Whilst Tyler went off to join his sister and Evan in the winner's circle and celebrate their impending graduation things where quite different on the other side of the Duel Arena as Chelsea joined her roommate Chloe and Chloe's boyfriend Lance and grunted in frustration as she sat down next to Chloe.

"Ugh! Why didn't I summon Wattaildragon in defense mode? That was such a rookie mistake on my part!" Chelsea grunted catching her roommate's attention. "I doubt I would've been able to turn things around either way but summoning my dragon in defense mode would've brought me a turn!"

"Chelsea, relax, your only human." Chloe reassured her and Chelsea glanced up at her. "Besides, I would've thought that you'd be happy for Tyler since you just helped him graduate, especially after he went to bat for you."

"I know and don't get me wrong, I am happy for him!" Chelsea responded with a frown on her face as she turned to Chloe. "But the fact is, that was my third loss in a row, fourth if you count my elimination during the Tag Duel against Cameron and Jessica, if I keep screwing up like that there's no way I'll be an asset against the Orichalcos!"

"Chelsea, that's bull and you know it." Lance chimed in and the two girls turned to him. "Look, we've all had our bad weeks, this just happens to be yours and considering how close you got to being expelled on Wednesday it could be going a lot worse, all that matters is how you bounce back from it."

"Yeah, I guess our right." Chelsea sighed in resignation before the lights dimmed. "Besides, I think you've got your own duel to worry about."

"Welcome back to today's graduation duels and we have reached the penultimate duel of the day!" Martin's voice rang out and the crowd cheered as Lance stood up. "The next match sees a clash of Obelisk Blue Students and Battle City Quarter Finalists as Lance Alvers takes on Brandon Thomas for Brandon's right to graduate." Martin added as the two boys stepped onto the podium.

"Hope you're ready for a fight Brandon because I'm not about to leave a monster in attack mode when I'm almost out of life-points like Chelsea did!" Lance commented whilst ignoring the daggers that Chelsea was glaring at him. "Otherwise, well if you can't stand the heat, get out of the kitchen!"

"I think it's been proven that I can stand the heat Lance." Brandon responded as the two boys activated their duel disks. "But at the same time, I'd advise against making any more comments like that, unless you want to be greeted with a kick to the balls from Chelsea after I beat you!"

"You really think she'll risk that after she was nearly expelled for attacking another student?" Lance pointed out as they drew their opening hands.

"Do you really want to push your luck with her?" Brandon responded and Lance sweat-dropped in response.

"Good point, if you want to go first then knock yourself out." Lance responded and Brandon nodded before going over his hand.

"Well, why mess with what works?" Brandon asked rhetorically before playing a card. "I kick things off with my Allure of Darkness Spell Card!" Brandon announced before drawing three cards and banishing one. "Next I set two cards facedown and end my turn, but not before the monster I banished comes back." Brandon added as the two cards appeared on the field and D.D. Scout Plane appeared on the field in defense mode (3/800/1200).

"If that's the best you've got then you're going to be the first student to fail their graduation duel today!" Lance responded as he drew his card and looked over his hand. "I activate an old favorite of my own, Heaven's Lost Property!" Lance played the card and both boys draw three cards and discarded two. "Next I remove one of the cards I discarded from play so I can Special Summon Inferno!" Lance added as he pocketed the monster and the small red flame with the angry face appeared on the field (4/1100/1900). "But he's not sticking around! I sacrifice Inferno to summon Thestalos, the Firestorm Monarch!"

"I had a feeling he was coming." Brandon commented dryly as Inferno disappeared from the field only to be replaced with the monarch of flame (6/2400/1200). "Let's get this over with." Brandon added before holding out the three cards in his hand. "Take your pick!"

"Your discarding the card on the far right." Lance responded as the monarch threw his fireball at the card and Brandon said nothing as he discarded it. "I don't see your life-point counter going down so I'm guessing it's not a monster."

"You guessed right, the card I just discarded was a Spell Card." Brandon responded before holding up the card in question (The Beginning of the End) before discarding it.

