"You know, I've said it before, but I have to comment on it again," Zane mused aloud from where he stood looking down atop Yarden from above, "But the rate of your growth is absurd." he said, crossing his bare arms, the toned definition of his biceps being easily noticeable since he was only wearing a plain dark blue singlet.

"You just gotta…!" Yarden grunted out as he pushed up, the long straight barbell in his hands, weighing a total of five hundred and thirty pounds raising up for the forth time since he started, "Believe in the heart of the grind!" he finished, the bar raising up, before slowly lowering back down to be slowly brought back up again.

"What, is your name Muscle Moto now?" Zane rolled his eyes, he was standing at the ready to help him in case he failed his reps, but the chances were slim, "It's not that what you're doing is impossible, very impressive, but not impossible, it's the fact that you've reached this point so quickly that's odd, your body is weird."

"Nope!" Yarden smirked even as a vein pulsed on his forehead and he completed the fifth rep of his sixth set at five hundred and thirty pounds, setting it on the handles and sitting up, "You just don't believe in the heart of the grind enough." he pressed his previous point while rubbing at his biceps. They hurt like shit, but the burn felt so good.

After all, that pain was weakness leaving his muscles and being replaced by strength.

"You're not as funny as you think you are," Zane rolled his eyes, even as he unlocked the stopper on the bars and began to slide some of the weights of, "Your turn to spot me now." the older teen added

"Sure." Yarden nodded, standing up from the bench and helping him. Together, they removed more than half the current weight on it, bringing the total weight down to two hundred and thirty pounds, taking a full three hundred off.

They traded positions then, with Zane getting on the bench and Yarden standing behind the bench ready to help him if anything went wrong like he had with him before.

With a grunt of his own, Zane lifted the weighted bar up off of the handles and slowly lowered it down to his chest, before raising it up high.

"Let's see if you can catch up with me." Yarden grinned down at him.

Zane didn't reply, instead, he merely paused for a moment at the ascent of one rep and looked into the Scottish teen's eyes, before narrowing them and lowering the bar.

Yarden's grin widened.

It wasn't going to happen. He didn't doubt that Zane could reach the same weight as him in time, but by time he did, Yarden would have reached way beyond that weight.

When he started, this body could barely bench what amounted to less than a hundred pounds. Just the straight barbell alone without any weights added on was a struggle.

He'd been here nearly three months now, and that had changed quickly. Even without relying on his power enhancing his body, at base, he'd already reached the point where he could comfortably bench five hundred and thirty pounds.

That was just one of the benefits of being a spiritually enhanced badass thanks to his Ba. His innate recovery rate had been massively enhanced, where it would take people days, even weeks for a muscle to properly heal after lifting these kind of weights and improve, he was now capable of healing that damage and recovering in only a few hours at most, so he was capable of making full on gains, at least twice a day. On top of that, his body's general abilities had been massively enhanced, including his metabolism, so he could eat more and bulk quicker, and this was added on to the fact that the 'potential' of his body had been enhanced way beyond normal human limits for each Ba he'd gained.

While other humans had basically a cap of how strong they could get physically, and he did too, the difference was, his own cap was much higher than others now.

If he drew on his power to enhance his physical abilities fully, he could probably lift a full on ton at this point.

…Maybe.

He'd have to check that out somehow.

"So, how's things been with Alexis?" Zane asked as he finished a rep, breaking Yarden from his thoughts.

"Pretty good, nothing to complain about." Yarden shrugged. Alexis wasn't exactly your typical girlfriend and wasn't really interested in the whole going out thing a lot.

Granted, neither was he, going out to dinner wasn't really his thing.

But it had been a good few weeks now since they started dating, and a good decent while since that big blow out with Jasmine, and their relationship hadn't changed all that much. Their dynamic was more or less the same, just with a little more added in, being more touchy feely, kissing in general and she spent a lot of time in his room.

…The absolute loathing glares he got all day every day had increased massively in intensity though ever since it became public that he was dating Alexis.

'Well I probably brought a lot of it on myself.' he snorted. He was a petty fuck and liked to rub the fact he was dating the Obelisk's beloved 'queen' in their faces. So he tended to hold her hand a lot in public, share some lovely public kisses and even have her sit in his lap in full view of her simps.

Actually, did this count as a form of bullying?

