Shaman King Fan Fiction / Yu-Gi-Oh! Fan Fiction ❯ Yu-Gi-Oh!: The Shaman Tournament ❯ Yugi vs Gideon: Strength in Numbers ( Chapter 11 )

Chapter 11- Yugi vs Gideon: Strength in Numbers

 

Yugi and his ring of friends traveled on their way to Domino Park, the site of his first fight. Night just covered the city as the time came closer to his fight against his opponent, Gideon, though more were on their minds. A friend of theirs hasn't showed up at school in days, in any coincidence to the Breaking News that ran the days after a house exploded in flames.

 

“Only two bodies were found…what if one of them was Miranda?” Yugi concerned himself.

 

“The police never released the identity of the bodies. But the weird part is that the neighbors in question had no idea who they were…” Téa informed and paused to further her pondering. “I don't think we've met Miranda's guardians after that chaos in Battle City.”

 

“Miranda… aw man she's gonna be devastated.” Joey sighed. The four of them reached their destination close by the fountain and rested on the benches. They remained speechless until another presence came around.

 

A whip of wind kicked up around them as Ironac fell softly to the park's asphalt, his familiar Irowl perched on his shoulder once the metal familiar could relieve his duty of flight. “Yugi, you made it! And I see you've brought an audience…usually that's not quite the good idea.”

 

“And why not?! Yugi's our friend, we're always there for him!” Tristan barked to the Patch officiant.

 

Ironac nodded inside his cloak, “I'm sure you are, but the Shaman Tournament is too dangerous for excessive audiences. We could be held responsible if something happened to one of you three.” He advised. “I suggest you take these last five minutes to get away from the park as far as you can. In the meantime I need to go find Gideon's officiant. I'd rather not see the same incident as to the previous fight a few nights earlier.”

 

“What happened?” Téa asked. Ironac turned around and his owl was ready to take off.

 

“Stelet had to be the double officiant for a Shaman fight when we've forgotten…to give a shaman another officiant…after one was killed.” Ironac tried to swallow his Téars and Irowl spread its wings out. “Yugi, I advise your friends to leave as fast as they can. I need to go find Kalim.” He said before taking off into the night and vanishing among the stars. The crowd below stood there in shock of it all.

 

“This tournament's really dangerous, one of Ironac's associates was killed?” Téa shuddered.

 

“Scares me too, Téa…” Tristan shook in his jacket. No sooner after Ironac left when another figure entered the park. His body huddled under a heavy trench coat, he appeared not out of his twenties, and wheeled a large trunk behind him.

 

“This is Domino Park, right?” He asked shyly and propped his trunk on its side.

 

“Yeah? Are you Gideon, my opponent?” Yugi asked the newcomer.

 

“I am.” Gideon took off his coat to unveil an outfit too proper to be in a fight in, and took a bow. “Gideon Baladine, as your opponent. However, it will be quite an honor to have a good bout with you, the mighty King of Games.” Yugi flinched and sweat slid on his cheeks out of modesty.

 

“`Mighty King of Games?' Really Gideon, you don't have to be that complimentary.” Yugi said. Finally two more of the Patch officiants showed up, Ironac and Kalim.

 

“Kalim, I see now the fight may begin?” Gideon suggested of his officiant.

 

“Don't be too eager, Gideon. There's still two minutes left before the fight begins.” Kalim shook his head and smiled. “Gideon's a decent fighter, but a bit hopeful to end his fights quick.”

 

“How so?” Ironac wondered as the two Patch fell back to their conversation outside Yugi's circle.

 

“He uses three full mediums that are made up of pieces of human-sized marionettes.” Kalim whispered under-breath.

 

In Yugi's conversation, the seconds were ticking away on their Oracle Pagers, Gideon looking forward to it while Yugi looking a bit nervous. Yami soon appeared in his spirit form next to Yugi, Gideon instantly seeing the allying spirit to the King of Games. “So he's your guardian ghost?”

 

“Yep, Yami's been with me through thick and thin. But who's your guardian ghost?” Yugi asked his opponent. As faintly as Yami appeared, a pair of hands rested on Gideon's shoulders. Joey was one that was startled first, as there was nothing behind Gideon while the ghostly hands rapped their fingers on his collarbones.

 

Gideon smiled, “Antoni is eager for the fight, too. He's my guardian ghost, a master puppeteer. Though a weaker spirit as his hands are the only things that can manifest into our plane, that's why Yugi has the advantage over me here.” He introduced his ghost.

 

“Yami, well it's a pleasure to meet the two of you and I'm looking forward to a good fight.” Yami complimented.

 

“Us as well.” Gideon nodded. A moment passed and the Pager began counting down from ten seconds. Yugi and Gideon were still close by each other, though Yugi began to step backwards.

