The Khan's announcement had been made, and almost immediately the duelists got up from their table to scout the area for other duelists they thought would make for good challenges. Finishing up the rest of his breakfast in a few, large bites, he went to do the same, Kerykeion floating by his side to aid him. "Well well, looks like somebody decided to make return!" Lyall exclaimed as he motioned his head towards a familiar face. Korbin Okiyama, a well known professional within the dueling world. You know this one? Kerykeion asked with some amusement. Lyall nodded. The guy had been invited to at least one tournament in Aria City, and Lyall remembered Korbin taking one of the top places with relative ease. He wasn't that much of a good sport about it though, and was really quite a braggart about it. "I'd love to challenge him, but it seems somebody else has beaten us to it." Lyall sighed as he saw Press and Korbin face each other and size each other up. He turned, then observed the rest of the Hall until Kerykeion drew his attention to another duelist in particular. A girl, she didn't look like she was having much look finding someone to duel either. Interesting, she seems to be quite the fiery one. Challenge her, I think it shall definitely make for a good duel, for the both of you. "Cool. Hey!" Lyall waved towards Rin with a smile. "Seems like neither of us are having much luck in finding an opponent, so how about we duel each other here and now before the opportunity passes us by?" --- Rin glanced at the young man coming towards her, unsre of what to think. True, she had come here as part of the tournament and had expected to be dueling, but before she had even taken a bite to eat...? That was just low. She had woken up a tad late and all, so she was partially at fault in the end... But she wasn't here to treat the palace like a hotel. This was to be grounds fra tournament and to duel. her stomach growled a bit, but Rin shook it off and looked over the person again. Lswarms? At this point in the match. Sighing, Rin turned to the Volcanic Doomfire behind her in hopes of a response. The monster let out a puff of smoke, and Rin let a small smile inch its way onto her face. It felt like that was encouragement to battle, if anything. "Alright, I guess." she stated, a fire igniting in her eyes as she fully extended her duel disk and turned towards him. "I'll let you have the first move." --- "Excellent. I'm Lyall, pleased to be your opponent," he said with a bow of his head. He placed his hand on the center of his duel disk, causing it to activate and change from its forearm ornament form into a sleek, steely looking disk that glowed red and orange. Since he was taking first turn, he drew six cards and after a cursory glance, began to play them. "Since I control no monsters, I'll special summon Steelswarm Cell in defense position." Lyall placed the card sideways on his disk, causing a small, black beetle (that was apparently trying to curl up into a ball) to materialize in the air before them. "Now I'll normal summon Evilswarm Thunderbird, set two in my backrow, and end." --- "My name's Rin. The feeling is mutual. I draw." she responded, drawing a card from her deck. "First things first, I'll activate Pot of Duality." Rin said, drawing 3 cards and revealing them to her opponent. Vanity's Emptiness, Phoenix Wing Wind Blast and another Pot of Duality. "I'll add Vanity's Emptiness to my hand and shuffle the other two back into the deck." she said, slipping the two cards back into herdeck before shuffling. "Next, I'll play Volcanic Rocket." Rin continued, playing the card from her hand as a pterodactyl-esque creature cloaked in flames appeared in front of her. "This card lets me add one Blaze Accelerator card from my deck to my hand; I'll add Reload." she continued, pulling the card from her deck to her hand. "Battle Phase. I attack Cell with my Rocket." --- "Chain, Compulsory Evacuation Device," Lyall said as he waved his hand over one of the cards. A strange device rose from the ground before the path of the incoming Rocket, and the monster flew straight into the machine which promptly blasted it back to its owner hand. Cell was safe, for now. --- "...Hmph. Alright. During my Main Phase 2, I'll set 3 cards and end my turn. Your move." --- "Before your turn ends, I'll chain Mystical Space Typhoon and destroy the card to your far left!" One of Lyall's set cards rose upwards, revealing the spell card that let out a twister of wind that struck the card and destroyed it. The card was a Phoenix Wing Wind Blast. "Now I'll draw," he said doing just that, "And I'll tribute my Steelswarm Cell for Steelswarm Moth!" The beetle disappeared instantly as Lyall's monster descended from above, bringing with it heavy winds that were attempting to blow away Rin's two backrows. "By paying 1000 lifepoints, I can have my monster send two cards you control back to the hand. Now I'll start my battlephase! Moth, Thunderbird, attack!" --- "My turn then." Rin stated, glancing at her life points warily. "I'll draw." "Main Phase. I activate Snatch Steal; target is Moth." she stated as a giant hand extended out from her side of the field and plucked Steelswarm Moth from Lyall's field and dropped it onto hers. "Battle Phase. I attack Thunderbird with Moth." she continued, sending the stolen monster to attack the flying bird. Rin turned away as the monster shattered into oblivion before continuing. "Main Phase 2. I'll set 4 cards and pass. Your move." she ended, smirking. Stealing that big boss monster at this point in the game could only end so well. --- "That doesn't look good!" Lyall exclaimed as Snatch Steal worked its magic. Steelswarm Moth, now on Rin's side of the field, attacked Thunderbird with a stream of malevolent energy, blowing the poor Evilswarm to pieces. Lyall's lifepoints were now at 6250, though during his standby phase they were raised by 1000 points due to Snatch Steal. --- "Nice moves," Lyall complimented as Rin ended her turn. Drawing his card, she activated two of