TURN 6:
Avery Dusk:
2600 LP
Jacques Dumois:
300 LP
With his opponent's Imperial Order standing tall against him, Jacques Dumois had no choice but to draw for what was likely to be his final turn. He held the card in his hand, staring at the Airknight Parshath he'd drawn into. Of course, he'd expected Avery to play Drop Off, sending Parshath to the graveyard and dashing all of Jacques's hopes. But not yet.
"I sac-ri-fice my Rea-per for Air-knight Par-shath," Jacques said, with no other options. And Avery laughed, which genuinely annoyed the hard-to-provoke Slifer, "What is it!?"
"And I'll activate another Bottomless Trap Hole!" He said, the card revealing itself. And then, Jacques's hopes were dashed, along with the Airknight Parshath as quickly as he'd been summoned. There was nothing he could do but lose, from that point.
"Then-"
"Then what?" Avery asked, cackling, mocking, "Are you going to give up?"
"No," Jacques replied, defiant, "I pass my turn."
"You're giving me the satisfaction?" Avery followed up, almost shocked.
"What-ev-er I do is satis-fac-tion to you, chea-ter," Jacques shot back, "But I do no' sur-ren-der."
"Fine, whatever," Avery shrugged, drawing for his turn, "Then I'll draw a card, pay for Imperial Order...and destroy you with my ultimate card."
TURN 7:
Avery Dusk:
1900 LP
Jacques Dumois:
300 LP
The conniving Ra laughed. And laughed some more.
"I sacrifice both of my monsters to summon the Blue Eyes White Dragon!" He screamed, with furious pride and greed alike, "You'll know what true power feels like!"
It was vicious, it was beautiful, it seemed deadly in spite of being a hologram. The Blue Eyes White Dragon was born in simulation, and its eyes were set on Jacques, with nothing to defend him from it.
"If you think this makes you a good duel-ist, you are a fool," Jacques said, "And you do no' even de-serve the coat of a Sli-fer. I may be a-fraid, but all I feel for you is pi-ty, a li-ttle dis-gust."
"Don't speak to me like a superior!" Avery yelled, "I'm about to destroy you! You'll never duel the same after I finish you!"
"Non," Jacques disagreed, shaking his head, "You are loo-king at the field and pi-cking what cards you have. That is no' du-el mon-sters. Is a sham, A-ver-y."
"So be it, I'll defeat you all the same!" Avery replied, Jacques's words not getting through to him, "Blue Eyes!-"
"Hold it!" A deep, rasping, menacing voice cut Avery off before he could declare his attack. The two boys turn toward the face of the cave to see its owner.
Stood in handcuffs were the trio of buffoonish goons who'd aligned themselves with Avery, a squadron of armed KC Security, and Seto Kaiba himself, the true owner of the Blue Eyes and owner of Duel Academy. Kaiba stopped for just a moment to observe the field and the situation, but e didn't have to say anymore as he strode toward the field; the holographic projectors shut off and the students' duel disks disengaged as he walked between them in long strides.
For a short moment, Seto Kaiba stared Jacques Dumois in the eyes; he didn't say anything, he didn't nod, or give off an impression of any kind, other than one of general disgust -- the man didn't even blink. Then, he turned to look at Avery, his back to Jacques.
"You've committed a crime," Kaiba put it simply, "You're coming with us."
"N-no, wait, M-Mr. Kaiba-" The frightened Ra dropped to his knees, instantly apologetic.
"You're resisting arrest?" Kaiba asked.
"This, this i-is a mis-misunderstanding, sir!" Avery pleaded, in tears.
"Are you telling me I'm stupid?" Kaiba said.
"What?" The confused and blubbering Avery asked.
"Are you telling me I do not understand what I'm seeing?" Kaiba explained, "We traced an unsanctioned tap in our stadium cpu and traced it back here. Hmph. You might have even won that duel before we got to you, if I hadn't seen you play...my monster."
"M-mr K-Kaiba p-please, I don't w-want to g-go-"
"Fine," Kaiba said, tired of the begging, "Then duel me for it."
There was a long pause. Jacques wasn't sure what to do. He didn't want to see Avery punished for making a mistake, but Kaiba had the right. But his gut was answered for him when Kaiba turned back around.
"I'm going to stand where you're standing," He said, bluntly, "So if I were you, I'd start running. It's not every day I tell Mokuba to give a duelist fifteen extra minutes."
