AUTHOR'S NOTE: My apologies for not posting any new chapters for so long. I had an issue with my two on-going fanfics which I managed to sort out, so you have 4 new chapters of this one today! The first of them is Chapter 16, so that's where you need to start reading. I hope you enjoy the chapters!

Tournament of Shadows
Chapter 18: The Finals - Day 3
By Shadow's Mirror

The third day of the Domino City Treasure Quest Tournament Finals started off much the same as the day before. The skies were covered in a thick, dark grey blanket of clouds that shielded the city from all but the most tenacious of sunbeams, yet there was no sign of rain or rumble of thunder to distract the crowd of Duel Monster fans as they made their way inside the auditorium yet again.

Inside, the duelists gathered backstage a little earlier than the previous days. The air was still thick with tension, but it was no worse than it had been the day before, so the duelists were a little less worried over it. At least, most of them. Kaiba was tenser, but the others weren't paying it any particular attention since it was basically his usual attitude during a tournament. Joey was still his usual talkative and enthusiastic self, which also made the others more at ease over Kaiba's mood.

Joey could read Kaiba better than most of them. If there was anything to worry about, he'd be the first to react. Although, he was glancing over at Kaiba a bit more than usual.

It was fine. Probably.

Then Bakura showed up and everyone had something more important to be concerned about.

"Wow. Bakura... you look awful. Did something happen?"

Joey's wince at the sight of the white-haired boy was swiftly followed by concern, for good reason. He and Kaiba had both seen Ryou's Father waiting for him outside the front door when they'd dropped Bakura home, the day before. The man had just silently frowned before heading back inside before Bakura had reached him, but both teens had noticed how warily Bakura had followed him. Now, the yami was a bit paler than usual, with shadows under his eyes that betrayed a lack of sleep, while his hair and clothes had a distinct 'just wrestled with a bush and the bush won' look.

The others all had similar expressions of concern as they moved closer to hear Bakura's quiet reply.

"Sort of. Father was supposed to be kept busy with meetings for most of today, but the earliest one was rescheduled. Ryou was all worked up for most of the night, trying to sort out how to get here without Father stopping us, or offering to drive us to where we were going, which would have been worse. We ended up leaving him a note and sneaking out of the house. Or, in other words, I had to jump out of the bedroom window, then climb down a tree. Father is sure to lecture us when we get home this afternoon. I can't say I'm looking forward to that." As the others all winced in sympathy, Bakura looked at Kaiba. "The note said I was meeting up with you for our project and I might be back late. From the grilling I got last night though, I think that excuse is beginning to wear thin."

Kaiba frowned as he nodded sharply. "I see. Will tomorrow be a problem for you?"

"I don't think so." Bakura didn't look too happy, though. "I'll work something out, if it is."

"I could always pick you up tomorrow morning." The offer was a rare one, but Kaiba's concern was rarer.

Bakura considered the offer, then nodded. "That might help. Thanks. I'll let you know tonight. Need to get through today first. Speaking of..." He glanced around. "I see he's late again." He didn't look at all surprised.

The group sigh in response was impressive enough for several stage hands to blink at them in confusion.

"Of course. There are still ten minutes before the opening ceremony. He will doubtless wish to maintain his record." Anyone not knowing Kaiba would have suspected him of sarcasm. As it was, they all knew he was merely disgusted.

Mai smirked. "Maybe we'll be lucky today and he'll get lost on the way here."

Even Yugi looked hopeful at that, so of course Kaiba had to squish that hope as fast and as thoroughly as possible.

"Not even Wheeler has that much luck."

Fortunately, Kaiba had steeled himself for Yugi's pout before speaking, so he was barely affected by it.

Unfortunately, Kaiba was proven correct when Evien Sanders made his usual overly dramatic arrival moments after a very agitated stagehand told them to take up their positions for entering onto the stage.

It was going to be a long day.

All of the other duelists, along with Odion, were again seated in the special competitor (plus their guests) seats instead of out in the stadium. They were trying hard to look relaxed, despite the tension that still filled the air. Out of their group, only Sanders seemed to be immune to it as he was his normal, smug, arrogant, preening self.

Immune, or a very good actor. No one could be sure which.

The audience apparently hadn't noticed anything off, either. They were in fine form, the cheering lasting all the way from the announcer's calling, "For the first match, welcome to the arena, Nyc Lyons and Yugi Moto!" to the moment when the two duelists stood opposite each other and ready to duel.

It was almost loud enough to drown out Sanders' low comment, "She won't last long." Almost. He said it just as the announcer finished calling the duelists up, so they were still within hearing range as they walked past him. The others all shot him glares that he didn't notice, being too busy smirking as he settled in to watch the duel.

