Jen can't stand Lawrence, and Lawrence can't stand Jen, and yet they, surprisingly, make a good team. Clearly they will make out at some point. Also Blackheart is basically Cell from Dragonball Z.
Chapter SixSurprising Power;
Jen and Lawrence vs. Three
Jen
I’ll just come out and say it: I don’t like Lawrence. He was the only one of our former enemies who’d joined us who didn’t seem any different. Even Max, who was still an unfeeling, uncaring, arrogant asshole still felt and cared when the situation really called for it. Lawrence, However, only seemed to care about Monty, and Karen a little bit. Oh, and himself. He cared about himself a lot. I understood Karen’s reasoning in deciding to pair me with Lawrence. My complex strategies would complement his sheer power quite nicely in a duel. Still, I would have rather been teamed with a rabid dog.
As we walked along, Lawrence was silent, his arms crossed and his chin up as he actively snubbed me. He had no respect for me. After all, the only times he’d seen me duel I’d lost to him, then barely beat him with help, then lost against some kid, with help again. I longed for the chance one day to prove to him just how strong I really was, just to rub it in his face. After all, I knew for a fact that I’d grown more than he had. Lawrence is one of those guys who’re too arrogant to work at becoming stronger. When I’d first dueled him, he probably could have beaten John, but now he barely ranked ahead of me in terms of base power. Maybe above Monty. And John coulda smoked either me or Monty at that point. In case you can’t count, that placed Lawrence much lower on the list than he should have been.
Don’t get me wrong, Lawrence was still very strong. He’s always been strong. He just woulda been a lot stronger had he not been such an asshole.
Anyway, back to the topic at hand, Lawrence and I were looking for Blackheart, and I was getting snubbed. Lawrence hadn’t said it, but I could tell from the way he carried himself that he wanted to fight Blackheart. Referring back to my earlier assessment, Lawrence was growing comparably weaker, but he didn’t yet understand how or why, so he was desperate to prove himself. He wanted to fight Blackheart and win, proving once and for all that he was as strong as ever. I’d like to say that he and I would have been able to beat Blackheart if we’d found him at that point in time, but I can’t. Blackheart will always be an unknown to me. He was just so far beyond anything we’d ever faced, or anything we would ever face again.
After walking for maybe an hour, Lawrence and I found our way to a particularly unsavory-looking network of back alleys. We passed a gang, which seemed ready to hassle us until Lawrence shot them a look and they backed down. We continued on, until I got a feeling in my Soul of Nature.
“I think I sense the Soul of Darkness,” I told Lawrence, breaking the silence for the first time.
“So do I,” Lawrence replied, using his most potent super power: the ability to make simple agreement sound like an insult.
I focused on the feeling, “I don’t think its Blackheart. It seems too small. Maybe a power similar to John’s. We should ignore it and keep looking.”
“No,” Lawrence countered, a hungry look in his eyes. “It could just as easily be Blackheart trying to hide his power so that we can’t find him easily. He must still be weak, or else he wouldn’t be hiding. We have a chance if we strike now.”
Without another word, he took off in the direction of the feeling, and I followed, cursing him under my breath. We turned a corner and found ourselves face-to-face not with Blackheart, but with a blond-haired kid about John’s age. He was smiling patiently as he waited, his hands held calmly behind his back, a dark aura burning around him.
“Hello,” the blond guy said. “I assume you were looking for my master, Blackheart. I’m sorry to disappoint you, but I’m acting as my master’s decoy. If you wish to continue your search for him, you will have to get past me first, and that won’t be easy since my master has increased my strength.”
“Yeah, sure, you nameless henchman,” Lawrence retorted. “Get out of my way and maybe I won’t kill you.”
Lawrence tried to push past the guy, but our calm, collected foe moved like lightning and blocked Lawrence, his expression never changing as Lawrence attempted to flip him, and our foe slipped out of Lawrence’s grip, spun, and kicked him in the chest, sending him skidding backwards, clutching the point of impact.
“I’m not a nameless henchman,” the guy said. “I’m Three, because among Blackheart’s three servants, I’m ranked the highest. I’m second only to him.”
I watched the aura around Three flicker with intensity, and I realized two things. One, he’d obviously borrowed some of John’s Soul power from Blackheart, but his own Duel Energy was amplifying it, and two, when he said he was stronger than us, he was right. I could only hope that he wasn’t stronger than both of us together.
Blackheart
As I drained the life force from a ninth Duelist, draining his Duel Energy along with it, I turned toward the sight of the budding confrontation between my most powerful minion and two members of the Duel Force, several blocks away.
