Stacking The Deck - 22.2

He...he really did care for her, huh?

"That's not fair, you know?" she pointed out, yet despite her words she couldn't stop her lips from curving up, "Saying things like that, going to those kind of lengths for me, at this rate..."

At this rate, what? She'd end up falling for him? Maybe. Or maybe she was already falling. Her stomach fluttered as he merely smirked wider at her words.

It was almost amusing now that she thought about it. All those rich guys promising her anything she wanted, the honeyed words and compliments and more. None of it had ever made her the slightest bit interested.

Yet here she was, completely in over her head with a guy who blatantly leered at her, made no attempts to hide he wanted to bed her, was crude, violent and arrogant.

He was practically full of characters flaws.

Yet, at the same time he could be sweet and helpful. He was reliable, protective and strong. And he went out of his way for her to great extremes, just as he was saying now. He was the complete opposite of the typical guys who came on to her.

And it was totally working. She honestly couldn't blame Jasmine for how muddled he left her. He left Alexis just the same after all.

How such a blatant asshole could be so endearing totally escaped Alexis. But she couldn't help but fall under that same sway.

But, sweet as his words were, "I can't let you do that," she shook her head and refuting them, "You're gonna put your soul on the line if you do it."

Despite how much she longed to find and save her brother. A large part of her didn't want to lose Yarden in the process. It was odd she realised, how much he actually meant to her.

They'd only known each other a month.

"They'll come regardless," Yarden pointed out before shrugging, "Besides, I've already signed up for the position."

Her eyes widened, "You did!?" she gasped, then her eyes narrowed, "Why did you go ahead and do it without telling me all this first!?" she demanded, worry and fear seizing her heart.

"Because they're hardly the worst thing out there, and I struck a deal with Chancellor Sheppard to prepare in advance for them," Yarden answered easily, apparently unbothered by tone. He reached over to the coffee table in front of the couch, which she just now realised had multiple deck holsters sitting on it and slid open one of them and pulling out a single card, "C'mon Alexis, you know me. I'm not going for just your brother, I'm going for the whole shebang. I'll grab everything these Shadow Riders or whatever have for my own benefit when I crush them, save your brother and come out stronger than ever."

To punctuate his words, he held the card up for her to see and her eyes widened. She'd never even heard of anything like this card before.

Cyberdark Dragon - Level 8 - Dark/Machine/Fusion/Effect - 1000/1000

This monster cannot be Special Summoned except by Fusion Summon. When this monster is Special Summoned, select 1 Dragon-Type monster in your Graveyard and equip it to this card. This card gains ATK equal to the equipped card's ATK. This card gains 100 ATK for each Monster Card in your Graveyard. If this card would be destroyed by battle, the equipped monster is destroyed instead.

...What was that? It was a terrifying looking monster. But that name, Cyberdark Dragon. It obviously had something to do with the Cyber Dragons that Zane had.

'He said he struck a deal with Chancellor Sheppard!' her eyes shot even wider open with realisation. Chancellor Sheppard, who was the head of the Cyber Style Dojo and the one to pass on the Cyber Dragons to Zane!

It reminded her eerily of Cyber End Dragon. And it even had three component monsters to make it up. Cyberdark Keel, Cyberdark Edge and Cyberdark Horn.

It seemed to be a machine monster just like the normal Cyber Dragon's, but its effect targeted dragons in the graveyard. On first glance, she'd say Cyber End Dragon was much more powerful, but...in the hands of Yarden. Well, he had a way with cards that just surprised her. And he loved playing both dragons and messing with the graveyard.

'He has a card that lets him send a fusion monster from the extra deck to the graveyard if I remember right.' the busty blonde thought to herself. Extra Foolish Burial she thought. With that, he could send one of his Five Headed Dragons to the graveyard could he not? And immediately use this cards effect to attach Five Headed Dragon to it for a monster with six thousand attack points at the very least. But considering it needed to be fusion summoned, through that method it would be beast of at the very least six thousand three hundred attack points.

That seemed like a paly Yarden would like to pull. But, she knew it wouldn't be just that simple. He wouldn't be showing it off to her so blatantly if it was something that 'simple'.

"It fits well with your deck and is a powerful card, but...I don't see why you show it off to me as if it's some big achievement." she pointed out, looking into his eyes.

After all, as great as it was. She'd seen Yarden summon two Five Headed Dragons in a single turn and then use Gift Of The Martyr to give the attack points of one to the other for a massive ten thousand attack point monster that put even Cyber End Dragon summoned through Power Bond to shame.

It just didn't quite measure up to that.

"Well, lemme put it like this sweet cheeks," Yarden grinned, "Cyberdark Dragon has a spirit. A very young spirit, but despite how young it is, it's nearly as powerful as my strongest spirit, Serpent Night Dragon."

She knew it!

Alexis knew there had to be a reason he was so gosh damn protective of the reputation of Serpent Night Dragon. Why he was so angry at Rex Raptor. Because Serpent Night Dragon was no mere card and not just the headliner of his deck.

But a spirit he seemed to be very proud of.

"I don't know how to quantify that," she replied, "Like, how strong is Serpent Night Dragon as a spirit?"

"Hmm, I got ya'," Yarden tapped his chin and hummed, "Alright, lemme put it like this. If Serpent Night Dragon wanted, my good pal could absolutely demolish this entire dorm in a few minutes."

