The Duel between Nick and Jessie begins! Who will be victorious? Will the good guys win (like they always do in most stories) or will Jessie be the winner? Like all the Duels we will be having in this story, we actually conducted the Duel ourselves to find out! Also, who's that watching the Duel from the shadows?
Chapter 4
The Tale of Battle: Nick vs Jessie
Re-edit 23/9/2016
North Forest Clearing
Where once stood the hollow emptiness of the forest, now the sounds of humming could be heard as a large dome emerged around a part, enclosing the trees around there. In the inside of the dome, Nick and Jessie both stood on opposite sides with their allies behind them, each one wearing their visors to see what was about to happen.
Once they drew their first five cards, their match officially began.
Nick - 4000 LP
Jessie - 4000 LP
"Age before beauty." Nick remarked with a grin on his face as Jessie sneered at him before drawing the first card.
"I start off by play two cards face down on the field," Jessie remarked the projections of the cards appeared on his side of the field. "Then I summon Heroic Challenger – Double Lance in attack mode (4/1700/900), ending my turn."
On the field appeared a knight in full armor. The armor was smooth, giving it a more futuristic look, and was mostly colored white and light blue. In both hands, the monster held dual spears that were about as tall as itself. The spears had blue staves and pale yellow heads.
"Alright, here I go!" Nick yelled out as he drew the first card and started making his move. "First off, I activate the spell, Galaxy Cyclone, which lets me pick one of your two set cards and destroy it."
Once the card manifested itself, the area soon changed into that of space as suddenly a whirlwind appeared from the distance and hit one of his oppnent's face down cards. It was revealed to be the trap card, Copy Knight, which soon broke into digital pieces as Jessie grabbed it from its spot on his duel-disk. He then sent it to the graveyard slot.
"Next, I'll play a monster face down in defense mode followed by these two cards face down, that'll do it for me." Nick remarked as the cards appeared in front of him.
His opponent drew his first card and smiled when he saw what it was.
"I summon Heroic Challenger - Extra Sword (4/1000/1000) in attack mode!"
Another fully armored monster appeared on the field. This one, however, was much sharper looking than Jessie's other monster. This one wore armor that had two distinct shades of green with silver accents. It also wielded two straight-edged, double-sided swords.
"With them on my side, I can now merge them together in order to build the Overlay Network. Here we go, now with these weaklings, I Xyz Summon this bad boy, Heroic Challenger - Excalibur (R4/2000/2000)!"
The two monsters on the field became red and orange flames that swirled together. From the fiery orb emerged the new monster. It was twice the size of the previous two monsters. Also fully clad in armor, this monster wore red and white armor that gave it a somewhat regal look. The monster's helm bore a large yellow trident-esque protrusion.
Before Jessie could even bask in the glory, reality slapped him right in the face and brought him back to the land of the living.
"Sorry, you just fell for my trap!" Nick remarked, revealing the face-down card he had placed on the field. "Go, Bottomless Trap Hole!"
A massive hole opened in the ground beneath Excalibur and countless dark hands shot out and grabbed the monster to drag it down. There was some struggle as the monster was swallowed by the chasm.
"Thanks to this, not only does your card get destroyed, it gets banished as well!"
"Lucky move, slacker." Jessie growled with annoyance in his voice as he ended his turn, grabbing the card and putting it in his deck case, which also served as the removal pile for most duels.
"Luck had nothing to do with it." Nick replied as he drew his next card, looking down to see what it was.
Soon after, he moved his hand to the face-down card he previously placed, flipping it into attack mode and revealing his Assault Dog (4/1200/800). The card flipped straight up, revealing the monster as a beam light shined from it. Soon enough, an armored Doberman jumped out and landed on the field.
The black dog wore army-green armor with a blue ammo case on its back with ammo belts feeding into two machine guns mounted on the dog's flanks.
"Now from my hand, I summon Rose, Warrior of Revenge (4/1600/1200) in attack mode."
A red-headed female appeared on the field, wearing a blue mercenary-suit and a flowing white scarf, and holding rapier in one hand as she stood ready to strike.
"Ha! Now I activate my own trap, slacker!" Jessie smirked as he played his own copy of Bottomless Trap Hole and the same thing happened to Rose, making Nick frown at his opponent.
