Chapter 5: Tamao the Dark Queen
Late on the night of the second day of the tournament, Jane Hawthorn, one of the Four Witches of Miator, was walking back to the Strawberry Dorms after a long meeting of the student council. Jane was alone on her walk. The other members of Miator’s student council were still working on matters for the school, and since it seemed that she wasn’t needed, Jane decided to leave early. As the dark-brown haired girl walked, she was unaware that there was someone watching her.
“Isn’t it a little late for a girl like you to be out on her own?” a masculine voice suddenly asked.
Jane turned around and saw a young but large and rather muscular figure with black hair and wearing a white tank top and green jeans. Jane quickly realized that the person was one of the visiting duelists that had come for the tournament.
“Who are you?” Jane asked, tensing up a little. She didn’t like the expression on the young man’s face. His expression was that of a predatory sneer, one that gave Jane the feeling he had something on his mind other than dueling.
“The name’s Dirk Peters.” The young man finally answered. “And I’ve had my eye on you since that banquet a few nights ago.”
“Well if you’ve come for a duel, you’ll have to wait until morning!” Jane replied, hoping that a duel was the only thing that Dirk wanted. “It’s late, and I’m going to bed!”
“Oh I didn’t come for a duel.” Dirk said as he suddenly grabbed Jane’s arm as she turned to leave. “There’s a different reason why I’ve had my eye on you.”
“Let go of me!” Jane cried as she struggled to get out of Dirk’s strong grip.
Suddenly a fast moving figure ran up from the side and struck Dirk’s wrist, forcing him to release Jane. The figure then got in front of Jane and delivered a swift kick to Dirk’s gut, knocking him to the ground. Though Jane couldn’t see the face of her rescuer, she knew immediately who it was. That long raven black hair tied in a ponytail and the skirt that was slightly shorter than those of other Miator students could only belong to Tomoyo, her fellow student council member. As Dirk managed to get back to his feet, Tomoyo glared at him with her icy blue eyes.
“Who the heck are you?” Dirk demanded. Tomoyo remained silent. “Not talking huh? Well whoever you are, get lost! Otherwise I’m gonna have to teach you a lesson!”
Tomoyo’s response was to take a fighting stance. Jane only stood behind Tomoyo. Her common sense was telling her to run back to the dorm, but for some reason she couldn’t bring herself to leave.
“All right, you asked for it!” Dirk said as he prepared to fight Tomoyo.
“What’s going on here?” a voice suddenly asked from behind.
Dirk turned around and saw Tamao standing behind him with Mika and Hiyori.
“Whoever you are, get lost!” Dirk growled at Tamao. “This is none of your business!”
“Those two girls are members of my student council, so I’m making it my business.” Tamao replied with a calm, almost emotionless expression. “Now what are you trying to do to them?”
“That black haired girl tried beating me up, so I’m going to teach her a lesson she’ll never forget!” Dirk replied angrily.
“And here I thought you were a duelist.” Tamao responded. “But all I see here is some dumb gorilla who likes beating up on young ladies. I don’t see how you managed to get into this tournament.”
“Hey, I got here because I’m the best!” Dirk growled.
“I find that hard to believe.” Tamao coldly replied.
“Oh yeah? Well take a look at this!” Dirk responded, holding up the wrist that his point counter was on. “I’ve already got fifty points, which means I’m half way to the finals!”
“I’m not at all impressed.” Tamao replied. “I bet you just looked around for the weakest duelists and bullied them into facing you. You wouldn’t stand a chance against someone of my level.”
“And just how many points do you have, little miss hotshot?” Dirk aksed.
“Only five.” Tamao replied.
“Five?” Dirk laughed. “And you’re saying that I couldn’t beat you?”
“I haven’t had the chance to duel yet.” Tamao calmly responded. “My duties as student council president keep me very busy.”
“You can make all the excuses you want!” Dirk laughed. “All they say is that you can’t duel to save your life!”
“Care to prove that by facing me right here and now?” Tamao asked. Tamao’s challenge startled the members of her student council.
