Rock Bottom: Season One

Dare

"Wait, what's going on? My attack had no effect on your life-points at all and those annoying creatures continue to multiply!"

"That's right, Seto, and you can't take my remaining life-points away until you destroy all the Kuriboh!" Yugi looked infuriatingly smug as he spoke.

"Hairballs," Seto growled, glaring at the many Kuriboh that he was just too angry to find adorable. "They've coming back even faster than I can blast them away."

"That's right. You might have created the ultimate attack monster, but I've created the ultimate defense: an ever-expanding army of furry protectors. They might not look like much, but they've stopped your dragon in its tracks. That's just the beginning, for now I go on the attack!" he declared, looking so confident that Seto knew it couldn't be a bluff, but he contradicted him anyways.

"Impossible. You don't have a monster strong enough."

"Watch me." That smug smirk made Seto even angrier. "For I'm going to show you the combination that will take your dragon down. Mammoth Graveyard, Polymerization, and the Living Arrow." As Yugi spoke, the holographic cards turned and revealed their card art. "Normally, I make a fusion with my cards, but, for a new twist, Living Arrow lets me fuse my cards with your cards, opening up bold new possibilities."

Seto wanted to yell at Yugi in that moment, scream that he'd never been bold for a single moment of his life. How dare he choose this moment to grow a set and step up his game. Somehow, though, he managed to keep his mouth shut. Some small part of his mind was vaguely aware of the fact that he was essentially murdering his tenuous friendships, but he couldn't focus on that right now. He couldn't even care about that right now. He only cared about Mokuba.

"Now, I will use my Living Arrow and Polymerization to fuse my Mammoth Graveyard with your Blue-Eyes Ultimate Dragon!" The three holographic cards were overlaid and a glowing arrow shot out from them that pierced the three-headed dragon, making it screech in pain. Seto bit his lip just to hear the sad sound. Their friends gasped as they watched the dragon begin to melt, crippled by the effects of Mammoth Graveyard.

"I can't watch this," Ryou murmured, his eyes still glued to Seto's dragon. He felt another hand brush against his and interlock their fingers. He glanced over at Marik, who smiled at him gently. "It's just so hard to watch."

"They'll still be friends after this, you know," Marik murmured in Egyptian so that only Ryou could understand him. "Neither of them are so petty as to stop being friends over a card-game."

"I've never seen Seto duel like this before," Ryou replied worriedly, still speaking privately as the duel progressed before them. "I've never seen him this angry before."

They fell silent as Seto's dragon began to deteriorate, losing attack points with each turn that passed. Seto himself seemed to have hit a wall, as if he were incapable of processing the fact that no matter how many times he attacked, he would never annihilate all the Kuriboh on Yugi's side of the field.

"Go Yugi!" Anzu shouted, making Joey glare at her.

"Come on, Seto, you can still win this!" the blond called out, trying to encourage his friend. "Just shake it off! Don't let 'im get to ya!"

Seto didn't seem to hear either of them. He didn't look their way and he didn't react, simply continued to duel. Twice more he attacked, and twice more he failed. His ultimate dragon's attack points dropped to a level low enough that after his second attack, Yugi summoned his Celtic Guardian and was able to cut down one of the dragon's heads. Seto couldn't see a way out. He felt cornered, trapped, just like the way he'd felt every Thursday night during the darkest period of his life...