27 – Regionals Part 4: The First Duel
"Everyone, please, return to your seats and calm down!" Jerry Hooper, the announcer for this round, calls out in a panic.
When I had taken off my mask, one of the two judges, Gwendalin Petrovich, had done a spit take and drenched her microphone in the water she had been drinking. That led to the power shorting followed by all of the microphones on the judge's table not working.
As sparks flew, techs had scrambled to fix the broken equipment as Jerry did his best to shout over and settle the crowd...but it was no use.
5 minutes later, they had been given new microphones and a very red-faced Gwendalin was bowing while apologizing profusely to the tournament production coordinator as the manager tried her best to stay professional and not chew out this woman who had just ruined several hundred DP worth of equipment.
A few minutes after that, order had finally been restored...for the most part.
"*Ahem* What an incredible reveal! Gwendalin, Hassan, what do you think of it? I have just been informed that the live broadcast has been delayed for 5 minutes so we have a bit of time before we get this duel started." Jerry says with a smile toward me.
It was a very fake smile, and his eyes were narrowed in accusation.
'Uh Oh. If the broadcast was delayed...I might have gotten someone in trouble or pissed off some network execs!!!'
I smiled brilliantly right back at him.
'Huh? Expecting me to apologize? Nah, I'm good.'
"Hohoho! I, for one, was not expecting it." Hassan Valsindor says as he twists his already perfect handlebar mustache with his thumb and forefinger. "He is certainly eye-catching."
"A bit too eye-catching, if you ask me." Gwendalin comments, her face still red from embarrassment. "Are you trying to show off, Anubis?"
I tilt my head at her in mock confusion. "Why would I need to show off? I am here to duel, not for a publicity stunt. I had no intention of causing a commotion with my reveal," I lie straight to her face.
It appeared Snow and my microphones were reenabled, as my voice bounced off the quickly quieting arena walls.
"If that is the case, maybe you could put the mask back on for the remainder-" Jerry tries to say, but is drowned in boos the next second. "Nevermind, I guess..." He finishes with a sigh.
He then touches an earpiece on his left ear and nods before addressing the audience once more.
"We are ready to begin! The live broadcast will be starting again in 3...2...1... Ladies and Gentlemen, I am terribly sorry for the interruption! We had some technical difficulties, but we are all set now! Are you excited about this duel? I know I am! Both competitors Anubis and Snow are ready to begin! Judges, are you ready as well?"
"Yes," Gwendalin and Hassan say simultaneously.
"Excellent! Duelists, please cut each other's decks once more for the folks at home!"
We do so, Snow with slightly shaking hands as she kept glancing up at me, and then we hand the decks back to their original owners.
"Alright, without further ado, let's begin the 17th match of the preliminaries! Duelists, judges, lovely people here and at home, are you ready!?!"
A roar of applause and shouting erupted once more as Snow and I brought our fists above the table.
'God, I hate this part.' I think with a long, suffering sigh.
"Rock, Paper, Scissors!" The entire arena yells without a hint of the cringe they all should be feeling.
I went with paper - Paper Gang! - and Snow went with rock. I was very happy with that result as I needed whatever edge I could get.
"Anubis wins RPS and has motioned that he wished to go first! Everyone, one more time, with feeling!" Jerry hypes the crowd once more while I roll my eyes.
"3, 2, 1, Duel!" Everybody in the arena, with the exception of Snow and I, yells out and then applauds briefly before quieting down almost at once.
I sigh and draw 6 cards as Snow draws her 5.
'Hey, at least if I lose I won't have to hear that again...for a while, anyway...'
I look at my hand and smile smugly at the girl across from me.
"Hng..." Snow makes a sound, but I ignore her as I focus on my side of the board. The time for teasing was done. It was time to win me some system-approved prizes.
The table in front of us was a classic style for this world, only much more extravagant. It had a green felt on the surface with painted rectangles for the spaces each type of card could be put on. In the middle was the logo for the Regionals Tournament, a hand holding a blank card in the air with the words "Duel Monsters Regional Tournament" written at the top and bottom. The border of the table was raised half an inch and was black. On our left-hand side, the opposite side from our Deck and Graveyard was a built-in screen with no inputs that displayed our Life Points: 8000 each.
I take a deep breath and focus. It was time for my first step into the Pro Duelist realm, and I was feeling good.
"I will set one monster card and one Spell or Trap then end my turn," I announce after a few seconds of consideration.
