Chapter 6; a seducing duel

Sonic and his friends, including Shadow now, were sitting at the competitors' seats while Knuckles was on his way to the arena.

"Sonic ummm…. When are you gonna teach me those tactics about how to beat my rival?" Shadow asked.

"Relax Shad. Let's enjoy the tournament for now and once the time comes you'll kick this guy's butt".

"Yeah but what if he comes right now?"

"He can't just come and challenge you Shadow. We' re in the middle of the duel cup. It's not like he can come down here and just challenge you. Here is only for the participants."

"Ok I'll try to relax."

"Good. Now let's watch Knuckles' duel"

Knuckles entered the arena. He stared at his opponent. A skimpy-dressed girl. She smiled and winked at him. That made Knuckles blush. He approached her.

"So… may we? Rouge?"

"Of course sweetie. Let's duel."

The moment he said "sweetie" Knuckles felt his heart racing but at the same time something like disgust. That Rouge girl was so beautiful yet so skimpy that he was annoyed. He shuffled and cut her deck and handed it to her. But she kept shuffling his deck with closed eyes and a smile on her face.

"Hey that's enough shuffling. Let's get on with this."

"My,my. Aren't you an impatient man. There you go then". She said and gave him his deck.

Knuckles turned around and walked over to his place on the field while he had a pressured look on his face.

Amy noticed it.

"Sonic I think we should cheer Knuckles. That girl is seducing him and messing with his head. We need to make him snap out of this."

"Nah. Knuckles can deal with this. He has the spirit of a samurai. He won't fall to a trick like a girl's charm."

That made Amy wondering.

"You mean that you for example wouldn't fall to a girl's charm during a duel?"

"Of course not. When I duel I only have eyes for victory and fun. Nothing can affect me on the dueling field."

That caused Amy's heart to race in both excitement and anxiety. She had been having an interest in Sonic for some months now. And that character of the duelist who is unmoved to such tricks as female charm, she just loved it. But on the other hand she couldn't be sure if Sonic's heart was less unmoved outside the dueling field. She was lost into her thoughts when Sonic brought her back to reality.

"Don't doze off now. Come on the duel starts."

Back at the arena

"Let's duel!"

"Alright handsome. I will take the first move. I draw"

That made Knuckles lose his focus even more.

"I activate the magic card despised treat. I'll grant us both a gift." She said smiling

"Grrr.." Knuckles thought inside him " she pisses me off yet why is my heart racing?"

"What gift?" he asked

"This card allows you to summon a level 4 or lower monster from your deck without type or attribute restrictions. If you do I draw 2 cards in exchange. If you don't I lose 1000 life points. So what will it be, naughty boy?"

Knuckles was being driven crazy. He couldn't make out what he felt.

"I summon elemental hero stratos in attack mode. And his effect immediately brings elemental hero prisma in my hand."

"Good. Then I draw 2 cards. Next because you control a monster and I don't I can special summon the tuner monster t.g striker in attack mode. But because the striker was special summoned tg werewolf follows him as well."

"A Synchro summon right away? Oh boy she is not only good looks but not wasting time charging into the battle either. Like an Amazoness." Knuckles thought while trying to calm his heartbeat.

"Let's get on with it. I play the magic card tuning. Now I add a monster with synchron in its name and in exchange the top card of my deck goes to the graveyard. I add junk synchron to my hand. Now the top card of my deck leaves the party. Oh look at this. It'll come back soon enough. Next I summon junk synchron in attack mode. The card that was sent to the graveyard was quillbolt hedgehog. The effect of my junk synchron revives a fallen level 2 or lower monster like my hedgehog. Before I make my real move I activate the magic card secret message. I gain 1000 lp and in exchange I set one card from my deck directily into your spell/trap card zone."

"What? My spell/trap zone?" he thought " what's with her?"

"Hey rouge. Why are you giving me all these cards? First stratos now a set why?" he asked her.

"Why not? After all you're such a handsome little boy so I'm just being nice."

"The last thing I want is being shown mercy."

"Oh so you're handsome and tough. Fine then. I'm coming at you. I tune my level 3 tuner junk synchron and level 2 non tuner quillbolt hedgehog to synchro summon tg hyper librarian. Then I tune my level 2 tuner tg striker with level 3 non tuner tg werewolf to synchro summon the synchro tuner tg wonder magician!"

"2 synchro summons? Talk about good strategy." Knuckles thought

At the seats

"Synchro tuner? What is that Sonic?" Amy asked after watching the summon of the magician.

"Trouble. Real trouble for Knuckles. There are some specific rare synchro monsters who require a synchro tuner and one or more synchro non tuners to be summoned. She must be using some."

