Yu-Gi-Oh! ZD: Rise Of The Dragons (A Yu-Gi-Oh! Fanfiction) - Chapter 4

“So do I have any ID yet?” Asked Drake.

He was standing behind Akari inside her futuristic computer room, waiting. It was late at night, almost a quarter to eleven.

“Not yet, why are you in a rush?”

“Why else? The registration for the World Duel Carnival ends at midnight, if I don’t have an ID then I can’t register.”

“Urgh duelling, you better not be getting my brother involved or else…”

“Right, right, I hear you.”

Drake planned to ignore her, but he did hear her. With the Orichalcos eyeing this world Yuma and Astral would soon become prime targets.

“Alright, here’s the form. So name… Drake, Drake What?”

Right. He couldn’t just go around as just Drake. But Drake what? He couldn’t remember his own name, not that it mattered. He was technically dead and in a different world so a thing like a name meant very little.

“How about Atlas? Drake Atlas. I think it rolls off the tongue, what about you?”

“Atlas as in the Titan that carried the heavens on his back? Or the book of maps?”

“That too.”

“Fine, Drake Atlas… Address… date of birth… how old are you?”

“How old do I look?” It was a valid question, he had no idea what his age was before his death and after the Legendary dragons had created this new body for him, his age could actually be counted in days.

“Fine, we’ll say 22.”

Ouch, going by his looks Drake would have said 18, at most. Guess she still had a chip on her shoulder. Seeing the date she entered Drake asked.

“You see me as a Taurus?”

“Because you’re full of bull.”

After a few more details the false identity was complete. It would take a day or two for the physical copies to arrive, but digitally he was all set. A few key strokes to set up a bank account for Akari to transfer the funds she got from selling his gems earlier in the day and he was all set. Now it was time to register, and buy some new clothes, he couldn’t go around duelling in borrowed clothes.

—

The next morning Drake was reading the morning news while waiting for his deliveries. He was disturbed when he heard Yuma screaming.

“NO, Oh no! Astral why didn’t you remind me!”

“How was I to know about such requirements Yuma, I told you I had no interest in the matter.”

“What’s the matter you two.”

“Its terrible Drake, I forgot to register online for the WDC!”

Drake slapped his hand over Yuma’s mouth.

“You want your sister to hear you?” He whispered

Yuma shook his head rapidly before falling into a seat in a depressed slump.

At that moment the post arrived with several packages. Drake picked them up and tipped the delivery man, as he made his way back to his room to change, he tossed a small package to Yuma saying.

“Here you go, thankfully I remembered to register for the both of us.”

—

By the time Drake had changed into his new clothes Yuma was long gone, saying he was going to Jet. He took a moment to admire his new look in the hallway mirror. His new threads were picked to be a tribute of Kaiba’s looks, a white coat with silver trim, but without the studs or straps, with short sleeves and a turned down collar more reminiscent of Jacks coat. A Black shirt and pants with a silver dragon shaped buckle and deck case that hung on his left side.

Around his neck he wore the other item he had received in the post, his entrance ticket to the WDC, the Heart Key. It was a small electronic device shaped like a heart with a series of smaller hearts fitted within each other. Only the centre most heart was illuminated at the moment in a rosy pink, the other 9 layers were dull.

The rules of the prelims were simple and available online even if one didn’t attend the opening ceremony where everything was explained to the contestants. Drake read up on the rules as he sat down for a cup of tea.

Every time you duel and win against another duellist with a Heart Key another layer would light up, known as a ‘heart light’. While if you lose then you would lose a light. If you lose all your ‘heart lights’ you were eliminated and your Heart Key would fry itself. You can only duel a person once during the prelims and if you don’t have a Heart Key with completely lit 10 layered heart by the end of the tenth day you would also be eliminated.

That means it took at least a 9 win streak to advance to the next round and the first duel was the most important step that would eliminate the most competitors. Drake planned to fly through this round with a no loss win streak naturally. There a few more rules and what not, but nothing that would cause a problem for Drake.

