Episode 95. - Alluring Intoxicating Fortune

Libra sat at the white plastic table, shuffling her deck as her opponent stormed off. A player using a Darkness mono. All Ghosts. It had been a strange deck. Not at all like the others she had seen, but many players seemed to have some slight difficulties building Ghost decks. She smiled to herself, remembering her days of experimenting with Jack Viper. It might be fun to work on that deck again sometime soon...

Her attention was drawn to the dark haired, dark eyed young man that entered the dueling area now. He moved slightly slowly, but the most pronounced attribute of his presence was the erratically pulsing Kaijudo that emanated from him with every step. The other duelists around looked up, seemed to note who it was, and returned to whatever they were doing. Libra assumed that he was either a stranger in this area, as she was, or the situation was normal for some reason. This time, she assumed the former, rising from her chair.

"Hey, are you alrigh--"
He had turned to her and she had managed to get a whiff of the alcohol on his breath, which, though not particularly strong, caused her to recoil immediately. One of her aversions.

The heated Kaijudo wave that swept over her mind when he turned was not encouraging either, and so, without further interaction, she turned away, returning to the table where she had been sitting. A moment later, the young man slumped into the chair across from her.

She frowned, and gave him a stern look, "Don't sit there. I'm waiting for challengers."

He leaned forward, then slumped slightly, saying, "No prob. I can be a challenger. Just gimme a minute or two to compose m'self."

Libra leaned back, folding her arms, and frowning as another wave of uncontrolled Kaijudo swept over her, "You've obviously been drinking. How do you expect to duel like that?"

"I duel better this way," he laughed, rummaging for his deck, making sure he actually got all the cards out of the pocket of his bag, "Besides, this game's what... sixty... maybe eighty percent luck? Doesn't really matter."

She felt a surge of energy within, and before she could stop it, it had lashed out to 'slap' him. Fortunately for her, his own power pulsed again at that moment, negating the effect of her own almost completely. She gritted her teeth, and spoke instead.

"Don't be ridiculous. You've got that backwards. How much have you had to drink, anyway?"

"Ha!" he exclaimed now, leaning in toward her, causing her to cringe away again, "You think this is skill? It's luck, sweetie. I know, because I'm a lucky duelist..."

Unable to stand the repulsive reek or heated Kaijudo any longer, she pushed him away, nearly causing him to tip over in the chair.
"Get away. I hate alcohol."

"Heh. Anyways... kettou da. I'll show you."
He began to shuffle the deck, showing no sign of diminished coordination. Now, his Kaijudo began to focus, receding into him naturally. Within her, Shtra seemed glad of it. The other duelists around now moved in, taking surprising interest in the imminent duel between them.

"The only luck that usually matters... is guessing right in decisions, and Shield Triggers..." she growled softly. Despite her efforts to control the way in which it did so, the dark Kaijudo began to creep through her again... insidious and angry, ready to leap out at the duelist before her. She did her best to clamp down on it. With this many spectators, and her own lack of knowledge of what exactly this power could do to others, it was unacceptable to lose control of it now. Her opponent charged fire mana. She looked at him with disdain, wondering if he had genuinely forgotten that he was the challenger, or was simply that intoxicated.

Unwilling to make any fuss about something such as whether or not she should have gone first, she simply reached out and took the next card off the top of her deck. Looking at it, she felt her avatar calculate, then stop halfway. She placed the Dark Reversal into mana. The effect of just this was profound, her Kaijudo becoming unpleasant and irritable.

He drew his card, and charged Nature mana. A Bronze-Arm Tribe. Without hesitation, he now cast Faerie Life, and the hot aura became oppressive again as a new Fire card was added to his mana zone. The world she had been expecting from him, did not show.

"I just love mana acceleration," he laughed, "It's why everyone here calls me 'Speedy'..."

She did not answer him. Water mana now joined the darkness, but her mild mental efforts to manifest her world came to nothing. There was energy, certainly, but all she could get it to become was dark water churning violently against a distant shore.

"Urgh! Stupid people all around me..." Shtra groaned, desperately trying to lock down on the searing energy within. Speedy charged more fire mana, and began his movement. The red sky over his island began to swirl, as heat rose up, and a flame spout erupted upward, the superheated gas bringing with it his Magmadragon Melgars.

"I guess the name probably suits you. Splash Zebrafish, to mana. Summon Aqua Jolter."
Finally, she was able to get the writhing spiking darkness within under some semblance of control, and the Aqua Jolter came into being just as always, no apparent contamination. She breathed a sigh of relief and passed the turn back to him.

