A sigh of relief left him and his shoulders slumped slightly as a tension that he didn't even realize was there fled his body, 'That was a close one.' Yarden grimaced internally.

If it weren't for Revived Serpent Night Dragon and Nightmare Sonic Roar, he would most likely have lost. And in an epic turn around. That Chimeratech Over Dragon was beyond anything he could bust out to fight head on, beyond Copycat. And on top of that, it could make attacks for as many monsters that made it up. So he would have had a 3700 attack beat stick coming for his ass with the ability to attack four times.

Cyber Dragons are literal bullshit. And only spirit shenanigans that basically let him manipulate casualty itself to draw the cards he needed, let him win.

Which was bullshit in of itself. Cybernetic Fusion Support was not supposed to work as a fusion card. It was only supposed to work as an enhancement for the users next fusion summon. On top of that, Chimeratech Over Dragon was supposed to destroy all other cards the user had on the field when it was summoned. Yet, that wasn't what happened.

Those two simple changes, made Zane's deck even more dangerous. Grave Fusion wasn't something that should have been around right now, beyond a few specific cards. And definitely not as a Quick Play spell card, that could be activated on the opponents turn from the hand and not from being set.

'Then again, this is the place where Spirit of the Breeze can use its effect in defense position and Carboneddon lets me special summon a dragon in any position, attack or defense position.' he told himself. It wasn't only him that would be benefiting from card changes.

This definitely showed the main weakness he had right now though. For all that his bond with his deck and spirits could let him combo all his random cards together, there was very little synergy between his cards.

All the combo's in the world, wouldn't get Yarden as far as he needed, if he blew his load on the first couple turns as he had been doing and they managed to counter him and survive it.

'Damn, I was hoping not to do have to do this for a while.' he thought inwardly. He would have to craft a specific deck from his cards, upgrade the synergy to help it feed the bond he had with his cards and enhance his decks ability.

He didn't want to do that though. Because, while they'd only been together a week or so, he didn't like the idea at all of forcing a bunch of his cards onto the bench. It felt too much like those scrubs who tossed them away. But, if he wanted to get anywhere, he was going to have to do it until he could craft specific decks to fit them all.

He was broken from his thoughts as he heard a chuckle coming from Zane. Yarden looked over to the older blue haired boy to see a, while not big one, an evidence smile on his face, "You played well," Zane complimented him, disengaging his duel disk and making his way over to the younger boy, "I apologize for trying to so blatantly rile you up earlier, the insults were uncalled for?"

Yarden blinked, "..Uh...what?" he uttered, confused.

Zane's smile grew a tiny bit, "I had a rough idea of how you were as a person thanks to what Alexis told me and from observing your promotion duel earlier, and thought that would be the best bet to have you come at me with your level best," the blue haired young man. "I apologize for calling you a thug due to the way you duel and questioning your connection to your cards. I in fact, do not think of you that way at all. After all, the way you play, has many similarities to my own style of dueling."

..It was an act all along? Yarden's thoughts trailed, and he thought back over their interactions earlier. 'That actually wasn't like season 1 Zane at all.' he realized. But, he actually hadn't thought much of it, because that attitude had just seemed so in tune with 'Hell Kaiser' Zane, the edgy masochist.

Still a total dick move. But, honestly, it didn't make him any more of a dick than Yarden was himself.

"..Alright, you're forgiven." Yarden shrugged, accepting it easily enough. After all, in the end, he hadn't been all that bothered until Alexis made it out that it was impossible for him to beat Zane. He'd always been prideful, both and himself, and now in his monsters. That was insult to his badass monsters that he couldn't let stand.

They were his precious friends and the ones who would provide the basis to make sure he survived the crazy shit storm that was approaching the Duel Academy.

"Thank you," Zane nodded lightly, "Still, it was uncouth of me to act like that to you. I wonder, will you accept a token of gratitude for your forgiveness?"

Yarden's head perked up. Free stuff? He was all about that, as long as it was useful free stuff.

"Sure, I'm fine with it." Yarden replied with a nod of his own.

"Alright then," Zane said, and then reached into his back pocket and pulled out, a small set of cards, holding them up for the younger red clad boy to accept, "Think of these as my thanks both for accepting my apology, and what you did for my little brother."