Well, it also wasn't all great. Mainly in the fact that while she still hung around and talked to them, Jasmine was keeping her distance from him and Alexis, and Mindy hung around with her a lot more to make sure she wasn't feeling too bad about the whole thing.

So he'd not been hanging around with those two as much the past little while. But she'd come around in time.

Hopefully.

Well, once a full month was over he'd be sure to have a talk with her.

"Well, you're definitely getting a lot of…enemies out of it," Zane huffed, moving through another rep, "Alexis' popularity is quite absurd, granted I slightly understand their dissatisfaction, she is like a little sister to me, but even I found my eye wandering a few times on instinct, she is indeed that beautiful."

"What are they gonna do, cry about it some more?" Yarden rolled his eyes, unfazed. That was really all they could do. They couldn't beat him in a duel, and he'd had a mass of challengers since his new relationship came out, a bunch of them trying to make him bet Alexis on the duel, the weirdo's, he never did and just mopped them up. They couldn't do shit to him physically, he'd waste them and they knew it, he didn't care about shit they said, or their feeble glares and they definitely couldn't put him in his place by duelling.

"Apparently yes," Zane replied, making Yarden pause, "There is now an official 'Yarden Hate' club. It has over fifty members as of its creation five days ago."

Yarden blinked, "….What?" he said blankly.

Seriously?

"It was created by Harrington and Tony, and is an Obelisk Blue exclusive club," Zane was happy to inform, "They actually invited me to join and offered to let me become president for whatever reason."

Who the fuck was Tony?

"Wonder if I can join?" Yarden couldn't help but chuckle. God, actually, now that he thought about it.

That was utterly amazing.

He loved it.

"Somehow I doubt it," Zane noted dryly, as he finished his set and sat up for a bit, "Still, I have to admit, you're quite comfortable in your position, you don't seem threatened at all."

"Should I be?" Yarden asked with a shrug.

"The vast majority of the males on this island are infatuated and lusting after your girlfriend," Zane pointed out, "On top of that, she's been spending an awful lot of time with Syrus and his friends Jaden and Chumley lately."

"Not really anything to be threatened by," Yarden shrugged again, "Alexis is weird date wise, none of the clowns around here have what it takes to win her over, and no offense but I don't really see any of those three as a threat to my relationship even if Syrus has a crush on her as well."

The little guy wasn't exactly the greatest at hiding it. And she'd been spending a lot of time with them lately, because she was helping them out. What, with the 'duel giant' and then over the weekend just there the 'eggwich thief'.

She'd told him all about it and even offered to let him tag along, but he just didn't give a crap about the events and gave a hard pass.

There was really only two threats at all to his relationship with Alexis. The first being Jaden, he was who she would originally fall for, but he doubted it would come to that, besides, Jaden was his bro, he'd never fuck Yarden over like that even if the slightest possibility of it coming to pass did come from somewhere.

…The second threat was someone challenging her to a duel and making it an ante duel, where she would have to go out with them or fuck them if they beat her.

Alexis as intelligent as she was, still was all taken in by the duel customs around here.

But it wouldn't come to that either. Because if anybody tried, Hoshiningen would tell him, and then he'd break their fucking necks and then have his spirits dispose of the body, no duel involved.

So yes, he didn't feel threatened at all.

"Syrus does have quite a ways to go," Zane nodded in agreement, though a small smile spread across his face, "He actually approached me not long ago, he asked me to help him begin working out, it seems he wants to follow your example a bit."

Huh, that was interesting.

"Good on him, I'm a pretty great role model to choose," Yarden smirked and cross his arms, "Jealous?" he teased.

"Not especially, I believe he is mainly following your example because you're both quite short." Zane shrugged and smirked back at him.

"I'm five-six...and a half!" Yarden snapped back on instinct, before growling as he realised Zane won their little game there and got the rise out of him.

He'd grown half an inch since he'd gotten into this body. And his growth wasn't anywhere close to finished yet, he would totally hit six foot!

"It's fine, you just keep it up, you might catch up to me if you keep growing for another twenty years." Zane's smirk grew and he lay back down on the bench.

"It ain't just my body that's weird, you're freakishly tall for a Japanese guy." Yarden huffed. The guy was six foot one. Not even just him, Jasmine, Mindy and Alexis were all Japanese as well, and Jasmine and Mindy were five foot seven while Alexis was five foot eight.

