ethel wasn't too happy with this, gritting her teeth while muttering "End..." under her breath.
Turn 18: Venwyn Venwyn 1300 LP, 1 card in Hand, 3 Face-up Monsters, 1 Set monster, 1 S/T, 1 Field Spell Ethel 4000 LP, 0 cards in Hand, 1 Face-up Monster, 1 Set Monster, 1 S/T
"Draw."
Venwyn once again directed his focus toward the Main Phase. He began by placing a face-down S/T card. He then proceeded to flip the Ghostrick Jiangshi up once more, activating it's effect and allowing him to add Ghostrick Stein to his hand.
Playing yet another face-down Monster, Venwyn proceeded to have his other Monsters turn face-down, excluding the Defence Position Miasma Token. Ghostrick Nekomusume's effect was no longer active on the field.
"My turn ends."
Turn 19: Ethel Venwyn 1300 LP, 0 cards in Hand, 1 Face-up Monster, 4 Set monsters, 2 S/T, 1 Field Spell Ethel 4000 LP, 1 card in Hand, 1 Face-up Monster, 1 Set Monster, 1 S/T
"Draw." Ethel had to question Venwyn's motives here. Yes, keeping Nekomusume on the field wouldn't have caused Elphin to flip face-down again but at the same time, al Ethel had to do was destroy the Miasma Token and direct attack... Was there some kind of trap waiting for her?
"Flip Summon." Elphin came from underneath his card again, flying into the air and letting out a furious cry to show how utterly displeased it was.
"Battle." Ethel pointed towards the token. "Kill it, Elphin." The usual joy wasn't in Ethel's voice, she just wanted to get it over with at this point. Elphin rushed forward, digging one of its claws into the token and shattering it. "Hurt him." the girl commanded to Mistral, who kind of clumsily waddled over to Venwyn and pecked him on his foot.
Venwyn LP 1300 > 1250
"Mansion effect halves. Turn end."
Turn 20!: Venwyn Venwyn 1250 LP, 1 card in Hand, 1 Face-up Monster, 4 Set monsters, 2 S/T, 1 Field Spell Ethel 4000 LP, 1 card in Hand, 2 Face-up Monsters, 1 S/T
"Whereas time may be an infinite river with many eddies, fate is not. Fate has foreseen your end since the day you were born, and has given me visions of what is to come. It has been done. The path has unspooled before me and given the inexorable answer to this game. The end is written, the pendulum has stopped, and this is the final chapter of our tale; the tale of Avians and the Occult."
...
...
What the hell?
"I activate Ghostrick Vanish," Venwyn said, revealing both the card on the field, and a Ghostrick Monster in his hand - Ghostrick Lantern. A thick and dark aura befell Venwyn's side of the field, obscuring his Monsters and making them more difficult to see.
"I activate Ghostrick Scare," Venwyn continued. He revealed the second Trap Card he had placed not too long ago.
"Ghostrick Scare allows me to Flip Summon as many Ghostrick Monsters as I desire, and in turn lets me turn your own Monsters face-down."
As he said this, four of his current face-down Monsters flipped face-up. Ghostrick Stein, Jiangshi, Nekomusume and Ghostrick Witch. The quadruplet spooky quartet performed a unison scare than involves various acts, including but not limited to: not-so-scary faces, shouting "boo!" at various volumes, and that one thing where you make it look like your thumb is removable. Perhaps the terribleness of the act is what made it scary, but it had managed to cause both Elphin and Mistral to hide under their cards for...protection, I guess.
Ghostrick Stein: ATK 1600/ DEF 0 Level 3 DARK Zombie
Ghostrick Jiangshi: ATK 400/ DEF 1800 Level 3 DARK Zombie
Ghostrick Witch: ATK 1200/ DEF 0 Level 2 DARK Spellcaster
Ghostrick Nekomusume: ATK 400/ DEF 900 Level 2 DARK Spellcaster
Somewhere during that super-spooky act, Jiangshi's effect had activated, allowing Venwyn to add and summon another Ghostrick Monster to the field - the Ghostrick Ghoul. The Ghoul was able to piece together the fact that they had missed the scary party that took place moments ago, and was somewhat angry about it, stamping it's foot over and over again in frustration.
Ghostrick Ghoul: ATK 1100/ DEF 1200 Level 3 DARK Zombie
This angry babyrage only came to an end when Venwyn activated its effect.
"Ghostrick Ghoul can make one Ghostrick Monsters attack the combined attack of all Ghostrick Monsters on the field."
In this particular instance, the Ghostrick Ghoul directed its power toward the Ghostrick Witch. A heap of magical energy gathered in the Witch's wand, and she was struggling to control it.
"Battle phase," Venwyn said. It was probably the first time he had said it this match. He hadn't intended to try and end the Duel with an attack, but this circumstance forced him to adapt.
Venwyn pointed toward Ethel, prompting the Ghostrick Witch to attack. It was difficult. The power given to the Witch had manifested itself as a ridiculously large ball of magical energy which was to difficult to fire. It took the combined efforts of the Ghostrick Witch and Ghostrick Stein in order to swing this ball of magical power toward Ethel, rolling across the field and slowly coming to reach it's destination.
The girl wagged her finger at Venwyn. "Trap activate." Suddenly, a circuclar barrier appeared around Ethel, the huge ball of energy exploding onto it and leaving the girl's lifepoints unscathed. "I Banished Raidraptor Readiness from my graveyard. It negates any damage I take." The girl gained a confident smirk as the barrier remained around her, and wouldn't leave until Venwyn decided it was her turn again.
"..."
Venwyn said nothing. Saying something would reduce the potency of his previous sermon on fate. Instead, he commanded all of the Ghostrick Monsters aside from the Ghostrick Witch to turn face-down. The Jiangshi was also exempt from turning face-down, and was instead put into face-up Defence Position.
He then proceeded to end his turn. Silently.
Turn 21: Ethel Venwyn 1250 LP, 0 cards in Hand, 2 Face-up Monsters, 3 Set monsters, 1 Field Spell Ethel 4000 LP, 2 cards in Hand, 2 Set Monsters, 1 S/T
Ethel drew her next card, then sighed. Ghostrick Witch wasn't going to be beaten by the combo she currently has in her hand. She placed her hand on top of her Duel Disk and pressed in the Lifepoint counter, reducing her own to 0. "You win."
Ethel LP 4000 > 0
WINNER: VENWYN
Ethel took out her deck from her Disk, sliding the entirety of it back into the deck box she wa still carrying around from earlier. Venwyn had put up quite the resistance, and that last combo of his proved fatal to her. She looked over to Venwyn and seemed to be... Smiling? "Congratulations. You deserved every bit of that." Ethel gave a polite bow, hands placed on her skirt as she did. Soon after she turned around to exit the arena, honestly not minding the outcome that much.
Venwyn was about to leave rather quickly after the duel had ended. That was what he had intended, anyway. He did not expect his opponent to be so... congratulatory towards him. He wasn't used to it, nor did he know how to respond to it.
"...Thanks?" He said in a confused tone. He didn't stick around for much longer afterwards, and proceeded to disappear in his now-signature burst of smoke.
...
Somewhere else within the school, a powerful entity stirred. He sensed Venwyn would be a...troublesome student. It was only a matter of time.