Ten minutes later, his smirk was more of a scowl as Nyc quietly kept pace with her opponent's equally cautious moves.

Twenty minutes later, the audience had taken to talking amongst themselves about how deeply Evien Sanders was scowling as the duel refused to heat up or move the audience to the edge of their seats in anticipation.

Half an hour in, no one could say the duel was boring, or that both duelists weren't showing some excellent combos or making daring attacks, no. It was a perfectly solid duel. Interesting as only a duel between two expert players could be. For anyone who was interested in long-range game plans, at least. Since that was mainly the other duelists in the competitor seats and very few of the audience, it meant that the audience were mostly gossiping about other things rather than watching the duel as closely as usual.

Forty minutes in, almost all of the audience was focused more on Evien Sander's fierce glare at the two in the arena than on the duel itself. Which was fair enough. Oh, it was still a brilliant showcase of tactics and battle strategy. It was just that neither duelist had made even one move so bold and daring that the other's lifepoints had been placed in imminent danger of dropping to zero.

Fifty minutes into the match and many of the audience were quite cheerfully taking bets on whether or not Evien Sanders would burst out at the duelists to 'hurry up and finish it already', or something similar. He certainly looked like he wanted to. Oddly, the rest of the duelists seated with Evien Sanders looked more inclined to burst out laughing.

An hour after the match began, it finally began to look like it would soon be over. Nyc played a couple of nice combos that got her opponent's lifepoints down to 400. Her opponent responded by using Magicalized Fusion to get Master of Magicians onto his side of the field while finishing the wait for Nyc's Swords of Revealing Light, which had been causing him some trouble for the past couple of turns. Some of the more attentive in the audience noted to their neighbours that Evien Sanders was beginning to look a bit purple in the face.

Finally, with one last grand attack, the duel was finally won; an hour and five minutes after it began.

The audience's cheers were almost loud enough for Joey's, "I'd say she lasted pretty well." to go unheard by Sanders or the others. Almost.

Fortunately, the resulting snickers from the other duelists were more successfully drowned out as the announcer called the win to Yugi Moto and informed everyone that the next duel would be between Ryou Bakura and Yugi Moto, again.

Bakura forced himself not to wince in sympathy with Yugi as he headed for the arena. Having to duel twice in a row was poor luck. Having to duel a second time after such a long and strategic match was just plain exhausting. Still, it might give him a chance to have some fun. He knew it had been Yugi the whole time in the duel against Nyc. So if Yami came out to play with him, at least Yugi would get a break.

Yami did indeed come out to play against Bakura.

It was the best 45 minutes of dueling the audience had seen in the finals, so far.

Of course, the two duelists already knew who would win before they even drew their first cards. Yami was the King of Games for a reason. That didn't take away any of the fun of the game, though. They'd dueled each other before. They knew each other's cards, strategies and play style. Which meant that they could easily counter and then counter a counter without having to really think about it. No intense mental concentration. No coming up with strategies on the fly just because they could. They were long past the point of showing off to each other.

To Bakura, the best part was that neither of them was trying terribly hard to win. They were honestly just enjoying playing a relaxing game of cards, with a side order of heckling purely because they could.

Yami was always fun to heckle.

He even heckled back.

A couple of times Bakura had to stop himself from snickering out loud at a particularly good insult. It wouldn't do to let the Pharaoh know just how much he was enjoying this, after all.

He had a reputation to protect.

The fun had to end at some point, of course. A couple of quick combo attacks from both sides to bring them down to under 600 lifepoints each and then Yami unleashed his Dark Magician and Dark Magician Girl duo to deal enough damage to overwhelm Bakura's monsters and take out the last of his lifepoints.

Although Bakura took a measure of satisfaction that the Dark Magician Girl triggered the flip effect of his Man-Eater Bug in the process.

Or maybe it was seeing the Pharaoh wince as he lost his Dark Magician Girl to a large insect that satisfied him.

Either way, the duel ended with Yugi Moto declared as the winner and a pleasant buzz of released tension running through Bakura's body.

He hadn't realised how much he'd needed a good duel until that point. From the way Yugi stretched as he joined him for the walk back to the seats, Bakura suspected it was mutual.

After trading mutters of 'good game', they headed back to the seats side by side, in rare companionable silence. Only then did they allow the cheers of the crowd to reach their ears, along with the announcer's call for the next duelists.

"What a great battle! Give it up for them, folks! Then keep it going to welcome Seto Kaiba and Isis Ishtar to the arena!"

Bakura glanced at Yugi, or rather Yami, with a grin. "Oh this will be good. Think he can win against her again?"