 

This is it… Yugi thought and posed himself to transport Yami from his Puzzle to the Duel Disk.

 

This fight is mine. Gideon smirked and pulled out his marionette from a small pocket of his trunk.

 

Beep…beep…beep…BEEP!

 

Gideon made the opening move so fast it caught everyone off guard. “Antoni, Spirit form, into the Marionette!” He declared as his marionette sprang to life right at his fingertips. His trunk rumbled with something thrashing inside, soon the lid flying open and firing pieces of crafted wood simultaneously. The pieces were all laced with the same white flame as Gideon's marionette burned with, Antoni's mastery of the puppets came to action. The pieces assembled themselves to form three human-bodies surrounding Yugi and the others. “Gran, take the broadsword! Yoichi, the bow! Aegis, shield!” Out of the darkness of his chest, three more objects flew from it and came to their assigned wielders: one carried the broadsword, another posed itself with the bow, and the other kept its large shield up.

 

“What's going on?!” Téa cried; the human puppets were quick to take poise.

 

“You guys, get out of here!” Yugi cried out and forced his Over Soul immediately. “Yami, Spirit form, into the Duel Disk! Become the Obnoxious Celtic Guardian!” Yami followed through as quickly as Yugi did, blocking Gran's strike with the broadsword. The three fled the battle past the archer whom didn't seem to take notice of their escape.

 

Instead Yoichi drew back as an arrow materializing out of mana appeared in the rest of the bow. He fired and nailed Yami in the left shoulder, failing his defenses to keep Gran from pushing him back further. The shot arrow vanished though Yami felt weakened, slowly failing the struggle to resist Gideon's puppetry.

 

“I've never seen things like that before. What is going on?” Joey asked after reaching safety with his friends.

 

“It's Gideon's Over Soul. He uses three human-sized puppets laced together with his own mana to fight his opponent: two are offensive puppets while the one wielding the shield protects Gideon as he focuses on his Over Souls.” Kalim explained.

 

“Gideon can use three puppets at once?” Téa wondered and gasped on the recall, “Hold on! Wasn't Anna training Yugi to use more than one monster summoning for his fights?”

 

“Yeah, he got up to three at once.” Tristan answered, “But that Anna is something else. I've never seen Gramps train Joey before Duelist Kingdom like that.”

 

“Watch it…” Joey murmured under breath and lifted his head, “Yugi, you gotta summon another monster to make the field even!” He cried. Yugi nodded without taking his eyes off his concentration as Yami still fought against Gran while at the same time getting blow after blow by Yoichi from behind.

 

“I summon, the Mystical Elf! I'll use my mana to make her on the same plane of power as Yami!” Yugi commanded as a blue-skinned elf appeared behind Yami, chanting a spell that froze the flying arrows in mid air and made them vanish from sight.

 

“Yes, Yugi! That's it!” Yami cheered and threw Gran's sword off him, making another slash from the side. It was Gran's turn to block as the low swing of the Celtic's Diamond Blade sword collided with the broadsword. Yugi drew from his deck again and hoped for more help.

 

“Al'right, now I'll sacrifice the Mystical Elf and the Obnoxious Celtic Guardian for the Dark Magician!” Yugi commanded. Both creatures were drawn away from battle in streams of light to form Yami in his Dark Magician armor. Seeing opportunity, Yoichi fired another shower of mana arrows.

 

“Yami! Watch out!” Téa gasped. Yami poised his green staff to battle and activated his magical abilities as one of his prized monsters. Yugi slipped another card into his Duel Disk and triggered the effect.

 

“I use Magical Hats! Conceal Yami!” Yugi announced. A large top hat covered Yami and multiplied into four identical hats. The rain of arrows landed on one of the hats, the first target was an empty shell.

 

Gideon flinched but never lost a second of his concentration, his puppets seemed to grow more aggressive as their mana flames roared around their assembled bodies. Gran charged with his broadsword high over his head and struck down on another hat. Luckily this one had the intended target but failed to proceed any further of his swing. Appearing from the sliced hat, Yami held the staff at a blocking stance and threw Gran off him again, quickly recovering and used his Dark Magic Attack to send Gran back several feet from him. Aegis with the large shield kept his guard in front of Gideon and protected him from the aftershocks of Yami's attack.

 

On the sidelines, both Kalim and Ironac checked their Oracle Pagers of their shamans' stats. Kalim was first to comment, “My battle with Gideon didn't take me this long. And I can understand why.” He said as he saw Gideon's points drop quickly. Ironac's saw Yugi go down as well but a lot slower than Gideon.

