When Sophia woke up on the third day of the tournament she was expecting a few things, Ariana's daily check-in, Chelsea stopping by to see if there was any updates on Jenny and duelists complaining about the extension were among them, the last thing she expected when she logged into her desktop computer in her room was a call from Domino City hospital.
"Sophia Pegasus? You asked to be kept informed of Jenny's McQuaid's condition?" The doctor asked once she accepted the video call and Sophia nodded expecting the worst. "It's not good news I'm afraid, "Her right collarbone is broken, her other arm is dislocated, broken ulna, which is the forearm bone on the pinky side, multiple broken fingers, three broken ribs and at least one skull fracture." The doctor explained and Sophia nodded as she jotted that information down in her head. "And that's not the worst part."
"Wait, she has more broken bones than I care to count and that's not the worst part?" Sophia asked with a skeptical look on her face and the doctor nodded. "Why do I get the feeling this has to do with the impact against the tree?"
"Essentially yes, she came too this morning and it wasn't long before she complained quite loudly that she couldn't move her legs." The doctor explained and Sophia bit her lip expecting the worst. "I ordered an emergency MRI, the impact against the tree caused severe spinal damage and it appears to have left her paralyzed from the waist down, potentially for the rest of her life." The doctor explained and Sophia lowered her head once it sunk in. "I explained to Jenny and her family that it is possible for her to regain the use of her legs, but it would take months of painful rehab and frankly the broken bones and dislocated arm are a higher priority right now."
"I understand." Sophia nodded as she shifted her weight. "How is she taking the news?"
"It's never easy delivering news like that to a younger patient, especially one who had a bright future ahead of them like Jenny." The doctor explained solemnly, and Sophia sighed. "She's heartbroken to say the least, her family is trying to calm her down saying that everything will be alright but last I saw, it wasn't having much effect." The doctor added and Sophia nodded. "As for recovery time, it's likely that she will be spending a least a year in hospital."
"I see." Sophia nodded as she shifted her weight. "Look, if Jenny needs any expensive treatment done, send the bill to me, she got injured during my tournament and it's the least I can do."
"I will let her family know." The doctor nodded before hanging up and Sophia sighed before standing up.
"I knew paralyses was going to be a possibility for Jenny after that crash doesn't make the news any less sad." Sophia thought as she stood up and exited her room. "If Chelsea does stop by, I will update her, but only if it's obvious that she's in any condition to duel."
*elsewhere in the castle*
Sophia had woken up earlier compared to the other inhabitants of the castle and as a result most of the duelists were either waking up or still asleep, including one Greek-Iranian duelist.
"Aside from the mirror incident, yesterday was fairly quiet." Ariana thought as she lay on her back and stared at the ceiling with her hands behind her head, the nineteen year old had been awake for about twenty minutes but after seeing how early it was, she opted to go back to sleep, or at least try to. "Didn't even get that much done during the session, though the crash was definitely unfortunate." Ariana thought before placing her hands by her side. "Screw it, I need to take my meds anyway, may as well get up."
"Don't you wish to remain in bed?" The doppelgangers voice rang out and Ariana promptly sat up, however when she tried to move her hands, she realized that they were now chained to the bed.
"What the fu…" Ariana's cuss was cut short when a chain appeared from out of nowhere, wrapped itself around her neck and forcibly pulled her back into the lying position, however the chain wasn't choking her, instead holding her in place as horrific images flashed in front of her eyes. "Let me go!" Ariana cried out as she struggled to get free.
"Not enjoying the show, are we?" The voice of Ariana's doppelganger rang out and sure enough Ariana's double appeared at the foot of the bed which only made Ariana struggle more. "You know how to break this." The doppelganger continued before she climbed into bed and got on top of Ariana as if they were about to have sex. "Join me, and we'll be stronger together!"
"What the hell are you?!" Ariana demanded as she glared at the doppelganger who smirked before leaning in.
"Didn't I tell you before? I'm you, only stronger." She responded before she forcibly kissed Ariana, Ariana was in no position to resist at first as she felt her strength drain away until the double pulled away at which point Ariana headbutted her forcing her to back away. "Still stubborn as ever Ari, but we will meet again."
"Don't call me that!" Ariana growled as she glared at the double. "Only close friends and family call me Ari."
"But that's what we are, isn't it?" The double asked earning a confused look from Ariana. "Or did mother never tell you that she was initially carrying twin sisters?"
"What?!" Ariana demanded as the illusion started to fade. "Your lying, she would've told me if I had a twin sister who died in the womb!"
"If you believe that, then you don't know your mother as well as you thought." The double responded before she vanished, seconds later Ariana found herself free of the illusion's grasp and she sat up.
"Was that another nightmare?" Ariana thought as she sat up and looked around. "No, my wrists and neck hurt from being restrained, at least I'm not going crazy, or crazier."
"Good morning Ms. Sommers." The guard called out to her from the door breaking her concentration. "Sophia is waiting for you in her office."
"Tell her she has a few minutes of waiting because I literally just woke up." Ariana called back before climbing out of bed., "I get the feeling these visions are going to get worse before the tournament ends, maybe I should talk to mom about this." Ariana thought before she started taking her meds.
*later in Sophia's office*
By now breakfast was getting underway with most of the duelists pouring into the cafeteria for their first meal of the day, Sophia on the other hand.
"Let me get this straight." Sophia stated as she messaged her forehead, Raven and Jade had managed to get there whilst Ariana was trapped in her vision and she wasn't liking what she was hearing. "Every time we've defeated a possessed duelist, we've been playing into the demon's hands?"
"Essentially yeah." Jade nodded as she leaned back on her chair. "It's a win/win situation for the demon, if it wins it gets two new followers, if it loses it's power increases."
"We off course only know this because Jade was possessed last night." Raven continued as she folded her arms. "I still don't know if it was deliberate or not, but the demon let Jade have some knowledge of its plans."
"And believe me, peeking into the mind of a demon was not fun." Jade nodded before motioning to Raven. "Nadia defeated me before I could learn much else, but I was still able to get some valuable information, what we do with that information is the problem."