Yami's lips twitched. "He has to pass in front of Malik."

Bakura smirked. "Good point."

Then there was no more time to talk, as they were back with the others. It was time to sit down and enjoy the next match.

It was a very good duel. Not as good as the previous one, true, but much more enjoyable to watch than Kaiba's duels usually were. Likely due to the fact that it was longer. Isis lasted a whole half hour against Kaiba and his dragons.

Isis got in a few early combos and countered Kaiba's initial tactics with the serenity and finesse that she was known for.

She was prepared for every attack and had a card or combo or strategy to deal with it. Her points remained untouched.

Then Kaiba brought out a monster that was stronger than she had planned for and played a card that wiped all of her monsters off the board in one hit.

Suddenly, her points were down to 2000 and Isis was looking shaken. Still, to her credit, she played on for another ten minutes before Kaiba used a combo to get in a direct attack, taking out the rest of her lifepoints to win the match.

With the crowd roaring too loudly for the announcer to make himself heard, Bakura took the chance that Sanders wouldn't be able to overhear him either and leaned slightly towards the other yami sitting beside him. He kept his voice low but risked looking at him instead of straight ahead as if they weren't conversing. "You were right. Want to bet Isis will find a way to keep Kaiba from going anywhere near Malik before she duels him in future tournaments?"

Yami glanced back towards his long-term rival turned fairly-recent friend. "I never bet against something I am sure of."

Bakura was still snickering (and Yami was still looking rather smug over it) by the time Isis returned to the seats. He grinned at her and was about to congratulate Kaiba on the win in as irritating a manner as possible, when he realised that the brunette teen wasn't with her. "Huh? Oh don't tell me..." He looked out at the arena and smirked. "Kaiba scored a back-to-back duel too, huh?" He was about to comment on Kaiba's lack of luck when he noticed who the brunette teen's opponent was.

Kaiba was going up against Wheeler.

Well, that explained it.

Wheeler's ridiculous luck had struck again!

Bakura cheerfully shut up to focus on what he had no doubt would be a very entertaining battle, but someone else wasn't as inclined to keep his thoughts to himself.

Sanders smirked as he spoke loudly enough for both the other duelists and the people seated behind them in the audience to hear. "Oh, this will be good."

Bakura's smirk grew as he mentally agreed with the words, if not the spirit in which they were said.

Of course the battle would be a good one. This was an old rivalry, after all.

Kaiba scored the first turn but those who knew him closely could tell he was already unhappy about something as he finished drawing his first card. He took a moment to scowl at the cards in his hand before he made his first move.

Within moments of placing Cyberstein on the field, Kaiba was down 5000 lifepoints and his Blue-Eyes Ultimate Dragon was roaring on the field, beside the one whose card effect had summoned it into the game. As it was the first turn, his dragon couldn't attack, but Kaiba seemed to have cheered up as he set a card on the field and ended his turn.

On the other side of the arena, Wheeler grinned at his brunette counterpart. He'd been looking forward to this since before the tournament had started. It was time to show Kaiba just what his cards could do! He barely glanced at the card he drew before quickly placing four cards on his side of the field. Only one was face up.

Most of the audience snickered at the appearance of the small, dark red egg on the holographic duel field. That changed to a rumbling chorus of 'awws' as the top of the shell broke away and a little black snout cautiously poked out, followed by the rest of its head. The black dragon hatchling blinked its red eyes, then seemed to look around before spotting the enormous white dragon on the other side of the field.

The resulting wriggle of its entire body caused the egg to rock rather alarmingly, but only a few noticed that. The rest were focused on Kaiba as he began his next turn.

Again, the card he drew seemed to annoy him. The pause before he placed his monster was a bit longer, too. However, Kaiba's expression soon turned from a scowl into a slight smirk at the sight of his Kaiser Sea Horse on the field with his other two monsters. "Kaiser Sea Horse, attack Red-Eyes Black Chick!"

As the large monster moved, bearing down on the tiny dragon hatchling, Kaiba's attention flashed to Wheeler and he suddenly tensed, his smirk fading.

Wheeler was no longer smirking.

Now, he was smiling. His widest, brightest, smile.

The smile Joey Wheeler showed whenever an opponent did something predictable that he'd prepared for.

"I activate my trap card, Fairy Box!"

Wheeler's voice rose over the noise of the crowd with the ease of long hours of dueling, causing a stunned silence to fall over the auditorium as one of the three cards he had set in his first turn revealed its identity.

"I call heads!"

The referee tossed the coin and Kaiba managed not to wince as the man confirmed Wheeler had won the call.

