Ichika finally got his chance to face Peggrin, but it isn't paying off. Peggrin continues to read his mind. He'll know what Ichika does before he can do it. Ichika has 3500LP, but nothing on his field. Peggrin had 3200LP, but he had Luminous Sparta and Gladius at 1400atk points, a face-down, and Luminous Coliseum. He's got every advantage.

"What's the matter, Ichika? Losing your nerve?" Peggrin said. "I don't blame you if you are."

"Mock me while you can, Peggrin. I'll still find some way to defeat you." Ichika said. "It's still my turn. Since you have monsters on the field when I have none, I can special summon Infinite Satellite to the field!" Ichika summoned his satellite as it came out with 2200def points.

"Nice. That thing's got a lot of defense power." Houki said. "That should buy Ichika some time."

"Yes, but Peggrin probably saw that coming." Charlotte said.

"It just isn't fair." Cecilia said. "How can Ichika fight back when Peggrin knows what he's going to do?" Cecilia has a point. How can Ichika win?

"I'll also set a monster to end my turn." Ichika said as he set a monster on the field.

"Let me see. That monster is your Rocket Flyer." Peggrin said with Ichika getting annoyed. "Not much you can do. The only card in your hand is Byakushiki. You're not going to he able to summon it. "It's my turn now!" Peggrin drew his next card and readied himself for the worst. "I'll start by activating Gladius' ability. I send one card in my hand to the graveyard for him to gain 200atk points. I discard Luminous Cri." He discarded his card and Gladius' attack points rose to 1600. "Next, I activate my trap card. I play Balanced Action. When an effect is activated that required a card to be discarded, this trap allows us both to draw two cards. See? I'm not a bad guy." They both drew their cards, but it won't matter if Ichika can't stop Peggrin. "Now, Cri's ability activates. When this card is discarded, I can summon one of my warriors from my graveyard. Come on out, Luminous Churon." Churon came on the field with 1300atk points. "You know what that means, don't you? Luminous Coliseum gives all my monsters an extra 400atk points." All of his monsters' attack points went up to 1600, 1800, and 2000.

"He might have made his monsters stronger, but none of them are stronger than Ichika's satellite." Cecilia said.

"I don't think it's going to stay that way." Houki said.

"Your friends speak the truth." Peggrin said. "I activate the equip spell called Light of Gladiators. I'll equip it on Gladius. Thanks to this, he gains an extra 500atk points when he attacks a monster that's in defense mode. It also negates any special abilities that would activate." Ichika knows what that means. "Gladius, give that satellite a good smashing." Gladius started radiating light with his attack points increasing to 2500. He attacked the satellite and destroyed it. Since he couldn't use his satellite's ability, he couldn't summon a monster. "Churon, it's your turn." Churon tossed his morning star. Ichika's facedown monster was Rocket Flyer with it only having 1000def points. It was easily destroyed. "That means that Sparta can attack you directly." Sparta slashed against Ichika and his life points dropped to 1700.

"Oh no!" Charlotte said.

"Another round like that and this duel is over." Houki said. None of them were liking the looks of this at all.

"Face it, Ichika. There's nothing you can do to win." Peggrin said as it seemed like this duel was already over.

...

Rin and Laura

Rin and Laura didn't trust Peggrin would release Conner and Mila. So, they decided to try and find them in the dungeons. They started going in the right direction when they saw a couple guards at a passage way.

"Why are we even guarding this kid? She doesn't do anything."

"It's Peggrin's orders." Both of the guards just stayed where they were. One of them felt someone tap their shoulder. He turned to meet Laura, but she instantly knocked him on the head and knocked him out. "How did you get here?!" He didn't get the chance to do anything as he was knocked on the head as well by Rin.

"That was easier than I thought." Rin said.

"Never underestimate the element of surprise." Laura said.

"Let's go." Rin said as they made their way down the passage. As they did, they saw a cage just up ahead and they could see Mila was in there. "Mila!"

