Chapter 4

"I still can't believe just how relaxed you are about all this." Bastion bemoaned as we made our way up to the doors of the Obelisk Blue facilities.

"Maybe he's resigned himself to his fate?" Dimitri suggested.

"Well, whatever it is I just hope I can get enough intel on his decks to determine viable strategies for them." Bastion muttered.

"That should really be lower on your list of priorities, dude." Dimitri chided as we walked into the duel arena that was already packed with angry Obelisk Blue boys.

"It should be but apparently isn't," I said to my supporters as they sat down on my side of the arena. Alright which one of you guys is up first?" I asked gesturing to the crowd of students at the other end of the arena.

In response to my question the horde of students stood silently in place almost as though they hadn't heard me call out to them.

Almost.

Then came the sound of a door opening then moments later closing at the end of the room, blocked by the Obelisk boys. And seemingly both at a snail's pace and within record time, the majority of students had filed off the ground floor and into the stands. With the rest playing ring side entourage for my opponent, who just so happened to be…

"So is the tax write off ready to get Chazzed, or what?"

"Chazz, please don't tell me you were behind the angry mob?" I asked probatively.

"I'll have you know I had no part in any of that, though if you're really curious as to why you're not in a series of duels with an angry mob then you should talk to Alexis and Zane. Now are we dueling or what?"

"Alright let's duel!" I exclaimed, slotting my deck into my duel disk and drawing my starting hand of Magician's Rod, Polymerization, Magical Dimension, Pot of Greed, and Dark Magician Girl.

"And since I'm such a good sport I think I'll let you take the first move." Chazz sneered at me from across the field.

"Fine! I'll start by playing Pot of Greed!" I exclaimed angrily as I drew my two new cards.

"Aww, did someone get a bad hand?" Chazz taunted.

"You'll just have to wait and see." I responded coolly, looking down at my new hand of Magician's Rod, Polymerization, Magical Dimension, Dark Magician Girl, Dark Magician, and Emblem of Dragon Destroyer.

"Next I'll play Emblem of Dragon Destroyer to add Buster Blader to my Hand, then I'll use the spell card polymerization to fuse it with the Dark Magician in my hand to summon the Dark Paladin to the field." I proclaimed as the holograms of the two material monsters from my hand appeared in front of me along with a swirling vortex in front of them, then they simultaneously charged in, and out the same end of the portal jumped the spear toting spellcaster known as the Dark Paladin who leveled an inscrutable gaze at a visibly shaken Chazz.

"Finally, I'll summon Magician's Rod to activate it's effect which allows me to add one spell or trap card that mentions Dark Magician to my hand, and I choose Sage's Stone." I elaborated.

"And with that I'll end my turn." I said passing the baton to my opponent.

"Y-You haven't won yet, dweeb! I draw!" Chazz cried, clearly not expecting the battle to get away from him already, and frankly neither was I.

"Right so I play Pot of Greed so I can draw two cards," Chazz began, "next I summon Chthonian Soldier and activate the spell card Double Summon so I can summon another Chthonian Soldier." Chazz explained as he made this part of his move.

"Then I'll set a card and play the spell card Chthonian Alliance." Chazz proclaimed as one of his monsters got noticeably bigger.

"And since you didn't negate that I'll go ahead and attack your Magician's Rod." Chazz declared.

His powered-up monster charged mine and the next thing I knew I was down a monster and 1200 life points. And boy did that sting for hot minute.

"And with that, I'll end my turn." Chazz said.

"Well played Chazz, but I'm not gonna go down so easily." I called across the field as I drew my card."

This time my poker face cracked albeit only momentarily, hopefully my opponent didn't notice.

"I set two cards face down and end my turn." I responded.

"Alright my draw, Chazz began, drawing his card. "You know it's really sad that you couldn't put up a better fight despite having such rare cards."

"I take it you're pleased with your draw?"

"Well considering I'm about to end this farce with it I'd say I am." Chazz sneered back at me. "I summon my third Chthonian Soldier."

"Now let's end this shall we, first the strongest of my soldiers will attack your paladin and"

"Not so fast Chazz, I activate my trap card, Mirror Force!"

"What!?" Chazz cried out in surprise as his monsters were destroyed and for a moment, he just stood there staring at his duel disc.

"I-I activate my face down card Chthonian Blast." The Princeton heir called out clearly unsure of himself now.

"And I'll be negating that." I announced and my Paladin swung his spear in an arc, and a bolt of lightning struck the hologram of the card that Chazz had activated causing the giant card fizzle with static electricity before shattering like glass into many pieces and dissolving into nothingness.

Of course, I did end up pitching Dark Magician Girl to do that.

"I-I end my turn." Chazz announced, shaking me out of my brief reverie.

In response, I wordlessly drew from my deck and assessed both my hand and the field.

My current hand contained the two cards Sage's Stone and Magic Cylinder, and my field had the cards Dark Paladin and Magical Dimension as opposed to my opponent's blank field and hand of three cards.

So, while I may have 2800 Life Points and Chazz still has yet to take damage, the battle was definitely flowing back to my favor.

"Hey, if you're not gonna make a move then just do me a favor and surrender!"

"Fine! I'll set two cards and attack you directly." I declared, and my monster jumped up high in the air and launched his spear down at the youngest Princeton, after which the weapon dissolved in small motes of bright purple light only to reassemble itself back into its more tangible form in the grasp of my Paladin.

Needless to say, Chazz did not look at all pleased by the resulting loss of over half his Life Points.

"You'll pay for that, loser!" Chazz snarled wrathfully, practically ripping his next card off of his deck.

"We'll see." I shrugged in response.

"I activate Monster Reborn to revive one of my Chthonian Soldiers, but don't worry, he won't be staying long because I'll be summoning the monster Helpoemer. Chazz smirked.

"And I'll be following this up with the spell card Double Summon, which will allow me to summon my Infernal Incinerator." Chazz continued confidently.

"Now Infernal Incinerator destroy that Dark Paladin!" Chazz commanded.

"Yahtzee!" I shouted as I activated Magic Cylinder.

Save for the sound of holograms powering down, everything was eerily quiet, and it only took a brief glance at the now packed stands to see why.

The obelisks that actually cared about dueling had schooled their faces to be mostly unreadable, though you could still discern through the myriad of emotions an ultimate commonality of envy and surprise. Not to say that these weren't prevalent upon the faces of the Slifer Reds or my fellow Ra Yellows, just that there were other emotions present with the other houses.

For instance, many of the Slifers may have feelings of fear or admiration, while the Ra Yellows are almost certainly swelling with pride right now.