Kaiser Sea Horse completed his attack on the dragon hatchling as the effect of Fairy Box hit. With his attack strength reduced to 0, the impressive monster merely grunted as the little dragon huffed a bit of flame over him in one of the most underwhelming attacks ever. He looked more embarrassed than hurt, as he immediately vanished from the field.

Although the audience members were still in shock, they began to murmur amongst themselves when Kaiba did nothing but scowl at his opponent in the moments following his monster's defeat.

Seto Kaiba still had two monsters. Why wasn't he attacking?

Cyberstein was weaker, so of course Kaiba wouldn't send him against Red-Eyes Black Chick. His Blue-Eyes Ultimate Dragon was a different story though.

There was also that face down card Kaiba had set in his first turn. Surely it was something great!

So why was Seto Kaiba just standing there, glaring at Joey Wheeler and making no move to crush his hatchling with his fully grown three-headed dragon?

For that matter, why did Joey Wheeler not seem at all surprised by it?

"What's the matter, Kaiba? Worried I'll do the same to your Ultimate?" The blonde teen smirked at his opponent.

Another ripple of shocked murmurs ran through the crowd as they realised the truth of the situation.

Fairy Box wasn't limited to one use per turn.

If Seto Kaiba attacked with his dragon and Joey Wheeler used Fairy Box again and won...

"I end my turn." Kaiba's voice was a low growl.

Apparently he wasn't willing to chance losing his precious dragon to the toss of a coin.

Wheeler nodded slightly, his expression morphing into a look of understanding with no hint of mocking. "My turn."

He drew a card and waited a moment while his lifepoints paid the 500 price for keeping Fairy Box in play before nodding to his baby dragon. "Thanks, Chick. Off you go now."

Wheeler sent his Red-Eyes Black Chick off to the Graveyard with a wink and a smile that grew brighter as the familiar form of his Red-Eyes Black Dragon appeared on the field in its place. "Hey there Red-Eyes! You know what to do. Thank you for the help!" He nodded to the black dragon as it turned to look at him.

Surely it was a mass hallucination that the dragon nodded back to him.

Most of the audience were still debating over their need for glasses when they realised the newly summoned dragon was vanishing again. Excited, their voices rose into a low roar as they moved to the edge of their seats in anticipation. Surely this was Seto Kaiba's doing! He was using that mysterious card... or not.

Kaiba's scowl at Wheeler intensified as Red-Eyes Black Dragon vanished from the field and yet another black form arrived to replace it. This time, accompanied by a swirl of black smoke that made for a rather dramatic appearance.

Red-Eyes Darkness Dragon had arrived!

As the black dragon issued the usual roar of challenge, the middle head of the white dragon on the other side of the field seemed to give a particularly affronted glare, as if Darkness had just insulted its ancestors... or Kaiba's dress sense.

"Are you done showing off yet?" Kaiba made an effort to sound extra bored.

"Hm... not quite. Sorry about this, Kaiba! I activate the spell card, Raigeki!"

As he activated the second of the three cards he'd set in his first turn, Wheeler didn't sound sorry at all.

When bolts of lightning began to strike over his opponent's side of the field, taking out not only Kaiba's Cyberstein, but also his Blue-Eyes Ultimate Dragon, Wheeler didn't look particularly sorry, either.

Watching in astonishment, only a few of the more observant in the audience noticed Seto Kaiba's hands curling into white-knuckled fists before abruptly relaxing again. The slightest of smirks twisted his lips as the lightning attack ended. "Let me guess, Wheeler. You're still not done." He didn't sound bored this time, but his smirk had grown.

Wheeler shrugged. "Well, yeah, I do have one more thing to do. Red-Eyes Darkness Dragon! There's nothing in your way now, so attack Kaiba's lifepoints directly!"

With a roar, the black dragon took in a deep breath before a scorching flame erupted from his open jaws, heading towards the unflinching brunette duelist.

Kaiba's smirk vanished. "Activate trap. Mirror Force!"

As his sharp voice rang out through the auditorium, the audience began to cheer. They were sure he'd all but won as the sheen of a mirror appeared between the oncoming flame and the brilliant young duelist's remaining lifepoints.

The crowd was so caught up in what they thought was Seto Kaiba's victory that they didn't notice Joey Wheeler's grin.

The crowd was also so loud that Wheeler's activation of his third and final previously set card went unheard, but the duel game system didn't need to hear spoken commands. That was just the duelists being extra dramatic.

The crowd definitely noticed when Wheeler's Trap Jammer card activated, though.

As the defensive mirror shattered, allowing the flames to scorch away all 3000 of Seto Kaiba's remaining lifepoints, the light from the attack highlighted the expression of stunned disbelief that flashed across the brunette duelist's face.