"Fif-teen?" Even as Jacques asked, he was beginning to move.
"That was three minutes ago," Kaiba warned, "So go."
And Jacques ran as fast as he could, as hard as he could. For once, Jacques was thankful for the massive stadium Kaiba built; there was no way he would get lost heading for it. On his way, he wondered what he would say to Sadie; and he planned for their duel, wondering if she would prepare her deck specifically against his. It wouldn't be far off from what he knew of her personality. Jacques would play the same deck he always played, and allow fate to take hold of it all.
It took the Slifer about twelve minutes exactly to reach the stadium and its incredible stage, the restless crowd who'd been waiting too long for the final duel of a very long day. Even as the timer counted down the final seconds, and the out-of-breath French (Canadian) duelists stumbled up, he was met with an array of boos and jeers. People didn't like being made to wait.
Neither did Sadie, who stood opposite Jacques with her arms crossed, tapping one finger against her arm in annoyance.
"I'm sor-ry?" Jacques said, uncertain, catching his breath.
"Don't bother," Sadie said, sounding hurt, "You're here. I'm going to crush you. Let's get this over with."
"You are go-ing first?" Jacques asked.
"Duh." Sadie sneered.
The duelists, one Slifer, one Obelisk, drew five cards and the crowd settled down, now genuinely excited to watch one more duel. Sadie drew for her turn, and the show was under way.
TURN 1:
Sadie Hayes, 4000 LP
Jacques Dumois, 4000LP
"I'll start off with a simple one," Sadie said, confident, "I set five cards; one monster face-down, and four behind it. And I'll pass to you."
"I must ad-mit, that is quite sca-ry." Jacques chuckled, drawing for turn.
TURN 2:
Sadie Hayes, 4000 LP
1 monster face down, 4 s/t set: 1 card in hand
Jacques Dumois, 4000LP
"I acti-vate Grace-ful Char-i-ty," Jacques declared, drawing three cards, "And I will dis-card My Body As a Shield and a Book of Moon."
"And I use my trap card Gamble!" Sadie replied, "I have to call a coin flip right: if I do, I draw until I have five cards in hand. If I'm wrong, we skip my next turn entirely."
"This is fun," Jacques said, surprised, "I did not know you played this card!"
"I thought you'd like it," Sadie acknowledged, "You keep talking about fate and what's meant to be, I decided to lean into it a little bit."
"So what will you call?" Jacques asked.
"Heads." Sadie said with massive confidence.
A holographic coin appeared, flipped high enough into the sky to meet the sun for a moment before coming back down to the stage heads-up. The crowd cheered and Sadie celebrated, drawing four cards to fill her hand.
"Will you allow me to play along?" Jacques asked with a teasing tone.
"What do you mean?" Sadie asked.
"I'll activate Reasoning!" He said, revealing the card to her with a smug grin.
"Six." Sadie answered with confidence, knowing his Jinzo punished her deck's strategy quite thoroughly.
And so the deck-milling began:
Raigeki Break
Giant Trunade
My Body as a Shield
Solemn Judgement
Card Destruction
Pot of Greed
Lightning Vortex
Jinzo
Again, the crowd cheered with Sadie as she celebrated her correct choice; Jacques's shoulders slumped and he hung his head...just for a second. Then he chuckled and looked a shocked Sadie in the eye.
"That is quite a shame but, I play Mon-ster Re-born!" Jacques declared, revealing why he wasn't so worried after all, "And I play Jin-zo to my side of play!"
"Not bad, Jacques," Sadie admitted, "but I'll chain Book of Moon! Flipping your Jinzo face down!"
Thwarted quickly, Jacques watched as one of his ace monsters was forcibly set down, the trap-negating android helpless against Sadie's powerful spell. And still, even though he'd baited out two of her face down cards -- she had a full hand waiting to punish him next turn.
But the Slifer wasn't done in just yet. He still had four cards of his own, and he figured he could make something work.
"Fine then!" He said, moving on with hope, "I'll nor-mal sum-mon Ma-gi-cian of Faith!"
"Okay." Sadie said, unimpressed.
"And I will play Mon-ster gate!" Jacques set the card to the duel disk with some force, and the crowd got ready for another round.
They didn't have to wait long, either -- ever the savior, Airknight Parshath was the first card off the top of his deck, and he triumphantly replaced the subservient Magician of Faith. Everyone paused for a moment, wondering if Sadie had a way to get rid of the monster right away, but she remained silent.