Despite the initial set back, the red-haired teen didn't seem to be too phased by it.
"Doesn't matter, I still got my friend, go Assault Dog! Attack his life points directly, Howling Barrage!"
The dog let loose a vicious bark and its flank guns began firing at Jessie. The trail of bullets shot dirt up into the air as the attack got closer and closer to hitting its target. Once the attack made contact, Assault Dog howled happily that its mission was successfully completed.
Nick - 4000 LP
Jessie - (4000 - 2800) LP
"I'll lay a face down on the field and end it there, your move." Nick added as he set the card on the field.
Jessie drew his next card, adding it to his hand as he took another one and looked back to Nick.
"I summon King's Knight (4/1600/1400) in attack mode!" he yelled out, summoning the monster on the field. "And equip him with this spell card, Magnum Shield!"
An older looking man appeared on the field. He had a blond beard visible on his face and long blond hair running down his back over a royal blue cape. It wore yellow armor with black and white accents, yellow frill and several other accents and accessories that made the monster look more like a King. It even wore a crown. In one hand, it held a large broad sword. The other hand had held a round shield that matched the Monster's armor, but that was quickly replaced by a rectangular shaped shield. The new shield was red with gold boarders.
"Now his attack is boosted by his defense, giving him a grand total of 3000 attack points!" Jessie roared confidently, directing his had at Nick.
King's Knight (4/1600/1400 - 4/3000/1400)
"Go! Destroy that Mutt! Diamond Slash!"
King's Knight charged at Nick's side of the field, ready to destroy Assault Dog. Once close enough, King's Knight struck at Nick's monster four times, each swing leaving a trail in the air and created the shape of a diamond in the blink of an eye.
"Not so fast Jessie, I activate my trap card, Defense Draw!" Nick responded as the card lifted upward to reveal itself. "Now thanks to this, the damage I would've taken is to negate, plus I can also draw a new card to my hand."
His Assault Dog disintegrated into countless polygons, but they all soon flew backwards to the red-haired teen's duel-disk. Soon enough, the top card of his deck was glowing as he then drew it and added it to his hand.
"In addition, I activate my Assault Dog's special ability, allowing me to special summon any number of Assault Dogs from my deck when destroyed by battle!" Nick added.
His deck was then ejected from the slot, allowing him to search the deck for the copies, finding one and reinserting the whole deck back in. In a matter of seconds, it locked back in and automatically shuffled itself.
Soon enough, a second Assault Dog came on the field, turning blue as it was put in defense mode.
The move made his opponent scoff in arrogance.
"You're just putting off the inevitable!" Jessie snarled, ending his turn without doing anything else.
Nick drew his next card before looking at his hand, knowing now was the time to bring out one of his recent cards he acquired from the pack he bought.
"Alright," He began to say, having a big smile on his face. "For my turn, I summon my Star Drawing (4/1600/1000) to the field in attack mode!"
A rather cutesy monster appeared on the field with light surrounding it. It's shape was that of a small and round being with cutesy eyes as some would think it was some kind of robot. It wore a black beret and held a yellow want with a pink bow and had several heart shaped decorations.
No one was entirely sure of what to make of this monster that clearly did not aesthetically fit in with the cards that had already been played. Even both Barclay and Takashi were baffled by how exactly did the monster on the field will help him.
"Now here's a familiar move you might recognize Jessie, I'm merging together both my Assault Dog and Star Drawing!"
The two monsters became bright white lights and began rapidly orbiting each other until it looked like they had become a solid ring.
"With these two monsters together, I can bring out the overlay network and xyz summon the newest ally of my deck! Go, Dark Rebellion Xyz Dragon (R4/2500/2000)!"
A massive black and purple dragon appeared on the field. It had a somewhat demonic-looking appearance, with a forked tail, long horns and vicious looking fangs on its lower jaw with talons and claws that looked no less fierce. The monster had a rather dark aura about it as the two lights, representing its Overlay Material, quietly orbited the Dragon.
"It's still weaker than my King's Knight!" Jessie reminded him as he started to laugh. He clearly thought Nick was just wasting his move, or it was just some sorry attempt to try and save face.