"THE FIRST TWO DUELS HAVE COME TO A CLOSE!!" Just as each duelist left their arena, Melchior's voice rang loudly over the speakers once more. That excitement was hard to mask for them. "We have seen some great dueling so far!" they began their little spiel. "The first set was quickly taken by Akira, who showed us an amazing Pendulum Summon! Megan had tried to keep up, but her monsters were soon overwhelmed by the lustrous Odd-Eyes Dragon! She had tried to make a comeback, but when Odd-Eyes Absolute Dragon came out her fate was sealed! Congratulations to Akira!!" And so ends the first recap, but the pause wasn't long before Melchior began to rant again.
"AND, IN ARENA TWO, we had seen Ethel and Venwyn's struggle for control! Both duelists showed some excellent card play, forethought and planning! Ethel had shown to keep the field for herself the entire time, but Venwyn was always planning. When it was time for a counter-attack, Venwyn did not pull punches! Ethel had tried to save herself with Raidraptors Readiness, but it was too late! Ghostrick witch's attack was too strong, and Ethel decided to honor the victory by giving Venwyn a heartfelt congratulation!! It brings a tear to my eye... VENWYN, I CONGRATULATE YOOUUUU!" Somehow, it actually seemed as if Melchior was sobbing. Those sounds soon came to an end, though, as a loud *SMACK* could be heard from across the microphone. Melchior seemed to clear his throat, then continued.
"But this was not the end! For now four more duelists will show off their very best, and compete, for the audience's sake! Leeeeet's see, WHO, IS, NEXT!" On cue, the screen hanging from the middle of the room lit up again with all the names. The first one to branch off was the name Akemi Ael, related to Venwyn most likely, and it searched around for a while until it met... Hayate Ray! "THE FIRST MATCH-UP HAS BEEN MADE CLEAR! In Arena one, AKEMI VERSUUUUUS... HA-YA-TE!" Some might say Melchior was taking this a bit too far. Melchior don't care. He be having the time of his life.
The next name to start searching was of a boy named Andre Carson, searching for a little less time than Akemi did and eventually settling on Haas Mesman. "THE SECOND MATCH-UP IS REVEALED! Over in Arena two, we will witness the dueling of AAAAAANDREEE CARSON, going up against HAAAAAS MESMAN! I can't wait for these duels to go underway, Duelists! Take! Your! Stands!"
Haas whistled when Megan's field blew up withing the first few turns, the redhead unable to make a comeback. What a sad thing to see, it looked like she was trying really hard too... "I kind of feel sorry for Megan," the guy offhandely threw out to Hayate. "Her deck seemed to abandon her there... Wonder what happened?"
Not soon after that duel ended, so did the one starring Venwyn. Haas found it a pretty boring duel, neither of them really said much but their card playing was phenomenal. Those two... He could easily see them getting into light. Melchior was being his usual chaotic self over the speakers, and Hayate's name was pulled to duel. "Ah, best of luck. Seems like you've been pulled. I'll be rooting for-" Before Haas could finish what he was saying, the dreaded calling of his name rang out as well. Lovely. "...Huh. We're both dueling. Root for eachother?" He joked, then waved Hayate off. "Better not keep the audience waiting. I'll talk to you after the duel, okay?"
"Heck yeah awesome duel guys!" cheered as he smiled wondering when or who would be his opponent. He couldn't help but feel excited. He wanted to use his cards to fight a worthy opponent. He wanted to make a statement and show how good he was! He wanted to fight! It was that hot blood his family was known for that forced him to seek a challenge that drove him to want to duel. The duel in Arena 1 drove towards the brink of bursting with anticipation as he couldn't help but wonder what duels where coming up next. But it was at that moment his blood ran cold. Andre was announced in the other arena. Ben knew he could trust his little bro to do what he could he knew he could handle anyone given the right resources. He'd be a great D/D/D player but he disregarded the cards because of his deep rooted dislike for pendulum mechanics. He found them disgusting. Hopefully his opponent would be up for the challenge.
====
Andre had watched his duel with distaste. It took forever but the kids has skills that was for sure. He still wondered if they were holding back to make it last longer or if the people in question were giving it all they had. Because the fight was one sided. One side ended with all of their life points. It was pitiful but ghostricks would do that to people who weren't prepared. That's why his strategy was to run over things like them full force. Can't set up if Archfiend blew up your spell cards now could you? How would the fare against skill drain? Whatever it wasn't his problem.
What was his problem was the fact that the announcer's annoying voice came and shouted over the speakers that something he dreaded was coming. In Arena 2, the arena he was in currently, had two new opponents showing up. And it was him fighting some random person he'd never heard of. Go figure fate would force him into the spot light. He wasn't the main event at least. But he still had everyone's eyes on him. Andre stood up from his seat and walked down towards the arena. He pulled out a harmonica from his jacket pocket and started to play it. A haunting tune from the old west. If he was going to play second batter then he was going to have people remember him. As he walked down towards the center stage his jacket fluttered behind him and his cold blue eyes held no hint of emotion in them. He was going to make a statement.
Leander had been looking through his deck, admiring every card's artwork while examining each card's stats and effects. There was no doubt that this deck wasn't called Knights of Light for nothing. After a while, however, as he was lost in thought, a very loud announcement sounded. Leander, startled, accidentally let his cards drop onto the ground, some scattering as they landed. "Crap," Leander muttered as he gathered them back up. When that was done, Leander placed his cards into the deck slot for his Duel Disk and began listening to the announcer do his thing for the Duels, just in time to hear the words "Placement Duels". Leander listened on, learning the information from the announcer, and looked up to the screen as per his instructions. The first two placement duels were for Megan and Akira, and Venwyn and Ethel.
Leander watched the duels with excitement, wondering how each Duelist would fight. Each fight was amazing in it's own way, even if there were times where someone would get completely dominated. At last, the duels ended, and all the duelists moved away from the arena. Now it was time for round two. Leander looked to the screen again to find out who it was. Unfortunately, his name still wasn't on it, but that was ok. He would probably get his turn eventually. For now, though, it was time to enjoy some more Duels.
Angelo looked up from his deck when he heard the announcement that they would be having placement duels. This place was going to get exciting really quick. Angelo put away his deck and got his duel disk secured. He decided to watch the duels until it was time and what duels they were. It was nothing short of exciting and that just made Angelo anxious. He wanted to duel someone bad right now so he could get in on the action. He watched as Ethel lost but it was sweet how her opponent was nice about it. Now Angelo watched waiting for his named to be called up so he could show everyone the power of working together...
Mary had been on the bus with the rest of the students. She didn't do much the entire trip. She remained quiet and mature, unlike some rowdy others. Upon the bus stopping, Mary charged out of the bus first. After all, she had forgotten to go to the washroom before going on the bus. After charging out of the bus and almost getting into the building, she remembered about her bag. She backtraced and waited for the driver to hand her the large bag, and then charged towards the washroom.
Upon leaving the washroom and entering the main foyer, she went to where they were assigning decks and packs. Most of the good decks had been taken by the more... serious students. Mary was upset, but her emotions were instantly diverted upon seeing the box art of one of the newly released deck packs: Tomatoes of Wrath - a deck so bad that they almost didn't release it. Mary asked the man for the deck and the man confusingly gave her the deck, wondering why anyone would pick it. The man assigning decks then asked if she wanted a pack, but by the time he looked up, Mary had vanished.
Mary had just walked off, to be honest. Not really a ninja technique. Really, more like a powerwalk. She walked towards the table with the paperwork and then filled in the blanks. Name? Mary Ael. Full name? Mary spent a while writing it. Mary then made her choice on a duel disk; she ended up choosing the simplest looking one (the standard academy style). Mary then wandered off to observe the various duelists.
