The Bittersweet Fate Of A Duelist

Chapter 14

«Are you nervous, Yug?».

Yugi smiled at Joey, who was looking at him over the cards in his hands, and lightly shook his head: «Not really. By now I've quite accustomed to crowds of people eagerly waiting for me to say something», he replied. «I set a card face-down and end my turn», he then said, placing one of his cards from his hand on the playmat.
Joey had invited him to his house, wanting to finally spend a Saturday together, and since Seto was busy getting dragged away from his brother, Yugi has willingly accepted.
At the moment they were sitting at the kitchen table, engaged in an obviously traditional Duel, and Joey had successful summoned his Red Eyes Black Dragon during his fourth turn.
Yugi, on his side of the field, only had three face-down cards.

Joey drew a card and thought about his next move, weighing his options.
Finally, he set a card face-down and attacked Yugi' face-down monster with his dragon, cursing out loud when his friend flipped up Marshmallon: «Oh, come on Yug! I can't believe you're still using that!», he complained, his Life Points going down by 1000 due to the monster's effect.
At that point, with Marshmallon unable to be destroyed by battle, Yugi had a free monster to offer as a Tribute.
Mumbling to himself, Joey took another look at the cards he was holding, not finding anything useful.
«Fine, I'll end my turn», he said, moments after. «Are you really not bothered? I mean, it's a big deal, the presentation of your game».

«I don't know how to define it», Yugi replied, drawing from his Deck. Sage's Stone, perfect.
«I mean, it's not the first time, I've introduced other games to the gaming community. What I know for sure, I might be a bit overwhelmed by how great this project has turned out. Seto and I kept working on it day and night even after finishing it, as to offer the public a stable build and fluid graphics. We even added tons of new details and stuff to it, but in the end it's the public that matters. And, for as stunning our game is, there's always the possibility the public won't be satisfied by it. With something this big, I'm kinda scared of the disappointment bad reviews could bring up».
Grinning, Yugi Tributed Marshmallon to Summon his Dark Magician Girl, then showed Joey the Spell Card he had just drawn: «I activate Sage's Stone. If I have a Dark Magician Girl face-up on the field, this allows me to Special Summon my Dark Magician directly from the Deck. This is not going well for you, Joey», he chuckled, placing his spellcaster on the field before shuffling the Deck and putting it back in place.
Now Yugi' field could count on two powerful monsters, while Joey only had his Red Eyes Black Dragon.
Weighing the risk brought in by his face-down cards, Yugi flipped up a Trap Card: «I activate Eternal Soul. This card makes my Dark Magician unaffected by your cards' effects, and allows me to add Thousand Knives from my Deck to my hand».

«Are you fucking kidding me? Since when do you have that card?!».

Yugi laughed at Joey's outraged expression: «I have to update my Deck, somehow. Oh well, I activate Thousand Knives. And guess what?».

«Yeah, yeah. No need to tell me», Joey pouted, removing Red Eyes Black Dragon from the field to place it in the Graveyard.
His traps were useless against that move, but if everything went the right way he could till save himself for another turn.
He still had his trusted Skull Dice on the field, as to lower Yugi's Dark Magician Girl's ATK, and Call of the Haunted would surely bring Red Eyes Black Dragon on the field to limit the damage.
«I'm not giving you a victory that easily, don't hope for it».

«Mh, are you sure about that?».
With a critical eye, Yugi scrutinized Joey's field and pondered whether or not to activate Dark Magic Attack from his hand.
Joey's face-down cards could easily uproot an attack from Dark Magician Girl, not protected by Eternal Soul's effect. After some thinking, Yugi decided to end that Duel in that turn.
«I activate Dark Magic Attack», he declared, showing the card to Joey. «By doing this, I destroy all your Spells and Traps».