November 27th and 28th: - 2820 words
He’d chosen to take just three monsters in with him, though he had his deck on him if he needed more backup.
Gearfriend the Iron Knight, Uri, the Flame Swordsman he’d had in his deck since the very beginning, and Kella, a Penumbral Soldier Lady who was one of his newest monsters, had his back as they edged their way through the cave system that was far too much like a natural labyrinth for Joey’s liking.
Of course he’d marked the route back, having taken a note from Tea’s books and stored a permanent marker in his bag, with a subtle sign, something that wouldn’t be too obvious but he’d spot easily, but that wasn’t what concerned him.
What concerned him was that it was very easy to get lost down here and every moment that they wasted was another that Atem and Kaiba had to hold the fort. Not that Joey didn’t think they could but their decks only had forty cards, as per tournament rules, and Joey had no idea whether you could recycle cards you’d already used.
Well that and they’d already had one run in with a Wall Shadow and, while they’d defeated that one before it could get away, he was on edge because he expected another one, after all if you were going to have a base that was part of a labyrinth, the best sentries would be those that could move through the shadows and along the walls without being seen.
Poking his head around the corner, Joey quickly ducked back behind the rock wall, grabbing Kella’s shoulder to prevent her from walking around just in time to narrowly avoid being trampled by a Zoa as it and a group of Fiends that included Newdoria stalked past at great speed.
“Third or fourth wave, I think.” Uri commented, as Joey checked up and down the corridor again before gesturing to the others to follow him. Uri put his hand on Joey’s arm, giving his Duellist a reassuring look as he slipped past him into the lead, taking point instead of the wizard, in an effort to protect the young man.
Joey let him do so without comment. Uri did, after all have many many more years worth of experience than he did and for all that Joey’s was happy for his partner monster to be his Red Eyes Black Dragon, the Flame Swordsman had always been its equal when it came to his favourite and most trusted creature, even if that Shadow Game where he’d been dressed up like a Flame Swordsman and fighting against Bakura had been a little freaky.
It was just amusing, and oddly satisfying, to find that the Duel Monsters whose cards rested in his deck held him in the same regard as the monsters of the palace treated Atem, considering that he was little more than a wizard with a knack for pulling the right cards at the right moment, who, unlike Yugi and Atem had little respect from the Duelling community.
Uri held up a hand, causing everyone to stop, before pulling Joey into a room. Gearfried managed to slip inside before anything could happen, but Kella didn’t get the chance.
The only reason that Joey didn’t dart outside to help her was that Uri grabbed his arm to prevent him doing just that and Gearfried practically shut the door, leaving it open only a slip.
“Where are you supposed to be?” Joey scowled as he recognised the voice, moving towards the door.
“I...” Kella hesitated, “Is that the Pharaoh of Light?”
Joey’s eyes widened, Uri’s hand went to his sword and Gearfried shifted into an offensive stance.
“Why yes, yes it is.” Medan’s tone sounded amused, probably at the shock in Kella’s, “Why don’t you say hello, Yugi?”
“Hello.”
It was a single word, but Joey paled at it, hoping he didn’t hear what he thought he heard in Yugi’s tone.
“What...?” Kella asked, confusion obvious as Uri moved towards the door, recognising Yugi’s voice, even if there was something off about it.
“I don’t recognise you,” Someone said, moving closer to the door as they did so, “You weren’t with any of the parties that came here with us. Who are you?”
“My name is Kella. I’m...”
“I didn’t think we had any of your type with us.” Someone else said, “I don’t even know what you are.”
“What is she Yugi?” The second voice asked, sounding both irritated and amused in the same moment, as if being able to ask the heir was funny.
“She’s a Penumbral Soldier Lady, a level six Dark Warrior monster.” Yugi spoke again and Joey scowled as what he’d thought was confirmed. Yugi’s voice sounded hollow, empty, devoid of life. There was none of Yugi’s spark in the voice that spoke now.