"Yes. We found one." Laura said.

"We still need to get her out of here." Rin said as she ran to the cage. "I don't suppose you know how to pick a lock, do you?"

"Stand aside." Laura said. Rin moved out of the way as she allowed Laura to do what she needed to do. Laura focused her strength and just kicked the lock and busted it open.

"How did you do that?!" Rin said as she couldn't understand how.

"I have my ways." Laura said as she got the door open.

"Hold it right there." Both of them looked and saw the guards back on their feet.

"Guess we didn't hit them as hard as we thought." Rin said.

"I knew I should have gone for the neck." Laura said.

"Pretty sneaky, little girls, but you're going to be sorry." It didn't seem like there was a way out for either of the girls.

"I'm afraid you're the ones that are going to be sorry." All of them looked at the entrance and saw Ryu arrived.

"Ryu?" Laura said as none of them knew that it was really the evil spirit in control of Ryu.

"Ryu, get out of here! Save yourself!" Rin said.

"You don't need to worry about me." Ryu said as he held out a card. "Shadow Spell!" He somehow brought the trap to life as chains coiled around the two guards.

"What is this?!"

"I can't get free!" Both of the guards struggled, but nothing was working. They couldn't get free.

"Ryu? How did you do that?" Rin questioned.

"Never mind that now! Grab the girl and let's go!" Evil Ryu said. With no time to worry, Rin grabbed Mila and the three of them ran out of there as fast as they could.

...

The Duel

"Are you ready to quit or do you wish to continue, Ichika?" Peggrin taunted. It almost seemed like there was nothing Ichika could do.

'What do I do?' The spirit thought. 'How do I prevent Peggrin from reading my mind?'

'I have an idea.' Ichika said. Inside their shared mind, the two of them were able to talk. 'Peggrin's reading our mind because of that patch right. I know I'm giving away our plan by doing this, but it's all I can think of. It's the only way we can communicate with each other.'

'What do you mean? Do you have a plan?' The spirit asked.

'Yeah. What if we switched minds around at the end of every turn.' Ichika said.

'Switch minds?' The spirit questioned. 'Yes, that just might work. As long as we don't know what the other does, he can't know what we're going to do. However, to pull this off, we're going to need absolute trust in each other.'

'I know, but I also know we can pull it off. It's all we got that can beat Peggrin.' Ichika said. The spirit understood. This could be there only chance. Back in the duel, they were getting ready to put their plan in action.

"It's my turn!" The spirit said as he drew his next card. "I'll start by summoning Infinite Stratos Uchigane to the field!" Uchigane flew out and on the field with her having 900atk points. "Second, thanks to her special ability, I can release her to summon out Infinite Stratos Byakushiki to the field!" Byakushiki flew out on the field with him having 2500atk points.

"Like I didn't see that coming." Peggrin said.

"I'm not quite done yet, Peggrin." The spirit said. "I activate Stratos Repair! By returning an Infinite Stratos to my deck, I can summon a weaker monster from my deck. Return, Byakushiki!" Byakushiki was removed from the field and was placed back in his deck.

"You're returning your best monster?" Peggrin said.

"That's right. In his place, I'm summoning Infinite Stratos Akatsubaki!" The spirit said. Akatsubaki flew out with her having 2400atk points. "Akatsubaki, attack Luminous Gladius with Twin Crimson Slash!" Akatsuabki flew at Gladius and slashed her twin swords at him. It destroyed Gladius and Peggrin's life points dropped to 2800. "When Akatsubaki deals damage, I also gain life points equal to the damage you took." His life points increased to 2100. He appeared to still be in the game.

"Oh yeah! That's more like it!" Houki said.

"Didn't Peggrin said something about how Ichika wouldn't be able to deal damage again?" Charlotte sarcastically asked.

"It looks like Ichika proved him wrong." Cecilia said.

