Today's duel is best enjoyed with Zane Truesdale's Duel Links theme. Enjoy!


Chapter 21:

If Blake had known how good it felt to verbally bash in people with facts and logic, he wouldn't have waited until now. Sure, he liked to trash talk. Those overconfident brats from the Obelisk dorm really were something different, especially Zane. As if the guy hadn't been handed everything on a silver platter. With the strip-down he gave him, he could feel the impact of his words, even if his cold demeanour didn't let anything on. Something had wavered inside his senior and in turn something stirred inside himself. He relished in the obvious discomfort he had inflicted, feeling better than ever. Judging by the low metallic growl behind him, he wasn't the only one.

The day before he'd been a bit worried about this duel. He had altered his deck to help him survive the immense power of Zane's Cyber Dragons until he would have the chance to strike back or have Zane destroy himself with the feedback from Power Bond. While his traps could be devastating, he needed to play fast, and reactive cards like that wouldn't get him far considering that his opponent knew about his playstyle and should be running backrow removal regardless, so he limited their number. He'd be a fool not to. There was no way his own monsters could match the raw power of the mechanical dragons, even his trusty Megamorph would pale in comparison to Power Bond and Limiter Removal. But he wasn't planning on taking his opponent head on. Just because almost every other duelist at the academy relied on brute force didn't mean he had to as well. But perhaps exactly that would be needed to cement him as the top duelist in the academy … he'd just have to let his cards sort this one out.

But now his worry was gone, eclipsed by his emboldened confidence and desire to win. He could practically feel the Duel Energy swirling around him as they readied their duel disks, a harsh breeze washing over them and their audience, causing his opponents coat to awkwardly wobble behind him, while his own jacket flapped around his waist. The weight of his cards felt good in his hand as he awaited the results of the coin toss, his fingers curling in anticipation. It seemed like lady luck wanted to throw a bone to his opponent by going second, but that didn't matter.

"Looks like I get to go first" Blake stated, barely withholding his grin. (Blake 4000 / Zane 4000)

'So much for a proactive gameplan, oh well.' He thought at the sight of his cards. "I set a monster and backrow. Your move, Kaiser."

If the jab bothered him, he didn't show it. Instead, Zane curtly drew his card, took a brief glance over his options, and went right on the offensive. "I activate Mystical Space Typhoon to destroy your set card." The magical blue and black typhoon erupted from the revealed card, and while it hit its target, it didn't prevent its activation.

"Good, then I activate Waboku in response." Blake said and a trio of priests in blue robes shielded his entire side of the field. "You can attack me all you want, but neither will you get my monsters nor my lifepoints this turn."

Zane's eyes narrowed; no doubt annoyed that he couldn't go for a potential one-turn-kill there. "Since you have a monster and I don't, I special summon Cyber Dragon from my hand." A tall, silver, mechanical snake took to his side of the field, its bright yellow eyes glowering at Blake (2100/1600). With his signature monster on the field, Zane stood more confident, his shoulders wide and his head held high. Blake didn't know if his eyes were playing tricks on him, but it looked like his opponent was surrounded by a feint, silver aura, almost like an energetic mist. "While I can't destroy your monster thanks to your Trap card, I can still find out what it is. Cyber Dragon, attack."

The monster shot out a breath of bright turquoise energy, revealing a kneeling Witch of the Black Forest (1100/1200). Now Zane looked a bit annoyed, had he just clicked his tongue? No matter, it was his turn again and … he'd have to remain on the defence, which wasn't good at all.

"I activate Foolish Burial and send Necro Gardna to the graveyard. Then I set another monster." He said, hoping his mild annoyance didn't carry in his words.

"After your talk I expected you to rush me down and beat me into the ground like the vicious self you present yourself as." Zane expressed with a hint of amusement. "I'm not impressed."

Blake rolled his eyes in response. "If all it takes to impress you is summoning a bunch of monsters with big numbers then I'm not surprised the majority of the students can't play anything but braindead beatdown. Aren't you supposed to go pro after this year? Can't see you get far with that attitude."

Now that had hit a nerve, Zane's hand twitched as he reached for his next card. "My turn. I activate Polymerization and fuse the Cyber Dragon on my field with the one in my hand to special summon Cyber Twin Dragon!" A second metallic snake – and yes, it was a snake, not a dragon – appeared, and both melded together in the fusion swirl into a two-headed version of themselves. Their heads changed to give them more distinction, with one of them even receiving spikes that ran down the back of its neck (2800/2100).

