Chapter 3:

"Ready for the big show, boy?", the raven-haired beauty asked her ward, as he went over his deck one final time before they had to get going. They sat in the same room they did five years ago, when she had him prepare for his first duel in the arena, but he wasn't a little child anymore. Along with his prestige as an underground duelist, his body had grown as well.

The malnourished boy that barely went past her waistline in height was now taller than her, even if it was only by just a little. His complexion had become healthier, although his skin was still pale, and he managed to build up some muscles, thanks to her getting him real meals. The messy mop of hair went through a handful of styles over the years but they agreed on the undercut looking the best on him; the sides in a lighter black tone and the top in its natural silver, his bangs hanging down at the sides of and between his eyes, which seemed almost golden as the pale light of the lamps hanging above them shined into their amber colour.

Instead of the hole-filled rags and oversized shoes he wore back then, he now wore dark-blue slacks, along with black and white sneakers and a short-sleeved black button-shirt. Seemingly satisfied with his cards, the boy put them back together and his by now signature plain black baseball cap on. As he stood up, he let his deck slide into the old duel disk model and looked at the woman with a confident smirk.

"Yeah, that clown's going down." It had taken Blake years to build a consistently functioning deck that he was comfortable using, the spoils of the ante rule not always being a big help in that. Neither were the prices on what he – and anyone who played with cards of this era back in the day – saw as staples for any deck. Since there was little variety off cards for draw-power and there was no ban list in place, every duelist and their mother were after the few good cards there were, which skyrocketed their price. He managed to get his hands on a few really good cards either by having great luck in buying booster packs or from his opponents. That's why he had built his deck around those, culminating in the dark-type focused deck he now used. Especially the last card he won would come in handy from now on.

With a smirk herself, the woman began equipping him with the shock collars he had grown accustomed to over the years. While they had brought him nothing but pain and torment at the start, they now served more like an affirmation of who he was; an accomplished duelist that mercilessly crushed his opposition. His left hand twitched when the last collar was put on his body, followed by the duel disk.

"You do remember what's at stake today?", she asked as she the collar of his shirt and undid the uppermost button his Blake's shirt.

"Aside from the massive cash prize, the title of the Abyss Arena's champion and a provided steady income?", Blake snorted. "Yeah, I remember our deal; I win today and you let me go to the academy." It had taken some convincing, and a severely lowered cut on the allowance he received, but he had managed to get her to agree. If only that woman would be interested in anything aside from money.

"I still don't get why you'd want to go there. I can't imagine the kids that go there to be any challenge after you swept the floor down here.", she scoffed as she led him to the arena entrance. "Judging by how in control you are in most of your duels, I imagine you might even teach those brats better than the teachers there. God knows I had little idea of how this game worked before you came along."

Blake, as he tried to relax his body before what it had to endure once again, shook his head. "I'm not going there to learn about the game but to get the qualifications and attention to go pro after. You saw how much the pros earn, didn't you?"

"That's the only reason I even let you attend. Tournament pay-outs, sponsors and bets on top of that will make us way more money than this." She gushed. "But you gotta win this first and there's an important change I have to tell you beforehand."

Blake raised an eyebrow, his arms crossed in front of his chest. "Don't leave me hanging here, what's this about?"

"Since you're dueling the reigning champion, there have been a few … additions to the arena." She pulled a bit at his shock collar. "These things will use twice the power they usually do when you take damage. Aside from that, they added flamethrowers of all things – only to your side of the field, of course." For the first time since Blake had met her, she actually seemed concerned. "They can't hit you directly, but the heat and the increased level of shocks are what that champion has been using to keep his title ever since he got it."

The memory of a similar situation involving a schoolboy with ridiculous hair briefly flashed in Blakes mind. "If fear tactics are the only thing he's got going for him then this will be over before he knows it", he told her confidently. He was confident because he had seen first-hand how the people in this arena dueled. He even went to local tournaments to see how junior and senior duelists performed, and all that shocked him more than anything.

'For a world where this card game is the equivalent to a super sport with pro "athletes" earning more money in a month than other people do in a year, its infuriating how bad the majority of them play', Blake thought as they were led into the arena and he took his position. Sure, the top pros actually played as good as he expected them to, but the gap in skill, knowledge and understanding was just … really wide.

He was shaken out of his thoughts when the arenas bouncers put cuffs on his ankles that prevented him from going more than a few steps from his position. Once they left, flamethrowers came out of the floor on each of his sides, staying at an angle that went just above his head. A quick look over his shoulder showed him a fraction of a grimace on his managers face, before it turned neutral. She gave him a nod before he turned back to the arena.

