Zion was a bit disappointed. No counter? No retaliation? Just a complete annihilation? He couldn't accept that. It wasn't enough flare, it wasn't exciting, it was just disappointing.

"Common' kid, you didn't prepare for a counterattack? You could've done something if you thought ahead!" he suddenly burst, standing up from his seats as he pointed towards Shana. He wanted to help her out, but then he came back to reality and realized he might drawing.. A little too much attention to himself.

"Calm down, Zion.. Calm down. You aren't that kind of guy anymore. Get your head straight." he thought to himself, recollecting his thoughts. After adjusting himself, Zion sat back down and started to look around the area, making sure he didn't catch the attention of someone important, like a security staff member. Sure enough, there was a middle age man who looked about in his 40's or 50's, and was wearing a white suit, standing around watching the duel as well.

"What's his business?" Zion asked himself, looking down at the floor as he pulled his hood down further over his head as if to hide himself. "Who comes to watch a tournament while dressed so nicely? Maybe he's some rich old guy betting money on the fights.. Or he could be Gero himself." Zion chuckled to himself as he thought the last statement. He hasn't actually seen Gero, and has no idea of the man he's chasing. It's kind of like a wild goose chase, except there is an entire field of geese and he doesn't know which one is which. "..But you know, I might not actually be to far off. Let's say theoretically that is the guy, he fits the image. Oldish fancy class act, calm look on his face like he's the chess master of a grand operation and everything is under control. I wouldn't be surprised."

A few seconds later, Zion spooked himself into changing positions. Partially because he was afraid that he could have blown his cover, and partially because he was embarrassed about his little outburst. Zion got up and walked out into the nearest hallways of the inner-stadium, as he rested his back against the wall.

"That was just.. A little too reckless. I might have screwed everything up." Zion murmured to himself, releasing a sigh of exhaustion.

Ian wasn't surprised that Cybell won, she tended to do that, but he was surprised that her opponent was able to put up so much of a fight before finally losing. He was even more surprised that Bell actually acknowledged her opponent's skill. "And yet when I beat you you just try to rip my head," he mumbled to himself. Sitting in the empty seat beside him, Azure Child just silently laughed at Ian's pouting. "Oh shut it you," he said, only earning more snickering from Azu. Ian sighed and resigned himself to being the butt of Azu's private joke. It would be so much easier if the duel spirit could talk, like Bell's Maiden could.

Putting up his feet on the seat in front of him, Ian slipped his headphones over his ears and closed his eyes, only pretending to sleep. It would only take a few minutes for Cybell to track him down, she was like a bloodhound when it came to finding him when he didn't want to be found, and when she did he planned on making her think he had slept through her duel. She would be pissed. It would be great. He didn't think about what she would do after that, but it was safe to assume it would involve bodily harm.

---

Well, it actually took her less than a minute to find him, and that was without even looking. She grabbed some food, fries smothered in ketchup, from a vendor and wandered leisurely over to where some idiots were dueling. From the looks of it, they had been dueling when Bell's duel had been going on. How dare they!

May tapped Bell on the shoulder and pointed to a the boy leaning back in his seat two rows below. Bell snatched some stranger's drink from where they had set it down for a second and overturned the contents onto Ian's head and precious headphones. He jumped up and spun around, right in time to slam face-first into Bell's half-eaten tray of ketchup and fries. Azu and May were both rolling on the ground laughing, and Bell just walked away to investigate the duel. It was over before she got there, but from the appearances of the two involved, she could assume that it hadn't been worth watching anyways.

Shana, having not expected the sudden hug, had her expression frozen in a vaguely confused smile as she was lifted from the ground. Wow, this girl was much friendlier than she'd thought!
Once her feet was upon solid ground again, Shana's grin returned in full, tipping the brim of her hat upwards slightly a she laughed, "I'll try! Guess I'll have to improve within a few hours!"

Someone yelled something, causing Shana to look for the source of the noise. She just glimpsed someone returning to their seat, causing her head to tilt in wonder.

"...Think ahead, huh?" the straw-hat mused aloud. Thinking over the cards she had available... was there a better strategy to use? She never drew a trap card, but could she have used Thestalos somehow? Maybe she should have tried harder to summon her Sword Master? Could those cards have changed the outcome?
Instantly realising the right strategy wasn't something Shana excelled at, so finding out the correct play was a tad difficult for her.