"Well I might not be able to damage your life-points but I can destroy your monster! Thestalos, attack D.D. Scout Plane!" Lance commanded and the monarch prepared another fireball before throwing it at the plane…

"You're not the only one who benefitted from Heaven's Lost Property!" Brandon responded before pocketing a card from his graveyard causing the transparent form of Necro Gardna (3/600/1300) to block the fireball destroying it in the first place. "Nice try though!"

"I'll get to your monster one way or the other." Lance responded before holding up the other two cards he drew with Heaven's Lost Property. "I set two cards facedown and end my turn." Lance announced and Brandon drew his card.

"Well Lance, you brought out your monarch, now it's my turn." Brandon said as he played a card and D.D. Scout Plane disappeared from the field "I sacrifice D.D. Scout Plane to summon Caius, the Shadow Monarch!" Brandon added before the shadow monarch appeared on the field ready for battle (6/2400/1000). "And like you, I'm activating my Monarch's effect which lets me banish one monster on the field and if it's a dark type monster then you take a thousand points of damage." Brandon added before pointing to Thestalos. "A moot point since you run a Fire Deck but 2400 points of damage is nothing to sneeze at!"

"I know, that's why I'm activating my trap card!" Lance responded as his trap card flipped up and before Caius could summon up his black ball of energy he was ensnared by chains. "Fiendish Chain! Not only does your monster get his effect negated but he can't attack to boot."

"Well played." Brandon responded as his own trap card flipped up. "But I'm not about to leave one of my best monsters as a sitting duck, I activate Dust Tornado and I use it to destroy Fiendish Chain!" Brandon announced as the storm washed over the field shattering the chains and freeing Caius. "This does leave me without the ability to destroy Thestalos right now, especially when a battle between them would just end in a draw." Brandon added with a frown. "I activate Dust Tornado's second effect to set one card facedown."

"I never understood the point of that effect." Lance admitted as the facedown card appeared in Dust Tornado's place. "It's not like you can only set one card per turn."

"True enough and if I ever invent a time machine I'll go back in time to the early days of this game and ask the guys at I2 why they included that effect." Brandon added before a massive sweat-drop rolled down his head. "I think I just described the lamest use of a time machine ever!"

"No argument there." Lance nodded in agreement with a deadpan expression on his face. "Besides, I think most of our friends would have better uses for a time machine in mind."

"Agreed." Brandon nodded in response before looking over his hand. "I end my turn." Brandon announced and Lance drew his card.

"Fiendish Chain may be gone but I got rid of one of his destruction cards in the process." Lance thought as he looked over his hand. "And now I can get rid of his monarch!" Lance thought with a grin before holding up the card he had drawn. "From my hand I activate Flamvell Baby's effect! I discard it to give my monarch the boost he needs to dethrone yours!" Lance announced as he sent the monster to the graveyard and Thestalos's attack rose to 2800. "Thestalos, attack Caius!" Lance commanded and Thestalos prepared his fireball…...

"He won't be gone that easily! I activate my trap card Interdimensional Matter Transporter!" Brandon announced as his trap card flipped up and Caius vanished before Thestalos could launch his fireball. "He'll be back by the end of the turn but until then there's a replay!"

"Yeah and I'm about to make you regret that mistake! Thestalos, your new target is Brandon!" Lance commanded and Thestalos launched the fireball at Brandon…...only for Battle Fader to block the fireball's path with its sudden appearance (1/0/0). "I had a feeling Battle Fader was the reason you used that trap."

"Why mess with what works?" Brandon responded before folding his arms. "Are you done?"

"Yeah, I'm done." Lance responded and once Thestalos's attack returned to normal and Caius returned to the field Brandon drew his card.

"We're at a standstill but someone will have to break the tie soon." Brandon thought before glancing over Lance's shoulder at Chloe who was chatting with Chelsea, but he couldn't make out what she was saying and then over at Theresa who was entirely focused on the duel. "Especially if our girlfriends want to duel any time soon." Brandon thought before looking at his drawn card and adding it to his hand. "I activate my other facedown card Dark Spirit Art – Greed! Now unless you have a Spell Card in your hand I'm banishing Battle Fader so that I can draw two cards!"

"Go ahead." Lance nodded in response as Battle Fader disappeared from the field and Brandon drew his cards.