"And how powerful are they?"

"To tell you the truth, against a deck like Knuckles' they are overpowered."

"No. You mean he'll lose?"

"Knuckles is strong Ames. I just can't predict the outcome this time. It is him and his belief in his deck against overpowered synchros. Only time will tell."

"You can do it Knuckles!" Amy shouted "don't show her any mercy!"

Knuckles heard Amy's words

"You think it's easy Amy? i haven't even made a move yet." He thought.

"You lost darling? Relax I will show you reality again. My wonder magician's effect activates when it is summoned. It destroys a spell or trap on the field. And I choose the one I set on your field."

"But you gave it to me? Why would you destroy it?"

"Because that set card was the trap secret blast. When it is destroyed the opponent of its controller takes 1000 points of damage."

"But I controlled the card so you take the damage."

"Normally yes. But I have the quick play spell counter."

At the seats

"Sonic! Isn't that a card that was printed less than the others in the pack it was released in?" Jet asked

"Yeah. It is quite powerful. Thanks to this rouge can counter an effect damage coming her way and double it provided that the original damage is not beyond 2000 points."

"Hmph of course. That's the way this girl acts. She twists her opponents mind until they can't think straight." Amy said pissed while looking at rouge with a deadly look on her face.

Back at the arena

My card will make the effect of secret mission deal you damage sweetie. DOUBLE the damage."

"AAh" (Knuckles LP 6000)

Now for my final move. But first due to hyper librarian's effect I draw a card because I synchro summoned on his presence. And now… I tune my level 5 synchro tuner wonder magician and level 5 non tuner synchro monster hyper librarian to synchro summon one of my favourites. Tg blade blaster! Attack mode!"

"Uh oh I'm screwed" Knuckles thought.

"I place one card face down and end my turn. Your turn darling." She said and winked again.

"uuuuh.. ok my turn. I… I draw."

At the seats again

"See what I mean Sonic? Knuckles can't think straight. She has twisted his mind too much."

"Yeah I think you're right Ames. But I don't think it's her charm. I think Knuckles is in love." He said smiling while looking at his friend trying to pick a card from his hand.

"But you yourself said that he is a samurai. That such things won't stop him."

"Amy it is his heart. Not rouge who causes this. But yeah I think he needs someone to wake him up." And he started shouting at Knuckles "Knucks buddy are you gonna lose now?"

"What no way!" Knuckles shouted back at Sonic while looking angry.

"Then get on with the game. A samurai never gives his sword right? Not even to his heart's will."

Knuckles just couldn't understand what Sonic meant so he just decided to play.

"I activate the spell card polymerization. With this I fuse together stratos and neo spacian grand mole to fusion summon elemental hero gaia!"

"What's Knuckles doing? He could easily summon elemental hero great tornado and put rouge at a huge disadvantage." Sonic thought

"My gaia cuts your monster's attack points in half and then gets these attack points as boost until my end phase. Now crash that blaster!"

"Sonic Knuckles wouldn't attack so carelessly. We need to cheer him up or he'll lose ." Amy said surprised and worried

"We can't do anything unless he finds his old self again." Sonic said with his eyes closed in a serious tone.

" My, you're one reckless yet handsome guy. I activate my set card reverse trap. Any change in our monsters' attack points is reversed. My monster's attack points grow from 3300 by 1650 up to 4950 and yours are reduced to a minor 550 attack points. Still want to attack?" She said smiling

"Grrr fine I set 1 card and end my turn. Go ahead."

"What a right my turn. I draw. First to make sure that you won't take advantage of your graveyard I activate specie elimination. Any monster with a specific type that is destroyed is removed from the game instead of being sent to the graveyard. I naturally chose warriors."

"Darn" Knuckles thought " Now my miracle fusions are useless."

"Next I attack with my blade blaster. Destroy gaia!"

"AAh" (Knuckles LP 4900)

"I set one more card make your move knucksie"

At the sound of Knucksie Knuckles felt his heart would explode. But he still couldn't get why.

"My turn….. I draw."

And once he drew the card he heard Sonic's words echoing in his head "A samurai never gives his sword right? Not even to his heart's will." And understood what Sonic meant. And at the same tieme he realized that he liked rouge. He was too obsessed with her attitude to realise it before. But now he was relaxed. He closed his eyes and took a deep breath. And when he opened them they were shining in anticipation. Rouge saw it and her eyes widened.

"All right Rougie I'm not holding back anymore I'm winning this."

She could not believe that her charm was no longer working. And without no one knowing it her heart started beating fast as well.

"I set a monster and activate swords of revealing light. Now go ahead try and beat me now."

