In chapter three of Their Most Dangerous Enemy, Sarah is judgmental, hilarious, and delightful, and I love her so. Also, is it just me, or do you hear Matthew McConaughey whenever Nate talks?
I'll be posting one more chapter of this before moving on to Reaper once again. There are duels in this book that would make for good cliffhangers. This is not one of them.
Also, because this book is new, I want to revive something that I used to do on yugiohcardmaker.net and post the Card of the Day for each chapter with a duel in it. You can find the card at the end of the post.
I'll be posting one more chapter of this before moving on to Reaper once again. There are duels in this book that would make for good cliffhangers. This is not one of them.
Also, because this book is new, I want to revive something that I used to do on yugiohcardmaker.net and post the Card of the Day for each chapter with a duel in it. You can find the card at the end of the post.
Chapter Three
Sarah vs. Captain Jerkface
I stepped up to one end of the Game Center’s raised outdoor Duel Disk Arena. The sky was beginning to darken, and I could already see some of the brighter stars. I looked across at my opponent, resisting the urge to gouge out my eyes when I saw his face (from what I understand, this is a common reaction to seeing Nate). He was delicately combing his hair and looking into a small hand mirror, smiling like a fool. Of course he is a fool, so that wasn’t surprising.
“You ready?” I asked, impatiently.
Nate put away his comb in one pocket and his mirror in another, “Oh, Nate’s always ready to duel. But Nate’s warnin’ ya, Nate’s become quite a respectable Pro Duelist in the last few years, if Nate does say so himself.”
Nate would have to, I thought, because no one else ever would.
“Whatever,” I said aloud, activating the Duel Disk on my arm, even as Nate did the same, “let’s just get this over with.”
With a big, dopey smile that rivalled some of the looks that Tucker often gives, Nate replied, “Whatever you say. Nate goes first!” He drew his opening hand, “Nate begins with two face-down cards, and one of Nate’s favorite monsters, the ‘Fiend Reflection #2’!”
I almost laughed as his monster, a bird-like spirit carrying a round mirror (ATK: 1100) appeared at his side alone with oversized holograms of two face-down cards, “What.”
Nate ignored me.
“Your turn,” Nate declared, exuding confidence.
I’ve gotta end this fast, I thought. I don’t know how much more of this guy I can take!
“I summon,” I declared, “the reliable ‘Mother Grizzly’.”
A bear with blue-gray-tinted fur appeared at my side. She was a beast of water and ice whose bark was only slightly worse than her bite (ATK: 1400).
“My monster attacks,” I commanded, and mighty beast charged, raising one of her frying-pan-sized paws to strike.
“Reveal,” Nate declared, completely unconcerned, “the Trap card ‘Nightmare Mirror’.”
Oh crap…
A mirror rimmed in evil-looking etchings, topped by demonic eyes which looked right into my soul (not really), appeared in the path of my monster, reflecting me and me alone. My monster attacked my reflection, and I felt the diminished impact of the solid vision strike (8000 -> 7000).
“To pay the cost of the Trap,” Nate explained, “Nate discards a second copy of ‘Fiend Reflection #2’.” He looked quite pleased with himself.
“Nate got lucky,” I mocked, “but he won’t get lucky a second time. I play ‘A Legendary Ocean’.”
The field around us was covered in holographic water. Far beneath us gleamed a massive golden city that I think is supposed to be Atlantis or something. My monster got stronger (ATK: 1400 -> 1600). I selected another card from my hand, “I place a card face-down, and I end my turn. I’d usually say something clever here, but I know it would go over your head.”
“No way,” Nate replied, still smirking like an idiot, “my reflexes are too good.”
I groaned, Case in point.
Nate smiled a toothy smile (yuck!) and drew his next card. “You’re good,” he said, “but ol’ Nate is prepared for your level of skill. Now that Nate has another copy of ‘Fiend Reflection #2’ in the Graveyard, Nate can play ‘Mirror Movement’, a haunted set of studio mirrors which reflect kindred creatures to the ones on Nate’s side of the field, giving them strength from beyond the grave!”
Wall-high mirrors appeared, ringing Nate’s side of the field, reflecting only the environment around us, and one instance of ‘Fiend Reflection’, representing the copy of the monster resting is Nate’s Graveyard. The copy of ‘Fiend Reflection’ that was on the field was wreathed in an aura of energy and grew more powerful than my beast (ATK: 1100 -> 2000).