Joey, furious at what that lifeless tone could mean, what he had horrible suspicious had happened, slammed the door open, drawing as he did so, the sound of the door hitting the wall causing everyone to jump. “She’s with me, Medan. Now let Yugi go.”
The red Dark Magician snorted as Joey equipped Uri with Salamandra and the Flame Swordsman glowered at him. “He’s with me of his own accord, aren’t you Yugi?”
Joey looked at his friend properly. It was Yugi in body, but Joey could see that Yugi’s eyes were empty, devoid of anything that made Yugi Yugi, and yet, at the same time, behind that emptiness there was someone looking back at him and it wasn’t his friend. “Yes.” ‘Yugi’ gave a slight nod.
Joey ground his teeth as Medan continued to smirk at him. “Now,” The red Dark Magician continued, “If you don’t mind, we have somewhere to be.”
“No. You’re not going anywhere.” Joey shook his head, fuming, “Not until you free Yugi from whatever spell you’ve cast.”
Medan’s amusement switched to frustration. He had gone through the cards in the ‘deck’ that Xu had provided and, while they formed a very basic deck, they could be better called a collection of cards. He was convinced that Yugi would hold his friends off, but Medan had had no intention of fighting within the caves.
“We are leaving.” Medan said, gesturing for his men to precede him.
“I don’t think so.” Joey snapped. “Kunai with Chain!”
“Mystical Space Typhoon!” Within a heartbeat of Joey activating his trap, Yugi cast a counter that blew away the trap.
Before Joey could attempt anything else, Medan had wheeled around and attempted to blast him.
Uri got in the way, shielding against the blast with the flat of his blade, the magic streaming around the sides but leaving them unharmed.
“Yuge, snap out of it.” Joey demanded, facing down his friend, well aware that Yugi had leapt to Medan’s defence without an order or a question and that it was probably the fault of whatever Medan had done to him.
There was no response. No sign that Yugi had heard him at all.
This wasn’t a good sign.
“Shouting won’t help.” Medan snorted, “His mind‘s completely shut down. You might as well shout at one of the walls for all the good it’ll do. It might even be more productive. You might, after all, meet the Wall Shadow who lives here.”
“I’ve already defeated your Wall Shadow.” Joey gloated, glad of that little fact, “Now let Yugi go, or I’ll crush you.”
“Yugi.” Medan said, turning to the Pharaoh of Light, who didn’t respond except for a slight look in the red Dark Magician’s direction. “Deal with this intruder.”
The way Medan said ‘deal’ made Joey draw a card nervously, turning to look at his friend, whose actions left no doubt as to what Medan had meant as Yugi called on a Zoa to appear and wipe out Joey’s creatures.
Joey responded in kind, attempting to activate a trap card to save his friends, only for Yugi to counter with Royal Decree.
The Zoa blew Gearfried away and started advancing on Kella, who tried to defend herself only for the attack to swerve away and, before Joey’s eyes, struck Yugi, who was knocked backwards but otherwise appeared unharmed.
“Okay Yuge,” Joey spoke, swiftly considering his options, having forgotten that Wolf had told them that the special effect of Yugi’s Ka beast would shield any monsters on Yugi’s side by ensuring that the attacks struck him rather than anyone else, “If you really want to inflict some damage, I’ll duel you, one on one, but we have to go outside.”
Medan considered it. He was, after all, only after a distraction. But he wasn’t willing to give his advantage up as easily as sending the vessel into a duel, not while the Pharaoh and Mahado were outside. He doubted his control would last long, but as long as it did... He sent a mental command reinforcing his earlier one.
“Zoa.” Yugi pointed at Kella.
“No!” Kella had just enough time to yelp before she was destroyed in a swipe of the Zoa’s claws.
Joey snarled something rather rude under his breath, thinking quickly and drawing just as fast, casting a Premature Burial spell that caused the Zoa to shatter.
“I’m going to get through to you, Yugi.” Joey said firmly, thinking of his promise to Atem and the fact that, once, Yugi had had to do this for him, “Even if I have to blast you back to your senses.”