"Burial from a Different Dimension, this could come in handy if I draw into Dark Armed Dragon, but I still need a second monster in my graveyard for that combo to work." Brandon thought before adding the card to his hand and picking up the other two cards he had drawn. "I set two cards facedown." Brandon added as the two cards appeared on the field and were quickly accompanied by a set monster. "And a monster in defense mode, that ends my turn."

"Wouldn't be surprised if one of those facedown cards is something like Mirror Force." Lance thought as he glanced over at Brandon's side of the field. "And if it is then I'm in trouble, Thestalos is the only monster that I have access to right now that can destroy Caius!" Lance thought before looking at his drawn card. "I activate Spellbook inside the Pot!"

"Fine by me, that card benefits us both." Brandon responded with a grin as they drew their cards.

"Yeah but right now I'm the only one who can use their newly drawn cards." Lance responded before looking over his cards and grinning. "And now I've got you right where I want you! First, I activate my One for One Spell Card! By discarding a monster from my hand to the graveyard I can Special Summon a Level One Monster from my deck!" Lance announced before discarding the card and inputting commands into his due disk. "And you know what? I'm going to use this Spell Card to Special Summon another Flamvell Baby!" Lance played the card and the small flaming baby appeared on the field (1/800/200). "I know what you're thinking and yes, Flamvell Baby is a Tuner Monster but I'm not using him in a Synchro Summon!"

"You're not?" Brandon asked with a raised eyebrow. "So, what was the point of summoning it through One for One? If you had drawn into it, you could've used its effect to power up Thestalos again."

"True but I'm not a big fan of being a broken record." Lance responded before playing another card. "But breaking streaks of graduating students is something I'm a big fan of! I activate Rekindling and I use it to Special Summon my first Flamvell Baby and Flamvell Firedog!" Lance played the cards and a second flaming baby appeared on the field alongside a large dog that seemed to be made of molten lave (4/1900/200). "But who said that I was done Special Summoning? I send my two Flamvell Babies to the graveyard to Special Summon Bonfire Colossus!"

"And now his move is making sense!" Brandon thought with a gulp as the two small flame spirits were engulfed by flames as Bonfire Colossus appeared on the field (8/2600/2200). "And my best chance of getting out of this with my life-points in tact is if the time limit expires!"

"Flamvell Firedog, attack Brandon's facedown monster!" Lance commanded, and the dog pounced on the set monster, revealed to be Sangan (3/1000/600) which was quickly destroyed. "I doubt there's a student at the academy that doesn't know what Sangan does once its sent to the graveyard but Flamvell Firedog has an effect of his own! When he destroys an opponent's monster by battle I can Special Summon a Flamvell Monster with 200 or less attack points from my deck as long as it's not another Flamvell Firedog!"

"And since Sangan's effect was second in the chain I get to resolve it first." Brandon nodded in response before he started inputting commands into his duel disk, once he added the monster to his hand Lance started inputting commands into his duel disk.

"I use my monster's effect to Special Summon Flamvell Archer!" Lance played the card and a tall man in silver armor with a flaming hair appeared on the field (3/1000/200). "I'm not going to waste any time here! I activate my facedown card Urgent Tuning!"

"Oh shit!" Brandon gulped as Flamvell Firedog and Flamvell Archer leapt into the air for the Synchro Summon.

"Oh, shit is right! I tune Flamvell Archer with Flamvell Firedog to Synchro Summon Ancient Flamvell Deity!" Lance announced as he retrieved the monster from his extra deck and played it causing the large demon surrounded by flame to appear on the field once the bright flash faded (7/2500/200). "He's already pretty powerful but why not make him even stronger? I activate Flamvell Deity's effect to banish cards from your graveyard up to the number of cards in your hand and give him an extra 200 attack points for each!"

"I only have four cards in my graveyard." Brandon responded before holding up Sangan, D.D. Scout Plane, Interdimensional Matter Transporter and Dark Spirit Art – Greed in that order. "Is it safe to say that your banishing each of them?" Brandon asked and once Lance nodded he pocketed the cards causing Ancient Flamvell Deity's attack points to go up to 3300.

"Best part is? He keeps the gained attack points." Lance added before pointing to Caius. "Pity that your about to lose your monster, Ancient Flamvell Deity, attack…."