Ghost had wondered over to the unofficial duel just in time to see the huge XYZ Dragon smash its way to victory and the holograms faded. It was nice to see not all the people competing were not as up themselves as he would of thought for a tournament of this sort of size, he walked to up the victor from behind and tapped her on the shoulder, hoping to get her attention with out scaring her.

"Excuse me miss, I would not mind a round with those dragons."

He stood back a bit and made a signal with his hands which Dullahan saw and knew it was the sign that Dullahan return from his own wonderings as Ghost was hoping to duel a bit to warm up for his tournament match.

(sorry for the weak post, im just bored of having my invisibility cape on :P)

Gao decided that sitting around would be the worst thing for him so he stood and began walking around the stadium checking out all of the people dueling So many people all having so much fun...This is what Duel Monsters is about. he thought to himself watching Ruby float around the people trying to get attention from them even though they couldn't see him. He started to chuckle seeing all that and eventually started laughing so hard he had to stop and lean against a wall so he could laugh it all out.

-Ignore-

"While Mr. Karsen and Mr. Redgrave are dueling," Gero's voice rang out over the speakers, "let's make things a little more interesting. Due to a slight glitch in the roster, the duel between Jax and Aeron Walsingham will have to be put on hold. Joshua Tamashii and Alexis Alison, your time to step up to the stage has arrived. Please wait while the secondary stage is brought down." After that announcement concluded, a sight to see would be seen. From the ceiling of the stadium, a second dueling platform - supported by a strong suspension system - was brought down from above. Complete with railed staircases deploying themselves after the stage was set. "Joshua Tamashii and Alexis Alison, please report to the secondary stage immediately."

Nyne looked away from the small table at which he was dueling, looking onward as the secondary stage descended. The teenager he was dueling had his mouth open way too wide. "Don't be too shocked, you don't want flies down your throat, right?" The kid was in shock that he was beaten in only 3 turns, he even had jinzo, so how did Nyne bring out 3 beelze, king of dark dragons? "Sad that I cant use this deck in the tournament, it would be too unfair." Nyne got up, shuffling his deck, and placing it in its box, which hang at his side, along with his geargia deck. Geargiano made a series of whirs, which sounded like a combination of snickering and complaining, As it wanted Nyne to play the Geargia deck.
With his face still emotionless, he walked off, going to the nearest restroom.

"Well, I'll give you a tip: Puddingcess and her aren't built around the same lines as Galaxy-Eyes. It's not about racing to get the biggest, baddest dragon out as fast as you can," Charlotte explained, as she sat down once again, "So it's not going to be a race to the top."

As the gang once again gathered itself around the redhead, she looked thoughtful, "If you need any particular cards, Daisuke might have them, for a price."

The indicated youth, wearing an extremely conspicuous trenchcoat, winked conspiratorially at Shana. Might be a bit late to try mmodifying the thing in any reasonable way, but hey.

"...I see," Shana nodded. It made perfect sense, after all; every deck had its own style of play, and Puddingcess clearly didn't belong to that archetype. It made her wonder which of Charlotte's decks was stronger, because if that was her non-serious deck...
Flikkar, who had resumed floating above Shana's head, seemed to treble in size and intensity alongside the straw-hatted girl's desire to rematch Charlotte. Somehow or another, she was going to put up an even better fight!

"...New cards, huh?" Shana was intrigued as she looked at the winking guy in wonder. Come to think of it, she had never really altered the deck since she got it. Shana didn't really trust herself to improve it in any way, but her father had mentioned she should make it her own. In fact, he'd even said that the deck was still incomplete.
Then again, she was in the middle of a tournament, and modifying her deck now seemed unfair, even if she had yet to play an official match.
"Maybe later," Shana replied with her characteristic bright smile, "For now, I wanna see just how strong is in its current build!"

"Looks like we're up." Joshua said as he her Gero call him and Amelia's alias.

Amelia nodded as she looked nervous. Joshua gave her a small smile and placed a comforting hand on her shoulder
"Relax. You're going against me." he said gently" we'll just go out there and have fun like we always do."