Still no response.
“Uri. Attack.” Joey ordered, hating to do it but...
The Flame Swordsman attacked, the flames launching themselves from his blade and attempting to hit Yugi.
The same Royal Decree that prevented Joey from using his trap cards, prevented Yugi from shielding himself and the flames struck home, knocking the young man off his feet and eliciting a pained cry from Yugi as the flames licked around him momentarily before dying down.
“Don’t let him control you Yuge,” Joey said as he acted quickly, watching Yugi pick himself up and summoning his Jinzo to destroy all trap cards and open up the field again, holding onto the two traps in his hand that could possibly help, if he could draw the Amplifier card he’d stuck in his deck recently that would stop his Jinzo destroying his own traps, “You’re stronger than this.”
Yugi’s only response was to draw.
“Come on, Yuge. You have to snap out of it, Atem’s...”
“Go away.” Yugi interrupted the blonde Duellist, who had no intention of following the heir’s order, especially when said in that tone and shook his head.
Medan scowled as he gestured the pair of Giant Orcs who had been trailing them forward, having felt his control slip for just a moment when Joey had mentioned the Pharaoh, only for it to solidify again as the red Dark Magician whispered into the corners of Yugi’s mind that it was his fault that Potter and the Pharaoh were gone, amplifying the guilt that he’d already created within Yugi’s mind, causing the vessel to want to repel Joey from the cave system in order to protect him from Medan.
The Giant Orcs attacked, and, though normally they wouldn’t have stood a chance against the Jinzo and the Flame Swordsman, Yugi’s special effect prevented any attacks striking the pair.
Joey called Uri and his Jinzo off, wincing in sympathy as Yugi picked himself up a second time, looking worse for wear. He wasn’t sure how he was going to get through to his friend.
No, that wasn’t quite true.
When he’d been under Marik’s mind control, Yugi had broken through to him by summoning his favourite monster and using the Puzzle to trigger memories. If Joey was right, he could pull something similar if he could get Yugi outside.
The problem was Medan appeared to have no intention of going anywhere until Joey was dealt with.
Joey, listen to me.
Joey jumped and looked around at the telepathic voice, unsure whose it was. ‘Hello?’ He thought warily, unsure if it was a threat or one of the monsters on their side trying to reach him, but too used to discussing things mind to mind with Tobias to speak aloud.
In front of him, his Jinzo snorted. I’m a psychic monster. The powerful psychic glanced over his shoulder at Joey, who almost facepalmed.
‘Can you break the mind control?’ Joey asked hopefully, as, in a stalemate, the two sides glowered at each other.
I tried. Jinzo admitted, sounding a little bitter about his failure. Medan’s spell prevents me from getting into his mind. I did manage to glean something useful from the exercise though.
‘Go on.’ Joey urged, even as he prepared to start a fresh offensive, unsure how to lure Yugi out of the caves.
You’re not going to snap him out of it. He’s trying to push you away and he’s not going to fight the control while he’s fighting you.
Joey tried to keep his expression clear as confusion coursed through him and was only partially successful. ‘Yuge’s trying to push me away?
Why?’
I cannot say. I only know that there’s something wrong with the heir’s mind that’s giving Medan almost complete control over him.
Anger coursed through Joey as he tried to think of a reason that Yugi would push his friends away, only to come up with several that he didn’t like, including the fact that Yugi had always tried (and failed) to keep his friends at arm’s length when the bad guys had threatened them to get to him.
This was more than that though. He knew Yugi, and Yugi would never allow someone to use him to hurt his friends. He’d almost died trying to prevent that from happening when Voldemort had tried to possess him. Joey couldn’t believe Yugi wouldn’t fight now.
“I don’t know what he’s said or done,” Joey said to his friend, gesturing towards the red Dark Magician as he did so, determined to try to help his friend, no matter what Jinzo said, “But I am not going home without you.”
“Then you’ll be here a long time.” Medan snorted, “Because he’s not going home.”
