At the beach with the gang
Koyo stood off to the side at a distance as Slade and Taku took their positions across from each other and readied their duel disks. He couldn't believe how quickly things had escalated. One minute, they were getting their decks ready for the tag duel. And now, he was about to see a real duel between the two best duelists at Duel Academy. One thing he was certain of was that he was going to make sure that he paid close attention to this duel. Not just to see who would win, but also to study how Slade used his deck since he would be using it in their tag duel.
"I say why don't we duel in the Obelisk arena?" Slade suggest
"I see so you want to see me getting humiliated in front of the crowd?" Taku replied jokingly, "I am okay with it".
"Are you two going duel over there?" Koyo asked in disbelief.
"Yes we're and if you want, you can follow us". Taku offered.
With that the boys left the beach and head to main building
With Misawa and Dimitri
"Man, that crowd was intense!" Dimitri moaned, brushing off some dust and dirt from his yellow jacket before grinning and holding up a trio of cards, "But it was worth it for these!" Dimitri then laughed as Misawa sighed, following a few steps behind Dimitri the pair making their way down a long, curved corridor within the academy building. "With these in my deck, I'll be racking up the wins even faster than before!"
The black haired boy held up a single card. "I only managed to get one good card out of that," he groaned.
Dimitri near slapped Misawa on the back. "Chin up, Misawa" Dimitri replied, "Once we get back to the dorm, you and me are gonna practice an-" Dimitri paused, his eyes widening as he looked to the hallway to his left, towards the Obelisk Duel Arena. "Quick! This way!" He exclaimed, dashing towards the Arena.
Misawa followed. "What's going on?" He asked.
"There's a Duel about to start," Dimitri answered, sliding on his AR Scanner, "I just know it!" Misawa slipped on his AR Scanner as the pair arrived in the arena…and true to Dimitri''s statement, Slade and Taku stood in the arena, their own AR Scanner's on, their Duel Disks activated.
"Hey guys!" Anna called out from the stands sitting beside Koyo, Dimitri and Misawa looking at them, "Sit up here, you'll get a better view of the duel!" Dimitri nodded, leading Misawa into the stands and sitting behind Anna and Koyo
Duel with Slade and Taku
Taku's gaze shifted momentarily from Slade to the stands, noting Misawa's arrival, before gazing back at Slade. "Are you ready, ?" Taku asked, his LP counter setting to 4000.
Slade smirked. "Ready to crush you," he replied, his own disk setting his LP to 4000 as the pair pulled forth their first five cards.
"Duel". they exclaimed in unison.
Turn 1 Taku
"I'll take the first move," Taku stated, "And I'll keep it simple; one monster set face down along with one more card also face down." A horizontally laid face down card appeared in front of Taku followed by a second, vertically laid, card behind it.
Turn 2 Slade
"Not a very impressive first turn," Slade noted, drawing his next card, "But don't worry, you won't regret it for too long…once I summon my Pitch-Black Warwolf!" A bipedal, wolfman carrying a black, hooked blade, gray scaled pieces of armor wrapped around its wrists and ankles appeared, snarling at Taku (ATK 1600). "Thanks to my Warwolf's ability, you can't activate that trap card during the battle phase." Slade grinned. How obvious a trap can you set? "Battle! Pitch-Black Warwolf attacks your set monster!"
The Warwolf lunged forward, raising its sword before bringing it down in a feral slash…which was intercept by a mechanical, insect-like leg, the blade clanging harmlessly off the metal as the set card flipped itself up to reveal a hulking, mechanical spider with two rectangular pods upon its back (DEF 2400).
"Sorry, Slade," Taku replied, "But your Warwolf's attack can't break through the defence of my BM-4 Blast Spider!" A kick from the remaining front leg of the Blast Spider sent the Warwolf flying back to Slade's side of the field, the 1st year Blue Student's LP dropping to 3200.
"So the set card wasn't a trap?" Koyo asked.
Anna shrugged. "It still could be," Anna answered, "But Taku saw no need to activate, considering the monster he'd set." Koyo nodded. And that's quite an impressive monster to boot; it has defence high enough that Slade would have to summon something really powerful to get past it…and then there's its effect…
"I'll set one card face down and end my turn," Slade stated, a set card appearing behind the Pitch-Black Warwolf, "It's your move."
Turn 3 Taku
Taku nodded. "Then I draw," he stated, sliding his next card, "First, I'll activate my set card; Proton Blast!" Taku's set card flipped up. "As long as this card remains active," Taku explained, "Every time I activate an effect involving a Coin Toss, I also add on an additional effect based on the number of times a coin toss lands on Heads…and I'll start with this monster; Twin-Barrel Dragon!"