They were way above the general height for Japanese girls.

"You're freakishly short for a Scotsman, rumours I heard of your country growing up painted you all as orange haired behemoth barbarians of pure muscle," Zane fired back, "I suppose you at least have the muscle."

"What kind of Jap has crazy blue hair?" Yarden sniped.

"The best ones." Zane shrugged and reached up to grasp the straight barbell again and grunted as he lifted it up once more, "Speaking of crazy hair, have you heard? Yugi's deck is going on tour."

Yarden paused, "…It is?" he asked.

That was now? He knew of course it was coming, but not how long until then.

"Yeah," Zane replied as he worked through his reps, "Should arrive by tomorrow, tickets will go on sale as well tomorrow at the card shop, so you'll have to get some if you wanna go see, might be a good place to take Alexis for a date."

That would be like taking a girl to a museum for a date. Not really a good move…normally, but with Alexis, yeah, he could see his point.

"How'd you know already?" Yarden asked with a raised eyebrow.

"I'm still the king here kid, one loss doesn't disqualify me from the top dog spot," Zane smirked up at him, "Professor Crowler called me to his office earlier to let me know and gave me a ticket in advance."

"Big talk for someone still not ready to take me on again." Yarden rolled his eyes. Still, this was all good to know. Because things would be picking up soon from here.

It wouldn't be long until the school duel, maybe a month, and then things would really rev up because the shadow riders would begin making their move. It was right after the school duel that the key holders were chosen.

With his undefeated streak and him taking down Zane, Titan and the Paradox Brothers and then confronting Shepard and throwing his hat in the ring, he'd secured himself a spot as a key holder.

And Yugi's deck itself would make for a good test for his newest spirits.

"Patience, my deck is ever growing in strength, I'll make sure to make you eat a loss to me soon." Zane promised.

Heh.

The next day, as classes ended early at lunch, Yarden was more or less the first out of the door. Granted, he sat at the back of the class with Alexis, Jasmine and Mindy, so it wasn't far, but he was still up and out pretty quick.

"Like, what's the rush?" Jasmine huffed, having to speedily power walk to keep up with him.

"Yeah, you're never exactly one for staying in class long, but you tend to leave pretty slowly," Mindy pointed out with a raised eyebrow, "You never really rush…anywhere."

"I heard last night from Zane that Yugi's deck is going on tour and the first stop is here," Yarden slowed down a bit, a bit taller than him they may be, but they had to walk in incredibly short skirts and high heeled ankle boots. The Obelisk female uniform was great for guys to look at and made them look hot as all hell, but it wasn't exactly practical, "It's going to be announced over the intercoms in a bit according to him, I figured we'd skip all that and go get tickets now."

"Wait, really?" Alexis who had just been following along, more used to his whims paused, eyebrows raising and a glimmer of excitement flashing in her eyes.

"Yup," Yarden grinned at her, stepping over to wrap his arm around her waist and resting his hand on her stomach, "Not really all that exciting to me, but I knew you'd be super into it, so I figured I'd grab us all some tickets and we can go together."

"What'ya mean not exciting?" Jasmine goggled at him, "That's Yugi's deck! The best duellist like ever, the King of Games himself!"

Huh…even Jasmine put that much stock in seeing it?

"And?" one of his eyebrows rose in question, "It's just some cards at the end of the day, and not any I really have an interest in now since I already have the only card in his deck that would be worth checking out."

'Aw master, you're making me blush~' Dark Magician Girl tittered in his head.

'I meant Curse of Dragon.' Yarden deadpanned.

He still wasn't happy with her for daring to insinuate a man who wore a spiked choker and leather pants, and who looked like he came straight out of a bdsm submissive club was more manly than him.

He'd show her once he could get his hands on her! It wouldn't be long now until he acclimated fully to Relinquished's power and he could bond with Dark Magician Girl.

Then, not only would she be able to guide him through using his energy for different purposes easier, he would give her that spanking she so deserved.

'Sure you did~' she giggled, 'And can't wait master, let's see if you have the guts. Besides, I never said that, I only said if you measure manliness in girls, Atem had way more than you. He had hundreds, you have one human girl, two maybe's and me. If you measure in power, he also beats you. Though if you measure in muscles, you win.'

Tch.