"Ladies and gentleman, connoisseurs of the exquisite shows we provide here in the Abyss Arena, I hope you're as ecstatic as I am about tonight's show. It's not every day we get to see the reigning champion in action, which is why we made sure to give everyone a spectacular evening with a few additions today!", the sharply dressed and masked announcer proclaimed through his microphone. Pulling out a remote, he pushed a button that caused the flamethrowers to give off a few balls of fire into the air. "Along with an increased voltage on the challenger's shock collars, our dear champion has also requested to make this more interesting with these. The duel today will be heated for sure."

Ignoring the bad pun, the audience cheered loudly. At first it had sickened Blake how these people took sadistic pleasure from watching mostly children and teens play in pain inducing duels. But it hadn't exactly surprised him after seeing how the police in this city worked whenever their neighbours complained. 'Adults that like seeing minors in pain, where had I heard that one before.' He had stopped himself several times from imagining how the other duelists were handled when he walked past the rooms that echoed screams and loud beatings.

While his luck was shit, he was truly glad that he got the handler he had. While demanding, and not taking any backtalk from him or the other handlers, she was the one keeping him alive and more or less healthy. There was a clear barrier between them, as she was the boss and he her underling, but there was a mutual respect for the skills of one another that he couldn't imagine the others in here to have. She got him the information he needed about his opponents, as well as where to get good cards for a cheap price. Today's opponent was no different.

With a loud fanfare, his opponent entered the arena with resounding steps. The hulking giant clad in a dark blue coat outlined with silver studs, metal-plated boots and gloves, and a face that only a mother could love, dwarfed everyone else in the arena. A sadistic smile crept up the mans face as he put his deck into his duel disk.

"On the left side we have our reigning champion; the dark giant, the king of the abyss, the master of fear himself. A round of applause for Panik!" Now Blake remembered where he had seen that ugly visage before. It's the same guy that the King of Games dueled back in Duelist Kingdom. 'How did he survive the Pharaoh's mind crush?'

The champion rose his hands over his head, presenting himself to all the onlookers who supported him with thunderous applause, before turning back to his challenger with a scoff.

"On the right side we have our brave challenger; the rookie, the rising star, the vicious hound. Give him some support, 'cause we all know he'll need it. Here's Blake!" Both duelists were surprised by the applause he got – even from his manager herself – which led Blake to give the mighty champion a condescending look.

After handing the remote for the flamethrowers to Panik, the announcer left the platform, watching on from the side-lines. Blake and Panik activated their duel disks, which took Blake's a bit longer due to its age, and stared each other down.

The giant roared in a headache inducing, rough voice towards his adversary. "Vicious hound? More like a pathetic welp that doesn't know its place. As per tradition, the challenger shall start, but don't wet yourself too early, brat."

"No wonder they call you the 'master of fear', I fear I'm gonna throw up just from looking at your hideous face. That's probably why your name's Panik; that's what your mother must've felt when she saw the hell spawn she birthed."

The crowd let out some resounding "Ooh's" and laughs at that, causing Panik to grimace. But before he could retort, Blake made his move. (Blake 4000 / Panik 4000)

"I draw for turn." His opening hand gave him the perfect tools to set up for his opponents downfall, only the fact that he had nothing that allowed him to draw more cards was a bit annoying. "I summon Armageddon Knight in attack position, which allows me to send one dark monster from my deck to the graveyard." The black-haired knight that appeared on his side of the field let out some black mist that made its way to Blake, as he sent his just-in-case defence to the GY (1400/1200).

"After that I set two cards face-down and end my turn. I hope that wasn't too much for your wittle wrain?", Blake cooed mockingly.

Drawing his card in a wide arc, Panik spat. "Pah! Your child splay will only send you to the same early grave you sent your monster to, punk. Let me show you how a real duelist plays." Slapping his meaty hand down on his disc, Panik summoned a monster that looked very similar to himself onto the field. The Giant Orc (2200/0) lazily put its massive bone club on its shoulder before it was sent to attack Blakes knight. But it didn't get very far.

"Not so fast, you wouldn't want to finish too early and embarrass yourself in front of the audience now, would you? I activate my face-down; Nightmare Wheel!" The orc was caught and fastened to a similar in size torture wheel, holding it in place. "While your orc is on this lovely device, it can neither attack nor switch its position and to top it all off, you take 500 points of damage during any off my standby phases."

Panik growled at him, before he set down a card and ended his turn. "Ain't you lucky, punk? You're just delaying the inevitable."

Not bothering listening to the man, Blake drew his card, causing the nightmare wheel to spin and send some splinters of broken bones at Panik. (Blake 4000 / Panik 3500) The man's collars lit up but he barely reacted to the shocks it gave him. 'That bastard not only installed fucking flamethrowers next to me but also toned down his shock collars? Oh, you're going down.'

