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YGO Duel Academy: The Jacques Years: Duel Academy: Jacques and Sadie Face Off!

by EnviousWorm

EnviousWorm With the Sweet Sixteen all but narrowed down to Eight, and Jacques's recent mis-adventure behind him, the Slifer Red stares down the brilliant, lovely and deadly Obelisk, Sadie. But her deck is different -- built to overwhelm and outpace Jacques's own deck!
"Now, Marauding Captain, attack his life points directly!" Sadie commanded her knight in shining armor as they stared down their foe's empty board.

She'd started with MST, which she'd drawn off her lucky Gamble, to eliminate one of the back-row cards that she'd deemed threatening. However, it proved to only be a Mage Power set as a bluff; no longer fearing retaliation, her beefed up warriors had neutralized Jacques's Sacred Crane, which stood useless in the face of her Captain's effect, and the equip spell she'd given him to make him stronger.

Though he braced for the attack, Jacques was staggered a bit by the force of Marauding Captain's swing as his LP dropped from a full 4,000 to just 2,100. The crowd cheered, something Sadie was quickly getting used to. Still, her frustrating, Slifer opponent didn't seem to be phased -- by her attack, by her card advantage, even by the ten thousand people that seemed to be screaming for him to finally lose.

"Quite a pow-er-ful at-tack!" Jacques declared, giving Sadie a thumbs-up, "I 'ave al-ways un-der-es-ti-mated this Cap-tain of yours! But now he is indeed strong, a-ha!"
"Just hush!" Sadie hissed. She liked her opponent sometimes, but he was always a pain to duel, "I'll set three more cards face-down and end my turn. You better hope your final draw is a good one, Jacques."
"Oh I 'ave a fee-ling that it will be!"
"What?" She asked, astounded by his confidence.
"This du-el can-not end now! It is too fun, I think!"

Drawing his card with the confidence of a King of Games, Jacques smiled.

TURN 4:
Sadie Hayes, 2800 LP:
Marauding Captain (1900 ATTK), Don Zaloog (1600 ATTK)
Banner of Courage, Sword of Deep Seated (equip. Captain), 3 s/t set, 4 cards in hand

Jacques Dumois, 2100LP:
1 s/t set, 1 card in hand

"Well, well, what do we 'ave 'ere, Sa-dee?" Jacques asked with a teasing tone.
"Don't tell me!"
"I play Rea-so-ning!" The Slifer slid the card into his duel disk, again with supreme confidence, and the crowd turned around, now cheering for him. Sadie cursed their fickle allegiances as she considered what to call for the Reasoning.
"Jinzo is six, Parshath five, Crane four, Faith one," The Obelisk girl tried to put all the pieces together in her head, "It can only be one level! Level Eight!"
"A cle-ver call from a bri-lliant due-list!" Jacques commented.
"Just get it over with!"

In just two turns, Jacques had already milled about half of his deck -- how much more could he be hiding in there?

Mirror Force
Ring of Destruction
Book of Moon
Ordeal of a Traveler
Reload
Fairy Box
Sacred Crane

"Damn!" Sadie said.
"A-ha! Per-fect!" Jacques said, "Crane will be sum-moned, and I get to draw one more card!"
"I know, just do it." The Slifer followed her command.
"It just gets bet-ter!" He commented with a smile.
"What now?"
"I will ban-ish a Crane and my Jinzo from my graveyard to spe-cial sum-mon the Chaos Sor-cer-er! And wit' 'is a-bili-i-ty, I will ba-nish your Cap-tain from the field!"

Jacques's Chaos Sorcerer was a formidable monster; a wizard dressed in intimidating black robes, with necrotic energy bursting at his fingertips. Sadie's Captain never stood a chance. Opting to let her equip spell join him in the graveyard, the Obelisk cursed; she'd managed to set up three, powerful battle traps, and Jacques danced his way around them with the luck of a lottery winner.

"Al-though my sor-cer-er can non' bat-tle, I think his job 'as been done for now!" Jacques pointed out, "My last move will be to reveal my face down card! And am I lu-cky you did non pick this one, a-ha!"

The card flipped itself, and Sadie's heart skipped a beat.

"I play The Force-ful Sen-try!" Jacques said, triumphant, backed by the cheers of a shocked crowd. He'd set a second bluff card -- something Sadie would have imagined he'd use earlier in the duel, if he'd had it. But then she remembered, "Now if you would kind-ly show me your hand!"