"Oh looks like you got arrogant huh? Ok then my turn draw. I activate the magic card synchro toll. Due to its effect I choose a type of card- monster spell or trap and you draw 1 card from your deck. If it happens to be the same type that I declared you must send 10 cards of that type to the graveyard. I declare monster."

"ok I draw. It is elemental hero neos."

"Perfect 10 monsters from your deck are destroyed. So send them off."

Knuckles picked 10 monsters and send them to his graveyard.

"Now if one of these is removed from the graveyard to either deck hand or banished all of these 10 cards get banished. No miracle fusions today" she said with closed eyes smiling.

"Go on. The more you go on the closer you are to defeat." He smiled back

"What?" she thought inside of her " I'm destroying his combos and he says he'll win" but then she realized her heart was beating like a drum in a concert. That Knuckles was the first to resist her female charm. In every duel she had fought until today every opponent just lost ambition against her charm. But this guy was different. She couldn't wait to see how he would fight.

"All right then. If you're so sure then allow me to summon my ultimate monster forth. I play the spell one for one which allows me to send my glow up bulb from my deck to my hand in order to special summon level eater in attack mode. Afterwards by sending the top card of my deck to my graveyard my bulb is revived. And now I will tune it with my level 1 level eater to synchro summon tg recipro dragonfly.

"What?" Sonic said "This monster…"

"This monster what?" His friends asked.

"It is used as de synchro for tg monsters. That means that she is going for the ultimate tg monster."

His friends all looked waiting for rouge to make her move.

"Recipro dragonfly splits my monster back to the original monsters used to summon it. But they won't stick around for long. Because they are going to tune with recipro dragonfly to summon forth the ultimate tg monster! Come on out, Tg HALBERD CANNON!"

"4000 attack points?" Knuckles said in awe

"Indeed and once I draw mystical space typhoon or your swords are destroyed you're done. I end my turn."

"Time to end it. My turn. Draw. Perfect. I play ancient rules to special summon neos from my hand. Now I play polymerization."

"No you don't. I activate halberd cannon's effect. Once per turn a summoning on your field is negated."

Polymerization was destroyed.

"Exactly what I was waiting for. I activate miracle fusion."

"But if you do this your monsters will be removed."

"I chain with one of my face downs. Success possibility 0%. 1 random monster from each of our extra decks is destroyed."

Knuckles chose a card from his extra deck.

"Awesome. Elemental hero the shining is destroyed. Now miracle fusion removes neos, avian, neo spacian grand mole, burstinatrix and clayman from my graveyard to summon my own ace. Come out Elemental hero Divine neos! Now every monster in my graveyard is removed due to your card. Except the shining. He can't be banished by your effects."

"Still my monster has 2500 attack points. They're nowhere close to halberd cannon's."

"I activate neos' effect. It removes the shining from my graveyard and gains 500 attack points. But the best part is he gains the shining's effects. So he gains 400 attack for every removed hero. 14 heroes are out of the game. So his attack points grow to 8600!"

"Say what?!"

"Divine neos. Bring down the cannon."

Halberd cannon fell before divine neos.

"AAAAAH"(Rouge LP 3400)

" This changes nothing. My cannon's effect bring back my blade blaster from my extra deck."

"I play my trap explosive breakthrough. Since I destroyed a level 8 or above monster and I have no cards in my hand and only 1 monster on the field,by reducing its attack by 800 it can attack again. It's game over Rouge!"

"AAAH" (Rouge LP 0)

"This is the first time I had such a blasting duel." Rouge said smiling at Knuckles

" Yeah. It was one of the best I ever had."

"Next time I'll win though." She winked at him

"No chance. By the way wanna meet my friends? I'm sure they will be happy to meet you."

"I'd love too."

They went back to the participants' seats.

"Guys meet our newest member of the gang, Rouge."

"Pleased to meet you." Sonic said without noticing Amy taking a look of rage on her face.

"I'm Jet" Jet said

"Shadow here" Shadow introduced.

And then Rouge came face to face with Amy.

"Hi" Amy said in a cold tone

"Hi" Rouge said ignoring the cold tone.

Afterwards they started talking about themselves and asked Rouge about herself. But soon enough…

"NOOOOW WE WILL PROCEED TO THE THIRD ROUND! DUELISTS PROCEED TO THE ARENA!"

Sonic looked at Jet.

"It's up to you now buddy. Find out whether she is a singed one or not."

"Ok I'll try." Said Jet and left for the arena.

Amy sat next to Sonic.

"What if that Wave isn't a singed one?"

" All we can do in this case is just wait for our roads to cross with hers. But fir now let's watch Jet's duel."

"Ok"

And they looked at Jet while he was entering the dueling field and approached his opponent.