Yu-Gi-Oh Duel to Survive

_It's always been this way. I'm used to it._

This is what Jeric told himself. Every day, as he walked around, or scavenged for food, he told himself the same thing. _It has never been any different. I've never known another life. So why do I feel like something's missing?_

He had no home. He had no living. He had never known family or friends. He survived by looking through other people's trash, and by stealing from stores.

And by dueling. A good duelist stayed alive. And that's just what Jeric was. That's the main reason he was still alive.

Jeric walked past a group of men huddling around a barrel fire. "Hey, ya know what I's heard?" one of them asked.

"No, what?" the others asked back.

"I's heard that the world's gonna stop. Ya know, 'cuz when da yea's ova' it'll be da yea' three-thousand. And when that happens the world won't keep goin', it'll just end."

_Superstitious morons,_ Jeric thought. _The world isn't gonna end anytime soon. It's not just gonna stop. It's the same old life for me, for all of us._

The seventeen-year-old sat on a park bench, and pulled some canned goods, a can opener, and a portable, battery-using heater out of his backpack. His chin-length dirty-blonde hair fell over his grey-blue eyes as he worked on the food. As it heated, he checked his bag for the umpteenth time, to make sure the 20 dollar bill was still there. It was. By a stroke of luck, he found the money lying in the middle of the street.

Jeric pushed his hair behind his ear, and began to eat. It wasn't the best stuff out there, but it kept him alive. As he ate, he remembered the stories he had heard about how things had ended up this way. Rumors were, the world was so advanced, it had achieved world peace and everything was perfect. People dueled only for fun, and there was enough food for everyone to have their fill. But then a massive cataclysmic event destroyed everything. The survivors had to start rebuilding the world from scratch, and things became the way they were now.

"HEY!" a voice yelled. "Hey kid!"

Jeric looked up, and immediately jumped to his feet. He had been surrounded by some members of a gang, called the "Castle Guards". _DAMNIT! _he thought. _How could I have been so stupid!?_

"Hey, kid," one of them said. "We saw ya take our money earlier!"

"Yeah," said a second, "and we want it back."

"Twenty bucks exactly!" said a third.

_Crapity crap crap crap. _Jeric winced._ I knew I shouldn't have taken that. It was obviously a trap, and I walked right into it. _"Um...can we work out a deal?" he asked.

"No deals," said a man, who walked towards Jeric with obvious power. "I'm the leader of the Castle Guards, Big Billy, and I came all the way here just to see who took my cash, so you better fork it over!"

"Must've been pretty bored..." Jeric muttered.

"EXCUSE ME!?" Billy roared, leaning towards Jeric, so their faces were an inch apart.

"Nothing! Just your breath..."

"Oh, I've heard of you." Billy said, straightening. "You're that crafty kid everyone's talkin' about. Well, here's this for a deal: I take the cash, AND your deck!" Billy looked proud of himself.

"Well, if you're bringing decks into it, you gotta duel me! If I win, I get to keep the cash and my deck. If you win, you get them. How's that sound?"

"Fine by me, kid! You got yourself a bargain."

Jeric reached into his backpack and took out his duel disk. He had found the thing in the garbage, an old model, beat up and broken, and fixed it up. He even re-painted it. It was a now deep purple, with yellow and dark blue detailing. He pulled his deck out of his pocket, and put it in the deck slot. The duel disk shuffled it with the automatic-shuffler he had installed himself, and the life-point counter went to 4000. Duel disk on, it said. "Ready!" he told Billy.

Billy had gotten his gang to put on his duel disk and put in his deck. Apparently, he didn't have an auto-shuffle, since his gang shuffled his deck for him. "All set," he stated. "Get ready to lose, kid!"

"LET'S GO!" they shouted, drawing their starting hands.

"I'm first!" Jeric said. "I'm starting with Luster Dragon in attack mode."

In front of him, the dragon appeared and roared. It was a blue dragon that shone with a rainbow light. A small box appeared bellow it: [ATK/1900 DEF/1600] After a few seconds, it faded away.

"Then I'll put one card facedown, and end my turn." A large card appeared, floating close above the ground, with the face of the card pointed downward. _It's not likely he'll have a monster with more than 1900 attack points, so I should be good for this turn, _Jeric thought.

"Not bad, but not good enough, kid!" Billy began. "I draw. Then I'll summon Rock Ogre Grotto #2 in defense mode, and put 2 cards face down. Your move, kid."

