About a week later…
Shark was having a particularly rotten day. Not surprising, considering Yuma had come along to challenge him and lost. That almost made losing to him originally worse. He wasn’t even consistent! Still, he’d basically given up dueling for good after that. Apparently, the gang was planning something big tonight, and he wanted to be there for it.
So that made him all the more irked when he saw a familiar face walking towards him, with a small smile on his face. What was Jewels even doing in this part of town? Why was he here?
Shark sighed, before deciding it didn’t really matter. If he was here to gloat, or something, he could shove it. Shark didn’t care anyway.
“Hey, Shark. You look… miffed. Whatever, duel?” That was how Jewels was gonna say hi after leaving him? After all this, he wanted a duel. Hilarious, and with the gleam in his eyes, he honestly believed he could win. It was almost enough to get Shark fired up. Almost.
“I don’t duel anymore, Jewels. You can tell whoever you want that I’m washed, but I’m done.” Jewels looked oddly contemplative at that, before schooling his expression into one he hadn’t seen on the chubby kid’s face before. Determination.
“Is this about the loss to Yuma? I get it, but man, you gotta get your act together. Dueling me is just the starting point.” That pissed Shark off. He just brought it up so casually, like it wasn’t a big deal! Sure, Yuma was unquestionably nice to him after his loss, and most people wouldn’t be anywhere near that… whatever. Jewels wanted a duel, he was about to be drowned.
“Fine. But don’t go crying when you get bit, Jewels.”
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Both duel gazers linked, and the HUD popped up. This was it, Jewels would either sink or swim, and he was gonna do better than he ever had.
[Jewels: 4000 / Shark: 4000]
“I’ll take the first turn.” Shark was the one to break the silence, quickly drawing and hiding his expression. “I’ll normal summon Big Jaws [1800/300] in attack mode, then activate the effect of Shark Stickers [1000/200] from my hand, special summoning it in attack mode since I normal summoned a Fish-type monster. Then, I’ll overlay Big Jaws and Shark Stickers, to XYZ summon Submersible Carrier Aero Shark [1900/1000]!”
A massive shark with metal-plated jaws and a blade for a fin swam out of the concrete, with several stickers attached to it, before a swirling vortex converted both into pure balls of energy, forming a pair of sharks, outfitted like a fighter airplane, complete with missiles. Shark wasn’t done yet, however, as he continued his turn.
“I’ll detach an overlay unit, activating Aero Shark’s effect. You’ll take 400 damage for every card in my hand, with four cards, that means 1600 damage!” To punctuate his declaration, Aero Shark fired four missiles, each one reducing Jewel’s life points by 400, and leaving him slightly rattled. Still, he was all smiles.
[Jewels: 2400 / Shark: 4000]
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Shark looked thoughtful for a moment, before nodding. “I’ll place a card face down, and end my turn.”
Time for Jewels to test out his new cards then. “I’ll normal summon Gem-Knight Alexandrite [1800/1200] and activate his effect, tributing him and summoning Gem-Knight Saphire [0/2100] in defense mode. Then, I’ll banish Alexandrite to summon Gigantes [1900/1300]!”
Quite a few things happened, while Shark looked on passively. A shining, gem-like warrior stepped onto the battlefield, only to burst apart and reveal another one, this one shining blue. A massive oni formed out of what remained of Gem-Knight Alexandrite, holding a thick tree like a club.
“But I’m not done yet! I’ll overlay Gigantes and Gem-Knight Saphire to XYZ summon Gallant Granite [2300/1800], and activate Granite’s effect, detaching Saphire to add Gem-Knight Lapis to my hand!”
A swirling vortex sucked in the oni and the knight, transforming them into the energy required to form a familiar stone samurai. The samurai wasted no time in slashing one of the overlay units, adding a card from Jewels’ deck to his hand.