Snow draws her card and the announcer takes the time she is contemplating to say a few things.
"Anubis starts his turn off rather blandly for someone so flashy, wouldn't you say?" He goads with that same professional smile.
"He is taking this seriously and acting cautiously. That is wise. Snow has 57 professional wins, so he is right to respect her prowess." Hassan answers the question from his side of the table.
"Agreed. He is attractive, but can he really duel? Many will be asking that question as they watch, me included." Gwendalin nods along from hers.
Snow slaps a card onto the table and says, "Sorry hottie, but I summon 7 Colored Fish (1800/800) in attack mode and attack your face-down monster! Laterz!" She says in a new and totally unexpected bratty tone as she smirks at me.
I blink as the men in the audience start cheering.
'What happened to little miss bashful? Isn't that a bit too fast of a turnaround!?! I guess this is what they meant about her being the Gap Moe duelist...Well, whatever. It wouldn't have been as fun if I won because she was too busy ogling me.'
"You destroy my Mystic Tomato (Effect 1400/1100). Would you like me to explain its effect-" I start to ask, but I am interrupted by Gwendalin.
"That is our job, Anubis, but thank you for the offer. Mystic Tomato, for those who don't know, has the effect: When destroyed by battle, it can special summon any Dark monster from your deck with 1500 attack or less in attack mode. It is a very useful card to have, especially on turn one." She explains the card and her opinion on it.
"I choose to summon Big Eye (Effect 1200/1000)," I announce and Hassan takes his turn to explain this card's effect.
I wasn't going to be using the effect, since it was a Flip Effect Monster, so I ignored him. Snow shrugs and sends a casual wave at me to let me know she is done with her turn.
I draw for my own turn and let a beaming smile take over my expression. I can hear more than a few gasps or squeals in the audience, but I am too focused to care about them right now.
"I play Soul Exchange and tribute your 7 Colored Fish and my Big Eye for Dark Magician (2500/2100)!"
"Wow! I haven't seen that card in a while! It is pretty rare! Soul Exchange lets you tribute your opponent's monster for a tribute summon, but you can't attack that turn, and Dark Magician is one of the strongest spellcaster monsters in the game! Snow is in a pickle!" Hassan explains as he leans forward in his chair...still stroking his mustache...but now faster...
Snow grits her teeth, but that expression quickly turns into a winning smile of her own as she draws her next card. "I set one monster card and one back row and end my turn."
Jerry takes my draw as a chance to engage with the audience, "The turns have been quick, and the battle is raging! Anubis has his Dark Magician on the field, but their Life Points are both still at 8000. Will Snow's facedown cards be enough to turn the tide of battle?"
I draw and set a monster then attack with my Dark Magician to clear her side of the field, only...
"What's this? Snow has activated the Trap Card Spellbinding Circle!!!" Jerry announces excitedly.
"Speaking of rare cards, Spellbinding Circle is a trap card that targets one of your opponent's monsters and that monster cannot attack or change its battle position!" Hassan tells the audience excitedly, "This is turning out to be a much more interesting match than I thought!"
"I end my turn," I say with a slight frown.
'As expected, Pros are much more difficult to deal with. At least I still had a 2500 attack point wall to protect my life points.'
"Thanks!" Snow says cheerfully as she draws. She then strikes a pose with a peace sign as she flips her face-down monster that I was unable to kill the last turn. "I flip summon Invader of the Throne (Effect 1350/1700)!"
'Shit. There goes my wall.' I grumble internally as she reaches over to take my Dark Magician and switch it with her card. Gwendalin explains that the card allows the switch, and Snow continues her turn.
"I will summon Axe Raider (1700/1150) and attack my old monster!" She says with a laugh as she smiles savagely at me. "Take that pretty boy!"
I think I get why people like her. She is feisty and cute. I can respect it.
That doesn't mean I won't crush her!
"You done?" I ask with an eye roll.
"Yup!" She announces proudly.
"Well, this game has turned around fast! Now Anubis faces his own Dark Magician and a high attack 4-star beater! His Life Points have only been reduced to 7650, however, so this is still anyone's game!" Jerry explains, fanning the drama.
I draw another card and my frown deepens.
'Shit nuggets. This is not going well at all. I have a counter, but it only buys me an extra turn...'
"I play Fissure and destroy your weakest Attack monster, Axe Raider, then I set another monster and put one more card into my back row to end my turn."