A Bipedal, mechanical, wingless dragon with a pair of vertically stacked gun barrels in place of the top half of its head appeared in front of Taku (ATK 1700). "Twin-Barrel Dragon's effect activates; I target one card on your field and toss two coins - If I get two heads, that card is instantly destroyed. So Twin-Barrel Dragon, take aim at Slade's set card!"
A holographic image of two large coins appeared in between the two Duellists before both flew into the air, rotating, as if some unseen hands had tossed them before both landed. The leftmost coin showed a Heads outcome…but the rightmost showed Tails.
"A pity," Taku mused, Slade smirking, "…but Proton Blast still activates. For one heads result, you take 500 points of damage!" A stream of energy shot forth from the Proton Blast card, striking Slade, his LP sliding to 2700.
Dimitri groaned. "Don't tell me his deck relies on Luck to win…"
"…I think there's more to it than that," Koyo replied, "Sure he's still tossing coins, but his odds of getting a heads are always no worse than 50-50, so if he's tossing two or three coins then he's likely to get at least one heads mixed in there…which means his Proton Blast can still ensure that even a bad toss pays off."
"Battle!" Taku announced, "Twin-Barrel Dragon attacks Pitch-Black Warwolf!" The mechanical dragon's barrels glowed as energy gathered within it before discharcing twin beams of light towards, the Warwolf, striking it and destroying in, Slade's LP stepping down to 2600. "And now my Launcher Spider's effect activates! Since a Dark Machine monster on my field has destroyed a monster on yours, you take half the attack of the destroyed monster as direct damage!"
The pods on the Launcher Spider's back opened, revealing six missiles in each…which then launched towards Slade the Obelisk Blue ace yelping as the Missiles detonated at his feet, his LP dropping to 1800.
"I set one more card and end my turn," Taku added, a face down appearing next to Proton Blast.
Turn 4 Slade
Slade glared at Taku gnashing his teeth. "You…haven't…," he replied, "…beaten me! I draw!" He pulled his next card from his deck, grinning. "I activate my set card, Call of the Haunted, which lets me revive my Pitch-Black Warwolf!" The Warwolf returning, howling defiantly towards Taku
"But he won't be staying around long as I tribute him to summon…Chthonian Emperor Dragon!" Taku's eyes widened as he watched the Warwolf disappear into a rising cloud of sparkling dust before it reconstituted into a large, serpentine black dragon with a large pair of wings below which sat a smaller pair of clawed wings (ATK 2400). "Since my dragon is a Gemini monster, it currently has no effects so next I'll use the Magic of Double Summon to let me normal summon my Dragon again, gaining its effects!" The dragon roared as a red glow surrounded it.
"Finally, I'll at the magic of Big Bang Shot to my dragon; this raises its attack power by 400 points and gives it piercing damage!" The Dragon roared again as its power rose (ATK 2400 - 2800).
"Piercing Damage?!" Misawa exclaimed.
"It means that even if Taku's monster is in defence mode," Koyo explained, "If Slade's attack points are higher, Taku will still take the damage."
"Battle!" Slade roared, "Chthonian Emperor Dragon attacks your Twin-Barrel Dragon!" The Emperor Dragon lashed out with its tail, shattering the Twin-Barrel Dragon with a single swing, Takus LP dropping to 2900. "And now for my Dragon's effect; It can attack twice during the Battle Phase…so your Launcher Spider is getting sent to the scrap heap!" The dragon loosed a terrible flame upon Taku's side of the field, melting the Launcher Spider before its payload detonated, Taku's LP sliding to 2500. "Finally, I'll activate Mystical Space Typhoon!" Slade added, "With this spell, I can destroy Proton Blast!" A tornado flew from Slade's field to Taku's, crashing into Proton Blast and shattering it. "Now it's your move," he concluded, grinning, "As you can see, I'm putting the card you gave me to good use."
Turn 5 Taku
"Then I draw," Taku noted, drawing his next card…his eyes narrowing as he saw what it was, "I activate my set card; Polymerization!" A Red-Blue spiral appeared above Taku "From my hand, I fuse Barrel Dragon and The Dark - Hex-Sealed Fusion!" An image of a mechanical, bipedal dragon with gun barrels for its hands and a third barrel taking the place of its top jaw appeared next to a rock that glowed with dark energy.
"Wait…what's that second card?" Dimitri asked, "I know about Barrel Dragon; it's a monster Bandit Keith used. But what's The Dark - Hex-Sealed Fusion?"
"It's a Fusion Substitute card, Dimitri," Anna answered, "Duellist use them in place of a named material monster for Fusion Summoning. They let Duellist add other utility cards rather than weighing down their deck with fusion combinations." Dimitri nodded, watching as both the Barrel Dragon and the stone were pulled up into the spiral.
