[color=0072bc][center][h3]Cassandra Moore – Obelisk Blue[/h3][/center][/color] The darkness swallowed her and Cassandra tried her best not to let the oppressive feeling coming from the shadows overwhelm her. It sapped away any cheer she might have felt after her duel with Gokibore, any victory she might have felt over making a new friend; Haruko’s arrival was a sudden and cold reminder of her current situation and why she had felt compelled to come to the wood tonight in the first place. Cassandra’s life was on the line in this duel; yes, she had realised that by now, the bleeding wound in her leg from the duel she had finished moments ago had made that very clear. Nonetheless, she didn’t have any choice [i]but[/i] to duel; her opponent, whether that was Haruko or the spirits using her, wasn’t giving her a chance to refuse. It was a threat, not a warning. Her opponent summoned a duel disk from the shadows and began to draw cards; Cassandra raised her own duel disk in response. She drew her own hand and frowned; it seemed luck was not on her side at the moment. She had no plays she could make. “I’ll go first.” Haruko spent little time thinking over her plays and simply placed every card in her hand to the field. “I’ll set five and end my turn.” Drawing for turn, Cassandra was relieved to see a card that would let her make use of the rest of her hand. The five unknown cards on Haruko’s field were daunting and Cassandra was tempted to play this safely, but she needed to end this quickly if she could. [color=0072bc]“I normal summon Reptilianne Gardna, then activate the effect of my Kagetokage in hand to special summon it.”[/color] There was no response from her opponent, no card activations and nothing verbally either. Cassandra continued. [color=0072bc]“Next, I’ll overlay my two monsters to XYZ summon King of the Feral Imps.”[/color] “I activate my trap card, Enma’s Judgement.” Haruko revealed one of her backrow, a demonic judge appearing within the shadows behind her to pass judgement on her monster. Her monster was destroyed. [color=0072bc]“I set a card and end my turn.”[/color] The spirit-possessed Haruko smirked. “I draw.” Another card was drawn from the shadows and added to her hand. “I flip summon Shutendoji and then reveal a face-down, Graveyard of Wandering Souls.” The battle field changed, the shadows relenting to reveal a graveyard on Haruko’s side of the field; tombstones sprouting from the ground and wisps of spirits drifting among them. “I attack directly with Shutendoji.” [Cassandra: 8000 > 6500] “I set another card and end my turn.” [color=0072bc]“I Draw.”[/color] Another good card, another chance to make a play. Two of Haruko’s face-down card had been revealed, but she still had unknown cards that she could use against Cassandra should she commit to this. She had no choice; her leg was starting to feel numb and her hands were starting to shake. Naga was still behind her, still clutching onto her back, but she barely noticed. [color=0072bc]“I summon Reptilianne Scylla, then special summon another Kagetokage.”[/color] No response, yet again. Cassandra decided to play it safe and deal with Haruko’s monster before anything else. [color=0072bc]“I attack Shutendoji with Scylla.”[/color] The snake-monster lunged forward, tearing into and through the ogre. [Haruko: 8000 > 7700] “When a monster of mine is destroyed and sent to the graveyard, my Wandering Souls summon a token to my side of the field.” Some of the wisps floating around the field gathering together into a little ball of flame before placing themselves between Cassandra and Haruko’s lifepoints. [color=0072bc]“Kagetokage, attack the Fireball token.”[/color] The shadowy lizard, barely visible on the current field, rushed toward to bite into the fireball and destroy it. [color=0072bc]“Next, I’ll overlay my monster again to summon another King of the Feral Imps.”[/color] The summon was successful this time, her monsters being replaced by a large, horned and muscular imp. [color=0072bc]“I’ll activate King of the Feral Imp’s effect, detaching my Scylla to add Reptilianne Vaskii to hand and ending my turn.”[/color] “I activate my trap card.” Cassandra flinched. “Monster Rebone. I’ll be summoning your other King of the Feral Imps.” The monster in question rose from among the gravestones on Haruko’s side of the field; deathly pale and rotting in places. “Then I’ll activate another; Call of the Haunted and summon back Shutendoji.” One step forward, two steps back. Haruko drew for turn. “I change King of the Feral Imps to attack position and normal summon Master Kyonshee. I attack your King with mine.” The undead King of the Feral Imps charged forward, crashing into her own and beginning to struggle with it; they were evenly matched, of course, and in a burst of light they both disappeared. “Attack directly with Shutendoji.” [Cassandra: 6500 > 5000] “Attack with Master Kyonshee.” [Cassandra: 5000 > 2250] “End turn.” Cassandra drew and wilted when she say it was another Reptilianne Naga. She had all three in her hand now and as much as she cared for her closest friend she would not help her here. [color=0072bc]“I activate my face-down; Ojama Trio. I summon three tokens to your side of the field.”