The academy was grand, in many, many ways. One such way was the amount of students attending, another was the sheer size and another was the decoration. Despite all of it, Akemi was left un-phased; she had come here to study the academy, not to be drawn in by its awe. The young girl reflected on the choices she made up until this point, stood up with the echo of her name reverberating in her mind. It was almost a dream - it almost seemed professional. How fortunate the ninja had been to have obtained a deck that was of her favourite archetype, as well as two cards from her pack that she could immediately put in her deck. Akemi, eyes wide and a smile of confidence, strode to her podium with vigour and bravery towards her first duel in this foreign location.
"Watch out coming through!" Hayate yelled as she run past numerous students as she raced to the arena even though there was enough time but she can't let anyone waiting may it be her opponent or not, and as she arrived at the arena but couldn't stop in time to not crash into her "nononononoonooooo" she yelled before crashing into the girl she was supposed to meet
The sudden impact took her by surprise, ruining Akemi's balance and causing her to flail her arms wildly as an attempt to not fall down - fortunately she was successful in doing so. "Careful where you head."
"erm... sorry about that" Hayate bowed to apologize "you alright then? no broken bones no cards lost nothing?" Hayate asked
"Don't worry about it, everything seems to be here." The girl, brushed her clothing, before initiating conversation once more. "I'm guessing you're my opponent?"
"Hayate Ray at your service!" Hayate said with a big smile "sister to Hayato Ray!" she added even though it didn't matter that much "You are my opponent then!"
"Glad to meet you; my name's Akemi Ael, attending this school along with a few other family relatives. We should probably head up to the podiums to begin our duel." Akemi was courteous enough, however she was quite eager to begin and gave a small wave before heading to the dueling area.
Hayate simply walked towards the dueling area honestly she wanted to run there but she wouldn't look very professional if she did as she arrived to the dueling arena she stood there ready to duel and simply said "Good luck!" in respect even if it was a bit too cheerful
The ninja giggled at the response, before the announcer began the countdown until finally the duel began.
Akemi draws, quickly surveying the card before deciding on what to do for her first move, which would begin with the arrival of a monster in attack position. "I hope this duel's fun; I summon Rose Paladin!" A woman clad in armour arrived on the battle field, ready to attack. Of course, Akemi did, prompting the Divine Dragon Apoclaryph to be flipped face up briefly before being sent to the grave. "Next, I activate Rose Paladin's effect and tribute her, summoning Sylvan Hermitree from my deck in defense position aaand afterwards, I end my turn."
"Card Draw!" Hayate exclaimed and looked at the opposing field "i cannot take any risks here so i active SWORDS OF REVEALING LIGHT!" in just a flash swords of light fell from the skies in front of Akemi "and with that i end my turn"
"I draw." She quickly scanned the card and nodded to herself, placing it face-down on the field. Then, she pondered for another few moments before deciding to activate 'Hermitree's effect'.
"Alright, so this guy lets me excavate a card. If it's a plant type monster, then it goes to the grave, otherwise it goes to the bottom of my deck, like a true circle of life." Turning over the card, it was revealed to be Sylvan Charity; Akemi rolled her eyes before placing it on the bottom of the her deck. "Not so much luck for me there, I guess." Afterwards, she decides to play 'Pot of Duality'. "Gotta love excavating, it's what all the greatest explorers do." Three cards were revealed; 'Mount Sylvania', 'Sylvan Komushroomo' and 'Imperial Iron Wall'. "Alright, I'll take the field spell and immediately play it!" The scenery around her changed to become the mountain displayed in the card. "I won't activate it yet, but for now I'll set another monster and flip my Hermitree into attack position! I end my turn."
"Draw!" Hayate exclaimed again full of energy and watched some of the swords fade away and simply states "Turn end" thinking to herself that the only thing she needs to do is draw her blue-eyes
"Hmmm." Akemi wasn't sure what this girl was playing at; relying on Swords of Revealing Light to not be targeted at all was very risky. Of course, she'd forgotten to activate her field spell, which was quite rough as it was a rookie mistake. Her draw happened too quickly to note.
"I begin by setting another card down." She tapped the end of her chin with her right index finger. "Theeen I activate Mount Sylvania's primary effect and discard Talaya to the grave to place a Sylvan card from my deck on to the top of it." Sylvan Komushroom was seen in card form before being placed on the top of the deck. "Then, I flip up my Princessprout and activate her effect, which means that I can tribute her to excavate the top card of my deck and send it to the graveyard, then add a 'sprout' monster from my grave to the top of my deck, but this includes the gal herself!" Komushroomo gets excavated to the grave whilst Princessprout makes a brief trip there before returning to the top of the deck. "Of course, this in turn activates Komushroomo's effect where I can destroy one spell or trap card! I select your facedown!"
"Well there goes my backup plan" Hayate didnt seem to bothered by it but she had to mention it
Akemi shrugged at the response, "Damn, at least your Plan A is intact! But I'm not done yet." She snickered, before continuing her move. "I activate 'Hermitree's' effect and excavate the top card, if it's a plant type, like I said, it goes to the grave and I draw one more card. Else, it gets put to the bottom of the deck. Of course, we know who it is." Sylvan Princessprout was excavated, however after drawing a card, the Sprout's secondary effect activated and she was once more on the field. "I declare her to be... Level 8! Now, what comes next is the icing on the cake." Akemi overlayed the two cards, before Xyz summoning Alsei, The Sylvan High Protector in defense position. "Now, finally, I activate his effect and declare the card name..." Her mind thought about all of the cards in her deck for a moment. "Mirror Force!" She frowned when she was wrong, when a Glow-Up Bulb was sent to the grave, but it didn't matter. She had a meat shield. "Finally, I end my turn."
"c'mon c'mon c'mon..." She muttered to herself as she drew her card and simply said nothing and placed a monster in defence position but it was noticeable she was slightly excited seeing the card she drew "turn end"
"I draw." Akemi smirked - this duel was really fun, for her at least. "I activate Sylvania's effect again, placing Sylvan Marshalleaf on the top of my deck. Next, I summon Sylvan Flowerknight and excavate my Marshalleaf, which activates his effect so I can destroy one of your monsters, of course there's only one there." The girl nodded at the destruction of the Maiden. "Next I activate Alsei's effect again and ask for Mirror Force again." Unfortunately, it wasn't, however it was Peaskeeper, meaning she could summon a Level 4 or lower plant type monster from her grave. "Thanks to these peas in a pod, I get to summon Rose Paladin!" The woman appeared once more, with her large spear. "Now, I end once more."
"Draw..." Hayate said as she saw the swords now fade away entirely and looked at the card in her hand and simply said "ok you win... here you go have a Kaibaman in attack position" and promptly ended her turn
Yet another mute draw from Akemi, as she pondered as to why a Kaibaman would be out in the open against her monsters. "Okay... Well, let's just skip to the attack phase." Her first main phase ended, quickly, but she kept Alsei in defense position as a pre-measure. "Rose Paladin, attack Kaibaman!" The lancer brought up her arm ready for the attack.
"Playing it safe, huh... HONEST'S EFFECT ACTIVATES!" Hayate shouted revealing honest and placing it in the grave
Suddenly, Honest's light appeared from the sky and shone directly on to Kaibaman, increasing his attack and destroying Rose Paladin. "Hmph, I should've expected as much. Well, moving on to the second main phase, I activate two spells; the first is Swords of Revealing light," Once more, swords cracked the sky, but adjacent to where they were before, "And Pot of Duality!" Two Sylvan Sagequoias, as well as a Terraforming, were revealed to the audience. "Since I've already got a field spell, I'll go for one of the twins." One of the trees manifested itself into a card in her hand, whilst the other two disappeared. "Now, I end my turn."
