More dueling! Lawrence is made a fool of, again, and Tucker proves that a crazy guy is, in fact, crazy. Also spaaaaace!
Chapter FiveRound One;
Tucker vs. Crabtree and Lawrence vs. The Masked Duelist
John
“Aaand we have three winners,” said the announcer. “That means that it's time to move on to our next round one block.”
I watched intently as Tucker, Crabtree, Lawrence, the masked guy, Exodus, and Marcus (War Ruler), the entirety of the second first round block, stepped out onto the stadium floor. Karen sat down beside me. She seemed deep in thought.
“I told you I wouldn’t make it far,” she said.
“You did fine. Max’s combo was just scary.”
“Yeah,” she said, “well, I'm not upset or anything. I’ve been thinking. As much as I like dueling, I think I want to try my hand at creating cards. I already have several ideas.”
“Yeah,” I said, “that’s not a bad idea.”
Karen seemed excited by the support I’d given her, but truth be told I wasn’t paying much attention to what she had to say. My interest was directed toward Tucker, and his coming conflict with his snake of an opponent.
Okay, Crabtree, I thought, let’s see what you’re up to.
Tucker
I stepped up onto the duel stage across from the "good" doctor.
“Still insist that I’m not worth mentioning?” I asked.
“Don’t know,” Crabtree replied absentmindedly, as if I wasn’t of interest, “I’ll let you know after I crush you. I begin with two face-down cards. Then I’ll summon ‘Nurse Reficule the Fallen One’. I combine ‘Double Summon’ to also summon ‘Injection Fairy Lilly’.”
A female monster with two sets of bat-like wings, ending in curved blades, her body wrapped in bandages, appeared at Crabtree’s side (ATK: 1400). Above Crabtree, hanging in the air, a pink-haired girl in a nurse’s uniform appeared riding on a very large syringe (ATK: 400).
“Two monsters in a turn,” I said. “Neither one’s very strong though. I can beat either of ‘em with this card, the club-wielding Asmodian (which means Fire Demon) monster ‘Abaki’!”
A squat red-skinned impish creature appeared, about two heads taller than me, carrying a spiked club (ATK: 1700).
“Reveal,” said Doc, “the Continuous Trap card ‘Dark Cure’. Whenever you summon a monster you gain Life Points equal to half of its Attack.” A green aura appeared around ‘Abaki’.
“Thanks,” I said, somewhat confused (to say the least).
“No thanks are needed,” said Doc, “because while ‘Reficule’ is in play, any time you would gain Life Points, you lose Life Points instead.”
The green aura turned red, and the aura spread to me as well. My Life Points fell (8000-850=7150).
“Oh yeah,” I said, “well you’re not the only one who can deal damage. ‘Abaki’, attack ‘Lilly’!”
“Really?” Doc asked disbelievingly.
“What?” I asked as my monster charged.
“My ‘Lilly” has an effect. I pay two thousand Life Points (8000-2000=6000) to increase her Attack by three thousand for the turn.”
“You’re kidding!”
“Nope.”
‘Lilly’’s syringe doubled in size as her Attack rose (400+3000=3400). She swung the syringe, stabbing ‘Abaki’ through the chest (7150+1700-3400=5450).
The dead body of ‘Abaki’ exploded and flames poured over both of us, dealing us damage with his effect (Doc: 6000-800-5200/Me: 5450-800=4650).
“At the end of your turn,” said the Doc, “I reveal ‘Solemn Wishes’. Now each time I draw I gain five hundred Life Points.” He drew and his Life Points rose (5200+500 =5700).
This guy’s good, I thought, but I won’t let him win. After all I’m not gonna lose until I fight John!
Lawrence
I’ve never liked people who wear masks. I’m very conscious of people’s faces and I often use people’s faces to judge their character. This obviously doesn’t work on people wearing masks. So as I stepped up to face the Masked Duelist, I was wary, more so that I probably should have been, and my opponent ended up taking charge of the Duel right away.
“I’m going first,” said the Masked Duelist. “I set a monster and three face-down cards.” He spoke in a calm near-monotone. He was completely unreadable. I didn’t like that.
“My turn,” I said defiantly, regaining my composure. “I draw.”
I pulled my card and stared my opponent down, “I summon ‘Luster Dragon’ in attack mode.” A blue-scaled dragon with tattered-looking wings appeared with a roar (ATK: 1900), but before it could even get its bearings the earth beneath it opened up and the dragon fell, the earth closing around it. It was instantly destroyed.