"Like always, that pea-sized brain of your's doesn't have a clue." Nick commented with a grin on his face. "First off, thanks to the successful summoning, Star Drawing's ability kicks in, letting me draw one new card from my deck and add it to my hand."
Some of the audience members realized now why he had summoned Star Drawing, awestruck by how a monster without any correlation with his deck was actually useful in the duel.
Soon enough, a bright star soon came from the sky, hitting the duel-disk of the slifer student, causing the top card to once again glow brightly.
Nick drew the card, not bothering to look at it just yet as he needed to stay on task with the plan that was currently going on.
"Now I activate my Rebellion Dragon's special ability, by giving up both of his overlay units, he can drain your King's Knight's attack points by half and add it to his own."
The lights floated over to King's Knight and circled him a couple of times, causing him to roar out in pain as energy began to leak out from its body. His opponent roared out and opened its mouth as the energy was soon drawing into the dragon, making it glow brighter with darkness and in size.
King's Knight (4/3000/1400 - 4/1500/1400)
Dark Rebellion Xyz Dragon (R4/2500/2000 - R4/4000/2000)
"Go Dark Rebellion Xyz Dragon!" Nick ordered as he thrusted his hand forward. "Destroy his monster with Black Burn!"
The dragon released an evil looking black flame from its mouth right at the Knight, engulfing the warrior in flames as it bellowed out in pain, soon burning to ash as it disappeared from the field. The difference in attack points resulted in 2500 points of damage for Jessie.
Nick - 4000 LP
Jessie - (2800 - 300)LP
"Alright, I'll finish up by playing one card face down, let's see what you got." Nick taunted.
After drawing, his opponent glared and started tightening his empty hand in rage, making it shake as he soon calmed down.
"I play one card face down on the field and end my turn." Jessie growled as it appeared in front of him.
"I draw," Nick remarked as he drew his next card and took a look at his hand, trying to decide whether or not to risk summoning another powerful monster with the advantage he had. His memory of the duel with Barclay made him realize that he couldn't make the same mistake as before, but now, there was a difference. Trusting his heart, the red-haired teen went on the offensive with his dragon.
"Alright Rebellion, let's finish this guy off, attack his Life Points directly! Black Burn!"
Before the dragon could move, a giant metallic hand suddenly grabbed it and dragged it towards Jessie's field as a machine appeared from the face-down card he activated.
"I activate my trap, Compulsory Evacuation Device!" Jessie countered as the hand forced the dragon into the hole, causing the machine to start up. In a few seconds, energy soon erupted, causing the dragon to roar in pain as it disappeared into a flash of light.
The red-haired teen glared as he had to take the card from his digi-construct and put it back in the extra deck slot on his duel-disk.
"I'll finish my turn by setting one card in defense mode." Nick replied with a sigh.
With a smile on his face for the first time since the duel began, Jessie drew his card and added it to his hand before grabbing another one and playing it.
"I Summon Heroic Challenger - Spartan (4/1600/1000) in attack mode!"
A monster with a flowing red cape, massive round shield and long spear appeared on the field. While still having a futuristic look, the monster still clearly had the appearance of a warrior from Sparta.
"Now let's take care of that worthless face-down card! Spartan, wipe it out with your Flying Dory!"
The warrior focused energy into its spear before throwing it upward, causing it to angle as it attempted to hit the card. Before it could make contact, a guardian of sorts soon manifested in front of the card with a shield, taking the blow.
"You triggered my trap card, Draining Shield!" Nick revealed, showing the face-down card he had on the field "Not only does it protect my monster, but now my life points increase by your Spartan's Attack!"
The spear bounced back and was caught by Spartan, but when it did, orbs of green light soon began emerging from the monster as they drew towards Nick. They entered his body and caused him to glow for a few short seconds before it ended.
Nick - (4000 - 5600) LP
Jessie - 300 LP
Seeing what had just happened, Jessie cursed silently under his breath before ending his turn.
"You starting to get it now?" Nick inquired as he drew his next card. "My deck isn't some piece of garbage, it's a deck that can handle even the strongest of duelist."
"You're just hiding behind traps like one of those coward stall duelists!" Jessie snapped at his opponent, growling at him.
The statement made a demonic aura appear behind the red-haired teen's side, making the other side look over to find Takashi giving a look of anger at the Ra-student.