Satisfied with his draw, he put his plan into motion. "I summon Breaker the Magical Warrior onto the field!" the warrior clad in illustrious red and bronze armor appeared next to the dark night (1600/1000). "When I summon Breaker, he receives a Spell Counter, boosting his attack points by 300!" The round crystal on his sword guard lit up (1900/1000) "But it won't stay, because I remove the Spell Counter to destroy your set card!"

Pointing his blade towards Panik's card, the warrior shot out a beam of green energy that destroyed the Mirror Force that was laid down. Then, the crystal in its sword lost its glow (1600/1000). "I'm not stopping here, though. I equip my Breaker with the Sword of Dark Rites, increasing his attack by 400 points." (2000/1000) With an evil grin, Blake flipped his other face-down. "Just enough to activate my lovely Deck Devastation Virus! By tributing a dark monster with 2000 or more attack points, I can destroy every monster with less than 1500 attack points on your field, your hand and every draw you have for your next three turns. Not that you'll have that many."

The sickly green virus entered the magical knight, causing him to explode in dark energy and infecting Paniks side of the field, which forced him to discard two cards from his hand to the GY. "To finish my turn, I take my sword back into the hand, as the monster it was equipped to was tributed. Then I switch my remaining knight into defence position and end my turn. Your move, freak."

Aggravated by the sheer cockiness of the boy in front of him, Panik activated the flamethrowers, causing them to spew out torrents of flames that saw his opponent duck low and build up sweat instantly. "Don't think you have a chance, punk." He spat and drew a card, grinning as he did. "Your little virus might destroy weak monsters, but not this one. I summon my Double Coston!" (1700/1650)

A pair of grey, ghostly twins, connected by a reddish plasma, appeared, grinning stupidly with their pale blue tongues out. "Destroy his pathetic knight." The twins encircled the defending knight and destroyed him in a swirl of dark energy. Panik set a card face-down and ended his turn with another flourish of flames.

"Turn it down, will ya?! Just because you suck arse in this game doesn't mean I wanna be a roasted chicken." Finally, some draw power. After Panik received another weak shock due to his continues trap, he continued. (Blake 4000 / Panik 3000) "I activate Pot of Greed, allowing me to draw two cards." That stupid card cost him about a quarter of his whole decks value. Good thing he got his traps from his opponents, otherwise he'd have no savings at all.

"I summon Exarion Universe in attack position and attack your Coston with it!" (1800/1900) The almost randomly coloured centaur charged towards its target, only to be intercepted by a mask flying onto his face (1100/1900) and get subsequently destroyed by its targets.

"Bahaha, my Mask of Weakness reduces your monsters attack points by 700, making it an easy kill for my Coston!".

'Good thing I didn't boost it after all-' Blake thought, but was interrupted by the pain caused by the shock collars. At this point he'd grown almost numb to most of the regular shocks and only really damaging hits made him flinch. This wasn't much damage, but the shock was even greater than that, forcing him down onto his knee, while his left arm spasmed. (Blake 3400 / Panik 3000)

He dreaded what he had to do now but went through it either way. He wouldn't risk his defence being held by a single trap card. "I activate Premature Burial, allowing me to special summon a monster from my graveyard in exchange for 800 life points." His body was rocked by shocks once again and his cards slipped out of his spasming left hand. After he took a deep breath, he picked them up again and put his recently destroyed monster back on the field. The centaur appeared once again, its spear at the ready (1800/1900). (Blake 2600 / Panik 3000)

"I set a card and end my turn. You gotta turn it up you clown. I dealt myself more damage than you did and you're pretty fucked from what I can see.

"You have no idea who you're dealing with, kid. Once I'm done with you, your mommy won't even recognize what's left of you." Panik drew and activated his card with a sick smile on his face. "I activate Pot of Greed, allowing me to draw two cards." He drew again, but had to send one card straight to the GY.

"Since my Coston can be treated as two tributes, I tribute only him to summon Diabolos, King of the Abyss!" From the ground rose a massive black and grey dragon, its chains breaking as it stood to its full height and let out a fearsome howl. (2800/1000) "Diabolos, get rid of that little pony once and for all!" The dragon roared and crushed the centaur under its dark blazing claw. (Blake 1600 / Panik 3000)

Blake cried out at the feeling of the collars burning into the skin around his arms and neck. Not satisfied with just the shocks assaulting his adversary, Panik activated the flamethrowers on full power as well, showing off his power and the futile attempt of his opponent to everyone. His maniac laughter was only eclipsed by the sound of Blake scoffing loudly.

With slightly singed shoulders, the boy stood tall and proud once again as he drew his card. "Your bravado is useless, ugly. Next turn, you'll lose" Blake declared as he put down a monster in defence position after Panik was damaged once again by his trap card. (Blake 1600 / Panik 2500)

Blake mocked him as he ended his turn, waving him off. "It's your last move, make it count. Though I don't expect much from someone who lost to children back in Duelist Kingdom."

