Chapter 127: The Dynamic Duo of Taking Ls

"Rowan, this is bad!"

Just as class had let out and Rowan was planning to take his round Kuriboh up to the rooftop to soak up some sun and relax for a bit, he suddenly spotted Alexis Rhodes hurrying over, her two clingy girlfriends in tow, her expression rather grim.

She brought him some news.

"Zane, Jaden, and Atticus, it looks like they went ahead to the lake without us, to challenge Camula to a Shadow Duel!"

"Guess that's the pride of being the academy's top student talking. Didn't want to get upstaged."

Rowan said, unable to help shaking his head helplessly at the news.

So much for trust between comrades.

No wonder he'd had the nagging feeling earlier that he hadn't seen that hotblooded idiot Jaden or Atticus and the others around anywhere.

He'd figured they were just skipping class. Turns out they'd caught wind that Zane had gone to the lake early, and had tagged along after him.

"Well, in that case, let's go take a look at the situation ourselves too." Rowan suggested.

If Kaiser Zane Truesdale had gone alone to fight the Shadow Duel, there would have been a decent chance he'd win.

But now that quite a few people had tagged along with him, Rowan was almost certain Zane was doomed to lose.

After all, a Shadow Duel wasn't always just a straightforward contest of real damage.

Just like before, when Atticus had still been under the control of that black mask's power, he'd locked Jaden, Chazz, and the others inside that orb of light as hostages.

If the duel dragged on too long, the orb's protective barrier would vanish, dropping the hostages inside into the magma below, all to pressure the opponent.

That vampire woman Camula surely had some similar dark power trick up her sleeve too, and it was bound to be even more outrageous than that.

At Rowan's suggestion, Alexis nodded at once, and together they hurried off toward the lake from the night before.

By the time they reached it, thick fog blanketed everything, the sky above looking gloomy and dim.

Rowan spotted the familiar red carpet path at a glance, already laid out across the surface of the lake, stretching all the way to the shore where they stood.

Beyond that, there wasn't a single soul in sight anywhere around them.

Clearly, Jaden, Kaiser Zane Truesdale, and the others had already crossed via that red carpet path and gone out to the middle of the lake.

Seeing this, Rowan and Alexis exchanged a glance, nodded, and set off across the red carpet path themselves, Alexis's two friends following behind them, huddled together in fear.

Before long, they arrived at the gate of an ancient, gloomy-looking castle.

After confirming that someone among them carried a Spirit Key, the vampire castle's gate rose upward on its own, letting Rowan, Alexis, and the others through.

Soon after, Rowan found himself inside an old, European-style aristocratic hall.

The dim hall had a second-floor corridor running around it, and on either side, two jutting balconies extended outward, hanging in midair to face one another, forming a dueling arena set beneath the skylight above.

At that moment, Chazz, Bastion, and Chumley stood gritting their teeth on the red-carpeted floor below, all of them glaring up furiously at Camula, who stood on one of the raised dueling platforms on the second floor.

The Duel Disk on her left wrist hadn't yet been put away. Clearly, she had only just finished a duel.

In her other hand, she was holding several dolls, each dressed in miniature clothing.

It was easy enough to make out that these were none other than Kaiser Zane Truesdale and Jaden.

"So even that hotblooded idiot Jaden got taken down along with everyone else...?"

Rowan raised an eyebrow, a little surprised, muttering to himself.

His gaze swept past Atticus and Chumley as well, both lying unconscious beside Chazz and the others.

He'd figured that Zane alone would be the one to fall victim to Camula's "cheating tricks."

Turns out that in just the time it took them to get here, Jaden had already gotten caught up in it too.

"Finally showed up, did you, the one who beat that Darkness. Perfect timing, I was just picking out my next opponent."

By then, Camula had noticed Rowan and Alexis's arrival and turned her gaze their way, the corner of her mouth curling as she laughed under her breath.

"Your remaining friends here got so spooked after watching two more of them turn into dolls that none of them dared duel me anymore. It was starting to give me a bit of a headache, honestly."

"Rowan, don't take this woman on in a Shadow Duel so lightly. Her dirty tricks border on outright cheating!"

Seeing the situation as well, Chazz immediately called out a warning to Rowan.

"That's right. A moment ago, Kaiser Zane and Jaden both actually had a real shot at winning outright, but Camula activated some special dark-powered Spell Card that used Atticus and Chumley's very souls as hostages and Tribute Fodder to summon a monster, and they had no choice but to lose the duel because of it!"

Bastion elaborated in more detail.

"How could that even be allowed?! There's actually a method that outrageous?!"

Alexis and her two friends, Jasmine and Mindy, all went pale, crying out in shock.

Rowan, however, showed no reaction whatsoever. He'd already expected Camula's dark-powered "cheating" tricks well in advance.

"If none of you dare keep dueling me, then all three of these dolls will simply stay as they are forever!"

Camula lifted the two dolls in her hand, smugly aiming her threat at Rowan, Chazz, and the rest.

Professor Crowler's doll was currently in Chazz's hands, but since he too remained sealed inside it, he still counted as something of a hostage himself.

"Since you're so eager to duel, let me indulge you properly with this brand new deck I just picked up."

Rowan said, holding up the deck he'd only recently exchanged for.

At the same time, he pulled out a card whose face showed nothing at all but a sheet of darkness.

A completely blank card.

"Although, the rules and terms of this Shadow Duel need a slight amendment. If you lose, you won't be sealed away in one of those hideous little dolls. Instead, you'll be sealed inside this card, the one I got from that Darkness."

This blank card, usable as a Shadow Duel wager, was the very thing that had fallen out of Atticus's black coat not long ago, back when he'd been carried to the infirmary and had it stripped off him.

Rowan had simply picked it up at the time.

In exchange, he'd handed back the card that had sealed away the black mask to Atticus Rhodes himself.