Huh, he knew about the thing with Syrus huh? Alexis must have told him, Yarden assumed.

Yarden accepted them gratefully, and his eyebrows rose when he leafed through though. The first two, were a really big surprise. Luster Dragon and Luster Dragon 2. Otherwise known as Sapphire Dragon and Emerald Dragon.

Two of the six Gem Dragons. Hyozanryu - The Diamond Dragon, Ruby Dragon, Sapphire Dragon, Emerald Dragon, Alexandrite Dragon and Labradorite Dragon. He quite liked them. And he even specifically used Labradorite Dragon in his Cave Ogre Dragon deck before he ended up here. Playing it with Cost Down was a really good way to get into Cave Ogre Dragon, since the cost for it was discarding a card. And if he had Monster Reborn in hand at the same time and the card he sent to the graveyard was a level four monster. Well, it made not only summoning Cave Ogre Dragon easy as pie, but also made it easier to lower the cards in the hand for the synchro dragons effect.

From what he knew. At this point in the timeline, they were pretty rare and expensive. He'd seen a few copies in the card shop, but he had been holding back from buying them because of the prices on them.

It was the third card though that was the most shocking.

Gauardragon Promineses. Level 1. Dragon and Effect monster. It had 500 attack points and 200 defense points. On top of that, the effect for it was really good!

'You can send this card from your hand or field to the GY, then target 1 Dragon monster you control; it gains 500 ATK/DEF until the end of your opponent's turn. If a Normal Monster(s) is sent to your GY, while this card is in the GY. You can Special Summon this card, but banish it when it leaves the field. You can only use this effect of "Guardragon Promineses" once per turn.'

It would play really well off of Serpent Night Dragon and his other strongest dragon monsters.

The thing was though. He'd never heard of a card like this before. Guardragon? It sounded like an archetype.

Zane leaned forward until his lips were beside Yarden's ear, "You played magnificently, but I noticed the true lack of synergy your deck has. For outright overpowering an opponent and taking them off guard early, your deck does amazingly, but it isn't a rewarding play style against decks that will attempt to stall you," the third year Obelisk Blue revealed quietly, so as to not alert the girls to what he was saying. As expected of Zane, he noticed the problem with his deck even when he'd only had a single turn, "The Luster Dragon cards served me well when I played a mainly dragon type deck, I hope they serve you as well as they did me. They're reliable cards, make sure to take good care of them Yarden."

"Hmph," Yarden snorted a bit of a laughter through his nostrils, "Thanks, and don't worry, I'll take real good care of them. But what's with this other card? I've never heard of it before?"

Zane pulled back and shrugged lightly at the younger boy, "To be perfectly honest, I don't know much about them myself," he admitted, "It was a prize I got for a small tournament I took place in over the summer, apparently for an all new dragon archetype. It's a good card, but it's wasted on me who has nothing that it can synergise with at all in my deck."

That was true Yarden noted. 'A whole new archetype though huh? And one that seems to favor normal type dragons.' he hummed internally. That, was really convenient considering what his main monsters were.

And it brought another thing to his notice. Things were a bit different here compared to the GX anime he'd seen, right? He'd need to look into what other archetypes had come into existence without him knowing.

Zane pat him on the shoulder, "Congratulations, you beat the best guy in this academy, you should be proud," he chuckled lightly again, "Don't think I won't be coming for a rematch though. Once I edit up my deck a bit, I'll be looking you out for round two.

Yarden chuckled and despite himself, it was easy to let the competitive spirit surge within him, "My deck will be much better by then, so don't expect to win." he replied challengingly.

"I'd be disappointed if you made it easy on me after turning my own tactic against me and overpowering the might of my Cyber Dragon's," Zane shot back without pause. He gave Yarden one last nod, before walking passed him, raising hand to wave to the blonde girl standing off to the side, alongside her two friends, "Alexis, I'm heading on back, I've got some things to think about."

And then Zane was gone, walking across the dock path and leaving. He was surprisingly very chill for a guy who just had his three year winning streak broken from some random no name first year with a hodge podge deck.

When the duel started, Alexis was both awed by Zane's starting tactics, and yet not really surprised. It was the kind of thing she expected from Zane.

