"Now finish him off!" Yarden shouted, throwing his hand out pointing towards his opponent who had an entirely empty field, "Ebony Blaze!" he commanded.
Serpent Night Dragon reared up its graceful head, black flames pooling in its mouth before throwing its head forward and unleashing a wave of black flames that washed over his opponent.
Raizou Mototani fell to his knees, staring dumbly ahead, "..How?" he muttered in disbelief as his life points zero and the card holograms began to fade away.
Raizou LP: 0
Yarden LP: 3200
Yarden barely even paid his defeated opponent a glance, nor at the crowd forming around in the school courtyard to witness him yet again take on an Obelisk Blue. Instead pulling out his PDA and looking at how much his DP increased. Raizou was perhaps one of the weakest Obelisk's he'd faced so far, the only one being worse was Taiyou on the first day.
The only reason he'd managed to even take some of his life points was because of the spell card Ookazi that dealt eight hundred points of burn damage when used.
Name – Yarden Odhar
Year – First Year
Dorm – Slifer Red
Day – 05
DP – 34,102
'An increase around two thousand or so,' Yarden mused internally, a small smirk spreading across his face, 'Not bad.'
He stowed his PDA away and gave one last glance at Raizou before turning and making his way into the school, only pausing for a moment to wink at Jasmine who was once again in the crowd of onlookers and paying close attention to his duels.
She turned her nose up at him and looked away, but he didn't miss the light dusting of red across her cheeks even from a distance. Mostly due to the fact that he'd fully adapted to Decoy Dragon's presence in his soul this morning and integrated with Lesser Dragon as Petit Dragon had advised a few days ago, but he'd pay close attention to a girl like her anyway.
After that, he continued on his way into the academy. He wanted to stop by the card shop before class started. It was exam day today, and he had enough DP that he wanted to splurge a little. He was plenty confident in his winning the practical duel exam regardless, but a little extra insurance wouldn't hurt at all.
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'Another easy win for that guy,' Jasmine stayed in position, eyeing the doorway the Slifer boy had entered through. 'I don't get him.'
Ever since he'd crushed her and Mindy in one turn back on Monday night, she'd kept a close eye on the boy and watched every duel he'd taken part in since then. He'd had eight duels now including Raizou since defeating her and her friend, all of them Obelisk's and each one he won with ease.
For the most part, she had noticed a few habits he had during duelling. He liked to use dragons mostly, and loved abusing the graveyard to special summon them instead of tributing. But that wasn't enough to beat him. One of the third year Obelisk's had gotten angry yesterday with him acting so smug and taking on any Obelisk that mouthed off, so he'd challenged Odhar and ran an anti dragon deck, with dragon capture jar and even one of the insanely rare Buster Blader cards.
...Only for Odhar to completely not use any dragon cards. He'd ended up destroying Buster Blader and winning a few turn later by somehow getting a field of defensive monsters, two Spirit of The Breeze, Soul Tiger and Castle Gate. Then he'd switched them all to attack mode and used Shield and Sword to switch all their attack and defence points. Then equipped United We Stand to Castle Gate. Ending up with a monster that had fifty six hundred attack points, one with twenty one hundred and a pair with eighteen hundred.
It was absurd. In another, he'd used Cost Down and Triangle Power to have monsters like Jerry Bean Man of all things with nearly four thousand attack points.
'..Why does he bother me so much?' Jasmine groused internally. She had no idea why, she'd been making excuses that she was getting a feel for his deck for Alexis to her friends, but really she just couldn't get him out of her head since that night.
It wasn't as if he was the type she was attracted to! Sure he had decent looks and was in pretty good shape. But he wasn't older and devilishly handsome, and he definitely wasn't rich! She'd looked into his student information and found out he was an orphan, an emancipated minor from Scotland of all things.
So why couldn't she get him out of her head! The cocky confidence he had, the way he smirked and so boldly just went about his way, not letting anyone tell him what to do. He was pretty much the picture perfect representation of someone with a devil may care attitude.
And she couldn't keep the heat from her face with the little subtle flirting he flung her way, couldn't stop her heart hammering in her chest.
"UGH!" Jasmine let loose a muffled shout before shaking her head, "..I can't sit around here just thinking on that cocky slifer, the exams start soon."
She made her way into the academy to head to class. But it was a pain trying to get Odhar out of her head.
No way, no how. She was not gonna let herself crush on that stupid kid.
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"Monster Reborn, not bad." Yarden grinned as he took a bite out of his weirdly curry flavoured sandwich and looked over the card he got from drawing sandwiches. Sadly he hadn't managed to draw the golden eggwich. He'd only managed to do it on his first day and yesterday, getting his Seiyaru on the first try and yesterday obtaining Dragon's Mirror.