"Cyber Twin Dragon, attack his set monster!" One of the heads, the one with the spikes, reeled its head and let out a breath of energy, easily destroying the monster and ripping apart its juicy red body, which reformed into a grotesque wall of flesh with the head of a female in its centre (1000/1850).

"Since you destroyed my Mystic Tomato, I get to summon a monster from my deck. Why don't you destroy my lovely Wall of Illusion as well?" Blake smirked as he all but forced his opponent to destroy his witch instead.

Zane looked increasingly annoyed as he had to play along if he wanted to make any progress. The second head of his monster shot out and destroyed Blake's witch, which resulted in him grabbing his ace from his deck. If he didn't feel the cold vibrations as he touched the card, he wouldn't have noticed his own little aura of energy around him. But unlike the sleek, calm silver that surrounded Zane, it was a violent swirl of black. He'd no idea where it came from and looked over to their spectators.

The girls watched them with great interest, all of them huddled together due to their location being prone to cold breezes. Yuma looked especially uncomfortable as she was the only one wearing a skirt. He'd have to talk her out of that sometime. The Slifer boys watched in awe and anticipation, while Bastion seemed to have taken notice of what Blake was seeing, giving him a tight nod before looking back at the field. Zane had set two cards of his own before had ended his turn.

With his graveyard set up and his ace on hand, Blake drew his next card with purpose. "I activate Allure of Darkness." He stated confidently, knowing full well that his only monster currently on his hand was the dragon he'd just gotten, but he could trust his deck with that. He banished one of the monsters he had drawn before picking his ace next. "Since I have exactly three Dark monsters in my graveyard, I can special summon Dark Armed Dragon from my hand!" He announced and the large form of the dragon touched down on the field, his weapons whirring to life as he flexed his muscle and looked at his opponent (2800/1000).

'What, that's all? Those puny little machines that can't even fight by their own? Hah! I'll crush you and add you to my armour you weaklings!' The dragon roared, which caused a harsh wind to come up and sweep over the field. The two-headed dragon opposite of him clanked its maws, power already gathering in the back of their mouths. Their owner's eyes widened. Did he hear that? Jaden certainly did as he cheered on Blake's big boss monster.

With two cards set and a big monster in front, he'd need to exhaust his resources to get rid of everything. Or did he? "I activate Dark Armed Dragon's effect! By banishing one Dark monster from my graveyard, I get to destroy one card on the field. I think I'll start with your Twin Dragon." Blake said and removed his tomato from the graveyard. Its energy flew to the dragon, who in turn shot out one of his shoulder mounted morning stars. But instead of destroying his target, he'd split it in two. 'I knew it.'

"I activate De-Fusion, which lets me return my Cyber Twin Dragon to the Fusion deck and resummon its materials from the graveyard." Zane responded as he put his two machines back on the field, but in defence position this time (2100/1600). He appeared pleased that it turned out as he'd expected, only to frown as his remaining set card was destroyed by the next activation of the dragon's effect.

"Mirror Force, really?" Blake snorted. "And here I thought cards like that were above your respectable dueling. Anyways, I summon Dark Blade and have both my monsters get rid of yours, good thing you wanted to protect your lifepoints, right?" His knight in black armour appeared (1800/1500) and joined the fray as he rushed alongside the dark dragon to destroy their opposition. A quick blast of the fleshy wall drew first blood for Blake. (Blake 4000 / Zane 3000) Their audience cheered for Blake, with the exception of Syrus, of course. The small boy looked utterly terrified with how his older brother, the duelist, was put on the backfoot like that.

With well filled field and hand, Blake looked at what little his opponent had left; one card in his hand. "I'll end my turn here. How the tables have turned, eh?" He taunted with a satisfied smirk.

His opponent didn't reply, instead drawing his next card with made him smirk himself. "How the tables have turned indeed. I hope you don't think you've won; we're just getting started. I activate Pot of Greed, which-"

"Allows you to draw two cards. Everybody and their dog know what that card does, get on with it."

Zane glared at him before he composed himself. "If you want this duel to end so soon, I won't draw it out any further. I activate Future Fusion!" He announced and a futuristic building with countless of windows appeared behind him, a digital clock counting.

'Which version of it? The one that summons this turn? The one that will let you send monsters on your next turn? Why did this card get so many errata's anyway?' Blake questioned as he watched. Half of Zane's deck was ejected into his hands and promptly send to the graveyard, but no monster appeared. 'Alright, that version. So, what, Chimeratech Overdragon? If you don't get a Cyber Phoenix until it hits the field it'll just destroy itself.'

