Dual Persona

Chapter 13

  Dimitri's pov

"  The real Weevil would've lost too. Intimations are mere shadows of the real thing. Therefore if the original doesn't stand a chance neither does an inferior copy." Ben Poole's words echoed in my head over and over again as I watched the rest of the tournament hoping the arrogant boy would lose.
In the next round it looked like his opponent Jason had him relatively cornered until suddenly it was like a switch had been flipped inside of Ben. Most people probably wouldn't have noticed it but I prided myself on being able to mimic the top duelists and had developed a keen eye for body language so I could better get into character, so I noticed when he suddenly seemed to lose his rigid posture and how his face suddenly gained a smug smirk that didn't match his previous demeanor before he'd even drew his card. Watching I noticed that even that had changed, whereas before Ben had drawn cards in a calm manner without much fanfare now he drew in a manner closer to Yugi Muto and Seto Kaiba, pulling the card from the deck bringing his arm back in a horizontal arc like motion before quickly glancing at it.
" My turn." Ben declared. I knew as soon as his expression turned even more smug that he'd be advancing towards the third round. " I'll play the equip spell Fairy Meteor Crush. After all a meteor is all it takes to wipe out some dinosaurs. Battle Metarion Ladonstar attacks your Hyper HammerHead. !Impact Radiant Trident ! "
Ben's Hydra like monster fired off three orbs of energy the outer two of which seemed to briefly rotate around the center one before they destroyed Jason's monster and ended the duel.
  The Ben's third round duel came up quicker than his round two duel on account of there being less duelists now. This time his opponent was another boy named Tim and the duel seemed to be off to a similar start to my own duel against Ben. Much like me Time got off to a quick start bringing out some dragon that had  the same attack points as a Blue-Eyes White Dragon and only five hundred less defense points. Riley's move in response was rather boring merely summoning a reaper looking monster and setting a card. Tim clearly didn't get what he wanted and chose to destroy Ben's reaper with his dragon.
"Emissary of the Afterlife's effect activates allowing both of us to add a Level 4 or lower normal monster to our hands." Ben said searching his deck for his chosen monster.
Tim took a Luster Dragon and Ben happily added Imaginary Actor.
Ben began his turn by immediately playing Pot Of Greed in order to draw two cards. After wiping out Tim's face down with Harpies Feather Duster Ben began a combo play that boosted his Wind-up Knight's attack to be enough swing over Tim's remaining dragon.
" Battle Wind-up Knight attacks. ! Gear Blade Slash! " Ben called . Wind-up Knight jumped up and prepared to slash at Titanomakhia who fired three beams back Wind-up Knight who brought his sword up to cut through the beams and slash at the dragon.
" Titanomakhia can't be destroyed by battle you fool. " Tim taunted Ben who didn't look the slightest bit worried, in fact he looked almost bored as he ended his turn.
" Then I'll take over." Tim said drawing a card " I'll activate Pot Of Greed in order to draw two new cards.Titanomakhia Attack his Wind-up Knight."
Wind-up Knight's ability can negate an attack so why's Tim attacking now? I thought to myself.
"Wind-up Knight's ability..." Ben began before he was cut off.
" I activate the quick play magic card Forbidden Scripture, this negates all other effects on the field until the end of the battle and forces damage calculation to be done with the original attack and defense values." Tim said slamming his spell down on the holo table. This time it was his dragon's beams that overpowered Ben's knight blasting it away.
"Yes!!" I cheered mentally glad the stupid knight was gone.
" My turn." Came Ben's voice reminding me that the duel wasn't over yet. " I'll set a card facedown and activate my Card of Demise spell, this allows me to draw until I hold five cards but during the fifth standby phase I discard my entire hand."
  Ben then proceeded to draw three cards and used one of them to destroy Tim's face down.
" Now I'll activate Polymerization to fuse my machine type Imaginary Actor and dragon type Serpainter together." Ben declared.
  So he wasn't making Metarion Ladonstar but something else this time. I thought to myself.
" This is an intertwined fate, a forbidden existence born from joining." Ben chanted as his two monsters began to overlap each other forming a dragon with mechanical bits on it. " Fusion summon cyborg type Metarion Vritrastar. Vritrastar's choice effect I can either change a monster's battle position or I can destroy dragons equal to the number of cyborg types I control. I choose to the effect that destroys dragons so say goodbye to your Divine Dragon Titanomakhia. Now Metarion Vritrastar attacks directly. ! Draco Ex Machinx !"
  Ben's dragon fired a purple beam from its chest ending the duel. Grabbing his deck Ben walked out of the arena he stopped just before he entered the tunnel his head tilting as if he'd heard something before continuing out of the arena. After that the next couple of rounds went quickly and without anything interesting happening Ben was able to beat his next three opponents in a similar fashion to all of his duels and unfortunately despite my desire for him to fail he'd reached the finals his opponent would be a green haired boy named Damien.
" Ladies and Gentlemen after much effort two duelists have reached the finals of the Youth Regional Championship." The Announcer began introducing the two duelists as a screen began to play highlights of Damien's duels. " coming out of the left tunnel is a boy who has constantly created miracles with his amazing draws it's the boy wonder Damien. "
