Chapter 22: Fall of the Gambler
The last duel of the quarterfinal round of the Astraea Star Cup was only five minutes away. Jaden and the others had gathered together in the waiting room. Both Jaden and Jessie were deeply concerned about the next duel. They knew very well the dark power that Tamao had become capable of, but Striker and Clive remained ignorant. And Jaden didn’t know how to tell Clive of the danger he might be in.
“Well, I guess they’ve saved the best for last in this tournament.” Clive commented with a confident grin. “After this duel I’ll finally have a chance to pay back Striker for our last duel.”
“You shouldn’t get overconfident Clive.” Jaden warned in a serious tone. “Tamao might be more dangerous than she looks.”
“What? You don’t seriously believe all those rumors about her, do ya?” Striker asked Jaden. “I mean, I will admit that things get a little weird when dueling those Four Witches, but you talk about Tamao like she’s evil incarnate or something.”
At that point Amane entered the room.
“Okay everybody, we’re ready to start.” Amane said to the assembled finalists. “If you’ll all come out to the stage please.”
Tamao and Jane got up from the couch and headed out to the stage.
“Hey Ms. Tamao.” Clive called as he got up, causing Tamao to stop and look. “I hope there won’t be any hard feelings after I beat ya.”
“I hope the same can be said for when I defeat you.” Tamao said with an innocent smile before continuing out.
* * *
Back in Chikaru’s room at the dorms, Chikaru was still on the couch with Shion watching the tournament from her TV. Shion stirred and sat up.
“Hey there.” Shion said as she cuddled up closer to Chikaru and kissed her on the cheek. “You seem to be doing a lot better since last night.”
“You seem to be doing a lot better too.” Chikaru replied before kissing Shion back. “The last duel of the quarterfinals is about to start.”
“Oh? Who’s dueling?” Shion asked, though it was clear that she was more interested in making out with Chikaru.
“Tamao and Clive are dueling next.” Chikaru answered in a somewhat serious tone.
“So it’s those two?” Shion said, her interest now focused on the tournament. “You think lover boy Clive can win?”
“I don’t know, but I have a bad feeling about this duel.” Chikaru answered.
* * *
Back at the stadium, Clive and Tamao had already gotten on stage. Everyone in the audience had returned to their seats.
“By the decision of the coin toss, Tamao shall go first.” Amane announced into her microphone. “Let the duel… begin!”
With the life points of both duelists set to 4000, Tamao drew her first card.
“First I activate Terraforming and add a Field Spell to my hand.” Tamao calmly announced. “And now I activate my Field Spell, The Seal of Orichalcos!”
The outer ring of the seal then descended from above onto the stage around Tamao and Clive. The shockwave from the ring’s landing knocked Hikari and Amane off the stage. Jaden, Jessie, and Striker ran over to check on the two girls as the seal finished forming.
“Are you two okay?” Jaden asked the couple.
“We’re fine.” Amane replied. “What the heck was that though?”
“It is worse than we thought!” Timeaus said to Jaden as he, Critias, and Hermos appeared in their knight forms. “Tamao has the forbidden seal.”
“What does this card do?” Jaden asked the knights.
“When a duelist loses while The Seal of Orichalcos is in play, his soul is claimed by the seal.” Critias answered gravely. “Unless your friend Clive can triumph, his soul will be trapped.”
“Now then, for my next move I summon Orichalcos Strength Drainer in Attack Mode.” Tamao announced.
Appearing on the field was a hunched-over grey-skinned humanoid figure with long arms wearing a black muscle shirt, black jeans, black leather gloves, and black combat boots. A black leather mask covered his head. There were red lenses over the eyeholes, and the mouth hole was zipped shut. Around his neck on a thick iron chain was a silver medallion with a large green gemstone. The moment the creature appeared a smaller version of the seal appeared on its forehead.
“Normally my Orichalcos Strength Drainer only has 1900 ATK. But with The Seal of Orichalcos on the field, the ATK of all my monsters on the field is increase by 500 points.” Tamao explained. “With that I end my turn.”
“I will admit that that was a weird Field Spell you just played, but I’m not worried.” Clive said confidently as he drew his first card. “First I discard one card to summon The Tricky!”
Appearing on the field was a jester-like creature in yellow and black. His face was completely covered by a mask with a red question mark on the front.
“Now I sacrifice The Tricky to summon one of my favorite monsters, Blowback Dragon!” Clive announced.
The Tricky shattered into triangles of gold light, and in his place appeared an armless red mechanical dragon with a gun for a head.
“Now I activate the effect of Blowback Dragon!” Clive announced. “I flip three coins, and if two out of three of those coins are heads, I can destroy one card on my opponent’s field. So let’s go!”
With that, three large gold coins suddenly flipped down onto the battlefield from the sky. The coin on Clive’s left landed with its blank side facing up, but the other two coins landed with the side engraved with the Millennium Eye face-up.