Amelia managed to smile and nodded.
"Alright... shall we head up then?" She asked

It took a few minutes but they both managed to make it to their dueling platform. Both of them raised their duel disk, which Joshua had used some of his winnings from smaller tournaments to customize them. Joshua's was black, bit a few silver highlights while Amelia's was a combination of green and silver.
"Alright then..." Joshua started

".... let's get the show started!" Amelia finished as their decks were shuffled and they drew their hands. Amelia was going first, something she knew could grant her a bit of an advantage. Looking at her hand she quickly saw her move for this turn." I set one monster face down and end my turn."

"As expected." Joshua said, drawing a card and quickly glancing at his hand. He had Gem-Knight fusion, which was good but the problem was Amelia's face down. If it was Egul, Winda, or Kamui he couldn't destroy it by battle but if it was Falco then destroying it by a card effect was just as bad. The worse case scenario was if it was Gulldo, in which case was screwed no matter what he did. So there was only one thing to do.
"I summon Gem Armadillo!" he said. On the field a tan armadillo made out of stone with a few red gems and dark brown missiles appeared on the field. "Due to Armadillo's effect I can add one normal Gem-Knight monster from my deck to my hand. I add Gem-Knight Tourmaline to my hand. Then I end my turn."

"You're holding back Joshua... or are you scared?" Amelia asked as she drew a card." I set another monster face-down and end my turn."

"Well... that's troublesome." Joshua said, drawing his card" I'll activate Particle Fusion. With this I'll fuse Gem-Knights Garnet and Obsidian to special summon Gem-Knight Ruby!". On the field a giant ruby appeared, only to shatter and reveal a knight in red armor and a blue cape wielding a staff-like weapon that ended in a curved blade." On top of that, thanks to Obsidian's effect, I can special summon Garnet from my graveyard." This time a garnet appeared a shattered, revealing a knight in a lighter red armor with a few flame motifs and some oversized gauntlets.

"Uh oh." Amelia said, knowing full well what was coming up. She just had to hope Joshua didn't have that one spell card.

"Next, I'll equip Ruby with the Fusion Weapon. His attack and defense go up by 1500 points, putting his attack up to 4000. Then I'll activate Ruby's effect. By sacrificing Garnet, his attack increases by another 1900 points, putting it 5900." Joshua said as Garnet left the field" Then I use Particle Fusions effect. By removing Garnet from the graveyard I increase Ruby's attack points by another 1900." With this Ruby's attack Was a staggering 7800." Now Ruby, attack the card on the right!"

Responding to his master's request, Ruby let out a battle cry as he carded toward the face down monster and sliced the card with his pole arm. From the card a small, green bird emerged before vanishing in a shower of sparkles

"Since Ruby destroyed a monster in defense position..." Joshua started

"... the difference between my monster's Defense and Ruby's Attack get's inflicted to me." Amelia said before the shockwave from Ruby's attack hit her and reduced her life points to a mere 600 points.

*What do you mean our duel with Peter got delayed?! Now we have to wait longer to duel!*

Scout was rather unhappy at the fact that Lars was notified minutes ago he would be dueling at a later time. It was disappointing to the duelist too to be sure; he was already pumped and ready to go when he was informed of this, so everything was kind of buzz killed.

"Unfortunately that's how things are at this point. The tournament brackets aren't even up anymore, so who knows if we'll even duel Peter anymore."

Seems like Gero really needed to upgrade his systems or something. What was he running on? The first version of Windows?! Even in Obsidian's underground tournaments thing would go by smoothly in regards to arrangement and scheduling! Lars huffed, but went over to watch the duel that had begun anyway.

*Grr... I smell some disgusting pigeons around...*

Scout was immediately on edge when the duelists began to duel.

"Pigeons? Oh..."

If by "pigeons" he meant /those/ monsters, then Scout wouldn't be very agreeable for the next few hours.

"Well... try to keep yourself restrained."

Lars watched intently with interest as Joshua played his cards. It was impressive. In just three turns he was able to get out a powerful monster and raise its attack to an astonishing 7800. With its effect of piercing battle damage...

"Holy crap. Heh, I feel sorry for her..."

Amelia's lifepoints were instantly reduced to mere triple digits. Things didn't look so bright for her anymore, especially if she only had weak Gusto monsters to defend herself.