On his first turn, he had a monster with thirty three hundred attack points, that was safe from Yarden's ace card, Revived Serpent Night Dragon. Not only that, it was capable of dealing the difference in damage from its attack points and a monsters defense points if it attacked a defense position monster.

She honestly thought it was already over. Zane was going all out. And then Yarden had his turn. And he surprised her again. Using a card like dark hole, just to get rid of a single equip monster? That was the kind of card used to turn an entire duel around, and he used it like any low level card.

And then he made an absolute monster...of well, a monster. She could count on both hands how many times she'd seen someone get a monster with over five thousand attack points on the field, and most of that was from watching Zane.

And he turned something as mocked as Metal Dragon, one of the first ever fusion monsters, and one of the worst at that, into a gargantuan best with sixty seven hundred attack points. It wasn't quite Cyber End Dragon summoned through Power Bond, but it wasn't far off either.

And then Zane was suddenly down to a a pitiful hundred life points. Alexis had never even seen him drop below two thousand. Yet, Zane showed why he was the best, and pulled out Chimeratech Over Dragon, a monster she'd never seen him play against someone before, and had a thirty seven hundred attack point wall of metal and teeth that could attack four times and was again, protected from Yarden's ace card and tactic.

Only, for the first time, Yarden switched his play around and targeted his own monster to use his favored tactic on with Revived Serpent Night Dragon, and to deal with it before Metal Dragon took the negative effect of Limiter Removal and was destroyed.

And then he revealed Nightmare Sonic Roar, and it was over. With an Ookazi of all things, Yarden used his ace cards. to just side step Zane's ungodly powerful monster.

Alexis stared at the two in a daze as the duel came to an end.

"You've got to be kidding me!" Jasmine shouted in shock, "No way, he actually beat Zane! This is insane.

"Huh..." Mindy blinked, looking a bit out of it herself, "Like, I know I said not to put him out before the duel even started and that he did have a chance, but...I like. was totes not expecting that all."

Alexis nodded numbly herself, yet a small smile tugged her lips not of her own volition, Yarden really was that good! That duel, was incredibly short, and lasted only a few minutes, yet, in just two turns, she'd seen such an absurd back and forth of plays that would have crushed others upfront from just one of them.

Zane made his way over to Yarden and whispered something in his ear, before pulling back with a smile as the younger boy responded and handed him what looked like a few cards. They exchanged a few more words, Zane actually outright laughing a bit. before he bid Yarden and herself goodbye and was gone like the wind.

"So, what was that about me not standing a chance?" Yarden turned to them, his eyes settling on her and grinning smugly at her as he made his way over.

Alexis snorted a bit, "Alright, I'm sorry," she conceded, "You're way better than I thought you were and way better than me." Most likely, Yarden was the strongest duelist in their year, by a wide margin.

He'd totally proven her wrong.

The only dark horse that could possibly prove that point wrong was Bastion Misawa. She'd dueled Jaden personally and knew, that he wasn't quite on the same level.

"Well, I wouldn't say that," Yarden shrugged, "But I'll accept that praise anyway." he shamelessly added.

His grin turned wolfish and he turned it on her, "Now, about that prize for winning."

Really, overcoming Zane of all people and he wanted something as silly as a date with her? "Sure, I'm a woman of my word and it was me that ended up egging you into it in the first place," Alexis shrugged, she honestly didn't care either way, "You could have just asked me though."

"Probably," he chuckled, "But honestly weird as it is, that didn't even occur to me, after all, despite you're well youness, you're not exactly the type to enjoy that kind of thing." he gave a broad sweeping look over her body as he spoke, eyes lingering just a moment on her hips and chest, before rising up to her eyes.

Alexis nodded in agreement with his words. He was right. She was well aware of her beauty and the eyes her body attracted. But, she had no interest in romance or anything like that. It was why she also wasn't all that bothered at all about Yarden's blatant ogling of her. At least he was up front about it.

The only thing she was in love with. Was dueling.

"Honestly, it feels like something small and not worth it as a reward for beating Zane of all people," Alexis shook her head, and that sounded just so crazy to say out loud, "But sure, I'll go on a date with you. Just let me know when you want it.

Yarden's grin widened a bit, "Alright then, I suppose some time next week will work," he mused, "I've got stuff to do this weekend since I'll be moving on over to the Ra Yellow dorm."