If he could find a Number user that he could win a Numbers card from then that would be getting two birds with one stone.

—

Drake spent an hour search for a Number user, one of the abilities the Dragons had given his new body was a kind of energy detection sense. It was meant to help him locate whenever someone used the Seal of Orichalcos if he was in the area, but he thought that he could also easily be able to find a Numbers card through their powerful energy signature, but he was wrong.

Either there weren’t any Numbers nearby or they simply didn’t emit any energy when they weren’t being used in a duel.

He gave up his idea and decided to just find any old duellist.

As he was walking past a park with a fountain, someone bumped into him knocking him almost to the ground.

“Hey” Drake cried.

“Watch where you’re going!” the other screamed at him.

“You watch where you’re going, you bumped into me!”

“The cheek. And you call yourself a duellist”

Drake could see him wearing a duel disk on his arm.

“Heh you obviously don’t know who I am. I am the master bug duellist Hopkirk Chester. See this!”

Hopkirk lifted a Heart Key from under his shirt, it had 5 layers lit up already. Halfway to qualifying.

“So what, you going to bite me into submission.”

“Since you won’t compensate me, I demand a duel.”

“Agreed.”

Drake didn’t hesitate to accept the challenge, although he had the strong feeling that he had been set up. His Heart Key was on easy display and couldn’t be missed after all.

“The Duel disk set, Duel gazer on, lets duel!”

Drake was calmer. First he check his deck case with a mental sweep and raised his eye brow as he found several cards had been secretly added. All his cards were created by the power of the Legendary Dragons and had their own unique energy signature an ordinary card from this world just didn’t have.

A plant!

Had it been when they had crashed into each other? Or perhaps he had been targeted even before that. This was a high tech city with plenty of cameras so doing it himself might have been a bit obvious. The image of Weevil Underwood appeared in his mind, the two of them would make a good match. Good thing his real deck was safe in his storage space and the deck he carried on his belt was just a decoy for thieves.

With a thought his duel disk activated and his duel gazer tattoo lit up. With a dramatic show he apparently took his deck out of his right-hand pocket, much to Hopkirks visible dismay, and loaded it into his duel disk.

“Duel! And I go first”

Drake decided to decisively take the first turn. And his opponent was so thrown off from having whatever scheme he planned foiled from the get-go he didn’t object.

[Turn 1 – Drake LP:4000 Hand:5, Hopkirk LP:4000 Hand:5]

“I draw. I summon in attack mode.”

[Vanguard of the Dragon – Lv4 ATK:1700/DEF:1300]

A grey humanoid dragon armed with a mighty spear took to the field.

Drake wanted to squash this cheating snake to a pulp, to trample him beneath an ultimate dragon but strategy won out. It was far too soon to reveal his full strength to the world in his first match.

“Next I activate my Vanguard’s special effect, I send from my hand to the Graveyard, this increases my Vanguard’s ATK by 300. So long as it is on the field.”

[Vanguard of the Dragon – ATK:1700 > 2000]

Drakes dragon raised its spear to the air as its body seemed to bulk up with new strength.

“I now set two cards face down and end my turn.”

[Turn 2 – Hopkirk LP:4000 Hand:5, Drake LP:4000 Hand:2]

“Hehe I will show you the true power of the insect world, get ready to lose your heart light.”

“I Draw. I summon in attack position.”

[Inzektor Centipede – Lv3 ATK:1600/DEF:1200]

A monster like a man in insect brown exoskeleton armour appeared opposite Drakes dragon.

“The insect world knows the value of team work, and the swarm is strongest together, I activate my monsters effect, which allows me to equip it with the from my hand. Thanks to Giga-Mantis’s effect the original attack of a monster it is equipped to becomes 2400.”

[Inzektor Centipede – ATK:1600 > 2400]

A new green exo armour wrapped itself around Hopkirks monster with large blades attached to the arms.

