As it has been for a while now, chapter three of Yu-Gi-Oh! Reaper is giving me trouble. The first three chapters are supposed to establish the "opposition" to Reaper throughout the story in the form of the cops, who will be important characters in their own right, to establish Reaper's powers, and finally, to establish Reaper's quality of living. Reaper is like Batman: he pushes himself harder than he should, and his lifestyle isn't healthy. This will be the first half of chapter three, with the beginnings of the plot making up the second half, and I'm just having trouble capturing exactly how I want to portray this.
So, in the mean time, as I said last time I posted one of these, here is the second half of the first Epic Battles duel instead. I know it was a long wait, and I don't particularly care.
Duel One
Tucker vs. Katsuya Jonouchi, Part Two
"Traps may not work on your monster," Jonouchi began, his eyes gleaming with excitement and pride, "but there're other ways to slay a dragon, and I just found one. I start by changin' your 'Tyrant Dragon' to defense with the Spell card 'Block Attack'!"
What? I wondered. Who still uses that card?
And he used it effectively, too, as I was about to find out. My dragon changed to defense mode (DEF: 2500).
"Next up," Jonouchi continued, "I summon out one of my best cards, the mighty 'Axe Raider'! He may not prefer a sword, but I'm gonna give him one anyway; 'Sword of Dragon's Soul'!"
My heart sank as I realized that my dragon's brief time on the board was already ending, as the axe-wielding warrior holstered his axe on his back and took up a gleaming blade (ATK: 1700 -> 2400).
"Now I bet you didn't know this,"Jonouchi lectured in a tone that was more than a little condescending, "but when a warrior holding this sword fights a dragon, the dragon dies after battle, even if the warrior loses."
"Actually, I did know that," I replied.
"Oh," Jonouchi replied, surprised, regaining his composure after a moment to continue, "then you know what's comin'. 'Axe Raider', attack 'Tyrant Dragon'!"
The warrior lunged at my dragon and swung his anti-dragon sword, but my dragons defenses were too much. 'Tyrant Dragon' swung his clawed arm and knocked the warrior back, and Jonouchi lost Life (2900 -> 2800).
The warrior's blade, however, made a bigger mark than the warrior himself. A moment after the warrior was swatted away, a glowing slash mark flashed across my monster's chest, and he let out his dying roar.
Okay, so maybe this guy is better than I gave him credit for, I decided.
"My move," I declared as I drew my next card and examined it along with my hand.
I only see one way out of this, I realized. My plan was a good one, or else it would be if Jonouchi took the bait and attacked.
"I set one card and one monster," I said, beginning and concluding my turn in an instant. My face-down card was a bluff. It looked like a bluff. It was supposed to look like a bluff, so that my opponent would call it and attack me in my apparent desperation. John uses tricks like that on me all the time.
"You won't get off that easy," Jonouchi assured me. "I won't fall for your bluff and give you a chance to Tribute Summon. I set two cards, and 'Axe Raider', attacks!"
'Axe Raider' swung his sword, cutting my hidden monster, a shadowy humanoid figure, before he could fully appear.
"Who said I didn't want you to attack?" I asked, shooting my opponent a prideful smile. "The monster you just destroyed was 'The Thing in the Crater', which gives me the power to summon a Pyro monster from my hand!"
"Not this again," Jonouchi protested, as my new monster, a pair of serpentine red dragons fused together by their midsections, appeared before me.
"Katsuya Jonouchi," I said smugly, enjoying myself, "I'd like you to meet my good friend Twin-Headed Fire Dragon' (ATK: 2200)!"
I drew again, "Here comes my comeback. Reveal my face-down Spell, 'Advance Force'!"
"Awe, man," Jonouchi groaned, recognizing my card, which would allow my to treat my monster as two tributes for any tribute summon. "Reveal 'Level Reduct'. I tribute 'Axe Raider' to summon a monster whose Level is one lower than his."
