Chapter 18: Demo Tournament

Joan had more fun than she expected. It was esports day, and that meant a demo tournament for Monsters of the Duel. Mokuba brought "that stupid banner" featuring Marc's rendition of Seto along with half of his "vibrant and diverse" office staff.

Seto had initially planned to show off his gaming skills and let Roland announce but, under the circumstances, Seto wanted Roland on the lookout for nefarious activities. Duke Devlin readily volunteered to compete in Seto's place, gaining more exposure for his own company in the process. Seto announced the arrival of each player as they walked down a glowing aisle and took their seats on a stage with cyan and magenta spotlights. Joan stood in the position of arm candy as Seto spoke into a cordless microphone, wondering if she should consider herself a lollipop or a gummy bear.

"Our first contestant on the Blue Team is no stranger to Duel Monsters spinoff games. In fact he invented one when he was still a teenager. It didn't catch on nearly as well as my duel disks, but that's beside the point. Let's welcome the master of disaster, Duke Devlin!"

Duke blew kisses to his shrieking fangirls as he swaggered down the aisle. He tossed his black locks and the die dangling from his ear swung in seductive arcs. Once onstage, he paused to blow a kiss at Joan in particular.

"Do that to my whore again and you're disqualified," Seto growled.

Joan pinched Seto's arm, just above the elbow, reminding him that he'd agreed to cut the possessive shit.

"Sheesh. It's not like I grabbed her and sucked on her face," Duke said before plopping into his seat.

Seto took the opportunity to taunt Duke. "Our next contestant actually has my permission to grab her and suck on her face. In fact he's the reason we met. It's my pleasure to introduce the number one artist in the entire gaming industry, who just so happens to be the art director for Monsters of the Duel: Marc Aurelio!"

Marc strutted up the aisle waving and grinning in a simple black "Monsters of the Duel" T-shirt. He stepped onto the stage, grabbed Joan, and sucked on her face — her chin, to be precise. While the audience laughed, Marc switched to a real kiss and the laughs turned to hoots. Marc left Joan dizzy, struggling to keep her balance and taking hold of Seto's arm for support. I think I'm licorice today, she thought.

Seto continued, "Our third and final member of the Blue Team also happens to be worthy of my whore. I invite the progenitor of Monsters of the Duel, the CEO of Super Kaiba Megacorp and my younger brother: Mokuba Kaiba!"

Mokuba strode up with determination, waving and trying to make his smile seem natural. Underneath, however, his insides tied themselves in knots. He was no stranger to fanfare. In fact the size of the crowd paled in comparison to that of the Kaiba Dome where he'd hosted tournaments with Seto. The problem lay in the fact that he had mere seconds to decide whether to follow Marc's example. Every step tossed a handful of sand into the gears of his brain. His mind ground to a halt just as his body ground to a halt in front of Joan.

"Well smooch already," Seto said into the microphone.

Barely recovered from Marc's kiss, Joan stared at Mokuba another two seconds. Red hots, thought Joan, let's make this count. She made the move for him, pulling him close and giving it plenty of spice as catcalls abounded.

Mokuba lost himself in her cinnamon lips. In his world, the sound of the crowd faded to a hum and his courage blossomed. His smile came easily now as he pulled away and gave the audience a final wave before taking his seat.

"Our first Red Team contestant is someone you'll all recognize. She's induced nocturnal emissions and rancid socks ever since she first came into being. I present to you the prom queen of Duel Monsters: Dark Magician Girl!"

Marc's cosplayer friend came up the aisle twirling her pink-striped blue staff with gold ends, blowing kisses, and posing in ways that accentuated her cleavage every few steps. The jewels in her costume glimmered under the flashing lights of the venue. When she got to Joan, she giggled and said, "I like this game."

Joan smirked. She'd kissed other women before and never much cared for it, but it never bothered her either. "Let's do this." She went in for the kiss. The crowd roared. Cotton candy for sure.

Seto did a double take but quickly returned to his announcements. "Next up on the Red Team is a special guest visiting us from the pro leagues. She's currently ranked as the top female duelist in the world. Give it up for Mai Valentine!"

A woman with free-flowing blond hair that rivaled Dark Magician Girl's wig flounced up the aisle. Her tight purple bodice didn't allow her to bend into as many poses, but she made up for it by blowing even more kisses and flipping her luscious curls. "Ready to put on a show, hun?" Mai asked Joan.