Then Zane ejected a lot of cards from his graveyard, which confused Blake and prompted him to look at his opponent's graveyard. All but the Light monsters were still there, but what did he-

"By banishing all Light Machine monsters in my graveyard, I can special summon Cyber Eltanin from hand!" Zane announced and a blue portal appeared above his head, a massive silver machine coming through it. Its draconic face made up about 80 percent of its body, with several Cyber-Dragon-like heads coming out on its sides and top. "It's attack and defence become the number of monsters banished times 500!" And with that, the monsters power rose, and rose, and rose even more. Stopping at a whopping (5000/5000). "The final part of Cyber Eltanin's effect is that it sends every other face-up monster on the field to the graveyard. How the tables have turned, you said?"

The additional heads of the mechanical menace bathed the field in light blue lasers, ignoring the defiance of the dark monsters they drowned out. Another round of awed cheers at the impossibly strong monster came around, with Syrus being the loudest. Its giant mouth opened, as it gathered bright yellow energy within. "Cyber Eltanin, direct attack!" Zane commanded, his aura intensifying as he did. His monster responded with a giant laser that would end the duel in one attack, if it wasn't for the ghost of a monster taking the hit instead.

"Cool monster you have there, but no attack gets past my Necro Gardna. Looks like the we're gonna play some more." Blake replied smugly, although a bit taken aback by a monster he hadn't accounted for. It was most likely caused by the shift, much like how Jaden had more heroes, but this could've gone badly. His spirit partner wasn't happy about the shortness of his appearance whatsoever, but there wasn't much he could do about that. Zane set a card and crossed his arms, no doubt questioning if he could out him with a monster like that on the field.

But he wouldn't be set back by that, no. He had to prove a point and there was no way he'd let himself be defeated by someone lucky enough to be gifted some of the best cards of the era. It seemed like his deck agreed with him as he drew the out to the oversized machine. "How about we turn the table right back on you? I activate Instant Fusion, with which I summon Charubin the Fire Knight in exchange for a thousand lifepoints!" (Blake 3000 / Zane 3000) The cup of instant ramen exploded into a ball of fire, out of which came the flail-wielding knight. It was such a shame such a cool design was wasted on such a terrible card. He'd have to send a mean-written letter to Industrial Illusions about this. "Then I offer him as a tribute to summon Caius the Shadow Monarch!"

With his ace gone, his prior signature monster took the stage with glee as the monarch let his dark cape fly in the wind. He drew back on fist and shot out a dark orb that sucked in their opponent's big monster (2400/1000). "As you might know, when Caius gets tribute summoned, he can banish one card on the field. Luckily for you, your monster was Light attributed, otherwise you'd have taken enough damage for me to finish you off." The set card could stop his attack and probably destroy his monster, but with a 5k body on the field there was no way he could've targeted that. So, he took the gamble. "Caius, attack him directly!"

The fiend strode forward, raised his fist and … it connected. It even pushed Zane back a bit, leaving trails in the rough ground beneath him. (Blake 3000 / Zane 600) Blake ignored the cheers as he focused on the set card. Was it a bluff? Or was it a setup for something more? He set a card himself, one that he'd been holding onto since the duel had started. He'd originally added it against nasty effect damage, but considering how much Zane liked big numbers, he'd kept it in. If anything could stop so many attack points, it was this card. And why the hell did that guy get a Mirror Force and he didn't?!

Zane focused as he drew his card, his aura clinging to him after the damage he'd sustained. He looked up at Blake and smirked. But not like he knew he had with Jaden. It wasn't a look of respect or enjoyment. No, it was darker. Like he couldn't wait but show him his place for daring to call him out. To denounce the Kaiser, his ideals, and his way of dueling. His aura reflected that as its bright silver turned to a darker, metallic grey. "You've fought well, I'll give you that. You've more than earned the title as well. But this is where it ends!" Zane announced and flipped his set card. "I activate Return from the Different Dimension! By paying half my life points, I get to summon as many of my banished monsters as possible!" (Blake 3000 / Zane 300)

A portal opened above them, and out of it came three Cyber Dragons, a Cyber Kirin, and a Proto-Cyber Dragon that filled his side of the field to the brim. "They'll be destroyed by the end of the turn, but that won't matter if the duels over before that."

"And how will you beat over my monarch like that?" Blake challenged, expecting something big.