"phew i managed to survive another turn" Hayate said drawing her card "This might be it... I activate Trade-In and send Rabidragon from my hand to the graveyard to draw 2 cards" Drawing her two cards she looked at the 2 cards and simply set a facedown still hoping for a better outcome for the following turns "i switch kaibaman to defense position and end my turn"
"Draw, once more." The girl considered what to do. There were many ways to win this turn, but she also felt sorry for Hayate and her bad luck; being the considerate person she is, Akemi decided to make it last one more turn, at least. "I end my turn."
"Draw?" Hayate called out confused she knew she was in a bad state but she could still make things happen... "erm... i set a card facedown and end my turn" she said as she set a card facedown on the field slightly confused and ended her turn Wondering if her opponent was being nice or just mocking her.
"Okay. I draw." Akemi flicked the card up to her eyes with her right index and middle finger, before tilting her head forward and closing her eyes; deciding how to finish the duel. "First, I activate my field spell and send Glow-up Bulb to the graveyard so that I can place Sylvan Sagequoia on the top of my deck." The small bulb quickly appeared before shattering away, before a card was shuffled to the top of the deck. "Now, I summon Sylvan Marshalleaf and excavate exactly one card from my deck; since it's Sylvan Sagequoia, I now get to activate the effects of two of my monsters."
"First, I activate Alsei's effect of removing one of the Xyz material to target one card on the field and sending it to the top or bottom of the deck - I choose for your face-down card to go to the bottom of your deck, since a card was removed from my deck and sent to the graveyard." The girl pointed daringly at the card, before it was removed from the field. "Now, because that card was a Sylvan card and it wasn't destroyed during the damage step, I get to summon Sylvan Sagequoia from my hand!" The tall, wise larch tree rose from the ground, primed for battle, whilst Akemi breathed in heavily. "Time to move on to the battle phase."
"To begin with, I target your Kaibaman with Marshalleaf!" The little leaf-man strode over, ready to whack the man standing defensively, of course it was successful and the small attack shattered him. "Now, Sagequoia and Alsei, finish this battle!" Firstly, the tree that seemed to adorn glasses began striding over, about to hit.
"Kunai with chain!" Hayate simply called out fully expecting to lose anyways "Kunai with chain lets me set one of your monsters to defense position but... i'm sure i lost... it was awfully one-sided..." Hayate simply put her hand on the deck instead of waiting for a response.
The monsters and cards projected on to the field, as well as the mountain, all disappeared instantly. "Yeah, I'm sorry. I'd love to duel you again some time on equal footing." Akemi began to stride over to the other girl, "See you around!" She smiled amicably.
Hayate nodded, offered a handshake and took out a piece of paper and handed it to Akemi stating "Thanks for the duel, maybe we can duel again" and followed up by running off full with energy back to the stands
Before the other girl's exit, Akemi managed to accept the handshake with respect, giving Hayate an understanding nod of her head, before she let go of her palm. "Time to begin school." The ninja gazed up at the stands, before disappearing within the blink of an eye back to them.
Both fought a good battle, however Hayate did not receive enough good draws to combat the overwhelming strength of the combos that Akemi continued to make and as such suffered until finally surrendering.
Andre walked down slowly towards the arena his harmonica producing the same unnerving tune that it had produced when he got up. As he walked towards the center of the arena he could feel the eyes of the students around him poking at him making him feel even more annoyed. Of course they'd feel that way with the music he was playing. He could even see a couple of the girls in the corner looking a bit scared and more than a few people were uneasy. As he placed his foot on the first step he paused his music for a moment. With that he looked around the arena with a distant and cold gaze to punctuate the statement he wanted to give. And when he coutinued up the steps he breathed in deeply and did the last tune of his little song. Andre stopped after that and looked towards where his opponent was at. Waiting to see if he had anything to say to him before the duel started. Andre certainly wanted to tell the kid something himself.
Haas was positively dragging himself through the hallway, scratching the back of his neck and fiddling with his shirt. The nerves man, the NERVES! They were really getting to him. It didn't help that Haas wasn't... That... Great of a duelist. Still, he has GOT to try... Finally they reached a short section leading into the arena itself, seeing his oponnent arriving at about the same time playing... A harmonica? Well, that was unusual. And creepy. Actually, really creepy now that he looked at the other. His entire garb seemed hostile towards other people, and their eyes were almost as if they didn't want to be here. Uh... How do you deal with this kind of person? Maybe some friendliness? "Um. Hi there!" Haas started off, feeling like this was going to hell and back already. "So, you're Andre, huh? You're probably a lot better than me at this, haha... Still, don't want you to go easy on me! Show me what you've got!" The boy grinned, then raised up the disk to chest-level height. The nerves seemed to fade rather quickly, and Haas' blood started boiling. Man, he couldn't wait!
Andre looked at the boy with a renewed sense of annoyance. All the expectations he had fostered for his enemy were suddenly thrown out the window like so many bad pieces of paper in a college essay. Of course he'd get the bumpkin to deal with. Now he'd be known for being 'that guy' if he seemed like a complete dick to the kid. Whatever he still had no problem making a statement. "Kid I want to make a couple things really clear to you. First off being that I had no intention of going easy on anyone. In this world it's the survival to the fittest. I learned that a long time ago and dueling is just the same as a gun fight. First to get an advantage is usually the victor. Second this duel is going to be quick. One way or another this will probably be a quick duel. Either I bleed myself out or you get smashed by my monsters. The chances of this lasting more than eight turns is pretty slim. Unless the 'heart of the cards' see too it we both get awful starting hands. I want you to show me what you're made of kid. But don't worry this ain't some underground duel. I don't intend to kill you. BUT I may very well end up hurting you very...very....bad."
Andre said in a long winded explanation of the situation as he pulled up his own duel disk and prepared for the on slaughter. He wanted to see if these' archfiends' lived up to their names. Demons...demons don't like to lose. Demons thrived on pain and suffering and losers aren't usually able to enjoy such things. He wouldn't fail the cards if he lost. The Cards would fail him. "So are you ready for this? Haas?" Andre asked the boy with indifference in his voice. He spoke without malice or anger merely seeing the kid act the way he had was enough to put that sort of thing out of Andre's mind.
What... Was that speech supposed to accomplish? Duels are for one, nothing like a gun fight. A gun fight is over in a few seconds, dueling lasts quite a but longer than that. And hurting him through it...? This wasn't an action field, so how were those holograms going to pack a punch? This other kid was really... weird. But they sounded strong... Oh man, Haas couldn't wait. "Alllright! Let's do this!" He said excitedly, then pressed the button to activate his Duel Disk.
...
'ERROR, ERROR.' it alerted, fully audible for the entire room to hear. Haas' face lit up a little. "...Erm... Ehehe... Hold on a second..." they sheepishly said, taking it off and starting to inspect it top-to-bottom. Nothing seemed to be WRONG with it... At one point, Haas decided to take out his deck and, to his surprise, his extra deck cards were still in there. Oooooh man. Thiiiis was embarrasing. So embarrasing, in fact, you could hear some in the crowd giggling, or even laughing outright. Haas just sorta... Fixed it without saying anything, sliding the cards into the provided compartment, then equipping the disk again.
"...Ready when you are!" The boy tried to come over as cheery when he said that, trying to give his best smile. This time, the disk activated without a problem.