"Better luck nexttime." Sadie smiled and patted him on the shoulder, "You've had some pretty good luck lately with your cards from the draws at least."
That he did. He was so very glad to get the Dragon's Mirror. Because coming up in a few days or so was his chance to get his hands on Five Headed Dragon, and it would be the most optimal way for him to summon it.
All week besides going to classes and beating down Obelisk students, he'd begun preparing. Working out to get his body in good condition while going through all of his cards and creating as many combo's with them as he could. Besides the cards he'd drawn from trying to get the eggwiches and a pair of interesting cards called Hack Worm's he'd bought yesterday for a mere one hundred DP each because of their effect, he hadn't bought any card packs or anything at all.
"Say Sadie," Yarden turned his attention to the pretty store clerk, gaining her attention, "Do you have any Serpent Night Dragon cards for sale?" he asked.
Everyone had their iconic cards that made them stand out. And from what he'd researched, Rex Raptor had done away with his usage of the card and focused on the new dino support instead. He needed a card that made him stand out as his ace, and he'd decided on Serpent Night Dragon.
He was the strongest spirit he had currently after all. And honestly, despite his pride, the serpentine dragon was a great help and dutifully followed any of Yarden's orders. Heck, for the past few days, Serpent Night Dragon had been scouring the island looking for the duel spirit Dark Magician Girl just because he asked about her.
While all of his new spirits were great, the one he interacted with the most was Serpent Night Dragon. Well, Serpent Night Dragon and Petit Dragon. 'Yes, make sure not to forget about me now just because I'm a weakling compared to him.' Petit Dragon piped in sardonically.
Yarden rolled his eyes, 'Don't whine, I used you to win two duels already.' he replied. In one he'd fused him to create Darkfire Dragon and boosted him with Fusion Weapon, and in another he just won outright with the little dragon by equipping him with United We Stand and Tyrant Wing, then using Thousand Energy.
'Yes and I quite enjoyed that, but I'm just saying your go to is to summon Serpent Night Dragon.' the small dragon rebuked.
Yes, because it made it really easy to make people think he was just a dragon user like that. Which made it easy to crush them when he threw them off with any of the many other cards he had. The face that one guy made when he got crushed by Jerry Bean Man was hilarious.
"We have a few," Sadie said, breaking him from his internal conversation with his bonded spirit, "We keep them in the back cuz nobody is interested in them anymore. Especially since the other support card is priced quite a bit higher than the monster itself."
'Oh?' Yarden raised an eyebrow in interest, there was more support for Serpent Night Dragon? "Do you have two copies of Serpent Night Dragon?" he asked, "Oh, and can I get a look at that support card?"
"Sure," Sadie beamed, "Gimme a sec hon." the brown haired woman said and walked away, heading into the back room. She appeared a few moments later, blowing dust off of a little display case and setting it down beside the till.
Walking over, Yarden checked it out and was interested to see at least five copies of Serpent Night Dragon lined up in the little case, and in front of them a card he didn't recognize. It depicted art of Serpent Night Dragon with its mouth open, black flames spiralling outwards in a black wave.
"The monsters were originally worth four thousand a piece when we sold em actively, but I'll sell you them for nineteen hundred a piece if you buy more than one," Sadie said to him, then patted the display case, "As for the Nightmare Sonic Blast, that used to go for eight thousand, but I'll sell you it for four thousand five hundred if you want it."
Did you know this story is from Royal Road? Read the official version for free and support the author.
Odd cuts in the prices, but as Yarden looked over the support card, he couldn't help but gape. All he needed was Serpent Night Dragon on the field and it had amazing effects depending on how many monsters he drew using its effect. If it was one, he could add one of those cards to his hand. If it was two he could destroy any card his opponent controlled. If it was three or more he could apply both effects! And on top of that it let him order those cards in any order he desired.
He couldn't stop the massive grin spreading across his face, "I'll take em both, the support card and two copies of Serpent Night Dragon," Yarden told her, "And two packets of Rise of Destiny while we're at it."
"Big spender today huh?" Sadie grinned as she began typing up his purchases on the till and adding up the total, "That'll be seven thousand eight hundred DP including the price for the eggwich attempt."
Eesh, how expensive. Nearly eight hundred pounds in UK currency. And that was with a massive discount. No wonder most didn't find Serpent Night Dragon viable anymore. Only people that were loaded could get their hands on it and support cards for it, and multiple of them to make them viable would cost even more.
Still, he dutifully let her take the DP from his account. While he'd managed to find out more about this life he'd taken's past, and the fact that he was apparently an emancipated minor on benefits, and wanted to transfer the DP into his bank account, this was more of an investment for the future and making more DP and thus more money.
