Chapter 14: Teamwork is a Tricky Thing

As if Matt didn't have enough to worry about with all the work he had to do, plus the added stress of Bryan's skipping campus to work on a dueling death trap, Kasumi continued to add undue stress to him. When she wasn't making him feel guilty about the fact that there are other women at Duel Academy, she was participating in the 3T with her ex-boyfriend as her partner. Matt trusted her, of course, but it was less than fun to see the two of them together.

Thomas Estrada was basically carrying Kasumi through the tournament, unfortunately. She continued to let her relationship affect her focus, and so she didn't plan the course of events in her duels well. At present, she and Thomas were on the quad dueling against Bobby Loper and Lori Colman, both members of Team Lockdown, and Kasumi's lack of contribution to the duel gave both her opponents a chance to set up their lockdown strategies.

Lori just ended her turn after her Mystical Knight of Jackal (7/2700/1200)—a powerful jackal with blue, Egyptian garments—destroyed Kasumi's Red-Eyes Black Dragon (7/-1700/2000)—whose name pretty well describes the monster. Because of the Mystical Knight of Jackal's effect, the Red-Eyes went back to the top of Kasumi's deck, meaning she simply drew it back to her hand on her turn.

Kasumi had Vanguard of the Dragon (4/-1300/1300), a blue-skinned bipedal dragon with a spear and a shield, on the field in defense mode. Thomas had Iron Blacksmith Kotetsu (2/-300/500), a tattooed man with a potbelly and a forging hammer; Sunlight Unicorn (4/-1400/1000), a white horse with blue flames in place of its tail and mane and a single horn upon its forehead; and Marauding Captain (3/-900/400), an armored warrior with two swords in hand, on his field. All Lori had in play was her Mystical Knight of Jackal and a Spell called Burden of the Mighty; it lowered the attack points of Kasumi's and Thomas's monsters by 100 times the monsters' levels. Bobby only summoned Rocket Jumper (3/1000/800), but he also played Kaiser Colosseum, which surrounded the field with stone walls and an orange arena, and Judgment of the Desert, a purple air that prevented any monsters on the field from changing Battle Positions.

Kasumi didn't have much choice in what to do, even if she were playing at the top of her game. All she had in her hand was her Red-Eyes and Defense Draw. She had Vanguard of the Dragon (4/-1300/1300) on the field in defense mode, and Thomas had three monsters, but Kasumi couldn't Tribute any of them to summon her Red-Eyes because Bobby had Kaiser Colosseum on the field. As long as the holographic coliseum surrounded the duel field, Kasumi and Thomas couldn't summon monsters if it meant they would have more monsters on the field than Lori and Bobby did. Even sending two as Tributes for the Red-Eyes would put three monsters on Kasumi's field to the opponent's two.

"I'll set a card and end my turn," Kasumi said sullenly.

"Sucks to be you," Bobby commented, to which Kasumi replied, "Yeah, we know." Bobby ignored his hand and said, "I'll attack with Rocket Jumper (1000)." His monster was an ugly imp with a rocket strapped to his back. He activated the rocket and hopped right over all the monsters to attack Kasumi and Thomas directly; as long as all their monsters were in defense mode, Rocket Jumper could attack directly.

Kasumi and Thomas 3300 – 1000 = 2300: Bobby and Lori 5100.

"Don't get cocky," Thomas warned Bobby. "If your strategy were perfect, you would be the leader of your team. Allow me to spell it out for you; I can't summon a monster even by Tributing one or two of those on the field. I can, however, Tribute three of them." He sent his Iron Blacksmith and Marauding Captain along with Kasumi's Vanguard to the Graveyard. A sudden bolt of lightning hit the field and revealed Gilford the Lightning (8/-2000/1400), a thoroughly muscular man wearing heavy armor and carrying a massive sword.

