The Duel Giant

*Late one evening...*

A duel was underway and a Obelisk Blue student was thrown back. His cards were scattered around him. Sitting up, he saw his opponent, a huge figure wearing multiple blue blazers and black shades that covered his eyes. He picked up a rare card from the pile.

"I'll be taking this!" The figure said. "Count yourself lucky that's the only thing I take."

The Obelisk shook due to fear.

*The next day...*

A couple Obelisks were talking among themselves about the duel that had happened the previous night. "I heard he picked off another one last night."

"Me too. They say he's huge. And that no one can beat him."

"I heard that-"

"Hey, what's up?" Jaden greeted them as he walked up to them, along with Syrus and Chumley. The three Obelisks looked in their direction, sneered and walked away.

"Wow, is my breath really that bad?" Jaden asked no one in particular.

"Don't mind them." A female voice said. It was Arisa.

"They're referring to the Duel Giant."

"Duel Giant?" Jaden asked.

"They say he challenges Obelisk Blues to duels at night." She explained.

"Wait a sec, I heard about this guy." Syrus realized. "He takes their cards too!"

"Yeah, he makes them play with an ante. You know, when you put up your best card, and if you lose you give it up."

"Isn't that illegal though?"

"Sure is. That's why he duels in disguise. See, he wears the blue blazers of all the Obelisk students he's beaten."

"Oh Jaden m'boy!" The three Slifera saw Dr. Crowler walking up to them with a smile on his face.

"He's being nice, something's not right." Syrus said.

"How would you like to have no homework for the rest of the year?"

"No homework?" Jaden asked.

"You and Syrus. That is, if you're willing to help me out. So, what do you say?"

Kaoru happened to be listening in to their conversation.

"How could we not." Kaoru said, emerging from the shadows. "But why not let Davis handle it?"

"I would, but he's busy tutoring." Crowler said.

"Cool! Works for me!" Jaden exclaimed.

"Uh. Shouldn't we know what were helping him with before we agree to anything?" Syrus spoke up.

"Don't fret about that, it's nothing big. Just going out on a little field trip." Crowler said with a smile still plastered on his face.

Jaden smiled at the prospect of such an easy task. "I love field trips. So, where's this one taking us teach?"

"All around the campus. I need you to find and duel the one who's having these illegal matches. You know who I'm talking about don't you? The Duel Giant?"

*'This is perfect.'* He thought to himself as he walked away. *'Once Jaden reports back to me with whoever this Duel Giant is, I'll have them both expelled for illegal dueling. This can't possibly go wrong.'*

Kaoru decided to challenge the Duel Giant in Jaden's place.

Despite the fact that the boy's goal was to find the Duel Giant, Jaden had stopped for a moment to watch a duel in an arena between an Obelisk and a Ra. "Jaden, if we keep taking breaks like this, we'll never find the Duel Giant. Shouldn't we be working on our homework instead?"

"Come on Sy, the Duel Giant will be easy. And when that's done, we won't have any homework. Plus, this duel looks like a good one."

The Obelisk student had 200 life-points, one card face-down and Marauding Captain in attack mode. (1200) He was facing off against a small green haired nervous boy with three hundred life-points and Mad Sword Beast also in attack mode. (1400) "Okay, I'll play…uhhh…" he said as he looked at the card in his hand.

Jaden leaned forward to see the Ra's cards better. "Sweet! He's got Earthquake."

'Come on Brier, you've got him right where you want. Now win this duel and go home. Just forget about everyone who's watching you. Now, should I use Earthquake to switch his captain to defense mode? Or should I just attack with my Mad Sword Beast?"

"Make you move!" his opponent yelled impatiently. "I'd like to get home sometime this school year!" The Obelisks watching joined in on putting the Ra down.

"What's the matter short-stack? Can't see over the cards?"

"Looks like the little baby's gonna cry. Wanna call you mommy?"

Brier tried to focus on his hand despite their words. "Eenie, meenie…"

"Miney, moe!" The Obelisk finished the angrily. "Just make a move, you're going way too slow!"

Brier cringed from the outburst and closes his eyes. "I… I attack with my Mad Sword Beast!" He yelled.

At the arena Kaoru sighed annoyed yet again at the taunting Obelisks and the bullying knowing she had beaten those same Obelisks when she was a Ra Yellow.