“I beg to disagree.” Joey bit back, getting frustrated, not quite sure how to deal with the situation and wondering how Yugi had managed to be so calm throughout the Death Duel. “I’m going to break your control and get Yuge home safe, just you wait.”
“Then please, continue to fight. You’re only hurting Yugi anyway.” Medan shrugged.
It was true, Joey allowed. Unless he could work out a way of getting around the special effect of Yugi’s Ka beast, any attack he launched on the beasts Yugi summoned would just strike Yugi instead and he had no idea how many attack points Yugi had. Obviously more than twenty five hundred, but the question was how much more?
He drew and grinned. He’d forgotten about this little gem.
Too many years of fighting people who used an obscene amount of effect monsters had made Joey practically pounce on the card in his hand when he’d first seen it, though it had cost a little more than he was normally willing to pay for a single card, however it had definitely been worth it, considering how much help it had been in the last tournament.
He activated the equip spell card, Lost Amulet, which negated the effect of an effect monster but increased their attack by five hundred points, equipping it to Yugi, who wavered on his feet for a moment, before the effect settled and he straightened up.
When Uri and Jinzo attacked this time, they easily blew away the two Giant Orcs and before Joey could give another order they were advancing on the red Dark Magician, who decided that while Uri was his equal in strength and he could take Jinzo in a fight (not easily but he could do it) he would rather not tangle with the pair of them at the same time, and cast Magical Hats, shielding himself and his hostage under one and creating three empty, oversized, top hats with question marks on in the corridor and Joey had no idea which one was which.
Joey cussed as Jinzo blasted one, Uri another and, when the smoke cleared, both were proved to be empty. He normally liked this trick, as long as it wasn’t being used against him, but this was a pain in the rear.
If anything he supposed, as the pair moved onto the next hat and attempted to blow it away too, he should be grateful that it had been the hats Medan had activated, rather than using Mystic Box or Thousand Knives.
The next one proved to be empty too, which would have been great because it only left one hat to check, except for one problem.
The fourth hat was missing.
Where had Medan gone? And where had he taken Yugi?
Gearfriend the Iron Knight, Uri, the Flame Swordsman he’d had in his deck since the very beginning, and Kella, a Penumbral Soldier Lady who was one of his newest monsters, had his back as they edged their way through the cave system that was far too much like a natural labyrinth for Joey’s liking.
Of course he’d marked the route back, having taken a note from Tea’s books and stored a permanent marker in his bag, with a subtle sign, something that wouldn’t be too obvious but he’d spot easily, but that wasn’t what concerned him.
What concerned him was that it was very easy to get lost down here and every moment that they wasted was another that Atem and Kaiba had to hold the fort. Not that Joey didn’t think they could but their decks only had forty cards, as per tournament rules, and Joey had no idea whether you could recycle cards you’d already used.
Well that and they’d already had one run in with a Wall Shadow and, while they’d defeated that one before it could get away, he was on edge because he expected another one, after all if you were going to have a base that was part of a labyrinth, the best sentries would be those that could move through the shadows and along the walls without being seen.
Poking his head around the corner, Joey quickly ducked back behind the rock wall, grabbing Kella’s shoulder to prevent her from walking around just in time to narrowly avoid being trampled by a Zoa as it and a group of Fiends that included Newdoria stalked past at great speed.
“Third or fourth wave, I think.” Uri commented, as Joey checked up and down the corridor again before gesturing to the others to follow him. Uri put his hand on Joey’s arm, giving his Duellist a reassuring look as he slipped past him into the lead, taking point instead of the wizard, in an effort to protect the young man.
Joey let him do so without comment. Uri did, after all have many many more years worth of experience than he did and for all that Joey’s was happy for his partner monster to be his Red Eyes Black Dragon, the Flame Swordsman had always been its equal when it came to his favourite and most trusted creature, even if that Shadow Game where he’d been dressed up like a Flame Swordsman and fighting against Bakura had been a little freaky.
