40 Tagging Up 14

Minutes later, they were all gathered in the main hall of the Obelisk Blue dorm. Yarden standing on one side of the room, and a total of thirty seven others gathered together facing him.

Zane stood behind him, arms crossed and an interested look in his eyes. He was really looking forward to seeing how Yarden would approach this.

"The hell are you doing Odhar?" Chazz Princeton huffed, pushing his way through the throng of onlookers, "You're causing a hell of a racket."

"Just shutting these idiots up Princeton." Yarden replied without missing a beat. Even if he was surprised Chazz was addressing him at all. He hadn't even exchanged two words with the boy.

"Well be quick about it, losing or winning, I don't care," Chazz rolled his eyes, "I'm trying to think and I can't relax with all this noise."

"I'm surprised you didn't join up with them," Yarden raised an eyebrow at him, "I figured you'd be all for putting a 'Slifer Slacker' in his place."

"Pfft, you're an Obelisk now idiot, even if you have some weird fetish for that red jacket," Chazz eyed his jacket with disdain, "And are you kidding? Me, The Chazz. teaming up with all these extras just to beat down one guy I can beat alone? As if. I've got bigger fish to fry than you."

"As in Jaden?" Yarden smirked at him.

"Yes, your little kuriboh-headed slacker buddy," Chazz sneered, "That Slifer sludge is gonna get it soon enough now that I've combined the cards I got from Crowler and my old cards."

Somehow, Yarden doubted it. Chazz never got the better of Jaden even in canon. And now, it was even more unlikely. After all, when he was hanging out with Jaden, he might have given him a few little suggestions. To look into the other half of the Elemental Hero's, the more element based side of things like Stratos, Heat, Woodsman and the like.

The black haired youth shook his head, "Either way Odhar, be quick about this, and then make sure you don't drag Alexis down, if you make her lose and get kicked out, I'll be coming after you when I'm done with your slacker pal!" he spat, before swaggering away.

"What a pleasant person." Yarden snorted.

"Quite." Zane's lips twitched.

"Alright Odhar, I'll be nice and let you have the first turn!" Harrington sneered over at him a moment later, his duel disk sliding out along his arm as it activated, "It'll be the only turn you get."

Yarden rolled his eyes, "It'll be the only one I need." he replied. Seriously, he had a few plays in mind for taking out multiple opponents at once. And only people like Zane would be capable of stopping him at all.

Only cards like Kirin, which could be tributed from the field or discarded from the hand here to negate effect damage, unlike back home, would be able to these tactics.

And he doubted any of these idiots would be running cards like those. Only actually good and smart duelists would run cards like that.

Yarden Odhar: 4000 LP

Harrington Rosewood: 4000 LP

Thirty Seven Obelisk Blue's: 4000LP (Each)

As one, they all began drawing cards. Everyone but Yarden drawing five, him taking six as the slot on his gauntlet duel disk opened up, with it being his first turn.

And, as always, his deck never let him down. And he got what he wanted. Heart Of The Cards and the Power of Friendship, were too powerful for these scrubs.

"Right, now pay attention morons, because this will be quick," He smirked at them as he looked over his cards, "First, I activate the Future Fusion spell card, which allows me to bounce cards from my deck to the graveyard for for a fusion summon. I'm sending Serpent Night Dragon, Hyozanryu, Seiyaru, Luster Dragon 2 and Luster Dragon 1 to the graveyard, to fusion summon Five Headed Dragon!"

As soon as he milled the five cards into his graveyard, the spell took effect and a swirling vortex of blue seeped into existence above him, his five dragon monsters appearing in the air and being sucked inside. A massive shadow shot out the second they disappeared and a world shaking chorus of roars announced the arrival of the strongest monster in his deck.

Five Headed Dragon - Dragon/Dark/Level 12/Fusion/Effect: 5000/5000

"Holy crap!"

"It's only the first turn and he's got a monster like that on the field already, how crazy!"

There was a mass of panic from his opponents at the arrival of the titanic yellow scaled, five headed dragon.

"Not bad." Zane nodded.

Harrington scoffed uncaringly, "A strong start, I'll give you that, but it won't save you," he said, "Five thousand attacks points or not, it's just your first turn, you can't even attack."

"Don't need to," Yarden shrugged back, and placed two cards in his spell and trap zones, "I'll be playing two face downs and ending my turn."

