This chapter introduces the villains of this book, who appear pretty abruptly, though that is on purpose. It was either jump right to this meeting, or waste a chapter or two showing the couple of days' worth of mundane things that immediately led up to this. I think this works out better as it just throws the reader into a conflict that the characters themselves feel thrown into.
Fun fact, John doesn't realize it because he's fighting her right now, and because he's a dense loner, but he's already crushing on Karen. Fun fact the second, these guys are definitely not the entire Duelists of the Order, as many other members show up later, and yet they simply introduce themselves as "The Duelists of the Order of the Divine Cards". This was inspired by Team Rocket from the Pokemon anime, and their habit of making themselves come off as the whole of Team Rocket whenever they announce themselves, despite being a small part of the whole.
Fun fact, John doesn't realize it because he's fighting her right now, and because he's a dense loner, but he's already crushing on Karen. Fun fact the second, these guys are definitely not the entire Duelists of the Order, as many other members show up later, and yet they simply introduce themselves as "The Duelists of the Order of the Divine Cards". This was inspired by Team Rocket from the Pokemon anime, and their habit of making themselves come off as the whole of Team Rocket whenever they announce themselves, despite being a small part of the whole.
Chapter SixteenEnter the Duelists of the Order
John
Just as Pegasus had said, it was early the following week when we got the call to head to the local airport. We were directed quickly through one of the gates, which took us outside. We were on our way to board the jet that Pegasus had chartered for us when we were cut off by three kids about my age. Two boys, and one very attractive girl.
“Who are you?” I asked. The girl brushed her long brown hair out of her blank dark brown eyes and answered.
“We,” she said, placing her hands on her hips, dripping ego, “are the Duelists of the Order of the Divine Cards, and we’re here to talk. We don’t want to hurt you, but if you insist on going after the Duelist’s Souls, we will. We advise you to turn back while you can.”
“Pegasus told us about you,” I said. “You should know, I won’t let three kids intimidate us. My friend Tucker and I can easily take you.”
The girl laughed, “Sorry, but that’s hilarious. We aren’t here to fight you. We’re here to duel you in a Shadow Game!”
“And how exactly is dueling supposed to kill us?” Tucker asked, disbelievingly.
“We borrowed some of our master’s power,” said the taller of the two boys, a kid with short light brown hair and yellow eyes. His eyes weren’t blank like the girl’s. They flashed with everything from ambition to just plain evil. “We channel it through these,” he showed us a clear, prismatic crystal charm that had been concealed beneath his shirt.
“Now,” said the other boy, who had spiky brown hair, speaking almost politely, “we have the ability to cause someone real harm through dueling.”
“Then you’ll have to cause us ‘real harm’,” I said, “because the Duel Force isn’t going to back down.”
The girl’s eyes flashed to life for the briefest second, and I could have almost sworn I saw pain there. But then she regained her composure and activated her Duel Disk, facing me down. The spiky-haired boy stepped off to the side and faced Sarah. The other boy stepped off in the other direction and faced Jen and Tucker. Instantly the air became charged with the competitive energy of seven Duelists.
“Allow me to introduce myself,” said the girl, just as arrogantly as before. “I am Karen, and I think I’ll move first.” Karen drew her opening hand and made her first move, completely confident in her victory.
“I begin,” she declared, “with a Spell card, ‘Mirage of Nightmare’. During your next Standby Phase I draw until I have four cards in my hand. Next I place four cards face-down and summon my ‘Toon Alligator’ in defense mode.” A small alligator rendered in cartoon style appeared, wielding an axe (DEF: 1600). “Now I end my turn, and when you draw, I draw.”
I drew, ignoring the fact that my opponent did as well, and I made my move. “I summon,” I declared, “the goblin brute, ‘Giant Orc’! This giant goblin will tear right through your lizard. Club Slam Attack!”
‘Giant Orc’, a twelve foot tall gray-skinned goblin carrying a club appeared, and ran forward to try and crush Karen’s monster (ATK: 2200). He raised his club, but his swing was interrupted by the appearance of an amorphous gray blob. He stepped back as the blob changed shape, becoming a copy of ‘Giant Orc’.
