"What!?" Jasmine gaped as she registered the bomb that was just dropped on her, "Odhar's duelling Zane!?" she asked in shock as she stared over at her blonde friend, the resident best female duellist in the academy. It was a testament to her ability that they hadn't even been at the academy an entire month yet and she was already the best female duellist.
"Shh!" Alexis leaned forward in her seat, a finger over her lips as she shushed the redhead, "I don't want it to end up some big event." she explained. They were sitting in the lobby of the Obelisk Blue girls dorm after all, and there were many a girl ranging from first to third year lounging about.
"Is he crazy?" Jasmine dropped the volume of her voice and whispered, "Zane hasn't lost a single duel since he started here, and only the best can even survive a single turn." she was biting her lip as she finished.
Alexis almost snorted in amusement at the blatant worry her friend was showing in regards to Yarden. People liked what they liked, huh? Even beyond Jasmine's 'type', that being, rich, hot and muscular, she couldn't hide the interest and liking she'd taken to the boy.
She was right to worry though. Yarden Odhar was good, and she'd never even seen him take a single duel seriously since they started here at Duel Academy. The problem was, no matter how good, Zane just wasn't beatable. Even at her best, Alexis knew she would struggle to last even a few turns against him, and he was even the superior of...of her older brother, Atticus, who'd won regional tournaments and never lost himself until he attended Duel Academy.
And as good as Yarden was, she was sure he was around the level of herself, or a bit above, around Jaden's level, a contender for the best duellist of the first years. But Zane was on an entirely different level. There was no defence that could block him, no offence that could match his own, and he could play around the strategies of the best of the best with his eyes closed.
"It wasn't actually Yarden that challenged Zane," Alexis replied before her friend got the wrong idea, "I invited Zane to watch him duel because I thought Zane would take a liking to his use of dragons and the way he uses weak monsters so well, I didn't expect Zane to take a disliking to him instead."
Jasmine closed her eyes and sighed, "And lemme guess...he didn't take to well to whatever Zane said and mouthed off?" she asked.
'Looks like Jasmine has got to know him pretty well,' Alexis mused, lips quirking a bit, "Well, more or less. Yarden wasn't really interested until..." the blonde thought back, and blinked, "..Until I said there was no chance he could beat Zane actually." she admitted.
Hmm, this was perhaps her fault.
Jasmine nodded, "And of course he couldn't take that lying down," her silver-grey eyes opened as she rolled them, "You were right obviously, but Odhar's pretty prideful in himself and his deck, not even Zane could have made him back down at that point I think."
"You know.." Mindy hummed from where she was playing with her DPA, looking up at them both, "We've never seen Odhar go all out, not even close. And like, I'm not saying Zane's reputation isn't well deserved, but he's not unbeatable, do you really think he could take Seto Kaiba, or Yugi Moto?"
"That's different though Mindy, they're the best of the best, the top two in the world, of course it isn't fair to compare them to Zane." Jasmine replied.
"And Zane may be the best at this school, but he's not the best in the world," Mindy shrugged, "And even Kaiba and Yugi started as young players too you know. I'm just saying, you shouldn't be letting the fact that Zane is like the best at this school automatically make us say he's always gonna beat anyway."
"You have a good point Mindy," Alexis smiled at her. It wasn't often her ditzy friend felt the need to give her serious opinion on duelling and what she'd observed, it was nice, "The problem isn't just skill though. Zane's monsters are the best of the best, and Odhar's using a deck of mainly tossed away cards. I mean, yeah he showed some great uses for them, but skill can only go so far when up against someone of possible greater skill and with a far superior deck."
"..The Cyber Dragons huh?" Jasmine mused, looking up at the ceiling hundreds of feet above as she leaned back on her seat on two arms, "They call them the new age Blue-Eyes. When it comes to fire power, there's very few monsters that can even hope to approach that level."
The redhead shook her head and turned her attention back to Alexis, "So when is the duel happening?" she asked.
"Not long from now, I should actually be getting ready to head out there now." Alexis mused. They obviously couldn't jump right into it and duel right then and there with all the exams going on, so Zane and Yarden had decided to meet up at 7pm, at the docks. Especially since Yarden had to go talk to the professors about his dorm transfer to Ra Yellow.
"Can we come?" Jasmine asked, looking at the voluptuous blonde hopefully. Mindy merely raising an eyebrow.
It was Alexis' turn to bite her own lip. 'Should I let them?' she wondered. It was partially her own fault Yarden ended up accepting. Wouldn't it hurt his pride more for even more people to see him losing? Especially the girls he'd expressed outright interest in? Guys didn't like it when their pride got stood on in front of girls they liked, right?