“My face-down card,” said the Masked Duelist, “was the Trap card ‘Trap Hole’, a card that destroys a monster with one-thousand or more Attack as soon as it’s Normal Summoned.”
“No matter,” I told him, shrugging off the loss as if I didn’t care, “I didn’t need ‘Luster Dragon’ for my plan to work.” I was trying to hide my frustration, and because of my foe’s lack of expression I couldn’t tell if my act was working, which just frustrated me more.
“I play ‘Trade In’,” I continued, “discarding a Level Eight monster from my hand to draw two cards.”
I drew, “Now I play ‘Monster Reborn’ to revive the monster that I discarded.” A glowing ankh appeared, rising into the air behind me. The ankh flashed and disappeared, and a large white dragon appeared with a distinct roar. I smiled, my expression full of pride, “Masked weirdo, meet the ‘Blue-Eyes White Dragon’ (ATK: 3000)!”
But before the ‘Blue-Eyes’ had even been on the field for long enough to utter its trademark roar it disappeared into a swirl of light.
“My second card,” said the Masked Duelist, “is ‘Bottomless Trap Hole’. It’s pretty much the same thing as my last card, except that it works on Special Summons as well, and the affected monster is removed from play.”
Dammit! By now I knew that my frustration was showing, and I didn’t care. “Two cards face-down,” I declared forcefully, “and I end my turn.”
Tucker
“I’m gonna let you in on a little secret,” said Crabtree, mock-whispering across the length of the stage, his eyes gleaming wickedly with smug overconfidence (smug’s the right word, right?). “Right now I’m just a mediocre surgeon at a general hospital. But I’m also a genius. I designed a device that will make me all the money I could ever want, but I need money to build it. That’s where this tournament comes in. I’ll use the prize money I win here today to build my device, a machine that uses my own laser design to temporarily remove all outward signs of aging!
“I’ll advertise it as a way to reverse signs of aging permanently without plastic surgery, and I’ll charge huge amounts of money for each treatment. I’ll have each recipient sign a contract that protects me from any and all allegations of fraud, and by the time they realize that the treatments weren’t worth the money they paid, I’ll have already made enough money to last me a hundred lifetimes. I’ll be both insanely rich and untouchable!”
“Why the hell would you tell me that?” I asked. The guy’d used a bunch of big words, but it was still obvious what he was planning.
“Well, if you’d come up with such a brilliant plan, you’d want to talk about it too. And because I’m about to crush you, if you talk everyone will just think you cooked it up to get back at me for beating you. I get to show off and threaten to discredit a worthless Duelist all at once!” This time he laughed out loud as I shook my head.
This guy’s nutso!
“Now,” said Crabtree in a louder tone, “it’s time to prep for laser surgery! I sacrifice ‘Injection Fairy Lilly’ to summon ‘Satellite Cannon’!”
The fairy nurse disappeared, and a massive missile appeared behind the Doc. Its engines fired and it rose into the air, dropping only an antennae module behind it, which landed at the Doc’s feet.
“Right now,” said Crabtree, “that missile is separating, launching a new satellite into orbit. Each turn that satellite, my ‘Satellite Cannon’, charges one thousand points to its Attack. It leaves this antennae module behind to redirect any direct attack that would normally hit my satellite toward the satellite's place in orbit. And because ‘Satellite Cannon’ is so high up, low level monsters can’t reach it. In fact, only Level Eight or higher monsters are strong enough to reach it.”
“Wow,” I said sarcastically, “this just keeps getting better and better.” I sighed hard.
“Anyway,” I said, “I reveal ‘Thunder of Ruler’. No attack this turn for you.”
“I don’t care,” said Crabtree, “because between ‘Reficule’, ‘Dark Cure’, and ‘Satellite Cannon’, I have you completely locked down. The more you summon the weaker you get, and you have to summon to assemble the sacrifices needed to summon a monster capable of reaching my cannon. Plus, I’m playing a face-down card, and that’s all I need, because with my ‘Cannon’ out of reach I only have to protect one monster, my ‘Reficule’. I can’t lose!”
I gritted my teeth and looked down at my hand, As much as I hate to admit it, he may be right.
Lawrence
“I Flip-Summon,” said the Masked Duelist, “my ‘Lady Assailant of Flames’.” The Masked Duelist flipped over his card, and a woman in simple cloth garbs with beads in her hair appeared holding kunai knives between her fingers (ATK: 1500).