"Anubis has to set and pass, but he is able to take out Snow's Axe Raider! How will he get over his own monster, though? Can those 2 Spell or Trap cards save the day for our unmasked newbie!" - Jerry again
Unfortunately, he was correct. I didn't have a way to get rid of the Dark Magician, at least not at this moment.
That didn't mean I was out of the game, however. Not by a long shot.
Snow takes her card for the turn and squeals in delight at what she drew as she slaps it down on the table. "I play Pot of Greed!"
...I shouldn't.
I really, really shouldn't...
The judges aren't even explaining it...
"What does it do?" I ask with a straight face.
Snow and the judges look at me strangely, but Gwendalin eventually replies, "It lets you draw 2 cards..."
"O-Oh. Thanks." I say with the slightest hint of a quiver in my voice and a twitch of my lip.
'I am gonna die laughing about this later.'
Snow draws her 2 cards and starts chuckling. "You did well making it this far, Anubis, but it is over for you!"
'It is the first round of the tournament though...' I give her a confused head tilt.
"First, I will discard the Thunder Dragon (Effect 1600/1500) I just drew to add 2 more Thunder Dragons to my hand!"
She does so and then shuffles her deck allowing me to cut it once more.
Snow stands up from her chair dramatically and holds a card into the air, only to slam it down onto the table 3 seconds later with a stylish pose. "I play Polymerization fusing my 2 Thunder Dragons into Twin-Headed Thunder Dragon (2800/2100)!!! I'll move to the battle phase and destroy your pathetic defense position monster! How does that feel-"
"I activate Mirror Force," I answer calmly.
Everyone in the room goes silent at once.
Snow stares at the trap card in disbelief...before crumpling back into her chair with a cross-armed pout. "You're no fun."
The audience explodes into applause and the announcer and judges talk excitedly about the play and its counter as Snow moves everything to the graveyard sadly.
'It is about to get worse.' I think with an evil smile.
Next turn I use Monster Reborn to summon back her Twin-Headed Thunder Dragon...Then use my second Monster Reborn to bring my Dark Magician.
Snow has no counter and I see the light drain from her eyes.
She knows.
I know.
The judges know.
This game is over.
2 turns later...
"What a game! What a twist in the middle! Can you all believe it!?! Anubis, rookie extraordinaire wins his first professional match!"
As the announcer sings my praises to the audience, I shake, the now once again bashful, Snow's hand and gather my cards to leave.
I put my mask back on, much to the audible dismay of the women in the audience, give one last wave with a bit of extra time waving at a certain box seat, and make my exit.
Once I am outside the arena, an updated event box pops up before me.
Event: Regionals TournamentCongratulations! You have won your first match in the Duel Monsters Regional Tournament! Keep it up and great riches await you! Rewards For Round of 64: - 5000 DP - 3 Bonus Packs (Applied as a free credit in the store) |
I look left. No one.
I look right. Not a soul.
I jump in the air and do several fist pumps.
'Yesssssss! God, what a thrill! That was anyone's game for a second there! Mirror Force is almost never a bad top deck!' I think as I start to do a kind of jig to no music.
*Ahem*
I freeze.
Seeing who just cleared their throat, I freeze even more. Icicles got nothing on me right now.
Standing before me, smiling widely, is none other than the red 3-piece suit-wearing, silver-haired, mystical-item-eyed, unabashedly flaming, Maximillion Pegasus.
"Anubis, my boy! Great to finally meet you. Did you get my package, perhaps?" He asks with a fox-like smile.
I stand up straight, dust myself off, adjust my mask so it fits right, and held a hand out to him. "It is an honor to meet you, Mr. Pegasus. Sorry, but what package are you talking about?"
He shakes my hand, but it is one of those awkward limp shakes and I just feel weird after...
"Ah...It should have been waiting for you in Kame Game about 2 weeks ago, but it is no matter. I can just tell you now. I am hosting a tournament of my own, one starting at the end of next week in fact. It is located on my very own private island. I do hope you can attend, you are the only interesting person I've seen at this tournament thus far. I'm afraid it simply wouldn't be the same without you..." He says with a smug expression as his Millennium Eye flashes.
'Package? Did I get a package from-'
Shit. I did. The day I met Yugi's mother. I got distracted by life and never got around to opening it. I thought it was fan mail, so I would just open it when I had the time!