"Even with Gilford on the field," Thomas said, "we have equal numbers of monsters, thus getting us around your Kaiser Colosseum. And when Gilford is summoned this way, he wipes out your monsters. As per the tag duel rules, I choose to destroy the monsters on Lori's field." Gilford's sword charged with electricity, and one swipe channeled the energy into the Mystical Knight of Jackal, destroying it. "Now I'll use the effect of my Sunlight Unicorn; I look at the top card on my deck—" he picked it up— "and it is an Equip Spell. That means I get to put it in my hand." He smiled and said, "Now I'll play Double Summon so I can summon one more monster."

"Count the field again, genius," Bobby said. "We've only got one monster and you've already got two."

"And I'll send them both to the Graveyard to summon Gilford the Legend (8/-1800/2000)," Thomas elaborated. His new warrior was a different form of Gilford, this time with a fuller breastplate and a mantle covering his upper body. He also carried a massive broadsword in his hand with many other swords sheathed around his torso. "When he's summoned, I can equip him with any Equip Spells that are in my Graveyard. Remember how you were so pleased to destroy my fully-armed Ben Kei earlier?"

Lori remembered. It was her Dimensional Prison that removed Ben Kei from play, but all his equip cards went to the Graveyard instead. Now they all reappeared on the field for Gilford to use: United We Stand, Mage Power, Fusion Sword Murasame Blade, and Big Bang Shot.

"With all of these cards, Gilford (+5800) is a force to be reckoned with." Just before he pressed the button to start his Battle Phase, he added, "Oh, right. I also have the card I drew by Sunlight Unicorn; Divine Sword – Phoenix Blade increases his points by another 300 points." Gilford drew a silver claymore with a gold hilt in one hand and a glowing katana in the other. He dashed forward and performed an X-slash on Bobby's Rocket Jumper (1000). "I think that's enough for now," Thomas added smugly.

Kasumi and Thomas 2300: Bobby and Lori 5100 – 5100 = 0.

Fusayo stepped forward and formally declared the end of the duel. "It looks like Team Lockdown lost," he said. "Now there's a big surprise."

Lori just scoffed, "Go stuff a duck."

Thomas was glad to win because it meant he and Kasumi got to move on to the next round, and because he was establishing himself as a candidate for Team OTK. With wins like that, he was well on his way. He put his arm around Kasumi to try to get her as excited about winning as he was.

"Smile," he insisted. "We make a pretty good team."

Kasumi huffed. "You make a good team. I choke like Tennessee Williams on a bottle cap."

"Aw, don't say that," Thomas scolded her gently. "You're a great duelist. You're one of the best here. You're just in a bit of a rut because you think you're bad. If you stop worrying about the outcome and just duel like you used to, you'll rise to the top again. Dueling prowess aside, you're the most beautiful duelist anywhere; and if Matt were any kind of real man, he would remind you on a regular basis."

"He does," Kas replied. "I just find it hard to believe him when he spends so much of his time flirting with a cute freshman."

"He's an idiot," Thomas said with great emphasis. "I've been telling you that for a long time. He's the kind of guy who's never happy with what he has. If you were to dump him, he'd suddenly start pining and being romantic to try to get you back."

Kas flinched at the thought of testing that. She always thought Matt the kind to adapt to his life as it was and never to make a real decision to change anything; she was the one who had to ask him out, after all. If she broke up with him, Matt would probably revert to his old ways rather quickly, and she feared he would never even give her a second thought. But as long as they were still dating, she had time to figure out how to fix things.

"Come on," Thomas said as he put his arm around her. "Let me take you to lunch."

"Take me?" she repeated. "We're going to the dorm's dining hall. I hardly consider that 'taking me' to lunch."

Then she heard a voice she wasn't expecting say, "Did you just ask out my girlfriend, Estrada?" Thomas groaned as he turned and laid eyes on Matt. He detached from Kas while Matt did just the opposite; he wrapped his arms tightly around her and made a special point of giving her an especially friendly kiss where Thomas could see it.