"Lance Alvers, your time is up!" Martin interrupted him and Lance face-faulted in response. "The turn automatically passes to Brandon!"

"Are you fucking kidding me?!" Lance called out once he got to his feet. "I was in the middle of a great move!"

"A great move that, if I had let it continue, would've forced me to delay the graduation ceremony to tomorrow morning." Martin responded, and Lance muttered some choice words under his breath. "Since it's technically the end of Lance's turn D.D. Scout Plane's effect resolves."

"That's good to know at least." Brandon responded as the small plane returned to the field and Brandon drew his card. " It's a good thing too because that would've hurt, still I've got nothing that can attack over his monsters, so I'd better play it safe." Brandon thought before setting the monster he had searched out with Sangan. "I set one monster in defense mode and I switch my two face-up monsters to defense mode." Brandon announced as the facedown monster appeared on the field whilst Caius crouched down and D.D. Scout Plane landed on the ground. "I end my turn."

"Can't afford to waste as much time as I did last turn." Lance thought as he drew his card, he took one look at it before quickly playing it. "I activate Pot of Duality, I look at the next three cards in my deck and add one to my hand whilst shuffling the other two back into my deck." Lance announced as he played the Spell Card and looked at the three cards, he picked the middle card to add to his hand before shuffling the others back into his deck. "I can only activate this once per turn and I can't Special Summon the same turn I use this card but that's a moot point, Thestalos, attack his facedown monster!" Lance commanded, and the monarch launched a fireball at the monster, revealed to be Mystic Tomato (4/1400/1200) which was quickly incinerated.

"You may not be able to Special Summon this turn, but I can!" Brandon responded as he sent his monster to the graveyard and started inputting commands into his duel disk, a few seconds passed, and another Mystic Tomato appeared on the field. "I don't know about you Lance, but I feel like eating some roast tomatoes."

"I never liked the taste of tomatoes so if your trying to keep your monarch on the field your out of luck!" Lance responded before pointing to Caius. "Bonfire Colossus, dethrone his monarch!" Lance commanded, and the colossus charged forward before punching the monarch in the stomach destroying him. "That just leaves your Scout Plane and its about to crash! Ancient Flamvell Deity, attack D.D. Scout Plane!" Lance commanded, and the emperor quickly incinerated the plane destroying it. "Just one more turn and I'll be laying waste to your life-points! I set one card facedown and end my turn!" Lance announced as he set the card he had added with Pot of Duality and Brandon drew his card.

"Much as I hate to admit it, he's right, unless I can draw the right card I may as well kiss any hopes I had of graduating this year goodbye." Brandon thought before glancing over his shoulder at Theresa. "And if Theresa beats Chloe that'll just make our relationship difficult, the school doesn't allow graduated students to return for a visit for at least a year after they graduated, and you know what they say about long distance relationships." Brandon thought before looking at his drawn card. "I activate a Spell Card called Beckoning of the Shadow Monarch!"

"That's a new one." Lance responded as he looked at the card's artwork which depicted Caius sitting on a dark throne beckoning someone to come closer. "I'm guessing it has something to do with Caius."

"No, it has something to do with Thestalos." Brandon responded as a massive sweat-drop rolled down his head. "What do you think?! Anyway, this spell card requires that I have Caius in my graveyard and one level four or lower monster on my side of the field, this lets me basically tribute summon Caius from my graveyard." Brandon explained as Mystic Tomato disappeared and the shadow monarch returned to the field. "My monarch can't attack the same turn I use this card and I can only summon monsters with "monarch in their name for the rest of the turn but I still get his effect off!"

"That was a waste." Lance responded with a frown as the dark energy ball appeared in the monarch's hand. "Especially since I have two monsters that can overthrow your monarch!"

"I'll worry about that in a second, in the meantime I'm using Caius's effect to destroy Ancient Flamvell Deity." Brandon responded as the monarch launched the ball of energy at Ancient Flamvell Deity destroying it. "Obviously your emperor is a fire type monster, so you don't take any damage, but you have bigger problems."

"Like what?" Lance asked with a grin on his face. "You're about to summon a bigger monarch?"