"We'll see about that, I end my turn." Nick continued, ending his turn without making a single move.
Once again, Jessie drew before playing another card into his digi-construct.
"I activate the spell, Mystical Space Typhoon!"
The swirling vortex erupted from the card when it projected onto the field and flew at Nick's side of the field to destroy his facedown card, which was his Scrap Iron Scarecrow trap card.
"Now Spartan, let's wipe out this pathetic scum's monster, attack!"
This time, rather than throwing its spear, the warrior roared out and sprinted towards the set monster. Once it got close enough, it jumped up and thrust its spear forward, hitting the monster as it was revealed to be Unknown Synchron (1/0/0). In an instant, Spartan pushed forward, destroying the monster as it then jumped back to its master's side.
"That ends my turn." Jessie spat out in disgust.
"And now mine comes back." Nick replied, looking down to find that he wasn't doing too well with the cards he had on hand. All he could do was set another monster in defense mode to protect his life points, ending his turn.
"Here we go again! I play one card face down on the field, and then, I order Spartan to rip that worthless card of yours to shreds!"
Once again, Spartan charged towards the face down and impaled it with the spear, revealing it to be Assault Beast (4/1900/1200) before it broke into millions of sparkles, ending Jessie's turn.
Nick started thinking that there might not be hope, wondering if there was anything that could turn the tables back to his favor.
With his next draw, the answer to his problem came as he silently thanked his deck for hearing his pleas.
"It's your lucky day Jessie, I decided to give you a break from all that attacking by activating the spell, One Day of Peace."
Right as the card manifested, Takashi, who had calmed himself from the rage he had been in from Jessie's earlier comment, cheered loudly as he grabbed Barclay with one hand and spun around.
"Thanks to my friend who gave me this card, we each get to draw one new card from our decks."
Two orbs of light emerged from the card, shooting straight away from each other and entering the duel-disks of both students. This time, both of their top cards were glowing brightly.
Soon enough, they drew the card and added them to their hands.
"The only draw back to this is that neither one of us can do any kind of damage to the other until the end of your next turn."
Luck continued to be on Nick's side when he saw the card that was added, looking at the hand before him and realizing now was the time.
"Hope your ready to see the full power of this deck!" he declared. "I'll start off by activating an ability from hand, sending one card to the graveyard in order to special summon The Tricky (5/2000/1200) in attack mode!"
The space in front of Nick distorted as a jester-looking monster warped into existence. It had black stripes over a beige base and had two large red question marks on it, one on the face and one of the chest. A blue cape fluttered behind it.
"Next up, I summon one of my eyes in the sky, Genex Ally Birdman (3/1400/400) in attack mode!"
A small, squat looking creature appeared. It was mostly green, with a large yellow beak and had a pair of large white wings, what looked like wings on the back of its head and white tail feathers. It, like many of Nick's monsters, looked somewhat robotic, if not a bizarre suit of armor.
"Now it's time to really get things going! I tune together my level 5 Tricky and level 3 Birdman in order to Synchro Summon, Stardust Dragon (8/2500/2000) in attack mode!"
Blinding silver light enveloped the field. As the light faded, a shimmering silver dragon hovered over over the ground. Its appearance was becoming very familiar to those who spent time around Nick.
"And I'm not done yet, I now activate my trump card, Assault Mode!" Nick declared, revealing the last face-down card he still had left on the field. "Alright Stardust, let's show this guy what it means to level up, Assault Mode Activate!"
The normally svelte looking dragon suddenly became enveloped with a bright white-light, causing a metamorphosis of the dragon as the light soon started to die down. After it stopped, everyone saw a much more built and appeared to now be wearing some kind of armor. There was a lot more blue on the normally silvery-white monster. Other than that, its appearance did not appear to have changed much.
"Say hello to my Stardust Dragon/Assault Mode (10/3000/2500) in attack mode!" Nick remarked with pride in his voice. "I'll end my turn with this, now let's see what you got, Jessie."
Everyone was in awe by what they witnessed, especially since rarely did anyone actually succeed in summoning the Assault Mode monsters, even Barclay couldn't help but gasp in awe. He had wondered where the card was all this time during his duel, causing a feeling of excitement to surge in his body.