Intriguing, I thought, smiling wickedly. His original spirit had very little Duel Energy, but his underlying evil spirit has far more. That, in combination with his newfound calm and collected demeanor, has made him considerably stronger than I ever thought possible. He is no match for me, of course, but he might actually give those peons some trouble.
Just then I sensed something, a source of Duel Energy greater than any other I’d encountered, including the base levels of my host.
I looked back in the direction of my minion, I’d love to stick around and “watch” you work, but I have more important things to do.
I turned toward the source of the massive energy and dissolved into darkness.
Jen
Three drew his opening hand, “I think I’ll start this off with the Spell card ‘Double Summon’. Now I can perform two Normal Summons this turn.”
Three chose two of the cards from his hand and placed them both on his Duel Disk, side by side. From the darkness billowing up around us, two massive creatures emerged; a spear-and-shield-wielding warrior with the body and head of a lion and the torso of a man, and a red and silver dragon-headed tank.
“I summon the high level ‘Beast King Barbaros’ and ‘Fusilier Dragon the Dual Mode Beast’,” Three explained. “Even though these monsters are high level, they can be summoned without tributes with only a fraction of their power. ‘Fusilier Dragon’ is summoned with half power (ATK: 1400), and ‘Barbaros’ is summoned with nineteen hundred Attack. I set a card face-down, and end my turn.”
I glanced over at Lawrence. I could tell that it was as obvious to him what Three was doing as it was to me. I also saw that he was agonizing over what to do. He knew the risk of challenging a strategy like Three’s head on, but he also knew the risk of allowing it to pick up steam. He drew his opening hand, “I’ll meet your monsters head on with my ‘Cave Dragon’, and two face-downs.”
I drew my hand as well, “My turn.”
I looked over my hand. Just as I’d thought, I hadn’t drawn anything capable of standing up to what I knew was coming, but I had drawn just the right cards to leave Three’s strategy out in the open, and to set up for something bigger later on. I would just have to count on Lawrence to support me until then, and hopefully cause Three some trouble along the way.
“I start out,” I declared, “with ‘Pinch Hopper’.”
The oversized grasshopper, one of my signature cards, appeared at my side (ATK: 1000).
“I equip my monster with ‘Insect Armor with Laser Cannon’,” I continued, a huge laser gun appearing on its back, “increasing its Attack to seventeen hundred. I attack ‘Fusilier Dragon the Dual Mode Beast’!”
Light built into the barrel of the laser cannon, and it fired. The beam hit the tank, but it bounced off harmlessly.
“You’re even more foolish than I thought,” Three commented. “Reveal ‘Skill Drain’, paying one thousand Life (8000-1000=7000) to cancel out my monsters’ effects, increasing their power to full!”
An aura of power formed around ‘Barbaros’ and he roared (ATK: 3000), and the dragon tank that was ‘Fusilier Dragon’ transformed, becoming a robotic dragon with tank treads instead of legs (ATK: 2800). It roared as well and aimed its open mouth at ‘Pinch Hopper’, firing a beam of its own that vaporized the insect in one shot (4000+ 1700-2800=2900). I felt the loss of Life Points, and it hurt, but I ignored the pain. We only had a small window in which to turn this duel around.
“When my ‘Hopper’ is destroyed,” I explained, “I can summon any Insect from my hand. I choose my ‘Insect Queen’, in defense mode.”
My monster, a huge insect with the body of a bug, but a torso that vaguely resembled a human woman, appeared, towering behind me (DEF: 2400).
“Your monster pales in comparison to my monsters,” Three bragged. I ignored him. I knew my plan would succeed. It had to.
“I summon ‘Goblin Attack Force’!” Three continued, his voice and expression full of pride, eight green-skinned, club-wielding goblin warriors appearing in a tight-knit group at his side. “This monster is usually forced into defense mode after he attacks,” Three explained, “but while I control ‘Skill Drain’, he faces no such restriction!”
Three gestured, “I atta-.”
“Reveal,” Lawrence interrupted, “my ‘Burst Breath’, tributing ‘Cave Dragon’ to destroy all of your monsters!”
The flightless dragon began to build a massive flame in his mouth. He built up so much fire in his body that his body began to crack, fire glowing within the cracks. Three smiled wickedly.
“Activate,” Three declared, “‘My Body as a Shield’, paying fifteen hundred Life to protect my monsters.”
