Episode 51. - Discovery Of A New Power

"Dark Reversal to mana. End turn."

Rusty nodded, drew his sixth card, and charged Nature mana. A Torcon. He seemed totally unafraid of Shu's dampening darkness, and even before the duel had truly begun, one could feel the power of the Lancer ready to slash through that darkness and claim victory.

Shu Lon smiled to himself as he drew his own sixth card and sent it to the mana zone. A Bloody Squito. This was almost a fate of his. As a player who came to large tournaments with a Darkness mono deck, it was always unlikely that he would win them. Getting into the final eight was usually considered achievement enough, back home.
"Propeller Mutant. End turn."

"Aqua Surfer to mana," Rusty said, "Summon Quixotic Hero Swine Snout, end turn."

Shu drew his next card, and as usual, played it straight into his mana zone. Yodaz now turned to Gene, and Corile gave another short telepathic explanation.

"You see? His strategy has been decided from the first hand. He can just dump his cards to mana like that because unless it is something that improves his instinctive initial strategy, that is all they are to him. Mana power."

Gene felt a presence inside him swirl and nod, absorbing the information. He felt the need to watch the situation more closely, as Shu now summoned a Bloody Squito, and risked his first attack with the Propeller Mutant.

The shield broke with no trigger, as most shields now did. Rusty sent an Aqua Hulcus to his mana zone, and summoned a Bronze-Arm Tribe. The Energy Stream now spread forth as mana energy, and Rusty smirked. Perfect.

"Summon Aqua Guard."

Shu's Kaijudo was forcefully driven back by the event. Rusty's Swine Snout now had seven thousand power, in a most unexpected display of both speed and power. Now, Rusty Kouizo commanded it to charge, in an assault on the Propeller Mutant. Shu reacted without thinking, blocking with the Squito, and instantly regretted it.

"What?! He's lost already?!" Corile proclaimed irritably, "These people really need more actual practice. Sometimes their tactics are just plain sloppy..."

Gene was able to hear this exclamation, but did not understand why such a simple move counted as already losing. He could feel the light shimmering in him, analyzing why, but he was personally not privy to what it was thinking, as yet.

"Oh, that was unfortunate. Thrown off guard by the power, I see..."
These were the observations of Trox, General of Destruction. She known as 'Black Fire' was standing nearby again, watching.

"Give me a break, you two. I'm not used to this..." now came the rasping dark voice, echoing in their minds. Shu drew his card, and sent his Locomotiver to mana, summoning a Gigastand, and ending his turn.

"Energy Stream to mana. Summon Aqua Hulcus..."
Rusty made certain to tap only his water mana for this summon, making Shu very uneasy very fast. The reason why was clear. After drawing his card, Rusty made another summon. A second Quixotic Hero, again, boosting the power of the first to seven thousand. It rushed for a shield, and died valiantly when the Proclamation of Death snuffed its life out. Rusty ended his turn.

Shu drew his card, and sent it straight to mana again. Even Yodaz seemed surprised at that. He would have been sure that Rusty's last move would have required a strategy change, perhaps a blocker or destructive spell, but it seemed that Shu was confident in his next move, even if not as confident that it would actually save him.

"What exactly do you think you can do from here?" the Lancer suddenly asked. It seemed both surprised and intrigued. Shu smirked. There was the tiniest hint of confused fear. He had, at least, managed to leave a little of himself on the event. For that was the essence of all Chimera. To create, even if only for a moment, that feeling of confused fear.

"I'm going to evolve first..."
That was exactly what Gigazald did, right then, the Gigastand's form pulsing, bulging, then erupting into the mass of writhing mouths and fetid flesh that Shu called 'avatar'.

"Gigazald and Propeller Mutant--" Shu tapped both cards before grinning darkly, "...devour."

Rusty's Kaijudo seemed to invert now as the Crystal Lancer itself was sucked away into oblivion, and by the efforts of the Mutant, Fighter Dual Fang soon followed. Not only had Gigazald evolved first, but he had ensured, for the moment, that he would be the only one to do so...