Her hazel eyes met the hopeful, worried silvery grey eyes of Jasmine and she sighed, "Sure, why not." Alexis relented.
----------------------------------------
"My luck is something else." Yarden chuckled to himself as he made his way out of the academy and down towards his destination. His eyes were on the deck he was flipping through right now, his deck, and the new adds to it.
He'd just finished finalizing up his dorm change with Professor Sartyr, and the change would be finalized through the weekend. Until then, he was still considered a Slifer Red. But at the very least, the good yellow head professor saw no reason in holding back the monthly DP he was to get as a Ra Yellow.
His total maximum going up a full four thousand. Granted, it then dropped by two thousand five hundred DP not long later when he went to the card shack to pick up two packets of Dark Beginnings and a few specific cards to take advantage of the fact that he now had three Serpent Night Dragon cards.
He really was not expecting what he was going to get from those two packs though. Dark Hole. Raigeki. Two Sanga The Thunder, and even Buster Blader!
There was a shimmer of light by his side, and Serpent Night Dragon appeared, "Does it really count as luck when you have my fellow spirits scour the card packs for the best packets?" the graceful, beautiful dragon mused with a chuckle, "No luck finding the Red-Eyes Black Dragon you wanted I see."
Yarden didn't even break stride, he'd felt the dragon returning, "I suppose not, in that case, is it just pure skill and intelligence then? I'm a genius I guess." he smirked, puffing his chest out proudly. He bet Jaden would never think of this! There was thousands of packets of each booster pack in the Card Shack after all, well, the old ones, all the new packs had been bought out by Crowler earlier, not that Yarden had any interest in them right now.
Serpent Night Dragon chuckled lightly, before sobering, "I am afraid to admit my lord, but I failed to find the Dark Magician Girl again today," the serpentine dragon reported solemnly, "I will continue my search tomorrow."
Well, disappointing, but; "It's fine mate," Yarden waved the dragon off, "There's plenty of time to find her and this island is pretty big, so I wasn't expecting you to find her right away."
Serpent Night Dragon bowed his head in acknowledgement, before phasing out of existence and returning to Yarden's body.
He stuffed his deck back in his card box on his belt a moment later once he was happy looking through his new composition and picked up speed, making his way down to his destination.
It was a pretty damn long walk. Taking a good twenty minutes to get all the way down to the docks. And it didn't take him long to locate his opponent either.
He was standing at the edge of one, arms crossed as he coolly stared out into the distance of the darkened sky, while the rocking ocean waves lapped against the concrete dock. It was a picturesque sight.
'What a try hard.' Yarden snorted, rolling his eyes. Like, he couldn't be doing that on instinct could he? He had to be specifically trying to look cool and mysterious.
Surprisingly, there were three more people standing near Zane. Two of them quite unexpected. He was expecting Zane and Alexis, but Yarden wasn't at all expecting Jasmine and Mindy to also be here.
Not that he really minded. He had fun teasing Jasmine. And Mindy happily flirted back with him.
Just as he reached the path to the dock end and began to make his way up it, four sets of eyes strayed to him, and the owner of startling silvery-grey pair quickly made her way towards him before he could even get halfway towards his opponent.
"Are you seriously doing this?" Jasmine asked as she stopped in front of him, a frown on her lips.
Yarden gave a slow blink, before shrugging, "Pretty much, yeah." he replied with a nod. He didn't give a shit about Zane's reputation. He had the literal Heart of the Cards on his side and knew full well how the Cyber Dragon decks played, he owned a bunch of the cards himself before he ended up here.
And now that he'd had time to think over it. Who the fuck did that blue haired shit stain of a walking Gary Stu cliche think he was talking to earlier? Calling him a thug. He wasn't wrong admittedly, but it was the principle of the matter. But worse than that, talking like he knew his cards better than he did just because he got given the literal most powerful deck in the school and could spout some mysterious cryptic rubbish.
Jasmine bit her lip and rubbed her hands together, almost nervously, drawing a raised eyebrow from Yarden. She was acting weird. "..Look..you can still back out right now y'know?" she replied, meeting his eyes before looking to the side bashfully, "Right now, you're unbeaten, you've got a great record going for you. And if you keep this up, it won't be long before you do get to Obelisk Blue. But, a loss, even a loss to Zane, will still be a loss on your record, and these duels get officially recorded, so it will get out quick considering it will be listed on Zane's and your own, student profile."
"What's with you?" his second eyebrow joined the first, "..you're acting like a docile kitten, it's unlike you."
Her cheeks flushed, "..Nothing, I'm just trying to look out for you, okay?" Jasmine refused to meet his eyes.
