51 Spirit Stalker 2

Man Bastion that Water Dragon of yours is sweet!" Jaden grinned as the group left the academy behind.

"Well it is the headliner of this deck," Bastion chuckled from beside him, preening slightly, "Alongside its fiery counterpart that is."

"There's a fire one to?" Syrus stuck his head between the two boys to ask curiously.

"Oh yes," The ace of Ra Yellow nodded proudly, "You did not think countering Pyro type monsters was the only thing this deck was good for did you? Indeed not. By using two Oxygeddon alongside one of my Combusteggon, I can special summon the ever powerful Flame Dragon."

"Liscious," Chumley nodded in awe, "What's it do?"

Bastion laughed lightly, "Why, you'll just have to wait and see until I play it my dear Chumley," he replied, "I can't go giving out the abilities of my monsters willy nilly when two of the three people I am aiming to defeat to become the best duelist in the first year class are right here in this very group."

Alexis who was at the back of the group alongside Zane perked up, "Since Yarden isn't here, do you mean me?" the blonde wondered. After all, Bastion had already declined his promotion to Obelisk Blue after defeating Chazz, in favor of not ranking up until he had become the best first year and claimed Jaden was one he would specifically have to overcome to make that a reality.

"Why yes I do," Bastion spread his arms wide and turned to beam at the girl, "The duel you and Yarden had against the Paradox Brothers was humbling. The way you locked them off initially with your Marauding Captains, and yet at the same time summon so many powerful monsters. Why, if it weren't for their legendary beast the Gate Guardian and its support, you quite possibly would have ended that duel then and there."

"That was the plan," Alexis sighed, "I had my Cyber Gymnast in my hand and it has an effect like Dark Magician Girl The Dragon Knight's. I'd planned on using them both to get rid of the Gate Guardian and Wall Shadow and then taking down all their life points in that single turn by bringing back White Night Dragon with Call Of The Haunted, I really wasn't expecting that spell card of theirs to have an absurd graveyard effect."

"And considering they would have been brought down to two monsters again and your Cyber Blader would have had its attack points doubled for an attack then and there on one of those monsters, I have to say, it was quite the set up," Zane mused coolly, "I would have been hard pressed to defend against an assault like that."

"Indeed, you should be proud," Bastion added, "If it weren't for those rare and legendary cards of theirs, you would have soundly crushed those pro's and former champions easily."

"I still didn't though," Alexis pointed out, "I've still got a long way to go. And I never got a chance to make up for that turn around they made. Since they pissed off Yarden by insulting his monster and he went full overkill on them." she actually felt sorry for them after the absurdity Yarden pulled.

Syrus shivered, "Yeah, count me out from ever having to duel Yarden, especially when he gets pissed off like that," the small blue haired boy said, "I mean how crazy was that? He literally summoned a crazy powerful monster with five thousand attack points, one of the strongest monsters in pure attack points in the game and then he just sacrificed it to make one of his weaker monsters stronger."

"Indeed, I suspect making a deck to counter Yarden will take quite some time," Bastion pursed his lips, "And even if I do, something as simple as a dragon counter deck will clearly not be enough, not when he changes his play style so frequently on the fly."

"Yeah that's gonna be even harder now," Alexis shook her head and pointed out with a chagrined smile, "He put together another deck just the other night with the cards he got from that guy that attacked me. I dunno what kinda deck it is, but he's got that dragon deck of his, that one he used originally with the mish mash of cards that looks random but works incredibly well, this new one and one I think that's centered around the Dark Magician Girl, if you make a counter to any one of them and try and use it and he decides to use another one, you're gonna be in big trouble."

"He'll punish you hard if you do," Zane chuckled lightly, "He's a big fan of overkill, so if you have no way of countering his first few turns, he'll just blow you away."

"Speaking of Yarden, where is he actually?" Chumley wondered, "He's usually hanging out with you Alexis, or Jaden."

Alexis snorted, "It's the weekend Chumley, he's in his bed," the voluptuous blonde responded, "I gave up trying to get him up early in the weekend the first weekend he moved in to the Obelisk boys dorm, you'd need a bomb to wake him up."

"And he doesn't take kindly to it either," Zane's chuckles grew, "Some of the guys at my dorm woke him up demanding duels last weekend, the mouthful of abuse he slung at them had one of them running away in tears, or so I hear."

"My word, how barbaric." Bastion wrinkled his nose, "I thought he was just playing the rudeness up for the cameras the other day against the Paradox Brothers."

"Ah he's not that bad," Jaden laughed, "If you're not an asshole to him, Yarden's chill and and always willing to lend a hand, of the dueling field at least. He doesn't show any mercy in a duel and trash talks more than even Chazz."

"Hmm, I see," Bastion hummed, "I will need to be on guard for his type of vitriol when I dethrone him as the strongest first year and not allow it to trip me up."

"Good luck with that." Zane told him dryly.