That still meant he lost in two out of three categories.

'So competitive~' she giggled again, fondly.

"Of course your only interest would be Dark Magician Girl out of Yugi's deck," Alexis snorted, "Don't you feel any sense of awe at all, it's the best deck in the entire world, with it even a complete amateur could very well defeat pro's."

"Debateable," Yarden pulled her gently into his side with a smirk, "After all, I'm pretty sure I could take it and Yugi." he boasted confidently.

Especially if it was the same one used in the original timeline that Jaden fought. Yarden would clap the shit out of that deck with his. Dimitri would be lucky to last three turns if it were that one. That deck was no threat without the god cards.

…It would be a lot tougher if it was the deck he saw him use last against Kaiba though after he learned about the new variations of cards he had from Dark Magician Girl.

That shit was whack. Most of Yugi's iconic monsters like his magnet warriors, magician girls and shit had all new powerful variations. Dude even had two new versions of Gandora and who knew what else since he hadn't been in much public duels since his last one against Kaiba that got interrupted and cut off.

Not to mention there was apparently a whole archetype around one of the cards and fusions he got from Dark Magician Girl, Aleister the Invoker that seemed to be a pretty nasty archetype to duel against.

"There you go again running your mouth," Jasmine snorted, "You proved us wrong before, so I'm not willing to say you don't have a chance, but do you really believe in your own hype that much?" she asked, casting a brief frown at his arm around Alexis' waist before meeting his eyes.

His smirk just grew, "Baby, I am the hype." he shot back, and held his other arm out for her, inviting to come into his embrace.

Her frown deepened and she shook her head, denying him, "Somebody really needs to beat you soon before your head gets any bigger and you float off into space," she rolled her eyes, continuing on as if their little silent exchange never happened, "It's not as cute as I remember it being in the beginning."

"That's just cuz' he's dating Lexi now." Mindy pointed out with an impish grin, and took him up on his offer in Jasmine's stead, stepping into his arm and wrapping it around her waist.

"I dunno, I think I'd pay to see him duel someone good enough to beat him," Alexis smirked over his shoulder at her black haired friend, "Might cool him off a bit and be a good learning experience at the same time."

"Ouch," Yarden mock winced, tightening his grip slightly around both girls waists and forcing them to begin walking with him, "Excuse me while I storm off in a tantrum to brood."

"You'd have to let go of us first for that genius." Alexis rolled their eyes.

"Yeah, see, I thought about it for a split second, and decided that brooding isn't worth letting go of my super hot girlfriend and her hot friend," he shrugged, "I'll just have to not be an edgy wimp and deal with emotions normally."

"Hey, why does Lexi get super hot and I only get hot?" Mindy pouted.

"Probably because he's seen me in my underwear, that or special treatment." Alexis shrugged.

Mindy blinked, "Huh…okay, fair enough."

"Wait, already!?" Jasmine shouted, shocked.

Yarden smirked all the way to the card shop.

When they got the card shop, it was empty of customers except for them. The only person in the shop right now currently was Sadie.

"Each ticket costs a thousand DP," Sadie explained, "So that'll be four thousand in total."

Eeesh, pretty expensive just to get in a small room and look at some posters of Yugi Moto and his deck in a display case. One hundred pounds per ticket that amounted to, four hundred in total.

He could buy multiple season tickets to Celtic games for that total amount. That was blasphemy.

Granted, football was a lot less popular here and so the tickets were even cheaper here, but still.

"Alright, ring them up." Yarden shrugged in the end and replied, bringing out his PDA.

"Alrighty." Sadie nodded and did just that.

"You don't need to pay for us you know, we have our own funds." Alexis pointed out.

"Meh, lemme spoil you a bit," he turned around and leaned back against the counter and grinned at her, "Besides, I'm practically rolling in DP here, got over two hundred thousand at the moment."

And he'd get a lot more soon. He just had to bide his time and do some betting when the time came.

"T-two hundred thousand?!" Jasmine sputtered, going wide eyed, and she wasn't alone, Mindy usually one that didn't get shocked easily had her eyes fly wide open as well and even busty blonde girlfriend's mouth fell a bit low.

"Yup," Yarden basked in their shock with a grin, "You have no idea how much DP I make a day, especially after I started dating you Alexis, every time I get to the dorm a bunch of the clowns challenge me, I mope them up and rake in easily ten thousand a day, they seem to think I'll slip up at some point if they keep challenging me."