"With this! I activate Power Bond to fuse my Proto-Cyber Dragon and two of my Cyber Dragons into the Cyber End Dragon!" Unlike the fusion swirl of Polymerization, the three monsters rose together and got surrounded by a metallic sphere. The light and sound of welding clear before it exploded outward, revealing the massive form of the three-headed mechanical dragon. Its wings extended to their full length as the monster rose all its heads and roared out, the additional power given to it by Power Bond showing as blue welding lines across its body (8000/2800).

Now everybody's eyes were wide open as they laid eyes upon the behemoth of a machine that could only remind them of the Ultimate Dragon wielded by none other than Seto Kaiba. "In exchange for doubling the fused monsters attack points I'll receive the additional attack it received as damage at the end of the turn, but we'll see about that." Zane stated and shot out his hand towards Blake. "Cyber End Dragon, Ultimate Evolution Burst!"

The three heads of the monster turned towards Blake and his monarch, before quickly powering up and releasing three streams of blue energy with enough force to cause a dusty explosion on the ground as they hit. The dust slowly settled, with several of their onlookers coughing due to it, and revealed a still standing, albeit noticeably sweating Blake. And he was surrounded by a cascading wall that held all colours of the rainbow.

"Phew, thought I was a goner from the impact alone." Blake coughed out before he looked at his opponent and pointed at his duel disk. "Thanks for the juice by the way."

Cleary confused by what had happened, Zane took a look at the game state himself before losing his cool. "8600 lifepoints?!" (Blake 8600 / Zane 600)

"What?!" Came from the others, as they looked between the two of them.

"Yeah, I just activated Rainbow Life, which caused your attack to add to my lifepoints, rather than subtract from it. Pretty nice number I gotta admit."

"I … I activate Cyber Kirin's effect. By tributing it I won't receive any effect damage for the rest of the turn." Zane murmured before ending his turn, causing his remaining Cyber Dragon to return to the portal it came from, leaving its ultimate version and the remaining Future Fusion alone.

'Despite his confidence he still played it safe with that one. At least he has the skill to back himself up.' Blake acknowledged. Now facing an even stronger monster and without both his reliable outs to such things, he was left to the mercy of what he drew next. His black aura had risen high enough after he'd absorbed the damage from the attack that one would think he'd dye his hair any second now, which had to be clear to the eye, but he didn't see much more reaction to it that before. Other than Bastions eyes widened so far, he feared for his friend getting a stroke.

He took a deep breath and drew his next card. 'Not this again' "I activate Pot of Greed and you know what it does." He closed his eyes as he drew again. Even if he drew nothing, Zane's field would blow up next turn anyway and he had a massive amount of lifepoints. But he wanted to beat his opponents ace. If anything would make a statement, then that.

"I activate Monster Reincarnation! I discard one card and return one monster from my graveyard to my hand!" Blake all but shouted, his left hand twitched in anticipation. "After all the effects I've been using in my graveyard, there is little left in there." He began, confusing his opponent before the realization set in. And he mustn't have been the only one that realized judging by Bastions proud look as he nudged Jaden and told him to wait for the reveal.

"Wall of Illusion, Dark Blade, and Caius the Shadow Monarch. These three are all that remains after I reincarnated the end to this duel. Welcome back, Dark Armed Dragon!" He called out and his ace returned to the field, laughing darkly. "I activate my dragon's effect! Dismantle the machine!"

'With pleasure! Time to add your scraps to my collection you polished up mutated worm!' His monster responded as he threw himself at his target, viciously taking it apart rather than just shooting through it. It was a sight to behold, especially with both Truesdales paling at the sight of it. After the remains of the ultimate machine had vanished, the path was open.

"Time to end this. Direct attack!"

And with a punch to the gut, both physically and metaphorically, Zane fell to one knee as his lifepoints hit zero. (Blake 8600 / Zane 0)

Although they had just little over half a dozen onlookers, the applause and cheers were almost deafening. Blake looked at them with pride as he made his way over to his defeated opponent.

"You really deserve your title, Zane." He started as he looked down at his elder who still processed his loss. "But keep your ideals to yourself, you're not the King of Games."

"How?" Zane all but whispered.

"What? How I defeated you like that? Easy." He crouched down to him so he could meet his eyes. He told him quietly enough so no one else heard. "I didn't get everything handed to me. I had to be good or I'd be gone. You may duel to win and to find good opponents. But I duel to survive." With Zanes confused look still on him he rose back to his feet at walked over to the others, accepting their congratulations while ignoring the shellshocked look of the younger Truesdale. With this over, He'd just have to wait for the announcement of him taking a title and then endorse Kami to challenge the other one. Things were going nicely.