“What is that thing?” I demanded.
“That,” said Karen, "is one of my more versatile cards, the Trap card ‘Physical Double’. It copies your monster until the end of the turn by summoning a ‘Mirage Token’ (ATK: 2200). Now I activate ‘Staunch Defender’, making sure that you still attack me. ‘Staunch Defender’ forces any monsters you control to attack a monster of my choice, and I choose my ‘Mirage’ monster.”
“Fine,” I said, “‘Giant Orc’, you know what to do.” My ‘Orc’ ran at the identical opponent and raised his club. But before he could strike, the ‘Mirage Token’ held it’s club forward like a battering ram and charged at a reckless speed, plowing its club into ‘Giant Orc’’s abdomen.
“I reveal,” Karen declared, “the Spell card ‘Rush Recklessly’, raising my ‘Token’’s Attack by seven hundred (ATK: 2900).” The duplicate ‘Orc’ killed mine, and then turned to gray goo and melted into the ground (LP: 8000-700=7300).
I was reeling. Was it the most efficient of combos? No. But this girl had just managed to defeat one of my strongest monsters by literally making a copy of it and making the fight each other. And she did it so casually, as if saying, "That was your best? Well this is my worst, and I still win."
And worst of all, ever since the duel had started, I wasn't feeling well, like how you start to feel weak right before you catch the flu. But I refused to let any of that show.
“Okay then,” I said, “I end my turn. Your move.”
Sarah
“My name,” my opponent stated in the manner of polite introduction, “is Montgomery Williams, but you can call me Monty. I feel I should warn you, you have no chance against my deck.”
“Whatever,” I said. “Since you’re too busy being full of yourself, I’ll go first.”
I drew my opening hand and looked over my options. Excellent.
“I summon,” I declared, “the mighty ‘Sinister Serpent’, defense mode.” The winged snake appeared just in front of me (DEF: 300). “Next I activate the Spell card ‘The Dark Door’. As long as this Continuous Spell is on the field we can each only attack with one monster per turn.
“I also,” I said, selecting another card, “place one card face-down. End turn.”
“I draw,” Monty said, “and I activate my ‘Mystical Space Typhoon’, destroying any Spell or Trap card. I choose your face-down card.”
A burst of wind shredded the hologram of my ‘Torrential Tribute’.
“Next," Monty continued, "I summon ‘Breaker the Magical Warrior’, in attack mode. When he is first summoned he gains a spell counter that increases his Attack points by three hundred.” A strong-looking warrior sorcerer in red and gold armor appeared and drew his sword. An aura appeared around him (ATK: 1600+300 =1900). “‘Breaker’, attack with Magical Slash.”
‘Breaker’ swung his sword, cleaving my serpent in half.
“Too bad your attack didn’t matter,” I said, smiling smugly. “When I draw, my ‘Sinister Serpent’ will return to my hand and I can summon him again. And since you can only attack once per turn, I can-.”
“You can keep summoning him again and again as a defensive wall until you draw a card that you can use to win the duel.”
My smile disappeared, “Don’t think that because you figured it out that you’ll be able to beat my combo. I already have this duel in the bag. I re-summon my ‘Serpent’, defense mode again (DEF: 300) and end my turn.”
“I have to congratulate you,” Monty said. “Your move is good and shows great potential. Your deck is very balanced. But it's not enough. I remove the spell counter from my ‘Breaker’ to destroy the ‘Dark Door’ Spell.” ‘Breaker’’s aura concentrated in his sword (1900-300 =1600) and he slashed with it, slinging a wave of light from the edge of the blade, slicing the hologram of my spell card apart.
“Now I summon my ‘Apprentice Magician’," Monty continued, "using his ability to restore ‘Breaker’’s Spell Counter,” ‘Breaker’ regained his aura (1600+300=1900).