"I've been ready Haas. Show me what your power can do or fall to mine." Andre said plainly to the boy as he reached out his hand toward the enemy and activated the duel disk. It clattered and opened without issue as Andre prepared himself for the oncoming duel. For good or for worse this kid would decide his placement. He didn't care about placement but he knew his brother would make light of the fact that he went under. He would do his damnest to win. As the coin flip settled Andre called tails and was chosen to pick who would go first. Deciding the extra card was worth more than setting up an archfiend offensive. He wanted the card advantage because he had no idea what his opponent was wielding.
"Duel!"
Turn 1: Haas Andre 4000 LP, 5 cards in Hand Haas 4000 LP, 5 cards in Hand
Haas coudln't wait, fanning out the five cards he picked up from the top of his deck. Alright, what was among them... Eh, the guy could work with this. It wasn't the worst thing in the world. "Alright, to start off, I'm summoning my Wind-Up Soldier!" The boy slid his card onto the disk, the holographic projection following soon after. A small, rainbow-coloured Vortex opened up in front of Haas and a little green toy soldier popped out. It had a magnet built into it's head, and was armed with two blunt pincers as weapons.
"Now I activate my Shard of Greed and Supply Squad! Though you seem to know what you're doing, huh? I'll save you the explanation. I'll set a card, then it's the end of my turn!" The guy slid his S/T card into the middle zone, followed by a card back apearing to signal it's been put on the field. Both Shard of Greed and Supply Squad materialized next to it, showing their image standing face-up in the direction of Andre. Haas' grin didn't leave, and he was eager to see what the opponent had in store for him.
Turn 2: Andre Andre 4000 LP, 6 cards in Hand Haas 4000 LP, 1 card in Hand, 1 Face-up Monster, 2 Face-up S/T, 1 Set S/T
Andre looked at his hand and grunted it could've been worse but it could've been better as well. All in all he was happy with it. He looked at his deck, "Fail me at your own lesiure. But if I lose you're going down too." Andre said to it as he pulled his first card out. Chuckling he showed it to his opponent, "Yeah I know what your cards do. But do you know mine? I activate the coutinous magic card veil of darkness. Here's how it works, by playing it I can discard a dark monster to the grave if I draw it to draw one more card. I can also chain it if I draw again. But I won't be using it this turn." Andre said as he played the card and a swirl of darkness unfolded around the duelist as he then looked back to his other cards.
"Now I'd like to welcome you to hell kid. I activate the field card Pandemonium!" Andre shouted as he activated the field slot and slide the card in. Suddenly the arena around them turned to something out of a horror movie. Behind Andre erupted a massive stream of unholy orange light and the floor turned green. A cloud emerged out of nowhere above them and lightning sparked around them. An orange tint came into focus around them. "I bet you know what's coming now that I played that...I call upon my monster Archfiend Soldier in attack mode!"
"My Archfiend Soldier isn't a special monster but what he does is more than special enough. With 1900 attack points he has just enough to plow through most monsters that are on his level. And with him in his home territory I'm more than willing to give you a wacking! Archfiend Soldier Hellfire Assault!" Andre growled as he entered the battle phase and attacked with his soldier intending to break the wind-up soldier.
"No, it won't! I activate my trap! Negate attack!" Haas cried out, quickly tapping the button on his disk to make the face-down card flip up and show itself. A gust of wind circled in front of Wind-Up Soldier, Archfiend Soldier's claw getting caught up in it and forcing it backwards. "I think the card explains itself pretty well. I stop your attack, and the Battle Phase!"
Andre looked on in annoyance. He was hoping it'd destroy his monster not just negate the attack and battle phase. Whatever he still had his soldier at his back and he was set up for numerous other plays with Veil of Darkness. Hopefully he didn't dead draw something otherwise it may get ugly. Wind Ups love their Xyz plays. "Fine then my monster is still on the field. I have nothing left to do. I end my turn Haas."
Turn 3: Haas Andre 4000 LP, 3 cards in Hand, 1 Face Up Monster, 1 Face up Spell/Trap, 1 Field Spell Haas 4000 LP, 2 cards in Hand, 1 Face-up Monster, 2 Face-up S/T
"Aaaalright then. My turn, and Draw!" The shard of greed card suddenly started laughing, and a purple mist was leaking from it for whatever reason. "My Shard of greed now gains one Greed Counter. Hope for you it doesn't gain another!" Though, that being said, the teenage boy was probably going to need it. The shard of greed, that is. His two cards in hand weren't going to help out all that much...
"Well, I'll start with activating my Wind-Up Soldier's effect. It gains four-hundred attack, and a level. Now it's more than a match for your Archfiend, right?" The little toy soldier seemed to nod in agreement with Haas, the used one of its arms to grab the key on its back. There were a few... Issues... With this plan, and it was struggling quite a bit to get the key all wound up. Eventually it seemed to get it working though, turning the key around a few times and starting to gain a flicker of life.
Wind-Up Soldier ATK 1800 > 2200
"Battle phase! Wind-Up Soldier, go for the Archfiend!" The toy responded by rushing up and trying to... Tackle the damn thing. One would assume it'd use the grabbing claws, but those were a little blunt. And small. Speaking of small, the archfiend was nearly double the Soldier's size, so when they rammed in there to shatter them shoulder-first it looked a little comical to say the least. After a mission well done, the soldier celebrated by happily jumping up and down, even with a little twirl.
Andre felt the air around him blow around him as his soldier was vanquished. He was less than impressed and he frowned as his life points were docked by 300. He'd come back soon enough but each life point was vital to a duel.
Andre LP 4000 > 3700
The Wind-Up soldier returned to its rightful spot on the field, crossing ther arms and grinning at the success. Haas raised an eyebrow though. "...Erm, you okay man? You seem to be having quite a case of... Uh... Seriousness." Still, that's for another time. "Anyway, that's the end of my turn, and also the end of Wind-Up Soldier's effect." With that announcement, the little green toy's eyes became dull, the smug smile vanishing and it took their regular pose again.
Wind-Up Soldier ATK 2200 > 1800
Turn 4: Andre Andre 3700 LP, 4 cards in Hand, 1 Face up Spell/Trap, 1 Field Spell Haas 4000 LP, 2 cards in Hand, 1 Face-up Monster, 2 Face-up S/T
Andre already had a card to deal with this guy but he knew better than to let his head get too far ahead of him. He drew a card and looked at it. He could activate the veil to discard it but he didn't want to. Instead he put the card into his hand and pulled out another one. "Good job getting over my soldier...but he's just the vanguard! Here comes the cavalry! Archfiend style! I call upon my Archfiend Cavalry!"
Archfiend Cavalry 1900 Atk / 0 Def
"I could've gone a bit higher with my bid but I didn't feel the need to. So let's try this again shall we Haas? My monster attacks Hell Lancer Shot!" Andre called as he sent his mounted soldier forward as the beast howled mixed with the hellish thunder around them made for quite the terrifying sight. The monster charged at the soldier with it's lance aimed directly at the toy's head.
Wind-Up Soldier jumped up in surprise, looking around to try and find a way out. Unfortunately, the Cavalry was too fast and pierced right through the poor thing's skull, revealing the clockwork inside as it scattered all around the field. Soon after the toy soldier shattered, alongside some of Haas' Lifepoints.
Haas LP 4000 > 3900
"Ngh... Okay, that was a good one. But now, my Supply Squad activates! When a monster I control is des-" Before Haas could finish his little speech, out of the card rushed a convoy, piloted by the members of the Goblin Attack Force. They deperatly searched around for any remaining pixels, loaded them up, then ran straight up back into the Supply Squad Card. "...Okay, I just get to draw a card..." Man, Haas' cards didn't seem to like him talking very much. He picked the top card of his deck up, then put it into his hand.