"Heh. See? My luck's already starting. Volcano Charger, on your Aqua Jolter."
The blast of fire exploded under the waves, sending a column of water high into the air. The steam, and the hail of 'raindrops' that fell back into the instantly agitated ocean, were all that could be seen. The Jolter had been vaporized instantly by the spell.

Libra clenched her teeth, as Shtra fumed, but in the end, it was a risk one almost always took when playing the water civilization. There were not too many ways of escaping that spell early on. She noted that he had not placed any mana other than the Volcano Charger.

"Magmadragon Melgars, ikei!" Speedy commanded with a grin. A shrieking roar, and the Volcano Dragon soared out over her churning waves, quickly tracking down the location of her facility, and sending a breath blast that seared right through those waves and shattered a shield immediately. Shtra attempted a calculation, based on what it was, but something in the Cyber Lord made completing the task impossible.

Libra's next card was a second Soderlight, the Cold Blade. She had drawn the other two turns earlier. In her mind, Shtra gave a dark 'grin'.
"You think they're trying to tell us something?"

Libra sighed, surrendering herself to the blackness yet again. The waves became calmer as Shtra's form appeared next to her, over the facility. The Cyber Lord's influence now caused the underwater base to activate, and Speedy got a clear image of what exactly he faced. Libra, then got the same fortune. Speedy had, in fact, appeared in the mindspace, though he had been so far away from the shore, she had been unable to perceive his presence. Now, the translucent form of his avatar gave away his location. It was, as expected, a dragon, but not just any dragon. One of the supreme dragons, the greatest of all. Uberdragon Bajula!

"It's not 'luck'," Shtra told him coldly, as more darkness energy rippled through the ocean from her charged Critical Blade, and the base activated one of its platforms to raise a Soderlight to the surface, "It's just cards. You get one thing, you didn't get another. You play one thing, you didn't play another. Skill is knowing where to go from there."

The Spirit Quartz moved in toward shore, arriving just as Speedy drew his card. No sooner had Soderlight made landfall, than a twisting flamespout erupted beneath it. Tornado Flame.

"Think what you want. It's still luck," Speedy smirked, the fused sand now having turned to blackened glass, and that glass littered with other small fragments. Shards of the destroyed Soderlight. Melgars roared again, and moved in to shatter another shield.

Shtra found that her calculations came far more easily now, as the darkness spread out into the room, pricking the nearby observers and building tiny barriers against the heat given off by Speedy and his own avatar.

Libra's next card brought another dark smirk to her face, and she instantly let the rest of the darkness in her swirl freely out of control to do as it liked. Her second Dark Reversal went into her mana zone, and she summoned her Demon Command. Vile Mulder, Wing of the Void.

Speedy's turn, oddly enough, involved no movement other than the drawing of his card. Not even an attack with his Melgars, nor a mana charge. Libra was almost sure, right then, that whatever he had imbibed was seriously hitting his system, but something in those dark eyes told her that he had actually let his turn go that way for a reason, though she could not imagine what it could be. She drew her Emeral, and placed Miracle Quest into her mana zone.

"Summon Aqua Surfer!"
The Magmadragon soared into the sky, revealing, for once, that the Aqua Surfer was capable of flight, as most Liquid People are, with some effort. It dodged a blast of fire, then soared into the clouds, taking control of them, and using the clouds themselves as its 'wave'. A moment later, Melgars was gone. The crowd of duelists had gone quiet.

Vile Mulder's shriek was enough to cause anyone that had not gone quiet in anticipation, to freeze up instantly upon actually hearing it. The Demon Command surged through the water, leaving a powerful wake, and, for once, left the water as it reached the shore, taking flight for just long enough to reach Speedy's shields and shatter them. One broke normally. The other launched a fiery spiked projectile directly at the Wing of the Void. Crisis Boulder.

Mulder deflected it off a shoulder, and the Boulder fell into Libra's ocean, dissipating some of the darkness. Dark Reversal. Speedy's energy had spiked when the first shield broke, leaving Libra curious. A quick calculation brought both human and avatar to the same conclusion.

"He's got Bajula in hand now..."

Speedy was now on the move again. Fists of Forever went into his mana zone, and another flameburst from the water evaporated Libra's Aqua Surfer. Volcano Charger encore. Now, he summoned a Bronze-Arm Tribe as well. It added a Natural Snare to his mana zone.

"Ah, how I love watching my mana go up, knowing that the higher it gets, the closer you are to obliteration. You still think you can do it?"

Shtra was busy calculating. Natural Snares were not really much of a problem, even if they triggered. Libra replenished the darkness mana with another Critical Blade. Emeral and a Scout Cluster now appeared in her battle zone.