"‘Apprentice Magician’ attacks, Imperfect Spell.” The ‘Apprentice Magician’, a young man carrying a wand staff similar the one carried by the famous ‘Dark Magician’, raised his staff and blew ‘Sinister Serpent’ apart with a burst of dark light. “Now,” Monty declared, “I attack with ‘Breaker’, Magical Slash (LP: 8000-1900 =6100)!”
Jen
Tucker and I moved together to face the taller kid. There was no question that he would be our opponent. We just knew. He looked eager to fight us both, and that bugged me. He was too confident. I needed to know more about what we were in for, so that I could work out whether or not that confidence was deserved.
“So who are you?” I asked.
“I’m Lawrence,” he replied, “and I’m the most powerful Duelist that either of you has ever met.”
Lawrence drew a card, beaming with confidence, “Since I’m clearly outnumbered, I’ll even things out by making the move first. I begin with the monster card ‘Cave Dragon’.” a bulky, green, wingless dragon appeared with a roar (ATK: 2000).
“Next I place two cards face-down,” he concluded, “and end my turn.”
“I’ll go next,” said Tucker. “I start out with my ‘Fireyarou’, equipped with the Spell card ‘Salamandra’, raising his Attack by seven hundred.” The ‘Fireyarou’ was surrounded by a flame in the shape of a serpentine dragon (ATK: 1300+700=2000).
“End turn.”
“And I begin my turn,” I said. “I start out with ‘Arsenal Bug’, a monster that loses one thousand Attack points if it’s the only insect that I control (2000-1000=1000). Next I play ‘Multiplication of Insects’, letting me split my ‘Arsenal Bug’ into two ‘Arsenal Bug Tokens’ with half the Attack and Defense apiece.”
‘Arsenal Bug’ split into two identical but smaller bugs (DEF: 500 (each)).
“Next I activate ‘Premature Burial’,” I explained, “giving up eight hundred Life Points (LP: 8000-800=7200) to revive ‘Arsenal Bug’ and equip it with this card. When this card is destroyed, my ‘Arsenal Bug’ goes with it.” The original monster appeared alongside the slightly smaller duplicates (ATK: 2000). “My insect matches your dragon point for point.”
“It’s not like it matters,” said Lawrence, confidently, sounding more smug than anyone I’d ever known, “because all I have to do to win is exploit the many weak links in your combos. I begin by Summoning ‘Luster Dragon’, in attack mode,” a blue-skinned dragon with tattered-looking wings appeared (ATK: 1900). “Now I reveal ‘Dust Tornado’, destroying the equip Spell ‘Salamandra’, reducing ‘Fireyarou’’s Attack (2000-700=1300), and I follow up with the Spell card ‘Stamping Destruction’, destroying ‘Premature Burial’ and dealing the owner five hundred Points of damage.”
A gust of wind blew the dragon-shaped flame away from ‘Fireyarou’, and Lawrence's 'Luster Dragon' surged forward and stomped on the hologram of my equip card, destroying it. The most powerful of my three insects disappeared (7200-500=6700).
“Attack ‘Fireyarou’ with ‘Cave Dragon’,” Lawrence commanded, “Giant Tail Slam!” The ‘Cave Dragon’ swung his tail, crushing ‘Fireyarou’ (LP: 8000-700=7300), “and I attack ‘Arsenal Bug Token’ with Sapphire Flame!” The ‘Luster Dragon’ breathed flames on my ‘Token’. I lost my monster, but my Life Points were safe.
“Now,” Lawrence said, literally yawning, “hurry up and take your turns. I want to finish this thing up before I get too bored.”
Card(s) of the Day:
Physical Double, Staunch Defender, and Rush Recklessly
Played by: Karen
Okay, so I'm cheating by including a combo instead of a single card, and there are definitely better ways to destroy most likely a single monster, but there are few ways which actually kill your opponent's monster or monsters with a duplicate of their strongest monster. Not to mention that each of the cards in this combo is versatile enough to be useful on its own.
Original Cards in This Chapter:
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