"And then you just whooped his giant machine away like it was nothing! I still can't believe that you won without him even getting one hit to your lifepoints in!" Yuma gushed with a piece of a cinnamon roll in her mouth and gesturing wildly. "How did you even do that?!"

To her right, Bright calmly sipped from her tea, while to her left Bastion recalled everything that had happened. "Now that I think about it, you were in control of the game from start to finish. That was an impressive display if you ask me. No way you're not getting a change to be promoted once the teachers catch on."

"Thanks, I sure hope they agree with you on that." Blake nodded back and drank from his coffee. 'Then I wouldn't even need Kami's help. That'd be a nice way to squeeze some more out of her.' He ignored the stares his table, and more importantly he, got from everyone around them. Were the results from the duel already online? He really hoped they showed the difference in lifepoints too. What better way to cement his status other than beating the supposed best student duelist like that.

"Your duel certainly gave me some … interesting insights we should talk about when we've got the time." Bastion replied with a knowing look.

"Sure, we've got no tests to study for until the end of the month, right?" Blake accepted and looked towards Bright. If anyone knew it'd be her.

She pushed her glasses up as she looked at him. "That is correct. We'll have a week of exams before our vacation next month. If you're lucky, you might come back wearing blue after that."

"Oh, oh!" Yuma interjected, now done with her sweets. "Don't we get the exhibition in that week as well?"

Before Blake could ask what she meant, Bastion answered. "That is right. What better way to motivate everyone to study and do their best than to show off the previous decks from the King of Games himself? I heard the best performing students until then will get in earlier too."

"Eh, sounds like you two have to make photos for us then." Blake groaned as he addressed Bastion and Bright. "What do we do while the nerds go on their date?" He asked Yuma with a smirk, which surprisingly let Bright to choke on her drink.

"Hoooow about some sports? They redid the tennis court after all." Yuma replied slowly, looking at her friend out of the corner of her eye. "Haven't played for a while, what'cha say?"

Blake took a stealthy look at Bastion, who was purposefully not looking at any of them and instead focus on the straw he was drinking his sweet drink from. "Sure, why not. Gotta warn you, though, I won't be any good at it."

"Then I'll just have to teach you!" Yuma replied happily with a clap of her hands.

"Who's having a date now, hm?" Bright mused, now that she'd calmed down.

Before he could respond, Blake took out his vibrating PDA, simultaneously with Bastion. "Word sure spreads fast. What does yours say, Bastion?"

"That I should come to Chancelor Sheppard's office tomorrow after classes. How about you?"

"Same thing." Blake said and looked at another message that just came in. Apparently, Kami had secured Crowlers assistance as planned, which might've played into that. And wasn't she nice and formal in congratulating him about his win against Zane. If only he'd get more than a 'good job' from her. But what about Bastion? "Say, buddy, did you perhaps talk to Doctor Crowler today?"

"Of course, we had class with him."

"I mean other than that."

Yuma laughed out and pointed her straw at them. "You really were in your own little word during classes, weren't you? He threw a baseball in the professor's face!"

'Ah, that explains it. Well, looks like we're both getting promoted then, that's nice.' Blake concluded and leant back in his chair. 'I'll just have to talk him out of wating to beat everyone he deems good first. Then all we gotta do is have the girls move in next and sometime after that Jaden, hopefully.'


I'm back! Sorry for the long wait, but I needed some extra time for this one. I threw about 5 versions of this duel out the window because of the flow, or the cards, or just because I didn't like it. Hopefully this version is good enough for everyone, although I can see some not liking Blake getting around every devastating attack Zane fired off. But he took extra time preparing for it, with his knowledge what to look out for no less. Otherwise, Zane could've OTK'd him several times, with turn 2 being the first instance where it could've ended. Pesky OTK decks in low lifepoints situations, right?

Looks like everyone enjoyed the verbal stripdown Zane got, lucky me. The only question now is how that and the result of the duel will impact him on the longterm. Also, I had to pull additional edge for their short conversation at the end of it, hopefully none of you cut yourself on it. We've got some setup for whats to come next, so we're not that far away from the real plot of the first season with some extras sprinkeled in.

Thanks for the nice reviews, too. And to the lovely guest suggesting that Blake should get of his high horse - which is totally even higher after this duel -, you might be right about that. My support cast focuses on the three Tag Force girls, but its not like Blake has encountered every Obelisk Blue student yet. Maybe one or two haven't responded to his taunts before? We'll see.