A golem made of stone appeared in front of him, which knelt down in a defensive stance. [ATK/700 DEF/1400] With it came two facedown cards.

"Playing defense isn't going to get you anywhere," Jeric said. "Can't win without attacking."

"Who said I won't?" Billy smirked.

"Whatever. My draw. And I'm going to activate my spell card, Cards of Consonance! With this card, I can discard a dragon-type tuner monster, and draw two cards. So I'll discard The White Stone of Legend."

"What, bad hand?" Billy asks.

"Not really. That move let me do more than just draw some cards. Since White Stone of Legend went to the graveyard, I get to activate its special ability: I can put a Blue-Eyes White Dragon in my hand!"

A white, egg-looking object appeared on the field in front of Jeric. The egg cracked and broke open, releasing a white light that flew into his hand and became a card.

"Wait, what?" Billy looked surprised.

"Yup! So now I'll summon Alexandrite Dragon [ATK/2000 DEF/100] to the field, and end my turn with a face down."

"Heh, nice move, kid. You got more game then I thought. But it's gonna take more than that to beat me. I draw." He looked very pleased with his draw. "Okay, I'll summon Rockstone Warrior to the field, in attack mode!"

Another stone golem appeared, only this one looked more aggressive towards Jeric. [ATK/1800 DEF/1600]

"Attack mode!? Do you want to lose quickly? Both my monsters could beat that thing, and your life-points would take a hit!" Jeric asked.

"Oh, oops! My mistake!" Billy said, but his confident grin made Jeric think otherwise.

_It's obviously bait,_ Jeric noted, _But I'm gonna have to take it. _"My turn!" Jeric drew. "I'm going to start with the spell Trade-In! By discarding a level-8 monster, I can draw two cards. So I'll discard my Blue-Eyes."

"But, why would you do that?" Billy asked.

"You'll see in a minute. It's all about to come together." Jeric drew two cards, and noticed one of them. "Yes! This one I can use! I activate Dragon Shrine! I get to send one dragon-type monster from my deck to the graveyard. I'll put a second Blue-Eyes there. Then, since the monster was a normal monster, I can do it again! So that's three Blue-Eyes, waiting in my graveyard. You follow all this?"

"Sorta..." Billy said.

"Close enough. I normal summon my tuner monster, Flamevell Guard! [ATK/100 DEF/2000] Once he's here, I can give my other monsters a little tune-up! You ready? Go, Flamevell Guard!"

The dragon flared its wings, glowed, and burst into shiny dust. In its place was a single shining, green star, which flew into the sky and became a green ring. Alexandrite Dragon and Luster Dragon flew through the ring, and became transparent, and outlined in orange. They burst into four stars each, which lined up in a row of eight, and suddenly a column of bright green light shot through the ring and illuminated the park.

"Make way for the Azure-Eyes Silver Dragon!"

The light faded, revealing a large, silver dragon, which lifted its head in the air, and roared. [ATK/2500 DEF/3000]

"Wow. That's a mighty big dragon you got there," Billy stated.

"Yup. Now I'm putting it in defense mode."

"What? Why? Why not attack?"

"Now I'm equipping my spell card Dragon Shield to my dragon. Now my Azure-Eyes can't hurt you, but it can't hurt me either, and it's completely indestructible."

"Are you ignoring me!?"

"And now, I'll activate my trap, Call of the Haunted! With it, I can target one monster in my graveyard, and special summon it. And I choose... the great Blue-Eyes White Dragon!"

Out of the ground rose a long, white neck, followed by giant wings and body, revealing the entire dragon. [ATK/3000 DEF/2500]

"Oh." Billy said.

"Blue-Eyes! Attack Rockstone Warrior with burst-stream!"

The dragon lifted its head, an orb of bright blue light in its jaws. Then it lowered its gaze to the golem, and shot a bright beam of energy, destroying the golem instantly.

"Huh? What gives?" Jeric asked. "That didn't even damage your life points!"

Billy chuckled. "That's because of Rockstone's special ability! When it's destroyed, I take no damage, and it splits into two pieces! Meet my Rockstone Tokens! In defense mode."

The pieces of the shattered golem came together into two smaller versions of the monster. [ATK/0 DEF/0]

"Ah well. That just slows me down!" Jeric stated. "One facedown. Your move."

"Alright. I'll summon my tuner Black Salvo."

A giant, black bomb with a face appeared on the field. [ATK/100 DEF/1100]

"Then I flip my facedown: Scapegoat, which summons up to four level one tokens to my field. I only have room for one."