"Hey Scout, study that-"

Scout was no longer by his side and was instead speeding directly toward Amelia, shouting a spew of curses about Gustos and good for nothing tribes.

"Sh*t!"

Lars had no choice but to jump down there and grab Scout... at the cost of embarrassing himself before the entire stadium maybe....

"You are dead when I get my hands on you, bug!"

Gao watched the duel still studying the competition.
"Geez those Gem-Knights are crazy ." He said looking down at Ruby and looking back up just in time to see the small bug like spirit zooming toward the stage and getting a laugh from Gao who listened to the stream of curses pouring from his mouth.

When the dust cleared from Joshua's attack, a new monster was on Amelia's field. It was a young woman with light green hair wearing a white dress under a tan cloak and holding a silver staff that ended in a hook that housed a chunk of emerald.
"Since you destroyed Equl with your last attack I got to summon a level 4 or lower non-tuner monster from my deck. I chose to summon Winda, Priestess of Gusto in defense position." Amelia said

Joshua sighed
"Turn end." he said. There was no point in attacking Winda, since she would just be replaced by a new monster, and her face down was likely another searcher as well. Since Armadillo had no pierce effect Joshua had no means to finish Amelia off. He just had to wait until his next turn to finish her off, if he could. At least she had a 4000 atk point monster to get through first.

Amelia drew her card for the turn and smiled.
"I reveal my face down monster. Come forth Gusto Gulldo and synch with Winda to syncho summon Daigusto Gulldos." She declared. A small bird appeared from Amelia's face down and flew into the sky before growing several times bigger and flying back down again. Winda jumped up and landed on the huge bird's back just as it flew under her before grabbing a pair of reigns on the birds back.

"Since Gulldo left the field, I can special summon one level 2 or lower Gusto monster from my deck. I summon Kamui, Hope of Gusto. Then from my hand I'll summon Gusto Falco and synch them together to synchro summon Daigusto Falcos!" The same process happened, only this time the monsters involved where a young boy with bright green hair wearing dark green cloths under a tan cloak and holding a wand topped with a blue stone and a small bird resembling a baby falcon, although when it came down the falcon wasn't so small anymore" Thanks to Falcos' skill Gulldos and Flacos gain 600 ATK points each. Also, since Falco left the field through means other then battle while he was face up on the field, I can special summon a Gusto monster from my deck in face-down defense position."

Her field now set, she smiled at Joshua
"Hope you're ready. I use Gulldos' skill. I shuffle two Gusto monsters from my graveyard to my deck and destroy one face-up monster you control. Good-bye Ruby." She said. Gulldos let out a cry before flapping it's wings and sending out waves of wind which destroyed the red armored knight." Now that he's gone, I attack Gem Armadillo with Daigusto Falcos before attacking you directly with Daigusto Gulldos!"

Joshua watched as his monsters where destroyed and then as his life points dropped down to 4900. He was impressed and he felt himself stuck in a corner now. Amelia had a definite advantage over him.

"I set two card's face-down and end my turn." Amelia said

"This just got interesting." Joshua said, as he drew his card.

....

Before Scout could reach the duel, a figure in pure black, glittering armor and a set of oversized prayer beads wrapped around their body, grabbed him and the smaller bug him up.
"Steelswarm Scout... what are you doing here?" The figure asked with a deep voice.

"Causing trouble. just like his kind did before no doubt." A boy who resembled Kamui, Hope of Gusto said as he approached

Scout spat angrily before releasing a small charge of violet-red energy from his body. It was by no means a particularly harmful attack, but it was enough to get the armor-clad spirit's grip off him. His eyes burned with unreasonable hatred as he stared at his temporary capturer amd Kamui, with particular hate for the Gusto spirit before him.

*You inferior clans people! It would be frigging hilarious to see you all crushed by a team of Girastag, just like they did the pathetic Gishkis!*

The Steelswaem Crest began to glow on Scout's body as if he were trying to send out a beafon of sorts, only to find himself being held back by a new individual. He was about to shock them too before he realized it was Lars.

*What?! You too? Come on Lars, let's call in the rest to destroy them!*

Lars placed a hand over the Steelswarm's large mouth.

"You know I don't just crush others without reason, so it's too bad the other Iswarms will have to wait."

