"Aster? Aster what's the matter?!"

Aster started to glow and eerie purple color, as did the other duelists who just lost their duels. And they all started to scream and then vanished into thin air. Then all the remaining duelist's heard the Card Master's voice.

"Congratulations duelists, you have survived round one."

"Survived? What happened to the others?!" demanded Alexis.

"What have you done with them!" yelled Jaden.

"Sorry, but the losers have gone to the Shadow Realm."

"Shadow Realm? What the hell are you talking about?" said Drago.

"Sorry Drago I forgot you don't have the brains that God gave a **** ant. As some of you know the game of duel monsters is started out as a war of real monsters and magic fought by Egyptian kings and all other kinds of royal tyrants for riches and glory. They did battle in a place called the Shadow Realm, and when they lost... they lost more then just a silly little game… much more. We are standing on one of the oldest dueling grounds in history. Whosoever duels on this sacred sight and loses is banished to the Shadow Realm for all eternity, a black abyss from which you will never return…"

"You monster!" yelled Jaden.

"That's it! I refuse to participate in such a sick spectacle!" said Paulina.

"Then you forfeit…"

Paulina started to glow.

"NO WAIT! I'LL PLAY! I'LL PLAY!!!"

"Very good… Just remember my friends… five million dollars and one thing you desire most in the whole world awaits you at the end… if… you survive…. MWAH HA AH AH HA!!!"

"Syrus… Aster… Chazz… Jesse… All gone… They're gone!!!"

"Are you going to stand there and cry over your friends all day or are we going to duel?!" said Drago.

"Drago you can't be serious! Didn't you hear what the Card Master just said?!"

"Yes, he said if I don't duel I'm going to lose my soul. I'm an American with big plans for his future Mr. Yuki and they don't include being trapped in a big black abyss for all eternity!"

"Jaden, you have to duel him." said Yubel "If you refuse then you'll be the one who gets trapped in the Shadow Realm. But if you keep going there's still a chance we might be able to save the others."

"Alright Yubel, but I'll probably hate myself in the morning."

"Game on!"

"I'll start things off! I'll summon a monster in defense mode. Next I play the spell card E-Emergency Call, which let's me bring an Elemental Hero from my deck to my hand. Next I play the spell card Foolish Burial which will let me send a monster from my deck to the grave. Next I'll lay one card face down and end my turn."

"Play any card you like, it won't change a thing."

Drago drew his card.

"Excellent… I summon Horus the Black Flame Dragon Level 4!"

(ATK: 1600 DEF: 1000)

"Next I activate the spell card Level Up which causes Horus to evolve to Level 6!"

(ATK: 2300 DEF: 1600)

"Horus destroy his face down monster!"

Horus fired a jet stream of black fire that caused Jaden's face down Clayman to melt.

"And when Horus destroys an enemy monster it evolves to Level 8!"

(ATK: 3000 DEF: 1800)

"And if you think that's scary just check out his special ability. As long as Horus Level 8 is on the field I can negate the effects of all spell cards and destroy them!"

"Good thing I thought ahead." thought Jaden.

Jaden drew his card.

"I summon Elemental Hero Bladedge!"

(ATK: 2600 DEF: 1800)

"Wait! You need to sacrifice two monsters to summon that!" exclaimed Drago.

"Normally that would be true, but when I played Foolish Burial I sent Elemental Hero Necroshade to my graveyard, which let's me activate his special effect and summon an Elemental Hero without a tribute."

"No matter… That Bladedge has only 2600 attack points, Horus has 3000, and due to it's effect you can't play any spell cards."

"Good thing I don't need any, all I need is my face down trap, Edge Hammer! By sacrificing Blade Edge I can destroy one monster on your side of the field, and then that monster's attack points are dealt to you as damage!"

Bladedge dashed at Horus causing it to explode.

(Drago: 1000)

"Damn! Horus was one of my best monsters! Now this little punk has reduced me to a mere 1000 life points! But he's left himself wide open for a direct attack."

Drago looked at the cards in his hand.

"I can't summon any of these dragons because their levels are too high! But I need to protect my life points!"

Drago drew his card.

"… Perfect."

"I play one monster in defense mode and end my turn."

"Why didn't he attack me? I was wide open." thought Jaden.

"I'll throw down a face down and summon Elemental Hero Sparkman!"

(ATK: 1600 DEF: 1400)

"Next I'll have him attack your face down!"

When Sparkman attacked the face down card flipped up revealing a creepy black face with one eye, but the monster was destroyed anyway.

"You attacked my Morphing Jar, which requires us both to send all the cards in our hands to the graveyard and draw five new cards!"

Jaden was forced to discard both Neo-Spacian Aqua Dolphin and Flare Scarab.

"Sorry guys, my bad."

"Now it's my turn!"

Drago drew his card.

"This is more like it! I play two copies of Dian Keto the Cure Master to gain 2000 life points!"