[/color] Three tokens appeared across the field from her, filling up Haruko’s side of the field. [color=0072bc]“Next, I’ll tribute two of those tokens to summon Reptilianne Vaskii.”[/color] The tokens faded into the shadows at the edges of the field as Vaskii emerged from the same. [color=0072bc]“I’ll activate Vaskii’s effect to destroy Master Kyonshee.”[/color] The monster in question was destroyed, only to immediately be replaced by another fiery ball of wandering spirits. [color=0072bc]“I’ll go to the battle phase and attack Shutendoji with Vaskii.”[/color] That monster too was destroyed and a second Fireball token took its place. [Haruko: 7700 > 6600] [color=0072bc]“I’ll set a monster and pass.”[/color] Haruko drew again and looked neither happy with annoyed with what she saw. “I end my turn.” [color=0072bc]“I draw.”[/color] Cassandra’s hands shook as she added another card to her hand, then shook even more once she saw what it was. Evil Dragon Ananta; it was a card she had picked up around the same time that she had found her friends, discarded like all the others had been, but it had always felt… different from them. Darker. She had added it to her deck regardless because it seemed like a strong card and she had no reason not to; besides, she didn’t want to make the mistake of misjudging someone the way every had misjudged her friends even if it did make her feel uneasy. It was the one card in her deck that she didn’t get along with. If you could, she tried to avoid summoning it but… it might be what she needed in this duel. [color=0072bc]“I flip summon Reptilianne Naga. Then, I’ll activate Vaskii’s effect to destroy the last Ojama token.”[/color] [Haruko: 6600 > 6300] [color=0072bc]“Then… I’ll… I’ll banish all of the Reptiles I control and all the Reptiles in my graveyard to summon Evil Dragon Ananta.[/color]” The Naga and Vaskii on her field vanished into the shadows and all the monsters in her grave, Gardna and Scylla and the King of Feral Imps vanished too. In their place was a huge, multi-headed hydra. [color=0072bc]“My Ananta gains attack for each monster I banished to summon it, meaning it has 4800 attack and defence. I’ll use it to destroy your Fireball token.”[/color] Then token was destroyed in an instant as the multiple serpent heads crashed down on it. [color=0072bc]“Then, in main phase 2 I’ll set another card and end turn. In the end phase, Ananta destroys a card on the field; I’ll target your face-down.”[/color] A trap card appeared and was destroyed before Cassandra had a chance to see what it was. “I draw. I set one monster and pass.” Cassandra drew again and immediately preceded to the battle phase. The end was in sight now; Ananta could attack over or destroy any card Haruko used, it would take time to get through all of the tokens she had, but Ananta could destroy the Graveyard creating them too. [color=0072bc]“Ananta will attack your face-down monster.”[/color] The monster was revealed, a collection of spirit goats, before being destroyed. “When flipped, Scapegoat summons three Black Sheep tokens and when it is destroyed my Graveyard summons another Fireball token.” [color=0072bc]“I end my turn; in the end phase Ananta destroys your Graveyard.”[/color] “I draw. Let’s not prolong the inevitable any longer; I Link summon Yuki-Onna, the Icicle Mayakashi using the three Black Sheep tokens you just gave me. On summon I use its effect to negate your Evil Dragon Ananta and reduce its attack back to zero. I move to the battle phase and attack your Ananta.” It was over. Ananta’s effect was negated, which also removed the attack it had gained from its effect, leaving it easily destroyed by the Mayakashi and taking the rest of her life points with it. [Cassandra: 2250 > 0] Cassandra fell to her knees, ignoring the pain in her leg as she waited for the darkness to close in on her. ---- [color=ed1c24][center][h3]Leo Wilde – Slifer Red[/h3][/center][/color] [color=ed1c24]“What the hell? Who turned off the lights?”[/color] To say Leo didn’t know what was going on would be an understatement. Ever since he had woken up to all that noise at the dorm everything had been progressing like something out of a cheap horror movie; teenagers mysteriously disappeared, a search party heading into the woods to find them only to find the place haunted or some dumb thing like that. Now he had to duel that weird girl who everyone said was a Satanist of something because they’d stumbled across her doing weird things in the forest in the middle of the night. She even had some kind of reverb effect on her voice. This whole mess was either a bad dream or some kind of elaborate prank, either way he wasn’t going to entertain it much longer. If Haruko wanted a duel then he’d give her one. [color=ed1c24]“Alright, let’s go!”