Chapter 3

Blue Eyes

"Marik, what do you want?" I cried out.

"Your puzzle, what else?" he replied, looking at his Rod.

[What else is new?] I thought.

"Well, you can't have it, you have yet to defeat me in a duel!" I replied.

"Yes, but I have found a loophole," Marik told me. "You see, if I challenge you to a challenge of sorts, and you fail, then I may take your puzzle."

"What kind of challenge, whatever it is, I'm ready," I growled.

Marik held up his Rod.

"First to separate you from Yami," he grinned.

I could feel Yami's presence leave my body. It wasn't a very pleasant feeling because it was against his will, and Yami was fighting against it. He doesn't seem to realize that when he does stuff like that, it puts a major strain on my body, and me.

Once Yami had been separated from me, Marik spoke again, saying, "And for the next part of the challenge."

The room we were in started to grow dark and cold. I know that this sensation was only one thing. We were entering the Shadow

Realm.

"Marik, why have you done this," my yami piped up.

"This is where the challenge will take place," Marik explained. "I have set up ten tests, each of them a little harder than the rest. If you some how manage to pass all these, then you earn the right to face me in a final match. If you do not pass any one of these tests, then your puzzle will belong to me. See you at the finish line."

And with that, Marik disappeared in a cloud of smoke.

"Now what?" I asked Yami.

"I guess we start walking," Yami told me.

We walked for what seemed like hours, days. We finally ran into the first obstacle.

"Uh, Yami, what is that?" I almost stammered.

"It looks like a Blue Eyes," he replied.

The dragon let out a loud roar. It stared down at us with the same steel hard glare that Kaiba had. Its blue eyes didn't seem very friendly.

"I never thought I'd say this, but I wish Kaiba was here," I whispered.

Yami just nodded. I knew he was trying to figure out a way to get past it, or defeat it. No monster we could summon can defeat the Blue Eyes, and besides, Marik probably made it to where we couldn't summon monsters, that would be too easy.

The Blue Eyes interrupted our thoughts with a White Lightning attack. We jumped out of the way, and just barely missed the attack. I decided that we might try and negotiate with the beast.

"Blue Eyes, would you please let us pass?" I cried out to the big

dragon. "We're not going to hurt you, we just, um," but I trailed off as I looked into the creature's eyes.

The next thing I knew, the dragon had picked me up with his tail and was looking at me like I was a tasty snack. Yami looked around frantically for something, something to help. But he found nothing.

"Hey, dumb dragon!" Yami yelled.

The dragon and I both looked at Yami.

"Yami, are you nuts?" I yelled.

"Trust me," he mouthed.

I sighed. There was nothing else I could do. I was in no position

to do a thing. I could only watch as Yami tried to put his little "plan" in motion.

"So, what are you, a dragon or a huge paper weight?" Yami

taunted. "You don't look so tough. I bet I could take you down with a twitch of my pinky."

[He's been spending too much time around Joey] I thought.

The dragon put me down and started towards Yami. I watched in horror. I thought frantically. I came up with a plan. If Yami and I both taunted the dragon, maybe he would become frustrated and leave.

"Are you sure you're worthy to have a master like Kaiba?" I called out to the dragon.

It spun around in my direction, wide-eyed, if that's even possible for a dragon.

"Yugi's right, you're not good enough for Kaiba," Yami agreed, simply playing along with what I had started. "Kaiba's much to good for you. Maybe someone like Pegasus or Joey would be better for you."

"Joey most defiantly," I nodded my head. "He's the only one you're worthy of."

Yami and I went on like this for a while longer. The dragon finally got fed up and launched an attack.

"Kaiba would be disappointed," Yami said to the dragon.

"I mean, his prized dragon being a weakly, the shame," I added.

"Joey's Baby Dragon is stronger than you are," Yami kept taunting.

The dragon couldn't take it any more, you could tell. The

dragon got mad and stormed off in a rage, wind billowing behind it.

"Phew," I said. "I'm glad that is over."

"Yes, but they're only going to get harder," Yami reminded me.

"Why do you have to bring up the bad stuff?" I asked him.

But Yami didn't reply.

"One down," I whispered to myself, "and nine to go."

And Yami ended up being right, they did get harder.