Chapter 10

New Rule: Ante Game

Ryo, Hope, and Max had continued deeper into the tropical rainforest environment and had stopped at a clearing to rest.

"Well," Max said. "Lets see. Including Kurt who defected from them, we have defeated about 3 judges so far."

"No," Hope chimed in. "I bet Kurt and Will have had their far share of dueling judges so I say we've beaten 5."

"She brings up a good point," Ryo said.

"True.Tell me something Hope,why did you get so angry at Predator?"Max asked her

"I love animals. And having that guy talking about his sick way to get thrills got me pissed off."

Ryo laughed. "Obviously."

There little chat session was cut short when they heard what sounded like a splash in the distance.

"What the hell was that?!" Hope said as she jumped at the sudden noise.

"Most likely something that Predator forgot to kill," Ryo joked, but was instantly silenced from laughing at his joke due to a venomous stare from Hope. "^_^; Sorry."

They ran to were they heard the noise come from. The noise had come from a lagoon at the base of a waterfall.

"Wow!" Hope said taken by the beauty of the scene. "It's beautiful."

"Hmmm," Ryo muttered to himself. He was staring intently at the surface of the water.

"What the hell are you looking at?" Max asked him. Ryo just looked up, with a huge smile across his face and pointed down. Max could see what looked like a silhouette of a person swimming. "What the hell?"

Suddenly, the silhouette broke the surface of the lagoon, revealing a woman, not much older than the age of 20, with long black hair and very tan skin. But, her coming up to surface also revealed that she was naked.

"O_O" was Max's response to this person's sudden arrival. Ryo's reaction was the same, but his mouth was hanging down as if it could touch the ground and blood was coming out on the right side of his nose. Hope figured that the woman would be offended by Max and Ryo staring at her naked body, but she seemed to like their stare.

"Well hello there," she said. "I'm Cassie, one of the Judges."

"I figure as much," Hope said. "Why are you swimming around nude? Aren't you afraid that people would see you?"

"No, not at all. I come from a wealthy family, but they died when I was young, leaving me to the staff at the mansion on our island."

"You live on your own island?!" Max said coming out of shock. "Dang you must be rich!"

"Yep," Cassie smiled, and noticing that Max was focusing on other things to keep himself from going into shock again. "The staff took care of me all my life, but a few years ago, I gave them retirement and they live on the island as residents. Since I was born and raised with them, and since they have seen me naked since I was a little child, I fell that wearing clothes is kinda pointless"

"I see," Hope said, looking at Ryo, who was still staring at Cassie. "Are you absolutely positive you aren't offended by his starring?"

"Not at all," Cassie assured. "I like the shocked expressions on people's faces."

"So, basically you like showing off yourself to everyone you meet?" Max said quickly changing the direction of his gaze before Cassie caught him staring.

"Not everyone. I wear a towel at business meetings and other formal occasions so the suits don't stare. Those pedophiles would rather talk about how big my breasts are than talk about investments."

Max laughed at that statement.

"So," Cassie said, bending over so her elbows were resting on the shore of the lagoon. "Who wants to duel me?"

"Well, since Ryo is totally in love with you right now and Max can't focus, I guess I will duel you," Hope replied.

"Okay then." Cassie jumped backwards and under the surface of the lagoon again and swam to the bottom. Once she reached it, she bent her legs and shot up through the water like a bullet. When she broke the surface this time, she was wearing a duel disk and was in the garment of some priestess and her hair hand turned blue. "I choose Sea God's Handmaiden as my Deck Master."

"I choose Undefeated General Freed," Hope said as she stepped into the shallows of the lagoon.

"Feels good doesn't it?" Cassie asked.

"Yup," Ryo replied, lying on his back in the water, floating around.

"Geez, that was fast," Hope pointed out.

Cassie laughed. "Well, I have been commanded to introduce a new rule. The Ante Rule."

"Ante Rule? What's that?"

"At the end of the duel, we get to look at the loser of the duel's deck and get to take one card," Cassie answered.

"I see. well, let's go then!"

(Cassie: 8000 Hope: 8000)

"I'll go first," Hope said. "I use Freed's Deck Master ability to draw any Warrior monster from my deck instead of drawing like normal and summon Gettsufuma! (1700/1200) I end my turn."

"I will call upon my Deck Master effect too. Prayer of the Sea! I can pay 1000 Life points to place a Sea Magic Card into my hand."