"Don't presume to tell me what that card does. Anyone worth his merit has at least heard of that card. As for your cards. Pray that they help you. I will be vindicated by the end of this duel one way or another. I have no more cards to play so I'll end my turn. Go ahead and draw your two cards Haas. And one more for your draw phase."
Turn 5: Haas Andre 3700 LP, 3 cards in Hand, 1 Face-Up Monster, 1 Face up Spell/Trap, 1 Field Spell Haas 3900 LP, 4 cards in Hand, 2 Face-up S/T
"Alright, Draw!" Haas picked up the top card, then the shard started laughing even louder. So loud, in fact, the shard pictured on the card came out and shattered from the thing. "Well... You're not a fan of explanations, so I won't bother you with one." Haas drew the two cards he got, then felt a little disheartened. Six cards and nothing that'd get him out of this one. Still, it wouldn't do the boy much good to sit there and refuse to play anything. "I'll summon my Wind-Up Kitten, in all its cute glory!" Another vortex opened, and out... Actually, nothing came out for a few seconds. Then a tired-looking toy kitten, orange paint and quite the blocky appearancen, rolled out. It then decided to take a nap.
"Aw, cmon. don't be like that! I'll wind up it's key!" The golden spring key turned and turned on Kitten's back, it opening their eyes and yawning. The yawn was then so absurdly cute, Archfiend Cavalry couldn't help but jump back into Andre's hand.
"Wind-Up Kitten allows me to return one of your monster's to the hand, and they just can't bring themselves to lay a finger on it while it does! Now, Battle Phase! Wind-Up Kitten, attack directly!" Haas commanded, pointing the kitten to Andre as it rolled up to try and nibble on their ankle.
Andre LP 3700 > 2900
After the job was done, the kitty closed its eyes again for another nap. "Well, I end my turn with one more set card. You're up." Haas slid the card in, the brown back revealing itself.
Turn 6: Andre Andre 2900 LP, 5 cards in Hand, 1 Face up Spell/Trap, 1 Field Spell Haas 3900 LP, 4 cards in Hand, 1 Face-Up Monster, 1 Face-up S/T, 1 Set S/T
"You're pissing me off now kid!" Andre growled as he returned his archfiend to his hand as he prepared to draw another card. He drew the card and to his distaste it was absolutely worthless for the moment. He put the card to his hand and looked at what he had. "I bet you're expecting my to return my monster. I'm not. I summon a bigger guy. I summon Archfiend General in attack mode! Prepare yourself for war!"
"That cat of yours is going all the way to hell! Swing with the darkness blade of war! Archfiend General show him your might! Blade of Pandemonium!" Andre shouted as he sent his monster after the cat it's wings flowing behind it as it sped quickly towards the cat.
"Quickplay magic, Wind-Up Key! It turns my face-up Wind-ups face-down!" Haas quickly reacted, the kitten getting slammed under a card back out of nowhere. The general sliced the thing in half, revealing a kitten crying oil before vanishing. Out again came the supply squad, salvaging what they can before returning home and letting Haas draw his card. "I can't save my Kitten, but I can save my Lifepoints."
"Bah fine draw your card! I place one card face down from my hand into the spell and trap zone. I end my turn."
Turn 7: Haas Andre 2900 LP, 3 cards in Hand, 1 Face-Up Monster, 1 Face up Spell/Trap, 1 Set Spell/Trap, 1 Field Spell Haas 3900 LP, 6 cards in Hand, 1 Face-up S/T
"Alright, Draw!" Haas scanned the card he drew quickly, then sighed in annoyance. Still nothing. Time to pull an old trick again... "Well, I don't want to make you angry, but..." Haas showed the card he was about to play to Andre. A second Wind-Up cat he had since last turn. Haas didn't bother to announce the summon, as almost exactly the same thing happened as last time. "And now... Archfiend General returns to your hand." Wind-Up Kitten let out another yawn, directed to General to try and return it to Andre's hand.
"Congradulations you can return monsters back to my hand like those Yosenju Cards. Do you feel proud of yourself kiting me with a mechanical feline!?" Andre muttered in disgust as he felt he was in for a long duel. Of course...he had predicted turn eight this would end and there was no way that was happening now.
"Erm... Sorry, man. Wind-Up Kitten, go and Direct Attack!" Wind-Up Kitten rolled up and nibbled Andre's ankles again, trying to claw a bit of fabric off of their pants too. Unfortunately, it was just a hologram so revenge was unable to be taken.
Andre LP 2900 > 2100
"Alright, I'll set two cards and end my turn. Are uh... You okay there?" Haas had to make sure again. This person was taking things way too seriously... The card backs materialized next to Supply Squad, and the turn was back to Andre.
Turn 8: Andre Andre 2900 LP, 5 cards in Hand, 1 Face up Spell/Trap, 1 Set Spell/Trap, 1 Field Spell Haas 3900 LP, 3 cards in Hand, 1 Face-up Monster, 1 Face-up S/T, 2 Set S/T
"Come on give me something I can use damn you!" Andre demanded of his deck as he drew his next card with vindication. The card he drew...was useful. But not in the way he would've liked. "I guess I'll activate this card now! Shuffle Reborn!" Andre said as he tapped the button of the card he placed face down revealing the card as a little goblin like zombie marched out of it. "I have no monsters on the field so I can special summon my archfiend soldier in defense mode to the field. However he'll be banished by the end turn. But he's not what I'm aiming for. I sacrifice him to summon the commander of my legions. Archfiend Commander enter the frey!"
Andre's soldier reappeared and vanished in an instant as a monster arrived on the field. A horrifying monster with it's pink muscles showing and a sturdy exoskeleton. It's eyes glowered at the cat with hunger.
"You know what's coming don't you? Archfiend Commander attacks! Command of Horror's Wrath!" The monster charged with it's hands extended it's terrifying claws aiming to rip apart the cat's head.
Haas raised up his arms to shield himself from the incoming debris, Wind-Up Kitten getting shred to pieces by the relentless, fierce Commander. Supply squad rushed out again, but this time, had to wait on Archfiend Commander to finish it's little game. It threw the lifeless piece of plastic to the floor, alongside its golden key. It shattered, with Supply Squad collecting the scraps.
Haas LP 3900 > 2200
"Now not even your wind up soldier can save you from my monster's wrath. Let's see what you got next Haas. I end my turn."
Turn 9: Haas Andre 2900 LP, 3 cards in Hand, 1 Face-up Monster, 1 Face up Spell/Trap, 1 Set Spell/Trap, 1 Field Spell Haas 2200 LP, 5 cards in Hand, 1 Face-up S/T, 2 Set S/T
Okay... Things were starting to look pretty bad for Haas. "My turn! Draw!" He cried out, swiping the card and hoping it was something good. It wasn't. "...Urgh. Looks like you're up again real soon. I set a card and a monster, then it's your turn again." Two cards appeared on Haas' field, one in the S/T zone and one in the Monster zone.
Turn 10: Andre Andre 2900 LP, 4 cards in Hand, 1 Face-up Monster, 1 Face up Spell/Trap, 1 Set Spell/Trap, 1 Field Spell Haas 2200 LP, 3 cards in Hand, 1 Face-up S/T, 3 Set S/T
Andre drew his card and he smiled. He couldn't help but feel luck was finally on his side. He placed the card face down on the spell trap slot and then looked up to Haas. "Your time in hell is about to be over. Because we're about to play a game!" Andre said with an evil smile as he removed pandemonium from his field spell slot and put it into the graveyard. "I activate CHICKEN GAME!"
"I chain my face-down, Dust tornado!" Haas quickly reacted, breathing heavely as a storm flew up to wipe that card off the map.