As if he ever would. Honestly, it was quite boring, and his Cyber Dark Dragons practically oozed dissatisfaction into his mind, after the first few idiots he clowned on with them, they actually lacked the desire to fight.

They wanted to fight the strong.

Which was why Yugi's deck might be a good test for them. If Dimitri actually stole it again at least.

He eyed Jasmine specifically after explaining to them and raised his eyebrow challengingly at her.

After all, funds were one of the excuses she gave.

She grimaced, understanding his meaning and looked away.

"…Well that's impressive, I only have like four thousand left." Mindy scratched the back of her head and giggled lightly.

"I've got seven thousand, I've been using most of mine on cards," Alexis shrugged after regaining her bearings, "Just how many wins do you have so far?" his girlfriend asked.

"Check for yourself." Yarden shrugged, flicking through his PDA to his profile and holding it up for them to see.

Name: Yarden Odhar
Age: 15
Birthday: 01/11/XX
Dormitory: Obelisk Blue
Status: First Year
DP: 222,750
Wins: 400
Draws: 0
Losses: 0

He'd been at three hundred and ninety four wins this morning, so mopped up a few of the clowns at his dorm when they were growling at him to get it to an even four hundred.

They were just that easy to goad. One mention of how he couldn't wait to invite Alexis back to his room later after class and bam, they were on their feet demanding a duel.

"F-four hundred?!" He got to bare witness to the rare event of his cool headed girlfriend sputtered in shock.

"Zero losses and draws as well," Jasmine grimaced, "…I knew it was gonna be absurd, but damn, no wonder you're so full of yourself, that's crazy, not even Zane has a record that clean."

"Well obviously, since I beat him." Yarden pointed out smugly, basking in their wide eyed looks.

"Well, I mean, yeah totally, but Zane has more wins than you, but he's also got a few draws and a couple losses," Mindy pointed out, "Lexi's older bro was his big rival, total top tier duellist and a total hottie at the same time."

Huh, they knew about Atticus.

…Actually, they were Alexis' more or less childhood friends so of course they would.

"Zane has around seven hundred wins, but he's been here for three years," Alexis shook off her shock and frowned, "It's only been two months and you've had four hundred duels? How do you even have the time for that?"

"I mean, I don't do them all separately, I don't have the time to beat them all individually, I've just been taking on a bunch of them at once, remember? I beat like forty right after that crap with Titan." Yarden pointed out.

They could be annoying as hell, but they made for good tests for trying out combo's, and he got DP out of it every single time which was money in the bank, so he wasn't complaining.

…Much.

"Oh right, but still, that's an insane amount." Alexis sighed.

"Not gonna lie, seeing that absurdly massive and clean win rate….kinda pisses me off." Jasmine crossed her arms and pointed out, drawing a laugh from Mindy.

"Deal with it baby cakes," Yarden laughed himself, spreading his arms wide and invitingly, "You can take a crack at me anytime you want, in fact, I'll take on all three of you at once if you want."

"Pass," Jasmine denied instantly, "We're not good enough to make a difference, in fact we'd just drag Lexi down if she duelled you."

"…Ouch," Mindy winced, "Though she's not wrong, plus you'd totally tack some kind of losing condition that we'd have to go through with once you beat us."

"Probably a lap dance, he seems fond of them." Alexis smirked knowingly.

Two heads snapped to Alexis, "A lap dance? Lexi, you've gave him a lap dance already?!" Jamsine sputtered.

"Alexis you're really bold." Mindy laughed, cheeks staining red.

"No, but he's brought it up a few times when we were making out," she shrugged, "And that it was his birthday soon."

…Well she wasn't wrong, but she really needed to you know, not bring stuff like that up in public. Why was her common sense so on point for everything else besides duelling and their dating life?

Jasmine gave him a deadpan look when she turned away from his blonde girlfriend, but before she could say anything, Sadie's voice interrupted them, "You guys really should watch what you discuss in public places," she said dryly, making Yarden turn to see the older woman giving him a dry look as she set four tickets down on the counter, "So lapdance huh? Interesting preference." she mused lightly.

There was a coy little smirk on the woman's face.