“H-hey Lady Tamao. You shouldn’t trouble yourself with this loser. If you want, I can take him on for you.” Mika offered.
“That won’t be necessary Mika.” Tamao replied. “This ape is nothing to me. Besides, I need to let off a little steam. So how about it ape, do you accept my challenge?”
“Hah! Bring it on!” Dirk answered, eager to put Tamao in her place. They both activated their duel disks, and with their life points set at 4000, the duel began.
“I believe that even an ape like you is familiar with the expression, ‘ladies first.’” Tamao said as she drew her first card. “First I shall play the Field Spell, The Seal of Orichalcos!”
The moment Tamao played her card, a ring of green light slowly fell from the sky onto the ground around the two duelists. The moment the circle hit the ground, a line bounced around the inside of the circle until it formed a unicursal hexagram. A smaller version of the symbol appeared on Tamao’s forehead. The glowing green light made it visible from behind her blue locks.
“Next I summon Mystical Elf in Defense Mode!” Tamao announced. Appearing on the field was a female elf with blond hair and light blue skin, wearing a green robe. The Orichalcos symbol appeared on the elf’s forehead, and her eyes began to glow red. “Just so you know, The Seal of Orichalcos gives all my monsters 500 extra ATK points. Not that it matters, as my elf is in Defense Mode. Now I’ll set one card on the field and end my turn!”
“Is your little magic circle supposed to scare me?” Dirk asked in a taunting manner as he drew his first card. “First I summon Enraged Battle Ox in Attack Mode!”
Appearing on Dirk’s side of the field was a muscular brown Minotaur in red and gold armor. In his right hand he carried a large axe.
“Next I equip my Battle Ox with Horn of the Unicorn!” Dirk announced. A long golden horn appeared on the Minotaur’s helmet. Electricity suddenly began shooting from the horn to the axe. “This card raises my Battle Ox’s ATK to 2400, which is 400 points stronger than your wimpy elf! Plus my Ox allows all Beast, Beast-Warrior, and Winged-Beast type monsters to pierce my opponent’s defenses and inflict damage, and that includes my Ox himself!”
“So I guess you use a Beast and Beast-Warrior deck.” Tamao said with a bored expression. “Just the deck that I’d expect a big dumb ape like you to use.”
“Shut up! Battle Ox, decapitate that elf!” Dirk commanded. “Axe Crusher!”
The Battle Ox charged forward and with one swing of his axe cut the head of the Mystical Elf clean off. Tamao only yawned with boredom as her life points dropped to 3300.
“I activate my facedown card, Call to the rear guard!” Tamao announced. “When I have no monsters on my side of the field, I can Special Summon as many monsters I can from my hand to my Spell/Trap Zones! So I summon Breaker the Magical Warrior and Maiden of Macabre to the field!”
In a flash, a warrior in red armor, red cape, and red pointed helmet, and a blue-skinned woman in a kimono and carrying a scythe appeared on the field. The Orichalcos symbol appeared on both their foreheads and their eyes began to glow red.
“Hey, wait a minute! You can’t summon monsters to your Spell/Trap Zones!” Dirk complained.
“Oh, didn’t I mention? The Seal of Orichalcos allows me to use my Spell/Trap Zones as Monster Card Zones.” Tamao said with a sinister smile. “So I can summon ten monsters if need be.”
“Fine, summon all the monsters you want! None of them can stand up to my Battle Ox, even with the extra power from your little magic circle!” Dirk boasted. “I end my turn!”
“First I activate Pot of Greed and draw two more cards!” Tamao announced after drawing her next card. “Then I activate Dian Keto the Cure master to increase my life points by 1000!”
Sparkling lights briefly showered Tamao as her life points rose to 4300.
“You can increase your life points all you like! In the end you’ll end up with zero!” Dirk taunted. Tamao ignored Dirk’s blustering.
“Finally I summon Orichalcos Mage in Attack Mode!” Tamao announced.
