Chapter Eight- The Duel

Aster looked Jaden up and down, ignoring the others nearby. "Well, someone has a new look."

Keeping his anger under control, he said evenly, "Actually, I've always been half-fox. It surfaced on my sixteenth birthday recently."

"I see. Well, I'll see you bright and early for our duel and aside from your friends, there will be no spectators."

"No spectators?" Bastion repeated.

"Hey, I'm a pro. People pay to see me duel. I can't go around giving out free duels," Aster replied as he walked away.

Jaden briefly scowled at the arrogant tone of Aster's words before racing after him. "Aster, wait!"

The pro turned as Jaden caught up. "Yes?" he drawled.

"Just so you know, I was not copying you and even if I was, wouldn't a pro like you be flattered?"

"Good reasoning, but I'm not flattered. Our dueling styles regarding the Elemental Heroes are vastly different and I look forward to taking you down."

"Oh, yeah?" Jaden shot back, his anger flaring. "Well, right back at ya!"

Aster seemed a bit taken aback at Jaden's retort for a moment before he smiled slightly and turned. "You can try, but Destiny's on my side.'

"He's accusin' you just because you have different duelin' styles?" Hassleberry asked.

"That doesn't make sense," Syrus commented.

"Well, that's what he said. There's no chance of calling it off or having a fun duel. He's treating it as some sort of grudge match or something.' Jaden personally looked forward to a serious duel and planned to win.

Jaden braced himself as his life points went to 150. He couldn't believe what he was seeing. Aster's Destiny Heroes while low in attack points, had devastating special abilities. Doom Lord could send his monsters two turns into the future. Captain Tenacious could revive Doom Lord if it was destroyed in battle. Diamond Dude could allow Aster to play a spell from the graveyard. Jade felt as if he had lost control of his monsters and worst of all was Aster's talk of destiny.

"Enough with the destiny speech already!" Jaden snapped. He drew a card and smiled at it. Aster's Clocktower Prison field spell currently protected his life points, but that ended here. "I play the field spell Fusion Gate. Looks like your clock's about to crumble."

"Why, thank you. I wanted you to destroy it because it allows me to special summon Destiny Hero Dread master!"

Jaden gaped at the enormous monster that emerged from the tower's ruins then frowned at its mystery points. "Care to explain him?"

"I'd love to. His attack points are the combined total of every Destiny Hero on the field. That means he has 2800 attack points. Furthermore, he keeps the other Heroes from being destroyed. He will be the one to end the duel."

Jaden swallowed hard and looked at his hand. His eyes landed on a card he couldn't believe hadn't been played yet. "I activate the spell, Pot of Greed so I draw two cards." He drew them, looked, and blinked. Once of them was Fox Spirit! This will win the duel for me. Yeah and the conditions are perfect.

"Since my life points are less than a thousand, I can special summon this. Fox Spirit- Malicious." Jaden put the card on his disk and the monster appeared, reminding him of his dad as he looked in his dream toward the end.

"Three thousand, huh? Nice, but it won't help. Even if it destroys Dread master, Doom Lord will it into the future and-," Aster began.

"No, this duel ends here. First, I'll send Clayman and Sparkman to the graveyard to activate its special ability. All other special summoned monsters on your side are destroyed! Your Dread master is out of here!" Dread master vanished in a haze of particles. "I activate my monster's other ability. I remove all monsters from my graveyard and Fox Spirit gains 500 more attack points for each one removed. There are eight monster in my graveyard and by removing them, my monster gains 4000 more attack points."

Aster gasped and Jaden felt pleased at the fear in his opponent's eyes. "Se-se-seven thousand?" he stammered.

"That's right. This duel is over. Fox Spirit, attack Doom Lord and end this!" The monster ran at Doom Lord, leaped upon him, and slashed out, destroying him and sending Aster's life points to zero.

"You've been claiming that destiny is on your side," Jaden spat. "Well, it seems it was on my side today." Jaden turned and left the room amidst a stunned audience. He felt wonderful at putting Aster in his place. He also felt…dark and savored it. I am evil like my dad and truthfully I like it. No one can stop me from doing as I please.

Aster remained on one knee as he stared down, sure he was alone. He couldn't believe it: He had lost to a student! I was told I would win so what went wrong? I played each card flawlessly. That card Jaden played. I've never seen a card that powerful.

"Aster?"

The pro looked up to see Jaden's friends, a blond girl in the forefront. He stood and tried to look nonchalant. "Come to gloat?" he asked.

"No, we were wondering if you were all right."

"Fine, but what's up with Jaden? He's not the same guy I met before."

"We noticed too and it's because of his fox nature. His dad is an evil trickster fox and it's likely he's been influencing Jaden to be like him."

"Influencing how?"

"I researched trickster foxes," Bastion spoke up. "The nature of the fox parent can cause the offspring to take after him or her. Plus, tricksters are beings of magic. Jaden's nature could have changed due to his father's magic which was used to unlock Jaden's magic."

"So, he's half trickster fox. That explains a little bit. Any chance he'll calm down and go back to normal?"

"I hope so," Syrus said. "I hate seeing my best pal acting angry and mean. That's not who he is."

"Agreed," Bastion said. "We should talk to him about this."

"I'm fine," Jaden said crossly. "I would think you would be happy I won."

"We are," Hassleberry said. "But the way you did it was overkill."

"No worse than what Aster would have done."

"Jaden," Syrus said desperately. "Stop acting like this. This isn't who you are."

"No, this is who I am now. I'm an evil trickster fox like my dad. So, get used to it." He saw the stunned expressions on their faces and decided to change that. He focused on his magic and used it to influence his friends' thinking. The magic silently swirled around them and the stunned looks faded to understanding.

"You're right, Jaden," Alexis said. "This is you now and we should accept it."

"Yeah," Syrus chimed in. "You're still our friend, no matter what."

Jaden smirked. "Good. Now, let's get some food and later I feel like playing some evil tricks." He led the way to the cafeteria, supremely confident. He had finally embraced the evil side of his fox nature. He was free to do whatever he wanted and he intended to do just that.

The End