"Or what can we do." Sophia corrected her as she folded her arms. "Me and Seto discussed the possibility of calling off the tournament yesterday after Jenny's crash but we both agreed that there was too much at stake for this tournament to fail, on the other hand there doesn't seem to be a set pattern to the duelists that he possessed."
"On the contrary, we believe there is." Raven responded as she stepped forward. "Gavin Freeman, child prodigy of the game and one of the first duelists from Baldock to hit the international scene but no real tournament experience to speak off and the first duelist eliminated from the tournament, Ariana Sommers, mental health issues aside, a gifted duelist who came in second in the Pennsylvania regionals competing at her first major tournament."
"No thanks to Claudio's joke of a management company." Jade continued as she flipped some hair over her shoulder. "Let's be honest, you need no introduction, Jenny McQuaid, came in second in the Scottish Nationals, was considered one of the favorites to win before her anti-climactic elimination and then there's me." Jade added as she took a deep breath. "Came in second at the Australian Nationals five years running, top four of last year's Battle City, not to mention one of your employed duelists."
"Your saying that as the demon's power increases, it's been possessing more powerful duelists?" Sophia asked and the two women nodded before Sophia frowned. "So why was I, the CEO of I2, the third one possessed? I'm not saying that Gavin and Ariana aren't talented duelists but that's massive leap in terms of both importance and experience in the Dueling World."
"I didn't get a chance to ask but my best guess?" Jade commented as she stood up. "It's been years since you competed in a tournament and this is a one off return, like it or not there are a lot of duelists competing who aren't nearly as rusty as you."
"Jade, need I remind you that I made the decision to return for this tournament last year?" Sophia asked as her eyes narrowed. "And since I made that decision, I had been training nonstop to prepare."
"Against dueling robots and your own employees." Raven pointed out as the Polish woman stepped forward. "I don't care how high you set the robot's difficulty setting, they are nothing compared to tournament level duelists and let's be honest, your employees were likely worried about being fired if they did beat you."
"Even though I made it clear from day one that no such policy ever existed or would ever exist in my company, for starters that would open me up to a tidal wave of wrongful termination lawsuits." Sophia pointed out as she leaned back. "I have one of the best legal teams in the world, ranging from criminal defense to civil litigation but my army or lawyers would get swept up in that wave."
"True but you have to admit, your name still carries a lot of negative stigma." Jade pointed out and Sophia frowned before sighing.
"All right, you've made your cases, if I were you, I'd get over to the dining hall as soon as you can." Sophia advised them and Raven and Jade shared a look. "As for the demon, I'm still not sure what we can do about it, at least with the Orichalcos we had a physical enemy we could defeat."
"Technically, the same applies to the demon." Jade pointed out as she turned to her boss. "But as we said, by defeating his underlings we're playing into the demon's hands, claws, whatever."
"We'll figure out a way to deal with it eventually." Raven continued as the two women made their way towards the door. "However, I fear that it may last beyond this tournament."
"I was thinking the same thing." Sophia nodded as she shifted her weight. "I'll be in the dining room as soon as I've finished the check in with Ariana, please try to make sure that there's a table available for me."
"Easier said than done." Jade scoffed before she held the door open for Raven and the two women left just as Ariana approached the door, Jade held the door open for the younger woman who entered Sophia's office without hesitation.
"I hope you'll forgive me if I'm not in a chatty mood Ariana." Sophia greeted her as the Greek-Iranian woman sat down opposite Sophia's desk. "But I have a lot of things on my plate right now."
"You mean that crash that happened yesterday?" Ariana asked and Sophia nodded with a frown on her face. "What's the latest on Jenny's condition?"
"I'll spare you the gory details but suffice to say, it's not looking good for her." Sophia responded with a sad sigh and Ariana nodded grimly. "The good news is that she's receiving the best care possible at Domino City Hospital back on the mainland, the bad news is that it's unlikely that she'll ever be able to walk again."
"That's too bad, I watched the Scottish finals, she had a lot of talent." Ariana sighed in response and Sophia nodded. "Back to the whole reason I came here, I did take my medication this morning, but I did have another vision before I got out of bed."
"I didn't get any reports of you breaking the bed so I'm assuming that you got out of it okay?" Sophia asked and Ariana nodded before Sophia frowned. "We haven't known each other long but I can tell that something's bothering you about that vision."
"You could say that." Ariana nodded as she paused for a moment. "I told you about my doppelganger, right? Well she showed up in the vision, that's not what's troubling me, it's the fact that she said that she was my twin sister."
"Really?" Sophia asked with a raised eyebrow and Ariana nodded. "My bio on you didn't mention any siblings."
"Because I don't have any, as far as I know, I'm an only child." Ariana explained as she shifted her weight. "I assumed that she meant that I had a twin sister who died in the womb but my mom's always been open with me about how I was conceived, I think she would've mentioned if I was meant to be part of a pair of twin sisters."
"I agree, that does seem like something she would've told you." Sophia nodded in agreement before sighing. "It could be that demon messing with your head, but it might be worth calling your mom after the session, if you did have a twin sister it would explain a lot about the doppelganger."
"Yeah, I would've called her by now if it weren't for the check in, no offense." Ariana nodded before she stood up. "Can I go? I'm starving."
"You and me both but keep me updated if you get another vision." Sophia nodded and Ariana left the room, once Sophia was alone, she shook her head. "This demon business seems to get stranger by the day and we're only three days into the tournament." Sophia muttered to herself as she stood up. "And if Raven is right, then this tournament won't be the last we see of it!"
*elsewhere in the castle*
Whilst Sophia was going through her morning routine the rest of the duelists in the castle were either getting dressed or where just waking up.
"Five more minutes…." Lance grumbled under his breath as he lay in bed half asleep, Chloe was in the middle of getting dressed in front of a full body mirror when she heard her boyfriend and shook her head.