"Wha?" The three Slifers in the audience were visibly confused by the fact that he didn't use the card they thought he would. The opposing Obelisk smirked as the dinosaur charged the swordsman.

"I activate my face-down card. It's called Reinforcements and I give me 500 attack points. And I think I'll give them to my Marauding Captain." The warrior was powered up as he charged to meet the incoming monster. With a swing of a sword, he defeated his enemy.

Brier: 300-0

"He was so close." Jaden said.

"A classic case of stage fright." The three of them turned to see Bastion and Davis standing next to them with his arms crossed. "The boy has tremendous skill, but he hasn't been able to get over his anxiety of dueling in public like this."

Brier was down on his knees, almost on the verge of crying. "I didn't think it was possible, but on his knees he's even smaller than before." The victorious Obelisk and his dorm mates laughed at the diminutive Ra.

The small boy had an angry look on his face as he walked off the stage. The anger he displayed made Jaden fell a little uneasy. Winged Kuriboh appeared beside his respective partner.

"So, what's the crew up to these days?" Bastion inquired.

"We're looking for a giant." Syrus explained.

"A giant?" he gave them a questioning look.

"Yeah, you know the one who's been beating all the Obelisks."

"Yes, I've heard about this titan. He doesn't sound like someone you'd want to come across if he's angry."

"Hey, speaking of…" Jaden indicated on of the exits, "Check it out!" They looked to where he was pointing and saw Brier walking towards a big Ra student who was holding his arms out as if to comfort him. He almost reached the ceiling and was wider than most people.

"Seriously, just look at that guy. He's huge!" Syrus said.

"Who, Beauregard?" Bastion chuckled. "Please, he's no Duel Giant."

"What're you talking about? He certainly looks like one."

Bastion laughed at this. "But he's no duelist Sy. He's at the academy studying to design games, not play them. I know him, he can barely duel."

"Games huh? Oh well."

"I would take this Duel Giant on myself, but Crowler doesn't want to lose his best 2nd year student." Davis confessed.

"That's because we're missing something." Kaoru said having seen everything. "I mean this reminds me of the old brains and brawn. Let me face the duel giant and you'll see what I mean."

"Alright sis." Davis agreed to let her do this.

It was around midnight and Kaoru decided to walk around the academy to look for the Duel Giant.

She then heard a scream come from the woods.

"Let's find out who that is." Kaoru stated.

She ran and came across a Obelisk Blue boy kneeling on the ground with his deck strewn about.

"Who did this?" She asked.

"The Duel Giant took my best card." the Obelisk moaned.

"I'll find him." She went after the Duel Giant.

Not too long after, she came into a bit of a clearing where she saw a giant figure with many Obelisk Blue blazers covering him.

"Stop right there!" She demanded.

"I challenge you to a duel." She extended her duel disk.

"So be it, duelist." The giant agreed. They shuffled their decks, placed them in their disks, started them up and drew their cards.

Giant: 4000

Kaoru: 4000

"If you insist. I summon Giant Orc in attack mode." A muscular orc as big as the Duel Giant with a large bone club in its hand appeared in front of him.

Giant Orc: 2200/0

"Big mistake. As soon as your monster attacks, it's switched to defense mode." Kaoru pointed out.

"Make your move duelist." The giant said.

"Gladly." Kaoru drew and it turned out to be Elemental Hero Solid Soldier.

"I play Elemental Hero Solid Soldier."

Elemental Hero Solid Soldier: 1300/1100

"Then it's effect let's me bring out another Hero and I choose Elemental Hero Stratos."

Elemental Hero Stratos: 1800/300

Kaoru then placed a Hero from her deck into her hand.

"Your turn." She said.

"And it will be one you'll remember. I summon Goblin Black Ops." A bunch of six or seven green goblins dressed in black ninja suits with different weapons appeared beside their taller counterpart.

Goblin Black Ops: 1300/0

"Now with Black Ops' effect, they can attack you directly." The ninja goblins passed by her monsters and struck her with their weapons

Kaoru: 2700

"Now Giant Orc attacks Elemental Hero Solid Soldier." The massive fiend raised his bone club and brought it down on Solid Soldier.

Kaoru: 1800

"Now both monsters switch to defense position." The black garbed goblins and the large orc all knelled down.

"Not that they need any. I play Goblin Replacement. Now I can sacrifice one goblin monster to summon another from my hand with equal or less attack points. So I'll give up Goblin Black Ops for Second Goblin." The ninja creatures disappeared and the Duel Giant placed the monster card in one of his spell and trap card zones.