her cards, Reload and Vanity's Emptiness. He wasn't so much concerned of the former than he was the latter, that thing pretty much put a dent in a big part of his strategy. No matter, it was good to see this girl proved more of a challenge than he initially expected. "I'll summon Evilswarm Kerykeion and activate its ability, banishing Thunderbird from my graveyard to retrieve Steelswarm Cell." The monster planted one staff on the ground, the Gishki Aquamirror which showed the reflection of Thunderbird. Kerykeion raised the Cadeucus staff high in the air, releasing power into the ground that dug up Thunderbird and caused it to disappear from view. Another tendril of energy reached down into the pit and pulled Cell, returning it to Lyall's hand. "All I can do for now, so I'll end." --- "I draw." Rin stated as she glanced at the Kerykeion on the field. It seemed... Different from the othermonsters he had played prior. "Battle Phase. I attack with Steelswarm Moth." she continued as the monster attacked Kerykeion, destroying it before returning to it's original position. "End. Your turn." she smirked. At this point, Lyall would probably be forced to play quite defensively; the LP gain was a bit annoying, but she could get over that eventually. Vanity's was causing trouble, so all Lyall did was set a monster facedown to protect his lifepoints from further damage. Rin smirked as her intuition was spot-on. Activating the effect of Volcanic Shell, she winced as the fire of her cards burnt her a bit as she added another Volcanic Shell to her hand. "Effect of Reload. I'll discard Shell and draw a card." she stated, dropping Shell in the grave and drawing a card from the top of her deck. "I'll attack your facedown with Steelswarm Moth." she continued as the monter shot anoter attack out at the set card. The monster underneath, Castor, was destroyed on the spot. "I'll summon Summoner Monk; it goes to Defense Position when it's Normal Summoned or Set. With that, I'll end my turn." Another 1000 lifepoints, but right now Lyall would have preferred to be taking damage instead of having his stuff blocked off by Rin's trap card. His new draw though... hopefully it would come in handy. Castor had been lost to Moth's attack, but now Lyall had a new monster to use. "Summon, Steelswarm Sting. Now, attack Summoner Monk!" --- The hornet buzzed loudly as it dashed towards the spellcaster and stabbed him straight through the body with its large, metal stinger. With that thing destroyed, Emptiness left the field, and Lyall passed his turn. "My field was actually getting a bit clogged. Thanks for that. I draw." Rin smirked as she played a spell card from her hand. "I activate Magic Planter; I'll send Reload to the grave and draw two cards." she stated as the machine blew itself up. Smiling, she took two cards from the top of her deck before continuing. "I'll summon Volcanic Rocketand add Reload to my hand. Next, I'll activate Pot of Duality." she stated before drawing and revealing the top 3 cards of her deck; Wild Fire, Scattershot and Counter. Perfect. "I'll add Scattershot to my hand." "Battle Phase. I attack Sting with Rocket and direct with Moth." she said confidently as the Rocket ran straight through Sting and Moth shot Lyall head-on. "Main Phase 2. I set one card; pass." --- Things weren't looking as good as he wanted them to be, with that Snatch Steal in play Lyall's weaker monsters couldn't get at Rin's lifepoints directly, either because of Moth acting as a wall or because of it destroying them by the next turn. He might as well try this. "I special summon Cell again, then tribute it for Girastag." At least, that had been the plan before Rin activated Solemn Warning. --- Rin bit her lip as Solemn Warning took effect, taking her LP down to a measly 1450 as she watched Lyall set two cards and end his turn. Given the circumstances, it was probably over... "My turn. I draw." she stated as she eyed the two set cards in Lyall's backfield. Well, even if she did get hit by something like a Mirror Force she could probably survive for a while longer. "I activate Call of the Haunted!" she yelled, bringing back Volcanic Rocket from the Graveyard to stand alongside theother two monsters already standing by on the field. "Battle Phase. Everyone attack directly!" she said, a smile on her lips and fire burning in her eyes as they fired off one after the other. "Main Phase 2- I overlay my two Volcanic Rockets for Gagaga Cowboy. I'll detach one Rocket and dirct for 800 damage- just enough to finish you off. That's game." she said as she watched Steelswarm Moth fly back over to Lyall's side and seemed to offer an apology. Rin shrugged and turned to Doomfre, who seemed to have been pleased by the outcome of the duel as it drew energy from Kerykeion and into itself. Its flames seemed to grow brighted an it let out a stream of fire into the air before patting Rin on the back. --- Lyall accepted Moth's apology with a smile and nod of his head. It was... disappointing he lose his first duel in this tournament, but it wasn't so much of a blow to him as it was to his monsters. "Heh, it's alright, that's just the way it goes sometimes," Lyall said as he glanced over at Rin and Doomfire. "Good duel, I trust you'll do well in your other matches!" Lyall turned towards his monster, Kerykeion, and the holograms around them dissipated as they both walked away. Kerykeion seemed to be supporting itself with one of its staff, no doubt weakened from the drain of energy that happened as they lost. The monster looked up at Lyall and nodded in response to a mental question. "Are you alright?" "Good, hang in there. We have at least one more duel to make up for this loss, but if not..." [b]Then that's just the way it goes sometimes,[/b] Kerykeion said, repeating Lyall's words in agreement. [b]Besides, you [i]do[/i] have more... important business to attend to here after all, this tournament was just a bonus for you.[/b] "Quite, I need to speak personally with the Khan about that stuff. After our duels though."