“The ‘Fiend Reflection’ attacks,” Nate commanded, and the mirror-wielding spirit on the field, and the one on the mirror, raised up their mirrors and summoned a legion of ghostly creatures to swarm my beast and tear her apart.
“Nate’s attack carries through,” my opponent explained, “and damages you, too.”
“Well,” I said, “it seems that Nate wasn’t completely prepared for my level of skill. Reveal ‘Tornado Wall’, preventing damage to my Life Points from battle.”
Several lingering spirits moved to attack me, but the water at my feet rose up and became a forest of swirling cyclones which circled me protectively, deflecting the assault.
“And,” I continued, “when my ‘Mother Grizzly’ dies, another Water monster steps up from my deck to avenge her,” I fanned out my deck, selected a card, and placed it on my Duel Disk, “a monster like my ‘Mermaid Knight’.”
A mermaid in blight blue armor appeared, sword in hand (ATK: 1500 -> 1700).
“It looks like Nate was prepared,” Nate countered, dripping smug into my ocean as his second and final Trap revealed itself. “Nate reveals ‘Mirror of Oaths’, destroying a monster that was summoned straight from the deck, and allowing Nate to draw a card.”
Nate drew again, and then flashed me another of his insufferable smiles, “Nate sets a card. Your turn.”
Ugh, this guy is ridiculous!
“I draw,” I began, and when I saw the newest addition to my hand, I smiled right back at him, “and I remove the Water Attribute ‘Mother Grizzly’ in my Graveyard from play to summon one of my favorite monsters, the ‘Aqua Spirit’,” a beautiful, blue-skinned water sprite in a flowy sea foam blue dress appeared at my side, rising from the sea (ATK: 1600).
“Sadly,” I continued, “my ‘Aqua Spirit’ won’t be around for long, because, thanks to the power of my ‘A Legendary Ocean’ the levels of every monster in my hand are lowered, allowing me to use one tribute,” my ‘Aqua Spirit’ sunk back beneath the waves, which began to churn violently, “to summon the ‘Levia Dragon – Daedalus’!”
From the water erupted a huge sea serpent with hard armored plates, gleaming sparkly pink and blue in the deepening twilight, under the Game Center’s outdoor lights. He reared up, towering over the field and flaring open his fan-like fins, and roaring (ATK: 2600).
I was about to activate my monster’s effect and rid the field of Nate’s cards, opening him up for a direct attack, but my thoughts were interrupted when Nate once again did something that I never could have expected.
“To the summoning of your monster,” Nate explained zealously, “Nate chains ‘Mystical Space Typhoon’ to destroy ‘A Legendary Ocean’, preventing you from activating its effect, and securing Nate’s presence on the field.”
A burst of wind tore the hologram of my Field Spell card apart, and the ocean, and the cyclones protecting me, faded from the field all at once. My monster was still on the field, prepared to attack at my command, but there was nothing left to fuel his power.
Well, shitake mushrooms.
“If that’s the case,” I declared, “I’ll weaken your presence on the field by attacking your monster with my monster’s Ocean’s Rage!”
‘Levia Dragon’ breathed a fierce blue beam from his mouth, vaporizing the ‘Fiend Reflection’ and dealing Nate his first hit of the duel (8000 -> 7400).
Finally! I thought. It wasn’t much, but it was something, and of course I couldn’t help but rub it in.
“Just admit it, Nate,” I said, “you can’t measure up to me.”
However, rather than disinterested or aloof as I expected, Nate looked right at me, his bright eyes sparkling with intensity, and he laughed not in his typical idiot fashion, but in a way that was actually intimidating, and he said, “You know, you shouldn’t make claims unless you can back them up. You’ve been underestimating Nate since he walked into the Game Center today, and now you’re going to pay the price.”
It was about then that it sunk in that maybe Nate’s uncanny ability to counter my moves this duel had come from genuine skill rather than luck, as I'd assumed, and that he hadn’t been blowing smoke after all. For once, I was speechless.
“Nate begins his turn,” Nate announced, drawing a card, “with the Spell card ‘Graceful Charity’. Nate draws three cards, and then discards ‘Fiend Reflection #1’ and ‘Reflect Bounder’.”
I watched him feed both cards into his Graveyard and continue on like a man on a mission. I hadn’t realized that he actually had a strategy beyond using ‘Mirror Movement’ to power up mirror-themed monsters, but looking into his eyes, I was sure that he did, and it worried me. Something dangerous was coming.