"I will move to bat-tle, and strike your face down!" Jacques followed up, and again, Sadie had no response.
Parshath moved in on her face down monster and slashed, slicing right through the hidden Magical Merchant.
"Ah! Mer-chant!" Jacques said. It was a card he knew well, one he sometimes put in his own deck, "My deck is not the on-ly mil-ler to-day!"
"Nope!" Sadie said, fighting through the force of his attack, as her LP dropped from 4,000 to 2800, "And that's not the only thing, Jacques. Since you destroyed my monster and sent him to the graveyard, I activate -- Michizure! And I'll destroy your Parshath!"
"A love-ly, bri-lliant play!" Jacques pointed out.
"Shut up." Sadie snapped back.
"And do no' for-get, I draw a card off Parshath." He said, doing so even as his monster was sent to an early grave.
"Fine." Sadie growled, her Merchant preparing to mill off of her deck.
Sangan
Magician of Faith
Old Vindictive Magician
Jacques realized how similar their decks were; he couldn't have said the same thing earlier that year. As he thought so, Sadie got exactly what she needed: Raigeki. A huge swing card she picked up on his turn, giving her six, still with two set on the field.
"All I can do now is set two back row of my own and pass to you, Sa-dee." Jacques said in a deferential tone.
"Thank you." Sadie said, grinning, drawing.
TURN 3:
Sadie Hayes, 2800 LP:
2 s/t set, 7 cards in hand
Jacques Dumois, 4000LP:
1 monster, 2 s/t set, 0 cards in hand
"I'll normal summon Marauding Captain," Sadie started her turn strong, "using his effect to special summon Don Zaloog alongside him. Then I flip summon the spell card Banner of Courage, which gives my monsters 200 ATTK during damage calculation. After that, I'll equip Sword of Deep Seated to Marauding Captain, giving him 500 ATTK and DEF."
"This is quite the turn!" Jacques commented.
"It could be worse for you," Sadie sighed, "You're lucky."
"I do not feel so luc-ky!" Jaques laughed.
"I'll move to battle, and we'll see!" Sadie said, "You might not have too much longer to last!
Staring down the deadly board that Sadie was building, and the cards she still held in hand, Jacques started to wonder if she were right about that.
Avery Dusk:
2600 LP
Jacques Dumois:
300 LP
With his opponent's Imperial Order standing tall against him, Jacques Dumois had no choice but to draw for what was likely to be his final turn. He held the card in his hand, staring at the Airknight Parshath he'd drawn into. Of course, he'd expected Avery to play Drop Off, sending Parshath to the graveyard and dashing all of Jacques's hopes. But not yet.
"I sac-ri-fice my Rea-per for Air-knight Par-shath," Jacques said, with no other options. And Avery laughed, which genuinely annoyed the hard-to-provoke Slifer, "What is it!?"
"And I'll activate another Bottomless Trap Hole!" He said, the card revealing itself. And then, Jacques's hopes were dashed, along with the Airknight Parshath as quickly as he'd been summoned. There was nothing he could do but lose, from that point.
"Then-"
"Then what?" Avery asked, cackling, mocking, "Are you going to give up?"
"No," Jacques replied, defiant, "I pass my turn."
"You're giving me the satisfaction?" Avery followed up, almost shocked.
"What-ev-er I do is satis-fac-tion to you, chea-ter," Jacques shot back, "But I do no' sur-ren-der."
"Fine, whatever," Avery shrugged, drawing for his turn, "Then I'll draw a card, pay for Imperial Order...and destroy you with my ultimate card."
TURN 7:
Avery Dusk:
1900 LP
Jacques Dumois:
300 LP
The conniving Ra laughed. And laughed some more.
"I sacrifice both of my monsters to summon the Blue Eyes White Dragon!" He screamed, with furious pride and greed alike, "You'll know what true power feels like!"
It was vicious, it was beautiful, it seemed deadly in spite of being a hologram. The Blue Eyes White Dragon was born in simulation, and its eyes were set on Jacques, with nothing to defend him from it.
"If you think this makes you a good duel-ist, you are a fool," Jacques said, "And you do no' even de-serve the coat of a Sli-fer. I may be a-fraid, but all I feel for you is pi-ty, a li-ttle dis-gust."
"Don't speak to me like a superior!" Avery yelled, "I'm about to destroy you! You'll never duel the same after I finish you!"