"Whoa..." Arielle and Libra exclaimed in unison. Gigazald 'smiled' at Tangle Fist and Shtra, neither of whom, for some reason, seemed to fear him at all. Yodaz raised an eyebrow as he noted that, but Corile was already calculating the possible outcomes of what Shu had done.

"If the next card from the Lancer's forces cannot be summoned, he may have salvaged this, yet..."

It was for precisely that reason that Shu delayed ending his own turn, even though he could obviously do nothing else. He needed the gravity of his play to sink in, for Rusty. The next card would have to go to mana even if it were another Dual Fang or Lancer. Rusty had only five mana cards, and could not summon it, nor could he hold it. Shu would be able to start a chain of death spells to dwindle the forces whilst Gigazald dealt with the hand.

Rusty drew, and summoned, dispelling the dark waves emanating from his adversary. A Torcon. Enough. Swine Snout was powered again, so the Hulcus would not have to attack the Mutant either. The Quixotic Hero charged in, to bring down the Hedrian, and of course, with his hand already empty, Rusty suffered no effect. Now, it was up to Shu Lon's triggers, if any, to turn the tide back.

The first shield of that turn was lanced by a Bronze-Arm Tribe. It did not offer any protection. Neither did the second. Shu frowned. Not only was neither card a trigger, they were not blockers, nor Death Smoke. Both were Chimeras, and as his shields were broken one by one, Chimeras were not what he needed. The next card he drew, if not a Death Smoke, would likely be the end of the duel.

A Shadow Moon.

That was the creature that now came to Shu off the top of his deck. He sent the Gigazoul to mana and summoned another Gigastand, attacking the Quixotic Hero with Gigazald. The Aqua Guard blocked the attack, and Shu's Kaijudo receded. There were four attackers. His shields held no chance whatsoever of stopping them all.

Rusty's final move was to summon a new Aqua Guard, causing Swine Snout to let out a war whoop that pierced even the silent darkness of Shu's mind, as the forces of the Lancer, even without their commander, made their final charge. Neither of the other two shields triggered either, causing Shu to shrug.

"Bronze-Arm Tribe, todomeda!"
A more primitive lance, but still an effective one.

"Good game," Rusty said, shaking Shu's hand. Only the best duelists around could even tell that Shu had been fighting back, so the sincerity of Rusty's words was lost on them. The power displayed by Rusty was, as intended, swift, calculating, and brutal in its efficiency against the slow darkness of Shu Lon.

"Now, we will have a break before the final match, between Rusty Kouizo and Nicholas Burner!" came the announcement. Burner looked down at Rusty's cards as they were picked up, quickly assessing what he would be up against.

"What's with the delay, anyways?" he asked aloud, though not to anyone in particular. Yodaz was the one to answer him.

"I think they expected it to go on longer. Especially the last two duels. The television crew isn't even here yet, and they're supposed to be set up for the final as well as the victory ceremony."

"Aw, great. Gotta wait now, huh..."

Yodaz shook his head at the impetuous nature of the possible next North American Champion, and wandered off...

On the other side of the world, in what was practically the dead of night, another champion sat on a light yellow sheet on a large hotel room bed. Around him, strewn cards. In front of him, placed sort of sideways, was a duel. He was playing both sides. One deck, his own. The English cards version. The other, a replica of a 'standard' disruptive deck that he had obtained from an online report of a recent tournament in the United States.

This was strategizing time for Ryoma Echizen.

There was a knock at the door, and he called to the person to enter. The door was not currently locked. One of the attendants came in now, bringing with him the last few cards Ryoma needed to complete the deck. He had been using proxy for them for the last half hour, and could easily have continued to, but the young man that now handed him the three Bolmeteus Steel Dragons, had insisted.

"Thank you, even though you really did not have to--"

"Think nothing of it, Grand Champion. But if I may ask, what exactly is it you've been doing for the last half hour? Have you not seen and faced these decks many a time?"
The man referred to Ryoma's time spent touring the US Midwest, his first circuit of his World Tour.