"Lance, not even I was that bad when I was at Duel Academy." Chloe responded as she shook her head before grabbing her gypsy style crop top and putting it over her red crop top. "No, too many layers even with the fact that both tops leave my stomach exposed." Chloe thought as she took it off and started straightening her long hair. "This island doesn't get as hot as Duel Academy Island did but it can still get pretty hot." Chloe thought before glancing over at her boyfriend who was still in bed. "And Chelsea had to threaten to drag our bunk bed to the main arena for our tag team tournament match at one point just to get me out of bed!"
"Well yeah but that was back when Chelsea was infamous for her temper." Lance responded as he sat up and glanced over at Chloe. "Hell, your temper could be just as nasty as hers at times."
"True but aside from that one time I slapped Andreas I never really lashed out like Chelsea did." Chloe responded with a shrug before looking between her two tops. "Should I go with the gypsy top or just the sleeveless crop top?"
"You're really asking me?" Lance asked with a deadpan expression on his face and Chloe shrugged her shoulders. "I mean, I think you'd look amazing in either top, but you will be spending most of the day in the pod, does it really matter?"
"And men wonder why they can't understand women." Chloe muttered under her breath before turning to Lance. "You mean aside from breakfast and dinner? Besides, I can't make my mind up on which one I want to wear, and I've already ruled out wearing both tops, this was so much easier when I was a student at Duel Academy picking out outfits to wear to tournament days."
"Yeah, most of your outfit was already chosen." Lance nodded once her understood what she meant. "Speaking of the Tag Team Tournament, did they ever do a second one?"
"I remember there being plans to bring it back after we graduated but from what I heard, those plans never got past the planning stage." Chloe responded as she shook her head before resuming brushing her hair. "Between the Orichalcos Duelists using the tournament as a convenient distraction to get their agents on the island, Thomas Newborne's plans to sabotage the finals and the beating Nicola took at Jessica, Cameron and Thomas's hands I think they felt that there was too much controversy surrounding the first one to bring it back."
"Not to mention Chelsea beating Jessica up." Lance responded with a nod before finally getting out of bed. "Didn't Jessica try to sue Chelsea from prison after she won the Illinois Regional Championship?"
"Yeah, aggravated assault." Chloe responded before giving her hair a few flips whilst her boyfriend got dressed. "But there were two things that cost Jessica that lawsuit, Nicola testifying about what Jessica did the night before which caused public opinion of her to do a 180 and the fact that it was revealed that she was an Orichalcos Duelist, not only did the judge laugh it out of the courtroom but he made Jessica's family pay for Chelsea's legal fees."
"And since she came from a wealthy family that was like pocket change to Jessica's family." Lance nodded before getting dressed and walking over to Chloe, he embraced her from behind and kissed her on the neck causing Chloe to grin. "But all the money in the world can't buy my love for you babe."
"One of these days, you'll come up with a romantic line of your own, rather than get them from the romantic comedies I make you sit through on valentine's day." Chloe teased her boyfriend before spinning around and kissing her boyfriend passionately albeit on her toes due to the height difference between them, the kissing continued until Chloe broke it off. "Much as I'd like to take this to the bed, we do have breakfast and a tournament to get too."
"Do you think they'll mind us having breakfast in bed?" Lance asked with a coy wink and Chloe laughed.
"And I wouldn't be surprised if you got that line from a porno." Chloe responded as she shook her head before embracing Lance back. "But Andreas did tell me that they tend to send guards round to a duelist's room if they aren't in the pod room by a certain time, he didn't tell me why he and Nicole were late yesterday."
"I think I can guess." Lance responded before they broke the embrace. "You ever wonder about the future? For us as a couple I mean."
"Even more so since I got that true love storyline with Amanda." Chloe nodded as she started walking towards the door. "But aside from that, I made my mind up about spending the rest of my life with you a long time ago, I don't see that ending any time soon."
"That's good to hear." Lance responded with a nod before watching his girlfriend leave, after a few moments he dug into his pocket and produced a ring box. "I was saving this for when we next end up in a duel against each other Chloe, and since we're on different teams that's got a great possibility of happening." Lance thought before pocketing it. "But will I ever get the chance? And how will it work in the Virtual World?" Lance thought before leaving the room.
*in the virtual world*
Once breakfast was over and the food had enough time to go down the duelists were back in the Virtual Reality pods and ready to begin the session anew.
"Yesterday was a hell of a day." Chelsea thought as she stood up in her tent, she had expected to go to sleep (in game) once it was clear that the session was about to end but when she reentered the virtual world she found herself unable to get much sleep for at least an hour. "Between me sleeping with my ex and admitting as such to Beth and potentially ending the career of a young, up and coming duelist through no fault of my own I have a lot to think about."
"My main concern is whether you'll keep this bottled up." Wattchimera responded and Chelsea frowned as she caught on. "It's not like you don't have a history of doing that."
"History being the key word." Chelsea responded as she gathered up her equipment. "That shit did me no favors when I was a teenager, the intervention my siblings had at the beginning of the LA trip made me realize that, and as soon as I'm back home I'm booking a session with my shrink and talking to Beth about everything in general." Chelsea thought before pausing. "In hindsight I'm surprised I didn't call Beth first, after the crash I mean."
"Well, given the nature of your call to her before the crash…." Wattchimera trailed off and Chelsea nodded as she got the idea.
"Your right, better to let her cool down first, I'm still processing the fact that I had sex with Kylie last night." Chelsea thought before the door to her tent opened and she looked up. "Speak of the devil, and she shall appear." Chelsea thought as Kylie entered the tent. "You could've knocked first."
"On what? Cloth? We both know that wouldn't have made much noise." Kylie responded as she motioned to the cloth and Chelsea frowned. "Look, I wanted to talk about what happened last night."
"About what? The fact that you never got over our breakup? Or the fact that you came onto me and before I knew it, we were fucking in my tent?" Chelsea asked bluntly and Kylie winced at her tone. "And here I was thinking that the only thing I had to worry about in this tournament was defending my title, didn't realize soap opera bullshit was going to be dragged into it!"
"Tell me about it." Kylie nodded in agreement before sighing. "But it is about the sex, it was wrong of me to come onto you and I wanted to apologize."
