There isn't much to say about this one. It's a duel. It uses trading cards.
Chapter Seven
The Second Round Begins;
The Messenger of Death
Kris
The spiky-haired kid ignored the fact that his ally had fallen, letting him lie where he fell.
“The next Duelist that you will face,” he announced, introducing his next ally like a contestant on a game show, like life and death battles were common enough in his life to treat them as a game, “will be one of only two known masters of the Occult Style Deck, and one of the most terrifying Duelists I’ve ever met, Ghost Ruler.” As he spoke I noticed Rocky and Tucker picking up Jen’s soul-less body and carrying it off to the side.
If Tucker’s here, I thought, taking note, then he, Max, and Karen must have finished coming up with the strategy for his duel. Karen is putting a lot of faith in him. From what I’ve heard, he’s pretty hotheaded. I hope she isn’t overestimating his skills.
I looked back over at the Dark Duel Force and said, “Bring on your Ghost Ruler. I’ll spank him good!” Spike ignored me and nodded to the guy in the skull shirt, and he stepped forward. I swallowed hard. I’d been hoping that he meant someone else. That one really scared me. And it didn’t help matters when his bracelet flashed and he seemed to disappear, reappearing again a moment later like a ghost. A chill ran down my spine, but my sister had given herself to fight these guys, and I had magic now. Scared or not, I wouldn’t back down.
“I hope you’re ready for this, Ghost,” I said, “because I fight for my sister. I won’t lose, ya hear?” I activated my Duel Disk and said, “Make your first move.”
“By all means,” said Ghost Ruler, pulling the top six cards from his deck. I shuffled my deck and drew my opening hand as well (LP: 8000 (each)).
“I start this duel with the spell card ‘Graceful Charity’," he announced, "letting me draw three cards and then discard two. To be honest, the discarding part is what I care about most. I discard my ‘Souls of the Forgotten’ and ‘Earthbound Spirit’. Next I place a card face-down and summon the ‘Headless Knight’ in defense mode.”
He summoned a monster, I thought, but I don’t see it. I was puzzled. I looked around, and suddenly, out of the thick black mist of the Shadow Game emerged a headless man in full armor, carrying a sword. At his sudden appearance I couldn’t help but utter a small scream. I didn’t manage to regain my composure until I heard Ghost Ruler laughing, his monster crouching down, taking up a defensive stance (DEF: 1700).
“W-What monster is that?” I asked. I’d never seen it before.
“It’s a monster that represents a lost soul," Ghost explained with a sinister chuckle. "Occult Masters like me can summon up lost souls and force them to do our bidding in a Shadow Game.”
I won’t say that I wasn’t freaked out. I was. But I also wasn’t going to let Ghost Ruler keep intimidating me. “Then I’ll face your lost soul with one of my strongest monsters, the ‘Mechanicalchaser’,” A spherical machine with many arms appeared, each arm ending in a different weapon (ATK: 1850). “This robotic hunter will cut your monster limb from limb, even more than he already has been.”
‘Mechanicalchaser’ rushed the ‘Headless Knight’, cutting him up with its many blades.
“Next," I decalred, "I set two cards face-down and end my turn,” Just try to get past that!
“At the end of your turn,” said Ghost, “I activate my most powerful card, the ‘Ouija Board’, which lets me call forth the ‘Spirit Message “D”’ and the ‘Spirit Message “E”’, as well as one more spirit message each turn, until all messages appear and spell out my final word to you.”
As Ghost spoke, a giant Ouija board appeared, floating above his head. From it emerged two ghosts, one carrying a letter D and the other carrying a letter E.
Uh oh, I thought, this can’t be good.
John
“I draw,” Keeper announced, “and I start by summoning a second ‘Immortal Mummy’.” a second mummy appeared on Keeper’s field in attack position (ATK: 300). “Next I change my first mummy to attack mode as well (ATK: 300). One of my ‘Mummy’ monsters destroys the ‘Orc’, and the other attacks you directly.”
One ‘Mummy’ crushed my ‘Orc’ with his bandages, which he wielded like whips, and the other hit me, nearly knocking me onto my back (6200-300=5900). Via the second ‘Mummy’’s effect I was forced to choose a card and send it to the Graveyard. I sent my ‘Fusion Sword Murasame Blade’, leaving only ‘Red-Eyes’ in my hand.
To put is simply, I was screwed.
Kris
“My move,” said Ghost. “Because I have no monsters out on the field, I’m going to have to summon a few, starting out with the Special Summon of a personal favorite, the ‘Dark Necrofear’!” Ghost’s monster, a thin, deathly woman, carrying a mutilated doll, rose up at Ghost’s side (ATK: 2200).
“It has twenty-two hundred Attack?” I asked.