Besides, he had an entire school year here to make more money before he had to leave the island for any period of time during the summer. His benefits may only pay two hundred and fifty per month into his bank, but that was still over a grand he'd go back to from that alone, and he still had over two grand worth in DP even after spending as much as he did here in the card shop.
"Here ya go hon." Sadie grabbed his attention, sliding over two booster packs and then reached into the display box to grab two copies of Serpent Night Dragon and Nightmare Sonic Blast.
Yarden took them ever so gratefully. His grin turning to shit eating proportions. While placing the three cards in his deck box and beginning to open the packets, his eyes fell to Sadie's lower back as she walked back into the storage room with that display case, keenly checking out her lovely rear end.
Honestly, it was too bad Sadie had the same name as his dead grandmother and brought up memories of her. Otherwise he wouldn't mind chatting her up.
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"What are you doing up here?" Jasmine hissed in annoyance.
Alexis looked up thinking over the questions on the piece of paper in front of her upon hearing her friends voice and looked over. She was surprised to find Yarden Odhar sliding into the empty seat beside Jasmine and taking a quick glance at the test sheet laid out on top of the desk in front of his seat.
"No rule against it sweetness," he taunted Jasmine with a daring smirk, "And I'd rather sit up here and enjoy the eye candy up here than down in the sausage fest with the rest of the reds."
Well, Alexis had to give him something. He was at the very least, confident in himself and had no care for for the glares being thrown his way by the many boys she could see from Obelisk spread about at the decks below and to the sides of them. It was like an unofficial rule at this point that they wouldn't try and pull ahead of each other by sitting beside the girls. Well, after they had nearly started fighting it out on the first day to sit near them.
...She didn't honestly get the desperation. Did boys really desire a good looking girl that much? She knew how it all worked and she didn't blame them really, but it could get annoying and it was way over the top. She could hardly get a moments piece from most of them. If she even talked to a boy, half the time the others who saw it would take it as a sign to pick a fight with said boy. The only boy the rest were too scared to pipe up against was Zane.
"Whatever," Jasmine rolled her eyes, "Just don't think you can cheat off of us." she warned.
Yarden laughed at that, lifting up the test sheet, "You're kidding right? A toddler could answer these," he replied, "I mean, are you kidding? A credit based test for half of it depending on the detail of your answers and then simple multiple selection. With questions asking to describe the varied effects of field spells and how fusion works. This is kiddie stuff."
Well, while Alexis didn't think it was all that hard looking of a test, she was aware she was ranked second in her year academically so it might seem easier to her than it was for others. She definitely didn't think it was 'kiddie stuff' as he claimed.
..An interesting claim nonetheless though. If he was speaking the truth and not just boasting to try and impress them, it meant he had much more advanced knowledge on duelling than she had thought.
Jasmine huffed, crossing her arms under her breasts and Alexis noted Yarden shot a quick glance at her friends chest as she pushed up her substantial bust with the motion. His eyes quirked up as the redhead turned to look at him again and his eyes met Alexis' own, he merely continued smirking and winked at her.
He definitely wasn't shy about what he wanted, that was for sure. He didn't even care that Alexis caught him checking out her friend. Then again, he hadn't seemed to care when she caught him checking her out back on Monday night either.
Seemed he had a liking for large breasts. Alexis honestly wasn't sure how to feel about his interest in her and her friends. It didn't take a genius to know what he really wanted. Most likely at the top of things was herself and her two friends in his bed with him.
...That desire didn't really detract all that much from her opinion of him. None at all really. It was a natural instinctual desire of a teenage boy. While he wasn't broadcasting it, he simply wasn't making a grand show of hiding it either, like he was being entirely true to who he was. That or she could be reading way too much into it. She tended to do that a lot.
"We'll see when we get the results back Odhar," Jasmine replied grumpily, "We'll see how smug you are later when you fail." Alexis didn't even have to have known Jasmine for as long as she had for her to feel how little she believed in that statement herself.
Jasmine probably knew Odhar's abilities as a duellist better than anyone on the island at this point. She'd been keeping a close eye on every single duel he'd had so far. Jasmine was a bit too prideful to notice her own interest in the boy. It was kind of amusing that with how much she pestered Alexis herself about getting a boyfriend, she could barely tell when she herself was interested in one, or rather, tried to deny it with all her might.
Yarden laughed, "You're so stubbornly cute Jas," he replied, leaning over to bump his hip against hers, "I can hear you how little you believe in what you said through your voice alone. Honestly, it's quite flattering to know someone as gorgeous as you thinks so highly of me."