"Then it's my turn now, and I'm gonna show you a real play," Harrington smirked, "Dra-"

"I activate my trap card," Yarden interrupted him and one of the cards face down on the field in front of him swung up, "Ring of Destruction. By equipping this to a monster on the field. that monster is destroyed and all players take damage equal to its attack points."

A giant black ring mounted with giant red glowing grenades flashed into existence and wrapped around the neck of the middle head on Five Headed Dragon.

"So that's your play." Zane chuckled, "Well, it gets the job done I suppose."

"A-are you serious?!" Harrington sputtered, even as his teammates all gave shouts of shock and anger "What the hell is that gonna accomplish! You're just gonna force a draw, nobody will win!"

"You'd be right, if it weren't for my other trap," Yarden smirked, and with a click of his fingers, it snapped up as well to show the image of a young man in a yellow jacket, a prismatic rainbow barrier surrounding him, "This is Rainbow Life, and by discarding one card my hand, I can make it that, for this turn any damage I would take is instead added to my life points instead."

"No..." Harrington staggered back in horror, "..Then that means..."

"It means I win bitch," Yarden finished for him and then clicked his fingers one more time, "Boom baby!"

The ring around Five Headed Dragon glowed white, and the massive dragon roared as it exploded. Fiery death spread across the hall like a tsunami and swept over them all.

Or would have, if a prismatic rainbow colored barrier didn't spring into life around him a split moment later and absorb the explosion.

Yarden Odhar: 9000 LP

Harrington Rosewood: 0 LP

Thirty Seven Obelisk Blue's: 0 LP (Each)

Yarden didn't even bother waiting for the reactions of his opponents. As soon as he saw their life points hit zero, he turned to Zane, "So, how was that?" he asked.

"Impressive," Zane chuckled lightly, before inclining his head down one of the large sprawling hallways of the dorm, "Come, let's go find some place nice and quiet and we can talk about what you actually came to see me about."

"I'm all for it." Yarden followed behind him. But before he left the hall behind, he made sure to smirk smugly at Harrington and stick the finger up at him.

He'd love to see those idiots talk shit again. Thirty eight on one, and they didn't even get a single turn.

Zane led Yarden through the halls, out into one of the open terraces that overlooked the finely maintained lawn of the Obelisk Blue Dormitory. It hung out over the large, glistening pond just outside the dorm, filled with koi fish.

"So," Zane began as he closed the door behind them, "Now that you're done asserting your dominance over all the annoyances, what did you need me for?"

Yarden, who had been looking at his PDA to see how much he'd earned from that, stashed it away, "I take it you've heard about what happened last night?" he asked.

Just under twenty thousand DP was how much he'd earned. Really nice. Though only a fifth of what he'd gotten for beating Zane.

"I have," Zane nodded, crossing his arms as a frown appeared on his face, "Alexis sent me a message this morning and filled me in on what happened. Good work taking down that trash and scaring him off."

"I wasn't about to let that guy off lightly after what he tried with her," Yarden growled, before shaking his head, "Anyway, you've no doubt heard about us having to duel the Paradox brothers, right?"

"Yes, quite the opponents you'll have to face," Zane nodded, "Is that what brings you here? You looking to practice against me?"

"Nah, I'm good on that front," Yarden waved him off, "I'm not worried at all. Between me and Alexis, we can handle those two no problem."

"I'll hold you to that," the older teen inclined his head, "Still, that doesn't explain what you wanted me for."

"Mate, I just want you to set me up with whoever is handling the gambling around here, there's gotta be somebody doing it," Yarden snorted, "You're the big man on campus, if anyone would know where to look, it'd be you."

"Ah, I see," a smirk spread across Zane's face, "You're that confident, huh? You're looking to cash in by betting on yourself with DP."

"That's right," the younger teen chuckled, "It's no secret I'm an orphan without much money to my name right? This is a good chance for me to get some money to my name. The odds on a pair of first years beating down two champion pro's? They've gotta be decently low, right?"

The Paradox brothers were due to arrive in two days apparently. And the rumor of them had gotten out and about already. Considering the only ones that had known about it last were Yarden himself, and Alexis alongside the teachers, that meant one of them let it slip.

...Or possibly Alexis telling Jasmine and Mindy and they gossiped about it.

"A sound plan," Zane mused, "Alright, I don't see why not. I'll put you in touch with the ones who run the gambling scene here."

"Cheers mate," Yarden grinned at him, "And looks like my hunch was right, you do have your hands in it."

"Well I wouldn't say that," Zane shook his head, "My family is middle-class and cards are expensive you know? It seemed a good idea at the time to get my hands on more funding."