"Huh, fine I was just going to draw a card from that anyway. I'll save those life points. And I'll activate my THIRD field spell card. Where horror lies dormant and the king reigns supreme in his darkness. I play Archfiend Palabyrinth! Each archfiend monster on my field gets 500 attack points!"
"I chain my face-down, Mystical Space Typhoon!" Haas snickered, another card flying up and getting it stuck in another whirlwind. Palabyrinth was also kicked into next Sunday.
"That's annoying but fine. I still got one more trick up my sleeve! I call back Archfiend Cavalry!"
Archfiend Cavalry 1900 Atk / 0 Def
"Then I discard my General to bring my second Pandemonium to my hand! And I'll activate it!" Andre said as he brought up his monster and discarded it and brought the field card from his deck to his hand then shuffled his deck before putting it back it and replaying the spell card he had discarded a moment ago. "Got anything for that!? I bet you don't! You'll wish you saved those two cards in a moment!" Andre said as he smiled as the scenery returned with the darkness clouding the arena. "Now then Archfiend Cavalry will attack your face down! And if that goes through Archfiend Commander attacks directly!"
The face-down card revealed itself to be Wind-Up Dog, a monster that couldn't withstand the stampeding knight. "Ah. Damn." He rubbed the back of his neck, Archfiend Commander coming in for the final blow to reduce Haas' Lifepoints down to 0. The commander grabbed Haas by the collar of his shirt, then threw the boy down to the floor a meter or so further. Somehow.
Haas LP 2200 > 0
WINNER: ANDRE
"WHOA!" Haas cried out, landing with a solid *THUMP* onto the floor. It hurt his back quite a bit, the field around the two duelists dissapating. Archfiend commander gave out one last, and quite frankly, creepy laugh before it vanished as well. Some audience members gasped at the sight, but Haas didn't seem too bothered. In fact he was... Laughing? Yeah, no, he was definately laughing. The boy got up with a smile, rubbing the back of his neck again and looking over towards Andre. "See, told you you'd win. That was fun, man. You're really good."
Andre breathed in deeply as he looked up at the ceiling and breathed in calmly. He was finally done with all of this nonsense. The kid had just put in enough to withstand the onslaughter for a moment. As the crowd started to stare at him he looked back at them with a blank stare before looking back at his opponent who had referenced his dueling ability. "I'm good but not the best. Luck played a part in my victory today. Your drawing power wouldn't have saved you though. I drew Skill Drain and I would've run you over with Commander with or without my fields. Your monsters rely on their effects more than mine. Remember that next time you duel. Don't chain your effects so quickly. But fine good game kid...and if you want to see someone better than me. My brother Ben is still to come. I'm going to go get something to drink. I guess I'll see you around Haas." Andre said as he pulled out his Harmonica and started to play that creepy song again as his duel disk turned off and he walked back down the hall the music trailing behind him. He knew people would be speaking of him after that display. He hoped it wasn't going to be a problem in the future.
Someone better than him, huh? Well, that'd be interesting to see. Maybe Haas would like to pay attention to that... "Yeah, see you around!" Haas shouted from behind, waving even if no-one'd see it. He put up a good enough fight there, right? The guy exited the arena, looking over to the screen hanging in the middle quickly to see the result of Hayate's duel while he was at it.
Once both duels were over, the speakers started to flare up again as a familiar voice rang out to greet the students' ears again. "ROUND TWO IS OVER!" Melchior greeted, "We have seen some amazing card play again folks! Over in Arena one we have witnessed the struggle between Plant and Dragon, with both sides giving it their all! At first the match had been slow, but once Akemi was able to play her field spell card she had put Hayate on a timer. The dragon tamer had tried to sturden her defenses, but the Sylvan power was too strong! Once Akemi had performed her Xyz Summon there was nothing Hayate could do! She had tried one last effort with a Kaibaman Honest combo, but it wasn't enough! Akemi had skipped a turn for some reason, but the one following that had a relentless offense which ended with a surrender from Hayate. Congratulations, Akemi!" The announcer finished up the summary of the first duel, then went on to the second.
"Next was the struggle between Fiend and Toy! Haas and Andre dueled with the full extent of their might. Haas had set up a strong field to withstand the ruthless onslaught of Fiends, doing everything he could to try and stop their attacks! Unfortunately for Haas, whenever he got rid of one card another appeared. Even with the overwhelming advantage Supply Squad and Shard of Greed gave him, the furious attacks from Andre's archfiends proved too much to mount an effective defense against! Andre, Congratulations!"
The screens in the middle of the room showed the faces of the winners for a moment, then switched back to the list of names again. "Oooh! It seems the higher-ups can't wait to see another duel! If I'm honest, neither can I, so let's see who is going to be up next! Name link, go!" The list of names popped back up again, this time a boy named Leander being the first to search out an opponent. His name linked with Hayato, the screens flashing up for a second to show the two duelists their respective opponents. "HERE IT IS! The first Duel for round three will go to LEANDER and HAYATO! Duelists, make your way over to the arena! We can't wait to see what you'll show us!"
The next link started again, this time someone named Vincent being the first to search out something. It connected with Zacharie, someone the boy had met earlier. Both their names and pictures flashed up on their screen, making it official they fight each other. "WE HAVE OUR MATCH-UPS PEOPLE! The second duel of round three goes to VINCENT GULFUS AND ZACHARIE BEAU! Duelists of Round three, show us your duels and do your best!"
The corners of Ethel's mouth raised up ever so slightly when she saw the match-ups flare up on the screen. Finally, everyone who was around her would go and leave temporarily in one go, so she finally has some peace of mind and isn't constantly bothered by everyone. Her legs were crossed with the Duels Disk resting atop her lap. "Good luck." She called out to the three boys, not really wishing them that but merely signalling how satisfied she was with them being off to duel.
Haas whistled when he saw Hayate had lost. Seems like rooting for each other didn't work out so well, huh... Speaking of which, he couldn't find the girl anywhere. Did she find her brother or something? Ah, not like it mattered. He took a spot somewhere up high, changing his perspective somewhat and leaning against the wall. He'd have a good view of both dueling fields from here. Though somehow Haas got the feeling people were staring at him... Was it because of his duel just now? Couldn't be, right...?
Leander watched both duels with interest. It seemed like everyone chose interesting decks to Duel with. Well, there was nothing more fun than great decks. Finally, there came the announcement that he would be Dueling. His full attention turned to the screen, where his name came up, along with his opponent: Hayato. Whoever he was, it was going to be great. Leander got up from his seat and made his way through the path to the Arena, humming some random tune as he walked.
Upon making his way out of the entrance to the Duel stages, he looked up and saw everyone in their seats, either staring at him or doing whatever else they were doing. Leander smiled and waved at the audience with his right arm as he walked to where he needed to go.
Hayato sighed slightly disappointed after seeing Hayate's struggle to stay alive ending up in vain. He knew himself that a good duelist is prepared for every scenario, thus a single trap wouldn't be able to stop that amount of power, and walked past the audience who commented on her sister's duel as if it was actually his. All he could do was just shrug it off as everyone told him his duel was already over. All he did was point at his coat as it was the only thing that telling them apart at the moment.
Hayato started to ponder about his duel. "If I lose... will I be placed in the same dorm as my sister?" Hayato thought about losing on purpose so he could accompany his sister, but quickly shook off the idea of losing. His pride wouldn't allow it anyways.
Arriving at the Duel Arena, he simply noticed his opponent already standing there. "I sure you hope you wont mistake me for her like the folks on my way here."