"My turn." Kaoru drew. "I use Polymerization, fusing Stratos and Liquid Soldier to bring out Elemental Hero Sunrise."

Elemental Hero Sunrise: 2500/1200

She then drew two cards and sent one from her hand to the grave while also adding Miracle Fusion from her deck to her hand.

"Your monsters won't protect you for long. I normal summon Elemental Hero Ocean in attack mode."

Elemental Hero Ocean: 1500/1200

"I'll have Ocean attack with Big Wave Crash." A tidal wave came toward the Duel Giant's monsters.

Then Goblin Black Ops exploded.

The explosion caused the Duel Giant's blazers to be blown back, revealing the big Ra they'd seen earlier.

"Beauregard." Kaoru's eyes narrowed.

"What should I do?" He spoke into an earpiece.

"Come on out Brier." Kaoru demanded. "I know you're here."

Brier climbed over the rock behind his friend, also wearing a headset. "How did you know I was nearby?"

"I used to be a Ra Yellow we studied together." Kaoru said. "So I know your abilities."

"But I lost that duel. What made you think I could beat all those Obelisks?"

"The only issue is your stage fright. That's why the Duel Giant only makes a appearance at night." Kaoru explained. "It's over. Return the cards you stole in those Ante duels."

"Nothing's over! I won't just go home and be little Brier anymore. Everyone makes fun of me. They say I'm small, a shrimp. I'm tired of them always laughing at me. Don't you see? That's why I get nervous and can't concentrate. He placed a hand on his friend's shoulder. Then I met Beauregard. They teased him too, so we decided to make all them all pay!"

A flashback of the moment when the idea of the Duel Giant had emerged came to Brier's mind. Him and Beauregard were in a dimly light room while putting together a bunch of card to make a deck. "And we'll play with the ante rule. So if they lose, we'll take their best card."

"But what if we get caught?" Beauregard worried.

"You let me handle that."

"Your secret's been exposed. Soon everyone else on the island will know provided we don't finish the duel."

"What? Well, since you aren't giving me any choice… Let's do this!"

Brier/Beauregard: 4000

Kaoru: 1800

"Just what I wanted to see."

"Before I end my turn I use Miracle Fusion to summon Elemental Hero Absolute Zero."

Elemental Hero Absolute Zero: 2500/2000

"Then I play a face down."

Beauregard nodded to his friend and drew his next card. "I summon Goblin King in attack mode." A smaller green goblin with a tiny crown and wearing a long red robe appeared.

Goblin King: 0/0

"Thanks to Goblin King's special ability, he gains 1000 attack and defense points for every fiend type monster on my field other than himself. And there's one. The monster in question cried out he it grew within its robes. "Then I equip him with Axe of Despair, giving him another 1000 attack points. The already powerful monster gripped the sinister red glowing axe.

"Goblin King, attack Sunrise." The powerhouse fiend pulled back it's arm.

"Not so fast!" Kaoru countered. "I activate Mask Change. Absolute Zero turns into Masked Hero Acid."

Masked Hero Acid: 2800/2100

Goblin King was then destroyed due to Absolute Zero's special ability, canceling out it's attack.

"Your rarest card will be mine once this duel's over."

"That's assuming you can win especially with no monsters on the field."

"And in case you forgot it's almost my turn."

"Now I'll have Sunrise and Acid attack you directly."

Brier/Beauregard: 0

Kaoru: 1800

"She beat us." Brier said dejectedly. "We're through."

"No, not we. Please, just turn me in, forget Brier," Beauregard pleaded.

"Beauregard?"

"I've always been alone and I'm not gonna let them expel you for being my friend. After all, didn't we always promise to stand up for each other? You're the best duelist I've ever seen. I won't let them kick you out of here."

"But what about you? Your dream of being a game designer?"

"Not all dreams come true." He gave him a smile.

"I have no intention of letting you get expelled." Kaoru replied. "When I said I would turn you in that was just to lure you out of your hiding spot. This was all meant for you to duel out in the open."

"You actually performed really well."

"I guess you're right." Brier admitted. "I did play well, and in front of people too. Maybe I can do it again."

"Tell you what? I'll encourage you the next time you face a Obelisk." Kaoru offered. "Let's go before Dr. Crowler finds us."