“When ‘Lady Assailant’ is flipped,” the Masked Duelist declared, “I remove the top three cards of my deck from play to deal you eight hundred damage, Flaming Knife Missiles!” ‘Lady Assailant’ threw her knives, which caught fire and exploded in the air near my chest and head (8000-800=7200).
“Now,” said the Masked Duelist, “I play ‘Painful Choice’. As a Duelist you should know what it does.” He fanned out his deck and pulled five cards, showing them to me. Another ‘Lady Assailant of Flames’, ‘Flash Assailant’, which has a dangerous negative effect, and three copies of ‘Dark Assailant’, a Normal Monster that attacks from the shadows. A weak monster with only twelve hundred Attack.
“Add one of the ‘Dark Assailants’ to your hand,” I said, wondering why a Duelist would even use ‘Dark Assailant’. The Masked Duelist did as I said, discarding the other monsters.
“Then I’ll summon ‘Dark Assailant’,” said the Masked Duelist, “in attack mode.”
The ‘Dark Assailant’, a bony creature carrying a set of throwing knives and wearing a bone mask painted with an eye appeared, crouched down as if ready to pounce (ATK: 1200).
“Next I equip my ‘Phalanx Pike’ to ‘Lady Assailant of Flames’.”
Of course, I thought, frowning. He’s using such weak monsters. I should have seen this coming.
A spear appeared in ‘Lady Assailant’’s right hand. “For each ‘Lady Assailant’ in my Graveyard the equipped ‘Lady Assailant’ gains nine hundred Attack (1500+900 =2400).
“Now my ‘Lady Assailant’ attacks directly,” the Masked Duelist commanded.
“I reveal ‘Call of the Haunted’ to revive the ‘Luster Dragon’,” I countered. The blue dragon rose up in the path of the ‘Assailant’ and was stabbed through the chest, instantly destroyed (7200+1900-2400=6700).
“I discard my hand to activate my second Trap,” I continued, “the ‘Rope of Life’!”
A rope burst out of the ground, the dragon clenching it in his teeth. ‘Luster Dragon’ was pulled from his Grave, and the rope disappeared.
“When a monster is revived by the effect of ‘Rope of Life’,” I explained, “it gains eight hundred Attack.”
But before my monster could even receive its new power it was pierced through the chest by an invisible projectile and died.
“What happened?” I demanded angrily.
“When you activated ‘Rope of Life’,” said the Masked Duelist, “I chained a handy Trap called ‘Cloak and Dagger’. I choose one monster, and when it appears on the field both it and my Trap are removed from play. This paves the way for my ‘Dark Assailant’’s Attack.” ‘Dark Assailant’ jumped up and threw his knives at me. The impacts almost felt real (6700-1200=5500).
I can’t believe it! I thought, absolutely stunned. He’s using these assassination tactics to counter every combo that I throw at him!
I drew, “I set one card and end my turn.”
“Then I’ll finish this,” the Masked Duelist declared. “Draw!”
He looked over his hand, “I activate ‘Pot of Greed’, drawing two cards. Next I summon ‘Strike Ninja’ and equip him with every assassin’s best friend, the ‘Fuhma Shuriken’.” The black ninja appeared, carrying a ninja star, the ‘Fuhma Shuriken’, in his right hand, and a kunai knife in his left (ATK: 1700+700=2400).
“My ‘Strike Ninja’ attacks,” the Masked Duelist commanded, and the ninja jumped forward and slashed me with his knife (5500-2400=3100).
“Now ‘Lady Assailant of Flames’ attacks.”
‘Lady Assailant’ charged. She jumped and raised her pike.
“Reveal Spell card,” I said, “‘Mystical Space Typhoon’, destroying your ‘Pike’.”
The ‘Phalanx Pike’ was blown out of the ‘Assailant’’s hand and carried out of sight. Without batting an eye the assassin drew a knife, slashed me across the chest, and jumped back to her master’s side (3100-1500=1600).
“Attack with ‘Dark Assailant’,” said the Masked Duelist. The final monster struck, pelting me with his knives again (1600-1200=400).
“But I survived,” I said. “That means I still have a chance to win.”