"How'd you guess?" Brandon asked with a grin and Lance's grin disappeared. "Just to be clear, I2 put out a ruling saying that if Caius is summoned through Beckoning of the Shadow Monarch its treated as both a Special Summon and Tribute Summon, meaning I can do two tribute summons if I play this card." Brandon explained, and Lance looked at him with a look on his face that just screamed "really?". "Don't believe me? Just ask Martin, I asked him before the first graduation duel!"

"He is speaking the truth." Martin responded and Lance sweat-dropped. "Now please continue before I am forced to end two turns prematurely."

"Why do I get the sudden feeling that he's biased against me winning?" Lance asked and Brandon facepalmed.

"Lance, feel free to say that to Martin's face, you saw how well accusing him of bias worked out for Chelsea on Wednesday and I doubt being an Obelisk Blue Student will help you in that matter." Brandon responded before shaking his head and playing the card. "Back to business, I tribute summon Caius to summon Caius, the Mega Monarch!"

"I'm also beginning to think that Sophia Pegasus is running out of card name ideas already." Lance added as Caius disappeared from the field.

"Actually, this card came out whilst her stepdad was still in charge of I2 so feel free to take that up with him at whatever fancy retirement home he's staying in." Brandon responded as his monster appeared on the field, as Brandon said this monster appeared to be a larger version of Caius, he was much more muscular and had wings sprouting from his back (8/2800/1000).

"Looks like Caius has been on the juice." Lance commented before noticing his stats. "Hold on, how did you summon a Level 8 monster with one tribute?"

"My Mega Monarch's effect, that's how, you see if I have a monster that was tribute summoned on my side of the field I can tribute it to summon this instead of the usual two." Brandon explained before grinning. "On paper, he shares my regular monarch's effect but if I summoned him and used a dark type monster as tribute I can target two cards instead, like your monarch and your Bonfire Colossus!"

"Wait, what?!" Lance yelled out as the huge monarch launched two massive balls of dark energy at his two remaining monsters destroying them. "As you said, they aren't Dark Type Monsters because otherwise I would've taken 1000 points of damage."

"You would've lost more than just those life-points Lance." Brandon responded, and Lance blinked in confusion. "That's not all I2 added to Caius's effect when they made this card, if the targeted monsters are Dark Type Monsters then all cards that share that monster's name are banished from the hand, deck, graveyard and extra deck." Brandon explained, and Lance's eyes widened when he heard that. "Don't worry, there's a version for Thestalous as well but unlike my regular monarch, my mega monarch can attack! Caius, the Mega Monarch, attack his life-points directly." Brandon commanded, and the march launched another ball of dark energy at Lance bringing his life-points down to 5200. "And that's first blood to me!"

"But at what cost? I activate my facedown card, Damage Gate!" Lance announced as his card flipped up and he discarded a card. "With this I can summon a monster who's attack points are less than or equal to the damage I just took which is a lot, but I just need one." Lance added before retrieving the card from his deck and playing it. "Flamvell Firedog!" Lance explained as the molten dog appeared on the field in defense position.

"Fine, I'll put that dog down eventually." Brandon responded only to sweat-drop as he heard several boos coming from the crowd. "Oh, come on, I'm not talking about a real dog and even if I was, I'd leave that to a vet!" Brandon defended himself before looking over his hand. "I end my turn." Brandon announced, and Lance drew his card.

"Okay, things are looking pretty bad but it's not unsalvageable." Lance thought before glancing up at the Mega Monarch. "He currently has four Dark Type Monsters in the graveyard, too many for him to summon Dark Armed Dragon but all he needs is a monster like Polar Knight or Burial from a Different Dimension and D.D. Scout Plane will be off the field soon." Lance thought before looking at his drawn card. "I summon Royal Firestorm Guards in attack mode!" Lance played the card he had drawn, and the strange demon appeared on the field ready for battle (4/1700/1200). "I activate his effect, by targeting for Pyro Type Monsters in my graveyard and shuffling them back into my deck I can draw two more cards."

"And thanks to that super long move you did a couple of turns back, you have a few to chose from." Brandon responded as Lance retrieved Inferno, the two Flamvell Babies and his first Flamvell Firedog from his graveyard, shuffled them into his deck and drew two cards. "Hope you drew something good, I'd actually like a decent challenge for my last duel at this school."

