Yu-Gi-Oh! Arc-V: Solid Experience, ch10

Yu-Gi-Oh! Solid Experience
Chapter 10
By Yurix

Tacey looked at the field worriedly. With only her “Chosen of Battle-Axe” and its 2600 attack standing against three monsters that were all more powerful than it, she knew things were bad. Both she and Yuki had empty hands, with the latter having not used either of her two facedown cards yet, and even with 6400 life points left, they were at a disadvantage.

On the other side of the duelling field, the Russian bear-wrestler named Bjorn possessed Endless Decay, who now sported 3200 attack. The lone female of the group, Ursa, had Ultimate Obedient Fiend, a 3500 attack behemoth. The scariest monster – Ascension Sky Dragon with 4000 attack – was held by the youngest of the three, Nanuk. The boy still had three cards, while his “parents” had one each. The problem now was that it was the boy’s turn to attack.

“Ascension Sky Dragon, attack Chosen of Battle Axe! Heavenly Punishment!” the boy let out in a far more confident voice than he previously had, as if he no longer cared for the stern gaze from his parents.

Tacey looked to her friend. “Got anything?” she said, worried of losing their only line of defense. The blinding attack crippled the towering berserker, knocking both girls down, dropping their life points to 5000.

“For duelists, you two are deplorable.” Bjorn let out as the two girls painfully got up.

“What are we gonna do?” Tacey groaned as she steadied herself on her shaking legs. “Those guys are too much.”

“Not quite… but there’s something weird about them.” Yuki replied as she got up. “All three of them duel by using cards that benefit one another, but they all use different approaches to break out life points.”

The yellow-haired girl knew that her friend had a point. The larger man’s XYZ monster, ‘Zodiac Beast Ursa Major’, hit the straight off the bat with an attack that would have been useless right now. Ursa’s manoeuvre of summoning Ultimate Obedient Fiend, a powerful monster that could only attack when there was nothing else on their side of the field, was just a cover for using “Hate Buster”, which had knocked “Necloth of Brionac” to the graveyard. The only one who was attacking them straight out was Nanuk, but only after Synchro Summoning a monster that would have been too weak had the other two not played multiple copies of ‘Jar of Greed’.

“In other words, we need to beat their family strategy… but we’re down to just your cards…” Tacey realized, thinking their chances were grim.

“I think we’ve been going at it the wrong way, too.” The Leo Duel School student realized. “I thought that Ursa or Bjorn were the ones to beat… but I think the real threat is Nanuk.”

Tacey looked back at the boy. “Are you sure? He looks… wait…” It took a moment for her to realize it, but the youngest duelist’s attitude had shifted. Rather than scared, he seemed… impatient. “A wolf in sheep’s clothing, huh…”

“Enough rambling from you two!” Ursa shouted. “We allowed you time to counter, and you didn’t, so Nanuk… continue your turn!”

The boy nodded before looking at the field. “With Ultimate Obedient Fiend and Ascension Sky Dragon, I build the Overlay Network! With these monsters, I Exceed Summon “Superdreadnought Rail Cannon Gustav Max!”

The object that appeared was more of a war machine than a Duel Monster, with an immense canon pointed at the two girls. Its stats were not as great as the other two monsters used for it – 3000 attack and defense for a Rank 10 Earth/Machine – but the boy did not seem bothered by it. In fact, he seemed more thrilled than anything.

“I activate Gustav Max’s special ability!” Nanuk let out. “Once per turn, by detaching one Exceed Material, you two take 2000 damage!”

Yuki braced herself. “Wait for it…”

Tacey was not sure what her friend was thinking. Didn’t she have two facedown cards? The question never left her lips as the canon fired, blasting the two girls back onto the ground, their life points dropping to 3000.

“I place one card face-down and end my turn!” the boy commented before his stance relaxed, reverting to the frail-looking pose he had before.

“I knew it…” Yuki concluded. “Remember how they called you ‘Goldilocks’?”

“Yeah, and I hate that nickname…” Tacey groaned as she tried her best to get up.

“It’s like we’re facing the three bears of the family, only we don’t know which bear is the Baby Bear… and I think Nanuk just said it for us.” The older of the two girls replied. “Everything was organized for Nanuk to do the maximum amount of damage and to make him look like the least threatening one.”

“That means we need to keep him from firing that cannon…” the You Show duelist added.

“Exactly, and I know just how!” Yuki said as she drew her card. “I activate the trap ‘Hope for Escape’! Since our life points our lower than yours by at least a thousand, I pay 1000 Life points and draw as many cards as I can that’s the difference between our life points and yours for every 2000 Life Points you have more than us… so that makes three!”