"I'm stupid, but I'm not that stupid," Leander said, still displaying his goofy grin. "Now then, this is our first Duel here, so I'll be nice and let you go first," Leander said with a thumbs up.
"Very well... kindness doesn't bide well with the samurai, you know," Hayato said proudly.
"Draw!" Leander yelled as he drew his next card. "I'll play a monster in face-down Defense Position, then play the Field Spell: Sanctuary in the Sky!" The area around them began to transform, the ground turning into a field of cloud, and a white temple appearing behind Leander. "Then I'll place 1 card face-down and end my turn," Leander ended.
"Draw!" Hayato called out as he drew his card. "I set a card face down and attack your facedown monster with Shien's Daredevil."
Leander braced himself as his monster was struck by the blow, briefly revealing an orange wreath with wings before disappearing. "You destroyed Nova Summoner, which allows me to activate its effect!" Leander said. "When Nova Summoner is destroyed by battle and sent to the Graveyard, I can Special Summon a Level 4 or lower LIGHT Fairy-type monster with 1500 ATK or less from my deck. HOWEVER, if Sanctuary in the Sky is on the field, I can Special Summon 'Airknight Parshath' instead!"
Airknight Parshath - Level 5, ATK 1900
"Interesting... with that I will end my turn" Hayato said as he ended his turn
"Draw!" Leander said as he drew his next card. "I now Summon Bountiful Artemis in Attack Position!"
Bountiful Artemis - Level 4, ATK 1600
"Not so fast, I shall activate my Trap first." Hayato revealed his facedown card to be Six Strike - Thunder Blast. "By removing one Bushido counter from my side of the field, I may destroy one monster of my choosing, or return one card to your hand, but I choose to destroy Airknight Parshath."
Leander shielded his eyes as a bolt of lightning came down and struck Airknight Parshath, forcing it to explode in a shower of shards. "Well that's just sad," Leander said. "Still, your monster loses 300 ATK because it doesn't have a counter anymore."
Shien's Daredevil - ATK 1900 --> ATK 1600
"That would not be a issue. Both of our monsters have 1600 ATK," Hayato claimed.
"Not with this, though!" Leander countered. "I activate the Equip Spell card: Cestus of Dagla!" A pair of blades appeared in each of Bountiful Artemis' hands. "This raises Artemis' ATK by 500!"
Bountiful Artemis - ATK 1600 --> ATK 2100
"Bountiful Artemis, attack Shien's Daredevil!" Leander commanded, the angel rushing over to strike down the samurai.
Hayato - 4000 LP --> 3500 LP
Hayato braced himself for the attack as he watched his Life Points tick away. "Not too bad... to face the sky itself, samurai will never give in if they still have their honor," Hayato started to get into the mood of the duel, so got any tricks up your sleeves?
"But of course," Leander said, smiling. "When a monster equipped with Cestus of Dagla deals battle damage to my opponent, I gain Life Points equal to the damage."
Leander - 4000 LP --> 4500 LP
"Samurai may not give in, but can they handle the pressure of the sky?" Leander asked. "Turn End."
"Draw!" Hayato called out and merely placed a card on the disk, just saying, "Dark Hole, swallow all in my path now!"
"I activate a Counter Trap: Magic Jammer!" Leander said, revealing one of his face-down cards. "By discarding one card, I can negate the activation and effect of a Spell card!" Leander discarded a "Terraforming" card, then a magic circle appeared in the middle of the field, energy crackling, and the Dark Hole closed without causing too much destruction. "Plus, when a Counter Trap is resolved, Bountiful Artemis lets me draw one card," Leander continued, drawing a card.
"Tsk... I'll set this monster in Defense Position and end my turn," Hayato didn't sound as if he was losing and just kept his cool at the last second.
"Draw!" Leander said, drawing his next card. "I hope you're ready for the strongest light! I Summon the Tuner monster, Squire Parshath!"
Squire Parshath - Level 1, ATK 100, Tuner
"Don't tell me you're going for a Synchro!"
"Thaaat's right!" Leander said cheerfully, smiling and raising his arms in a "Y" fashion.
"Then bring it forth!" Hayato said proudly as he never experienced Synchro before
"You got it!" Leander said. "I activate Squire Parshath's effect! Once per turn, I can change the Level of another LIGHT Fairy-type monster I control to anywhere between 1 and 7, so I change Bountiful Artemis' Level from 4 to 7!"
Bountiful Artemis - Level 4 --> Level 7
"For the grand appearance of the guardian of light! I Tune my Level 1 Squire Parshath with my Level 7 Bountiful Artemis!" Leander exclaimed as the two monsters turned to a single green ring and 7 white stars, respectively. "The one who radiates Light! Come forth and face our foes with our comrades in our minds! Synchro Summon! Level 8! Avenging Knight Parshath!" Leander chanted as the large, armored, white centaur warrior appeared on the field.
Avenging Knight Parshath - Level 8, ATK 2600
"Avenging Knight Parshath, strike down that face-down monster!" Leander commanded, the centaur galloping forward. "When Avenging Knight Parshath attacks a Defense Position monster, I can deal piercing battle damage!" Leander explained as the warrior swung his blade downward.
"Farewell, Shien's Footsoldier, and with that... My loss has arrived," Hayato sighed, as he didn't think of Summoning him first rather than the Daredevil.
Hayato - 1400 LP --> 0 LP
As the monsters and the Sanctuary faded, Leander walked over to Hayato and offered a handshake, flashing his smile like always.
"As we samurai should know, the only obstacle we can't reach is the heavens itself," accepting the handshake, "How about I introduce ya to my sister?" Hayato asked, thinking Hayate would appreciate a few friends.
"Sure," Leander said happily. "Lead the way!"
"Of course! Just don't get any funny ideas," Hayato joked as he lead him to where he saw his sister watch him.
Andre sat down next to a water fountain in the now mostly empty lobby outside. He grabbed a plastic cup and filled it up with cold water. He let his ego get to him out there. That Haas kid wasn't all too good but a bad hand or luck can kill anyone. Regardless he went through the entire duel and only lost one monster. And he may not have lost that one at all if Haas didn't open with a negate attack card. Of course he heard about the other duel over the speakers and he was sure if he had fought a bigger and tougher foe with monsters that actually could attack or fuse he'd have been in a pickle. All the same he didn't have to use his boss monsters once the whole duel, not that he could've he didn't draw them, but Commander was in it's own right a fearsome enemy capable of giving him card advantage. "Hey good job dude you put out one hell of an effort out there." Ben said suddenly as he caught his brother off guard as he approached him. "How would you know? You're in the first Arena. I was in the Second. I would've saw you if you were in my arena." Andre said almost immediately as he took a long sip of his water and poured a tiny amount of water on his hand and rubbed his head with it. It made him forget his headache. He really had gotten to wiled up. "Because the announcer said you did your job good. And when you get the ball rolling you get it rolling. I just hope I don't need to plow through my enemy like clay. My King isn't so fragile. If he opens up strong I may have no choice but to go for him early. And with 4000 life points the Sacred Noble Knight can win me a duel in two turns or less. Once I get him out on the field the duel is more or less guaranteed a victory for me at this level of dueling." Ben said as he sat down next to his brother and patted him on the shoulder making his brother give him a disgusted look. "You're a pain in my ass you know." Andre commented to his brother as Ben laughed. "Well I think I have the right to be an ass. Whatever wish me luck bro. I'm going to be up soon I think." Ben said as his brother sighed but smiled and Andre did indeed wish him luck as his elder brother departed. It felt good to have a brother like him even if Andre would never say that in public aloud.