(Drago: 3000)

"Next I activate the spell card Dragon's Mirror, and remove five dragons in my graveyard to summon the Five Headed Dragon!"

(ATK: 5000 DEF: 5000)

"But that's not all, now I play Dimension Fusion!"

(Drago: 1000)

"It may cost me 2000 life points but that's a small price to pay to win this duel. I special summon Mikazukinoyaiba, Dragonic Knight, Tri-Horned Dragon, and Tyrant Dragon!"

(In that order, ATK: 2200 DEF: 2350, ATK: 2800 DEF: 2300, ATK: 2850 DEF: 2350, ATK: 2900 DEF: 2500)

"Holy Kuriboh that's a lot of points!" said Jaden.

(Add it all up and you get 15750)

"Wait till you see them in action! Five Headed Dragon destroy his Sparkman! And the rest of you wipe out what's left of his life points!!!"

All of Drago's dragons attacked and there was a big explosion of light. And Drago started to laugh as if he had gone mad with power.

"HA AH! I win!!!"

But when the smoke cleared Jaden was still standing with 600 life points.

"WHAT!!! This is impossible! You shouldn't have any life points left! I blasted you with everything I had!!!"

"You did, but after your Five Headed Dragon destroyed my Sparkman I activated my face down, the quick play spell The Flute of Summoning Kuriboh, which let me summon my good friend Winged Kuriboh from my deck, forcing one of your dragons to attack him, and as you should know when he's destroyed any damage I take afterwards is reduced to zero. So the only life points I lost were from when your Five Headed Dragon destroyed Sparkman, leaving me with 600."

"It doesn't matter." growled Drago. "There is not a card in your deck that can topple my five mighty dragons!"

All five of Drago's monster's stared hungrily at Jaden, snarled, and growled.

"He's right, but I've never relied on the strength of a single card before."

"I'll end my turn by laying one card face down. Now make your move!"

Jaden drew his card, and looked at the cards in his hand, thanks to Drago's Morphing Jar he had a full hand, but could he use any of the cards he had gotten to bring down five very powerful dragons? Just then he thought of something, it couldn't guarantee him victory, but it was the only chance he had.

"There is no way in hell Jaden can beat me." thought Drago "Even if he summons a monster with enough attack points to take out my weakest monster, Mikazukinoyaiba, I'll activate my Rising Energy trap card which will give him a 1500 attack point boost."

"I play the spell card Cocoon Party! Since you sent two of my Neo-Spacians to my graveyard with your Morphing Jar I can special summon two Chrysalis monsters from my deck, and I choose Chrysalis Pantail and Chrysalis Pinny!"

(ATK: 800 DEF: 300)

(ATK: 100 DEF: 700)

"What are those?" said Drago.

"I just told you, Chrysalis monsters."

"I call it a wasted turn, those puny little aliens can't possible stand up to my mighty dragons!"

"Whoever said my turn was over? I activate the spell card Contact! Now all my Chrysalis monsters grow up into Neo-Spacians Dark Panther and Glow Moss!"

(ATK: 1000 DEF: 500)

(ATK: 300 DEF: 900)

"So now you have mature monsters, big deal! Their attack points still don't come close to those of my dragons!"

"Maybe not, but now I activate the spell card Fake Hero, which let's me special Summon an Elemental Hero from my hand, but that card can't attack and is returned to my hand at the end of my turn. Come on out… Elemental Hero Neos!"

(ATK: 2500 DEF: 2000)

"What good is that if it can't attack?" said Drago.

"I wasn't planning to attack with Neos. I'm using him for a contact fusion with Glow Moss and Dark Panther to summon… Elemental Hero Chaos Neos!"

(ATK: 3000 DEF: 2500)

"A lot of good that move is going to do you Jaden. The moment you attack I'll spring my trap on you." thought Drago.

"I activate Neos' special ability!"

"What?!"

"Now I toss three coins and what happens next depends on the number of heads I get."

"Damn… My trap card can only be used if he attacks me!"

"Well this is it." thought Jaden "And I only get one shot… Neos don't fail me now!"

Jaden tossed the coins in the air… They all landed on heads.

(I know, what are the odds of that?)

"Well it would appear that today is my lucky day, all three of them landed on heads, so all the monsters you control are destroyed!"

"What?!"

Neos conjured five balls of energy and fired them at each of Drago's monsters, the dragons were engulfed by the balls of energy and disappeared.

"No!!! He just took out all my monsters! And there's nothing between him and my life points!!!"

"I'm sorry I have to do this Drago… But I promise I will rescue you and the others… Neos attack!!!"

Neos blasted Drago with a ball of energy and his life points went down to zero. Then Drago started to glow.

"NO THIS CAN'T BE HAPPENING!!! I'M TOO YOUNG TO DIE!!! AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGHHHHHHHHHHH!!!"

"Congratulations Jaden… You've survived the second round… I wonder who your next opponent will be…"

To be continued

Coming up next

Alexis vs. Paulina

In

Chapter 10: A bug's fight