Tacey hoped her friend had a plan, because with 2000 life points to their 8100, even with four cards in hand and another facedown on the field, another blast of that cannon would be their end.

“First, I activate ‘Necloth Exomirror’s special ability. ” Yuki commented. “By banishing it and Necloth of Brionac from my grave, I can add a ‘Necloth’ spell card from my deck to my hand… and next, I reveal my face-down card… ‘Mind Control’! Thanks to that, I can steal one monster on your side of the field, but I can’t tribute it and it can’t attack… not like I’ll need to, because I’m taking Gustav Max!”

Tacey let out a sigh of relief as the immense weapon vanished from Nanuk’s fiend and arrived on Yuki’s. “This means we can use its special ability. We’ll detach your Overlay Unit and blast you with 2000 damage! See how you like that!”

“Not if I activate ‘Damage Polarizer’! Thanks to this card, Gustav Max’s effect is negated and so is the damage, and we all draw one card!” Nanuk countered as the mobile canon stopped its charge, electricity causing its systems to smoke, as if a misfire.

Yuki looked at the rest of the family as they drew their cards before she and Tacey drew theirs. “It’s like they knew I was planning that…” the girl thought before looking at the immense weapon. It was a good thing it no longer had Exceed Material, and thanks to the cards in her hand, she had a chance to bring her A-game. “Now, I activate the spell card ‘Necloth Kaleidomirror! Thanks to this card, I can choose to send one monster from my hand or from my Extra deck to the graveyard equal to the level of a Ritual Monster I want to play, and bring those Ritual Monsters out from my hand!”

“Hold on… those?” Ursa wondered. “How can one ritual spell allow multiple ritual monsters to be summoned?”

“You’ll see… but not today. I send ‘Trishula, Dragon of the Ice Barrier’ to the graveyard to Ritual Summon ‘Necloth of Trishula’!” Yuki let out as a red-haired warrior dressed in the dragon’s icy scales, wielding a blade made of a splintered icicle, appeared on the field, it’s stats equal to those of the tributed monster. “Next, I activate Necloth of Trishula’s special ability: whenever he’s successfully Ritual Summoned, I can banish one card from the field, from any hand and from the graveyard… so first, I remove ‘Gustav Max’!”

Tacey looked relieved as the oversized weapon vanished from the field completely as the frozen warrior’s sword caused the canon to freeze over before fading into powdered snow. “Next, I banish one card from Bjorn’s hand.” Yuki continued, the man’s card – ‘Mad Monk’ – froze over in his hand, forcing the man to drop it. “And for the graveyard, I banish the latest ‘Ultimate Obedient Fiend’. A gust of frozen air ejected the card from the graveyard slot. “Now, Necloth of Trishula, attack Endless Decay!”

The red-haired warrior charged at the rotting mummy, its attack power a paltry 1000, before slicing it in half, the split corpse freezing before shattering, the life points of the family dropping to 6400.

“Before I end my turn, I’ve got a few more things to do… like summoning ‘Defender of the Ice Barrier’ in attack mode!” The ice-and-armor covered fox had a mere level 3, 200/1600, but as a Tuner, Tacey doubted it would stay long. “Next, I place two cards face-down and end my turn.”

Tacey drew her card and looked at the field. The idea Yuki had in mind was clear: either tribute monsters to summon something bigger or synchro summon something that would do the job. Looking at the two cards in her hand, she could tell that neither of those options would be possible. “I summon ‘Friendly Familiar Bell’!” Tacey let out as a cat-sized creature with spotted white fur, butterfly wings and a single tiny horn appeared. The tiny beast was far from threatening – level 2, 400 attack and defense.

As soon as the monster appeared on the field, its horn began to glow alight. Moments later, ‘Friendly Familiar Chime’ broke out of the Solid Vision ground, shaking the dirt off its fur and wings.

“Huh?” Yuki looked startled. “Why did he come back?”

Tacey looked at the card. “That’s the Friendly Familiars’ special abilities: whenever one of them is summoned, it can special summon another one from anywhere…” she said before realizing the potential of the small archetype. “Hey… I got an idea! Since I just brought Chime back, I can special summon ‘Friendly Familiar Whistle’ from my hand!”

The third creature that appeared was the smallest of the three, no bigger than a kitten, with angel wings and sleepy eyes. Its stats, save for its level, were lower than the other two – level 3, with 200 attack and defense. As it appeared, the tiny creature meowed and scratched its wings with its paw, a card falling out.

“What is that rodent doing?” Bjorn wondered.