"You didn't seem to regret it after I woke up with you spooning me last night." Chelsea pointed out as the lesbian let out a deep breath. "For fuck's sake, you wanted to go for round two!"
"All that was heat of the moment but after I returned to my tent, I guess I came to my senses as well." Kylie shrugged her shoulders in response and Chelsea raised an eyebrow. "I know I invited you into my tent if you changed your mind about round two but if you had, I would've said no, and that was only compounded when I told my boyfriend after the session."
"Didn't you say that you were in an open relationship with him?" Chelsea asked and Kylie nodded.
"I did and that is true, but he still called me out, we're in an open relationship but it's one with rules." Kylie explained and Chelsea gave her a curious look. "No prostitutes of either gender, no exes, if the partner your bringing home is up for it, offer them a three way and no one who's currently married or in a relationship, last night I broke two of those rules."
"No exes and no messing with current relationships." Chelsea nodded before frowning. "About that three-way thing, he knows I'm a lesbian right? I know I experimented with guys and gals when we first dating but…..."
"Yeah, he knows, and not just because your one of the few openly gay duelists." Kylie explained with a nod as she folded her arms. "I told him about you after we reunited on the ship, lesbian status and all, don't worry, I left out the part about Dan."
"Good, I'd feel much better if it was me telling people about my disaster of a last straight relationship rather than having them learn it second hand." Chelsea nodded after breathing a sigh of relief. "But at the same time, I would've preferred you telling me that you hadn't gotten over how our relationship ended sooner."
"It's not like I was going to reintroduce myself that way, "Hey Chelsea, remember me? I am your first girlfriend and I have not gotten over how our relationship ended", at worst it makes me sound like a bitter ex." Kylie admitted and Chelsea rolled her eyes.
"Sound?" Chelsea asked with a scoff and Kylie went to respond but could not find the words. "Look, as far as I'm concerned, our past relationship is just that, the past, we both have the same goal, make it to the finals, from this point on let us keep it professional between us."
"Agreed." Kylie nodded before the tent opened again and Kaiba poked his head in. "Is it time for battle already?"
"Yes, get your stuff ready." Kaiba nodded and the two women got ready to move. "And by the way, the whole camp heard you two last night, next time keep it down."
"There isn't going to be a next time, that was why Kylie was in my tent in the first place." Chelsea responded as she shook her head and Kaiba did not respond. "Being told by a legendary duelist that my sex with my ex kept him awake, that sounds like a story I'd tell Jasmine when she gets older, a lot older."
*elsewhere in the world*
As Chelsea's party was getting ready to leave Chloe's party was just waking up in the castle following Jason's duel against Ravenscar after taking up rooms on the third floor.
"So much going through my head right now." Chloe thought as she brushed her long hair in front of a mirror, fortunately for her they had found a hair restoration potion whilst searching the rest of the castle and it had restored Chloe's hair back to it's elbow length making her in game appearance more closely resemble her real appearance. "I know Sophia and Kaiba have invested a lot into this tournament but continuing the tournament after Jenny McQuaid got injured?" Chloe thought as she put down the brush. "I guess they are just thankful that Jenny was already eliminated."
"We both know that a major tournament like this would have reserve duelists in case a participant couldn't continue due to injury." Silent Magician responded as her transparent form appeared next to Chloe. "Wasn't that how your first pro-league opponent ended up against you?"
"Yeah, filling in for her older sister after she got in a car crash appropriately enough." Chloe responded with a nod as she thought back to that day. "Only issue was that she was at my experience level when I first joined Duel Academy, reminded me of my first duel against Theresa in that respect, albeit she still managed to put up a decent fight."
"And fortunately, her sister wasn't that badly injured." Silent Magician responded before there was a knock at the door and she disappeared from her protégé's side.
"I'm decent." Chloe called out and the door opened revealing Amanda. "Morning Amanda, are we heading off already?"
"Yep, and this time we know where we're going, Ricardo found a letter from Ravenscar to Ravencraw that revealed his next destination." Amanda nodded as she stepped into the room and sat down on the bed. "I doubt we'll have to fight him right away since we just hit level two, but we should find more answers there."
"I hope so." Chloe nodded in agreement as she turned to the taller woman. "I'm still not sure about this true love storyline we've been thrown into even after agreeing to go through with it."
"Like I said at the other castle, if we do end up having sex, I'll happily guide you through it." Amanda assured her and Chloe grinned. "After all, it takes two to tango as Adrienne would say, she even offered to sleep with you in real life to prepare you and I'm not sure if she was serious or not."
"Knowing her I'm not so sure myself." Chloe laughed in response before shaking her head. "It's still better than Lance's idea, basically watch a ton of lesbian porn videos before a session and unlike Adrienne, I know he was serious about it."
"He does know that porn is a poor representation of real sex, right?" Amanda asked with an amused look on her face and Chloe nodded. "Then again you did say that you have had sex with Lance before, then again Adrienne's sex drive is almost like a porn character's so what do I know?"
"You tell me, you're the one who's dating her!" Chloe responded with a laugh before shaking her head. "As for the Adrienne thing, if she is serious and she does pop around me and Lance's room for sex with me I don't think Lance would object as long as he got to watch, like you said, it's a two-person show, most of the time." Chloe responded getting a laugh out of Amanda. "I still haven't let Lance live down the fact that I walked in on him jerking off to porn during the California trip."
"Considering how that trip started, that was a good bit of levity." Amanda responded with a chuckle and Chloe quickly nodded in agreement. "That reminds me, Adrienne was wondering how Rex and Nala are these days."
"Considering how quickly she fell in love with my dogs, that doesn't surprise me." Chloe responded with a slight laugh before shaking her head. "They moved in with me and Lance after we brought our own place in Domino, I wasn't sure about it at first but they were always more my dogs than the family dogs if that makes any sense, it does get a bit crowded in our one bedroom house but it's worth it."
"I bet." Amanda nodded with a grin. "They must be getting pretty old by now, right?"