He must have realized that I was about to summon a monster capable of overwhelming his, I decided, and came up with the plan to summon a weaker monster in Defense mode to absorb the hit. Very smart. I might use that one myself sometime.
'Axe Raider' disappeared, and an odd little warrior that looked a little like a stick figure appeared, carrying a short sword, "I replace 'Axe Raider' with 'Swordsman of Landstar'!"
"I'm about to replace my monster as well," I declared. "I tribute my dragon," the two halves of my monster split apart and disappeared, giving way to a sphinx-like creature with wings, made entirely of flames, "to summon 'Infernal Flame Emperor' (ATK: 2700)! Using his effect, I remove 'Thing in the Crater' from play to roast your last face-down, and I attack the swordsman!"
My monster rushed forward to strike, but just before he could, 'Swordsman of Landstar' swept past him and cut him down with his sword.
"No way!"
"Oh yeah," Jonouchi cheered, "now you fell for my trick! Not only did I summon 'Landstar' in Attack mode, I was also ready with a Spell that I could activate even as it was bein' destroyed."
Still stunned, I looked around, and I saw it. In the air above Jonouchi floated another dice carrier, this time an angel.
I should have realized he'd use 'Graceful Dice', I thought. I looked down and saw the result of his roll, just as the dice and the angel faded away: a six.
"'Graceful Dice' can only be played on a monster with five hundred Attack points or less," Jonouchi explained, "but five hundred times six equals three thousand (ATK: 500 -> 3000/LP: 4000 -> 3700)!
"Now I draw," Jonouchi continued, "and 'cuz I don't have any monsters in my hand, I'll just attack directly with my super-powered swordsman!"
'Swordsman of Landstar' slashed at me, and my Life Points plummeted (3700 -> 700).
This is bad, I realized. I was doing so well, and I really wanna win this one. But if I don't get something right now, I won't even last one more turn.
I drew. "I play 'Pot of Greed'," I declared, drawing two more times. At first I just stared at my new cards, and I couldn't believe my good luck. I'd drawn the two cards that made up my ultimate combo. A combo so strong that it could win me a duel using eight thousand starting Life Points in just one turn. I selected those two cards, and one other, for good measure. I smiled as I set them, "Oh yeah! As soon as you draw, you lose!"
"We'll see," Jonouchi said, drawing his card, and that was it.
"Reveal," I declared, "Ring of Destruction' and 'Barrel Behind the Door'! I destroy your 'Swordsman of Landstar', but instead of dealing damage to each of us, 'Barrel' takes the damage I would have taken and sends it back at you!"
A gleaming pistol appeared in my hand, absorbing the flames from the explosion of Jonouchi's monster, and I pulled the trigger, sending the flames back at my opponent, "Bet you didn't see that one coming."
"You're right," Jonouchi answered from behind billowing flames, "I really didn't. But lucky for me there's a guy I wanna beat who uses that 'Ring of Destruction' card, so I put somethin' in my deck special for him."
I watched as the flames began to swirl around Jonouchi menacingly.
"My Instant Spell Card 'Effect Reflect' negates all effect damage I would take from effects activated in the same chain," Jonouchi explained, "and sends it right back at you."
The flames erupted forward, heading right for me. I looked down at my last face-down, the card that I'd thought I wouldn't need. Now it was my only chance.
"Reveal my last act of desperation," I declared, mostly to sound dramatic, "the Trap card 'Damage Divergence', reflecting half the damage I'm about to take back at you!"
The stream of oncoming flames split, one half circling back toward Jonouchi. We were both hit, and when the flames finally dissipated, neither of us had any Life Points left. After an intense exchange, the Duel had ended in a draw.
Jonouchi and I stood there for a few moments in silence, staring intensely at each other, until finally we couldn't help it, and we started laughing.
After the Duel, Jonouchi and Honda helped me find my hotel. They even walked me all the way there. They were cool guys. Honda even helped me figure out my map before the two left me at my temporary home, with a promise that Jonouchi and I would Duel again somewhere down the road.
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