The duelist then noticed the two other duel spirits nearby. He couldn't identify the first one clad in armor, but he did know the other spirit was a Gusto.

"Save your hateful energy for when we actually need to duel. Now, you two..."

Joshua looked at his hand and sighed. He had used up most of it last turn and his current hand of Gem-Knight Fusion, Gem-Knight Tourmaline, Gem-Knight Alexandrite, and Gem-Knight Obsidian left him with very few choices. Unless his plan worked he had no chance at winning. So time to lay it all on the table and hope for the best.
"I activate Gem-Knight Fusion from my hand and fuse Alexandrite, Tourmaline, and Obsidian to summon Gem-Knight Master Diamond!" He declared. On the field a giant chunk of diamond, bigger then the chunk of gemstone the other Gem-Knight's he had summoned thus had been, appeared on the field

"No you won't. I activate Spiritual Wind Art - Miyabi. I sacrifice Daigusto Falcos to return Diamond to the bottom of your deck. OR in this case, you're extra Deck." Amelia said as Falcos vanished along with the chunk of diamond.

Joshua cursed in his head. He had no hand now and his field only consisted of Armadillo. Obsidian would give him another card on the field but at this point it made no difference. Amelia's field was just too strong. Still, she deserved to win.
"Obsidian's effect summons Tourmaline in defense position. I also change Armadillo to defense position before ending my turn." He said, his tone resigned but a smile on his face nonetheless.

Amelia smiled sadly as she drew her card. She wanted to help Joshua, not knock him out. However, she knew if she held back know he would see it as a major insult and she wouldn't do that to him
"From my hand I summon Winda, Priestess of Gusto. And I reveal my facedown monster, Windaar, Sage of Gusto." she said, as another Winda and a man who could've been her and Kamiu's father appeared on the field" Winda attack you Armadillo while Musto will get rid of Tourmaline. Then Gulldos will attack you directly!"

Joshua watched his remaining defenses get trashed before the giant bird flew towards him. However Amelia had one last surprise.

I activate my face down, Blessings for Gusto. I return two Gusto monsters from my graveyard then special summon Daigusto Falcos from the grave." She said. Falcos appeared on the field and Gulldos' attack increased by another 600 points before hitting him." Now Falcos will finish you off Joshua!"

Joshua's smile widened as his lifepoints hit 0.
"Congratulations Alexis." He said, being careful to use Amelia's fake name" You really turned that around. You've improved a lot."

"Thanks." Amelia said, smiling back.

With a nod to each other they both left the field. Once no one could see her, Amelia allowed herself to place her hand over her heart, which was causing her a good amount of pain now that her adrenaline had died down. She had gotten too excited during the duel and she was regretting it now. After giving herself a few minutes to relax she walked back to the meeting place with Joshua.

...

Kamui and Obsidian watched the duel going on until it ended. Without a word to Lars they left to return to their respective partners, Kamui to Amelia and Obsidian to Joshua

On one of the bleachers, a man in a yellow coat sat, his feet on the back of the empty seat ahead of him as he ate one of the malted chocolates he'd bought at the concessions. The duels were kind of running together, but they'd get to him eventually- and just participating in the tournament would be free advertising for Ghoul's Night! He thumbed through the Unlivestock, nodding at each that came up. This was going to be a tough run, but something about the adorable little zombies got to him.

After the duel between the Gusto girl and Gem Knight guy ended, Lars walked up onto the dueling stage to wait for his delayed opponent. Scout bided his time by spinning around in the air, and Lars simply chuckled at how easily entertained Scout could get when he was bored. The duelist pulled out his beloved deck from his pocket, shuffled the cards, and then placed it within the tournament provided duel disk. He would activate it when Peter finally showed, and then his Iswarms could finally battle in this tournament.

 "Come soon," he said to no one in particular, "The Swarm is getting restless...."

---

Peter had been rather impressed by the quality of dueling thus far, he was rather scared by it, to be honest. His opponent was the lswarm guy. Stepping up to the podeum, he plugged his duel disk into the console and the familiar rainbow of colour exploded from the projectors.

"Be careful of this guy, I sense a lot of potential coming from him and his deck." said Neos.