His eyes wide in fury, Panik almost tore the card he drew. "I'm gonna enjoy breaking you, boy. Because this is your end. I activate Heavy Storm to get rid of your puny traps." The heavy winds destroyed both the Nightmare Wheel that kept the Orc in place since the start of the game, as well as Blake's Negate Attack,he had decided to save himself for the attacks of several monsters.

"With your last defence out of the way, my monsters will finish you. But after your blatant disrespect for your betters, I'm gonna make this one hurt even more. By sacrificing my Giant Orc I summon the Great Maju Garzett!" A tall demon man clothed in green fur and copper armor arose from the ground beneath, his muscles flexing as they grew to enormous size. "His effect lets him consume the attack points of the monster I sacrificed for him and double that! Time to meet your end." (4400/0)

At this point Blake was really glad he prepared for something like this on his first turn, because after how much just 1000 points of damage hurt, over 4000 would probably fry his brain at this point. It didn't hurt that Panik tried to deal as much damage as possible either, because that would be his downfall. The dark dragon crushed his defending Mystic Tomato (1400/1100), giving him just the chance he needed.

"My Tomato allows me to summon one dark monster with 1500 or less attack from my deck once it is destroyed by battle. So, I summon Sangan from my deck!" The little ball of three-eyed fur sprung out from his deck in vigour, only to be scared shitless from the massive fiend towering over him (1000/500).

"Pah, you think that'll save you?! Great Maju Garzett, destroy this pathetic monster and the boy!" The demon obliged and lifted his arm to end the duel. But as its fist impacted the ground in front of it, it was repelled by the visage of a dark robed warrior with long white hair. Blake could hear the woman behind him cry out in fear while Panik, taken aback by this development, shouted angrily. "How is this possible?! You had no cards left to protect you!"

"That's where you're wrong, dumbass." Blake, seeing his plan unfold perfectly laughed his tall opponent in the face. "When my Necro Gardna lies in the graveyard, I can banish him from play to negate your next attack, which just happened to be your last."

"B-but when did you-", Panik stuttered, getting interrupted by Blake. "That's the first thing I did when we started the duel. My 'puny knight' sent him right where I wanted him. The same place I'll send you too, once you finish your pathetic excuse of a turn."

"I'd like to see your punk as try and get past my monsters!"

Blake chuckled quietly as he drew his final card. "Since you like it hot, let's start with this! I activate Tremendous Fire, inflicting 1000 points of damage to you and 500 to myself!" At this point he didn't register the shocks anymore, as his whole body was aching, but he was surprised to see Panik grunt loudly in pain from the shocks, a surprised look on his face. (Blake 1100 / Panik 1500)

Blake raised his eyebrows in confusion, before he turned to his handler, who lazily waved with a remote in her hand and a content smile on her face. "Take him down already, Blakey! You let him hang on long enough!" She shouted, giving him a second wind to end this duel.

"Since you didn't manage to destroy my Sangan last turn, I sacrifice him in order to summon your end. Come forth; Caius the Shadow Monarch!" A black and purple portal opened on his side of the field, from which stepped a regal looking demon in grey armour and a purple cloak befitting of his name. (2400/1000) Blake took a monster from his deck to his hands due to Sangan's effect as he continued.

"When my monarch gets tribute summoned, I can banish one card on the field, and if it's a dark monster, you'll receive 1000 points of damage. Bye bye Great Maju Garzett, see you in my deck soon." With a flick of the monarch's wrist, the other demon was consumed by a sphere of black and purple, erasing him from the field and causing Panik another round of harsh shocks. (Blake 1100 / Panik 500)

"You'll … pay for this … you might've defeated my Maju, but your monster is too weak to stand up to Diabolos, you fool! Wahaha!" Panik laughed out in a pained voice. He only stopped when he saw Caius grow to double his size and Blake looking at him with a feral grin.

"It's funny how you'll lose to the first and last card I've won from the ante rule up until now. Almost poetic. My Megamorph doubles the original attack points of the monster I equip it to, as long as my life points are lower than my opponents. Otherwise, the monster's attack gets halved. Good thing I don't need to attach it to my monster."

The circular runestone summoned by Megamorph appeared, but not in front of Caius but Diabolos. It struck the dragon and shrunk both its size, and its power (1400/1000) enough so the next attack would finish it.

Panik paled as he saw how this duel would end, but not like this. He was the champion for years! The master of fear! He wouldn't be defeated by some brat, not again! He fumbled as he took out the remote for the flamethrowers once more, intent to lower their angle and burn the boy alive. Just as he was about to press the button, the remote slipped out of his hand as shocks on their highest power to a whopping 2400 points of damage hit his body. Shocks, that would've either fried the boys' brain or maybe even give him a heart attack.

Just like he screamed back in Duelist Kingdom, when he had underestimated a child the last time.