Tagging Up 21

"You know for just a series of first turns, this is incredible," Jaden grinned as he stared down at the duel arena, "These Paradox guys are better than I thought they'd be. Between the pair of them they got two monsters out each, and three of them had over two thousand attack points, heck one even had over three thousand before Yarden destroyed it."

"Forget that Jay!" Syrus cried, staring down enviously at the field, eyes drawn particularly to the beautiful armoured blonde mounting a dragon, "Where the heck did Yarden get Dark Magician Girl!?….Actually, do you think he'd trade me it?"

"I doubt it." Zane snorted lightly. Unlike the other two his attention was on Alexis. He wasn't at all surprised that a pair of champions like the Paradox Brothers could play so well. And he had a first hand account of Yarden's own skill.

She'd shown a marked improvement since he last saw her duel. He was very impressed how she'd started off her first turn. She'd summoned a total of four monsters in one turn, albeit using one to fusion summon her Cyber Blader. Using Metamorphosis like that though, was genius. Using it to get around the negative effect of a monster like that. It was quite the combo and reminded him of his own strategy of using De-Fusion to get around the negative kick back from Power Bond.

She'd told him she was tuning up her deck after seeing his duel with Yarden. And the results definitely spoke for themselves.

She'd locked out the Paradox Brothers from attacking at all thanks to the effects of her Marauding Captains, and since they only had two monsters, her Cyber Blader had its attack points doubled thanks to its effect and was sitting at forty two hundred attack points.

Between her first turn set up and Yarden's own heavy line up. If the orange clad brother, Para didn't make some kind of fantastic play, odds were they'd be getting crushed by Alexis come the next turn.

He had to hand it to them. Even he himself would have trouble mounting a resistance against the kind of line up the pair had going on right now.

"Oh well, it's not like I have anything that would be worth trading Dark Magician Girl for anyway." Syrus slumped at Zane's answer.

"Oh cheer up Syrus," Jaden laughed patting the smaller boy on the back, "There's always Thunder Nyan Nyan."

The blue haired boy gasped, "Jayyyyy!" he whined, "You promised you wouldn't tell!"

"Oops?" Jaden just laughed louder.

"Not liscious dude." Chumley shook his head.

Zane smothered the smile that threatened to spread across his face. It seemed his little brother had found some good friends.

____________________________________________________________

Para drew a card and smirked, "You may have broken our wall," he said, "But, you will still surely fall. Especially since I drew the spell card Awakening Of The Sealed Guardian, and I will be playing it here and now!"

As he played the spell card and it appeared in the air in front of him face up, it depicted the art of three elements, wind, water and lightning.

Yarden's eyebrows rose, "Never heard of it." he replied flatly.

"Which probably isn't a good thing." Alexis grimaced. Yarden had an absurd amount of knowledge on cards. If he didn't know anything about a card, that meant it must be absurdly rare.

"Which means you've never watched us duel." Dox noted with a smirk of his own.

"A gift from Pegasus, which will make you the fool," Para chuckled, "You see young noob, this card was especially made for us and only we have copies of it. And it has quite the interesting effects. For instance, by paying five hundred life points, this card allows me to search out Kazejin, Suijin or Sanga of The Thunder and either add them to my hand or send them to the graveyard. And, I will be paying one thousand life points to take both Suijin and Sanga from my deck and send them to the graveyard."

His and his brothers life points lowered by the amount stated, and he took the two cards from his deck and discarded them to the graveyard.

Yarden and Alexis: 8000 LP

Paradox Brothers: 7000 LP

"Which means it must have some effect that lets you use those three in the graveyard to summon Gate Guardian." Yarden noted.

The brothers blinked.

"You catch on quick." Para noted right back.

"In barely more than a tick." Dox nodded in agreement.

"Well it's obvious," Yarden rolled his eyes, "There'd be no point sending them all to the graveyard otherwise." he hid his surprise well at such a card. For as decent a beat stick as Gate Guardian was, it completely wasn't worth it considering how hard it was to summon. This card definitely changed things.

"Indeed," Para nodded, "It is as you say. By sending Awakening Of The Sealed Guardian to the graveyard while Sanga, Suijin and Kazejin are in the graveyard, I may special summon the legendary Gate Guardian from anywhere in my deck!"

A moment later, he did just that, and the towering form of the Gate Guardian, a colossal fifty foot plus sized golem appeared in front of him.

Gate Guardian – Warrior/Light/Level 11/Effect: 3750/3400

It was quite the sight, Yarden had to admit, a whistle leaving his mouth. It was almost as big as Five Headed Dragon.

Almost.

"And don't think I'm done there, because I believe I will be bringing back an old friend," Para continued and played a second spell card, "Go Monster Reborn, resurrect Wall Shadow!"

A moment later, they were surrounded once again by a massive labyrinth, and the terrifying mantis-like creature hung out of the wall behind the brothers once again.

And its attack points had risen through the roof.

Wall Shadow – Warrior/Dark/Level 7/Effect: 4000/3000

"Oh great that things back," Alexis wrinkled her nose, and then grimaced as she caught sight of its attack points, "And it's as strong as Zane's Cyber End Dragon."

"Still not impressed baldy." Yarden stuck a finger in his ear boredly and wriggled it around.

"We'll see how impressed you are, when your life points take a massive hit!" Para growled, pointing his hand out towards their monsters, "Go Gate Guardian, destroy that Dark Magician Girl The Dragon Knight!"