"I' play one card face down and end my turn." Jessie snarled as the card soon appeared in front of him. The Ra-student was now fuming with rage, his face becoming about the same shade as his opponent's jacket.
"I'll set one card face down, and because your turn passed, the effects from One Day of Peace are gone and we both can now take normal damage." Nick explained before continuing his turn. "Stardust, time to show this prick what you're made of, attack his Spartan with Double Quasar Burst!"
The dragon released a powerful, shimmering silver blast from its mouth as it flew towards Jessie's side of the field. Before it could hit however, a knight clad in green and white armor soon appeared from the air and landed on the floor. In both hands, it held large shields with sharp protrusions on the tops and bottoms of them.
"Ha! By discarding Heroic Challenger - Swordshield, I take no damage from battle and all Heroic Challenger monsters survive!"
Swordshield brought the shields in front of him and raised them upward, creating a larger energy barrier, which the blast hit and broke through, destroying the monster and protecting Jessie's monster.
"I also activate Damage Condenser, which means by discarding one card from my hand, I can special summon a monster from my deck that has attack points equal to or less than the damage I just took."
Behind Jessie, a large machine that had two electric generators on the side appeared, looking like something out of a science fiction movie
That statement made everyone confused, especially Nick, who could only raise an eyebrow in confusion.
"Wait, but you didn't take any damage, so how can you even activate it?" Nick asked with a curious tone in his voice.
"You just let me worry about that, Slacker." Jessie retorted as he waited for his deck slot to unlock and push his deck out for him to find the specific monster.
"Sorry, but regardless of whether you think it applies or not, it doesn't matter." Nick replied, causing Jessie to freeze.
"What?" He inquired, looking up slowly with pure rage expressed on his face.
"I activate my Stardust's Special Ability!"
"...What?!"
"By sacrificing him this turn, your trap cards gets negated."
"WHAT?!"
"Meaning you can't use it at all!"
Soon enough, Stardust's blue parts of his body began to glow brightly as it shot up a beam of light into the air, hitting the machine and destroying it in seconds.
Jessie angrily roared out in frustration, falling on his knees and slamming his fist right into the ground.
It took him a few seconds to regain his composure and get back up.
"With that, I end my turn, which also means Stardust's second ability activates: Whenever he's tributed and negates any kind of card on the field this turn, Stardust can come back to my side of the field."
A small silver light quietly lowered from the sky and stopped several feet above the ground. For a few seconds nothing happened. Then a brilliant burst of light blinded everyone watching the duel. When their vision returned, the massive silver dragon was back on the field.
It took quite a bit of struggling for Jessie to even place his hand atop his deck to draw, his thoughts were enraged by what was happening.
This was suppose to be easy! This worthless Slifer loser is nothing, I am the strongest student in the whole damn dorm! This can't be happening... was all Jessie could think of as he looked at the card he just drew.
"I play one card face down and change Spartan into defense mode."
A card appeared in front of Jessie as his monster kneeled down and brought its massive shield up, blocking the it from sight.
"...That's all." Jessie spat out with a dark tone.
Nick drew his card, taking a look at it to find that it could come in handy later, but decided to take another shot at his opponent.
"Alright, let's try this one more time, Stardust attack!"
Once again, the dragon released a powerful, shimmering silver blast from its mouth and aimed right at Spartan.
"Sorry Slacker, I activate Battleguard Howling!" Jessie yelled as the face-down card he had on the field revealed itself. An ogre soon emerged and began howling.
"Already forgot haven't we? Stardust! " Nick shouted, activating his monster's effect again as the light shined right at the trap card.
The dragon and it's attack both vanished from the field while Jessie's trap harmlessly shattered, causing a vein to start pulsing on his forehead.
"Since my attack got stopped once again, I'll end my turn, which means once again, Stardust comes back to my field."
Again, a light lowered onto the field. This time, everyone was prepared and shielded their eyes before the light erupted in a blinding fashion, and when it stopped all could see the dragon had returned once more.
Jessie drew his card and quickly played it, making Nick's eyes widen as he recognized the card before him.
"How's this move?! I activate Galaxy Cyclone," Jessie growled with rage as the area transformed the same way when Nick used it. The cyclone targeted one of Nick's two face-down cards, destroying it in mere-moments.
