Aile watched her opponent contemplating his next move. She had him cornered, but after drawing his last card, from his expression, it was clear that he drew something that could get him out of the situation. Though at any rate, the man probably shouldn't trade his duel monster cards for poker.
Her opponent was clearly not the sort of person that the Duelist Society was searching for.
As a junior member of the Society, Aile was not yet privy to a lot of their ongoing, such as whether that 'freak lighting storm' that had people freaking out and was cited as the reason for this tournament was actually connected to the supernatural side or not. She was, however, aware that the true reason for this tournament was to look for new recruits. Aile herself had been assigned to participate in the tournament to look out for people with potential that the organizers had missed.
Her opponent finally decided what he would do...which was to set a single card face down in defence position.
'...Yes. Clearly not the one the Duelist Society was looking for,' Aile thought.
With his opponent ending his turn only by placing a monster in a defence position, Aile was reasonably certain that the monster he had set down was a flip effect monster. That or he drew a hand trap and just set a monster to help stall. Regardless, it was probably better to avoid attacking the monster and activating the flip effect just in case.
Seeing the cards in her hand, and on the field she had just the solution.
"First, I summon Noble Knight Iyvanne into the field."She placed the red-haired Noble Knight beside her Noble Knight that was already on the field, Noble Knight Artorigus, before picking another card from her hand, placing it in the spell/trap card zone beside Noble Arms-Gallatin, which was equipped to Artorigus.
"Next, I activate Noble Arms-Arfeudutyr, equipping it to Iyvanne. Iyvanne's effect activate, summoning a single token into the field."She took the blank cards provided to represent the token, placing it next to Iyvanne. She then immediately picking it back up, along with Iyvanne, before placing them in the graveyard.
"Using these two as material, I summon the link monster Isolde, Two Tales of the Noble Knights. Isolde's first effect activates, allowing me to add a warrior card from my deck to my hand."It did not really matter, what Aile was aiming for was its second effect. Nevertheless, she added the card Noble Knight Medraut to her hand.
She continued,
"Using Isolde's second effect, I'm discarding 4 equip spell cards from my deck to graveyard to summon the level four Noble Knight Custennin. I am then using Astorigus and Custennin as material to XYZ summon Artorigus, King of the Noble Knights."She noticed her opponent's face souring, the more she continued her play. If Aile had to guess, he was probably complaining in his head how long it took for Aile to finish. Judging from his simple beat-down deck, he was one of those players who still romanticized the old days of Duel Monsters where special summons did not lead to more special summons.
It was not as if Aile did not understand the sentiment, only recently returning to the game herself, but it was what it was.
"Activating King Artorigus' effect, I am now equipping three equip cards from the graveyard to him."This was part of the reason why she needed Isolde first instead of just XYZ summoning Artorigus directly. Well, she only needed one specific equip card in the graveyard instead of four, she supposed. But she did want that card just in case. She didn't want to leave the slightest thing to chance, after all.
She then placed three equip cards from the graveyard back to the field, and among them was the card Noble Arms-Clarent.
"Activating Clarent's effect. By paying 500 life points, the monster equipped with it will be able to attack your life point directly this turn. Now, as for the battle phase, King Artorigus attacks your life point directly."With the equip cards on it, King Artorigus had just enough attack to annihilate the last of her opponents' life points, giving her the win.
"Good gam—" As she reached out for a handshake, her opponent scoffed, "Tch. This is why modern duel monsters suck. What was that? Summons after the summons, and then just completely hitting my life point directly for 3500 damage?"
"I somewhat understand the sentiment but such is the current—" "And you! Look at you, you're probably just some rich girl who used daddy's money to buy all the rare cards!"
"..You are not exactly wrong, but such is the nature of a trading card game—""Bah! Excuses, excuses!"
Aile sighed at the unreasonable man. She simply ignored him and stood up, leaving the table. The man made further commotion as she ignored him until eventually, one of the staff, with the nametag 'Wheeler' escorted him outside.
She then noticed the man with the staff with the nametag 'Burke' approaching her.
"You all right?" her current guardian in Domino City asked her.
"Hmm...? Oh, that troglodyte earlier? I don't pay people like him any mind, so don't worry, Bill."William Burke sighed, "Troglo—? Come on, yeah, he was kinda asking for it, but seriously, you should work on that sharp tongue of yours."
Aile shrugged,
"What was wrong in calling a man with such behaviour a troglodyte? A person considered to be reclusive, reactionary, out of date, or brutish. Fitting perfectly, no?"William sighed again, "Never mind. Anyway, I assume you don't think he has the potential?"
"Obviously not. What about on your side? Anyone catch your eyes yet?" Aile replied.
William nodded, "Yeah. Valentine notes a girl using metalfoes. Goes by Claire Turner. Oh, and I also saw that kid you beat in that last tournament, you know the one with the dragon deck? Kid's pretty good too."
"Tobias Westen?" She sighed,
"He's here, is he?"Tobias Westen was a boy a year below her in Domino High School. She had known him by reputation. And she had met—and beat him—in a previous tournament that she entered to familiarize herself with modern rules since she stopped playing Duel Monster after her father became distant.
The boy took his defeat rather personally, though on Aile's part, she...really did not care about it. No, Duel Monster was not why she found the boy so irksome. It was the fact that in school, she had added so much to her headache. He has a bit—well a lot—of a rebellious streak. The teacher had tried all they could to discipline him, including taking him off the baseball team despite being their star player. Sadly, it only exacerbated the problem. The teachers were at their wits' end, and they did not want to do anything to push the issue too much because that would be liable to cause problems. Naturally as was the case with all things the faculties cannot be bothered with, it fell to the teachers' general gofer, to the student council. Meaning her, as the student council president.
She had tried talking to him, of course, only to be dismissed by the boy as he ran off—unfortunately, her stamina was nowhere as good as a baseball star player, former member or not. And he still keeps causing issues, which led to the teachers complaining to her, which increases her headache.
...Aile wondered if beating him up in Duel Monster would be considered a form of stress relief.