“Whistle’s special ability: once its special summoned, if ‘Bell’ and ‘Chime’ are on the field, I can add one Spell card from my deck to my hand… and it looks like Whistle decided for me.” Tacey said as the card flew from the duel field to her hand.

Looking at the card, Tacey was startled. “Huh? Where did that card come from?” she wondered before reading it over. “Okay… here goes. Since you did say we could share our field, Yuki and I, I play the spell ‘Galaxy Queen’s Light’ to increase the level of my creatures up to that of her Necloth!”

Yuki looked confused. “Since when do you play that card?”

“Let’s finish this duel and check this out later, ok?” Tacey countered. “Next, I build the Overlay Network!”

The problem now was that the yellow-haired girl, as much as it meant well, did not have a clue what monster would come out of that Exceed Summon, as she normally did not possess a Rank 9 creature, let alone one that required three monsters to bring out. “I Exceed Summon…”

As the Overlay Network appeared on the field, a single column of energy surged out. The blinding light was enough to force everyone to look away as a shadow appeared amidst the light, forming a strange spheric form of energy, from which came a pulsing sound, like a heartbeat. As the column of energy vanished, the sphere began to fragment itself, turning into an incredibly tall, womanly form with six immense wings – one pair demonic, one pair angelic and one pair fairy-like. The creature in itself was covered in golden armor, similar to her ‘Ascent Hero’ card, but it also possessed three tiny gems on its forehead.

A melodic voice rung in Tacey’s ears. “Say my name…” it briefly spoke before the card appeared on her duel disk.

“Ascent Being Tierra!” the duelist finally shouted as the light began to fade, the creature appearing in its imposing glory.

All five of the duelists looked in awe at the immense creature, which looked as tall as ‘Shadoll Construct’, but its dark colors switched to golden and azure tones. The creature in itself was an unusual sight – while beautiful and very-high Ranked, it seemed to possess no attack or defense power of its own.

“Quite the display, but she is useless without any power!” Bjorn let out, thinking that the creature was all show and no go.

Tacey looked at the card for anything related to a special ability, but the text was almost impossible for read, as if the text was a tongue that was not from this world. “I hope you have something good for me… I activate Tierra’s special ability!”

The creature reacted on its own, as three of its Exceed Materials flew into it before spray of energy struck all three of the ‘bear family’’s decks, pulling three cards from their graves.

Tacey was beginning to feel light-headed as she watched ‘Coach Captain Bearman’, ‘Armored White Bear’ and ‘Zodiac Beast Ursa Major’ appear in spirit form around the creature before vanishing into spheres of light, Tierra’s attack power sky-rocketing up to 7600.

“How… 7600 attack points?” Ursa let out, too shocked to do anything else.

“Tierra, attack now! Dimensional Genesis!” the You Show duelist let out before she felt the world around her spin as she dropped to her knees as her creature fired the three orbs into each one of the duelists, blowing them off their feet as their life points crashed down to 0.

“No… way!” Yuki let out, too startled by the sudden upset. When her eyes finally was focused back onto the field, only Tierra remained on the field, along with two Exceed Materials. “Tacey… how did you-”

Looking back at her friend, the girl let out a gasp of shock as the yellow-haired girl was immobile. “Tacey? Hey, Tacey! Wake up!” she said before rushing over to her friend, checking for a pulse. “Tacey! Oh god, Tacey!”


System initializing Replica Mode…
Error: Cannot run C:\sophia\sefiroth.exe
Attempting to run the program from unidentified source.
Run C:\tierra\qliphoth.exe ? <Y/N>…[Y]
System initializing Automated Mode.

Miss K examined her cards. “Tierra woke up… but it’s too soon…” she thought to herself as many of her cards began to bleed part of their yellow-ish colors as a light green appeared below, soon to become vibrant green.

“Miss K!” the school director let out as he rushed into the room. “Check the news, now!”

The woman let out a sigh as she opened the television.

“…As you can see, the Maiami City Zoo are baffled by the sudden appearance of three bears in the city park. The direction says that no bears were scheduled to be shipped to the zoo in the near future, and whoever dressed these animals in such a way should be found and put to-”

The black-haired woman picked up her cards and placed them back in her disk. “I don’t see why you make such a fuss…” she commented before noticing something on the screen that the camera had not focused on: two officers helping a pale-haired young woman to her feet before boarding an ambulance with a LDS student watching nearby. “Tacey…”

“That’s what I’m fussing about!” the man said before shutting the television off. “You really need to take better care of her. I don’t have time to babysit, especially with the Duel Pro Championship coming. Either you fix this, or you may have to resign… and Tacey will have to leave the Academy!”