Episode 39. - Trust In The New Generation

The stage was set. The final duel of this particular KirriCorp league tournament had attracted a lot of attention. The whole tournament had. Now, the reasons for the increased interest were many. First of all, that many players who had not before done so, were trying to see what cards really made the difference now that the previous strongest ones were not, and also, that one of the finalists was playing almost the exact same deck as his younger brother. Mohamed and Omar Al-Hendy had both come to this tournament with nearly identical decks, since Mohamed's decision that he no longer needed nature cards. The final duel was almost underway. His opponent, Cecil Hargrada, placed fire mana, and ended his turn.

Mohamed charged darkness, Hargrada met this with light. Mohamed added his own fire mana, Hargrada charged water mana and played an Energy Stream. Mohamed muttered something about having to look like a copycat, charged water mana, and played his own Energy Stream. Obviously, for the analysts, this was an interesting sign. The later game decks still seemed to have the advantage, if that was indeed what both these finalists were.

Hargrada charged darkness mana now. Another point of interest for the analysts. Apparently decks combining four civilizations worked well enough still, also. Now, his glasses glinted in the light as he summoned Magris, Vizier of Magnetism, drawing a new card and ending his turn.

Mohamed charged more darkness mana, and summoned a Locomotiver, not only negating the advantage Magris had given Hargrada, but also discarding a Magris from his hand as well. Now, he was at the slight disadvantage in creature strength, however, and he had to end his turn with a little bit more concern than usual.

"I've seen this deck before, outside of the KC rankings. Interesting that you would bring it into them. Did it come completely intact?" Hargrada chuckled curiously, charging light mana and casting a Crystal Memory. Mohamed was slightly surprised when his mind 'saw' the effect of the card, but without any signs of actual psychic output from his opponent. Cecil Hargrada gestured to Mohamed that his turn had ended, making no attack despite his obvious power advantage, and shuffled his deck as Mohamed charged more water mana.

"Aqua Hulcus..." Mohamed declared, drawing another card, "And Bloody Squito. End turn."

Hargrada did not seem bothered by this. He charged water mana, and revealed what it was, that his Crystal Memory had brought him. The perfect card for such an occasion. Phal Eega, Dawn Guardian. The guardian's appearance returned Cecil's Energy Stream card to him, and caused the previously hidden Kaijudo to now pulse slightly, raising Mohamed's awareness of it and making him more cautious. Still, Cecil did not attack, but at least now, there was a clear reason for that. The Squito had appeared quite quickly.

Mohamed placed his Volcano Charger into his mana zone, after drawing his card. Against the stronger creatures of the light civilization that Cecil was using, it was no help. Instead, he decided to attack the growing forces in Cecil's consciousness, the cards in his hand. The crowd gasped when he actually played the Cranium Clamp. Few of them had seen the card used effectively during the tournament.

"Locomotiver, clamp 'im down. Ikei!"

Mohamed pointed out the two cards randomly, and uttered a small 'wow' when he realized what he had rid himself of. An Energy Stream and a Lost Soul. The shield, however, did trigger. Dark Reversal, returning Hargrada's Vizier of Magnetism from his graveyard. Mohamed ended his turn, wondering if he had done the best thing.

Hargrada did not seem strongly interested in using that Magris, once he drew the next card in his deck. He placed it to mana, and, in his mind, the sky darkened slightly as his next creature materialized in the battle zone. Forbos, Sanctum Guardian Q. Its powerful technology installed a new data spell in Cecil. Apocalypse Vise. Mohamed's eyes narrowed and his Kaijudo took on a determined hum, making itself known to Cecil now. His plan could fail at this point if he could not evade that spell. Cecil's turn ended, and Mohamed drew.

He placed a Corile into his mana zone, and solved his own problem. Another Locomotiver quickly dealt with Hargrada's impending apocalyptic fire spell, and he ended his turn. Still, none of the amassing forces on the field had moved, other than the Locomotiver's single attack. Mohamed's turn ended, and he sighed with relief. Relief that was not allowed to last long.

Cecil drew his card, his Kaijudo growing more, starting to affect some of the members of the assembled crowd. In the back of their minds, they could see the area get a little brighter when he charged more light mana, another Magris, and they could 'see' the arrival of the Thrash Crawler that would return yet another Apocalypse Vise to his hand, lessening his mana, but giving him yet another chance at using his doomsday weapon against Mohamed's forces. Hargrada ended his turn without movement as usual.

