Chapter 21: Rivals
The twelfth day of the tournament had come. And the second half of the quarterfinal round was about to begin. That morning Chikaru and Shion were still relaxing in Chikaru’s room. They had moved to the couch, but after breakfast Shion had dozed off and was using Chikaru’s lap as a pillow. Both of them were wearing only a simple white bathrobe.
Chikaru glanced over at the clock and saw it was about time for the next duel of the tournament. As she continued to stroke Shion’s blond locks, Chikaru grabbed the remote on the arm of the couch, turned on the TV, and flipped it to the channel that was showing coverage of the tournament. She could see that the stadium was once again packed. At last Hikari and Amane took the stage. The duel was about to begin.
* * *
Meanwhile on the stadium floor, Jaden, Jessie, Striker, and Clive had gathered together.
“So I wonder which of us is going to duel next?” Jessie asked.
“I hope it’s me and Striker up next!” Clive said enthusiastically.
“I certainly wouldn’t mind that.” Striker agreed. “But the again I wouldn’t mind dueling Jessie either.”
“Same here.” Jessie replied.
“Yeah, I wouldn’t mind going up against Jessie myself, but I think all three of us are gunning for the same thing now.” Clive pointed out. “And that’s a duel with the Fusion Master.”
“True, Jaden is the one to beat.” Striker agreed. “And we all know that he’ll make it to the final round. So the three of us should all try our hardest to get there too.”
“I’m up for that.” Clive agreed.
“So am I!” Jessie responded.
“I’ll be looking forward to taking on any one of you.” Jaden told them.
“Okay, welcome back everyone to the Astraea Star Cup Tournament!” Amane announced back on stage. “Things may have gotten a little intense yesterday, but the show must go on. So now it’s time to select who’s going to face off in the next duel.”
With that, the large monitor above began cycling through pictures of Jessie, Striker, Clive and Tamao. After a few moments the screen settled on Jessie’s picture.
“Our first duelist is Jessie Anderson!” Hikari announced. The crowed applauded the selection. “Now to see who our second duelist is.”
The other half of the screen cycled through the pictures of the remaining finalists until settling on Striker’s picture.
“Our second duelist is Jason ‘Striker’ Morgan!” Amane announced. “Both duelists please take the stage.”
“Well, I guess we’re up.” Striker said to Jessie. “Just so you know, I won’t be holding anything back.”
“Same goes for me.” Jessie replied.
“Hey Striker, I’ll see you in the next round.” Clive said as the two duelists took the stage.
“You bet!” Striker said as he gave Clive a thumbs-up.
“Man, I don’t know who to root for.” Jaden said to himself. “But either way this is going to be an awesome duel.”
“It’s not all fun and games though.” Yubel darkly pointed out as she appeared next to Jaden. “Keep in mind that Tamao is still in this tournament, and she’s a really big threat.”
“Yeah, you’re right.” Jaden replied as he remembered the darkness behind the scenes of the tournament. “Plus I still have to face Jane of the Four Witches in the next round.”
“I have no doubt that you’ll beat Jane.” Yubel told him. “It’s Jessie and those other two that I’m worried about. At least two of them will probably have to face Tamao, and if she’s as dangerous as we think she is, it won’t be pretty if they lose.”
Meanwhile, Jessie and Striker had gotten up on stage and activated their duel disks.
“By the decision of the coin toss, Jessie Anderson will go first.” Amane announced. “Let the duel… begin!”
“I set one monster on the field and end my turn!” Jessie announced. Striker drew his first card. He scowled a bit as he looked at his hand.
“Man, I’ve got a pretty lame hand.” Striker commented. “So first I think I’ll activate Card Destruction! Now we have to discard our entire hands and draw new ones!”
Both duelists placed the cards in their hands in the Graveyard slot of their duel disks before drawing completely new hands from their decks.
“Okay, now we’re talking. Now I summon Alpha the Magnet Warrior!” Striker announced. The same grey mechanical warrior that Striker used in his duel with Kaname appeared on the field. “Next I equip Alpha with the Spell card, Invigoration! This increases Alpha’s ATK to 1800!”
Alpha began glowing with a greenish-yellow aura.
“Alpha, attack Jessie’s monster with Magnet Slash!” Striker commanded.
The magnet warrior charged, and as he approached Jessie’s monster, it revealed itself to be a large turtle with a green shell that had emerald crystals growing out of it. Alpha’s sword hit the shell and did no damage. Striker’s life points dropped to 3800.
“Good job powering up Alpha.” Jessie commented. “It’s just too bad that my Emerald Tortuous has 2000 DEF points.”
“No big deal. I’ll just set a cark and end my turn.” Striker announced. Jessie drew his next card.
“I summon Crystal Beast Topaz Tiger!” Jessie announced. Appearing on the field was a white tiger with a bladed horn on his head and topaz gemstones on his body. “Topaz Tiger attacks Alpha with Topaz Incisor Shred!”
The white tiger jumped up in the air and was about to pounce on Alpha.
“Nice try, but I activate my Trap, Kunai With Chain!” Striker announced. “I equip this card to Alpha, increasing his ATK to 2300, and I also switch Topaz to Defense Mode!”
Alpha’s sword and shield disappeared and were replaced with a chain with a blade on the end. Alpha swung the chain around and whipped it around Topaz Tiger’s hind legs. With one good yank the tiger was pulled to the ground.