“There’s more! I’ll activate Gem-Knight Fusion, discarding Gem-Knight Lapis, and Gem-Knight Lazuli for Gem-Knight Lady Lapis Lazuli [2400/1000], activating the effect of Gem-Knight Lazuli in my graveyard, adding Gem-Knight Saphire to my hand. Then, Lady Lapis Lazuli’s effect activates, dealing 500 damage to you for every special summoned monster on my field, this time being two, so you’ll take 1000 damage!”
A swirling portal of gems and rocks formed on the field, taking two cards from Jewels’ hand and forming a dark blue-robed woman, clad in gems and carved from stone. The portal also slipped a card from Jewels’ graveyard into his hand. Lapis Lazuli waved her hands, forming a beautiful array of gems that swarmed Shark, draining him of 1000 of his life points.
[Jewels: 2400 / Shark: 3000]
“And now, I’ll attack your Aero Shark with Lady Lapis Lazuli!” Jewels punctuated his attack’s declaration with a point. It was cool when Aniki did it, so he may as well try it out.
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Shark was impressed. He didn’t quite know where Jewels got all of those extra deck monsters, and he was especially concerned about how he was able to get all of that out on one turn. Still, Shark wasn’t too concerned. Jewels was about to lose all of his field anyway.
“On your attack’s declaration, I’ll activate Mirror Force, destroying Gallant Granite and Lady Lapis Lazuli, leaving your field empty.” Shark’s reveal was immediately followed by Jewels’ expression falling from victorious to concerned, then grave. Shark was confident he didn’t have an out. That was good, that meant that Shark had just won.
“I’ll… I’ll end my turn then.” That was that. Jewels had all but said that Shark had just won.
Shark drew, though he didn’t even bother looking at what he drew. “I’ll activate Aero Shark, dealing 2000 damage, and follow it up with an attack, for game.”
[Jewels: 0 / Shark: 3000]
With another barrage of missiles and a bite from Aero Shark, the game was over.
“Good duel, Shark. Looks like you’ve still got it, eh?” Jewels joked, but Shark wasn’t exactly in the mood for it. Still, it was a decent duel. Jewels had clearly gotten a lot better.
Jewels was acting… off. Normally, he’d be sulking right about now, so why was he so chipper? Shark got his answer pretty quickly.
“Hey, Shark? I wanna ask you something. Do you think there’s a top? To dueling, I mean.”
That was… an odd question, from Jewels especially. What did he even mean? The top of dueling, wouldn’t that just be the champion? “The top of dueling is the champion. What else is there?”
Jewels got a puzzling look on his face, before answering. “I suppose. I don’t think so, though. If the champion is the top of the mountain… I’m sure there’s a mountain beyond the mountain. A top even the strongest want to reach.”
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Aniki sneezed, before looking at his store, sighing. It was good enough to open, but… something told him that good enough wasn’t quite going to cut it. Maybe it was the lack of a sign, but it just didn’t look like it was a card shop he’d want to go to. Shaking his head, he walked in. He was getting an itch that he needed to scratch. One he’d thought he’d gotten out of, but…
Megarock Dragon Beatdown was boring. It had all of one combo, and it was fine to play, but Aniki had been a one-trick at one point, and it wasn’t something he wanted to go back to. So, he strolled to his room, carefully opened up his binders, gave Yubel the time-honored extra wide berth, smiled at his favorite card, and got to work.
His first idea was some kind of shark deck, but… Yeah, he was pretty sure there was someone else running that, and while that wasn’t a huge deal back home, over in anime land, archetypes were basically personalities, and using the same archetype as someone else was a horrible crime punishable by 4Kids censorship (Sorry Arkana, but blue energy disks is a dumb idea.)
Of course, he could stick with rocks, but he wanted to do something XYZ-based… Sighing, he flipped through, searching for anything good, and eventually, he found something goofy enough to be playable. It’d be pretty bad, but eh, so was Megarock.
So be it. Gogogo Beatdown, why not?