If any of the audience had been able to tear their attention away from the surprising victory, they might have been even more shocked to see Evien Sanders showing the same expression, before he swiftly buried it beneath his usual mask.

In the silence that followed the startling conclusion to the duel, you could have heard a pin drop. The announcer quickly took the opportunity to announce Joey Wheeler as the winner of the duel, then took a breath. He clearly intended to call out the next pair of duelists, but the crowd chose that moment to come out of their shock and the resulting wall of sound was so loud that the announcer jerked a little in surprise.

It was almost as loud as Red-Eyes Darkness Dragon's roar of victory before it vanished off the field when the game system powered down.

As the audience continued to attempt to lift the roof off the stadium with the sheer volume of noise they were making, Wheeler and Kaiba stepped down from the duel arena as if nothing of any great importance had just happened. They both seemed completely unmoved by the outcome of their duel and neither apparently felt the need to even comment on it as they walked silently back to their seats, side by side.

No one watching could possibly have guessed that was the first time Wheeler had defeated Kaiba in a duel.

They were almost back with the others before the crowd quietened enough for the announcer to make himself heard. "For the next match, would Isis Ishtar and Mai Valentine please join us in the arena!"

Joey smiled at them both. "Good luck!"

Mai smiled warmly back at him. "Thanks, Hon. Congratulations, by the way." She sent Joey a wink along with a blown kiss that had him turning as red as his beloved dragon's eyes, then continued out to the arena with Isis.

Isis paused long enough to smile at them both, along with gifting them one of her most serene nods, before catching up with her soon-to-be opponent. As soon as they were out of earshot of the seats, she spoke quietly to the other woman. "Although a part of me is happy he won, the rest of me regrets they dueled today rather than tomorrow. It would have meant more to them if they had not both been holding back."

Mai sighed softly. "It would have, but I just hope he hasn't put himself in danger by winning."

"I do not believe he has." Isis glanced at Mai. "Although they have yet to duel each other, there is no time left in which that one could cause him trouble." The slightest of emphasis on 'no time left' made Mai glance back at Isis.

"You mean... Today?" The concern in her voice was only matched by her eyes. The rest of her face was set in its usual slightly smug, slightly airy smile.

"I believe so, yes."

The two women traded concerned looks before nodding to each other in silent agreement, then taking their places in the area.

The time for talk was over.

There would be time for worrying later.

Now... It was time to duel!

What followed was forty minutes of solid attacks, incredible combos and the longest chain of cards used in a single turn, which also caused a turn so long and complicated that even Kaiba was arching his eyebrow by the end of it.

It also included so many previously unseen cards that the audience was left wondering why both duelists had apparently used only a small portion of their decks in the tournament to that point.

In the end, though, Isis took the win with one final devastating attack that took out the last 1800 of Mai's lifepoints in a single blow.

Stepping down from the arena as the announcer called out the names of the next duelists, Mai didn't seem at all unhappy about losing against Isis. Or having to duel in the next match. Or even that her next duel would be against Joey. She actually looked rather amused by it all and cheerfully congratulated Isis on a great game and brilliant victory, when the other woman joined her for a few words before heading back to the competitor seats.

Mai's legion of fans weren't so content, but when one of them dared to boo Isis... Well... The cold glare he received from Mai before she very deliberately ignored him convinced the rest of her fans that showing Isis Ishtar anything less than the utmost of respect would be a Very Bad Idea.

Isis herself showed no sign of even hearing that single boo, however the one who had dared do it was reduced to a shivering, terrified mess when he noticed that all three of Isis's brothers were looking straight at him.

Was the one with the impossible hair actually licking his lips?

With a soft whimper, the man slipped as low into his seat as he could and tried very hard to will himself out of the auditorium and somewhere safe. Like a deserted island where he would never risk running into any of Isis's brothers.

Fortunately for him, Isis noticed the glaring and sternly told her brothers to 'stop it' when she reached them. Even more fortunately for him, she added a 'do not even think about it' to Marik.

So it was that another duel passed without anyone being sent plummeting into the Shadow Realm's Dark Abyss.

From the moment the next pair of duelists stepped up to their spots and immediately smirked at each other across the field, everyone watching could tell it was going to be a great match.

Mai and Joey always enjoyed dueling each other and this time was no exception. They spent the duration of the duel trading as many quips and friendly insults as attacks, although only the attacks ramped up as the match progressed.

Judging by the cheers that continually echoed through the auditorium, the audience appeared to take everything they were treated to with equal appreciation. Although Mai's fans also seemed to be constantly baffled, for some reason.

Maybe they weren't used to seeing their idol so relaxed and cheerful whenever she lost lifepoints.