"Oh, I get it. Ha. You think it's skill because you like to move your cards around," Speedy laughed now, noting Emeral's presence, "Even that's still luck though, sweetie. You gotta get lucky and draw 'em before you can put 'em down... and you weren't lucky today, were you?"

"Idiot. If you don't draw them there's probably at least one of them in shields anyway so you just play the same way. Vile Mulder, ikei!"
The mighty Demon Command struck, and this time, it was the first of the two shields that triggered. A Faerie Life. The effect increased the heat around Speedy's territory yet again, as a copy of his avatar card now entered his mana zone as well. He smirked, with a 'heh'. With one already in hand, the second would fuel its appearance.

Libra ended turn, Shtra's feelings mixing swiftly with her calculations. He would be one mana short, and would also absolutely need to remove her Scout Cluster as well as sacrificing his Bronze-Arm Tribe, if he even could do either of those things.

"So I guess you're hoping you get 'lucky' after all, aren't you?" he grinned, "Magmadragon Jagalzor to mana. Looks like I'm one short. Tornado Flame, on your Scout Cluster, and summon Magmadragon Melgars. Looks like I'm still lucky. Bronze-Arm, attack Mulder. Ikei!"

Libra drew her card. Shtra. Having her avatar card in her hand calmed her considerably now, and she was just about to summon it and make his Bajula summon take one more turn to complete, when Shtra stopped that thought.

"Now is not the time for me."
Libra's mind did not seem to grasp this. Clearly, Bajula would appear next turn, and once he did, the duel was practically over. Worse yet, if somehow Speedy really were lucky enough to draw another Melgars and summon Bajula that way, she could be obliterated immediately.

Nonetheless, the Cyber Lord seemed convinced that entering the battle was wrong. Finally, she gave herself up to the dark instinct and summoned another Soderlight, the Cold Blade, instead. The crowd was buzzing now. They knew what Speedy would probably be able to do.

"I used to think my luck was bad. Then I began to think I wasn't 'confident' enough. 'Lucky' duelists make me sick. Overconfident ones are worse. This game isn't luck, confidence, or any of that. In the end the winner is the one who understands and feels! Emeral, ikei!"
The smaller Cyber Lord made a quick trip to the island, and the final shield of the territory shattered, leaving Speedy with no further defense.

"Nice speech, but right now, you can only beat me if you're lucky. Natural Snare, on your Soderlight, and summon Bronze-Arm Tribe. Melgars, destroy Emeral! Ikei!"
The Magmadragon's breath punished the Cyber Lord for its earlier attack on his home, and in so doing, left Libra with nothing in her battle zone. Speedy ended his turn.

"If I lose to you now, it will be because my feeling was wrong. You don't know it yet, but you're the one who needs to be lucky," she said, drawing her card.

"Fine. Wanna make a bet on it? Winner buys the other drinks. Doesn't even have to be in a bar. Anything you want, since you seem to be... non-alcoholic," he laughed.

Shtra began to calculate, quickly. Libra's conscious mind caught only fragments of it, mostly the conclusions that her avatar came to. Hydrooze was coming next, somehow Shtra knew this. There was at least one Spiral Gate in the shield zone. If either of the other shields were a Propeller Mutant or Emeral, which was apparently likely, or if Speedy was unable to destroy the Propeller Mutant, victory was assured. In order to cast a Volcano Charger and still summon Bajula, the Volcano would have to come first, destroying the Mutant, discarding a card, possibly Bajula itself, stalling longer, though it would not be the optimal outcome. In the end of it all, Shtra defaulted the rest to 'instinct'. This was over. The Ocean had won.

"Fine with me," she finally replied, "I never say no to free pineapple juice. End turn."

"What was that about overconfidence before?" he laughed, "Alright... come on deck, just give me one Cocco Lupia and let me end this in style..."

Somehow, the implied meaning of his words made Shtra even angrier. The dark Kaijudo leapt out of control, lashing at him as he reached out for his next card, causing him to draw back for a moment, startled. The nearest duelists reacted similarly, but the Cyber Lord no longer cared who was hurt by the energy. She had not asked for this duel, nor for an audience.

"I know you're coming. And I know this duel is over," Libra hissed now. Speedy smirked, believing her words to mean something quite different from what they really did. He drew his card, and his Kaijudo surged, but Shtra's thoughts were already elsewhere.

"So... frustrating... all of them. Erroneous conclusions born of substandard calculations, yet I have to constantly put up with their babbling presence..." she noted. It had not been this way in Christopher's presence. Even though his avatar seemed to have somehow undergone one of the most drastic shifts she had ever seen, at least then she had felt relieved rather than annoyed, as she did now.