(Cassie: 7000 Hope: 8000)

"And now I play the Field Magic card! The Legendary City of Atlantis!" As Cassie said those words, an enormous shrine rose from the lagoon. The appearance of the Shrine caused massive, violent waves.

"Whoa! Whoa! Ahhhh!" Ryo said as he was flung out of the water and crashed against a tree. Max laughed.

"And now, I summon Giga Gagagigo! (2450/1500)"

"But how?" Hope asked in disbelief. "That is a level five monster."

Cassie giggled at Hope's confusion. "Atlantis lowers the level of all the monsters in my hand by one and increases all Water main type Monster's stats by 200. (2650/1700)"

"Holy crap!" Hope replied.

"Now attack!"

(Cassie: 7000 Hope: 7050)

"I set one card facedown and end my turn"

"I play Thunderbolt, destroying your monster! And now I play Raise Dead to bring him back on my control. Now I attack directly!"

"I chain with Tornado Wall!"

"I chain your Tornado Wall with Cyclone from my hand!"

(Cassie: 4350 Hope: 7050)

"But how could you use Tornado Wall without the Sea card on the field?"

"Simple; Atlantis counts as Sea."

"Oh," Hope replied, feeling somewhat stupid. "I place one card facedown and end my turn."

"I play Cost Down! This card allows me to discard one card from my hand and allows me to lower a monster in my hand level by 2.And now, I summon Water Guardian Suga! (2500/2400)"

A giant blue, statue like monster appeared on Cassie's field.

"And now he gets 200 extra points (2700/2600) and I have it attack Giga Gagagigo!"

(Cassie: 4350 Hope: 7000)

"I summon Dark Hero: Zombire! (2100/500) And I equip him with The Fused Weapon-Murasame Blade, to power him up to 2900! Now attack!"

Zombire rushed at Suga, but Suga just shot a water blast at him, killing it.

(Cassie: 4350 Hope: 4300)

"Ooops," Hope said sheepishly. "I forgot about Suga's effect. I set one card facedown and end my turn."

"I summon Legendary Fisherman (1850/1600) and I have him attack directly!"

"I activate Attack Nullification"

"Dang! End turn," Cassie said.

"Using his effect, I special summon Magical Giga Cyber from my hand and then I normal summon Command Knight! (1200/1900) And with his effect, all of my Warriors gain 400 more attack points! (2600) (1600)"

"So?" Cassie said. "You can't hope to beat my monsters. No pun intended."

"Wrong. I equip Giga Cyber with Thunder Sword, raising his attack by 800! (3400) And it powers down all Water monster by 500, (2100) but your Fisherman is immune to it." Hope paused. "Giga Cyber! Attack Suga!"

(Cassie: 3050 Hope: 4300)

"And since your Legendary Fisherman's effect that makes him invulnerable to attack, you can't defend against my Command Knight! Attack directly!"

(Cassie: 1450 Hope: 4300)

"Grrr!" Cassie had just lost her temper. "I set one monster and attack your Command Knight with Legendary Fisherman!"

"I'm sorry," Hope teased. "You can't. As long as there is another monster on the field, you can't attack Command Knight."

"No! I....I end my turn," Cassie said, but she knew her facedown monster would save her from Hope's onslaught.

"My turn and time to win. I summon Severing Samurai (500/800) and attack your face down monster!" Hope said.

"No!" Cassie exclaimed. "My X-E-N-O is useless!"

"Now, Command Knight! Attack directly for the win!"

(Cassie: 0 Hope: 4300)

The image of Cassie's deck master disappeared along with the image on Atlantis. She was kneeling on a rock in the lagoon, shocked that she actually lost.

"Well." she said. "I guess you win." She dove of the rock and swam over to the shallows and took off her Duel Disk and handed it to Hope. "Here, take any card you want."

"I'll take the Cost Down," Hope said taking it, and then offering her hand to Cassie. "It was fun dueling you."

Cassie smiled back, and then noticed Ryo had gone back into shock and Max's was trying not to stare. "Thank you. I guess I will be going now." And with that Cassie disappeared.

"Wait!" Ryo screamed. "I forgot to get her phone number! Damn it!"

Max and Hope just laughed at Ryo.

"Time to go," Max said.

They began to walk deeper into the forest, but little did they know, they were being watched from above.

Soon Max, the person thought. You will pay.

The person started following them through the trees.

End chapter

*Author's Note*A Nosebleed in Japanese anime and manga means a male is sexual aroused. And considering who Ryo is, you didn't expect this?*End Author's note*