"Rex turned eight a couple of weeks ago, Nala's turning seven in October, we happen to share a birthday." Chloe nodded before letting out a deep breath. "I know dogs don't live nearly as long as humans and the fact that they are nearing the senior dog age is worrying me, but I do plan to get new dogs once they do pass away."
"Won't change how painful that experience will be." Amanda responded as she shook her head and Chloe raised an eyebrow. "My family is basically a family of dog lovers, whenever there's a family reunion it's pretty much mandatory that we bring our dogs, I don't have one at the moment due to my schedule as the Canadian National Champion but I've had dogs in the past."
"I guess that makes sense, but my parents still live in Domino and whenever I'm overseas for a tournament, like this one, they are more than happy to dogsit for me and Lance." Chloe responded she stood up and stretched a bit. "I did say hi to them over Skype before I went to bed last night at least." Chloe added before there was a knock at the door.
"Chloe, is Amanda with you? Because she didn't answer at her room." Fran's voice rang out and Chloe went to answer the door. "And if she is with you, you are fully clothed right?"
"Half tempted to start making porn sounds just to mess with her." Chloe thought as she glanced over at Amanda. "But after what Ravenscar put the princess through, I'd rather not spend any longer than necessary in this castle." Chloe thought before turning her attention back to the door. "We're decent, we were just chatting for the past few minutes, some true love storyline we're in, right?"
"You're kidding right? Since I got married to Phil, we don't have sex nearly as often as we used too." Fran responded with a scoff before opening the door and revealing that she was with Ricardo and Jason. "I don't know about you ladies, but I've had enough of this castle to last me a lifetime or two, the wagon's ready to go."
"Try to keep your tongues out of each other's mouths whilst on the road." Ricardo added as they led the two women away. "I don't want to interrupt you for a third time."
"If you did interrupt us for the third time, I'd start throwing a few spells your way." Chloe responded with a grin before they left the third floor.
*elsewhere in the world*
Lance's party had reached the next tomb by now which would lead them to their next Destiny Orb, right now the five duelists were standing at the entrance which was an open cave mouth.
"Are you sure this is the place?" Adrienne asked as she turned to Sophia after the French woman had a good look around. "Because I can't be the only one who thinks that this is a little too easy."
"This is the place, besides the last tomb was a lot bigger on the inside as well." Sophia nodded before the two women glanced over at Lance, Dmitri and Gabriella. "Before we head in, I think it's only right that we decide who's getting the next duel."
"I was about to volunteer, actually." Gabriella responded as she stepped towards the two taller women. "Frankly, I haven't had a duel since the Italian Nationals, didn't get much of a chance to practice since a certain someone announced this tournament literally right after I won."
"I apologize for that." Sophia responded sheepishly as a sweat drop rolled down her head. "But Italy is nine hours ahead of California and I announced it early in the morning, I thought I had all my bases covered."
"It's nothing, I know you had to announce it in time for Duelist Kingdom's 40th anniversary." Gabriella responded as she put her hands up before turning to the others. "Any objections to me getting the next duel?"
"As long as I get to duel the guardian, I'm in agreement." Dmitri nodded as he made his way towards the cave entrance. "I'm in the same situation as Gabriella, my last duel was at the Russian Nationals, but I had more time to prepare since they were in January."
"I don't have a problem with that, so long as we're in agreement that I'm competing last." Sophia nodded in agreement as she turned to Lance. "And if we're sticking to the same lineup as before that should mean that we'll loop back to Lance."
"I mean, I'm okay if you guys want to change up the order once we've all had a turn." Lance responded with a shrug before he glanced at the cave. "Either way we'll all gain XP, I say we get moving before it gets dark anyway."
"I was about to say, if it gets too dark then it might be a good idea to spend the night in the port town." Gabriella responded as she glanced towards the direction of the town. "It's a few minutes' walk from here and we already have rooms booked at the inn, but then again you guys were in the last tomb for two days straight."
"Hopefully, we won't spend nearly as long in this tomb as we did the last one, I've had enough of stone beds to last me a lifetime." Adrienne nodded in agreement before they entered the cave. "Remember guys." Adrienne added as she turned to the others without watching where she was going. "The last tomb had traps and zombie monsters spread throughout, keep an ear out for any strange noises and keep an eye out for any…..." Adrienne trailed off as she felt a step beneath her sink. "Pressure plates."
"You just had to open your big mouth." Sophia sighed as they heard a door slam shut behind them and span around just in time to see a door blocking the entrance. "Must be a magical door, because I didn't see anything that indicated that that was there before, anyone have anything that can dispel magic?" Sophia asked and the others checked their guides not noticing that the ground was starting to slide out from under them.
"Unfortunately, noooooooooooo…." Lance's response trailed off as the stairway that was once beneath their feet disappeared causing them to fall into a deep pit.
*a few moments later*
Surprisingly, no one was seriously hurt by the fall as they had all taken four points of fall damage and Lance had landed somewhere soft and cushiony.
Unfortunately for him, that spot just happened to be on top of Adrienne with his nose firmly between the beautiful French woman's large breasts, made worse by the fact that he had inadvertently grabbed both breasts when pulling himself up. "Lance, you are so lucky that I like Chloe enough to not kick you in the balls for that." Adrienne commented with an annoyed huff as Lance rubbed his aching cheek from where Adrienne had slapped him. "Come to think of it, the guide said that our duels would be livestreamed but what about the stuff in between."
"Fortunately for Lance, I decided to limit the streams to just the dueling action." Sophia responded as she shook her head before providing Lance with some extra heeling magic. "I've played and DMed enough Dungeons and Dragons games to know how bad certain quotes can get when taken out of context, or in this case, actions."
"I'm almost afraid to ask but any examples?" Gabriella asked as she dusted herself off and Sophia thought for a moment.
"One time a Cleric said, and I quote, I'm lawful good and I say blacks are bad." Sophia responded and the other duelists winced. "In context, he was talking about black dragons which can be nasty to deal with at the best of times, out of context, well, do I need to explain it?"
"Yeah, probably best that we just stream the duels." Lance nodded in agreement as he nudged as far away from the annoyed Adrienne as possible. "What happened to him?"
