"Hurry up, Charlotte. We are already late." Laura said as she and Charlotte ran through the streets. "The tournament already officially started. This is insubordination."

"I keep saying I'm sorry." Charlotte said. "Wouldn't you know it. The day the tournament starts, I end up oversleeping."

"We best hurry. We were suppose to meet with Ichika and Houki already. I do not wish to miss them duel."

"I know. I know. I just hope we are not too late." Charlotte said as the two of them do not want to miss anything in this tournament.

...

Houki

Dueling City has officially begun. Now that it has, the entire city has become a giant dueling field. There are duels happening all over the city. The goal is to gain a total of four-thousand points. Once you have, you are one of the eight duelists to have made it to the finals. Of course, without knowing how the point system works exactly, it's hard to say how well you need to duel to gain the points you need to qualify. Ichika has already earned some points, but Houki can't afford to fall behind.

"Let's see... Who can I duel?" Houki said as she looked around to see who she can challenge. "If I want to gain a lot of points, I want to try and make the duel as intense as I can. Conner said to duel hard and fast. Either way, I need to gain all the points I can."

"Wow! Check this guy out!"

"He is smoking this guy!" Houki looked down the street and saw a crowd of people gathering for a duel. Wanting to check this out, she went to see who was dueling. She made her way through the crowd and saw one duelist was completely nervous and that duelist was actually Flint himself. The other one was a guy with sleek blonde hair with him wearing blue top with long sleeves and had gold diamonds going across his chest with gold pants. He also had one powerful monster.

"Come on, pal. Take it easy." Flint pleaded as he didn't like how this duel was going.

"Sorry, pal. You might have been something big before, but you've never faced a duelist like me. Remember my name: Lance Gallad! Now, Lord Gaia attack him directly and finish this!" He ordered his knight that was riding on a dragon to strike at Flint. That's just what he did as Lord Gaia struck Flint with his lance and eliminated the last of Flint's life points.

"No way! This guy beat Flint?!" Houki said with disbelief.

"I can't believe this guy won. Nothing Flint did even worked."

"It was like that guy knew what he was about to play before he played it. He knew how to counter all of his move perfectly." Houki overheard some rumors about this Lance and it sounded like he was one skillful and powerful duelist.

"Well, would you look at that. My points are really racking up." Lance said. "So, who here wants to be my next opponents?" He said as he looked around to try and obtain another win.

"Darn it. I can't believe I got burned that badly." Flint complained.

"Flint, what happened?" Houki said as she tried to get a better idea of what she witnessed.

"Shinonono? I knew I would find you." Flint said. "I was hoping to find you and get payback for last time, but this guy found me and just mopped the floor with me."

"This guy?" Houki said as she found that hard to believe, but that's what happened.

"Is there a problem?" Lance questioned.

"No. I'm just trying to understand what happened. Sounds like you have some skills." Houki said.

"Of course. I am a knight that can never be defeated." Lance said. "I see that you are wearing a duel disk. Would you care to see my skills for yourself?" Sounds like Houki found her first challenge in the tournament.

"Take my advice, Shinonono. Don't duel this guy." Flint said.

"Just because you couldn't beat him doesn't mean I can't. You always were so arrogant." Houki claimed with Flint getting insulted.

"Shinonono...? Wait a minute! Are you Houki Shinonono?! The runner-up of Duel Island?!" Lance questioned.

"I'm flattered you've heard of me." Houki said.

"Well, that will certainly make things a lot more interesting." Lance said.

"You should feel flattered yourself. You'll get to be my first opponent in this tournament, and the first one I beat." Houki claimed. "Okay, Lance Gallad. I'll gladly take you on!" Lance and Houki accepted each other's challenge and neither side was backing down. Both of them have the spirits and pride of warriors. This duel will be like a knight going against a samurai.

"Don't say I didn't warn you." Flint said as he could see this going badly. Now that the introductions were out of the way, they got started as they both activated their duel disks and ready to get started.

"Let's duel!" They both said as they began their duel and each one had 4000LP.

"I'll show some chivalry and allow you to go first." Lance said.

"How kind of you." Houki said as she reached for her first card. "I'll start by summoning Mishen the Silent Wind to the field in attack mode!" She began the duel by summoning out her samurai-like warrior as he came out with 1500atk points. "Next, I place one card facedown and that puts an end to my turn." 'Okay, I'm all set now. If he summons a monster that's stronger than Mishen, I can activate my face-down: Warrior's Discipline. That will allow me to take a warrior from my deck to my hand when Mishen is destroyed. I'll also be able to take Mishen from my graveyard since I activated a spell on the turn he was destroyed.' She thought as she set a good defense.

"Let me guess, you're betting on your facedown, right?" Lance said. "It's actually a spell card, isn't it?"

"What?!" Houki said as she didn't think he would already know what her face-down is.

"It won't help you. It's my turn now!" Lance said as he drew his card. "I should warn you that you stand no chance for I wield mighty warriors that tame dragons and embody the forces of earth."

"Is that so? Hit me with your best shot then." Houki dared.

"You're going to regret that." Flint said as he just knew this wasn't going to go well.

