"What a match we're having here folks!" The announcer of Arlene and Devin's duel announced. "To briefly summarize, Arlene currently has no cards on the field and 5 cards in her hand! Devin on the other hand has three monsters on the field: The Six Samurai - Zanji (1800/1300), The Six Samurai - Kamon (1500/1000) and Great Shogun - Shien (2500/2400) but has only 2 cards in his hand!" The announcer turned to Arlene and gave her the all clear to continue the duel.

About time. He'd better not have to do that again, at least not during my turn.

"Okay then! I'll summon my Balance Warrior Hyan (1800/1200) to the field, and equip him with Shadow Cannon. This card brings his attack by 700 points, which means it's got the same attack as your General (1800/1200 - 2500/1200)! Now Hyan! Destroy Kamon!" Hyan fired a beam of dark energy at Kamon, bringing down Devin's life points even further.

Devin: 2600
Arlene: 4200

When Arlene looked at the field, she saw that Kamon was still on the field, but Zanji was not.

"Okay, Devin. Explain." Devin's eyes shone.

"Gladly! When Kamon would be destroyed, I can destroy another monster with "The Six Samurai" in its name instead, so I chose Zanji!"

"Fine then," Arlene continued. "I'll place a card face down and end my turn." She studied the field.

This duel's becoming more and more difficult the more of those Samurai he has! I need to get rid of them somehow...

"Okay then!" Devin announced. "I summon The Six Samurai - Yaichi (1300/0800) to the field! Now I'll activate Yaichi and Kamon's effects! Yaichi, destroy her face down, and Kamon destroy her Shadow Cannon!" Yaichi fired an arrow straight at Arlene's face down, destroying it, while Kamon threw an explosive at Shadow Cannon causing it to shatter. "Once my monsters use their effects, they can't attack this turn. However, Shien can! Destroy that Balance Warrior!" Arlene shielded herself as Shien slashed at Hyan and lowered Arlene's life points.

Devin: 2600
Arlene: 3500

"You might as well give up now! This duel's over!" Arlene snarled.

"Enough with the insults! You're starting to be really annoying, and you were annoying to begin with!" Arlene drew her card. "I summon my Balance Warrior - Emri (1400/1600)!" Arlene paused to look at her Balance Warrior.

I've been able to summon all my Balance Warriors at least once. Only one left is their leader...

"Now Emri, attack and destroy Yaichi!" Emri rammed into Yaichi, but Kamon was destroyed instead.

Devin: 2500
Arlene: 3500

"I thought you might do something like that. That's why I waited to activate a card called Remnants of Balance! Now I can remove from play any number of Balance Warriors in my graveyard. For each one I remove I can either add a Light or Dark Aura to a Balance Warrior, or pay 1000 life points to draw a card. I'll add one Light Aura to Emri and pay 1000 life points to draw an additional card. I can't activate any other magic cards before or after this one, but your Shien stops me from doing that anyway." The field shone as ghosts of Hyan and Gyunn appeared. Hyan transformed into a Light Aura that started circling Emri, while Gyunn merged with Arlene's deck as she drew a card.

Devin: 2500
Arlene: 2500

"Emri also gains one Light Aura from my magic card." Devin pretended to yawn.

"Woohoo, your monster has some flashing lights and you picked up a card. BIG DEAL!" Arlene smirked.

"Emri, use your ability. I remove one Light Aura from Emri to destroy Shien!" Emri fired a Light Aura at Shien, but the Supreme General blocked it with his sword and sent it flying to Yaichi, destroying Yaichi instead.

"Did you forget that Shien can choose another monster to be destroyed instead of itself?" Arlene swore.

Dammit! Emri can only use the effect once per turn!

"I'll set a face down and end my turn." Arlene was fuming. Devin laughed harshly as he drew his card.