"What are you doing here?" Kas asked him.

With a big smile, he said, "I got permission to take a long lunch today. I thought you might like to go with me when I try out this little deli I saw in town the other day."

"How'd you convince Dr. West to give you extra time off?"

Matt smirked. "I may have promised to bring him back a sandwich. Anyway, you want to go?" Without removing his eyes from Kasumi's, he said, "Thomas, you're welcome to join us."

Thrilling as that idea was, Thomas immediately said, "No. I'll stay on campus, thanks." Without touching her, he held his fingers toward Kasumi and said, "I'll see you at the next match, Kasumi."

"Bye." She felt bad about Thomas and thought about calling back to him, but then Matt sprung a red rose from his sleeve. He slipped it under her nose to show her it was real, and then he offered to slip it in her jacket collar for her. "What's that for?" she asked.

He shrugged. "I don't need a reason." When he finished putting the rose on her, he looked at her again for a moment, ran his fingers across her cheek, and then he kissed her once more. She enjoyed the way he was always gentle when he touched her with his strong hands.

Being his girlfriend wasn't always frustrating.

Jason was pleased with the tournament so far. Not only did he manage to wrangle Lucy as his tag partner when her lazy boyfriend disappeared from campus, but they pretty much dominated their duels through the first week. All of their duels ended within the first five turns. Jason wished they could duel more often than just once a day; the tournament involved so many people—with only so many OTK judges—that the bracket stretched across several weeks.

Lucy was not as excited. Her primary concern was that Bryan hadn't been to class for a while. At least she knew where he was, thanks to Matt, but the fact that she hadn't heard from him for a while did not bode well for their relationship. The 3T was primarily a way for her to keep her mind occupied with something else.

"How long do you think it will take us to win this one?" Jason asked her.

She put on that smile that became all too familiar lately—a crooked, uncertain smile. "I don't know. We're not guaranteed a win, especially considering Lili runs a chaos deck."

Jason scoffed. "We can take her, no problem. She only got this far on pure luck. You know, the odds are vastly in our favor because Lili and her partner are a free agent team."

"Why do you know the odds?" Lucy asked. "You're not actually gambling on the tournament, are you? Isn't that illegal at your age?"

"Only if no one knows about it," he mumbled back.

Already waiting by the designated spot by the beach, Laura Guertin was the proctor for this duel. She took detailed notes about each of the duels she observed; she marked down what time each competitor arrived even though there was no reason to do so. She gave the other proctors dirty looks when they didn't take as great an interest in useless statistics as she did.

Lucy found it odd that Lili and her partner didn't arrive together. She knew that sometimes, people got busy and had to meet up places, but Lili arrived at her own pace and didn't have a clue where her partner was. She just waited for him to show. In the meantime, she explained that Rory had a class and Synthia had a duel of her own to do at the time. Luckily, Lili was not afraid of showing up to a duel by herself; outwardly, she disapproved of having an audience, although she did enjoy letting people know how good she could be.

Her partner was the last person to arrive. Romulus Malligan was a freshman who spent much of his youth as an apprentice to his father. From a long line of mariners, Romulus was a bit stout but very muscular; he could move a refrigerator by himself if the need ever arose. He had slightly yellowed skin and marine-colored eyes, but his dark hair was beginning to gray; the men in his family tended to gray from a young age, and prolonged exposure to sunlight helped speed the graying process. Lucy didn't know much about Romulus as a person, and the only thing Jason really knew was that Romulus didn't pay a whole lot of attention in class. He most often spent time staring at some of the women in the room, and so Jason just assumed Romulus was a lonely guy who had no clue how to flirt.