"You don't have to worry about that just yet." Lance responded as he shuffled the two cards into his hand. "You just need to worry about what I'm going to do to my two monsters! I use Royal Firestorm Guards and Flamvell Firedog to build the overlay network!" Lance announced as the two monsters where sucked into the overlay network. "I XYZ Summon Infernal Flame Vixen!" Lance announced as he played the card and a new monster appeared on the field, it was a beautiful woman seemingly made out of flames carrying a red staff that had red bat like wings on protruding from her head (Rank: 4/2200/2000). "And this hot chick is about to bring down your monarch!"

"Lance, not only was that pun terrible but are you sure you want to start calling Duel Monsters hot in front of your girlfriend?" Brandon asked with a deadpan expression on his face and Lance sweat-dropped as, almost on cue, he could hear Chloe clearing her throat loudly behind him. "That aside, I don't see how a monster with 2200 attack points is meant to bring down my monarch with 2800 attack points!"

"Not on her own, she won't." Lance responded before sending Royal Firestorm Guards to the graveyard. "Fortunately for me, she's got some help coming her way! I activate Infernal Flame Vixen's effect, by detaching an overlay unit I can increase her attack points by five-hundred until your end phase." Lance explained as his vixen's attack went up to 2700. "Yeah, I know it's still not enough but who said I was done? You see, two of the cards I returned to my deck where my Flamvell Babies and guess what I just drew?"

"One of your Flamvell Babies?" Brandon asked with a sigh already knowing the answer and his suspicions where confirmed when Lance discarded the second card he had drawn increasing Infernal Flame Vixen's attack to 3100.

"Time to topple this monarchy for good! Infernal Flame Vixen, attack Caius, the Mega Monarch!" Lance commanded, and the vixen pointed her staff at the monarch which shot out a stream of flame that incinerated him and brought Brandon's life-points down to 7700. "Not nearly as much life-points as I just lost but it's a start!"

"Unfortunately for you Lance, my deck still has plenty of tricks." Brandon responded as he sent his monster to the graveyard. "My turn yet?"

"Not quite, I set one card facedown and end my turn." Lance announced as the first card he drew with Royal Firestorm Guards' effect appeared on the field and Brandon drew his card.

"Well, it didn't take Lance long to turn things around." Brandon thought as he glanced over at Lance's side of the field. "Only problem is that my mega Monarch was the best monster in my hand and none of my other monsters could hope to compete against it, my best bet is to play defensively but if he draws another monster his Vixen can do a lot of damage to my life-points." Brandon thought before looking at his drawn card. "I set one monster in defense mode and one card facedown." Brandon announced as the two cards appeared on the field. "Do your worst."

"Don't say I didn't warn you." Lance responded before drawing his card. "And now you're really in trouble, first I summon my first Flamvell Firedog!" Lance played the card and Flamvell Firedog returned to the field. "Next I activate my Vixen's effect again." Lance added as he sent the first Firedog to the graveyard and Infernal Flame Vixen's attack increased to 2700. "Flamvell Firedog, attack his facedown monster!" Lance commanded, and the dog pounced at the facedown monster, revealed to be Magician of Faith (2/300/200) which was quickly destroyed. "Magician of Faith?"

"Did you forget that I run a chaos deck these days?" Brandon asked rhetorically before retrieving a spell card from his graveyard. "True, Magician of Faith isn't the powerhouse it used to be but the ability to recycle a spell card is nothing to sneeze at."

"And neither is Flamvell Firedog's effect, speaking of which." Lance responded before he started inputting commands into his duel disk. "I use Flamvell Firedog's effect to special summon Flamvell Firemistress!" Lance played the card and a new monster appeared on the field, it was a young, red haired woman whose hair seemed to be made from fire who was wearing a black crop top and jeans (4/1800/200).

"First your comments about Infernal Flame Vixen and now Flamvell Firemistress." Brandon commented as a large sweat-drop rolled down his head. "I swear to god Lance, if I didn't know any better I'd say you were cheating on Chloe with your cards, not sure how but still!"