“That’s right, and because she was a Special Summon, in case you don’t already know this, I can also summon ‘The Portrait’s Secret’ in defense mode.” A portrait of a gentleman appeared, floating in the air. From the portrait emerged a ghastly and grotesque torso and head (DEF: 1500).
“More lost souls?” I asked. Ghost’s only response was a wide, wicked smile.
I huffed, projecting a practiced lack of concern, “Fine, then I’ll just have to kill them without knowing exactly what they are. I summon ‘Robotic Knight’ in attack mode.” A mechanical swordsman appeared, carrying a thin, sharp sword (ATK: 1600). “Next, I equip my ‘Robotic Knight’ with ‘Seven Completed’.” A glowing red seven appeared on the swordsman’s forehead, and his Attack rose (1600+700=2300).
“Now,” I commanded, making sure to dramatically point my monsters in the right direction for added effect, “attack and destroy both of his monsters!”
‘Mechanicalchaser’ stabbed one of his blades through the ghost of the portrait, straight through to the portrait itself. ‘Robotic Knight’ slashed with his sword so rapidly that the ‘Dark Necrofear’ was reduces to shreds in the blink of an eye. The two monsters died, and Ghost Ruler lost Life Points (8000+2200-2300=7900). I was pretty proud of myself, but Ghost seemed entirely unfazed. Whatever the ‘Ouija Board’ did, it had to be bad for him to still be so confident.
“I end my turn,” I said. Bring it on, ‘Spirit Message’. I can handle whatever you can dish out!
The pointer of the ‘Ouija Board’ moved, pointing to “A”, and another messenger ghost appeared. I tried to figure out what the board was spelling, but I couldn’t.
“My ‘Ouija Board’ effect isn’t the only effect that activates now,” said Ghost. “At the end phase of my turn, the ghost of ‘Dark Necrofear’ rises from the dead to possess one of your monsters.”
“You’ve got to be kidding. Hello, my monsters are machines.”
“That just makes it easier,” Ghost said, chuckling darkly. “A machine has no soul of its own to resist my monster’s hold.” As he spoke, a ghostly visage of the ‘Dark Necrofear’ rose out of the ground and flew into the ‘Robotic Knight’’s chest. His eyes glowed red and he walked over to my opponent’s field, turning on his former ally, ‘Mechanicalchaser’.
“Now,” said Ghost, “I draw, and I sacrifice your ‘Robotic Knight’ for my ‘Puppet Master’,” A ghastly creature with papery brown skin, wearing jester’s attire, appeared above us. Strands of light reached from its fingertips into the ground. “I sacrifice two thousand of my Life Points (7900-2000=5900) to revive two of my dead monsters!” The ground opened up and ‘The Portrait’s Secret’ (ATK: 1200) and ‘Dark Necrofear’ (ATK: 2200) rose up out of the ground, hanging from the strings like lifeless puppets.
“Because the ‘Puppet Master’ only raises the bodies of these monsters,” Ghost explained, “the spirit of my ‘Necrofear’ continues to possess your machine. Also my monsters summoned by ‘Puppet Master’ can’t attack in the turn that they’re summoned, not normally, so I activate a Spell, card ‘Spirit Spectrum’.” His monsters were wreathed in a ghostly light.
“My ghost minions, attack!” Ghost commanded. ‘Dark Necrofear’ vaporized my ‘Chaser’ with a burst of dark energy, and the ghost of the portrait reached its arm out, stretching it toward me, slashing me (8000+1850-2200-1200=6450).
I was in pain, cuts on my arms and chest where the attacks had made contact bleeding lightly. I just couldn’t get over how real these attacks felt. It wasn’t as bad as I’d thought it would be from what my sister had described, but it was painful, and distracting. Regardless, however, I was able to retain a look of confidence.
“I draw,” I declared, “and I summon ‘Roboyarou’, and I combine him with the Spell card ‘Tribute Doll’. I sacrifice my ‘Roboyarou’ to Special Summon a level seven monster from my hand, as long as I agree to skip my Battle Phase this turn.”
The blue robotic warrior appeared alongside a small mannequin nailed to a tablet. Both disappeared, and a new monster took their place. It had a snake-like metallic body, topped by a winged robotic torso, all in pale gold armor. Its torso had four arms, one carrying a sword, one carrying a staff, one carrying a shield, and one empty-handed (ATK: 2500).
“With the effect of my ‘Doll’,” I declared, not entirely sure where some of my words were coming from, “I summon my strongest monster, the form of my very Soul, ‘Emes the Infinity’! Next I activate the Spell card ‘Electromagnetic Burst’.” ‘Emes’ raised his open hand, and electricity burst from it, vaporizing the ‘Puppet Master’. As he vanished, the strings connecting him to the two monsters vanished as well.
“When your ‘Puppet Master’ dies, his magic dies with him," I explained, "and the monsters he brought back die as well. And because ‘Necrofear’’s spirit is already on the field, possessing my ‘Knight’, her effect won’t activate again when her body returns to its grave.”