Mohamed drew his card, and gave his little brother a sly look. He knew just what to use to defer most of the damage that would be done by that card, now. He did not charge mana.
"I summon Bolmeteus Steel Dragon!"

The crowd gasped, for some reason. Mohamed's psychic energy was moving outward in waves now, and Cecil was fully aware of the significance of the play. He would now need to use the Vise's power mostly against the dragon. His Thrash Crawler had increased his own power immensely, but the Dragon was doing the same for Mohamed. Had he known that each creature commanded equal respect to their relative users, he would also have known the sacrifice Mohamed was really making. The determined Al-Hendy ended his turn.

Cecil drew his card and charged fire mana, casting the dreaded spell now, crushing the Locomotiver that had previously struck his shields, and Mohamed's Bolmeteus, in its superheated grip, then ending his turn. Still, neither side had moved. This was a war of tactics and control, and the crowd was beginning to get restless, discussing the possible plans of both sides, in murmurs amongst themselves.

Mohamed drew his card, and launched an entirely different attack now, against his 'rival'.
"Twin-Cannon Skyterror! Double break! Ikei!"

Neither of Hargrada's shields triggered, and the Thrash Crawler made no efforts to block the attack, so Mohamed's turn ended without further event. Cecil charged more light mana, and played an Energy Stream, drawing two more cards. Calmly, he cast another spell also, to remove the imposing wyvern by dragging it away into the blackest of depths.
"Terror Pit."

Again, his turn ended without movement. Mohamed charged more darkness mana, and responded with a Terror Pit of his own, to swallow up the Thrash Crawler, weakening Cecil's Kaijudo also, until it was on more of an even keel with his own. He decided to make his move, causing the crowd to exhale in a collective sigh of relief, almost as if they had all been holding their breath through the entire tactical exchange of the last few turns.

"Hulcus, ikei!" --no trigger-- "Locomotiver, ikei!" --and again, none.

Now Hargrada had no shields remaining, and would need a quick recovery. That came in the form of his most contrived play so far.
"Crystal Memory to my mana zone. Summon Thrash Crawler..." --again, the imagery was intense, as the Crawler practically dragged a Vizier of Suppression out of the depths with it, and Mohamed felt his fingertips tingle-- "Crimson Hammer on your Aqua Hulcus. Summon Sarius, Vizier of Suppression. Forbos, attack Locomotiver!"

"Bloody Squito, intercept the attack!" Mohamed responded, tapping his card. The Squito lifted off the ground, dodging the blasts of the Sanctum Guardian, finally attaching to what looked like the front of Forbos and piercing into the guardian's armor with its razor-like feeder. The Sanctum Guardian began to glow, losing control of its energy, until it exploded, taking the Bloody Squito with it. Hargrada frowned, but would not be deterred. There were still advantages to being the one with the larger creatures.

"Magris, destroy the Locomotiver!"
This time there was nothing to stop the electron blasts from reaching the dark train, derailing and destroying it utterly. Hargrada's defenses had been rebuilt, and Mohamed now had nothing in his own arsenal to challenge it with, at least not directly. Cecil ended his turn.

"Wow..." Mohamed noted again, drawing his card, "Corile, on your Sarius. End turn."

Hargrada picked up the card, and was about to put it back on top of the deck when he remembered what he was doing, and breathed a huge sigh of relief. He drew his card, summoned the Sarius again, and played the Energy Stream he had been able to draw, getting a Unicorn Fish which also was summoned, to send Corile back to Mohamed's hand.
"I would never have thought I'd find myself wanting to do that to one of them... End turn."

The crowd was excited now, and the analysts seemed intrigued. This deck could have come practically directly out of a regular league duel, yet Mohamed did not seem to be having too much trouble handling it as it was. He drew his card, and did an even more interesting thing.
"Searing Wave."

His hand hovered over one of his shields for a moment, before Cecil shook his head, reminding him what he had really done. He nodded. It was a consequence he had been prepared for, even if he had momentarily forgotten it. Cecil did indeed put his two Sarius, Unicorn Fish, and Magris into his graveyard, but Mohamed's gained an Emeral, Cranium Clamp, and Bloody Squito.

Cecil drew his card and summoned another Thrash Crawler. Now, Mohamed could hear the short conversation between player and avatar as Hargrada retrieved a Dark Reversal from his mana zone and played a Phal Eega beside the Crawler to regain his Crystal Memory. Cecil's deck was resourceful, and now had a way of getting support from anywhere. He ended his turn, leaving Mohamed slightly flustered, as he had now drawn another Volcano Charger, something that again, could not hurt Hargrada's creatures. He placed it into his mana zone and summoned the Corile again, to return the Thrash Crawler, ending his turn.