"I Fusion Summon…Gatling Dragon!" Taku declared as the spiral parted…and a triple-headed serpentine mechanical dragon landed in front of him, the upper jaws of each head replaced with a Gatling Gun, a pair of large wheels protruding from the sides of its form (ATK 2600). "Now I activate my Dragon's effect; I toss three coins and destroy as many monsters as possible based on the number of Heads results."
The onlookers gasped at the risky move as three holographic coin images appeared between Slade and Taku, before flying up into the air as before and landing. The Leftmost coin showed Heads, the centre a Tails…and the Right showed a second Heads. The mechanical dragon roared as it let loose a storm of bullets in all directions, many of them ricocheting off the floor, walls and roof until both the Chthonian Emperor Dragon and Gatling Dragon were shredded by the barrage, the machine dragon exploding, taking the Emperor Dragon with it.
Slade blinked…and then laughed, cackling manically as he realised what had happened. "You really are a Kaiser!" he taunted, "This is what you get when you rely on luck!" Slade held his head back in laughter for a few moments more…before stopping as he heard Taku laughing.
"That's why I'm not relying on just good luck, Slade" Taku shot back, still laughing, "I always considered the possibility of a coin toss gone wrong, falling short or even going too far…matter of fact, thanks to that I can show you the card I added to my deck earlier."
Slade blinked as Anna heartbeat sped up. "Because a Dark Machine monster on my field was destroyed this turn, even though it was my own effect, I can Special Summon this from my hand; Desperado Barrel Dragon!" A bulkier version of the Barrel Dragon crashed in front of Slade each of its gun barrels joining a cylindrical loading mechanism akin to a revolver (ATK 2800).
Slade gasped, his eye twitching. "Battle! Desperado Barrel Dragon attacks you directly!" The mechanical monster roared, lining up its three barrels at Taku…before firing, three large mortar's hell like bullets flying towards Slade exploding right in front of him as his LP emptied to 0.
All the Ra boys gasped while Anna stared, dumbfounded for a moment. That was impressive. Coin Tosses or not, he was in control of that duel the whole time. She stood up, quickly slipping past Koyo, Misawa, and Dimitri, seeing Taku walking across the arena to Slade, offering the defeated freshman a hand up…
Slade got to his feet slowly, still reeling from what had just happened. He still couldn't believe that he had actually lost a duel. This wasn't supposed to happen. Not now, and not ever. For a moment, he couldn't speak. The important thing to remember is to never let your opponent see that you are upset by one. Always be gracious and congratulate them for their victory. But also make sure to include the promise of a rematch, and most importantly, WIN that rematch whenever it comes up. Anger and frustration will only make you appear even weaker to your opponents. So, you must save face and not show anymore weakness to them than you already have by losing the duel. He showed his weakness to Koyo when the latter defeated him months ago, but he wondered why he didn't show this side to Taku, maybe the latter is his senior with impressive win record while the former is a Ra a dorm ranked below him.
Slowly, Slade let his face spread into a smile "That was one amazing duel, Taku. You kept me on the ropes from start to finish by countering everything I did, and I enjoyed it thoroughly. I could tell that you were a duelist worth fighting, and you went above and beyond my expectations. Congratulations." Slade said sincerely. He then came closer to Taku and offered him his hand to shake.
For a moment, Taku looked surprised by Slade's gesture. But he quickly recovered and shook his hand in return. "Thank you, Slade. It does well to hear you say those words. You dueled spectacularly as well, and you have my respect as a duelist." He said seriously.
"That's good to know. However, you should also be aware that I don't let losses go unpunished. So, once I'm ready, we will have a rematch with a very different outcome, Taku I can promise you that." Slade vowed.
"I look forward to it." Taku said with a grin.
Anna, Koyo, Dimitri and Misawa were surprised by how civil Koyo's reaction was. They had been expecting him to throw a fit or make up excuses to justify himself. But he was actually taking his loss extremely well. Whether it was because he had lost to someone he respected, or something else, they didn't know. But one thing Koyo knew for sure was that he really hoped this attitude would continue from him. Somehow though, he had the feeling that it wasn't that simple…
Notes
Before we begin, this chapter is dedicated to Kazuki Takahashi who passed away a month ago and without him our beloved cast of GX wouldn't have exist. Thank you so much for app your hardwork, you'll be missed but Yu-Gi-Oh will forever stay alive thanks to you.
I didn't post any chapter last month because I was busy doing some work for the GX Rare Pair Week. This chapter was difficult for me to write and I have my BF write the duel for me and credit goes to her.
Sometimes I am thinking of skipping those filler episodes and combline them into one chapter and then jump to Seven Stars/SR1 arc. So let me know what you guys think should I make some filler duels into their own chapter or not..