Maybe it was simply that neither duelist seemed to be in any sort of hurry to end the duel.

Mai got in her fair share of attacks on Joey and kept her monsters well protected, so he had few chances of hitting her directly. As he was doing the same, their duel was relatively slow paced, with both of them slowly chipping away at each other's lifepoints through monster battles alone.

For two duelists who usually favoured bold and showy attacks, their duel was surprisingly calm and well balanced. It wasn't boring, though. Their flair for creative combos was well matched and kept the audience's interest just as much as their conversation kept the audience entertained.

Still, even the slowest of duels had to end at some point and one of the duelists had to be defeated. The end came with the fall of Mai's last defending monster, while Joey still had two monsters yet to attack that turn. After a full hour of dueling, his Flaming Swordsman cut Mai's lifepoints down to 0 and the audience went from holding their breath in anticipation to a cheer loud enough to wake a sleeping Thousand Year Dragon.

Fortunately for Kaiba Corp.'s reputation, the game system turned the monster holograms off before anyone noticed that Joey's dragon had even fallen asleep.

A holographic sleeping dragon waking up from crowd noise would have been hard for even Seto Kaiba to explain.

Mai and Joey were both very popular dualists, so it was no great surprise that the crowd continued to applaud them as they returned to the others. They were already taking their seats when the announcer was finally able to be heard over the barely-quietening roar.

"A big congratulations to the winner of that duel, Joey Wheeler! Now, would the next two duelists please make their way to the arena. These two have been rivals for the past year on the small tournament circuit, so we're sure to see some great plays in this match. Please keep up the applause for Nyc Lyons and Evien Sanders!"

Nyc wrinkled her nose slightly before starting to rise from her seat. "Ugh. Whoever did their background info checks failed completely." Her voice was a low grumble that didn't attract Sanders' attention, since he was already striding confidently towards the arena.

Kaiba shot her a thoughtful look. "I can request a correction directly to the team behind the scenes, if you wish?"

The brunette girl smirked at him. "Thanks but it's fine. I'll handle it. Then I'll handle him." Her eyes flashed with something unfamiliar as she turned away to head for the arena as well.

As soon as Sanders was out of earshot, Rina let loose a low whistle. "Wow. I have not seen her that ticked off since..." She thought for a moment. "The last time she and Evien were at the same contest." Avril, Callie and Mai all nodded in agreement.

"I don't get it." Joey looked confused as he turned in his seat to look at the girls sitting behind him. "What was wrong with what the guy said?"

Rina and Callie both looked at Avril, passing the question to her. "Two duelists being on the same tournament circuit, and clearly disliking each other, does not make them rivals. They would need to duel each other regularly, for that to be true. Those two..." Avril paused as something out in the arena caught her eye. The smile that followed was small but had the slightest wicked tilt to it. "Ah. I suspect you are about to find out from Nyc herself."

Joey opened his mouth to reply when the crowd's cheers suddenly dropped to low murmurs. He turned around in time to see Nyc with her arm raised in a gesture for silence as she stepped up to her spot in the arena. The next moment, her voice rose clearly above the remaining sound.

"Mr Announcer. I'm afraid your introduction was not quite correct. We are not rivals. We may have been dueling in the same circuit, but we have barely faced each other in a match before." Her eyes were fixed on Sanders as she spoke.

Before the announcer could respond, Sanders spoke up as well. "Such a shame, too. I'm looking forward to getting to see you in action once more, Nyc." There was something... off... in his voice.

As the announcer stumbled through a quick apology for the misunderstanding, Joey studied Sanders with a growing frown. "What's up with him? His words were normal but the way he said that..." He shook his head. "Why do I feel like that was supposed to be a threat to her?"

"Because it was." Callie's voice was so soft it almost went unheard by the others. She hugged her teddy bear tightly. "He says the same thing to many of his opponents."

"It is one of his favourite intimidation tactics." Avril sounded more bored than worried. "He is not particularly good at being intimidating, however."

"So that line tends to come out more sleazy than anything." Rina wrinkled her nose as if something smelled bad.

"Oh." Joey nodded. "Yeah, it did."

"Are we taking bets on how long it will take her to destroy him?" Marik sounded so cheerful, it immediately brought everyone's mood back up from where it had dipped in unanimous disgust.

"No, Marik. There will be no betting on this." Isis was very stern about that.

Avril smiled very serenely as she nodded. "Indeed. We would never get the bets sorted out before the duel ended."

The others were all still blinking at her when the duel officially began.

Nyc won the first turn then stunned the audience when she immediately set the card she drew face down in the zone reserved for spell and trap cards, before ending her turn without placing any monsters.