“You’re pretty smart little girl,” said Ghost, his monsters fading into the mist, “much smarter than you let on, but you’re already too late. Your turn ends, and a fourth messenger appears, leaving only one more to go.”
The pointer of the ‘Ouija Board’ moved, pointing at the “T”. D-E-A-T, I thought. What could the messengers be spelling? What could the last letter be?
Of course at that point I was pretty sure that I already knew, I just didn’t want to admit it.
“For my turn,” Ghost said, “I activate the ‘Cheerful Coffin’, discarding ‘Skull Knight #2’ from my hand, combining it with the Spell card ‘The Shallow Grave’, letting each of us return a monster in our Graveyard to the field in defense mode. I choose ‘Skull Knight #2’.”
“I choose my ‘Mechanicalchaser’.”
Beside Ghost, out of the ground, rose a coffin. It opened and a demon knight in skeletal armor appeared. Beside me the broken pieces of the decimated ‘Mechanical-chaser’ rose up, coming together, restoring my machine to its undamaged form (DEF: 800).
“Now,” said Ghost, “I sacrifice my ‘Knight’ to summon ‘Earl of Demise’.” The ‘Knight’ disappeared, and a ghostly corpse of a gentlemanly swordsman appeared in its place (DEF: 1000).
What’s he waiting for? He’s just defending.
“And because ‘Skull Knight #2’ was sacrificed for a Fiend-type monster, I can summon another ‘Skull Knight’ from my deck,” Ghost explained, as a new ‘Knight’ appeared (DEF: 1000).
More defense? Fine, if he wants to put up walls, I’ll tear them down! As I continued to wonder about his motives, Ghost ended his turn with a set card.
“I’ll finish you this turn,” I said. “I summon one of my most powerful cards, ‘Fusilier Dragon, the Dual-Mode Beast’. It starts as a level seven monster with twenty-eight hundred Attack, but by activating mode two, I can summon it with half the power, but without tributes.” A robotic dragon with a body like a tank and two shoulder-mounted cannons appeared. Its neck and tail retracted into its body, and its shoulder cannons folded back behind its armor, leaving two cannons on its head as its only available armaments (ATK: 1400).
“I follow up with ‘Monster Reborn’, reviving my ‘Roboyarou’, giving me four monsters.” The blue metallic warrior appeared again at my side in a flash of light (ATK: 950). “Now I attack your ‘Earl of Demise’ with my ‘Roboyarou’, Metal Spear Bash!”
‘Roboyarou’ pointed his spear and rushed the opponent’s monster. Ghost didn’t seem like he was confused by my move. ‘Roboyarou didn’t stand a chance of getting through the ‘Earl’’s defenses on his own. Does that mean he guessed what I'm going to do? I wondered. Oh well, I thought, smiling, it’s not like there’s anything he can do about it.
“Activate, my trump card, ‘Limiter Removal’, doubling the Attack of all of my monsters.”
‘Roboyarou’’s attack rose (1900) just as he slashed, reducing the ‘Earl’ to wisps of smoke. “Next I kill the ‘Skull Knight’ with ‘Fusilier Dragon’,” the ‘Skull Knight’ tried to deflect my monsters beam attack, but it was no use. He was easily destroyed.
“Now, finally,” I commanded, “I attack with ‘Mechanicalchaser’ and ‘Emes the Infinity’ (Total ATK: 8700).” The two monsters raised their blades and moved to strike the still confident and un-flinching Ghost Ruler, only to have their paths blocked by two living forms of black fire.
“Reveal,” Ghost declared, “the Spell card ‘Fires of Doomsday’, absorbing your last two attacks. “Now your turn ends, and your monsters are all destroyed by the secondary effect of ‘Limiter Removal’.”
My machines exploded violently, forcing me to shield myself with my arms.
“But that’s not the best of it,” Ghost sneered. “This turn, my ‘Ouija Board’ finally reveals its final message. Soon you will know why I’m called The Messenger of Death!”
“I didn’t know you were called The Messenger of Death,” I retorted, but it had finally hit me as the pointer moved toward its goal, Ghost Rulers face twisting into a terrifying image of sick excitement as he saw the sudden realization and fear in my eyes. I watched in horror as the pointer settled into place. “This is it,” said Ghost as the final messenger appeared. “The ‘Ouija Board’ has spelled out your ‘DEATH’!”
The last thing I remember about that duel is the ‘Ouija Board’ releasing a wave of hungry ghosts, and the horrendous, cackling laugh of my executioner.
Card of the Day:
Ouija Board
Played by: Ghost Ruler
Like the legendary "Exodia", this card is one of this card game's few instant win cards, though I find this one to be more frightening, since you can see it coming.
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