Laura had a bear of a time finding a partner for Romulus. He turned down every partner he was given at first. Laura told him that he didn't get a say because it was random assignment, but Romulus's countenance—solid as a rock—sufficiently intimidated her to change the assignment a few times. Laura couldn't figure out why Romulus argued so much. It was a last-minute effort when she put him with Lili, but oddly enough, he didn't seem to mind. He didn't look thrilled about it, but he never looked thrilled; what difference did it make as long as he finally accepted a partner?

"Are you all set?" Laura asked everyone. With a nod from everyone, she added, "Shake hands and turn on your Duel Disks." She grabbed her PDA and went through the menus until she found her notes page. She looked up and noticed nobody had moved when she told them to shake hands. "Yeah, I don't blame you." She checked her notes page where she had a random number generator pick the order of players. "Romulus gets the first turn, followed by Lucy and so on. Now duel."

Romulus started the duel. "I will set one monster and a card," he said simply.

On Lucy's turn: "I'll set two cards and summon Maiden of Macabre (4/1700/0)." Her monster was a courtesan with pale skin, elaborate robes, and a scythe in her hands.

Lili was about as chatty as her partner was. "I'll play Graceful Charity to draw two cards and discard three." Her field showed a holographic angel offering her three cards but requiring two in return. After she discarded, she said, "I'll summon Reflect Bounder (4/1700/1000)." Her monster was one covered in mirrors.

Jason was the most noticeably excited. "Let me show your little ragtag duo how it's done. You guys have monsters and I don't, so I get to summon Blackwing – Sirocco the Dawn (5/2000/900) without a Tribute." His monster was a tall man dressed like a bird, with black feathers on its waist, wings, and tail and blue feathers around its head. "I'm also going to Special Summon Blackwing – Gale the Whirlwind (3/1300/400)." Another monster from the Blackwing family, this one was a short birdman covered in blue feathers except for the green feathers around its head. "And now, I'll tune them together to summon a bigger Synchro monster."

The two birdmen became enveloped in a whirlwind of black feathers. When the gust died, what remained was not a birdman, but an enormous wyrm: with six steel legs, wiry wings lined with red-bladed feathers, and a beak lined with razor teeth. "It's my Black-Winged Dragon (8/2800/1600)," Jason boasted. "Awesome, isn't it?"

Romulus wasn't really bothered by it. He just pointed to his field where his Trap was standing upright. A pentacle symbol appeared on the floor with large, white dots at each point. "I activated Macro Cosmos," he explained. "It remains on the field and forces all cards we send to the Graveyard to be removed from play instead." In other words, neither Sirocco nor Gale sat in Jason's Graveyard; both monsters were pulled out of the duel entirely. "Additionally, it let me summon Helios – The Primordial Sun (1/+200/+200)." Romulus's new monster was an almost invisible entity if her body were not covered in wraps; as suggested by her name, though, her head was a small star.

"Big deal," Jason scoffed. He pointed to Lili's field. "I'm going to have my Black-Winged Dragon (2800) attack that Reflect Bounder (1700)."

Jason's monster swung its massive wings and sent sharp blades of wind at Lili's monster. Lili wasn't concerned because although she was losing a monster, Reflect Bounder's effect caused it to inflict damage when the opponent attacked, equal to the monster's attack points. But the wind energy didn't bounce off the mirrors; instead it cut straight through Reflect Bounder and a Black Feather Counter appeared on the Black-Winged Dragon's crest.

"Nice try," Jason commented, "but my Dragon (-2100) lets me negate any Effect Damage by putting a Black Feather Counter on him. Of course, the counter makes him lose 700 points, but it's worth it to save me 2800, wouldn't you say?" He didn't get any kind of response from either opponent. "Well, I'll set a card and end my turn."

Lucy and Jason 8000: Lili and Romulus 8000 – 400 = 7600.