A small, floating sheep appeared on the field.

"Now I have two level-threes and three level-ones. What does that make?"

"A level-nine..." Jeric whispered.

"Ha-ha! A-plus for you!" Billy laughed. "Unfortunately, scapegoat limits my summoning this turn, so you're safe for one round. So I'll end with a face down. Your last turn."

"I'll make it count!" Jeric said as he drew. "I activate Azure-Eyes's special effect. I can special summon a normal dragon-type from the grave, and I pick my Blue-Eyes number two!"

Another Blue-Eyes emerged from the ground, much like the first.

"And then I use the card I drew, Silver's Cry! I can resurrect my third Blue-Eyes! Now, my dragons, attack! Burst-stream!"

The three dragons raised their heads and fired three bright streams of light, which headed straight for Billy's monsters.

"Not so fast!" Billy yelled. "I activate my trap: Waboku! My monsters cannot be destroyed this turn."

The golems were enveloped in light, only for the attack to end, and the monsters to still be standing.

"Damn. Fine, your turn."

"Good. I draw. Now I can have my Black Salvo give my monsters a tune-up."

Black salvo burst into three stars, which formed three green rings of light.

"Let's go! I synchro summon..."

Billy's monsters flew through the rings and transformed into six stars altogether, which lined up and transformed into...

"Giganticastle!"

Billy raised his arm and pointed at the sky, and as he did, a massive, moving stone fortress raised into the air and stood up behind him. [ATK/2900 DEF/2800]

"Ha! And to think I was worried!" Jeric laughed. "That thing doesn't have enough power!"

Billy smiled. "And that's where its effect comes in. See, Giganticastle gains 200 attack and defense for each monster I used to summon it, not counting the tuner. That gives me a grand total of... 3700!" [ATK/3700 DEF/3600]

"Uh-oh." Jeric said.

"Yeah. Now, Giganticastle, castle crash! Destroy that Blue-Eyes White Dragon!"

The castle lifted its arms, and then brought them down on the dragon, shattering it into bright light, and blasting wind back at Jeric, almost blowing him over.

"Rrgh..." [Jeric Life Points: 4000 - 3300]

"Heh. Say goodbye to those Blue-Eyes of yours! HA-HA-HA-HA!"

_C'mon... Just the one card..._ Jeric thought as he closed his eyes and drew...

...and smiled.

"Jig's up, Billy. I win."

"Huh? Give up already! You can't win!"

"I can, and I will. First, I activate Azure-Eyes's effect, and bring back my Blue-Eyes. And now that I have three Blue-Eyes, I can activate my spell card...

"...POLYMERIZATION!"

A vortex appeared on the field, which absorbed Jeric's three Blue-Eyes and mixing them together.

"What!?"

"Meet the great, the one, and the only..."

The vortex cleared, and revealed a gigantic three headed dragon.

"BLUE-EYES ULTIMATE DRAGON! [ATK/4500 DEF/3800] And then, I use Monster Reborn from my hand to bring back one Blue-Eyes, and normal summon Kaibaman from my hand."

A man with a hat that looked like a Blue-Eyes's head appeared on Jeric's field. [ATK/200 DEF/700]

"And to keep you from trying any funny-business, I activate my trap, Trap Stun!"

Billy's two facedowns turned gray.

Billy blanched. "Oh-no..."

"Oh-no is right. Blue-Eyes Ultimate Dragon, Ultimate Burst-Stream!"

The dragon's three heads reared, then lowered to unleash a powerful blast of energy, which punched straight through Giganticastle, and hit Billy as well.

"Gehh..." [Billy's LP: 4000 - 3200]

"And now, Blue-Eyes and Kaibaman, finish him off! ATTACK!"

The Blue-Eyes shot an energy blast, while Kaibaman took out a card and threw it at billy.

"Aaurchh!" Billy oofed as he landed on his back.

[Billy's LP: 3200- 200]

[Billy's LP: 200 - 0]

"I win." Jeric stated.

He looked around as his monsters faded away, and realized that the entire Castle Guards gang is surrounding him, and closing in on him. "Um, guys," Jeric said, "I won, so..."

He went unconscious after the first few hits.

He woke up with someone looking down at him. "Uugh..." He tried to speak, but it didn't work out.

The boy answered his question anyway. "My name is Siren. I found you beat up in the park. I've been taking care of you since. You've been unconscious for forty-eight hours."


End file.

Yu-Gi-Oh