Unauthorized use: this story is on Amazon without permission from the author. Report any sightings.
A massive shit eating grin spread across his face, "Are you worried about me?" Yarden laughed in outright amusement.
The redhead huffed and finally turned to meet his eyes, "So what if I am?" she demanded, "We're acquaintances at least, and I've seen Zane duel before. I'll admit your really good Odhar, but there's nobody on this island that can even touch Zane."
"Except me," he grinned at her and walked a step forward, raising a hand to poke her on the nose, "Honestly, consider me touched babe, that you actually worried enough to try and get me to stop, but don't worry, Zane won't have an easy time getting a win from me."
Jasmine snorted, crossing her arms under her ample bust, pressing her large breasts up and making them look even bigger. His eyes flickered to them for a moment, and she just raised a fine red eyebrow back at him when he looked up into her eyes a second later, "I figured," she shrugged and admitted with a sigh, "Well, I tried. I'll give you the benefit of the doubt Odhar, kay? Let's see how well of a fight you put up against the best this academy has to offer."
He winked, "I think you'll be surprised." he replied, before making continuing on his way towards his opponent, the redhead following behind him to reach back up with her friends.
Yarden made sure to toss a wink Alexis and Mindy's way as he passed by. The blonde eyed him curiously, while Mindy giggled and gave him a little flirty wave back.
"You sure took your time," Zane mused, turning to face him, arms crossed, "I was beginning to think you'd chickened out."
"From what?" Yarden laughed, "You? Don't make laugh pretty boy." he jeered and outright lifted a hand to flip the older boy the bird.
He caught sight of Jasmine palming her forehead out of the corner of his eyes.
Zane didn't even blink, "You play the thug even outside a duel, how lamentable," he shook his head, before narrowing his eyes at Yarden, "Very well, are you ready?" he asked, uncrossing his arms and activating his duel disk.
"Mate, I could do this while literally in my bed," Yarden snorted, activating his own duel disk, "And since I'm the one being challenged, I'll be deciding the turn orders, that fine with you?"
Yarden Odhar: 4000 LP
Zane Truesdale: 4000 LP
"That's acceptable." Zane inclined his head in a tiny, cool little nod.
"Good," Yarden replied, "In that case, you're first robot boy."
Zane smirked, "So you know of the effects of my Cyber Dragons then? Someone has done his homework," he said, "It won't be enough though." he added as they both began drawing cards. Yarden five, and Zane six.
"We'll see." Yarden smirked right back.
Zane eyed the six cards on his hand, before placing one card in the spell zone, "First, I'll be activating Pot of Greed to draw two more cards." he said.
The green grinning pot monster flashed into existence in front of him, before disappearing a few moments later after he drew two cards and Zane's hand went up to seven cards.
"Now let's see how you deal with this," Zane mused, before placing another spell card down, "I activate the spell card Polymerization and from my hand, I fuse the two Cyber Dragon's I have to fusion summon Cyber Twin Dragon!"
There was dizzying flash of light and two huge gleaming serpentine metallic dragons appeared in front of Zane, before warping and merging together, taking the form of a much larger, twin headed metallic serpent dragon.
Cyber Twin Dragon - Machine/Light/Level 8/Fusion/Effect: 2800/2100
"But I'm not finished there," Zane added with his smirk stretching, "Now, since this was a special summon, I can still normal summon, and from my hand, I summon Heavy Mech Support Armour!"
In front of him, a large U-shaped spaceship monster appeared. Looking almost like a magnet to Yarden's eyes. He grimaced as he recognised it.
Heavy Mech Support Armour - Machine/Light/Level 3/Union/Effect: 500/500
'He isn't playing around here.' he thought to himself.
"Now, Heavy Mech Support Armour is a Union Monster, with its effect allowing it to become one with any machine monster," Zane continued on, and then gave a click of his fingers, the newly summoned machine monster flying over to the twin headed metallic dragon and merging together as Cyber Twin Dragon took residence up on top of it, and gleaming brightly, "Now, not only can my monster not only not be targeted by Card Effects, my Cyber Twin Dragon also gains 500 attack and defence points!"
Cyber Twin Dragon - Machine/Light/Level 8/Fusion/Effect: 3300/2600
"And to finish off my turn, I'll be placing one card face down, and ending my turn," Zane finally finished, a face down card appearing before him as he inserted it into the spell and trap zone, leaving him with two cards left in his hand, "Let's see how you do against this, shall we?"