"The character or the player?" Sophia asked and Lance nodded as if to say both. "Ironically, the cleric ended up dying to an Ancient Black Dragon but by that point the party were so high leveled that reviving fallen party members was more of an inconvenience than anything else, as for the player, well, he ended up getting fired over a racist tweet so make of that what you will." Sophia added before the duelists finally took in their surroundings. "What the hell?"
Whilst the other tomb was certainly spacious, this was on a whole other level as a massive stone city was hiding beneath the tomb. "This is how I want to be buried." Lance commented with a low whistle as he looked around. "Just a big fucking city around where I died!"
"Let's not try to think about how much that would cost." Gabriella responded as a large sweat drop rolled down her head. "What do we know about the guy inhabiting the tomb?"
"According to the questline, this place belonged to a massively rich noble who ordered his tomb be built around the city he founded, guessing he didn't hold a referendum to see what the people living in the city thought." Sophia responded after checking her quest book. "He was buried in a chamber beneath his palace, nothing about him being a lich but I'm guessing that's our destination."
"Well, that should be easy." Adrienne deadpanned as she started to calm down. "This city looks to be as big as Paris, to put that in perspective, Paris is a city of two point one hundred and forty eight million people, then again Paris is also a densely packed city in terms of square miles and when taking that into account, this looks closer to London, which is six hundred square miles."
"How do you know all that?" Lance asked with a dumbfounded look on his face and Adrienne smirked.
"What? Did you think I'm just a pretty face?" Adrienne asked rhetorically before flipping her hair cockily. "I majored in Geology at Paris Descartes University, not that it did me much good in the real world since I ended up serving tables at a café in Paris before I made it big as the French National Champion but that info does come in handy sometimes."
"We can either sit here and discuss geology with Adrienne or we can actually make progress before the session ends and frankly, I don't want to end a session in another tomb." Sophia responded as she shook her head and the others nodded before making their way into the city.
*later*
As the party ventured deeper into the underground city, they couldn't seem to make much progress in terms of finding the palace, though Lance had other things on his mind.
"Look, I'm sorry okay!" Lance apologized to Adrienne as the French woman walked alongside him, the two dark haired duelists were towards the back of the group and Lance was trying to use the opportunity to apologize to Adrienne. "How was I supposed to know that would happen?"
"Technically speaking, no one saw the fake stairwell trap coming." Adrienne reminded him as she turned to Lance. "Besides that, you were behind me on the stairwell with Dmitri."
"And you were with the other women in the group, frankly I'm not sure if landing that way on Sophia would've been any worse." Lance responded before they heard Sophia scoffing. "Something funny Sophia?"
"Trust me Lance, if you did land on top of me in the same way as you did Adrienne your aching cheek would've been the least of your worries." Sophia responded and Lance winced as it dawned on him. "Setting aside the fact that I'm a rape victim who knows a thing or two about self defense off course." Sophia thought before turning her attention back to Lance. "But that's only if you had done it intentionally, which would've required you to have visited this tomb before."
"Besides, I would've thought that dating Chloe would tell you that you usually need to buy a woman dinner first before you grab her like that." Adrienne teased him and Lance sweat-dropped in response. "How about we just forget it ever happened and move on?"
"Normally I would object to landing face first between a beautiful woman's large breasts but like Adrienne said, I'm not a single man anymore." Lance thought before offering Adrienne a fist bump as a sign of solidarity and there being no hard feelings, Adrienne quickly got the idea and returned the fist bump before they continued on their way. "Off course, there is the fact that Chloe's breasts have never been that big to begin with, and based on what she told me her in game character isn't much different from her in terms of physical appearance so…..."
"We've got company!" Lance's train of thought was quickly derailed by Gabriella's voice and he looked up to see several dark figures blocking their path. "Let us through, we need to get to the palace!"
"In order to reach the palace, you must earn the right!" One of the figures responded before stepping forward revealing herself to be The Unfriendly Amazon (4/2000/1000). "We are the protectors of that sacred place, to earn passage you must defeat me in a duel."
"A monster whose effect requires the sacrifice of another monster to remain on the field is cooperating with two other monsters." Gabriella thought as she stepped forward. "I'll have to ask Sophia about this later but for now I'll just assume that the game's writers had a sense of humor, a bad one at that." Gabriella thought before activating her duel disk. "If your looking for an opponent, you've found her, my name is Gabriella and when I win you have to point us in the direction of the palace!"
"Like seriously." Lance chimed in and the Amazon turned to him. "We've been looking around this dump for at least an hour."
"Two actually." The Unfriendly Amazon corrected him before turning to Gabriella. "Very well Gabriella, but you won't win." She added before glancing at her companions. "Leave us be, this won't take long." The amazon added and her companions disappeared. "I'll keep this short I will serve as my own Deck Master."
"My Deck Master is Fire Princess!" Gabriella responded as the woman in red appeared next to her (4/1300/1500). "Already I'm either thinking that her ability has something to do with Amazoness monsters or other monsters of her ilk such as Boar Soldier, either way this shouldn't be too difficult." Gabriella thought as they drew their opening hands. "Who's going first?"
"I am." The amazon responded before looking over her opening hand. "I summon Amazoness Paladin in attack mode!" The Unfriendly Amazon announced as she played the card and the female sword wielding warrior in the revealing outfit appeared on the field ready for battle (4/1700/300). "My monster gains one hundred attack points for each Amazoness Monster I control, including herself." The Unfriendly Amazon explained as Paladin's attack points went up to eighteen hundred. "But I'm not done yet."
"I would hope so because whilst eighteen hundred attack points is decent, I can think of several cards in my deck that can attack over it." Gabriella responded as she folded her arms and The Unfriendly Amazon frowned. "Then again, that isn't the point of my deck."