"Non," Jacques disagreed, shaking his head, "You are loo-king at the field and pi-cking what cards you have. That is no' du-el mon-sters. Is a sham, A-ver-y."
"So be it, I'll defeat you all the same!" Avery replied, Jacques's words not getting through to him, "Blue Eyes!-"
"Hold it!" A deep, rasping, menacing voice cut Avery off before he could declare his attack. The two boys turn toward the face of the cave to see its owner.
Stood in handcuffs were the trio of buffoonish goons who'd aligned themselves with Avery, a squadron of armed KC Security, and Seto Kaiba himself, the true owner of the Blue Eyes and owner of Duel Academy. Kaiba stopped for just a moment to observe the field and the situation, but e didn't have to say anymore as he strode toward the field; the holographic projectors shut off and the students' duel disks disengaged as he walked between them in long strides.
For a short moment, Seto Kaiba stared Jacques Dumois in the eyes; he didn't say anything, he didn't nod, or give off an impression of any kind, other than one of general disgust -- the man didn't even blink. Then, he turned to look at Avery, his back to Jacques.
"You've committed a crime," Kaiba put it simply, "You're coming with us."
"N-no, wait, M-Mr. Kaiba-" The frightened Ra dropped to his knees, instantly apologetic.
"You're resisting arrest?" Kaiba asked.
"This, this i-is a mis-misunderstanding, sir!" Avery pleaded, in tears.
"Are you telling me I'm stupid?" Kaiba said.
"What?" The confused and blubbering Avery asked.
"Are you telling me I do not understand what I'm seeing?" Kaiba explained, "We traced an unsanctioned tap in our stadium cpu and traced it back here. Hmph. You might have even won that duel before we got to you, if I hadn't seen you play...my monster."
"M-mr K-Kaiba p-please, I don't w-want to g-go-"
"Fine," Kaiba said, tired of the begging, "Then duel me for it."
There was a long pause. Jacques wasn't sure what to do. He didn't want to see Avery punished for making a mistake, but Kaiba had the right. But his gut was answered for him when Kaiba turned back around.
"I'm going to stand where you're standing," He said, bluntly, "So if I were you, I'd start running. It's not every day I tell Mokuba to give a duelist fifteen extra minutes."
"Fif-teen?" Even as Jacques asked, he was beginning to move.
"That was three minutes ago," Kaiba warned, "So go."
And Jacques ran as fast as he could, as hard as he could. For once, Jacques was thankful for the massive stadium Kaiba built; there was no way he would get lost heading for it. On his way, he wondered what he would say to Sadie; and he planned for their duel, wondering if she would prepare her deck specifically against his. It wouldn't be far off from what he knew of her personality. Jacques would play the same deck he always played, and allow fate to take hold of it all.
It took the Slifer about twelve minutes exactly to reach the stadium and its incredible stage, the restless crowd who'd been waiting too long for the final duel of a very long day. Even as the timer counted down the final seconds, and the out-of-breath French (Canadian) duelists stumbled up, he was met with an array of boos and jeers. People didn't like being made to wait.
Neither did Sadie, who stood opposite Jacques with her arms crossed, tapping one finger against her arm in annoyance.
"I'm sor-ry?" Jacques said, uncertain, catching his breath.
"Don't bother," Sadie said, sounding hurt, "You're here. I'm going to crush you. Let's get this over with."
"You are go-ing first?" Jacques asked.
"Duh." Sadie sneered.
The duelists, one Slifer, one Obelisk, drew five cards and the crowd settled down, now genuinely excited to watch one more duel. Sadie drew for her turn, and the show was under way.
TURN 1:
Sadie Hayes, 4000 LP
Jacques Dumois, 4000LP
"I'll start off with a simple one," Sadie said, confident, "I set five cards; one monster face-down, and four behind it. And I'll pass to you."
"I must ad-mit, that is quite sca-ry." Jacques chuckled, drawing for turn.
TURN 2:
Sadie Hayes, 4000 LP
1 monster face down, 4 s/t set: 1 card in hand
Jacques Dumois, 4000LP
"I acti-vate Grace-ful Char-i-ty," Jacques declared, drawing three cards, "And I will dis-card My Body As a Shield and a Book of Moon."
"And I use my trap card Gamble!" Sadie replied, "I have to call a coin flip right: if I do, I draw until I have five cards in hand. If I'm wrong, we skip my next turn entirely."
"This is fun," Jacques said, surprised, "I did not know you played this card!"