 

“Eh, what's that?” Joey asked and looked over the Patch's shoulder. Tristan and Téa were, too, curious of the trinkets that could tell the status of the fighters. They began to explain while Yami was fighting the two-front fight himself against Gran and Yoichi. Gideon kept to a stiff concentration, using little than he usually would since he only really needed two of his puppets fighting until Yugi decides to make the comeback.

 

We're both fighting with nearly the same style. Yugi thought. He has to tire out sooner or later… Losing his focus, Yugi felt himself losing strength gradually. Beyond the quarreling, Yugi saw Gideon's glare sharpen on him. His purple eyes shifted as Gran made a new move and disarmed his left arm from what would have been his elbow joint. The floating arm flailed for a moment and then grabbed Yami's right leg, jerking back and sending Yami to the ground flat on his back.

 

Téa gasped at the turn of events, “No Pharaoh!” Everyone else watched in horror as Yugi tried to maintain his Over Soul on the Duel Disk. Though not keeping track of Life Points as he dueled in the free-for-all called a Shaman Fight, he felt he lost half of what he could have started out with.

 

“Yugi! You gotta summon another monster and help him out!” Joey called out from the sidelines. Yugi nodded and drew; his hand proved unmanageable this round with the little resources he had.

 

In the fray that soon grew still, Gran reclaimed his left arm and held the broadsword at a steady pose. Yoichi stood down, as now he wasn't needed for the moment; and Aegis rose to his feet with the shield still secure on the arm. Gideon moved his puppets flawlessly like a chess game and ready to call a checkmate.

 

Yugi finally drew something useful for himself. “I play Gazelle and use Polymerization to fuse him with Beformet to form Chimera the Flying Mythical Beast!” Yugi declared as his quick play brought forth an allying beast, while at the same time diminishing his mana. His monster boasted two fierce looking heads on a lion's strong body. A pair of wings sprouted from the back and the tail was tipped off with a snapping snakehead.

 

Yami grunted from being winded and sat up, using his staff to climb back to fight more. Gran sprang into action first and charged Yami again with the sword ready to cut his entire body in two. Counterattacking, Yami quickly summoned Dark Magic and threw Gran away from him. “Chimera, take care of Yoichi!” Yami commanded his secondary mana form and the twin-headed beast charged in fast on the archer.

 

Gran skidded in front of the shield-wielder and it was all pieced together. Aegis bounced up to Gran's shoulders and leaped again into the air. Everyone but Gideon watched as the third puppet came into action.

 

What never came to anyone's mind was what the puppet only used for the defense up until now could do. Aegis's left arm blasted in a blaze of spirit flames and ejected from the rest of his already-loose body. The shield came in at such an impact Yami couldn't dodge or brace himself for the hit. He slammed into the ground harder than before and struggled more to get back up. The shield felt like it pressed him against the ground even before Aegis fell lightly onto his shield and held Yami between the metal and the asphalt.

 

Yami's struggle proved failure as Aegis looked as if to stare him in the eye. His right hand drew out a dagger, making Yami flinch under the shield as his eye spotted the blade. Yugi also froze but kept his Over Soul on the Duel Disk. If I don't do something quick to help Yami, I'll lose this fight. But if I summon another creature to the field I'll extinguish what mana I have left…

 

*****

 

In front of his master's throne, Harlan watched the fight between Yugi and Gideon through the eyes of his master's spy. Next to him, shapeless and transparent, sat the form of the Sound Elemental.

On the other side of the throne, a beautiful woman stood and watched. She was relatively short, compared to most adults, but it didn't blemish her beauty so much as concentrate it. Blonde hair floated around golden skin, and her form was draped in a white dress. In every way, she was perfect... but her expression was one of utter disgust.

"Motou has slipped up," Harlan commented, fingers drumming on the head of his microphone. "But judging by Gideon's stance, he has barely enough power to take advantage of it."

The woman sighed, placing her hand to her forehead. "Must you state the obvious, Leanwick?" she hissed. "One who pours that much power into that inefficient a framework asks to burn out. He only survives because Motou is so new at this."

Harlan glared sideways at her, and the Sound Elemental turned itself into a hissing bomb. She glared back, and a transparent, angelic figure settled on her shoulders, staring down the Sound Elemental. And then their master's fist struck the armrest.

"Harlan! Gloria! Settle down before I throw you out!" the master boomed. Both parties looked back to the fight, their spirit allies retreating. "Both of you speak the truth, however. This is a battle of the new. We know we cannot bring Motou to our side, but Balandine is another matter."

Gloria crossed her arms and asked, "How might we sway him to our cause, master?"

That deep voice chuckled, and then said simply, "The Ritual."

 

Both of his servants went deeply pale.