365 Days of Starshipping (Part 1)

Wrecking the Finals Again

1/27/19

"This has been an intense finals match so far! Both competitor's life points are only half-way gone, and it seems to be a defensive game on both sides so far!" The announcer yelled, hyping up the stadium. Judai had put a lot more stall cards in for this deck, since it required a very specific combo to pull off, especially since it'd been combined with his HERO deck instead of being purely the one strategy.

It would all depend on his next draw.

"Tch, how annoying," His opponent said, an upcoming duelist that had slowly been gaining popularity since graduating from Duel Academy last year. He glanced at Judai's three face-down cards before deciding to attack with the sole monster he had on the field, Berserk Gorilla.

Judai took the attack, of course, his life points dropping down to 2000 from 4000. He was just glad his bluff had worked at this point, since those cards were really meant for getting out his deck's recently added win condition.

"...I can't play anything else, so I end my turn," the other said. He had no back-row placed down, and his hand only consisted of one card.

"Alright then, my turn! Draw!" Judai yelled, looking at his card after taking a breath.

Heart of the cards, indeed - it was just the card he needed to win this turn. He grinned, looking back to his opponent who suddenly looked slightly worried.

"I've drawn just the card to end this duel, so I hope you're ready for this!" He exclaimed, causing the audience to go into an uproar as they anticipated the rest of his turn.

"Whoa! Yuki claims that he can end the duel this turn, but his opponent still has 3800 life points! What could he possibly be planning?!" The announcer said, sounding out over the crowd's yells. Judai could just barely pinpoint Yusei amongst the crowd, watching with an intense focus, which only served to hype him up for what he was about to do.

"First I activate the card I just drew, Foolish Burial! It lets me send one card from my deck to my graveyard, and I choose the monster Yubel!" Judai said, slowly getting on a roll, "Then I activate my face-down card, Call of the Haunted, which let's me summon a monster from the graveyard in attack position, then equip it with that card - I choose Yubel!"

Yubel faded onto the field, wings spreading out fiercely as she grinned wildly.

"Finally! I was wondering when I'd get to come out to play," she said, humming to herself in satisfaction before holding a finger up to her face in thought. "Ne, isn't this the first time your precious mechanic gets to see me? He can see spirits now after all, so he can see all my actual movements- oh! Should I wave to him?

"Yubel, no- stop it!" Judai hissed out, "He can hear you too! Oh my gods, I never thought you'd try to embarrass me why did I play you-"

"Don't worry, dear, I won't embarrass you in front of the boy, but you have to let me meet him sometime soon. It's only right since our souls are fused together."

"And me too - he should realize that all three of us come together," Haou mentioned. He'd been in a rather happy mood throughout the day due to the duels, which meant he'd been speaking up more and, unfortunately, contributing to the teasing.

They both made good points, however.

"Alright, you both can meet him later, but for now let's get on with the duel," Judai murmured, placating the other two before finally moving on to the next part of his turn.

"Yubel won't be staying around for long though! I activate my other trap, Dust Tornado, to destroy Call of the Haunted, which destroys Yubel as a result as well!"

"Why would you do that? Ha, looks like I didn't really have much to worry about after all-"

"Yubel's effect activates!" Judai continued, steamrolling through opponent's taunts, "When she's destroyed, I can special summon 'Yubel - Terror Incarnate' from either my hand, deck, or graveyard; however, this version won't be staying around for much longer either since I activate my final face-down card, Raigeki Break! I discard one card from my hand in order to destroy 'Yubel - Terror Incarnate', activating her effect; when 'Yubel - Terror Incarnate' is removed from the field, I can special summon 'Yubel - The Ultimate Nightmare' from my hand, deck, or graveyard. Say hello to her final form!"

Yubel roared onto the field, shaking the ground as she slammed down onto it. The huge twin headed dragon exuded a powerful, fearsome aura as the multitudes of eyes opened up on her body, staring down her opponent, who looked on in fear.

"T-that monster has zero attack, so I s-should still be fine... r-right? I've still got 3800 life points left!" He asked, stuttering as he desperately tried to figure out why a zero attack monster card was so utterly terrifying and huge.

"Finally, I activate the equip spell Megamorph! The monster I equip it to has its original attack points doubled while my life points are lower than my opponents, and I'm equipping it to your Berserk Gorilla, bringing its attack up to 4000! Now, 'Yubel - The Ultimate Nightmare' attacks!"

The stadium's shouts were deafening, the entire audience on the edge of their seats as Yubel roared and tackled the burning gorilla, swiping at it with her talons.

"This is the end!" Judai yelled, adrenaline pumping wildly as he excitedly took in Yubel's ultimate form commanding everyone's attention, "'Yubel - The Ultimate Nightmare' cannot be destroyed by battle, and I take no battle damage from battles involving this card! Also, now that it's the end of the damage step, their final effect activates! If this face-up attack position card battled an opponent's monster, my opponent takes damage equal to that monster's attack!"

"What?! No! I only have 3800 life points, Berserk Gorilla has 4000! NOOOOO-"

Berserk Gorilla went up in a fire of flames which then engulfed his opponent, who screamed at the crushing defeat. With that the duel ended, Yubel's dragon form fading from the field and leaving behind an extremely excited audience.

"Gotcha'! That was a fun duel!" Judai winked, giving his signature salute.

"LADIES AND GENTLEMAN! He's done it again! Judai Yuki has won the finals in the nearly the same way as the last, using his opponent's monsters against them! He's one duelist that everyone needs to watch out for, because he's on a roll straight for the big leagues!"

"YUKI! YUKI!"

"That's TheSupremeHERO for ya! It's no wonder he won!"

"He's so good! Did you see that?! I don't even want to think about how terrifying he'd be in a tag duel with the Savior, even if it's in game!"

Judai relished the crowd's shouts, smiling brightly at the cheers and waving. He peeked over at Yusei as he exited the arena, and upon seeing the man sporting a fond, proud smile, felt rather accomplished and happy.

It was a fun tournament indeed.

...Now, it was time to collect his prize money! He was going to make a feast tonight now that he had even more spending money and had, in his opinion, more than earned it - his mouth was already starting to water at the thought of food. Tournaments were exhausting, whew!