It was just amusing, and oddly satisfying, to find that the Duel Monsters whose cards rested in his deck held him in the same regard as the monsters of the palace treated Atem, considering that he was little more than a wizard with a knack for pulling the right cards at the right moment, who, unlike Yugi and Atem had little respect from the Duelling community.
Uri held up a hand, causing everyone to stop, before pulling Joey into a room. Gearfried managed to slip inside before anything could happen, but Kella didn’t get the chance.
The only reason that Joey didn’t dart outside to help her was that Uri grabbed his arm to prevent him doing just that and Gearfried practically shut the door, leaving it open only a slip.
“Where are you supposed to be?” Joey scowled as he recognised the voice, moving towards the door.
“I...” Kella hesitated, “Is that the Pharaoh of Light?”
Joey’s eyes widened, Uri’s hand went to his sword and Gearfried shifted into an offensive stance.
“Why yes, yes it is.” Medan’s tone sounded amused, probably at the shock in Kella’s, “Why don’t you say hello, Yugi?”
“Hello.”
It was a single word, but Joey paled at it, hoping he didn’t hear what he thought he heard in Yugi’s tone.
“What...?” Kella asked, confusion obvious as Uri moved towards the door, recognising Yugi’s voice, even if there was something off about it.
“I don’t recognise you,” Someone said, moving closer to the door as they did so, “You weren’t with any of the parties that came here with us. Who are you?”
“My name is Kella. I’m...”
“I didn’t think we had any of your type with us.” Someone else said, “I don’t even know what you are.”
“What is she Yugi?” The second voice asked, sounding both irritated and amused in the same moment, as if being able to ask the heir was funny.
“She’s a Penumbral Soldier Lady, a level six Dark Warrior monster.” Yugi spoke again and Joey scowled as what he’d thought was confirmed. Yugi’s voice sounded hollow, empty, devoid of life. There was none of Yugi’s spark in the voice that spoke now.
Joey, furious at what that lifeless tone could mean, what he had horrible suspicious had happened, slammed the door open, drawing as he did so, the sound of the door hitting the wall causing everyone to jump. “She’s with me, Medan. Now let Yugi go.”
The red Dark Magician snorted as Joey equipped Uri with Salamandra and the Flame Swordsman glowered at him. “He’s with me of his own accord, aren’t you Yugi?”
Joey looked at his friend properly. It was Yugi in body, but Joey could see that Yugi’s eyes were empty, devoid of anything that made Yugi Yugi, and yet, at the same time, behind that emptiness there was someone looking back at him and it wasn’t his friend. “Yes.” ‘Yugi’ gave a slight nod.
Joey ground his teeth as Medan continued to smirk at him. “Now,” The red Dark Magician continued, “If you don’t mind, we have somewhere to be.”
“No. You’re not going anywhere.” Joey shook his head, fuming, “Not until you free Yugi from whatever spell you’ve cast.”
Medan’s amusement switched to frustration. He had gone through the cards in the ‘deck’ that Xu had provided and, while they formed a very basic deck, they could be better called a collection of cards. He was convinced that Yugi would hold his friends off, but Medan had had no intention of fighting within the caves.
“We are leaving.” Medan said, gesturing for his men to precede him.
“I don’t think so.” Joey snapped. “Kunai with Chain!”
“Mystical Space Typhoon!” Within a heartbeat of Joey activating his trap, Yugi cast a counter that blew away the trap.
Before Joey could attempt anything else, Medan had wheeled around and attempted to blast him.
Uri got in the way, shielding against the blast with the flat of his blade, the magic streaming around the sides but leaving them unharmed.
“Yuge, snap out of it.” Joey demanded, facing down his friend, well aware that Yugi had leapt to Medan’s defence without an order or a question and that it was probably the fault of whatever Medan had done to him.
There was no response. No sign that Yugi had heard him at all.
This wasn’t a good sign.
“Shouting won’t help.” Medan snorted, “His mind‘s completely shut down. You might as well shout at one of the walls for all the good it’ll do. It might even be more productive. You might, after all, meet the Wall Shadow who lives here.”
