So John fights the Millennium Keeper, and gets schooled. I mean, he holds his own, but the Keeper is basically toying with him the entire time, a lot like Odion in Book One. Meanwhile Karen, and to a lesser extent Jen, takes charge of the DF in defense of John, but Karen is still unsure of herself, as we saw in the last book. I'm not gonna lie, this contributes to the bad things that are about to happen to the heroes in the coming chapters.
Chapter Three
Karen Takes Charge;
John vs. Millennium Keeper
Karen
My Soul alerted me of the team’s arrival before any of my friends or the doctors could. I didn’t want to leave John’s side, but, reluctantly, I walked back out to the waiting room, leaving John's deck by his beside as I went, hoping that it would give him strength. I relayed John’s condition to the others, but they, especially Jen, seemed less concerned than I would have expected. They had something more immediate on their minds.
“Karen,” Jen said fiercely, “We were followed. They’re here. The Order is here.”
John
“So what do you say we begin, huh?” the old man said, raising a Duel Disk that I could have sworn he hadn’t had a second ago. “I’ll begin with the Continuous Spell ‘Call of the Mummy’. When I control no monsters I can Special Summon a Zombie from my hand. I summon a monster, but I chain its effect, flipping it face-down before the darkness parts to reveal it."
Great, I thought, eyeing the dark form hidden in the shadows at my opponent’s side, now he has a strong monster out, and I have no way of knowing what it is. It could have any kind of hidden ability that he could use to throw my strategy into disarray. Hopefully whatever it can do, my next monster can get around it.
“For my turn,” I said, inserting a card into one of my own Duel Disk’s Spell/Trap slots, “I also begin with a Spell, my ‘Graceful Charity’. I draw three cards, and then I send my ‘Summoned Skull’ and ‘Jinzo #7’ to the Graveyard. Next I summon ‘Strike Ninja’ in attack mode.” The black-clad ninja appeared, his kunai in hand. “Attack,” I commanded, “with Ninjitsu Shuriken (ATK: 1700).”
‘Strike Ninja’ rushed forward and slashed. His target appeared, a large mummy with a huge axe. “You revealed my ‘Giant Axe Mummy’ (DEF: 2000),” said Keeper, “who has the ability to counterattack against a monster with less than two thousand Attack and destroy it.”
The ‘Giant Axe Mummy’ blocked my ‘Ninja’’s knives with his axe. He pushed the ‘Ninja’ back and swung his axe, but the axe hit only air. “What happened?” Keeper asked, as his monster’s effect failed.
“Simple,” I explained, though I had the feeling as I did that my opponent already understood my play and was acting for my benefit, “I removed two Dark monsters in my Graveyard from the game to allow my ‘Ninja’ to step out of play until the end of the turn, avoiding your monster’s effect, even if I don’t avoid the damage I took during my attack (8000+1700-2000=7700). Now I end my turn with a face-down card, and my ‘Ninja’ returns.”
‘Strike Ninja’ reappeared, standing at my side. This duel had only just begun.
Karen
I closed my eyes and reached out with my Soul. “There are five of them,” I said, “all very powerful, with powerful magic all their own. This isn’t anything that they borrowed from Yami. They have Shadow Items.”
“What are we gonna do?” Kimi asked. “We’re strong, but if they were worried about us, they wouldn’t have only knocked John out before they attacked. They know he’s our strongest. Without John, we may not be able to win against them.”
“We’ll set up defenses, slow them down as long as possible,” I declared, “and protect John as long as we can. As important as our Souls are, if they get his Soul they might be able to use it to take ours without a fight. We’ll set up separate waves, Max, Tucker and I making up the last wave. We’ll keep fighting until we win, or until John wakes up, whichever happens first.”
I mapped out my plan, designating levels of defense. The team agreed, and they headed out, leaving Max, Tucker and I behind to prepare for the battle to come, Max because he knew the Order better than anyone, and Tucker because he understands battle more than he realizes, and would sacrifice anything for John. I had trouble looking them in the eye as we discussed what was to come, because I couldn't bring myself to admit to them that I already knew we would fail.
Barring some miracle, If John didn't wake up, this would be the last night that any of us spent in this world, and I couldn't tell them, because I needed them. I needed them to throw themselves down at our enemies' feet and slow them down, and if I told them the odds, I was afraid that they'd leave me. So I did what I had to, I did the logical thing, and I sent them out there thinking that they had a chance.
Of course I could have been underestimating them, and there was still that miracle to hope for. Maybe we would win the day after all.
Jen
I led my small team, seven strong, out into the hospital parking lot. There we met the Order members. Just as Karen has sensed, there were five of them, all males of various ages. The oldest was a large, muscular blond man. He wore a pair of sunglasses and a black muscle shirt. The next oldest was a man of about twenty with dirty blond hair wearing a plain t-shirt and jeans. The next two were between mine and John’s ages. One wore a black shirt marked with a skull, in sharp contrast to his ash blond hair. The other had brown spiky hair and wore a navy blue button up. The fifth, a kid about Amanda’s age, had light brown hair and wore a tiger pattern t-shirt, and had wicked, animalistic eyes.
They were a motley crew, strange in appearance, and in that they were each radiating powerful, but distinctly different, magical energy, strong enough even for me to feel it. Energy which came from items that the five carried, one item apiece.
The large muscular man wore a necklace with a straight crystal at the end, similar to one of our Souls. It was a deep purple, almost black, attached to a cord by a silver metal cap. His item radiated the second largest aura. The twenty year old carried a sheathed dagger at his waste, its silver hilt wrapped in strips of black leather. The skull-shirt kid wore a bracelet made of black metal. The youngest, the one in the tiger print, wore a necklace of strung together metal spikes, made to look like a necklace of animal teeth. And finally, the spiky-haired kid wore a black coin around his neck, hanging from a string. His item gave off the most energy by far, so much so that, if I focused, I could actually see it.
But more importantly, all of the items were emblazoned with silver Egyptian eye symbols, like the one on the famous pendant worn by Duel Monsters champion Yugi Muto. These items were Egyptian, they were magic, and they were very, very powerful.
Karen
I watched as the Order and the Duel Force faced each other. Even from here I could smell the stench of our enemies' wicked auras, twisting their magic into something evil. I put it out of mind, however, and returned to planning. Having actually seen them, having seen their auras, I was sure now that no matter how hard the others fought, they would not defeat these opponents, and that not even I or Max were likely to do any better. They might reduce the enemy numbers by one or two, but in the end, us alone would not be enough.
Card of the Day:
Giant Axe Mummy
Played by: The Millennium Keeper
Millennium Keeper duels by keeping to the shadows and defending and attacking all at once. This card pretty much embodies that mindset, even if it is a little grosstacular.
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