Sanders shot her a thoughtful frown as he made his draw, then smirked. "Didn't get any monsters, Nyc? Too bad. I did." He oozed smugness as he set a card down in face down defence position with a flourish most duelists reserved for bringing out a fusion monster or succeeding in getting one of their strongest monsters onto the field. "I end my turn."

Silently, Nyc placed a monster card on the field and Magician's Valkyria appeared. Sanders smirked.

"Is that all you have? I was expecting something more..."

He didn't get to finish.

That wasn't all Nyc had.

Nyc gave a nod to her monster, then, with a tap on the game system, the Spellcaster suddenly vanished from the field and another female monster took her place.

Although her large hat and fancy staff marked her as a Spellcaster also, there was something about this one that seemed rather more dangerous.

"Silent Magician. Attack." Nyc's voice was soft, but it still rose above the quiet murmur of the crowd.

The mage moved swiftly across the field and blasted Sanders' face down card with her staff. It flipped to reveal a giant Man-Eater Bug which roared and grabbed the spellcaster before both monsters vanished from the field!

Sanders smirked. "I can't believe you fell for that!"

He had barely finished his sentence when Silent Magician shimmered back onto the field. Except her clothes were slightly different and her staff was shorter. It was more of a wand now.

Sanders' eyes went wide. He opened his mouth but no words came out. All he could do was look from the unexpected monster on the field to the duel referee, as if he couldn't believe that move had been allowed.

Nyc didn't smirk. She didn't even smile. "I can't believe you fell for that, either. Activate trap, Lineage of Destruction. Target Silent Magician Level 8." She ignored the growing sounds of confusion from the audience as easily as she ignored Sanders' attempt at calling for the referee's intervention for her 'obvious cheating' and quietly continued.

"Silent Magician Level 8... attack our opponent's lifepoints directly."

The spellcaster held a very calm expression as she raised her wand and fired not one, but two, intense bursts of power directly at the spot where Sanders' lifepoints were shown. She barely moved, but there was no denying how affective her attacks were as the lifepoints immediately dropped to 0.

Sanders made a sort of choked squawking sound and looked desperately at the referee. "There's no way that turn was legal! I demand a review!"

Although the referee looked more than a little stunned, he immediately shook his head. "The turn is legal on all counts. The battle is over. Nyc Lyons is confirmed as the winner."

"What? No way!" As Sanders started arguing with the referee, Nyc Lyons quietly turned off her game system and walked back to her seat, accompanied by the thunderous roar of the crowd as they finally came back to their senses.

"That was awesome!" Joey's welcome back to the seating area was as enthusiastic as ever. It was also the only greeting Nyc received, since the others were all still working through various degrees of shock. "I've never seen anyone take out 8000 lifepoints in a single turn. You were great! The look on his face! Oh man. I am going to be dreaming of that for weeks." He snickered, his eyes practically shining with pure wicked delight.

Kaiba managed to control himself to nod once. "That was... exceptional. Well played." He seemed a little out of it.

Mai jumped up as Nyc got within range and hugged her tightly. "Oh Hon! You were amazing! I knew you were good but I think that broke a few records!" She grinned at her friend, who smiled back even as she went a bit red.

There was the sound of a throat clearing that made everyone look at Weevil Underwood, who was frowning deeply. "... How?!" He said it with such emphasis that even the first few rows of the audience seated directly behind them nodded in agreement.

Nyc grinned at him. "Well... it helped that he had no idea what my cards could do." She shrugged.

"He's not the only one." Rex Raptor pointed out with a wry smile. "I've seen you use your Silent Magician before, but not like that." He glanced over to where a very angry Sanders was still arguing with the referee, then grinned at Nyc. "If you feel like running through what you did, for those of us who missed the details, I think we have time."

Rina snorted at that. "Maybe he'll get himself thrown out of the tournament if he keeps going."

Joey looked hopeful. "Someone please tell me he's going against the rules right now and that's possible."

Kaiba took a moment to consider. "Unfortunately, I believe some arguing with the referee is permissible and in this case... It was somewhat difficult to follow that turn without knowing the full card texts." He arched an eyebrow at Nyc, who nodded as she sat down in her seat beside Mai.

"Which is why Sanders still can't work out how my turn could possibly be legal. He's being so loud about it, they're likely going to show a replay to prove him wrong." She nodded in the direction of the stage, where the referee and announcer were now in discussion while Sanders frowned at them from his spot in the arena.

"They didn't do a replay for any other duel." Rex Raptor frowned at the stage.

"No, but no one complained about any other duel, either." Joey shrugged as he pointed out the obvious.

Rex nodded. "Point taken. Oh, hey... is that a screen they're dropping down?"