Alexis had to try hard to contain her amusement as Jasmine's face flushed bright red and she immediately looked away from the boy so he couldn't see how hard his flattery hit her.
"What do you think of the final question?" the blonde obelisk queen asked to mask her amusement.
"I almost forgot you were here with how quiet you were Alexis." he teased as he turned to her. she raised her eyebrow at him and he leaned back in his chair, boldly running his eyes up and down her body, lingering on her thighs that her skirt barely reached halfway down and her breasts stretching out her uniform top.
He was making a challenge of it, testing the waters and wanting to see her reaction. Well, she wasn't totally sure what game he was playing, but it wasn't like he was full out actively flirting with her. It seemed more of a game at this point. And she did like winning.
She crossed her arms under her breasts, pushing the large mounds up almost obscenely, she could feel her nipples pressing tightly through her bra and wouldn't be surprised he could see them poking out through her top. "Well?" she challenged right back, meeting his eyes and raising her other eyebrow at him. It wasn't like it was much of a bother for her to go about playing his game for a little bit, they were just breasts after all.
His eyes dipped down a bit for a few long moments eyeing her chest before sweeping back up to meet her, his smirk broadening, "It's an interesting idea little throw off question that challenges your knowledge on not just duelling but duel monsters in of itself," he replied, "'Describe, in your own words one of the greatest foundations of duel monsters' - it's probably worth a pretty substantial amount of our grade and depending on our answer could net quite a bit of extra credit."
Alexis nodded taking in his answer, seemed like he came to the same conclusion as her. It probably didn't really have a right answer either, just one that fit and let the testers know just how much you actually truly loved duel monsters. A loaded question while simple at first thought, designed to pick out those truly passionate about the game itself. Designed to highlight those truly invested in being a duellist.
She noted Yarden was still staring into her eyes and felt a little competitive. She pressed her arms tighter under her breasts, pushing them up and out a bit more before throwing him a wink and turning around to face her desk and test again.
She didn't look to see his reaction, but considering he went silent for a few moments, she probably managed..something at the least. What, she didn't know, flirting wasn't really her forte, she had no interest in it, but as long as he didn't take things to far like the other guys that hounded her, she didn't mind playing the little subtle flirting game. It was an interesting little challenge if nothing else
"So what took you so long to get to class cutie?" Mindy asked him, leaning back in her own seat and speaking up for the first. She'd been silent taking in their interactions with Odhar with a little grin on her face.
Many made the mistake of dismissing Mindy as a simple ditz. And while she was a bit ditzy, she wasn't stupid, far from it. She was incredibly good with people and could get a good understanding of them from just a few simple conversations.
"I hit up the card shop before class, spent nearly eight thousand DP on cards to enhance my deck," he replied after a moment, "I wasn't really worried about anyone I'd be taking on today to jump up to Ra, but there has been a few cards I wanted to get my hands on, and I even got a few ones I didn't expect that will be a massive help to my deck."
Interesting and to know. It seemed he wasn't being content even with his winning streak so far. And to spend so much on cards was something else. He just dropped the equivalent of what was nearly a grand or so in his home country. She could tell by the way Jasmine's eyes widened slightly in interest that he impressed her a bit. It was a bit impressive considering she, Alexis herself didn't even have a total of eight thousand DP yet and he talked about spending so much casually.
Honestly, her friends biggest fault as a person was that she was a bit of a gold digger, but Alexis didn't blame her for wanting to live a good life and wanting to make it easy to obtain by ensnaring a rich boyfriend. Who didn't want to live a good life after all?
Still, the blonde wondered what he had added to his deck. Maybe some more dragon cards? Or possibly something related to the graveyard, according to Jasmine, he did love abusing the graveyard for easy special summoning
"Oooh, sounds exciting," Mindy gushed, "I'm glad I won't have to duel you today, I don't think I can take another one turn kill like last time."
"Sorry, I find it hard to go soft with girls like you," he teased her back, "Actually, hard is basically my default setting around you girls." he flirted.
Mindy giggled at his words, "Oooh, how scandalous." she teased while Jasmine huffed doing her best to ignore the two, even if Alexis could see her ears quirking with interest in every word exchanged in her peripherals.
Alexis had to give it to him again. Not many could basically outright tell three girls he spent any time he was around them with an erection more or less and make it amusing rather than outright creepy. Like, if Chazz told her he constantly had an erection around her Alexis might just punch the slime ball.
Any further flirting though between Yarden and her friends was cut to a close a moment later as the bell rang loudly and Doctor Banner made his way into the class.
Alexis looked over the class and furrowed her brows. Where was Jaden? She couldn't see him in class. Don't tell her he was skipping such an important test?