"Wait, wait wait!" Jasmine jumped into the discussion, staring at them wide eyed, "What's this about a date?

"Ooooh, Lexi actually accepted a date!" Mindy clapped her hands together excitedly behind the redhead, "Are pigs gonna start flying or something?" the black haired girl giggled.

Alexis raised an eyebrow at her redhead friend, "Yarden wanted a date with me if he beat Zane, I accepted, that's all really," the blonde shrugged, before smirking a tiny bit at her friend, "You're the one always telling me to go on dates, what's the problem?"

Jasmine opened her mouth to respond, before pausing, her eyes flickering towards Yarden who was eyeing her with eyebrows raised in interest, "Nothing I suppose," she sighed and gave a shrug. The redhead sobered her expressions quickly and shot Yarden a look, "So all the flirting with me and Mindy. Yet you go for a date with Alexis as a prize?"

Yarden blinked, a confused look appearing on his face at her words, "Err, what?" the usually unflappable boy looked lost, "I was you know, expecting you to get mad at me or something, or even say Alexis is too good to go on a date with me."

Jasmine snorted, "A week ago I would have, Alexis is gonna go to the top, there's no way some actual Slifer could ever keep up with her," the redhead shook her head, "But, as annoying as it's been over the past week, there's no denying it. You really are that good, how you ended up in Slifer and not at least Ra first of all is beyond me."

Yarden raised an eyebrow, "Are you telling me the attitude was just because you thought I was a scrub?" he asked, a snort leaving him, "And now that I've proven how amazing I am, you're totally fine with it."

Jasmine gave an unashamed shrug, "Yes," she responded before raising a finger to point at the boy, "Look Odhar. Looks, compatibility, love and everything else. Of course I want that, what girl doesn't? But do you know what any girl not named Alexis Rhodes actually craves the most of all?"

"A big dick?" Yarden fired right back.

Mindy erupted into a furious flurry of giggles and even Alexis herself had to cover up a snort of amusement at his crude, instant reply. Yarden really was totally unashamed of who he was. It was an attractive trait, she wasn't fond of people pretending to be something they weren't. Like that annoying Frenchie cry baby who stole her mothers scarf from her.

Jasmine's mouth hung open at his answer, before she shook her head, "No, though that probably does help," the redhead recovered quickly and replied, "What we girls need above all else in a partner, is security. A boyfriend who can't provide that, is useless in the end."

And there it was. The reason why Jasmine was only interested in the rich and powerful men. Because, with those riches and power, they provided security.

"So you're a gold digger?" Yarden actually leaned forward in interest.

"Call it that if you want, but love and stuff, only goes so far when you're a poor nobody with barely a roof over your head and working day in day out until you're an exhausted mess," Jasmine shrugged back, unashamed herself and what she was looking for, "I want the good life when I've graduated. I want to enjoy all life has to offer, and some no name Slifer can't give me, or my friends any of that. Got a problem with that Odhar?"

While she didn't agree with it. Alexis couldn't fault her friend for what she wanted. It sounded shallow, and it partly was really. But most of that came from the fact that she sounded like she would go with the first rich guy who offered. And that just wasn't true. If it was, Jasmine would already have a boyfriend right now, there were plenty rich twits from the Obelisk Blue dorms that had asked her out after all.

"I actually don't," Yarden chuckled, shaking his head, he gave Jasmine an odd look that Alexis couldn't decipher, shooting the redhead a small, warm and..yet understanding smile. "I totally get it."

"..You do?" Jasmine gaped at the boy. It was as if she was expecting for the boy to totally reject her or mock her for her what she wanted. Which might have been something to expect actually, since quite a few people who she'd knocked back for those reasons, had turned angry and hateful, naming her a gold digging slut.

Yup," he shrugged, and smirked at the redhead, "And I notice you didn't say anything about not liking me or compatibility, only about me being a Slifer."

"Think what you want," Jasmine crossed her arms intentionally under her breasts and pushing them up, and then Alexis blinked when the girl actually smiled back at him softly, "Congratulations on your duel with Zane, you really impressed me there. I knew you were good, but I wasn't expecting that at all. Good on you."