The screen began showing highlights of Ben's duels.
" Coming out of the right tunnel." The Announcer began introducing Ben. " The boy with not one but two rare types of monsters it's Ben."
Ben and Damien both walked up to the holo table and set their decks down after shuffling.
" You can't beat me just give up." Damien said.
" Let's just get this over with." Ben replied sounding almost tired.
"Duel !" Both of them declared as they drew their hands.
"I'll start things off." Ben said drawing a card. " I'm setting three face downs and setting a monster in defense mode. Turn end."
" Rather boring." Damien declared as he drew his card before rubbing the back of his neck. " I expected more. I activate... "
" Hold on I'm activating my trap Mind Crush." Ben interrupted just before Damien placed his card. " I get to declare a card name and if it's in your hand you have to discard all copies of it and the card I'm choosing is Heavy Storm if I'm wrong however I'll have to discard a random card of my own but we both know I'm not wrong."
" How?" Damien asked while discarding the card he was about to play.
" It's rather obvious when you consider the fact that every time in this tournament your opponents have set more than one facedown you've played Heavy Storm." Ben began before continuing. " Every single time is quite the coincidence isn't it? Even more coincidentally you make that same motion to your neck every time, but I'm sure that's just a tell right?"
  Was Ben implying that Damien was cheating? While I really didn't like Ben if Damien was actually cheating then I hope Ben crushed him. Cheating was probably the worst act a duelist could commit in a duel, it mocked the spirit of the game.
" Why you." Damien growled. " I summon Ninja Grandmaster Sasuke in attack mode."
" Oh no." Ben exclaimed mockingly. " That card's ability will Auto destroy my set monster, if it is able to attack that is."
Damien looked puzzled before looking at Ben's field and noticing his face two face downs. Setting two cards Damien ended his turn.
" My turn." Ben said drawing his card with a smirk. " I'll activate my facedown Pot of Greed to draw two cards. Now I'll use my other facedown Giant Trunade to return all spell and trap cards back to their owners hands."
" You mean...?" Damien stuttered out. Clearly just as shocked as I was. Given what I'd seen of Ben I thought those face downs would've been actual traps not merely a bluff.
"That's right they were both magic cards incapable of stopping your attack but someone like you who doesn't believe in either his deck or skills wouldn't even consider attacking in that scenario." Ben declared before continuing his turn. " I now flip summon Magician of Faith and her ability let's me add a magic card back to my hand, so I'll be taking my Pot of Greed back mad using it once more."
Ben began his strange chant as he played Polymerization to fusion summoned Metarion Ladonstar.
" Ladonstar's choice effect by sending one card from my hand to the graveyard I can reduce one monster's attack by 1500 points." Ben said discarding a card.
(Ninja Grandmaster Sasuke atk:300)
"Battle Metarion Ladonstar attack. Impact Radiant Trident." Ben declared as Ladonstar's three heads each charged up an orb before they all fired at the Ninja Grandmaster Sasuke destroying it.
(Ben's LP:4000)(Damien's LP: 4000)
" How are your life points still the same?" Ben asked.
" I used my Kuriboh to reduce the damage to zero. So don't think you've won just yet." Damien declared. He avoided the damage but Ben still had one attack left.
" Magician of Faith attacks directly." Ben declared his smirk gone before setting two cards and ending his turn.
(Ben's LP:4000)(Damien's LP: 3700)
" Time for some payback it's my move." Damien said drawing his card after rubbing his wrist. " I activate Pot of Greed to draw two more cards. Then I'll play the spell Dark Hole to destroy all monsters on the field."
" Haven't you realized I've already seen through your plays." Ben said before flipping up one of his face downs. Why does he have to be so arrogant that I'm almost rooting for the potential cheater instead of him. " Reverse card open Magic Jammer. I'll send this one to the graveyard.
Ben revealed his Nightmare Magician before sending it to the graveyard as his trap nullified Dark Hole. Discarding one of his best monsters and revealing it so brazenly what kinda of strategy was he playing playing at?

Riley's pov

" Go ahead and revive Nightmare Magician whenever you feel like." I said after I discarded Ben's ace before continuing. " Nightmare Magician is a powerful card that would turn your situation around right now. I won't summon it nor will I stop you from summoning it."
{ " Why are you holding back? "} Ben asked. { " You could've summoned Nightmare Magician last turn and been in a better position."}
{" Because I want to make a statement."} I replied. {" Plus by doing this he'll slowly convince himself that Nightmare Magician will win him the duel but he won't actually summon it yet my guess is he'll throw a face down monster."}
" I'll set a monster face down and set two facedowns to end my turn." Damien said.
" I draw." I declared, drawing Command Silencer. " Battle Metarion Ladonstar attacks your set monster."
" I activate my trap Waboku." Damien said.
" I switch Magician of Faith to defense mode. Turn end." I said.
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Author's Note:

Well I totally forgot to upload this. Weird cause I totally thought I did but Apparently I didn't. My bad this was supposed to be up last week.

Next chapter we finish regionals and time skip to the entrance exams.