One against the many

"Let's begin, I draw!" Clay began his turn, drawing his card and looking at his hand. After having edited his deck he placed a card in here that could help him in situations such as this, where he was up against numerous enemies at the same time. He just didn't expect to see it so soon.

"This duel is over! I play the spell card FINAL COUNTDOWN!" With one action, placing the card down, the room immediately began to shake and rumble, the ceiling darkening as storm clouds rolled in from who knows where. Behind Clay, in a ring formation, were 20 identical flames, all flickering as they burned intensely.

"During each end phase one of these flames will go out, when they all go out..." Clay paused as he looked at the Obelisk Blue students in front of him. To him right now they were all merely sheep walking to their own slaughter. A mad laughter escaped him, shaking everyone in the room to their very core. "I win the duel!"

"What?!" The leader of the Obelisk students couldn't believe what he was hearing right now. There were 20 flames in the ring, meaning that before the final Obelisk student could take their turn they would all lose the duel.

"Do you see now? This is what it means to be at the top, not having to rely on anyone!" Clay's mad laughter erupted out again, causing the other duelists to step back, almost falling off the platform. "But who am I to not allow my fellow students to struggle with all their might. I end my turn!"

With Clay's short turn at an end one of the flames in the wheel was extinguished, signaling the beginning of the end for the students.

None of the students could believe what was happening right now. The bleachers were quiet, the duelists were quiet, only the rumbling above the duel could be heard in the room. The lightning crackled and struck behind Clay, illuminating his back to the other duelists.

If one were to look at what was taking place in this room, they would think of one figure: Demon King. These were not duelists he was facing, they were kids who only acted tough, relying on others to achieve their victories. That wasn't going to work here.

"So, are you going to take your turn or shall we wrap this up quickly and you can all surrender?" Clay's voice sounded like thunder to the other students. Looking down on them as if he could blow them away with a single word.

"Don't think that just because you have that card you can beat us! We are still the top of this academy!" The leader of the Obelisk's finally gained some courage to speak up. If he was going to win he would need all the luck and skill his deck could give him. "It's my turn, draw!"

He inspected his hand for anything that could get him out of his predicament, but only found powerful monsters. That was his usual strategy, swarm the field with big monsters and beat down your opponent before they could make their moves. It would have been even better with the other students around, letting them deal with any monsters in the way of his attacks, but now, without the ability to declare an attack, he realized how foolish he had been.

"I... end my turn." With that another flame extinguished from the wheel, ticking down to only 18 left. It wouldn't be long before this duel had ended.

The next duelist began their turn, they too trying to think of a way to win this with the monster heavy decks. They tried as hard as they could but couldn't think of anything, ending their turn for the next Obelisk. With each Obelisk that ended, another flame on their doomsday timer extinguished.

This process continued for multiple turns, but at the 13th Obelisk student there was a change. This student had found a way to win, he just hoped that the others would be able to do the same.

"I activate the spell card Ookazi! With this card I am able to inflict 800 points of damage directly to your life points." With the card played a flash of red appeared from behind the storm clouds, a loud roar following close behind. The source of that roar revealed itself, breaking through the clouds as a large meteor heading directly to Clay.

The explosion shook the room, smoke appearing around Clay from where the meteor hit. The Obelisk students were all smiles at this, they had found a way to beat Clay, but would it be too little too late?

As the dust cleared, within stood Clay with his arm crossed, a large smile plastered on his face at the seemingly new strategy the students had come up with. It was as if the meteor hadn't fazed him in the slightest.

Clay: 3200

20 Obelisk students: 4000 each

"Congratulations, you found a way out of your predicament. I should applaud you, but considering it took more than half of you to even touch my life points I am kind of disappointed." Clay looked at the student who had caused him the damage, giving him a nod. This was to show that he was the smartest of the bunch and Clay acknowledged it, but to the target, it looked like Clay was saying 'You're next'.

The turns continued again with no more students being able to damage Clay's life points after the first Ookazi. With no more plays left they accepted they would lose to Clay, but refused to give up what pride they had left by surrendering.

The final turn came, and with it the final flame was extinguished. The clouds rumbled and lightning shot down from the sky, it appeared as if the apocalypse was starting in the room. From within the clouds formed a face, one of mocking laughter, with the thunder rumbling and acting as its laugh.

The students had never been more terrified of a card before, never had they seen something like this. They wished that they had just kept their mouth shut, letting Clay become an Obelisk without any hassle, but they couldn't change their past, nothing could.

With one final crash, the clouds parted and the flames that had been extinguished reignited and formed a circle around the Obelisk students, completely locking off any escape. The flames moved closer, causing the students to bunch up to minimize their exposure to the flames.

Without warning, the flames began shaking violently, finally ending with a big explosion. The students had blackened faces but they were relatively unharmed from the explosion.

Clay: 3200

20 Obelisk students: 0

"Game Over."

The crowd was dead silent, no sounds of breathing in the room. They all looked down at the students who should have wiped the floor with this lone student, yet they couldn't do a thing. No one had seen anything like this before.

After a while one student began clapping his hands at Clay's victory. Everyone all turned to look in his direction and found Jaden Yuki clapping with the biggest grin on his face. They couldn't believe him, had he not seen what had just happened or heard the crazy laughter that Clay had?

Jaden had in fact heard and seen it all, he just didn't care. He knew Clay wasn't a person who liked hurting people, he just liked showing off his skills. Who wouldn't like showing off their skills?

Following behind Jaden, Syrus began clapping as hard as he could. After hanging out with Clay for a while he could really call Clay a friend, and why wouldn't he cheer on his friend.

Clay, still on the stage, turned towards his two friends and gave a deep bow, as if he was finishing off a performance. He turned again to face Alexis, taking one more bow but not looking to find out her response.

"Well done Mr. Clay, showing why you deserve to be a true Obelisk Blue." Dr. Crowler walked up onto the stage clapping his hands. If one looked closely you could see some sweat rolling down his face, but no one noticed this. "I must say that was quite an exceptional duel."

"Thank you Dr. Crowler, but I have to say the students that I were facing were quite lacking." Clay turned to look at the group of fallen students and pointed to one in particular. "He was the only one who had an alternative way to deal damage besides battle."

"Yes, Riley is his name. He has a very interesting style of dueling, you seem to have noticed it have you?"

"I would like to have a discussion between the two of us privately. I would appreciate if you could organize this by tomorrow." Clay bowed his head and took his leave from the stage. He was tired from standing after the duel, having to wait 20 turns took a while.

"Of course, I will do my best." Crowler looked to the group of Obelisk's on the ground. They were a mess to say the least, and he was going to have to plan a special lesson for the failures. But that would have to wait, Clay was the new prodigy and he wanted something. It would be rude and possibly detrimental for Crowler if he didn't accommodate the request of his student.

As Clay was walking out of the arena he was attacked from the side as Jaden and Syrus tackled him to the ground.

"That was totally awesome!"

"Teach me your ways!"

"GET OFF ME!"

***

Author here,

Sorry for the wait, some family issues came up that we had to deal with. Should be good on the family issues but school is still a huge issue so releases may be inconsistent this week. I will still try my best but do be patient with me.

Also I would like to say thank you to Aeternabilis for giving me the idea to use Final Countdown in this duel. I was going to have Clay use Soul Cannon again and destroy all the monsters then attack directly, but you had already seen that so I used his suggestion.

Thank you for the idea and I hope you continue supporting the story!