'Aki...you absolute moron...Wait. Does this mean I don't need to be here at all? I had his attention before Regionals even started!?!'
But...in the end. Dem' rewards made it worth. So I was cool wit' it.
"...Can I take your silence as a yes?" Pegasus asks patiently.
"Sorry, you just gave me a lot of information to process. Yes. I will be there. I will check for the package as soon as I finish here at Regionals." I say after taking a breath to recenter myself.
"Good, good. I was worried you were going to say no! I would have had to take more...drastic measures if you had. I simply must have you at my tournament, you see. You're quite the mystery, Anubis. I wonder who you really are..."
The next moment happens in milliseconds and time around me seems to slow to a crawl.
Pegasus' Millennium Eye flashes once more, but this time it carries with it a wave of dark magic.
I feel the magic aimed at me as if it is an arrow of pure darkness flying in slow motion. It launches from his eye and over the ground between us, but, just when it is about to hit me, an orange-gold, shimmering, translucent shield appears in front of me. The arrow of darkness slams into the shield and shatters the Shadow Magic before it can even touch me. The shield then explodes into golden particles that slowly drift to the ground.
At the same time, I feel a cold sensation wash over me, and I...somehow...get the impression that one of my necklace's pendants has just become...unavailable? Inert? It isn't destroyed...but it was as if there were 2 candles in the back of my head and one of them had just been snuffed out.
I had no time to ponder this, however, as the cold sensation continues to move up and down my body until it focuses on a point at the center of my chest. It then launches out of me in a...fist?...of orange-gold energy twice as fast and strong as Pegasus' Shadow Magic had been.
Pegasus' good eye widens in slow motion as he felt his Millennium Item's magic fail, but, before he can react further, the fist of glowing orange-gold energy smashes into his chest and sends him flying backward and crashing into the concrete wall behind him where he groans once, then passes out.
...
...
...
WHAT. THE. FUCK. JUST. HAPPENED!?!?!?!?!?!?!?!?!?!?!?!?!?!?!?!?
I hope to see more pot of greed explanations in the future
I will if I can ever figure out what it actually does...
Why did Konami make such a confusing card!?!
He needs to get Exodia in his deck, along with the 3 Graceful Charities and 3 Pot of Greeds. Then the rest of the 29 cards in his deck can whatever he wants with the super draw power of those two cards and a random wining condition of Exodia, maybe Dark Factory of Mass Production to add 2 Normal Monsters or Monster Reincarnation to add 1 Monster from the graveyard in case the enemy discard his pieces. Maybe Painful Choice to discard exodia and then recycle it back to the hand.
The moment Pegasus appeared, Aki should have started avoiding mental monologues in case he rads his mind and finds his identity. He should also totally nab the Millennium Eye and hide it somewhere. It would prevent so much future problems.
Thanks for the chapter
Did you like this style of dueling or the 3rd person style in the Game Shop Tournament better?
I'd love it if you could alternate between them. To not make anything monotonous. Maybe even add a third type of duel where Isuzu, more often, and his friends/family, less often, watch his duel, and we watch from their perspective. This is assuming that they have view of his hand, considering that they are spectators.
Maybe even have us watch Isuzu's matches from both her and the MC's perspective.
That actually was my next idea for the next regional duel! Doing it from Ishizu's perspective and hearing everyone's thoughts. Glad we are on the same page!
@Overload Not really. You’re a few pages ahead of the rest of us
Seems like Exodia can cast fist against dark magic.
And thanks for the Chapter
Fist is super effective against Dark Magic! One hit KO! lol
Thanks for reading and commenting!
The duel was nice, I finally get some info on Pot of Greed. Also a bit too convinient to have two Monster Reborn in the same hand. Loved tha Mirror Force an her reaction too.
Little late, but thanks for the chapter. Hope you have him ask every time some one plays pot of greed on him.
I don't know if you still use the 1d20 rolls for early/mid/late game as you explained once in earlier chapters but I must express that as a DnD GM; Dungeons and Dragons Game Master, who has played in other systems like World Of Darkness, that the D20 system really doesn't work for challenges and odds.
The reason it doesn't is because of 'bell curves' also called binomial distribution, where on a single dice, each side has an exact chance to occur, for a D20, a twenty sided dice, that is a 5% chance, that any outcome occurs.