Yarden eyed the big ass metal twin headed metal dragon leering down at him, before snorting and drawing a card as he started his turn, "Well, I think you'll be familiar with this," he mused, before placing a spell card on the field, "I'll be playing Pot of Greed to draw two cards."
Like Zane before him, a green grinning pot monster flashed into existence before him briefly as he drew two cards.
"Now, before anything else, I'm gonna take care of a little something," Yarden mused, before placing a spell card down, "I'm playing Dark Hole."
A massive void of darkness swirled into existence below the field and began dragging the only monster there into it, the Cyber Twin Dragon.
"Nice try," Zane clicked his fingers and his two monsters, the Cyber Twin Dragon and Heavy Mech Support Armour split apart, "As long as they were combined, if my monster would be destroyed by any card effect or an attack, I can let Heavy Mech Support Armour deal with the fallout for my dragon instead."
The spaceship-like monster was sucked into the black hole and disappeared alongside it, destroyed. And Zane's Cyber Twin Dragon, returned to its original attack and defence points.
Cyber Twin Dragon - Machine/Light/Level 8/Fusion/Effect: 2800/2100
"I already knew that," Yarden shrugged, then smirked at Zane, "So, you wanna play with metal dragons huh?" he hummed, "Let's see how the new boys stack up against the original Metal Dragon."
He placed a spell card down, "I'll be copying you again and using Polymerization to fuse the Lesser Dragon and the King of The Swamp in my hand, to fusion summon Metal Dragon!"
An oozing slimy head and bipedal winless green lizard appeared in front of Yarden, before swirling together and merging. A roar split the air as a gigantic metallic dragon easily the same size as the Twin Headed Cyber Dragon burst into existence. Where the Cyber Dragon's were sleek and silver in colour, the Metal Dragon was rougher, with grey silver armour.
Metal Dragon - Machine/Wind/Level 6/Fusion: 1850/1700
Zane quirked an eyebrow, "I'll applaud your tactic to get rid of the union, but what do you expect to do with a monster like that? It's not even as strong as one of my normal Cyber Dragon's and has no effect to compensate." the blue haired third year pointed out, un-perturbed.
Yarden chuckled, "Oh, but it being so weak, even as a fusion is what makes Metal Dragon such a useful card here," he retorted, before placing another spell card down, "I'll be playing the Equip spell card, Fusion Weapon. This card can only be used on a level 6 or below fusion monster, and it gives them both 1500 attack and defence points!"
One of Metal Dragon's arms glowed, before it transformed, becoming a large, red crackling rail cannon.
Metal Dragon - Machine/Wind/Level 6/Fusion: 3350/3200
Zane's eyebrows rose lightly, "Well, I suppose that is a good play," he chuckled, "Your dragon has become stronger than my own, for now."
Yarden didn't reply, his eyes going to Zane's face down. 'He didn't counter its summoning or powering up.' he noted.
He placed another spell card down, "I'll be using Pot of Greed for a second time to draw two more cards." he replied. Again, the grinning pot monster flashed into existence for a brief few moments and Yarden drew two cards. A massive smirk spread across his face when he saw them.
Perfect. Even if Zane did have a counter now, it didn't matter. Not when he had Revived Serpent Night Dragon and Nightmare Sonic Blast.
'That face down, it definitely has to be something that will counter Revived Serpent Night Dragon.' Yarden's thoughts raced. He wouldn't risk the card on a monster of Zane's when he had a face down.
Now it was time to play one more spell card. "So Metal Dragon is stronger now, but I'm the type of guys that thinks there's no kill, quite like overkill," he grinned ferally, "I play Limiter Removal, doubling the attack all machine type monsters on my side of the field."
As the spell card flashed into existence, Metal Dragon gave a roar and expanded in size, becoming twice as thick and twice as long. When the metallic dragon finished growing, it was thicker than a truck and over one hundred feet long.
Metal Dragon - Machine/Wind/Level 6/Fusion: 6700/3200
Zane finally gave a noticeable reaction, his eyes widening just a tiny fraction, and Yarden heard gasps of shock come from behind him, "...I see." he uttered, before closing his eyes and crossing his arms.
Yarden thrust one hand out towards the Cyber Twin Dragon, "Now show it who the true Metal Dragon really is!" he ordered.
Metal Dragon gave a thunderous, air shaking roar and thrust its rail cannon arm out, firing a massive beam of green electricity towards the cybernetic dragon opposite it.
Cyber Twin Dragon let out a loud roar of defiance as the attacked washed over it, before promptly getting obliterated. And its masters life points fell rapidly.