“Nice move.” Jessie commented. “I guess I’ll set a card on the field and end my turn.”
“I activate the Spell card, Lightning Vortex!” Striker announced after drawing his card. “I discard one card and destroy all monsters on my opponent’s field!”
Yellow lightning bolts spiraled down from the sky and caused a huge explosion on Jessie’s side of the battlefield. When the smoke cleared the only things left aside from the large representation of Jessie’s facedown card were two uncut gemstones, one emerald and one topaz.
“When my Crystal Beasts are destroyed I can keep them on the field in my Spell and Trap Card Zones.” Jessie pointed out.
“True, but they can’t protect you from attacks when they’re like that.” Striker reminded. “Alpha, attack Jessie directly with Magnet Slash!”
Alpha charged at Jessie and slashed him across the chest with his sword. The attack had reduced Jessie’s life points to 1700.
“I’ll set one card on the field and end my turn!” Striker announced. Jessie drew his next card.
“I summon Crystal Beast Sapphire Pegasus!” Jessie announced. A white Pegasus with a sapphire colored horn and sapphire gemstones in his wings appeared on the field. “Next I activate Sapphire Pegasus’s effect and add Crystal Beast Ruby Carbuncle to my Spell and Trap Card Zone!”
The horn on Sapphire Pegasus’s head glowed for a moment, and in an instant a large uncut ruby appeared on the field.
“Now I activate my Trap, Rainbow Gravity!” Jessie announced. “When I have all seven Crystal Beasts out, I can summon from my deck, Rainbow Dragon!”
A large rainbow shined down onto the battlefield, and from it emerged a large white dragon with four red eyes, a serpentine body, and a massive pair of white-feathered wings.
“Wait a minute, you only played four of your Crystal Beats! How can you…” Striker began to protest, but then a look of realization came to his face. “Wait, don’t tell me.”
“Yep, my other three Crystal Beasts were sent to the Graveyard when you played Card Destruction.” Jessie told him. “Now Rainbow Dragon, blow Alpha the Magnet Warrior away with Rainbow Refraction!”
The dragon reared back his head and fired a beam of rainbow colored light from his jaws. The attack vaporized Alpha and reduced Striker’s life points to 2100.
“Sapphire Pegasus, attack Striker directly!” Jessie commanded. “Sapphire Tornado!”
The white Pegasus flapped his wings, creating a large twister of blue wind. The twister hit Striker and reduced his life points to 300.
“Well, that ends my turn.” Jessie announced. Striker drew his next card.
“Looks like Jessie may have this duel wrapped up.” Jaden commented on the sidelines. “Next turn he can send the four Crystal Beasts he has on the field to the Graveyard and double Rainbow Dragon’s ATK to 8000.”
“Don’t be too sure he’ll have a next turn.” Clive told him. “If I know Striker, he’ll finish things pretty soon.”
“Since I don’t really have a hand to speak of, I play Card of Sanctity!” Striker announced. “Now both of us draw until we have six cards!”
“That’s pretty generous of you.” Jessie commented as he drew from the deck.
“Hey, this is more for me than it is for you.” Striker told him. “Now I think it’s time for a change of scenery. I play the Field Spell, Gaia Power!”
In an instant the battlefield changed to a forest with massive trees that covered the sky.
“Now I activate the Ritual Spell, Earth Chant!” Striker announced. “This card lets me summon any Earth Attribute Ritual monster from my hand. So now I sacrifice my level four Beta the Magnet Warrior and level four Obnoxious Celtic Guard from my hand to summon the level eight Black Luster Soldier!”
A large glowing symbol of yellow in the shape of a sword appeared on the battlefield for a moment, and from the center appeared a warrior clad in magnificent dark-blue armor with gold trim. A large red plum adorned his helmet. In his right hand he carried a saber, and in his left a small shield that matched his armor.
“Gaia Power raises my Soldier’s ATK to 3500!” Striker pointed out. “But that’s not all. I now activate my Trap, Metalmorph! I equip it to Black Luster Soldier and raise his ATK to 3800!”
The armor of Black Luster Soldier turned from dark-blue to black and took on a reflective quality. At the same time the trim of his armor turned from gold to silver.
“Black Luster Soldier, attack Rainbow Dragon!” Striker commanded. “Shining Chaos Blade!”
“Are you nuts?” Jessie exclaimed as the knight charged at Rainbow Dragon. “Rainbow Dragon still has 200 more ATK points than Black Luster Soldier!”
“Yeah, but when a monster equipped with Metalmorph attacks a monster, it gains half that monster’s ATK during the battle.” Striker pointed out.
With one powerful swing of Black Luster Soldier’s sword, the dragon was cut in half. Jessie’s remaining life points dropped to zero and the monsters still on the field vanished.
“And the winner of this duel is Jason ‘Striker’ Morgan!” Amane announced, causing the audience to cheer.
“Told ya Striker would win.” Clive said to Jaden.
“I guess you were right.” Jaden replied.
“Okay, in five minutes we’ll finish up the quarterfinals with a duel between our remaining finalists, Clive Winston and Tamao Suzumi.” Amane announced. “For right now, feel free to go stretch your legs.”
As the audience filed out of the stadium and Jessie and Striker stepped off the stage, Jaden looked over at Tamao. Tamao noticed him and simply beamed back an innocent smile. Jaden knew that something really bad was soon going to happen.