"Things were different then..." Ryoma explained, "The distributor of cards for the English language version of the game had not yet applied their changes to certain things. I am familiarizing myself, since we are going to be returning to English language card play in two weeks."

Ryoma had recently, as part of the Japan leg of his tour, taken the Championship there also, with his modified Survivor deck, but this had, in his opinion, left him slightly out of practice with regards to the unrestricted and fundamentally different nature of the English language version of the game.

"Still.." he muttered to himself, "It somehow doesn't seem quite strong enough. They did not try to adapt to the changes to the cards, mostly they appear to have just taken them all out. Did the changes make them that useless?"

"You know that there is probably only one person we can contact, to ask a question like that. And we do not know how to reach him..."

Ryoma sent an agreeing vibe to his avatar, and continued to play, aiming to understand just what it was, if anything, that the English players had seen, to cause them to remove certain things.

"Oh... what news on the North American Championship?" he now asked the aide, who had just, apparently, managed to get the laptop to connect to the vast information sources of the World Wide Web.

There was rapid typing, then he began to read from the screen.
"Siddhant Sutar versus Maze Damarona. Tri-civ Disruption and Nature Rush, respectively. Victory to Sutar."

Ryoma nodded. He'd expected that.
"Go on..."

"Gaurav Tamba versus Arielle Dumas. Four-civ Disruption and..."
He paused for a moment there, unsure of what to say. Ryoma sensed it, and inquired as to the reason for his hesitation.

"I'm... not sure exactly what to call this one. It's a young girl's deck... it employs Water and Nature, mana acceleration strategies, but appears to aim to cast Divine Riptide. Quite strange."

Ryoma momentarily considered getting up, to see what was in it. This decision was swayed considerably a moment later when the aide continued with the words: "Victory to Dumas."

"What? Really?" Ryoma wondered aloud. He was just about to get up, when he remembered that these were not even the quarterfinals, that he was hearing the results of. If the child's deck continued to win, however, he would definitely want to see what exactly it contained.

"Harriet Torren versus Rusty Kouizo. Er... tri-civ... Rock Beast mana burn? Against... Water-Nature Evolution... victory to Kouizo."

Ryoma was intrigued even more now. These certainly were not the decks he had been expecting to hear of. Forbos hummed silently in the back of his mind. His Survivor forces were not unused to facing highly variant strategies, but it was a bit unusual to encounter them in the upper echelons of tournaments, at least, it had been during the time he was in the Midwest.

"Their new 'league' sounds as if it has shaken their hierarchy up a bit. Or perhaps this is just the initial agitation. Continue, please."
He now drew and summoned one of the cards he had been using to represent the Bolmeteus Steel Dragon, and instantly replaced it with one of the ones that had been brought to him for the purpose, not breaking his concentration at all. On his own side, he simply summoned a Smash Horn, which received the effect of the already present Forbos, to bring a Death Smoke to his hand and rid him of the dragon's threat.

"Mughees Drynn versus Shu Lon. Four-civ Disruption against--"

"Chimera Evolution discard," Ryoma finished, not taking his eyes off the cards in front of him, as he cast Apocalypse Vise to destroy Forbos and Smash Horn. He frowned slightly. On the Survivor's side, things had not been set back too much by this. The opponent seemed to be the one in 'distress'.

"Victory to Lon," the aide continued, "Quarterfinal matches... Libra Selene versus Siddhant Sutar. Water-Darkness... something... victory to Sutar. Arielle Dumas versus Nicholas Burner. Burner using... V-Valdios... victory to Burner..."

Ryoma looked up. It was not that strange that Valdios could now be effective, but his mind was making the connection. Dumas was the young girl with the Riptide, so she had lost... no need to get up from what he was doing. He summoned a Factory Shell, then a Blazosaur, to get a new Forbos.

