Chapter 44
The shimmering Blue Eyes armour fitted perfectly, but the face staring out at them was defiantly Tristan's. This one fact alone appeared to confirm everything he'd been saying about their backwards perspectives. After all, if their minds had been altered to see the real Kaiba as Tristan, then even with him as the Blue Eyes Knight, that's what they'd see. It made Joey feel more than a little glad the Lady of the Seven Harpies wasn't played. He already looked like a pregnant man, the last thing he needed was to be a pregnant man in a dress.
'Okay I'm ready,' Tristan the Blue Eyes Knight met the Paladin of White Dragon's gaze.
'Impressive,' the Paladin smirked, 'two dragon warriors going up against each other,' he leapt down from the white beast he was riding, 'this should make things interesting.' In one swift beating of its wings, his dragon took flight again. 'Call your dragon.'
'What?' Tristan blinked at him.
'Call your dragon. If you're really a Blue Eyes Knight, you should be able to call your dragon.'
'Okay…'
Joey watched as the Blue Eyes Knight took a deep breath in and closed his eyes. For a long couple of minutes there was complete and utter silence and Joey found himself resisting the temptation to taunt him for failing so miserably. Then, to his amazement, the calm was broken by the all too familiar cry of the Blue Eyes White Dragon.
'No way,' Joey's eyes bulged as the legendry beast descended from the sky. 'How the hell did rich boy pull that one off?'
'Simple Wheeler,' Tristan smirked, 'the Blue Eyes Knight's special ability allows it to summon a Blue Eyes from a duellist or their opponent's hand, deck or graveyard.'
'So explain again exactly where that,' he pointed towards the dragon, 'came from.'
'The redhead's graveyard,' Catilin giggled as she bounced on the spot.
'No,' Joey shook his head, 'you cannot tell me that's where it came from, because that Blue Eyes wasn't even real.'
'Anyone would think you didn't want me to complete this challenge Wheeler,' Tristan rolled his eyes, 'does it really matter where the Blue Eyes came from?'
'Yes,' he folded his arms stubbornly, 'because it's the fate of my children at stake here and so far everybody but me has been doing all the work.'
'And you're complaining because…?'
'Because they're my children, if anyone should be responsible for their safety it should be me.'
'Tough luck Wheeler,' Tristan shrugged callously, 'I guess this'll make you think twice before inflicting your offspring onto the world.' He turned his attention back towards the Paladin. 'So exactly what is it you want me to do?'
Kaiba had hated wearing the Blue Eyes armour the first time round and he wasn't exactly thrilled to be in it again. Still if it would help him get Tristan back, that's all that mattered. According to the Paladin, the sixth challenge was a race with the two of them riding the Blue Eyes they had summoned. Kaiba almost felt disappointed at the simplicity of it. After all, he'd been more than prepared for some kind of dragon battle or duel or something. But he wasn't going to complain, especially not when he was in the lead.
Without warning a fiery blast connected with the side of his dragon, knocking him off balance and almost causing him to fall off his dragon.
'What the…!' He glanced in the direction the blast had come from as he readjusted his position on his right.
Not too far behind him was what looked like a Winged Dragon Guardian of the Fortress. As he stared at it another fiery ball formed in the monster's mouth. Lowering his position on Blue Eyes, he managed to get it to swerve out of the line of fire. He then got the dragon to slow to a stop and turn towards their attacker.
'Well looks like this isn't going to be so simple after all,' he smirked. 'Okay Blue Eyes, let's show this pest what a real dragon's attack looks like. White Lightning attack!'
A ball of white light formed in his dragon's mouth firing a stream of energy across at the Wing Dragon, destroying it instantly. Giving a smug half laugh, he turned his Blue Eyes back round in order to continue the race. But as he did he was hit by another blast.
'You've got to be kidding me,' his eyes bulged slightly as he spotted the swarming crowd of dragons forming around him. 'I don't have time for this.'
Beneath him, his Blue Eyes gave its shrill cry.
'What, you think we should fight are way out?'
The dragon cried again.
'Fine, if that's what you want.'
Rearing its head back, the Blue Eyes formed another ball of light and, moving its head along the circle of dragons, began firing a continuous stream. But for every dragon he took out, three more took its place.
'This is nuts.'
'You're telling me,' the Paladin appeared almost out of nowhere beside him, 'we must be flying through their territory.'
'Isn't this something you should have checked out before starting this race?'
'I thought I had, but I guess they claimed a bigger area than I realised.'
'So what do we do? How do we get rid of them?'
'What kind of warrior are you? We fight them of course.'
'But there are too many of them.'
'Don't tell me you're afraid.'
'Don't be stupid.'
'Then catch,' the Paladin through a sword across to him.
'What am I supposed to do with this?'
'You do what every good knight does,' he spoke as though the answer were obvious, 'you slay the dragons.'
'So how do we think rich boy is doing?' Joey gave a heavy sigh as he carefully sat himself down on a stone next to the gate. 'Think he's lost yet?'
'Joey,' Mai shot him a scolding look, 'he's doing this for you, remember?'
'Funny, I don't remember asking him to. And besides, I think I'm the last person he's doing this for.'
'Full house,' Catilin's voice was as loud as it was sudden.
'I'm sorry Cat, what?' Jay cocked an eyebrow at her.
'I was thinking about everything that's going on and it came to me, we have a full house,' she grinned, 'we have twelve players.'
'At what point exactly did you lose your ability to count?' Joey shot her a funny look. 'We only have nine players Cat.'
'Nu-uh we have twelve; think about it Ahna is Covo, Jay is SK and...'
'Rich boy is Tristan, or Tristan is rich boy, however you want to put it.'
'Uh-huh,' she nodded, 'doesn't that make twelve?'
'And your point is?'
'We have a full house so we've won.'
'How do you figure that?'
'Because we have a full house, even if we lose three players for the next three challenges we still have a full house. Well if we get rid of the right people that is. So we've won, right?'
'Maybe,' Joey frowned in thought, 'we'll see.'