Appearing on the field was a short monster in green robes and blue armor, which included a hood that made the wizard’s face impossible to see. Its eyes flashed to a glowing red though a moment after it appeared on the field.
“You summoned that thing in Attack Mode?” Dirk laughed. “That thing originally only has 800 ATK points, so even with your circle its ATK is only 1300!”
“True, but my Mage also gains 500 ATK points for every Spell card in my Graveyard, meaning it actually has 2800 ATK.” Tamao added.
“Wait, what?” Dirk asked becoming shocked by the effect of Tamao’s monster.
“Orichalcos Mage, attack Battle Ox!” Tamao commanded. “Dark Seal Spell!”
Green lightning from the seal went into the green orb in the Mage’s staff, and with a wave of his, the Mage fired the energy at the Battle Ox. The Minotaur was destroyed in an explosion of green light, and Dirk’s life points fell to 3600.
“You’re wide open to a direct attack, and the total ATK of my two monsters is more than enough to finish you off.” Tamao pointed out. “Breaker and Maiden of Macabre, attack this ape directly!”
With one slash of Breaker’s sword and the Maiden’s scythe, Dirk’s life points dropped to zero. Tamao’s monsters vanished, but The Seal of Orichalcos remained. Suddenly the seal began to shrink and change position, closing around Dirk.
“W-what’s going on?” Dirk asked as he started to become terrified.
“Oh, I forgot to mention that the end of a duel, The Seal of Orichalcos extracts the soul of the one who loses.” Tamao said with an innocent smile.
The seal stopped shrinking when it was around Dirk’s feet, and a pillar of green light shot up into the air for a moment before the seal vanished. Dirk’s body fell to the ground. His body was still alive, but there was no soul, only an empty shell. As a final indignity, the number on Dirk’s point counter dropped to forty-five. At the same time, the number on Tamao’s counter went from five to fifty.
“Well, it seems like I’m now half way to the finals.” Tamao noted as she looked at her Seal of Orichalcos card. A picture of Dirk trapped behind the seal appeared on the card. “Jane, Tomoyo, you can both go back to your room. Mika, Hiyori, and I can handle this.”
Both Tomoyo and Jane nodded before heading back to the dorms. Menawhile the other three girls headed back to Miator’s basement.
“Hey, shouldn’t we do something about that ‘thing’?” Mika asked as she looked back at Dirk’s soulless body.
“Oh just leave it.” Tamao replied. “Someone will run across it eventually.”
A few minutes later, Tamao, Mika, and Hiyori arrived back at the basement lab. Tamao went over to the device that contained mural fragment and held up the Orichalcos card. A green light flew out of the card and into a panel on the top part of the device, and a moment later a picture of Dirk was carved into the plate. Tamao’s Seal of Orichalcos card once again showed only the seal itself.
“The darkness from that duelist’s heart should greatly speed up the Great Leviathan’s resurrection.” Hiyori observed.
“That guy probably has darkness to spare since he tried beating up two defenseless girls.” Mika added. “Not that I’d call Tomoyo defenseless. She probably could’ve put him in a body cast.”
“The gathering of human souls.” Tamao said as she looked at the mural fragment, ignoring Mika’s comment. “That was how old King Dartz first resurrected The Great Leviathan. Very effective but inefficient, it took him about 10,000 years to collect enough souls. Our methods can accomplish the task much faster. Still, a few human souls won’t hurt matters.”
“So how long will it take to bring back the Leviathan now?” Mika asked.
“I’ll let Hiyori handle the calculations, but it shouldn’t be much longer.” Tamao answered, finally turning to face her two underlings. “Soon we will be able to destroy this unfair world and build a new one.”
“A world where you shall be queen.” Hiyori added.
“Perhaps my dear Hiyori.” Tamao said with a smile. “I’m not in this to rule the world. I’m just trying to make it right.”
“Regardless, we shall follow you.” Hiyori replied.
“That’s right! We all believe in the world you want to create!” Mika added. “And we’ll do whatever it takes to make it happen!”
“And that I greatly appreciate.” Tamao replied.