This also means for a case like a blacksmith, there is only a pass or fail, they either make the item or they don't, there is no 'did well' or 'did poorly but still made it', which in many situations leads to issues of its own. Rarely do tasks with variable outcomes just have a pass/fail like DnD will portray. This also matters in cases for gambling and statistics as well as any other action that might have multiple smaller actions relating to it.
While this seems reasonable for things like DC checks where you try to meet or exceed a value, it doesn't work for competing values, especially when considering external factors. The reason Characters at Level 1 in D&D roll 4d6 and then drop the lowest, isn't just so they get a range of 3-18, but because the distribution averages out a lot more on average.
This means instead of a 5% chance for any outcome to occur, you have a 13.2% chance to get a thirteen, a 12.8% chance to get a twelve, vs the 1.6% chance to get an eighteen or a six when you roll 4 six sided dice and remove the lowest.
It is also worth noting that this method makes it a lot more impactful to add extra dice or cause penalties by removing the highest dice instead of the lowest, without putting the person at a major disadvantage.
Anyway, good story so far, read all of it within a few hours and heres to hoping you release more.
Wow! Thank you for the in-depth comment!
My response is really long, so I am putting it in a Spoiler - It is not a story spoiler, however, it is just meant to lessen comment clutter for my readers.
Don't worry too much about the D20 rolls. There are 2 types of duels:
- Main Story Duels - Have predetermined outcomes and will not get a D20 roll for them
- Side Story Duels - Have no influence on the greater story, so I use the D20.
Since you seem to be a DM, you will probably understand this a little better than those who are unfamiliar with Table Top RPGs. The D20 rolls aren't really D20 rolls. They are actually D4 rolls. Basically, I use narrative to fill in the gaps, so if Anubis rolls a 13 and his opponent rolls a 15, the opponent is in the winning margin, but only by a small amount. I would narratively decide that they get a small bonus on their turn or wipe part or all of Anubis' board, but not put them in a substantial lead.
The stages for this are 1,6,11, & 16 and only small changes happen when the rolls are adjacent to one another. For instance, let's say these were the rolls.
Anubis Vs Rando Cannon Fodder #1
8 - 11
3 - 5
15 - 13
Because all of these are within one stage of each other, the battle will be at a near deadlock. Anubis manages to scrape out a win at the end, but it is a very close game.
Now for another,
2 - 19
5 - 13
20 - 16
In this case, Anubis is being destroyed in the early game, is putting up some resistance in the middle game, and manages to ace the win at the very end.
Lastly, Anubis will get bonuses for his rolls depending on how much better his deck is compared to the opponent. If the opponent's deck is much better than his, however, he will not recieve any negatives. So the game is always slightly skewed in the MC's favor, but he is not guaranteed to win.
This is all to say that the dice rolls are more of a narrative instruction on how I should write the duel and, if I really feel like Anubis should win, I can always flub the dice rolls - as any good GM knows is sometimes needed.
Coincidentally, I have started learning the FFG Star Wars Edge of the Empire Table Top RPG and I am in LOVE with that dice system for narrative storytelling. I might switch to using those in the near future.
Sorry for the long response, but I hope this answers your concerns or at least shows your where I am coming from. Thanks for reading and commenting!
I recall one time I played as a player using some of the star wars dice where they had D12s and D6s for successes and fails and dis/advantage being two separate things. Not too familiar with the other star wars games but it did make for an interesting time.
Thanks for the answer otherwise, I've just run into concerns before as well as the constant meme in D&D of 'failing to open a door' and all that since D&D RAW is always pass/fail with no degrees of severity. Its hard to know if authors are familiar with probabilities and all this because it can get complicated quite easy and rolling one dice simplifies a lot.
I actually learnt most of my early tabletop stuff in the D10 hell that is World Of Darkness and thats why I like character points modifying how many dice they roll against a DC for the number of successes because it always raises the average they can achieve and prevents the D&D situation of crit failing to open a door.
I've always found D&D weird that some legendary master blacksmith rolling a 2, even if they had +15 to their skill, fails to a rookie blacksmith who rolled a nat 20 because how very few GMs actually consider the degree of failure and success, and how all outcomes end up equal in normal distribution.
@JHarp I love World of Darkness, but I agree it is a crazy system! lol My favorites are Deadlands - 1st Edition and Legends of the 5 Rings - 2nd Edition. I love me some d10 systems hahaha
Goddammit of course this cliffhanger of a chapter is the one I get caught up on. Just my luck
I don't think exodia particularly like Pegasus tryingn to read his mind...