Those violet eyes! She has to be Klondike Kate reincarnated! "Sure, why not," Joan replied. Grapehead candy this time.

Mai dove in hard, her hands sinking into Joan's hair. The crowd went ballistic. Mai added some tongue, more outside Joan's mouth than inside. Seto felt a boner brewing and put a stop to the kiss before it could get any worse.

"If you're finished with the slobber fest, I'd like to introduce the third and final member of the Red Team. She knows the monsters better than anyone else. She's figured out what makes them tick. Please welcome Super Kaiba Megacorp's own narrative designer: Laura Aurelio!"

Laura sashayed up with poise, revolving her hands in graceful arcs. She stepped up to Joan and gave her a big, fat high five. Candy corn. The crowd moaned in disappointment. Laura strode past Seto and Duke to lean over Marc, planting an upside-down kiss on him as he sat in his chair. The crowd released a pent-up "Oooooh!"

"Fraternizing with the enemy, I see," Seto commented. "I hope you don't let your domestic ties interfere on the battlefield."

"No more than you let your ego interfere with your fashion sense," Laura bit back. After Mokuba had assured her that Seto treated everyone that way, she'd gotten over his intimidation tactics.

Seto grinned. "I'll take that as a compliment. Players, select your monsters!"

Cameras caught closeups of the players' faces and projected their expressions along the walls as they logged into the game on their tablets and smartphones. As they selected their monsters one-by-one, their monster selections appeared alongside their faces on the walls. Each monster came equipped with health points as well as its traditional attack and defense points. More importantly, the monsters each had special abilities to balance their stats.

Laura picked Kuriboh to take damage as her team's tank. Despite its low attack and defense points, its high health points and ability to clone itself in order to confuse the enemy made the annoying brown furball a popular choice.

Mai chose Harpie Lady, a winged woman with giant yellow talons, as the Red Team's assassin. While Harpie Lady's basic stats were average, it came equipped with high-damage skill shots and evasive maneuvers.

The Dark Magician Girl picked herself and served as her team's support. Despite her high attack and defense points, her low health points made her fragile and vulnerable to attack. However, she came with a major perk. Every time she landed the last hit on an enemy monster, her entire team's attack points increased by 300. Landing the last hit on enemy minions such as sheep tokens and other minor beasts healed her teammates by 300 health points.

On the Blue Team, Marc tanked with Big Shield Gardna, a muscular warrior with long, wild hair behind an enormous bronze and purple shield. Its high defense points made it difficult to kill and its stun ability provided his team with crucial opportunities. On top of that, it could negate spells cast by the enemy team.

Mokuba played Blue Eyes White Dragon. Its long-range basic attack accounted for most of its damage, and most of its special abilities involved increasing its attack speed and adding splash damage.

Duke supported with Strike Ninja. Its special effect drained health points from enemy monsters, transferring those points from Red Team to Blue Team monsters. The red cape and gold accents to Strike Ninja's traditional black garb matched Duke's own favorite color scheme.

As the battle began, a holographic field materialized in the center aisle. An enormous facsimile of Seto Kaiba in his favorite white trench coat with 4000 life points stared down a giant Mai Valentine with the same on the opposite side. Unlike a traditional duel, the duelist's life points could not be lost when monsters attacked each other. Winning the game required breaking through the enemy team's defenses and attacking the duelists directly.

The players started from their respective Mai/Seto spawning locations and made their way to the center of the battlefield. Along the way, they knocked out sheep tokens for experience and spending munny. They exchanged their munny for spells, traps, and equipment before taking the fight directly to their opponents.

Marc charged in with Big Shield Gardna, stunning a dozen Kuriboh clones but missing the real one. Mai's harpie swooped overhead, dropping little bombs from its talons until Mokuba blasted it out of the sky with Blue Eyes White Dragon. "First Blood!" Seto announced as he gave continuous commentary on the match. Mai's face pouted at the side of the room while her Harpie Lady rested in the Shadow Realm and her respawn timer counted down.

Blue team took advantage of Mai's absence to attempt a boss capture. They zipped down to a hulking blue Obelisk the Tormentor at the bottom of the map and fought against it, draining its health points along with their own. Red Team caught on to Blue Team's plan and decimated them in their weakened state, but not before Marc landed the last hit on Obelisk and claimed it for Blue Team.