“Oh yeah, I’m on fire!” Clive exclaimed. “Two out of three heads, so now Blowback Dragon, destroy The Seal of Orichalcos!”
The mechanical dragon fired a large shell from its gun barrel nose into the ground, causing a huge explosion. When the smoke cleared however, The Seal of Orichalcos still shined on the ground.
“What the heck?” Clive asked, looking both confused and a bit outraged.
“Oh silly me, I forgot to mention that The Seal of Orichalcos can’t be destroyed once played.” Tamao said with an innocent smile. “Sorry about that.”
“Grr… I end my turn!” Clive announced with a look if disgust. Tamao drew her next card.
“Since I have The Seal of Orichalcos on the field, I special summon Orichalcos Rejuvenator in Defense Mode!” Tamao announced.
Appearing on the field sitting in a cross-legged position was a figure in dark-blue robes and hood. On his face was a metallic gasmask with black hoses connected to a large metal tank on his back. The tank was connected to a metal chest plate, and on the top of the tank was a large green gemstone.
“Now I activate the effect of Orichalcos Strength Drainer and cut the ATK of Blowback Dragon in half!” Tamao announced.
The mask-wearing creature stretched his arms forward. The stone of his medallion began to glow, and soon red energy was being pulled from Blowback Dragon into the Strength Drainer’s hands.
“Of course that’s not all. While The Seal of Orichalcos is on the field, my Strength Drainer’s effect increases my life points equal to half the ATK points of the monster it drains.” Tamao explained. “And now the effect of Orichalcos Rejuvenator kicks in. Whenever my life points are increased by a card effect, my Rejuvenator increases my life points equal to the number of monsters on my side of the field times 500.”
A green light then began to shine from the Strength Drainer’s back and hit Tamao. At the same time a beam of green light came from the gemstone on the Rejuvenator’s tank and also hit Tamao. Tamao’s life points then rose to 6150.
“Next I equip Strength Drainer with Axe of Despair!” Tamao announced. “This increases his ATK to 3400.”
A sinister looking axe with a knarred-looking handle appeared in the Strength Drainer’s right hand. The axe seemed to glow with an evil red aura.
“Strength Drainer, destroy Blowback Dragon with Life Force Extinguisher!” Tamao commanded.
The masked creature fired an orb of black energy from his left hand. The orb hit Blowback dragon and reduced it to dust. Clive’s life points plummeted to 1750 as a result.
“I believe I’ll end my turn.” Tamao announced. Clive drew his next card and smiled when he saw what it was.
“Tell me something Tamao, are you a gambler?” Clive asked.
“It’s foolish to depend on luck.” Tamao answered bluntly.
“Well you’re about to take a gamble! I activate the Spell card, Question!” Clive announced. “Now you have to guess the first monster in my Graveyard. If you guess right, it gets removed from the game, but if you guess wrong I can summon that monster to the field. So tell me what it is Tamao!”
“What an easy question.” Tamao said with a confident smile. “The card at the bottom of your Graveyard is The Tricky. You sent it there yourself when you summoned Blowback Dragon.”
“Close but wrong.” Clive said, startling Tamao. “The monster at the bottom of my Graveyard is another favorite of mine, Barrel Dragon!”
Appearing on the field was a gigantic iron-grey mechanical dragon with a revolver for a head. Instead of arms it had two other revolving gun barrels.
“I see, you discarded Barrel Dragon when you summoned The Tricky.” Tamao realized with a look of irritation.
“Yep, and now I activate my Barrel Dragon’s effect!” Clive announced. “I flip three coins, and if at least two out of three are heads, I can destroy one of my opponent’s monsters. So let’s go!”
Three large gold coins flipped onto the battlefield, all three landed with the Millennium Eye facing up.
“Yes! Barrel Dragon destroys Orichalcos Strength Drainer!” Clive announced proudly.
The dragon fired a shell from the gun barrel on its head. The shell hit Tamao’s monster and caused a huge explosion. When the smoke cleared however, a new monster was standing in the Strength Drainer’s place. It was a woman with long blue hair and light green eyes. From the sidelines Jaden thought that the woman looked like how Tamao would look if she were in her twenties. The woman wore a flowing blue dress and a matching cape with a long collar. On her head was a blue conical hat and around her neck was an amulet with the symbol of the Orichalcos on it. In her right hand the woman carried a long silver staff with a green orb on top.
“What the…?” a confused Clive exclaimed.
“Since a Spellcaster monster of mine was destroyed, I can special summon Orichalcos Witch from my hand.” Tamao explained. “And since she was summoned by her own effect, all other monsters on the field are destroyed.”
The witch raised her staff in the air, and the orb on the end gave off an explosion of green light that vaporized both Barrel Dragon and Orichalcos Rejuvenator.
“I… end my turn.” Clive reluctantly announced after he saw there was nothing more he could do.