Ah, that powerful. That really was quite daunting.

...After all, the Obelisk Blue male dorm was actually the size of a large castle. So just one single spirit of his had greater fire power than a tank or military fighter jet.

"How many spirits do you have?" Alexis couldn't help but ask, "And how many are near that strong?"

She somehow was dreading the answer she was going to receive.

"Thirty four love," he casually answered, leaning back into the couch, "As for how many are around that level besides Cyberdark Dragon? Well, Hyozanryu and Dark Magician Girl aren't far off, neither is Relinquished and Rare Metal Dragon, Ranryu and Hundred Dragon are getting close."

....So that was where his confidence, nay sheer arrogance stemmed from. He practically had an army at his beck and call and by the looks of it and going by his words, was not at all satisfied enough to settle with that.

'At least it explains how he got Dark Magician Girl.' she snorted, he found the spirit of it.

She really wasn't sure how to respond to that. He basically had enough fire power to like destroy a small city or something given enough time.

There was one horrible question that came to mind though, "...How does Serpent Night Dragon measure up to the God Cards or these Sacred Beasts sealed here?" she asked.

"Clever girl," his lips curved up and he nodded approvingly. He sighed and reached up to scratch his cheek, and that motion alone did not spell good things, "My buddy is powerful, absurdly powerful. But, he'd be lucky to survive a single hit from any of them going by his own words."

'Yeah, I was afraid of that.' Alexis swallowed heavily.

How would one even go about opposing something like that? Going by that scale, the god cards and the Sacred Beasts, one of each had to be in the same range as a nuclear warhead in sheer destructive output. And there was three to each of the two groups.

And to make matters worse, normal people like her couldn't even see them outside of specific circumstances.

If someone nefarious got their hands on them, the kind of destruction that could be wrought on the world was catastrophic.

"And you're just going to pick a fight and get involved in all of that? Something I can't even imagine having the strength to fight against," Alexis asked him, voice filled with trepidation, "For me?"

"Among other things yes," Yarden answered without missing a beat, "Besides, you're overlooking a single thing."

"..And what's that?" she asked, confused.

"Remember when I told you of Ba, monsters born from peoples souls?" he asked. Her brows furrowed, but she nodded, "Well, it can be applied in reverse and you can bond with spirits."

Ah!

Let it never be said that Alexis was slow on the uptake, "You're saying the reason why you have so many spirits is so you can bond with them all!" she gasped in realisation, "You're combining all of their power at a focal point, using yourself as the centre of it all and amassing a greater power than they have alone."

That was why he was showing off Cyberdark Dragon and basically boasting of it in front of her. Because, from Chancellor Sheppard, he'd gained another spirit with the power to destroy a castle in minutes. With that alone, he doubled the power of Serpent Night Dragon more or less, and then there was all the other spirits he had!

If he didn't have quality, he would fight back with quantity!

It was genius in its simplicity.

"Smart and gorgeous, is it any reason I don't want to tattoo my name on that sweet booty?" Yarden winked at her teasingly.

Even with all the heavy information dropped on her, she couldn't stop the amused giggle that erupted from her lips. He really did never change.

His typical attitude with her drained the tension from her and she slumped back onto the couch beside him, "So you've got it all figured out, huh?" Alexis smiled lightly at him, "If these spirits are so important though to your plan, why did you give me one?"

She was sure of it now. Star Boy had to be a spirit.

"Caught on to that too huh?" he hummed, before suddenly reaching over and cupping her cheek and staring into her eyes, "I know you pretty well at this point I think Alexis. I know for a fact you won't be content to sit on the side lines, and you're definitely within the top seven duellists at this school, so you'll be offered a position just like me."

Her cheeks once again warmed up, "Ah...." she whispered. He was right. On both accounts. She wouldn't be content to sit on the side lines, and he really did know her.

Her heart thumped loudly in her chest though at his words. He had such a high opinion of her abilities. And it meant a lot to her that he thought so highly of her skills as a duellist.

"The thing is though, without something like a spirit watching your back or some kind of magic artefact to help you out," Yarden continued on, "You would have ben at a really bad advantage in any shadow duel. I just wanted to give you your own fighting chance."

Ah....so he'd been looking out for her all along.

A warm cozy feeling infused her body and she felt her eyes draw slightly shut, becoming half lidded and she leaned forward, her head approaching his, lips approaching his own.

Just a few inches from his lips though, before she gave him her first kiss, his hand slipped from cupping her cheek to blocking her lips, "..I thought you wanted me?" she mumbled, confused.

"You have no idea how much," he replied without missing a beat, "But I just dropped a ton of crap on you, and it's obviously effecting your emotions here. If you still feel the same tomorrow, you can do it then."

...How annoying. Why was he acting so chivalrous at a time like this when he'd more or less blatantly told her how much he wanted to bed her before. This guy was so contradictory at times.

His hand slipped from her mouth to around her shoulders and yelped softly as he pulled her into leaning against him, "For now though, how about we just chill out together and watch a movie," he grinned down at her before wiggling his eyebrows, "If you're a good girl, I may even feel you up a bit."

Alexis couldn't stop her lives from curving up into a huge beaming smile, "Sure, that sounds nice." she accepted his offer.