“Pft,” said the Masked Duelist. “Like an assassin would ever give his hit a chance. I remove two ‘Dark Assailants’ in my Graveyard from play to remove ‘Strike Ninja’ from play until the End Phase. But first he has to get rid of his ‘Shuriken’, since he can’t take it with him. So he’ll throw it at you, dealing you seven hundred more damage.”
The black-clad ninja jumped and flipped in midair, throwing the ‘Shuriken’ at me as he disappeared. The ‘Shuriken’ hit me, and my time in the tournament ended before it had even begun (400-700=0).
Tucker
“You’re right,” I told Crabtree, “that putting one of your monsters in orbit out of reach of my weaker monsters means that you only have to protect your other monsters. You’re right that every time I summon a monster I’ll take a hit. You’re right that your ‘Satellite Cannon’ is almost impossible to deal with because it’ll take time and effort to reach it. But you were wrong when you said that I was nothing worth mentioning, because when you have a strong spirit like mine, nothing is outside your reach!”
The air around me began to heat up and my Soul began to glow.
“I may not have much of a head for making new strategies on the fly,” I said, “and I may be a little too reckless, but if I have anything on my side it’s my spirit. Now watch as my spirit crushes you!
“I play ‘Graceful Charity’,” I declared, placing the Spell in my Duel Disk. I pulled three cards, and I knew how I would win.
“By ‘Charity’’s effect,” I said, “I discard ‘Flame Ruler’ and ‘Inferno’. Next I play ‘Premature Burial’ (4650-800=3850), reviving my ‘Flame Ruler’.”
“Activate ‘Dark Cure’ and ‘Nurse Reficule’,” said Doc absentmindedly, the look in his eyes telling me that he was already busy counting his scam money. My monster, the dark-skinned and tattooed ‘Flame Ruler’, appeared (ATK: 1500), and I once again took damage (3850-750=3100).
“Now I sacrifice ‘Flame Ruler’,” I said, “using his effect. When I sacrifice him to summon a Fire Attribute monster he can be used as both sacrifices!”
“So you can summon a high level monster,” said the Doc, finally showing some interest in the duel, “without taking a lot of damage from my effects.”
“That’s right. Now check out the monster I’m summoning,” I smiled as the legendary bronze dragon rose up behind me, spreading his wings, light glinting off of the green jewel in his forehead. “Say hello to the ‘Tyrant Dragon’ (ATK: 2900/LP: 3100-1450=1650).
“Next I play ‘Monster Reborn’, reviving ‘Flame Ruler’ yet again (1650-750=900),” I announced, watching the color drain from my opponent's face, “and I activate ‘Gift of the Martyr’, sacrificing ‘Flame Ruler’ to increase the strength of my ‘Tyrant Dragon’ by an amount equal to his Attack (2900+1500=4400)!”
“Too bad your dragon will never get a chance to attack me,” said Crabtree between calming breaths. “After all, sometimes the patient needs to be restrained!”
His face-down card flipped face-up, “Reveal ‘Shadow Spell’, the magical chains!” Chains reached forth from the card, reaching for the dragon, only to be dispersed by a flash of green light.
“The bead on my ‘Tyrant Dragon’’s head protects him from any Trap card that designates a target,” I explained. “That means that he’s still able to attack. Tyrant Burst!”
‘Tyrant Dragon’ breathed fire over ‘Nurse Reficule’, incinerating her in less than an instant (5700+1400-4400=2700).
“Now I activate my dragon’s special ability,” I declared. “He takes flight and attacks your ‘Satellite Cannon’ as well!” My dragon flapped his wings and rose into the air, flying high and out of sight. He broke through the atmosphere and faced the satellite. Red energy built in his mouth, and the dragon fired his attack, a deadly swirling stream of fire so hot that it could burn even in the upper atmosphere. The ‘Satellite Cannon’ was instantly vaporized (2700+1000-4400=0).
I walked over to Crabtree, who’d fallen to his knees in shock, and looked down at his stunned face, “Now who’s not worth mentioning?”
Card of the Day:
Lady Assailant of Flames
Played by: The Masked Duelist
Choosing a Card of the Day for this chapter was tough. Tucker's duel was a gag, and to be honest the Masked Duelist didn't have to use any of his best stuff to utterly destroy Lawrence (is anyone surprised?), so I chose the card out of the cards played in the more serious of the two duels that I think is coolest. "Lady Assailant of Flames" is a monster that doesn't share much in common with other monsters in the game, so it just always stands out to me. Maybe you would disagree, but to me this is the Card of the Day, hands down.
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