"...Just go..." was all the dark-haired student could say as his fists were shaking in rage.
The red-haired teen drew his next card and only placed it face-down on the field, declaring his turn over.
This time, after Jessie drew the card, a cocky grin came about as he turned back to his opponent.
"My turn! I change Heroic Challenger - Spartan back to attack mode," Jessie growled as his warrior changed back into its fighting stance once more. "And activate my ace, Heroic Chance! This doubles Spartan's attack points to 3200! More than enough to destroy your damned dragon!"
When the spell showed up, a burning light soon surrounded Spartan as his armor started glowing like a solar flare, making it look like it was improved as the flames surrounded him. His monster then pulled back his spear in an attempt to throw it, but soon found itself grabbed by a familiar metallic hand.
"Not so fast! I think you're familiar with this card, Jessie." Nick declared as he activated his own copy of Compulsory Evacuation Device, causing the same action to occur like it did with his Rebellion Dragon. The monster and its weapon were ejected from the field and the attack failed to make contact.
Right after that, all hell broke loose.
"Damn you!" Jessie snarled and suddenly went in a blind rage, activating the spell Dark Hole from his hand in an attempt to destroy the monster by any means.
"That won't work." Nick stated in a blunt tone as the effects of Stardust countered before the card could even manifest itself completely. Again, the dragon vanished from the field, leaving his opponent to bellow out in rage and growl like he was some form of animal.
His posse looked on in shock, never seeing their leader act this way before. A few of them even slowly backed away from him before they would get caught in his tantrum.
After a few minutes, Jessie finally seemed to settle down enough to make a move and set a face down defense monster and ended his turn. He was so angry that he was visibly shaking with rage and refused to speak.
"I set a card face down on the field," Nick announced after drawing his card. "Now, if there isn't another interruption, Go Stardust!"
The Dragon fired its shimmering silver blast for a third time and succeed in destroying Heroic Challenger - Spartan, breaking it into millions of digital pieces.
"With that, I'll end my turn."
Jessie had no words left to say, no witty remark or even bashful comment, all he had was just empty resolve as he placed a card face-down on the field, ending his turn.
His entourage looked on with shock at what was going on, not believing it with their own eyes, their idol was losing the duel he himself boasted about. All of his speeches, his trash-talk, and even the declarations were nothing but empty words in their eyes now.
"This deck has no endurance," Barclay muttered to Takashi, who turned his head to look at him. "This is totally a sprinting deck."
"Sprinting deck?" Takashi asked with curiosity.
"Not an official term, far as I'm aware." Barclay replied as he began to explain. "This deck seems to need to take control in the beginning and maintain control from there. Otherwise, the wielder won't be able to react to anything the opponent dishes out, which spells trouble for Jessie overall."
Nick drew and looked over to see his opponent, who was seething with rage and frustration while breathing heavily. Despite knowing that he had gotten even, Nick couldn't help but feel sorry for him.
"Despite what you may think of me Jessie, you have an amazing deck, maybe one day you'll learn to better appreciate it and others as well."
Nick activated the card he just drew from his hand.
"I finish this off with my spell, Mystical Space Typhoon, destroying the last face-down card you have on the field."
The, by now, very familiar swirling vortex sped across the field and destroyed Jessie's face down card, Heroic Advance.
"Stardust, let's end this, attack his life points directly and end the duel!"
The dragon roared and soon flew upwards, causing its body to envelop in a white aura as it stopped mid-air, changing direction and going downward. Before long, the impact connected with Jessie, who yelled out in pain as he was sent flying backwards by the impact of the hologram.
Nick - 5600 LP
Jessie - (300 - 0) LP
The dome slowly de-materialized and eventually disappeared, causing both probes to reactivate and launch themselves back into their separate duel disk. All anyone could hear throughout the area was hushed silence, no wind blew and only the quiet breathing of everyone present filled the air.
After taking off his visor and putting his deck back into his case, Nick walked over to Jessie, who was off his back and now on his knees, still shocked by the defeat that befell him.
While he knew that the two were on bad terms, the red-haired teen wanted to try and at least bury the hatchet as to not have anymore situations like this. Takashi and Barclay only stepped a few feet closer, wanting to make sure that none of the other people would try and jump their friend.