[/color] Despite the declaration, it was Haruko who went first. “I set two cards and summon Master Kyonshee and end my turn.” [color=ed1c24]“Draw!”[/color] Leo ripped a card from his deck and added it to his hand; why he’d even thought to bring his deck with him he didn’t know, but it was coming in handy after all. [color=ed1c24]“I summon Stratos and activate it’s effect, adding Blazeman to my hand. Then I move to battle and attack your Kyon-whatever.”[/color] The turbine hero dashed forward and punched through the zombie. [color=ed1c24]“I set a face-down and end my turn.”[/color] [Haruko: 8000 > 7950] “You seem confident, but that’s only because of your ignorance. If you had any idea what you were up against you would be cowering in fear.” Haruko, or whatever she was calling herself in this roleplay of her, drew a card and added it to her hand. “I activate Solidarity and summon Mezuki. I attack your Stratos.” The hero was destroyed as the empowered undead rushed over it, but rather than looking upset Leo looked vindicated. [Leo: 8000 > 7300] [color=ed1c24]“You talk a lot of game for someone who just walked right into my trap. I activate Hero Signal, which lets me special summon a HERO monster from my deck when a HERO I control is destroyed by battle. I summon Shadow Mist.”[/color] A hero in dark armour appeared on the field, out of the shadows themselves like its name suggested. [color=ed1c24]“Then I activate its effect and add a Mask Change to my hand.”[/color] “I end my turn.” [color=ed1c24]“Draw. I summon Blazeman and activate its effect to add Polymerisation to my hand.”[/color] Leo added the card in question from his deck, and then slapped a second card from his hand onto the field. [color=ed1c24]“Then I activate R – Righteous Justice and destroy two of your spells or traps; get rid of that Solidarity and the set card on the left.”[/color] Rays of brilliant light shone from both Blazeman and Shadow Mist, destroying Solidarity and an unknown card; Leo caught a glimpse of a demonic looking figure behind a desk before it was gone. [color=ed1c24]“Next, I’ll fusion summon using the Blazeman on the field and the Alius in my hand. Say hero to Elemental HERO Nova Master!”[/color] The Blazeman burst into flames, flames which grew and expanded before fading to reveal a larger and more powerful looking figure. [color=ed1c24]“Nova Master, attack her Mezuki.”[/color] The zombie was easily blown away by the fiery hero now that it was no longer empowered by Haruko’s spell. [Haruko: 7950 > 7050] [color=ed1c24]“When it destroys a monster by battle, Nova Master lets me draw a card. Then, I’ll attack directly with Shadow Mist.”[/color] [Haruko: 7050 > 6050] [color=ed1c24]“I set one card and end my turn.”[/color] “I draw.” [color=ed1c24]“What, no more taunting?”[/color] “…I normal summon Shutendoji and activate its effect, banishing Mezuki and Master Kyonshee to draw a card.” The two zombies vanished from the grave as they were banished and Haruko added another card to her hand. “Then I’ll attack your Shadow Mist with Shutendoji.” [color=ed1c24]“Ha, I activate Mask Change.”[/color] Leo flipped up his face-down card, grinning widely as he did so. This was the first time he’d had a chance to activate this card since coming to this damn school and it was always one of his favourites. [color=ed1c24]“I tribute Shadow Mist and summon Masked HERO Anki in its place. And because Shadow Mist was sent to the grave, I can activate its effect to add another HERO to my hand; Elemental HERO Woodsman.”[/color] “I end my turn.” Not so talkative now, was she? Whatever this was, nightmare, prank or whatever else, Leo was going to make this girl regret underestimating him. [color=ed1c24]“I draw! I normal summon Stratos and activate its other effect to destroy your last backrow. With that gone, let’s wrap this game up. I attack your Shutendoji with my Anki.”[/color] The drunk ogre was quickly dispatch as the dark hero charged leapt into the air and crashed down on it with a kick. [Haruko: 6050 > 4750] [color=ed1c24]“That triggers my Anki’s effect to add another Mask Change to my hand, but I’ll save that for now. Next I’ll attack directly with Stratos!”[/color] [Haruko: 4750 > 2950] [color=ed1c24]“Now it’s Nova Master’s turn.”[/color] [Haruko: 2950 > 350] [color=ed1c24]“Then I’ll activate the Mask Change I just search and tribute Stratos to summon Masked HERO Blast. Blast, finish this duel!”[/color] Leo’s last hero attack, scarf blowing out behind it as it rushed towards Haruko and dealt the final blow. [Haruko: 350 > 0] [color=ed1c24]“It doesn’t matter what I’m up against; I’ll always win in the end.”[/color]