“Next,” Nate declared, “Nate summons ‘Elemental Hero Prisma’.” A man made entirely of reflective clear crystal appeared at Nate’s side (ATK: 1700) and stared up at my dragon defiantly. “Nate activates the ‘Hero’’s effect, sending ‘Fairy Dragon’ from the deck to the Graveyard to allow ‘Prisma’ to take on the identity of that monster.”
Nate discarded another monster, a small green dragon, and an image of the monster appeared reflected in the ‘Hero’’s body. Nate’s ‘Fairy Dragon’ became reflected in the mirrors of ‘Mirror Movement’ increasing the ‘Hero’’s strength (ATK: 1700 -> 2600), but he wasn’t strong enough to defeat my dragon. I didn’t know what he was planning. I knew that ‘Prisma’ could only assume the identities of Fusion Material monsters, but I only knew of one Fusion Monster with ‘Fairy Dragon’ as a material, and not only was it not mirror-themed, but I hadn’t seen any of the other monsters needed to summon it in Nate’s deck. Was this Nate’s plan, to use ‘Prisma’’s effect to keep its attack at twenty-six hundred pretty much indefinitely? Unfortunately, I didn’t have to wait long to learn that what Nate actually had in store for me was much more impressive.
“But Nate’s not done with you yet, sweetie pie. Nate plays ‘Dragon’s Mirror’, removing ‘Fiend Reflection #1’, ‘Fiend Reflection #2’, and ‘Fairy Dragon’ in Nate’s Graveyard from play to summon Nate’s ultimate monster.”
An ornate mirror appeared beside ‘Prisma’, and ‘Prisma’ grasped it in both hands as his Attack returned to normal. From the mirror emerged a serpentine green dragon even longer than mine, its tail wrapping around the entire dueling field, with glassy transparent wings and soft-yet-penetrating eyes. It took the mirror from ‘Prisma’ and cradled it protectively in its arms I’d never seen this monster before, and I found it strangely comforting that no one in the crowd seemed to know what it was either.
“This is Nate’s most powerful monster,” he explained, “’Illusionist Mirror Dragon’!”
The dragon roared in response to its name, emitting a soft sound, like a bird call, only much louder (ATK: 900).
“Nate’s most powerful monster doesn’t look like much,” I taunted, but I knew better. I could feel it. This monster was powerful, charged with magic, and dangerous to its enemies.
“You’ll see,” Nate taunted back. “’Illusionist Mirror Dragon’ uses her effect, combining the powers of ‘Fiend Reflection #1’ to reflect the power of its enemies with the power of ‘Fiend Reflection #2’ to summon spirits to create a living reflection of your strongest monster!”
Light poured from the green dragon’s mirror, projecting an image of my dragon alongside Nate's, an image which then solidified into a corporeal duplicate of my dragon who stared him in the eye and roared (ATK: 2600).
“Nate perfects the perfect combo with the Spell card ‘Kishido Spirit’,” Nate explained. “Now Nate’s monsters can’t be destroyed in battle against monsters with Attack that mirrors their own.”
Nate smiled a toothy smile, letting that sink in. “Oh,” he added, “and don’t forget that as long as Nate controls another monster, you can’t target the ‘Illusionist Mirror Dragon’ for attacks, and that the ‘Dragon’’s reflections last until the end of your turn.
I think the only word for what I was at that moment is flabbergasted. I was flabbergasted.
“Nate attacks,” my opponent commanded, “with all three of Nate’s monsters.”
The duplicate ‘Levia Dragon’ fired an Ocean’s Rage that overwhelmed and destroyed mine, and ‘Prisma’ lunged forward and sliced me with sharpened crystal. Finally the ‘Illusionist Mirror Dragon’ reflected light from her mirror in a beam that swept over me, inflicting damage (7000 -> 4400).
I stared on in wonder at Nate’s monster. At Nate’s power.
With absolute confidence Nate looked me in the eye and said, “End turn.”
I looked at my hand, at the mostly useless collection of cards there, and I came to a horrifying realization.
Oh my God, I thought, trying desperately not to vomit, I might actually lose to Nate!
Card of the Day
Illusionist Mirror Dragon
Played by: Nate
While not a particularly powerful card on its own, this card is deadly late game, as long as it is properly supported. Very contrary to Nate's personality, and his key card 'Mirror Movement', this card focuses on reflecting the strengths of his opponents rather than his own. Being his best card, it's existence could be representative of a genuine desire to at least try to acknowledge his faults and put others first.
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