"Cheers babe," he winked at her and flashed her a thumbs up. "Now though, as much fun as it would be to hang around with you three and get as much eye candy as I want, I've got things to do tonight, so I can't."

Before he could bid them goodbye, Alexis reached out and touched her hand to his shoulder, stopping him, "Before that, how about exchanging numbers with me? You can send me the information on our date when you decide what to do and when."

Yarden happily traded numbers with her, a big smile on his face as he did. And made no excuses when he quickly asked for Jasmine and Mindy's as well.

They parted ways with him not long later. Him returning to the Slifer Red dorm, and them to the Obelisk Blue girls dorm. Her friends excitedly discussed him, the duel and the fact he beat Zane all the way back.

Alexis was mostly silent though. Her mind raced a mile a minute as she thought on how she was going to reach the level of Yarden and Zane. Watching that amazing duel, left her body shaking with anticipation and the desire to duel anyone she saw and get better and better!

As soon as he was back in his dorm room, Yarden didn't bother waiting at all. He kicked the door shut behind him and pulled out all of his cards, every single one, spreading them across the floor and taking a seat in front of them.

He'd amassed quite the collection in the last week. Already having over one hundred cards in total.

'It's gotta be a mainly dragon deck, centered around Serpent Night Dragon.' he thought, his eyes going to the three copies of the graceful serpentine dragon. He ha both specific support for Serpent Night Dragon, and grabbed quite a few cards that worked well with the fact he had three of the ex-ace of Rex Raptor.

For that matter, he'd be putting Hyozanru, Seiyaryu, Curse of Dragon, Luster Dragon 1 and Luster Dragon 2 in the deck. Carbonnedon was a given, as was resurrection cards.

He needed counter traps as well. He'd bought a few specific spell and trap card booster packs earlier when he had the time before the duel with Zane, just didn't have the time to pick and choose what would fit well before the duel.

On that front, he couldn't give up the discarding tactics, he was very fond of them and he got a decent few cards that worked well with the tactic.

He definitely needed a counter though for if anyone tried to pull any Macro Cosmos bullshit to counter him. So, the likes of Stamping Destruction would be vital. A monster that was unaffected by traps and such would be really helpful as well. He had a Mirage Dragon, that would be hella useful.

Yarden leaned back on his hands. 'Dodger Dragon would be even better.' he sighed. He needed something that could deal with shit that could seal off summoning from the grave and spell and trap cards as well, that was a typical play from a Macro Cosmo deck.

It was a pain in the ass, and really unlikely for someone here to be using meta Macro Cosmos shit, but it was definitely one of the bigger threats to him. 'Good graveyard effect monsters or spells and traps?' he wondered idly. But, there wouldn't be many around.

Some D.D - Different Dimension monsters would be helpful for getting bounced to the banished zone actually.

'I'll look into it later.' Yarden mused. He had all he needed for the most part right in front of him to deal with most issues, especially with the Heart of the Cards on his side.

A thought occurred to him then. 'Oh yeah, I didn't check how much I won from Zane!' he realized.

Wasting no time, Yarden jumped to his feet and pulled out his PDA to check his DP balance. And almost dropped it in shock when he saw the number staring back at him. "What the fuck!?" he gaped.

DP: 127,202

He got a full hundred thousand for beating him? What the shit!? That was ten thousand pounds! And nearly fifteen thousand dollars!

With shaky hands, the boy quickly connected to his online bank account and transferred the DP balance to it.

"Holy crap." his knees felt weak beneath him and he fell back on to his bed in his shock when he saw his actual bank balance staring back at him.

£10,350.00

"WOOH YEAH!" he jumped to his feet and punched a fist into the air. "That's what I'm fucking talking about!" he cheered, launching a kick into the air, only to yelp when he accidentally slammed his bare toes into the hard, wooden bed post mistakenly in his excitement.

"Mother fucker!" he cursed grabbing at his toes and hopping in place. If it weren't for the enhancements his body had gone through from merging with Petit Dragon, Decoy Dragon and Lesser Dragon, he no doubt, probably would have broken his toes.

And speaking of Petit Dragon. The small green dragon phased into view in front of him, shaking his little head back and forth, "You're an idiot Yarden." he pointed out dryly, eyes deadpan.