"I'll summon another The Six Samurai - Zanji to the field! Now Zanji will destroy your Balance Warrior, and then Shien will end this!" Arlene gritted her teeth, then grinned. Devin was puzzled. "Hey, aren't you supposed to be annoyed? Sad that you lost or something? You shouldn't be happy!"

"Well, this duel's not over yet, because I activate my trap card Blinding Light! It allows me to remove one Light Aura from a monster on my field and activate that monster's Light Aura effect! So I'll destroy Shien!" Emri blasted its second Light Aura at Shien, who deflected it to Zanji promptly destroying it. A Dark Aura then emerged from Arlene's trap and started swirling around Emri.

"So you destroyed Zanji. I'll destroy your monster with Shien instead!" Arlene was knocked back as Shien slashed into Emri.

Devin: 2500
Arlene: 1400

"My move then," Arlene noted.

If there's any time to destroy Shien, it's now when he doesn't have a monster to deflect my effects to. Arlene picked up her card. Or maybe not.

"I activate Brain Control! By paying 800 life points I can take control of one of your monsters, so I'll choose your Shien." Devin turned white as Shien moved to Arlene's field.

Devin: 2500
Arlene: 0600

"Now Shien, finish up this duel. I've had enough of this guy." The Shogun raced towards Devin and knocked him to the ground as his life points hit 0.

Devin: 0000
Arlene: 0600

"Arlene is the winner!" Arlene breathed a sigh of relief at the duel being finished and walked away from the Duel Area.

Arlene won two more duels, meaning that she would partipate in the next round outside of the Duel Academy Building. Arlene met up with Bryon and Fay, where Arlene learned that Fay had made it to the next round, but Bryon had not.

"I dueled against this REALLY STRONG guy with a Burn deck," Bryon moaned. "I didn't stand a chance." Fay tried to be encouraging.

"Don't think like that! What was the final score?"

"He had 16000 life points and I had 0."

"Oh. Is he still in the running?"

"I don't know, I didn't pay much attention after that." Fay tried to think of more encouragement, and looked to Arlene to help her out. Arlene suddenly became very interested in her surroundings until Bryon sighed and walked off.

"Arlene!" Fay hissed. "You could have helped me out there!"

"You were digging a hole. Anything I could have said would have made it worse." Fay stuttered, but eventually gave up and asked Arlene how she had done in her duels. "I did good enough. I battled a guy with a Six Samurai deck..."

"Oooh! You mean Devin?" Arlene glanced sideways at her.

"You know him?" Fay sighed.

"Who DOESN'T know him?" There was a pause. "Oh. Right. SO! Who else did you duel?" Arlene and Fay talked about their duels before someone waved at Fay and she walked off.

Think I'll check the card stalls. Arlene soon found a few stalls, but most of the cards were sold out. There were a few dueling magazines, so Arlene picked one up and started to skim read it, but finding nothing of interest, put it back and started to walk around.

On another part of the island, a security guard was talking to someone on the phone.

"Hello, sir...the tournament is progressing smoothly. Card sales have gone up...of course, sir. Sorry sir...yes, sir. She hasn't lost a duel yet...no. Don't worry, sir. Her next opponent will be...you want...wait a second, sir I'll write this down." The man hastily scribbled a name on a piece of paper. "Got it, sir." The line went dead.

The rest of the day passed quickly, and soon Arlene was standing on the Duel Area next to the Duel Academy Building. She was surprised to learn that her opponent wasn't arrogant. Her opponent - whose name was Hayden - was very quiet, with long dark hair that masked his eyes.

"Are you ready to duel?" He asked.

"Sure. Why not." Arlene replied.

"Very well. You can go first then." Arlene picked up a card.

Arlene: 4000
Hayden: 4000

"I'll summon Balance Warrior Kirud (1500/1500) in attack mode and end my turn." Arlene looked at Hayden suspiciously.

I'm starting to miss the arrogant duelists. There's something not right about this guy...