“As I said before, it’s foolish to depend on luck.” Tamao said as she drew her next card. “Luck is such an unstable thing. And in this game all the good luck in the world cannot help if your opponent has a good strategy. It’s a shame you had to learn that the hard way. Now then, the ATK of Orichalcos Witch is normally 2800, but thanks to the seal it’s raised to 3300. Orichalcos Witch, finish this duel with Orichalcos Magic Blast!”
The witch fired a large ball of green energy from her staff, which hit Clive with enough force to throw him against the invisible barrier of the seal. The attack dropped his life points to zero. Just as Clive got back to his feet, the seal suddenly began to shrink and change position until it was only around Clive.
“W-What’s going on?” Clive asked in a terrified tone.
“Oh dear, I guess I also forgot to tell you that The Seal of Orichalcos traps the soul of the one who loses the duel.” Tamao said with an innocent smile. “So sorry about that. But I hope there are still no hard feelings.”
“You little…” Clive began to curse as a pillar of green light shot up from the seal. When the light cleared, Clive’s soulless husk fell to the ground face first.
* * *
Back in Chikaru’s room, both Chikaru and Shion were confused and concerned by what they just saw on the screen.
“What just happened?” Shion asked.
“I don’t know, but I think we should go find out.” Chikaru told her. Shion nodded in agreement and went to go get dressed.
* * *
Clive’s soulless body had been taken to Miator’s infirmary. Jaden, Jessie, and Striker had gone with, as did Hikari and Amane. Yaya and Tsubomi had showed up a few minutes after they had arrived. The doctors of course could find nothing physically wrong with Clive of course. Eventually both Shion and Chikaru had arrived.
“Is Clive okay?” Chikaru asked.
“The doctors say he’s in some kind of coma, but they don’t know the cause.” Striker said sadly. Then an angry look came to his eyes as he turned to face Jaden. “But you do, don’t you Jaden? Both you and Jessie know what’s going on here so spill!”
Jaden and Jessie both looked at each other for a moment before turning back to Striker.
“Tamao’s Field Spell card, The Seal of Orichalcos…. It trapped Clive’s soul when he lost.” Jaden finally answered.
“What do you mean trapped his soul?” Striker demanded to know.
“I mean his soul got removed from his body and… put somewhere else.” Jaden answered.
At that moment Shion fell to her knees with a shocked and frightened expression on her face.
“So that means… if Chikaru dueled Tamao then… her soul would’ve been trapped too.” Shion realized. “I-I would’ve lost her.”
“It’s okay Shion, that didn’t happen.” Chikaru told her as she got down and hugged her from behind.
“Damn it, why didn’t you tell us about all this?” Striker angrily demanded as he stormed over and grabbed Jaden by the jacket.
“Would you have believed me if I did?” Jaden retorted. Striker backed down and let go of Jaden. “Besides, I didn’t even know about the seal until today.”
“Okay then, so how do we get Clive’s soul back?” Striker asked as he regained his calm.
“I honestly don’t know.” Jaden answered. “We might be able to get it back if we beat Tamao, but I don’t know for sure.”
“Then I’m gonna find out!” Striker declared as he stormed out of the room.
“Great, now what do we do?” Yaya asked the group.
“Maybe Hikari and I should talk to the headmistress about stopping the tournament.” Amane suggested.
“That won’t do any good.” Jaden told her. “Tamao is planning to destroy the world, and she’ll go on with that plan whether there’s a tournament or not.”
“So then what do we do?” Tsubomi asked.
“Right now we can’t do anything.” Jaden answered gravely. “Nothing except go ahead with the tournament and hope for the best.”
* * *
Back at the Miator student council room, Tamao and Jane had arrived to find the other three members of the Four Witches waiting for them.
“Congratulations on your victory Lady Tamao.” Hiyori said with a bow.
“Thank you Hiyori.” Tamao said as she walked up to the device containing the shard of The Great Leviathan and presented The Seal of Orichalcos to it. Clive’s soul flew out of the card and into one of the panels on the top part of the device. “Tell me Hiyori, how far ahead will the addition of this soul put us?”
“I’ll have to do a more detailed analysis, but The Great Leviathan should be revived at any time now.” Hiyori answered.
“Splendid.” Tamao replied. “Well, this tournament is turning out to be far more interesting than I thought. I suppose in the end it will come down to me and Jaden Yuki.”
“Do not worry Lady Tamao.” Jane suddenly said. “I will crush Jaden Yuki before he gets that far.”
“Perhaps.” Tamao said as she turned to face her underlings. “But then perhaps not. We’ve all made the mistake of underestimating Jaden. And he does have the three knights of Atlantis behind him. It could be that before we can remake the world, we must settle the grudge between the Legendary Knights and the Orichalcos once and for all. The whole tournament seems to have been leading to this showdown. And it is a showdown that I intend to win.”