"Indeed, I special summon Amazoness Baby Tiger from my hand through her effect." The Unfriendly Amazon responded before she played the card and a baby version of Amazoness Tiger (4/1100/1500) appeared on the field purring away (2/500/500) and Amazoness Paladin's attack points went up to 1900. "My monster's name becomes Amazoness Tiger while on the field or in the graveyard…"
"Oh my god, it's so cute!" Adrienne squealed causing the other duelists to face-fault in response, once the others got back to their feet Adrienne cleared her throat. "Sorry, animal lover instincts took over for a minute there, besides that monster isn't nearly as strong as Amazoness Tiger so why not just use the real thing?"
"I was about to ask the same thing." Gabriella nodded in agreement as The Unfriendly Amazon smirked. "And I bet you are about to tell us."
"I would've if that hooker posing as a druid hadn't interrupted me." The Unfriendly Amazon responded, and Adrienne fumed before being restrained by Lance who was being careful to keep his hands as far away from Adrienne's breasts or crotch as possible. "I mean, if you and the Bard want some alone time then feel free to go into one of the buildings, as I was about to say, Amazoness Baby Tiger gains one hundred attack points for each Amazoness monster in my graveyard."
"So why summon her on your first turn?" Gabriella asked before it hit her. "Unless this is when your Deck Master ability comes in!"
"Why do you think they call me "The Unfriendly Amazon"?" The Unfriendly Amazon retorted before she picked up her deck. "I activate my deck master ability and it's called Culling the Tribe, the combined levels of my two monsters are six, which means I can send six Amazoness Monsters from my deck to the graveyard." The Unfriendly Amazon added as she sent the six monsters to the graveyard and Amazoness Pet Tiger's attack points went up to 1100. "There's more to my deck master ability but I'm not ready to tell you just yet, I set two cards facedown and end my turn."
"I was just thinking that Amazoness monsters was an odd choice for The Unfriendly Amazon's deck master ability." Sophia thought as Gabriella drew her card. "The official lure states that she is an exile from the Amazoness tribe for killing her allies in a blind rage, that was the whole reason she has her effect, and the reason why I2 never counted her as a member of the Amazoness archetype, off course the fact that her translated Japanese name is "Ally-Killing Lady Knight" has something to do with it."
"I set two cards facedown and a monster in defense mode." Gabriella announced as she set her three cards down on the field. "And I end my turn."
"That's all?" The Unfriendly Amazon asked with a scoff as she drew her card, however as she did Gabriella activated one of her facedown cards. "Solemn Wishes?"
"Yep, as long as this trap card is faceup I'll gain five hundred life-points every time I draw a card." Gabriella explained as she motioned to her trap card. "And I have more where that came from!"
"We'll see about that, I summon Amazoness Graverobber in attack mode!" The Unfriendly Amazon announced as she played the card and a muscular young woman with shoulder length red hair and green eyes appeared on the field wearing a dark robe (4/1000/1500) and Amazoness Paladin's attack points went up to 2000 thanks to her effect. "As I have more than two Amazoness monsters in my graveyard my Graverobber allows my Amazoness monsters to inflict piercing damage, and on that note, I activate my deck master ability again."
"Sending ten Amazoness Monsters from your deck to the graveyard." Gabriella nodded as she sent the ten cards to the graveyard and Amazoness Pet Tiger's attack points went up to 2700. "You realize that you run the risk of decking out, right?"
"Off course I do." The Unfriendly Amazon responded before holding up her duel disk and revealing that her deck was larger than normal. "The minimum number of cards allowed in a deck is forty, but the maximum is sixty cards and I take full advantage of that fact."
"Maybe, but at the rate your going you'll run out of cards sooner or later." Gabriella responded with a frown and The Unfriendly Amazon frowned. "You haven't even attacked yet and you're already losing the duel."
"Thanks for the reminder! Amazoness Graverobber, attack her defense monster!" The Unfriendly Amazon commanded, and the robed woman charged forward before slashing the monster with her sword, but the identity of the monster caused The Unfriendly Amazon to do a double take. "Nimble Momonga?!" The amazon demanded as the small flying squirrel appeared on the field (2/1000/100) and Gabriella smirked even as her life-points dropped to 7100.
"That's right, and thanks to his effect I gain one thousand life-points and get to Special Summon two more from my deck in defense mode." Gabriella explained as her life-points increased to 8100 and she started searching through her deck. "But that's not all your attack did!"
"What are you…." The Unfriendly Amazon trailed off before Fire Princess cast a spell at her causing the amazon to scream in pain. "Your deck master's ability?"
"Correct, any time I gain more than one thousand life-points Fire Princess's deck master ability deals that much damage to your life-points!" Gabriella explained as The Unfriendly Amazon's life-points dropped to 7000. "Like I said, you've already lost the duel."
"Oh really?" The Unfriendly Amazon asked with a cocky smirk as she flipped some hair over her shoulder. "Do the math Gabriella, Paladin and Pet Tiger have over two thousand attack points each and thanks to my Graverobber they can inflict piercing damage, your Momongas only restore one thousand life-points, you'll run out of life-points long before I do! Paladin, Pet Tiger, attack her monsters!" The Unfriendly Amazon commanded, and her two monsters charged into battle before destroying Gabriella's monsters and bringing her life-points down to 5600 once the Momonga's effects resolved.
"I guess there's no point in hiding it at this point." Gabriella responded as Fire Princess brought The Unfriendly Amazon's life-points down to 5000 thanks to her deck master ability. "My other facedown card is Solemn Wishes as well." Gabriella added as her second trap card flipped up and The Unfriendly Amazon growled.
"Two Solemn Wishes and Nimble Momonga in your opening hand? How luck can you get?!" The Unfriendly Amazon spat before activating her trap. "And now that I know you have wasted your trap card slots, I will activate Queen's Pawn! Since my Amazoness monsters have destroyed several of your monsters this allows me to special summon another from my deck."
"So why didn't you activate it when Graverobber destroyed my first Nimble Momonga?" Gabriella asked as she folded her arms and The Unfriendly Amazon frowned. "You could've potentially attacked my life-points with Pet Tiger."