Cecil drew his card. He could feel Mohamed's Kaijudo faltering. The duel was a rather draining one, but each time he played a Thrash Crawler, he felt revitalized. Now was one of those times. He summoned it, regaining a Unicorn Fish, and summoned it. To Mohamed's surprise, however, he did not return the Corile. Instead, he picked up his own Phal Eega, leaving the Corile where it was. Mohamed was wary now.

"Looks like you're trying to put me in danger again. So I summon Locomotiver. End turn."

Cecil discarded his Dawn Guardian, and chuckled. Hargrada drew his card, cast Crystal Memory, and followed it up with a Crimson Hammer on the Corile and an Energy Stream to refresh himself. Now, the duel seemed to have been personalized into the forms of the duelists themselves, and the other Kaijudo users around, even the least experienced, could finally see the entire situation clearly. Mohamed's single Locomotiver facing the Thrash Crawlers.

Mohamed drew a card, seemed to think for a moment, then played his own Crystal Memory. Most could not see, but he knew exactly what he had got to deal with the situation. All he needed was one turn of reprieve and this would finally be over. Unfortunately, he never got that. His plan fell apart the very next turn...

"Dark Reversal to mana," Cecil declared, "Cast Lost Soul..."

Mohamed's shoulders slumped. Nearly everything else would have been at least just a setback. Now, the crowd gasped again as he discarded the two Pyrofighter Magnus cards in his hand. Cecil ended his turn. Mohamed's deck, though strong late, as Cecil's was, did not quite reach the level of regeneration and control that Cecil's could.

"You caught on..." he muttered softly, drawing his card and summoning yet another Locomotiver, one that caused Cecil to discard a Dark Reversal, and ending his turn. He knew that Cecil would never allow his field of creatures to rebuild at this point.

Young Hargrada played a Terror Pit, watching one of the trains dragged down into a bottomless gorge, and again a Unicorn Fish, to return his other Dawn Guardian to his hand. He was relatively safe from Mohamed's discarding abilities now. His turn ended there. Mohamed drew his card, but did not act at all. Cecil nodded, and performed the obvious sequence. He placed a Terror Pit into his mana zone, and summoned the Dawn Guardian, retrieving a Crimson Hammer to rid himself of the other Locomotiver.

"This is..."
Mohamed never bothered to finish his sentence. The duel was taxing him, so he did what Cecil had been doing. He placed his Bolmeteus to mana, and played an Energy Stream to refresh himself. This, it seemed to do, and he ended his turn.

"It seems that we have similar ways..." Cecil smirked, summoning his own Bolmeteus Steel Dragon, "Rain of Arrows."

Mohamed revealed his hand to his opponent, and the Terror Pit was cast into his graveyard, unused. Cecil had protected his dragon for the time being, and so, he ended turn. Mohamed drew his card and summoned a Corile, to stall against the dragon for one turn more.

Cecil breathed slowly, his building forces supplementing his fatigued mind. The Vizier of Suppression appeared in the sky again, and the Bolmeteus Dragon soon joined it. The end was close, if Mohamed did not have something unbelievably good in his deck.

Mohamed took quite long on his next play... so long, in fact, that it was only when one of the judges cleared his throat as a signal, that he seemed to snap out of his daze. Cecil wondered for a moment if his opponent's mind had retreated, and Mohamed would need to forfeit...
"Hello? You still in there?"

"Oh? Uh... yeah. Just making decisions..."

"Good luck then..."
Cecil nodded, relieved that the strain of the duel had not reduced Mohamed to that state... he had only seen it happen once before, in a duel. He had not ever really wanted to repeat that sort of thing against an opponent, but this duel was taxing on them both, much like an arm-wrestling match. Now, he was close to shutting Mohamed down for good, but that did not mean that Al-Hendy would not at least continue to put up a fight.

Mohamed played a Corpse Charger now, to revive his Aqua Hulcus and summon it, drawing another card and ending his turn there.

Cecil responded similarly, summoning an Aqua Hulcus and another Bolmeteus Steel Dragon. The appearance of the second dragon seemed to press in on Mohamed's Kaijudo even more, and some members of the crowd seemed to back off almost instinctively as it appeared. Twin Bolmeteus was not something one often saw. The first one made its assault now, totally obliterating Mohamed's shields, giving neither the chance to trigger. Things did seem hopeless now. Two Thrash Crawlers, Unicorn Fish, Sarius, Bolmeteus, Phal Eega... the sky and water of Hargrada's realm was alive and teeming with power, ready to finish off Mohamed on command.

