The True Slifer Red

Chapter 11

-Jaden-

Head held high; Jaden walked into the filled Academy arena. He could hear his friends cheering for him from the stands, even Zane was showing open support which got the majority of the students on his side. Across from him, he could see Bonaparte and PaniK, with a 'K', sneering, bloodlust clear in the former duel mercenary's eyes.

"Greetings students!" Chancellor Sheppard stepped up, trying to maintain a positive energy despite the situation, "And welcome to today's duel! Jaden Yuki has been accused of misconduct and the Board has selected him for an expulsion hearing. His victory here today is what is needed to remain at this academy. His opponent was selected by the Assistant Vice-Chancellor Bonaparte, PaniK, a former duel mercenary." The students all booed at the opponent; the man famous for his sadistic actions that he'd barely escaped prison for.

"Now, let the duel begin! And Jaden, I look forward to seeing you in classes on Monday." Sheppard nodded, making it blatant what he expected to happen as Bonaparte scowled.

"I'll go first little criminal." PaniK grinned gleefully, "I'll summon my Giant Orc, in attack mode." (Attack: 2200, Defense: 0) the giant brutish fiend appeared, swinging its bone club with a roar, "Next, I'll play the field spell Yami, which raises the attack and defense of all my fiends by two hundred points. Finally, I'll set three cards face down and end my turn."

"My move." Jaden glanced at the face down warily. He knew that PaniK was a fiend duelist and with Bonaparte's assistance, who knew what sort of powerful cards the psychopath had gotten his hands on, "I'll start by setting one card face down and then play polymerization to send my two Hunter dragons to the graveyard to bring forth First of the Dragons!" (Attack: 2700, Defense: 2000)

"Hmph, expected." PaniK sneered, "With your best cards gone there's not much else you can do, is there?"

"Dragon, attack his Orc." Jaden scowled as his beast bit the opposing fiend in half, tearing off three hundred of PaniK's life points.

"Then it is my turn." PaniK grinned, "My Orc was merely there as a meat shield, nothing more. Now I active my traps, Sinister Yorishiro!" the trap cards flipped up, revealing two copies of the same continuous trap "Now, each one lets me normal summon a level five or higher fiend per turn without tributing. So, I'll use pot of greed to draw two new cards. Next, I'll play double summon and bring out The Supremacy Sun (Attack: 3000, Defense: 3000, altered Attack: 3200, altered Defense: 3200) and Zoa (Attack: 2600, Defense: 1900, altered Attack: 2800, altered Defense: 2100). And while they can't destroy your dragon, they can still damage your life points!" Jaden grit his teeth as his life points dropped by six hundred. His dragon might not be able to be destroyed by PaniK's new lineup, but Jaden's life points were still in danger.

"My turn then." Jaden scowled as he drew, his face down was useful but not at the moment, he needed to wait for the right time to trigger it. Before he could try and change his dragon to defense mode to preserve his life points though, PaniK stopped him.

"I active the trap card, spellbinding circle." PaniK grinned, "Now your dragon cannot change positions, meaning I can keep hammering away at your life points."

"I…set one card face down and end my turn." He frowned as he played the card, knowing it was useful but not the card he wanted.

"Hah, so much for the apprentice of the 'Great' Yugi Moto." PaniK barked out a laugh that echoed weakly in the arena, nobody joining him in jeering Jaden's way, "I use Sinister Yorishiro once again, this time summoning Invader of Darkness. (Attack: 2900, Defense: 2500, altered Attack: 3100, altered Defense: 2500) Jaden scowled, seeing how calmly PaniK was getting these monsters. There was no surprise, no excitement at luck, the man was expecting each Card. He had to have rigged his duel disk to give him his cards in a certain order.

"Supremacy Sun, attack!" PaniK ordered as the massive fiend blasted towards his fused dragon.

"I activate my trap, Defense Draw!" Jaden called out as the card raised up, "It makes the damage from this battle zero and I get to draw another card."

"Bah." PaniK scoffed, "My other monsters can still easily damage you. Zoa, Invader, attack!" Jaden, his body still tender from the energies of his shadow Duel, had to bite his tongue not to cry out, the charged atmosphere of the arena lending a bit more substance to the attacks which brought his life points down to twenty-eight hundred.