When Nick finally stopped in front of Jessie, he took a deep breath and let it out, catching the attention of the person in front of him. Despite him still not looking upward, the teen decided to just say his peace and hope for the best.
"I won Jessie, you lost, that's fact. Though I saw how strong-willed you are and what an incredible deck you have, but it doesn't mean that you can just go around and insult other people like you're king of the world. No more you hear? From now on, you don't judge other people or their deck styles since you lost to someone who had no style, deal?"
The red-head offered his hand to his opponent. After a few moments of silence, Jessie took Nick's hand, and the younger teen felt thrilled that his peace offering was successful.
The joy died immediately, as he felt a heavy impact. Pain shot through his head, originating from his right eye. The force was enough to knock him off of his feet. He gasped in pain as all the wind was knocked from his body when he hit the ground, then stared up at the sky through the canopy, wondering what had just happened.
Disoriented, Nick struggled to get up from the ground as he heard the sounds of a brawl starting just a few meters from him. At least he thought that's what it was, everything was kind of fuzzy. It sounded like shouting, someone else getting hit, something about a deck...
Soon enough, that came to a grinding halt when a loud familiar female voice was heard.
"What is going on here?!"
In that instant, everyone in the struggle stopped what they were doing and turned to the direction of the voice. Soon enough, most of them all were shivering in fear, while some even whispered how screwed they all were.
Nick managed to prop himself up on his elbows and saw that it was the Head-Mistress, who was stepping into the clearing followed by two unfamiliar Ra-students behind her.
"So, this is how students of Duel Academy behave after losing?! Fighting amongst one another like toddlers on the playground?!"
Nobody dared to say anything as the groups split up, Jessie's group staying among themselves while Takashi and Barclay, who had some bruises developing on their bodies, went to help up their friend from the ground.
"Mr. Alexandros!"
The group suddenly moved away from one another as the person behind the royale stood alone, making him glare at his former minions before focusing his attention back on the person in front of him.
"Would you care to explain what exactly is going on around here, and Why mr. Brood is hurt with a black eye?!"
The silence that followed was excruciating for all present as they saw him trying to think of how to get out of that situation. Soon enough, his voice broke that silence.
"This student challenged me to a duel," Jessie began to explain, his tone clearly trying to make it seem like he was the victim. "He insisted that we ante up our decks as part of the duel. I thought that if I could beat him, it would teach him the consequences for illegal actions like this! But, he somehow cheated, and then tried to take my deck regardless. I hit him to protect myself, which caused his two goons to come charging in. My friends had to come to my rescue, which resulted in this brawl Head-Mistress."
The dark-skinned woman raised an eyebrow in suspicion after hearing the story. Before she could speak though, a second voice interrupted.
"Haverin' dobber!" Nick shouted after getting up, walking towards them. He wasn't too sure what he had just said, but he had heard Barclay muttering it enough to hazard using it in this situation.
"What did you call me?" Jessie snarled as he turned to face Nick, whose didn't back down.
"He called you a liar." Barclay answered, following his friend with Takashi right behind. Soon enough, the large student began to talk.
"Head-Mistress, on my honor as a second year student of the Slifer dorm, I assure you that Jessie's explanation is completely false!" Takashi added as he suddenly knelt down in a respectful way. "Nick did not cheat in any way, in fact, he was only offering a peaceful resolution to the conflict they both had endured only to be punched in the eye by his opponent."
"He's a liar Head-Mistress!" Jessie retorted, but stopped when her gaze soon landed on him, causing him to flinch slightly.
"Takashi Matsumoto has been at this academy for a year now, and not once has he ever shown anyone any ill remorse or lied in any circumstance." she remarked with a confident tone. "We will discuss this further in my office Mr. Brood... Now, as for the rest of you, I suggest you turn around and leave the area immediately, or else I will have to rethink my rule on corporal punishment!"
"Yes Head-Mistress!" Jessie's group saluted before taking off like a bat colony out of hell, leaving only a dust cloud behind.
"...Worthless scum..." the Ra-student muttered under his breath.