Yarden Odhar: 4000LP
Zane Truesdale: 100LP
"And don't think we're finished yet!" Yarden shouted at Zane, his eyes sparking with the light of victory, "Before Metal Dragon can be destroyed by Limiter Removal, and before the battle phase ends, I'll be using Revived Serpent Night Dragon to sacrifice it to summon Serpent Night Dragon from my deck!"
Metal Dragon looked down at Yarden and he flashed it a thumbs up. The dragon nodded, before turning into silver energy that darkened and burnt into dark flames. The flames shot down in front of Yarden, and from them Serpent Night Dragon appeared.
Serpent Night Dragon - Dark/Dragon/Level 7/Normal: 2350/2400
Zane opened his eyes, "And there it is, your ace monster huh? And free to attack my life points directly," he mused, calm as can be. He confirmed Yarden's thoughts, that he had a counter ready, "Before you can attack, I'll be activating Cybernetic Fusion Support from my hand, a quick play card that allows me to banish machine monsters from my hand, deck or graveyard by paying half my life points, and using them to fusion summon a monster from my extra deck with them."
Yarden Odhar: 4000LP
Zane Truesdale: 50LP
"I'll be banishing the two Cyber Dragons, my Heavy Mech Support Armour and my Cyber Twin Dragon from my graveyard, to fusion summon Chimeratech Over Dragon!" Zane shouted back.
There was a flash of light, and a gargantuan metal four headed dragon appeared in front of him, a thick serpentine metal body.
Chimeratech Over Dragon - Machine/Dark/Level 10/Fusion/Effect: 3200/3200
"And just to make sure you can't target it, I'll be revealing my face down card," Zane continued, "Rare Metalmorph! When this equip trap is equipped to my monster, it gains 500 Attack points, and it has a handy little effect." he smirked mysteriously as his dragon expanded in size, giving a quadruple chorus of roars that shook the air like Metal Dragon before it.
Chimeratech Over Dragon - Machine/Dark/Level 10/Fusion/Effect: 3700/3200
'I already know the effect,' Yarden growled. It made it so that it could counter any one spell card effect that targeted the equipped monster. He knew all about the Metalmorph cards since his favourite cards had always been the Red-Eyes Black Dragon, 'On top of that, even with it gone, this thing will still have thirty two hundred attack points and the ability to attack four times since four monsters made up its fusion.'
He shook his head, 'Doesn't matter,' he put those thoughts out of mind, he had his biggest trump card ready to play after all, "Honestly, you've got some scary ass beat sticks." Yarden admitted. If it wasn't for his spirits, and the Heart of the Cards giving him exactly what he needed and making his draws perfect combinations, he'd get crushed.
"And I wasn't expecting you to use one of my own tactics like that against me," Zane's frown turned into a light grin, "I was playing to counter you, I wasn't expecting such an absurd brute force attack right from the get go. This duel has been short, but it has been fun."
"It has," Yarden's grin returned, "Let's see if you still think it's fun though, after I play this. Nightmare Sonic Blast."
Zane blinked, "...Sorry, I'm unfamiliar with the card, what does it do?" he asked.
Yarden's grin broadened, "It's a special card that I can only use when I have a Serpent Night Dragon on the field," he began, "I turn over the top four cards of my deck, and depending on how many monsters there are, there's three effects I can get. One, I can add any of the four to my hand an re-arrange the others in any order. Two, I can target one card on the field and destroy it. Three, all of the above."
Zane's eyes went wide, "...With that...!" he trailed off, his face shifting into shock.
Yarden began laughing loudly and drew the four top cards and displayed them openly for everyone to see, before even checking them himself, "Let's see now," he hummed, tilting them slightly, so he could see, "Carboneddon, Copycat, Petit Dragon and Ookazi, looks like we got three, huh?"
Perfect. Two cards that could turn the situation around, and one that could outright let him win. God he loved his deck. They were the best.
"Huh..." Zane blinked, "..I was not expecting this." he admitted.
"I don't think anybody was," Yarden grinned as he placed the three monsters back, Carboneddon being the next in line, followed by Copycat, then Petit Dragon, "The card I chose to put in my hand, is Ookazi, you know what that means huh?"
Surprisingly, Zane chuckled, "I do," he nodded lightly and spread his arms wide, acceptingly, "Come then, claim your victory."
"I activate Ookazi," Yarden replied in response, playing the card, "With this, I can deal you eight hundred points of burn damage straight on."
"To think a card like this would be the one to end my winning streak." Zane mused as a massive sphere of flame roared towards him a moment later, washing over him and dropping the last of his remaining life points to zero.
Yarden Odhar: 4000LP
Zane Truesdale: 0LP
Without Yarden ever losing a single life point. Even if, he was just moments away from losing them all in an instant.