That made sense. Zane was the type of guy who would just hand his little brother a Power Bond card, or even just gave Yarden himself a Luster Dragon 2 without batting an eye.

Power Bond was over twenty thousand DP in the card shop, and Luster Dragon 2 was a good five thousand if not more.

"Speaking of your family, I met your little brother when I was in the Slifer dorm." Yarden casually struck up.

This was as good a time as any to nip that problem in the bud.

"Did you now?" Zane merely raised an eyebrow.

"Yeah, he's a decent duelist," Yarden replied, "To bad about that confidence issue he has, or he'd be way better."

"True, my little brother is too soft," Zane sighed, "He doesn't belong here."

"He's better than most of the blue wearing trash in this dorm." Yarden felt the need to point out. Syrus did know what he was doing, or would, if he didn't keep second guessing himself. And his deck was pretty good too. He wasn't a fan of roids, they just weren't to his taste, but he wouldn't deny how effective they could be.

"They don't belong here either, just fools coasting by on their parents money," Zane snorted, "Still, is there a point to this."

"Not really," Yarden shrugged, "Just figured I'd let you know. The kid's drowning in your shadow."

Zane scoffed, "And if a little thing like that is holding him down, he'll never make it to the top as a duelist," the master of the cyber style replied, then gestured at Yarden himself, "Take yourself for example. You're an orphan, no parents to rely on and even had your deck stolen. Yet, not even a month has passed and you've risen to Obelisk Blue and even took the throne as the greatest duelist at this academy, if he can't even muster half of your fortitude, how will he ever be able to measure up to you? Or anyone really. Syrus needs to either find his courage or give up."

Well, Yarden couldn't say he didn't see where Zane was coming from. If he had to hold his hand all the way, what would Syrus really accomplish on his own two feet?

But, Zane was looking at it wrong. Or rather, he was missing one vital piece of information.

"Tough love, I get it," he nodded, "But, it's not really nay of that, that's the problem with him and the cause of him having such low self esteem."

"Oh?" Zane hummed, "Do enlighten me then." he said, humoring him.

"Power Bond." Yarden replied simply.

"The card I gave him?" the older teen raised an eyebrow.

"Exactly," Yarden nodded, "Syrus always ends up drawing it somehow in his duels, or at least the ones I've seen him take part in. And even when he's winning, or when it would let him win easily, he refuses to play it and ends up losing because of it."

Zane blinked, before closing his eyes and sighing, "So that's it." he mused quietly.

"The difference between playing a card and knowing how to use it," Yarden quoted and smirked at him, "You know, not everyone will be able to understand cryptic stuff like that. And telling him something like that, has made him completely over think it."

"I see," Zane nodded, opening his eyes, "Even then though, it's something he will have to understand on his own if he wants to become a great duelist." he shook his head.

"I agree," Yarden replied, if Syrus couldn't learn something so fucking simple, he wouldn't get anywhere, "But here's the thing. To do that, he has to actually use the card. Even if he loses with it, he'll learn something from it. Right now, he won't get anywhere, because what you told him has convinced him that he isn't good enough to use the card."

He gave a shrug as he continued, "Look mate, I'm not telling you how to be a big brother or anything like that," Yarden pointed out, "But I'm pretty sure your brother has taken the completely wrong meaning from what you meant and it;s completely stunted his growth as both a person and a duelist."

Surprisingly, Zane's shoulders slumped a bit and he sighed, reaching up to run a hand trough his hair, "I'll need to think on this a bit," he revealed, "..How could I miss that?"

"Because it's simple advice," Yarden snorted, "The thing you didn't take into account is his hero worship for you. His amazing big brother that can do anything and beat anyone."

"Ugh," Zane groaned lightly, "I've been such a fool."

"You said it, not me." Yarden smirked at him.

"I'm glad my idiocy has been enjoyable for you," Zane rolled his eyes, "I suppose I should pay a visit to Syrus sometime soon then."

"You can come with me then once we're allowed outta here," Yarden offered, "I wanna go see Jaden anyway." he didn't get to spend as much time with him ever since he got promoted to Obelisk Blue.

"Sounds like a plan," he got a smile in response from the older boy, "While we're out, we can see about introducing you to the bookies."

Good shit.

Yarden was really hoping for some odds like ten to one at least. And in the meantime, he'd egg on some more idiots and get them to duel him and mop them up to consolidate as much DP as possible.