"Hey, it just so happens that the fire type monsters I recently picked up from the card shop were all females." Lance responded before thinking for a moment. "And even if I where cheating on Chloe with my cards, well I suppose one way I could do it is…..."

"Alvers, if you finish that sentence you will be forced to stay at Duel Academy for the entirety of Summer Break!" Martin quickly interjected to the relief of the rest of the students and Lance sweat-dropped in response. "Now please hurry up before I prematurely end another one of your turns, you've already used up two minutes of your allotted time."

"Seriously?" Lance asked as he glanced up at Martin who nodded in response. "Fine, this next move isn't that hard anyway, Firemistress, Vixen, attack his life-points directly!" Lance commanded, and the two female monsters launched their attacks at Brandon bringing his life-points down to 3200. "Won't be long until your hopes of graduating this year have gone up in flames! And speaking of flames, by damaging your life-points with Flamvell Firemistress I've activated her effect! As long as I don't summon that card this turn she allows me to add one monster with Flamvell in its name from my deck to my hand."

"Which is a moot point since you used your normal summon to bring out your Firedog." Brandon nodded in response as Lance inputted commands into his duel disk and added a card to his hand. "He's come a long way since Battle City, but we'll see how he fairs on my next turn." Brandon thought as he looked at the card he had retrieved from his graveyard. "I discarded this Spell Card when he used Heaven's Lost Property during his first turn because I couldn't use it, but now is a perfect time to use it."

"You're awfully calm for someone who's about to lose! I end my turn." Lance announced, and Brandon drew his card.

"If I was about to lose I'd be a lot more worried, but I'm not." Brandon responded before looking at his drawn card and grinning. "And it starts with this Spell Card, Soul Release!" Brandon announced as he played the card and retrieved D.D. Scout Plane and one of the Mystic Tomatoes from his graveyard. "However, I'm choosing to only remove cards from my graveyard from play, so you don't have to worry about your graveyard."

"And I get the feeling that I know exactly why your banishing those cards." Lance responded as Brandon pocketed the two cards.

"Am I really that predictable? Don't answer that!" Brandon responded before playing the card. "Since I now have three Dark Type Monsters in my graveyard I can Special Summon one of my best monsters, Dark Armed Dragon!" Brandon played the card and sure enough the massive dark dragon appeared in the skies above Brandon's side of the field growling menacingly at Lance (7/2800/1000). "First I activate the effect of Dark Armed Dragon." Brandon announced as he pocketed Caius the Shadow Monarch. "And I use his effect to destroy Firedog!" Brandon added, and the dragon raised its tail high before smashing it down atop Firedog destroying it. "But my monsters won't be banished for much longer, I activate Burial from a Different Dimension which I use to return two of the three monsters I just banished to my graveyard."

"In other words, you're playing for keeps." Lance responded as he folded his arms. "But what do you plan to do now?"

"That's easy, I remove a second monster from play to destroy Infernal Flame Vixen!" Brandon responded with a grin as the tail smashed down upon Lance's XYZ monster destroying it. "And that just leaves your Firemistress."

"Not so fast Brandon! By destroying my Vixen whilst she has more than 2500 attack points you've activated her effect!" Lance responded as he held up the XYZ Monster. "With it I can target up to three monsters in any graveyard and remove them from play, so I think I'll go ahead and remove your remaining two Dark Type Monsters and Magician of Faith!" Lance explained, and Brandon's eyes widened before he pocketed the monsters. "You're not getting to my life-points that easy!"

"Maybe not but my dragon can still attack!" Brandon responded before pointing to Firemistress. "Dark Armed Dragon, attack Flamvell Firemistress!" Brandon commanded, and the dragon slammed it's tail down atop Lance's monster destroying it and bringing Lance's life-points down to 4200. "You still have the lead, but I've seen enough of your duels to know that there aren't many monster cards left in your deck that can stand up to my dragon!"

"Who said that I needed monster cards to get past your overgrown reptile?" Lance responded, and Brandon frowned in response. "Is it my turn yet?"

"I set one card facedown and end my turn, since I banished D.D. Scout Plane with Soul Release and left him in my pocket when I played Burial from a Different Dimension he returns to the field." Brandon responded as the small plane returned to the field and Lance drew his card.