"I just need one card..." Mohamed muttered to himself, "I'm so close..."

He drew his card, ignoring the puzzled look on Hargrada's face. Cecil wondered what he could have. A Scarlet Skyterror? What could possibly be outright enough at this point?

Mohamed sighed, sending one Illusionary Merfolk to his mana zone and summoning the other, drawing the three cards. His Kaijudo finally fell apart.
"It could only be a Vise, and I didn't get it... Good game. I surrender..."

Cecil nodded his acceptance of this, not really having the strength or will to muster the final assault, even with two Bolmeteus dragons. Mohamed picked up his shields, the last of which was the desired Apocalypse Vise. The other was at the very bottom of his deck. He sighed, and reached across the table to shake Cecil's hand in a congratulatory gesture. The Kaijudo in the room faded away to nothingness again, except for one last small blip...

"He battled well, but what do you think it meant? He did not seem to have a focus, or was it Bolmeteus? He was difficult to understand..."

It was odd for the avatar to be the one asking such a question. Even more so in the odd gravelly voice of the Thrash Crawler. Cecil Hargrada had no answer for that question either. Mohamed's current deck seemed to be lacking a certain something, but it also did not seem to be a KC League styled deck either, if one could even claim that there was such a thing...
"I suppose he did not see the need for changes, coming into this league."

"Changes do not seem necessary to the deck. His difficulty appeared to be underestimating the competition... however, he made it to the finals, so either everyone else did something totally different, or he is as good as he seemed, perhaps better..."

The small conversation ended there, and the Thrash Crawler's voice faded away. Cecil went off to accept his prize, leaving Mohamed to ponder what exactly had happened. Omar came up to his brother now and poked him on the arm, to which Mohamed responded; "Eh? What?"

"Don't you think that was strange?" Omar said, watching Cecil Hargrada walk away, "I didn't really understand that deck. It did the same thing ours do, but it was just bigger... how come? How did he do that?"

Mohamed thought carefully about both the deck that had defeated him and the others he had faced for the day. The KC leagues seemed to bring out some of the odder decks. People trying things that did not seem quite normal. Most of them did not work. The aggressive ones especially, were still weak. The better players still did not play them. Something did seem different, however.

"Umm... maybe he was just lucky... I..." he paused here, for a moment, realizing that for once he had no answer for his little brother. The truth was that he simply did not know. The deck had mostly 'dodged' his Volcano Chargers, and he had not been lucky enough to get his own Apocalypse Vise or Thrash Crawlers, whereas Cecil had put his to good use. That was probably all it was.

"I didn't really understand that weird fire-light one that beat me, earlier, or the dragon one you almost lost to..." Omar pointed out, "I mean, yeah, they were okay, but why would you build something like that?"

This time, Omar was speaking about aggressive decks. So far, such decks still had apparent disadvantages. A good shield trigger would end their entire 'campaign', and their creatures were not often strong enough to make a good consistent assault.

"I thought this league was supposed to make disruption decks work less..." he muttered to himself, "That's what all the rumors about the changes said... fixing the decks so that the others could beat us. Now I don't feel worried about them, though... it's the other disruptling decks that are bothering me..."

He tried to stand, but failed, slumping back into his chair. He had not realized exactly how much he had been drained by the duel until now. He rubbed his eyes and blinked a little, noting that a tall blond woman nearby was staring directly at him. Her green eyes seemed to shimmer, but her expression was almost lifeless as she studied him. She apparently, unlike the rest of the room, had no interest in the winner, and was instead focused completely on Mohamed. He actually looked around a bit to make sure it was him that she was looking at, then tried to stand again. As he did so, she turned and walked away. He was in no mood to pursue her, and he would not send Omar after her either.

"Do you know that lady?" Omar asked him now. Mohamed shook his head as he answered.

"I don't... think so. There is something familiar about her, but I'm not sure what. I might have seen her somewhere before, but I don't think I actually spoke to her when I did..."

His mind began to run through the faces of the people he knew, wondering if he had seen her at a tournament before, or when he had applied at KirriCorp. That is when it hit him. Mohamed's eyes opened wide with shock. He knew exactly who that was. She looked a bit different without her glasses, but it was definitely her. The only question now was, what was she doing there?