…She'd caught him checking her out a few times, and he'd maybe a few times directed her to bend down low to get to a card for him to check out on purpose.

"I like what I like." he shrugged, picking up the tickets.

"Oh, I know, trust me." Sadie snorted in amusement, raising her eyebrows knowingly.

…So yeah he'd flirted with her a little bit since he was always at this shop. And he was a pretty big spender.

He could feel a set of eyes burning into his back.

That was definitely Jasmine.

"So, anyway," Yarden coughed, "I'm looking for a specific card, want to see if you have it in stock." he changed the subject.

"Well, give me the name and I'll take a look if we have it in stock," Sadie's coy smirk grew and leaned forward a bit, "Better hope it's not on a low shelf this time, eh?"

Two more gazes burned into his back. Somehow, this was enough to annoy even Alexis.

Damnit.

"Right, well the name of the card is Falling Current," Yarden quickly pushed on, "It lets you target one monster face up in your control and change it to either a level one, two or three monster."

It was a long shot since it was a pretty new card where he was from, but he'd gotten his Diamond Head Dragon not long ago and was looking through his heavy hitters and remembered the card and how well it would go with some of his base fusion monsters like Kaiser Dragon.

Like with it, he could make Kaiser Dragon a level one and equip it with Fusion weapon, boosting its attack to thirty nine hundred. And then to take it even further he could add Opti-Camouflage Armour, letting it attack directly, or even Triangle Power that would boost its attack by another two thousand.

"Hmm?" Sadie tapped her chin in thought for a moment, "We do have a few of them, came out last year if I remember right? Not really a popular card, so they're only worth like a hundred DP each, gimme a sec to go dig a few out." she gave him a cheery wink and turned around, hips swinging and rear end stretching out her thigh length dark blue skirt like a shelf noticeably.

She was doing that intentionally!

…Still, nice!

"Hey lap dance boy," a petite hand landed on his shoulder, "Something you want to come clean about?" he felt large, soft breasts press against his back and Jasmine's dry voice directly in his ear.

"I think I'd be interested in hearing this as well." Alexis's voice added dryly.

"Really Yarden, the card shop counter girl as well?" he could practically feel Mindy shaking her head in disappointment.

"…In my defence," Yarden turned around, finding himself nose to nose with Jasmine, "I flirted with her before I was dating you Alexis."

"Who haven't you flirted with on this island?" he got a point blank look at Jasmine rolling her eyes, "Honestly, you'd probably hit on a tree if it was shaped like a woman's crotch." she huffed, standing back.

Hey…now that was just hurtful.

Duelist Profile: Yarden Odhar

Name: Yarden Odhar
Age: 15
Country of Birth: Scotland
Significant Other: Alexis Rhodes,
Occupation: Student of Duel Academy
Student Dormitory: Obelisk Blue
Current Funds: 222,750DP
Bank Account: £383,388
Bonded Spirits: Ranryu, Decoy Dragon, Rare Metal Dragon, Hundred Dragon, Spirit Of The Breeze, Fairy Dragon, Chaos Necromancer, Soul Tiger, Larvae Moth, Griggle, Outstanding Dog Marron, Catnipped Kitty, Unhappy Maiden, Skull Servant, Archfiend Marmot of Nefariousness, Goblin Calligrapher, Serpent Marauder, Blade Rabbit, Steel Scorpion, Dreamsprite, Relinquished
Abilities: Massively Enhanced Physical Parameters. Enhanced Senses. Increased Growth Rate, Draconic Aura. Enhanced Endurance. Enhanced Recovery Rate. Enhanced Dexterity. Enhanced Bone Durability. Enhanced Healing Factor. Enhanced Reflexes. Enhanced Agility. Enhanced Flexibility. Magic Resistance. Energy Absorption.
Deck(s): Dragon Spirit, Magician Girl, Skull Archfiend, Mish Mash,

Edit: Chapter was missing a part I didn't notice.

Back again after a while huh? This time with chapter 25.

Not really got much to say, been working on other stuff for the most part over this lately. But this chapter was more of a small time skip and set up going forward.

Anyway, again, shameless Pa-atreon plug. I've got one, go by the same username on there, easy to find and all that jazz. Support me if you want, it'd be swell, but don't feel pressured lads and ladies, I'll be uploading my stuff outside it regardless and not keeping it all behind a paywall or anything like that.