Romulus drew, but he scowled at the sight of a good card whereas the norm at the academy was to grin evilly. "I offer Helios as a Tribute to summon Caius the Shadow Monarch (6/2400/1000)." The field was hit with a column of darkness that slowly parted to reveal a giant wearing black armor and a heavy cape. He held his hand together and began to charge a Dark Hole. "When he is summoned, he destroys one card on the field; I choose Maiden of Macabre (DARK)." Caius released the Dark Hole at Lucy's monster, dragging it into a void and removing it from play. When the void closed, it exploded on Lucy's field. "And it deals 1000 points of damage for removing a dark-attribute monster."

Jason looked displeased. "Why? Why would you pick on Lucy's monster instead of my, more dangerous dragon?"

Romulus wasn't interested in answering the question, though. "I will flip over D.D. Assailant (4/1700/1600) and attack with her." A platinum blonde wearing tight, white clothes and wielding a large cleaver appeared on the field and bolted straight for Lucy. But because this was a team duel, Jason sent his Black-Winged Dragon (2100) to intercept the attack and avoid the direct hit. The Dragon managed to strike the Assailant with its wings, but not before she cut through the Dragon's belly. "When D.D. Assailant is destroyed in battle, she takes the monster that beat her with her out of play." Both monsters were dragged into the void of the Macro Cosmos. "Now Caius (2400) will attack directly." He also set two cards before ending his turn.

Lucy and Jason 8000 – 1000 – 2400 = 4600: Lili and Romulus 7600 – 400 = 7200.

Ultimately, it didn't matter which field Caius attacked because Lucy and Jason were going to lose the same points either way. But it didn't escape Lili's notice that Romulus continually targeted Lucy with his attacks. Jason noticed, too, but only because he hoped to return the behavior tenfold.

Lucy wasn't offended, though. Between herself and Jason, she figured she came across as the weaker target. But she also knew that looks can be deceiving. For example, Matt looked more like a jock than a nerd, but he made a suggestion for Lucy's deck that she kind of liked, and he even gave her the cards as an early birthday present.

"I'll play Summoner Monk (4/800/1600)." A blue-skinned man wearing large, purple robes with gold trim and a red jewel on the forehead appeared on the field and switched immediately to defense mode. "By discarding a Spell, I can summon Rescue Cat (4/300/100)." This was a small, white cat with a whistle around its neck and a hard hat on its head. "And, by sending it from the field, I can summon two low-level beast monsters from my deck: two copies of X-Saber Airbellum (3/1600/200)." Both of these monsters were beastly men with sharp teeth, wild manes, and three claws protruding from each hand. "Now I'll tune one of them to my Summoner Monk (4)."

Lucy's belligerent monster began vibrating its claws as it tuned with her Monk. After a momentary white light, Lucy's monsters turned into Arcanite Magician (7/+2400/1800), a dark-skinned magician wearing white robes and bearing a staff with a green jewel on top. Jason was excited to see Lucy's monster match Romulus's in points, but Romulus didn't seem to care.

"When Arcanite Magician is summoned," Lucy explained, "he gets two spell counters and 1000 attack points for each. But by removing one of those spell counters, I can destroy Caius the Shadow Monarch." Her Magician channeled power through his staff and expelled it through his other hand; a small explosion destroyed Caius a moment later. "I'll activate Pitch-Black Power Stone." An orb appeared on the field, pure black except for three spell counters floating inside. "I can move each of these spell counters once per turn, and so I'll put one on Arcanite Magician (+2400).

"First, I'll send X-Saber Airbellum (1600) to attack." The lion-like beast pounced for a direct attack. "When Airbellum attacks directly, one of you randomly discards a card from your hand. I know how dangerous Lili's deck can be, so I'll get her to discard." Laura stepped up and selected Lili's random discard. "Now Arcanite Magician (2400) will attack." The white mage cast a powerful spell from his staff. "Now, if I remove another counter, I can destroy Macro Cosmos." Arcanite Magician channeled energy from his staff again, but the spell hit a wall.

"You cannot beat me," Romulus told her. "I will activate Imperial Custom." A kingly man appeared on the field and read from a scroll, and a protective aura surrounded the pentacle on the ground. "With Imperial Custom in play, you can't destroy Continuous Traps."