"As much as I hate to admit it, he's right." Lance thought as he looked over his hand. "Ancient Flamvell Deity is sitting idly in my pocket, he just destroyed Infernal Flame Vixen and I don't have access to the upgraded version of Thestalous, something I'll have to rectify when I move in with Chloe for Summer Break." Lance thought before looking at his drawn card. "But its not over until the fat lady sings and I don't hear any overweight women singing so here goes!" Lance thought before setting the card he had drawn. "I set one card facedown and end my turn."

"That's it huh? To bad." Brandon responded before drawing his card. "Well, here's a card I haven't used in a while, I summon Shadowpriestess of Ohm in attack mode!" Brandon played the card and the blonde woman in dark blue robes wearing black headgear appeared on the field (4/1700/1600). "Sorry Lance but this duel is over! Dark Armed Dragon, attack his life-points directly!" Brandon commanded, and the dragon lifted his tail…...

"I don't think so! I activate my Trap Card Sakuretsu Armor!" Lance announced as his facedown card flipped up and the sinister armor clamped onto the dragon. "This card….."

"I know what it does and why it won't work!" Brandon responded as his own trap card flipped up. "I activate Dark Illusion, since Sakuretsu Armor targets a monster this trap card lets me negate and destroy it!" Brandon added as the armor shattered and Dark Armed Dragon's tail came crashing down atop Lance's head bringing his life-points down to 1400. "And unfortunately for you, that was your last chance of surviving this round, Shadowpriestess of Ohm, finish him off!" Brandon commanded and the female spellcaster casted a spell at Lance bringing his life-points down to zero.

"Here is your winner and the latest student to graduate from Duel Academy, Brandon Thomas!" Martin announced to the cheering crowd as the holograms disappeared. "We only have one graduation duel left and it's a rematch from Battle City as Ra Yellow's Chloe Richardson takes on Theresa Daniels of Obelisk Blue! If Theresa wins she will graduate!"

"Thanks for the great duel Lance." Brandon thanked Lance as he walked up to him and offered him a handshake. "Just be sure to return the favor when it's your turn to graduate!"

"You got it." Lance nodded in response before accepting the handshake. "And I think we'd better get going, our girlfriends are waiting for us to get off the duel arena." Lance added, and Brandon glanced around seeing Theresa behind him and Chloe behind Lance, both girls were waiting patiently for their boyfriends to get off but there was no telling how long that patience would last.

"It would be rude to leave a lady waiting, let alone two." Brandon responded as he broke off the handshake and the two boys hopped off the duel arena, as he walked past Theresa however he turned to her. "You sure you're ready to face Chloe? She's grown a lot as a duelist and a person since she joined Duel Academy."

"I'm not about to deny that Chloe's improved leaps and bounds as a duelist since she joined the academy." Theresa responded as she glanced over at her boyfriend. "But the same can be said for me and she could barely keep up with me during our first duel, see you at the graduation ceremony." Theresa added, and Brandon said nothing before walking off.

"Chloe, are you sure your ready for this?" Lance asked as he walked past her. "No offense but your track record against Theresa isn't that great!"

"Don't you think I know that?" Chloe asked with an annoyed sigh as she glanced down at her deck. "Still, I've added a few more Dark Magician support cards to my deck since the finals of the tag team tournament, if she thinks that it'll be a rerun of the tag duel between me and Chelsea and Theresa and Brandon, she's wrong, today's the day that I make up for the mistake that cost me my spot in the final two of Battle City."

"Either way, it should be a great match, good luck because knowing Theresa's skill, your going to need it." Lance responded, and Chloe nodded in agreement without hesitation. "You're not mad at me about my comments regarding my cards, are you?"

"You don't have to worry about that." Chloe reassured him with a grin and Lance grinned. "Instead, just worry about calling out the names of your cards in bed, or do I need to remind you that we'll be sharing a bed over the summer break?" Chloe added, and Lance gulped before walking off and the two girls hopped onto the duel arena for the last graduation duel, Chloe took a deep breath before turning to Theresa. "Ready Theresa?"

"I was born ready!" Theresa responded and Chloe grinned as the two girls activated their duel disks.