Gate Guardian lifted its massive arms into the air, thunder forming into an orb between its palms, before abruptly stopping and letting the power between its hands dissipate.

"What!?" Para gaped, "What is the meaning of this, why is my monster not attacking!?" his eyes shot to the pair of Alexis and Yarden and demanded.

Alexis smirked, "Guess even pro's don't know everything huh?" she mused, "It's because of my Marauding Captain. While it's on the field, you can't target any other monster for an attack. And since there's two of them blocking you from attacking either of them, it means your monsters can't wage an attack on ours at all!"

The blonde couldn't help but preen slightly as Yarden flashed her a thumbs up. Going into this duel she had been quite nervous, but now, not so much. This was just like any other duel. And if she wanted to reach the top of the pro circuit, she'd have to be better than these guys regardless. What did it matter if it was now, or later? With each turn, her confidence rose.

She could do this!

"No matter, it merely saved you a turn," Para scoffed, "I shall end my turn with a face down."

"Say your prayers, you clown!" Dox sneered at the voluptuous blonde.

"I don't think I will, draw!" Alexis shot back. She looked over her card, before playing it, "Right I'll be playing this card I just drew, Pot of Greed which lets me draw two more cards!"

She drew two cards, for a total of three, "Now, I'll be discarding The White Night Dragon in my hand to activate the effect of Yarden's Dark Magician Girl The Dragon Knight," Alexis continued, "Go, destroy Gate Guardian!" she ordered as she discarded the card.

Dark Magician Girl lifted her sword into the air and fired off a beam of crackling pink that shot through the air towards Gate Guardian like a rocket.

But just before it impacted, a barrier rose up around the gargantuan golem and blocked the attack.

"I think not," Para sneered, "By banishing Awakening Of The Sealed Guardian from my graveyard, I can negate the destruction of Gate Guardian through either card effect or battle and destroy the card behind it all."

The barrier around Gate Guardian surged and spiralled like a hurricane, before shooting out and sweeping over Dark Magician Girl The Dragon Knight and destroying her.

Alexis grimaced, "Damn," she whispered, before shooting an apologetic look over at Yarden, "Sorry, I got your monster destroyed."

"Don't worry about it," he waved her off, he was giving the Gate Guardian an impressed look, "The same thing would have happened to me. I wasn't expecting that spell card to have an awesome graveyard effect like that at all."

Alexis smiled, before shaking her head, "Still, let me make up for it," she replied, before playing a spell card from her hand, "I'll be using Monster Reborn myself to bring back Dark Magician Girl The Dragon Knight!"

"Wahoo, I'm back!" Dark Magician Girl cheered as she re-appeared atop Luster Dragon 2 in a flash of golden light.

"Now let's try this again!" Alexis clenched her fist, the leather of her blue fingerless gloves creaking slightly, "Since she's been re-summoned, I can do this! I'll be discarding one card from my hand to activate Dark Magician Girl The Dragon Girl's effect to destroy the Gate Guardian!"

This time, when Dark Magician Girl The Dragon Knight lfited her sword and fired off that now very familiar beam of crackling sparkling pink, Gate Guardian was powerless to resist and was blown away.

"Tch," Para clicked his teeth, "Do not forget though, with Gate Guardian now in the graveyard, Wall Shadow's attack increases by another three hundred!"

Wall Shadow – Warrior/Dark/Level 7/Effect: 4300/3000

"Big deal!" Alexis shouted back, "I activate my face down card, Call Of The Haunted. It lets me bring back one monster from my graveyard and equip it with this card. And I'll be bringing back my White Night Dragon!"

In a flash of light, a large towering dragon of ice roared as it burst onto field in front of Alexis, flapping its large jagged icy wings and glaring over at the Paradox Brothers.

White Night Dragon – Dragon/Water/Level 8/Effect: 3000/2500

"Now battle, I'll attack your Labyrinth Tank with White Night Dragon!" Alexis pushed on, "Go, Diamond Dust!"

Alexis's dragon gave a resounding roar and fired out a massive icy breath of jagged icicles that slammed into the large blue tank monster and wiped it from existence.

Yarden and Alexis: 8000 LP

Paradox Brothers: 6400 LP

And she wasn't done there.

"Now Dark Magician Girl The Dragon Knight, attack Kaiser Sea Horse!" the beautiful blonde continued.

"Say bye bye!" Dark Magician Girl giggled, thrusting her sword out and firing a beam of bright pink at the same time as Luster Dragon 2 opened its mouth and fired an emerald green beam. Both beams merged together and then slammed into Kaiser Sea Horse and sent it the same way as Labyrinth Tank.

Yarden and Alexis: 8000 LP

Paradox Brothers: 5600 LP

"Good thing for you your Wall Shadow is so strong," Alexis pointed out smugly, "Otherwise, you'd be down and out with this turn."

And she wasn't wrong. Wall Shadow had taken another massive jump in attack points due to the destruction of Gate Guardian, Labyrinth Tank and Kaiser Sea Horse.

Wall Shadow – Warrior/Dark/Level 7/Effect: 4900/3000

Not that it would do them any good. Since thanks to Marauding Captain, it didn't matter how strong it was, when it couldn't attack at all.

"And I'll end my turn here." Alexis finished, flashing Yarden a thumbs up in return for his earlier.