"Alright." replied Peter. "Let's get him." he pumped his fist as he said so. After the coin on the large monitors flipped, it landed on a picture of Peter's face.

"Peter gets to choose what turn to take." 

"I'll take the second turn." he said, he wanted to know what his opponent was going to throw down first. Peter drew his opening hand. Actually, it was surprisingly amazing, he already had a fusion all lined up... 2 if he really wanted to, but he didn't want more than one of his power monsters on the field at a time, knowing that his opponent was good at blowing up the field.

---

"You're finally here," Lars told his opponent as he drew five cards without looking. Taking a dueling stance, Lars smirked in a determined manner at Peter as Scout floated up next to his head. Lars remembered that this guy's spirit partner was Neos, and so made a few comments and questions to the little fiend.

"His partner is Neos, a HERO monster. Any knowledge on those guys?"

*Hummmmmm.....* Scout uttered as his large eyes glanced to Neos before looking back to Lars.

*This wouldn't be the first time the Iswarms have fought against them, that's for sure. HERO monsters and their magic focus on fusions, and the new monsters they become can be quite the bother.*

"Fusion summoning huh? Then that means..."

Lars had a couple of cards that could aid him in this duel, though he first had to see what hand exactly he had drawn. Peter had chosen to go second, giving Lars his sixth draw. Observing his hand, he saw that it wasn't a bad one. In fact, he could easily go what he planned to do in this duel later on.

*Are you going to go for it?* Scout asked.


"Not yet," responded Lars as he looked across the field.

"We begin! I'll start by setting two cards down in my backrow. I end with that."

Scout looked questioningly at Lars.

*Seriously, that's it?!*

"Yeah, pretty much all I'm deciding to do for this turn. Not much else I can do anyway," Lars said with a shrug.

---

Peter drew his card as his turn began. "Two backrow?" he asked. "Well, i've got the perfect guy to deal with them." he said. slapping down a card, Elemental HERO: Wildheart burst onto the field. "Wildheart is a man born and raised in the jungle, hunted by every danger known to manking, he knows every trap there is and how to dodge and evade them, your traps won't work on him." he said. "Wildheart, go get him." he said, pointing at his opponent. Wildheart rushed towards Lars with his sword held high and brought it down on him. "With that, i'll set this backrow and you can retaliate.

Lars clutched his chest and winced slightly as Wildheart brought his sword down on him, reducing his life points to 6500. Off to a really good start here, he thought sarcastically in his head. He soon shrugged it off though, knowing it wasn't wise to start getting frustrated early. Breathing in, he drew his next card and set it down on the backrow.

"Don't think that just because I did the same thing last turn, I'll do the same thing now," Lars said as he selected another card in his hand.

 "I'll summon a monster of my own! Come here, Evilswarm Castor!"

Seconds after Lars had slapped the card on his duel disk, a large, hulking, metallic monster shimmered onto the field. The single eye on its head glowed red as it extended a blade from its hand and brandished it at Peter and Wildheart.

"Castor was originally a Constellar warrior before the Iswarm Virus overtook his body and mind," Lars explained as the monster drove its blade into the ground and conducted a strange magic through it.

"He does remember a few things about his old life though, and that's that Constellars should never fight alone. When I summon Castor to the field, I'm allowed one more summon of an Iswarm monster!"

Lars' eyes grew determined as he summoned his second monster, Steelswarm Caller. The insectoid creature burst up from the large wound in the earth Castor had created with its weapon and flew around Wildheart, snapping its metallic teeth before flying next to Castor to await further commands.

"Now time for the advance! Caller, destroy Wildheart! Castor, follow up his attack by striking my opponent directly with your Crush Blade!"

The Steelswarm monster buzzed its wings as it dashed towards Wildheart, intending to rip him to pieces as its arms and wings powered up with purplish energy....

---

As he saw Wildheart being attacked, Peter looked at those two backrow his opponent had, Wildheart was immune to them, but his face down Mask Change wouldn't be, nor would Dian when he came to the field. Then he saw the two big brutes coming for him.

"Crap..." Did he save it for later when he could guarentee Dians safety? Or pop it now and save Wildheart...

"There is a way..." said Neos, next to him. "When his monster attacks, during the battle phase, use it... he will only be able to use Counter Traps and Quick spells... That won't necessarily save Dian, but it'll be the safest time to summon him." Peter pumped his fist.