“I’ve already defeated your Wall Shadow.” Joey gloated, glad of that little fact, “Now let Yugi go, or I’ll crush you.”
“Yugi.” Medan said, turning to the Pharaoh of Light, who didn’t respond except for a slight look in the red Dark Magician’s direction. “Deal with this intruder.”
The way Medan said ‘deal’ made Joey draw a card nervously, turning to look at his friend, whose actions left no doubt as to what Medan had meant as Yugi called on a Zoa to appear and wipe out Joey’s creatures.
Joey responded in kind, attempting to activate a trap card to save his friends, only for Yugi to counter with Royal Decree.
The Zoa blew Gearfried away and started advancing on Kella, who tried to defend herself only for the attack to swerve away and, before Joey’s eyes, struck Yugi, who was knocked backwards but otherwise appeared unharmed.
“Okay Yuge,” Joey spoke, swiftly considering his options, having forgotten that Wolf had told them that the special effect of Yugi’s Ka beast would shield any monsters on Yugi’s side by ensuring that the attacks struck him rather than anyone else, “If you really want to inflict some damage, I’ll duel you, one on one, but we have to go outside.”
Medan considered it. He was, after all, only after a distraction. But he wasn’t willing to give his advantage up as easily as sending the vessel into a duel, not while the Pharaoh and Mahado were outside. He doubted his control would last long, but as long as it did... He sent a mental command reinforcing his earlier one.
“Zoa.” Yugi pointed at Kella.
“No!” Kella had just enough time to yelp before she was destroyed in a swipe of the Zoa’s claws.
Joey snarled something rather rude under his breath, thinking quickly and drawing just as fast, casting a Premature Burial spell that caused the Zoa to shatter.
“I’m going to get through to you, Yugi.” Joey said firmly, thinking of his promise to Atem and the fact that, once, Yugi had had to do this for him, “Even if I have to blast you back to your senses.”
Still no response.
“Uri. Attack.” Joey ordered, hating to do it but...
The Flame Swordsman attacked, the flames launching themselves from his blade and attempting to hit Yugi.
The same Royal Decree that prevented Joey from using his trap cards, prevented Yugi from shielding himself and the flames struck home, knocking the young man off his feet and eliciting a pained cry from Yugi as the flames licked around him momentarily before dying down.
“Don’t let him control you Yuge,” Joey said as he acted quickly, watching Yugi pick himself up and summoning his Jinzo to destroy all trap cards and open up the field again, holding onto the two traps in his hand that could possibly help, if he could draw the Amplifier card he’d stuck in his deck recently that would stop his Jinzo destroying his own traps, “You’re stronger than this.”
Yugi’s only response was to draw.
“Come on, Yuge. You have to snap out of it, Atem’s...”
“Go away.” Yugi interrupted the blonde Duellist, who had no intention of following the heir’s order, especially when said in that tone and shook his head.
Medan scowled as he gestured the pair of Giant Orcs who had been trailing them forward, having felt his control slip for just a moment when Joey had mentioned the Pharaoh, only for it to solidify again as the red Dark Magician whispered into the corners of Yugi’s mind that it was his fault that Potter and the Pharaoh were gone, amplifying the guilt that he’d already created within Yugi’s mind, causing the vessel to want to repel Joey from the cave system in order to protect him from Medan.
The Giant Orcs attacked, and, though normally they wouldn’t have stood a chance against the Jinzo and the Flame Swordsman, Yugi’s special effect prevented any attacks striking the pair.
Joey called Uri and his Jinzo off, wincing in sympathy as Yugi picked himself up a second time, looking worse for wear. He wasn’t sure how he was going to get through to his friend.
No, that wasn’t quite true.
When he’d been under Marik’s mind control, Yugi had broken through to him by summoning his favourite monster and using the Puzzle to trigger memories. If Joey was right, he could pull something similar if he could get Yugi outside.
The problem was Medan appeared to have no intention of going anywhere until Joey was dealt with.