The ladies desperately fought against Obelisk as it advanced toward their base, giving Blue Team time to respawn and regroup. Blue team gathered a slew of traps, hemming Red Team in while they launched wave after wave of spells. Dark Magician Girl got stunned by Big Shield Gardna and shrieked as Mokuba's dragon pasted her with its white lightning attack.

Mai's Harpie Lady flew into a rage and slaughtered Duke's Strike Ninja. Without his healer on standby, Marc's Big Shield Gardna got mowed down by his wife's Kuribohs. Mokuba launched blast after blast of white lightning, eventually frying Harpie Lady to a crisp. Almost out of health points and staring down an endless army of Kuribohs, Mokuba retreated to wait for Marc and Duke to respawn.

Revived and regrouped, the teams clashed again. Mai had learned from her mistakes and now dodged every onslaught as she bided her time for an opening. Laura had boosted Kuriboh's abilities with various equip spells and could now charge fearlessly into the fray. Dark Magician Girl sent wave after wave of healing magic, spurring them onward.

Kuriboh clones swarmed Strike Ninja and Dark Magician Girl landed a finishing hit on him, boosting her team's attack power. From there, it was all downhill for Blue Team. Mokuba's dragon got cornered and spit one last bolt of lightning at a Kuriboh clone. Mokuba fell back against his seat and turned to look at Seto. "Big brother . . . I'm sorry."

Marc put up one last stand while Red Team mostly ignored him and attacked the holographic Seto. As soon as it fell, the ladies leapt out of their seats and hugged each other, jumping and squealing while the crowd cheered.

Mokuba hung his head and Seto walked over to hug him while the Red Team members hopped into the spotlight to give their victory speeches. Duke joined them to make some gushing statements about Dark Magician Girl's amazing plays.

Marc got up from his chair and whispered, "Your brothers are waiting," to Joan as he passed by her and went to support his wife in her moment of glory. Joan squeezed between Seto and Mokuba, wrapping an arm around each of them.

"First of all," Seto began, "Devlin was your weak link. The dweeb spent so much time rolling dice that he never figured out the mechanics of a simple touch screen. Secondly, you made that shitty pompom too OP. There's no late-game counter for it."

Mokuba sniffed. He'd known for a long time that Kuriboh was overpowered and he should have done something about it long ago, such as reducing its health points or increasing the cooldown timer on its cloning ability. "Yeah, it's about time we nerfed Kuriboh."

"Maybe just ban it from tournaments," Joan suggested. "It is kinda nice for beginners to get an easy win."

"Good thinking, whore. We need to get the new players hooked. Ban it from all ranked matches, not just tournaments. Serious players have no business replicating those nasty brown balls of fluff like tribbles." Seto glanced at the women in the spotlight. "Better get this over with." He walked back to the center of the stage to present the ladies with a trophy and close the ceremony.

"What exactly did you do to him again?" Mokuba asked Joan as soon as Seto was out of earshot.

Joan smirked at the younger Kaiba brother. "That would take a while to explain. Maybe I should show you sometime."

Mokuba felt his cock pulse as her intense gaze mesmerized him. "Sometime."

The room's main lights flickered on and Mokuba tore his amethyst eyes away from Joan. He got up and joined his brother in the center of the stage. Seto gave a few last words before handing the microphone over to Mokuba.

Mokuba spoke in a professional tone without the ever-present grandiosity Seto exuded. "Thank you for participating in our demo tournament. When hosting your own Monsters of the Duel tournament, you now have a basic framework to follow. However, we've also seen some examples of what not to do in an actual tournament. For starters, we're all adults here, but keep in mind the age of your audience and watch your language. Parents who bring their kids to these events may be particularly off-put by onstage antics. Furthermore, if you are lucky enough to have a beautiful woman onstage, don't use her like an object. As most of you are already aware: Seto, Marc, and I have a special agreement with Joan, but what we did today would be entirely inappropriate under most circumstances."

Mokuba continued to address the finer points of tournament etiquette before inviting questions from the audience. The game developers stayed away from questions about Joan, sticking to technical matters. Seto and Mokuba shared the floor evenly, each responding as they felt their area of expertise more suited to any given question. When that concluded, Mai took the floor to share her experiences as a professional duelist and gamer.