A full sized cinema screen was slowly coming down from where it had been hidden in the rafter area above the stage.

Weevil glared at it as if it had squished his Insect Queen. "You mean we could have been watching all of the duels on that rather than trying to see what was happening on the field from here?" As their seats were off to the side of the arena and on the same level, they had the worst view of the duels in the whole auditorium.

There was a moment of silence as the others considered that and mentally sighed when they realised it was true.

"Kaiba..." Joey glanced at the brunette teen beside him and got a sigh and nod in return.

"The ones behind this tournament are idiots. I am aware."

The others were still snickering when the announcer stepped up to the microphone.

"Ladies and gentlemen. Our apologies for the delay. There has been a question raised about the legality of that last duel. Owing to the rarity of the cards involved, the referee has asked that the turn in question be played back with full commentary, to remove any doubt regarding this victory. So... without further ado..." He stepped back and the turn was shown again, only this time the referee was there to provide everyone with a full analysis of what was going on.

"The play being questioned is the second turn by the first player, Nyc Lyons. It began when the Spellcaster/Effect card Magician's Valkyria was normal set onto the field. As per official duel rules, this was the only normal set or summon during this turn." The referee paused to look sternly at Sanders as the blonde teen started to argue that point, then resumed when Sanders sulkily shut up. "This card was then tributed, in accordance with the terms of special summons for the Spellcaster/Effect card Silent Magician, which requires the tribute of one Spellcaster type monster."

There was a rumble of understanding from the crowd at that point and Joey smirked. "Is it just me, or does Sanders look like he just swallowed a lemon?"

It wasn't just Joey.

"Silent Magician attacked the opposing face down defence position card. It flipped to reveal Man-Eater Bug, with a flip effect that destroyed Silent Magician. However, the damage stage took place first. Silent Magician has an attack of 1000, with a bonus 500 attack for each card in the player's hand. That gave it a total of 3500 attack. Man-Eater Bug has 600 defence, therefore 2900 lifepoints were deducted for the successful attack. The Man-Eater Bug's flip effect then occurred." The referee paused to make sure he wasn't going too fast for anyone. Like Sanders, for example.

"The destruction of Silent Magician in battle or from the effect of another card, in this case Man-Eater Bug's flip effect, fulfilled the requirements listed on the Silent Magician's card for the special summons of Silent Magician Level 8, ignoring that card's own summoning restrictions." His emphasis of the word 'special' was noted with particular glee by the other duelists and with a sharp glare from Sanders.

"According to Duel Monster rules, only Normal sets or summons are limited to one per turn. Multiple Special summons are permitted. Also, any monster summoned onto the field is entitled to make an attack that turn, unless restricted by the first turn rule, card text or type of summons. There was no restriction for Silent Magician Level 8, therefore it could attack in that turn. Prior to calling an attack, however, Silent Magician Level 8's controlling duelist activated the trap card Lineage of Destruction, set in the duelist's first turn. That card grants one chosen level 8 monster a second attack, if a certain condition is met. That trap can only be activated during a turn in which a defence position monster is defeated. With the earlier defeat of Man-Eater Bug in defence position, this condition was met and so Silent Magician Level 8 was able to make two attacks that turn. These attacks reduced the duelist's lifepoints by another 7000, which was more than enough to end the duel." The last few words were spoken very clearly as the referee looked out at the audience, ignoring the glare from the blonde duelist who still remained in the arena.

Joey let out a low whistle that was covered by the rising mumble of the crowd as they reacted to the referee's final words. "Wow. So, the exact condition needed to set off that trap... and he caused it all by himself. That must sting." He smirked as the others snickered in agreement.

Nyc smirked back at Joey as she nodded. "No doubt of that. You can see how furious he is from here." She paused to watch as the large screen began to rise once more out of use. "Even without the very big screen."

Kaiba eyed the screen with a sneer. "Kaiba Land's dueling arenas all have full screen coverage at all times."

"So we'll be holding the rematch tournament there, then? Cool." Joey grinned at Kaiba before eyeing Sanders, who was still showing no sign of leaving the arena. "Why's he still out there?"

Unexpectedly, it was the announcer who provided the answer.

"For the last duel of the day, please give a big hand as Evien Sanders and Ryou Bakura meet in the arena!"

Joey sighed. "Oh. Right. There's still one more duel today." He sounded less than enthusiastic about it.

Bakura had to agree with Joey's lack of interest. Nyc's duel against Sanders had been the best play of the whole tournament, by far. How could anything possibly top that?

When Sanders declared the match to be a Shadow Game, Bakura silently cursed himself for such an obvious question.

To Be Continued...