"Because I didn't want to risk you springing Mirror Force on me! And just for that I summon my pet tiger's grown up form, Amazoness Tiger!" The Unfriendly Amazon responded as she played the card and the grown-up version of the tiger cub appeared on the field with a growl. "This monster gains four hundred attack points for each Amazoness monster I control and as long as it's on the field, you can't attack any monster except it." The Unfriendly Amazon added as the tiger's attack went up to 3100. "But you have bigger problems, like a tiger ready to maul you! Amazoness Tiger, attack her life-points directly!" The Unfriendly Amazon commanded as the tiger pounced towards Gabriella.
"I don't feel like being mauled today, or ever really." Gabriella responded as she played a card from her hand and an old man in monk's robes appeared on the field blocking the path of Amazoness Tiger (1/0/0). "Emissary of Life here ends the battle phase immediately if I have gained at least one thousand life-points this turn."
"The old man will be put down soon enough." The Unfriendly Amazon retorted before smirking. "In fact, I'm so confident that you'll never get past my tiger that I'm summoning myself to the field."
"Are you sure about that?" Gabriella asked as the amazon stepped onto the field. "You'll have to sacrifice one of your monsters to stay on the field."
"Good point." The Unfriendly Amazon responded before going over to Amazoness Graverobber and cutting her down. "With the amount of power, I have on the field, who needs the ability to inflict piercing damage?" The Unfriendly Amazon asked cockily as she sent her monster to the graveyard. "It's your move!" The Unfriendly Amazon added, and Gabriella drew her card.
"Like I said, I drew a card and now my Solemn Wishes' effects activate." Gabriella announced as her two trap cards glowed and her life-points increased to 6600, she turned to her deck master expectedly but when nothing happened Gabriella scratched her head in confusion. "Err, what?" Gabriella added and Sophia snapped her fingers.
"I knew from the moment they came up with Fire Princess' deck master ability that it'd be open to exploitation." Sophia chimed in as the world froze around the duelists. "Gabriella, you did read Fire Princess' deck master ability thoroughly before choosing her, did you?"
"Off course I did, at least I think I did." Gabriella responded as she scratched her head before bringing up the deck master screen, she read through the ability again and face palmed. "How did I miss that?! Fire Princess' Deck Master ability says that one thousand life-points or greater from one effect, not stacked like my two Solemn Wishes."
"Exactly, it worked with the Mogonbas because they restore a thousand life-points." Sophia nodded and Gabriella sighed. "I'll allow the duel to proceed as it was, but I recommend modifying your in-game deck before your next duel."
"Good idea." Gabriella nodded before the Italian duelist raised an eyebrow. "You can just stop the world with a snap of your fingers?"
"Not exactly, it's a signal to Rachel to pause the action so that I or someone else can explain a ruling without interrupting the flow of the world." Sophia explained before she got ready to snap her fingers again. "Speaking off which." Sophia added before snapping her fingers and the action resumed. "Hopefully, I won't have to do that again for a while, pausing the world isn't an isolated thing and it's bound to cause confusion with the other parties." Sophia thought as Gabriella went over her hand.
"I activate Magic Planter to destroy one of my Solemn Wishes and draw two cards." Gabriella announced as she played the card and one of her trap cards shattered before she drew twice. "This triggers my other Solemn Wishes giving me a thousand life-points."
"And taking a thousand life-points from me." The Unfriendly Amazon nodded before she was burned by Fire Princess' flames bringing her life-points down to four thousand. "You may be in the lead but look at how much power I have on the field, once your old man's out of the way I can wipe you out in a turn!"
"You're that confident huh?" Gabriella asked and The Unfriendly Amazon blinked before nodding. "Prove it! I summon my deck master Fire Princess to the field!" Gabriella added as her princess appeared on the field. "I set one card facedown and end my turn."
"Before you do, I activate Call of the Haunted to bring back Graverobber." The Unfriendly Amazon announced as Graverobber returned to the field and she drew her card. "Purely so I can cut her down again!"
"You don't care about your fellow amazons?" Gabriella asked with a look of shock on her face as Graverobber was cut down callously by The Unfriendly Amazon and that seemed to touch a nerve with her.
"Why should I?" The Unfriendly Amazon spat as she glared at the other monsters on the field. "They didn't care about me when they cast me out! I built this deck to get my revenge on them!" She added before grinning once she saw what she had drawn. "But I will take a page out of your playbook, I destroy Call of the Haunted with my own Magic Planter!" The Unfriendly Amazon added as her trap card's hologram shattered and she drew two cards.
"I'll give the writers credit for staying true to the lore of The Unfriendly Amazon." Gabriella thought as The Unfriendly Amazon looked over her new cards. "Draw anything good?"
"None of your business." The Unfriendly Amazon spat before adding the cards to her hand. "You know what they say, if you want a job done right, do it yourself! I attack the Fire Princess!" The Unfriendly Amazon announced as she charged into battle. "I knew that facedown card was just a bluff!"
"Was it?" Gabriella asked rhetorically before her facedown card flipped up, The Unfriendly Amazon blinked before her eyes went as wide as dinner plates once she recognized the card. "I activate Mirror Force!"
"NO!" The Unfriendly Amazon yelled out but it was too late as she struck the mirror sending a beam of light straight at her chest and at the rest of her monsters destroying them all but as the deck master, her destruction was the only one that mattered, she collapsed to one knee and glared at Gabriella as she walked up to her defeated opponent. "Go ahead, kill me, that's what you want, isn't it?"
"And stoop down to your level? I don't think so." Gabriella responded as the ping went off indicating that a boss had been defeated. "Where did your companions go? And where is the palace?"
"You really are fucking stupid." The Unfriendly Amazon scoffed as she glared at Gabriella. "I'm strong but them? They make me look weak, as for the palace, keep going north, you'll find it eventually." The amazon added as she glared at them. "Now leave, my companions will find out about my failure soon enough, trust me you don't want to be around for that!"
"I suggest we follow her advice." Lance nodded in agreement as he stepped forward with Adrienne. "Let's move!" Lance added and they walked off towards the palace. "Wonder if the Amazon and her companions have any connection to Zipharn and his lich revival scheme? Well, whatever it is we had better be ready for anything!"