“Right then, the game I’ve chosen for our little wager is Duel Monsters!” Mana declared in a cheery tone. “And to make things a little more interesting, it’ll be a Fetish Shadow Game…” She was mentally grinning: ‘This should be good. Anzu’s fairly good at Duel Monsters, but it’s a whole different situation when you’re in one of those games… Let’s just see how adaptable she is!’
“Hold it right there, Mana! You want me to take part in a Shadow Game? I’m sorry, but I’m not putting my life on the line, even if it’s you who I’ll be playing against…” Anzu said, as she paled and started to take deep breaths to calm herself down. “What if something goes wrong? I don’t want to lose my soul or anything like that… Seeing both Yugi and Atem risking their necks like that all the time, really scared me a lot. Besides, I thought you needed to use a Millennium Item to start a Shadow Game!” I trust Mana, but my past encounters with Shadow Game have shown that they can be quite deadly to the players...
“Don’t worry Anzu! I wouldn’t suggest it at all, if it wasn’t totally safe,” Mana quickly put up her hands in a calming gesture to calm Anzu down. Once she was sure that Anzu was listening to her and paying full attention, she continued speaking: “It’s a totally non-lethal version of the standard Shadow Game rules, hence the phrase Fetish Shadow Game, and a Millennium Item isn’t needed. The version you’ve seen the Pharaoh Atem deal with on your adventures, that’s mainly used for the process of ritual combat between two people. The Royal Court or other mages only used that set of rules if a person was on trial for some major crime or trying to claim one of the Millennium Items. It’s the only type of Shadow Game that Solomon Muto and Arthur Hawkins ever actually discovered on their dig, due to them being the only set of rules written down in the place they found. This was to try and discourage people from attempting to steal the Items, showing just how much they’d be risking by taking part in these games. The set of rules I’ve in mind, were mainly used for certain ‘other activities’.” Mana coughed and flushed a little, at the mention of ‘other activities’. Once she had gotten over that, she continued to talk…
“These rules were only handed downed by word of mouth in the Human World, but we in the Monster World wrote them down, since some of us enjoy using them for some friendly matches. The worst thing that has ever physically happened when these set of rules have been used; is one of the players passing out due to exhaustion at the end of their duel… But, they were totally fine, only needing a long rest afterwards! Besides, I promised you that there would be no long term consequences from this wager. If you’re not convinced, to sweeten the whole deal and prove that I’m on the level with this, I’ll cast a spell using my powers to dial down what you might feel, once the game starts proper, to a hundredth of the original intensity… This will leave me affected by the loss of my lifepoints and other effects of the game more! Finally, there will only be two stipulations in effect for the duel. Firstly, we’ll be linked to whenever a monster is destroyed; the player who controls it at that time will get a little jolt of pleasure that will increase with each monster destroyed! Secondly, whenever we end up losing lifepoints, we’ll lose the clothes we’re wearing temporarily for the duel, until the counter goes to zero, at which point the loser will be totally naked…. If you're still too scared, we can always play another game?” Mana was calm on the outside, but mentally she was cursing up a storm: 'Rats, I knew that the idea of a Shadow Game might spook her, but I'd no idea how badly she'd react!"
"Let me think about this for a second Mana," Anzu replied. She let out a mental sigh: She's right, she'd never put me in any danger intentionally and the rules of this Game don't sound that bad compared to other Shadow Games I've seen... “Okay then! I agree to these rules, but you only need to dial down what I’ll feel to half the normal strength.” Anzu replied in a slightly cocky tone, now that she had weighed up all the options. “I think I’ll be able to handle that much…” ‘I know that Mana may expect to walk all over me in this, given what she thinks will be current knowledge of my playing deck. But what she doesn’t know is, I’ve been going over my deck and improving it since our last game. She hasn’t got a clue of what my deck consists of now or what I can do with it…’ Just then, part of what Mana said hit home: “Hold on a second Mana, what you mean? I always thought you needed a Millennium Item to start a Shadow Game?”
“Well, the whole idea of needing one of the Millennium Items to start a Shadow Game… That’s a myth that was propagated over the years as the proper knowledge of magic started to fade from your world. And the rules in the tombs never mentioned that, only that the Shadow Games were mostly fought over the Items, so people assumed that they were needed to start a Shadow Game” Mana replied. “They really are only equivalent to a battery to store excess magical power for when the person really needs it. They also protect the wielder from some of the side-effects of a Shadow Game. At first, an apprentice without any item might only last a few turns in a Shadow Game and only be able to take part in one if challenged, due to the level of focus that’s needed. Yugi discovered this fact the hard way, when he and Atem used the Mind Shuffle technique against Pegasus, since it took a lot out of him to summon even a single monster on his own, even with the Puzzle assisting him. But as the trainee gets more experienced and fights more shadow games, the length of time they can last in the Shadow Game increases and they become able to start a game themselves...” Mana explained. On the inside though, she was snickering: ‘Look at her; she seems so confident that she’s going to win this! Probably expects to surprise me by using new cards that she’s never used before. Also she seems to assume she knows the deck I’m going to use… Well two can play at that game, Anzu!’ Aloud, she spoke: “Ok then! What set of normal rules do you wish to use? Will it be Duellist Kingdom rules and the starting lifepoints of 2000, Battle City rules with 4000 lifepoints, the Deck Master system, a Ceremonial Battle with 8000 lifepoints or some other version with either the lifepoints or rules being different…”
Anzu took a moment to weigh up the different options that she had, before speaking. “I choose…”
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(Posted Fri, 04 Jul 2008 21:49)
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