"Mr. Alexandros, I will have you begin your journey to my office, where we will discuss an appropriate punishment on this situation." She ordered him, causing Jessie to bow in respect before taking his leave as well. None of them noticed him turning his head, looking right at Nick.
Enjoy your little victory you worthless slacker, I'll get you for this, no matter what it takes! were the last thoughts he had in his mind before he simply turned around and continued the walk.
After Head-Mistress Ward saw him leave, her attention turned back towards the trio, who were groaning slightly with some of the injuries that they received.
"Mr. Brood, come here please." she ordered in a more calm tone, making Nick look up and quickly make his way towards her. After he stopped, she gently grabbed the sides of his head and leaned in a bit closer, analyzing the black eye. "Well it doesn't appear too bad, however I recommend that you and your friends head to the Nurse's Office to have a look over."
"Yes Head-Mistress," the trio remarked with a respectful tone.
With that last statement, the Head-Mistress let go of Nick's head and began walking out of the forest, but paused mid-step as she turned her head to look over her shoulder at them.
"Though I do recommend this to you three: The next time you decide to have an illegal duel on the campus, the punishment you will receive will be far more severe than what your opponents will have."
That statement sent a chill down their spines, even Barclay knew that she wasn't kidding around. After she made her way out of the clearing, they could only let out a sigh of relief before turning their attention to the two girls that were still there.
"I guess we have you two to thank for helping us out?" Nick asked with his hand over his eye, starting to feel it swell up and hurt from the punch he took.
"That's right!" one of them replied with a cheerful demeanor as she winked at Nick, putting her hands behind her back and smiling. She had short silver hair with a longer left bang that reached the bottom of her chin. She also had fair skin and a large bust, which was constricted with her uniform. Her red eyes also showed to have noticeably pronounced irises. She wore the usual uniform, though she had leggings that appeared to have been sewn into the skirt, which ended a little bit above her yellow boots. "I'm Laura Nyberg, first year Ra-yellow. And this, is my friend Sera Tadros, also a first year Ra."
Laura gestured to the girl next to her. This girl had dark skin, purple eyes and dark brown hair with bright pink bangs. Her hair reached the middle of her back and she had an average figure, at least it was compared to Laura. She wore the standard Ra Yellow jacket in proper form, over a black skirt and yellow boots. Sera gave a sort of shy, little half-wave.
"Now that introductions are out of the way..." Laura continued with a happy little smile on her face. "Let's talk about how you're going to thank us!"
"Thank you? So you two were the ones who told the Head-Mistress about what was going on?" Takashi inquired as he looked at them.
"She called her, I just didn't care about some dumb old argument to bother." Sera pointed her thumb at her friend, adding a cold tone.
The trio of boys raised an eyebrow in confusion at her response.
"Oh don't mind her, Sera loves to be moody all the time, and yeah. I figured it wasn't fair that prick was gonna gang up on you and take your deck even after you won."
"Well thanks, I appreciate it, I'm Nick Brood and I owe you one."
"You may call me Takashi Matsumoto!"
"...Barclay."
"Like I was saying..." Laura started again, pouting a bit that the conversation wasn't going like she wanted. "Let's talk about how you're going to thank us for helping you!"
She began herding everyone back towards the academy building, with her aim being for the Nurse's Office.
"I'm thinking you can start off by buying us Lunch." the silver-haired girl was saying. "Then, hm... What do you think should follow that up, Sera? Oh! How about dessert! I like those fancy parfaits they have in the cafeteria, you know? The ones that are, like, 1600 yen. Then, ooh! How about you buy us some cards?"
Laura continued talking, making plans for weeks to come as she led them to their destination.
All the trio could do was listen on, still feeling the bruises of their hollow victory and knowing that they accomplished a striking blow against people like Jessie.
And there we have the end of this chapter, for those who are confused to some of the new stuff we did, after looking up some of the information on how others do Yu-Gi-Oh fanfictions, we decided to try a similar method and found that it works pretty well: It consists of putting monsters information with (Level/Attack/Defense), though if the monster is XYZ, it will go (R-Level/Attack/Defense). The second thing is showing the life-points in between the writing, better showing people when the damage is taken and by how much. Let us know how we did on this chapter and stayed tuned for what's in store on the next one!
Translations:
"Haverin' dobber!" - "Lying bastard!"