Lucy smiled. "That was a good move." It was an attempt to establish a friendly rapport with Romulus, but he wasn't inspired; he continued to scowl when he looked at her. Lucy fought the urge to make a face or look frightened and just continued with her turn. "When my turn ends, Airbellum is destroyed because he was summoned by Rescue Cat's effect." Her beastly monster disappeared, and Lucy ended her turn.

Lucy and Jason 4600: Lili and Romulus 7200 – 1600 – 2400 = 3200.

Sure, Lili had to contend with a pretty powerful magician, but her partner actually gave her the opportunity to set up a play. "I'll remove Magician of Faith and Necroface from play to summon Black Luster Soldier – Envoy of the End (8/3000/2500)." Her monster was one of the rarest and most powerful chaos monsters, and one that tended to come off Kaiba Corp.'s Forbidden Cards list only once every six months. He was a tall warrior, clad in shiny, black-and-gold armor.

But before any battle could begin, a see-through version of Necroface—a plastic doll's head with a living mass growing out of it—hovered over the field. Because Necroface was removed from play, all players had to remove from play the top five cards from their decks, regardless of Jason's displeasure.

"Black Luster Soldier will attack your Arcanite Magician (-1400)."

"No, he won't," Lucy replied with a smile. "I'll play Magical Dimension and Tribute my Magician." A sarcophagus appeared on the field and closed around the Arcanite Magician. When it opened, the mage was gone and replaced with a Cybernetic Magician (6/2400/1000) adorning white robes and a small wand. "And when the sarcophagus opens, it destroys your monster, too." Black Luster Soldier was struck and disappeared from the field.

"I'll set a card, then," Lili said simply.

When Jason drew, he had difficulty containing his excitement. "Oh, yeah! I'll summon Blackwing – Vayu the Emblem of Honor (1/800/0)." This monster had white feathers on its body and a red crest, but it covered itself in a black coat. When Vayu hit the field, Lili twitched; anyone may have written it off as a muscle spasm, but Jason read more deeply. "I'll activate my facedown Delta Crow – Delta Reverse! Your facedown Trap is destroyed!" Vayu flapped its wings and created an explosion on Lili's field, destroying her Torrential Tribute, which she hesitated to use because she thought she could destroy more monsters if Jason used his Blackwings' swarm effect.

"Now I can summon Bora the Spear (4/1700/800) because I already have another Blackwing on the field." He let out a little snicker when he picked out his next card. "But now, I'll remove them both from play to summon Blackwing – Aurora of the Northern Lights (10/0/0)!" This was a giant bird, covered in black feather save the white feathers around its head and the pink plume sprouting from its head. Brilliant, flowing lights appeared in the sky behind it.

"I remember this card," Lili commented. She remembered it because she watched Jason duel Rory one time. Rory, with her full name of Aurora, hated this card because the Northern Lights reminded everyone that they could call her Rory Borealis. Such unoriginal and repetitive jokes did not make Lili happy.

"Then you'll remember this," Jason said. "By removing a card from my Extra Deck, Aurora—the bird, not your roommate—gains the points and effect of that monster." Lili faked a laugh at Jason's "funny" word play. "I'll give him the power of Silverwind the Ascendant (2800/2000)! Now feel this!" Aurora (+2800) flew into the air and dove at Lili's side of the field, streaming Northern Lights behind it. But neither Lili nor Romulus was one for acting like the holograms were real, and so neither flinched. Lucy found it rather amusing how alike these two opponents were, considering they were randomly teamed up.

Lucy and Jason 4600: Lili and Romulus 3200 – 2800 = 400.

