Rise of a Duel Master

by Darth Severus


The Tournament Begins

It had been two weeks since Starlight Glimmer had announced the Battle City Tournament. Today was the day that the tournament began. Spike was checking his deck and sighed, "Even with the cards that Twilight's grandpa sold me, I'm not sure my deck's good enough yet... No, I just have to follow Twilight's advice... The heart of the cards. As long as I believe in that, I can still win the tournament. I just have to be confident."

When Twilight walked in to meet Spike, she told him, "That's right Spike. As long as we do our best, we'll have no regrets."

Spike smiled and nodded, picking up his deck and placing it in the slot for it in his duel disk. As Twilight and Spike went to meet up with the others, Spike wondered about what his friends' decks were like. Twilight's deck was well rounded, not focusing too much on one type. Pinkie Pie had an obsession with Toon Monsters, which were some of the hardest cards to use in a duel. Rainbow Dash's deck was full of heavy hitters, but her monsters didn't have much in the defense department. Fluttershy wasn't much of a duelist, but her beast deck could get her far in the tournament. Applejack's deck was full of monsters that were equal in defense and attack. Rarity used lots of feminine monsters, mainly her Harpy Lady cards. As for Sunset, Spike wasn't completely sure what her deck would have, since the last time he saw her duel, it was against Twilight in the Duelist Kingdom tournament.

Rainbow Dash sighed, "You know, once the tournament begins, we're rivals."

"Still, there's eight of us, and twelve spots in the finals. If we're lucky, we'll all be in the finals." Twilight tried to keep her friends in high spirits.

Spike nodded before saying, "Oh, that reminds me. I've heard there's some trouble in town lately. I've been getting used to the Millennium Collar. I can connect us together so we can trade information if we notice anything."

Twilight nodded, "That's not a bad idea Spike. If we're connected, we'll be able to talk to each other when we need to."

Spike took a deep breath and closed his eyes. He placed his hands over the eye symbol on the Millennium Collar and opened his eyes in a stern face. The spikes came out of the collar, connected by thin wires. The spikes pricked the girls on the back of the neck, and then returned to their place on the Millennium Collar. Spike didn't say anything, he just thought, "Is it working?"

The others communicated their approval of the telepathic connections, and then Rainbow Dash talked aloud. "Let's get going! I'm ready to duel!"

Another voice called out on the televised blimp in the sky, "Ok, I'm getting incredibly bored waiting for you people to get ready, so start the damn tournament already." The voice was Starlight Glimmer. It was just like her to just rush ahead and start the tournament early.

Spike started walking away saying, "Later, hope we make it to the finals together." waving his hand as he walked away. Soon enough, Spike had a duelist challenging him. Spike accepted the duelist's challenge and said, "I'll be wagering my Baby Dragon"

The duelist pulled out his own card and said, "And I'll wager my Blue-Eyes Hellfire Dragon."

The two duelists shuffled their decks and put them in their deck slots. Spike drew a card and looked at his hand. He currently had Crass Clown, Lancer Dragonute, Polymerization, Blue Medicine, and Raigeki Break. His Lancer Dragonute was his best card at this point, so he placed it in Attack Mode and laid Raigeki Break face down. "I summon Lancer Dragonute in attack mode, and lay one card face down, and I end my turn."

The other duelist drew a card, and Spike could tell by the look on his face, he didn't have a good hand. But the duelist still played his cards. "I summon Man-Eating Plant in Defense Mode!" after he played his card, he ended his turn.

Spike drew his next card and looked over his current hand. He had a Pot of Greed card he could play. He decided to go for it and play the card, "I activate Pot of Greed from my hand, allowing me to draw two more cards." he send Pot of Greed to his Graveyard and drew two more cards. One of the cards he drew was Armed Dragon Lv. 5. He could tribute his Lancer and summon it, but he decided to hold off, for now, since if he summoned monsters that were too powerful for the other duelist, he'd keep summoning defense mode monsters, keeping his Life Points safe until his deck ran out of cards. He took the other monster card he'd drawn, Evilswarm Zahak. "I summon Evilswarm Zahak in Attack mode, and my Lancer Dragonute attacks your Man-Eating Plant! And with my Lancer's special ability, even though your monster is in defense mode, you still take battle damage!"

As his Lancer Dragonute stabbed the Man-Eating Plant, the other duelist growled as his Life Points fell from 4000 to 3100. He chuckled and told Spike, "Lucky shot. It won't happen twice."

Spike smiled and said, "I should hope not, it'd be no fun if you kept placing monsters in defense mode. But that's the least of your worries. Now that your Man-Eating Plant is gone, my Evilswarm Zahak can attack your Life Points directly!"

"S-Shit!" the other duelist guarded himself against the attack, despite holograms not actually doing any real damage, but still guarded as his Life Points fell down even further, stopping at 1250. "D-Damn... you're strong, but I'm not giving up!" The duelist drew his card and smiled, "Nice! I summon "C" Shine Ranger Black in attack mode! With 2000 attack points, he overpowers you Lancer Dragonute!"

Spike winced from the light after his Lancer was destroyed after his Life Points dropped to 3500. He dusted himself off and said, "Not bad, but not good enough." he drew another card and smiled. "Well, let's see if you have a card to stand up to this. I sacrifice my Evilswarm Zahak to summon Armed Dragon Lv. 5! It's 2400 Attack points crush your Shine Ranger!" once his opponent's monster was finished off and the other duelist had only 850 Life Points, he smirked, "And I'm not done yet. As I end my turn, I send Armed Dragon Lv. 5 to the Graveyard in order to summon Armed Dragon Lv. 7 from my deck! Since I've ended my turn, Armed Dragon Lv. 7 can't attack. But next turn, it's all over."

"That won't work if I summon a monster in defense mode!"

As the duelist set down his defense mode card Spike chuckled, "I activate my trap card, Raigeki Break! By discarding one card from my hand, I can destroy your monster!" Spike sent his Blue Medicine card to the graveyard, and once it was his turn again he said, "Game over. Armed Dragon, attack his Life Points directly!"

As Armed Dragon Lv. 7 shot out holographic fire, the other duelist's Life Points fell to zero. As the holograms faded away, Spike walked up to his opponent and smiled, "It was a good duel. I enjoyed our duel, but I still win our wager."

The duelist sighed, "Yeah, it was fun, but a bet's a bet. Here, take my Blue-Eyes Hellfire Dragon."

Spike took the card politely out of the other duelist's hand and said, "Thanks. You were a decent duelist, but it looks like luck wasn't on your side. Maybe we can duel some other time."

Spike has won his first official tournament duel. But the Battle City Tournament has only just begun. Will Spike be able to continue winning and obtain the six locator cards to win a spot in the finals?

Find out in the next chapter...