"I pass." Jaden tried to block out the protests from his friends in the stands behind him. He had faith, he just needed to get one last card to win this.

"I bring out Fusion Destroyer!" (Attack: 1400, Defense: 1200, altered Attack: 1600, altered Defense:1400)

PaniK's glee was getting wider and wider, as was Jaden's confidence that PaniK was cheating. The bastard had started saying the monster's name before he even looked at the card, "This little beasty has a nasty ability. When it battles a fusion monster then that monster's attack becomes Zero during that damage step."

"Jaden no!" Missy shouted out as the slew of PaniK's monsters hit him again and again. His life points dropped down to twenty-three hundred, then to nineteen hundred, then to eighteen hundred, and finally to a measly two hundred life points. PaniK meanwhile was still sitting at a comfortable thirty-seven hundred.

"Hah! Yes, give in to your despair! Give in to your fear at failure!" PaniK was nearly salivating in his eagerness, "You miserable-"

"Do you ever shut up you carny reject?" Jaden shook his head with a frustrated groan as he drew…and then gave a vicious grin, his friends cheering at the expression, "You know, it's kind of sad. You had to cheat to get this far in the duel but here I am about to win anyway."

"You dare accuse me of cheating you stupid-" PaniK puffed up as Jaden deadpanned.

"You were calling out the names of your cards as you drew them without looking dumbass." Jaden deadpanned "Something the Chancellor's security cameras will be able to point out as well. But now, like I said, it's time for me to win this duel."

"You're delusional." PaniK scoffed, fully confident in his own victory.

"I start by activating my trap card, Metal Reflect slime to get a token monster. But don't worry, he won't stay there for long. You see, I can sacrifice him to special summon the Fusion Monster Egyptian god Slime!" (Attack: 3000, Defense: 3000)

"My Sun is still stronger. My fiends reign Supreme!" PaniK boasted.

"Next, I'll use my Ritual Spell card, Contract with the Abyss!" Jaden continued, "This lets me ritual summon any Dark ritual monster so long as I offer cards whose levels are above the monster's I'm summoning. So I'll get rid of first of the dragons, to bring forth Blue Eyes Chaos MAX Dragon! (Attack: 4000, Defense: 0) everyone in the audience was gaping at the massive dark monster, a new ritual monster that had only been announced recently. It had been one of the two cards in that pack that had called to him.

"I'm not done yet though," Jaden's grin grew wider "next I play the spell card Super Polymerization!"

"Super what now?!" PaniK gaped, likely having never heard of the card Jaden had gotten from the pack with Blue Eyes Chaos MAX dragon. But to be fair, even Jaden had never heard of it before then.

"It's a fusion card, but what sets it apart is that I can select monsters from either side of the field as material." Jaden grinned as he pointed, "And I think your Supremacy Sun and Invader of Darkness look like the perfect picks to summon out my Starving Venom Fusion Dragon!" (Attack: 2800, Defense: 2000)

"But, just to rub some salt in that wound, I'm going to play stamping Destruction to take out your field spell." Jaden gave a wide grin as the field of Yami was destroyed, taking away the extra attack points from PaniK's fiends.

"W-wait!" PaniK was now the one panicking, the man's eyes wide with fear as he stared down the three titanic monsters with only a depowered Zoa and a little fusion hunting monster to defend him, "Hang on!"

"Destroy him!" Jaden yelled over PaniK, feeling a surge of power from the cards he had played, PaniK's field and his life points getting obliterated in one fell swoop as the holograms started to fade.

As PaniK lay collapsed wide eyed, Jaden looked past him to stare down Bonaparte imperiously, feeling the spirits of his current deck and the cards he'd been forbidden from using today around him, supporting him.

Hearing his friends rushing over, Jaden turned, ready to greet them. He wasn't prepared for Missy to throw her arms around him and kiss the life out of him in front of the whole school.

But he was in no way complaining.

As he eagerly returned the kiss with the beautiful insect duelist, nobody noticed that during the end of that duel, his eyes had begun to glow.