Romulus was as quiet as ever when he drew. "Different Dimension Reincarnation," he said, activating his facedown card, "lets me discard a card to summon my Shutendoji (4/1500/800) that was removed from play." Shutendoji was a red oni with wild, blond hair and a bottle of sake. But Macro Cosmos removed Romulus's discarded card—Necroface—from play; once again, the ghostly image of the plastic doll's head appeared on the field, and all players removed five cards from the top of their decks. "By his effect, I can take my removed Necroface and place it on top of my deck." Shutendoji reached through a dimensional gap and pulled back one of Romulus's cards. "Now, I will play Chaos Greed." A druid wearing a dark robe held up his hands and emitted a light, letting Romulus draw two cards because he had more than four already removed from play and nothing in his Graveyard. "Finally, I summon Necroface (4/1200/1800)."

For the first time in this duel, Necroface was actually summoned to the field. Jason was disgusted by the appearance of the organism growing inside the doll head, and he made a fake retching noise to try to make Lucy laugh. Romulus should have been the one laughing, though, because Necroface's effect took all the removed-from-play cards and returned them to their owners' decks. And for each card, Necroface (+7900) gained 100 points.

"This card becomes especially powerful during tag duels," Romulus pointed out. After all, twice as many cards were removed from play as would be in a typical, two-person duel. "And one attack will end the duel." The organism hidden inside the doll's head sprouted tentacles; one wrapped around the Cybernetic Magician (2400) and squeezed it to destroy it.

Lucy and Jason 4600 – 5500 = 0: Lili and Romulus 400.

Jason was flabbergasted. He was completely stunned, like he'd been punched in the stomach. "No way! Are you kidding me? We lost to a ragtag duo? They're both in the Red Dorm and neither is even a prefect! How'd they beat us?"

Lucy put her hand on his shoulder to try to calm him. "You can't win every time," she told him. "They just had our number this time. We'll do better next time."

Had it not been for his incredible desire to see what Lucy was hiding underneath her Duel Academy jacket, Jason might have continued to say what was on his mind. Instead, he shut himself up and bit his tongue to prevent making an ass of himself where she could see him. It took everything he had not to squeeze Lili's hand when they shook. Then again, Lili wasn't a fan of the respect play, either; why bother shaking hands after a duel? What difference did it make? But she did it just to keep other people from making any kind of stink.

"You two played a great duel," Lucy told her.

"Thanks," Lili replied. "We just happen to have compatible decks."

Lucy offered her hand to Romulus, but he merely scowled at it and turned away from her. She looked to Lili and asked, "Did I do something to upset him?"

"You should have seen how angry he was at Jeri Fleig," Lili replied. "I think he's a misogynist; he just hates all women."

"And you hate everybody," Jason retorted, intending to sting her with the bluntness of his comment.

Lili just shrugged. "Maybe that's why we work well together." Then she walked away, too, taking a separate path from the one Romulus chose.

Tag duels are much harder to write. I think these came out okay, but the lack of ease with which I wrote the rest of the chapter should be indicative of two things: This chapter has a "filler"-like feel to it, and I need to take a break. I've been neglecting other things to write this story-things I really need to spend some time improving. It'll be a few weeks before I post the next chapter, which will feature a duel with Darius Mantzios and Synthia Spencer.

Credits:
Darius Mantzios...tiramisu19
Jason Maxim...Maxim and Knight
Nathan Zislaw...Mavrik Zero
Hillary Delaney...Nodqfan144
Lili Von...Happy2BMe
Carter Jade...Jaden2010
Mitsuro Itachu...Titanic X
Sean Bivins...DarkVestroia2
Naoto Kurotsuki...Kurotsuki Haru
Hayley Wilson...TeamRocketDiva
Maikeru Stone...onyxshade7
Victor Rocks & Abel Shinzou...Iron-Arm-V
Alister Kazama & Jessica Parks...ZaneKazama001
Synthia Spencer...Madly Chessur
Leila & Linear Lockhart...Windraider
Romulus Malligan...Maximus1
Everyone else so far...YamiRuss