"I'll summon Dark Sphere (0500/0500) to the field." Arlene was slightly freaked out by Hayden's quiet and deep voice. "Then I'll play enemy controller, sacrificing my Dark Sphere to take control of Kirud. Next I'll play Artificial Aura." Arlene's eyes widened. Hayden noticed this. "That's right, I use a Balance deck as well. But unlike you, I know more about them. I digress. Artificial Aura lets me add a number of Light or Dark Auras to a monster, one for 1000 life points. I'll pay 3000 to add 3 Dark Auras to Kirud." Arlene started shaking at the sight of the 3 Auras.

Why is this guy getting to me so much? Who is he?

Arlene: 4000
Hayden: 1000

"Now I'll play the magic card Disrupting the Balance, which I can only activate when a Balance Warrior on my field has 3 Light or Dark Auras. I send that monster to the grave. Then I can summon a monster from my fusion deck whose fusion requirements have been met." Arlene was horrified.

"So...wait...the Balance Warriors..." she faltered.

"The Balance Warriors can perform a number of tricks when they have Auras on them. Their true power is revealed when they succumb to their Auras. So, as I was saying, from my fusion deck I can now bring out Warrior of the Dark Aura - Kirud (2500/1500)." The Duel Area darkened as Kirud's features started to disfigure. His arms extended and claws replaced his hands. His legs did the same. His sword turned dark black with specks of blood, and his facial figures became completely twisted. Arlene stared up at her Balance Warrior, now lost to the darkness.

New cards...

Balance Warrior Emri
ATK: 1400 DEF: 1600
Attribute: Light
Level: 4
Type: Warrior
Image: A warrior in tattered robes holding a staff with a blade on the bottom of it.
Effect: This card can have a total of 3 Auras at any time, and they must be of the same type. Once per turn, you may either remove 1 Light Aura from this card to destroy 1 monster on your opponent's side of the field or remove 1 Dark Aura from this card to remove from play 1 monster on your opponent's side of the field.

Remnants of Balance
Normal Magic
Image: A corpse of Balance Warrior Emri with a Light Aura directly above him.
Effect: You cannot activate any other magic cards on the turn you use this card. Remove from play any number of monsters in your graveyard with "Balance" in their name. For each card removed by this effect, you may activate one of the following effects: Add either 1 Light or Dark Aura to a monster with "Balance Warrior" in its name, or pay 1000 life points to draw 1 card. Each of these effects can be used more than once.

Blinding Light
Normal Trap
Once per turn, during your main phase, you may discard this card from your hand to add 1 "Hidden Darkness" from your deck to your hand. You may not use the effect of "Hidden Darkness" that allows you to add 1 "Blinding Light" from your deck to your hand this turn. Remove 1 Light Aura from a monster on your side of the field and activate the chosen monster's Light Aura effect.

Disrupting the Balance
Normal Magic
Image: A set of scales with Light Auras and Dark Auras around them.
Effect: Send from your side of the field to the graveyard a monster with either 3 Light Auras or 3 Dark Auras. Then special summon from your fusion deck a monster whose fusion requirements have been met by the monster destroyed to activate this card.

Warrior of the Dark Aura - Kirud
ATK: 2500 DEF: 1500
Attribute: Dark
Level: 6
Type: Warrior
Image: A twisted version of Balance Warrior Kirud. His facial features are disfigured, his arms and legs are now claws and his sword is black with specks of blood.
Effect: This card cannot be summoned from the fusion deck except by sending one face up "Balance Warrior Kirud" with 3 dark auras to the graveyard with "Disrupting the Balance". This card cannot accumulate Light Auras. Whenever this card would gain a Dark Aura, it gains double the amount of Dark Auras. Once per turn you may remove 1 Dark Aura from Kirud to inflict 1000 points of damage to your opponent. This card gains 500 attack for each Dark Aura it has. (This card may have other effects, but at present these are the known effects of Warrior of the Dark Aura - Kirud).