"Alright." he grinned. As the battle phase started and the attack was declaired Peter pressed the button on his duel disk. Immediately, Wildheart's face began to glow, as did the rest of him. A large mask appeared and covered Wildhearts face, finally, the light burst and Dian burst out of the cocoon, flourishing his sword.

"Go, Masked HERO: Dian!!!" yelled Peter.

---

Steelswarm Caller hissed as he stopped his advance short when Dian appeared. Sliding to a stop, the steel insect hissed and spat venom at Dian before dropping on all fours, circling the creature like a lion ready to pounce. Caller still wanted to battle, but Lars knew the Steelswarm would be easily outmatched by the Masked Hero's 2800 attack strength.

"So soon?" Lars asked Peter. "Good, this actually proves beneficial to me! Reveal face down, Compulsory Evacuation Device!"

Steelswarm Caller buzzed his wings as he called for more of his allies, and seconds later, a swarm of Steelswarm Callers appeared from a rift in the air and headed en masse towards Dian. Such a swarm would easily strip the hero down to the bone, and knowing this, Dian fled the field for safety. The swarm of Callers shouted in anger as they returned to the rift from whence they came.

"Now I'll replay my attack! He's wide open my Iswarms, attack him directly, both of you!"

Castor rushed at Peter with an extended arm blade, causing the ground to quake beneath every step it took. Caller was quicker, flying towards Peter before abruptly swerving behind the duelist and striking him with a strong kick towards the back. The Steelswarm then restrained Peter's arms in what seemed to be a Nelson lock, allowing Castor a brutal direct attack with his Crush Blade. Steelswarm Caller seemed to laugh in sadistic satisfaction as he pushed Peter away towards the ground, to which Castor acted in response by pushing the duelist over on his back before leaping back towards Lars.

"Excellent job Castor... and Caller," Lars said with a cruel grin as both monsters returned to his side of the field.

"Thanks for fully revealing to me what your deck focuses on," Lars told Peter as he signaled towards both of his monsters.

 "Granted though, it was pretty obvious from the start what that was. Castor, Caller, create your infested Overlay Network to bring forth another of your allies!"

The Steelswarm monster jumped on the Evilswarm's back, prompting both of their Iswarm crests to flash brightly and release a surge of energy that caused both monsters to shimmer together and disappear. A rift was left behind in their disappearance, and from the darkness of the portal, a creature roared as the sharp claws of an Evilswarm stabbed through onto the field. The head soon followed, revealing malicious eyes and a sharp beak that looked like it could tear anything to pieces. 

"Behold one of the infected dragons of the Ice Barrier, Evilswarm Ophion!"

Ophion screeched as it jumped through the portal to reveal the rest of itself. Its body was seemingly made of black and grey ice from which two blue and red wings extended from. The Evilswarm smashed its tail onto the ground, causing black ice to begin spreading across the field and behind both duelists. Fanning its icy wings, Ophion caused the ice to reach upwards, forming jagged pillars of blue and red ice behind Peter and Lars. Lars smirked.

"I won't reveal Ophion's ability now, but you'll find it'll put a dent in all your plans! I activate his first effect by detaching one XYZ monster from my monster! To the grave, Evilswarm Castor!"

Castor appeared briefly on the field before vanishing and shooting a card at Lars' hand. He revealed it to his opponent, showing Infestation Infection before setting it face down on the field. 

"I now end, but not before activating my field spell. I play Abyss of Infestation!"

The Iswarm symbol traced itself along the ground in fissures until it was fully formed. Then, it released a blaze lf power to constantly glow on the field as stone walls rose up around the field. Ophion screeched as it was empowered by the energy released from the fissures, causing its attack to be raised to a good 3050.

---

Lars: 6500
Peter: 4550

Gao grinned watching the two duelists battle it out.
"These two are really good and I do mean really good....I'm almost glad we got beat in the first round." He said looking to Ruby who just sniffed and licked her paws. When the infected Ice Barrier dragon appeared Gao looked on in wonder and chuckled to himself. It may not have anything on Rainbow Dragon but hey its a strong card either way especially if its anything like the origional. he thought to himself with a grin