Joey, listen to me.
Joey jumped and looked around at the telepathic voice, unsure whose it was. ‘Hello?’ He thought warily, unsure if it was a threat or one of the monsters on their side trying to reach him, but too used to discussing things mind to mind with Tobias to speak aloud.
In front of him, his Jinzo snorted. I’m a psychic monster. The powerful psychic glanced over his shoulder at Joey, who almost facepalmed.
‘Can you break the mind control?’ Joey asked hopefully, as, in a stalemate, the two sides glowered at each other.
I tried. Jinzo admitted, sounding a little bitter about his failure. Medan’s spell prevents me from getting into his mind. I did manage to glean something useful from the exercise though.
‘Go on.’ Joey urged, even as he prepared to start a fresh offensive, unsure how to lure Yugi out of the caves.
You’re not going to snap him out of it. He’s trying to push you away and he’s not going to fight the control while he’s fighting you.
Joey tried to keep his expression clear as confusion coursed through him and was only partially successful. ‘Yuge’s trying to push me away?
Why?’
I cannot say. I only know that there’s something wrong with the heir’s mind that’s giving Medan almost complete control over him.
Anger coursed through Joey as he tried to think of a reason that Yugi would push his friends away, only to come up with several that he didn’t like, including the fact that Yugi had always tried (and failed) to keep his friends at arm’s length when the bad guys had threatened them to get to him.
This was more than that though. He knew Yugi, and Yugi would never allow someone to use him to hurt his friends. He’d almost died trying to prevent that from happening when Voldemort had tried to possess him. Joey couldn’t believe Yugi wouldn’t fight now.
“I don’t know what he’s said or done,” Joey said to his friend, gesturing towards the red Dark Magician as he did so, determined to try to help his friend, no matter what Jinzo said, “But I am not going home without you.”
“Then you’ll be here a long time.” Medan snorted, “Because he’s not going home.”
“I beg to disagree.” Joey bit back, getting frustrated, not quite sure how to deal with the situation and wondering how Yugi had managed to be so calm throughout the Death Duel. “I’m going to break your control and get Yuge home safe, just you wait.”
“Then please, continue to fight. You’re only hurting Yugi anyway.” Medan shrugged.
It was true, Joey allowed. Unless he could work out a way of getting around the special effect of Yugi’s Ka beast, any attack he launched on the beasts Yugi summoned would just strike Yugi instead and he had no idea how many attack points Yugi had. Obviously more than twenty five hundred, but the question was how much more?
He drew and grinned. He’d forgotten about this little gem.
Too many years of fighting people who used an obscene amount of effect monsters had made Joey practically pounce on the card in his hand when he’d first seen it, though it had cost a little more than he was normally willing to pay for a single card, however it had definitely been worth it, considering how much help it had been in the last tournament.
He activated the equip spell card, Lost Amulet, which negated the effect of an effect monster but increased their attack by five hundred points, equipping it to Yugi, who wavered on his feet for a moment, before the effect settled and he straightened up.
When Uri and Jinzo attacked this time, they easily blew away the two Giant Orcs and before Joey could give another order they were advancing on the red Dark Magician, who decided that while Uri was his equal in strength and he could take Jinzo in a fight (not easily but he could do it) he would rather not tangle with the pair of them at the same time, and cast Magical Hats, shielding himself and his hostage under one and creating three empty, oversized, top hats with question marks on in the corridor and Joey had no idea which one was which.
Joey cussed as Jinzo blasted one, Uri another and, when the smoke cleared, both were proved to be empty. He normally liked this trick, as long as it wasn’t being used against him, but this was a pain in the rear.
If anything he supposed, as the pair moved onto the next hat and attempted to blow it away too, he should be grateful that it had been the hats Medan had activated, rather than using Mystic Box or Thousand Knives.
The next one proved to be empty too, which would have been great because it only left one hat to check, except for one problem.
The fourth hat was missing.
Where had Medan gone? And where had he taken Yugi?