Sadie complied, with no choice:
Thestalos, the Firestorm Monarch
Raigeki
a second Magical Merchant
Yata Garasu

"As I so thought," Jacques scratched at his chin, smiling wider, like he was pleased with himself, "If you could please shuf-fle that Rai-ge-ki back into your deck, Sa-dee?"

Growling, the Obelisk complied again, still left with no choice; she'd picked up the powerful spell off of her first Magical Merchant, and along with the Thestalos she drew off Gamble, the duel looked like it was all but hers. Until Jacques came along and did what he always seemed to do -- barely scrape by, with a sheepish grin.

"I can do no fur-ther, so it is back to you!" He said. Sadie wasted no time drawing for her turn.

TURN 5:
Sadie Hayes, 2800 LP:
Don Zaloog (1600 ATTK)
Banner of Courage, 3 s/t set, 4 cards in hand

Jacques Dumois, 2100LP:
1 s/t set, 0 cards in hand

Her victory that'd been so assured was pushed back several turns, it seemed, but to Sadie, Jacques still had nowhere to run.

"I'll start off by tributing my Zaloog for Thestalos!" She declared, placing the powerful Monarch monster in attack position on her duel disk. But still, when she looked at her foe, he just seemed happy -- he was humming a little tune to himself! "Take this duel seriously, you jerk!"
"Oh but I am!" He protested.
"You're mocking me."
"This is non true!"
"Then act like it!"
"Act like what?"
"Like you're taking this seriously!"
"But I am!"
"So act like it!" She demanded again.
"Am I non?"
"When I win this duel -- I'm going to kill you."
"I am very good at hi-ding."
"I've noticed."

She paused for a moment to recompose herself, cracking her knuckles and her neck before taking a deep, deep breath.

"Thestalos! Attack his Chaos Sorcerer!" She declared. It'd only cost Jacques 300 LP, but he had a steep hill to climb if he wanted any chance in their duel.

Yet no matter what she seemed to do, Jacques didn't budge an inch; he kept his composure, even though she'd seen him falter a little bit earlier in the tournament, under the bright spotlight and cheering crowd. Had he just gotten used to it? Or was it because he was dueling Sadie that helped him keep calm and prepared for anything? She'd been planning on fighting the shakeable Jacques, after all...

"I'm going to end my turn early," She warned, "But things still don't look good for you."
"I 'ave faith." Jacques said with a simple shrug, drawing for turn.

TURN 6:
Sadie Hayes, 2800 LP:
Thestalos the Firestorm Monarch (2600 ATTK)
Banner of Courage, 3 s/t set, 4 cards in hand

Jacques Dumois, 1800LP:
0 s/t set, 0 cards in hand

"Ah, and my faith is re-warded!" Jacques held the card he drew high into the air, breathing a sigh of relief.
"There's no way!" Sadie replied, "Twice in a row!?"
"I will ba-nish ano-ther Crane, and my Sor-cer-er for my deck's best mon-ster!" Jacques said, slamming the card down on his duel disk with authority, "Black Lus-ter Sol-dier, En-voy of the Be-gin-ning!"

Wondering how it could be possible, Sadie looked at the Slifer's deck: he only had 12 cards left! In just three turns, the French (Canadian) duelist burned through almost 3/4 of his deck. And if she were right, he still had one Reasoning and two Monster Gates left, meaning 1/4 of his remaining cards were going to mill the deck even thinner. In truth, Jacques hadn't been able to set up any sort of consistent board during the duel -- milling his deck just to get a monster on the field that could handle whatever he'd been staring down in the moment. He'd been on his heels the whole time.

Now, though -- the Black Luster Soldier was no slouch; and again, he didn't need to declare an attack to handle her monster. But if Jacques stuck to banishing, Sadie would have the time to mount a proper response and get that pesky BLS out of her way to deal a finishing blow.

"Say good-bye to your pre-cious Mon-arch, because I will ba-nish him with my mon-sters e-ffect!" Jacques declared, sending one of Sadie's best monsters off the field in an instant, "And since that is all I can do, I will then fi-nish my turn!"

With a sigh of relief, Sadie drew her next card, trying to map her way out of this; but staring down Jacques's Black Luster Soldier, she didn't feel very good -- even with all her extra card advantages.

TURN 7:
Sadie Hayes, 2800 LP:
Banner of Courage, 3 s/t set, 5cards in hand

Jacques Dumois, 1800LP:
Black Luster Soldier - Envoy of the Beginning (3000 ATTK)
0 s/t set, 0 cards in hand

"This duel won't last much longer, Jacques." Sadie warned.
"So end it, then!" Jacques shot back.

And as the two determined duelists stared each other down, the crowd roared away for nobody in particular.
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