"Rusty Kouizo versus Amera-Lynn Tyler. Tyler playing Darkness-Fire Assault? Or maybe Aggro. Victory to Kouizo. Shu Lon versus North American Champion Yodaz. Victory to... Lon..."

Ryoma seemed surprised momentarily, but remembered the analysis that Shu had made of Yodaz's deck at the World Champion tournament. It was possible, knowing what Shu knew.
"Hmm... but wait, that means that he has lost his chance at retaining his title. I wonder what he will do now... Did he have problems with the errata?"

"Actually, I believe he was instrumental in the application of the errata, Champion. I assume he will continue to play and develop his decks as he always has."

"Good. I look forward to facing him again..."

"Again? I was not aware that you had ever played him directly... Did you not play against someone else altogether in the World Championship?"

Ryoma nodded.
"I was referring to a previous experience. Continue. Semifinal matches now, yes?"

"Oh, er... yes... the reports for those have just come in. Nicholas Burner versus Siddhant Sutar. Victory to Burner. Rusty Kouizo versus Shu Lon. Victory to Kouizo... and... it ends there. The matches were apparently short. They are waiting for the television crews to set up equipment to cover the final match now."

Ryoma nodded, and thanked the young man. He had just cast Lost Soul once on each side, first from the arsenal of the tri-civ Disruption deck, and secondly, off the top of his own deck, to dump the remaining resources from the hand of the other. It made it a bit easier to play, but it also meant the duel would soon be over unless the very next card drawn were able to remove his Factory Shell. A Eureka Charger, which in turn drew a Volcano Charger, to do exactly that. Ryoma contemplated. The next card he drew from his Survivor deck was his Searing Wave. Not too much help. Especially when the Locomotiver from the other deck sent it away moments later.

"Double Lost Soul," he laughed, "This will make for a long, long duel..."

He steeled himself for that prospect, since he would want to stay awake to see the coverage of the final North American Championship match anyway...

Tom Rogers stepped out of the taxi into the midday sun, and headed into the lobby of the hotel where he was staying. The file given to him by Jasper Ikale had indicated that Gene would be traveling quite a lot, personally, to promote the release of the ninth set, and there would be plenty of opportunities to display what was required. The North American Champion would have a different itinerary, since their touring would be more limited to that region. Gene would be going all over the world.

"And me with him. If these 'errata' of theirs haven't spread that far yet, it will make this easier for me. Probably exactly what Jasper is counting on..."

Gene's tour would begin in the Asia region, where the game was becoming quite popular. Since the championship winner would be touring the west coast of the United States at that point, there would be no need to have them both in the same country.

"It is almost sad that the deck-building aspect of this little assignment is going to be so simple," he muttered to himself, placing his bag down beside the bed and retrieving his collection box from his other, larger piece of travel luggage.

"To think that they made such a fuss over three cards that are so incredibly easy to counter. Makes me wonder sometimes just what these people are thinking when they play..."

He now began to take groups of cards out of his collection at a fairly rapid pace, shuffling each new set into the deck as he did so, keeping count of them in his mind even as he shuffled. He finished quickly, and laughed to himself, seeming satisfied, then proceeded to start the process again, this time, with an entirely different set, and type, of cards. Building, for testing purposes, almost the exact same tri-civ Disruption deck that the World Champion, thousands of miles away, was currently also testing against.

Like Ryoma, he now sat on the bed, deploying shields. Like Ryoma, he now yawned.

It had not been a long duel for Ryoma's test after all. Somehow, the momentum of the opposing deck had failed it, and his Survivor, led by the Q-Tronic Gargantua, had overrun the enemy shields, even with the triggers that had occurred. This meant that it was time for the next duel in the test...

In the same instant, on opposite sides of the world. Even with all the distance between them, and with nearly opposite viewpoints on what exactly there was to be learnt from what they were about to do, Ryoma Echizen and Tom Rogers both did the same thing, mentally noting the move as they played it from the side of the Disruption deck...

"Bolmeteus Steel Dragon to mana... end turn."