"I thought you'd like it," Sadie acknowledged, "You keep talking about fate and what's meant to be, I decided to lean into it a little bit."
"So what will you call?" Jacques asked.
"Heads." Sadie said with massive confidence.
A holographic coin appeared, flipped high enough into the sky to meet the sun for a moment before coming back down to the stage heads-up. The crowd cheered and Sadie celebrated, drawing four cards to fill her hand.
"Will you allow me to play along?" Jacques asked with a teasing tone.
"What do you mean?" Sadie asked.
"I'll activate Reasoning!" He said, revealing the card to her with a smug grin.
"Six." Sadie answered with confidence, knowing his Jinzo punished her deck's strategy quite thoroughly.
And so the deck-milling began:
Raigeki Break
Giant Trunade
My Body as a Shield
Solemn Judgement
Card Destruction
Pot of Greed
Lightning Vortex
Jinzo
Again, the crowd cheered with Sadie as she celebrated her correct choice; Jacques's shoulders slumped and he hung his head...just for a second. Then he chuckled and looked a shocked Sadie in the eye.
"That is quite a shame but, I play Mon-ster Re-born!" Jacques declared, revealing why he wasn't so worried after all, "And I play Jin-zo to my side of play!"
"Not bad, Jacques," Sadie admitted, "but I'll chain Book of Moon! Flipping your Jinzo face down!"
Thwarted quickly, Jacques watched as one of his ace monsters was forcibly set down, the trap-negating android helpless against Sadie's powerful spell. And still, even though he'd baited out two of her face down cards -- she had a full hand waiting to punish him next turn.
But the Slifer wasn't done in just yet. He still had four cards of his own, and he figured he could make something work.
"Fine then!" He said, moving on with hope, "I'll nor-mal sum-mon Ma-gi-cian of Faith!"
"Okay." Sadie said, unimpressed.
"And I will play Mon-ster gate!" Jacques set the card to the duel disk with some force, and the crowd got ready for another round.
They didn't have to wait long, either -- ever the savior, Airknight Parshath was the first card off the top of his deck, and he triumphantly replaced the subservient Magician of Faith. Everyone paused for a moment, wondering if Sadie had a way to get rid of the monster right away, but she remained silent.
"I will move to bat-tle, and strike your face down!" Jacques followed up, and again, Sadie had no response.
Parshath moved in on her face down monster and slashed, slicing right through the hidden Magical Merchant.
"Ah! Mer-chant!" Jacques said. It was a card he knew well, one he sometimes put in his own deck, "My deck is not the on-ly mil-ler to-day!"
"Nope!" Sadie said, fighting through the force of his attack, as her LP dropped from 4,000 to 2800, "And that's not the only thing, Jacques. Since you destroyed my monster and sent him to the graveyard, I activate -- Michizure! And I'll destroy your Parshath!"
"A love-ly, bri-lliant play!" Jacques pointed out.
"Shut up." Sadie snapped back.
"And do no' for-get, I draw a card off Parshath." He said, doing so even as his monster was sent to an early grave.
"Fine." Sadie growled, her Merchant preparing to mill off of her deck.
Sangan
Magician of Faith
Old Vindictive Magician
Jacques realized how similar their decks were; he couldn't have said the same thing earlier that year. As he thought so, Sadie got exactly what she needed: Raigeki. A huge swing card she picked up on his turn, giving her six, still with two set on the field.
"All I can do now is set two back row of my own and pass to you, Sa-dee." Jacques said in a deferential tone.
"Thank you." Sadie said, grinning, drawing.
TURN 3:
Sadie Hayes, 2800 LP:
2 s/t set, 7 cards in hand
Jacques Dumois, 4000LP:
1 monster, 2 s/t set, 0 cards in hand
"I'll normal summon Marauding Captain," Sadie started her turn strong, "using his effect to special summon Don Zaloog alongside him. Then I flip summon the spell card Banner of Courage, which gives my monsters 200 ATTK during damage calculation. After that, I'll equip Sword of Deep Seated to Marauding Captain, giving him 500 ATTK and DEF."
"This is quite the turn!" Jacques commented.
"It could be worse for you," Sadie sighed, "You're lucky."
"I do not feel so luc-ky!" Jaques laughed.
"I'll move to battle, and we'll see!" Sadie said, "You might not have too much longer to last!
Staring down the deadly board that Sadie was building, and the cards she still held in hand, Jacques started to wonder if she were right about that.