“Then I activate the equip spell this spell increases my monsters ATK/DEF by 800.”

[Inzektor Centipede – ATK:2400 > 3200]

“Face the sting of my insect deck, I attack Vanguard of the Dragon with Inzektor Centipede!”

“Bugs should know when they are about to be squashed, I activate my trap , all your monsters in attack mode are destroyed!”

Hopkirk was startled as his monsters attack was reflected back as shards of rainbow of light before it could reach Drakes dragon, piercing his bug and destroying it. He couldn’t help but curse his luck, was it so bad as to run into someone with a rare and powerful card like Mirror Force? If only this guy had fallen for his trick and used the deck he had tampered with.

But no matter what, that sixth heart light would be his!

“From my Graveyard I activate the effect of Inzektor Sword – Zektkaliber, I return Inzektor Giga-Mantis from my Grave to my hand.”

“Then I play the equip spell I revive Inzektor Centipede from my Graveyard in attack position by paying 800 life points, then I once more equip Inzektor Giga-Mantis to it from my hand making its attack 2400 again.”

[Hopkirk LP > 3200]

[Inzektor Centipede – ATK:2400/DEF:1200]

“I set one card face down and end my turn.”

[Turn 3 – Drake LP:4000 Hand:2, Hopkirk LP:3200 Hand:1]

“Time to exterminate you. I draw, then I once again activate the effect of my Vanguard, I discard to increase its attack by 300.”

[Vanguard of the Dragon – ATK:2000 > 2300]

“Thanks to the effect of my ‘The White Stone of Legend’ when it goes to the grave I can add a from my deck to my hand. Then I discard that Blue-Eyes to active my dragons effect again, raising its attack to 2600.”

[Vanguard of the Dragon – ATK:2300 > 2600]

“I attack Inzektor Centipede.”

[VoD ATK:2600 > IC ATK:2400 – Hopkirk LP > 3000]

Drakes Vanguard plunged its spear through Hopkirks bug, shattering it into pieces.

“Watch out for my hidden sting! I activate my trap when a monster I control is sent to the Graveyard I can destroy one monster on the field, so I destroy your Vanguard of the Dragon.”

Drakes beast exploded in a shower of light.

“I warned you, I am a master of insect duelling!”

“You should have spent more time learning about other kinds of monster then. My Vanguard’s second effect activates, when it is sent to the Graveyard by my opponents card effect I can special summon a normal dragon monster from any graveyard to the field.”

“Now let me give you a lesson in the power of dragons. Come forth, I special summon the Blue-Eyes White Dragon!”

[Blue-Eyes White Dragon – Lv8 ATK:3000/DEF:2500]

*ROAR!*

The surrounding audience who were watching the duel ooh’d and ah’d in appreciation as Drakes signature monster took to the field. Its gigantic body dwarfing Hopkirks trembling figure. He had sealed his own fate. First in picking this fight in the first place, second in trying to cheat to win, and finally making such a fatal mistake in a duel.

It was still Drakes Battle phase.

“Blue-Eyes White Dragon! Finish this, White Lightning ATTACK!”

A beam of destructive light blasted Hopkirk, knocking him silly.

[BEWD ATK:3000 – Hopkirk LP > 0]

Hopkirks Heart Key lost a heart light dropping down to the fourth layer while Drakes own lit up the second. Drake really wish he had a way to eliminate this scum of a duellist from the whole conteset, but he couldn’t.

And he couldn’t use other methods,not in front of all these people.

As he walked away Drake examined the tampered deck in curiosity, while he knew cards had been added he didn’t know what cards they were without actually looking. But it was easy to find out, after all the decoy deck was made entirely of 40 copies of . But now six copies of were in it.

Such a simple method, if he had tried to use a deck which broke the 3 card limited he would have been instantly disqualified and would have forfeited the duel. Not only that, feeling the cards Drake was sure that they had been marked as well.

He tossed the cards into a trash can and went looking for his next challenge.