‘Cave Dragon’ fired its breath attack, ripping itself apart in the process. The attack would have incinerated all of Three’s monsters, but a barrier appeared around them, deflecting the flames. Some of them bounced back and washed over me, singeing my skin. Once again I ignored the pain.
“My monsters attack,” Three declared, gesturing broadly, his sight falling on me, “the girl!”
The three monsters rushed me. I had no defense, at least no defense of my own.
Come on, Lawrence, show me that I was right when I gambled that you aren’t as big a jerk as you seem. I’m counting on you here.
And sure enough, seconds before the attacks would have hit and taken me out of the duel, Lawrence scowled and flipped over a Trap, “Reveal ‘Negate Attack’!”
I smiled smugly as a vortex formed in front of me, deflecting the oncoming strikes. Lawrence looked over at me angrily, “You’d better start doing something, because I’m not going to save you again!”
“Everybody gets one, eh?” I asked. “Well, Law, let’s see if you still have room to talk after my next turn.”
Three scowled. He didn’t enjoy failure, obviously. He slapped a card onto his duel disk, “Face-down, and I end my turn.”
He smiled, “Be careful, because sooner or later you’ll run out of ways to block my attacks, and my monsters aren’t going anywhere.”
Lawrence drew, “Don’t count on that. I play ‘Graceful Charity’.”
Lawrence drew three more times, discarded twice, and picked another card, “I also play ‘Trade-In’, discarding my Level Eight ‘Blue-Eyes White Dragon’ to draw two cards, and I combine it with ‘Monster Reborn’ to revive the discarded dragon.”
There was a burst of light, and the giant white dragon emerged, spreading its wings dramatically, making its presence known without a doubt. Lawrence smiled, “Your monsters might be powerful, but none of them are the legendary dragon, to whom all other monsters fall!”
He chose another card from his hand, “I equip my monster with ‘Dragon’s Treasure’, increasing his attack beyond that of the weakling ‘Barbaros’ (3000+300 =3300), and attack, Burst Stream of Destruction!”
The white dragon fired its brilliant white breath beam right at the lion-bodied ‘Barbaros’. As strong as ‘Barbaros’ was, it was no match for the dragon. Lucky for ‘Barbaros’ then that Three had set a Trap. Three smiled in the overconfident way that he did and said, “Reveal ‘Mirror Force’, destroying your monster by reflecting its own attack right back!”
A reflective barrier appeared, sending the beam back at Lawrence’s field, destroying the dragon. Lawrence scowled. I smiled, “Would you look at that! You attacked when all that you had was an attack position monster, and our opponent countered with ‘Mirror Force’. Maybe if you’d had the foresight to summon a monster in defense mode, like I did, you’d still have a presence on the field.”
“Shut up!” Lawrence snapped. “There’s no way you thought this far ahead. Besides, I was ready for something like this to happen. The two cards I sent to the Graveyard this turn were ‘Red-Eyes Wyvern’ and ‘Red-Eyes Black Dragon’. I remove ‘Wyvern’ from play to revive ‘Red-Eyes’ in defense position!”
In a burst of flames the ‘Blue-Eyes White Dragon’’s darker-skinned counterpart appeared, wrapping his wings protectively around Lawrence (DEF: 2000).
“Alright,” I said, “finally. Now watch and learn, Law, because I’m gonna show you what a real move looks like.”
I drew, “Activate, ‘Cell Budding’. I tribute an insect to summon a number of ‘Insect Tokens’ up to the number of multiples of five hundred in the Attack of the tributed card. That means I can tribute my ‘Insect Queen’ to summon four ‘Tokens’!”
My monster was instantly replaced by four worm-like monsters that writhed with anticipation.
“I follow up,” I continued, “with ‘Token Sundae’, allowing my ‘Tokens’ to bum-rush your field, each of them destroying one card!”
“What?” Three asked, shocked, his eyes wide. “No!”
The four insects charged Three’s ‘Barbaros’, ‘Goblin Attack Force’, ‘Fusilier Dragon’, and ‘Skill Drain’, ripping though all four of them. All eight cards dissolved harmlessly into shadowy black smoke.
“No!!” Three exclaimed as the remnants of his entire force of powerful monsters disappeared. I looked on, satisfied with my work, and with the astonished look that Lawrence was trying very hard to hide.
With a little luck, I thought, we might win this duel yet!
Card of the Day:
Token Sundae
Played by: Jen
Because she wasn't satisfied just using her Token monsters as tributes, Jen decided to find a way to use them to destroy her opponent's card en mass.
Original Cards in This Chapter:
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