"They're always evoking emotion in me. Emotion that defies all calculated attempts to control it. Such an irritant. Why should a logical being such as I give in to all this emotion?! Their very presence frustrates me! Contaminates me with these 'feelings' I can't control--"

Suddenly, this expression stopped. Shtra's mind cleared. An epiphany, within an instant. Even as the red light engulfed the Magmadragon Melgars, the torrent of feelings within Libra, and within Shtra, suddenly all slotted into the correct pathways. She understood.

"This is just like dueling. This is another thing I failed to understand. I cannot control how the cards come any more than I can control how the emotions come. I can only plan how to react, knowing that they will..."

Bajula roared, asserting his dominance over the entire battlefield with a heatwave. He swooped down now toward Libra's territory, and swung his superheated chain...

"They frustrate me, and mock me, and I tried to be logical... controlled... saw the anger as contamination... considered it weakness... How stupid!"
Bajula's weapon tore through her world first, destroying two of her mana cards, weakening the potential force as she had calculated...

"If there is frustration, I will be frustrated! If there is Holy Awe, I will prepare for Holy Awe!"
Bajula twisted his body with a mighty laughing roar, and swung his destructive chain yet again. Few creatures in Duel Masters could muster this level of power under any circumstance, far less on the turn they came into being. The Ocean of Life's last three shields would all break in one swing of his incredible weapon.

"It's over now, little Cyber Lord! Speed, power and luck. I had them all, you had nothin'! You're finished!" Bajula taunted as he sent the chain hurtling toward the facility for the second time. Shtra was calm now. The first shield shattered without trigger. The onlookers made a mixed sound of elation and surprise.

Libra smiled inwardly. It was an Emeral. First belief was correct. As if in slow motion, to her mind, the second shield shattered. The Spiral Gate. Second belief confirmed. Bajula roared in frustration as his small ally, meant to finish the duel, was swept away by the spell, but it did not end there. The chain crashed into the final shield, and Libra's expression changed from calm acceptance of her victory, to a satisfied vindictive grin.

"Shield Trigger. Spiral Gate, on your Uberdragon Bajula!" Bajula's roar was cut off when he blipped out of existence, whilst the crowd made a mosaic sound of shock and disbelief. Speedy's Kaijudo was now completely open. Raw, with no remaining defense whatsoever.

"Heh... lucky..." he uttered softly, his eyes glazing over already. The drastic dip in his power was now compounding his inebriated state, and he could not even gather the rest of his Kaijudo together to form even the slightest of barriers against what was about to happen.

Normally, this situation would have evoked sympathy, and mercy, from Libra. Today, the darkness was in no mood to give any quarter. She drew her card, and in that instant, her opponent's fate was sealed. The third prediction... was also true.

"Shtra, to mana..." --even this act caused her psychic output to surge to the point where a few of the other duelist scrambled or stumbled away, in fear-- "Summon Emeral..."

The small Cyber Lord appeared in the battle zone just offshore. Few understood why she would bother to make such a move, since the Propeller Mutant could easily attack to finish it anyway, and it would be the only creature that could. Not even the Ghost using duelist she had played before, had any idea of what Speedy was about to face.

"Evolve Emeral into Hydrooze, the Mutant Emperor!"
Her voice practically dripped with twisted satisfaction as she declared this, and the black energy swirled around Emeral in the water, lifting it up, as debris and sunken salvage from the deep now integrated into the Cyber Lord. The waves of Kaijudo radiating from her disoriented Speedy further, leaving him, even now, utterly defenseless.

"Mutant Emperor..." she grinned, "Todomeda."
Streaks of darkness, air to surface missiles, and even artillery shell fire bombarded the mountainside where Speedy was. The explosions did not stop until Libra had exhausted all her rage on his unfortunate mind. When the smoke cleared, his mental form lay unconscious. He slumped onto the table, drooling slightly onto the Bajula card in his mana zone.

"You all heard the bet, right?" she smirked, getting up and taking his wallet out of his pocket. She removed a single five dollar bill, holding it up for them to see. No one made any move to stop her, or even protest. She leant down to him, and latched her Kaijudo onto his mind.

"I hate alcohol. You don't like it anymore either... understand?"
She then picked up her cards, put them into her bag, looked around at the group of scared and confused duelists, and scoffed. She had no more reason to hang around here anyway...

Ten minutes later, she emerged from a convenience store, sipping from a straw that poked out of a rather large carton of pineapple juice.