"I place one card facedown and that ends my turn." The spirit said.

"Oh please. A little damage is acceptable. Even I can't prevent that every time." Peggrin said. "However, playing hidden cards is useless. Let's take a look at that card." Peggrin used his powers and tried to take a look at what that card was, but there was actually a problem with him doing that. "What?! I can't tell what that card is! How can that be?!"

"Sorry, Peggrin. You can't because I don't know what card it is." Peggrin took a look and saw that Ichika switched back with the spirit. The real Ichika was in control now. "I don't know what that card is. Therefor, you can't tell what it is either."

'It's true!' Peggrin thought as he was surprised by this. 'Ichika really does share his body with another spirit, the spirit within his charm. It looks like they found a way to use it to their advantage.'

"What's going on?" Cecilia asked.

"I'm not sure, but it sounds like Ichika's found a way to beat Peggrin at his own game." Charlotte said.

"You mean Peggrin can't tell what cards Ichika has anymore? That's great!" Houki said.

"You think you can stop me like that? We'll see about that." Peggrin said. "It's my turn now!" He drew his next card and was pleased with what he had. "I sacrifice both Sparta and Churon! I tribute summon Luminous Spartacus!" Peggrin released both his warriors and summoned out his strongest warrior in his deck as Spartacus rose on the field with 2800atk points. "I'm sure you remember him, as well as what he does. Spartacus gains an additional 300atk points for every warrior I have in my graveyard." Spartacus' attack points increased to 4000. "I don't know what that facedown is, but it doesn't hurt to be cautious. I activate Luminous Shock. By sending one card in my hand to the graveyard, like Luminous Blight, I gain life points equal to a Luminous attack points. All of Spartacus' 4000atk points!" Peggrin took in a light as his life points went all the way to 6800.

"No fair. Not only did he get all of his life points back, but he got some extra power too." Houki said.

"And there's more. Remember that Luminous Blight does return to his hand when it's discarded." Cecilia said as Peggrin took his spell card back and was getting ready to attack.

"Spartacus, destroy Akatsubaki with Champion Lightning!" Peggrin ordered. Spartacus drew his sword and went to attack Akatsubaki.

'Ichika, play the trap!' The spirit told him.

"I activate my trap card!" Ichika said. It worked as the trap was activated. "Look at that, it's the trap known as Mirror Blast!"

"Oh no!" Peggrin said.

"That's right. Not only will this destroy all your monsters, but you will also take 500 points of damage for each monster that's destroyed!" Ichika said. Spartacus' attack hit a mirror wall and it caused the attack to be redirected with Spartacus getting destroyed by it and Peggrin's life points dropping to 6300. "So much for your strongest monster."

"Don't get cocky with me, boy!" Peggrin said as he was starting to get serious. "I place one card facedown! That ends my turn!"

"My turn!" Ichika said as he drew a new card. "I'm going to play Stratos Replenishment! Since I have five or less Infinite Stratos monsters in my graveyard, this card allows me to draw a card for each one. I have three. That means I can draw three cards!" Ichika drew those three cards. Ichika is starting to regain control of the duel, but Peggrin isn't going to let that happen so easily.

"Before you make another move, I think it's time I activated this!" Peggrin said as his trap was activating. "I play Luminescence Return! This trap card allows me to bring back any Luminesce in my graveyard! Return to battle, Spartacus!" Spartacus reemerged on the field with him having 2800atk points. "Don't forget that his ability allows him to gain extra power. He gains even more power since he was special summoned thanks to my field spell." Spartacus gained more power as his attack points increased all the way to 4400.

"Darn it. I thought I got rid of that guy." Ichika said.

"Understand something, Ichika. You won't allow yourself to be defeated, but I won't allow myself to be defeated either!" Peggrin said. "I will do everything I can to ensure I win!" It seems like Peggrin is getting anxious when he usually keeps his cool. This duel is far from over.

To Be Continued...