"I'll start by summoning Gaia the Fierce Knight Origin to the field!" Lance said as he summoned out a knight riding on a red horse to the field with it having 1600atk points. "Of course, that is only the beginning. I play the effect of my Squire Knight tuner monster from my hand! Since I have a Gaia on the field, I can special summon this monster!" He summoned out a smaller knight with armor similar to Gaia's with him having 500atk points.

"Did you just say that's a tuner monster?!" Houki said as she didn't like where this was going.

"I can tell by your expression that you already know what's coming, and you're right to worry. I now tune my level two Squire Knight with my level four Fierce Knight Origin!" When that happened, both monsters molecularly broke apart with a circle forming and each piece going into it. Then, the circle turned into six circles with a beam shooting through them. "I synchro summon Gaia Knight the Force of Earth!" He summoned out a stronger and more powerful knight with it having 2600atk points.

"Oh man. He synchro summoned on his first turn?" Houki said as she knew this was trouble.

"That's right, and it's about to get worse for you." Lance claimed. "When Squire Knight is used to synchro summon a warrior-type monster, one of your spell or trap cards is destroyed, and you only have one." Houki's only spell card was destroyed, and that ruins her little plan. "Now that your spell card is out of the way, my knight can attack and destroy your Mishen!" His knight charged right in and struck his lance against Mishen with Mishen getting destroyed and her life points dropping to 2900.

"Okay... Maybe this guy actually does have some skill." Houki said as she could see she was in real trouble.

"I tried to warn you, Shinonono, but you just wouldn't listen." Flint said. "It's almost like this guy knows what you're about to do, and he counters everything perfectly."

"Nothing is really perfect. There's got to be an opening and I'll find it." Houki said as she wasn't going to be intimidated.

"I think I'll be nice and put an end to my turn right there." Lance said as his turn ended.

"It's my move!" Houki said as she drew her card. "I'm going to start by playing Pot of Greed! This spell card allows me to draw two more cards!" She drew two more cards and it seemed like two good ones. "Let me introduce a new monster of mine. I summon Reversal Samurai to the field!" She summoned out a new samurai to the field. This one wore a black and white outfit with him having long shimmering black hair that was tied back. He also had 1800atk points. "Next, I'm activating his special ability! He can switch one monster into defense mode! Reversal Reflect!" His samurai reflected a light from his sword and it looked like it blinded Lance's knight with it switching to defense mode and his defense points were only 800.

"That's good you're about to get rid of a strong monster, but you still won't deal any damage." Flint said.

"That shows how much you know, hothead." Houki said. "Reversal Samurai can deal damage even when your monster is in defense mode. Attack with Reflective Slash!" Her samurai went on the attack. He made a reflective copy of himself that attacked. They slash against the knight and destroyed him with Lance's life points dropping to 3000.

"Are you kidding me? I couldn't take away any of his life points, but she did on her second turn?" Flint said as his self-esteem took a shot.

"I'll place two cards facedown and end my turn." Houki said as she played a couple more cards.

"That won't help you. I know how to counter everything you throw at me." Lance said.

"We'll see about that." Houki said. She has a feeling there's more to this guy than meets the eyes, but she hasn't figured it out just yet. She's actually right. Up on one of the buildings, two kids that looked similar to Lance were using a pair of binoculars and could see what was in Houki's hand.

"Did you see what she played?"

"I did. It looked like both of them were the same card: Graceful Light."

"Did you hear that, Big Bro. Both her facedown cards are Graceful Reward." One of them was using an earpiece to speak with Lance and was telling her what the cards were.

'Graceful Light... That trap card increases the attack points of a monster by 500 and prevents her monster from being destroyed.' Lance thought. 'Two of them would really help her, but there's one problem. She's only allowed ot activate one per turn. All I've got to do is summon a monster that's still stronger.'

"Are you going to make move or not?" Houki said.

"Patience, my dear. Patience. It's my turn!" Lance said and drew his next card. It was just the monster he wanted. "You're in real trouble now. I'm summoning out my mighty warrior! Since you have a monster on the field when I have none, I can summon out Lord Gaia the Fierce Knight!" Lance summoned out his ace monster as his knight flew out riding on a fierce dragon and him having a total of 2300atk points.

"Oh man! Watch it Shinonono! That's the monster he used to clobber me!" Flint said.

"And my powerful knight is going to get stronger!" Lance claimed. "I play my equip spell: Power of the Guardians! This spell card will allow my knight to grow stronger and stronger!" He claimed as a green aura formed around his knight. "Each time he attacks or is attacked, one counter will be placed on this card. For each counter, my knight will grow stronger by 500atk points. One other thing, if is ever destroyed, I can simply remove one counter from this card and save Gaia from ever being destroyed."

"That's one powerful card!" Houki said as she was impressed that was all packed in one card.

"I've got my best monster combined with one of my best spell cards. I hate to say it, Houki Shinonono, but there's just no way you can win this!" Lance said, but was actually glad he did say it. It would seem like the knight holds the advantage against the samurai for now. If Houki can't figure this out, she might never make it to the finals.

To Be Continued...